---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2.

## Contents

1. [Genesis · 1 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/1.md)
2. [Genesis · 2 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/2.md)
3. [Genesis · 3 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/3.md)
4. [Genesis · 4 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/4.md)
5. [Genesis · 5 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/5.md)
6. [Genesis · 6 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/6.md)
7. [Genesis · 7 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/7.md)
8. [Genesis · 8 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/8.md)
9. [Genesis · 9 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/9.md)
10. [Genesis · 10 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/10.md)
11. [Genesis · 11 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/11.md)
12. [Genesis · 12 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/12.md)
13. [Genesis · 13 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/13.md)
14. [Genesis · 14 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/14.md)
15. [Genesis · 15 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/15.md)
16. [Genesis · 16 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/16.md)
17. [Genesis · 17 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/17.md)
18. [Genesis · 18 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/18.md)
19. [Genesis · 19 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/19.md)
20. [Genesis · 20 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/20.md)
21. [Genesis · 21 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/21.md)
22. [Genesis · 22 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/22.md)
23. [Genesis · 23 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/23.md)
24. [Genesis · 24 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/24.md)
25. [Genesis · 25 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/25.md)
26. [Genesis · 26 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/26.md)
27. [Genesis · 27 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/27.md)
28. [Genesis · 28 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/28.md)
29. [Genesis · 29 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/29.md)
30. [Genesis · 30 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/30.md)
31. [Genesis · 31 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/31.md)
32. [Genesis · 32 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/32.md)
33. [Genesis · 33 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/33.md)
34. [Genesis · 34 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/34.md)
35. [Genesis · 35 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/35.md)
36. [Genesis · 36 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/36.md)
37. [Genesis · 37 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/37.md)
38. [Genesis · 38 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/38.md)
39. [Genesis · 39 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/39.md)
40. [Genesis · 40 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/40.md)
41. [Genesis · 41 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/41.md)
42. [Genesis · 42 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/42.md)
43. [Genesis · 43 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/43.md)
44. [Genesis · 44 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/44.md)
45. [Genesis · 45 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/45.md)
46. [Genesis · 46 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/46.md)
47. [Genesis · 47 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/47.md)
48. [Genesis · 48 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/48.md)
49. [Genesis · 49 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/49.md)
50. [Genesis · 50 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/50.md)
51. [Genesis · 51 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/51.md)
52. [Genesis · 52 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/52.md)
53. [Genesis · 53 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/53.md)
54. [Genesis · 54 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/54.md)
55. [Genesis · 55 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/55.md)
56. [Genesis · 56 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/56.md)
57. [Genesis · 57 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/57.md)
58. [Genesis · 58 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/58.md)
59. [Genesis · 59 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/59.md)
60. [Genesis · 60 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/60.md)
61. [Genesis · 61 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/61.md)
62. [Genesis · 62 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/62.md)
63. [Genesis · 63 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/63.md)
64. [Genesis · 64 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/64.md)
65. [Genesis · 65 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/65.md)
66. [Genesis · 66 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/66.md)
67. [Genesis · 67 of 67](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/67.md)
68. [Exodus · 1 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/68.md)
69. [Exodus · 2 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/69.md)
70. [Exodus · 3 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/70.md)
71. [Exodus · 4 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/71.md)
72. [Exodus · 5 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/72.md)
73. [Exodus · 6 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/73.md)
74. [Exodus · 7 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/74.md)
75. [Exodus · 8 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/75.md)
76. [Exodus · 9 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/76.md)
77. [Exodus · 10 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/77.md)
78. [Exodus · 11 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/78.md)
79. [Exodus · 12 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/79.md)
80. [Exodus · 13 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/80.md)
81. [Exodus · 14 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/81.md)
82. [Exodus · 15 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/82.md)
83. [Exodus · 16 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/83.md)
84. [Exodus · 17 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/84.md)
85. [Exodus · 18 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/85.md)
86. [Exodus · 19 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/86.md)
87. [Exodus · 20 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/87.md)
88. [Exodus · 21 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/88.md)
89. [Exodus · 22 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/89.md)
90. [Exodus · 23 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/90.md)
91. [Exodus · 24 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/91.md)
92. [Exodus · 25 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/92.md)
93. [Exodus · 26 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/93.md)
94. [Exodus · 27 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/94.md)
95. [Exodus · 28 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/95.md)
96. [Exodus · 29 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/96.md)
97. [Exodus · 30 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/97.md)
98. [Exodus · 31 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/98.md)
99. [Exodus · 32 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/99.md)
100. [Exodus · 33 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/100.md)
101. [Exodus · 34 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/101.md)
102. [Exodus · 35 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/102.md)
103. [Exodus · 36 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/103.md)
104. [Exodus · 37 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/104.md)
105. [Exodus · 38 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/105.md)
106. [Exodus · 39 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/106.md)
107. [Exodus · 40 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/107.md)
108. [Exodus · 41 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/108.md)
109. [Exodus · 42 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/109.md)
110. [Exodus · 43 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/110.md)
111. [Exodus · 44 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/111.md)
112. [Exodus · 45 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/112.md)
113. [Exodus · 46 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/113.md)
114. [Exodus · 47 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/114.md)
115. [Exodus · 48 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/115.md)
116. [Exodus · 49 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/116.md)
117. [Exodus · 50 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/117.md)
118. [Exodus · 51 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/118.md)
119. [Exodus · 52 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/119.md)
120. [Exodus · 53 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/120.md)
121. [Exodus · 54 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/121.md)
122. [Exodus · 55 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/122.md)
123. [Exodus · 56 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/123.md)
124. [Exodus · 57 of 57](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/124.md)
125. [Leviticus · 1 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/125.md)
126. [Leviticus · 2 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/126.md)
127. [Leviticus · 3 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/127.md)
128. [Leviticus · 4 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/128.md)
129. [Leviticus · 5 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/129.md)
130. [Leviticus · 6 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/130.md)
131. [Leviticus · 7 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/131.md)
132. [Leviticus · 8 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/132.md)
133. [Leviticus · 9 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/133.md)
134. [Leviticus · 10 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/134.md)
135. [Leviticus · 11 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/135.md)
136. [Leviticus · 12 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/136.md)
137. [Leviticus · 13 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/137.md)
138. [Leviticus · 14 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/138.md)
139. [Leviticus · 15 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/139.md)
140. [Leviticus · 16 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/140.md)
141. [Leviticus · 17 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/141.md)
142. [Leviticus · 18 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/142.md)
143. [Leviticus · 19 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/143.md)
144. [Leviticus · 20 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/144.md)
145. [Leviticus · 21 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/145.md)
146. [Leviticus · 22 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/146.md)
147. [Leviticus · 23 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/147.md)
148. [Leviticus · 24 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/148.md)
149. [Leviticus · 25 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/149.md)
150. [Leviticus · 26 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/150.md)
151. [Leviticus · 27 of 27](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/151.md)
152. [Numbers · 1 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/152.md)
153. [Numbers · 2 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/153.md)
154. [Numbers · 3 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/154.md)
155. [Numbers · 4 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/155.md)
156. [Numbers · 5 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/156.md)
157. [Numbers · 6 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/157.md)
158. [Numbers · 7 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/158.md)
159. [Numbers · 8 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/159.md)
160. [Numbers · 9 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/160.md)
161. [Numbers · 10 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/161.md)
162. [Numbers · 11 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/162.md)
163. [Numbers · 12 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/163.md)
164. [Numbers · 13 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/164.md)
165. [Numbers · 14 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/165.md)
166. [Numbers · 15 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/166.md)
167. [Numbers · 16 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/167.md)
168. [Numbers · 17 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/168.md)
169. [Numbers · 18 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/169.md)
170. [Numbers · 19 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/170.md)
171. [Numbers · 20 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/171.md)
172. [Numbers · 21 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/172.md)
173. [Numbers · 22 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/173.md)
174. [Numbers · 23 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/174.md)
175. [Numbers · 24 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/175.md)
176. [Numbers · 25 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/176.md)
177. [Numbers · 26 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/177.md)
178. [Numbers · 27 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/178.md)
179. [Numbers · 28 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/179.md)
180. [Numbers · 29 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/180.md)
181. [Numbers · 30 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/181.md)
182. [Numbers · 31 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/182.md)
183. [Numbers · 32 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/183.md)
184. [Numbers · 33 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/184.md)
185. [Numbers · 34 of 34](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/185.md)
186. [Deuteronomy · 1 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/186.md)
187. [Deuteronomy · 2 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/187.md)
188. [Deuteronomy · 3 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/188.md)
189. [Deuteronomy · 4 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/189.md)
190. [Deuteronomy · 5 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/190.md)
191. [Deuteronomy · 6 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/191.md)
192. [Deuteronomy · 7 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/192.md)
193. [Deuteronomy · 8 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/193.md)
194. [Deuteronomy · 9 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/194.md)
195. [Deuteronomy · 10 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/195.md)
196. [Deuteronomy · 11 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/196.md)
197. [Deuteronomy · 12 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/197.md)
198. [Deuteronomy · 13 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/198.md)
199. [Deuteronomy · 14 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/199.md)
200. [Deuteronomy · 15 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/200.md)
201. [Deuteronomy · 16 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/201.md)
202. [Deuteronomy · 17 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/202.md)
203. [Deuteronomy · 18 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/203.md)
204. [Deuteronomy · 19 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/204.md)
205. [Deuteronomy · 20 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/205.md)
206. [Deuteronomy · 21 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/206.md)
207. [Deuteronomy · 22 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/207.md)
208. [Deuteronomy · 23 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/208.md)
209. [Deuteronomy · 24 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/209.md)
210. [Deuteronomy · 25 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/210.md)
211. [Deuteronomy · 26 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/211.md)
212. [Deuteronomy · 27 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/212.md)
213. [Deuteronomy · 28 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/213.md)
214. [Deuteronomy · 29 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/214.md)
215. [Joshua · 1 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/215.md)
216. [Joshua · 2 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/216.md)
217. [Joshua · 3 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/217.md)
218. [Joshua · 4 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/218.md)
219. [Joshua · 5 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/219.md)
220. [Joshua · 6 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/220.md)
221. [Joshua · 7 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/221.md)
222. [Joshua · 8 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/222.md)
223. [Joshua · 9 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/223.md)
224. [Joshua · 10 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/224.md)
225. [Joshua · 11 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/225.md)
226. [Joshua · 12 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/226.md)
227. [Joshua · 13 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/227.md)
228. [Joshua · 14 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/228.md)
229. [Joshua · 15 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/229.md)
230. [Joshua · 16 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/230.md)
231. [Joshua · 17 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/231.md)
232. [Joshua · 18 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/232.md)
233. [Joshua · 19 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/233.md)
234. [Joshua · 20 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/234.md)
235. [Joshua · 21 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/235.md)
236. [Joshua · 22 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/236.md)
237. [Joshua · 23 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/237.md)
238. [Joshua · 24 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/238.md)
239. [Joshua · 25 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/239.md)
240. [Joshua · 26 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/240.md)
241. [Joshua · 27 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/241.md)
242. [Joshua · 28 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/242.md)
243. [Joshua · 29 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/243.md)
244. [Joshua · 30 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/244.md)
245. [Judges · 1 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/245.md)
246. [Judges · 2 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/246.md)
247. [Judges · 3 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/247.md)
248. [Judges · 4 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/248.md)
249. [Judges · 5 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/249.md)
250. [Judges · 6 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/250.md)
251. [Judges · 7 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/251.md)
252. [Judges · 8 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/252.md)
253. [Judges · 9 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/253.md)
254. [Judges · 10 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/254.md)
255. [Judges · 11 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/255.md)
256. [Judges · 12 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/256.md)
257. [Judges · 13 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/257.md)
258. [Judges · 14 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/258.md)
259. [Judges · 15 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/259.md)
260. [Judges · 16 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/260.md)
261. [Judges · 17 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/261.md)
262. [Judges · 18 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/262.md)
263. [Judges · 19 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/263.md)
264. [Judges · 20 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/264.md)
265. [Judges · 21 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/265.md)
266. [Judges · 22 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/266.md)
267. [Judges · 23 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/267.md)
268. [Judges · 24 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/268.md)
269. [Judges · 25 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/269.md)
270. [Judges · 26 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/270.md)
271. [Judges · 27 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/271.md)
272. [Judges · 28 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/272.md)
273. [Judges · 29 of 29](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/273.md)
274. [Ruth · 1 of 5](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/274.md)
275. [Ruth · 2 of 5](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/275.md)
276. [Ruth · 3 of 5](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/276.md)
277. [Ruth · 4 of 5](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/277.md)
278. [Ruth · 5 of 5](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/278.md)
279. [1 Samuel · 1 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/279.md)
280. [1 Samuel · 2 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/280.md)
281. [1 Samuel · 3 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/281.md)
282. [1 Samuel · 4 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/282.md)
283. [1 Samuel · 5 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/283.md)
284. [1 Samuel · 6 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/284.md)
285. [1 Samuel · 7 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/285.md)
286. [1 Samuel · 8 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/286.md)
287. [1 Samuel · 9 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/287.md)
288. [1 Samuel · 10 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/288.md)
289. [1 Samuel · 11 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/289.md)
290. [1 Samuel · 12 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/290.md)
291. [1 Samuel · 13 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/291.md)
292. [1 Samuel · 14 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/292.md)
293. [1 Samuel · 15 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/293.md)
294. [1 Samuel · 16 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/294.md)
295. [1 Samuel · 17 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/295.md)
296. [1 Samuel · 18 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/296.md)
297. [1 Samuel · 19 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/297.md)
298. [1 Samuel · 20 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/298.md)
299. [1 Samuel · 21 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/299.md)
300. [1 Samuel · 22 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/300.md)
301. [1 Samuel · 23 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/301.md)
302. [1 Samuel · 24 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/302.md)
303. [1 Samuel · 25 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/303.md)
304. [1 Samuel · 26 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/304.md)
305. [1 Samuel · 27 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/305.md)
306. [1 Samuel · 28 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/306.md)
307. [1 Samuel · 29 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/307.md)
308. [1 Samuel · 30 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/308.md)
309. [1 Samuel · 31 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/309.md)
310. [1 Samuel · 32 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/310.md)
311. [1 Samuel · 33 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/311.md)
312. [1 Samuel · 34 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/312.md)
313. [1 Samuel · 35 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/313.md)
314. [1 Samuel · 36 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/314.md)
315. [1 Samuel · 37 of 37](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/315.md)
316. [2 Samuel · 1 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/316.md)
317. [2 Samuel · 2 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/317.md)
318. [2 Samuel · 3 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/318.md)
319. [2 Samuel · 4 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/319.md)
320. [2 Samuel · 5 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/320.md)
321. [2 Samuel · 6 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/321.md)
322. [2 Samuel · 7 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/322.md)
323. [2 Samuel · 8 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/323.md)
324. [2 Samuel · 9 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/324.md)
325. [2 Samuel · 10 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/325.md)
326. [2 Samuel · 11 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/326.md)
327. [2 Samuel · 12 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/327.md)
328. [2 Samuel · 13 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/328.md)
329. [2 Samuel · 14 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/329.md)
330. [2 Samuel · 15 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/330.md)
331. [2 Samuel · 16 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/331.md)
332. [2 Samuel · 17 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/332.md)
333. [2 Samuel · 18 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/333.md)
334. [2 Samuel · 19 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/334.md)
335. [2 Samuel · 20 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/335.md)
336. [2 Samuel · 21 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/336.md)
337. [2 Samuel · 22 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/337.md)
338. [2 Samuel · 23 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/338.md)
339. [2 Samuel · 24 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/339.md)
340. [1 Kings · 1 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/340.md)
341. [1 Kings · 2 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/341.md)
342. [1 Kings · 3 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/342.md)
343. [1 Kings · 4 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/343.md)
344. [1 Kings · 5 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/344.md)
345. [1 Kings · 6 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/345.md)
346. [1 Kings · 7 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/346.md)
347. [1 Kings · 8 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/347.md)
348. [1 Kings · 9 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/348.md)
349. [1 Kings · 10 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/349.md)
350. [1 Kings · 11 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/350.md)
351. [1 Kings · 12 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/351.md)
352. [1 Kings · 13 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/352.md)
353. [1 Kings · 14 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/353.md)
354. [1 Kings · 15 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/354.md)
355. [1 Kings · 16 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/355.md)
356. [1 Kings · 17 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/356.md)
357. [1 Kings · 18 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/357.md)
358. [1 Kings · 19 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/358.md)
359. [1 Kings · 20 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/359.md)
360. [1 Kings · 21 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/360.md)
361. [1 Kings · 22 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/361.md)
362. [1 Kings · 23 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/362.md)
363. [1 Kings · 24 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/363.md)
364. [1 Kings · 25 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/364.md)
365. [1 Kings · 26 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/365.md)
366. [1 Kings · 27 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/366.md)
367. [1 Kings · 28 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/367.md)
368. [1 Kings · 29 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/368.md)
369. [1 Kings · 30 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/369.md)
370. [2 Kings · 1 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/370.md)
371. [2 Kings · 2 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/371.md)
372. [2 Kings · 3 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/372.md)
373. [2 Kings · 4 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/373.md)
374. [2 Kings · 5 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/374.md)
375. [2 Kings · 6 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/375.md)
376. [2 Kings · 7 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/376.md)
377. [2 Kings · 8 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/377.md)
378. [2 Kings · 9 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/378.md)
379. [2 Kings · 10 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/379.md)
380. [2 Kings · 11 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/380.md)
381. [2 Kings · 12 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/381.md)
382. [2 Kings · 13 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/382.md)
383. [2 Kings · 14 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/383.md)
384. [2 Kings · 15 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/384.md)
385. [2 Kings · 16 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/385.md)
386. [2 Kings · 17 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/386.md)
387. [2 Kings · 18 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/387.md)
388. [2 Kings · 19 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/388.md)
389. [2 Kings · 20 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/389.md)
390. [2 Kings · 21 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/390.md)
391. [2 Kings · 22 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/391.md)
392. [2 Kings · 23 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/392.md)
393. [2 Kings · 24 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/393.md)
394. [2 Kings · 25 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/394.md)
395. [2 Kings · 26 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/395.md)
396. [2 Kings · 27 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/396.md)
397. [2 Kings · 28 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/397.md)
398. [2 Kings · 29 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/398.md)
399. [2 Kings · 30 of 30](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/399.md)
400. [1 Chronicles · 1 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/400.md)
401. [1 Chronicles · 2 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/401.md)
402. [1 Chronicles · 3 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/402.md)
403. [1 Chronicles · 4 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/403.md)
404. [1 Chronicles · 5 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/404.md)
405. [1 Chronicles · 6 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/405.md)
406. [1 Chronicles · 7 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/406.md)
407. [1 Chronicles · 8 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/407.md)
408. [1 Chronicles · 9 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/408.md)
409. [1 Chronicles · 10 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/409.md)
410. [1 Chronicles · 11 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/410.md)
411. [1 Chronicles · 12 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/411.md)
412. [1 Chronicles · 13 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/412.md)
413. [1 Chronicles · 14 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/413.md)
414. [1 Chronicles · 15 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/414.md)
415. [1 Chronicles · 16 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/415.md)
416. [1 Chronicles · 17 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/416.md)
417. [1 Chronicles · 18 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/417.md)
418. [1 Chronicles · 19 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/418.md)
419. [2 Chronicles · 1 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/419.md)
420. [2 Chronicles · 2 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/420.md)
421. [2 Chronicles · 3 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/421.md)
422. [2 Chronicles · 4 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/422.md)
423. [2 Chronicles · 5 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/423.md)
424. [2 Chronicles · 6 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/424.md)
425. [2 Chronicles · 7 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/425.md)
426. [2 Chronicles · 8 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/426.md)
427. [2 Chronicles · 9 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/427.md)
428. [2 Chronicles · 10 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/428.md)
429. [2 Chronicles · 11 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/429.md)
430. [2 Chronicles · 12 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/430.md)
431. [2 Chronicles · 13 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/431.md)
432. [2 Chronicles · 14 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/432.md)
433. [2 Chronicles · 15 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/433.md)
434. [2 Chronicles · 16 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/434.md)
435. [2 Chronicles · 17 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/435.md)
436. [2 Chronicles · 18 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/436.md)
437. [2 Chronicles · 19 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/437.md)
438. [2 Chronicles · 20 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/438.md)
439. [2 Chronicles · 21 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/439.md)
440. [2 Chronicles · 22 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/440.md)
441. [2 Chronicles · 23 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/441.md)
442. [2 Chronicles · 24 of 24](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/442.md)
443. [Ezra · 1 of 8](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/443.md)
444. [Ezra · 2 of 8](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/444.md)
445. [Ezra · 3 of 8](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/445.md)
446. [Ezra · 4 of 8](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/446.md)
447. [Ezra · 5 of 8](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/447.md)
448. [Ezra · 6 of 8](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/448.md)
449. [Ezra · 7 of 8](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/449.md)
450. [Ezra · 8 of 8](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/450.md)
451. [Nehemiah · 1 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/451.md)
452. [Nehemiah · 2 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/452.md)
453. [Nehemiah · 3 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/453.md)
454. [Nehemiah · 4 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/454.md)
455. [Nehemiah · 5 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/455.md)
456. [Nehemiah · 6 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/456.md)
457. [Nehemiah · 7 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/457.md)
458. [Nehemiah · 8 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/458.md)
459. [Nehemiah · 9 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/459.md)
460. [Nehemiah · 10 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/460.md)
461. [Nehemiah · 11 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/461.md)
462. [Nehemiah · 12 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/462.md)
463. [Nehemiah · 13 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/463.md)
464. [Nehemiah · 14 of 14](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/464.md)
465. [Esther · 1 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/465.md)
466. [Esther · 2 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/466.md)
467. [Esther · 3 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/467.md)
468. [Esther · 4 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/468.md)
469. [Esther · 5 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/469.md)
470. [Esther · 6 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/470.md)
471. [Esther · 7 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/471.md)
472. [Esther · 8 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/472.md)
473. [Esther · 9 of 9](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/473.md)
474. [Job · 1 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/474.md)
475. [Job · 2 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/475.md)
476. [Job · 3 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/476.md)
477. [Job · 4 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/477.md)
478. [Job · 5 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/478.md)
479. [Job · 6 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/479.md)
480. [Job · 7 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/480.md)
481. [Job · 8 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/481.md)
482. [Job · 9 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/482.md)
483. [Job · 10 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/483.md)
484. [Job · 11 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/484.md)
485. [Job · 12 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/485.md)
486. [Job · 13 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/486.md)
487. [Job · 14 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/487.md)
488. [Job · 15 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/488.md)
489. [Job · 16 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/489.md)
490. [Job · 17 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/490.md)
491. [Job · 18 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/491.md)
492. [Job · 19 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/492.md)
493. [Job · 20 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/493.md)
494. [Job · 21 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/494.md)
495. [Job · 22 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/495.md)
496. [Job · 23 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/496.md)
497. [Job · 24 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/497.md)
498. [Job · 25 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/498.md)
499. [Job · 26 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/499.md)
500. [Job · 27 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/500.md)
501. [Job · 28 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/501.md)
502. [Job · 29 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/502.md)
503. [Job · 30 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/503.md)
504. [Job · 31 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/504.md)
505. [Job · 32 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/505.md)
506. [Job · 33 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/506.md)
507. [Job · 34 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/507.md)
508. [Job · 35 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/508.md)
509. [Job · 36 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/509.md)
510. [Job · 37 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/510.md)
511. [Job · 38 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/511.md)
512. [Job · 39 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/512.md)
513. [Job · 40 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/513.md)
514. [Job · 41 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/514.md)
515. [Job · 42 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/515.md)
516. [Job · 43 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/516.md)
517. [Job · 44 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/517.md)
518. [Job · 45 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/518.md)
519. [Job · 46 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/519.md)
520. [Job · 47 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/520.md)
521. [Job · 48 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/521.md)
522. [Job · 49 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/522.md)
523. [Job · 50 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/523.md)
524. [Job · 51 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/524.md)
525. [Job · 52 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/525.md)
526. [Job · 53 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/526.md)
527. [Job · 54 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/527.md)
528. [Job · 55 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/528.md)
529. [Job · 56 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/529.md)
530. [Job · 57 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/530.md)
531. [Job · 58 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/531.md)
532. [Job · 59 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/532.md)
533. [Job · 60 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/533.md)
534. [Job · 61 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/534.md)
535. [Job · 62 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/535.md)
536. [Job · 63 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/536.md)
537. [Job · 64 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/537.md)
538. [Job · 65 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/538.md)
539. [Job · 66 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/539.md)
540. [Job · 67 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/540.md)
541. [Job · 68 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/541.md)
542. [Job · 69 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/542.md)
543. [Job · 70 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/543.md)
544. [Job · 71 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/544.md)
545. [Job · 72 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/545.md)
546. [Job · 73 of 73](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/546.md)
547. [Psalms · 1 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/547.md)
548. [Psalms · 2 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/548.md)
549. [Psalms · 3 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/549.md)
550. [Psalms · 4 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/550.md)
551. [Psalms · 5 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/551.md)
552. [Psalms · 6 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/552.md)
553. [Psalms · 7 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/553.md)
554. [Psalms · 8 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/554.md)
555. [Psalms · 9 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/555.md)
556. [Psalms · 10 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/556.md)
557. [Psalms · 11 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/557.md)
558. [Psalms · 12 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/558.md)
559. [Psalms · 13 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/559.md)
560. [Psalms · 14 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/560.md)
561. [Psalms · 15 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/561.md)
562. [Psalms · 16 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/562.md)
563. [Psalms · 17 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/563.md)
564. [Psalms · 18 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/564.md)
565. [Psalms · 19 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/565.md)
566. [Psalms · 20 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/566.md)
567. [Psalms · 21 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/567.md)
568. [Psalms · 22 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/568.md)
569. [Psalms · 23 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/569.md)
570. [Psalms · 24 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/570.md)
571. [Psalms · 25 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/571.md)
572. [Psalms · 26 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/572.md)
573. [Psalms · 27 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/573.md)
574. [Psalms · 28 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/574.md)
575. [Psalms · 29 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/575.md)
576. [Psalms · 30 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/576.md)
577. [Psalms · 31 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/577.md)
578. [Psalms · 32 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/578.md)
579. [Psalms · 33 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/579.md)
580. [Psalms · 34 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/580.md)
581. [Psalms · 35 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/581.md)
582. [Psalms · 36 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/582.md)
583. [Psalms · 37 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/583.md)
584. [Psalms · 38 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/584.md)
585. [Psalms · 39 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/585.md)
586. [Psalms · 40 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/586.md)
587. [Psalms · 41 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/587.md)
588. [Psalms · 42 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/588.md)
589. [Psalms · 43 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/589.md)
590. [Psalms · 44 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/590.md)
591. [Psalms · 45 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/591.md)
592. [Psalms · 46 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/592.md)
593. [Psalms · 47 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/593.md)
594. [Psalms · 48 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/594.md)
595. [Psalms · 49 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/595.md)
596. [Psalms · 50 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/596.md)
597. [Psalms · 51 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/597.md)
598. [Psalms · 52 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/598.md)
599. [Psalms · 53 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/599.md)
600. [Psalms · 54 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/600.md)
601. [Psalms · 55 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/601.md)
602. [Psalms · 56 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/602.md)
603. [Psalms · 57 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/603.md)
604. [Psalms · 58 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/604.md)
605. [Psalms · 59 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/605.md)
606. [Psalms · 60 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/606.md)
607. [Psalms · 61 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/607.md)
608. [Psalms · 62 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/608.md)
609. [Psalms · 63 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/609.md)
610. [Psalms · 64 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/610.md)
611. [Psalms · 65 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/611.md)
612. [Psalms · 66 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/612.md)
613. [Psalms · 67 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/613.md)
614. [Psalms · 68 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/614.md)
615. [Psalms · 69 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/615.md)
616. [Psalms · 70 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/616.md)
617. [Psalms · 71 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/617.md)
618. [Psalms · 72 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/618.md)
619. [Psalms · 73 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/619.md)
620. [Psalms · 74 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/620.md)
621. [Psalms · 75 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/621.md)
622. [Psalms · 76 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/622.md)
623. [Psalms · 77 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/623.md)
624. [Psalms · 78 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/624.md)
625. [Psalms · 79 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/625.md)
626. [Psalms · 80 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/626.md)
627. [Psalms · 81 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/627.md)
628. [Psalms · 82 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/628.md)
629. [Psalms · 83 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/629.md)
630. [Psalms · 84 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/630.md)
631. [Psalms · 85 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/631.md)
632. [Psalms · 86 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/632.md)
633. [Psalms · 87 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/633.md)
634. [Psalms · 88 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/634.md)
635. [Psalms · 89 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/635.md)
636. [Psalms · 90 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/636.md)
637. [Psalms · 91 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/637.md)
638. [Psalms · 92 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/638.md)
639. [Psalms · 93 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/639.md)
640. [Psalms · 94 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/640.md)
641. [Psalms · 95 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/641.md)
642. [Psalms · 96 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/642.md)
643. [Psalms · 97 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/643.md)
644. [Psalms · 98 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/644.md)
645. [Psalms · 99 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/645.md)
646. [Psalms · 100 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/646.md)
647. [Psalms · 101 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/647.md)
648. [Psalms · 102 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/648.md)
649. [Psalms · 103 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/649.md)
650. [Psalms · 104 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/650.md)
651. [Psalms · 105 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/651.md)
652. [Psalms · 106 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/652.md)
653. [Psalms · 107 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/653.md)
654. [Psalms · 108 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/654.md)
655. [Psalms · 109 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/655.md)
656. [Psalms · 110 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/656.md)
657. [Psalms · 111 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/657.md)
658. [Psalms · 112 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/658.md)
659. [Psalms · 113 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/659.md)
660. [Psalms · 114 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/660.md)
661. [Psalms · 115 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/661.md)
662. [Psalms · 116 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/662.md)
663. [Psalms · 117 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/663.md)
664. [Psalms · 118 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/664.md)
665. [Psalms · 119 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/665.md)
666. [Psalms · 120 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/666.md)
667. [Psalms · 121 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/667.md)
668. [Psalms · 122 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/668.md)
669. [Psalms · 123 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/669.md)
670. [Psalms · 124 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/670.md)
671. [Psalms · 125 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/671.md)
672. [Psalms · 126 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/672.md)
673. [Psalms · 127 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/673.md)
674. [Psalms · 128 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/674.md)
675. [Psalms · 129 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/675.md)
676. [Psalms · 130 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/676.md)
677. [Psalms · 131 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/677.md)
678. [Psalms · 132 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/678.md)
679. [Psalms · 133 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/679.md)
680. [Psalms · 134 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/680.md)
681. [Psalms · 135 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/681.md)
682. [Psalms · 136 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/682.md)
683. [Psalms · 137 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/683.md)
684. [Psalms · 138 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/684.md)
685. [Psalms · 139 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/685.md)
686. [Psalms · 140 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/686.md)
687. [Psalms · 141 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/687.md)
688. [Psalms · 142 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/688.md)
689. [Psalms · 143 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/689.md)
690. [Psalms · 144 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/690.md)
691. [Psalms · 145 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/691.md)
692. [Psalms · 146 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/692.md)
693. [Psalms · 147 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/693.md)
694. [Psalms · 148 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/694.md)
695. [Psalms · 149 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/695.md)
696. [Psalms · 150 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/696.md)
697. [Psalms · 151 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/697.md)
698. [Psalms · 152 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/698.md)
699. [Psalms · 153 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/699.md)
700. [Psalms · 154 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/700.md)
701. [Psalms · 155 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/701.md)
702. [Psalms · 156 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/702.md)
703. [Psalms · 157 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/703.md)
704. [Psalms · 158 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/704.md)
705. [Psalms · 159 of 159](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/705.md)
706. [Proverbs · 1 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/706.md)
707. [Proverbs · 2 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/707.md)
708. [Proverbs · 3 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/708.md)
709. [Proverbs · 4 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/709.md)
710. [Proverbs · 5 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/710.md)
711. [Proverbs · 6 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/711.md)
712. [Proverbs · 7 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/712.md)
713. [Proverbs · 8 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/713.md)
714. [Proverbs · 9 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/714.md)
715. [Proverbs · 10 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/715.md)
716. [Proverbs · 11 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/716.md)
717. [Proverbs · 12 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/717.md)
718. [Proverbs · 13 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/718.md)
719. [Proverbs · 14 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/719.md)
720. [Proverbs · 15 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/720.md)
721. [Proverbs · 16 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/721.md)
722. [Proverbs · 17 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/722.md)
723. [Proverbs · 18 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/723.md)
724. [Proverbs · 19 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/724.md)
725. [Proverbs · 20 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/725.md)
726. [Proverbs · 21 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/726.md)
727. [Proverbs · 22 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/727.md)
728. [Proverbs · 23 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/728.md)
729. [Proverbs · 24 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/729.md)
730. [Proverbs · 25 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/730.md)
731. [Proverbs · 26 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/731.md)
732. [Proverbs · 27 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/732.md)
733. [Proverbs · 28 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/733.md)
734. [Proverbs · 29 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/734.md)
735. [Proverbs · 30 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/735.md)
736. [Proverbs · 31 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/736.md)
737. [Proverbs · 32 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/737.md)
738. [Proverbs · 33 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/738.md)
739. [Proverbs · 34 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/739.md)
740. [Proverbs · 35 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/740.md)
741. [Proverbs · 36 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/741.md)
742. [Proverbs · 37 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/742.md)
743. [Proverbs · 38 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/743.md)
744. [Proverbs · 39 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/744.md)
745. [Proverbs · 40 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/745.md)
746. [Proverbs · 41 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/746.md)
747. [Proverbs · 42 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/747.md)
748. [Proverbs · 43 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/748.md)
749. [Proverbs · 44 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/749.md)
750. [Proverbs · 45 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/750.md)
751. [Proverbs · 46 of 46](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/751.md)
752. [Ecclesiastes · 1 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/752.md)
753. [Ecclesiastes · 2 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/753.md)
754. [Ecclesiastes · 3 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/754.md)
755. [Ecclesiastes · 4 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/755.md)
756. [Ecclesiastes · 5 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/756.md)
757. [Ecclesiastes · 6 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/757.md)
758. [Ecclesiastes · 7 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/758.md)
759. [Ecclesiastes · 8 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/759.md)
760. [Ecclesiastes · 9 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/760.md)
761. [Ecclesiastes · 10 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/761.md)
762. [Ecclesiastes · 11 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/762.md)
763. [Ecclesiastes · 12 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/763.md)
764. [Ecclesiastes · 13 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/764.md)
765. [Ecclesiastes · 14 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/765.md)
766. [Ecclesiastes · 15 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/766.md)
767. [Ecclesiastes · 16 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/767.md)
768. [Ecclesiastes · 17 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/768.md)
769. [Ecclesiastes · 18 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/769.md)
770. [Ecclesiastes · 19 of 19](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/770.md)
771. [Song of Solomon · 1 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/771.md)
772. [Song of Solomon · 2 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/772.md)
773. [Song of Solomon · 3 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/773.md)
774. [Song of Solomon · 4 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/774.md)
775. [Song of Solomon · 5 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/775.md)
776. [Song of Solomon · 6 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/776.md)
777. [Song of Solomon · 7 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/777.md)
778. [Song of Solomon · 8 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/778.md)
779. [Song of Solomon · 9 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/779.md)
780. [Song of Solomon · 10 of 10](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/780.md)
781. [Isaiah · 1 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/781.md)
782. [Isaiah · 2 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/782.md)
783. [Isaiah · 3 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/783.md)
784. [Isaiah · 4 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/784.md)
785. [Isaiah · 5 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/785.md)
786. [Isaiah · 6 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/786.md)
787. [Isaiah · 7 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/787.md)
788. [Isaiah · 8 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/788.md)
789. [Isaiah · 9 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/789.md)
790. [Isaiah · 10 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/790.md)
791. [Isaiah · 11 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/791.md)
792. [Isaiah · 12 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/792.md)
793. [Isaiah · 13 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/793.md)
794. [Isaiah · 14 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/794.md)
795. [Isaiah · 15 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/795.md)
796. [Isaiah · 16 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/796.md)
797. [Isaiah · 17 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/797.md)
798. [Isaiah · 18 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/798.md)
799. [Isaiah · 19 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/799.md)
800. [Isaiah · 20 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/800.md)
801. [Isaiah · 21 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/801.md)
802. [Isaiah · 22 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/802.md)
803. [Isaiah · 23 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/803.md)
804. [Isaiah · 24 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/804.md)
805. [Isaiah · 25 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/805.md)
806. [Isaiah · 26 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/806.md)
807. [Isaiah · 27 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/807.md)
808. [Isaiah · 28 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/808.md)
809. [Isaiah · 29 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/809.md)
810. [Isaiah · 30 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/810.md)
811. [Isaiah · 31 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/811.md)
812. [Isaiah · 32 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/812.md)
813. [Isaiah · 33 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/813.md)
814. [Isaiah · 34 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/814.md)
815. [Isaiah · 35 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/815.md)
816. [Isaiah · 36 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/816.md)
817. [Isaiah · 37 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/817.md)
818. [Isaiah · 38 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/818.md)
819. [Isaiah · 39 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/819.md)
820. [Isaiah · 40 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/820.md)
821. [Isaiah · 41 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/821.md)
822. [Isaiah · 42 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/822.md)
823. [Isaiah · 43 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/823.md)
824. [Isaiah · 44 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/824.md)
825. [Isaiah · 45 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/825.md)
826. [Isaiah · 46 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/826.md)
827. [Isaiah · 47 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/827.md)
828. [Isaiah · 48 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/828.md)
829. [Isaiah · 49 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/829.md)
830. [Isaiah · 50 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/830.md)
831. [Isaiah · 51 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/831.md)
832. [Isaiah · 52 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/832.md)
833. [Isaiah · 53 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/833.md)
834. [Isaiah · 54 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/834.md)
835. [Isaiah · 55 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/835.md)
836. [Isaiah · 56 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/836.md)
837. [Isaiah · 57 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/837.md)
838. [Isaiah · 58 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/838.md)
839. [Isaiah · 59 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/839.md)
840. [Isaiah · 60 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/840.md)
841. [Isaiah · 61 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/841.md)
842. [Isaiah · 62 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/842.md)
843. [Isaiah · 63 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/843.md)
844. [Isaiah · 64 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/844.md)
845. [Isaiah · 65 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/845.md)
846. [Isaiah · 66 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/846.md)
847. [Isaiah · 67 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/847.md)
848. [Isaiah · 68 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/848.md)
849. [Isaiah · 69 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/849.md)
850. [Isaiah · 70 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/850.md)
851. [Isaiah · 71 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/851.md)
852. [Isaiah · 72 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/852.md)
853. [Isaiah · 73 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/853.md)
854. [Isaiah · 74 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/854.md)
855. [Isaiah · 75 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/855.md)
856. [Isaiah · 76 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/856.md)
857. [Isaiah · 77 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/857.md)
858. [Isaiah · 78 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/858.md)
859. [Isaiah · 79 of 79](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/859.md)
860. [Jeremiah · 1 of 55](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/860.md)
861. [Jeremiah · 2 of 55](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/861.md)
862. [Jeremiah · 3 of 55](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/862.md)
863. [Jeremiah · 4 of 55](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/863.md)
864. [Jeremiah · 5 of 55](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/864.md)
865. [Jeremiah · 6 of 55](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/865.md)
866. [Jeremiah · 7 of 55](https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/866.md)
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## 1. Genesis · 1 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/1/#p-N

### Preface to the Book of Genesis

[¶1] Every believer in Divine revelation finds himself amply justified in taking for granted that the Pentateuch is the work of Moses. For more than 3000 years this has been the invariable opinion of those who were best qualified to form a correct judgment on this subject. The Jewish Church, from its most remote antiquity, has ascribed the work to no other hand; and the Christian Church, from its foundation, has attributed it to the Jewish lawgiver alone. The most respectable heathens have concurred in this testimony, and Jesus Christ and his apostles have completed the evidence, and have put the question beyond the possibility of being doubted by those who profess to believe the Divine authenticity of the New Testament. As to those who, in opposition to all these proofs, obstinately persist in their unbelief, they are worthy of little regard, as argument is lost on their unprincipled prejudices, and demonstration on their minds, because ever willfully closed against the light. When they have proved that Moses is not the author of this work, the advocates of Divine revelation will reconsider the grounds of their faith.

[¶2] That there are a few things in the Pentateuch which seem to have been added by a later hand there can be little doubt; among these some have reckoned, perhaps without reason, the following passage, [Gen 12:6] : "And the Canaanite was then in the land"; but see the note on [Gen 12:6]. [Num 21:14], "In the book of the wars of the Lord," was probably a marginal note, which in process of time got into the text; see the note on [Num 21:14]. To these may be added Deuteronomy[Deu 1:1-5]; [Deu 2:12]; and the eight concluding verses of the last chapter, in which we have an account of the death of Moses. These last words could not have been added by Moses himself, but are very probably the work of Ezra, by whom, according to uninterrupted tradition among the Jews, the various books which constitute the canon of the Old Testament were collected and arranged, and such expository notes added as were essential to connect the different parts; but as he acted under Divine inspiration, the additions may be considered of equal authority with the text. A few other places might be added, but they are of little importance, and are mentioned in the notes.

[¶3] The book of Genesis, Γενεσις, has its name from the title it bears in the Septuagint, βιβλος Γενεσεως, ([Gen 2:4]), which signifies the book of the Generation; but it is called in Hebrew בראשית Bereshith, "In the beginning," from its initial word. It is the most ancient history in the world; and, from the great variety of its singular details and most interesting accounts, is as far superior in its value and importance to all others, as it is in its antiquity. This book contains an account of the creation of the world, and its first inhabitants; the original innocence and fall of man; the rise of religion; the invention of arts; the general corruption and degeneracy of mankind; the universal deluge; the repeopling and division of the earth; the origin of nations and kingdoms; and a particular history of the patriarchs from Adam down to the death of Joseph; including a space, at the lowest computation, of 2369 years.

[¶4] It may be asked how a detail so circumstantial and minute could have been preserved when there was no writing of any kind, and when the earth, whose history is here given, had already existed more than 2000 years. To this inquiry a very satisfactory answer may be given. There are only three ways in which these important records could have been preserved and brought down to the time of Moses: viz., writing, tradition, and Divine revelation. In the antediluvian world, when the life of man was so protracted, there was comparatively little need for writing of any kind, and perhaps no alphabetical writing then existed. Tradition answered every purpose to which writing in any kind of characters could be subservient; and the necessity of erecting monuments to perpetuate public events could scarcely have suggested itself, as during those times there could be little danger apprehended of any important fact becoming obsolete, as its history had to pass through very few hands, and all these friends and relatives in the most proper sense of the terms; for they lived in an insulated state under a patriarchal government.

[¶5] Thus it was easy for Moses to be satisfied of the truth of all he relates in the book of Genesis, as the accounts came to him through the medium of very few persons. From Adam to Noah there was but one man necessary to the correct transmission of the history of this period of 1656 years. Now this history was, without doubt, perfectly known to Methuselah, who lived to see them both. In like manner Shem connected Noah and Abraham, having lived to converse with both; as Isaac did with Abraham and Joseph, from whom these things might be easily conveyed to Moses by Amram, who was contemporary with Joseph. Supposing, then, all the curious facts recorded in the book of Genesis had no other authority than the tradition already referred to, they would stand upon a foundation of credibility superior to any that the most reputable of the ancient Greek and Latin historians can boast. Yet to preclude all possibility of mistake, the unerring Spirit of God directed Moses in the selection of his facts and the ascertaining of his dates. Indeed, the narrative is so simple, so much like truth, so consistent everywhere with itself, so correct in its dates, so impartial in its biography, so accurate in its philosophical details, so pure in its morality, and so benevolent in its design, as amply to demonstrate that it never could have had an earthly origin. In this case, also, Moses constructed every thing according to the pattern which God showed him in the mount.

[¶6] First day's work - Creation of the heavens and the earth, [Gen 1:1], [Gen 1:2]. Of the light and its separation from the darkness, [Gen 1:3-5]. Second day's work - The creation of the firmament, and the separation of the waters above the firmament from those below it, [Gen 1:6-8]. Third day's work - The waters are separated from the earth and formed into seas, etc., [Gen 1:9], [Gen 1:10]. The earth rendered fruitful, and clothed with trees, herbs, grass, etc., [Gen 1:11-13]. Fourth day's work - Creation of the celestial luminaries intended for the measurement of time, the distinction of periods, seasons, etc., [Gen 1:14]; and to illuminate the earth, [Gen 1:15]. Distinct account of the formation of the sun, moon, and stars, [Gen 1:16-19]. Fifth day's work - The creation of fish, fowls, and reptiles in general, [Gen 1:20]. Of great aquatic animals, [Gen 1:21]. They are blessed so as to make them very prolific, [Gen 1:22], [Gen 1:23]. Sixth day's work - Wild and tame cattle created, and all kinds of animals which derive their nourishment from the earth, [Gen 1:24], [Gen 1:25]. The creation of man in the image and likeness of God, with the dominion given him over the earth and all inferior animals, [Gen 1:26]. Man or Adam, a general name for human beings, including both male and female, [Gen 1:27]. Their peculiar blessing, [Gen 1:28]. Vegetables appointed as the food of man and all other animals, [Gen 1:29], [Gen 1:30]. The judgment which God passed on his works at the conclusion of his creative acts, [Gen 1:31].

### Verse 1

[¶8] God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth - בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ Bereshith bara Elohim eth hashshamayim veeth haarets; God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.

[¶9] Many attempts have been made to define the term God: as to the word itself, it is pure Anglo-Saxon, and among our ancestors signified, not only the Divine Being, now commonly designated by the word, but also good; as in their apprehensions it appeared that God and good were correlative terms; and when they thought or spoke of him, they were doubtless led from the word itself to consider him as The Good Being, a fountain of infinite benevolence and beneficence towards his creatures.

[¶10] A general definition of this great First Cause, as far as human words dare attempt one, may be thus given: The eternal, independent, and self-existent Being: the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence: he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, and most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy: the cause of all being, the upholder of all things; infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made: illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only to himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; and who, from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind. Reader, such is the God of the Bible; but how widely different from the God of most human creeds and apprehensions!

[¶11] The original word אלהים Elohim, God, is certainly the plural form of אל El, or אלה Eloah, and has long been supposed, by the most eminently learned and pious men, to imply a plurality of Persons in the Divine nature. As this plurality appears in so many parts of the sacred writings to be confined to three Persons, hence the doctrine of the Trinity, which has formed a part of the creed of all those who have been deemed sound in the faith, from the earliest ages of Christianity. Nor are the Christians singular in receiving this doctrine, and in deriving it from the first words of Divine revelation. An eminent Jewish rabbi, Simeon ben Joachi, in his comment on the sixth section of Leviticus, has these remarkable words: "Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim; there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other." See Ainsworth. He must be strangely prejudiced indeed who cannot see that the doctrine of a Trinity, and of a Trinity in unity, is expressed in the above words. The verb ברא bara, he created, being joined in the singular number with this plural noun, has been considered as pointing out, and not obscurely, the unity of the Divine Persons in this work of creation. In the ever-blessed Trinity, from the infinite and indivisible unity of the persons, there can be but one will, one purpose, and one infinite and uncontrollable energy. "Let those who have any doubt whether אלהים Elohim, when meaning the true God, Jehovah, be plural or not, consult the following passages, where they will find it joined with adjectives, verbs, and pronouns plural. "[Gen 1:26] [Gen 3:22] [Gen 11:7] [Gen 20:13] [Gen 31:7], [Gen 31:53] [Gen 35:7]. "[Deu 4:7] [Deu 5:23]; [Jos 24:19] [1Sam 4:8]; [2Sam 7:23]; "[Psa 58:6]; [Isa 6:8]; [Jer 10:10], [Jer 23:36]. "See also [Pro 9:10], [Pro 30:3]; [Psa 149:2]; [Ecc 5:7], [Ecc 12:1]; [Job 5:1]; [Isa 6:3], [Isa 54:5], [Isa 62:5]; [Hos 11:12], or [Hos 12:1]; [Mal 1:6]; [Dan 5:18], [Dan 5:20], and [Dan 7:18], [Dan 7:22]." - Parkhurst.

[¶12] As the word Elohim is the term by which the Divine Being is most generally expressed in the Old Testament, it may be necessary to consider it here more at large. It is a maxim that admits of no controversy, that every noun in the Hebrew language is derived from a verb, which is usually termed the radix or root, from which, not only the noun, but all the different flections of the verb, spring. This radix is the third person singular of the preterite or past tense. The ideal meaning of this root expresses some essential property of the thing which it designates, or of which it is an appellative. The root in Hebrew, and in its sister language, the Arabic, generally consists of three letters, and every word must be traced to its root in order to ascertain its genuine meaning, for there alone is this meaning to be found. In Hebrew and Arabic this is essentially necessary, and no man can safely criticise on any word in either of these languages who does not carefully attend to this point.

[¶13] I mention the Arabic with the Hebrew for two reasons.

[¶14] 1. Because the two languages evidently spring from the same source, and have very nearly the same mode of construction.

[¶15] 2. Because the deficient roots in the Hebrew Bible are to be sought for in the Arabic language. The reason of this must be obvious, when it is considered that the whole of the Hebrew language is lost except what is in the Bible, and even a part of this book is written in Chaldee.

[¶16] Now, as the English Bible does not contain the whole of the English language, so the Hebrew Bible does not contain the whole of the Hebrew. If a man meet with an English word which he cannot find in an ample concordance or dictionary to the Bible, he must of course seek for that word in a general English dictionary. In like manner, if a particular form of a Hebrew word occur that cannot be traced to a root in the Hebrew Bible, because the word does not occur in the third person singular of the past tense in the Bible, it is expedient, it is perfectly lawful, and often indispensably necessary, to seek the deficient root in the Arabic. For as the Arabic is still a living language, and perhaps the most copious in the universe, it may well be expected to furnish those terms which are deficient in the Hebrew Bible. And the reasonableness of this is founded on another maxim, viz., that either the Arabic was derived from the Hebrew, or the Hebrew from the Arabic. I shall not enter into this controversy; there are great names on both sides, and the decision of the question in either way will have the same effect on my argument. For if the Arabic were derived from the Hebrew, it must have been when the Hebrew was a living and complete language, because such is the Arabic now; and therefore all its essential roots we may reasonably expect to find there: but if, as Sir William Jones supposed, the Hebrew were derived from the Arabic, the same expectation is justified, the deficient roots in Hebrew may be sought for in the mother tongue. If, for example, we meet with a term in our ancient English language the meaning of which we find difficult to ascertain, common sense teaches us that we should seek for it in the Anglo-Saxon, from which our language springs; and, if necessary, go up to the Teutonic, from which the Anglo-Saxon was derived. No person disputes the legitimacy of this measure, and we find it in constant practice. I make these observations at the very threshold of my work, because the necessity of acting on this principle (seeking deficient Hebrew roots in the Arabic) may often occur, and I wish to speak once for all on the subject.

[¶17] The first sentence in the Scripture shows the propriety of having recourse to this principle. We have seen that the word אלהים Elohim is plural; we have traced our term God to its source, and have seen its signification; and also a general definition of the thing or being included under this term, has been tremblingly attempted. We should now trace the original to its root, but this root does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. Were the Hebrew a complete language, a pious reason might be given for this omission, viz., "As God is without beginning and without cause, as his being is infinite and underived, the Hebrew language consults strict propriety in giving no root whence his name can be deduced." Mr. Parkhurst, to whose pious and learned labors in Hebrew literature most Biblical students are indebted, thinks he has found the root in אלה alah, he swore, bound himself by oath; and hence he calls the ever-blessed Trinity אלהים Elohim, as being bound by a conditional oath to redeem man, etc., etc. Most pious minds will revolt from such a definition, and will be glad with me to find both the noun and the root preserved in Arabic. Allah is the common name for God in the Arabic tongue, and often the emphatic is used. Now both these words are derived from the root alaha, he worshipped, adored, was struck with astonishment, fear, or terror; and hence, he adored with sacred horror and veneration, cum sacro horrore ac veneratione coluit, adoravit - Wilmet. Hence ilahon, fear, veneration, and also the object of religious fear, the Deity, the supreme God, the tremendous Being. This is not a new idea; God was considered in the same light among the ancient Hebrews; and hence Jacob swears by the fear of his father Isaac, [Gen 31:53]. To complete the definition, Golius renders alaha, juvit, liberavit, et tutatus fuit, "he succoured, liberated, kept in safety, or defended." Thus from the ideal meaning of this most expressive root, we acquire the most correct notion of the Divine nature; for we learn that God is the sole object of adoration; that the perfections of his nature are such as must astonish all those who piously contemplate them, and fill with horror all who would dare to give his glory to another, or break his commandments; that consequently he should be worshipped with reverence and religious fear; and that every sincere worshipper may expect from him help in all his weaknesses, trials, difficulties, temptations, etc.,; freedom from the power, guilt, nature, and consequences of sin; and to be supported, defended, and saved to the uttermost, and to the end.

[¶18] Here then is one proof, among multitudes which shall be adduced in the course of this work, of the importance, utility, and necessity of tracing up these sacred words to their sources; and a proof also, that subjects which are supposed to be out of the reach of the common people may, with a little difficulty, be brought on a level with the most ordinary capacity.

[¶19] In the beginning - Before the creative acts mentioned in this chapter all was Eternity. Time signifies duration measured by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies: but prior to the creation of these bodies there could be no measurement of duration, and consequently no time; therefore in the beginning must necessarily mean the commencement of time which followed, or rather was produced by, God's creative acts, as an effect follows or is produced by a cause.

[¶20] Created - Caused existence where previously to this moment there was no being. The rabbins, who are legitimate judges in a case of verbal criticism on their own language, are unanimous in asserting that the word ברא bara expresses the commencement of the existence of a thing, or egression from nonentity to entity. It does not in its primary meaning denote the preserving or new forming things that had previously existed, as some imagine, but creation in the proper sense of the term, though it has some other acceptations in other places. The supposition that God formed all things out of a pre-existing, eternal nature, is certainly absurd, for if there had been an eternal nature besides an eternal God, there must have been two self-existing, independent, and eternal beings, which is a most palpable contradiction. את השמים eth hashshamayim. The word את eth, which is generally considered as a particle, simply denoting that the word following is in the accusative or oblique case, is often understood by the rabbins in a much more extensive sense. "The particle את," says Aben Ezra, "signifies the substance of the thing." The like definition is given by Kimchi in his Book of Roots. "This particle," says Mr. Ainsworth, "having the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet in it, is supposed to comprise the sum and substance of all things." "The particle את eth (says Buxtorf, Talmudic Lexicon, sub voce) with the cabalists is often mystically put for the beginning and the end, as α alpha and ω omega are in the Apocalypse." On this ground these words should be translated, "God in the beginning created the substance of the heavens and the substance of the earth," i.e. the prima materia, or first elements, out of which the heavens and the earth were successively formed. The Syriac translator understood the word in this sense, and to express this meaning has used the word yoth, which has this signification, and is very properly translated in Walton's Polyglot, Esse, caeli et Esse terrae, "the being or substance of the heaven, and the being or substance of the earth." St. Ephraim Syrus, in his comment on this place, uses the same Syriac word, and appears to understand it precisely in the same way. Though the Hebrew words are certainly no more than the notation of a case in most places, yet understood here in the sense above, they argue a wonderful philosophic accuracy in the statement of Moses, which brings before us, not a finished heaven and earth, as every other translation appears to do, though afterwards the process of their formation is given in detail, but merely the materials out of which God built the whole system in the six following days.

[¶21] The heaven and the earth - As the word שמים shamayim is plural, we may rest assured that it means more than the atmosphere, to express which some have endeavored to restrict its meaning. Nor does it appear that the atmosphere is particularly intended here, as this is spoken of, [Gen 1:6], under the term firmament. The word heavens must therefore comprehend the whole solar system, as it is very likely the whole of this was created in these six days; for unless the earth had been the center of a system, the reverse of which is sufficiently demonstrated, it would be unphilosophic to suppose it was created independently of the other parts of the system, as on this supposition we must have recourse to the almighty power of God to suspend the influence of the earth's gravitating power till the fourth day, when the sun was placed in the center, round which the earth began then to revolve. But as the design of the inspired penman was to relate what especially belonged to our world and its inhabitants, therefore he passes by the rest of the planetary system, leaving it simply included in the plural word heavens. In the word earth every thing relative to the terraqueaerial globe is included, that is, all that belongs to the solid and fluid parts of our world with its surrounding atmosphere. As therefore I suppose the whole solar system was created at this time, I think it perfectly in place to give here a general view of all the planets, with every thing curious and important hitherto known relative to their revolutions and principal affections.

[¶22] Observations On The Preceding Tables (Editor's Note: These tables were omitted due to outdated information)

[¶23] In Table I. the quantity or the periodic and sidereal revolutions of the planets is expressed in common years, each containing 365 days; as, e.g., the tropical revolution of Jupiter is, by the table, 11 years, 315 days, 14 hours, 39 minutes, 2 seconds; i.e., the exact number of days is equal to 11 years multiplied by 365, and the extra 315 days added to the product, which make In all 4330 days. The sidereal and periodic times are also set down to the nearest second of time, from numbers used in the construction of the tables in the third edition of M. de la Lande's Astronomy. The columns containing the mean distance of the planets from the sun in English miles, and their greatest and least distance from the earth, are such as result from the best observations of the two last transits of Venus, which gave the solar parallax to be equal to 8 three-fifth seconds of a degree; and consequently the earth's diameter, as seen from the sun, must be the double of 8 three-fifth seconds, or 17 one-fifth seconds. From this last quantity, compared with the apparent diameters of the planets, as seen at a distance equal to that of the earth at her main distance from the sun, the diameters of the planets in English miles, as contained in the seventh column, have been carefully computed. In the column entitled "Proportion of bulk, the earth being 1," the whole numbers express the number of times the other planet contains more cubic miles, etc., than the earth; and if the number of cubic miles in the earth be given, the number of cubic miles in any planet may be readily found by multiplying the cubic miles contained in the earth by the number in the column, and the product will be the quantity required.

[¶24] This is a small but accurate sketch of the vast solar system; to describe it fully, even in all its known revolutions and connections, in all its astonishing energy and influence, in its wonderful plan, structure, operations, and results, would require more volumes than can be devoted to the commentary itself.

[¶25] As so little can be said here on a subject so vast, it may appear to some improper to introduce it at all; but to any observation of this kind I must be permitted to reply, that I should deem it unpardonable not to give a general view of the solar system in the very place where its creation is first introduced. If these works be stupendous and magnificent, what must He be who formed, guides, and supports them all by the word of his power! Reader, stand in awe of this God, and sin not. Make him thy friend through the Son of his love; and, when these heavens and this earth are no more, thy soul shall exist in consummate and unutterable felicity.

[¶26] See the remarks on the sun, moon, and stars, after [Gen 1:16]. See Clarke's note on [Gen 1:16].

### Verse 2

[¶28] The earth was without form and void - The original term תהו tohu and בהו bohu, which we translate without form and void, are of uncertain etymology; but in this place, and wherever else they are used, they convey the idea of confusion and disorder. From these terms it is probable that the ancient Syrians and Egyptians borrowed their gods, Theuth and Bau, and the Greeks their Chaos. God seems at first to have created the elementary principles of all things; and this formed the grand mass of matter, which in this state must be without arrangement, or any distinction of parts: a vast collection of indescribably confused materials, of nameless entities strangely mixed; and wonderfully well expressed by an ancient heathen poet: -

[¶29] Ante mare et terras, et, quod tegit omnia, caelum,

[¶30] Unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, Quem dixere

[¶31] Chaos; rudis indigestaque moles,

[¶32] Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners; congestaque eodem

[¶33] Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum.

[¶34] Ovid.

[¶35] Before the seas and this terrestrial ball,

[¶36] And heaven's high canopy that covers all,

[¶37] One was the face of nature, if a face;

[¶38] Rather, a rude and indigested mass;

[¶39] A lifeless lump, unfashion'd and unframed,

[¶40] Of jarring seeds, and justly Chaos named.

[¶41] Dryden.

[¶42] The most ancient of the Greeks have spoken nearly in the same way of this crude, indigested state of the primitive chaotic mass.

[¶43] When this congeries of elementary principles was brought together, God was pleased to spend six days in assimilating, assorting, and arranging the materials, out of which he built up, not only the earth, but the whole of the solar system.

[¶44] The spirit of God - This has been variously and strangely understood. Some think a violent wind is meant, because רוח, ruach often signifies wind, as well as spirit, as πνευμα, does in Greek; and the term God is connected with it merely, as they think, to express the superlative degree. Others understand by it an elementary fire. Others, the sun, penetrating and drying up the earth with his rays. Others, the angels, who were supposed to have been employed as agents in creation. Others, a certain occult principle, termed the anima mundi or soul of the world. Others, a magnetic attraction, by which all things were caused to gravitate to a common center. But it is sufficiently evident from the use of the word in other places, that the Holy Spirit of God is intended; which our blessed Lord represents under the notion of wind, [Joh 3:8]; and which, as a mighty rushing wind on the day of Pentecost, filled the house where the disciples were sitting, [Act 2:2], which was immediately followed by their speaking with other tongues, because they were filled with the Holy Ghost, [Act 2:4]. These scriptures sufficiently ascertain the sense in which the word is used by Moses.

## 2. Genesis · 2 of 67

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[¶0] Moved - מרחפת merachepheth, was brooding over; for the word expresses that tremulous motion made by the hen while either hatching her eggs or fostering her young. It here probably signifies the communicating a vital or prolific principle to the waters. As the idea of incubation, or hatching an egg, is implied in the original word, hence probably the notion, which prevailed among the ancients, that the world was generated from an egg.

### Verse 3

[¶2] And God said, Let there be light - הי אור ויהי אור Yehi or, vaihi or. Nothing can be conceived more dignified than this form of expression. It argues at once uncontrollable authority, and omnific power; and in human language it is scarcely possible to conceive that God can speak more like himself. This passage, in the Greek translation of the Septuagint, fell in the way of Dionysius Longinus, one of the most judicious Greek critics that ever lived, and who is highly celebrated over the civilized world for a treatise he wrote, entitled Περι Ὑψους, Concerning the Sublime, both in prose and poetry; of this passage, though a heathen, he speaks in the following terms: - Ταυτῃ και ὁ των Ιουδαιων θεσμοθετης(ουχ ὁ τυχων ανηρ,) επειδη την του θειου δυναμιν κατα την αξιαν εχωρησε, καξεφηνεν· ευθυς εν τῃ εισβολη γραψας των νομων, ΕΙΠΕΝ Ὁ ΘΕΟΣ, φησι, τι; ΓΕΝΕΣΘΩ ΦΩΣ· και εγενετο. ΓΕΝΕΣΘΩ ΓΗ· και εγενετο."So likewise the Jewish lawgiver (who was no ordinary man) having conceived a just idea of the Divine power, he expressed it in a dignified manner; for at the beginning of his laws he thus speaks: God Said - What? Let There Be Light! and there was light. Let There Be Earth! and there was earth." - Longinus, sect. ix. edit. Pearce.

[¶3] Many have asked, "How could light be produced on the first day, and the sun, the fountain of it, not created till the fourth day?" With the various and often unphilosophical answers which have been given to this question I will not meddle, but shall observe that the original word אור signifies not only light but fire, see [Isa 31:9] [Eze 5:2]. It is used for the Sun, [Job 31:26]. And for the electric fluid or Lightning, [Job 37:3]. And it is worthy of remark that It is used in [Isa 44:16], for the heat, derived from אש esh, the fire. He burneth part thereof in the fire (במו אש bemo esh): yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha! I have seen the fire, ראיתי אור raithi ur, which a modern philosopher who understood the language would not scruple to translate, I have received caloric, or an additional portion of the matter of heat. I therefore conclude, that as God has diffused the matter of caloric or latent heat through every part of nature, without which there could be neither vegetation nor animal life, that it is caloric or latent heat which is principally intended by the original word.

[¶4] That there is latent light, which is probably the same with latent heat, may be easily demonstrated: take two pieces of smooth rock crystal, agate, cornelian or flint, and rub them together briskly in the dark, and the latent light or matter of caloric will be immediately produced and become visible. The light or caloric thus disengaged does not operate in the same powerful manner as the heat or fire which is produced by striking with flint and steel, or that produced by electric friction. The existence of this caloric-latent or primitive light, may be ascertained in various other bodies; it can be produced by the flint and steel, by rubbing two hard sticks together, by hammering cold iron, which in a short time becomes red hot, and by the strong and sudden compression of atmospheric air in a tube. Friction in general produces both fire and light. God therefore created this universal agent on the first day, because without It no operation of nature could be carried on or perfected.

[¶5] Light is one of the most astonishing productions of the creative skill and power of God. It is the grand medium by which all his other works are discovered, examined, and understood, so far as they can be known. Its immense diffusion and extreme velocity are alone sufficient to demonstrate the being and wisdom of God. Light has been proved by many experiments to travel at the astonishing rate of 194,188 miles in one second of time! and comes from the sun to the earth in eight minutes 11 43/50 seconds, a distance of 95,513,794 English miles.

### Verse 4

[¶7] God divided the light from the darkness - This does not imply that light and darkness are two distinct substances, seeing darkness is only the privation of light; but the words simply refer us by anticipation to the rotation of the earth round its own axis once in twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes, and four seconds, which is the cause of the distinction between day and night, by bringing the different parts of the surface of the earth successively into and from under the solar rays; and it was probably at this moment that God gave this rotation to the earth, to produce this merciful provision of day and night. For the manner in which light is supposed to be produced, see [Gen 1:16], under the word sun.

### Verse 6

[¶9] And God said, Let there be a firmament - Our translators, by following the firmamentum of the Vulgate, which is a translation of the στερεωμα of the Septuagint, have deprived this passage of all sense and meaning. The Hebrew word רקיע rakia, from רקע raka, to spread out as the curtains of a tent or pavilion, simply signifies an expanse or space, and consequently that circumambient space or expansion separating the clouds, which are in the higher regions of it, from the seas, etc., which are below it. This we call the atmosphere, the orb of atoms or inconceivably small particles; but the word appears to have been used by Moses in a more extensive sense, and to include the whole of the planetary vortex, or the space which is occupied by the whole solar system.

### Verse 10

[¶11] And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas - These two constitute what is called the terraqueous globe, in which the earth and the water exist in a most judicious proportion to each other. Dr. Long took the papers which cover the surface of a seventeen inch terrestrial globe, and having carefully separated the land from the sea, be weighed the two collections of papers accurately, and found that the sea papers weighed three hundred and forty-nine grains, and the land papers only one hundred and twenty-four; by which experiment it appears that nearly three-fourths of the surface of our globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic polar circles, are covered with water. The doctor did not weigh the parts within the polar circles, because there is no certain measurement of the proportion of land and water which they contain. This proportion of three-fourths water may be considered as too great, if not useless; but Mr. Ray, by most accurate experiments made on evaporation, has proved that it requires so much aqueous surface to yield a sufficiency of vapors for the purpose of cooling the atmosphere, and watering the earth. See Ray's Physico-theological Discourses.

[¶12] An eminent chemist and philosopher, Dr. Priestley, has very properly observed that it seems plain that Moses considered the whole terraqueous globe as being created in a fluid state, the earthy and other particles of matter being mingled with the water. The present form of the earth demonstrates the truth of the Mosaic account; for it is well known that if a soft or elastic globular body be rapidly whirled round on its axis, the parts at the poles will be flattened, and the parts on the equator, midway between the north and south poles, will be raised up. This is precisely the shape of our earth; it has the figure of an oblate spheroid, a figure pretty much resembling the shape of an orange. It has been demonstrated by admeasurement that the earth is flatted at the poles and raised at the equator. This was first conjectured by Sir Isaac Newton, and afterwards confirmed by M. Cassini and others, who measured several degrees of latitude at the equator and near the north pole, and found that the difference perfectly justified Sir Isaac Newton's conjecture, and consequently confirmed the Mosaic account. The result of the experiments instituted to determine this point, proved that the diameter of the earth at the equator is greater by more than twenty-three and a half miles than it is at the poles, allowing the polar diameter to be 1/334th part shorter than the equatorial, according to the recent admeasurements of several degrees of latitude made by Messrs. Mechain and Delambre - L'Histoire des Mathem. par M. de la Lande, tom. iv., part v., liv. 6.

[¶13] And God saw that it was good - This is the judgment which God pronounced on his own works. They were beautiful and perfect in their kind, for such is the import of the word טוב tob. They were in weight and measure perfect and entire, lacking nothing. But the reader will think it strange that this approbation should be expressed once on the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth days; twice on the third, and not at all on the second! I suppose that the words, And God saw that it was good, have been either lost from the conclusion of the eighth verse, or that the clause in the tenth verse originally belonged to the eighth. It appears, from the Septuagint translation, that the words in question existed originally at the close of the eighth verse, in the copies which they used; for in that version we still find, Και ειδεν ὁ Θεος ὁτι καλον· And God saw that it was good. This reading, however, is not acknowledged by any of Kennicott's or De Rossi's MSS., nor by any of the other versions. If the account of the second day stood originally as it does now, no satisfactory reason can be given for the omission of this expression of the Divine approbation of the work wrought by his wisdom and power on that day.

### Verse 11

[¶15] Let the earth bring forth grass - herb - fruit-tree, etc. - In these general expressions all kinds of vegetable productions are included. Fruit-tree is not to be understood here in the restricted sense in which the term is used among us; it signifies all trees, not only those which bear fruit, which may be applied to the use of men and cattle, but also those which had the power of propagating themselves by seeds, etc. Now as God delights to manifest himself in the little as well as in the great, he has shown his consummate wisdom in every part of the vegetable creation. Who can account for, or comprehend, the structure of a single tree or plant? The roots, the stem, the woody fibres, the bark, the rind, the air-vessels, the sap-vessels, the leaves, the flowers, and the fruits, are so many mysteries. All the skill, wisdom, and power of men and angels could not produce a single grain of wheat: A serious and reflecting mind can see the grandeur of God, not only in the immense cedars on Lebanon, but also in the endlessly varied forests that appear through the microscope in the mould of cheese, stale paste, etc., etc.

### Verse 12

[¶17] Whose seed was in itself - Which has the power of multiplying itself by seeds, slips, roots, etc., ad infinitum; which contains in itself all the rudiments of the future plant through its endless generations. This doctrine has been abundantly confirmed by the most accurate observations of the best modern philosophers. The astonishing power with which God has endued the vegetable creation to multiply its different species, may be instanced in the seed of the elm. This tree produces one thousand five hundred and eighty-four millions of seeds; and each of these seeds has the power of producing the same number. How astonishing is this produce! At first one seed is deposited in the earth; from this one a tree springs, which in the course of its vegetative life produces one thousand five hundred and eighty-four millions of seeds. This is the first generation. The second generation will amount to two trillions, five hundred and nine thousand and fifty-six billions. The third generation will amount to three thousand nine hundred and seventy-four quadrillions, three hundred and forty-four thousand seven hundred and four trillions! And the fourth generation from these would amount to six sextillions two hundred and ninety-five thousand three hundred and sixty-two quintillions, eleven thousand one hundred and thirty-six quadrillions! Sums too immense for the human mind to conceive; and, when we allow the most confined space in which a tree can grow, it appears that the seeds of the third generation from one elm would be many myriads of times more than sufficient to stock the whole superfices of all the planets in the solar system! But plants multiply themselves by slips as well as by seeds. Sir Kenelm Digby saw in 1660 a plant of barley, in the possession of the fathers of the Christian doctrine at Paris, which contained 249 stalks springing from one root or grain, and in which he counted upwards of 18,000 grains. See my experiments on Tilling in the Methodist Magazine.

### Verse 14

[¶19] And God said, Let there be lights, etc. - One principal office of these was to divide between day and night. When night is considered a state of comparative darkness, how can lights divide or distinguish it? The answer is easy: The sun is the monarch of the day, which is the state of light; the moon, of the night, the state of darkness. The rays of the sun, falling on the atmosphere, are refracted and diffused over the whole of that hemisphere of the earth immediately under his orb; while those rays of that vast luminary which, because of the earth's smallness in comparison of the sun, are diffused on all sides beyond the earth, falling on the opaque disc of the moon, are reflected back upon what may be called the lower hemisphere, or that part of the earth which is opposite to the part which is illuminated by the sun: and as the earth completes a revolution on its own axis in about twenty-four hours, consequently each hemisphere has alternate day and night. But as the solar light reflected from the face of the moon is computed to be 50,000 times less in intensity and effect than the light of the sun as it comes directly from himself to our earth, (for light decreases in its intensity as the distance it travels from the sun increases), therefore a sufficient distinction is made between day and night, or light and darkness, notwithstanding each is ruled and determined by one of these two great lights; the moon ruling the night, i.e., reflecting from her own surface back on the earth the rays of light which she receives from the sun. Thus both hemispheres are to a certain degree illuminated: the one, on which the sun shines, completely so; this is day: the other, on which the sun's light is reflected by the moon, partially; this is night. It is true that both the planets and fixed stars afford a considerable portion of light during the night, yet they cannot be said to rule or to predominate by their light, because their rays arc quite lost in the superior splendor of the moon's light.

[¶20] And let them be for signs - לאתת leothoth. Let them ever be considered as continual tokens of God's tender care for man, and as standing proofs of his continual miraculous interference; for so the word את oth is often used. And is it not the almighty energy of God that upholds them in being? The sun and moon also serve as signs of the different changes which take place in the atmosphere, and which are so essential for all purposes of agriculture, commerce, etc.

[¶21] For seasons - מועדים moadim; For the determination of the times on which the sacred festivals should be held. In this sense the word frequently occurs; and it was right that at the very opening of his revelation God should inform man that there were certain festivals which should be annually celebrated to his glory. Some think we should understand the original word as signifying months, for which purpose we know the moon essentially serves through all the revolutions of time.

[¶22] For days - Both the hours of the day and night, as well as the different lengths of the days and nights, are distinguished by the longer and shorter spaces of time the sun is above or below the horizon.

[¶23] And years - That is, those grand divisions of time by which all succession in the vast lapse of duration is distinguished. This refers principally to a complete revolution of the earth round the sun, which is accomplished in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds; for though the revolution is that of the earth, yet it cannot be determined but by the heavenly bodies.

### Verse 16

[¶25] And God made two great lights - Moses speaks of the sun and moon here, not according to their bulk or solid contents, but according to the proportion of light they shed on the earth. The expression has been cavilled at by some who are as devoid of mental capacity as of candour. "The moon," say they, "is not a great body; on the contrary, it is the very smallest in our system." Well, and has Moses said the contrary? He has said it is a great Light; had he said otherwise he had not spoken the truth. It is, in reference to the earth, next to the sun himself, the greatest light in the solar system; and so true is it that the moon is a great light, that it affords more light to the earth than all the planets in the solar system, and all the innumerable stars in the vault of heaven, put together. It is worthy of remark that on the fourth day of the creation the sun was formed, and then "first tried his beams athwart the gloom profound;" and that at the conclusion of the fourth millenary from the creation, according to the Hebrew, the Sun of righteousness shone upon the world, as deeply sunk in that mental darkness produced by sin as the ancient world was, while teeming darkness held the dominion, till the sun was created as the dispenser of light. What would the natural world be without the sun? A howling waste, in which neither animal nor vegetable life could possibly be sustained. And what would the moral world be without Jesus Christ, and the light of his word and Spirit? Just what those parts of it now are where his light has not yet shone: "dark places of the earth, filled with the habitations of cruelty," where error prevails without end, and superstition, engendering false hopes and false fears, degrades and debases the mind of man.

[¶26] Many have supposed that the days of the creation answer to so many thousands of years; and that as God created all in six days, and rested the seventh, so the world shall last six thousand years, and the seventh shall be the eternal rest that remains for the people of God. To this conclusion they have been led by these words of the apostle, [2Pet 3:8] : One day is with the Lord as a thousand years; and a thousand years as one day. Secret things belong to God; those that are revealed to us and our children.

[¶27] He made the stars also - Or rather, He made the lesser light, with the stars, to rule the night. See Claudlan de Raptu Proser., lib. ii., v. 44.

[¶28] Hic Hyperionis solem de semine nasci Fecerat, et pariter lunam, sed dispare forma, Aurorae noctisque duces.

[¶29] From famed Hyperion did he cause to rise

[¶30] The sun, and placed the moon amid the skies,

[¶31] With splendor robed, but far unequal light,

[¶32] The radiant leaders of the day and night.

[¶33] Of the Sun

[¶34] On the nature of the sun there have been various conjectures. It was long thought that he was a vast globe of fire 1,384,462 times larger than the earth, and that he was continually emitting from his body innumerable millions of fiery particles, which, being extremely divided, answered for the purpose of light and heat without occasioning any ignition or burning, except when collected in the focus of a convex lens or burning glass.

[¶35] Against this opinion, however, many serious and weighty objections have been made; and it has been so pressed with difficulties that philosophers have been obliged to look for a theory less repugnant to nature and probability. Dr. Herschel's discoveries by means of his immensely magnifying telescopes, have, by the general consent of philosophers, added a new habitable world to our system, which is the Sun. Without stopping to enter into detail, which would be improper here, it is sufficient to say that these discoveries tend to prove that what we call the sun is only the atmosphere of that luminary; "that this atmosphere consists of various elastic fluids that are more or less lucid and transparent; that as the clouds belonging to our earth are probably decompositions of some of the elastic fluids belonging to the atmosphere itself, so we may suppose that in the vast atmosphere of the sun, similar decompositions may take place, but with this difference, that the decompositions of the elastic fluids of the sun are of a phosphoric nature, and are attended by lucid appearances, by giving out light." The body of the sun he considers as hidden generally from us by means of this luminous atmosphere, but what are called the maculae or spots on the sun are real openings in this atmosphere, through which the opaque body of the sun becomes visible; that this atmosphere itself is not fiery nor hot, but is the instrument which God designed to act on the caloric or latent heat; and that heat is only produced by the solar light acting upon and combining with the caloric or matter of fire contained in the air, and other substances which are heated by it. This ingenious theory is supported by many plausible reasons and illustrations, which may be seen in the paper he read before the Royal Society. On this subject see the note on [Gen 1:3].

[¶36] Of the Moon

[¶37] There is scarcely any doubt now remaining in the philosophical world that the moon is a habitable globe. The most accurate observations that have been made with the most powerful telescopes have confirmed the opinion. The moon seems, in almost every respect, to be a body similar to our earth; to have its surface diversified by hill and dale, mountains and valleys, rivers, lakes, and seas. And there is the fullest evidence that our earth serves as a moon to the moon herself, differing only in this, that as the earth's surface is thirteen times larger than the moon's, so the moon receives from the earth a light thirteen times greater in splendor than that which she imparts to us; and by a very correct analogy we are led to infer that all the planets and their satellites, or attendant moons, are inhabited, for matter seems only to exist for the sake of intelligent beings.

[¶38] Of the Stars

[¶39] The Stars in general are considered to be suns, similar to that in our system, each having an appropriate number of planets moving round it; and, as these stars are innumerable, consequently there are innumerable worlds, all dependent on the power, protection, and providence of God. Where the stars are in great abundance, Dr. Herschel supposes they form primaries and secondaries, i.e., suns revolving about suns, as planets revolve about the sun in our system. He considers that this must be the case in what is called the milky way, the stars being there in prodigious quantity. Of this he gives the following proof: On August 22,1792, he found that in forty-one minutes of time not less than 258,000 stars had passed through the field of view in his telescope. What must God be, who has made, governs, and supports so many worlds! See Clarke's note on [Gen 1:1].

### Verse 20

[¶41] Let the waters bring forth abundantly - There is a meaning in these words which is seldom noticed. Innumerable millions of animalcula are found in water. Eminent naturalists have discovered not less than 30,000 in a single drop! How inconceivably small must each be, and yet each a perfect animal, furnished with the whole apparatus of bones, muscles, nerves, heart, arteries, veins, lungs, viscera in general, animal spirits, etc., etc. What a proof is this of the manifold wisdom of God! But the fecundity of fishes is another point intended in the text; no creature's are so prolific as these. A Tench lay 1,000 eggs, a Carp 20,000, and Leuwenhoek counted in a middling sized Cod 9,384,000! Thus, according to the purpose of God, the waters bring forth abundantly. And what a merciful provision is this for the necessities of man! Many hundreds of thousands of the earth's inhabitants live for a great part of the year on fish only. Fish afford, not only a wholesome, but a very nutritive diet; they are liable to few diseases, and generally come in vast quantities to our shores when in their greatest perfection. In this also we may see that the kind providence of God goes hand in hand with his creating energy. While he manifests his wisdom and his power, he is making a permanent provision for the sustenance of man through all his generations.

### Verse 21

[¶43] And God created great whales - התנינם הגדלים hattanninim haggedolim. Though this is generally understood by the different versions as signifying whales, yet the original must be understood rather as a general than a particular term, comprising all the great aquatic animals, such as the various species of whales, the porpoise, the dolphin, the monoceros or narwal, and the shark. God delights to show himself in little as well as in great things: hence he forms animals so minute that 30,000 can be contained in one drop of water; and others so great that they seem to require almost a whole sea to float in.

## 3. Genesis · 3 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/3/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/3/#p-N

### Verse 22

[¶1] Let fowl multiply in the earth - It is truly astonishing with what care, wisdom, and minute skill God has formed the different genera and species of birds, whether intended to live chiefly on land or in water. The structure of a single feather affords a world of wonders; and as God made the fowls that they might fly in the firmament of heaven, [Gen 1:20], so he has adapted the form of their bodies, and the structure and disposition of their plumage, for that very purpose. The head and neck in flying are drawn principally within the breast-bone, so that the whole under part exhibits the appearance of a ship's hull. The wings are made use of as sails, or rather oars, and the tail as a helm or rudder. By means of these the creature is not only able to preserve the center of gravity, but also to go with vast speed through the air, either straight forward, circularly, or in any kind of angle, upwards or downwards. In these also God has shown his skill and his power in the great and in the little - in the vast ostrich and cassowary, and In the beautiful humming-bird, which in plumage excels the splendor of the peacock, and in size is almost on a level with the bee.

### Verse 24

[¶3] Let the earth bring forth the living creature, etc. - נפש חיה nephesh chaiyah; a general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations, from the half-reasoning elephant down to the stupid potto, or lower still, to the polype, which seems equally to share the vegetable and animal life. The word חיתו chaitho, in the latter part of the verse, seems to signify all wild animals, as lions, tigers, etc., and especially such as are carnivorous, or live on flesh, in contradistinction from domestic animals, such as are graminivorous, or live on grass and other vegetables, and are capable of being tamed, and applied to domestic purposes. See the note on [Gen 1:29]. These latter are probably meant by בהמה behemah in the text, which we translate cattle, such as horses, kine, sheep, dogs, etc. Creeping thing, רמש remes, all the different genera of serpents, worms, and such animals as have no feet. In beasts also God has shown his wondrous skill and power; in the vast elephant, or still more colossal mammoth or mastodon, the whole race of which appears to be extinct, a few skeletons only remaining. This animal, an astonishing effect of God's power, he seems to have produced merely to show what he could do, and after suffering a few of them to propagate, he extinguished the race by a merciful providence, that they might not destroy both man and beast. The mammoth appears to have been a carnivorous animal, as the structure of the teeth proves, and of an immense size; from a considerable part of a skeleton which I have seen, it is computed that the animal to which it belonged must have been nearly twenty-five feet high, and sixty in length! The bones of one toe are entire; the toe upwards of three feet in length. But this skeleton might have belonged to the megalonyx, a kind of sloth, or bradypus, hitherto unknown. Few elephants have ever been found to exceed eleven feet in height. How wondrous are the works of God! But his skill and power are not less seen in the beautiful chevrotin, or tragulus, a creature of the antelope kind, the smallest of all bifid or cloven-footed animals, whose delicate limbs are scarcely so large as an ordinary goose quill; and also in the shrew mouse, perhaps the smallest of the many-toed quadrupeds. In the reptile kind we see also the same skill and power, not only in the immense snake called boa constrictor, the mortal foe and conqueror of the royal tiger, but also in the cobra de manille, a venomous serpent, only a little larger than a common sewing needle.

### Verse 25

[¶5] And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, etc. - Every thing both in the animal and vegetable world was made so according to its kind, both in genus and species, as to produce its own kind through endless generations. Thus the several races of animals and plants have been kept distinct from the foundation of the world to the present day. This is a proof that all future generations of plants and animals have been seminally included in those which God formed in the beginning.

### Verse 26

[¶7] And God said, Let us make man - It is evident that God intends to impress the mind of man with a sense of something extraordinary in the formation of his body and soul, when he introduces the account of his creation thus; Let Us make man. The word אדם Adam, which we translate man, is intended to designate the species of animal, as חיתו chaitho, marks the wild beasts that live in general a solitary life; בהמה behemah, domestic or gregarious animals; and רמש remes, all kinds of reptiles, from the largest snake to the microscopic eel. Though the same kind of organization may be found in man as appears in the lower animals, yet there is a variety and complication in the parts, a delicacy of structure, a nice arrangement, a judicious adaptation of the different members to their great offices and functions, a dignity of mien, and a perfection of the whole, which are sought for in vain in all other creatures. See [Gen 3:22].

[¶8] In our image, after our likeness - What is said above refers only to the body of man, what is here said refers to his soul. This was made in the image and likeness of God. Now, as the Divine Being is infinite, he is neither limited by parts, nor definable by passions; therefore he can have no corporeal image after which he made the body of man. The image and likeness must necessarily be intellectual; his mind, his soul, must have been formed after the nature and perfections of his God. The human mind is still endowed with most extraordinary capacities; it was more so when issuing out of the hands of its Creator. God was now producing a spirit, and a spirit, too, formed after the perfections of his own nature. God is the fountain whence this spirit issued, hence the stream must resemble the spring which produced it. God is holy, just, wise, good, and perfect; so must the soul be that sprang from him: there could be in it nothing impure, unjust, ignorant, evil, low, base, mean, or vile. It was created after the image of God; and that image, St. Paul tells us, consisted in righteousness, true holiness, and knowledge, [Eph 4:24] [Col 3:10]. Hence man was wise in his mind, holy in his heart, and righteous in his actions. Were even the word of God silent on this subject, we could not infer less from the lights held out to us by reason and common sense. The text tells us he was the work of Elohim, the Divine Plurality, marked here more distinctly by the plural pronouns Us and Our; and to show that he was the masterpiece of God's creation, all the persons in the Godhead are represented as united in counsel and effort to produce this astonishing creature.

[¶9] Gregory Nyssen has very properly observed that the superiority of man to all other parts of creation is seen in this, that all other creatures are represented as the effect of God's word, but man is represented as the work of God, according to plan and consideration: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. See his Works, vol. i., p. 52, c. 3.

[¶10] And let them have dominion - Hence we see that the dominion was not the image. God created man capable of governing the world, and when fitted for the office, he fixed him in it. We see God's tender care and parental solicitude for the comfort and well-being of this masterpiece of his workmanship, in creating the world previously to the creation of man. He prepared every thing for his subsistence, convenience, and pleasure, before he brought him into being; so that, comparing little with great things, the house was built, furnished, and amply stored, by the time the destined tenant was ready to occupy it.

[¶11] It has been supposed by some that God speaks here to the angels, when he says, Let us make man; but to make this a likely interpretation these persons must prove, 1. That angels were then created. 2. That angels could assist in a work of creation. 3. That angels were themselves made in the image and likeness of God. If they were not, it could not be said, in Our image, and it does not appear from any part in the sacred writings that any creature but man was made in the image of God. See Clarke's note on [Psa 8:5].

### Verse 28

[¶13] And God blessed them - Marked them as being under his especial protection, and gave them power to propagate and multiply their own kind on the earth. A large volume would be insufficient to contain what we know of the excellence and perfection of man, even in his present degraded fallen state. Both his body and soul are adapted with astonishing wisdom to their residence and occupations; and also the place of their residence, as well as the surrounding objects, in their diversity, color, and mutual relations, to the mind and body of this lord of the creation. The contrivance, arrangement, action, and re-action of the different parts of the body, show the admirable skill of the wondrous Creator; while the various powers and faculties of the mind, acting on and by the different organs of this body, proclaim the soul's Divine origin, and demonstrate that he who was made in the image and likeness of God, was a transcript of his own excellency, destined to know, love, and dwell with his Maker throughout eternity.

### Verse 29

[¶15] I have given you every herb - for meat - It seems from this, says an eminent philosopher, that man was originally intended to live upon vegetables only; and as no change was made In the structure of men's bodies after the flood, it is not probable that any change was made in the articles of their food. It may also be inferred from this passage that no animal whatever was originally designed to prey on others; for nothing is here said to be given to any beast of the earth besides green herbs - Dr. Priestley. Before sin entered into the world, there could be, at least, no violent deaths, if any death at all. But by the particular structure of the teeth of animals God prepared them for that kind of aliment which they were to subsist on after the Fall.

### Verse 31

[¶17] And, behold, it was very good - טוב מאד tob meod, Superlatively, or only good; as good as they could be. The plan wise, the work well executed, the different parts properly arranged; their nature, limits, mode of existence, manner of propagation, habits, mode of sustenance, etc., etc., properly and permanently established and secured; for every thing was formed to the utmost perfection of its nature, so that nothing could be added or diminished without encumbering the operations of matter and spirit on the one hand, or rendering them inefficient to the end proposed on the other; and God has so done all these marvellous works as to be glorified in all, by all, and through all.

[¶18] And the evening and the morning were the sixth day - The word ערב ereb, which we translate evening, comes from the root ערב arab, to mingle; and properly signifies that state in which neither absolute darkness nor full light prevails. It has nearly the same grammatical signification with our twilight, the time that elapses from the setting of the sun till he is eighteen degrees below the horizon and the last eighteen degrees before he arises. Thus we have the morning and evening twilight, or mixture of light and darkness, in which neither prevails, because, while the sun is within eighteen degrees of the horizon, either after his setting or before his rising, the atmosphere has power to refract the rays of light, and send them back on the earth. The Hebrews extended the meaning of this term to the whole duration of night, because it was ever a mingled state, the moon, the planets, or the stars, tempering the darkness with some rays of light. From the ereb of Moses came the Ερεβος Erebus, of Hesiod, Aristophanes, and other heathens, which they deified and made, with Nox or night, the parent of all things.

[¶19] The morning - בקר boker; From בקר bakar, he looked out; a beautiful figure which represents the morning as looking out at the east, and illuminating the whole of the upper hemisphere. The evening and the morning were the sixth day - It is somewhat remarkable that through the whole of this chapter, whenever the division of days is made, the evening always precedes the morning. The reason of this may perhaps be, that darkness was pre-existent to light, ([Gen 1:2], And darkness was upon the face of the deep), and therefore time is reckoned from the first act of God towards the creation of the world, which took place before light was called forth into existence. It is very likely for this same reason, that the Jews began their day at six o'clock in the evening in imitation of Moses's division of time in this chapter. Caesar in his Commentaries makes mention of the same peculiarity existing among the Gauls:

[¶20] Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatas praedicant: idque ab Druidibus proditum dicunt: ab eam causam spatia omnis temporis, non numero dierum, sed noctium, finiunt; et dies natales, et mensium et annorum initia sic observant, ut noctem dies subsequatur; De Bell. Gall. lib. vi.

[¶21] Tacitus likewise records the same of the Germans:

[¶22] Nec dierum numerum, ut nos, sed noctium computant: sic constituent, sic condicunt, nox ducere diem videtur; De Mor. Germ. sec. ii.

[¶23] And there are to this day some remains of the same custom in England, as for instance in the word se'nnight and fortnight. See also Aeschyl. Agamem. ver. 273, 287.

[¶24] Thus ends a chapter containing the most extensive, most profound, and most sublime truths that can possibly come within the reach of the human intellect. How unspeakably are we indebted to God for giving us a revelation of his Will and of his Works! Is it possible to know the mind of God but from himself? It is impossible. Can those things and services which are worthy of and pleasing to an infinitely pure, perfect, and holy Spirit, be ever found out by reasoning and conjecture? Never! for the Spirit of God alone can know the mind of God; and by this Spirit he has revealed himself to man; and in this revelation has taught him, not only to know the glories and perfections of the Creator, but also his own origin, duty, and interest. Thus far it was essentially necessary that God should reveal his Will; but if he had not given a revelation of his Works, the origin, constitution, and nature of the universe could never have been adequately known. The world by wisdom knew not God; this is demonstrated by the writings of the most learned and intelligent heathens. They had no just, no rational notion of the origin and design of the universe. Moses alone, of all ancient writers, gives a consistent and rational account of the creation; an account which has been confirmed by the investigation of the most accurate philosophers. But where did he learn this? "In Egypt." That is impossible; for the Egyptians themselves were destitute of this knowledge. The remains we have of their old historians, all posterior to the time of Moses, are egregious for their contradictions and absurdity; and the most learned of the Greeks who borrowed from them have not been able to make out, from their conjoint stock, any consistent and credible account. Moses has revealed the mystery that lay hid from all preceding ages, because he was taught it by the inspiration of the Almighty. Reader, thou hast now before thee the most ancient and most authentic history in the world; a history that contains the first written discovery that God has made of himself to man-kind; a discovery of his own being, in his wisdom, power, and goodness, in which thou and the whole human race are so intimately concerned. How much thou art indebted to him for this discovery he alone can teach thee, and cause thy heart to feel its obligations to his wisdom and mercy. Read so as to understand, for these things were written for thy learning; therefore mark what thou readest, and inwardly digest - deeply and seriously meditate on, what thou hast marked, and pray to the Father of lights that he may open thy understanding, that thou mayest know these holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.

[¶25] God made thee and the universe, and governs all things according to the counsel of his will; that will is infinite goodness, that counsel is unerring wisdom. While under the direction of this counsel, thou canst not err; while under the influence of this will, thou canst not be wretched. Give thyself up to his teaching, and submit to his authority; and, after guiding thee here by his counsel, he will at last bring thee to his glory. Every object that meets thy eye should teach thee reverence, submission, and gratitude. The earth and its productions were made for thee; and the providence of thy heavenly Father, infinitely diversified in its operations, watches over and provides for thee. Behold the firmament of his power, the sun, moon, planets, and stars, which he has formed, not for himself, for he needs none of these things, but for his intelligent offspring. What endless gratification has he designed thee in placing within thy reach these astonishing effects of his wisdom and power, and in rendering thee capable of searching out their wonderful relations and connections, and of knowing himself, the source of all perfection, by having made thee in his own image, and in his own likeness! It is true thou art fallen; but he has found out a ransom. God so loved thee in conjunction with the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Believe on Him; through him alone cometh salvation; and the fair and holy image of God in which thou wast created shall be again restored; he will build thee up as at the first, restore thy judges and counsellors as at the beginning, and in thy second creation, as in thy first, will pronounce thee to be very good, and thou shalt show forth the virtues of him by whom thou art created anew in Christ Jesus. Amen.

### Introduction

[¶27] The seventh day is consecrated for a sabbath, and the reasons assigned, [Gen 2:1-3]. A recapitulation of the six days' work of creation, [Gen 2:4-7]. The garden of Eden planted, [Gen 2:8]. Its trees, [Gen 2:9]. Its rivers, and the countries watered by them, [Gen 2:10-14]. Adam placed in the garden, and the command given not to eat of the tree of knowledge on pain of death, [Gen 2:15-17]. God purposes to form a companion for the man, [Gen 2:18]. The different animals brought to Adam that he might assign them their names, [Gen 2:19], [Gen 2:20]. The creation of the woman, [Gen 2:21], [Gen 2:22]. The institution of marriage, [Gen 2:23], [Gen 2:24]. The purity and innocence of our first parents, [Gen 2:25].

### Verse 1

[¶29] And all the host of them - The word host signifies literally an army, composed of a number of companies of soldiers under their respective leaders; and seems here elegantly applied to the various celestial bodies in our system, placed by the Divine wisdom under the influence of the sun. From the original word צבא tsaba, a host, some suppose the Sabeans had their name, because of their paying Divine honors to the heavenly bodies. From the Septuagint version of this place, πας ὁ κοσμος αυτων, all their ornaments, we learn the true meaning of the word κοσμος, commonly translated world, which signifies a decorated or adorned whole or system. And this refers to the beautiful order, harmony, and regularity which subsist among the various parts of creation. This translation must impress the reader with a very favorable opinion of these ancient Greek translators; had they not examined the works of God with a philosophic eye, they never could have given this turn to the original.

### Verse 2

[¶31] On the Seventh day God ended, etc. - It is the general voice of Scripture that God finished the whole of the creation in six days, and rested the seventh! giving us an example that we might labor six days, and rest the seventh from all manual exercises. It is worthy of notice that the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Samaritan, read the sixth day instead of the seventh; and this should be considered the genuine reading, which appears from these versions to have been originally that of the Hebrew text. How the word sixth became changed into seventh may be easily conceived from this circumstance. It is very likely that in ancient times all the numerals were signified by letters, and not by words at full length. This is the case in the most ancient Greek and Latin MSS., and in almost all the rabbinical writings. When these numeral letters became changed for words at full length, two letters nearly similar might be mistaken for each other; ו vau stands for six, ז zain for seven; how easy to mistake these letters for each other when writing the words at full length, and so give birth to the reading in question.

### Verse 3

[¶33] And God blessed the seventh day - The original word ברך barach, which is generally rendered to bless, has a very extensive meaning. It is frequently used in Scripture in the sense of speaking good of or to a person; and hence literally and properly rendered by the Septuagint ευλογησεν, from ευ, good or well, and λεγω, I speak. So God has spoken well of the Sabbath, and good to them who conscientiously observe it. Blessing is applied both to God and man: when God is said to bless, we generally understand by the expression that he communicates some good; but when man is said to bless God, we surely cannot imagine that he bestows any gifts or confers any benefit on his Maker. When God is said to bless, either in the Old or New Testament, it signifies his speaking good To man; and this comprises the whole of his exceeding great and precious promises. And when man is said to bless God, it ever implies that he speaks good Of him, for the giving and fulfillment of his promises. This observation will be of general use in considering the various places where the word occurs in the sacred writings. Reader, God blesses thee when by his promises he speaks good To thee; and thou dost bless him when, from a consciousness of his kindness to thy body and soul, thou art thankful to him, and speakest good of his name.

[¶34] Because that in it he had rested - שבת shabath, he rested; hence Sabbath, the name of the seventh day, signifying a day of rest - rest to the body from labor and toil, and rest to the soul from all worldly care and anxieties. He who labors with his mind by worldly schemes and plans on the Sabbath day is as culpable as he who labors with his hands in his accustomed calling. It is by the authority of God that the Sabbath is set apart for rest and religious purposes, as the six days of the week are appointed for labor. How wise is this provision! It is essentially necessary, not only to the body of man, but to all the animals employed in his service: take this away and the labor is too great, both man and beast would fail under it. Without this consecrated day religion itself would fail, and the human mind, becoming sensualized, would soon forget its origin and end. Even as a political regulation, it is one of the wisest and most beneficent in its effects of any ever instituted. Those who habitually disregard its moral obligation are, to a man, not only good for nothing, but are wretched in themselves, a curse to society, and often end their lives miserably. See Clarke's note on [Exo 20:8]; See Clarke's note on [Exo 23:12]; See Clarke's note on [Exo 24:16]; and See Clarke's note on [Exo 31:13]; to which the reader is particularly desired to refer.

[¶35] As God formed both the mind and body of man on principles of activity, so he assigned him proper employment; and it is his decree that the mind shall improve by exercise, and the body find increase of vigor and health in honest labor. He who idles away his time in the six days is equally culpable in the sight of God as he who works on the seventh. The idle person is ordinarily clothed with rags, and the Sabbath-breakers frequently come to an ignominious death. Reader, beware.

### Verse 4

[¶37] In the day that the Lord God made, etc. - The word יהוה Yehovah is for the first time mentioned here. What it signifies see the note on [Exo 34:5], [Exo 34:6]. Wherever this word occurs in the sacred writings we translate it Lord, which word is, through respect and reverence, always printed in capitals. Though our English term Lord does not give the particular meaning of the original word, yet it conveys a strong and noble sense. Lord is a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon, Hlaford, afterwards written Loverd, and lastly Lord, from bread; hence our word loaf, and ford, to supply, to give out. The word, therefore, implies the giver of bread, i.e., he who deals out all the necessaries of life. Our ancient English noblemen were accustomed to keep a continual open house, where all their vassals, and all strangers, had full liberty to enter and eat as much as they would; and hence those noblemen had the honorable name of lords, i.e., the dispensers of bread. There are about three of the ancient nobility who still keep up this honorable custom, from which the very name of their nobility is derived. We have already seen, [Gen 1:1], with what judgment our Saxon ancestors expressed Deus, the Supreme Being, by the term God; and we see the same judgment consulted by their use of the term Lord to express the word Dominus, by which terms the Vulgate version, which they used, expresses Elohim and Jehovah, which we translate Lord God. God is the good Being, and Lord is the dispenser of bread, the giver of every good and perfect gift, who liberally affords the bread that perisheth to every man, and has amply provided the bread that endures unto eternal life for every human soul. With what propriety then does this word apply to the Lord Jesus, who is emphatically called the bread of life; the bread of God which cometh down from heaven, and which is given for the life of the world! [Joh 6:33], [Joh 6:48], [Joh 6:51]. What a pity that this most impressive and instructive meaning of a word in such general use were not more extensively known, and more particularly regarded! See the postscript to the general preface. I know that Mr. H. Tooke has endeavored to render this derivation contemptible; but this has little weight with me. I have traced it through the most accredited writers in Saxony and on Saxon affairs, and I am satisfied that this and this only, is its proper etymology and derivation.

### Verse 5

[¶39] Every plant of the field before it was in the earth - It appears that God created every thing, not only perfect as it respects its nature, but also in a state of maturity, so that every vegetable production appeared at once in full growth; and this was necessary that man, when he came into being, might find every thing ready for his use.

### Verse 6

[¶41] There went up a mist - This passage appears to have greatly embarrassed many commentators. The plain meaning seems to be this, that the aqueous vapours, ascending from the earth, and becoming condensed in the colder regions of the atmosphere, fell back upon the earth in the form of dews, and by this means an equal portion of moisture was distributed to the roots of plants, etc. As Moses had said, [Gen 2:5], that the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth, he probably designed to teach us, in [Gen 2:6], how rain is produced, viz., by the condensation of the aqueous vapors, which are generally through the heat of the sun and other causes raised to a considerable height in the atmosphere, where, meeting with cold air, the watery particles which were before so small and light that they could float in the air, becoming condensed, i.e., many drops being driven into one, become too heavy to be any longer suspended, and then, through their own gravity, fall down in the form which we term rain.

### Verse 7

[¶43] God formed man of the dust - In the most distinct manner God shows us that man is a compound being, having a body and soul distinctly, and separately created; the body out of the dust of the earth, the soul immediately breathed from God himself. Does not this strongly mark that the soul and body are not the same thing? The body derives its origin from the earth, or as עפר aphar implies, the dust; hence because it is earthly it is decomposable and perishable. Of the soul it is said, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; נשמת חיים nishmath chaiyim, the breath of Lives, i.e., animal and intellectual. While this breath of God expanded the lungs and set them in play, his inspiration gave both spirit and understanding.

### Verse 8

[¶45] A garden eastward in Eden - Though the word עדן Eden signifies pleasure or delight, it is certainly the name of a place. See [Gen 4:16]; [2Kgs 19:12]; [Isa 37:12]; [Eze 27:23]; [Amo 1:5]. And such places probably received their name from their fertility, pleasant situation, etc. In this light the Septuagint have viewed it, as they render the passage thus: Εφυτευσεν ὁ Θεος παραδεισον εν Εδεν, God planted a paradise in Eden. Hence the word paradise has been introduced into the New Testament, and is generally used to signify a place of exquisite pleasure and delight. From this the ancient heathens borrowed their ideas of the gardens of the Hesperides, where the trees bore golden fruit; the gardens of Adonis, a word which is evidently derived from the Hebrew עדן Eden; and hence the origin of sacred gardens or enclosures dedicated to purposes of devotion, some comparatively innocent, others impure. The word paradise is not Greek; in Arabic and Persian it signifies a garden, a vineyard, and also the place of the blessed. The Mohammedans say that God created the Jennet al Ferdoos, the garden of paradise, from light, and the prophets and wise men ascend thither. Wilmet places it after the root farada, to separate, especially a person or place, for the purposes of devotion, but supposes it to be originally a Persian word, vox originis Persicae quam in sua lingua conservarunt Armeni. As it is a word of doubtful origin, its etymology is uncertain.

## 4. Genesis · 4 of 67

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### Verse 9

[¶1] Every tree that is pleasant to the sight, etc. - If we take up these expressions literally, they may bear the following interpretation: the tree pleasant to the sight may mean every beautiful tree or plant which for shape, color, or fragrance, delights the senses, such as flowering shrubs, etc.

[¶2] And good for food - All fruit-bearing trees, whether of the pulpy fruits, as apples, etc., or of the kernel or nut kind, such as dates, and nuts of different sorts, together with all esculent vegetables.

[¶3] The tree of life - חיים chaiyim; of lives, or life-giving tree, every medicinal tree, herb, and plant, whose healing virtues are of great consequence to man in his present state, when through sin diseases of various kinds have seized on the human frame, and have commenced that process of dissolution which is to reduce the body to its primitive dust.

[¶4] Yet by the use of these trees of life - those different vegetable medicines, the health of the body may be preserved for a time, and death kept at a distance. Though the exposition given here may be a general meaning for these general terms, yet it is likely that this tree of life which was placed in the midst of the garden was intended as an emblem of that life which man should ever live, provided he continued in obedience to his Maker. And probably the use of this tree was intended as the means of preserving the body of man in a state of continual vital energy, and an antidote against death. This seems strongly indicated from [Gen 3:22].

[¶5] And the tree of knowledge of good and evil - Considering this also in a merely literal point of view, it may mean any tree or plant which possessed the property of increasing the knowledge of what was in nature, as the esculent vegetables had of increasing bodily vigor; and that there are some ailments which from their physical influence have a tendency to strengthen the understanding and invigorate the rational faculty more than others, has been supposed by the wisest and best of men; yet here much more seems intended, but what is very difficult to be ascertained. Some very eminent men have contended that the passage should be understood allegorically! and that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means simply that prudence, which is a mixture of knowledge, care, caution, and judgment, which was prescribed to regulate the whole of man's conduct. And it is certain that to know good and evil, in different parts of Scripture, means such knowledge and discretion as leads a man to understand what is fit and unfit, what is not proper to be done and what should be performed. But how could the acquisition of such a faculty be a sin? Or can we suppose that such a faculty could be wanting when man was in a state of perfection? To this it may be answered: The prohibition was intended to exercise this faculty in man that it should constantly teach him this moral lesson, that there were some things fit and others unfit to be done, and that in reference to this point the tree itself should be both a constant teacher and monitor. The eating of its fruit would not have increased this moral faculty, but the prohibition was intended to exercise the faculty he already possessed. There is certainly nothing unreasonable in this explanation, and viewed in this light the passage loses much of its obscurity. Vitringa, in his dissertation Deuteronomy arbore prudentiae in Paradiso, ejusque mysterio, strongly contends for this interpretation. See more on [Gen 3:6] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶7] A river went out of Eden, etc. - It would astonish an ordinary reader, who should be obliged to consult different commentators and critics on the situation of the terrestrial Paradise, to see the vast variety of opinions by which they are divided. Some place it in the third heaven, others in the fourth; some within the orbit of the moon, others in the moon itself; some in the middle regions of the air, or beyond the earth's attraction; some on the earth, others under the earth, and others within the earth; some have fixed it at the north pole, others at the south; some in Tartary, some in China; some on the borders of the Ganges, some in the island of Ceylon; some in Armenia, others in Africa, under the equator; some in Mesopotamia, others in Syria, Persia, Arabia, Babylon, Assyria, and in Palestine; some have condescended to place it in Europe, and others have contended it either exists not, or is invisible, or is merely of a spiritual nature, and that the whole account is to be spiritually understood! That there was such a place once there is no reason to doubt; the description given by Moses is too particular and circumstantial to be capable of being understood in any spiritual or allegorical way. As well might we contend that the persons of Adam and Eve were allegorical, as that the place of their residence was such.

[¶8] The most probable account of its situation is that given by Hadrian Reland. He supposes it to have been in Armenia, near the sources of the great rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Phasis, and Araxes. He thinks Pison was the Phasis, a river of Colchis, emptying itself into the Euxine Sea, where there is a city called Chabala, the pronunciation of which is nearly the same with that of Havilah, or חוילה Chavilah, according to the Hebrew, the vau ו being changed in Greek to beta β. This country was famous for gold, whence the fable of the Golden Fleece, attempted to be carried away from that country by the heroes of Greece. The Gihon he thinks to be the Araxes, which runs into the Caspian Sea, both the words having the same signification, viz., a rapid motion. The land of Cush, washed by the river, he supposes to be the country of the Cussaei of the ancients. The Hiddekel all agree to be the Tigris, and the other river Phrat, or פרת Perath, to be the Euphrates. All these rivers rise in the same tract of mountainous country, though they do not arise from one head.

### Verse 12

[¶10] There is bdellium (בדלח bedolach) and the onyx stone, אבן השהם eben hashshoham - Bochart thinks that the bedolach or bdellium means the pearl-oyster; and shoham is generally understood to mean the onyx, or species of agate, a precious stone which has its name from ονυξ a man's nail, to the color of which it nearly approaches. It is impossible to say what is the precise meaning of the original words; and at this distance of time and place it is of little consequence.

### Verse 15

[¶12] Put him into the garden - to dress it, and to keep it - Horticulture, or gardening, is the first kind of employment on record, and that in which man was engaged while in a state of perfection and innocence. Though the garden may be supposed to produce all things spontaneously, as the whole vegetable surface of the earth certainly did at the creation, yet dressing and tilling were afterwards necessary to maintain the different kinds of plants and vegetables in their perfection, and to repress luxuriance. Even in a state of innocence we cannot conceive it possible that man could have been happy if inactive. God gave him work to do, and his employment contributed to his happiness; for the structure of his body, as well as of his mind, plainly proves that he was never intended for a merely contemplative life.

### Verse 17

[¶14] Of the tree of the knowledge - thou shalt not eat - This is the first positive precept God gave to man; and it was given as a test of obedience, and a proof of his being in a dependent, probationary state. It was necessary that, while constituted lord of this lower world, he should know that he was only God's vicegerent, and must be accountable to him for the use of his mental and corporeal powers, and for the use he made of the different creatures put under his care. The man from whose mind the strong impression of this dependence and responsibility is erased, necessarily loses sight of his origin and end, and is capable of any species of wickedness. As God is sovereign, he has a right to give to his creatures what commands he thinks proper. An intelligent creature, without a law to regulate his conduct, is an absurdity; this would destroy at once the idea of his dependency and accountableness. Man must ever feel God as his sovereign, and act under his authority, which he cannot do unless he have a rule of conduct. This rule God gives: and it is no matter of what kind it is, as long as obedience to it is not beyond the powers of the creature who is to obey. God says: There is a certain fruit-bearing tree; thou shalt not eat of its fruit; but of all the other fruits, and they are all that are necessary, for thee, thou mayest freely, liberally eat. Had he not an absolute right to say so? And was not man bound to obey?

[¶15] Thou shalt surely die - מות תמות moth tamuth; Literally, a death thou shalt die; or, dying thou shalt die. Thou shalt not only die spiritually, by losing the life of God, but from that moment thou shalt become mortal, and shalt continue in a dying state till thou die. This we find literally accomplished; every moment of man's life may be considered as an act of dying, till soul and body are separated. Other meanings have been given of this passage, but they are in general either fanciful or incorrect.

### Verse 18

[¶17] It is not good that the man should be alone - לבדו lebaddo; only himself. I will make him a help meet for him; עזר כנגדו ezer kenegdo, a help, a counterpart of himself, one formed from him, and a perfect resemblance of his person. If the word be rendered scrupulously literally, it signifies one like, or as himself, standing opposite to or before him. And this implies that the woman was to be a perfect resemblance of the man, possessing neither inferiority nor superiority, but being in all things like and equal to himself. As man was made a social creature, it was not proper that he should be alone; for to be alone, i.e. without a matrimonial companion, was not good. Hence we find that celibacy in general is a thing that is not good, whether it be on the side of the man or of the woman. Men may, in opposition to the declaration of God, call this a state of excellence and a state of perfection; but let them remember that the word of God says the reverse.

### Verse 19

[¶19] Out of the ground, etc. - Concerning the formation of the different kinds of animals, see the preceding chapter, Genesis 1 (note).

### Verse 20

[¶21] And Adam gave names to all cattle - Two things God appears to have had in view by causing man to name all the cattle, etc. 1. To show him with what comprehensive powers of mind his Maker had endued him; and 2. To show him that no creature yet formed could make him a suitable companion. And that this twofold purpose was answered we shall shortly see; for,

[¶22] 1. Adam gave names; but how? From an intimate knowledge of the nature and properties of each creature. Here we see the perfection of his knowledge; for it is well known that the names affixed to the different animals in Scripture always express some prominent feature and essential characteristic of the creatures to which they are applied. Had he not possessed an intuitive knowledge of the grand and distinguishing properties of those animals, he never could have given them such names. This one circumstance is a strong proof of the original perfection and excellence of man, while in a state of innocence; nor need we wonder at the account. Adam was the work of an infinitely wise and perfect Being, and the effect must resemble the cause that produced it.

[¶23] 2. Adam was convinced that none of these creatures could be a suitable companion for him, and that therefore he must continue in the state that was not good, or be a farther debtor to the bounty of his Maker; for among all the animals which he had named there was not found a help meet for him. Hence we read,

### Verse 21

[¶25] The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, etc. - This was neither swoon nor ecstasy, but what our translation very properly terms a deep sleep.

[¶26] And he took one of his ribs - It is immaterial whether we render צלע tsela a rib, or a part of his side, for it may mean either: some part of man was to be used on the occasion, whether bone or flesh it matters not; though it is likely, from verse [Gen 2:23], that a part of both was taken; for Adam, knowing how the woman was formed, said, This is flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone. God could have formed the woman out of the dust of the earth, as he had formed the man; but had he done so, she must have appeared in his eyes as a distinct being, to whom he had no natural relation. But as God formed her out of a part of the man himself, he saw she was of the same nature, the same identical flesh and blood, and of the same constitution in all respects, and consequently having equal powers, faculties, and rights. This at once ensured his affection, and excited his esteem.

### Verse 23

[¶28] Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, etc. - There is a very delicate and expressive meaning in the original which does not appear in our version. When the different genera of creatures were brought to Adam, that he might assign them their proper names, it is probable that they passed in pairs before him, and as they passed received their names. To this circumstance the words in this place seem to refer. Instead of this now is זאת הפאם zoth happaam, we should render more literally this turn, this creature, which now passes or appears before me, is flesh of my flesh, etc. The creatures that had passed already before him were not suitable to him, and therefore it was said, For Adam there was not a help meet found, [Gen 2:20]; but when the woman came, formed out of himself, he felt all that attraction which consanguinity could produce, and at the same time saw that she was in her person and in her mind every way suitable to be his companion. See Parkhurst, sub voce.

[¶29] She shall be called Woman - A literal version of the Hebrew would appear strange, and yet a literal version is the only proper one. איש ish signifies man, and the word used to express what we term woman is the same with a feminine termination, אשה ishshah, and literally means she-man. Most of the ancient versions have felt the force of the term, and have endeavored to express it as literally as possible. The intelligent reader will not regret to see some of them here. The Vulgate Latin renders the Hebrew virago, which is a feminine form of vir, a man. Symmachus uses ανδρις, andris, a female form of ανηρ, aner, a man. Our own term is equally proper when understood. Woman has been defined by many as compounded of wo and man, as if called man's wo because she tempted him to eat the forbidden fruit; but this is no meaning of the original word, nor could it be intended, as the transgression was not then committed. The truth is, our term is a proper and literal translation of the original, and we may thank the discernment of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors for giving it. The Anglo-Saxon word, of which woman is a contraction, means the man with the womb. A very appropriate version of the Hebrew אשה ishshah, rendered by terms which signify she-man, in the versions already specified. Hence we see the propriety of Adam's observation: This creature is flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bones; therefore shall she be called Womb-Man, or female man, because she was taken out of man. See Verstegan. Others derive it from the Anglo-Saxon words for man's wife or she-man. Either may be proper, the first seems the most likely.

### Verse 24

[¶31] Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother - There shall be, by the order of God, a more intimate connection formed between the man and woman, than can subsist even between parents and children.

[¶32] And they shall be one flesh - These words may be understood in a twofold sense.

[¶33] 1. These two shall be one flesh, shall be considered as one body, having no separate or independent rights, privileges, cares, concerns, etc., each being equally interested in all things that concern the marriage state.

[¶34] 2. These two shall be for the production of one flesh; from their union a posterity shall spring, as exactly resembling themselves as they do each other.

[¶35] Our Lord quotes these words, [Mat 19:5], with some variation from this text: They Twain shall be one flesh. So in [Mar 10:8]. St. Paul quotes in the same way, [1Cor 6:16], and in [Eph 5:31]. The Vulgate Latin, the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Samaritan, all read the word Two. That this is the genuine reading I have no doubt. The word שניהם sheneyhem, they two or both of them, was, I suppose, omitted at first from the Hebrew text, by mistake, because it occurs three words after in the following verse, or more probably it originally occurred in [Gen 2:24], and not in [Gen 2:25]; and a copyist having found that he had written it twice, in correcting his copy, struck out the word in [Gen 2:24] instead of [Gen 2:25]. But of what consequence is it? In the controversy concerning polygamy, it has been made of very great consequence. Without the word, some have contended a man may have as many wives as he chooses, as the terms are indefinite, They shall be, etc., but with the word, marriage is restricted. A man can have in legal wedlock but One wife at the same time.

[¶36] We have here the first institution of marriage, and we see in it several particulars worthy of our most serious regard.

[¶37] 1. God pronounces the state of celibacy to be a bad state, or, if the reader please, not a good one; and the Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone. This is God's judgment. Councils, and fathers, and doctors, and synods, have given a different judgment; but on such a subject they are worthy of no attention. The word of God abideth for ever.

[¶38] 2. God made the woman for the man, and thus he has shown us that every son of Adam should be united to a daughter of Eve to the end of the world. See on [1Cor 7:3] (note). God made the woman out of the man, to intimate that the closest union, and the most affectionate attachment, should subsist in the matrimonial connection, so that the man should ever consider and treat the woman as a part of himself: and as no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and supports it, so should a man deal with his wife; and on the other hand the woman should consider that the man was not made for her, but that she was made for the man, and derived, under God, her being from him; therefore the wife should see that she reverence her husband, [Eph 5:33]. [Gen 2:23], [Gen 2:24] contain the very words of the marriage ceremony: This is flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. How happy must such a state be where God's institution is properly regarded, where the parties are married, as the apostle expresses it, in the Lord; where each, by acts of the tenderest kindness, lives only to prevent the wishes and contribute in every possible way to the comfort and happiness of the other! Marriage might still be what it was in its original institution, pure and suitable; and in its first exercise, affectionate and happy; but how few such marriages are there to be found! Passion, turbulent and irregular, not religion; custom, founded by these irregularities, not reason; worldly prospects, originating and ending in selfishness and earthly affections, not in spiritual ends, are the grand producing causes of the great majority of matrimonial alliances. How then can such turbid and bitter fountains send forth pure and sweet waters? See the ancient allegory of Cupid and Psyche, by which marriage is so happily illustrated, explained in the notes on [Mat 19:4-6].

### Verse 25

[¶40] They were both naked, etc. - The weather was perfectly temperate, and therefore they had no need of clothing, the circumambient air being of the same temperature with their bodies. And as sin had not yet entered into the world, and no part of the human body had been put to any improper use, therefore there was no shame, for shame can only arise from a consciousness of sinful or irregular conduct.

[¶41] Even in a state of innocence, when all was perfection and excellence, when God was clearly discovered in all his works, every place being his temple, every moment a time of worship, and every object an incitement to religious reverence and adoration - even then, God chose to consecrate a seventh part of time to his more especial worship, and to hallow it unto his own service by a perpetual decree. Who then shall dare to reverse this order of God? Had the religious observance of the Sabbath been never proclaimed till the proclamation of the law on Mount Sinai, then it might have been conjectured that this, like several other ordinances, was a shadow which must pass away with that dispensation; neither extending to future ages, nor binding on any other people. But this was not so. God gave the Sabbath, his first ordinance, to man, (see the first precept, [Gen 2:17]), while all the nations of the world were seminally included in him, and while he stood the father and representative of the whole human race; therefore the Sabbath is not for one nation, for one time, or for one place. It is the fair type of heaven's eternal day - of the state of endless blessedness and glory, where human souls, having fully regained the Divine image, and become united to the Centre and Source of all perfection and excellence, shall rest in God, unutterably happy through the immeasurable progress of duration! Of this consummation every returning Sabbath should at once be a type, a remembrancer, and a foretaste, to every pious mind; and these it must be to all who are taught of God.

[¶42] Of this rest, the garden of Eden, that paradise of God formed for man, appears also to have been a type and pledge; and the institution of marriage, the cause, bond, and cement of the social state, was probably designed to prefigure that harmony, order, and blessedness which must reign in the kingdom of God, of which the condition of our first parents in the garden of paradise is justly supposed to have been an expressive emblem. What a pity that this heavenly institution should have ever been perverted! that, instead of becoming a sovereign help to all, it is now, through its prostitution to animal and secular purposes, become the destroyer of millions! Reader, every connection thou formest in life will have a strong and sovereign influence on thy future destiny. Beware! an unholy cause, which from its peculiar nature must be ceaselessly active in every muscle, nerve, and passion, cannot fail to produce incessant effects of sin, misery, death, and perdition. Remember that thy earthly connections, no matter of what kind, are not formed merely for time, whatsoever thou mayest intend, but also for eternity. With what caution there fore shouldst thou take every step in the path of life! On this ground, the observations made in the preceding notes are seriously recommended to thy consideration.

### Introduction

[¶44] Satan, by means of a creature here called the serpent, deceives Eve, [Gen 3:1-5]. Both she and Adam transgress the Divine command, and fall into sin and misery, [Gen 3:6], [Gen 3:7]. They are summoned before God, and judged, [Gen 3:8-13]. The creature called the serpent is degraded and punished, [Gen 3:14]. The promise of redemption by the incarnation of Christ, [Gen 3:15]. Eve sentenced, [Gen 3:16]. Adam sentenced, [Gen 3:17]. The ground cursed, and death threatened, [Gen 3:18], [Gen 3:19]. Why the woman was called Eve, [Gen 3:20]. Adam and Eve clothed with skins, [Gen 3:21]. The wretched state of our first parents after their fall, and their expulsion from the garden of Paradise, [Gen 3:22-24].

## 5. Genesis · 5 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/5/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/5/#p-N

### Verse 1

[¶1] Now the serpent was more subtle - We have here one of the most difficult as well as the most important narratives in the whole book of God. The last chapter ended with a short but striking account of the perfection and felicity of the first human beings, and this opens with an account of their transgression, degradation, and ruin. That man is in a fallen state, the history of the world, with that of the life and miseries of every human being, establishes beyond successful contradiction. But how, and by what agency, was this brought about? Here is a great mystery, and I may appeal to all persons who have read the various comments that have been written on the Mosaic account, whether they have ever yet been satisfied on this part of the subject, though convinced of the fact itself. Who was the serpent? of what kind? In what way did he seduce the first happy pair? These are questions which remain yet to be answered. The whole account is either a simple narrative of facts, or it is an allegory. If it be a historical relation, its literal meaning should be sought out; if it be an allegory, no attempt should be made to explain it, as it would require a direct revelation to ascertain the sense in which it should be understood, for fanciful illustrations are endless. Believing it to be a simple relation of facts capable of a satisfactory explanation, I shall take it up on this ground; and, by a careful examination of the original text, endeavor to fix the meaning, and show the propriety and consistency of the Mosaic account of the fall of man. The chief difficulty in the account is found in the question, Who was the agent employed in the seduction of our first parents?

[¶2] The word in the text which we, following the Septuagint, translate serpent, is נחש nachash; and, according to Buxtorf and others, has three meanings in Scripture.

[¶3] 1. It signifies to view or observe attentively, to divine or use enchantments, because in them the augurs viewed attentively the flight of birds, the entrails of beasts, the course of the clouds, etc.; and under this head it signifies to acquire knowledge by experience.

[¶4] 2. It signifies brass, brazen, and is translated in our Bible, not only brass, but chains, fetters, fetters of brass, and in several places steel; see [2Sam 22:35]; [Job 20:24]; [Psa 18:34]; and in one place, at least filthiness or fornication, [Eze 16:36].

[¶5] 3. It signifies a serpent, but of what kind is not determined. In [Job 26:13], it seems to mean the whale or hippopotamus: By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens, his hand hath formed the crooked serpent, נחש ברח nachash bariach: as ברח barach signifies to pass on or pass through, and בריח beriach is used for a bar of a gate or door that passed through rings, etc., the idea of straightness rather than crookedness should be attached to it here; and it is likely that the hippopotamus or sea-horse is intended by it.

[¶6] In [Ecc 10:11], the creature called nachash, of whatever sort, is compared to the babbler: Surely the serpent (נחש nachash) will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.

[¶7] In [Isa 27:1], the crocodile or alligator seems particularly meant by the original: In that day the Lord - shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, etc. And in [Isa 65:25], the same creature is meant as in [Gen 3:1], for in the words, And dust shall be the serpent's meat, there is an evident allusion to the text of Moses. In [Amo 9:3], the crocodile is evidently intended: Though they be hid in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, (הנחש hannachash) and he shall bite them. No person can suppose that any of the snake or serpent kind can be intended here; and we see from the various acceptations of the word, and the different senses which it bears in various places in the sacred writings, that it appears to be a sort of general term confined to no one sense. Hence it will be necessary to examine the root accurately, to see if its ideal meaning will enable us to ascertain the animal intended in the text. We have already seen that נחש nachash signifies to view attentively, to acquire knowledge or experience by attentive observation; so נחשתי nichashti, [Gen 30:27] : I have learned by experience; and this seems to be its most general meaning in the Bible. The original word is by the Septuagint translated οφις, a serpent, not because this was its fixed determinate meaning in the sacred writings, but because it was the best that occurred to the translators: and they do not seem to have given themselves much trouble to understand the meaning of the original, for they have rendered the word as variously as our translators have done, or rather our translators have followed them, as they give nearly the same significations found in the Septuagint: hence we find that οφις is as frequently used by them as serpent, its supposed literal meaning, is used in our version. And the New Testament writers, who seldom quote the Old Testament but from the Septuagint translation, and often do not change even a word in their quotations, copy this version in the use of this word. From the Septuagint therefore we can expect no light, nor indeed from any other of the ancient versions, which are all subsequent to the Septuagint, and some of them actually made from it. In all this uncertainty it is natural for a serious inquirer after truth to look everywhere for information. And in such an inquiry the Arabic may be expected to afford some help, from its great similarity to the Hebrew. A root in this language, very nearly similar to that in the text, seems to cast considerable light on the subject. Chanas or khanasa signifies he departed, drew off, lay hid, seduced, slunk away; from this root come akhnas, khanasa, and khanoos, which all signify an ape, or satyrus, or any creature of the simia or ape genus. It is very remarkable also that from the same root comes khanas, the Devil, which appellative he bears from that meaning of khanasa, he drew off, seduced, etc., because he draws men off from righteousness, seduces them from their obedience to God, etc., etc. See Golius, sub voce. Is it not strange that the devil and the ape should have the same name, derived from the same root, and that root so very similar to the word in the text? But let us return and consider what is said of the creature in question. Now the nachash was more subtle, ערום arum, more wise, cunning, or prudent, than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. In this account we find,

[¶8] 1. That whatever this nachash was, he stood at the head of all inferior animals for wisdom and understanding.

[¶9] 2. That he walked erect, for this is necessarily implied in his punishment - on thy belly (i.e., on all fours) shalt thou go.

[¶10] 3. That he was endued with the gift of speech, for a conversation is here related between him and the woman.

[¶11] 4. That he was also endued with the gift of reason, for we find him reasoning and disputing with Eve.

[¶12] 5. That these things were common to this creature, the woman no doubt having often seen him walk erect, talk, and reason, and therefore she testifies no kind of surprise when he accosts her in the language related in the text; and indeed from the manner in which this is introduced it appears to be only a part of a conversation that had passed between them on the occasion: Yea, hath God said, etc.

[¶13] Had this creature never been known to speak before his addressing the woman at this time and on this subject, it could not have failed to excite her surprise, and to have filled her with caution, though from the purity and innocence of her nature she might have been incapable of being affected with fear. Now I apprehend that none of these things can be spoken of a serpent of any species.

[¶14] 1. None of them ever did or ever can walk erect. The tales we have had of two-footed and four-footed serpents are justly exploded by every judicious naturalist, and are utterly unworthy of credit. The very name serpent comes from serpo, to creep, and therefore to such it could be neither curse nor punishment to go on their bellies, i.e., to creep on, as they had done from their creation, and must do while their race endures.

[¶15] 2. They have no organs for speech, or any kind of articulate sound; they can only hiss. It is true that an ass by miraculous influence may speak; but it is not to be supposed that there was any miraculous interference here. God did not qualify this creature with speech for the occasion, and it is not intimated that there was any other agent that did it; on the contrary, the text intimates that speech and reason were natural to the nachash: and is it not in reference to this the inspired penman says, The nachash was more subtle or intelligent than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made? Nor can I find that the serpentine genus are remarkable for intelligence. It is true the wisdom of the serpent has passed into a proverb, but I cannot see on what it is founded, except in reference to the passage in question, where the nachash, which we translate serpent, following the Septuagint, shows so much intelligence and cunning: and it is very probable that our Lord alludes to this very place when he exhorts his disciples to be wise - prudent or intelligent, as serpents, φρονιμοι ὡς οἱ οφεις· and it is worthy of remark that he uses the same term employed by the Septuagint in the text in question: Οφις ην φρονιμωτατος, the serpent was more prudent or intelligent than all the beasts, etc.

[¶16] All these things considered, we are obliged to seek for some other word to designate the nachash in the text, than the word serpent, which on every view of the subject appears to me inefficient and inapplicable. We have seen above that khanas, akhnas, and khanoos, signify a creature of the ape or satyrus kind. We have seen that the meaning of the root is, he lay hid, seduced, slunk away, etc.; and that khanas means the devil, as the inspirer of evil, and seducer from God and truth. See Golius and Wilmet. It therefore appears to me that a creature of the ape or ouran outang kind is here intended; and that Satan made use of this creature as the most proper instrument for the accomplishment of his murderous purposes against the life and soul of man. Under this creature he lay hid, and by this creature he seduced our first parents, and drew off or slunk away from every eye but the eye of God. Such a creature answers to every part of the description in the text: it is evident from the structure of its limbs and their muscles that it might have been originally designed to walk erect, and that nothing less than a sovereign controlling power could induce them to put down hands in every respect formed like those of man, and walk like those creatures whose claw-armed paws prove them to have been designed to walk on all fours. Dr. Tyson has observed in his anatomy of an ouran outang, that the seminal vessels passed between the two coats of the peritoneum to the scrotum, as in man; hence he argues that this creature was designed to walk erect, as it is otherwise in all quadrupeds. Philos. Trans., vol. xxi., p. 340. The subtlety, cunning, endlessly varied pranks and tricks of these creatures, show them, even now, to be more subtle and more intelligent than any other creature, man alone excepted. Being obliged now to walk on all fours, and gather their food from the ground, they are literally obliged to eat the dust; and though exceedingly cunning, and careful in a variety of instances to separate that part which is wholesome and proper for food from that which is not so, in the article of cleanliness they are lost to all sense of propriety; and though they have every means in their power of cleansing the aliments they gather off the ground, and from among the dust, yet they never in their savage state make use of any, except a slight rub against their side, or with one of their hands, more to see what the article is than to cleanse it. Add to this, their utter aversion to walk upright; it requires the utmost discipline to bring them to it, and scarcely anything irritates them more than to be obliged to do it. Long observation on some of these animals enables me to state these facts.

[¶17] Should any person who may read this note object against my conclusions, because apparently derived from an Arabic word which is not exactly similar to the Hebrew, though to those who understand both languages the similarity will be striking; yet, as I do not insist on the identity of the terms, though important consequences have been derived from less likely etymologies, he is welcome to throw the whole of this out of the account. He may then take up the Hebrew root only, which signifies to gaze, to view attentively, pry into, inquire narrowly, etc., and consider the passage that appears to compare the nachash to the babbler. [Ecc 10:11], and he will soon find, if he have any acquaintance with creatures of this genus, that for earnest, attentive watching, looking, etc., and for chattering or babbling, they have no fellows in the animal world. Indeed, the ability and propensity to chatter is all they have left, according to the above hypothesis, of their original gift of speech, of which I suppose them to have been deprived at the fall as a part of their punishment.

[¶18] I have spent the longer time on this subject,

[¶19] 1. Because it is exceedingly obscure;

[¶20] 2. Because no interpretation hitherto given of it has afforded me the smallest satisfaction;

[¶21] 3. Because I think the above mode of accounting for every part of the whole transaction is consistent and satisfactory, and in my opinion removes many embarrassments, and solves the chief difficulties.

[¶22] I think it can be no solid objection to the above mode of solution that Satan, in different parts of the New Testament, is called the serpent, the serpent that deceived Eve by his subtlety, the old serpent, etc., for we have already seen that the New Testament writers have borrowed the word from the Septuagint, and the Septuagint themselves use it in a vast variety and latitude of meaning; and surely the ouran outang is as likely to be the animal in question as נחש nachash and οφις ophis are likely to mean at once a snake, a crocodile, a hippopotamus, fornication, a chain, a pair of fetters, a piece of brass, a piece of steel, and a conjurer; for we have seen above that all these are acceptations of the original word. Besides, the New Testament writers seem to lose sight of the animal or instrument used on the occasion, and speak only of Satan himself as the cause of the transgression, and the instrument of all evil. If, however, any person should choose to differ from the opinion stated above, he is at perfect liberty so to do; I make it no article of faith, nor of Christian communion; I crave the same liberty to judge for myself that I give to others, to which every man has an indisputable right; and I hope no man will call me a heretic for departing in this respect from the common opinion, which appears to me to be so embarrassed as to be altogether unintelligible. See farther on [Gen 3:7-14], etc.

[¶23] Yea, hath God said - This seems to be the continuation of a discourse of which the preceding part is not given, and a proof that the creature in question was endued with the gift of reason and speech, for no surprise is testified on the part of Eve.

### Verse 3

[¶25] Neither shall ye touch it - Did not the woman add this to what God had before spoken? Some of the Jewish writers, who are only serious on comparative trifles, state that as soon as the woman had asserted this, the serpent pushed her against the tree and said, "See, thou hast touched it, and art still alive; thou mayest therefore safely eat of the fruit, for surely thou shalt not die."

### Verse 4

[¶27] Ye shall not surely die - Here the father of lies at once appears; and appears too in flatly contradicting the assertion of God. The tempter, through the nachash, insinuates the impossibility of her dying, as if he had said, God has created thee immortal, thy death therefore is impossible; and God knows this, for as thou livest by the tree of life, so shalt thou get increase of wisdom by the tree of knowledge.

### Verse 5

[¶29] Your eyes shall be opened - Your understanding shall be greatly enlightened and improved; and ye shall be as gods, כאלהים kelohim, like God, so the word should be translated; for what idea could our first parents have of gods before idolatry could have had any being, because sin had not yet entered into the world? The Syriac has the word in the singular number, and is the only one of all the versions which has hit on the true meaning. As the original word is the same which is used to point out the Supreme Being, [Gen 1:1], so it has here the same signification, and the object of the tempter appears to have been this: to persuade our first parents that they should, by eating of this fruit, become wise and powerful as God, (for knowledge is power), and be able to exist for ever, independently of him.

### Verse 6

[¶31] The tree was good for food -

[¶32] 1. The fruit appeared to be wholesome and nutritive. And that it was pleasant to the eyes.

[¶33] 2. The beauty of the fruit tended to whet and increase appetite. And a tree to be desired to make one wise, which was,

[¶34] 3. An additional motive to please the palate.

[¶35] From these three sources all natural and moral evil sprang: they are exactly what the apostle calls the desire of the flesh; the tree was good for food: the desire of the eye; it was pleasant to the sight: and the pride of life; it was a tree to be desired to make one wise. God had undoubtedly created our first parents not only very wise and intelligent, but also with a great capacity and suitable propensity to increase in knowledge. Those who think that Adam was created so perfect as to preclude the possibility of his increase in knowledge, have taken a very false view of the subject. We shall certainly be convinced that our first parents were in a state of sufficient perfection when we consider,

[¶36] 1. That they were endued with a vast capacity to obtain knowledge.

[¶37] 2. That all the means of information were within their reach.

[¶38] 3. That there was no hindrance to the most direct conception of occurring truth.

[¶39] 4. That all the objects of knowledge, whether natural or moral, were ever at hand.

[¶40] 5. That they had the strongest propensity to know; and,

[¶41] 6. The greatest pleasure in knowing.

[¶42] To have God and nature continually open to the view of the soul; and to have a soul capable of viewing both, and fathoming endlessly their unbounded glories and excellences, without hindrance or difficulty; what a state of perfection! what a consummation of bliss! This was undoubtedly the state and condition of our first parents; even the present ruins of the state are incontestable evidences of its primitive excellence. We see at once how transgression came; it was natural for them to desire to be increasingly wise. God had implanted this desire in their minds; but he showed them that this desire should be gratified in a certain way; that prudence and judgment should always regulate it; that they should carefully examine what God had opened to their view; and should not pry into what he chose to conceal. He alone who knows all things knows how much knowledge the soul needs to its perfection and increasing happiness, in what subjects this may be legitimately sought, and where the mind may make excursions and discoveries to its prejudice and ruin. There are doubtless many subjects which angels are capable of knowing, and which God chooses to conceal even from them, because that knowledge would tend neither to their perfection nor happiness. Of every attainment and object of pursuit it may be said, in the words of an ancient poet, who conceived correctly on the subject, and expressed his thoughts with perspicuity and energy: -

[¶43] Est modus in rebus: sunt certi denique fines,

[¶44] Quos ulta citraque nequit consistere rectum.

## 6. Genesis · 6 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/6/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/6/#p-N

[¶0] Hor. Sat., lib. i., Sat. 1., ver. 106. "There is a rule for all things; there are in fine fixed and stated limits, on either side of which righteousness cannot be found." On the line of duty alone we must walk.

[¶1] Such limits God certainly assigned from the beginning: Thou shalt come up to this; thou shalt not pass it. And as he assigned the limits, so he assigned the means. It is lawful for thee to acquire knowledge in this way; it is unlawful to seek it in that. And had he not a right to do so? And would his creation have been perfect without it?

### Verse 7

[¶3] The eyes of them both were opened - They now had a sufficient discovery of their sin and folly in disobeying the command of God; they could discern between good and evil; and what was the consequence? Confusion and shame were engendered, because innocence was lost and guilt contracted.

[¶4] Let us review the whole of this melancholy business, the fall and its effects.

[¶5] 1. From the New Testament we learn that Satan associated himself with the creature which we term the serpent, and the original the nachash, in order to seduce and ruin mankind; [2Cor 11:3] [Rev 12:9] [Rev 20:2].

[¶6] 2. That this creature was the most suitable to his purpose, as being the most subtle, the most intelligent and cunning of all beasts of the field, endued with the gift of speech and reason, and consequently one in which he could best conceal himself.

[¶7] 3. As he knew that while they depended on God they could not be ruined, he therefore endeavored to seduce them from this dependence.

[¶8] 4. He does this by working on that propensity of the mind to desire an increase of knowledge, with which God, for the most gracious purposes, had endued it.

[¶9] 5. In order to succeed, he insinuates that God, through motives of envy, had given the prohibition - God doth know that in the day ye eat of it, ye shall be like himself, etc.

[¶10] 6. As their present state of blessedness must be inexpressibly dear to them, he endeavors to persuade them that they could not fall from this state: Ye shall not surely die - ye shall not only retain your present blessedness, but it shall be greatly increased; a temptation by which he has ever since fatally succeeded in the ruin of multitudes of souls, whom he persuaded that being once right they could never finally go wrong.

[¶11] 7. As he kept the unlawfulness of the means proposed out of sight, persuaded them that they could not fall from their steadfastness, assured them that they should resemble God himself, and consequently be self-sufficient, and totally independent of him; they listened, and fixing their eye only on the promised good, neglecting the positive command, and determining to become wise and independent at all events, they took of the fruit and did eat.

[¶12] Let us now examine the effects.

[¶13] 1. Their eyes were opened, and they saw they were naked. They saw what they never saw before, that they were stripped of their excellence; that they had lost their innocence; and that they had fallen into a state of indigence and danger.

[¶14] 2. Though their eyes were opened to see their nakedness, yet their mind was clouded, and their judgment confused. They seem to have lost all just notions of honor and dishonor, of what was shameful and what was praise-worthy. It was dishonorable and shameful to break the commandment of God; but it was neither to go naked, when clothing was not necessary.

[¶15] 3. They seem in a moment, not only to have lost sound judgment, but also reflection: a short time before Adam was so wise that he could name all the creatures brought before him, according to their respective natures and qualities; now he does not know the first principle concerning the Divine nature, that it knows all things, and that it is omnipresent, therefore he endeavors to hide himself among the trees from the eye of the all-seeing God! How astonishing is this! When the creatures were brought to him he could name them, because he could discern their respective natures and properties; when Eve was brought to him he could immediately tell what she was, who she was, and for what end made, though he was in a deep sleep when God formed her; and this seems to be particularly noted, merely to show the depth of his wisdom, and the perfection of his discernment. But alas! how are the mighty fallen! Compare his present with his past state, his state before the transgression with his state after it; and say, is this the same creature? the creature of whom God said, as he said of all his works, He is very good - just what he should be, a living image of the living God; but now lower than the beasts of the field?

[¶16] 4. This account could never have been credited had not the indisputable proofs and evidences of it been continued by uninterrupted succession to the present time. All the descendants of this first guilty pair resemble their degenerate ancestors, and copy their conduct. The original mode of transgression is still continued, and the original sin in consequence. Here are the proofs. 1. Every human being is endeavoring to obtain knowledge by unlawful means, even while the lawful means and every available help are at hand. 2. They are endeavoring to be independent, and to live without God in the world; hence prayer, the language of dependence on God's providence and grace, is neglected, I might say detested, by the great majority of men. Had I no other proof than this that man is a fallen creature, my soul would bow to this evidence. 3. Being destitute of the true knowledge of God they seek privacy for their crimes, not considering that the eye of God is upon them, being only solicitous to hide them from the eye of man. These are all proofs in point; but we shall soon meet with additional ones. See on [Gen 3:10] (note), [Gen 3:12] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶18] The voice of the Lord - The voice is properly used here, for as God is an infinite Spirit, and cannot be confined to any form, so he can have no personal appearance. It is very likely that God used to converse with them in the garden, and that the usual time was the decline of the day, לרוח היום leruach haiyom, in the evening breeze; and probably this was the time that our first parents employed in the more solemn acts of their religious worship, at which God was ever present. The time for this solemn worship is again come, and God is in his place; but Adam and Eve have sinned, and therefore, instead of being found in the place of worship, are hidden among the trees! Reader, how often has this been thy case!

### Verse 10

[¶20] I was afraid, because I was naked - See the immediate consequences of sin. 1. Shame, because of the ingratitude marked in the rebellion, and because that in aiming to be like God they were now sunk into a state of the greatest wretchedness. 2. Fear, because they saw they had been deceived by Satan, and were exposed to that death and punishment from which he had promised them an exemption. How worthy is it of remark that this cause continues to produce the very same effects! Shame and fear were the first fruits of sin, and fruits which it has invariably produced, from the first transgression to the present time.

### Verse 12

[¶22] And the man said, etc. - We have here some farther proofs of the fallen state of man, and that the consequences of that state extend to his remotest posterity. 1. On the question, Hast thou eaten of the tree? Adam is obliged to acknowledge his transgression; but he does this in such a way as to shift off the blame from himself, and lay it upon God and upon the woman! This woman whom Thou didst give to be with me, עמדי immadi, to be my companion, (for so the word is repeatedly used), she gave me, and I did eat. I have no farther blame in this transgression; I did not pluck the fruit; she took it and gave it to me. 2. When the woman is questioned she lays the blame upon God and the serpent, (nachash). The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Thou didst make him much wiser than thou didst make me, and therefore my simplicity and ignorance were overcome by his superior wisdom and subtlety; I can have no fault here, the fault is his, and his who made him so wise and me so ignorant. Thus we find that, while the eyes of their body were opened to see their degraded state, the eyes of their understanding were closed, so that they could not see the sinfulness of sin; and at the same time their hearts were hardened through its deceitfulness. In this also their posterity copy their example. How few ingenuously confess their own sin! They see not their guilt. They are continually making excuses for their crimes; the strength and subtlety of the tempter, the natural weakness of their own minds, the unfavorable circumstances in which they were placed, etc., etc., are all pleaded as excuses for their sins, and thus the possibility of repentance is precluded; for till a man take his sin to himself, till he acknowledge that he alone is guilty, he cannot be humbled, and consequently cannot be saved. Reader, till thou accuse thyself, and thyself only, and feel that thou alone art responsible for all thy iniquities, there is no hope of thy salvation.

### Verse 14

[¶24] And the Lord God said unto the serpent - The tempter is not asked why he deceived the woman; he cannot roll the blame on any other; self-tempted he fell, and it is natural for him, such is his enmity, to deceive and destroy all he can. His fault admits of no excuse, and therefore God begins to pronounce sentence on him first. And here we must consider a twofold sentence, one on Satan and the other on the agent he employed. The nachash, whom I suppose to have been at the head of all the inferior animals, and in a sort of society and intimacy with man, is to be greatly degraded, entirely banished from human society, and deprived of the gift of speech. Cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field - thou shalt be considered the most contemptible of animals; upon thy belly shalt thou go - thou shalt no longer walk erect, but mark the ground equally with thy hands and feet; and dust shalt thou eat - though formerly possessed of the faculty to distinguish, choose, and cleanse thy food, thou shalt feed henceforth like the most stupid and abject quadruped, all the days of thy life - through all the innumerable generations of thy species. God saw meet to manifest his displeasure against the agent employed in this melancholy business; and perhaps this is founded on the part which the intelligent and subtle nachash took in the seduction of our first parents. We see that he was capable of it, and have some reason to believe that he became a willing instrument.

### Verse 15

[¶26] I will put enmity between thee and the woman - This has been generally supposed to apply to a certain enmity subsisting between men and serpents; but this is rather a fancy than a reality. It is yet to be discovered that the serpentine race have any peculiar enmity against mankind, nor is there any proof that men hate serpents more than they do other noxious animals. Men have much more enmity to the common rat and magpie than they have to all the serpents in the land, because the former destroy the grain, etc., and serpents in general, far from seeking to do men mischief, flee his approach, and generally avoid his dwelling. If, however, we take the word nachash to mean any of the simia or ape species, we find a more consistent meaning, as there is scarcely an animal in the universe so detested by most women as these are; and indeed men look on them as continual caricatures of themselves. But we are not to look for merely literal meanings here: it is evident that Satan, who actuated this creature, is alone intended in this part of the prophetic declaration. God in his endless mercy has put enmity between men and him; so that, though all mankind love his service, yet all invariably hate himself. Were it otherwise, who could be saved? A great point gained towards the conversion of a sinner is to convince him that it is Satan he has been serving, that it is to him he has been giving up his soul, body, goods, etc.; he starts with horror when this conviction fastens on his mind, and shudders at the thought of being in league with the old murderer. But there is a deeper meaning in the text than even this, especially in these words, it shall bruise thy head, or rather, הוא hu, He; who? the seed of the woman; the person is to come by the woman, and by her alone, without the concurrence of man. Therefore the address is not to Adam and Eve, but to Eve alone; and it was in consequence of this purpose of God that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin; this, and this alone, is what is implied in the promise of the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent. Jesus Christ died to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and to destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. Thus he bruises his head - destroys his power and lordship over mankind, turning them from the power of Satan unto God; [Act 26:18]. And Satan bruises his heel - God so ordered it, that the salvation of man could only be brought about by the death of Christ; and even the spiritual seed of our blessed Lord have the heel often bruised, as they suffer persecution, temptation, etc., which may be all that is intended by this part of the prophecy.

### Verse 16

[¶28] Unto the woman he said - She being second in the transgression is brought up the second to receive her condemnation, and to hear her punishment: I will greatly multiply, or multiplying I will multiply; i.e., I will multiply thy sorrows, and multiply those sorrows by other sorrows, and this during conception and pregnancy, and particularly so in parturition or child-bearing. And this curse has fallen in a heavier degree on the woman than on any other female. Nothing is better attested than this, and yet there is certainly no natural reason why it should be so; it is a part of her punishment, and a part from which even God's mercy will not exempt her. It is added farther, Thy desire shall be to thy husband - thou shalt not be able to shun the great pain and peril of child-bearing, for thy desire, thy appetite, shall be to thy husband; and he shall rule over thee, though at their creation both were formed with equal rights, and the woman had probably as much right to rule as the man; but subjection to the will of her husband is one part of her curse; and so very capricious is this will often, that a sorer punishment no human being can well have, to be at all in a state of liberty, and under the protection of wise and equal laws.

### Verse 17

[¶30] Unto Adam he said - The man being the last in the transgression is brought up last to receive his sentence: Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife - "thou wast not deceived, she only gave and counseled thee to eat; this thou shouldst have resisted;" and that he did not is the reason of his condemnation. Cursed is the ground for thy sake - from henceforth its fertility shall be greatly impaired; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it - be in continual perplexity concerning the seed time and the harvest, the cold and the heat, the wet and the dry. How often are all the fruits of man's toll destroyed by blasting, by mildew, by insects, wet weather, land floods, etc.! Anxiety and carefulness are the laboring man's portion.

### Verse 18

[¶32] Thorns also and thistles, etc. - Instead of producing nourishing grain and useful vegetables, noxious weeds shall be peculiarly prolific, injure the ground, choke the good seed, and mock the hopes of the husbandman; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field - thou shalt no longer have the privilege of this garden of delights, but must go to the common champaign country, and feed on such herbs as thou canst find, till by labor and industry thou hast raised others more suitable to thee and more comfortable.

[¶33] In the curse pronounced on the ground there is much more implied than generally appears. The amazing fertility of some of the most common thistles and thorns renders them the most proper instruments for the fulfillment of this sentence against man. Thistles multiply enormously; a species called the Carolina sylvestris bears ordinarily from 20 to 40 heads, each containing from 100 to 150 seeds.

[¶34] Another species, called the Acanthum vulgare, produces above 100 heads, each containing from 3 to 400 seeds. Suppose we say that these thistles produce at a medium only 80 beads, and that each contains only 300 seeds; the first crop from these would amount to 24,000. Let these be sown, and their crop will amount to 576 millions. Sow these, and their produce will be 13,824,000,000,000, or thirteen billions, eight hundred and twenty-four thousand millions; and a single crop from these, which is only the third year's growth, would amount to 331,776,000,000,000,000, or three hundred and thirty-one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six billions; and the fourth year's growth will amount to 7,962,624,000,000,000,000,000, or seven thousand nine hundred and sixty-two trillions, six hundred and twenty-four thousand billions. A progeny more than sufficient to stock not only the surface of the whole world, but of all the planets of the solar system, so that no other plant or vegetable could possibly grow, allowing but the space of one square foot for each plant.

[¶35] The Carduus vulgatissimus viarum, or common hedge thistle, besides the almost infinite swarms of winged seeds it sends forth, spreads its roots around many yards, and throws up suckers everywhere, which not only produce seeds in their turn, but extend their roots, propagate like the parent plant, and stifle and destroy all vegetation but their own.

[¶36] As to Thorns, the bramble, which occurs so commonly, and is so mischievous, is a sufficient proof how well the means are calculated to secure the end. The genista, or spinosa vulgaris, called by some furze, by others whins, is allowed to be one of the most mischievous shrubs on the face of the earth. Scarcely any thing can grow near it, and it is so thick set with prickles that it is almost impossible to touch it without being wounded. It is very prolific; almost half the year it is covered with flowers which produce pods filled with seeds. Besides it shoots out roots far and wide, from which suckers and young plants are continually springing up, which produce others in their turn. Where it is permitted to grow it soon overspreads whole tracts of ground, and it is extremely difficult to clear the ground of its roots where once it has got proper footing. Such provision has the just God made to fulfill the curse which he has pronounced on the earth, because of the crimes of its inhabitants. See Hale's Vegetable Statics.

### Verse 19

[¶38] In the sweat of thy face - Though the whole body may be thrown into a profuse sweat, if hard labor be long continued, yet the face or forehead is the first part whence this sweat begins to issue; this is occasioned by the blood being strongly propelled to the brain, partly through stooping, but principally by the strong action of the muscles; in consequence of this the blood vessels about the head become turgid through the great flux of blood, the fibres are relaxed, the pores enlarged, and the sweat or serum poured out. Thus then the very commencement of every man's labor may put him in mind of his sin and its consequences.

[¶39] Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return - God had said that in the day they ate of the forbidden fruit, dying they should die - they should then become mortal, and continue under the influence of a great variety of unfriendly agencies in the atmosphere and in themselves, from heats, colds, drought, and damps in the one, and morbid increased and decreased action in the solids and fluids of the other, till the spirit, finding its earthly house no longer tenable, should return to God who gave it; and the body, being decomposed, should be reduced to its primitive dust. It is evident from this that man would have been immortal had he never transgressed, and that this state of continual life and health depended on his obedience to his Maker. The tree of life, as we have already seen, was intended to be the means of continual preservation. For as no being but God can exist independently of any supporting agency, so man could not have continued to live without a particular supporting agent; and this supporting agent under God appears to have been the tree of life. Ολιγη δε κεισομεσθα Κονις, οστεων λυθεντων.

[¶40] Anac. Od. 4., v. 9. "We shall lie down as a small portion of dust, our bones being dissolved."

### Verse 20

[¶42] And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living - A man who does not understand the original cannot possibly comprehend the reason of what is said here. What has the word Eve to do with being the mother of all living? Our translators often follow the Septuagint; it is a pity they had not done so here, as the Septuagint translation is literal and correct: Και εκαλεσεν Αδαμ το ονομα της γυναικος αυτου Ζωη, ὁτι μητηρ παντων των ζωντων· "And Adam called his wife's name Life, because she was the mother of all the living." This is a proper and faithful representation of the Hebrew text, for the חוה Chavvah of the original, which we have corrupted into Eve, a word destitute of all meaning, answers exactly to the Ζωη of the Septuagint, both signifying life; as does also the Hebrew חי chai to the Greek ζωντων, both of which signify the living.

[¶43] It is probable that God designed by this name to teach our first parents these two important truths:

[¶44] 1. That though they had merited immediate death, yet they should be respited, and the accomplishment of the sentence be long delayed; they should be spared to propagate a numerous progeny on the earth.

## 7. Genesis · 7 of 67

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[¶0] 2. That though much misery would be entailed on his posterity, and death should have a long and universal empire, yet One should in the fullness of time spring from the woman, who should destroy death, and bring life and immortality to light, [2Tim 1:10]. Therefore Adam called his wife's name Life, because she was to be the mother of all human beings, and because she was to be the mother of Him who was to give life to a world dead in trespasses, and dead in sins, [Eph 2:1], etc.

### Verse 21

[¶2] God made coats of skins - It is very likely that the skins out of which their clothing was made were taken off animals whose blood had been poured out as a sin-offering to God; for as we find Cain and Abel offering sacrifices to God, we may fairly presume that God had given them instructions on this head; nor is it likely that the notion of a sacrifice could have ever occurred to the mind of man without an express revelation from God. Hence we may safely infer, 1. That as Adam and Eve needed this clothing as soon as they fell, and death had not as yet made any ravages in the animal world, it is most likely that the skins were taken off victims offered under the direction of God himself, and in faith of Him who, in the fullness of time, was to make an atonement by his death. And it seems reasonable also that this matter should be brought about in such a way that Satan and death should have no triumph, when the very first death that took place in the world was an emblem and type of that death which should conquer Satan, destroy his empire, reconcile God to man, convert man to God, sanctify human nature, and prepare it for heaven.

### Verse 22

[¶4] Behold, the man is become as one of us - On all hands this text is allowed to be difficult, and the difficulty is increased by our translation, which is opposed to the original Hebrew and the most authentic versions. The Hebrew has היה hayah, which is the third person preterite tense, and signifies was, not is. The Samaritan text, the Samaritan version, the Syriac, and the Septuagint, have the same tense. These lead us to a very different sense, and indicate that there is an ellipsis of some words which must be supplied in order to make the sense complete. A very learned man has ventured the following paraphrase, which should not be lightly regarded: "And the Lord God said, The man who was like one of us in purity and wisdom, is now fallen and robbed of his excellence; he has added לדעת ladaath, to the knowledge of the good, by his transgression the knowledge of the evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever in this miserable state, I will remove him, and guard the place lest he should re-enter. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden," etc. This seems to be the most natural sense of the place. Some suppose that his removal from the tree of life was in mercy, to prevent a second temptation. He before imagined that he could gain an increase of wisdom by eating of the tree of knowledge, and Satan would be disposed to tempt him to endeavor to elude the sentence of death, by eating of the tree of life. Others imagine that the words are spoken ironically, and that the Most High intended by a cutting taunt, to upbraid the poor culprit for his offense, because he broke the Divine command in the expectation of being like God to know good from evil; and now that he had lost all the good that God had designed for him, and got nothing but evil in its place, therefore God taunts him for the total miscarriage of his project. But God is ever consistent with himself; and surely his infinite pity prohibited the use of either sarcasm or irony, in speaking of so dreadful a catastrophe, that was in the end to occasion the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion, the death and burial, of Him in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, [Col 2:9].

[¶5] In [Gen 1:26], [Gen 1:27], we have seen man in the perfection of his nature, the dignity of his office, and the plenitude of his happiness. Here we find the same creature, but stripped of his glories and happiness, so that the word man no longer conveys the same ideas it did before. Man and intellectual excellence were before so intimately connected as to appear inseparable; man and misery are now equally so. In our nervous mother tongue, the Anglo-Saxon, we have found the word God signifying, not only the Supreme Being, but also good or goodness; and it is worthy of especial note that the word man, in the same language, is used to express, not only the human being so called, both male and female, but also mischief, wickedness, fraud, deceit, and villany. Thus a simple monosyllable, still in use among us in its first sense, conveyed at once to the minds of our ancestors the two following particulars:

[¶6] 1. The human being in his excellence, capable of knowing, loving, and glorifying his Maker.

[¶7] 2. The human being in his fallen state, capable of and committing all kinds of wickedness. "Obiter hic notandum," says old Mr. Somner in his Saxon Dictionary, "venit, Saxonibus et Deum significasse et Bonum: uti et hominem et nequitiam. Here it is to be noted, that among the Saxons the term God signified both the Divine Being and goodness, as the word man signified both the human being and wickedness." This is an additional proof that our Saxon ancestors both thought and spoke at the same time, which, strange as it may appear, is not a common case: their words in general are not arbitrary signs; but as far as sounds can convey the ideal meaning of things, their words do it; and they are so formed and used as necessarily to bring to view the nature and proper ties of those things of which they are the signs. In this sense the Anglo-Saxon is inferior only to the Hebrew.

### Verse 24

[¶9] So he drove out the man - Three things are noted here:

[¶10] 1. God's displeasure against sinful man, evidenced by his expelling him from this place of blessedness;

[¶11] 2. Man's unfitness for the place, of which he had rendered himself unworthy by his ingratitude and transgression; and,

[¶12] 3. His reluctance to leave this place of happiness. He was, as we may naturally conclude, unwilling to depart, and God drove him out.

[¶13] He placed at the east - מכדם mikkedem, or before the garden of Eden, before what may be conceived its gate or entrance; Cherubims, הכרבים hakkerubim, The cherubim. Hebrew plurals in the masculine end in general in im: to add an s to this when we introduce such words into English, is very improper; therefore the word should be written cherubim, not cherubims. But what were these? They are utterly unknown. Conjectures and guesses relative to their nature and properties are endless. Several think them to have been emblematical representations of the sacred Trinity, and bring reasons and scriptures in support of their opinion; but as I am not satisfied that this opinion is correct, I will not trouble the reader with it. From the description in [Exo 26:1], [Exo 26:31]; [1Kgs 6:29], [1Kgs 6:32]; [2Chr 3:14], it appears that the cherubs were sometimes represented with two faces, namely, those of a lion and of a man; but from [Eze 1:5], etc.; [Eze 10:20], [Eze 10:21], we find that they had four faces and four wings; the faces were those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle; but it seems there was but one body to these heads. The two-faced cherubs were such as were represented on the curtains and veil of the tabernacle, and on the wall, doors, and veil of the temple; those with four faces appeared only in the holy of holies. The word כרב or כרוב kerub never appears as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, and therefore is justly supposed to be a word compounded of כ ke a particle of resemblance, like to, like as, and רב rab, he was great, powerful, etc. Hence it is very likely that the cherubs, to whatever order of beings they belonged, were emblems of the All-Mighty, and were those creatures by whom he produced the great effects of his power. The word רב rab is a character of the Most High, [Pro 26:10] : The great God who formed all; and again in [Psa 48:2], where he is called the Great King, מלך רב melech rab. But though this is rarely applied as a character of the Supreme Being in the Hebrew Bible, yet it is a common appellative of the Deity in the Arabic language. rab, and rab'ulalameen Lord of both worlds, or, Lord of the universe, are expressions repeatedly used to point out the almighty energy and supremacy of God. On this ground, I suppose, the cherubim were emblematical representations of the eternal power and Godhead of the Almighty. These angelic beings were for a time employed in guarding the entrance to Paradise, and keeping the way of or road to the tree of life. This, I say, for a time; for it is very probable that God soon removed the tree of life, and abolished the garden, so that its situation could never after be positively ascertained.

[¶14] By the flaming sword turning every way, or flame folding back upon itself, we may understand the formidable appearances which these cherubim assumed, in order to render the passage to the tree of life inaccessible.

[¶15] Thus terminates this most awful tragedy; a tragedy in which all the actors are slain, in which the most awful murders are committed, and the whole universe ruined! The serpent, so called, is degraded; the woman cursed with pains, miseries, and a subjection to the will of her husband, which was never originally designed; the man, the lord of this lower world, doomed to incessant labor and toil; and the earth itself cursed with comparative barrenness! To complete all, the garden of pleasure is interdicted, and this man, who was made after the image of God, and who would be like him, shamefully expelled from a place where pure spirits alone could dwell. Yet in the midst of wrath God remembers mercy, and a promise of redemption from this degraded and cursed state is made to them through Him who, in the fullness of time, is to be made flesh, and who, by dying for the sin of the world, shall destroy the power of Satan, and deliver all who trust in the merit of his sacrifice from the power, guilt, and nature of sin, and thus prepare them for the celestial Paradise at the right hand of God. Reader, hast thou repented of thy sin? for often hast thou sinned after the similitude of thy ancestor's transgression. Hast thou sought and found redemption in the blood of the Lamb? Art thou saved from a disposition which led thy first parents to transgress? Art thou living a life of dependence on thy Creator, and of faith and loving obedience to him who died for thee? Wilt thou live under the curse, and die eternally? God forbid! Return to him with all thy soul, and receive this exhortation as a call from his mercy.

[¶16] To what has already been said on the awful contents of this chapter, I can add little that can either set it in a clearer light, or make its solemn subject more impressive. We see here that by the subtlety and envy of the devil sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and we find that death reigned, not only from Adam to Moses, but from Moses to the present day. Flow abominable must sin be in the sight of God, when it has not only defaced his own image from the soul of man, but has also become a source of natural and moral evil throughout every part of the globe! Disruption and violence appear in every part of nature; vice, profligacy, and misery, through all the tribes of men and orders of society. It is true that where sin hath abounded, there grace doth much more abound; but men shut their eyes against the light, and harden their hearts against the truth. Sin, which becomes propagated into the world by natural generation, growing with the growth and strengthening with the strength of man, would be as endless in its duration, as unlimited in its influence, did not God check and restrain it by his grace, and cut off its extending influence in the incorrigibly wicked by means of death. How wonderful is the economy of God! That which entered into the world as one of the prime fruits and effects of sin, is now an instrument in his hands to prevent the extension of its contagion.

[¶17] If men, now so greatly multiplied on the earth, and fertile in mischievous inventions, were permitted to live nearly a thousand years, as in the ancient world, to mature and perfect their infectious and destructive counsels, what a sum of iniquity and ruin would the face of the earth present! Even while they are laying plans to extend the empire of death, God, by the very means of death itself, prevents the completion of their pernicious and diabolic designs. Thus what man, by his wilful obstinacy does not permit grace to correct and restrain, God, by his sovereign power, brings in death to control. It is on this ground that wicked and blood-thirsty men live not out half their days; and what a mercy to the world that it is so! They who will not submit to the scepter of mercy shall be broken in pieces by the rod of iron. Reader, provoke not the Lord to displeasure; thou art not stronger than he. Grieve not his Spirit, provoke him not to destroy thee; why shouldst thou die before thy time? Thou hast sinned much, and needest every moment of thy short life to make thy calling and election sure. Shouldst thou provoke God, by thy perseverance in iniquity, to cut thee off by death before this great work is done, better for thee thou hadst never been born!

[¶18] How vain are all attempts to attain immortality here! For some thousands of years men have been laboring to find out means to prevent death; and some have even boasted that they had found out a medicine capable of preserving life for ever, by resisting all the attacks of disease, and incessantly repairing all the wastes of the human machine. That is, the alchymistic philosophers would have the world to believe that they had found out a private passage to the tree of immortality; but their own deaths, in the common order of nature, as well as the deaths of the millions which make no such pretensions, are not only a sufficient confutation of their baseless systems, but also a continual proof that the cherubim, with their flaming swords, are turning every way to keep the passage of the tree of life. Life and immortality are, however, brought to light by the Gospel; and he only who keepeth the sayings of the Son of God shall live for ever. Though the body is dead - consigned to death, because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness; and on those who are influenced by this Spirit of righteousness, the second death shall have no power!

### Introduction

[¶20] The birth, trade, and religion of Cain and Abel, [Gen 4:1-7]. Cain murders his brother Abel, [Gen 4:8]. God calls him into judgment for it, [Gen 4:9], [Gen 4:10]. He is cursed, [Gen 4:11], [Gen 4:12]. He despairs, [Gen 4:15], [Gen 4:14]. A promise given him of preservation, and a mark set on him to prevent his being killed, [Gen 4:15]. He departs from God's presence, [Gen 4:16]. Has a son whom he calls Enoch; and builds a city, which he calls after his name, [Gen 4:17]. Cain has several children, among whom are Lamech, the first bigamist, [Gen 4:18], [Gen 4:19]. Jabal, who taught the use of tents and feeding cattle, [Gen 4:20]. Jubal, the inventor of musical instruments, [Gen 4:21]. Tubal-cain, the inventor of smith-work, [Gen 4:22]. Strange speech of Lamech to his wives, [Gen 4:23], [Gen 4:24]. Seth born to Adam and Eve in the place of Abel, [Gen 4:25]. Enoch born, and the worship of God restored, [Gen 4:26].

### Verse 1

[¶22] I have gotten a man from the Lord - Cain, קין, signifies acquisition; hence Eve says קנתי kanithi, I have gotten or acquired a man, את יהוה eth Yehovah, the Lord. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the sense in which Eve used these words, which have been as variously translated as understood. Most expositors think that Eve imagined Cain to be the promised seed that should bruise the head of the serpent. This exposition really seems too refined for that period. It is very likely that she meant no more than to acknowledge that it was through God's peculiar blessing that she was enabled to conceive and bring forth a son, and that she had now a well-grounded hope that the race of man should be continued on the earth. Unless she had been under Divine inspiration she could not have called her son (even supposing him to be the promised seed) Jehovah; and that she was not under such an influence her mistake sufficiently proves, for Cain, so far from being the Messiah, was of the wicked one; [1Jn 3:12]. We may therefore suppose that את היוה eth Yehovah, The Lord, is an elliptical form of expression for מאת יהוה meeth Yehovah, From The Lord, or through the Divine blessing.

### Verse 2

[¶24] And she again bare his brother Abel - Literally, She added to bear (ותסף ללדת vattoseph laledeth) his brother. From the very face of this account it appears evident that Cain and Abel were twins. In most cases where a subject of this kind is introduced in the Holy Scriptures, and the successive births of children of the same parents are noted, the acts of conceiving and bringing forth are mentioned in reference to each child; here it is not said that she conceived and brought forth Abel, but simply she added to bring forth Abel his brother; that is, as I understand it, Cain was the first-born, Abel, his twin brother, came next.

[¶25] Abel was a keeper of sheep - Adam was originally a gardener, Abel a shepherd, and Cain an agriculturist or farmer. These were the three primitive employments, and, I may add, the most rational, and consequently the best calculated to prevent strife and an immoderate love of the world.

### Verse 3

[¶27] In process of time - מקץ ימים mikkets yamim, at the end of days. Some think the anniversary of the creation to be here intended; it is more probable that it means the Sabbath, on which Adam and his family undoubtedly offered oblations to God, as the Divine worship was certainly instituted, and no doubt the Sabbath properly observed in that family. This worship was, in its original institution, very simple. It appears to have consisted of two parts:

[¶28] 1. Thanksgiving to God as the author and dispenser of all the bounties of nature, and oblations indicative of that gratitude.

[¶29] 2. Piacular sacrifices to his justice and holiness, implying a conviction of their own sinfulness, confession of transgression, and faith in the promised Deliverer. If we collate the passage here with the apostle's allusion to it, [Heb 11:4], we shall see cause to form this conclusion.

[¶30] Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering - מנחה minchah, unto the Lord. The word minchah is explained, [Lev 2:1], etc., to be an offering of fine flour, with oil and frankincense. It was in general a eucharistic or gratitude offering, and is simply what is implied in the fruits of the ground brought by Cain to the Lord, by which he testified his belief in him as the Lord of the universe, and the dispenser of secular blessings.

### Verse 4

[¶32] Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock - Dr. Kennicott contends that the words he also brought, הביא גם הוא hebi gam hu, should be translated, Abel brought it also, i.e. a minchah or gratitude offering; and beside this he brought of the first-born (מבכרות mibbechoroth) of his flock, and it was by this alone that he acknowledged himself a sinner, and professed faith in the promised Messiah. To this circumstance the apostle seems evidently to allude, [Heb 11:4] : By Faith Abel offered πλειονα θυσιαν, a More or Greater sacrifice; not a more excellent, (for this is no meaning of the word πλειων), which leads us to infer, according to Dr. Kennicott, that Abel, besides his minchah or gratitude offering, brought also θυσια, a victim, to be slain for his sins; and this he chose out of the first-born of his flock, which, in the order of God, was a representation of the Lamb of God that was to take away the sin of the world; and what confirms this exposition more is the observation of the apostle: God testifying τοις δωροις, of his Gifts, which certainly shows he brought more than one. According to this interpretation, Cain, the father of Deism, not acknowledging the necessity of a vicarious sacrifice, nor feeling his need of an atonement, according to the dictates of his natural religion, brought a minchah or eucharistic offering to the God of the universe. Abel, not less grateful for the produce of his fields and the increase of his flocks, brought a similar offering, and by adding a sacrifice to it paid a proper regard to the will of God as far as it had then been revealed, acknowledged himself a sinner, and thus, deprecating the Divine displeasure, showed forth the death of Christ till he came. Thus his offerings were accepted, while those of Cain were rejected; for this, as the apostle says, was done by Faith, and therefore he obtained witness that he was righteous, or a justified person, God testifying with his gifts, the thank-offering and the sin-offering, by accepting them, that faith in the promised seed was the only way in which he could accept the services and offerings of mankind. Dr. Magee, in his Discourses on the Atonement, criticises the opinion of Dr. Kennicott, and contends that there is no ground for the distinction made by the latter on the words he also brought; and shows that though the minchah in general signifies an unbloody offering, yet it is also used to express both kinds, and that the minchah in question is to be understood of the sacrifice then offered by Abel. I do not see that we gain much by this counter-criticism. See [Gen 4:7].

### Verse 5

[¶34] Unto Cain - As being unconscious of his sinfulness, and consequently unhumbled, and to his offering, as not being accompanied, as Abel's was, with faith and a sacrifice for sin, he had not respect - He could not, consistently with his holiness and justice, approve of the one or receive the other. Of the manner in which God testified his approbation we are not informed; it was probably, as in the case of Elijah, by sending down fire from heaven, and consuming the sacrifice.

[¶35] Cain was very wroth - That displeasure which should have been turned against his own unhumbled heart was turned against his innocent brother, who, though not more highly privileged than he, made a much better use of the advantages which he shared in common with his ungodly and unnatural brother.

### Verse 6

[¶37] Why art thou wroth? - This was designed as a gracious warning, and a preventive of the meditated crime.

### Verse 7

[¶39] If thou doest well - That which is right in the sight of God, shalt thou not be accepted? Does God reject any man who serves him in simplicity and godly sincerity? But if thou doest not well, can wrath and indignation against thy righteous brother save thee from the displeasure under which thou art fallen? On the contrary, have recourse to thy Maker for mercy; לפתח חטאת רבץ lappethach chattath robets, a sin-offering lieth at thy door; an animal proper to be offered as an atonement for sin is now couching at the door of thy fold.

[¶40] The words חטאת chattath, and חטאת chattaah, frequently signify sin; but I have observed more than a hundred places in the Old Testament where they are used for sin-offering, and translated ἁμαρτια by the Septuagint, which is the term the apostle uses, [2Cor 5:21] : He hath made him to be sin (ἁμαρτιαν, A Sin-Offering) for us, who knew no sin. Cain's fault now was his not bringing a sin-offering when his brother brought one, and his neglect and contempt caused his other offering to be rejected. However, God now graciously informs him that, though he had miscarried, his case was not yet desperate, as the means of faith, from the promise, etc., were in his power, and a victim proper for a sin-offering was lying (רבץ robets, a word used to express the lying down of a quadruped) at the door of his fold. How many sinners perish, not because there is not a Savior able and willing to save them, but because they will not use that which is within their power! Of such how true is that word of our Lord, Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life!

[¶41] Unto thee shall be his desire, etc. - That is, Thou shalt ever have the right of primogeniture, and in all things shall thy brother be subject unto thee. These words are not spoken of sin, as many have understood them, but of Abel's submission to Cain as his superior, and the words are spoken to remove Cain's envy.

### Verse 8

[¶43] Cain talked with Abel his brother - ויאמר קין vaiyomer Kayin, and Cain said, etc.; not talked, for this construction the word cannot bear without great violence to analogy and grammatical accuracy. But why should it be thus translated? Because our translators could not find that any thing was spoken on the occasion; and therefore they ventured to intimate that there was a conversation, indefinitely. In the most correct editions of the Hebrew Bible there is a small space left here in the text, and a circular mark which refers to a note in the margin, intimating that there is a hiatus or deficiency in the verse. Now this deficiency is supplied in the principal ancient versions, and in the Samaritan text. In this the supplied words are, Let Us Walk Out Into The Field. The Syriac has, Let us go to the desert. The Vulgate Egrediamur foras, Let us walk out. The Septuagint, Διελθωμεν εις το πεδον, Let us go out into the field. The two Chaldee Targums have the same reading; so has the Coptic version. This addition is completely lost from every MS. of the Pentateuch now known; and yet it is sufficiently evident from the Samaritan text, the Samaritan version, the Syriac, Septuagint, and Vulgate, that it was in the most authentic copies of the Hebrew before and some time since the Christian era. The words may therefore be safely considered as a part of the sacred text, and with them the whole passage reads clear and consistently: "And Cain said unto Abel his brother, Let us go out into the field: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up," etc. The Jerusalem Targum, and the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, pretend to give us the subject of their conversation: as the piece is curious, I shall insert the substance of it, for the sake of those who may not have access to the originals. "And Cain said unto Hebel his brother, Let us go out into the field; and it came to pass that, when they were in the field, Cain answered and said to Hebel his brother, I thought that the world was created in mercy, but it is not governed according to the merit of good works nor is there any judgment, nor a Judge, nor shall there be any future state in which good rewards shall be given to the righteous, or punishment executed on the wicked; and now there is respect of persons in judgment. On what account is it that thy sacrifice has been accepted, and mine not received with complacency? And Hebel answered and said, The world was created in mercy, and it is governed according to the fruit of good works; there is a Judge, a future world, and a coming judgment, where good rewards shall be given to the righteous, and the impious punished; and there is no respect of persons in judgment; but because my works were better and more precious than thine, my oblation was received with complacency. And because of these things they contended on the face of the field, and Cain rose up against Hebel his brother, and struck a stone into his forehead, and killed him."

[¶44] It is here supposed that the first murder committed in the world was the consequence of a religious dispute; however this may have been, millions since have been sacrificed to prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance. Here, certainly, originated the many-headed monster, religious persecution; the spirit of the wicked one in his followers impels them to afflict and destroy all those who are partakers of the Spirit of God. Every persecutor is a legitimate son of the old murderer. This is the first triumph of Satan; it is not merely a death that he has introduced, but a violent one, as the first-fruits of sin. It is not the death of an ordinary person, but of the most holy man then in being; it is not brought about by the providence of God, or by a gradual failure and destruction of the earthly fabric, but by a violent separation of body and soul; it is not done by a common enemy, from whom nothing better could be expected, but by the hand of a brother, and for no other reason but because the object of his envy was more righteous than himself. Alas! how exceeding sinful does sin appear in its first manifestation!

## 8. Genesis · 8 of 67

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### Verse 10

[¶1] The voice of thy brother's blood - It is probable that Cain, having killed his brother, dug a hole and buried him in the earth, hoping thereby to prevent the murder from being known; and that this is what is designed in the words, Thy brother's blood crieth unto me From The Ground - which hath opened her mouth to receive it from thy hand. Some think that by the voice of thy brother's blood the cries of Abel's widow and children are to be understood, as it is very probable that he was father of a family; indeed his occupation and sacrifices seem to render this probable, and probability is all we can expect on such a subject. God represents these as calling aloud for the punishment of the murderer; and it is evident that Cain expected to fall by the hands of some person who, from his consanguinity, had the right of the avenger of blood; for now that the murder is found out, he expects to suffer death for it. See [Gen 4:14].

### Verse 12

[¶3] A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be - Thou shalt be expelled from the presence of God, and from thy family connections, and shalt have no fixed secure residence in any place. The Septuagint render this στενων και τρεμων εση, thou shalt be groaning and trembling upon the earth - the horror of thy crime shall ever haunt thee, and thou shalt never have any well-grounded hope that God will remit the punishment thou deservest. No state out of endless perdition can be considered more awful than this.

### Verse 13

[¶5] My punishment is greater than I can bear - The margin reads, Mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. The original words, גדול עוני מנשוא gadol avoni minneso, may be translated, Is my crime too great to be forgiven? words which we may presume he uttered on the verge of black despair. It is most probable that עון avon signifies rather the crime than the punishment; in this sense it is used [Lev 26:41], [Lev 26:43] [1Sam 28:10]; [2Kgs 7:9]; and נשא nasa signifies to remit or forgive. The marginal reading is, therefore, to be preferred to that in the text.

### Verse 14

[¶7] Behold, thou hast driven me out - In [Gen 4:11], [Gen 4:12], God states two parts of Cain's punishment:

[¶8] 1. The ground was cursed, so that it was not to yield any adequate recompense for his most careful tillage.

[¶9] 2. He was to be a fugitive and a vagabond having no place in which he could dwell with comfort or security.

[¶10] To these Cain himself adds others.

[¶11] 1. His being hidden from the face of God; which appears to signify his being expelled from that particular place where God had manifested his presence in or contiguous to Paradise, whither our first parents resorted as to an oracle, and where they offered their daily adorations. So in [Gen 4:16], it is said, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and was not permitted any more to associate with the family in acts of religious worship.

[¶12] 2. The continual apprehension of being slain, as all the inhabitants of the earth were at that time of the same family, the parents themselves still alive, and each having a right to kill this murderer of his relative. Add to all this,

[¶13] 3. The terrors of a guilty conscience; his awful apprehension of God's judgments, and of being everlastingly banished from the beatific vision. To this part of the punishment of Cain St. Paul probably alludes, [2Thes 1:9] : Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. The words are so similar that we can scarcely doubt of the allusion.

### Verse 15

[¶15] The Lord set a mark upon Cain - What this mark was, has given rise to a number of frivolously curious conjectures. Dr. Shuckford collects the most remarkable. Some say he was paralytic; this seems to have arisen from the version of the Septuagint, Στενων και τρεμων εση, Groaning and trembling shalt thou be. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel says the sign was from the great and precious name, probably one of the letters of the word Yehovah. The author of an Arabic Catena in the Bodleian Library says, "A sword could not pierce him; fire could not burn him; water could not drown him; the air could not blast him; nor could thunder or lightning strike him." The author of Bereshith Rabba, a comment on Genesis, says the mark was a circle of the sun rising upon him. Abravanel says the sign was Abel's dog, which constantly accompanied him. Some of the doctors in the Talmud say that it was the letter ת tau marked on his forehead, which signified his contrition, as it is the first letter in the word תשובה teshubah, repentance. Rabbi Joseph, wiser than all the rest, says it was a long horn growing out of his forehead!

[¶16] Dr. Shuckford farther observes that the Hebrew word אית oth, which we translate a mark, signifies a sign or token. Thus, [Gen 9:13], the bow was to be לאית leoth, for a sign or token that the world should not be destroyed; therefore the words, And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, should be translated, And the Lord appointed to Cain a token or sign, to convince him that no person should be permitted to slay him. To have marked him would have been the most likely way to have brought all the evils he dreaded upon him; therefore the Lord gave him some miraculous sign or token that he should not be slain, to the end that he should not despair, but, having time to repent, might return to a gracious God and find mercy. Notwithstanding the allusion which I suppose St. Paul to have made to the punishment of Cain, some think that he did repent and find mercy. I can only say this was possible. Most people who read this account wonder why Cain should dread being killed, when it does not appear to them that there were any inhabitants on the earth at that time besides himself and his parents. To correct this mistake, let it be observed that the death of Abel took place in the one hundred and twenty-eighth or one hundred and twenty-ninth year of the world. Now, "supposing Adam and Eve to have had no other sons than Cain and Abel in the year of the world one hundred and twenty-eight, yet as they had daughters married to these sons, their descendants would make a considerable figure on the earth. Supposing them to have been married in the nineteenth year of the world, they might easily have had each eight children, some males and some females, in the twenty-fifth year. In the fiftieth year there might proceed from them in a direct line sixty-four persons; in the seventy-fourth year there would be five hundred and twelve; in the ninety-eighth year, four thousand and ninety-six; in the one hundred and twenty-second they would amount to thirty-two thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight: if to these we add the other children descended from Cain and Abel, their children, and their children's children, we shall have, in the aforesaid one hundred and twenty-eight years four hundred and twenty-one thousand one hundred and sixty-four men capable of generation, without reckoning the women either old or young, or such as are under the age of seventeen." See Dodd.

[¶17] But this calculation may be disputed, because there is no evidence that the antediluvian patriarchs began to have children before they were sixty-five years of age. Now, supposing that Adam at one hundred and thirty years of age had one hundred and thirty children, which is quite possible, and each of these a child at sixty-five years of age, and one in each successive year, the whole, in the one hundred and thirtieth year of the world, would amount to one thousand two hundred and nineteen persons; a number sufficient to found several villages, and to excite the apprehensions under which Cain appeared at this time to labor.

### Verse 16

[¶19] The land of Nod - As נוד nod signifies the same as נד sa , a vagabond, some think this verse should be rendered, And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, from the east of Eden, and dwelt a vagabond on the earth; thus the curse pronounced on him, [Gen 4:12], was accomplished.

### Verse 17

[¶21] She - bare Enoch - As חנוך Chanoch signifies instructed, dedicated, or initiated, and especially in sacred things, it may be considered some proof of Cain's repentance, that he appears to have dedicated this son to God, who, in his father's stead, might minister in the sacerdotal office, from which Cain, by his crime, was for ever excluded.

### Verse 19

[¶23] Lamech took - two wives - He was the first who dared to reverse the order of God by introducing polygamy; and from him it has been retained, practiced, and defended to the present day.

### Verse 20

[¶25] Jabal - was the father - The inventor or teacher, for so the word is understood, [1Sam 10:12]. He was the first who invented tent-making, and the breeding and managing of cattle; or he was, in these respects, the most eminent in that time. Though Abel was a shepherd, it is not likely he was such on an extensive scale.

### Verse 21

[¶27] Jubal - the father - i.e. The inventor of musical instruments, such as the כנור kinnor, which we translate harp, and the עוגב ugab, which we render organ; it is very likely that both words are generic, the former including under it all stringed instruments, and the latter, all wind instruments.

### Verse 22

[¶29] Tubal-cain - The first smith on record, who taught how to make warlike instruments and domestic utensils out of brass and iron.

[¶30] Agricultural instruments must have been in use long before, for Cain was a tiller of the ground, and so was Adam, and they could not have cultivated the ground without spades, hooks, etc. Some of these arts were useless to man while innocent and upright, but after his fall they became necessary. Thus is the saying verified: God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. As the power to get wealth is from God, so also is the invention of useful arts.

[¶31] M. De Lavaur, in his Conference de la Fable avec l'Histoire Sainte, supposes that the Greeks and Romans took their smith-god Vulcan from Tubal-cain, the son of Lamech. The probability of this will appear,

[¶32] 1. From the name, which, by the omission of the Tu and turning the b into v, a change frequently made among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, makes Vulcain or Vulcan.

[¶33] 2. From his occupation he was an artificer, a master smith in brass and iron.

[¶34] 3. He thinks this farther probable from the names and sounds in this verse. The melting metals in the fire, and hammering them, bears a near resemblance to the hissing sound of צלה tsillah, the mother of Tubal-cain; and צלל tsalal signifies to tinkle or make a sound like a bell, [1Sam 3:11] [2Kgs 21:12].

[¶35] 4. Vulcan is said to have been lame; M. De Lavaur thinks that this notion was taken from the noun צלא tsela, which signifies a halting or lameness.

[¶36] 5. Vulcan had to wife Venus, the goddess of beauty; Naamah, the sister of Tubal-cain, he thinks, may have given rise to this part of the fable, as her name in Hebrew signifies beautiful or gracious.

[¶37] 6. Vulcan is reported to have been jealous of his wife, and to have forged nets in which he took Mars and her, and exposed them to the view of the whole celestial court: this idea he thinks was derived from the literal import of the name Tubal-cain; תבל tebel signifies an incestuous mixture of relatives, [Lev 20:12]; and קנא kana, to burn with jealousy; from these and concomitant circumstances the case of the detected adultery of Mars and Venus might be easily deduced. He is of opinion that a tradition of this kind might have readily found its way from the Egyptians to the Greeks, as the former had frequent intercourse with the Hebrews.

[¶38] Of Naamah nothing more is spoken in the Scriptures; but the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel makes her the inventress of funeral songs and lamentations. R. S. Jarchi says she was the wife of Noah, and quotes Bereshith Rabba in support of the opinion. Some of the Jewish doctors say her name is recorded in Scripture because she was an upright and chaste woman; but others affirm that the whole world wandered after her, and that of her evil spirits were born into the world. This latter opinion gives some countenance to that of M. De Lavaur.

### Verse 23

[¶40] And Lamech said unto his wives - The speech of Lamech to his wives is in hemistichs in the original, and consequently, as nothing of this kind occurs before this time, it is very probably the oldest piece of poetry in the world. The following is, as nearly as possible, a literal translation: "And Lamech said unto his wives,

[¶41] Adah and Tsillah, hear ye my voice;

[¶42] Wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech;

[¶43] For I have slain a man for wounding me,

[¶44] And a young man for having bruised me.

## 9. Genesis · 9 of 67

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[¶0] If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold,

[¶1] Also Lamech seventy and seven."

[¶2] It is supposed that Lamech had slain a man in his own defense, and that his wives being alarmed lest the kindred of the deceased should seek his life in return, to quiet their fears he makes this speech, in which he endeavors to prove that there was no room for fear on this account; for if the slayer of the wilful murderer, Cain, should suffer a seven-fold punishment, surely he, who should kill Lamech for having slain a man in self-defense, might expect a seventy-seven-fold punishment.

[¶3] This speech is very dark, and has given rise to a great variety of very strange conjectures. Dr. Shuckford supposes there is an ellipsis of some preceding speech or circumstance which, if known, would cast a light on the subject. In the antediluvian times, the nearest of kin to a murdered person had a right to revenge his death by taking away the life of the murderer. This, as we have already seen, appears to have contributed not a little to Cain's horror, [Gen 4:14]. Now we may suppose that the descendants of Cain were in continual alarms, lest some of the other family should attempt to avenge the death of Abel on them, as they were not permitted to do it on Cain; and that in order to dismiss those fears, Lamech, the seventh descendant from Adam, spoke to this effect to his wives: "Why should you render yourselves miserable by such ill-founded fears? We have slain no person; we have not done the least wrong to our brethren of the other family; surely then reason should dictate to you that they have no right to injure us. It is true that Cain, one of our ancestors, killed his brother Abel; but God, willing to pardon his sin, and give him space to repent, threatened to punish those with a seven-fold punishment who should dare to kill him. If this be so, then those who should have the boldness to kill any of us who are innocent, may expect a punishment still more rigorous. For if Cain should be avenged seven-fold on the person who should slay him, surely Lamech or any of his innocent family should be avenged seventy-seven-fold on those who should injure them." The Targums give nearly the same meaning, and it makes a good sense; but who can say it is the true sense? If the words be read interrogatively, as they certainly may, the sense will be much clearer, and some of the difficulties will be removed: "Have I slain a man, that I should be wounded?

[¶4] Or a young man, that I should be bruised?"

[¶5] But even this still supposes some previous reason or conversation. I shall not trouble my readers with a ridiculous Jewish fable, followed by St. Jerome, of Lamech having killed Cain by accident, etc.; and after what I have already said, I must leave the passage, I fear, among those which are inscrutable.

### Verse 25

[¶7] God - hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel - Eve must have received on this occasion some Divine communication, else how could she have known that this son was appointed in the place of Abel, to continue that holy line by which the Messiah was to come? From this we see that the line of the Messiah was determined from the beginning, and that it was not first fixed in the days of Abraham; for the promise was then only renewed, and that branch of his family designated by which the sacred line was to be continued. And it is worthy of remark, that Seth's posterity alone continued after the flood, when all the other families of the earth were destroyed, Noah being the tenth descendant from Adam through Seth.

[¶8] Though all these persons are mentioned in the following chapter, I shall produce them here in the order of their succession:

[¶9] 1. Adam;

[¶10] 2. Seth;

[¶11] 3. Enos;

[¶12] 4. Cainan;

[¶13] 5. Mahalaleel;

[¶14] 6. Jared;

[¶15] 7. Enoch;

[¶16] 8. Methuselah;

[¶17] 9. Lamech, (the second);

[¶18] 10. Noah.

[¶19] In order to keep this line distinct, we find particular care was taken that, where there were two or more sons in a family, the one through whom God particularly designed to bring his Son into the world was, by some especial providence, pointed out. Thus in the family of Adam, Seth was chosen; in the family of Noah, Shem; in the family of Abraham, Isaac; and in that of David, Solomon and Nathan. All these things God watched over by an especial providence from the beginning, that when Jesus Christ should come it might be clearly seen that he came by the promise, through grace, and not by nature.

### Verse 26

[¶21] Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord - The marginal reading is, Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord; which words are supposed to signify that in the time of Enos the true followers of God began to distinguish themselves, and to be distinguished by others, by the appellation of sons of God; those of the other branch of Adam's family, among whom the Divine worship was not observed, being distinguished by the name, children of men. It must not be dissembled that many eminent men have contended that הוחל huchal, which we translate began, should be rendered began profanely, or then profanation began, and from this time they date the origin of idolatry. Most of the Jewish doctors were of this opinion, and Maimonides has discussed it at some length in his Treatise on Idolatry; as this piece is curious, and gives the most probable account of the origin and progress of idolatry, I shall insert it here. "In the days of Enos the sons of Adam erred with great error, and the counsel of the wise men of that age became brutish, and Enos himself was (one) of them that erred; and their error was this: they said, Forasmuch as God hath created these stars and spheres to govern the world, and set them on high, and imparted honor unto them, and they are ministers that minister before him; it is meet that men should laud, and glorify, and give them honor. For this is the will of God, that we magnify and honor whomsoever he magnifieth and honoureth; even as a king would have them honored that stand before him, and this is the honor of the king himself. When this thing was come up into their hearts they began to build temples unto the stars, and to offer sacrifice unto them, and to laud and glorify them with words, and to worship before them, that they might in their evil opinion obtain favor of the Creator; and this was the root of idolatry, etc. And in process of time there stood up false prophets among the sons of Adam, which said that God had commanded and said unto them, Worship such a star, or all the stars, and do sacrifice unto them thus and thus; and build a temple for it, and make an image of it, that all the people, women, and children may worship it. And the false prophet showed them the image which he had feigned out of his own heart, and said it was the image of such a star, which was made known unto him by prophecy. And they began after this manner to make images in temples, and under trees, and on tops of mountains and hills, and assembled together and worshipped them, etc. And this thing was spread through all the world, to serve images with services different one from another, and to sacrifice unto and worship them. So, in process of time, the glorious and fearful name (of God) was forgotten out of the mouth of all living, and out of their knowledge, and they acknowledged him not.

[¶22] And there was found no people on the earth that knew aught, save images of wood and stone, and temples of stone, which they had been trained up from their childhood to worship and serve, and to swear by their names. And the wise men that were among them, as the priests and such like, thought there was no God save the stars and spheres, for whose sake and in whose likeness they had made these images; but as for the Rock everlasting, there was no man that acknowledged him or knew him save a few persons in the world, as Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Sham, and Heber. And in this way did the world walk and converse till that pillar of the world, Abraham our father, was born." Maim. in Mishn, and Ainsworth in loco.

[¶23] 1. We see here the vast importance of worshipping God according to his own mind; no sincerity, no uprightness of intention, can atone for the neglect of positive commands delivered in Divine revelation, when this revelation is known. He who will bring a eucharistic offering instead of a sacrifice, while a sin-offering lieth at the door, as he copies Cain's conduct, may expect to be treated in the same manner. Reader, remember that thou hast an entrance unto the holiest through the veil, that is to say his flesh; and those who come in this way, God will in nowise cast out.

[¶24] 2. We see the horrible nature of envy: its eye is evil merely because God is good; it easily begets hatred; hatred, deep-settled malice; and malice, murder! Watch against the first appearance of this most destructive passion, the prime characteristic of which is to seek the destruction of the object of its malevolence, and finally to ruin its possessor.

[¶25] 3. Be thankful to God that, as weakness increased and wants became multiplied, God enabled man to find out useful inventions, so as to lessen excessive labor, and provide every thing indispensably necessary for the support of life. He who carefully attends to the dictates of honest, sober industry, is never likely to perish for lack of the necessaries of life.

[¶26] 4. As the followers of God at this early period found it indispensably necessary to separate themselves from all those who were irreligious and profane, and to make a public profession of their attachment to the truth, so it should be now. There are still men of profane minds whose spirit and conduct are destructive to godliness; and in reference to such the permanent order of God is, Come out from among them, touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. He who is not determined to be a Christian at all events, is not far from being an infidel. Those only who confess Christ among men shall be acknowledged before his Father and the angels of God.

### Introduction

[¶28] A recapitulation of the account of the creation of man, [Gen 5:1], [Gen 5:2]; and of the birth of Seth, [Gen 5:3]. Genealogy of the ten antediluvian patriarchs, vv. 3-31. Enoch's extraordinary piety, [Gen 5:22]; his translation to heaven without seeing death, [Gen 5:24]. The birth of Noah, and the reason of his name, [Gen 5:29]; his age at the birth of Japheth, [Gen 5:32].

### Verse 1

[¶30] The book of the generations - ספר sepher, in Hebrew, which we generally translate book, signifies a register, an account, any kind of writing, even a letter, such as the bill of divorce. Here It means the account or register of the generations of Adam or his descendants to the five hundredth year of the life of Noah.

[¶31] In the likeness of God made he him - This account is again introduced to keep man in remembrance of the heights of glory whence he bad fallen; and to prove to him that the miseries and death consequent on his present state were produced by his transgression, and did not flow from his original state. For, as he was created in the image of God, he was created free from natural and moral evil. As the deaths of the patriarchs are now to be mentioned, it was necessary to introduce them by this observation, in order to justify the ways of God to man.

### Verse 3

[¶33] And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, etc. - The Scripture chronology especially in the ages of some of the antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs, has exceedingly puzzled chronologists, critics, and divines. The printed Hebrew text, the Samaritan, the Septuagint, and Josephus, are all different, and have their respective vouchers and defenders. The following tables of the genealogies of the patriarchs before and after the flood, according to the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint, will at once exhibit the discordances. For much satisfactory information on this subject I must refer to A New Analysis of Chronology, by the Rev. William Hales, D.D., 3 vols. 4th., London, 1809.

[¶34] And begat a son in his own likeness, after his image - Words nearly the same with those [Gen 1:26] : Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. What this image and likeness of God were, we have already seen, and we may rest assured that the same image and likeness are not meant here. The body of Adam was created provisionally immortal, i.e. while he continued obedient he could not die; but his obedience was voluntary, and his state a probationary one. The soul of Adam was created in the moral image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. He had now sinned, and consequently had lost his moral resemblance to his Maker; he had also become mortal through his breach of the law. His image and likeness were therefore widely different at this time from what they were before; and his begetting children in this image and likeness plainly implies that they were imperfect like himself, mortal like himself, sinful and corrupt like himself. For it is impossible that he, being impure, fallen from the Divine image, could beget a pure and holy offspring, unless we could suppose it possible that a bitter fountain could send forth sweet waters, or that a cause could produce effects totally dissimilar from itself. What is said here of Seth might have been said of all the other children of Adam, as they were all begotten after his fall; but the sacred writer has thought proper to mark it only in this instance.

### Verse 22

[¶36] And Enoch walked with God - three hundred years - There are several things worthy of our most particular notice in this account:

[¶37] 1. The name of this patriarch; Enoch, from חנך chanack, which signifies to instruct, to initiate, to dedicate. From his subsequent conduct we are authorized to believe he was early instructed in the things of God, initiated into the worship of his Maker, and dedicated to his service. By these means, under the influence of the Divine Spirit, which will ever attend pious parental instructions, his mind got that sacred bias which led him to act a part so distinguished through the course of a long life.

[¶38] 2. His religious conduct. He walked with God; יתהלך yithhallech, he set himself to walk, he was fixedly purposed and determined to live to God. Those who are acquainted with the original will at once see that it has this force. A verb in the conjugation called hithpael signifies a reciprocal act, that which a man does upon himself: here we may consider Enoch receiving a pious education, and the Divine influence through it; in consequence of which he determines to be a worker with God, and therefore takes up the resolution to walk with his Maker, that he might not receive the grace of God in vain.

[¶39] 3. The circumstances in which he was placed. He was a patriarch; the king, the priest, and the prophet of a numerous family, to whom he was to administer justice, among whom he was to perform all the rites and ceremonies of religion, and teach, both by precept and example, the way of truth and righteousness. Add to this, he was a married man, he had a numerous family of his own, independently of the collateral branches over which he was obliged, as patriarch, to preside; he walked three hundred years with God, and begat sons and daughters; therefore marriage is no hindrance even to the perfection of piety; much less inconsistent with it, as some have injudiciously taught.

[¶40] 4. The astonishing height of piety to which he had arrived; being cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and having perfected holiness in the fear of God, we find not only his soul but his body purified, so that, without being obliged to visit the empire of death, he was capable of immediate translation to the paradise of God. There are few cases of this kind on record; but probably there might be more, many more, were the followers of God more faithful to the grace they receive.

[¶41] 5. Enoch attained this state of religious and spiritual excellence in a time when, comparatively speaking, there were few helps, and no written revelation. Here then we cannot but see and admire how mighty the grace of God is, and what wonders it works in the behalf of those who are faithful, who set themselves to walk with God. It is not the want of grace nor of the means of grace that is the cause of the decay of this primitive piety, but the want of faithfulness in those who have the light, and yet will not walk as children of the light.

[¶42] 6. If the grace of God could work such a mighty change in those primitive times, when life and immortality were not brought to light by the Gospel, what may we not expect in these times, in which the Son of God tabernacles among men, in which God gives the Holy Spirit to them who ask him, in which all things are possible to him who believes? No man can prove that Enoch had greater spiritual advantages than any of the other patriarchs, though it seems pretty evident that he made a better use of those that were common to all than any of the rest did; and it would be absurd to say that he had greater spiritual helps and advantages than Christians can now expect, for he lived under a dispensation much less perfect than that of the Law, and yet the law itself was only the shadow of the glorious substance of Gospel blessings and Gospel privileges.

[¶43] 7. It is said that Enoch not only walked with God, setting him always before his eyes, beginning, continuing, and ending every work to his glory, but also that he pleased God, and had the testimony that he did please God, [Heb 11:5]. Hence we learn that it was then possible to live so as not to offend God, consequently so as not to commit sin against him; and to have the continual evidence or testimony that all that a man did and purposed was pleasing in the sight of Him who searches the heart, and by whom devices are weighed: and if it was possible then, it is surely, through the same grace, possible now; for God, and Christ, and faith, are still the same.

## 10. Genesis · 10 of 67

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### Verse 27

[¶1] The days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years - This is the longest life mentioned in Scripture, and probably the longest ever lived; but we have not authority to say positively that it was the longest. Before the flood, and before artificial refinements were much known and cultivated, the life of man was greatly protracted, and yet of him who lived within thirty-one years of a thousand it is said he died; and the longest life is but as a moment when it is past. Though life is uncertain, precarious, and full of natural evils, yet it is a blessing in all its periods if devoted to the glory of God and the interest of the soul; for while it lasts we may more and more acquaint ourselves with God and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto us; [Job 22:21].

### Verse 29

[¶3] This same shall comfort us - This is an allusion, as some think, to the name a Noah, which they derive from נחם nacham, to comfort; but it is much more likely that it comes from נח nach or נוח nuach, to rest, to settle, etc. And what is more comfortable than rest after toil and labor? These words seem to have been spoken prophetically concerning Noah, who built the ark for the preservation of the human race, and who seems to have been a typical person; for when he offered his sacrifice after the drying up of the waters, it is said that God smelled a savor of Rest, and said he would not curse the ground any more for man's sake, [Gen 8:21]; and from that time the earth seems to have had upon an average the same degree of fertility; and the life of man, in a few generations after, was settled in the mean at threescore years and ten. See [Gen 9:3].

### Verse 32

[¶5] Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth - From [Gen 10:21]; [1Chr 1:5], etc., we learn that Japheth was the eldest son of Noah, but Shem is mentioned first, because it was from him, in a direct line, that the Messiah came. Ham was certainly the youngest of Noah's sons, and from what we read, [Gen 9:22], the worst of them; and how he comes to be mentioned out of his natural order is not easy to be accounted for. When the Scriptures design to mark precedency, though the subject be a younger son or brother, he is always mentioned first; so Jacob is named before Esau, his elder brother, and Ephraim before Manasses. See [Gen 28:5]; [Gen 48:20].

[¶6] Among many important things presented to our view in this chapter, several of which have been already noticed, we may observe that, of all the antediluvian patriarchs, Enoch, who was probably the best man, was the shortest time upon earth; his years were exactly as the days in a solar revolution, viz., three hundred and sixty-five; and like the sun he fulfilled a glorious course, shining more and more unto the perfect day, and was taken, when in his meridian splendor, to shine like the sun in the kingdom of his Father for ever.

[¶7] From computation it appears, 1. That Adam lived to see Lamech, the ninth generation, in the fifty-sixth year of whose life he died; and as he was the first who lived, and the first that sinned, so he was the first who tasted death in a natural way. Abel's was not a natural but a violent death. 2. That Enoch was taken away next after Adam, seven patriarchs remaining witness of his translation. 3. That all the nine first patriarchs were taken away before the flood came, which happened in the six hundredth year of Noah's life. 4. That Methuselah lived till the very year in which the flood came, of which his name is supposed to have been prophetical מתו methu, "he dieth," and שלח shalach, "he sendeth out;" as if God had designed to teach men that as soon as Methuselah died the flood should be sent forth to drown an ungodly world. If this were then so understood, even the name of this patriarch contained in it a gracious warning.

### Introduction

[¶9] The children of God, among whom the true religion was at first preserved, corrupt it by forming matrimonial connections with irreligious women, [Gen 6:1], [Gen 6:2]. God, displeased with these connections and their consequences, limits the continuance of the old world to one hundred and twenty years, [Gen 6:3]. The issue of those improper connections termed giants, [Gen 6:4]. An affecting description of the depravity of the world, [Gen 6:5], [Gen 6:6]. God threatens the destruction of every living creature, [Gen 6:7]. Noah and his family find grace in his sight, [Gen 6:8]. The character and family of Noah, [Gen 6:9], [Gen 6:10]. And a farther description of the corruption of man, [Gen 6:11], [Gen 6:12]. Noah is forewarned of the approaching destruction of the human race, [Gen 6:13]; and is ordered to build an ark for the safety of himself and household, the form and dimensions of which are particularly described, [Gen 6:14-16]. The deluge threatened, [Gen 6:17]. The covenant of God's mercy is to be established between him and the family of Noah, [Gen 6:18]. A male and female of all kinds of animals that could not live in the waters to be brought into the ark, [Gen 6:19], [Gen 6:20]. Noah is commanded to provide food for their sustenance, [Gen 6:21]; and punctually follows all these directions, [Gen 6:22].

### Verse 1

[¶11] When men began to multiply - It was not at this time that men began to multiply, but the inspired penman speaks now of a fact which had taken place long before. As there is a distinction made here between men and those called the sons of God, it is generally supposed that the immediate posterity of Cain and that of Seth are intended. The first were mere men, such as fallen nature may produce, degenerate sons of a degenerate father, governed by the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life. The others were sons of God, not angels, as some have dreamed, but such as were, according to our Lord's doctrine, born again, born from above, [Joh 3:3], [Joh 3:5],[Joh 3:6], etc., and made children of God by the influence of the Holy Spirit, [Gal 5:6]. The former were apostates from the true religion, the latter were those among whom it was preserved and cultivated. Dr. Wall supposes the first verses of this chapter should be paraphrased thus: "When men began to multiply on the earth, the chief men took wives of all the handsome poor women they chose. There were tyrants in the earth in those days; and also after the antediluvian days powerful men had unlawful connections with the inferior women, and the children which sprang from this illicit commerce were the renowned heroes of antiquity, of whom the heathens made their gods."

### Verse 3

[¶13] My spirit shall not always strive - It is only by the influence of the Spirit of God that the carnal mind can be subdued and destroyed; but those who wilfully resist and grieve that Spirit must be ultimately left to the hardness and blindness of their own hearts, if they do not repent and turn to God. God delights in mercy, and therefore a gracious warning is given. Even at this time the earth was ripe for destruction; but God promised them one hundred and twenty years' respite: if they repented in that interim, well; if not, they should be destroyed by a flood. See the note on [Gen 6:5]

### Verse 4

[¶15] There were giants in the earth - נפלים nephilim, from נפל naphal, "he fell." Those who had apostatized or fallen from the true religion. The Septuagint translate the original word by γιγαντες, which literally signifies earth-born, and which we, following them, term giants, without having any reference to the meaning of the word, which we generally conceive to signify persons of enormous stature. But the word when properly understood makes a very just distinction between the sons of men and the sons of God; those were the nephilim, the fallen earth-born men, with the animal and devilish mind. These were the sons of God, who were born from above; children of the kingdom, because children of God. Hence we may suppose originated the different appellatives given to sinners and saints; the former were termed γιγαντες, earth-born, and the latter, ἁγιοι, i.e. saints, persons not of the earth, or separated from the earth.

[¶16] The same became mighty men - men of renown - גברים gibborim, which we render mighty men, signifies properly conquerors, heroes, from גבר gabar, "he prevailed, was victorious." and אנשי השם anshey hashshem, "men of the name," ανθρωποι ονομαστοι, Septuagint; the same as we render men of renown, renominati, twice named, as the word implies, having one name which they derived from their fathers, and another which they acquired by their daring exploits and enterprises.

[¶17] It may be necessary to remark here that our translators have rendered seven different Hebrew words by the one term giants, viz., nephilim, gibborim, enachim, rephaim, emim, and zamzummim; by which appellatives are probably meant in general persons of great knowledge, piety, courage, wickedness, etc., and not men of enormous stature, as is generally conjectured.

### Verse 5

[¶19] The wickedness of man was great - What an awful character does God give of the inhabitants of the antediluvian world! 1. They were flesh, ([Gen 6:3]), wholly sensual, the desires of the mind overwhelmed and lost in the desires of the flesh, their souls no longer discerning their high destiny, but ever minding earthly things, so that they were sensualized, brutalized, and become flesh; incarnated so as not to retain God in their knowledge, and they lived, seeking their portion in this life. 2. They were in a state of wickedness. All was corrupt within, and all unrighteous without; neither the science nor practice of religion existed. Piety was gone, and every form of sound words had disappeared. 3. This wickedness was great רבה rabbah, "was multiplied;" it was continually increasing and multiplying increase by increase, so that the whole earth was corrupt before God, and was filled with violence, ([Gen 6:11]); profligacy among the lower, and cruelty and oppression among the higher classes, being only predominant. 4. All the imaginations of their thoughts were evil - the very first embryo of every idea, the figment of every thought, the very materials out of which perception, conception, and ideas were formed, were all evil; the fountain which produced them, with every thought, purpose, wish, desire, and motive, was incurably poisoned. 5. All these were evil without any mixture of good - the Spirit of God which strove with them was continually resisted, so that evil had its sovereign sway. 6. They were evil continually - there was no interval of good, no moment allowed for serious reflection, no holy purpose, no righteous act. What a finished picture of a fallen soul! Such a picture as God alone, who searches the heart and tries the spirit, could possibly give. 7. To complete the whole, God represents himself as repenting because he had made them, and as grieved at the heart because of their iniquities! Had not these been voluntary transgressions, crimes which they might have avoided, had they not grieved and quenched the Spirit of God, could he speak of them in the manner he does here? 8. So incensed is the most holy and the most merciful God, that he is determined to destroy the work of his hands: And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created; [Gen 6:7]. How great must the evil have been, and how provoking the transgressions, which obliged the most compassionate God, for the vindication of his own glory, to form this awful purpose! Fools make a mock at sin, but none except fools.

### Verse 8

[¶21] Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord - Why? Because he was, 1. A just man, איש צדיק ish tsaddik, a man who gave to all their due; for this is the ideal meaning of the original word. 2. He was perfect in his generation - he was in all things a consistent character, never departing from the truth in principle or practice. 3. He walked with God - he was not only righteous in his conduct, but he was pious, and had continual communion with God. The same word is used here as before in the case of Enoch. See [Gen 5:22].

### Verse 11

[¶23] The earth also was corrupt - See the note on [Gen 6:5].

### Verse 13

[¶25] I will destroy them with the earth - Not only the human race was to he destroyed, but all terrestrial animals, i.e. those which could not live in the waters. These must necessarily be destroyed when the whole surface of the earth was drowned. But destroying the earth may probably mean the alteration of its constitution. Dr. Woodward, in his natural history of the earth, has rendered it exceedingly probable that the whole terrestrial substance was amalgamated with the waters, after which the different materials of its composition settled in beds or strata according to their respective gravities. This theory, however, is disputed by others.

### Verse 14

[¶27] Make thee an ark - תבת tebath, a word which is used only to express this vessel, and that in which Moses was preserved, [Exo 2:3], [Exo 2:5]. It signifies no more than our word vessel in its common acceptation - a hollow place capable of containing persons, goods, etc., without any particular reference to shape or form.

[¶28] Gopher wood - Some think the cedar is meant; others, the cypress. Bochart renders this probable, 1. From the appellation, supposing the Greek word κυπαρισσος, cypress, was formed from the Hebrew גפר, gopher; for take away the termination ισσος, and then gopher and κυπαρ will have a near resemblance. 2. Because the cypress is not liable to rot, nor to be injured by worms. 3. The cypress was anciently used for ship-building. 4. This wood abounded in Assyria, where it is probable Noah built the ark. After all, the word is of doubtful signification, and occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures. The Septuagint render the place, εκ ξυλων τετραγωνων, "of square timber;" and the Vulgate, de lignis laevigatis, "of planed timber;" so it is evident that these translators knew not what kind of wood was intended by the original. The Syriac and Arabic trifle with the passage, rendering it wicker work, as if the ark had been a great basket! Both the Targums render it cedar; and the Persian, pine or fir.

### Verse 15

[¶30] Thou shalt make - the length of the ark - three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits - Allowing the cubit, which is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, to be eighteen inches, the ark must have been four hundred and fifty feet in length, seventy-five in breadth, and forty-five in height. But that the ancient cubit was more than eighteen inches has been demonstrated by Mr. Greaves, who traveled in Greece, Palestine, and Egypt, in order to be able to ascertain the weights, moneys, and measures of antiquity. He measured the pyramids in Egypt, and comparing the accounts which Herodotus, Strabo, and others, give of their size, he found the length of a cubit to be twenty-one inches and eight hundred and eighty-eight decimal parts out of a thousand, or nearly twenty-two inches. Hence the cube of a cubit is evidently ten thousand four hundred and eighty-six inches. And from this it will appear that the three hundred cubits of the ark's length make five hundred and forty-seven feet; the fifty for its breadth, ninety-one feet two inches; and the thirty for its height, fifty-four feet eight inches. When these dimensions are examined, the ark will be found to be a vessel whose capacity was more than sufficient to contain all persons and animals said to have been in it, with sufficient food for each for more than twelve months. This vessel Dr. Arbuthnot computes to have been eighty-one thousand and sixty-two tons in burden.

[¶31] As many have supposed the capacity of the ark to have been much too small for the things which were contained in it, it will be necessary to examine this subject thoroughly, that every difficulty may be removed. The things contained in the ark, besides the eight persons of Noah's family, were one pair of all unclean animals, and seven pairs of all clean animals with provisions for all sufficient for twelve months.

[¶32] At the first view the number of animals may appear so immense that no space but the forest could be thought sufficient to contain them. If, however, we come to a calculation, the number of the different genera or kinds of animals will be found much less than is generally imagined. It is a question whether in this account any but the different genera of animals necessary to be brought into the ark should be included Naturalists have divided the whole system of zoology into Classes and Orders, containing genera and species. There are six classes thus denominated:

[¶33] 1. Mammalia;

[¶34] 2. Aves;

[¶35] 3. Amphibia;

[¶36] 4. Pisces;

[¶37] 5. Insectae;

[¶38] 6. Vermes.

[¶39] With the three last of these, viz., fishes, insects, and worms, the question can have little to do.

[¶40] The first Class, Mammalia, or animals with teats, contains seven orders, and only forty-three genera if we except the seventh order, cete, i.e. all the whale kind, which certainly need not come into this account. The different species in this class amount, the cete excluded, to five hundred and forty-three.

[¶41] The second Class, Aves, birds, contains six orders, and only seventy-four genera, if we exclude the third order, anseres, or web-footed fowls, all of which could very well live in the water. The different species in this class, the anseres excepted, amount to two thousand three hundred and seventy-two.

[¶42] The third Class, Amphibia, contains only two orders, reptiles and serpents; these comprehend ten genera, and three hundred and sixty-six species, but of the reptiles many could live in the water, such as the tortoise, frog, etc. Of the former there are thirty-three species, of the latter seventeen, which excluded reduce the number to three hundred and sixteen. The whole of these would occupy but little room in the ark, for a small portion of earth, etc., in the hold would be sufficient for their accommodation.

[¶43] Bishop Wilkins, who has written largely and with his usual accuracy on this subject, supposes that quadrupeds do not amount to one hundred different kinds, nor birds which could not live in the water to two hundred. Of quadrupeds he shows that only seventy-two species needed a place in the ark, and the birds he divides into nine classes, including in the whole one hundred and ninety-five kinds, from which all the web-footed should be deducted, as these could live in the water.

[¶44] He computes all the carnivorous animals equivalent, as to the bulk of their bodies and food, to twenty-seven wolves; and all the rest to one hundred and eighty oxen. For the former he allows one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five sheep for their annual consumption; and for the latter, one hundred and nine thousand five hundred cubits of hay: these animals and their food will be easily contained In the two first stories, and much room to spare; as to the third story, no person can doubt its being sufficient for the fowls, with Noah and his family.

[¶45] One sheep each day he judges will be sufficient for six wolves; and a square cubit of hay, which contains forty-one pounds, as ordinarily pressed in our ricks, will he amply sufficient for one ox in the day. When the quantum of room which these animals and their provender required for one year, is compared with the capacity of the ark, we shall be led to conclude, with the learned bishop, "that of the two it is more difficult to assign a number and bulk of necessary things to answer to the capacity of the ark, than to find sufficient room for the several species of animals and their food already known to have been there." This he attributes to the imperfection of our lists of animals, especially those of the unknown parts of the earth; and adds, "that the most expert mathematicians at this day," and he was one of the first in Europe, "could not assign the proportion of a vessel better accommodated to the purpose than is here done;" and concludes thus: "The capacity of the ark, which has been made an objection against Scripture, ought to be esteemed a confirmation of its Divine authority; since, in those ruder ages men, being less versed in arts and philosophy, were more obnoxious to vulgar prejudices than now, so that had it been a human invention it would have been contrived, according to those wild apprehensions which arise from a confused and general view of things, as much too big as it has been represented too little." See Bishop Wilkins's Essay towards a Philosophical Character and Language.

## 11. Genesis · 11 of 67

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### Verse 16

[¶1] A window shalt thou make - What this was cannot be absolutely ascertained. The original word צהר tsohar signifies clear or bright; the Septuagint translate it by επωυναγων, "collecting, thou shalt make the ark," which plainly shows they did not understand the word as signifying any kind of window or light. Symmacbus translates it διαφανες, a transparency; and Aquila, μεσημβρινον, the noon. Jonathan ben Uzziel supposes that it was a precious luminous stone which Noah, by Divine command, brought from the river Pison. It is probably a word which should be taken in a collective sense, signifying apertures for air and light.

[¶2] In a cubit shalt thou finish it above - Probably meaning that the roof should be left a cubit broad at the apex or top, and that it should not terminate in a sharp ridge. But this place is variously understood.

### Verse 17

[¶4] I-do bring a flood - מבול; mabbul; a word used only to designate the general deluge, being never applied to signify any other kind of inundation; and does not the Holy Spirit intend to show by this that no other flood was ever like this, and that it should continue to be the sole one of the kind? There have been many partial inundations in various countries, but never more than One general deluge; and we have God's promise, [Gen 9:15], that there shall never be another.

### Verse 18

[¶6] With thee will I establish my covenant - The word ברית berith, from בר bar, to purify or cleanse, signifies properly a purification or purifier, (see on Genesis 15 (note)), because in all covenants made between God and man, sin and sinfulness were ever supposed to be on man's side, and that God could not enter into any covenant or engagement with him without a purifier; hence, in all covenants, a sacrifice was offered for the removal of offenses, and the reconciliation of God to the sinner; and hence the word ברית berith signifies not only a covenant, but also the sacrifice offered on the occasion, [Exo 24:8]; [Psa 50:5]; and Jesus Christ, the great atonement and purifier, has the same word for his title, [Isa 42:6]; [Isa 49:8]; and [Zac 9:11].

[¶7] Almost all nations, in forming alliances, etc., made their covenants or contracts in the same way. A sacrifice was provided, its throat was cut, and its blood poured out before God; then the whole carcass was divided through the spinal marrow from the head to the rump; so as to make exactly two equal parts; these were placed opposite to each other, and the contracting parties passed between them, or entering at opposite ends met in the center, and there took the covenant oath. This is particularly referred to by Jeremiah, [Jer 34:18], [Jer 34:19], [Jer 34:20] : "I will give the men (into the hands of their enemies, [Jer 34:20]) that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof," etc. See also [Deu 29:12].

[¶8] A covenant, says Mr. Ainsworth, is a disposition of good things faithfully declared, which God here calls his, as arising from his grace towards Noah ([Gen 6:8]) and all men; but implying also conditions on man's part, and therefore is called our covenant, [Zac 9:11]. The apostles call it διαθηκη, a testament or disposition; and it is mixed of the properties both of covenant and testament, as the apostle shows, [Heb 9:16], etc., and of both may be named a testamental covenant, whereby the disposing of God's favors and good things to us is declared. The covenant made with Noah signified, on God's part, that he should save Noah and his family from death by the ark. On Noah's part, that he should in faith and obedience make and enter into the ark - Thou shalt come into the ark, etc., so committing himself to God's preservation, [Heb 11:7]. And under this the covenant or testament of eternal salvation by Christ was also implied, the apostle testifying, [1Pet 3:21], that the antitype, baptism, doth also now save us; for baptism is a seal of our salvation, [Mar 16:16]. To provide a Savior, and the means of salvation, is God's part: to accept this Savior, laying hold on the hope set before us, is ours. Those who refuse the way and means of salvation must perish; those who accept of the great Covenant Sacrifice cannot perish, but shall have eternal life. See on [Gen 15:10] (note), etc.

### Verse 19

[¶10] To keep them alive - God might have destroyed all the animal creation, and created others to occupy the new world, but he chose rather to preserve those already created. The Creator and Preserver of the universe does nothing but what is essentially necessary to be done. Nothing should be wantonly wasted; nor should power or skill be lavished where no necessity exists; and yet it required more means and economy to preserve the old than to have created new ones. Such respect has God to the work of his hands, that nothing but what is essential to the credit of his justice and holiness shall ever induce him to destroy any thing he has made.

### Verse 21

[¶12] Of all food that is eaten - That is, of the food proper for every species of animals.

### Verse 22

[¶14] Thus did Noah - He prepared the ark; and during one hundred and twenty years preached righteousness to that sinful generation, [2Pet 2:5]. And this we are informed, [1Pet 3:18], [1Pet 3:19], etc., he did by the Spirit of Christ; for it was only through him that the doctrine of repentance could ever be successfully preached. The people in Noah's time are represented as shut up in prison - arrested and condemned by God's justice, but graciously allowed the space of one hundred and twenty years to repent in. This respite was an act of great mercy; and no doubt thousands who died in the interim availed themselves of it, and believed to the saving of their souls. But the great majority of the people did not, else the flood had never come.

### Introduction

[¶16] God informs Noah that within seven days he shall send a rain upon the earth, that shall continue for forty days and nights; and therefore commands him to take his family, with the different clean and unclean animals, and enter the ark, [Gen 7:1-4]. This command punctually obeyed, [Gen 7:5-9]. In the seventeenth day of the second month, in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, the waters, from the opened windows of heaven, and the broken up fountains of the great deep, were poured out upon the earth, [Gen 7:10-12]. The different quadrupeds, fowls, and reptiles come unto Noah, and the Lord shuts him and them in, [Gen 7:13-16]. The waters increase, and the ark floats, [Gen 7:17]. The whole earth is covered with water fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, [Gen 7:18-20]. All terrestrial animals die, [Gen 7:21-23]. And the waters prevail one hundred and fifty days, [Gen 7:24].

### Verse 1

[¶18] Thee have I seen righteous - See the note on [Gen 6:8]

### Verse 2

[¶20] Of every clean beast - So we find the distinction between clean and unclean animals existed long before the Mosaic law. This distinction seems to have been originally designed to mark those animals which were proper for sacrifice and food, from those that were not. See Leviticus 11.

### Verse 4

[¶22] For yet seven days - God spoke these words probably on the seventh or Sabbath day, and the days of the ensuing week were employed in entering the ark, in embarking the mighty troop, for whose reception ample provision had been already made.

[¶23] Forty days - This period became afterwards sacred, and was considered a proper space for humiliation. Moses fasted forty days, [Deu 9:9], [Deu 9:11]; so did Elijah, [1Kgs 19:8]; so did our Lord, [Mat 4:2]. Forty days' respite were given to the Ninevites that they might repent, [Jon 3:4]; and thrice forty (one hundred and twenty) years were given to the old world for the same gracious purpose, [Gen 6:3]. The forty days of Lent, in commemoration of our Lord's fasting, have a reference to the same thing; as each of these seems to be deduced from this primitive judgment.

### Verse 11

[¶25] In the six hundredth year, etc. - This must have been in the beginning of the six hundredth year of his life; for he was a year in the ark, [Gen 8:13]; and lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and died nine hundred and fifty years old, [Gen 9:29]; so it is evident that, when the flood commenced, he had just entered on his six hundredth year.

[¶26] Second month - The first month was Tisri, which answers to the latter half of September, and first half of October; and the second was Marcheshvan, which answers to part of October and part of November. After the deliverance from Egypt, the beginning of the year was changed from Marcheshvan to Nisan, which answers to a part of our March and April. But it is not likely that this reckoning obtained before the flood. Dr. Lightfoot very probably conjectures that Methuselah was alive in the first month of this year. And it appears, says he, how clearly the Spirit of prophecy foretold of things to come, when it directed his father Enoch almost a thousand years before to name him Methuselah, which signifies they die by a dart; or, he dieth, and then is the dart; or, he dieth, end then it is sent. And thus Adam and Methuselah had measured the whole time between the creation and the flood, and lived above two hundred and forty years together. See Genesis 5 at the end, [Gen 5:32] (note).

[¶27] Were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened - It appears that an immense quantity of waters occupied the center of the antediluvian earth; and as these burst forth, by the order of God, the circumambient strata must sink, in order to fill up the vacuum occasioned by the elevated waters. This is probably what is meant by breaking up the fountains of the great deep. These waters, with the seas on the earth's surface, might be deemed sufficient to drown the whole globe, as the waters now on its surface are nearly three-fourths of the whole, as has been accurately ascertained by Dr. Long. See the note on [Gen 1:10].

[¶28] By the opening of the windows of heaven is probably meant the precipitating all the aqueous vapours which were suspended in the whole atmosphere, so that, as Moses expresses it, [Gen 1:7], the waters that were above the firmament were again united to the waters which were below the firmament, from which on the second day of creation they had been separated. A multitude of facts have proved that water itself is composed of two airs, oxygen and hydrogen; and that 85 parts of the first and 15 of the last, making 100 in the whole, will produce exactly 100 parts of water. And thus it is found that these two airs form the constituent parts of water in the above proportions. The electric spark, which is the same as lightning, passing through these airs, decomposes them and converts them to water. And to this cause we may probably attribute the rain which immediately follows the flash of lightning and peal of thunder. God therefore, by the means of lightning, might have converted the whole atmosphere into water, for the purpose of drowning the globe, had there not been a sufficiency of merely aqueous vapours suspended in the atmosphere on the second day of creation. And if the electric fluid were used on this occasion for the production of water, the incessant glare of lightning, and the continual peals of thunder, must have added indescribable horrors to the scene. See the note on [Gen 8:1]. These two causes concurring were amply sufficient, not only to overflow the earth, but probably to dissolve the whole terrene fabric, as some judicious naturalists have supposed: indeed, this seems determined by the word מבול mabbul, translated flood, which is derived from בל bal בלל or balal, to mix, mingle, confound, confuse, because the aqueous and terrene parts of the globe were then mixed and confounded together; and when the supernatural cause that produced this mighty change suspended its operations, the different particles of matter would settle according to their specific gravities, and thus form the various strata or beds of which the earth appears to be internally constructed. Some naturalists have controverted this sentiment, because in some cases the internal structure of the earth does not appear to justify the opinion that the various portions of matter had settled according to their specific gravities; but these anomalies may easily be accounted for, from the great changes that have taken place in different parts of the earth since the flood, by volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc. Some very eminent philosophers are of the opinion "that, by the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, we are to understand an eruption of waters from the Southern Ocean." Mr. Kirwan supposes "that this is pretty evident from such animals as the elephant and rhinoceros being found in great masses in Siberia, mixed with different marine substances; whereas no animals or other substances belonging to the northern regions have been ever found in southern climates. Had these animals died natural deaths in their proper climate, their bodies would not have been found in such masses. But that they were carried no farther northward than Siberia, is evident from there being no remains of any animals besides those of whales found in the mountains of Greenland. That this great rush of waters was from the south or south-east is farther evident, he thinks, from the south and south-east sides of almost all great mountains being much steeper than their north or north-west sides, as they necessarily would be if the force of a great body of water fell upon them in that direction." On a subject like this men may innocently differ. Many think the first opinion accords best with the Hebrew text and with the phenomena of nature, for mountains do not always present the above appearance.

### Verse 12

[¶30] The rain was upon the earth - Dr. Lightfoot supposes that the rain began on the 18th day of the second month, or Marcheshvan, and that it ceased on the 28th of the third month, Cisleu.

### Verse 15

[¶32] And they went in, etc. - It was physically impossible for Noah to have collected such a vast number of tame and ferocious animals, nor could they have been retained in their wards by mere natural means. How then were they brought from various distances to the ark and preserved there? Only by the power of God. He who first miraculously brought them to Adam that he might give them their names, now brings them to Noah that he may preserve their lives. And now we may reasonably suppose that their natural enmity was so far removed or suspended that the lion might dwell with the lamb, and the wolf lie down with the kid, though each might still require his peculiar aliment. This can be no difficulty to the power of God, without the immediate interposition of which neither the deluge nor the concomitant circumstances could have taken place.

### Verse 16

[¶34] The Lord shut him in - This seems to imply that God took him under his especial protection, and as he shut Him in, so he shut the Others out. God had waited one hundred and twenty years upon that generation; they did not repent; they filled up the measure of their iniquities, and then wrath came upon them to the uttermost.

### Verse 20

[¶36] Fifteen cubits upward - Should any person object to the universality of the deluge because he may imagine there is not water sufficient to drown the whole globe in the manner here related, he may find a most satisfactory answer to all the objections he can raise on this ground in Mr. Ray's Physico-theological Discourses, 2d edit., 8vo., 1693.

### Verse 22

[¶38] Of all that was in the dry land - From this we may conclude that such animals only as could not live in the water were preserved in the ark.

### Verse 24

[¶40] And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days - The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, and the raining forty days and nights, had raised the waters fifteen cubits above the highest mountains; after which forty days it appears to have continued at this height for one hundred and fifty days more. "So," says Dr. Lightfoot, "these two sums are to be reckoned distinct, and not the forty days included in the one hundred and fifty; so that when the one hundred and fifty days were ended, there were six months and ten days of the flood past." For an improvement of this awful judgment, see the conclusion of the following chapter, [Gen 8:22] (note).

### Introduction

[¶42] At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters begin to subside, [Gen 8:1-3]. The ark rests on Mount Ararat, [Gen 8:4]. On the first of the tenth month the tops of the hills appear, [Gen 8:5]. The window opened and the raven sent out, [Gen 8:6], [Gen 8:7]. The dove sent forth, and returns, [Gen 8:8], [Gen 8:9]. The dove sent forth a second time, and returns with an olive leaf, [Gen 8:10], [Gen 8:11]. The dove sent out the third time, and returns no more, [Gen 8:12]. On the twentieth day of the second month the earth is completely dried, [Gen 8:13], [Gen 8:14]. God orders Noah, his family, and all the creatures to come out of the ark, [Gen 8:15-19]. Noah builds an altar, and offers sacrifices to the Lord, [Gen 8:20]. They are accepted; and God promises that the earth shall not be cursed thus any more, notwithstanding the iniquity of man, [Gen 8:21], [Gen 8:22].

### Verse 1

[¶44] And God made a wind to pass over the earth - Such a wind as produced a strong and sudden evaporation. The effects of these winds, which are frequent in the east, are truly astonishing. A friend of mine, who had been bathing in the Tigris, not far from the ancient city of Ctesiphon, and within five days' journey of Bagdad, having on a pair of Turkish drawers, one of these hot winds, called by the natives samiel, passing rapidly across the river just as he had got out of the water, so effectually dried him in a moment, that not one particle of moisture was left either on his body or in his bathing dress! With such an electrified wind as this, how soon could God dry the whole of the earth's surface! An operation something similar to the conversion of water into its two constituent airs, oxygen and hydrogen, by means of the galvanic fluid, as these airs themselves may be reconverted into water by means of the electric spark. See the note [Gen 7:11]. And probably this was the agent that restored to the atmosphere the quantity of water which it had contributed to this vast inundation. The other portion of waters, which had proceeded from the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, would of course subside more slowly, as openings were made for them to run off from the higher lands, and form seas. By the first cause, the hot wind, the waters were assuaged, and the atmosphere having its due proportion of vapours restored, the quantity below must be greatly lessened. By the second, the earth was gradually dried, the waters, as they found passage, lessening by degrees till the seas and gulfs were formed, and the earth completely drained. This appears to be what is intended in the third and fifth verses by the waters decreasing continually, or, according to the margin, they were in going and decreasing, [Gen 8:5].

## 12. Genesis · 12 of 67

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### Verse 4

[¶1] The mountains of Ararat - That Ararat was a mountain of Armenia is almost universally agreed. What is commonly thought to be the Ararat of the Scriptures, has been visited by many travelers, and on it there are several monasteries. For a long time the world has been amused with reports that the remains of the ark were still visible there; but Mr. Tournefort, a famous French naturalist, who was on the spot, assures us that nothing of the kind is there to be seen. As there is a great chain of mountains which are called by this name, it is impossible to determine on what part of them the ark rested; but the highest part, called by some the finger mountain, has been fixed on as the most likely place. These things we must leave, and they are certainly of very little consequence.

[¶2] From the circumstance of the resting of the ark on the 17th of the seventh month, Dr. Lightfoot draws this curious conclusion: That the ark drew exactly eleven cubits of water. On the first day of the month Ab the mountain tops were first seen, and then the waters had fallen fifteen cubits; for so high had they prevailed above the tops of the mountains. This decrease in the waters took up sixty days, namely, from the first of Sivan; so that they appear to have abated in the proportion of one cubit in four days. On the 16th of Sivan they had abated but four cubits; and yet on the next day the ark rested on one of the hills, when the waters must have been as yet eleven cubits above it. Thus it appears that the ark drew eleven cubits of water.

### Verse 7

[¶4] He sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro - It is generally supposed that the raven flew off, and was seen no more, but this meaning the Hebrew text will not bear; ויצא יצוא ושוב vaiyetse yatso vashob, and it went forth, going forth and returning. From which it is evident that she did return, but was not taken into the ark. She made frequent excursions, and continued on the wing as long as she could, having picked up such aliment as she found floating on the waters; and then, to rest herself, regained the ark, where she might perch, though she was not admitted. Indeed this must be allowed, as it is impossible she could have continued twenty one days upon the wing, which she must have done had she not returned. But the text itself is sufficiently determinate.

### Verse 8

[¶6] He sent forth a dove - The dove was sent forth thrice; the first time she speedily returned, having, in all probability, gone but a little way from the ark, as she must naturally be terrified at the appearance of the waters. After seven days, being sent out a second time, she returned with an olive leaf pluckt off, [Gen 8:11], an emblem of the restoration of peace between God and the earth; and from this circumstance the olive has been the emblem of peace among all civilized nations. At the end of the other seven days the dove being sent out the third time, returned no more, from which Noah conjectured that the earth was now sufficiently drained, and therefore removed the covering of the ark, which probably gave liberty to many of the fowls to fly off, which circumstance would afford him the greater facility in making arrangements for disembarking the beasts and reptiles, and heavy-bodied domestic fowls, which might yet remain. See [Gen 8:17].

### Verse 14

[¶8] And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day - From this it appears that Noah was in the ark a complete solar year, or three hundred and sixty-five days; for he entered the ark the 17th day of the second month, in the six hundredth year of his life, [Gen 7:11], [Gen 7:13], and continued in it till the 27th day of the second month, in the six hundredth and first year of his life, as we see above. The months of the ancient Hebrews were lunar; the first six consisted of thirty days each, the latter six of twenty-nine; the whole twelve months making three hundred and fifty-four days: add to this eleven days, (for though he entered the ark the preceding year on the seventeenth day of the second month, he did not come out till the twenty-seventh of the same month in the following year), which make exactly three hundred and sixty-five days, the period of a complete solar revolution; the odd hours and minutes, as being fractions of time, noncomputed, though very likely all included in the account. This year, according to the Hebrew computation, was the one thousand six hundred and fifty-seventh year from the creation; but according to the reckoning of the Septuagint it was the two thousand two hundred and forty-second, and according to Dr. Hales, the two thousand two hundred and fifty-sixth. See on [Gen 11:12] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶10] Noah builded an altar - As we have already seen that Adam, Cain, and Abel, offered sacrifices, there can be no doubt that they had altars on which they offered them; but this, builded by Noah, is certainly the first on record. It is worthy of remark that, as the old world began with sacrifice, so also did the new. Religion or the proper mode of worshipping the Divine Being, is the invention or institution of God himself; and sacrifice, in the act and design, is the essence of religion. Without sacrifice, actually offered or implied, there never was, there never can be, any religion. Even in the heavens, a lamb is represented before the throne of God as newly slain, [Rev 5:6], [Rev 5:12], [Rev 5:13]. The design of sacrificing is two-fold: the slaying and burning of the victim point out, 1st, that the life of the sinner is forfeited to Divine justice; 2dly, that his soul deserves the fire of perdition.

[¶11] The Jews have a tradition that the place where Noah built his altar was the same in which the altar stood which was built by Adam, and used by Cain and Abel, and the same spot on which Abraham afterwards offered up his son Isaac.

[¶12] The word מזבח mizbach, which we render altar, signifies properly a place for sacrifice, as the root זבח zabach signifies simply to slay. Altar comes from the Latin altus, high or elevated, because places for sacrifice were generally either raised very high or built on the tops of hills and mountains; hence they are called high places in the Scriptures; but such were chiefly used for idolatrous purposes.

[¶13] Burnt-offerings - See the meaning of every kind of offering and sacrifice largely explained on Leviticus 7:1-38.

### Verse 21

[¶15] The Lord smelled a sweet savor - That is, he was well pleased with this religious act, performed in obedience to his own appointment, and in faith of the promised Savior. That this sacrifice prefigured that which was offered by our blessed Redeemer in behalf of the world, is sufficiently evident from the words of St. Paul, [Eph 5:2] : Christ hath loved us, and given himself for its an offering and a sacrifice to God for a Sweet-Smelling Savor; where the words οσμην ευωδιας of the apostle are the very words used by the Septuagint in this place.

[¶16] I will not again curse the ground - לא אסף lo osiph, I will not add to curse the ground - there shall not be another deluge to destroy the whole earth: for the imagination of man's heart, כי ki, Although the imagination of man's heart should be evil, i.e. should they become afterwards as evil as they have been before, I will not destroy the earth by a Flood. God has other means of destruction; and the next time he visits by a general judgment, Fire is to be the agent. [2Pet 3:7].

### Verse 22

[¶18] While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, etc. - There is something very expressive in the original, עד כל ימי הארץ od col yemey haarets, until all the Days of the earth; for God does not reckon its duration by centuries, and the words themselves afford a strong presumption that the earth shall not have an endless duration.

[¶19] Seed-time and harvest - It is very probable that the seasons, which were distinctly marked immediately after the deluge, are mentioned in this place; but it is difficult to ascertain them. Most European nations divide the year into four distinct parts, called quarters or seasons; but there are six divisions in the text, and probably all intended to describe the seasons in one of these postdiluvian years, particularly in that part of the globe, Armenia, where Noah was when God gave him, and mankind through him, this gracious promise. From the Targum of Jonathan on this verse we learn that in Palestine their seed-time was in September, at the autumnal equinox; their harvest in March, at the vernal equinox; that their winter began in December, at the solstice; and their summer at the solstice in June.

[¶20] The Copts begin their autumn on the 15th of September, and extend it to the 15th of December. Their winter on the 15th of December, and extend it to the 15th of March. Their spring on the 15th of March, and extend it to the 15th of June. Their summer on the 15th of June, and extend it to the 15th of September, assigning to each season three complete months. Calmet.

[¶21] There are certainly regions of the earth to which neither this nor our own mode of division can apply: there are some where summer and winter appear to divide the whole year, and others where, besides summer, winter, autumn, and spring, there are distinct seasons that may be denominated the hot season, the cold season, the rainy season, etc., etc.

[¶22] This is a very merciful promise to the inhabitants of the earth. There may be a variety in the seasons, but no season essentially necessary to vegetation shall utterly fail. The times which are of greatest consequence to the preservation of man are distinctly noted; there shall be both seed-time and harvest - a proper time to deposit the different grain in the earth, and a proper time to reap the produce of this seed.

[¶23] Thus ends the account of the general deluge, its cause, circumstances, and consequences. An account that seems to say to us, Behold the goodness and severity of God! Both his justice and long-suffering are particularly marked in this astonishing event. His justice, in the punishment of the incorrigibly wicked, and his mercy, in giving them so fair and full a warning, and in waiting so long to extend his grace to all who might seek him. Such a convincing proof has the destruction of the world by water given of the Divine justice, such convincing testimony of the truth of the sacred writings, that not only every part of the earth gives testimony of this extraordinary revolution, but also every nation of the universe has preserved records or traditions of this awful display of the justice of God.

[¶24] A multitude of testimonies, collected from the most authentic sources in the heathen world, I had intended for insertion in this place, but want of room obliges me to lay them aside. But the state of the earth itself is a sufficient proof. Every part of it bears unequivocal evidence of disruption and violence. From the hand of the God of order it never could have proceeded in its present state. In every part we see marks of the crimes of men, and of the justice of God. And shall not the living lay this to heart? Surely God is not mocked; that which a man soweth he shall reap. He who soweth to the flesh shall of it reap destruction; and though the plague of water shall no more destroy the earth, yet an equal if not sorer punishment awaits the world of the ungodly, in the threatened destruction by fire.

[¶25] In ancient times almost every thing was typical, and no doubt the ark among the rest; but of what and in what way farther than revelation guides, it is both difficult and unsafe to say. It has been considered a type of our blessed Lord; and hence it has been observed, that "as all those who were out of the ark perished by the flood, so those who take not refuge in the meritorious atonement of Christ Jesus must perish everlastingly." Of all those who, having the opportunity of hearing the Gospel, refuse to accept of the sacrifice it offers them, this saying is true; but the parallel is not good. Myriads of those who perished during the flood probably repented, implored mercy, and found forgiveness; for God ever delights to save, and Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And though, generally, the people continued in carnal security and sensual gratifications till the flood came, there is much reason to believe that those who during the forty days' rain would naturally flee to the high lands and tops of the highest mountains, would earnestly implore that mercy which has never been denied, even to the most profligate, when under deep humiliation of heart they have returned to God. And who can say that this was not done by multitudes while they beheld the increasing flood; or that God, in this last extremity, had rendered it impossible?

[¶26] St. Peter, [1Pet 3:21], makes the ark a figure of baptism, and intimates that we are saved by this, as the eight souls were saved by the ark. But let us not mistake the apostle by supposing that the mere ceremony itself saves any person; he tells us that the salvation conveyed through this sacred rite is not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God; i.e. remission of sins and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, which are signified by this baptism. A good conscience never existed where remission of sins had not taken place; and every person knows that it is God's prerogative to forgive sins, and that no ordinance can confer it, though ordinances may be the means to convey it when piously and believingly used.

### Introduction

[¶28] God blesses Noah and his sons, [Gen 9:1]. The brute creation to be subject to them through fear, [Gen 9:2]. The first grant of animal food, [Gen 9:3]. Eating of blood forbidden, [Gen 9:4]. Cruelty to animals forbidden, [Gen 9:5]. A man-slayer to forfeit his life, [Gen 9:6]. The covenant of God established between him and Noah and the whole brute creation, [Gen 9:8-11]. The rainbow given as the sign and pledge of this covenant, [Gen 9:12-17]. The three sons of Noah people the whole earth, [Gen 9:18], [Gen 9:19]. Noah plants a vineyard, drinks of the wine, is intoxicated, and lies exposed in his tent, [Gen 9:20], [Gen 9:21]. The reprehensible conduct of Ham, [Gen 9:22]. The laudable carriage of Shem and Japheth, [Gen 9:23]. Noah prophetically declares the servitude of the posterity of Ham, [Gen 9:24], [Gen 9:25]; and the dignity and increase of Shem and Japheth, [Gen 9:26], [Gen 9:27]. The age and death of Noah, [Gen 9:28], [Gen 9:29].

### Verse 1

[¶30] God blessed Noah - Even the increase of families, which appears to depend on merely natural means, and sometimes fortuitous circumstances, is all of God. It is by his power and wisdom that the human being is formed, and it is by his providence alone that man is supported and preserved.

### Verse 2

[¶32] The fear of you and the dread, etc. - Prior to the fall, man ruled the inferior animals by love and kindness, for then gentleness and docility were their principal characteristics. After the fall, untractableness, with savage ferocity, prevailed among almost all orders of the brute creation; enmity to man seems particularly to prevail; and had not God in his mercy impressed their minds with the fear and terror of man, so that some submit to his will while others flee from his residence, the human race would long ere this have been totally destroyed by the beasts of the field. Did the horse know his own strength, and the weakness of the miserable wretch who unmercifully rides, drives, whips, goads, and oppresses him, would he not with one stroke of his hoof destroy his tyrant possessor? But while God hides these things from him he impresses his mind with the fear of his owner, so that either by cheerful or sullen submission he is trained up for, and employed in, the most useful and important purposes; and even willingly submits, when tortured for the sport and amusement of his more brutish oppressor. Tigers, wolves, lions, and hyenas, the determinate foes of man, incapable of being tamed or domesticated, flee, through the principle of terror, from the dwelling of man, and thus he is providentially safe. Hence, by fear and by dread man rules every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, and every fish of the sea. How wise and gracious is this order of the Divine providence! and with what thankfulness should it be considered by every human being!

### Verse 3

[¶34] Every moving thing - shall be meat - There is no positive evidence that animal food was ever used before the flood. Noah had the first grant of this kind, and it has been continued to all his posterity ever since. It is not likely that this grant would have been now made if some extraordinary alteration had not taken place in the vegetable world, so as to render its productions less nutritive than they were before; and probably such a change in the constitution of man as to render a grosser and higher diet necessary. We may therefore safely infer that the earth was less productive after the flood than it was before, and that the human constitution was greatly impaired by the alterations which had taken place through the whole economy of nature. Morbid debility, induced by an often unfriendly state of the atmosphere, with sore and long-continued labor, would necessarily require a higher nutriment than vegetables could supply. That this was the case appears sufficiently clear from the grant of animal food, which, had it not been indispensably necessary, had not been made. That the constitution of man was then much altered appears in the greatly contracted lives of the postdiluvians; yet from the deluge to the day of Abraham the lives of several of the patriarchs amounted to some hundreds of years; but this was the effect of a peculiar providence, that the new world might be the more speedily repeopled.

### Verse 4

[¶36] But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood - Though animal food was granted, yet the blood was most solemnly forbidden, because it was the life of the beast, and this life was to be offered to God as an atonement for sin. Hence the blood was ever held sacred, because it was the grand instrument of expiation, and because it was typical of that blood by which we enter into the holiest. 1. Before the deluge it was not eaten, because animal food was not in use. 2. After the deluge it was prohibited, as we find above; and, being one of the seven Noahic precepts, it was not eaten previously to the publication of the Mosaic law. 3. At the giving of the law, and at several times during the ministry of Moses, the prohibition was most solemnly, and with awful penalties renewed. Hence we may rest assured that no blood was eaten previously to the Christian era, nor indeed ever since by the Jewish people. 4. That the prohibition has been renewed under the Christian dispensation, can admit of little doubt by any man who dispassionately reads [Act 15:20], [Act 15:29]; [Act 21:25], where even the Gentile converts are charged to abstain from it on the authority, not only of the apostles, but of the Holy Ghost, who gave them there and then especial direction concerning this point; see [Act 15:28]; not for fear of stumbling the converted Jews, the gloss of theologians, but because it was one των επαναγκες τουτων, of those necessary points, from the burden (βαρος) of obedience to which they could not be excused. 5. This command is still scrupulously obeyed by the oriental Christians, and by the whole Greek Church; and why? because the reasons still subsist. No blood was eaten under the law, because it pointed out the blood that was to be shed for the sin of the world; and under the Gospel it should not be eaten, because it should ever be considered as representing the blood which has been shed for the remission of sins. If the eaters of blood in general knew that it affords a very crude, almost indigestible, and unwholesome ailment, they certainly would not on these physical reasons, leaving moral considerations out of the question, be so much attached to the consumption of that from which they could expect no wholesome nutriment, and which, to render it even pleasing to the palate, requires all the skill of the cook. See [Lev 17:10].

### Verse 5

[¶38] Surely your blood - will I require; at the hand of every beast - This is very obscure, but if taken literally it seems to be an awful warning against cruelty to the brute creation; and from it we may conclude that horse-racers, hare-hunters, bull-baiters, and cock-fighters shall be obliged to give an account to God for every creature they have wantonly destroyed. Instead of חיה chaiyah, "beast," the Samaritan reads Yod Kaph chai, "living," any "living creature or person;" this makes a very good sense, and equally forbids cruelty either to men or brutes.

### Verse 6

[¶40] Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood - Hence it appears that whoever kills a man, unless unwittingly, as the Scripture expresses it, shall forfeit his own life.

[¶41] A man is accused of the crime of murder; of this crime he is guilty or he is not: if he be guilty of murder he should die; if not, let him be punished according to the demerit of his crime; but for no offense but murder should he lose his life. Taking away the life of another is the highest offense that can be committed against the individual, and against society; and the highest punishment that a man can suffer for such a crime is the loss of his own life. As punishment should be ever proportioned to crimes, so the highest punishment due to the highest crime should not be inflicted for a minor offense. The law of God and the eternal dictates of reason say, that if a man kill another, the loss of his own life is at once the highest penalty he can pay, and an equivalent for his offense as far as civil society is concerned. If the death of the murderer be the highest penalty he can pay for the murder he has committed, then the infliction of this punishment for any minor offense is injustice and cruelty; and serves only to confound the claims of justice, the different degrees of moral turpitude and vice, and to render the profligate desperate: hence the adage so frequent among almost every order of delinquents, "It is as good to be hanged for a sheep as a lamb;" which at once marks their desperation, and the injustice of those penal laws which inflict the highest punishment for almost every species of crime. When shall a wise and judicious legislature see the absurdity and injustice of inflicting the punishment of death for stealing a sheep or a horse, forging a twenty shillings' note, and Murdering A Man; when the latter, in its moral turpitude and ruinous consequences, infinitely exceeds the others?* (* On this head the doctor's pious wish has been realized since this paragraph was written. - Publishers)

### Verse 13

[¶43] I do set my bow in the cloud - On the origin and nature of the rainbow there had been a great variety of conjectures, till Anthony de Dominis, bishop of Spalatro, in a treatise of his published by Bartholus in 1611, partly suggested the true cause of this phenomenon, which was afterwards fully explained and demonstrated by Sir Isaac Newton. To enter into this subject here in detail would be improper; and therefore the less informed reader must have recourse to treatises on Optics for its full explanation. To readers in general it may be sufficient to say that the rainbow is a mere natural effect of a natural cause:

[¶44] 1. It is never seen but in showery weather.

## 13. Genesis · 13 of 67

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[¶0] 2. Nor then unless the sun shines.

[¶1] 3. It never appears in any part of the heavens but in that opposite to the sun.

[¶2] 4. It never appears greater than a semicircle, but often much less.

[¶3] 5. It is always double, there being what is called the superior and inferior, or primary and secondary rainbow.

[¶4] 6. These bows exhibit the seven prismatic colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

[¶5] 7. The whole of this phenomenon depends on the rays of the sun falling on spherical drops of water, and being in their passage through them, refracted and reflected.

[¶6] The formation of the primary and secondary rainbow depends on the two following propositions;

[¶7] 1. When the sun shines on the drops of rain as they are falling, the rays that come from those drops to the eye of the spectator, after One reflection and Two refractions, produce the primary rainbow.

[¶8] 2. When the sun shines on the drops of rain as they are falling, the rays that come from those drops to the eye of the spectator after Two reflections and Two refractions, produce the secondary rainbow.

[¶9] The illustration of these propositions must be sought in treatises on Optics, assisted by plates. From the well-known cause of this phenomenon It cannot be rationally supposed that there was no rainbow in the heavens before the time mentioned in the text, for as the rainbow is the natural effect of the sun's rays falling on drops of water, and of their being refracted and reflected by them, it must have appeared at different times from the creation of the sun and the atmosphere. Nor does the text intimate that the bow was now created for a sign to Noah and his posterity; but that what was formerly created, or rather that which was the necessary effect, in certain cases, of the creation of the sun and atmosphere, should now be considered by them as an unfailing token of their continual preservation from the waters of a deluge; therefore the text speaks of what had already been done, and not of what was now done, קשתי נתתי kashti nathatti, "My bow I have given, or put in the cloud;" as if he said: As surely as the rainbow is a necessary effect of sunshine in rain, and must continue such as long as the sun and atmosphere endure, so surely shall this earth be preserved from destruction by water; and its preservation shall be as necessary an effect of my promise as the rainbow is of the shining of the sun during a shower of rain.

### Verse 17

[¶11] This is the token - אות oth, The Divine sign or portent: The bow shall be in the cloud. For the reasons above specified it must be there, when the circumstances already mentioned occur; if therefore it cannot fail because of the reasons before assigned, no more shall my promise; and the bow shall be the proof of its perpetuity.

[¶12] Both the Greeks and Latins, as well as the Hebrews, have ever considered the rainbow as a Divine token or portent; and both of these nations have even deified it, and made it a messenger of the gods.

[¶13] Homer, Il. xi., ver. 27, speaking of the figures on Agamemnon's breastplate, says there were three dragons, whose colors were - - ιρισσιν εοικοτες, ἁς τε Κρονων. Εν νεφεΐ στηριξε, τερας μεροπων ανθρωπων. "like to the rainbow which the son of Saturn has placed in the cloud as a Sign to mankind," or to men of various languages, for so the μεροπων ανθρωπων of the poet has been understood. Some have thought that the ancient Greek writers give this epithet to man from some tradition of the confusion and multiplication of tongues at Babel; hence in this place the words may be understood as implying mankind at large, the whole human race; God having given the rainbow for a sign to all the descendants of Noah, by whom the whole earth was peopled after the flood. Thus the celestial bow speaks a universal language, understood by all the sons and daughters of Adam. Virgil, from some disguised traditionary figure of the truth, considers the rainbow as a messenger of the gods. Aen. v., ver. 606:

[¶14] Irim de caelo misit Saturnia Juno. "Juno, the daughter of Saturn, sent down the rainbow from heaven;" and again, Aen. ix., ver. 803: - aeriam caelo nam Jupiter Irim Demisit. "For Jupiter sent down the ethereal rainbow from heaven."

[¶15] It is worthy of remark that both these poets understood the rainbow to be a sign, warning, or portent from heaven."

[¶16] As I believe the rainbow to have been intended solely for the purpose mentioned in the text, I forbear to make spiritual uses and illustrations of it. Many have done this, and their observations may be very edifying, but they certainly have no foundation in the text.

### Verse 20

[¶18] Noah began to be a husbandman - איש האדמה ish haadamah, A man of the ground, a farmer; by his beginning to be a husbandman we are to understand his recommencing his agricultural operations, which undoubtedly he had carried on for six hundred years before, but this had been interrupted by the flood. And the transaction here mentioned might have occurred many years posterior to the deluge, even after Canaan was born and grown up, for the date of it is not fixed in the text.

[¶19] The word husband first occurs here, and scarcely appears proper, because it is always applied to man in his married state, as wife is to the woman. The etymology of the term will at once show its propriety when applied to the head of a family. Husband, is Anglo-Saxon, and simply signifies the bond of the house or family; as by him the family is formed, united, and bound together, which, on his death, is disunited and scattered.

[¶20] It is on this etymology of the word that we can account for the farmers and petty landholders being called so early as the twelfth century, husbandi, as appears in a statute of David II., king of Scotland: we may therefore safely derive the word from hus, a house, and bond from binben, to bind or tie; and this etymology appears plainer in the orthography which prevailed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in which I have often found the word written house-bond; so it is in a MS. Bible before me, written in the fourteenth century. Junius disputes this etymology, but I think on no just ground.

### Verse 21

[¶22] He drank of the wine, etc. - It is very probable that this was the first time the wine was cultivated; and it is as probable that the strength or intoxicating power of the expressed juice was never before known. Noah, therefore, might have drunk it at this time without the least blame, as he knew not till this trial the effects it would produce. I once knew a case which I believe to be perfectly parallel. A person who had scarcely ever heard of cider, and whose beverage through his whole life had been only milk or water, coming wet and very much fatigued to a farmer's house in Somersetshire, begged for a little water or milk. The good woman of the house, seeing him very much exhausted, kindly said, "I will give you a little cider, which will do you more good." The honest man, understanding no more of cider than merely that it was the simple juice of apples, after some hesitation drank about a half pint of it; the consequence was, that in less than half an hour he was perfectly intoxicated, and could neither speak plain nor walk! This case I myself witnessed. A stranger to the circumstances, seeing this person, would pronounce him drunk; and perhaps at a third hand he might be represented as a drunkard, and thus his character be blasted; while of the crime of drunkenness he was as innocent as an infant.

[¶23] This I presume to have been precisely the case with Noah; and no person without an absolute breach of every rule of charity and candour, can attach any blame to the character of Noah on this ground, unless from a subsequent account they were well assured that, knowing the power and effects of the liquor, he had repeated the act. Some expositors seem to be glad to fix on a fact like this, which by their distortion becomes a crime; and then, in a strain of sympathetic tenderness, affect to deplore "the failings and imperfections of the best of men;" when, from the interpretation that should be given of the place, neither failing nor imperfection can possibly appear.

### Verse 22

[¶25] And Ham, the father of Canaan, etc. - There is no occasion to enter into any detail here; the sacred text is circumstantial enough. Ham, and very probably his son Canaan, had treated their father on this occasion with contempt or reprehensible levity. Had Noah not been innocent, as my exposition supposes him, God would not have endued him with the spirit of prophecy on this occasion, and testified such marked disapprobation of their conduct. The conduct of Shem and Japheth was such as became pious and affectionate children, who appear to have been in the habit of treating their father with decency, reverence, and obedient respect. On the one the spirit of prophecy (not the incensed father) pronounces a curse: on the others the same spirit (not parental tenderness) pronounces a blessing. These things had been just as they afterwards occurred had Noah never spoken. God had wise and powerful reasons to induce him to sentence the one to perpetual servitude, and to allot to the others prosperity and dominion. Besides, the curse pronounced on Canaan neither fell immediately upon himself nor on his worthless father, but upon the Canaanites; and from the history we have of this people, in [Lev 18:6], [Lev 18:7], [Lev 18:24], [Lev 18:29], [Lev 18:30], [Lev 20:9], [Lev 20:22-24], [Lev 20:26]; and [Deu 9:4]; [Deu 12:31], we may ask, Could the curse of God fall more deservedly on any people than on these? Their profligacy was great, but it was not the effect of the curse; but, being foreseen by the Lord, the curse was the effect of their conduct. But even this curse does not exclude them from the possibility of obtaining salvation; it extends not to the soul and to eternity, but merely to their bodies and to time; though, if they continued to abuse their liberty, resist the Holy Ghost, and refuse to be saved on God's terms, then the wrath of Divine justice must come upon them to the uttermost. How many, even of these, repented, we cannot tell.

### Verse 25

[¶27] Cursed be Canaan - See on the preceding verses. In the 25th, 26th, and 27th verses, instead of Canaan simply, the Arabic version has Ham the father of Canaan; but this is acknowledged by none of the other versions, and seems to be merely a gloss.

### Verse 29

[¶29] The days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years - The oldest patriarch on record, except Methuselah and Jared. This, according to the common reckoning, was A. M. 2006, but according to Dr. Hales, 3505. "Ham," says Dr. Hales, "signifies burnt or black, and this name was peculiarly significant of the regions allotted to his family. To the Cushites, or children of his eldest son Cush, were allotted the hot southern regions of Asia, along the coasts of the Persian Gulf, Susiana or Chusistan, Arabia, etc.; to the sons of Canaan, Palestine and Syria; to the sons of Misraim, Egypt and Libya, in Africa.

[¶30] The Hamites in general, like the Canaanites of old, were a seafaring race, and sooner arrived at civilization and the luxuries of life than their simpler pastoral and agricultural brethren of the other two families. The first great empires of Assyria and Egypt were founded by them, and the republics of Sidon, Tyre, and Carthage were early distinguished for their commerce but they sooner also fell to decay; and Egypt, which was one of the first, became the last and basest of the kingdoms, [Eze 29:15], and has been successively in subjection to the Shemites and Japhethites, as have also the settlements of the other branches of the Hamites. "Shem signifies name or renown; and his indeed was great in a temporal and spiritual sense. The finest regions of Upper and Middle Asia allotted to his family, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, Persia, etc., to the Indus and Ganges, and perhaps to China eastward. "The chief renown of Shem was of a spiritual nature: he was destined to be the lineal ancestor of the blessed seed of the woman; and to this glorious privilege Noah, to whom it was probably revealed, might have alluded in that devout ejaculation, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! The pastoral life of the Shemites is strongly marked in the prophecy by the tents of Shem; and such it remains to the present day, throughout their midland settlements in Asia. "Japheth signifies enlargement; and how wonderfully did Providence enlarge the boundaries of Japheth! His posterity diverged eastward and westward throughout the whole extent of Asia, north of the great range of Taurus, as far as the Eastern Ocean, whence they probably crossed over to America by Behring's Straits from Kamtschatka, and in the opposite direction throughout Europe to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; from whence also they might have crossed over to America by Newfoundland, where traces of early settlements remain in parts now desert. Thus did they gradually enlarge themselves till they literally encompassed the earth, within the precincts of the northern temperate zone, to which their roving hunter's life contributed not a little. Their progress northwards was checked by the much greater extent of the Black Sea in ancient times, and the increasing rigour of the climates: but their hardy race, and enterprising, warlike genius, made them frequently encroach southwards on the settlements of Shem, whose pastoral and agricultural occupations rendered them more inactive, peaceable and unwarlike; and so they dwelt in the tents of Shem when the Scythians invaded Media, and subdued western Asia southwards as far as Egypt, in the days of Cyaxares; when the Greeks, and afterwards the Romans, overran and subdued the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians in the east, and the Syrians and Jews in the south; as foretold by the Syrian prophet Balaam, [Num 24:24] : - "Ships shall come from Chittim, And shall afflict the Assyrians, and afflict the Hebrews; But he (the invader) shall perish himself at last". "And by Moses: And the Lord shall bring thee (the Jews) into Egypt (or bondage) again with ships, etc., [Deu 28:68]. And by Daniel: For the ships of Chittim shall come against him, viz., Antiochus, king of Syria, [Dan 11:30]. In these passages Chittim denotes the southern coasts of Europe, bounding the Mediterranean, called the isles of the Gentiles or Nations; see [Gen 10:5]. And the isles of Chittim are mentioned [Jer 2:10]. And in after times the Tartars in the east have repeatedly invaded and subdued the Hindoos and the Chinese; while the warlike and enterprising genius of the greatest of the isles of the Gentiles, Great Britain and Ireland, have spread their colonies, their arms, their language, their arts, and in some measure their religion, from the rising to the setting sun." See Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. 1., p. 352, etc.

[¶31] Though what is left undone should not cause us to lose sight of what is done, yet we have reason to lament that the inhabitants of the British isles, who of all nations under heaven have the purest light of Divine revelation, and the best means of diffusing it, have been much more intent on spreading their conquests and extending their commerce, than in propagating the Gospel of the Son of God. But the nation, by getting the Bible translated into every living language, and sending it to all parts of the habitable globe, and, by its various missionary societies, sending men of God to explain and enforce the doctrines and precepts of this sacred book, is rapidly redeeming its character, and becoming great in goodness and benevolence over the whole earth!

### Introduction

[¶33] The generations of the sons of Noah, [Gen 10:1]. Japheth and his descendants, [Gen 10:2-4]. The isles of the Gentiles, or Europe, peopled by the Japhethites, [Gen 10:5]. Ham and his posterity, [Gen 10:6-20]. Nimrod, one of his descendants, a mighty hunter, [Gen 10:8], [Gen 10:9], founds the first kingdom, [Gen 10:10]. Nineveh and other cities founded, [Gen 10:11], [Gen 10:12]. The Canaanites in their nine grand branches or families, [Gen 10:15-18]. Their territories, [Gen 10:19]. Shem and his posterity, [Gen 10:21-31]. The earth divided in the days of Peleg, [Gen 10:25]. The territories of the Shemites, [Gen 10:30]. The whole earth peopled by the descendants of Noah's three sons, [Gen 10:32].

### Verse 1

[¶35] Now these are the generations - It is extremely difficult to say what particular nations and people sprang from the three grand divisions of the family of Noah, because the names of many of those ancient people have become changed in the vast lapse of time from the deluge to the Christian era; yet some are so very distinctly marked that they can be easily ascertained, while a few still retain their original names.

[¶36] Moses does not always give the name of the first settler in a country, but rather that of the people from whom the country afterwards derived its name. Thus Mizraim is the dual of Mezer, and could never be the name of an individual. The like may be said of Kittim, Dodanim, Ludim, Ananim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim, Philistim, and Caphtorim, which are all plurals, and evidently not the names of individuals, but of families or tribes. See [Gen 10:4], [Gen 10:6], [Gen 10:13], [Gen 10:14].

[¶37] In the posterity of Canaan we find whole nations reckoned in the genealogy, instead of the individuals from whom they sprang; thus the Jebusite, Amorite, Girgasite, Hivite, Arkite, Sinite, Arvadite, Zemarite, and Hamathite, [Gen 10:16-18], were evidently whole nations or tribes which inhabited the promised land, and were called Canaanites from Canaan, the son of Ham, who settled there. Moses also, in this genealogy, seems to have introduced even the name of some places that were remarkable in the sacred history, instead of the original settlers. Such as Hazarmaveth, [Gen 10:26]; and probably Ophir and Havilah, [Gen 10:29]. But this is not infrequent in the sacred writings, as may be seen [1Chr 2:51], where Salma is called the father of Bethlehem, which certainly never was the name of a man, but of a place sufficiently celebrated in the sacred history; and in [1Chr 4:14], where Joab is called the father of the valley of Charashim, which no person could ever suppose was intended to designate an individual, but the society of craftsmen or artificers who lived there.

[¶38] Eusebius and others state (from what authority we know not) that Noah was commanded of God to make a will and bequeath the whole of the earth to his three sons and their descendants in the following manner: - To Shem, all the East; to Ham, all Africa; to Japheth, the Continent of Europe with its isles, and the northern parts of Asia. See the notes at the end of the preceding chapter, [Gen 9:29] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶40] The sons of Japheth - Japheth is supposed to be the same with the Japetus of the Greeks, from whom, in an extremely remote antiquity, that people were supposed to have derived their origin.

[¶41] Gomer - Supposed by some to have peopled Galatia; so Josephus, who says that the Galatians were anciently named Gomerites. From him the Cimmerians or Cimbrians are supposed to have derived their origin.

[¶42] Bochart has no doubt that the Phrygians sprang from this person, and some of our principal commentators are of the same opinion.

[¶43] Magog - Supposed by many to be the father of the Scythians and Tartars, or Tatars, as the word should be written; and in great Tartary many names are still found which bear such a striking resemblance to the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, as to leave little doubt of their identity.

[¶44] Madai - Generally supposed to be the progenitor of the Medes; but Joseph Mede makes it probable that he was rather the founder of a people in Macedonia called Maedi, and that Macedonia was formerly called Emathia, a name formed from Ei, an island, and Madai, because he and his descendants inhabited the maritime coast on the borders of the Ionian Sea. On this subject nothing certain can be advanced.

## 14. Genesis · 14 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/14/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/14/#p-N

[¶0] Javan - It is almost universally agreed that from him sprang the Ionians, of Asia Minor; but this name seems to have been anciently given to the Macedonians, Achaians, and Baeotians.

[¶1] Tubal - Some think be was the father of the Iberians, and that a part at least of Spain was peopled by him and his descendants; and that Meshech, who is generally in Scripture joined with him, was the founder of the Cappadocians, from whom proceeded the Muscovites.

[¶2] Tiras - From this person, according to general consent, the Thracians derived their origin.

### Verse 3

[¶4] Ashkenaz - Probably gave his name to Sacagena, a very excellent province of Armenia. Pliny mentions a people called Ascanitici, who dwelt about the Tanais and the Palus Maeotis; and some suppose that from Ashkenaz the Euxine Sea derived its name, but others suppose that from him the Germans derived their origin.

[¶5] Riphath - Or Diphath, the founder of the Paphlagonians, which were anciently called Riphataei.

[¶6] Togarmah - The Sauromates, or inhabitants of Turcomania. See the reasons in Calmet.

### Verse 4

[¶8] Elishah - As Javan peopled a considerable part of Greece, it is in that region that we must seek for the settlements of his descendants; Elishah probably was the first who settled at Elis, in Peloponnesus.

[¶9] Tarshish - He first inhabited Cilicia, whose capital anciently was the city of Tarsus, where the Apostle Paul was born.

[¶10] Kittim - We have already seen that this name was rather the name of a people than of an individual: some think by Kittim Cyprus is meant: others, the isle of Chios; and others, the Romans; and others, the Macedonians.

[¶11] Dodanim - Or Rodanim, for the ד and ר may be easily mistaken for each other, because of their great similarity. Some suppose that this family settled at Dodona in Epirus; others at the isle of Rhodes; others, at the Rhone, in France, the ancient name of which was Rhodanus, from the Scripture Rodanim.

### Verse 5

[¶13] Isles of the Gentiles - Europe, of which this is allowed to be a general epithet. Calmet supposes that it comprehends all those countries to which the Hebrews were obliged to go by sea, such as Spain, Gaul, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor.

[¶14] Every one after his tongue - This refers to the time posterior to the confusion of tongues and dispersion from Babel.

### Verse 6

[¶16] Cush - Who peopled the Arabic nome near the Red Sea in Lower Egypt. Some think the Ethiopians descended from him.

[¶17] Mizraim - This family certainly peopled Egypt; and both in the East and in the West, Egypt is called Mezr and Mezraim.

[¶18] Phut - Who first peopled an Egyptian nome or district, bordering on Libya.

[¶19] Canaan - He who first peopled the land so called, known also by the name of the Promised Land.

### Verse 7

[¶21] Seba - The founder of the Sabaeans. There seem to be three different people of this name mentioned in this chapter, and a fourth in [Gen 25:3].

[¶22] Havilah - Supposed by some to mean the inhabitants of the country included within that branch of the river Pison which ran out of the Euphrates into the bay of Persia, and bounded Arabia Felix on the east.

[¶23] Sabtah - Supposed by some to have first peopled an isle or peninsula called Saphta, in the Persian Gulf.

[¶24] Raamah - Or Ragmah, for the word is pronounced both ways, because of the ע ain, which some make a vowel, and some a consonant. Ptolemy mentions a city called Regma near the Persian Gulf; it probably received its name from the person in the text.

[¶25] Sabtechah - From the river called Samidochus, in Caramanla; Bochart conjectures that the person in the text fixed his residence in that part.

[¶26] Sheba - Supposed to have had his residence beyond the Euphrates, in the environs of Charran, Eden, etc.

[¶27] Dedan - Supposed to have peopled a part of Arabia, on the confines of Idumea.

### Verse 8

[¶29] Nimrod - Of this person little is known, as he is not mentioned except here and in [1Chr 1:10], which is evidently a copy of the text in Genesis. He is called a mighty hunter before the Lord; and from [Gen 10:10], we learn that he founded a kingdom which included the cities Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Though the words are not definite, it is very likely he was a very bad man. His name Nimrod comes from מרד, marad, he rebelled; and the Targum, on [1Chr 1:10], says: Nimrod began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord. The Jerusalem Targum says: "He was mighty in hunting (or in prey) and in sin before God, for he was a hunter of the children of men in their languages; and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem, and cleave to the institutes of Nimrod." The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel says: "From the foundation of the world none was ever found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting, and in rebellions against the Lord." The Syriac calls him a warlike giant. The word ציד tsayid, which we render hunter, signifies prey; and is applied in the Scriptures to the hunting of men by persecution, oppression, and tyranny. Hence it is likely that Nimrod, having acquired power, used it in tyranny and oppression; and by rapine and violence founded that domination which was the first distinguished by the name of a kingdom on the face of the earth. How many kingdoms have been founded in the same way, in various ages and nations from that time to the present! From the Nimrods of the earth, God deliver the world!

[¶30] Mr. Bryant, in his Mythology, considers Nimrod as the principal instrument of the idolatry that afterwards prevailed in the family of Cush, and treats him as an arch rebel and apostate. Mr. Richardson, who was the determined foe of Mr. Bryant's whole system, asks, Dissertation, p. 405, "Where is the authority for these aspersions? They are nowhere to be discovered in the originals, in the versions, nor in the paraphrases of the sacred writings." If they are not to be found either in versions or paraphrases of the sacred writings, the above quotations are all false.

### Verse 10

[¶32] The beginning of his kingdom was Babel - בבל babel signifies confusion; and it seems to have been a very proper name for the commencement of a kingdom that appears to have been founded in apostasy from God, and to have been supported by tyranny, rapine, and oppression.

[¶33] In the land of Shinar - The same as mentioned [Gen 11:2]. It appears that, as Babylon was built on the river Euphrates, and the tower of Babel was in the land of Shinar, consequently Shinar itself must have been in the southern part of Mesopotamia.

### Verse 11

[¶35] Out of that land went forth Asshur - The marginal reading is to be preferred here. He - Nimrod, went out into Assyria and built Nineveh; and hence Assyria is called the land of Nimrod, [Mic 5:6]. Thus did this mighty hunter extend his dominions in every possible way. The city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, is supposed to have had its name from Ninus, the son of Nimrod; but probably Ninus and Nimrod are the same person. This city, which made so conspicuous a figure in the history of the world, is now called Mossul; it is an inconsiderable place, built out of the ruins of the ancient Nineveh.

[¶36] Rehoboth, and Calah, etc. - Nothing certain is known concerning the situation of these places; conjecture is endless, and it has been amply indulged by learned men in seeking for Rehoboth in the Birtha of Ptolemy, Calah in Calachine, Resen in Larissa, etc., etc.

### Verse 13

[¶38] Mizraim begat Ludim - Supposed to mean the inhabitants of the Mareotis, a canton in Egypt, for the name Ludim is evidently the name of a people.

[¶39] Anamim - According to Bochart, the people who inhabited the district about the temple of Jupiter Ammon.

[¶40] Lehabim - The Libyans, or a people who dwelt on the west of the Thebaid, and were called Libyo-Egyptians.

[¶41] Naphtuhim - Even the conjectures can scarcely fix a place for these people. Bochart seems inclined to place them in Marmarica, or among the Troglodytae.

### Verse 14

[¶43] Pathrusim - The inhabitants of the Delta, in Egypt, according to the Chaldee paraphrase; but, according to Bochart, the people who inhabited the Thebaid, called Pathros in Scripture.

[¶44] Casluhim - The inhabitants of Colchis; for almost all authors allow that Colchis was peopled from Egypt.

## 15. Genesis · 15 of 67

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[¶0] Philistim - The people called Philistines, the constant plagues and frequent oppressors of the Israelites, whose history may be seen at large in the books of Samuel, Kings, etc.

[¶1] Caphtorim - Inhabitants of Cyprus according to Calmet.

### Verse 15

[¶3] Sidon - Who probably built the city of this name, and was the father of the Sidonians.

[¶4] Heth - From whom came the Hittites, so remarkable among the Canaanitish nations.

### Verse 16

[¶6] The Jebusite-Amorite, etc. - Are well known as being the ancient inhabitants of Canaan, expelled by the children of Israel.

### Verse 20

[¶8] These are the sons of Ham after their families - No doubt all these were well known in the days of Moses, and for a long time after; but at this distance, when it is considered that the political state of the world has been undergoing almost incessant revolutions through all the intermediate portions of time, the impossibility of fixing their residences or marking their descendants must be evident, as both the names of the people and the places of their residences have been changed beyond the possibility of being recognized.

### Verse 21

[¶10] Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber - It is generally supposed that the Hebrews derived their name from Eber or Heber, son of Shem; but it appears much more likely that they had it from the circumstance of Abraham passing over (for so the word עבר abar signifies) the river Euphrates to come into the land of Canaan. See the history of Abraham, [Gen 14:13] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶12] Elam - From whom came the Elamites, near to the Medes, and whose chief city was Elymais.

[¶13] Asshur - Who gave his name to a vast province (afterwards a mighty empire) called Assyria.

[¶14] Arphaxad - From whom Arrapachitis in Assyria was named, according to some; or Artaxata in Armenia, on the frontiers of Media, according to others.

[¶15] Lud - The founder of the Lydians. In Asia Minor; or of the Ludim, who dwelt at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, according to Arias Montanus.

[¶16] Aram - The father of the Arameans, afterwards called Syrians.

### Verse 23

[¶18] Uz - Who peopled Caelosyria, and is supposed to have been the founder of Damascus.

[¶19] Hul - Who peopled a part of Armenia.

[¶20] Gether - Supposed by Calmet to have been the founder of the Itureans, who dwelt beyond the Jordan, having Arabia Desert on the east, and the Jordan on the west.

[¶21] Mash - Who inhabited mount Masius in Mesopotamia, and from whom the river Mazeca, which has its source in that mountain, takes its name.

### Verse 24

[¶23] Salah - The founder of the people of Susiana.

[¶24] Eber - See [Gen 10:21]. The Septuagint add Cainan here, with one hundred and thirty to the chronology.

### Verse 25

[¶26] Peleg - From פלג palag, to divide, because in his days, which is supposed to be about one hundred years after the flood, the earth was divided among the sons of Noah. Though some are of opinion that a physical division, and not a political one, is what is intended here, viz., a separation of continents and islands from the main land; the earthy parts having been united into one great continent previously to the days of Peleg. This opinion appears to me the most likely, for what is said, [Gen 10:5], is spoken by way of anticipation.

### Verse 26

[¶28] Joktan - He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media. In confirmation that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed that there are many customs and usages, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world; and that these could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could never have existed, had not mankind been originally of the same blood, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed. Among these usages may be reckoned,

[¶29] 1. The numbering by tens.

[¶30] 2. Their computing time by a cycle of seven days.

[¶31] 3. Their setting apart the seventh day for religious purposes.

[¶32] 4. Their use of sacrifices, propitiatory and eucharistical.

[¶33] 5. The consecration of temples and altars.

[¶34] 6. The institution of sanctuaries or places of refuge, and their privileges.

[¶35] 7. Their giving a tenth part of the produce of their fields, etc., for the use of the altar.

[¶36] 8. The custom of worshipping the Deity bare-footed.

[¶37] 9. Abstinence of the men from all sensual gratifications previously to their offering sacrifice.

[¶38] 10. The order of priesthood and its support.

[¶39] 11. The notion of legal pollutions, defilements, etc.

[¶40] 12. The universal tradition of a general deluge.

[¶41] 13. The universal opinion that the rainbow was a Divine sign, or portent, etc., etc. See Dodd.

[¶42] The wisdom and goodness of God are particularly manifested in repeopling the earth by means of three persons, all of the same family, and who had witnessed that awful display of Divine justice in the destruction of the world by the flood, while themselves were preserved in the ark. By this very means the true religion was propagated over the earth; for the sons of Noah would certainly teach their children, not only the precepts delivered to their father by God himself, but also how in his justice he had brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, and by his merciful providence preserved them from the general ruin. It is on this ground alone that we can account for the uniformity and universality of the above traditions, and for the grand outlines of religious truth which are found in every quarter of the world. God has so done his marvellous works that they may be had in everlasting remembrance.

### Introduction

[¶44] All the inhabitants of the earth, speaking one language and dwelling in one place, [Gen 11:1], [Gen 11:2], purpose to build a city and a tower to prevent their dispersion, [Gen 11:3], [Gen 11:4]. God confounds their language, and scatters them over the whole earth, [Gen 11:5-9]. Account of the lives and families of the postdiluvian patriarchs. Shem, [Gen 11:10], [Gen 11:11]. Arphaxad, [Gen 11:12], [Gen 11:13]. Salah, [Gen 11:14], [Gen 11:15]. Eber, [Gen 11:16], [Gen 11:17]. Peleg, [Gen 11:18], [Gen 11:19]. Ragau or Reu, [Gen 11:20], [Gen 11:21]. Serug, [Gen 11:22], [Gen 11:23]. Nahor, [Gen 11:24], [Gen 11:25]. Terah and his three sons, Haran, Nahor, and Abram, [Gen 11:26], [Gen 11:27]. The death of Haran, [Gen 11:28]. Abram marries Sarai, and Nahor marries Milcah, [Gen 11:29]. Sarai is barren, [Gen 11:30]. Terah, Abram, Sarai, and Lot, leave Ur of the Chaldees, and go to Haran, [Gen 11:31]. Terah dies in Haran, aged two hundred and five years, [Gen 11:32].

## 16. Genesis · 16 of 67

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### Verse 1

[¶1] The whole earth was of one language - The whole earth - all mankind was of one language, in all likelihood the Hebrew; and of one speech - articulating the same words in the same way. It is generally supposed, that after the confusion mentioned in this chapter, the Hebrew language remained in the family of Heber. The proper names, and their significations given in the Scripture, seem incontestable evidences that the Hebrew language was the original language of the earth - the language in which God spake to man, and in which he gave the revelation of his will to Moses and the prophets. "It was used," says Mr. Ainsworth, "in all the world for one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven years, till Phaleg, the son of Heber, was born, and the tower of Babel was in building one hundred years after the flood, [Gen 10:25]; [Gen 11:9]. After this, it was used among the Hebrews or Jews, called therefore the Jews' language, [Isa 36:11], until they were carried captive into Babylon, where the holy tongue ceased from being commonly used, and the mixed Hebrew (or Chaldee) came in its place." It cannot be reasonably imagined that the Jews lost the Hebrew tongue entirely in the seventy years of their captivity in Babylon; yet, as they were mixed with the Chaldeans, their children would of course learn that dialect, and to them the pure Hebrew would be unintelligible; and this probably gave rise to the necessity of explaining the Hebrew Scriptures in the Chaldee tongue, that the children might understand as well as their fathers. As we may safely presume the parents could not have forgotten the Hebrew, so we may conclude the children in general could not have learned it, as they did not live in an insulated state, but were mixed with the Babylonians. This conjecture removes the difficulty with which many have been embarrassed; one party supposing that the knowledge of the Hebrew language was lost during the Babylonish captivity, and hence the necessity of the Chaldee Targums to explain the Scriptures; another party insisting that this was impossible in so short a period as seventy years.

### Verse 2

[¶3] As they journeyed from the east - Assyria, Mesopotamia, and the country on the borders and beyond the Euphrates, are called the east in the sacred writings. Balaam said that the king of Moab had brought him from the mountains of the east, [Num 23:7].

[¶4] Now it appears, from [Num 22:5], that Balaam dwelt at Pethor, on the river Euphrates. And it is very probable that it was from this country that the wise men came to adore Christ; for it is said they came from the east to Jerusalem, [Mat 2:1]. Abraham is said to have come from the east to Canaan, [Isa 41:2]; but it is well known that he came from Mesopotamia and Chaldea. [Isa 46:11], represents Cyrus as coming from the east against Babylon. And the same prophet represents the Syrians as dwelling eastward of Jerusalem, [Isa 9:12] : The Syrians before, מקדם mikkedem, from the east, the same word which Moses uses here. [Dan 11:44], represents Antiochus as troubled at news received from the east; i.e. of a revolt in the eastern provinces, beyond the Euphrates.

[¶5] Noah and his family, landing after the flood on one of the mountains of Armenia, would doubtless descend and cultivate the valleys: as they increased, they appear to have passed along the banks of the Euphrates, till, at the time specified here, they came to the plains of Shinar, allowed to be the most fertile country in the east. See Calmet. That Babel was built in the land of Shinar we have the authority of the sacred text to prove; and that Babylon was built in the same country we have the testimony of Eusebius, Praep. Evang., lib. ix., c. 15; and Josephus, Antiq., lib. i., c. 5.

### Verse 3

[¶7] Let us make brick - It appears they were obliged to make use of brick, as there was an utter scarcity of stones in that district; and on the same account they were obliged to use slime, that is, bitumen, (Vulg). ασφαλτος, (Septuagint) for mortar: so it appears they had neither common stone nor lime-stone; hence they had brick for stone, and asphaltus or bitumen instead of mortar.

### Verse 4

[¶9] Let us build us a city and a tower - On this subject there have been various conjectures. Mr. Hutchinson supposed that the design of the builders was to erect a temple to the host of heaven - the sun, moon, planets, etc.; and, to support this interpretation, he says וראשו בשמים verosho bashshamayim should be translated, not, whose top may reach unto heaven, for there is nothing for may reach in the Hebrew, but its head or summit to the heavens, i.e. to the heavenly bodies: and, to make this interpretation the more probable, he says that previously to this time the descendants of Noah were all agreed in one form of religious worship, (for so he understands ושפה אחת vesaphah achath, and of one lip), i.e. according to him, they had one litany; and as God confounded their litany, they began to disagree in their religious opinions, and branched out into sects and parties, each associating with those of his own sentiment; and thus their tower or temple was left unfinished.

[¶10] It is probable that their being of one language and of one speech implies, not only a sameness of language, but also a unity of sentiment and design, as seems pretty clearly intimated in [Gen 11:6]. Being therefore strictly united in all things, coming to the fertile plains of Shinar they proposed to settle themselves there, instead of spreading themselves over all the countries of the earth, according to the design of God; and in reference to this purpose they encouraged one another to build a city and a tower, probably a temple, to prevent their separation, "lest," say they, "we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth:" but God, miraculously interposing, confounded or frustrated their rebellious design, which was inconsistent with his will; see [Deu 32:8]; [Act 17:26]; and, partly by confounding their language, and disturbing their counsels, they could no longer keep in a united state; so that agreeing in nothing but the necessity of separating, they went off in different directions, and thus became scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. The Targums, both of Jonathan ben Uzziel and of Jerusalem, assert that the tower was for idolatrous worship; and that they intended to place an image on the top of the tower with a sword in its hand, probably to act as a talisman against their enemies. Whatever their design might have been, it is certain that this temple or tower was afterwards devoted to idolatrous purposes. Nebuchadnezzar repaired and beautified this tower, and it was dedicated to Bel, or the sun.

[¶11] An account of this tower, and of the confusion of tongues, is given by several ancient authors. Herodotus saw the tower and described it. A sybil, whose oracle is yet extant, spoke both of it and of the confusion of tongues; so did Eupolemus and Abydenus. See Bochart Geogr. Sacr., lib. i., c. 13, edit. 1692. On this point Bochart observes that these things are taken from the Chaldeans, who preserve many remains of ancient facts; and though they often add circumstances, yet they are, in general, in some sort dependent on the text. 1. They say Babel was built by the giants, because Nimrod, one of the builders, is called in the Hebrew text גבור gibbor, a mighty man; or, as the Septuagint, γιγας, a giant. 2. These giants, they say, sprang from the earth, because, in [Gen 10:11], it is said, He went, מן הארץ ההוא min haarets hahiv, out of that earth; but this is rather spoken of Asshur, who was another of the Babel builders. 3. These giants are said to have waged war with the gods, because it is said of Nimrod, [Gen 10:9], He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; or, as others have rendered it, a warrior and a rebel against the Lord. See Jarchi in loco. 4. These giants are said to have raised a tower up to heaven, as if they had intended to have ascended thither. This appears to have been founded on "whose top may reach to heaven," which has been already explained. 5. It is said that the gods sent strong winds against them, which dispersed both them and their work. This appears to have been taken from the Chaldean history, in which it is said their dispersion was made to the four winds of heaven, בארבע רוחי שמיא bearba ruchey shemaiya, i.e. to the four quarters of the world. 6. And because the verb פוץ brev eht esua phuts, or נפץ naphats, used by Moses, signifies, not only to scatter, but also to break to pieces; whence thunder, [Isa 30:30], is called נפץ nephets, a breaking to pieces; hence they supposed the whole work was broken to pieces and overturned. It was probably from this disguised representation of the Hebrew text that the Greek and Roman poets took their fable of the giants waging war with the gods, and piling mountain upon mountain in order to scale heaven. See Bochart as above.

### Verse 5

[¶13] And the Lord came down - A lesson, says an ancient Jewish commentator, to magistrates to examine every evidence before they decree judgment and execute justice.

### Verse 6

[¶15] The people is one, etc. - From this, as before observed, we may infer, that as the people had the same language, so they had a unity of design and sentiment. It is very likely that the original language was composed of monosyllables, that each had a distinct ideal meaning, and only one meaning; as different acceptations of the same word would undoubtedly arise, either from compounding terms, or, when there were but few words in a language, using them by a different mode of pronunciation to express a variety of things. Where this simple monosyllabic language prevailed (and it must have prevailed in the first ages of the world) men would necessarily have simple ideas, and a corresponding simplicity of manners. The Chinese language is exactly such as this; and the Hebrew, if stripped of its vowel points, and its prefixes, suffixes, and postfixes separated from their combinations, so that they might stand by themselves, it would nearly answer to this character even in its present state. In order therefore to remove this unity of sentiment and design, which I suppose to be the necessary consequence of such a language, God confounded their language - caused them to articulate the same word differently, to affix different ideas to the same term, and perhaps, by transposing syllables and interchanging letters, form new terms and compounds, so that the mind of the speaker was apprehended by the hearer in a contrary sense to what was intended. This idea is not iii expressed by an ancient French poet, Du Bartas; and not badly, though rather quaintly, metaphrased by our countryman, Mr. Sylvester.

[¶16] Some speak between the teeth, some in the nose, Some in the throat their words do ill dispose - "Bring me," quoth one, "a trowel, quickly, quick!"

[¶17] One brings him up a hammer. "Hew this brick,"

[¶18] Another bids; and then they cleave a tree; "Make fast this rope," and then they let it flee.

[¶19] One calls for planks, another mortar lacks;

[¶20] They bear the first a stone, the last an axe.

[¶21] One would have spikes, and him a spade they give;

[¶22] Another asks a saw, and gets a sieve.

[¶23] Thus crossly crost, they prate and point in vain:

[¶24] What one hath made another mars again

[¶25] These masons then, seeing the storm arrived

[¶26] Of God's just wrath, all weak and heart-deprived,

[¶27] Forsake their purpose, and, like frantic fools,

[¶28] Scatter their stuff and tumble down their tools.

[¶29] Du Bartas - Babylon.

[¶30] I shall not examine how the different languages of the earth were formed. It certainly was not the work of a moment; different climates must have a considerable share in the formation of tongues, by their influence on the organs of speech. The invention of new arts and trades must give birth to a variety of terms and expressions. Merchandise, commerce, and the cultivation of the sciences, would produce their share; and different forms of government, modes of life, and means of instruction, also contribute their quota. The Arabic, Chaldee, Syriac, and Ethiopic, still bear the most striking resemblance to their parent, the Hebrew. Many others might be reduced to a common source, yet everywhere there is sufficient evidence of this confusion. The anomalies even in the most regular languages sufficiently prove this. Every language is confounded less or more but that of eternal truth. This is ever the same; in all countries, climates, and ages, the language of truth, like that God from whom it sprang, is unchangeable. It speaks in all tongues, to all nations, and in all hearts: "There is one God, the fountain of goodness, justice, and truth. Man, thou art his creature, ignorant, weak, and dependent; but he is all-sufficient - hates nothing that he has made - loves thee - is able and willing to save thee; return to and depend on him, take his revealed will for thy law, submit to his authority, and accept eternal life on the terms proposed in his word, and thou shalt never perish nor be wretched." This language of truth all the ancient and modern Babel builders have not been able to confound, notwithstanding their repeated attempts. How have men toiled to make this language clothe their own ideas; and thus cause God to speak according to the pride, prejudice and worst passions of men! But through a just judgment of God, the language of all those who have attempted to do this has been confounded, and the word of the Lord abideth for ever.

### Verse 7

[¶32] Go to - A form of speech which, whatever it might have signified formerly, now means nothing. The Hebrew העה habah signifies come, make preparation, as it were for a journey, the execution of a purpose, etc. Almost all the versions understand the word in this way; the Septuagint have δευτε, the Vulgate venite, both signifying come, or come ye. This makes a very good sense, Come, let its go down, etc. For the meaning of these latter words see [Gen 1:26], and [Gen 18:21].

### Verse 9

[¶34] Therefore is the name of it called Babel - בבל babel, from בל bal, to mingle, confound, destroy; hence Babel, from the mingling together and confounding of the projects and language of these descendants of Noah; and this confounding did not so much imply the producing new languages, as giving them a different method of pronouncing the same words, and leading them to affix different ideas to them.

[¶35] Besides Mr. Hutchinson's opinion, (see on [Gen 11:4] (note)), there have been various conjectures concerning the purpose for which this tower was built. Some suppose it was intended to prevent the effects of another flood, by affording an asylum to the builders and their families in case of another general deluge. Others think that it was designed to be a grand city, the seat of government, in order to prevent a general dispersion. This God would not permit, as he had purposed that men should be dispersed over the earth, and therefore caused the means which they were using to prevent it to become the grand instrument of its accomplishment. Humanly speaking, the earth could not have so speedily peopled, had it not been for this very circumstance which the counsel of man had devised to prevent it. Some say that these builders were divided into seventy-two nations, with seventy-two different languages; but this is an idle, unfounded tale.

### Verse 10

[¶37] These are the generations of Shem - This may he called the holy family, as from it sprang Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, David, Solomon, and all the great progenitors of the Messiah.

[¶38] We have already seen that the Scripture chronology, as it exists in the Hebrew text, the Samaritan, the Septuagint, Josephus, and some of the fathers, is greatly embarrassed; and it is yet much more so in the various systems of learned and unlearned chronologists. For a full and rational view of this subject, into which the nature of these notes forbids me farther to enter, I must refer my reader to Dr. Hales's laborious work, "A New Analysis of Sacred Chronology," vol. ii., part 1, etc., in which he enters into the subject with a cautious but firm step; and, if he has not been able to remove all its difficulties, has thrown very considerable light upon most parts of it.

### Verse 12

[¶40] And Arphaxad lived - The Septuagint bring in here a second Cainan, with an addition of one hundred and thirty years. St. Luke follows the Septuagint, and brings in the same person in the same way. But the Hebrew text, both here and in 1 Chronicles 1:1-28, is perfectly silent on this subject, and the best chronologists have agreed in rejecting this as a spurious generation.

### Verse 26

[¶42] And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran - Haran was certainly the eldest son of Terah, and he appears to have been born when Terah was about seventy years of age, and his birth was followed in successive periods with those of Nahor his second, and Abram his youngest son. Many have been greatly puzzled with the account here, supposing because Abram is mentioned first, that therefore he was the eldest son of Terah: but he is only put first by way of dignity. An in stance of this we have already seen, [Gen 5:32], where Noah is represented as having Shem, Ham, and Japheth in this order of succession; whereas it is evident from other scriptures that Shem was the youngest son, who for dignity is named first, as Abram is here; and Japheth the eldest, named last, as Haran is here. Terah died two hundred and five years old, [Gen 11:32]; then Abram departed from Haran when seventy-five years old, [Gen 12:4]; therefore Abram was born, not when his father Terah was seventy, but when he was one hundred and thirty.

[¶43] When any case of dignity or pre-eminence is to be marked, then even the youngest son is set before all the rest, though contrary to the usage of the Scriptures in other cases. Hence we find Shem, the youngest son of Noah, always mentioned first; Moses is mentioned before his elder brother Aaron; and Abram before his two elder brethren Haran and Nahor. These observations are sufficient to remove all difficulty from this place.

## 17. Genesis · 17 of 67

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### Verse 29

[¶1] Milcah, the daughter of Haran - Many suppose Sarai and Iscah are the same person under two different names; but this is improbable, as Iscah is expressly said to be the daughter of Haran, and Sarai was the daughter of Terah, and half sister of Abram.

### Verse 31

[¶3] They went forth - front Ur of the Chaldees - Chaldea is sometimes understood as comprising the whole of Babylonia; at other times, that province towards Arabia Deserta, called in Scripture The land of the Chaldeans. The capital of this place was Babylon, called in Scripture The beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, [Isa 13:19].

[¶4] Ur appears to have been a city of some considerable consequence at that time in Chaldea; but where situated is not well known. It probably had its name Ur אור, which signifies fire, from the worship practiced there. The learned are almost unanimously of opinion that the ancient inhabitants of this region were ignicolists or worshippers of fire, and in that place this sort of worship probably originated; and in honor of this element, the symbol of the Supreme Being, the whole country, or a particular city in it, might have had the name Ur. Bochart has observed that there is a place called Ouri, south of the Euphrates, in the way from Nisibis to the river Tigris. The Chaldees mentioned here had not this name in the time of which Moses speaks, but they were called so in the time in which Moses wrote. Chesed was the son of Nahor, the son of Terah, [Gen 22:22]. From Chesed descended the Chasdim, whose language was the same as that of the Amorites, [Dan 1:4]; [Dan 2:4]. These Chasdim, whence the Χαλδαιοι, Chaldeans, of the Septuagint, Vulgate, and all later versions, afterwards settled on the south of the Euphrates. Those who dwelt in Ur were either priests or astronomers, [Dan 2:10], and also idolaters, [Jos 24:2], [Jos 24:3], [Jos 24:14], [Jos 24:15]. And because they were much addicted to astronomy, and probably to judicial astrology, hence all astrologers were, in process of time, called Chaldeans, [Dan 2:2-5].

[¶5] The building of Babel, the confusion of tongues, and the first call of Abram, are three remarkable particulars in this chapter; and these led to the accomplishment of three grand and important designs:

[¶6] 1. The peopling of the whole earth;

[¶7] 2. The preservation of the true religion by the means of one family; and

[¶8] 3. The preservation of the line uncorrupted by which the Messiah should come.

[¶9] When God makes a discovery of himself by a particular revelation, it must begin in some particular time, and be given to some particular person, and in some particular place. Where, when, and to whom, are comparatively matters of small importance. It is God's gift; and his own wisdom must determine the time, the person, and the place. But if this be the case, have not others cause to complain because not thus favored? Not at all, unless the favoring of the one for a time should necessarily cut off the others for ever. But this is not the case. Abram was first favored; that time, that country, and that person were chosen by infinite wisdom, for there and then God chose to commence these mighty operations of Divine goodness. Isaac and Jacob also received the promises, the twelve patriarchs through their father, and the whole Jewish people through them. Afterwards the designs of God's endless mercy were more particularly unfolded; and the word, which seemed to be confined for two thousand years to the descendants of a single family, bursts forth on all hands, salvation is preached to the Gentiles, and thus in Abram's seed all the nations of the earth are blessed.

[¶10] Hence none can find fault, and none can have cause to complain; as the salvation which for a time appeared to be restricted to a few, is now on the authority of God, liberally offered to the whole human race!

### Introduction

[¶12] God calls Abram to leave Haran and go into Canaan, [Gen 12:1]; promises to bless him, and through him all the families of the earth, [Gen 12:2], [Gen 12:3]. Abram, Sarai, Lot, and all their household, depart from Canaan, [Gen 12:4], [Gen 12:5]; pass through Sichem, [Gen 12:6]. God appears to him, and renews the promise, [Gen 12:7]. His journey described, [Gen 12:8], [Gen 12:9]. On account of a famine in the land he is obliged to go into Egypt, [Gen 12:10]. Fearing lest, on account of the beauty of his wife, the Egyptians should kill him, he desires her not to acknowledge that she is his wife, but only his sister, [Gen 12:11-13]. Sarai, because of her beauty, is taken into the palace of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who is very liberal to Abram on her account, [Gen 12:14-16]. God afflicts Pharaoh and his household with grievous plagues on account of Sarai, [Gen 12:17]. Pharaoh, on finding that Sarai was Abram's wife, restores her honourably, and dismisses the patriarch with his family and their property, [Gen 12:18-20].

### Verse 1

[¶14] Get thee out of thy country - There is great dissension between commentators concerning the call of Abram; some supposing he had two distinct calls, others that he had but one. At the conclusion of the preceding chapter, [Gen 11:31], we find Terah and all his family leaving Ur of the Chaldees, in order to go to Canaan. This was, no doubt, in consequence of some Divine admonition. While resting at Haran, on their road to Canaan, Terah died, [Gen 11:32]; and then God repeats his call to Abram, and orders him to proceed to Canaan, [Gen 12:1].

[¶15] Dr. Hales, in his Chronology, contends for two calls: "The first," says he, "is omitted in the Old Testament, but is particularly recorded in the New, [Act 7:2-4] : The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was (at Ur of the Chaldees) in Mesopotamia, Before He Dwelt In Canaan; and said unto him, Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land (γην, a land) which I will show thee. Hence it is evident that God had called Abram before he came to Haran or Charran." The Second Call is recorded only in this chapter: "The Lord said (not Had said) unto Abram, Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto The Land, הארץ HA-arets, (Septuagint, Την γην), which I will show thee." "The difference of the two calls," says Dr. Hales, "more carefully translated from the originals, is obvious: in the former the land is indefinite, which was designed only for a temporary residence; in the latter it is definite, intimating his abode. A third condition is also annexed to the latter, that Abram shall now separate himself from his father's house, or leave his brother Nahor's family behind at Charran. This call Abram obeyed, still not knowing whither he was going, but trusting implicitly to the Divine guidance."

[¶16] Thy kindred - Nahor and the different branches of the family of Terah, Abram and Lot excepted. That Nahor went with Terah and Abram as far as Padan-Aram, in Mesopotamia, and settled there, so that it was afterwards called Nahor's city, is sufficiently evident from the ensuing history, see [Gen 25:20]; [Gen 24:10], [Gen 24:15]; and that the same land was Haran, see [Gen 28:2], [Gen 28:10], and there were Abram's kindred and country here spoken of, [Gen 24:4].

[¶17] Thy father's house - Terah being now dead, it is very probable that the family were determined to go no farther, but to settle at Charran; and as Abram might have felt inclined to stop with them in this place, hence the ground and necessity of the second call recorded here, and which is introduced in a very remarkable manner; לך לך lech lecha, Go For Thyself. If none of the family will accompany thee, yet go for thyself unto That Land which I will show thee. God does not tell him what land it is, that he may still cause him to walk by faith and not by sight. This seems to be particularly alluded to by Isaiah, [Isa 41:2] : Who raised up the righteous man (Abram) from the east, and called him to his foot; that is, to follow implicitly the Divine direction. The apostle assures us that in all this Abram had spiritual views; he looked for a better country, and considered the land of promise only as typical of the heavenly inheritance.

### Verse 2

[¶19] I will make of thee a great nation - i.e., The Jewish people; and make thy name great, alluding to the change of his name from Abram, a high father, to Abraham, the father of a multitude.

### Verse 3

[¶21] In thee - In thy posterity, in the Messiah, who shall spring from thee, shall all families of the earth be blessed; for as he shall take on him human nature from the posterity of Abraham, he shall taste death for every man, his Gospel shall be preached throughout the world, and innumerable blessings be derived on all mankind through his death and intercession.

### Verse 4

[¶23] And Abram was seventy and five years old - As Abram was now seventy-five years old, and his father Terah had just died, at the age of two hundred and five, consequently Terah must have been one hundred and thirty when Abram was born; and the seventieth year of his age mentioned [Gen 11:26], was the period at which Haran, not Abram, was born. See on Genesis 11 (note).

### Verse 5

[¶25] The souls that they had gotten in Haran - This may apply either to the persons who were employed in the service of Abram, or to the persons he had been the instrument of converting to the knowledge of the true God; and in this latter sense the Chaldee paraphrasts understood the passage, translating it, The souls of those whom they proselyted in Haran.

[¶26] They went forth to go into the land of Canaan - A good land, possessed by a bad people, who for their iniquities were to be expelled, see [Lev 18:25]. And this land was made a type of the kingdom of God. Probably the whole of this transaction may have a farther meaning than that which appears in the letter. As Abram left his own country, father's house, and kindred, took at the command of God a journey to this promised land, nor ceased till be arrived in it; so should we cast aside every weight, come out from among the workers of iniquity, set out for the kingdom of God, nor ever rest till we reach the heavenly country. How many set out for the kingdom of heaven, make good progress for a time in their journey, but halt before the race is finished! Not so Abram; he went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan he came. Reader, go thou and do likewise.

### Verse 6

[¶28] The plain of Moreh - אלון elon should be translated oak, not plain; the Septuagint translate την δρυν την ὑψηλην, the lofty oak; and it is likely the place was remarkable for a grove of those trees, or for one of a stupendous height and bulk.

[¶29] The Canaanite was then in the land - This is thought to be an interpolation, because it is supposed that these words must have been written after the Canaanites were expelled from the land by the Israelites under Joshua; but this by no means follows. All that Moses states is simply that, at the time in which Abram passed through Sichem, the land was inhabited by the descendants of Canaan, which was a perfectly possible case, and involves neither a contradiction nor absurdity. There is no rule of criticism by which these words can be produced as an evidence of interpolation or incorrectness in the statement of the sacred historian. See this mentioned again, [Gen 13:7] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶31] The Lord appeared - In what way this appearance was made we know not; it was probably by the great angel of the covenant, Jesus the Christ. The appearance, whatsoever it was, perfectly satisfied Abram, and proved itself to be supernatural and Divine. It is worthy of remark that Abram is the first man to whom God is said to have shown himself or appeared:

[¶32] 1. In Ur of the Chaldees, [Act 7:2]; and

[¶33] 2. At the oak of Moreh, as in this verse. As מורה Moreh signifies a teacher, probably this was called the oak of Moreh or the teacher, because God manifested himself here, and instructed Abram concerning the future possession of that land by his posterity, and the dispensation of the mercy of God to all the families of the earth through the promised Messiah. See on [Gen 15:7] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶35] Beth-el - The place which was afterwards called Beth-el by Jacob, for its first name was Luz. See [Gen 28:19]. בית אל beith El literally signifies the house of God.

[¶36] And pitched his tent - and - builded an altar unto the Lord - Where Abram has a tent, there God must have an Altar, as he well knows there is no safety but under the Divine protection. How few who build houses ever think on the propriety and necessity of building an altar to their Maker! The house in which the worship of God is not established cannot be considered as under the Divine protection.

[¶37] And called upon the name of the Lord - Dr. Shuckford strongly contends that קרא בשם kara beshem does not signify to call On the name, but to invoke In the name. So Abram invoked Jehovah in or by the name of Jehovah, who had appeared to him. He was taught even in these early times to approach God through a Mediator; and that Mediator, since manifested in the flesh, was known by the name Jehovah. Does not our Lord allude to such a discovery as this when he says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad? [Joh 8:56]. Hence it is evident that he was informed that the Christ should be born of his seed, that the nations of the world should be blessed through him; and is it then to be wondered at if he invoked God in the name of this great Mediator?

### Verse 10

[¶39] There was a famine in the land - Of Canaan. This is the first famine on record, and it prevailed in the most fertile land then under the sun; and why? God made it desolate for the wickedness of those who dwelt in it.

[¶40] Went down into Egypt - He felt himself a stranger and a pilgrim, and by his unsettled state was kept in mind of the city that hath foundations that are permanent and stable, whose builder is the living God. See [Heb 11:8], [Heb 11:9].

### Verse 11

[¶42] Thou art a fair woman to look upon - Widely differing in her complexion from the swarthy Egyptians, and consequently more likely to be coveted by them. It appears that Abram supposed they would not scruple to take away the life of the husband in order to have the undisturbed possession of the wife. The age of Sarai at this time is not well agreed on by commentators, some making her ninety, while others make her only sixty-five. From [Gen 17:17], we learn that Sarai was ten years younger than Abram, for she was but ninety when he was one hundred. And from [Gen 12:4], we find that Abram was seventy-five when he was called to leave Haran and go to Canaan, at which time Sarai could be only sixty-five; and if the transactions recorded in the preceding verses took place in the course of that year, which I think possible, consequently Sarai was but sixty-five; and as in those times people lived much longer, and disease seems to have had but a very contracted influence, women and men would necessarily arrive more slowly at a state of perfection, and retain their vigor and complexion much longer, than in later times. We may add to these considerations that strangers and foreigners are more coveted by the licentious than those who are natives. This has been amply illustrated in the West Indies and in America, where the jetty, monkey-faced African women are preferred to the elegant and beautiful Europeans! To this subject a learned British traveler elegantly applied those words of Virgil, Ecl. ii., ver. 18: -

[¶43] Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur.

[¶44] White lilies lie neglected on the plain,

[¶45] While dusky hyacinths for use remain.

## 18. Genesis · 18 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/18/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/18/#p-N

[¶0] Dryden.

### Verse 13

[¶2] Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister - Abram did not wish his wife to tell a falsehood, but he wished her to suppress a part of the truth. From [Gen 20:12], it is evident she was his step-sister, i.e., his sister by his father, but by a different mother. Some suppose Sarai was the daughter of Haran, and consequently the grand-daughter of Terah: this opinion seems to be founded on [Gen 11:29], where Iscah is thought to be the same with Sarai, but the supposition has not a sufficiency of probability to support it.

### Verse 15

[¶4] The woman was taken into Pharaoh's house - Pharaoh appears to have been the common appellative of the Cuthite shepherd kings of Egypt, who had conquered this land, as is conjectured, about seventy-two years before this time. The word is supposed to signify king in the ancient Egyptian language. If the meaning be sought in the Hebrew, the root פרע para signifies to be free or disengaged, a name which such freebooters as the Cuthite shepherds might naturally assume. All the kings of Egypt bore this name till the commencement of the Grecian monarchy, after which they were called Ptolemies.

[¶5] When a woman was brought into the seragilo or harem of the eastern princes, she underwent for a considerable time certain purifications before she was brought into the king's presence. It was in this interim that God plagued Pharaoh and his house with plagues, so that Sarai was restored before she could have been taken to the bed of the Egyptian king.

### Verse 16

[¶7] He had sheep, and oxen, etc. - As some of these terms are liable to be confounded, and as they frequently occur, especially in the Pentateuch, it may be necessary to consider and fix their meaning in this place.

[¶8] Sheep; צאן tson, from tsaan, to be plentiful or abundant; a proper term for the eastern sheep, which almost constantly bring forth twins, [Sol 4:2], and sometimes three and even four at a birth. Hence their great fruitfulness is often alluded to in the Scripture. See [Psa 65:13]; [Psa 144:13]. But under this same term, which almost invariably means a flock, both sheep and goats are included. So the Romans include sheep, goats, and small cattle in general, under the term Pecus pecoris; so likewise they do larger cattle under that of Pecus pecudis.

[¶9] Oxen; בקר bakar, from the root, to examine, look out, because of the full, broad, steady, unmoved look of most animals of the beeve kind; and hence the morning is termed boker, because of the light springing out of the east, and looking out over the whole of the earth's surface.

[¶10] He-Asses; חמרים chamorim, from חמר chamar, to be disturbed, muddy; probably from the dull, stupid appearance of this animal, as if it were always affected with melancholy. Scheuchzer thinks the sandy-coloured domestic Asiatic ass is particularly intended. The word is applied to asses in general, though most frequently restrained to those of the male kind.

[¶11] She-Asses; אתנת athonoth, from אתן ethan, strength, probably the strong animal, as being superior in muscular force to every other animal of its size. Under this term both the male and female are sometimes understood.

[¶12] Camels; גמלים gemallim, from גמל gamal, to recompense, return, repay; so called from its resentment of injuries, and revengeful temper, for which it is proverbial in the countries of which it is a native. On the animals and natural history in general, of the Scriptures, I must refer to the Hicrozoicon of Bochart, and the Physica Sacra of Scheuchzer. The former is the most learned and accurate work perhaps, ever produced by one man.

[¶13] From this enumeration of the riches of Abram we may conclude that this patriarch led a pastoral and itinerant life; that his meat must have chiefly consisted in the flesh of clean animals, with a sufficiency of pulse for bread; that his chief drink was their milk; his clothing, their skins; and his beasts of burden, asses and camels; (for as yet we read of no horses); and the ordinary employment of his servants, to take care of the flocks, and to serve their master. Where the patriarchs became resident for any considerable time, they undoubtedly cultivated the ground to produce grain.

### Verse 17

[¶15] The Lord plagued Pharaoh - What these plagues were we know not. In the parallel case, [Gen 20:18], all the females in the family of Abimelech, who had taken Sarah in nearly the same way, were made barren; possibly this might have been the case here; yet much more seems to be signified by the expression great plagues. Whatever these plagues were, it is evident they were understood by Pharaoh as proofs of the disapprobation of God; and, consequently, even at this time in Egypt there was some knowledge of the primitive and true religion.

### Verse 20

[¶17] Commanded his men concerning him - Gave particular and strict orders to afford Abram and his family every accommodation for their journey; for having received a great increase of cattle and servants, it was necessary that he should have the favor of the king, and his permission to remove from Egypt with so large a property; hence, a particular charge is given to the officers of Pharaoh to treat him with respect, and to assist him in his intended departure.

[¶18] The weighty and important contents of this chapter demand our most attentive consideration. Abram is a second time called to leave his country, kindred, and father's house, and go to a place he knew not. Every thing was apparently against him but the voice of God. This to Abram was sufficient; he could trust his Maker, and knew he could not do wrong in following his command. He is therefore proposed to us in the Scriptures as a pattern of faith, patience, and loving obedience. When he received the call of God, he spent no time in useless reasonings about the call itself, his family circumstances, the difficulties in the way, etc., etc. He was called, and he departed, and this is all we hear on the subject. Implicit faith in the promise of God, and prompt obedience to his commands, become us, not only as His creatures, but as sinners called to separate from evil workers and wicked ways, and travel, by that faith which worketh by love, in the way that leads to the paradise of God.

[¶19] How greatly must the faith of this blessed man have been tried, when, coming to the very land in which he is promised so much blessedness, he finds instead of plenty a grievous famine! Who in his circumstances would not have gone back to his own country, and kindred? Still he is not stumbled; prudence directs him to turn aside and go to Egypt, till God shall choose to remove this famine. Is it to be wondered at that, in this tried state, he should have serious apprehensions for the safety of his life? Sarai, his affectionate wife and faithful companion, he supposes he shall lose; her beauty, he suspects, will cause her to be desired by men of power, whose will he shall not be able to resist. If he appear to be her husband, his death he supposes to be certain; if she pass for his sister, he may be well used on her account; he will not tell a lie, but he is tempted to prevaricate by suppressing a part of the truth. Here is a weakness which, however we may be inclined to pity and excuse it, we should never imitate. It is recorded with its own condemnation. He should have risked all rather than have prevaricated. But how could he think of lightly giving up such a wife? Surely he who would not risk his life for the protection and safety of a good wife, is not worthy of one. Here his faith was deficient. He still credited the general promise, and acted on that faith in reference to it; but he did not use his faith in reference to intervening circumstances, to which it was equally applicable. Many trust God for their souls and eternity, who do not trust in him for their bodies and for time. To him who follows God fully in simplicity of heart, every thing must ultimately succeed. Had Abram and Sarai simply passed for what they were, they had incurred no danger; for God, who had obliged them to go to Egypt, had prepared the way before them. Neither Pharaoh nor his courtiers would have noticed the woman, had she appeared to be the wife of the stranger that came to sojourn in their land. The issue sufficiently proves this. Every ray of the light of truth is an emanation from the holiness of God, and awfully sacred in his eyes. Considering the subject thus, a pious ancient spoke the following words, which refiners in prevarication have deemed by much too strong: "I would not," said he, "tell a lie to save the souls of the whole world." Reader, be on thy guard; thou mayest fall by comparatively small matters, while resolutely and successfully resisting those which require a giant's strength to counteract them. In every concern God is necessary; seek him for the body and for the soul; and do not think that any thing is too small or insignificant to interest him that concerns thy present or eternal peace.

### Introduction

[¶21] Abram and his family return out of Egypt to Canaan, [Gen 13:1], [Gen 13:2]. He revisits Beth-el, and there invokes the Lord, [Gen 13:3], [Gen 13:4]. In consequence of the great increase in the flocks of Abram and Lot, their herdsmen disagree; which obliges the patriarch and his nephew to separate, [Gen 13:5-9]. Lot being permitted to make his choice of the land, chooses the plains of Jordan, [Gen 13:10], [Gen 13:11], and pitches his tent near to Sodom, while Abram abides in Canaan, [Gen 13:12]. Bad character of the people of Sodom, [Gen 13:13]. The Lord renews his promise to Abram, [Gen 13:14-17]. Abram removes to the plains of Mamre, near Hebron, and builds an altar to the Lord, [Gen 13:18].

### Verse 1

[¶23] Abram went up out of Egypt - into the south - Probably the south of Canaan, as In leaving Egypt he is said to come from the south, [Gen 13:3], for the southern part of the promised land lay north-east of Egypt.

### Verse 2

[¶25] Abram was very rich - The property of these patriarchal times did not consist in flocks only, but also in silver and gold; and in all these respects Abram was דבד מאד cabed meod, exceeding rich. Josephus says that a part of this property was acquired by teaching the Egyptians arts and sciences. Thus did God fulfill his promises to him, by protecting and giving him a great profusion of temporal blessings, which were to him signs and pledges of spiritual things.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Beth-el - See Genesis 8.

### Verse 6

[¶29] Their substance was great - As their families increased, it was necessary their flocks should increase also, as from those flocks they derived their clothing, food, and drink. Many also were offered in sacrifice to God.

[¶30] They could not dwell together - 1. Because their flocks were great. 2. Because the Canaanites and the Perizzites had already occupied a considerable part of the land. 3. Because there appears to have been envy between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot. To prevent disputes among them, that might have ultimately disturbed the peace of the two families, it was necessary that a separation should take place.

### Verse 7

[¶32] The Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land - That is, they were there at the time Abram and Lot came to fix their tents in the land. See the note on [Gen 12:6].

### Verse 8

[¶34] For we be brethren - We are of the same family, worship the same God in the same way, have the same promises, and look for the same end. Why then should there be strife? If it appear to be unavoidable from our present situation, let that situation be instantly changed, for no secular advantages can counterbalance the loss of peace.

### Verse 9

[¶36] Is not the whole land before thee - As the patriarch or head of the family, Abram, by prescriptive right, might have chosen his own portion first, and appointed Lot his; but intent upon peace, and feeling pure and parental affection for his nephew, he permitted him to make his choice first.

### Verse 10

[¶38] Like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar - There is an obscurity in this verse which Houbigant has removed by the following translation: Ea autem, priusquam Sodomam Gornorrhamque Do minus delerit, erat, qua itur Segor, tota irrigua, quasi hortus Domini, et quasi terra Aegypti. "But before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was, as thou goest to Zoar, well watered, like the garden of the Lord, and like the land of Egypt." As paradise was watered by the four neighboring streams, and as Egypt was watered by the annual overflowing of the Nile; so were the plains of the Jordan, and all the land on the way to Zoar, well watered and fertilized by the overflowing of the Jordan.

### Verse 11

[¶40] Then Lot chose him all the plain - A little civility or good breeding is of great importance in the concerns of life. Lot either had none, or did not profit by it. He certainly should have left the choice to the patriarch, and should have been guided by his counsel; but he took his own way, trusting to his own judgment, and guided only by the sight of his eyes: he beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered, etc.; so he chose the land, without considering the character of the inhabitants, or what advantages or disadvantages it might afford him in spiritual things. This choice, as we shall see in the sequel, had nearly proved the ruin of his body, soul, and family.

### Verse 13

[¶42] The men of Sodom were wicked - רעים raim, from רע, ra, to break in pieces, destroy, and afflict; meaning persons who broke the established order of things, destroyed and confounded the distinctions between right and wrong, and who afflicted and tormented both themselves and others. And sinners, חטאים chattaim, from חטא chata, to miss the mark, to step wrong, to miscarry; the same as ἁμαρτανω in Greek, from a, negative, and μαρπτω to hit a mark; so a sinner is one who is ever aiming at happiness and constantly missing his mark; because, being wicked - radically evil within, every affection and passion depraved and out of order, he seeks for happiness where it never can be found, in worldly honors and possessions, and in sensual gratifications, the end of which is disappointment, affliction, vexation, and ruin. Such were the companions Lot must have in the fruitful land he had chosen. This, however, amounts to no more than the common character of sinful man; but the people of Sodom were exceedingly sinful and wicked before, or against, the Lord - they were sinners of no common character; they excelled in unrighteousness, and soon filled up the measure of their iniquities. See Genesis 19.

### Verse 14

[¶44] The Lord said unto Abram - It is very likely that the angel of the covenant appeared to Abram in open day, when he could take a distinct view of the length and the breadth of this good land. The revelation made [Gen 15:5], was evidently made in the night; for then he was called to number the stars, which could not be seen but in the night season: here he is called on to number the dust of the earth, [Gen 13:16], which could not be seen but in the day-light.

## 19. Genesis · 19 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/19/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/19/#p-N

### Verse 15

[¶1] To thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever - This land was given to Abram, that it might lineally and legally descend to his posterity; and though Abram himself cannot be said to have possessed it, [Act 7:5], yet it was the gift of God to him in behalf of his seed; and this was always the design of God, not that Abram himself should possess it, but that his posterity should, till the manifestation of Christ in the flesh. And this is chiefly what is to be understood by the words for ever, אד עולם ad olam, to the end of the present dispensation, and the commencement of the new. עולם olam means either Eternity, which implies the termination of all time or duration, such as is measured by the celestial luminaries: or a hidden, unknown period, such as includes a completion or final termination of a particular era, dispensation, etc.; therefore the first is its proper meaning, the latter its accommodated meaning. See the note on [Gen 17:7]. See the note on [Gen 21:33].

### Verse 18

[¶3] Abram removed his tent - Continued to travel and pitch in different places, till at last he fixed his tent in the plain, or by the oak, of Mamre, see [Gen 12:6], which is in Hebron; i.e., the district in which Mamre was situated was called Hebron. Mamre was an Amorite then living, with whom Abram made a league, [Gen 14:13]; and the oak probably went by his name, because he was the possessor of the ground. Hebron is called Kirjath-arba, [Gen 23:2]; but it is very likely that Hebron was its primitive name, and that it had the above appellation from being the residence of four gigantic or powerful Anakim, for Kirjath-arba literally signifies the city of the four; See note on [Gen 23:2].

[¶4] Built there an altar unto the Lord - On which he offered sacrifice, as the word מזבח mizbach, from זבח zabach, to slay, imports.

[¶5] The increase of riches in the family of Abram must, in the opinion of many, be a source of felicity to them. If earthly possessions could produce happiness, it must be granted that they had now a considerable share of it in their power. But happiness must have its seat in the mind, and, like that, be of a spiritual nature; consequently earthly goods cannot give it; so far are they from either producing or procuring it, that they always engender care and anxiety, and often strifes and contentions. The peace of this amiable family had nearly been destroyed by the largeness of their possessions. To prevent the most serious misunderstandings, Abram and his nephew were obliged to separate. He who has much in general wishes to have more, for the eye is not satisfied with seeing. Lot, for the better accommodation of his flocks and family, chooses the most fertile district in that country, and even sacrifices reverence and filial affection at the shrine of worldly advantage; but the issue proved that a pleasant worldly prospect may not be the most advantageous, even to our secular affairs. Abram prospered greatly in the comparatively barren part of the land, while Lot lost all his possessions, and nearly the lives of himself and family, in that land which appeared to him like the garden of the Lord, like a second paradise. Rich and fertile countries have generally luxurious, effeminate, and profligate inhabitants; so it was in this case. The inhabitants of Sodom were sinners, and exceedingly wicked, and their profligacy was of that kind which luxury produces; they fed themselves without fear, and they acted without shame. Lot however was, through the mercy of God, preserved from this contagion: he retained his religion; and this supported his soul and saved his life, when his goods and his wife perished. Let us learn from this to be jealous over our own wills and wishes; to distrust flattering prospects, and seek and secure a heavenly inheritance. "Man wants but little; nor that little long." A man's life - the comfort and happiness of it - does not consist in the multitude of the things he possesses. "One house, one day's food, and one suit of raiment," says the Arabic proverb, "are sufficient for thee; and if thou die before noon, thou hast one half too much." The example of Abram, in constantly erecting an altar wherever he settled, is worthy of serious regard; he knew the path of duty was the way of safety, and that, if he acknowledged God in all his ways, he might expect him to direct all his steps: he felt his dependence on God, he invoked him through a Mediator, and offered sacrifices in faith of the coming Savior; he found blessedness in this work - it was not an empty service; he rejoiced to see the day of Christ - he saw it and was glad. See note on [Gen 12:8]. Reader, has God an altar in thy house? Dost thou sacrifice to him? Dost thou offer up daily by faith, in behalf of thy soul and the souls of thy family, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world? No man cometh unto the Father but by me, said Christ: this was true, not only from the incarnation, but from the foundation of the world. And to this another truth, not less comfortable, may be added: Whosoever cometh unto me I will in no-wise cast out.

### Introduction

[¶7] The war of four confederate kings against the five kings of Canaan, [Gen 14:1-3]. The confederate kings overrun and pillage the whole country, [Gen 14:4-7]. Battle between them and the kings of Canaan, [Gen 14:5], [Gen 14:9]. The latter are defeated, and the principal part of the armies of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah slain, [Gen 14:10]; on which these two cities are plundered, [Gen 14:11]. Lot, his goods, and his family, are also taken and carried away, [Gen 14:12]. Abram, being informed of the disaster of his nephew, [Gen 14:13], arms three hundred and eighteen of his servants, and pursues them, [Gen 14:14]; overtakes and routs them, and recovers Lot and his family, and their goods, [Gen 14:15], [Gen 14:16]; is met on his return by the king of Sodom, and by Melchizedek, king of Salem, with refreshments for himself and men, [Gen 14:17], [Gen 14:18]. Melchizedek blesses Abram, and receives from him, as priest of the most high God, the tenth of all the spoils, [Gen 14:19], [Gen 14:20]. The king of Sodom offers to Abram all the goods he has taken from the enemy, [Gen 14:21]; which Abram positively refuses, having vowed to God to receive no recompense for a victory of which he knew God to be the sole author, [Gen 14:22], [Gen 14:23]; but desires that a proportion of the spoils be given to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre, who had accompanied him on this expedition, [Gen 14:24].

### Verse 1

[¶9] In the days of Amraphel - Who this king was is not known; and yet, from the manner in which he is spoken of in the text, it would seem that he was a person well known, even when Moses wrote this account. But the Vulgate gives a different turn to the place, by rendering the passage thus: Factum est in illo tempore, ut Amraphel, etc. "It came to pass in that time that Amraphel, etc." The Chaldee Targum of Onkelos makes Amraphel king of Babylon, others make him king of Assyria; some make him the same as Nimrod, and others, one of his descendants.

[¶10] Arioch king of Ellasar - Some think Syria is meant; but conjecture is endless where facts cannot be ascertained. Chedorlaomer king of Elam - Dr. Shuckford thinks that this was the same as Ninyas, the son of Ninus and Semiramis; and some think him to be the same with Keeumras, son of Doolaved, son of Arphaxad, son of Shem, son of Noah; and that Elam means Persia; see [Gen 10:22]. The Persian historians unanimously allow that Keeumras, whose name bears some affinity to Chedorlaomer, was the first king of the Peeshdadian dynasty.

[¶11] Tidal king of nations - גוים goyim, different peoples or clans. Probably some adventurous person, whose subjects were composed of refugees from different countries.

### Verse 2

[¶13] These made war with Bera, etc. - It appears, from [Gen 14:4], that these five Canaanitish kings had been subdued by Chedorlaomer, and were obliged to pay him tribute; and that, having been enslaved by him twelve years, wishing to recover their liberty, they revolted in the thirteenth; in consequence of which Chedorlaomer, the following year, summoned to his assistance three of his vassals, invaded Canaan, fought with and discomfited the kings of the Pentapolis or five cities - Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboiim, Zoar, and Admab, which were situated in the fruitful plain of Siddim, having previously overrun the whole land.

### Verse 5

[¶15] Rephaims - A people of Canaan: [Gen 15:20].

[¶16] Ashteroth - A city of Basan, where Og afterwards reigned; [Jos 13:31].

[¶17] Zuzims - Nowhere else spoken of, unless they were the same with the Zamzummims, [Deu 2:20], as some imagine.

[¶18] Emims - A people great and many in the days of Moses, and tall as the Anakim. They dwelt among the Moabites, by whom they were reputed giants; [Deu 2:10], [Deu 2:11].

[¶19] Shaveh Kiriathaim - Rather, as the margin, the plain of Kiriathaim, which was a city afterwards belonging to Sihon king of Heshbon; [Jos 13:19].

### Verse 6

[¶21] The Horites - A people that dwelt in Mount Seir, till Esau and his sons drove them thence; [Deu 2:22].

[¶22] El-paran - The plain or oak of Paran, which was a city in the wilderness of Paran; [Gen 21:21].

### Verse 7

[¶24] En-mishpat - The well of judgment; probably so called from the judgment pronounced by God on Moses and Aaron for their rebellion at that place; [Num 20:1-10].

[¶25] Amalekites - So called afterwards, from Amalek, son of Esau; [Gen 36:12].

[¶26] Hazezon-tamar - Called, in the Chaldee, Engaddi; a city in the land of Canaan, which fell to the lot of Judah; [Jos 15:62]. See also [2Chr 20:2]. It appears, from [Sol 1:14], to have been a very fruitful place.

### Verse 8

[¶28] Bela, the same is Zoar - That is, it was called Zoar after the destruction of Sodom, etc., mentioned in Genesis 19.

### Verse 10

[¶30] Slime-pits - Places where asphaltus or bitumen sprang out of the ground; this substance abounded in that country.

[¶31] Fell there - It either signifies they were defeated on this spot, and many of them slain, or that multitudes of them had perished in the bitumen-pits which abounded there; that the place was full of pits we learn from the Hebrew, which reads here בארת בארת beeroth beeroth, pits, pits, i.e., multitudes of pits. A bad place to maintain a fight on, or to be obliged to run through in order to escape.

### Verse 11

[¶33] They took all the goods, etc. - This was a predatory war, such as the Arabs carry on to the present day; they pillage a city, town, or caravan; and then escape with the booty to the wilderness, where it would ever be unsafe, and often impossible, to pursue them.

### Verse 12

[¶35] They took Lot, etc. - The people, being exceedingly wicked, had provoked God to afflict them by means of those marauding kings; and Lot also suffered, being found in company with the workers of iniquity. Every child remembers the fable of the Geese and Cranes; the former, being found feeding where the latter were destroying the grain, were all taken in the same net. Let him that readeth understand.

### Verse 13

[¶37] Abram the Hebrew - See note on [Gen 10:21]. It is very likely that Abram had this appellation from his coming from beyond the river Euphrates to enter Canaan; for העברי haibri, which we render the Hebrew, comes from עבר abar, to pass over, or come from beyond. It is supposed by many that he got this name from Eber or Heber, son of Salah; see [Gen 11:15]. But why he should get a name from Heber, rather than from his own father, or some other of his progenitors, no person has yet been able to discover. We may, therefore, safely conclude that he bears the appellation of Hebrew or Ibrite from the above circumstance, and not from one of his progenitors, of whom we know nothing but the name, and who preceded Abram not less than six generations; and during the whole of that time till the time marked here, none of his descendants were ever called Hebrews; this is a demonstration that Abram was not called the Hebrew from Heber; see [Gen 11:15-27].

[¶38] These were confederate with Abram - It seems that a kind of convention was made between Abram and the three brothers, Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, who were probably all chieftains in the vicinity of Abram's dwelling: all petty princes, similar to the nine kings before mentioned.

### Verse 14

[¶40] He armed his trained servants - These amounted to three hundred and eighteen in number: and how many were in the divisions of Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, we know not; but they and their men certainly accompanied him in this expedition. See [Gen 14:24].

### Verse 15

[¶42] And he divided himself against them - It required both considerable courage and address in Abram to lead him to attack the victorious armies of these four kings with so small a number of troops, and on this occasion both his skill and his courage are exercised. His affection for Lot appears to have been his chief motive; he cheerfully risks his life for that nephew who had lately chosen the best part of the land, and left his uncle to live as he might, on what he did not think worthy his own acceptance. But it is the property of a great and generous mind, not only to forgive, but to forget offenses; and at all times to repay evil with good.

### Verse 16

[¶44] And he brought back - the women also - This is brought in by the sacred historian with peculiar interest and tenderness. All who read the account must be in pain for the fate of wives and daughters fallen into the hands of a ferocious, licentious, and victorious soldiery. Other spoils the routed confederates might have left behind; and yet on their swift asses, camels, and dromedaries, have carried off the female captives. However, Abram had disposed his attack so judiciously, and so promptly executed his measures, that not only all the baggage, but all the females also, were recovered.

## 20. Genesis · 20 of 67

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### Verse 17

[¶1] The king of Sodom went out to meet him - This could not have been Bera, mentioned [Gen 14:2], for it seems pretty evident, from [Gen 14:10], that both he and Birsha, king of Gomorrah, were slain at the bitumen-pits in the vale of Siddim; but another person in the meantime might have succeeded to the government.

### Verse 18

[¶3] And Melchizedek, king of Salem - A thousand idle stories have been told about this man, and a thousand idle conjectures spent on the subject of his short history given here and in Heb. vii. At present it is only necessary to state that he appears to have been as real a personage as Bera, Birsha, or Shinab, though we have no more of his genealogy than we have of theirs.

[¶4] Brought forth bread and wine - Certainly to refresh Abram and his men, exhausted with the late battle and fatigues of the journey; not in the way of sacrifice, etc.; this is an idle conjecture.

[¶5] He was the priest of the most high God - He had preserved in his family and among his subjects the worship of the true God, and the primitive patriarchal institutions; by these the father of every family was both king and priest, so Melchizedek, being a worshipper of the true God, was priest among the people, as well as king over them.

[¶6] Melchizedek is called here king of Salem, and the most judicious interpreters allow that by Salem, Jerusalem is meant. That it bore this name anciently is evident from [Psa 76:1], [Psa 76:2] : "In Judah is God known; his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion." From the use made of this part of the sacred history by David, [Psa 110:4], and by St. Paul, [Heb 7:1-10], we learn that there was something very mysterious, and at the same time typical, in the person, name, office, residence, and government of this Canaanitish prince. 1. In his person he was a representative and type of Christ; see the scriptures above referred to. 2. His name, מלכי צדק malki tsedek, signifies my righteous king, or king of righteousness. This name he probably had from the pure and righteous administration of his government; and this is one of the characters of our blessed Lord, a character which can be applied to him only, as he alone is essentially righteous, and the only Potentate; but a holy man, such as Melchizedek, might bear this name as his type or representative. 3. Office; he was a priest of the most high God. The word כהן cohen, which signifies both prince and priest, because the patriarchs sustained this double office, has both its root and proper signification in the Arabic; kahana signifies to approach, draw near, have intimate access to; and from hence to officiate as priest before God, and thus have intimate access to the Divine presence: and by means of the sacrifices which he offered he received counsel and information relative to what was yet to take place, and hence another acceptation of the word, to foretell, predict future events, unfold hidden things or mysteries; so the lips of the priests preserved knowledge, and they were often the interpreters of the will of God to the people. Thus we find that Melchizedek, being a priest of the most high God, represented Christ in his sacerdotal character, the word priest being understood as before explained. 4. His residence; he was king of Salem. שלם shalam signifies to make whole, complete, or perfect; and hence it means peace, which implies the making whole the breaches made in the political and domestic union of kingdoms, states, families, etc., making an end of discord, and establishing friendship. Christ is called the Prince of peace, because, by his incarnation, sacrifice, and mediation, he procures and establishes peace between God and man; heals the breaches and dissensions between heaven and earth, reconciling both; and produces glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will among men. His residence is peace and quietness and assurance for ever, in every believing upright heart. He governs as the Prince and Priest of the most high God, ruling in righteousness, mighty to save; and he ever lives to make intercession for, and save to the uttermost all who come unto the Father by him. See the notes on Hebrews 7 (note).

### Verse 19

[¶8] And he blessed him - This was a part of the priest's office, to bless in the name of the Lord, for ever. See the form of this blessing, [Num 6:23-26]; and for the meaning of the word to bless, see [Gen 2:3] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶10] And he gave him tithes - A tenth part of all the spoils he had taken from the confederate kings. These Abram gave as a tribute to the most high God, who, being the possessor of heaven and earth, dispenses all spiritual and temporal favors, and demands the gratitude, and submissive, loving obedience, of all his subjects. Almost all nations of the earth have agreed in giving a tenth part of their property to be employed in religious uses. The tithes were afterwards granted to the Levites for the use of the sanctuary, and the maintenance of themselves and their families, as they had no other inheritance in Israel.

### Verse 22

[¶12] I have lift up mine hand - The primitive mode of appealing to God, and calling him to witness a particular transaction; this no doubt generally obtained among the faithful till circumcision, the sign of the covenant, was established. After this, in swearing, the hand was often placed on the circumcised part; see [Gen 24:2], [Gen 24:9].

### Verse 23

[¶14] From a thread even to a shoelatchet - This was certainly a proverbial mode of expression, the full meaning of which is perhaps not known. Among the rabbinical writers חוט chut, or חוטי chuti, signifies a fillet worn by young women to tie up their hair; taken in this sense it will give a good meaning here. As Abram had rescued both the men and women carried off by the confederate kings, and the king of Sodom had offered him all the goods, claiming only the persons, he answers by protesting against the accepting any of their property: "I have vowed unto the Lord, the proprietor of heaven and earth, that I will not receive the smallest portion of the property either of the women or men, from a girl's fillet to a man's shoe-tie."

### Verse 24

[¶16] Save only that which the young men have eaten - His own servants had partaken of the victuals which the confederate kings had carried away; see [Gen 14:11]. This was unavoidable, and this is all he claims; but as he had no right to prescribe the same liberal conduct to his assistants, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, he left them to claim the share that by right of conquest belonged to them of the recaptured booty. Whether they were as generous as Abram we are not told.

[¶17] The great variety of striking incidents in this chapter the attentive reader has already carefully noted. To read and not understand is the property of the foolish and the inconsiderate. 1. We have already seen the danger to which Lot exposed himself in preferring a fertile region, though peopled with the workers of iniquity. His sorrows commence in the captivity of himself and family, and the loss of all his property, though by the good providence of God he and they were rescued. 2. Long observation has proved that the company a man keeps is not an indifferent thing; it will either be the means of his salvation or destruction. 3. A generous man cannot be contented with mere personal safety while others are in danger, nor with his own prosperity while others are in distress. Abram, hearing of the captivity of his nephew, determines to attempt his rescue; he puts himself at the head of his own servants, three hundred and eighteen in number, and the few assistants with which his neighbors, Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol, could furnish him; and, trusting in God and the goodness of his cause, marches off to attack four confederate kings! 4. Though it is not very likely that the armies of those petty kings could have amounted to many thousands, yet they were numerous enough to subdue almost the whole land of Canaan; and consequently, humanly speaking, Abram must know that by numbers he could not prevail, and that in this case particularly the battle was the Lord's. 5. While depending on the Divine blessing and succor he knew he must use the means he had in his power; he therefore divided his troops skilfully that he might attack the enemy at different points at the same time, and he chooses the night season to commence his attack, that the smallness of his force might not be discovered. God requires a man to use all the faculties he has given him in every lawful enterprise, and only in the conscientious use of them can he expect the Divine blessing; when this is done the event may be safely trusted in the hands of God. 6. Here is a war undertaken by Abram on motives the most honorable and conscientious; it was to repel aggression, and to rescue the innocent from the heaviest of sufferings and the worst of slavery, not for the purpose of plunder nor the extension of his territories; therefore he takes no spoils, and returns peaceably to his own possessions. How happy would the world be were every sovereign actuated by the same spirit! 7. We have already noticed the appearance, person, office, etc., of Melchizedek; and, without indulging in the wild theories of either ancient or modern visionaries, have considered him as the Scriptures do, a type of Christ. All that has been already spoken on this head may be recapitulated in a few words. 1. The Redeemer of the world is the King of righteousness; he creates it, maintains it, and rules by it. 2. His empire is the empire of peace; this he proclaims to them who are afar off, and to them that are nigh; to the Jew and to the Gentile. 3. He is Priest of the most high God, and has laid down his life for the sin of the world; and through this sacrifice the blessing of God is derived on them that believe. Reader, take him for thy King as well as thy Priest; he saves those only who submit to his authority and take his Spirit for the regulator of their heart, and his word for the director of their conduct. How many do we find, among those who would be sorry to be rated so low as to rank only with nominal Christians, talking of Christ as their Prophet, Priest, and King, who are not taught by his word and Spirit, who apply not for redemption in his blood, and who submit not to his authority! Reader, learn this deep and important truth: "Where I am there also shall my servant be; and he that serveth me, him shall my Father honor."

### Introduction

[¶19] God appears to Abram in a vision, and gives him great encouragement, [Gen 15:1]. Abram's request and complaint, [Gen 15:2], [Gen 15:3]. God promises him a son, [Gen 15:4]; and an exceedingly numerous posterity, [Gen 15:5]. Abram credits the promise, and his faith is counted unto him for righteousness, [Gen 15:6]. Jehovah proclaims himself, and renews the promise of Canaan to his posterity, [Gen 15:7]. Abram requires a sign of its fulfillment, [Gen 15:8]. Jehovah directs him to offer a sacrifice of five different animals, [Gen 15:9]; which he accordingly does, [Gen 15:10], [Gen 15:11]. God reveals to him the affliction of his posterity in Egypt, and the duration of that affliction, [Gen 15:12], [Gen 15:13]. Promises to bring them back to the land of Canaan with great affluence, [Gen 15:14-16]. Renews the covenant with Abram, and mentions the possessions which should be given to his posterity, [Gen 15:18-21].

### Verse 1

[¶21] The word of the Lord came unto Abram - This is the first place where God is represented as revealing himself by his word. Some learned men suppose that the דבר יהוה debar Yehovah, translated here word of the Lord, means the same with the λογος του Θεου of St. John, [Joh 1:1], and, by the Chaldee paraphrases in the next clause, called מימרי meimeri, "my word," and in other places מימרא דיי meimera daiya, the word of Yeya, a contraction for Jehovah, which they appear always to consider as a person; and which they distinguish from פתגמא pithgama, which signifies merely a word spoken, or any part of speech. There have been various conjectures concerning the manner in which God revealed his will, not only to the patriarchs, but also to the prophets, evangelists, and apostles. It seems to have been done in different ways. 1. By a personal appearance of him who was afterwards incarnated for the salvation of mankind. 2. By an audible voice, sometimes accompanied with emblematical appearances. 3. By visions which took place either in the night in ordinary sleep, or when the persons were cast into a temporary trance by daylight, or when about their ordinary business, 4. By the ministry of angels appearing in human bodies, and performing certain miracles to accredit their mission. 5. By the powerful agency of the Spirit of God upon the mind, giving it a strong conception and supernatural persuasion of the truth of the things perceived by the understanding. We shall see all these exemplified in the course of the work. It was probably in the third sense that the revelation in the text was given; for it is said, God appeared to Abram in a vision, מחזה machazeh, from חזה chazah, to see, or according to others, to fix, fasten, settle; hence chozeh, a Seer, the person who sees Divine things, to whom alone they are revealed, on whose mind they are fastened, and in whose memory and judgment they are fixed and settled. Hence the vision which was mentally perceived, and, by the evidence to the soul of its Divine origin, fixed and settled in the mind.

[¶22] Fear not - The late Dr. Dodd has a good thought on this passage; "I would read, says he, "the second verse in a parenthesis, thus: For Abram Had said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, etc. Abram had said this in the fear of his heart, upon which the Lord vouchsafed to him this prophetical view, and this strong renovation of the covenant. In this light all follows very properly. Abram had said so and so in [Gen 15:2], upon which God appears and says, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. The patriarch then, [Gen 15:3], freely opens the anxious apprehension of his heart, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, etc., upon which God proceeds to assure him of posterity."

[¶23] I am thy shield, etc. - Can it be supposed that Abram understood these words as promising him temporal advantages at all corresponding to the magnificence of these promises? If he did he was disappointed through the whole course of his life, for he never enjoyed such a state of worldly prosperity as could justify the strong language in the text. Shall we lose sight of Abram, and say that his posterity was intended, and Abram understood the promises as relating to them, and not to himself or immediately to his own family? Then the question recurs, Did the Israelites ever enjoy such a state of temporal affluence as seems to be intended by the above promise? To this every man acquainted with their history will, without hesitation, say, No. What then is intended? Just what the words state. God was Abram's portion, and he is the portion of every righteous soul; for to Abram, and the children of his faith, he gives not a portion in this life. Nothing, says Father Calmet, proves more invincibly the immortality of the soul, the truth of religion, and the eternity of another life, than to see that in this life the righteous seldom receive the reward of their virtue, and that in temporal things they are often less happy than the workers of iniquity.

[¶24] I am, says the Almighty, thy shield - thy constant covering and protector, and thy exceeding great reward, שכרך הרבה מאד sekarcha harbeh meod, "That superlatively multiplied reward of thine." It is not the Canaan I promise, but the salvation that is to come through the promised seed. Hence it was that Abram rejoiced to see his day. And hence the Chaldee Targum translates this place, My Word shall be thy strength, etc.

### Verse 2

[¶26] What wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless - The anxiety of the Asiatics to have offspring is intense and universal. Among the Hindoos the want of children renders all other blessings of no esteem. See Ward.

[¶27] And the steward of my house - Abram, understanding the promise as relating to that person who was to spring from his family, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed, expresses his surprise that there should be such a promise, and yet he is about to die childless! How then can the promise be fulfilled, when, far from a spiritual seed, he has not even a person in his family that has a natural right to his property, and that a stranger is likely to be his heir? This seems to be the general sense of the passage; but who this steward of his house, this Eliezer of Damascus, was, commentators are not agreed. The translation of the Septuagint is at least curious: Ὁδε υἱος Μασεκ της οικολενους μου, οὑτος Δαμασκος Ελιεζερ·. The son of Masek my homeborn maid, this Eliezer of Damascus, is my heir; which intimates that they supposed משק meshek, which we translate steward, to have been the name of a female slave, born in the family of Abram, of whom was born this Eliezer, who on account of the country either of his father or mother, was called a Damascene or one of Damascus. It is extremely probable that our Lord has this passage in view in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus, [Luk 16:19]. From the name Eliezer, by leaving out the first letter, Liezer is formed, which makes Lazarus in the New Testament, the person who, from an abject and distressed state, was raised to lie in the bosom of Abraham in paradise.

### Verse 5

[¶29] Look now toward heaven - It appears that this whole transaction took place in the evening; see on [Gen 13:14] (note). Abram had either two visions, that recorded in [Gen 15:1], and that in [Gen 15:12], etc.; or what is mentioned in the beginning of this chapter is a part of the occurrences which took place after the sacrifice mentioned [Gen 15:9], etc.: but it is more likely that there was a vision of that kind already described, and afterwards a second, in which he received the revelation mentioned [Gen 15:13-16]. After the first vision he is brought forth abroad to see if he can number the stars; and as he finds this impossible, he is assured that as they are to him innumerable, so shall his posterity be; and that all should spring from one who should proceed from his own bowels - one who should be his own legitimate child.

### Verse 6

[¶31] And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness - This I conceive to be one of the most important passages in the whole Old Testament. It properly contains and specifies that doctrine of justification by faith which engrosses so considerable a share of the epistles of St. Paul, and at the foundation of which is the atonement made by the Son of God: And he (Abram) believed האמן heemin, he put faith) in Jehovah, ויחשבה לו vaiyachshebeita lo, and he counted it - the faith he put in Jehovah, to Him for righteousness, צדקה tsedakah, or justification; though there was no act in the case but that of the mind and heart, no work of any kind. Hence the doctrine of justification by faith, without any merit of works; for in this case there could be none - no works of Abram which could merit the salvation of the whole human race. It was the promise of God which he credited, and in the blessedness of which he became a partaker through faith. See at [Gen 15:19] (note); see also on Romans 4 (note).

### Verse 7

[¶33] Ur of the Chaldees - See on Genesis 40 (note).

### Verse 8

[¶35] And he said, Lord God - אדני יהוה Adonai Yehovah, my Lord Jehovah. Adonai is the word which the Jews in reading always substitute for Jehovah, as they count it impious to pronounce this name. Adonai signifies my director, basis, supporter, prop, or stay; and scarcely a more appropriate name can be given to that God who is the framer and director of every righteous word and action; the basis or foundation on which every rational hope rests; the supporter of the souls and bodies of men, as well as of the universe in general; the prop and stay of the weak and fainting, and the buttress that shores up the building, which otherwise must necessarily fall. This word often occurs in the Hebrew Bible, and is rendered in our translation Lord; the same term by which the word Jehovah is expressed: but to distinguish between the two, and to show the reader when the original is יהוה Yehovah, and when אדני Adonai, the first is always put in capitals, Lord, the latter in plain Roman characters, Lord. For the word Jehovah see on [Gen 2:4] (note), and on [Exo 34:6] (note).

[¶36] Whereby shall I know - By what sign shall I be assured, that I shall inherit this land? It appears that he expected some sign, and that on such occasions one was ordinarily given.

### Verse 9

[¶38] Take me a heifer - עגלה eglah, a she-calf; a she-goat, עז ez, a goat, male or female, but distinguished here by the feminine adjective; משלשת meshullesheth, a three-yearling; a ram, איל ayil; a turtle-dove, תר tor, from which come turtur and turtle; young pigeon, גוזל gozal, a word signifying the young of pigeons and eagles. See [Deu 32:11]. It is worthy of remark, that every animal allowed or commanded to be sacrificed under the Mosaic law is to be found in this list. And is it not a proof that God was now giving to Abram an epitome of that law and its sacrifices which he intended more fully to reveal to Moses; the essence of which consisted in its sacrifices, which typified the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world?

[¶39] On the several animals which God ordered Abram to take, Jarchi remarks: "The idolatrous nations are compared in the Scriptures to bulls, rams, and goats; for it is written, [Psa 22:12] : Many bulls have compassed me about. [Dan 8:20] : The ram which thou hast seen is the king of Persia. The rough goat is the king of Greece. [Dan 8:21]. But the Israelites are compared to doves, etc.; [Sol 2:14] : "O my dove, that art in the cleft of the rock. The division of the above carcasses denotes the division and extermination of the idolatrous nations; but the birds not being divided, shows that the Israelites are to abide for ever." See Jarchi on the place.

### Verse 10

[¶41] Divided them in the midst - The ancient method of making covenants as well as the original word, have been already alluded to, and in a general way explained. See [Gen 6:18]. The word covenant from con, together, and venio, I come, signifies an agreement, association, or meeting between two or more parties; for it is impossible that a covenant can be made between an individual and himself, whether God or man. This is a theological absurdity into which many have run; there must be at least two parties to contract with each other. And often there was a third party to mediate the agreement, and to witness it when made. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi says, "It was a custom with those who entered into covenant with each other to take a heifer and cut it in two, and then the contracting parties passed between the pieces." See this and the scriptures to which it refers particularly explained, [Gen 6:18]. A covenant always supposed one of these four things:

[¶42] 1. That the contracting parties had been hitherto unknown to each other, and were brought by the covenant into a state of acquaintance.

[¶43] 2. That they had been previously in a state of hostility or enmity, and were brought by the covenant into a state of pacification and friendship.

[¶44] 3. Or that, being known to each other, they now agree to unite their counsels, strength, property, etc., for the accomplishment of a particular purpose, mutually subservient to the interests of both. Or,

## 21. Genesis · 21 of 67

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[¶0] 4. It implies an agreement to succor and defend a third party in cases of oppression and distress.

[¶1] For whatever purpose a covenant was made, it was ever ratified by a sacrifice offered to God; and the passing between the divided parts of the victim appears to have signified that each agreed, if they broke their engagements, to submit to the punishment of being cut asunder; which we find from [Mat 24:51]; [Luk 12:46], was an ancient mode of punishment. This is farther confirmed by Herodotus, who says that Sabacus, king of Ethiopia, had a vision, in which he was ordered μεσους διατεμειν, to cut in two, all the Egyptian priests; lib. ii. We find also from the same author, lib. vii., that Xerxes ordered one of the sons of Pythius μεσον διατεμειν, to be cut in two, and one half to be placed on each side of the way, that his army might pass through between them. That this kind of punishment was used among the Persians we have proof from [Dan 2:5]; [Dan 3:29]. Story of Susanna, verses 55, 59. See farther, [2Sam 12:31], and [1Chr 20:3]. These authorities may be sufficient to show that the passing between the parts of the divided victims signified the punishment to which those exposed themselves who broke their covenant engagements. And that covenant sacrifices were thus divided, even from the remotest antiquity, we learn from Homer, Il. A., v. 460. Μηρους τ' εξεταμον κατα τε κνισοῃ εκαλυψαν, Διπτυχα ποιησαντες, επ' αυτων δ' ωμοθετησαν. "They cut the quarters, and cover them with the fat; dividing them into two, they place the raw flesh upon them."

[¶2] But this place may be differently understood.

[¶3] St. Cyril, in his work against Julian, shows that passing between the divided parts of a victim was used also among the Chaldeans and other people. As the sacrifice was required to make an atonement to God, so the death of the animal was necessary to signify to the contracting parties the punishment to which they exposed themselves, should they prove unfaithful.

[¶4] Livy preserves the form of the imprecation used on such occasions, in the account he gives of the league made between the Romans and Albans. When the Romans were about to enter into some solemn league or covenant, they sacrificed a hog; and, on the above occasion, the priest, or pater patratus, before he slew the animal, stood, and thus invoked Jupiter:

[¶5] Audi, Jupiter! Si prior defecerit publico consilio dolo malo, tum illo die, Diespiter, Populum Romanum sic ferito, ut ego hune porcum hic hodie feriam; tantoque magis ferito, quanto magis potes pollesque! - Livii Hist., lib. i., chap. 24. "Hear, O Jupiter! Should the Romans in public counsel, through any evil device, first transgress these laws, in that same day, O Jupiter, thus smite the Roman people, as I shall at this time smite this hog; and smite them with a severity proportioned to the greatness of thy power and might!"

[¶6] But the birds divided he not - According to the law, [Lev 1:17], fowls were not to be divided asunder but only cloven for the purpose of taking out the intestines.

### Verse 11

[¶8] And when the fowls - העיט haayit, birds of prey, came down upon the carcasses to devour them, Abram, who stood by his sacrifice waiting for the manifestation of God, who had ordered him to prepare for the ratification of the covenant, drove them away, that they might neither pollute nor devour what had been thus consecrated to God.

### Verse 12

[¶10] A deep sleep - תרדמה tardemah, the same word which is used to express the sleep into which Adam was cast, previous to the formation of Eve; [Gen 2:21].

[¶11] A horror of great darkness - Which God designed to be expressive of the affliction and misery into which his posterity should be brought during the four hundred years of their bondage in Egypt; as the next verse particularly states.

### Verse 13

[¶13] Four hundred years - "Which began," says Mr. Ainsworth, "when Ishmael, son of Hagar, mocked and persecuted Isaac, [Gen 21:9]; [Gal 4:29]; which fell out thirty years after the promise, [Gen 12:3]; which promise was four hundred and thirty years before the law, [Gal 3:17]; and four hundred and thirty years after that promise came Israel out of Egypt, [Exo 12:41]."

### Verse 14

[¶15] And also that nation, etc. - How remarkably was this promise fulfilled, in the redemption of Israel from its bondage, in the plagues and destruction of the Egyptians, and in the immense wealth which the Israelites brought out of Egypt! Not a more circumstantial or literally fulfilled promise is to be found in the sacred writings.

### Verse 15

[¶17] Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace - This verse strongly implies the immortality of the soul, and a state of separate existence. He was gathered to his fathers - introduced into the place where separate spirits are kept, waiting for the general resurrection. Two things seem to be distinctly marked here:

[¶18] 1. The soul of Abram should be introduced among the assembly of the first-born; Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.

[¶19] 2. His body should be buried after a long life, one hundred and seventy-five years, [Gen 25:7]. The body was buried; the soul went to the spiritual world, to dwell among the fathers - the patriarchs, who had lived and died in the Lord. See note on [Gen 25:8].

### Verse 16

[¶21] In the fourth generation - In former times most people counted by generations, to each of which was assigned a term of years amounting to 20, 25, 30, 33, 100, 108, or 110; for the generation was of various lengths among various people, at different times. It is probable that the fourth generation here means the same as the four hundred years in the preceding verse. Some think it refers to the time when Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the son of Amram, the son of Kohath, came out of Egypt, and divided the land of Canaan to Israel, [Jos 14:1]. Others think the fourth generation of the Amorites is intended, because it is immediately added, The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full; but in the fourth generation they should be expelled, and the descendants of Abram established in their place. From these words we learn that there is a certain pitch of iniquity to which nations may arrive before they are destroyed, and beyond which Divine justice does not permit them to pass.

### Verse 17

[¶23] Smoking furnace and a burning lamp - Probably the smoking furnace might be designed as an emblem of the sore afflictions of the Israelites in Egypt; but the burning lamp was certainly the symbol of the Divine presence, which, passing between the pieces, ratified the covenant with Abram, as the following verse immediately states.

### Verse 18

[¶25] The Lord made a covenant - כרת ברית carath berith signifies to cut a covenant, or rather the covenant sacrifice; for as no covenant was made without one, and the creature was cut in two that the contracting parties might pass between the pieces, hence cutting the covenant signified making the covenant. The same form of speech obtained among the Romans; and because, in making their covenants they always slew an animal, either by cutting its throat, or knocking it down with a stone or axe, after which they divided the parts as we have already seen, hence among the percutere faedus, to smite a covenant, and scindere faedus, to cleave a covenant, were terms which signified simply to make or enter into a covenant.

[¶26] From the river of Egypt - Not the Nile, but the river called Sichor, which was before or on the border of Egypt, near to the isthmus of Suez; see [Jos 13:3]; though some think that by this a branch of the Nile is meant. This promise was fully accomplished in the days of David and Solomon. See [2Sam 8:3], etc., and [2Chr 9:26].

### Verse 19

[¶28] The Kenites, etc. - Here are ten nations mentioned, though afterwards reckoned but seven; see [Deu 7:1]; [Act 13:19]. Probably some of them which existed in Abram's time had been blended with others before the time of Moses, so that seven only out of the ten then remained; see part of these noticed Genesis 10.

[¶29] In this chapter there are three subjects which must be particularly interesting to the pious reader. 1. The condescension of God in revealing himself to mankind in a variety of ways, so as to render it absolutely evident that he had spoken, that he loved mankind, and that he had made every provision for their eternal welfare. So unequivocal were the discoveries which God made of himself, that on the minds of those to whom they were made not one doubt was left, relative either to the truth of the subject, or that it was God himself who made the discovery. The subject of the discovery also was such as sufficiently attested its truth to all future generations, for it concerned matters yet in futurity, so distinctly marked, so positively promised, and so highly interesting, as to make them objects of attention, memory, and desire, till they did come; and of gratitude, because of the permanent blessedness they communicated through all generations after the facts had taken place.

[¶30] 2. The way of salvation by faith in the promised Savior, which now began to be explicitly declared. God gives the promise of salvation, and by means in which it was impossible, humanly speaking, that it should take place; teaching us, 1. That the whole work was spiritual, supernatural, and Divine; and, 2. That no human power could suffice to produce it. This Abram believed while he was yet uncircumcised, and this faith was accounted to him for righteousness or justification; God thereby teaching that he would pardon, accept, and receive into favor all who should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this very case has ever since been the standard of justification by faith; and the experience of millions of men, built on this foundation, has sufficiently attested the truth and solidity of the ground on which it was built.

[¶31] 3. The foundation of the doctrine itself is laid in the covenant made between God and Abram in behalf of all the families of the earth, and this covenant is ratified by a sacrifice. By this covenant man is bound to God, and God graciously binds himself to man. As this covenant referred to the incarnation of Christ; and Abram, both as to himself and posterity, was to partake of the benefits of it by faith; hence faith, not works, is the only condition on which God, through Christ, forgives sins, and brings to the promised spiritual inheritance. This covenant still stands open; all the successive generations of men are parties on the one side, and Jesus is at once the sacrifice and Mediator of it. As therefore the covenant still stands open, and Jesus is still the Lamb slain before the throne, every human soul must ratify the covenant for himself; and no man does so but he who, conscious of his guilt, accepts the sacrifice which God has provided for him. Reader, hast thou done so! And with a heart unto righteousness dost thou continue to believe on the Son of God? How merciful is God, who has found out such a way of salvation by providing a Savior every way suitable to miserable, fallen, sinful man! One who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; and who, being higher than the heavens, raises up his faithful followers to the throne of his own eternal glory! Reader, give God the praise, and avail thyself of the sin-offering which lieth at the door.

### Introduction

[¶33] Sarai, having no child, gives Hagar her maid to Abram for wife, [Gen 16:1-3]. She conceives and despises her mistress, [Gen 16:4]. Sarai is offended and upbraids Abram, [Gen 16:5]. Abram vindicates himself; and Hagar, being hardly used by her mistress, runs away, [Gen 16:6]. She is met by an angel, and counselled to return to her mistress, [Gen 16:7-9]. God promises greatly to multiply her seed, [Gen 16:10]. Gives the name of Ishmael to the child that should be born of her, [Gen 16:11]. Shows his disposition and character, [Gen 16:12]. Hagar calls the name of the Lord who spoke to her, Thou God seest me, [Gen 16:13]. She calls the name of the well at which the angel met her, Beer-laharoi, [Gen 16:14]. Ishmael is born in the 86th year of Abram's age, [Gen 16:15], [Gen 16:16].

### Verse 1

[¶35] She had a handmaid, an Egyptian - As Hagar was an Egyptian, St. Chrysostom's conjecture is very probable. that she was one of those female slaves which Pharaoh gave to Abram when he sojourned in Egypt; see [Gen 12:16]. Her name הגר hagar signifies a stranger or sojourner, and it is likely she got this name in the family of Abram, as the word is pure Hebrew.

### Verse 2

[¶37] Go in unto my maid - It must not be forgotten that female slaves constituted a part of the private patrimony or possessions of a wife, and that she had a right, according to the usages of those times, to dispose of them as she pleased, the husband having no authority in the case.

[¶38] I may obtain children by her - The slave being the absolute property of the mistress, not only her person, but the fruits of her labor, with all her children, were her owner's property also.

[¶39] The children, therefore, which were born of the slave, were considered as the children of the mistress. It was on this ground that Sarai gave her slave to Abram; and we find, what must necessarily be the consequence in all cases of polygamy, that strifes and contentions took place.

### Verse 3

[¶41] And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar - and gave her to her husband - to be his wife - There are instances of Hindoo women, when barren, consenting to their husbands marrying a second wife for the sake of children; and second marriages on this account, without consent, are very common - Ward

### Verse 5

[¶43] My wrong be upon thee - This appears to be intended as a reproof to Abram, containing an insinuation that it was his fault that she herself had not been a mother, and that now he carried himself more affectionately towards Hagar than he did to her, in consequence of which conduct the slave became petulant. To remove all suspicion of this kind, Abram delivers up Hagar into her hand, who was certainly under his protection while his concubine or secondary wife; but this right given to him by Sarai he restores, to prevent her jealousy and uneasiness.

## 22. Genesis · 22 of 67

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Sarah dealt hardly with her - תאנה teanneha, she afflicted her; the term implying stripes and hard usage, to bring down the body and humble the mind. If the slave was to blame in this business the mistress is not less liable to censure. She alone had brought her into those circumstances, in which it was natural for her to value herself beyond her mistress.

### Verse 7

[¶3] The angel of the Lord - That Jesus Christ, in a body suited to the dignity of his nature, frequently appeared to the patriarchs, has been already intimated. That the person mentioned here was greater than any created being is sufficiently evident from the following particulars: -

[¶4] 1. From his promising to perform what God alone could do, and foretelling what God alone could know; "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly," etc., [Gen 16:10]; "Thou art with child, and shalt bear a son," etc., [Gen 16:11]; "He will be a wild man," etc., [Gen 16:12]. All this shows a prescience which is proper to God alone.

[¶5] 2. Hagar considers the person who spoke to her as God, calls him אל El, and addresses him in the way of worship, which, had he been a created angel, he would have refused. See [Rev 19:10]; [Rev 22:9].

[¶6] 3. Moses, who relates the transaction, calls this angel expressly Jehovah; for, says he, she called שם יהוה shem Yehovah, the Name of the Lord that spake to her, [Gen 16:13]. Now this is a name never given to any created being.

[¶7] 4. This person, who is here called מלאך היוה malach Yehovah, the Angel of the Lord, is the same who is called המלאך הגאל dellac hammalach haggoel, the redeeming Angel or the Angel the Redeemer, [Gen 48:16]; מלאך פניו malach panaiv, the Angel of God's presence, [Isa 63:9]; and מלאך הברית malach habberith, the Angel of the Covenant, [Mal 3:1]; and is the same person which the Septuagint, [Isa 9:6], term μεγαλης βουλης αγγελος, the Angel of the Great Counsel or Design, viz., of redeeming man, and filling the earth with righteousness.

[¶8] 5. These things cannot be spoken of any human or created being, for the knowledge, works, etc., attributed to this person are such as belong to God; and as in all these cases there is a most evident personal appearance, Jesus Christ alone can be meant; for of God the Father it has been ever true that no man hath at any time seen his shape, nor has he ever limited himself to any definable personal appearance.

[¶9] In the way to Shur - As this was the road from Hebron to Egypt, it is probable she was now returning to her own country.

### Verse 8

[¶11] Hagar, Sarai's maid - This mode of address is used to show her that she was known, and to remind her that she was the property of another.

### Verse 10

[¶13] I will multiply thy seed exceedingly - Who says this? The person who is called the Angel of the Lord; and he certainly speaks with all the authority which is proper to God.

### Verse 11

[¶15] And shalt call his name Ishmael - ישמאעל Yishmael, from שמע shama, he heard, and אל El, God; for, says the Angel, The Lord Hath Heard thy affliction. Thus the name of the child must ever keep the mother in remembrance of God's merciful interposition in her behalf, and remind the child and the man that he was an object of God's gracious and providential goodness. Afflictions and distresses have a voice in the ears of God, even when prayer is restrained; but how much more powerfully do they speak when endured in meekness of spirit, with confidence in and supplication to the Lord!

### Verse 12

[¶17] He will be a wild man - פרא אדם pere adam. As the root of this word does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, it is probably found in the Arabic farra, to run away, to run wild; and hence the wild ass, from its fleetness and its untamable nature. What is said of the wild ass, [Job 39:5-8], affords the very best description that can be given of the Ishmaelites, (the Bedouins and wandering Arabs), the descendants of Ishmael: "Who hath sent out the wild ass (פרא pere) free? or who hath loosed the bands (ערוד arod) of the brayer? Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing." Nothing can be more descriptive of the wandering, lawless, freebooting life of the Arabs than this.

[¶18] God himself has sent them out free - he has loosed them from all political restraint. The wilderness is their habitation; and in the parched land, where no other human beings could live, they have their dwellings. They scorn the city, and therefore have no fixed habitations; for their multitude, they are not afraid; for when they make depredations on cities and towns, they retire into the desert with so much precipitancy that all pursuit is eluded. In this respect the crying of the driver is disregarded. They may be said to have no lands, and yet the range of the mountains is their pasture - they pitch their tents and feed their flocks, wherever they please; and they search after every green thing - are continually looking after prey, and seize on every kind of property that comes in their way.

[¶19] It is farther said, His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him - Many potentates among the Abyssinians, Persians, Egyptians, and Turks, have endeavored to subjugate the wandering or wild Arabs; but, though they have had temporary triumphs, they have been ultimately unsuccessful. Sesostris, Cyrus, Pompey, and Trajan, all endeavored to conquer Arabia, but in vain. From the beginning to the present day they have maintained their independence, and God preserves them as a lasting monument of his providential care, and an incontestable argument of the truth of Divine Revelation. Had the Pentateuch no other argument to evince its Divine origin, the account of Ishmael and the prophecy concerning his descendants, collated with their history and manner of life during a period of nearly four thousand years, would be sufficient. Indeed the argument is so absolutely demonstrative, that the man who would attempt its refutation, in the sight of reason and common sense would stand convicted of the most ridiculous presumption and folly.

[¶20] The country which these free descendants of Ishmael may be properly said to possess, stretches from Aleppo to the Arabian Sea, and from Egypt to the Persian Gulf; a tract of land not less than 1800 miles in length, by 900 in breadth; see [Gen 17:20].

### Verse 13

[¶22] And she called the name of the Lord - She invoked (ותקרא vattikra) the name of Jehovah who spake unto her, thus: Thou God seest me! She found that the eye of a merciful God had been upon her in all her wanderings and afflictions; and her words seem to intimate that she had been seeking the Divine help and protection, for she says, Have I also (or have I not also) looked after him that seeth me? This last clause of the verse is very obscure and is rendered differently by all the versions. The general sense taken out of it is this, That Hagar was now convinced that God himself had appeared unto her, and was surprised to find that, notwithstanding this, she was still permitted to live; for it is generally supposed that if God appeared to any, they must be consumed by his glories. This is frequently alluded to in the sacred writings. As the word אחרי acharey, which we render simply after, in other places signifies the last days or after times, (see [Exo 33:23]), it may probably have a similar meaning here; and indeed this makes a consistent sense: Have I here also seen the Latter Purposes or Designs of him who seeth me? An exclamation which may be referred to that discovery which God made in the preceding verse of the future state of her descendants.

### Verse 14

[¶24] Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi - It appears, from [Gen 16:7], that Hagar had sat down by a fountain or well of water in the wilderness of Shur, at which the Angel of the Lord found her; and, to commemorate the wonderful discovery which God had made of himself, she called the name of the well באר לחי ראי beer-lachai-roi, "A well to the Living One who seeth me." Two things seem implied here:

[¶25] 1. A dedication of the well to Him who had appeared to her; and,

[¶26] 2. Faith in the promise: for he who is the Living One, existing in all generations, must have it ever in his power to accomplish promises which are to be fulfilled through the whole lapse of time.

### Verse 15

[¶28] And Hagar bare Abram a son, etc. - It appears, therefore, that Hagar returned at the command of the angel, believing the promise that God had made to her.

[¶29] Called his son's name - Ishmael - Finding by the account of Hagar, that God had designed that he should be so called. "Ishmael," says Ainsworth, "is the first man in the world whose name was given him of God before he was born."

[¶30] In the preceding chapter we have a very detailed account of the covenant which God made with Abram, which stated that his seed would possess Canaan; and this promise, on the Divine authority, he steadfastly believed, and in simplicity of heart waited for its accomplishment. Sarai was not like minded. As she had no child herself, and was now getting old, she thought it necessary to secure the inheritance by such means as were in her power; she therefore, as we have seen, gave her slave to Abram, that she might have children by her. We do not find Abram remonstrating on the subject; and why is he blamed? God had not as yet told him how he was to have an heir; the promise simply stated, He that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir, [Gen 15:4]. Concubinage, under that dispensation, was perfectly lawful; therefore he could, with equal justice and innocence, when it was lawful in itself, and now urged by the express desire of Sarai, take Hagar to wife. And it is very likely that he might think that his posterity, whether by wife or concubine, as both were lawful, might be that intended by the promise.

[¶31] It is very difficult to believe that a promise which refers to some natural event can possibly be fulfilled but through some natural means. And yet, what is nature but an instrument in God's hands? What we call natural effects are all performed by supernatural agency; for nature, that is, the whole system of inanimate things, is as inert as any of the particles of matter of the aggregate of which it is composed, and can be a cause to no effect but as it is excited by a sovereign power. This is a doctrine of sound philosophy, and should be carefully considered by all, that men may see that without an overruling and universally energetic providence, no effect whatever can be brought about. But besides these general influences of God in nature, which are all exhibited by what men call general laws, he chooses often to act supernaturally, i.e., independently of or against these general laws, that we may see that there is a God who does not confine himself to one way of working, but with means, without means, and even against natural means, accomplishes the gracious purposes of his mercy in the behalf of man. Where God has promised let him be implicitly credited, because he cannot lie; and let not hasty nature intermeddle with his work.

[¶32] The omniscience of God is a subject on which we should often reflect, and we can never do it unfruitfully while we connect it, as we ever should, with infinite goodness and mercy. Every thing, person, and circumstance, is under its notice; and doth not the eye of God affect his heart? The poor slave, the stranger, the Egyptian, suffering under the severity of her hasty, unbelieving mistress, is seen by the all-wise and merciful God. He permits her to go to the desert, provides the spring to quench her thirst, and sends the Angel of the covenant to instruct and comfort her. How gracious is God! He permits us to get into distressing circumstances that he may give us effectual relief; and in such a way, too, that the excellence of the power may appear to be of him, and that we may learn to trust in him in all our distresses. God delights to do his creatures good.

[¶33] In all transactions between God and man, mentioned in the sacred writings, we see one uniform agency; the great Mediator in all, and through all; God ever coming to man by him, and man having access to God through him. This was, is, and ever will be the economy of grace. "The Father hath sent me: - and no man cometh unto the Father but by me." God forbid that he should have cause to complain of us, "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life."

### Introduction

[¶35] In the ninety-ninth year of Abram's life God again appears to him, announces his name as God Almighty, and commands him to walk perfectly before him, [Gen 17:1]; proposes to renew the covenant, [Gen 17:2]. Abram's prostration, [Gen 17:3]. The covenant specified, [Gen 17:4]. Abram's name changed to Abraham, and the reason given, [Gen 17:5]. The privileges of the covenant enumerated, [Gen 17:6-8]. The conditions of the covenant to be observed, not only by Abraham, but all his posterity, [Gen 17:9]. Circumcision appointed as a sign or token of the covenant, [Gen 17:10], [Gen 17:11]. The age at which and the persons on whom this was to be performed, [Gen 17:12], [Gen 17:13]. The danger of neglecting this rite, [Gen 17:14]. Sarai's name changed to Sarah, and a particular promise made to her, [Gen 17:15], [Gen 17:16]. Abraham's joy at the prospect of the performance of a matter which, in the course of nature, was impossible, [Gen 17:17]. His request for the preservation and prosperity of Ishmael, [Gen 17:18]. The birth and blessedness of Isaac foretold, [Gen 17:19]. Great prosperity promised to Ishmael, [Gen 17:20]. But the covenant to be established not in his, but in Isaac's posterity, [Gen 17:21]. Abraham, Ishmael and all the males in the family circumcised, [Gen 17:23-27]

### Verse 1

[¶37] The Lord appeared to Abram - See note on [Gen 15:1].

[¶38] I am the Almighty God - אני אל שדי ani El shaddai, I am God all-sufficient; from שדה shadah, to shed, to pour out. I am that God who pours out blessings, who gives them richly, abundantly, continually.

[¶39] Walk before me - התהלך לפני hithhallech lephanai, set thyself to walk - be firmly purposed, thoroughly determined to obey, before me; for my eye is ever on thee, therefore ever consider that God seeth thee. Who can imagine a stronger incitement to conscientious, persevering obedience?

[¶40] Be thou perfect - והיה תמים vehyeh thamim, and thou shalt be perfections, i.e., a together perfect. Be just such as the holy God would have thee to be, as the almighty God can make thee and live as the all-sufficient God shall support thee; for he alone who makes the soul holy can preserve it in holiness. Our blessed Lord appears to have had these words pointedly in view, [Mat 5:48] : Εσεσθε ὑμεις τελειοι, ὡσπερ ὁ Πατηρ ὑμων ὁ εν τοις ουρανοις τελειος εστι· Ye Shall Be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. But what does this imply? Why, to be saved from all the power, the guilt, and the contamination of sin. This is only the negative part of salvation, but it has also a positive part; to be made perfect - to be perfect as our Father who is in heaven is perfect, to be filled with the fullness of God, to have Christ dwelling continually in the heart by faith, and to be rooted and grounded in love. This is the state in which man was created, for he was made in the image and likeness of God. This is the state from which man fell, for he broke the command of God. And this is the state into which every human soul must be raised, who would dwell with God in glory; for Christ was incarnated and died to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. What a glorious privilege! And who can doubt the possibility of its attainment, who believes in the omnipotent love of God, the infinite merit of the blood of atonement, and the all-pervading and all-purifying energy of the Holy Ghost? How many miserable souls employ that time to dispute and cavil against the possibility of being saved from their sins, which they should devote to praying and believing that they might be saved out of the hands of their enemies! But some may say, "You overstrain the meaning of the term; it signifies only, be sincere; for as perfect obedience is impossible, God accepts of sincere obedience." If by sincerity the objection means good desires, and generally good purposes, with an impure heart and spotted life, then I assert that no such thing is implied in the text, nor in the original word; but if the word sincerity be taken in its proper and literal sense, I have no objection to it. Sincere is compounded of sine cera, "without wax;" and, applied to moral subjects, is a metaphor taken from clarified honey, from which every atom of the comb or wax is separated. Then let it be proclaimed from heaven, Walk before me, and be Sincere! purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump unto God; and thus ye shall be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. This is sincerity. Reader, remember that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. Ten thousand quibbles on insulated texts can never lessen, much less destroy, the merit and efficacy of the great Atonement.

### Verse 3

[¶42] And Abram fell on his face - The eastern method of prostration was thus: the person first went down on his knees, and then lowered his head to his knees, and touched the earth with his forehead. A very painful posture, but significative of great humiliation and reverence.

### Verse 5

[¶44] Thy name shall be Abraham - Abram אברם literally signifies a high or exalted father. Ab-ra-ham אברהם differs from the preceding only in one letter; it has ה he before the last radical. Though this may appear very simple and easy, yet the true etymology and meaning of the word are very difficult to be assigned. The reason given for the change made in the patriarch's name is this: For a father of many nations have I made thee, אב המון גוים ab-hamon goyim, "a father of a multitude of nations." This has led some to suppose that אברהם Abraham, is a contraction for אב רב המון ab-rab-hamon, "the father of a great multitude."

[¶45] Aben Ezra says the name is derived from אביר המון abir-hamon, "a powerful multitude."

## 23. Genesis · 23 of 67

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[¶0] Rabbi Solomon Jarchi defines the name cabalistically, and says that its numeral letters amount to two hundred and forty-eight, which, says he, is the exact number of the bones in the human body. But before the ה he was added, which stands for five, it was five short of this perfection.

[¶1] Rabbi Lipman says the ה he being added as the fourth letter, signifies that the Messiah should come in the fourth millenary of the world.

[¶2] Clarius and others think that the ה he, which is one of the letters of the Tetragrammaton, (or word of four letters, יהוה YeHoVaH), was added for the sake of dignity, God associating the patriarch more nearly to himself, by thus imparting to him a portion of his own name.

[¶3] Having enumerated so many opinions, that of William Alabaster, in his Apparatus to the Revelation, should not be passed by. He most wisely says that ab-ram or ab-rom signifies father of the Romans, and consequently the pope; therefore Abraham was pope the first! This is just as likely as some of the preceding etymologies.

[¶4] From all these learned as well as puerile conjectures we may see the extreme difficulty of ascertaining the true meaning of the word, though the concordance makers, and proper name explainers find no difficulty at all in the case; and pronounce on it as readily and authoritatively as if they had been in the Divine council when it was first imposed.

[¶5] Hottinger, in his Smegma Orientale, supposes the word to be derived from the Arabic root rahama, which signifies to be very numerous. Hence ab raham would signify a copious father or father of a multitude. This makes a very good sense, and agrees well with the context. Either this etymology or that which supposes the inserted ה he to be an abbreviation of the word המן hamon, multitude, is the most likely to be the true one. But this last would require the word to be written, when full, אב רם המון ab-ram-hamon.

[¶6] The same difficulty occurs, [Gen 17:15], on the word Sarai, שרי which signifies my prince or princess, and Sarah, שרה where the whole change is made by the substitution of a ה he for a י yod. This latter might be translated princess in general; and while the former seems to point out her government in her own family alone, the latter appears to indicate her government over the nations of which her husband is termed the father or lord; and hence the promise states that she shall be a mother of nations, and that kings of people should spring from her. See [Gen 17:15], [Gen 17:16].

[¶7] Now as the only change in each name is made by the insertion of a single letter, and that letter the same in both names, I cannot help concluding that some mystery was designed by its insertion; and therefore the opinion of Clarius and some others is not to be disregarded, which supposes that God shows he had conferred a peculiar dignity on both, by adding to their names one of the letters of his own: a name by which his eternal power and Godhead are peculiarly pointed out.

[¶8] From the difficulty of settling the etymology of these two names, on which so much stress seems to be laid in the text, the reader will see with what caution he should receive the lists of explanations of the proper names in the Old and New Testaments, which he so frequently meets with, and which I can pronounce to be in general false or absurd.

### Verse 7

[¶10] An everlasting covenant - ברית עולם berith olam. See note on [Gen 13:15]. Here the word olam is taken in its own proper meaning, as the words immediately following prove - to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after thee; for as the soul is to endure for ever, so it shall eternally stand in need of the supporting power and energy of God; and as the reign of the Gospel dispensation shall be as long as sun and moon endure, and its consequences eternal, so must the covenant be on which these are founded.

### Verse 8

[¶12] Everlasting possession - Here עולם olam appears to be used in its accommodated meaning, and signifies the completion of the Divine counsel in reference to a particular period or dispensation. And it is literally true that the Israelites possessed the land of Canaan till the Mosaic dispensation was terminated in the complete introduction of that of the Gospel. But as the spiritual and temporal covenants are both blended together, and the former was pointed out and typified by the latter, hence the word even here may be taken in its own proper meaning, that of ever-during, or eternal; because the spiritual blessings pointed out by the temporal covenant shall have no end. And hence it is immediately added, I will be their God, not for a time, certainly, but for ever and ever. See the note on [Gen 21:33].

### Verse 10

[¶14] Every man - child - shall be circumcised - Those who wish to invalidate the evidence of the Divine origin of the Mosaic law, roundly assert that the Israelites received the rite of circumcision from the Egyptians. Their apostle in this business is Herodotus, who, lib. ii., p. 116, Edit. Steph. 1592, says: "The Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians, are the only nations in the world who have used circumcision απ' αρχης, from the remotest period; and the Phoenicians and Syrians who inhabit Palestine acknowledge they received this from the Egyptians." Herodotus cannot mean Jews by Phoenicians and Syrians; if he does he is incorrect, for no Jew ever did or ever could acknowledge this, with the history of Abraham in his hand. If Herodotus had written before the days of Abraham, or at least before the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt, and informed us that circumcision had been practiced among them απ' αρχης, from the beginning, there would then exist a possibility that the Israelites while sojourning among them had learned and adopted this rite. But when we know that Herodotus flourished only 484 years before the Christian era, and that Jacob and his family sojourned in Egypt more than 1800 years before Christ, and that all the descendants of Abraham most conscientiously observed circumcision, and do so to this day, then the presumption is that the Egyptians received it from the Israelites, but that it was impossible the latter could have received it from the former, as they had practiced it so long before their ancestors had sojourned in Egypt.

### Verse 11

[¶16] And it shall be a token - לאות leoth, for a sign of spiritual things; for the circumcision made in the flesh was designed to signify the purification of the heart from all unrighteousness, as God particularly showed in the law itself. See [Deu 10:16]; see also [Rom 2:25-29];[Col 2:11]. And it was a seal of that righteousness or justification that comes by faith, [Rom 4:11]. That some of the Jews had a just notion of its spiritual intention, is plain from many passages in the Chaldee paraphrases and in the Jewish writers. I borrow one passage from the book Zohar, quoted by Ainsworth: "At what time a man is sealed with this holy seal, (of circumcision), thenceforth he seeth the holy blessed God properly, and the holy soul is united to him. If he be not worthy, and keepeth not this sign, what is written? By the breath of God they perish, ([Job 4:9]), because this seal of the holy blessed God was not kept. But if he be worthy, and keep it, the Holy Ghost is not separated from him."

### Verse 12

[¶18] He that is eight days old - Because previously to this they were considered unclean, [Lev 12:2], [Lev 12:3], and circumcision was ever understood as a consecration of the person to God. Neither calf, lamb, nor kid, was offered to God till it was eight days old for the same reason, [Lev 22:27].

### Verse 13

[¶20] He that is born in thy house - The son of a servant; he that is bought with thy money - a slave on his coming into the family. According to the Jewish writers the father was to circumcise his son; and the master, the servant born in his house, or the slave bought with money. If the father or master neglected to do this, then the magistrates were obliged to see it performed; if the neglect of this ordinance was unknown to the magistrates, then the person himself, when he came of age, was obliged to do it.

### Verse 14

[¶22] The uncircumcised - shall be cut off from his people - By being cut off some have imagined that a sudden temporal death was implied; but the simple meaning seems to be that such should have no right to nor share in the blessings of the covenant, which we have already seen were both of a temporal and spiritual kind; and if so, then eternal death was implied, for it was impossible for a person who had not received the spiritual purification to enter into eternal glory. The spirit of this law extends to all ages, dispensations, and people; he whose heart is not purified from sin cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Reader, on what is thy hope of heaven founded?

### Verse 15

[¶24] Thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah - See note on [Gen 17:5].

### Verse 16

[¶26] I will bless her, etc. - Sarah certainly stands at the head of all the women of the Old Testament, on account of her extraordinary privileges. I am quite of Calmet's opinion that Sarah was a type of the blessed Virgin. St. Paul considers her a type of the New Testament and heavenly Jerusalem; and as all true believers are considered as the children of Abraham, so all faithful holy women are considered the daughters of Sarah, [Gal 4:22], [Gal 4:24], [Gal 4:26]. See also [1Pet 3:6].

### Verse 17

[¶28] Then Abraham - laughed - I am astonished to find learned and pious men considering this as a token of Abraham's weakness of faith or unbelief, when they have the most positive assurance from the Spirit of God himself that Abraham was not weak but strong in the faith; that he staggered not at the promise through unbelief, but gave glory to God, [Rom 4:19], [Rom 4:20]. It is true the same word is used, [Gen 18:12], concerning Sarah, in whom it was certainly a sign of doubtfulness, though mixed with pleasure at the thought of the possibility of her becoming a mother; but we know how possible it is to express both faith and unbelief in the same way, and even pleasure and disdain have been expressed by a smile or laugh. By laughing Abraham undoubtedly expressed his joy at the prospect of the fulfillment of so glorious a promise; and from this very circumstance Isaac had his name. יצחק yitschak, which we change into Isaac, signifies laughter; and it is the same word which is used in the verse before us: Abraham fell on his face, ויצחק vaiyitschak, and he laughed; and to the joy which he felt on this occasion our Lord evidently alludes, [Joh 8:56] : Your father Abraham Rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was Glad. And to commemorate this joy he called his son's name Isaac. See note on [Gen 21:6].

### Verse 18

[¶30] O that Ishmael might live before thee! - Abraham, finding that the covenant was to be established in another branch of his family, felt solicitous for his son Ishmael, whom he considered as necessarily excluded; on which God delivers that most remarkable prophecy which follows in [Gen 17:20], and which contains an answer to the prayer and wish of Abraham: And as for Ishmael I have heard thee; so that the object of Abraham's prayer was, that his son Ishmael might be the head of a prosperous and potent people.

### Verse 20

[¶32] Twelve princes shall he beget, etc. - See the names of these twelve princes, [Gen 25:12-16]. From Ishmael proceeded the various tribes of the Arabs, called also Saracens by Christian writers. They were anciently, and still continue to be, a very numerous and powerful people. "It was somewhat wonderful, and not to be foreseen by human sagacity," says Bishop Newton, "that a man's whole posterity should so nearly resemble him, and retain the same inclinations, the same habits, and the same customs, throughout all ages! These are the only people besides the Jews who have subsisted as a distinct people from the beginning, and in some respects they very much resemble each other 1. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, are descended from Abraham, and both boast of their descent from the father of the faithful. 2. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, are circumcised, and both profess to have derived this ceremony from Abraham. 3. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, had originally twelve patriarchs, who were their princes or governors. 4. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, marry among themselves, and in their own tribes. 5. The Arabs, as well as the Jews, are singular in several of their customs, and are standing monuments to all ages of the exactness of the Divine predictions, and of the veracity of Scripture history. We may with more confidence believe the particulars related of Abraham and Ishmael when we see them verified in their posterity at this day. This is having, as it were, ocular demonstration for our faith." See Bp. Newton's Second Dissertation on the Prophecies, and See note on [Gen 16:12].

### Verse 21

[¶34] My covenant will I establish with Isaac - All temporal good things are promised to Ishmael and his posterity, but the establishment of the Lord's covenant is to be with Isaac. Hence it is fully evident that this covenant referred chiefly to spiritual things - to the Messiah, and the salvation which should be brought to both Jews and Gentiles by his incarnation, death, and glorification.

### Verse 22

[¶36] God went up from Abraham - Ascended evidently before him, so that he had the fullest proof that it was no human being, no earthly angel or messenger, that talked with him; and the promise of a son in the course of a single year, at this set time in the next year, [Gen 17:21], which had every human probability against it, was to be the sure token of the truth of all that had hitherto taken place, and the proof that all that was farther promised should be fulfilled in its due time. Was it not in nearly the same way in which the Lord went up from Abraham, that Jesus Christ ascended to heaven in the presence of his disciples? [Luk 24:51].

### Verse 23

[¶38] And Abraham took Ishmael, etc. - Had not Abraham, his son, (who was of age to judge for himself), and all the family, been fully convinced that this thing was of God, they could not have submitted to it. A rite so painful, so repugnant to every feeling of delicacy, and every way revolting to nature, could never have sprung up in the imagination of man. To this day the Jews practice it as a Divine ordinance; and all the Arabians do the same. As a distinction between them and other people it never could have been designed, because it was a sign that was never to appear. The individual alone knew that he bore in his flesh this sign of the covenant, and he bore it by the order of God, and he knew it was a sign and seal of spiritual blessings, and not the blessings themselves, though a proof that these blessings were promised, and that he had a right to them. Those who did not consider it in this spiritual reference are by the apostle denominated the concision, [Phi 3:2], i.e., persons whose flesh was cut, but whose hearts were not purified.

[¶39] The contents of this chapter may be summed up in a few propositions: -

[¶40] 1. God, in renewing his covenant with Abram, makes an important change in his and Sarai's name; a change which should ever act as a help to their faith, that the promises by which God had bound himself should be punctually fulfilled. However difficult it may be for us to ascertain the precise import of the change then made, we may rest assured that it was perfectly understood by both; and that, as they had received this name from God, they considered it as placing them in a new relation both to their Maker and to their posterity. From what we have already seen, the change made in Abram's name is inscrutable to us; there is something like this in [Rev 2:17] : To him that overcometh will I give a white stone, and a New Name - which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. The full import of the change made in a soul that enters into covenant with God through Christ, is only known to itself; a stranger intermeddleth not with its joy. Hence, even men of learning and the world at large have considered experimental religion as enthusiasm, merely because they have not understood its nature, and have permitted themselves to be carried away by prejudices which they have imbibed perhaps at first through the means of ignorant or hypocritical pretenders to deep piety; but while they have the sacred writings before them, their prejudices and opposition to that without which they cannot be saved are as unprincipled as they are absurd.

[¶41] 2. God gives Abraham a precept, which should be observed, not only by himself, but by all his posterity; for this was to be a permanent sign of that covenant which was to endure for ever. Though the sign is now changed from circumcision to baptism, each of them equally significant, yet the covenant is not changed in any part of its essential meaning. Faith in God through the great sacrifice, remission of sins, and sanctification of the heart, are required by the new covenant as well as by the old.

[¶42] 3. The rite of circumcision was painful and humiliating, to denote that repentance, self-denial, etc., are absolutely necessary to all who wish for redemption in the blood of the covenant; and the putting away this filth of the flesh showed the necessity of a pure heart and a holy life.

[¶43] 4. As eternal life is the free gift of God, he has a right to give it in what way he pleases, and on what terms. He says to Abraham and his seed, Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and he that doth not so shall be cut off from his people. He says also to sinners in general, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Repent, and believe the Gospel; and, Except ye repent, ye shall perish. These are the terms on which he will bestow the blessings of the old and new covenants. And let it be remembered that stretching out the hand to receive an alms can never be considered as meriting the bounty received, neither can repentance or faith merit salvation, although they are the conditions on which it is bestowed.

[¶44] 5. The precepts given under both covenants were accompanied with a promise of the Messiah. God well knows that no religious rite can be properly observed, and no precept obeyed, unless he impart strength from on high; and he teaches us that that strength must ever come through the promised seed. Hence, with the utmost propriety, we ask every blessing through him, in whom God is well pleased.

## 24. Genesis · 24 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/24/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/24/#p-N

[¶0] 6. The precept, the promise, and the rite, were prefaced with, "I am God all-sufficient; walk before me, and be thou perfect." God, who is the sole object of religious worship, has the sole authority to prescribe that worship, and the rites and ceremonies which shall be used in it; hence he prescribed circumcision and sacrifices under the old law, and baptism and the eucharist under the Gospel; and to render both effectual to the end of their institution, faith in God was indispensably necessary.

[¶1] 7. Those who profess to believe in him must not live as they list, but as he pleases. Though redeemed from the curse of the law, and from the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Church, they are under the law to Christ, and must walk before him - be in all things obedient to that moral law which is an emanation from the righteousness of God, and of eternal obligation; and let it ever be remembered that Christ is "the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him." Without faith and obedience there can be no holiness, and without holiness none can see the Lord. Be all that God would have thee to be, and God will be to the"' all that thou canst possibly require. He never gives a precept but he offers sufficient grace to enable thee to perform it. Believe as he would have thee, and act as he shall strengthen thee, and thou wilt believe all things savingly, and do all things well.

### Introduction

[¶3] The Lord appears unto Abraham in Mamre, [Gen 18:1]. Three angels, in human appearance, come towards his tent, [Gen 18:2]. He invites them in to wash and refresh themselves, [Gen 18:3-5]; prepares a calf, bread, butter, and milk, for their entertainment; and himself serves them, [Gen 18:6-8]. They promise that within a year Sarah shall have a son, [Gen 18:9], [Gen 18:10]. Sarah, knowing herself and husband to be superannuated, smiles at the promise, [Gen 18:11], [Gen 18:12]. One of the three, who is called the Lord or Jehovah, chides her, and asserts the sufficiency of the Divine power to accomplish the promise, [Gen 18:13], [Gen 18:14]. Sarah, through fear, denies that she had laughed or showed signs of unbelief, [Gen 18:15]. Abraham accompanies these Divine persons on their way to Sodom, [Gen 18:16]; and that one who is called Jehovah informs him of his purpose to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their great wickedness, [Gen 18:17-21]. The two former proceed toward Sodom, while the latter (Jehovah) remains with Abraham, [Gen 18:22]. Abraham intercedes for the inhabitants of those cities, entreating the Lord to spare them provided fifty righteous persons should be found in them, [Gen 18:23-25]. The Lord grants this request, [Gen 18:26]. He pleads for the same mercy should only forty-five be found there; which is also granted, [Gen 18:27], [Gen 18:28]. He pleads the same for forty, which is also granted, [Gen 18:29]; for thirty, with the same success, [Gen 18:30]; for twenty, and receives the some gracious answer, [Gen 18:31]; for ten, and the Lord assures him that should ten righteous persons be found there, he will not destroy the place, [Gen 18:32]. Jehovah then departs, and Abraham returns to his tent, [Gen 18:33].

### Verse 1

[¶5] And the Lord appeared - See note on [Gen 15:1].

[¶6] Sat in the tent door - For the purpose of enjoying the refreshing air in the heat of the day, when the sun had most power. A custom still frequent among the Asiatics.

### Verse 2

[¶8] Three men stood by him - נצבים עליו nitstsabim alaiv, were standing over against him; for if they had been standing by him, as our translation says, he needed not to have "run from the tent door to meet them." To Abraham these appeared at first as men; but he entertained angels unawares, see [Heb 13:2].

### Verse 3

[¶10] And said, My Lord, etc. - The word is אדני Adonai, not יהוה Yehovah, for as yet Abraham did not know the quality of his guests. For an explanation of this word, See note on [Gen 15:8].

### Verse 4

[¶12] Let a little water - be fetched, and wash your feet, etc. - In these verses we find a delightful picture of primitive hospitality. In those ancient times shoes such as ours were not in use; and the foot was protected only by sandals or soles, which fastened round the foot with straps. It was therefore a great refreshment in so hot a country to get the feet washed at the end of a day's journey; and this is the first thing that Abraham proposes.

[¶13] Rest yourselves under the tree - We have already heard of the oak grove of Mamre, [Gen 12:6], and this was the second requisite for the refreshment of a weary traveler, viz., rest in the shade.

### Verse 5

[¶15] I will fetch a morsel of bread - This was the third requisite, and is introduced in its proper order; as eating immediately after exertion or fatigue is very unwholesome. The strong action of the lungs and heart should have time to diminish before any food is received into the stomach, as otherwise concoction is prevented, and fever in a less or greater degree produced.

[¶16] For therefore are ye come - In those ancient days every traveler conceived he had a right to refreshment, when he needed it, at the first tent he met with on his journey.

[¶17] So do as thou hast said - How exceedingly simple was all this! On neither side is there any compliment but such as a generous heart and sound sense dictate.

### Verse 6

[¶19] Three measures of fine meal - The סאה seah, which is here translated measure, contained, according to Bishop Cumberland, about two gallons and a half; and Mr. Ainsworth translates the word peck. On this circumstance the following observations of the judicious and pious Abbe Fleury cannot fail to be acceptable to the reader. Speaking of the frugality of the patriarchs he says: "We have an instance of a splendid entertainment in that which Abraham made for the three angels. He set a whole calf before them, new bread, but baked on the hearth, together with butter and milk. Three measures of meal were baked into bread on this occasion, which come to more than two of our bushels, and nearly to fifty-six pounds of our weight; hence we may conclude that men were great eaters in those days, used much exercise, were probably of a much larger stature as well as longer lives than we. Homer (Odyss. lib. xiv., ver. 74, etc). makes his heroes great eaters. When Eumaeus entertained Ulysses, he dressed two pigs for himself and his guest. 'So saying, he girded quick his tunic close,

[¶20] And issuing sought the styes; thence bringing two,

[¶21] Of the imprisoned herd, he slaughtered both,

[¶22] Singed them and slash'd and spitted them, and placed

[¶23] The whole well roasted, banquets spits, and all,

[¶24] Reeking before Ulysses.'

[¶25] Cowper.

[¶26] On another occasion a hog of five years old was slaughtered and served up for five persons: - ' - His wood for fuel he prepared,

[¶27] And dragging thither a well-fatted brawn

[¶28] Of the fifth year:

[¶29] Next piercing him, and scorching close his hair,

[¶30] The joints they parted,' etc.

[¶31] Cowper. Ibid. ver. 419.

[¶32] Homer's heroes wait upon themselves and guests in the common occasions of life; the patriarchs do the same. Abraham, who had so many servants, and was nearly a hundred years old, brought the water himself to wash the feet of his guests, ordered his wife to make the bread quickly, went himself to choose the calf from the herd, and came again to serve them standing. I will allow that he was animated on this occasion with a desire of showing hospitality, but the lives of all the rest of the patriarchs were similar to this."

[¶33] Make cakes upon the hearth - Or under the ashes. This mode is used in the east to the present day. When the hearth is strongly heated with the fire that has been kindled on it, they remove the coals, sweep off the ashes, lay on the bread, and then cover it with the hot cinders.

### Verse 8

[¶35] And he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat - Nothing is more common in Hindostan than to see travelers and guests eating under the shade of trees. Feasts are scarcely ever held in houses. The house of a Hindoo serves for sleeping and cooking, and for shutting up the women; but is never considered as a sitting or dining room - Ward.

### Verse 10

[¶37] I will certainly return - Abraham was now ninety-nine years of age, and this promise was fulfilled when he was a hundred; so that the phrase according to the time of life must mean either a complete year, or nine months from the present time, the ordinary time of pregnancy. Taken in this latter sense, Abraham was now in the ninety-ninth year of his age, and Isaac was born when he was in his hundredth year.

### Verse 11

[¶39] It ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women - And consequently, naturally speaking, conception could not take place; therefore if she have a son it must be in a supernatural or miraculous way.

### Verse 12

[¶41] Sarah laughed - Partly through pleasure at the bare idea of the possibility of the thing, and partly from a conviction that it was extremely improbable. She appears to have been in the same spirit, and to have had the same feelings of those who, unexpectedly hearing of something of great consequence to themselves, smile and say, "The news is too good to be true;", see [Gen 21:6]. There is a case very similar to this mentioned [Psa 126:1], [Psa 126:2]. On Abraham's laughing, See note on [Gen 17:17].

### Verse 13

[¶43] And the Lord (Jehovah) said, etc. - So it appears that one of those three persons was Jehovah, and as this name is never given to any created being, consequently the ever-blessed God is intended; and as he was never seen in any bodily shape, consequently the great Angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ, must be meant. See note on [Gen 16:7].

## 25. Genesis · 25 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/25/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/25/#p-N

### Verse 14

[¶1] Is any thing too hard for the Lord? - היפלא מיהוה דבר hayippale meihovah dabar, shall a word (or thing) be wonderful from the Lord? i.e., Can any thing be too great a miracle for him to effect? The Septuagint translate the passage, Μη αδυνατησει παρα τῳ Θεῳ ῥημα; which St. Luke adopts almost literatim, only making it an affirmative position instead of a question: Ουκ αδυνατησει παρα τῳ Θεῳ παν ῥημα, which we translate, "With God nothing shall be impossible," [Luk 1:37]. Many copies of the Septuagint insert the word παν before ῥημα, as in St. Luke; but it makes little difference in the sense. It was to correct Sarah's unbelief, and to strengthen her faith, that God spoke these most important words; words which state that where human wisdom, prudence, and energy fall, and where nature herself ceases to be an agent, through lack of energy to act, or laws to direct and regulate energy, there also God has full sway, and by his own omnific power works all things after the counsel of his own will. Is there an effect to be produced? God can produce it as well without as with means. He produced nature, the whole system of causes and effects, when in the whole compass of his own eternity there was neither means nor being. He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. How great and wonderful is God!

### Verse 16

[¶3] Abraham went with them to bring them on the way - This was another piece of primitive hospitality - to direct strangers in the way. Public roads did not then exist and guides were essentially necessary in countries where villages were seldom to be met with, and where solitary dwellings did not exist.

### Verse 17

[¶5] Shall I hide from Abraham - That is, I will not hide. A common mode of speech in Scripture - a question asked when an affirmative is designed. Do men gather grapes of thorns? Men do not gather grapes of thorns, etc.

### Verse 18

[¶7] Shall surely become a great and mighty nation - The revelation that I make to him shall be preserved among his posterity; and the exact fulfillment of my promises, made so long before, shall lead them to believe in my name and trust in my goodness.

### Verse 19

[¶9] And they shall keep the way of the Lord - The true religion; God's way; that in which God walks himself, and in which, of course, his followers walk also; to do justice and judgment; not only to preserve the truth in their creed, but maintain it in their practice.

### Verse 20

[¶11] Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah - See note on [Gen 13:13].

### Verse 21

[¶13] I will go down now, etc. - A lesson to magistrates, teaching them not to judge according to report, but accurately to inquire into the facts themselves - Jarchi.

### Verse 22

[¶15] And the men turned their faces - That is, the two angels who accompanied Jehovah were now sent towards Sodom; while the third, who is called the Lord or Jehovah, remained with Abraham for the purpose of teaching him the great usefulness and importance of faith and prayer.

### Verse 23

[¶17] Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? - A form of speech similar to that in [Gen 18:17], an invariable principle of justice, that the righteous shall not be punished for the crimes of the impious. And this Abraham lays down as the foundation of his supplications. Who can pray with any hope of success who cannot assign a reason to God and his conscience for the petitions he offers? The great sacrifice offered by Christ is an infinite reason why a penitent sinner should expect to find the mercy for which he pleads.

### Verse 25

[¶19] Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? - God alone is the Judge of all men. Abraham, in thus addressing himself to the person in the text, considers him either as the Supreme Being or his representative.

### Verse 27

[¶21] Which am but dust and ashes - עפר ואפר aphar vaepher, words very similar in sound, as they refer to matters which so much resemble each other. Dust - the lightest particles of earth. Ashes - the residuum of consumed substances. By these expressions he shows how deeply his soul was humbled in the presence of God. He who has high thoughts of himself must have low thoughts of the dignity of the Divine nature, of the majesty of God, and the sinfulness of sin.

### Verse 32

[¶23] Peradventure ten shall be found there - Knowing that in the family of his nephew the true religion was professed and practiced, he could not suppose there could be less than ten righteous persons in the city, he did not think it necessary to urge his supplication farther; he therefore left off his entreaties, and the Lord departed from him. It is highly worthy of observation, that while he continued to pray the presence of God was continued; and when Abraham ended, "the glory of the Lord was lifted up," as the Targum expresses it.

[¶24] This chapter, though containing only the preliminaries to the awful catastrophe detailed in the next, affords us several lessons of useful and important information.

[¶25] 1. The hospitality and humanity of Abraham are worthy, not only of our most serious regard, but also of our imitation. He sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day, not only to enjoy the current of refreshing air, but that if he saw any weary and exhausted travelers he might invite them to rest and refresh themselves. Hospitality is ever becoming in one human being towards another; for every destitute man is a brother in distress, and demands our most prompt and affectionate assistance, according to that heavenly precept, "What ye would that men should do unto you, do even so unto them." From this conduct of Abraham a Divine precept is formed: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. [Heb 13:2].

[¶26] 2. Whatever is given on the ground of humanity and mercy is given unto God, and is sure to meet with his approbation and a suitable reward. While Abraham entertained his guests God discovers himself, and reveals to him the counsels of his will, and renews the promise of a numerous posterity. Sarah, though naturally speaking past child-bearing, shall have a son: natural obstacles cannot hinder the purpose of God; nature is his instrument; and as it works not only by general laws, but also by any particular will of God, so it may accomplish that will in any way he may choose to direct. It is always difficult to credit God's promises when they relate to supernatural things, and still more so when they have for their object events that are contrary to the course of nature; but as nothing is too hard for God, so "all things are possible to him that believeth." It is that faith alone which is of the operation of God's Spirit, that is capable of crediting supernatural things; he who does not pray to be enabled to believe, or, if he do, uses not the power when received, can never believe to the saving of the soul.

[¶27] 3. Abraham trusts much in God, and God reposes much confidence in Abraham. He knows that God is faithful, and will fulfill his promises; and God knows that Abraham is faithful, and will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment; [Gen 18:19]. No man lives unto himself; and God gives us neither spiritual nor temporal blessings for ourselves alone; our bread we are to divide with the hungry, and to help the stranger in distress. He who understands the way of God should carefully instruct his household in that way; and he who is the father of a family should pray to God to teach him, that he may teach his household. His ignorance of God and salvation can be no excuse for his neglecting his family: it is his indispensable duty to teach them; and God will teach him, if he earnestly seek it, that he may be able to discharge this duty to his family. Reader, if thy children or servants perish through thy neglect, God will judge thee for it in the great day.

[¶28] 4. The sin of Sodom and the cities of the plain was great and grievous; the measure of their iniquity was full, and God determined to destroy them. Judgment is God's strange work, but though rarely done it must be done sometimes, lest men should suppose that right and wrong, vice and virtue, are alike in the eye of God. And these judgments must be dispensed in such a way as to show they are not the results of natural causes, but come immediately from the incensed justice of the Most High.

[¶29] 5. Every man who loves God loves his neighbor also; and he who loves his neighbor will do all in his power to promote the well-being both of his soul and his body. Abraham cannot prevent the men of Sodom from sinning against God; but he can make prayer and intercession for their souls, and plead, if not in arrest, yet in mitigation, of judgment. He therefore intercedes for the transgressors, and God is well pleased with his intercessions. These are the offspring of God's own love in the heart of his servant.

[¶30] 6. How true is that word, The energetic faithful prayer of a righteous man availeth much! Abraham draws near to God by affection and faith, and in the most devout and humble manner makes prayer and supplication; and every petition is answered on the spot. Nor does God cease to promise to show mercy till Abraham ceases to intercede! What encouragement does this hold out to them that fear God, to make prayer and intercession for their sinful neighbors and ungodly relatives! Faith in the Lord Jesus endues prayer with a species of omnipotence; whatsoever a man asks of the Father in his name, he will do it. Prayer has been termed the gate of heaven, but without faith that gate cannot be opened. He who prays as he should, and believes as he ought, shall have the fullness of the blessings of the Gospel of peace.

### Introduction

[¶32] The two angels mentioned in the preceding chapter, come in the evening to Sodom, [Gen 19:1]. Lot, who was sitting at the gate, invites them to enter his house, take some refreshment, and tarry all night; which they at first refuse, [Gen 19:2]; but on being pressingly solicited, they at last comply, [Gen 19:3]. The abominable conduct of the men of Sodom, [Gen 19:4], [Gen 19:5]. Lot's deep concern for the honor and safely of his guests, which leads him to make a most exceptionable proposal to those wicked men, [Gen 19:6-8]. The violent proceedings of the Sodomites, [Gen 19:9]. Lot rescued from their barbarity by the angels, who smite them with blindness, [Gen 19:10], [Gen 19:11]. The angels exhort Lot and his family to flee from that wicked place, as God was about to destroy it, [Gen 19:12], [Gen 19:13]. Lot's fruitless exhortation to his sons-in-law, [Gen 19:14]. The angels hasten Lot and his family to depart, [Gen 19:15], [Gen 19:16]. Their exhortation, [Gen 19:17]. Lot's request, [Gen 19:18-20]. He is permitted to escape to Zoar, [Gen 19:21-23]. Fire and brimstone are rained down from heaven upon all the cities of the plain, by which they are entirely destroyed, [Gen 19:24], [Gen 19:25]. Lot's wife, looking behind, becomes a pillar of salt, [Gen 19:26]. Abraham, early in the morning, discovers the desolation of those iniquitous cities, [Gen 19:27-29]. Lot, fearing to continue in Zoar, went with his two daughters to the mountain, and dwelt in a cave, [Gen 19:30]. The strange conduct of his daughters, and his unhappy deception, [Gen 19:31-36]. Moab and Ammon born, from whom sprang the Moabites and Ammonites, [Gen 19:37], [Gen 19:38].

### Verse 1

[¶34] Two angels - The two referred to [Gen 18:22].

[¶35] Sat in the gate - Probably, in order to prevent unwary travelers from being entrapped by his wicked townsmen, he waited at the gate of the city to bring the strangers he might meet with to his own house, as well as to transact his own business. Or, as the gate was the place of judgment, he might have been sitting there as magistrate to hear and determine disputes.

[¶36] Bowed himself - Not through religious reverence, for he did not know the quality of his guests; but through the customary form of civility. See on verses [Gen 18:3-5] (note) of the preceding chapter.

### Verse 2

[¶38] Nay; but we will abide in the street - Instead of לא lo, nay, some MSS. have לו lo, to him; "And they said unto him, for we lodge in the street." where, nevertheless, the negation is understood. Knowing the disposition of the inhabitants, and appearing in the mere character of travelers, they preferred the open street to any house; but as Lot pressed them vehemently, and they knew him to be a righteous man, not yet willing to make themselves known, they consented to take shelter under his hospitable roof. Our Lord, willing for the time being to conceal his person from the knowledge of the disciples going to Emmaus, made as though he would go farther, [Luk 24:13]; but at last, like the angels here, yielded to the importunity of his disciples, and went into their lodgings.

### Verse 5

[¶40] Where are the men which came in to thee, etc. - This account justifies the character given of this depraved people in the preceding chapter, [Gen 18:20], and in [Gen 23:13]. As their crime was the deepest disgrace to human nature, so it is too bad to be described; in the sacred text it is sufficiently marked; and the iniquity which, from these most abominable wretches, has been called Sodomy, is punished in our country with death.

### Verse 8

[¶42] Behold now, I have two daughters - Nothing but that sacred light in which the rights of hospitality were regarded among the eastern nations, could either justify or palliate this proposal of Lot. A man who had taken a stranger under his care and protection, was bound to defend him even at the expense of his own life. In this light the rights of hospitality are still regarded in Asiatic countries; and on these high notions only, the influence of which an Asiatic mind alone can properly appreciate, Lot's conduct on this occasion can be at all excused: but even then, it was not only the language of anxious solicitude, but of unwarrantable haste.

### Verse 9

[¶44] And he will needs be a judge - So his sitting in the gate is perhaps a farther proof of his being there in a magisterial capacity, as some have supposed.

## 26. Genesis · 26 of 67

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### Verse 11

[¶1] And they smote the men - with blindness - This has been understood two ways:

[¶2] 1. The angels, by the power which God had given them, deprived these wicked men of a proper and regular use of their sight, so as either totally to deprive them of it, or render it so confused that they could no longer distinguish objects; or,

[¶3] 2. They caused such a deep darkness to take place, that they could not find Lot's door. The author of the book of The Wisdom of Solomon was evidently of this latter opinion, for he says they were compassed about with horrible great darkness, [Gen 19:17]. See a similar case of Elisha and the Syrians, [2Kgs 6:18], etc.

### Verse 12

[¶5] Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law - Here there appears to be but one meant, as the word חתן chathan is in the singular number; but in [Gen 19:14] the word is plural, חתיו chathanaiv, his sons-in-law. There were only two in number; as we do not hear that Lot had more than two daughters: and these seem not to have been actually married to those daughters, but only betrothed, as is evident from what Lot says, [Gen 19:8]; for they had not known man, but were the spouses elect of those who are here called his sons-in-law. But though these might be reputed as a part of Lot's family, and entitled on this account to God's protection, yet it is sufficiently plain that they did not escape the perdition of these wicked men; and the reason is given, [Gen 19:14], they received the solemn warning as a ridiculous tale, the creature of Lot's invention, or the offspring of his fear. Therefore they made no provision for their escape, and doubtless perished, notwithstanding the sincerely offered grace, in the perdition that fell on this ungodly city.

### Verse 16

[¶7] While he lingered - Probably in affectionate though useless entreaties to prevail on the remaining parts of his family to escape from the destruction that was now descending; laid hold upon his hand - pulled them away by mere force, the Lord being merciful; else they had been left to perish in their lingering, as the others were in their gainsaying.

### Verse 17

[¶9] When they had brought them forth, etc. - Every word here is emphatic, Escape for thy Life; thou art in the most imminent danger of perishing; thy life and thy soul are both at stake. Look not behind thee - thou hast but barely time enough to escape from the judgment that is now descending; no lingering, or thou art lost! one look back may prove fatal to thee, and God commands thee to avoid it. Neither stay thou in all the plain, because God will destroy that as well as the city. Escape to the mountain, on which these judgments shall not light, and which God has appointed thee for a place of refuge; lest thou be Consumed. It is not an ordinary judgment that is coming; a fire from heaven shall burn up the cities, the plain, and all that remain in the cities and in the plain. Both the beginning and end of this exhortation are addressed to his personal feelings. "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life;" and self-preservation is the first law of nature, to which every other consideration is minor and unimportant.

### Verse 19

[¶11] I cannot escape to the mountain - He saw the destruction so near, that he imagined he should not have time sufficient to reach the mountain before it arrived. He did not consider that God could give no command to his creatures that it would be impossible for them to fulfill; but the hurry and perturbation of his mind will at once account for and excuse this gross oversight.

### Verse 20

[¶13] It is a little one - Probably Lot wished to have it for an inheritance, and therefore pleaded its being a little one, that his request might be the more readily granted. Or he might suppose, that being a little city, it was less depraved than Sodom and Gomorrah, and therefore not so ripe for punishment; which was probably the case.

### Verse 21

[¶15] See, I have accepted thee - How prevalent is prayer with God! Far from refusing to grant a reasonable petition, he shows himself as if under embarrassment to deny any.

### Verse 22

[¶17] I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither - So these heavenly messengers had the strictest commission to take care of Lot and his family; and even the purposes of Divine justice could not be accomplished on the rebellious, till this righteous man and his family had escaped from the place. A proof of Abraham's assertion, The Judge of all the earth will do right.

[¶18] The name of the city was called Zoar - צוער Tsoar, Little, its former name being Bela.

### Verse 24

[¶20] The Lord rained - brimstone and fire from the Lord - As all judgment is committed to the Son of God, many of the primitive fathers and several modern divines have supposed that the words ויהוה vaihovah and מאת יהוה meeth Yehovah imply, Jehovah the Son raining brimstone and fire from Jehovah the Father; and that this place affords no mean proof of the proper Divinity of our blessed Redeemer. It may be so; but though the point is sufficiently established elsewhere, it does not appear to me to be plainly indicated here. And it is always better on a subject of this kind not to have recourse to proofs which require proofs to confirm them. It must however be granted that two persons mentioned as Jehovah in one verse, is both a strange and curious circumstance; and it will appear more remarkable when we consider that the person called Jehovah, who conversed with Abraham, (see Genesis 18)., and sent those two angels to bring Lot and his family out of this devoted place, and seems himself after he left off talking with Abraham to have ascended to heaven, [Gen 19:33], does not any more appear on this occasion till we hear that Jehovah rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven. This certainly gives much countenance to the opinion referred to above, though still it may fall short of positive proof.

[¶21] Brimstone and fire - The word גפרית gophrith, which we translate brimstone, is of very uncertain derivation. It is evidently used metaphorically, to point out the utmost degrees of punishment executed on the most flagitious criminals, in [Deu 29:23]; [Job 18:15]; [Psa 11:6]; [Isa 34:9]; [Eze 38:22]. And as hell, or an everlasting separation from God and the glory of his power, is the utmost punishment that can be inflicted on sinners, hence brimstone and fire are used in Scripture to signify the torments in that place of punishment. See [Isa 30:33]; [Rev 14:10]; [Rev 19:20]; [Rev 20:10]; [Rev 21:8]. We may safely suppose that it was quite possible that a shower of nitrous particles might have been precipitated from the atmosphere, here, as in many other places, called heaven, which, by the action of fire or the electric fluid, would be immediately ignited, and so consume the cities; and, as we have already seen that the plains about Sodom and Gomorrah abounded with asphaltus or bitumen pits, (see [Gen 14:10]), that what is particularly meant here in reference to the plain is the setting fire to this vast store of inflammable matter by the agency of lightning or the electric fluid; and this, in the most natural and literal manner, accounts for the whole plain being burnt up, as that plain abounded with this bituminous substance; and thus we find three agents employed in the total ruin of these cities, and all the circumjacent plain:

[¶22] 1. Innumerable nitrous particles precipitated from the atmosphere.

[¶23] 2. The vast quantity of asphaltus or bitumen which abounded in that country: and,

[¶24] 3. Lightning or the electric spark, which ignited the nitre and bitumen, and thus consumed both the cities and the plain or champaign country in which they were situated.

### Verse 25

[¶26] And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain - This forms what is called the lake Asphaltites, Dead Sea, or Salt Sea, which, according to the most authentic accounts, is about seventy miles in length, and eighteen in breadth.

[¶27] The most strange and incredible tales are told by many of the ancients, and by many of the moderns, concerning the place where these cities stood. Common fame says that the waters of this sea are so thick that a stone will not sink in them, so tough and clammy that the most boisterous wind cannot ruffle them, so deadly that no fish can live in them, and that if a bird happen to fly over the lake, it is killed by the poisonous effluvia proceeding from the waters; that scarcely any verdure can grow near the place, and that in the vicinity where there are any trees they bear a most beautiful fruit, but when you come to open it you find nothing but ashes! and that the place was burning long after the apostles' times. These and all similar tales may be safely pronounced great exaggerations of facts, or fictions of ignorant, stupid, and superstitious monks, or impositions of unprincipled travelers, who, knowing that the common people are delighted with the marvelous, have stuffed their narratives with such accounts merely to procure a better sale for their books.

[¶28] The truth is, the waters are exceedingly salt, far beyond the usual saltiness of the sea, and hence it is called the Salt Sea. In consequence of this circumstance bodies will float in it that would sink in common salt water, and probably it is on this account that few fish can live in it. But the monks of St. Saba affirmed to Dr. Shaw, that they had seen fish caught in it; and as to the reports of any noxious quality in the air, or in the evaporations from its surface, the simple fact is, lumps of bitumen often rise from the bottom to its surface, and exhale a fetid odor which does not appear to have any thing poisonous in it. Dr. Pococke swam in it for nearly a quarter of an hour, and felt no kind of inconvenience; the water, he says, is very clear, and having brought away a bottle of it, he "had it analyzed, and found it to contain no substances besides salt and a little alum."

[¶29] As there are frequent eruptions of a bituminous matter from the bottom of this lake, which seem to argue a subterraneous fire, hence the accounts that this place was burning even after the days of the apostles. And this phenomenon still continues, for "masses of bitumen," says Dr. Shaw, "in large hemispheres, are raised at certain times from the bottom, which, as soon as they touch the surface, and are thereby acted upon by the external air, burst at once, with great smoke and noise, like the pulvis fulminans of the chemists, and disperse themselves in a thousand pieces. But this only happens near the shore, for in greater depths the eruptions are supposed to discover themselves in such columns of smoke as are now and then observed to arise from the lake. And perhaps to such eruptions as these we may attribute that variety of pits and hollows, not unlike the traces of many of our ancient limekilns, which are found in the neighborhood of this lake. The bitumen is in all probability accompanied from the bottom with sulphur, as both of them are found promiscuously upon the shore, and the latter is precisely the same with common native sulphur; the other is friable, yielding upon friction, or by being put into the fire, a fetid smell." The bitumen, after having been some time exposed to the air, becomes indurated like a stone. I have some portions of it before me, brought by a friend of mine from the spot; it is very black, hard, and on friction yields a fetid odor.

[¶30] For several curious particulars on this subject, see Dr. Pococke's Travels, vol. ii., part 1, chap. 9, and Dr. Shaw's Travels, 4th. edit., p. 346, etc.

### Verse 26

[¶32] She became a pillar of salt - The vast variety of opinions, both ancient and modern, on the crime of Lot's wife, her change, and the manner in which that change was effected, are in many cases as unsatisfactory as they are ridiculous. On this point the sacred Scripture says little. God had commanded Lot and his family not to look behind them; the wife of Lot disobeyed this command; she looked back from behind him - Lot, her husband, and she became a pillar of salt. This is all the information the inspired historian has thought proper to give us on this subject; it is true the account is short, but commentators and critics have made it long enough by their laborious glosses. The opinions which are the most probable are the following:

[¶33] 1. "Lot's wife, by the miraculous power of God, was changed into a mass of rock salt, probably retaining the human figure."

[¶34] 2. "Tarrying too long in the plain, she was struck with lightning and enveloped in the bituminous and sulphuric matter which abounded in that country, and which, not being exposed afterwards to the action of the fire, resisted the air and the wet, and was thus rendered permanent."

[¶35] 3. "She was struck dead and consumed in the burning up of the plain; and this judgment on her disobedience being recorded, is an imperishable memorial of the fact itself, and an everlasting warning to sinners in general, and to backsliders or apostates in particular."

[¶36] On these opinions it may be only necessary to state that the two first understand the text literally, and that the last considers it metaphorically. That God might in a moment convert this disobedient woman into a pillar or mass of salt, or any other substance, there can be no doubt. Or that, by continuing in the plain till the brimstone and fire descended from heaven, she might be struck dead with lightning, and indurated or petrified on the spot, is as possible. And that the account of her becoming a pillar of salt may be designed to be understood metaphorically, is also highly probable. It is certain that salt is frequently used in the Scriptures as an emblem of incorruption, durability, etc. Hence a covenant of salt, [Num 18:19], is a perpetual covenant, one that is ever to be in full force, and never broken; on this ground a pillar of salt may signify no more in this case than an everlasting monument against criminal curiosity, unbelief, and disobedience.

[¶37] Could we depend upon the various accounts given by different persons who pretend to have seen the wife of Lot standing in her complete human form, with all her distinctive marks about her, the difficulty would be at an end. But we cannot depend on these accounts; they are discordant, improbable, ridiculous, and often grossly absurd. Some profess to have seen her as a heap of salt; others, as a rock of salt; others, as a complete human being as to shape, proportion of parts, etc., etc., but only petrified.

[¶38] This human form, according to others, has still resident in it a miraculous continual energy; break off a finger, a toe, an arm, etc., it is immediately reproduced, so that though multitudes of curious persons have gone to see this woman, and every one has brought away a part of her, yet still she is found by the next comer a complete human form! To crown this absurd description, the author of the poem De Sodoma, usually attributed to Tertullian, and annexed to his works, represents her as yet instinct with a portion of animal life, which is unequivocally designated by certain signs which every month produces. I shall transcribe the whole passage and refer to my author; and as I have given above the sense of the whole, my readers must excuse me from giving a more literal translation: - - et simul illic

[¶39] In fragilem mutata salem, stetit ipsa sepulchrum,

[¶40] Ipsaque imago sibi, formam sine corpore servans

[¶41] Durat adhuc etenim nuda statione sub aethra,

[¶42] Nec pluviis dilapsa situ, nec diruta ventis.

[¶43] Quinettam, si quis mutilaverit advena formam,

[¶44] Protinus ex sese suggestu vulnera complet.

[¶45] Dicitur et vivens alio sub corpore sexus

## 27. Genesis · 27 of 67

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[¶0] Munificos solito dispungere sanguine menses

[¶1] Teetulliani Opera, vol. ii., p. 731. Edit. Oberthur.

[¶2] The sentiment in the last lines is supported by Irenaeus, who assures us that, though still remaining as a pillar of salt, the statue, in form and other natural accidents, exhibits decisive proofs of its original. Jam non caro corruptibilis, sed statua salis semper manens, et, per naturalla, ea quoe sunt consuetudinis hominis ostendens, lib. iv., c. 51. To complete this absurdity, this father makes her an emblem of the true Church, which, though she suffers much, and often loses whole members, yet preserves the pillar of salt, that is, the foundation of the true faith, etc. See Calmet.

[¶3] Josephus says that this pillar was standing in his time, and that himself had seen it: Εις στηλην ἁλων μετεβαλεν, ἱοτορηκα δ' αυτην· ετι γαρ και νυν διαμενει. Ant. lib. i., c. xi. 3, 4.

[¶4] St. Clement, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. 2, follows Josephus, and asserts that Lot's wife was remaining even at that time as a pillar of salt.

[¶5] Authors of respectability and credit who have since traveled into the Holy Land, and made it their business to inquire into this subject in the most particular and careful manner, have not been able to meet with any remains of this pillar; and all accounts begin now to be confounded in the pretty general concession, both of Jews and Gentiles, that either the statue does not now remain, or that some of the heaps of salt or blocks of salt rock which are to be met with in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, may be the remains of Lot's wife! All speculations on this subject are perfectly idle; and if the general prejudice in favor of the continued existence of this monument of God's justice had not been very strong, I should not have deemed myself justified in entering so much at length into the subject. Those who profess to have seen it, have in general sufficiently invalidated their own testimony by the monstrous absurdities with which they have encumbered their relations. Had Lot's wife been changed in the way that many have supposed, and had she been still preserved somewhere in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea, surely we might expect some account of it in after parts of the Scripture history; but it is never more mentioned in the Bible, and occurs nowhere in the New Testament but in the simple reference of our Lord to the judgment itself, as a warning to the disobedient and backsliding, [Luk 17:32] : Remember Lot's wife!

### Verse 27

[¶7] Abraham gat up early in the morning - Anxious to know what was the effect of the prayers which he had offered to God the preceding day; what must have been his astonishment when he found that all these cities, with the plain which resembled the garden of the Lord, [Gen 13:10], burnt up, and the smoke ascending like the smoke of a furnace, and was thereby assured that even God himself could not discover ten righteous persons in four whole cities!

### Verse 29

[¶9] God remembered Abraham - Though he did not descend lower than ten righteous persons, (see [Gen 18:32]), yet the Lord had respect to the spirit of his petitions, and spared all those who could be called righteous, and for Abraham's sake offered salvation to all the family of Lot, though neither his sons-in-law elect nor his own wife ultimately profited by it. The former ridiculed the warning; and the latter, though led out by the hands of the angel, yet by breaking the command of God perished with the other gainsayers.

### Verse 30

[¶11] Lot went up out of Zoar - From seeing the universal desolation that had fallen upon the land, and that the fire was still continuing its depredations, he feared to dwell in Zoar, lest that also should be consumed, and then went to those very mountains to which God had ordered him at first to make his escape. Foolish man is ever preferring his own wisdom to that of his Maker. It was wrong at first not to betake himself to the mountain; it was wrong in the next place to go to it when God had given him the assurance that Zoar should be spared for his sake. Both these cases argue a strange want of faith, not only in the truth, but also in the providence, of God. Had he still dwelt at Zoar, the shameful transaction afterwards recorded had in all probability not taken place.

### Verse 31

[¶13] Our father is old - And consequently not likely to re-marry; and there is not a man in the earth - none left, according to their opinion in all the land of Canaan, of their own family and kindred; and they might think it unlawful to match with others, such as the inhabitants of Zoar, who they knew had been devoted to destruction as well as those of Sodom and Gomorrah, and were only saved at the earnest request of their father; and probably while they lived among them they found them ripe enough for punishment, and therefore would have thought it both dangerous and criminal to have formed any matrimonial connections with them.

### Verse 32

[¶15] Come, let us make our father drink wine - On their flight from Zoar it is probable they had brought with them certain provisions to serve them for the time being, and the wine here mentioned among the rest.

[¶16] After considering all that has been said to criminate both Lot and his daughters in this business, I cannot help thinking that the transaction itself will bear a more favorable construction than that which has been generally put on it. 1. It does not appear that it was through any base or sensual desires that the daughters of Lot wished to deceive their father. 2. They might have thought that it would have been criminal to have married into any other family, and they knew that their husbands elect, who were probably of the same kindred, had perished in the overthrow of Sodom. 3. They might have supposed that there was no other way left to preserve the family, and consequently that righteousness for which it had been remarkable, but the way which they now took.

[¶17] 4. They appear to have supposed that their father would not come into the measure, because he would have considered it as profane; yet, judging the measure to be expedient and necessary, they endeavored to sanctify the improper means used, by the goodness of the end at which they aimed; a doctrine which, though resorted to by many, should be reprobated by all. Acting on this bad principle they caused their father to drink wine. See note on [Gen 19:38].

### Verse 33

[¶19] And he perceived not when she lay down, nor when, etc. - That is, he did not perceive the time she came to his bed, nor the time she quitted it; consequently did not know who it was that had lain with him. In this transaction Lot appears to me to be in many respects excusable. 1. He had no accurate knowledge of what took place either on the first or second night, therefore he cannot be supposed to have been drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. That he must have been sensible that some person had been in his bed, it would be ridiculous to deny; but he might have judged it to have been some of his female domestics, which it is reasonable to suppose he might have brought from Zoar. 2. It is very likely that he was deceived in the wine, as well as in the consequences; either he knew not the strength of the wine, or wine of a superior power had been given to him on this occasion. As he had in general followed the simple pastoral life, it is not to be wondered at if he did not know the intoxicating power of wine, and being an old man, and unused to it, a small portion would be sufficient to overcome him; sound sleep would soon, at his time of life, be the effect of taking the liquor to which he was unaccustomed, and cause him to forget the effects of his intoxication. Except in this case, his moral conduct stands unblemished in the sacred writings; and as the whole transaction, especially as it relates to him, is capable of an interpretation not wholly injurious to his piety, both reason and religion conjoin to recommend that explanation. As to his daughters, let their ignorance of the real state of the case plead for them, as far as that can go; and let it be remembered that their sin was of that very peculiar nature as never to be capable of becoming a precedent. For it is scarcely possible that any should ever be able to plead similar circumstances in vindication of a similar line of conduct.

### Verse 37

[¶21] Called his name Moab - This name is generally interpreted of the father, or, according to Calmet, מואב Moab, the waters of the father.

### Verse 38

[¶23] Ben-ammi - בן עמי Ben-ammi, the son of my people. Both these names seem to justify the view taken of this subject above, viz., that it was merely to preserve the family that the daughters of Lot made use of the above expedient; and hence we do not find that they ever attempted to repeat it, which, had it been done for any other purpose, they certainly would not have failed to do. On this subject Origen, in his fifth homily on Genesis, has these remarkable words: Ubi hic libidinis culpa, ubi incesti criminis arguitur? Quomodo dabitur in Vitlo Quod Non Iteratur In Facto? Vercor proloqui quod sentio, vereor, inquam, ne castior fuerit harum incestus, quam pudicitia multarum. "Where, in all this transaction, can the crime of lust or of incest be proved? How can this be proved to be a vice when the fact was never repeated? I am afraid to speak my whole mind on the subject, lest the incest of these should appear more laudable than the chastity of multitudes." There is a distinction made here by Origen which is worthy of notice; a single bad act, though a sin, does not necessarily argue a vicious heart, as in order to be vicious a man must be habituated to sinful acts.

[¶24] The generation which proceeded from this incestuous connection, whatever may be said in extenuation of the transaction, (its peculiar circumstances being considered), was certainly a bad one. The Moabites soon fell from the faith of God, and became idolaters, the people of Chemosh, and of Baal-peor, [Num 21:29]; [Num 25:1-3]; and were enemies to the children of Abraham. See Numbers 22; [Jdg 3:14], etc. And the Ammonites, who dwelt near to the Moabites, united with them in idolatry, and were also enemies to Israel. See [Jdg 11:4], [Jdg 11:24]; [Deu 23:3], [Deu 23:4]. As both these people made afterwards a considerable figure in the sacred history, the impartial inspired writer takes care to introduce at this early period an account of their origin. See what has been said on the case of Noah's drunkenness, [Gen 9:20], etc.

[¶25] This is an awful history, and the circumstances detailed in it are as distressing to piety as to humanity. It may, however, be profitable to review the particulars.

[¶26] 1. From the commencement of the chapter we find that the example and precepts of Abraham had not been lost on his nephew Lot. He also, like his uncle, watches for opportunities to call in the weary traveler. This Abraham had taught his household, and we see the effect of his blessed teaching. Lot was both hospitable and pious, though living in the midst of a crooked and perverse race. It must be granted that from several circumstances in his history he appears to have been a weak man, but his weakness was such as was not inconsistent with general uprightness and sincerity. He and his family were not forgetful to entertain strangers, and they alone were free from the pollutions of this accursed people. How powerful are the effects of a religious education, enforced by pious example! It is one of God's especial means of grace. Let a man only do justice to his family, by bringing them up in the fear of God, and he will crown it with his blessing. How many excuse the profligacy of their family, which is often entirely owing to their own neglect, by saying, "O, we cannot give them grace!" No, you cannot; but you can afford them the means of grace. This is your work, that is the Lord's. If, through your neglect of precept and example, they perish, what an awful account must you give to the Judge of quick and dead! It was the sentiment of a great man, that should the worst of times arrive, and magistracy and ministry were both to fall, yet, if parents would but be faithful to their trust, pure religion would be handed down to posterity, both in its form and in its power.

[¶27] 2. We have already heard of the wickedness of the inhabitants of the cities of the plain, the cup of their iniquity was full; their sin was of no common magnitude, and what a terrible judgment fell upon them! Brimstone and fire are rained down from heaven upon these traders in iniquity; and what a correspondence between the crime and the punishment? They burned in lust towards each other, and God burned them up with fire and brimstone. Their sin was unnatural, and God punished it by supernatural means. Divine justice not only observes a proportion between the crime and the degree of punishment, but also between the species of crime and the kind of punishment inflicted.

[¶28] 3. Disobedience to the command of God must ever meet with severe reprehension, especially in those who have already partaken of his grace, because these know his salvation, and are justly supposed to possess, by his grace, the power of resisting all solicitations to sin. The servant who knew his lord's will and did it not, was to be beaten with many stripes; see [Luk 12:47]. Lot's wife stands as an everlasting monument of admonition and caution to all backsliders. She ran well, she permitted Satan to hinder, and she died in her provocation! While we lament her fate, we should profit by her example. To begin in the good way is well; to continue in the path is better; and to persevere unto the end, best of all. The exhortation of our blessed Lord on this subject should awaken our caution, and strongly excite our diligence: Remember Lot's wife! On the conduct of Lot and his daughters, See note on [Gen 19:31].

### Introduction

[¶30] Abraham leaves Mamre, and, after having sojourned at Kadesh and Shur, settles in Gerar, [Gen 20:1]. Abimelech takes Sarah, Abraham having acknowledged her only as his sister, [Gen 20:2]. Abimelech is warned by God in a dream to restore Sarah, [Gen 20:3]. He asserts his innocence, [Gen 20:4], [Gen 20:5]. He is farther warned, [Gen 20:6], [Gen 20:7]. Expostulates with Abraham, [Gen 20:8-10]. Abraham vindicates his conduct, [Gen 20:11-13]. Abimelech restores Sarah, makes Abraham a present of sheep, oxen, and male and female slaves, [Gen 20:14]; offers him a residence in any part of the land, [Gen 20:15]; and reproves Sarah, [Gen 20:16]. At the intercession of Abraham, the curse of barrenness is removed from Abimelech and his household, [Gen 20:17], [Gen 20:18].

### Verse 1

[¶32] And Abraham journeyed - It is very likely that this holy man was so deeply affected with the melancholy prospect of the ruined cities, and not knowing what was become of his nephew Lot and his family, that he could no longer bear to dwell within sight of the place. Having, therefore, struck his tents, and sojourned for a short time at Kadesh and Shur, he fixed his habitation in Gerar, which was a city of Arabia Petraea, under a king of the Philistines called Abimelech, my father king, who appears to have been not only the father of his people, but also a righteous man.

### Verse 2

[¶34] She is my sister - See the parallel account, Genesis 12 (note), and the notes there. Sarah was now about ninety years of age, and probably pregnant with Isaac. Her beauty, therefore, must have been considerably impaired since the time she was taken in a similar manner by Pharaoh, king of Egypt; but she was probably now chosen by Abimelech more on the account of forming an alliance with Abraham, who was very rich, than on account of any personal accomplishments. A petty king, such as Abimelech, would naturally be glad to form an alliance with such a powerful chief as Abraham was: we cannot but recollect his late defeat of the four confederate Canaanitish kings. See note on [Gen 14:14], etc. This circumstance was sufficient to establish his credit, and cause his friendship to be courted; and what more effectual means could Abimelech use in reference to this than the taking of Sarah, who he understood was Abraham's sister, to be his concubine or second wife, which in those times had no kind of disgrace attached to it?

### Verse 3

[¶36] But God came to Abimelech - Thus we find that persons who were not of the family of Abraham had the knowledge of the true God. Indeed, all the Gerarites are termed גוי צדיק goi tsaddik, a righteous nation, [Gen 20:4].

### Verse 5

[¶38] In the integrity of my heart, etc. - Had Abimelech any other than honorable views in taking Sarah, he could not have justified himself thus to his Maker; and that these views were of the most honorable kind, God himself, to whom the appeal was made, asserts in the most direct manner, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart.

### Verse 7

[¶40] He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee - The word prophet, which we have from the Greek προφητες, and which is compounded of προ, before, and φημι, I speak, means, in its general acceptation, one who speaks of things before they happen, i.e., one who foretells future events. But that this was not the original notion of the word, its use in this place sufficiently proves. Abraham certainly was not a prophet in the present general acceptation of the term, and for the Hebrew נביא nabi, we must seek some other meaning. I have, in a discourse entitled "The Christian Prophet and his Work," proved that the proper ideal meaning of the original word is to pray, entreat, make supplication, etc., and this meaning of it I have justified at large both from its application in this place, and from its pointed use in the case of Saul, mentioned 1 Samuel 10, and from the case of the priests of Baal, 1 Kings 18, where prophesying most undoubtedly means making prayer and supplication. As those who were in habits of intimacy with God by prayer and faith were found the most proper persons to communicate his mind to man, both with respect to the present and the future, hence, נביא nabi, the intercessor, became in process of time the public instructor or preacher, and also the predictor of future events, because to such faithful praying men God revealed the secret of his will. Hence St. Paul, [1Cor 14:3], seems to restrain the word wholly to the interpreting the mind of God to the people, and their instruction in Divine things, for, says he, he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. See the discourse on this text referred to above. The title was also given to men eminent for eloquence and for literary abilities; hence Aaron, because he was the spokesman of Moses to the Egyptian king, was termed נביא nabi, prophet; [Exo 4:16]; [Exo 7:1]. And Epimenides, a heathen poet, is expressly styled προφητης, a prophet, by St. Paul, [Tit 1:12], just as poets in general were termed vates among the Romans, which properly signifies the persons who professed to interpret the will of the gods to their votaries, after prayers and sacrifices duly performed. In Arabic the word naba has nearly the same meaning as in Hebrew, but in the first conjugation it has a meaning which may cast light upon the subject in general. It signifies to itinerate, move from one place or country to another, compelled thereto either by persecution or the command of God; exivit de una regione in aliam - migrans de loco in locum - Golius. Hence Mohammed was called an nabi, because of his sudden removal from Mecca to Medina, when, pretending to a Divine commission, his townsmen sought to take away his life: e Mecca exiens Medinam, unde Muhammed suis Nabi Allah dictus fuit - Golius. If this meaning belonged originally to the Hebrew word, it will apply with great force to the case of Abraham, whose migratory, itinerant kind of life, generally under the immediate direction of God, might have given him the title nabi. However this may be, the term was a title of the highest respectability and honor, both among the He brews and Arabs, and continues so to this day. And from the Hebrews the word, in all the importance and dignity of its meaning, was introduced among the heathens in the προφητης and vates of the Greeks and Romans. See note on the word seer, [Gen 15:1] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶42] Abimelech rose early, etc. - God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and we find as the day broke he arose, assembled his servants, (what we would call his courtiers), and communicated to them what he had received from God. They were all struck with astonishment, and discerned the hand of God in this business. Abraham is then called, and in a most respectful and pious manner the king expostulates with him for bringing him and his people under the Divine displeasure, by withholding from him the information that Sarah was his wife; when, by taking her, he sought only an honorable alliance with his family.

### Verse 11

[¶44] And Abraham said - The best excuse he could make for his conduct, which in this instance is far from defensible.

## 28. Genesis · 28 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/28/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/28/#p-N

### Verse 12

[¶1] She is my sister - I have not told a lie; I have suppressed only a part of the truth. In this place it may be proper to ask, What is a lie? It is any action done or word spoken, whether true or false in itself, which the doer or speaker wishes the observer or hearer to take in a contrary sense to that which he knows to be true. It is, in a word, any action done or speech delivered with the intention to deceive, though both may be absolutely true and right in themselves. See note on [Gen 12:13].

[¶2] The daughter of my father, but not - of my mother - Ebn Batrick, in his annals, among other ancient traditions has preserved the following: "Terah first married Yona, by whom he had Abraham; afterwards he married Tehevita, by whom he had Sarah." Thus she was the sister of Abraham, being the daughter of the same father by a different mother.

### Verse 13

[¶4] When God caused me to wander - Here the word אלהים Elohim is used with a plural verb, (התעו hithu, caused me to wander), which is not very usual in the Hebrew language, as this plural noun is generally joined with verbs in the singular number. Because there is a departure from the general mode in this instance, some have contended that the word Elohim signifies princes in this place, and suppose it to refer to those in Chaldea, who expelled Abraham because he would not worship the fire; but the best critics, and with them the Jews, allow that Elohim here signifies the true God. Abraham probably refers to his first call.

### Verse 16

[¶6] And unto Sarah he said - But what did he say? Here there is scarcely any agreement among interpreters; the Hebrew is exceedingly obscure, and every interpreter takes it in his own sense.

[¶7] A thousand pieces of silver - Shekels are very probably meant here, and so the Targum understands it. The Septuagint has χιλια διδραχμα, a thousand didrachma, no doubt meaning shekels; for in [Gen 23:15], [Gen 23:16], this translation uses διδραχμα for the Hebrew שקל shekel. As shakal signifies literally to weigh, and the shekel was a coin of such a weight, Mr. Ainsworth and others think this to be the origin of our word scale, the instrument to weigh with.

[¶8] The shekel of the sanctuary weighed twenty gerahs, [Exo 30:13]. And according to the Jews, the gerah weighed sixteen grains of barley. R. Maimon observes, that after the captivity the shekel was increased to three hundred and eighty-four grains or barley-corns. On the subject of ancient weights and measures, very little that is satisfactory is known.

[¶9] Behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes - It - the one thousand shekels, (not he - Abraham), is to thee for a covering - to procure thee a veil to conceal thy beauty (unto all that are with thee, and with all other) from all thy own kindred and acquaintance, and from all strangers, that none, seeing thou art another mans wife; may covet thee on account of thy comeliness.

[¶10] Thus she was reproved - The original is ונכחת venochachath, but the word is probably the second person preterite, used for the imperative mood, from the root נכח nachach, to make straight, direct, right; or to speak rightly, correctly; and may, in connection with the rest of the text, be thus paraphrased: Behold, I have given thy Brother (Abraham, gently alluding to the equivocation, [Gen 20:2], [Gen 20:5]) a thousand shekels of silver; behold, It is (that is, the silver is, or may be, or let it be) to thee a covering of the eyes (to procure a veil; see above) with regard to all those who are with thee; and to all (or and in all) speak thou the truth. Correctly translated by the Septuagint, και παντα αληθευσον, and in all things speak the truth - not only tell a part of the truth, but tell the whole; say not merely he is my brother, but say also, he is my husband too. Thus in All things speak the truth. I believe the above to be the sense of this difficult passage, and shall not puzzle my readers with criticisms. See Kennicott.

### Verse 17

[¶12] So Abraham prayed - This was the prime office of the נביא nabi; see [Gen 20:7].

### Verse 18

[¶14] For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs - Probably by means of some disease with which he had smitten them, hence it is said they were healed at Abraham's intercession; and this seems necessarily to imply that they had been afflicted by some disease that rendered it impossible for them to have children till it was removed. And possibly this disease, as Dr. Dodd conjectures, had afflicted Abimelech, and by this he was withheld, [Gen 20:6], from defiling Abraham's bed.

[¶15] 1. On the prevarication of Abraham and Sarah, see the notes and concluding observations on Genesis 12 (note); (See note [Gen 12:20]) and while we pity this weakness, let us take it as a warning.

[¶16] 2. The cause why the patriarch did not acknowledge Sarah as his wife, was a fear lest he should lose his life on her account, for he said, Surely the fear, i.e., the true worship, of the true God is not in this place. Such is the natural bigotry and narrowness of the human heart, that we can scarcely allow that any besides ourselves possess the true religion. To indulge a disposition of this kind is highly blamable. The true religion is neither confined to one spot nor to one people; it is spread in various forms over the whole earth. He who fills immensity has left a record of himself in every nation and among every people under heaven. Beware of the spirit of intolerance! for bigotry produces uncharitableness; and uncharitableness, harsh judging; and in such a spirit a man may think he does God service when he tortures, or makes a burnt-offering of the person whom his narrow mind and hard heart have dishonored with the name of heretic. Such a spirit is not confined to any one community, though it has predominated in some more than in others. But these things are highly displeasing in the sight of God. He, as the Father of the spirits of all flesh, loves every branch of his vastly extended family; and as far as we love one another, no matter of what sect of party, so far we resemble Him. Had Abraham possessed more charity for man and confidence in God at this time, he had not fallen into that snare from which he barely escaped. A hasty judgment is generally both erroneous and harsh; and those who are the most apt to form it are generally the most difficult to be convinced of the truth.

### Introduction

[¶18] Isaac is born according to the promise, [Gen 21:1-3]; and is circumcised when eight days old, [Gen 21:4]. Abraham's age, and Sarah's exultation at the birth of their son, [Gen 21:5-7]. Isaac is weaned, [Gen 21:8]. Ishmael mocking on the occasion, Sarah requires that both he and his mother Hagar shall be dismissed, [Gen 21:9], [Gen 21:10]. Abraham, distressed on the account, is ordered by the Lord to comply, [Gen 21:11], [Gen 21:12]. The promise renewed to Ishmael, [Gen 21:13]. Abraham dismisses Hagar and her son, who go to the wilderness of Beer-sheba, [Gen 21:14]. They are greatly distressed for want of water, [Gen 21:15], [Gen 21:16]. An angel of God appears to and relieves them, [Gen 21:17-19]. Ishmael prospers and is married, [Gen 21:20], [Gen 21:21]. Abimelech, and Phichol his chief captain, make a covenant with Abraham, and surrender the well of Beersheba for seven ewe lambs, [Gen 21:22-32]. Abraham plants a grove, and invokes the name of the everlasting God, [Gen 21:33].

### Verse 1

[¶20] The Lord visited Sarah - That is, God fulfilled his promise to Sarah by giving her, at the advanced age of ninety, power to conceive and bring forth a son.

### Verse 3

[¶22] Isaac - See the reason and interpretation of this name in the note on [Gen 17:7] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶24] And Abraham circumcised his son - See note on [Gen 17:10], etc.

### Verse 6

[¶26] God hath made me to laugh - Sarah alludes here to the circumstance mentioned [Gen 18:12]; and as she seems to use the word to laugh in this place, not in the sense of being incredulous but to express such pleasure or happiness as almost suspends the reasoning faculty for a time, it justifies the observation on the above-named verse. See a similar case in [Luk 24:41], where the disciples were so overcome with the good news of our Lord's resurrection, that it is said, They believed not for joy.

### Verse 8

[¶28] The child grew and was weaned - Anglo-Saxon Version. Now the child waxed and became weaned. We have the verb to wean from the Anglo-Saxon awendan, to convert, transfer, turn from one thing to another, which is the exact import of the Hebrew word גמל gamal in the text. Hence wenan, to wean, to turn the child from the breast to receive another kind of ailment. And hence, probably, the word Wean, a young child, which is still in use in the northern parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and which from its etymology seems to signify a child taken from the breast; surely not from the Scotch wee-ane, a little one, much less from the German wenig, little, as Dr. Johnson and others would derive it. At what time children were weaned among the ancients, is a disputed point. St. Jerome says there were two opinions on this subject. Some hold that children were always weaned at five years of age; others, that they were not weaned till they were twelve. From the speech of the mother to her son, 2 Maccabees 7:27, it seems likely that among the Jews they were weaned when three years old: O my son, have pity upon me that bare thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee Suck Three Years, and nourished thee and brought thee up. And this is farther strengthened by [2Chr 31:16], where Hezekiah, in making provision for the Levites and priests, includes the children from three years old and upwards; which is a presumptive proof that previously to this age they were wholly dependent on the mother for their nourishment. Samuel appears to have been brought to the sanctuary when he was just weaned, and then he was capable of ministering before the Lord, [1Sam 1:22-28]; and this certainly could not be before he was three years of age. The term among the Mohammedans is fixed by the Koran, chap. 31:14, at two years of age.

### Verse 9

[¶30] Mocking - What was implied in this mocking is not known. St. Paul, [Gal 4:29], calls it persecuting; but it is likely he meant no more than some species of ridicule used by Ishmael on the occasion, and probably with respect to the age of Sarah at Isaac's birth, and her previous barrenness. Jonathan ben Uzziel and the Jerusalem Targum represent Ishmael as performing some idolatrous rite on the occasion, and that this had given the offense to Sarah. Conjectures are as useless as they are endless. Whatever it was, it became the occasion of the expulsion of himself and mother. Several authors are of opinion that the Egyptian bondage of four hundred years, mentioned [Gen 15:13], commenced with this persecution of the righteous seed by the son of an Egyptian woman.

### Verse 10

[¶32] Cast out this bondwoman and her son - Both Sarah and Abraham have been accused of cruelty in this transaction, because every word reads harsh to us. Cast out; גרש garash signifies not only to thrust out, drive away, and expel, but also to divorce; (see [Lev 21:7]); and it is in this latter sense the word should be understood here. The child of Abraham by Hagar might be considered as having a right at least to a part of the inheritance; and as it was sufficiently known to Sarah that God had designed that the succession should be established in the line of Isaac, she wished Abraham to divorce Hagar, or to perform some sort of legal act by which Ishmael might be excluded from all claim on the inheritance.

### Verse 12

[¶34] In Isaac shall thy seed be called - Here God shows the propriety of attending to the counsel of Sarah; and lest Abraham, in whose eyes the thing was grievous, should feel distressed on the occasion, God renews his promises to Ishmael and his posterity.

### Verse 14

[¶36] Took bread, and a bottle - By the word bread we are to understand the food or provisions which were necessary for her and Ishmael, till they should come to the place of their destination; which, no doubt, Abraham particularly pointed out. The bottle, which was made of skin, ordinarily a goat's skin, contained water sufficient to last them till they should come to the next well; which, it is likely, Abraham particularly specified also. This well, it appears, Hagar missed, and therefore wandered about in the wilderness seeking more water, till all she had brought with her was expended. We may therefore safely presume that she and her son were sufficiently provided for their journey, had they not missed their way. Travelers in those countries take only, to the present day, provisions sufficient to carry them to the next village or encampment; and water to supply them till they shall meet with the next well. What adds to the appearance of cruelty in this case is, that our translation seems to represent Ishmael as being a young child; and that Hagar was obliged to carry him, the bread, and the bottle of water on her back or shoulder at the same time. But that Ishmael could not be carried on his mother's shoulder will be sufficiently evident when his age is considered; Ishmael was born when Abraham was eighty-six years of age, [Gen 16:16]; Isaac was born when he was one hundred years of age, [Gen 21:5]; hence Ishmael was fourteen years old at the birth of Isaac. Add to this the age of Isaac when he was weaned, which, from [Gen 21:8], (See note [Gen 21:8]) was probably three, and we shall find that Ishmael was at the time of his leaving Abraham not less than seventeen years old; an age which, in those primitive times, a young man was able to gain his livelihood, either by his bow in the wilderness, or by keeping flocks as Jacob did.

### Verse 15

[¶38] And she cast the child - ותשלך את הילד vattashlech eth haiyeled, and she sent the lad under one of the shrubs, viz., to screen him from the intensity of the heat. Here Ishmael appears to be utterly helpless, and this circumstance seems farther to confirm the opinion that he was now in a state of infancy; but the preceding observations do this supposition entirely away, and his present helplessness will be easily accounted for on this ground:

[¶39] 1. Young persons can bear much less fatigue than those who are arrived at mature age.

[¶40] 2. They require much more fluid from the greater quantum of heat in their bodies, strongly marked by the impetuosity of the blood; because from them a much larger quantity of the fluids is thrown off by sweat and insensible perspiration, than from grown up or aged persons.

[¶41] 3. Their digestion is much more rapid, and hence they cannot bear hunger and thirst as well as the others. On these grounds Ishmael must be much more exhausted with fatigue than his mother.

### Verse 19

[¶43] God opened her eyes - These words appear to me to mean no more than that God directed her to a well, which probably was at no great distance from the place in which she then was; and therefore she is commanded, [Gen 21:18], to support the lad, literally, to make her hand strong in his behalf - namely, that he might reach the well and quench his thirst.

## 29. Genesis · 29 of 67

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### Verse 20

[¶1] Became an archer - And by his skill in this art, under the continual superintendence of the Divine Providence, (for God was with the lad), he was undoubtedly enabled to procure a sufficient supply for his own wants and those of his parent.

### Verse 21

[¶3] He dwelt in the wilderness of Paran - This is generally allowed to have been a part of the desert belonging to Arabia Petraea, in the vicinity of Mount Sinai; and this seems to be its uniform meaning in the sacred writings.

### Verse 22

[¶5] At that time - This may either refer to the transactions recorded in the preceding chapter, or to the time of Ishmael's marriage, but most probably to the former.

[¶6] God is with thee - מימרא דיי meimera daiya, the Word of Jehovah; see before, [Gen 15:1]. That the Chaldee paraphrasts use this term, not for a word spoken, but in the same sense in which St. John uses the λογος του Θεου, the Word of God, ([Joh 1:1]), must be evident to every unprejudiced reader. See on [Gen 15:1] (note).

### Verse 23

[¶8] Now therefore swear unto me - The oath on such occasions probably meant no more than the mutual promise of both the parties, when they slew an animal, poured out the blood as a sacrifice to God, and then passed between the pieces. See this ceremony, [Gen 15:18] (note), and on Genesis 15 (note).

[¶9] According to the kindness that I have done - The simple claims of justice were alone set up among virtuous people in those ancient times, which constitute the basis of the famous lex talionis, or law of like for like, kind office for kind office, and breach for breach.

### Verse 25

[¶11] Abraham reproved Abimelech - Wells were of great consequence in those hot countries, and especially where the flocks were numerous, because the water was scarce, and digging to find it was accompanied with much expense of time and labor.

### Verse 26

[¶13] I wot not who hath done this thing - The servants of Abimelech had committed these depredations on Abraham without any authority from their master, who appears to have been a very amiable man, possessing the fear of God, and ever regulating the whole of his conduct by the principles of righteousness and strict justice.

### Verse 27

[¶15] Took sheep and oxen - Some think that these were the sacrifices which were offered on the occasion, and which Abraham furnished at his own cost, and, in order to do Abimelech the greater honor, gave them to him to offer before the Lord.

### Verse 28

[¶17] Seven ewe lambs - These were either given as a present, or they were intended as the price of the well; and being accepted by Abimelech, they served as a witness that he had acknowledged Abraham's right to the well in question.

### Verse 31

[¶19] He called that place Beer-sheba - באר שבע Beer-shaba, literally, the well of swearing or of the oath, because they both sware there - mutually confirmed the covenant.

### Verse 33

[¶21] Abraham planted a grove - The original word אשל eshel has been variously translated a grove, a plantation, an orchard, a cultivated field, and an oak. From this word, says Mr. Parkhurst, may be derived the name of the famous asylum, opened by Romulus between two groves of oaks at Rome; (μεθοριον δυοιν δρυμως, Dionys. Hal., lib. ii. c. 16): and as Abraham, [Gen 21:33], agreeably, no doubt, to the institutes of the patriarchal religion, planted an oak in Beer-sheba, and called on the name of Jehovah, the everlasting God, (compare [Gen 12:8]; [Gen 18:1]), so we find that oaks were sacred among the idolaters also. Ye shall be ashamed of the oaks ye have chosen, says Isaiah, [Isa 1:29], to the idolatrous Israelites. And in Greece we meet in very early times with the oracle of Jupiter at the oaks of Dodona. Among the Greeks and Romans we have sacra Jovi quercus, the oak sacred to Jupiter, even to a proverb. And in Gaul and Britain we find the highest religious regard paid to the same tree and to its mistletoe, under the direction of the Druids, that is, the oak prophets or priests, from the Celtic deru, and Greek δρυς, an oak. Few are ignorant that the mistletoe is indeed a very extraordinary plant, not to be cultivated in the earth, but always growing on some other tree. "The druids," says Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. xvii., c. 44, "hold nothing more sacred than the mistletoe, and the tree on which it is produced, provided it be the oak. They make choice of groves of oak on this account, nor do they perform any of their sacred rites without the leaves of those trees; so that one may suppose that they are for this reason called, by a Greek etymology, Druids. And whatever mistletoe grows on the oak they think is sent from heaven, and is a sign that God himself has chosen that tree. This however is very rarely found, but when discovered is treated with great ceremony. They call it by a name which signifies in their language the curer of all ills; and having duly prepared their feasts and sacrifices under the tree, they bring to it two white bulls, whose horns are then for the first time tied; the priest, dressed in a white robe, ascends the tree, and with a golden pruning hook cuts off the mistletoe, which is received into a white sagum or sheet. Then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God would bless his own gift to those on whom he has bestowed it." It is impossible for a Christian to read this account without thinking of Him who was the desire of all nations, of the man whose name was the Branch, who had indeed no father upon earth, but came down from heaven, was given to heal all our ills, and, after being cut off through the Divine counsel, was wrapped in fine linen and laid in the sepulcher for our sakes. I cannot forbear adding that the mistletoe was a sacred emblem to other Celtic nations, as, for instance, to the ancient inhabitants of Italy. The golden branch, of which Virgil speaks so largely in the sixth book of the Aeneid, and without which, he says, none could return from the infernal regions, (see line 126), seems an allusion to the mistletoe, as he himself plainly intimates by comparing it to that plant, line 205, etc. See Parkhurst, under the word אשל eshel.

[¶22] In the first ages of the world the worship of God was exceedingly simple; there were no temples nor covered edifices of any kind; an altar, sometimes a single stone, sometimes consisting of several, and at other times merely of turf, was all that was necessary; on this the fire was lighted and the sacrifice offered. Any place was equally proper, as they knew that the object of their worship filled the heavens and the earth. In process of time when families increased, and many sacrifices were to be offered, groves or shady places were chosen, where the worshippers might enjoy the protection of the shade, as a considerable time must be employed in offering many sacrifices. These groves became afterwards abused to impure and idolatrous purposes, and were therefore strictly forbidden. See [Exo 34:13]; [Deu 12:3]; [Deu 16:21].

[¶23] And called there on the name of the Lord - On this important passage Dr. Shuckford speaks thus: "Our English translation very erroneously renders this place, he called upon the name of Jehovah; but the expression קרא בשם kara beshem never signifies to call upon the name; קרא שם kara shem would signify to invoke or call upon the name, or קרא אל שם kara el shem would signify to cry unto the name; but קרא בשם kara beshem signifies to invoke In the name, and seems to be used where the true worshippers of God offered their prayers in the name of the true Mediator, or where the idolaters offered their prayers in the name of false ones, [1Kgs 18:26]; for as the true worshippers had but one God and one Lord, so the false worshippers had gods many and lords many, [1Cor 8:5]. We have several instances of קרא kara, and a noun after it, sometimes with and sometimes without the particle אל el, and then it signifies to call upon the person there mentioned; thus, קרא יהוה kara Yehovah is to call upon the Lord, [Psa 14:4]; [Psa 17:6]; [Psa 31:17]; [Psa 53:4]; [Psa 118:5], etc.; and קרא אל יהוה kara el Yehovah imports the same, [1Sam 12:17]; [Jon 1:6], etc.; but קרא בשם kara beshem is either to name By the name, [Gen 4:17]; [Num 32:42]; [Psa 49:11]; [Isa 43:7]; or to invoke In the name, when it is used as an expression of religious worship." - Connex. vol. i., p. 293. I believe this to be a just view of the subject, and therefore I admit it without scruple.

[¶24] The everlasting God - יהוה אל עולם Yehovah el olam, Jehovah, the Strong God, the Eternal One. This is the first place in Scripture in which עולם olam occurs as an attribute of God, and here it is evidently designed to point out his eternal duration; that it can mean no limited time is self-evident, because nothing of this kind can be attributed to God. The Septuagint render the words Θεος αιωνιος, the ever-existing God; and the Vulgate has Invocavit ibi nomen Do mini, Dei aeterni, There he invoked the name of the Lord, the eternal God. The Arabic is nearly the same. From this application of both the Hebrew and Greek words we learn that עולם olam and αιων aion originally signified Eternal, or duration without end. עלם alam signifies he was hidden, concealed, or kept secret; and αιων, according to Aristotle, (De Caelo, lib. i., chap. 9, and a higher authority need not be sought), is compounded of αει, always, and ων, being, αιων εστιν, απο του αει ειναι· The same author informs us that God was termed Aisa, because he was always existing, λεγεσθαι - Αισαν δε, αει ουσαν. De Mundo, chap. xi., in fine. Hence we see that no words can more forcibly express the grand characteristics of eternity than these. It is that duration which is concealed, hidden, or kept secret from all created beings; which is always existing, still running On but never running Out; an interminable, incessant, and immeasurable duration; it is That, in the whole of which God alone can be said to exist, and that which the eternal mind can alone comprehend.

[¶25] In all languages words have, in process of time, deviated from their original acceptations, and have become accommodated to particular purposes, and limited to particular meanings. This has happened both to the Hebrew עלם alam, and the Greek αιων; they have been both used to express a limited time, but in general a time the limits of which are unknown; and thus a pointed reference to the original ideal meaning is still kept up. Those who bring any of these terms in an accommodated sense to favor a particular doctrine, etc., must depend on the good graces of their opponents for permission to use them in this way. For as the real grammatical meaning of both words is eternal, and all other meanings are only accommodated ones, sound criticism, in all matters of dispute concerning the import of a word or term, must have recourse to the grammatical meaning, and its use among the earliest and most correct writers in the language, and will determine all accommodated meanings by this alone. Now the first and best writers in both these languages apply olam and αιων to express eternal, in the proper meaning of that word; and this is their proper meaning in the Old and New Testaments when applied to God, his attributes, his operations taken in connection with the ends for which he performs them, for whatsoever he doth, it shall be for ever - יהיה לעולם yihyeh leolam, it shall be for eternity, [Ecc 3:14]; forms and appearances of created things may change, but the counsels and purposes of God relative to them are permanent and eternal, and none of them can be frustrated; hence the words, when applied to things which from their nature must have a limited duration, are properly to be understood in this sense, because those things, though temporal in themselves, shadow forth things that are eternal. Thus the Jewish dispensation, which in the whole and in its parts is frequently said to be לעולם leolam, for ever, and which has terminated in the Christian dispensation, has the word properly applied to it, because it typified and introduced that dispensation which is to continue not only while time shall last, but is to have its incessant accumulating consummation throughout eternity. The word is, with the same strict propriety, applied to the duration of the rewards and punishments in a future state. And the argument that pretends to prove (and it is only pretension) that in the future punishment of the wicked "the worm shall die," and "the fire "shall be quenched," will apply as forcibly to the state of happy spirits, and as fully prove that a point in eternity shall arrive when the repose of the righteous shall be interrupted, and the glorification of the children of God have an eternal end! See note on [Gen 17:7]. See note on [Gen 17:8].

[¶26] 1. Faithfulness is one of the attributes of God, and none of his promises can fall. According to the promise to Abraham, Isaac is born; but according to the course of nature it fully appears that both Abraham and Sarah had passed that term of life in which it was possible for them to have children. Isaac is the child of the promise, and the promise is supernatural. Ishmael is born according to the ordinary course of nature, and cannot inherit, because the inheritance is spiritual, and cannot come by natural birth; hence we see that no man can expect to enter into the kingdom of God by birth, education, profession of the true faith, etc., etc. Those alone who are born from above, and are made partakers of the Divine nature, can be admitted into the family of God in heaven, and everlastingly enjoy that glorious inheritance. Reader, art thou born again? Hath God changed thy heart and thy life? If not, canst thou suppose that in thy present state thou canst possibly enter into the paradise of God? I leave thy conscience to answer.

[¶27] 2. The actions of good men may be misrepresented, and their motives suspected, because those motives are not known; and those who are prone to think evil are the last to take any trouble to inform their minds, so that they may judge righteous judgment. Abraham, in the dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael, has been accused of cruelty. Though objections of this kind have been answered already, yet it may not be amiss farther to observe that what he did he did in conformity to a Divine command, and a command so unequivocally given that he could not doubt its Divine origin; and this very command was accompanied with a promise that both the child and his mother should be taken under the Divine protection. And it was so; nor does it appear that they lacked any thing but water, and that only for a short time, after which it was miraculously supplied. God will work a miracle when necessary, and never till then; and at such a time the Divine interposition can be easily ascertained, and man is under no temptation to attribute to second causes what has so evidently flowed from the first. Thus, while he is promoting his creatures' good, he is securing his own glory; and he brings men into straits and difficulties, that he may have the fuller opportunity to convince his followers of his providential care, and to prove how much he loves them.

[¶28] 3. Did we acknowledge God in all our ways, he would direct our steps. Abimelech, king of Gerar, and Phichol, captain of his host, seeing Abraham a worshipper of the true God, made him swear by the object of his worship that there should be a lasting peace between them and him; for as they saw that God was with Abraham, they well knew that he could not expect the Divine blessing any longer than he walked in integrity before God; they therefore require him to swear by God that he would not deal falsely with them or their posterity. From this very circumstance we may see the original purpose, design, and spirit of an oath, viz., Let God prosper or curse me in all that I do, as I prove true or false to my engagements! This is still the spirit of all oaths where God is called to witness, whether the form be by the water of the Ganges, the sign of the cross, kissing the Bible, or lifting up the hand to heaven. Hence we may learn that he who falsifies an oath or promise, made in the presence and name of God, thereby forfeits all right and title to the approbation and blessing of his Maker.

[¶29] But it is highly criminal to make such appeals to God upon trivial occasions. Only the most solemn matters should be thus determined. Legislators who regard the morals of the people should take heed not to multiply oaths in matters of commerce and revenue, if they even use them at all. Who can take the oaths presented by the custom house or excise, and be guiltless? I have seen a person kiss his pen or thumb nail instead of the book, thinking that he avoided the condemnation thereby of the false oath he was then taking!

### Introduction

[¶31] The faith and obedience of Abraham put to a most extraordinary test, [Gen 22:1]. He is commanded to offer his beloved son Isaac for a burnt-offering, [Gen 22:2]. He prepares, with the utmost promptitude, to accomplish the will of God, [Gen 22:3-6]. Affecting speech of Isaac, [Gen 22:7]; and Abraham's answer, [Gen 22:8]. Having arrived at mount Moriah he prepares to sacrifice his son, [Gen 22:9], [Gen 22:10]; and is prevented by an angel of the Lord, [Gen 22:11], [Gen 22:12]. A ram is offered in the stead of Isaac, [Gen 22:13]; and the place is named Jehovah-jireh, [Gen 22:14]. The angel of the Lord calls to Abraham a second time, [Gen 22:15]; and, in the most solemn manner, he is assured of innumerable blessings in the multiplication and prosperity of his seed, [Gen 22:16-18]. Abraham returns and dwells at Beer-sheba, [Gen 22:19]; hears that his brother Nahor has eight children by his wife Milcah, [Gen 22:20]; their names, [Gen 22:21-23]; and four by his concubine Reumah, [Gen 22:24].

### Verse 1

[¶33] God did tempt Abraham - The original here is very emphatic: והאלהים נסה את אברהם vehaelohim nissah eth Abraham, "And the Elohim he tried this Abraham;" God brought him into such circumstances as exercised and discovered his faith, love, and obedience. Though the word tempt, from tento, signifies no more than to prove or try, yet as it is now generally used to imply a solicitation to evil, in which way God never tempts any man, it would be well to avoid it here. The Septuagint used the word επειρασε, which signifies tried, pierced through; and Symmachus translates the Hebrew נסה nissah by εδοξαζεν, God glorified Abraham, or rendered him illustrious, supposing the word to be the same with נס nas, which signifies to glister with light, whence נס nes, an ensign or banner displayed. Thus then, according to him, the words should be understood: "God put great honor on Abraham by giving him this opportunity of showing to all successive ages the nature and efficacy of an unshaken faith in the power, goodness, and truth of God." The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel paraphrases the place thus: "And it happened that Isaac and Ishmael contended, and Ishmael said, I ought to be my father's heir, because I am his first-born; but Isaac said, It is more proper that I should be my father's heir, because I am the son of Sarah his wife, and thou art only the son of Hagar, my mother's slave. Then Ishmael answered, I am more righteous than thou, because I was circumcised when I was thirteen years of age, and if I had chosen, I could have prevented my circumcision; but thou wert circumcised when thou wert but eight days old, and if thou hadst had knowledge, thou wouldst probably not have suffered thyself to be circumcised. Then Isaac answered and said, Behold, I am now thirty-six years old, and if the holy and blessed God should require all my members, I would freely surrender them. These words were immediately heard before the Lord of the universe, and מימרא דיי meimera daiya, the Word of the Lord, did try Abraham." I wish once for all to remark, though the subject has been referred to before, that the Chaldee term מימרא meimera, which we translate word, is taken personally in some hundreds of places in the Targums. When the author, Jonathan, speaks of the Divine Being as doing or saying any thing, he generally represents him as performing the whole by his meimera, which he appears to consider, not as a speech or word spoken, but as a person quite distinct from the Most High. St. John uses the word λογος in precisely the same sense with the Targumists, [Joh 1:1] (note); see the notes there, and see before on [Gen 21:22] (note), and [Gen 15:1] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶35] Take now thy son - Bishop Warburton's observations on this passage are weighty and important. "The order in which the words are placed in the original gradually increases the sense, and raises the passions higher and higher: Take now thy son, (rather, take I beseech thee נא na), thine only son whom thou lovest, even Isaac. Jarchi imagines this minuteness was to preclude any doubt in Abraham. Abraham desired earnestly to be let into the mystery of redemption; and God, to instruct him in the infinite extent of the Divine goodness to mankind, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, let Abraham feel by experience what it was to lose a beloved son, the son born miraculously when Sarah was past child-bearing, as Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin. The duration, too, of the action, [Gen 22:4], was the same as that between Christ's death and resurrection, both which are designed to be represented in it; and still farther not only the final archetypical sacrifice of the Son of God was figured in the command to offer Isaac, but the intermediate typical sacrifice in the Mosaic economy was represented by the permitted sacrifice of the ram offered up, [Gen 22:13], instead of Isaac." See Dodd.

[¶36] Only son - All that he had by Sarah his legal wife.

[¶37] The land of Moriah - This is supposed to mean all the mountains of Jerusalem, comprehending Mount Gihon or Calvary, the mount of Sion and of Acra. As Mount Calvary is the highest ground to the west, and the mount of the temple is the lowest of the mounts, Mr. Mann conjectures that it was upon this mount Abraham offered up Isaac, which is well known to be the same mount on which our blessed Lord was crucified. Beer-sheba, where Abraham dwelt, is about forty-two miles distant from Jerusalem, and it is not to be wondered at that Abraham, Isaac, the two servants, and the ass laden with wood for the burnt-offering, did not reach this place till the third day; see [Gen 22:4].

### Verse 3

[¶39] Two of his young men - Eliezer and Ishmael, according to the Targum.

[¶40] Clave the wood - Small wood, fig and palm, proper for a burnt-offering - Targum.

### Verse 4

[¶42] The third day - "As the number Seven," says Mr. Ainsworth, "is of especial use in Scripture because of the Sabbath day, [Gen 2:2], so Three is a mystical number because of Christ's rising from the dead the third day, [Mat 17:23]; [1Cor 15:4]; as he was crucified the third hour after noon, [Mar 15:25] : and Isaac, as he was a figure of Christ, in being the only son of his father, and not spared but offered for a sacrifice, [Rom 8:32], so in sundry particulars he resembled our Lord: the third day Isaac was to be offered up, so it was the third day in which Christ also was to be perfected, [Luk 13:32]; Isaac carried the wood for the burnt-offering, [Gen 22:6], so Christ carried the tree whereon he died, [Joh 19:17]; the binding of Isaac, [Gen 21:9], was also typical, so Christ was bound, [Mat 27:2]. "In the following remarkable cases this number also occurs. Moses desired to go three days' journey in the wilderness to sacrifice, [Exo 5:3]; and they traveled three days in it before they found water, [Exo 15:22]; and three days' journey the ark of the covenant went before them, to search out a resting place, [Num 10:33]; by the third day the people were to be ready to receive God's law, [Exo 19:11]; and after three days to pass over Jordan into Canaan, [Jos 1:14]; the third day Esther put on the apparel of the kingdom, [Est 5:1]; on the third day Hezekiah, being recovered from his illness, went up to the house of the Lord, [2Kgs 20:5]; on the third day, the prophet said, God will raise us up and we shall live before him, [Hos 6:2]; and on the third day, as well as on the seventh, the unclean person was to purify himself, [Num 19:12] : with many other memorable things which the Scripture speaks concerning the third day, and not without mystery. See [Gen 40:12], [Gen 40:13]; [Gen 42:17], [Gen 42:18]; [Jon 1:17]; [Jos 2:16]; unto which we may add a Jew's testimony in Bereshith Rabba, in a comment on this place: There are many Three Days mentioned in the Holy Scripture, of which one is the resurrection of the Messiah." - Ainsworth.

[¶43] Saw the place afar off - He knew the place by seeing the cloud of glory smoking on the top of the mountain - Targum.

### Verse 5

[¶45] I and the lad will go and come again - How could Abraham consistently with truth say this, when he knew he was going to make his son a burnt-offering? The apostle answers for him: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac - accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure, [Heb 11:17], [Heb 11:19]. He knew that previously to the birth of Isaac both he and his wife were dead to all the purposes of procreation; that his birth was a kind of life from the dead; that the promise of God was most positive, In Isaac shall thy seed be called, [Gen 21:12]; that this promise could not fail; that it was his duty to obey the command of his Maker; and that it was as easy for God to restore him to life after he had been a burnt-offering, as it was for him to give him life in the beginning. Therefore he went fully purposed to offer his son, and yet confidently expecting to have him restored to life again. We will go yonder and worship - perform a solemn act of devotion which God requires, and come again to you.

## 30. Genesis · 30 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/30/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/30/#p-N

### Verse 6

[¶1] Took the wood - and laid it upon Isaac - Probably the mountain-top to which they were going was too difficult to be ascended by the ass; therefore either the father or the son must carry the wood, and it was most becoming in the latter.

### Verse 7

[¶3] Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb - Nothing can be conceived more tender, affectionate, and affecting, than the question of the son and the reply of the father on this occasion. A paraphrase would spoil it; nothing can be added without injuring those expressions of affectionate submission on the one hand, and dignified tenderness and simplicity on the other.

### Verse 8

[¶5] My son, God will provide himself a lamb - Here we find the same obedient unshaken faith for which this pattern of practical piety was ever remarkable. But we must not suppose that this was the language merely of faith and obedience; the patriarch spoke prophetically, and referred to that Lamb of God which He had provided for himself, who in the fullness of time should take away the sin of the world, and of whom Isaac was a most expressive type. All the other lambs which had been offered from the foundation of the world had been such as Men chose and Men offered; but This was the Lamb which God had provided - emphatically, The Lamb Of God.

### Verse 9

[¶7] And bound Isaac his son - If the patriarch had not been upheld by the conviction that he was doing the will of God, and had he not felt the most perfect confidence that his son should be restored even from the dead, what agony must his heart have felt at every step of the journey, and through all the circumstances of this extraordinary business? What must his affectionate heart have felt at the questions asked by his innocent and amiable son? What must he have suffered while building the altar, laying on the wood, binding his lovely son, placing him on the wood, taking the knife, and stretching out his hand to slay the child of his hopes? Every view we take of the subject interests the heart, and exalts the character of this father of the faithful. But has the character of Isaac been duly considered? Is not the consideration of his excellence lost in the supposition that he was too young to enter particularly into a sense of his danger, and too feeble to have made any resistance, had he been unwilling to submit? Josephus supposes that Isaac was now twenty-five, (see the chronology on [Gen 22:1] (note)); some rabbins that he was thirty-six; but it is more probable that he was now about thirty-three, the age at which his great Antitype was offered up; and on this medium I have ventured to construct the chronology, of which I think it necessary to give this notice to the reader. Allowing him to be only twenty-five, he might have easily resisted; for can it be supposed that an old man of at least one hundred and twenty-five years of age could have bound, without his consent, a young man in the very prime and vigor of life? In this case we cannot say that the superior strength of the father prevailed, but the piety, filial affection, and obedience of the son yielded. All this was most illustriously typical of Christ. In both cases the father himself offers up his only-begotten son, and the father himself binds him on the wood or to the cross; in neither case is the son forced to yield, but yields of his own accord; in neither case is the life taken away by the hand of violence; Isaac yields himself to the knife, Jesus lays down his life for the sheep.

### Verse 11

[¶9] The angel of the Lord - The very person who was represented by this offering; the Lord Jesus, who calls himself Jehovah, [Gen 22:16], and on his own authority renews the promises of the covenant. He was ever the great Mediator between God and man. See this point proved, [Gen 15:7] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶11] Lay not thine hand upon the lad - As Isaac was to be the representative of Jesus Christ's real sacrifice, it was sufficient for this purpose that in his own will, and the will of his father, the purpose of the immolation was complete. Isaac was now fully offered both by his father and by himself. The father yields up the son, the son gives up his life; on both sides, as far as will and purpose could go, the sacrifice was complete. God simply spares the father the torture of putting the knife to his son's throat. Now was the time when it might properly be said, "Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offering, and sacrifice for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure in them: then said the Angel of the Covenant, Lo! I come to do thy will, O God." Lay not thy hand upon the lad; an irrational creature will serve for the purpose of a representative sacrifice, from this till the fullness of time. But without this most expressive representation of the father offering his beloved, only-begotten son, what reference can such sacrifices be considered to have to the great event of the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ? Abraham, the most dignified, the most immaculate of all the patriarchs; Isaac, the true pattern of piety to God and filial obedience, may well represent God the Father so loving the world as to give his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sin of man. But the grand circumstances necessary to prefigure these important points could not be exhibited through the means of any or of the whole brute creation. The whole sacrificial system of the Mosaic economy had a retrospective and prospective view, referring From the sacrifice of Isaac To the sacrifice of Christ; in the first the dawning of the Sun of righteousness was seen; in the latter, his meridian splendor and glory. Taken in this light (and this is the only light in which it should be viewed) Abraham offering his son Isaac is one of the most important facts and most instructive histories in the whole Old Testament. See farther on this subject, [Gen 23:2] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶13] Jehovah - jireh - יהוה יראה Yehovah-yireh, literally interpreted in the margin, The Lord will see; that is, God will take care that every thing shall be done that is necessary for the comfort and support of them who trust in him: hence the words are usually translated, The Lord will provide; so our translators, [Gen 22:8], אלהים יראה Elohim yireh, God will provide; because his eye ever affects his heart, and the wants he sees his hand is ever ready to supply. But all this seems to have been done under a Divine Impulse, and the words to have been spoken prophetically; hence Houbigant and some others render the words thus: Dominus videbitur, the Lord shall be seen; and this translation the following clause seems to require, As it is said to this day, בהר יהוה יראה behar Yehovah yeraeh, On This Mount The Lord Shall Be Seen. From this it appears that the sacrifice offered by Abraham was understood to be a representative one, and a tradition was kept up that Jehovah should be seen in a sacrificial way on this mount. And this renders the opinion stated on [Gen 22:1] more than probable, viz., that Abraham offered Isaac on that very mountain on which, in the fullness of time, Jesus suffered. See Bishop Warburton.

### Verse 16

[¶15] By myself have I sworn - So we find that the person who was called the angel of the Lord is here called Jehovah; See note on [Gen 22:2]. An oath or an appeal to God is, among men, an end to strife; as God could swear by no greater, he sware by himself: being willing more abundantly, says the apostle, to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, he confirmed it by an oath, that two immutable things, (his Promise and his Oath), in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. See [Heb 6:13-18].

### Verse 17

[¶17] Shall possess the gate of his enemies - Instead of gate the Septuagint have πολεις, cities; but as there is a very near resemblance between πολεις, cities, and πυλας, gates, the latter might have been the original reading in the Septuagint, though none of the MSS. now acknowledge it. By the gates may be meant all the strength, whether troops, counsels, or fortified cities of their enemies. So [Mat 16:18] : On this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it - the counsels, stratagems, and powers of darkness shall not be able to prevail against or overthrow the true Church of Christ; and possibly our Lord had this promise to Abraham and his spiritual posterity in view, when he spoke these words.

### Verse 18

[¶19] And in thy seed, etc. - We have the authority of St. Paul, [Gal 3:8], [Gal 3:16], [Gal 3:18], to restrain this to our blessed Lord, who was The Seed through whom alone all God's blessings of providence, mercy, grace, and glory, should be conveyed to the nations of the earth.

### Verse 20

[¶21] Behold, Milcah, she hath also borne children unto thy brother - This short history seems introduced solely for the purpose of preparing the reader for the transactions related Genesis 24, and to show that the providence of God was preparing, in one of the branches of the family of Abraham, a suitable spouse for his son Isaac.

### Verse 21

[¶23] Huz - He is supposed to have peopled the land of Uz or Ausitis, in Arabia Deserta, the country of Job.

[¶24] Buz his brother - From this person Elihu the Buzite, one of the friends of Job, is thought to have descended.

[¶25] Kemuel the father of Aram - Kamouel πατερα Συρων, the father of the Syrians, according to the Septuagint. Probably the Kamiletes, a Syrian tribe to the westward of the Euphrates are meant; they are mentioned by Strabo.

### Verse 23

[¶27] Bethuel begat Rebekah - Who afterward became the wife of Isaac.

### Verse 24

[¶29] His concubine - We borrow this word from the Latin compound concubina, from con, together, and cubo, to lie, and apply it solely to a woman cohabiting with a man without being legally married. The Hebrew word is פילגש pilegesh, which is also a compound term, contracted, according to Parkhurst, from פלג palag, to divide or share, and נגש nagash, to approach; because the husband, in the delicate phrase of the Hebrew tongue, approaches the concubine, and shares the bed, etc., of the real wife with her. The pilegesh or concubine, (from which comes the Greek παλλακη pallake, and also the Latin pellex), in Scripture, is a kind of secondary wife, not unlawful in the patriarchal times; though the progeny of such could not inherit. The word is not used in the Scriptures in that disagreeable sense in which we commonly understand it. Hagar was properly the concubine or pilegesh of Abraham, and thus annuente Deo, and with his wife's consent. Keturah, his second wife, is called a concubine, [Gen 26:15]; [1Chr 1:32]; and Pilhah and Zilhah were concubines to Jacob, [Gen 35:22]. After the patriarchal times many eminent men had concubines, viz., Caleb, [1Chr 2:46], [1Chr 2:48]; Manasses, [1Chr 7:14]; Gideon, [Jdg 8:31]; Saul, [2Sam 3:7]; David, [2Sam 5:13]; Solomon,[2Kgs 11:3]; and Rehoboam, [2Chr 11:21]. The pilegesh, therefore, differed widely from a prostitute; and however unlawful under the New Testament, was not so under the Old.

[¶30] From this chapter a pious mind may collect much useful instruction. From the trial of Abraham we again see, 1. That God may bring his followers into severe straits and difficulties, that they may have the better opportunity of both knowing and showing their own faith and obedience; and that he may seize on those occasions to show them the abundance of his mercy, and thus confirm them in righteousness all their days. There is a foolish saying among some religious people, which cannot be too severely reprobated: Untried grace is no grace. On the contrary, there may be much grace, though God, for good reasons, does not think proper for a time to put it to any severe trial or proof. But grace is certainly not fully known but in being called to trials of severe and painful obedience. But as all the gifts of God should be used, (and they are increased and strengthened by exercise), it would be unjust to deny trials and exercises to grace, as this would be to preclude it from the opportunities of being strengthened and increased. 2. The offering up of Isaac is used by several religious people in a sort of metaphorical way, to signify their easily-besetting sins, beloved idols, etc. But this is a most reprehensible abuse of the Scripture. It is both insolent and wicked to compare some abominable lust or unholy affection to the amiable and pious youth who, for his purity and excellence, was deemed worthy to prefigure the sacrifice of the Son of God. To call our vile passions and unlawful attachments by the name of our Isaac is unpardonable; and to talk of sacrificing such to God is downright blasphemy. Such sayings as these appear to be legitimated by long use; but we should be deeply and scrupulously careful not to use any of the words of God in any sense in which he has not spoken them. If, in the course of God's providence, a parent is called to give up to death an amiable, only son, then there is a parallel in the case; and it may be justly said, if pious resignation fill the parent's mind, such a person, like Abraham, has been called to give his Isaac back to God.

[¶31] Independently of the typical reference to this transaction, there are two points which seem to be recommended particularly to our notice. 1. The astonishing faith and prompt obedience of the father. 2. The innocence, filial respect, and passive submission of the son. Such a father and such a son were alone worthy of each other.

### Introduction

[¶33] The age and death of Sarah, [Gen 23:1], [Gen 23:2]. Abraham mourns for her, and requests a burial-place from the sons of Heth, [Gen 23:2-4]. They freely offer him the choice of all their sepulchers, [Gen 23:5], [Gen 23:6]. Abraham refuses to receive any as a free gift, and requests to buy the cave of Machpelah from Ephron, [Gen 23:7-9]. Ephron proffers the cave and the field in which it was situated as a free gift unto Abraham, [Gen 23:10], [Gen 23:11]. Abraham insists on giving its value in money, [Gen 23:12], [Gen 23:13]. Ephron at last consents, and names the sum of four hundred shekels, [Gen 23:14], [Gen 23:15]. Abraham weighs him the money in the presence of the people; in consequence of which the cave, the whole field, trees, etc., are made sure to him and his family for a possession, [Gen 23:16-18]. The transaction being completed, Sarah is buried in the cave, [Gen 23:19]. The sons of Heth ratify the bargain, [Gen 23:20].

### Verse 1

[¶35] And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old - It is worthy of remark that Sarah is the only woman in the sacred writings whose age, death, and burial are distinctly noted. And she has been deemed worthy of higher honor, for St. Paul, [Gal 4:22], [Gal 4:23], makes her a type of the Church of Christ; and her faith in the accomplishment of God's promise, that she should have a son, when all natural probabilities were against it, is particularly celebrated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, [Heb 11:11]. Sarah was about ninety-one years old when Isaac was born, and she lived thirty-six years after, and saw him grown up to man's estate. With Sarah the promise of the incarnation of Christ commenced, though a comparatively obscure prophecy of it had been delivered to Eve, [Gen 3:15]; and with Mary it terminated, having had its exact completion. Thus God put more honor upon these two women than upon all the daughters of Eve besides. Sarah's conception of Isaac was supernatural; she had passed the age and circumstances in which it was possible, naturally speaking, to have a child; therefore she laughed when the promise was given, knowing that the thing was impossible, because it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women. God allows this natural impossibility, and grants that the thing must be the effect of Divine interposition; and therefore asks, Is any thing too hard for God? The physical impossibility was in creased in the case of Mary, she having no connection with man; but the same power interposed as in the case of Sarah: and we find that when all aptitude for natural procreation was gone, Sarah received strength to conceive seed, and bore a son, from whom, in a direct line, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, was to descend; and through this same power we find a virgin conceiving and bearing a son against all natural impossibilities. Every thing is supernatural in the births both of the type and antitype; can it be wondered at then, if the spiritual offspring of the Messiah must have a supernatural birth likewise? hence the propriety of that saying, Unless a man be born again - born from above - born, not only of water, but of the Holy Ghost, he cannot see the kingdom of God. These may appear hard sayings, and those who are little in the habit of considering spiritual things may exclaim, It is enthusiasm! Who can bear it? Such things cannot possibly be." To such persons I have only to say, God hath spoken. This is sufficient for those who credit his being and his Bible; nor is there any thing too hard for him. He, by whose almighty power, Sarah had strength to conceive and bear a son in her old age, and by whose miraculous interference a virgin conceived, and the man Christ Jesus was born of her, can by the same power transform the sinful soul, and cause it to bear the image of the heavenly as it has borne the image of the earthly.

### Verse 2

[¶37] Sarah died in Kirjath-arba - Literally in the city of the four. Some suppose this place was called the city of the four because it was the burial place of Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; others, because according to the opinion of the rabbins, Eve was buried there. with Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. But it seems evidently to have had its name from a Canaanite, one of the Anakim, probably called Arba (for the text, [Jos 14:14], does not actually say this was his name), who was the chief of the four brothers who dwelt there; the names of the others being Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. See [Jdg 1:10]. These three were destroyed by the tribe of Judah; probably the other had been previously dead.

[¶38] Abraham came to mourn for Sarah - From [Gen 22:19] of the preceding chapter it appears that Abraham had settled at Beer-sheba; and here we find that Sarah died at Hebron, which was about twenty-four miles distant from Beersheba. For the convenience of feeding his numerous flocks, Abraham had probably several places of temporary residence, and particularly one at Beer-sheba, and another at Hebron; and it is likely that while he sojourned at Beersheba, Sarah died at Hebron; and his coming to mourn and weep for her signifies his coming from the former to the latter place on the news of her death.

### Verse 3

[¶40] Abraham stood up from before his dead - He had probably sat on the ground some days in token of sorrow, as the custom then was, (see Tobit 2:12, 13; [Isa 47:1]; and [Gen 37:35]); and when this time was finished he arose and began to treat about a burying place.

### Verse 4

[¶42] I am a stranger and a sojourner - It appears from [Heb 11:13-16]; [1Pet 2:11], that these words refer more to the state of his mind than of his body. He felt that he had no certain dwelling place, and was seeking by faith a city that had foundations.

[¶43] Give me a possession of a burying place - It has been remarked that in different nations it was deemed ignominious to be buried in another's ground; probably this prevailed in early times in the east, and it may be in reference to a sentiment of this kind that Abraham refuses to accept the offer of the children of Heth to bury in any of their sepulchers, and earnestly requests them to sell him one, that he might bury his wife in a place that he could claim as his own.

## 31. Genesis · 31 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/31/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/31/#p-N

### Verse 6

[¶1] Thou art a mighty prince - נשיא אלהים nesi Elohim, a prince of God - a person whom we know to be Divinely favored, and whom, in consequence, we deeply respect and reverence.

### Verse 8

[¶3] Entreat for me to Ephron - Abraham had already seen the cave and field, and finding to whom they belonged, and that they would answer his purpose, came to the gate of Hebron, where the elders of the people sat to administer justice, etc., and where bargains and sales were made and witnessed, and having addressed himself to the elders, among whom Ephron was, though it appears he was not personally known to Abraham, he begged them to use their influence with the owner of the cave and field to sell it to him, that it might serve him and his family for a place of sepulture.

### Verse 10

[¶5] And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth - And Ephron ישב yosheb, was sitting among the children of Heth, but, as was before conjectured, was personally unknown to Abraham; he therefore answered for himself, making a free tender of the field, etc., to Abraham, in the presence of all the people, which amounted to a legal conveyance of the whole property to the patriarch.

### Verse 13

[¶7] If thou wilt give it - Instead of, if thou wilt give it, we should read, But if thou wilt sell it, I will give thee money for the field; כסף keseph, silver, not coined money, for it is not probable that any such was then in use.

### Verse 15

[¶9] The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver - Though the words is worth are not in the text, yet they are necessarily expressed here to adapt the Hebrew to the idiom of our tongue. A shekel, according to the general opinion, was equal to two shillings and sixpence; but according to Dr. Prideaux, whose estimate I shall follow, three shillings English, four hundred of which are equal to sixty pounds sterling; but it is evident that a certain weight is intended, and not a coin, for in [Gen 23:16] it is said, And Abraham weighed וישקל vaiyishkol, the silver, and hence it appears that this weight itself passed afterwards as a current coin, for the word שקל is not only used to express a coin or piece of silver, but also to weigh; See note on [Gen 20:16].

### Verse 16

[¶11] Current with the merchant - עבר לסחר ober lassocher, passing to or with the traveler - such as was commonly used by those who traveled about with merchandise of any sort. The word signifies the same as hawker or peddler among us.

### Verse 17

[¶13] All the trees that were in the field - It is possible that all these were specified in the agreement.

### Verse 20

[¶15] And the field, etc. were made sure - ויקם vaiyakom, were established, caused to stand; the whole transaction having been regulated according to all the forms of law then in use.

[¶16] 1. In this transaction between Abraham and the sons of Heth concerning the cave and field of Machpelah, we have the earliest account on record of the purchase of land. The simplicity, openness, and candour on both sides cannot be too much admired.

[¶17] 2. Sarah being dead, Abraham being only a sojourner in that land, shifting from place to place for the mere purpose of pasturing his flocks, and having no right to any part of the land, wished to purchase a place in which he might have the continual right of sepulture. For this purpose, 1. He goes to the gate of the city, the place where, in all ancient times, justice was administered, and bargains and sales concluded, and where for these purposes the elders of the people sat. 2. He there proposes to buy the cave known by the name of the Cave of Machpelah, the cave of the turning or the double cave, for a burying place for his family. 3. To prevent him from going to any unnecessary expense, the people with one voice offer him the privilege of burying his wife in any of their sepulchers; this appearing to them to be no more than the common rights of hospitality and humanity required. 4. Abraham, intent on making a purchase, Ephron, the owner of the field and cave, values them at four hundred shekels, but at the same time wishes Abraham to receive the whole as a gift. 5. Abraham refuses the gift and weighs down the silver specified. 6. The people who enter in at the gate, i.e., the inhabitants coming from or going to their ordinary occupations in the country, witness the transaction, and thus the conveyance to Abraham is made sure without the intervention of those puzzlers of civil affairs by whose tricks and chicanery property often becomes insecure, and right and succession precarious and uncertain. But this censure does not fall on lawyers properly so called, who are men of honor, and whose office, in every well-regulated state, is as useful as it is respectable. But the accumulation and complex nature of almost all modern systems of law puzzle even justice herself, and often induce decisions by which truth falls in the streets and equity goes backwards. In the first ages of mankind, suspicion, deceit, and guile seem to have had a very limited influence. Happy days of primitive simplicity! When shall they return?

[¶18] 3. We often hear of the rudeness and barbarity of the primitive ages, but on what evidence? Every rule of politeness that could be acted upon in such a case as that mentioned here, is brought into full practice. Is it possible to read the simple narration in this place without admiring the amiable, decent, and polite conduct displayed on both sides? Had even Lord Chesterfield read this account, his good sense would have led him to propose it as a model in all transactions between man and his fellows. There is neither awkward, stiff formality on the one hand, nor frippery or affectation on the other. Decent respect, good sense, good nature, and good breeding, are all prominently displayed. And how highly laudable and useful is all this! A pedant or a boor on either side might have destroyed the simplicity of the whole transaction; the one by engendering caution and suspicion, and the other by exciting disgust. In all such transactions the beau and the boor are equally to be avoided.

[¶19] From the first no sincerity can be expected, and the manners of the latter render him intolerable. The religion of the Bible recommends and inculcates orderly behavior, as well as purity of heart and life. They who, under the sanction of religion, trample under foot the decent forms of civil respect, supposing that because they are religious they have a right to be rude, totally mistake the spirit of Christianity, for love or charity (the soul and essence of that religion) behaveth not itself unseemly. Every attentive reader of the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, will clearly discern that the description of true religion given in that place applies as forcibly to good breeding as to inward and outward holiness. What lessons of honesty, decent respect, and good manners could a sensible man derive from Abraham treating with the sons of Heth for the cave of Machpelah, and William Penn treating with the American Indians for the tract of land now called Pennsylvania! I leave others to draw the parallel, and to show how exactly the conduct and spirit of patriarch the first were exemplified in the conduct and spirit of patriarch the second. Let the righteous be had in everlasting remembrance!

### Introduction

[¶21] Abraham, being solicitous to get his son Isaac property married, calls his confidential servant, probably Eliezer, and makes him swear that he will not take a wife for Isaac from among the Canaanites, [Gen 24:1-3], but from among his own kindred, [Gen 24:4]. The servant proposes certain difficulties, [Gen 24:5], which Abraham removes by giving him the strongest assurances of God's direction in the business, [Gen 24:6], [Gen 24:7], and then specifies the conditions of the oath, [Gen 24:8]. The form of the oath itself, [Gen 24:9]. The servant makes preparations for his journey, and sets out for Mesopotamia, the residence of Abraham's kindred, [Gen 24:10]. Arrives at a well near to the place, [Gen 24:11]. His prayer to God, [Gen 24:12-14]. Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, comes to the well to draw water, [Gen 24:15]. She is described, [Gen 24:16]. Conversation between her and Abraham's servant, in which every thing took place according to his prayer to God, [Gen 24:17-21]. He makes her presents, and learns whose daughter she is, [Gen 24:22-24]. She invites him to her father's house, [Gen 24:25]. He returns thanks to God for having thus far given him a prosperous journey, [Gen 24:26], [Gen 24:27]. Rebekah runs home and informs her family, [Gen 24:28]; on which her brother Laban comes out, and invites the servant home, [Gen 24:29-31]. His reception, [Gen 24:32], [Gen 24:33]. Tells his errand, [Gen 24:34], and how he had proceeded in executing the trust reposed in him, [Gen 24:35-48]. Requests an answer, [Gen 24:49]. The family of Rebekah consent that she should become the wife of Isaac, [Gen 24:50], [Gen 24:51]. The servant worships God, [Gen 24:52], and gives presents to Milcah, Laban, and Rebekah, [Gen 24:53]. He requests to be dismissed, [Gen 24:54-56]. Rebekah, being consulted, consents to go, [Gen 24:57], [Gen 24:58]. She is accompanied by her nurse, [Gen 24:59]; and having received the blessing of her parents and relatives, [Gen 24:60], she departs with the servant of Abraham, [Gen 24:61]. They are met by Isaac, who was on an evening walk for the purpose of meditation, [Gen 24:62-65]. The servant relates to Isaac all that he had done, [Gen 24:66]. Isaac and Rebekah are married, [Gen 24:67].

### Verse 1

[¶23] And Abraham was old - He was now about one hundred and forty years of age, and consequently Isaac was forty, being born when his father was one hundred years old. See [Gen 21:5]; [Gen 25:20].

### Verse 2

[¶25] Eldest servant - As this eldest servant is stated to have been the ruler over all that he had, it is very likely that Eliezer is meant. See [Gen 15:2], [Gen 15:3].

[¶26] Put, I pray thee, thy hand - See note on [Gen 24:9].

### Verse 3

[¶28] I will make thee swear - See note on [Gen 24:9].

[¶29] Of the Canaanites - Because these had already been devoted to slavery, etc., and it would have been utterly inconsistent as well with prudence as with the design of God to have united the child and heir of the promise with one who was under a curse, though that curse might be considered to be only of a political nature. See the curse of Canaan, [Gen 9:25] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶31] My country - Mesopotamia, called here Abraham's country, because it was the place where the family of Haran, his brother, had settled; and where himself had remained a considerable time with his father Terah. In this family, as well as in that of Nahor, the true religion had been in some sort preserved, though afterwards considerably corrupted; see [Gen 31:19].

[¶32] And take a wife unto my son - A young man in Bengal is precisely in the same circumstances as Isaac; he has nothing to do in the choice of a wife; parents employ others to seek wives for their sons. Those who leave their homes in search of employment always marry their children in their own country, and among their acquaintance at home; never among the people with whom they reside. In Asiatic countries this custom has prevailed from the infancy of the human race. See Ward's Hindoo Customs.

### Verse 5

[¶34] Peradventure the woman will not be willing - We may see, says Calmet, by this and other passages of Scripture, [Jos 9:18], what the sentiments of the ancients were relative to an oath. They believed they were bound precisely by what was spoken, and had no liberty to interpret the intentions of those to whom the oath was made.

### Verse 7

[¶36] The Lord God, etc. - He expresses the strongest confidence in God, that the great designs for which he had brought him from his own kindred to propagate the true religion in the earth would be accomplished; and that therefore, when earthly instruments failed, heavenly ones should be employed. He shall send his angel, probably meaning the Angel of the Covenant, of whom see [Gen 15:7].

### Verse 9

[¶38] Put his hand under the thigh of Abraham - This form of swearing has greatly puzzled the commentators; but it is useless to detail opinions which I neither believe myself, nor would wish my readers to credit. I believe the true sense is given in the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, and that called the Jerusalem Targum. In the former it is said, Put now thy hand בגזית מהולתי bigzirath mehulathi, in sectione circumcisionis meoe; in the latter תחות ירך קימי techoth yerech keyami, sub femore foederis mei. When we put the circumstances mentioned in this and the third verse together, we shall find that they fully express the ancient method of binding by oath in such transactions as had a religious tendency. 1. The rite or ceremony used on the occasion: the person binding himself put his hand under the thigh of the person to whom he was to be bound; i.e., he put his hand on the part that bore the mark of circumcision, the sign of God's covenant, which is tantamount to our kissing the book, or laying the hand upon the New Testament or covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. The form of the oath itself: the person swore by Jehovah, the God of heaven and the God of the earth. Three essential attributes of God are here mentioned:

[¶39] 1. His self-existence and eternity in the name Jehovah.

[¶40] 2. His dominion of glory and blessedness in the kingdom of heaven.

[¶41] 3. His providence and bounty in the earth.

[¶42] The meaning of the oath seems to be this: "As God is unchangeable in his nature and purposes, so shall I be in this engagement, under the penalty of forfeiting all expectation of temporal prosperity, the benefits of the mystical covenant, and future glory." An oath of this kind, taken at such a time, and on such an occasion, can never be deemed irreligious or profane. Thou shalt swear by his name - shalt acknowledge and bind thyself unto the true God, as the just Judge of thy motives and actions, is a command of the Most High; and such an oath as the above is at once (on such an occasion) both proper and rational. The person binding himself proposes for a pattern the unchangeable and just God; and as He is the avenger of wrong and the punisher of falsehood, and has all power in the heavens and in the earth, so he can punish perjury by privation of spiritual and temporal blessings, by the loss of life, and by inflicting the perdition due to ungodly men, among whom liars and perjured persons occupy the most distinguished rank. Our ideas of delicacy may revolt from the rite used on this occasion; but, when the nature of the covenant is considered, of which circumcision was the sign, we shall at once perceive that this rite could not be used without producing sentiments of reverence and godly fear, as the contracting party must know that the God of this covenant was a consuming fire.

### Verse 10

[¶44] Took ten camels - It appears that Abraham had left the whole management of this business to the discretion of his servant, to take with him what retinue and what dowry he pleased; for it is added, All the goods of his master were in his hand; and in those times it was customary to give a dowry for a wife, and not to receive one with her.

## 32. Genesis · 32 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/32/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/32/#p-N

### Verse 11

[¶1] He made his camels to kneel down - To rest themselves, or lie down, as the Septuagint has very properly expressed it, Και εκοιμισε τας καμηλους.

[¶2] The time that women go out to draw water - In Bengal it is the universal practice for the women to go to pools and rivers to fetch water. Companies of four, six, ten, or more, may be seen in every town daily going to fetch water, with the pitchers resting upon their sides; and, on their return from bathing, women frequently bring water home - Ward.

### Verse 12

[¶4] And he said, O Lord God, etc. - "The conduct of this servant," says Dr. Dodd, "appears no less pious than rational. By supplicating for a sign, he acknowledges God to be the great superintendent and director of the universe, and of that event in particular; and at the same time, by asking a natural sign, such as betokened humanity, condescension, and other qualities which promised a discreet and virtuous wife, he puts his prayer upon such a discreet, rational footing, as to be a proper example for all to imitate who would not tempt the providence of God, by expecting extraordinary signs to be given them for the determination of cases which they are capable of deciding by a proper use of their rational faculties." This is all very good; but certainly the case referred to here is such a one as required especial direction from God; a case which no use of the rational faculties, without Divine influence, could be sufficient to determine. It is easy to run into extremes, and it is very natural so to do. In all things the assistance and blessing of God are necessary, even where human strength and wisdom have the fullest and freest sphere of action; but there are numberless cases, of infinite consequence to man, where his strength and prudence can be of little or no avail, and where the God of all grace must work all things according to the counsel of his own will. To expect the accomplishment of any good end, without a proper use of the means, is the most reprehensible enthusiasm; and to suppose that any good can be done or procured without the blessing and mercy of God, merely because proper means are used, is not less reprehensible. Plan, scheme, and labor like Eliezer, and then, by earnest faith and prayer, commit the whole to the direction and blessing of God.

### Verse 15

[¶6] Behold, Rebekah came out - How admirably had the providence of God adapted every circumstance to the necessity of the case, and so as in the most punctual manner to answer the prayer which his servant had offered up!

### Verse 19

[¶8] I will draw water for thy camels also - Had Rebekah done no more than Eliezer had prayed for, we might have supposed that she acted not as a free agent, but was impelled to it by the absolutely controlling power of God; but as she exceeds all that was requested, we see that it sprang from her native benevolence, and sets her conduct in the most amiable point of view.

### Verse 21

[¶10] The man, wondering at her - And he was so lost in wonder and astonishment at her simplicity, innocence, and benevolence, that he permitted this delicate female to draw water for ten camels, without ever attempting to afford her any kind of assistance! I know not which to admire most, the benevolence and condescension of Rebekah, or the cold and apparently stupid indifference of the servant of Abraham. Surely they are both of an uncommon cast.

### Verse 22

[¶12] The man took a golden ear-ring - נזם זהב nezem zahab. That this could not be an ear-ring is very probable from its being in the singular number. The margin calls it a jewel for the forehead; but it most likely means a jewel for the nose, or nose-ring, which is in universal use through all parts of Arabia and Persia, particularly among young women. They are generally worn in the left nostril. The word is very properly translated επιρῥινιον, an ornament for the nose, by Symmachus.

[¶13] Half a shekel - For the weight of a shekel, See note [Gen 20:16].

[¶14] And two bracelets - ושני צמידים usheney tsemidim. As tsemidim comes from צמד tsamad, to join or couple together, it may very properly mean bracelets, or whatever may clasp round the arms or legs; for rings and ornaments are worn round both by females in India and Persia. The small part of the leg is generally decorated in this way, and so is the whole arm from the shoulder to the wrist. As these tsemidim were given to Rebekah for her hands, it sufficiently distinguishes them from a similar ornament used for the ankles.

[¶15] In different parts of the sacred writings there are allusions to ornaments of various kinds still in use in different Asiatic countries. They are of seven different sorts. 1. for the forehead; 2. for the nose; 3. for the ears; 4. for the arms; 5. for the fingers; 6. for the neck and breast; 7. for the ankles. See [Gen 24:22], [Gen 24:47]; also [Eze 16:12]; [Pro 11:22]; [Isa 3:21]; [Gen 35:4]; [Exo 32:2], [Exo 32:3]; [Job 42:11]; [Jdg 8:24]. The principal female ornaments are enumerated in the third chapter of Isaiah, which are very nearly the same that are in use in Persia and India to the present time.

### Verse 26

[¶17] Bowed down his head, and worshipped - Two acts of adoration are mentioned here;

[¶18] 1. Bowing the head, יקד yikkod; and

[¶19] 2. Prostration upon the earth, וישתחו vaiyishtaehu.

[¶20] The bowing of the head was to Rebekah, to return her thanks for her kind invitation. The prostration was to Jehovah, in gratitude for the success with which he had favored him.

### Verse 27

[¶22] The Lord led me - By desire of his master he went out on this journey; and as he acknowledged God in all his ways, the Lord directed all his steps.

### Verse 28

[¶24] Her mother's house - Some have conjectured from this that her father Bethuel was dead; and the person called Bethuel, [Gen 24:50], was a younger brother. This is possible, but the mother's house might be mentioned were even the father alive; for in Asiatic countries the women have apartments entirely separate from those of the men, in which their little children and grown-up daughters reside with them. This was probably the case here, though it is very likely that Bethuel was dead, as the whole business appears to be conducted by Rebekah's brothers.

### Verse 31

[¶26] Thou blessed of the Lord - Probably a usual mode of wishing prosperity, as he that is blessed of the Lord is worthy of all respect; for, enjoying the Divine favor, he is in possession of the sum of happiness.

### Verse 32

[¶28] Provender for the camels - These were the first objects of his care; for a good man is merciful to his beast.

[¶29] Water to wash his feet - Thus it thus appears that he had servants with him; and as the fatigues of the journey must have fallen as heavily upon them as upon himself, so we find no distinction made, but water is provided to wash their feet also.

### Verse 33

[¶31] I will not eat until I have told - In Hindoostan it is not unusual for a Brahmin to enter a house and sit down, and when meat is offered, refuse to eat till he has obtained the object of his errand. Here is a servant who had his master's interest more at heart than his own. He refuses to take even necessary refreshment till he knows whether he is likely to accomplish the object of his journey. Did not our blessed Lord allude to the conduct of Abraham's servant, [Joh 4:34] : My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work?

### Verse 36

[¶33] Unto him hath he given all that he hath - He has made Isaac his sole heir. These things appear to be spoken to show the relatives of Rebekah that his master's son was a proper match for her; for even in those primitive times there was regard had to the suitableness of station and rank in life, as well as of education, in order to render a match comfortable. Persons of dissimilar habits, as well as of dissimilar religious principles, are never likely to be very happy in a married life. Even the poor and the rich may better meet together in matrimonial alliances than the religious and the profane, the well-bred and the vulgar. A person may be unequally yoked in a great variety of ways: Bear ye one another's burdens is the command of God; but where there is unsuitableness in the dispositions, education, mental capacity, etc., of the persons, then one side is obliged to bear the whole burden, and endless dissatisfaction is the result. See at the end, [Gen 24:67] (note).

### Verse 42

[¶35] O Lord God of my master - As Abraham was the friend of God, Eliezer makes use of this to give weight and consequence to his petitions.

### Verse 43

[¶37] When the virgin - העלמה haalmah, from עלם alam, to hide, cover, or conceal; a pure virgin, a woman not uncovered, and in this respect still concealed from man. The same as בתולה bethulah, [Gen 24:16], which, from the explanation there given, incontestably means a virgin in the proper sense of the word - a young woman, not that is covered or kept at home, the common gloss, but who was not uncovered in the delicate sense in which the Scripture uses this word. See this interpretation vindicated on [Isa 7:14] (note).

### Verse 45

[¶39] Before I had done speaking in mine heart - So we find that the whole of this prayer, so circumstantially related [Gen 24:12-14], and again [Gen 24:42-44], was mental, and heard only by that God to whom it was directed. It would have been improper to have used public prayer on the occasion, as his servants could have felt no particular interest in the accomplishment of his petitions, because they were not concerned in them, having none of the responsibility of this mission.

### Verse 49

[¶41] That I may turn to the right hand or to the left - That is, That I may go elsewhere and seek a proper match for the son of my master. Some have imagined that Eliezer intimated by these expressions that if he did not succeed in obtaining Rebekah, he would go and seek for a wife either among the descendants of Ishmael or the descendants of Lot. This interpretation is fanciful.

### Verse 50

[¶43] Laban and Bethuel - These seem both to be brothers, of whom Laban was the eldest and chief; for the opinion of Josephus appears to be very correct, viz., that Bethuel, the father, had been some time dead. See note [Gen 24:28].

[¶44] Bad or good - We can neither speak for nor against; it seems to be entirely the work of God, and we cordially submit: consult Rebekah; if she be willing, take her and go. See note [Gen 24:58].

## 33. Genesis · 33 of 67

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### Verse 53

[¶1] Jewels of silver, and jewels of gold - The word כלי keley, which we here translate jewels signifies properly vessels or instruments; and those presented by Eliezer might have been of various kinds. What he had given before, [Gen 24:22], was in token of respect, what he gave now appears to have been in the way of dowry.

[¶2] Precious things - מגדנת migdanoth. This word is used to express exquisite fruits or delicacies, [Deu 33:13-16]; precious plants or flowers, [Sol 4:16]; [Sol 7:13]. But it may mean gifts in general, though rather of an inferior kind to those mentioned above.

### Verse 54

[¶4] And they did eat and drink - When Eliezer had got a favorable answer, then he and his servants sat down to meat; this he had refused to do till he had told his message, [Gen 24:33].

### Verse 55

[¶6] Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten - The original is very abrupt and obscure, because we are not acquainted with the precise meaning of the form of speech which is here used; ימים או עשור yamim o asor Days or Ten, probably meaning a year or ten months, as the margin reads it, or a week or ten days. This latter is the most likely sense, as there would be no propriety after having given their consent that she should go, in detaining her for a year or ten months. In matters of simple phraseology, or in those which concern peculiar customs, the Septuagint translation, especially in the Pentateuch, where it is most accurate and pure, may be considered a legitimate judge; this translation renders the words ἡμερας ὡσει δεκα, about ten days. Houbigant contends strongly that instead of the words ימים או עשור yamim o asor, days or ten, we should read חדש ימים chodesh yamim, a month of days, i.e., a full month; without which emendation he asserts, locus explicari non possit, "the passage cannot be explained." This emendation is supported by the Syriac version, which reads here yerach yomin, a month of days, or a full month. The reader may adopt the Syriac or the Septuagint, as he judges best.

### Verse 58

[¶8] Wilt thou go with this man? - So it appears it was left ultimately to the choice of Rebekah whether she would accept the proposals now made to her, unless we suppose that the question meant, Wilt thou go immediately, or stay with us a month longer? She said, I will go - It fully appears to be the will of God that it should be so, and I consent. This at once determined the whole business.

### Verse 59

[¶10] And her nurse - Whose name, we learn from [Gen 35:8], was Deborah, and who, as a second mother, was deemed proper to accompany Rebekah. This was a measure dictated by good sense and prudence. Rebekah had other female attendants. See [Gen 24:61].

### Verse 60

[¶12] Be thou the mother of thousands of millions - לאלפי רבבה lealphey rebabah, for thousands ten thousand, or for myriads of thousands, a large family being ever considered, in ancient times, as a proof of the peculiar blessing and favor of God. Similar addresses to a daughter, when she is going from her father's house to live with her husband, are very common among the Hindoos; such as, "Be thou the mother of a son," "Be thou the wife of a king," etc. See Ward.

### Verse 62

[¶14] And Isaac came - Concerning this well see [Gen 16:13], [Gen 16:14], etc. As it appears from [Gen 25:11], that Isaac dwelt at the well Lahai-roi, it has been conjectured that he had now come on a visit to his aged father at Beersheba, where he waited in expectation of his bride.

[¶15] For he dwelt in the south country - The southern part of the land of Canaan. See [Gen 12:9].

### Verse 63

[¶17] Isaac went out to meditate - לשוח lasuach, to bend down the body, or the mind, or both. He was probably in deep thought, with his eyes fixed upon the ground. What the subject of his meditation was it is useless to inquire; he was a pious man, and could not be triflingly employed.

### Verse 65

[¶19] She took a veil - הצעיף hatstsaaif. This is the first time this word occurs, and it is of doubtful signification; but most agree to render it a veil or a cloak. The former is the most likely, as it was generally used by women in the east as a sign of chastity, modesty, and subjection.

### Verse 67

[¶21] Sarah's tent - Sarah being dead, her tent became now appropriated to the use of Rebekah.

[¶22] And took Rebekah, etc. - After what form this was done we are not told; or whether there was any form used on the occasion, more than solemnly receiving her as the person whom God had chosen to be his wife; for it appears from [Gen 24:66] that the servant told him all the especial providential circumstances which had marked his journey. The primitive form of marriage we have already seen, [Gen 2:23], [Gen 2:24], which, it is likely, as far as form was attended to, was that which was commonly used in all the patriarchal times.

[¶23] In this chapter we have an affecting and edifying display of that providence by which God disposes and governs the affairs of the universe, descending to the minutest particulars, and managing the great whole by directing and influencing all its parts. This particular or especial providence we see is not confined to work by general laws; it is wise and intelligent, for it is the mind, the will, and energy of God; it steps out of common ways, and takes particular directions, as endlessly varied human necessities may need, or the establishment and maintenance of godliness in the earth may require. What a history of providential occurrences, coming all in answer to the prayer and faith of a simple, humble individual, does this chapter exhibit!

[¶24] As Abraham's servant has God's glory only in view in the errand on which he is going, he may well expect the Divine direction. See with what simplicity and confidence he prays to God! He even prescribes the way in which the Divine choice and approbation shall be made known; and God honors the purity of his motives and his pious faith, by giving him precisely the answer he wished. How honorable in the sight of God is simplicity of heart! It has nothing to fear, and all good to hope for; whereas a spirit warped by self-interest and worldly views is always uncertain and agitated, as it is ever seeking that from its own counsels, projects, and schemes, which should be sought in God alone. In every place the upright man meets with his God; his heart acknowledges his Maker, and his Maker acknowledges him; for such a one the whole economy of providence and grace is ever at work.

[¶25] Abraham's solicitude to get a suitable wife for his son is worthy of the most serious regard. He was well aware that if Isaac formed a matrimonial alliance with the Canaanites it might be ruinous to his piety, and prevent the dissemination of the true religion; therefore he binds his most trusty servant by a solemn oath not to take a wife for his son from the daughters of Canaan, but from his own kindred, among whom the knowledge of the true God was best preserved. Others had different rays of the light of truth, but Abraham's family alone had The truth; and to the descendants of this family were the promises made.

[¶26] How careful should parents be to procure alliances for their children with those who fear God, as so much of the peace and comfort of the children, and the happiness of their posterity, depend on this circumstance! But alas! how many sacrifice the comfort and salvation of their offspring at the shrine of Mammon! If they can procure rich husbands and wives for their daughters and sons, then all, in their apprehension, is well. Marriages of this kind may be considered as mere bargain and sale; for there is scarcely ever any reference to God or eternity in them. The Divine institution of marriage is left out of sight; and the persons are united, not properly to each other, in the love, fear, and according to the ordinance of God, but they are wedded to so many thousand pounds sterling, and to so many houses, fields, etc. Thus like goes to like, metal to metal, earth to earth. Marriages formed on such principles are mere licensed adulteries. Let such contractors hear these awful words of God: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" [Jam 4:4]. See note on [Gen 24:36].

[¶27] Although under the patriarchal dispensation parents had a kind of absolute authority over their children, and might dispose of them as they pleased in general cases, yet it appears that in matrimonial connections they were under no compulsion. The suitable person was pointed out and recommended; but it does not appear that children were forced, against the whole tide of their affections, to take those persons who were the objects of the parent's choice. Wilt thou go with this man? was, in all likelihood, deemed essential to the completion of the contract; and by the answer, I will go, was the contract fully ratified. Thus the persons were ultimately left to their own choice, though the most prudent and proper means were no doubt used in order to direct and fix it. Whether this was precisely the plan followed in primitive times we cannot absolutely say: they were times of great simplicity; and probably connections on the mere principle of affection, independently of all other considerations, seldom existed. And it must be allowed that matches formed on the sole principle of convenience might as well be formed by the parents as by any others; and in Asiatic countries it was generally so, for there the female seldom presumes to have a choice of her own.

[¶28] In all cases of this kind the child should invariably consult the experience and wisdom of the parents; and the parents should ever pay much respect to the feelings of the child, nor oppose an alliance which may be in all other respects suitable, because there may be a lack of property on one side of the intended match. If parents would proceed in this way, God would pour his blessing on their seed, and his Spirit upon their offspring.

### Introduction

[¶30] Abraham marries Keturah, [Gen 25:1]. Their issue, [Gen 25:2-4]. Makes Isaac his heir, [Gen 25:5]; but gives portions to the sons of his concubines, and sends them eastward from Isaac, to find settlements, [Gen 25:6]. Abraham's age, [Gen 25:7], and death, [Gen 25:8]. Is buried by his sons Isaac and Ishmael in the cave of Machpelah, [Gen 25:9], [Gen 25:10]. God's blessing upon Isaac, [Gen 25:11]. The generations of Ishmael, [Gen 25:12-16]. His age, [Gen 25:17], and death, [Gen 25:18]. Of the generations of Isaac, [Gen 25:19], who was married in his fortieth year, [Gen 25:20]. Rebekah his wife being barren, on his prayer to God she conceives, [Gen 25:21]. She inquires of the Lord concerning her state, [Gen 25:22]. The Lord's answer, [Gen 25:23]. She is delivered of twins, [Gen 25:24]. Peculiarities in the birth of her sons Esau and Jacob, from which they had their names, [Gen 25:25], [Gen 25:26]. Their different manner of life, [Gen 25:27], [Gen 25:28]. Esau, returning from the field faint, begs pottage from his brother, [Gen 25:29], [Gen 25:30]. Jacob refuses to grant him any but on condition of his selling him his birthright, [Gen 25:31]. Esau, ready to die, parts with his birthright to save his life, [Gen 25:32]. Jacob causes him to confirm the sale with an oath, [Gen 25:33]. He receives bread and pottage of lentils, and departs, [Gen 25:34].

### Verse 1

[¶32] Then again Abraham took a wife - When Abraham took Keturah we are not informed; it might have been in the lifetime of Sarah; and the original ויסף vaiyoseph, and he added, etc., seems to give some countenance to this opinion. Indeed it is not very likely that he had the children mentioned here after the death of Sarah; and from the circumstances of his age, feebleness, etc., at the birth of Isaac, it is still more improbable. Even at that age, forty years before the marriage of Isaac, the birth of his son is considered as not less miraculous on his part than on the part of Sarah; for the apostle expressly says, [Rom 4:19], that Abraham considered not his own body Now Dead, when he was about a hundred years old, nor the Deadness of Sarah's womb; hence we learn that they were both past the procreation of children, insomuch that the birth of Isaac is ever represented as supernatural. It is therefore very improbable that he had any child after the birth of Isaac; and therefore we may well suppose that Moses had related this transaction out of its chronological order, which is not infrequent in the sacred writings, when a variety of important facts relative to the accomplishment of some grand design are thought necessary to be produced in a connected series. On this account intervening matters of a different complexion are referred to a future time. Perhaps we may be justified in reading the verse: "And Abraham had added, and had taken a wife (besides Hagar) whose name was Keturah," etc. The chronology in the margin dates this marriage with Keturah A. M. 2154, nine years after the death of Sarah, A. M. 2145. Jonathan ben Uzziel and the Jerusalem Targum both assert that Keturah was the same as Hagar. Some rabbins, and with them Dr. Hammond, are of the same opinion; but both Hagar and Keturah are so distinguished in the Scriptures, that the opinion seems destitute of probability.

### Verse 2

[¶34] Zimran - Stephanus Byzantinus mentions a city in Arabia Felix called Zadram, which some suppose to have been named from this son of Keturah; but it is more likely, as Calmet observes, that all these sons of Abraham resided in Arabia Deserta; and Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. vi., c. 28, mentions a people in that country called Zamarenians, who were probably the descendants of this person.

[¶35] Jokshan - Several learned men have been of opinion that this Jokshan was the same as Kachtan, the father of the Arabs. The testimonies in favor of this opinion see in Dr. Hunt's Oration, De Antiquitate, etc., Linguae Arabicae, p. 4. Calmet supposes that the Cataneans, who inhabited a part of Arabia Deserta, sprang from this Jokshan.

[¶36] Medan, and Midian - Probably those who peopled that part of Arabia Petraea contiguous to the land of Moab eastward of the Dead Sea. St. Jerome terms the people of this country Madinaeans; and Ptolemy mentions a people called Madianites, who dwelt in the same place.

[¶37] Ishbak - From this person Calmet supposes the brook Jabbok, which has its source in the mountains of Gilead, and falls into the sea of Tiberias, took its name.

[¶38] Shuah - Or Shuach. From this man the Sacceans, near to Batanla, at the extremity of Arabia Deserta, towards Syria, are supposed to have sprung. Bildad the Shuhite, one of Job's friends, is supposed to have descended from this son of Abraham.

### Verse 3

[¶40] Sheba - From whom sprang the Sabeans, who robbed Job of his cattle. See Bochart and Calmet.

[¶41] Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim - We know not who these were, but as each name is plural they must have been tribes or families, and not individuals. Onkelos interprets these words of persons dwelling in camps, tents, and islands; and Jonathan ben Uzziel calls them merchants, artificers, and heads or chiefs of people.

### Verse 4

[¶43] Ephah, and Epher, etc. - Of these we know no more than of the preceding; an abundance of conjectures is already furnished by the commentators.

### Verse 5

[¶45] Gave all that he had unto Isaac - His principal flocks, and especially his right to the land of Canaan, including a confirmation to him and his posterity of whatever was contained in the promises of God.

## 34. Genesis · 34 of 67

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Unto the sons of the concubines - Viz., Hagar and Keturah, Abraham gave gifts. Cattle for breed, seed to sow the land, and implements for husbandry, may be what is here intended.

[¶2] And sent them away - while he yet lived - Lest after his death they should dispute a settlement in the Land of Promise with Isaac; therefore he very prudently sent them to procure settlements during his lifetime, that they might be under no temptation to dispute the settlement with Isaac in Canaan. From this circumstance arose that law which has prevailed in almost all countries, of giving the estates to the eldest son by a lawful wife; for though concubines, or wives of the second rank, were perfectly legitimate in those ancient times, yet their children did not inherit, except in case of the failure of legal issue, and with the consent of the lawful wife; and it is very properly observed by Calmet, that it was in consequence of the consent of Leah and Rachel that the children of their slaves by Jacob had a common and equal lot with the rest. By a law of Solon all natural children were excluded from the paternal inheritance, but their fathers were permitted to give them any sum not beyond a thousand drachma by way of present. Eastward, unto the east country - Arabia Deserta, which was eastward of Beer-sheba, where Abraham lived.

### Verse 7

[¶4] The days of the years, etc. - There is a beauty in this expression which is not sufficiently regarded. Good men do not live by centuries, though many such have lived several hundred years, nor do they count their lives even by years, but by days, living as if they were the creatures only of A Day; having no more time than they can with any propriety call their own, and living that day in reference to eternity.

### Verse 8

[¶6] Then Abraham gave up the ghost - Highly as I value our translation for general accuracy, fidelity, and elegance, I must beg leave to dissent from this version. The original word יגוע yigva, from the root גוע gava, signifies to pant for breath, to expire, to cease from breathing, or to breathe one's last; and here, and wherever the original word is used, the simple term expired would be the proper expression. In our translation this expression occurs [Gen 25:8], [Gen 25:17]; [Gen 35:29]; [Gen 44:33]; [Job 3:11]; [Job 10:18]; [Job 11:20]; [Job 13:19]; [Job 14:10]; [Lam 1:19]; in all of which places the original is גוע gava. It occurs also in our translation, [Jer 15:9], but there the original is נפחה נפשה naphecah naphshah, she breathed out her soul; the verb גוע gava not being used. Now as our English word ghost, from the Anglo-Saxon gast, an inmate, inhabitant, guest, (a casual visitant), also a spirit, is now restricted among us to the latter meaning, always signifying the immortal spirit or soul of man, the guest of the body; and as giving up the spirit, ghost, or soul, is an act not proper to man, though commending it to God, in our last moments, is both an act of faith and piety; and as giving up the ghost, i.e., dismissing his spirit from his body, is attributed to Jesus Christ, to whom alone it is proper, I therefore object against its use in every other case.

[¶7] Every man since the fall has not only been liable to death, but has deserved it, as all have forfeited their lives because of sin. Jesus Christ, as born immaculate, and having never sinned, had not forfeited his life, and therefore may be considered as naturally and properly immortal. No man, says he, taketh it - my life, from me, but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again: therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again, [Joh 10:17], [Joh 10:18]. Hence we rightly translate [Mat 27:50], αφηκε το πνευμα, he gave up the ghost; i.e., he dismissed his spirit that he might die for the sin of the world. The Evangelist St. [Joh 19:30], makes use of an expression to the same import, which we translate in the same way, παρεδωκε το πνευμα, he delivered up his spirit. We translate [Mar 15:37], and [Luk 23:46], he gave up the ghost, but not correctly, because the word in both these places is very different, εξεπνευσε, he breathed his last, or expired, though in the latter place ([Luk 23:46]) there is an equivalent expression, O Father, into thy hands παρατιθεμαι το πνευμα μου, I commit my spirit, i.e., I place my soul in thy hand; proving that the act was his own, that no man could take his life away from him, that he did not die by the perfidy of his disciple, or the malice of the Jews, but by his own free act. Thus He Laid Down his life for the sheep. Of Ananias and Sapphira, [Act 5:5], [Act 5:10], and of Herod, [Act 12:23], our translation says they gave up the ghost; but the word in both places is εξεψυξε, which simply means to breathe out, to expire, or die; but in no case, either by the Septuagint in the Old or any of the sacred writers in the New Testament, is αφηκε το μνευμα or παρεδωκε το πνευμα, he dismissed his spirit or delivered up his spirit, spoken of any person but Christ. Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, etc., breathed their last; Ananias, Sapphira, and Herod expired; but none, Jesus Christ excepted, gave up the ghost, dismissed, or delivered up his own spirit, and was consequently free among the dead. Of the patriarchs, etc., the Septuagint uses the word εκλειπων, failing, or κατεπαυσε, he ceased or rested.

[¶8] An old man - Viz., one hundred and seventy-five, the youngest of all the patriarchs; and full of years. The word years is not in the text; but as our translators saw that some word was necessary to fill up the text, they added this in italics. It is probable that the true word is ימים yamim, days, as in [Gen 35:29]; and this reading is found in several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., in the Samaritan text, Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Chaldee. On these authorities it might be safely admitted into the text.

[¶9] Being full of days, or full of years - To be satiated with days or life, has been in use among different nations to express the termination of life, and especially life ended without reluctance. It seems to be a metaphor taken from a guest regaled by a plentiful banquet, and is thus used by the Roman poets. Lucretius, lib. iii., ver. 947, ridiculing those who were unreasonably attached to life, and grievously afflicted at the prospect of death, addresses them in the following manner: -

[¶10] Quid mortem congemis, ac fies?

[¶11] Nam si grata fuit tibi vita anteacta, priorque,

[¶12] Et non omnia pertusum congesta quasi in vas

[¶13] Commoda perfluxere, atque ingrata interiere:

[¶14] Cur non, ut Plenus Vitae Conviva, Recedis?

[¶15] Fond mortal, what's the matter, thou dost sigh?

[¶16] Why all these fears because thou once must die?

[¶17] For if the race thou hast already run

[¶18] Was pleasant, if with joy thou saw'st the sun,

[¶19] If all thy pleasures did not pass thy mind

[¶20] As through a sieve, but left some sweets behind,

[¶21] Why dost thou not then, like a Thankful Guest,

[¶22] Rise cheerfully from life's Abundant Feast?

[¶23] Creech.

[¶24] Et nec opinanti mors ad caput astitit ante,

[¶25] Quam Satur, ac Plenus possis discedere rerum

[¶26] Ib. ver. 972.

[¶27] And unexpected hasty death destroys,

[¶28] Before thy greedy mind is Full of Joys. Idem.

[¶29] Horace makes use of the same figure: -

[¶30] Inde fit, ut raro, qui se vixisse beatum

[¶31] Dicat, et exacto Contentus tempore vitae

[¶32] Cedat, ut Conviva Satur, reperire queamus.

[¶33] Sat. l. i. Sat. i. ver. 117.

[¶34] From hence how few, like Sated Guests, depart From life's Full Banquet with a cheerful heart?

[¶35] Francis.

[¶36] The same image is expressed with strong ridicule in his last Epistle -

[¶37] Lusisti satis, edisti satis, atque bibisti;

[¶38] Tempus Abire tibi est.

[¶39] Epist. l. ii., ver. 216.

[¶40] Thou hast eaten, drunk, and play'd Enough; then why So stark reluctant to leave off, and Die?

[¶41] The poet Statius uses abire paratum Plenum vita, "prepared to depart, being Full of Life," in exactly the same sense: -

[¶42] Dubio quem non in turbine rerum

[¶43] Deprendet suprema dies; sed abire paratum,

[¶44] Acts Plenum Vita. Sylv. l. ii., Villa Surrentina, ver. 128.

## 35. Genesis · 35 of 67

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[¶0] The man whose mighty soul is not immersed in dubious whirl of secular concerns, His final hour ne'er takes him by surprise, But, Full of Life, he stands Prepared to Die.

[¶1] It was the opinion of Aristotle that a man should depart from life as he should rise from a banquet. Thus Abraham died Full of days, and Satisfied with life, but in a widely different spirit from that recommended by the above writers - He left life with a hope full of immortality, which they could never boast; for He saw the day of Christ, and was glad; and his hope was crowned, for here it is expressly said, He was gathered to his fathers; surely not to the bodies of his sleeping ancestors, who were buried in Chaldea and not in Canaan, nor with his fathers in any sense, for he was deposited in the cave where his Wife alone slept; but he was gathered to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to the Church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven; [Heb 12:23].

### Verse 9

[¶3] His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him - Though Ishmael and his mother had been expelled from Abraham's family on the account of Isaac, yet, as he was under the same obligation to a most loving affectionate father as his brother Isaac, if any personal feuds remained, they agreed to bury them on this occasion, that both might dutifully join in doing the last offices to a parent who was an honor to them and to human nature: and, considering the rejection of Ishmael from the inheritance, this transaction shows his character in an amiable point of view; for though he was a wild man, (see [Gen 16:12]), yet this appellation appears to be more characteristic of his habits of life than of his disposition.

[¶4] For the character of Abraham see the conclusion of this chapter, [Gen 25:34] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶6] God blessed his son Isaac - The peculiar blessings and influences by which Abraham had been distinguished now rested upon Isaac; but how little do we hear in him of the work of faith, the patience of hope, and the labor of love! Only one Abraham and one Christ ever appeared among men; there have been some successful imitators, there should have been many.

### Verse 12

[¶8] These are the generations of Ishmael - The object of the inspired writer seems to be to show how the promises of God were fulfilled to both the branches of Abraham's family. Isaac has been already referred to; God blessed him according to the promise. He had also promised to multiply Ishmael, and an account of his generation is introduced to show how exactly the promise had also been fulfilled to him.

### Verse 13

[¶10] Nebajoth - From whom came the Nabatheans, whose capital was Petra, or, according to Strabo, Nabathea. They dwelt in Arabia Petraea, and extended themselves on the east towards Arabia Deserta.

[¶11] Kedar - The founder of the Cedreans, who dwelt near to the Nabatheans. The descendants of Kedar form a part of the Saracens.

[¶12] Adbeel, and Mibsam - Where these were situated is not known.

### Verse 14

[¶14] Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa - Where the first and last of these settled is not known; but it is probable that Dumah gave his name to a place called Dumah in Arabia. See a prophecy concerning this place, [Isa 21:11] (note), from which we find that it was in the vicinity of Mount Seir.

[¶15] These three names have passed into a proverb among the Hebrews, because of their signification. משמע mishma signifies Hearing; דומה dumah, Silence; and משא massa, Patience. Hence, "Hear much, say little, and bear much," tantamount to the famous maxim of the Stoics, Ανεχου και απεχου, "Sustain and abstain," is supposed to be the spirit of the original words.

### Verse 15

[¶17] Hadar - This name should be read Hadad as in [1Chr 1:30]. This reading is supported by more than three hundred MSS., versions, and printed editions. See Clarke at [Gen 25:18] (note).

[¶18] Tema - Supposed to be a place in Arabia Deserta, the same of which Job speaks, [Job 6:19].

[¶19] Jetur - From whom came the Itureans, who occupied a small tract of country beyond Jordan, which was afterwards possessed by the half-tribe of Manasseh.

[¶20] Naphish - These are evidently the same people mentioned [1Chr 5:19], who, with the Itureans and the people of Nadab, assisted the Hagarenes against the Israelites, but were overcome by the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

[¶21] Kedemah - Probably the descendants of this person dwelt at Kedemoth, a place mentioned [Deu 2:26]. I wish the reader to observe, that concerning those ancient tribes mentioned here or elsewhere in the Pentateuch little is known; nor of their places of settlement have we more certain information. On this subject many learned men have toiled hard with but little fruit of their labor. Those who wish to enter into discussions of this nature must consult Bochart's Geographia Sacra, Calmet, etc.

### Verse 16

[¶23] These are their names - By which their descendants were called. Their towns - places of encampment in the wilderness, such as have been used by the Arabs from the remotest times. Their castles, טירתם tirotham, their towers, probably mountain tops, fortified rocks, and fastnesses of various kinds in woods and hilly countries.

### Verse 18

[¶25] They dwelt from Havilah unto Shur - The descendants of Ishmael possessed all that country which extends from east to west, from Havilah on the Euphrates, near its junction with the Tigris, to the desert of Shur eastward of Egypt; and which extends along the isthmus of Suez, which separates the Red Sea from the Mediterranean.

[¶26] As thou goest toward Assyria - "These words," says Calmet, "may refer either to Egypt, to Shur, or to Havilah. The desert of Shur is on the road from Egypt to Assyria in traversing Arabia Petraea, and in passing by the country of Havilah. I know not," adds he, "whether Ashshurah in the text may not mark out rather the Asshurim descended from Keturah, than the Assyrians, who were the descendants of Asshur the son of Shem."

[¶27] He died in the presence of all his brethren - The original will not well bear this translation. In [Gen 25:17] it is said, He gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered to his people. Then follows the account of the district occupied by the Ishmaelites, at the conclusion of which it is added על פני כל אחיו נפל al peney col echaiv naphal, "It (the lot or district) Fell (or was divided to him) in the presence of all his brethren:" and this was exactly agreeable to the promise of God, [Gen 16:12], He shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren; and to show that this promise had been strictly fulfilled, it is here remarked that his lot or inheritance was assigned him by Divine Providence, contiguous to that of the other branches of the family. The same word, נפל naphal, is used [Jos 23:4], for to divide by lot.

[¶28] On the subject of writing the same proper name variously in our common Bibles, the following observations and tables will not be unacceptable to the reader. "Men who have read their Bible with care," says Dr. Kennicott, "must have remarked that the name of the same person is often expressed differently in different places. Indeed the variation is sometimes so great that we can scarcely persuade ourselves that one and the same person is really meant. A uniform expression of proper names is diligently attended to in other books: perhaps in every other book, except the Old Testament. But here we find strange variety in the expression, and consequently great confusion: and indeed there is scarcely any one general source of error which calls for more careful correction than the same proper names now wrongly expressed. I shall add here, from the Pentateuch, some proper names which are strangely varied: first, twenty-three names expressed differently in the Hebrew text itself, and seventeen of them in our English translation; and then thirty-one names expressed uniformly in the Hebrew yet differently in the English. "Nothing can be more clear than that these fifty-four proper names (at least the far greater part of them) should be expressed with the very same letters, in the places where they are now different. In the second list, instances 6, 10, and 13, have been corrected and expressed uniformly in the English Bible printed at Oxford in 1769. And surely the same justice in the translation should be done to the rest of these proper names, and to all others through the Bible; at least, where the original words are now properly the same. Who would not wonder at seeing the same persons named both Simon and Shimon, Richard and Ricard? And can we then admit here both Seth and Sheth, Rachel and Rahel? Again: whoever could admit (as above) both Gaza and Azzak, with Rameses and Raamses, should not object to London and Ondon, with Amsterdam and Amstradam. In short, in a history far more interesting than any other, the names of persons and places should be distinguished accurately, and defined with exact uniformity. And no true critic will think lightly of this advice of Origen, Contemnenda non est accurata circa Nomina diligentia ei, qui volurit probe intelligere sanctas literas? No person who desires thoroughly to understand the sacred writings, should undervalue a scrupulous attention to the proper names." - Kennicott's Remarks.

### Verse 19

[¶30] These are the generations of Isaac - This is the history of Isaac and his family. Here the sixth section of the law begins, called תולדת יעחק toledoth yitschak; as the fifth, called חיי שרה chaiye Sarah, which begins with Genesis 23, ends at the preceding verse.

### Verse 21

[¶32] Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife - Isaac and Rebekah had now lived nineteen years together without having a child; for he was forty years old when he married Rebekah, [Gen 25:20], and he was threescore years of age when Jacob and Esau were born, [Gen 25:26]. Hence it is evident they had lived nineteen years together without having a child.

[¶33] The form of the original in this place is worthy of notice: Isaac entreated Jehovah, לנכח אשתו lenochach ishto, directly, purposely, especially, for his wife. Ainsworth thinks the words imply their praying together for this thing; and the rabbins say that "Isaac and Rebekah went on purpose to Mount Moriah, where he had been bound, and prayed together there that they might have a son." God was pleased to exercise the faith of Isaac previous to the birth of Jacob, as he had exercised that of Abraham previous to his own birth.

### Verse 22

[¶35] The children struggled together - יתרצצו yithrotsatsu, they dashed against or bruised each other, there was a violent agitation, so that the mother was apprehensive both of her own and her children's safety; and, supposing this was an uncommon case, she went to inquire of the Lord, as the good women in the present day would go to consult a surgeon or physician; for intercourse with God is not so common now, as it was in those times of great primitive simplicity. There are different opinions concerning the manner in which Rebekah inquired of the Lord. Some think it was by faith and prayer simply; others, that she went to Shem or Melchizedek; but Shem is supposed to have been dead ten years before this time; but as Abraham was yet alive, she might have gone to him, and consulted the Lord through his means. It is most likely that a prophet or priest was applied to on this occasion. It appears she was in considerable perplexity, hence that imperfect speech, If so, why am I thus? the simple meaning of which is probably this; if I must suffer such things, why did I ever wish to have a child? A speech not uncommon to mothers in their first pregnancy.

### Verse 23

[¶37] Two nations are in thy womb - "We have," says Bishop Newton, "in the prophecies delivered respecting the sons of Isaac, ample proof that these prophecies were not meant so much of single persons as of whole nations descended from them; for what was predicted concerning Esau and Jacob was not verified in themselves, but in their posterity. The Edomites were the offspring of Esau, the Israelites were of Jacob; and who but the Author and Giver of life could foresee that two children in the womb would multiply into two nations? Jacob had twelve sons, and their descendants were all united and incorporated into one nation; and what an overruling providence was it that two nations should arise from the two sons only of Isaac! and that they should be two such different nations! The Edomites and Israelites have been from the beginning two such different people in their manners, customs, and religion, as to be at perpetual variance among themselves. The children struggled together in the womb, which was an omen of their future disagreement; and when they grew up to manhood, they manifested very different inclinations. Esau was a cunning hunter, and delighted in the sports of the field; Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents - minding his sheep and his cattle. The religion of the Jews is well known; but whatever the Edomites were at first, in process of time they became idolaters. When Amaziah king of Judah overthrew them, he brought their gods, and set them up to be his gods. The king of Edom having refused a passage to the Israelites through his territories on their return from Egypt, the history of the Edomites afterwards is little more than the history of their wars with the Jews."

[¶38] The one people shall be stronger than the other people - The same author continues to observe, that "for some time the family of Esau was the more powerful of the two, there having been dukes and kings in Edom before there was any king in Israel; but David and his captains made an entire conquest of the Edomites, slew several thousands of them, and compelled the rest to become tributaries, and planted garrisons among them to secure their obedience. In this state of servitude they continued about one hundred and fifty years, without a king of their own, being governed by deputies or viceroys appointed by the kings of Judah; but in the days of Jehoram they revolted, recovered their liberties, and set up a king of their own. Afterwards Amaziah, king of Judah, gave them a total overthrow in the valley of Salt; and Azariah took Elath, a commodious harbor on the Red Sea, from them. Judas Maccabeus also attacked and defeated them with a loss of more than twenty thousand at two different times, and took their chief city Hebron. At last Hyrcanus his nephew took other cities from them, and reduced them to the necessity of leaving their country or embracing the Jewish religion; on which they submitted to be circumcised, and become proselytes to the Jewish religion, and were ever afterwards incorporated into the Jewish Church and nation."

[¶39] The elder shall serve the younger - "This passage," says Dr. Dodd, "serves for a key to explain the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, where the words are quoted; for it proves to a demonstration that this cannot be meant of God's arbitrary predestination of particular persons to eternal happiness or misery, without any regard to their merit or demerit - a doctrine which some have most impiously fathered on God, who is the best of beings, and who cannot possibly hate, far less absolutely doom to misery, any creature that he has made: but that it means only his bestowing greater external favors, or, if you please, higher opportunities for knowing and doing their duty, upon some men, than he does upon others; and that merely according to his own wise purpose, without any regard to their merits or demerits, as having a right to confer greater or smaller degrees or perfection on whom he pleases."

[¶40] The doctrine of unconditional predestination to eternal life and eternal death cannot be supported by the example of God's dealings with Esau and Jacob, or with the Edomites and Israelites. After long reprobation the Edomites were incorporated among the Jews, and have ever since been undistinguishable members in the Jewish Church. The Jews, on the contrary, the elect of God, have been cut off and reprobated, and continue so to this day. If a time should ever come when the Jews shall all believe in Christ Jesus, which is a general opinion, then the Edomites, which are now absorbed among them, shall also become the elect. And even now Isaac finds both his children within the pale of the Jewish Church, equally entitled to the promises of salvation by Christ Jesus, of whom he was the most expressive and the most illustrious type. See the account of Abraham's offering, Genesis 22 (note).

### Verse 24

[¶42] There were twins - תומם thomim, from which comes Thomas, properly interpreted by the word Διδυμος, Didymus, which signifies a twin; so the first person who was called Thomas or Didymus, we may take for granted, had this name from the circumstance of his being a twin.

### Verse 25

[¶44] Red, all over like a hairy garment - This simply means that he was covered all over with red hair or down; and that this must be intended here is sufficiently evident from another part of his history, where Rebekah, in order to make her favourite son Jacob pass for his brother Esau, was obliged to take the skins of kids, and put them upon his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

## 36. Genesis · 36 of 67

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[¶0] They called his name Esau - It is difficult to assign the proper meaning of the original עשו esau or esav; if we derive it from עשה asah it must signify made, performed, and, according to some, perfected; esa in Arabic signifies to make firm or hard, and also to come to man's estate, to grow old. Probably he had this name from his appearing to be more perfect, robust, etc., than his brother.

### Verse 26

[¶2] His name was called Jacob - יעקב Yaccob, from עקב akab, to defraud, deceive, to supplant, i.e., to overthrow a person by tripping up his heels. Hence this name was given to Jacob, because it was found he had laid hold on his brother's heel, which was emblematical of his supplanting Esau, and defrauding him of his birthright.

### Verse 27

[¶4] A man of the field - איש שדה ish sadeh, one who supported himself and family by hunting and by agriculture.

[¶5] Jacob was a plain man - איש תם ish tam, a perfect or upright man; dwelling in tents - subsisting by breeding and tending cattle, which was considered in those early times the most perfect employment; and in this sense the word תם tam, should be here understood, as in its moral meaning it certainly could not be applied to Jacob till after his name was changed, after which time only his character stands fair and unblemished. See [Gen 32:26-30].

### Verse 28

[¶7] Isaac loved Esau - but Rebekah loved Jacob - This is an early proof of unwarrantable parental attachment to one child in preference to another. Isaac loved Esau, and Rebekah loved Jacob; and in consequence of this the interests of the family were divided, and the house set in opposition to itself. The fruits of this unreasonable and foolish attachment were afterwards seen in a long catalogue of both natural and moral evils among the descendants of both families.

### Verse 29

[¶9] Sod pottage - יזד נזיד yazed nazid, he boiled a boiling; and this we are informed, [Gen 25:34], was of עדשים adashim, what the Septuagint render φακος, and we, following them and the Vulgate lens, translate lentils, a sort of pulse. Dr. Shaw casts some light on this passage, speaking of the inhabitants of Barbary. "Beans, lentils, kidney beans, and garvancos," says he, "are the chiefest of their pulse kind; beans, when boiled and stewed with oil and garlic, are the principal food of persons of all distinctions; lentils are dressed in the same manner with beans, dissolving easily into a mass, and making a pottage of a chocolate color. This we find was the red pottage which Esau, from thence called Edom, exchanged for his birthright." Shaw's Travels, p. 140, 4th. edit.

### Verse 30

[¶11] I am faint - It appears from the whole of this transaction, that Esau was so completely exhausted by fatigue that he must have perished had he not obtained some immediate refreshment. He had been either hunting or laboring in the field, and was now returning for the purpose of getting some food, but had been so exhausted that his strength utterly failed before he had time to make the necessary preparations.

### Verse 31

[¶13] Sell me this day thy birthright - What the בחרה bechorah or birthright was, has greatly divided both ancient and modern commentators. It is generally supposed that the following rights were attached to the primogeniture:

[¶14] 1. Authority and superiority over the rest of the family.

[¶15] 2. A double portion of the paternal inheritance.

[¶16] 3. The peculiar benediction of the father.

[¶17] 4. The priesthood, previous to its establishment in the family of Aaron.

[¶18] Calmet controverts most of these rights, and with apparent reason, and seems to think that the double portion of the paternal inheritance was the only incontestable right which the first-born possessed; the others were such as were rather conceded to the first-born, than fixed by any law in the family. However this may be, it appears,

[¶19] 1. That the first-born were peculiarly consecrated to God, [Exo 22:29].

[¶20] 2. Were next in honor to their parents, [Gen 49:3].

[¶21] 3. Had a double portion of their father's goods, [Deu 21:17].

[¶22] 4. Succeeded him in the government of the family or kingdom, [2Chr 21:3].

[¶23] 5. Had the sole right of conducting the service of God, both at the tabernacle and temple; and hence the tribe of Levi, which was taken in lieu of the first-born, had the sole right of administration in the service of God, [Num 8:14-18]; and hence we may presume, had originally a right to the priesthood previous to the giving of the law; but however this might have been, afterwards the priesthood is never reckoned among the privileges of the first-born.

[¶24] That the birthright was a matter of very great importance, there can be no room to doubt; and that it was a transferable property, the transaction here sufficiently proves.

### Verse 34

[¶26] Pottage of lentils - See note [Gen 25:29].

[¶27] Thus Esau despised his birthright - On this account the apostle, [Heb 12:16], calls Esau a profane person, because he had, by this act, alienated from himself and family those spiritual offices connected with the rights of primogeniture. While we condemn Esau for this bad action, (for he should rather have perished than have alienated this right), and while we consider it as a proof that his mind was little affected with Divine or spiritual things, what shall we say of his most unnatural brother Jacob, who refused to let him have a morsel of food to preserve him from death, unless he gave him up his birthright? Surely he who bought it, in such circumstances, was as bad as he who sold it. Thus Jacob verified his right to the name of supplanter, a name which in its first imposition appears to have had no other object in view than the circumstance of his catching his brother by the heel; but all his subsequent conduct proved that it was truly descriptive of the qualities of his mind, as his whole life, till the time his name was changed, (and then he had a change of nature), was a tissue of cunning and deception, the principles of which had been very early instilled into him by a mother whose regard for truth and righteousness appears to have been very superficial. See on Genesis 27 (note).

[¶28] The death of Abraham, recorded in this chapter, naturally calls to mind the virtues and excellences of this extraordinary man. His obedience to the call of God, and faith in his promises, stand supereminent. No wonders, signs, or miraculous displays of the great and terrible God, as Israel required in Egypt, were used or were necessary to cause Abraham to believe and obey. He left his own land, not knowing where he was going, or for what purpose God had called him to remove. Exposed to various hardships, in danger of losing his life, and of witnessing the violation of his wife, he still obeyed and went on; courageous, humane, and disinterested, he cheerfully risked his life for the welfare of others; and, contented with having rescued the captives and avenged the oppressed, he refused to accept even the spoils he had taken from the enemy whom his skill and valor had vanquished. At the same time he considers the excellency of the power to be of God, and acknowledges this by giving to him the tenth of those spoils of which he would reserve nothing for his private use. His obedience to God, in offering up his son Isaac, we have already seen and admired; together with the generosity of his temper, and that respectful decency of conduct towards superiors and inferiors for which he was so peculiarly remarkable; see on Genesis 23 (note). Without disputing with his Maker, or doubting in his heart, he credited every thing that God had spoken; hence he always walked in a plain way. The authority of God was always sufficient for Abraham; he did not weary himself to find reasons for any line of conduct which he knew God had prescribed; it was his duty to obey; the success and the event he left with God. His obedience was as prompt as it was complete. As soon as he hears the voice of God, he girds himself to his work! Not a moment is lost! How rare is such conduct! But should not we do likewise? The present moment and its duties are ours; every past moment was once present; every future will be present; and, while we are thinking on the subject, the present is past, for life is made up of the past and the present. Are our past moments the cause of deep regret and humiliation? Then let us use the present so as not to increase this lamentable cause of our distresses. In other words, let us now believe-love-obey. Regardless of all consequences, let us, like Abraham, follow the directions of God's word, and the openings of his providence, and leave all events to Him who doth all things well.

[¶29] See to what a state of moral excellence the grace of God can exalt a character, when there is simple, implicit faith, and prompt obedience! Abraham walked before God, and Abraham was perfect. Perhaps no human being ever exhibited a fairer, fuller portrait of the perfect man than Abraham. The more I consider the character of this most amiable patriarch, the more I think the saying of Calmet justifiable: "In the life of Abraham," says he, "we find an epitome of the whole law of nature, of the written law, and of the Gospel of Christ. He has manifested in his own person those virtues, for which reason and philosophy could scarcely find out names, when striving to sketch the character of their sophist - wise or perfect man. St. Ambrose very properly observes that 'philosophy itself could not equal, in its descriptions and wishes, what was exemplified by this great man in the whole of his conduct.' Magnus plane vir, quem votis suis philosophia non potuit aequare; denique minus est quod illa finxit quam quod ille gessit. The Law which God gave to Moses, and in which he has proposed the great duties of the law of nature, seems to be a copy of the life of Abraham. This patriarch, without being under the law, has performed the most essential duties it requires; and as to the Gospel, its grand object was that on which he had fixed his eye - that Jesus Whose day he rejoiced to see; and as to its spirit and design, they were wondrously exemplified in that faith which was imputed to him for righteousness, receiving that grace which conformed his whole heart and life to the will of his Maker, and enabled him to persevere unto death. 'Abraham,' says the writer of Ecclesiasticus, 44:20, etc., 'was a great father of many people: in glory was there none like unto him, who kept the law of the Most high, and was in covenant with him. He established the covenant in his flesh, and when he was tried he was found faithful.'" See Calmet.

[¶30] As a son, as a husband, as a father, as a neighbor, as a sovereign, and above all as a man of God, he stands unrivalled; so that under the most exalted and perfect of all dispensations, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he is proposed and recommended as the model and pattern according to which the faith, obedience, and perseverance of the followers of the Messiah are to be formed. Reader, while you admire the man, do not forget the God that made him so great, so good, and so useful. Even Abraham had nothing but what he had received; from the free unmerited mercy of God proceeded all his excellences; but he was a worker together with God, and therefore did not receive the grace of God in vain. Go thou, believe, love, obey, and persevere in like manner.

### Introduction

[¶32] A famine in the land obliges Isaac to leave Beer-sheba and go to Gerar, v. 1. God appears to him, and warns him not to go to Egypt, v. 2. Renews the promises to him which he had made to his father Abraham, vv. 3-5. Isaac dwells at Gerar, v. 6. Being questioned concerning Rebekah, and fearing to lose his life on her account, he calls her his sister, v. 7. Abimelech the king discovers, by certain familiarities which he had noticed between Isaac and Rebekah, that she was his wife, v. 8. Calls Isaac and reproaches him for his insincerity, vv. 9, 10. He gives a strict command to all his people not to molest either Isaac or his wife, v. 11. Isaac applies himself to husbandry and breeding of cattle, and has a great increase, vv. 12-14. Is envied by the Philistines, who stop up the wells he had dug, v. 15. Is desired by Abimelech to remove, v. 16. He obeys, and fixes his tent in the valley of Gerar, v. 17. Opens the wells dug in the days of Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up, v. 18. Digs the well, [Eze 19:1-14], 20; and the well Sitnah, [Eze 20:21]; and the well Rehoboth, [Eze 20:22]. Returns to Beer-sheba, [Eze 20:23]. God appears to him, and renews his promises, [Eze 20:24]. He builds an altar there, pitches his tent, and digs a well, [Eze 20:25]. Abimelech, Ahuzzath, and Phichol, visit him, [Eze 20:26]. Isaac accuses them of unkindness, [Eze 20:27]. They beg him to make a covenant with them, [Eze 20:28], [Eze 20:29]. He makes them a feast, and they bind themselves to each other by an oath, [Eze 20:30], [Eze 20:31]. The well dug by Isaac's servants ([Gen 26:25]) called Shebah, [Gen 26:33]. Esau, at forty years of age, marries two wives of the Hittites, [Gen 26:34], at which Isaac and Rebekah are grieved, [Gen 26:35].

### Verse 1

[¶34] There was a famine - When this happened we cannot tell; it appears to have been after the death of Abraham. Concerning the first famine, see [Gen 12:10].

[¶35] Abimelech - As we know not the time when the famine happened, so we cannot tell whether this was the same Abimelech, Phichol, etc., which are mentioned [Gen 20:1], [Gen 20:2], etc., or the sons or other descendants of these persons.

### Verse 2

[¶37] Go not down into Egypt - As Abraham had taken refuge in that country, it is probable that Isaac was preparing to go thither also; and God, foreseeing that he would there meet with trials, etc., which might prove fatal to his peace or to his piety, warns him not to fulfill his intention.

### Verse 3

[¶39] Sojourn in this land - In Gerar, whither he had gone, [Gen 26:1], and where we find he settled, [Gen 26:6], though the land of Canaan in general might be here intended. That there were serious and important reasons why Isaac should not go to Egypt, we may be fully assured, though they be not assigned here; it is probable that even Isaac himself was not informed why he should not go down to Egypt. I have already supposed that God saw trials in his way which he might not have been able to bear. While a man acknowledges God in all his ways, he will direct all his steps, though he may not choose to give him the reasons of the workings of his providence. Abraham might go safely to Egypt, Isaac might not; in firmness and decision of character there was a wide difference between the two men.

### Verse 4

[¶41] I will make thy seed - as the stars of heaven - A promise often repeated to Abraham, and which has been most amply fulfilled both in its literal and spiritual sense.

### Verse 5

[¶43] Abraham obeyed my voice - מימרי meimeri, my Word. See [Gen 15:1].

[¶44] My charge - משמרתי mishmarti, from שמר shamar, he kept, observed, etc., the ordinances or appointments of God. These were always of two kinds:

## 37. Genesis · 37 of 67

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[¶0] 1. Such as tended to promote moral improvement, the increase of piety, the improvement of the age, etc. And

[¶1] 2. Such as were typical of the promised seed, and the salvation which was to come by him.

[¶2] For commandments, statutes, etc., the reader is particularly desired to refer to [Lev 16:15], etc., where these things are all explained in the alphabetical order of the Hebrew words.

### Verse 7

[¶4] He said, She is my sister - It is very strange that in the same place, and in similar circumstances, Isaac should have denied his wife, precisely as his father had done before him! It is natural to ask, Did Abraham never mention this circumstance to his son? Probably be did not, as he was justly ashamed of his weakness on the occasion - the only blot in his character; the son, therefore, not being forewarned, was not armed against the temptation. It may not be well in general for parents to tell their children of their former failings or vices, as this might lessen their authority or respect, and the children might make a bad use of it in extenuation of their own sins. But there are certain cases, which, from the nature of their circumstances, may often occur, where a candid acknowledgment, with suitable advice, may prevent those children from repeating the evil; but this should be done with great delicacy and caution, lest even the advice itself should serve as an incentive to the evil. I had not known lust, says St. Paul, if the law had not said, Thou shalt not covet. Isaac could not say of Rebekah, as Abraham had done of Sarah, She is my sister; in the case of Abraham this was literally true; it was not so in the case of Isaac, for Rebekah was only his cousin. Besides, though relatives, in the Jewish forms of speaking, are often called brothers and sisters, and the thing may be perfectly proper when this use of the terms is generally known and allowed, yet nothing of this kind can be pleaded here in behalf of Isaac; for he intended that the Gerarites should understand him in the proper sense of the term, and consequently have no suspicion that she was his wife. We have already seen that the proper definition of a lie is any word spoken with the intention to deceive. See [Gen 20:12].

### Verse 8

[¶6] Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife - Whatever may be the precise meaning of the word, it evidently implies that there were liberties taken and freedom used on the occasion, which were not lawful but between man and wife.

### Verse 10

[¶8] Thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us - It is likely that Abimelech might have had some knowledge of God's intentions concerning the family of Abraham, and that it must be kept free from all impure and alien mixtures; and that consequently, had he or any of his people taken Rebekah, the Divine judgment might have fallen upon the land. Abimelech was a good and holy man; and he appears to have considered adultery as a grievous and destructive crime.

### Verse 11

[¶10] He that toucheth - He who injures Isaac or defiles Rebekah shall certainly die for it. Death was the punishment for adultery among the Canaanites, Philistines, and Hebrews. See [Gen 38:24].

### Verse 12

[¶12] Isaac sowed in that land - Being now perfectly free from the fear of evil, he betakes himself to agricultural and pastoral pursuits, in which he has the especial blessing of God, so that his property becomes greatly increased.

[¶13] A hundred-fold - מאה שערים, meah shearim, literally, "A hundred-fold of barley;" and so the Septuagint, ἑκατοστευουσαν κριθην. Perhaps such a crop of this grain was a rare occurrence in Gerar. The words, however, may be taken in a general way, as signifying a very great increase; so they are used by our Lord in the parable of the sower.

### Verse 13

[¶15] The man waxed great - There is a strange and observable recurrence of the same term in the original: ויגדל האיש וילך הלוך וגדל עד כי גדל מאד vaiyigdal haish vaiyelech haloch vegadel ad ki gadal meod, And the man was Great; and he went, going on, and was Great, until that he was exceeding Great. How simple is this language, and yet how forcible!

### Verse 14

[¶17] He had possession of flocks - He who blessed him in the increase of his fields blessed him also in the increase of his flocks; and as he had extensive possessions, so he must have many hands to manage such concerns: therefore it is added, he had great store of servants - he had many domestics, some born in his house, and others purchased by his money.

### Verse 15

[¶19] For all the wells - the Philistines had stopped them - In such countries a good well was a great acquisition; and hence in predatory wars it was usual for either party to fill the wells with earth or sand, in order to distress the enemy. The filling up the wells in this case was a most unprincipled transaction, as they had pledged themselves to Abraham, by a solemn oath, not to injure each other in this or any other respect. See [Gen 21:25-31].

### Verse 16

[¶21] Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we - This is the first instance on record of what was termed among the Greeks ostracism; i.e., the banishment of a person from the state, of whose power, influence, or riches, the people were jealous. There is a remarkable saying of Bacon on this subject, which seems to intimate that he had this very circumstance under his eye: "Public envy is an ostracism that eclipseth men when they grow too great." On this same principle Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites. The Philistines appear to have been jealous of Isaac's growing prosperity, and to have considered it, not as a due reward of his industry and holiness, but as their individual loss, as though his gain was at their expense; therefore they resolved to drive him out, and take his well-cultivated ground, etc., to themselves, and compelled Abimelech to dismiss him, who gave this reason for it, עצמת ממנו atsamta mimmennu, Thou hast obtained much wealth among us, and my people are envious of thee. Is not this the better translation? for it can hardly be supposed that Isaac was "mightier" than the king of whole tribes.

### Verse 18

[¶23] In the days of Abraham - Instead of בימי bimey, in the days, Houbigant contends we should read עבדי abdey, servants. Isaac dug again the wells which the servants of Abraham his father had dug. This reading is supported by the Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate; and it is probably the true one.

### Verse 19

[¶25] A well of springing water - באר מים חיים beer mayim chaiyim, A well of living waters. This is the oriental phrase for a spring, and this is its meaning both in the Old and New Testaments: [Lev 14:5], [Lev 14:50]; [Lev 15:30]; [Num 19:17]; [Sol 4:15]. See also [Joh 4:10-14]; [Joh 7:38]; [Rev 21:6]; [Rev 22:1]. And by these scriptures we find that an unfailing spring was an emblem of the graces and influences of the Spirit of God.

### Verse 21

[¶27] They dug another well - Never did any man more implicitly follow the Divine command, Resist not evil, than Isaac; whenever he found that his work was likely to be a subject of strife and contention, he gave place, and rather chose to suffer wrong than to have his own peace of mind disturbed. Thus he overcame evil with good.

### Verse 24

[¶29] The Lord appeared unto him - He needed especial encouragement when insulted and outraged by the Philistines; for having returned to the place where his noble father had lately died, the remembrance of his wrongs, and the remembrance of his loss, could not fail to afflict his mind; and God immediately appears to comfort and support him in his trials, by a renewal of all his promises.

### Verse 25

[¶31] Builded an altar there - That he might have a place for God's worship, as well as a place for himself and family to dwell in.

[¶32] And called upon the name of the Lord - And invoked in the name of Jehovah. See note on [Gen 12:8]; See note on [Gen 13:15].

### Verse 26

[¶34] Abimelech went to him - When a man's ways please God, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him; so Isaac experienced on this occasion. Whether this was the same Abimelech and Phichol mentioned [Gen 21:22], we cannot tell, it is possible both might have been now alive, provided we suppose them young in the days of Abraham; but it is more likely that Abimelech was a general name of the Gerarite kings, and that Phichol was a name of office.

[¶35] Ahuzzath - The Targum translates this word a company, not considering it as a proper name: "Abimelech and Phichol came with a company of their friends." The Septuagint calls him Οχοζαθ ὁ νυμφαγωγος, Ochozath, the paranymph, he who conducts the bride to the bridegroom's house. Could we depend on the correctness of this version, we might draw the following curious conclusions from it:

[¶36] 1. That this was the son of that Abimelech the friend of Abraham.

[¶37] 2. That he had been lately married, and on this journey brings with him his confidential friend, to whom he had lately entrusted the care of his spouse.

### Verse 27

[¶39] Seeing ye hate me - He was justified in thinking thus, because if they did not injure him, they had connived at their servants doing it.

### Verse 28

[¶41] Let there be now an oath betwixt us - Let us make a covenant by which we shall be mutually bound, and let it be ratified in the most solemn manner.

### Verse 30

[¶43] He made them a feast - Probably on the sacrifice that was offered on the occasion of making this covenant. This was a common custom.

## 38. Genesis · 38 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/38/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/38/#p-N

### Verse 31

[¶1] They rose up be times - Early rising was general among the primitive inhabitants of the world, and this was one cause which contributed greatly to their health and longevity.

### Verse 33

[¶3] He called it Shebah - This was probably the same well which was called Beersheba in the time of Abraham, which the Philistines had filled up, and which the servants of Isaac had reopened. The same name is therefore given to it which it had before, with the addition of the emphatic letter ה he, by which its signification became extended, so that now it signified not merely an oath or full, but satisfaction and abundance.

[¶4] The name of the city is Beer-sheba - This name was given to it a hundred years before this time; but as the well from which it had this name originally was closed up by the Philistines, probably the name of the place was abolished with the well; when therefore Isaac reopened the well, he restored the ancient name of the place.

### Verse 34

[¶6] He took to wife - the daughter, etc. - It is very likely that the wives taken by Esau were daughters of chiefs among the Hittites, and by this union he sought to increase and strengthen his secular power and influence.

### Verse 35

[¶8] Which were a grief of mind - Not the marriage, though that was improper, but the persons; they, by their perverse and evil ways, brought bitterness into the hearts of Isaac and Rebekah. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, and that of Jerusalem, say they were addicted to idol worship, and rebelled against and would not hearken to the instructions either of Isaac or Rebekah. From Canaanites a different conduct could not be reasonably expected. Esau was far from being spiritual, and his wives were wholly carnal.

[¶9] The same reflections which were suggested by Abraham's conduct in denying his wife in Egypt and Gerar, will apply to that of Isaac; but the case of Isaac was much less excusable than that of Abraham. The latter told no falsity; he only through fear suppressed a part of the truth.

[¶10] 1. A good man has a right to expect God's blessing on his honest industry. Isaac sowed, and received a hundred-fold, and he had possession of flocks, etc., for the Lord blessed him. Worldly men, if they pray at all, ask for temporal things: "What shall we eat? what shall we drink? and wherewithal shall we be clothed?" Most of the truly religious people go into another extreme; they forget the body, and ask only for the soul! and yet there are "things requisite and necessary as well for the body as the soul," and things which are only at God's disposal. The body lives for the soul's sake; its life and comfort are in many respects essentially requisite to the salvation of the soul; and therefore the things necessary for its support should be earnestly asked from the God of all grace, the Father of bounty and providence. Ye have not because ye ask not, may be said to many poor, afflicted religious people; and they are afraid to ask lest it should appear mercenary, or that they sought their portion in this life. They should be better taught. Surely to none of these will God give a stone if they ask bread: he who is so liberal of his heavenly blessings will not withhold earthly ones, which are of infinitely less consequence. Reader, expect God's blessing on thy honest industry; pray for it, and believe that God does not love thee less, who hast taken refuge in the same hope, than he loved Isaac. Plead not only his promises, but plead on the precedents he has set before thee. "Lord, thou didst so and so to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to others who trusted in thee; bless my field, bless my flocks, prosper my labor, that I may be able to provide things honest in the sight of all men, and have something to dispense to those who are in want." And will not God hear such prayers? Yea, and answer them too, for he does not willingly afflict the children of men. And we may rest assured that there is more affliction and poverty in the world than either the justice or providence of God requires. There are, however, many who owe their poverty to their want of diligence and economy; they sink down into indolence, and forget that word, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; nor do they consider that by idleness a man is clothed with rags. Be diligent in business and fervent in spirit, and God will withhold from thee no manner of thing that is good.

[¶11] 2. From many examples we find that the wealth of the primitive inhabitants of the world did not consist in gold, silver, or precious stones, but principally in flocks of useful cattle, and the produce of the field. With precious metals and precious stones they were not unacquainted, and the former were sometimes used in purchases, as we have already seen in the case of Abraham buying a field from the children of Heth. But the blessings which God promises are such as spring from the soil. Isaac sowed in the land, and had possessions of flocks and herds, and great store of servants, [Gen 26:12-14]. Commerce, by which nations and individuals so suddenly rise and as suddenly fall, had not been then invented; every man was obliged to acquire property by honest and persevering labor, or be destitute. Lucky hits, fortunate speculations, and adventurous risks, could then have no place; the field must be tilled, the herds watched and fed, and the proper seasons for ploughing, sowing, reaping, and laying up, be carefully regarded and improved. No man, therefore, could grow rich by accident. Isaac waxed great and went forward, and grew until he became very great, [Gen 26:13]. Speculation was of no use, for it could have no object; and consequently many incitements to knavery and to idleness, that bane of the physical and moral health of the body and soul of man, could not show themselves. Happy times! when every man wrought with his hands, and God particularly blessed his honest industry. As he had no luxuries, he had no unnatural and factitious wants, few diseases, and a long life.

[¶12] O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Agricolas!

[¶13] O thrice happy husbandmen! did they but know their own mercies.

[¶14] But has not what is termed commerce produced the reverse of all this? A few are speculators, and the many are comparatively slaves; and slaves, not to enrich themselves, (this is impossible), but to enrich the speculators and adventurers by whom they are employed. Even the farmers become, at least partially, commercial men; and the soil, the fruitful parent of natural wealth, is comparatively disregarded: the consequence is, that the misery of the many, and the luxury of the few, increase; and from both these spring, on the one hand, pride, insolence, contempt of the poor, contempt of God's holy word and commandments, with the long catalogue of crimes which proceed from pampered appetites and unsubdued passions: and on the other, murmuring, repining, discontent, and often insubordination and revolt, the most fell and most destructive of all the evils that can degrade and curse civil society. Hence wars, fightings, and revolutions of states, and public calamities of all kinds. Bad as the world and the times are, men have made them much worse by their unnatural methods of providing for the support of life. When shall men learn that even this is but a subordinate pursuit; and that the cultivator. of the soul in the knowledge, love, and obedience of God, is essentially necessary, not only to future glory, but to present happiness?

### Introduction

[¶16] Isaac, grown old and feeble, and apprehending the approach of death, desires his son Esau to provide some savory meat for him, that having eaten of it he might convey to him the blessing connected with the right of primogeniture, [Gen 27:1-4]. Rebekah hearing of it, relates the matter to Jacob, and directs him how to personate his brother, and by deceiving his father, obtain the blessing, [Gen 27:5-10]. Jacob hesitates, [Gen 27:11], [Gen 27:12]; but being counseled and encouraged by his mother, he at last consents to use the means she prescribes, [Gen 27:13], [Gen 27:14]. Rebekah disguises Jacob, and sends him to personate his brother, [Gen 27:15-17]. Jacob comes to his father, and professes himself to be Esau, [Gen 27:18], [Gen 27:19]. Isaac doubts, questions, and examines him closely, but does not discover the deception, [Gen 27:20-24]. He eats of the savory meat, and confers the blessing upon Jacob, [Gen 27:25-27]. In what the blessing consisted, [Gen 27:28], [Gen 27:29]. Esau arrives from the field with the meat he had gone to provide, and presents himself before his father, [Gen 27:30], [Gen 27:31]. Isaac discovers the fraud of Jacob, and is much affected, [Gen 27:32], [Gen 27:33]. Esau is greatly distressed on hearing that the blessing had been received by another, [Gen 27:34]. Isaac accuses Jacob of deceit, [Gen 27:35]. Esau expostulates, and prays for a blessing, [Gen 27:36]. Isaac describes the blessing which he has already conveyed, [Gen 27:37]. Esau weeps, and earnestly implores a blessing, [Gen 27:38]. Isaac pronounces a blessing on Esau, and prophecies that his posterity should, in process of time, cease to be tributary to the posterity of Jacob, [Gen 27:39], [Gen 27:40]. Esau purposes to kill his brother, [Gen 27:41]. Rebekah hears of it, and counsels Jacob to take refuge with her brother Laban in Padanaram, [Gen 27:42-45]. She professes to be greatly alarmed, lest Jacob should take any of the Canaanites to wife, [Gen 27:41].

### Verse 1

[¶18] Isaac was old - It is conjectured, on good grounds, that Isaac was now about one hundred and seventeen years of age, and Jacob about fifty-seven; though the commonly received opinion makes Isaac one hundred and thirty-seven, and Jacob seventy-seven; but see note on [Gen 31:55], etc.

[¶19] And his eyes were dim - This was probably the effect of that affliction, of what kind we know not, under which Isaac now labored; and from which, as well as from the affliction, he probably recovered, as it is certain he lived forty if not forty-three years after this time, for he lived till the return of Jacob from Padan-aram; [Gen 35:27-29].

### Verse 2

[¶21] I know not the day of my death - From his present weakness he had reason to suppose that his death could not be at any great distance, and therefore would leave no act undone which he believed it his duty to perform. He who lives not in reference to eternity, lives not at all.

### Verse 3

[¶23] Thy weapons - The original word כלי keley signifies vessels and instruments of any kind; and is probably used here for a hunting spear, javelin, sword, etc.

[¶24] Quiver - תלי teli, from תלה talah, to hang or suspend. Had not the Septuagint translated the word φαρετραν, and the Vulgate pharetram, a quiver, I should rather have supposed some kind of shield was meant; but either can be suspended on the arm or from the shoulder. Some think a sword is meant; and because the original signifies to hang or suspend, hence they think is derived our word hanger, so called because it is generally worn in a pendent posture; but the word hanger did not exist in our language previously to the Crusades, and we have evidently derived it from the Persian khanjar, a poniard or dagger, the use of which, not only in battles, but in private assassinations, was well known.

### Verse 4

[¶26] Savory meat - מטעמים matammim, from טעם taam, to taste or relish; how dressed we know not, but its name declares its nature.

[¶27] That I may eat - The blessing which Isaac was to confer on his son was a species of Divine right, and must be communicated with appropriate ceremonies. As eating and drinking were used among the Asiatics on almost all religious occasions, and especially in making and confirming covenants, it is reasonable to suppose that something of this kind was essentially necessary on this occasion, and that Isaac could not convey the right till he had eaten of the meat provided for the purpose by him who was to receive the blessing. As Isaac was now old, and in a feeble and languishing condition, it was necessary that the flesh used on this occasion should be prepared so as to invite the appetite, that a sufficiency of it might be taken to revive and recruit his drooping strength, that he might be the better able to go through the whole of this ceremony.

[¶28] This seems to be the sole reason why savory meat is so particularly mentioned in the text. When we consider, 1. That no covenant was deemed binding unless the parties had eaten together; 2. That to convey this blessing some rite of this kind was necessary; and, 3. That Isaac's strength was now greatly exhausted, insomuch that he supposed himself to be dying; we shall at once see why meat was required on this occasion, and why that meat was to be prepared so as to deserve the epithet of savory.

[¶29] As I believe this to be the true sense of the place, I do not trouble my readers with interpretations which I suppose to be either exceptionable or false.

### Verse 5

[¶31] And Rebekah heard - And was determined, if possible, to frustrate the design of Isaac, and procure the blessing for her favorite son. Some pretend that she received a Divine inspiration to the purpose; but if she had she needed not to have recourse to deceit, to help forward the accomplishment. Isaac, on being informed, would have had too much piety not to prefer the will of his Maker to his own partiality for his eldest son; but Rebekah had nothing of the kind to plead, and therefore had recourse to the most exceptionable means to accomplish her ends.

### Verse 12

[¶33] I shall bring a curse upon me - For even in those early times the spirit of that law was understood, [Deu 27:18] : Cursed is he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way; and Jacob seems to have possessed at this time a more tender conscience than his mother.

### Verse 13

[¶35] Upon me be thy curse, my son - Onkelos gives this a curious turn: It has been revealed to me by prophecy that the curses will not come upon thee, my son. What a dreadful responsibility did this woman take upon her at this time! The sacred writer states the facts as they were, and we may depend on the truth of the statement; but he nowhere says that God would have any man to copy this conduct. He often relates facts and sayings which he never recommends.

### Verse 15

[¶37] Goodly raiment - Mr. Ainsworth has a sensible note on this place. "The priest in the law had holy garments to minister in, [Exo 28:2-4], which the Septuagint there and in this place term την στολην, The robe, and στολην ἁγιαν, the holy robe. Whether the first-born, before the law, had such to minister in is not certain, but it is probable by this example; for had they been common garments, why did not Esau himself, or his wives, keep them? But being, in all likelihood, holy robes, received from their ancestors, the mother of the family kept them in sweet chests from moths and the like, whereupon it is said, [Gen 27:27], Isaac smelled the smell of his garments." The opinion of Ainsworth is followed by many critics.

### Verse 19

[¶39] I am Esau thy first-born - Here are many palpable falsehoods, and such as should neither be imitated nor excused. "Jacob," says Calmet, "imposes on his father in three different ways. 1. By his words: I am thy first-born Esau. 2. By his actions; he gives him kids' flesh for venison, and says he had executed his orders, and got it by hunting. 3. By his clothing; he puts on Esau's garments, and the kids' skins upon his hands and the smooth of his neck. In short, he made use of every species of deception that could be practiced on the occasion, in order to accomplish his ends." To attempt to palliate or find excuses for such conduct, instead of serving, disserves the cause of religion and truth. Men have labored, not only to excuse all this conduct of Rebekah and Jacob, but even to show that it was consistent, and that the whole was according to the mind and will of God!

[¶40] Non tali auxilio, non defensoribus istis

[¶41] The cause of God and truth is under no obligation to such defenders; their hands are more unhallowed than those of Uzzah; and however the bearers may stumble, the ark of God requires not their support. It was the design of God that the elder should serve the younger, and he would have brought it about in the way of his own wise and just providence; but means such as here used he could neither sanction nor recommend.

### Verse 23

[¶43] And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy - From this circumstance we may learn that Isaac's sense of feeling was much impaired by his present malady. When he could not discern the skin of a kid from the flesh of his son, we see that he was, through his infirmity, in a fit state to be imposed on by the deceit of his wife, and the cunning of his younger son.

### Verse 27

[¶45] The smell of my son is as the smell of a field - The smell of these garments, the goodly raiment which had been laid up in the house, was probably occasioned by some aromatic herbs, which we may naturally suppose were laid up with the clothes; a custom which prevails in many countries to the present day. Thyme, lavender, etc., are often deposited in wardrobes, to communicate an agreeable scent, and under the supposition that the moths are thereby prevented from fretting the garments. I have often seen the leaves of aromatic plants, and sometimes whole sprigs, put in eastern MSS., to communicate a pleasant smell, and to prevent the worms from destroying them. Persons going from Europe to the East Indies put pieces of Russia leather among their clothes for the same purpose. Such a smell would lead Isaac's recollection to the fields where aromatic plants grew in abundance, and where he had often been regaled by the scent.

## 39. Genesis · 39 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/39/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/39/#p-N

### Verse 28

[¶1] God give thee of the dew of heaven - Bp. Newton's view of these predictions is so correct and appropriate, as to leave no wish for any thing farther on the subject. "It is here foretold, and in [Gen 27:39], of these two brethren, that as to situation, and other temporal advantages, they should be much alike. It was said to Jacob: God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; and much the same is said to Esau, [Gen 27:39] : Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. The spiritual blessing, or the promise of the blessed seed, could be given only to One; but temporal good things might be imparted to both. Mount Seir, and the adjacent country, was at first in the possession of the Edomites; they afterwards extended themselves farther into Arabia, and into the southern parts of Judea. But wherever they were situated, we find in fact that the Edomites, in temporal advantages, were little inferior to the Israelites. Esau had cattle and beasts and substance in abundance, and he went to dwell in Seir of his own accord; but he would hardly have removed thither with so many cattle, had it been such a barren and desolate country as some would represent it. The Edomites had dukes and kings reigning over them, while the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. When the Israelites, on their return, desired leave to pass through the territories of Edom, it appears that the country abounded with Fruitful Fields and Vineyards: Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country; we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells; [Num 20:17]. And the prophecy of Malachi, which is generally alleged as a proof of the barrenness of the country, is rather a proof of the contrary: I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness, [Mal 1:3]; for this implies that the country was fruitful before, and that its present unfruitfulness was rather an effect of war, than any natural defect in the soil. If the country is unfruitful now, neither is Judea what it was formerly." As there was but little rain in Judea, except what was termed the early rain, which fell about the beginning of spring, and the latter rain, which fell about September, the lack of this was supplied by the copious dews which fell both morning and evening, or rather through the whole of the night. And we may judge, says Calmet, of the abundance of those dews by what fell on Gideon's fleece, [Jdg 6:38], which being wrung filled a bowl. And Hushal compares an army ready to fall upon its enemies to a dew falling on the ground, [2Sam 17:12], which gives us the idea that this fluid fell in great profusion, so as to saturate every thing. Travellers in these countries assure us that the dews fall there in an extraordinary abundance.

[¶2] The fatness of the earth - What Homer calls ουθαρ αρουρης, Ilias ix., 141, and Virgil uber glebae, Aeneid i., 531, both signifying a soil naturally fertile. Under this, therefore, and the former expressions, Isaac wishes his son all the blessings which a plentiful country can produce; for, as Le Clerc rightly observes, if the dews and seasonable rains of heaven fall upon a fruitful soil, nothing but human industry is wanting to the plentiful enjoyment of all temporal good things. Hence they are represented in the Scripture as emblems of prosperity, of plenty, and of the blessing of God, [Deu 33:13], [Deu 33:28]; [Mic 5:7]; [Zac 8:12]; and, on the other hand, the withholding of these denotes barrenness, distress, and the curse of God; [2Sam 1:21]. See Dodd.

### Verse 29

[¶4] Let people serve thee - "However alike their temporal advantages were to each other," says Bp. Newton, "in all spiritual gifts and graces the younger brother was to have the superiority, was to be the happy instrument of conveying the blessing to all nations: In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed; and to this are to be referred, in their full force, those expressions: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. The same promise was made to Abraham in the name of God: I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, [Gen 12:3]; and it is here repeated to Jacob, and thus paraphrased in the Jerusalem Targum: 'He who curseth thee shall be cursed as Balaam the son of Beor; and he who blesseth thee shall be blessed as Moses the prophet, the lawgiver of Israel.' It appears that Jacob was, on the whole, a man of more religion, and believed the Divine promises more, than Esau. The posterity of Jacob likewise preserved the true religion, and the worship of one God, while the Edomites were sunk in idolatry; and of the seed of Jacob was born at last the Savior of the world. This was the peculiar privilege and advantage of Jacob, to be the happy instrument of conveying these blessings to all nations. This was his greatest superiority over Esau; and in this sense St. Paul understood and applied the prophecy: The elder shall serve the younger, [Rom 9:12]. The Christ, the Savior of the world, was to be born of some one family; and Jacob's was preferred to Esau's, out of the good pleasure of Almighty God, who is certainly the best judge of fitness and expedience, and has undoubted right to dispense his favors as he shall see proper; for he says to Moses, as the apostle proceeds to argue, [Rom 9:15]. 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.' And when the Gentiles were converted to Christianity, the prophecy was fulfilled literally: Let people serve thee, and let nations bow down to thee; and will be more amply fulfilled when the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved."

### Verse 33

[¶6] And Isaac trembled - The marginal reading is very literal and proper, And Isaac trembled with a great trembling greatly. And this shows the deep concern he felt for his own deception, and the iniquity of the means by which it had been brought about. Though Isaac must have heard of that which God had spoken to Rebekah, The elder shall serve the younger, and could never have wished to reverse this Divine purpose; yet he might certainly think that the spiritual blessing might be conveyed to Esau, and by him to all the nations of the earth, notwithstanding the superiority of secular dominion on the other side.

[¶7] Yea, and he shall be blessed - From what is said in this verse, collated with [Heb 12:17], we see how binding the conveyance of the birthright was when communicated with the rites already mentioned. When Isaac found that he had been deceived by Jacob, he certainly would have reversed the blessing if he could; but as it had been conveyed in the sacramental way this was impossible. I have blessed him, says he, yea, and he must, or will, be blessed. Hence it is said by the apostle. Esau found no place for repentance, μετανοιας γαρ τοπον ουχ εὑρε, no place for change of mind or purpose in his father, though he sought it carefully with tears. The father could not reverse it because the grant had already been made and confirmed. But this had nothing to do with the final salvation of poor outwitted Esau, nor indeed with that of his unnatural brother.

### Verse 35

[¶9] Hath taken away thy blessing - This blessing, which was a different thing from the birthright, seems to consist of two parts:

[¶10] 1. The dominion, generally and finally, over the other part of the family; and,

[¶11] 2. Being the progenitor of the Messiah.

[¶12] But the former is more explicitly declared than the latter. See note on [Gen 25:31].

### Verse 36

[¶14] Is not he rightly named Jacob? - See note on [Gen 25:26].

[¶15] He took away my birthright - So he might say with considerable propriety; for though he sold it to Jacob, yet as Jacob had taken advantage of his perishing situation, he considered the act as a species of robbery.

### Verse 37

[¶17] I have made him thy lord - See note on [Gen 27:28].

### Verse 40

[¶19] By thy sword shalt thou live - This does not absolutely mean that the Edomites should have constant wars; but that they should be of a fierce and warlike disposition, gaining their sustenance by hunting, and by predatory excursions upon the possessions of others. Bishop Newton speaks on this subject with his usual good sense and judgment: "The elder branch, it is here foretold, should delight more in war and violence, but yet should be subdued by the younger. By thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. Esau might be said to live much by the sword; for he was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. He and his children got possession of Mount Seir by force and violence, expelling from thence the Horites, the former inhabitants. By what means they spread themselves farther among the Arabians is not known; but it appears that upon a sedition and separation several of the Edomites came and seized upon the south-west parts of Judea, during the Babylonish captivity, and settled there ever after. Before and after this they were almost continually at war with the Jews; upon every occasion they were ready to join with their enemies; and when Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, they encouraged him utterly to destroy the city, saying, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundations thereof. [Psa 137:7]. And even long after they were subdued by the Jews, they retained the same martial spirit; for Josephus in his time gives them the character of 'a turbulent and disorderly nation, always erect to commotions, and rejoicing in changes; at the least adulation of those who beseech them, beginning war, and hasting to battles as to a feast.' And a little before the last siege of Jerusalem they came, at the entreaty of the Zealots, to assist them against the priests and people; and there, together with the Zealots, committed unheard-of cruelties, and barbarously murdered Annas, the high priest, from whose death Josephus dates the destruction of the city." See Dr. Dodd.

[¶20] And - when thou shalt have the dominion - It is here foretold that there was to be a time when the elder was to have dominion and shake off the yoke of the younger. The word תריד tarid, which we translate have dominion, is rather of doubtful meaning, as it may be deduced from three different roots, ירד yarad, to descend, to be brought down or brought low; דרה radah, to obtain rule or have dominion; and רוד rud, to complain; meaning either that when reduced very low God would magnify his power in their behalf, and deliver them from the yoke of their brethren; or when they should be increased so as to venture to set up a king over them, or when they mourned for their transgressions, God would turn their captivity. The Jerusalem Targum gives the words the following turn: "When the sons of Jacob attend to the law and observe the precepts, they shall impose the yoke of servitude upon thy neck; but when they shall turn away themselves from studying the law and neglect the precepts, thou shalt break off the yoke of servitude from thy neck." "It was David who imposed the yoke, and at that time the Jewish people observed the law; but the yoke was very galling to the Edomites from the first; and towards the end of Solomon's reign Hadad, the Edomite, of the blood royal, who had been carried into Egypt from his childhood, returned into his own country, and raised some disturbances, but was not able to recover his throne, his subjects being over-awed by the garrisons which David had placed among them; but in the reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah, and made themselves a king. Jehoram made some attempts to subdue them again, but could not prevail; so the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day, [2Chr 21:8], [2Chr 21:10], and hereby this part of the prophecy was fulfilled about nine hundred years after it was delivered." See Bishop Newton. "Thus," says Bishop Newton, "have we traced, in our notes on this and the25th chapter, the accomplishment of this prophecy from the beginning; and we find that the nation of the Edomites has at several times been conquered by and made tributary to the Jews, but never the nation of the Jews to the Edomites; and the Jews have been the more considerable people, more known in the world, and more famous in history. We know indeed little more of the history of the Edomites than as it is connected with that of the Jews; and where is the name or nation now? They were swallowed up and lost, partly among the Nabathean Arabs, and partly among the Jews; and the very name, as Dr. Prideaux has observed, was abolished and disused about the end of the first century of the Christian era. Thus were they rewarded for insulting and oppressing their brethren the Jews; and hereby other prophecies were fulfilled, viz., [Jer 49:7], etc.; [Eze 25:12], etc.; [Joe 3:19]; [Amo 1:11], etc.; and particularly Obadiah; for at this day we see the Jews subsisting as a distinct people, while Edom is no more, agreeably to the words of Obadiah, [Oba 1:10] : For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, in the return of his posterity from Egypt, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. And again, [Oba 1:18] : There shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it. In what a most extensive and circumstantial manner has God fulfilled all these predictions! and what a proof is this of the Divine inspiration of the Pentateuch, and the omniscience of God!"

### Verse 41

[¶22] The days of mourning for my father are at hand - Such was the state of Isaac's health at that time, though he lived more than forty years afterwards, that his death was expected by all; and Esau thought that would be a favorable time for him to avenge himself on his brother Jacob, as, according to the custom of the times, the sons were always present at the burial of the father. Ishmael came from his own country to assist Isaac to bury Abraham; and both Jacob and Esau assisted in burying their father Isaac, but the enmity between them had happily subsided long before that time.

### Verse 42

[¶24] Doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee - מתנחם לך mithnachem lecha, which Houbigant renders cogitat super te, he thinks or meditates to kill thee. This sense is natural enough here, but it does not appear to be the meaning of the original; nor does Houbigant himself give it this sense, in his Racines Hebraiques. There is no doubt that Esau, in his hatred to his brother, felt himself pleased with the thought that he should soon have the opportunity of avenging his wrongs.

### Verse 44

[¶26] Tarry with him a few days - It was probably forty years before he returned, and it is likely Rebekah saw him no more; for it is the general opinion of the Jewish rabbins that she died before Jacob's return from Padan-aram, whether the period of his stay be considered twenty or forty years. See note on [Gen 31:55], etc.

### Verse 45

[¶28] Why should I be deprived also of you both - If Esau should kill Jacob, then the nearest akin to Jacob, who was by the patriarchal law, [Gen 9:6], the avenger of blood, would kill Esau; and both these deaths might possibly take place in the same day. This appears to be the meaning of Rebekah. Those who are ever endeavoring to sanctify the means by the end, are full of perplexity and distress. God will not give his blessing to even a Divine service, if not done in his own way, on principles of truth and righteousness. Rebekah and her son would take the means out of God's hands; they compassed themselves with their own sparks, and warmed themselves with their own fire; and this had they at the hand of God, they lay down in sorrow. God would have brought about his designs in a way consistent with his own perfections; for he had fully determined that the elder should serve the younger, and that the Messiah should spring not from the family of Esau but from that of Jacob; and needed not the cunning craftiness or deceits of men to accomplish his purposes. Yet in his mercy he overruled all these circumstances, and produced good, where things, if left to their own operations and issues, would have produced nothing but evil. However, after this reprehensible transaction, we hear no more of Rebekah. The Holy Spirit mentions her no more, her burial excepted, [Gen 49:31]. See note on [Gen 35:8].

### Verse 46

[¶30] I am weary of my life - It is very likely that Rebekah kept many of the circumstances related above from the knowledge of Isaac; but as Jacob could not go to Padan-aram without his knowledge, she appears here quite in her own character, framing an excuse for his departure, and concealing the true cause. Abraham had been solicitous to get a wife for his son Isaac from a branch of his own family; hence she was brought from Syria. She is now afraid, or pretends to be afraid, that her son Jacob will marry among the Hittites, as Esau had done; and therefore makes this to Isaac the ostensible reason why Jacob should immediately go to Padan-aram, that he might get a wife there. Isaac, not knowing the true cause of sending him away, readily falls in with Rebekah's proposal, and immediately calls Jacob, gives him suitable directions and his blessing, and sends him away. This view of the subject makes all consistent and natural; and we see at once the reason of the abrupt speech contained in this verse, which should be placed at the beginning of the following chapter.

[¶31] 1. In the preceding notes I have endeavored to represent things simply as they were. I have not copied the manner of many commentators, who have labored to vindicate the character of Jacob and his mother in the transactions here recorded. As I fear God, and wish to follow him, I dare not bless what he hath not blessed, nor curse what he hath not cursed. I consider the whole of the conduct both of Rebekah and Jacob in some respects deeply criminal, and in all highly exceptionable. And the impartial relation of the facts contained in this and the 25th chapter, gives me the fullest evidence of the truth and authenticity of the sacred original. How impartial is the history that God writes! We may see, from several commentators, what man would have done, had he had the same facts to relate. The history given by God details as well the vices as the virtues of those who are its subjects. How widely different from that in the Bible is the biography of the present day! Virtuous acts that were never performed, voluntary privations which were never borne, piety which was never felt, and in a word lives which were never lived, are the principal subjects of our biographical relations. These may be well termed the Lives of the Saints, for to these are attributed all the virtues which can adorn the human character, with scarcely a failing or a blemish; while on the other hand, those in general mentioned in the sacred writings stand marked with deep shades. What is the inference which a reflecting mind, acquainted with human nature, draws from a comparison of the biography of the Scriptures with that of uninspired writers? The inference is this - the Scripture history is natural, is probable, bears all the characteristics of veracity, narrates circumstances which seem to make against its own honor, yet dwells on them, and often seeks occasion to Repeat them. It is true! infallibly true! In this conclusion common sense, reason, and criticism join. On the other hand, of biography in general we must say that it is often unnatural, improbable; is destitute of many of the essential characteristics of truth; studiously avoids mentioning those circumstances which are dishonorable to its subject; ardently endeavors either to cast those which it cannot wholly hide into deep shades, or sublime them into virtues. This is notorious, and we need not go far for numerous examples. From these facts a reflecting mind will draw this general conclusion - an impartial history, in every respect true, can be expected only from God himself.

[¶32] 2. These should be only preliminary observations to an extended examination of the characters and conduct of Rebekah and her two sons; but this in detail would be an ungracious task, and I wish only to draw the reader's attention to what may, under the blessing of God, promote his moral good. No pious man can read the chapter before him without emotions of grief and pain. A mother teaches her favorite son to cheat and defraud his brother, deceive his father, and tell the most execrable lies! And God, the just, the impartial God relates all the circumstances in the most ample and minute detail! I have already hinted that this is a strong proof of the authenticity of the sacred book. Had the Bible been the work of an impostor, a single trait of this history had never appeared. God, it is true, had purposed that the elder should serve the younger; but never designed that the supremacy should be brought about in this way. Had Jacob's unprincipled mother left the matter in the bands of God's providence, her favorite son would have had the precedency in such a way as would not only have manifested the justice and holiness of God, but would have been both honorable and lasting to Himself. He got the birthright, and he got the blessing; and how little benefit did he personally derive from either! What was his life from this time till his return from Padan-aram? A mere tissue of vexations, disappointments, and calamities. Men may endeavor to palliate the iniquity of these transactions; but this must proceed either from weakness or mistaken zeal. God has sufficiently marked the whole with his disapprobation.

[¶33] 3. The enmity which Esau felt against his brother Jacob seems to have been transmitted to all his posterity; and doubtless the matters of the birthright and the blessing were the grounds on which that perpetual enmity was kept up between the descendants of both families, the Edomites and the Israelites. So unfortunate is an ancient family grudge, founded on the opinion that an injury has been done by one of the branches of the family, in a period no matter how remote, provided its operation still continues, and certain secular privations to one side be the result. How possible it is to keep feuds of this kind alive to any assignable period, the state of a neighboring island sufficiently proves; and on the subject in question, the bloody contentions of the two houses of York and Lancaster in this nation are no contemptible comment. The facts, however, relative to this point, may be summed up in a few words. 1. The descendants of Jacob were peculiarly favored by God. 2. They generally had the dominion, and were ever reputed superior in every respect to the Edomites. 3. The Edomites were generally tributary to the Israelites. 4. They often revolted, and sometimes succeeded so far in their revolts as to become an independent people. 5. The Jews were never subjected to the Edomites. 6. As in the case between Esau and Jacob, who after long enmity were reconciled, so were the Edomites and the Jews, and at length they became one people. 7. The Edomites, as a nation, are now totally extinct; and the Jews still continue as a distinct people from all the inhabitants of the earth! So exactly have all the words of God, which he has spoken by his prophets, been fulfilled!

[¶34] 4. On the blessings pronounced on Jacob and Esau, these questions may naturally be asked. 1. Was there any thing in these blessings of such a spiritual nature as to affect the eternal interests of either? Certainly there was not, at least as far as might absolutely involve the salvation of the one, or the perdition of the other 2. Was not the blessing pronounced on Esau as good as that pronounced on Jacob, the mere temporary lordship, and being the progenitor of the Messiah, excepted? So it evidently appears. 3. If the blessings had referred to their eternal states, had not Esau as fair a prospect for endless glory as his unfeeling brother? Justice and mercy both say - Yes. The truth is, it was their posterity, and not themselves, that were the objects of these blessings. Jacob, personally, gained no benefit; Esau, personally, sustained no loss.

### Introduction

[¶36] Isaac directs Jacob to take a wife from the family of Laban, [Gen 28:1], [Gen 28:2]; blesses and sends him away, [Gen 28:3], [Gen 28:4]. Jacob begins his journey, [Gen 28:5]. Esau, perceiving that the daughters of Canaan were not pleasing to his parents, and that Jacob obeyed them in going to get a wife of his own kindred, [Gen 28:6-8], went and took to wife Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael his father's brother, [Gen 28:9]. Jacob, in his journey towards Haran, came to a certain place, (Luz, [Gen 28:19]), where he lodged all night, [Gen 28:10], [Gen 28:11]. He sees in a dream a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, on which he beholds the angels of God ascending and descending, [Gen 28:12]. God appears above this ladder, and renews those promises which he had made to Abraham and to Isaac, [Gen 28:13], [Gen 28:14]; promises Jacob personal protection and a safe return to his own country, [Gen 28:15]. Jacob awakes, and makes reflections upon his dream, [Gen 28:16], [Gen 28:17]. Sets up one of the stones he had for his pillow, and pours oil on it, and calls the place Beth-el, [Gen 28:18], [Gen 28:19]. Makes a vow that if God will preserve him in his journey, and bring him back in safety, the stone should be God's house, and that he would give him the tenths of all that he should have, [Gen 28:20-22].

### Verse 1

[¶38] And Isaac called Jacob - See note on [Gen 27:46].

[¶39] And blessed him - Now voluntarily and cheerfully confirmed to him the blessing, which he had before obtained through subtlety. It was necessary that he should have this confirmation previously to his departure; else, considering the way in which he had obtained both the birthright and the blessing, he might be doubtful, according to his own words, whether he might not have got a curse instead of a blessing. As the blessing now pronounced on Jacob was obtained without any deception on his part, it is likely that it produced a salutary effect upon his mind, might have led him to confession of his sin, and prepared his heart for those discoveries of God's goodness with which he was favored at Luz.

### Verse 2

[¶41] Go to Padan-aram - This mission, in its spirit and design, is nearly the same as that in Genesis 24 (note). There have been several ingenious conjectures concerning the retinue which Jacob had, or might have had, for his journey; and by some he has been supposed to have been well attended. Of this nothing is mentioned here, and the reverse seems to be intimated elsewhere. It appears, from [Gen 28:11], that he lodged in the open air, with a stone for his pillow; and from [Gen 32:10], that he went on foot with his staff in his hand; nor is there even the most indirect mention of any attendants, nor is it probable there were any. He no doubt took provisions with him sufficient to carry him to the nearest encampment or village on the way, where he would naturally recruit his bread and water to carry him to the next stage, and so on. The oil that he poured on the pillar might be a little of that which he had brought for his own use, and can be no rational argument of his having a stock of provisions, servants, camels, etc., for which it has been gravely brought. He had God alone with him.

### Verse 3

[¶43] That thou mayest be a multitude of people - לקהל עמים likhal ammim. There is something very remarkable in the original words: they signify literally for an assembly, congregation, or church of peoples; referring no doubt to the Jewish Church in the wilderness, but more particularly to the Christian Church, composed of every kindred, and nation, and people, and tongue. This is one essential part of the blessing of Abraham. See [Gen 28:4].

## 40. Genesis · 40 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/40/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/40/#p-N

### Verse 4

[¶1] Give thee the blessing of Abraham - May he confirm the inheritance with all its attendant blessings to thee, to the exclusion of Esau; as he did to me, to the exclusion of Ishmael. But, according to St. Paul, much more than this is certainly intended here, for it appears, from [Gal 3:6-14], that the blessing of Abraham, which is to come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, comprises the whole doctrine of justification by faith, and its attendant privileges, viz., redemption from the curse of the law, remission of sins, and the promise of the Holy Spirit, including the constitution and establishment of the Christian Church.

### Verse 5

[¶3] Bethuel the Syrian - Literally the Aramean, so called, not because he was of the race of Aram the son of Shem, but because he dwelt in that country which had been formerly possessed by the descendants of Aram.

### Verse 9

[¶5] Then went Esau unto Ishmael - Those who are apt to take every thing by the wrong handle, and who think it was utterly impossible for Esau to do any right action, have classed his taking a daughter of Ishmael among his crimes; whereas there is nothing more plain than that he did this with a sincere desire to obey and please his parents. Having heard the pious advice which Isaac gave to Jacob, he therefore went and took a wife from the family of his grandfather Abraham, as Jacob was desired to do out of the family of his maternal uncle Laban. Mahalath, whom he took to wife, stood in the same degree of relationship to Isaac his father as Rachel did to his mother Rebekah. Esau married his father's niece; Jacob married his mother's niece. It was therefore most obviously to please his parents that Esau took this additional wife. It is supposed that Ishmael must have been dead thirteen or fourteen years before this time, and that going to Ishmael signifies only going to the family of Ishmael. If we follow the common computation, and allow that Isaac was now about one hundred and thirty-six or one hundred and thirty-seven years of age, and Jacob seventy-seven, and as Ishmael died in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of his age, which according to the common computation was the one hundred and twenty-third of Isaac, then Ishmael must have been dead about fourteen years. But if we allow the ingenious reasoning of Mr. Skinner and Dr. Kennicott, that Jacob was at this time only fifty-seven years of age, and Isaac consequently only one hundred and seventeen, it will appear that Ishmael did not die till six years after this period; and hence with propriety it might be said, Esau went unto Ishmael, and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael to be his wife. See note on [Gen 26:34], etc.

### Verse 11

[¶7] A certain place, and tarried there - From [Gen 28:19], we find this certain place was Luz, or some part of its vicinity. Jacob had probably intended to reach Luz; but the sun being set, and night coming on, he either could not reach the city, or he might suspect the inhabitants, and rather prefer the open field, as he must have heard of the character and conduct of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. Or the gates might be shut by the time he reached it, which would prevent his admission; for it frequently happens, to the present day, that travelers not reaching a city in the eastern countries previously to the shutting of the gates, are obliged to lodge under the walls all night, as when once shut they refuse to open them till the next day. This was probably Jacob's case.

[¶8] He took of the stones - He took one of the stones that were in that place: from [Gen 28:18] we find it was one stone only which he had for his pillow. Luz was about forty-eight miles distant from Beer-sheba; too great a journey for one day, through what we may conceive very unready roads.

### Verse 12

[¶10] He dreamed, and behold a ladder - A multitude of fanciful things have been spoken of Jacob's vision of the ladder, and its signification. It might have several designs, as God chooses to accomplish the greatest number of ends by the fewest and simplest means possible. 1. It is very likely that its primary design was to point out the providence of God, by which he watches over and regulates all terrestrial things; for nothing is left to merely natural causes; a heavenly agency pervades, actuates, and directs all. In his present circumstances it was highly necessary that Jacob should have a clear and distinct view of this subject, that he might be the better prepared to meet all occurrences with the conviction that all was working together for his good. 2. It might be intended also to point out the intercourse between heaven and earth, and the connection of both worlds by the means of angelic ministry. That this is fact we learn from many histories in the Old Testament; and it is a doctrine that is unequivocally taught in the New: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? 3. It was probably a type of Christ, in whom both worlds meet, and in whom the Divine and human nature are conjoined. The Ladder was set up on the Earth, and the Top of it reached to Heaven; for God was manifested in the Flesh, and in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Nothing could be a more expressive emblem of the incarnation and its effects; Jesus Christ is the grand connecting medium between heaven and earth, and between God and man. By him God comes down to man; through him man ascends to God. It appears that our Lord applies the vision in this way himself, first, In that remarkable speech to Nathanael, Hereafter ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man, [Joh 1:51]. Secondly, in his speech to Thomas, [Joh 14:6] : I am the Way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.

### Verse 13

[¶12] I am the Lord God of Abraham - Here God confirms to him the blessing of Abraham, for which Isaac had prayed, [Gen 28:3], [Gen 28:4].

### Verse 14

[¶14] Thy seed shall be as the dust - The people that shall descend from thee shall be extremely numerous, and in thee and thy seed - the Lord Jesus descending from thee, according to the flesh, shall all the families of the earth - not only all of thy race, but all the other families or tribes of mankind which have not proceeded from any branch of the Abrahamic family, be blessed; for Jesus Christ by the grace of God tasted death For Every Man, [Heb 2:9].

### Verse 15

[¶16] And, behold, I am with thee - For I fill the heavens and the earth. "My Word shall be thy help." - Targum. And will keep thee in all places, εν τῃ ὁδῳ πασῃ, in all this way - Septuagint. I shall direct, help, and support thee in a peculiar manner, in thy present journey, be with thee while thou sojournest with thy uncle, and will bring thee again into this land; so that in all thy concerns thou mayest consider thyself under my especial providence, for I will not leave thee. Thy descendants also shall be my peculiar people, whom I shall continue to preserve as such until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of - until the Messiah shall be born of thy race, and all the families of the earth - the Gentiles, be blessed through thee; the Gospel being preached to them, and they, with the believing Jews, made One Fold under One Shepherd, and one Bishop or Overseer of souls. And this circumstantial promise has been literally and punctually fulfilled.

### Verse 16

[¶18] The Lord is in this place; and I knew it not - That is, God has made this place his peculiar residence; it is a place in which he meets with and reveals himself to his followers. Jacob might have supposed that this place had been consecrated to God. And it has already been supposed that, his mind having been brought into a humble frame, he was prepared to hold communion with his Maker.

### Verse 17

[¶20] How dreadful is this place! - The appearance of the ladder, the angels, and the Divine glory at the top of the ladder, must have left deep, solemn, and even awful impressions on the mind of Jacob; and hence the exclamation in the text, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God - The Chaldee gives this place a curious turn: "This is not a common place, but a place in which God delights; and opposite to this place is the gate of heaven." Onkelos seems to suppose that the gate or entrance into heaven was actually above this spot, and that when the angels of God descended to earth, they came through that opening into this place, and returned by the same way. And it really appears that Jacob himself had a similar notion.

### Verse 18

[¶22] And Jacob - took the stone - and set it up for a pillar - He placed the stone in an erect posture, that it might stand as a monument of the extraordinary vision which he had in this place; and he poured oil upon it, thereby consecrating it to God, so that it might be considered an altar on which libations might be poured, and sacrifices offered unto God. See [Gen 35:14].

[¶23] The Brahmins anoint their stone images with oil before bathing; and some anoint them with sweet-scented oil. This is a practice which arises more from the customs of the Hindoos than from their idolatry. Anointing persons as an act of homage has been transferred to their idols.

[¶24] There is a foolish tradition that the stone set up by Jacob was afterwards brought to Jerusalem, from which, after a long lapse of time, it was brought to Spain, from Spain to Ireland, from Ireland to Scotland, and on it the kings of Scotland sat to be crowned; and concerning which the following leonine verses were made: -

[¶25] Ni fallat fatum, - Scoti quocunque locatum

[¶26] Invenient lapidem, - regnare tenentur ibidem.

[¶27] Or fate is blind - or Scots shall find

[¶28] Where'er this stone - the royal throne.

[¶29] Camden's Perthshire.

[¶30] Edward I. had it brought to Westminster; and there this stone, called Jacob's pillar, and Jacob's pillow, is now placed under the chair on which the king sits when crowned! It would be as ridiculous to attempt to disprove the truth of this tradition, as to prove that the stone under the old chair in Westminster was the identical stone which served the patriarch for a bolster.

[¶31] And poured oil upon the top of it - Stones, images, and altars, dedicated to Divine worship, were always anointed with oil. This appears to have been considered as a consecration of them to the object of the worship, and a means of inducing the god or goddess to take up their residence there, and answer the petitions of their votaries. Anointing stones, images, etc., is used in idolatrous countries to the present day, and the whole idol is generally smeared over with oil. Sometimes, besides the anointing, a crown or garland was placed on the stone or altar to honor the divinity, who was supposed, in consequence of the anointing, to have set up his residence in that place. It appears to have been on this ground that the seats of polished stone, on which the kings sat in the front of their palaces to administer justice, were anointed, merely to invite the deity to reside there, that true judgment might be given, and a righteous sentence always be pronounced. Of this we have an instance in Homer, Odyss. lib. v., ver. 406-410: - Εκ δ' ελθων, κατ' αρ' ἑζετ' επι ξεστοισι λιθοσιν, Οἱ οἱ εσαν προπαροιθε θυραων ὑψηλαων, Δευκοι, αποστιλβοντες αλειφατος· οἱς επι μεν πριν Νηλευς ἱζεσκεν, θεοφιν μηστωρ αταλαντος.

[¶32] The old man early rose, walk'd forth, and sate

[¶33] On polish'd stone before his palace gate;

[¶34] With unguent smooth the lucid marble shone,

[¶35] Where ancient Neleus sate, a rustic throne.

[¶36] Pope.

[¶37] This gives a part of the sense of the passage; but the last line, on which much stress should be laid, is very inadequately rendered by the English poet. It should be translated, -

[¶38] Where Neleus sat, equal in counsel to the gods; because inspired by their wisdom, and which inspiration he and his successor took pains to secure by consecrating with the anointing oil the seat of judgment on which they were accustomed to sit. Some of the ancient commentators on Homer mistook the meaning of this place by not understanding the nature of the custom; and these Cowper unfortunately follows, translating "resplendent as with oil;" which as destroys the whole sense, and obliterates the allusion. This sort of anointing was a common custom in all antiquity, and was probably derived from this circumstance. Arnobius tells us that it was customary with himself while a heathen, "when he saw a smooth polished stone that had been smeared with oils, to kiss and adore it, as if possessing a Divine virtue."

[¶39] Si quando conspexeram lubricatum lapidem, et ex olivi unguine sordidatum (ordinatum) tanquam inesset vis prasens, adulabar, affabar.

[¶40] And Theodoret, in his eighty-fourth question on Genesis, asserts that many pious women in his time were accustomed to anoint the coffins of the martyrs, etc. And in Catholic countries when a church is consecrated they anoint the door-posts, pillars, altars, etc. So under the law there was a holy anointing oil to sanctify the tabernacle, laver, and all other things used in God's service, [Exo 40:9], etc.

### Verse 19

[¶42] He called the name of that place Beth-el - That is, the house of God; for in consequence of his having anointed the stone, and thus consecrated it to God, he considered it as becoming henceforth his peculiar residence; see on the preceding verse. This word should be always pronounced as two distinct syllables, each strongly accented, Beth-El.

[¶43] Was called Luz at the first - The Hebrew has אולם לוז Ulam Luz, which the Roman edition of the Septuagint translates Ουλαμλουζ Oulamlouz; the Alexandrian MS., Ουλαμμους Oulammaus; the Aldine, Ουλαμμαους Oulammaous; Symmachus, Λαμμαους Lammaous; and some others, Ουλαμ Oulam. The Hebrew אולם ulam is sometimes a particle signifying as, just as; hence it may signify that the place was called Beth-El, as it was formerly called Luz. As Luz signifies an almond, almond or hazel tree, this place probably had its name from a number of such trees growing in that region. Many of the ancients confounded this city with Jerusalem, to which they attribute the eight following names, which are all expressed in this verse: -

[¶44] Solyma, Luza, Bethel, Hierosolyma, Jebus, Aelia,

[¶45] Urbs sacra, Hierusalem dicitur atque Salem.

## 41. Genesis · 41 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/41/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/41/#p-N

[¶0] Solyma, Luz, Beth-El, Hierosolyma, Jebus, Aelia,

[¶1] The holy city is call'd, as also Jerusalem and Salem.

[¶2] From Beth-El came the Baetylia, Bethyllia, Βαιτυλια, or animated stones, so celebrated in antiquity, and to which Divine honors were paid. The tradition of Jacob anointing this stone, and calling the place Beth-El, gave rise to all the superstitious accounts of the Baetylia or consecrated stones, which we find in Sanchoniathon and others. These became abused to idolatrous purposes, and hence God strongly prohibits them, [Lev 26:1]; and it is very likely that stones of this kind were the most ancient objects of idolatrous worship; these were afterwards formed into beautiful human figures, male and female, when the art of sculpture became tolerably perfected, and hence the origin of idolatry as far as it refers to the worshipping of images, for these, being consecrated by anointing, etc., were supposed immediately to become instinct with the power and energy of some divinity. Hence, then, the Baetylia or living stones of the ancient Phoenicians, etc. As oil is an emblem of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, so those who receive this anointing are considered as being alive unto God, and are expressly called by St. Peter living stones, [1Pet 2:4], [1Pet 2:5]. May not the apostle have reference to those living stones or Baetyllia of antiquity, and thus correct the notion by showing that these rather represented the true worshippers of God, who were consecrated to his service and made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and that these alone could be properly called the living stone, out of which the true spiritual temple is composed?

### Verse 20

[¶4] Vowed a vow - A vow is a solemn, holy promise, by which a man bound himself to do certain things in a particular way, time, etc., and for power to accomplish which he depended on God; hence all vows were made with prayer.

[¶5] If God will be with me, etc. - Jacob seems to make this vow rather for his posterity than for himself, as we may learn from [Gen 28:13-15]; for he particularly refers to the promises which God had made to him, which concerned the multiplication of his offspring, and their establishment in that land. If, then, God shall fulfill these promises, he binds his posterity to build God a house, and to devote for the maintenance of his worship the tenth of all their earthly goods. This mode of interpretation removes that appearance of self-interest which almost any other view of the subject presents. Jacob had certainly, long ere this, taken Jehovah for his God; and so thoroughly had he been instructed in the knowledge of Jehovah, that we may rest satisfied no reverses of fortune could have induced him to apostatize: but as his taking refuge with Laban was probably typical of the sojourning of his descendants in Egypt, his persecution, so as to be obliged to depart from Laban, the bad treatment of his posterity by the Egyptians, his rescue from death, preservation on his journey, re-establishment in his own country, etc., were all typical of the exodus of his descendants, their travels in the desert, and establishment in the promised land, where they built a house to God, and where, for the support and maintenance of the pure worship of God, they gave to the priests and Levites the tenth of all their worldly produce. If all this be understood as referring to Jacob only, the Scripture gives us no information how he performed his vow.

### Verse 22

[¶7] This stone shall be God's house - That is, (as far as this matter refers to Jacob alone), should I be preserved to return in safety, I shall worship God in this place. And this purpose he fulfilled, for there he built an altar, anointed it with oil, and poured a drink-offering thereon.

[¶8] For a practical use of Jacob's vision, see note on [Gen 28:12].

[¶9] On the doctrine of tithes, or an adequate support for the ministers of the Gospel, I shall here register my opinion. Perhaps a word may be borne from one who never received any, and has none in prospect. Tithes in their origin appear to have been a sort of eucharistic offering made unto God, and probably were something similar to the minchah, which we learn from Genesis 4 was in use almost from the foundation of the world. When God established a regular, and we may add an expensive worship, it was necessary that proper provision should be made for the support of those who were obliged to devote their whole time to it, and consequently were deprived of the opportunity of providing for themselves in any secular way. It was soon found that a tenth part of the produce of the whole land was necessary for this purpose, as a whole tribe, that of Levi, was devoted to the public service of God; and when the land was divided, this tribe received no inheritance among their brethren. Hence, for their support, the law of tithes was enacted; and by these the priests and Levites were not only supported as the ministers of God, but as the teachers and intercessors of the people, performing a great variety of religious duties for them which otherwise they themselves were bound to perform. As this mode of supporting the ministers of God was instituted by himself, so we may rest assured it was rational and just. Nothing can be more reasonable than to devote a portion of the earthly good which we receive from the free mercy of God, to his own service; especially when by doing it we are essentially serving ourselves. If the ministers of God give up their whole time, talents, and strength, to watch over, labor for, and instruct the people in spiritual things, justice requires that they shall receive their support from the work. How worthless and wicked must that man be, who is continually receiving good from the Lord's hands without restoring any part for the support of true religion, and for charitable purposes! To such God says, Their table shall become a snare to them, and that he will curse their blessings. God expects returns of gratitude in this way from every man; he that has much should give plenteously, he that has little should do his diligence to give of that little.

[¶10] It is not the business of these notes to dispute on the article of tithes; certainly it would be well could a proper substitute be found for them, and the clergy paid by some other method, as this appears in the present state of things to be very objectionable; and the mode of levying them is vexatious in the extreme, and serves to sow dissensions between the clergyman and his parishioners, by which many are not only alienated from the Church, but also from the power as well as the form of godliness. But still the laborer is worthy of his hire; and the maintenance of the public ministry of the word of God should not be left to the caprices of men. He who is only supported for his work, will be probably abandoned when he is no longer capable of public service. I have seen many aged and worn-out ministers reduced to great necessity, and almost literally obliged to beg their bread among those whose opulence and salvation were, under God, the fruits of their ministry! Such persons may think they do God service by disputing against "tithes, as legal institutions long since abrogated," while they permit their worn-out ministers to starve: - but how shall they appear in that day when Jesus shall say, I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; naked, and ye clothed me not? It is true, that where a provision is established on a certain order of priesthood by the law, it may be sometimes claimed and consumed by the worthless and the profane; but this is no necessary consequence of such establishment, as there are laws which, if put in action, have sufficient energy to expel every wicked and slothful servant from the vineyard of Christ. This however is seldom done. At all events, this is no reason why those who have served God and their generation should not be comfortably supported during that service; and when incapable of it, be furnished at least with the necessaries of life. Though many ministers have reason to complain of this neglect, who have no claims on a legal ecclesiastical establishment, yet none have cause for louder complaint than the generality of those called curates, or unbeneficed ministers, in the Church of England: their employers clothe themselves with the wool, and feed themselves with the fat; they tend not the flock, and their substitutes that perform the labor and do the drudgery of the office, are permitted at least to half starve on an inadequate remuneration. Let a national worship be supported, but let the support be derived from a less objectionable source than tithes; for as the law now stands relative to them, no one purpose of moral instruction or piety can be promoted by the system. On their present plan tithes are oppressive and unjust; the clergyman has a right by law to the tenth of the produce of the soil, and to the tenth of all that is supported by it. He claims even the tenth egg, as well as the tenth apple; the tenth of all grain, of all hay, and even of all the produce of the kitchen garden; but he contributes nothing to the cultivation of the soil. A comparatively poor man rents a farm; it is entirely out of heart, for it has been exhausted; it yields very little, and the tenth is not much; at the expense of all he has, he dresses and manures this ungrateful soil; to repay him and keep up the cultivation would require three years' produce. It begins to yield well, and the clergyman takes the tenth which is now in quantity and quality more in value than a pound, where before it was not a shilling. But the whole crop would not repay the farmer's expenses. In proportion to the farmer's improvement is the clergyman's tithe, who has never contributed one shilling to aid in this extra produce! Here then not only the soil pays tithes, but the man's property brought upon the soil pays tithes: his skill and industry also are tithed; or if he have been obliged to borrow cash, he not only has to pay tithes on the produce of this borrowed money, but five per cent interest for the money itself. All this is oppressive and cruelly unjust. I say again, let there be a national religion, and a national clergy supported by the state; but let them be supported by a tax, not by tithes, or rather let them be paid out of the general taxation; or, if the tithe system must be continued, let the poor-rates be abolished, and the clergy, out of the tithes, support the poor in their respective parishes, as was the original custom.

### Introduction

[¶12] Jacob proceeds on his journey, [Gen 29:1]. Comes to a well where the flocks of his uncle Laban, as well as those of several others, were usually watered, [Gen 29:2], [Gen 29:3]. Inquires from the shepherds concerning Laban and his family, [Gen 29:4-6]. While they are conversing about watering the sheep, [Gen 29:7], [Gen 29:8], Rachel arrives, [Gen 29:9]. He assists her to water her flock, [Gen 29:10]; makes himself known unto her, [Gen 29:11], [Gen 29:12]. She hastens home and communicates the tidings of Jacob's arrival to her father, [Gen 29:12]. Laban hastens to the well, embraces Jacob, and brings him home, [Gen 29:13]. After a month's stay, Laban proposes to give Jacob wages, [Gen 29:14], [Gen 29:15]. Leah and Rachel described, [Gen 29:16], [Gen 29:17]. Jacob proposes to serve seven years for Rachel, [Gen 29:18]. Laban consents, [Gen 29:19]. When the seven years were fulfilled, Jacob demands his wife, [Gen 29:20], [Gen 29:21]. Laban makes a marriage feast, [Gen 29:22]; and in the evening substitutes Leah for Rachel, to whom he gives Zilpah for handmaid, [Gen 29:23], [Gen 29:24]. Jacob discovers the fraud, and upbraids Laban, [Gen 29:25]. He excuses himself, [Gen 29:26]; and promises to give him Rachel for another seven years of service, [Gen 29:27]. After abiding a week with Leah, he receives Rachel for wife, to whom Laban gives Bilhah for handmaid, [Gen 29:28], [Gen 29:29]. Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah, and serves seven years for her, [Gen 29:30]. Leah being despised, the Lord makes her fruitful, while Rachel continues barren, [Gen 29:31]. Leah bears Reuben, [Gen 29:32], and Simeon, [Gen 29:33], and Levi, [Gen 29:34], and Judah; after which she leaves off bearing, [Gen 29:35].

### Verse 1

[¶14] Then Jacob went on his journey - The original is very remarkable: And Jacob lifted up his feet, and he traveled unto the land of the children of the east. There is a certain cheerfulness marked in the original which comports well with the state of mind into which he had been brought by the vision of the ladder and the promises of God. He now saw that having God for his protector he had nothing to fear, and therefore he went on his way rejoicing.

[¶15] People of the east - The inhabitants of Mesopotamia and the whole country beyond the Euphrates are called קדם kedem, or easterns, in the sacred writings.

### Verse 2

[¶17] Three flocks of sheep - צאן tson, small cattle, such as sheep, goats, etc.; See note on [Gen 12:16]. Sheep, in a healthy state, seldom drink in cold and comparatively cold countries: but it was probably different in hot climates. The three flocks, if flocks and not shepherds be meant, which were lying now at the well, did not belong to Laban, but to three other chiefs; for Laban's flock was yet to come, under the care of Rachel, [Gen 29:6].

### Verse 3

[¶19] All the flocks - Instead of העדרים hadarim, flocks, the Samaritan reads haroim, shepherds; for which reading Houbigant strongly contends, as well in this verse as in [Gen 29:8]. It certainly cannot be said that all the flocks rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep: and yet so it appears to read if we prefer the common Hebrew text to the Samaritan. It is probable that the same reading was originally that of the second verse also.

[¶20] And put the stone again upon the well's mouth - It is very likely that the stone was a large one, which was necessary to prevent ill-minded individuals from either disturbing the water, or filling up the well; hence a great stone was provided, which required the joint exertions of several shepherds to remove it; and hence those who arrived first waited till all the others were come up, that they might water their respective flocks in concert.

### Verse 4

[¶22] My brethren, whence be ye? - The language of Laban and his family was Chaldee and not Hebrew; (see [Gen 31:47]); but from the names which Leah gave to her children we see that the two languages had many words in common, and therefore Jacob and the shepherds might understand each other with little difficulty. It is possible also that Jacob might have learned the Chaldee or Aramitish language from his mother, as this was his mother's tongue.

### Verse 5

[¶24] Laban the son of Nahor - Son is here put for grandson, for Laban was the son of Bethuel the son of Nahor.

### Verse 6

[¶26] Is he well? - השלום לו hashalom lo? Is there peace to him? Peace among the Hebrews signified all kinds of prosperity. Is he a prosperous man in his family and in his property? And they said, He is well, שלום shalom, he prospers.

[¶27] Rachel - cometh with the sheep - רחל rachel (the ch sounded strongly guttural) signifies a sheep or ewe; and she probably had her name from her fondness for these animals.

### Verse 7

[¶29] It is yet high day - The day is but about half run; neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together - it is surely not time yet to put them into the folds; give them therefore water, and take them again to pasture.

### Verse 8

[¶31] We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together - It is a rule that the stone shall not be removed till all the shepherds and the flocks which have a right to this well be gathered together; then, and not before, we may water the sheep. See note on [Gen 29:3].

### Verse 9

[¶33] Rachel came with her father's sheep - So we find that young women were not kept concealed in the house till the time they were married, which is the common gloss put on עלמה almah, a virgin, one concealed. Nor was it beneath the dignity of the daughters of the most opulent chiefs to carry water from the well, as in the case of Rebekah; or tend sheep, as in the case of Rachel. The chief property in those times consisted in flocks: and who so proper to take care of them as those who were interested in their safety and increase? Honest labor, far from being a discredit, is an honor both to high and low. The king himself is served by the field; and without it, and the labor necessary for its cultivation, all ranks must perish. Let every son, let every daughter, learn that it is no discredit to be employed, whenever it may be necessary, in the meanest offices, by which the interests of the family may be honestly promoted.

### Verse 10

[¶35] Jacob went near, and rolled the stone - Probably the flock of Laban was the last of those which had a right to the well; that flock being now come, Jacob assisted the shepherds to roll off the stone, (for it is not likely he did it by himself), and so assisted his cousin, to whom he was as yet unknown, to water her flock.

### Verse 11

[¶37] Jacob kissed Rachel - A simple and pure method by which the primitive inhabitants of the earth testified their friendship to each other, first abused by hypocrites, who pretended affection while their vile hearts meditated terror, (see the case of Joab), and afterwards disgraced by refiners on morals, who, while they pretended to stumble at those innocent expressions of affection and friendship, were capable of committing the grossest acts of impurity.

[¶38] And lifted up his voice - It may be, in thanksgiving to God for the favor he had shown him, in conducting him thus far in peace and safety.

[¶39] And wept - From a sense of the goodness of his heavenly Father, and his own unworthiness of the success with which he had been favored. The same expressions of kindness and pure affection are repeated on the part of Laban, [Gen 29:13].

### Verse 14

[¶41] My bone and my flesh - One of my nearest relatives.

### Verse 15

[¶43] Because thou art my brother, etc. - Though thou art my nearest relative, yet I have no right to thy services without giving thee an adequate recompense. Jacob had passed a whole month in the family of Laban, in which he had undoubtedly rendered himself of considerable service. As Laban, who was of a very saving if not covetous disposition, saw that he was to be of great use to him in his secular concerns, he wished to secure his services, and therefore asks him what wages he wished to have.

## 42. Genesis · 42 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/42/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/42/#p-N

### Verse 17

[¶1] Leah was tender-eyed - רכות raccoth, soft, delicate, lovely. I believe the word means just the reverse of the signification generally given to it. The design of the inspired writer is to compare both the sisters together, that the balance may appear to be greatly in favor of Rachel. The chief recommendation of Leah was her soft and beautiful eyes; but Rachel was יפת תאר yephath toar, beautiful in her shape, person, mien, and gait, and יפת מראה yephath mareh, beautiful in her countenance. The words plainly signify a fine shape and fine features, all that can be considered as essential to personal beauty. Therefore Jacob loved her, and was willing to become a bond servant for seven years, that he might get her to wife; for in his destitute state he could produce no dowry, and it was the custom of those times for the father to receive a portion for his daughter, and not to give one with her. One of the Hindoo lawgivers says, "A person may become a slave on account of love, or to obtain a wife." The bad system of education by which women are spoiled and rendered in general good for nothing, makes it necessary for the husband to get a dowry with his wife to enable him to maintain her; whereas in former times they were well educated and extremely useful, hence he who got a wife almost invariably got a prize, or as Solomon says, got a good thing.

### Verse 20

[¶3] And Jacob served seven years for Rachel - In ancient times it appears to have been a custom among all nations that men should give dowries for their wives; and in many countries this custom still prevails. When Shechem asked Dinah for wife, he said, Ask me never so much - dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me. When Eliezer went to get Rebekah for Isaac, he took a profusion of riches with him, in silver, gold, jewels, and raiment, with other costly things, which, when the contract was made, he gave to Rebekah, her mother, and her brothers. David, in order to be Saul's son-in-law, must, instead of a dowry, kill Goliath; and when this was done, he was not permitted to espouse Michal till he had killed one hundred Philistines. The Prophet Hosea bought his wife for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer and a half of barley. The same custom prevailed among the ancient Greeks, Indians, and Germans. The Romans also had a sort of marriage entitled per coemptionem, "by purchase." The Tartars and Turks still buy their wives; but among the latter they are bought as a sort of slaves.

[¶4] Herodotus mentions a very singular custom among the Babylonians, which may serve to throw light on Laban's conduct towards Jacob. "In every district they annually assemble all the marriageable virgins on a certain day; and when the men are come together and stand round the place, the crier rising up sells one after another, always bringing forward the most beautiful first; and having sold her for a great sum of gold, he puts up her who is esteemed second in beauty. On this occasion the richest of the Babylonians used to contend for the fairest wife, and to outbid one another. But the vulgar are content to take the ugly and lame with money; for when all the beautiful virgins are sold, the crier orders the most deformed to stand up; and after he has openly demanded who will marry her with a small sum, she is at length given to the man that is contented to marry her with the least. And in this manner the money arising from the sale of the handsome served for a portion to those whose look was disagreeable, or who had any bodily imperfection. A father was not permitted to indulge his own fancy in the choice of a husband for his daughter; neither might the purchaser carry off the woman which he had bought without giving sufficient security that he would live with her as his own wife. Those also who received a sum of money with such as could bring no price in this market, were obliged also to give sufficient security that they would live with them, and if they did not they were obliged to refund the money." Thus Laban made use of the beauty of Rachel to dispose of his daughter Leah, in the spirit of the Babylonian custom, though not in the letter.

[¶5] And they seemed unto him but a few days - If Jacob had been obliged to wait seven years before he married Rachel, could it possibly be said that they could appear to him as a few days? Though the letter of the text seems to say the contrary, yet there are eminent men who strongly contend that he received Rachel soon after the month was finished, (see [Gen 29:14]), and then served seven years for her, which might really appear but a few days to him, because of his increasing love to her; but others think this quite incompatible with all the circumstances marked down in the text, and on the supposition that Jacob was not now seventy-seven years of age, as most chronologers make him, but only fifty-seven, (see on Genesis 31 (note))., there will be time sufficient to allow for all the transactions which are recorded in his history, during his stay with Laban. As to the incredibility of a passionate lover, as some have termed him, waiting patiently for seven years before he could possess the object of his wishes, and those seven years appearing to him as only a few days, it may be satisfactorily accounted for, they think, two ways:

[¶6] 1. He had the continual company of his elect spouse, and this certainly would take away all tedium in the case.

[¶7] 2. Love affairs were not carried to such a pitch of insanity among the patriarchs as they have been in modern times; they were much more sober and sedate, and scarcely ever married before they were forty years of age, and then more for convenience, and the desire of having an offspring, than for any other purpose.

[¶8] At the very lowest computation Jacob was now fifty-seven, and consequently must have passed those days in which passion runs away with reason. Still, however, the obvious construction of the text shows that he got Rachel the week after he had married Leah.

### Verse 21

[¶10] My days are fulfilled - My seven years are now completed, let me have my wife, for whom I have given this service as a dowry.

### Verse 22

[¶12] Laban - made a feast - משתה mishteh signifies a feast of drinking. As marriage was a very solemn contract, there is much reason to believe that sacrifices were offered on the occasion, and libations poured out; and we know that on festival occasions a cup of wine was offered to every guest; and as this was drunk with particular ceremonies, the feast might derive its name from this circumstance, which was the most prominent and observable on such occasions.

### Verse 23

[¶14] In the evening - he took Leah his daughter - As the bride was always veiled, and the bride chamber generally dark, or nearly so, and as Leah was brought to Jacob in the evening, the imposition here practiced might easily pass undetected by Jacob, till the ensuing day discovered the fraud.

### Verse 24

[¶16] And Laban gave - Zilpah his maid - Slaves given in this way to a daughter on her marriage, were the peculiar property of the daughter; and over them the husband had neither right nor power.

### Verse 26

[¶18] It must not be so done in our country - It was an early custom to give daughters in marriage according to their seniority; and it is worthy of remark that the oldest people now existing, next to the Jews, I mean the Hindoos, have this not merely as a custom, but as a positive law; and they deem it criminal to give a younger daughter in marriage while an elder daughter remains unmarried. Among them it is a high offense, equal to adultery, "for a man to marry while his elder brother remains unmarried, or for a man to give his daughter to such a person, or to give his youngest daughter in marriage while the eldest sister remains unmarried." - Code of Gentoo Laws, chap. xv., sec. 1, p. 204. This was a custom at Mesopotamia; but Laban took care to conceal it from Jacob till after he had given him Leah. The words of Laban are literally what a Hindoo would say on such a subject.

### Verse 27

[¶20] Fulfill her week - The marriage feast, it appears, lasted seven days; it would not therefore have been proper to break off the solemnities to which all the men of the place had been invited, [Gen 29:22], and probably Laban wished to keep his fraud from the public eye; therefore he informs Jacob that if he will fulfill the marriage week for Leah, he will give him Rachel at the end of it, on condition of his serving seven other years. To this the necessity of the case caused Jacob to agree; and thus Laban had fourteen years' service instead of seven: for it is not likely that Jacob would have served even seven days for Leah, as his affection was wholly set on Rachel, the wife of his own choice. By this stratagem Laban gained a settlement for both his daughters. What a man soweth, that shall he reap. Jacob had before practiced deceit, and is now deceived; and Laban, the instrument of it, was afterwards deceived himself.

### Verse 28

[¶22] And Jacob did so - and he gave him Rachel - It is perfectly plain that Jacob did not serve seven years more before he got Rachel to wife; but having spent a week with Leah, and in keeping the marriage feast, he then got Rachel, and served afterwards seven years for her. Connections of this kind are now called incestuous; but it appears they were allowable in those ancient times. In taking both sisters, it does not appear that any blame attached to Jacob, though in consequence of it he was vexed by their jealousies. It was probably because of this that the law was made, Thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her, besides the other in her life-time. After this, all such marriages were strictly forbidden.

### Verse 31

[¶24] The Lord saw that Leah was hated - From this and the preceding verse we get the genuine meaning of the word שנא sane, to hate, in certain disputed places in the Scriptures. The word simply signifies a less degree of love; so it is said, [Gen 29:30] : "Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah," i.e., he loved Leah less than Rachel; and this is called hating in [Gen 29:31] : When the Lord saw that Leah was hated - that she had less affection shown to her than was her due, as one of the legitimate wives of Jacob, he opened her womb - he blessed her with children. Now the frequent intercourse of Jacob with Leah (see the following verses) sufficiently proves that he did not hate her in the sense in which this term is used among us; but he felt and showed less affection for her than for her sister. So Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, simply means, I have shown a greater degree of affection for Jacob and his posterity than I have done for Esau and his descendants, by giving the former a better earthly portion than I have given to the latter, and by choosing the family of Jacob to be the progenitors of the Messiah. But not one word of all this relates to the eternal states of either of the two nations. Those who endeavor to support certain peculiarities of their creed by such scriptures as these, do greatly err, not knowing the Scripture, and not properly considering either the sovereignty or the mercy of God.

### Verse 32

[¶26] She called his name Reuben - ראובן reuben, literally, see ye or behold a son; for Jehovah hath looked upon, ראה raah, beheld, my affliction; behold then the consequence, I have got a son!

### Verse 33

[¶28] She called his name Simeon - שמעון shimon, hearing; i.e., God had blessed her with another son, because he had heard that she was hated - loved less than Rachel was.

### Verse 34

[¶30] Therefore was his name called Levi - לוי levi, joined; because she supposed that, in consequence of all these children, Jacob would become joined to her in as strong affection, at least, as he was to Rachel. From Levi sprang the tribe of Levites, who instead of the first-born, were joined unto the priests in the service of the sanctuary. See [Num 18:2], [Num 18:4].

### Verse 35

[¶32] She called his name Judah - יהודה yehudah, a confessor; one who acknowledges God, and acknowledges that all good comes from his hands, and gives him the praise due to his grace and mercy. From this patriarch the Jews have their name, and could it be now rightly applied to them, it would intimate that they were a people that confess God, acknowledge his bounty, and praise him for his grace.

[¶33] Left bearing - That is, for a time; for she had several children afterwards. Literally translated, the original תעמד מלדת taamod milledeth - she stood still from bearing, certainly does not convey the same meaning as that in our translation; the one appearing to signify that she ceased entirely from having children; the other, that she only desisted for a time, which was probably occasioned by a temporary suspension of Jacob's company, who appears to have deserted the tent of Leah through the jealous management of Rachel.

[¶34] The intelligent and pious care of the original inhabitants of the world to call their children by those names which were descriptive of some remarkable event in providence, circumstance of their birth, or domestic occurrence, is worthy, not only of respect, but of imitation. As the name itself continually called to the mind, both of the parents and the child, the circumstance from which it originated, it could not fail to be a lasting blessing to both. How widely different is our custom! Unthinking and ungodly, we impose names upon our offspring as we do upon our cattle; and often the dog, the horse, the monkey, and the parrot, share in common with our children the names which are called Christian! Some of our Christian names, so called, are absurd, others are ridiculous, and a third class impious; these last being taken from the demon gods and goddesses of heathenism. May we hope that the rational and pious custom recommended in the Scriptures shall ever be restored, even among those who profess to believe in, fear, and love God!

### Introduction

[¶36] Rachel envies her sister, and chides Jacob, [Gen 30:1]. He reproves her and vindicates himself, [Gen 30:2]. She gives him her maid Bilhah, [Gen 30:3], [Gen 30:4]. She conceives, and bears Dan. vv.5, 6; and afterwards Naphtali, [Gen 30:7], [Gen 30:8]. Leah gives Zilpah her maid to Jacob, [Gen 30:9]. She conceives and bears Gad, [Gen 30:10], [Gen 30:11], and also Asher, [Gen 30:12], [Gen 30:13]. Reuben finds mandrakes, of which Rachel requests a part, [Gen 30:14]. The bargain made between her and Leah, [Gen 30:15]. Jacob in consequence lodges with Leah instead of Rachel, [Gen 30:16]. She conceives, and bears Issachar, [Gen 30:17], [Gen 30:18], and Zebulun, [Gen 30:19], [Gen 30:20], and Dinah, [Gen 30:21]. Rachel conceives, and bears Joseph, [Gen 30:22-24]. Jacob requests permission from Laban to go to his own country, [Gen 30:25], [Gen 30:26]. Laban entreats him to tarry, and offers to give him what wages he shall choose to name, [Gen 30:27], [Gen 30:28]. Jacob details the importance of his services to Laban, [Gen 30:29], [Gen 30:30], and offers to continue those services for the speckled and spotted among the goats, and the brown among the sheep, [Gen 30:31-33]. Laban consents, [Gen 30:34], and divides all the ring-streaked and spotted among the he-goats, the speckled and spotted among the she-goats, and the brown among the sheep, and puts them under the care of his sons, and sets three days' journey between himself and Jacob, [Gen 30:35], [Gen 30:36]. Jacob's stratagem of the pilled rods, to cause the cattle to bring forth the ring-streaked, speckled, and spotted, [Gen 30:37-39]. In consequence of which he increased his flock greatly, getting all that was strong and healthy in the flock of Laban, [Gen 30:40-43].

### Verse 1

[¶38] Give me children, or else I die - This is a most reprehensible speech, and argues not only envy and jealousy, but also a total want of dependence on God. She had the greatest share of her husband's affection, and yet was not satisfied unless she could engross all the privileges which her sister enjoyed! How true are those sayings, Envy is as rottenness of the bones! and, Jealousy is as cruel as the grave!

### Verse 2

[¶40] Amos I in God's stead - Amos I greater than God, to give thee what he has refused?

### Verse 3

[¶42] She shall bear upon my knees - The handmaid was the sole property of the mistress, as has already been remarked in the case of Hagar; and therefore not only all her labor, but even the children borne by her, were the property of the mistress. These female slaves, therefore, bore children vicariously for their mistresses; and this appears to be the import of the term, she shall bear upon my knees.

[¶43] That I may also have children by her - ואבנה ממנה veibbaneh mimmennah, and I shall be built up by her. Hence בן ben, a son or child, from בנה banah, to build; because, as a house is formed of the stones, etc., that enter into its composition, so is a family by children.

### Verse 6

[¶45] Called she his name Dan - Because she found God had judged for her, and decided she should have a son by her handmaid; hence she called his name דן dan, judging.

## 43. Genesis · 43 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/43/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/43/#p-N

### Verse 8

[¶1] She called his name Naphtali - נפתלי naphtali, my wrestling, according to the common mode of interpretation; but it is more likely that the root פתל pathal signifies to twist or entwine. Hence Mr. Parkhurst translates the verse, "By the twistings - agency or operation, of God, I am entwisted with my sister; that is, my family is now entwined or interwoven with my sister's family, and has a chance of producing the promised Seed." The Septuagint, Aquila, and the Vulgate, have nearly the same meaning. It is, however, difficult to fix the true meaning of the original.

### Verse 11

[¶3] She called his name Gad - This has been variously translated. גד gad, may signify a troop, an army, a soldier, a false god, supposed to be the same as Jupiter or Mars; for as Laban appears to have been, if not an idolater, yet a dealer in a sort of judicial astrology, (see [Gen 31:19]), Leah, in saying בגד bagad, which we translate a troop cometh, might mean, By or with the assistance of Gad - a particular planet or star, Jupiter possibly, I have gotten this son; therefore she called him after the name of that planet or star from which she supposed the succor came. See note on [Gen 31:19]. The Septuagint translate it εν τυχη, with good fortune; the Vulgate, feliciter, happily; but in all this diversity our own translation may appear as probable as any, if not the genuine one, בא גד ba gad, for the keri, or marginal reading, has it in two words, a troop cometh; whereas the textual reading has it only in one, בגד bagad, with a troop. In the Bible published by Becke, 1549, the word is translated as an exclamation, Good luck!

### Verse 13

[¶5] And Leah said, Happy am I - באשרי beoshri, in my happiness, therefore she called his name אשר asher, that is, blessedness or happiness.

### Verse 14

[¶7] Reuben - found mandrakes - דודאים dudaim. What these were is utterly unknown, and learned men have wasted much time and pains in endeavoring to guess out a probable meaning. Some translate the word lilies, others jessamine, others citrons, others mushrooms, others figs, and some think the word means flowers, or fine flowers in general. Hasselquist, the intimate friend and pupil of Linne, who traveled into the Holy Land to make discoveries in natural history, imagines that the plant commonly called mandrake is intended; speaking of Nazareth in Galilee he says: "What I found most remarkable at this village was a great number of mandrakes which grew in a vale below it. I had not the pleasure to see this plant in blossom, the fruit now (May 5th, O. S). hanging ripe to the stem, which lay withered on the ground. From the season in which this mandrake blossoms and ripens fruit, one might form a conjecture that it was Rachel's dudaim. These were brought her in the wheat harvest, which in Galilee is in the month of May, about this time, and the mandrake was now in fruit." Both among the Greeks and Orientals this plant was held in high repute, as being of a prolific virtue, and helping conception; and from it philtres were made, and this is favored by the meaning of the original, loves, i.e., incentives to matrimonial connections: and it was probably on this account that Rachel desired them. The whole account however is very obscure.

### Verse 15

[¶9] Thou hast taken my husband - It appears probable that Rachel had found means to engross the whole of Jacob's affection and company, and that she now agreed to let him visit the tent of Leah, on account of receiving some of the fruits or plants which Reuben had found.

### Verse 16

[¶11] I have hired thee - We may remark among the Jewish women an intense desire of having children; and it seems to have been produced, not from any peculiar affection for children, but through the hope of having a share in the blessing of Abraham, by bringing forth Him in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.

### Verse 18

[¶13] God hath given me my hire - שכרי sechari. And she called his name Issachar, יששכר, This word is compounded of יש yesh, Is, and שכר sachar, Wages, from שכר sachar, to content, satisfy, saturate; hence a satisfaction or compensation for work done, etc.

### Verse 20

[¶15] Now will my husband dwell with me - יזבלני yizbeleni; and she called his name Zebulun, זבל a dwelling or cohabitation, as she now expected that Jacob would dwell with her, as he had before dwelt with Rachel.

### Verse 21

[¶17] And called her name Dinah - דינה dinah, judgment. As Rachel had called her son by Bilhah Dan, [Gen 30:6], so Leah calls her daughter Dinah, God having judged and determined for her, as well as for her sister in the preceding instance.

### Verse 22

[¶19] And God hearkened to her - After the severe reproof which Rachel had received from her husband, [Gen 30:2], it appears that she sought God by prayer, and that he heard her; so that her prayer and faith obtained what her impatience and unbelief had prevented.

### Verse 24

[¶21] She called his name Joseph - יוסף Yoseph, adding, or he who adds; thereby prophetically declaring that God would add unto her another son, which was accomplished in the birth of Benjamin, [Gen 35:18].

### Verse 25

[¶23] Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away - Having now, as is generally conjectured, fulfilled the fourteen years which he had engaged to serve for Leah and Rachel. See [Gen 30:26], and conclusion at [Gen 31:55] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶25] I have learned by experience - נחשתי nichashti, from נחש nachash, to view attentively, to observe, to pry into. I have diligently considered the whole of thy conduct, and marked the increase of my property, and find that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. For the meaning of the word נחש nachash, See note on [Gen 3:1], etc.

### Verse 30

[¶27] For it was little which thou had before I came - Jacob takes advantage of the concession made by his father-in-law, and asserts that it was for his sake that the Lord had blessed him: Since my coming, לרגלי leragli, according to my footsteps - every step I took in thy service, God prospered to the multiplication of thy flocks and property.

[¶28] When shall I provide for mine own house - Jacob had already laid his plan; and, from what is afterwards mentioned, we find him using all his skill and experience to provide for his family by a rapid increase of his flocks.

### Verse 32

[¶30] I will pass through all thy flock - צאן tson, implying, as we have before seen, all smaller cattle, such as sheep, goats, etc.

[¶31] All the speckled and spotted cattle - שה seh, which we translate cattle, signifies the young either of sheep or goats, what we call a lamb or a kid. Speckled, נקד nakod, signifies interspersed with variously colored spots.

[¶32] Spotted - טלוא talu, spotted with large spot either of the same or different colors, from טלא tala, to patch, to make party-colored or patch-work; see [Eze 16:16]. I have never seen such sheep as are here described but in the islands of Zetland. There I have seen the most beautiful brown, or fine chocolate color among the sheep; and several of the ring-streaked, spotted, speckled, and piebald among the same; and some of the latter description I have brought over, and can exhibit a specimen of Jacob's flock brought from the North Seas, feeding in Middlesex.

[¶33] And all the brown - חום chum. I should rather suppose this to signify a lively brown, as the root signifies to be warm or hot.

### Verse 35

[¶35] The he-goats that were ring-streaked - התישים העקדים hatteyashim haakuddim, the he-goats that had rings of black or other colored hair around their feet or legs.

[¶36] It is extremely difficult to find out, from [Gen 30:32] and [Gen 30:35], in what the bargain of Jacob with his father-in-law properly consisted. It appears from [Gen 30:32], that Jacob was to have for his wages all the speckled, spotted, and brown among the sheep and the goats; and of course that all those which were not party-colored should be considered as the property of Laban. But in [Gen 30:35] it appears that Laban separated all the party-colored cattle, delivered them into the hands of his own sons; which seems as if he had taken these for his own property, and left the others to Jacob. It has been conjectured that Laban, for the greater security, when he had separated the party-colored, which by the agreement belonged to Jacob, see [Gen 30:32], put them under the care of his own sons, while Jacob fed the flock of Laban, [Gen 30:36], three days' journey being between the two flocks. If therefore the flocks under the care of Laban's sons brought forth young that were all of one color, these were put to the flocks of Laban under the care of Jacob; and if any of the flocks under Jacob's care brought forth party-colored young, they were put to the flocks belonging to Jacob under the care of Laban's sons. This conjecture is not satisfactory, and the true meaning appears to be this: Jacob had agreed to take all the party-colored for his wages. As he was now only beginning to act upon this agreement, consequently none of the cattle as yet belonged to him; therefore Laban separated from the flock, [Gen 30:35], all such cattle as Jacob might afterwards claim in consequence of his bargain, (for as yet he had no right); therefore Jacob commenced his service to Laban with a flock that did not contain a single animal of the description of those to which he might be entitled; and the others were sent away under the care of Laban's sons, three days' journey from those of which Jacob had the care. The bargain, therefore, seemed to be wholly in favor of Laban; and to turn it to his own advantage, Jacob made use of the stratagems afterwards mentioned. This mode of interpretation removes all the apparent contradiction between [Gen 30:32] and [Gen 30:35], with which commentators in general have been grievously perplexed. From the whole account we learn that Laban acted with great prudence and caution, and Jacob with great judgment. Jacob had already served fourteen years; and had got no patrimony whatever, though he had now a family of twelve children, eleven sons and one daughter, besides his two wives, and their two maids, and several servants. See [Gen 30:43]. It was high time that he should get some property for these; and as his father-in-law was excessively parsimonious, and would scarcely allow him to live, he was in some sort obliged to make use of stratagem to get an equivalent for his services. But did he not push this so far as to ruin his father-in-law's flocks, leaving him nothing but the refuse? See [Gen 30:42].

### Verse 37

[¶38] Rods of green poplar - לבנה לח libneh lach. The libneh is generally understood to mean the white poplar; and the word lach, which is here joined to it, does not so much imply greenness of color as being fresh, in opposition to witheredness. Had they not been fresh - just cut off, he could not have pilled the bark from them.

[¶39] And of the hazel - לוז luz, the nut or filbert tree, translated by others the almond tree; which of the two is here intended is not known.

[¶40] And chestnut tree - ערמון armon, the plane tree, from ערם aram, he was naked. The plane tree is properly called by this name, because of the outer bark naturally peeling off, and leaving the tree bare in various places, having smooth places where it has fallen off. A portion of this bark the plane tree loses every year. The Septuagint translate it in the same way, πλατανος· and its name is supposed to be derived from πλατυς, broad, on account of its broad spreading branches, for which the plane tree is remarkable. So we find the Grecian army in Homer, Il. ii., ver. 307, sacrificing καλῃ ὑπο πλατανιστῳ, under a beautiful plane tree. Virgil, Geor. iv. 146, mentions, - ministrantem platanum potantibus umbras.

[¶41] The plane tree yielding the convivial shade.

[¶42] And Petronius Arbiter in Satyr.: -

[¶43] Nobilis aestivas platanus diffuderat umbras. "The noble plane had spread its summer shade."

[¶44] See more in Parkhurst. Such a tree would be peculiarly acceptable in hot countries, because of its shade.

## 44. Genesis · 44 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/44/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/44/#p-N

[¶0] Pilled white streaks in them - Probably cutting the bark through in a spiral line, and taking it off in a certain breadth all round the rods, so that the rods would appear party-colored, the white of the wood showing itself where the bark was stripped off.

### Verse 38

[¶2] And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks - It has long been an opinion that whatever makes a strong impression on the mind of a female in the time of conception and gestation, will have a corresponding influence on the mind or body of the fetus. This opinion is not yet rationally accounted for. It is not necessary to look for a miracle here; for though the fact has not been accounted for, it is nevertheless sufficiently plain that the effect does not exceed the powers of nature; and I have no doubt that the same modes of trial used by Jacob would produce the same results in similar cases. The finger of God works in nature myriads of ways unknown to us; we see effects without end, of which no rational cause can be assigned; it has pleased God to work thus and thus, and this is all that we know; and God mercifully hides the operations of his power from man in a variety of eases, that he may hide pride from him. Even with the little we know, how apt are we to be puffed up! We must adore God in a reverential silence on such subjects as these, confess our ignorance, and acknowledge that nature is the instrument by which he chooses to work, and that he performs all things according to the counsel of his own will, which is always infinitely wise and infinitely good.

### Verse 40

[¶4] Jacob did separate the lambs, etc. - When Jacob undertook the care of Laban's flock, according to the agreement already mentioned, there were no party-colored sheep or goats among them, therefore the ring-streaked, etc., mentioned in this verse, must have been born since the agreement was made; and Jacob makes use of them precisely as he used the pilled rods, that, having these before their eyes during conception, the impression might be made upon their imagination which would lead to the results already mentioned.

### Verse 41

[¶6] Whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive - The word מקשרות mekushsharoth, which we translate stronger, is understood by several of the ancient interpreters as signifying the early, first-born, or early spring cattle; and hence it is opposed to עטפים atuphim, which we translate feeble, and which Symmachus properly renders δευτερογονοι, cattle of the second birth, as he renders the word mekushsharoth by πρωτογονοι, cattle of the first or earliest birth. Now this does not apply merely to two births from the same female in one year, which actually did take place according to the rabbins, the first in Nisan, about our March, and the second in Tisri, about our September; but it more particularly refers to early and late lambs, etc., in the same year; as those that are born just at the termination of winter, and in the very commencement of spring, are every way more valuable than those which were born later in the same spring. Jacob therefore took good heed not to try his experiments with those late produced cattle, because he knew these would produce a degenerate breed, but with the early cattle, which were strong and vigorous, by which his breed must be improved. Hence the whole flock of Laban must be necessarily injured, while Jacob's flock was preserved in a state of increasing perfection. All this proves a consummate knowledge in Jacob of his pastoral office. If extensive breeders in this country were to attend to the same plan, our breed would be improved in a most eminent degree. What a fund of instruction upon almost every subject is to be found in the sacred writings!

### Verse 43

[¶8] And the man increased exceedingly - No wonder, when he used such means as the above. And had maid-servants, and men-servants - he was obliged to increase these as his cattle multiplied. And camels and asses, to transport his tents, baggage, and family from place to place, being obliged often to remove for the benefit of pasturage.

[¶9] We have already seen many difficulties in this chapter, and strange incidents, for which we are not able to account. 1. The vicarious bearing of children; 2. The nature and properties of the mandrakes; 3. The bargain of Jacob and Laban; and 4. The business of the party-coloured flocks produced by means of the females looking at the variegated rods. These, especially the three last, may be ranked among the most difficult things in this book. Without encumbering the page with quotations and opinions, I have given the best sense I could; and think it much better and safer to confess ignorance, than, under the semblance of wisdom and learning, to multiply conjectures. Jacob certainly manifested much address in the whole of his conduct with Laban; but though nothing can excuse overreaching or insincerity, yet no doubt Jacob supposed himself justified in taking these advantages of a man who had greatly injured and defrauded him. Had Jacob got Rachel at first, for whom he had honestly and faithfully served seven years, there is no evidence whatever that he would have taken a second wife. Laban, by having imposed his eldest daughter upon him, and by obliging him to serve seven years for her who never was an object of his affection, acted a part wholly foreign to every dictate of justice and honesty; (for though it was a custom in that country not to give the younger daughter in marriage before the elder, yet, as he did not mention this to Jacob, it cannot plead in his excuse); therefore, speaking after the manner of men, he had reason to expect that Jacob should repay him in his own coin, and right himself by whatever means came into his power; and many think that he did not transgress the bounds of justice, even in the business of the party-coloured cattle.

[¶10] The talent possessed by Jacob was a most dangerous one; he was what may be truly called a scheming man; his wits were still at work, and as he devised so he executed, being as fruitful in expedients as he was in plans. This was the principal and the most prominent characteristic of his life; and whatever was excessive here was owing to his mother's tuition; she was evidently a woman who paid little respect to what is called moral principle, and sanctified all kinds of means by the goodness of the end at which she aimed; which in social, civil, and religious life, is the most dangerous principle on which a person can possibly act. In this art she appears to have instructed her son; and, unfortunately for himself, he was in some instances but too apt a proficient. Early habits are not easily rooted out, especially those of a bad kind. Next to the influence and grace of the Spirit of God is a good and religious education. Parents should teach their children to despise and abhor low cunning, to fear a lie, and tremble at an oath; and in order to be successful, they should illustrate their precepts by their own regular and conscientious example. How far God approved of the whole of Jacob's conduct I shall not inquire; it is certain that he attributes his success to Divine interposition, and God himself censures Laban's conduct towards him; see [Gen 31:7-12]. But still he appears to have proceeded farther than this interposition authorized him to go, especially in the means he used to improve his own breed, which necessarily led to the deterioration of Laban's cattle; for, after the transactions referred to above, these cattle could be of but little worth. The whole account, with all its lights and shades, I consider as another proof of the impartiality of the Divine historian, and a strong evidence of the authenticity of the Pentateuch. Neither the spirit of deceit, nor the partiality of friendship, could ever pen such an account.

### Introduction

[¶12] Laban and his sons envy Jacob, [Gen 31:1], [Gen 31:2]; on which he is commanded by the Lord to return to his own country, [Gen 31:3]. Having called his wives together, he lays before them a detailed statement of his situation in reference to their father, [Gen 31:4-5]; the services he had rendered him, [Gen 31:6]; the various attempts made by Laban to defraud him of his hire, [Gen 31:7]; how, by God's providence, his evil designs had been counteracted, [Gen 31:8-12]; and then informs them that he is now called to return to his own country, [Gen 31:13]. To the proposal of an immediate departure, Leah and Rachel agree; and strengthen the propriety of the measure by additional reasons, [Gen 31:14-16]; on which Jacob collects all his family, his flocks and his goods, and prepares for his departure, [Gen 31:17], [Gen 31:18]. Laban having gone to shear his sheep, Rachel secretes his images, [Gen 31:19]. Jacob and his family, unknown to Laban, take their departure, [Gen 31:20], [Gen 31:21]. On the third day Laban is informed of their flight, [Gen 31:22]; and pursues them to Mount Gilead, [Gen 31:23]. God appears to Laban in a dream, and warns him not to molest Jacob, [Gen 31:24]. He comes up with Jacob at Mount Gilead, [Gen 31:25]; reproaches him with his clandestine departure, [Gen 31:26-29]; and charges him with having stolen his gods, [Gen 31:30]. Jacob vindicates himself, and protests his innocence in the matter of the theft, [Gen 31:31], [Gen 31:32]. Laban makes a general search for his images in Jacob's, Leah's, Bilhah's, and Zilpah's tents; and not finding them, proceeds to examine Rachel's, [Gen 31:33]. Rachel, having hidden them among the camel's furniture, sat upon them, [Gen 31:34]; and making a delicate excuse for not rising up, Laban desists from farther search, [Gen 31:35]. Jacob, ignorant of Rachel's theft, reproaches Laban for his suspicions, [Gen 31:36], [Gen 31:37]; enumerates his long and faithful services, his fatigues, and Laban's injustice, [Gen 31:38-41]; and shows that it was owing to God's goodness alone that he had any property, [Gen 31:42]. Laban is moderated, and proposes a covenant, [Gen 31:43], [Gen 31:44]. Jacob sets up a stone, and the rest bring stones and make a heap, which Laban calleth Jegar-Sahadutha, and Jacob Galeed, [Gen 31:45-47]. They make a covenant, and confirm it by an oath, [Gen 31:48-53]. Jacob offers a sacrifice; they eat together; and Laban and his companions, having lodged in the mount all night, take a friendly leave of Jacob and his family next morning, and depart, [Gen 31:54], [Gen 31:55].

### Verse 1

[¶14] And he heard the words of Laban's sons - The multiplication of Jacob's cattle, and the decrease and degeneracy of those of Laban, were sufficient to arouse the jealousy of Laban's sons. This, with Laban's unfair treatment, and the direction he received from God, determined him to return to his own country.

[¶15] Hath he gotten all this glory - All these riches, this wealth, or property. The original word כבד signifies both to be rich and to be heavy; and perhaps for this simple reason, that riches ever bring with them heavy weight and burden of cares and anxieties.

### Verse 3

[¶17] And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return - and I will be with thee - I will take the same care of thee in thy return, as I took of thee on thy way to this place. The Targum reads, My Word shall be for thy help, see [Gen 15:1]. A promise of this kind was essentially necessary for the encouragement of Jacob, especially at this time; and no doubt it was a powerful means of support to him through the whole journey; and it was particularly so when he heard that his brother was coming to meet him, with four hundred men in his retinue, [Gen 32:6]. At that time he went and pleaded the very words of this promise with God, [Gen 32:9].

### Verse 4

[¶19] Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah - He had probably been at some considerable distance with the flocks; and for the greater secrecy, he rather sends for them to the field, to consult them on this most momentous affair, than visit them in their tents, where probably some of the family of Laban might overhear their conversation, though Laban himself was at the time three days' journey off. It is possible that Jacob shore his sheep at the same time; and that he sent for his wives and household furniture to erect tents on the spot, that they might partake of the festivities usual on such occasions. Thus they might all depart without being suspected.

### Verse 7

[¶21] Changed my wages ten times - There is a strange diversity among the ancient versions, and ancient and modern interpreters, on the meaning of these words. The Hebrew is עשרת מנים asereth monim, which Aquila translates δεκα αριθμους ten numbers; Symmachus, δεκακις αριτμῳ, ten times in number; the Septuagint δεκα αμνων, ten lambs, with which Origen appears to agree. St. Augustine thinks that by ten lambs five years' wages is meant: that Laban had withheld from him all the party-coloured lambs which had been brought forth for five years, and because the ewes brought forth lambs twice in the year, bis gravidae pecudes, therefore the number ten is used, Jacob having been defrauded of his part of the produce of ten births. It is supposed that the Septuagint use lambs for years, as Virgil does aristas.

[¶22] En unquam patrios longo post tempore fines,

[¶23] Pauperis et tuguri congestum cespite culmen,

[¶24] Post aliquot mea regna videns mirabor aristas?

[¶25] Virg. Ec. i., ver. 68.

[¶26] Thus inadequately translated by Dryden:

[¶27] O must the wretched exiles ever mourn;

[¶28] Nor, after length of rolling years, return?

[¶29] Are we condemn'd by Fate's unjust decree,

[¶30] No more our harvests and our homes to see?

[¶31] Or shall we mount again the rural throng,

[¶32] And rule the country, kingdoms once our own?

[¶33] Here aristas, which signifies ears of corn, is put for harvest, harvest for autumn, and autumn for years. After all, it is most natural to suppose that Jacob uses the word ten times for an indefinite number, which we might safely translate frequently; and that it means an indefinite number in other parts of the sacred writings, is evident from [Lev 26:26] : Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven. [Ecc 7:19] : Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than Ten mighty men the city. [Num 14:22] : Because all these men have tempted me now these Ten times. [Job 19:3] : These Ten times have ye reproached me. [Zac 8:23] : In those days - Ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew. [Rev 2:10] : Ye shall have tribulation Ten days.

### Verse 11

[¶35] The angel of God spake unto me in a dream - It is strange that we had not heard of this dream before; and yet it seems to have taken place before the cattle brought forth, immediately after the bargain between him and Laban. If we follow the Samaritan the difficulty is at once removed, for it gives us the whole of this dream after [Gen 30:36] of the preceding chapter,

### Verse 12

[¶37] Grisled - ברדים beruddim; ברד barad signifies hail, and the meaning must be, they had white spots on them similar to hail. Our word grisled comes from the old French, gresl, hail, now written grle; hence gresl, grisled, spotted with white upon a dark ground.

### Verse 15

[¶39] Are we not counted of him strangers? - Rachel and Leah, who well knew the disposition of their father, gave him here his true character. He has treated us as strangers - as slaves whom he had a right to dispose of as he pleased; in consequence, he hath sold us - disposed of us on the mere principle of gaining by the sale.

[¶40] And hath quite devoured also our money - Has applied to his own use the profits of the sale, and has allowed us neither portion nor inheritance.

### Verse 19

[¶42] Laban went to shear his sheep - Laban had gone; and this was a favorable time not only to take his images, but to return to Canaan without being perceived.

[¶43] Rachel had stolen the images - תרפים teraphim. What the teraphim were is utterly unknown. In [Gen 31:30] they are termed אלהי elohai, gods; and to some it appears very likely that they were a sort of images devoted to superstitious purposes, not considered as gods, but as representatives of certain Divine attributes, Dr. Shuckford supposes them to be a sort of tiles, on which the names or figures of their ancestors were engraven. Theodoret, in his 89th question, calls them idols; and says that Rachel, who was a type of the true Church, stole them from her father that he might be delivered from idolatry. R. S. Jarchi gives nearly the same reason.

[¶44] The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel gives a strange turn to the whole passage. "And Rachel stole the images of her father: for they had murdered a man, who was a first-born son; and having cut off his head, they embalmed it with salt and spices, and they wrote divinations upon a plate of gold, and put it under his tongue; and placed it against the wall, and it conversed with them, and Laban worshipped it. And Jacob stole the science of Laban the Syrian, that it might not discover his departure." If the word be derived from רפא mo rapha, to heal or restore, then the teraphim may be considered as a sort of talismans, kept for the purpose of averting and curing diseases; and probably were kept by Laban for the same purpose that the Romans kept their lares and penates. It is however possible that תרפים teraphim is the same as שרפים seraphim, the ת tau and ש sin being changed, which is very frequent in the Syrian or Chaldee language; and we know that Laban was an Aramean or Syrian. Fire has been considered from the earliest ages as a symbol of the Deity; and as the word seraphim comes from שרף saraph, to burn, it has been conjectured that the teraphim of Laban were luminous forms, prepared of burnished brass, etc., which he might imagine a proper medium of communication between God and his worshippers. Mr. Parkhurst has observed that the teraphim were in use among believers and unbelievers. Among the former, see this chapter; for he denies that Laban was an idolater. See also [Jdg 17:5];[Jdg 18:14], [Jdg 18:18], [Jdg 18:20]; [1Sam 19:13], [1Sam 19:16]. Among the latter, see [2Kgs 23:24]; [Eze 21:21]; [Zac 10:2]. Compare [1Sam 15:23], and [Hos 3:4]. These are all the places in which the original word is found.

## 45. Genesis · 45 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/45/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/45/#p-N

[¶0] The Persian translator seems to have considered these teraphim as tables or instruments that served for purposes of judicial astrology, and hence translates the word asterlabha, astrolabes. As the astrolabe was an instrument with which they took the altitude of the pole-star, the sun, etc., it might, in the notion of the Persian translator, imply tables, etc., by which the culminating of particular stars might be determined, and the whole serve for purposes of judicial astrology. Now as many who have professed themselves to be believers in Christianity, have nevertheless addicted themselves to judicial astrology, we might suppose such a thing in this case, and still consider Laban as no idolater. If the Persian translator has not hit on the true meaning, he has formed the most likely conjecture.

### Verse 21

[¶2] Passed over the river - The Euphrates, as the Targum properly notices. But how could he pass such a river with his flocks, etc.? This difficulty does not seem to have struck critics in general. The rabbins felt it, and assert that God wrought a miracle for Jacob on this occasion, and that he passed over dry shod. As we know not in what other way he could pass, it is prudent to refer it to the power of God, which accompanied him through the whole of his journey. There might, however, have been fords well known to both Jacob and Laban, by which they might readily pass.

[¶3] The mount Gilead - What the ancient name of this mountain was, we know not; but it is likely that it had not the name of Gilead till after the transaction mentioned [Gen 31:47]. The mountains of Gilead were eastward of the country possessed by the tribes of Reuben and Gad; and extended from Mount Hermon to the mountains of Moab - Calmet. It is joined to Mount Libanus, and includes the mountainous region called in the New Testament Trachonitis - Dodd.

### Verse 24

[¶5] And God came to Laban - God's caution to Laban was of high importance to Jacob - Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad; or rather, as is the literal meaning of the Hebrew, מטוב עד רע mittob ad ra, from good to evil; for had he neither spoken good nor evil to Jacob, they could have had no intercourse at all. The original is, therefore, peculiarly appropriate; for when people meet, the language at first is the language of friendship; the command therefore implies, "Do not begin with Peace be unto thee, and then proceed to injurious language and acts of violence." If this Divine direction were attended to, how many of those affairs of honor, so termed, which commence with, "I hope you are well" - "I am infinitely glad to see you" - "I am happy to see you well," etc., and end with small swords and pistol bullets, would be prevented! Where God and true religion act, all is fair, kind, honest, and upright; but where these are not consulted, all is hollow, deceitful, or malicious. Beware of unmeaning compliments, and particularly of saying what thy heart feels not. God hates a hypocrite and a deceiver.

### Verse 27

[¶7] I might have sent thee away with mirth - בשמחה, besimchah, with rejoicing, making a feast or entertainment on the occasion; and with songs, בשרים beshirim, odes either in the praise of God, or to commemorate the splendid acts of their ancestors; with tabret, בתף bethoph, the tympanum used in the east to the present day, and there called diff, a thin broad wooden hoop, with parchment extended over one end of it, to which are attached small pieces of brass, tin, etc., which make a jingling noise; it is held in the air with one hand, and beat on with the fingers of the other. It appears to have been precisely the same with that which is called the tambourine and which is frequently to be met with in our streets. And with harp, בכנור bekinnor, a sort of stringed instrument, a lute or harp; probably the same as the Greek κινυρα kinura, a harp; the name being evidently borrowed from the Hebrew. These four things seem to include all that was used in those primitive times, as expressive of gladness and satisfaction on the most joyous occasions.

### Verse 29

[¶9] It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt - Literally, My hand is unto God to do you evil, i.e., I have vowed to God that I will punish thee for thy flight, and the stealing of my teraphim; but the God of Your father has prevented me from doing it. It is a singular instance that the plural pronoun, when addressing an individual, should be twice used in this place - the God of your father, אביכם abichem, for אביך abicha, thy father.

### Verse 32

[¶11] Let him not live - It appears that anciently theft was punished by death; and we know that the patriarchs had the power of life and death in their hands. But previously to the law, the punishment of death was scarcely ever inflicted but for murder. The rabbins consider that this was an imprecation used by Jacob, as if he had said, Let God take away the life of the person who has stolen them! And that this was answered shortly after in the death of Rachel, [Gen 35:16-19].

### Verse 35

[¶13] The custom of women is upon me - This she knew must be a satisfactory reason to her father; for if the teraphim were used to any religious purpose, and they seem to have been used in this way, as Laban calls them his gods, he therefore could not suspect that a woman in such a situation, whose touch was considered as defiling, would have sat upon articles that were either the objects of his adoration, or used for any sacred purpose. The stratagem succeeded to her wish, and Laban departed without suspicion. It seems very natural to suppose that Rachel did believe that by the use of these teraphim Laban could find out their flight, and the direction they took, and therefore she stole them; and having stolen them she was afraid to acknowledge the theft, and probably might think that they might be of some use to herself. Therefore, for these reasons, she brought them away.

### Verse 36

[¶15] And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban - The expostulation of Jacob with Laban, and their consequent agreement, are told in this place with great spirit and dignity. Jacob was conscious that though he had made use of cunning to increase his flocks, yet Laban had been on the whole a great gainer by his services. He had served him at least twenty years, fourteen for Rachel and Leah, and six for the cattle; and some suppose he had served him twenty years besides the above, which is not unlikely: see the remarks at the conclusion of this chapter. (See Clarke at [Gen 31:55] (note)) Forty or even twenty years of a man's life, devoted to incessant labor and constantly exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, (see [Gen 31:40]), deserve more than an ordinary reward. Laban's constitutional sin was covetousness, and it was an easily besetting sin; for it appears to have governed all his conduct, and to have rendered him regardless of the interests of his children, so long as he could secure his own. That he had frequently falsified his agreement with Jacob, though the particulars are not specified, we have already had reason to conjecture from [Gen 31:7], and with this Jacob charges his father-in-law, in the most positive manner, [Gen 31:41]. Perhaps some previous unfair transactions of this kind were the cause why Jacob was led to adopt the expedient of outwitting Laban in the case of the spotted, spangled, ring-streaked, and grisled cattle. This if it did take place, though it cannot justify the measure, is some palliation of it; and almost the whole of Jacob's conduct, as far as relates to Laban, can be better excused than his injuring Laban's breed, by leaving him none but the weak, unhealthy, and degenerated cattle.

### Verse 39

[¶17] That which was torn - of my hand didst thou require it - This more particularly marks the covetous and rigorous disposition of Laban; for the law of God required that what had been torn by beasts the shepherd should not be obliged to make good, [Exo 22:10], [Exo 22:13]. And it is very likely that this law was in force from the earliest times.

### Verse 40

[¶19] In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night - The being exposed to the heat by day, and frost by night, is made part of the heaviest punishment of Promethus by Aeschylus. Σταθευτος δ' ἡλιου φοιβῃ φλογι, Χροιας αμευψεις· ασμενῳ δε σοι Ἡ ποικιλεμων νυξ αποκρυψει φαος· Παχνην θ' ἑῳαν ἡλιος σκεδᾳ παλιν.

[¶20] Aeschyl. Prom. Vinc., v. 22.

[¶21] Opposed to the sun's most fervid beam, The hue of beauty changed; till parch'd by heat The night with spangled stole shall hide its light From thee rejoicing, but again the sun Chases the hoar frost from thy harass'd form - J. B. B. C.

### Verse 41

[¶23] Twenty years - See the remarks at the end, [Gen 31:55] (note).

### Verse 42

[¶25] The fear of Isaac - It is strange that Jacob should say, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, when both words are meant of the same Being. The reason perhaps was this; Abraham was long since dead, and God was his unalienable portion for ever. Isaac was yet alive in a state of probation, living in the fear of God, not exempt from the danger of falling; therefore God is said to be his fear, not only the object of his religious worship in a general way, but that holy and just God before whom he was still working out his salvation with fear and trembling, fear lest he should fall, and trembling lest he should offend.

### Verse 46

[¶27] Made a heap - גל gal, translated heap, signifies properly a round heap; and this heap was probably made for the double purpose of an altar and a table, and Jacob's stone or pillar was set on it for the purpose of a memorial.

### Verse 47

[¶29] Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha - יגר שהדותא yegar sahadutha, the heap or round heap of witness; but Jacob called it גלעד galed, which signifies the same thing. The first is pure Chaldee, the second pure Hebrew. אגר agar signifies to collect, hence יגר yegar and אוגר ogar, a collection or heap made up of gathered stones; and hence also אגורא egora, an altar, used frequently by the Chaldee paraphrast. See [1Kgs 12:33]; [Jdg 6:31]; [2Kgs 21:3]; [Jer 17:1]. See Castel's Lexicon. From this example we may infer that the Chaldee language was nearly coequal with the Hebrew. A gloss made by St. Jerome, and which was probably only entered by him in his margin as a note, has crept into the text of the Vulgate. It is found in every copy of this version, and is as follows: Uterque juxta proprietatem linguae suae, Each according to the idiom of his own tongue.

### Verse 48

[¶31] I think these two verses are badly divided, and should be read thus: [Gen 31:48] - And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. [Gen 31:49] - Therefore was the name of it called Galeed and Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.

[¶32] Mizpah - מעפה mitspah signifies a watch-tower; and Laban supposes that in consequence of the consecration of the place, and the covenant now solemnly made and ratified, that God would take possession of this heap, and stand on it as on a watch-tower, to prevent either of them from trenching on the conditions of their covenant.

### Verse 50

[¶34] No man is with us - Though all were present at the sacrifice offered, yet it appears that in making the contract Jacob and Laban withdrew, and transacted the business in private, calling on God to witness it.

[¶35] Jacob had already four wives; but Laban feared that he might take others, whose children would naturally come in for a share of the inheritance to the prejudice of his daughters and grandchildren. Though the Koran allows a man to have four wives if he can maintain them, yet we learn that in many cases where a man takes a wife, the parents or relatives of the woman stipulate that the man is not to take another during the lifetime of that one whom he now espouses; and notwithstanding the permission of the Koran, he is obliged to fulfill this agreement.

### Verse 51

[¶37] And Laban said to Jacob - behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee - But this pillar, not cast but set up, was certainly set up by Jacob; for in [Gen 31:45] we read, And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar: it is therefore for the honor of one Hebrew and one Samaritan MS. that they have preserved the true reading in [Gen 31:51], ירית yaritha, Thou hast set up - Kennicott. Instead of either of the above readings the Samaritan text has yarata, The pillar which thou Seest betwixt me and thee.

### Verse 53

[¶39] The God of their father - As Laban certainly speaks of the true God here, with what propriety can he say that this God was the God of Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor? It is certain that Terah was an idolater; of this we have the most positive proof, [Jos 24:2]. Because the clause is not in the Septuagint, and is besides wanting in some MSS., Dr. Kennicott considers it an interpolation. But there is no need of having recourse to this expedient if we adopt the reading אביכם abichem, Your father, for אביהם abihem, Their father, which is supported by several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and is precisely the same form made use of by Laban, [Gen 31:29], when addressing Jacob, and appears to me to be used here in the same way; for he there most manifestly uses the plural pronoun, when speaking only to Jacob himself.

[¶40] It is therefore to be considered as a form of speech peculiar to Laban; at least we have two instances of his use of it in this chapter.

[¶41] Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac - See Clarke on [Gen 31:42] (note).

### Verse 54

[¶43] Offered sacrifice upon the mount - It is very likely that Laban joined in this solemn religious rite, and that, having offered the blood and fat to God, they feasted upon the sacrifice.

## 46. Genesis · 46 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/46/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/46/#p-N

### Verse 55

[¶1] Kissed his sons and his daughters - That is, his grandchildren, Jacob's eleven sons with Dinah their sister, and their mothers Leah and Rachel. All these he calls his children, [Gen 31:43]. And blessed them - prayed heartily for their prosperity, though we find from [Gen 31:29] that he came having bound himself by a vow to God to do them some injury. Thus God turned his intended curse into a blessing.

[¶2] The most important topics in this chapter have already been considered in the notes, and to those the reader is referred. Jacob's character we have already seen, and hitherto have met in it little to admire; but we shall soon find a blessed change both in his mind and in his conduct. Laban's character appears in almost every instance to disadvantage; he does not seem to be what we commonly term a wicked man, but he was certainly both weak and covetous; and covetousness extinguished in him, as it does in all its votaries, the principles of righteousness and benevolence, and the very charities of human life. Provided he could get an increase of property, he regarded not who was wronged or who suffered. In this case he hid himself even from his own bowels, and cared not that his own children should lack even the necessaries of life, provided he could increase his own store! How watchful should we be against this destructive, unnatural, and degrading vice! It is impossible for a man who loves money to love either God or man; and consequently he must be in the broad way that leads to destruction.

[¶3] For the difficulties in the chronology of Jacob's sojourning in Padan-aram, I beg leave to refer to the following remarks.

[¶4] Remarks upon [Gen 31:38], etc., relative to the time spent by Jacob in the service of his father-in-law Laban, in Mesopotamia; from Dr. Kennicott. "If every reading which introduces but a single difficulty demands our attention, much greater must that demand be when several difficulties are caused by any one mistake, or any one mistranslation. Of this nature is the passage before us, which therefore shall be here considered more fully, especially as I have not already submitted to the learned any remarks upon this subject. Jacob's age at the time of his going to Laban, has (till very lately) been fixed, perhaps universally, at seventy-seven years. But I think it has been shown by the learned Mr. Skinner, in an excellent dissertation, (4th. 1765), that the number seventy-seven cannot here be right. "Jacob was one hundred and thirty when he went down (with sixty-six persons) into Egypt. Joseph had then been governor ten years; and when made governor was thirty; therefore Jacob could not be more than ninety at the birth of Joseph. Now, upon supposition that Jacob was seventy-seven at going to Laban, and that he had no son till he was eighty-five, and that he, with eleven sons, left Laban at ninety-seven, there will follow these amongst other strange consequences which are enumerated by Mr. Skinner page 11, etc.:

[¶5] 1. Though Isaac and Esau married at forty, Jacob goes at seventy-seven to look for a wife, and agrees to marry her seven years after.

[¶6] 2. Issachar is born after the affair of the mandrakes, which Reuben finds and brings home when he (Reuben) was about four years old; that is, if Issachar was born before Joseph, agreeably to [Gen 30:18], [Gen 30:25].

[¶7] 3. Judah begets Er at thirteen; for in the first of the following tables Judah is born in Jacob's year eighty-eight, and Er in one hundred and two.

[¶8] 4. Er marries at nine, and is destroyed for profligacy. Er, born one hundred and two, marries in one hundred and eleven. See also [Gen 38:7].

[¶9] 5. Onan marries at eight; for Onan, born in one hundred and three, marries in one hundred and eleven.

[¶10] 6. Shelah, being grown at ten, ought to be married; for Shelah, born in one hundred and four, is marriageable, but not married to Tamar in one hundred and fourteen. See [Gen 38:14].

[¶11] 7. Pharez kept from marrying while young, yet has a son at thirteen; for Pharez, born in one hundred and fifteen, had two sons at going to Egypt in one hundred and thirty.

[¶12] 8. Esau goes to Ishmael and marries his daughter, after Jacob went to Laban at seventy-seven; though Ishmael died when Jacob was sixty-three.

[¶13] 9. If Jacob had no son till he was eighty-five, and if Joseph was born when his father was ninety, then the eleven sons and Dinah were born in five years.

[¶14] Lastly, if Jacob had no son till eighty-five, and he went to Egypt at one hundred and thirty, with sixty-six persons, only forty-five years are allowed for his family; whereas the larger sum of sixty-five years seems necessary for the births of so many children and grandchildren. On this subject Le Clerc has pronounced, Hisce in rebus occurrunt nodi, quos nemo hactenus solvit; neque porro, ut opinor, solvet. There are difficulties here which have never been explained, and in my opinion never can be explained. But upon the single principle of Mr. Skinner, that Jacob went to Laban at fifty-seven, (instead of seventy-seven), these difficulties are solved. And it only remains to wish that some authority may be found to support this conjecture, thus strongly founded on the exigentia loci. The common opinion is formed by reckoning back from the age of Joseph, when governor of Egypt, to the time of his birth, and from the twenty years which Jacob was with Laban. This number, Mr. Skinner thinks, was originally forty; and I think that the Hebrew text as it now stands confirms the conjecture, and furnishes the very authority which is so much wanted. "After Jacob had served Laban fourteen years for his two wives, where was Jacob to reside? Esau was still living; and Jacob might well be afraid of returning to him, till more years of absence had disarmed his resentment; and had the death of Esau happened, Jacob would then have been secure. But let us also remember that Isaac was still alive, and that Esau had determined to kill Jacob whenever their father should die. It would therefore be no wonder if Jacob should have desired to continue longer in Haran. And to carry this point more effectually, he might offer to take care of Laban's cattle, and to live in his neighborhood, upon such terms of advantage to Laban as could not easily be withstood. Lastly, when the good effects to Laban from this connection had been experienced, without profit, nay with some losses, to Jacob, for twenty years, Jacob might naturally grow tired of thus assisting Laban without providing for his own growing family. Accordingly we find that Jacob covenants with Laban for six years of more close attendance and service in Laban's own house, for which the wages were expressly settled. Agreeable to the preceding possibilities seems to have been the fact, Jacob living in Haran forty years, and in this manner: - 14 years in Laban's house, a covenant servant for his wives. 20 in Laban's neighborhood, as a friend. 6 in Laban's house, a covenant servant for cattle. 40 "Now the twenty concurrent years of neighbourly assistance, and the disjointed twenty of covenant service, seem both of them distinguished in the history itself. For upon Laban's pursuit of Jacob he mentions twenty years twice; which two sets of twenty, if really different, make forty. Each mention of the twenty years is introduced with the word זה zeh, which word, when repeated, is used by way of distinction; as when we say, this and that, the one or the other. Thus, [Exo 14:20] : So that the one came not near the other. [Ecc 6:5] : This hath more rest than the other. And with the two words at a great distance, [Job 21:23] : One dieth; [Job 21:25]; and another dieth, etc. So here, in [Gen 31:38], Jacob says to Laban, זה עשרים שנה אנכי עמך zeh esrim shanah anochi immach, during the One set of twenty years I was with thee, etc.; meaning the time in which he lived, not in Laban's house, but in his neighborhood; not as a servant, but a friend; after he had served in Laban's house fourteen years for his daughters, and before he served six years for his cattle. But then, as to the other twenty, he tells Laban, at [Gen 31:41], varying the phrase very remarkably זה לי עשרים שנה בביתך עבדתיך zeh li esrim shanah bebeithecha abadticha, during the other twenty years (ל li) For Myself (for my own benefit) In Thy House; I served thee fourteen years, and six years, etc. And during this last period, though only six years, he charges Laban with changing his wages ten times. So that Jacob insists upon having well earned his wages through the twenty years when he served for hire; but he makes a far greater merit of having, for another twenty years, assisted him without wages, and even with some losses; and therefore, with particular propriety, he reminds Laban of that set of twenty years in the first place.

[¶15] The following Tables, taken chiefly from Mr. Skinner, will greatly elucidate the true chronology of Jacob:

[¶16] Table 1 - On Jacob's being at Haran only twenty years. 0 Jacob (and Esau) born. 40 Esau marries two wives, Hittites [Gen 26:34]. 63 Ishmael dies, aged 137 [Gen 25:17]. 77 Jacob goes to Haran. 84 marries Leah and Rachel [Gen 29:20], [Gen 29:21], [Gen 29:27], [Gen 29:28]. 85 Reuben born of Leah 86 Simeon born of Leah [Gen 29:32-35]. 87 Levi born of Leah 88 Judah born of Leah 89 Dan born of Bilhah

[¶17] Naphtali born of Bilhah

[¶18] Gad born of Zilpah

[¶19] Asher born of Zilpah

[¶20] Issachar born of Leah

[¶21] Zebulun and Dinah born of Leah

[¶22] Genesis 30:6-24. 91 Joseph born of Rachel 97 Jacob returns from Haran. 98 dwells in Succoth. 99 comes to Shalem, and continues there eight years 101 Judah marries Shuah's daughter. 102 Er born, - 103 Onan, - 104 Shelah. 106 Shechemites destroyed by Simeon and Levi. 107 Benjamin is born, and Rachel dies 108 Joseph sold when seventeen [Gen 37:2]. 111 Tamar married to Er, and immediately afterwards to Onan. 114 Tamar's incest with Judah. 115 Pharez and Zarah born to Judah. 120 Isaac dies, aged 180 [Gen 35:28]. 121 Joseph is made governor of Egypt [Gen 41:46]. 130 Jacob goes into Egypt [Gen 47:9]. 147 and dies. [Gen 47:28]; [Gen 49:33].

[¶23] Table 2 - On Jacob's Being at Haran Forty years. 0 Jacob (and Esau) born. 40 Esau marries two wives, Hittites [Gen 26:34] 57 Jacob goes to Haran. 58 Esau goes to Ishmael, and marries his daughter. [Gen 28:9]. 63 Ishmael dies, aged 137 [Gen 25:17]. 64 Jacob marries Leah and Rachel [Gen 29:20], [Gen 29:21], [Gen 29:27], [Gen 29:28]. 65 Reuben born of Leah 66 Simeon born of Leah [Gen 29:32-35]. 67 Levi born of Leah 68 Judah born of Leah, Rachel, not bearing, gives Bilhah 69 Dan born of Bilhah 71 Naphtali born of BilhahLeah, not bearing, gives Zilpah Genesis 30:6-24. 72 Gad born of Zilpah 74 Asher born of Zilpah 78 Reuben at 13 finds the mandrakes 79 Issachar born of Leah 81 Zebulun born of Leah 82 Dinah born of Leah 86 Judah at 18 marries Shuah's daughter. 87 Er born, - 88 Onan, - 89 Shelah. 91 Joseph born of Rachel. 97 Jacob comes from Haran to Succoth and Shalem.

[¶24] Dinah defiled, and the Shechemites destroyed. 98 Benjamin is born, and Rachel dies. 103 Beriah, fourth son of Asher, born. 105 Tamar married to Er - 106 to Onan. 108 Joseph, at seventeen, is carried into Egypt. [Gen 37:2]. 109 Shelah, at twenty, not given to Tamar. 110 Pharez and Zarah born of Tamar, by Judah. 120 Isaac dies, aged 180 [Gen 35:28]. 121 Joseph, at thirty, governor of Egypt [Gen 41:46]. 123 Beriah, at twenty, marries. 125 Heber - 127 Malchiel - born to Beriah. 128 Pharez, at eighteen, marries. 129 Hezron - 130 Hamul - born to Pharez. 130 Benjamin, at thirty - two, has ten sons.

[¶25] Jacob goes to Egypt [Gen 47:9]. 147 and dies [Gen 47:28]; [Gen 49:33]. * Not placed in order of time, Genesis 38.(57-71 = 14 years' service; 72-91 = 20 years' assistance) "Our translation now is, [Gen 31:38] : This Twenty Years Have I Been With Thee; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. [Gen 31:39]. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. [Gen 31:40]. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. [Gen 31:41]. Thus Have I Been Twenty Years In Thy House: I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle; and thou hast changed my wages ten times. "The alteration here recommended is this, [Gen 31:38] : During The One Twenty Years I Was With Thee; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams, etc., etc. [Gen 31:41]. During The Other Twenty Years For Myself, In Thy House, I served, etc. The same distinction is expressed in [Gen 30:29] : Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me; i.e., how I behaved during the time I was with thee as thy servant, and how thy cattle fared during the time they were with me as thy friend. "It must not be omitted that Archbishop Usher and Bishop Lloyd ascribe sons to Jacob very soon after his coming to Laban; nay, assert that he was married almost as soon as he came to Haran, instead of waiting seven years, as he most evidently did. And Mr. Jackson allows that some of the sons of Benjamin, who are expressly numbered as going into Egypt with Jacob, might be born in Egypt! From such distresses, and such contradictions, does the distinction of two sets of twenty years happily deliver us,"

[¶26] Hoc temporis intervallo nemo concipere poterit tot res contingere potuisse.

[¶27] Spinosa.

[¶28] In such a short space of time, it is impossible that so many transactions could have taken place.

[¶29] I shall leave this subject with chronologers and critics, and shall not attempt to decide on either opinion. That of Dr. Kennicott I think the most likely, and to it I have adapted the chronology in those cases to which it relates; but there are difficulties in both cases. See Clarke on [Gen 38:1] (note).

### Introduction

[¶31] Jacob, proceeding on his Journey, is met by the angels of God, [Gen 32:1], [Gen 32:2]. Sends messengers before him to his brother Esau, requesting to be favourably received, [Gen 32:3-5]. The messengers return without an answer, but with the intelligence that Esau, with four hundred men, was coming to meet Jacob, [Gen 32:6]. He is greatly alarmed, and adopts prudent means for the safety of himself and family, [Gen 32:7], [Gen 32:8]. His affecting prayer to God, [Gen 32:9-12]. Prepares a present of five droves of different cattle for his brother, [Gen 32:13-15]. Sends them forward before him, at a certain distance from each other, and instructs the drivers what to say when met by Esau, [Gen 32:15-20]. Sends his wives, servants, children and baggage, over the brook Jabbok, by night, [Gen 32:21-23]. Himself stays behind, and wrestles with an angel until the break of day, [Gen 32:24]. He prevails and gets a new name, [Gen 32:25-29]. Calls the name of the place Peniel, [Gen 32:30]. Is lame in his thigh in consequence of his wrestling with the angel, [Gen 32:31], [Gen 32:32].

### Verse 1

[¶33] The angels of God met him - Our word angel comes from the Greek αγγελος aggelos, which literally signifies a messenger; or, as translated in some of our old Bibles, a tidings-bringer. The Hebrew word מלאך malach, from לאך laach, to send, minister to, employ, is nearly of the same import; and hence we may see the propriety of St. Augustine's remark: Nomen non naturae sed officii, "It is a name, not of nature, but of office;" and hence it is applied indifferently to a human agent or messenger, [2Sam 2:5]; to a prophet, [Hag 1:13]; to a priest, [Mal 2:7]; to celestial spirits, [Psa 103:19], [Psa 103:20], [Psa 103:22]; [Psa 104:4]. "We often," says Mr. Parkhurst, "read of the מלאך יהוה malach Yehovah, or מלאכי אלהים malakey Elohim, the angel of Jehovah, or the angels of God, that is, his agent, personator, mean of visibility or action, what was employed by God to render himself visible and approachable by flesh and blood." This angel was evidently a human form, surrounded or accompanied by light or glory, with or in which Jehovah was present; see [Gen 19:1], [Gen 19:12], [Gen 19:16]; [Jdg 13:6], [Jdg 13:21]; [Exo 3:2], [Exo 3:6]. "By this vision," says Mr. Ainsworth, "God confirmed Jacob's faith in him who commanded his angels to keep his people in all their ways, [Psa 91:11]. Angels are here called God's host, camp, or army, as in wars; for angels are God's soldiers, [Luk 2:13]; horses and chariots of fire, [2Kgs 2:11]; fighting for God's people against their enemies, [Dan 10:20]; of them there are thousand thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand, [Dan 7:10]; and they are all sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation, [Heb 1:14]; and they pitch a camp about them that fear God, [Psa 34:7]." One of the oldest of the Greek poets had a tolerably correct notion of the angelic ministry: - Αυταρ επειπεν τουτο γενος κατα γαια καλυψεν Τοι μεν Δαιμονες εισι, Διος μεγαλου δια βουλας, Εσθλοι, επιχθονιοι, φυλακες θνητων ανθρωπων· κ. τ. λ.

[¶34] Hesiod. Op. &Dies, l. i., ver. 120.

[¶35] When in the grave this race of men was laid, Soon was a world of holy demons made, Aerial spirits, by great Jove design'd To be on earth the guardians of mankind. Invisible to mortal eyes they go, And mark our actions good or bad below; The immortal spies with watchful care preside, And thrice ten thousand round their charges glide: They can reward with glory or with gold, A power they by Divine permission hold - Cooke.

### Verse 2

[¶37] Mahanaim - The two hosts, if read by the points, the angels forming one, and Jacob and his company forming another; or simply hosts or camps in the plural. There was a city built afterwards here, and inhabited by the priests of God, [Jos 21:38]. For what purpose the angels of God met Jacob, does not appear from the text; probably it was intended to show him that he and his company were under the care of an especial providence, and consequently to confirm his trust and confidence in God.

[¶38] The doctrine of the ministration of angels has been much abused, not only among the heathens, but also among Jews and Christians, and perhaps most among the latter. Angels with feigned names, titles, and influences, have been and still are invoked and worshipped by a certain class of men; because they have found that God has been pleased to employ them to minister to mankind; and hence they have made supplications to them to extend their protection, to shield, defend, instruct, etc. This is perfectly absurd.

[¶39] 1. They are God's instruments, not self-determining agents.

[¶40] 2. They can only do what they are appointed to perform, for there is no evidence that they have any discretionary power.

[¶41] 3. God helps man by ten thousand means and instruments; some intellectual, as angels; some rational, as men; some irrational, as brutes; and some merely material, as the sun, wind, rain, food, raiment, and the various productions of the earth. He therefore helps by whom he will help, and to him alone belongs all the glory; for should he be determined to destroy, all these instruments collectively could not save. Instead therefore of worshipping them, we should take their own advice: See thou do it not - Worship God.

### Verse 3

[¶43] Jacob sent messengers - מלאכים malachim, the same word which is before translated angels. It is very likely that these messengers had been sent some time before he had this vision at Mahanaim, for they appear to have returned while Jacob encamped at the brook Jabbok, where he had the vision of angels; see [Gen 32:6], [Gen 32:23].

[¶44] The land of Seir, the country of Edom - This land, which was, according to Dr. Wells, situated on the south of the Dead Sea, extending from thence to the Arabian Gulf, [1Kgs 9:26], was formerly possessed by the Horites, [Gen 14:6]; but Esau with his children drove them out, destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead, [Deu 2:22]; and thither Esau went from the face of his brother Jacob, [Gen 36:6], [Gen 36:7]. Thus we find he verified the prediction, By thy sword shalt thou live, [Gen 27:40].

## 47. Genesis · 47 of 67

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau - Jacob acknowledges the superiority of his brother; for the time was not yet come in which it could be said, The elder shall serve the younger.

### Verse 6

[¶3] Esau - cometh - and four hundred men with him - Jacob, conscious that he had injured his brother, was now apprehensive that he was coming with hostile intentions, and that he had every evil to fear from his displeasure. Conscience is a terrible accuser. It was a fine saying of a heathen,

[¶4] Hic murus aheneus esto,

[¶5] Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa.

[¶6] Hor. Ep., l. i., E. i., v. 60.

[¶7] Be this thy brazen bulwark of defense,

[¶8] Still to preserve thy conscious innocence,

[¶9] Nor e'er turn pale with guilt.

[¶10] Francis.

[¶11] In other words, He that has a good conscience has a brazen wall for his defense; for a guilty conscience needs no accuser; sooner or later it will tell the truth, and not only make the man turn pale who has it, but also cause him to tremble even while his guilt is known only to himself and God.

[¶12] It does not appear that Esau in this meeting had any hostile intention, but was really coming with a part of his servants or tribe to do his brother honor. If he had had any contrary intention, God had removed it; and the angelic host which Jacob met with before might have inspired him with sufficient confidence in God's protection. But we find that when he needed faith most, he appears to have derived but little benefit from its influence, partly from the sense he had of the injury he had done to his brother, and partly from not attending sufficiently to the assurance which God had given him of his gracious protection.

### Verse 7

[¶14] He divided the people, etc. - His prudence and cunning were now turned into a right channel, for he took the most effectual method to appease his brother, had he been irritated, and save at least a part of his family. This dividing and arranging of his flocks, family, and domestics, has something in it highly characteristic. To such a man as Jacob such expedients would naturally present themselves.

### Verse 9

[¶16] O God of my father Abraham, etc. - This prayer is remarkable for its simplicity and energy; and it is a model too for prayer, of which it contains the essential constituents: - 1. Deep self-abasement. 2. Magnification of God's mercy. 3. Deprecation of the evil to which he was exposed. 4. Pleading the promises that God had made to him. And, 5. Taking encouragement from what God had already wrought.

### Verse 10

[¶18] I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies - The marginal reading is more consistent with the original: קטנתי מכל החסדים ומכל האמת katonti miccol hachasadim umiccol haemeth, I am less than all the compassions, and than all the faithfulness, which thou hast showed unto thy servant. Probably St Paul had his eye on this passage when he wrote, Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints. A man who sees himself in the light of God will ever feel that he has no good but what he has received, and that he deserves nothing of all that he has. The archangels of God cannot use a different language, and even the spirits of just men consummated in their plenitude of bliss, cannot make a higher boast.

[¶19] For with my staff - i.e., myself alone, without any attendants, as the Chaldee has properly rendered it.

### Verse 11

[¶21] And the mother with the children - He must have had an awful opinion of his brother when he used this expression, which implies the utmost cruelty, proceeding in the work of slaughter to total extermination. See [Hos 10:14].

### Verse 12

[¶23] Make thy seed as the sand - Having come to the promise by which the covenant was ratified both to Abraham and Isaac, he ceased, his faith having gained strong confirmation in a promise which he knew could not fail, and which he found was made over to him, as it had been to his father and grandfather.

### Verse 13

[¶25] And took of that which came to his hand - הבא בידו habba beyado, which came under his hand, i.e., what, in the course of God's providence, came under his power.

### Verse 14

[¶27] Two hundred she-goats, etc. - This was a princely present, and such as was sufficient to have compensated Esau for any kind of temporal loss he might have sustained in being deprived of his birthright and blessing. The thirty milch camels were particularly valuable, for milch camels among the Arabs constitute a principal part of their riches, the creature being every way so serviceable that the providence of God appears peculiarly kind and wise in providing such a beast for those countries where no other animal could be of equal service. "The she-camel gives milk continually, not ceasing till great with young; the milk of which," as Pliny has remarked, "when mixed with three parts of water, affords the most pleasant and wholesome beverage." Cameli lac habent, donec iterum gravescant, suavissimumque hoc existimatur, ad unam mensuram tribus aquae additis - Hist. Nat., lib. 11., chap. 41.

### Verse 15

[¶29] Ten bulls - The Syriac and Vulgate have twenty; but ten is a sufficient proportion to the forty kine. By all this we see that Jacob was led to make restitution for the injury he had done to his brother. Restitution for injuries done to man is essentially requisite if in our power. He who can and will not make restitution for the wrongs he has done, can have no claim even on the mercy of God.

### Verse 22

[¶31] Passed over the ford Jabbok - This brook or rivulet rises in the mountains of Galaad, and falls into the Jordan at the south extremity of the lake of Gennesaret.

### Verse 24

[¶33] And there wrestled a man with him - This was doubtless the Lord Jesus Christ, who, among the patriarchs, assumed that human form, which in the fullness of time he really took of a woman, and in which he dwelt thirty-three years among men. He is here styled an angel, because he was μεγαλης βουλης Αγγελος, (see the Septuagint, [Isa 9:7]), the Messenger of the great counsel or design to redeem fallen man from death, and bring him to eternal glory; see [Gen 16:7].

[¶34] But it may be asked, Had he here a real human body, or only its form? The latter, doubtless. How then could he wrestle with Jacob? It need not be supposed that this angel must have assumed a human body, or something analogous to it, in order to render himself tangible by Jacob; for as the soul operates on the body by the order of God, so could an angel operate on the body of Jacob during a whole night, and produce in his imagination, by the effect of his power, every requisite idea of corporeity, and in his nerves every sensation of substance, and yet no substantiality be in the case.

[¶35] If angels, in appearing to men, borrow human bodies, as is thought, how can it be supposed that with such gross substances they can disappear in a moment? Certainly they do not take these bodies into the invisible world with them, and the established laws of matter and motion require a gradual disappearing, however swiftly it may be effected. But this is not allowed to be the case, and yet they are reported to vanish instantaneously. Then they must render themselves invisible by a cloud, and this must be of a very dense nature in order to hide a human body. But this very expedient would make their departure still more evident, as the cloud must be more dense and apparent than the body in order to hide it. This does not remove the difficulty. But if they assume a quantity of air or vapor so condensed as to become visible, and modified into the appearance of a human body, they can in a moment dilate and rarefy it, and so disappear; for when the vehicle is rarefied beyond the power of natural vision, as their own substance is invisible they can instantly vanish.

[¶36] From [Hos 12:4], we may learn that the wrestling of Jacob, mentioned in this place, was not merely a corporeal exercise, but also a spiritual one; He wept and made supplication unto him. See Clarke on [Hos 12:4] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶38] The hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint - What this implies is difficult to find out; it is not likely that it was complete luxation of the thigh bone. It may mean no more than he received a stroke on the groin, not a touch; for the Hebrew word נגע naga often signifies to smite with violence, which stroke, even if comparatively slight, would effectually disable him for a time, and cause him to halt for many hours, if not for several days. I might add that in this place - the groin, a blow might be of fatal consequence; but as the angel gave it only as a proof of his power, and to show that he could not prevail because he would not, hence the blow was only disabling, without being dangerous; and he was probably cured by the time the sun arose.

### Verse 26

[¶40] Let me go, for the day breaketh - Probably meaning, that as it was now morning, Jacob must rejoin his wives and children, and proceed on their journey. Though phantoms are supposed to disappear when the sun rises, that could be no reason in this case. Most of the angelic appearances mentioned in the Old and New Testaments took place in open day, which put their reality out of question.

### Verse 28

[¶42] Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel - ושראל Yisrael, from שר sar, a prince, or שרה sarah, he ruled as a prince, and אל el, God; or rather from איש ish, a man, (the א aleph being dropped), and ראה raah, he saw, אל el, God; and this corresponds with the name which Jacob imposed on the place, calling it פניאל peniel, the faces of God, or of Elohim, which faces being manifested to him caused him to say, [Gen 32:30], ראיתי אלהים פנים אל פנים raithi Elohim panim el panim, i.e., "I have seen the Elohim faces to faces, (i.e., fully and completely, without any medium), ותנצל נפשי vattinnatsel napshi, and my soul is redeemed." We may learn from this that the redemption of the soul will be the blessed consequence of wrestling by prayer and supplication with God: "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." From this time Jacob became a new man; but it was not till after a severe struggle that he got his name, his heart, and his character changed. After this he was no more Jacob the supplanter, but Israel - the man who prevails with God, and sees him face to face.

[¶43] And hast prevailed - More literally, Thou hast had power with God, and with man thou shalt also prevail. עם אלהים Im Elohim, with the strong God; עם אנשים im anashim, with weak, feeble man. There is a beautiful opposition here between the two words: Seeing thou hast been powerful with the Almighty, surely thou shalt prevail over perishing mortals; as thou hast prevailed with God, thou shalt also prevail with men: God calling the things that were not as though they had already taken place, because the prevalency of this people, the Israelites, by means of the Messiah, who should proceed from them, was already determined in the Divine counsel. He has never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain. He who wrestles must prevail.

### Verse 29

[¶45] Tell me, I pray thee, thy name - It is very likely that Jacob wished to know the name of this angel, that he might invoke him in his necessities: but this might have led him into idolatry, for the doctrine of the incarnation could be but little understood at this time; hence, he refuses to give himself any name, yet shows himself to be the true God, and so Jacob understood him; (see [Gen 32:28]); but he wished to have heard from his own lips that name by which he desired to be invoked and worshipped.

## 48. Genesis · 48 of 67

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[¶0] Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? - Canst thou be ignorant who I am? And he blessed him there - gave him the new heart and the new nature which God alone can give to fallen man, and by the change he wrought in him, sufficiently showed who he was. After this clause the Aldine edition of the Septuagint, and several MSS., add ὁ εστι θαυμαστον, or και τουτο εστι θαυμαστον, which is wonderful; but this addition seems to have been taken from [Jdg 13:18].

### Verse 31

[¶2] The sun rose upon him - Did the Prophet Malachi refer to this, [Mal 4:2] : Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings? Possibly with the rising of the sun, which may here be understood as emblematical of the Sun of righteousness - the Lord Jesus, the pain and weakness of his thigh passed away, and he felt both in soul and body that he was healed of his plagues.

### Verse 32

[¶4] Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew - What this sinew was neither Jew nor Christian can tell; and it can add nothing either to science, or to a true understanding of the text, to multiply conjectures. I have already supposed that the part which the angel touched or struck was the groin; and if this be right, the sinew, nerve, or muscle that shrank, must be sought for in that place.

[¶5] The serious reader must meet with much instruction in this chapter.

[¶6] 1. After his reconciliation with Laban, Jacob proceeds on his way to Canaan; and as God, who was continually watching for his welfare, saw the trials to which he would shortly be exposed, therefore he provided for him the instructive vision of angels, that he might see that those who were for him were more than those who could be against him. A proper consideration of God's omniscience is of the utmost advantage to every genuine Christian. He knows whereof we are made, he remembers that we are but dust, he sees our trials and difficulties, and his eye affects his heart. Hence he is ever devising means that his banished - be not expelled from him.

[¶7] 2. Jacob's recollection of his unkindness and injustice to his brother, when he hears that he is coming to meet him, fills his soul with fear, and obliges him to betake himself to God by prayer and supplication. How important is the office of conscience! And how necessary are times of trial and difficulty when its voice is loudest, and the heart is best prepared to receive its reproofs! In how many cases has conscience slumbered till it pleased God to send some trial by which it has been powerfully awakened, and the salvation of the sinner was the result! Before I was afflicted I went astray.

[¶8] 3. Though salvation be the free gift of God, yet he gives it not to any who do not earnestly seek it. The deeper the conviction of guilt and helplessness is, the more earnest the application to God for mercy is likely to be. They whose salvation costs them strong crying and tears, are not likely (humanly speaking) to part with it lightly; they remember the vinegar and the gall, and they watch and pray that they enter not into temptation.

[¶9] 4. In the strife and agony requisite to enter in at the strait gate, it is highly necessary that we should know that the grace and salvation of God are not purchased by our tears, etc.; for those things which are only proofs and arguments that we have sinned, can never remove the iniquity of our transgressions. A sensible and pious man observes on this subject, "That prayer and wrestling with God should be made as though no other means were to be practiced, and then the best means be adopted as though no prayer or wrestling had been used." God marks even this strife, though highly pleasing in his sight, with such proofs of its own utter insufficiency, that we may carry about with us the memorial of our own weakness, worthlessness, and slowness of heart to believe. God smote the thigh of Jacob, 1. That he might know he had not prevailed by his own strength, but by the power and mercy of his God. 2. That he might, have the most sensible evidence of the reality of the Divine interposition in his behalf. 3. That he might see God's displeasure against his unbelief. And 4. That men in general might be taught that those who will be the disciples of Christ must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and mortify their members which are upon the earth. Those who have not cut off a right hand or foot, or plucked out a right eye, for the kingdom of heaven's sake, are never likely to see God. The religion that costs us nothing, is to us worth nothing.

### Introduction

[¶11] Esau, with four hundred men, meets Jacob, [Gen 33:1]. He places his children under their respective mothers, passes over before them, and bows himself to his brother, [Gen 33:2], [Gen 33:3]. Esau receives him with great affection, [Gen 33:4]. Receives the homage of the handmaids, Leah, Rachel, and their children, [Gen 33:5-7]. Jacob offers him the present of cattle, which he at first refuses, but after much entreaty accepts, [Gen 33:8-11]. Invites Jacob to accompany him to Mount Seir, [Gen 33:12]. Jacob excuses himself because of his flocks and his children, but promises to follow him, [Gen 33:13], [Gen 33:14]. Esau offers to leave him some of his attendants, which Jacob declines, [Gen 33:15]. Esau returns to Seir, [Gen 33:16], and Jacob journeys to Succoth, [Gen 33:17], and to Shalem, in the land of Canaan, [Gen 33:18]. Buys a parcel of ground from the children of Hamor, [Gen 33:19], and erects an altar which he calls El-elohe-Israel, [Gen 33:20].

### Verse 1

[¶13] Behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men - It has been generally supposed that Esau came with an intention to destroy his brother, and for that purpose brought with him four hundred armed men. But, 1. There is no kind of evidence of this pretended hostility. 2. There is no proof that the four hundred men that Esau brought with him were at all armed. 3. But there is every proof that he acted towards his brother Jacob with all openness and candour, and with such a forgetfulness of past injuries as none but a great mind could have been capable of. Why then should the character of this man be perpetually vilified? Here is the secret. With some people, on the most ungrounded assumption, Esau is a reprobate, and the type and figure of all reprobates, and therefore he must be everything that is bad. This serves a system; but, whether true or false in itself, it has neither countenance nor support from the character or conduct of Esau.

### Verse 2

[¶15] He put the handmaids and their children foremost - There is something so artificial in this arrangement of Jacob's family, that it must have had some peculiar design. Was Jacob still apprehensive of danger, and put those foremost whom he least esteemed, that if the foremost met with any evil, those who were behind might escape on their swift beasts? [Gen 32:7], [Gen 32:8]. Or did he intend to keep his choicest treasure to the last, and exhibit his beautiful Rachel and favourite Joseph after Esau had seen all the rest, in order to make the deeper impression on his mind?

### Verse 4

[¶17] Esau ran to meet him - How sincere and genuine is this conduct of Esau, and at the same time how magnanimous! He had buried all his resentment, and forgotten all his injuries; and receives his brother with the strongest demonstrations, not only of forgiveness, but of fraternal affection.

[¶18] And kissed him - וישקהו vaiyishshakehu. In the Masoretic Bibles each letter of this word is noted with a point over it to make it emphatic. And by this kind of notation the rabbins wished to draw the attention of the reader to the change that had taken place in Esau, and the sincerity with which he received his brother Jacob. A Hindoo when he meets a friend after absence throws his arms round him, and his head across his shoulders, twice over the right shoulder and once over the left, with other ceremonies according to the rank of the parties.

### Verse 10

[¶20] Receive my present at my hand - Jacob could not be certain that he had found favor with Esau, unless the present had been received; for in accepting it Esau necessarily became his friend, according to the custom of those times, and in that country. In the eastern countries, if your present be received by your superior, you may rely on his friendship; if it be not received, you have every thing to fear. It is on this ground that Jacob was so urgent with Esau to receive his present, because he knew that after this he must treat him as a friend.

### Verse 14

[¶22] Until I come unto my lord unto Seir - It is very likely that Jacob was perfectly sincere in his expressed purpose of visiting Esau at Seir, but it is as likely that circumstances afterwards occurred that rendered it either improper or impracticable; and we find that Esau afterwards removed to Canaan, and he and Jacob dwelt there together for several years. See [Gen 36:6].

### Verse 17

[¶24] Journeyed to Succoth - So called from סכת succoth, the booths or tents which Jacob erected there for the resting and convenience of his family, who in all probability continued there for some considerable time.

### Verse 18

[¶26] And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem - The word שלם shalem, in the Samaritan שלום shalom, should be translated here in peace, or in safety. After resting some time at Succoth, which was necessary for the safety of his flocks and the comfort of his family, he got safely to a city of Shechem, in health of body, without any loss of his cattle or servants, his wives and children being also in safety. Coverdale and Matthews translate this word as above, and with them agree the Chaldee and the Arabic: it is not likely to have been the name of a city, as it is nowhere else to be found. Shechem is called in [Act 7:16], Sychem, and in [Joh 4:5], Sychar; in the Arabic it is called Nablous, and to the present day Neapolis. It was near to Samaria; and the place where the wretched remains of the sect of the Samaritans were lately found, from whom Dr. Huntington received a perfect copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch.

### Verse 19

[¶28] For a hundred pieces of money - The original, במאה קשיטה bemeah kesitah, has been a matter of long and learned discussion among critics. As kesitah signifies a lamb, it may imply that Jacob gave the Hamorites one hundred lambs for the field; but if it be the same transaction that St. Stephen refers to in [Act 7:16], it was money, τιμης αργυριον, a sum or price of silver, which was given on the occasion. It has been conjectured that the money had the figure of a lamb stamped on it, because it was on an average the value of a lamb; and hence it might be called a kesitah or lamb from the impression it bore. It is certain that in many countries the coin has had its name from the image it bore; so among our ancestors a coin was called an angel because it bore the image of an angel; hence also a Jacobus, a Carolus, a Lewis, (Louis d' Or), a Joe, because certain coins in England, Spain, France, and Portugal, bore on one side the image of the kings of those countries, James, Charles, Lewis, Joseph, or Johannes. The Athenians had a coin called βους, an ox, because it was stamped with the figure of an ox. Hence the saying in Aeschylus: Τα δ' αλλα σιγω, βους επι γλωττης μεγας Βεβηκεν

[¶29] Agam. v. 36. "I must be silent concerning other matters, a great ox has come upon my tongue;" to signify a person who had received a bribe for secrecy, i.e., a sum of money, on each piece of which an ox was stamped, and hence called βους, an ox. The word opes, riches, is a corruption of the word oves, sheep, because these animals in ancient times constituted the principal riches of their owners; but when other cattle were added, the word pecunia, (from pecus, cattle), which we translate money, and from which we still have our English term pecuniary, appears to have been substituted for oves, because pecus, pecoris, and pecus, pecudis, were used to signify all kinds of cattle large and small. Among our British and Saxon ancestors we find coins stamped with the figure of an ox, horse, hog, goat, etc., and this custom arose in all probability, both among them and other nations, from this circumstance, that in primitive times the coin was the ordinary value of the animal whose image it bore. It is, all circumstances weighed, most likely that a piece of money is here intended, and possibly marked with the image of a lamb; but as the original word קשיטה kesitah occurs only here, and in [Jos 24:32], and [Job 42:11], this is not sufficiently evident, the word itself being of very doubtful signification. Mr. Parkhurst is of opinion that the kesitah bore the image of a lamb; and that these lamb coins of the ancient Hebrews typified the Lamb of God, who in the Divine purpose was considered as slain from the foundation of the world, and who purchased us unto God with his own blood. The conjecture is at least pious, and should lead to useful reflections. Those who wish to see more on this subject may consult the writers in the Critici Sacri, and Calmet.

### Verse 20

[¶31] And he erected there an altar - It appears that Jacob had a very correct notion of the providence and mercy of God; hence he says, [Gen 33:5] : The children which God hath Graciously given thy servant; and in [Gen 33:11] he attributes all his substance to the bounty of his Maker: Take, I pray thee, my blessing - because God hath dealt Graciously with me, and because I have enough. Hence he viewed God as the God of all grace, and to him he erects an altar, dedicating it to God, the God of Israel, referring particularly to the change of his own name, and the mercies which he then received; and hence perhaps it would be best to translate the words, The strong God (is) the God of Israel; as by the power of his grace and goodness he had rescued, defended, blessed, and supported him from his youth up until now. The erecting altars with particular names appears in other places; so, [Exo 17:15], Moses calls his altar Jehovah-nissi, "the Lord is my banner."

[¶32] 1. When a man's way's please God, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. When Jacob had got reconciled to God, God reconciled his brother to him. The hearts of all men are in the hands of God, and he turns them howsoever he will.

[¶33] 2. Since the time in which Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the covenant. We see in him much dependence on God, accompanied with a spirit of deep humility and gratitude. God's grace alone can change the heart of man, and it is by that grace only that we get a sense of our obligations; this lays us in the dust, and the more we receive the lower we shall lie.

[¶34] 3. "The first thing," says good Bishop Wilson, "that pious men do, is to provide for the honor and worship of God." Jacob buys a piece of ground, and erects an altar on it in the land of a heathen, that he might acknowledge God among his enemies, and turn them to the true faith; and there is every reason to believe that this expedient would have been successful, had it not been for the base conduct of his sons. How true is the saying, One sinner spoileth much good! Reader, beware, lest thy conduct should become a stumbling block to any.

### Introduction

[¶36] Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, going out to see the daughters of the land, is ravished by Shechem, the son of Hamor, [Gen 34:1], [Gen 34:2]. He entreats his father to get her for him to wife, [Gen 34:3]. Jacob and his sons hear of the indignity offered to Dinah, [Gen 34:5-7]. Hamor proposes the suit of Shechem to Jacob and his sons, and offers them a variety of advantages, [Gen 34:8-10]. Shechem himself comes forward, begs to have Dinah to wife, and offers dowry to any extent, [Gen 34:11], [Gen 34:12]. The sons of Jacob pretend scruples of conscience to give their sister to one who was uncircumcised; and require, as a condition of this marriage, and of intermarriages in general, that all the Shechemites should be circumcised, [Gen 34:13-17]. Hamor and Shechem consent, [Gen 34:18], [Gen 34:19]. They lay the business before the elders of their city, dwell on the advantages of a connection with Jacob and his family, and propose to them the condition required by the sons of Jacob, [Gen 34:20-23]. The elders consent, and all the males are circumcised, [Gen 34:24]. While the Shechemites are incapable of defending themselves, on the third day after their circumcision, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, came upon the city, slew all the males, sacked the city, took the women and children captives, and seized on all the cattle belonging to the Shechemites, [Gen 34:25-29]. Jacob is greatly displeased and alarmed at this treachery and cruelty of his sons, and lays before them the probable consequences, [Gen 34:30]. They endeavor to vindicate their conduct, [Gen 34:31].

### Verse 1

[¶38] And Dinah - went out to see the daughters of the land - It is supposed that Jacob had been now about seven or eight years in the land, and that Dinah, who was about seven years of age when Jacob came to Canaan, was now about fourteen or fifteen. Why or on what occasion she went out we know not, but the reason given by Josephus is very probable, viz., that it was on one of their festivals.

### Verse 2

[¶40] Prince of the country - i.e., Hamor was prince; Shechem was the son of the prince or chief. Our version appears to represent Shechem as prince, but his father was the chief of the country. See [Gen 34:6], [Gen 34:8], etc.

### Verse 3

[¶42] Spake kindly unto the damsel - Literally, he spake to the heart of the damsel - endeavored to gain her affections, and to reconcile her to her disgrace. It appears sufficiently evident from this and the preceding verse that there had been no consent on the part of Dinah, that the whole was an act of violence, and that she was now detained by force in the house of Shechem. Here she was found when Simeon and Levi sacked the city, [Gen 34:26].

### Verse 7

[¶44] He had wrought folly in Israel - The land, afterwards generally called Israel, was not as yet so named; and the sons of Jacob were neither called Israel, Israelites nor Jews, till long after this. How then can it be said that Shechem had wrought folly in Israel? The words are capable of a more literal translation: בישראל beyisrael, may be translated, against Israel. The angel had said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob - not only Jacob, but Israel. It was this that aggravated the offense of Shechem; he wrought folly against Israel, the prince of God, in lying with the daughter of Jacob. Here both the names are given; Jacob, whose daughter was defiled, and Israel, the prince of God, against whom the offense was committed.

## 49. Genesis · 49 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/49/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/49/#p-N

### Verse 12

[¶1] Ask me never so much dowry - See Clarke on [Gen 29:20] (note), etc. See the law relative to this, [Exo 22:16], [Exo 22:17].

### Verse 13

[¶3] Answered - deceitfully - Which nothing could excuse; yet, to show that they had had much provocation, it is immediately subjoined וידברו vaidabberu, they spoke thus because he had defiled Dinah their sister; for so this parenthesis should be read.

### Verse 14

[¶5] That were a reproach unto us - Because the uncircumcised were not in the covenant of God; and to have given an heiress of the promise to one who had no kind of right to its spiritual blessings, from whom might spring children who would naturally walk in the way of their father would have been absurd, reproachful and wicked. Thus far they were perfectly right; but to make this holy principle a cloak for their deceitful and murderous purposes, was the full sum of all wickedness

### Verse 17

[¶7] Then will we take our daughter, and we will he gone - It is natural to suppose that the tribe of Hamor was very inconsiderable, else they would not have sought an alliance with the family of Jacob, and have come so readily into a painful, disgraceful measure, without having either the sanction of Divine authority or reason; for it does not appear that the sons of Jacob urged either. And they are threatened here that if they do not agree to be circumcised, Dinah shall be taken from them, and restored to her family; and this is probably what the Shechemites saw they had not power at present to prevent.

### Verse 23

[¶9] Shall not their cattle and their substance - be ours? - This was a bait held out for the poor unsuspecting people of Hamor by their prince and his son, who were not much less deceived than the people themselves.

### Verse 24

[¶11] Every male was circumcised - These simple people must have had very great affection for their chief and his son, or have been under the influence of the most passive obedience, to have come so readily into this measure, and to have submitted to this rite. But the petty princes in Asiatic countries have ever been absolute and despotic, their subjects paying them the most prompt and blind obedience. I shall give a few examples from Mr. Richardson's Dissertations - "Abu Thaher, chief of the Carmathians, about the year nine hundred and thirty, ravaged the territory of Mecca, defiled the temple, and destroyed nearly 40,000 people. With only 500 horse he went to lay siege to Bagdad: the caliph's general, at the head of 30,000 men, marched out to seize him, but before he attacked him he sent an officer to summon him to surrender. 'How many men has the caliph's general?' said Abu Thaher. 'Thirty thousand,' replied the officer. 'Among them all,' says the Carmathian chief, 'has he got three like mine?' Then, ordering his followers to approach, he commanded one to stab himself, another to throw himself from a precipice, and a third to plunge into the Tigris; all three instantly obeyed, and perished. Then turning to the officer, he said, 'He who has such troops needs not value the number of his enemies!' "Hassan Sabat, one of those petty princes formerly known in Asia and Europe by the title Sheekh-ul-jibel, or old man of the mountain, being required by an ambassador to do homage to his master, the Sultan Malekshah Jelaleddin, without giving any answer, ordered one of his attendants to poniard himself, and another to leap from the battlements of the tower; and he was instantly obeyed! Then turning to the ambassador, he said, 'Seventy thousand are thus attentive to my commands. Let this be my answer. On a principle of this kind we may account for the prompt obedience of the people of Hamor.

### Verse 25

[¶13] On the third day, when they were sore - When the inflammation was at the height, and a fever ensued which rendered the person utterly helpless, and his state critical, Simeon and Levi, the half brothers of Dinah, took each man his sword, probably assisted by that portion of the servants which helped them to take care of the flock, came on the city boldly, בטח betach, securely - without being suspected, and being in no danger of meeting with resistance, and slew all the males. Great as the provocation was, and it certainly was very great, this was an act or unparalleled treachery and cruelty.

### Verse 27

[¶15] The sons of Jacob - The rest of Jacob's sons, the remaining brothers of Simeon and Levi, spoiled the city. Though the others could slay the defenceless males, it was not likely that they could have carried away all the booty, with the women, children, and cattle; it is therefore most natural to suppose that the rest of the sons of Jacob assisted at last in the business.

### Verse 30

[¶17] Ye have troubled me - Brought my mind into great distress, and endangered my personal safety; to make me to stink - to render me odious to the surrounding tribes, so that there is every reason to suspect that when this deed is come abroad they will join in a confederacy against me, and extirpate my whole family. And had he not been under the peculiar protection of God, this in all human probability would have been the case; but he had prevailed with God, and he was also to prevail with men. That Jacob's resentment was not dissembled we have the fullest proof in his depriving these two sons of the birthright, which otherwise they had doubtless enjoyed. See [Gen 49:5], [Gen 49:7], where some additional circumstances are related.

### Verse 31

[¶19] Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot? - On this outrage alone they vindicated their flagitious conduct. The word harlot first occurs here: the original is not פילגש pilegesh, which we render concubine, (see its explanation [Gen 22:24] (note)), but זונה zonah, which ordinarily signifies one who prostitutes herself to any person for hire. Our word harlot is said to have been derived from a very odd circumstance: Robert, duke of Normandy, seeing a fine-looking country girl dancing with her companions on the green, took her to his bed. She was the daughter of a skinner, and her name was Arlotta; and of her William, surnamed The Conqueror, was born. Hence it is said all such women were from her called harlots, as William himself was usually termed the Bastard. But horelet, the diminutive of whore, is not a less likely derivation.

[¶20] Solomon has very properly said, My son, enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men; avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away, [Pro 4:14], [Pro 4:15]. Had not Dinah gone out to see the daughters of the land, and very possibly at one of their idolatrous festivals, she had not suffered the foul disgrace mentioned in this chapter. Not only prudence dictates that young women should keep at home, but God expressly commands it, [Tit 2:5]. Dinah got among idolaters, and thus partook of their iniquities; and this led to the most base and cruel transaction upon record. How true is the saying, Those who wander out of the way of understanding shall abide in the congregation of the dead! In the case before us blame seems to attach to all parties.

[¶21] 1. It was wrong in Jacob to suffer his daughter, alone and unprotected, to visit the daughters of the land.

[¶22] 2. It was excessively wicked in Shechem to take this advantage of the daughter of a respectable stranger, who had sought his friendship, and came to sojourn among his people, and whose righteous dealing they must have witnessed for at least seven years past. In his behalf we may say, and it would be unjust not to say it, that having done the mischief, and sinned deeply against the laws of hospitality, he wished to make all the reparation in his power; and therefore in the most frank and liberal manner he not only offered, but most pressingly entreated, permission to take Dinah to wife. This was the utmost he could do in such a case. And in this he is a saint of the first order when compared with the noble and ignoble profligates who, while blaspheming the Christian name by continuing to assume it, commit all kinds of breaches on the virtue of simple females, and the peace of respectable families, and not only make no reparation, but glory in their shame.

[¶23] 3. It was diabolical in Jacob's sons to slay a whole tribe for the offense of one man, and especially as that one had offered to make all the restitution in his power. They required that Hamor, Shechem, and all their subjects should be circumcised before they could conscientiously consent to give their sister to Shechem in marriage. This required conformity was made the cloak of the most base and infamous designs. The simple unsuspecting Shechemites agreed to the proposal; and when rendered by this religious rite incapable of defending themselves, they were basely murdered by Simeon and Levi, and their city destroyed. Jacob, to his great honor, remonstrated against this barbarous and bloody act, committed apparently under the sanction of religion; and God showed his abhorrence of it by directing the patriarch, in his dying moments, to proscribe them from the blessings of the covenant, so that they barely retained a name among the tribes of Israel, being in general small, and ever disreputable, except merely in the service of the sanctuary, in which Levi was employed. How often since, notwithstanding this solemn warning, has the pure and benevolent religion of God been made, by wicked and designing men, a political stalking-horse to serve the basest purposes, and a covert to the worst of crimes! But shall we find fault with the holy religion of the blessed God because wicked men have abused it? God forbid! Were it not so good as it really is, it would be incapable of such abuse. An evil cannot be abused, a good may; and the greater and the more acknowledged the good, the more liable to abuse. As every good is so capable of being abused, does he act wisely who argues against the use of the thing on this account? Shall we say that various kinds of grain, fruits, and aliments are a curse, because wicked men abuse them to the purposes of drunkenness and gluttony? This would argue an utter perversion of all reason: and is it not on such a pretext as this that many persons have ventured to call in question even the truths of Christianity?

[¶24] Whatever such men may be determined to think on the subject of this chapter, with the unprejudiced reader the ample and detailed relation which we have here of this barbarous transaction will appear an additional proof of the veracity and impartiality of the sacred historian.

### Introduction

[¶26] Jacob is commanded of God to go to Beth-el, and to build an altar there, [Gen 35:1]. His exhortation to his family to put away all strange gods, etc., [Gen 35:2], [Gen 35:3]. They deliver them all up, and Jacob hides them in the earth, [Gen 35:4]. They commence their journey, [Gen 35:5]; come to Luz, [Gen 35:6]; build there the altar El-beth-el, [Gen 35:7]. Burial place of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, [Gen 35:8]. God appears again unto Jacob, [Gen 35:9]. Blesses him and renews the promises, [Gen 35:10-13]. To commemorate this manifestation of God, Jacob sets up a pillar, and calls the place Beth-el, [Gen 35:14], [Gen 35:15]. They journey to Ephrath, where Rachel, after hard labor, is delivered of Benjamin, and dies, [Gen 35:16-19]. Jacob sets up a pillar on her grave, [Gen 35:20]. They journey to Edar, [Gen 35:21]. While at this place, Reuben defiles his father's bed, [Gen 35:22]. Account of the children of Jacob, according to the mothers, [Gen 35:23-26]. Jacob comes to Mamre to his father Isaac, who was probably then in the one hundred and fifty-eighth year of his age, [Gen 35:27]. Isaac dies, and is buried by his sons Esau and Jacob, [Gen 35:29].

### Verse 1

[¶28] Arise, go up to Beth-el - The transaction that had lately taken place rendered it unsafe for Jacob to dwell any longer at the city of Shechem; and it seems that while he was reflecting on the horrible act of Simeon and Levi, and not knowing what to do, God graciously appeared to him, and commanded him to go up to Beth-el, build an altar there, and thus perform the vow he had made, [Gen 28:20], [Gen 28:22].

### Verse 2

[¶30] Put away the strange gods - אלהי הנכר elohey hannechar, the gods of the foreigners, which were among them. Jacob's servants were all Syrians, and no doubt were addicted less or more to idolatry and superstition. These gods might belong to them, or, as some have conjectured, they were the teraphim which Rachel stole; but these have already been supposed to be astrological tables, or something of this kind, called by Laban his gods, because by them he supposed he could predict future events, and that they referred to certain astral and planetary intelligences, by whose influences sublunary things were regulated. But it is more natural to suppose that these gods found now in Jacob's family were images of silver, gold, or curious workmanship, which were found among the spoils of the city of Shechem. Lest these should become incitements to idolatry, Jacob orders them to be put away.

[¶31] Be clean, and change your garments - Personal or outward purification, as emblematical of the sanctification of the soul, has been in use among all the true worshippers of God from the beginning of the world. In many cases the law of Moses more solemnly enjoined rites and ceremonies which had been in use from the earliest ages. "A Hindoo considers those clothes defiled in which he has been employed in business, and always changes them before eating and worship." - Ward.

### Verse 3

[¶33] Answered me in the day of my distress - Not only when he fled from the face of his brother, but more particularly when he was in his greatest strait at the brook of Jabbok.

### Verse 4

[¶35] And - ear-rings which were in their ears - Whether these rings were in the ears of the gods, or in those of Jacob's family, we may rest assured that they were not mere ornaments, but served for superstitious purposes. Ear-rings were certainly worn as amulets and charms, first consecrated to some god, or formed under some constellation, on which magical characters and images were drawn. A very ancient and beautiful one of this kind brought from Egypt, cut out of a solid piece of cornelian, now lies before me. It was evidently intended for the ear, as the opening is too small for any human finger; and it is engraved all over with strange characters and images, which prove that it was intended for a talisman or amulet. It seems to be such a one as St. Augustine describes, Epist. 73, which was suspended from the tip of the ears both of men and women, not for the purpose of ornament, but through an execrable superstition, for the service of demons. "Execranda superstitio ligaturarum, in quibus etiam inaures virorum in summis ex una parte auriculis suspensae deputantur, non ad placendum hominibus, sed ad serviendum daemonibus." See Clarke on [Gen 24:22] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶37] The terror of God - A supernatural awe sent by the Almighty, was upon the cities that were round about, so that they were not molested in their departure. This could be owing to nothing less than the especial providence of God.

### Verse 7

[¶39] El-beth-el - אל בית אל the strong God, the house of the strong God. But the first אל el is wanting in one of De Rossi's MSS., as it is also in the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and some copies of the Arabic. The sentence reads much better without it, and much more consistent with the parallel passages.

### Verse 8

[¶41] But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died - She was sent with Rebekah when taken by Abraham's servant to be wife to Isaac, [Gen 24:59]. How she came to be in Jacob's family, expositors are greatly puzzled to find out; but the text does not state that she was in Jacob's family. Her death is mentioned merely because Jacob and his family had now arrived at the place where she was buried, and the name of that place was called Allon-bachuth, "the oak of weeping," as it is likely her death had been greatly regretted, and a general and extraordinary mourning had taken place on the occasion. Of Rebekah's death we know nothing. After her counsel to her son, [Gen 27:5-17], [Gen 27:42-46], we hear no more of her history from the sacred writings, except of her burial in [Gen 49:31]. Her name is written in the dust. And is not this designed as a mark of the disapprobation of God? It seems strange that such an inconsiderable person as a nurse should be mentioned, when even the person she brought up is passed by unnoticed! It has been observed that the nurse of Aeneas is mentioned nearly in the same way by the poet Virgil; and in the circumstances, in both cases, there is a striking resemblance. "Tu quoque littoribus nostris,

[¶42] Aeneia nutrix, Aeternam moriens famam,

[¶43] Caleta, dedisti:

[¶44] Eet nunc servat honos sedem tunus; ossaque nomen,

## 50. Genesis · 50 of 67

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[¶0] Hesperia in magna, (si qua est en gloria), signat.

[¶1] At pius exequils Aeneas rite solutis,

[¶2] Aggere composito tumuli, postquam alta quierunt

[¶3] Aequora, tendit iter veils, portumque relinqult."

[¶4] Aen., lib. vii., ver. 1, etc. "Thou too, Cajeta, whose indulgent cares

[¶5] Nursed the great chief, and form'd his tender years,

[¶6] Expiring here (an ever-honor'd name!)

[¶7] Adorn Hesperia with immortal fame:

[¶8] Thy name survives, to please thy pensive ghost;

[¶9] Thy sacred relics grace the Latian coast.

[¶10] Soon as her funeral rites the prince had paid,

[¶11] And raised a tomb in honor of the dead;

[¶12] The sea subsiding, and the tempests o'er,

[¶13] He spreads the flying sails, and leaves the shore."

[¶14] Pitt.

### Verse 9

[¶16] God appeared unto Jacob again - He appeared to him first at Shechem, when he commanded him to go to Bethel, and now that he is arrived at the place, God appears to him the second time, and confirms to him the Abrahamic blessing. To Isaac and Jacob these frequent appearances of God were necessary, but they were not so to Abraham; for to him one word was sufficient - Abraham believed God.

### Verse 13

[¶18] And God went up from him - This was not a vision, nor a strong mental impression, but a real manifestation of God. Jacob saw and heard him speak, and before his eyes he went up - ascended to heaven. This was no doubt the future Savior, the Angel of the covenant. See [Gen 16:7].

### Verse 14

[¶20] A drink-offering - נסך nesech, a libation. These were afterwards very common in all countries. At first they consisted probably of water only, afterwards wine was used; see on [Lev 7:1] (note), etc. The pillar which Jacob set up was to commemorate the appearance of God to him; the drink-offering and the oil were intended to express his gratitude and devotion to his preserver. It was probably the same pillar which he had set up before, which had since been thrown down, and which he had consecrated afresh to God.

### Verse 16

[¶22] There was but a little way to come to Ephrath - The word כברת kibrath, translated here a little way, has greatly perplexed commentators. It occurs only here, in [Gen 48:7], and [2Kgs 5:19]; and it seems to have been some sort of measure applied to land, as we say a mile, an acre, a rood, a perch; but what the exact quantity of the kibrath was cannot be ascertained. Ephrath, called also Bethlehem, and Bethlehem Ephrata, was the birthplace of our blessed Redeemer. See its meaning [Mat 2:6] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶24] As her soul was in departing - Is not this a proof that there is an immortal spirit in man, which can exist separate from and independent of the body? Of Rachel's death it is said, בצאת נפשה betseth naphshah, in the going away of her soul; her body did not go away, therefore her soul and body must have been distinct. If her breath only had been in tended, נשמה neshamah or רוח ruach would have rather been used, as the first means breath, the latter breath or spirit indifferently.

[¶25] She called his name Ben-oni - בן אני the Son of my sorrow or affliction, because of the hard labor she had in bringing him into the world; but his father called him Benjamin, בנימין the son of my right hand, i.e., the son peculiarly dear to me. So man of the right hand, [Psa 80:17], signifies one much loved and regarded of God. The Samaritan has Benyamin, the son of days; i.e., the son of his old age, as Judah calls him, [Gen 44:20]; and Houbigant contends that this is the true reading, and that the Chaldee termination in for im is a corruption. If it be a corruption, it is as old as the days of St. Jerome, who translated the place Benjamin, id est, filius dextrae; Benjamin, that is, the son of the right hand.

### Verse 20

[¶27] Jacob set a pillar upon her grave - Was not this the origin of funeral monuments? In ancient times, and among rude nations, a heap of stones designated the burial place of the chief; many of these still remain in different countries. Afterwards a rude stone, with a simple inscription, was used, containing only the name of the deceased, and that of his father. But where arts and sciences flourished, superb monuments were erected highly decorated, and pompously inscribed. It is very likely from the circumstances of Jacob that a single stone constituted the pillar in this case, on which, if writing did then exist, the name, or rather some hieroglyphical device, was probably inscribed. That which is now called Rachel's pillar is allowed, by those who have examined it, to be a comparatively modern structure.

### Verse 21

[¶29] Tower of Edar - Literally, the tower of the flock, and so translated [Mic 4:8]. It is supposed that this tower was about a mile from Bethlehem, and to have been the place where the angels appeared to the shepherds. The Targum of Jonathan expressly says: "It is the place in which the King Messiah shall be manifested in the end of days." By the tower of the flock we may understand a place built by the shepherds near to some well, for the convenience of watering their flocks, and keeping watch over them by night.

### Verse 22

[¶31] Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine - Jonathan, in his Targum, says that Reuben only overthrew the bed of Bilhah, which was set up opposite to the bed of his mother Leah, and that this was reputed to him as if he had lain with her. The colouring given to the passage by the Targumist is, that Reuben was incensed, because he found Bilhah preferred after the death of Rachel to his own mother Leah; and therefore in his anger he overthrew her couch. The same sentiment is repeated by Jonathan, and glanced at by the Jerusalem Targum, [Gen 49:4]. Could this view of the subject be proved to be correct, both piety and candour would rejoice.

[¶32] And Israel heard it - Not one word is added farther in the Hebrew text; but a break is left in the verse, opposite to which there is a Masoretic note, which simply states that there is a hiatus in the verse. This hiatus the Septuagint has thus supplied: και πονηρον εφανη εναντιον αυτον, and it appeared evil in his sight.

[¶33] Now the sons of Jacob were twelve - Called afterwards the twelve patriarchs, because they became heads or chiefs of numerous families or tribes, [Act 7:8]; and the people that descended from them are called the twelve tribes, [Act 26:7]; [Jam 1:1]. Twelve princes came from Ishmael, [Gen 25:16], who were heads of families and tribes. And in reference to the twelve patriarchs, our Lord chose twelve apostles. Strictly speaking, there were thirteen tribes among the Hebrews, as Ephraim and Manasses were counted for tribes, [Gen 48:5], [Gen 48:6]; but the Scripture in naming them, says Mr. Ainsworth, usually sets down but twelve, omitting the name now of one, then of another, as may in sundry places be observed, Deuteronomy 33; Ezekiel 48; Revelation 12, etc.

### Verse 23

[¶35] The sons of Leah - The children are arranged under their respective mothers, and not in order of their birth.

### Verse 26

[¶37] Born to him in Padan-aram - i.e., all but Benjamin was born in Canaan, [Gen 35:16], [Gen 35:17].

[¶38] It is well known that Padan-aram is the same as Mesopotamia, and hence the Septuagint translate Μεσοποταμια της Συριας, Mesopotamia of Syria. The word signifies between the two rivers, from μεσος the midst, and ποταμος, a river. It is situated between the Euphrates and Tigris, having Assyria on the east, Arabia Deserta, with Babylonia, on the south, Syria on the west, and Armenia on the north. It is now the province of Diarbek, in Asiatic Turkey, and is sometimes called Maverannahar, the country beyond the river; and Aram Naharaim, Aram or Syria of the two rivers.

### Verse 27

[¶40] The city of Arbah, (which is Hebron) - See [Gen 23:2]. It has been conjectured that Jacob must have paid a visit to his father before this time, as previously to this he had been some years in Canaan; but now, as he was approaching to his end, Jacob is supposed to have gone to live with and comfort him in his declining days.

### Verse 29

[¶42] Isaac gave up the ghost - and was gathered unto his people - See Clarke on [Gen 25:8] (note).

[¶43] Esau and Jacob buried him - See [Gen 25:9]. Esau, as we have seen Genesis 33, was thoroughly reconciled to his brother Jacob, and now they both join in fraternal and filial affection to do the last kind office to their amiable father. It is generally allowed that the death of Isaac is mentioned here out of its chronological order, as several of the transactions mentioned in the succeeding chapters, especially 37 and 38, must have happened during his life; but that the history of Joseph might not be disturbed, his death is anticipated in this place. It is supposed that he lived at least twelve years after Joseph was sold into Egypt.

[¶44] This chapter contains several subjects which are well worthy of the reader's most serious attention.

## 51. Genesis · 51 of 67

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[¶0] 1. That such a family as that of Jacob should have had false gods in it, is a matter not less astonishing than real: and suppose that we allow, as is very probable, that their images and rings were got from strangers, the Syrians and the Shechemites, yet their being tolerated in the family, though it is probable this was for a very short time, cannot be easily accounted for. It is true the Law was not then given, and the unity of God not so particularly taught as it was afterwards. Besides, we have already seen that certain superstitions were compatible in those early times with general sincerity and attachment to the truth; those times and acts of ignorance were winked at, till superior light shone upon the world. Between many of the practices of Laban's family and those of the surrounding heathenish tribes, there might have been but little difference; and this was probably the reason why Dinah could so readily mix with the daughters of the land, [Gen 34:1], which led to the fatal consequences already reviewed. Sin is like the letting out of water - when once a breach is made in the dyke, the stream becomes determined to a wrong course, and its progress is soon irresistible. Had not Jacob put away these strange gods, the whole family might have been infected with idolatry. This saying of one of the ancients is good, Vitia transmittit ad posteros, qui praesentibus culpis ignoscit - Seneca. "He who is indulgent to present offenses, transmits sin to posterity." The first motions of it should be firmly resisted; after struggles are too often fruitless.

[¶1] 2. The doctrine of a particular and especial providence has another proof in this chapter. After the sanguinary conduct of Jacob's sons, is it not surprising that the neighboring tribes did not join together and extirpate the whole family? And so they certainly would, had not the terror of God fallen upon them, [Gen 35:5]. Jacob and the major part of his family were innocent of this great transgression; and on the preservation of their lives, the accomplishment of great events depended: therefore God watches over them, and shields them from the hands of their enemies.

[¶2] 3. The impatience and fate of the amiable Rachel, who can read of without deploring? Give me children, said she, or else I die, [Gen 30:1]. Her desire was granted, and her death was the consequence! God's way is ever best. We know not what we ask, nor what we ought to ask, and therefore often ask amiss when we petition for such secular things as belong to the dispensations of God's providence. For things of this kind we have no revealed directory; and when we ask for them, it should be with the deepest submission to the Divine will, as God alone knows what is best for us. With respect to the soul, every thing is clearly revealed, so that we may ask and receive, and have a fullness of joy; but as to our bodies, there is much reason to fear that the answer of our petitions would be, in numerous cases, our inevitable destruction. How many prayers does God in mercy shut out!

[¶3] 4. The transgression of Reuben, of whatsoever kind, was marked, not only by the displeasure of his father, but by that of God also; see [Gen 49:4]. It brought a curse upon him, and he forfeited thereby the right of primogeniture and the priesthood: the first was given to Judah, the second to Levi. Is it not in reference to this that our Lord addresses these solemn words to the angel of the Church of Philadelphia: Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that No Man Take Thy Crown? A man, by sowing a grain of forbidden sweets, may reap an abundant harvest of eternal wretchedness. Reader, let not sin rob thee of the kingdom of God.

[¶4] 5. Here we have the death of Isaac recorded: most that can be said of his character has been already anticipated, see Genesis 22, etc. He appears to have been generally pious, deeply submissive and obedient. He was rather an amiable and good, than a great and useful, man. If compared with his son Jacob, in the early part of their lives, he appears to great advantage, as possessing more sincerity and more personal piety. But if compared with his father Abraham, O, what a falling off is here! Abraham is the most perfect character under the Old Testament, and even under the New he has no parallel but St. Paul. Isaac, though falling far short of his father's excellences, will ever remain a pattern of piety and filial obedience.

### Introduction

[¶6] The genealogy of Esau, i.e., his sons, by his Canaanitish wives Adah, Aholibamah, and Bashemath, [Gen 36:1-3]. The children of Adah and Bashemath, [Gen 36:4]. Of Aholibamah, [Gen 36:5]. Esau departs from Canaan and goes to Mount Seir, [Gen 36:6-8]. The generations of Esau, i.e., his grandchildren, while in Seir, [Gen 36:7-19]. Anah finds mules (Yemim) in the wilderness, [Gen 36:24]. The generations of Seir, the Horite, [Gen 36:29-30]. The kings which reigned in Edom, [Gen 36:31-39]. The dukes that succeeded them, [Gen 36:40-43].

### Verse 1

[¶8] These are the generations of Esau - We have here the genealogy of Esau in his sons and grandsons, and also the genealogy of Seir the Horite. The genealogy of the sons of Esau, born in Canaan, is related [Gen 36:1-8]; those of his grandchildren born in Seir, [Gen 36:9-19]; those of Seir the Horite, [Gen 36:20-30]. The generations of Esau are particularly marked, to show how exactly God fulfilled the promises he made to him, Genesis 25 and 27; and those of Seir the Horite are added, because his family became in some measure blended with that of Esau.

### Verse 2

[¶10] His wives - It appears that Esau's wives went by very different names. Aholibamah is named Judith, [Gen 26:34]; Adah is called Bashemath in the same place; and she who is here called Bashemath is called Mahalath, [Gen 28:9]. These are variations which cannot be easily accounted for; and they are not of sufficient importance to engross much time. It is well known that the same persons in Scripture are often called by different names.

[¶11] Anah the daughter of Zibeon - But this same Anah is said to be the son of Zibeon, [Gen 36:24], though in this and [Gen 36:14] he is said to be the daughter of Zibeon. But the Samaritan, the Septuagint, (and the Syriac, in [Gen 36:2]), read son instead of daughter, which Houbigant and Kennicott contend to be the true reading. Others say that daughter should be referred to Aholibamah, who was the daughter of Anah, and granddaughter of Zibeon. I should rather prefer the reading of the Samaritan, Septuagint, and Syriac, and read, both here and in [Gen 36:14], "Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah the son of Zibeon," and then the whole will agree with [Gen 36:24].

### Verse 6

[¶13] Esau took his wives, etc. - So it appears that Esau and Jacob dwelt together in Canaan, whither the former removed from Seir, probably soon after the return of Jacob. That they were on the most friendly footing this sufficiently proves; and Esau shows the same dignified conduct as on other occasions, in leaving Canaan to Jacob, and returning again to Mount Seir; certainly a much less fruitful region than that which he now in behalf of his brother voluntarily abandoned.

### Verse 12

[¶15] Timna was concubine to Eliphaz - As Timna was sister to Lotan the Horite, [Gen 36:22], we see how the family of Esau and the Horites got intermixed. This might give the sons of Esau a pretext to seize the land, and expel the ancient inhabitants, as we find they did, [Deu 2:12].

[¶16] Amalek - The father of the Amalekites, afterwards bitter enemies to the Jews, and whom God commanded to be entirely exterminated, [Deu 25:17], [Deu 25:19].

### Verse 15

[¶18] Dukes of the sons of Esau - The word duke comes from the Latin dux, a captain or leader. The Hebrew אלוף alluph has the same signification; and as it is also the term for a thousand, which is a grand capital or leading number, probably the אלופי alluphey or dukes had this name from being leaders of or captains over a company of one thousand men; just as those among the Greeks called chiliarchs, which signifies the same; and as the Romans called those centurions who were captains over one hundred men, from the Latin word centum, which signifies a hundred. The ducal government was that which prevailed first among the Idumeans, or descendants of Esau. Here fourteen dukes are reckoned to Esau, seven that came of his wife, Adah, four of Bashemath, and three of Aholibamah.

### Verse 16

[¶20] Duke Korah - This Dr. Kennicott pronounces to be an interpolation. "It is certain, from [Gen 36:4], that Eliphaz was Esau's son by Adah; and from [Gen 36:11], [Gen 36:12], that Eliphaz had but six sons, Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, Kenaz, and Amalek. It is also certain, from [Gen 36:5], [Gen 36:14], that Korah was the son of Esau (not of Eliphaz) by Aholibamah; and as such he is properly mentioned in [Gen 36:18] : These are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife: duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, Duke Korah. It is clear, therefore, that some transcriber has improperly inserted duke Korah in [Gen 36:16]; from which interpolation both the Samaritan text and the Samaritan version are free." - Kennicott's Remarks. Everything considered, I incline to the opinion that these words were not originally in the text.

### Verse 20

[¶22] These are the sons of Seir the Horite - These Horites were the original inhabitants of the country of Seir, called the land of the Horites, and afterwards the land of the Idumeans, when the descendants of Esau had driven them out. These people are first mentioned [Gen 14:6].

### Verse 21

[¶24] These are the dukes of the Horites - It appears pretty evident that the Horites and the descendants of Esau were mixed together in the same land, as before observed; and Calmet has very properly remarked, that if we compare this verse with [Gen 36:30], there were princes of Seir in the country of Seir, and in that of Edom; and in comparing the generations of Seir and Esau, we are obliged to consider these princes as contemporary.

### Verse 24

[¶26] This was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness - The words את הימם eth kaiyemim, here translated mules, has given rise to a great variety of conjectures and discordant opinions. St. Jerome, who renders it aquas calidas, warm springs, or hot baths, says there are as many opinions concerning it as there are commentators.

[¶27] The Septuagint has τον Ιαμειν, which seems to be the name of a man; but this is expressed in a great variety of ways in different MSS. of that version.

[¶28] The Syriac renders it mayé, waters; the author of this version having read in the Hebrew copy from which he translated. מים mayim, waters, for ימם yemim, the two first letters being transposed.

[¶29] Onkelos translates the word גבריא gibbaraiya, giants, or strong or powerful men.

[¶30] The Samaritan text has haaimim, and the Samaritan version am aimai, the Emim, a warlike people, bordering upon the Horites.

[¶31] The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel paraphrases the place thus: "This is the Anah who united the onager with the tame ass, and in process of time he found mules produced by them." R. D. Kimchi says, that "Zibeon was both the father and brother of Anah; and this Anah, intent on heterogeneous mixtures, caused asses and horses to copulate, and so produced mules." R. S. Jarchi is of the same opinion. See his comment on this place.

[¶32] Bochart believes the Emim are meant; and argues forcibly, 1. That מצא matsa, he found, never signifies to invent, but rather the meeting with or happening on a thing which already exists. 2. That mules are never called ימם yemim in the Scriptures, but פרדים peradim. 3. That Anah fed Asses only, not horses. And, 4. That there is no mention of mules in Palestine till the days of David. From the whole he concludes that the Emim are meant, with whom Anah fought; and he brings many places of Scripture where the same form of expression, he or they found, signifies the onset to battle, [Jdg 1:5]; [1Sam 31:3]; [1Kgs 13:24]; [2Chr 22:8]; [Num 35:27]; [Gen 4:14]; with many others. See the Hierozoicon, vol. i., cap. 21, p. 23S., edit. 1692.

[¶33] Gusset, in Comment. Heb. Ling., examines what Bochart has asserted, and supposes that mules, not the Emim, were found by Anah.

[¶34] Wagenseil would credit what Bochart has asserted, did not stronger reasons lead him to believe that the word means a sort of plant!

[¶35] From the above opinions and versions the reader may choose which he likes best, or invent one for himself. My own opinion is, that mules were not known before the time of Anah; and that he was probably the first who coupled the mare and ass together to produce this mongrel, or the first who met with creatures of this race in some very secluded part of the wilderness. Is it not probable that from this Anah, or ענה enah, the Enetae derived at least their fabulous origin, whom Homer mentions as famous for their race of wild mules? Παφλαγονων δ' ἡγειτο Πυλαιμενεος λασιον κηρ, Εξ Ενετων, ὁθεν ἡμιονων γενος αγροτεραων.

[¶36] IL., lib. ii., v. 852.

[¶37] The Paphlagonians Pylaemenes rules,

[¶38] Where rich Henetia breeds her Savage Mules.

[¶39] Pope.

[¶40] The Enetae or Henetae, who were a people contiguous to Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, and Galatia, might have derived their origin from this Anah, or Henah, out of which the Ενετοι of the ancient Greek writers might have been formed; and according to Theophrastus, Strabo, and Plutarch, the first mules were seen among these people. See Ludov, De Dieu and Scheuchzer.

### Verse 31

[¶42] Before there reigned any king over - Israel - I suppose all the verses, from [Gen 36:31-39] inclusive, have been transferred to this place from [1Chr 1:43-50], as it is not likely they could have been written by Moses; and it is quite possible they might have been, at a very early period, written in the margin of an authentic copy, to make out the regal succession in Edom, prior to the consecration of Saul; which words being afterwards found in the margin of a valuable copy, from which others were transcribed, were supposed by the copyist to be a part of the text, which having been omitted by the mistake of the original writer, had been since added to make up the deficiency; on this conviction he would not hesitate to transcribe them consecutively in his copy. In most MSS. sentences and paragraphs have been left out by the copyists, which, when perceived, have been added in the margin, either by the original writer, or by some later hand. Now, as the margin was the ordinary place where glosses or explanatory notes were written, it is easy to conceive how the notes, as well as the parts of the original text found in the margin, might be all incorporated with the text by a future transcriber; and his MSS., being often copied, would of course multiply the copies with such additions, as we have much reason to believe has been the case. This appears very frequently in the Vulgate and Septuagint; and an English Bible now before me written some time in the fourteenth century, exhibits several proofs of this principle. See the preface to this work.

[¶43] I know there is another way of accounting for those words on the ground of their being written originally by Moses; but to me it is not satisfactory. It is simply this: the word king should be considered as implying any kind of regular government, whether by chiefs, dukes, judges, etc., and therefore when Moses says these are the kings which reigned in Edom, before there was any king in Israel, he may be only understood as saying that these kings reigned among the Edomites before the family of Jacob had acquired any considerable power, or before the time in which his twelve sons had become the fathers of those numerous tribes, at the head of which, as king himself in Jeshurun, he now stood.

[¶44] Esau, after his dukes, had eight kings, who reigned successively over their people, while Israel were in affliction in Egypt.

## 52. Genesis · 52 of 67

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### Verse 33

[¶1] Jobab the son of Zerah - Many have supposed that Jobab is the same as Job, so remarkable for his afflictions and patience; and that Eliphaz, mentioned [Gen 36:10], etc., was the same who in the book of Job is called one of his friends: but there is no proper proof of this, and there are many reasons against it.

### Verse 35

[¶3] Smote Midian in the field of Moab - Bishop Cumberland supposes that this was Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah, and that he was killed by Hadad some time before he was one hundred and nine years of age; and that Moses recorded this, probably, because it was a calamity to the ancestor of Jethro, his father-in-law - Orig. of Nat., p. 14.

### Verse 40

[¶5] These are the names of the dukes that came of Esau - These dukes did not govern the whole nation of the Idumeans, but they were chiefs in their respective families, in their places - the districts they governed, and to which they gave their names. Calmet thinks that those mentioned above were dukes in Edom or Idumea at the time of the exodus of Israel from Egypt.

### Verse 43

[¶7] He is Esau the father of the Edomites - That is, The preceding list contains an account of the posterity of Esau, who was the father of Edom. Thus ends Esau's history; for after this there is no farther account of his life, actions, or death, in the Pentateuch.

[¶8] 1. As Esau is so considerable a person in polemic divinity, it may be necessary, in this place especially, to say something farther of his conduct and character. I have already, in several places, endeavored, and I hope successfully, to wipe off the odium that has been thrown upon this man, (see the notes on Genesis 27 (note) and Genesis 33 (note))., without attempting to lessen his faults; and the unprejudiced reader must see that, previously to this last account we have of him, his character stands without a blot, except in the case of selling his birthright, and his purpose to destroy his brother. To the first he was led by his famishing situation and the unkindness of his brother, who refused to save his life but on this condition; and the latter, made in the heat of vexation and passion, he never attempted to execute, even when he had the most ample means and the fairest opportunity to do it.

[¶9] Dr. Shuckford has drawn an impartial character of Esau, from which I extract the following particulars: "Esau was a plain, generous, and honest man, for we have no reason, from any thing that appears in his life or actions, to think him wicked beyond other men of his age or times; and his generous and good temper appears from all his behavior towards his brother. When they first met he was all humanity and affection, and he had no uneasiness when he found that Jacob followed him not to Seir, but went to live near his father. And at Isaac's death we do not find that he made any difficulty of quitting Canaan, which was the very point which, if he had harbored any latent (evil) intentions, would have revived all his resentments. He is indeed called in Scripture the profane Esau; and it is written, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated; but there is, I think, no reason to infer, from any of those expressions, that Esau was a very wicked man, or that God hated or punished him for an immoral life. For, 1. The sentence here against him is said expressly to be founded, not upon his actions, for it was determined before the children had done good or evil. 2. God's hatred of Esau was not a hatred which induced him to punish him with any evil, for he was as happy in all the blessings of this life as either Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob; and his posterity had a land designed by God to be their possession, as well as the children of Jacob, and they were put in possession of it much sooner than the Israelites; and God was pleased to protect them in the enjoyment of it, and to caution the Israelites against invading them with a remarkable strictness, [Deu 2:4], [Deu 2:5]. And as God was pleased thus to bless Esau and his children in the blessings of this life, even as much as he blessed Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, if not more, why may we not hope to find him with them at the last day, as well as Lot or Job or any other good and virtuous man, who was not designed to be a partaker of the blessing given to Abraham? 3. All the punishment inflicted on Esau was an exclusion from being heir to the blessing promised to Abraham and to his seed, which was a favor not granted to Lot, to Job, to several other very virtuous and good men. 4. St. Paul, in the passage before cited, only intends to show the Jews that God had all along given the favors that led to the Messiah where he pleased; to Abraham, not to Lot; to Jacob, not to Esau; as at the time St. Paul wrote the Gentiles were made the people of God, not the Jews. 5. Esau is indeed called profane, (βεβηλος), but I think that word does not mean wicked or immoral, ασεβης or ἁμαρτωλος· he was called profane for not having that due value for the priest's office which he should have had; and therefore, though I think it does not appear that he was cut off from being the heir of the promises by any particular action in his life, yet his turn of mind and thoughts do appear to have been such as to evidence that God's purpose towards Jacob was founded on the truest wisdom." - Shuckford's Connections, vol. ii., p.174, etc.

[¶10] The truth is, the Messiah must spring from some One family, and God chose Abraham's through Isaac, Jacob, etc., rather than the same through Ishmael, Esau, and the others in that line; but from this choice it does not follow that the first were all necessarily saved, and the others necessarily lost.

[¶11] 2. To some the genealogical lists in this chapter will doubtless appear uninteresting, especially those which concern Esau and his descendants; but it was as necessary to register the generations of Esau as to register those of Jacob, in order to show that the Messiah did not spring from the former, but that he did spring from the latter. The genealogical tables, so frequently met with in the sacred writings, and so little regarded by Christians in general, are extremely useful. 1. As they are standing proofs of the truth of the prophecies, which stated that the Messiah should come from a particular family, which prophecies were clearly fulfilled in the birth of Christ. 2. As they testify, to the conviction of the Jews, that the Messiah thus promised is found in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who incontestably sprang from the last, the only remaining branch of the family of David. These registers were religiously preserved among the Jews till the destruction of Jerusalem, after which they were all destroyed, insomuch that there is not a Jew in the universe who can trace himself to the family of David; consequently, all expectation of a Messiah to come is, even on their own principles, nugatory and absurd, as nothing remains to legitimate his birth. When Christ came all these registers were in existence. When St. Matthew and St. Luke wrote, all these registers were still in existence; and had they pretended what could not have been supported, an appeal to the registers would have convicted them of a falsehood. But no Jew attempted to do this, notwithstanding the excess of their malice against Christ and his followers; and because they did not do it, we may safely assert no Jew could do it. Thus the foundation standeth sure.

### Introduction

[¶13] Jacob continues to sojourn in Canaan, [Gen 37:1]. Joseph, being seventeen years of age, is employed in feeding the flocks of his father, [Gen 37:2]. Is loved by his father more than the rest of his brethren, [Gen 37:3]. His brethren envy him, [Gen 37:4]. His dream of the sheaves, [Gen 37:5-7]. His brethren interpret it, and hate him on the account, [Gen 37:8]. His dream of the sun, moon, and eleven stars, [Gen 37:9-12]. Jacob sends him to visit his brethren, who were with the flock in Shechem, [Gen 37:13], [Gen 37:14]. He wanders in the field, and is directed to go to Dothan, whither his brethren had removed the flocks, [Gen 37:15-17]. Seeing him coming they conspire to destroy him, [Gen 37:18-20]. Reuben, secretly intending to deliver him, counsels his brethren not to kill, but to put him into a pit, [Gen 37:21], [Gen 37:22]. They strip Joseph of his coat of many colors, and put him into a pit, [Gen 37:23], [Gen 37:24]. They afterwards draw him out, and sell him to a company of Ishmaelite merchants for twenty pieces of silver, who carry him into Egypt, [Gen 37:25-28]. Reuben returns to the pit, and not finding Joseph, is greatly affected, [Gen 37:29], [Gen 37:30]. Joseph's brethren dip his coat in goat's blood to persuade his father that he had been devoured by a wild beast, [Gen 37:31-33]. Jacob is greatly distressed, [Gen 37:34], [Gen 37:35]. Joseph is sold in Egypt to Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard, [Gen 37:36].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Wherein his father was a stranger - מגורי אביו megurey abiv, Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, as the margin very properly reads it. The place was probably the vale of Hebron, see [Gen 37:14].

### Verse 2

[¶17] These are the generations - תלדות toledoth, the history of the lives and actions of Jacob and his sons; for in this general sense the original must be taken, as in the whole of the ensuing history there is no particular account of any genealogical succession. Yet the words may be understood as referring to the tables or genealogical lists in the preceding chapter; and if so, the original must be understood in its common acceptation.

[¶18] The lad was with the sons of Bilhah - It is supposed that our word lad comes from the Hebrew ילד yeled, a child, a son; and that lass is a contraction of ladess, the female of lad, a girl, a young woman. Some have supposed that King James desired the translators to insert this word; but this must be a mistake, as the word occurs in this place in Edmund Becke's Bible, printed in 1549; and still earlier in that of Coverdale, printed in 1535.

[¶19] Brought unto his father their evil report - Conjecture has been busily employed to find out what this evil report might be; but it is needless to inquire what it was, as on this head the sacred text is perfectly silent. All the use we can make of this information is, that it was one cause of increasing his brothers' hatred to him, which was first excited by his father's partiality, and secondly by his own dreams.

### Verse 3

[¶21] A coat of many colors - כתנת פסים kethoneth passim, a coat made up of stripes of differently colored cloth. Similar to this was the toga praetexta of the Roman youth, which was white, striped or fringed with purple; this they wore till they were seventeen years of age, when they changed it for the toga virilis, or toga pura, which was all white. Such vestures as clothing of distinction are worn all over Persia, India, and China to the present day. It is no wonder that his brethren should envy him, when his father had thus made him such a distinguished object of his partial love. We have already seen some of the evils produced by this unwarrantable conduct of parents in preferring one child to all the rest. The old fable of the ape and her favorite cub, which she hugged to death through kindness, was directed against such foolish parental fondnesses as these.

### Verse 4

[¶23] And could not speak peaceably unto him - Does not this imply, in our use of the term, that they were continually quarrelling with him? but this is no meaning of the original: ולא יכלו דברו לשלם velo yachelu dabbero leshalom, they could not speak peace to him, i. e., they would not accost him in a friendly manner. They would not even wish him well. The eastern method of salutation is, Peace be to thee! שלום לך shalom lecha, among the Hebrews, and salam, peace, or salam kebibi, peace to thee my friend, among the Arabs. Now as peace among those nations comprehends all kinds of blessings spiritual and temporal, so they are careful not to say it to those whom they do not cordially wish well. It is not an unusual thing for an Arab or a Turk to hesitate to return the salam, if given by a Christian, or by one of whom he has not a favorable opinion: and this, in their own country, may be ever considered as a mark of hostility; not only as a proof that they do not wish you well, but that if they have an opportunity they will do you an injury. This was precisely the case with respect to Joseph's brethren: they would not give him the salam, and therefore felt themselves at liberty to take the first opportunity to injure him.

### Verse 7

[¶25] We were binding sheaves in the field - Though in these early times we read little of tillage, yet it is evident from this circumstance that it was practiced by Jacob and his sons. The whole of this dream is so very plain as to require no comment, unless we could suppose that the sheaves of grain might have some reference to the plenty in Egypt under Joseph's superintendence, and the scarcity in Canaan, which obliged the brethren to go down to Egypt for corn, where the dream was most literally fulfilled, his brethren there bowing in the most abject manner before him.

### Verse 9

[¶27] He dreamed yet another dream - This is as clear as the preceding. But how could Jacob say, Shall I and thy mother, etc., when Rachel his mother was dead some time before this? Perhaps Jacob might hint, by this explanation, the impossibility of such a dream being fulfilled, because one of the persons who should be a chief actor in it was already dead. But any one wife or concubine of Jacob was quite sufficient to fulfill this part of the dream. It is possible, some think, that Joseph may have had these dreams before his mother Rachel died; but were even this the case, she certainly did not live to fulfill the part which appears to refer to herself.

[¶28] The sun and the moon and the eleven stars - Why eleven stars? Was it merely to signify that his brothers might be represented by stars? Or does he not rather there allude to the Zodiac, his eleven brethren answering to eleven of the celestial signs, and himself to the twelfth? This is certainly not an unnatural thought, as it is very likely that the heavens were thus measured in the days of Joseph; for the zodiacal constellations have been distinguished among the eastern nations from time immemorial. See Clarke at [Gen 49:33] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶30] Go - see whether it be well with thy brethren - Literally, Go, I beseech thee, and see the peace of thy brethren, and the peace of the flock. Go and see whether they are all in prosperity. See Clarke on [Gen 37:4] (note). As Jacob's sons were now gone to feed the flock on the parcel of ground they had bought from the Shechemites, (see [Gen 33:19]), and where they had committed such a horrible slaughter, their father might feel more solicitous about their welfare, lest the neighboring tribes should rise against them, and revenge the murder of the Shechemites.

[¶31] As Jacob appears to have been at this time in the vale of Hebron, it is supposed that Shechem was about sixty English miles distant from it, and that Dothan was about eight miles farther. But I must again advertise my readers that all these calculations are very dubious; for we do not even know that the same place is intended, as there are many proofs that different places went by the same names.

### Verse 19

[¶33] Behold, this dreamer cometh - בעל החלמות baal hachalomoth, this master of dreams, this master dreamer. A form of speech which conveys great contempt.

### Verse 20

[¶35] Come now and let us slay him - What unprincipled savages these must have been to talk thus coolly about imbruing their hands in an innocent brother's blood! How necessary is a Divine revelation, to show man what God hates and what he loves! Ferocious cruelty is the principal characteristic of the nations and tribes who receive not the law at his mouth.

### Verse 21

[¶37] Reuben heard it - Though Reuben appears to have been a transgressor of no ordinary magnitude, if we take [Gen 35:22] according to the letter, yet his bosom was not the habitation of cruelly. He determined, if possible, to save his brother from death, and deliver him safely to his father, with whose fondness for him he was sufficiently acquainted. Josephus, in his usual way, puts a long flourishing speech in the mouth of Reuben on the occasion, spoken in order to dissuade his brethren from their barbarous purpose; but as it is totally unfounded, it is worthy of no regard.

### Verse 23

[¶39] They stripped Joseph out of his coat - This probably was done that, if ever found, he might not be discerned to be a person of distinction, and consequently, no inquiry made concerning him.

### Verse 25

[¶41] They sat down to eat bread - Every act is perfectly in character, and describes forcibly the brutish and diabolic nature of their ruthless souls.

[¶42] A company of Ishmaelites - We may naturally suppose that this was a caravan, composed of different tribes that, for their greater safety, were traveling together, and of which Ishmaelites and Midianites made the chief. In the Chaldee they are called Arabians, which, from ערב arab, to mingle, was in all probability used by the Targumist as the word Arabians is used among us, which comprehends a vast number of clans, or tribes of people. The Jerusalem Targum calls them סרקין Sarkin, what we term Saracens. In the Persian, the clause stands thus: karavanee iskmaaleem araban aya. "A caravan of Ishmaelite Arabs came." This seems to give the true sense.

### Verse 28

[¶44] For twenty pieces of silver - In the Anglo-Saxon it is thirty pence. This, I think, is the first instance on record of selling a man for a slave; but the practice certainly did not commence now, it had doubtless been in use long before. Instead of pieces, which our translators supply, the Persian has miskal, which was probably intended to signify a shekel; and if shekels be intended, taking them at three shillings each, Joseph was sold for about three pounds sterling. I have known a whole cargo of slaves, amounting to eight hundred and thirteen, bought by a slave captain in Bonny river, in Africa, on an average, for six pounds each; and this payment was made in guns, gunpowder, and trinkets! As there were only nine of the brethren present, and they sold Joseph for twenty shekels, each had more than two shekels as his share in this most infamous transaction.

## 53. Genesis · 53 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/53/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/53/#p-N

### Verse 29

[¶1] Ruben returned unto the pit - It appears he was absent when the caravan passed by, to whom the other brethren had sold Joseph.

### Verse 30

[¶3] The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? - The words in the original are very plaintive, הילד איננו ואני אנה אני בא haiyeled einennu, vaani anah, ani ba!

### Verse 32

[¶5] Sent the coat of many colors - to their father - What deliberate cruelty to torture the feelings of their aged father, and thus harrow up his soul!

### Verse 33

[¶7] Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces! - It is likely he inferred this from the lacerated state of the coat, which, in order the better to cover their wickedness, they had not only besmeared with the blood of the goat, but it is probable reduced to tatters. And what must a father's heart have felt in such a case! As this coat is rent, so is the body of my beloved son rent in pieces! and Jacob rent his clothes.

### Verse 35

[¶9] All his sons and all his daughters - He had only one daughter, Dinah; but his sons' wives may be here included. But what hypocrisy in his sons to attempt to comfort him concerning the death of a son who they knew was alive; and what cruelty to put their aged father to such torture, when, properly speaking, there was no ground for it!

### Verse 36

[¶11] Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's - The word סריס saris, translated officer, signifies a eunuch; and lest any person should imagine that because this Potiphar had a wife, therefore it is absurd to suppose him to have been a eunuch, let such persons know that it is not uncommon in the east for eunuchs to have wives, nay, some of them have even a harem or seraglio where they keep many women, though it does not appear that they have any progeny; and probably discontent on this ground might have contributed as much to the unfaithfulness of Potiphar's wife, as that less principled motive through which it is commonly believed she acted.

[¶12] Captain of the guard - שר הטבחים sar kattabbachim, chief of the butchers; a most appropriate name for the guards of an eastern despot. If a person offend one of the despotic eastern princes, the order to one of the life-guards is, Go and bring me his head; and this command is instantly obeyed, without judge, jury, or any form of law. Potiphar, we may therefore suppose, was captain of those guards whose business it was to take care of the royal person, and execute his sovereign will on all the objects of his displeasure. Reader, if thou hast the happiness to live under the British constitution, be thankful to God. Here, the will, the power, and utmost influence of the king, were he even so disposed, cannot deprive the meanest subject of his property, his liberty, or his life. All the solemn legal forms of justice must be consulted; the culprit, however accused, be heard by himself and his counsel; and in the end twelve honest, impartial men, chosen from among his fellows, shall decide on the validity of the evidence produced by the accuser. For the trial by jury, as well as for innumerable political blessings, may God make the inhabitants of Great Britain thankful!

[¶13] 1. With this chapter the history of Joseph commences, and sets before our eyes such a scene of wonders wrought by Divine Providence in such a variety of surprising instances, as cannot fail to confirm our faith in God, show the propriety of resignation to his will, and confidence in his dispensations, and prove that all things work together for good to them that love him. Joseph has often been considered as a type of Christ, and this subject in the hands of different persons has assumed a great variety of coloring. The following parallels appear the most probable; but I shall not pledge myself for the propriety of any of them: "Jesus Christ, prefigured by Joseph, the beloved of his father, and by him sent to visit his brethren, is the innocent person whom his brethren sold for a few pieces of silver, the bargain proposed by his brother Judah, (Greek Judas), the very namesake of that disciple and brother (for so Christ vouchsafes to call him) who sold his Lord and Master; and who by this means became their Lord and Savior; nay, the Savior of strangers, and of the whole world; which had not happened but for this plot of destroying him, the act of rejecting, and exposing him to sale. In both examples we find the same fortune and the same innocence: Joseph in the prison between two criminals; Jesus on the cross between two thieves. Joseph foretells deliverance to one of his companions and death to the other, from the same omens: of the two thieves, one reviles Christ, and perishes in his crimes; the other believes, and is assured of a speedy entrance into paradise. Joseph requests the person that should be delivered to be mindful of him in his glory; the person saved by Jesus Christ entreats his deliverer to remember him when he came into his kingdom." - See Pascal's Thoughts. Parallels and coincidences of this kind should always be received cautiously, for where the Spirit of God has not marked a direct resemblance, and obviously referred to it as such in some other part of his word, it is bold, if not dangerous, to say "such and such things and persons are types of Christ." We have instances sufficiently numerous, legitimately attested, without having recourse to those which are of dubious import and precarious application. See the observation on Genesis 40. ([Gen 40:23] (note)).

[¶14] 2. Envy has been defined, "pain felt, and malignity conceived, at the sight of excellence or happiness in another." Under this detestable passion did the brethren of Joseph labor; and had not God particularly interposed, it would have destroyed both its subjects and its object, Perhaps there is no vice which so directly filiates itself on Satan, as this does. In opposition to the assertion that we cannot envy that by which we profit, it may be safely replied that we may envy our neighbor's wisdom, though he gives us good counsel; his riches, though he supplies our wants; and his greatness, though he employs it for our protection.

[¶15] 3. How ruinous are family distractions! A house divided against itself cannot stand. Parents should take good heed that their own conduct be not the first and most powerful cause of such dissensions, by exciting envy in some of their children through undue partiality to others; but it is in vain to speak to most parents on the subject; they will give way to foolish predilections, till, in the prevailing distractions of their families, they meet with the punishment of their imprudence, when regrets are vain, and the evil past remedy.

### Introduction

[¶17] Judah marries the daughter of a Canaanite, [Gen 38:1], [Gen 38:2]; and begets of her Er, [Gen 38:3], Onan, [Gen 38:4], and Shelah, [Gen 38:5]. Er marries Tamar, [Gen 38:6]; is slain for his wickedness, [Gen 38:7]. Onan, required to raise up seed to his brother, refuses, [Gen 38:8], [Gen 38:9]. He also is slain, [Gen 38:10]. Judah promises his son Shelah to Tamar, when he should be of age; but performs not his promise, [Gen 38:11]. Judah's wife dies, [Gen 38:12]. Tamar in disguise receives her father-in-law, he leaves his signet, bracelets, and staff in her hand, and she conceives by him, [Gen 38:13-23]. Judah is informed that his daughter-in-law is with child; and, not knowing that himself was the father, condemns her to be burnt, [Gen 38:24]. She produces the signet, bracelets, and staff, and convicts Judah, [Gen 38:25], [Gen 38:26]. She is delivered of twins, who are called Pharez and Zarah, [Gen 38:27-30].

### Verse 1

[¶19] And it came to pass at that time - The facts mentioned here could not have happened at the times mentioned in the preceding chapter, as those times are all unquestionably too recent, for the very earliest of the transactions here recorded must have occurred long before the selling of Joseph. Mr. Ainsworth remarks "that Judah and his sons must have married when very young, else the chronology will not agree. For Joseph was born six years before Jacob left Laban and came into Canaan; [Gen 30:25], and [Gen 31:41]. Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold into Egypt, [Gen 37:2], [Gen 37:25]; he was thirty years old when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream, [Gen 41:46]. And nine years after, when there had been seven years of plenty and two years of famine, did Jacob with his family go down into Egypt, [Gen 41:53], [Gen 41:54], and [Gen 45:6], [Gen 45:11]. And at their going down thither, Pharez, the son of Judah, whose birth is set down at the end of this chapter, had two sons, Hezron and Hamul, [Gen 46:8], [Gen 46:12]. Seeing then from the selling of Joseph unto Israel's going down into Egypt there cannot be above twenty-three years, how is it possible that Judah should take a wife, and have by her three sons successively, and Shelah the youngest of the three be marriageable when Judah begat Pharez of Tamar, [Gen 38:14], [Gen 38:24], and Pharez be grown up, married, and have two sons, all within so short a space? The time therefore here spoken of seems to have been soon after Jacob's coming to Shechem, [Gen 33:18], before the history of Dinah, Genesis 34, though Moses for special cause relates it in this place." I should rather suppose that this chapter originally stood after Genesis 33, and that it got by accident into this place. Dr. Hales, observing that some of Jacob's son must have married remarkably young, says that "Judah was about forty-seven years old when Jacob's family settled in Egypt. He could not therefore have been above fifteen at the birth of his eldest son Er; nor Er more than fifteen at his marriage with Tamar; nor could it have been more than two years after Er's death till the birth of Judah's twin sons by his daughter-in-law Tamar; nor could Pharez, one of them, be more than fifteen at the birth of his twin sons Herron and Hamul, supposing they were twins, just born before the departure from Canaan. For the aggregate of these numbers, 15, 15, 2, 15, or 47 years, gives the age of Judah; compare Genesis 38 with [Gen 46:12]." See the remarks of Dr. Kennicott, at [Gen 31:55] (note). Adullamite - An inhabitant of Adullam, a city of Canaan, afterwards given for a possession to the sons of Judah, [Jos 15:1], [Jos 15:35]. It appears as if this Adullamite had kept a kind of lodging house, for Shuah the Canaanite and his family lodged with him; and there Judah lodged also. As the woman was a Canaanitess, Judah had the example of his fathers to prove at least the impropriety of such a connection.

### Verse 5

[¶21] And he was at Chezib when she bare him - This town is supposed to be the same with Achzib, which fell to the tribe of Judah, [Jos 15:44]. "The name," says Ainsworth, "has in Hebrew the signification of lying; and to it the prophet alludes, saying the houses of Achzib shall be (Achzab) a lie to the kings of Israel, [Mic 1:14]."

### Verse 7

[¶23] Er - was wicked in the sight of the Lord - What this wickedness consisted in we are not told; but the phrase sight of the Lord being added, proves that it was some very great evil. It is worthy of remark that the Hebrew word used to express Er's wickedness is his own name, the letters reversed. Er ער wicked, רע ra. As if the inspired writer had said, "Er was altogether wicked, a completely abandoned character."

### Verse 9

[¶25] Onan knew that the seed should not be his - That is, that the child begotten of his brother's widow should be reckoned as the child of his deceased brother, and his name, though the real father of it, should not appear in the genealogical tables.

### Verse 10

[¶27] Wherefore he slew him also - The sin of Onan has generally been supposed to be self-pollution; but this is certainly a mistake; his crime was his refusal to raise up seed to his brother, and rather than do it, by the act mentioned above, he rendered himself incapable of it. We find from this history that long be fore the Mosaic law it was an established custom, probably founded on a Divine precept, that if a man died childless his brother was to take his wife, and the children produced by this second marriage were considered as the children of the first husband, and in consequence inherited his possessions.

### Verse 12

[¶29] In process of time - This phrase, which is in general use in the Bible, needs explanation; the original is וירבו הימים vaiyirbu haiyamim, and the days were multiplied. Though it implies an indefinite time, yet it generally embraces a pretty long period, and in this place may mean several years.

### Verse 15

[¶31] Thought her to be a harlot - See the original of this term, [Gen 34:31] (note). The Hebrew is זונה zonah, and signifies generally a person who prostitutes herself to the public for hire, or one who lives by the public; and hence very likely applied to a publican, a tavern-keeper, or hostess, [Jos 2:1]; translated by the Septuagint, and in the New Testament, πορνη, from περναω, to sell, which certainly may as well apply to her goods as to her person.

[¶32] It appears that in very ancient times there were public persons of this description; and they generally veiled themselves, sat in public places by the highway side, and received certain hire. Though adultery was reputed a very flagrant crime, yet this public prostitution was not; for persons whose characters were on the whole morally good had connections with them. But what could be expected from an age in which there was no written Divine revelation, and consequently the bounds of right and wrong were not sufficiently ascertained? This defect was supplied in a considerable measure by the law and the prophets, and now completely by the Gospel of Christ.

### Verse 17

[¶34] Wilt thou give me a pledge till thou send it? - The word ערבון erabon signifies an earnest of something promised, a part of the price agreed for between a buyer and seller, by giving and receiving of which the bargain was ratified; or a deposit, which was to be restored when the thing promised should be given. St. Paul uses the same word in Greek letters, αρῥαβων, [2Cor 1:22]; [Eph 1:14]. From the use of the term in this history we may at once see what the apostle means by the Holy Spirit being the Earnest, αρῥαβων, of the promised inheritance; viz., a security given in hand for the fulfillment of all God's promises relative to grace and eternal life. We may learn from this that eternal life will be given in the great day to all who can produce this erabon or pledge. He who has the earnest of the Spirit then in his heart shall not only be saved from death, but have that eternal life of which it is the pledge and the evidence. What the pledge given by Judah was, see on [Gen 38:25] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶36] Where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? - Our translators often render different Hebrew words by the same term in English, and thus many important shades of meaning, which involve traits of character, are lost. In [Gen 38:15], Tamar is called a harlot, זונה zonah, which, as we have already seen, signifies a person who prostitutes herself for money. In this verse she is called a harlot in our version; but the original is not זונה but קדשה kedeshah, a holy or consecrated person, from קדש kadash, to make holy, or to consecrate to religious purposes. And the word here must necessarily signify a person consecrated by prostitution to the worship of some impure goddess.

[¶37] The public prostitutes in the temple of Venus are called ἱεροδουλοι γυναικες, holy or consecrated female servants, by Strabo; and it appears from the words zonah and kedeshah above, that impure rites and public prostitution prevailed in the worship of the Canaanites in the time of Judah. And among these people we have much reason to believe that Astarte and Asteroth occupied the same place in their theology as Venus did among the Greeks and Romans, and were worshipped with the same impure rites.

### Verse 23

[¶39] Lest we be shamed - Not of the act, for this he does not appear to have thought criminal; but lest he should fall under the raillery of his companions and neighbors, for having been tricked out of his signet, bracelets, and staff, by a prostitute.

### Verse 24

[¶41] Bring her forth, and let her be burnt - As he had ordered Tamar to live as a widow in her own father's house till his son Shelah should be marriageable, he considers her therefore as the wife of his son; and as Shelah was not yet given to her, and she is found with child, she is reputed by him as an adulteress, and burning, it seems, was anciently the punishment of this crime. Judah, being a patriarch or head of a family, had, according to the custom of those times, the supreme magisterial authority over all the branches of his own family; therefore he only acts here in his juridical capacity. How strange that in the very place where adultery was punished by the most violent death, prostitution for money and for religious purposes should be considered as no crime!

### Verse 25

[¶43] The signet - חתמת chothemeth, properly a seal, or instrument with which impressions were made to ascertain property, etc. These exist in all countries.

[¶44] Bracelets - פתילים pethilim, from פתל pathal, to twist, wreathe, twine, may signify a girdle or a collar by which precedency, etc., might be indicated; not the muslin, silk, or linen wreath of his turban, as Mr. Harmer has conjectured.

## 54. Genesis · 54 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/54/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/54/#p-N

[¶0] Staff - מטה matteh, either what we would call a common walking stick, or the staff which was the ensign of his tribe.

### Verse 26

[¶2] She hath been more righteous than I - It is probable that Tamar was influenced by no other motive than that which was common to all the Israelitish women, the desire to have children who might be heirs of the promise made to Abraham, etc. And as Judah had obliged her to continue in her widowhood under the promise of giving her his son Shelah when he should be of age, consequently his refusing or delaying to accomplish this promise was a breach of truth, and an injury done to Tamar.

### Verse 28

[¶4] The midwife - bound upon his hand a scarlet thread - The binding of the scarlet thread about the wrist of the child whose arm appeared first in the birth, serves to show us how solicitously the privileges of the birthright were preserved. Had not this caution been taken by the midwife, Pharez would have had the right of primogeniture to the prejudice of his elder brother Zarah. And yet Pharez is usually reckoned in the genealogical tables before Zarah; and from him, not Zarah, does the line of our Lord proceed. See [Mat 1:3]. Probably the two brothers, as being twins, were conjoined in the privileges belonging to the birthright.

### Verse 29

[¶6] How hast thou broken forth? - מה פרצת mah paratsta, this breach be upon thee, עליך פרץ aleycka parets; thou shalt bear the name of the breach thou hast made, i. e., in coming first into the world. Therefore his name was called פרץ Parets, i. e., the person who made the breach. The breach here mentioned refers to a certain circumstance in parturition which it is unnecessary to explain.

### Verse 30

[¶8] His name was called Zarah - זרה Zarach, risen or sprung up, applied to the sun, rising and diffusing his light. "He had this name," says Ainsworth, "because he should have risen, i. e., have been born first, but for the breach which his brother made."

[¶9] There are several subjects in this chapter on which it may not be unprofitable to spend a few additional moments.

[¶10] 1. The insertion of this chapter is a farther proof of the impartiality of the sacred writer. The facts detailed, considered in themselves, can reflect no credit on the patriarchal history; but Judah, Tamar, Zarah, and Pharez, were progenitors of the Messiah, and therefore their birth must be recorded; and as the birth, so also the circumstances of that birth, which, even had they not a higher end in view, would be valuable as casting light upon some very ancient customs, which it is interesting to understand. These are not forgotten in the preceding notes.

[¶11] 2. On what is generally reputed to be the sin of Onan, something very pointed should be spoken. But who dares and will do it, and in such language that it may neither pollute the ear by describing the evil as it is, nor fail of its effect by a language so refined and so laboriously delicate as to cover the sin which it professes to disclose? Elaborate treatises on the subject will never be read by those who need them most, and anonymous pamphlets are not likely to be regarded. The sin of self-pollution, which is generally considered to be that of Onan, is one of the most destructive evils ever practiced by fallen man. In many respects it is several degrees worse than common whoredom, and has in its train more awful consequences, though practiced by numbers who would shudder at the thought of criminal connections with a prostitute. It excites the powers of nature to undue action, and produces violent secretions, which necessarily and speedily exhaust the vital principle and energy; hence the muscles become flaccid and feeble, the tone and natural action of the nerves relaxed and impeded, the understanding confused, the memory oblivious, the judgment perverted, the will indeterminate and wholly without energy to resist; the eyes appear languishing and without expression, and the countenance vacant; the appetite ceases, for the stomach is incapable of performing its proper office; nutrition fails, tremors, fears, and terrors are generated; and thus the wretched victim drags out a most miserable existence, till, superannuated even before he had time to arrive at man's estate, with a mind often debilitated even to a state of idiotism, his worthless body tumbles into the grave, and his guilty soul (guilty of self-murder) is hurried into the awful presence of its Judge! Reader, this is no caricature, nor are the colourings overcharged in this shocking picture. Worse woes than my pen can relate I have witnessed in those addicted to this fascinating, unnatural, and most destructive of crimes. If thou hast entered into this snare, flee from the destruction both of body and soul that awaits thee! God alone can save thee. Advice, warnings, threatenings, increasing debility of body, mental decay, checks of conscience, expostulations of judgment and medical assistance, will all be lost on thee: God, and God alone, can save them from an evil which has in its issue the destruction of thy body, and the final perdition of thy soul! Whether this may have been the sin of Onan or not, is a matter at present of small moment; it may be thy sin; therefore take heed lest God slay thee for it. The intelligent reader will see that prudence forbids me to enter any farther into this business. See Clarke's note at [Gen 39:21].

### Introduction

[¶13] Joseph, being brought to Potiphar's house, prospers in all his undertakings, [Gen 39:1-3]. Potiphar makes him his overseer, [Gen 39:4]. Is prospered in all his concerns for Joseph's sake, in whom he puts unlimited confidence, [Gen 39:5], [Gen 39:6]. The wife of Potiphar solicits him to criminal correspondence, [Gen 39:7]. He refuses, and makes a fine apology for his conduct, [Gen 39:8], [Gen 39:9]. She continues her solicitations, and he his refusals, [Gen 39:10]. She uses violence, and he escapes from her hand, [Gen 39:11-13]. She accuses him to the domestics, [Gen 39:14], [Gen 39:15], and afterward to Potiphar, [Gen 39:16-18]. Potiphar is enraged, and Joseph is cast into prison, [Gen 39:19], [Gen 39:20]. The Lord prospers him, and gives him great favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison, [Gen 39:21], who entrusts him with the care of the house and all the prisoners, [Gen 39:22], [Gen 39:23].

### Verse 1

[¶15] An officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard - Mr. Ainsworth, supposing that his office merely consisted in having charge of the king's prisoners, calls Potiphar provost marshal! See Clarke on [Gen 37:36] (note), See Clarke on [Gen 40:3] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶17] He made him overseer - הפקיד hiphkid, from פקד pakad, to visit, take care of, superintend; the same as επισκοπος, overseer or bishop, among the Greeks. This is the term by which the Septuagint often express the meaning of the original.

### Verse 6

[¶19] Joseph was a goodly person, and well favored - יפה תאר ויפה מראה yepkeh thoar, vipheh mareh, beautiful in his person, and beautiful in his countenance. The same expressions are used relative to Rachel; see them explained [Gen 29:17] (note). The beauty of Joseph is celebrated over all the East, and the Persian poets vie with each other in descriptions of his comeliness. Mohammed spends the twelfth chapter of the Koran entirely on Joseph, and represents him as a perfect beauty, and the most accomplished of mortals. From his account, the passion of Zuleekha (for so the Asiatics call Potiphar's wife) being known to the ladles of the court, they cast the severest reflections upon her: in order to excuse herself, she invited forty of them to dine with her, put knives in their hands, and gave them oranges to cut, and caused Joseph to attend. When they saw him they were struck with admiration, and so confounded, that instead of cutting their oranges they cut and hacked their own hands, crying out, hasha lillahi ma hadha bashara in hadha illa malakon kareemon. "O God! this is not a human being, this is none other than a glorious angel!" - Surat xii., [Gen 29:32].

[¶20] Two of the finest poems in the Persian language were written by the poets Jamy and Nizamy on the subject of Joseph and his mistress; they are both entitled Yusuf we Zuleekha. These poems represent Joseph as the most beautiful and pious of men; and Zuleekha the most chaste, virtuous, and excellent of women, previous to her having seen Joseph; but they state that when she saw him she was so deeply affected by his beauty that she lost all self-government, and became a slave to her passion. Hafiz expresses this, and apologizes for her conduct in the following elegant couplet: -

[¶21] Men az an husn-i roz afzoon keh

[¶22] Yusuf dasht danistam Keh ishk az pardah-i ismat beroon arad Zaleekhara. "I understand, from the daily increasing beauty which

[¶23] Joseph possessed, How love tore away the veil of chastity from Zuleekha."

[¶24] The Persian poets and eastern historians, however, contrive to carry on a sort of guiltless passion between them till the death of Potiphar, when Zuleekha, grown old, is restored to youth and beauty by the power of God, and becomes the wife of Joseph. What traditions they had beside the Mosaic text for what they say on this subject, are now unknown; but the whole story, with innumerable embellishments, is so generally current in the East that I thought it not amiss to take this notice of it. The twelfth chapter of the Koran, which celebrates the beauty, piety, and acts of this patriarch, is allowed to be one of the finest specimens of Arabic composition ever formed; and the history itself, as told by Moses, is one of the most simple, natural, affecting, and well-told narratives ever published. It is a master-piece of composition, and never fails of producing its intended effect on the mind of a careful reader. The Arab lawgiver saw and felt the beauties and excellences of his model; and he certainly put forth all the strength of his own language, and all the energy of his mind, in order to rival it.

### Verse 8

[¶26] My master wotteth not - Knoweth not, from the old Anglo-Saxon, witan, to know; hence, wit, intellect, understanding, wisdom, prudence.

### Verse 9

[¶28] How then - ואיך veeik, and how? Joseph gives two most powerful reasons for his noncompliance with the wishes of his mistress:

[¶29] 1. Gratitude to his master, to whom he owed all that he had.

[¶30] 2. His fear of God, in whose sight it would be a heinous offense, and who would not fail to punish him for it.

[¶31] With the kindness of his master and the displeasure of God before his eyes, how could he be capable of committing an act of transgression, which would at once have distinguished him as the most ungrateful and the most worthless of men?

### Verse 14

[¶33] He hath brought in a Hebrew unto us - Potiphar's wife affects to throw great blame on her husband, whom we may reasonably suppose she did not greatly love. He hath brought in - he hath raised this person to all his dignity and eminence, to give him the greater opportunity to mock us. לפחק letsachek, here translated to mock, is the same word used in [Gen 26:8], relative to Isaac and Rebekah; and is certainly used by Potiphar's wife in [Gen 39:17], to signify some kind of familiar intercourse not allowable but between man and wife.

### Verse 20

[¶35] Put him into the prison - בית סהר beith sohar, literally the round house; in such a form the prison was probably built.

### Verse 21

[¶37] The Lord was with Joseph - It is but of little consequence where the lot of a servant of God may be cast; like Joseph he is ever employed for his master, and God honors him and prospers his work.

[¶38] 1. He who acknowledges God in all his ways, has the promise that God shall direct all his steps. Joseph's captivity shall promote God's glory; and to this end God works in him, for him, by him. Even the irreligious can see when the Most High distinguishes his followers. Joseph's master saw that Jehovah was with him; and from this we may learn that the knowledge of the true God was in Egypt, even before the time of Joseph, though his worship was neither established nor even tolerated there. Both Abraham and Isaac had been in Egypt, and they had left a savor of true godliness behind them.

[¶39] 2. Joseph's virtue in resisting the solicitations of his mistress was truly exemplary. Had he reasoned after the manner of men, he might have soon found that the proposed intrigue might be carried on with the utmost secrecy and greatly to his secular advantage. But he chose to risk all rather than injure a kind benefactor, defile his conscience, and sin against God. Such conduct is so exceedingly rare that his example has stood on the records of time as almost without a parallel, admired by all, applauded by most, and in similar circumstances, I am afraid, imitated by few. The fable of the brave and virtuous Bellerophon and Sthenobaea, wife of Proetus, king of the Argives, was probably founded on this history.

[¶40] 3. Joseph fled and got him out. To know when to fight and when to fly are of great importance in the Christian life. Some temptations must be manfully met, resisted, and thus overcome; from others we must fly. He who stands to contend or reason, especially in such a case as that mentioned here, is infallibly ruined. Principiis obsta, "resist the first overtures of sin," is a good maxim. After-remedies come too late.

[¶41] 4. A woman of the spirit of Potiphar's wife is capable of any species of evil. When she could not get her wicked ends answered, she began to accuse. This is precisely Satan's custom: he first tempts men to sin, and then accuses them as having committed it, even where the temptation has been faithfully and perseveringly resisted! By this means he can trouble a tender conscience, and weaken faith by bringing confusion into the mind. Thus the inexperienced especially are often distracted and cast down; hence Satan is properly called the accuser of the brethren, [Rev 12:10].

[¶42] Very useful lessons may be drawn from every part of the relation in this chapter, but detailing the facts and reasoning upon them would be more likely to produce than prevent the evil. An account of this kind cannot be touched with too gentle a hand. Others have been profuse here; I chose to be parsimonious, for reasons which the intelligent reader will feel as well as myself. Let this remark be applied to what has been said on the sin of Onan, Genesis 38.

### Introduction

[¶44] Pharaoh's chief butler and his chief baker, having offended their lord, are put in prison, [Gen 40:1-3]. The captain of the guard gives them into the care of Joseph, [Gen 40:4]. Each of them has a dream, [Gen 40:5]. Joseph, seeing them sad, questions them on the subject, [Gen 40:6], [Gen 40:7]. Their answer, [Gen 40:8]. The chief butler tells his dream, [Gen 40:9-11]. Joseph interprets it, [Gen 40:12], [Gen 40:13]. Gives a slight sketch of his history to the chief butler, and begs him to think upon him when restored to his office, [Gen 40:14], [Gen 40:15]. The chief baker tells his dream, [Gen 40:16], [Gen 40:17]. Joseph interprets this also, [Gen 40:18], [Gen 40:19]. Both dreams are fulfilled according to the interpretation, the chief butler being restored to his office, and the chief baker hanged, [Gen 40:20-22]. The chief butler makes no interest for Joseph, [Gen 40:23].

## 55. Genesis · 55 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/55/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/55/#p-N

### Verse 1

[¶1] The butler - משקה mashkeh, the same as saky among the Arabians and Persians, and signifying a cup-bearer.

[¶2] Baker - אפה opheh; rather cook, confectioner, or the like.

[¶3] Had offended - They had probably been accused of attempting to take away the king's life, one by poisoning his drink, the other by poisoning his bread or confectionaries.

### Verse 3

[¶5] Where Joseph was bound - The place in which Joseph was now confined; this is what is implied in being bound; for, without doubt, he had his personal liberty. As the butler and. the baker were state criminals they were put in the same prison with Joseph, which we learn from the preceding chapter, [Gen 39:20], was the king's prison. All the officers in the employment of the ancient kings of Egypt were, according to Diodorus Siculus, taken from the most illustrious families of the priesthood in the country; no slave or common person being ever permitted to serve in the presence of the king. As these persons, therefore, were of the most noble families, it is natural to expect they would be put, when accused, into the state prison.

### Verse 4

[¶7] They continued a season - ימים yamim, literally days; how long we cannot tell. But many suppose the word signifies a complete year; and as Pharaoh called them to an account on his birthday, [Gen 40:20], Calmet supposes they had offended on the preceding birthday, and thus had been one whole year in prison.

### Verse 5

[¶9] Each man according to the interpretation - Not like dreams in general, the disordered workings of the mind, the consequence of disease or repletion; these were dreams that had an interpretation, that is, that were prophetic.

### Verse 6

[¶11] They were sad - They concluded that their dreams portended something of great importance, but they could not tell what.

### Verse 8

[¶13] There is no interpreter - They either had access to none, or those to whom they applied could give them no consistent, satisfactory meaning.

[¶14] Do not interpretations belong to God? - God alone, the Supreme Being, knows what is in futurity; and if he have sent a significant dream, he alone can give the solution.

### Verse 11

[¶16] And I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup - From this we find that wine anciently was the mere expressed juice of the grape, without fermentation. The saky, or cup-bearer, took the bunch, pressed the juice into the cup, and instantly delivered it into the hands of his master. This was anciently the יין yain of the Hebrews, the οινος of the Greeks, and the mustum of the ancient Latins.

### Verse 12

[¶18] The three branches are three days - That is, The three branches signify three days; so, this Is my body, that is, this bread signifies or represents my body; this cup is my blood, Represents my blood; a form of speech frequently used in the sacred writings, for the Hebrew has no proper word by which our terms signifies, represents, etc., are expressed; therefore it says such a thing Is, for represents, points out, etc. And because several of our ancestors would understand such words in their true, genuine, critical, and sole meaning, Queen Mary, Bishops Gardiner, Bonner, and the rest of that demoniacal crew, reduced them to ashes in Smithfield and elsewhere!

### Verse 14

[¶20] Make mention of me unto Pharaoh - One would have supposed that the very circumstance of his restoration, according to the prediction of Joseph, would have almost necessarily prevented him from forgetting so extraordinary a person. But what have mere courtiers to do either with gratitude or kindness?

### Verse 15

[¶22] For indeed I was stolen - גנב גנבתי gunnob gunnobti, stolen, I have been stolen - most assuredly I was stolen; and here also have I done nothing. These were simple assertions, into the proof of which he was ready to enter if called on.

### Verse 19

[¶24] Lift up thy head from off thee - Thus we find that beheading, hanging, and gibbeting, were modes of punishment among the ancient Egyptians; but the criminal was beheaded before he was hanged, and then either hanged on hooks, or by the hands. See [Lam 5:12].

### Verse 20

[¶26] Pharaoh's birthday - The distinguishing a birthday by a feast appears from this place to have been a very ancient custom. It probably had its origin from a correct notion of the immortality of the soul, as the commencement of life must appear of great consequence to that person who believed he was to live for ever. St. Matthew ([Mat 14:6]) mentions Herod's keeping his birthday; and examples of this kind are frequent to the present time in most nations.

[¶27] Lifted up the head of the chief butler, etc. - By lifting up the head, probably no more is meant than bringing them to trial, tantamount to what was done by Jezebel and the nobles of Israel to Naboth: Set Naboth on high among the people; and set two men, sons of Belial, to bear witness against him, etc.; [1Kgs 21:9], etc. The issue of the trial was, the baker alone was found guilty and hanged; and the butler, being acquitted, was restored to his office.

### Verse 23

[¶29] Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph - Had he mentioned the circumstance to Pharaoh, there is no doubt that Joseph's case would have been examined into, and he would in consequence have been restored to his liberty; but, owing to the ingratitude of the chief butler, he was left two years longer in prison.

[¶30] Many commentators have seen in every circumstance in the history of Joseph a parallel between him and our blessed Lord. So, "Joseph in prison represents Christ in the custody of the Jews; the chief butler and the chief baker represent the two thieves which were crucified with our Lord; and as one thief was pardoned, and the other left to perish, so the chief butler was restored to his office, and the chief baker hanged." I believe God never designed such parallels; and I am astonished to find comparatively grave and judicious men trifling in this way, and forcing the features of truth into the most distorted anamorphosis, so that even her friends blush to acknowledge her. This is not a light matter; we should beware how we attribute designs to God that he never had, and employ the Holy Spirit in forming trifling and unimportant similitudes. Of plain, direct truth we shall find as much in the sacred writings as we can receive and comprehend; let us not therefore hew out unto ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Interpretations of this kind only tend to render the sacred writings uncertain; to expose to ridicule all the solemn types and figures which it really contains; and to furnish pretexts to infidels and irreligious people to scoff at all spirituality, and lead them to reject the word of God entirely, as incapable of being interpreted on any fixed or rational plan. The mischief done by this system is really incalculable. See the observations on Genesis 37 (note).

### Introduction

[¶32] Pharaoh's dream of the seven well-favored and seven ill-favored kine, [Gen 41:1-4]. His dream of the seven full and seven thin ears of corn, [Gen 41:5-7]. The magicians and wise men applied to for the interpretation of them, but could give no solution, [Gen 41:8]. The chief butler recollects and recommends Joseph, [Gen 41:9-13]. Pharaoh commands him to be brought out of prison, [Gen 41:14]. Joseph appears before Pharaoh, [Gen 41:15], [Gen 41:16]. Pharaoh repeats his dreams, [Gen 41:17-24]. Joseph interprets them, [Gen 41:25-32], and gives Pharaoh directions how to provide against the approaching scarcity, [Gen 41:33-36]. Pharaoh, pleased with the counsel, appoints Joseph to be superintendent of all his affairs, [Gen 41:37-41]. Joseph receives the badges of his new office, [Gen 41:42], [Gen 41:43], and has his powers defined, [Gen 41:44]; receives a new name, and marries Asenath, daughter of Poti-Pherah, priest of On, [Gen 41:45]. Joseph's age when brought before Pharaoh, [Gen 41:46]. Great fertility of Egypt in the seven plenteous years, [Gen 41:47]. Joseph hoards up the grain, [Gen 41:48], [Gen 41:49]. Ephraim and Manasseh born, [Gen 41:50-52]. The seven years of famine commence with great rigour, [Gen 41:53-55]. Joseph opens the storehouses to the Egyptians, [Gen 41:56]. People from the neighboring countries come to Egypt to buy corn, the famine being in all those lands, [Gen 41:57].

### Verse 1

[¶34] Two full years - שנתים ימים shenathayim yamim, two years of days, two complete solar revolutions, after the events mentioned in the preceding chapter.

[¶35] The river - The Nile, the cause of the fertility of Egypt.

### Verse 2

[¶37] There came up out of the river seven well-favored kine - This must certainly refer to the hippopotamus or river horse, as the circumstances of coming up out of the river and feeding in the field characterize that animal alone. The hippopotamus is the well-known inhabitant of the Nile, and frequently by night comes out of the river to feed in the fields, or in the sedge by the river side.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Blasted with the east wind - It has been very properly observed that all the mischief done to corn or fruit, by blasting, smutting, mildews, locusts, etc., is attributed to the east wind. See [Exo 10:13]; [Exo 14:21]; [Psa 78:26]; [Eze 17:10]; [Jon 4:8]. In Egypt it is peculiarly destructive, because it comes through the parched deserts of Arabia, often destroying vast numbers of men and women. The destructive nature of the simoom or smoom is mentioned by almost all travelers. Mr. Bruce speaks of it in his Travels in Egypt. On their way to Syene, Idris their guide, seeing one of these destroying blasts coming, cried out with a loud voice to the company, "Fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom! I saw," says Mr. B., "from the S. E. a haze come, in color like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon the ground, with my head northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat upon the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor or purple haze which I saw was indeed passed, but the light air that still blew was of a heat to threaten suffocation. for my part, I found distinctly in my breast that I had imbibed a part of it; nor was I free from an asthmatic sensation till I had been some months in Italy, at the bathe of Poretta, near two years afterwards." - Travels, vol. vi., p. 462. On another occasion the whole company were made ill by one of these pestilential blasts, so that they had scarcely strength to load their camels - ibid., p. 484. The action of this destructive wind is referred to by the Prophet [Hos 13:15] : Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an East Wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up From The Wilderness, and his spring shall Become Dry, and his fountain shall be Dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

### Verse 8

[¶41] Called for all the magicians - חרטמים chartummim. The word here used may probably mean no more than interpreters of abstruse and difficult subjects; and especially of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, an art which is now entirely lost. It is most likely that the term is Egyptian, and consequently its etymology must remain unknown to us. If Hebrew, Mr. Parkhurst's definition may be as good as any: "חרט cheret, a pen or instrument to write or draw with, and תם tam, to perfect or accomplish; those who were perfect in drawing their sacred, astrological, and hieroglyphical figures or characters, and who, by means of them, pretended to extraordinary feats, among which was the interpretation of dreams. They seem to have been such persons as Josephus (Ant., lib. ii., c. 9, s. 2) calls Ἱερογραμματεις sacred scribes, or professors of sacred learning."

[¶42] Wise men - חכמיה chacameyha, the persons who, according to Porphyry, "addicted themselves to the worship of God and the study of wisdom, passing their whole life in the contemplation of Divine things. Contemplation of the stars, self-purification, arithmetic, and geometry, and singing hymns in honor of their gods, was their continual employment." - See Dodd. It was probably among these that Pythagoras conversed, and from whom he borrowed that modest name by which he wished his countrymen to distinguish him, viz., φιλοσοφος, a philosopher, simply, a lover of wisdom.

### Verse 9

[¶44] I do remember my faults - It is not possible he could have forgotten the circumstance to which he here alludes; it was too intimately connected with all that was dear to him, to permit him ever to forget it. But it was not convenient for him to remember this before; and probably he would not have remembered it now, had he not seen, that giving this information in such a case was likely to serve his own interest. We are justified in thinking evil of this man because of his scandalous neglect of a person who foretold the rescue of his life from imminent destruction, and who, being unjustly confined, prayed to have his case fairly represented to the king that justice might be done him; but this courtier, though then in the same circumstances himself, found it convenient to forget the poor, friendless Hebrew slave!

## 56. Genesis · 56 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/56/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/56/#p-N

### Verse 14

[¶1] They brought him hastily out of the dungeon - Pharaoh was in perplexity on account of his dreams; and when he heard of Joseph, he sent immediately to get him brought before him. He shaved himself - having let his beard grow all the time he was in prison, he now trimmed it, for it is not likely that either the Egyptians or Hebrews shaved themselves in our sense of the word: the change of raiment was, no doubt, furnished out of the king's wardrobe; as Joseph, in his present circumstances, could not be supposed to have any changes of raiment.

### Verse 16

[¶3] It is not in me, etc. - בלעדי biladai, without or independently of me - I am not essential to thy comfort, God himself has thee under his care. And he will send thee, or answer thee, peace; thou shalt have prosperity (שלום shelom) howsoever ominous thy dreams may appear. By this answer he not only conciliated the mind of the king, but led him to expect his help from that God from whom alone all comfort, protection, and prosperity, must proceed.

### Verse 18

[¶5] Seven kine, fat-fleshed - See Clarke on [Gen 41:2] (note). And observe farther, that the seven fat and the seven lean kine coming out of the same river plainly show, at once, the cause both of the plenty and the dearth. It is well known that there is scarcely any rain in Egypt; and that the country depends for its fertility on the overflowing of the Nile; and that the fertility is in proportion to the duration and quantity of the overflow. We may therefore safely conclude that the seven years of plenty were owing to an extraordinary overflowing of the Nile; and that the seven years of dearth were occasioned by a very partial, or total want of this essentially necessary inundation. Thus then the two sorts of cattle, signifying years of plenty and want, might be said to come out of the same river, as the inundation was either complete, partial, or wholly restrained. See Clarke on [Gen 41:31] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶7] And when they had eaten them up, etc. - Nothing can more powerfully mark the excess and severity of the famine than creatures of the beeve or of the hippopotamus kind eating each other, and yet without any effect; remaining as lean and as wretched as they were before. A sense of want increases the appetite, and stimulates the digestive powers to unusual action; hence the concoction of the food becomes very rapid, and it is hurried through the intestines before its nutritive particles can be sufficiently absorbed; and thus, though much is eaten, very little nourishment is derived from it. And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favored, as at the beginning. A most nervous and physically correct description.

### Verse 25

[¶9] God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do - Joseph thus shows the Egyptian king that though the ordinary cause of plenty or want is the river Nile, yet its inundations are under the direction of God: the dreams are sent by him, not only to signify beforehand the plenty and want, but to show also that all these circumstances, however fortuitous they may appear to man, are under the direction of an overruling Providence.

### Verse 31

[¶11] The plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following - As Egypt depends for its fertility on the flowing of the Nile, and this flowing is not always equal, there must be a point to which it must rise to saturate the land sufficiently, in order to produce grain sufficient for the support of its inhabitants. Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. v., cap. 9, has given us a scale by which the plenty and dearth may be ascertained; and, from what I have been able to collect from modern travelers, this scale may be yet considered as perfectly correct.

[¶12] Justum incrementum est cubitorum 16. Minores aquae non omnia rigant, ampliores detinent, tardius recedendo. Hae serendi tempora absumunt, solo madente, Illae non dant, sitiente. Utrumque reputat provincia. In 12. cubitis famen sentit. In 13. etiamnum esurit; 14. cubita hilaritatem afferunt; 15. securitatem; 16. delicias. "The ordinary height of the inundations is sixteen cubits. When the waters are lower than this standard they do not overflow the whole ground; when above this standard, they are too long in running off. In the first case the ground is not saturated: by the second, the waters are detained so long on the ground that seed-time is lost. The province marks both. If it rise only twelve cubits, a famine is the consequence. Even at thirteen cubits hunger prevails; fourteen cubits produces general rejoicing; fifteen, perfect security; and sixteen, all the luxuries of life."

[¶13] When the Nile rises to eighteen cubits it prevents the sowing of the land in due season, and as necessarily produces a famine as when it does not overflow its banks.

### Verse 33

[¶15] A man discreet and wise - As it is impossible that Joseph could have foreseen his own elevation, consequently he gave this advice without any reference to himself. The counsel therefore was either immediately inspired by God, or was dictated by policy, prudence, and sound sense.

### Verse 34

[¶17] Let him appoint officers - פקדים pekidim, visitors, overseers: translated by Ainsworth, bishops; see [Gen 39:1].

[¶18] Take up the fifth part of the land - What is still called the meery, or that part of the produce which is claimed by the king by way of tax. It is probable that in Joseph's time it was not so much as a fifth part, most likely a tenth: but as this was an extraordinary occasion, and the earth brought forth by handfuls, [Gen 41:47], the king would be justified in requiring a fifth; and from the great abundance, the people could pay this increased tax without feeling it to be oppressive.

### Verse 35

[¶20] Under the hand of Pharaoh - To be completely at the disposal of the king.

### Verse 37

[¶22] The thing was good - Pharaoh and his courtiers saw that the counsel was prudent, and should be carefully followed.

### Verse 38

[¶24] In whom the Spirit of God is? - רוח אלהים ruach Elohim, the identical words used [Gen 1:2]; and certainly to be understood here as in the preceding place. If the Egyptians were idolaters, they acknowledged Joseph's God; and it is not to be supposed that they only became acquainted with him on this occasion. The knowledge of the true God was in Egypt long before; but it is very likely that though they acknowledged his influence with respect to Joseph, as they saw most clearly that he acted under an influence far beyond that of their magicians, for he interpreted dreams which they could not; yet they might, notwithstanding, have their gods many and their lords many at this time, for we know that in religious matters they were exceedingly corrupt afterwards.

### Verse 40

[¶26] According unto thy word shall all my people be ruled - Literally, At thy mouth shall all my people kiss. In the eastern countries it is customary to kiss any thing that comes from a superior, and this is done by way of testifying respect and submission. In this sense the words in the text are to be understood: All the people shall pay the profoundest respect and obedience to all thy orders and commands.

[¶27] Only in the throne will I be greater than thou - This, in one word, is a perfect description of a prime minister. Thou shalt have the sole management, under me, of all state affairs.

### Verse 42

[¶29] And Pharaoh took off his ring - and put it upon Joseph's hand - In this ring was probably set the king's signet, by which the royal instruments were sealed; and thus Joseph was constituted what we would call Lord Chancellor, or Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal.

[¶30] Vestures of fine linen - שש shesh. Whether this means linen or cotton is not known. It seems to have been a term by which both were denominated; or it may be some other substance or cloth with which we are unacquainted. If the fine linen of Egypt was such as that which invests the bodies of the mummies, and these in general were persons of the first distinction, and consequently were enveloped in cloth of the finest quality, it was only fine comparatively speaking, Egypt being the only place at that time where such cloth was manufactured. I have often examined the cloth about the bodies of the most splendidly ornamented mummies, and found it sackcloth when compared with the fine Irish linens. As this shesh appears to have been a part of the royal clothing, it was probably both scarce and costly. "By comparing," says Parkhurst, "[Exo 25:4], [Exo 26:1], with [2Chr 2:14], and [Exo 26:31], with [2Chr 3:14], it appears that בוץ buts, cotton, is called שש shesh; and by comparing [Exo 28:42], with [Exo 39:28], that בד bad, linen, is also called שש shesh; so that shesh seems a name expressive of either of these, from their cheerful vivid whiteness."

[¶31] Put a gold chain about his neck - This was not merely a badge of office. The chain might be intended to point out the union which should subsist between all parts of the government - the king, his ministers, and the people; as also that necessary dependence which they had reciprocally on each other, as well as the connection which must be preserved between the different members of the body politic, and the laws and institutions by which they were to be governed. Its being of gold might be intended to show the excellence, utility, and permanence of a government constituted on wise, just, and equal laws. We are justified in drawing such inferences as these, because in ancient times, in all nations, every thing was made an emblem or representation of some spiritual or moral subject it is strange that, probably without adverting to the reasons, the chain of gold worn about the neck is in different nations an emblem of civil authority.

### Verse 43

[¶33] He made him to ride in the second chariot - That which usually followed the king's chariot in public ceremonies.

[¶34] Bow the knee - אברך abrech, which we translate bow the knee, and which we might as well translate any thing else, is probably an Egyptian word, the signification of which is utterly unknown. If we could suppose it to be a Hebrew word, it might be considered as compounded of אב ab, father, and רך rach, tender; for Joseph might be denominated a father, because of his care over the people, and the provision he was making for their preservation; and tender because of his youth. Or it may be compounded of אב ab, father, and ברך barech, blessing, the latter ב beth being easily lost in the preceding one; and Joseph might have this epithet as well as the other, on account of the care he was taking to turn aside the heavy curse of the seven years of famine, by accumulating the blessings of the seven years of plenty. Besides, father seems to have been a name of office, and probably father of the king or father of Pharaoh might signify the same as the king's minister among us; see on [Gen 45:8] (note). But if it be an Egyptian word, it is vain to look for its signification in Hebrew.

### Verse 44

[¶36] I am Pharaoh - The same as if he had said, I am the king; for Pharaoh was the common title of the sovereigns of Egypt.

### Verse 45

[¶38] Zaphnath-paaneah - The meaning of this title is as little known as that of abrech in the preceding verse. Some translate it, The revealer of secrets; others, The treasury of glorious comfort. St. Jerome translates the whole verse in the most arbitrary manner. Vertitque nomen ejus, et vocavit eum, lingua Aegyptiaca, Salvatorem mundi. "And he changed his name, and called him in the Egyptian language, The savior of the world." None of the Asiatic versions acknowledge this extraordinary gloss, and it is certainly worthy of no regard. The Anglo-Saxon nearly copies the Vulgate: And named him in Egyptian, The healer of the world. All the etymologies hitherto given of this word are, to say the least of them, doubtful. I believe it also to be an Egyptian epithet, designating the office to which he was now raised; and similar to our compound terms, Prime-Minister, Lord Chancellor, High-Treasurer, Chief Justice, etc.

[¶39] Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah - There is no likelihood that the Poti-pherah mentioned here is the same as the Potiphar who had purchased Joseph, and, on the false accusations of his wife, cast him into prison. 1. The Scripture gives no intimation that they were one and the same person. 2. Poti-pherah had children, and Potiphar was an eunuch; See Clarke on [Gen 37:36] (note); for though eunuchs often kept women, there is no proof that they had any issue by them.

[¶40] Priest of On - For the signification of the word כהן cohen or priest, See Clarke on [Gen 14:18] (note). On is rendered Heliopolis (the city of the sun) by the Septuagint and Anglo-Saxon; and it is very likely that this Poti-pherah was intendant of that nome or province, under Pharaoh.

[¶41] Joseph went out over all the land - No doubt for the building of granaries, and appointing proper officers to receive the corn in every place, as Dr. Dodd has very properly conjectured.

### Verse 46

[¶43] Joseph was thirty years old - As he was seventeen years old when he was sold into Egypt, [Gen 37:2], and was now thirty, he must have been thirteen years in slavery.

[¶44] Stood before Pharaoh - This phrase always means admission to the immediate presence of the sovereign, and having the honor of his most unlimited confidence. Among the Asiatic princes, the privilege of coming even to their seat, of standing before them, etc., was granted only to the highest favorites.

## 57. Genesis · 57 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/57/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/57/#p-N

### Verse 47

[¶1] The earth brought forth by handfuls - This probably refers principally to rice, as it grows in tufts, a great number of stalks proceeding from the same seed. In those years the Nile probably rose sixteen cubits; See Clarke on [Gen 41:31] (note).

### Verse 50

[¶3] Two sons - Whom he called by names expressive of God's particular and bountiful providence towards him. Manasseh, מנשה menashsheh, signifies forgetfulness, from נשה nashah, to forget; and Ephraim, אפרים ephrayim, fruitfulness, from פרה parah, to be fruitful; and he called his sons by these names, because God had enabled him to forget all his toil, disgrace, and affliction, and had made him fruitful in the very land in which he had suffered the greatest misfortune and indignities.

### Verse 54

[¶5] The seven years of dearth began to come - Owing in Egypt to the Nile not rising more than twelve or thirteen cubits; (See Clarke on [Gen 41:31] (note)); but there must have been other causes which affected other countries, not immediately dependent on the Nile, though remotely connected with Egypt and Canaan.

[¶6] The dearth was in all lands - All the countries dependent on the Nile. And it appears that a general drought had taken place, at least through all Egypt and Canaan; for it is said, [Gen 41:57], that the famine was sore in all lands - Egypt and Canaan, and their respective dependencies.

### Verse 55

[¶8] When all the land of Egypt was famished - As Pharaoh, by the advice of Joseph, had exacted a fifth part of all the grain during the seven years of plenty, it is very likely that no more was left than what was merely necessary to supply the ordinary demand both in the way of home consumption, and for the purpose of barter or sale to neighboring countries.

### Verse 56

[¶10] Over all the face of the earth - The original, כל פני הארץ col peney haarets, should be translated, all the face of that land, viz., Egypt, as it is explained at the end of the verse.

### Verse 57

[¶12] All countries came into Egypt - to buy - As there had not been a sufficiency of rains, vapours, etc., to swell the Nile, to effect a proper inundation in Egypt, the same cause would produce drought, and consequently scarcity, in all the neighboring countries; and this may be all that is intended in the text.

[¶13] 1. As the providence of God evidently led the butler and baker of Pharaoh, as well as the king himself, to dream the prophetic dreams mentioned in this and the preceding chapter, so his Spirit in Joseph led to the true interpretation of them. What a proof do all these things give us of a providence that is so general as to extend its influence to every part, and so particular as to notice, influence, and direct the most minute circumstances! Surely God "has way every where, and all things serve his will."

[¶14] 2. Dreams have been on one hand superstitiously regarded, and on the other skeptically disregarded. That some are prophetic there can be no doubt; that others are idle none can hesitate to believe. Dreams may be divided into the six following kinds: 1. Those which are the mere nightly result of the mind's reflections and perplexities during the business of the day. 2. Those which spring from a diseased state of the body, occasioning startings, terrors, etc. 3. Those which spring from an impure state of the heart, mental repetitions of those acts or images of illicit pleasure, riot, and excess, which form the business of a profligate life. 4. Those which proceed from a diseased mind, occupied with schemes of pride, ambition, grandeur, etc. These, as forming the characteristic conduct of the life, are repeatedly reacted in the deep watches of the night, and strongly agitate the soul with illusive enjoyments and disappointments. 5. Those which come immediately from Satan, which instill thoughts and principles opposed to truth and righteousness, leaving strong impressions on the mind suited to its natural bent and turn, which, in the course of the day, by favoring circumstances, may be called into action. 6. Those which come from God, and which necessarily lead to him, whether prophetic of future good or evil, or impressing holy purposes and heavenly resolutions. Whatever leads away from God, truth, and righteousness, must be from the source of evil; whatever leads to obedience to God, and to acts of benevolence to man, must be from the source of goodness and truth. Reader, there is often as much superstition in disregarding as in attending to dreams; and he who fears God will escape it in both.

### Introduction

[¶16] Jacob sends his ten sons to Egypt to buy corn, [Gen 42:1-3]; but refuses to permit Benjamin to go, [Gen 42:4]. They arrive in Egypt, and bow themselves before Joseph, [Gen 42:5], [Gen 42:6]. He treats them roughly and calls them spies, [Gen 42:7-10]. They defend themselves and give an account of their family, [Gen 42:11-13]. He appears unmoved, and puts them all in prison for three days, [Gen 42:14-17]. On the third day he releases them on condition of their bringing Benjamin, [Gen 42:18-20]. Being convicted by their consciences, they reproach themselves with their cruelty to their brother Joseph, and consider themselves under the displeasure of God, [Gen 42:21-23]. Joseph is greatly affected, detains Simeon as a pledge for Benjamin, orders their sacks to be filled with corn, and the purchase money to be put in each man's sack, [Gen 42:24], [Gen 42:25]. When one of them is going to give his ass provender he discovers his money in the mouth of his sack, at which they are greatly alarmed, [Gen 42:26-28]. They come to their father in Canaan, and relate what happened to them in their journey, [Gen 42:29-34]. On emptying their sacks, each man's money is found in his sack's mouth, which causes alarm both to them and their father, [Gen 42:35]. Jacob deplores the loss of Joseph and Simeon, and refuses to let Benjamin go, though Reuben offers his two sons as pledges for his safety, [Gen 42:36-38].

### Verse 1

[¶18] Jacob saw that there was corn - That is, Jacob heard from the report of others that there was plenty in Egypt. The operations of one sense, in Hebrew, are often put for those of another. Before agriculture was properly known and practiced, famines were frequent; Canaan seems to have been peculiarly vexed by them. There was one in this land in the time of Abraham, [Gen 12:10]; another in the days of Isaac, [Gen 26:1]; and now a third in the time of Jacob. To this St. Stephen alludes, [Act 7:11] : there was great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance.

### Verse 6

[¶20] Joseph was the governor - שליט shallit, an intendant, a protector, from שלט skalat, to be over as a protector; hence שלטים shelatim, shields, or arms for protection and defense, [2Sam 8:7]; and שלטון shilton, power and authority, [Ecc 8:4], [Ecc 8:8]; and hence the Arabic sultan, a lord, prince, or king, from salata, he obtained and exercised dominion, he ruled. Was it not from this very circumstance, Joseph being shallit, that all the Mohammedan governors of Egypt, etc., took the title of sultan? Bowed down themselves before him - Thus fulfilling the prophetic dream, [Gen 37:7], [Gen 37:8], which they had taken every precaution to render null and void. But there is neither might nor counsel against the Lord.

### Verse 9

[¶22] Ye are spies - מרגלים אתם meraggelim attem, ye are footmen, trampers about, footpads, vagabonds, lying in wait for the property of others; persons who, under the pretense of wishing to buy corn, desire only to find out whether the land be so defenceless that the tribes to which ye belong (see [Gen 42:11]) may attack it successfully, drive out the inhabitants, and settle in it themselves; or, having plundered it, retire to their deserts. This is a frequent custom among the Arabs to the present day. Thus Joseph spake roughly to them merely to cover that warmth of affection which he felt towards them; and that being thus brought, apparently, into straits and dangerous circumstances, their consciences might be awakened to reflect on and abhor their own wickedness.

### Verse 11

[¶24] We are all one man's sons - We do not belong to different tribes, and it is not likely that one family would make a hostile attempt upon a whole kingdom. This seems to be the very ground that Joseph took, viz., that they were persons belonging to different tribes. Against this particularly they set up their defense, asserting that they all belonged to one family; and it is on the proof of this that Joseph puts them, [Gen 42:15], in obliging them to leave one as a hostage, and insisting on their bringing their remaining brother; so that he took exactly the same precautions to detect them as if he had had no acquaintance with them, and had every reason to be suspicious.

### Verse 13

[¶26] One is not - An elliptical sentence, One is not alive.

### Verse 15

[¶28] By the life of Pharaoh - חי פרעה chey Pharaoh, Pharaoh liveth. As if he had said, As surely as the king of Egypt lives, so surely shall ye not go hence unless your brother come hither. Here therefore is no oath; it is just what they themselves make it in their report to their father, [Gen 43:3] : the man did solemnly protest unto us; and our translators should not have put it in the form of an oath, especially as the original not only will bear another version, but is absolutely repugnant to this in our sense of the word.

### Verse 18

[¶30] I fear God - את האלהים אני ירא eth haelohim ani yare, literally translated the passage runs thus, I also fear the gods; but the emphatic ה ha is probably added by Joseph, both here and in his conversation with Pharaoh, the more particularly to point out the eminence and perfection of the Supreme Being as contradistinguished from the gods of Egypt. He seems to say to his brethren, I am a worshipper of the true God, and ye have nothing to fear.

### Verse 21

[¶32] We are verily guilty - How finely are the office and influence of conscience exemplified in these words! It was about twenty-two years since they had sold their brother, and probably their conscience had been lulled asleep to the present hour. God combines and brings about those favorable circumstances which produce attention and reflection, and give weight to the expostulations of conscience. How necessary to hear its voice in time, for here it may be the instrument of salvation; but if not heard in this world, it must be heard in the next; and there, in association with the unquenchable fire, it will be the never-dying worm. Reader, has not thy sin as yet found thee out? Pray to God to take away the veil from thy heart, and give thee that deep sense of guilt which shall oblige thee to flee for refuge to the hope which is set before thee in the Gospel of Christ.

### Verse 23

[¶34] For he spake unto them by an interpreter - Either there was a very great difference between the two languages as then spoken, or Joseph, to prevent all suspicion, might affect to be ignorant of both. We have many evidences in this book that the Egyptians, Hebrews, Canaanites, and Syrians, could understand each other in a general way, though there are also proofs that there was a considerable difference between their dialects.

### Verse 24

[¶36] Took - Simeon and bound him before their eyes - This was retaliation, if, as the rabbins suppose, it was Simeon who bound Joseph, and put him into the pit. A recollection of this circumstance must exceedingly deepen the sense he had of his guilt.

### Verse 25

[¶38] Commanded to fill their sacks - כליהם keleyhem, their vessels; probably large woolen bags, or baskets lined with leather, which, as Sir John Chardin says, are still in use through all Asia, and are called tambellet; they are covered with leather, the better to resist the wet, and to prevent dirt and sand from mixing with the grain. These vessels, of whatever sort, must have been different from those called שק sak in the twenty-seventh and following verses, which was probably only a small sack or bag, in which each had reserved a sufficiency of corn for his ass during the journey; the larger vessels or bags serving to hold the wheat or rice they had brought, and their own packages. The reader will at once see that the English word sack is plainly derived from the Hebrew.

### Verse 26

[¶40] They laded their asses - Amounting, no doubt, to several scores, if not hundreds, else they could not have brought a sufficiency of corn for the support of so large a family as that of Jacob.

### Verse 27

[¶42] One of them opened his sack - From [Gen 42:35] we learn that each of the ten brethren on emptying his sack when he returned found his money in it; can we suppose that this was not discovered by them all before? It seems not; and the reason was probably this: the money was put in the mouth of the sack of one only, in the sacks of the others it was placed at or near to the bottom; hence only one discovered it on the road, the rest found it when they came to empty their sacks at their father's house.

[¶43] In the inn - במלון bammalon, from לן lan, to lodge, stay, remain, etc. The place at which they stopped to bait or rest themselves and their asses. Our word inn gives us a false idea here; there were no such places of entertainment at that time in the desert over which they had to pass, nor are there any to the present day. Travellers generally endeavor to reach a well, where they fill their girbahs, or leather bottles, with fresh water, and having clogged their camels, asses, etc., permit them to crop any little verdure there may be in the place, keeping watch over them by turns. This is all we are to understand by the malon or inn in the text, for even caravansaries were not then in use, which are generally no more than four walls perfectly exposed, the place being open at the top.

## 58. Genesis · 58 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/58/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/58/#p-N

### Verse 28

[¶1] Their heart failed them - ויצא לבם valyetse libbam, their heart went out. This refers to that spasmodic affection which is felt in the breast at any sudden alarm or fright. Among the common people in our own country we find an expression exactly similar, "My heart was ready to leap out at my mouth," used on similar occasions.

[¶2] What is this that God hath done unto us? - Their guilty consciences, now thoroughly awakened, were in continual alarms; they felt that they deserved God's curse, and every occurrence served to confirm and increase their suspicions.

### Verse 35

[¶4] As they emptied their sacks - See Clarke on [Gen 42:27] (note).

### Verse 36

[¶6] All these things are against me - עלי היו כלנה alai hayu cullanah; literally, All these things are upon me. Not badly translated by the Vulgate, In me haec omnia mala reciderunt, "All these evils fall back upon me." They lie upon me as heavy loads, hastening my death; they are more than I can bear.

### Verse 37

[¶8] Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee - What a strange proposal made by a son to his father, concerning his grandchildren! But they show the honesty and affection of Reuben's heart; he felt deeply for his father's distress, and was determined to risk and hazard every thing in order to relieve and comfort him. There is scarcely a transaction in which Reuben is concerned that does not serve to set his character in an amiable point of view, except the single instance mentioned [Gen 35:22] (note), and which for the sake of decency and piety we should wish to understand as the Targumists have explained it. See the notes.

### Verse 38

[¶10] He is left alone - That is, Benjamin is the only remaining son of Rachel; for he supposed Joseph, who was the other son, to be dead.

[¶11] Shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow - Here he keeps up the idea of the oppressive burden mentioned [Gen 42:36], to which every occurrence was adding an additional weight, so that he felt it impossible to support it any longer.

[¶12] The following observations of Dr. Dodd on this verse are very appropriate and judicious: "Nothing can be more tender and picturesque than the words of the venerable patriarch. Full of affection for his beloved Rachel, he cannot think of parting with Benjamin, the only remaining pledge of that love, now Joseph, as he supposes, is no more. We seem to behold the gray-headed, venerable father pleading with his sons, the beloved Benjamin standing by his side, impatient sorrow in their countenances, and in his all the bleeding anxiety of paternal love. It will be difficult to find in any author, ancient or modern, a more exquisite picture."

[¶13] 1. There is one doctrine relative to the economy of Divine Providence little heeded among men; I mean the doctrine of restitution. When a man has done wrong to his neighbor, though, on his repentance, and faith in our Lord Jesus, God forgives him his sin, yet he requires him to make restitution to the person injured, if it lie in the compass of his power. If he do not, God will take care to exact it in the course of his providence. Such respect has he for the dictates of infinite justice that nothing of this kind shall pass unnoticed. Several instances of this have already occurred in this history, and we shall see several more. No man should expect mercy at the hand of God who, having wronged his neighbor, refuses, when he has it in his power, to make restitution. Were he to weep tears of blood, both the justice and mercy of God would shut out his prayer, if he made not his neighbor amends for the injury he may have done him. The mercy of God, through the blood of the cross, can alone pardon his guilt; but no dishonest man can expect this; and he is a dishonest man who illegally holds the property of another in his hand. The unnatural brethren who sold their brother are now about to be captivated themselves; and the binder himself is bound in his turn: and though a kind Providence permits not the evil to fall upon them, yet, while apprehending it, they feel all its reality, conscience supplying the lack of prison, jailer, and bonds.

[¶14] 2. The ways of Providence are often to us dark and perplexed, so that we are ready to imagine that good can never result from what appears to us to be directly contrary to our interest; and we are often tempted to think that those very providential dealings of God, which have for their object our present and eternal welfare, are rather proofs of his displeasure, or evidences of his vindictive judgment. All these things are against me, said poor desponding Jacob; whereas, instead of being against him, all these things were for him; and by all these means was the merciful God working for the preservation of himself and his family, and the fulfillment of his ancient promise, that the posterity of Abraham should be as the stars of heaven for multitude. How strange is it that our faith, after so many evidences of his goodness, should still be so weak; and that our opinion of him should be so imperfect, that we can never trust in him but while he is under our own eye! If we see him producing good, we can believe that he is doing so, and this is all. If we believe not, he abides faithful; but our unbelief must make our own way extremely perplexing and difficult.

### Introduction

[¶16] The famine continuing, Jacob desires his sons to go again to Egypt and buy some food, [Gen 43:1], [Gen 43:2]. Judah shows the necessity of Benjamin's accompanying them, without whom it would be useless to return to Egypt, [Gen 43:3-5]. Jacob expostulates with him, [Gen 43:6]. Judah replies, and offers to become surety for Benjamin, [Gen 43:7-10]. Jacob at last consenting and desires them to take a present with them for the governor of Egypt; and double money, that which they had brought back in their sacks' mouth, and the price of the load they were now to bring; and, having prayed for them, sends them away, [Gen 43:11-15]. They arrive in Egypt, and are brought to Joseph's house to dine with him, at which they are greatly alarmed, [Gen 43:16-18]. They speak to the steward of Joseph's house concerning the money returned in their sacks, [Gen 43:19-22]. He gives them encouragement, [Gen 43:23], [Gen 43:24]. Having made ready the present, they bring it to Joseph when he came home to dine, [Gen 43:25], [Gen 43:26]. He speaks kindly to them, and inquires concerning their health, and that of their father, [Gen 43:27], [Gen 43:28]. Joseph is greatly affected at seeing his brother Benjamin, [Gen 43:29-31]. They dine with him, and are distinguished according to their seniority; but Benjamin receives marks of peculiar favor, [Gen 43:32-34].

### Verse 8

[¶18] Send the lad with me - As the original is not ילד yeled, from which we have derived our word lad, but נער naar, it would have been better had our translators rendered it by some other term, such as the youth, or the young man, and thus the distinction in the Hebrew would have been better kept up. Benjamin was at this time at least twenty-four years of age, some think thirty, and had a family of his own. See [Gen 46:21].

[¶19] That we may live, and not die - An argument drawn from self-preservation, what some have termed the first law of nature. By your keeping Benjamin we are prevented from going to Egypt; if we go not to Egypt we shall get no corn; if we get no corn we shall all perish by famine; and Benjamin himself, who otherwise might live, must, with thee and the whole family, infallibly die.

### Verse 9

[¶21] Let me bear the blame for ever - וחטאתי לך כל הימים - re vechatathi lecha col haiyamim, then shall I sin against thee all my days, and consequently be liable to punishment for violating my faith.

### Verse 11

[¶23] Carry down the man a present - From the very earliest times presents were used as means of introduction to great men. This is particularly noticed by Solomon: A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men, [Pro 18:16]. But what was the present brought to Joseph on this occasion? After all the labor of commentators, we are obliged to be contented with probabilities and conjecture. According to our translation, the gifts were balm, honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and almonds.

[¶24] Balm - צרי tsori is supposed to signify resin in general, or some kind of gum issuing from trees.

[¶25] Honey - דבש debash has been supposed to be the same as the rob of grapes, called in Egypt dibs. Others think that honey, in the common sense of the term, is to be understood here: we know that honey was plentiful in Palestine.

[¶26] Spices - נכאת nechoth is supposed to mean gum storax, which might be very valuable on account of its qualities as a perfume.

[¶27] Myrrh - לט lot, supposed by some to mean stacte; by others to signify an ointment made of myrrh.

[¶28] Nuts - בטנים botnim, by some rendered pistachio nuts, those produced in Syria being the finest in the world; by others, dates; others, walnuts; others, pine apples; others, the nuts of the terebinth tree.

[¶29] Almonds - שקדים shekedim, correctly enough translated, and perhaps the only article in the collection of which we know any thing with certainty. It is generally allowed that the land of Canaan produces the best almonds in the east; and on this account they might be deemed a very acceptable present to the governor of Egypt. Those who wish to see this subject exhausted must have recourse to the Physica Sacra of Scheuehzer.

### Verse 12

[¶31] Double money - What was returned in their sacks, and what was farther necessary to buy another load.

### Verse 14

[¶33] This verse may be literally translated thus: - "And God, the all-sufficient, shall give you tender mercies before the man, and send to you your other brother, and Benjamin; and I, as I shall be childless, so I shall be childless." That is, I will submit to this privation, till God shall restore my children. It appears that this verse is spoken prophetically; and that God at this time gave Jacob a supernatural evidence that his children should be restored.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Slay, and make ready - טבח טבח teboach tebach, slay a slaying, or make a great slaughter - let preparations be made for a great feast or entertainment. See a similar form of speech, [Pro 9:2] (note); [1Sam 25:11] (note); and [Gen 31:54] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶37] And the men were afraid - A guilty conscience needs no accuser. Every thing alarms them; they now feel that God is exacting retribution, and they know not what the degrees shall be, nor where it shall stop.

[¶38] Fall upon us - התגלל עלינו hithgolel alainu, roll himself upon us. A metaphor taken from wrestlers; when a man has overthrown his antagonist, he rolls himself upon him, in order to keep him down.

[¶39] And our asses - Which they probably had in great number with them; and which, if captured, would have been a great loss to the family of Jacob, as such cattle must have constituted a principal part of its riches.

### Verse 20

[¶41] O sir, we came indeed - to buy food - There is a frankness now in the conduct of Joseph's brethren that did not exist before; they simply and honestly relate the whole circumstance of the money being found in their sacks on their return from their last journey. Afflictions from the hand of God, and under his direction, have a wonderful tendency to humble the soul. Did men know how gracious his designs are in sending such, no murmur would ever be heard against the dispensations of Divine Providence.

### Verse 23

[¶43] And he said - The address of the steward in this verse plainly proves that the knowledge of the true God was in Egypt. It is probable that the steward himself was a Hebrew, and that Joseph had given him intimation of the whole affair; and though he was not at liberty to reveal it, yet he gives them assurances that the whole business would issue happily.

[¶44] I had your money - כספכם בא אלי caspechem ba elai, your money comes to me. As I am the steward, the cash for the corn belongs to me. Ye have no reason to be apprehensive of any evil; the whole transaction is between myself and you; receive therefore the money as a present from the God of your father, no matter whose hands he makes use of to convey it. The conduct of the steward, as well as his words, had a great tendency to relieve their burdened minds.

## 59. Genesis · 59 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/59/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/59/#p-N

### Verse 24

[¶1] Brought the men into Joseph's house, etc. - This is exactly the way in which a Hindoo receives a guest. As soon as he enters, one of the civilities is the presenting of water to wash his feet. So indispensable is this, that water to wash the feet makes a part of the offering to an image.

### Verse 27

[¶3] And he asked them of their welfare - This verse may be thus translated: "And he asked them concerning their prosperity; and he said, is your father prosperous, the old man who ye told me was alive? And they said, Thy servant our father prospers; he is yet alive."

### Verse 29

[¶5] He lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin - They were probably introduced to him successively; and as Benjamin was the youngest, he would of course be introduced last.

[¶6] God be gracious unto thee, my son! - A usual salutation in the east from the aged and superiors to the younger and inferiors, which, though very emphatic and expressive in ancient times, in the present day means no more than "I am your humble servant," or "I am exceedingly glad to see you;" words which among us mean-just nothing. Even in David's time they seem to have been, not only devoid of meaning, but to be used as a cloak for the basest and most treacherous designs: They bless with their mouths, but they curse inwardly. Hence Joab salutes Amasa, kisses him with apparent affection, and stabs him in the same moment! The case of Judas, betraying the Son of man with a kiss, will not be forgotten.

### Verse 32

[¶8] They set on for him by himself, etc. - From the text it appears evident that there were three tables, one for Joseph, one for the Egyptians, and one for the eleven brethren.

[¶9] The Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews - There might have been some political reason for this, with which we are unacquainted; but independently of this, two may be assigned. 1. The Hebrews were shepherds; and Egypt had been almost ruined by hordes of lawless wandering bandits, under the name of Hycsos, or King-shepherds, who had but a short time before this been expelled from the land by Amasis, after they had held it in subjection for 259 years, according to Manetho, committing the most wanton cruelties. 2. The Hebrews sacrificed those animals which the Egyptians held sacred, and fed on their flesh. The Egyptians were in general very superstitious, and would have no social intercourse with people of any other nation; hence we are informed that they would not even use the knife of a Greek, because they might have reason to suspect it had cut the flesh of some of those animals which they held sacred. Among the Hindoos different castes will not eat food cooked in the same vessel. If a person of another caste touch a cooking vessel, it is thrown away. Some are of opinion that the Egyptian idolatry, especially their worship of Apis under the figure of an ox, was posterior to the time of Joseph; ancient monuments are rather against this opinion, but it is impossible to decide either way. The clause in the Alexandrian Septuagint stands thus, Βδελυγμα γαρ εστιν τοις Αιγυπτιοις [πας ποιμην προβατων,] "For [every shepherd] is an abomination to the Egyptians;" but this clause is probably borrowed from [Gen 46:34], where it stands in the Hebrew as well as in the Greek. See Clarke on [Gen 46:34] (note).

### Verse 33

[¶11] The first-born according to his birthright - This must greatly astonish these brethren, to find themselves treated with so much ceremony, and at the same time with so much discernment of their respective ages.

### Verse 34

[¶13] Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs - Sir John Chardin observes that "in Persia, Arabia, and the Indies, there are several houses where they place several plates in large salvers, and set one of these before each person, or before two or three, according to the magnificence of each house. This is the method among the Hindoos; the dishes are not placed on the table, but messes are sent to each individual by the master of the feast or by his substitute. The great men of the state are always served by themselves, in the feasts that are made for them; and with greater profusion, their part of each kind of provision being always Double, Treble, or a Larger proportion of each kind of meat." The circumstance of Benjamin's having a mess Five times as large as any of his brethren, shows the peculiar honor which Joseph designed to confer upon him. See several useful observations on this subject in Harmer's Observ., vol. ii., p. 101, etc., Edit. 1808.

[¶14] 1. The scarcity in Canaan was not absolute; though they had no corn, they had honey, nuts, almonds, etc. In the midst of judgment, God remembers mercy. If there was scarcity in Canaan, there was plenty in Egypt; and though his providence had denied one country corn, and accumulated it in the other, his bounty had placed in the former money enough to procure it from the latter. How true is the saying, "It is never ill with any but it might be worse!" Let us be deeply thankful to God that we have any thing, seeing we deserve no good at his hands.

[¶15] 2. If we examine our circumstances closely, and call to remembrance the dealings of God's providence towards us, we shall find that we can sing much both of mercy and of judgment. For one day of absolute unavoidable want, we shall find we had three hundred and sixty-four, if not of fullness, yet of a competency. Famines, though rarely happening, are everywhere recorded; innumerable years of abundance are scarcely ever registered! Such is the perverseness and ingratitude of man!

### Introduction

[¶17] Joseph commands his steward to put his cup secretly into Benjamin's sack, [Gen 44:1], [Gen 44:2]. The sons of Jacob depart with the corn they had purchased, [Gen 44:3]. Joseph commands his steward to pursue them, and charge them with having stolen his cup, [Gen 44:4-6]. The brethren excuse themselves, protest their innocence, and offer to submit to be slaves should the cup be found with any of them, [Gen 44:7-9]. Search is made, and the cup is found in Benjamin's sack, [Gen 44:10-12]. They are brought back and submit themselves to Joseph, [Gen 44:13-16]. He determines that Benjamin alone, with whom the cup is found, shall remain in captivity, [Gen 44:17]. Judah, in a most affecting speech, pleads for Benjamin's enlargement, and offers himself to be a bondman in his stead, vv. 18-34.

### Verse 2

[¶19] Put my cup in the sack's mouth of the youngest - The stratagem of the cup seems to have been designed to bring Joseph's brethren into the highest state of perplexity and distress, that their deliverance by the discovery that Joseph was their brother might have its highest effect.

### Verse 5

[¶21] Whereby - he divineth? - Divination by cups has been from time immemorial prevalent among the Asiatics; and for want of knowing this, commentators have spent a profusion of learned labor upon these words, in order to reduce them to that kind of meaning which would at once be consistent with the scope and design of the history, and save Joseph from the impeachment of sorcery and divination. I take the word נחש nachash here in its general acceptation of to view attentively, to inquire. Now there has been in the east a tradition, the commencement of which is lost in immemorial time, that there was a Cup, which had passed successively into the hands of different potentates, which possessed the strange property of representing in it the whole world, and all the things which were then doing in it. The cup is called jami Jemsheed, the cup of Jemsheed, a very ancient king of Persia, whom late historians and poets have confounded with Bacchus, Solomon, Alexander the Great, etc. This Cup, filled with the elixir of immortality, they say was discovered when digging to lay the foundations of Persepolis. The Persian poets are full of allusions to this cup, which, from its property of representing the whole world and its transactions, is styled by them jam jehan nima, "the cup showing the universe;" and to the intelligence received by means of it they attribute the great prosperity of their ancient monarchs, as by it they understood all events, past, present, and to come. Many of the Mohammedan princes and governors affect still to have information of futurity by means of a cup. When Mr. Norden was at Derri in the farthest part of Egypt, in a very dangerous situation, an ill-natured and powerful Arab, in a threatening way, told one of their people whom they sent to him that "he knew what sort of people they were, for he had consulted his cup, and found by it that they were those of whom one of their prophets had said, that Franks (Europeans) would come in disguise; and, passing everywhere, examine the state of the country; and afterwards bring over a great number of other Franks, conquer the country, and exterminate all." By this we see that the tradition of the divining cup still exists, and in the very same country too in which Joseph formerly ruled. Now though it is not at all likely that Joseph practiced any kind of divination, yet probably, according to the superstition of those times, (for I suppose the tradition to be even older than the time of Joseph), supernatural influence might be attributed to his cup; and as the whole transaction related here was merely intended to deceive his brethren for a short time, he might as well affect divination by his cup, as he affected to believe they had stolen it. The steward therefore uses the word נחש nachash in its proper meaning: Is not this it out of which my lord drinketh, and in which he inspecteth accurately? [Gen 44:5]. And hence Joseph says, [Gen 44:15] : Wot ye not - did ye not know, that such a person as I (having such a cup) would accurately and attentively look into it? As I consider this to be the true meaning, I shall not trouble the reader with other modes of interpretation.

### Verse 16

[¶23] What shall we say, etc. - No words can more strongly mark confusion and perturbation of mind. They, no doubt, all thought that Benjamin had actually stolen the cup; and the probability of this guilt might be heightened by the circumstance of his having that very cup to drink out of at dinner; for as he had the most honorable mess, so it is likely he had the most honorable cup to drink out of at the entertainment.

### Verse 18

[¶25] Thou art even as Pharaoh - As wise, as powerful, and as much to be dreaded as he. In the Asiatic countries, the reigning monarch is always considered to be the pattern of all perfection; and the highest honor that can be conferred on any person, is to resemble him to the monarch; as the monarch himself is likened, in the same complimentary way, to an angel of God. See [2Sam 14:17], [2Sam 14:18]. Judah is the chief speaker here, because it was in consequence of his becoming surety for Benjamin that Jacob permitted him to accompany them to Egypt. See [Gen 43:9]. "Every man who reads," says Dr. Dodd, "to the close of this chapter, must confess that Judah acts here the part both of the affectionate brother and of the dutiful son, who, rather than behold his father's misery in ease of Benjamin's being left behind, submits to become a bondman in his stead: and indeed there is such an air of candor and generosity running through the whole strain of this speech, the sentiments are so tender and affecting, the expressions so passionate, and flow so much from artless nature, that it is no wonder if they came home to Joseph's heart, and forced him to throw off the mask." "When one sees," says Dr. Jackson, "such passages related by men who affect no art, and who lived long after the parties who first uttered them, we cannot conceive how all particulars could be so naturally and fully recorded, unless they had been suggested by His Spirit who gives mouths and speech unto men; who, being alike present to all successions, is able to communicate the secret thoughts or forefathers to their children, and put the very words of the deceased, never registered before, into the mouths or pens of their successors born many ages after; and that as exactly and distinctly as if they had been caught, in characters of steel or brass, as they issued out of their mouths. For it is plain that every circumstance is here related with such natural specifications, as if Moses had heard them talk; and therefore could not have been thus represented to us, unless they had been written by His direction who knows all things, fore-past, present, or to come."

[¶26] To two such able and accurate testimonies I may be permitted to add my own. No paraphrase can heighten the effect of Judah's address to Joseph. To add would be to diminish its excellence; to attempt to explain would be to obscure its beauties; to clothe the ideas in other language than that of Judah, and his translators in our Bible, would ruin its energy, and destroy its influence. It is perhaps one of the most tender, affecting pieces of natural oratory ever spoken or penned; and we need not wonder to find that when Joseph heard it he could not refrain himself, but wept aloud. His soul must have been insensible beyond what is common to human nature, had he not immediately yielded to a speech so delicately tender, and so powerfully impressive. We cannot but deplore the unnatural and unscientific division of the narrative in our common Bibles, which obliges us to have recourse to another chapter in order to witness the effects which this speech produced on the heart of Joseph.

### Introduction

[¶28] Joseph, deeply affected with the speech of Judah, could no longer conceal himself, but discovers himself to his brethren, [Gen 45:1-4]. Excuses their conduct towards him, and attributes the whole to the providence of God, [Gen 45:5-8]. Orders them to hasten to Canaan, and bring up their father and their own families, cattle, etc., because there were five years of the famine yet to come, [Gen 45:9-13]. He embraces and converses with all his brethren, [Gen 45:14], [Gen 45:15]. Pharaoh, hearing that Joseph's brethren were come to Egypt, and that Joseph had desired them to return to Canaan and bring back their families, not only confirms the order, but promises them the best part of the land of Egypt to dwell in; and provides them carriages to transport themselves and their households, [Gen 45:16-20]. Joseph provides them with wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh; and having given them various presents, sends them away with suitable advice, [Gen 45:21-24]. They depart, arrive in Canaan, and announce the glad tidings to their father, who for a time believes not, but being assured of the truth of their relation, is greatly comforted, and resolves to visit Egypt, [Gen 45:25-28].

### Verse 1

[¶30] Joseph could not refrain himself - The word התאפק hithappek is very emphatic; it signifies to force one's self, to do something against nature, to do violence to one's self. Joseph could no longer constrain himself to act a feigned part - all the brother and the son rose up in him at once, and overpowered all his resolutions; he felt for his father, he realized his disappointment and agony; and he felt for his brethren, "now at his feet submissive in distress;" and, that he' might give free and full scope to his feelings, and the most ample play of the workings of his affectionate heart, he ordered all his attendants to go out, while he made himself known to his brethren. "The beauties of this chapter," says Dr. Dodd, "are so striking, that it would be an indignity to the reader's judgment to point them out; all who can read and feel must be sensible of them, as there is perhaps nothing in sacred or profane history more highly wrought up, more interesting or affecting."

### Verse 2

[¶32] The Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard - It seems strange that Joseph should have wept so loud that his cries should be heard at some considerable distance, as we may suppose his dwelling was not very nigh to the palace! "But this," says Sir John Chardin, "is exactly the genius of the people of Asia - their sentiments of joy or grief are properly transports, and their transports are ungoverned, excessive, and truly outrageous. When any one returns from a long journey, or dies, his family burst into cries that may be heard twenty doors off; and this is renewed at different times, and continues many days, according to the vigor of the passion. Sometimes they cease all at once, and then begin as suddenly with a greater shrillness and loudness than one could easily imagine." This circumstance Sir John brings to illustrate the verse in question. See Harmer, vol. iii. p. 17. But the house of Pharaoh may certainly signify Pharaoh's servants, or any of the members of his household, such as those whom Joseph had desired to withdraw, and who might still be within hearing of his voice. After all, the words may only mean that the report was brought to Pharaoh's house. See [Gen 45:16].

### Verse 3

[¶34] I am Joseph - Mr. Pope supposed that the discovery of Ulysses to his son Telemachus bears some resemblance to Joseph's discovery of himself to his brethren. The passage may be seen in Homer, Odyss. l. xvi., ver. 186-218.

[¶35] A few lines from Cowper's translation will show much of the spirit of the original, and also a considerable analogy between the two scenes: - "I am thy father, for whose sake thou lead'st

[¶36] A life of wo by violence oppress'd.

[¶37] So saying, he kiss'd his son; while from his cheeks

[¶38] Tears trickled, tears till then perforce restrain'd.

[¶39] Then threw Telemachus

[¶40] His arms around his father's neck, and wept.

[¶41] Pangs of soft sorrow, not to be suppress'd,

[¶42] Seized both. So they, their cheeks with big round drops of wo

[¶43] Bedewing, stood."

### Verse 5

[¶45] Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves - This discovers a truly noble mind: he not only forgives and forgets, but he wishes even those who had wronged him to forget the injury they had done, that they might not suffer distress on the account; and with deep piety he attributes the whole to the providence of God; for, says he, God did send me before you to preserve life. On every word here a strong emphasis may be laid. It is not you, but God; it is not you that sold me, but God who sent me; Egypt and Canaan must both have perished, had not a merciful provision been made; you were to come down hither, and God sent me before you; death must have been the consequence of this famine, had not God sent me here to preserve life.

## 60. Genesis · 60 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/60/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/60/#p-N

### Verse 6

[¶1] There shall neither be earing nor harvest - Earing has been supposed to mean collecting the ears of corn, which would confound it with harvest: the word, however, means ploughing or seed-time, from the Anglo-Saxon erian, probably borrowed from the Latin aro, to plough, and plainly means that there should be no seed-time, and consequently no harvest; and why? Because there should be a total want of rain in other countries, and the Nile should not rise above twelve cubits in Egypt; See Clarke on [Gen 41:31] (note). But the expressions here must be qualified a little, as we find from [Gen 47:19], that the Egyptians came to Joseph to buy seed; and it is probable that even during this famine they sowed some of the ground, particularly on the borders of the river, from which a crop, though not an abundant one, might be produced. The passage, however, in the above chapter may refer to the last year of the famine, when they came to procure seed for the ensuing year.

### Verse 8

[¶3] He hath made me a father to Pharaoh - It has already been conjectured that father was a name of office in Egypt, and that father of Pharaoh might among them signify the same as prime minister or the king's minister does among us. Calmet has remarked that among the Phoenicians, Persians, Arabians, and Romans, the title of father was given to certain officers of state. The Roman emperors gave the name of father to the prefects of the Praetorium, as appears by the letters of Constantine to Ablavius. The caliphs gave the same name to their prime ministers. In [Jdg 17:10], Micah says to the young Levite, Dwell with me, and be unto me a Father and a priest. And Diodorus Siculus remarks that the teachers and counsellors of the kings of Egypt were chosen out of the priesthood.

### Verse 10

[¶5] Thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen - Probably this district had been allotted to Joseph by the king of Egypt, else we can scarcely think he could have promised it so positively, without first obtaining Pharaoh's consent. Goshen was the most easterly province of Lower Egypt, not far from the Arabian Gulf, lying next to Canaan, (for Jacob went directly thither when he came into Egypt), from whence it is supposed to have been about fourscore miles distant, though Hebron was distant from the Egyptian capital about three hundred miles. At Goshen Jacob stayed till Joseph visited him, [Gen 46:28]. It is also called the land of Rameses, [Gen 47:11], from a city of that name, which was the metropolis of the country. Josephus, Antiq., 1. ii., c. 4, makes Heliopolis, the city of Joseph's father-in-law, the place of the Israelites' residence. As גשם geshem signifies rain in Hebrew, St. Jerome and some others have supposed that גשן Goshen comes from the same root, and that the land in question was called thus because it had rain, which was not the case with Egypt in general; and as it was on the confines of the Arabian Gulf, it is very probable that it was watered from heaven, and it might be owing to this circumstance that it was peculiarly fertile, for it is stated to be the best of the land of Egypt. See [Gen 47:6], [Gen 47:11]. See also Calmet and Dodd.

### Verse 12

[¶7] That it is my mouth that speaketh unto you - The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel renders the place thus: - "Your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my own mouth that speaketh with you, in the language of the house of the sanctuary." Undoubtedly Joseph laid considerable stress on his speaking with them in the Hebrew tongue, without the assistance of an interpreter, as in the case mentioned [Gen 42:23].

### Verse 14

[¶9] He fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck - Among the Asiatics kissing the beard, the neck, and the shoulders, is in use to the present day; and probably falling on the neck signifies no more than kissing the neck or shoulders, with the arms around.

### Verse 20

[¶11] Regard not your stuff - Literally, Let not your eye spare your instruments or vessels. כליכם keleychem, a general term, in which may be included household furniture, agricultural utensils, or implements of any description. They were not to delay nor encumber themselves with articles which could be readily found in Egypt, and were not worth so long a carriage.

### Verse 21

[¶13] Joseph gave them wagons - עגלות agaloth, from עגל agal, which, though not used as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, evidently means to turn round, roll round, be circular, etc., and hence very properly applied to wheel carriages. It appears from this that such vehicles were very early in use, and that the road from Egypt to Canaan must have been very open and much frequented, else such carriages could not have passed by it.

### Verse 22

[¶15] Changes of raiment - It is a common custom with all the Asiatic sovereigns to give both garments and money to ambassadors and persons of distinction, whom they particularly wish to honor. Hence they keep in their wardrobes several hundred changes of raiment, ready made up for presents of this kind. That such were given by way of reward and honor, see [Jdg 14:12], [Jdg 14:19]; [Rev 6:11]. At the close of a feast the Hindoos, among other presents to the guests, commonly give new garments. A Hindoo garment is merely a piece of cloth, requiring no work of the tailor - Ward.

### Verse 23

[¶17] Meat for his father by the way - מזון mazon, from זן zan, to prepare, provide, etc. Hence prepared meat, some made-up dish, delicacies, confectionaries, etc. As the word is used, [2Chr 16:14], for aromatic preparations, it may be restrained in its meaning to something of that kind here. In Asiatic countries they have several curious methods of preserving flesh by potting, by which it may be kept for any reasonable length of time sweet and wholesome. Some delicacy, similar to the savory food which Isaac loved, may be here intended; and this was sent to Jacob in consideration of his age, and to testify the respect of his son. Of other kinds of meat he could need none, as he had large herds, and could kill a lamb, kid, sheep, or goat, whenever he pleased.

### Verse 24

[¶19] See that ye fall not out by the way - This prudent caution was given by Joseph, to prevent his brethren from accusing each other for having sold him; and to prevent them from envying Benjamin, for the superior favor shown him by his brother. It is strange, but so it is, that children of the same parents are apt to envy each other, fall out, and contend; and therefore the exhortation in this verse must be always seasonable in a large family. But a rational, religious education will, under God, prevent every thing of this sort.

### Verse 26

[¶21] Jacob's heart fainted - Probably the good news so overpowered him as to cast him into a swoon. He believed them not - he thought it was too good news to be true; and though it occasioned his swooning, yet on his recovery he could not fully credit it. See a similar case, [Luk 24:41] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶23] When he saw the wagons - the spirit of Jacob - revived - The wagons were additional evidences of the truth of what he had heard from his sons; and the consequence was, that he was restored to fresh vigor, he seemed as if he had gained new life, ותחי vattechi, and he lived; revixit, says the Vulgate, he lived afresh. The Septuagint translate the original word by ανεζωπυρησε, which signifies the blowing and stirring up of almost extinguished embers that had been buried under the ashes, which word St. Paul uses, [2Tim 1:6], for stirring up the gift of God. The passage at once shows the debilitated state of the venerable patriarch, and the wonderful effect the news of Joseph's preservation and glory had upon his mind.

### Verse 28

[¶25] It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive - It was not the state of dignity to which Joseph had arisen that particularly affected Jacob, it was the consideration that he was still alive. It was this that caused him to exclaim רב rab; "much! multiplied! my son is yet alive! I will go and see him before I die." None can realize this scene; the words, the circumstances, all refer to indescribable feelings.

[¶26] 1. In Joseph's conduct to his brethren there are several things for which it is difficult to account. It is strange, knowing how much his father loved him, that he never took an opportunity, many of which must have offered, to acquaint him that he was alive; and that self-interest did not dictate the propriety of this to him is at first view surprising, as his father would undoubtedly have paid his ransom, and restored him to liberty: but a little reflection will show that prudence dictated secrecy. His brethren, jealous and envious in the extreme, would soon have found out other methods of destroying his life, had they again got him into their power. Therefore for his personal safety, he chose rather to be a bond-slave in Egypt than to risk his life by returning home. On this ground it is evident that he could not with any safety have discovered the place of his residence.

[¶27] 2. His carriage to his brethren, previously to his making himself known, appears inexcusably harsh, if not vindictive; but when the men are considered, it will appear sufficiently evident that no other means would have been adequate to awaken their torpid consciences, and bring them to a due sense of their guilt. A desperate disease requires a desperate remedy. The event justified all that he did, and God appears to have been the director of the whole.

[¶28] 3. His conduct in requiring Benjamin to be as it were torn away from the bleeding heart of an aged, desolate father, in whose affection he himself had long lived, is the most difficult to be satisfactorily accounted for. Unless the Spirit of prophecy had assured him that this experiment would terminate in the most favorable manner, his conduct in making it cannot well be vindicated. To such prophetic intimation this conduct has been attributed by learned men; and we may say that this consideration, if it does not untie the knot, at least cuts it. Perhaps it is best to say that in all these things Joseph acted as he was directed by a providence, under the influence of which he might have been led to do many things which he had not previously designed. The issue proves that the hand of God's wisdom and goodness directed, regulated, and governed every circumstance, and the result was glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and good will among men.

[¶29] 4. This chapter, which contains the unravelling of the plot, and wonderfully illustrates the mysteries of these particular providences, is one of the most interesting in the whole account: the speech of Joseph to his brethren, [Gen 45:1-13], is inferior only to that of Judah in the preceding chapter. He saw that his brethren were confounded at his presence, that they were struck with his present power, and that they keenly remembered and deeply deplored their own guilt. It was necessary to comfort them, lest their hearts should have been overwhelmed with overmuch sorrow. How delicate and finely wrought is the apology he makes for them! The whole heart of the affectionate brother is at once seen in it - art is confounded and swallowed up by nature - "Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves - it was not you that sent me hither, but God." What he says also concerning his father shows the warmest feelings of a benevolent and filial heart. Indeed, the whole chapter is a master-piece of composition; and it is the more impressive because it is evidently a simple relation of facts just as they occurred; for no attempt is made to heighten the effect by rhetorical coloring or philosophical reflections; it is all simple, sheer nature, from beginning to end. It is a history that has no fellow, crowded with incidents as probable as they are true; where every passion is called into action, where every one acts up to his own character, and where nothing is outer in time, or extravagant in degree. Had not the history of Joseph formed a part of the sacred Scriptures, it would have been published in all the living languages of man, and read throughout the universe! But it contains the things of God, and to all such the carnal mind is enmity.

### Introduction

[¶31] Jacob begins his journey to Egypt, comes to Beer-sheba, and offers sacrifices to God, [Gen 46:1]. God appears to him in a vision, gives him gracious promises, and assures him of his protection, [Gen 46:2-4]. He proceeds, with his family and their cattle, on his journey towards Egypt, [Gen 46:5-7]. A genealogical enumeration of the seventy persons who went down to Egypt, [Gen 46:8], etc. The posterity of Jacob by Leah. Reuben and his sons, [Gen 46:9]. Simeon and his sons, [Gen 46:10]. Levi and his sons, [Gen 46:11]. Judah and his sons, [Gen 46:12]. Issachar and his sons, [Gen 46:13]. And Zebulun and his sons, [Gen 46:14]. All the posterity of Jacob by Leah, thirty and three, [Gen 46:15]. The posterity of Jacob by Zilpah. Gad and his sons, [Gen 46:16]. Asher and his sons, [Gen 46:17]. All the posterity of Jacob by Zilpah, sixteen, [Gen 46:18]. The posterity of Jacob by Rachel. Joseph and his sons, [Gen 46:19], [Gen 46:20]. Benjamin and his sons, [Gen 46:21]. All the posterity of Jacob by Rachel, fourteen, [Gen 46:22]. The posterity of Jacob by Bilhah. Dan and his sons, [Gen 46:23]. Naphtali and his sons, [Gen 46:24]. All the posterity of Jacob by Bilhah, seven, [Gen 46:25]. All the immediate descendants of Jacob by his four wives, threescore and six, [Gen 46:26]; and all the descendants of the house of Jacob, seventy souls, [Gen 46:27]. Judah is sent before to inform Joseph of his father's coming, [Gen 46:28]. Joseph goes to Goshen to meet Jacob, [Gen 46:29]. Their affecting interview, [Gen 46:30]. Joseph proposes to return to Pharaoh, and inform him of the arrival of his family, [Gen 46:31], and of their occupation, as keepers of cattle, [Gen 46:32]. Instructs them what to say when called before Pharaoh, and questioned by him, that they might be permitted to dwell unmolested in the land of Goshen, [Gen 46:33], [Gen 46:34].

### Verse 1

[¶33] And came to Beer-sheba - This place appears to be mentioned, not only because it was the way from Hebron, where Jacob resided, to Egypt, whither he was going, but because it was a consecrated place, a place where God had appeared to Abraham, [Gen 21:33], and to Isaac, [Gen 26:23], and where Jacob is encouraged to expect a manifestation of the same goodness: he chooses therefore to begin his journey with a visit to God's house; and as he was going into a strange land, he feels it right to renew his covenant with God by sacrifice. There is an old proverb which applies strongly to this case: "Prayers and provender never hinder any man's journey. He who would travel safely must take God with him.

### Verse 3

[¶35] Fear not to go down into Egypt - It appears that there had been some doubts in the patriarch's mind relative to the propriety of this journey; he found, from the confession of his own sons, how little they were to be trusted. But every doubt is dispelled by this Divine manifestation. 1. He may go down confidently, no evil shall befall him. 2. Even in Egypt the covenant shall be fulfilled, God will make of him there a great nation. 3. God himself will accompany him on his journey, be with him in the strange land, and even bring back his bones to rest with those of his fathers. 4. He shall see Joseph, and this same beloved son shall be with him in his last hours, and do the last kind office for him. Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. It is not likely that Jacob would have at all attempted to go down to Egypt, had he not received these assurances from God; and it is very likely that he offered his sacrifice merely to obtain this information. It was now a time of famine in Egypt, and God had forbidden his father Isaac to go down to Egypt when there was a famine there, [Gen 26:1-3]; besides, he may have had some general intimation of the prophecy delivered to his grandfather Abraham, that his seed should be afflicted in Egypt, [Gen 15:13], [Gen 15:14]; and he also knew that Canaan, not Egypt, was to be the inheritance of his family, Genesis 12, etc. On all these accounts it was necessary to have the most explicit directions from God, before he should take such a journey.

### Verse 7

[¶37] All his seed brought he with him into Egypt - When Jacob went down into Egypt he was in the one hundred and thirtieth year of his age, two hundred and fifteen years after the promise was made to Abraham, [Gen 12:1-4], in the year of the world 2298, and before Christ.

### Verse 8

[¶39] These are the names of the children of Israel - It may be necessary to observe here, First, that several of these names are expressed differently elsewhere, Jemuel for Nemuel, Jachin for Jarib, Gershon for Gershom, etc.; compare [Num 26:12]; [1Chr 4:24]. But it is no uncommon case for the same person to have different names, or the same name to be differently pronounced; See Clarke on [Gen 25:18] (note). Secondly, that it is probable that some names in this list are brought in by prolepsis or anticipation, as the persons were born (probably) during the seventeen years which Jacob sojourned in Egypt, see [Gen 46:12]. Thirdly, that the families of some are entered more at large than others because of their peculiar respectability, as in the case of Judah, Joseph, and Benjamin; but see the tables under [Gen 46:20].

### Verse 12

[¶41] The sons of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul - It is not likely that Pharez was more than ten years of age when he came into Egypt, and if so he could not have had children; therefore it is necessary to consider Hezron and Hamul as being born during the seventeen years that Jacob sojourned in Egypt, See Clarke on [Gen 46:8] (note): and it appears necessary, for several reasons, to take these seventeen years into the account, as it is very probable that what is called the going down into Egypt includes the seventeen years which Jacob spent there.

### Verse 20

[¶43] Unto Joseph - were born Manasseh and Ephraim - There is a remarkable addition here in the Septuagint, which must be noticed: Εγενοντο δε υἱοι Μανασση, οὑς ετεκεν αυτῳ ἡ παλλακη ἡ Συρα, τον Μαχιρ· Μαχιρ δε εγεννησε τον Γαλααδ. Υἱοι δε Εφραιμ αδελφου Μανασσῃ, Σουταλααμ και Τααμ. Υἱοι δε Σουταλααμ, Εδεμ· These were the sons of Manasseh whom his Syrian concubine bore unto him: Machir; and Machir begat Galaad. The sons of Ephraim, Manasseh's brother, were Sutalaam and Taam; and the sons of Sutalaam, Edem. These add five persons to the list, and make out the number given by Stephen, [Act 7:14], which it seems he had taken from the text of the Septuagint, unless we could suppose that the text of Stephen had been altered to make it correspond to the Septuagint, of which there is not the slightest evidence from ancient MSS. or versions. The addition in the Septuagint is not found in either the Hebrew or the Samaritan at present; and some suppose that it was taken either from [Num 26:29], [Num 26:35], or [1Chr 7:14-20], but in none of these places does the addition appear as it stands in the Septuagint, thought some of the names are found interspersed. Various means have been proposed to find the seventy persons in the text, and to reconcile the Hebrew with the Septuagint and the New Testament. A table given by Scheuchzer, extracted from the Memoires de Trevoux, gives the following general view:

[¶44] The Twelve Sons of Jacob with Their Children and Grandchildren. Reuben and his four sons 5 Simeon and his six sons 7 Levi and his three sons 4 Judah and his seven sons and grandsons 8 Issachar and his four sons 5 Zebulun and his three sons 4 Total sons of Jacob and Leah 33 Gad and his seven sons 8 Asher and his seven sons and grandsons 8 Total sons of Jacob and Zilpah 16 Joseph and his two sons 3 Benjamin and his ten sons 11 Total sons of Jacob and Rachel 14 Dan and his son 2 Naphtali and his four sons 5 Total sons of Jacob and Bilhah 7 Total sons of Jacob and his four wives 70 "To harmonize this with the Septuagint and St. Stephen, [Act 7:14], to the number sixty-six (all the souls that came out of Jacob's loins, [Gen 46:26]) add nine of the patriarchs' wives, Judah's wife being already dead in Canaan, ([Gen 38:12]), Benjamin being supposed to be as yet unmarried, and the wife of Joseph being already in Egypt, and therefore out of the case: the number will amount to seventy-five, which is that found in the Acts." - Universal History.

## 61. Genesis · 61 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/61/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/61/#p-N

[¶0] Dr. Hales' method is more simple, and I think more satisfactory: "Moses states that all the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt which issued from his loins, (except his sons wives), were sixty-six souls, [Gen 46:26]; and this number is thus collected:

[¶1] Jacob's Family Jacob's children, eleven sons and one daughter 12 Reuben's sons 4 Simeon's sons 6 Levi's sons 3 Judah's three sons and two grandsons 5 Issachar's sons 4 Zebulun's sons 3 Gad's sons 7 Asher's four sons, one daughter, and two grandsons 7 Dan's son 1 Naphtali's sons 4 Benjamin's sons 10 Total 66 "If to these sixty-six children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren, we add Jacob himself, Joseph and his two sons, the amount is seventy, the whole amount of Jacob's family which settled in Egypt. "In this statement the wives of Jacob's sons, who formed part of the household, are omitted; but they amounted to nine, for of the twelve wives of the twelve sons of Jacob, Judah's wife was dead, [Gen 38:12], and Simeon's also, as we may collect from his youngest son Shaul by a Canannitess, [Gen 46:10], and Joseph's wife was already in Egypt. These nine wives, therefore, added to the sixty-six, give seventy-five souls the whole amount of Jacob's household that went down with him to Egypt; critically corresponding with the statement in the New Testament, that 'Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his kindred, amounting to seventy-five souls.' The expression all his kindred, including the wives which were Joseph's kindred, not only by affinity, but also by consanguinity, being probably of the families of Esau, Ishmael, or Keturah. Thus does the New Testament furnish an admirable comment on the Old." - Analysis, vol. ii., p. 159.

[¶2] It is necessary to observe that this statement, which appears on the whole the most consistent, supposes that Judah was married when about fourteen years of age, his son Er at the same age, Pharez at the same, Asher and his fourth son Beriah under twenty, Benjamin about fifteen, and Joseph's sons and grandsons about twenty. But this is not improbable, as the children of Israel must all have married at a very early age, to have produced in about two hundred and fifteen years no less than six hundred thousand persons above twenty years old, besides women and children.

### Verse 28

[¶4] He sent Judah before him unto Joseph - Judah was certainly a man of sense, and also an eloquent man; and of him Joseph must have had a very favorable opinion from the speech he delivered before him, [Gen 44:18], etc.; he was therefore chosen as the most proper person to go before and announce Jacob's arrival to his son Joseph.

[¶5] To direct his face unto Goshen - The land of Goshen is the same, according to the Septuagint, as the land of Rameses, and Goshen itself the same as Heroopolis, 'Ἡρωων πολις Heroonpolis, the city of heroes, a name by which it went in the days of the Septuagint, and which it still retained in the time of Josephus, for he makes use of the same term in speaking of this place. See Clarke on [Gen 46:34] (note).

### Verse 29

[¶7] And Joseph made ready his chariot - מרכבתו mercabto. In [Gen 41:43], we have the first mention of a chariot, and if the translation be correct, it is a proof that the arts were not in a rude state in Egypt even at this early time. When we find wagons used to transport goods from place to place, we need not wonder that these suggested the idea of forming chariots for carrying persons, and especially those of high rank and authority. Necessity produces arts, and arts and science produce not only an increase of the conveniences but also of the refinements and luxuries of life. It has been supposed that a chariot is not intended here; for as the word מרכבה mercabah, which we and most of the ancient versions translate chariot, comes from רכב rachab, he rode, saddling his horse may be all that is intended. But it is more likely to signify a chariot, as the verb אסר asar, which signifies to bind, tie, or yoke, is used; and not חבש chabash, which signifies to saddle.

[¶8] Fell on his neck - See [Gen 45:14].

### Verse 30

[¶10] Now let me die, since I have seen thy face - Perhaps old Simeon had this place in view when, seeing the salvation of Israel, he said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, etc., [Luk 2:29].

### Verse 34

[¶12] Thy servants trade hath been about cattle - "The land of Goshen, called also the land of Rameses, lay east of the Nile, by which it was never overflowed, and was bounded by the mountains of the Thebaid on the south, by the Nile and Mediterranean on the west and north, and by the Red Sea and desert of Arabia on the east. It was the Heliopolitan nome or district, and its capital was called On. Its proper name was Geshen, the country of grass or pasturage, or of the shepherds, in opposition to the rest of the land which was sown after having been overflowed by the Nile." - Bruce. As this land was both fruitful and pleasant, Joseph wished to fix his family in that part of Egypt; hence he advises them to tell Pharaoh that their trade had been in cattle from their youth: and because every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians, hence he concluded that there would be less difficulty to get them quiet settlement in Goshen, as they would then be separated from the Egyptians, and consequently have the free use of all their religious customs. This scheme succeeded, and the consequence was the preservation both of their religion and their lives, though some of their posterity did afterwards corrupt themselves; see [Eze 20:8]; [Amo 5:26]. As it is well known that the Egyptians had cattle and flocks themselves, and that Pharaoh even requested that some of Joseph's brethren should be made rulers over his cattle, how could it be said, as in [Gen 46:34], Every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians? Three reasons may be assigned for this:

[¶13] 1. Shepherds and feeders of cattle were usually a sort of lawless, free-booting bandits, frequently making inroads on villages, etc., carrying off cattle, and whatever spoils they could find. This might probably have been the case formerly, for it is well known it has often been the case since. On this account such persons must have been universally detested.

[¶14] 2. They must have abhorred shepherds if Manetho's account of the hycsos or king-shepherds can be credited. Hordes of marauders under this name, from Arabia, Syria, and Ethiopia, (whose chief occupation, like the Bedouin Arabs of the present day, was to keep flocks), made a powerful irruption into Egypt, which they subdued and ruled with great tyranny for 259 years. Now, though they had been expelled from that land some considerable time before this, yet their name, and all persons of a similar occupation, were execrated by the Egyptians, on account of the depredations and long-continued ravages they had committed in the country.

[¶15] 3. The last and probably the best reason why the Egyptians abhorred such shepherds as the Israelites were, was, they sacrificed those very animals, the ox particularly, and the Sheep, which the Egyptians held sacred. Hence the Roman historian Tacitus, speaking of the Jews, says: "Caeso Ariete velut in contumelia Ammonis; Bos quoque immolatur, quem Aegyptii Apim colunt." "They sacrifice the ram in order to insult Jupiter Ammon, and they sacrifice the ox, which the Egyptians worship under the name of Apis." Though some contend that this idolatry was not as yet established in Egypt, and that the king-shepherds were either after the time of Joseph, or that Manetho by them intends the Israelites themselves; yet, as the arguments by which these conjectures are supported are not sufficient to overthrow those which are brought for the support of the contrary opinions, and as there was evidently an established religion and priesthood in Egypt before Joseph's time, (for we find the priests had a certain portion of the land of Egypt which was held so sacred that Joseph did not attempt to buy it in the time of the famine, when he bought all the land which belonged to the people, [Gen 47:20-22]), and as that established priesthood was in all likelihood idolatrous, and as the worship of Apis under the form of an ox was one of the most ancient forms of worship in Egypt, we may rest tolerably certain that it was chiefly on this account that the shepherds, or those who fed on and sacrificed these objects of their worship, were an abomination to the Egyptians. Calmet has entered into this subject at large, and to his notes I must refer those readers who wish for farther information. See Clarke on [Gen 43:32] (note).

[¶16] On the principal subject of this chapter, the going down of Jacob and his family into Egypt, Bishop Warburton, in his Divine Legation of Moses, makes the following judicious reflections: "The promise God made to Abraham, to give his posterity the land of Canaan, could not be performed till that family was grown strong enough to take and keep possession of it. In the meantime, therefore, they were necessitated to reside among idolaters, and to reside unmixed; but whoever examines their history will see that the Israelites had ever a violent propensity to join themselves to Gentile nations, and practice their manners. God therefore, in his infinite wisdom, brought them into Egypt, and kept them there during this period, the only place where they could remain for so long a time safe and unconfounded with the natives, the ancient Egyptians being by numerous institutions forbidden all fellowship with strangers, and bearing besides a particular aversion to the profession of the Israelites, who were shepherds. Thus the natural dispositions of the Israelites, which in Egypt occasioned their superstitions, and in consequence the necessity of a burdensome ritual, would in any other country have absorbed them into Gentilism, and confounded them with idolaters. From the Israelites going into Egypt arises a new occasion to adore the footsteps of Eternal Wisdom in his dispensations to his chosen people."

### Introduction

[¶18] Joseph informs Pharaoh that his father and brethren are arrived in Goshen, [Gen 47:1]. He presents five of his brethren before the king, [Gen 47:2], who questions them concerning their occupation; they inform him that they are shepherds, and request permission to dwell in the land of Goshen, [Gen 47:3], [Gen 47:4]. Pharaoh consents, and desires that some of the most active of them should be made rulers over his cattle, [Gen 47:5], [Gen 47:6]. Joseph presents his father to Pharaoh, [Gen 47:7], who questions him concerning his age, [Gen 47:8], to which Jacob returns an affecting answer, and blesses Pharaoh, [Gen 47:9], [Gen 47:10]. Joseph places his father and family in the land of Rameses, (Goshen), and furnishes them with provisions, [Gen 47:11], [Gen 47:12]. The famine prevailing in the land, the Egyptians deliver up all their money to Joseph to get food, [Gen 47:13-15]. The next year they bring their cattle, [Gen 47:16], [Gen 47:17]. The third, their lands and their persons, [Gen 47:18-21]. The land of the priests Joseph does not buy, as it was a royal grant to them from Pharaoh, [Gen 47:22]. The people receive seed to sow the land on condition that they shall give a fifth part of the produce to the king, [Gen 47:23], [Gen 47:24]. The people agree, and Joseph makes it a law all over Egypt, [Gen 47:25], [Gen 47:26]. The Israelites multiply exceedingly, [Gen 47:27]. Jacob, having lived seventeen years in Goshen, and being one hundred and forty-seven years old, [Gen 47:28], makes Joseph promise not to bury him in Egypt, but in Canaan, [Gen 47:29], [Gen 47:30]. Joseph promises and confirms it with an oath, [Gen 47:31].

### Verse 2

[¶20] He took some of his brethren - There is something very strange in the original; literally translated it signifies "from the end or extremity (מקצה miktseh) of his brethren he took five men." This has been understood six different ways. 1. Joseph took five of his brethren that came first to hand - at random, without design or choice. 2. Joseph took five of the meanest-looking of his brethren to present before Pharaoh, fearing if he had taken the sightliest that Pharaoh would detain them for his service, whereby their religion and morals might be corrupted. 3. Joseph took five of the best made and finest-looking of his brethren, and presented them before Pharaoh, wishing to impress his mind with a favorable opinion of the family which he had just now brought into Egypt, and to do himself honor. 4. Joseph took five of the youngest of his brethren. 5. He took five of the eldest of his brethren. 6. He took five from the extremity or end of his brethren, i. e., some of the eldest and some of the youngest, viz., Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Benjamin - Rab. Solomon. It is certain that in [Jdg 18:2], the word may be understood as implying dignity, valor, excellence, and pre-eminence: And the children of Dan sent of their family Five men מקצותם miktsotham, not from their coasts, but of the most eminent or excellent they had; and it is probable they might have had their eye on what Joseph did here when they made their choice, choosing the same number, five, and of their principal men, as did Joseph, because the mission was important, to go and search out the land. But the word may be understood simply as signifying some; out of the whole of his brethren he took only five men, etc.

### Verse 6

[¶22] In the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell - So it appears that the land of Goshen was the best of the land of Egypt.

[¶23] Men of activity - אנשי חיל anshey chayil, stout or robust men - such as were capable of bearing fatigue, and of rendering their authority respectable.

[¶24] Rulers over my cattle - מקנה mikneh signifies not only cattle, but possessions or property of any kind; though most usually cattle are intended, because in ancient times they constituted the principal part of a man's property. The word may be taken here in a more extensive sense, and the circumstances of the case seem obviously to require it. If every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians, however we may understand or qualify the expression, is it to be supposed that Pharaoh should desire that the brethren of his prime minister, of his chief favorite, should be employed in some of the very meanest offices in the land? We may therefore safely understand Pharaoh as expressing his will, that the brethren of Joseph should be appointed as overseers or superintendents of his domestic concerns, while Joseph superintended those of the state.

### Verse 7

[¶26] Jacob blessed Pharaoh - Saluted him on his entrance with Peace be unto thee, or some such expression of respect and good will. For the meaning of the term to bless, as applied to God and man, See Clarke on [Gen 2:3] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶28] The days of the years of my pilgrimage - מגורי megurai, of my sojourning or wandering. Jacob had always lived a migratory or wandering life, in different parts of Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, scarcely ever at rest; and in the places where he lived longest, always exposed to the fatigues of the field and the desert. Our word pilgrim comes from the French pelerin and pelegrin, which are corrupted from the Latin peregrinus, an alien, stranger, or foreigner, from the adverb peregre, abroad, not at home. The pilgrim was a person who took a journey, long or short, on some religious account, submitting during the time to many hardships and privations. A more appropriate term could not be conceived to express the life of Jacob, and the motive which induced him to live such a life. His journey to Padan-aram or Mesopotamia excepted, the principal part of his journeys were properly pilgrimages, undertaken in the course of God's providence on a religious account.

[¶29] Have not attained unto the - life of my fathers - Jacob lived in the whole one hundred and forty-seven years; Isaac his father lived one hundred and eighty; and Abraham his grandfather, one hundred and seventy-five. These were days of years in comparison of the lives of the preceding patriarchs, some of whom lived nearly ten centuries!

### Verse 14

[¶31] Gathered up all the money - i. e., by selling corn out of the public stores to the people; and this he did till the money failed, [Gen 47:15], till all the money was exchanged for corn, and brought into Pharaoh's treasury. Be sides the fifth part of the produce of the seven plentiful years, Joseph had bought additional corn with Pharaoh's money to lay up against the famine that was to prevail in the seven years of dearth; and it is very likely that this was sold out at the price for which it was bought, and the fifth part, which belonged to Pharaoh, sold out at the same price. And as money at that time could not be plentiful, the cash of the whole nation was thus exhausted as far as that had circulated among the common people.

### Verse 16

[¶33] Give your cattle - This was the wisest measure that could be adopted, both for the preservation of the people and of the cattle also. As the people had not grain for their own sustenance, consequently they could have none for their cattle; hence the cattle were in the most imminent danger of starving; and the people also were in equal danger, as they must have divided a portion of that bought for themselves with the cattle, which for the sake of tillage, etc., they wished of course to preserve till the seven years of famine should end. The cattle being bought by Joseph were supported at the royal expense, and very likely returned to the people at the end of the famine; for how else could they cultivate their ground, transport their merchandise, etc., etc.? For this part of Joseph's conduct he certainly deserves high praise and no censure.

### Verse 18

[¶35] When that year was ended - The sixth year of the famine, they came unto him the second year, which was the last or seventh year of the famine, in which it was necessary to sow the land that there might be a crop the succeeding year; for Joseph, on whose prediction they relied, had foretold that the famine should continue only seven years, and consequently they expected the eighth year to be a fruitful year provided the land was sowed, without which, though the inundation of the land by the Nile might amount to the sixteen requisite cubits, there could be no crop.

### Verse 19

[¶37] Buy us and our land for bread - In times of famine in Hindostan, thousands of children have been sold to prevent their perishing. In the Burman empire the sale of whole families to discharge debts is very common - Ward's Customs.

### Verse 21

[¶39] And as for the people, he removed them to cities - It is very likely that Joseph was influenced by no political motive in removing the people to the cities, but merely by a motive of humanity and prudence. As the corn was laid up in the cities he found it more convenient to bring them to the place where they might be conveniently fed; each being within the reach of an easy distribution. Thus then the country which could afford no sustenance was abandoned for the time being, that the people might be fed in those places where the provision was deposited.

### Verse 22

[¶41] The land of the priests bought he not - From this verse it is natural to infer that whatever the religion of Egypt was, it was established by law and supported by the state. Hence when Joseph bought all the lands of the Egyptians for Pharaoh, he bought not the land of the priests, for that was a portion assigned them by Pharaoh; and they did eat - did live on, that portion. This is the earliest account we have of an established religion supported by the state.

### Verse 23

[¶43] I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh - It fully appears that the kingdom of Egypt was previously to the time of Joseph a very limited monarchy. The king had his estates; the priests had their lands; and the common people their patrimony independently of both. The land of Rameses or Goshen appears to have been the king's land, [Gen 47:11]. The priests had their lands, which they did not sell to Joseph, [Gen 47:22], [Gen 47:26]; and that the people had lands independent of the crown, is evident from the purchases Joseph made, [Gen 47:19], [Gen 47:20]; and we may conclude from those purchases that Pharaoh had no power to levy taxes upon his subjects to increase his own revenue until he had bought the original right which each individual had in his possessions. And when Joseph bought this for the king he raised the crown an ample revenue, though he restored the lands, by obliging each to pay one fifth of the product to the king, [Gen 47:24]. And it is worthy of remark that the people of Egypt well understood the distinction between subjects and servants; for when they came to sell their land, they offered to sell themselves also, and said: Buy us and our land, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh, [Gen 47:19].

[¶44] Diodorus Siculus, lib. i., gives the same account of the ancient constitution of Egypt. "The land," says he, "was divided into three parts:

## 62. Genesis · 62 of 67

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[¶0] 1. One belonged to the Priests, with which they provided all sacrifices, and maintained all the ministers of religion.

[¶1] 2. A second part was the King's, to support his court and family, and to supply expenses for wars if they should happen. Hence there were no taxes, the king having so ample an estate.

[¶2] 3. The remainder of the land belonged to the Subjects, who appear (from the account of Diodorus) to have been all soldiers, a kind of standing militia, liable, at the king's expense, to serve in all wars for the preservation of the state."

[¶3] This was a constitution something like the British; the government appears to have been mixed, and the monarchy properly limited, till Joseph, by buying the land of the people, made the king in some sort despotic. But it does net appear that any improper use was made of this, as in much later times we find it still a comparatively limited monarchy.

### Verse 24

[¶5] Ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh - This is precisely the case in Hindostan; the king has the fifth part of all the crops.

### Verse 26

[¶7] And Joseph made it a law - That the people should hold their land from the king, and give him the fifth part of the produce as a yearly tax. Beyond this it appears the king had no farther demands. The whole of this conduct of Joseph has been as strongly censured by some as applauded by others. It is natural for men to run into extremes in attacking or defending any position. Sober and judicious men will consider what Joseph did by Divine appointment as a prophet of God, and what he did merely as a statesman from the circumstances of the case, the complexion of the times, and the character of the people over whom he presided. When this is dispassionately done, we shall see much reason to adore God, applaud the man, and perhaps in some cases censure the minister. Joseph is never held up to our view as an unerring prophet of God. He was an honored instrument in the hands of God of saving two nations from utter ruin, and especially of preserving that family from which the Messiah was to spring, and of perpetuating the true religion among them. In this character he is represented in the sacred pages. His conduct as the prime minister of Pharaoh was powerfully indicative of a deep and consummate politician, who had high notions of prerogative, which led him to use every prudent means to aggrandize his master, and at the same time to do what he judged best on the whole for the people he governed. See the conclusion at [Gen 50:26] (note).

### Verse 29

[¶9] Put - thy hand under my thigh - See Clarke on [Gen 24:2] (note).

### Verse 30

[¶11] I will lie with my fathers - As God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his posterity, Jacob considered it as a consecrated place, under the particular superintendence and blessing of God: and as Sarah, Abraham, and Isaac were interred near to Hebron, he in all probability wished to lie, not only in the same place, but in the same grave; and it is not likely that he would have been solicitous about this, had he not considered that promised land as being a type of the rest that remains for the people of God, and a pledge of the inheritance among the saints in light.

### Verse 31

[¶13] And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head - Jacob was now both old and feeble, and we may suppose him reclined on his couch when Joseph came; that he afterwards sat up erect (see [Gen 48:2]) while conversing with his son, and receiving his oath and promise; and that when this was finished he bowed himself upon the bed's head - exhausted with the conversation, he again reclined himself on his bed as before. This seems to be the simple meaning, which the text unconnected with any religious system or prejudice, naturally proposes. But because שחה shachah, signifies not only to bow but to worship, because acts of religious worship were performed by bowing or prostration, and because מטה mittah, a bed, by the change of the points, only becomes matteh, a staff, in which sense the Septuagint took it, translating the original words thus: Και προσεκυνησεν Ισραηλ επι το ακρον της ῥαβδου αυτου, and Israel worshipped upon the top of his staff, which the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, [Heb 11:21], quotes literatim; therefore some have supposed that Jacob certainly had a carved image on the head or top of his staff, to which he paid a species of adoration; or that he bowed himself to the staff or scepter of Joseph, thus fulfilling the prophetic import of his son's dreams! The sense of the Hebrew text is given above. If the reader prefers the sense of the Septuagint and the Epistle to the Hebrews, the meaning is, that Jacob, through feebleness, supported himself with a staff, and that, when he got the requisite assurance from Joseph that his dead body should be carried to Canaan, leaning on his staff be bowed his head in adoration to God, who had supported him all his life long, and hitherto fulfilled all his promises.

### Introduction

[¶15] Joseph, hearing that his father was near death, took his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and went to Goshen, to visit him, [Gen 48:1]. Jacob strengthens himself to receive them, [Gen 48:2]. Gives Joseph an account of God's appearing to him at Luz, and repeating the promise, [Gen 48:3], [Gen 48:4]. Adopts Ephraim and Manasseh as his own sons, [Gen 48:5], [Gen 48:6]. Mentions the death of Rachel at Ephrath, [Gen 48:7]. He blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, preferring the former, who was the younger, to his elder brother, [Gen 48:8-17]. Joseph, supposing his father had mistaken in giving the right of primogeniture to the youngest, endeavors to correct him, [Gen 48:18]. Jacob shows that he did it designedly, prophecies much good concerning both; but sets Ephraim the youngest before Manasseh, [Gen 48:19], [Gen 48:20]. Jacob speaks of his death, and predicts the return of his posterity from Egypt, [Gen 48:21]. And gives Joseph a portion above his brethren, which he had taken from the Amorites, [Gen 48:22].

### Verse 1

[¶17] One told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick - He was ill before, and Joseph knew it; but it appears that a messenger had been now dispatched to inform Joseph that his father was apparently at the point of death.

### Verse 2

[¶19] Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed - He had been confined to his bed before, (see [Gen 47:31]), and now, hearing that Joseph was come to see him, he made what efforts his little remaining strength would admit, to sit up in bed to receive his son. This verse proves that a bed, not a staff, is intended in the preceding chapter, [Gen 47:31].

### Verse 3

[¶21] God Almighty - אל שדי El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God, the Outpourer and Dispenser of mercies, (see [Gen 17:1]), appeared to me at Luz, afterwards called Beth-El; see [Gen 28:13]; [Gen 35:6], [Gen 35:9].

### Verse 5

[¶23] And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh - are mine - I now adopt them into my own family, and they shall have their place among my twelve sons, and be treated in every respect as those, and have an equal interest in all the spiritual and temporal blessings of the covenant.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Rachel died by me, etc. - Rachel was the wife of Jacob's choice, and the object of his unvarying affection; he loved her in life - he loves her in death: many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. A match of a man's own making when guided by reason and religion, will necessarily be a happy one. When fathers and mothers make matches for their children, which are dictated by motives, not of affection, but merely of convenience, worldly gain, etc., etc., such matches are generally wretched; it is Leah in the place of Rachel to the end of life's pilgrimage.

### Verse 8

[¶27] Who are these? - At [Gen 48:10] it is said, that Jacob's eyes were dim for age, that he could not see - could not discern any object unless it were near him; therefore, though he saw Ephraim and Manasseh, yet he could not distinguish them till they were brought nigh unto him.

### Verse 11

[¶29] I had not thought to see thy face - There is much delicacy and much tenderness in these expressions. He feels himself now amply recompensed for his long grief and trouble on account of the supposed death of Joseph, in seeing not only himself but his two sons, whom God, by an especial act of favor, is about to add to the number of his own. Thus we find that as Reuben and Simeon were heads of two distinct tribes in Israel, so were Ephraim and Manasseh; because Jacob, in a sort of sacramental way, had adopted them with equal privileges to those of his own sons.

### Verse 12

[¶31] Joseph - bowed himself with his face to the earth - This act of Joseph has been extravagantly extolled by Dr. Delaney and others. "When I consider him on his knees to God," says Dr. Delaney, "I regard him as a poor mortal in the discharge of his duty to his Creator. When I behold him bowing before Pharaoh, I consider him in the dutiful posture of a subject to his prince. But when I see him bending to the earth before a poor, old, blind, decrepit father, I behold him with admiration and delight. How doth that humiliation exalt him!" This is insufferable! For it in effect says that it is a wondrous condescension in a young man, who, in the course of God's providence, with scarcely any efforts of his own, was raised to affluence and worldly grandeur, to show respect to his father! And that respect was the more gratuitous and condescending, because that father was poor, old, blind, and decrepit! The maxim of this most exceptionable flight of admiration is, that "children who have risen to affluence are not obliged to reverence their parents when reduced in their circumstances, and brought down by the weight of years and infirmities to the sides of the grave; and should they acknowledge and reverence them, it would be a mark of singular goodness, and be highly meritorious." Should positions of this kind pass without reprehension? I trow not. By the law of God and nature Joseph was as much bound to pay his dying father this filial respect, as he was to reverence his king, or to worship his God. As to myself, I must freely confess that I see nothing peculiarly amiable in this part of Joseph's conduct; he simply acquitted himself of a duty which God, nature, decency, and common sense, imperiously demanded of him, and all such in his circumstances, to discharge. To the present day children in the east, next to God, pay the deepest reverence to their parents.

[¶32] Besides, before whom was Joseph bowing? Not merely his father, but a most eminent Patriarch; one highly distinguished by the Lord, and one of the three of whom the Supreme Being speaks in the most favorable and affectionate manner; the three who received and transmitted the true faith, and kept unbroken the Divine covenant; I Am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He has never said, I am the God of Joseph. And if we compare the father and the son as men, we shall find that the latter was exceeded by the former in almost endless degrees. Joseph owed his advancement and his eminence to what some would call good fortune, and what we know to have been the especial providence of God working in his behalf, wholly independent of his own industry, etc., every event of that providence issuing in his favor. Jacob owed his own support and preservation, and the support and preservation of his numerous family, under God, to the continual exercise of the vast powers of a strong and vigorous mind, to which the providence of God seemed ever in opposition; because God chose to try to the uttermost the great gifts which he had bestowed. If therefore the most humble and abject inferior should reverence dignity and eminence raised to no common height, so should Joseph bow down his face to the earth before Jacob.

[¶33] Besides, Joseph, in thus reverencing his father, only followed the customs of the Egyptians among whom he lived, who, according to Herodotus, (Euterpe, c. 80), were particularly remarkable for the reverence they paid to old age. "For if a young person meet his senior, he instantly turns aside to make way for him; if an aged person enter an apartment, the youth always rise from their seats;" and Mr. Savary observes that the reverence mentioned by Herodotus is yet paid to old age on every occasion in Egypt. In Mohammedan countries the children sit as if dumb in the presence of their parents, never attempting to speak unless spoken to. Among the ancient Romans it was considered a crime worthy of death not to rise up in the presence of an aged person, and acting a contrary part was deemed an awful mark of the deep degeneracy of the times. Thus the satirist: -

[¶34] Credebant hoc grande nefas, et morte piandum,

[¶35] Si Juvenis Vetulo non assurrexerat; et si

[¶36] Barbato cuicumque puer.

[¶37] Juv. Sat. xiii., v. 54.

[¶38] And had not men the hoary heads revered,

[¶39] Or boys paid reverence when a man appear'd.

[¶40] Both must have died.

[¶41] Dryden.

[¶42] Indeed, though Dr. Delaney is much struck with what he thinks to be great and meritorious condescension and humility on the part of Joseph; yet we find the thing itself, the deepest reverence to parents and old age, practiced by all the civilized nations in the world, not as a matter of meritorious courtesy, but as a point of rational and absolute duty.

### Verse 14

[¶44] Israel stretched out his right hand, etc. - Laying hands on the head was always used among the Jews in giving blessings, designating men to any office, and in the consecration of solemn sacrifices. This is the first time we find it mentioned; but we often read of it afterwards. See [Num 27:18], [Num 27:23]; [Deu 34:9]; [Mat 19:13], [Mat 19:15]; [Act 6:6]; [1Tim 4:14]. Jacob laid his right hand on the head of the younger, which we are told he did wittingly - well knowing what he was about, for (or although) Manasseh was the first-born, knowing by the Spirit of prophecy that Ephraim's posterity would be more powerful than that of Manasseh. It is observable how God from the beginning has preferred the younger to the elder, as Abel before Cain; Shem before Japheth; Isaac before Ishmael; Jacob before Esau; Judah and Joseph before Reuben; Ephraim before Manasseh; Moses before Aaron; and David before his brethren. "This is to be resolved entirely into the wise and secret counsel of God, so far as it regards temporal blessings and national privileges, as the apostle tells us, [Rom 9:11]; See Clarke on [Gen 25:23] (note). But this preference has no concern with God's conferring a greater measure of his love and approbation on one person more than another; compare [Gen 4:7], with [Heb 11:4], and you will see that a difference in moral character was the sole cause why God preferred Abel to Cain." - Dodd. The grace that converts the soul certainly comes from the mere mercy of God, without any merit on man's part; and a sufficiency of this is offered to every man, [Tit 2:11], [Tit 2:12]. But it is not less certain that God loves those best who are most faithful to this grace.

## 63. Genesis · 63 of 67

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### Verse 15

[¶1] He blessed Joseph - The father first, and then the sons afterwards. And this is an additional proof to what has been adduced under [Gen 48:12], of Jacob's superiority; for the less is always blessed of the greater.

[¶2] The God which fed me all my life long - Jacob is now standing on the verge of eternity, with his faith strong in God. He sees his life to be a series of mercies; and as he had been affectionately attentive, provident, and kind to his most helpless child, so has God been unto him; he has fed him all his life long; he plainly perceives that he owes every morsel of food which he has received to the mere mercy and kindness of God.

### Verse 16

[¶4] The Angel which redeemed me from all evil - המלאך הגאל hammalac haggoel. The Messenger, the Redeemer or Kinsman; for so גאל goel signifies; for this term, in the law of Moses, is applied to that person whose right it is, from his being nearest akin, to redeem or purchase back a forfeited inheritance. But of whom does Jacob speak? We have often seen, in the preceding chapters, an angel of God appearing to the patriarchs; (see particularly [Gen 16:7] (note)) and we have full proof that this was no created angel, but the Messenger of the Divine Council, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who then was the angel that redeemed Jacob, and whom he invoked to bless Ephraim and Manasseh? Is it not Jesus? He alone can be called Goel, the redeeming Kinsman; for he alone took part of our flesh and blood that the right of redemption might be his; and that the forfeited possession of the favor and image of God might be redeemed, brought back, and restored to all those who believe in his name. To have invoked any other angel or messenger in such a business would have been impiety. Angels bless not; to God alone this prerogative belongs. With what confidence may a truly religious father use these words in behalf of his children: "Jesus, the Christ, who hath redeemed me, bless the lads, redeem them also, and save them unto eternal life!"

[¶5] Let my name be named on them - "Let them be ever accounted as a part of my own family; let them be true Israelites - persons who shall prevail with God as I have done; and the name of Abraham - being partakers of his faith; and the name of Isaac - let them be as remarkable for submissive obedience as he was. Let the virtues of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be accumulated in them, and invariably displayed by them!" These are the very words of adoption; and by the imposition of hands, the invocation of the Redeemer, and the solemn blessing pronounced, the adoption was completed. From this moment Ephraim and Manasseh had the same rights and privileges as Jacob's sons, which as the sons of Joseph they could never have possessed.

[¶6] And let them grow into a multitude - וידגו לרב veyidgu larob; Let them increase like fishes into a multitude. Fish are the most prolific of all animals; see the instances produced on [Gen 1:20] (note). This prophetic blessing was verified in a most remarkable manner; see [Num 26:34], [Num 26:37]; [Deu 33:17]; [Jos 17:17]. At one time the tribe of Ephraim amounted to 40,500 effective men, and that of Manasseh to 52,700, amounting in the whole to 93,200.

### Verse 18

[¶8] Joseph said - Not so, my father - Joseph supposed that his father had made a mistake in laying his right hand on the head of the youngest, because the right hand was considered as the most noble, and the instrument of conveying the highest dignities, and thus it has ever been considered among all nations, though the reason of it is not particularly obvious. Even in the heavens the right hand of God is the place of the most exalted dignity. It has been observed that Joseph spoke here as he was moved by natural affection, and that Jacob acted as he was influenced by the Holy Spirit.

### Verse 20

[¶10] In thee shall Israel bless - That is, in future generations the Israelites shall take their form of wishing prosperity to any nation or family from the circumstance of the good which it shall be known that God has done to Ephraim and Manasseh: May God make thee as fruitful as Ephraim, and multiply thee as Manasseh! So, to their daughters when married, the Jewish women are accustomed to say, God make thee as Sarah and Rebekah! The forms are still in use.

### Verse 21

[¶12] Behold, I die - With what composure is this most awful word expressed! Surely of Jacob it might be now said, "He turns his sight undaunted on the tomb;" for though it is not said that he was full of days, as were Abraham and Isaac, yet he is perfectly willing to bid adieu to earthly things, and lay his body in the grave. Could any person act as the patriarchs did in their last moments, who had no hopes of eternal life, no belief in the immortality of the soul? Impossible! With such a conviction of the being of God, with such proofs of his tenderness and regard, with such experience of his providential and miraculous interference in their behalf, could they suppose that they were only creatures of a day, and that God had wasted so much care, attention, providence, grace, and goodness, on creatures who were to be ultimately like the beasts that perish? The supposition that they could have no correct notion of the immortality of the soul is as dishonorable to God as to themselves. But what shall we think of Christians who have formed this hypothesis into a system to prove what? Why, that the patriarchs lived and died in the dark! That either the soul has no immortality, or that God has not thought proper to reveal it. Away with such an opinion! It cannot be said to merit serious refutation.

### Verse 22

[¶14] Moreover I have given to thee one portion - שכם אחד shechem achad, one shechem or one shoulder. We have already seen the transactions between Jacob and his family on one part, and Shechem and the sons of Hamor on the other. See [Gen 33:18], [Gen 33:19], and Genesis 24. As he uses the word shechem here, I think it likely that he alludes to the purchase of the field or parcel of ground mentioned [Gen 33:18], [Gen 33:19]. It has been supposed that this parcel of ground, which Jacob bought from Shechem, had been taken from him by the Amorites, and that he afterwards had recovered it by his sword and by his bow, i. e., by force of arms. Shechem appears to have fallen to the lot of Joseph's sons; (see [Jos 17:1], and [Jos 20:7]); and in our Lord's time there was a parcel of ground near to Sychar or Shechem which was still considered as that portion which Jacob gave to his son Joseph, [Joh 4:5]; and on the whole it was probably the same that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of money, [Gen 33:18], [Gen 33:19]. But how it could be said that he took this out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and his bow, we cannot tell. Many attempts have been made to explain this abstruse verse, but they have all hitherto been fruitless. Jacob's words were no doubt perfectly well understood by Joseph, and probably alluded to some transaction that is not now on record; and it is much safer for us to confess our ignorance, than to hazard conjecture after conjecture on a subject of which we can know nothing certainly.

[¶15] 1. On filial respect to aged and destitute parents we have already had occasion to speak; see [Gen 48:11]. The duty of children to their parents only ceases when the parents are laid in their graves, and this duty is the next in order and importance to the duty we owe to God. No circumstances can alter its nature or lessen its importance; Honor thy father and thy mother is the sovereign, everlasting command of God. While the relations of parent and child exist, this commandment will be in full force.

[¶16] 2. The Redeeming Angel, the Messenger of the covenant, in his preserving and saving influence, is invoked by dying Jacob to be the protector and Savior of Ephraim and Manasseh, [Gen 48:16]. With what advantage and effect can a dying parent recommend the Lord Jesus to his children, who can testify with his last breath that this Jesus has redeemed him from all evil! Reader, canst thou call Christ thy Redeemer? Hast thou, through him, recovered the forfeited inheritance? Or dost thou expect redemption from all evil by any other means? Through him, and him alone, God will redeem thee from all thy sins; and as thou knowest not what a moment may bring forth, thou hast not a moment to lose. Thou hast sinned, and there is no name given under heaven among men whereby thou canst be saved but Jesus Christ. Acquaint thyself now with him, and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto thee.

[¶17] 3. We find that the patriarchs ever held the promised land in the most sacred point of view. It was God's gift to them; it was confirmed by a covenant that spoke of and referred to better things. We believe that this land typified the rest which remains for the people of God, and can we be indifferent to the excellence of this rest! A patriarch could not die in peace, however distant from this land, without an assurance that his bones should be laid in it. How can we live, how can we die comfortably, without the assurance that our lives are hid with Christ in God, and that we shall dwell in his presence for ever? There remains a rest for the people of God, and only for the people of God; for those alone who love, serve, reverence, and obey him, in his Son Jesus Christ, shall ever enjoy it.

### Introduction

[¶19] Jacob, about to die, calls his sons together that he may bless them, or give prophetic declarations concerning their posterity, [Gen 49:1], [Gen 49:2]. Prophetic declaration concerning Reuben, [Gen 49:3], [Gen 49:4]. Concerning Simeon and Levi, [Gen 49:5-7]; concerning Judah, [Gen 49:8-12]; concerning Zebulun, [Gen 49:13]; concerning Issachar, [Gen 49:14], [Gen 49:15]; concerning Dan, [Gen 49:16-18]; concerning Gad, [Gen 49:19]; concerning Asher, [Gen 49:20]; concerning Naphtali, [Gen 49:21]; concerning Joseph, [Gen 49:22-26]; concerning Benjamin, [Gen 49:27]. Summary concerning the twelve tribes, [Gen 49:28]. Jacob gives directions concerning his being buried in the cave of Machpelah, [Gen 49:29-32]. Jacob dies, [Gen 49:33].

### Verse 1

[¶21] That which shall befall you in the last days - It is evident from this, and indeed from the whole complexion of these important prophecies, that the twelve sons of Jacob had very little concern in them, personally considered, as they were to be fulfilled in the last days, i. e., in times remote from that period, and consequently to their posterity, and not to themselves, or to their immediate families. The whole of these prophetic declarations, from Genesis 49:2-27 inclusive, is delivered in strongly figurative language, and in the poetic form, which, in every translation, should be preserved as nearly as possible, rendering the version line for line with the original. This order I shall pursue in the succeeding notes, always proposing the verse first, in as literal a translation as possible, line for line with the Hebrew after the hemistich form, from which the sense will more readily appear; but to the Hebrew text and the common version the reader is ultimately referred.

[¶22] 2. Come together and hear, O sons of Jacob! And hearken unto Israel your father.

[¶23] Bishop Newton has justly observed that Jacob had received a double blessing, spiritual and temporal; the promise of being progenitor of the Messiah, and the promise of the land of Canaan. The promised land he might divide among his children as he pleased, but the other must be confined to one of his sons; he therefore assigns to each son a portion in the land of Canaan, but limits the descent of the blessed seed to the tribe of Judah. Some have put themselves to a great deal of trouble and learned labor to show that it was a general opinion of the ancients that the soul, a short time previous to its departure from the body, becomes endued with a certain measure of the prophetic gift or foresight; and that this was probably the case with Jacob. But it would be derogatory to the dignity of the prophecies delivered in this chapter, to suppose that they came by any other means than direct inspiration, as to their main matter, though certain circumstances appear to be left to the patriarch himself, in which he might express his own feelings both as a father and as a judge. This is strikingly evident, 1. In the case of Reuben, from whom he had received the grossest insult, however the passage relative to him may be understood; and, 2. In the case of Joseph, the tenderly beloved son of his most beloved wife Rachel, in the prophecy concerning whom he gives full vent to all those tender and affectionate emotions which, as a father and a husband, do him endless credit.

[¶24] 3. Reuben, my first-born art thou! My might, and the prime of my strength, Excelling in eminence, and excelling in power:

[¶25] 4. Pouring out like the waters: - thou shalt not excel, For thou wentest up to the bed of thy father, - Then thou didst defile: to my couch he went up!

### Verse 3

[¶27] Reuben as the first-born had a right to a double portion of all that the father had; see [Deu 21:17]

[¶28] The eminence or dignity mentioned here may refer to the priesthood; the power, to the regal government or kingdom - In this sense it has been understood by all the ancient Targumists. The Targum of Onkelos paraphrases it thus: "Thou shouldst have received three portions, the birthright, the priesthood, and the kingdom:" and to this the Targums of Jonathan ben Uzziel and Jerusalem add: "But because thou hast sinned, the birthright is given to Joseph, the kingdom to Judah, and the priesthood to Levi." That the birthright was given to the sons of Joseph we have the fullest proof from [1Chr 5:1].

### Verse 4

[¶30] Pouring out like the waters - This is an obscure sentence because unfinished. It evidently relates to the defilement of his father's couch; and the word פחז pachaz, here translated pouring out, and in our Version unstable, has a bad meaning in other places of the Scripture, being applied to dissolute, debauched, and licentious conduct. See [Jdg 9:4]; [Zep 3:4]; [Jer 23:14], [Jer 23:32]; [Jer 29:23].

[¶31] Thou shalt not excel - This tribe never rose to any eminence in Israel; was not so numerous by one third as either Judah, Joseph, or Dan, when Moses took the sum of them in the wilderness, [Num 1:21]; and was among the first that were carried into captivity, [1Chr 5:26].

[¶32] Then thou didst defile - Another unfinished sentence, similar to the former, and upon the same subject, passing over a transaction covertly, which delicacy forbade Jacob to enlarge on. For the crime of Reuben, see Clarke on [Gen 35:22] (note).

[¶33] 5. Simeon and Levi, brethren: They have accomplished their fraudulent purposes.

[¶34] 6. Into their secret council my soul did not come; In their confederacy my honor was not united: For in their anger they slew a man, (איש ish, a noble), And in their pleasure they murdered a prince.

[¶35] 7. Cursed was their anger, for it was fierce! And their excessive wrath, for it was inflexible! I will divide them out in Jacob, And I will disperse them in Israel.

### Verse 5

[¶37] Simeon and Levi are brethren - Not only springing from the same parents, but they have the same kind or disposition, head-strong, deceitful, vindictive, and cruel.

[¶38] They have accomplished, etc. - Our margin has it, Their swords are weapons of violence, i. e., Their swords, which they should have used in defense of their persons or the honorable protection of their families, they have employed in the base and dastardly murder of an innocent people.

[¶39] The Septuagint gives a different turn to this line from our translation, and confirms the translation given above: Συνετελεσαν αδικια εξαιρεσεως αυτων· They have accomplished the iniquity of their purpose; with which the Samaritan Version agrees. In the Samaritan text we read calu, they have accomplished, instead of the Hebrew כלי keley, weapons or instruments, which reading most critics prefer: and as to מכרתיהם mecherotheyhem, translated above their fraudulent purposes, and which our translation on almost no authority renders their habitations, it must either come from the Ethiopic מכר macar, he counselled, devised stratagems, etc., (see Castel), or from the Arabic macara, he deceived, practiced deceit, plotted, etc., which is nearly of the same import. This gives not only a consistent but evidently the true sense.

### Verse 6

[¶41] Into their secret council, etc. - Jacob here exculpates himself from all participation in the guilt of Simeon and Levi in the murder of the Shechemites. He most solemnly declares that he knew nothing of the confederacy by which it was executed, nor of the secret council in which it was plotted.

[¶42] If it should be said that the words תבא tabo and תחד techad should be translated in the future tense or in the imperative, as in our translation, I shall not contend; though it is well known that the preterite is often used for the future in Hebrew, and vice versa. Taken thus, the words mark the strong detestation which this holy man's soul felt for the villany of his sons: "My soul shall not come into their secret council. My honor shall not be united to their confederacy.

[¶43] For in their anger they slew a man - איש ish, a noble, an honorable man, viz., Shechem.

[¶44] And in their pleasure - This marks the highest degree of wickedness and settled malice, they were delighted with their deed. A similar spirit Saul of Tarsus possessed previously to his conversion; speaking of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, St. Luke says, [Act 8:1] : Σαυλος δε ην συνευδοκων τῃ αναιρεσει αυτου· And Saul was gladly consenting to his death. He was with the others highly delighted with it; and thus the prediction of our Lord was fulfilled, [Joh 16:2] : Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And it is represented as the highest pitch of profligacy and wickedness, not only to sin, but to delight in it; see [Rom 1:32]. As the original word רצון ratson signifies, in general, pleasure, benevolence, delight, etc., it should neither be translated self-will nor willfulness, as some have done, but simply as above; and the reasons appear sufficiently obvious. They murdered a prince - Hamor, the father of Shechem. Instead of שור shor, which we have translated a wall, and others an ox, I read שר sar, a prince, which makes a consistent sense; (see Kennicott's first Dissertation, p. 56, etc.); as there is no evidence whatever that Simeon and Levi either dug down a wall or houghed the oxen, as some have translated the passage; Or houghed oxen; on the contrary, the text, [Gen 34:28], [Gen 34:29], proves that they had taken for their own use the sheep, oxen, asses, all their wealth, their wives, and their little ones.

## 64. Genesis · 64 of 67

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### Verse 7

[¶1] Cursed was their anger - The first motions of their violence were savage; and their excessive or overflowing wrath, עברה ebrah, for it was inflexible - neither the supplications of the males, nor the entreaties, tears, cries, and shrieks of the helpless females, could deter them from their murderous purpose; for this, [Gen 49:5], they are said to have accomplished.

[¶2] I will divide them out, אחלקם achallekem, I will make them into lots, giving a portion of them to one tribe, and a portion to another; but they shall never attain to any political consequence. This appears to have been literally fulfilled. Levi had no inheritance except forty-eight cities, scattered through different parts of the land of Canaan: and as to the tribe of Simeon, it is generally believed among the Jews that they became schoolmasters to the other tribes; and when they entered Canaan they had only a small portion, a few towns and villages in the worst part of Judah's lot, [Jos 19:1], which afterwards finding too little, they formed different colonies in districts which they conquered from the Idumeans and Amalekites, [1Chr 4:39], etc. Thus these two tribes were not only separated from each other, but even divided from themselves, according to this prediction of Jacob.

[¶3] 8. Judah! thou! Thy brethren shall praise thee. Thy hand, in the neck of thine enemies: The sons of thy father shall bow themselves to thee.

[¶4] 9. A lion's whelp is Judah: From the prey, my son, thou hast ascended, He couched, lying down like a strong lion And like a lioness; who shall arouse him?

[¶5] 10. From Judah the scepter shall not depart, Nor a teacher from his offspring, Until that Shiloh shall come, And to him shall be assembled the peoples.

[¶6] 11. Binding his colt to the vine, And to the choice vine the foals of his ass, He washed his garments in wine, His clothes in the blood of the grape.

[¶7] 12. With wine shall his eyes be red, And his teeth shall be white with milk.

### Verse 8

[¶9] Thy brethren shall praise thee - As the name Judah signifies praise, Jacob takes occasion from its meaning to show that this tribe should be so eminent and glorious, that the rest of the tribes should praise it; that is, they should acknowledge its superior dignity, as in its privileges it should be distinguished beyond all the others. On the prophecy relative to Judah, Dr. Hales has several judicious remarks, and has left very little to be farther desired on the subject. Every reader will be glad to meet with them here. "The prophecy begins with his name Judah, signifying the praise of the Lord, which was given to him at his birth by his mother Leah, [Gen 29:35]. It then describes the warlike character of this tribe, to which, by the Divine appointment, was assigned the first lot of the promised land, which was conquered accordingly by the pious and heroic Caleb; the first who laid hands on the necks of his enemies, and routed and subdued them, [Jos 14:11]; 15;1; [Jdg 1:1], [Jdg 1:2]; and led the way for their total subjugation under David; who, in allusion to this prediction, praises God, and says: Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me, [Psa 18:40]. In the different stages of its strength, this tribe is compared to a lion's whelp, to a full grown lion, and to a nursing lioness, the fiercest of all. Hence a lion was the standard of Judah; compare [Num 2:3], [Eze 1:10]. The city of David, where he reposed himself after his conquests, secure in the terror of his name, [1Chr 14:17], was called Ariel, the lion of God, [Isa 29:1]; and our Lord himself, his most illustrious descendant, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, [Rev 5:5]. "The duration of the power of this famous tribe is next determined: 'the scepter of dominion,' as it is understood [Est 8:4]; [Isa 14:5], etc., or its civil government, was not to cease or depart from Judah until the birth or coming of Shiloh, signifying the Apostle, as Christ is styled, [Heb 3:1]; nor was the native lawgiver, or expounder of the law, teacher, or scribe, intimating their ecclesiastical polity, to cease, until Shiloh should have a congregation of peoples, or religious followers, attached to him. And how accurately was this fulfilled in both these respects! "1. Shortly before the birth of Christ a decree was issued by Augustus Caesar that all the land of Judea and Galilee should be enrolled, or a registry of persons taken, in which Christ was included, [Luk 2:1-7]; whence Julian the apostate unwittingly objected to his title of Christ or King, that he was born a subject of Caesar!' About eleven years after Judea was made a Roman province, attached to Syria on the deposal and banishment of Archelaus, the son of Herod the Great, for maladministration; and an assessment of properties or taxing was carried into effect by Cyrenius, then governor of Syria, the same who before, as the emperor's procurator, had made the enrolment, [Luk 2:2]; [Act 5:37]; and thenceforth Judea was governed by a Roman deputy, and the judicial power of life and death taken away from the Jews, [Joh 18:31]. "2. Their ecclesiastical polity ceased with the destruction of their city and temple by the Romans, a. d. 70; at which time the Gospel had been preached through the known world by the apostles, 'his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth;' [Act 2:8]; [Rom 10:18]. "Our Lord's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, before his crucifixion, 'riding on an ass, even a colt the foal of an ass,' which by his direction his disciples brought to him for this purpose, 'Go into the village over against you, and presently ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them to me,' [Mat 21:2-5], remarkably fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah, ([Zac 9:9]) is no less a fulfillment of this prophecy of Shiloh, 'binding or tying his foal to the vine, even his ass's colt to the choice vine.' In ancient times to ride upon white asses or ass-colts was the privilege of persons of high rank, princes, judges, and prophets, [Jdg 5:10]; [Jdg 10:4]; [Num 22:22]. And as the children of Israel were symbolized by the vine, [Psa 80:8]; [Hos 10:1], and the men of Judah by 'a (choice) vine of Sorek,' in the original, both here and in the beautiful allegory of Isaiah, [Isa 5:1-7], adopted by Jeremiah, [Jer 2:21], and by our Lord, [Mat 21:33], who styled himself the true vine, [Joh 15:1]; so the union of both these images signified our Lord's assumption, as the promised Shiloh, of the dignity of the king of the Jews, not in a temporal but in a spiritual sense, as he declared to Pilate, [Joh 18:36], as a prelude to his second coming in glory 'to restore again the kingdom to Israel.' "The vengeance to be then inflicted on all the enemies of his Church, or congregation of faithful Christians, is expressed by the symbolical imagery of 'washing his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes;' which to understand literally, would be incongruous and unusual any where, while it aptly represents his garments crimsoned in the blood of his foes, and their immense slaughter; and imagery frequently adopted in the prophetic scriptures. "The strength and wholesomeness of Shiloh's doctrine are next represented by having 'his eyes red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.' And thus the evangelical prophet, in similar strains, invites the world to embrace the Gospel: -

[¶10] Ho, every one that thirsteth, come to the waters, And he that hath no money; come, buy and eat: Yea, come, buy wine and milk, Without money and without price. [Isa 55:1]. "On the last day of the feast of tabernacles it was customary among the Jews for the people to bring water from the fountain of Siloah or Siloam, which they poured on the altar, singing the words of Isaiah, [Isa 12:3] : With joy shall ye draw water from the fountain of salvation; which the Targum interprets, 'With joy shall ye receive a new doctrine from the Elect of the Just One;' and the feast itself was also called Hosannah, Save, we beseech thee. And Isaiah has also described the apostasy of the Jews from their tutelar God Immanuel, under the corresponding imagery of their 'rejecting the gently-flowing waters of Siloah,' [Isa 8:6-8]. "Hence our Lord, on the last day of the feast, significantly invited the Jews to come unto him as the true and living Fountain of waters, [Jer 2:13]. 'If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink;' [Joh 7:37]. He also compared his doctrine to new wine, which required to be put into new bottles, made of skins strong enough to contain it, [Mat 9:17]; while the Gospel is repeatedly represented as affording milk for babes, or the first principles of the oracles of God for novices in the faith, as well as strong meat [and strong wine] for masters in Christ or adepts, [Mat 13:11]; [Heb 5:12-14]. "And our Lord's most significant miracle was wrought at this fountain, when he gave sight to a man forty years old, who had been blind from his birth, by sending him, after he had anointed his eyes with moistened clay, to wash in the pool of Siloam, which is the Greek pronunciation of the Hebrew שלה Siloah or Siloh, [Isa 8:6], where the Septuagint version reads Σιλωαμ, signifying, according to the evangelist, απεσταλμενος, sent forth, and consequently derived from שלח shalach, to send, [Joh 9:7]. Our Lord thus assuming to himself his two leading titles of Messiah, signifying anointed, and Shiloh, sent forth or delegated from God; as he had done before at the opening of his mission: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me forth (απεσταλκε) to heal the broken-hearted,' etc.; [Luk 4:18]. "And in the course of it he declared, I was not sent forth (απεσταλην) but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, [Mat 15:24], by a two-fold reference to his character in Jacob's prophecy of Shiloh and Shepherd Of Israel, [Gen 49:10-24]. 'This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou sentest forth,' (απεστειλας), to instruct and save mankind, [Joh 17:3]; and he thus distinguishes his own superior mission from his commission to his apostles: 'As The Father hath sent Me, (απεσταλκε με), so I send you,' πεμπω ὑμας, [Joh 20:21]. Whence St. Paul expressly styles Jesus Christ 'the Apostle (Ὁ Αποστολος) and High Priest of our profession,' [Heb 3:1]; and by an elaborate argument shows the superiority of his mission above that of Moses, and of his priesthood above that of Aaron, in the sequel of the epistle. His priesthood was foretold by David to be a royal priesthood, after the order of Melchizedek, [Psa 110:4]. But where shall we find his mission or apostleship foretold, except in Jacob's prophecy of Shiloh? which was evidently so understood by Moses when God offered to send him as his ambassador to Pharaoh, and he declined at first the arduous mission: 'O my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of Him whom thou wilt send,' or by the promised Shiloh, [Exo 3:10]; [Exo 4:13]; by whom in his last blessing to the Israelites, parallel to that of Jacob, he prayed that 'God would bring back Judah to his people,' from captivity, [Deu 33:7]. "Here then we find the true meaning and derivation of the much disputed term Shiloh in this prophecy of Jacob, which is fortunately preserved by the Vulgate, rendering qui mittendus est, he that is to be sent, and also by a rabbinical comment on [Deu 22:7] : 'If you keep this precept, you hasten the coming of the Messiah, who is called Sent.' "This important prophecy concerning Judah intimates, 1. The warlike character and conquests of this tribe; 2. The cessation of their civil and religious polity at the first coming of Shiloh; 3. His meek and lowly inauguration at that time, as spiritual King of the Jews, riding on an ass like the ancient judges and prophets; 4. His second coming as a warrior to trample on all his foes; and, 5. To save and instruct his faithful people." - Hales' Anal., vol. ii., p. 167, etc.

### Verse 10

[¶12] From Judah the scepter shall not depart - The Jews have a quibble on the word שבט shebet, which we translate scepter; they say it signifies a staff or rod, and that the meaning of it is, that "afflictions shall not depart from the Jews till the Messiah comes;" that they are still under affliction and therefore the Messiah is not come. This is a miserable shift to save a lost cause. Their chief Targumist, Onkelos, understood and translated the word nearly as we do; and the same meaning is adopted by the Jerusalem Targum, and by all the ancient versions, the Arabic excepted, which has kazeeb, a rod; but in a very ancient MS. of the Pentateuch in my own possession the word sebet is used, which signifies a tribe. Judah shall continue a distinct tribe till the Messiah shall come; and it did so; and after his coming it was confounded with the others, so that all distinction has been ever since lost.

[¶13] Nor a teacher from his offspring - I am sufficiently aware that the literal meaning of the original מבין רגליו mibbeyn raglaiv is from between his feet, and I am as fully satisfied that it should never be so translated; from between the feet and out of the thigh simply mean progeny, natural offspring, for reasons which surely need not be mentioned. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, and the Jerusalem Targum, apply the whole of this prophecy, in a variety of very minute particulars, to the Messiah, and give no kind of countenance to the fictions of the modern Jews.

[¶14] 13. At the haven of the seas shall Zebulun dwell, And he shall be a haven for ships.And his border shall extend unto Sidon.

### Verse 13

[¶16] Zebulun's lot or portion in the division of the Promised Land extended from the Mediterranean Sea on the west, to the lake of Gennesareth on the east; see his division, [Jos 19:10], etc. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel paraphrases the passage thus: "Zebulun shall be on the coasts of the sea, and he shall rule over the havens; he shall subdue the provinces of the sea with his, ships, and his border shall extend unto Sidon.

[¶17] 14. Issachar is a strong ass Couching between two burdens.

[¶18] 15. And he saw the resting place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he inclined his shoulder to the load, And he became a servant unto tribute.

### Verse 14

[¶20] Issachar is a strong ass - חמר גרם chamor garem is properly a strong-limbed ass; couching between two burdens - bearing patiently, as most understand it, the fatigues of agriculture, and submitting to exorbitant taxes rather that exert themselves to drive out the old inhabitants.

[¶21] The two burdens literally mean the two sacks or panniers, one on each side of the animal's body; and couching down between these refers to the well-known propensity of the ass, whenever wearied or overloaded, to lie down even with its burden on its back.

### Verse 15

[¶23] He saw that rest - The inland portion that was assigned to him between the other tribes. He inclined his shoulder to the load; the Chaldee paraphrase gives this a widely different turn to that given it by most commentators: "He saw his portion that it was good, and the land that it was fruitful; and he shall subdue the provinces of the people, and drive out their inhabitants, and those who are left shall be his servants, and his tributaries." Grotius understands it nearly in the same way. The pusillanimity which is generally attributed to this tribe certainly does not agree with the view in which they are exhibited in Scripture. In the song of Deborah this tribe is praised for the powerful assistance which it then afforded, [Jdg 5:15]. And in [1Chr 7:1-5], they are expressly said to have been valiant men of might in all their families, and in all their generations; i. e., through every period of their history. It appears they were a laborious, hardy, valiant tribe, patient in labor and invincible in war; bearing both these burdens with great constancy whenever it was necessary. When Tola of this tribe judged Israel, the land had rest twenty-three years, [Jdg 10:1].

[¶24] 16. Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.

[¶25] 17. Dan shall be a serpent on the way, A cerastes upon the track, Biting the heels of the horse, And his rider shall fall backwards.

### Verse 16

[¶27] Dan shall judge - Dan, whose name signifies judgment, was the eldest of Jacob's sons by Bilhah, Rachel's maid, and he is here promised an equal rule with those tribes that sprang from either Leah or Rachel, the legal wives of Jacob. Some Jewish and some Christian writers understand this prophecy of Samson, who sprang from this tribe, and judged, or as the word might be translated avenged, the people of Israel twenty years. See [Jdg 13:2]; [Jdg 15:20].

### Verse 17

[¶29] Dan shall be a serpent - The original word is נחש nachash, and we have seen on Genesis 3 that this has a great variety of significations. It is probable that a serpent is here intended, but of what kind we know not; yet as the principal reference in the text is to guile, cunning, etc., the same creature may be intended as in Genesis 3.

[¶30] A cerastes upon the track - The word שפיפון shephiphon, which is nowhere else to be found in the Bible, is thus translated by the Vulgate, and Bochart approves of the translation. The cerastes has its name from two little horns upon its head, and is remarkable for the property here ascribed to the shephiphon. The word ארח orach, which we translate path, signifies the track or rut made in the ground by the wheel of a cart, wagon, etc. And the description that Nicander gives of this serpent in his Theriaca perfectly agrees with what is here said of the shephiphon. εν δ' αμαθοισιν Η και ἁματροχιῃσι παρα στιβον ενδυκες ανει. v. 262.

[¶31] It lies under the sand, or in some cart rut by the way.

[¶32] It is intimated that this tribe should gain the principal part of its conquests more by cunning and stratagem, than by valor; and this is seen particularly in their conquest of Laish, Judges 18, and even in some of the transactions of Samson, such as burning the corn of the Philistines, and at last pulling down their temple, and destroying three thousand at one time, see [Jdg 16:26-30].

[¶33] 18. For thy salvation have I waited, O Lord!

[¶34] This is a remarkable ejaculation, and seems to stand perfectly unconnected with all that went before and all that follows; though it is probable that certain prophetic views which Jacob now had, and which he does not explain, gave rise to it; and by this he at once expressed both his faith and hope in God. Both Jewish and Christian commentators have endeavored to find out the connection in which these words existed in the mind of the patriarch. The Targum of Jonathan expresses the whole thus: "When Jacob saw Gideon the son of Joash, and Samson the son of Manoah, which were to be saviors in a future age, he said: I do not wait for the salvation of Gideon, I do not expect the salvation of Samson, because their salvation is a temporal salvation; but I wait for and expect thy salvation, O Lord, because thy salvation is eternal." And the Jerusalem Targum much to the same purpose: "Our father Jacob said: Wait not, my soul, for the redemption of Gideon the son of Joash which is temporal, nor the redemption of Samson which is a created salvation; but for the salvation which thou hast said by Thy Word should come to thy people the children of Israel: my soul waits for this thy salvation." Indeed these Targums understand almost the whole of these prophecies of the Messiah, and especially what is said about Judah, every word of which they refer to him. Thus the ancient Jews convict the moderns of both false interpretations and vain expectations. As the tribe of Dan was the first that appears to have been seduced from the true worship of God, (see [Jdg 18:30]), some have thought that Jacob refers particularly to this, and sees the end of the general apostasy only in the redemption by Jesus Christ, considering the nachash above as the seducer, and the Messiah the promised seed.

[¶35] 19. Gad, an army shall attack him, And he shall attack in return.

[¶36] This is one of the most obscure prophecies in the whole chapter; and no two interpreters agree in the translation of the original words, which exhibit a most singular alliteration: - גד גדוד יגודנו gad gedud yegudennu; והוא יגד עקב vehu yagud akeb.

[¶37] The prophecy seems to refer generally to the frequent disturbances to which this tribe should be exposed, and their hostile, warlike disposition, that would always lead them to repel every aggression. It is likely that the prophecy had an especial fulfillment when this tribe, in conjunction with that of Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh, got a great victory over the Hagarites, taking captive one hundred thousand men, two thousand asses, fifty thousand camels, and two hundred and fifty thousand sheep; see [1Chr 5:18-22]. Dr. Durell and others translate the last word עקב akeb, rear - "He shall invade their rear;" which contains almost no meaning, as it only seems to state that though the army that invaded Gad should be successful, yet the Gadites would harass their rear as they returned: but this could never be a subject sufficient consequence for a prophecy. The word עיב d ekeb is frequently used as a particle, signifying in consequence, because of, on account of. After the Gadites had obtained the victory above mentioned, they continued to possess the land of their enemies till they were carried away captive. The Chaldee paraphrasts apply this to the Gadites going armed over Jordan before their brethren, discomfiting their enemies, and returning back with much spoil. See [Jos 4:12], [Jos 4:13], and [Jos 22:1-2], [Jos 22:8].

[¶38] 20. From Asher his bread shall be fat, And he shall produce royal dainties.

[¶39] This refers to the great fertility of the lot that fell to Asher, and which appears to have corresponded with the name, which signifies happy or blessed. His great prosperity is described by Moses in this figurative way: "Let Asher be blessed with children, let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil;" [Deu 33:24].

[¶40] 21. Naphtali is a spreading oak, Producing beautiful branches.

[¶41] This is Bochart's translation; and perhaps no man who understands the genius of the Hebrew language will attempt to dispute its propriety; it is as literal as it is correct. Our own translation scarcely gives any sense. The fruitfulness of this tribe in children may be here intended. From his four sons Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem, which he took down into Egypt, [Gen 46:24], in the course of two hundred and fifteen years there sprang of effective men 53,400: but as great increase in this way was not an uncommon case in the descendants of Jacob, this may refer particularly to the fruitfulness of their soil, and the especial providential care and blessing of the Almighty; to which indeed Moses seems particularly to refer, [Deu 33:23] : O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the Lord. So that he may be represented under the notion of a tree planted in a rich soil, growing to a prodigious size, extending its branches in all directions, and becoming a shade for men and cattle, and a harbour for the fowls of heaven.

[¶42] 22. The son of a fruitful (vine) is Joseph; The son of a fruitful (vine) by the fountain: The daughters (branches) shoot over the wall.

[¶43] 23. They sorely afflicted him and contended with him; The chief archers had him in hatred.

[¶44] 24. But his bow remained in strength, And the arms of his hands were made strong By the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob: By the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.

## 65. Genesis · 65 of 67

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[¶0] 25. By the God of thy father, for he helped thee; And God All-sufficient, he blessed thee, The blessing of the heavens from above, And the blessings lying in the deep beneath, The blessings of the breasts and of the womb

[¶1] 26. The blessings of thy father have prevailed Over the blessings of the eternal mountains, And the desirable things of the everlasting hills. These shall be on the head of Joseph, And on his crown who was separated from his brethren.

### Verse 22

[¶3] The sum of a fruitful vine - This appears to me to refer to Jacob himself, who was blessed with such a numerous posterity that in two hundred and fifteen years after this his own descendants amounted to upwards of 600,000 effective men; and the figures here are intended to point out the continual growth and increase of his posterity. Jacob was a fruitful tree planted by a fountain, which because it was good would yield good fruit; and because it was planted near a fountain, from being continually watered, would be perpetually fruitful. The same is used and applied to Jacob, [Deu 33:28] : The Fountain Of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn, and wine, etc.

[¶4] The daughters, בנות banoth, put here for branches, shoot over or run upon the wall - Alluding probably to the case of the vine, which requires to be supported by a wall, trees, etc. Some commentators have understood this literally, and have applied it to the Egyptian women, who were so struck with the beauty of Joseph as to get upon walls, the tops of houses, etc., to see him as he passed by. This is agreeable to the view taken of the subject by the Koran. See Clarke on [Gen 39:6] (note).

### Verse 23

[¶6] The chief archers - בעלי חצים baaley chitstsim, the masters of arrows - Joseph's brethren, who either used such weapons, while feeding their flocks in the deserts, for the protection of themselves and cattle, or for the purpose of hunting; and who probably excelled in archery. It may however refer to the bitter speeches and harsh words that they spoke to and of him, for they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him, [Gen 37:4]. Thus they sorely afflicted him, and were incessantly scolding or finding fault.

### Verse 24

[¶8] But his bow remained in strength - The more he was persecuted, either by his brethren or in Egypt, the more resplendent his uprightness and virtues shone: and the arms his extended power and influence, of his hands plans, designs, and particular operations of his prudence, judgment, discretion, etc., were all rendered successful by the hand - the powerful succor and protection, of the Mighty One of Jacob that God who blessed and protected all the counsels and plans of Jacob, and protected and increased him also when he was in a strange land, and often under the power of those who sought opportunities to oppress and defraud him.

[¶9] By the name of the Shepherd; the Rock of Israel - Jehovah, and El-Elohey Israel; see [Gen 33:20]. This appears to me to refer to the subject of the thirty-second chapter, where Jacob wrestled with God, had God's name revealed to him, and his own name changed from Jacob to Israel, in consequence of which he built an altar, and dedicated it to God, who had appeared to him under the name of Elohey-Israel, the strong God of Israel; which circumstance led him to use the term Rock, which, as an emblem of power, is frequently given to God in the sacred writings, and may here refer to the stone which Jacob set up. It is very probable that the word shepherd is intended to apply to our blessed Lord, who is the Shepherd of Israel, the good Shepherd, [Joh 10:11-17]; and who, beyond all controversy, was the person with whom Jacob wrestled. See Clarke on [Gen 16:7] (note) and [Gen 32:24] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶11] The God of thy father - How frequently God is called the God of Jacob none needs be told who reads the Bible.

[¶12] God All-sufficient - Instead of את שדי Eth Shaddai, The Almighty or All-sufficient; I read אל שדי El Shaddai, God All-sufficient; which is the reading of the Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac, and Coptic, and of three reputable MSS. In the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi. The copies used by those ancient versions had evidently אל El, God, and not את eth, The, a mistake produced in later times. On the word אל שדי El Shaddai, See Clarke on [Gen 17:1] (note).

[¶13] The blessing of the heavens from above - A generally pure, clear, serene sky, frequently dropping down fertilizing showers and dews, so as to make a very fruitful soil and salubrious atmosphere.

[¶14] Blessings lying in the deep beneath - Whatever riches could be gained from the sea or rivers, from mines and minerals in the bowels of the earth, and from abundant springs in different parts of his inheritance. Our translation of this line is excessively obscure: Blessings of the deep that lieth under. What is it that lies under the deep: By connecting ברכת bircoth, blessings, with רבצת robetseth, lying, all ambiguity is avoided, and the text speaks a plain and consistent sense.

[¶15] The blessings of the breasts and of the womb - A numerous offspring, and an abundance of cattle. The progeny of Joseph, by Ephraim and Manasseh, amounted at the first census or enumeration (Numbers 1). to 75,900 men, which exceeded the sum of any one tribe; Judah, the greatest of the others, amounting to no more than 74,600. Indeed, Ephraim and Manasseh had multiplied so greatly in the days of Joshua, that a common lot was not sufficient for them. See their complaint, [Jos 17:14].

### Verse 26

[¶17] The blessing of thy father, etc. - The blessings which thy father now prays for and pronounces are neither temporal nor transitory; they shall exceed in their duration the eternal mountains, and in their value and spiritual nature all the conveniences, comforts, and delicacies which the everlasting hills can produce. They shall last when the heavens and the earth are no more, and shall extend throughout eternity. They are the blessings which shall be communicated to the world by means of the Messiah.

[¶18] The Jerusalem Targum paraphrases the place thus: "The blessing of this father shall be added unto the blessings wherewith thy fathers Abraham and Isaac, who are likened to mountains, have blessed thee; and they shall exceed the blessings of the four mothers, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, who are likened to the hills: all these blessings shall be a crown of magnificence on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was a prince and governor in the land of Egypt."

[¶19] 27. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf: In the morning he shall devour the prey, And in the evening he shall divide the spoil.

[¶20] This tribe is very fitly compared to a ravenous wolf, because of the rude courage and ferocity which they have invariably displayed, particularly in their war with the other tribes, in which they killed more men than the whole of their own numbers amounted to. "This last tribe," says Dr. Hales, "is compared to a wolf for its ferocious and martial disposition, such as was evinced by their contests with the other tribes, in which, after two victories, they were almost exterminated, Judges 19, 20." Its union with the tribe of Judah seems to be intimated in their joint conquests, expressed nearly in the same terms: "Judah went up from the prey;" "Benjamin devoured the prey." Moses in his parallel prophecy, [Deu 33:12], confirms this by signifying that the sanctuary should be fixed in his lot, and that he should continue as long as the existence of the temple itself: -

[¶21] The Beloved Of The Lord shall dwell with him in safety,

[¶22] And shall cover him all the day long,

[¶23] And shall dwell between his shoulders. [Deu 33:12].

[¶24] In the morning, etc. - These expressions have been variously understood. The sense given above is that in which the principal interpreters agree; but Houbigant protests against the prophecy signifying the continuance of this tribe, as the words, "in the morning devouring the prey," and "in the evening dividing the spoil," are supposed to imply; "because," he observes, "after the return from the Babylonish captivity, this tribe is no more mentioned." But this may be accounted for from the circumstance of its being associated with that of Judah, (see [1Kgs 12:21-24]), after which it is scarcely ever mentioned but in that union. Being thus absorbed in the tribe of Judah, it continued from the morning till the evening of the Jewish dispensation, and consequently till the Lion of the tribe of Judah was seen in the wilderness of Israel. In the morning, according to Mr. Ainsworth, "signifies the first times; for Ehud of Benjamin was the second judge that saved the Israelites from the hands of the Moabites, [Jdg 3:15], etc. Saul of Benjamin was the first king of Israel; he and his son were great warriors, making a prey of many enemies, [1Sam 11:6], [1Sam 11:7], [1Sam 11:11]; [1Sam 14:13], [1Sam 14:15], [1Sam 14:47], [1Sam 14:48]. And the evening, the latter times; for Mordecai and Esther of Benjamin delivered the Jews from a great destruction, and slew their enemies, [Est 8:7], [Est 8:9], [Est 8:11]; [Est 9:5], [Est 9:6], [Est 9:15], [Est 9:16]."

### Verse 28

[¶26] Every one according to his blessing - That is, guided by the unerring Spirit of prophecy, Jacob now foretold to each of his sons all the important events which should take place during their successive generations, and the predominant characteristic of each tribe; and, at the same time, made some comparatively obscure references to the advent of the Messiah, and the redemption of the world by him.

### Verse 29

[¶28] Bury me with my fathers, etc. - From this it appears that the cave at Machpelah was a common burying-place for Hebrews of distinction; and indeed the first public burying-place mentioned in history. From [Gen 49:31] we find that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah, had been already deposited there, and among them Jacob wished to have his bones laid; and he left his dying charge with his children to bury him in this place, and this they conscientiously performed. See [Gen 50:13].

### Verse 33

[¶30] He gathered up his feet into the bed - It is very probable that while delivering these prophetic blessings Jacob sat upon the side of his bed, leaning upon his staff; and having finished, he lifted up his feet into the bed, stretched himself upon it, and expired!

[¶31] And was gathered unto his people - The testimony that this place bears to the immortality of the soul, and to its existence separate from the body, should not be lightly regarded. In the same moment in which Jacob is said to have gathered up his feet into the bed, and to have expired, it is added, and was gathered unto his people. It is certain that his body was not then gathered to his people, nor till seven weeks after; and it is not likely that a circumstance, so distant in point both of time and place, would have been thus anticipated, and associated with facts that took place in that moment. I cannot help therefore considering this an additional evidence for the immateriality of the soul, and that it was intended by the Holy Spirit to convey this grand and consolatory sentiment, that when a holy man ceases to live among his fellows, his soul becomes an inhabitant of another world, and is joined to the spirits of just men made perfect.

[¶32] 1. It has been conjectured (See Clarke [Gen 37:9] (note)) that the eleven stars that bowed down to Joseph might probably refer to the signs of the Zodiac, which were very anciently known in Egypt, and are supposed to have had their origin in Chaldea. On this supposition Joseph's eleven brethren answered to eleven of these signs, and himself to the twelfth. General Vallancy has endeavored, in his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. vi., part. ii., p. 343, to trace out the analogy between the twelve sons of Jacob and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, which Dr. Hales (Analysis, vol. ii., p. 165) has altered a little, and placed in a form in which it becomes more generally applicable. As this scheme is curious, many readers who may not have the opportunity of consulting the above works will be pleased to find it here. That there is an allusion to the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and probably to their ancient asterisms, may be readily credited; but how far the peculiar characteristics of the sons of Jacob were expressed by the animals in the Zodiac, is a widely different question.

[¶33] 1. Reuben - "Unstable (rather pouring out) as waters" - the sign Aquarius, represented as a man pouring out waters from an urn.

[¶34] 2. Simeon and Levi - "The united brethren" the sign Gemini or the Twins.

[¶35] 3. Judah - "The strong lion" - the sign Leo.

[¶36] 4. Asher - "His bread shall be fat" - the sign Virgo or the Virgin, generally represented as holding a full ear of corn.

[¶37] 5. Issachar - "A strong ass" or ox, both used in husbandry - the sign Taurus or the Bull.

[¶38] 6. and

[¶39] 7. Dan - "A serpent biting the horse's heels" - Scorpio, the Scorpion. On the celestial sphere the Scorpion is actually represented as biting the heel of the horse of the archer Sagittarius; and Chelae, "his claws," originally occupied the space of Libra.

[¶40] 8. Joseph - "His bow remained in strength" - the sign Sagittarius, the archer or bowman; commonly represented, even on the Asiatic Zodiacs, with his bow bent, and the arrow drawn up to the head - the bow in full strength.

[¶41] 9. Naphtali - by a play on his name, טלה taleh, the ram - the sign Aries, according to the rabbins.

[¶42] 10. Zebulun - "A haven for ships" - denoted by Cancer, the crab.

[¶43] 11. Gad - "A troop or army" - reversed, dag, a fish - the sign Pisces.

[¶44] 12. Benjamin - "A ravening wolf" - Capricorn, which on the Egyptian sphere was represented by a goat led by Pan, with a wolf's head. What likelihood the reader may see in all this, I cannot pretend to say; but that the twelve signs were at that time known in Egypt and Chaldea, there can be little doubt.

## 66. Genesis · 66 of 67

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[¶0] 2. We have now seen the life of Jacob brought to a close; and have carefully traced it through all its various fortunes, as the facts presented themselves in the preceding chapters. Isaac his father was what might properly be called a good man; but in strength of mind he appears to have fallen far short of his father Abraham, and his son Jacob. Having left the management of his domestic concerns to Rebekah his wife, who was an artful and comparatively irreligious woman, the education of his sons was either neglected or perverted. The unhappy influence which the precepts and example of his mother had on the mind of her son we have seen and deplored. Through the mercy of God Jacob outlived the shady part of his own character, and his last days were his brightest and his best. He had many troubles and difficulties in life, under which an inferior mind must have necessarily sunk; but being a worker together with the providence of God, his difficulties only served in general to whet his invention, and draw out the immense resources of his own mind. He had to do with an avaricious, procrastinating relative, as destitute of humanity as he was of justice. Let this plead something in his excuse. He certainly did outwit his father-in-law; and yet, probably, had no more than the just recompense of his faithful services in the successful issue of all his devices. From the time in which God favored him with that wonderful manifestation of grace at Peniel, Genesis 32, he became a new man. He had frequent discoveries of God before, to encourage him in journeys, secular affairs, etc.; but none in which the heart-changing power of Divine grace was so abundantly revealed. Happy he whose last days are his best! We can scarcely conceive a scene more noble or dignified than that exhibited at the deathbed of Jacob. This great man was now one hundred and forty-seven years of age; though his body, by the waste of time, was greatly enfeebled, yet with a mind in perfect vigor, and a hope full of immortality, he calls his numerous family together, all of them in their utmost state of prosperity, and gives them his last counsels, and his dying blessing. His declarations show that the secret of the Lord was with him, and that his candle shone bright upon his tabernacle. Having finished his work, with perfect possession of all his faculties, and being determined that while he was able to help himself none should be called in to assist, (which was one of the grand characteristics of his life), he, with that dignity which became a great man and a man of God stretched himself upon his bed, and rather appears to have conquered death than to have suffered it. Who, seeing the end of this illustrious patriarch, can help exclaiming, There is none like the God of Jeshurun! Let Jacob's God be my God! Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! Reader, God is still the same: and though he may not make thee as great as was Jacob, yet he is ready to make thee as good; and, whatever thy past life may have been, to crown thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies, that thy end also may be peace.

### Introduction

[¶2] Joseph bewails the death of his father, and commands the physicians to embalm him, [Gen 50:1], [Gen 50:2]. The Egyptians mourn for him seventy days, [Gen 50:3]. Joseph begs permission from Pharaoh to accompany his father's corpse to Canaan, [Gen 50:4], [Gen 50:5]. Pharaoh consents, [Gen 50:6]. Pharaoh's domestics and elders, the elders of Egypt, Joseph and his brethren, with chariots, horsemen, etc., form the funeral procession, [Gen 50:7-9]. They come to the threshing-floor of Atad, and mourn there seven days, [Gen 50:10]. The Canaanites call the place Abel-Mizraim, [Gen 50:11]. They bury Jacob in the cove of Machpelah, [Gen 50:12], [Gen 50:13]. Joseph returns to Egypt, [Gen 50:14]. His brethren, fearing his displeasure, send messengers to him to entreat his forgiveness of past wrongs, [Gen 50:15-17]. They follow, and prostrate themselves before him, and offer to be his servants, [Gen 50:18]. Joseph receives them affectionately, and assures them and theirs of his care and protection, [Gen 50:19-21]. Joseph and his brethren dwell in Egypt, and he sees the third generation of his children, [Gen 50:22], [Gen 50:23]. Being about to die, he prophecies the return of the children of Israel from Egypt, [Gen 50:24], and causes them to swear that they will carry his bones to Canaan, [Gen 50:25]. Joseph dies, aged one hundred and ten years; is embalmed, and put in a coffin in Egypt, [Gen 50:26].

### Verse 1

[¶4] Joseph fell upon his father's face - Though this act appears to be suspended by the unnatural division of this verse from the preceding chapter, yet we may rest assured it was the immediate consequence of Jacob's death.

### Verse 2

[¶6] The physicians - רפאים ropheim, the healers, those whose business it was to heal or restore the body from sickness by the administration of proper medicines; and when death took place, to heal or preserve it from dissolution by embalming, and thus give it a sort of immortality or everlasting duration. The original word חנט chanat, which we translate to embalm, has undoubtedly the same meaning with the Arabic hanata, which also signifies to embalm, or to preserve from putrefaction by the application of spices, etc., and hence hantat, an embalmer. The word is used to express the reddening of leather; and probably the ideal meaning may be something analogous to our tanning, which consists in removing the moisture, and closing up the pores so as to render them impervious to wet. This probably is the grand principle in embalming; and whatever effects this, will preserve flesh as perfectly as skin. Who can doubt that a human muscle, undergoing the same process of tanning as the hide of an ox, would not become equally incorruptible? I have seen a part of the muscle of a human thigh, that, having come into contact with some tanning matter, either in the coffin or in the grave, was in a state of perfect soundness, when the rest of the body had been long reduced to earth; and it exhibited the appearance of a thick piece of well tanned leather.

[¶7] In the art of embalming, the Egyptians excelled all nations in the world; with them it was a common practice. Instances of the perfection to which they carried this art may be seen in the numerous mummies, as they are called, which are found in different European cabinets, and which have been all brought from Egypt. This people not only embalmed men and women, and thus kept the bodies of their beloved relatives from the empire of corruption, but they embalmed useful animals also. I have seen the body of the Ibris thus preserved; and though the work had been done for some thousands of years, the very feathers were in complete preservation, and the color of the plumage discernible. The account of this curious process, the articles used, and the manner of applying them, I subjoin from Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, as also the manner of their mournings and funeral solemnities, which are highly illustrative of the subjects in this chapter. "When any man of quality dies," says Herodotus, "all the women of that family besmear their heads and faces with dirt; then, leaving the body at home, they go lamenting up and down the city with all their relations; their apparel being girt about them, and their breasts left naked. On the other hand the men, having likewise their clothes girt about them, beat themselves. These things being done, they carry the dead body to be embalmed; for which there are certain persons appointed who profess this art. These, when the body is brought to them, show to those that bring it certain models of dead persons in wood, according to any of which the deceased may be painted. One of these they say is accurately made like to one whom, in such a matter, I do not think lawful to name; του ουκ ὁσιον ποιουμαι το ουνομα επι τοιουτῳ πρηγματι ονομαζειν; (probably Osiris, one of the principal gods of Egypt, is here intended); then they show a second inferior to it, and of an easier price; and next a third, cheaper than the former, and of a very small value; which being seen, they ask them after which model the deceased shall be represented. When they have agreed upon the price they depart; and those with whom the dead corpse is left proceed to embalm it after the following manner: First of all, they with a crooked iron draw the brain out of the head through the nostrils; next, with a sharp Ethiopic stone they cut up that part of the abdomen called the ilia, and that way draw out all the bowels, which, having cleansed and washed with palm wine, they again rinse and wash with wine perfumed with pounded odors: then filling up the belly with pure myrrh and cassia grossly powdered, and all other odors except frankincense, they sew it up again. Having so done, they salt it up close with nitre seventy days, for longer they may not salt it. After this number of days are over they wash the corpse again, and then roll it up with fine linen, all besmeared with a sort of gum, commonly used by the Egyptians instead of glue. Then is the body restored to its relations, who prepare a wooden coffin for it in the shape and likeness of a man, and then put the embalmed body into it, and thus enclosed, place it in a repository in the house, setting it upright against the wall. After this manner they, with great expense, preserve their dead; whereas those who to avoid too great a charge desire a mediocrity, thus embalm them: they neither cut the belly nor pluck out the entrails, but fill it with clysters of oil of cedar injected up the anus, and then salt it the aforesaid number of days. On the last of these they press out the cedar clyster by the same way they had injected it, which has such virtue and efficacy that it brings out along with it the bowels wasted, and the nitre consumes the flesh, leaving only the skin and bones: having thus done, they restore the dead body to the relations, doing nothing more. The third way of embalming is for those of yet meaner circumstances; they with lotions wash the belly, then dry it up with salt for seventy days, and afterwards deliver it to be carried away. Nevertheless, beautiful women and ladles of quality were not delivered to be embalmed till three or four days after they had been dead;" for which Herodotus assigns a sufficient reason, however degrading to human nature: Τουτο δε ποιεουσι οὑτω τουδε εἱνεκα, ἱνα μη σφι οἱ ταριχευται μισγωνται τῃσι γυναιξι· λαμφθηναι γαρ τινα φασι μισγομενον νεκρῳ προσφατῳ γυναικος· κατειπαι δε τον ὁμοτεχνον. [The original should not be put into a plainer language; the abomination to which it refers being too gross]. "But if any stranger or Egyptian was either killed by a crocodile or drowned in the river, the city where he was cast up was to embalm and bury him honorably in the sacred monuments, whom no one, no, not a relation or friend, but the priests of the Nile only, might touch; because they buried one who was something more than a dead man." - Herod. Euterpe, p. 120, ed. Gale.

[¶8] Diodorus Siculus relates the funeral ceremonies of the Egyptians more distinctly and clearly, and with some very remarkable additional circumstances. "When any one among the Egyptians dies," says he, "all his relations and friends, putting dirt upon their heads, go lamenting about the city, till such time as the body shall be buried: in the meantime, they abstain from baths and wine, and all kinds of delicate meats; neither do they, during that time, wear any costly apparel. The manner of their burials is threefold: one very costly, a second sort less chargeable, and a third very mean. In the first, they say, there is spent a talent of silver; in the second, twenty minae; but in the last there is very little expense. 'Those who have the care of ordering the body are such as have been taught that art by their ancestors. These, showing each kind of burial, ask them after what manner they will have the body prepared. When they have agreed upon the manner, they deliver the body to such as are usually appointed for this office. First, he who has the name of scribe, laying it upon the ground, marks about the flank on the left side how much is to be cut away; then he who is called παρασχιστης, paraschistes, the cutter or dissector, with an Ethiopic stone, cuts away as much of the flesh as the law commands, and presently runs away as fast as he can; those who are present, pursuing him, cast stones at him, and curse him, hereby turning all the execrations which they imagine due to his office upon him. For whosoever offers violence, wounds, or does any kind of injury to a body of the same nature with himself, they think him worthy of hatred: but those who are ταριχευται, taricheutae, the embalmers, they esteem worthy of honor and respect; for they are familiar with their priests, and go into the temples as holy men, without any prohibition. As soon as they come to embalm the dissected body, one of them thrusts his hand through the wound into the abdomen, and draws forth all the bowels but the heart and kidneys, which another washes and cleanses with wine made of palms and aromatic odors. Lastly, having washed the body, they anoint it with oil of cedar and other things for about thirty days, and afterwards with myrrh, cinnamon, and other such like matters, which have not only a power to preserve it a long time, but also give it a sweet smell; after which they deliver it to the kindred in such manner that every member remains whole and entire, and no part of it changed, but the beauty and shape of the face seem just as they were before; and the person may be known, even the eyebrows and eyelids remaining as they were at first. By this means many of the Egyptians, keeping the dead bodies of their ancestors in magnificent houses, so perfectly see the true visage and countenance of those that died many ages before they themselves were born, that in viewing the proportions of every one of them, and the lineaments of their faces, they take as much delight as if they were still living among them. Moreover, the friends and nearest relations of the deceased, for the greater pomp of the solemnity, acquaint the judges and the rest of their friends with the time prefixed for the funeral or day of sepulture, declaring that such a one (calling the dead by his name) is such a day to pass the lake; at which time above forty judges appear, and sit together in a semicircle, in a place prepared on the hither side of the lake, where a ship, provided beforehand by such as have the care of the business, is haled up to the shore, and steered by a pilot whom the Egyptians in their language called Charon. Hence they say Orpheus, upon seeing this ceremony while he was in Egypt, invented the fable of hell, partly imitating therein the people of Egypt, and partly adding somewhat of his own. The ship being thus brought to the lake side, before the coffin is put on board every one is at liberty by the law to accuse the dead of what he thinks him guilty. If any one proves he was a bad man, the judges give sentence that the body shall be deprived of sepulture; but in case the informer be convicted of false accusation, then he is severely punished. If no accuser appear, or the information prove false, then all the kindred of the deceased leave off mourning, and begin to set forth his praises, yet say nothing of his birth, (as the custom is among the Greeks), because the Egyptians all think themselves equally noble; but they recount how the deceased was educated from his youth and brought up to man's estate, exalting his piety towards the gods, and justice towards men, his chastity, and other virtues wherein he excelled; and lastly pray and call upon the infernal deities (τους κατω θεους, the gods below) to receive him into the societies of the just. The common people take this from the others, and consequently all is said in his praise by a loud shout, setting forth likewise his virtues in the highest strains of commendation, as one that is to live for ever with the infernal gods. Then those that have tombs of their own inter the corpse in places appointed for that purpose; and they that have none rear up the body in its coffin against some strong wall of their house. But such as are denied sepulture on account of some crime or debt, are laid up at home without coffins; yet when it shall afterwards happen that any of their posterity grows rich, he commonly pays off the deceased person's debts, and gets his crimes absolved, and so buries him honorably; for the Egyptians are wont to boast of their parents and ancestors that were honorably buried. It is a custom likewise among them to pawn the dead bodies of their parents to their creditors; but then those that do not redeem them fall under the greatest disgrace imaginable, and are denied burial themselves at their deaths." - Diod. Sic. Biblioth., lib. i., cap. 91-93, edit. Bipont. See also the Necrokedia, or Art of Embalming, by Greenhill, 4th., p. 241, who endeavored in vain to recommend and restore the art But he could not give his countrymen Egyptian manners; for a dead carcass is to the British an object of horror, and scarcely any, except a surgeon or an undertaker, cares to touch it.

### Verse 3

[¶10] Forty days - The body it appears required this number of days to complete the process of embalming; afterwards it lay in natron thirty days more, making in the whole seventy days, according to the preceding accounts, during which the mourning was continued.

### Verse 4

[¶12] Speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh - But why did not Joseph apply himself? Because he was now in his mourning habits, and in such none must appear in the presence of the eastern monarchs. See [Est 4:2].

### Verse 7

[¶14] The elders of his house - Persons who, by reason of their age, had acquired much experience; and who on this account were deemed the best qualified to conduct the affairs of the king's household. Similar to these were the Eldermen, or Aldermen, among our Saxon ancestors, who were senators and peers of the realm. The funeral procession of Jacob must have been truly grand. Joseph, his brethren and their descendants, the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders - all the principal men, of the land of Egypt, with chariots and horsemen, must have appeared a very great company indeed. We have seen Lords, for their greater honor, buried at the public expense; and all the male branches of the royal family, as well as the most eminent men of the nation, join in the funeral procession, as in the case of the late Lord Nelson; but what was all this in comparison of the funeral solemnity now before us? Here was no conqueror, no mighty man of valor, no person of proud descent; here was only a plain man, who had dwelt almost all his life long in tents, without any other subjects than his cattle, and whose kingdom was not of this world. Behold this man honored by a national mourning, and by a national funeral! It may be said indeed that "all this was done out of respect to Joseph." Be it so; why was Joseph thus respected? Was it because he had conquered nations, had made his sword drunk with blood, had triumphed over the enemies of Egypt? No! But because he had saved men alive; because he was the king's faithful servant, the rich man's counsellor, and the poor man's friend. He was a national blessing; and the nation mourns in his affliction, and unites to do him honor.

### Verse 10

[¶16] The threshing-floor of Atad - As אטד atad signifies a bramble or thorn, it has been understood by the Arabic, not as a man's name, but as the name of a place; but all the other versions and the Targums consider it as the name of a man. Threshing-floors were always in a field, in the open air; and Atad was probably what we would call a great farmer or chief of some clan or tribe in that place. Jerome supposed the place to have been about two leagues from Jericho; but we have no certain information on this point. The funeral procession stopped here, probably as affording pasturage to their cattle while they observed the seven days' mourning which terminated the funeral solemnities, after which nothing remained but the interment of the corpse. The mourning of the ancient Hebrews was usually of seven days' continuance, [Num 19:19]; [1Sam 31:13]; though on certain occasions it was extended to thirty days, [Num 20:29]; [Deu 21:13]; [Deu 34:8], but never longer. The seventy days' mourning mentioned above was that of the Egyptians, and was rendered necessary by the long process of embalming, which obliged them to keep the body out of the grave for seventy days, as we learn both from Herodotus and Diodorus. Seven days by the order of God a man was to mourn for his dead, because during that time he was considered as unclean; but when those were finished he was to purify himself, and consider the mourning as ended; [Num 19:11], [Num 19:19]. Thus God gave seven days, in some cases thirty, to mourn in: man, ever in his own estimation wiser than the word of God, has added eleven whole months to the term, which nature itself pronounces to be absurd, because it is incapable of supporting grief for such a time; and thus mourning is now, except in the first seven or thirty days, a mere solemn ill-conducted Farce, a grave mimicry, a vain show, that convicts itself of its own hypocrisy. Who will rise up on the side of God and common sense, and restore becoming sorrow on the death of a relative to decency of garb and moderation in its continuance? Suppose the near relatives of the deceased were to be allowed seven days of seclusion from society, for the purpose of meditating on death and eternity, and after this to appear in a mourning habit for thirty days; every important end would be accomplished, and hypocrisy, the too common attendant of man, be banished, especially from that part of his life in which deep sincerity is not less becoming than in the most solemn act of his religious intercourse with God.

[¶17] In a kind of politico-religious institution formed by his late majesty Ferdinand IV., king of Naples and the Sicilies, I find the following rational institute relative to this point: "There shall be no mourning among you but only on the death of a father, mother, husband, or wife. To render to these the last duties of affection, children, wives, and husbands only shall be permitted to wear a sign or emblem of grief: a man may wear a crape tied round his right arm; a woman, a black handkerchief around her neck; and this in both cases for only two months at the most." Is there a purpose which religion, reason, or decency can demand that would not be answered by such external mourning as this? Only such relatives as the above, brothers and sisters being included, can mourn; all others make only a part of the dumb hypocritical show.

### Verse 12

[¶19] And his sons did unto him - This and the thirteenth verse have been supposed by Mr. Locke and others to belong to the conclusion of the preceding chapter, in which connection they certainly read more consistently than they do here.

### Verse 15

[¶21] Saw that their father was dead - This at once argues both a sense of guilt in their own consciences, and a want of confidence in their brother. They might have supposed that hitherto he had forborne to punish them merely on their father's account; but now that he was dead, and Joseph having them completely in his power, they imagined that he would take vengeance on them for their former conduct towards him.

[¶22] Thus conscience records criminality; and, by giving birth to continual fears and doubtfulness, destroys all peace of mind, security, and confidence. On this subject an elegant poet has spoken with his usual point and discernment: -

[¶23] Exemplo quodcumque malo committitur, ipsi

[¶24] Displicet auctori. Prima est haec ultio, quod se

[¶25] Judice nemo nocens absolvitur, improba quamvis

[¶26] Gratia fallaci Praetoris vicerit urna.

[¶27] Juv. Sat. xiii. 1, etc.

[¶28] Happily metaphrased by Mr. Dryden: -

[¶29] He that commits a fault shall quickly find The pressing guilt lie heavy on his mind. Though bribes, or favor shall assert his cause, Pronounce him guiltless, and elude the laws, None quits himself; his own impartial thought Will damn, and conscience will record the fault. This, first, the wicked feels.

[¶30] We have seen this in the preceding history often exemplified in the case of Joseph's brethren.

### Verse 16

[¶32] Thy father did command - Whether he did or not we cannot tell. Some think they had feigned this story, but that is not so likely. Jacob might have had suspicions too, and might have thought that the best way to prevent evil was to humble themselves before their brother, and get a fresh assurance of his forgiveness.

### Verse 17

[¶34] The servants of the God of thy father - These words were wonderfully well chosen, and spoken in the most forcible manner to Joseph's piety and filial affection. No wonder then that he wept when they spake to him.

### Verse 19

[¶36] Am I in the place of God? - These words may be understood either as a question, or an affirmative proposition. How should I take any farther notice of your transgression? I have passed it by, the matter lies now between God and you. Or, in the order of Divine providence I am now in God's place; he has furnished me with means, and made me a distributor of his bounty; I will therefore not only nourish you, but also your little ones, [Gen 50:21] : and therefore he spake comfortably unto them, as in [Gen 45:8], telling them that he attributed the whole business to the particular providence of God rather than to any ill will or malice in them, and that, in permitting him to be brought into Egypt, God had graciously saved their lives, the life of their father, the lives of the people of Canaan, and of the Egyptians: as therefore God had honored him by making him vicegerent in the dispensations of his especial bounty towards so many people, it was impossible he should be displeased with the means by which this was brought about.

### Verse 22

[¶38] Joseph dwelt in Egypt - Continued in Egypt after his return from Canaan till his death; he, and his father's house - all the descendants of Israel, till the exodus or departure under the direction of Moses and Aaron, which was one hundred and forty-four years after.

### Verse 23

[¶40] Were brought up upon Joseph's knees - They were educated by him, or under his direction; his sons and their children continuing to acknowledge him as patriarch, or head of the family, as long as he lived.

### Verse 24

[¶42] Joseph said - I die - That is, I am dying; and God will surely visit you - he will yet again give you, in the time when it shall be essentially necessary, the most signal proof of his unbounded love towards the seed of Jacob.

[¶43] And bring you out of this land - Though ye have here every thing that can render life comfortable, yet this is not the typical land, the land given by covenant, the land which represents the rest that remains for the people of God.

## 67. Genesis · 67 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/67/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/67/#p-N

### Verse 25

[¶1] Ye shall carry up my bones - That I may finally rest with my ancestors in the land which God gave to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and which is a pledge as it is a type of the kingdom of Heaven. Thus says the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, [Heb 11:22] : "By Faith Joseph, when he died, (τελευτων, when dying), made mention of the departure (εξοδου, of the Exodus) of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. From this it is evident that Joseph considered all these things as typical, and by this very commandment expressed his faith in the immortality of the soul, and the general resurrection of the dead. This oath, by which Joseph then bound his brethren, their posterity considered as binding on themselves; and Moses took care, when he departed from Egypt, to carry up Joseph's body with him, [Exo 13:19]; which was afterwards buried in Shechem, [Jos 24:32], the very portion which Jacob had purchased from the Amorites, and which he gave to his son Joseph, [Gen 48:22]; [Act 7:16]. See the reason for this command as given by Chrysostom, vol. ii., p. 695, sec. D.E.

### Verse 26

[¶3] Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old - בן מאה ועשר שנים ben meah vaeser shanim; literally, the son of a hundred and ten years. Here the period of time he lived is personified, all the years of which it was composed being represented as a nurse or father, feeding, nourishing, and supporting him to the end. This figure, which is termed by rhetoricians prosopopaeia, is very frequent in Scripture; and by this virtues, vices, forms, attributes, and qualities, with every part of inanimate nature, are represented as endued with reason and speech, and performing all the actions of intelligent beings.

[¶4] They embalmed him - See Clarke on [Gen 50:2] (note). The same precautions were taken to preserve his body as to preserve that of his father Jacob; and this was particularly necessary in his case, 'because his body was to be carried to Canaan a hundred and forty-four years after; which was the duration of the Israelites' bondage after the death of Joseph.

[¶5] And he was put in a coffin in Egypt - On this subject I shall subjoin some useful remarks from Harmer's Observations, which several have borrowed without acknowledgment. I quoted my own edition of this Work, vol. iii., p. 69, etc. Lond. 1808. "There were some methods of honoring the dead which demand our attention; the being put into a coffin has been in particular considered as a mark of distinction. "With us the poorest people have their coffins; if the relations cannot afford them, the parish is at the expense. In the east, on the contrary, they are not always used, even in our times. The ancient Jews probably buried their dead in the same manner: neither was the body of our Lord put in a coffin, nor that of Elisha, whose bones were touched by the corpse that was let down a little after into his sepulcher, [2Kgs 13:21]. That coffins were anciently used in Egypt, all agree; and antique coffins of stone and of sycamore wood are still to be seen in that country, not to mention those said to be made of a sort of pasteboard, formed by folding and gluing cloth together a great number of times, curiously plastered, and then painted with hieroglyphics. "As it was an ancient Egyptian custom, and was not used in the neighboring countries, on these accounts the sacred historian was doubtless led to observe of Joseph that he was not only embalmed, but was also put in a coffin, both being practices almost peculiar to the Egyptians. "Mr. Maillet conjectures that all were not enclosed in coffins which were laid in the Egyptian repositories of the dead, but that it was an honor appropriated to persons of distinction; for after having given an account of several niches which are found in those chambers of death, he adds: 'But it must not be imagined that the bodies deposited in these gloomy apartments were all enclosed in chests, and placed in niches. The greater part were simply embalmed and swathed, after which they laid them one by the side of the other, without any ceremony. Some were even put into these tombs without any embalming at all, or with such a slight one that there remains nothing of them in the linen in which they were wrapped but the bones, and these half rotten. It is probable that each considerable family had one of these burial-places to themselves; that the niches were designed for the bodies of the heads of the family; and that those of their domestics and slaves had no other care taken of them than merely laying them in the ground after being slightly embalmed, and sometimes even without that; which was probably all that was done to heads of families of less distinction.'-Lett. 7, p. 281. The same author gives an account of a mode of burial anciently practiced in that country, which has been but recently discovered: it consisted in placing the bodies, after they were swathed up, on a layer of charcoal, and covering them with a mat, under a bed of sand seven or eight feet deep. "Hence it seems evident that coffins were not universally used in Egypt, and were only used for persons of eminence and distinction. It is also reasonable to believe that in times so remote as those of Joseph they might have been much less common than afterwards, and that consequently Joseph's being put in a coffin in Egypt might be mentioned with a design to express the great honors the Egyptians did him in death, as well as in life; being treated after the most sumptuous manner, embalmed, and put into a coffin."

[¶6] It is no objection to this account that the widow of Nain's son is represented as carried forth to be buried in a σορος or bier; for the present inhabitants of the Levant, who are well known to lay their dead in the earth unenclosed, carry them frequently out to burial in a kind of coffin, which is not deposited in the grave, the body being taken out of it, and placed in the grave in a reclining posture. It is probable that the coffins used at Nain were of the same kind, being intended for no other purpose but to carry the body to the place of interment, the body itself being buried without them.

[¶7] It is very probable that the chief difference was not in being with or without a coffin, but in the expensiveness of the coffin itself; some of the Egyptian coffins being made of granite, and covered all over with hieroglyphics, the cutting of which must have been done at a prodigious expense, both of time and money; the stone being so hard that we have no tools by which we can make any impression on it. Two of these are now in the British Museum, that appear to have belonged to some of the nobles of Egypt. They are dug out of the solid stone, and adorned with almost innumerable hieroglyphics. One of these, vulgarly called Alexander's tomb, is ten feet three inches and a quarter long, ten inches thick in the sides, in breadth at top five feet three inches and a half, in breadth at bottom four feet two inches and a half, and three feet ten in depth, and weighs about ten tons. In such a coffin I suppose the body of Joseph was deposited; and such a one could not have been made and transported to Canaan at an expense that any private individual could bear. It was with incredible labor and at an extraordinary expense that the coffin in question was removed the distance of but a few miles, from the ship that brought it from Egypt, to its present residence in the British Museum. Judge, then, at what an expense such a coffin must have been dug, engraved, and transported over the desert from Egypt to Canaan, a distance of three hundred miles! We need not be surprised to hear of carriages and horsemen, a very great company, when such a coffin was to be carried so far, with a suitable company to attend it.

[¶8] Joseph's life was the shortest of all the patriarchs, for which Bishop Patrick gives a sound physical reason - he was the son of his father's old age. It appears from Archbishop Usher's Chronology that Joseph governed Egypt under four kings, Mephramuthosis, Thmosis, Amenophis, and Orus. His government, we know, lasted eighty years; for when he stood before Pharaoh he was thirty years of age, [Gen 41:46], and he died when he was one hundred and ten.

[¶9] On the character and conduct of Joseph many remarks have already been made in the preceding notes. On the subject of his piety there can be but one opinion. It was truly exemplary, and certainly was tried in cases in which few instances occur of persevering fidelity. His high sense of the holiness of God, the strong claims of justice, and the rights of hospitality and gratitude, led him, in the instance of the solicitations of his master's wife, to act a part which, though absolutely just and proper, can never be sufficiently praised. Heathen authors boast of some persons of such singular constancy; but the intelligent reader will recollect that these relations stand in general in their fabulous histories, and are destitute of those characteristics which truth essentially requires; such, I mean, as the story of Hippolytus and Phaedra, Bellerophon and Antea or Sthenobaea, Peleus and Astydamia, and others of this complexion, which appear to be marred pictures, taken from this highly finished original which the inspired writer has fairly drawn from life.

[¶10] His fidelity to his master is not less evident, and God's approbation of his conduct is strongly marked; for he caused whatsoever he did to prosper, whether a slave in the house of his master, a prisoner in the dungeon, or a prime minister by the throne, which is a full proof that his ways pleased him; and this is more clearly seen in the providential deliverances by which he was favored.

[¶11] On the political conduct of Joseph there are conflicting opinions. On the one hand it is asserted that "he found the Egyptians a free people, and that he availed himself of a most afflicting providence of God to reduce them all to a state of slavery, destroyed their political consequence, and made their king despotic." In all these respects his political measures have been strongly vindicated, not only as being directed by God, but as being obviously the best, every thing considered, for the safety, honor, and welfare of his sovereign and the kingdom. It is true he bought the lands of the people for the king, but he farmed them to the original occupiers again, at the moderate and fixed crown rent of one-fifth part of the produce. "Thus did he provide for the liberty and independence of the people, while he strengthened the authority of the king by making him sole proprietor of the lands. And to secure the people from farther exaction, Joseph made it a law over all the land of Egypt, that Pharaoh (i. e. the king) should have only the fifth part; which law subsisted to the time of Moses, [Gen 47:21-26]. By this wise regulation," continues Dr. Hales, "the people had four-fifths of the produce of the lands for their own use, and were exempted from any farther taxes, the king being bound to support his civil and military establishment out of the crown rents." By the original constitution of Egypt established by Menes, and Thoth or Hermes his prime minister, the lands were divided into three portions, between the king, the priests, and the military, each party being bound to support its respective establishment by the produce. See the quotations from Diodorus Siculus, in the note on [Gen 47:23] (note). It is certain, therefore, that the constitution of Egypt was considerably altered by Joseph, and there can be no doubt that much additional power was, by this alteration, vested in the hands of the king; but as we do not find that any improper use was made of this power, we may rest assured that it was so qualified and restricted by wholesome regulations, though they are not here particularized, as completely to prevent all abuse of the regal power, and all tyrannical usurpation of popular rights. That the people were nothing but slaves to the king, the military, and the priests before, appears from the account given by Diodorus; each of the three estates probably allowing them a certain portion of land for their own use, while cultivating the rest for the use and emolument of their masters. Matters, however, became more regular under the administration of Joseph; and it is perhaps not too much to say, that, previously to this, Egypt was without a fixed regular constitution, and that it was not the least of the blessings that it owed to the wisdom and prudence of Joseph, that he reduced it to a regular form of government, giving the people such an interest in the safety of the state as was well calculated to insure their exertions to defend the nation, and render the constitution fixed and permanent.

[¶12] It is well known that Justin, one of the Roman historians, has made particular and indeed honorable mention of Joseph's administration in Egypt, in the account he gives of Jewish affairs, lib. 36. cap. 2. How the relation may have stood in Trogus Pompeius, from whose voluminous works in forty-four books or volumes Justin abridged his history, we cannot tell, as the work of Trogus is irrecoverably lost; but it is evident that the account was taken in the main from the Mosaic history, and it is written with as much candor as can be expected from a prejudiced and unprincipled heathen.

[¶13] Minimus aetate inter fratres Joseph fruit, etc. "Joseph was the youngest of his brethren, who, being envious of his excellent endowments, stole him and privately sold him to a company of foreign merchants, by whom he was carried into Egypt; where, having diligently cultivated magic arts, he became, in a short time, a prime favorite with the king himself. For he was the most sagacious of men in explaining prodigies; and he was the first who constructed the science of interpreting dreams. Nor was there any thing relative to laws human or Divine with which he seemed unacquainted; for he predicted a failure of the crops many years before it took place; and the inhabitants of Egypt must have been famished had not the king, through his counsel, made an edict to preserve the fruits for several years. And his experiments were so powerful, that the responses appear to have been given, not by man, but by God." Tantaque experimenta ejus fuerunt, ut non ab homine, sed a Deo, responsa dari viderentur. I believe Justin refers here in the word experimenta, to his figment of magical incantations eliciting oracular answers. Others have translated the words: "So excellent were his regulations that they seemed rather to be oracular responses, not given by man, but by God."

[¶14] I have already compared Joseph with his father Jacob, See Clarke on [Gen 48:12] (note), and shall make no apology for having given the latter a most decided superiority. Joseph was great; but his greatness came through the interposition of especial providences. Jacob was great, mentally and practically great, under the ordinary workings of Providence; and, towards the close of his life, not less distinguished for piety towards God than his son Joseph was in the holiest period of his life.

[¶15] Thus terminates the Book of Genesis, the most ancient record in the world; including the history of two grand subjects, Creation and Providence, of each of which it gives a summary, but astonishingly minute, and detailed account. From this book almost all the ancient philosophers, astronomers, chronologists, and historians have taken their respective data; and all the modern improvements and accurate discoveries in different arts and sciences have only served to confirm the facts detailed by Moses; and to show that all the ancient writers on these subjects have approached to or receded from Truth and the phenomena of nature, in proportion as they have followed the Mosaic history.

[¶16] In this book the Creative Power and Energy of God are first introduced to the reader's notice, and the mind is overwhelmed with those grand creative acts by which the universe was brought into being. When this account is completed, and the introduction of Sin, and its awful consequences in the destruction of the earth by a flood, noticed, then the Almighty Creator is next introduced as the Restorer and Preserver of the world; and thus the history of Providence commences: a history in which the mind of man is alternately delighted and confounded with the infinitely varied plans of wisdom and mercy in preserving the human species, counteracting the evil propensities of men and devils by means of gracious influences conveyed through religious institutions, planting and watering the seeds of righteousness which himself had sowed in the hearts of men, and leading forward and maturing the grand purposes of his grace in the final salvation of the human race.

[¶17] After giving a minutely detailed account of the peopling of the earth, ascertaining and settling the bounds of the different nations of mankind, the sacred writer proceeds with the history of one family only; but he chooses that one through which, as from an ever-during fountain, the streams of justice, grace, goodness, wisdom, and truth, should emanate. Here we see a pure well of living water, springing up into eternal life, restrained in its particular influence to one people till, in the fullness of time, the fountain should be opened in the house of David for sin and for uncleanness in general, and the earth filled with the knowledge and salvation of God; thus by means of one family, as extensive a view of the economy of providence and grace is afforded as it is possible for the human mind to comprehend.

[¶18] In this epitome how wonderful do the workings of Providence appear! An astonishing concatenated train of stupendous and minute events is laid before us; and every transaction is so distinctly marked as everywhere to exhibit the finger, the hand, or the arm of God! But did God lavish his providential cares and attention on this one family, exclusive of the rest of his intelligent offspring? No: for the same superintendence, providential direction, and influence, would be equally seen in all the concerns of human life, in the preservation of individuals, the rise and fall of kingdoms and states, and in all the mighty Revolutions, natural, moral, and political, in the universe, were God, as in the preceding instances, to give us the detailed history; but what was done in the family of Abraham, was done in behalf of the whole human race. This specimen is intended to show us that God does work, and that against him and the operations of his hand, no might, no counsel, no cunning of men or devils, can prevail; that he who walks uprightly walks securely; and that all things work together for good to them who love God; that none is so ignorant, low, or lost, that God cannot instruct, raise up, and save. In a word, he shows himself by this history to be the invariable friend of mankind, embracing every opportunity to do them good, and, to speak after the manner of men, rejoicing in the frequent recurrence of such opportunities; that every man, considering the subject, may be led to exclaim in behalf of all his fellows, Behold How He Loveth Them!

[¶19] On the character of Moses as a Historian and Philosopher (for in his legislative character he does not yet appear) much might be said, did the nature of this work admit. But as brevity has been everywhere studied, and minute details rarely admitted, and only where absolutely necessary, the candid reader will excuse any deficiencies of this kind which he may have already noticed.

[¶20] Of the accuracy and impartiality of Moses as a historian, many examples are given in the course of the notes, with such observations and reflections as the subjects themselves suggested; and the succeeding books will afford many opportunities for farther remarks on these topics.

[¶21] The character of Moses as a philosopher and chronologist, has undergone the severest scrutiny. A class of philosophers, professedly infidels, have assailed the Mosaic account of the formation of the universe, and that of the general deluge, with such repeated attacks as sufficiently prove that, in their apprehension, the pillars of their system must be shaken into ruin if those accounts could not be proved to be false. Traditions, supporting accounts different from those in the sacred history, have been borrowed from the most barbarous as well as the most civilized nations, in order to bear on this argument. These, backed by various geologic observations made in extensive travels, experiments on the formation of different strata or beds of earth, either by inundations or volcanic eruption, have been all condensed into one apparently strong but strange argument, intended to overthrow the Mosaic account of the creation. The argument may be stated thus: "The account given by Moses of the time when God commenced his creative acts is too recent; for, according to his Genesis, six thousand years have not yet elapsed since the formation of the universe; whereas a variety of phenomena prove that the earth itself must have existed, if not from eternity, yet at least fourteen if not twenty thousand years." This I call a strange argument, because it is well known that all the ancient nations in the world, the Jews excepted, have, to secure their honor and respectability, assigned to themselves a duration of the most improbable length; and have multiplied months, weeks, and even days, into years, in order to support their pretensions to the most remote antiquity. The millions of years which have been assumed by the Chinese and the Hindoos have been ridiculed for their manifest absurdity, even by those philosophers who have brought the contrary charge against the Mosaic account. So notorious are the pretensions to remote ancestry and remote eras, in every false and fabricated system of family pedigree and national antiquity, as to produce doubt at the very first view of their subjects, and to cause the impartial inquirer after truth to take every step with the extreme of caution, knowing that in going over such accounts he everywhere treads on a kind of enchanted ground.

[¶22] When in the midst of these a writer is found who, without saying a word of the systems of other nations, professes to give a simple account of the creation and peopling of the earth, and to show the very conspicuous part that his own people acted among the various nations of the world, and who assigns to the earth and to its inhabitants a duration comparatively but as of yesterday, he comes forward with such a variety of claims to be heard, read, and considered, as no other writer can pretend to. And as he departs from the universal custom of all writers on similar subjects, in assigning a comparatively recent date, not only to his own nation, but to the universe itself, he must have been actuated by motives essentially different from those which have governed all other ancient historians and chronologists.

[¶23] The generally acknowledged extravagance and absurdity of all the chronological systems of ancient times, the great simplicity and harmony of that of Moses, its facts evidently borrowed by others, though disgraced by the fables they have intermixed with them, and the very late invention of arts and sciences, all tend to prove, at the very first view, that the Mosaic account, which assigns the shortest duration to the earth, is the most ancient and the most likely to be true. But all this reasoning has been supposed to be annihilated by an argument brought against the Mosaic account of the creation by Mr. Patrick Brydone, F.R.S., drawn from the evidence of different eruptions of Mount Etna. The reader may find this in his "Tour through Sicily and Malta," letter vii., where, speaking of his acquaintance with the Canonico Recupero at Catania, who was then employed on writing a natural history of Mount Etna, he says: "Near to a vault which is now thirty feet below ground, and has probably been a burying-place, there is a draw-well where there are several strata of lavas, (i. e., the liquid matter formed of stones, etc., which is discharged from the mountain in its eruptions), with earth to a considerable thickness over each stratum. Recupero has made use of this as an argument to prove the great antiquity of the eruptions of this mountain. For if it requires two thousand years and upwards to form but a scanty soil on the surface of a lava, there must have been more than that space of time between each of the eruptions which have formed these strata. But what shall we say of a pit they sunk near to Jaci, of a great depth? They pierced through seven distinct lavas, one under the other, the surfaces of which were parallel, and most of them covered with a thick bed of rich earth. Now, says he, the eruption which formed the lowest of these lavas, if we may be allowed to reason from analogy, must have flowed from the mountain at least fourteen thousand years ago! Recupero tells me, he is exceedingly embarrassed by these discoveries, in writing the history of the mountain; that Moses hangs like a dead weight upon him, and blunts all his zeal for inquiry, for that he really has not the conscience to make his mountain so young as that prophet makes the world. "The bishop, who is strenuously orthodox, (for it is an excellent see), has already warned him to be upon his guard; and not to pretend to be a better natural historian than Moses, nor to presume to urge any thing that may in the smallest degree be deemed contradictory to his sacred authority."

[¶24] Though Mr. Brydone produces this as a sneer against revelation, bishops, and orthodoxy, yet the sequel will prove that it was good advice, and that the bishop was much better instructed than either Recupero or Brydone, and that it would have been much to their credit had they taken his advice.

[¶25] I have given, however, this argument at length; and even in the insidious dress of Mr. Brydone, whose faith in Divine revelation appears to have been upon a par with that of Signior Recupero, both being built nearly on the same foundation; to show from the answer how slight the strongest arguments are, produced from insulated facts by prejudice and partiality, when brought to the test of sober, candid, philosophical investigation, aided by an increased knowledge of the phenomena of nature. "In answer to this argument," says Bishop Watson, (Letters to Gibbon), "It might be urged that the time necessary for converting lavas into fertile fields must be very different, according to the different consistencies of the lavas, and their different situations with respect to elevation and depression, or their being exposed to winds, rains, and other circumstances; as for instance, the quantity of ashes deposited over them, after they had cooled, etc., etc., just as the time in which heaps of iron slag, which resembles lava, are covered with verdure, is different at different furnaces, according to the nature of the slag and situation of the furnace; and something of this kind is deducible from the account of the canon (Recupero) himself, since the crevices in the strata are often full of rich good soil, and have pretty large trees growing upon them. But should not all this be thought sufficient to remove the objection, I will produce the canon an analogy in opposition to his analogy, and which is grounded on more certain facts. "Etna and Vesuvius resemble each other in the causes which produce their eruptions, in the nature of their lavas, and in the time necessary to mellow them into soil fit for vegetation; or, if there be any slight difference in this respect, it is probably not greater than what subsists between different lavas of the same mountain. This being admitted, which no philosopher will deny, the canon's (Recupero's) analogy will prove just nothing at all if we can produce an instance of seven different lavas, with interjacent strata of vegetable earth, which have flowed from Mount Vesuvius within the space, not of fourteen thousand, but of somewhat less than one thousand seven hundred years; for then, according to our analogy, a stratum of lava may be covered with vegetable soil in about two hundred and fifty years, instead of requiring two thousand for that purpose. "The eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, is rendered still more famous by the death of Pliny, recorded by his nephew in his letter to Tacitus. This event happened a. d. 79; but we are informed by unquestionable authority, (Remarks on the nature of the soil of Naples and its vicinity, by Sir William Hamilton, Philos. Transact., vol. lxi., p. 7), that the matter which covers the ancient town of Herculaneum is not the produce of one eruption only, for there are evident marks that the matter of six eruptions has taken its course over that which lies immediately over the town, and was the cause of its destruction. The strata are either of lava or burnt matter with veins of good soil between them. You perceive," says the bishop, "with what ease a little attention and increase of knowledge may remove a great difficulty; but had we been able to say nothing in explanation of this phenomenon, we should not have acted a very rational part in making our ignorance the foundation of our infidelity, or suffering a minute philosopher to rob us of our religion." In this, as well as in all other cases, the foundation stands sure, being deeply and legibly impressed with God's seal. See also Dr. Greaves's Lectures on the Pentateuch.

[¶26] There is a very sensible paper written by Don Joseph Gioeni (The Chevalier Gioeni was an inhabitant of the first region of Etna). on the eruption of Etna in 1781; in which, among many other valuable observations, I find the following note: "I was obliged to traverse the current of lava made by the eruption of 1766, the most ancient of any that took this direction, viz., Bronte. I saw several streams of lava which had crossed others, and which afforded me evident proofs of the fallacy of the conclusions of those who seek to estimate the period of the formation of the beds of lava from the change they have undergone. Some lava of earlier date than others still resist the weather, and present a vitreous and unaltered surface, while the lava of later date already begin to be covered with vegetation." - See Pinkerton on Rock, vol. ii., p. 395.

[¶27] On the geology and astronomy of the book of Genesis, much has been written, both by the enemies and friends of revelation; but as Moses has said but very little on these subjects, and nothing in a systematic way, it is unfair to invent a system pretendedly collected out of his words, and thus make him accountable for what he never wrote. There are systems of this kind, the preconceived fictions of their authors, for which they have sought support and credit by tortured meanings extracted from a few Hebrew roots, and then dignified them with the title of The Mosaic System of the Universe. This has afforded infidelity a handle which it has been careful to turn to its own advantage. On the first chapter of Genesis, I have given a general view of the solar system, without pretending that I had found it there. I have also ventured to apply the comparatively recent doctrine of caloric to the Mosaic account of the creation of light previous to the formation of the sun, and have supported it with such arguments as appeared to me to render it at least probable: but I have not pledged Moses to any of my explanations, being fully convinced that it was necessarily foreign from his design to enter into philosophic details of any kind, as it was his grand object, as has been already remarked, to give a history of Creation and Providence in the most abridged form of which it was capable. And who, in so few words, ever spoke so much? By Creation I mean the production of every being, animate and inanimate, material and intellectual. And by Providence, not only the preservation and government of all being, but also the various and extraordinary provisions made by Divine justice and mercy for the comfort and final salvation of man. These subjects I have endeavored to trace out through every chapter of this book, and to exhibit them in such a manner as appeared to me the best calculated to promote glory to God in the highest, and upon Earth Peace And Good Will Among Men.

## 68. Exodus · 1 of 57

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### Preface to the Book of Exodus

[¶1] The name by which this book is generally distinguished is borrowed from the Septuagint, in which it is called εξοδος, Exodus, the going out or departure; and by the Codex Alexandrinus, εξοδος αιγιπτου, the departure from Egypt, because the departure of the Israelites from Egypt is the most remarkable fact mentioned in the whole book. In the Hebrew Bibles it is called ואלה שמות Ve-Elleh Shemoth, these are the names, which are the words with which it commences. It contains a history of the transactions of 145 years, beginning at the death of Joseph, where the book of Genesis ends, and coming down to the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai.

[¶2] In this book Moses details the causes and motives of the persecution raised up against the Israelites in Egypt, the orders given by Pharaoh to destroy all the Hebrew male children, and the prevention of the execution of those orders through the humanity and piety of the midwives appointed to deliver the Hebrew women. The marriage of Amram and Jochebed is next related; the birth of Moses; the manner in which he was exposed on the river Nile, and in which he was discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh; his being providentially put under the care of his own mother to be nursed, and educated as the son of the Egyptian princess; how, when forty years of age, he left the court, visited and defended his brethren; the danger to which he was in consequence exposed; his flight to Arabia; his contract with Jethro, priest or prince of Midian, whose daughter Zipporah he afterwards espoused. While employed in keeping the flocks of his father-in-law, God appeared to him in a burning bush, and commissioned him to go and deliver his countrymen from the oppression under which they groaned. Having given him the most positive assurances of protection and power to work miracles, and having associated with him his brother Aaron, he sent them first to the Israelites to declare the purpose of Jehovah, and afterwards to Pharaoh to require him, in the name of the Most High, to set the Israelites at liberty. Pharaoh, far from submitting, made their yoke more grievous; and Moses, on a second interview with him, to convince him by whose authority he made the demand, wrought a miracle before him and his courtiers. This being in a certain way imitated by Pharaoh's magicians, he hardened his heart, and refused to let the people go, till God, by ten extraordinary plagues, convinced him of his omnipotence, and obliged him to consent to dismiss a people over whose persons and properties he had claimed and exercised a right founded only on the most tyrannical principles.

[¶3] The plagues by which God afflicted the whole land of Egypt, Goshen excepted, where the Israelites dwelt, were the following: -

[¶4] 1. He turned all the waters of Egypt into blood.

[¶5] 2. He caused innumerable frogs to come over the whole land.

[¶6] 3. He afflicted both man and beast with immense swarms of vermin.

[¶7] 4. Afterwards with a multitude of different kinds of insects.

[¶8] 5. He sent a grievous pestilence among their cattle.

[¶9] 6. Smote both man and beast with boils.

[¶10] 7. Destroyed their crops with grievous storms of hail, accompanied with the most terrible thunder and lightning.

[¶11] 8. Desolated the whole land by innumerable swarms of locusts.

[¶12] 9. He spread a palpable darkness all over Egypt; and,

[¶13] 10. In one night slew all the first-born, both of man and beast, through the whole of the Egyptian territories.

[¶14] What proved the miraculous nature of all these plagues most particularly was, 1st, Their coming exactly according to the prediction and at the command of Moses and Aaron. 2dly, Their extending only to the Egyptians, and leaving the land of Goshen, the Israelites, their cattle and substance, entirely untouched. After relating all these things in detail, with their attendant circumstances, Moses describes the institution, reason, and celebration of the passover; the preparation of the Israelites for their departure; their leaving Goshen and beginning their journey to the promised land, by the way of Rameses, Succoth, and Etham. How Pharaoh, repenting of the permission he had given them to depart, began to pursue them with an immense army of horse and foot, and overtook them at their encampment at Baal-zephon, on the borders of the Red Sea. Their destruction appearing then to be inevitable, Moses farther relates that having called earnestly upon God, and stretched his rod over the waters, they became divided, and the Israelites entered into the bed of the sea, and passed over to the opposite shore. Pharaoh and his host madly pursuing in the same track, the rear of their army being fairly entered by the time the last of the Israelites had made good their landing on the opposite coast. Moses stretching his rod again over the waters, they returned to their former channel and overwhelmed the Egyptian army, so that every soul perished.

[¶15] Moses next gives a circumstantial account of the different encampments of the Israelites in the wilderness, during the space of nearly forty years: the miracles wrought in their behalf; the chief of which were the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, to direct and protect them in the wilderness; the bringing water out of a rock for them and their cattle; feeding them with manna from heaven; bringing innumerable flocks of quails to their camp; giving them a complete victory over the Amalekites at the intercession of Moses; and particularly God's astonishing manifestation of himself on Mount Sinai, when he delivered to Moses an epitome of his whole law, in what was called the Ten Words or Ten Commandments.

[¶16] Moses proceeds to give a circumstantial detail of the different laws, statutes, and ordinances which he received from God, and particularly the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and the awful display of the Divine Majesty on that solemn occasion; the formation of the Ark, holy Table and Candlestick; the Tabernacle, with its furniture, covering, courts, etc., the brazen Altar, golden Altar, brazen Laver, anointing oil, perfume, sacerdotal garments for Aaron and his sons, and the artificers employed on the work of the Tabernacle, etc. He then gives an account of Israel's idolatry in the matter of the golden calf, made under the direction of Aaron; God's displeasure, and the death of the principal idolaters; the erection and consecration of the Tabernacle, and its being filled and encompassed with the Divine glory, with the order and manner of their marches by direction of the miraculous pillar; with which the book concludes.

[¶17] The names and number of the children of Israel that went down into Egypt, [Exo 1:1-5]. Joseph and all his brethren of that generation die, [Exo 1:6]. The great increase of their posterity, [Exo 1:7]. The cruel policy of the king of Egypt to destroy them, [Exo 1:8-11]. They increase greatly, notwithstanding their affliction, [Exo 1:12]. Account of their hard bondage, [Exo 1:13], [Exo 1:14]. Pharaoh's command to the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male children, [Exo 1:15], [Exo 1:16]. The midwives disobey the king's command, and, on being questioned, vindicate themselves, [Exo 1:17-19]. God is pleased with their conduct, blesses them, and increases the people, [Exo 1:20], [Exo 1:21]. Pharaoh gives a general command to the Egyptians to drown all the male children of the Hebrews, [Exo 1:22].

### Verse 1

[¶19] These are the names - Though this book is a continuation or the book of Genesis, with which probably it was in former times conjoined, Moses thought it necessary to introduce it with an account of the names and number of the family of Jacob when they came to Egypt, to show that though they were then very few, yet in a short time, under the especial blessing of God, they had multiplied exceedingly; and thus the promise to Abraham had been literally fulfilled. See the notes on Genesis 46 (note).

### Verse 6

[¶21] Joseph died, and all his brethren - That is, Joseph had now been some time dead, as also all his brethren, and all the Egyptians who had known Jacob and his twelve sons; and this is a sort of reason why the important services performed by Joseph were forgotten.

### Verse 7

[¶23] The children of Israel were fruitful - פרו paru, a general term, signifying that they were like healthy trees, bringing forth an abundance of fruit.

[¶24] And increased - ישרץ yishretsu, they increased like fishes, as the original word implies. See [Gen 1:20] (note), and the note there.

[¶25] Abundantly - ירבו yirbu, they multiplied; this is a separate term, and should not have been used as an adverb by our translators.

[¶26] And waxed exceeding mighty - ויעצמו במאד מאד vaiyaatsmu bimod meod, and they became strong beyond measure - superlatively, superlatively - so that the land (Goshen) was filled with them. This astonishing increase was, under the providence of God, chiefly owing to two causes:

[¶27] 1. The Hebrew women were exceedingly fruitful, suffered very little in parturition, and probably often brought forth twins.

[¶28] 2. There appear to have been no premature deaths among them. Thus in about two hundred and fifteen years they were multiplied to upwards of 600,000, independently of old men, women, and children.

### Verse 8

[¶30] There arose up a new king - Who this was it is difficult to say. It was probably Ramesses Miamun, or his son Amenophis, who succeeded him in the government of Egypt about A. M. 2400, before Christ 1604.

[¶31] Which knew not Joseph - The verb ידע yada, which we translate to know, often signifies to acknowledge or approve. See [Jdg 2:10]; [Psa 1:6]; [Psa 31:7]; [Hos 2:8]; [Amo 3:2]. The Greek verbs ειδω and γινωσκω are used precisely in the same sense in the New Testament. See [Mat 25:12], and [1Jn 3:1]. We may therefore understand by the new king's not knowing Joseph, his disapproving of that system of government which Joseph had established, as well as his haughtily refusing to acknowledge the obligations under which the whole land of Egypt was laid to this eminent prime minister of one of his predecessors.

### Verse 9

[¶33] He said unto his people - He probably summoned a council of his nobles and elders to consider the subject; and the result was to persecute and destroy them, as is afterwards stated.

### Verse 10

[¶35] They join also unto our enemies - It has been conjectured that Pharaoh had probably his eye on the oppressions which Egypt had suffered under the shepherd-kings, who for a long series of years had, according to Manetho, governed the land with extreme cruelty. As the Israelites were of the same occupation, (viz., shepherds), the jealous, cruel king found it easy to attribute to them the same motives; taking it for granted that they were only waiting for a favorable opportunity to join the enemies of Egypt, and so overrun the whole land.

### Verse 11

[¶37] Set over them task-masters - שרי מסים sarey missim, chiefs or princes of burdens, works, or tribute; επιστατας των εργων, Sept. overseers of the works. The persons who appointed them their work, and exacted the performance of it. The work itself being oppressive, and the manner in which it was exacted still more so, there is some room to think that they not only worked them unmercifully, but also obliged them to pay an exorbitant tribute at the same time.

[¶38] Treasure cities - ערי מסכנות arey miscenoth, store cities - public granaries. Calmet supposes this to be the name of a city, and translates the verse thus: "They built cities, viz., Miscenoth, Pithom, and Rameses." Pithom is supposed to be that which Herodotus calls Patumos. Raamses, or rather Rameses, (for it is the same Hebrew word as in [Gen 47:11], and should be written the same way here as there), is supposed to have been the capital of the land of Goshen, mentioned in the book of Genesis by anticipation; for it was probably not erected till after the days of Joseph, when the Israelites were brought under that severe oppression described in the book of Exodus. The Septuagint add here, και Ων, ἡ εστιν Ἡλιουπολις· and On, which is Heliopolis; i.e., the city of the Sun. The same reading is found also in the Coptic version.

[¶39] Some writers suppose that beside these cities the Israelites built the pyramids. If this conjecture be well founded, perhaps they are intended in the word מסכנות miscenoth, which, from סכן sachan, to lay up in store, might be intended to signify places where Pharaoh laid up his treasures; and from their structure they appear to have been designed for something of this kind. If the history of the pyramids be not found in the book of Exodus, it is nowhere else extant; their origin, if not alluded to here, being lost in their very remote antiquity. Diodorus Siculus, who has given the best traditions he could find relative to them, says that there was no agreement either among the inhabitants or the historians concerning the building of the pyramids - Bib. Hist., lib. 1., cap. lxiv.

[¶40] Josephus expressly says that one part of the oppression suffered by the Israelites in Egypt was occasioned by building pyramids. See Clarke's note on [Exo 1:14].

[¶41] In the book of Genesis, and in this book, the word Pharaoh frequently occurs, which, though many suppose it to be a proper name peculiar to one person, and by this supposition confound the acts of several Egyptian kings, yet is to be understood only as a name of office.

[¶42] It may be necessary to observe that all the Egyptian kings, whatever their own name was, took the surname of Pharaoh when they came to the throne; a name which, in its general acceptation, signified the same as king or monarch, but in its literal meaning, as Bochart has amply proved, it signifies a crocodile, which being a sacred animal among the Egyptians, the word might be added to their kings in order to procure them the greater reverence and respect.

### Verse 12

[¶44] But the more they afflicted them - The margin has pretty nearly preserved the import of the original: And as they afflicted them, so they multiplied and so they grew That is, in proportion to their afflictions was their prosperity; and had their sufferings been greater, their increase would have been still more abundant.

## 69. Exodus · 2 of 57

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### Verse 13

[¶1] To serve with rigour - בפרך bepharech, with cruelty, great oppression; being ferocious with them. The word fierce is supposed by some to be derived from the Hebrew, as well as the Latin ferox, from which we more immediately bring our English term. This kind of cruelty to slaves, and ferociousness, unfeelingness, and hard-heartedness, were particularly forbidden to the children of Israel. See [Lev 25:43], [Lev 25:46], where the same word is used: Thou shalt not rule over him with Rigor, but shalt fear thy God.

### Verse 14

[¶3] They made their lives bitter - So that they became weary of life, through the severity of their servitude.

[¶4] With hard bondage - בעבדה קשה baabodah kashah, with grievous servitude. This was the general character of their life in Egypt; it was a life of the most painful servitude, oppressive enough in itself, but made much more so by the cruel manner of their treatment while performing their tasks.

[¶5] In mortar, and in brick - First, in digging the clay, kneading, and preparing it, and secondly, forming it into bricks, drying them in the sun, etc.

[¶6] Service in the field - Carrying these materials to the places where they were to be formed into buildings, and serving the builders while employed in those public works. Josephus says "The Egyptians contrived a variety of ways to afflict the Israelites; for they enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities and ramparts, that they might restrain the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating upon its overrunning its own banks; they set them also to build pyramids, (πυραμιδας τε ανοικοδομουντες), and wore them out, and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanic arts, and to accustom themselves to hard labor." - Antiq., lib. ii., cap. ix., sec. 1. Philo bears nearly the same testimony, p. 86, Edit. Mangey.

### Verse 15

[¶8] Hebrew midwives - Shiphrah and Puah, who are here mentioned, were probably certain chiefs, under whom all the rest acted, and by whom they were instructed in the obstetric art. Aben Ezra supposes there could not have been fewer than five hundred midwives among the Hebrew women at this time, but that very few were requisite see proved on [Exo 1:19] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶10] Upon the stools - על האבנים al haobnayim. This is a difficult word, and occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible but in [Jer 18:3], where we translate it the potter's wheels. As אכי signifies a stone, the obnayim has been supposed to signify a stone trough, in which they received and washed the infant as soon as born. Jarchi, in his book of Hebrew roots, gives a very different interpretation of it; he derives it from בן ben, a son, or בנים banim, children; his words must not be literally translated, but this is the sense: "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and ye see that the birth is broken forth, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him." Jonathan ben Uzziel gives us a curious reason for the command given by Pharaoh to the Egyptian women: "Pharaoh slept, and saw in his sleep a balance, and behold the whole land of Egypt stood in one scale, and a lamb in the other; and the scale in which the lamb was outweighed that in which was the land of Egypt. Immediately he sent and called all the chief magicians, and told them his dream. And Janes and Jimbres, (see [2Tim 3:8]). who were chief of the magicians, opened their mouths and said to Pharaoh, 'A child is shortly to be born in the congregation of the Israelites, whose hand shall destroy the whole land of Egypt.' Therefore Pharaoh spake to the midwives, etc."

### Verse 17

[¶12] The midwives feared God - Because they knew that God had forbidden murder of every kind; for though the law was not yet given, [Exo 20:13], being Hebrews they must have known that God had from the beginning declared, Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, [Gen 9:6]. Therefore they saved the male children of all to whose assistance they were called. See Clarke's note on [Exo 1:19].

### Verse 19

[¶14] The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women - This is a simple statement of what general experience shows to be a fact, viz., that women, who during the whole of their pregnancy are accustomed to hard labor, especially in the open air, have comparatively little pain in parturition. At this time the whole Hebrew nation, men and women, were in a state of slavery, and were obliged to work in mortar and brick, and all manner of service In The Field, [Exo 1:14], and this at once accounts for the ease and speediness of their travail. With the strictest truth the midwives might say, The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: the latter fare delicately, are not inured to labor, and are kept shut up at home, therefore they have hard, difficult, and dangerous labors; but the Hebrew women are lively, חיות chayoth, are strong, hale, and vigorous, and therefore are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. In such cases we may naturally conclude that the midwives were very seldom even sent for. And this is probably the reason why we find but two mentioned; as in such a state of society there could be but very little employment for persons of that profession, as a mother, an aunt, or any female acquaintance or neighbor, could readily afford all the assistance necessary in such cases. Commentators, pressed with imaginary difficulties, have sought for examples of easy parturition in Ethiopia, Persia, and India, as parallels to the case before us; but they might have spared themselves the trouble, because the case is common in all parts of the globe where the women labor hard, and especially in the open air. I have known several instances of the kind myself among the laboring poor. I shall mention one: I saw a poor woman in the open field at hard labor; she stayed away in the afternoon, but she returned the next morning to her work with her infant child, having in the interim been safely delivered! She continued at her daily work, having apparently suffered no inconvenience!

[¶15] I have entered more particularly into this subject because, through want of proper information, (perhaps from a worse motive), certain persons have spoken very unguardedly against this inspired record: "The Hebrew midwives told palpable lies, and God commends them for it; thus we may do evil that good may come of it, and sanctify the means by the end." Now I contend that there was neither lie direct nor even prevarication in the case. The midwives boldly state to Pharaoh a fact, (had it not been so, he had a thousand means of ascertaining the truth), and they state it in such a way as to bring conviction to his mind on the subject of his oppressive cruelty on the one hand, and the mercy of Jehovah on the other. As if they had said, "The very oppression under which, through thy cruelty, the Israelites groan, their God has turned to their advantage; they are not only fruitful, but they bring forth with comparatively no trouble; we have scarcely any employment among them." Here then is a fact, boldly announced in the face of danger; and we see that God was pleased with this frankness of the midwives, and he blessed them for it.

### Verse 20

[¶17] Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty - This shows an especial providence and blessing of God; for though in all cases where females are kept to hard labor they have comparatively easy and safe travail, yet in a state of slavery the increase is generally very small, as the children die for want of proper nursing, the women, through their labor, being obliged to neglect their offspring; so that in the slave countries the stock is obliged to be recruited by foreign imports: yet in the case above it was not so; there was not one barren among their tribes, and even their women, though constantly obliged to perform their daily tasks, were neither rendered unfruitful by it, nor taken off by premature death through the violence and continuance of their labor, when even in the delicate situation mentioned above.

### Verse 21

[¶19] He made them houses - Dr. Shuckford thinks that there is something wrong both in the punctuation and translation of this place, and reads the passage thus, adding the 21st to the 20th verse: "And they multiplied and waxed mighty; and this happened (ויהי vayehi) because the midwives feared God; and he (Pharaoh) made (להם lahem, masc.). them (the Israelites) houses; and commanded all his people, saying, Every son that is born, etc." The doctor supposes that previously to this time the Israelites had no fixed dwellings, but lived in tents, and therefore had a better opportunity of concealing their children; but now Pharaoh built them houses, and obliged them to dwell in them, and caused the Egyptians to watch over them, that all the male children might be destroyed, which could not have been easily effected had the Israelites continued to live in their usual scattered manner in tents. That the houses in question were not made for the midwives, but for the Israelites in general, the Hebrew text seems pretty plainly to indicate, for the pronoun להם lahem, to them, is the masculine gender; had the midwives been meant, the feminine pronoun להן lahen would have been used. Others contend that by making them houses, not only the midwives are intended, but also that the words mark an increase of their families, and that the objection taken from the masculine pronoun is of no weight, because these pronouns are often interchanged; see [1Kgs 22:17], where להם lahem is written, and in the parallel place, [2Chr 18:16], להן lahen is used. So בהם bahem, in [1Chr 10:7], is written בהן bahen, [1Sam 31:7], and in several other places. There is no doubt that God did bless the midwives, his approbation of their conduct is strictly marked; and there can be no doubt of his prospering the Israelites, for it is particularly said that the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. But the words most probably refer to the Israelites, whose houses or families were built up by an extraordinary in crease of children, notwithstanding the cruel policy of the Egyptian king. Vain is the counsel of man when opposed to the determinations of God! All the means used for the destruction of this people became in his hand instruments of their prosperity and increase. How true is the saying, If God be for us, who can be against us?

### Verse 22

[¶21] Ye shall cast into the river - As the Nile, which is here intended, was a sacred river among the Egyptians, it is not unlikely that Pharaoh intended the young Hebrews as an offering to his god, having two objects in view:

[¶22] 1. To increase the fertility of the country by thus procuring, as he might suppose, a proper and sufficient annual inundation; and

[¶23] 2. To prevent an increase of population among the Israelites, and in process of time procure their entire extermination.

[¶24] It is conjectured, with a great show of probability, that the edict mentioned in this verse was not made till after the birth of Aaron, and that it was revoked soon after the birth of Moses; as, if it had subsisted in its rigour during the eighty-six years which elapsed between this and the deliverance of the Israelites, it is not at all likely that their males would have amounted to six hundred thousand, and those all effective men.

[¶25] In the general preface to this work reference has been made to Origen's method of interpreting the Scriptures, and some specimens promised. On the plain account of a simple matter of fact, related in the preceding chapter, this very eminent man, in his 2d Homily on Exodus, imposes an interpretation of which the following is the substance. "Pharaoh, king of Egypt, represents the devil; the male and female children of the Hebrews represent the animal and rational faculties of the soul. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to destroy all the males, i.e., the seeds of rationality and spiritual science through which the soul tends to and seeks heavenly things; but he wishes to preserve the females alive, i.e., all those animal propensities of man, through which he becomes carnal and devilish.

[¶26] Hence," says he, "when you see a man living in luxury, banquetings, pleasures, and sensual gratifications, know that there the king of Egypt has slain all the males, and preserved all the females alive. The midwives represent the Old and New Testaments: the one is called Sephora, which signifies a sparrow, and means that sort of instruction by which the soul is led to soar aloft, and contemplate heavenly things; the other is called Phua, which signifies ruddy or bashful, and points out the Gospel, which is ruddy with the blood of Christ, spreading the doctrine of his passion over the earth. By these, as midwives, the souls that are born into the Church, are healed, for the reading of the Scriptures corrects and heals what is amiss in the mind. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to corrupt those midwives, that all the males - the spiritual propensities, may be destroyed; and this he endeavors to do by bringing in heresies and corrupt opinions. But the foundation of God standeth sure. The midwives feared God, therefore he builded them houses. If this be taken literally, it has little or no meaning, and is of no importance; but it points out that the midwives - the law and the Gospel, by teaching the fear of God, build the houses of the Church, and fill the whole earth with houses of prayer. Therefore these midwives, because they feared God, and taught the fear of God, did not fulfill the command of the king of Egypt - they did not kill the males, and I dare confidently affirm that they did not preserve the females alive; for they do not teach vicious doctrines in the Church, nor preach up luxury, nor foster sin, which are what Pharaoh wishes in keeping the females alive; for by these virtue alone is cultivated and nourished. By Pharaoh's daughter I suppose the Church to be intended, which is gathered from among the Gentiles; and although she has an impious and iniquitous father, yet the prophet says unto her, Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, [Psa 45:10], [Psa 45:11]. This therefore is she who is come to the waters to bathe, i.e., to the baptismal font, that she may be washed from the sins which she has contracted in her father's house. Immediately she receives bowels of commiseration, and pities the infant; that is, the Church, coming from among the Gentiles, finds Moses - the law, lying in the pool, cast out, and exposed by his own people in an ark of bulrushes, daubed over with pitch - deformed and obscured by the carnal and absurd glosses of the Jews, who are ignorant of its spiritual sense; and while it continues with them is as a helpless and destitute infant; but as soon as it enters the doors of the Christian Church it becomes strong and vigorous; and thus Moses - the law, grows up, and becomes, through means of the Christian Church, more respectable even in the eyes of the Jews themselves, according to his own prophecy: I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, [Deu 32:21]. Thus taught by the Christian Church, the synagogue forsakes idolatry; for when it sees the Gentiles worshipping the true God, it is ashamed of its idols, and worships them no more. In like manner, though we have had Pharaoh for our father - though the prince of this world has begotten us by wicked works, yet when we come unto the waters of baptism we take unto us Moses - the law of God, in its true and spiritual meaning; what is low or weak in it we leave, what is strong and perfect we take and place in the royal palace of our heart. Then we have Moses grown up - we no longer consider the law as little or mean; all is magnificent, excellent, elegant, for all is spiritually understood. Let us beseech the Lord Jesus Christ that he may reveal himself to us more and more and show us how great and sublime Moses is; for he by his Holy Spirit reveals these things to whomsoever he will. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen.

[¶27] Neither the praise of piety nor the merit of ingenuity can be denied to this eminent man in such interpretations as these. But who at the same time does not see that if such a mode of exposition were to be allowed, the trumpet could no longer give a certain sound? Every passage and fact might then be obliged to say something, any thing, every thing, or nothing, according to the fancy, peculiar creed, or caprice of the interpreter.

[¶28] I have given this large specimen from one of the ancients, merely to save the moderns, from whose works on the sacred writings I could produce many specimens equally singular and more absurd. Reader, it is possible to trifle with the testimonies of God, and all the while speak serious things; but if all be not done according to the pattern shown in the mount, much evil may be produced, and many stumbling blocks thrown in the way of others, which may turn them totally out of the way of understanding; and then what a dreadful account must such interpreters have to give to that God who has pronounced a curse, not only on those who take away from his word, but also on those who add to it.

### Introduction

[¶30] Amram and Jochebed marry, [Exo 2:1]. Moses is born, and is hidden by his mother three months, [Exo 2:2]. Is exposed in an ark of bulrushes on the riser Nile, and watched by his sister, [Exo 2:3], [Exo 2:4]. He is found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who commits him to the care of his own mother, and has him educated as her own son, [Exo 2:5-9]. When grown up, he is brought to Pharaoh's daughter, who receives him as her own child, and calls him Moses, [Exo 2:10]. Finding an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian, and hides him in the sand, [Exo 2:11], [Exo 2:12]. Reproves two Hebrews that were contending together, one of whom charges him with killing the Egyptian, [Exo 2:13], [Exo 2:14]. Pharaoh, hearing of the death of the Egyptian, sought to slay Moses, who, being alarmed, escapes to the land of Midian, [Exo 2:15]. Meets with the seven daughters of Reuel, priest or prince of Midian, who came to water their flocks, and assists them, [Exo 2:16], [Exo 2:17]. On their return they inform their father Reuel, who invites Moses to his house, [Exo 2:18-20]. Moses dwells with him, and receives Zipporah his daughter to wife, [Exo 2:21]. She bears him a son whom he calls Gershom, [Exo 2:22]. The children of Israel, grievously oppressed in Egypt, cry for deliverance, [Exo 2:23]. God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and hears their prayer, [Exo 2:24], [Exo 2:25].

### Verse 1

[¶32] There went a man - Amram, son of Kohath, son of Levi, [Exo 6:16-20]. A daughter of Levi, Jochebed, sister to Kohath, and consequently both the wife and aunt of her husband Amram, [Exo 6:20]; [Num 26:59]. Such marriages were at this time lawful, though they were afterwards forbidden, [Lev 18:12]. But it is possible that daughter of Levi means no more than a descendant of that family, and that probably Amram and Jochebed were only cousin germans. As a new law was to be given and a new priesthood formed, God chose a religious family out of which the lawgiver and the high priest were both to spring.

### Verse 2

[¶34] Bare a son - This certainly was not her first child, for Aaron was fourscore and three years old when Moses was but fourscore, see [Exo 7:7] : and there was a sister, probably Miriam, who was older than either; see below, [Exo 2:4], and see [Num 26:59]. Miriam and Aaron had no doubt been both born before the decree was passed for the destruction of the Hebrew male children, mentioned in the preceding chapter.

[¶35] Goodly child - The text simply says כי טיב הוא ki tob hu, that he was good, which signifies that he was not only a perfect, well-formed child, but that he was very beautiful; hence the Septuagint translate the place, Ιδοντες δε αυτο αστειον, Seeing him to be beautiful, which St. Stephen interprets, Ην αστειος τῳ Θεῳ, He was comely to God, or divinely beautiful. This very circumstance was wisely ordained by the kind providence of God to be one means of his preservation. Scarcely any thing interests the heart more than the sight of a lovely babe in distress. His beauty would induce even his parents to double their exertions to save him, and was probably the sole motive which led the Egyptian princess to take such particular care of him, and to educate him as her own, which in all likelihood she would not have done had he been only an ordinary child.

### Verse 3

[¶37] An ark of bulrushes - תבת גמא tebath gome, a small boat or basket made of the Egyptian reed called papyrus, so famous in all antiquity. This plant grows on the banks of the Nile, and in marshy grounds; the stalk rises to the height of six or seven cubits above the water, is triangular, and terminates in a crown of small filaments resembling hair, which the ancients used to compare to a thyrsus. This reed was of the greatest use to the inhabitants of Egypt, the pith contained in the stalk serving them for food, and the woody part to build vessels with; which vessels frequently appear on engraved stones and other monuments of Egyptian antiquity. For this purpose they made it up like rushes into bundles, and by tying them together gave their vessels the necessary figure and solidity. "The vessels of bulrushes or papyrus," says Dr. Shaw, "were no other than large fabrics of the same kind with that of Moses, [Exo 2:3], which from the late introduction of planks and stronger materials are now laid aside." Thus Pliny, lib. vi., cap. 16, takes notice of the naves papyraceas armamentaque Nili, "ships made of papyrus and the equipments of the Nile:" and lib. xiii., cap. 11, he observes, Exodus ipsa quidem papyro navigia texunt: "Of the papyrus itself they construct sailing vessels." Herodotus and Diodorus have recorded the same fact; and among the poets, Lucan, lib. iv., ver. 136: Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro, "The Memphian or Egyptian boat is constructed from the soaking papyrus." The epithet bibula is particularly remarkable, as corresponding with great exactness to the nature of the plant, and to its Hebrew name גמא gome, which signifies to soak, to drink up. See Parkhurst sub voce.

[¶38] She laid it in the flags - Not willing to trust it in the stream for fear of a disaster; and probably choosing the place to which the Egyptian princess was accustomed to come for the purpose specified in the note on the following verse.

### Verse 5

[¶40] And the daughter of Pharaoh - Josephus calls her Thermuthis, and says that "the ark was borne along by the current, and that she sent one that could swim after it; that she was struck with the figure and uncommon beauty of the child; that she inquired for a nurse, but he having refused the breasts of several, and his sister proposing to bring a Hebrew nurse, his own mother was procured." But all this is in Josephus's manner, as well as the long circumstantial dream that he gives to Amram concerning the future greatness of Moses, which cannot be considered in any other light than that of a fable, and not even a cunningly devised one.

[¶41] To wash herself at the river - Whether the daughter of Pharaoh went to bathe in the river through motives of pleasure, health, or religion, or whether she bathed at all, the text does not specify. It is merely stated by the sacred writer that she went down to the river to Wash; for the word herself is not in the original. Mr. Harmer, Observat., vol. iii., p. 529, is of opinion that the time referred to above was that in which the Nile begins to rise; and as the dancing girls in Egypt are accustomed now to plunge themselves into the river at its rising, by which act they testify their gratitude for the inestimable blessing of its inundations, so it might have been formerly; and that Pharaoh's daughter was now coming down to the river on a similar account. I see no likelihood in all this. If she washed herself at all, it might have been a religious ablution, and yet extended no farther than to the hands and face; for the word רחץ rachats, to wash, is repeatedly used in the Pentateuch to signify religious ablutions of different kinds. Jonathan in his Targum says that God had smitten all Egypt with ulcers, and that the daughter of Pharaoh came to wash in the river in order to find relief; and that as soon as she touched the ark where Moses was, her ulcers were healed. This is all fable. I believe there was no bathing in the case, but simply what the text states, washing, not of her person, but of her clothes, which was an employment that even kings' daughters did not think beneath them in those primitive times. Homer, Odyss. vi., represents Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, in company with her maidens, employed at the seaside in washing her own clothes and those of her five brothers! While thus employed they find Ulysses just driven ashore after having been shipwrecked, utterly helpless, naked, and destitute of every necessary of life. The whole scene is so perfectly like that before us that they appear to me to be almost parallels. I shall subjoin a few lines. The princess, having piled her clothes on a carriage drawn by several mules, and driven to the place of washing, commences her work, which the poet describes thus: - Ται δ' απ' απηνης Εἱματα χερσιν ἑλοντο, και εσφορεον μελαν ὑδωρ. Στειβον δ' εν βαθροισι θοως, εριδα προφερουσαι. Αυταρ επει πλυναν τε, καθηραν τε ῥυπα παντα, Εξειης πετασαν παρα θιν' ἁλος, ᾑχι μαλιστα. Λαΐγγας ποτι χερσον αποπλυνεσκε θαλασσα.

[¶42] Odyssey, lib. vi., ver. 90. "Light'ning the carriage, next they bore in hand

[¶43] The garments down to the unsullied wave,

[¶44] And thrust them heap'd into the pools; their task

## 70. Exodus · 3 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/70/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/70/#p-N

[¶0] Despatching brisk, and with an emulous haste.

[¶1] When all were purified, and neither spot

[¶2] Could be perceived or blemish more, they spread

[¶3] The raiment orderly along the beach,

[¶4] Where dashing tides had cleansed the pebbles most."

[¶5] Cowper.

[¶6] When this task was finished we find the Phaeacian princess and her ladies (Κουρη δ' εκ θαλαμοιο - αμφιπολοι αλλαι) employed in amusing themselves upon the beach, till the garments they had washed should be dry and fit to be folded up, that they might reload their carriage and return. In the text of Moses the Egyptian princess, accompanied by her maids, נערתיה naarotheyha, comes down to the river, not to bathe herself, for this is not intimated, but merely to wash, לרחץ lirchots; at the time in which the ark is perceived we may suppose that she and her companions had finished their task, and, like the daughter of Alcinous and her maidens, were amusing themselves walking along by the river's side, as the others did by tossing a ball, σφαιρῃ ται τ' αρ επαιζον, when they as suddenly and as unexpectedly discovered Moses adrift on the flood, as Nausicaa and her companions discovered Ulysses just escaped naked from shipwreck. In both the histories, that of the poet and this of the prophet, both the strangers, the shipwrecked Greek and the almost drowned Hebrew, were rescued by the princesses, nourished and preserved alive! Were it lawful to suppose that Homer had ever seen the Hebrew story, it would be reasonable to conclude that he had made it the basis of the 6th book of the Odyssey.

### Verse 6

[¶8] She had compassion on him - The sight of a beautiful babe in distress could not fail to make the impression here mentioned; see Clarke on [Exo 2:2] (note). It has already been conjectured that the cruel edict of the Egyptian king did not continue long in force; see [Exo 1:22]. And it will not appear unreasonable to suppose that the circumstance related here might have brought about its abolition. The daughter of Pharaoh, struck with the distressed state of the Hebrew children from what she had seen in the case of Moses, would probably implore her father to abolish this sanguinary edict.

### Verse 7

[¶10] Shall I go and call a nurse - Had not the different circumstances marked here been placed under the superintendence of an especial providence, there is no human probability that they could have had such a happy issue. The parents had done every thing to save their child that piety, affection, and prudence could dictate, and having done so, they left the event to God. By faith, says the apostle, [Heb 11:23], Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. Because of the king's commandment they were obliged to make use of the most prudent caution to save the child's life; and their faith in God enabled them to risk their own safety, for they were not afraid of the king's commandment - they feared God, and they had no other fear.

### Verse 10

[¶12] And he became her son - From this time of his being brought home by his nurse his education commenced, and he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, [Act 7:22], who in the knowledge of nature probably exceeded all the nations then on the face of the earth.

[¶13] And she called his name - משה mosheh, because מן המים min hammayim, out of the waters משיתהו meshithihu, have I drawn him. משה mashah signifies to draw out; and mosheh is the person drawn out; the word is used in the same sense [Psa 18:16], and [2Sam 22:17]. What name he had from his parents we know not; but whatever it might be it was ever after lost in the name given to him by the princess of Egypt. Abul Farajius says that Thermuthis delivered him to the wise men Janees and Jimbrees to be instructed in wisdom.

### Verse 11

[¶15] When Moses was grown - Being full forty years of age, as St. Stephen says, [Act 7:23], it came into his heart to visit his brethren, i.e., he was excited to it by a Divine inspiration; and seeing one of them suffer wrong, by an Egyptian smiting him, probably one of the task-masters, he avenged him and smote - slew, the Egyptian, supposing that God who had given him commission, had given also his brethren to understand that they were to be delivered by his hand; see [Act 7:23-25]. Probably the Egyptian killed the Hebrew, and therefore on the Noahic precept Moses was justified in killing him; and he was authorized so to do by the commission which he had received from God, as all succeeding events amply prove. Previously to the mission of Moses to deliver the Israelites, Josephus says, "The Ethiopians having made an irruption into Egypt, and subdued a great part of it, a Divine oracle advised them to employ Moses the Hebrew. On this the king of Egypt made him general of the Egyptian forces; with these he attacked the Ethiopians, defeated and drove them back into their own land, and forced them to take refuge in the city of Saba, where he besieged them. Tharbis, daughter of the Ethiopian king, seeing him, fell desperately in love with him, and promised to give up the city to him on condition that he would take her to wife, to which Moses agreed, and the city was put into the hands of the Egyptians." - Jos. Ant. lib. ii., chap. 9. St. Stephen probably alluded to something of this kind when he said Moses was mighty in deeds as well as words.

### Verse 13

[¶17] Two men of the Hebrews strove together - How strange that in the very place where they were suffering a heavy persecution because they were Hebrews, the very persons themselves who suffered it should be found persecuting each other! It has been often seen that in those times in which the ungodly oppressed the Church of Christ, its own members have been separated from each other by disputes concerning comparatively unessential points of doctrine and discipline, in consequence of which both they and the truth have become an easy prey to those whose desire was to waste the heritage of the Lord. The Targum of Jonathan says that the two persons who strove were Dathan and Abiram.

### Verse 14

[¶19] And Moses feared - He saw that the Israelites were not as yet prepared to leave their bondage; and that though God had called him to be their leader, yet his providence had not yet sufficiently opened the way; and had he stayed in Egypt he must have endangered his life. Prudence therefore dictated an escape for the present to the land of Midian.

### Verse 15

[¶21] Pharaoh - sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh - How can this be reconciled with [Heb 11:27] : By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king? Very easily. The apostle speaks not of this forsaking of Egypt, but of his and the Israelites' final departure from it, and of the bold and courageous manner in which Moses treated Pharaoh and the Egyptians, disregarding his threatenings and the multitudes of them that pursued after the people whom, in the name and strength of God, he led in the face of their enemies out of Egypt.

[¶22] Dwelt in the land of Midian - A country generally supposed to have been in Arabia Petraea, on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, not far from Mount Sinai. This place is still called by the Arabs the land of Midian or the land of Jethro. Abul Farajius calls it the land of the Arabs. It is supposed that the Midianites derived their origin from Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah, thus: - Abraham, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan and Midian, Raguel, Jethro; see [Gen 25:1]. But Calmet contends that if Jethro had been of the family of Abraham, either by Jokshan, or Midian, Aaron and Miriam could not have reproached Moses with marrying a Cushite, Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel. He thinks therefore that the Midianites were of the progeny of Cush, the son of Ham; see [Gen 10:6].

### Verse 16

[¶24] The priest of Midian - Or prince, or both; for the original כהן cohen has both meanings. See it explained at large at [Gen 15:18] (note). The transaction here very nearly resembles that mentioned Genesis 29 (note) concerning Jacob and Rachel.

### Verse 17

[¶26] The shepherds - drove them - The verb יגרשים yegareshum, being in the masculine gender, seems to imply that the shepherds drove away the flocks of Reuel's daughters, and not the daughters themselves. The fact seems to be, that, as the daughters of Reuel filled the troughs and brought their flocks to drink, the shepherds drove those away, and, profiting by the young women's labor, watered their own cattle. Moses resisted this insolence, and assisted them to water their flocks, in consequence of which they were enabled to return much sooner than they were wont to do, [Exo 2:18].

### Verse 18

[¶28] Reuel, their father - In [Num 10:29] this person is called Raguel, but the Hebrew is the same in both places. The reason of this difference is that the ע ain in רעואל is sometimes used merely as vowel, sometimes as g, ng, and gn, and this is occasioned by the difficulty of the sound, which scarcely any European organs can enunciate. As pronounced by the Arabs it strongly resembles the first effort made by the throat in gargling, or as Meninski says, Est vox vituli matrem vocantis, "It is like the sound made by a calf in seeking its dam." Raguel is the worst method of pronouncing it; Re-u-el, the first syllable strongly accented, is nearer to the true sound. A proper uniformity in pronouncing the same word wherever it may occur, either in the Old or New Testament, is greatly to be desired. The person in question appears to have several names. Here he is called Reuel; in [Num 10:29], Raguel; in [Exo 3:1], Jethor; in [Jdg 4:11], Hobab; and in [Jdg 1:16] he is called קיני Keyni, which in Exodus 4 we translate Kenite. Some suppose that Re-u-el was father to Hobab, who was also called Jethro. This is the most likely; see Clarke's note on [Exo 3:1].

### Verse 20

[¶30] That he may eat bread - That he may be entertained, and receive refreshment to proceed on his journey. Bread, among the Hebrews, was used to signify all kinds of food commonly used for the support of man's life.

### Verse 21

[¶32] Zipporah his daughter - Abul Farajius calls her "Saphura the black, daughter of Rewel the Midianite, the son of Dedan, the son of Abraham by his wife Keturah." The Targum calls her the granddaughter of Reuel. It appears that Moses obtained Zipporah something in the same way that Jacob obtained Rachel; namely, for the performance of certain Services, probably keeping of sheep: see [Exo 3:1].

### Verse 22

[¶34] Called his name Gershom - Literally, a stranger; the reason of which Moses immediately adds, for I have been an Alien in a strange land.

[¶35] The Vulgate, the Septuagint, as it stands in the Complutensian Polyglot, and in several MSS., the Syriac, the Coptic, and the Arabic, add the following words to this verse: And the name of the second he called Eliezer, for the God of my father has been my help, and delivered me from the hand of Pharaoh. These words are found in [Exo 18:4], but they are certainly necessary here, for it is very likely that these two sons were born within a short space of each other; for in [Exo 4:20], it is said, Moses took his wife and his Sons, by which it is plain that he had both Gershom and Eliezer at that time. Houbigant introduces this addition in his Latin version, and contends that this is its most proper place. Notwithstanding the authority of the above versions, the clause is found in no copy, printed or MS., of the Hebrew text.

### Verse 23

[¶37] In process of time - the king of Egypt died - According to St. Stephen, ([Act 7:30], compared with [Exo 7:7]), the death of the Egyptian king happened about forty years after the escape of Moses to Midian. The words ויהי בימים הרבים ההם vayehi baiyamim harabbim hahem, which we translate And it came to pass in process of time, signify, And it was in many days from these that the king, etc. It has already been remarked that Archbishop Usher supposes this king to have been Ramesses Miamun, who was succeeded by his son Amenophis, who was drowned in the Red Sea when pursuing the Israelites, but Abul Farajius says it was Amunfathis, (Amenophis), he who made the cruel edict against the Hebrew children. Some suppose that Moses wrote the book of Job during the time he sojourned in Midian, and also the book of Genesis. See the preface to the book of Job, where this subject is considered.

[¶38] Sighed by reason of the bondage - For the nature of their bondage, see Clarke's note on [Exo 1:14].

### Verse 24

[¶40] God remembered his covenant - God's covenant is God's engagement; he had promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give their posterity a land flowing with milk and honey, etc. They are now under the most oppressive bondage, and this was the most proper time for God to show them his mercy and power in fulfilling his promise. This is all that is meant by God's remembering his covenant, for it was now that he began to give it its effect.

### Verse 25

[¶42] And God had respect unto them - וידע אלהים vaiyeda Elohim, God knew them, i.e., he approved of them, and therefore it is said that their cry came up before God, and he heard their groaning. The word ידע yada, to know, in the Hebrew Bible, as well as γινωσκω in the Greek Testament, is frequently used in the sense of approving; and because God knew - had respect for and approved of, them, therefore he was determined to deliver them. For אלהים Elohim, God, in the last clause of this verse, Houbigant reads אליהם aleyhem, Upon Them, which is countenanced by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Chaldee, Coptic, and Arabic, and appears to have been the original reading. The difference in the original consists in the interchange of two letters, the י yod and ה he. Our translators insert unto them, in order to make up that sense which this various reading gives without trouble.

[¶43] The farther we proceed in the sacred writings, the more the history both of the grace and providence of God opens to our view. He ever cares for his creatures, and is mindful of his promise. The very means made use of to destroy his work are, in his hands, the instruments of its accomplishment. Pharaoh orders the male children of the Hebrews to be thrown into the river; Moses, who was thus exposed, is found by his own daughter, brought up as her own son, and from his Egyptian education becomes much better qualified for the great work to which God had called him; and his being obliged to leave Egypt was undoubtedly a powerful means to wean his heart from a land in which he had at his command all the advantages and luxuries of life. His sojourning also in a strange land, where he was obliged to earn his bread by a very painful employment, fitted him for the perilous journey he was obliged to take in the wilderness, and enabled him to bear the better the privations to which he was in consequence exposed.

[¶44] The bondage of the Israelites was also wisely permitted, that they might with less reluctance leave a country where they had suffered the greatest oppression and indignities. Had they not suffered severely previously to their departure, there is much reason to believe that no inducements could have been sufficient to have prevailed on them to leave it. And yet their leaving it was of infinite consequence, in the order both of grace and providence, as it was indispensably necessary that they should be a people separated from all the rest of the world, that they might see the promises of God fulfilled under their own eyes, and thus have the fullest persuasion that their law was Divine, their prophets inspired by the Most High, and that the Messiah came according to the prophecies before delivered concerning him.

## 71. Exodus · 4 of 57

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[¶0] From the example of Pharaoh's daughter, (see Clarke's note [Exo 2:5]), and the seven daughters of Jethro, ([Exo 2:16]), we learn that in the days of primitive simplicity, and in this respect the best days, the children, particularly the daughters of persons in the highest ranks in life, were employed in the most laborious offices. Kings' daughters performed the office of the laundress to their own families; and the daughters of princes tended and watered the flocks. We have seen similar instances in the case of Rebekah and Rachel; and we cannot be too pointed in calling the attention of modern delicate females, who are not only above serving their own parents and family, but even their own selves: the consequence of which is, they have neither vigor nor health; their growth, for want of healthy exercise, is generally cramped; their natural powers are prematurely developed, and their whole course is rather an apology for living, than a state of effective life. Many of these live not out half their days, and their offspring, when they have any, is more feeble than themselves; so that the race of man where such preposterous conduct is followed (and where is it not followed?) is in a state of gradual deterioration. Parents who wish to fulfill the intention of God and nature, will doubtless see it their duty to bring up their children on a different plan. A worse than the present can scarcely be found out.

[¶1] Afflictions, under the direction of God's providence and the influence of his grace, are often the means of leading men to pray to and acknowledge God, who in the time of their prosperity hardened their necks from his fear. When the Israelites were sorely oppressed, they began to pray. If the cry of oppression had not been among them, probably the cry for mercy had not been heard. Though afflictions, considered in themselves, can neither atone for sin nor improve the moral state of the soul, yet God often uses them as means to bring sinners to himself, and to quicken those who, having already escaped the pollutions of the world, were falling again under the influence of an earthly mind. Of many millions besides David it may truly be said, Before they were afflicted they went astray.

### Introduction

[¶3] Moses keeping the flock of Jethro at Mount Horeb, the angel of the Lord appears to him in a burning bush, [Exo 3:1], [Exo 3:2]. Astonished at the sight, he turns aside to examine it, [Exo 3:3], when God speaks to him out of the fire, and declares himself to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, [Exo 3:4-6]; announces his purpose of delivering the Israelites from their oppression, and of bringing them into the promised land, [Exo 3:7-9]; commissions him to go to Pharaoh, and to be leader of the children of Israel from Egypt, [Exo 3:10]. Moses excuses himself, [Exo 3:11]; and God, to encourage him, promises him his protection, [Exo 3:12]. Moses doubts whether the Israelites will credit him, [Exo 3:13], and God reveals to him his Name, and informs him what he is to say to the people, [Exo 3:14-17], and instructs him and the elders of Israel to apply unto Pharaoh for permission to go three days' journey into the wilderness, to sacrifice unto the Lord, [Exo 3:18]; foretells the obstinacy of the Egyptian king, and the miracles which he himself should work in the sight of the Egyptians, [Exo 3:19], [Exo 3:20]; and promises that, on the departure of the Israelites, the Egyptians should be induced to furnish them with all necessaries for their journey, [Exo 3:21], [Exo 3:22].

### Verse 1

[¶5] Jethro his father-in-law - Concerning Jethro, see Clarke's note on [Exo 2:18]. Learned men are not agreed on the signification of the word חתן chothen, which we translate father-in-law, and which in [Gen 19:14], we translate son-in-law. It seems to be a general term for a relative by marriage, and the connection only in which it stands can determine its precise meaning. It is very possible that Reuel was now dead, it being forty years since Moses came to Midian; that Jethro was his son, and had succeeded him in his office of prince and priest of Midian; that Zipporah was the sister of Jethro; and that consequently the word חתן chothen should be translated brother-in-law in this place: as we learn from [Gen 34:9], [Deu 7:3], [Jos 23:12], and other places, that it simply signifies to contract affinity by marriage. If this conjecture be right, we may well suppose that, Reuel being dead, Moses was continued by his brother-in-law Jethro in the same employment he had under his father.

[¶6] Mountain of God - Sometimes named Horeb, at other times Sinai. The mountain itself had two peaks; one was called Horeb, the other Sinai. Horeb was probably the primitive name of the mountain, which was afterwards called the mountain of God, because God appeared upon it to Moses; and Mount Sinai, סיני, from סנה seneh, a bush, because it was in a bush or bramble, in a flame of fire, that this appearance was made.

### Verse 2

[¶8] The angel of the Lord - Not a created angel certainly; for he is called יהוה Jehovah, [Exo 3:4], etc., and has the most expressive attributes of the Godhead applied to him, [Exo 3:14], etc. Yet he is an angel, מלאך malach, a messenger, in whom was the name of God, [Exo 23:21]; and in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, [Col 2:9]; and who, in all these primitive times, was the Messenger of the covenant, [Mal 3:1]. And who was this but Jesus, the Leader, Redeemer, and Savior of mankind? See Clarke's note on [Gen 16:7].

[¶9] A flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush - Fire was, not only among the Hebrews but also among many other ancient nations, a very significant emblem of the Deity. God accompanied the Israelites in all their journeying through the wilderness as a pillar of fire by night; and probably a fire or flame in the holy of holies, between the cherubim, was the general symbol of his presence; and traditions of these things, which must have been current in the east, have probably given birth, not only to the pretty general opinion that God appears in the likeness of fire, but to the whole of the Zoroastrian system of fire-worship. It has been reported of Zoroaster, or Zeradusht, that having retired to a mountain for the study of wisdom, and the benefit of solitude, the whole mountain was one day enveloped with flame, out of the midst of which he came without receiving any injury; on which he offered sacrifices to God, who, he was persuaded, had then appeared to him. M. Anquetil du Perron gives much curious information on this subject in his Zend Avesta. The modern Parsees call fire the off-spring of Ormusd, and worship it with a vast variety of ceremonies. Among the fragments attributed to Aeschylus, and collected by Stanley in his invaluable edition of this poet, p. 647, col. 1, we find the following beautiful verses: Χωριζε θνητων τον Θεον, και μη δοκει Ὁμοιον αυτῳ σαρκινον καθεσταναι. Ουκ οισθα δ' αυτον· ποτε μεν ὡς πυρ φαινεται Απλαστον ὁρμῃ· ποτε δ' ὑδωρ, ποτε δε γνοφος. "Distinguish God from mortal men; and do not suppose that any thing fleshly is like unto him. Thou knowest him not: sometimes indeed he appears as a formless and impetuous Fire, sometimes as water, sometimes as thick darkness." The poet proceeds: Τρεμει δ' ορη, και γαια, και πελεριος Βυθος θαλασσης, κωρεων ὑψος μεγα, Ὁταν επιβλεψῃ γοργον ομμα δεσποτου. "The mountains, the earth, the deep and extensive sea, and the summits of the highest mountains tremble whenever the terrible eye of the Supreme Lord looks down upon them."

[¶10] These are very remarkable fragments, and seem all to be collected from traditions relative to the different manifestations of God to the Israelites in Egypt, and in the wilderness. Moses wished to see God, but he could behold nothing but an indescribable glory: nothing like mortals, nothing like a human body, appeared at any time to his eye, or to those of the Israelites. "Ye saw no manner of similitude," said Moses, "on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the Fire," [Deu 4:15]. But sometimes the Divine power and justice were manifested by the indescribable, formless, impetuous, consuming flame; at other times he appeared by the water which he brought out of the flinty rock; and in the thick darkness on Horeb, when the fiery law proceeded from his right hand, then the earth quaked and the mountain trembled: and when his terrible eye looked out upon the Egyptians through the pillar of cloud and fire, their chariot wheels were struck off, and confusion and dismay were spread through all the hosts of Pharaoh; [Exo 14:24], [Exo 14:25].

[¶11] And the bush was not consumed - 1. An emblem of the state of Israel in its various distresses and persecutions: it was in the fire of adversity, but was not consumed. 2. An emblem also of the state of the Church of God in the wilderness, in persecutions often, in the midst of its enemies, in the region of the shadow of death - yet not consumed. 3. An emblem also of the state of every follower of Christ: cast down, but not forsaken; grievously tempted, but not destroyed; walking through the fire, but still unconsumed! Why are all these preserved in the midst of those things which have a natural tendency to destroy them! Because God Is In The Midst Of Them; it was this that preserved the bush from destruction; and it was this that preserved the Israelites; and it is this, and this alone, that preserves the Church, and holds the soul of every genuine believer in the spiritual life. He in whose heart Christ dwells not by faith, will soon be consumed by the world, the flesh, and the devil.

### Verse 5

[¶13] Put off thy shoes - It is likely that from this circumstance all the eastern nations have agreed to perform all the acts of their religious worship barefooted. All the Mohammedans, Brahmins, and Parsees do so still. The Jews were remarked for this in the time of Juvenal; hence he speaks of their performing their sacred rites barefooted; Sat. vi., ver. 158:

[¶14] Observant ubi festa mero pede sabbata reges.

[¶15] The ancient Greeks did the same. Jamblichus, in the life of Pythagoras, tells us that this was one of his maxims, Ανυποδητος θυε και προσκυνει, Offer sacrifice and worship with your shoes off. And Solinus asserts that no person was permitted to enter into the temple of Diana, in Crete, till he had taken off his shoes. "Aedem Numinis (Dianae) praeterquam nudus vestigio nulles licito ingreditur." Tertullian observes, de jejunio, that in a time of drought the worshippers of Jupiter deprecated his wrath, and prayed for rain, walking barefooted. "Cum stupet caelum, et aret annus, nudipedalia, denunciantur." It is probable that נעלים nealim, in the text, signifies sandals, translated by the Chaldee סנדל sandal, and סנדלא sandala, (see [Gen 14:23]), which was the same as the Roman solea, a sole alone, strapped about the foot As this sole must let in dust, gravel, and sand about the foot in travelling, and render it very uneasy, hence the custom of frequently washing the feet in those countries where these sandals were worn. Pulling off the shoes was, therefore, an emblem of laying aside the pollutions contracted by walking in the way of sin. Let those who name the Lord Jesus Christ depart from iniquity. In our western countries reverence is expressed by pulling off the hat; but how much more significant is the eastern custom! "The natives of Bengal never go into their own houses with their shoes on, nor into the houses of others, but always leave their shoes at the door. It would be a great affront not to attend to this mark of respect when visiting; and to enter a temple without pulling off the shoes would be an unpardonable offense." - Ward.

[¶16] The place whereon thou standest is holy ground - It was not particularly sanctified by the Divine presence; but if we may credit Josephus, a general opinion had prevailed that God dwelt on that mountain; and hence the shepherds, considering it as sacred ground, did not dare to feed their flocks there. Moses, however, finding the soil to be rich and the pasturage good, boldly drove his flock thither to feed on it - Antiq., b. ii., c. xii., s. 1.

### Verse 6

[¶18] I am the God of thy father - Though the word אבי abi, father, is here used in the singular, St Stephen, quoting this place, [Act 7:32], uses the plural, Ὁ Θεος των πατερων σου, The God of thy Fathers; and that this is the meaning the following words prove: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. These were the fathers of Moses in a direct line. This reading is confirmed by the Samaritan and by the Coptic. Abraham was the father of the Ishmaelites, and with him was the covenant first made. Isaac was the father of the Edomites as well as the Israelites, and with him was the covenant renewed. Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs, who were founders of the Jewish nation, and to him were the promises particularly confirmed. Hence we see that the Arabs and Turks in general, who are descendants of Ishmael; the Edomites, now absorbed among the Jews, (see Clarke's note on [Gen 25:23]), who are the descendants of Esau; and the Jewish people, wheresoever scattered, who are the descendants of Jacob, are all heirs of the promises included in this primitive covenant; and their gathering in with the fullness of the Gentiles may be confidently expected.

[¶19] And Moses hid his face - For similar acts, see [1Kgs 19:13]; [Isa 6:1], [Isa 6:5]; [Neh 9:9]; [Psa 106:44]; [Act 7:34]. He was afraid to look - he was overawed by God's presence, and dazzled with the splendor of the appearance.

### Verse 7

[¶21] I have surely seen - ראה ראיתי raoh raithi, seeing, I have seen - I have not only seen the afflictions of this people because I am omniscient, but I have considered their sorrows, and my eye affects my heart.

### Verse 8

[¶23] And I am come down to deliver them - This is the very purpose for which I am now come down upon this mountain, and for which I manifest myself to thee.

[¶24] Large - land - Canaan, when compared with the small tract of Goshen, in which they were now situated, and where, we learn, from [Exo 1:7], they were straitened for room, might be well called a large land. See a fine description of this land [Deu 8:7].

[¶25] A land flowing with milk and honey - Excellent for pasturage, because abounding in the most wholesome herbage and flowers; and from the latter an abundance of wild honey was collected by the bees. Though cultivation is now almost entirely neglected in this land, because of the badness of the government and the scantiness of the inhabitants, yet it is still good for pasturage, and yields an abundance of honey. The terms used in the text to express the fertility of this land, are commonly used by ancient authors on similar subjects. It is a metaphor taken from a breast producing copious streams of milk. Homer calls Argos ουθαρ αρουρης, the breast of the country, as affording streams of milk and honey, Il. ix., ver. 141. So Virgil:

[¶26] Prima tulit tellus, eadem vos ubere laeto Accipiet.

[¶27] Aen., lib. iii., ver. 95. "The land that first produced you shall receive you again into its joyous bosom." The poets feign that Bacchus, the fable of whom they have taken from the history of Moses, produced rivers of milk and honey, of water and wine: - Ῥει δε γαλακτι πεδον, Ῥει δ' οινῳ, ῥει δε μελισσαν Νεκταρι.

[¶28] Eurip. Bacch., Εποδ., ver. 8. "The land flows with milk; it flows also with wine; it flows also with the nectar of bees, (honey)." This seems to be a mere poetical copy from the Pentateuch, where the sameness of the metaphor and the correspondence of the descriptions are obvious.

[¶29] Place of the Canaanites, etc. - See [Gen 15:18], etc.

### Verse 11

[¶31] Who am I - that I should bring - He was so satisfied that this was beyond his power, and all the means that he possessed, that he is astonished that even God himself should appoint him to this work! Such indeed was the bondage of the children of Israel, and the power of the people by whom they were enslaved, that had not their deliverance come through supernatural means, their escape had been utterly impossible.

### Verse 12

[¶33] Certainly I will be with thee - This great event shall not be left to thy wisdom and to thy power; my counsel shall direct thee, and my power shall bring all these mighty things to pass.

[¶34] And this shall be a token - Literally, And This to thee for a sign, i.e., this miraculous manifestation of the burning bush shall be a proof that I have sent thee; or, My being with thee, to encourage thy heart, strengthen thy hands, and enable thee to work miracles, shall be to thyself and to others the evidence of thy Divine mission.

[¶35] Ye shall serve God upon this mountain - This was not the sign, but God shows him, that in their return from Egypt they should take this mountain in their way, and should worship him in this place. There may be a prophetic allusion here to the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. As Moses received his commands here, so likewise should the Israelites receive theirs in the same place. After all, the Divine Being seems to testify a partial predilection for this mountain, for reasons that are not expressed. See Clarke's note on [Exo 3:5].

### Verse 13

[¶37] They shall say - What is his name? - Does not this suppose that the Israelites had an idolatrous notion even of the Supreme Being? They had probably drank deep into the Egyptian superstitions, and had gods many and lords many; and Moses conjectured that, hearing of a supernatural deliverance, they would inquire who that God was by whom it was to be effected. The reasons given here by the rabbins are too refined for the Israelites at this time. "When God," say they, "judgeth his creatures, he is called אלהים Elohim; when he warreth against the wicked, he is called צבאות Tsebaoth; but when he showeth mercy unto the world, he is called יהוה Yehovah." It is not likely that the Israelites had much knowledge of God or of his ways at the time to which the sacred text refers; it is certain they had no written word. The book of Genesis, if even written, (for some suppose it had been composed by Moses during his residence in Midian), had not yet been communicated to the people; and being so long without any revelation, and perhaps without even the form of Divine worship, their minds being degraded by the state of bondage in which they had been so long held, and seeing and hearing little in religion but the superstitions of those among whom they sojourned, they could have no distinct notion of the Divine Being. Moses himself might have been in doubt at first on this subject, and he seems to have been greatly on his guard against illusion; hence he asks a variety of questions, and endeavors, by all prudent means, to assure himself of the truth and certainty of the present appearance and commission. He well knew the power of the Egyptian magicians, and he could not tell from these first views whether there might not have been some delusion in this case. God therefore gives him the fullest proof, not only for the satisfaction of the people to whom he was to be sent, but for his own full conviction, that it was the supreme God who now spoke to him.

### Verse 14

[¶39] I am that I am - אהיה אשר אהיה Eheyeh asher Eheyeh. These words have been variously understood. The Vulgate translates Ego Sum Qui Sum, I am who am. The Septuagint, Εγω ειμι ὁ Ων, I am he who exists. The Syriac, the Persic, and the Chaldee preserve the original words without any gloss. The Arabic paraphrases them, The Eternal, who passes not away; which is the same interpretation given by Abul Farajius, who also preserves the original words, and gives the above as their interpretation. The Targum of Jonathan, and the Jerusalem Targum paraphrase the words thus: "He who spake, and the world was; who spake, and all things existed." As the original words literally signify, I will be what I will be, some have supposed that God simply designed to inform Moses, that what he had been to his fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he would be to him and the Israelites; and that he would perform the promises he had made to his fathers, by giving their descendants the promised land. It is difficult to put a meaning on the words; they seem intended to point out the eternity and self-existence of God. Plato, in his Parmenides, where he treats sublimely of the nature of God, says, Ουδ' αρα ονομα εστιν αυτῳ, nothing can express his nature; therefore no name can be attributed to him. See the conclusion of this chapter, [Exo 3:22] (note) and on the word Jehovah, [Exo 34:6] (note), [Exo 34:7] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶41] This is my name for ever - The name here referred to is that which immediately precedes, יהוה אלהים Yehovah Elohim, which we translate the Lord God, the name by which God had been known from the creation of the world, (see [Gen 2:4]). and the name by which he is known among the same people to the present day. Even the heathens knew this name of the true God; and hence out of our יהוה Yehovah they formed their Jao, Jeve, and Jove; so that the word has been literally fulfilled, This is my memorial unto all generations. See Clarke's note on the word Elohim, [Gen 1:1] (note). As to be self-existent and eternal must be attributes of God for ever, does it not follow that the לעלם leolam, for ever, in the text signifies eternity? "This is my name to eternity - and my memorial," לדר דר ledor dor, "to all succeeding generations." While human generations continue he shall be called the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; but when time shall be no more, he shall be Jehovah Elohim. Hence the first expression refers to his eternal existence, the latter to the discovery he should make of himself as long as time should last. See [Gen 21:33]. Diodorus Siculus says, that "among the Jews, Moses is reported to have received his laws from the God named Jao," Ιαω, i.e., Jeue, Jove, or Jeve; for in all these ways the word יהוה Yehovah may be pronounced; and in this way I have seen it on Egyptian monuments. See Diod., lib. l., c. xciv.

### Verse 16

[¶43] Elders of Israel - Though it is not likely the Hebrews were permitted to have any regular government at this time, yet there can be no doubt of their having such a government in the time of Joseph, and for some considerable time after; the elders of each tribe forming a kind of court of magistrates, by which all actions were tried, and legal decisions made, in the Israelitish community.

[¶44] I have surely visited you - An exact fulfillment of the prediction of Joseph, [Gen 50:24], God will surely visit you, and in the same words too.

## 72. Exodus · 5 of 57

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### Verse 18

[¶1] They shall hearken to thy voice - This assurance was necessary to encourage him in an enterprise so dangerous and important.

[¶2] Three days' journey into the wilderness - Evidently intending Mount Sinai, which is reputed to be about three days' journey, the shortest way, from the land of Goshen. In ancient times, distances were computed by the time required to pass over them. Thus, instead of miles, furlongs, etc., it was said, the distance from one place to another was so many days', so many hours' journey; and it continues the same in all countries where there are no regular roads or highways.

### Verse 19

[¶4] I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand - When the facts detailed in this history have been considered in connection with the assertion as it stands in our Bibles, the most palpable contradiction has appeared. That the king of Egypt did let them go, and that by a mighty hand, the book itself amply declares. We should therefore seek for another meaning of the original word. ולא velo, which generally means and not, has sometimes the meaning of if not, unless, except, etc.; and in Becke's Bible, 1549, it is thus translated: I am sure that the kyng of Egypt wyl not let you go, Except wyth a mighty hand. This import of the negative particle, which is noticed by Noldius, Heb. Part., p. 328, was perfectly understood by the Vulgate, where it is translated nisi, unless; and the Septuagint in their εαν μη, which is of the same import; and so also the Coptic. The meaning therefore is very plain: The king of Egypt, who now profits much by your servitude, will not let you go till he sees my hand stretched out, and he and his nation be smitten with ten plagues. Hence God immediately adds, [Exo 3:20] : I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders - and after that, he will let you go.

### Verse 22

[¶6] Every woman shall borrow - This is certainly not a very correct translation: the original word שאל shaal signifies simply to ask, request, demand, require, inquire, etc.; but it does not signify to borrow in the proper sense of that word, though in a very few places of Scripture it is thus used. In this and the parallel place, [Exo 12:35], the word signifies to ask or demand, and not to borrow, which is a gross mistake into which scarcely any of the versions, ancient or modern, have fallen, except our own. The Septuagint has αιτησει, she shall ask; the Vulgate, postulabit, she shall demand; the Syriac, Chaldee, Samaritan, Samaritan Version, Coptic, and Persian, are the same as the Hebrew. The European versions are generally correct on this point; and our common English version is almost the sole transgressor: I say, the common version, which, copying the Bible published by Becke in 1549, gives us the exceptionable term borrow, for the original שאל shaal, which in the Geneva Bible, and Barker's Bible of 1615, and some others, is rightly translated aske. God commanded the Israelites to ask or demand a certain recompense for their past services, and he inclined the hearts of the Egyptians to give liberally; and this, far from a matter of oppression, wrong, or even charity, was no more than a very partial recompense for the long and painful services which we may say six hundred thousand Israelites had rendered to Egypt, during a considerable number of years. And there can be no doubt that while their heaviest oppression lasted, they were permitted to accumulate no kind of property, as all their gains went to their oppressors.

[¶7] Our exceptionable translation of the original has given some countenance to the desperate cause of infidelity; its abettors have exultingly said: "Moses represents the just God as ordering the Israelites to borrow the goods of the Egyptians under the pretense of returning them, whereas he intended that they should march off with the booty." Let these men know that there was no borrowing in the case; and that if accounts were fairly balanced, Egypt would be found still in considerable arrears to Israel. Let it also be considered that the Egyptians had never any right to the services of the Hebrews. Egypt owed its policy, its opulence, and even its political existence, to the Israelites. What had Joseph for his important services? Nothing! He had neither district, nor city, nor lordship in Egypt; nor did he reserve any to his children. All his services were gratuitous; and being animated with a better hope than any earthly possession could inspire, he desired that even his bones should be carried up out of Egypt. Jacob and his family, it is true, were permitted to sojourn in Goshen, but they were not provided for in that place; for they brought their cattle, their goods, and all that they had into Egypt, [Gen 46:1], [Gen 46:6]; so that they had nothing but the bare land to feed on; and had built treasure cities or fortresses, we know not how many; and two whole cities, Pithom and Raamses, besides; and for all these services they had no compensation whatever, but were besides cruelly abused, and obliged to witness, as the sum of their calamities, the daily murder of their male infants. These particulars considered, will infidelity ever dare to produce this case again in support of its worthless pretensions?

[¶8] Jewels of silver, etc. - The word כלי keley we have already seen signifies vessels, instruments, weapons, etc., and may be very well translated by our English term, articles or goods. The Israelites got both gold and silver, probably both in coin and in plate of different kinds; and such raiment as was necessary for the journey which they were about to undertake.

[¶9] Ye shall spoil the Egyptians - The verb נצל natsal signifies, not only to spoil, snatch away, but also to get away, to escape, to deliver, to regain, or recover. Spoil signifies what is taken by rapine or violence; but this cannot be the meaning of the original word here, as the Israelites only asked, and the Egyptians with out fear, terror, or constraint, freely gave. It is worthy of remark that the original word is used, [1Sam 30:22], to signify the recovery of property that had been taken away by violence: "Then answered all the wicked men, and men of Belial, of those that went with David, Because they went not with us we will not give them aught of the Spoil (מהשלל mehashShalal) that we have Recovered, אשר הצלנו asher Hitstsalnu. In this sense we should understand the word here. The Israelites recovered a part of their property - their wages, of which they had been most unjustly deprived by the Egyptians.

[¶10] In this chapter we have much curious and important information; but what is most interesting is the name by which God was pleased to make himself known to Moses and to the Israelites, a name by which the Supreme Being was afterwards known among the wisest inhabitants of the earth. He who Is and who Will Be what he Is. This is a proper characteristic of the Divine Being, who is, properly speaking, the only Being, because he is independent and eternal; whereas all other beings, in whatsoever forms they may appear, are derived, finite, changeable, and liable to destruction, decay, and even to annihilation. When God, therefore, announced himself to Moses by this name, he proclaimed his own eternity and immateriality; and the very name itself precludes the possibility of idolatry, because it was impossible for the mind, in considering it, to represent the Divine Being in any assignable shape; for who could represent Being or Existence by any limited form? And who can have any idea of a form that is unlimited? Thus, then, we find that the first discovery which God made of himself was intended to show the people the simplicity and spirituality of his nature; that while they considered him as Being, and the Cause of all Being, they might be preserved from all idolatry for ever. The very name itself is a proof of a Divine revelation; for it is not possible that such an idea could have ever entered into the mind of man, unless it had been communicated from above. It could not have been produced by reasoning, for there were no premises on which it could be built, nor any analogies by which it could have been formed. We can as easily comprehend eternity as we can being, simply considered in and of itself, when nothing of assignable forms, colors, or qualities existed, besides its infinite and illimitable self.

[¶11] To this Divine discovery the ancient Greeks owed the inscription which they placed above the door of the temple of Apollo at Delphi: the whole of the inscription consisted in the simple monosyllable Ei, Thou Art, the second person of the Greek substantive verb ειμι, I am. On this inscription Plutarch, one of the most intelligent of all the Gentile philosophers, made an express treatise, περι του ΕΙ εν Δελφοις, having received the true interpretation in his travels in Egypt, whither he had gone for the express purpose of inquiring into their ancient learning, and where he had doubtless seen these words of God to Moses in the Greek version of the Septuagint, which had been current among the Egyptians (for whose sake it was first made) about four hundred years previously to the death of Plutarch. This philosopher observes that "this title is not only proper, but peculiar to God, because He alone is being; for mortals have no participation of true being, because that which begins and ends, and is continually changing, is never one nor the same, nor in the same state. The deity on whose temple this word was inscribed was called Apollo, Απολλν, from α, negative, and πολυς, many, because God is One, his nature simple, his essence uncompounded." Hence he informs us the ancient mode of addressing God was, "ΕΙ ΕΝ, Thou art One, ου γαρ πολλα το θειον εστιν, for many cannot be attributed to the Divine nature: και οὑ προτερον ουδεν εστιν, ουδ' υστερον, ουδε μελλον, ουδε παρωχημενον, ουδε πρεσβυτερον, ουδε νεωτερον, in which there is neither first nor last, future nor past, old nor young; αλλ' εις ων ενι τῳ νυν το αει πεπληρωκε, but as being one, fills up in one Now an eternal duration." And he concludes with observing that "this word corresponds to certain others on the same temple, viz., ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ Know thyself; as if, under the name ΕΙ. Thou Art, the Deity designed to excite men to venerate Him as eternally existing, ὡς οντα διαπαντος, and to put them in mind of the frailty and mortality of their own nature."

[¶12] What beautiful things have the ancient Greek philosophers stolen from the testimonies of God to enrich their own works, without any kind of acknowledgment! And, strange perversity of man! these are the very things which we so highly applaud in the heathen copies, while we neglect or pass them by in the Divine originals!

### Introduction

[¶14] Moses continuing to express his fear that the Israelites would not credit his Divine mission, [Exo 4:1]; God, to strengthen his faith, and to assure him that his countrymen would believe him, changed his rod into a serpent, and the serpent into a rod, [Exo 4:2-5]; made his hand leprous, and afterwards restored it, [Exo 4:6], [Exo 4:7]; intimating that he had now endued him with power to work such miracles, and that the Israelites would believe, [Exo 4:8]; and farther assures him that he should have power to turn the water into blood, [Exo 4:9]. Moses excuses himself on the ground of his not being eloquent, [Exo 4:10], and God reproves him for his unbelief, and promises to give him supernatural assistance, [Exo 4:11], [Exo 4:12]. Moses expressing his utter unwillingness to go on any account, God is angry, and then promises to give him his brother Aaron to be his spokesman, [Exo 4:13-16], and appoints his rod to be the instrument of working miracles, [Exo 4:17]. Moses returns to his relative Jethro, and requests liberty to visit his brethren in Egypt, and is permitted, [Exo 4:18]. God appears to him in Midian, and assures him that the Egyptians who sought his life were dead, [Exo 4:19]. Moses, with his wife and children, set out on their journey to Egypt, [Exo 4:20]. God instructs him what he shall say to Pharaoh, [Exo 4:21-23]. He is in danger of losing his life, because he had not circumcised his son, [Exo 4:24]. Zipporah immediately circumcising the child, Moses escapes unhurt, [Exo 4:25], [Exo 4:26]. Aaron is commanded to go and meet his brother Moses; he goes and meets him at Horeb, [Exo 4:27]. Moses informs him of the commission he had received from God, [Exo 4:28]. They both go to their brethren, deliver their message, and work miracles, [Exo 4:29], [Exo 4:30]. The people believe and adore God, [Exo 4:31].

### Verse 1

[¶16] They will not believe me - As if he had said, Unless I be enabled to work miracles, and give them proofs by extraordinary works as well as by words, they will not believe that thou hast sent me.

### Verse 2

[¶18] A rod - מתה matteh, a staff, probably his shepherd's crook; see [Lev 27:32]. As it was made the instrument of working many miracles, it was afterwards called the rod of God; see [Exo 4:20].

### Verse 3

[¶20] A serpent - Of what sort we know not, as the word נחש nachash is a general name for serpents, and also means several other things, see [Gen 3:1] : but it was either of a kind that he had not seen before, or one that he knew to be dangerous; for it is said, he fled from before it. Some suppose the staff was changed into a crocodile; see Clarke on [Exo 7:10] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶22] He put forth his hand, and caught it - Considering the light in which Moses had viewed this serpent, it required considerable faith to induce him thus implicitly to obey the command of God; but he obeyed, and the noxious serpent became instantly the miraculous rod in his hand! Implicit faith and obedience conquer all difficulties; and he who believes in God, and obeys him in all things, has really nothing to fear.

### Verse 5

[¶24] That they may believe - This is an example of what is called an imperfect or unfinished speech, several of which occur in the sacred writings. It may be thus supplied: Do this before them, that they may believe that the Lord hath appeared unto thee.

### Verse 6

[¶26] His hand was leprous as snow - That is, the leprosy spread itself over the whole body in thin white scales; and from this appearance it has its Greek name λεπρα, from λεπις, a scale. Dr. Mead says, "I have seen a remarkable case of this in a countryman, whose whole body was so miserably seized with it, that his skin was shining as if covered with snow; and as the surfuraceous scales were daily rubbed off, the flesh appeared quick or raw underneath." The leprosy, at least among the Jews, was a most inveterate and contagious disorder, and deemed by them incurable. Among the heathens it was considered as inflicted by their gods, and it was supposed that they alone could remove it. It is certain that a similar belief prevailed among the Israelites; hence, when the king of Syria sent his general Naaman, to the king of Israel to cure him of his leprosy, he rent his clothes, saying, Amos I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? [2Kgs 5:7]. This appears, therefore, to be the reason why God chose this sign, as the instantaneous infliction and removal of this disease were demonstrations which all would allow of the sovereign power of God. We need, therefore, seek for no other reasons for this miracle: the sole reason is sufficiently obvious.

### Verse 8

[¶28] If they will not believe - the voice of the first sign, etc. - Probably intimating that some would be more difficult to be persuaded than others: some would yield to the evidence of the first miracle; others would hesitate till they had seen the second; and others would not believe till they had seen the water of the Nile turned into blood, when poured upon the dry land; [Exo 4:9].

### Verse 10

[¶30] I am not eloquent - לא איש דברים lo ish debarim, I am not a man of words; a periphrasis common in the Scriptures. So [Job 11:2], איש שפתים ish sephathayim, a man of lips, signifies one that is talkative. [Psa 140:11], איש לשון ish lashon, a man of tongue, signifies a prattler. But how could it be said that Moses was not eloquent, when St. Stephen asserts, [Act 7:22], that he was mighty in words as well as in deeds? There are three ways of solving this difficulty:

[¶31] 1. Moses might have had some natural infirmity, of a late standing, which at that time rendered it impossible for him to speak readily, and which he afterwards overcame; so that though he was not then a man of words, yet he might afterwards have been mighty in words as well as deeds.

[¶32] 2. It is possible he was not intimately acquainted with the Hebrew tongue, so as to speak clearly and distinctly in it. The first forty years of his life he had spent in Egypt, chiefly at court; and though it is very probable there was an affinity between the two languages, yet they certainly were not the same. The last forty he had spent in Midian, and it is not likely that the pure Hebrew tongue prevailed there, though it is probable that a dialect of it was there spoken. On these accounts Moses might find it difficult to express himself with that readiness and persuasive flow of language, which he might deem essentially necessary on such a momentous occasion; as he would frequently be obliged to consult his memory for proper expressions, which would necessarily produce frequent hesitation, and general slowness of utterance, which he might think would ill suit an ambassador of God.

[¶33] 3. Though Moses was slow of speech, yet when acting as the messenger of God his word was with power, for at his command the plagues came and the plagues were stayed; thus was he mighty in words as well as in deeds: and this is probably the meaning of St. Stephen.

[¶34] By the expression, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, he might possibly mean that the natural inaptitude to speak readily, which he had felt, he continued to feel, even since God had begun to discover himself; for though he had wrought several miracles for him, yet he had not healed this infirmity. See Clarke on [Exo 6:12] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶36] Who hath made man's mouth? etc. - Cannot he who formed the mouth, the whole organs of speech, and hath given the gift of speech also, cannot he give utterance? God can take away those gifts and restore them again. Do not provoke him: he who created the eye, the ear, and the mouth, hath also made the blind, the deaf, and the dumb.

### Verse 12

[¶38] I will be with thy mouth - The Chaldee translates, My Word, meimeri, shall be with thy mouth. And Jonathan ben Uzziel paraphrases, I and my Word will be with the speech of thy mouth. See Clarke on [Gen 15:1] (note), and [Lev 25:10] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶40] Send - by the hand of him whom thou wilt send - Many commentators, both ancient and modern, have thought that Moses prays here for the immediate mission of the Messiah; as if he had said: "Lord, thou hast purposed to send this glorious person at some time or other, I beseech thee send him now, for who can be sufficient to deliver and rule this people but himself alone?" The Hebrew שלח נא ביד תשלח shelach na beyad tishlach literally translated is, Send now (or, I beseech thee) by the hand thou wilt send; which seems to intimate, Send a person more fit for the work than I am. So the Septuagint: Προχειρισαι δυναμενον αλλον, ὁν αποστελεις· Elect another powerful person, whom thou wilt send. It is right to find out the Messiah wherever he is mentioned in the Old Testament; but to press scriptures into this service which have not an obvious tendency that way, is both improper and dangerous. I am firmly of opinion that Moses had no reference to the Messiah when he spoke these words.

### Verse 14

[¶42] And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses - Surely this would not have been the case had he only in modesty, and from a deep sense of his own unfitness, desired that the Messiah should be preferred before him. But the whole connection shows that this interpretation is unfounded.

[¶43] Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? - Houbigant endeavors to prove from this that Moses, in [Exo 4:13], did pray for the immediate mission of the Messiah, and that God gives him here a reason why this could not be, because the Levitical priesthood was to precede the priesthood of our Lord. Is not Aaron the Levite, etc. Must not the ministry of Aaron be first established, before the other can take place? Why then ask for that which is contrary to the Divine counsel? From the opinion of so great a critic as Houbigant no man would wish to dissent, except through necessity: however, I must say that it does appear to me that his view of these verses is fanciful, and the arguments by which he supports it are insufficient to establish his point.

[¶44] I know that he can speak well - ידעתי כי דבר ידבר הוא yadati ki dabber yedabber hu, I know that in speaking he will speak. That is, he is apt to talk, and has a ready utterance.

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[¶0] He cometh forth to meet thee - He shall meet thee at my mount, ([Exo 4:27]), shall rejoice in thy mission, and most heartily co-operate with thee in all things. A necessary assurance, to prevent Moses from suspecting that Aaron, who was his elder brother, would envy his superior call and office.

### Verse 15

[¶2] I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth - Ye shall be both, in all things which I appoint you to do in this business, under the continual inspiration of the Most High.

### Verse 16

[¶4] He shall be thy spokesman - Literally, He shall speak for thee (or in thy stead) to the people.

[¶5] He shall be to thee instead of a mouth - He shall convey every message to the people; and thou shalt be to him instead of God - thou shalt deliver to him what I communicate to thee.

### Verse 17

[¶7] Thou shalt take this rod - From the story of Moses's rod the heathens have invented the fables of the thyrsus of Bacchus, and the caduceus of Mercury. Cicero reckons five Bacchuses, one of which, according to Orpheus, was born of the river Nile; but, according to the common opinion, he was born on the banks of that river. Bacchus is expressly said to have been exposed on the river Nile, hence he is called Nilus, both by Diodorus and Macrobius; and in the hymns of Orpheus he is named Myses, because he was drawn out of the water. He is represented by the poets as being very beautiful, and an illustrious warrior; they report him to have overrun all Arabia with a numerous army both of men and women. He is said also to have been an eminent law-giver, and to have written his laws on two tables. He always carried in his hand the thyrsus, a rod wreathed with serpents, and by which he is reported to have wrought many miracles. Any person acquainted with the birth and exploits of the poetic Bacchus will at once perceive them to be all borrowed from the life and acts of Moses, as recorded in the Pentateuch; and it would be losing time to show the parallel, by quoting passages from the book of Exodus.

[¶8] The caduceus or rod of Mercury is well known in poetic fables. It is another copy Of the rod of Moses. He also is reported to have wrought a multitude of miracles by this rod; and particularly he is said to kill and make alive, to send souls to the invisible world and bring them back from thence. Homer represents Mercury taking his rod to work miracles precisely in the same way as God commands Moses to take his. Ἑρμης δε ψυχας Κυλληνιος εξεκαλειτο Ανδρων μνηστηρων· εχε δε ῬΑΒΔΟΝ μετα χερσιν Καλην, χρυσειην, τῃ τ' ανδρων ομματα θελγει, Ὡν εθελει, τους δ' αυτε και ὑπνωοντας εγειρει.

[¶9] Odyss., lib. xxiv., ver. 1.

[¶10] Cyllenian Hermes now call'd forth the souls

[¶11] Of all the suitors; with his golden Wand

[¶12] Of power, to seal in balmy sleep whose eyes

[¶13] Soe'er he will, and open them again.

[¶14] Cowper.

[¶15] Virgil copies Homer, but carries the parallel farther, tradition having probably furnished him with more particulars; but in both we may see a disguised copy of the sacred history, from which indeed the Greek and Roman poets borrowed most of their beauties.

[¶16] Tum Virgam Capit: hac animas ille evocat Orco

[¶17] Pallentes, alias sub tristia Tartara mittit;

[¶18] Dat somnos, adimitque, et lumina morte resignat

[¶19] Illa fretus agit, ventos, et turbida tranat. Aeneid, lib. iv., ver. 242.

[¶20] But first he grasps within his awful hand

[¶21] The mark of sovereign power, the magic wand;

[¶22] With this he draws the ghosts from hollow graves,

[¶23] With this he drives them down the Stygian waves;

[¶24] With this he seals in sleep the wakeful sight,

[¶25] And eyes, though closed in death, restores to light.

[¶26] Thus arm'd, the god begins his airy race,

[¶27] And drives the racking clouds along the liquid space.

[¶28] Dryden.

[¶29] Many other resemblances between the rod of the poets and that of Moses, the learned reader will readily recollect. These specimens may be deemed sufficient.

### Verse 18

[¶31] Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren - Moses, having received his commission from God, and directions how to execute it, returned to his father-in-law, and asked permission to visit his family and brethren in Egypt, without giving him any intimation of the great errand on which he was going. His keeping this secret has been attributed to his singular modesty: but however true it might be that Moses was a truly humble and modest man, yet his prudence alone was sufficient to have induced him to observe silence on this subject; for, if once imparted to the family of his father-in-law, the news might have reached Egypt before he could get thither, and a general alarm among the Egyptians would in all probability have been the consequence; as fame would not fail to represent Moses as coming to stir up sedition and rebellion, and the whole nation would have been armed against them. It was therefore essentially necessary that the business should be kept secret.

[¶32] In the Septuagint and Coptic the following addition is made to this verse: Μετα δε τας ἡμερας τας πολλας εκινας ετελευτησεν ὁ βασιλευς Αιγυπτου· After these many days, the king of Egypt died. This was probably an ancient gloss or side note, which in process of time crept into the text, as it appeared to throw light on the following verse.

### Verse 19

[¶34] In Midian - This was a new revelation, and appears to have taken place after Moses returned to his father-in-law previous to his departure for Egypt.

### Verse 20

[¶36] His wife and his sons - Both Gershom and Eliezer, though the birth of the latter has not yet been mentioned in the Hebrew text. See Clarke's note on [Exo 2:22].

[¶37] Set them upon an ass - The Septuagint reads the word in the plural, εκι τα ὑποζυγια, upon asses, as it certainly required more than one to carry Zipporah, Gershom, and Eliezer.

[¶38] The rod of God - The sign of sovereign power, by which he was to perform all his miracles; once the badge of his shepherd's office, and now that by which he is to feed, rule, and protect his people Israel.

### Verse 21

[¶40] But I will harden his heart - The case of Pharaoh has given rise to many fierce controversies, and to several strange and conflicting opinions. Would men but look at the whole account without the medium of their respective creeds, they would find little difficulty to apprehend the truth. If we take up the subject in a theological point of view, all sober Christians will allow the truth of this proposition of St. Augustine, when the subject in question is a person who has hardened his own heart by frequently resisting the grace and spirit of God: Non obdurate Deus impertiendo malitiam, sed non impertiendo misericordiam; Epist. 194, ad Sixtum, "God does not harden men by infusing malice into them, but by not imparting mercy to them." And this other will be as readily credited: Non operatur Deus in homine ipsam duritiam cordis; sed indurare eum dicitur quem mollire noluerit, sic etiam excaecare quem illuminare noluerit, et repellere eum quem noluerit vocare. "God does not work this hardness of heart in man; but he may be said to harden him whom he refuses to soften, to blind him whom he refuses to enlighten, and to repel him whom he refuses to call." It is but just and right that he should withhold those graces which he had repeatedly offered, and which the sinner had despised and rejected. Thus much for the general principle. The verb חזק chazak, which we translate harden, literally signifies to strengthen, confirm, make bold or courageous; and is often used in the sacred writings to excite to duty, perseverance, etc., and is placed by the Jews at the end of most books in the Bible as an exhortation to the reader to take courage, and proceed with his reading and with the obedience it requires. It constitutes an essential part of the exhortation of God to Joshua, [Jos 1:7] : Only be thou Strong, רק חזק rak chazak. And of Joshua's dying exhortation to the people, [Jos 23:6] : Be ye therefore Very Courageous, וחזקתם vachazaktem, to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law. Now it would he very strange in these places to translate the word harden: Only be thou hard, Be ye therefore very hard; and yet if we use the word hardy, it would suit the sense and context perfectly well: Only be thou Hardy; Be ye therefore very Hardy. Now suppose we apply the word in this way to Pharaoh, the sense would be good, and the justice of God equally conspicuous. I will make his heart hardy, bold, daring, presumptuous; for the same principle acting against God's order is presumption, which when acting according to it is undaunted courage. It is true that the verb קשה kashah is used, [Exo 7:3], which signifies to render stiff, tough, or stubborn, but it amounts to nearly the same meaning with the above.

[¶41] All those who have read the Scriptures with care and attention, know well that God is frequently represented in them as doing what he only permits to be done. So because a man has grieved his Spirit and resisted his grace he withdraws that Spirit and grace from him, and thus he becomes bold and presumptuous in sin. Pharaoh made his own heart stubborn against God, [Exo 9:34]; and God gave him up to judicial blindness, so that he rushed on stubbornly to his own destruction. From the whole of Pharaoh's conduct we learn that he was bold, haughty, and cruel; and God chose to permit these dispositions to have their full sway in his heart without check or restraint from Divine influence: the consequence was what God intended, he did not immediately comply with the requisition to let the people go; and this was done that God might have the fuller opportunity of manifesting his power by multiplying signs and miracles, and thus impress the hearts both of the Egyptians and Israelites with a due sense of his omnipotence and justice. The whole procedure was graciously calculated to do endless good to both nations. The Israelites must be satisfied that they had the true God for their protector; and thus their faith was strengthened. The Egyptians must see that their gods could do nothing against the God of Israel; and thus their dependence on them was necessarily shaken. These great ends could not have been answered had Pharaoh at once consented to let the people go. This consideration alone unravels the mystery, and explains everything. Let it be observed that there is nothing spoken here of the eternal state of the Egyptian king; nor does anything in the whole of the subsequent account authorize us to believe that God hardened his heart against the influences of his own grace, that he might occasion him so to sin that his justice might consign him to hell. This would be such an act of flagrant injustice as we could scarcely attribute to the worst of men. He who leads another into an offense that he may have a fairer pretense to punish him for it, or brings him into such circumstances that he cannot avoid committing a capital crime, and then hangs him for it, is surely the most execrable of mortals. What then should we make of the God of justice and mercy should we attribute to him a decree, the date of which is lost in eternity, by which he has determined to cut off from the possibility of salvation millions of millions of unborn souls, and leave them under a necessity of sinning, by actually hardening their hearts against the influences of his own grace and Spirit, that he may, on the pretext of justice, consign them to endless perdition? Whatever may be pretended in behalf of such unqualified opinions, it must be evident to all who are not deeply prejudiced, that neither the justice nor the sovereignty of God can be magnified by them. See Clarke farther on [Exo 9:16] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶43] Israel is my son, even my firstborn - That is, The Hebrew people are unutterably dear to me.

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### Verse 23

[¶1] Let my son go, that he may serve me - Which they could not do in Goshen, consistently with the policy and religious worship of the Egyptians; because the most essential part of an Israelite's worship consisted in sacrifice, and the animals which they offered to God were sacred among the Egyptians. Moses gives Pharaoh this reason [Exo 8:26].

[¶2] I will slay thy son, even thy first-born - Which, on Pharaoh's utter refusal to let the people go, was accordingly done; see [Exo 12:29].

### Verse 24

[¶4] By the way in the inn - See Clarke's note on [Gen 42:27]. The account in this and the following verse is very obscure. Some suppose that the [Exo 4:23] is not a part of the message to Pharaoh, but was spoken by the Lord to Moses; and that the whole may be thus paraphrased: "And I have said unto thee, (Moses), Send forth שלח shallach, my son, (Gershom, by circumcising him), that he may serve me, (which he cannot do till entered into the covenant by circumcision), but thou hast refused to send him forth; behold, (therefore), I will slay thy son, thy first-born. And it came to pass by the way in the inn, (when he was on his journey to Egypt), that Jehovah met him, and sought (threatened) to kill him (Gershom). Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut away the foreskin of her son, and caused it to touch his feet, (Jehovah's, who probably appeared in a bodily shape; the Septuagint call him the Angel of the Lord), and said unto him, A spouse by blood art thou unto me. Then he (Jehovah) ceased from him (Gershom). Then she said, A spouse by blood art thou unto me, because of this circumcision." That is, I who am an alien have entered as fully into covenant with thee by doing this act, as my son has on whom this act has been performed.

[¶5] The meaning of the whole passage seems to be this: - The son of Moses, Gershom or Eliezer, (for it does not appear which), had not been circumcised, though it would seem that God had ordered the father to do it; but as he had neglected this, therefore Jehovah was about to have slain the child, because not in covenant with him by circumcision, and thus he intended to have punished the disobedience of the father by the natural death of his son. Zipporah, getting acquainted with the nature of the case and the danger to which her first-born was exposed, took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son. By this act the displeasure of the Lord was turned aside, and Zipporah considered herself as now allied to God because of this circumcision. According to the law, ([Gen 17:14]), the uncircumcised child was to be cut off from his people, so that there should be no inheritance for that branch of the family in Israel. Moses therefore, for neglecting to circumcise the child, exposed him to this cutting off, and it was but barely prevented by the prompt obedience of Zipporah. As circumcision was the seal of that justification by faith which comes through Christ, Moses by neglecting it gave a very bad example, and God was about to proceed against him with that severity which the law required.

[¶6] The sharp stone mentioned [Exo 4:25] was probably a knife made of flint, for such were anciently used, even where knives of metal might be had, for every kind of operation about the human body, such as embowelling for the purpose of embalming, circumcision, etc. Ancient authors are full of proofs of these facts. See Clarke's note on [Gen 50:2]. It is probable that Zipporah, being alarmed by this circumstance, and fearing worse evils, took the resolution to return to her father's house with her two sons. See [Exo 18:1], etc.

### Verse 27

[¶8] The Lord said to Aaron - See [Exo 4:14]. By some secret but powerful movement on Aaron's mind, or by some voice or angelic ministry, he was now directed to go and meet his brother Moses; and so correctly was the information given to both, that they arrived at the same time on the sacred mountain.

### Verse 30

[¶10] Aaron spake all the words - It is likely that Aaron was better acquainted with the Hebrew tongue than his brother, and on this account he became the spokesman. See Clarke on [Exo 4:14] (note).

[¶11] Did the signs - Turned the rod into a serpent, made the hand leprous, and changed the water into blood. See Clarke on [Exo 4:6] (note) and [Exo 4:8] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶13] The people believed - They credited the account given of the Divine appointment of Moses and Aaron to be their deliverers out of their bondage, the miracles wrought on the occasion confirming the testimony delivered by Aaron.

[¶14] They bowed their heads and worshipped - See a similar act mentioned, and in the same words, [Gen 24:26] (note). The bowing the head, etc., here, may probably refer to the eastern custom of bowing the head down to the knees, then kneeling down and touching the earth with the forehead. This was a very painful posture and the most humble in which the body could possibly be placed. Those who pretend to worship God, either by prayer or thanksgiving, and keep themselves during the performance of those solemn acts in a state of perfect ease, either carelessly standing or stupidly sitting, surely cannot have a due sense of the majesty of God, and their own sinfulness and unworthiness. Let the feelings of the body put the soul in remembrance of its sin against God. Let a man put himself in such a position (kneeling for instance) as it is generally acknowledged a criminal should assume, when coming to his sovereign and judge to bewail his sins, and solicit forgiveness.

[¶15] The Jewish custom, as we learn from Rabbi Maymon, was to bend the body so that every joint of the backbone became incurvated, and the head was bent towards the knees, so that the body resembled a bow; and prostration implied laying the body flat upon the earth, the arms and legs extended to the uttermost, the mouth and forehead touching the ground. In [Mat 8:2] the leper is said to worship our Lord, προσεκυνει αυτῳ· but in [Luk 5:12] he is said to have fallen on his face, πεσων επι προσωπον. These two accounts show that he first kneeled down, probably putting his face down to his knees, and touching the earth with his forehead; and then prostrated himself, his legs and arms being both extended. See Clarke on [Gen 17:3] (note).

[¶16] The backwardness of Moses to receive and execute the commission to deliver the children of Israel, has something very instructive in it. He felt the importance of the charge, his own insufficiency, and the awful responsibility under which he should be laid if he received it. Who then can blame him for hesitating? If he miscarried (and how difficult in such a case not to miscarry!) he must account to a jealous God, whose justice required him to punish every delinquency. What should ministers of the Gospel feel on such subjects? Is not their charge more important and more awful than that of Moses? How few consider this! It is respectable, it is honorable, to be in the Gospel ministry, but who is sufficient to guide and feed the flock of God? If through the pastor's unfitness or neglect any soul should go astray, or perish through want of proper spiritual nourishment, or through not getting his portion in due season, in what a dreadful state is the pastor! That soul, says God, shall die in his iniquities, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hands! Were these things only considered by those who are candidates for the Gospel ministry, who could be found to undertake it? We should then indeed have the utmost occasion to pray the Lord of the harvest, εκβαλλειν, to Thrust Out laborers into the harvest, as no one, duly considering those things would go, unless thrust out by God himself. O ye ministers of the sanctuary! tremble for your own souls, and the souls of those committed to your care, and go not into this work unless God go with you. Without his presence, unction, and approbation, ye can do nothing.

### Introduction

[¶18] Moses and Aaron open their commission to Pharaoh, [Exo 5:1]. He insultingly asks who Jehovah is, in whose name they require him to dismiss the people, [Exo 5:2]. They explain, [Exo 5:3]. He charges them with making the people disaffected, [Exo 5:4], [Exo 5:5]; and commands the task-masters to increase their work, and lessen their means of performing it, [Exo 5:6-9]. The task-masters do as commanded, and refuse to give the people straw to assist them in making brick, and yet require the fulfillment of their daily tasks as formerly, when furnished with all the necessary means, [Exo 5:10-13]. The Israelites failing to produce the ordinary quantity of brick, their own officers, set over them by the task-masters, are cruelly insulted and beaten, [Exo 5:14]. The officers complain to Pharaoh, [Exo 5:15], [Exo 5:16]; but find no redress, [Exo 5:17], [Exo 5:18]. The officers, finding their case desperate, bitterly reproach Moses and Aaron for bringing them into their present circumstances, [Exo 5:19-21]. Moses retires, and lays the matter before the Lord, and pleads with him, [Exo 5:22], [Exo 5:23].

### Verse 1

[¶20] And afterward Moses and Aaron went - This chapter is properly a continuation of the preceding, as the succeeding is a continuation of this; and to preserve the connection of the facts they should be read together.

[¶21] How simply, and yet with what authority, does Moses deliver his message to the Egyptian king! Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel, Let my people go. It is well in this, as in almost every other case where יהוה Jehovah occurs, to preserve the original word: our using the word Lord is not sufficiently expressive, and often leaves the sense indistinct.

### Verse 2

[¶23] Who is the Lord - Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice? What claims has he on me? I am under no obligation to him. Pharaoh spoke here under the common persuasion that every place and people had a tutelary deity, and he supposed that this Jehovah might be the tutelary deity of the Israelites, to whom he, as an Egyptian, could be under no kind of obligation. It is not judicious to bring this question as a proof that Pharaoh was an atheist: of this the text affords no evidence.

### Verse 3

[¶25] Three days' journey - The distance from Goshen to Sinai; see [Exo 3:18].

[¶26] And sacrifice unto the Lord - Great stress is laid on this circumstance. God required sacrifice; no religious acts which they performed could be acceptable to him without this. He had now showed them that it was their indispensable duty thus to worship him, and that if they did not they might expect him to send the pestilence - some plague or death proceeding immediately from himself, or the sword - extermination by the hands of an enemy. The original word דבר deber, from בדר dabar, to drive off, draw under, etc., which we translate pestilence from the Latin pestis, the plague, signifies any kind of disease by which an extraordinary mortality is occasioned, and which appears from the circumstances of the case to come immediately from God. The Israelites could not sacrifice in the land of Egypt, because the animals they were to offer to God were held sacred by the Egyptians; and they could not omit this duty, because it was essential to religion even before the giving of the law. Thus we find that Divine justice required the life of the animal for the life of the transgressor, and the people were conscious, if this were not done, that God would consume them with the pestilence or the sword. From the foundation of the world the true religion required sacrifice. Before, under, and after the law, this was deemed essential to salvation. Under the Christian dispensation Jesus is the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world; and being still the Lamb newly slain before the throne, no man cometh unto the Father but by him. "In this first application to Pharaoh, we observe," says Dr. Dodd, "that proper respectful submission which is due from subjects to their sovereign. They represent to him the danger they should be in by disobeying their God, but do not so much as hint at any punishment that would follow to Pharaoh."

### Verse 4

[¶28] Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron - He hints that the Hebrews are in a state of revolt, and charges Moses and Aaron as being ringleaders of the sedition. This unprincipled charge has been, in nearly similar circumstances, often repeated since. Men who have labored to bring the mass of the common people from ignorance, irreligion, and general profligacy of manners, to an acquaintance with themselves and God, and to a proper knowledge of their duty to him and to each other, have been often branded as being disaffected to the state, and as movers of sedition among the people! See Clarke on [Exo 5:17] (note).

[¶29] Let the people - תפריעו taphriu, from פרע para, to loose or disengage, which we translate to let, from the Anglo-Saxon lettan, to hinder. Ye hinder the people from working. Get ye to your burdens. "Let religion alone, and mind your work." The language not only of tyranny, but of the basest irreligion also.

### Verse 5

[¶31] The people of the land now are many - The sanguinary edict had no doubt been long before repealed, or they could not have multiplied so greatly.

### Verse 6

[¶33] The task-masters of the people and their officers - The task-masters were Egyptians, (see Clarke on [Exo 1:11] (note)), the officers were Hebrews; see Clarke below [Exo 5:14] (note). But it is probable that the task-masters [Exo 1:11], who are called שרי מסים sarey missim, princes of the burdens or taxes, were different from those termed taskmasters here, as the words are different; נגשים nogesim signifies exactors or oppressors - persons who exacted from them an unreasonable proportion either of labor or money.

[¶34] Officers - שטרים shoterim; those seem to have been an inferior sort of officers, who attended on superior officers or magistrates to execute their orders. They are supposed to have been something like our sheriffs.

### Verse 7

[¶36] Straw to make brick - There have been many conjectures concerning the use of straw in making bricks. Some suppose it was used merely for burning them, but this is unfounded. The eastern bricks are often made of clay and straw kneaded together, and then not burned, but thoroughly dried in the sun. This is expressly mentioned by Philo in his life of Moses, who says, describing the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, that some were obliged to work in clay for the formation of bricks, and others to gather straw for the same purpose, because straw is the bond by which the brick is held together, πλινθου γαρ αχορα δεσμος - Phil. Oper., edit. Mang., vol. ii., p. 86. And Philo's account is confirmed by the most intelligent travelers. Dr. Shaw says that the straw in the bricks still preserves its original color, which is a proof that the bricks were never burned. Some of these are still to be seen in the cabinets of the curious; and there are several from ancient Babylon now before me, where the straw which was amalgamated with the clay is still perfectly visible. From this we may see the reason of the complaint made to Pharaoh, [Exo 5:16] : the Egyptians refused to give the necessary portion of straw for kneading the bricks, and yet they required that the full tale or number of bricks should be produced each day as they did when all the necessary materials were brought to hand; so the people were obliged to go over all the cornfields, and pluck up the stubble, which they were obliged to substitute for straw. See [Exo 5:12].

### Verse 8

[¶38] And the tale of the bricks - Tale signifies the number, from the Anglo-Saxon to number, to count, etc.

[¶39] For they be idle; therefore they cry - Let us go and sacrifice - Thus their desire to worship the true God in a proper manner was attributed to their unwillingness to work; a reflection which the Egyptians (in principle) of the present day cast on these who, while they are fervent in spirit serving the Lord, are not slothful in business. See Clarke below [Exo 5:17] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶41] And the officers - were beaten - Probably bastinadoed; for this is the common punishment in Egypt to the present day for minor offenses. The manner of it is this: the culprit lies on his belly, his legs being turned up behind erect, and the executioner gives him so many blows on the soles of the feet with a stick. This is a very severe punishment, the sufferer not being able to walk for many weeks after, and some are lamed by it through the whole of their lives.

### Verse 16

[¶43] The fault is in thine own people - חטאת chatath, the sin, is in thy own people. 1st. Because they require impossibilities; and 2dly, because they punish us for not doing what cannot be performed.

### Verse 17

[¶45] Ye are idle - therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice - It is common for those who feel unconcerned about their own souls to attribute the religious earnestness of others, who feel the importance of eternal things, to idleness or a disregard of their secular concerns. Strange that they cannot see there is a medium! He who has commanded them to be diligent in business, has also commanded them to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. He whose diligence in business is not connected with a true religious fervor of spirit, is a lover of the world; and whatever form he may have he has not the power of godliness, and therefore is completely out of the road to salvation.

## 75. Exodus · 8 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/75/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/75/#p-N

### Verse 19

[¶1] Did see that they were in evil case - They saw that they could neither expect justice nor mercy; that their deliverance was very doubtful, and their case almost hopeless.

### Verse 21

[¶3] The Lord look upon you, and judge - These were hasty and unkind expressions; but the afflicted must be allowed the privilege of complaining; it is all the solace that such sorrow can find; and if in such distress words are spoken which should not be justified, yet the considerate and benevolent will hear them with indulgence. God is merciful; and the stroke of this people was heavier even than their groaning.

[¶4] Put a sword in their hand - Given them a pretense which they had not before, to oppress us even unto death.

### Verse 22

[¶6] And Moses returned unto the Lord - This may imply, either that there was a particular place into which Moses ordinarily went to commune with Jehovah; or it may mean that kind of turning of heart and affection to God, which every pious mind feels itself disposed to practice in any time or place. The old adage will apply here: "A praying heart never lacks a praying place." Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? - It is certain that in this address Moses uses great plainness of speech. Whether the offspring of a testy impatience and undue familiarity, or of strong faith which gave him more than ordinary access to the throne of his gracious Sovereign, it would be difficult to say. The latter appears to be the most probable, as we do not find, from the succeeding chapter, that God was displeased with his freedom; we may therefore suppose that it was kept within due bounds, and that the principles and motives were all pure and good. However, it should be noted, that such freedom of speech with the Most High should never be used but on very special occasions, and then only by his extraordinary messengers.

### Verse 23

[¶8] He hath done evil to this people - Their misery is increased instead of being diminished.

[¶9] Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all - The marginal reading is both literal and correct: And delivering thou hast not delivered. Thou hast begun the work by giving us counsels and a commission, but thou hast not brought the people from under their bondage. Thou hast signified thy pleasure relative to their deliverance, but thou hast not brought them out of the hands of their enemies.

[¶10] 1. It is no certain proof of the displeasure of God that a whole people, or an individual, may be found in a state of great oppression and distress; nor are affluence and prosperity any certain signs of his approbation. God certainly loved the Israelites better than he did the Egyptians; yet the former were in the deepest adversity, while the latter were in the height of prosperity. Luther once observed, that if secular prosperity were to be considered as a criterion of the Divine approbation, then the grand Turk must be the highest in the favor of God, as he was at that time the most prosperous sovereign on the earth. An observation of this kind, on a case so obvious, was really well calculated to repress hasty conclusions drawn from these external states, and to lay down a correct rule of judgment for all such occasions.

[¶11] 2. In all our addresses to God we should ever remember that we have sinned against him, and deserve nothing but punishment from his hand. We should therefore bow before him with the deepest humiliation of soul, and take that caution of the wise man, "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few," [Ecc 5:2]. There is the more need to attend to this caution, because many ignorant though well-meaning people use very improper, not to say indecent, freedoms in their addresses to the throne of grace. With such proceedings God cannot be well pleased; and he who has not a proper impression of the dignity and excellence of the Divine Nature, is not in such a disposition as it is essentially necessary to feel in order to receive help from God. He who knows he has sinned, and feels that he is less than the least of all God's mercies, will pray with the deepest humility, and even rejoice before God with trembling. A solemn Awe of the Divine Majesty is not less requisite to successful praying, than faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. When we have such a commission as that of Moses, we may make use of his freedom of speech; but till then, the publican's prayer will best suit the generality of those who are even dignified by the name of Christian - Lord, be merciful to me, a Sinner!

### Introduction

[¶13] God encourages Moses, and promises to show wonders upon Pharaoh, and to bring out his people with a strong hand, [Exo 6:1]. He confirms this promise by his essential name Jehovah, [Exo 6:2], [Exo 6:3]; by the covenant he had made with their fathers, [Exo 6:4], [Exo 6:5]. Sends Moses with a fresh message to the Hebrews, full of the most gracious promises, and confirms the whole by appealing to the name in which his unchangeable existence is implied, [Exo 6:6-8]. Moses delivers the message to the Israelites, but through anguish of spirit they do not believe, [Exo 6:9]. He receives a new commission to go to Pharaoh, [Exo 6:10], [Exo 6:11]. He excuses himself on account of his unreadiness of speech, [Exo 6:12]. The Lord gives him and Aaron a charge both to Pharaoh and to the children of Israel, [Exo 6:13]. The genealogy of Reuben, [Exo 6:14]; of Simeon, [Exo 6:15]; of Levi, from whom descended Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, [Exo 6:16]. The sons of Gershon, [Exo 6:17]; of Kohath, [Exo 6:15]; of Merari, [Exo 6:19]. The marriage of Amram and Jochebed, [Exo 6:20]. The sons of Izhar and Uzziel, the brothers of Amram, [Exo 6:21], [Exo 6:22]. Marriage of Aaron and Elisheba, and the birth of their sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, [Exo 6:23]. The sons of Korah, the nephew of Aaron, [Exo 6:24]. The marriage of Eleazar to one of the daughters of Putiel, and the birth of Phinehas, [Exo 6:25]. These genealogical accounts introduced for the sake of showing the line of descent of Moses and Aaron, [Exo 6:26], [Exo 6:27]. A recapitulation of the commission delivered to Moses and Aaron, [Exo 6:29], and a repetition of the excuse formerly made by Moses, [Exo 6:30].

### Verse 1

[¶15] With a strong hand - יד חזקה yad chazakah, the same verb which we translate to harden; see Clarke on [Exo 4:21] (note). The strong hand here means sovereign power, suddenly and forcibly applied. God purposed to manifest his sovereign power in the sight of Pharaoh and the Egyptians; in consequence of which Pharaoh would manifest his power and authority as sovereign of Egypt, in dismissing and thrusting out the people. See [Exo 12:31-33].

### Verse 2

[¶17] I am the Lord - It should be, I am Jehovah, and without this the reason of what is said in the 3d verse is not sufficiently obvious.

### Verse 3

[¶19] By the name of God Almighty - אל שדי EL-Shaddal, God All-sufficient; God the dispenser or pourer-out of gifts. See Clarke on [Gen 17:1] (note).

[¶20] But by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them - This passage has been a sort of crux criticorum, and has been variously explained. It is certain that the name Jehovah was in use long before the days of Abraham, see [Gen 2:4], where the words יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim occur, as they do frequently afterwards; and see [Gen 15:2], where Abraham expressly addresses him by the name Adonai Jehovah; and see [Gen 15:7], where God reveals himself to Abraham by this very name: And he said unto him, I am Jehovah, that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees. How then can it be said that by his name Jehovah he was not known unto them? Several answers have been given to this question; the following are the chief: - 1. The words should be read interrogatively, for the negative particle לא lo, not, has this power often in Hebrew. "I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty, and by my name Jehovah was I not also made known unto them?" 2. The name Jehovah was not revealed before the time mentioned here, for though it occurs so frequently in the book of Genesis, as that book was written long after the name had come into common use, as a principal characteristic of God, Moses employs it in his history because of this circumstance; so that whenever it appears previously to this, it is by the figure called prolepsis or anticipation. 3. As the name יהוה Jehovah signifies existence, it may be understood in the text in question thus: "I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by my name God Almighty, or God All-sufficient, i.e., having all power to do all good; in this character I made a covenant with them, supported by great and glorious promises; but as those promises had respect unto their posterity, they could not be fulfilled to those fathers: but now, as Jehovah, I am about to give existence to all those promises relative to your support, deliverance from bondage, and your consequent settlement in the promised land." 4. The words may be considered as used comparatively: though God did appear to those patriarchs as Jehovah, and they acknowledged him by this name, yet it was but comparatively known unto them; they knew nothing of the power and goodness of God, in comparison of what the Israelites were now about to experience.

[¶21] I believe the simple meaning is this, that though from the beginning the name Jehovah was known as one of the names of the Supreme Being, yet what it really implied they did not know. אל שלי El-Shaddai, God All-sufficient, they knew well by the continual provision he made for them, and the constant protection he afforded them: but the name יהוה Jehovah is particularly to be referred to the accomplishment of promises already made; to the giving them a being, and thus bringing them into existence, which could not have been done in the order of his providence sooner than here specified: this name therefore in its power and significancy was not known unto them; nor fully known unto their descendants till the deliverance from Egypt and the settlement in the promised land. It is surely possible for a man to bear the name of a certain office or dignity before he fulfills any of its functions. King, mayor, alderman, magistrate, constable, may be borne by the several persons to whom they legally belong, before any of the acts peculiar to those offices are performed. The King, acknowledged as such on his coronation, is known to be such by his legislative acts; the civil magistrate, by his distribution of justice, and issuing warrants for the apprehending of culprits; and the constable, by executing those warrants. All these were known to have their respective names, but the exercise of their powers alone shows what is implied in being king, magistrate, and constable. The following is a case in point, which fell within my own knowledge.

[¶22] A case of dispute between certain litigious neighbors being heard in court before a weekly sitting of the magistrates, a woman who came as an evidence in behalf of her bad neighbor, finding the magistrates inclining to give judgment against her mischievous companion, took her by the arm and said, "Come away! I told you you would get neither law nor justice in this place." A magistrate, who was as much an honor to his function as he was to human nature, immediately said, "Here, constable! take that woman and lodge her in Bridewell, that she may know there is some law and justice in this place." Thus the worthy magistrate proved he had the power implied in the name by executing the duties of his office. And God who was known as Jehovah, the being who makes and gives effect to promises, was known to the descendants of the twelve tribes to be That Jehovah, by giving effect and being to the promises which he had made to their fathers.

### Verse 4

[¶24] I have also established my covenant - I have now fully purposed to give present effect to all my engagements with your fathers, in behalf of their posterity.

### Verse 6

[¶26] Say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out, etc. - This confirms the explanation given of [Exo 6:3], which see Clarke's note on [Exo 6:3].

### Verse 7

[¶28] I will take you to me for a people, etc. - This was precisely the covenant that he had made with Abraham. See [Gen 17:7], and see Clarke's note on [Gen 17:7].

[¶29] And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God - By thus fulfilling my promises ye shall know what is implied in my name. See Clarke's note on [Exo 6:3].

[¶30] But why should God take such a most stupid, refractory, and totally worthless people for his people? 1. Because he had promised to do so to their noble ancestors Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, etc., men worthy of all praise, because in general friends of God, devoted to his will and to the good of mankind.

[¶31] 2. "That (as Bishop Warburton properly observes) the extraordinary providence by which they were protected, might become the more visible and illustrious; for had they been endowed with the shining qualities of the more polished nations, the effects of that providence might have been ascribed to their own wisdom."

[¶32] 3. That God might show to all succeeding generations that he delights to instruct the ignorant, help the weak, and save the lost; for if he bore long with Israel, showed them especial mercy, and graciously received them whenever they implored his protection, none need despair. God seems to have chosen the worst people in the universe, to give by them unto mankind the highest and most expressive proofs, that he wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his iniquity and live.

### Verse 8

[¶34] Which I did swear - נשאתי את ידי nasathi eth yadi, I have lifted up my hand. The usual mode of making an appeal to God, and hence considered to be a form of swearing. It is thus that [Isa 62:8] is to be understood: The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength.

### Verse 9

[¶36] But they hearkened not - Their bondage was become so extremely oppressive that they had lost all hope of ever being redeemed from it. After this verse the Samaritan adds, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians: for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. This appears to be borrowed from [Exo 14:12].

[¶37] Anguish of spirit - קצר רוח kotzer ruach, shortness of spirit or breath. The words signify that their labor was so continual, and their bondage so cruel and oppressive, that they had scarcely time to breathe.

### Verse 12

[¶39] Uncircumcised lips? - The word ערל aral, which we translate uncircumcised, seems to signify any thing exuberant or superfluous. Had not Moses been remarkable for his excellent beauty, I should have thought the passage might be rendered protuberant lips; but as this sense cannot be admitted for the above reason, the word must refer to some natural impediment in his speech; and probably means a want of distinct and ready utterance, either occasioned by some defect in the organs of speech, or impaired knowledge of the Egyptian language after an absence of forty years. See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:10].

### Verse 14

[¶41] These be the heads - ראשי rashey, the chiefs or captains. The following genealogy was simply intended to show that Moses and Aaron came in a direct line from Abraham, and to ascertain the time of Israel's deliverance. The whole account from [Exo 6:14-26] inclusive, is a sort of parenthesis, and does not belong to the narration; and what follows from [Exo 6:28] is a recapitulation of what was spoken in the preceding chapters.

### Verse 16

[¶43] The years of the life of Levi - "Bishop Patrick observes that Levi is thought to have lived the longest of all Jacob's sons, none of whose ages are recorded in Scripture but his and Joseph's, whom Levi survived twenty-seven years, though he was much the elder brother. By the common computation this would be twenty-three years: by Kennicott's computation at the end of Genesis 31. (See Clarke's note at [Gen 31:55]) Levi's birth is placed twenty-four years before that of Joseph; his death, therefore, would be only three years later. But this is not the only difficulty in ancient chronologies. Kohath, the second son of Levi, according to Archbishop Usher was thirty years old when Jacob came into Egypt, and lived there one hundred and three years. He attained to nearly the same age with Levi, to one hundred and thirty-three years; and his son Amram, the father of Moses, lived to the same age with Levi. We may observe here how the Divine promise, [Gen 15:16], of delivering the Israelites out of Egypt in the fourth generation was verified; for Moses was the son of Amram, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Jacob." - Dodd.

## 76. Exodus · 9 of 57

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### Verse 20

[¶1] His father's sister - דדתו dodatho. The true meaning of this word is uncertain. Parkhurst observes that דוד dod signifies an uncle in [1Sam 10:14]; [Lev 10:4], and frequently elsewhere. It signifies also an uncle's son, a cousin-german: compare [Jer 32:8] with [Exo 6:12], where the Vulgate renders דדי dodi by patruelis mei, my paternal cousin; and in [Amo 6:10], for דודו dodo, the Targum has קריביה karibiah, his near relation. So the Vulgate, propinquus ejus, his relative, and the Septuagint, οἱ οικειοι αυτων, those of their household. The best critics suppose that Jochebed was the cousin-german of Amram, and not his aunt. See Clarke's note on [Exo 2:1].

[¶2] Bare him Aaron and Moses - The Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac, and one Hebrew MS. add, And Miriam their sister. Some of the best critics suppose these words to have been originally in the Hebrew text.

### Verse 21

[¶4] Korah - Though he became a rebel against God and Moses, (see [Num 16:1], etc)., yet Moses, in his great impartiality, inserts his name among those of his other progenitors.

### Verse 22

[¶6] Uzziel - He is called Aaron's uncle, [Lev 10:4].

### Verse 23

[¶8] Elisheba - The oath of the Lord. It is the same name as Elizabeth, so very common among Christians. She was of the royal tribe of Judah, and was sister to Nahshon, one of the princes; see [Num 2:3].

[¶9] Eleazar - He succeeded to the high priesthood on the death of his father Aaron, [Num 20:25], etc.

### Verse 25

[¶11] Phinehas - Of the celebrated act of this person, and the most honorable grant made to him and his posterity, see [Num 25:7-13].

### Verse 26

[¶13] According to their armies - צבאתם tsibotham, their battalions - regularly arranged troops. As God had these particularly under his care and direction, he had the name of יהוה צבאות Yehovah tsebaoth, Lord of hosts or armies. "The plain and disinterested manner," says Dr. Dodd, "in which Moses speaks here of his relations, and the impartiality wherewith he inserts in the list of them such as were afterwards severely punished by the Lord, are striking proofs of his modesty and sincerity. He inserts the genealogy of Reuben and Simeon, because they were of the same mother with Levi; and though he says nothing of himself, yet he relates particularly what concerns Aaron, [Exo 6:23], who married into an honorable family, the sister of a prince of the tribe of Judah."

### Verse 28

[¶15] And it came to pass - Here the seventh chapter should commence, as there is a complete ending of the sixth with [Exo 6:27], and the [Exo 6:30] of this chapter is intimately connected with the 1st verse of the succeeding.

[¶16] The principal subjects in this chapter have been so amply considered in the notes, that little of importance remains to be done. On the nature of a covenant (See Clarke's note on [Exo 6:4]). ample information may be obtained by referring to [Gen 6:18], and [Gen 15:9-18], which places the reader will do well to consult.

[¶17] Supposing Moses to have really labored under some defect in speech, we may consider it as wisely designed to be a sort of counterbalance to his other excellences: at least this is an ordinary procedure of Divine Providence; personal accomplishments are counterbalanced by mental defects, and mental imperfections often by personal accomplishments. Thus the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee. And God does all this in great wisdom, to hide pride from man, and that no flesh may glory in his presence. To be contented with our formation, endowments, and external circumstances, requires not only much submission to the providence of God, but also much of the mind of Christ. On the other hand, should we feel vanity because of some personal or mental accomplishment, we have only to take a view of our whole to find sufficient cause of humiliation; and after all, the meek and gentle spirit only is, in the sight of God, of great price.

### Introduction

[¶19] The dignified mission of Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh - the one to be as God, the other as a prophet of the Most High, [Exo 7:1], [Exo 7:2]. The prediction that Pharaoh's heart should be hardened, that God might multiply his signs and wonders in Egypt, that the inhabitants might know he alone was the true God, [Exo 7:3-4]. The age of Moses and Aaron, [Exo 7:7]. God gives them directions how they should act before Pharaoh, [Exo 7:5], [Exo 7:9]. Moses turns his rod into a serpent, [Exo 7:10]. The magicians imitate this miracle, and Pharaoh's heart is hardened, [Exo 7:11-13]. Moses is commanded to wait upon Pharaoh next morning when he should come to the river, and threaten to turn the waters into blood if he did not let the people go, [Exo 7:14-18]. The waters in all the land of Egypt are turned into blood, [Exo 7:19], [Exo 7:20]. The fish die, [Exo 7:21]. The magicians imitate this, and Pharaoh's heart is again hardened, [Exo 7:22], [Exo 7:23]. The Egyptians sorely distressed because of the bloody waters, [Exo 7:24]. This plague endures seven days, [Exo 7:25].

### Verse 1

[¶21] I have made thee a god - At thy word every plague shall come, and at thy command each shall be removed. Thus Moses must have appeared as a god to Pharaoh.

[¶22] Shall be thy prophet - Shall receive the word from thy mouth, and communicate it to the Egyptian king, [Exo 7:2].

### Verse 3

[¶24] I will harden Pharaoh's heart - I will permit his stubbornness and obstinacy still to remain, that I may have the greater opportunity to multiply my wonders in the land, that the Egyptians may know that I only am Jehovah, the self-existent God. See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:21].

### Verse 5

[¶26] And bring out the children of Israel - Pharaoh's obstinacy was either caused or permitted in mercy to the Egyptians, that he and his magicians being suffered to oppose Moses and Aaron to the uttermost of their power, the Israelites might be brought out of Egypt in so signal a manner, in spite of all the opposition of the Egyptians, their king, and their gods, that Jehovah might appear to be All-mighty and All-sufficient.

### Verse 7

[¶28] Moses was fourscore years old - He was forty years old when he went to Midian, and he had tarried forty years in Midian; (see [Exo 2:11], and [Act 7:30]); and from this verse it appears that Aaron was three years older than Moses. We have already seen that Miriam their sister was older than either, [Exo 2:4].

### Verse 9

[¶30] Show a miracle for you - A miracle, מופת mopheth, signifies an effect produced in nature which is opposed to its laws, or such as its powers are inadequate to produce. As Moses and Aaron professed to have a Divine mission, and to come to Pharaoh on the most extraordinary occasion, making a most singular and unprecedented demand, it was natural to suppose, if Pharaoh should even give them an audience, that he would require them to give him some proof by an extraordinary sign that their pretensions to such a Divine mission were well founded and incontestable. For it appears to have ever been the sense of mankind, that he who has a Divine mission to effect some extraordinary purpose can give a supernatural proof that he has got this extraordinary commission.

[¶31] Take thy rod - This rod, whether a common staff, an ensign of office, or a shepherd's crook, was now consecrated for the purpose of working miracles; and is indifferently called the rod of God, the rod of Moses, and the rod of Aaron. God gave it the miraculous power, and Moses and Aaron used it indifferently.

### Verse 10

[¶33] It became a serpent - תנין tannin. What kind of a serpent is here intended, learned men are not agreed. From the manner in which the original word is used in [Psa 74:13]; [Isa 27:1]; [Isa 51:9]; [Job 7:12]; some very large creature, either aquatic or amphibious, is probably meant; some have thought that the crocodile, a well-known Egyptian animal, is here intended. In [Exo 4:3] it is said that this rod was changed into a serpent, but the original word there is נחש nachash, and here תנין tannin, the same word which we translate whale, [Gen 1:21].

[¶34] As נחש nachash seems to be a term restricted to no one particular meaning, as has already been shown on Genesis 3; See Clarke's note on [Gen 3:1]. So the words תנין tannin, תנינים tanninim, תנים tannim, and תנות tannoth, are used to signify different kinds of animals in the Scriptures. The word is supposed to signify the jackal in [Job 30:29]; [Psa 44:19]; [Isa 13:22]; [Isa 34:13]; [Isa 35:7]; [Isa 43:20]; [Jer 9:11], etc., etc.; and also a dragon, serpent, or whale, [Job 7:12]; [Psa 91:13]; [Isa 27:1]; [Isa 51:9]; [Jer 51:34]; [Eze 29:3]; [Eze 32:2]; and is termed, in our translation, a sea-monster, [Lam 4:3]. As it was a rod or staff that was changed into the tannim in the cases mentioned here, it has been supposed that an ordinary serpent is what is intended by the word, because the size of both might be then pretty nearly equal: but as a miracle was wrought on the occasion, this circumstance is of no weight; it was as easy for God to change the rod into a crocodile, or any other creature, as to change it into an adder or common snake.

### Verse 11

[¶36] Pharaoh - called the wise men - חכמים chacamim, the men of learning. Sorcerers, כשפים cashshephim, those who reveal hidden things; probably from the Arabic root kashafa, to reveal, uncover, etc., signifying diviners, or those who pretended to reveal what was in futurity, to discover things lost, to find hidden treasures, etc. Magicians, חרטמי chartummey, decipherers of abstruse writings. See Clarke's note on [Gen 41:8].

[¶37] They also did in like manner with their enchantments - The word להתים lahatim, comes from להט mor lahat, to burn, to set on fire; and probably signifies such incantations as required lustral fires, sacrifices, fumigations, burning of incense, aromatic and odoriferous drugs, etc., as the means of evoking departed spirits or assistant demons, by whose ministry, it is probable, the magicians in question wrought some of their deceptive miracles: for as the term miracle signifies properly something which exceeds the powers of nature or art to produce, (see [Exo 7:9]), hence there could be no miracle in this case but those wrought, through the power of God, by the ministry of Moses and Aaron. There can be no doubt that real serpents were produced by the magicians. On this subject there are two opinions:

[¶38] 1. That the serpents were such as they, either by juggling or sleight of hand, had brought to the place, and had secreted till the time of exhibition, as our common conjurers do in the public fairs, etc.

[¶39] 2. That the serpents were brought by the ministry of a familiar spirit, which, by the magic flames already referred to, they had evoked for the purpose.

[¶40] Both these opinions admit the serpents to be real, and no illusion of the sight, as some have supposed. The first opinion appears to me insufficient to account for the phenomena of the case referred to. If the magicians threw down their rods, and they became serpents after they were thrown down, as the text expressly says, [Exo 7:12], juggling or sleight of hand had nothing farther to do in the business, as the rods were then out of their hands. If Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods, their sleight of hand was no longer concerned. A man, by dexterity of hand, may so far impose on his spectators as to appear to eat a rod; but for rods lying on the ground to become serpents, and one of these to devour all the rest so that it alone remained, required something more than juggling. How much more rational at once to allow that these magicians had familiar spirits who could assume all shapes, change the appearances of the subjects on which they operated, or suddenly convey one thing away and substitute another in its place! Nature has no such power, and art no such influence as to produce the effects attributed here and in the succeeding chapters to the Egyptian magicians.

### Verse 12

[¶42] Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods - As Egypt was remarkably addicted to magic, sorcery, etc., it was necessary that God should permit Pharaoh's wise men to act to the utmost of their skill in order to imitate the work of God, that his superiority might be clearly seen, and his powerful working incontestably ascertained; and this was fully done when Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. We have already seen that the names of two of the chief of these magicians were Jannes and Jambres; see Clarke on [Exo 2:10] (note), and [2Tim 3:8] (note). Many traditions and fables concerning these may be seen in the eastern writers.

### Verse 13

[¶44] And he hardened Pharaoh's heart - ויחזק לב פרעה vaiyechezak leb Paroh, "And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened," the identical words which in [Exo 7:22] are thus translated, and which should have been rendered in the same way here, lest the hardening, which was evidently the effect of his own obstinate shutting of his eyes against the truth, should be attributed to God. See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:21].

## 77. Exodus · 10 of 57

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### Verse 14

[¶1] Pharaoh's heart is hardened - כבד cabed, is become heavy or stupid; he receives no conviction, notwithstanding the clearness of the light which shines upon him. We well know the power of prejudice: where persons are determined to think and act after a predetermined plan, arguments, demonstrations, and even miracles themselves, are lost on them, as in the case of Pharaoh here, and that of the obstinate Jews in the days of our Lord and his apostles.

### Verse 15

[¶3] Lo, he goeth out unto the water - Probably for the purpose of bathing, or of performing some religious ablution. Some suppose he went out to pay adoration to the river Nile, which was an object of religious worship among the ancient Egyptians. "For," says Plutarch, De Iside., ουδεν οὑτω τιμη Αιγυπτιοις ὡς ὁ Νειλος "nothing is in greater honor among the Egyptians than the river Nile." Some of the ancient Jews supposed that Pharaoh himself was a magician, and that he walked by the river early each morning for the purpose of preparing magical rites, etc.

### Verse 17

[¶5] Behold, I will smite - Here commences the account of the Ten plagues which were inflicted on the Egyptians by Moses and Aaron, by the command and through the power of God. According to Archbishop Usher these ten plagues took place in the course of one month, and in the following order: -

[¶6] The first, the Waters turned into Blood, took place, he supposes, the 18th day of the sixth month; [Exo 7:20].

[¶7] The second, the plague of Frogs, on the 25th day of the sixth month; [Exo 8:2].

[¶8] The third, the plague of Lice, on the 27th day of the sixth month; [Exo 8:16].

[¶9] The fourth, grievous Swarms of Flies, on the 29th day of the sixth month; [Exo 8:24].

[¶10] The fifth, the grievous Murrain, on the 2d day of the seventh month; [Exo 9:3].

[¶11] The sixth, the plague of Boils and Blains, on the 3d day of the seventh month; [Exo 9:10].

[¶12] The seventh, the grievous Hail, on the 5th day of the seventh month; [Exo 9:18].

[¶13] The eighth, the plague of Locusts, on the 8th day of the seventh month; [Exo 10:12].

[¶14] The ninth, the Thick Darkness, on the 10th day of Abib, (April 30), now become the first month of the Jewish year; [Exo 10:22]. See Clarke's note on [Exo 12:2].

[¶15] The tenth, the Slaying the First-Born, on the 15th of Abib; [Exo 12:29]. But most of these dates are destitute of proof.

### Verse 18

[¶17] The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water - The force of this expression cannot be well felt without taking into consideration the peculiar pleasantness and great salubrity of the waters of the Nile. "The water of Egypt," says the Abbe Mascrier, "is so delicious, that one would not wish the heat to be less, or to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisite that they excite themselves to drink of it by eating salt. It is a common saying among them, that if Mohammed had drank of it he would have besought God that he might never die, in order to have had this continual gratification. When the Egyptians undertake the pilgrimage of Mecca, or go out of their country on any other account, they speak of nothing but the pleasure they shall have at their return in drinking of the waters of the Nile. There is no gratification to be compared to this; it surpasses, in their esteem, that of seeing their relations and families. All those who have tasted of this water allow that they never met with the like in any other place. When a person drinks of it for the first time he can scarcely be persuaded that it is not a water prepared by art; for it has something in it inexpressibly agreeable and pleasing to the taste; and it should have the same rank among waters that champaign has among wines. But its most valuable quality is, that it is exceedingly salutary. It never incommodes, let it be drank in what quantity it may: this is so true that it is no uncommon thing to see some persons drink three buckets of it in a day without the least inconvenience! When I pass such encomiums on the water of Egypt it is right to observe that I speak only of that of the Nile, which indeed is the only water drinkable, for their well water is detestable and unwholesome. Fountains are so rare that they are a kind of prodigy in that country; and as to rain water, that is out of the question, as scarcely any falls in Egypt." "A person," says Mr. Harmer, "who never before heard of the deliciousness of the Nile water, and of the large quantities which on that account are drank of it, will, I am sure, find an energy in those words of Moses to Pharaoh, The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river, which he never observed before. They will loathe to drink of that water which they used to prefer to all the waters of the universe; loathe to drink of that for which they had been accustomed to long, and will rather choose to drink of well water, which in their country is detestable!" - Observations, vol. iii., p. 564.

### Verse 19

[¶19] That there may be blood - both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone - Not only the Nile itself was to be thus changed into blood in all its branches, and the canals issuing from it, but all the water of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, was to undergo a similar change. And this was to extend even to the water already brought into their houses for culinary and other domestic purposes. As the water of the Nile is known to be very thick and muddy, and the Egyptians are obliged to filter it through pots of a kind of white earth, and sometimes through a paste made of almonds, Mr. Harmer supposes that the vessels of wood and stone mentioned above may refer to the process of filtration, which no doubt has been practiced among them from the remotest period. The meaning given above I think to be more natural.

### Verse 20

[¶21] All the waters - were turned to blood - Not merely in appearance, but in reality; for these changed waters became corrupt and insalubrious, so that even the fish that were in the river died; and the smell became highly offensive, so that the waters could not be drank; [Exo 7:21].

### Verse 22

[¶23] And the magicians - did so - But if all the water in Egypt was turned into blood by Moses, where did the magicians get the water which they changed into blood? This question is answered in [Exo 7:24]. The Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink, and it seems that the water obtained by this means was not bloody like that in the river: on this water therefore the magicians might operate. Again, though a general commission was given to Moses, not only to turn the waters of the river (Nile) into blood, but also those of their streams, rivers, ponds, and pools; yet it seems pretty clear from [Exo 7:20] that he did not proceed thus far, at least in the first instance; for it is there stated that only the waters of the river were turned into blood. Afterwards the plague doubtless became general. At the commencement therefore of this plague, the magicians might obtain other water to imitate the miracle; and it would not be difficult for them, by juggling tricks or the assistance of a familiar spirit, (for we must not abandon the possibility of this use), to give it a bloody appearance, a fetid smell, and a bad taste. On either of these grounds there is no contradiction in the Mosaic account, though some have been very studious to find one.

[¶24] The plague of the bloody waters may be considered as a display of retributive justice against the Egyptians, for the murderous decree which enacted that all the male children of the Israelites should be drowned in that river, the waters of which, so necessary to their support and life, were now rendered not only insalubrious but deadly, by being turned into blood. As it is well known that the Nile was a chief object of Egyptian idolatry, (See Clarke's note on [Exo 7:15]), and that annually they sacrificed a girl, or as others say, both a boy and a girl, to this river, in gratitude for the benefits received from it, (Universal Hist., vol. i., p. 178, fol. edit)., God might have designed this plague as a punishment for such cruelty: and the contempt poured upon this object of their adoration, by turning its waters into blood, and rendering them fetid and corrupt, must have had a direct tendency to correct their idolatrous notions, and lead them to acknowledge the power and authority of the true God.

### Verse 25

[¶26] And seven days were fulfilled - So we learn that this plague continued at least a whole week.

[¶27] The contention between Moses and Aaron and the magicians of Egypt has become famous throughout the world. Tradition in various countries has preserved not only the account, but also the names of the chief persons concerned in the opposition made by the Egyptians to these messengers of God. Though their names are not mentioned in the sacred text, yet tradition had preserved them in the Jewish records, from which St. Paul undoubtedly quotes [2Tim 3:8], where, speaking of the enemies of the Gospel, he compares them to Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses. That these names existed in the ancient Jewish records, their own writings show. In the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on this place they are called יניס וימבריס Janis and Jambris; and in the Babylonian Talmud they are named Joanne and Mambre, and are represented as chiefs of the sorcerers of Egypt, and as having ridiculed Moses and Aaron for pretending to equal them in magical arts. And Rabbi Tanchum, in his Commentary, names them Jonos and Jombrus. If we allow the readings of the ancient editions of Pliny to be correct, he refers, in Hist. Nat., l. xxx., c. 2, to the same persons, the names being a little changed: Est et alia magices factio, a Mose et Jamne et Jotape Judaeis pendens, sed multis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem; "There is also another faction of magicians which took its origin from the Jews, Moses, Jamnes, and Jotapes, many thousands of years after Zoroaster;" where he confounds Moses with the Egyptian magicians; for the heathens, having no just notion of the power of God, attributed all miracles to the influence of magic. Pliny also calls the Egyptian magicians Jews; but this is not the only mistake in his history; and as he adds, sed multis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem, he is supposed by some to refer to the Christians, and particularly the apostles, who wrought many miracles, and whom he considers to be a magical sect derived from Moses and the Jews, because they were Jews by nation, and quoted Moses and the prophets in proof of the truth of the doctrines of Christianity, and of the Divine mission of Christ.

[¶28] Numenius, a Pythagorean philosopher, mentioned by Eusebius, names these magicians, Jamnes and Jambres, and mentions their opposition to Moses; and we have already seen that there was a tradition among the Asiatics that Pharaoh's daughter had Moses instructed by the wise men Jannes and Jambres; see Abul Faraje, edit. Pococ., p. 26. Here then is a very remarkable fact, the principal circumstances of which, and the chief actors in them, have been preserved by a sort of universal tradition. See Ainsworth.

[¶29] When all the circumstances of the preceding case are considered, it seems strange that God should enter into any contest with such persons as the Egyptian magicians; but a little reflection will show the absolute necessity of this. Mr. Psalmanazar, who wrote the Account of the Jews in the first volume of the Universal History, gives the following judicious reasons for this: "If it be asked," says he, "why God did suffer the Egyptian magicians to borrow power from the devil to invalidate, if possible, those miracles which his servant wrought by his Divine power, the following reasons may be given for it:

[¶30] 1. It was necessary that these magicians should be suffered to exert the utmost of their power against Moses, in order to clear him from the imputation of magic or sorcery; for as the notion of such an extraordinary art was very rife, not only among the Egyptians, but all other nations, if they had not entered into this strenuous competition with him, and been at length overcome by him, both the Hebrews and the Egyptians would have been apter to have attributed all his miracles to his skill in magic, than to the Divine power. "2. It was necessary, in order to confirm the faith of the wavering and desponding Israelites, by making them see the difference between Moses acting by the power of God, and the sorcerers by that of Satan. "3. It was necessary, in order to preserve them afterwards from being seduced by any false miracles from the true worship of God."

[¶31] To these a fourth reason may be added: God permitted this in mercy to the Egyptians, that they might see that the gods in whom they trusted were utterly incapable of saving them; that they could not undo or counteract one of the plagues sent on them by the power of Jehovah; the whole of their influence extending only to some superficial imitations of the genuine miracles wrought by Moses in the name of the true God. By these means it is natural to conclude that many of the Egyptians, and perhaps several of the servants of Pharaoh, were cured of their idolatry; though the king himself hardened his heart against the evidences which God brought before his eyes. Thus God is known by his judgments: for in every operation of his hand his design is to enlighten the minds of men, to bring them from false dependencies to trust in himself alone; that, being saved from error and sin, they may become wise, holy, and happy. When his judgments are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants learn righteousness. (See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:21]).

### Introduction

[¶33] The plague of frogs threatened, [Exo 8:1], [Exo 8:2]. The extent of this plague, [Exo 8:3], [Exo 8:4]. Aaron commanded to stretch out his hand, with the rod, over the river and waters of Egypt, in consequence of which the frogs came, [Exo 8:5], [Exo 8:6]. The magicians imitate this miracle, [Exo 8:7]. Pharaoh entreats Moses to remove the frogs, and promises to let the people go, [Exo 8:8]. Moses promises that they shall be removed from every part of Egypt, the river excepted, [Exo 8:9-11]. Moses prays to God, and the frogs die throughout the land of Egypt, [Exo 8:12-14]. Pharaoh, finding himself respited, hardens his heart, [Exo 8:15]. The plague of lice on man and beast, [Exo 8:16], [Exo 8:17]. The magicians attempt to imitate this miracle, but in vain, [Exo 8:18]. They confess it to be the finger of God, and yet Pharaoh continues obstinate, [Exo 8:19]. Moses is sent again to him to command him to let the people go, and in case of disobedience he is threatened with swarms of flies, [Exo 8:20], [Exo 8:21]. A promise made that the land of Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt, should be exempted front this plague, [Exo 8:22], [Exo 8:23]. The flies are sent, [Exo 8:24]. Pharaoh sends for Moses and Aaron, and offers to permit them to sacrifice in the land, [Exo 8:25]. They refuse, and desire to go three days' journey into the wilderness, [Exo 8:26], [Exo 8:27]. Pharaoh consents to let them go a little way, provided they would entreat the Lord to remove the flies, [Exo 8:28]. Moses consents, prays to God, and the flies are removed, [Exo 8:29-31]. After which Pharaoh yet hardened his heart, and refused to let the people go, [Exo 8:32].

### Verse 1

[¶35] Let my people go - God, in great mercy to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, gives them notice of the evils he intended to bring upon them if they continued in their obstinacy. Having had therefore such warning, the evil might have been prevented by a timely humiliation and return to God.

### Verse 2

[¶37] If thou refuse - Nothing can be plainer than that Pharaoh had it still in his power to have dismissed the people, and that his refusal was the mere effect of his own wilful obstinacy.

[¶38] With frogs - צפרדעים tsepardeim. This word is of doubtful etymology: almost all interpreters, both ancient and modern, agree to render it as we do, though some mentioned by Aben Ezra think the crocodile is meant; but these can never weigh against the conjoint testimony of the ancient versions. Parkhurst derives the word from צפר tsaphar, denoting the brisk action, or motion of the light, and ידע yada, to feel, as they seem to feel or rejoice in the light, croaking all the summer months, yet hiding themselves in the winter. The Arabic name for this animal is very nearly the same with the Hebrew zafda, where the letters are the same, the ר resch being omitted. It is used as a quadriliteral root in the Arabic language, to signify froggy, or containing frogs: see Golius. But the true etymology seems to be given by Bochart, who says the word is compounded of zifa, a bank, and rada, mud, because the frog delights in muddy or marshy places; and that from these two words the noun zafda is formed, the re being dropped. In the Batrocho myomachia of Homer, the frog has many of its epithets from this very circumstance. Hence Λιμνοχαρις, delighting in the lake; Βορβοροκοιτης, lying or engendering in the mud; Πηλευς, and Πηλβατης, belonging to the mud, walking in the mud, etc., etc.

[¶39] A frog is in itself a very harmless animal; but to most people who use it not as an article of food, exceedingly loathsome. God, with equal ease, could have brought crocodiles, bears, lions, or tigers to have punished these people and their impious king, instead of frogs, lice, flies, etc. But had he used any of those formidable animals, the effect would have appeared so commensurate to the cause, that the hand of God might have been forgotten in the punishment; and the people would have been exasperated without being humbled. In the present instance he shows the greatness of his power by making an animal, devoid of every evil quality, the means of a terrible affliction to his enemies. How easy is it, both to the justice and mercy of God, to destroy or save by means of the most despicable and insignificant of instruments! Though he is the Lord of hosts he has no need of powerful armies, the ministry of angels, or the thunderbolts of justice, to punish a sinner or a sinful nation; the frog or the fly in his hands is a sufficient instrument of vengeance.

### Verse 3

[¶41] The river shall bring forth frogs abundantly - The river Nile, which was an object of their adoration, was here one of the instruments of their punishment. The expression, bring forth abundantly, not only shows the vast numbers of those animals, which should now infest the land, but it seems also to imply that all the spawn or ova of those animals which were already in the river and marshes, should be brought miraculously to a state of perfection. We may suppose that the animals were already in an embryo existence, but multitudes of them would not have come to a state of perfection had it not been for this miraculous interference. This supposition will appear the more natural when it is considered that the Nile was remarkable for breeding frogs, and such other animals as are principally engendered in such marshy places as must be left in the vicinity of the Nile after its annual inundations.

[¶42] Into thine ovens - In various parts of the east, instead of what we call ovens they dig a hole in the ground, in which they insert a kind of earthen pot, which having sufficiently heated, they stick their cakes to the inside, and when baked remove them and supply their places with others, and so on. To find such places full of frogs when they came to heat them, in order to make their bread, must be both disgusting and distressing in the extreme.

### Verse 5

[¶44] Stretch forth thine hand - over the streams, over the rivers - The streams and rivers here may refer to the grand divisions of the Nile in the Lower Egypt, which were at least seven, and to the canals by which these were connected; as there were no other streams, etc., but what proceeded from this great river.

## 78. Exodus · 11 of 57

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### Verse 6

[¶1] The frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt - In some ancient writers we have examples of a similar plague. The Abderites, according to Orosius, and the inhabitants of Paeonia and Dardania, according to Athenaeus, were obliged to abandon their country on account of the great numbers of frogs by which their land was infested.

### Verse 7

[¶3] The magicians did so - A little juggling or dexterity of hand might have been quite sufficient for the imitation of this miracle, because frogs in abundance had already been produced; and some of these kept in readiness might have been brought forward by the magicians, as proofs of their pretended power and equality in influence to Moses and Aaron.

### Verse 9

[¶5] Glory over me - התפאר עלי hithpaer alai. These words have greatly puzzled commentators in general; and it is not easy to assign their true meaning. The Septuagint render the words thus: Ταξαι προς με ποτε, etc., Appoint unto me when I shall pray, etc. The constitue mihi quando of the Vulgate is exactly the same; and in this sense almost all the versions understood this place. This countenances the conjectural emendation of Le Clerc, who, by the change of a single letter, reading התבאר hithbaer for התפאר hithpaer, gives the same sense as that in the ancient versions. Houbigant, supposing a corruption in the original, amends the reading thus: אתה באר עלי attah baar alai - Dic mihi quo tempore, etc., "Tell me when thou wishest me to pray for thee," etc., which amounts to the same in sense with that proposed by Le Clerc. Several of our English versions preserve the same meaning; so in the Saxon Heptateuch; so in Becke's Bible, 1549, "And Moses sayed unto Pharaoh, Appoint thou the time unto me." This appears to be the genuine import of the words, and the sense taken in this way is strong and good. We may conceive Moses addressing Pharaoh in this way: "That thou mayest be persuaded that Jehovah alone is the inflicter of these plagues, appoint the time when thou wouldst have the present calamity removed, and I will pray unto God, and thou shalt plainly see from his answer that this is no casual affliction, and that in continuing to harden thy heart and resist thou art sinning against God." Nothing could be a fuller proof that this plague was supernatural than the circumstance of Pharaoh's being permitted to assign himself the time of its being removed, and its removal at the intercession of Moses according to that appointment. And this is the very use made of it by Moses himself, [Exo 8:10], when he says, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God; and that, consequently, he might no longer trust in his magicians, or in his false gods.

### Verse 14

[¶7] They gathered them together upon heaps - The killing of the frogs was a mitigation of the punishment; but the leaving them to rot in the land was a continual proof that such a plague had taken place, and that the displeasure of the Lord still continued. The conjecture of Calmet is at least rational: he supposes that the plague of flies originated from the plague of frogs; that the former deposited their ova in the putrid masses, and that from these the innumerable swarms afterwards mentioned were hatched. In vindication of this supposition it may be observed, that God never works a miracle when the end can be accomplished by merely natural means; and in the operations of Divine providence we always find that the greatest number of effects possible are accomplished by the fewest causes. As therefore the natural means for this fourth plague had been miraculously provided by the second, the Divine Being had a right to use the instruments which he had already prepared.

### Verse 16

[¶9] Smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice - If the vermin commonly designated by this name be intended, it must have been a very dreadful and afflicting plague to the Egyptians, and especially to their priests, who were obliged to shave the hair off every part of their bodies, and to wear a single tunic, that no vermin of this kind might be permitted to harbor about them. See Herod. in Euterp., c. xxxvii., p. 104, edit. Gale. Of the nature of these insects it is not necessary to say much. The common louse is very prolific. In the space of twelve days a full-grown female lays one hundred eggs, from which, in the space of six days, about fifty males and as many females are produced. In eighteen days these young females are at their full growth, each of which may lay one hundred eggs, which will be all hatched in six days more. Thus, in the course of six weeks, the parent female may see 5,000 of its own descendants! So mightily does this scourge of indolence and filthiness increase!

[¶10] But learned men are not agreed on the signification of the original word כנים kinnim, which different copies of the Septuagint render σκνιφες, σκνιπες, and σκνηπες, gnats; and the Vulgate renders sciniphes, which signifies the same.

[¶11] Mr. Harmer supposes he has found out the true meaning in the word tarrentes, mentioned by Vinisauf, one of our ancient English writers; who, speaking of the expedition of King Richard I. to the Holy Land, says, that "while the army were marching from Cayphas to Caesarea, they were greatly distressed every night by certain worms called tarrentes, which crept on the ground, and occasioned a very burning heat by most painful punctures; for, being armed with stings, they conveyed a poison which quickly occasioned those who were wounded by them to swell, and was attended with the most acute pain." All this is far fetched. Bochart has endeavored to prove that the כנים kinnim of the text may mean lice in the common acceptation of the term, and not gnats. 1. Because those in question sprang from the dust of the earth, and not from the waters. 2. Because they were both on men and cattle, which cannot be spoken of gnats. 3. Because their name comes from the radix כון kun, which signifies to make firm, fix, establish, which can never agree to gnats, flies, etc., which are ever changing their place, and are almost constantly on the wing. 4. Because כנה kinnah is the term by which the Talmudists express the louse, etc. See his Hierozoicon, vol. ii., c. xviii., col. 571. The circumstance of their being in man and in beast agrees so well with the nature of the acarus sanguisugus, commonly called the tick, belonging to the seventh order of insects called Aptera, that I am ready to conclude this is the insect meant. This animal buries both its sucker and head equally in man or beast; and can with very great difficulty be extracted before it is grown to its proper size, and filled with the blood and juices of the animal on which it preys. When fully grown, it has a glossy black oval body: not only horses, cows, and sheep are infested with it in certain countries, but even the common people, especially those who labor in the field, in woods, etc. I know no insect to which the Hebrew term so properly applies. This is the fixed, established insect, which will permit itself to be pulled in pieces rather than let go its hold; and this is literally באדם ובבהמה baadam ubabbehemah, in man and in beast, burying its trunk and head in the flesh of both. In woodland countries I have seen many persons as well as cattle grievously infested with these insects.

### Verse 18

[¶13] The magicians did so - That is, They tried the utmost of their skill, either to produce these insects or to remove this plague; but they could not, no juggling could avail here, because insects must be produced which would stick to and infix themselves in man and beast, which no kind of trick could possibly imitate; and to remove them, as some would translate the passage, was to their power equally impossible. If the magicians even acted by spiritual agents, we find from this case that these agents had assigned limits, beyond which they could not go; for every agent in the universe is acting under the direction or control of the Almighty.

### Verse 19

[¶15] This is the finger of God - That is, The power and skill of God are here evident. Probably before this the magicians supposed Moses and Aaron to be conjurers, like themselves; but now they are convinced that no man could do these miracles which these holy men did, unless God were with him. God permits evil spirits to manifest themselves in a certain way, that men may see that there is a spiritual world, and be on their guard against seduction. He at the same time shows that all these agents are under his control, that men may have confidence in his goodness and power.

### Verse 21

[¶17] Swarms of flies upon thee - It is not easy to ascertain the precise meaning of the original word הערב hearob; as the word comes from ערב arab, he mingled, it may be supposed to express a multitude of various sorts of insects. And if the conjecture be admitted that the putrid frogs became the occasion of this plague, (different insects laying their eggs in the bodies of those dead animals, which would soon be hatched, see on [Exo 8:14] (note)), then the supposition that a multitude of different hinds of insects is meant, will seem the more probable. Though the plague of the locusts was miraculous, yet God both brought it and removed it by natural means; see [Exo 10:13-19].

[¶18] Bochart, who has treated this subject with his usual learning and ability, follows the Septuagint, explaining the original by κυνομυια, the dog-fly; which must be particularly hateful to the Egyptians, because they held dogs in the highest veneration, and worshipped Anubis under the form of a dog. In a case of this kind the authority of the Septuagint is very high, as they translated the Pentateuch in the very place where these plagues happened. But as the Egyptians are well known to have paid religious veneration to all kinds of animals and monsters, whence the poet: -

[¶19] Omnigenumque deum monstra, et latrator Anubis,

[¶20] I am inclined to favor the literal construction of the word: for as ערב ereb, [Exo 12:38], expresses that mixed multitude of different kinds of people who accompanied the Israelites in their departure from Egypt; so here the same term being used, it may have been designed to express a multitude of different kinds of insects, such as flies, wasps, hornets, etc., etc. The ancient Jewish interpreters suppose that all kinds of beasts and reptiles are intended, such as wolves, lions, bears, serpents, etc. Mr. Bate thinks the raven is meant, because the original is so understood in other places; and thus he translates it in his literal version of the Pentateuch: but the meaning already given is the most likely. As to the objection against this opinion drawn from [Exo 8:31], there remained not one, it can have very little weight, when it is considered that this may as well be spoken of one of any of the different kinds, as of an individual of one species.

### Verse 22

[¶22] I will sever in that day - הפליתי hiphleythi, has been translated by some good critics, I will miraculously separate; so the Vulgate: Faciam mirabilem, "I will do a marvellous thing." And the Septuagint, παραδοξασω, I will render illustrious the land of Goshen in that day; and this he did, by exempting that land, and its inhabitants the Israelites, from the plagues by which he afflicted the land of Egypt.

### Verse 23

[¶24] And I will put a division - פדת peduth, a redemption, between my people and thy people; God hereby showing that he had redeemed them from those plagues to which he had abandoned the others.

### Verse 24

[¶26] The land was corrupted - Every thing was spoiled, and many of the inhabitants destroyed, being probably stung to death by these venomous insects. This seems to be intimated by the psalmist, "He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which Devoured them," [Psa 78:45].

[¶27] In ancient times, when political, domestic, and personal cleanliness was but little attended to, and offal of different kinds permitted to corrupt in the streets and breed vermin, flies multiplied exceedingly, so that we read in ancient authors of whole districts being laid waste by them; hence different people had deities, whose office it was to defend them against flies. Among these we may reckon Baalzebub, the fly-god of Ekron; Hercules, muscarum abactor, Hercules, the expeller of flies, of the Romans; the Muagrus of the Eleans, whom they invoked against pestilential swarms of flies; and hence Jupiter, the supreme god of the heathens, had the epithets of Απομυιος and Μυωδης, because he was supposed to expel flies, and defend his worshippers against them. See Dodd.

### Verse 25

[¶29] Sacrifice to your God in the land - That is, Ye shall not leave Egypt, but I shall cause your worship to be tolerated here.

### Verse 26

[¶31] We shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians - That is, The animals which they hold sacred, and will not permit to be slain, are those which our customs require us to sacrifice to our God; and should we do this in Egypt the people would rise in a mass, and stone us to death. Perhaps few people were more superstitious than the Egyptians. Almost every production of nature was an object of their religious worship: the sun, moon, planets, stars, the river Nile, animals of all sorts, from the human being to the monkey, dog, cat, and ibis, and even the onions and leeks which grew in their gardens. Jupiter was adored by them under the form of a ram, Apollo under the form of a crow, Bacchus under that of a goat, and Juno under that of a heifer. The reason why the Egyptians worshipped those animals is given by Eusebius, viz., that when the giants made war on the gods, they were obliged to take refuge in Egypt, and assume the shapes or disguise themselves under different kinds of animals in order to escape. Jupiter hid himself in the body of a ram, Apollo in that of a crow, Bacchus in a goat, Diana in a cat, Juno in a white heifer, Venus in a fish, and Mercury in the bird ibis; all which are summoned up by Ovid in the following lines: -

[¶32] Duxque gregis fit Jupiter -

[¶33] Delius in corvo, proles Semeleia capro,

[¶34] Fele soror Phoebi, nivea Saturnia vacca,

[¶35] Pisce Venus latuit, Cyllenius ibidis alis.

[¶36] Metam., l. v., fab. v., 1. 326.

[¶37] How the gods fled to Egypt's slimy soil,

[¶38] And hid their heads beneath the banks of Nile;

[¶39] How Typhon from the conquer'd skies pursued

[¶40] Their routed godheads to the seven-mouth'd flood;

[¶41] Forced every god, his fury to escape,

[¶42] Some beastly form to take, or earthly shape.

[¶43] Jove, so she sung, was changed into a ram,

[¶44] From whence the horns of Libyan Ammon came;

[¶45] Bacchus a goat, Apollo was a crow,

## 79. Exodus · 12 of 57

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[¶0] Phoebe a cat, the wife of Jove a cow,

[¶1] Whose hue was whiter than the falling snow;

[¶2] Mercury, to a nasty ibis turn'd,

[¶3] The change obscene, afraid of Typhon mourn'd,

[¶4] While Venus from a fish protection craves,

[¶5] And once more plunges in her native waves - Maynwaring.

[¶6] These animals therefore became sacred to them on account of the deities, who, as the fable reports, had taken refuge in them. Others suppose that the reason why the Egyptians would not sacrifice or kill those creatures was their belief in the doctrine of the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls; for they feared lest in killing an animal they should kill a relative or a friend. This doctrine is still held by the Hindoos.

### Verse 27

[¶8] And sacrifice to the Lord - as he shall command us - It is very likely that neither Moses nor Aaron knew as yet in what manner God would be worshipped; and they expected to receive a direct revelation from him relative to this subject, when they should come into the wilderness.

### Verse 28

[¶10] I will let you go only ye shall not go very far away - Pharaoh relented because the hand of God was heavy upon him; but he was not willing to give up his gain. The Israelites were very profitable to him; they were slaves of the state, and their hard labor was very productive: hence he professed a willingness, first to tolerate their religion in the land, ([Exo 8:25]); or to permit them to go into the wilderness, so that they went not far away, and would soon return. How ready is foolish man, when the hand of God presses him sore, to compound with his Maker! He will consent to give up some sins, provided God will permit him to keep others.

[¶11] Entreat for me - Exactly similar to the case of Simon Magus, who, like Pharaoh, fearing the Divine judgments, begged an interest in the prayers of Peter, [Act 8:24].

### Verse 31

[¶13] The Lord did according to the word of Moses - How powerful is prayer! God permits his servant to prescribe even the manner and time in which he shall work.

[¶14] He removed the swarms - Probably by means of a strong wind, which swept them into the sea.

### Verse 32

[¶16] Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also - See [Exo 8:15]. This hardening was the mere effect of his self-determining obstinacy. He preferred his gain to the will and command of Jehovah, and God made his obstinacy the means of showing forth his own power and providence in a supereminent degree.

[¶17] 1. As every false religion proves there is a true one, as a copy, however marred or imperfect, shows there was an original from which it was taken, so false miracles prove that there were genuine miracles, and that God chooses at particular times, for the most important purposes, to invert the established order of nature, and thus prove his omnipotence and universal agency. That the miracles wrought at this time were real we have the fullest proof. The waters, for instance, were not turned into blood in appearance merely, but were really thus changed. Hence the people could not drink of them; and as blood in a very short time, when exposed to the air, becomes putrid, so did the bloody waters; therefore all the fish that were in the river died.

[¶18] 2. No human power or ingenuity could produce such frogs as annoyed the land of Egypt. This also was a real, not an imaginary, plague. Innumerable multitudes of these animals were produced for the purpose; and the heaps of their dead carcasses, which putrefied and infected the land, at once demonstrated the reality of the miracle.

[¶19] 3. The lice both on man and beast through the whole land, and the innumerable swarms of flies, gave such proofs of their reality as to put the truth of these miracles out of question for ever. It was necessary that this point should be fully proved, that both the Egyptians and Israelites might see the finger of God in these awful works.

[¶20] 4. To superficial observers only do "Moses and the magicians appear to be nearly matched." The power of God was shown in producing and removing the plagues. In certain cases the magicians imitated the production of a plague, but they had no power to remove any. They could not seem to remove the bloody color, nor the putrescency from the waters through which the fish were destroyed, though they could imitate the color itself; they could not remove the frogs, the lice, or swarms of flies, though they could imitate the former and latter; they could by dexterity of hand or diabolic influence produce serpents, but they could not bring one forward that could swallow up the rod of Aaron. In every respect they fall infinitely short of the power and wonderful energy evidenced in the miracles of Moses and Aaron. The opposition therefore of those men served only as a foil to set off the excellence of that power by which these messengers of God acted.

[¶21] 5. The courage, constancy, and faith of Moses are worthy of the most serious consideration. Had he not been fully satisfied of the truth and certainty of his Divine mission, he could not have encountered such a host of difficulties; had he not been certain of the issue, he could not have preserved amidst so many discouraging circumstances; and had he not had a deep acquaintance with God, his faith in every trial must have necessarily failed. So strong was this grace in him that he could even pledge his Maker to the performance of works concerning which he had not as yet consulted him! He therefore let Pharaoh fix the very time on which he would wish to have the plague removed; and when this was done, he went to God by faith and prayer to obtain this new miracle; and God in the most exact and circumstantial manner fulfilled the word of his servant.

[¶22] 6. From all this let us learn that there is a God who worketh in the earth; that universal nature is under his control; that he can alter, suspend, counteract, or invert its general laws whensoever he pleases; and that he can save or destroy by the most feeble and most contemptible instruments. We should therefore deeply reverence his eternal power and Godhead, and look with respect on every creature he has made, as the meanest of them may in his hand, become the instrument of our salvation or our ruin.

[¶23] 7. Let us not imagine that God has so bound himself to work by general laws, that those destructions cannot take place which designate a particular providence. Pharaoh and the Egyptians are confounded, afflicted, routed, and ruined, while the land of Goshen and the Israelites are free from every plague! No blood appears in their streams; no frogs, lice, nor flies, in all their borders! They trusted in the true God, and could not be confounded. Reader, how secure mayest thou rest if thou hast this God for thy friend! He was the Protector and Friend of the Israelites through the blood of that covenant which is the very charter of thy salvation: trust in and pray to him as Moses did, and then Satan and his angels shall be bruised under thy feet, and thou shalt not only be preserved from every plague, but be crowned with his loving kindness and tender mercy. He is the same to-day that he was yesterday, and shall continue the same for ever. Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!

### Introduction

[¶25] The Lord sends Moses to Pharaoh to inform him that, if he did not let the Israelites depart, a destructive pestilence should be sent among his cattle, [Exo 9:1-3]; while the cattle of the Israelites should be preserved, [Exo 9:4]. The next day this pestilence, which was the fifth plague, is sent, and all the cattle of the Egyptians die, [Exo 9:5], [Exo 9:6]. Though Pharaoh finds that not one of the cattle of the Israelites had died, yet, through hardness of heart, he refuses to let the people go, [Exo 9:7]. Moses and Aaron are commanded to sprinkle handfuls of ashes from the furnace, that the sixth plague, that of boils and blains, might come on man and beast, [Exo 9:5], [Exo 9:9]; which having done, the plague takes place, [Exo 9:10]. The magicians cannot stand before this plague, which they can neither imitate nor remove, [Exo 9:11]. Pharaoh's heart is again hardened, [Exo 9:12]. God's awful message to Pharaoh, with the threat of more severe plagues than before, [Exo 9:13-17]. The seventh plague of rain, hail, and fire threatened, [Exo 9:18]. The Egyptians commanded to house their cattle that they might not be destroyed, [Exo 9:19]. These who feared the word of the Lord brought home their servants and cattle, and those who did not regard that word left their cattle and servants in the fields, [Exo 9:20], [Exo 9:21]. The storm of hail, thunder, and lightning takes place, [Exo 9:22-24]. It nearly desolates the whole land of Egypt, [Exo 9:25], while the land of Goshen escapes, [Exo 9:26]. Pharaoh confesses his sin, and begs an interest in the prayers of Moses and Aaron, [Exo 9:27], [Exo 9:28]. Moses promises to intercede for him, and while he promises that the storm shall cease, he foretells the continuing obstinacy of both himself and his servants, [Exo 9:29], [Exo 9:30]. The flax and barley, being in a state of maturity, are destroyed by the tempest, [Exo 9:31]; while the wheat and the rye, not being grown up, are preserved, [Exo 9:32]. Moses obtains a cessation of the storm, [Exo 9:33]. Pharaoh and his servants, seeing this, harden their hearts, and refuse to let the people go, [Exo 9:34], [Exo 9:35].

### Verse 1

[¶27] The Lord God of the Hebrews - It is very likely that the term Lord, יויה Yehovah, is used here to point out particularly his eternal power and Godhead; and that the term God, אלהי Elohey, is intended to be understood in the sense of Supporter, Defender, Protector, etc. Thus saith the self-existent, omnipotent, and eternal Being, the Supporter and Defender of the Hebrews, "Let my people go, that they may worship me."

### Verse 3

[¶29] The hand of the Lord - The power of God manifested in judgment.

[¶30] Upon the horses - סוסים susim. This is the first place the horse is mentioned; a creature for which Egypt and Arabia were always famous. סס sus is supposed to have the same meaning with שש sas, which signifies to be active, brisk, or lively, all which are proper appellatives of the horse, especially in Arabia and Egypt. Because of their activity and swiftness they were sacrificed and dedicated to the sun, and perhaps it was principally on this account that God prohibited the use of them among the Israelites.

[¶31] A very grievous murrain - The murrain is a very contagious disease among cattle, the symptoms of which are a hanging down and swelling of the head, abundance of gum in the eyes, rattling in the throat, difficulty of breathing, palpitation of the heart, staggering, a hot breath, and a shining tongue; which symptoms prove that a general inflammation has taken place. The original word דבר deber is variously translated. The Septuagint have θανατος, death; the Vulgate has pestis, a plague or pestilence; the old Saxon version, to die, any fatal disease. Our English word murrain comes either from the French mourir, to die, or from the Greek μαραινω maraino, to grow lean, waste away. The term mortality would be the nearest in sense to the original, as no particular disorder is specified by the Hebrew word.

### Verse 4

[¶33] The Lord shall sever - See Clarke on [Exo 8:22] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶35] To-morrow the Lord shall do this - By thus foretelling the evil, he showed his prescience and power; and from this both the Egyptians and Hebrews must see that the mortality that ensued was no casualty, but the effect of a predetermined purpose in the Divine justice.

### Verse 6

[¶37] All the cattle of Egypt died - That is, All the cattle that did die belonged to the Egyptians, but not one died that belonged to the Israelites, [Exo 9:4], [Exo 9:6]. That the whole stock of cattle belonging to the Egyptians did not die we have the fullest proof, because there were cattle both to be killed and saved alive in the ensuing plague, [Exo 9:19-25]. By this judgment the Egyptians must see the vanity of the whole of their national worship, when they found the animals which they not only held sacred but deified, slain without distinction among the common herd, by a pestilence sent from the hand of Jehovah. One might naturally suppose that after this the animal worship of the Egyptians could never more maintain its ground.

### Verse 7

[¶39] And Pharaoh sent, etc. - Finding so many of his own cattle and those of his subjects slain, he sent to see whether the mortality had reached to the cattle of the Israelites, that he might know whether this were a judgment inflicted by their God, and probably designing to replace the lost cattle of the Egyptians with those of the Israelites.

### Verse 8

[¶41] Handfuls of ashes of the furnace - As one part of the oppression of the Israelites consisted In their labor in the brick-kilns, some have observed a congruity between the crime and the punishment. The furnaces, in the labor of which they oppressed the Hebrews, now yielded the instruments of their punishment; for every particle of those ashes, formed by unjust and oppressive labor, seemed to be a boil or a blain on the tyrannical king and his cruel and hard-hearted people.

### Verse 9

[¶43] Shall be a boil - שחין shechin. This word is generally expounded, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil; one of the most poignant afflictions, not immediately mortal, that can well affect the surface of the human body. If a single boil on any part of the body throws the whole system into a fever, what anguish must a multitude of them on the body at the same time occasion!

[¶44] Breaking forth with blains - אבעבעת ababuoth, supposed to come from בעה baah, to swell, bulge out; any inflammatory swelling, node, or pustule, in any part of the body, but more especially in the more glandular parts, the neck, arm-pits, groin, etc. The Septuagint translate it thus: Και εσται ἑλκη φλυκτιδες αναζεουσαι· And it shalt be an ulcer with burning pustules. It seems to have been a disorder of an uncommon kind, and hence it is called by way of distinction, the botch of Egypt, [Deu 28:27], perhaps never known before in that or any other country. Orosius says that in the sixth plague "all the people were blistered, that the blisters burst with tormenting pain, and that worms issued out of them." Alfred's Oros., lib. i., c. vii.

## 80. Exodus · 13 of 57

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### Verse 11

[¶1] The boil was upon the magicians - They could not produce a similar malady by throwing ashes in the air; and they could neither remove the plague from the people, nor from their own tormented flesh. Whether they perished in this plague we know not, but they are no more mentioned. If they were not destroyed by this awful judgment, they at least left the field, and no longer contended with these messengers of God. The triumph of God's power was now complete, and both the Hebrews and the Egyptians must see that there was neither might, nor wisdom, nor counsel against the Lord; and that, as universal nature acknowledged his power, devils and men must fail before him.

### Verse 15

[¶3] For now I will stretch out my hand - In the Hebrew the verbs are in the past tense, and not in the future, as our translation improperly expresses them, by which means a contradiction appears in the text: for neither Pharaoh nor his people were smitten by a pestilence, nor was he by any kind of mortality cut off from the earth. It is true the first-born were slain by a destroying angel, and Pharaoh himself was drowned in the Red Sea; but these judgments do not appear to be referred to in this place. If the words be translated, as they ought, in the subjunctive mood, or in the past instead of the future, this seeming contradiction to facts, as well as all ambiguity, will be avoided: For if now I Had Stretched Out (שלהתי shalachti, had set forth) my hand, and had smitten thee (ואך אותך vaach otheca) and thy people with the pestilence, thou Shouldst Have Been cut off (תכחד ticcached) from the earth.

### Verse 16

[¶5] But truly, on this very account, have I caused thee to subsist - (העמדחיך heemadticha), that I might cause thee to see my power, (הראתך את כחי harotheca eth cochi), and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth, (or, בכל הארץ becol haarets, in all this land). See Ainsworth and Houbigant.

[¶6] Thus God gave this impious king to know that it was in consequence of his especial providence that both he and his people had not been already destroyed by means of the past plagues; but God had preserved him for this very purpose, that he might have a farther opportunity of manifesting that he, Jehovah, was the only true God for the full conviction both of the Hebrews and Egyptians, that the former might follow and the latter fear before him. Judicious critics of almost all creeds have agreed to translate the original as above, a translation which it not only can bear but requires, and which is in strict conformity to both the Septuagint and Targum. Neither the Hebrew העמדחיך heemadticha, I have caused thee to stand; nor the apostle's translation of it, [Rom 9:17], εξηγειρα σε, I have raised thee; nor that of the Septuagint, ἑνεκεν τουτου διετηρηθης, on this account art thou preserved, viz., in the past plagues; can countenance that most exceptionable meaning put on the words by certain commentators, viz., "That God ordained or appointed Pharaoh from all eternity, by certain means, to this end; that he made him to exist in time; that he raised him to the throne; promoted him to that high honor and dignity; that he preserved him, and did not cut him off as yet; that he strengthened and hardened his heart; irritated, provoked, and stirred him up against his people Israel, and suffered him to go all the lengths he did go in his obstinacy and rebellion; all which was done to show in him his power in destroying him in the Red Sea. The sum of which is, that this man was raised up by God in every sense for God to show his power in his destruction." So man speaks; thus God hath not spoken. See Henry on the place.

### Verse 17

[¶8] As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people - So it appears that at this time he might have submitted, and thus prevented his own destruction.

### Verse 18

[¶10] To-morrow about this time - The time of this plague is marked thus circumstantially to show Pharaoh that Jehovah was Lord of heaven and earth, and that the water, the fire, the earth, and the air, which were all objects of Egyptian idolatry, were the creatures of his power; and subservient to his will; and that, far from being able to help them, they were now, in the hands of God, instruments of their destruction.

[¶11] To rain a very grievous hail - To rain hail may appear to some superficial observers as an unphilosophical mode of expression, but nothing can be more correct. "Drops of rain falling through a cold region of the atmosphere are frozen and converted into hail;" and thus the hail is produced by rain. When it begins to fall it is rain; when it is falling it is converted into hail; thus it is literally true that it rains hail. The farther a hail-stone falls the larger it generally is, because in its descent it meets with innumerable particles of water, which, becoming attached to it, are also frozen, and thus its bulk is continually increasing till it reaches the earth. In the case in question, if natural means were at all used, we may suppose a highly electrified state of an atmosphere loaded with vapors, which, becoming condensed and frozen, and having a considerable space to fall through, were of an unusually large size. Though this was a supernatural storm, there have been many of a natural kind, that have been exceedingly dreadful. A storm of hail fell near Liverpool, in Lancashire, in the year 1795, which greatly damaged the vegetation, broke windows, etc., etc. Many of the stones measured five inches in circumference. Dr. Halley mentions a similar storm of hail in Lancashire, Cheshire, etc., in 1697, April 29, that for sixty miles in length and two miles in breadth did immense damage, by splitting trees, killing fowls and all small animals, knocking down men and horses, etc., etc. Mezeray, in his History of France, says "that in Italy, in 1510, there was for some time a horrible darkness, thicker than that of night, after which the clouds broke into thunder and lightning, and there fell a shower of hail-stones which destroyed all the beasts, birds, and even fish of the country. It was attended with a strong smell of sulphur, and the stones were of a bluish color, some of them weighing one hundred pounds' weight." The Almighty says to Job: "Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?" [Job 38:22], [Job 38:23]. While God has such artillery at his command, how soon may he desolate a country or a world! See the account of a remarkable hail-storm in [Jos 10:11].

### Verse 19

[¶13] Send - now, and gather thy cattle - So in the midst of judgment, God remembered mercy. The miracle should be wrought that they might know he was the Lord; but all the lives both of men and beasts might have been saved, had Pharaoh and his servants taken the warning so mercifully given them. While some regarded not the word of the Lord, others feared it, and their cattle and their servants were saved, See [Exo 9:20], [Exo 9:21].

### Verse 23

[¶15] The Lord sent thunder - קלת koloth, voices; but loud, repeated peals of thunder are meant.

[¶16] And the fire ran along upon the ground - ותהלך אש ארצה vattihalac esh aretsah, and the fire walked upon the earth. It was not a sudden flash of lightning, but a devouring fire, walking through every part, destroying both animals and vegetables; and its progress was irresistible.

### Verse 24

[¶18] Hail, and fire mingled with the hail - It is generally allowed that the electric fluid is essential to the formation of hail. On this occasion it was supplied in a supernatural abundance; for streams of fire seem to have accompanied the descending hail, so that herbs and trees, beasts and men, were all destroyed by them.

### Verse 26

[¶20] Only in the land of Goshen - was there no hail - What a signal proof of a most particular providence! Surely both the Hebrews and Egyptians profited by this display of the goodness and severity of God.

### Verse 27

[¶22] The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked - The original is very emphatic: The Lord is The Righteous One, (הצדיק hatstaddik), and I and my people are The Sinners, (הרשעים hareshaim); i.e., He is alone righteous, and we alone are transgressors. Who could have imagined that after such an acknowledgment and confession, Pharaoh should have again hardened his heart?

### Verse 28

[¶24] It is enough - There is no need of any farther plague; I submit to the authority of Jehovah and will rebel no more.

[¶25] Mighty thunderings - כלת אלהים koloth Elohim, voices of God; - that is, superlatively loud thunder. So mountains of God ([Psa 36:6]) means exceeding high mountains. So a prince of God ([Gen 23:6]) means a mighty prince. See a description of thunder, [Psa 29:3-8] : "The Voice Of The Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth; the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness," etc. The production of rain by the electric spark is alluded to in a very beautiful manner, [Jer 10:13] : When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens. See Clarke's note on [Gen 7:11], and [Gen 8:1] (note).

### Verse 29

[¶27] I will spread abroad my hands - That is, I will make supplication to God that he may remove this plague. This may not be an improper place to make some observations on the ancient manner of approaching the Divine Being in prayer. Kneeling down, stretching out the hands, and lifting them up to heaven, were in frequent use among the Hebrews in their religious worship. Solomon kneeled down on his knees, and spread forth his hands to heaven; [2Chr 6:13]. So David, [Psa 143:6] : I stretch forth my hands unto thee. So Ezra: I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God; [Ezr 9:5]. See also Job [Job 11:13] : If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thy hands towards him. Most nations who pretended to any kind of worship made use of the same means in approaching the objects of their adoration, viz., kneeling down and stretching out their hands; which custom it is very likely they borrowed from the people of God. Kneeling was ever considered to be the proper posture of supplication, as it expresses humility, contrition, and subjection. If the person to whom the supplication was addressed was within reach, the supplicant caught him by the knees; for as among the ancients the forehead was consecrated to genius, the ear to memory, and the right hand to faith, so the knees were consecrated to mercy. Hence those who entreated favor fell at and caught hold of the knees of the person whose kindness they supplicated. This mode of supplication is particularly referred to in the following passages in Homer: - Των νυν μιν μνησασα παρεζεο, και λαβε γουνων.

[¶28] Iliad i., ver. 407.

[¶29] Now therefore, of these things reminding Jove,

[¶30] Embrace his knees.

[¶31] Cowper.

[¶32] To which the following answer is made: - Και τοτ' επειτα τοι ειμι Διος ποτι χαλκοβατες δω, Και μιν γουνασομαι, και μιν πεισεσθαι οΐω.

[¶33] Iliad i., ver. 426.

[¶34] Then will I to Jove's brazen-floor'd abode, That I may clasp his knees; and much misdeem Of my endeavor, or my prayer shall speed. Id. See the issue of thus addressing Jove, Ibid., ver. 500-502, and ver. 511, etc.

[¶35] In the same manner we find our Lord accosted, [Mat 17:14] : There came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him γονυπετων αυτον, falling down at his knees.

[¶36] As to the lifting up or stretching out of the hands, (often joined to kneeling), of which we have seen already several instances, and of which we have a very remarkable one in this book, [Exo 17:11], where the lifting up or stretching out of the hands of Moses was the means of Israel's prevailing over Amalek; we find many examples of both in ancient authors. Thus Homer: - Εσθλον γαρ Δυ χειρας ανασχεμεν, αι κ' ελεησῃ.

[¶37] Iliad xxiv., ver. 301.

[¶38] For right it is to spread abroad the hands To Jove for mercy.

[¶39] Also Virgil: -

[¶40] Corripio e stratis corpus,

[¶41] Tendoque supinas ad coelum cum voce manus, et munera libo

[¶42] Aeneid iii., ver. 176.

[¶43] I started from my bed, and raised on high

[¶44] My hands and voice in rapture to the sky;

## 81. Exodus · 14 of 57

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[¶0] And pour libations.

[¶1] Ptt.

[¶2] Dixerat: et Genua Amplexus, genibusque volutans Haerebat.

[¶3] Ibid., ver. 607.

[¶4] Then kneel'd the wretch, and suppliant clung around

[¶5] My knees with tears, and grovell'd on the ground.

[¶6] Id. - media inter numina divum Multa Jovem

[¶7] Manibus Supplex orasse SUPINIS.

[¶8] Ibid. iv., ver. 204.

[¶9] Amidst the statues of the gods he stands,

[¶10] And spreading forth to Jove his lifted hands.

[¶11] Id.

[¶12] Et Duplices cum voce Manus ad sidera

[¶13] Tendit. Ibid. x., ver. 667.

[¶14] And lifted both his hands and voice to heaven.

[¶15] In some cases the person petitioning came forward, and either sat in the dust or kneeled on the ground, placing his left hand on the knee of him from whom he expected the favor, while he touched the person's chin with his right. We have an instance of this also in Homer: Και ρα παροιθ' αυτοιο καθεζετο, και λαβε γουνων Σκαιῃ· δεξιτερῃ δ' αρ' ὑπ' ανθερεωνος ἑλουσα.

[¶16] Iliad i., ver. 500.

[¶17] Suppliant the goddess stood: one hand she placed

[¶18] Beneath his chin, and one his knee embraced.

[¶19] Pope.

[¶20] When the supplicant could not approach the person to whom he prayed, as where a deity was the object of the prayer, he washed his hands, made an offering, and kneeling down, either stretched out both his hands to heaven, or laid them upon the offering or sacrifice, or upon the altar. Thus Homer represents the priest of Apollo praying: - Χερνιψαντο δ' επειτα, και ουλοχυτας ανελοντο. Τοισιν δε Χρυσης μεγαλ' ευχετο, χειρας ανασχων.

[¶21] Iliad i., ver. 449.

[¶22] With water purify their hands, and take

[¶23] The sacred offering of the salted cake,

[¶24] While thus, with arms devoutly raised in air,

[¶25] And solemn voice, the priest directs his prayer.

[¶26] Pope.

[¶27] How necessary ablutions of the whole body, and of the hands particularly, accompanied with offerings and sacrifices were, under the law, every reader of the Bible knows: see especially [Exo 29:1-4], where Aaron and his sons were commanded to be washed, previously to their performing the priest's office; and [Exo 30:19-21], where it is said: "Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands - that they die not." See also [Lev 17:15]. When the high priest among the Jews blessed the people, he lifted up his hands, [Lev 9:22]. And the Israelites, when they presented a sacrifice to God, lifted up their hands and placed them on the head of the victim: "If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord - of the cattle of the herd, and of the flock - he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him;" [Lev 1:2-4]. To these circumstances the apostle alludes, [1Tim 2:8] : "I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." In the apostle's word επαιροντας, lifting up, there is a manifest reference to stretching out the hands to place them either on the altar or on the head of the victim. Four things were signified by this lifting up of the hands. 1. It was the posture of supplication, and expressed a strong invitation - Come to my help; 2. It expressed the earnest desire of the person to lay hold on the help he required, by bringing him who was the object of his prayer to his assistance; 3. It showed the ardor of the person to receive the blessings he expected; and 4. By this act he designated and consecrated his offering or sacrifice to his God.

[¶28] From a great number of evidences and coincidences it is not unreasonable to conclude that the heathens borrowed all that was pure and rational, even in their mode of worship, from the ancient people of God; and that the preceding quotations are proofs of this.

### Verse 31

[¶30] The flax and the barley was smitten - The word פשתה pishtah, flax, Mr. Parkhurst thinks, is derived from the root פשט pashat, to strip, because the substance which we term flax is properly the bark or rind of the vegetable, pilled or stripped off the stalks. From time immemorial Egypt was celebrated for the production and manufacture of flax: hence the linen and fine linen of Egypt, so often spoken of in ancient authors.

[¶31] Barley - שערה seorah, from שער saar, to stand on end, to be rough, bristly, etc.; hence שער sear, the hair of the head, and שעיר sair, a he-goat, because of its shaggy hair; and hence also barley, because of the rough and prickly beard with which the ears are covered and defended.

[¶32] Dr. Pocock has observed that there is a double seed-time and harvest in Egypt: Rice, India wheat, and a grain called the corn of Damascus, and in Italian surgo rosso, are sown and reaped at a very different time from wheat, barley and flax. The first are sown in March, before the overflowing of the Nile, and reaped about October; whereas the wheat and barley are sown in November and December, as soon as the Nile is gone off, and are reaped before May.

[¶33] Pliny observes, Hist. Nat., lib. xviii., cap. 10, that in Egypt the barley is ready for reaping in six months after it is sown, and wheat in seven. In Aegypto Hordeum sexto a satu mense, Feumenta septimo metuntur.

[¶34] The flax was boiled - Meaning, I suppose, was grown up into a stalk: the original is גבעל gibol, podded or was in the pod.

[¶35] The word well expresses that globous pod on the top of the stalk of flax which succeeds the flower and contains the seed, very properly expressed by the Septuagint, το δε λινον σπερματιζον, but the flax was in seed or was seeding.

### Verse 32

[¶37] But the wheat and the rye were not smitten - Wheat, חטה chittah, which Mr. Parkhurst thinks should be derived from the Chaldee and Samaritan חטי chati, which signifies tender, delicious, delicate, because of the superiority of its flavor, etc., to every other kind of grain. But this term in Scripture appears to mean any kind of bread-corn. Rye, כסמת cussemeth, from כסם casam, to have long hair; and hence, though the particular species is not known, the word must mean some bearded grain. The Septuagint call it ολυρα, the Vulgate for, and Aquila ζεα, which signify the grain called spelt; and some suppose that rice is meant.

[¶38] Mr. Harmer, referring to the double harvest in Egypt mentioned by Dr. Pocock, says that the circumstance of the wheat and the rye being אפילת aphiloth, dark or hidden, as the margin renders it, (i.e., they were sown, but not grown up), shows that it was the Indian wheat or surgo rosso mentioned [Exo 9:31], which, with the rye, escaped, while the barley and flax were smitten because they were at or nearly at a state of maturity. See Harmer's Obs., vol. iv., p. 11, edit 1808. But what is intended by the words in the Hebrew text we cannot positively say, as there is a great variety of opinions on this subject, both among the versions and the commentators. The Anglo-Saxon translator, probably from not knowing the meaning of the words, omits the whole verse.

### Verse 33

[¶40] Spread abroad his hands - Probably with the rod of God in them. See what has been said on the spreading out of the hands in prayer, [Exo 9:29]. See Clarke on [Exo 9:29] (note).

### Verse 34

[¶42] He sinned yet more, and hardened his heart - These were merely acts of his own; "for who can deny," says Mr. Psalmanazar, "that what God did on Pharaoh was much more proper to soften than to harden his heart; especially when it is observable that it was not till after seeing each miracle, and after the ceasing of each plague, that his heart is said to have been hardened? The verbs here used are in the conjugations pihel and hiphil, and often signify a bare permission, from which it is plain that the words should have been read, God suffered the heart of Pharaoh to be hardened." - Universal Hist., vol. i., p. 494. Note D.

### Verse 35

[¶44] And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened - In consequence of his sinning yet more, and hardening his own heart against both the judgments and mercies of God, we need not be surprised that, after God had given him the means of softening and repentance, and he had in every instance resisted and abused them, he should at last have been left to the hardness and darkness of his own obstinate heart, so as to fill up the measure of his iniquity, and rush headlong to his own destruction.

## 82. Exodus · 15 of 57

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[¶0] In the fifth, sixth, and seventh plagues described in this chapter, we have additional proofs of the justice and mercy of God, as well as of the stupidity, rebellion, and wickedness of Pharaoh and his courtiers. As these continued to contradict and resist, it was just that God should continue to inflict those punishments which their iniquities deserved. Yet in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy; and therefore Moses and Aaron are sent to inform the Egyptians that such plagues would come if they continued obstinate. Here is mercy; the cattle only are destroyed, and the people saved! Is it not evident from all these messages, and the repeated expostulations of Moses and Aaron in the name and on the authority of God, that Pharaoh was bound by no fatal necessity to continue his obstinacy; that he might have humbled himself before God, and thus prevented the disasters that fell on the land, and saved himself and his people from destruction? But he would sin, and therefore he must be punished.

[¶1] In the sixth plague Pharaoh had advantages which he had not before. The magicians, by their successful imitations of the miracles wrought by Moses, made it doubtful to the Egyptians whether Moses himself was not a magician acting without any Divine authority; but the plague of the boils, which they could not imitate, by which they were themselves afflicted, and which they confessed to be the finger of God, decided the business.

[¶2] Pharaoh had no longer any excuse, and must know that he had now to contend, not with Moses and Aaron, mortals like himself, but with the living God. How strange, then, that he should continue to resist! Many affect to be astonished at this, and think it must be attributed only to a sovereign controlling influence of God, which rendered it impossible for him to repent or take warning. But the whole conduct of God shows the improbability of this opinion: and is not the conduct of Pharaoh and his courtiers copied and reacted by thousands who are never suspected to be under any such necessitating decree? Every sinner under heaven, who has the Bible in his hand, is acting the same part. God says to the swearer and the profane, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; and yet common swearing and profaneness are most scandalously common among multitudes who bear the Christian name, and who presume on the mercy of God to get at last to the kingdom of heaven! He says also, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not covet; and sanctions all these commandments with the most awful penalties: and yet, with all these things before them, and the professed belief that they came from God, Sabbath-breakers, men-slayers, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, dishonest men, false witnesses, liars, slanderers, backbiters, covetous men, lovers of the world more than lovers of God, are found by hundreds and thousands! What were the crimes of the poor half-blind Egyptian king when compared with these! He sinned against a comparatively unknown God; these sin against the God of their fathers - against the God and Father of Him whom they call their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! They sin with the Bible in their hand, and a conviction of its Divine authority in their hearts. They sin against light and knowledge; against the checks of their consciences, the reproofs of their friends, the admonitions of the messengers of God; against Moses and Aaron in the law; against the testimony of all the prophets; against the evangelists, the apostles, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Judge of all men, and the Savior of the world! What were Pharaoh's crimes to the crimes of these? On comparison, his atom of moral turpitude is lost in their world of iniquity. And yet who supposes these to be under any necessitating decree to sin on, and go to perdition? Nor are they; nor was Pharaoh. In all things God has proved both his justice and mercy to be clear in this point. Pharaoh, through a principle of covetousness, refused to dismiss the Israelites, whose services he found profitable to the state: these are absorbed in the love of the world, the love of pleasure, and the love of gain; nor will they let one lust go, even in the presence of the thunders of Sinai, or in sight of the agony, bloody sweat, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ! Alas! how many are in the habit of considering Pharaoh the worst of human beings, inevitably cut off from the possibility of being saved because of his iniquities, who outdo him so far in the viciousness of their lives, that Pharaoh, hardening his heart against ten plagues, appears a saint when compared with those who are hardening their hearts against ten millions of mercies. Reader, art thou of this number? Proceed no farther! God's judgments linger not. Desperate as thy state is, thou mayest return; and thou, even thou, find mercy through the blood of the Lamb.

[¶3] See the observations at the conclusion of the next chapter. See Clarke at [Exo 10:29] (note).

### Introduction

[¶5] Moses is again sent to Pharaoh, and expostulates with him on his refusal to let the Hebrews go, [Exo 10:1-3]. The eighth plague, viz., of locusts, is threatened, [Exo 10:4]. The extent and oppressive nature of this plague, [Exo 10:5], [Exo 10:6]. Pharaoh's servants counsel him to dismiss the Hebrews, [Exo 10:7]. He calls for Moses and Aaron, and inquires who they are of the Hebrews who wish to go, [Exo 10:8]. Moses having answered that the whole people, with their flocks and herds must go and hold a feast to the Lord, [Exo 10:9], Pharaoh is enraged, and having granted permission only to the men, drives Moses and Aaron from his presence, [Exo 10:10], [Exo 10:11]. Moses is commanded to stretch out his hand and bring the locusts, [Exo 10:12]. He does so, and an east wind is sent, which, blowing all that day and night, brings the locusts the next morning, [Exo 10:13]. The devastation occasioned by these insects, [Exo 10:14], [Exo 10:15]. Pharaoh is humbled, acknowledges his sin, and begs Moses to intercede with Jehovah for him, [Exo 10:16], [Exo 10:17]. Moses does so, and at his request a strong west wind is sent, which carries all the locusts to the Red Sea, [Exo 10:18], [Exo 10:19]. Pharaoh's heart is again hardened, [Exo 10:20]. Moses is commanded to bring the ninth plague of extraordinary darkness over all the land of Egypt, [Exo 10:21]. The nature, duration, and effects of this, [Exo 10:22], [Exo 10:23]. Pharaoh, again humbled, consents to let the people go, provided they leave their cattle behind, [Exo 10:24]. Moses insists on having all their cattle, because of the sacrifices which they must make to the Lord, [Exo 10:25], [Exo 10:26]. Pharaoh, again hardened, refuses, [Exo 10:27]. Orders Moses from his presence, and threatens him with death should he ever return, [Exo 10:28]. Moses departs with the promise of returning no more, [Exo 10:29].

### Verse 1

[¶7] Hardened his heart - God suffered his natural obstinacy to prevail, that he might have farther opportunities of showing forth his eternal power and Godhead.

### Verse 2

[¶9] That thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son - That the miracles wrought at this time might be a record for the instruction of the latest posterity, that Jehovah alone, the God of the Hebrews, was the sole Maker, Governor, and Supporter of the heavens and the earth. Thus we find God so did his marvelous works, that they might be had in everlasting remembrance. It was not to crush the poor worm, Pharaoh, that he wrought such mighty wonders, but to convince his enemies, to the end of the world, that no cunning or power can prevail against him; and to show his followers that whosoever trusted in him should never be confounded.

### Verse 3

[¶11] How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself - Had it been impossible for Pharaoh, in all the preceding plagues, to have humbled himself and repented can we suppose that God could have addressed him in such language as the preceding? We may rest assured that there was always a time in which he might have relented, and that it was because he hardened his heart at such times that God is said to harden him, i.e., to give him up to his own stubborn and obstinate heart; in consequence of which he refused to let the people go, so that God had a fresh opportunity to work another miracle, for the very gracious purposes mentioned in [Exo 10:2]. Had Pharaoh relented before, the same gracious ends would have been accomplished by other means.

### Verse 4

[¶13] To-morrow will I bring the locusts - The word ארבה arbeh, a locust, is probably from the root רבה rabah, he multiplied, became great, mighty, etc.; because of the immense swarms of these animals by which different countries, especially the east, are infested. The locust, in entomology, belongs to a genus of insects known among naturalists by the term Grylli; and includes three species, crickets, grasshoppers, and those commonly called locusts; and as they multiply faster than any other animal in creation, they are properly entitled to the name ארבה arbeh, which might be translated the numerous or multiplied insect. See this circumstance referred to, [Jdg 6:5]; [Jdg 7:12]; [Psa 105:34]; [Jer 46:23]; [Jer 51:14]; [Joe 1:6]; [Nah 3:15]; Judith 2:19, 20; where the most numerous armies are compared to the arbeh or locust. The locust has a large open mouth; and in its two jaws it has four incisive teeth, which traverse each other like scissors, being calculated, from their mechanism, to grip or cut. Mr. Volney, in his Travels in Syria, gives a striking account of this most awful scourge of God: - "Syria partakes together with Egypt and Persia, and almost all the whole middle part of Asia, in the terrible scourge, I mean those clouds of locusts of which travelers have spoken; the quantity of which is incredible to any person who has not himself seen them, the earth being covered by them for several leagues round. The noise they make in browsing the plants and trees may be heard at a distance, like an army plundering in secret. Fire seems to follow their tracks. Wherever their legions march the verdure disappears from the country, like a curtain drawn aside; the trees and plants, despoiled of their leaves, make the hideous appearance of winter instantly succeed to the bright scenes of spring. When these clouds of locusts take their flight, in order to surmount some obstacle, or the more rapidly to cross some desert, one may literally say that the sun is darkened by them."

[¶14] Baron de Tott gives a similar account: "Clouds of locusts frequently alight on the plains of the Noguais, (the Tartars), and giving preference to their fields of millet, ravage them in an instant. Their approach darkens the horizon, and so enormous is their multitude, it hides the light of the sun. They alight on the fields, and there form a bed of six or seven inches thick. To the noise of their flight succeeds that of their devouring actively, which resembles the rattling of hail-stones; but its consequences are infinitely more destructive. Fire itself eats not so fast; nor is there any appearance of vegetation to be found when they again take their flight, and go elsewhere to produce new disasters."

[¶15] Dr. Shaw, who witnessed most formidable swarms of these in Barbary in the years 1724 and 1725, gives the following account of them: "They were much larger than our grasshoppers, and had brown-spotted wings, with legs and bodies of a bright yellow. Their first appearance was towards the latter end of March. In the middle of April their numerous swarms, like a succession of clouds, darkened the sun. In the month of May they retired to the adjacent plains to deposit their eggs: these were no sooner hatched in June than the young brood first produced, while in their caterpillar or worm-like state, formed themselves into a compact body of more than a furlong square, and, marching directly forward, climbed over trees, walls, and houses, devouring every plant in their way. Within a day or two another brood was hatched, and advancing in the same manner, gnawed off the young branches and bark of the trees left by the former, making a complete desolation. The inhabitants, to stop their progress, made a variety of pits and trenches all over their fields and gardens, which they filled with water, or else heaped up therein heath, stubble, etc., which they set on fire; but to no purpose: for the trenches were quickly filled up and the fires extinguished, by infinite swarms succeeding one another; while the front seemed regardless of danger, and the rear pressed on so close that retreat was altogether impossible. In a month's time they threw off their worm-like state; and in a new form, with wings and legs, and additional powers, returned to their former voracity." - Shaw's Travels, 187, 188, 4th edition.

[¶16] The descriptions given by these travelers show that God's army, described by the Prophet Joel, [Joe 2:1-11], was innumerable swarms of locusts, to which the accounts given by Dr. Shaw and others exactly agree.

### Verse 5

[¶18] They shall cover the face of the earth - They sometimes cover the whole ground to the depth of six or eight inches. See the preceding accounts.

### Verse 6

[¶20] They shall fill thy houses - Dr. Shaw mentions this circumstance; "they entered," says he, "Into our very houses and bed-chambers, like so many thieves." - Ibid. p. 187.

### Verse 7

[¶22] How long shall this man be a snare unto us? - As there is no noun in the text, the pronoun זה zeh may either refer to the Israelites, to the plague by which they were then afflicted, or to Moses and Aaron, the instruments used by the Most High in their chastisement. The Vulgate translates, Usquequo patiemur hoc scandalum? "How long shall we suffer this scandal or reproach?"

[¶23] Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God - Much of the energy of several passages is lost in translating יהוה Yehovah by the term Lord. The Egyptians had their gods, and they supposed that the Hebrews had a god like unto their own; that this Jehovah required their services, and would continue to afflict Egypt till his people were permitted to worship him in his own way.

[¶24] Egypt is destroyed? - This last plague had nearly ruined the whole land.

### Verse 8

[¶26] Who are they that shall go? - Though the Egyptians, about fourscore years before, wished to destroy the Hebrews, yet they found them now so profitable to the state that they were unwilling to part with them.

### Verse 9

[¶28] We will go with our young and with our old, etc. - As a feast was to be celebrated to the honor of Jehovah, all who were partakers of his bounty and providential kindness must go and perform their part in the solemnity. The men and the women must make the feast, the children must witness it, and the cattle must be taken along with them to furnish the sacrifices necessary on this occasion. This must have appeared reasonable to the Egyptians, because it was their own custom in their religious assemblies. Men, women, and children attended them, often to the amount of several hundred thousand. Herodotus informs us, in speaking of the six annual feasts celebrated by the Egyptians in honor of their deities, that they hold their chief one at the city of Bubastis in honor of Neith or Diana; that they go thither by water in boats-men, women, and children; that during their voyage some of the women play on castanets, and some of the men upon flutes, while the rest are employed in singing and clapping their hands; and that, when they arrive at Bubastis, they sacrifice a vast number of victims, and drink much wine; and that at one such festival, the inhabitants assured him, that there were not assembled fewer than 700,000 men and women, without reckoning the children - Euterpe, chap. lix., lx. I find that the ancient Egyptians called Diana Neith; this comes as near as possible to the Gaile of the Isle of Man. The moon is called yn neith or neath; and also ke-sollus, from ke, smooth or even, and sollus, light, the Smooth Light; perhaps to distinguish her from the sun, grian, from gri-tien or cri-tien, i.e., Trembling Fire; yn neith-easya, as Macpherson has it, signifies wan complexion. I should rather incline to think it may come from aise. The Celtic nations thought that the heavenly luminaries were the residences of spirits which they distinguished by the name of aise, thus grian-ais signifies the spirit of the sun.

[¶29] Moses and Aaron, requesting liberty for the Hebrews to go three days' journey into the wilderness, and with them all their wives, little ones, and cattle, in order to hold a feast unto Jehovah their God, must have at least appeared as reasonable to the Egyptians as their going to the city of Bubastis with their wives, little ones, and cattle, to hold a feast to Neith or Diana, who was there worshipped. The parallel in these two cases is too striking to pass unnoticed.

### Verse 10

[¶31] Let the Lord be so with you - This is an obscure sentence. Some suppose that Pharaoh meant it as a curse, as if he had said, "May your God be as surely with you, as I shall let you go!" For as he purposed not to permit them to go, so he wished them as much of the Divine help as they should have of his permission.

[¶32] Look - for evil is before you - ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם reu ki raah neged peneychem, See ye that evil is before your faces - if you attempt to go, ye shall meet with the punishment ye deserve. Probably Pharaoh intended to insinuate that they had some sinister designs, and that they wished to go in a body that they might the better accomplish their purpose; but if they had no such designs they would be contented for the males to go, and leave their wives and children behind: for he well knew if the men went and left their families they would infallibly return, but that if he permitted them to take their families with them, they would undoubtedly make their escape; therefore he says, [Exo 10:11], Go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord.

### Verse 13

[¶34] The Lord brought an east wind - As locusts abounded in those countries, and particularly in Ethiopia, and more especially at this time of the year, God had no need to create new swarms for this purpose; all that was requisite was to cause such a wind to blow as would bring those which already existed over the land of Egypt. The miracle in this business was the bringing the locusts at the appointed time, and causing the proper wind to blow for that purpose; and then taking them away after a similar manner.

### Verse 14

[¶36] Before them there were no such locusts, etc. - They exceeded all that went before, or were since, in number, and in the devastations they produced. Probably both these things are intended in the passage. See [Exo 10:15].

### Verse 15

[¶38] There remained not any green thing - See Clarke's note on [Exo 10:4].

### Verse 17

[¶40] Forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once - What a strange case! And what a series of softening and hardening, of sinning and repenting! Had he not now another opportunity of returning to God? But the love of gain, and the gratification of his own self-will and obstinacy, finally prevailed.

### Verse 19

[¶42] A mighty strong west wind - רוח ים ruach yam, literally the wind of the sea; the wind that blew from the Mediterranean Sea, which lay north-west of Egypt, which had the Red Sea on the east. Here again God works by natural means; he brought the locusts by the east wind, and took them away by the west or north-west wind, which carried them to the Red Sea where they were drowned.

[¶43] The Red Sea - ים סוף yam suph, the weedy sea; so called, as some suppose, from the great quantity of alga or sea-weed which grows in it and about its shores. But Mr. Bruce, who has sailed the whole extent of it, declares that he never saw in it a weed of any kind; and supposes it has its name suph from the vast quantity of coral which grows in it, as trees and plants do on land. "One of these," he observes, "from a root nearly central, threw out ramifications in a nearly circular form measuring twenty-six feet diameter every way." - Travels, vol. ii., p. 138. In the Septuagint it is called θαλασσα ερυθρα, the Red Sea, from which version we have borrowed the name; and Mr. Bruce supposes that it had this name from Edom or Esau, whose territories extended to its coasts; for it is well known that the word אדם Edom in Hebrew signifies red or ruddy. The Red Sea, called also the Arabic Gulf, separates Arabia from Upper Ethiopia and part of Egypt. It is computed to be three hundred and fifty leagues in length from Suez to the Straits of Babelmandel, and is about forty leagues in breadth. It is not very tempestuous, and the winds usually blow from north to south, and from south to north, six months in the year; and, like the monsoons of India, invariably determine the seasons of sailing into or out of this sea. It is divided into two gulfs: that to the east called the Elanitic Gulf, from the city of Elana to the north end of it; and that to the west called the Heroopolitan Gulf, from the city of Heroopolis; the former of which belongs to Arabia, the latter to Egypt. The Heroopolitan Gulf is called by the Arabians Bahr el Kolzum, the sea of destruction, or of Clysmae, an ancient town in that quarter; and the Elanitic Gulf Bahr el Akaba, the sea of Akaba, a town situated on its most inland point.

## 83. Exodus · 16 of 57

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### Verse 21

[¶1] Darkness which may be felt - Probably this was occasioned by a superabundance of aqueous vapors floating in the atmosphere, which were so thick as to prevent the rays of the sun from penetrating through them; an extraordinarily thick mist supernaturally, i.e., miraculously, brought on. An awful emblem of the darkened state of the Egyptians and their king.

### Verse 23

[¶3] They saw not one another - So deep was the obscurity, and probably such was its nature, that no artificial light could be procured; as the thick clammy vapors would prevent lamps, etc., from burning, or if they even could be ignited, the light through the palpable obscurity, could diffuse itself to no distance from the burning body. The author of the book of The Wisdom of Solomon 17:2-19, gives a fearful description of this plague. He says, "The Egyptians were shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness: and were fettered with the bonds of a long night. They were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished and troubled with strange apparitions; for neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear; but noises as of waters falling down sounded about them; and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances. No power of the fire could give them light - only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself very dreadful; for being much terrified, they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw not. For though no terrible thing did scare them, yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear: for whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a laborer in the field, he was overtaken; for they were all bound with one chain of darkness. Whether it were a whistling wind, or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of tripping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains, these things made them to swoon for fear." See [Psa 78:49].

[¶4] To this description nothing need be added except this circumstance, that the darkness, with its attendant horrors, lasted for three days.

[¶5] All the children of Israel had light - By thus distinguishing the Israelites, God showed the Egyptians that the darkness was produced by his power; that he sent it in judgment against them for their cruelty to his people; that because they trusted in him they were exempted from these plagues; that in the displeasure of such a Being his enemies had every thing to fear, and in his approbation his followers had every thing to hope.

### Verse 24

[¶7] Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed - Pharaoh cannot get all he wishes; and as he sees it impossible to contend with Jehovah, he now consents to give up the Israelites, their wives and their children, provided he may keep their flocks and their herds. The cruelty of this demand is not more evident than its avarice. Had six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, gone three days' journey into the wilderness without their cattle, they must have inevitably perished, being without milk for their little ones, and animal food for their own sustenance, in a place where little as a substitute could possibly be found. It is evident from this that Pharaoh intended the total destruction of the whole Israelitish host.

### Verse 26

[¶9] We know not with what we must serve the Lord, etc. - The law was not yet given; the ordinances concerning the different kinds of sacrifices and offerings not known. What kind and what number of animals God should require to be sacrificed, even Moses himself could not as yet tell. He therefore very properly insists on taking the whole of their herds with them, and not leaving even one hoof behind.

### Verse 27

[¶11] The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart - He had yet another miracle to work for the complete conviction of the Egyptians and triumph of his people; and till that was wrought he permitted the natural obstinacy of Pharaoh's haughty heart to have its full sway, after each resistance of the gracious influence which was intended to soften and bring him to repentance.

### Verse 28

[¶13] See my face no more - Hitherto Pharaoh had left the way open for negotiation; but now, in wrath against Jehovah, he dismisses his ambassador, and threatens him with death if he should attempt any more to come into his presence.

### Verse 29

[¶15] I will see thy face again no more - It is very likely that this was the last interview that Moses had with Pharaoh, for what is related, [Exo 11:4-8], might have been spoken on this very occasion, as it is very possible that God gave Moses to understand his purpose to slay the first-born, while before Pharaoh at this time; so, in all probability, the interview mentioned here was the last which Moses had with the Egyptian king. It is true that in [Exo 12:31] it is stated that Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night, and ordered them to leave Egypt, and to take all their substance with them, which seems to imply that there was another interview, but the words may imply no more than that Moses and Aaron received such a message from Pharaoh. If, however, this mode of interpreting these passages should not seem satisfactory to any, he may understand the words of Moses thus: I will see thy face - seek thy favor, no more in behalf of my people, which was literally true; for if Moses did appear any more before Pharaoh, it was not as a supplicant, but merely as the ambassador of God, to denounce his judgments by giving him the final determination of Jehovah relative to the destruction of the first-born.

[¶16] 1. To the observations at the conclusion of the preceding chapter, we may add that at first view it seems exceedingly strange that, after all the proofs Pharaoh had of the power of God, he should have acted in the manner related in this and the preceding chapters, alternately sinning and repenting; but it is really a common case, and multitudes who condemn the conduct of this miserable Egyptian king, act in a similar manner. They relent when smarting under God's judgments, but harden their hearts when these judgments are removed. Of this kind I have witnessed numerous cases. To such God says by his prophet, Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more. Reader, are not the vows of God upon thee? Often when afflicted in thyself or family hast thou not said like Pharaoh, ([Exo 10:17]), Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only This Once, and take away from me this death Only? And yet when thou hadst respite, didst thou not harden thy heart, and with returning health and strength didst thou not return unto iniquity? And art thou not still in the broad road of transgression? Be not deceived; God is not mocked; he warns thee, but he will not be mocked by thee. What thou sowest, that thou must reap. Think then what a most dreadful harvest thou mayest expect from the seeds of vice which thou hast already sown!

[¶17] 2. Even in the face of God's judgments the spirit of avarice will make its requisitions. Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed, says Pharaoh. The love of gain was the ruling principle of this man's soul, and he chooses desperately to contend with the justice of his Maker, rather than give up his bosom sin! Reader, is this not thy own case? And art thou not ready, with Pharaoh, to say to the messenger of God, who rebukes thee for thy worldly mindedness, etc., Get thee gone from me. Take heed to thyself, and see my face no more. Esau and Pharaoh have both got a very bad name, and many persons who are repeating their crimes are the foremost to cover them with obloquy! When shall we learn to look at home? to take warning by the miscarriages of others, and thus shun the pit into which we have seen so many fall? If God were to give the history of every man who hardens himself from his fear, how many Pharaoh-like cases should we have on record! But a day is coming in which the secrets of every heart shall be revealed, and the history of every man's life laid open to an assembled world.

### Introduction

[¶19] God purposes to bring another plague upon Pharaoh, after which he should let the Israelites go, [Exo 11:1]. They are commanded to ask gold and silver from the Egyptians, [Exo 11:2]. The estimation in which Moses was held among the Egyptians, [Exo 11:3]. Moses predicts the destruction of the first-born of the Egyptians, [Exo 11:4-6], and Israel's protection, [Exo 11:7]. On seeing which, Pharaoh and his servants should entreat the Hebrews to depart, [Exo 11:8]. The prediction of his previous obstinacy, [Exo 11:9], [Exo 11:10].

### Verse 1

[¶21] The Lord said unto Moses - Calmet contends that this should be read in the preterpluperfect tense, for the Lord Had said to Moses, as the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth verses appear to have been spoken when Moses had the interview with Pharaoh mentioned in the preceding chapter; see Clarke's note on [Exo 10:29]. If therefore this chapter be connected with the preceding, as it should be, and the first three verses not only read in the past tense but also in a parenthesis, the sense will be much more distinct and clear than it now appears.

### Verse 2

[¶23] Let every man borrow - For a proper correction of the strange mistranslation of the word שאל shaal in this verse, see Clarke's note on [Exo 3:22].

### Verse 3

[¶25] The man Moses was very great - The miracles which Pharaoh and his servants had already seen him work had doubtless impressed them with a high opinion of his wisdom and power. Had he not appeared in their sight as a very extraordinary person, whom it would have been very dangerous to molest, we may naturally conclude that some violence would long ere this have been offered to his person.

### Verse 4

[¶27] About midnight will I go out - Whether God did this by the ministry of a good or of an evil angel is a matter of little importance, though some commentators have greatly magnified it. Both kinds of angels are under his power and jurisdiction, and he may employ them as he pleases. Such a work of destruction as the slaying of the first-born is supposed to be more proper for a bad than for a good angel. But the works of God's justice are not less holy and pure than the works of his mercy; and the highest archangel may, with the utmost propriety, be employed in either.

### Verse 5

[¶29] The first-born of Pharaoh, etc. - From the heir to the Egyptian throne to the son of the most abject slave, or the principal person in each family. See Clarke's note on [Exo 12:29].

[¶30] The maid-servant that is behind the mill - The meanest slaves were employed in this work. In many parts of the east they still grind all their corn with a kind of portable mill-stones, the upper one of which is turned round by a sort of lever fixed in the rim. A drawing of one of these machines as used in China is now before me, and the person who grinds is represented as pushing the lever before him, and thus running round with the stone. Perhaps something like this is intended by the expression Behind the mill in the text. On this passage Dr. Shaw has the following observation: - "Most families grind their wheat and barley at home, having two portable mill-stones for that purpose, the uppermost of which is turned round by a small handle of wood or iron that is placed in the rim. When this stone is large, or expedition required, a second person is called in to assist; and as it is usual for women alone to be concerned in this employment, who seat themselves over against each other with the mill-stone between them, we may see, not only the propriety of the expression ([Exo 11:5]) of sitting behind the mill, but the force of another, ([Mat 24:41]), that two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left." - Travels, p. 231, 4th edit. These portable mills, under the name of querns, were used among our ancestors in this and the sister kingdoms, and some of them are in use to the present day. Both the instrument and its name our forefathers seem to have borrowed from the continent. They have long existed among the inhabitants of Shetland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, etc.

### Verse 6

[¶32] There shall be a great cry - Of the dying and for the dead. See more on this subject, [Exo 12:30] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶34] Not a dog move his tongue - This passage has been generally understood as a proverbial expression, intimating that the Israelites should not only be free from this death, but that they should depart without any kind of molestation. For though there must be much bustle and comparative confusion in the sudden removal of six hundred thousand persons with their wives, children, goods, cattle, etc., yet this should produce so little alarm that even the dogs should not bark at them, which it would be natural to expect, as the principal stir was to be about midnight.

[¶35] After giving this general explanation from others, I may be permitted to hazard a conjecture of my own. And,

[¶36] 1. Is it not probable that the allusion is here made to a well-known custom of dogs howling when any mortality is in a village, street, or even house, where such animals are? There are innumerable instances of the faithful house-dog howling when a death happens in a family, as if distressed on the account, feeling for the loss of his benefactor; but their apparent presaging such an event by their cries, as some will have it, may be attributed, not to any prescience, but to the exquisite keenness of their scent. If the words may be understood in this way, then the great cry through the whole land of Egypt may refer to this very circumstance: as dogs were sacred among them, and consequently religiously preserved, they must have existed in great multitudes.

[¶37] 2. We know that one of their principal deities was Osiris, whose son, worshipped under the form of a dog, or a man with a dog's head, was called Anubis latrator, the barking Anubis. May he not be represented as deploring a calamity which he had no power to prevent among his worshippers, nor influence to inflict punishment upon those who set his deity at naught? Hence while there was a great cry, צעקה גדלה tseakah gedolah, throughout all the land of Egypt, because of the mortality in every house, yet among the Israelites there was no death, consequently no dog moved his tongue to howl for their calamity; nor could the object of the Egyptians' worship inflict any similar punishment on the worshippers of Jehovah.

[¶38] In honor of this dog-god there was a city called Anubis in Egypt, by the Greeks called Cynopolis, the city of the dog, the same that is now called Menich; in this he had a temple, and dogs, which were sacred to him, were here fed with consecrated victuals.

[¶39] Thus, as in the first plagues their magicians were confounded, so in this last their gods were put to flight. And may not this be referred to in [Exo 12:12], when Jehovah says: Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment? Should it be objected, that to consider the passage in this light would be to acknowledge the being and deity of the fictitious Anubis, it may be answered, that in the sacred writings it is not an uncommon thing to see the idol acknowledged in order to show its nullity, and the more forcibly to express contempt for it, for its worshippers, and for its worship. Thus Isaiah represents the Babylonish idols as being endued with sense, bowing down under the judgments of God, utterly unable to help themselves or their worshippers, and being a burden to the beasts that carried them:

[¶40] Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth; their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy laden; they are a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity; [Isa 46:1], [Isa 46:2]. The case of Elijah and the prophets of Baal should not be forgotten here; this prophet, by seeming to acknowledge the reality of Baal's being, though by a strong irony, poured the most sovereign contempt upon him, his worshippers, and his worship: And Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; For He Is A God: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked; [1Kgs 18:27]. See the observations at the end of Exodus 12. See Clarke's note at [Exo 12:51].

[¶41] The Lord doth put a difference - See on [Exo 8:22] (note). And for the variations between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuch in this place, see at the end of the chapter. See Clarke's note at [Exo 11:9].

### Verse 8

[¶43] And all these thy servants shall come - A prediction of what actually took place. See [Exo 12:31-33].

### Verse 9

[¶45] Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you - Though shall and will are both reputed signs of the future tense, and by many indiscriminately used, yet they make a most essential difference in composition in a variety of cases. For instance, if we translate לא ישמע lo yishma, Pharaoh Shall not hearken, as in our text, the word shall strongly intimates that it was impossible for Pharaoh to hearken, and that God had placed him under that impossibility: but if we translate as we should do, Pharaoh Will not hearken, it alters the case most essentially, and agrees with the many passages in the preceding chapters, where he is said to have hardened his own heart; as this proves that he, without any impulsive necessity, obstinately refused to attend to what Moses said or threatened; and that God took the advantage of this obstinacy to work another miracle, and thus multiply his wonders in the land.

## 84. Exodus · 17 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/84/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/84/#p-N

[¶0] Pharaoh Will not hearken unto you; and because he would not God hardened his heart - left him to his own obstinacy.

[¶1] To most critics it is well known that there are in several parts of the Pentateuch considerable differences between the Hebrew and Samaritan copies of this work. In this chapter the variations are of considerable importance, and competent critics have allowed that the Samaritan text, especially in this chapter, is fuller and better connected than that of the Hebrew.

[¶2] 1. It is evident that the eighth verse in the present Hebrew text has no natural connection with the seventh. For in the seventh verse Moses delivers to the Israelites what God had commanded him to say: and in the eighth he appears to continue a direct discourse unto Pharaoh, though it does not appear when this discourse was begun. This is quite contrary to the custom of Moses, Who always particularly notes the commencement of his discourses.

[¶3] 2. It is not likely that the Samaritans have added these portions, as they could have no private interest to serve by so doing; and therefore it is likely that these additions were originally parts of the sacred text, and might have been omitted, because an ancient copyist found the substance of them in other places. It must however be granted, that the principal additions in the Samaritan are repetitions of speeches which exist in the Hebrew text.

[¶4] 3. The principal part of these additions do not appear to have been borrowed from any other quarter. Interpolations in general are easily discerned from the confusion they introduce; but instead of deranging the sense, the additions here made it much more apparent; for should these not be admitted it is evident that something is wanting, without which the connection is incomplete - See Calmet. But the reader is still requested to observe, that the supplementary matter in the Samaritan is collected from other parts of the Hebrew text; and that the principal merit of the Samaritan is, that it preserves the words in a better arrangement.

[¶5] Dr. Kennicott has entered into this subject at large, and by printing the two texts in parallel columns, the supplementary matter in the Samaritan and the hiatus in the Hebrew text will be at once perceived. It is well known that he preferred the Samaritan to the Hebrew Pentateuch; and his reasons for that preference in this case I shall subjoin. As the work is extremely scarce from which I select them, one class of readers especially will be glad to meet with them in this place. "Within these five chapters. 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, are seven very great differences between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuchs, relating to the speeches which denounced seven out of the ten judgments upon the Egyptians, viz., waters into blood, frogs, flies, murrain, hail, locusts and destruction of the first-born. The Hebrew text gives the speeches concerning these judgments only once at each; but the Samaritan gives each speech Twice. In the Hebrew we have the speeches concerning the five first as in command from God to Moses, without reading that Moses delivered them; and concerning the two last, as delivered by Moses to Pharaoh, without reading that God had commanded them. Whereas in the Samaritan we find every speech Twice: God commands Moses to go and speak thus or thus before Pharaoh; Moses goes and denounces the judgment; Pharaoh disobeys, and the judgment takes place. All this is perfectly regular, and exactly agreeable to the double speeches of Homer in very ancient times. I have not the least doubt that the Hebrew text now wants many words in each of the seven following places: Exodus 7, between [Exo 7:18] and [Exo 7:19]; end of Exodus 7; Exodus 8, between 19 and 20;; Exodus 10, between 2 and 3; [Exo 11:1-10], at [Exo 11:3] and [Exo 11:4]. The reader will permit me to refer him (for all the words thus omitted) to my own edition of the Hebrew Bible, (Oxford 1780, 2 vols. fol)., where the whole differences are most clearly described. As this is a matter of very extensive consequence, I cannot but observe here, that the present Hebrew text of [Exo 11:1-10] did formerly, and does still appear to me to furnish a demonstration against itself, in proof of the double speech being formerly recorded there, as it is now in the Samaritan. And some very learned men have confessed the impossibility of explaining this chapter without the assistance of the Samaritan Pentateuch. I shall now give this important chapter as I presume it stood originally, distinguishing by italics all such words as are added to or differ from our present translation. And before this chapter must be placed the two last verses of the chapter preceding, [Exo 10:28-29] : And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast well spoken, I will see thy face again no more.

### Introduction

[¶7] The month Abib is to be considered as the commencement of the year, [Exo 12:1], [Exo 12:2]. The Passover instituted; the lamb or kid to be used on the occasion to be taken from the flock the tenth day of the month, and each family to provide one, [Exo 12:3], [Exo 12:4]. The lamb or kid to be a male of the first year without blemish, [Exo 12:5]. To be killed on the fourteenth day, [Exo 12:6], and the blood to be sprinkled on the side posts and lintels of the doors, [Exo 12:7]. The flesh to be prepared by roasting, and not to be eaten either sodden or raw, [Exo 12:8], [Exo 12:9]; and no part of it to be left till the morning, [Exo 12:10]. The people to eat it with their loins girded, etc., as persons prepared for a journey, [Exo 12:11]. Why called the Passover, [Exo 12:12]. The blood sprinkled on the door posts, etc., to be a token to them of preservation from the destroying angel, [Exo 12:13]. The fourteenth day of the month Abib to be a feast for ever, [Exo 12:14]. Unleavened bread to be eaten seven days, [Exo 12:15]. This also to be observed in all their generations for ever, [Exo 12:17-20]. Moses instructs the elders of Israel how they are to offer the lamb and sprinkle his blood, and for what purpose, [Exo 12:21-23]. He binds them to instruct their children in the nature of this rite, [Exo 12:24-27]. The children of Israel act as commanded, [Exo 12:28]. All the first-born of Egypt slain, [Exo 12:29], [Exo 12:30]. Pharaoh and the Egyptians urge Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites to depart, [Exo 12:31-33]. They prepare for their departure, and get gold, silver, and raiment from the Egyptians, [Exo 12:34-36]. They journey from Rameses to Succoth, in number six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, and a mixed multitude, [Exo 12:37], [Exo 12:38]. They bake unleavened cakes of the dough they brought with them out of Egypt, [Exo 12:39]. The time in which they sojourned in Egypt, [Exo 12:40-42]. Different ordinances concerning the Passover, [Exo 12:43-49]; which are all punctually observed by the people, who are brought out of Egypt the same day, [Exo 12:50], [Exo 12:51].

### Verse 2

[¶9] This month shall be unto you the beginning of months - It is supposed that God now changed the commencement of the Jewish year. The month to which this verse refers, the month Abib, answers to a part of our March and April; whereas it is supposed that previously to this the year began with Tisri, which answers to a part of our September; for in this month the Jews suppose God created the world, when the earth appeared at once with all its fruits in perfection. From this circumstance the Jews have formed a twofold commencement of the year, which has given rise to a twofold denomination of the year itself, to which they afterwards attended in all their reckonings: that which began with Tisri or September was called their civil year; that which began with Abib or March was called the sacred or ecclesiastical year.

[¶10] As the exodus of the Israelites formed a particular era, which is referred to in Jewish reckonings down to the building of the temple, I have marked it as such in the chronology in the margin; and shall carry it down to the time in which it ceased to be acknowledged.

[¶11] Some very eminently learned men dispute this; and especially Houbigant, who contends with great plausibility of argument that no new commencement of the year is noted in this place; for that the year had always begun in this month, and that the words shall be, which are inserted by different versions, have nothing answering to them in the Hebrew, which he renders literally thus. Hic mensis vobis est caput mensium; hic vobis primus est anni mensis. "This month is to you the head or chief of the months; it is to you the first month of the year." And he observes farther that God only marks it thus, as is evident from the context, to show the people that this month, which was the beginning of their year, should be so designated as to point out to their posterity on what month and on what day of the month they were to celebrate the passover and the fast of unleavened bread. His words are these: "Ergo superest, et Hebr. ipso ex contextu efficitur, non hic novi ordinis annum constitui, sed eum anni mensem, qui esset primus, ideo commemorari, ut posteris constaret, quo mense, et quo die mensis paseha et azyma celebranda essent."

### Verse 3

[¶13] In the tenth day of this month - In after times they began their preparation on the thirteenth day or day before the Passover, which was not celebrated till the fourteenth day, see [Exo 12:6] : but on the present occasion, as this was their first passover, they probably required more time to get ready in; as a state of very great confusion must have prevailed at this time. Mr. Ainsworth remarks that on this day the Israelites did afterwards go through Jordan into the land of Canaan; [Jos 4:19]. And Christ, our Paschal Lamb, on this day entered Jerusalem, riding on an ass; the people bearing palm branches, and crying, Hosanna, [Joh 12:1], [Joh 12:12], [Joh 12:13], etc.: and in him this type was truly fulfilled.

[¶14] A lamb - The original word שה seh signifies the young of sheep and of goats, and may be indifferently translated either lamb or kid. See [Exo 12:5].

[¶15] A lamb for a house - The whole host of Israel was divided into twelve tribes, these tribes into families, the families into houses, and the houses into particular persons; Numbers 1, [Jos 7:14] - Ainsworth.

### Verse 4

[¶17] If the household be too little - That is, if there be not persons enough in one family to eat a whole lamb, then two families must join together. The rabbins allow that there should be at least ten persons to one paschal lamb, and not more than twenty.

[¶18] Take it, according to the number of the souls - The persons who were to eat of it were to be first ascertained, and then the lamb was to be slain and dressed for that number.

### Verse 5

[¶20] Without blemish - Having no natural imperfection, no disease, no deficiency or redundancy of parts. On this point the rabbins have trifled most egregiously, reckoning fifty blemishes that render a lamb or kid, or any animal, improper to be sacrificed: five in the ear, three in the eyelid, eight in the eye, three in the nose, six in the mouth, etc., etc.

[¶21] A male of the first year - That is, any age in the first year between eight days and twelve months.

[¶22] From the sheep, or from the goats - The שה seh means either; and either was equally proper if without blemish. The Hebrews however in general preferred the lamb to the kid.

### Verse 6

[¶24] Ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day - The lamb or kid was to be taken from the flock on the tenth day, and kept up and fed by itself till the fourteenth day, when it was to be sacrificed. This was never commanded nor practiced afterwards. The rabbins mark four things that were required in the first passover that were never required afterwards:

[¶25] 1. The eating of the lamb in their houses dispersed through Goshen.

[¶26] 2. The taking the lamb on the tenth day.

[¶27] 3. The striking of its blood on the door posts and lintels of their houses. And,

[¶28] 4. Their eating it in haste. These things were not required of the succeeding generations.

[¶29] The whole assembly - shall kill it - Any person might kill it, the sacrificial act in this case not being confined to the priests.

[¶30] In the evening - בין הערבים beyn haarbayim, "between the two evenings." The Jews divided the day into morning and evening: till the sun passed the meridian all was morning or fore-noon; after that, all was afternoon or evening. Their first evening began just after twelve o'clock, and continued till sunset; their second evening began at sunset and continued till night, i.e., during the whole time of twilight; between twelve o'clock, therefore, and the termination of twilight, the passover was to be offered. "The day among the Jews had twelve hours, [Joh 11:9]. Their first hour was about six o'clock in the morning with us. Their sixth hour was our noon. Their ninth hour answered to our three o'clock in the afternoon. By this we may understand that the time in which Christ was crucified began at the third hour, that is, at nine o'clock in the morning, the ordinary time for the daily morning sacrifice, and ended at the ninth hour, that is, three o'clock in the afternoon, the time of the evening sacrifice, [Mar 15:25], [Mar 15:33], [Mar 15:34], [Mar 15:37]. Wherefore their ninth hour was their hour of prayer, when they used to go into the temple at the daily evening sacrifice, [Act 3:1]; and this was the ordinary time for the passover. It is worthy of remark that God sets no particular hour for the killing of the passover: any time between the two evenings, i.e., between twelve o'clock in the day and the termination of twilight, was lawful. The daily sacrifice (see [Exo 29:38], [Exo 29:39]) was killed at half past the eighth hour, that is, half an hour Before three in the afternoon; and it was offered up at half past the ninth hour, that is, half an hour After three. In the evening of the passover it was killed at half past the seventh hour, and offered at half past the eighth, that is, half an hour Before three: and if the evening of the passover fell on the evening of the Sabbath, it was killed at half past the Sixth hour, and offered at half past the Seventh, that is, half an hour Before two in the afternoon. The reason of this was, they were first obliged to kill the daily sacrifice, and then to kill and roast the paschal lamb, and also to rest the evening before the passover. Agreeably to this Maimonides says 'the killing of the passover is after mid-day, and if they kill it before it is not lawful; and they do not kill it till after the daily evening sacrifice, and burning of incense: and after they have trimmed the lamps they begin to kill the paschal lambs until the end of the day.' By this time of the day God foreshowed the sufferings of Christ in the evening of times or in the last days, [Heb 1:2]; [1Pet 1:19], [1Pet 1:20] : and about the same time of the day, when the paschal lamb ordinarily died, He died also, viz., at the ninth hour; [Mat 27:46-50]." See Ainsworth.

### Verse 7

[¶32] Take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts - This was to be done by dipping a bunch of hyssop into the blood, and thus sprinkling it upon the posts, etc.; see [Exo 12:22]. That this sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb was an emblem of the sacrifice and atonement made by the death of Jesus Christ, is most clearly intimated in the sacred writings, [1Pet 1:2]; [Heb 9:13], [Heb 9:14]; [Heb 8:10]. It is remarkable that no blood was to be sprinkled on the threshold, to teach, as Mr. Ainsworth properly observes, a reverent regard for the blood of Christ, that men should not tread under foot the Son of God, nor count the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing; [Heb 10:29].

### Verse 8

[¶34] They shall eat the flesh - roast with fire - As it was the ordinary custom of the Jews to boil their flesh, some think that the command given here was in opposition to the custom of the Egyptians, who ate raw flesh in honor of Osiris. The Ethiopians are to this day remarkable for eating raw flesh, as is the case with most savage nations.

[¶35] Unleavened bread - מצות matstsoth, from מצה matsah, to squeeze or compress, because the bread prepared without leaven or yeast was generally compressed, sad or heavy, as we term it. The word here properly signifies unleavened cakes; the word for leaven in Hebrew is חמץ chamets, which simply signifies to ferment. It is supposed that leaven was forbidden on this and other occasions, that the bread being less agreeable to the taste, it might be emblematical of their bondage and bitter servitude, as this seems to have been one design of the bitter herbs which were commanded to be used on this occasion; but this certainly was not the sole design of the prohibition: leaven itself is a species of corruption, being produced by fermentation, which in such cases tends to putrefaction. In this very light St. Paul considers the subject in this place; hence, alluding to the passover as a type of Christ, he says: Purge out therefore the old leaven - for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; [1Cor 5:6-8].

[¶36] Bitter herbs - What kind of herbs or salad is intended by the word מררים merorim, which literally signifies bitters, is not well known. The Jews think chicory, wild lettuce, horehound, and the like are intended. Whatever may be implied under the term, whether bitter herbs or bitter ingredients in general, it was designed to put them in mind of their bitter and severe bondage in the land of Egypt, from which God was now about to deliver them.

### Verse 9

[¶38] With the purtenance thereof - All the intestines, for these were abused by the heathens to purposes of divination; and when roasted in the manner here directed they could not be thus used. The command also implies that the lamb was to be roasted whole; neither the head or legs were to be separated, nor the intestines removed. I suppose that these last simply included the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, etc., and not the intestinal canal.

### Verse 10

[¶40] Ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning - Merely to prevent putrefaction; for it was not meet that a thing offered to God should be subjected to corruption, which in such hot countries it must speedily undergo. Thus the body of our blessed Lord saw no corruption, [Psa 16:10]; [Act 2:27], because, like the paschal lamb, it was a sacrifice offered to God.

[¶41] It appears that from the Jewish passover the heathens borrowed their sacrifice termed Propter Viam. It was their custom previously to their undertaking a journey, to offer a sacrifice to their gods, and to eat the whole if possible, but if any part was left they burned it with fire; and this was called propter viam, because it was made to procure a prosperous journey. It was in reference to this that Cato is said to have rallied a person called Q. Albidius, who, having eaten up all his goods, set fire to his house, his only remaining property. "He has offered his sacrifice propter viam," says Cato, "because he has burned what he could not eat." This account is given by Macrobius, Saturn., lib. ii., 2, edit. Bipont., vol. 1, p. 333; and is a remarkable instance how closely some of the religious observances of the people of God have been copied by the heathen nations.

### Verse 11

[¶43] And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded - As in the eastern countries they wear long loose garments, whenever they travel they tuck up the fore parts of their garments in the girdle which they wear round their loins.

[¶44] Your shoes on your feet - This seems particularly mentioned because not customary. "The easterns throw off their shoes when they eat, because it would be troublesome," says Sir J. Chardin, "to keep their shoes upon their feet, they sitting cross-legged on the floor, and having no hinder quarters to their shoes, which are made like slippers; and as they do not use tables and chairs as we do in Europe, but have their floors covered with carpets, they throw off their shoes when they enter their apartments, lest they should soil those beautiful pieces of furniture." On the contrary the Israelites were to have their shoes on, because now about to commence their journey. It was customary among the Romans to lay aside their shoes when they went to a banquet. The servants took them off them when they entered the house, and returned them when they departed to their own habitations.

## 85. Exodus · 18 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/85/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/85/#p-N

[¶0] Your staff in your hand - The same writer observes that the eastern people universally make use of a staff when they travel on foot.

[¶1] Ye shall eat it in haste - Because they were suddenly to take their departure: the destroying angel was at hand, their enemies were coming against them, and they had not a moment to lose.

[¶2] It is the Lord's passover - That is, Jehovah is now about to pass over the land, and the houses only where the blood is sprinkled shall be safe from the stroke of death. The Hebrew word פסח pesach, which we very properly translate Passover, and which should always be pronounced as two words, has its name from the angel of God passing by or over the houses of the Israelites, on the posts and lintels of which the blood of the lamb was sprinkled, while he stopped at the houses of the Egyptians to slay their first-born.

### Verse 12

[¶4] Against all the gods of Egypt, etc. - As different animals were sacred among the Egyptians, the slaying of the first-born of all the beasts might be called executing judgment upon the gods of Egypt. As this however does not appear very clear and satisfactory, some have imagined that the word אלהי elohey should be translated princes, which is the rendering in our margin; for as these princes, who were rulers of the kingdom under Pharaoh, were equally hostile to the Hebrews with Pharaoh himself, therefore these judgments fell equally heavy on them also. But we may ask, Did not these judgments fall equally on all the families of Egypt, though multitudes of them had no particular part either in the evil counsel against the Israelites or in their oppression? Why then distinguish those in calamities in which all equally shared? None of these interpretations therefore appear satisfactory. Houbigant, by a very simple and natural emendation, has, he thinks, restored the whole passage to sense and reason. He supposes that אלהי elohey, Gods, is a mistake for אהלי ahley, Tents or habitations, the ה he and the ל lamed being merely interchanged. This certainly gives a very consistent sense, and points out the universality of the desolation to which the whole context continually refers. He therefore contends that the text should be read thus: And on all the Tents (or Habitations) of Egypt I will execute judgment; by which words the Lord signified that not one dwelling in the whole land of Egypt should be exempted from the judgment here threatened. It is but justice to say that however probable this criticism may appear, it is not supported by any of the ancient versions, nor by any of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi. The parallel place also, [Num 33:4], is rather against Houbigant's interpretation: For the Egyptians buried all their first-born, which the Lord had smitten among them: upon their gods also [ובאלהיהם ubeloheyhem] the Lord executed judgments. But Houbigant amends the word in this place in the same way as he does that in Exodus. There appears also to be an allusion to this former judgment in [Isa 19:1] : Behold, the Lord - shall come into Egypt, and the idols [אלילי eliley] of Egypt shall be moved at his presence. And in [Jer 43:13] : The houses of the gods [בתי אלהי bottey elohey] of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire. The rabbins say that "when Israel came out of Egypt, the holy blessed God threw down all the images of their abominations, and they were broken to pieces." When a nation was conquered, it was always supposed that their gods had either abandoned them or were overcome. Thus Egypt was ruined, and their gods confounded and destroyed by Jehovah. See Clarke's note on [Exo 11:7].

### Verse 13

[¶6] The blood shall be to you for a token - It shall be the sign to the destroying angel, that the house on which he sees this blood sprinkled is under the protection of God, and that no person in it is to be injured. See Clarke on [Exo 12:11] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶8] A memorial - To keep up a remembrance of the severity and goodness, or justice and mercy, of God. Ye shall keep it a feast - it shall be annually observed, and shall be celebrated with solemn religious joy, throughout your generations - as long as ye continue to be a distinct people; an ordinance - a Divine appointment, an institution of God himself, neither to be altered nor set aside by any human authority.

[¶9] For ever - חקת עולם chukkath olam, an everlasting or endless statute, because representative of the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world; whose mediation, in consequence of his sacrifice, shall endure while time itself lasts; and to whose merits and efficacy the salvation of the soul shall be ascribable throughout eternity. This, therefore, is a statute and ordinance that can have no end, either in this world or in the world to come. It is remarkable that though the Jews have ceased from the whole of their sacrificial system, so that sacrifices are no longer offered by them in any part of the world, yet they all, in all their generations and in all countries, keep up the remembrance of the passover, and observe the feast of unleavened bread. But no lamb is sacrificed. Their sacrifices have all totally ceased, ever since the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Even the flesh that is used on this occasion is partly roasted and partly boiled, that it may not even resemble the primitive sacrifice; for they deem it unlawful to sacrifice out of Jerusalem. The truth is, the true Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world has been offered, and they have no power to restore the ancient type. See Clarke on [Exo 12:27] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶11] Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread - This has been considered as a distinct ordinance, and not essentially connected with the passover. The passover was to be observed on the fourteenth day of the first month; the feast of unleavened bread began on the fifteenth and lasted seven days, the first and last of which were holy convocations.

[¶12] That soul shall be cut off - There are thirty-six places in which this excision or cutting off is threatened against the Jews for neglect of some particular duty; and what is implied in the thing itself is not well known. Some think it means a violent death, some a premature death, and some an eternal death. It is very likely that it means no more than a separation from the rights and privileges of an Israelite; so that after this excision the person was considered as a mere stranger, who had neither lot nor part in Israel, nor any right to the blessings of the covenant. This is probably what St. Paul means, [Rom 9:3]. But we naturally suppose this punishment was not inflicted but on those who had showed a marked and obstinate contempt for the Divine authority. This punishment appears to have been nearly the same with excommunication among the Christians; and from this general notion of the cutting off, the Christian excommunication seems to have been borrowed.

### Verse 16

[¶14] In the first day and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation - This is the first place where we meet with the account of an assembly collected for the mere purpose of religious worship. Such assemblies are called holy convocations, which is a very appropriate appellation for a religious assembly; they were called together by the express command of God, and were to be employed in a work of holiness. מקרא mikra, convocation, is a word of similar import with the Greek εκκλησια, which we commonly translate Church, and which properly signifies an assembly convened by public call.

### Verse 17

[¶16] Self-same day - בעצם beetsem, in the body of this day, or in the strength of this day; probably they began their march about day-break, called here the body or strength of the day, and in [Deu 16:1], by night - sometime before the sun rose.

### Verse 19

[¶18] No leaven found in your houses - To meet the letter of this precept in the fullest manner possible, the Jews, on the eve of this festival, institute the most rigorous search through every part of their houses, not only removing all leavened bread, but sweeping every part clean, that no crumb of bread shall be left that had any leaven in it. And so strict were they in the observance of the letter of this law, that if even a mouse was seen to run across the floor with a crumb of bread in its mouth, they considered the whole house as polluted, and began their purification afresh. We have already seen that leaven was an emblem of sin, because it proceeded from corruption; and the putting away of this implied the turning to God with simplicity and uprightness of heart. See on [Exo 12:8] (note), and [Exo 12:27] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶20] Kill the passover - That is, the lamb, which was called the paschal or passover lamb. The animal that was to be sacrificed on this occasion got the name of the institution itself: thus the word covenant is often put for the sacrifice offered in making the covenant; so the rock was Christ, [1Cor 10:4]; bread and wine the body and blood of Christ, [Mar 14:22], [Mar 14:24]. St. Paul copies the expression, [1Cor 5:7] : Christ our passover (that is, our paschal lamb) is sacrificed for us.

### Verse 22

[¶22] A bunch of hyssop - The original word אזוב ezob has been variously translated musk, rosemary, polypody of the wall, mint, origanum, marjoram, and Hyssop: the latter seems to be the most proper. Parkhurst says it is named from its detersive and cleansing qualities, whence it was used in sprinkling the blood of the paschal lamb, in cleansing the leprosy, [Lev 14:4], [Lev 14:6], [Lev 14:51], [Lev 14:52]; in composing the water of purification, [Num 19:6], and sprinkling it, [Num 19:18]. It was a type of the purifying virtue of the bitter sufferings of Christ. And it is plain, from [Psa 51:7], that the psalmist understood its meaning. Among botanists hyssop is described as "a genus of the gymnospermia (naked-seeded) order, belonging to the didynamia class of plants. It has under-shrubby, low, bushy stalks, growing a foot and a half high, small, spear-shaped, close-sitting, opposite leaves, with several smaller ones rising from the same joint; and all the stalks and branches terminated by erect whorled spikes of flowers of different colors, in the varieties of the plant. The leaves have an aromatic smell, and a warm pungent taste. The leaves of this plant are particularly recommended in humoral asthmas, and other disorders of the breast and lungs, and greatly promote expectoration." Its medicinal qualities were probably the reason why this plant was so particularly recommended in the Scriptures.

### Verse 26

[¶24] What mean ye by this service? - The establishment of this service annually was a very wise provision to keep up in remembrance this wonderful deliverance. From the remotest antiquity the institution of feasts, games, etc., has been used to keep up the memory of past grand events. Hence God instituted the Sabbath, to keep up the remembrance of the creation; and the passover to keep up the remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt. All the other feasts were instituted on similar reasons. The Jews never took their sons to the tabernacle or temple till they were twelve years of age, nor suffered them to eat of the flesh of any victim till they had themselves offered a sacrifice at the temple, which they were not permitted to do before the twelfth year of their age. It was at this age that Joseph and Mary took our blessed Lord to the temple, probably for the first time, to offer his sacrifice. See Calmet.

### Verse 27

[¶26] It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover - We have already intimated that the paschal lamb was an illustrious type of Christ; and we shall find that every thing in this account is typical or representative. The bondage and affliction of the people of Israel may be considered as emblems of the hard slavery and wretchedness consequent on a state of sinfulness. Satan reigns over both body and soul, bringing the whole into subjection to the law of sin and death; while various evil tempers, passions, lusts, and irregular appetites, act as subordinate tormentors, making the lives of the vassals of sin bitter, because of the rigour by which they are obliged to serve. Reader, is this thy case? The mercy of God projects the redemption of man from this cruel bondage and oppression; and a sacrifice is appointed for the occasion by God himself, to be offered with particular and significant rites and ceremonies, all of which represent the passion and death of our blessed Lord, and the great end for which he became a sacrifice, viz., the redemption of a lost world from the power, the guilt, and the pollution of sin, etc. And it is worthy of remark,

[¶27] 1. That the anniversary or annual commemoration of the passover was strictly and religiously kept by the Jews on the day, and hour of the day, on which the original transaction took place, throughout all their succeeding generations.

[¶28] 2. That on one of these anniversaries, and, as many suppose, on the very day and hour on which the paschal lamb was originally offered, our blessed Lord expired on the cross for the salvation of the world.

[¶29] 3. That after the destruction of Jerusalem the paschal lamb ceased to be offered by the Jews throughout the world, though they continue to hold the anniversary of the passover, but without any sacrifice, notwithstanding their deep-rooted, inveterate antipathy against the author and grace of the Gospel.

[¶30] 4. That the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was instituted to keep this true paschal sacrifice in commemoration, and that this has been religiously observed by the whole Christian world (one very small class of Christians excepted) from the foundation of Christianity to the present day!

[¶31] 5. That the Jews were commanded to eat the paschal lamb; and our Lord, commemorating the passover, commanded his disciples, saying, Take, eat, This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the communion service of the Church of England, the spirit and design both of the type and antitype are most expressly condensed into one point of view, in the address to the communicant: "Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for Thee; and Feed upon Him, in thy heart, by Faith with Thanksgiving. Thus God continues the memorial of that grand transaction which he has said should be an ordinance for ever; evidently meaning thereby, that the paschal lamb should be the significator till the passion and death of Christ; and that afterwards bread and wine taken sacramentally, in commemoration of his crucifixion, should be the continual representatives of that sacrifice till the end of the world. Thus the passover in itself, and in its reference, is an ordinance for ever; and thus the words of the Lord are literally fulfilled.

[¶32] Reader, learn from this,

[¶33] 1. That if thou art not rescued from the thraldom of sin, thou must perish for ever.

[¶34] 2. That nothing less than the power and mercy of God can set thee free.

[¶35] 3. That God will save thee in no other way than by bringing thee out of thy sinful state, and from thy wicked practices and companions.

[¶36] 4. That in order to thy redemption it was absolutely necessary that the Son of God should take thy nature upon him, and die in thy stead.

[¶37] 5. That unless the blood of this sacrifice be sprinkled, in its atoning efficacy and merits, on thy heart and conscience, the guilt and power of thy sin cannot be taken away.

[¶38] 6. That as the blood of the paschal lamb must be sprinkled on every house, in order to the preservation of its inhabitants, so there must be a personal application of the blood of the cross to thy conscience, to take away thy sins.

[¶39] 7. As it was not enough that the passover was instituted, but the blood must be sprinkled on the lintels and door posts of every house to make the rite effectual to the salvation of each individual, so it is not enough that Christ should have taken human nature upon him, and died for the sin of the world; for no man who has the opportunity of hearing the Gospel is saved by that death, who does not, by faith, get a personal application of it to his own heart.

[¶40] 8. That those who wish for an application of the atoning blood, must receive this spiritual passover with a perfect readiness to depart from the land of their captivity, and travel to the rest that remains for the people of God; it being impossible, not only to a gross sinner, continuing such, to be finally saved, (however he may presume upon the mercy of God), but also to a worldly-minded man to get to the kingdom of God; for Christ died to save us from the present evil world, according to the will of God.

[¶41] 9. That in order to commemorate aright, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the great atonement made for the sin of the world, all leaven of malice, bitterness, and insincerity, must be put away; as God will have no man to partake of this mystery who does not fully enter into its spirit and meaning. See [1Cor 5:7], [1Cor 5:8].

### Verse 29

[¶43] Smote all the first born - If we take the term first-born in its literal sense only, we shall be led to conclude that in a vast number of the houses of the Egyptians there could have been no death, as it is not at all likely that every first-born child of every Egyptian family was still alive, and that all the first-born of their cattle still remained. And yet it is said, [Exo 12:30], that there was not a house where there was not one dead. The word therefore must not be taken in its literal sense only. From its use in a great variety of places in the Scriptures it is evident that it means the chief, most excellent, best beloved, most distinguished, etc. In this sense our blessed Lord is called the First-Born of every creature, [Col 1:15], and the First-Born among many brethren, [Rom 8:29]; that is, he is more excellent than all creatures, and greater than all the children of men. In the same sense we may understand [Rev 1:5], where Christ is called the First-Begotten from the dead, i.e., the chief of all that have ever visited the empire of death, and on whom death has had any power; and the only one who by his own might quickened himself. In the same sense wisdom is represented as being brought forth before all the creatures, and being possessed by the Lord in the beginning of his ways, [Pro 8:22-30]; that is, the wisdom of God is peculiarly conspicuous in the production, arrangement, and government of every part of the creation. So Ephraim is called the Lord's First-Born, [Jer 31:9]. And the people of Israel are often called by the same name, see [Exo 4:22] : Israel is my son, my First-Born; that is, the people in whom I particularly delight, and whom I will especially support and defend. And because the first-born are in general peculiarly dear to their parents, and because among the Jews they had especial and peculiar privileges, whatever was most dear, most valuable, and most prized, was thus denominated. So [Mic 6:7] : Shall I give my First-Born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Shall I give up the most beloved child I have, he that is most dear and most necessary to me, in order to make an atonement for my sins! In like manner the Prophet Zechariah, speaking of the conversion of the Jews to the Gospel of Christ, represents them as looking on him whom they have pierced, and being as one that is in bitterness for his First-Born; that is, they shall feel distress and anguish as those who had lost their most beloved child. So the Church triumphant in the kingdom of God are called, [Heb 12:23], the general assembly and Church of the First-Born, i.e., the most noble and excellent of all human if not created beings. So Homer, Il. iv., ver. 102: Αρνων πρωτογονων ρεξειν κλειτην ἑκατομβην· "A hecatomb of lambs all firstlings of the flock." That is, the most excellent of their kind.

[¶44] In a contrary sense, when the word first-born is joined to another that signifies any kind of misery or disgrace, it then signifies the depth of misery, the utmost disgrace. So the First-Born of the poor, [Isa 14:30], signifies the most abject, destitute, and impoverished. The First-Born of death, [Job 18:13], means the most horrible kind of death. So in the threatening against Pharaoh, [Exo 11:5], where he informs him that he will slay all the first-born, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon the throne; to the first born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill, he takes in the very highest and lowest conditions of life. As there was no state in Egypt superior to the throne, so there was none inferior to that of the female slave that ground at the mill. The Prophet Habakkuk seems to fix this as the sense in which the word is used here; for speaking of the plagues of Egypt in general, and the salvation which God afforded his people, he says, [Hab 3:13] : Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people - thou woundedst the Head (ראש rosh, the chief, the most excellent) of the house of the wicked - of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And the author of the book of The Wisdom of Solomon understood it in the same way: The master and the servant were punished after one manner; and like as the king, so suffered the common people - for in one moment the Noblest Offspring of them was destroyed, The Wisdom of Solomon 18:11, 12. And in no other sense can we understand the word in [Psa 89:27], where, among the promises of God to David, we find the following: Also I will make him my First-Born, higher than the kings of the earth; in which passage the latter clause explains the former; David, as king, should be the First-Born, of God, i.e., he should be higher than the kings of the earth - the Most Eminent potentate in the universe. In this sense, therefore, we should understand the passage in question; the most eminent person in every family in Egypt, as well as those who were literally the first-born, being slain in this plague. Calmet and some other critics particularly contend for this sense.

## 86. Exodus · 19 of 57

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### Verse 30

[¶1] There was a great cry - No people in the universe were more remarkable for their mournings than the Egyptians, especially in matters of religion; they whipped, beat, tore themselves, and howled in all the excess of grief. When a relative died, the people left the house, ran into the streets, and howled in the most lamentable and frantic manner. See Diod. Sicul., lib. i., and Herod., lib. ii., c. 85, 86. And this latter author happening to be in Egypt on one of their solemnities, saw myriads of people whipping and beating themselves in this manner, lib. ii., c. 60; and see Mr. Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt, where many examples are given, p. 162, etc. How dreadful then must the scene of horror and distress appear when there was not one house or family in Egypt where there was not one dead; and according to their custom, all the family running out into the streets bewailing this calamity!

### Verse 31

[¶3] Called for Moses and Aaron - That is, he sent the message here mentioned to them; for it does not appear that he had any farther interview with Moses and Aaron, after what is mentioned [Exo 10:28], [Exo 10:29], and [Exo 11:8]. See Clarke's notes [Exo 10:28], [Exo 10:29] (note), and [Exo 11:8] (note).

### Verse 33

[¶5] The Egyptians were urgent upon the people - They felt much, they feared more; and therefore wished to get immediately rid of a people on whose account they found they were smitten with so many and such dreadful plagues.

### Verse 34

[¶7] The people took their dough before it was leavened, etc. - There was no time now to make any regular preparation for their departure, such was the universal hurry and confusion. The Israelites could carry but little of their household utensils with them; but some, such as they kneaded their bread and kept their meal in, they were obliged to carry with them. The kneading troughs of the Arabs are comparatively small wooden bowls, which, after kneading their bread in, serve them as dishes out of which they eat their victuals. And as to these being bound up in their clothes, no more may be intended than their wrapping them up in their long, loose garments, or in what is still used among the Arabs, and called hykes, which is a long kind of blanket, something resembling a highland plaid, in which they often carry their provision, wrap themselves by day, and sleep at night. Dr. Shaw has been particular in his description of this almost entire wardrobe of an Arab. He says they are of different sizes and of different qualities, but generally about six yards in length, and five or six feet broad. He supposes that what we call Ruth's veil, [Rut 3:15], was a hyke, and that the same is to be understood of the clothes of the Israelites mentioned in this verse. See his Travels, p. 224, 4th edition.

### Verse 35

[¶9] They borrowed of the Egyptians - See Clarke's note on [Exo 3:22], where the very exceptionable term borrow is largely explained.

### Verse 37

[¶11] From Rameses to Succoth - Rameses appears to have been another name for Goshen, though it is probable that there might have been a chief city or village in that land, where the children of Israel rendezvoused previously to their departure, called Rameses. As the term Succoth signifies booths or tents, it is probable that this place was so named from its being the place of the first encampment of the Israelites.

[¶12] Six hundred thousand - That is, There was this number of effective men, twenty years old and upwards, who were able to go out to war. But this was not the whole number, and therefore the sacred writer says they were about 600,000; for when the numbers were taken about thirteen months after this they were found to be six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty, without reckoning those under twenty years of age, or any of the tribe of Levi; see [Num 1:45], [Num 1:46]. But besides those on foot, or footmen, there were no doubt many old and comparatively infirm persons, who rode on camels, horses, or asses, besides the immense number of women and children, which must have been at least three to one of the others; and the mixed multitude, [Exo 12:38], probably of refugees in Egypt, who came to sojourn there, because of the dearth which had obliged them to emigrate from their own countries; and who now, seeing that the hand of Jehovah was against the Egyptians and with the Israelites, availed themselves of the general consternation, and took their leave of Egypt, choosing Israel's God for their portion, and his people for their companions. Such a company moving at once, and emigrating from their own country, the world never before nor since witnessed; no doubt upwards of two millions of souls, besides their flocks and herds, even very much cattle; and what but the mere providence of God could support such a multitude, and in the wilderness, too, where to this day the necessaries of life are not to be found?

[¶13] Suppose we take them at a rough calculation thus, two millions will be found too small a number.

[¶14] Effective men, 20 years old and upward 600,000 Two-thirds of whom we may suppose were married, in which case their wives would amount to 400,000 These, on an average, might have 5 children under 20 years of age, an estimate which falls considerably short of the number of children each family must have averaged in order to produce from 75 persons, in A. M. 2298, upwards of 600,000 effective men in A. M. 2494, a period of only 196 years 2,000,000 The Levites, who probably were not included among the effective men 45,000 Their wives 33,000 Their children 165,000 The mixed multitude probably not less than 20,000 Total 3,263,000

[¶15] Besides a multitude of old and infirm persons who would be obliged to ride on camels and asses, etc., and who must, from the proportion that such bear to the young and healthy, amount to many thousands more! Exclude even the Levites and their families, and upwards of three millions will be left. "In [Num 3:39] the male Levites, aged one month and upwards, are reckoned 22,000, perhaps the females did not much exceed this number, say 23,000, and 500 children, under one month, will make 45,500." - Anon.

[¶16] Had not Moses the fullest proof of his Divine mission, he never could have put himself at the head of such an immense concourse of people, who, without the most especial and effective providence, must all have perished for lack of food. This single circumstance, unconnected with all others, is an ample demonstration of the Divine mission of Moses, and of the authenticity and Divine inspiration of the Pentateuch. To suppose that an impostor, or one pretending only to a Divine call, could have ventured to place himself at the head of such an immense body of people, to lead them through a trackless wilderness, utterly unprovided for such a journey, to a land as yet in the possession of several powerful nations whom they must expel before they could possess the country, would have implied such an extreme of madness and folly as has never been witnessed in an individual, and such a blind credulity in the multitude as is unparalleled in the annals of mankind! The succeeding stupendous events proved that Moses had the authority of God to do what he did; and the people had at least such a general conviction that he had this authority, that they implicitly followed his directions, and received their law from his mouth.

### Verse 40

[¶18] Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, etc. - The statement in this verse is allowed on all hands to be extremely difficult, and therefore the passage stands in especial need of illustration. "That the descendants of Israel did not dwell 430 years in Egypt," says Dr. Kennicott, "may be easily proved, and has often been demonstrated. Some therefore imagine that by Egypt here both it and Canaan are to be understood. But this greater latitude of place will not solve the difficulty, since the Israelites, including Israel their father, did not sojourn 430 years in both countries previous to their departure from Egypt. Others, sensible of the still remaining deficiency, would not only have Egypt in the text to signify it and Canaan, but by a figure more comprehensive would have the children of Israel to mean Israel's children, and Israel their father, and Isaac the father of Israel, and part of the life of Abraham, the father of Isaac. "Thus indeed," says Dr. Kennicott, "we arrive at the exact sum, and by this method of reckoning we might arrive at any thing but truth, which we may presume was never thus conveyed by an inspired writer." But can the difficulty be removed without having recourse to such absurd shifts? Certainly it can. The Samaritan Pentateuch, in all its manuscripts and printed copies, reads the place thus: -

[¶19] Umoshab beney Yishrael veabotham asher yashebu baarets Cenaan, ubaarets mitsraim sheloshim shanah vearba meoth shanah. "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years." This same sum is given by St. Paul, [Gal 3:17], who reckons from the promise made to Abraham, when God commanded him to go to Canaan, to the giving of the law, which soon followed the departure from Egypt; and this chronology of the apostle is concordant with the Samaritan Pentateuch, which, by preserving the two passages, they and their fathers, and in the land of Canaan, which are lost out of the present copies of the Hebrew text, has rescued this passage from all obscurity and contradiction. It may be necessary to observe that the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint has the same reading as that in the Samaritan. The Samaritan Pentateuch is allowed by many learned men to exhibit the most correct copy of the five books of Moses; and the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint must also be allowed to be one of the most authentic as well as most ancient copies of this version which we possess. As to St. Paul, no man will dispute the authenticity of his statement; and thus in the mouth of these three most respectable witnesses the whole account is indubitably established. That these three witnesses have the truth, the chronology itself proves: for from Abraham's entry into Canaan to the birth of Isaac was 25 years, [Gen 12:4]; 17:1-21; Isaac was 60 years old at the birth of Jacob, [Gen 25:26]; and Jacob was 130 at his going down into Egypt, [Gen 47:9]; which three sums make 215 years. And then Jacob and his children having continued in Egypt 215 years more, the whole sum of 430 years is regularly completed. See Kennicott's Dissertation on the Hebrew Text.

### Verse 42

[¶21] A night to be much observed - A night to be held in everlasting remembrance, because of the peculiar display of the power and goodness of God, the observance of which annually was to be considered a religious precept while the Jewish nation should continue.

### Verse 43

[¶23] This is the ordinance of the passover - From the last verse of this chapter it appears pretty evident that this, to the 50th verse inclusive, constituted a part of the directions given to Moses relative to the proper observance of the first passover, and should be read conjointly with the preceding account beginning at [Exo 12:21]. It may be supposed that these latter parts contain such particular directions as God gave to Moses after he had given those general ones mentioned in the preceding verses, but they seem all to belong to this first passover.

[¶24] There shall no stranger eat thereof - בן נכר ben nechar, the son of a stranger or foreigner, i.e., one who was not of the genuine Hebrew stock, or one who had not received circumcision; for any circumcised person might eat the passover, as the total exclusion extends only to the uncircumcised, see [Exo 12:48]. As there are two sorts of strangers mentioned in the sacred writings; one who was admitted to all the Jewish ordinances, and another who, though he dwelt among the Jews, was not permitted to eat the passover or partake of any of their solemn feasts; it may be necessary to show what was the essential point of distinction through which the one was admitted and the other excluded.

[¶25] In treatises on the religious customs of the Jews we frequently meet with the term proselyte, from the Greek προσηλυτος, a stranger or foreigner; one who is come from his own people and country to sojourn with another. All who were not descendants of some one of the twelve sons of Jacob, or of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph, were reputed strangers or proselytes among the Jews. But of those strangers or proselytes there were two kinds, called among them proselytes of the gate, and proselytes of injustice or of the covenant. The former were such as wished to dwell among the Jews, but would not submit to be circumcised; they, however, acknowledged the true God, avoided all idolatry, and observed the seven precepts of Noah, but were not obliged to observe any of the Mosaic institutions. The latter submitted to be circumcised, obliged themselves to observe all the rites and ceremonies of the law, and were in nothing different from the Jews but merely in their having once been heathens. The former, or proselytes of the gate, might not eat the passover or partake of any of the sacred festivals; but the latter, the proselytes of the covenant, had the same rights, spiritual and secular, as the Jews themselves. See [Exo 12:48].

### Verse 45

[¶27] A foreigner - תושב toshab, from ישב yashab, to sit down or dwell; one who is a mere sojourner, for the purpose of traffic, merchandise, etc., but who is neither a proselyte of the gate nor of the covenant.

[¶28] And a hired servant - Who, though he be bought with money, or has indented himself for a certain term to serve a Jew, yet has not become either a proselyte of the gate or of the covenant. None of these shall eat of it, because not circumcised - not brought under the bond of the covenant; and not being under obligation to observe the Mosaic law, had no right to its privileges and blessings. Even under the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is the author of eternal salvation only to them who Obey him, [Heb 5:9]; and those who become Christians are chosen to salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, [2Thes 2:13]; for the grace of God, that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared, teaching us that, Denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live Soberly, Righteously, and Godly, in this present world; [Tit 2:11], [Tit 2:12]. Such persons only walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called.

### Verse 46

[¶30] In one house shall it be eaten - In one family, if that be large enough; if not, a neighboring family might be invited, [Exo 12:4].

[¶31] Thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh - Every family must abide within doors because of the destroying angel, none being permitted to go out of his house till the next day, [Exo 12:22].

[¶32] Neither shall ye break a bone thereof - As it was to be eaten in haste, ([Exo 12:11]), there was no time either to separate the bones, or to break them in order to extract the marrow; and lest they should be tempted to consume time in this way, therefore this ordinance was given. It is very likely that, when the whole lamb was brought to table, they cut off the flesh without even separating any of the large joints, leaving the skeleton, with whatever flesh they could not eat, to be consumed with fire, [Exo 12:10]. This precept was also given to point out a most remarkable circumstance which 1500 years after was to take place in the crucifixion of the Savior of mankind, who was the true Paschal Lamb, that Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world; who, though he was crucified as a common malefactor, and it was a universal custom to break the legs of such on the cross, yet so did the providence of God order it that a bone of Him was not broken. See the fulfillment of this wondrously expressive type, [Joh 19:33], [Joh 19:36].

### Verse 48

[¶34] And when a stranger - will keep the passover, etc. - Let all who sojourn among you, and who desire to partake of this sacred ordinance, not only be circumcised themselves, but all the males of their families likewise, that they may all have an equal right to the blessings of the covenant.

### Verse 49

[¶36] One law shall be to him that is home-born, etc. - As this is the first place that the term תורה torah or Law occurs, a term of the greatest importance in Divine revelation, and on the proper understanding of which much depends, I judge it best to give its genuine explanation once for all.

[¶37] The word תורה torah comes from the root ירה yarah, which signifies to aim at, teach, point out, direct, lead, guide, make straight, or even; and from these significations of the word (and in all these senses it is used in the Bible) we may see at once the nature, properties, and design of the law of God. It is a system of Instruction in righteousness; it teaches the difference between moral good and evil; ascertains what is right and fit to be done, and what should be left undone, because improper to be performed. It continually aims at the glory of God, and the happiness of his creatures; teaches the true knowledge of the true God, and the destructive nature of sin; points out the absolute necessity of an atonement as the only means by which God can be reconciled to transgressors; and in its very significant rites and ceremonies points out the Son of God, till he should come to put away iniquity by the sacrifice of himself. It is a revelation of God's wisdom and goodness, wonderfully well calculated to direct the hearts of men into the truth, to guide their feet into the path of life, and to make straight, even, and plain that way which leads to God, and in which the soul must walk in order to arrive at eternal life. It is the fountain whence every correct notion relative to God - his perfections, providence, grace, justice, holiness, omniscience, and omnipotence, has been derived. And it has been the origin whence all the true principles of law and justice have been deduced. The pious study of it was the grand means of producing the greatest kings, the most enlightened statesmen, the most accomplished poets, and the most holy and useful men, that ever adorned the world. It is exceeded only by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is at once the accomplishment of its rites and predictions, and the fulfillment of its grand plan and outline. As a system of teaching or instruction, it is the most sovereign and most effectual; as by it is the knowledge of sin, and it alone is the schoolmaster, παι δαγωγος, that leads men to Christ, that they may be justified through faith. [Gal 3:24]. Who can absolutely ascertain the exact quantum of obliquity in a crooked line, without the application of a straight one? And could sin, in all its twistings, windings, and varied involutions, have ever been truly ascertained, had not God given to man this perfect rule to judge by? The nations who acknowledge this revelation of God have, as far as they attained to its dictates, the wisest, purest, most equal, and most beneficial laws. The nations that do not receive it have laws at once extravagantly severe and extravagantly indulgent. The proper distinctions between moral good and evil, in such states, are not known: hence the penal sanctions are not founded on the principles of justice, weighing the exact proportion of moral turpitude; but on the most arbitrary caprices, which in many cases show the utmost indulgence to first-rate crimes, while they punish minor offenses with rigour and cruelty. What is the consequence? Just what might be reasonably expected: the will and caprice of a man being put in the place of the wisdom of God, the government is oppressive, and the people, frequently goaded to distraction, rise up in a mass and overturn it; so that the monarch, however powerful for a time, seldom lives out half his days. This was the case in Greece, in Rome, in the major part of the Asiatic governments, and is the case in all nations of the world to the present day, where the governor is despotic, and the laws not formed according to the revelation of God.

[¶38] The word lex, law, among the Romans, has been derived from lego, I read; because when a law or statute was made, it was hung up in the most public places, that it might be seen, read, and known by all men, that those who were to obey the laws might not break them through ignorance, and thus incur the penalty. This was called promulgatio legis, q. provulgatio, the promulgation of the law, i.e., the laying it before the common people. Or from ligo, I bind, because the law binds men to the strict observance of its precepts. The Greeks call a law νομος nomos, from νεμω, to divide, distribute, minister to, or serve, because the law divides to all their just rights, appoints or distributes to each his proper duty, and thus serves or ministers to the welfare of the individual and the support of society. Hence where there are either no laws, or unequal and unjust ones, all is distraction, violence, rapine, oppression, anarchy, and ruin.

### Verse 51

[¶40] By their armies - צבאתם tsibotham, from צבא tsaba, to assemble, meet together, in an orderly or regulated manner, and hence to war, to act together as troops in battle; whence צבאות tsebaoth, troops, armies, hosts. It is from this that the Divine Being calls himself יהוה צבאות Yehovah tsebaoth, the Lord Of Hosts or armies, because the Israelites were brought out of Egypt under his direction, marshalled and ordered by himself, guided by his wisdom, supported by his providence, and protected by his might. This is the true and simple reason why God is so frequently styled in Scripture the Lord of hosts; for the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their Armies.

[¶41] On this chapter the notes have been so full and so explicit, that little can be added to set the subject before the reader in a clearer light. On the ordinance of the Passover, the reader is requested to consult the notes on [Exo 12:7], [Exo 12:14], and [Exo 12:27]. See Clarke's note on [Exo 12:7]. See Clarke's note on [Exo 12:14]. See Clarke's note on [Exo 12:27]. For the display of God's power and providence in supporting so great a multitude where, humanly speaking, there was no provision, and the proof that the exodus of the Israelites gives of the truth of the Mosaic history, he is referred to [Exo 12:37]. And for the meaning of the term Law, to [Exo 12:49].

[¶42] On the ten plagues it may be but just necessary, after what has been said in the notes, to make a few general reflections. When the nature of the Egyptian idolatry is considered, and the plagues which were sent upon them, we may see at once the peculiarity of the judgment, and the great propriety of its being inflicted in the way related by Moses. The plagues were either inflicted on the objects of their idolatry, or by their means.

[¶43] 1. That the river Nile was an object of their worship and one of their greatest gods, we have already seen. As the First plague, its waters were therefore turned into blood; and the fish, many of which were objects also of their adoration, died. Blood was particularly offensive to them, and the touch of any dead animal rendered them unclean. When then their great god, the river, was turned into blood, and its waters became putrid, so that all the fish, minor objects of their devotion, died, we see a judgment at once calculated to punish, correct, and reform them. Could they ever more trust in gods who could neither save themselves nor their deluded worshippers?

[¶44] 2. Mr. Bryant has endeavored to prove that frogs, the Second plague, were sacred animals in Egypt, and dedicated to Osiris: they certainly appear on many ancient Egyptian monuments, and in such circumstances and connections as to show that they were held in religious veneration. These therefore became an awful scourge; first, by their numbers, and their intrusion into every place; and, secondly, by their death, and the infection of the atmosphere which took place in consequence.

## 87. Exodus · 20 of 57

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[¶0] 3. We have seen also that the Egyptians, especially the priests, affected great cleanliness, and would not wear woolen garments lest any kind of vermin should harbour about them. The Third plague, by means of lice or such like vermin, was wisely calculated both to humble and confound them. In this they immediately saw a power superior to any that could be exerted by their gods or their magicians; and the latter were obliged to confess, This is the finger of God!

[¶1] 4. That flies were held sacred among the Egyptians and among various other nations, admits of the strongest proof. It is very probable that Baal-zebub himself was worshipped under the form of a fly or great cantharid. These, therefore, or some kind of winged noxious insects, became the prime agents in the Fourth plague; and if the cynomyia or dog-fly be intended, we have already seen in the notes with what propriety and effect this judgment was inflicted.

[¶2] 5. The murrain or mortality among the cattle was the Fifth plague, and the most decisive mark of the power and indignation of Jehovah. That dogs, cats, monkeys, rams, heifers, and bulls, were all objects of their most religious veneration, all the world knows. These were smitten in a most singular manner by the hand of God; and the Egyptians saw themselves deprived at once of all their imaginary helpers. Even Apis, their ox-god, in whom they particularly trusted, now suffers, groans, and dies under the hand of Jehovah. Thus does he execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. See [Exo 12:12].

[¶3] 6. The Sixth plague, viz., of boils and blains, was as appropriate as any of the preceding; and the sprinkling of the ashes, the means by which it was produced, peculiarly significant. Pharmacy, Mr. Bryant has observed, was in high repute among the Egyptians; and Isis, their most celebrated goddess, was considered as the preventer or healer of all diseases. "For this goddess," says Diodorus, Hist., lib. i., "used to reveal herself to people in their sleep when they labored under any disorder, and afford them relief. Many who placed their confidence in her influence, παραδοξως ὑγιαινεσθαι, were miraculously restored. Many likewise who had been despaired of and given over by the physicians on account of the obstinacy of the distemper, were saved by this goddess. Numbers who had been deprived of their eyes, and of other parts of their bodies, were all restored on their application to Isis." By this disorder, therefore, which no application to their gods could cure, and which was upon the magicians also, who were supposed to possess most power and influence, God confounded their pride, showed the folly of their worship, and the vanity of their dependence. The means by which these boils and blains were inflicted, viz., the sprinkling of ashes from the furnace, was peculiarly appropriate. Plutarch assures us, De Iside et Osiride, that in several cities of Egypt they were accustomed to sacrifice human beings to Typhon, which they burned alive upon a high altar; and at the close of the sacrifice the priests gathered the ashes of these victims, and scattered them in the air: "I presume, says Mr. Bryant, "with this view, that where an atom of their dust was wafted, a blessing might be entailed. The like was done by Moses with the ashes of the furnace, that wherever any, the smallest portion, alighted, it might prove a plague and a curse to this cruel, ungrateful, and infatuated people. Thus there was a designed contrast in these workings of Providence, an apparent opposition to the superstition of the times."

[¶4] 7. The grievous hail, the Seventh plague, attended with rain, thunder, and lightning, in a country where these scarcely ever occur, and according to an express prediction of Moses, must in the most signal manner point out the power and justice of God. Fire and water were some of the principal objects of Egyptian idolatry; and fire, as Porphyry says, they considered μεγαν ειναι θεον, to be a great god. To find, therefore, that these very elements, the objects of their adoration, were, at the command of a servant of Jehovah, brought as a curse and scourge on the whole land, and upon men also and cattle, must have shaken their belief in these imaginary deities, while it proved to the Israelites that there was none like the God of Jeshurun.

[¶5] 8. In the Eighth plague we see by what insignificant creatures God can bring about a general destruction. A caterpillar is beyond all animals the most contemptible, and, taken singly, the least to be dreaded in the whole empire of nature; but in the hand of Divine justice it becomes one of the most formidable foes of the human race. From the examples in the notes we see how little human power, industry, or art, can avail against this most awful scourge. Not even the most contemptible animal should be considered with disrespect, as in the hand of God it may become the most terrible instrument for the punishment of a criminal individual or a guilty land.

[¶6] 9. The Ninth plague, the total and horrible darkness that lasted for three days, afforded both Israelites and Egyptians the most illustrious proof of the power and universal dominion of God; and was particularly to the latter a most awful yet instructive lesson against a species of idolatry which had been long prevalent in that and other countries, viz., the worship of the celestial luminaries. The sun and moon were both adored as supreme deities, as the sole dispensers of light and life; and the sun was invoked as the giver of immortality and eternal blessedness. Porphyry, De Abstin., l. 4, preserves the very form used by the Egyptian priests in addressing the sun on behalf of a deceased person, that he might be admitted into the society of the gods: Ω δεσποτα Ἡλιε, και Θεοι παντες, οἱ την ζωην τοις ανθρωποις δοντες, προσδεξασθε με, και παραδοτε τοις αΐδιοις Θεοις συνοικον, "O sovereign lord the sun, and all ye other deities who bestow life on mankind! Receive me, and grant that I may be admitted as a companion with the immortal gods!" These objects of their superstitious worship Jehovah showed by this plague to be his creatures, dispensing or withholding their light merely at his will and pleasure; and that the people might be convinced that all this came by his appointment alone, he predicted this awful darkness; and that their astronomers might have the fullest proof that this was no natural occurrence, and could not be the effect of any kind of eclipse, which even when total could endure only about four minutes, (and this case could happen only once in a thousand years), he caused this palpable darkness to continue for three days!

[¶7] 10. The Tenth and last plague, the slaying of the first-born or chief person in each family, may be considered in the light of a Divine retribution: for after that their nation had been preserved by one of the Israelitish family, "they had," says Mr. Bryant, "contrary to all right, and in defiance of original stipulation, enslaved the people to whom they had been so much indebted; and not contented with this, they had proceeded to murder their offspring, and to render the people's bondage intolerable by a wanton exertion of power. It had been told them that the family of the Israelites were esteemed as God's first-born, [Exo 4:22]; therefore God said: Let my son go, that he may serve me; and if thou refuse - behold, I will slay thy son, even thy First-Born, [Exo 4:23]. But they heeded not this admonition, and hence those judgments came upon them that terminated in the death of the eldest in each family; a just retaliation for their disobedience and cruelty." See several curious and important remarks on this subject in a work entitled, Observations upon the Plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, by Jacob Bryant, 8vo., 1810.

[¶8] On the whole we may say, Behold the goodness and severity of God! Severity mixed with goodness even to the same people. He punished and corrected them at the same time; for there was not one of these judgments that had not, from its peculiar nature and circumstances, some emendatory influence. Nor could a more effectual mode be adopted to demonstrate to that people the absurdity of their idolatry, and the inefficacy of their dependence, than that made use of on this occasion by the wise, just, and merciful God. At the same time the Israelites themselves must have received a lesson of the most impressive instruction on the vanity and wickedness of idolatry, to which they were at all times most deplorably prone, and of which they would no doubt have given many more examples, had they not had the Egyptian plagues continually before their eyes. It was probably these signal displays of God's rower and justice, and these alone, that induced them to leave Egypt at his command by Moses and Aaron; otherwise, with the dreadful wilderness before them, totally unprovided for such a journey, in which humanly speaking it was impossible for them and their households to subsist, they would have rather preferred the ills they then suffered, than have run the risk of greater by an attempt to escape from their present bondage. This is proved by their murmurings, [Exo 16:2], [Exo 16:3], from which it is evident that they preferred Egypt with all its curses to their situation in the wilderness, and never could have been induced to leave it had they not had the fullest evidence that it was the will of God; which will they were obliged, on pain of utter destruction, to obey.

### Introduction

[¶10] God establishes the law concerning the first-born, and commands that all such, both of man and beast, should be sanctified unto him, [Exo 13:1], [Exo 13:2]. Orders them to remember the day in which they were brought out of Egypt, when they should be brought to the land of Canaan; and to keep this service in the month Abib, [Exo 13:3-5]. Repeats the command concerning the leavened bread, [Exo 13:6], [Exo 13:7], and orders them to teach their children the cause of it, [Exo 13:8], and to keep strictly in remembrance that it was by the might of God alone they had been delivered from Egypt, [Exo 13:9]. Shows that the consecration of the first-born, both of man and beast, should take place when they should be settled in Canaan, [Exo 13:10-12]. The first-born of man and beast to be redeemed, [Exo 13:13]. The reason of this also to be shown to their children, [Exo 13:14], [Exo 13:15]. Frontlets or phylacteries for the hands and forehead commanded, [Exo 13:16]. And the people are not led directly to the promised land, but about through the wilderness; and the reason assigned, [Exo 13:17], [Exo 13:18]. Moses takes the bones of Joseph with him, [Exo 13:19]. They journey from Succoth and come to Etham, [Exo 13:20]. And the Lord goes before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, [Exo 13:21], which miracle is regularly continued both by day and night, [Exo 13:22].

### Verse 1

[¶12] The Lord spake unto Moses - The commands in this chapter appear to have been given at Succoth, on the same day in which they left Egypt.

### Verse 2

[¶14] Sanctify unto me all the first-born - To sanctify, קדש kadash, signifies to consecrate, separate, and set apart a thing or person from all secular purposes to some religious use; and exactly answers to the import of the Greek ἁγιαζω, from a, privative, and γη, the earth, because every thing offered or consecrated to God was separated from all earthly uses. Hence a holy person or saint is termed ἁγιος, i.e., a person separated from the earth; one who lives a holy life, entirely devoted to the service of God. Thus the persons and animals sanctified to God were employed in the service of the tabernacle and temple; and the animals, such as were proper, were offered in sacrifice.

[¶15] The Hindoos frequently make a vow, and devote to an idol the first-born of a goat and of a man. The goat is permitted to run wild, as a consecrated animal. A child thus devoted has a lock of hair separated, which at the time appointed is cut off and placed near the idol. Hindoo women sometimes pray to Gunga (the Ganges) for children, and promise to devote the first-born to her. Children thus devoted are cast into the Ganges, but are generally saved by the friendly hand of some stranger - Ward's Customs.

[¶16] Whatsoever openeth the womb - That is, the first-born, if a male; for females were not offered, nor the first male, if a female had been born previously. Again, if a man had several wives, the first-born of each, if a male, was to be offered to God. And all this was done to commemorate the preservation of the first-born of the Israelites, when those of the Egyptians were destroyed.

### Verse 5

[¶18] When the Lord shall bring thee into the land - Hence it is pretty evident that the Israelites were not obliged to celebrate the Passover, or keep the feast of unleavened bread, till they were brought into the promised land.

### Verse 6

[¶20] Unleavened bread - See Clarke on [Exo 12:15] (note), and [Exo 12:16] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶22] And it shall be for a sign - upon thine hand - This direction, repeated and enlarged [Exo 13:16], gave rise to phylacteries or tephillin, and this is one of the passages which the Jews write upon them to the present day. The manner in which the Jews understood and kept these commands may appear in their practice. They wrote the following four portions of the law upon slips of parchment or vellum: Sanctify unto me the first-born, Exodus 13, from [Exo 13:2-10] inclusive. And it shall be, when the Lord shall bring thee into the land, Exodus 13, from [Exo 13:11-16] inclusive. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, Deuteronomy 6, from [Deu 6:4-9] inclusive. And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently, Deuteronomy 11, from [Deu 11:13-21] inclusive. These four portions, making in all 30 verses, written as mentioned above, and covered with leather, they tied to the forehead and to the hand or arm.

[¶23] Those which were for the Head (the frontlets) they wrote on four slips of parchment, and rolled up each by itself, and placed them in four compartments, joined together in one piece of skin or leather. Those which were designed for the hand were formed of one piece of parchment, the four portions being written upon it in four columns, and rolled up from one end to the other. These were all correct transcripts from the Mosaic text, without one redundant or deficient letter, otherwise they were not lawful to be worn. Those for the head were tied on so as to rest on the forehead. Those for the hand or arm were usually tied on the left arm, a little above the elbow, on the inside, that they might be near the heart, according to the command, [Deu 6:6] : And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. These phylacteries formed no inconsiderable part of a Jew's religion; they wore them as a sign of their obligation to God, and as representing some future blessedness. Hence they did not wear them on feast days nor on the Sabbath, because these things were in themselves signs; but they wore them always when they read the law, or when they prayed, and hence they called them תפלין tephillin, prayer, ornaments, oratories, or incitements to prayer. In process of time the spirit of this law was lost in the letter, and when the word was not in their mouth, nor the law in their heart, they had their phylacteries on their heads and on their hands. And the Pharisees, who in our Lord's time affected extraordinary piety, made their phylacteries very broad, that they might have many sentences written upon them, or the ordinary portions in very large and observable letters.

[¶24] It appears that the Jews wore these for three different purposes: -

[¶25] 1. As signs or remembrancers. This was the original design, as the institution itself sufficiently proves.

[¶26] 2. To procure reverence and respect in the sight of the heathen. This reason is given in the Gemara, Berachoth, chapter i: "Whence is it proved that the phylacteries or tephillin are the strength of Israel? Ans. From what is written, [Deu 28:10] : All the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord (יהוה Yehovah) and they shall be afraid of thee."

[¶27] 3. They used them as amulets or charms, to drive away evil spirits. This appears from the Targum on [Sol 8:3] : His left hand is under my head, etc. "The congregation of Israel hath said, I am elect above all people, because I bind my phylacteries on my left hand and on my head, and the scroll is fixed to the right side of my gate, the third part of which looks to my bed-chamber, that demons may not be permitted to injure me.

[¶28] One of the original phylacteries or תפלין tephillin now lies before me; it is a piece of fine vellum, about eighteen inches long, and an inch and quarter broad. It is divided into four unequal compartments; the letters are very well formed, but written with many apices, after the manner of the German Jews. In the first compartment is written the portion taken from [Exo 13:2-10]; in the second, [Exo 13:11-16]; in the third, [Deu 6:4-9]; in the fourth, [Deu 11:13-21], as before related. This had originally served for the hand or arm.

[¶29] These passages seem to be chosen in vindication of the use of the phylactery itself, as the reader may see on consulting them at large. Bind them for a Sign upon thy Hand; and for Frontlets between thy Eyes; write them upon the Posts of thy House and upon thy Gates; all which commands the Jews take in the most literal sense. To acquire the reputation of extraordinary sanctity they wore the fringes of their garments of an uncommon length. Moses had commanded them, [Num 15:38], [Num 15:39], to put fringes to the borders of their garments, that when they looked upon even these distinct threads they might remember, not only the law in general but also the very minutiae or smaller parts of all the precepts, rites, and ceremonies belonging to it. As those hypocrites (for such our Lord proves them to be) were destitute of all the life and power of religion within, they endeavored to supply its place with phylacteries and fringes without. The same principles distinguish hypocrites every where, and multitudes of them may be found among those termed Christians as well as among the Jews. It is probably to this institution relative to the phylactery that the words, [Rev 14:1], allude: And I looked, and, lo, a hundred and forty-four thousand having his Father's name written on their foreheads. "That is," says Mr. Ainsworth, "as a sign of the profession of God's law; for That which in the Gospel is called his Name, ([Mat 12:21]), in the prophets is called his Law, ([Isa 42:4])." So again antichrist exacts the obedience to his precepts by a mark on men's right hands or on their foreheads, [Rev 13:16].

### Verse 13

[¶31] Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb - Or a kid, as in the margin. In [Num 18:15], it is said: "The first-born of man shalt thou surely redeem; and the firstling of an unclean beast shalt thou redeem." Hence we may infer that ass is put here for any unclean beast, or for unclean beasts in general. The lamb was to be given to the Lord, that is, to his priest, [Num 18:8], [Num 18:15]. And then the owner of the ass might use it for his own service, which without this redemption he could not do; see [Deu 15:19].

[¶32] The first-born of man - shalt thou redeem - This was done by giving to the priests five standard shekels, or shekels of the sanctuary, every shekel weighing twenty gerahs. What the gerah was, see Clarke on [Gen 20:16] (note). And for the shekel, see Clarke on [Gen 20:16] (note).

[¶33] It may be necessary to observe here that the Hebrew doctors teach, that if a father had neglected or refused thus to redeem his first-born, the son himself was obliged to do it when he came of age. As this redeeming of the first-born was instituted in consequence of sparing the first-born of the Israelites, when the first-born both of man and beast among the Egyptians was destroyed, on this ground all the first-born were the Lord's, and should have been employed in his service; but he permitted the first-born of a useful unclean animal to be redeemed by a clean animal of much less value. And he chose the tribe of Levi in place of all the first-born of the tribes in general; and the five shekels were ordered to be paid in lieu of such first-born sons as were liable to serve in the sanctuary, and the money was applied to the support of the priests and Levites. See this subject at large in [Num 3:12], [Num 3:13], [Num 3:41], [Num 3:43], [Num 3:45], [Num 3:47-51].

### Verse 16

[¶35] It shall be for a token, etc. - See Clarke's note on [Exo 13:9].

### Verse 17

[¶37] God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, etc. - Had the Israelites been obliged to commence their journey to the promised land by a military campaign, there is little room to doubt that they would have been discouraged, have rebelled against Moses and Aaron, and have returned back to Egypt. Their long slavery had so degraded their minds that they were incapable of any great or noble exertions; and it is only on the ground of this mental degradation, the infallible consequence of slavery, that we can account for their many dastardly acts, murmurings, and repinings after their escape from Egypt. The reader is requested to bear this in mind, as it will serve to elucidate several circumstances in the ensuing history. Besides, the Israelites were in all probability unarmed, and totally unequipped for battle, encumbered with their flocks, and certain culinary utensils. which they were obliged to carry with them in the wilderness to provide them with bread, etc.

### Verse 18

[¶39] But God led the people about - Dr. Shaw has shown that there were two roads from Egypt to Canaan, one through the valleys of Jendilly, Rumeleah, and Baideah, bounded on each side by the mountains of the lower Thebais; the other lies higher, having the northern range of the mountains of Mocatee running parallel with it on the right hand, and the desert of the Egyptian Arabia, which lies all the way open to the land of the Philistines, to the left. See his account of these encampments at the end of Exodus. See Clarke's note on [Exo 40:38].

[¶40] Went up harnessed - חמשים chamushim. It is truly astonishing what a great variety of opinions are entertained relative to the meaning of this word. After having maturely considered all that I have met with on the subject, I think it probable that the word refers simply to that orderly or well arranged manner in which the Israelites commenced their journey from Egypt. For to arrange, array, or set in order, seems to be the ideal meaning of the word חמש chamash. As it was natural to expect that in such circumstances there must have been much hurry and confusion, the inspired writer particularly marks the contrary, to show that God had so disposed matters that the utmost regularity and order prevailed; and had it been otherwise, thousands of men, women, and children must have been trodden to death. Our margin has it by five in a rank; but had they marched only five abreast, supposing only one yard for each rank to move in, it would have required not less than sixty-eight miles for even the 600,000 to proceed on regularly in this way; for 600,000 divided by five gives 120,000 ranks of five each; and there being only 1,760 yards in a mile, the dividing 120,000 by 1,760 will give the number of miles such a column of people would take up, which by such an operation will be found to be something more than sixty-eight miles. But this the circumstances of the history will by no means admit - Harmer. The simple meaning therefore appears to be that given above; and if the note on the concluding verse of the preceding chapter be considered, it may serve to place this explanation in a still clearer point of view.

### Verse 19

[¶42] Moses took the bones of Joseph - See Clarke's note on [Gen 50:25]. It is supposed that the Israelites carried with them the bones or remains of all the twelve sons of Jacob, each tribe taking care of the bones of its own patriarch, while Moses took care of the bones of Joseph. St. Stephen expressly says, [Act 7:15], [Act 7:16], that not only Jacob, but the fathers were carried from Egypt into Sychem; and this, as Calmet remarks, was the only opportunity that seems to have presented itself for doing this: and certainly the reason that rendered it proper to remove the bones of Joseph to the promised land, had equal weight in reference to those of the other patriarchs. See Clarke's note on [Gen 49:29].

### Verse 20

[¶44] Encamped in Etham - As for the reasons assigned on [Exo 13:17], God would not lead the Israelites by the way of the Philistines' country, he directed them towards the wilderness of Shur, [Exo 15:22], upon the edge or extremity of which, next to Egypt, at the bottom of the Arabian Gulf, lay Etham, which is the second place of encampment mentioned. See the extracts from Dr. Shaw at the end of Exodus. See Clarke's note on [Exo 40:38].

## 88. Exodus · 21 of 57

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### Verse 21

[¶1] The Lord went before them - That by the Lord here is meant the Lord Jesus, we have the authority of St. Paul to believe, [1Cor 10:9] : it was he whose Spirit they tempted in the wilderness, for it was he who led them through the desert to the promised rest.

[¶2] Pillar of a cloud - This pillar or column, which appeared as a cloud by day, and a fire by night, was the symbol of the Divine presence. This was the Shechinah or Divine dwelling place, and was the continual proof of the presence and protection of God. It was necessary that they should have a guide to direct them through the wilderness, even had they taken the most direct road; and how much more so when they took a circuitous route not usually traveled, and of which they knew nothing but just as the luminous pillar pointed out the way! Besides, it is very likely that even Moses himself did not know the route which God had determined on, nor the places of encampment, till the pillar that went before them became stationary, and thus pointed out, not only the road, but the different places of rest. Whether there was more than one pillar is not clearly determined by the text. If there was but one it certainly assumed three different appearances, for the performance of Three very important offices. 1. In the day-time, for the purpose of pointing out the way, a column or pillar of a cloud was all that was requisite. 2. At night, to prevent that confusion which must otherwise have taken place, the pillar of cloud became a pillar of fire, not to direct their journeyings, for they seldom traveled by night, but to give light to every part of the Israelitish camp. 3. In such a scorching, barren, thirsty desert, something farther was necessary than a light and a guide. Women, children, and comparatively infirm persons, exposed to the rays of such a burning sun, must have been destroyed if without a covering; hence we find that a cloud overshadowed them: and from what St. Paul observes, [1Cor 10:1], [1Cor 10:2], we are led to conclude that this covering cloud was composed of aqueous particles for the cooling of the atmosphere and refreshment of themselves and their cattle; for he represents the whole camp as being sprinkled or immersed in the humidity of its vapours, and expressly calls it a being under the cloud and being baptized in the cloud. To the circumstance of the cloud covering them, there are several references in Scripture. Thus: He spread a Cloud for their Covering; [Psa 105:39]. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, A Cloud and Smoke By Day, and the shining of a Flaming Fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a Defence, (or Covering), [Isa 4:5]; which words contain the most manifest allusion to the threefold office of the cloud in the wilderness. See [Num 9:16-18], etc.

### Verse 22

[¶4] He took not away the pillar of the cloud - Neither Jews nor Gentiles are agreed how long the cloud continued with the Israelites. It is very probable that it first visited them at Succoth, if it did not accompany them from Rameses; and that it continued with them till they came to the river Jordan, to pass over opposite to Jericho, for after that it appears that the ark alone was their guide, as it always marched at their head. See [Jos 3:10-11], etc. But others think that it went no farther with them than Mount Hor, and never appeared after the death of Aaron. We may safely assert that while it was indispensably necessary it continued with them, when it was not so it was removed. But it is worthy of remark that the ark of the covenant became its substitute. While a miracle was necessary, a miracle was granted; when that was no longer necessary, then the testimony of the Lord deposited in the ark was deemed sufficient by Him who cannot err. So, under the Gospel dispensation, miracles were necessary at its first promulgation; but after that the canon of Scripture was completed, the new covenant having been made, ratified by the blood of the Lamb, and published by the Holy Spirit, then God withdrew generally those outward signs, leaving his word for a continual testimony, and sealing it on the souls of believers by the Spirit of truth.

[¶5] It is also worthy of remark that the ancient heathen writers represent their gods, in their pretended manifestations to men, as always encompassed with a cloud; Homer and Virgil abound with examples of this kind: and is it not very probable that they borrowed this, as they did many other things in their mythologic theology, from the tradition of Jehovah guiding his people through the desert by means of the cloud, in and by which he repeatedly manifested himself?

[¶6] 1. Extraordinary manifestations and interpositions of providence and grace should be held in continual remembrance. We are liable to forget the hole of the pit whence we were dug, and the rock whence we were hewn. Prudence and piety will institute their anniversaries, that the merciful dealings of the Lord may never be forgotten. The passover and the feast of unleavened bread, by an annual commemoration, became standing proofs to the children of Israel of the Divine origin of their religion; and are supporting pillars of it to the present day. For when a fact is reported to have taken place, and certain rites or ceremonies have been instituted in order to commemorate it, which rites or ceremonies continue to be observed through succeeding ages, then the fact itself, no matter how remote the period of its occurrence may have been, has the utmost proofs of authenticity that it is possible for any fact to have; and such as every person pretending to reason and judgment is obliged to receive. On this ground the Mosaic religion, and the facts recorded in it, are indubitably proved; and the Christian religion and its facts, being commemorated in the same way, particularly by baptism and the Lord's Supper, stand on such a foundation of moral certainty as no other records in the universe can possibly boast. Reader, praise God for his ordinances; they are not only means of grace to thy soul, but standing irrefragable proofs of the truth of that religion which thou hast received as from Him.

[¶7] 2. A serious public profession of the religion of Christ has in all ages of the Church been considered not only highly becoming, but indispensably necessary to salvation. He who consistently confesses Christ before men shall be confessed by him before God and his angels. A Jew wore his phylacteries on his forehead, on his hands, and round his garments, that he might have reverence in the sight of the heathen; he gloried in his law, and he exulted that Abraham was his father. Christian! with a zeal not less becoming, and more consistently supported, let the words of thy mouth, the acts of thy hands, and all thy goings, show that thou belongest unto God; that thou hast taken his Spirit for the guide of thy heart, his word for the rule of thy life, his people for thy companions, his heaven for thy inheritance, and himself for the portion of thy soul. And see that thou hold fast the truth, and that thou hold it in righteousness.

[¶8] 3. How merciful is God in the dispensations of his providence! He permits none to be tried above what he is able to bear, and he proportions the burden to the back that is to bear it. He led not the Israelites by the way of the Philistines, lest, seeing war, they should repent and be discouraged. Young converts are generally saved from severe spiritual conflicts and heavy temptations till they have acquired a habit of believing, are disciplined in the school of Christ, and instructed in the nature of the path in which they go, and the difficulties they may expect to find in it. They are informed that such things may take place, they are thus armed for the battle, and when trials do come they are not taken by surprise. God, the most merciful and kind God, "tempers even the blast to the shorn lamb." Trust in him therefore with all thy heart, and never lean to thy own understanding.

[¶9] 4. The providence and goodness of God are equally observable in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. The former was the proof of his providential kindness by day; the latter, by night. Thus he adjusts the assistance of his grace and Spirit to the exigencies of his creatures, giving at some times, when peculiar trials require it, more particular manifestations of his mercy and goodness; but at all times, such evidences of his approbation as are sufficient to satisfy a pious faithful heart. It is true the pillar of fire was more observable in the night, because of the general darkness, than the pillar of cloud was by day; yet the latter was as convincing and as evident a proof of his presence, approbation, and protection as the former. It is the duty and interest of every sound believer in Christ to have the witness of God's Spirit in his soul at all times, that his spirit and ways please his Maker; but in seasons of peculiar difficulty he may expect the more sensible manifestations of God's goodness. A good man is a temple of the Holy Spirit; but he who has an unholy heart, and who lives an unrighteous life, though he may have an orthodox creed, is a hold of unclean spirits, and an abomination in the sight of the Lord. Reader, let not these observations be fruitless to thee. God gives thee his word and his Spirit, obey this word that thou grieve not this Spirit. The following figurative saying of a Jewish rabbin is worthy of regard: "God addresses Israel and says, My son, I give thee my lamp, give me thy lamp. If thou keep my lamp, I will keep thy lamp; but if thou quench my lamp, I will extinguish thy lamp:" i.e., I give thee my word and Spirit, give me thy heart and soul. If thou carefully attend to my word, and grieve not my Spirit. I will preserve thy soul alive; but if thou rebel against my word, and quench my Spirit, then thy light shall be put out, and thy soul's blessedness extinguished in everlasting darkness.

### Introduction

[¶11] The Israelites are commanded to encamp before Pi-hahiroth, [Exo 14:1], [Exo 14:2]. God predicts the pursuit of Pharaoh, [Exo 14:3], [Exo 14:4]. Pharaoh is informed that the Israelites are fled, and regrets that he suffered them to depart, [Exo 14:5]. He musters his troops and pursues them, [Exo 14:6-8]. Overtakes them in their encampment by the Red Sea, [Exo 14:9]. The Israelites are terrified at his approach, [Exo 14:10]. They murmur against Moses for leading them out, [Exo 14:11], [Exo 14:12]. Moses encourages them, and assures them of deliverance, [Exo 14:13], [Exo 14:14]. God commands the Israelites to advance, and Moses to stretch out his rod over the sea that it might be divided, [Exo 14:15], [Exo 14:16]; and promises utterly to discomfit the Egyptians, [Exo 14:17], [Exo 14:18]. The angel of God places himself between the Israelites and the Egyptians, [Exo 14:19]. The pillar of the cloud becomes darkness to the Egyptians, while it gives light to the Israelites, [Exo 14:20]. Moses stretches out his rod, and a strong east wind blows, and the waters are divided, [Exo 14:21]. The Israelites enter and walk on dry ground, [Exo 14:22]. The Egyptians enter also in pursuit of the Israelites, [Exo 14:23]. The Lord looks out of the pillar of cloud on the Egyptians, terrifies them, and disjoints their chariots, [Exo 14:24], [Exo 14:25]. Moses is commanded to stretch forth his rod over the waters, that they may return to their former bed, [Exo 14:26]. He does so, and the whole Egyptian army is overwhelmed, [Exo 14:27], [Exo 14:28], while every Israelite escapes, [Exo 14:29]. Being thus saved from the hand of their adversaries, they acknowledge the power of God, and credit the mission of Moses, [Exo 14:30], [Exo 14:31].

### Verse 2

[¶13] Encamp before Pi-hahiroth - פי ההירת pi hachiroth, the mouth, strait, or bay of Chiroth. Between Migdol, מגדל migdol, the tower, probably a fortress that served to defend the bay. Over against Baal-zephon, בעל צפן baal tsephon, the lord or master of the watch, probably an idol temple, where a continual guard, watch, or light was kept up for the defense of one part of the haven, or as a guide to ships. Dr. Shaw thinks that chiroth may denote the valley which extended itself from the wilderness of Etham to the Red Sea, and that the part in which the Israelites encamped was called Pi-hachiroth, i.e., the mouth or bay of Chiroth. See his Travels, p. 310, and his account at the end of Exodus.

### Verse 3

[¶15] They are entangled in the land - God himself brought them into straits from which no human power or art could extricate them. Consider their situation when once brought out of the open country, where alone they had room either to fight or fly. Now they had the Red Sea before them, Pharaoh and his host behind them, and on their right and left hand fortresses of the Egyptians to prevent their escape; nor had they one boat or transport prepared for their passage! If they be now saved, the arm of the Lord must be seen, and the vanity and nullity of the Egyptian idols be demonstrated. By bringing them into such a situation he took from them all hope of human help, and gave their adversaries every advantage against them, so that they themselves said, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.

### Verse 4

[¶17] I will harden Pharaoh's heart - After relenting and giving them permission to depart, he now changes his mind and determines to prevent them; and without any farther restraining grace, God permits him to rush on to his final ruin, for the cup of his iniquity was now full.

### Verse 5

[¶19] And it was told the king - that the people fled - Of their departure he could not be ignorant, because himself had given them liberty to depart: but the word fled here may be understood as implying that they had utterly left Egypt without any intention to return, which is probably what he did not expect, for he had only given them permission to go three days' journey into the wilderness, in order to sacrifice to Jehovah; but from the circumstances of their departure, and the property they had got from the Egyptians, it was taken for granted that they had no design to return; and this was in all likelihood the consideration that weighed most with this avaricious king, and determined him to pursue, and either recover the spoil or bring them back, or both. Thus the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we let Israel go from serving us? Here was the grand incentive to pursuit; their service was profitable to the state, and they were determined not to give it up.

### Verse 7

[¶21] Six hundred chosen chariots, etc. - According to the most authentic accounts we have of war-chariots, they were frequently drawn by two or by four horses, and carried three persons: one was charioteer, whose business it was to guide the horses, but he seldom fought; the second chiefly defended the charioteer; and the third alone was properly the combatant. It appears that in this case Pharaoh had collected all the cavalry of Egypt; (see [Exo 14:17]); and though these might not have been very numerous, yet, humanly speaking, they might easily overcome the unarmed and encumbered Israelites, who could not be supposed to be able to make any resistance against cavalry and war-chariots.

### Verse 10

[¶23] The children of Israel cried out unto the Lord - Had their prayer been accompanied with faith, we should not have found them in the next verses murmuring against Moses, or rather against the Lord, through whose goodness they were now brought from under that bondage from which they had often cried for deliverance. Calmet thinks that the most pious and judicious cried unto God, while the unthinking and irreligious murmured against Moses.

### Verse 13

[¶25] Moses said - Fear ye not - This exhortation was not given to excite them to resist, for of that there was no hope; they were unarmed, they had no courage, and their minds were deplorably degraded.

[¶26] Stand still - Ye shall not be even workers together with God; only be quiet, and do not render yourselves wretched by your fears and your confusion.

[¶27] See the salvation of the Lord - Behold the deliverance which God will work, independently of all human help and means.

[¶28] Ye shall see them again no more - Here was strong faith, but this was accompanied by the spirit of prophecy. God showed Moses what he would do, he believed, and therefore he spoke in the encouraging manner related above.

### Verse 14

[¶30] The Lord shall fight for you - Ye shall have no part in the honor of the day; God alone shall bring you off, and defeat your foes.

[¶31] Ye shall hold your peace - Your unbelieving fears and clamours shall be confounded, and ye shall see that by might none shall be able to prevail against the Lord, and that the feeblest shall take the prey when the power of Jehovah is exerted.

### Verse 15

[¶33] Wherefore criest thou unto me? - We hear not one word of Moses' praying, and yet here the Lord asks him why he cries unto him? From which we may learn that the heart of Moses was deeply engaged with God, though it is probable he did not articulate one word; but the language of sighs, tears, and desires is equally intelligible to God with that of words. This consideration should be a strong encouragement to every feeble, discouraged mind: Thou canst not pray, but thou canst weep; if even tears are denied thee, (for there may be deep and genuine repentance, where the distress is so great as to stop up those channels of relief), then thou canst sigh; and God, whose Spirit has thus convinced thee of sin, righteousness, and judgment, knows thy unutterable groanings, and reads the inexpressible wish of thy burdened soul, a wish of which himself is the author, and which he has breathed into thy heart with the purpose to satisfy it.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Lift thou up thy rod - Neither Moses nor his rod could be any effective instrument in a work which could be accomplished only by the omnipotence of God; but it was necessary that he should appear in it, in order that he might have credit in the sight of the Israelites, and that they might see that God had chosen him to be the instrument of their deliverance.

### Verse 18

[¶37] Shall know that I am the Lord - Pharaoh had just recovered from the consternation and confusion with which the late plagues had overwhelmed him, and now he is emboldened to pursue after Israel; and God is determined to make his overthrow so signal by such an exertion of omnipotence, that he shall get himself honor by this miraculous act, and that the Egyptians shall know, i.e., acknowledge, that he is Jehovah, the omnipotent, self-existing, eternal God.

### Verse 19

[¶39] The angel of God - It has been thought by some that the angel, i.e., messenger, of the Lord, and the pillar of cloud, mean here the same thing. An angel might assume the appearance of a cloud; and even a material cloud thus particularly appointed might be called an angel or messenger of the Lord, for such is the literal import of the word מלאך malach, an angel. It is however most probable that the Angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus, appeared on this occasion in behalf of the people; for as this deliverance was to be an illustrious type of the deliverance of man from the power and guilt of sin by his incarnation and death, it might have been deemed necessary, in the judgment of Divine wisdom, that he should appear chief agent in this most important and momentous crisis. On the word angel, and Angel of the covenant, See Clarke's note on [Gen 16:7]; See Clarke's note on [Gen 18:13]; and See Clarke's note on [Exo 3:2].

### Verse 20

[¶41] It was a cloud and darkness to them, etc. - That the Israelites might not be dismayed at the appearance of their enemies, and that these might not be able to discern the object of their pursuit, the pillar of cloud moved from the front to the rear of the Israelitish camp, so as perfectly to separate between them and the Egyptians. It appears also that this cloud had two sides, one dark and the other luminous: the luminous side gave light to the whole camp of Israel during the night of passage; and the dark side, turned towards the pursuing Egyptians, prevented them from receiving any benefit from that light. How easily can God make the same thing an instrument of destruction or salvation, as seems best to his godly wisdom! He alone can work by all agents, and produce any kind of effect even by the same instrument; for all things serve the purposes of his will.

### Verse 21

[¶43] The Lord caused the sea to go back - That part of the sea over which the Israelites passed was, according to Mr. Bruce and other travelers, about four leagues across, and therefore might easily be crossed in one night. In the dividing of the sea two agents appear to be employed, though the effect produced can be attributed to neither. By stretching out the rod the waters were divided; by the blowing of the vehement, ardent, east wind, the bed of the sea was dried. It has been observed, that in the place where the Israelites are supposed to have passed, the water is about fourteen fathoms or twenty-eight yards deep: had the wind mentioned here been strong enough, naturally speaking, to have divided the waters, it must have blown in one narrow track, and continued blowing in the direction in which the Israelites passed; and a wind sufficient to have raised a mass of water twenty-eight yards deep and twelve miles in length, out of its bed, would necessarily have blown the whole six hundred thousand men away, and utterly destroyed them and their cattle. I therefore conclude that the east wind, which was ever remarked as a parching, burning wind, was used after the division of the waters, merely to dry the bottom, and render it passable. For an account of the hot drying winds in the east, See Clarke's note on [Gen 8:1]. God ever puts the highest honor on his instrument, Nature; and where it can act, he ever employs it. No natural agent could divide these waters, and cause them to stand as a wall upon the right hand and upon the left; therefore God did it by his own sovereign power. When the waters were thus divided, there was no need of a miracle to dry the bed of the sea and make it passable; therefore the strong desiccating east wind was brought, which soon accomplished this object. In this light I suppose the text should be understood.

## 89. Exodus · 22 of 57

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### Verse 22

[¶1] And the waters were a wall unto them on their right and on their left - This verse demonstrates that the passage was miraculous. Some have supposed that the Israelites had passed through, favored by an extraordinary ebb, which happened at that time to be produced by a strong wind, which happened just then to blow! Had this been the case, there could not have been waters standing on the right hand and on the left; much less could those waters, contrary to every law of fluids, have stood as a wall on either side while the Israelites passed through, and then happen to become obedient to the laws of gravitation when the Egyptians entered in! An infidel may deny the revelation in toto, and from such we expect nothing better; but to hear those who profess to believe this to be a Divine revelation endeavoring to prove that the passage of the Red Sea had nothing miraculous in it, is really intolerable. Such a mode of interpretation requires a miracle to make itself credible. Poor infidelity! how miserable and despicable are thy shifts!

### Verse 24

[¶3] The morning watch - A watch was the fourth part of the time from sun-setting to sun-rising; so called from soldiers keeping guard by night, who being changed four times during the night, the periods came to be called watches. - Dodd.

[¶4] As here and in [1Sam 11:11] is mentioned the morning watch; so in [Lam 2:19], the beginning of the watches; and in [Jdg 7:19], the middle watch is spoken of; in [Luk 12:38], the second and third watch; and in [Mat 14:25], the fourth watch of the night; which in [Mar 13:35] are named evening, midnight, cock-crowing, and day-dawning - Ainsworth.

[¶5] As the Israelites went out of Egypt at the vernal equinox, the morning watch, or, according to the Hebrew, באשמרת הבקר beashmoreth habboker, the watch of day-break, would answer to our four o'clock in the morning - Calmet.

[¶6] The Lord looked unto - This probably means that the cloud suddenly assumed a fiery appearance where it had been dark before; or they were appalled by violent thunders and lightning, which we are assured by the psalmist did actually take place, together with great inundations of rain, etc.: The clouds Poured Out Water; the skies sent out a Sound: thine Arrows also went abroad. The Voice of thy Thunder was in the heaven; the Lightnings Lightened the world; the earth Trembled and Shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters. Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron; [Psa 77:17-20]. Such tempests as these would necessarily terrify the Egyptian horses, and produce general confusion. By their dashing hither and thither the wheels must be destroyed, and the chariots broken; and foot and horse must be mingled together in one universal ruin; see [Exo 14:25]. During the time that this state of horror and confusion was at its summit the Israelites had safely passed over; and then Moses, at the command of God, ([Exo 14:26]), having stretched out his rod over the waters, the sea returned to its strength; ([Exo 14:27]); i.e., the waters by their natural gravity resumed their level, and the whole Egyptian host were completely overwhelmed, [Exo 14:28]. But as to the Israelites, the waters had been a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left, [Exo 14:29]. This the waters could not have been, unless they had been supernaturally supported; as their own gravity would necessarily have occasioned them to have kept their level, or, if raised beyond it, to have regained it if left to their natural law, to which they are ever subject, unless in cases of miraculous interference. Thus the enemies of the Lord perished; and that people who decreed that the male children of the Hebrews should be drowned, were themselves destroyed in the pit which they had destined for others. God's ways are all equal; and he renders to every man according to his works.

### Verse 28

[¶8] There remained not so much as one of them - Josephus says that the army of Pharaoh consisted of fifty thousand horse, and two hundred thousand foot, of whom not one remained to carry tidings of this most extraordinary catastrophe.

### Verse 30

[¶10] Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore - By the extraordinary agitation of the waters, no doubt multitudes of the dead Egyptians were cast on the shore, and by their spoils the Israelites were probably furnished with considerable riches, and especially clothing and arms; which latter were essentially necessary to them in their wars with the Amalekites, Basanites, and Amorites, etc., on their way to the promised land. If they did not get their arms in this way, we know not how they got them, as there is not the slightest reason to believe that they brought any with them out of Egypt.

### Verse 31

[¶12] The people feared the Lord - They were convinced by the interference of Jehovah that his power was unlimited, and that he could do whatsoever he pleased, both in the way of judgment and in the way of mercy.

[¶13] And believed the Lord, and his servant Moses - They now clearly discerned that God had fulfilled all his promises; and that not one thing had failed of all the good which he had spoken concerning Israel. And they believed his servant Moses - they had now the fullest proof that he was Divinely appointed to work all these miracles, and to bring them out of Egypt into the promised land.

[¶14] Thus God got himself honor upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and credit in the sight of Israel. After this overthrow of their king and his host, the Egyptians interrupted them no more in the journeyings, convinced of the omnipotence of their Protector: and how strange, that after such displays of the justice and mercy of Jehovah, the Israelites should ever have been deficient in faith, or have given place to murmuring!

[¶15] 1. The events recorded in this chapter are truly astonishing; and they strongly mark what God can do, and what he will do, both against his enemies and in behalf of his followers. In vain are all the forces of Egypt united to destroy the Israelites: at the breath of God's mouth they perish; and his feeble, discouraged, unarmed followers take the prey! With such a history before their eyes, is it not strange that sinners should run on frowardly in the path of transgression; and that those who are redeemed from the world, should ever doubt of the all-sufficiency and goodness of their God! Had we not already known the sequel of the Israelitish history, we should have been led to conclude that this people would have gone on their way rejoicing, trusting in God with their whole heart, and never leaning to their own understanding; but alas! we find that as soon as any new difficulty occurred, they murmured against God and their leaders, despised the pleasant land, and gave no credence to his word.

[¶16] 2. Their case is not a solitary one: most of those who are called Christians are not more remarkable for faith and patience. Every reverse will necessarily pain and discompose the people who are seeking their portion in this life. And it is a sure mark of a worldly mind, when we trust the God of Providence and grace no farther than we see the operations of his hand in our immediate supply; and murmur and repine when the hand of his bounty seems closed, and the influences of his Spirit restrained, though our unthankful and unholy carriage has been the cause of this change. Those alone who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, shall be lifted up in due season. Reader, thou canst never be deceived in trusting thy all, the concerns of thy body and soul, to Him who divided the sea, saved the Hebrews, and destroyed the Egyptians.

### Introduction

[¶18] Moses and the Israelites sing a song of praise to God for their late deliverance, in which they celebrate the power of God, gloriously manifested in the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, [Exo 15:1]; express their confidence in him as their strength and protector, [Exo 15:2], [Exo 15:3]; detail the chief circumstances in the overthrow of the Egyptians, [Exo 15:4-8]; and relate the purposes they had formed for the destruction of God's people, [Exo 15:9], and how he destroyed them in the imaginations of their hearts, [Exo 15:10]. Jehovah is celebrated for the perfections of his nature and his wondrous works, [Exo 15:11-13]. A prediction of the effect which the account of the destruction of the Egyptians should have on the Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites, [Exo 15:14-16]. A prediction of the establishment of Israel in the promised land, [Exo 15:17]. The full chorus of praise, [Exo 15:18]. Recapitulation of the destruction of the Egyptians, and the deliverance of Israel, [Exo 15:19]. Miriam and the women join in and prolong the chorus, [Exo 15:20], [Exo 15:21]. The people travel three days in the wilderness of Shur, and find no water, [Exo 15:22]. Coming to Marah, and finding bitter waters, they murmur against Moses, [Exo 15:23], [Exo 15:24]. In answer to the prayer of Moses, God shows him a tree by which the waters are sweetened, [Exo 15:25]. God gives them statutes and gracious promises, [Exo 15:26]. They come to Elim, where they find twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and there they encamp, [Exo 15:27].

### Verse 1

[¶20] Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song - Poetry has been cultivated in all ages and among all people, from the most refined to the most barbarous; and to it principally, under the kind providence of God, we are indebted for most of the original accounts we have of the ancient nations of the universe. Equally measured lines, with a harmonious collocation of expressive, sonorous, and sometimes highly metaphorical terms, the alternate lines either answering to each other in sense, or ending with similar sounds, were easily committed to memory, and easily retained. As these were often accompanied with a pleasing air or tune, the subject being a concatenation of striking and interesting events, histories formed thus became the amusement of youth, the softeners of the tedium of labor, and even the solace of age. In such a way the histories of most nations have been preserved. The interesting events celebrated, the rhythm or metre, and the accompanying tune or recitativo air, rendered them easily transmissible to posterity; and by means of tradition they passed safely from father to son through the times of comparative darkness, till they arrived at those ages in which the pen and the press have given them a sort of deathless duration and permanent stability, by multiplying the copies. Many of the ancient historic and heroic British tales are continued by tradition among the aboriginal inhabitants of Ireland to the present day; and the repetition of them constitutes the chief amusement of the winter evenings. Even the prose histories, which were written on the ground of the poetic, copied closely their exemplars, and the historians themselves were obliged to study all the beauties and ornaments of style, that their works might become popular; and to this circumstance we owe not a small measure of what is termed refinement of language. How observable is this in the history of Herodotus, who appears to have closely copied the ancient poetic records in his inimitable and harmonious prose; and, that his books might bear as near a resemblance as possible to the ancient and popular originals, he divided them into nine, and dedicated each to one of the muses! His work therefore seems to occupy the same place between the ancient poetic compositions and mere prosaic histories, as the polype does between plants and animals. Much even of our sacred records is written in poetry, which God has thus consecrated to be the faithful transmitter of remote and important events; and of this the song before the reader is a proof in point. Though this is not the first specimen of poetry we have met with in the Pentateuch, (see Lamech's speech to his wives, [Gen 4:23], [Gen 4:24]; Noah's prophecy concerning his sons, [Gen 9:25-27]; and Jacob's blessing to the twelve patriarchs, Genesis 49:2-27 (note)), yet it is the first regular ode of any considerable length, having but one subject; and it is all written in hemistichs, or half lines, the usual form in Hebrew poetry; and though this form frequently occurs, it is not attended to in our common printed Hebrew Bibles, except in this and three other places, (Deuteronomy 32, Judges 5, and 2 Samuel 22)., all of which shall be noticed as they occur. But in Dr. Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, all the poetry, wheresoever it occurs, is printed in its own hemistich form.

[¶21] After what has been said it is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe, that as such ancient poetic histories commemorated great and extraordinary displays of providence, courage, strength, fidelity, heroism, and piety; hence the origin of Epic poems, of which the song in this chapter is the earliest specimen. And on the principle of preserving the memory of such events, most nations have had their epic poets, who have generally taken for their subject the most splendid or most remote events of their country's history, which either referred to the formation or extension of their empire, the exploits of their ancestors, or the establishment of their religion. Hence the ancient Hebrews had their Shir Mosheh, the piece in question: the Greeks, their Ilias; the Hindoos, their Mahabarat; the Romans, their Aeneid; the Norwegians, their Edda; the Irish and Scotch, their Fingal and Chronological poems; the Welsh, their Taliessin and his Triads; the Arabs, their Nebiun-Nameh (exploits of Mohammed) and Hamleh Heedry, (exploits of Aly); the Persians, their Shah Nameh, (book of kings); the Italians, their Gerusalemme Liberata; the Portuguese, their Lusiad; the English, their Paradise Lost; and, in humble imitation of all the rest, (etsi non passibus aequis), the French, their Henriade.

[¶22] The song of Moses has been in the highest repute in the Church of God from the beginning; the author of the Book of The Wisdom of Solomon attributes it in a particular manner to the wisdom of God, and says that on this occasion God opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the tongues of infants eloquent; The Wisdom of Solomon 10:21. As if he had said, Every person felt an interest in the great events which had taken place, and all labored to give Jehovah that praise which was due to his name. "With this song of victory over Pharaoh," says Mr. Ainsworth, "the Holy Ghost compares the song of those who have gotten the victory over the spiritual Pharaoh, the beast, (Antichrist), when they stand by the sea of glass mingled with fire, (as Israel stood here by the Red Sea), having the harps of God, (as the women here had timbrels, [Exo 15:20]), and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, the Son of God," [Rev 15:2-4].

[¶23] I will sing unto the Lord - Moses begins the song, and in the two first hemistichs states the subject of it; and these two first lines became the grand chorus of the piece, as we may learn from [Exo 15:21]. See Dr. Kennicott's arrangement and translation of this piece at the end of this chapter. See Clarke's note on [Exo 15:26].

[¶24] Triumphed gloriously - כי גאה גאה ki gaoh gaah, he is exceedingly exalted, rendered by the Septuagint, Ενδοξως γαρ δεδοξασται, He is gloriously glorified; and surely this was one of the most signal displays of the glorious majesty of God ever exhibited since the creation of the world. And when it is considered that the whole of this transaction shadowed out the redemption of the human race from the thraldom and power of sin and iniquity by the Lord Jesus, and the final triumph of the Church of God over all its enemies, we may also join in the song, and celebrate Him who has triumphed so gloriously, having conquered death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

### Verse 2

[¶26] The Lord is my strength and song - How judiciously are the members of this sentence arranged! He who has God for his strength, will have him for his song; and he to whom Jehovah is become salvation, will exalt his name. Miserably and untunably, in the ears of God, does that man sing praises, who is not saved by the grace of Christ, nor strengthened by the power of his might.

[¶27] It is worthy of observation that the word which we translate Lord here, is not יהוה JEHOVAH in the original, but יה Jah; "as if by abbreviation," says Mr. Parkhurst, "for יהיה yeheieh or יהי yehi. It signifies the Essence Ὁ ΩΝ, He who Is, simply, absolutely, and independently. The relation between יה Jah and the verb היה to subsist, exist, be, is intimated to us the first time יה Jah is used in Scripture, ([Exo 15:2]): 'My strength and my song is יה Jah, and he is become (ויהי vajehi) to me salvation.'" See [Psa 68:5]; [Psa 89:6]; [Psa 94:7]; [Psa 115:17], [Psa 115:18]; [Psa 118:17].

[¶28] Jah יה is several times joined with the name Jehovah יהוה so that we may be sure that it is not, as some have supposed, a mere abbreviation of that word. See [Isa 12:2]; [Isa 26:4]. Our blessed Lord solemnly claims to himself what is intended in this Divine name יה Jah, [Joh 8:58] : "Before Abraham was, (γενεσθαι, was born), εγω ειμι, I Am," not I was, but I am, plainly intimating his Divine eternal existence. Compare [Isa 43:13]. And the Jews appear to have well understood him, for then took they up stones to cast at him as a blasphemer. Compare [Col 1:16], [Col 1:17], where the Apostle Paul, after asserting that all things that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, were created, εκτισται, by and for Christ, adds And He Is (αυτος εστι, not ην, was) before all things, and by him all things συνεστηκε, have subsisted, and still subsist. See Parkhurst.

[¶29] From this Divine name יה Jah the ancient Greeks had their Ιη, Ιη, in their invocations of the gods, particularly of Apollo (the uncompounded One) the light; and hence ei, written after the oriental manner from right to left, afterwards ie, was inscribed over the great door of the temple at Delphi! See Clarke's note on [Exo 3:14], and the concluding observations there.

[¶30] I will prepare him a habitation - ואנוהו veanvehu. It has been supposed that Moses, by this expression, intended the building of the tabernacle; but it seems to come in very strangely in this place. Most of the ancient versions understood the original in a very different sense. The Vulgate has et glorificabo eum; the Septuagint δοξασω αυτον, I will Glorify him; with which the Syriac, Coptic, the Targum of Jonathan, and the Jerusalem Targum, agree. From the Targum of Onkelos the present translation seems to have been originally derived; he has translated the place ואבני לה מקדש veebnei leh makdash, "And I will build him a sanctuary," which not one of the other versions, the Persian excepted, acknowledges. Our own old translations are generally different from the present: Coverdale, "This my God, I will magnify him;" Matthew's, Cranmer's, and the Bishops' Bible, render it glorify, and the sense of the place seems to require it. Calmet, Houbigant, Kennicott, and other critics, contend for this translation.

[¶31] My father's God - I believe Houbigant to be right, who translates the original, אלהי אבי Elohey abi, Deus meus, pater meus est, "My God is my Father." Every man may call the Divine Being his God; but only those who are his children by adoption through grace can call him their Father. This is a privilege which God has given to none but his children. See [Gal 4:6].

### Verse 3

[¶33] The Lord is a man of war - Perhaps it would be better to translate the words, Jehovah is the man or hero of the battle. As we scarcely ever apply the term to any thing but first-rate armed vessels, the change of the translation seems indispensable, though the common rendering is literal enough. Besides, the object of Moses was to show that man had no part in this victory, but that the whole was wrought by the miraculous power of God, and that therefore he alone should have all the glory.

[¶34] The Lord is his name - That is, Jehovah. He has now, as the name implies, given complete existence to all his promises. See Clarke on [Gen 2:4] (note), and [Exo 6:3] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶36] Pharaoh's chariots - his host - his chosen captains - On such an expedition it is likely that the principal Egyptian nobility accompanied their king, and that the overthrow they met with here had reduced Egypt to the lowest extremity. Had the Israelites been intent on plunder, or had Moses been influenced by a spirit of ambition, how easily might both have gratified themselves, as, had they returned, they might have soon overrun and subjugated the whole land.

### Verse 6

[¶38] Thy right hand - Thy omnipotence, manifested in a most extraordinary way.

### Verse 7

[¶40] In the greatness of thine excellency - To this wonderful deliverance the Prophet Isaiah refers, [Isa 63:11-14] : "Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put his Holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest; so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name."

### Verse 8

[¶42] The depths were congealed - The strong east wind ([Exo 14:21]) employed to dry the bottom of the sea, is here represented as the blast of God's nostrils that had congealed or frozen the waters, so that they stood in heaps like a wall on the right hand and on the left.

### Verse 9

[¶44] The enemy said - As this song was composed by Divine inspiration, we may rest assured that these words were spoken by Pharaoh and his captains, and the passions they describe felt, in their utmost sway, in their hearts; but how soon was their boasting confounded? "Thou didst blow with thy wind, and the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters!"

## 90. Exodus · 23 of 57

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### Verse 11

[¶1] Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? - We have already seen that all the Egyptian gods, or the objects of the Egyptians' idolatry, were confounded, and rendered completely despicable, by the ten plagues, which appear to have been directed principally against them. Here the people of God exult over them afresh: Who among these gods is like unto Thee? They can neither save nor destroy; Thou dost both in the most signal manner.

[¶2] As the original words מי כמכה באלם יהוה mi chamochah baelim Yehovah are supposed to have constituted the motto on the ensign of the Asmoneans, and to have furnished the name of Maccabeus to Judas, their grand captain, from whom they were afterwards called Maccabeans, it may be necessary to say a few words on this subject It is possible that Judas Maccabeus might have had this motto on his ensign, or at least the initial letters of it, for such a practice was not uncommon. For instance, on the Roman standard the letters S. P. Q. R. stood for Senatus Populus Que Romanus, i.e. the Senate and Roman People, and מ כ ב י M. C. B. I. might have stood for Mi Chamochah Baelim Jehovah, "Who among the gods (or strong ones) is like unto thee, O Jehovah!" But it appears from the Greek Μακκαβαιος, and also the Syriac makabi, that the name was written originally with ק koph, not כ caph. It is most likely, as Michaelis has observed, that the name must have been derived from מקב makkab, a hammer or mallet; hence Judas, because of his bravery and success, might have been denominated the hammer or mallet by which the enemies of God had been beaten, pounded, and broken to pieces. Judas, the hammer of the Lord.

[¶3] Glorious in holiness - Infinitely resplendent in this attribute, essential to the perfection of the Divine nature.

[¶4] Fearful in praises - Such glorious holiness cannot be approached without the deepest reverence and fear, even by angels, who veil their faces before the majesty of God. How then should man, who is only sin and dust, approach the presence of his Maker!

[¶5] Doing wonders? - Every part of the work of God is wonderful; not only miracles, which imply an inversion or suspension of the laws of nature, but every part of nature itself. Who can conceive how a single blade of grass is formed; or how earth, air, and water become consolidated in the body of the oak? And who can comprehend how the different tribes of plants and animals are preserved, in all the distinctive characteristics of their respective natures? And who can conceive how the human being is formed, nourished, and its different parts developed? What is the true cause of the circulation of the blood? or, how different ailments produce the solids and fluids of the animal machine? What is life, sleep, death? And how an impure and unholy soul is regenerated, purified, refined, and made like unto its great Creator? These are wonders which God alone works, and to himself only are they fully known.

### Verse 12

[¶7] The earth swallowed them - It is very likely there was also an earthquake on this occasion, and that chasms were made in the bottom of the sea, by which many of them were swallowed up, though multitudes were overwhelmed by the waters, whose dead bodies were afterward thrown ashore. The psalmist strongly intimates that there was an earthquake on this occasion: The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the world; the Earth Trembled and Shook; [Psa 77:18].

### Verse 13

[¶9] Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation - As this ode was dictated by the Spirit of God, It is most natural to understand this and the following verses, to the end of the 18th, as containing a prediction of what God would do for this people which he had so miraculously redeemed. On this mode of interpretation it would be better to read several of the verbs in the future tense.

### Verse 15

[¶11] The dukes of Edom - Idumea was governed at this time by those called אלפים alluphim, heads, chiefs, or captains. See Clarke's note on [Gen 36:15].

### Verse 16

[¶13] Till thy people pass over - Not over the Red Sea, for that event had been already celebrated; but over the desert and Jordan, in order to be brought into the promised land.

### Verse 17

[¶15] Thou shalt bring them in - By thy strength and mercy alone shall they get the promised inheritance.

[¶16] And plant them - Give them a fixed habitation in Canaan, after their unsettled wandering life in the wilderness.

[¶17] In the mountain - Meaning Canaan, which was a very mountainous country, [Deu 11:11]; or probably Mount Zion, on which the temple was built. Where the pure worship of God was established, there the people might expect both rest and safety. Wherever the purity of religion is established and preserved, and the high and the low endeavor to regulate their lives according to its precepts, the government of that country is likely to be permanent.

### Verse 18

[¶19] The Lord shall reign for ever and ever - This is properly the grand chorus in which all the people joined. The words are expressive of God's everlasting dominion, not only in the world, but in the Church; not only under the law, but also under the Gospel; not only in time, but through eternity. The original לעלם ועד leolam vaed may be translated, for ever and onward; or, by our very expressive compound term, for Evermore, i.e. for ever and more - not only through time, but also through all duration. His dominion shall be ever the same, active and infinitely extending. With this verse the song seems to end, as with it the hemistichs or poetic lines terminate. The 20th and beginning of the 21st are in plain prose, but the latter part of the 21st is in hemistichs, as it contains the response made by Miriam and the Israelitish women at different intervals during the song. See Dr. Kennicott's arrangement of the parts at the end of this chapter.

### Verse 20

[¶21] And Miriam the prophetess - We have already seen that Miriam was older than either Moses or Aaron: for when Moses was exposed on the Nile, she was a young girl capable of managing the stratagem used for the preservation of his life; and then Aaron was only three years and three months old, for he was fourscore and three years old when Moses was but fourscore, (see [Exo 7:7]); so that Aaron was older than Moses, and Miriam considerably older than either, not less probably than nine or ten years of age. See Clarke's notes on [Exo 2:2]. There is great diversity of opinion on the origin of the name of Miriam, which is the same with the Greek Μαριαμ, the Latin Maria, and the English Mary. Some suppose it to be compounded of מר mar, a drop, ([Isa 40:15]), and ים yam, the sea, and that from this etymology the heathens formed their Venus, whom they feign to have sprung from the sea. St. Jerome gives several etymologies for the name, which at once show how difficult it is to ascertain it: she who enlightens me, or she who enlightens them, or the star of the sea. Others, the lady of the sea, the bitterness of the sea, etc. It is probable that the first or the last is the true one, but it is a matter of little importance, as we have not the circumstance marked, as in the case of Moses and many others, that gave rise to the name.

[¶22] The prophetess - הנביאה hannebiah. For the meaning of the word prophet, נביא nabi, see the note on [Gen 20:7]. It is very likely that Miriam was inspired by the Spirit of God to instruct the Hebrew women, as Moses and Aaron were to instruct the men; and when she and her brother Aaron sought to share in the government of the people with Moses, we find her laying claim to the prophetic influence, [Num 12:2] : Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not Spoken Also By Us? And that she was constituted joint leader of the people with her two brothers, we have the express word of God by the Prophet Micah, [Mic 6:4] : For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt - and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Hence it is very likely that she was the instructress of the women, and regulated the times, places, etc., of their devotional acts; for it appears that from the beginning to the present day the Jewish women all worshipped apart.

[¶23] A timbrel - תף toph, the same word which is translated tabret, [Gen 31:27], on which the reader is desired to consult the note. See Clarke's note on [Gen 31:27].

[¶24] And with dances - מחלת mecholoth. Many learned men suppose that this word means some instruments of wind music, because the word comes from the root חלל chalal, the ideal meaning of which is to perforate, penetrate, pierce, stab, and hence to wound. Pipes or hollow tubes, such as flutes, hautboys, and the like, may be intended. Both the Arabic and Persian understand it as meaning instruments of music of the pipe, drum, or sistrum kind; and this seems to comport better with the scope and design of the place than the term dances. It must however be allowed that religious dances have been in use from the remotest times; and yet in most of the places where the term occurs in our translation, an instrument of music bids as fair to be its meaning as a dance of any kind. Miriam is the first prophetess on record, and by this we find that God not only poured out his Spirit upon men, but upon women also; and we learn also that Miriam was not only a prophetess, but a poetess also, and must have had considerable skill in music to have been able to conduct her part of these solemnities. It may appear strange that during so long an oppression in Egypt, the Israelites were able to cultivate the fine arts; but that they did so there is the utmost evidence from the Pentateuch. Not only architecture, weaving, and such necessary arts, were well known among them, but also the arts that are called ornamental, such as those of the goldsmith, lapidary, embroiderer, furrier, etc., of which we have ample proof in the construction of the tabernacle and its utensils. However ungrateful, rebellious, etc., the Jews may have been, the praise of industry and economy can never be denied them. In former ages, and in all places even of their dispersions, they appear to have been frugal and industrious, and capable of great proficiency in the most elegant and curious arts; but they are now greatly degenerated.

### Verse 22

[¶26] The wilderness of Shur - This was on the coast of the Red Sea on their road to Mount Sinai. See the map.

### Verse 23

[¶28] Marah - So called from the bitter waters found there. Dr. Shaw conjectures that this place is the same as that now called Corondel, where there is still a small rill which, if not diluted with dews or rain, continues brackish. See his account at the end of Exodus ([Exo 40:38] (note)).

### Verse 24

[¶30] The people murmured - They were in a state of great mental degradation, owing to their long and oppressive vassalage, and had no firmness of character. See Clarke's note on [Exo 13:17].

### Verse 25

[¶32] He cried unto the Lord - Moses was not only their leader, but also their mediator. Of prayer and dependence on the Almighty, the great mass of the Israelites appear to have had little knowledge at this time. Moses, therefore, had much to bear from their weakness, and the merciful Lord was long-suffering.

[¶33] The Lord showed him a tree - What this tree was we know not: some think that the tree was extremely bitter itself, such as the quassia; and that God acted in this as he generally does, correcting contraries by contraries, which, among the ancient physicians, was a favourite maxim, Clavus clavo expellitur. The Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem say that, when Moses prayed, "the Word of the Lord showed him the tree ארדפני ardiphney, on which he wrote the great and precious name of (Jehovah), and then threw it into the waters, and the waters thereby became sweet" But what the tree ardiphney was we are not informed.

[¶34] Many suppose that this tree which healed the bitter waters was symbolical of the cross of our blessed Redeemer, that has been the means of healing infected nature, and through the virtue of which the evils and bitters of life are sweetened, and rendered subservient to the best interests of God's followers. Whatever may be in the metaphor, this is true in fact; and hence the greatest of apostles gloried in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world was crucified to him and he unto the world.

[¶35] It appears that these waters were sweetened only for that occasion, as Dr. Shaw reports them to be still brackish, which appears to be occasioned by the abundance of natron which prevails in the surrounding soil. Thus we may infer that the natural cause of their bitterness or brackishness was permitted to resume its operations, when the occasion that rendered the change necessary had ceased to exist. Thus Christ simply changed that water into wine which was to be drawn out to be carried to the master of the feast; the rest of the water in the pots remaining as before. As the water of the Nile was so peculiarly excellent, to which they had been long accustomed, they could not easily put up with what was indifferent. See Clarke's note on [Exo 7:18].

[¶36] There he made for them - Though it is probable that the Israelites are here intended, yet the word לו lo should not be translated for them, but to him, for these statutes were given to Moses that he might deliver them to the people.

[¶37] There he proved them - נסהו nissahu, he proved Him. By this murmuring of the people he proved Moses, to see, speaking after the manner of men, whether he would be faithful, and, in the midst of the trials to which he was likely to be exposed, whether he would continue to trust in the Lord, and seek all his help from him.

### Verse 26

[¶39] If thou wilt diligently hearken - What is contained in this verse appears to be what is intended by the statute and ordinance mentioned in the preceding: If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, etc. This statute and ordinance implied the three following particulars:

[¶40] 1. That they should acknowledge Jehovah for their God, and thus avoid all idolatry.

[¶41] 2. That they should receive his word and testimony as a Divine revelation, binding on their hearts and lives, and thus be saved from profligacy of every kind, and from acknowledging the maxims or adopting the customs of the neighboring nations.

[¶42] 3. That they should continue to do so, and adorn their profession with a holy life. T hese things being attended to, then the promise of God was, that they should have none of the diseases of the Egyptians put on them; that they should be kept in a state of health of body and peace of mind; and if at any time they should be afflicted, on application to God the evil should be removed, because he was their healer or physician - I am the Lord that healeth thee. That the Israelites had in general a very good state of health, their history warrants us to believe; and when they were afflicted, as in the case of the fiery serpents, on application to God they were all healed. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel states that the statutes which Moses received at this time were commandments concerning the observance of the Sabbath, duty to parents, the ordinances concerning wounds and bruises, and the penalties which sinners should incur by transgressing them. But it appears that the general ordinances already mentioned are those which are intended here, and this seems to be proved beyond dispute by [Jer 7:22], [Jer 7:23] : "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."

### Verse 27

[¶44] They came to Elim - This was in the desert of Sin, and, according to Dr. Shaw, about two leagues from Tor, and thirty from Marah or Corondel.

[¶45] Twelve wells of water - One for each of the tribes of Israel, say the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem.

## 91. Exodus · 24 of 57

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[¶0] And threescore and ten palm trees - One for each of the seventy elders - Ibid.

[¶1] Dr. Shaw found nine of the twelve wells, the other three having been choked up with sand; and the seventy palm trees multiplied into more than 2000, the dates of which bring a considerable revenue to the Greek monks at Tor. See his account at the end of this book, ([Exo 40:38] (note)) and see also the map. Thus sufficient evidence of the authenticity of this part of the sacred history remains, after the lapse of more than 3000 years.

[¶2] In the preceding notes the reader has been referred to Dr. Kennicott's translation and arrangement of the song of Moses. To this translation he prefixes the following observations: - "This triumphant ode was sung by Moses and the sons of Israel: and the women, headed by Miriam, answered the men by repeating the two first lines of the song, altering only the first word, which two lines were probably sung more than once as a chorus. "The conclusion of this ode seems very manifest; and yet, though the ancient Jews had sense enough to write this song differently from prose; and though their authority has prevailed even, to this day in this and three other poems in the Old Testament, (Deut. 22; Judges 5; and 2 Sam. 22)., still expressed by them as poetry; yet have these critics carried their ideas of the song here to the end of [Exo 15:19]. The reason why the same has been done by others probably is, they thought that the particle כי for, which begins [Exo 15:19], necessarily connected it with the preceding poetry. But this difficulty is removed by translating כי when, especially if we take [Exo 15:19-21] as being a prose explanation of the manner in which this song of triumph was performed. For these three verses say that the men singers were answered in the chorus by Miriam and the women, accompanying their words with musical instruments. 'When the horse of Pharaoh had gone into the sea, and the Lord had brought the sea upon them; and Israel had passed, on dry land, in the midst of the sea; then Miriam took a timbrel, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dances; and Miriam (with the women) answered them (להם lahem, the men, by way of chorus) in the words, O sing ye, etc.' That this chorus was sung more than Once is thus stated by Bishop Lowth: Maria, cum mulieribus, virorum choro identidem succinebat - Praelect. 19. "I shall now give what appears to me to be an exact translation of this whole song: -

[¶3] Moses. Part I

[¶4] 1. I will sing to Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously; The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

[¶5] 2. My strength and my song is Jehovah; And he is become to me for salvation: This is my God, and I will celebrate him; The God of my father, and I will exalt him.

[¶6] 3. (Perhaps a chorus sung by the men)Jehovah is mighty in battleJehovah is his name!(Chorus, by Miriam and the women. Perhaps sung first in this place. )O sing ye to Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

[¶7] Moses. Part II

[¶8] 4. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea; And his chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea.

[¶9] 5. The depths have covered them, they went down; (They sank) to the bottom as a stone.

[¶10] 6. Thy right hand, Jehovah, is become glorious in power; Thy right hand, Jehovah, dasheth in pieces the enemy.

[¶11] 7. And in the greatness of thine excellence thou overthrowest them that rise against thee. Thou sendest forth thy wrath, which consumeth them as stubble.

[¶12] 8. Even at the blast of thy displeasure the waters are gathered together; The floods stand upright as a heap, Congealed are the depths in the very heart of the sea. O sing ye to Jehovah, etc. Chorus by the women.

[¶13] Moses. Part III

[¶14] 9. The enemy said: 'I will pursue, I shall overtake; I shall divide the spoil, my soul shall be satiated with them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.'

[¶15] 10. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them; They sank as lead in the mighty waters.

[¶16] 11. Who is like thee among the gods, O Jehovah? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness!

[¶17] 12. Fearful in praises; performing wonders! Thou stretchest out thy right hand, the earth swalloweth them!

[¶18] 13. Thou in thy mercy leadest the people whom thou hast redeemed; Thou in thy strength guidest to the habitation of thy holiness! O sing ye to Jehovah, etc. Chorus by the women.

[¶19] Moses. Part IV

[¶20] 14. The nations have heard, and are afraid; Sorrow hath seized the inhabitants of Palestine.

[¶21] 15. Already are the dukes of Edom in consternation, And the mighty men of Moab, trembling hath seized them; All the inhabitants of Canaan do faint.

[¶22] 16. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; Through the greatness of thine arm they shall be still as a stone.

[¶23] 17. Till thy people, Jehovah, pass over [Jordan]; Till the people pass over whom thou hast redeemed.

[¶24] 18. Thou shalt bring them and plant them in the mount of thine inheritance: The place for thy rest which thou, Jehovah, hast made; The sanctuary, Jehovah, which thy hands have established.

[¶25] Grand Chorus by All.

[¶26] Jehovah for ever and ever shall reign."

[¶27] 1. When poetry is consecrated to the service of God, and employed as above to commemorate his marvellous acts, it then becomes a very useful handmaid to piety, and God is honored by his gifts. God inspired the song of Moses, and perhaps from this very circumstance it has passed for current among the most polished of the heathen nations, that a poet is a person Divinely inspired; and hence the epithet of προφητης, prophet, and vates, of the same import, was given them among the Greeks and Romans.

[¶28] 2. The song of Moses is a proof of the miraculous passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. There has been no period since the Hebrew nation left Egypt in which this song was not found among them, as composed on that occasion, and to commemorate that event. It may be therefore considered as completely authentic as any living witness could be who had himself passed through the Red Sea, and whose life had been protracted through all the intervening ages to the present day.

[¶29] 3. We have already seen that it is a song of triumph for the deliverance of the people of God, and that it was intended to point out the final salvation and triumph of the whole Church of Christ; so that in the heaven of heavens the redeemed of the Lord, both among the Jews and the Gentiles, shall unite together to sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. See [Rev 15:2-4]. Reader, implore the mercy of God to enable thee to make thy calling and election sure, that thou mayest bear thy part in this glorious and eternal triumph.

### Introduction

[¶31] The Israelites journey from Elim, and come to the wilderness of Sin, [Exo 16:1]. They murmur for lack of bread, [Exo 16:2], [Exo 16:3]. God promises to rain bread from heaven for them, [Exo 16:4], of which they were to collect a double portion on the sixth day, [Exo 16:5]. A miraculous supply of flesh in the evening and bread in the morning, promised, [Exo 16:6-9]. The glory of the Lord appears in the cloud, [Exo 16:10]. Flesh and bread promised as a proof of God's care over them, [Exo 16:11], [Exo 16:12]. Quails come and cover the whole camp, [Exo 16:13]. And a dew fell which left a small round substance on the ground, which Moses tells them was the bread which God had sent, [Exo 16:14], [Exo 16:15]. Directions for gathering it, [Exo 16:16]. The Israelites gather each an omer, [Exo 16:17], [Exo 16:18]. They are directed to leave none of it till the next day, [Exo 16:19]; which some neglecting, it become putrid, [Exo 16:20]. They gather it every morning, because it melted when the sun waxed hot, [Exo 16:21]. Each person gathers two omers on the sixth day, [Exo 16:22]. Moses commands them to keep the seventh as a Sabbath to the Lord, [Exo 16:23]. What was laid up for the Sabbath did not putrefy, [Exo 16:24]. Nothing of it fell on that day, hence the strict observance of the Sabbath was enjoined, [Exo 16:25-30]. The Israelites name the substance that fell with the dew manna; its appearance and taste described, [Exo 16:31]. An omer of the manna is commanded to be laid up for a memorial of Jehovah's kindness, [Exo 16:32-34]. The manna now sent continued daily for the space of forty years, [Exo 16:35]. How much an omer contained, [Exo 16:36].

### Verse 1

[¶33] The wilderness of Sin - This desert lies between Elim and Sinai, and from Elim, Dr. Shaw says, Mount Sinai can be seen distinctly. Mr. Ainsworth supposes that this wilderness had its name from a strong city of Egypt called Sin, near which it lay. See [Eze 30:15], [Eze 30:16]. Before they came to the wilderness of Sin, they had a previous encampment by the Red Sea after they left Elim, of which Moses makes distinct mention [Num 33:10], [Num 33:11].

[¶34] The fifteenth day of the second month - This was afterwards called Ijar, and they had now left Egypt one month, during which It is probable they lived on the provisions they brought with them from Rameses, though it is possible they might have had a supply from the seacoast. Concerning Mount Sinai, See Clarke's note on [Exo 19:1].

### Verse 2

[¶36] The whole congregation - murmured - This is an additional proof of the degraded state of the minds of this people; See Clarke's note on [Exo 13:17]. And this very circumstance affords a convincing argument that a people so stupidly carnal could not have been induced to leave Egypt had they not been persuaded so to do by the most evident and striking miracles. Human nature can never be reduced to a more abject state in this world than that in which the body is enthralled by political slavery, and the soul debased by the influence of sin. These poor Hebrews were both slaves and sinners, and were therefore capable of the meanest and most disgraceful acts.

### Verse 3

[¶38] The flesh pots - As the Hebrews were in a state of slavery in Egypt, they were doubtless fed in various companies by their task masters in particular places, where large pots or boilers were fixed for the purpose of cooking their victuals. To these there may be a reference in this place, and the whole speech only goes to prove that they preferred their bondage in Egypt to their present state in the wilderness; for they could not have been in a state of absolute want, as they had brought an abundance of flocks and herds with them out of Egypt.

### Verse 4

[¶40] I will rain bread - Therefore this substance was not a production of the desert: nor was the dew that was the instrument of producing it common there, else they must have had this bread for a month before.

### Verse 6

[¶42] Ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out - After all the miracles they had seen they appear still to suppose that their being brought out of Egypt was the work of Moses and Aaron; for though the miracles they had already seen were convincing for the time, yet as soon as they had passed by they relapsed into their former infidelity. God therefore saw it necessary to give them a daily miracle in the fall of the manna, that they might have the proof if his Divine interposition constantly before their eyes. Thus they knew that Jehovah had brought them out, and that it was not the act of Moses and Aaron.

### Verse 7

[¶44] Ye shall see the glory of the Lord - Does it not appear that the glory of the Lord is here spoken of as something distinct from the Lord? for it is said He (the glory) heareth your murmurings against the Lord; though the Lord may be here put for himself, the antecedent instead of the relative. This passage may receive some light from [Heb 1:3] : Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, etc. And as St. Paul's words are spoken of the Lord Jesus, is it not likely that the words of Moses refer to him also? "No man hath seen God at any time;" hence we may infer that Christ was the visible agent in all the extraordinary and miraculous interferences which took place both in the patriarchal times and under the law.

## 92. Exodus · 25 of 57

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### Verse 8

[¶1] In the evening flesh to eat - Viz., the quails; and in the morning bread to the full, viz., the manna.

[¶2] And what are we? - Only his servants, obeying his commands.

[¶3] Your murmurings are not against us - For we have not brought you up from Egypt; but against the Lord, who, by his own miraculous power and goodness, has brought you out of your slavery.

### Verse 9

[¶5] Come near before the Lord - This has been supposed to refer to some particular place, where the Lord manifested his presence. The great tabernacle was not yet built, but there appears to have been a small tabernacle or tent called the Tabernacle of the Congregation, which, after the sin of the golden calf, was always placed without the camp; see [Exo 33:7] : And Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it The Tabernacle of the Congregation; and it came to pass that every one that sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation, which was without the camp. This could not be that portable temple which is described Exodus 26, etc., and which was not set up till the first day of the first month of the second year, after their departure from Egypt, (Exodus 40)., which was upwards of ten months after the time mentioned in this chapter; and notwithstanding this, the Israelites are commanded ([Exo 16:34]) to lay up an omer of the manna before the testimony, which certainly refers to an ark, tabernacle, or some such portable shrine, already in existence. If the great tabernacle be intended, the whole account of laying up the manna must be introduced here by anticipation, Moses finishing the account of what was afterwards done, because the commencement of those circumstances which comprehended the reasons of the fact itself took place now. See Clarke's note on [Exo 16:34].

[¶6] But from the reasonings in the preceding verses it appears that much infidelity still reigned in the hearts of the people; and in order to convince them that it was God and not Moses that had brought them out of Egypt, he (Moses) desired them to come near, or pay particular attention to some extraordinary manifestation of the Lord. And we are told in the tenth verse, that "as Aaron spake unto them, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold the glory of the Lord appeared, and the Lord spake unto Moses," etc. Is not this passage explained by [Exo 19:9], "And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear, when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever?" May we not conclude that Moses invited them to come near before the Lord, and so witness his glory, that they might be convinced it was God and not he that led them out of Egypt, and that they ought to submit to him, and cease from their murmurings? It is said, [Exo 19:17], that Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. And in this instance there might have been a similar though less awful manifestation of the Divine presence.

### Verse 10

[¶8] As Aaron spake - So he now became the spokesman or minister of Moses to the Hebrews, as he had been before unto Pharaoh; according to what is written, [Exo 7:1], etc.

### Verse 13

[¶10] At even the quails came - שלו selav, from שלה salah, to be quiet, easy, or secure; and hence the quail, from their remarkably living at ease and plenty among the corn. "An amazing number of these birds," says Hasselquist, Travels, p. 209, "come to Egypt at this time, (March), for in this month the wheat ripens. They conceal themselves among the corn, but the Egyptians know that they are thieves, and when they imagine the field to be full of them they spread a net over the corn and make a noise, by which the birds, being frightened, and endeavoring to rise, are caught in the net in great numbers, and make a most delicate and agreeable dish." The Abb Pluche tells us, in his Histoire du Ciel, that the quail was among the ancient Egyptians the emblem of safety and security. "Several learned men, particularly the famous Ludolf, Bishop Patrick, and Scheuchzer, have supposed that the שלוים selavim eaten by the Israelites were locusts. But not to insist on other arguments against this interpretation, they are expressly called שאר sheer, flesh, [Psa 78:27], which surely locusts are not; and the Hebrew word is constantly rendered by the Septuagint ορτυγομητρα, a large kind of quail, and by the Vulgate coturnices, quails. Compare The Wisdom of Solomon 16:2, 19:12; [Num 11:31], [Num 11:32]; [Psa 105:40]; and on Numbers 11 observe that כאמתים keamathayim should be rendered, not two cubits high, but as Mr. Bate translates it, 'two cubits distant, (i.e., one from the other), for quails do not settle like the locusts one upon another, but at small distances.' And had the quails lain for a day's journey round the camp, to the great height of two cubits, upwards of three feet, the people could not have been employed two days and a night in gathering them. The spreading them round the camp was in order to dry them in the burning sands for use, which is still practiced in Egypt." See Parkhurst, sub voce שלה salah.

[¶11] The difficulties which encumber the text, supposing these to be quails, led Bishop Patrick to imagine them to be locusts. The difficulties are three: "1. Their coming by a wind. 2. Their immense quantities, covering a circle of thirty or forty miles, two cubits thick. 3. Their being spread in the sun for drying, which would have been preposterous had they been quails, for it would have made them corrupt the sooner; but this is the principal way of preparing locusts to keep for a month or more, when they are boiled or otherwise dressed." This difficulty he thinks interpreters pass over, who suppose quails to be intended in the text. Mr. Harmer takes up the subject, removes the bishop's difficulties, and vindicates the common version. "These difficulties appear pressing, or at least the two last; nevertheless, I have met with several passages in books of travels, which I shall here give an account of, that they may soften them; perhaps my reader may think they do more. "No interpreters, the bishop complains, supposing they were quails, account for the spreading them out in the sun. Perhaps they have not. Let me then translate a passage of Maillet, which relates to a little island which covers one of the ports of Alexandria: 'It is on this island, which lies farther into the sea than the main land of Egypt, that the birds annually alight which come hither for refuge in autumn, in order to avoid the severity of the cold of our winters in Europe. There is so large a quantity of all sorts taken there, that after these little birds have been stripped of their feathers, and buried in the burning sands for about half a quarter of an hour, they are worth but two sols the pound. The crews of those vessels which in that season lie in the harbour of Alexandria, have no other meat allowed them.' Among other refugees of that time, Maillet elsewhere expressly mentions quails, which are, therefore, I suppose, treated after this manner. This passage then does what, according to the bishop, no commentator has done; it explains the design of spreading these creatures, supposing they were quails, round about the camp; it was to dry them in the burning sands in order to preserve them for use. So Maillet tells us of their drying fish in the sun of Egypt, as well as of their preserving others by means of pickle. Other authors speak of the Arabs drying camel's flesh in the sun and wind, which, though it be not at all salted, will if kept dry remain good a long while, and which oftentimes, to save themselves the trouble of dressing, they will eat raw. This is what St. Jerome may be supposed to refer to, when he calls the food of the Arabs carnes semicrudae. This drying then of flesh in the sun is not so preposterous as the bishop imagined. On the other hand, none of the authors that speak of their way of preserving locusts in the east, so far as I at present recollect, give any account of drying them in the sun. They are, according to Pellow, first purged with water and salt, boiled in new pickle, and then laid up in dry salt. So, Dr. Russel says, the Arabs eat these insects when fresh, and also salt them up as a delicacy. Their immense quantities also forbid the bishop's believing they were quails; and in truth he represents this difficulty in all its force, perhaps too forcibly. A circle of forty miles in diameter, all covered with quails to the depth of more than forty-three inches, without doubt is a startling representation of this matter: and I would beg leave to add that the like quantity of locusts would have been very extraordinary: but then this is not the representation of Scripture; it does not even agree with it; for such a quantity of either quails or locusts would have made the clearing of places for spreading them out, and the passing of Israel up and down in the neighborhood of the camp, very fatiguing, which is not supposed. "Josephus supposed they were quails, which he says are in greater numbers thereabouts than any other kinds of birds; and that, having crossed the sea to the camp of Israel, they who in common fly nearer the ground than most other birds, flew so low through the fatigue of their passage as to be within reach of the Israelites. This explains what he thought was meant by the two cubits from the face of the earth - their flying within three or four feet of the ground. "And when I read Dr. Shaw's account of the way in which the Arabs frequently catch birds that they have tired, that is, by running in upon them and knocking them down with their zerwattys, or bludgeons, as we should call them, I think I almost see the Israelites before me pursuing the poor, fatigued, and languid quails. "This is indeed a laborious method of catching these birds, and not that which is now used in Egypt; for Egmont and Heyman tell us, that in a walk on the shore of Egypt they saw a sandy plain several leagues in extent, and covered with reeds without the least verdure; between which reeds they saw many nets laid for catching quails, which come over in large flights from Europe during the month of September. If the ancient Egyptians made use of the same method of catching quails that they now practice on those shores, yet Israel in the wilderness, without these conveniences, must of course make use of that more inartificial and laborious way of catching them. The Arabs of Barbary, who have not many conveniences, do the same thing still. "Bishop Patrick supposes a day's journey to be sixteen or twenty miles, and thence draws his circle with a radius of that length; but Dr. Shaw, on another occasion, makes a day's journey but ten miles, which would make a circle but of twenty miles in diameter: and as the text evidently designs to express it very indeterminately, as it were a day's journey, it might be much less. "But it does not appear to me at all necessary to suppose the text intended their covering a circular or nearly a circular spot of ground, but only that these creatures appeared on both sides of the camp of Israel, about a day's journey. The same word is used [Exo 7:24], where round about can mean only on each side of the Nile. And so it may be a little illustrated by what Dr. Shaw tells us of the three flights of storks which he saw, when at anchor under the Mount Carmel, some of which were more scattered, others more compact and close, each of which took up more than three hours in passing, and extended itself more than half a mile in breadth. Had this flight of quails been no greater than these, it might have been thought, like them, to have been accidental; but so unusual a flock as to extend fifteen or twenty miles in breadth, and to be two days and one night in passing, and this, in consequence of the declaration of Moses, plainly determined that the finger of God was there. "A third thing which was a difficulty with the bishop was their being brought with the wind. A hot southerly wind, it is supposed, brings the locusts; and why quails might not be brought by the instrumentality of a like wind, or what difficulty there is in that supposition, I cannot imagine. As soon as the cold is felt in Europe, Maillet tells us, turtles, quails, and other birds come to Egypt in great numbers; but he observed that their numbers were not so large in those years in which the winters were favorable in Europe; from whence he conjectured that it is rather necessity than habit which causes them to change their climate: if so, it appears that it is the increasing heat that causes their return, and consequently that the hot sultry winds from the south must have a great effect upon them, to direct their flight northwards. "It is certain that it is about the time that the south wind begins to blow in Egypt, which is in April, that many of these migratory birds return. Maillet, who joins quails and turtles together, and says that they appear in Egypt when the cold begins to be felt in Europe, does not indeed tell us when they return: but Thevenot may be said to do it; for after he had told his reader that they catch snipes in Egypt from January to March, he adds that in May they catch turtles, and that the turtlers return again in September; now as they go together southward in September, we may believe they return again northward much about the same time. Agreeably to which, Russel tells us that quails appear in abundance about Aleppo in spring and autumn. "If natural history were more perfect we might speak to this point with great distinctness; at present, however, it is so far from being an objection to their being quails that their coming was caused by a wind, that nothing is more natural. The same wind would in course occasion sickness and mortality among the Israelites, at least it does so in Egypt. The miraculousness then in this story does not lie in their dying, but the prophet's foretelling with exactness the coming of that wind, and in the prodigious numbers of the quails that came with it, together with the unusualness of the place, perhaps, where they alighted. "Nothing more remains to be considered but the gathering so large a quantity as ten omers by those that gathered fewest. But till that quantity is more precisely ascertained, it is sufficient to remark that this is only affirmed of those expert sportsmen among the people, who pursued the game two whole days and a whole night without intermission; and of them, and of them only, I presume it is to be understood that he that gathered fewest gathered ten omers. Hasselquist, who frequently expresses himself in the most dubious manner in relation to these animals, at other times is very positive that, if they were birds at all, they were a species of the quail different from ours, which he describes as very much resembling the 'red partridge, but as not being larger than the turtledove.' To this he adds, that 'the Arabians carry thousands of them to Jerusalem about Whitsuntide, to sell there,' p. 442. In another place he tells us 'It is found in Judea as well as in Arabia Petraea, and that he found it between Jordan and Jericho,' p. 203. One would imagine that Hasselquist means the scata, which is described by Dr. Russel, vol. ii., p. 194, and which he represents as brought to market at Aleppo in great numbers in May and June, though they are to be met with in all seasons. "A whole ass-load of them, he informs us, has often been taken at once shutting a clasping net, in the above-mentioned months, they are in such plenty." - Harmer vol. iv., p. 367.

### Verse 14

[¶13] Behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing - It appears that this small round thing fell with the dew, or rather the dew fell first, and this substance fell on it. The dew might have been intended to cool the ground, that the manna on its fall might not be dissolved; for we find from [Exo 16:21], that the heat of the sun melted it. The ground therefore being sufficiently cooled by the dew, the manna lay unmelted long enough for the Israelites to collect a sufficient quantity for their dally use.

### Verse 15

[¶15] They said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was - This is a most unfortunate translation, because it not only gives no sense, but it contradicts itself. The Hebrew מן הוא man hu, literally signifies, What is this? for, says the text, they wist not what it was, and therefore they could not give it a name. Moses immediately answers the question, and says, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. From [Exo 16:31] we learn that this substance was afterwards called מן man, probably in commemoration of the question they had asked on its first appearance. Almost all our own ancient versions translate the words, What is this?

[¶16] What this substance was we know not. It was nothing that was common to the wilderness. It is evident the Israelites never saw it before, for Moses says, [Deu 8:3], [Deu 8:16] : He fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; and it is very likely that nothing of the kind had ever been seen before; and by a pot of it being laid up in the ark, it is as likely that nothing of the kind ever appeared more, after the miraculous supply in the wilderness had ceased. It seems to have been created for the present occasion, and, like Him whom it typified, to have been the only thing of the kind, the only bread from heaven, which God ever gave to preserve the life of man, as Christ is the true bread that came down from heaven, and was given for the life of the world. See John 6:31-58.

### Verse 16

[¶18] An omer for every man - I shall here once for all give a short account of the measures of capacity among the Hebrews.

[¶19] Omer, עמר from the root amar, to press, squeeze, collect, and bind together; hence a sheaf of corn - a multitude of stalks pressed together. It is supposed that the omer, which contained about three quarts English, had its name from this circumstance; that it was the most contracted or the smallest measure of things dry known to the ancient Hebrews; for the קב kab, which was less, was not known till the reign of Jehoram, king of Israel, [2Kgs 6:25] - Parkhurst.

[¶20] The Ephah, אפה or איפה eiphah, from אפה aphah, to bake, because this was probably the quantity which was baked at one time. According to Bishop Cumberland the ephah contained seven gallons, two quarts, and about half a pint, wine measure; and as the omer was the tenth part of the ephah, [Exo 16:36], it must have contained about six pints English.

[¶21] The Kab, קב is said to have contained about the sixth part of a seah, or three pints and one third English.

[¶22] The Homer, חמר chomer, mentioned [Lev 27:16], was quite a different measure from that above, and is a different word in the Hebrew. The chomer was the largest measure of capacity among the Hebrews, being equal to ten baths or ephahs, amounting to about seventy-five gallons, three pints, English. See [Eze 45:11], [Eze 45:13], [Eze 45:14]. Goodwin supposes that this measure derived its name from חמר chamor, an ass, being the ordinary load of that animal.

[¶23] The Bath, בת, was the largest measure of capacity next to the homer, of which it was the tenth part. It was the same as the ephah, and consequently contained about seven gallons, two quarts, and half a pint, and is always used in Scripture as a measure of liquids.

[¶24] The Seah, סאה, was a measure of capacity for things dry, equal to about two gallons and a half English. See [2Kgs 7:1], [2Kgs 7:16], [2Kgs 7:18].

[¶25] The Hin, הין, according to Bishop Cumberland, was the one-sixth part of an ephah, and contained a little more than one gallon and two pints. See [Exo 29:40].

[¶26] The Log, לג, was the smallest measure of capacity for liquids among the Hebrews: it contained about three quarters of a pint. See [Lev 14:10], [Lev 14:12].

[¶27] Take ye - for them which are in his tents - Some might have been confined in their tents through sickness or infirmity, and charity required that those who were in health should gather a portion for them. For though the psalmist says, [Psa 105:37], There was not one feeble person among their tribes, this must refer principally to their healthy state when brought out of Egypt; for it appears that there were many infirm among them when attacked by the Amalekites. See Clarke's note on [Exo 17:8].

### Verse 17

[¶29] Some more, some less - According to their respective families, an omer for a man; and according to the number of infirm persons whose wants they undertook to supply.

### Verse 18

[¶31] He that gathered much had nothing over - Because his gathering was in proportion to the number of persons for whom he had to provide. And some having fewer, others more in family, and the gathering being in proportion to the persons who were to eat of it, therefore he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. Probably every man gathered as much as he could; and then when brought home and measured by an omer, if he had a surplus, it went to supply the wants of some other family that had not been able to collect a sufficiency, the family being large, and the time in which the manna might be gathered, before the heat of the day, not being sufficient to collect enough for so numerous a household, several of whom might be so confined as not to be able to collect for themselves. Thus there was an equality, and in this light the words of St. Paul, [2Cor 8:15], lead us to view the passage. Here the 36th verse should come in: Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

### Verse 19

[¶33] Let no man leave of it till the morning - For God would have them to take no thought for the morrow, and constantly to depend on him for their dally bread. And is not that petition in our Lord's prayer founded on this very circumstance, Give us day by day our daily bread?

### Verse 20

[¶35] It bred worms - Their sinful curiosity and covetousness led them to make the trial; and they had a mass of the most loathsome putrefaction for their pains. How gracious is God! He is continually rendering disobedience and sin irksome to the transgressor; that finding his evil ways to be unprofitable, he may return to his Maker, and trust in God alone.

### Verse 22

[¶37] On the sixth day they gathered twice as much - This they did that they might have a provision for the Sabbath, for on that day no manna fell, [Exo 16:26], [Exo 16:27]. What a convincing miracle was this! No manna fell on the Sabbath! Had it been a natural production it would have fallen on the Sabbath as at other times; and had there not been a supernatural influence to keep it sweet and pure, it would have been corrupted on the Sabbath as well as on other days. By this series of miracles God showed his own power, presence, and goodness, 1. In sending the manna on each of the six days; 2. In sending none on the seventh, or Sabbath; 3. In preserving it from putrefaction when laid up for the use of that day, though it infallibly corrupted if kept over night on any other day.

### Verse 23

[¶39] To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath - There is nothing either in the text or context that seems to intimate that the Sabbath was now first given to the Israelites, as some have supposed: on the contrary, it is here spoken of as being perfectly well known, from its having been generally observed. The commandment, it is true, may be considered as being now renewed; because they might have supposed that in their unsettled state in the wilderness they might have been exempted from the observance of it. Thus we find, 1. That when God finished his creation, he instituted the Sabbath; 2. When he brought the people out of Egypt, he insisted on the strict observance of it; 3. When he gave the Law, he made it a tenth part of the whole, such importance has this institution in the eyes of the Supreme Being! On the supposed change of the Sabbath from what we call Sunday to Saturday, effected on this occasion, See Clarke's note on [Deu 5:15].

### Verse 29

[¶41] Abide ye every man in his place - Neither go out to seek manna nor for any other purpose; rest at home and devote your time to religious exercises. Several of the Jews understood by place in the text, the camp, and have generally supposed that no man should go out of the place, i.e., the city, town, or village in which he resides, any farther than one thousand cubits, about an English mile, which also is called a Sabbath day's journey, [Act 1:12]; and so many cubits they consider the space round the city that constitutes its suburbs, which they draw from [Num 35:3], [Num 35:4]. Some of the Jews have carried the rigorous observance of the letter of this law to such a length, that in whatever posture they find themselves on the Sabbath morning when they awake, they continue in the same during the day; or should they be up and happen to fall, they refuse even to rise till the Sabbath be ended! Mr. Stapleton tells a story of one Rabbi Solomon, who fell into a slough on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, and refused to be pulled out, giving his reason in the following Leonine couplet: -

[¶42] Sabbatha sancta colo De stereore surgere nolo. "Out of this slough I will not rise

[¶43] For holy Sabbath day I prize."

[¶44] The Christians, finding him thus disposed determined he should honor their Sabbath in the same place, and actually kept the poor man in the slough all Sunday, giving their reasons in nearly the same way: -

## 93. Exodus · 26 of 57

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[¶0] Sabbatha nostra quidem, Solomon, celebrabis ibidem. "In the same slough, thou stubborn Jew,

[¶1] Our Sabbath day thou shalt spend too."

[¶2] This might have served to convince him of his folly, but certainly was not the likeliest way to convert him to Christianity.

[¶3] Fabyan, in his Chronicles, tells the following story of a case of this kind. "In this yere also (1259) fell that happe of the Iewe of Tewkysbury, which fell into a gonge upon the Satyrday, and wolde not for reverence of his sabbot day be pluckyd out; whereof heryng the Erle of Gloucetyr, that the Iewe dyd so great reverence to his sabbot daye, thought he wolde doo as moche unto his holy day, which was Sonday, and so kepte hym there tyll Monday, at whiche season he was foundyn dede." Then the earl of Gloucester murdered the poor man.

### Verse 31

[¶5] Called the name thereof Manna - See Clarke's note on [Exo 16:15].

### Verse 32

[¶7] To be kept for your generations - See Clarke's note on [Exo 16:9].

### Verse 34

[¶9] Laid it up before the testimony - The עדות eduth or testimony belonged properly to the tabernacle, but that was not yet built. Some are of opinion that the tabernacle, built under the direction of Moses, was only a renewal of one that had existed in the patriarchal times. See Clarke's note on [Exo 16:9]. The word signifies reference to something beyond itself; thus the tabernacle, the manna, the tables of stone, Aaron's rod, etc., all bore reference and testimony to that spiritual good which was yet to come, viz., Jesus Christ and his salvation.

### Verse 35

[¶11] The children of Israel did eat manna forty years - From this verse it has been supposed that the book of Exodus was not written till after the miracle of the manna had ceased. But these words might have been added by Ezra, who under the direction of the Divine Spirit collected and digested the different inspired books, adding such supplementary, explanatory, and connecting sentences, as were deemed proper to complete and arrange the whole of the sacred canon. For previously to his time, according to the universal testimony of the Jews, all the books of the Old Testament were found in an unconnected and dispersed state.

### Verse 36

[¶13] Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah - About six pints, English. See Clarke's note on [Exo 16:16]. The true place of this verse seems to be immediately after [Exo 16:18], for here it has no connection.

[¶14] 1. On the miracle of the manna, which is the chief subject in this chapter, a good deal has already been said in the preceding notes. The sacred historian has given us the most circumstantial proofs that it was a supernatural and miraculous supply; that nothing of the kind had ever been seen before, and probably nothing like it had ever afterwards appeared. That it was a type of our blessed Redeemer, and of the salvation which he has provided for man, there can be no doubt, for in this way it is applied by Christ himself; and from it we may gather this general conclusion, that salvation is of the Lord. The Israelites must have perished in the wilderness, had not God fed them with bread from heaven; and every human soul must have perished, had not Jesus Christ come down from heaven, and given himself for the life of the world.

[¶15] 2. God would have the Israelites continually dependent on himself for all their supplies; but he would make them, in a certain way, workers with him. He provided the manna; they gathered and ate it. The first was God's work; the latter, their own. They could not produce the manna, and God would not gather it for them. Thus the providence of God appears in such a way as to secure the co-operation of man. Though man should plant and water, yet it is God who giveth the increase. But if man neither plant nor water, God will give no increase. We cannot do God's work, and he will not do ours. Let us, therefore, both in things spiritual and temporal, be workers together with Him.

[¶16] 3. This daily supply of the manna probably gave rise to that petition, Give us to-day our daily bread. It is worthy of remark, 1. That what was left over night contrary to the command of God bred worms and stank; 2. That a double portion was gathered on the day preceding the Sabbath; 3. That this alone continued wholesome on the following day; and, 4. That none fell on the Sabbath! Hence we find that the Sabbath was considered a Divine institution previously to the giving of the Mosaic law; and that God continued to honor that day by permitting no manna to fall during its course. Whatever is earned on the Sabbath is a curse in a man's property. They who Will be rich, fall into temptation and into a snare, etc.; for, using illicit means to acquire lawful things, they bring God's curse upon themselves, and are drowned in destruction and perdition. Reader, dost thou work on the Sabbath to increase thy property? See thou do it not! Property acquired in this way will be a curse both to thee and to thy posterity.

[¶17] 4. To show their children and children's children what God had done for their fathers, a pot of manna was laid up before the testimony. We should remember our providential and gracious deliverances in such a way as to give God the praise of his own grace. An ungrateful heart is always associated with an unbelieving mind and an unholy life. Like Israel, we should consider with what bread God has fed our fathers, and see that we have the same; the same Christ - the bread of life, the same doctrines, the same ordinances, and the same religious experience. How little are we benefited by being Protestants, if we be not partakers of the Protestant faith! And how useless will even that faith be to us, if we hold the truth in unrighteousness. Our fathers had religion enough to enable them to burn gloriously for the truth of God! Reader, hast thou so much of the life of God in thy soul, that thou couldst burn to ashes at the stake rather than lose it? In a word, couldst thou be a martyr? Or hast thou so little grace to lose, that thy life would be more than an equivalent for thy loss? Where is the manna on which thy fathers fed?

### Introduction

[¶19] The Israelites journey from the wilderness of Sin to Rephidim, [Exo 17:1], where they murmur for lack of water, [Exo 17:2], [Exo 17:3]. Moses asks counsel of God, [Exo 17:4], who commands him to take his rod and smite the rock, [Exo 17:5], and promises that water should proceed from it for the people to drink, [Exo 17:6]. The place is called Massah and Meribah, [Exo 17:7]. The Amalekites attack Israel in Rephidim, [Exo 17:8]. Joshua is commanded to fight with them, [Exo 17:9]. Moses, Aaron, and Hur go to the top of a hill, and while Moses holds up his hands, the Israelites prevail; when he lets them down, Amalek prevails, [Exo 17:10], [Exo 17:11]. Moses, being weary, sits down, and Aaron and Hur hold up his hands, [Exo 17:12]. The Amalekites are totally routed, [Exo 17:13], and the event commanded to be recorded, [Exo 17:14]. Moses builds an altar, and calls it Jehovah-Nissi, [Exo 17:15]. Amalek is threatened with continual wars, [Exo 17:16].

### Verse 1

[¶21] Pitched in Rephidim - In [Num 33:12-14] it is said, that when the Israelites came from Sin they encamped in Dophkah, and next in Alush, after which they came to Rephidim. Here, therefore, two stations are omitted, probably because nothing of moment took place at either. See the notes on Numbers 33 (note).

### Verse 2

[¶23] Why chide ye with me? - God is your leader, complain to him; Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? As he is your leader, all your murmurings against me he considers as directed against himself; why therefore do ye tempt him? Has he not given you sufficient proofs that he can destroy his enemies and support his friends? And is he not among you to do you good? [Exo 17:7]. Why therefore do ye doubt his power and goodness, and thus provoke him to treat you as his enemies?

### Verse 3

[¶25] And the people murmured - The reader must not forget what has so often been noted relating to the degraded state of the minds of the Israelites. A strong argument however may be drawn from this in favor of their supernatural escape from Egypt. Had it been a scheme concerted by the heads of the people, provision would necessarily have been made for such exigencies as these. But as God chose to keep them constantly dependent upon himself for every necessary of life, and as they had Moses alone as their mediator to look to, they murmured against him when brought into straits and difficulties, regretted their having left Egypt, and expressed the strongest desire to return. This shows that they had left Egypt reluctantly; and as Moses and Aaron never appear to have any resources but those which came most evidently in a supernatural way, therefore the whole exodus or departure from Egypt proves itself to have been no human contrivance, but a measure concerted by God himself.

### Verse 6

[¶27] I will stand before thee there, upon the rock in Horeb - The rock, הצור hatstsur. It seems as if God had directed the attention of Moses to a particular rock, with which he was well acquainted; for every part of the mount and its vicinity must have been well known to Moses during the time he kept Jethro's flocks in those quarters. Dr. Priestley has left the following sensible observations upon this miracle: - "The luminous cloud, the symbol of the Divine presence, would appear on the rock, and Horeb was probably a part of the same mountain with Sinai. This supply of water, on Moses only striking the rock, where no water had been before nor has been since, was a most wonderful display of the Divine power. The water must have been in great abundance to supply two millions of persons, which excluded all possibility of artifice or imposture in the case. The miracle must also have been of some continuance, no doubt so long as they continued in that neighborhood, which was more than a year. There are sufficient traces of this extraordinary miracle remaining at this day. This rock has been visited, drawn, and described by Dr. Shaw, Dr. Pocock, and others; and holes and channels appear in the stone, which could only have been formed by the bursting out and running of the water. No art of man could have done it, if any motive could be supposed for the undertaking in such a place as this."

[¶28] This miracle has not escaped the notice of the ancient Greek poets. Callimachus represents Rhea bringing forth water from a rock in the same way, after the birth of Jupiter. Πληξεν ορος σκηπτρῳ, το δε οἱ δεχα πουλυ διεστη. Εκ δ' εχεεν μεγα χευμα.

[¶29] Hymn ad Jov., ver. 31. - With her scepter struck

[¶30] The yawning cliff; from its disparted height

[¶31] Adown the mount the gushing torrent ran.

[¶32] Prior.

[¶33] The rock mentioned above has been seen and described by Norden, p. 144, 8vo.; Dr. Shaw, p. 314, 4th., where there is an accurate drawing of it; Dr. Pocock, vol. i., p. 143, etc., where the reader may find some fine plates of Mount Horeb and Sinai, and four different views of the wonderful rock of Meribah. It is a vast block of red granite, fifteen feet long, ten broad, and twelve high. See Dr. Shaw's account at the end of Exodus. My nephew, who visited this rock in 1823, confirms the account of the preceding travelers, and has brought a piece of this wonderful stone. The granite is fine, and the quartz mica, and feldspar equally mixed in it. This rock or block of granite is the only type of Christ now existing.

### Verse 7

[¶35] He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah - מסה Massah signifies temptation or trial; and מריבה Meribah, contention or litigation. From [1Cor 10:4], we learn that this rock was a type of Christ, and their drinking of it is represented as their being made partakers of the grace and mercy of God through Christ Jesus; and yet many who drank fell and perished in the wilderness in the very act of disobedience! Reader, be not high minded, but fear! On the smiting of the rock by the rod of Moses, Mr. Ainsworth has the following pious note: "This rock signified Christ, and is therefore called a spiritual Rock, [1Cor 10:4]. He being smitten with Moses's rod, and bearing the curse of the law for our sins, and by the preaching of the Gospel crucified among his people, [Gal 3:1], from him floweth the spiritual drink wherewith all believing hearts are refreshed." [Joh 7:37], and [Isa 53:1-3].

### Verse 8

[¶37] Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel - The Amalekites seem to have attacked the Israelites in the same way and through the same motives that the wandering Arabs attack the caravans which annually pass through the same desert. It does not appear that the Israelites gave them any kind of provocation, they seem to have attacked them merely through the hopes of plunder. The Amalekites were the posterity of Amalek, one of the dukes of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, and consequently Israel's brother, [Gen 36:15], [Gen 36:16].

[¶38] Fought with Israel - In the most treacherous and dastardly manner; for they came at the rear of the camp, smote the hindmost of the people, even all that were feeble behind, when they were faint and weary; see [Deu 25:18]. The baggage, no doubt, was the object of their avarice; but finding the women, children, aged and infirm persons, behind with the baggage, they smote them and took away their spoils.

### Verse 9

[¶40] Moses said unto Joshua - This is the first place in which Joshua the son of Nun is mentioned: the illustrious part which he took in Jewish affairs, till the settlement of his countrymen in the promised land, is well known. He was captain-general of the Hebrews under Moses; and on this great man's death he became his successor in the government. Joshua was at first called Hoshea, [Num 13:16], and afterwards called Joshua by Moses. Both in the Septuagint and Greek Testament he is called Jesus: the name signifies Savior; and he is allowed to have been a very expressive type of our blessed Lord. He fought with and conquered the enemies of his people, brought them into the promised land, and divided it to them by lot. The parallel between him and the Savior of the world is too evident to require pointing out.

[¶41] Top of the hill - Probably some part of Horeb or Sinai, to which they were then near.

### Verse 10

[¶43] Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up - It is likely that the Hur mentioned here is the same with that Hur mentioned [1Chr 2:19], who appears from the chronology in that chapter to have been the son of Caleb, the son of Ezron, the son of Pharez, the son of Judah. The rabbins and Josephus say he was the brother-in-law of Moses, having married his sister Miriam. He was a person in whom Moses put much confidence; for he left him conjoint governor of the people with Aaron, when he went to confer with God on the mount, [Exo 24:14]. His grandson Bezaleel was the chief director in the work of the tabernacle; see [Exo 31:2-5].

## 94. Exodus · 27 of 57

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### Verse 11

[¶1] When Moses held up his hand - We cannot understand this transaction in any literal way; for the lifting up or letting down the hands of Moses could not, humanly speaking, influence the battle. It is likely that he held up the rod of God in his hand, [Exo 17:9], as an ensign to the people. We have already seen that in prayer the hands were generally lifted up and spread out, (See Clarke's note on [Exo 9:29]), and therefore it is likely that by this act prayer and supplication are intended. The Jerusalem Targum says, "When Moses held up his hands in prayer, the house of Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hands from prayer, the house of Amalek prevailed." We may therefore conclude, that by holding up the hands in this case these two things were intended:

[¶2] 1. That hereby a reference was made to God, as the source whence all help and protection must come, and that on him alone they must depend.

[¶3] 2. That prayer and supplication to God are essentially necessary to their prevalence over all their enemies.

[¶4] It is indisputably true that, while the hands are stretched out, that is, while the soul exerts itself in prayer and supplication to God, we are sure to conquer our spiritual adversaries; but if our hands become heavy - if we restrain prayer before God, Amalek will prevail - every spiritual foe, every internal corruption, will gain ground. Several of the fathers consider Moses, with his stretched-out hands, as a figure of Christ on the cross, suffering for mankind, and getting a complete victory over sin and Satan.

### Verse 13

[¶6] Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people - Amalek might have been the name of the ruler of this people continued down from their ancestor, (see Clarke on [Exo 17:8] (note)), as Pharaoh was the name of all succeeding kings in Egypt. If this were the case, then Amalek and his people mean the prince and the army that fought under him. But if Amalek stand here for the Amalekites, then his people must mean the confederates he had employed on this occasion.

### Verse 14

[¶8] Write this for a memorial in a book - This is the first mention of writing on record: what it signified, or how it was done, we cannot tell. But it is evident that either this passage is introduced here instead of [Deu 25:17], by way of anticipation, or that by the words כתב שפר kethob and sepher was intended only a monumental declaration of the defeat of Amalek by Joshua, by some action or symbolical representation; for it is immediately subjoined, "And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi." See Dr. A. Bayley, and see the note on Exodus 30 (note). It is very likely that the first regular alphabetical writing in the world was that written by the finger of God himself on the two tables of stone. What is said here was probably by way of anticipation, or means some other method of registering events than by alphabetical characters, if we allow that God gave the first specimen of regular writing on the tables of stone, which did not take place till some time after this.

[¶9] Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua - Thus showing that Joshua was to succeed Moses, and that this charge should be given to every succeeding governor.

[¶10] I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek - This threatening was accomplished by Saul, [1Sam 15:3], etc.; four hundred and twelve years after. Judgment is God's strange work; but it must take place when the sins which incensed it are neither repented of nor forsaken. This people, by their continued transgressions, proved themselves totally unworthy of a political existence; and therefore said God to Saul, Go, and utterly destroy the Sinners the Amalekites; [1Sam 15:18]. So their continuance in sin was the cause of their final destruction.

### Verse 15

[¶12] Jehovah-nissi - Jehovah is my ensign or banner. The hands and rod of Moses were held up as soldiers are wont to hold up their standards in the time of battle; and as these standards bear the arms of the country, the soldiers are said to fight under that banner, i.e., under the direction and in the defense of that government. Thus the Israelites fought under the direction of God, and in the defense of his truth; and therefore the name of Jehovah became the armorial bearing of the whole congregation. By his direction they fought, and in his name and strength they conquered; each one feeling himself, not his own, but the Lord's soldier.

### Verse 16

[¶14] The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek, etc. - This is no translation of the words כי יד על כס יה מלחמה ki yad al kes yah milckamah, which have been variously rendered by different translators and critics; the most rational version of which is the following: Because the hand of Amalek is against the throne of God, therefore will I have war with Amalek from generation to generation. This gives a tolerably consistent sense, yet still there is considerable obscurity in the passage. Houbigant, a most judicious though bold critic, supposes that, as יהוה נסי Jehovah-nissi, Jehovah my ensign, was spoken of immediately before, כס kes, a throne, in this verse, is an error of some transcriber for נס nes, an ensign, which might be readily occasioned by the great similarity between the כ caph and the נ nun. He thinks farther that the two letters יה yah, which are supposed to be here a contraction of the word יהוה Yehovah, are separated, the י yod from the נס nes, which should be written נשי nissi, and the ה he, from מלחמה milchamah, which should be written המלחמה hammilchamah, and then the whole verse will run thus: For the hand shall be upon the ensigns of war unto the Lord, against Amalek for ever, i.e., God makes now a declaration of war against the Amalekites, which shall continue till their final destruction. The conjecture of Mr. Julius Bate, in his Literal Translation of the Pentateuch, deserves attention. He supposes that, as כס cos signifies a cup, and a cup is emblematically used for wrath, on one of the stones of the altar, mentioned in the preceding verse, a hand holding a cup was sculptured, this being a memorial, according to the custom of hieroglyphical writing, that the Lord would continue the cup of wrath, portending continual war, against Amalek for ever. I prefer Houbigant's exposition.

[¶15] 1. This first victory of Israel must have inspired them with a considerable measure of confidence in God, and in his servant Moses. Though God alone could give them the victory, yet it was necessary to show them that it was by the influence of Moses they got it. Moses could not deliver Amalek into their hands; yet if Moses did not continue to hold up his hands, i.e., to pray, Amalek must prevail. God, therefore, wrought this work in such a way as to instruct the people, promote his own glory, and secure the true honor of his servant. The Divine Being always performs the greatest number possible of ends, by the fewest and simplest means. In every work of God there is as much of wisdom and economy, as there is of sovereign uncontrolled power.

[¶16] 2. It is not probable that the people whom Joshua chose out to lead against Amalek were unarmed; and we have already seen that it is not at all likely that they came armed out of Egypt. And as the whole circumstances of this case show that those who fought against the Amalekites were properly equipped for the fight, we may then safely presume that they got their arms from the Egyptians, whose bodies were thrown on the shore after having been overwhelmed in the Red Sea. Thus, what was a judgment in the one case, was a most gracious providence in the other. Judgment on God's foes is mercy to his friends.

[¶17] 3. Of the efficacy of prayer we have already had the most striking examples. He who has the spirit of prayer, has the highest interest in the court of heaven; and the only way to retain it, is to keep it in constant employment. Apostasy begins in the closet: no man ever backslid from the life and power of Christianity who continued constant and fervent, especially in private prayer. He who prays without ceasing is likely to rejoice evermore.

### Introduction

[¶19] Jethro, called the father-in-law of Moses, hearing of the deliverance which God had granted to Israel, [Exo 18:1], took Zipporah and her two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, and brought them to Moses, when the Israelites were encamped near Horeb, [Exo 18:2-5]. He sends to Moses, announcing his arrival, [Exo 18:6]. Moses goes out to meet him, [Exo 18:7], and gives him a history of God's dealings with the Israelites, [Exo 18:8]. Jethro greatly rejoices, and makes striking observations on the power and goodness of God, [Exo 18:9-11]. He offers burnt-offerings and sacrifices to Jehovah, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel feast with him, [Exo 18:12]. The next day Jethro, observing how much Moses was fatigued by being obliged to sit as judge and hear causes from morning to evening, [Exo 18:13], inquires why he did so, [Exo 18:14]. Moses answers, and shows that he is obliged to determine causes between man and man, and to teach them the statutes and laws of God, [Exo 18:15], [Exo 18:16]. Jethro finds fault, and counsels him to appoint men who fear God, love truth, and hate covetousness, to be judges over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, to judge and determine in all smaller matters, and refer only the greater and most important to himself, [Exo 18:17-22]; and shows that this plan will be advantageous both to himself and to the people, [Exo 18:23]. Moses hearkens to the counsel of Jethro, and appoints proper officers over the people, who enter upon their functions, determine all minor causes, and refer only the most difficult to Moses, [Exo 18:24-26]. Moses dismisses Jethro, who returns to his own country, [Exo 18:27].

### Verse 1

[¶21] When Jethro, the priest of Midian, etc. - Concerning this person and his several names, See Clarke's note on [Exo 2:15], See Clarke's note on [Exo 2:16], See Clarke's note on [Exo 2:18], See Clarke's note on [Exo 3:1], See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:20], See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:24]. Jethro was probably the son of Reuel, the father-in-law of Moses, and consequently the brother-in-law of Moses; for the word חתן chothen, which we translate father-in-law, in this chapter means simply a relative by marriage. See Clarke's note on [Exo 3:1].

### Verse 2

[¶23] After he had sent her back - Why Zipporah and her two sons returned to Midian, is not certainly known. From the transaction recorded [Exo 4:20], [Exo 4:24], it seems as if she had been alarmed at the danger to which the life of one of her sons had been exposed, and fearing worse evils, left her husband and returned to her father. It is however possible that Moses, foreseeing the troubles to which his wife and children were likely to be exposed had he taken them down to Egypt, sent them back to his father-in-law till it should please God to deliver his people.

[¶24] Jethro, now finding that God had delivered them, and totally discomfited the Egyptians, their enemies, thought it proper to bring Zipporah and her sons to Moses, while he was in the vicinity of Horeb.

### Verse 3

[¶26] The name of the one was Gershom - See Clarke's note on [Exo 2:22].

### Verse 5

[¶28] Jethro - came with his sons - There are several reasons to induce us to believe that the fact related here is out of its due chronological order, and that Jethro did not come to Moses till the beginning of the second year of the exodus, (see [Num 10:11]), some time after the tabernacle had been erected, and the Hebrew commonwealth established, both in things civil and ecclesiastical. This opinion is founded on the following reasons: -

[¶29] 1. On this verse, where it is said that Jethro came to Moses while he was encamped at the mount of God. Now it appears, from [Exo 19:1], [Exo 19:2], that they were not yet come to Horeb, the mount of God, and that they did not arrive there till the third month after their departure from Egypt; and the transactions with which this account is connected certainly took place in the second month; see [Exo 16:1].

[¶30] 2. Moses, in [Deu 1:6], [Deu 1:9], [Deu 1:10], [Deu 1:12-15], relates that when they were about to depart from Horeb, which was on the 20th day of the second month of the second year from their leaving Egypt, that he then complained that he was not able to bear the burden alone of the government of a people so numerous; and that it was at that time that he established judges and captains over thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens, which appears to be the very transaction recorded in this place; the measure itself being recommended by Jethro, and done in consequence of his advice.

[¶31] 3. From [Num 10:11], [Num 10:29], etc., we find that when the cloud was taken up, and the Israelites were about to depart from Horeb, that Moses addressed Hobab, who is supposed to have been the same as Jethro, and who then was about to return to Midian, his own country, entreating him to stay with them as a guide while they traveled through the wilderness. It therefore seems necessary that the transaction recorded in this chapter should be inserted Numbers 10 between the 10th and 11th verses. [Num 10:10-11].

[¶32] 4. It has been remarked, that shortly after they had departed from Sinai the dispute took place between Miriam, Aaron, and Moses, concerning the Ethiopian woman Zipporah whom he had married, (see [Num 12:1], etc.); and this is supposed to have taken place shortly after she had been brought back by Jethro.

[¶33] 5. In the discourse between Moses and Jethro, mentioned in this chapter, we find that Moses speaks of the statutes and laws of the Lord as things already revealed and acknowledged, which necessarily implies that these laws had already been given, ([Exo 18:16]), which we know did not take place till several months after the transactions mentioned in the preceding chapters.

[¶34] 6. Jethro offers burnt-offerings and sacrifices to God apparently in that way in which they were commanded in the law. Now the law respecting burnt-offerings was not given till after the transactions mentioned here, unless we refer this chapter to a time posterior to that in which it appears in this place. See Clarke's note on [Exo 18:12].

[¶35] From all these reasons, but particularly from the two first and the two last, it seems most likely that this chapter stands out of its due chronological order, and therefore I have adjusted the chronology in the margin to the time in which, from the reasons above alleged, I suppose these transactions to have taken place; but the matter is not of much importance, and the reader is at liberty to follow the common opinion. As Moses had in the preceding chapter related the war with Amalek and the curse under which they were laid, he may be supposed to have introduced here the account concerning Jethro the Midianite, to show that he was free from that curse, although the Midianites and the Kenites, the family of Jethro, were as one people, dwelling with the Amalekites. See [Jdg 1:16]; [1Chr 2:55]; [1Sam 15:6]. For although the Kenites were some of those people whose lands God had promised to the descendants of Abraham, (see [Gen 15:18], [Gen 15:19]), yet, in consideration of Jethro, the relative of Moses, all of them who submitted to the Hebrews were suffered to live in their own country; the rest are supposed to have taken refuge among the Edomites and Amalekites. See Calmet, Locke, etc.

### Verse 6

[¶37] And he said unto Moses - That is, by a messenger; in consequence of which Moses went out to meet him, as is stated in the next verse, for an interview had not yet taken place. This is supported by reading הנה hinneh, behold, for אני ani, I, which is the reading of the Septuagint and Syriac, and several Samaritan MSS.; instead therefore of I, thy father, we should read, Behold thy father, etc. - Kennicott's Remarks.

### Verse 7

[¶39] And did obeisance - וישתחו vaiyishtachu, he bowed himself down, (See Clarke's note on [Gen 17:3], and See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:31]); this was the general token of respect. And kissed him; the token of friendship. And they asked each other of their welfare; literally, and they inquired, each man of his neighbor, concerning peace or prosperity; the proof of affectionate intercourse. These three things constitute good breeding and politeness, accompanied with sincerity.

[¶40] And they came into the tent - Some think that the tabernacle is meant, which it is likely had been erected before this time; see Clarke's note on [Exo 18:5]. Moses might have thought proper to take his relative first to the house of God, before he brought him to his own tent.

### Verse 9

[¶42] And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness - Every part of Jethro's conduct proves him to have been a religious man and a true believer. His thanksgiving to Jehovah ([Exo 18:10]) is a striking proof of it; he first blesses God for the preservation of Moses, and next for the deliverance of the people from their bondage.

### Verse 11

[¶44] Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods - Some think that Jethro was now converted to the true God; but it is very probable that he enjoyed this blessing before he knew any thing of Moses, for it is not likely that Moses would have entered into an alliance with this family had they been heathens. Jethro no doubt had the true patriarchal religion.

[¶45] Wherein they dealt proudly - Acting as tyrants over the people of God; enslaving them in the most unprincipled manner, and still purposing more tyrannical acts. He was above them - he showed himself to be infinitely superior to all their gods, by the miracles which he wrought. Various translations have been given of this clause; the above I believe to be the sense.

## 95. Exodus · 28 of 57

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Jethro - took a burnt-offering - עלה olah. Though it be true that in the patriarchal times we read of a burnt-offering, (see [Gen 22:2], etc)., yet we only read of one in the case of Isaac, and therefore, though this offering made by Jethro is not a decisive proof that the law relative to burnt-offerings, etc., had already been given, yet, taken with other circumstances in this account, it is a presumptive evidence that the meeting between Moses and Jethro took place after the erection of tabernacle. See Clarke's note on [Exo 18:5].

[¶2] Sacrifices for God - זבחים zebachim, slain beasts, as the word generally signifies. We have already seen that sacrifices were instituted by God himself as soon as sin entered into our world; and we see that they were continued and regularly practiced among all the people who had the knowledge of the only true God, from that time until they became a legal establishment. Jethro, who was a priest, ([Exo 2:16]), had a right to offer these sacrifices; nor can there be a doubt of his being a worshipper of the true God, for those Kenites, from whom the Rechabites came, were descended from him; [1Chr 2:55]. See also Jeremiah 35.

[¶3] And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel to eat bread - The burnt-offering was wholly consumed; every part was considered as the Lord's portion, and therefore it was entirely burnt up. The other sacrifices mentioned here were such that, after the blood had been poured out before God, the officers and assistants might feed on the flesh. Thus, in ancient times, contracts were made and covenants sealed; See Clarke's note on [Gen 15:13], etc. It is very likely, therefore, that the sacrifices offered on this occasion, were those on the flesh of which Aaron and the elders of Israel feasted with Jethro.

[¶4] Before God - Before the tabernacle, where God dwelt; for it is supposed that the tabernacle was now erected. See Clarke's note on [Exo 18:5]; and see [Deu 12:5-7], and [1Chr 29:21], [1Chr 29:22], where the same form of speech, before the Lord, is used, and plainly refers to his manifested presence in the tabernacle.

### Verse 13

[¶6] To judge the people - To hear and determine controversies between man and man, and to give them instruction in things appertaining to God.

[¶7] From the morning unto the evening - Moses was obliged to sit all day, and the people were continually coming and going.

### Verse 15

[¶9] The people come unto me to inquire of God - To know the mind and will of God on the subject of their inquiries. Moses was the mediator between God and the people; and as they believed that all justice and judgment must come from him, therefore they came to Moses to know what God had spoken.

### Verse 16

[¶11] I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws - These words are so very particular that they leave little room for doubt that the law had been given. Such words would scarcely have been used had not the statutes and laws been then in existence. And this is one of the proofs that the transaction mentioned here stands out of its due chronological order; See Clarke's note on [Exo 18:5].

### Verse 18

[¶13] Thou wilt surely wear away - נבל תבל nabol tibbol, in wearing way, thou wilt wear away - by being thus continually employed, thou wilt soon become finally exhausted. And this people that is with thee; as if he had said, "Many of them are obliged to wait so long for the determination of their suit that their patience must be soon necessarily worn out, as there is no one to hear every cause but thyself."

### Verse 19

[¶15] I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee - Jethro seems to have been a man of great understanding and prudence. His advice to Moses was most appropriate and excellent; and it was probably given under the immediate inspiration of God, for after such sacrificial rites, and public acknowledgment of God, the prophetic spirit might be well expected to descend and rest upon him. God could have showed Moses the propriety and necessity of adopting such measures before, but he chose in this case to help man by man, and in the present instance a permanent basis was laid to consolidate the union of the two families, and prevent all future misunderstandings.

### Verse 20

[¶17] Thou shalt teach them ordinances - חקים chukkim, all such precepts as relate to the ceremonies of religion and political economy. And laws, התורת hattoroth, the instructions relative to the whole system of morality.

[¶18] And shalt show them the way - אה הדרך eth hadderech, That very Way, that only way, which God himself has revealed, and in which they should walk in order to please him, and get their souls everlastingly saved.

[¶19] And the work that they must do - For it was not sufficient that they should know their duty both to God and man, but they must Do it too; יעשון yaasun, they must do it diligently, fervently, effectually; for the paragogic nun deepens and extends the meaning of the verb.

[¶20] What a very comprehensive form of a preacher's duty does this verse exhibit! 1. He must instruct the people in the nature, use, and importance of the ordinances of religion. 2. He must lay before them the whole moral law, and their obligations to fulfill all its precepts. 3. He must point out to each his particular duty, and what is expected of him in his situation, connections, etc. And, 4. He must set them all their work, and see that they do it. On such a plan as this he will have full opportunity to show the people, 1. Their sin, ignorance, and folly; 2. The pure and holy law which they have broken, and by which they are condemned; 3. The grace of God that bringeth salvation, by which they are to be justified and finally saved; and, 4. The necessity of showing their faith by their works; not only denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, but living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

### Verse 21

[¶22] Able men - Persons of wisdom, discernment, judgment, prudence, and fortitude; for who can be a ruler without these qualifications? Such as fear God - Who are truly religious, without which they will feel little concerned either for the bodies or souls of the people.

[¶23] Men of truth - Honest and true in their own hearts and lives; speaking the truth, and judging according to the truth.

[¶24] Hating covetousness - Doing all for God's sake, and love to man; laboring to promote the general good; never perverting judgment, or suppressing the testimonies of God, for the love of money or through a base, man-pleasing spirit, but expecting their reward from the mercy of God in the resurrection of the just.

[¶25] Rulers of thousands, etc. - Millenaries, centurions, quinquagenaries, and decurions; each of these, in all probability, dependent on that officer immediately above himself. So the decurion, or ruler over ten, if he found a matter too hard for him, brought it to the quinquagenary, or ruler of fifty; if, in the course of the exercise of his functions, he found a cause too complicated for him to decide on, he brought it to the centurion, or ruler over a hundred. In like manner the centurion brought his difficult case to the millenary, or ruler over a thousand; the case that was too hard for him to judge, he brought to Moses; and the case that was too hard for Moses, he brought immediately to God. It is likely that each of these classes had a court composed of its own members, in which causes were heard and tried. Some of the rabbins have supposed that there were 600 rulers of thousands, 6000 rulers of hundreds, 12,000 rulers of fifties and 60,000 rulers of tens; making in the whole 78,600 officers. But Josephus says (Antiq., lib. iii., chap. 4) that Moses, by the advice of Jethro, appointed rulers over myriads, and then over thousands; these he divided into five hundreds, and again into hundreds, and into fifties; and appointed rulers over each of these, who divided them into thirties, and at last into twenties and tens; that each of these companies had a chief, who took his name from the number of persons who were under his direction and government. Allowing what Josephus states to be correct, some have supposed that there could not have been less than 129,860 officers in the Israelitish camp. But such computations are either fanciful or absurd. That the people were divided into thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens, we know, for the text states it, but we cannot tell precisely how many of such divisions there were, nor, consequently, the number of officers.

### Verse 23

[¶27] If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee - Though the measure was obviously of the utmost importance, and plainly recommended itself by its expediency and necessity; yet Jethro very modestly leaves it to the wisdom of Moses to choose or reject it; and, knowing that in all things his relative was now acting under the immediate direction of God, intimates that no measure can be safely adopted without a positive injunction from God himself. As the counsel was doubtless inspired by the Divine Spirit, we find that it was sanctioned by the same, for Moses acted in every respect according to the advice he had received.

### Verse 27

[¶29] And Moses let his father-in-law depart - But if this be the same transaction with that mentioned [Num 10:29], etc., we find that it was with great reluctance that Moses permitted so able a counsellor to leave him; for, having the highest opinion of his judgment, experience, and discretion, he pressed him to stay with them, that he might be instead of eyes to them in the desert. But Jethro chose rather to return to his own country, where probably his family were so settled and circumstanced that they could not be conveniently removed, and it was more his duty to stay with them, to assist them with his counsel and advice, than to travel with the Israelites. Many others might be found that could be eyes to the Hebrews in the desert, but no man could be found capable of being a father to his family, but himself. It is well to labor for the public good, but our own families are the first claimants on our care, attention, and time. He who neglects his own household on pretense of laboring even for the good of the public, has surely denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

[¶30] It is strange that after this we hear no more of Zipporah! Why is she forgotten? Merely because she was the wife of Moses; for he chose to conduct himself so that to the remotest ages there should be the utmost proofs of his disinterestedness. While multitudes or the families of Israel are celebrated and dignified, his own he writes in the dust. He had no interest but that of God and his people; to promote this, he employed his whole time and his uncommon talents. His body, his soul, his whole life, were a continual offering to God. They were always on the Divine altar; and God had from his creature all the praise, glory, and honor that a creature could possibly give. Like his great antitype, he went about doing good; and God was with him. The zeal of God's house consumed him, for in that house, in all its concerns, we have the testimony of God himself that he was faithful, [Heb 3:2]; and a higher character was never given, nor can be given of any governor, sacred or civil. He made no provision even for his own sons, Gershom and Eliezer; they and their families were incorporated with the Levites, [1Chr 23:14]; and had no higher employment than that of taking care of the tabernacle and the tent, [Num 3:21-26], and merely to serve at the tabernacle and to carry burdens, [Num 4:24-28]. No history, sacred or profane, has been able to produce a complete parallel to the disinterestedness of Moses. This one consideration is sufficient to refute every charge of imposture brought against him and his laws. There never was an imposture in the world (says Dr. Prideaux, Letter to the Deists) that had not the following characters: -

[¶31] 1. It must always have for its end some carnal interest.

[¶32] 2. It can have none but wicked men for its authors.

[¶33] 3. Both of these must necessarily appear in the very contexture of the imposture itself.

[¶34] 4. That it can never be so framed, that it will not contain some palpable falsities, which will discover the falsity of all the rest.

[¶35] 5. That wherever it is first propagated, it must be done by craft and fraud.

[¶36] 6. That when entrusted to many persons, it cannot be long concealed.

[¶37] 1. The keenest-eyed adversary of Moses has never been able to fix on him any carnal interest. No gratification of sensual passions, no accumulation of wealth, no aggrandizement of his family or relatives, no pursuit of worldly honor, has ever been laid to his charge.

[¶38] 2. His life was unspotted, and all his actions the offspring of the purest benevolence.

[¶39] 3. As his own hands were pure, so were the hands of those whom he associated with himself in the work.

[¶40] 4. No palpable falsity has ever been detected in his writings, though they have for their subject the most complicate, abstruse, and difficult topics that ever came under the pen of man.

[¶41] 5. No craft, no fraud, not even what one of his own countrymen thought he might lawfully use, innocent guile, because he had to do with a people greatly degraded and grossly stupid, can be laid to his charge. His conduct was as open as the day; and though continually watched by a people who were ever ready to murmur and rebel, and industrious to find an excuse for their repeated seditious conduct, yet none could be found either in his spirit, private life, or public conduct.

[¶42] 6. None ever came after to say, "We have joined with Moses in a plot, we have feigned a Divine authority and mission, we have succeeded in our innocent imposture, and now the mask may be laid aside." The whole work proved itself so fully to be of God that even the person who might wish to discredit Moses and his mission, could find no ground of this kind to stand on. The ten plagues of Egypt, the passage of the Red Sea, the destruction of the king of Egypt and his immense host, the quails, the rock of Horeb, the supernatural supply by the forty years' manna, the continual miracle of the Sabbath, on which the preceding day's manna kept good, though, if thus kept, it became putrid on any other day, together with the constantly attending supernatural cloud, in its threefold office of a guide by day, a light by night, and a covering from the ardours of the sun, all invincibly proclaim that God brought out this people from Egypt; that Moses was the man of God, chosen by him, and fully accredited in his mission; and that the laws and statutes which he gave were the offspring of the wisdom and goodness of Him who is the Father of Lights, the fountain of truth and justice, and the continual and unbounded benefactor of the human race.

### Introduction

[¶44] The children of Israel, having departed from Rephidim, come to the wilderness of Sinai in the third month, [Exo 19:1], [Exo 19:2]. Moses goes up into the mount to God, and receives a message which he is to deliver to the people, [Exo 19:3-6]. He returns and delivers it to the people before the elders, [Exo 19:7]. The people promise obedience, [Exo 19:8]. The Lord proposes to meet Moses in the cloud, [Exo 19:9]. He commands him to sanctify the people, and promises to come down visibly on Mount Sinai on the third day, [Exo 19:10], [Exo 19:11]. He commands him also to set bounds, to prevent the people or any of the cattle from touching the mount, on pain of being stoned or shot through with a dart, [Exo 19:12], [Exo 19:13]. Moses goes down and delivers this message, [Exo 19:14], [Exo 19:15]. The third day is ushered in with the appearance of the thick cloud upon the mount, and with thunders, lightning, and the sound of a trumpet! at which the people are greatly terrified, [Exo 19:16]

## 96. Exodus · 29 of 57

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### Verse 1

[¶1] In the third month - This was called Sivan, and answers to our May. For the Jewish months, years, etc.

[¶2] The same day - There are three opinions concerning the meaning of this place, which are supported by respectable arguments.

[¶3] 1. The same day means the same day of the third month with that, viz., the 15th, on which the Israelites had left Egypt.

[¶4] 2. The same day signifies here a day of the same number with the month to which it is applied, viz., the third day of the third month.

[¶5] 3. By the same day, the first day of the month is intended. The Jews celebrate the feast of pentecost fifty days after the passover: from the departure out of Egypt to the coming to Sinai were forty-five days; for they came out the fifteenth day of the first month, from which day to the first of the third month forty-five days are numbered. On the 2d day of this third month Moses went up into the mountain, when three days were given to the people to purify themselves; this gives the fourth day of the third month, or the forty-ninth from the departure out of Egypt. On the next day, which was the fiftieth from the celebration of the passover, the glory of God appeared on the mount; in commemoration of which the Jews celebrate the feast of pentecost. This is the opinion of St. Augustine and of several moderns, and is defended at large by Houbigant. As the word חדש chodesh, month, is put for new moon, which is with the Jews the first day of the month, this may be considered an additional confirmation of the above opinion.

[¶6] The wilderness of Sinai - Mount Sinai is called by the Arabs Jibel Mousa or the Mount of Moses, or, by way of eminence, El Tor, The Mount. It is one hill, with two peaks or summits; one is called Horeb, the other Sinai. Horeb was probably its most ancient name, and might designate the whole mountain; but as the Lord had appeared to Moses on this mountain in a bush סנה seneh, [Exo 3:2], from this circumstance it might have received the name of Sinai or הר סיני har Sinai, the mount of the bush or the mount of bushes; for it is possible that it was not in a single bush, but in a thicket of bushes, that the Angel of God made his appearance. The word bush is often used for woods or forests.

### Verse 3

[¶8] Moses went up unto God - It is likely that the cloud which had conducted the Israelitish camp had now removed to the top of Sinai; and as this was the symbol of the Divine presence, Moses went up to the place, there to meet the Lord.

[¶9] The Lord called unto him - This, according to St. Stephen, was the Angel of the Lord, [Act 7:38]. And from several scriptures we have seen that the Lord Jesus was the person intended; see Clarke's note on [Gen 16:7]; see Clarke's note on [Gen 18:13]; see Clarke's note on [Exo 3:2].

### Verse 4

[¶11] How I bare you on eagles' wings - Mr. Bruce contends that the word נשר nesher does not mean the bird we term eagle; but a bird which the Arabs, from its kind and merciful disposition, call rachama, which is noted for its care of its young, and its carrying them upon its back. See his Travels, vol. vii., pl. 33. It is not unlikely that from this part of the sacred history the heathens borrowed their fable of the eagle being a bird sacred to Jupiter, and which was employed to carry the souls of departed heroes, kings, etc., into the celestial regions. The Romans have struck several medals with this device, which may be seen in different cabinets, among which are the following: one of Faustina, daughter of Antoninus Pius, on the reverse of which she is represented ascending to heaven on the back of an eagle; and another of Salonia, daughter of the Emperor Galienus, on the reverse of which she is represented on the back of an eagle, with a scepter in her hand, ascending to heaven. Jupiter himself is sometimes represented on the back of an eagle also, with his thunder in his hand, as on a medal of Licinus. This brings us nearer to the letter of the text, where it appears that the heathens confounded the figure made use of by the sacred penman, I bare you on eagles' wings, with the manifestation of God in thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai. And it might be in reference to all this that the Romans took the eagle for their ensign. See Scheuchzer, Fusellius, etc.

[¶12] Brought you unto myself - In this and the two following verses, we see the design of God in selecting a people for himself.

[¶13] 1. They were to obey his voice, [Exo 19:5], to receive a revelation from him, and to act according to that revelation, and not according to their reason or fancy, in opposition to his declarations.

[¶14] 2. They were to obey his voice indeed, שמוע תשמעו shamoa tishmeu, in hearing they should hear; they should consult his testimonies, hear them whenever read or proclaimed, and obey them as soon as heard, affectionately and steadily.

[¶15] 3. They must keep his covenant - not only copy in their lives the ten commandments, but they must receive and preserve the grand agreement made between God and man by sacrifice, in reference to the incarnation and death of Christ; for from the foundation of the world the covenant of God ratified by sacrifices referred to this, and now the sacrificial system was to be more fully opened by the giving of the law.

[¶16] 4. They should then be God's peculiar treasure, סגלה segullah, his own patrimony, a people in whom he should have all right, and over whom he should have exclusive authority above all the people of the earth; for though all the inhabitants of the world were his by his right of creation and providence, yet these should be peculiarly his, as receiving his revelation and entering into his covenant.

[¶17] 5. They should be a kingdom of priests, [Exo 19:6]. Their state should be a theocracy; and as God should be the sole governor, being king in Jeshurun, so all his subjects should be priests, all worshippers, all sacrificers, every individual offering up the victim for himself. A beautiful representation of the Gospel dispensation, to which the Apostles Peter and John apply it, [1Pet 2:5], [1Pet 2:9]; [Rev 1:6]; [Rev 5:10], and [Rev 20:6]; under which dispensation every believing soul offers up for himself that Lamb of God which was slain for and which takes away the sin of the world, and through which alone a man can have access to God.

### Verse 6

[¶19] And a holy nation - They should be a nation, one people; firmly united among themselves, living under their own laws; and powerful, because united, and acting under the direction and blessing of God. They should be a holy nation, saved from their sins, righteous in their conduct, holy in their hearts; every external rite being not only a significant ceremony, but also a means of conveying light and life, grace and peace, to every person who conscientiously used it. Thus they should be both a kingdom, having God for their governor; and a nation, a multitude of peoples connected together; not a scattered, disordered, and disorganized people, but a royal nation, using their own rites, living under their own laws, subject in religious matters only to God, and in things civil, to every ordinance of man for God's sake.

[¶20] This was the spirit and design of this wonderful institution, which could not receive its perfection but under the Gospel, and has its full accomplishment in every member of the mystical body of Christ.

### Verse 7

[¶22] The elders of the people - The head of each tribe, and the chief of each family, by whose ministry this gracious purpose of God was speedily communicated to the whole camp.

### Verse 8

[¶24] And all the people answered, etc. - The people, having such gracious advantages laid before them, most cheerfully consented to take God for their portion; as he had graciously promised to take them for his people. Thus a covenant was made, the parties being mutually bound to each other.

[¶25] Moses returned the words - When the people had on their part consented to the covenant, Moses appears to have gone immediately up to the mountain and related to God the success of his mission; for he was now on the mount, as appears from [Exo 19:14].

### Verse 9

[¶27] A thick cloud - This is interpreted by [Exo 19:18] : And Mount Sinai was altogether on a Smoke - and the Smoke thereof ascended as the Smoke of a furnace; his usual appearance was in the cloudy pillar, which we may suppose was generally clear and luminous. That the people may hear - See Clarke's note on [Exo 15:9]. The Jews consider this as the fullest evidence their fathers had of the Divine mission of Moses; themselves were permitted to see this awfully glorious sight, and to hear God himself speak out of the thick darkness: for before this, as Rabbi Maymon remarks, they might have thought that Moses wrought his miracles by sorcery or enchantment; but now, hearing the voice of God himself, they could no longer disbelieve nor even doubt.

### Verse 10

[¶29] Sanctify them - See the meaning of this term, [Exo 13:2].

[¶30] Let them wash their clothes - And consequently bathe their bodies; for, according to the testimony of the Jews, these always went together.

[¶31] It was necessary that, as they were about to appear in the presence of God, every thing should be clean and pure about them; that they might be admonished by this of the necessity of inward purity, of which the outward washing was the emblem.

[¶32] From these institutions the heathens appear to have borrowed their precepts relative to washings and purifications previously to their offering sacrifice to their gods, examples of which abound in the Greek and Latin writers. They washed their hands and clothes, and bathed their bodies in pure water, before they performed any act of religious worship; and in a variety of cases, abstinence from all matrimonial connections was positively required, before a person was permitted to perform any religious rite, or assist at the performance.

### Verse 12

[¶34] Thou shalt set bounds - Whether this was a line marked out on the ground, beyond which they were not to go, or whether a fence was actually made to keep them off, we cannot tell; or whether this fence was made all round the mountain, or only at that part to which one wing of the camp extended, is not evident.

[¶35] This verse strictly forbids the people from coming near and touching Mount Sinai, which was burning with Fire. The words therefore in [Exo 19:15], אל תגשו אל אשה al tiggeshu el ishshah, come not at your wives, seem rather to mean, come not near unto the Fire; especially as the other phrase is not at all probable: but the fire is, on this occasion, spoken of so emphatically (see [Deu 5:4], [Deu 5:5], [Deu 5:22-25]) that we are naturally led to consider אשה ishshah here as האש ha-esh transposed, or to say, with Simon in his Lexicon, אשה faem, idem quod masc. אש ignis. So among other instances, we have אבר and אברה a wing; אור and אורה light; אמץ and אמצה strength; and אמר and אמרה a speech - Burt. See Kennicott's Remarks.

[¶36] Whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death - The place was awfully sacred, because the dreadful majesty of God was displayed on it. And this taught them that God is a consuming fire, and that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

### Verse 13

[¶38] There shall not a hand touch it - בו bo, Him, not the mountain, but the man who had presumed to touch the mountain. He should be considered altogether as an unclean and accursed thing, not to be touched for fear of conveying defilement; but should be immediately stoned or pierced through with a dart, [Heb 12:20].

### Verse 16

[¶40] Thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud - and the voice of the trumpet - The thunders, lightnings, etc., announced the coming, as they proclaimed the majesty, of God. Of the thunders and lightnings, and the deep, dark, dismal, electric cloud, from which the thunders and lightnings proceeded, we can form a tolerable apprehension; but of the loud, long-sounding trumpet, we can scarcely form a conjecture. Such were the appearances and the noise that all the people in the camp trembled, and Moses himself was constrained to say, "I exceedingly fear and quake," [Heb 12:21]. Probably the sound of the trumpet was something similar to that which shall be blown by the angel when he sweareth, by Him that liveth for ever, There shall be time no longer!

### Verse 17

[¶42] And Moses brought forth the people - to meet with God - For though they might not touch the mount till they had permission, yet when the trumpet sounded long, it appears they might come up to the nether part of the mount, (see [Exo 19:13], and [Deu 4:11]); and when the trumpet had ceased to sound, they might then go up unto the mountain, as to any other place.

[¶43] It was absolutely necessary that God should give the people at large some particular evidence of his being and power, that they might be saved from idolatry, to which they were most deplorably prone; and that they might the more readily credit Moses, who was to be the constant mediator between God and them. God, therefore, in his indescribable majesty, descended on the mount; and, by the thick dark cloud, the violent thunders, the vivid lightnings, the long and loud blasts of the trumpet, the smoke encompassing the whole mountain, and the excessive earthquake, proclaimed his power, his glory, and his holiness; so that the people, however unfaithful and disobedient afterwards, never once doubted the Divine interference, or suspected Moses of any cheat or imposture. Indeed, so absolute and unequivocal were the proofs of supernatural agency, that it was impossible these appearances could be attributed to any cause but the unlimited power of the author of Nature.

[¶44] It is worthy of remark that the people were informed three days before, [Exo 19:9-11], that such an appearance was to take place; and this answered two excellent purposes:

## 97. Exodus · 30 of 57

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[¶0] 1. They had time to sanctify and prepare themselves for this solemn transaction; and,

[¶1] 2. Those who might be skeptical had sufficient opportunity to make use of every precaution to prevent and detect an imposture; so this previous warning strongly serves the cause of Divine revelation.

[¶2] Their being at first prohibited from touching the mount on the most awful penalties, and secondly, being permitted to see manifestations of the Divine majesty, and hear the words of God, subserved the same great purposes. Their being prohibited in the first instance would naturally whet their curiosity, make them cautious of being deceived, and ultimately impress them with a due sense of God's justice and their own sinfulness; and their being permitted afterwards to go up to the mount, must have deepened the conviction that all was fair and real, that there could be no imposture in the case, and that though the justice and purity of God forbade them to draw nigh for a time, yet his mercy, which had prescribed the means of purification, had permitted an access to his presence. The directions given from [Exo 19:10-15] inclusive show, not only the holiness of God, but the purity he requires in his worshippers.

[¶3] Besides, the whole scope and design of the chapter prove that no soul can possibly approach this holy and terrible Being but through a mediator; and this is the use made of this whole transaction by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, [Heb 12:18-24].

### Verse 20

[¶5] The Lord came down - This was undoubtedly done in a visible manner, that the people might witness the awful appearance. We may suppose that every thing was arranged thus: the glory of the Lord occupied the top of the mountain, and near to this Moses was permitted to approach. Aaron and the seventy elders were permitted to advance some way up the mountain, while the people were only permitted to come up to its base. Moses, as the lawgiver, was to receive the statutes and judgments from God's mouth; Aaron and the elders were to receive them from Moses, and deliver them to the people; and the people were to act according to the direction received. Nothing can be imagined more glorious, terrible, majestic, and impressive, than the whole of this transaction; but it was chiefly calculated to impress deep reverence, religious fear, and sacred awe; and he who attempts to worship God uninfluenced by these, has neither a proper sense of the Divine majesty, nor of the sinfulness of sin. It seems in reference to this that the apostle says, Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and Godly Fear: for our God is a Consuming Fire; [Heb 12:28], [Heb 12:29]. Who then shall dare to approach him in his own name and without a mediator?

### Verse 22

[¶7] Let the priests also - sanctify themselves - That there were priests among the Hebrews before the consecration of Aaron and his sons, cannot be doubted; though their functions might be in a considerable measure suspended while under persecution in Egypt, yet the persons existed whose right and duty it was to offer sacrifices to God. Moses requested liberty from Pharaoh to go into the wilderness to sacrifice; and had there not been among the people both sacrifices and priests, the request itself must have appeared nugatory and absurd. Sacrifices from the beginning had constituted an essential part of the worship of God, and there certainly were priests whose business it was to offer them to God before the giving of the law; though this, for especial reasons, was restricted to Aaron and his sons after the law had been given. As sacrifices had not been offered for a considerable time, the priests themselves were considered in a state of impurity; and therefore God requires that they also should be purified for the purpose of approaching the mountain, and hearing their Maker promulgate his laws. See Clarke's note on [Exo 28:1].

### Verse 23

[¶9] The people cannot come up - Either because they had been so solemnly forbidden that they would not dare, with the penalty of instant death before their eyes, to transgress the Divine command; or the bounds which were set about the mount were such as rendered their passing them physically impossible.

[¶10] And sanctify it - וקדשהי vekiddashio. Here the word קדש kadash is taken in its proper literal sense, signifying the separating of a thing, person or place, from all profane or common uses, and devoting it to sacred purposes.

### Verse 24

[¶12] Let not the priests and the people break through - God knew that they were heedless, criminally curious, and stupidly obstinate; and therefore his mercy saw it right to give them line upon line, that they might not transgress to their own destruction.

[¶13] From the very solemn and awful manner in which the Law was introduced, we may behold it as the ministration of terror and death, [2Cor 3:7], appearing rather to exclude men from God than to bring them nigh; and from this we may learn that an approach to God would have been for ever impossible, had not infinite mercy found out the Gospel scheme of salvation. By this, and this alone, we draw nigh to God; for we have an entrance into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, [Heb 10:19]. "For," says the apostle, "ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire; nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and to the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more, (for they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake): but ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven; and to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel;" [Heb 12:18-24]. Reader, art thou still under the influence and condemning power of that fiery law which proceeded from his right hand? Art thou yet afar off? Remember, thou canst only come nigh by the blood of sprinkling; and till justified by his blood, thou art under the curse. Consider the terrible majesty of God. If thou have his favor thou hast life; if his frown, death. Be instantly reconciled to God, for though thou hast deeply sinned, and he is just, yet he is the justifier of him that believeth in Christ Jesus. Believe on him, receive his salvation, Obey his voice indeed, and Keep his covenant, and Then shalt thou be a king and a priest unto God and the Lamb, and be finally saved with all the power of an endless life. Amen.

### Introduction

[¶15] The preface to the ten commandments, [Exo 20:1], [Exo 20:2]. The First commandment, against mental or theoretic idolatry, [Exo 20:3]. The Second, against making and worshipping images, or practical idolatry, [Exo 20:4-6]. The Third, against false swearing, blasphemy, and irreverent use of the name of God, [Exo 20:7]. The Fourth, against profanation of the Sabbath, and idleness on the other days of the week, [Exo 20:8-11]. The Fifth, against disrespect and disobedience to parents, [Exo 20:12]. The Sixth, against murder and cruelty, [Exo 20:13]. The Seventh, against adultery and uncleanness, [Exo 20:14]. The Eighth, against stealing and dishonesty, [Exo 20:15]. The Ninth, against false testimony, perjury, etc., [Exo 20:16]. The Tenth, against covetousness, [Exo 20:17]. The people are alarmed at the awful appearance of God on the mount, and stand afar off, [Exo 20:18]. They pray that Moses may be mediator between God and them, [Exo 20:19]. Moses encourages them, [Exo 20:20]. He draws near to the thick darkness, and God communes with him, [Exo 20:21], [Exo 20:22]. Farther directions against idolatry, [Exo 20:23]. Directions concerning making an altar of earth, [Exo 20:24]; and an altar of hewn stone, [Exo 20:25]. None of these to be ascended by steps, and the reason given, [Exo 20:26].

### Verse 1

[¶17] All these words - Houbigant supposes, and with great plausibility of reason, that the clause את כל הדברים האלה eth col haddebarim haelleh, "all these words," belong to the latter part of the concluding verse of Exodus 19, which he thinks should be read thus: And Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them All These Words; i.e., delivered the solemn charge relative to their not attempting to come up to that part of the mountain on which God manifested himself in his glorious majesty, lest he should break forth upon them and consume them. For how could Divine justice and purity suffer a people so defiled to stand in his immediate presence? When Moses, therefore, had gone down and spoken all these words, and he and Aaron had re-ascended the mount, then the Divine Being, as supreme legislator, is majestically introduced thus: And God spake, saying. This gives a dignity to the commencement of this chapter of which the clause above mentioned, if not referred to the speech of Moses, deprives it. The Anglo-Saxon favors this emendation: God spoke Thus, which is the whole of the first verse as it stands in that version.

[¶18] Some learned men are of opinion that the Ten Commandments were delivered on May 30, being then the day of pentecost.

[¶19] The laws delivered on Mount Sinai have been variously named. In [Deu 4:13], they are called עשרת הדברים asereth haddebarim, The Ten Words. In the preceding chapter, [Exo 19:5], God calls them את בריתי eth berithi, my Covenant, i.e., the agreement he entered into with the people of Israel to take them for his peculiar people, if they took him for their God and portion. If ye will obey my voice indeed, and Keep my Covenant, Then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me. And the word covenant here evidently refers to the laws given in this chapter, as is evident from [Deu 4:13] : And he declared unto you his Covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments. They have been also termed the moral law, because they contain and lay down rules for the regulation of the manners or conduct of men. Sometimes they have been termed the Law, התורה hattorah, by way of eminence, as containing the grand system of spiritual instruction, direction, guidance, etc. See on the word Law, [Exo 12:49] (note). And frequently the Decalogue, Δεκαλογος, which is a literal translation into Greek of the עשרת הדברים asereth haddebarim, or Ten Words, of Moses.

[¶20] Among divines they are generally divided into what they term the first and second tables. The First table containing the first, second, third, and fourth commandments, and comprehending the whole system of theology, the true notions we should form of the Divine nature, the reverence we owe and the religious service we should render to him. The Second, containing the six last commandments, and comprehending a complete system of ethics, or moral duties, which man owes to his fellows, and on the due performance of which the order, peace and happiness of society depend. By this division, the First table contains our duty to God; the Second our duty to our Neighbor. This division, which is natural enough, refers us to the grand principle, love to God and love to man, through which both tables are observed.

[¶21] 1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.

[¶22] 2. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

[¶23] On these two hang all the law and the prophets. See Clarke's note on [Mat 22:37]. See Clarke's note on [Mat 22:38]. See Clarke's note on [Mat 22:39]. See Clarke's note on [Mat 22:40].

### Verse 2

[¶25] I am the Lord thy God - יהוה אלהיך Yehovah eloheycha. On the word Jehovah, which we here translate Lord, see Clarke's note on [Gen 2:4], and see Clarke's note on [Exo 6:3]. And on the word Elohim, here translated God, see Clarke's note on [Gen 1:1]. It is worthy of remark that each individual is addressed here, and not the people collectively, though they are all necessarily included; that each might feel that he was bound for himself to hear and do all these words. Moses labored to impress this personal interest on the people's minds, when he said, [Deu 5:3], [Deu 5:4] : "The Lord made this covenant with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day." Brought thee out of the land of Egypt, etc. - And by this very thing have proved myself to be superior to all gods, unlimited in power, and most gracious as well as fearful in operation. This is the preface or introduction, but should not be separated from the commandment. Therefore, -

### Verse 3

[¶27] Thou shalt have no other gods before me - אלהים אחרים elohim acherim, no strange gods - none that thou art not acquainted with, none who has not given thee such proofs of his power and godhead as I have done in delivering thee from the Egyptians, dividing the Red Sea, bringing water out of the rock, quails into the desert, manna from heaven to feed thee, and the pillar of cloud to direct, enlighten, and shield thee. By these miracles God had rendered himself familiar to them, they were intimately acquainted with the operation of his hands; and therefore with great propriety he says, Thou shalt have no strange gods before me; על פני al panai, before or in the place of those manifestations which I have made of myself.

[¶28] This commandment prohibits every species of mental idolatry, and all inordinate attachment to earthly and sensible things. As God is the fountain of happiness, and no intelligent creature can be happy but through him, whoever seeks happiness in the creature is necessarily an idolater; as he puts the creature in the place of the Creator, expecting that from the gratification of his passions, in the use or abuse of earthly things, which is to be found in God alone. The very first commandment of the whole series is divinely calculated to prevent man's misery and promote his happiness, by taking him off from all false dependence, and leading him to God himself, the fountain of all good.

### Verse 4

[¶30] Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image - As the word פסל pasal signifies to hew, carve, grave, etc., פסל pesel may here signify any kind of image, either of wood, stone, or metal, on which the axe, the chisel, or the graving tool has been employed. This commandment includes in its prohibitions every species of idolatry known to have been practiced among the Egyptians. The reader will see this the more plainly by consulting the notes on the ten plagues, particularly those on Exodus 12.

[¶31] Or any likeness, etc. - To know the full spirit and extent of this commandment, this place must be collated with [Deu 4:15], etc.: Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves - lest ye corrupt yourselves - and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of Male or Female. All who have even the slightest acquaintance with the ancient history of Egypt, know that Osiris and his wife Isis were supreme divinities among that people.

[¶32] The likeness of any Beast - בהמה behemah, such as the ox and the heifer. Among the Egyptians the ox was not only sacred but adored, because they supposed that in one of these animals Osiris took up his residence: hence they always had a living ox, which they supposed to be the habitation of this deity; and they imagined that on the death of one he entered into the body of another, and so on successively. This famous ox-god they called Apis and Mnevis.

[¶33] The likeness of any winged Fowl - The ibis, or stork, or crane, and hawk, may be here intended, for all these were objects of Egyptian idolatry.

[¶34] The likeness of any thing that Creepeth - The crocodile, serpents, the scarabeus or beetle, were all objects of their adoration; and Mr. Bryant has rendered it very probable that even the frog itself was a sacred animal, as from its inflation it was emblematic of the prophetic influence, for they supposed that the god inflated or distended the body of the person by whom he gave oracular answers.

[¶35] The likeness of any Fish - All fish were esteemed sacred animals among the Egyptians. One called Oxurunchus had, according to Strabo, lib. xvii., a temple, and divine honors paid to it. Another fish, called Phagrus, was worshipped at Syene, according to Clemens Alexandrinus in his Cohortatio. And the Lepidotus and eel were objects of their adoration, as we find from Herodotus, lib. ii., cap. 72. In short, oxen, heifers, sheep, goats, lions, dogs, monkeys, and cats; the ibis, the crane, and the hawk; the crocodile, serpents, frogs, flies, and the scarabeus or beetle; the Nile and its fish; the sun, moon, planets, and stars; fire, light, air, darkness, and night, were all objects of Egyptian idolatry, and all included in this very circumstantial prohibition as detailed in Deuteronomy, and very forcibly in the general terms of the text: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the Heavens above, or that is in the Earth beneath, or that is in the Water under the earth. And the reason of this becomes self-evident, when the various objects of Egyptian idolatry are considered.

[¶36] To countenance its image worship, the Roman Catholic Church has left the whole of this second commandment out of the decalogue, and thus lost one whole commandment out of the ten; but to keep up the number they have divided the tenth into two. This is totally contrary to the faith of God's elect and to the acknowledgment of that truth which is according to godliness. The verse is found in every MS. of the Hebrew Pentateuch that has ever yet been discovered. It is in all the ancient versions, Samaritan, Chaldee, Syriac, Septuagint, Vulgate, Coptic, and Arabic; also in the Persian, and in all modern versions. There is not one word of the whole verse wanting in the many hundreds of MSS. collected by Kennicott and De Rossi. This corruption of the word of God by the Roman Catholic Church stamps it, as a false and heretical Church, with the deepest brand of ever-during infamy! This commandment also prohibits every species of external idolatry, as the first does all idolatry that may be called internal or mental. All false worship may be considered of this kind, together with all image worship, and all other superstitious rites and ceremonies. See Clarke's note on [Exo 20:23].

### Verse 5

[¶38] Jealous God - This shows in a most expressive manner the love of God to this people. He felt for them as the most affectionate husband could do for his spouse; and was jealous for their fidelity, because he willed their invariable happiness.

[¶39] Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children - This necessarily implies - if the children walk in the steps of their fathers; for no man can be condemned by Divine justice for a crime of which he was never guilty; see Ezekiel 18. Idolatry is however particularly intended, and visiting sins of this kind refers principally to national judgments. By withdrawing the Divine protection the idolatrous Israelites were delivered up into the hands of their enemies, from whom the gods in whom they had trusted could not deliver them. This God did to the third and fourth generations, i.e., successively; as may be seen in every part of the Jewish history, and particularly in the book of Judges. And this, at last, became the grand and the only effectual and lasting means in his hand of their final deliverance from idolatry; for it is well known that after the Babylonish captivity the Israelites were so completely saved from idolatry, as never more to have disgraced themselves by it as they had formerly done. These national judgments, thus continued from generation to generation, appear to be what are designed by the words in the text, Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, etc.

### Verse 6

[¶41] And showing mercy unto thousands - Mark; even those who love God and keep his commandments merit nothing from him, and therefore the salvation and blessedness which these enjoy come from the mercy of God: Showing mercy, etc. What a disproportion between the works of justice and mercy! Justice works to the third or fourth, mercy to thousands of generations! The heathen had maxims like these. Theocritus also teaches that the children of the good shall be blessed because of their parents' piety, and that evil shall come upon the offspring of the wicked: - Ευσεβεων παιδεσσι τα λωΐα, δυσσεβεων δ' ου.

[¶42] Idyll. 26, v. 32.

[¶43] Upon the children of the righteous fall

[¶44] The choicest blessings; on the wicked, wo.

## 98. Exodus · 31 of 57

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[¶0] That love me, and keep my commandments - It was this that caused Christ to comprise the fulfillment of the whole law in love to God and man; see Clarke's note on [Exo 20:1]. And as love is the grand principle of obedience, and the only incentive to it, so there can be no obedience without it. It would be more easy even in Egyptian bondage to make brick without straw, than to do the will of God unless his love be shed abroad in the heart of the Holy Spirit. Love, says the apostle, is the fulfilling of the law; [Rom 13:10].

### Verse 7

[¶2] Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain - This precept not only forbids all false oaths, but all common swearing where the name of God is used, or where he is appealed to as a witness of the truth. It also necessarily forbids all light and irreverent mention of God, or any of his attributes; and this the original word לשוא lashshav particularly imports: and we may safely add to all these, that every prayer, ejaculation, etc., that is not accompanied with deep reverence and the genuine spirit of piety, is here condemned also. In how many thousands of instances is this commandment broken in the prayers, whether read or extempore, of inconsiderate, bold, and presumptuous worshippers! And how few are there who do not break it, both in their public and private devotions! How low is piety when we are obliged in order to escape damnation, to pray to God to "pardon the sins of our holy things!" Even heathens thought that the names of their gods should be treated with reverence. Παντως μεν δη καλον επι ηδευμα, θεων ονοματα μη χραινειν ῥᾳδιως, εχοντα ὡς εχουσιν ἡμων ἑκαστοτε τα πολλα οἱ πλειστοι καθαροτητος τε και ἁγνειας τα περι τους θεους. "It is most undoubtedly right not easily to pollute the names of the gods, using them as we do common names; but to watch with purity and holiness all things belonging to the gods."

[¶3] The Lord will not hold him guiltless, etc. - Whatever the person himself may think or hope, however he may plead in his own behalf, and say he intends no evil, etc.; if he in any of the above ways, or in any other way, takes the name of God in vain, God will not hold him guiltless - he will account him guilty and punish him for it. Is it necessary to say to any truly spiritual mind, that all such interjections as O God! my God! good God! good Heavens! etc., etc., are formal positive breaches of this law? How many who pass for Christians are highly criminal here!

### Verse 8

[¶5] Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy - See what has been already said on this precept, [Gen 2:2], and elsewhere. See Clarke's note on [Gen 2:2]. As this was the most ancient institution, God calls them to remember it; as if he had said, Do not forget that when I had finished my creation I instituted the Sabbath, and remember why I did so, and for what purposes. The word שבת shabbath signifies rest or cessation from labor; and the sanctification of the seventh day is commanded, as having something representative in it; and so indeed it has, for it typifies the rest which remains for the people of God, and in this light it evidently appears to have been understood by the apostle, Hebrews 4. Because this commandment has not been particularly mentioned in the New Testament as a moral precept binding on all, therefore some have presumptuously inferred that there is no Sabbath under the Christian dispensation. The truth is, the Sabbath is considered as a type: all types are of full force till the thing signified by them takes place; but the thing signified by the Sabbath is that rest in glory which remains for the people of God, therefore the moral obligation of the Sabbath must continue till time be swallowed up in eternity.

### Verse 9

[¶7] Six days shalt thou labor - Therefore he who idles away time on any of the six days, is as guilty before God as he who works on the Sabbath. No work should be done on the Sabbath that can be done on the preceding days, or can be deferred to the succeeding ones. Works of absolute necessity and mercy are alone excepted. He who works by his servants or cattle is equally guilty as if he worked himself. Hiring out horses, etc., for pleasure or business, going on journeys, paying worldly visits, or taking jaunts on the Lord's day, are breaches of this law. The whole of it should be devoted to the rest of the body and the improvement of the mind. God says he has hallowed it - he has made it sacred and set it apart for the above purposes. It is therefore the most proper day for public religious worship.

### Verse 12

[¶9] Honor thy father and thy mother - There is a degree of affectionate respect which is owing to parents, that no person else can properly claim. For a considerable time parents stand as it were in the place of God to their children, and therefore rebellion against their lawful commands has been considered as rebellion against God. This precept therefore prohibits, not only all injurious acts, irreverent and unkind speeches to parents, but enjoins all necessary acts of kindness, filial respect, and obedience. We can scarcely suppose that a man honors his parents who, when they fall weak, blind, or sick, does not exert himself to the uttermost in their support. In such cases God as truly requires the children to provide for their parents, as he required the parents to feed, nourish, support, instruct, and defend the children when they were in the lowest state of helpless in fancy. See Clarke's note on [Gen 48:12]. The rabbins say, Honor the Lord with thy substance, [Pro 3:9]; and, Honor thy father and mother. The Lord is to be honored thus if thou have it; thy father and mother, whether thou have it or not; for if thou have nothing, thou art bound to beg for them. See Ainsworth.

[¶10] That thy days may be long - This, as the apostle observes, [Eph 6:2], is the first commandment to which God has annexed a promise; and therefore we may learn in some measure how important the duty is in the sight of God. In [Deu 5:16] it is said, And that it may go well with thee; we may therefore conclude that it will go ill with the disobedient; and there is no doubt that the untimely deaths of many young persons are the judicial consequence of their disobedience to their parents. Most who come to an untimely end are obliged to confess that this, with the breach of the Sabbath, was the principal cause of their ruin. Reader, art thou guilty? Humble thyself therefore before God, and repent. 1. As children are bound to succor their parents, so parents are bound to educate and instruct their children in all useful and necessary knowledge, and not to bring them up either in ignorance or idleness. 2. They should teach their children the fear and knowledge of God, for how can they expect affection or dutiful respect from those who have not the fear of God before their eyes? Those who are best educated are generally the most dutiful. Heathens also inculcated respect to parents. Ουδεν προς θεων τιμιωτερον αγαλμα αν κτησαιμεθα πατρος και προπατορος παρειμενων γηρᾳ, και μητερων την αυτην δυναμιν εχουσων· οὑς ὁυταν αγαλλῃ τις, τιμαις γεγηθεν ὁ θεος. - Πας δη νουν εχων φοβειται και τιμᾳ, γονενων ευχας ειδως πολλοις και πολλακις επιτελεις γενομενας.

[¶11] Plato de Leg., lib. xi., vol. ix, p. 160. Ed. Bipont. "We can obtain no more honorable possession from the gods than fathers and forefathers worn down with age, and mothers who have undergone the same change, whom when we delight, God is pleased with the honor; and every one that is governed by right understanding fears and reverences them, well knowing that the prayers of parents oftentimes, and in many particulars, have received full accomplishment."

### Verse 13

[¶13] Thou shalt not kill - This commandment, which is general, prohibits murder of every kind.

[¶14] 1. All actions by which the lives of our fellow creatures may be abridged.

[¶15] 2. All wars for extending empire, commerce, etc.

[¶16] 3. All sanguinary laws, by the operation of which the lives of men may be taken away for offenses of comparatively trifling demerit.

[¶17] 4. All bad dispositions which lead men to wish evil to, or meditate mischief against, one another; for, says the Scripture, He that hateth his brother in his heart is a murderer.

[¶18] 5. All want of charity to the helpless and distressed; for he who has it in his power to save the life of another by a timely application of succor, food, raiment, etc., and does not do it, and the life of the person either falls or is abridged on this account, is in the sight of God a murderer. He who neglects to save life is, according to an incontrovertible maxim in law, the same as he who takes it away.

[¶19] 6. All riot and excess, all drunkenness and gluttony, all inactivity and slothfulness, and all superstitious mortifications and self-denials, by which life may be destroyed or shortened; all these are point-blank sins against the sixth commandment.

### Verse 14

[¶21] Thou shalt not commit adultery - Adultery, as defined by our laws, is of two kinds; double, when between two married persons; single, when one of the parties is married, the other single. One principal part of the criminality of adultery consists in its injustice.

[¶22] 1. It robs a man of his right by taking from him the affection of his wife.

[¶23] 2. It does him a wrong by fathering on him and obliging him to maintain as his own a spurious offspring - a child which is not his. The act itself, and every thing leading to the act, is prohibited by this commandment; for our Lord says, Even he who looks on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And not only adultery (the unlawful commerce between two married persons) is forbidden here, but also fornication and all kinds of mental and sensual uncleanness. All impure books, songs, paintings, etc., which tend to inflame and debauch the mind, are against this law, as well as another species of impurity, for the account of which the reader is referred to; See Clarke's note on [Gen 38:30].

[¶24] That fornication was included under this command we may gather from St. Matthew, [Mat 15:19], where our Savior expresses the sense of the different commandments by a word for each, and mentions them in the order in which they stand; but when he comes to the seventh he uses two words, μοιχειαι πορνειαι, to express its meaning, and then goes on to the eighth, etc.; thus evidently showing that fornication was understood to be comprehended under the command, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." As to the word adultery, adulterium, it has probably been derived from the words ad alterius torum, to another's bed; for it is going to the bed of another man that constitutes the act and the crime. Adultery often means idolatry in the worship of God.

### Verse 15

[¶26] Thou shalt not steal - All rapine and theft are forbidden by this precept; as well national and commercial wrongs as petty larceny, highway robberies, and private stealing: even the taking advantage of a seller's or buyer's ignorance, to give the one less and make the other pay more for a commodity than its worth, is a breach of this sacred law. All withholding of rights and doing of wrongs are against the spirit of it. But the word is principally applicable to clandestine stealing, though it may undoubtedly include all political injustice and private wrongs. And consequently all kidnapping, crimping, and slave-dealing are prohibited here, whether practiced by individuals or by the state. Crimes are not lessened in their demerit by the number, or political importance of those who commit them. A state that enacts bad laws is as criminal before God as the individual who breaks good ones.

[¶27] It has been supposed that under the eighth commandment, injuries done to character, the depriving a man of his reputation or good name, are included, hence those words of one of our poets: -

[¶28] Good name in man or woman

[¶29] Is the immediate jewel of their souls.

[¶30] Who steals my purse steals trash, -

[¶31] But he that filches from me my good name,

[¶32] Robs me of that which not enriches him,

[¶33] And makes me poor indeed.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Thou shalt not bear false witness, etc. - Not only false oaths, to deprive a man of his life or of his right, are here prohibited, but all whispering, tale-bearing, slander, and calumny; in a word, whatever is deposed as a truth, which is false in fact, and tends to injure another in his goods, person, or character, is against the spirit and letter of this law. Suppressing the truth when known, by which a person may be defrauded of his property or his good name, or lie under injuries or disabilities which a discovery of the truth would have prevented, is also a crime against this law. He who bears a false testimony against or belies even the devil himself, comes under the curse of this law, because his testimony is false. By the term neighbor any human being is intended, whether he rank among our enemies or friends.

### Verse 17

[¶37] Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house - wife, etc. - Covet signifies to desire or long after, in order to enjoy as a property the person or thing coveted. He breaks this command who by any means endeavors to deprive a man of his house or farm by taking them over his head, as it is expressed in some countries; who lusts after his neighbor's wife, and endeavors to ingratiate himself into her affections, and to lessen her husband in her esteem; and who endeavors to possess himself of the servants, cattle, etc., of another in any clandestine or unjustifiable manner. "This is a most excellent moral precept, the observance of which will prevent all public crimes; for he who feels the force of the law that prohibits the inordinate desire of any thing that is the property of another, can never make a breach in the peace of society by an act of wrong to any of even its feeblest members."

### Verse 18

[¶39] And all the people saw the thunderings, etc. - They had witnessed all these awful things before, (see [Exo 19:16]), but here they seem to have been repeated; probably at the end of each command, there was a peal of thunder, a blast of the trumpet, and a gleam of lightning, to impress their hearts the more deeply with a due sense of the Divine Majesty, of the holiness of the law which was now delivered, and of the fearful consequences of disobedience. This had the desired effect; the people were impressed with a deep religious fear and a terror of God's judgments; acknowledged themselves perfectly satisfied with the discoveries God had made of himself; and requested that Moses might be constituted the mediator between God and them, as they were not able to bear these tremendous discoveries of the Divine Majesty. "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die;" [Exo 20:19]. This teaches us the absolute necessity of that great Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, as no man can come unto the Father but by him.

### Verse 20

[¶41] And Moses said - Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces - The maxim contained in this verse is, Fear not, that he may fear - do not fear with such a fear as brings consternation into the soul, and produces nothing but terror and confusion; but fear with that fear which reverence and filial affection inspire, that ye sin not - that, through the love and reverence ye feel to your Maker and Sovereign, ye may abstain from every appearance of evil, lest you should forfeit that love which is to you better than life. He who fears in the first sense can neither love nor obey; he who fears not in the latter sense is sure to fall under the first temptation that may occur. Blessed is the man who thus feareth always.

### Verse 22

[¶43] I have talked with you from heaven - Though God manifested himself by the fire, the lightning, the earthquake, the thick darkness, etc., yet the ten words, or commandments were probably uttered from the higher regions of the air, which would be an additional proof to the people that there was no imposture in this case; for though strange appearances and voices might be counterfeited on earth, as was often, no doubt, done by the magicians of Egypt; yet it would be utterly impossible to represent a voice, in a long continued series of instruction, as proceeding from heaven itself, or the higher regions of the atmosphere. This, with the earthquake and repeated thunders, (see on [Exo 20:18] (note)), would put the reality of this whole procedure beyond all doubt; and this enabled Moses, [Deu 5:26], to make such an appeal to the people on a fact incontrovertible and of infinite importance, that God had indeed talked with them face to face.

## 99. Exodus · 32 of 57

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### Verse 23

[¶1] Ye shall not make with me gods of silver - The expressions here are very remarkable. Before it was said, Ye shall have no other gods Before me, אל פני al panai, [Exo 20:3]. Here they are commanded, ye shall not make gods of silver or gold אתי itti With me, as emblems or representatives of God, in order, as might be pretended, to keep these displays of his magnificence in memory; on the contrary, he would have only an altar of earth - of plain turf, on which they should offer those sacrifices by which they should commemorate their own guilt and the necessity of an atonement to reconcile themselves to God. See Clarke's note on [Exo 20:4].

### Verse 24

[¶3] Thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings - The law concerning which was shortly to be given, though sacrifices of this kind were in use from the days of Abel.

[¶4] In all places where I record my name - Wherever I am worshipped, whether in the open wilderness, at the tabernacle, in the temple, the synagogues, or elsewhere, I will come unto thee and bless thee. These words are precisely the same in signification with those of our Lord, [Mat 18:20] : For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And as it was Jesus who was the angel that spoke to them in the wilderness, [Act 7:38], from the same mouth this promise in the law and that in the Gospel proceeded.

### Verse 25

[¶6] Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone - Because they were now in a wandering state, and had as yet no fixed residence; and therefore no time should be wasted to rear costly altars, which could not be transported with them, and which they must soon leave. Besides, they must not lavish skill or expense on the construction of an altar; the altar of itself, whether costly or mean, was nothing in the worship; it was only the place on which the victim should be laid, and their mind must be attentively fixed on that God to whom the sacrifice was offered, and on the sacrifice itself, as that appointed by the Lord to make an atonement for their sins.

### Verse 26

[¶8] Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar - The word altar comes from altus, high or elevated, though the Hebrew word מזבח mizbach, from זבח zabach, to slay, kill, etc., signifies merely a place for sacrifice; see [Gen 8:20]. But the heathens, who imitated the rites of the true God in their idolatrous worship, made their altars very high; whence they derived their name altaria, altars, i.e., very high or elevated places; which they built thus, partly through pride and vain glory, and partly that their gods might the better hear them. Hence also the high places or idolatrous altars so often and so severely condemned in the Holy Scriptures. The heathens made some of their altars excessively high; and some imagine that the pyramids were altars of this kind, and that the inspired writer refers to those in these prohibitions. God therefore ordered his altars to be made,

[¶9] 1. either of simple turf, that there might be no unnecessary expense, which, in their present circumstances, the people could not well afford; and that they might be no incentives to idolatry from their costly or curious structure; or

[¶10] 2. of unhewn stone, that no images of animals or of the celestial bodies might be sculptured on them, as was the case among the idolaters, and especially among the Egyptians, as several of their ancient altars which remain to the present day amply testify; which altars themselves, and the images carved on them, became in process of time incentives to idolatry, and even objects of worship.

[¶11] In short, God formed every part of his worship so that every thing belonging to it might be as dissimilar as possible from that of the surrounding heathenish nations, and especially the Egyptians, from whose land they had just now departed. This seems to have been the whole design of those statutes on which many commentators have written so largely and learnedly, imagining difficulties where probably there are none. The altars of the tabernacle were of a different kind.

[¶12] In this and the preceding chapter we have met with some of the most awful displays of the Divine Majesty; manifestations of justice and holiness which have no parallel, and can have none till that day arrive in which he shall appear in his glory, to judge the quick and the dead. The glory was truly terrible, and to the children of Israel insufferable; and yet how highly privileged to have God himself speaking to them from the midst of the fire, giving them statutes and judgments so righteous, so pure, so holy, and so truly excellent in their operation and their end, that they have been the admiration of all the wise and upright in all countries and ages of the world, where their voice has been heard! Mohammed defied all the poets and literati of Arabia to match the language of the Koran; and for purity, elegance, and dignity it bore away the palm, and remained unrivaled. This indeed was the only advantage which the work derived from its author; for its other excellences it was indebted to Moses and the prophets, to Christ and the apostles; as there is scarcely a pure, consistent, theological notion in it, that has not been borrowed from our sacred books. Moses calls the attention of the people, not to the language in which these Divine laws were given, though that is all that it should be, and every way worthy of its author; compressed yet perspicuous; simple yet dignified; in short, such as God should speak if he wished his creatures to comprehend; but he calls their attention to the purity, righteousness, and usefulness of the grand revelation which they had just received. For what nation, says he, is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as Jehovah our God is, in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? And that which was the sum of all excellence in the present case was this, that the God who gave these laws dwelt among his people; to him they had continual access, and from him received that power without which obedience so extensive and so holy would have been impossible; and yet not one of these laws exacted more than eternal reason, the nature and fitness of things, the prosperity of the community, and the peace and happiness of the individual, required. The Law is holy, and the Commandment is Holy, Just, and Good.

[¶13] To show still more clearly the excellence and great utility of the ten commandments, and to correct some mistaken notions concerning them, it may be necessary to make a few additional observations. And

[¶14] 1. It is worthy of remark that there is none of these commandments, nor any part of one, which can fairly be considered as merely ceremonial. All are moral, and consequently of everlasting obligation.

[¶15] 2. When considered merely as to the letter, there is certainly no difficulty in the moral obedience required to them. Let every reader take them up one by one, and ask his conscience before God, which of them he is under a fatal and uncontrollable necessity to break?

[¶16] 3. Though by the incarnation and death of Christ all the ceremonial law which referred to him and his sacrifice is necessarily abrogated, yet, as none of these ten commandments refer to any thing properly ceremonial, therefore they are not abrogated.

[¶17] 4. Though Christ came into the world to redeem them who believe from the curse of the law, he did not redeem them from the necessity of walking in that newness of life which these commandments so strongly inculcate.

[¶18] 5. Though Christ is said to have fulfilled the law for us, yet it is nowhere intimated in the Scripture that he has so fulfilled these Ten Laws, as to exempt us from the necessity and privilege of being no idolaters, swearers, Sabbath-breakers, disobedient and cruel children, murderers, adulterers, thieves, and corrupt witnesses. All these commandments, it is true, he punctually fulfilled himself; and all these he writes on the heart of every soul redeemed by his blood.

[¶19] 6. Do not those who scruple not to insinuate that the proper observation of these laws is impossible in this life, and that every man since the fall does daily break them in thought, word, and deed, bear false witness against God and his truth? and do they not greatly err, not knowing the Scripture, which teaches the necessity of such obedience, nor the power of God, by which the evil principle of the heart is destroyed, and the law of purity written on the soul? If even the regenerate man, as some have unwarily asserted, does daily break these commands, these ten words, in thought, word, and deed, he may be as bad as Satan for aught we know; for Satan himself cannot transgress in more forms than these, for sin can be committed in no other way, either by bodied or disembodied spirits, than by thought, or word, or deed. Such sayings as these tend to destroy the distinction between good and evil, and leave the infidel and the believer on a par as to their moral state. The people of God should be careful how they use them.

[¶20] 7. It must be granted, and indeed has sufficiently appeared from the preceding exposition of these commandments, that they are not only to be understood in the letter but also in the spirit, and that therefore they may be broken in the heart while outwardly kept inviolate; yet this does not prove that a soul influenced by the grace and spirit of Christ cannot most conscientiously observe them; for the grace of the Gospel not on)y saves a man from outward but also from inward sin; for, says the heavenly messenger, his name shall be called Jesus, (i.e., Savior), because he shall save, (i.e., Deliver) his people From their sins. Therefore the weakness or corruption of human nature forms no argument here, because the blood of Christ cleanses from all unrighteousness; and he saves to the uttermost all who come unto the Father through him. It is therefore readily granted that no man unassisted and uninfluenced by the grace of Christ can keep these commandments, either in the letter or in the spirit; but he who is truly converted to God, and has Christ dwelling in his heart by faith, can, in the letter and in the spirit, do all these things, Because Christ Strengthens him - Reader, the following is a good prayer, and oftentimes thou hast said it; now learn to pray it: "Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep these laws! Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee!" - Com. Service.

### Introduction

[¶22] Laws concerning servants. They shall serve for only seven years, [Exo 21:1], [Exo 21:2]. If a servant brought a wife to servitude with him, both should go out free on the seventh year, [Exo 21:3]. If his master had given him a wife, and she bore him children, he might go out free an the seventh year, but his wife and children must remain, as the property of the master, [Exo 21:4]. If, through love to his master, wife, and children, he did not choose to avail himself of the privilege granted by the law, of going out free on the seventh year, his ear was to be bored to the door post with an awl, as an emblem of his being attached to the family for ever, [Exo 21:5], [Exo 21:6]. Laws concerning maid-servants, betrothed to their masters or to the sons of their masters, [Exo 21:7-11]. Laws concerning battery and murder, [Exo 21:12-15]. Concerning men-stealing, [Exo 21:16]. Concerning him that curses his parents, [Exo 21:17]. Of strife between man and man, [Exo 21:18], [Exo 21:19]; between a master and his servants, [Exo 21:20], [Exo 21:21]. Of injuries done to women in pregnancy, [Exo 21:22]. The Lex Talionis, or law of like, [Exo 21:23-25]. Of injuries done to servants, by which they gain the right of freedom, [Exo 21:26], [Exo 21:27]. Laws concerning the ox which has gored men, [Exo 21:28-32]. Of the pit left uncovered, into which a man or a beast has fallen, [Exo 21:33], [Exo 21:34]. Laws concerning the ox that kills another, [Exo 21:35], [Exo 21:36].

### Verse 1

[¶24] Now these are the judgments - There is so much good sense, feeling, humanity, equity, and justice in the following laws, that they cannot but be admired by every intelligent reader; and they are so very plain as to require very little comment. The laws in this chapter are termed political, those in the succeeding chapter judicial, laws; and are supposed to have been delivered to Moses alone, in consequence of the request of the people, [Exo 20:19], that God should communicate his will to Moses, and that Moses should, as mediator, convey it to them.

### Verse 2

[¶26] If thou buy a Hebrew servant - Calmet enumerates six different ways in which a Hebrew might lose his liberty:

[¶27] 1. In extreme poverty they might sell their liberty. [Lev 25:39] : If thy brother be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, etc.

[¶28] 2. A father might sell his children. If a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant; see [Exo 21:7].

[¶29] 3. Insolvent debtors became the slaves of their creditors. My husband is dead - and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen, [2Kgs 4:1].

[¶30] 4. A thief, if he had not money to pay the fine laid on him by the law, was to be sold for his profit whom he had robbed. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft; [Exo 22:3], [Exo 22:4].

[¶31] 5. A Hebrew was liable to be taken prisoner in war, and so sold for a slave.

[¶32] 6. A Hebrew slave who had been ransomed from a Gentile by a Hebrew might be sold by him who ransomed him, to one of his own nation.

[¶33] Six years he shall serve - It was an excellent provision in these laws, that no man could finally injure himself by any rash, foolish, or precipitate act. No man could make himself a servant or slave for more than seven years; and if he mortgaged the family inheritance, it must return to the family at the jubilee, which returned every fiftieth year.

[¶34] It is supposed that the term six years is to be understood as referring to the sabbatical years; for let a man come into servitude at whatever part of the interim between two sabbatical years, he could not be detained in bondage beyond a sabbatical year; so that if he fell into bondage the third year after a sabbatical year, he had but three years to serve; if the fifth, but one. See Clarke's note on [Exo 23:11], etc. Others suppose that this privilege belonged only to the year of jubilee, beyond which no man could be detained in bondage, though he had been sold only one year before.

### Verse 3

[¶36] If he came in by himself - If he and his wife came in together, they were to go out together: in all respects as he entered, so should he go out. This consideration seems to have induced St. Jerome to translate the passage thus: Cum quali veste intraverat, cum tali exeat. "He shall have the same coat in going out, as he had when he came in," i.e., if he came in with a new one, he shall go out with a new one, which was perfectly just, as the former coat must have been worn out in his master's service, and not his own.

### Verse 4

[¶38] The wife and her children shall be her master's - It was a law among the Hebrews, that if a Hebrew had children by a Canannitish woman, those children must be considered as Canaanitish only, and might be sold and bought, and serve for ever. The law here refers to such a case only.

### Verse 6

[¶40] Shall bring him unto the judges - אל האלהים el haelohim, literally, to God; or, as the Septuagint have it, προς το κριτηριον Θεου, to the judgment of God; who condescended to dwell among his people; who determined all their differences till he had given them laws for all cases, and who, by his omniscience, brought to light the hidden things of dishonesty. See [Exo 22:8].

[¶41] Bore his ear through with an awl - This was a ceremony sufficiently significant, as it implied,

[¶42] 1. That he was closely attached to that house and family.

[¶43] 2. That he was bound to hear all his master's orders, and to obey them punctually. Boring of the ear was an ancient custom in the east. It is referred to by Juvenal: -

[¶44] Prior, inquit, ego adsum.

[¶45] Cur timeam, dubitemve locum defendere? Quamvis

## 100. Exodus · 33 of 57

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[¶0] Natus ad Euphraten, Molles quod in Aure Fenestrae

[¶1] Arguerint, licet ipse negem.

[¶2] Sat. i. 102. "First come, first served, he cries; and I, in spite

[¶3] Of your great lordships, will maintain my right:

[¶4] Though born a slave, though my torn Ears are Bored, 'Tis not the birth, 'tis money makes the lord."

[¶5] Dryden.

[¶6] Calmet quotes a saying from Petronius as attesting the same thing; and one from Cicero, in which he rallies a Libyan who pretended he did not hear him: "It is not," said he, "because your ears are not sufficiently bored;" alluding to his having been a slave.

### Verse 7

[¶8] If a man sell his daughter - This the Jews allowed no man to do but in extreme distress - when he had no goods, either movable or immovable left, even to the clothes on his back; and he had this permission only while she was unmarriageable. It may appear at first view strange that such a law should have been given; but let it be remembered, that this servitude could extend, at the utmost, only to six years; and that it was nearly the same as in some cases of apprenticeship among us, where the parents bind the child for seven years, and have from the master so much per week during that period.

### Verse 9

[¶10] Betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her - He shall give her the same dowry he would give to one of his own daughters. From these laws we learn, that if a man's son married his servant, by his father's consent, the father was obliged to treat her in every respect as a daughter; and if the son married another woman, as it appears he might do, [Exo 21:10], he was obliged to make no abatement in the privileges of the first wife, either in her food, raiment, or duty of marriage. The word ענתה onathah, here, is the same with St. Paul's οφειλομενην ευνοιαν, the marriage debt, and with the ὁμιλιαν of the Septuagint, which signifies the cohabitation of man and wife.

### Verse 11

[¶12] These three -

[¶13] 1. Her food, שארה sheerah, her flesh, for she must not, like a common slave, be fed merely on vegetables.

[¶14] 2. Her raiment - her private wardrobe, with all occasional necessary additions. And,

[¶15] 3. The marriage debt - a due proportion of the husband's time and company.

### Verse 13

[¶17] I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee - From the earliest times the nearest akin had a right to revenge the murder of his relation, and as this right was universally acknowledged, no law was ever made on the subject; but as this might be abused, and a person who had killed another accidentally, having had no previous malice against him, might be put to death by the avenger of blood, as the nearest kinsman was termed, therefore God provided the cities of refuge to which the accidental manslayer might flee till the affair was inquired into, and settled by the civil magistrate.

### Verse 14

[¶19] Thou shalt take him from mine altar - Before the cities of refuge were assigned, the altar of God was the common asylum.

### Verse 15

[¶21] That smiteth his father, or his mother - As such a case argued peculiar depravity, therefore no mercy was to be shown to the culprit.

### Verse 16

[¶23] He that stealeth a man - By this law every man-stealer, and every receiver of the stolen person, should lose his life; no matter whether the latter stole the man himself, or gave money to a slave captain or negro-dealer to steal him for him.

### Verse 19

[¶25] Shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed - This was a wise and excellent institution, and most courts of justice still regulate their decisions on such cases by this Mosaic precept.

### Verse 21

[¶27] If the slave who had been beaten by his master died under his hand, the master was punished with death - see [Gen 9:5], [Gen 9:6]. But if he survived the beating a day or two the master was not punished, because it might be presumed that the man died through some other cause. And all penal laws should be construed as favourably as possible to the accused.

### Verse 22

[¶29] And hurt a woman with child - As a posterity among the Jews was among the peculiar promises of their covenant, and as every man had some reason to think that the Messiah should spring from his family, therefore any injury done to a woman with child, by which the fruit of her womb might be destroyed, was considered a very heavy offense; and as the crime was committed principally against the husband, the degree of punishment was left to his discretion. But if mischief followed, that is, if the child had been fully formed, and was killed by this means, or the woman lost her life in consequence, then the punishment was as in other cases of murder - the person was put to death; [Exo 21:23].

### Verse 24

[¶31] Eye for eye - This is the earliest account we have of the lex talionis, or law of like for like, which afterwards prevailed among the Greeks and Romans. Among the latter, it constituted a part of the twelve tables, so famous in antiquity; but the punishment was afterwards changed to a pecuniary fine, to be levied at the discretion of the praetor. It prevails less or more in most civilized countries, and is fully acted upon in the canon law, in reference to all calumniators: Calumniator, si in accusatione defecerit, talionem recipiat. "If the calumniator fall in the proof of his accusation, let him suffer the same punishment which he wished to have inflicted upon the man whom he falsely accused." Nothing, however, of this kind was left to private revenge; the magistrate awarded the punishment when the fact was proved, otherwise the lex talionis would have utterly destroyed the peace of society, and have sown the seeds of hatred, revenge, and all uncharitableness.

### Verse 26

[¶33] If a man smite the eye, etc. - See the following verse.

### Verse 27

[¶35] If he smite out his - tooth - It was a noble law that obliged the unmerciful slaveholder to set the slave at liberty whose eye or tooth he had knocked out. If this did not teach them humanity, it taught them caution, as one rash blow might have deprived them of all right to the future services of the slave; and thus self-interest obliged them to be cautious and circumspect.

### Verse 28

[¶37] If an ox gore a man - It is more likely that a bull is here intended, as the word signifies both, see [Exo 22:1]; and the Septuagint translate the שור shor of the original by ταυρος, a bull. Mischief of this kind was provided against by most nations. It appears that the Romans twisted hay about the horns of their dangerous cattle, that people seeing it might shun them; hence that saying of Horace. Sat., lib. i., sat. 4, ver. 34: Faenum habet in cornu, longe fuge. "He has hay on his horns; fly for life!" The laws of the twelve tables ordered, That the owner of the beast should pay for what damages he committed, or deliver him to the person injured. See Clarke's note on [Exo 22:1].

[¶38] His flesh shall not be eaten - This served to keep up a due detestation of murder, whether committed by man or beast; and at the same time punished the man as far as possible, by the total loss of the beast.

### Verse 30

[¶40] If there be laid on him a sum of money - the ransom of his life - So it appears that, though by the law he forfeited his life, yet this might be commuted for a pecuniary mulct, at which the life of the deceased might be valued by the magistrates.

### Verse 32

[¶42] Thirty shekels - Each worth about three shillings English; see [Gen 20:16]; [Gen 23:15]. So, counting the shekel at its utmost value, the life of a slave was valued at four pounds ten shillings. And at this price these same vile people valued the life of our blessed Lord; see [Zac 11:12], [Zac 11:13]; [Mat 26:15]. And in return, the justice of God has ordered it so, that they have been sold for slaves into every country of the universe. And yet, strange to tell, they see not the hand of God in so visible a retribution!

### Verse 33

[¶44] And if a man shall open a pit, or - dig a pit - That is, if a man shall open a well or cistern that had been before closed up, or dig a new one; for these two cases are plainly intimated: and if he did this in some public place where there was danger that men or cattle might fall into it; for a man might do as he pleased in his own grounds, as those were his private right. In the above case, if he had neglected to cover the pit, and his neighbor's ox or ass was killed by falling into it, he was to pay its value in money. [Exo 21:33] and [Exo 21:34] seem to be out of their places. They probably should conclude the chapters, as, where they are, they interrupt the statutes concerning the goring ox, which begin at [Exo 21:28].

## 101. Exodus · 34 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/101/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/101/#p-N

[¶0] These different regulations are as remarkable for their justice and prudence as for their humanity. Their great tendency is to show the valuableness of human life, and the necessity of having peace and good understanding in every neighborhood; and they possess that quality which should be the object of all good and wholesome laws - the prevention of crimes. Most criminal codes of jurisprudence seem more intent on the punishment of crimes than on preventing the commission of them. The law of God always teaches and warns, that his creatures may not fall into condemnation; for judgment is his strange work, i.e., one reluctantly and seldom executed, as this text is frequently understood.

### Introduction

[¶2] Laws concerning theft, [Exo 22:1-4]; concerning trespass, [Exo 22:5]; concerning casualties, [Exo 22:6]. Laws concerning deposits, or goods left in custody of others, which may have been lost, stolen, or damaged, [Exo 22:7-13]. Laws concerning things borrowed or let out on hire, [Exo 22:14], [Exo 22:15]. Laws concerning seduction, [Exo 22:16], [Exo 22:17]. Laws concerning witchcraft, [Exo 22:18]; bestiality, [Exo 22:19]; idolatry, [Exo 22:20]. Laws concerning strangers, [Exo 22:21]; concerning widows, [Exo 22:22-24]; lending money to the poor, [Exo 22:25]; concerning pledges, [Exo 22:26]; concerning respect to magistrates, [Exo 22:28]; concerning the first ripe fruits, and the first-born of man and beast, [Exo 22:29], [Exo 22:30]. Directions concerning carcasses found torn in the field, [Exo 22:31].

### Verse 1

[¶4] If a man shall steal - This chapter consists chiefly of judicial laws, as the preceding chapter does of political; and in it the same good sense, and well-marked attention to the welfare of the community and the moral improvement of each individual, are equally evident.

[¶5] In our translation of this verse, by rendering different Hebrew words by the same term in English, we have greatly obscured the sense. I shall produce the verse with the original words which I think improperly translated, because one English term is used for two Hebrew words, which in this place certainly do not mean the same thing. If a man shall steal an ox (שור shor) or a sheep, (שה seh), and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen (בקר bakar) for an ox, (שור shor), and four sheep (צאן tson) for a sheep (שה seh). I think it must appear evident that the sacred writer did not intend that these words should be understood as above. A shor certainly is different from a bakar, and a seh from a tson. Where the difference in every case lies, wherever these words occur, it is difficult to say. The shor and the bakar are doubtless creatures of the beeve kind, and are used in different parts of the sacred writings to signify the bull, the ox, the heifer, the steer, and the calf. The seh and the tson are used to signify the ram, the wether, the ewe, the lamb, the he-goat, the she-goat, and the kid. And the latter word צאן tson seems frequently to signify the flock, composed of either of these lesser cattle, or both sorts conjoined.

[¶6] As שור shor is used, [Job 21:10], for a bull probably it may mean so here. If a man steal a Bull he shall give five Oxen for him, which we may presume was no more than his real value, as very few bulls could be kept in a country destitute of horses, where oxen were so necessary to till the ground. For though some have imagined that there were no castrated cattle among the Jews, yet this cannot be admitted on the above reason; for as they had no horses, and bulls would have been unmanageable and dangerous, they must have had oxen for the purposes of agriculture. Tson צאן is used for a flock either of sheep or goats, and seh שה for an individual of either species. For every seh, four, taken indifferently from the tson or flock must be given; i.e., a sheep stolen might be recompensed with four out of the flock, whether of sheep or goats: so that a goat might be compensated with four sheep, or a sheep with four goats.

### Verse 2

[¶8] If a thief be found - If a thief was found breaking into a house in the night season, he might be killed; but not if the sun had risen, for then he might be known and taken, and the restitution made which is mentioned in the succeeding verse. So by the law of England it is a burglary to break and enter a house by night; and "anciently the day was accounted to begin only from sunrising, and to end immediately upon sunset: but it is now generally agreed that if there be daylight enough begun or left, either by the light of the sun or twilight, whereby the countenance of a person may reasonably be discerned, it is no burglary; but that this does not extend to moonlight, for then many midnight burglaries would go unpunished. And besides, the malignity of the offense does not so properly arise, as Mr. Justice Blackstone observes, from its being done in the dark, as at the dead of night when all the creation except beasts of prey are at rest; when sleep has disarmed the owner, and rendered his castle defenceless." - East's Pleas of the Crown, vol. ii., p. 509.

### Verse 4

[¶10] He shall restore double - In no case of theft was the life of the offender taken away; the utmost that the law says on this point is, that, if when found breaking into a house, he should be smitten so as to die, no blood should be shed for him; [Exo 22:2]. If he had stolen and sold the property, then he was to restore four or fivefold, [Exo 22:1]; but if the animal was found alive in his possession, he was to restore double.

### Verse 6

[¶12] If fire break out - Mr. Harmer observes that it is a common custom in the east to set the dry herbage on fire before the autumnal rains, which fires, for want of care, often do great damage: and in countries where great drought prevails, and the herbage is generally parched, great caution was peculiarly necessary; and a law to guard against such evils, and to punish inattention and neglect, was highly expedient. See Harmer's Observat., vol. iii., p. 310, etc.

### Verse 7

[¶14] Deliver unto his neighbor - This is called pledging in the law of bailments; it is a deposit of goods by a debtor to his creditor, to be kept till the debt be discharged. Whatever goods were thus left in the hands of another person, that person, according to the Mosaic law, became responsible for them; if they were stolen, and the thief was found, he was to pay double; if he could not be found, the oath of the person who had them in keeping, made before the magistrates, that he knew nothing of them, was considered a full acquittance. Among the Romans, if goods were lost which a man had entrusted to his neighbor, the depositary was obliged to pay their full value. But if a man had been driven by necessity, as in case of fire, to lodge his goods with one of his neighbors, and the goods were lost, the depositary was obliged to pay double their value, because of his unfaithfulness in a case of such distress, where his dishonesty, connected with the destruction by the fire, had completed the ruin of the sufferer. To this case the following law is applicable: Cum quis fidem elegit, nec depositum redditur, contentus esse debet simplo: cum vero extante necessitate deponat, crescit perfidia crimen, etc. - Digest., lib. xvi., tit. 3, 1. 1.

### Verse 8

[¶16] Unto the judges - See Clarke's note on [Exo 21:6].

### Verse 9

[¶18] Challengeth to be his - It was necessary that such a matter should come before the judges, because the person in whose possession the goods were found might have had them by a fair and honest purchase; and, by sifting the business, the thief might be found out, and if found, be obliged to pay double to his neighbor.

### Verse 11

[¶20] An oath of the Lord be between them - So solemn and awful were all appeals to God considered in those ancient times, that it was taken for granted that the man was innocent who could by an oath appeal to the omniscient God that he had not put his hand to his neighbor's goods. Since oaths have become multiplied, and since they have been administered on the most trifling occasions, their solemnity is gone, and their importance little regarded. Should the oath ever reacquire its weight and importance, it must be when administered only in cases of peculiar delicacy and difficulty, and as sparingly as in the days of Moses.

### Verse 13

[¶22] If it be torn in pieces - let him bring it for witness - Rather, Let him bring עד הטרפה ed hatterephah, a testimony or evidence of the torn thing, such as the horns, hoofs, etc. This is still a law in some countries among graziers: if a horse, cow, sheep, or goat, entrusted to them, be lost, and the keeper asserts it was devoured by dogs, etc., the law obliges him to produce the horns and hoofs, because on these the owner's mark is generally found. If these can be produced, the keeper is acquitted by the law. The ear is often the place marked, but this is not absolutely required, because a ravenous beast may eat the ear as well as any other part, but he cannot eat the horns or the hoofs. It seems however that in after times two of the legs and the ear were required as evidences to acquit the shepherd of all guilt. See [Amo 3:12].

### Verse 16

[¶24] If a man entice a maid - This was an exceedingly wise and humane law, and must have operated powerfully against seduction and fornication; because the person who might feel inclined to take the advantage of a young woman knew that he must marry her, and give her a dowry, if her parents consented; and if they did not consent that their daughter should wed her seducer, in this case he was obliged to give her the full dowry which could have been demanded had she been still a virgin. According to the Targumist here, and to [Deu 22:29], the dowry was fifty shekels of silver, which the seducer was to pay to her father, and he was obliged to take her to wife; nor had he authority, according to the Jewish canons, ever to put her away by a bill of divorce. This one consideration was a powerful curb on disorderly passions, and must tend greatly to render marriages respectable, and prevent all crimes of this nature.

### Verse 18

[¶26] Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live - If there had been no witches, such a law as this had never been made. The existence of the law, given under the direction of the Spirit of God, proves the existence of the thing. It has been doubted whether מכשפה mecash-shephah, which we translate witch, really means a person who practiced divination or sorcery by spiritual or infernal agency. Whether the persons thus denominated only pretended to have an art which had no existence, or whether they really possessed the power commonly attributed to them, are questions which it would be improper to discuss at length in a work of this kind; but that witches, wizards, those who dealt with familiar spirits, etc., are represented in the sacred writings as actually possessing a power to evoke the dead, to perform, supernatural operations, and to discover hidden or secret things by spells, charms, incantations, etc., is evident to every unprejudiced reader of the Bible. Of Manasseh it is said: He caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times [ועונן, veonen, he used divination by clouds] and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, [וכשף vechishsheph], and dealt with a familiar spirit, [ועשה אוב veasah ob, performed a variety of operations by means of what was afterwards called the πνευμα πυθωνος, the spirit of Python], and with wizards, [ידעוני yiddeoni, the wise or knowing ones]; and he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord; [2Chr 33:6]. It is very likely that the Hebrew כשף cashaph, and the Arabic cashafa, had originally the same meaning, to uncover, to remove a veil, to manifest, reveal, make bare or naked; and mecashefat is used to signify commerce with God. See Wilmet and Giggeius. The mecashshephah or witch, therefore, was probably a person who professed to reveal hidden mysteries, by commerce with God, or the invisible world.

[¶27] From the severity of this law against witches, etc., we may see in what light these were viewed by Divine justice. They were seducers of the people from their allegiance to God, on whose judgment alone they should depend; and by impiously prying into futurity, assumed an attribute of God, the foretelling of future events, which implied in itself the grossest blasphemy, and tended to corrupt the minds of the people, by leading them away from God and the revelation he had made of himself. Many of the Israelites had, no doubt, learned these curious arts from their long residence with the Egyptians; and so much were the Israelites attached to them, that we find such arts in repute among them, and various practices of this kind prevailed through the whole of the Jewish history, notwithstanding the offense was capital, and in all cases punished with death.

### Verse 19

[¶29] Lieth with a beast - If this most abominable crime had not been common, it never would have been mentioned in a sacred code of laws. It is very likely that it was an Egyptian practice; and it is certain, from an account in Sonnini's Travels, that it is practiced in Egypt to the present day.

### Verse 20

[¶31] Utterly destroyed - The word חרם cherem denotes a thing utterly and finally separated from God and devoted to destruction, without the possibility of redemption.

### Verse 21

[¶33] Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him - This was not only a very humane law, but it was also the offspring of a sound policy: "Do not vex a stranger; remember ye were strangers. Do not oppress a stranger; remember ye were oppressed. Therefore do unto all men as ye would they should do to you." It was the produce of a sound policy: "Let strangers be well treated among you, and many will come to take refuge among you, and thus the strength of your country will be increased. If refugees of this kind be treated well, they will become proselytes to your religion, and thus their souls may be saved." In every point of view, therefore, justice, humanity, sound policy, and religion, say. Neither vex nor oppress a stranger.

### Verse 22

[¶35] Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child - It is remarkable that offenses against this law are not left to the discretion of the judges to be punished; God reserves the punishment to himself, and by this he strongly shows his abhorrence of the crime. It is no common crime, and shall not be punished in a common way; the wrath of God shall wax hot against him who in any wise afflicts or wrongs a widow or a fatherless child: and we may rest assured that he who helps either does a service highly acceptable in the sight of God.

### Verse 25

[¶37] Neither shalt thou lay upon him usury - נשך neshech, from nashach, to bite, cut, or pierce with the teeth; biting usury. So the Latins call it usura vorax, devouring usury. "The increase of usury is called נשך neshech, because it resembles the biting of a serpent; for as this is so small as scarcely to be perceptible at first, but the venom soon spreads and diffuses itself till it reaches the vitals, so the increase of usury, which at first is not perceived nor felt, at length grows so much as by degrees to devour another's substance." - Leigh.

[¶38] It is evident that what is here said must be understood of accumulated usury, or what we call compound interest only; and accordingly נשך neshech is mentioned with and distinguished from תרביה tarbith and מרביה marbith, interest or simple interest, [Lev 25:36], [Lev 25:37]; [Pro 28:8]; [Eze 18:8], [Eze 18:13], [Eze 18:17], and [Exo 22:12] - Parkhurst.

[¶39] Perhaps usury may be more properly defined unlawful interest, receiving more for the loan of money than it is really worth, and more than the law allows. It is a wise regulation in the laws of England, that if a man be convicted of usury - taking unlawful interest, the bond or security is rendered void, and he forfeits treble the sum borrowed. Against such an oppressive practice the wisdom of God saw it essentially necessary to make a law to prevent a people, who were naturally what our Lord calls the Pharisees, φιλαργυροι, lovers of money, ([Luk 16:14]), from oppressing each other; and who, notwithstanding the law in the text, practice usury in all places of their dispersion to the present day.

### Verse 26

[¶41] If thou - take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge - It seems strange that any pledge should be taken which must be so speedily restored; but it is very likely that the pledge was restored by night only, and that he who pledged it brought it back to his creditor next morning. The opinion of the rabbins is, that whatever a man needed for the support of life, he had the use of it when absolutely necessary, though it was pledged. Thus he had the use of his working tools by day, but he brought them to his creditor in the evening. His hyke, which serves an Arab as a plaid does a Highlander, (See Clarke's note on [Exo 12:34]), was probably the raiment here referred to: it is a sort of coarse blanket, about six yards long, and five or six feet broad, which an Arab always carries with him, and on which he sleeps at night, it being his only substitute for a bed. As the fashions in the east scarcely ever change, it is very likely that the raiment of the Israelites was precisely the same with that of the modern Arabs, who live in the very same desert in which the Hebrews were when this law was given. How necessary it was to restore the hyke to a poor man before the going down of the sun, that he might have something to repose on, will appear evident from the above considerations. At the same time, the returning it daily to the creditor was a continual acknowledgment of the debt, and served instead of a written acknowledgment or bond; as we may rest assured that writing, if practiced at all before the giving of the law, was not common: but it is most likely that it did not exist.

### Verse 28

[¶43] Thou shalt not revile the gods - Most commentators believe that the word gods here means magistrates. The original is אלהים Elohim, and should be understood of the true God only: Thou shalt not blaspheme or make light of [תקלל tekallel] God, the fountain of justice and power, nor curse the ruler of thy people, who derives his authority from God. We shall ever find that he who despises a good civil government, and is disaffected to that under which he lives, is one who has little fear of God before his eyes. The spirit of disaffection and sedition is ever opposed to the religion of the Bible. When those who have been pious get under the spirit of misrule, they infallibly get shorn of their spiritual strength, and become like salt that has lost its savor. He who can indulge himself in speaking evil of the civil ruler, will soon learn to blaspheme God. The highest authority says, Fear God: honor the king.

## 102. Exodus · 35 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/102/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/102/#p-N

### Verse 29

[¶1] The first of thy ripe fruits - This offering was a public acknowledgment of the bounty and goodness of God, who had given them their proper seed time, the first and the latter rain, and the appointed weeks of harvest.

[¶2] From the practice of the people of God the heathens borrowed a similar one, founded on the same reason. The following passage from Censorinus, De Die Natali, is beautiful, and worthy of the deepest attention: -

[¶3] Illi enim (majores nostri) qui alimenta, patriam, lucem, se denique ipsos deorum dono habebant, ex omnibus aliquid diis sacrabant, magis adeo, ut se gratos approbarent, quam quod deos arbitrarentur hoc indigere. Itaque cum perceperant fruges, antequam vescerentur, Diis libare instituerunt: et cum agros atque urbes, deorum munera, possiderent, partem quandam templis sacellisque, ubi eos colerent, dicavere. "Our ancestors, who held their food, their country, the light, and all that they possessed, from the bounty of the gods, consecrated to them a part of all their property, rather as a token of their gratitude, than from a conviction that the gods needed any thing. Therefore as soon as the harvest was got in, before they had tasted of the fruits, they appointed libations to be made to the gods. And as they held their fields and cities as gifts from their gods, they consecrated a certain part for temples and shrines, where they might worship them."

[¶4] Pliny is express on the same point, who attests that the Romans never tasted either their new corn or wine, till the priests had offered the First-Fruits to the gods. Acts ne degustabant quidem, novas fruges aut vina, antequam sacerdotes Primitias Libassent. Hist. Nat., lib. xviii., c. 2.

[¶5] Horace bears the same testimony, and shows that his countrymen offered, not only their first-fruits, but the choicest of all their fruits, to the Lares or household gods; and he shows also the wickedness of those who sent these as presents to the rich, before the gods had been thus honored: -

[¶6] Dulcia poma,

[¶7] Et quoscumque feret cultus tibi fundus honores,

[¶8] Ante Larem gustet venerabilior Lare dives.

[¶9] Sat., lib. ii., s. v., ver. 12. "What your garden yields,

[¶10] The choicest honors of your cultured fields,

[¶11] To him be sacrificed, and let him taste,

[¶12] Before your gods, the vegetable feast."

[¶13] Dunkin.

[¶14] And to the same purpose Tibullus, in one of the most beautiful of his elegies: -

[¶15] Et quodcumque mihi pomum novus educat annus,

[¶16] Libatum agricolae ponitur ante deo.

[¶17] Flava Ceres, tibi sit nostro de rure corona

[¶18] Spicea, quae templi pendeat ante fores.

[¶19] Eleg., lib. i., eleg. i. ver. 13. "My grateful fruits, the earliest of the year,

[¶20] Before the rural god shall daily wait.

[¶21] From Ceres' gifts I'll cull each browner ear,

[¶22] And hang a wheaten wreath before her gate."

[¶23] Grainger.

[¶24] The same subject he touches again in the fifth elegy of the same book, where he specifies the different offerings made for the produce of the fields, of the flocks, and of the vine, ver. 27: -

[¶25] Illa deo sciet agricolae pro vitibus uvam,

[¶26] Pro segete spicas, pro grege ferre dapem. "With pious care will load each rural shrine,

[¶27] For ripen'd crops a golden sheaf assign,

[¶28] Cates for my fold, rich clusters for my wine.

[¶29] Id. - See Calmet.

[¶30] These quotations will naturally recall to our memory the offerings of Cain and Abel, mentioned [Gen 4:3], [Gen 4:4].

[¶31] The rejoicings at our harvest-home are distorted remains of that gratitude which our ancestors, with all the primitive inhabitants of the earth, expressed to God with appropriate signs and ceremonies. Is it not possible to restore, in some goodly form, a custom so pure, so edifying, and so becoming? There is a laudable custom, observed by some pious people, of dedicating a new house to God by prayer, etc., which cannot be too highly commended.

### Verse 30

[¶33] Seven days it shall be with his dam - For the mother's health it was necessary that the young one should suck so long; and prior to this time the process of nutrition in a young animal can scarcely be considered as completely formed. Among the Romans lambs were not considered as pure or clean before the eighth day; nor calves before the thirtieth: Pecoris faetus die octavo purus est, bovis trigesimo - Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. viii.

### Verse 31

[¶35] Neither shall ye eat - flesh - torn of beasts in the field - This has been supposed to be an ordinance against eating flesh cut off the animal while alive, and so the Syriac seems to have understood it. If we can credit Mr. Bruce, this is a frequent custom in Abyssinia; but human nature revolts from it. The reason of the prohibition against eating the flesh of animals that had been torn, or as we term it worried in the field, appears to have been simply this: That the people might not eat the blood, which in this case must be coagulated in the flesh; and the blood, being the life of the beast, and emblematical of the blood of the covenant, was ever to be held sacred, and was prohibited from the days of Noah. See Clarke's note on [Gen 9:4].

[¶36] In the conclusion of this chapter we see the grand reason of all the ordinances and laws which it contains. No command was issued merely from the sovereignty of God. He gave them to the people as restraints on disorderly passions, and incentives to holiness; and hence he says, Ye shall be holy men unto me. Mere outward services could neither please him nor profit them; for from the very beginning of the world the end of the commandment was love out of a pure heart and good conscience, and faith unfeigned, [1Tim 1:5]. And without these accompaniments no set of religious duties, however punctually performed, could be pleasing in the sight of that God who seeks truth in the inward parts, and in whose eyes the faith that worketh by love is alone valuable. A holy heart and a holy, useful life God invariably requires in all his worshippers. Reader, how standest thou in his sight?

### Introduction

[¶38] Laws against evil-speaking, [Exo 23:1]. Against bad company, [Exo 23:2]. Against partiality, [Exo 23:3]. Laws commanding acts of kindness and humanity, [Exo 23:4], [Exo 23:5]. Against oppression, [Exo 23:6]. Against unrighteous decisions, [Exo 23:7]. Against bribery and corruption, [Exo 23:8]. Against unkindness to strangers, [Exo 23:9]. The ordinance concerning the Sabbatical year, [Exo 23:10], [Exo 23:11]. The Sabbath a day of rest, [Exo 23:12]. General directions concerning circumcision, etc., [Exo 23:13]. The three annual festivals, [Exo 23:14]. The feast of unleavened bread, [Exo 23:15]. The feast of harvest, and the feast of ingathering, [Exo 23:16]. All the males to appear before God thrice in a year, [Exo 23:17]. Different ordinances - no blood to be offered with leavened bread - no fat to be left till the next day - the first fruits to be brought to the house of God - and a kid not to be seethed in its mother's milk, [Exo 23:18], [Exo 23:19]. Description of the Angel of God, who was to lead the people into the promised land, and drive out the Amorites, etc., [Exo 23:20-23]. Idolatry to be avoided, and the images of idols destroyed, [Exo 23:24]. Different promises to obedience, [Exo 23:25-27]. Hornets shall be sent to drive out the Canaanites, etc., [Exo 23:28]. The ancient inhabitants to be driven out by little and little, and the reason why, [Exo 23:29], [Exo 23:30]. The boundaries of the promised land, [Exo 23:31]. No league or covenant to be made with the ancient inhabitants, who are all to be utterly expelled, [Exo 23:32], [Exo 23:33].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Thou shalt not raise a false report - Acting contrary to this precept is a sin against the ninth commandment. And the inventor and receiver of false and slanderous reports, are almost equally criminal. The word seems to refer to either, and our translators have very properly retained both senses, putting raise in the text, and receive in the margin. The original לא תשא lo tissa has been translated, thou shalt not publish. Were there no publishers of slander and calumny, there would be no receivers; and were there none to receive them, there would be none to raise them; and were there no raisers, receivers, nor propagators of calumny, lies, etc., society would be in peace.

### Verse 2

[¶42] Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil - Be singular. Singularity, if in the right, can never be criminal. So completely disgraceful is the way of sin, that if there were not a multitude walking in that way, who help to keep each other in countenance, every solitary sinner would be obliged to hide his head. But רבים rabbim, which we translate multitude, sometimes signifies the great, chiefs, or mighty ones; and is so understood by some eminent critics in this place: "Thou shalt not follow the example of the great or rich, who may so far disgrace their own character as to live without God in the world, and trample under foot his laws." It is supposed that these directions refer principally to matters which come under the eye of the civil magistrate; as if he had said, "Do not join with great men in condemning an innocent or righteous person, against whom they have conceived a prejudice on the account of his religion," etc.

### Verse 3

[¶44] Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause - The word דל dal, which we translate poor man, is probably put here in opposition to רבים rabbim, the great, or noble men, in the preceding verse: if so, the meaning is, Thou shalt neither be influenced by the great to make an unrighteous decision, nor by the poverty or distress of the poor to give thy voice against the dictates of justice and truth. Hence the ancient maxim, Fiat Justitia, Ruat Coelum. "Let justice be done, though the heavens should be dissolved."

## 103. Exodus · 36 of 57

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### Verse 4

[¶1] If thou meet thine enemy's ox - going astray - From the humane and heavenly maxim in this and the following verse, our blessed Lord has formed the following precept: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you;" [Mat 5:44]. A precept so plain, wise, benevolent, and useful, can receive no other comment than that which its influence on the heart of a kind and merciful man produces in his life.

### Verse 6

[¶3] Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor - Thou shalt neither countenance him in his crimes, nor condemn him in his righteousness. See [Exo 23:5], [Exo 23:7].

### Verse 8

[¶5] Thou shalt take no gift - A strong ordinance against selling justice, which has been the disgrace and ruin of every state where it has been practiced. In the excellent charter of British liberties called Magna Charta, there is one article expressly on this head: Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus aut differemus, rectum aut justitiam - Art. xxxiii. "To none will we sell, to none will we deny or defer, right or justice." This was the more necessary in those early and corrupt times, as he who had most money, and gave the largest presents (called then oblata) to the king or queen, was sure to gain his cause in the king's court; whether he had right and justice on his side or not.

### Verse 9

[¶7] Ye know the heart of a stranger - Having been strangers yourselves, under severe, long continued, and cruel oppression, ye know the fears, cares, anxieties, and dismal forebodings which the heart of a stranger feels. What a forcible appeal to humanity and compassion!

### Verse 11

[¶9] The seventh year thou shalt let it rest - As, every seventh day was a Sabbath day, so every seventh year was to be a Sabbath year. The reasons for this ordinance Calmet gives thus: - "1. To maintain as far as possible an equality of condition among the people, in setting the slaves at liberty, and in permitting all, as children of one family, to have the free and indiscriminate use of whatever the earth produced. "2. To inspire the people with sentiments of humanity, by making it their duty to give rest, and proper and sufficient nourishment, to the poor, the slave, and the stranger, and even to the cattle. "3. To accustom the people to submit to and depend on the Divine providence, and expect their support from that in the seventh year, by an extraordinary provision on the sixth. "4. To detach their affections from earthly and perishable things, and to make them disinterested and heavenly-minded. "5. To show them God's dominion over the country, and that He, not they, was lord of the soil and that they held it merely from his bounty." See this ordinance at length, Leviticus 25 (note).

[¶10] That God intended to teach them the doctrine of providence by this ordinance, there can be no doubt; and this is marked very distinctly, [Lev 25:20], [Lev 25:21] : "And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years." That is, There shall be, not three crops in one year, but one crop equal in its abundance to three, because it must supply the wants of three years.

[¶11] 1. For the sixth year, supplying fruit for its own consumption;

[¶12] 2. For the seventh year, in which they were neither to sow nor reap; and

[¶13] 3. For the eighth year, for though they ploughed, sowed, etc., that year, yet a whole course of its seasons was requisite to bring all these fruits to perfection, so that they could not have the fruits of the eighth year till the ninth, (see [Lev 25:22]), till which time God promised that they should eat of the old store.

[¶14] What an astonishing proof did this give of the being, power, providence, mercy, and goodness of God! Could there be an infidel in such a land, or a sinner against God and his own soul, with such proofs before his eyes of God and his attributes as one sabbatical year afforded?

[¶15] It is very remarkable that the observance of this ordinance is nowhere expressly mentioned in the sacred writings; though some suppose, but without sufficient reason, that there is a reference to it in [Jer 34:8], [Jer 34:9]. Perhaps the major part of the people could not trust God, and therefore continued to sow and reap on the seventh year, as on the preceding. This greatly displeased the Lord, and therefore he sent them into captivity; so that the land enjoyed those Sabbaths, through lack of inhabitants, of which their ungodliness had deprived it. See [Lev 18:24], [Lev 18:25], [Lev 18:28]; [Lev 26:34], [Lev 26:35], [Lev 26:43]; [2Chr 36:20], [2Chr 36:21]. Commentators have been much puzzled to ascertain the time in which the sabbatical year began; because, if it began in Abib or March, they must have lost two harvests; for they could neither reap nor plant that year, and of course they could have no crop the year following; but if it began with what was called the civil year, or in Tisri or Marcheshvan, which answers to the beginning of our autumn, they would then have had that year's produce reaped and gathered in.

### Verse 12

[¶17] Six days thou shalt do thy work - Though they were thus bound to keep the sabbatical year, yet they must not neglect the seventh day's rest or weekly Sabbath; for that was of perpetual obligation, and was paramount to all others. That the sanctification of the Sabbath was of great consequence in the sight of God, we may learn from the various repetitions of this law; and we may observe that it has still for its object, not only the benefit of the soul, but the health and comfort of the body also. Doth God care for oxen? Yes; and he mentions them with tenderness, that thine ox and thine ass may rest. How criminal to employ the laboring cattle on the Sabbath, as well as upon the other days of the week! More cattle are destroyed in England than in any other part of the world, in proportion, by excessive and continued labor. The noble horse in general has no Sabbath! Does God look on this with an indifferent eye? Surely he does not. "England," said a foreigner, "is the paradise of women, the purgatory of servants, and the hell of horses.

[¶18] The son of thy handmaid, and the stranger - be refreshed - ינפש yinnaphesh may be respirited or new-souled; have a complete renewal both of bodily and spiritual strength. The expression used by Moses here is very like that used by St. Paul, [Act 3:19] : "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing (καιροι αναψυξεως, the times of re-souling) shall come from the presence of the Lord;" alluding, probably, to those times of refreshing and rest for body and soul originally instituted under the law.

### Verse 14

[¶20] Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year - The three feasts here referred to were,

[¶21] 1. The feast of the Passover;

[¶22] 2. The feast of Pentecost;

[¶23] 3. The feast of Tabernacles.

[¶24] 1. The feast of the Passover was celebrated to keep in remembrance the wonderful deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt.

[¶25] 2. The feast of Pentecost, called also the feast of harvest and the feast of weeks, [Exo 34:22], was celebrated fifty days after the Passover to commemorate the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, which took place fifty days after, and hence called by the Greeks Pentecost.

[¶26] 3. The feast of Tabernacles, called also the feast of the ingathering, was celebrated about the 15th of the month Tisri to commemorate the Israelites' dwelling in tents for forty years, during their stay in the wilderness. See on Leviticus 23 (note). "God, out of his great wisdom," says Calmet, "appointed several festivals among the Jews for many reasons:

[¶27] 1. To perpetuate the memory of those great events, and the wonders he had wrought for the people; for example, the Sabbath brought to remembrance the creation of the world; the Passover, the departure out of Egypt; the Pentecost, the giving of the law; the feast of Tabernacles, the sojourning of their fathers in the wilderness, etc.

[¶28] 2. To keep them faithful to their religion by appropriate ceremonies, and the splendor of Divine service.

[¶29] 3. To procure them lawful pleasures, and necessary rest.

[¶30] 4. To give them instruction; for in their religious assemblies the law of God was always read and explained.

[¶31] 5. To consolidate their social union, by renewing the acquaintance of their tribes and families; for on these occasions they come together from different parts of the land to the holy city."

[¶32] Besides the feasts mentioned above, the Jews had,

[¶33] 1. The feast of the Sabbath, which was a weekly feast.

[¶34] 2. The feast of the Sabbatical Year, which was a septennial feast.

[¶35] 3. The feast of Trumpets, which was celebrated on the first day of what was called their civil year, which was ushered in by the blowing of a trumpet; [Lev 23:24], etc.

[¶36] 4. The feast of the New Moon, which was celebrated on the first day the moon appeared after her change.

[¶37] 5. The feast of Expiation, which was celebrated annually on the tenth day of Tisri or September, on which a general atonement was made for all the sins, negligences, and ignorances, throughout the year.

[¶38] 6. The feast of Lots or Purim, to commemorate the preservation of the Jews from the general massacre projected by Haman. See the book of Esther.

[¶39] 7. The feast of the Dedication, or rather the Restoration of the temple, which had been profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes. This was also called the feast of Lights.

[¶40] Besides these, the Jews have had several other feasts, such as the feast of Branches, to commemorate the taking of Jericho.

[¶41] The feast of Collections, on the 10th of September, on which they make contributions for the service of the temple and synagogue.

[¶42] The feast for the death of Nicanor. 1 Maccabees 7:48, etc.

[¶43] The feast for the discovery of the sacred fire, 2 Maccabees 1:18, etc.

[¶44] The feast of the carrying of wood to the temple, called Xylophoria, mentioned by Josephus - War, b. ii. c. 17.

## 104. Exodus · 37 of 57

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### Verse 17

[¶1] All thy males - Old men, sick men, male idiots, and male children under thirteen years of age, excepted; for so the Jewish doctors understand this command.

### Verse 18

[¶3] The blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread - The sacrifice here mentioned is undoubtedly the Passover; (see [Exo 34:25]); this is called by way of eminence My sacrifice, because God had instituted it for that especial purpose, the redemption of Israel from the Egyptian bondage, and because it typified The Lamb Of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. We have already seen how strict the prohibition against leaven was during this festival, and what was signified by it. See on Exodus 12 (note).

### Verse 19

[¶5] Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk - This passage has greatly perplexed commentators; but Dr. Cudworth is supposed to have given it its true meaning by quoting a MS. comment of a Karaite Jew, which he met with, on this passage. "It was a custom of the ancient heathens, when they had gathered in all their fruits, to take a kid and boil it in the milk of its dam; and then, in a magical way, to go about and besprinkle with it all their trees and fields, gardens and orchards; thinking by these means to make them fruitful, that they might bring forth more abundantly in the following year." - Cudworth on the Lord's Supper, 4th.

[¶6] I give this comment as I find it, and add that Spenser has shown that the Zabii used this kind of magical milk to sprinkle their trees and fields, in order to make them fruitful. Others understand it of eating flesh and milk together; others of a lamb or a kid while it is sucking its mother, and that the paschal lamb is here intended, which it was not lawful to offer while sucking.

[¶7] After all the learned labor which critics have bestowed on this passage, and by which the obscurity in some cases is become more intense, the simple object of the precept seems to be this: "Thou shalt do nothing that may have any tendency to blunt thy moral feelings, or teach thee hardness of heart." Even human nature shudders at the thought of causing the mother to lend her milk to seethe the flesh of her young one! We need go no farther for the delicate, tender, humane, and impressive meaning of this precept.

### Verse 20

[¶9] Behold, I send an Angel before thee - Some have thought that this was Moses, others Joshua, because the word מלאך malach signifies an angel or messenger; but as it is said, [Exo 23:21], My name is in him, (בקרבו bekirbo, intimately, essentially in him), it is more likely that the great Angel of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, is meant, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We have had already much reason to believe that this glorious personage often appeared in a human form to the patriarchs, etc.; and of him Joshua was a very expressive type, the names Joshua and Jesus, in Hebrew and Greek, being of exactly the same signification, because radically the same, from ישע yasha, he saved, delivered, preserved, or kept safe. Nor does it appear that the description given of the Angel in the text can belong to any other person.

[¶10] Calmet has referred to a very wonderful comment on these words given by Philo Judaeus De Agricultura, which I shall produce here at full length as it stands in Dr. Mangey's edition, vol. 1., p. 308: Ὡς ποιμην και βασιλευς ὁ Θεος αγει κατα δικην και νομον, προστησαμενος τον ορθον αυτου λογον πρωτογονον υἱον, ὁς την επιμελειαν της ἱερας ταυτης αγελης, οἱα τις μεγαλου βασιλεως ὑπαρχος, διαδεξεται. Και γαρ ειρηται που· Ιδου εγω ειμι, αποστελω αγγελον μον εις προσωπον σου, του φυλαξαι σε εν τῃ ὁδῳ "God, as the Shepherd and King, conducts all things according to law and righteousness, having established over them his right Word, his Only-Begotten Son, who, as the Viceroy of the Great King, takes care of and ministers to this sacred flock. For it is somewhere said, ([Exo 23:20]), Behold, I Am, and I will send my Angel before thy face, to keep thee in the way."

[¶11] This is a testimony liable to no suspicion, coming from a person who cannot be supposed to be even friendly to Christianity, nor at all acquainted with that particular doctrine to which his words seem so pointedly to refer.

### Verse 21

[¶13] He will not pardon your transgressions - He is not like a man, with whom ye may think that ye may trifle; were he either man or angel, in the common acceptation of the term, it need not be said, He will not pardon your transgressions, for neither man nor angel could do it.

[¶14] My name is in him - The Jehovah dwells in him; in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and because of this he could either pardon or punish. All power is given unto me in heaven and earth, [Mat 28:18].

### Verse 23

[¶16] Unto the Amorites - There are only six of the seven nations mentioned here, but the Septuagint, Samaritan, Coptic, and one Hebrew MS., add Girgashite, thus making the seven nations.

### Verse 24

[¶18] Break down their images - מצבתיהם matstsebotheyhem, from נצב natsab, to stand up; pillars, anointed stones, etc., such as the baitulia. See Clarke on [Gen 28:18] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶20] Shall bless thy bread and thy water - That is, all thy provisions, no matter of what sort; the meanest fare shall be sufficiently nutritive when God's blessing is in it.

### Verse 26

[¶22] There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren - Hence there must be a very great increase both of men and cattle.

[¶23] The number of thy days I will fulfill - Ye shall all live to a good old age, and none die before his time. This is the blessing of the righteous, for wicked men live not out half their days; [Psa 55:23].

### Verse 28

[¶25] I will send hornets before thee - הצרעה hatstsirah. The root is not found in Hebrew, but it may be the same with the Arabic saraa, to lay prostrate, to strike down; the hornet, probably so called from the destruction occasioned by the violence of its sting. The hornet, in natural history, belongs to the species crabro, of the genus vespa or wasp; it is a most voracious insect, and is exceedingly strong for its size, which is generally an inch in length, though I have seen some an inch and a half long, and so strong that, having caught one in a small pair of forceps, it repeatedly escaped by using violent contortions, so that at last I was obliged to abandon all hopes of securing it alive, which I wished to have done. How distressing and destructive a multitude of these might be, any person may conjecture; even the bees of one hive would be sufficient to sting a thousand men to madness, but how much worse must wasps and hornets be! No armor, no weapons, could avail against these. A few thousands of them would be quite sufficient to throw the best disciplined army into confusion and rout. From [Jos 24:12], we find that two kings of the Amorites were actually driven out of the land by these hornets, so that the Israelites were not obliged to use either sword or bow in the conquest.

### Verse 31

[¶27] I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea - On the south-east, even unto the sea of the Philistines - the Mediterranean, on the north-west; and from the desert - of Arabia, or the wilderness of Shur, on the west, to the river - the Euphrates, on the north-east. Or in general terms, from the Euphrates on the east, to the Mediterranean Sea on the west; and from Mount Libanus on the north, to the Red Sea and the Nile on the south. This promise was not completely fulfilled till the days of David and Solomon. The general disobedience of the people before this time prevented a more speedy accomplishment; and their disobedience afterwards caused them to lose the possession. So, though all the promises of God are Yea and Amen, yet they are fulfilled but to a few, because men are slow of heart to believe; and the blessings of providence and grace are taken away from several because of their unfaithfulness.

### Verse 32

[¶29] Thou shalt make no covenant with them - They were incurable idolaters, and the cup of their iniquity was full. And had the Israelites contracted any alliance with them, either sacred or civil, they would have enticed them into their idolatries, to which the Jews were at all times most unhappily prone; and as God intended that they should be the preservers of the true religion till the coming of the Messiah, hence he strictly forbade them to tolerate idolatry.

### Verse 33

[¶31] They shall not dwell in thy land - They must be utterly expelled. The land was the Lord's, and he had given it to the progenitors of this people, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The latter being obliged to leave it because of a famine, God is now conducting back his posterity, who alone had a Divine and natural right to it, and therefore their seeking to possess the inheritance of their fathers can be only criminal in the sight of those who are systematically opposed to the thing, because it is a part of Divine revelation.

[¶32] What a pity that the Mosaic Law should be so little studied! What a number of just and equal laws, pious and humane institutions, useful and instructive ordinances, does it contain! Everywhere we see the purity and benevolence of God always working to prevent crimes and make the people happy! But what else can be expected from that God who is love, whose tender mercies are over all his works, and who hateth nothing that he has made? Reader, thou art not straitened in him, be not straitened in thy own bowels. Learn from him to be just, humane, kind, and merciful. Love thy enemy, and do good to him that hates thee. Jesus is with thee; hear and obey his voice; provoke him not, and he will be an enemy to thine enemies, and an adversary to thine adversaries. Believe, love, obey; and the road to the kingdom of God is plain before thee. Thou shalt inherit the good land, and be established in it for ever and ever.

### Introduction

[¶34] Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders, are commanded to go to the mount to meet the Lord, [Exo 24:1]. Moses alone to come near to the Divine presence, [Exo 24:2]. He informs the people, and they promise obedience, [Exo 24:3]. He writes the words of the Lord, erects an altar at the foot of the hill, and sets up twelve pillars for the twelve tribes, [Exo 24:4]. The young priests offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, [Exo 24:5]. Moses reads the book of the covenant, sprinkles the people with the blood, and they promise obedience, [Exo 24:6-8]. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel, go up to the mount, and get a striking display of the majesty of God, [Exo 24:9-11]. Moses alone is called up into the mount, in order to receive the tables of stone, written by the hand of God, [Exo 24:12]. Moses and his servant Joshua go up, and Aaron and Hur are left regents of the people during his absence, [Exo 24:13], [Exo 24:14]. The glory of the Lord rests on the mount, and the cloud covers it for six days, and on the seventh God speaks to Moses out of the cloud, [Exo 24:15], [Exo 24:16]. The terrible appearance of God's glory on the mount, [Exo 24:17]. Moses continues with God on the mount forty days, [Exo 24:18].

### Verse 1

[¶36] Come up unto the Lord - Moses and Aaron were already on the mount, or at least some way up, ([Exo 19:24]), where they had heard the voice of the Lord distinctly speaking to them: and the people also saw and heard, but in a less distinct manner, probably like the hoarse grumbling sound of distant thunder; see [Exo 20:18]. Calmet, who complains of the apparent want of order in the facts laid down here, thinks the whole should be understood thus: - "After God had laid before Moses and Aaron all the laws mentioned from the beginning of the 20th chapter to the end of the 23d, before they went down from the mount to lay them before the people, he told them that, when they had proposed the conditions of the covenant to the Israelites, and they had ratified them, they were to come up again unto the mountain accompanied with Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron, and seventy of the principal elders of Israel. Moses accordingly went down, spoke to the people, ratified the covenant, and then, according to the command of God mentioned here, he and the others reascended the mountain. Tout cela est racont ici avec assez peu d'ordre."

### Verse 2

[¶38] Moses alone shall come near - The people stood at the foot of the mountain. Aaron and his two sons and the seventy elders went up, probably about half way, and Moses alone went to the summit.

### Verse 3

[¶40] Moses - told the people all the words of the Lord - That is, the ten commandments, and the various laws and ordinances mentioned from the beginning of the 20th to the end of the 23d chapter.

### Verse 4

[¶42] Moses wrote all the words of the Lord - After the people had promised obedience, ([Exo 24:3]), and so entered into the bonds of the covenant, "it was necessary," says Calmet, "to draw up an act by which the memory of these transactions might be preserved, and confirm the covenant by authentic and solemn ceremonies." And this Moses does.

[¶43] 1. As legislator, he reduces to writing all the articles and conditions of the agreement, with the people's act of consent.

[¶44] 2. As their mediator and the deputy of the Lord, he accepts on his part the resolution of the people; and Jehovah on his part engages himself to Israel, to be their God, their King, and Protector, and to fulfill to them all the promises he had made to their fathers.

[¶45] 3. To make this the more solemn and affecting, and to ratify the covenant, which could not be done without sacrifice, shedding and sprinkling of blood, Moses builds an altar, probably of turf, as was commanded, [Exo 20:24], and erects twelve pillars, no doubt of unhewn stone, and probably set round about the altar. The altar itself represented the throne of God; the twelve stones, the twelve tribes of Israel. These were the two parties, who were to contract, or enter into covenant, on this occasion.

## 105. Exodus · 38 of 57

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### Verse 5

[¶1] He sent young men - Stout, able, reputable young men, chosen out of the different tribes, for the purpose of killing, flaying, and offering the oxen mentioned here.

[¶2] Burnt-offerings - They generally consisted of sheep and goats, [Lev 1:10]. These were wholly consumed by fire.

[¶3] Peace-offerings - Bullocks or goats; see [Heb 9:19]. The blood of these was poured out before the Lord, and then the priests and people might feast on the flesh.

### Verse 7

[¶5] The book of the covenant - The writing containing the laws mentioned in the three preceding chapters. As this writing contained the agreement made between God and them, it was called the book of the covenant; but as no covenant was considered to be ratified and binding till a sacrifice had been offered on the occasion, hence the necessity of the sacrifices mentioned here.

[¶6] Half of the blood being sprinkled on the Altar, and half of it sprinkled on the People, showed that both God and They were mutually bound by this covenant. God was bound to the People to support, defend, and save them; the People were bound to God to fear, love, and serve him. On the ancient method of making covenants, see Clarke on [Gen 6:18] (note); and see Clarke on [Gen 15:18] (note). Thus the blood of the new covenant was necessary to propitiate the throne of justice on the one hand, and to reconcile men to God on the other. On the nature and various kinds of the Jewish offerings, see Clarke's note on [Lev 7:1], etc.

### Verse 10

[¶8] They saw the God of Israel - The seventy elders, who were representatives of the whole congregation, were chosen to witness the manifestation of God, that they might be satisfied of the truth of the revelation which he had made of himself and of his will; and on this occasion it was necessary that the people also should be favored with a sight of the glory of God; see [Exo 20:18]. Thus the certainty of the revelation was established by many witnesses, and by those especially of the most competent kind.

[¶9] A paved work of a sapphire stone - Or sapphire brick-work. I suppose that something of the Musive or Mosaic pavement is here intended; floors most curiously inlaid with variously coloured stones or small square tiles, disposed in a great variety of ornamental forms. Many of these remain in different countries to the present day. The Romans were particularly fond of them, and left monuments of their taste and ingenuity in pavements of this kind, in most countries where they established their dominion. Some very fine specimens are found in different parts of Britain.

[¶10] Sapphire is a precious stone of a fine blue color, next in hardness to the diamond. The ruby is considered by most mineralogists of the same genus; so is also the topaz: hence we cannot say that the sapphire is only of a blue color; it is blue, red, or yellow, as it may be called sapphire, ruby, or topaz; and some of them are blue or green, according to the light in which they are held; and some white. A very large specimen of such a one is now before me. The ancient oriental sapphire is supposed to have been the same with the lapis lazuli. Supposing that these different kinds of sapphires are here intended, how glorious must a pavement be, constituted of polished stones of this sort, perfectly transparent, with an effulgence of heavenly splendor poured out upon them! The red, the blue, the green, and the yellow, arranged by the wisdom of God, into the most beautiful emblematic representations, and the whole body of heaven in its clearness shining upon them, must have made a most glorious appearance. As the Divine glory appeared above the mount, it is reasonable to suppose that the Israelites saw the sapphire pavement over their heads, as it might have occupied a space in the atmosphere equal in extent to the base of the mountain; and being transparent, the intense brightness shining upon it must have greatly heightened the effect.

[¶11] It is necessary farther to observe that all this must have been only an appearance, unconnected with any personal similitude; for this Moses expressly asserts, [Deu 4:15]. And though the feet are here mentioned, this can only be understood of the sapphirine basis or pavement, on which this celestial and indescribable glory of the Lord appeared. There is a similar description of the glory of the Lord in the Book of Revelation, [Rev 4:3] : "And he who sat [upon the throne] was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." In neither of these appearances was there any similitude or likeness of any thing in heaven, earth, or sea. Thus God took care to preserve them from all incentives to idolatry, while he gave them the fullest proofs of his being. In Scheuchzer's Physica Sacra, among his numerous fine engravings, there is one of this glorious manifestation, which cannot be too severely reprehended. The Supreme Being is represented as an old man, sitting on a throne, encompassed with glory, having a crown on his head, and a scepter in his hand, the people prostrate in adoration at the foot of the piece. A print of this kind should be considered as utterly improper, if not blasphemous.

### Verse 11

[¶13] Upon the nobles of - Israel he laid not his hand - This laying on of the hand has been variously explained.

[¶14] 1. He did not conceal himself from the nobles of Israel by covering them with his hand, as he did Moses, [Exo 33:22].

[¶15] 2. He did not endue any of the nobles, i.e., the seventy elders, with the gift of prophecy; for so laying on of the hand has been understood.

[¶16] 3. He did not slay any of them; none of them received any injury; which is certainly one meaning of the phrase: see [Neh 13:21]; [Psa 55:20]. Also they saw God, i.e., although they had this discovery of his majesty, yet they did eat and drink, i.e., were preserved alive and unhurt.

[¶17] Perhaps the eating and drinking here may refer to the peace-offerings on which they feasted, and the libations that were then offered on the ratification of the covenant. But they rejoiced the more because they had been so highly favored, and were still permitted to live; for it was generally apprehended that God never showed his glory in this signal manner but for the purpose of manifesting his justice; and therefore it appeared a strange thing that these should have seen God as it were face to face, and yet live. See [Gen 16:13]; [Gen 33:10]; and [Jdg 13:22], [Jdg 13:23].

### Verse 12

[¶19] Come up to me into the mount, and be there - We may suppose Moses to have been, with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, about midway up the mount; for it plainly appears that there were several stations on it.

### Verse 13

[¶21] Moses rose up - In [Exo 24:16] it is said that the glory of the Lord abode on the mount, and the cloud covered it. The glory was probably above the cloud, and it was to the cloud that Moses and his servant Joshua ascended at this time, leaving Aaron and the elders below. After they had been in this region, viz., where the cloud encompassed the mountain, for six days, God appears to have called Moses up higher: compare verses [Exo 24:16] and [Exo 24:18]. Moses then ascended to the glory, leaving Joshua in the cloud, with whom he had, no doubt, frequent conferences during the forty days he continued with God on the mount.

### Verse 14

[¶23] Tarry ye here for us - Probably Moses did not know that he was to continue so long on the mount, nor is it likely that the elders tarried the whole forty days where they were: they doubtless, after waiting some considerable time, returned to the camp; and their return is supposed to have been the grand cause why the Israelites made the golden calf, as they probably reported that Moses was lost.

[¶24] Aaron and Hur are with you - Not knowing how long he might be detained on the mount, and knowing that many cases might occur which would require the interference of the chief magistrate, Moses constituted them regents of the people during the time he should be absent.

### Verse 16

[¶26] And the seventh day he called - It is very likely that Moses went up into the mount on the first day of the week; and having with Joshua remained in the region of the cloud during six days, on the seventh, which was the Sabbath, God spake to him, and delivered successively to him, during forty days and forty nights, the different statutes and ordinances which are afterwards mentioned.

### Verse 17

[¶28] The glory of the Lord was like devouring fire - This appearance was well calculated to inspire the people with the deepest reverence and godly rear; and this is the use the apostle makes or it, [Heb 12:28], [Heb 12:29], where he evidently refers to this place, saying, Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a Consuming Fire. Seeing the glory of the Lord upon the mount like a devouring fire, Moses having tarried long, the Israelites probably supposed that he had been devoured or consumed by it, and therefore the more easily fell into idolatry. But how could they do this, with this tremendous sight of God's glory before their eyes?

### Verse 18

[¶30] Forty days and forty nights - During the whole of this time he neither ate bread nor drank water; see [Exo 34:28]; [Deu 9:9]. Both his body and soul were so sustained by the invigorating presence of God, that he needed no earthly support, and this may be the simple reason why he took none. Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights, sustained by the same influence, [1Kgs 19:8]; as did likewise our blessed Lord, when he was about to commence the public ministry of his own Gospel, [Mat 4:2].

[¶31] 1. Moses, who was the mediator of the Old Covenant, is alone permitted to draw nigh to God; none of the people are suffered to come up to the Divine glory, not even Aaron, nor his sons, nor the nobles of Israel. Moses was a type of Christ, who is the mediator of the New Covenant; and he alone has access to God in behalf of the human race, as Moses had in behalf of Israel.

[¶32] 2. The law can inspire nothing but terror, when viewed unconnected with its sacrifices, and those sacrifices are nothing but as they refer to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who alone by the sacrifice of himself, bears away the sin of the world.

[¶33] 3. The blood of the victims was sprinkled both on the altar and on the people, to show that the death of Christ gave to Divine justice what it demanded, and to men what they needed. The people were sanctified by it unto God, and God was propitiated by it unto the people. By this sacrifice the law was magnified and made honorable, so Divine justice received its due; and those who believe are justified from all guilt, and sanctified from all sin, so they receive all that they need. Thus God is well pleased, and believers eternally saved. This is a glorious economy, highly worthy of God its author.

### Introduction

[¶35] The Lord addresses Moses out of the Divine glory, and commands him to speak unto the Israelites, that they may give him free-will offerings, [Exo 25:1], [Exo 25:2]. The different kinds of offerings, gold, silver, and brass, [Exo 25:3]. Purple, scarlet, fine linen, and goats' hair, [Exo 25:4]. Rams' skins, badgers' skins, (rather violet-coloured skins), and shittim wood, [Exo 25:5]. Oil and spices, [Exo 25:6]. Onyx stones, and stones for the ephod and breastplate, [Exo 25:7]. A sanctuary is to be made after the pattern of the tabernacle, [Exo 25:8], [Exo 25:9]. The ark and its dimensions, [Exo 25:10]. Its crown of gold, [Exo 25:11]. Its rings, [Exo 25:12]. Its staves, and their use, [Exo 25:13-15]. The testimony to be laid up in the ark, [Exo 25:16]. The mercy-seat and its dimensions, [Exo 25:17]. The cherubim, how made and placed, [Exo 25:18-20]. The mercy-seat to be placed on the ark, and the testimony to be put within it, [Exo 25:21]. The Lord promises to commune with the people from the mercy-seat, [Exo 25:22]. The table of shew-bread, and its dimensions, [Exo 25:23]. Its crown and border of gold, [Exo 25:24], [Exo 25:25]. Its rings, [Exo 25:26], [Exo 25:27]. Staves, [Exo 25:28]. Dishes, spoons, and bowls, [Exo 25:29]. Its use, [Exo 25:30]. The golden candlestick; its branches, bowls, knops, and flowers, [Exo 25:31-36]. Its seven lamps, [Exo 25:37]. Tongs and snuffers, [Exo 25:38]. The weight of the candlestick and its utensils, one talent of gold, [Exo 25:39]. All to be made according to the pattern showed to Moses on the mount, [Exo 25:40].

### Verse 2

[¶37] That they bring me an offering - The offering here mentioned is the תרומה terumah, a kind of free-will offering, consisting of any thing that was necessary for the occasion. It signifies properly any thing that was lifted up, the heave-offering, because in presenting it to God it was lifted up to be laid on his altar; but see Clarke on [Exo 29:27] (note). God requires that they should build him a tent, suited in some sort to his dignity and eminence, because he was to act as their king, and to dwell among them; and they were to consider themselves as his subjects, and in this character to bring him presents, which was considered to be the duty of every subject appearing before his prince. See [Exo 23:15].

### Verse 3

[¶39] This is the offering - There were three kinds of metals:

[¶40] 1. Gold, זהב zahab, which may properly signify wrought gold; what was bright and resplendent, as the word implies. In [Job 28:15], [Job 28:16], [Job 28:17], [Job 28:19], gold is mentioned five times, and four of the words are different in the original.

[¶41] 1. סגור Segor, from סגר sagar, to shut up; gold in the mine, or shut up in its ore.

[¶42] 2. כתם Kethem, from כתם catham, to sign, seal, or stamp; gold made current by being coined; standard or sterling gold, exhibiting the stamp expressive of its value.

[¶43] 3. זהב Zahab, wrought gold, pure, highly polished gold; probably what was used for overlaying or gilding.

[¶44] 4. פז Paz, denoting solidity, compactness, and strength; probably gold formed into different kinds of plate, as it is joined in [Exo 25:17] of the above chapter with כלי keley, vessels. The zahab, or pure gold, is here mentioned, because it was in a state that rendered it capable of being variously manufactured for the service of the sanctuary.

## 106. Exodus · 39 of 57

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[¶0] 2. Silver, כסף keseph, from casaph, to be pale, wan, or white; so called from its well-known color.

[¶1] 3. Brass, נחשת nechosheth, copper; unless we suppose that the factitious metal commonly called brass is intended: this is formed by a combination of the oxide or ore of zinc, called lapis calaminaris, with copper. Brass seems to have been very anciently in use, as we find it mentioned [Gen 4:22]; and the preparation of copper, to transform it into this factitious metal, seems to be very pointedly referred to [Job 28:2] : Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone; אבן יצוק נחושה eben yatsuk nechushah, translated by the Vulgate, Lapis, solutus calore, in aes vertitur, "The stone, liquefied by heat, is turned into brass." Is it going too far to say that the stone here may refer to the lapis calaminaris, which was used to turn the copper into brass? Because brass was capable of so fine a polish as to become exceedingly bright, and keep its lustre a considerable time, hence it was used for all weapons of war and defensive armor among ancient nations; and copper seems to have been in no repute, but for its use in making brass.

### Verse 4

[¶3] Blue - תכלת techeleth, generally supposed to mean an azure or sky color; rendered by the Septuagint ὑακινθον, and by the Vulgate hyacinthum, a sky-blue or deep violet.

[¶4] Purple - ארגמן argaman, a very precious color, extracted from the purpura or murex, a species of shell-fish, from which it is supposed the famous Tyrian purple came, so costly, and so much celebrated in antiquity. See this largely described, and the manner of dyeing it, in Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. ix., c. 60-65, edit. Bipont.

[¶5] Scarlet - תולעת tolaath, signifies a worm, of which this colouring matter was made; and, joined with שני shani, which signifies to repeat or double, implies that to strike this color the wool or cloth was twice dipped: hence the Vulgate renders the original coccum bis tinctum, "scarlet twice dyed;" and to this Horace refers, Odar., lib. ii., od. 16, v. 35: - Te Bis Afro Murice

[¶6] Tinctae Vestiunt Lanae - "Thy robes the twice dyed purple stains."

[¶7] It is the same color which the Arabs call al kermez, whence the French cramoisi, and the English crimson. On this subject much may be seen in Bochart, Calmet, and Scheuchzer.

[¶8] Fine linen - שש shesh; whether this means linen, cotton, or silk, is not agreed on among interpreters. Because שש shesh signifies six, the rabbins suppose that it always signifies the fine linen of Egypt, in which six folds constituted one thread; and that when a single fold was meant, בד bad is the term used. See Clarke's note on [Gen 41:42].

[¶9] Goats' hair - עזים izzim, goats, but used here elliptically for goats' hair. In different parts of Asia Minor, Syria, Cilicia, and Phrygia, the goats have long, fine, and beautiful hair, in some cases almost as fine as silk, which they shear at proper times, and manufacture into garments. From Virgil, Georg. iii., v. 305-311, we learn that goats' hair manufactured into cloth was nearly of equal value with that formed from wool.

[¶10] Hae quoque non cura nobis leviore tuendae

[¶11] Nec minor usus erit: quamvis Milesia magno

[¶12] Vellera mutentur, Tyrios incocta rubores.

[¶13] Nec minus interea barbas incanaque menta

[¶14] Cinyphii tondent hirci, setasque comantes,

[¶15] Usum in castrorum, et miseris velamina nautis. "For hairy goats of equal profit are

[¶16] With woolly sheep, and ask an equal care. 'Tis true the fleece when drunk with Tyrian juice

[¶17] Is dearly sold, but not for needful use:

[¶18] Meanwhile the pastor shears their hoary beards

[¶19] And eases of their hair the loaden herds.

[¶20] Their camelots, warm in tents, the soldier hold,

[¶21] And shield the shivering mariner from the cold."

[¶22] Dryden.

### Verse 5

[¶24] Rams' skins dyed red - ערת אילם מאדמים oroth eylim meoddamim, literally, the skins of red rams. It is a fact attested by many respectable travelers, that in the Levant sheep are often to be met with that have red or violet-coloured fleeces. And almost all ancient writers speak of the same thing. Homer describes the rams of Polyphemus as having a violet-coloured fleece. Αρσενες οΐες ησαν εΰτρεφεες, δασυμαλλοι, Καλοι τε, μεγαλοι τε, ιοδνεφες ειρος εχοντες.

[¶25] Odyss., lib. ix., ver. 425. "Strong were the rams, with native purple fair,

[¶26] Well fed, and largest of the fleecy care."

[¶27] Pope.

[¶28] Pliny, Aristotle, and others mention the same. And from facts of this kind it is very probable that the fable of the golden fleece had its origin. In the Zetland Isles I have seen sheep with variously coloured fleeces, some white, some black, some black and white, some of a very fine chocolate color. Beholding those animals brought to my recollection those words of Virgil: - Ipse sed in pratis Aries jam suave rubenti

[¶29] Murice, jam croceo mutabit vellera luto.

[¶30] Eclog. iv., ver. 43. "No wool shall in dissembled colors shine;

[¶31] But the luxurious father of the fold,

[¶32] With native purple or unborrow'd gold,

[¶33] Beneath his pompous fleece shall proudly sweat,

[¶34] And under Tyrian robes the lamb shall bleat."

[¶35] Dryden.

[¶36] Badgers' skins - ערת תחשים oroth techashim. Few terms have afforded greater perplexity to critics and commentators than this. Bochart has exhausted the subject, and seems to have proved that no kind of animal is here intended, but a color. None of the ancient versions acknowledge an animal of any kind except the Chaldee, which seems to think the badger is intended, and from it we have borrowed our translation of the word. The Septuagint and Vulgate have skins dyed a violet color; the Syriac, azure; the Arabic, black; the Coptic, violet; the modern Persic, ram-skins, etc. The color contended for by Bochart is the hysginus, which is a very deep blue. So Pliny, Coccoque tinctum Tyrio tingere, ut fieret hysginum. "They dip crimson in purple to make the color called hysginus." - Hist. Nat., lib. ix., c. 65, edit. Bipont.

[¶37] Shittim wood - By some supposed to be the finest species of the cedar; by others, the acacia Nilotica, a species of thorn, solid, light, and very beautiful. This acacia is known to have been plentiful in Egypt, and it abounds in Arabia Deserta, the very place in which Moses was when he built the tabernacle; and hence it is reasonable to suppose that he built it of that wood, which was every way proper for his purpose.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Oil for the light - This they must have brought with them from Egypt, for they could not get any in the wilderness where there were no olives; but it is likely that this and some other directions refer more to what was to be done when in their fixed and settled residence, than while wandering in the wilderness.

[¶40] Spices - To make a confection for sweet incense, abounded in different parts of these countries.

### Verse 7

[¶42] Onyx stones - We have already met with the stone called שהם shoham, [Gen 2:12], and acknowledged the difficulty of ascertaining what is meant by it. Some think the onyx, some the sardine, and some the emerald, is meant. We cannot say precisely what it was; possibly it might have been that fine pale pebble, called the Egyptian pebble, several specimens of which now lie before me, which were brought from the coast of the Red Sea, and other parts in Egypt, by a particular friend of mine, on purpose to add to my collection of minerals. Stones to be set in the ephod - אבני מלאים abney milluim, stones of filling up. Stones so cut as to be proper to be set in the gold work of the breastplate.

[¶43] The אפד ephod - It is very difficult to tell what this was, or in what form it was made. It was a garment of some kind peculiar to the priests, and ever considered essential to all the parts of Divine worship, for without it no person attempted to inquire of God. As the word itself comes from the root אפד aphad, he tied or bound close, Calmet supposes that it was a kind of girdle, which, brought from behind the neck and over the shoulders, and so hanging down before, was put cross upon the stomach, and then carried round the waist, and thus made a girdle to the tunic. Where the ephod crossed on the breast there was a square ornament called חשן choshen, the breastplate, in which twelve precious stones were set, each bearing one of the names of the twelve sons of Jacob engraven on it. There were two sorts of ephods, one of plain linen for the priests, the other very much embroidered for the high priest. As there was nothing singular in this common sort, no particular description is given; but that of the high priest is described very much in detail [Exo 28:6-8]. It was distinguished from the common ephod by being composed of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twisted linen, and cunning work, i.e., superbly ornamented and embroidered. This ephod was fastened on the shoulders with two precious stones, on which the twelve names of the twelve tribes of Israel were engraved, six names on each stone. These two stones, thus engraved, were different from those on the breastplate, with which they have been confounded. From Calmet's description the ephod seems to have been a series of belts, fastened to a collar, which were intended to keep the garments of the priest closely attached to his body: but there is some reason to believe that it was a sort of garment like that worn by our heralds; it covered the back, breast, and belly, and was open at the sides. A piece of the same kind of stuff with itself united it on the shoulders, where the two stones, already mentioned, were placed, and it was probably without sleeves. See Clarke on [Exo 28:2] (note), etc.

## 107. Exodus · 40 of 57

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Let them make me a sanctuary - מקדש mikdash, a holy place, such as God might dwell in; this was that part of the tabernacle that was called the most holy place, into which the high priest entered only once a year, on the great day of atonement.

[¶2] That I may dwell among them - "This," says Mr. Ainsworth, "was the main end of all; and to this all the particulars are to be referred, and by this they are to be opened. For this sanctuary, as Solomon's temple afterwards, was the place of prayer, and of the public service of God, [Lev 17:4-6]; [Mat 21:13]; and it signified the Church which is the habitation of God through the Spirit, [2Cor 6:16]; [Eph 2:19-22]; [Rev 21:2], [Rev 21:3]; and was a visible sign of God's presence and protection, [Lev 26:11], [Lev 26:12]; [Eze 37:27], [Eze 37:28]; [1Kgs 6:12], [1Kgs 6:13]; and of his leading them to his heavenly glory. For as the high priest entered into the tabernacle, and through the veil into the most holy place where God dwelt; so Christ entered into the holy of holies, and we also enter through the veil, that is to say his flesh. See the use made of this by the apostle, Hebrews 9 and 10. Thus the sanctuary is to be applied as a type,

[¶3] 1. To Christ's person, [Heb 8:2]; [Heb 9:11], [Heb 9:12]; [Joh 2:19-21].

[¶4] 2. To every Christian, [1Cor 6:19].

[¶5] 3. To the Church; both particular, [Heb 3:6]; [1Tim 3:15]; and universal, [Heb 10:21] : and it was because of the very extensive signification of this building, that the different things concerning this sanctuary are particularly set down by Moses, and so variously applied by the prophets and by the apostles." - See Ainsworth.

[¶6] As the dwelling in this tabernacle was the highest proof of God's grace and mercy towards the Israelites, so it typified Christ's dwelling by faith in the hearts of believers, and thus giving them the highest and surest proof of their reconciliation to God, and of his love and favor to them; see [Eph 1:22]; [Eph 3:17].

### Verse 9

[¶8] After the pattern of the tabernacle - It has been supposed that there had been a tabernacle before that erected by Moses, though it probably did not now exist; but the tabernacle which Moses is ordered to make was to be formed exactly on the model of this ancient one, the pattern of which God showed him in the mount, [Exo 25:40]. The word משכן mishcan signifies literally the dwelling or habitation; and this was so called because it was the dwelling place of God; and the only place on the earth in which he made himself manifest. See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:40], and on [Exo 33:7-10].

### Verse 10

[¶10] They shall make an ark - ארון aron signifies an ark, chest, coffer, or coffin. It is used particularly to designate that chest or coffer in which the testimony or two tables of the covenant was laid up, on the top of which was the propitiatory or mercy-seat, (see on [Exo 25:17]), and at the end of which were the cherubim of gold, ([Exo 25:18-20]), between whom the visible sign of the presence of the supreme God appeared as seated upon his throne. The ark was the most excellent of all the holy things which belonged to the Mosaic economy, and for its sake the tabernacle and the temple were built, [Exo 26:33]; [Exo 40:18], [Exo 40:21]. It was considered as conferring a sanctity wherever it was fixed, 2 Chronicles 8;11; [2Sam 6:12].

[¶11] Two cubits and a half shall be the length, etc. - About four feet five inches in length, taking the cubit as twenty-one inches, and two feet six inches in breadth and in depth. As this ark was chiefly intended to deposit the two tables of stone in, which had been written by the finger of God, we may very reasonably conjecture that the length of those tables was not less than four feet and their breadth not less than two. As to their thickness we can say nothing, as the depth of the ark was intended for other matters besides the two tables, such as Aaron's rod, the pot of manna, etc., etc., though probably these were laid up beside, not in, the ark.

### Verse 11

[¶13] A crown of gold round about - A border, or, as the Septuagint have it, κυματια χρυσα στεπτα κυκλω, waves of gold wreathed round about.

### Verse 15

[¶15] The staves - shall not be taken from it - Because it should ever be considered as in readiness to be removed, God not having told them at what hour he should command them to strike their tents. If the staves were never to be taken out, how can it be said, as in [Num 4:6], that when the camp should set forward, they should put in the staves thereof, which intimates that when they encamped, they took out the staves, which appears to be contrary to what is here said? To reconcile these two places, it has been supposed, with great show of probability, that besides the staves which passed through the rings of the ark, and by which it was carried, there were two other staves or poles in the form of a bier or handbarrow, on which the ark was laid in order to be transported in their journeyings, when it and its own staves, still in their rings, had been wrapped up in the covering of what is called badgers' skins and blue cloth. The staves of the ark itself, which might be considered as its handles simply to lift it by, were never taken out of their rings; but the staves or poles which served as a bier were taken from under it when they encamped.

### Verse 16

[¶17] The testimony - The two tables of stone which were not yet given; these tables were called עדת eduth, from עד forward, onward, to bear witness to or of a person or thing. Not only the tables of stone, but all the contents of the ark, Aaron's rod, the pot of manna, the holy anointing oil, etc., bore testimony to the Messiah in his prophetic, sacerdotal, and regal offices.

### Verse 17

[¶19] A mercy-seat - כפרת capporeth, from כפר caphar, to cover or overspread; because by an act of pardon sins are represented as being covered, so that they no longer appear in the eye of Divine justice to displease, irritate, and call for punishment; and the person of the offender is covered or protected from the stroke of the broken law. In the Greek version of the Septuagint the word ιλαστηριον, hilasterion, is used, which signifies a propitiatory, and is the name used by the apostle, [Heb 9:5]. This mercy-seat or propitiatory was made of pure gold; it was properly the lid or covering of that vessel so well known by the name of the ark and ark of the covenant. On and before this, the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of the expiatory sacrifices on the great day of atonement: and it was in this place that God promised to meet the people, (see [Exo 25:22]); for there he dwelt, and there was the symbol of the Divine presence. At each end of this propitiatory was a cherub, between whom this glory was manifested; hence in Scripture it is so often said that he dwelleth between the cherubim. As the word ιλαστηριον, propitiatory or mercy-seat, is applied to Christ, [Rom 3:25], whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation (ιλαστηριον) through faith in his blood - for the remission of sins that are past; hence we learn that Christ was the true mercy-seat, the thing signified by the capporeth, to the ancient believers. And we learn farther that it was by his blood that an atonement was to be made for the sins of the world. And as God showed himself between the cherubim over this propitiatory or mercy-seat, so it is said, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; [2Cor 5:19], etc. See on Leviticus 7 (note).

### Verse 18

[¶21] Thou shalt make two cherubims - What these were we cannot distinctly say. It is generally supposed that a cherub was a creature with four heads and one body: and the animals, of which these emblematical forms consisted, were the noblest of their kinds; the lion among the wild beasts, the bull among the tame ones, the eagle among the birds, and man at the head of all; so that they might be, says Dr. Priestley, the representatives of all nature. Concerning their forms and design there is much difference of opinion among divines. It is probable that the term often means a figure of any kind, such as was ordinarily sculptured on stone, engraved on metal, carved on wood, or embroidered on cloth. See on [Exo 35:8] (note). It may be only necessary to add, that cherub is the singular number; cherubim, not cherubims, the plural. See what has been said on this subject in the note on [Gen 3:24] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶23] And there I will meet with thee - That is, over the mercy-seat, between the cherubim. In this place God chose to give the most especial manifestations of himself; here the Divine glory was to be seen; and here Moses was to come in order to consult Jehovah, relative to the management of the people.

[¶24] Ainsworth has remarked that the rabbins say, "The heart of man may be likened to God's sanctuary; for as, in the sanctuary, the shechinah or Divine glory dwelt, because there were the ark, the tables, and the cherubim; so, in the heart of man, it is meet that a place be made for the Divine Majesty to dwell in, and that it be the holy of holies." This is a doctrine most implicitly taught by the apostles; and the absolute necessity of having the heart made a habitation of God through the Spirit, is strongly and frequently insisted on through the whole of the New Testament. See the note on [Exo 25:23].

### Verse 23

[¶26] Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood - The same wood, the acacia, of which the arkstaves, etc., were made. On the subject of the ark, table of shew-bread, etc., Dr. Cudworth, in his very learned and excellent treatise on the Lord's Supper, has the following remarks: - "When God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, resolving to manifest himself in a peculiar manner present among them, he thought good to dwell amongst them in a visible and external manner; and therefore, while they were in the wilderness, and sojourned in tents, he would have a tent or tabernacle built to sojourn with them also. This mystery of the tabernacle was fully understood by the learned Nachmanides, who, in few words, but pregnant, expresseth himself to this purpose: 'The mystery of the tabernacle was this, that it was to be a place for the shechinah, or habitation of Divinity, to be fixed in;' and this, no doubt, as a special type of God's future dwelling in Christ's human nature, which was the True Shechinah: but when the Jews were come into their land, and had there built them houses, God intended to have a fixed dwelling-house also; and therefore his movable tabernacle was to be turned into a standing temple. Now the tabernacle or temple, being thus as a house for God to dwell in visibly, to make up the notion of dwelling or habitation complete there must be all things suitable to a house belonging to it; hence, in the holy place, there must be a table, and a candlestick, because this was the ordinary furniture of a room, as the fore-commended Nachmanides observes. The table must have its dishes, and spoons, and bowls, and covers belonging to it, though they were never used; and always be furnished with bread upon it. The candlestick must have its lamps continually burning. Hence also there must be a continual fire kept in this house of God upon the altar, as the focus of it; to which notion I conceive the Prophet Isaiah doth allude, [Isa 31:9] : Whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem; and besides all this, to carry the notion still farther, there must be some constant meat and provision brought into this house; which was done in the sacrifices that were partly consumed by fire upon God's own altar, and partly eaten by the priests, who were God's family, and therefore to be maintained by him. That which was consumed upon God's altar was accounted God's mess, as appeareth from [Mal 1:12], where the altar is called God's table, and the sacrifice upon it, God's meat: Ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even His Meat, is contemptible. And often, in the law, the sacrifice is called God's לחם lechem, i.e., his bread or food. Wherefore it is farther observable, that besides the flesh of the beast offered up in sacrifice, there was a minchah, i.e., a meat-offering, or rather bread-offering, made of flour and oil; and a libamen or drink-offering, which was always joined with the daily sacrifice, as the bread and drink which was to go along with God's meat. It was also strictly commanded that there should be salt in every sacrifice and oblation, because all meat is unsavoury without salt, as Nachmanides hath here also well observed; 'because it was not honorable that God's meat should be unsavoury, without salt.' Lastly, all these things were to be consumed on the altar only by the holy fire which came down from heaven, because they were God's portion, and therefore to be eaten or consumed by himself in an extraordinary manner." See Clarke on [Exo 25:22] (note).

### Verse 29

[¶28] The dishes thereof - קערתיו kearothaiv, probably the deep bowls in which they kneaded the mass out of which they made the shew-bread.

[¶29] And spoons thereof - כפתיו cappothaiu, probably censers, on which they put up the incense; as seems pretty evident from [Num 7:14], [Num 7:20], [Num 7:26], [Num 7:32], [Num 7:38], [Num 7:44], [Num 7:50], [Num 7:56], [Num 7:62], [Num 7:68], [Num 7:74], [Num 7:80], [Num 7:86], where the same word is used, and the instrument, whatever it was, is always represented as being filled with incense.

[¶30] Covers thereof - קשותיו kesothaiv, supposed to be a large cup or tankard, in which pure wine was kept on the table along with the shewbread for libations, which were poured out before the Lord every Sabbath, when the old bread was removed, and the new bread laid on the table.

[¶31] Bowls thereof - מנקיתיו menakkiyothaiv, from נקה nakah, to clear away, remove, empty, etc.; supposed by Calmet to mean, either the sieves by which the Levites cleansed the wheat they made into bread, (for it is asserted that the grain, out of which the shew-bread was made, was sowed, reaped, ground, sifted, kneaded, baked, etc., by the Levites themselves), or the ovens in which the bread was baked. Others suppose they were vessels which they dipped into the kesoth, to take out the wine for libations.

### Verse 30

[¶33] Shew-bread - לחם פנים lechem panim literally, bread of faces; so called, either because they were placed before the presence or face of God in the sanctuary, or because they were made square, as the Jews will have it. It is probable that they were in the form of cubes or hexaedrons, each side presenting the same appearance; and hence the Jews might suppose they were called the bread or loaves of faces: but the Hebrew text seems to intimate that they were called the bread of faces, פנים panim, because, as the Lord says, they were set לפני lephanai, before my Face. These loaves or cakes were twelve, representing, as is generally supposed, the twelve tribes of Israel. They were in two rows of six each. On the top of each row there was a golden dish with frankincense, which was burned before the Lord, as a memorial, at the end of the week, when the old loaves were removed and replaced by new ones, the priests taking the former for their domestic use.

[¶34] It is more difficult to ascertain the use of these, or what they represented, than almost any other emblem in the whole Jewish economy. Many have conjectured their meaning, and I feel no disposition to increase their number by any addition of my own. The note on [Exo 25:23], from Dr. Cudworth, appears to me more rational than any thing else I have met with. The tabernacle was God's house, and in it he had his table, his bread, his wine, candlestick, etc., to show them that he had taken up his dwelling among them. See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:23].

### Verse 31

[¶36] A candlestick of pure gold - This candlestick or chandelier is generally described as having one shaft or stock, with six branches proceeding from it, adorned at equal distances with six flowers like lilies, with as many bowls and knops placed alternately. On each of the branches there was a lamp, and one on the top of the shaft which occupied the center; thus there were seven lamps in all, [Exo 25:37]. These seven lamps were lighted every evening and extinguished every morning.

[¶37] We are not so certain of the precise form of any instrument or utensil of the tabernacle or temple, as we are of this, the golden table, and the two silver trumpets.

[¶38] Titus, after the overthrow of Jerusalem, a.d. 70, had the golden candlestick and the golden table of the shew-bread, the silver trumpets, and the book of the law, taken out of the temple and carried in triumph to Rome; and Vespasian lodged them in the temple which he had consecrated to the goddess of Peace. Some plants also of the balm of Jericho are said to have been carried in the procession. At the foot of Mount Palatine there are the ruins of an arch, on which the triumph of Titus for his conquest of the Jews is represented, and on which the several monuments which were carried in the procession are sculptured, and particularly the golden candlestick, the table of the shew-bread and the two silver trumpets. A correct Model of this arch, taken on the spot, now stands before me; and the spoils of the temple, the candlestick, the golden table, and the two trumpets, are represented on the panel on the left hand, in the inside of the arch, in basso-relievo. The candlestick is not so ornamented as it appears in many prints; at the same time it looks much better than it does in the engraving of this arch given by Montfaucon, Antiq. Expliq., vol. iv., pl. 32. It is likely that on the real arch this candlestick is less in size than the original, as it scarcely measures three feet in height. See the Diarium Italicum, p. 129. To see these sacred articles given up by that God who ordered them to be made according to a pattern exhibited by himself, gracing the triumph of a heathen emperor, and at last consecrated to an idol, affords melancholy reflections to a pious mind. But these things had accomplished the end for which they were instituted, and were now of no farther use. The glorious personage typified by all this ancient apparatus, had about seventy years before this made his appearance. The true light was come, and the Holy Spirit poured out from on high; and therefore the golden candlestick, by which they were typified, was given up. The ever-during bread had been sent from heaven; and therefore the golden table, which bore its representative, the shew-bread, was now no longer needful. The joyful sound of the everlasting Gospel was then published in the world; and therefore the silver trumpets that typified this were carried into captivity, and their sound was no more to be heard. Strange providence but unutterable mercy of God! The Jews lost both the sign and the thing signified; and that very people, who destroyed the holy city, carried away the spoils of the temple, and dedicated them to the objects of their idolatry, were the first in the universe to receive the preaching of the Gospel, the light of salvation, and the bread of life! There is a sort of coincidence or association here, which is worthy of the most serious observation. The Jews had these significant emblems to lead them to, and prepare them for, the things signified. They trusted in the former, and rejected the latter! God therefore deprived them of both, and gave up their temple to the spoilers, their land to desolation, and themselves to captivity and to the sword. The heathens then carried away the emblems of their salvation, and God shortly gave unto those heathens that very salvation of which these things were the emblems! Thus because of their unbelief and rebellion, the kingdom of heaven, according to the prediction of our blessed Lord, was taken from the Jews, and given to a nation (the Gentiles) that brought forth the fruits thereof; [Mat 21:43]. Behold the Goodness and Severity of God!

### Verse 39

[¶40] Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels - That is, a talent of gold in weight was used in making the candlestick, and the different vessels and instruments which belonged to it. According to Bishop Cumberland, a talent was three thousand shekels. As the Israelites brought each half a shekel, [Exo 38:26], so that one hundred talents, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, were contributed by six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty persons; by halving the number of the Israelites, he finds they contributed three hundred and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels in all. Now, as we find that this number of shekels made one hundred talents, and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels over, if we subtract one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, the odd shekels, from three hundred and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, we shall have for a remainder three hundred thousand, the number of shekels in one hundred talents: and if this remainder be divided by one hundred, the number of talents, it quotes three thousand, the number of shekels in each talent. A silver shekel of the sanctuary, being equal, according to Dr. Prideaux, to three shillings English, three thousand such shekels will amount to four hundred and fifty pounds sterling; and, reckoning gold to silver as fifteen to one, a talent of gold will amount to six thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling: to which add two hundred and sixty-three pounds for the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, at three shillings each, and it makes a total of seven thousand and thirteen pounds, which immense sum was expended on the candlestick and its furniture. It is no wonder, then, (if the candlestick in the second temple was equal in value to that in the ancient tabernacle), that Titus should think it of sufficient consequence to be one of the articles, with the golden table, and silver trumpets, that should be employed to grace his triumph. Their intrinsic worth was a matter of no consequence to Him whose are the silver and gold, the earth and its fullness; they had accomplished their design, and were of no farther use, either in the kingdom of providence, or the kingdom of grace. See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:31], and see Clarke's note on [Exo 38:24].

### Verse 40

[¶42] And look that thou make, etc. - This verse should be understood as an order to Moses after the tabernacle, etc., had been described to him; as if he had said: "When thou comest to make all the things that I have already described to thee, with the other matters of which I shall afterwards treat, see that thou make every thing according to the pattern which thou didst see in the mount." The Septuagint have it, κατα τον τυτον τον δεδειγμενον σοι· according to the Type-form or fashion, which was shown thee. It appears to me that St. Paul had this command particularly in view when he gave that to his son Timothy which we find in the second epistle, [2Tim 1:13] : Ὑποτυπωσιν εχε ὑγιαινοντων λογων, ὡν παρ' εμου ηκουσας. "Hold fast the Form of sound words which thou hast heard of me." The tabernacle was a type of the Church of God; that Church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, [Eph 2:20-22] : the doctrines, therefore, delivered by the prophets, Jesus Christ, and his apostles, are essential to the constitution of this church. As God, therefore, gave the plan or form according to which the tabernacle must be constructed, so he gives the doctrines according to which the Christian Church is to be modeled; and apostles, and subordinate builders, are to have and hold fast that Form of sound words, and construct this heavenly building according to that form or pattern which has come through the express revelation of God.

[¶43] In different parts of this work we have had occasion to remark that the heathens borrowed their best things from Divine revelation, both as it refers to what was pure in their doctrines, and significant in their religious rites. Indeed, they seem in many cases to have studied the closest imitation possible, consistent with the adaptation of all to their preposterous and idolatrous worship. They had their Iao or Jove, in imitation of the true Jehovah; and from different attributes of the Divine Nature they formed an innumerable group of gods and goddesses. They had also their temples in imitation of the temple of God; and in these they had their holy and more holy places, in imitation of the courts of the Lord's house. The heathen temples consisted of several parts or divisions:

[¶44] 1. The area or porch;

[¶45] 2. The ναος or temple, similar to the nave of our churches;

## 108. Exodus · 41 of 57

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[¶0] 3. The adytum or holy place, called also penetrale and sacrarium; and,

[¶1] 4. The οπισθοδομος or the inner temple, the most secret recess, where they had their mysteria, and which answered to the holy of holies in the tabernacle.

[¶2] And as there is no evidence whatever that there was any temple among the heathens prior to the tabernacle, it is reasonable to conclude that it served as a model for all that they afterwards built. They had even their portable temples, to imitate the tabernacle; and the shrines for Diana, mentioned [Act 19:24], were of this kind. They had even their arks or sacred coffers, where they kept their most holy things, and the mysterious emblems of their religion; together with candlesticks or lamps, to illuminate their temples, which had few windows, to imitate the golden candlestick in the Mosaic tabernacle. They had even their processions, in imitation of the carrying about of the ark in the wilderness, accompanied by such ceremonies as sufficiently show, to an unprejudiced mind, that they borrowed them from this sacred original. Dr. Dodd has a good note on this subject, which I shall take the liberty to extract.

[¶3] Speaking of the ark, he says, "We meet with imitations of this Divinely instituted emblem among several heathen nations. Thus Tacitus, De Moribus Germanorum, cap. 40, informs us that the inhabitants of the north of Germany, our Saxon ancestors, in general worshipped Herthum or Hertham, i.e., the mother earth: Hertham being plainly derived from ארץ arets, earth, and אם am, mother: and they believed her to interpose in the affairs of men, and to visit nations: that to her, in a sacred grove in a certain island of the ocean, a vehicle covered with a vestment was consecrated, and allowed to be touched by the priests only, (compare [2Sam 6:6], [2Sam 6:7]; [1Chr 13:9], [1Chr 13:10]), who perceived when the goddess entered into her secret place, penetrale, and with profound veneration attended her vehicle, which was drawn by cows; see [1Sam 6:7-10]. While the goddess was on her progress, days of rejoicing were kept in every place which she vouchsafed to visit; they engaged in no war, they handled no weapons; peace and quietness were then only known, only relished, till the same priest reconducted the goddess to her temple. Then the vehicle and vestment, and, if you can believe it, the goddess herself, were washed in a sacred lake."

[¶4] Apuleius, De Aur. Asin., lib. ii., describing a solemn idolatrous procession, after the Egyptian mode, says, "A chest, or ark, was carried by another, containing their secret things, entirely concealing the mysteries of religion."

[¶5] And Plutarch, in his treatise De Iside, etc., describing the rites of Osiris, says, "On the tenth day of the month, at night, they go down to the sea; and the stolists, together with the priest, carry forth the sacred chest, in which is a small boat or vessel of gold."

[¶6] Pausanius likewise testifies, lib. vii., c. 19, that the ancient Trojans had a sacred ark, wherein was the image of Bacchus, made by Vulcan, which had been given to Dardanus by Jupiter. As the ark was deposited in the holy of holies, so the heathens had in the inmost part of their temples an adytum or penetrale, to which none had access but the priests. And it is remarkable that, among the Mexicans, Vitzliputzli, their supreme god, was represented under a human shape, sitting on a throne, supported by an azure globe which they called heaven; four poles or sticks came out from two sides of this globe, at the end of which serpents' heads were carved, the whole making a litter which the priests carried on their shoulders whenever the idol was shown in public - Religious Ceremonies, vol. iii., p. 146.

[¶7] Calmet remarks that the ancients used to dedicate candlesticks in the temples of their gods, bearing a great number of lamps.

[¶8] Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxiv., c. 3, mentions one made in the form of a tree, with lamps in the likeness of apples, which Alexander the Great consecrated in the temple of Apollo.

[¶9] And Athenaeus, lib. xv., c. 19, 20, mentions one that supported three hundred and sixty-five lamps, which Dionysius the younger, king of Syracuse, dedicated in the Prytaneum at Athens. As the Egyptians, according to the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom., lib. i., were the first who used lamps in their temples, they probably borrowed the use from the golden candlestick in the tabernacle and temple.

[¶10] From the solemn and very particular charge, Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount, it appears plainly that God showed Moses a model of the tabernacle and all its furniture; and to receive instructions relative to this was one part of his employment while on the mount forty days with God. As God designed that this building, and all that belonged to it, should be patterns or representations of good things to come, it was indispensably necessary that Moses should receive a model and specification of the whole, according to which he might direct the different artificers in their constructing the work.

[¶11] 1. We may observe that the whole tabernacle and its furniture resembled a dwelling-house and its furniture.

[¶12] 2. That this tabernacle was the house of God, not merely for the performance of his worship, but for his residence.

[¶13] 3. That God had promised to dwell among this people, and this was the habitation which he appointed for his glory.

[¶14] 4. That the tabernacle, as well as the temple, was a type of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. See [Joh 1:14], and [Joh 2:19], [Joh 2:21].

[¶15] 5. That as the glory of God was manifested between the cherubim, above the mercy-seat, in this tabernacle, so God was in Christ, and in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

[¶16] 6. As in the tabernacle were found bread, light, etc., probably all these were emblematical of the ample provision made in Christ for the direction, support, and salvation of the soul of man. Of these, and many other things in the law and the prophets, we shall know more when mortality is swallowed up of life.

### Introduction

[¶18] The ten curtains of the tabernacle, and of what composed, [Exo 26:1]. Their length, [Exo 26:2], [Exo 26:3]; their loops, [Exo 26:4], [Exo 26:5]; their taches, [Exo 26:6]. The curtains of goats' hair for a covering, [Exo 26:7]; their length and breadth, [Exo 26:8]. Coupled with loops, [Exo 26:9], [Exo 26:10], and taches, [Exo 26:11]. The remnant of the curtains, how to be employed, [Exo 26:12], [Exo 26:13]. The covering of rams' skins, [Exo 26:14]. The boards of the tabernacle for the south side, [Exo 26:15]; their length, [Exo 26:16], tenons, [Exo 26:17], number, [Exo 26:18], sockets, [Exo 26:19]. Boards, etc., for the north side, [Exo 26:20], [Exo 26:21]. Boards, etc., for the west side, [Exo 26:22]; for the corners, [Exo 26:23]; their rings and sockets, [Exo 26:24], [Exo 26:25]. The bars of the tabernacle, [Exo 26:26-30]. The veil, its pillars, hooks, and taches, [Exo 26:31-33]. How to place the mercy-seat, [Exo 26:34]. The table and the candlestick, [Exo 26:35]. The hanging for the door of the tent, [Exo 26:36]; and the hangings for the pillars, [Exo 26:37].

### Verse 1

[¶20] Thou shalt make the tabernacle - משכן mischan, from שכן shachan, to dwell, means simply a dwelling place or habitation of any kind, but here it means the dwelling place of Jehovah, who, as a king in his camp, had his dwelling or pavilion among his people, his table always spread, his lamps lighted, and the priests, etc., his attendants, always in waiting. From the minute and accurate description here given, a good workman, had he the same materials, might make a perfect facsimile of the ancient Jewish tabernacle. It was a movable building, and so constructed that it might be easily taken to pieces, for the greater convenience of carriage, as they were often obliged to transport it from place to place, in their various journeyings. For the twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet, see Clarke's note on [Exo 25:4], etc.

[¶21] Cherubims - See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:18].

[¶22] Cunning work - חשב chosheb probably means a sort of diaper, in which the figures appear equally perfect on both sides; this was probably formed in the loom. Another kind of curious work is mentioned, [Exo 26:36], רקם rokem, which we term needle-work; this was probably similar to our embroidery, tapestry, or cloth of arras. It has been thought unlikely that these curious works were all manufactured in the wilderness: what was done in the loom, they might have brought with them from Egypt; what could be done by hand, without the use of complex machinery, the Israelitish women could readily perform with their needles, during their stay in the wilderness. But still it seems probable that they brought even their looms with them. The whole of this account shows that not only necessary but ornamental arts had been carried to a considerable pitch of perfection, both among the Israelites and Egyptians.

[¶23] The inner curtains of the tabernacle were ten in number, and each in length twenty-eight cubits, and four in breadth; about sixteen yards twelve inches long, and two yards twelve inches broad. The curtains were to be coupled together, five and five of a side, by fifty loops, [Exo 26:5], and as many golden clasps, [Exo 26:6], so that each might look like one curtain, and the whole make one entire covering, which was the first.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Curtains of goats' hair - Stuff made of goats' hair. See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:4]. This was the second covering.

### Verse 14

[¶27] Rams' skins dyed red - See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:5]. This was the third covering; and what is called the badgers' skins was the fourth. See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:5]. Why there should have been four coverings does not appear. They might have been designed partly for respect; and partly to keep off dust and dirt, and the extremely fine sand which in that desert rises as it were on every breeze; and partly to keep off the intense heat of the sun, which would otherwise have destroyed the poles, bars, boards, and the whole of the wood work. As to the conjecture of some that "the four coverings were intended the better to keep off the rain," it must appear unfounded to those who know that in that desert rain was rarely ever seen.

### Verse 15

[¶29] Thou shalt make boards - These formed what might be called the walls of the tabernacle, and were made of shittim wood, the acacia Nilotica, which Dr. Shaw says grows here in abundance. To have worked the acacia into these boards or planks, the Israelites must have had sawyers, joiners, etc., among them; but how they got the tools is a question. But as the Israelites were the general workmen of Egypt, and were brought up to every kind of trade for the service of their oppressors, we may naturally suppose that every artificer brought off some of his tools with him. For though it is not at all likely that they had any armor or defensive weapons in their power, yet for the reason above assigned they must have had the implements which were requisite for their respective trades.

### Verse 16

[¶31] Ten cubits shall be the length of a board - Each of these boards or planks was about five yards and two feet and a half long, and thirty-two inches broad; and as they are said to be standing up, this was the Height of the tabernacle. The length being thirty cubits, twenty boards, one cubit and a half broad each, make about seventeen yards and a half, and the Breadth was about five yards.

### Verse 29

[¶33] Thou shalt overlay the boards with gold - It is not said how thick the gold was by which these boards, etc., were overlaid; it was no doubt done with gold plates, but these must have been very thin, else the boards, etc., must have been insupportably heavy. The gold was probably something like our gold leaf, but not brought to so great a degree of tenuity.

### Verse 31

[¶35] Thou shalt make a veil - פרכת parocheth, from פרך parach, to break or rend; the inner veil of the tabernacle or temple, ([2Chr 3:14]), which broke, interrupted, or divided between the holy place and the most holy; the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was standing. Compare [Heb 9:8]. The Septuagint constantly render it by καταπετασμα. Does not the Hebrew name פרכת parocheth moreover intimate the typical correspondence of this veil to the body or flesh of Christ? For this καταπετασμα or veil was his flesh, ([Heb 10:20]), which, being rent, affords us a new and living way into the holiest of all, i.e., into heaven itself. Compare [Heb 10:19], [Heb 10:20]; [Heb 9:24]. And accordingly when his blessed body was rent upon the cross, this veil also (το καταπετασμα του ἱερου) εσχισθη, was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; [Mat 27:51] - See Parkhurst, under the word פרך.

[¶36] The veil in the tabernacle was exceedingly costly; it was made of the same materials with the inner covering, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twined linen, embroidered with cherubim, etc. It served to divide the tabernacle into two parts: one, the outermost, called the holy place; the other, or innermost, called the holy of holies, or the most holy place. In this was deposited the ark of the covenant, and the other things that were laid up by way of memorial. Into this the high priest alone was permitted to enter, and that only once in the year, on the great day of atonement. It was in this inner place that Jehovah manifested himself between the cherubim. The Jews say that this veil was four fingers' breadth in thickness, in order to prevent any person from seeing through it; but for this, as Calmet observes, there was no necessity, as there was no window or place for light in the tabernacle, and consequently the most simple veil would have been sufficient to obstruct the discovery of any thing behind it, which could only be discerned by the light that came in at the door, or by that afforded by the golden candlestick which stood on the outside of this veil.

### Verse 32

[¶38] Their hooks shall be of gold - וויהם vaveyhem, which we translate their hooks, is rendered κεφαλιδες, capitals, by the Septuagint, and capita by the Vulgate. As the word וו vav or vau, plural ווים vavim, occurs only in this book, [Exo 26:32], [Exo 26:37]; [Exo 27:10], [Exo 27:11], [Exo 27:17]; [Exo 36:36], [Exo 36:38]; [Exo 38:10], [Exo 38:11], [Exo 38:12], [Exo 38:17], [Exo 38:19], [Exo 38:28]; and is used in these places in reference to the same subject, it is very difficult to ascertain its precise meaning. Most commentators and lexicographers think that the ideal meaning of the word is to connect, attach, join to, hook; and that the letter ו vau has its name from its hooklike form, and its use as a particle in the Hebrew language, because it serves to connect the words and members of a sentence, and the sentences of a discourse together, and that therefore hook must be the obvious meaning of the word in all the above texts. Calmet thinks this reason of no weight, because the ו vau of the present Hebrew alphabet is widely dissimilar from the vau of the primitive Hebrew alphabet, as may be seen on the ancient shekels; on these the characters appear as in the word Jehovah, [Exo 28:36]. This form bears no resemblance to a hook; nor does the Samaritan vau, which appears to have been copied from this ancient character.

[¶39] Calmet therefore contends,

[¶40] 1. That if Moses does not mean the capitals of the pillars by the ווים eht vavim of the text, he mentions them nowhere; and it would be strange that while he describes the pillars, their sockets, bases, fillets, etc., etc., with so much exactness, as will appear on consulting the preceding places, that he should make no mention of the capitals; or that pillars, every way so correctly formed, should have been destitute of this very necessary ornament.

[¶41] 2. As Moses was commanded to make the hooks, ווים vavim, of the pillars and their fillets of silver, [Exo 27:10], [Exo 27:11], and the hooks, vavim, of the pillars of the veil of gold, [Exo 36:36]; and as one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels were employed in making these hooks, vavim, overlaying their chapiters, ראשיהם rasheyhem, their heads, and filleting them, [Exo 38:28]; it is more reasonable to suppose that all this is spoken of the capitals of the pillars than of any kind of hooks, especially as hooks are mentioned under the word taches or clasps in other places. On the whole it appears much more reasonable to translate the original by capitals than by hooks.

[¶42] After this verse the Samaritan Pentateuch introduces the ten first verses of Exodus 30, and this appears to be their proper place. Those ten verses are not repeated in the thirtieth chapter in the Samaritan, the chapter beginning with the 11th verse.

### Verse 36

[¶44] A hanging for the door of the tent - This may be called the first veil, as it occupied the door or entrance to the tabernacle; the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies is called the second veil, [Heb 9:3]. These two veils and the inner covering of the tabernacle were all of the same materials, and of the same workmanship. See [Exo 27:16].

## 109. Exodus · 42 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/109/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/109/#p-N

[¶0] 1. For the meaning and design of the tabernacle see Clarke's note on [Exo 25:40] : and while the reader is struck with the curious and costly nature of this building, as described by Moses, let him consider how pure and holy that Church should be of which it was a very expressive type; and what manner of person he should be in all holy conversation and godliness, who professes to be a member of that Church for which, it is written, Christ has given himself, that he might sanctify and cleanse it; that he might present it unto himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. See [Eph 5:25-27].

[¶1] 2. In the Jewish tabernacle almost every thing was placed out of the sight of the people. The holy of holies was inaccessible, the testimony was comparatively hidden, as were also the mercy-seat and the Divine glory. Under the Gospel all these things are laid open, the way to the holiest is made manifest, the veil is rent, and we have an entrance to the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; [Heb 10:19], [Heb 10:20]. How abundantly has God brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel! The awful distance is abolished, the ministry of reconciliation is proclaimed, the kingdom of heaven is opened to all believers, and the Lord is in his holy temple. Sinner, weary of thyself and thy transgressions, fainting under the load of thy iniquities, look to Jesus; he died for thee, and will save thee. Believer, stand fast in the liberty wherewith God has made thee free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.

### Introduction

[¶3] The altar of burnt-offerings, and its dimensions, [Exo 27:1]; its horns, [Exo 27:2]; pans, shovels, etc., [Exo 27:3]; its grate and net work, [Exo 27:4], [Exo 27:5]; its staves, [Exo 27:6], [Exo 27:7]. Court of the tabernacle, with its pillars and hangings, [Exo 27:9-15]. Gate of the court, its pillars, hangings, length, breadth, and height, [Exo 27:16-18]. All the vessels used in the court of the tabernacle to be of brass, [Exo 27:19]. The Israelites to provide pure olive oil for the light, [Exo 27:20]. Every thing to be ordered by Aaron and his sons, [Exo 27:21].

### Verse 1

[¶5] Thou shalt make an altar - מזבח mizbeach, from זבח zabach, to slay: Septuagint, θυσιαστηριον, from θυσιαζω, to sacrifice or from θυω to kill, etc. See Clarke's note on [Gen 8:20].

[¶6] Four square - As this altar was five cubits long and five broad, and the cubit is reckoned to be twenty-one inches, hence it must have been eight feet nine inches square, and about five feet three inches in height, the amount of three cubits, taken at the same ratio.

### Verse 2

[¶8] Thou shalt make the horns of it - The horns might have three uses:

[¶9] 1. For ornament.

[¶10] 2. To prevent carcasses, etc., from falling off.

[¶11] 3. To tie the victim to, previously to its being sacrificed.

[¶12] So David: Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar; [Psa 118:27]. Horns were much used in all ancient altars among the heathen, and some of them were entirely constructed of the horns of the beasts that had been offered in sacrifice; but such altars appear to be erected rather as trophies in honor of their gods. On the reverses of several medals we find altars represented with horns at the corners. There is a medal of Antoninus on the reverse of which is an altar, on which a fire burns, consecrated Divi Pio, where the horns appear on each of the corners.

[¶13] There is one of Faustina, on which the altar and its horns are very distinct, the legend Pietas Augusta. All the following have altars with horns. One of Valerian, legend Consecratio; one of Claudius Gothicus, same legend; one of Quintillus, same legend; one of Crispina, with the legend Diis Genitalibus; and several others. See Numismatica Antiq., a Musellio, under Consecratio, in the index.

[¶14] Callimachus, in his Hymn to Apollo, line 60 introduces him constructing an altar of the horns of the animals slain by Diana: - πηξε δε βωμον Εκ κεραων κ. τ. λ.

[¶15] Martial has these words: Cornibus ara frequens.

### Verse 3

[¶17] Thou shalt make his pans - סירתיו sirothaiv, a sort or large brazen dishes, which stood under the altar to receive the ashes that fell through the grating.

[¶18] His shovels - יעיו yaaiv. Some render this besoms; but as these were brazen instruments, it is more natural to suppose that some kind of fire-shovels are intended, or scuttles, which were used to carry off the ashes that fell through the grating into the large pan or siroth.

[¶19] His basins - מזרקתיו mizrekothaiv, from זרק zarak, to sprinkle or disperse; bowls or basins to receive the blood of the sacrifices, in order that it might be sprinkled on the people before the altar, etc.

[¶20] His flesh-hooks - מזלגתיו mizlegothaiu. That this word is rightly translated flesh-hooks is fully evident from [1Sam 2:13], where the same word is used in such a connection as demonstrates its meaning: And the priest's custom with the people was, that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in the seething, with a Flesh-Hook (מזלג mazleg) of three teeth (prongs) in his hand, and he struck it into the pan, etc.; all that the Flesh-Hook (מזלג mazleg) brought up, the priest took for himself. It was probably a kind of trident, or fork with three prongs, and these bent to a right angle at the middle, as the ideal meaning of the Hebrew seems to imply crookedness or curvature in general.

[¶21] His fire-pans - מחתתיו machtothaiu. Bishop Patrick and others suppose that "this was a larger sort of vessel, wherein, probably, the sacred fire which came down from heaven ([Lev 9:24]) was kept burning, whilst they cleansed the altar and the grate from the coals and the ashes; and while the altar was carried from one place to another, as it often was in the wilderness.

### Verse 4

[¶23] Thou shalt make for it a grate - Calmet supposes this altar to have been a sort of box, covered with brass plates, on the top of which was a grating to supply the fire with air, and permit the ashes to fall through into the siroth or pan that was placed below. At the four corners of the grating were four rings and four chains, by which it was attached to the four horns; and at the sides were rings for the poles of shittim wood with which it was carried. Even on this there is a great variety of opinions.

### Verse 8

[¶25] Hollow with boards - It seems to have been a kind of frame-work, and to have had nothing solid in the inside, and only covered with the grating at the top. This rendered it more light and portable.

### Verse 9

[¶27] The court of the tabernacle - The tabernacle stood in an enclosure or court, open at the top. This court was made with pillars or posts, and hangings. It was one hundred cubits, or about fifty-eight yards and a half, in length; the breadth we learn from [Exo 27:12], [Exo 27:18]; and five cubits, or nearly three yards, high, [Exo 27:18]. And as this was but half the height of the tabernacle, [Exo 26:16], that sacred building might easily be seen by the people from without.

### Verse 16

[¶29] And for the gate of the court - It appears that the hangings of this gate were of the same materials and workmanship with that of the inner covering of the tabernacle, and the outer and inner veil. See [Exo 26:36].

### Verse 19

[¶31] All the vessels - shall be of brass - It would have been improper to have used instruments made of the more precious metals about this altar, as they must have been soon worn out by the severity of the service.

### Verse 20

[¶33] Pure oil olive beaten - That is, such oil as could easily be expressed from the olives after they had been bruised in a mortar; the mother drop, as it is called, which drops out of itself as soon as the olives are a little broken, and which is much purer than that which is obtained after the olives are put under the press.

[¶34] Columella, who is a legitimate evidence in all such matters, says that the oil which flowed out of the fruit either spontaneously, or with little application of the force of the press, was of a much finer flavour than that which was obtained otherwise. Quoniam longe melioris saporis est, quod minore vi preli, quasi luxurians, defluxerit - Colum., lib. xii., c. 50.

[¶35] To cause the lamp to burn always - They were to be kept burning through the whole of the night, and some think all the day besides; but there is a difference of sentiment upon this subject. See the note on [Exo 27:21].

[¶36] This oil and continual flame were not only emblematical of the unction and influences of the Holy Ghost, but also of that pure spirit of devotion which ever animates the hearts and minds of the genuine worshippers of the true God. The temple of Vesta, where a fire was kept perpetually burning, seems to have been formed on the model of the tabernacle; and from this the followers of Zeratusht, commonly called Zoroaster, appear to have derived their doctrine of the perpetual fire, which they still worship as an emblem of the Deity.

### Verse 21

[¶38] The tabernacle of the congregation - The place where all the assembly of the people were to worship, where the God of that assembly was pleased to reside, and to which, as the habitation of their king and protector, they were ever to turn their faces in all their adorations.

[¶39] Before the testimony - That is, the ark where the tables of the covenant were deposited. See [Exo 25:16].

[¶40] Aaron and his sons - These and their descendants being the only legitimate priests, God having established the priesthood in this family.

[¶41] Shall order it from evening to morning - Josephus says the whole of the seven lamps burned all the night; in the morning four were extinguished, and three kept burning through the whole day. Others assert that the whole seven were kept lighted both day and night continually; but it appears sufficiently evident, from [1Sam 3:3], that these lamps were extinguished in the morning: And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, etc. See also [Exo 30:8] : And when Aaron Lighteth The Lamps At Even. It appears therefore that the business of the priests was to light the lamps in the evening; and either to extinguish them in the morning, or permit them to burn out, having put in the night before as much oil as was necessary to last till daylight.

[¶42] A statute for ever - This ordering of the lamps night and morning, and attendance on the service of the tabernacle, was a statute that was to be in full force while the tabernacle and temple stood, and should have its spiritual accomplishment in the Christian Church to the end of time. Reader, the tabernacle and temple are both destroyed; the Church of Christ is established in their place. The seven golden candlesticks were typical of this Church and the glorious light it possesses, [Rev 1:12-20]; and Jesus Christ, the Fountain and Dispenser of this true light, walks in the midst of them. Reader, hast thou that celestial flame to enlighten and animate thy heart in all those acts of devotion which thou professest to pay to him as thy Maker, Redeemer, and Preserver? What is thy profession, and what thy religious acts and services, without this? A sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal.

[¶43] Tertullian asserts that all the ancient heathens borrowed their best notions from the sacred writings: "Which," says he, "of your poets, which of your sophists, have not drunk from the fountain of the prophets? It is from those sacred springs that your philosophers have refreshed their thirsty spirits; and if they found any thing in the Holy Scriptures which hit their fancy, or which served their hypothesis, they took and turned it to a compliance with their own curiosity, not considering those writings to be sacred and unalterable, nor understanding their true sense, every one altering them according to his own fancy." - Apologet.

[¶44] The reader's attention has already been called to this point several times in the preceding parts of this work, and the subject will frequently recur. At the conclusion of [Exo 25:31] (See Clarke's note at [Exo 25:31]) we had occasion to observe that the heathens had imitated many things in that Divine worship prescribed by Moses; but in application to their own corrupt system every thing was in a certain measure falsified and distorted, yet not so far as to prevent the grand outlines of primitive truth from being discerned. One of the most complete imitations of the tabernacle and its whole service is found in the very ancient temple of Hercules, founded probably by the Phoenicians, at Gades, now Cadiz, in Spain, so minutely described by Silius Italicus from actual observation. He observes that though the temple was at that time very ancient, yet the beams were the same that had been placed there by the founders, and that they were generally supposed to be incorruptible; a quality ascribed to the shittim wood, termed ξυλον ασηπτον, incorruptible wood, by the Septuagint. That women were not permitted to enter this temple, and that no swine were ever suffered to come near it. That the priests did not wear party-coloured vestments, but were always clothed in fine linen, and their bonnets made of the same. That they offered incense to their god, their clothes being ungirded; for the same reason doubtless given [Exo 20:26], that in going up to the altar nothing unseemly might appear, and therefore they permitted their long robes to fall down to their feet. He adds, that by the laws of their forefathers they bore on their sacerdotal vestments the latus clavus, which was a round knob or stud of purple with which the robes of the Roman knights and senators were adorned, which these priests seem to have copied from the breastplate of judgment made of cunning work, embroidered with purple, blue, etc. See [Exo 28:15]. They also ministered barefooted, their hair was trimmed or cut off, and they observed the strictest continency, and kept a perpetual fire burning on their altars. And he farther adds that there was no image or similitude of the gods to be seen in that sacred place. This is the substance of his description; but as some of my readers may wish to see the original, I shall here subjoin it. Vulgatum (nec cassa fides) ab origine fani Impositas durare trabes, solasque per aevum Condentum novisse manus: hic credere gaudent Consedisse Deum, seniumque repellere templis. Tum, queis fas et honos adyti penetralia nosse, Foemineos prohibent gressus, ac limine curant Setigeros arcere sues: nec discolor ulli Ante aras cultus: velantur corpora lino, Et Pelusiaco praefulget stamine vertex. Discinctis mos thura dare, atque, e lege parenturn Sacrificam Lato vestem distinguere Clavo. Pes nudus, tousaeque comae, castumque cubile, Irrestincta focis servant altaria flammae. Sed nulla effigies, simulacrave nota Deorum Majestate locum, et sacro implevere timore.

## 110. Exodus · 43 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/110/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/110/#p-N

[¶0] Punicor., lib. iii., ver. 17-31.

[¶1] This is such a remarkable case that I think myself justified in quoting it at length, as an extraordinary monument, though corrupted, of the tabernacle and its service. It is probable that the original founders had consecrated this temple to the true God, under the name of אל EL, the strong God, or אל גבור El Gibbor, the strong, prevailing, and victorious God, [Isa 9:6], out of whom the Greeks and Romans made their Hercules, or god of strength; and, to make it agree with this appropriation, the labors of Hercules were sculptured on the doors of this temple at Gades. In foribus labor Alcidae Lernaea recisis Anguibus Hydra jacet, etc.

### Introduction

[¶3] Aaron and his sons are set apart for the priest's office, [Exo 28:1]. Garments to be provided for them, [Exo 28:2], [Exo 28:3]. What these garments were, [Exo 28:4], and of what made, [Exo 28:5]. The ephod, its shoulder-pieces, and girdle, [Exo 28:6-8]. The two onyx stones, on which the names of the twelve tribes were to be engraven, [Exo 28:9-14]. The breastplate of judgment; its twelve precious stones, engraving, rings, chains, and its use, [Exo 28:15-29]. The Urim and Thummim, [Exo 28:30]. The robe of the ephod, its border, bells, pomegranates, etc., and their use, [Exo 28:31-35]. The plate of pure gold and its motto, [Exo 28:36], to be placed on Aaron's mitre, [Exo 28:37], [Exo 28:38]. The embroidered coat for Aaron, [Exo 28:39]. Coats, girdles, and bonnets, [Exo 28:40]. Aaron and his sons to be anointed for the priest's office, [Exo 28:41]. Other articles of clothing and their use, [Exo 28:42], [Exo 28:43].

### Verse 1

[¶5] Aaron - and his sons - The priesthood was to be restrained to this family because the public worship was to be confined to one place; and previously to this the eldest in every family officiated as priest, there being no settled place of worship. It has been very properly observed that, if Moses had not acted by the Divine appointment, he would not have passed by his own family, which continued in the condition of ordinary Levites, and established the priesthood, the only dignity in the nation, in the family of his brother Aaron. "The priests, however, had no power of a secular nature, nor does it appear from history that they ever arrived at any till the time of the Asmoneans or Maccabees." See Clarke's note on [Exo 19:22].

### Verse 2

[¶7] For glory and for beauty - Four articles of dress were prescribed for the priests in ordinary, and four more for the high-priest. Those for the priests in general were a coat, drawers, a girdle, and a bonnet. Besides these the high-priest had a robe, an ephod, a breastplate, and a plate or diadem of gold on his forehead. The garments, says the sacred historian, were for honor and for beauty. They were emblematical of the office in which they ministered.

[¶8] 1. It was honorable. They were the ministers of the Most High, and employed by him in transacting the most important concerns between God and his people, concerns in which all the attributes of the Divine Being were interested, as well as those which referred to the present and eternal happiness of his creatures.

[¶9] 2. They were for beauty. They were emblematical of that holiness and purity which ever characterize the Divine nature and the worship which is worthy of him, and which are essentially necessary to all those who wish to serve him in the beauty of holiness here below, and without which none can ever see his face in the realms of glory. Should not the garments of all those who minister in holy things still be emblematical of the things in which they minister? Should they not be for glory and beauty, expressive of the dignity of the Gospel ministry, and that beauty of holiness without which none can see the Lord? As the high-priest's vestments, under the law, were emblematical of what was to come, should not the vestments of the ministers of the Gospel bear some resemblance of what is come? Is then the dismal black, now worn by almost all kinds of priests and ministers, for glory and for beauty? Is it emblematical of any thing that is good, glorious, or excellent? How unbecoming the glad tidings announced by Christian ministers is a color emblematical of nothing but mourning and wo, sin, desolation, and death! How inconsistent the habit and office of these men! Should it be said, "These are only shadows, and are useless because the substance is come." I ask, Why then is black almost universally worn? why is a particular color preferred, if there be no signification in any? Is there not a danger that in our zeal against shadows, we shall destroy or essentially change the substance itself? Would not the same sort of argumentation exclude water in baptism, and bread and wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper? The white surplice in the service of the Church is almost the only thing that remains of those ancient and becoming vestments, which God commanded to be made for glory and beauty. Clothing, emblematical of office, is of more consequence than is generally imagined. Were the great officers of the crown, and the great officers of justice, to clothe themselves like the common people when they appear in their public capacity, both their persons and their decisions would be soon held in little estimation.

### Verse 3

[¶11] Whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom - So we find that ingenuity in arts and sciences, even those of the ornamental kind, comes from God. It is not intimated here that these persons were filled with the spirit of wisdom for this purpose only; for the direction to Moses is, to select those whom he found to be expert artists, and those who were such, God shows by these words, had derived their knowledge from himself. Every man should be permitted as far as possible to follow the bent or direction of his own genius, when it evidently leads him to new inventions, and improvements on old plans. How much has both the labor of men and cattle been lessened by improvements in machinery! And can we say that the wisdom which found out these improvements did not come from God? No man, by course of reading or study, ever acquired a genius of this kind: we call it natural, and say it was born with the man. Moses teaches us to consider it as Divine. Who taught Newton to ascertain the laws by which God governs the universe, through which discovery a new source of profit and pleasure has been opened to mankind through every part of the civilized world? No reading, no study, no example, formed his genius. God, who made him, gave him that compass and bent of mind by which he made those discoveries, and for which his name is celebrated in the earth. When I see Napier inventing the logarithms; Copernicus, Des Cartes, and Kepler contributing to pull down the false systems of the universe, and Newton demonstrating the true one; and when I see the long list of Patentees of useful inventions, by whose industry and skill long and tedious processes in the necessary arts of life have been shortened, labor greatly lessened, and much time and expense saved; I then see, with Moses, men who are wise-hearted, whom God has filled with the spirit of wisdom for these very purposes; that he might help man by man, and that, as time rolls on, he might give to his intelligent creatures such proofs of his Being, infinitely varied wisdom, and gracious providence, as should cause them to depend on him, and give him that glory which is due to his name.

[¶12] How pointedly does the Prophet Isaiah refer to this sort of teaching as coming from God, even in the most common and less difficult arts of life! The whole passage is worthy of the reader's most serious attention. "Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their place? For His God Doth Instruct Him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing-instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working," [Isa 28:24-29].

[¶13] But let us take heed not to run into extremes here; machinery is to help man, not to render him useless. The human hand is the great and most perfect machine, let it not be laid aside. In our zeal for machinery we are rendering all the lower classes useless; filling the land with beggary and vice, and the workhouses with paupers; and ruining the husbandmen with oppressive poor-rates. Keep machinery as a help to the human hand, and to lighten the labor, but never let it supersede either.

[¶14] This principle, that God is the author of all arts and sciences, is too little regarded: Every good gift, and every perfect gift, says St. James, comes from above, from the Father of Lights. Why has God constructed every part of nature with such a profusion of economy and skill, if he intended this skill should never be discovered by man, or that man should not attempt to examine his works in order to find them out? From the works of Creation what proofs, astonishing and overwhelming proofs, both to believers and infidels, have been drawn both of the nature, being, attributes, and providence of God! What demonstrations of all these have the Archbishop of Cambray, Dr. Nieuwentyt, Dr. Derham, and Mr. Charles Bonnet, given in their philosophical works! And who gave those men this wisdom? God, from whom alone Mind, and all its attributes, proceed. While we see Count de Buffon and Swammerdam examining and tracing out all the curious relations, connections, and laws of the Animal kingdom; - Tournefort, Ray, and Linne, those of the Vegetable; - Theophrastus, Werner, Klaproth, Cronstedt, Morveau, Reamur, Kirwan, and a host of philosophical chemists, Boerhaave, Boyle, Stahl, Priestley, Lavoisier, Fourcroy, Black, and Davy, those of the Mineral; the discoveries they have made, the latent and important properties of vegetables and minerals which they have developed, the powerful machines which, through their discoveries, have been constructed, by the operations of which the human slave is restored to his own place in society, the brute saved from his destructive toil in our manufactories, and inanimate, unfeeling Nature caused to perform the work of all these better, more expeditiously, and to much more profit; shall we not say that the hand of God is in all this? Only I again say, let machinery aid man, and not render him useless. The nations of Europe are pushing mechanical power to a destructive extreme. He alone girded those eminent men, though many of them knew him not; he inspired them with wisdom and understanding; by his all-pervading and all-informing spirit he opened to them the entrance of the paths of the depths of science, guided them in their researches, opened to them successively more and more of his astonishing treasures, crowned their persevering industry with his blessing and made them his ministers for good to mankind. The antiquary and the medalist are also his agents; their discernment and penetration come from him alone. By them, how many dark ages of the world have been brought to light; how many names of men and places, how many customs and arts, that were lost, restored! And by their means a few busts, images, stones, bricks, coins, rings, and culinary utensils, the remaining wrecks of long-past numerous centuries have supplied the place of written documents, and cast a profusion of light on the history of man, and the history of providence. And let me add, that the providence which preserved these materials, and raised up men to decipher and explain them, is itself gloriously illustrated by them.

[¶15] Of all those men (and the noble list might be greatly swelled) we may say the same that Moses said of Bezaleel and Aholiab: "God hath filled them with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge; and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works; to work in gold and in silver, and in brass, in cutting of stones, carving of timber, and in all manner of workmanship;" [Exo 31:3-6]. "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein;" [Psa 111:2].

### Verse 4

[¶17] Breastplate - חשן choshen. See Clarke on [Exo 25:7] (note).

[¶18] Ephod - אפד. See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:7].

[¶19] Robe - מעיל meil, from עלה alah, to go up, go upon; hence the meil may be considered as an upper coat, a surtout. It is described by Josephus as a garment that reaches down to the feet, not made of two distinct pieces, but was one entire long garment, woven throughout. This was immediately under the ephod. See Clarke on [Exo 28:31] (note), etc.

[¶20] Broidered coat - כתנת תשבץ kethoneth, tashbets, what Parkhurst translates a close, strait coat or garment; according to Josephus, "a tunic circumscribing or closely encompassing the body, and having tight sleeves for the arms." This was immediately under the meil or robe, and answered the same purpose to the priests that our shirts do to us. See Clarke on [Exo 28:13] (note).

[¶21] Mitre - מצנפת mitsnepheth. As this word comes from the root צנף tsanaph, to roll or wrap round, it evidently means that covering of the head so universal in the eastern countries which we call turban or turband, corrupted from the Persian doolbend, which signifies what encompasses and binds the head or body; and hence is applied, not only to this covering of the head, but to a sash in general. As the Persian word is compounded of dool, or dawal, a revolution, vicissitude, wheel, etc., and binden, to bind; it is very likely that the Hebrew words דור dur, to go round, and בנט benet, a band, may have been the original of doolbend and turband. It is sometimes called serbend, from ser, the head, and binden, to bind. The turban consists generally of two parts: the cap, which goes on the head; and the long sash of muslin, linen, or silk, that is wrapped round the head. These sashes are generally several yards in length.

[¶22] A girdle - אבנט abnet, a belt or girdle; see before. This seems to have been the same kind of sash or girdle, so common in the eastern countries, that confined the loose garments about the waist; and in which their long skirts were tucked up when they were employed in work, or on a journey. After being tied round the waist, the two ends of it fell down before, to the skirts of their robes.

### Verse 8

[¶24] The curious girdle of the ephod - The word חשב chesheb, rendered here curious girdle, signifies merely a kind of diaper, or embroidered work; (see Clarke's note on [Exo 26:1]); and it is widely different from אבנט abnet, which is properly translated girdle [Exo 28:4]. The meaning therefore of the text, according to some, is this, that the two pieces, [Exo 28:7], which connected the parts of the ephod at the shoulders where the onyx stones were set, should be of the same texture with the ephod itself, i.e., of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, embroidered together. But others suppose that some kind of a girdle is meant, different from the abnet, [Exo 28:39], being only of plain workmanship.

### Verse 9

[¶26] Two onyx stones - See Clarke on [Exo 25:7] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶28] Like the engravings of a signet - So signets or seals were in use at this time, and engraving on precious stones was then an art, and this art, which was one of the most elegant and ornamental, was carried in ancient times to a very high pitch of perfection, and particularly among the ancient Greeks; such a pitch of perfection as has never been rivaled, and cannot now be even well imitated. And it is very likely that the Greeks themselves borrowed this art from the ancient Hebrews, as we know it flourished in Egypt and Palestine long before it was known in Greece.

### Verse 12

[¶30] Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord - He was to consider that he was the representative of the children of Israel; and the stones on the ephod and the stones on the breastplate were for a memorial to put Aaron in remembrance that he was the priest and mediator of the twelve tribes; and, speaking after the manner of men, God was to be put in mind of the children of Israel, their wants, etc., as frequently as the high priest appeared before him with the breastplate and the ephod. See [Exo 28:29].

### Verse 13

[¶32] Ouches of gold - משבצת mishbetsoth, strait places, sockets to insert the stones in, from שבץ shabats, to close, enclose, straiten.

[¶33] Socket, in this place, would be a more proper translation, as ouch cannot be traced up to any legitimate authority. It appears sometimes to signify a hook, or some mode of attaching things together.

### Verse 15

[¶35] The breastplate of judgment - חשן משפט choshen mishpat, the same as the חשן choshen, see [Exo 25:7], but here called the breastplate of judgment, because the high priest wore it upon his breast when he went to ask counsel of the Lord, to give judgment in any particular case; as also when he sat as judge to teach the law, and to determine controversies. See [Lev 10:11]; [Deu 17:8], [Deu 17:9].

### Verse 16

[¶37] Four-square it shall be - Here we have the exact dimensions of this breastplate, or more properly breast-piece or stomacher. It was a span in length and breadth when doubled, and consequently two spans long one way before it was doubled. Between these doublings, it is supposed, the Urim and Thummim were placed. See Clarke on [Exo 28:30] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶39] Four rows of stones - With a name on each stone, making in all the twelve names of the twelve tribes. And as these were disposed according to their birth, [Exo 28:10], we may suppose they stood in this order, the stones being placed also in the order in which they are produced, [Exo 28:17-20] : -

[¶40] Four Rows of Stones First Row Sons of Leah Sardius or Ruby Reuben ראובן Topaz Simeon שמעון Carbuncle Levi לוי Second Row Emerald Judah יהודה Sapphire Issachar יששכר Diamond Zebulun זבולן Third Row Sons of Bilhah, Rachael's maid Ligure or Jacinth Dan דן Agate Naphtali נפתלי Son of Zilpah, Leah's maid Amethyst Gad גד Fourth Row Beryl or Crysolite Asher אשר Sons of Rachel Onyx, or Sardonyx Joseph יוסף Jasper Benjamin בנימין

[¶41] In this order the Jews in general agree to place them. See the Jerusalem Targum on this place, and the Targum upon [Sol 5:14]; and see also Ainsworth. The Targum of Jonathan says, "These four rows were placed opposite to the four quarters of the world; but this could only be when laid down horizontally, for when it hung on the breast of the high priest it could have had no such position. As it is difficult to ascertain in every case what these precious stones were, it may be necessary to consider this subject more at large.

[¶42] 1. A Sardius, מדם ,su odem, from the root adam, he was ruddy; the ruby, a beautiful gem of a fine deep red color. The sardius, or sardie stones, is defined to be a precious stone of a blood-red color, the best of which come from Babylon.

[¶43] 2. A Topaz, פטדה pitdah, a precious stone of a pale dead green, with a mixture of yellow, sometimes of a fine yellow; and hence it was called chrysolite by the ancients, from its gold color. It is now considered by mineralogists as a variety of the sapphire.

[¶44] 3. Carbuncle, ברקת bareketh, from ברק barak, to lighten, glitter, or glister; a very elegant gem of a deep red color, with an admixture of scarlet. From its bright lively color it had the name carbunculus, which signifies a little coal; and among the Greeks ανθραξ anthrax, a coal, because when held before the sun it appears like a piece of bright burning charcoal. It is found only in the East Indies, and there but rarely.

## 111. Exodus · 44 of 57

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[¶0] 4. Emerald, נפך nophech, the same with the ancient smaragdus; it is one of the most beautiful of all the gems, and is of a bright green color, without any other mixture. The true oriental emerald is very scarce, and is only found at present in the kingdom of Cambay.

[¶1] 5. Sapphire, ספיר sappir. See this described, [Exo 24:10].

[¶2] 6. Diamond, יהלם yahalom, from הלם halam, to beat or smite upon. The diamond is supposed to have this name from its resistance to a blow, for the ancients have assured us that if it be struck with a hammer, upon an anvil, it will not break, but either break them or sink into the surface of that which is softest. This is a complete fable, as it is well known that the diamond can be easily broken, and is capable of being entirely volatilized or consumed by the action of fire. It is, however, the hardest, as it is the most valuable, of all the precious stones hitherto discovered, and one of the most combustible substances in nature.

[¶3] 7. Ligure, לשם leshem, the same as the jacinth or hyacinth; a precious stone of a dead red or cinnamon color, with a considerable mixture of yellow.

[¶4] 8. Agate, שבו shebo. This is a stone that assumes such a variety of hues and appearances, that Mr. Parkhurst thinks it derives its name from the root שב shab, to turn, to change, "as from the circumstance of the agate changing its appearance without end, it might be called the varier." Agates are met with so variously figured in their substance, that they seem to represent the sky, the stars, clouds, earth, water, rocks, villages, fortifications, birds, trees, flowers, men, and animals of different kinds. Agates have a white, reddish, yellowish, or greenish ground. They are only varieties of the flint, and the lowest in value of all the precious stones.

[¶5] 9. Amethyst, אחלמה achlamah, a gem generally of a purple color, composed of a strong blue and deep red. The oriental amethyst is sometimes of a dove color, though some are purple, and others white like diamonds. The name amethyst is Greek, αμεθυστος, and it was so called because it was supposed that it prevented inebriation.

[¶6] 10. The Beryl, תרשיש tarshish. Mr. Parkhurst derives this name from תר tar, to go round, and שש shash, to be vivid or bright in color. If the beryl be intended, it is a pellucid gem of a bluish green color, found in the East Indies, and about the gold mines of Peru. But some of the most learned mineralogists and critics suppose the chrysolite to be meant. This is a gem of a yellowish green color, and ranks at present among the topazes. Its name in Greek, chrysolite, χρυσολιθος, literally signifies the golden stone.

[¶7] 11. The Onyx, שהם shoham. See Clarke's note on [Gen 2:12]; See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:7]. There are a great number of different sentiments on the meaning of the original; it has been translated beryl, emerald, prasius, sapphire, sardius, ruby, cornelian, onyx, and sardonyx. It is likely that the name may signify both the onyx and sardonyx. This latter stone is a mixture of the chalcedony and cornelian, sometimes in strata, at other times blended together, and is found striped with white and red strata or layers. It is generally allowed that there is no real difference, except in the degree of hardness, between the onyx, cornelian, chalcedony, sardonyx, and agate. It is well known that the onyx is of a darkish horny color, resembling the hoof or nail, from which circumstance it has its name. It has often a plate of a bluish white or red in it, and when on one or both sides of this white there appears a plate of a reddish color, the jewelers, says Woodward, call the stone a sardonyx.

[¶8] 12. Jasper, ישפה yashepheh. The similarity of the Hebrew name has determined most critics and mineralogists to adopt the jasper as intended by the original word. The jasper is usually defined a hard stone, of a beautiful bright green color, sometimes clouded with white, and spotted with red or yellow. Mineralogists reckon not less than fifteen varieties of this stone: 1. green; 2. red; 3. yellow; 4. brown; 5. violet; 6. black; 7. bluish grey; 8. milky white; 9. variegated with green, red, and yellow clouds; 10. green with red specks; 11. veined with various colors, apparently in the form of letters; 12. with variously coloured zones; 13. with various colors mixed without any order; 14. with many colors together; 15. mixed with particles of agate. It can scarcely be called a precious stone; it is rather a dull opaque rock.

[¶9] In examining what has been said on these different precious stones by the best critics, I have adopted such explanations as appeared to me to be best justified by the meaning and use of the original words; but I cannot say that the stones which I have described are precisely those intended by the terms in the Hebrew text, nor can I take upon me to assert that the tribes are arranged exactly in the manner intended by Moses; for as these things are not laid down in the text in such a way as to preclude all mistake, some things must be left to conjecture. Of several of these stones many fabulous accounts are given by the ancients, and indeed by the moderns also: these I have in general omitted because they are fabulous; as also all spiritual meanings which others have found so plentifully in each stone, because I consider some of them puerile, all futile, and not a few dangerous.

### Verse 30

[¶11] Thou shalt put in the breastplate - the Urim and the Thummim - What these were has, I believe, never yet been discovered.

[¶12] 1. They are nowhere described.

[¶13] 2. There is no direction given to Moses or any other how to make them.

[¶14] 3. Whatever they were, they do not appear to have been made on this occasion.

[¶15] 4. If they were the work of man at all, they must have been the articles in the ancient tabernacle, matters used by the patriarchs, and not here particularly described, because well known.

[¶16] 5. It is probable that nothing material is designed. This is the opinion of some of the Jewish doctors. Rabbi Menachem on this chapter says, "The Urim and Thummim were not the work of the artificer; neither had the artificers or the congregation of Israel in them any work or any voluntary offering; but they were a mystery delivered to Moses from the mouth of God, or they were the work of God himself, or a measure of the Holy Spirit."

[¶17] 6. That God was often consulted by Urim and Thummim, is sufficiently evident from several scriptures; but how or in what manner he was thus consulted appears in none.

[¶18] 7. This mode of consultation, whatever it was, does not appear to have been in use from the consecration of Solomon's temple to the time of its destruction; and after its destruction it is never once mentioned. Hence the Jews say that the five following things, which were in the first temple, were wanting in the second: "1. The ark with the mercy-seat and cherubim;

[¶19] 2. The fire which came down from heaven;

[¶20] 3. The shechinah or Divine presence;

[¶21] 4. The Holy Spirit, i.e., the gift of prophecy; and

[¶22] 5. The Urim and Thummim."

[¶23] 8. As the word אורים urim signifies Lights, and the word תמים tummim, Perfections, they were probably designed to point out the light - the abundant information, in spiritual things, afforded by the wonderful revelation which God made of himself by and under the Law; and the perfection - entire holiness and strict conformity to himself, which this dispensation required, and which are introduced and accomplished by that dispensation of light and truth, the Gospel, which was prefigured and pointed out by the law and its sacrifices, etc.; and in this light the subject has been viewed by the Vulgate, where the words are translated doctrina et veritas, doctrine and truth - a system of teaching proceeding from truth itself. The Septuagint translate the original by δηλωσις και αληθεια, the manifestation and the truth; meaning probably the manifestation which God made of himself to Moses and the Israelites, and the truth which he had revealed to them, of which this breastplate should be a continual memorial.

[¶24] All the other versions express nearly the same things, and all refer to intellectual and spiritual subjects, such as light, truth, manifestation, doctrine, perfection, etc., etc., not one of them supposing that any thing material is intended. The Samaritan text is however different; it adds here a whole clause not found in the Hebrew: veasitha eth haurim veeth hattummim, Thou shalt make the Urim and the Thummim. If this reading be admitted, the Urim and Thummim were manufactured on this occasion as well as the other articles. However it be, they are indescribable and unknown.

[¶25] The manner in which the Jews suppose that the inquiry was made by Urim and Thummim is the following: "When they inquired the priest stood with his face before the ark, and he that inquired stood behind him with his face to the back of the priest; and the inquirer said, Shall I go up? or, Shall I not go up? And forthwith the Holy Ghost came upon the priest, and he beheld the breastplate, and saw therein by the vision of prophecy, Go up, or Go not up, in the letters which showed forth themselves upon the breastplate before his face." See [Num 27:18], [Num 27:21]; [Jdg 1:1]; [Jdg 20:18], [Jdg 20:28]; [1Sam 23:9-12]; [1Sam 28:6]; and see Ainsworth.

[¶26] It was the letters that formed the names of the twelve tribes upon the breastplate, which the Jews suppose were used in a miraculous way to give answers to the inquirers. Thus when David consulted the Lord whether he should go into a city of Judea, three letters which constituted the word עלה aloh, Go, rose up or became prominent in the names on the breastplate; ע ain, from the name of Simeon, ל lamed from the name of Levi, and ה he from the name of Judah. But this supposition is without proof.

[¶27] Among the Egyptians, a breastplate something like that of the Jewish high-priest was worn by the president of the courts of justice. Diodorus Siculus has these words: Εφορει δ' οὑτος περι τον τραχηλον εκ χρυσης ἁλυσεως ηρτημενον ζωδιον των πολυτελων λιθων ὁ προσηγορευον ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΝ. "He bore about his neck a golden chain, at which hung an image set about with or composed of precious stones, which was called Truth." - Bib. Hist., lib. i., chap. 75, p. 225. And he farther adds, "that as soon as the president put this gold chain about his neck, the legal proceedings commenced, but not before. And that when the case of the plaintiff and defendant had been fully and fairly heard, the president turned the image of truth, which was hung to the golden chain round his neck, toward the person whose cause was found to be just," by which he seemed to intimate that truth was on his side.

[¶28] Aelian, in his Hist. Var., lib. xxxiv., gives the same account. "The chief justice or president," he says, "was always a priest, of a venerable age and acknowledged probity. Ειχε δε και αγαλμα περι τον αυχενα εκ σαπφειρου λιθου, και εκαλειτο αγαλμα ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ. And he had an image which was called Truth engraved on a sapphire, and hung about his neck with a gold chain."

[¶29] Peter du Val mentions a mummy which he saw at Cairo, in Egypt, round the neck of which was a chain, having a golden plate suspended, which lay on the breast of the person, and on which was engraved the figure of a bird. This person was supposed to have been one of the supreme judges; and in all likelihood the bird, of what kind he does not mention, was the emblem of truth, justice, or innocence.

[¶30] I have now before me paintings, taken on the spot by a native Chinese, of the different courts in China where criminal causes were tried. In these the judge always appears with a piece of embroidery on his breast, on which a white bird of the ardea or heron kind is represented, with expanded wings. All these seem to have been derived from the same source, both among the Hebrews, the Egyptians, and the Chinese. And it is certainly not impossible that the two latter might have borrowed the notion and use of the breastplate of judgment from the Hebrews, as it was in use among them long before we have any account of its use either among the Egyptians or Chinese. The different mandarins have a breast-piece of this kind.

### Verse 31

[¶32] The robe of the ephod - See Clarke on [Exo 28:4] (note). From this description, and from what Josephus says, who must have been well acquainted with its form, we find that this meil, or robe, was one long straight piece of blue cloth, with a hole or opening in the center for the head to pass through; which hole or opening was bound about, that it might not be rent in putting it on or taking it off, [Exo 28:32].

### Verse 35

[¶34] His sound shall be heard - The bells were doubtless intended to keep up the people's attention to the very solemn and important office which the priest was then performing, that they might all have their hearts engaged in the work; and at the same time to keep Aaron himself in remembrance that he ministered before Jehovah, and should not come into his presence without due reverence.

[¶35] That he die not - This seems an allusion to certain ceremonies which still prevail in the eastern countries. Jehovah appeared among his people in the tabernacle as an emperor in his tent among his troops. At the doors of the tents or palaces of grandees was generally placed some sonorous body, either of metal or wood, which was struck to advertise those within that a person prayed for admittance to the presence of the king, etc. As the tabernacle had no door, but a veil, and consequently nothing to prevent any person from going in, Aaron was commanded to put the bells on his robe, that his sound might be heard when he went into the holy place before the Lord.

### Verse 36

[¶37] Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold - The word ציץ tsits, which we render plate, means a flower, or any appearance of this kind, The Septuagint translate it by πεταλον, a leaf; hence we might be led to infer that this plate resembled a wreath of flowers or leaves; and as it is called, [Exo 29:6], נזר nezer, a crown, and the author of the book of The Wisdom of Solomon 18:24, who was a Jew, and may be supposed to know well what it was, calls it διαδημα, it was probably of the form, not of the ancient diadem, but rather of the radiated crown worn by the ancient Roman emperors, which was a gold band that went round the head from the vertex to the occiput; but the position of the Jewish sacerdotal crown was different, as that went round the forehead, under which there was a blue lace or fillet, [Exo 28:37], which was probably attached to the mitre or turban, and formed its lowest part or border.

[¶38] Holiness to the Lord - This we may consider as the grand badge of the sacerdotal office.

[¶39] 1. The priest was to minister in holy things.

[¶40] 2. He was the representative of a holy God.

[¶41] 3. He was to offer sacrifices to make an atonement for and to put away Sin.

[¶42] 4. He was to teach the people the way of righteousness and true holiness.

[¶43] 5. As mediator, he was to obtain for them those Divine influences by which they should be made holy, and be prepared to dwell with holy spirits in the kingdom of glory.

[¶44] 6. In the sacerdotal office he was the type of that holy and just One who, in the fullness of time, was to come and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

## 112. Exodus · 45 of 57

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[¶0] It is allowed on all hands that this inscription was, in the primitive Hebrew character, such as appears upon ancient shekels, and such as was used before the Babylonish captivity, and probably from the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. The קדש ליהוה Kodesh Laihovah, of the present Hebrew text, would in those ancient characters appear thus as this illustration, which, in the modern Samaritan character, evidently derived from that illustration. And the Samaritan word in this ancient and original character is the famous Tetragrammaton, or word of four letters, which, to the present day, the Jews will neither write nor pronounce. The Jews teach that these letters were embossed on the gold, and not engraven in it, and that the plate on which they were embossed was about two fingers broad, and that it occupied a space on the forehead between the hair and the eyebrows. But it is most likely that it was attached to the lower part of the mitre.

### Verse 38

[¶2] May bear the iniquity of the holy things - ונשא אהרן את עון הקדשים venasa Aharon eth avon hakkodashim. And Aaron shall bear (in a vicarious and typical manner) the sin of the holy or separated things - offerings or sacrifices. Aaron was, as the high priest of the Jews, the type or representative of our blessed Redeemer; and as he offered the sacrifices prescribed by the law to make an atonement for sin, and was thereby represented as bearing their sins because he was bound to make an atonement for them; so Christ is represented as bearing their sins, i.e., the punishment due to the sins of the world, in his becoming a sacrifice for the human race. See [Isa 53:4], [Isa 53:12], where the same verb, נשא nasa, is used; and see [1Pet 2:24]. By the inscription on the plate on his forehead Aaron was acknowledged as the holy minister of the holy God. To the people's services and their offerings much imperfection was attached, and therefore Aaron was represented, not only as making an atonement in general for the sins of the people by the sacrifices they brought, but also as making an atonement for the imperfection of the atonement itself, and the manner in which it was brought.

[¶3] It shall be always upon his forehead - The plate inscribed with Holiness to the Lord should be always on his forehead, to teach that the law required holiness; that this was its aim, design, and end: and the same is required by the Gospel; for under this dispensation it is expressly said, Without holiness no man shall see the Lord; [Heb 12:14].

### Verse 40

[¶5] For glory and for beauty - See Clarke's note on [Exo 28:2].

### Verse 42

[¶7] Linen breeches - This command had in view the necessity of purity and decency in every part of the Divine worship, in opposition to the shocking indecency of the pagan worship in general, in which the priests often ministered naked, as in the sacrifices to Bacchus, etc.

[¶8] On the garments of the high priest some general reflections have already been made; see [Exo 28:2] (note): and to what is there said it may be just necessary to add, that there can be no doubt of their being all emblematical of spiritual things; but of which, and in what way, no man can positively say. Many commentators have entered largely into this subject, and have made many edifying and useful remarks; but where no clue is given to guide us through a labyrinth in which the possibility of mistake is every moment occurring, it is much better not to attempt to be wise above what is written; for however edifying the reflections may be which are made on these subjects, yet, as they are not clearly deducible from the text itself, they can give little satisfaction to a sincere inquirer after truth. These garments were all made for glory and for beauty, and this is the general account that it has pleased God to give of their nature and design: in a general sense, they represented,

[¶9] 1. The necessity of purity in every part of the Divine worship;

[¶10] 2. The necessity of an atonement for sin;

[¶11] 3. The purity and justice of the Divine Majesty; and,

[¶12] 4. The absolute necessity of that holiness without which none can see the Lord. And these subjects should be diligently kept in view by all those who wish to profit by the curious and interesting details given in this chapter. In the notes these topics are frequently introduced.

### Introduction

[¶14] Ceremonies to be used in consecrating Aaron and his sons, [Exo 29:1-3]. They are to be washed, [Exo 29:4]. Aaron is to be clothed with the holy vestments, [Exo 29:5], [Exo 29:6]; to be anointed, [Exo 29:7]. His sons to be clothed and girded, [Exo 29:8], [Exo 29:9]. They are to offer a bullock for a sin-offering, [Exo 29:10-14]; and a ram for a burnt-offering, [Exo 29:15-18]; and a second ram for a consecration-offering, [Exo 29:19-22]. A loaf, a cake, and a wafer or thin cake, for a wave-offering, [Exo 29:23-25]. The breast of the wave-offering and the shoulder of the heave-offering to be sanctified, [Exo 29:26-28]. Aaron's vestments to descend to his son, who shall succeed him, [Exo 29:29], [Exo 29:30]. Aaron and his sons to eat the flesh of the ram of consecration, [Exo 29:31], [Exo 29:32]. No stranger to eat of it, [Exo 29:33]. Nothing of it to be left till the morning, but to be burnt with fire, [Exo 29:34]. Seven days to be employed in consecrating Aaron and his sons, [Exo 29:35-37]. Two lambs, one for the morning and the other for the evening sacrifice, to be offered continually, [Exo 29:38-42]. God promises to sanctify Israel with his glory, and to dwell among them, [Exo 29:43-46].

### Verse 1

[¶16] Take one young bullock - This consecration did not take place till after the erection of the tabernacle. See [Lev 8:9-14].

### Verse 2

[¶18] Unleavened bread - Three kinds of bread as to its form are mentioned here, but all unleavened:

[¶19] 1. מצות matstsoth, unleavened bread, no matter in what shape. See [Exo 12:8].

[¶20] 2. חלת challoth, cakes, pricked or perforated, as the root implies.

[¶21] 3. רקיקי rekikey, an exceeding thin cake, from רק rak, to be attenuated, properly enough translated wafer. The manner in which these were prepared is sufficiently plain from the text, and probably these were the principal forms in which flour was prepared for household use during their stay in the wilderness.

[¶22] These were all waved before the Lord, [Exo 29:24], as an acknowledgment that the bread that sustains the body, as well as the mercy which saves the soul, comes from God alone.

### Verse 4

[¶24] Thou - shalt wash them - This was done emblematically, to signify that they were to put away all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of God; [2Cor 7:1].

### Verse 5

[¶26] Thou shalt take the garments - As most offices of spiritual and secular dignity had appropriate habits and insignia, hence, when a person was appointed to an office and habited for the purpose, he was said to be invested with that office, from in, used intensively, and vestio, I clothe, because he was then clothed with the vestments peculiar to that office.

### Verse 7

[¶28] Then shalt thou take the anointing oil - It appears, from [Isa 61:1], that anointing with oil, in consecrating a person to any important office, whether civil or religious, was considered as an emblem of the communication of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. This ceremony was used on three occasions, viz., the installation of prophets, priests, and kings, into their respective offices. But why should such an anointing be deemed necessary? Because the common sense of men taught them that all good, whether spiritual or secular, must come from God, its origin and cause. Hence it was taken for granted,

[¶29] 1. That no man could foretell events unless inspired by the Spirit of God. And therefore the prophet was anointed, to signify the communication of the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge.

[¶30] 2. That no person could offer an acceptable sacrifice to God for the sins of men, or profitably minister in holy things, unless enlightened, influenced, and directed by the Spirit of grace and holiness. Hence the priest was anointed, to signify his being Divinely qualified for the due performance of his sacred functions.

[¶31] 3. That no man could enact just and equitable laws, which should have the prosperity of the community and the welfare of the individual continually in view, or could use the power confided to him only for the suppression of vice and the encouragement of virtue, but that man who was ever under the inspiration of the Almighty.

[¶32] Hence kings were inaugurated by anointing with oil. Two of these officers only exist in all civilized nations, the sacerdotal and regal; and in some countries the priest and king are still consecrated by anointing. In the Hebrew language משח mashach signifies to anoint, and משיח mashiach, the anointed person. But as no man was ever dignified by holding the three offices, so no person ever had the title mashiach, the anointed one, but Jesus the Christ. He alone is King of kings and Lord of lords: the king who governs the universe, and rules in the hearts of his followers; the prophet, to instruct men in the way wherein they should go; and the great high priest, to make atonement for their sins. Hence he is called the Messias, a corruption of the word המשיח hammashiach, The anointed One, in Hebrew; which gave birth to ὁ Χριστος, ho Christos, which has precisely the same signification in Greek. Of him, Melchizedek, Abraham, Aaron, David, and others were illustrious types. But none of these had the title of The Messiah, or The Anointed of God. This does, and ever will, belong exclusively to Jesus the Christ.

### Verse 10

[¶34] Shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock - By this rite the animal was consecrated to God, and was then proper to be offered in sacrifice. Imposition of hands also signified that they offered the life of this animal as an atonement for their sins, and to redeem their lives from that death which, through their sinfulness, they had deserved. In the case of the sin-offering and trespass-offering, the person who brought the sacrifice placed his hands on the head of the animal between the horns, and confessed his sin over the sin-offering, and his trespass over the trespass-offering, saying, "I have sinned, I have done iniquity; I have trespassed, and have done thus and thus; and do return by repentance before thee, and with this I make atonement." Then the animal was considered as vicariously bearing the sins of the person who brought it - [Exo 29:14]

### Verse 14

[¶36] It is a sin-offering - See Clarke's note on [Gen 4:7]; See Clarke's note on [Gen 13:13]; See Clarke's note on [Lev 7:1], etc.

### Verse 18

[¶38] It is a burnt-offering - See Clarke's note on [Lev 7:1], etc.

### Verse 19

[¶40] The other ram - There were two rams brought on this occasion: one was for a burnt-offering, and was to be entirely consumed; the other was the ram of consecration, [Exo 29:22], איל מלאים eil milluim, the ram of filling up, because when a person was dedicated or consecrated to God, his hands were filled with some particular offering proper for the occasion, which he presented to God. Hence the word consecration signifies the filling up or filling the hands, some part of the sacrifice being put into the hands of such persons, denoting thereby that they had now a right to offer sacrifices and oblations to God. It seems in reference to this ancient mode of consecration, that in the Church of England, when a person is ordained priest, a Bible is put into his hands with these words, "Take thou authority to preach the word of God, etc. The filling the hands refers also to the presents which, in the eastern countries, every inferior was obliged to bring when brought into the presence of a superior. Thus the sacrifice was considered, not only as an atonement for sin, but also as a means of approach and as a present to Jehovah.

### Verse 20

[¶42] Take of his blood - The putting the blood of the sacrifice on the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, was doubtless intended to signify that they should dedicate all their faculties and powers to the service of God; their ears to the hearing and study of his law, their hands to diligence in the sacred ministry and to all acts of obedience, and their feet to walking in the way of God's precepts. And this sprinkling appears to have been used to teach them that they could neither hear, work, nor walk profitably, uprightly, and well-pleasing in the sight of God, without this application of the blood of the sacrifice. And as the blood of rams, bulls, and goats, could never take away sin, does not this prove to us that something infinitely better is shadowed out, and that we can do nothing holy and pure in the sight of a just and holy God, but through the blood of atonement? See Clarke's note on [Exo 30:20].

### Verse 22

[¶44] The fat and the rump - The rump or tail of some of the eastern sheep is the best part of the animal, and is counted a great delicacy. They are also very large, some of them weighing from twelve to forty pounds' weight; "so that the owners," says Mr. Ludolf, in his History of Ethiopia, "are obliged to tie a little cart behind them, whereon they put the tail of the sheep, as well for the convenience of carriage, and to ease the poor creature, as to preserve the wool from dirt, and the tail from being torn among the bushes and stones." An engraving of this kind of sheep, his tall, cart, etc., may be seen at p. 53 of the above work.

## 113. Exodus · 46 of 57

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### Verse 23

[¶1] And one loaf of bread - The bread of different kinds, (see Clarke on [Exo 29:2] (note)), in this offering, seems to have been intended as a minchah, or offering of grateful acknowledgment for providential blessings. The essence of worship consisted in acknowledging God,

[¶2] 1. As the Creator, Governor, and Preserver of all things, and the Dispenser of every good and perfect gift.

[¶3] 2. As the Judge of men, the Punisher of sin, and he who alone could pardon it.

[¶4] The minchahs, heave-offerings, wave-offerings, and thank-offerings, referred to the first point. The burnt-offerings, sin-offerings, and sacrifices in general, referred to the second.

### Verse 24

[¶6] For a wave-offering - See Clarke's note on [Lev 7:1] etc., where an ample account of all the offerings, sacrifices, etc., under the Mosaic dispensation, and the reference they bore to the great sacrifice offered by Christ, is given in detail.

### Verse 25

[¶8] Thou shalt receive them of their hands - Aaron and his sons are here considered merely as any common persons bringing an offering to God, and not having, as yet, any authority to present it themselves, but through the medium of a priest. Moses, therefore, was now to Aaron and his sons what they were afterwards to the children of Israel; and as the minister of God he now consecrates them to the sacred office, and presents their offerings to Jehovah.

### Verse 27

[¶10] The breast of the wave-offering, and the shoulder of the heave-offering - As the wave-offering was agitated to and fro, and the heave-offering up and down, some have conceived that this twofold action represented the figure of the cross, on which the great Peace-offering between God and man was offered in the personal sacrifice of our blessed Redeemer. Had we authority for this conjecture, it would certainly cast much light on the meaning and intention of these offerings; and when the intelligent reader is informed that one of the most judicious critics in the whole republic of letters is the author of this conjecture, viz., Houbigant, he will treat it with respect. I shall here produce his own words on this verse:

[¶11] Hic distinguuntur, תנופה et תרומה, ut ejusdem oblationis caeremoniae duae. In תנופה significatur, moveri oblatam victimam huc et illuc, ad dextram et ad sinistram. In תרומה sursum tolli, et sublatam rursus deprimi; nam pluribus vicibus id fiebat. Rem sic interpretantur Judaei; et Christianos docent, quanquam id non agentes, sic adumbrari eam crucem, in quam generis humani victima illa pacifica sublata est, quam veteres victimae omnes praenunciabant. "The heave-offering and wave-offering, as two ceremonies in the same oblation, are here distinguished. The wave-offering implies that the victim was moved hither and thither, to the right hand and to the left; the heave-offering was lifted up and down, and this was done several times. In this way the Jews explain these things, and teach the Christians, that by these acts the cross was adumbrated, upon which that Peace-offering of the human race was lifted up which was prefigured by all the ancient victims."

[¶12] The breast and the shoulder, thus waved and heaved, were by this consecration appointed to be the priests' portion for ever; and this, as Mr. Ainsworth piously remarks, "taught the priests how, with all their heart and all their strength, they should give themselves unto the service of the Lord in his Church." Moses, as priest, received on this occasion the breast and the shoulder, which became afterwards the portion of the priests; see [Exo 29:28], and [Lev 7:34]. It is worthy of remark, that although Moses himself had no consecration to the sacerdotal office, yet he acts here as high priest, consecrates a high priest, and receives the breast and the shoulder, which were the priests' portion! But Moses was an extraordinary messenger, and derived his authority, without the medium of rites or ceremonies, immediately from God himself. It does not appear that Christ either baptized the twelve apostles, or ordained them by imposition of hands; yet, from his own infinite sufficiency, he gave them authority both to baptize, and to lay on hands, in appointing others to the work of the sacred ministry. [Exo 29:29]

### Verse 29

[¶14] The holy garments - shall be his son's after him - These garments were to descend from father to son, and no new garments were to be made.

### Verse 30

[¶16] Seven days - The priest in his consecration was to abide seven days and nights at the door of the tabernacle, keeping the Lord's watch. See [Lev 8:33], etc. The number seven is what is called among the Hebrews a number of perfection; and it is often used to denote the completion, accomplishment, fullness, or perfection of a thing, as this period contained the whole course of that time in which God created the world, and appointed the day of rest. As this act of consecration lasted seven days, it signified a perfect consecration: and intimated to the priest that his whole body and soul, his time and talents, should be devoted to the service of God and his people.

[¶17] The number seven, which was a sacred number among the Hebrews, was conveyed from them down to the Greeks by means of the Egyptian philosophy, from which they borrowed most of their mysteries; and it is most likely that the opinion which the Greeks give is the same that the original framers of the idea had. That there was some mystical idea attached to it, is evident from its being made the number of perfection among the Hebrews. Philo and Josephus say that the Essenes, an ancient sect of the Jews, held it sacred "because it results from the side of a square added to those of a triangle." But what meaning does this convey? A triangle, or triad, according to the Pythagoreans, who borrowed their systems from the Egyptians, who borrowed from the Jews, was the emblem of wisdom, as consisting of beginning (Monad), middle (Duad), and end (Triad itself); so wisdom consists of three parts - experience of the past, attention to the present, and judgment of the future. It is also the most penetrating of all forms, as being the shape of the wedge; and indestructibility is essential to it, as a triangle can never be destroyed. From those three properties it was the emblem of spirit. The square, solid, and tetrad, by the same system were interchangeable signs. Now a square is the representation of a solid or matter, and thus the number seven contains within itself the properties of both the triangle or solid, and the square or tetrad, i.e., is all emblem of body and spirit; comprehends both the intellectual and natural world; embraces the idea of God, the chief of spirits or essences; and all nature, the result of his power; thus a very fit emblem of perfection. It is perhaps in this way that we must explain what Cicero, Tusc. Quest., lib. i., cap. 10, says of the number seven, where he calls it the knot and cement of all things; as being that by which the natural and spiritual world are comprehended in one idea. Thus the ancient philosophers spoke of numbers, themselves being the best judges of their own meaning.

### Verse 33

[¶19] But a stranger shall not eat thereof - That is, no person who was not of the family of Aaron - no Israelite, and not even a Levite.

### Verse 34

[¶21] Burn the remainder with fire - Common, voluntary, and peace-offerings, might be eaten even on the second day; see [Lev 7:16]; [Lev 19:5], [Lev 19:6]. But this being a peculiar consecration, in order to qualify a person to offer sacrifices for sin, like that great sacrifice, the paschal lamb, that typified the atonement made by Christ, none of it was to be left till the morning lest putrefaction should commence, which would be utterly improper in a sacrifice that was to make expiation for sin, and bring the soul into a state of holiness and perfection with God. See Clarke's note on [Exo 12:10].

### Verse 36

[¶23] Thou shalt cleanse the altar - The altar was to be sanctified for seven days; and it is likely that on each day, previously to the consecration service, the altar was wiped clean, and the former day's ashes, etc., removed.

### Verse 37

[¶25] Whatsoever touches the altar shall be holy - To this our Lord refers [Mat 23:19], where he says the altar sanctifies the gift; and this may be understood as implying that whatever was laid on the altar became the Lord's property, and must be wholly devoted to sacred uses, for in no other sense could such things be sanctified by touching the altar.

### Verse 39

[¶27] One lamb thou shalt offer in the morning - These two lambs, one in the morning, and the other in the evening, were generally termed the morning and evening daily sacrifices, and were offered from the time of their settlement in the promised land to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The use of these sacrifices according to the Jews was this: "The morning sacrifice made atonement for the sins committed in the night, and the evening sacrifice expiated the sins committed during the day."

### Verse 40

[¶29] A tenth deal of flour - Deal signifies a part, from the Anglo-Saxon word, to divide; hence, a part, a portion taken from the whole. From [Num 28:5] we learn that this tenth deal was the tenth part of an ephah, which constituted what is called an omer. See [Exo 16:36]; and see Clarke's note on [Exo 16:16] of the same chapter, where an account is given of different measures of capacity among the Hebrews. The omer contained about three quarts English.

[¶30] The fourth part of a hin - The hin contained one gallon and two pints. The fourth part of this was about one quart and a half of a pint.

[¶31] Drink-offering - A libation poured out before the Lord. See its meaning, [Lev 7:1], etc.

### Verse 43

[¶33] There I will meet with the children of Israel - See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:22].

### Verse 44

[¶35] I will sanctify - both Aaron and his sons - So we find the sanctification by Moses according to the Divine institution was only symbolical; and that Aaron and his sons must be sanctified, i.e., made holy, by God himself before they could officiate in holy things. From this, as well as from many other things mentioned in the sacred writings, we may safely infer that no designation by man only is sufficient to qualify any person to fill the office of a minister of the sanctuary. The approbation and consecration of man have both their propriety and use, but must never be made substitutes for the unction and inspiration of the Almighty. Let holy men ordain, but let God sanctify; then we may expect that his Church shall be built up on its most holy faith.

### Verse 45

[¶37] I will dwell among the children of Israel - This is the great charter of the people of God, both under the Old and New Testaments; see [Exo 25:8]; [Lev 26:11], [Lev 26:12]; [2Cor 6:16]; [Rev 21:3]. God dwells Among them: he is ever to be found in his Church to enlighten, quicken, comfort, and support it; to dispense the light of life by the preaching of his word, and the influences of his Spirit for the conviction and conversion of sinners. And he dwells In those who believe; and this is the very tenor of the New Covenant which God promised to make with the house of Israel; see [Jer 31:31-34]; [Eze 37:24-28]; [Heb 8:7-12]; and [2Cor 6:16]. And because God had promised to dwell in all his genuine followers, hence the frequent reference to this covenant and its privileges in the New Testament. And hence it is so frequently and strongly asserted that every believer is a habitation of God through the Spirit, [Eph 2:22]. That the Spirit of God witnesses with their spirits that they are the children of God, [Rom 8:16]. That the Spirit of Christ in their hearts enables them to call God their Father, [Gal 4:6]. And that if any man have not this Spirit, he is none of his, [Rom 8:9], etc. And hence St. Paul states this to be the sum and substance of apostolical preaching, and the riches of the glory of the mystery of the Gospel among the Gentiles, viz., Christ In you the hope of glory; whom, says he, we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect In Christ Jesus; [Col 1:27], [Col 1:28].

### Verse 46

[¶39] And they shall know that I am the Lord their God - That is, They shall acknowledge God, and their infinite obligations to him. In a multitude of places in Scripture the word know should be thus understood.

[¶40] That I may dwell among them - For without this acknowledgment and consequent dependence on and gratitude and obedience to God, they could not expect him to dwell among them.

[¶41] By dwelling among the people God shows that he would be a continual resident in their houses and in their hearts; that he would be their God - the sole object of their religious worship, to whom they should turn and on whom they should trust in all difficulties and distresses; and that he would be to them all that the Creator could be to his creatures. That in consequence they should have a full conviction of his presence and blessing, and a consciousness that He was their God, and that they were his people. Thus then God dwells among men that they may know him; and they must know him that he may continue to dwell among them. He who does not experimentally know God, cannot have him as an indwelling Savior; and he who does not continue to know - to acknowledge, love, and obey him, cannot retain him as his Preserver and Sanctifier. From the beginning of the world, the salvation of the souls of men necessarily implied the indwelling influences of God. Reader, hast thou this salvation? This alone will support thee in all thy travels in this wilderness, comfort thee in death, and give thee boldness in the day of judgment. "He," says an old writer, "who has pardon may look his judge in the face."

### Introduction

[¶43] The altar of burnt incense, [Exo 30:1]. Dimensions, [Exo 30:2]. Golden crown, [Exo 30:3]. Rings and staves, [Exo 30:4], [Exo 30:5]. Where placed, [Exo 30:6], [Exo 30:7]. Use, [Exo 30:8-10]. The ransom price of half a shekel, [Exo 30:11-13]. Who were to pay it, [Exo 30:14]. The rich and the poor to pay alike, [Exo 30:15]. The use to which it was applied, [Exo 30:16]. The brazen laver, and its uses, [Exo 30:17-21]. The holy anointing oil, and its component parts, [Exo 30:22-25]. To be applied to the tabernacle, ark, golden table, candlestick, altar of burnt-offerings, and the laver, [Exo 30:26-29]. And to Aaron and his sons, [Exo 30:30]. Never to be applied to any other uses, and none like it ever to be made, [Exo 30:31-33]. The perfume, and how made, [Exo 30:34], [Exo 30:35]. Its use, [Exo 30:36]. Nothing similar to it ever to be made, [Exo 30:37], [Exo 30:38].

## 114. Exodus · 47 of 57

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Altar to burn incense - The Samaritan omits the ten first verses of this chapter, because it inserts them after [Exo 26:32] (note).

[¶2] Shittim wood - The same of which the preceding articles were made, because it was abundant in those parts, and because it was very durable; hence everywhere the Septuagint translation, which was made in Egypt, renders the original by ξυλον ασηπτον, incorruptible wood.

### Verse 2

[¶4] Four-square - That is, on the upper or under surface, as it showed four equal sides; but it was twice as high as it was broad, being twenty-one inches broad, and three feet six inches high. It was called, not only the altar of incense, but also the golden altar, [Num 4:11]. For the crown, horns, staves, etc., see on the altar of burnt-offering, [Exo 27:1] (note), etc.

### Verse 6

[¶6] Before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony - These words in the original are supposed to be a repetition, by mistake, of the preceding clause; the word הפרכת happarocheth, the veil, being corrupted by interchanging two letters into הכפרת haccapporeth, the mercy-seat; and this, as Dr. Kennicott observes, places the altar of incense before the mercy-seat, and consequently In the holy of holies! Now this could not be, as the altar of incense was attended every day, and the holy of holies entered only once in the year. The five words which appear to be a repetition are wanting in twenty-six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and in the Samaritan. The verse reads better without them, and is more consistent with the rest of the account.

### Verse 7

[¶8] When he dresseth the lamps - Prepares the wicks, and puts in fresh oil for the evening.

[¶9] Shall burn incense upon it - Where so many sacrifices were offered it was essentially necessary to have some pleasing perfume to counteract the disagreeable smells that must have arisen from the slaughter of so many animals, the sprinkling of so much blood, and the burning of so much flesh, etc. The perfume that was to be burnt on this altar is described [Exo 30:34]. No blood was ever sprinkled on this altar, except on the day of general expiation, which happened only once in the year, [Exo 30:10]. But the perfume was necessary in every part of the tabernacle and its environs.

### Verse 9

[¶11] No strange incense - None made in any other way.

[¶12] Nor burnt-sacrifice - It should be an altar for incense, and for no other use.

### Verse 10

[¶14] An atonement - once in a year - On the tenth day of the seventh month. See [Lev 16:18] (note), etc., and the notes there. See Clarke on [Lev 16:21] (note), etc.

### Verse 12

[¶16] Then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul - This was a very important ordinance, and should be seriously considered. See [Exo 30:13] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶18] Half a shekel - Each of the Israelites was ordered to give as a ransom for his soul (i.e., for his life) half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. From this we may learn,

[¶19] 1. That the life of every man was considered as being forfeited to Divine justice.

[¶20] 2. That the redemption money given, which was doubtless used in the service of the sanctuary, was ultimately devoted to the use and profit of those who gave it.

[¶21] 3. That the standard by which the value of coin was ascertained, was kept in the sanctuary; for this appears to be the meaning of the words, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

[¶22] 4. The shekel is here said to be twenty gerahs. A gerah, according to Maimonides, weighed sixteen barleycorns, a shekel three hundred and twenty of pure silver. The shekel is generally considered to be equal in value to three shillings English; the redemption money, therefore, must be about one shilling and sixpence.

[¶23] 5. The rich were not to give more, the poor not to give less; to signify that all souls were equally precious in the sight of God, and that no difference of outward circumstances could affect the state of the soul; all had sinned, and all must be redeemed by the same price.

[¶24] 6. This atonement must be made that there might be no plague among them, intimating that a plague or curse from God must light on those souls for whom the atonement was not made.

[¶25] 7. This was to be a memorial unto the children of Israel, [Exo 30:16], to bring to their remembrance their past deliverance, and to keep in view their future redemption.

[¶26] 8. St. Peter seems to allude to this, and to intimate that this mode of atonement was ineffectual in itself, and only pointed out the great sacrifice which, in the fullness of time, should be made for the sin of the world. "Ye know," says he, "that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world," etc.; [1Pet 1:18], [1Pet 1:19], [1Pet 1:20].

[¶27] 9. Therefore all these things seem to refer to Christ alone, and to the atonement made by his blood; and upon him who is not interested in this atonement, God's plagues must be expected to fall.

[¶28] Reader, acquaint now thyself with God and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto thee.

### Verse 18

[¶30] A laver of brass - כיור kiyor sometimes signifies a caldron, [1Sam 2:14]; but it seems to signify any large round vessel or basin used for washing the hands and feet. There were doubtless cocks or spigots in it to draw off the water, as it is not likely the feet were put into it in order to be washed. The foot of the laver must mean the pedestal on which it stood.

### Verse 20

[¶32] They shall wash with water, that they die not - This was certainly an emblematical washing; and as the hands and the feet are particularly mentioned, it must refer to the purity of their whole conduct. Their hands - all their works, their feet - all their goings, must be washed - must be holiness unto the Lord. And this washing must be repeated every time they entered into the tabernacle, or when they came near to the altar to minister. This washing was needful because the priests all ministered barefoot; but it was equally so because of the guilt they might have contracted, for the washing was emblematical of the putting away of sin, or what St. Paul calls the laver of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, ([Tit 3:5]), as the influences of the Spirit must be repeated for the purification of the soul, as frequently as any moral defilement has been contracted.

### Verse 21

[¶34] And it shall be a statute for ever - To continue, in its literal meaning, as long as the Jewish economy lasted, and, in its spiritual meaning, to the end of time. What an important lesson does this teach the ministers of the Gospel of Christ! Each time they minister in public, whether in dispensing the Word or the Sacraments, they should take heed that they have a fresh application of the grace and spirit of Christ, to do away past transgressions or unfaithfulness, and to enable them to minister with the greater effect, as being in the Divine favor, and consequently entitled to expect all the necessary assistances of the Divine unction, to make their ministrations spirit and life to the people. See Clarke's note on [Exo 29:20].

### Verse 23

[¶36] Take - unto thee principal spices - From this and the following verse we learn that the holy anointing oil was compounded of the following ingredients: -

[¶37] Pure myrrh, מר דרור mar deror, 500 shekels

[¶38] Sweet cinnamon, קנמן בשם kinnemon besem, 250 shekels. (probably from Arabia)

[¶39] Sweet calamus, קנה בשם keneh bosem, or sweet 250 shekels. cane, [Jer 6:20] - Calamus aromaticus.

[¶40] Cassia, קדה kiddah, (cassia lignea), brought 500 shekels. Also from Arabia.

[¶41] Olive oil, שמן זית shemen sayith, one hin, about 5 quarts.

[¶42] Myrrh is the produce of an oriental tree not well known, and is collected by making an incision in the tree. What is now called by this name is precisely the same with that of the ancients. 500 shekels of the first and last, make 48 lbs. 4 oz. 12 dwts. 21 21/31 grs. 250 of the cinnamon and calamus. 24 lbs. 2 oz. 6 dwts.10 26/31 grs.

[¶43] Olive oil is supposed to be the best preservative of odours.

[¶44] As the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit are termed the anointing of the Holy Ghost, therefore this holy ointment appears to have been designed as emblematical of those gifts and graces. See [Act 1:5]; [Act 10:38]; [2Cor 1:21]; [1Jn 2:20], [1Jn 2:27].

## 115. Exodus · 48 of 57

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### Verse 25

[¶1] After the art of the apothecary - The original, רקח rokeach, signifies a compounder or confectioner; any person who compounds drugs, aromatics, etc.

### Verse 30

[¶3] Thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons - For the reason of this anointing, see Clarke's note on [Exo 29:7]. It seems that this anointing oil was an emblem of Divine teaching, and especially of those influences by which the Church of Christ was, in the beginning, guided into all truth; as is evident from the allusion to it by St. John: "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. The anointing which ye have received from him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him; [1Jn 2:20], [1Jn 2:27].

### Verse 34

[¶5] Take unto thee sweet spices - The holy perfume was compounded of the following ingredients: Stacte - נטף nataph, supposed to be the same with what was afterwards called the balm of Jericho. Stacte is the gum which spontaneously flows from the tree which produces myrrh. See Clarke's note on [Exo 30:23].

[¶6] Onycha - שחלת shecheleth, allowed by the best critics to be the unguis odoriferans described by Rumph, which is the external crust of the shell-fish purpura or murex, and is the basis of the principal perfumes made in the East Indies.

[¶7] Galbanum - חלבנה chelbenah, the bubon gummiferum or African ferula; it rises with a ligneous stalk from eight to ten feet, and is garnished with leaves at each joint. The top of the stock is terminated by an umbel of yellow flowers, which are succeeded by oblong channelled seeds, which have a thin membrane or wing on their border. When any part of the plant is broken, there issues out a little thin milk of a cream color. The gummy resinous juice which proceeds from this plant is what is commonly called galbanum, from the chelbench of the Hebrews.

[¶8] Pure frankincense - לבנה זקה lebonah zaccah. Frankincense is supposed to derive its name from frank, free, because of its liberal or ready distribution of its odours. It is a dry resinous substance, in pieces or drops of a pale yellowish white color, has a strong smell, and bitter acrid taste. The tree which produces it is not well known. Dioscorides mentions it as gotten in India. What is called here pure frankincense is no doubt the same with the mascula thura of Virgil, and signifies what is first obtained from the tree - that which is strongest and most free from all adventitious mixtures. See Clarke's note on [Exo 30:7].

[¶9] The Israelites were most strictly prohibited, on the most awful penalties, from making any anointing oil or perfume similar to those described in this chapter. He that should compound such, or apply any of this to any common purpose, even to smell to, [Exo 30:38], should be cut off, that is, excommunicated from his people, and so lose all right, title, and interest in the promises of God and the redemption of Israel. From all this we may learn how careful the Divine Being is to preserve his own worship and his own truth, so as to prevent them from being adulterated by human inventions; for he will save men in his own way, and upon his own terms. What are called human inventions in matters of religion, are not only of no worth, but are in general deceptive and ruinous. Arts and sciences in a certain way may be called inventions of men, for the spirit of a man knoweth the things of a man - can comprehend, plan, and execute, under the general influence of God, every thing in which human life is immediately concerned; but religion, as it is the gift, so it is the invention, of God: its doctrines and its ceremonies proceed from his wisdom and goodness, for he alone could devise the plan by which the human race may be restored to his favor and image, and taught to worship him in spirit and in truth. And that worship which himself has prescribed, we may rest assured, will be most pleasing in his sight. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the Lord; and their destruction by the fire of Jehovah is recorded as a lasting warning to all presumptuous worshippers, and to all who attempt to model his religion, according to their own caprice, and to minister in sacred things without that authority which proceeds from himself alone. The imposition of hands whether of pope, cardinal, or bishop can avail nothing here. The call and unction of God alone can qualify the minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

### Introduction

[¶11] Bezaleel appointed for the work of the tabernacle, [Exo 31:1-5]. Aholiab appointed for the same, [Exo 31:6]. The particular things on which they were to be employed, the ark and mercy-seat, [Exo 31:7]. Table, candlestick, and altar of incense, [Exo 31:8]. Altar of burnt-offering and the laver, [Exo 31:9]. Priest's garments, [Exo 31:10]. Anointing oil and sweet incense, [Exo 31:11]. God renews the command relative to the sanctification of the Sabbath, [Exo 31:12-17]. Delivers to Moses the two tables of stone, [Exo 31:18].

### Verse 2

[¶13] I have called by name Bezaleel - That is, I have particularly appointed this person to be the chief superintendent of the whole work. His name is significant, בצלאל betsal-el, in or under the shadow of God, meaning, under the especial protection of the Most High. He was the son of Uri, the son of Hur, the son of Caleb or Chelubai, the son of Esron, the son of Pharez, the son of Judah. See [1Chr 2:5], [1Chr 2:9],[1Chr 2:18], [1Chr 2:19], [1Chr 2:20], and see Clarke's note on [Exo 17:10].

### Verse 3

[¶15] I have filled him with the spirit of God - See Clarke's note on [Exo 28:3].

[¶16] In wisdom - חכמה, chochmah, from חכם chacham, to be wise, skillful, or prudent, denoting the compass of mind and strength of capacity necessary to form a wise man: hence our word wisdom, the power of judging what is wise or best to be done; from the Saxon, to teach, to advise, and to judge; hence the doom or judgment of the well taught, wise, or prudent man.

[¶17] Understanding - תבונה tebunah, from בן ban or bun, to separate, distinguish, discern; capacity to comprehend the different parts of a work, how to connect, arrange, etc., in order to make a complete whole.

[¶18] Knowledge - דעת daath, denoting particular acquaintance with a person or thing; practical, experimental knowledge.

### Verse 4

[¶20] Cunning works - מחשבת machashaboth, works of invention or genius, in the goldsmith and silversmith line.

### Verse 5

[¶22] In cutting of stones, etc. - Every thing that concerned the lapidary's, jeweler's, and carver's art.

### Verse 6

[¶24] In the hearts of all that are wisehearted I have put wisdom - So every man that had a natural genius, as we term it, had an increase of wisdom by immediate inspiration from God, so that he knew how to execute the different works which Divine wisdom designed for the tabernacle and its furniture. Dark as were the heathens, yet they acknowledged that all talents, and the seeds of all arts, came from God. Hence Seneca: Insita nobis omnium artium semina, magisterque ex occulto Deus producit ingenia. In the same way Homer attributes such curious arts to Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and Vulcan, the god of handicrafts. Ὡς δ' ὁτε τις χρυσον περιχευεται αργυρῳ ανηρ Ιδρις, ὁν Ἡφαιστος δεδαεν και Παλλας Αθηνη Τεχνην παντοιην, χαριεντα δε εργα τελειει.

[¶25] Odyss., 1. vi., ver. 232.

[¶26] As by some artist, to whom Vulcan gives

[¶27] His skill divine, a breathing statue lives;

[¶28] By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould,

[¶29] And o'er the silver pours the fusile gold. - Pope.

[¶30] And all this the wisest of men long before them declared; when speaking of the wisdom of God he says, I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions; [Pro 8:12]. See Clarke's note on [Exo 28:3], to which the reader is particularly desired to refer. There is something remarkable in the name of this second superintendent, אהליאב Aholiab, the tabernacle of the father, or, the father is my tabernacle; a name nearly similar in its meaning to that of Bezaleel, see Clarke's note on [Exo 31:2].

### Verse 8

[¶32] The pure candlestick - Called so either because of the pure gold of which it was made, or the brightness and splendor of its workmanship, or of the light which it imparted in the tabernacle, as the purest, finest oil was always burnt in it.

### Verse 9

[¶34] The altar of burnt-offering - See Clarke's note on [Exo 27:1].

[¶35] The laver and his foot - The pedestal on which it stood.

### Verse 10

[¶37] Clothes of service - Vestments for the ordinary work of their ministry; the holy garments - those which were peculiar to the high priest.

### Verse 11

[¶39] The anointing oil - See Clarke's note on [Exo 30:23].

[¶40] Sweet incense - See on [Exo 30:24] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶42] My Sabbaths ye shall keep - See Clarke's note on [Gen 2:3]. See Clarke's note on [Exo 20:8].

### Verse 14

[¶44] Every one that defileth it - By any kind of idolatrous or profane worship.

[¶45] Shall surely be put to death - The magistrates shall examine into the business, and if the accused be found guilty, he shall be stoned to death.

## 116. Exodus · 49 of 57

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[¶0] Shall be cut off - Because that person who could so far contemn the Sabbath, which was a sign to them of the rest which remained for the people of God, was of course an infidel, and should be cut off from all the privileges and expectations of an Israelite.

### Verse 16

[¶2] A perpetual covenant - Because it is a sign of this future rest and blessedness, therefore the religious observance of it must be perpetually kept up. The type must continue in force till the antitype come.

### Verse 17

[¶4] Rested, and was refreshed - God, in condescension to human weakness, applies to himself here what belongs to man. If a man religiously rests on the Sabbath, both his body and soul shall be refreshed; he shall acquire new light and life.

### Verse 18

[¶6] When he had made an end of communing - When the forty days and forty nights were ended.

[¶7] Two tables of testimony - See Clarke's note on [Exo 34:1]. Tables of stone - That the record might be lasting, because it was a testimony that referred to future generations, and therefore the materials should be durable.

[¶8] Written with the finger of God - All the letters cut by God himself. Dr. Winder, in his History of Knowledge, thinks it probable that this was the first writing in alphabetical characters ever exhibited to the world, though there might have been marks or hieroglyphics cut on wood, stone, etc., before this time; see [Exo 17:14]. That these tables were written, not by the commandment but by the power of God himself, the following passages seem to prove: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mountain, and be thou there; and I will give thee tables of stone Which I Have Written, that thou mayest teach them;" [Exo 24:12]. "And he gave unto Moses, upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, Written With The Finger Of God;" [Exo 31:18]. "And Moses went down from the mount, and the two tables of testimony were in his hand; the tables were Written on both their sides. And the tables were The Work Of God, and the Writing Was The Writing Of God, graven upon the tables;" [Exo 32:15], [Exo 32:16]. "These words [the ten commandments] the Lord spake in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more, But He Wrote Them on two tables of stone;" [Deu 5:22]. It is evident therefore that this writing was properly and literally the writing of God himself. God wrote now on tables of stone what he had originally written on the heart of man, and in mercy he placed that before his eyes which by sin had been obliterated from his soul; and by this he shows us what, by the Spirit of Christ, must be rewritten in the mind, [2Cor 3:3]; and this is according to the covenant which God long before promised to make with mankind, [Jer 31:33]. See also what is said on this subject, [Exo 20:1] (note), [Exo 34:1] (note), and [Exo 17:14] (note). "No time," says Dr. A. Bayley, "seems so proper from whence to date the introduction of letters among the Hebrews as this, for after this period we find continual mention of letters, reading, and writing, in the now proper sense of those words. See [Deu 27:8]; [Deu 31:9]. Moses, it is said, επαιδευθη, was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians - in all the learning they possessed; but it is manifest that he had not learned of them any method of writing, otherwise there had been no want of God's act and assistance in writing the two tables of the law, no need of a miraculous writing. Had Moses known this art, the Lord might have said to him, as he does often afterwards, Write thou these words; [Exo 34:27]. Write on the stones the words of this law; [Deu 27:3]. Write you this song for you; [Deu 31:19]. Perhaps it may be said, God's writing the law gave it a sanction. True; but why might it not also teach the first use of letters, unless it can be proved that they were in use prior to this transaction? It might be thought too much to assert that letters no more than language were a natural discovery; that it was impossible for man to have invented writing, and that he did not invent it: yet this may appear really the case from the following reflections: -

[¶9] 1. Reason may show us how near to an impossibility it was that a just and proper number of convenient characters for the sounds in language should naturally be hit upon by any man, for whom it was easy to imitate and vary, but not to invent.

[¶10] 2. From evidence of the Mosaic history, it appears that the introduction of writing among the Hebrews was not from man, but God.

[¶11] 3. There are no evident vestiges of letters subsisting among other nations till after the delivery of the law at Mount Sinai; nor then, among some, till very late."

### Introduction

[¶13] The Israelites, finding that Moses delayed his return, desire Aaron to make them gods to go before them, [Exo 32:1]. Aaron consents, and requires their ornaments, [Exo 32:2]. They deliver them to him, and he makes a molten calf, [Exo 32:3], [Exo 32:4]. He builds an altar before it, [Exo 32:5]; and the people offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, [Exo 32:6]. The Lord commands Moses to go down, telling him that the people had corrupted themselves, [Exo 32:7], [Exo 32:8]. The Lord is angry, and threatens to destroy them, [Exo 32:9], [Exo 32:10]. Moses intercedes for them, [Exo 32:11-13]; and the Lord promises to spare them, [Exo 32:14]. Moses goes down with the tables in his hands, [Exo 32:15], [Exo 32:16]. Joshua, hearing the noise they made at their festival, makes some remarks on it, [Exo 32:17], [Exo 32:18]. Moses, coming to the camp, and seeing their idolatrous worship, is greatly distressed, throws down and breaks the two tables, [Exo 32:19]. Takes the calf, reduces it to powder, strews it upon the water, and causes them to drink it, [Exo 32:20]. Moses expostulates with Aaron, [Exo 32:21]. Aaron vindicates himself, [Exo 32:22-24]. Moses orders the Levites to slay the transgressors, [Exo 32:25-27]. They do so, and 3,000 fall, [Exo 32:28], [Exo 32:29]. Moses returns to the Lord on the mount, and makes supplication for the people, [Exo 32:30-32]. God threatens and yet spares, [Exo 32:33]. Commands Moses to lead the people, and promises him the direction of an angel, [Exo 32:34]. The people are plagued because of their sin, [Exo 32:35].

### Verse 1

[¶15] When the people saw that Moses delayed - How long this was before the expiration of the forty days, we cannot tell; but it certainly must have been some considerable time, as the ornaments must be collected, and the calf or ox, after having been founded, must require a considerable time to fashion it with the graving tool; and certainly not more than two or three persons could work on it at once. This work therefore, must have required several days.

[¶16] The people gathered themselves together - They came in a tumultuous and seditious manner, insisting on having an object of religious worship made for them, as they intended under its direction to return to Egypt. See [Act 7:39], [Act 7:40].

[¶17] As for this Moses, the man that brought us up - This seems to be the language of great contempt, and by it we may see the truth of the character given them by Aaron, [Exo 32:22], they were set on mischief. It is likely they might have supposed that Moses had perished in the fire, which they saw had invested the top of the mountain into which he went.

### Verse 2

[¶19] Golden ear-rings - Both men and women wore these ornaments, and we may suppose that these were a part of the spoils which they brought out of Egypt. How strange, that the very things which were granted them by an especial influence and providence of God, should be now abused to the basest idolatrous purposes! But it is frequently the case that the gifts of God become desecrated by being employed in the service of sin; I will curse your blessings, saith the Lord, [Mal 2:2].

### Verse 3

[¶21] And all the people brake off the golden ear-rings - The human being is naturally fond of dress, though this has been improperly attributed to the female sex alone, and those are most fond of it who have the shallowest capacities; but on this occasion the bent of the people to idolatry was greater than even their love of dress, so that they readily stripped themselves of their ornaments in order to get a molten god. They made some compensation for this afterwards; see [Exo 36:22], and See Clarke's note on [Exo 38:9].

### Verse 4

[¶23] Fashioned it with a graving tool - There has been much controversy about the meaning of the word חרט cheret in the text: some make it a mould, others a garment, cloth, or apron; some a purse or bag, and others a graver. It is likely that some mould was made on this occasion, that the gold when fused was cast into it, and that afterwards it was brought into form and symmetry by the action of the chisel and graver.

[¶24] These be thy gods, O Israel - The whole of this is a most strange and unaccountable transaction. Was it possible that the people could have so soon lost sight of the wonderful manifestations of God upon the mount? Was it possible that Aaron could have imagined that he could make any god that could help them? And yet it does not appear that he ever remonstrated with the people! Possibly he only intended to make them some symbolical representation of the Divine power and energy, that might be as evident to them as the pillar of cloud and fire had been, and to which God might attach an always present energy and influence; or in requiring them to sacrifice their ornaments, he might have supposed they would have desisted from urging their request: but all this is mere conjecture, with very little probability to support it. It must however be granted that Aaron does not appear to have even designed a worship that should supersede the worship of The Most High; hence we find him making proclamation, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord, (יהוה); and we find farther that some of the proper rites of the true worship were observed on this occasion, for they brought burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, [Exo 32:6], [Exo 32:7] : hence it is evident he intended that the true God should be the object of their worship, though he permitted and even encouraged them to offer this worship through an idolatrous medium, the molten calf. It has been supposed that this was an exact resemblance of the famous Egyptian god Apis who was worshipped under the form of an ox, which worship the Israelites no doubt saw often practiced in Egypt. Some however think that this worship of Apis was not then established; but we have already had sufficient proof that different animals were sacred among the Egyptians, nor have we any account of any worship in Egypt earlier than that offered to Apis, under the figure of an Ox.

### Verse 5

[¶26] To-morrow is a feast to the Lord - In Bengal the officiating Brahmin, or an appointed person proclaims, "To-morrow, or on - day of - , such a ceremony will be performed!"

### Verse 6

[¶28] The people sat down to eat and to drink - The burnt-offerings were wholly consumed; the peace-offerings, when the blood bad been poured out, became the food of the priests, etc. When therefore the strictly religious part of these ceremonies was finished, the people sat down to eat of the peace-offerings, and this they did merely as the idolaters, eating and drinking to excess. And it appears they went much farther, for it is said they rose up to play, לצחק letsachek, a word of ominous import, which seems to imply here fornicating and adulterous intercourse; and in some countries the verb to play is still used precisely in this sense. In this sense the original is evidently used, [Gen 39:14].

### Verse 7

[¶30] Thy people - have corrupted themselves - They had not only got into the spirit of idolatry, but they had become abominable in their conduct, so that God disowns them to be his: Thy people have broken the covenant, and are no longer entitled to my protection and love.

[¶31] This is one pretense that the Roman Catholics have for the idolatry in their image worship. Their high priest, the pope, collects the ornaments of the people, and makes an image, a crucifix, a madonna, etc. The people worship it; but the pope says it is only to keep God in remembrance. But of the whole God says, Thy people have corrupted themselves; and thus as they continue in their idolatry, they have forfeited the blessings of the Lord's covenant. They are not God's people, they are the pope's people, and he is called "our holy father the pope."

### Verse 9

[¶33] A stiff-necked people - Probably an allusion to the stiff-necked ox, the object of their worship.

### Verse 10

[¶35] Now therefore let me alone - Moses had already begun to plead with God in the behalf of this rebellious and ungrateful people; and so powerful was his intercession that even the Omnipotent represents himself as incapable of doing any thing in the way of judgment, unless his creature desisted from praying for mercy! See an instance of the prevalence of fervent intercession in the case of Abraham, [Gen 18:23-33], from the model of which the intercession of Moses seems to have been formed.

### Verse 14

[¶37] And the Lord repented of the evil - This is spoken merely after the manner of men who, having formed a purpose, permit themselves to be diverted from it by strong and forcible reasons, and so change their minds relative to their former intentions.

### Verse 15

[¶39] The tables were written on both their sides - If we take this literally, it was certainly a very unusual thing; for in ancient times the two sides of the same substance were never written over. However, some rabbins suppose that by the writing on both sides is meant the letters were cut through the tables, so that they might be read on both sides, though on one side they would appear reversed. Supposing this to be correct, if the letters were the same with those called Hebrew now in common use, the ס samech, which occurs twice, and the final ם mem which occurs twenty-three times in the ten commandments, both of these being close letters, could not be cut through on both sides without falling out, unless, as some of the Jews have imagined, they were held in by miracle; but if this ancient character were the same with the Samaritan, this through cutting might have been quite practicable, as there is not one close letter in the whole Samaritan alphabet. On this transaction there are the three following opinions:

[¶40] 1. We may conceive the tables of stone to have been thin slabs or a kind of slate, and the writing on the back side to have been a continuation of that on the front, the first not being sufficient to contain the whole.

[¶41] 2. Or the writing on the back side was probably the precepts that accompanied the ten commandments; the latter were written by the Lord, the former by Moses; see Clarke's note on [Exo 34:1]. See Clarke's note on [Exo 34:27].

[¶42] 3. Or the same words were written on both sides, so that when held up, two parties might read at the same time.

### Verse 16

[¶44] The tables were the work of God - Because such a law could proceed from none but himself; God alone is the fountain and author of Law, of what is right, just, holy, and good. See the meaning of the word Law, [Exo 12:49] (note).

## 117. Exodus · 50 of 57

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[¶0] The writing was the writing of God - For as he is the sole author of law and justice, so he alone can write them on the heart of man. This is agreeable to the spirit of the new covenant which God had promised to make with men in the latter days: I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel - I will Put My Laws In Their Minds, And Write Them In Their Hearts, [Jer 31:33]; [Heb 8:10]; [2Cor 3:3]. That the writing of these tables was the writing of God, see proved at the conclusion of the last chapter.

### Verse 17

[¶2] Joshua - said - There is a noise of war in the camp - How natural was this thought to the mind of a military man! Hearing a confused noise he supposed that the Israelitish camp had been attacked by some of the neighboring tribes.

### Verse 18

[¶4] And he said - That is, Moses returned this answer to the observations of Joshua.

### Verse 19

[¶6] He saw the calf, and the dancing - Dancing before the idol takes place in almost every Hindoo idolatrous feast - Ward.

[¶7] He cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them - He might have done this through distress and anguish of spirit, on beholding their abominable idolatry and dissolute conduct; or he probably did it emblematically, intimating thereby that, as by this act of his the tables were broken in pieces, on which the law of God was written; so they, by their present conduct, had made a breach in the covenant, and broken the laws of their Maker. But we must not excuse this act; it was rash and irreverent; God's writing should not have been treated in this way.

### Verse 20

[¶9] He took the calf - and burnt - and ground it to powder, etc. - How truly contemptible must the object of their idolatry appear when they were obliged to drink their god, reduced to powder and strewed on the water! "But," says an objector, "how could gold, the most ductile of all metals, and the most ponderous, be stamped into dust and strewed on water?" In [Deu 9:21], this matter is fully explained. I took, says Moses, your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, that is, melted it down, probably into ingots, or gross plates, and stamped it, that is, beat into thin laminae, something like our gold leaf, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust, which might be very easily done by the action of the hands, when beat into thin plates or leaves, as the original words אכת eccoth and דק dak imply. And I cast the dust thereof into the brook, and being thus lighter than the water, it would readily float, so that they could easily see, in this reduced and useless state, the idol to which they had been lately offering Divine honors, and from which they were vainly expecting protection and defense. No mode of argumentation could have served so forcibly to demonstrate the folly of their conduct, as this method pursued by Moses.

### Verse 21

[¶11] What did this people unto thee - It seems if Aaron had been firm, this evil might have been prevented.

### Verse 22

[¶13] Thou knowest the people - He excuses himself by the wicked and seditious spirit of the people, intimating that he was obliged to accede to their desires.

### Verse 24

[¶15] I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf - What a silly and ridiculous subterfuge! He seems to insinuate that he only threw the metal into the fire, and that the calf came unexpectedly out by mere accident. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel makes a similar excuse for him: "And I said unto them, Whosoever hath gold, let him break it off and give it to me; and I cast it into the fire, and Satan entered into it, and it came out in the form of this calf!" Just like the popish legend of the falling of the shrine of our Lady of Loretta out of heaven! These legends come from the same quarter. Satan can provide more when necessary for his purpose.

### Verse 25

[¶17] Moses saw that the people were naked - They were stripped, says the Targum, of the holy crown that was upon their heads, on which the great and precious name Jehovah was engraved. But it is more likely that the word פרע parua implies that they were reduced to the most helpless and wretched state, being abandoned by God in the midst of their enemies. This is exactly similar to that expression, [2Chr 28:19] : For the Lord brought Judah low, because of Ahaz king of Israel: for he made Judah Naked, הפריע hiphria, and transgressed sore against the Lord. Their nakedness, therefore, though in the first sense it may imply that several of them were despoiled of their ornaments, yet it may also express their defenceless and abandoned state, in consequence of their sin. That they could not literally have all been despoiled of their ornaments, appears evident from their offerings. See [Exo 36:21], etc.

### Verse 26

[¶19] Who is on the Lord's side? - That is, Who among you is free from this transgression? And all the sons of Levi, etc. - It seems they had no part in this idolatrous business.

### Verse 27

[¶21] From gate to gate - It is probable that there was an enclosed or entrenched camp, in which the chief rulers and heads of the people were, and that this camp had two gates or outlets; and the Levites were commanded to pass from one to the other, slaying as many of the transgressors as they could find.

### Verse 28

[¶23] There fell about three thousand men - These were no doubt the chief transgressors; having broken the covenant by having other gods besides Jehovah, they lost the Divine protection, and then the justice of God laid hold on and slew them. Moses doubtless had positive orders from God for this act of justice, (see [Exo 32:27]); for though, through his intercession, the people were spared so as not to be exterminated as a nation, yet the principal transgressors, those who were set on mischief, [Exo 32:22], were to be put to death.

### Verse 29

[¶25] For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves - Fill your hands to the Lord. See the reason of this form of speech in the note on [Exo 29:19] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶27] Moses returned unto the Lord - Before he went down from the mountain God had acquainted him with the general defection of the people, whereupon he immediately, without knowing the extent of their crime, began to make intercession for them; and God, having given him a general assurance that they should not be cut off, hastened him to go down, and bring them off from their idolatry. Having descended, he finds matters much worse than he expected, and ordered three thousand of the principal delinquents to be slain; but knowing that an evil so extensive must be highly provoking in the sight of the just and holy God, he finds it highly expedient that an atonement be made for the sin: for although he had the promise of God that as a nation they should not be exterminated, yet he had reason to believe that Divine justice must continue to contend with them, and prevent them from ever entering the promised land. That he was apprehensive that this would be the case, we may see plainly from the following verse.

### Verse 32

[¶29] Forgive their sin - ; and if not, blot me - out of thy book - It is probable that one part of Moses' work during the forty days of his residence on the mount with God, was his regulating the muster-roll of all the tribes and families of Israel, in reference to the parts they were respectively to act in the different transactions in the wilderness, promised land, etc.; and this, being done under the immediate direction of God, is termed God's book which he had written, (such muster-rolls, or registers, called also genealogies, the Jews have had from the remotest period of their history); and it is probable that God had told him, that those who should break the covenant which he had then made with them should be blotted out of that list, and never enter into the promised land. All this Moses appears to have particularly in view, and, without entering into any detail, immediately comes to the point which he knew was fixed when this list or muster-roll was made, namely, that those who should break the covenant should be blotted out, and never have any inheritance in the promised land: therefore he says, This people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold; thus they had broken the covenant, (see the first and second commandments), and by this had forfeited their right to Canaan. Yet now, he adds, if thou wilt forgive their sin, that they may yet attain the promised inheritance - ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written - if thou wilt blot out their names from this register, and never suffer them to enter Canaan, blot me out also; for I cannot bear the thought of enjoying that blessedness, while my people and their posterity shall be for ever excluded. And God, in kindness to Moses, spared him the mortification of going into Canaan without taking the people with him. They had forfeited their lives, and were sentenced to die in the wilderness; and Moses' prayer was answered in mercy to him, while the people suffered under the hand of justice. But the promise of God did not fail; for, although those who sinned were blotted out of the book, yet their posterity enjoyed the inheritance.

[¶30] This seems to be the simple and pure light in which this place should be viewed; and in this sense St. Paul is to be understood, [Rom 9:3], where he says: For I could wish that myself were Accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh; who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the Adoption, and the Glory, and the Covenants. Moses could not survive the destruction of his people by the neighboring nations, nor their exclusion from the promised land; and St. Paul, seeing the Jews about to be cut off by the Roman sword for their rejection of the Gospel, was willing to be deprived of every earthly blessing, and even to become a sacrifice for them, if this might contribute to the preservation and salvation of the Jewish state. Both those eminent men, engaged in the same work, influenced by a spirit of unparalleled patriotism, were willing to forfeit every blessing of a secular kind, even die for the welfare of the people. But certainly, neither of them could wish to go to eternal perdition, to save their countrymen from being cut off, the one by the sword of the Philistines, the other by that of the Romans. Even the supposition is monstrous.

[¶31] On this mode of interpretation we may at once see what is implied in the book of life, and being written in or blotted out of such a book. In the public registers, all that were born of a particular tribe were entered in the list of their respective families under that tribe. This was the book of life; but when any of those died, his name might be considered as blotted out from this list. Our baptismal registers, which record the births of all the inhabitants of a particular parish or district, and which are properly our books of life; and our bills of mortality, which are properly our books of death, or the lists of those who are thus blotted out from our baptismal registers or books of life; are very significant and illustrative remains of the ancient registers, or books of life and death among the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and most ancient nations. It is worthy of remark, that in China the names of the persons who have been tried on criminal processes are written in two distinct books, which are called the book of life and the book of death: those who have been acquitted, or who have not been capitally convicted, are written in the former; those who have been found guilty, in the latter. These two books are presented to the emperor by his ministers, who, as sovereign, has a right to erase any name from either: to place the living among the dead, that he may die; or the dead, that is, the person condemned to death, among the living, that he may be preserved. Thus he blots out of the book of life or the book of death according to his sovereign pleasure, on the representation of his ministers, or the intercession of friends, etc. An ancient and extremely rich picture, in my own possession, representing this circumstance, painted in China, was thus interpreted to me by a native Chinese.

### Verse 33

[¶33] Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out - As if the Divine Being had said: "All my conduct is regulated by infinite justice and righteousness: in no case shall the innocent ever suffer for the guilty. That no man may transgress through ignorance, I have given you my law, and thus published my covenant; the people themselves have acknowledged its justice and equity, and have voluntarily ratified it. He then that sins against me, (for sin is the transgression of the law, [1Jn 3:4], and the law must be published and known that it may be binding), him will I blot out of my book." And is it not remarkable that to these conditions of the covenant God strictly adhered, so that not one soul of these transgressors ever entered into the promised rest! Here was justice. And yet, though they deserved death, they were spared! Here was mercy. Thus, as far as justice would permit, mercy extended; and as far as mercy would permit, justice proceeded. Behold, O reader, the Goodness and Severity of God! Mercy saves all that Justice can spare; and Justice destroys all that Mercy should not save.

### Verse 34

[¶35] Lead the people unto the place - The word place is not in the text, and is with great propriety omitted. For Moses never led this people into that place, they all died in the wilderness except Joshua and Caleb; but Moses led them towards the place, and thus the particle אל el here should be understood, unless we suppose that God designed to lead them to the borders of the land, but not to take them into it.

[¶36] I will visit their sin - I will not destroy them, but they shall not enter into the promised land. They shall wander in the wilderness till the present generation become extinct.

### Verse 35

[¶38] The Lord plagued the people - Every time they transgressed afterwards Divine justice seems to have remembered this transgression against them. The Jews have a metaphorical saying, apparently founded on this text: "No affliction has ever happened to Israel in which there was not some particle of the dust of the golden calf."

[¶39] 1. The attentive reader has seen enough in this chapter to induce him to exclaim, How soon a clear sky may be overcast! How soon may the brightest prospects be obscured! Israel had just ratified its covenant with Jehovah, and had received the most encouraging and unequivocal pledges of his protection and love. But they sinned, and provoked the Lord to depart from them, and to destroy the work of his hands. A little more faith, patience, and perseverance, and they should have been safely brought into the promised land. For want of a little more dependence upon God, how often does an excellent beginning come to an unhappy conclusion! Many who were just on the borders of the promised land, and about to cross Jordan, have, through an act of unfaithfulness, been turned back to wander many a dreary year in the wilderness. Reader, be on thy guard. Trust in Christ, and watch unto prayer.

[¶40] 2. Many people have been greatly distressed on losing their baptismal register, and have been reduced in consequence to great political inconvenience. But still they had their lives, and should a living man complain? But a man may so sin as to provoke God to cut him off; or, like a fruitless tree, be cut down, because he encumbers the ground. Or he may have sinned a sin unto death, [1Jn 5:16], [1Jn 5:17], that is, a sin which God will punish with temporal death, while he extends mercy to the soul.

[¶41] 3. With respect to the blotting out of God's book, on which there has been so much controversy, Is it not evident that a soul could not be blotted out of a book in which it had never been written? And is it not farther evident from [Exo 32:32], [Exo 32:33], that, although a man be written in God's book, if he sins he may be blotted out? Let him that readeth understand; and let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. Reader, be not high-minded, but fear. See Clarke's note on [Exo 32:32], and See Clarke's note on [Exo 32:33].

### Introduction

[¶43] Moses is commanded to depart from the mount, and lead up the people towards the promised land, [Exo 33:1]. An angel is promised to be their guide, [Exo 33:2]. The land is described, and the Lord refuses to go with them, [Exo 33:3]. The people mourn, and strip themselves of their ornaments, [Exo 33:4-6]. The tabernacle or tent is pitched without the camp, [Exo 33:7]. Moses goes to it to consult the Lord, and the cloudy pillar descends on it, [Exo 33:8], [Exo 33:9]. The people, standing at their tent doors, witness this, [Exo 33:10]. The Lord speaks familiarly with Moses; he returns to the camp, and leaves Joshua in the tabernacle, [Exo 33:11]. Moses pleads with God, and desires to know whom he will send to be their guide, and to be informed of the way of the Lord, [Exo 33:12], [Exo 33:13]. The Lord promises that his presence shall go with them, [Exo 33:14]. Moses pleads that the people may be taken under the Divine protection, [Exo 33:15], [Exo 33:16]. The Lord promises to do so, [Exo 33:17]. Moses requests to see the Divine glory, [Exo 33:18]. And God promises to make his goodness pass before him, and to proclaim his name, [Exo 33:19]. Shows that no man can see his glory and live, [Exo 33:20]; but promises to put him in the cleft of a rock, and to cover him with his hand while his glory passed by, and then to remove his hand and let him see his back parts, [Exo 33:21-23].

## 118. Exodus · 51 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/118/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/118/#p-N

### Verse 1

[¶1] Unto the land - That is, towards it, or to the borders of it. See [Exo 32:34] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶3] I will send an angel - In [Exo 23:20], God promises to send an angel to conduct them into the good land, in whom the name of God should be; that is, in whom God should dwell. See Clarke's note on [Exo 23:20] (note). Here he promises that an angel shall be their conductor; but as there is nothing particularly specified of him, it has been thought that an ordinary angel is intended, and not that Angel of the Covenant promised before. And this sentiment seems to be confirmed by the following verse.

### Verse 3

[¶5] I will not go up in the midst of thee - Consequently, the angel here promised to be their guide was not that angel in whom Jehovah's name was: and so the people understood it; hence the mourning which is afterwards mentioned.

### Verse 5

[¶7] Now put off thy ornaments from thee - "The Septuagint, in their translation, suppose that the children of Israel not only laid aside their ear-rings, and such like ornaments, in a time of professed deep humiliation before God, but their upper or more beautiful garments too. Moses says nothing of this last circumstance; but as it is a modern practice, so it appears by their version to have been as ancient as their time, and probably took place long before that. The Septuagint gives us this as the translation of the passage: 'The people, having heard this sad declaration, mourned with lamentations. And the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Now, therefore, put off your robes of glory, and your ornaments, and I will show you the things I will do unto you. And the children of Israel put off their ornaments and robes by the mount, by Horeb.' "If it had not been the custom to put off their upper garments in times of deep mourning, in the days that the Septuagint translation was made, they would not have inserted this circumstance in the account Moses gives of their mourning, and concerning which he was silent. They must have supposed too that this practice might be in use in those elder times. "That it is now practiced in the east, appears from the account Pitts gives of the ceremonies of the Mohammedan pilgrimage to Mecca. 'A few days after this we came to a place called Rabbock, about four days' sail on this side of Mecca, where all the hagges or pilgrims, (excepting those of the female sex) do enter into hirrawem or ihram, i.e., they take off all their clothes, covering themselves with two hirrawems, or large white cotton wrappers; one they put about their middle, which reaches down to their ankles; with the other they cover the upper part of their body, except the head; and they wear no other thing on their bodies but these wrappers, only a pair of grimgameca, that is thin-soled shoes like sandals, the over-leather of which covers only the toes, the insteps being all naked. In this manner, like humble penitents, they go from Rabbock until they come to Mecca, to approach the temple, many times enduring the scorching heat of the sun until the very skin is burnt off their backs and arms, and their heads swollen to a very great degree.' - pp. 115,116. Presently after he informs us 'that the time of their wearing this mortifying habit is about the space of seven days.' Again, (p. 138): 'It was a sight, indeed, able to pierce one's heart, to behold so many thousands in their garments of humility and mortification, with their naked heads, and cheeks watered with tears; and to hear their grievous sighs and sobs, begging earnestly for the remission of their sins, promising newness of life, using a form of penitential expressions, and thus continuing for the space of four or five hours.' "The Septuagint suppose the Israelites made much the same appearance as these Mohammedan pilgrims, when Israel stood in anguish of soul at the foot of Mount Horeb, though Moses says nothing of putting off any of their vestments. "Some passages of the Jewish prophets seem to confirm the notion of their stripping themselves of some of their clothes in times of deep humiliation, particularly [Mic 1:8] : Therefore I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls. "Saul's stripping himself, mentioned [1Sam 19:24], is perhaps to be understood of his assuming the appearance of those that were deeply engaged in devotional exercises, into which he was unintentionally brought by the prophetic influences that came upon him, and in which he saw others engaged." - Harmer's Observat., vol. iv., p. 172.

[¶8] The ancient Jewish commentators were of opinion that the Israelites had the name יהוה Jehovah inscribed on them in such a way as to ensure them the Divine protection; and that this, inscribed probably on a plate of gold, was considered their choicest ornament; and that when they gave their ornaments to make the golden calf, this was given by many, in consequence of which they were considered as naked and defenceless. All the remaining parts of their ornaments, which it is likely were all emblematical of spiritual things, God commands them here to lay off; for they could not with propriety bear the symbols of the Divine protection, who had forfeited that protection for their transgression.

[¶9] That I may know what to do unto thee - For it seems that while they had these emblematic ornaments on them, they were still considered as under the Divine protection. These were a shield to them, which God commands them to throw aside. Though many had parted with their choicest ornaments, yet not all, only a few comparatively, of the wives, daughters, and sons of 600,000 men, could have been thus stripped to make one golden calf. The major part still had these ornaments, and they are now commanded to lay them aside.

### Verse 7

[¶11] Moses took the tabernacle - אה האהל eth haohel, the Tent; not את המשכן eth hammishcan, the tabernacle, the dwelling-place of Jehovah, see [Exo 36:11], for this was not as yet erected; but probably the tent of Moses, which was before in the midst of the camp, and to which the congregation came for judgment, and where, no doubt, God frequently met with his servant. This is now removed to a considerable distance from the camp, (two thousand cubits, according to the Talmudists), as God refuses to dwell any longer among this rebellious people. And as this was the place to which all the people came for justice and judgment, hence it was probably called the tabernacle, more properly the tent, of the congregation.

### Verse 9

[¶13] The cloudy pillar descended - This very circumstance precluded the possibility of deception. The cloud descending at these times, and at none others, was a full proof that it was miraculous, and a pledge of the Divine presence. It was beyond the power of human art to counterfeit such an appearance; and let it be observed that all the people saw this, [Exo 33:10]. How many indubitable and irrefragable proofs of its own authenticity and Divine origin does the Pentateuch contain!

### Verse 11

[¶15] The Lord spake unto Moses face to face - That there was no personal appearance here we may readily conceive; and that the communications made by God to Moses were not by visions, ecstasies, dreams, inward inspirations, or the mediation of angels, is sufficiently evident: we may therefore consider the passage as implying that familiarity and confidence with which the Divine Being treated his servant, and that he spake with him by articulate sounds in his own language, though no shape or similitude was then to be seen.

[¶16] Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man - There is a difficulty here. Joshua certainly was not a young man in the literal sense of the word; "but he was called so," says Mr. Ainsworth, "In respect of his service, not of his years; for he was now above fifty years old, as may be gathered from [Jos 24:29]. But because ministry and service are usually by the younger sort, all servants are called young men, [Gen 14:24]." See also [Gen 22:3], and [Gen 41:12]. Perhaps the word נער naar, here translated young man, means a single person, one unmarried.

### Verse 12

[¶18] Moses said unto the Lord - We may suppose that after Moses had quitted the tabernacle he went to the camp, and gave the people some general information relative to the conversation he lately had with the Lord; after which he returned to the tabernacle or tent, and began to plead with God, as we find in this and the following verses.

[¶19] Thou hast not let me know, etc. - As God had said he would not go up with this people, Moses wished to know whom he would send with him, as he had only said, in general terms, that he would send an angel.

### Verse 13

[¶21] Show me now thy way - Let me know the manner in which thou wouldst have this people led up and governed, because this nation is thy people, and should be governed and guided in thy own way.

### Verse 14

[¶23] My presence shall go with thee - פני ילכו panai yelechu, my faces shall go. I shall give thee manifestations of my grace and goodness through the whole of thy journey. I shall vary my appearances for thee, as thy necessities shall require.

### Verse 15

[¶25] If thy presence go not - אם אין פניך הלכים im ein paneycha holechim, if thy faces do not go - if we have not manifestations of thy peculiar providence and grace, carry us not up hence. Without supernatural assistance, and a most particular providence, he knew that it would be impossible either to govern such a people, or support them in the desert; and therefore he wishes to be well assured on this head, that he may lead them up with confidence, and be able to give them the most explicit assurances of support and protection. But by what means should these manifestations take place? This question seems to be answered by the Prophet Isaiah, [Isa 63:9] : In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence (פניו panaiv, of his faces) saved them. So we find that the goodness and mercy of God were to be manifested by the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah; and this is the interpretation which the Jews themselves give of this place. Can any person lead men to the typical Canaan, who is not himself influenced and directed by the Lord? And of what use are all the means of grace, if not crowned with the presence and blessing of the God of Israel? It is on this ground that Jesus Christ hath said, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them, [Mat 18:20]; without which, what would preachings, prayers, and even Sacraments avail?

### Verse 16

[¶27] So shall we be separated - By having this Divine protection we shall be saved from idolatry, and be preserved in thy truth and in the true worshipping of thee; and thus shall we be separated from all the people that are upon the face of the earth: as all the nations of the world, the Jews only excepted, were at this time idolaters.

### Verse 17

[¶29] I will do this thing also - My presence shall go with thee, and I will keep thee separate from all the people of the earth. Both these promises have been remarkably fulfilled. God continued miraculously with them till he brought them into the promised land; and from the day in which he brought them out of Egypt to the present day, he has kept them a distinct, unmixed people! Who can account for this on any principle but that of a continual especial providence, and a constant Divine interference? The Jews have ever been a people fond of money; had they been mingled with the people of the earth among whom they have been scattered, their secular interests would have been greatly promoted by it; and they who have sacrificed every thing besides to their love of money, on this point have been incorruptible! They chose in every part of their dispersions rather to be a poor, despised, persecuted people, and continue separate from all the people of the earth, than to enjoy ease and affluence by becoming mixed with the nations. For what great purposes must God be preserving this people! for it does not appear that any moral principle binds them together - they seem lost to this; and yet in opposition to their interests, for which in other respects they would sacrifice every thing, they are still kept distinct from all the people of the earth: for this an especial providence alone can account.

### Verse 18

[¶31] Show me thy glory - Moses probably desired to see that which constitutes the peculiar glory or excellence of the Divine nature as it stands in reference to man. By many this is thought to signify his eternal mercy in sending Christ Jesus into the world. Moses perceived that what God was now doing had the most important and gracious designs which at present he could not distinctly discover; therefore he desires God to show him his glory. God graciously promises to indulge him in this request as far as possible, by proclaiming his name, and making all his goodness pass before him, [Exo 33:19]. But at the same time he assures him that he could not see his face - the fullness of his perfections and the grandeur of his designs, and live, as no human being could bear, in the present state, this full discovery. But he adds, Thou shalt see my back parts, את אחרי eth achorai, probably meaning that appearance which he should assume in after times, when it should be said, God is manifest in the flesh. This appearance did take place, for we find God putting him into a cleft of the rock, covering him with his hand, and passing by in such a way as to exhibit a human similitude. John may have had this in view when he said, The Word was made flesh and dwelt Among us, full of grace and truth, and We Beheld His Glory. What this glory was, and what was implied by this grace and truth, we shall see in the succeeding chapter.

### Verse 19

[¶33] I will make all my goodness pass before thee - Thou shalt not have a sight of my justice, for thou couldst not bear the infinite splendor of my purity: but I shall show myself to thee as the fountain of inexhaustible compassion, the sovereign Dispenser of my own mercy in my own way, being gracious to whom I will be gracious, and showing mercy on whom I will show mercy.

[¶34] I will proclaim the name of the Lord - See Clarke's note on [Exo 34:6].

### Verse 20

[¶36] No man see me, and live - The splendor would be insufferable to man; he only, whose mortality is swallowed up of life, can see God as he is. See [1Jn 3:2]. From some disguised relation of the circumstances mentioned here, the fable of Jupiter and Semele was formed; she is reported to have entreated Jupiter to show her his glory, who was at first very reluctant, knowing that it would be fatal to her; but at last, yielding to her importunity, he discovered his divine majesty, and she was consumed by his presence. This story is told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, book iii., table iii., 5.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Behold, there is a place by me - There seems to be a reference here to a well-known place on the mount where God was accustomed to meet with Moses. This was a rock; and it appears there was a cleft or cave in it, in which Moses was to stand while the Divine Majesty was pleased to show him all that human nature was capable of bearing: but this appears to have referred more to the counsels of his mercy and goodness, relative to his purpose of redeeming the human race, than to any visible appearance of the Divine Majesty itself. See Clarke on [Exo 33:18] (note).

[¶39] 1. The conclusion of this chapter is very obscure: we can scarcely pretend to say, in any precise manner, what it means; and it is very probable that the whole concerned Moses alone. He was in great perplexity and doubt; he was afraid that God was about to abandon this people; and he well knew that if he did so, their destruction must be the consequence. He had received general directions to decamp, and lead the people towards the promised land; but this was accompanied with a threat that Jehovah would not go with them. The prospect that was before him was exceedingly gloomy and discouraging; and it was rendered the more so because God predicted their persevering stiffneckedness, and gave this as one reason why he would not go up among them, for their provocations would be so great and so frequent that his justice would be so provoked as to break through in a moment and consume them. Moses, well knowing that God must have some great and important designs in delivering them and bringing them thus far, earnestly entreated him to give him some discovery of it, that his own mind might be satisfied. God mercifully condescends to meet his wishes in such a way as no doubt gave him full satisfaction; but as this referred to himself alone the circumstances are not related, as probably they could be of no farther use to us than the mere gratifying of a principle of curiosity.

[¶40] 2. On some occasions to be kept in the dark is as instructive as to be brought into the light. In many cases those words of the prophet are strictly applicable. Verily, thou art a God, who Hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior! One point we see here very plainly, that while the people continued obstinate and rebellious, that presence of God by which his approbation was signified could not be manifested among them; and yet, without his presence to guide, protect, and provide for them, they could neither go up nor be saved. This presence is promised, and on the fulfillment of the promise the safety of Israel depended. The Church of God is often now in such a state that the approbation of God cannot be manifested in it; and yet if his presence were wholly withdrawn, truth would fall in the streets, equity go backward, and the Church must become extinct. How have the seeds of light and life been preserved during the long, dark, and cold periods when error was triumphant, and the pure worship of God adulterated by the impurities of idolatry and the thick darkness of superstition, by the presence of his endless mercy, preserving his own truth in circumstances in which he could not show his approbation! He was with the Church in the wilderness, and preserved the living oracles, kept alive the heavenly seeds, and is now showing forth the glory of those designs which before he concealed from mankind. He cannot err because he is infinitely wise; he can do nothing that is unkind, because he delighteth in mercy. We, as yet, see only through a glass darkly; by and by we shall see face to face. The Lord's presence is with his people; and those who trust in him have confident rest in his mercy.

### Introduction

[¶42] Moses is commanded to hew two tables similar to the first, and bring them up to the mount, to get the covenant renewed, [Exo 34:1-3]. He prepares the tables and goes up to meet the Lord, [Exo 34:4]. The Lord descends, and proclaims his name Jehovah, [Exo 34:5]. What this name signifies, [Exo 34:6], [Exo 34:7]. Moses worships and intercedes, [Exo 34:8], [Exo 34:9]. The Lord promises to renew the covenant, work miracles among the people, and drive out the Canaanites, etc., [Exo 34:10], [Exo 34:11]. No covenant to be made with the idolatrous nations, but their altars and images to be destroyed, [Exo 34:12-15]. No matrimonial alliances to be contracted with them, [Exo 34:16]. The Israelites must have no molten gods, [Exo 34:17]. The commandment of the feast of unleavened bread, and of the sanctification of the first-born, renewed, [Exo 34:18-29]; as also that of the Sabbath, and the three great annual feasts, [Exo 34:21-23]. The promise that the surrounding nations shall not invade their territories, while all the males were at Jerusalem celebrating the annual feasts, [Exo 34:24]. Directions concerning the passover, [Exo 34:25]; and the first-fruits, [Exo 34:26]. Moses is commanded to write all these words, as containing the covenant which God had now renewed with the Israelites, [Exo 34:27]. Moses, being forty days with God without eating or drinking, writes the words of the covenant; and the Lord writes the ten commandments upon the tables of stone, [Exo 34:28]. Moses descends with the tables; his face shines, [Exo 34:29]. Aaron and the people are afraid to approach him, because of his glorious appearance, [Exo 34:30]. Moses delivers to them the covenant and commandments of the Lord; and puts a veil over his face while he is speaking, [Exo 34:31-33], but takes it off when he goes to minister before the Lord, [Exo 34:34], [Exo 34:35].

### Verse 1

[¶44] Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first - In [Exo 32:16] we are told that the two first tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God; but here Moses is commanded to provide tables of his own workmanship, and God promises to write on them the words which were on the first. That God wrote the first tables himself, see proved by different passages of Scripture at the end of Exodus 32 ([Exo 32:35] (note)). But here, in [Exo 34:27], it seems as if Moses was commanded to write these words, and in [Exo 34:28] it is said, And he wrote upon the tables; but in [Deu 10:1-4] it is expressly said that God wrote the second tables as well as the first.

[¶45] In order to reconcile these accounts let us suppose that the ten words, or ten commandments, were written on both tables by the hand of God himself, and that what Moses wrote, [Exo 34:27], was a copy of these to be delivered to the people, while the tables themselves were laid up in the ark before the testimony, whither the people could not go to consult them, and therefore a copy was necessary for the use of the congregation; this copy, being taken off under the direction of God, was authenticated equally with the original, and the original itself was laid up as a record to which all succeeding copies might be continually referred, in order to prevent corruption. This supposition removes the apparent contradiction; and thus both God and Moses may be said to have written the covenant and the ten commandments: the former, the original; the latter, the copy. This supposition is rendered still more probable by [Exo 34:27] itself: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words (that is, as I understand it, a copy of the words which God had already written); for After The Tenor (על פי al pi According To The Mouth) of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." Here the original writing is represented by an elegant prosopopoesia, or personification, as speaking and giving out from its own mouth a copy of itself. It may be supposed that this mode of interpretation is contradicted by [Exo 34:28] : And He wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant; but that the pronoun He refers to the Lord, and not to Moses, is sufficiently proved by the parallel place, [Deu 10:1-4] : At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first - and I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables - and I hewed two tables of stone as at the first - And He wrote on the tables according to the first writing. This determines the business, and proves that God wrote the second as well as the first tables, and that the pronoun in [Exo 34:28] refers to the Lord, and not to Moses. By this mode of interpretation all contradiction is removed. Houbigant imagines that the difficulty may be removed by supposing that God wrote the ten commandments, and that Moses wrote the other parts of the covenant from [Exo 34:11] to [Exo 34:26], and thus it might be said that both God and Moses wrote on the same tables. This is not an improbable case, and is left to the reader's consideration. See Clarke's note on [Exo 34:27].

## 119. Exodus · 52 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/119/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/119/#p-N

[¶0] There still remains a controversy whether what are called the ten commandments were at all written on the first tables, those tables containing, according to some, only the terms of the covenant without the ten words, which are supposed to be added here for the first time. "The following is a general view of this subject. In Exodus 20 the ten commandments are given; and at the same time various political and ecclesiastical statutes, which are detailed in chapters 21, 22, and 23. To receive these, Moses had drawn near unto the thick darkness where God was, [Exo 20:21], and having received them he came again with them to the people, according to their request before expressed, [Exo 20:19] : Speak thou with us - but let not the Lord speak with us, lest we die, for they had been terrified by the manner in which God had uttered the ten commandments; see [Exo 20:18]. After this Moses, with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders, went up to the mountain; and on his return he announced all these laws unto the people, [Exo 24:1-3], etc., and they promised obedience. Still there is no word of the tables of stone. Then he wrote all in a book, [Exo 24:4], which was called the book of the covenant, [Exo 24:7]. After this there was a second going up of Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, [Exo 24:9], when that glorious discovery of God mentioned in [Exo 24:10], [Exo 24:11] took place. After their coming down Moses is again commanded to go up; and God promises to give him tables of stone, containing a law and precepts, [Exo 24:12]. This is the first place these tables of stone are mentioned; and thus it appears that the ten commandments, and several other precepts, were given to and accepted by the people, and the covenant sacrifice offered, [Exo 24:5], before the tables of stone were either written or mentioned." It is very likely that the commandments, laws, etc., were first published by the Lord in the hearing of the people; repeated afterwards by Moses; and the ten words or commandments, containing the sum and substance of the whole, afterwards written on the first tables of stone, to be kept for a record in the ark. These being broken, as is related [Exo 32:19], Moses is commanded to hew out two tables like to the first, and bring them up to the mountain, that God might write upon them what he had written on the former, [Exo 34:1]. And that this was accordingly done, see the preceding part of this note.

### Verse 6

[¶2] And the Lord passed by - and proclaimed, The Lord, etc. - It would be much better to read this verse thus: "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed Jehovah," that is, showed Moses fully what was implied in this august name. Moses had requested God to show him his glory, (see the preceding chapter, [Exo 33:18] (note)), and God promised to proclaim or fully declare the name Jehovah, ([Exo 33:19]); by which proclamation or interpretation Moses should see how God would "be gracious to whom he would be gracious," and how he would "be merciful to those to whom he would show mercy. Here therefore God fulfils that promise by proclaiming this name. It has long been a question, what is the meaning of the word יהוה Jehovah, Yehovah, Yehue, Yehveh, or Yeve, Jeue, Jao, Iao, Jhueh, and Jove; for it has been as variously pronounced as it has been differently interpreted. Some have maintained that it is utterly inexplicable; these of course have offered no mode of interpretation. Others say that it implies the essence of the Divine nature. Others, that it expresses the doctrine of the Trinity connected with the incarnation; the letter י yod standing for the Father, ה he for the Son, and ו vau (the connecting particle) for the Holy Spirit: and they add that the ה he being repeated in the word, signifies the human nature united to the Divine in the incarnation. These speculations are calculated to give very little satisfaction. How strange is it that none of these learned men have discovered that God himself interprets this name in [Exo 34:6],! "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed יהוה Yehovah the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." These words contain the proper interpretation of the venerable and glorious name Jehovah. But it will be necessary to consider them in detail.

[¶3] The different names in this and the following verse have been considered as so many attributes of the Divine nature. Commentators divide them into eleven, thus: -

[¶4] 1. יהוה Jehovah.

[¶5] 2. אל EL, the strong or mighty God.

[¶6] 3. רחום Rachum, the merciful Being, who is full of tenderness and compassion.

[¶7] 4. חנון Channun, the gracious One; he whose nature is goodness itself; the loving God.

[¶8] 5. ארך אפים Erech Appayim, long-suffering; the Being who, because of his goodness and tenderness, is not easily irritated, but suffers long and is kind.

[¶9] 6. רב Rab, the great or mighty One.

[¶10] 7. חסד Chesed, the bountiful Being; he who is exuberant in his beneficence.

[¶11] 8. אמת Emeth, the truth or true One; he alone who can neither deceive nor be deceived, who is the fountain of truth, and from whom all wisdom and knowledge must be derived.

[¶12] 9. נצר חסד Notser Chesed, the preserver of bountifulness; he whose beneficence never ends, keeping mercy for thousands of generations, showing compassion and mercy while the world endures.

[¶13] 10. נשא עון ופשע וחטאה Nose avon vaphesha vechattaah, he who bears away iniquity and transgression and sin: properly, the Redeemer, the Pardoner, the Forgiver; the Being whose prerogative alone it is to forgive sin and save the soul. ינקה(לו) נקה לא Nakkeh lo yenakkeh, the righteous Judge, who distributes justice with an impartial hand, with whom no innocent person can ever be condemned.

[¶14] 11. פקד עון Poked avon, etc.; he who visits iniquity, who punishes transgressors, and from whose justice no sinner can escape. The God of retributive and vindictive justice.

[¶15] These eleven attributes, as they have been termed, are all included in the name Jehovah, and are, as we have before seen, the proper interpretation of it; but the meaning of several of these words has been variously understood.

### Verse 7

[¶17] That will by no means clear the guilty - This last clause is rather difficult; literally translated it signifies, in clearing he will not clear. But the Samaritan, reading לו lo, to him, instead of the negative לא lo, not, renders the clause thus: With whom the innocent shall be innocent; i.e., an innocent or holy person shall never be treated as if he were a transgressor, by this just and holy God. The Arabic version has it, He justifies and is not justified; and the Septuagint is nearly as our English text, και ου καθαριει τον ενοχον, and he doth not purify the guilty. The Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint, edited by Dr. Grabe, has και τον ενοχον καθαρισμῳ ου καθαριει, and the guilty he will not cleanse with a purification-offering. The Coptic is to the same purpose. The Vulgate is a paraphrase: nullusque apud te per se innocens est, "and no person is innocent by or of himself before thee." This gives a sound theological sense, stating a great truth, That no man can make an atonement for his own sins, or purify his own heart; and that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

### Verse 9

[¶19] O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us - The original is not יהוה Jehovah, but אדני Adonai in both these places, and seems to refer particularly to the Angel of the Covenant, the Messiah. See Clarke's note on [Gen 15:8].

### Verse 10

[¶21] I will do marvels - This seems to refer to what God did in putting them in possession of the land of Canaan, causing the walls of Jericho to fall down; making the sun and moon to stand still, etc. And thus God made his covenant with them; binding himself to put them in possession of the promised land, and binding them to observe the precepts laid down in the following verses, from Exodus 34:11-26 inclusive.

### Verse 13

[¶23] Ye shall destroy their images - See the subjects of this and all the following verses, to [Exo 34:28], treated at large in the notes on Exodus 23 (note).

### Verse 21

[¶25] In earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest - This commandment is worthy of especial note; many break the Sabbath on the pretense of absolute necessity, because, if in harvest time the weather happens to be what is called bad, and the Sabbath day be fair and fine, they judge it perfectly lawful to employ that day in endeavoring to save the fruits of the field, and think that the goodness of the day beyond the preceding, is an indication from Providence that it should be thus employed. But is not the above command pointed directly against this? I have known this law often broken on this pretense, and have never been able to discover a single instance where the persons who acted thus succeeded one whit better than their more conscientious neighbors, who availed themselves of no such favorable circumstances, being determined to keep God's law, even to the prejudice of their secular interests; but no man ever yet ultimately suffered loss by a conscientious attachment to his duty to God. He who is willing and obedient, shall eat the good of the land; but God will ever distinguish those in his providence who respect his commandments.

### Verse 24

[¶27] Neither shall any man desire thy land - What a manifest proof was this of the power and particular providence of God! How easy would it have been for the surrounding nations to have taken possession of the whole Israelitish land, with all their fenced cities, when there were none left to protect them but women and children! Was not this a standing proof of the Divine origin of their religion, and a barrier which no deistical mind could possibly surmount! Thrice every year did God work an especial miracle for the protection of his people; controlling even the very desires of their enemies, that they might not so much as meditate evil against them. They who have God for their protector have a sure refuge; and how true is the proverb, The path of duty is the way of safety! While these people went up to Jerusalem to keep the Lord's ordinances, he kept their families in peace, and their land in safety.

### Verse 25

[¶29] The blood of my sacrifice - That is, the paschal lamb. See Clarke on [Exo 23:18] (note).

### Verse 26

[¶31] Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk - See this amply considered [Exo 23:19] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶33] Write thou these words - Either a transcript of the whole law now delivered, or the words included from [Exo 34:11] to [Exo 34:26]. God certainly wrote the ten words on both sets of tables. Moses either wrote a transcript of these and the accompanying precepts for the use of the people, or he wrote the precepts themselves in addition to the ten commandments which were written by the finger of God. See Clarke on [Exo 34:1] (note). Allowing this mode of interpretation, the accompanying precepts were, probably, what was written on the back side of the tables by Moses; the ten commandments, what were written on the front by the finger of Jehovah: for we must pay but little attention to the supposition of the rabbins, that the letters on each table were cut through the stone, so as to be legible on each side. See Clarke on [Exo 32:15] (note).

### Verse 28

[¶35] Forty days and forty nights - See Clarke's note on [Exo 24:18].

### Verse 29

[¶37] The skin of his face shone - קרן karan, was horned: having been long in familiar intercourse with his Maker, his flesh, as well as his soul, was penetrated with the effulgence of the Divine glory, and his looks expressed the light and life which dwelt within. Probably Moses appeared now as he did when, in our Lord's transfiguration, he was seen with Elijah on the mount, Matthew 17. As the original word קרן karan signifies to shine out, to dart forth, as horns on the head of an animal, or rays of light reflected from a polished surface, we may suppose that the heavenly glory which filled the soul of this holy man darted out from his face in coruscations, in that manner in which light is generally represented. The Vulgate renders the passage, et ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua, "and he did not know that his face was horned;" which version, misunderstood, has induced painters in general to represent Moses with two very large horns, one proceeding from each temple. But we might naturally ask, while they were indulging themselves in such fancies, why only two horns? for it is very likely that there were hundreds of these radiations, proceeding at once from the face of Moses. It was no doubt from this very circumstance that almost all the nations of the world who have heard of this transaction, have agreed in representing those men to whom they attributed extraordinary sanctity, and whom they supposed to have had familiar intercourse with the Deity, with a lucid nimbus or glory round their heads. This has prevailed both in the east and in the west; not only the Greek and Roman saints, or eminent persons, are thus represented, but those also among the Mohammedans, Hindoos, and Chinese.

### Verse 30

[¶39] They were afraid to come nigh him - A sight of his face alarmed them; their consciences were still guilty from their late transgression, and they had not yet received the atonement. The very appearance of superior sanctity often awes the guilty into respect.

### Verse 33

[¶41] And till Moses had done speaking - The meaning of the verse appears to be this: As often as Moses spoke in public to the people, he put the veil on his face, because they could not bear to look on the brightness of his countenance; but when he entered into the tabernacle to converse with the Lord, he removed this veil, [Exo 34:34]. St. Paul, [2Cor 3:7], etc., makes a very important use of the transactions recorded in this place. He represents the brightness of the face of Moses as emblematical of the glory or excellence of that dispensation; but he shows that however glorious or excellent that was, it had no glory when compared with the superior excellence of the Gospel. As Moses was glorious in the eyes of the Israelites, but that glory was absorbed and lost in the splendor of God when he entered into the tabernacle, or went to meet the Lord upon the mount; so the brightness and excellence of the Mosaic dispensation are eclipsed and absorbed in the transcendent brightness or excellence of the Gospel of Christ. One was the shadow, the other is the substance. One showed Sin in its exceeding sinfulness, together with the justice and immaculate purity of God; but, in and of itself, made no provision for pardon or sanctification. The other exhibits Jesus, the Lamb of God, typified by all the sacrifices under the law, putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself, reconciling God to man and man to God, diffusing his Spirit through the souls of believers, and cleansing the very thoughts of their hearts by his inspiration, and causing them to perfect holiness in the fear of God. The one seems to shut heaven against mankind, because by the law was the knowledge, not the cure, of Sin; the other opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers. The former was a ministration of death, the latter a dispensation of life. The former ministered terror, so that even the high priest was afraid to approach, the people withdrew and stood afar off, and even Moses, the mediator of it, exceedingly feared and trembled; by the latter we have boldness to enter into the holiest through the blood of Jesus, who is the end of the law for righteousness - justification, to every one that believeth. The former gives a partial view of the Divine nature; the latter shows God as he is, "Full orbed, in his whole round of rays complete."

[¶42] The apostle farther considers the veil on the face of Moses, as being emblematical of the metaphorical nature of the different rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic dispensation, each covering some spiritual meaning or a spiritual subject; and that the Jews did not lift the veil to penetrate the spiritual sense, and did not look to the end of the commandment, which was to be abolished, but rested in the letter or literal meaning, which conferred neither light nor life.

[¶43] He considers the veil also as being emblematical of that state of intellectual darkness into which the Jewish people, by their rejection of the Gospel, were plunged, and from which they have never yet been recovered. When a Jew, even at the present day, reads the law in the synagogue, he puts over his head an oblong woolen veil, with four tassels at the four corners, which is called the taled or thaled. This is a very remarkable circumstance, as it appears to be an emblem of the intellectual veil referred to by the apostle, which is still upon their hearts when Moses is read, and which prevents them from looking to the end of that which God designed should be abrogated, and which has been abolished by the introduction of the Gospel. The veil is upon their hearts, and prevents the light of the glory of God from shining into them; but we all, says the apostle, speaking of believers in Christ, with open face, without any veil, beholding as in a glass the glory of God, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord; [2Cor 3:18]. Reader, dost thou know this excellence of the religion of Christ? Once thou wert darkness; art thou now light in the Lord? Art thou still under the letter that killeth, or under the Spirit that giveth life? Art thou a slave to sin or a servant of Christ? Is the veil on thy heart, or hast thou found redemption in his blood, the remission of sins? Knowest thou not these things? Then may God pity, enlighten, and save thee!

## 120. Exodus · 53 of 57

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/120/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/120/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] Moses assembles the congregation to deliver to them the commandments of God, [Exo 35:1]. Directions concerning the Sabbath, [Exo 35:2], [Exo 35:3]. Free-will offerings of gold, silver, brass, etc., for the tabernacle, [Exo 35:4-7]. Of oil and spices, [Exo 35:8]. Of precious stones, [Exo 35:9]. Proper artists to be employed, [Exo 35:10]. The tabernacle and its tent, [Exo 35:11]. The ark, [Exo 35:12]. Table of the shew-bread, [Exo 35:13]. Candlestick, [Exo 35:14]. Altar of incense, [Exo 35:15]. Altar of burnt-offering, [Exo 35:16]. Hangings, pins, etc., [Exo 35:17], [Exo 35:18]. Clothes of service, and holy vestments, [Exo 35:19]. The people cheerfully bring their ornaments as offerings to the Lord, [Exo 35:20-22]; together with blue, purple, scarlet, etc., etc., [Exo 35:23], [Exo 35:24]. The women spin, and bring the produce of their skill and industry, [Exo 35:25], [Exo 35:26]. The rulers bring precious stones, etc., [Exo 35:27], [Exo 35:28]. All the people offer willingly, [Exo 35:29]. Bezaleel and Aholiab appointed to conduct and superintend all the work of the tabernacle, for which they are qualified by the spirit of wisdom, [Exo 35:30-35].

### Verse 1

[¶3] And Moses gathered - The principal subjects in this chapter have been already largely considered in the notes on chapters 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31, and to those the reader is particularly desired to refer, together with the parallel texts in the margin.

### Verse 3

[¶5] Ye shall kindle no fire - The Jews understand this precept as forbidding the kindling of fire only for the purpose of doing work or dressing victuals; but to give them light and heat, they judge it lawful to light a fire on the Sabbath day, though themselves rarely kindle it-they get Christians to do this work for them.

### Verse 5

[¶7] An offering - A terumah or heave-offering; see [Lev 7:1], etc. , [Exo 35:6]

[¶8] See, on these metals and colors, [Exo 25:3] (note), [Exo 25:4] (note), etc.

### Verse 7

[¶10] Rams' skins, etc. - See [Exo 25:5].

### Verse 8

[¶12] Oil for the light - See [Exo 25:6].

### Verse 9

[¶14] Onyx stones - See [Exo 25:7].

### Verse 11

[¶16] The tabernacle - See [Exo 25:8].

### Verse 12

[¶18] The ark - See [Exo 25:10-17].

### Verse 13

[¶20] The table - See [Exo 25:23-28].

### Verse 14

[¶22] The candlestick - See [Exo 25:31-39].

### Verse 15

[¶24] The incense altar - The golden altar, see [Exo 30:1-10].

### Verse 16

[¶26] The altar of burnt-offering - The brazen altar, see [Exo 27:1-8].

### Verse 17

[¶28] The hangings of the court - See [Exo 27:9].

### Verse 19

[¶30] The clothes of service - Probably aprons, towels, and such like, used in the common service, and different from the vestments for Aaron and his sons. See these latter described [Exo 28:1], etc.

### Verse 21

[¶32] Every one whose heart stirred him up - Literally, whose heart was lifted up - whose affections were set on the work, being cordially engaged in the service of God.

### Verse 22

[¶34] As many as were willing-hearted - For no one was forced to lend his help in this sacred work; all was a free-will offering to the Lord.

[¶35] Bracelets - חח chach, whatever hooks together; ornaments for the wrists, arms, legs, or neck.

[¶36] Ear-rings - נזם nezem, see this explained [Gen 24:22] (note).

[¶37] Rings - טבעת tabbaath, from טבי taba, to penetrate, enter into; probably rings for the fingers.

[¶38] Tablets - כומז cumaz, a word only used here and in [Num 31:50], supposed to be a girdle to support the breasts.

### Verse 25

[¶40] All the women that were wise-hearted did spin - They had before learned this art, they were wise-hearted; and now they practice it, and God condescends to require and accept their services. In building this house of God, all were ambitious to do something by which they might testify their piety to God, and their love for his worship. The spinning practiced at this time was simple, and required little apparatus. It was the plain distaff or twirling pin, which might be easily made out of any wood they met with in the wilderness.

### Verse 27

[¶42] The rulers brought onyx stones - These being persons of consequence, might be naturally expected to furnish the more scarce and costly articles. See how all join in this service! The men worked and brought offerings, the women spun and brought their ornaments, the rulers united with them, and delivered up their jewels! and all the children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, [Exo 36:29].

### Verse 30

[¶44] The Lord hath called by name Bezaleel - See this subject discussed at large in the note on [Exo 28:3] (note), where the subject of superseding the work of the hand by the extra use of machinery is particularly considered.

[¶45] 1. From the nature of the offerings made for the service of the tabernacle, we see of what sort the spoils were which the Israelites brought out of Egypt: gold, silver, brass, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, rams' skins dyed red, what we call badgers' skins, oil, spices, incense, onyx stones, and other stones, the names of which are not here mentioned. They must also have brought looms, spinning wheels, instruments for cutting precious stones, anvils, hammers, furnaces, melting-pots, with a vast variety of tools for the different artists employed on the work of the tabernacle, viz., smiths, joiners, carvers, gilders, etc.

## 121. Exodus · 54 of 57

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[¶0] 2. God could have erected his tabernacle without the help or skill of man; but he condescended to employ him. As all are interested in the worship of God, so all should bear a part in it; here God employs the whole congregation: every male and female, with even their sons and their daughters, and the very ornaments of their persons, are given to raise and adorn the house of God. The women who had not ornaments, and could neither give gold nor silver, could spin goat's hair, and the Lord graciously employs them in this work, and accepts what they can give and what they can do, for they did it with a willing mind; they were wise of heart - had learned a useful business, their hearts were lifted up in the work, [Exo 36:21], and all felt it a high privilege to be able to put only a nail in the holy place. By the free-will offerings of the people the tabernacle was erected, and all the costly utensils belonging to it provided. This was the primitive mode of providing proper places for Divine worship; and as it was the primitive, so it is the most rational mode. Taxes levied by law for building or repairing churches were not known in the ancient times of religious simplicity. It is an honor to be permitted to do any thing for the support of public worship; and he must have a strange, unfeeling, and ungodly heart, who does not esteem it a high privilege to have a stone of his own laying or procuring in the house of God. How easily might all the buildings necessary for the purpose of public worship be raised, if the money that is spent in needless self-indulgence by ourselves, our sons, and our daughters, were devoted to this purpose! By sacrifices of this kind the house of the Lord would be soon built, and the top-stone brought on with shouting, Grace, grace unto it!

### Introduction

[¶2] Moses appoints Bezaleel, Aholiab, and their associates, to the work, and delivers to them the free-will offerings of the people, [Exo 36:1-3]. The people bring offerings more than are needed for the work, and are only restrained by the proclamation of Moses, [Exo 36:4-7]. The curtains, their loops, taches, etc., for the tabernacle, [Exo 36:8-18]. The covering for the tent, [Exo 36:19]. The boards, [Exo 36:20-30]. The bars, [Exo 36:31-34]. The veil and its pillars, [Exo 36:35], [Exo 36:36]. The hangings and their pillars, [Exo 36:37], [Exo 36:38].

### Verse 1

[¶4] Then wrought, etc. - The first verse of this chapter should end the preceding chapter, and this should begin with verse the second; as it now stands, it does not make a very consistent sense. By reading the first word ועשה veasah, then wrought, in the future tense instead of the past, the proper connection will be preserved: for all grammarians know that the conjunction ו vau is often conversive, i.e., it turns the preterite tense of those verbs to which it is prefixed into the future, and the future into the preterite: this power it evidently has here; and joined with the last verse of the preceding chapter the connection will appear thus, [Exo 36:30-35], etc.: The Lord hath called by name Bezaleel and Aholiab; them hath he filled with wisdom of heart to work all manner of work. [Exo 36:1] : And Bezaleel and Aholiab Shall Work, and every wise-hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom.

### Verse 5

[¶6] The people bring much more than enough - With what a liberal spirit do these people bring their free-will offerings unto the Lords! Moses is obliged to make a proclamation to prevent them from bringing any more, as there was at present more than enough! Had Moses been intent upon gain, and had he not been perfectly disinterested, he would have encouraged them to continue their contributions, as thereby he might have multiplied to himself gold, silver, and precious stones. But he was doing the Lord's work, under the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, and therefore he sought no secular gain. Indeed, this one circumstance is an ample proof of it. Every thing necessary for the worship of God will be cheerfully provided by a people whose hearts are in that worship. In a state where all forms of religion and modes of worship are tolerated by the laws, it would be well to find out some less exceptionable way of providing for the national clergy than by tithes. Let them by all means have the provision allowed them by the law; but let them not be needlessly exposed to the resentment of the people by the mode in which this provision is made, as this often alienates the affections of their flocks from them, and exceedingly injures their usefulness. See Clarke's note on [Gen 28:22], in fine, where the subject is viewed on all sides.

### Verse 8

[¶8] Cherubims of cunning work - See on [Exo 25:18] (note). Probably the word means no more than figures of any kind wrought in the diaper fashion in the loom, or by the needle in embroidery, or by the chisel or graving tool in wood, stone, or metal; see Clarke on [Exo 25:18] (note). This meaning Houbigant and other excellent critics contend for. In some places the word seems to be restricted to express a particular figure then well known; but in many other places it seems to imply any kind of figure commonly formed by sculpture on stone, by carving on wood, by engraving upon brass, and by weaving in the loom, etc.

### Verse 9

[¶10] The length of one curtain - Concerning these curtains, see Clarke on [Exo 26:1] (note), etc.

### Verse 20

[¶12] And he made boards - See Clarke's note on [Exo 26:15], etc.

### Verse 31

[¶14] He made bars - See on [Exo 26:26] (note), etc.

### Verse 35

[¶16] He made a veil - See Clarke on [Exo 26:31] (note), etc.

### Verse 37

[¶18] Hanging for the - door - See Clarke on [Exo 26:36] (note), etc.

### Verse 38

[¶20] The five pillars of it with their hooks - Their capitals. See Clarke on [Exo 26:32] (note), etc.

[¶21] There is scarcely any thing particular in this chapter that has not been touched on before; both it and the following to the end of the book being in general a repetition of what we have already met in detail in the preceding chapters from Exodus 25 to 31 inclusive, and to those the reader is requested to refer. God had before commanded this work to be done, and it was necessary to record the execution of it to show that all was done according to the pattern shown to Moses; without this detailed account we should not have known whether the work had ever been executed according to the directions given.

[¶22] At the commencement of this chapter the reader will observe that I have advanced the dates a. m. and b.c. one year, without altering the year of the exodus, which at first view may appear an error; the reason is, that the above dates commenced at Tisri, but the years of the exodus are dated from Abib.

### Introduction

[¶24] Bezaleel and Aholiab make the ark, [Exo 37:1-5]. The mercy-seat, [Exo 37:6]. The two cherubim, [Exo 37:7-9]. The table of the shew-bread, and its vessels, [Exo 37:10-16]. The candlestick, [Exo 37:17-24]. The golden altar of incense, [Exo 37:25-28]. The holy anointing oil and perfume, [Exo 37:29].

### Verse 1

[¶26] And Bezaleel made the ark, etc. - For a description of the ark, see [Exo 25:10] (note), etc.

### Verse 6

[¶28] He made the mercy-seat - See this described [Exo 25:17] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶30] He made the table - See [Exo 25:23].

### Verse 16

[¶32] He made the vessels - See all these particularly described in the notes on [Exo 25:29] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶34] He made the candlestick - See this described in the note on [Exo 25:31] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶36] He made the incense altar - See this described [Exo 30:1] (note).

### Verse 29

[¶38] He made the holy anointing oil - See this and the perfume, and the materials out of which they were made, described at large in the notes on [Exo 30:23-25] and [Exo 30:34-38]. As this chapter also is a repetition of what has been mentioned in preceding chapters, the reader is desired to refer to them.

### Introduction

[¶40] Bezaleel makes the altar of burnt-offering, [Exo 38:1-7]. He makes the laver and its foot out of the mirrors given by the women, [Exo 38:8]. The court, its pillars, hangings, etc., [Exo 38:9-20]. The whole tabernacle and its work finished by Bezaleel, Aholiab, and their assistants, [Exo 38:21-23]. The amount of the gold contributed, [Exo 38:24]. The amount of the silver, and how it was expended, [Exo 38:25-28]. The amount of the brass, and how this was used, [Exo 38:29-31].

### Verse 1

[¶42] The altar of burnt-offering - See Clarke's note on [Exo 27:1]; and for its horns, pots, shovels, basins, etc., see the meaning of the Hebrew terms explained, [Exo 27:3-5] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶44] He made the laver - See Clarke's note on [Exo 30:18], etc.

## 122. Exodus · 55 of 57

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[¶0] The looking-glasses - The word מראת maroth, from ראה raah, he saw, signifies reflectors or mirrors of any kind. Here metal, highly polished, must certainly be meant, as glass was not yet in use; and had it even been in use, we are sure that looking - Glasses could not make a Brazen laver. The word therefore should be rendered mirrors, not looking-glasses, which in the above verse is perfectly absurd, because from those maroth the brazen laver was made. The first mirrors known among men were the clear, still, fountain, and unruffled lake; and probably the mineral called mica, which is a very general substance through all parts of the earth. Plates of it have been found of three feet square, and it is so extremely divisible into laminae, that it has been divided into plates so thin as to be only the three hundred thousandth part of an inch. A plate of this forms an excellent mirror when any thing black is attached to the opposite side. A plate of this mineral, nine inches by eight, now lies before me; a piece of black cloth, or any other black substance, at the back, converts it into a good mirror; or it would serve as it is for a square of glass, as every object is clearly perceivable through it. It is used in Russian ships of war, instead of glass, for windows. The first artificial mirrors were apparently made of brass, afterwards of polished steel, and when luxury increased they were made of silver; but they were made at a very early period of mixed metal, particularly of tin and copper, the best of which, as Pliny tells us, were formerly manufactured at Brundusium: Optima apud majores fuerant Brundisina, stanno et aere mixtis - Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiii., cap. 9. But, according to him, the most esteemed were those made of tin; and he says that silver mirrors became so common that even the servant girls used them: Specula (ex stanno) laudatissima Brundisii temperabantur; donec argenteis uti caepere et ancillae; lib. xxxiv., cap. 17. When the Egyptian women went to the temples, they always carried their mirrors with them. The Israelitish women probably did the same, and Dr. Shaw states that the Arabian women carry them constantly hung at their breasts. It is worthy of remark, that at first these women freely gave up their ornaments for this important service, and now give their very mirrors, probably as being of little farther service, seeing they had already given up the principal decorations of their persons. Woman has been invidiously defined by Aristotle, an animal fond of dress, (though this belongs to the whole human race, and not exclusively to woman). Had this been true of the Israelitish women, in the present case we must say they nobly sacrificed their incentives to pride to the service of their God. Woman, go thou and do likewise.

[¶1] Of the women - which assembled at the door - What the employment of these women was at the door of the tabernacle, is not easily known. Some think they assembled there for purposes of devotion. Others, that they kept watch there during the night; and this is the most probable opinion, for they appear to have been in the same employment as those who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in the days of Samuel, who were abused by the sons of the high priest Eli, [1Sam 2:22]. Among the ancients women were generally employed in the office of porters or doorkeepers. Such were employed about the house of the high priest in our Lord's time; for a woman is actually represented as keeping the door of the palace of the high priest, [Joh 18:17] : Then saith the Damsel that Kept The Door unto Peter; see also [Mat 26:69]. In [2Sam 4:6], both the Septuagint and Vulgate make a woman porter or doorkeeper to Ishbosheth. Aristophanes mentions them in the same office, and calls them Σηκις, Sekis, which seems to signify a common maid-servant. Aristoph, in Vespis, ver. 768: - Ὁτι την θυραν ανεῳξεν ἡ Σηκις λαθρα.

[¶2] Homer, Odyss., ψ, ver. 225-229, mentions Actoris, Penelope's maid, whose office it was to keep the door of her chamber: - Ακτορις - - - Ἡ νωΐν ειρυτο θυρας πυκινου θαλαμοιο.

[¶3] And Euripides, in Troad., ver. 197, brings in Hecuba, complaining that she who was wont to sit upon a throne is now reduced to the miserable necessity of becoming a doorkeeper or a nurse, in order to get a morsel of bread. - - - η ταν Παρα προθυροις φυλακαν κατεχουσα, Η παιδων θρεπτειρα.

[¶4] Sir John Chardin observes, that women are employed to keep the gate of the palace of the Persian kings. Plautus, Curcul., act 1, scene 1, mentions an old woman, who was keeper of the gate.

[¶5] Anus hic solet cubitare, custos janitrix.

[¶6] Many other examples might be produced. It is therefore very likely that the persons mentioned here, and in [1Sam 2:22], were the women who guarded the tabernacle; and that they regularly relieved each other, a troop or company regularly keeping watch: and indeed this seems to be implied in the original, צבאו tsabeu, they came by troops; and these troops successively consecrated their mirrors to the service of the tabernacle. See Calmet on [Joh 18:16].

### Verse 9

[¶8] The court - See Clarke on [Exo 27:9].

### Verse 17

[¶10] The hooks - and their fillets - The capitals, and the silver bands that went round them; see Clarke's note on [Exo 26:32].

### Verse 21

[¶12] This is the sum of the tabernacle - That is, The foregoing account contains a detail of all the articles which Bezaleel and Aholiab were commanded to make; and which were reckoned up by the Levites, over whom Ithamar, the son of Aaron, presided.

### Verse 24

[¶14] All the gold that was occupied for the work, etc. - To be able to ascertain the quantum and value of the gold, silver, and brass, which were employed in the tabernacle, and its different utensils, altars, etc., it will be necessary to enter into the subject in considerable detail.

[¶15] In the course of my notes on this and the preceding book, I have had frequent occasion to speak of the shekel in use among the ancient Hebrews, which, following Dean Prideaux, I have always computed at 3s (shillings), English. As some value it at 2s. 6d., and others at 2s. 4d., I think it necessary to lay before the reader the learned dean's mode of computation as a proper introduction to the calculations which immediately follow. "Among the ancients, the way of reckoning their money was by talents. So the Hebrews, so the Babylonians, and so the Romans did reckon. And of these talents they had subdivisions which were usually in minas and drachms; i.e., of their talents into minas, and their minas into drachms. The Hebrews had, besides these, their shekels and half-shekels, or bekas; and the Romans their denarii, which last were very nearly of the same value with the drachms of the Greeks. What was the value of a Hebrew talent appears from [Exo 38:25], [Exo 38:26], for there 603,550 persons being taxed at half a shekel a head, they must have paid in the whole 301,775 shekels; and that sum is there said to amount to one hundred talents, and 1775 shekels over: if therefore we deduct the 1775 shekels from the number 301,775, and divide the remaining sum, i.e., 300,000, by a hundred, this will prove each of those talents to contain three thousand shekels. Each of these shekels weighed about three shillings of our money; and sixty of them, Ezekiel tells us, [Eze 45:12], made a mina; and therefore fifty of those minas made a talent. And as to their drachms, it appears by the Gospel of St. Matthew that it was the fourth part of a shekel, that is, nine-pence of our money. For there ([Mat 17:24]) the tribute money annually paid to the temple, by every Jew, (Talmud in shekalim), which was half a shekel, is called Διδραχμον(i.e., the two drachm piece); and therefore, if half a shekel contained two drachms, a drachm must have been the quarter part of a shekel, and every shekel must have contained four of them: and so Josephus tells us it did; for he says, Antiq., lib. iii., c. 9, that a shekel contained four Attic drachms, which is not exactly to be understood according to the weight, but according to the valuation in the currency of common payments. For according to the weight, the heaviest Attic drachms did not exceed eight-pence farthing half-farthing, of our money; and a Hebrew drachm, as I have said, was nine-pence; but what the Attic drachm fell short of the Hebrew in weight might be made up in the fineness, and its ready currency in all countries, (which last the Hebrew drachm could not have), and so might be made equivalent in common estimation among the Jews. Allowing therefore a drachm, as well Attic as Jewish, as valued in Judea, to be equivalent to nine-pence of our money, a Beka or half-shekel will be one shilling and six-pence; a Shekel, three shillings; a Mina, nine pounds; and a Talent, four hundred and fifty pounds. So it was in the time of Moses and Ezekiel; and so was it in the time of Josephus among that people, for he tells us, Antiq., lib. xiv., c. 12, that a Hebrew mina contained two Litras and a half, which comes exactly to nine pounds of our money: for a litra, being the same with a Roman libra, contained twelve ounces troy weight, that is, ninety-six drachms; and therefore two litras and a half must contain two hundred and forty drachms, which being estimated at nine-pence a drachm, according to the Jewish valuation, comes exactly to sixty shekels, or nine pounds of our money. And this account agrees exactly with that of Alexandria. For the Alexandrian talent contained 12,000 Attic drachms; and 12,000 Attic drachms, according to the Jewish valuation, being 12,000 of our nine-pences, they amount to 450 pounds of sterling money, which is the same in value as the Mosaic talent. But here it is to be observed, that though the Alexandrian talent amounted to 12,000 Attic drachms, yet they themselves reckoned it but at 6000 drachms, because every Alexandrian drachm contained two Attic drachms; and therefore the Septuagint version being made by the Alexandrian Jews, they there render the Hebrew word shekel, by the Greek διδραχμον, which signifies two drachms, because two Alexandrian drachms make a shekel, two of them amounting to as much as four Attic drachms. And therefore computing the Alexandrian money according to the same method in which we have computed the Jewish, it will be as follows: One drachm of Alexandria will be of our money eighteen pence; one didrachm or shekel, consisting of two drachms of Alexandria, or four of Attica, will be three shillings; one mina, consisting of sixty didrachms or shekels, will be nine pounds; and one talent, consisting of fifty minas, will be four hundred and fifty pounds, which is the talent of Moses, [Exo 38:25], [Exo 38:26] : and so also is it the talent of Josephus, Antiq., lib. iii., c. 7; for he tells us that a Hebrew talent contained one hundred Greek (i.e., Attic) minas. For those fifty minas, which here make an Alexandrian talent, would be one hundred Attic minas in the like method of valuation; the Alexandrian talent containing double as much as the Attic talent, both in the whole, and also in all its parts, in whatever method both shall be equally distributed. Among the Greeks the established rule was, Jul. Pollux, Onomast., lib. x., c. 6, that one hundred drachms made a mina, and sixty minas a talent. But in some different states their drachms being different, accordingly their minas and talents were within the same proportion different also. But the money of Attica was the standard by which all the rest were valued, according as they more or less differed from it. And therefore, it being of most note, wherever any Greek historian speaks of talents, minas, or drachms, if they be simply mentioned, it is to be always understood of talents, minas, or drachms of Attica, and never of the talents, minas, or drachms of any other place, unless it be expressed. Mr. Brerewood, going by the goldsmith's weights, reckons an Attic drachm to be the same with a drachm now in use in their shops, that is, the eighth part of an ounce; and therefore lays it at the value of seven-pence halfpenny of our money, or the eighth part of a crown, which is or ought to be an ounce weight. But Dr. Bernard, going more accurately to work, lays the middle sort of Attic drachms at eight-pence farthing of our money, and the minas and talents accordingly, in the proportions above mentioned. The Babylonish talent, according to Pollux, Onomast., lib. x., c. 6, contained seven thousand of those drachms. The Roman talent (see Festus Pompeius) contained seventy-two Italic minas, which were the same with the Roman libras; and ninety-six Roman denariuses, each being of the value of seven-pence halfpenny of our money, made a Roman libra. But all the valuations I have hitherto mentioned must be understood only of silver money, and not of gold; for that was much higher. The proportion of gold to silver was among the ancients commonly as ten to one; sometimes it was raised to be as eleven to one, sometimes as twelve, and sometimes as thirteen to one. In the time of King Edward the First it was here, in England, at the value of ten to one; but it is now gotten at sixteen to one; and so I value it in all the reductions which I make in this history of ancient sums to the present value. But to make the whole of this matter the easier to the reader, I will lay all of it before him for his clear view in this following table of valuations: -

[¶16] Currency (British pound) s.(shilling) d.(penny1/12 shilling) Hebrew Money A Hebrew drachm 9 Two drachms made a beka or half-shekel, which was the tribute money paid by every Jew to the temple 1 6 Two bekas made a shekel 3 0 Sixty shekels made a mina. 9 0 0 Fifty minas made a talent 450 0 0 A talent of gold, sixteen to one 7200 0 0 Attic Money, according to Mr. Brerewood An Attic drachm 7.5 A hundred drachms made a mina 3 2 6.0 Sixty minas made a talent 187 10 0 A talent of gold, sixteen to one 3000 0 0 Attic Money, according to Dr. Bernard An Attic drachm 8.25 A hundred drachms made a mina 3 8 9.00 Sixty minas made a talent 206 5 0 A talent of gold, sixteen to one 3300 0 0 Babylonian Money, according to Mr. Brerewood A Babylonish talent of silver containing seven thousand Attic drachms 218 15 0. A Babylonish talent in gold, sixteen to one 3500 0 0. Babylonian Money, according to Dr. Bernard A Babylonish talent in silver 240 12 6 A Babylonish talent in gold, sixteen to one 3850 0 0. Alexandrian Money A drachm of Alexandria, containing two Attic drachms, as valued by the Jews 1 6 A didrachm of Alexandria, containing two Alexandrian drachms, which was a Hebrew shekel 3 0 Sixty didrachms or Hebrew shekels made a mina 9 0 0 Fifty minas made a talent 450 0 0 A talent of gold, sixteen to one 7200 0 0. Roman Money Four sesterciuses made a Roman denarius 7.5 Ninety-six Roman denariuses made an Italic mina, which was the same with a Roman libra 3 0 0 Seventy-two Roman libras made a talent 216 0 0

[¶17] There were twenty-nine talents seven hundred and thirty shekels of Gold; one hundred talents one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels of Silver; and seventy talents two thousand four hundred shekels of Brass.

[¶18] If with Dean Prideaux we estimate the value of the silver shekel at three shillings English, we shall obtain the weight of the shekel by making use of the following proportion. As sixty-two shillings, the value of a pound weight of silver as settled by the British laws, is to two hundred and forty, the number of penny-weights in a pound troy, so is three shillings, the value of a shekel of silver, to 11 dwts. 14 22/31 grains, the weight of the shekel required.

[¶19] In the next place, to find the value of a shekel of gold we must make use of the proportion following: As one ounce troy is to 3. 17s. 10d., the legal value of an ounce of gold, so is 11 dwts. 14 22/31 grains, the weight of the shekel as found by the last proportion, to 2. 5s. 2 42/93d., the value of the shekel of gold required. From this datum we shall soon be able to ascertain the value of all the gold employed in the work of this holy place, by the following arithmetical process: Reduce 2. 5s. 2 42/93d. to the lowest term mentioned, which is 201,852 ninety-third parts of a farthing. Multiply this last number by 3000, the number of shekels in a talent, and the product by 29, the number of talents; and add in 730 times 201,852, on account of the 730 shekels which were above the 29 talents employed in the work, and we shall have for the last product 17,708,475,960, which, divided successively by 93, 4, 12, and 20, will give 198,347. 12s. 6d. for the total value of the gold employed in the tabernacle, etc.

[¶20] The value of the silver contributed by 603,550 Israelites, at half a shekel or eighteen pence per man, may be found by an easy arithmetical calculation to amount to 45,266. 5s.

[¶21] The value of the brass at 1s. per pound will amount to 513. 17s.

[¶22] The Gold of the holy place weighed 4245 pounds.

[¶23] The Silver of the tabernacle 14,602 pounds.

[¶24] The Brass 10,277 pounds troy weight.

[¶25] The total value of all the gold, silver, and brass of the tabernacle will consequently amount to 244,127. 14s. 6d. And the total weight of all these three metals amounts to 29,124 pounds troy, which, reduced to avoirdupois weight, is nearly ten tons and a half. When all this is considered, besides the quantity of gold which was employed in the golden calf, and which was all destroyed, it is no wonder that the sacred text should say the Hebrews spoiled the Egyptians, particularly as in those early times the precious metals were probably not very plentiful in Egypt.

### Verse 26

[¶27] A bekah for every man - The Hebrew word בקי beka, from בקי baka, to divide, separate into two, seems to signify, not a particular coin, but a shekel broken or cut in two; so, anciently, our farthing was a penny divided in the midst and then subdivided, so that each division contained the fourth part of the penny; hence its name fourthing or fourthling, since corrupted into farthing.

[¶28] There appear to be three particular reasons why much riches should be employed in the construction of the tabernacle, etc.

[¶29] 1. To impress the people's minds with the glory and dignity of the Divine Majesty, and the importance of his service.

[¶30] 2. To take out of their hands the occasion of covetousness; for as they brought much spoils out of Egypt, and could have little if any use for gold and silver in the wilderness, where it does not appear that they had much intercourse with any other people, and were miraculously supported, so that they did not need their riches, it was right to employ that in the worship of God which otherwise might have engendered that love which is the root of all evil.

[¶31] 3. To prevent pride and vainglory, by leading them to give up to the Divine service even the ornaments of their persons, which would have had too direct a tendency to divert their minds from better things. Thus God's worship was rendered august and respectable, incitements to sin and low desires removed, and the people instructed to consider nothing valuable, but as far as it might be employed to the glory and in the service of God.

### Introduction

[¶33] Bezaleel makes the clothes of service for the holy place, and the holy garments, [Exo 39:1]. The ephod, [Exo 39:2]. Gold is beaten into plates, and cut into wires for embroidery, [Exo 39:3]. He makes the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, [Exo 39:4]. The curious girdle, [Exo 39:5]. Cuts the onyx stones for the shoulder-pieces, [Exo 39:6]. Makes the breastplate, its chains, ouches, rings, etc., [Exo 39:7-21]. The robe of the ephod, [Exo 39:22-26]. Coats of fine linen, [Exo 39:27]. The mitre, [Exo 39:28]. The girdle, [Exo 39:29]. The plate of the holy crown, [Exo 39:30], [Exo 39:31]. The completion of the work of the tabernacle, [Exo 39:32]. All the work is brought unto Moses, [Exo 39:33-41]. Moses, having examined the whole, finds every thing done as the Lord had commanded in consequence of which he blesses the people, [Exo 39:42], [Exo 39:43].

### Verse 1

[¶35] Blue and purple, and scarlet - See this subject largely explained in the notes on [Exo 25:4] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶37] Ephod - See this described, [Exo 25:7] (note).

### Verse 3

[¶39] They did beat the gold into thin plates - For the purpose, as it is supposed, of cutting it into wires (פתילם) or threads; for to twist or twine is the common acceptation of the root פתל pathal. I cannot suppose that the Israelites had not then the art of making gold thread, as they possessed several ornamental arts much more difficult: but in the present instance, figures made in a more solid form than that which could have been effected by gold thread, might have been required.

### Verse 6

[¶41] Onyx stones - Possibly the Egyptian pebble. See [Exo 25:7], and [Exo 28:17], etc.

### Verse 8

[¶43] Breastplate - See [Exo 28:15] (note).

## 123. Exodus · 56 of 57

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### Verse 10

[¶1] And they set in it four rows of stones - See all these precious stones particularly explained in the notes on [Exo 28:17] (note), etc.

### Verse 23

[¶3] As the hole of a habergeon - The habergeon or hauberk was a small coat of mail, something in form of a half shirt, made of small iron rings curiously united together. It covered the neck and breast, was very light, and resisted the stroke of a sword. Sometimes it went over the whole head as well as over the breast. This kind of defensive armor was used among the Asiatics, particularly the ancient Persians, among whom it is still worn. It seems to have been borrowed from the Asiatics by the Norman crusaders.

### Verse 30

[¶5] The holy crown of pure gold - On Asiatic monuments, particularly those that appear in the ruins of Persepolis and on many Egyptian monuments, the priests are represented as wearing crowns or tiaras, and sometimes their heads are crowned with laurel. Cuper observes, that the priests and priestesses, among the ancient Greeks, were styled στεφανοφοροι, or crown-bearers, because they officiated having sometimes crowns of gold, at others, crowns of laurel, upon their heads.

### Verse 32

[¶7] Did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses - This refers to the command given [Exo 25:40]; and Moses has taken care to repeat every thing in the most circumstantial detail, to show that he had conscientiously observed all the directions he had received.

### Verse 37

[¶9] The pure candlestick - See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:31].

[¶10] The lamps to be set in order - To be trimmed and fresh oiled every day, for the purpose of being lighted in the evening. See Clarke's note on [Exo 27:21].

### Verse 43

[¶12] And Moses did look upon all the work - As being the general superintendent of the whole, under whom Bezaleel and Aholiab were employed, as the other workmen were under them.

[¶13] They had done it as the Lord had commanded - Exactly according to the pattern which Moses received from the Lord, and which he laid before the workmen to work by.

[¶14] And Moses blessed them - Gave them that praise which was due to their skill, diligence, and fidelity. See this meaning of the original word in the note on [Gen 2:3] (note). See also a fine instance of ancient courtesy between masters and their servants, in the case of Boaz and his reapers, [Rut 2:4]. Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, The Lord be with You! And they answered him, The Lord bless Thee! It is, however, very probable that Moses prayed to God in their behalf, that they might be prospered in all their undertakings, saved from every evil, and be brought at last to the inheritance that fadeth not away. This blessing seems to have been given, not only to the workmen, but to all the people. The people contributed liberally, and the workmen wrought faithfully, and the blessing of God was pronounced upon All.

[¶15] The promptitude, cordiality, and dispatch used in this business cannot be too highly commended, and are worthy of the imitation of all who are employed in any way in the service of God. The prospect of having God to dwell among them inflamed every heart, because they well knew that on this depended their prosperity and salvation. They therefore hastened to build him a house, and they spared no expense or skill to make it, as far as a house made with hands could be, worthy of that Divine Majesty who had promised to take up his residence in it. This tabernacle, like the temple, was a type of the human nature of the Lord Jesus; that was a shrine not made with hands, formed by God himself, and worthy of that fullness of the Deity that dwelt in it.

[¶16] It is scarcely possible to form an adequate opinion of the riches, costly workmanship, and splendor of the tabernacle; and who can adequately conceive the glory and excellence of that human nature in which the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelt? That this tabernacle typified the human nature of Christ, and the Divine shechinah that dwelt in it the Deity that dwelt in the man Christ Jesus, these words of St. John sufficiently prove: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (εσκηνωσεν εν ἡμιν, made his Tabernacle among us), full of grace and truth - possessing the true Urim and Thummim; all the lights and perfections, the truth and the grace, typified by the Mosaic economy, [Joh 1:1], [Joh 1:14]. And hence the evangelist adds, And we beheld his glory; as the Israelites beheld the glory of God resting on the tabernacle, so did the disciples of Christ see the Divine glory resting on him, and showing itself forth in all his words, spirit, and works. And for what purpose was the tabernacle erected? That God might dwell in it among the children of Israel. And for what purpose was the human nature of Christ so miraculously produced? That the Godhead might dwell in it; and that God and man might be reconciled through this wonderful economy of Divine grace, God being in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, [2Cor 5:19]. And what was implied by this reconciliation? The union of the soul with God, and the indwelling of God in the soul. Reader, has God yet filled thy tabernacle with his glory? Does Christ dwell in thy heart by faith; and dost thou abide in him, bringing forth fruit unto holiness? Then thy end shall be eternal life. Why shouldst thou not go on thy way rejoicing with Christ in thy heart, heaven in thine eye, and the world, the devil, and the flesh, under thy feet?

### Introduction

[¶18] Moses is commanded to set up the tabernacle, the first day of the first month of the second year of their departure from Egypt, [Exo 40:1], [Exo 40:2]. The ark to be put into it, [Exo 40:3]. The table and candlestick to be brought in also with the golden altar, [Exo 40:4], [Exo 40:5]. The altar of burnt-offering to be set up before the door, and the laver between the tent and the altar, [Exo 40:6], [Exo 40:7]. The court to be set up, [Exo 40:8]. The tabernacle and its utensils to be anointed, [Exo 40:9-11]. Aaron and his sons to be washed, clothed, and anointed, [Exo 40:12-15]. All these things are done accordingly, [Exo 40:16]. The tabernacle is erected; and all its utensils, etc., placed in it on the first of the first month of the second year, vv. 17-33. The cloud covers the tent, and the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle, so that even Moses is not able to enter, [Exo 40:34], [Exo 40:35]. When they were to journey, the cloud was taken up; when to encamp, the cloud rested on the tabernacle, [Exo 40:36], [Exo 40:37]. A cloud by day and a fire by night was upon the tabernacle, in the sight of all the Israelites, through the whole course of the journeyings, [Exo 40:38].

### Verse 2

[¶20] The first day of the first month - It Is generally supposed that the Israelites began the work of the tabernacle about the sixth month after they had left Egypt; and as the work was finished about the end of the first year of their exodus, (for it was set up the first day of the second year), that therefore they had spent about six months in making it: so that the tabernacle was erected one year all but fifteen days after they had left Egypt. Such a building, with such a profusion of curious and costly workmanship, was never got up in so short a time. But it was the work of the Lord, and the people did service as unto the Lord; for the people had a mind to work.

### Verse 4

[¶22] Thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things, etc. - That is, Thou shalt place the twelve loaves upon the table in the order before mentioned. See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:30].

### Verse 15

[¶24] For their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood - By this anointing a right was given to Aaron and his family to be high priests among the Jews for ever; so that all who should be born of this family should have a right to the priesthood without the repetition of this unction, as they should enjoy this honor in their father's right, who had it by a particular grant from God. But it appears that the high priest, on his consecration, did receive the holy unction; see [Lev 4:3]; [Lev 6:22]; [Lev 21:10]. And this continued till the destruction of the first temple, and the Babylonish captivity; and according to Eusebius, Cyril of Jerusalem, and others, this custom continued among the Jews to the advent of our Lord, after which there is no evidence it was ever practiced. See Calmet's note [Exo 29:7] (note). The Jewish high priest was a type of Him who is called the high priest over the house of God, [Heb 10:21]; and when he came, the functions of the other necessarily ceased. This case is worthy of observation. The Jewish sacrifices were never resumed after the destruction of their city and temple, for they hold it unlawful to sacrifice anywhere out of Jerusalem; and the unction of their high priest ceased from that period also: and why? Because the true priest and the true sacrifice were come, and the types of course were no longer necessary after the manifestation of the antitype.

### Verse 19

[¶26] He spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle - By the tent, in this and several other places, we are to understand the coverings made of rams' skins, goats' hair, etc., which were thrown over the building; for the tabernacle had no other kind of roof.

### Verse 20

[¶28] And put the testimony into the ark - That is, the two tables on which the ten commandments had been written. See [Exo 25:16]. The ark, the golden table with the shew-bread, the golden candlestick, and the golden altar of incense, were all in the tabernacle, within the veil or curtains, which served as a door, [Exo 40:22], [Exo 40:24], [Exo 40:26]. And the altar of burnt-offering was by the door, [Exo 40:29]. And the brazen laver, between the tent of the congregation and the brazen altar, [Exo 40:30]; still farther outward, that it might be the first thing the priests met with when entering into the court to minister, as their hands and feet must be washed before they could perform any part of the holy service, [Exo 40:31], [Exo 40:32]. When all these things were thus placed, then the court that surrounded the tabernacle, which consisted of posts and hangings, was set up, [Exo 40:33].

### Verse 34

[¶30] Then a cloud covered the tent - Thus God gave his approbation of the work; and as this was visible, so it was a sign to all the people that Jehovah was among them.

[¶31] And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle - How this was manifested we cannot tell; it was probably by some light or brightness which was insufferable to the sight, for Moses himself could not enter in because of the cloud and the glory, [Exo 40:35]. Precisely the same happened when Solomon had dedicated his temple; for it is said that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord; [1Kgs 8:10], [1Kgs 8:11]. Previously to this the cloud of the Divine glory had rested upon that tent or tabernacle which Moses had pitched without the camp, after the transgression in the matter of the molten calf; but now the cloud removed from that tabernacle and rested upon this one, which was made by the command and under the direction of God himself. And there is reason to believe that this tabernacle was pitched in the center of the camp, all the twelve tribes pitching their different tents in a certain order around it.

### Verse 36

[¶33] When the cloud was taken up - The subject of these three last verses has been very largely explained in the notes on [Exo 13:21], to which, as well as to the general remarks on that chapter, the reader is requested immediately to refer. See Clarke's note on [Exo 13:21].

### Verse 38

[¶35] For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day - This daily and nightly appearance was at once both a merciful providence, and a demonstrative proof of the Divinity of their religion: and these tokens continued with them throughout all their journeys; for, notwithstanding their frequently repeated disobedience and rebellion, God never withdrew these tokens of his presence from them, till they were brought into the promised land. When, therefore, the tabernacle became fixed, because the Israelites had obtained their inheritance, this mark of the Divine presence was no longer visible in the sight of all Israel, but appears to have been confined to the holy of holies, where it had its fixed residence upon the mercy-seat between the cherubim; and in this place continued till the first temple was destroyed, after which it was no more seen in Israel till God was manifested in the flesh.

[¶36] As in the book of Genesis we have God's own account of the commencement of the World, the origin of nations, and the peopling of the earth; so in the book of Exodus we have an account, from the same source of infallible truth, of the commencement of the Jewish Church, and the means used by the endless mercy of God to propagate and continue his pure and undefiled religion in the earth, against which neither human nor diabolic power or policy have ever been able to prevail! The preservation of this religion, which has ever been opposed by the great mass of mankind, is a standing proof of its Divinity. As it has ever been in hostility against the corrupt passions of men, testifying against the world that its deeds were evil, these passions have ever been in hostility to it. Cunning and learned men have argued to render its authority dubious, and its tendency suspicious; whole states and empires have exerted themselves to the uttermost to oppress and destroy it; and its professed friends, by their conduct, have often betrayed it: yet librata ponderibus suis, supported by the arm of God and its own intrinsic excellence, it lives and flourishes; and the river that makes glad the city of God has run down with the tide of time 5800 years, and is running on with a more copious and diffusive current.

[¶37] Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis aevum. "Still glides the river, and will ever glide."

[¶38] We have seen how, by the miraculous cloud, all the movements of the Israelites were directed. They struck or pitched their tents, as it removed or became stationary. Every thing that concerned them was under the direction and management of God. But these things happened unto them for ensamples; and it is evident, from [Isa 4:5], that all these things typified the presence and influence of God in his Church, and in the souls of his followers. His Church can possess no sanctifying knowledge, no quickening power but from the presence and influence of his Spirit. By this influence all his followers are taught, enlightened, led, quickened, purified, and built up on their most holy faith; and without the indwelling of his Spirit, light, life, and salvation are impossible. These Divine influences Are necessary, not only for a time, but through all our journeys, [Exo 40:38]; though every changing scene of providence, and through every step in life. And these the followers of Christ are to possess, not by inference or inductive reasoning, but consciously. The influence is to be felt, and the fruits of it to appear as fully as the cloud of the Lord by day, and the fire by night, appeared in the sight of all the house of Israel. Reader, hast thou this Spirit? Are all thy goings and comings ordered by its continual guidance? Does Christ, who was represented by this tabernacle, and in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, dwell in thy heart by faith? If not, call upon God for that blessing which, for the sake of his Son, he is ever disposed to impart; then shalt thou be glorious, and on all thy glory there shall be a defense. Amen, Amen.

[¶39] On the ancient division of the law into fifty-four sections, see the notes at the end of Genesis ([Gen 50:26] (note)). Of these fifty-four sections Genesis contains twelve; and the commencement and ending of each has been marked in the note already referred to. Of these sections Exodus contains eleven, all denominated, as in the former case, by the words in the original with which they commence. I shall point these out as in the former, carrying the enumeration from Genesis.

[¶40] The Thirteenth section, called שמות shemoth, begins [Exo 1:1], and ends [Exo 6:1].

[¶41] The Fourteenth, called וארא vaera, begins [Exo 6:2], and ends [Exo 9:35].

[¶42] The Fifteenth, called בא bo, begins [Exo 10:1], and ends [Exo 13:16].

[¶43] The Sixteenth, called בשלח beshallach, begins [Exo 13:17], and ends [Exo 17:16].

[¶44] The Seventeenth, called יתרו yithro, begins [Exo 18:1], and ends [Exo 20:26].

[¶45] The Eighteenth, called משפטים mishpatim, begins [Exo 21:1], and ends [Exo 24:18].

## 124. Exodus · 57 of 57

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[¶0] The Nineteenth, called תרומה terumah, begins [Exo 25:2], and ends [Exo 27:19].

[¶1] The Twentieth, called תצוה tetsavveh, begins [Exo 27:20], and ends [Exo 30:10].

[¶2] The Twenty-First, called תשא tissa, begins [Exo 30:11], and ends [Exo 34:35].

[¶3] The Twenty-Second, called ויקהל vaiyakhel, begins [Exo 36:1], and ends [Exo 38:20].

[¶4] The Twenty-Third, called פקודי pekudey, begins [Exo 38:21], and ends [Exo 40:38].

[¶5] It will at once appear to the reader that these sections have their technical names from some remarkable word, either in the first or second verse of their commencement.

## 125. Leviticus · 1 of 27

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### Preface to the Book of Leviticus

[¶1] The Greek version of the Septuagint, and the Vulgate Latin, have given the title of Leviticus to the third book of the Pentateuch, and the name has been retained in almost all the modern versions. The book was thus called because it treats principally of the laws and regulations of the Levites and priests in general. In Hebrew it is termed ויקרא Vaiyikra, "And he called," which is the first word in the book, and which, as in preceding cases, became the running title to the whole. It contains an account of the ceremonies to be observed in the offering of burnt-sacrifices; meat, peace, and sin-offerings; the consecration of priests, together with the institution of the three grand national festivals of the Jews, the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, with a great variety of other ecclesiastical matters. It seems to contain little more than the history of what passed during the eight days of the consecration of Aaron and his sons, though Archbishop Usher supposes that it comprises the history of the transactions of a whole month, viz., from April 21 to May 21, of the year of the world 2514, which answers to the first month of the second year after the departure from Egypt. As there are no data by which any chronological arrangement of the facts mentioned in it can be made, it would be useless to encumber the page with conjectures which, because uncertain, can answer no end to the serious reader for doctrine, reproof, or edification in righteousness. As the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, the whole sacrificial system was intended to point out that Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, who takes away the sin of the world.

[¶2] In reading over this book, this point should be kept particularly in view, as without this spiritual reference no interest can be excited by a perusal of the work. The principal events recorded in this book may be thus deduced in the order of the chapters: Moses having set up the tabernacle, as has been related in the conclusion of the preceding book; and the cloud of the Divine glory, the symbol of the presence of God, having rested upon it; God called to him out of this tabernacle, and delivered the laws and precepts contained in the first seven chapters.

[¶3] In Leviticus 1 he prescribes every thing relative to the nature and quality of burnt offerings, and the ceremonies which should be observed, as well by the person who brought the sacrifice as by the priest who offered it.

[¶4] In Leviticus 2. he treats of meat-offerings of fine flour with oil and frankincense; of cakes, and the oblations of first-fruits.

[¶5] Leviticus 3. treats of peace-offerings, prescribes the ceremonies to be used in such offerings, and the parts which should be consumed by fire.

[¶6] Leviticus 4. treats of the offerings made for sins of ignorance; for the sins of the priests, rulers, and of the common people.

[¶7] Leviticus 5. treats of the sin of him who, being adjured as a witness, conceals his knowledge of a fact; the case of him who touches an unclean thing; of him who binds himself by a vow or an oath; and of trespass-offerings in cases of sacrilege, and in sins of ignorance.

[¶8] Leviticus 6. treats of the trespass-offerings for sins knowingly committed; and of the offerings for the priests, the parts which should be consumed, and the parts which should be considered as the priests' portion.

[¶9] And in Leviticus 7. the same subject is continued.

[¶10] Leviticus 8. treats of the consecration of Aaron and his sons; their sin-offering; burnt-offering; ram of consecration; and the time during which these solemn rites should continue.

[¶11] Leviticus 9. After Aaron and his sons were consecrated, on the eighth day they were commanded to offer sin-offerings and burnt-offerings for themselves and for the people, which they accordingly did, and Aaron and Moses having blessed the people, a fire came forth from before the Lord, and consumed the offering that was laid upon the altar.

[¶12] Leviticus 10. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, having offered strange fire before the Lord, are consumed; and the priests are forbidden the use of wine and all inebriating liquors.

[¶13] Leviticus 11. treats of clean and unclean beasts, fishes, birds, and reptiles.

[¶14] Leviticus 12. treats of the purification of women after child-birth, and the offerings they should present before the Lord.

[¶15] Leviticus 13. prescribes the manner of discerning the infection of the leprosy in persons, garments, and houses.

[¶16] Leviticus 14. prescribes the sacrifices and ceremonies which should be offered by those who were cleansed from the leprosy.

[¶17] Leviticus 15. treats of certain uncleannesses in man and woman; and of their purifications.

[¶18] Leviticus 16. treats of the solemn yearly expiation to be made for the sins of the priest and of the people, of the goat and bullock for a sacrifice, and of the scapegoat; all which should be offered annually on the tenth day of the seventh month.

[¶19] Leviticus 17. The Israelites are commanded to offer all their sacrifices at the tabernacle; the eating of blood is prohibited, as also the flesh of those animals which die of themselves, and of those that are torn by dogs.

[¶20] Leviticus 18. shows the different degrees within which marriages were not to be contracted, and prohibits various acts of impurity.

[¶21] Leviticus 19. recapitulates a variety of laws which had been mentioned in the preceding book, (Exodus), and adds several new ones.

[¶22] Leviticus 20. prohibits the consecration of their children to Molech, forbids their consulting wizards and those which had familiar spirits, and also a variety of incestuous and unnatural mixtures.

[¶23] Leviticus 21. gives different ordinances concerning the mourning and marriages of priests, and prohibits those from the sacerdotal office who have certain personal defects.

[¶24] Leviticus 22. treats of those infirmities and uncleannesses which rendered the priests unfit to officiate in sacred things, and lays down directions for the perfection of the sacrifices which should be offered to the Lord.

[¶25] Leviticus 23. treats of the Sabbath and the great annual festivals - the passover, pentecost, feast of trumpets, day of atonement, and feast of tabernacles.

[¶26] Leviticus 24. treats of the oil for the lamps, and the shew-bread; the law concerning which had already been given, see Exodus 25, etc.; mentions the case of the person who blasphemed God, and his punishment; lays down the law in cases of blasphemy and murder; and recapitulates the lex talionis, or law of like for like, prescribed Exodus 21.

[¶27] Leviticus 25. recapitulates the law, given Exodus 23, relative to the Sabbatical year; prescribes the year of jubilee; and lays down a variety of statutes relative to mercy, kindness, benevolence, charity, etc.

[¶28] Leviticus 26. prohibits idolatry, promises a great variety of blessings to the obedient, and threatens the disobedient with many and grievous curses.

[¶29] Leviticus 27. treats of vows, of things devoted, and of the tithes which should be given for the service of the tabernacle.

[¶30] No Chronological Table can be affixed to this book, as the transactions of it seem to have been included within the space of eight days, or of a month at the utmost, as we have already seen. And even some of the facts related here seem to have taken place previously to the erection of the tabernacle; nor is the order in which the others occurred so distinguished as to enable us to lay down the precise days in which they took place.

[¶31] The Lord calls to Moses out of the tabernacle, and gives him directions concerning burnt-offerings of the beeve kind, [Lev 1:1], [Lev 1:2]. The burnt-offering to be a male without blemish, [Lev 1:3]. The person bringing it to lay his hands upon its head, that it might be accepted for him, [Lev 1:4]. He is to kill, flay, and cut it in pieces, and bring the blood to the priests, that they might sprinkle it round about the altar, [Lev 1:5], [Lev 1:6]. All the pieces to be laid upon the altar and burnt, [Lev 1:7-9]. Directions concerning offerings of the Smaller Cattle, such as sheep and goats, [Lev 1:10-13]. Directions concerning offerings of Fowls, such as doves and pigeons, [Lev 1:14-17].

### Verse 1

[¶33] And the Lord called unto Moses - From the manner in which this book commences, it appears plainly to be a continuation or the preceding; and indeed the whole is but one law, though divided into five portions, and why thus divided is not easy to be conjectured. Previously to the erection of the tabernacle God had given no particular directions concerning the manner of offering the different kinds of sacrifices; but as soon as this Divine structure was established and consecrated, Jehovah took it as his dwelling place; described the rites and ceremonies which he would have observed in his worship, that his people might know what was best pleasing in his sight; and that, when thus worshipping him, they might have confidence that they pleased him, every thing being done according to his own directions. A consciousness of acting according to the revealed will of God gives strong confidence to an upright mind.

### Verse 2

[¶35] Bring an offering - The word קרבן korban, from קרב karab, to approach or draw near, signifies an offering or gift by which a person had access unto God: and this receives light from the universal custom that prevails in the east, no man being permitted to approach the presence of a superior without a present or gift; and the offering thus brought was called korban, which properly means the introduction-offering, or offering of access. This custom has been often referred to in the preceding books. See also Leviticus 7.

[¶36] Of the cattle - הבהמה habbehemah, animals of the beeve kind, such as the bull, heifer, bullock, and calf; and restrained to these alone by the term herd, בקר bakar, which, from its general use in the Levitical writings, is known to refer to the ox, heifer, etc. And therefore other animals of the beeve kind were excluded.

[¶37] Of the flock - צאן tson. Sheep and Goats; for we have already seen that this term implies both kinds; and we know, from its use, that no other animal of the smaller clean domestic quadrupeds is intended, as no other animal of this class, besides the sheep and goat, was ever offered in sacrifice to God. The animals mentioned in this chapter as proper for sacrifice are the very same which God commanded Abraham to offer; see [Gen 15:9]. And thus it is evident that God delivered to the patriarchs an epitome of that law which was afterwards given in detail to Moses, the essence of which consisted in its sacrifices; and those sacrifices were of clean animals, the most perfect, useful, and healthy, of all that are brought under the immediate government and influence of man. Gross-feeding and ferocious animals were all excluded, as were also all birds of prey. In the pagan worship it was widely different; for although the ox was esteemed among them, according to Livy, as the major hostia; and according to Pliny, the victima optima, et laudatis sima deorum placatio, Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. viii., c. 45, "the chief sacrifice and the most availing offering which could be made to the gods;" yet obscene fowls and ravenous beasts, according to the nature of their deities, were frequently offered in sacrifice. Thus they sacrificed horses to the Sun, wolves to Mars, asses to Priapus, swine to Ceres, dogs to Hecate, etc., etc. But in the worship of God all these were declared unclean, and only the three following kinds of Quadrupeds were commanded to be sacrificed:

[¶38] 1. The bull or ox, the cow or heifer, and the calf.

[¶39] 2. The he-goat, she-goat, and the kid.

[¶40] 3. The ram, the ewe, and the lamb.

[¶41] Among Fowls, only pigeons and turtle-doves were commanded to be offered, except in the case of cleansing the leper, mentioned [Lev 14:4], where two clean birds, generally supposed to be sparrows or other small birds, though of what species is not well known, are specified.

[¶42] Fish were not offered, because they could not be readily brought to the tabernacle alive.

### Verse 3

[¶44] Burnt-sacrifice - The most important of all the sacrifices offered to God; called by the Septuagint ὁλοκαυτωμα, because it was wholly consumed, which was not the case in any other offering. See on Leviticus 7 (note).

## 126. Leviticus · 2 of 27

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[¶0] His own voluntary will - לרצנו lirtsono, to gain himself acceptance before the Lord: in this way all the versions appear to have understood the original words, and the connection in which they stand obviously requires this meaning.

### Verse 4

[¶2] He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering - By the imposition of hands the person bringing the victim acknowledged,

[¶3] 1. The sacrifice as his own.

[¶4] 2. That he offered it as an atonement for his sins.

[¶5] 3. That he was worthy of death because he had sinned, having forfeited his life by breaking the law.

[¶6] 4. That he entreated God to accept the life of the innocent animal in place of his own.

[¶7] 5. And all this, to be done profitably, must have respect to Him whose life, in the fullness of time, should be made a sacrifice for sin.

[¶8] 6. The blood was to be sprinkled round about upon the altar, [Lev 1:5], as by the sprinkling of blood the atonement was made; for the blood was the life of the beast, and it was always supposed that life went to redeem life.

[¶9] See Clarke on [Exo 29:10] (note). On the required perfection of the sacrifice see Clarke on [Exo 12:5] (note). It has been sufficiently remarked by learned men that almost all the people of the earth had their burnt-offerings, on which also they placed the greatest dependence. It was a general maxim through the heathen world, that there was no other way to appease the incensed gods; and they sometimes even offered human sacrifices, from the supposition, as Caesar expresses it, that life was necessary to redeem life, and that the gods would be satisfied with nothing less. "Quod pro vita hominis nisi vita hominis redditur, non posse aliter deorum immortalium numen placari arbitrantur." - Com. de Bell. Gal., lib. vi. But this was not the case only with the Gauls, for we see, by Ovid, Fast., lib. vi., that it was a commonly received maxim among more polished people: - " - Pro parvo victima parva cadit.

[¶10] Cor pro corde, precor, pro fibris sumite fibras.

[¶11] Hanc animam vobis pro meliore damus."

[¶12] See the whole of this passage in the above work, from ver. 135 to 163.

### Verse 6

[¶14] He shall flay - Probably meaning the person who brought the sacrifice, who, according to some of the rabbins, killed, flayed, cut up, and washed the sacrifice, and then presented the parts and the blood to the priest, that he might burn the one, and sprinkle the other upon the altar. But it is certain that the priests also, and the Levites, flayed the victims, and the priest had the skin to himself; see [Lev 7:8], and [2Chr 29:34]. The red heifer alone was not flayed, but the whole body, with the skin, etc., consumed with fire. See [Num 19:5].

### Verse 7

[¶16] Put fire - The fire that came out of the tabernacle from before the Lord, and which was kept perpetually burning; see [Lev 9:24]. Nor was it lawful to use any other fire in the service of God. See the case of Nadab and Abihu, Leviticus 10 (note).

### Verse 8

[¶18] The priests - shall lay the parts - The sacrifice was divided according to its larger joints.

[¶19] 1. After its blood was poured out, and the skin removed, the head was cut off.

[¶20] 2. They then opened it and took out the omentum, or caul, that invests the intestines.

[¶21] 3. They took out the intestines with the mesentery, and washed them well, as also the fat.

[¶22] 4. They then placed the four quarters upon the altar, covered them with the fat, laid the remains of the intestines upon them, and then laid the head above all.

[¶23] 5. The sacred fire was then applied, and the whole mass was consumed. This was the holocaust, or complete burnt-offering.

### Verse 9

[¶25] An offering - of a sweet savor - אשה ריח ניחוח ishsheh reiach nichoach, a fire-offering, an odour of rest, or, as the Septuagint express it, θυσια οσμη ευωδιας, "a sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savor;" which place St. Paul had evidently in view when he wrote [Eph 5:2] : "Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering, και θυσιαν - εις οσμην ευωδιας, and a sacrifice, for a sweet-smelling savor," where he uses the same terms as the Septuagint. Hence we find that the holocaust, or burnt-offering, typified the sacrifice and death of Christ for the sins of the world.

### Verse 10

[¶27] His offering be of the flocks - See Clarke on [Lev 1:2] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶29] Cut it into his pieces - See Clarke's note on [Gen 15:10].

### Verse 16

[¶31] Pluck away his crop with his feathers - In this sacrifice of fowls the head was violently wrung off, then the blood was poured out, then the feathers were plucked off, the breast was cut open, and the crop, stomach, and intestines taken out, and then the body was burnt. Though the bird was split up, yet it was not divided asunder. This circumstance is particularly remarked in Abram's sacrifice, [Gen 15:10]. See Clarke's note [Gen 15:10]. See Ainsworth. We have already seen, on [Lev 1:2], that four kinds of animals might be made burnt-offerings to the Lord.

[¶32] 1. Neat cattle, such as bulls, oxen, cows, and calves.

[¶33] 2. He-goats, she-goats, and kids.

[¶34] 3. Rams, ewes, and lambs.

[¶35] 4. Pigeons and turtle-doves; and in one case, viz., the cleansing of the leper, sparrows or some small bird.

[¶36] All these must be without spot or blemish - the most perfect of their respective kinds, and be wholly consumed by fire. The Rich were to bring the most costly; the Poor, those of least price. Even in this requisition of justice how much mercy was mingled! If a man could not bring a bullock or a heifer, a goat or a sheep, let him bring a calf, a kid, or a lamb. If he could not bring any of these because of his poverty, let him bring a turtle-dove, or a young pigeon, (see [Lev 5:7]); and it appears that in cases of extreme poverty, even a little meal or fine flour was accepted by the bountiful Lord as a sufficient oblation; see [Lev 5:11]. This brought down the benefits of the sacrificial service within the reach of the poorest of the poor; as we may take for granted that every person, however low in his circumstances, might be able to provide the tenth part of an ephah, about three quarts of meal, to make an offering for his soul unto the Lord. But every man must bring something; the law stooped to the lowest circumstances of the poorest of the people, but every man must sacrifice, because every man had sinned. Reader, what sort of a sacrifice dost thou bring to God? To Him thou owest thy whole body, soul, and substance; are all these consecrated to his service? Or has he the refuse of thy time, and the offal of thy estate? God requires thee to sacrifice as his providence has blessed thee. If thou have much, thou shouldst give liberally to God and the poor; If thou have but little, do thy diligence to give of that little. God's justice requires a measure of that which his mercy has bestowed. But remember that as thou hast sinned, thou needest a Savior. Jesus is that lamb without spot which has been offered to God for the sin of the world, and which thou must offer to him for thy sin; and it is only through Him that thou canst be accepted, even when thou dedicatest thy whole body, soul, and substance to thy Maker. Even when we present ourselves a living sacrifice to God, we are accepted for his sake who carried our sins, and bore our sorrows. Thanks be to God, the rich and the poor have equal access unto him through the Son of his love, and equal right to claim the benefits of the great sacrifice!

### Introduction

[¶38] The meat-offering of flour with oil and incense, [Lev 2:1-3]. The oblation of the meat-offering baked in the oven and in the pan, [Lev 2:4-6]. The meat-offering baked in the frying-pan, [Lev 2:7-10]. No leaven nor honey to be offered with the meat-offering, [Lev 2:11]. The oblation of the first-fruits, [Lev 2:12]. Salt to be offered with the meat offering, [Lev 2:13]. Green ears dried by the fire, and corn to be beaten out of full ears, with oil and frankincense, to be offered as a meat-offering of first-fruits, [Lev 2:14-16].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Meat-offering - מנחה minchah. For an explanation of this word see Clarke's note on [Gen 4:3], and Lev. vii. Calmet has remarked that there are five kinds of the minchah mentioned in this chapter.

[¶41] 1. סלת soleth, simple flour or meal, [Lev 2:1].

[¶42] 2. Cakes and wafers, or whatever was baked in the oven, [Lev 2:4].

[¶43] 3. Cakes baked in the pan, [Lev 2:5].

[¶44] 4. Cakes baked on the frying-pan, or probably, a gridiron, [Lev 2:7].

## 127. Leviticus · 3 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/127/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/127/#p-N

[¶0] 5. Green ears of corn parched, [Lev 2:14].

[¶1] All these were offered without honey or leaven, but accompanied with wine, oil, and frankincense. It is very likely that the minchah, in some or all of the above forms, was the earliest oblation offered to the Supreme Being, and probably was in use before sin entered into the world, and consequently before bloody sacrifices, or piacular victims, had been ordained. The minchah of green ears of corn dried by the fire, etc., was properly the gratitude-offering for a good seed time, and the prospect of a plentiful harvest. This appears to have been the offering brought by Cain, [Gen 4:3]; see Clarke's note [Gen 4:3]. The flour, whether of wheat, rice, barley, rye, or any other grain used for aliment, was in all likelihood equally proper; for in [Num 5:15], we find the flour of barley, or barley meal, is called minchah. It is plain that in the institution of the minchah no animal was here included, though in other places it seems to include both kinds; but in general the minchah was not a bloody offering, nor used by way of atonement or expiation, but merely in a eucharistic way, expressing gratitude to God for the produce of the soil. It is such an offering as what is called natural religion might be reasonably expected to suggest: but alas! so far lost is man, that even thankfulness to God for the fruits of the earth must be taught by a Divine revelation; for in the heart of man even the seeds of gratitude are not found, till sown there by the hand of Divine grace. Offerings of different kinds of grain, flour, bread, fruits, etc., are the most ancient among the heathen nations; and even the people of God have had them from the beginning of the world. See this subject largely discussed on [Exo 23:29] (note), where several examples are given. Ovid intimates that these gratitude-offerings originated with agriculture. "In the most ancient times men lived by rapine, hunting, etc., for the sword was considered to be more honorable than the plough; but when they sowed their fields, they dedicated the first-fruits of their harvest to Ceres, to whom the ancients attributed the art of agriculture, and to whom burnt-offerings of corn were made, according to immemorial usages." The passage to which I refer, and of which I have given the substance, is the following: - "Non habuit tellus doctos antiqua colonos:

[¶2] Lassabant agiles aspera bella viros.

[¶3] Plus erat in gladio quam curvo laudis aratro:

[¶4] Neglectus domino pauca ferebat ager.

[¶5] Farra tamen veteres jaciebant, farra metebant:

[¶6] Primitias Cereri farra resecta dabant.

[¶7] Usibus admoniti flammis torrenda dedere:

[¶8] Multaque peccato damna tulere suo."

[¶9] Fastor., lib. ii., ver. 515.

[¶10] Pliny observes that "Numa taught the Romans to offer fruits to the gods, and to make supplications before them, bringing salt cakes and parched corn; as grain in this state was deemed most wholesome." Numa instituit deos Fruge colere, et Mola Salsa supplicare, atque (ut auctor est Hemina) far torrere, quoniam tostum cibo salubrius esset - Hist. Nat. lib xviii., c. 2. And it is worthy of remark, that the ancient Romans considered "no grain as pure or proper for divine service that had not been previously parched." Id uno modo consecutum, statuendo non esse purum ad rem divinam nisi tostum - Ibid.

[¶11] God, says Calmet, requires nothing here which was not in common use for nourishment; but he commands that these things should be offered with such articles as might give them the most exquisite relish, such as salt, oil, and wine, and that the flour should be of the finest and purest kind. The ancients, according to Suidas, seem to have made much use or meal formed into a paste with milk, and sometimes with water. (See Suidas in Μαζα). The priests kept in the temples a certain mixture of flour mingled with oil and wine, which they called Ὑγιεια Hugieia or health, and which they used as a kind of amulet or charm against sickness; after they had finished their sacrifices, they generally threw some flour upon the fire, mingled with oil and wine, which they called θυληματα thulemata, and which, according to Theophrastus, was the ordinary sacrifice of the poor.

### Verse 2

[¶13] His handful of the flour - This was for a memorial, to put God in mind of his covenant with their fathers, and to recall to their mind his gracious conduct towards them and their ancestors. Mr. Ainsworth properly remarks, "that there was neither oil nor incense offered with the sin and jealousy offerings; because they were no offerings of memorial, but such as brought iniquities to remembrance, which were neither gracious nor sweet-smelling before the Lord." [Num 5:15]; [Lev 5:11]. In this case a handful only was burnt, the rest was reserved for the priest's use; but all the frankincense was burnt, because from it the priest could derive no advantage.

### Verse 4

[¶15] Baken in the oven - תנור tannur, from נר nar, to split, divide, says Mr. Parkhurst; and hence the oven, because of its burning, dissolving, and melting heat.

### Verse 5

[¶17] Baken in a pan - מחבת machabath, supposed to be a flat iron plate, placed over the fire; such as is called a griddle in some countries.

### Verse 7

[¶19] The frying-pan - מרחשת marchesheth, supposed to be the same with that called by the Arabs a ta-jen, a shallow earthen vessel like a frying-pan, used not only to fry in, but for other purposes. On the different instruments, as well as the manner of baking in the east, Mr. Harmer, in his observations on select passages of Scripture, has collected the following curious information. "Dr. Shaw informs us that in the cities and villages of Barbary, there are public ovens, but that among the Bedouins, who live in tents, and the Kabyles, who live in miserable hovels in the mountains, their bread, made into thin cakes, is baked either immediately upon the coals, or else in a ta-jen, which he tells us is a shallow earthen vessel like a frying-pan: and then cites the Septuagint to show that the supposed pan, mentioned [Lev 2:5], was the same thing as a ta-jen. The ta-jen, according to Dr. Russel, is exactly the same among the Bedouins as the τηγανον, a word of the same sound as well as meaning, was among the Greeks. So the Septuagint, [Lev 2:5] : if thy oblation be a meat-offering, baken in a pan, (απο τηγανου), it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil. "This account given by the doctor is curious; but as it does not give us all the eastern ways of baking, so neither does it furnish us, I am afraid, with a complete comment on that variety of methods of preparing the meat-offerings which is mentioned by Moses in Leviticus 2. So long ago as Queen Elizabeth's time, Rauwolff observed that travelers frequently baked bread in the deserts of Arabia on the ground, heated for that purpose by fire, covering their cakes of bread with ashes and coals, and turning them several times until they were baked enough; but that some of the Arabians had in their tents, stones, or copper plates, made on purpose for baking. Dr. Pococke very lately made a like observation, speaking of iron hearths used for baking their bread. "Sir John Chardin, mentioning the several ways of baking their bread in the east, describes these iron plates as small and convex. These plates are most commonly used, he tells us, in Persia, and among the wandering people that dwell in tents, as being the easiest way of baking, and done with the least expense; the bread being as thin as a skin, and soon prepared. Another way (for he mentions four) is by baking on the hearth. That bread is about an inch thick; they make no other all along the Black Sea from the Palus Maeotis to the Caspian Sea, in Chaldea, and in Mesopotamia, except in towns. This, he supposes, is owing to their being woody countries. These people make a fire in the middle of a room; when the bread is ready for baking they sweep a corner of the hearth, lay the bread there, and cover it with hot ashes and embers; in a quarter of an hour they turn it: this bread is very good. The third way is that which is common among us. The last way, and that which is common through all Asia, is thus: they make an oven in the ground, four or five feet deep and three in diameter, well plastered with mortar. When it is hot, they place the bread (which is commonly long, and not thicker than a finger) against the sides, and it is baked in a moment. "D'Arvieux mentions another way used by the Arabs about Mount Carmel, who sometimes bake in an oven, and at other time on the hearth; but have a third method, which is, to make a fire in a great stone pitcher and when it is heated, they mix meal and water, as we do to make paste to glue things together, which they apply with the hollow of their hands to the outside of the pitcher, and this extremely soft paste spreading itself upon it is baked in an instant. The heat of the pitcher having dried up all the moisture, the bread comes off as thin as our wafers; and the operation is so speedily performed that in a very little time a sufficient quantity is made. "Maimonides and the Septuagint differ in their explanation of [Lev 2:5]; for that Egyptian rabbi supposes this verse speaks of a fiat plate, and these more ancient interpreters, of a ta-jen. But they both seem to agree that these were two of the methods of preparing the meat-offering; for Maimonides supposes the seventh verse speaks of a frying-pan or ta-jen; whereas the Septuagint, on the contrary, thought the word there meant a hearth, which term takes in an iron or copper plate, though it extends farther. "The meat-offerings of the fourth verse answer as well to the Arab bread, baked by means of their stone pitchers, which are used by them for the baking of wafers, as to their cakes of bread mentioned by D'Arvieux, who, describing the way of baking among the modern Arabs, after mentioning some of their methods, says they bake their best sort of bread, either by heating an oven, or a large pitcher, half full of certain little smooth shining flints, upon which they lay the dough, spread out in form of a thin broad cake. The mention of wafers seems to fix the meaning of Moses to these oven pitchers, though perhaps it may be thought an objection that this meat-offering is said to have been baked in an oven; but it will be sufficient to observe that the Hebrew words only signify a meat-offering of the oven, and consequently may be understood as well of wafers baked on the outside of these oven pitchers, as of cakes of bread baked in them. And if thou bring an oblation, a baked thing, of the oven, it shall be an unleavened cake of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Whoever then attends to these accounts of the stone pitcher, the ta-jen, and the copper plate or iron hearth, will enter into this second of Leviticus, I believe, much more perfectly than any commentator has done, and will find in these accounts what answers perfectly well to the description Moses gives us of the different ways of preparing the meat-offerings. A ta-jen indeed, according to Dr. Shaw, serves for a frying-pan as well as for a baking vessel; for he says, the bagreah of the people of Barbary differs not much from our pancakes, only that, instead of rubbing the ta-jen or pan in which they fry them with butter, they rub it with soap, to make them like a honeycomb. "Moses possibly intended a meat-offering of that kind might be presented to the Lord; and our translators seem to prefer that supposition, since, though the margin mentions the opinion of Maimonides, the reading of the text in the sixth verse opposes a pan for baking to a pan for frying in the seventeenth verse. The thought, however, of Maimonides seems to be most just, as Moses appears to be speaking of different kinds of bread only, not of other farinaceous preparations. "These oven pitchers mentioned by D'Arvieux, and used by the modern Arabs for baking cakes of bread in them, and wafers on their outsides, are not the only portable ovens of the east. St. Jerome, in his commentary on [Lam 5:10], describes an eastern oven as a round vessel of brass, blackened on the outside by the surrounding fire which heats it within. Such an oven I have seen used in England. Which of these the Mishnah refers to when it speaks of the women lending their ovens to one another, as well as their mills and their sieves, I do not know; but the foregoing observations may serve to remove a surprise that this circumstance may otherwise occasion in the reader of the Mishnah. Almost every body knows that little portable handmills are extremely common in the Levant; movable ovens are not so well known. Whether ovens of the kind which St. Jerome mentions be as ancient as the days of Moses, does not appear, unless the ta-jen be used after this manner; but the pitcher ovens of the Arabs are, without doubt, of that remote antiquity. "Travellers agree that the eastern bread is made in small thin moist cakes, must be eaten new, and is good for nothing when kept longer than a day. This, however, admits of exceptions. Dr. Russel of late, and Rauwolff formerly, assure us that they have several sorts of bread and cakes: some, Rauwolff tells us, done with yolk of eggs; some mixed with several sorts of seed, as of sesamum, Romish coriander, and wild garden saffron, which are also stewed upon it; and he elsewhere supposes that they prepare biscuits for travelling. Russel, who mentions this stewing of seeds on their cakes says, they have a variety of rusks and biscuits. To these authors let me add Pitts, who tells us the biscuits they carry with them from Egypt will last them to Mecca and back again. "The Scriptures suppose their loaves of bread were very small, three of them being requisite for the entertainment of a single person, [Luk 11:5]. That they were generally eaten new, and baked as they wanted them, as appears from the case of Abraham. That sometimes, however, they were made so as to keep several days; so the shew-bread was fit food, after lying before the Lord a week. And that bread for travelers was wont to be made to keep some time, as appears from the pretences of the Gibeonites, [Jos 9:12], and the preparations made for Jacob's journey into Egypt, [Gen 45:23]. The bread or rusks for travelling is often made in the form of large rings, and is moistened or soaked in water before it is used. In like manner, too, they seem to have had there a variety of eatables of this kind as the Aleppines now have. In particular, some made like those on which seeds are strewed, as we may collect from that part of the presents of Jeroboam's wife to the Prophet Ahijah, which our translators have rendered cracknels, [1Kgs 14:3]. Buxtorf indeed supposes the original word נקדים nikkuddim signifies biscuits, called by this name, either because they were formed into little buttons like some of our gingerbread, or because they were pricked full of holes after a particular manner. The last of these two conjectures, I imagine, was embraced by our translators of this passage; for cracknels, if they are all over England of the same form, are full of holes, being formed into a kind of flourish of lattice-work. I have seen some of the unleavened bread of the English Jews made in like manner in a net form. Nevertheless I should think it more natural to understand the word of biscuit spotted with seeds; for it is used elsewhere to signify works of gold spotted with studs of silver; and, as it should seem, bread spotted with mould, [Jos 9:5-12]; how much more natural is it then to understand the word of cakes spotted with seeds, which are so common in the east! Is not לבבות lebiboth, in particular, the word that in general means rich cakes? a sort of which Tamar used to prepare that was not common, and furnished Amnon with a pretense for desiring her being sent to his house, that she might make some of that kind for him in the time of his indisposition, his fancy running upon them; see [2Sam 13:2-8]. Parkhurst supposes the original word to signify pancakes, and translates the root לבב labab to move or toss up and down: 'And she took the dough, (ותלוש vattalosh), and kneaded (ותלבב vattelabbeb, and tossed) it in his sight, ותבשל vattebashshel, and dressed the cakes.' In this passage, says Mr. Parkhurst, it is to be observed that לבב is distinguished from לש to knead, and from בשל to dress, which agrees with the interpretation here given. "The account which Mr. Jackson gives of an Arab baking apparatus, and the manner of kneading and tossing their cakes, will at once, if I mistake not, fix the meaning of this passage, and cast much light on [Lev 11:35]. "I was much amused by observing the dexterity of the Arab women in baking their bread. They have a small place built with clay, between two and three feet high, having a hole in the bottom for the convenience of drawing out the ashes, somewhat similar to that of a lime-kiln. The oven, which I think is the most proper name for this place, is usually about fifteen inches wide at top, and gradually grows wider to the bottom. It is heated with wood, and when sufficiently hot, and perfectly clear from smoke, having nothing but clear embers at the bottom, which continue to reflect great heat, they prepare the dough in a large bowl, and mould the cakes to the desired size on a board or stone placed near the oven. After they have kneaded the cake to a proper consistence, they pat it a little, then toss it about with great dexterity in one hand till it is as thin as they choose to make it. They then wet one side of it with water, at the same time wetting the hand and arm with which they put it into the oven. The side of the cake adheres fast to the side of the oven till it is sufficiently baked, when, if not paid proper attention to, it would fall down among the embers. If they were not exceedingly quick at this work, the heat of the oven would burn their arms; but they perform it with such amazing dexterity that one woman will continue keeping three or four cakes in the oven at once, till she has done baking. This mode, let me add, does not require half the fuel that is made use of in Europe."

[¶20] See more in Harmer's Observat., vol. i., p. 414, etc., Edit. 1808.

### Verse 8

[¶22] Thou shalt bring the meat-offering - It is likely that the person himself who offered the sacrifice brought it to the priest, and then the priest presented it before the Lord.

### Verse 11

[¶24] No meat-offering - shall be made with leaven - See the reason of this prohibition in the note on [Exo 12:8] (note).

[¶25] Nor any honey - Because it was apt to produce acidity, as some think, when wrought up with flour paste; or rather because it was apt to gripe and prove purgative. On this latter account the College of Physicians have totally left it out of all medicinal preparations. This effect which it has in most constitutions was a sufficient reason why it should be prohibited here, as a principal part of all these offerings was used by the priests as a part of their ordinary diet; and these offerings, being those of the poorer sort, were in greater abundance than most others. On this account, the griping, and purgative quality of the honey must render it extremely improper. As leaven was forbidden because producing fermentation, it was considered a species of corruption, and was therefore used to signify hypocrisy, malice, etc., which corrupt the soul; it is possible that honey might have had a moral reference, also, and have signified, as St. Jerome thought, carnal pleasures and sensual gratifications. Some suppose that the honey mentioned here was a sort of saccharine matter extracted from dates. Leaven and honey might be offered with the first-fruits, as we learn from the next verse; but they were forbidden to be burnt on the altar,

### Verse 13

[¶27] With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt - Salt was the opposite to leaven, for it preserved from putrefaction and corruption, and signified the purity and persevering fidelity that were necessary in the worship of God. Every thing was seasoned with it, to signify the purity and perfection that should be extended through every part of the Divine service, and through the hearts and lives of God's worshippers. It was called the salt of the covenant of God, because as salt is incorruptible, so was the covenant made with Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and the patriarchs, relative to the redemption of the world by the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ. Among the heathens salt was a common ingredient in all their sacrificial offerings; and as it was considered essential to the comfort and preservation of life, and an emblem of the most perfect corporeal and mental endowments, so it was supposed to be one of the most acceptable presents they could make unto their gods, from whose sacrifices it was never absent. That inimitable and invaluable writer, Pliny, has left a long chapter on this subject, the seventh of the thirty-first book of his Natural History, a few extracts from which will not displease the intelligent reader.

[¶28] Ergo, hercule, vita humanior sine Sale nequit degere: adeoque necessarium elementum est, ut transierit intellectus ad voluptates animi quoque. Nam ita Sales appellantur omnisque vitae lepos et summa hilaritas, laborumque requies non alio magis vocabulo constat. Honoribus etiam militiaeque inter ponitur, Salariis inde dictis - Maxime tamen in sacris intelligitur auctoritas, quando nulla conficiuntur sine mola salsa. "So essentially necessary is salt that without it human life cannot be preserved: and even the pleasures and endowments of the mind are expressed by it; the delights of life, repose, and the highest mental serenity, are expressed by no other term than sales among the Latins. It has also been applied to designate the honorable rewards given to soldiers, which are called salarii or salaries. But its importance may be farther understood by its use in sacred things, as no sacrifice was offered to the gods without the salt cake."

[¶29] So Virgil, Eclog. viii., ver. 82: Sparge molam. "Crumble the sacred mole of salt and corn."

[¶30] And again, Aeneid., lib. iv., ver. 517: -

[¶31] Ipsa mola, manibitsque piis, altaria juxta. "Now with the sacred cake, and lifted hands,

[¶32] All bent on death, before her altar stands."

[¶33] Pitt.

[¶34] In like manner Homer: - Πασσε δ' ἁλος θειοιο, κρατευταων επαειπας.

[¶35] Iliad, lib. ix., ver. 214. "And taking sacred salt from the hearth side,

[¶36] Where it was treasured, pour'd it o'er the feast."

[¶37] Cowper.

[¶38] Quotations of this kind might be easily multiplied, but the above may be deemed sufficient.

### Verse 14

[¶40] Green ears of corn dried by the fire - Green or half-ripe ears of wheat parched with fire is a species of food in use among the poor people of Palestine and Egypt to the present day. As God is represented as keeping a table among his people, (for the tabernacle was his house, where he had the golden table, shewbread, etc)., so he represents himself as partaking with them of all the aliments that were in use, and even sitting down with the poor to a repast on parched corn! We have already seen that these green ears were presented as a sort of eucharistical offering for the blessings of seed time, and the prospect of a plentiful harvest. See Clarke's note on [Lev 2:1]; several other examples might be added here, but they are not necessary. The command to offer salt with every oblation, and which was punctually observed by the Jews, will afford the pious reader some profitable reflections. It is well known that salt has two grand properties.

[¶41] 1. It seasons and renders palatable the principal ailments used for the support of life.

[¶42] 2. It prevents putrefaction and decay.

[¶43] The covenant of God, that is, his agreement with his people, is called a covenant of salt, to denote as we have seen above, its stable undecaying nature, as well as to point out its importance and utility in the preservation of the life of the soul. The grace of God by Christ Jesus is represented under the emblem of salt, (see [Mar 9:49]; [Eph 4:29]; [Col 4:6]), because of its relishing, nourishing, and preserving quality. Without it no offering, no sacrifice, no religious service, no work even of charity and mercy, can be acceptable in the sight of God. In all things we must come unto the Father Through Him. And from none of our sacrifices or services must this salt of the covenant of our God be lacking.

## 128. Leviticus · 4 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/128/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/128/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The law of the peace-offering in general, [Lev 3:1-5]. That of the peace-offering taken from the flock, [Lev 3:6-11]; and the same when the offering is a goat, [Lev 3:12-17].

### Verse 1

[¶3] Peace-offering - שלמים shelamim, an offering to make peace between God and man; see on Leviticus 7 (note), and [Gen 14:18] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶5] Lay his hand upon the head of his offering - See this rite explained in [Exo 29:10] (note), and [Lev 1:4] (note). "As the burnt-offering, (Leviticus 1).," says Mr. Ainsworth, "figured our reconciliation to God by the death of Christ, and the meat-offering, (Leviticus 2)., our sanctification in him before God, so this peace-offering signified both Christ's oblation of himself whereby he became our peace and salvation, ([Eph 2:14-16]; [Act 13:47]; [Heb 5:9]; [Heb 9:28]), and our oblation of praise, thanksgiving, and prayer unto God."

### Verse 3

[¶7] The fat that covereth the inwards - The omentum, caul or web, as some term it. The fat that is upon the inwards; probably the mesentery or fatty part of the substance which connects the convolutions of the alimentary canal or small intestines.

### Verse 5

[¶9] Aaron's sons shall burn it - As the fat was deemed the most valuable part of the animal, it was offered in preference to all other parts; and the heathens probably borrowed this custom from the Jews, for they burnt the omentum or caul in honor of their gods.

### Verse 9

[¶11] The whole rump, it shall he take off hard by the backbone - To what has already been said on the tails of the eastern sheep, in the note on [Exo 29:22], we may add the following observation from Dr. Russel concerning the sheep at Aleppo. "Their tails," says he, "are of a substance between fat and marrow, and are not eaten separately, but mixed with the lean meat in many of their dishes, and also often used instead of butter." He states also that a common sheep of this kind, without the head, fat, skin, and entrails, weighs from sixty to seventy English pounds, of which the tail usually weighs fifteen pounds and upwards; but that those of the largest breed, when fattened will weigh one hundred and fifty pounds, and their tails fifty, which corresponds with the account given by Ludolf in the note referred to above. The sheep about Jerusalem are the same with those in Abyssinia mentioned by Ludolf, and those of Syria mentioned by Dr. Russel.

### Verse 11

[¶13] It is the food of the offering - We have already remarked that God is frequently represented as feasting with his people on the sacrifices they offered; and because these sacrifices were consumed by that fire which was kindled from heaven, therefore they were considered as the food of that fire, or rather of the Divine Being who was represented by it. "In the same idiom of speech," says Dodd, "the gods of the heathens are said, [Deu 32:38], to eat the fat and drink the wine which were consumed on their altars.

### Verse 12

[¶15] A goat - Implying the whole species, he-goat, she-goat, and kid, as we have already seen.

### Verse 17

[¶17] That ye eat neither fat nor blood - It is not likely that the fat should be forbidden in the same manner and in the same latitude as the blood. The blood was the life of the beast, and that was offered to make an atonement for their souls; consequently, this was never eaten in all their generations: but it was impossible to separate the fat from the flesh, which in many parts is so intimately intermixed with the muscular fibres; but the blood, being contained in separate vessels, the arteries and veins, might with great ease be entirely removed by cutting the throat of the animal, which was the Jewish method. By the fat therefore mentioned here and in the preceding verse, we may understand any fat that exists in a separate or unmixed state, such as the omentum or caul, the fat of the mesentery, the fat on the kidneys, and whatever else of the internal fat was easily separable, together with the whole of the tail already described. And probably it was the fat of such animals only as were offered to God in sacrifice, that was unlawful to be eaten. As all temporal as well as spiritual blessings come from God, he has a right to require that such of them should be dedicated to his service as he may think proper to demand. He required the most perfect of all the animals, and the best parts of these perfect animals. This he did, not that he needed any thing, but to show the perfection of his nature and the purity of his service. Had he condescended to receive the meanest animals and the meanest parts of animals as his offerings, what opinion could his worshippers have entertained of the perfection of his nature? If such imperfect offerings were worthy of this God, then his nature must be only worthy of such offerings. It is necessary that every thing employed in the worship of God should be the most perfect of its kind that the time and circumstances can afford. As sensible things are generally the medium through which spiritual impressions are made, and the impression usually partakes of the nature of the medium through which these impressions are communicated; hence every thing should not only be decent, but as far as circumstances will admit dignified, in the worship of God: the object of religious worship, the place in which he is worshipped, and the worship itself, should have the strongest and most impressive correspondence possible.

### Introduction

[¶19] The law concerning the sin-offering for transgressions committed through ignorance, [Lev 4:1], [Lev 4:2]. For the priest thus sinning, [Lev 4:3-12]. For the sins of ignorance of the whole congregation, [Lev 4:13-21]. For the sins of ignorance of a ruler, [Lev 4:22-26]. For the sins of ignorance of any of the common people, [Lev 4:27-35].

### Verse 2

[¶21] If a soul shall sin through ignorance - That is, if any man shall do what God has forbidden, or leave undone what God has commanded, through ignorance of the law relative to these points; as soon as the transgression or omission comes to his knowledge, he shall offer the sacrifice here prescribed, and shall not suppose that his ignorance is an excuse for his sin. He who, when his iniquity comes to his knowledge, refuses to offer such a sacrifice, sins obstinately and wilfully, and to him there remains no other sacrifice for sin - no other mode by which he can be reconciled to God, but he has a certain fearful looking for of judgment - which shall devour such adversaries; and this seems the case to which the apostle alludes, [Heb 10:26], etc., in the words above quoted. There have been a great number of subtle questions started on this subject, both by Jews and Christians, but the above I believe to be the sense and spirit of the law.

### Verse 3

[¶23] If the priest that is anointed - Meaning, most probably, the high priest. According to the sin of the people; for although he had greater advantages than the people could have, in being more conversant with the law of God, and his lips should understand and preserve knowledge, yet it was possible even for him, in that time in which the word of God had not been fully revealed, to transgress through ignorance; and his transgression might have the very worst tendency, because the people might be thereby led into sin. Hence several critics understand this passage in this way, and translate it thus: If the anointed priest shall lead the people to sin; or, literally, if the anointed priest shall sin to the sin of the people; that is, so as to cause the people to transgress, the shepherd going astray, and the sheep following after him.

### Verse 4

[¶25] Lay his hand upon the bullock's head - See Clarke's note on [Lev 1:4].

### Verse 6

[¶27] Seven times - See Clarke's note on [Exo 29:30]. The blood of this sacrifice was applied in three different ways:

[¶28] 1. The priest put his finger in it, and sprinkled it seven times before the veil, [Lev 4:6].

[¶29] 2. He put some of it on the horns of the altar of incense.

[¶30] 3. He poured the remaining part at the bottom of the altar of burnt-offerings, [Lev 4:7].

### Verse 12

[¶32] Without the camp - This was intended figuratively to express the sinfulness of this sin, and the availableness of the atonement. The sacrifice, as having the sin of the priest transferred from himself to it by his confession and imposition of hands, was become unclean and abominable, and was carried, as it were, out of the Lord's sight; from the tabernacle and congregation it must be carried without the camp, and thus its own offensiveness was removed, and the sin of the person in whose behalf it was offered. The apostle ([Heb 13:11-13]) applies this in the most pointed manner to Christ: "For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach."

### Verse 13

[¶34] If the whole congregation of Israel sin - This probably refers to some oversight in acts of religious worship, or to some transgression of the letter of the law, which arose out of the peculiar circumstances in which they were then found, such as the case mentioned [1Sam 14:32], etc., where the people, through their long and excessive fatigue in their combat with the Philistines, being faint, flew on the spoil, and took sheep, oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground, and did eat with the blood; and this was partly occasioned by the rash adjuration of Saul, mentioned [1Sam 14:24] : Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening.

[¶35] The sacrifices and rites in this case were the same as those prescribed in the preceding, only here the elders of the congregation, i. e., three of the Sanhedrin, according to Maimonides, laid their hands on the head of the victim in the name of all the congregation.

### Verse 22

[¶37] When a ruler hath sinned - Under the term נשיא nasi, it is probable that any person is meant who held any kind of political dignity among the people, though the rabbins generally understand it of the king.

[¶38] A kid of the goats was the sacrifice in this case, the rites nearly the same as in the preceding cases, only the fat was burnt as that of the peace-offering. See [Lev 4:26] and [Lev 3:5].

### Verse 27

[¶40] The common people - עם הארץ am haarets, the people of the land, that is, any individual who was not a priest, king, or ruler among the people; any of the poor or ordinary sort. Any of these, having transgressed through ignorance, was obliged to bring a lamb or a kid, the ceremonies being nearly the same as in the preceding cases. The original may denote the very lowest of the people, the laboring or agricultural classes.

[¶41] The law relative to the general cases of sins committed through ignorance, and the sacrifices to be offered on such occasions, so amply detailed in this chapter, may be thus recapitulated. For all sins and transgressions of this kind committed by the people, the prince, and the priest, they must offer expiatory offerings. The person so sinning must bring the sacrifice to the door of the tabernacle, and lay his hands upon its head, as in a case already referred to, acknowledging the sacrifice to be his, that he needed it for his transgression; and thus he was considered as confessing his sin, and the sin was considered as transferred to the animal, whose blood was then spilt to make an atonement. See Clarke on [Lev 1:4] (note). Such institutions as these could not be considered as terminating in themselves, they necessarily had reference to something of infinitely higher moment; in a word, they typified Him whose soul was made an offering for sin, [Isa 53:10]. And taken out of this reference they seem both absurd and irrational. It is obviously in reference to these innocent creatures being brought as sin-offerings to God for the guilty that St. Paul alludes [2Cor 5:21], where he says, He (God) made him to be sin (ἁμαρτιαν, a sin-offering) for us Who Knew No Sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God - holy and pure by the power and grace of God, in or through him. And it is worthy of remark, that the Greek word used by the apostle is the same by which the Septuagint, in more than fourscore places in the Pentateuch, translate the Hebrew word הטאה hattaah, sin, which in all those places our translation renders sin-offering. Even sins of ignorance cannot be unnoticed by a strict and holy law; these also need the great atonement: on which account we should often pray with David, Cleanse thou me from secret faults! [Psa 19:12]. How little attention is paid to this solemn subject! Sins of this kind - sins committed sometimes ignorantly, and more frequently heedlessly, are permitted to accumulate in their number, and consequently in their guilt; and from this very circumstance we may often account for those painful desertions, as they are called, under which many comparatively good people labor. They have committed sins of ignorance or heedlessness, and have not offered the sacrifice which can alone avail in their behalf. How necessary in ten thousand cases is the following excellent prayer! "That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to thy Holy Word." - Litany.

### Introduction

[¶43] Concerning witnesses who, being adjured, refuse to tell the truth, [Lev 5:1]. Of those who contract defilement by touching unclean things or persons, [Lev 5:2], [Lev 5:3]. Of those who bind themselves by vows or oaths, and do not fulfill them, [Lev 5:4], [Lev 5:5]. The trespass-offering prescribed in such cases, a lamb or a kid, [Lev 5:6]; a turtle-dove or two young pigeons, [Lev 5:7-10]; or an ephah of fine flour with oil and frankincense, [Lev 5:11-13]. Other laws relative to trespasses, through ignorance in holy things, [Lev 5:14-16]. Of trespasses in things unknown, [Lev 5:17-19].

### Verse 1

[¶45] If a soul sin - It is generally supposed that the case referred to here is that of a person who, being demanded by the civil magistrate to answer upon oath, refuses to tell what he knows concerning the subject; such a one shall bear his iniquity - shall be considered as guilty in the sight of God, of the transgression which he has endeavored to conceal, and must expect to be punished by him for hiding the iniquity to which he was privy, or suppressing the truth which, being discovered, would have led to the exculpation of the innocent, and the punishment of the guilty.

## 129. Leviticus · 5 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/129/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/129/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] Any unclean thing - Either the dead body of a clean animal, or the living or dead carcass of any unclean creature. All such persons were to wash their clothes and themselves in clean water, and were considered as unclean till the evening, [Lev 11:24-31]. But if this had been neglected, they were obliged to bring a trespass-offering. What this meant, see in the notes on Leviticus 7 (note).

### Verse 4

[¶3] To do evil, or to do good - It is very likely that rash promises are here intended; for if a man vow to do an act that is evil, though it would be criminal to keep such an oath or vow, yet he is guilty because he made it, and therefore must offer the trespass-offering. If he neglect to do the good he has vowed, he is guilty, and must in both cases confess his iniquity, and bring his trespass-offering.

### Verse 5

[¶5] He shall confess that he hath sinned - Even restitution was not sufficient without this confession, because a man might make restitution without being much humbled; but the confession of sin has a direct tendency to humble the soul, and hence it is so frequently required in the Holy Scriptures, as without humiliation there can be no salvation.

### Verse 7

[¶7] If he be not able to bring a lamb - See the conclusion at [Lev 1:16] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶9] But shall not divide it - See Clarke's note on [Lev 1:16].

### Verse 10

[¶11] He shall offer the second for a burnt-offering - The pigeon for the burnt-offering was wholly consumed, it was the Lord's property; that for the sin-offering was the priest's property, and was to be eaten by him after its blood had been partly sprinkled on the side of the altar, and the rest poured out at the bottom of the altar. See also [Lev 6:26].

### Verse 11

[¶13] Tenth part of an ephah - About three quarts. The ephah contained a little more than seven gallons and a half.

### Verse 15

[¶15] In the holy things of the Lord - This law seems to relate particularly to sacrilege, and defrauds in spiritual matters; such as the neglect to consecrate or redeem the firstborn, the withholding of the first-fruits, tithes, and such like; and, according to the rabbins, making any secular gain of Divine things, keeping back any part of the price of things dedicated to God, or withholding what man had vowed to pay. See a long list of these things in Ainsworth.

[¶16] With thy estimation - The wrong done or the defraud committed should be estimated at the number of shekels it was worth, or for which it would sell. These the defrauder was to pay down, to which he was to add a fifth part more, and bring a ram without blemish for a sin-offering besides. There is an obscurity in the text, but this seems to be its meaning.

### Verse 16

[¶18] Shall make amends - Make restitution for the wrong he had done according to what is laid down in the preceding verse.

### Verse 19

[¶20] He hath certainly trespassed - And because he hath sinned, therefore he must bring a sacrifice. On no other ground shall he be accepted by the Lord. Reader, how dost thou stand in the sight of thy Maker? On the subject of this chapter it may be proper to make the following reflections. When the infinite purity and strict justice of God are considered, the exceeding breadth of his commandment, our slowness of heart to believe, and our comparatively cold performance of sacred duties, no wonder that there is sinfulness found in our holy things; and at what a low ebb must the Christian life be found when this is the case! This is a sore and degrading evil in the Church of God; but there is one even worse than this, that is, the strenuous endeavor of many religious people to reconcile their minds to this state of inexcusable imperfection, and defend it zealously, on the supposition that it is at once both unavoidable and useful - unavoidable, for they think they cannot live without it; and useful, because they suppose it tends to humble them! The more inward sin a man has, the more pride he will feel; the less, the more humility. A sense of God's infinite kindness to us, and our constant dependence on him, will ever keep the soul in the dust. Sin can never be necessary to the maintenance or extension of the Christian life, it is the thing which Jesus Christ came into the world to destroy; and his name is called Jesus or Savior because he saves his people from their sins. But how little of the spirit and influence of his Gospel is known in the world! He saves, unto the uttermost, them who come unto the Father through him. But alas! how few are thus saved! for they will not come unto him that they might have life. Should any Christian refuse to offer up the following prayer to God? "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen." - The Liturgy.

### Introduction

[¶22] Laws relative to detention of property entrusted to the care of another, to robbery, and deceit, [Lev 6:1], [Lev 6:2]; finding of goods lost, keeping them from their owner, and swearing falsely, [Lev 6:3]. Such a person shall not only restore what he has thus unlawfully gotten, but shall add a fifth part of the value of the property besides, [Lev 6:4], [Lev 6:5]; and bring a ram without blemish, for a trespass-offering to the Lord, [Lev 6:6], [Lev 6:7]. Laws relative to the burnt-offering and the perpetual fire, [Lev 6:8-13]. Law of the meat-offering, and who may lawfully eat of it, [Lev 6:14-18]. Laws relative to the offerings of Aaron and his sons and their successors, on the day of their anointing, [Lev 6:19-23]. Laws relative to the sin-offering, and those who might eat of it, [Lev 6:24-30].

### Verse 2

[¶24] Lie unto his neighbor, etc. - This must refer to a case in which a person delivered his property to his neighbor to be preserved for him, and took no witness to attest the delivery of the goods; such a person therefore might deny that he had ever received such goods, for he who had deposited them with him could bring no proof of the delivery. On the other hand, a man might accuse his neighbor of detaining property which had never been confided to him, or, after having been confided, had been restored again; hence the law here is very cautious on these points: and because in many cases it was impossible to come at the whole truth without a direct revelation from God, which should in no common case be expected, the penalties are very moderate; for in such cases, even when guilt was discovered, the man might not be so criminal as appearances might intimate. See the law concerning this laid down and explained on [Exo 22:7] (note), etc.

### Verse 3

[¶26] Have found that which was lost - The Roman lawyers laid it down as a sound maxim of jurisprudence, "that he who found any property and applied it to his own use, should be considered as a thief whether he knew the owner or not; for in their view the crime was not lessened, supposing the finder was totally ignorant of the right owner." Qui alienum quid jacens lucri faciendi causa sustulit, furti obstringitur, sive scit, cujus sit, sive ignoravit; nihil enim ad furtum minuendum, facit, quod, cujus sit, ignoret - Digestor, lib. xlvii., Tit. ii., de furtis, Leg. xliii., sec. 4. On this subject every honest man must say, that the man who finds any lost property, and does not make all due inquiry to find out the owner, should, in sound policy, be treated as a thief. It is said of the Dyrbaeans, a people who inhabited the tract between Bactria and India, that if they met with any lost property, even on the public road, they never even touched it. This was actually the case in this kingdom in the time of Alfred the Great, about a. d. 888; so that golden bracelets hung up on the public roads were untouched by the finger of rapine. One of Solon's laws was, Take not up what you laid not down. How easy to act by this principle in case of finding lost property: "This is not mine, and it would be criminal to convert it to my use unless the owner be dead and his family extinct." When all due inquiry is made, if no owner can be found, the lost property may be legally considered to be the property of the finder.

### Verse 5

[¶28] All that about which he hath sworn falsely - This supposes the case of a man who, being convicted by his own conscience, comes forward and confesses his sin.

[¶29] Restore it in the principal - The property itself if still remaining, or the full value of it, to which a fifth part more was to be added.

### Verse 6

[¶31] With thy estimation - See Clarke's note on [Lev 5:15].

### Verse 8

[¶33] And the Lord spake unto Moses - At this verse the Jews begin the 25th section of the law; and here, undoubtedly, the 6th chapter should commence, as the writer enters upon a new subject, and the preceding verses belong to the fifth chapter. The best edited Hebrew Bibles begin the 6th chapter at this verse.

### Verse 9

[¶35] This is the law of the burnt-offering - This law properly refers to that burnt-offering which was daily made in what was termed the morning and evening sacrifice; and as he had explained the nature of this burnt-offering in general, with its necessary ceremonies, as far as the persons who brought them were concerned, he now takes up the same in relation to the priests who were to receive them from the hands of the offerer, and present them to the Lord on the altar of burnt-offerings.

[¶36] Because of the burning upon the altar all night - If the burnt-offering were put all upon the fire at once, it could not be burning all night. We may therefore reasonably conclude that the priests sat up by turns the whole night, and fed the fire with portions of this offering till the whole was consumed, which they would take care to lengthen out till the time of the morning sacrifice. The same we may suppose was done with the morning sacrifice; it was also consumed by piecemeal through the whole day, till the time of offering the evening sacrifice. Thus there was a continual offering by fire unto the Lord; and hence in [Lev 6:13] it is said: The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar, it shall never go out. If at any time any extraordinary offerings were to be made, the daily sacrifice was consumed more speedily, in order to make room for such extra offerings. See more on this subject in Clarke's note on [Lev 6:23] (note). The Hebrew doctors teach that no sacrifice was ever offered in the morning before the morning sacrifice; and none, the passover excepted, ever offered in the evening after the evening sacrifice; for all sacrifices were made by day-light. The fat seems to have been chiefly burned in the night season, for the greater light and convenience of keeping the fire alive, which could not be so easily done in the night as in the day time.

### Verse 11

[¶38] And put on other garments - The priests approached the altar in their holiest garments; when carrying the ashes, etc., from the altar, they put on other garments, the holy garments being only used in the holy place.

[¶39] Clean place - A place where no dead carcasses, dung, or filth of any kind was laid; for the ashes were holy, as being the remains of the offerings made by fire unto the Lord.

### Verse 13

[¶41] The fire shall ever be burning - See on [Lev 6:9] (note) and [Lev 6:20] (note). In imitation of this perpetual fire, the ancient Persian Magi, and their descendants the Parses, kept up a perpetual fire; the latter continue it to the present day. This is strictly enjoined in the Zend Avesta, which is a code of laws as sacred among them as the Pentateuch is among the Jews. A Sagnika Brahmin preserves the fire that was kindled at his investiture with the poita, and never suffers it to go out, using the same fire at his wedding and in all his burnt-offerings, till at length his body is burnt with it - Ward's Customs.

### Verse 14

[¶43] The meat-offering - See Clarke on [Lev 2:1] (note), etc.

## 130. Leviticus · 6 of 27

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### Verse 15

[¶1] His handful of the flour - An omer of flour, which was the tenth part of an ephah, and equal to about three quarts of our measure, was the least quantity that could be offered even by the poorest sort, and this was generally accompanied with a log of oil, which was a little more than half a pint. This quantity both of flour and oil might be increased at pleasure, but no less could be offered.

### Verse 20

[¶3] In the day when he is anointed - Not only in that day, but from that day forward, for this was to them and their successors a statute for ever. See [Lev 6:22].

### Verse 23

[¶5] For every meat-offering for the priest shall be wholly burnt - Whatever the priest offered was wholly the Lord's, and therefore must be entirely consumed: the sacrifices of the common people were offered to the Lord, but the priests partook of them; and thus they who ministered at the altar were fed by the altar. Had the priests been permitted to live on their own offerings as they did on those of the people, it would have been as if they had offered nothing, as they would have taken again to themselves what they appeared to give unto the Lord. Theodoret says that this marked "the high perfection which God required in the ministers of his sanctuary," as his not eating of his own sin-offering supposes him to stand free from all sin; but a better reason is given by Mr. Ainsworth: "The people's meat-offering was eaten by the priests that made atonement for them, [Lev 6:15], [Lev 6:16], [Lev 7:7]; but because no priest, being a sinner, could make atonement for himself, therefore his meat-offering might not be eaten, but all burnt on the altar, to teach him to expect salvation, not by his legal service or works, but by Christ; for the eating of the sin-offering figured the bearing of the sinner's iniquity;" [Lev 10:17].

### Verse 25

[¶7] In the place where the burnt-offering is killed, etc. - The place here referred to was the north side of the altar. See [Lev 1:11].

### Verse 26

[¶9] The priest - shall eat it - From the expostulation of Moses with Aaron, [Lev 10:17], we learn that the priest, by eating the sin-offering of the people, was considered as bearing their sin, and typically removing it from them: and besides, this was a part of their maintenance, or what the Scripture calls their inheritance; see [Eze 44:27-30]. This was afterwards greatly abused; for improper persons endeavored to get into the priest's office merely that they might get a secular provision, which is a horrible profanity in the sight of God. See [1Sam 2:36]; [Jer 23:12]; [Eze 34:2-4]; and [Hos 4:8].

### Verse 27

[¶11] Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy - The following note of Mr. Ainsworth is not less judicious than it is pious: - "All this rite was peculiar to the sin-offering, (whether it were that which was to be eaten, or that which was to be burnt), above all the other most holy things. As the sin-offering in special sort figured Christ, who was made sin for us, ([2Cor 5:21]), so this ordinance for all that touched the flesh of the sin-offering to be holy, the garments sprinkled with the blood to be washed, the vessels wherein the flesh was boiled to be broken, or scoured and rinsed - taught a holy use of this mystery of our redemption, whereof they that are made partakers ought to be washed, cleansed, and sanctified by the Spirit of God; that we possess our vessels in holiness and honor, and yield not our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin," [1Thes 4:4]; [Rom 6:13].

### Verse 28

[¶13] The earthen vessel - shall be broken - Calmet states that this should be considered as implying the vessels brought by individuals to the court of the temple or tabernacle, and not of the vessels that belonged to the priests for the ordinary service. That the people dressed their sacrifices sometimes in the court of the tabernacle, he gathers from [1Sam 2:13], [1Sam 2:14], to which the reader is desired to refer. In addition to what has been already said on the different subjects in this chapter, it may be necessary to notice a few more particulars. The perpetual meat-offering, מנחה תמיד minchah tamid, [Lev 6:20], the perpetual fire, אש תמיד esh tamid, [Lev 6:13], and the perpetual burnt-offering, עלת תמיד olath tamid, [Exo 29:42], translated by the Septuagint θυσια διαπαντος, πυο διαπαντος, and ὁλοκαυτωσις and ὁλοκαυτωμα διαπαντος, all cast much light on [Heb 7:25], where it is said, Christ is able to save them to the uttermost (εις το παντελες, perpetually, to all intents and purposes) that come unto God by him; seeing he ever liveth (παντοτε ζων, he is perpetually living) to make intercession for them; in which words there is a manifest allusion to the perpetual minchah, the perpetual fire, and the perpetual burnt-offering, mentioned here by Moses. As the minchah, or gratitude-offering should be perpetual, so our gratitude for the innumerable mercies of God should be perpetual. As the burnt-offering must be perpetual, so should the sacrifice of our blessed Lord be considered as a perpetual offering, that all men, in all ages, should come unto God through him who is ever living, in his sacrificial character, to make intercession for men; and who is therefore represented even in the heavens as the Lamb just slain, standing before the throne, [Rev 5:6]; [Heb 10:19-22]. And as the fire on the altar must be perpetual, so should the influences of the Holy Spirit in every member of the Church, and the flame of pure devotion in the hearts of believers, be ever energetic and permanent. A continual sacrifice for continual successive generations of sinners was essentially necessary. Continual influences of the Holy Spirit on the souls of men were essentially necessary to apply and render effectual this atonement, to the salvation of the soul. And incessant gratitude for the ineffable love of God, manifested by his unspeakable gift, is surely required of all those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Reader, dost thou feel thy obligations to thy Maker? Does the perpetual fire burn on the altar of thy heart? Art thou ever looking unto Jesus, and beholding, by faith, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world? And dost thou feel the influences of his Spirit, at all times witnessing with thy spirit that thou art his child, and exciting thee to acts of gratitude and obedience? If not, of what benefit has the religion of Christ been to thee to the present day? Of a contrary state to that referred to above, it may be well said, This is not the way to heaven, for the way of life is above to the wise, that they may depart from the snares of death beneath. Arise, therefore, and shake thyself from the dust; and earnestly call upon the Lord thy God, that he may save thy soul, and that thou fall not into the bitter pains of an eternal death.

### Introduction

[¶15] The law of the trespass-offering, and the priest's portion in it, [Lev 7:1-7]. As also in the sin-offerings and meat-offerings, [Lev 7:8-10]. The law of the sacrifice of peace-offering, [Lev 7:11], whether it was a thanksgiving - offering, [Lev 7:12-15]; or a Vow or voluntary offering, [Lev 7:16-18]. Concerning the flesh that touched any unclean thing, [Lev 7:19], [Lev 7:20], and the person who touched any thing unclean, [Lev 7:21]. Laws concerning eating of fat, [Lev 7:22-25], and concerning eating of blood, [Lev 7:26], [Lev 7:27]. Farther ordinances concerning the peace-offerings and the priest's portion in them, [Lev 7:28-36]. Conclusion of the laws and ordinances relative to burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, sin-offerings, and peace-offerings, delivered in this and the preceding chapters, [Lev 7:37], [Lev 7:38].

### Verse 1

[¶17] Trespass-offering - See end of the chapter at [Lev 7:38] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶19] In the place where they kill the burnt-offering - viz., on the north side of the altar, [Lev 1:11].

### Verse 3

[¶21] The rump - See Clarke's note on [Lev 3:9], where the principal subjects in this chapter are explained, being nearly the same in both.

### Verse 4

[¶23] The fat that is on them - Chiefly the fat that was found in a detached state, not mixed with the muscles; such as the omentum or caul, the fat of the mesentery, the fat about the kidneys, etc. See Clarke's note on [Lev 3:9], etc.

### Verse 8

[¶25] The priest shall have to himself the skin - Bishop Patrick supposes that this right of the priest to the skin commenced with the offering of Adam, "for it is probable," says he, "that Adam himself offered the first sacrifice, and had the skin given him by God to make garments for him and his wife; in conformity to which the priests ever after had the skin of the whole burnt-offerings for their portion, which was a custom among the Gentiles as well as the Jews, who gave the skins of their sacrifices to their priests, when they were not burnt with the sacrifices, as in some sin-offerings they were among the Jews, see [Lev 4:11]. And they employed them to a superstitious use, by lying upon them in their temples, in hopes to have future things revealed to them in their dreams.

[¶26] Of this we have a proof in Virgil, Aen. lib. vii., ver. 86-95. " - huc dona sacerdos

[¶27] Cum tulit, et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti

[¶28] Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnosque petivit;

[¶29] Multa modus simulncra videt volitantia miris,

[¶30] Et varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum

[¶31] Colloquio, atque imis Acheronta affatur Avernis.

[¶32] Hic et tum pater ipse petens responsa Latinus

[¶33] Centum lanigeras mactabat rite bidentes,

[¶34] Atque harum effultus tergo stratisque jacebat

[¶35] Velleribus. Subita ex alto vox reddita luco est."

[¶36] First, on the fleeces of the slaughter'd sheep

[¶37] By night the sacred priest dissolves in sleep,

[¶38] When in a train, before his slumbering eye,

[¶39] Thin airy forms and wondrous visions fly.

[¶40] He calls the powers who guard the infernal floods,

[¶41] And talks, inspired, familiar with the gods.

[¶42] To this dread oracle the prince withdrew,

[¶43] And first a hundred sheep the monarch slew;

[¶44] Then on their fleeces lay; and from the wood

[¶45] He heard, distinct, these accents of the god. - Pitt.

## 131. Leviticus · 7 of 27

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[¶0] The same superstition, practiced precisely in the same way and for the same purposes, prevail to the present day in the Highlands of Scotland, as the reader may see from the following note of Sir Walter Scott, in his Lady of the Lake: - "The Highlanders of Scotland, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the togharm. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain bullock, and deposited beside a water-fall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the question proposed; and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination, passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits who haunt these desolate recesses. One way of consulting this oracle was by a party of men, who first retired to solitary places, remote from any house, and there they singled out one of their number, and wrapt him in a big cow's hide, which they folded about him; his whole body was covered with it except his head, and so left in this posture all night, until his invisible friends relieved him by giving a proper answer to the question in hand; which he received, as he fancied, from several persons that he found about him all that time. His consorts returned to him at day-break; and then he communicated his news to them, which often proved fatal to those concerned in such unwarrantable inquiries. "Mr. Alexander Cooper, present minister of North Virt, told me that one John Erach, in the Isle of Lewis, assured him it was his fate to have been led by his curiosity with some who consulted this oracle, and that he was a night within the hide above mentioned, during which time he felt and heard such terrible things that he could not express them: the impression made on him was such as could never go off; and he said, for a thousand worlds he would never again be concerned in the like performance, for it had disordered him to a high degree. He confessed it ingenuously, and with an air of great remorse, and seemed to be very penitent under a just sense of so great a crime: he declared this about five years since, and is still living in the Isle of Lewis for any thing I know." - Description of the Western Isles, p. 110. See also Pennant's Scottish Tour, vol. ii., p. 301; and Sir W. Scott's Lady of the Lake.

### Verse 9

[¶2] Baken in the oven - See Clarke's note on [Lev 2:5], etc.

### Verse 12

[¶4] If he offer it for a thanksgiving - See the notes at the end of this chapter at [Lev 7:38] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶6] He shall not leave any of it until the morning - Because in such a hot country it was apt to putrefy, and as it was considered to be holy, it would have been very improper to expose that to putrefaction which had been consecrated to the Divine Being. Mr. Harmer supposes that the law here refers rather to the custom of drying flesh which had been devoted to religious purposes, which is practiced among the Mohammedans to the present time. This, he thinks, might have given rise to the prohibition, as the sacred flesh thus preserved might have been abused to superstitious purposes. Therefore God says, [Lev 7:18], "If any of the flesh of the sacrifice - be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it; it is an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity." That is, on Mr. Harmer's hypothesis, This sacred flesh shall avail nothing to him that eats it after the first or second day on which it is offered; however consecrated before, it shall not be considered sacred after that time. See Harmer's Obs., vol. i., p. 394, edit. 1808.

### Verse 20

[¶8] Having his uncleanness upon him - Having touched any unclean thing by which he became legally defiled, and had not washed his clothes, and bathed his flesh.

### Verse 21

[¶10] The uncleanness of man - Any ulcer, sore, or leprosy; or any sort of cutaneous disorder, either loathsome or infectious.

### Verse 23

[¶12] Fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat - Any other fat they might eat, but the fat of these was sacred, because they were the only animals which were offered in sacrifice, though many others ranked among the clean animals as well as these. But it is likely that this prohibition is to be understood of these animals when offered in sacrifice, and then only in reference to the inward fat, as mentioned on [Lev 7:4]. Of the fat in any other circumstances it cannot be intended, as it was one of the especial blessings which God gave to the people. Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with Fat of Lambs, and Rams of the breed of Bashan, and Goats, were the provision that he gave to his followers. See [Deu 32:12-14].

### Verse 27

[¶14] Whatsoever soul - that eateth any manner of blood - See Clarke's note on [Gen 9:4]. Shall be cut off - excommunicated from the people of God, and so deprived of any part in their inheritance, and in their blessings. See Clarke's note on [Gen 17:14].

### Verse 29

[¶16] Shall bring his oblation - Meaning those things which were given out of the peace-offerings to the Lord and to the priest - Ainsworth.

### Verse 30

[¶18] Wave-offering - See Clarke on [Exo 29:27] (note).

### Verse 32

[¶20] The right shoulder - See Clarke on [Exo 29:27] (note).

### Verse 36

[¶22] In the day that he anointed them - See Clarke's note on [Exo 40:15].

### Verse 38

[¶24] In the wilderness of Sinai - These laws were probably given to Moses while he was on the mount with God; the time was quite sufficient, as he was there with God not less than fourscore days in all; forty days at the giving, and forty days at the renewing of the law. As in the course of this book the different kinds of sacrifices commanded to be offered are repeatedly occurring, I think it best, once for all, to give a general account of them, and a definition of the original terms, as well as of all others relative to this subject which are used in the Old Testament, and the reference in which they all stood to the great sacrifice offered by Christ.

[¶25] 1. אשם Asham, Trespass-offering, from אשם asham, to be guilty, or liable to punishment; for in this sacrifice the guilt was considered as being transferred to the animal offered up to God, and the offerer redeemed from the penalty of his sin, [Lev 7:37]. Christ is said to have made his soul an offering for sin, (אשם), [Isa 53:10].

[¶26] 2. אשה Ishsheh, Fire-offering, probably from אשש ashash, to be grieved, angered, inflamed; either pointing out the distressing nature of sin, or its property of incensing Divine justice against the offender, who, in consequence, deserving burning for his offense, made use of this sacrifice to be freed from the punishment due to his transgression. It occurs [Exo 29:18], and in many places of this book.

[¶27] 3. הבהבים Habhabim, Iterated Or Repeated offerings, from יהב yahab, to supply. The word occurs only in [Hos 8:13], and probably means no more than the continual repetition of the accustomed offerings, or continuation of each part of the sacred service.

[¶28] 4. זבח Zebach, A Sacrifice, (in Chaldee, דבח debach, the ז zain being changed into ד daleth), a creature slain in sacrifice, from זבח zabach, to slay; hence the altar on which such sacrifices were offered was termed מזבח mizbeach, the place of sacrifice. See Clarke's note on [Gen 8:20]. Zebach is a common name for sacrifices in general.

[¶29] 5. חג Chag, a festival, especially such as had a periodical return, from חגג chagag, to celebrate a festival, to dance round and round in circles. See [Exo 5:1]; [Exo 12:24]. The circular dance was probably intended to point out the revolution of the heavenly bodies, and the exact return of the different seasons. See Parkhurst.

[¶30] 6. חטאת Chattath and חטאה Chattaah, Sin-offering, from חטא chata, to miss the mark; it also signifies sin in general, and is a very apt term to express its nature by. A sinner is continually aiming at and seeking happiness; but as he does not seek it in God, hence the Scripture represents him as missing his aim, or missing the mark. This is precisely the meaning of the Greek word ἁμαρτια, translated sin and sin-offering in our version; and this is the term by which the Hebrew word is translated both by the Septuagint and the inspired writers of the New Testament. The sin-offering was at once an acknowledgment of guilt, in having forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns that could hold none; and also of the firm purpose of the offerer to return to God, the true and pure fountain of blessedness. This word often occurs. See Clarke's note on [Gen 4:7]. See Clarke's note on [Gen 13:13].

[¶31] 7. כפר Copher, the Expiation or Atonement, from כפר caphar, to cover, to smear over, or obliterate, or annul a contract. Used often to signify the atonement or expiation made for the pardon or cancelling of iniquity. See Clarke's note on [Exo 25:17].

[¶32] 8. מועד Moed, an Appointed annual festival, from יעד yaad, to appoint or constitute, signifying such feasts as were instituted in commemoration of some great event or deliverance, such as the deliverance from Egypt. See [Exo 13:10], and thus differing from the chag mentioned above. See Clarke's note on [Gen 1:14].

[¶33] 9. מלאים Milluim, Consecrations or consecration-offerings, from מלא mala, to fill; those offerings made in consecrations, of which the priests partook, or, in the Hebrew phrase, had their hands filled, or which had filled the hands of them that offered them. See Clarke's note on [Exo 29:19]; and see [2Chr 13:9].

[¶34] 10. מנחה Minchah, Meat-offering, from נח nach, to rest, settle after toil. It generally consisted of things without life, such as green ears of corn, full ears of corn, flour, oil, and frankincense; (see on [Lev 2:1] (note), etc.); and may be considered as having its name from that rest from labor and toil which a man had when the fruits of the autumn were brought in, or when, in consequence of obtaining any rest, ease, etc., a significant offering or sacrifice was made to God. It often occurs. See Clarke's note on [Gen 4:3]. The jealousy-offering ([Num 5:15]) was a simple minchah, consisting of barley-meal only.

[¶35] 11. מסך Mesech and ממסך Mimsach, a Mixture-offering, or Mixed Libation, called a Drink-offering, [Isa 55:11], from מסך masach, to mingle; it seems in general to mean old wine mixed with the less, which made it extremely intoxicating. This offering does not appear to have had any place in the worship of the true God; but from [Isa 65:11], and [Pro 23:30], it seems to have been used for idolatrous purposes, such as the Bacchanalia among the Greeks and Romans, "when all got drunk in honor of the god."

[¶36] 12. משאת Masseeth, an Oblation, things carried to the temple to be presented to God, from נשא nasa, to bear or carry, to bear sin; typically, [Exo 28:38]; [Lev 10:17]; [Lev 16:21]; really, [Isa 53:4], [Isa 53:12]. The sufferings and death of Christ were the true masseeth or vicarious bearing of the sins of mankind, as the passage in Isaiah above referred to sufficiently proves. See this alluded to by the Evangelist John, [Joh 1:29] (note); and see the root in Parkhurst.

[¶37] 13. נדבה Nedabah, Free-Will, or voluntary offering; from נדב nadab, to be free, liberal, princely. An offering not commanded, but given as a particular proof of extraordinary gratitude to God for especial mercies, or on account of some vow or engagement voluntarily taken, [Lev 7:16].

[¶38] 14. נסך Nesech, Libation, Or Drink-offering, from נסך nasach, to diffuse or pour out. Water or wine poured out at the conclusion or confirmation of a treaty or covenant. To this kind of offering there is frequent allusion and reference in the New Testament, as it typified the blood of Christ poured out for the sin of the world; and to this our Lord himself alludes in the institution of the holy eucharist. The whole Gospel economy is represented as a covenant or treaty between God and man, Jesus Christ being not only the mediator, but the covenant sacrifice, whose blood was poured out for the ratification and confirmation of this covenant or agreement between God and man.

[¶39] 15. עלה and עולה Olah, Burnt-offering, from עלה alah, to ascend, because this offering, as being wholly consumed, ascended as it were to God in smoke and vapor. It was a very expressive type of the sacrifice of Christ, as nothing less than his complete and full sacrifice could make atonement for the sin of the world. In most other offerings the priest, and often the offerer, had a share, but in the whole burnt-offering all was given to God.

[¶40] 16. קטרת Ketoreth, Incense Or Perfume-offering, from קטר katar, to burn, i. e., the frankincense, and other aromatics used as a perfume in different parts of the Divine service. To this St. Paul compares the agreeableness of the sacrifice of Christ to God, [Eph 5:2] : Christ hath given himself for us, an offering - to God for a Sweet-Smelling savor. From [Rev 5:8] we learn that it was intended also to represent the prayers of the saints, which, offered up on the altar, Christ Jesus, that sanctifies every gift, are highly pleasing in the sight of God.

[¶41] 17. קרבן Korban, the Gift-offering, from קרב karab to draw nigh or approach. See this explained on [Lev 1:2] (note). Korban was a general name for any kind of offering, because through these it was supposed a man had access to his Maker.

[¶42] 18. שלמים Shelamim, Peace-offering, from שלם shalam, to complete, make whole; for by these offerings that which was lacking was considered as being now made up, and that which was broken, viz., the covenant of God, by his creatures' transgression, was supposed to be made whole; so that after such an offering, the sincere and conscientious mind had a right to consider that the breach was made up between God and it, and that it might lay confident hold on this covenant of peace. To this the apostle evidently alludes, [Eph 2:14-19] : He is our peace, (i. e. our shalam or peace-offering), who has made both one, and broken down the middle wall; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, etc. See the whole passage, and see Clarke's note on [Gen 14:18].

[¶43] 19. תודה Todah, Thank-offering, from ידה yadah, to confess; offerings made to God with public confession of his power, goodness, mercy, etc.

[¶44] 20. תנופה Tenuphah, Wave-offering, from נף naph, to stretch out; an offering of the first-fruits stretched out before God, in acknowledgment of his providential goodness. This offering was moved from the right hand to the left. See Clarke's note on [Exo 29:27].

## 132. Leviticus · 8 of 27

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[¶0] 21. תרומה Terumah, Heave-offering, from רם ram, to lift up, because the offering was lifted up towards heaven, as the wave - offering, in token of the kindness of God in granting rain and fruitful seasons, and filling the heart with food and gladness. As the wave-offering was moved from right to left, so the heave-offering was moved up and down; and in both cases this was done several times. These offerings had a blessed tendency to keep alive in the breasts of the people a due sense of their dependence on the Divine providence and bounty, and of their obligation to God for his continual and liberal supply of all their wants. See Clarke's note on [Exo 29:27].

[¶1] In the above collection are comprised, as far as I can recollect, an explanation of all the terms used in the Hebrew Scriptures which signify sacrifice, oblation, atonement, offering, etc., etc., as well as the reference they bear to the great and only sufficient atonement, sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction made by Christ Jesus for the sins of mankind. Larger accounts must be sought in authors who treat professedly on these subjects.

### Introduction

[¶3] Moses is commanded to consecrate Aaron and his sons, [Lev 8:1-3]. Moses convenes the congregation; washes, clothes, and anoints Aaron, [Lev 8:4-12]. He also clothes Aaron's sons, [Lev 8:13]. Offers a bullock for them as a sin-offering, [Lev 8:14-17]. And a ram for a burnt-offering, [Lev 8:18-21]. And another ram for a consecration-offering, [Lev 8:22-24]. The fat, with cakes of unleavened bread, and the right shoulder of the ram, he offers as a wave-offering, and afterwards burns, [Lev 8:25-28]. The breast, which was the part of Moses, he also waves, [Lev 8:29]. And sprinkles oil and blood upon Aaron and his sons, [Lev 8:30]. The flesh of the consecration ram is to be boiled and eaten at the door of the tabernacle, [Lev 8:31], [Lev 8:32]. Moses commands Aaron and his sons to abide seven days at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, which they do accordingly, [Lev 8:33-36].

### Verse 2

[¶5] Take Aaron and his sons - The whole subject of this chapter has been anticipated in the notes, [Exo 28:1] (note), etc., and [Exo 29:1] (note), etc., in which all the sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies have been explained in considerable detail; and to those notes the reader is referred. It is only necessary to observe that Aaron and his sons were not anointed until now. Before, the thing was commanded; now, first performed.

### Verse 8

[¶7] He put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim - The Urim and Thummim are here supposed to be something different from the breastplate itself. See Clarke's note on [Exo 28:15], See Clarke's note on [Exo 28:16], See Clarke's note on [Exo 28:30].

### Verse 9

[¶9] And he put the mitre - See Clarke's note on [Exo 28:36].

### Verse 14

[¶11] The bullock for the sin-offering - This was offered each day during the seven days of consecration. See [Exo 29:36].

### Verse 23

[¶13] Put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, etc. - See this significant ceremony explained in the note on [Exo 29:20] (note). Calmet remarks that the consecration of the high priest among the Romans bore a considerable resemblance to the consecration of the Jewish high priest. "The Roman priest, clothed with a garment of silk, his head covered with a crown of gold adorned with sacred ribbons, was conducted into a subterranean place, over which there was a floor of planks pierced through with many holes. On this floor they sacrificed a bullock, whose blood was freely poured out on the planks or floor, which running through the holes fell upon the priest, who stood under to receive this sacred aspersion, and who, in order to be completely covered with the blood, took care to present the whole of his body, his clothes, face, eyes, nose, lips, and even his tongue, to receive the drops of blood falling through the pierced floor above. Being completely covered with this sanguineous shower, he ascended from his subterranean place, and was acknowledged and adored by the people as Pontifex Maximus, or supreme high priest." These rites, which bear a striking allusion to those used in the consecration of Aaron, and from which they were probably borrowed, and disguised by the introduction of their own superstitions, are particularly described by Aurelius Prudentius, in his poem entitled Romani Martyris Supplicium, from which I shall select those verses, the subject of which is given above, as the passage is curious, and the work not common. "Summus sacerdos nempe sub terram scrobe

[¶14] Acta in profundum consecrandus mergitur,

[¶15] Mire infulatus, festa vittis tempora

[¶16] Nectens, corona tum repexus aurea,

[¶17] Cinctu Gabino sericam fultus togam.

[¶18] Tabulis superne strata texunt pulpita,

[¶19] Rimosa rari pegmatis compagibus,

[¶20] Scindunt subinde vel terebrant aream,

[¶21] Crebroque lignum perforant acumine,

[¶22] Pateat minutis ut frequens hiatibus -

[¶23] Hic ut statuta est immolanda bellua,

[¶24] Pectus sacrata dividunt venabulo,

[¶25] Eructat amplum volnus undam sanguinis - etc.

[¶26] Tum per frequentes mille rimarum vias

[¶27] Illapsus imber, tabidum rorem pluit,

[¶28] Defossus intus quem sacerdos excipit,

[¶29] Guttas ad omnes turpe subjectans caput,

[¶30] Et veste et omni putrefactus corpore:

[¶31] Quin os supinat, obvias offert genas

[¶32] Supponit aures, labra, nares objicit,

[¶33] Oculos et ipsos perluit liquoribus,

[¶34] Nec jam palato parcit, et linguam rigat,

[¶35] Donec cruorem totus atrum combibat -

[¶36] Procedit inde pontifex vlsu horridus - etc.

[¶37] Omnes salutant atque adorant eminus,

[¶38] Vilis quod illum sanguls, et bos mortuus

[¶39] Foedis latentem sub cavernis laverint."

[¶40] Of these lines the reader will not be displeased to find the following poetical version: - "For when, with sacred pomp and solemn state,

[¶41] Their great high priest the Romans consecrate,

[¶42] His silken vest in Gabine cincture bound,

[¶43] A festal fillet twines his temples round:

[¶44] And, while aloft the gorgeous mitre shines,

## 133. Leviticus · 9 of 27

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[¶0] His awful brow a golden crown confines.

[¶1] In a deep dyke, for mystic ritual made,

[¶2] He stands, surrounded with terrific shade.

[¶3] High o'er his holy head a stage they place,

[¶4] Adorn with paintings, and with statues grace;

[¶5] Then with keen piercers perforate the floor,

[¶6] Till thronging apertures admit no more.

[¶7] Thither the victim ox is now convey'd,

[¶8] To glut the vengeance of the thirsty blade.

[¶9] The sacred spear his sturdy throat divides,

[¶10] Down, instant streaming, gush the gory tides,

[¶11] Through countless crevices the gaping wood

[¶12] Distils corrupted dew and smoking blood;

[¶13] Drop after drop, in swift succession shed,

[¶14] Falls on the holy pontiff's mitred head;

[¶15] While, to imbibe the sanctifying power,

[¶16] His outspread garments drink the crimson shower;

[¶17] Then on his back in reeking streams he lies,

[¶18] And laves in livid blood his lips and eyes;

[¶19] Bares every limb, exposes every pore,

[¶20] To catch the virtue of the streaming gore;

[¶21] With open mouth expects the falling flood,

[¶22] Moistens his palate and his tongue with blood;

[¶23] Extends his ears to meet the sanguine rain,

[¶24] Nor lets a single drop descend in vain.

[¶25] Then from the gloomy cave comes forth to light,

[¶26] Bathed in black blood, and horrible to sight! -

[¶27] By the vile torrent, and the victim slain,

[¶28] In the dark cavern cleansed from mortal stain,

[¶29] Their priest, enveloped in atoning gore,

[¶30] With trembling awe surrounding throngs adore."

[¶31] Prudentius was born about the middle of the fourth century, and was no doubt intimately acquainted with the circumstances he describes.

### Verse 27

[¶33] And waved them for a wave-offering - See the nature of this and the heave-offering in the note on [Exo 29:27] (note).

### Verse 30

[¶35] And Moses took - the blood - and sprinkled it upon Aaron, etc. - Thus we find that the high priest himself must be sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice; and our blessed Lord, of whom Aaron was a type, was sprinkled with his own blood.

[¶36] 1. In his agony in the garden.

[¶37] 2. In his being crowned with thorns.

[¶38] 3. In the piercing of his hands and his feet. And,

[¶39] 4. In his side being pierced with the spear. All these were so many acts of atonement performed by the high priest.

### Verse 33

[¶41] For seven days shall he consecrate you - This number was the number of perfection among the Hebrews; and the seven days' consecration implied a perfect and full consecration to the sacerdotal office. See Clarke's note on [Exo 29:30].

### Verse 36

[¶43] So Aaron and his sons did - This chapter shows the exact fulfillment of the commands delivered to Moses, Exodus 29; and consequently the complete preparation of Aaron and his sons to fill the awfully important office of priests and mediators between God and Israel, to offer sacrifices and make atonement for the sins of the people. "Thus," says Mr. Ainsworth, "the covenant of the priesthood was confirmed unto the tribe of Levi in Aaron and his sons, which covenant was life and peace, [Mal 2:5]. But these are made priests without an oath; also, there were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death; and they served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, offering gifts and sacrifices which could not make him who did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience; for they were carnal ordinances imposed upon them till the time of reformation, that is, until the time of Christ, who was made a priest of God with an oath, and made surety of a better covenant established on better promises. And because he continueth for ever, he hath a priesthood which passeth not from one to another, and is a minister of the true tabernacle, which God pitched and not man. Not by the blood of bulls and of goats, but by his own blood, he entered once into the holy place, having found everlasting redemption for us; and is therefore able to save to the uttermost them who come unto God through him, as he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Taken in reference to his priesthood and sacrifice, all these rites and ceremonies are significant and edifying, but taken out of his relation, they would be as absurd and nugatory as the consecration of the Roman Pontifex Maximus, mentioned above by Prudentius.

## 134. Leviticus · 10 of 27

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### Introduction

[¶1] Aaron is commanded to offer, on the eighth day, a sin-offering and a burnt-offering, [Lev 9:1], [Lev 9:2]. The people are commanded also to offer a sin-offering, a burnt-offering, peace-offerings, and a meat-offering, [Lev 9:3], [Lev 9:4]. They do as they were commanded; and Moses promises that God shall appear among them, [Lev 9:5], [Lev 9:6]. Aaron is commanded to make an atonement for the people, [Lev 9:7]. He and his sons prepare and offer the different sacrifices, [Lev 9:8-21]. Aaron and Moses bless the congregation, [Lev 9:22], [Lev 9:23]. And the fire of the Lord consumes the sacrifice, [Lev 9:24].

### Verse 1

[¶3] On the eighth day - This was the first day after their consecration, before which they were deemed unfit to minister in holy things, being considered as in a state of imperfection. "All creatures," says Ainsworth, "for the most part were in their uncleanness and imperfection seven days, and perfected on the eighth; as children by circumcision, [Lev 12:2], [Lev 12:3]; young beasts for sacrifice, [Lev 22:27]; persons that were unclean by leprosies, issues, and the like, [Lev 14:8-10]; [Lev 15:13], [Lev 15:14]; [Num 6:9], [Num 6:10]. So here, the priests, until the eighth day, were not admitted to minister in their office."

### Verse 2

[¶5] Take thee a young calf, etc. - As these sacrifices were for Aaron himself, they are furnished by himself and not by the people, for they were designed to make atonement for his own sin. See [Lev 4:3]. And this is supposed by the Jews to have been intended to make an atonement for his sin in the matter of the golden calf. This is very probable, as no formal atonement for that transgression had yet been made.

### Verse 3

[¶7] Take ye a kid - In [Lev 4:14] a young bullock is commanded to be offered for the sin of the people; but here the offering is a kid, which was the sacrifice appointed for the sin of the ruler, [Lev 4:22], [Lev 4:23], and hence some think that the reading of the Samaritan and the Septuagint is to be preferred. Speak unto the Elders of Israel, these being the only princes or rulers of Israel at that time; and for them it is possible this sacrifice was designed. It is however supposed that the sacrifice appointed [Lev 4:14] was for a particular sin, but this for sin in general; and that it is on this account that the sacrifices differ.

### Verse 6

[¶9] And the glory of the Lord shall appear - God shall give the most sensible signs of his presence among you; this he did in general by the cloud on the tabernacle, but in this case the particular proof was the fire that came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt-offering; see [Lev 9:23], [Lev 9:24].

### Verse 7

[¶11] Make an atonement for thyself - This showed the imperfection of the Levitical law; the high priest was obliged to make an expiation for his own sins before he could make one for the sins of the people. See the use made of this by the apostle, [Heb 5:3]; [Heb 7:27]; [Heb 9:7].

### Verse 22

[¶13] And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them - On lifting up the hands in prayer, see [Exo 9:29]. The form of the blessing we have in [Num 6:23], etc.: "The Lord bless thee and keep thee! The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace!" See the notes on these passages [Exo 9:29] (note), and [Num 6:23] (note).

[¶14] And came down from offering of the sin-offering, etc. - A sin-offering, a burnt-offering, a meat-offering, and peace-offerings, were made to God that his glory might appear to the whole congregation. This was the end of all sacrifice and religious service; not to confer any obligation on God, but to make an atonement for sin, and to engage him to dwell among and influence his worshippers.

### Verse 23

[¶16] Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle - It is supposed that Moses accompanied Aaron into the tabernacle to show him how to offer the incense, prepare the lamps and the perfume, adjust the shew-bread, etc., etc.

[¶17] And the glory of the Lord appeared - To show that every thing was done according to the Divine mind,

[¶18] 1. The glory of Jehovah appears unto all the people;

[¶19] 2. A fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt-offering. This was the proof which God gave upon extraordinary occasions of his acceptance of the sacrifice. This was done probably, 1. In the case of Abel, [Gen 4:4]. 2. In the case of Aaron; see above, [Lev 9:24].

[¶20] 3. In the case of Gideon, [Jdg 6:21].

[¶21] 4. In the case of Manoah and his wife. Compare [Jdg 13:19-23].

[¶22] 5. In the case of David dedicating the threshing-floor of Ornan, [1Chr 21:28].

[¶23] 6. In the case of Solomon dedicating the temple, [2Chr 7:1].

[¶24] 7. In the case of Elijah, [1Kgs 18:38].

[¶25] Hence to express the accepting of an offering, sacrifice, etc., the verb דשן dishshen is used, which signifies to reduce to ashes, i. e., by fire from heaven. See [Psa 20:3]. In such a case as this, it was necessary that the fire should appear to be divinely sent, and should come in such a way as to preclude the supposition that any art or deceit had been practiced on the occasion. Hence it is not intimated that Moses and Aaron brought it out of the tabernacle, professing that God had kindled it there for them, but the fire Came Out from Before the Lord, and All the People Saw it. The victims were consumed by a fire evidently of no human kindling. Josephus says that "a fire proceeded from the victims themselves of its own accord, which had the appearance of a flash of lightning;" εξ αυτων πυρ ανηφθη αυτοματον, και ὁμοιον αστραπης λαμπηδονι ὁρωμενον τῃ φλογι· "and consumed, all that was upon the altar." - Antiq., lib. iii., c. 8, s. 6, edit. Haverc. And it is very likely that by the agency of the ethereal or electric spark, sent immediately from the Divine presence, the victims were consumed. The heathens, in order to give credit to their worship, imitated this miracle, and pretended that Jupiter testified his approbation of the sacrifices offered to him by thunder and lightning: to this Virgil seems to allude, though the words have been understood differently.

[¶26] Audiat haec genitor, qui foedera fulmine sancit.

[¶27] Aen. xii., ver. 200. "Let Jupiter hear, who sanctions covenants by his thunder."

[¶28] On which words Servius makes this remarkable comment: Quia cum fiunt foedera, si coruscatio fuerit, confirmantur. Vel certe quia apud majores arae non incendebantur, sed ignem divinum precibus eliciebant qui incendebant altaria. "To sanction the covenant signifies to confirm it; for when a covenant was made, if there were a flash of lightning, it was considered to be thereby confirmed: or rather because our Ancestors lighted no fire upon the altars, but obtained by their supplications divine fire," etc. The expression apud majores, "among our ancestors," shows that they could boast of no such divine fire then; nor could they ever before, as the whole account was borrowed from the Jews. Solinus Polyhistor gives us an account to the same effect; for, speaking of the hill of Vulcan in Sicily, he says: In quo, qui divinte rei operantur, ligna vitea super aras struunt, nec ignis apponitur in hanc congerlem: cum prosicias intulerunt, si adest deus, si sacrum probatur, sarmenta licet viridia sponte concipiunt, et nullo inflagrante halitu, ab ipso numine fit accendium, cap. v. in fine. "They who perform sacred rites in this place, put a bundle of vine-tree wood upon the altar, but put no fire to it; for when they lay the pieces of the victim upon it, if the deity be present, and he approve the sacrifice, the bundle, although of green wood, takes fire of itself, and without any other means the deity himself kindles the flame." These are remarkable instances, and show how exactly the heathen writers have borrowed from the sacred records. And in farther imitation of this miracle, they had their perpetual fire in the temple of Vesta, which they feigned to have descended at first from heaven, and which they kept with the most religious veneration.

### Verse 24

[¶30] When all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces -

[¶31] 1. The miracle was done in such a way as gave the fullest conviction to the people of its reality.

[¶32] 2. They exulted in the thought that the God of almighty power and energy had taken up his abode among them.

[¶33] 3. They prostrated themselves in his presence, thereby intimating the deep sense they had of His goodness, of their unworthiness, and of the obligation they were under to live in subjection to his authority, and obedience to his will -

[¶34] This celestial fire was carefully preserved among the Israelites till the time of Solomon, when it was renewed, and continued among them till the Babylonish captivity. This Divine fire was the emblem of the Holy Spirit. And as no sacrifice could be acceptable to God which was not salted, i. e., seasoned and rendered pleasing, by this fire, as our Lord says, [Mar 9:49], so no soul can offer acceptable sacrifices to God, but through the influences of the Divine Spirit. Hence the promise of the Spirit under the emblem of fire, [Mat 3:11], and its actual descent in this similitude on the day of pentecost, [Act 2:3], [Act 2:4].

[¶35] The most remarkable circumstance in this chapter is the manifestation of the presence of God, and the consuming of the victims by the miraculous fire. We have already seen that the chief design of these sacrificial rites was to obtain reconciliation to God, that the Divine Presence might dwell and be manifested among them. To encourage the people to make the necessary preparations, to offer the sacrifices in a proper spirit, and to expect especial mercies from the hand of God, Moses promises, [Lev 9:4], that the Lord would appear unto them on the morrow, and that his glory should appear, [Lev 9:6]. In hope or expectation of this, the priest, the elders, and the people purified themselves by offering the different sacrifices which God had appointed; and when this was done God did appear, and gave the fullest proofs of his approbation, by miraculously consuming the sacrifices which were prepared on the occasion. Does not St. John evidently refer to these circumstances, [1Jn 3:2], [1Jn 3:3] : "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; and every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure." This manifestation of God in the tabernacle was a type of his presence, first, in the Church militant on earth; and secondly, in the Church triumphant in heaven. They who expect to have the presence of God here, must propitiate his throne of justice by the only available sacrifice; they who wish to enjoy everlasting felicity, must be purified from all unrighteousness, for without holiness none can see the Lord. If we hope to see him as he is, we must resemble him. How vain is the expectation of glory, where there is no meetness for the place! And how can we enter into the holiest but by the blood of Jesus? [Heb 10:19]. And of what use can this sacrifice be to those who do not properly believe in it? And can any faith, even in that sacrifice, be effectual to salvation, that does not purify the heart? Reader! earnestly pray to God that thou hold not the truth in unrighteousness.

### Introduction

[¶37] Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire before the Lord, and are destroyed, [Lev 10:1-5]. Aaron and his family forbidden to mourn for them, [Lev 10:6], [Lev 10:7]. He and his family are forbidden the use of wine, [Lev 10:8-11]. Directions to Aaron and his sons concerning the eating of the meat-offerings, etc., [Lev 10:12-15]. Moses chides Aaron for not having eaten the sin-offering, [Lev 10:16-18]. Aaron excuses himself, and Moses is satisfied, [Lev 10:19], [Lev 10:20].

### Verse 1

[¶39] And Nadab and Abihu - took either of them his censer - The manner of burning incense in the temple service was, according to the Jews, as follows: - "One went and gathered the ashes from off the altar into a golden vessel, a second brought a vessel full of incense, and a third brought a censer with fire, and put coals on the altar, and he whose office it was to burn the incense strewed it on the fire at the command of the governor. At the same time all the people went out of the temple from between the porch and the altar. Each day they burned the weight of a hundred denaries of incense, fifty in the morning, and fifty in the evening. The hundred denaries weighed fifty shekels of the sanctuary, each shekel weighing three hundred and twenty barleycorns; and when the priest had burned the incense, he bowed himself down and went his way out. See Maimonides' Treatise of the Daily Service, chap. iii. So when Zacharias, as his lot fell, burned incense in the temple, the whole multitude of the people were without at prayer while the incense was burning, [Luk 1:9], [Luk 1:10]. By this service God taught them that the prayers of his faithful people are pleasing to him, whilst our High Priest, Christ Jesus, by his mediation puts incense to their prayers; (see [Psa 141:2]; [Rom 8:34]; [Heb 8:1], [Heb 8:2]; [Heb 9:24]; [Rev 8:3], [Rev 8:4]); for the priests under the law served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things; [Heb 8:5]." See Ainsworth in loco.

[¶40] In the preceding chapter we have seen how God intended that every part of his service should be conducted; and that every sacrifice might be acceptable to him, he sent his own fire as the emblem of his presence, and the means of consuming the sacrifice - Here we find Aaron's sons neglecting the Divine ordinance, and offering incense with strange, that is, common fire, - fire not of a celestial origin; and therefore the fire of God consumed them. So that very fire which, if properly applied, would have sanctified and consumed their gift, became now the very instrument of their destruction! How true is the saying, The Lord is a consuming fire! He will either hallow or destroy us: he will purify our souls by the influence of his Spirit, or consume them with the breath of his mouth! The tree which is properly planted in a good soil is nourished by the genial influences of the sun: pluck it up from its roots, and the sun which was the cause of its vegetative life and perfection now dries up its juices, decomposes its parts, and causes it to moulder into dust. Thus must it be done to those who grieve and do despite to the Spirit of God. Reader, hast thou this heavenly fire? Hear then the voice of God, Quench not the Spirit. Some critics are of opinion that the fire used by the sons of Aaron was the sacred fire, and that it is only called strange from the manner of placing the incense on it. I cannot see the force of this opinion.

[¶41] Which he commanded them not - Every part of the religion of God is Divine. He alone knew what he designed by its rites and ceremonies, for that which they prefigured - the whole economy of redemption by Christ - was conceived in his own mind, and was out of the reach of human wisdom and conjecture. He therefore who altered any part of this representative system, who omitted or added any thing, assumed a prerogative which belonged to God alone, and was certainly guilty of a very high offense against the wisdom, justice, and righteousness of his Maker. This appears to have been the sin of Nadab and Abihu, and this at once shows the reason why they were so severely punished. The most awful judgments are threatened against those who either add to, or take away from, the declarations of God. See [Deu 4:2]; [Pro 30:6]; and [Rev 22:18], [Rev 22:19].

### Verse 3

[¶43] And Aaron held his peace - וידם אהרן vaiyiddom Aharon, and Aaron was dumb. How elegantly expressive is this of his parental affection, his deep sense of the presumption of his sons, and his own submission to the justice of God! The flower and hope of his family was nipped in the bud and blasted; and while he exquisitely feels as a father, he submits without murmuring to this awful dispensation of Divine justice. It is an awful thing to introduce innovations either into the rites and ceremonies, or into the truths, of the religion of Christ: he who acts thus cannot stand guiltless before his God. It has often been remarked that excessive grief stupefies the mind, so that amazement and deep anguish prevent at once both tears and complaints; hence that saying of Seneca, Curae leves loquantur; graviores silent. "Slight sorrows are loquacious; deep anguish has no voice. See Clarke on [Lev 10:19] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶45] Uzziel the uncle of Aaron - He was brother to Amram the father of Aaron; see [Exo 6:18-22].

## 135. Leviticus · 11 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/135/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/135/#p-N

### Verse 5

[¶1] Carried them in their coats out of the camp - The modern impropriety of burying the dead within towns, cities, or places inhabited, had not yet been introduced; much less that abomination, at which both piety and common sense shudder, burying the dead about and even within places dedicated to the worship of God!

### Verse 6

[¶3] Uncover not your heads, etc. - They were to use no sign of grief or mourning,

[¶4] 1. Because those who were employed in the service of the sanctuary should avoid every thing that might incapacitate them for that service; and,

[¶5] 2. Because the crime of their brethren was so highly provoking to God, and so fully merited the punishment which he had inflicted, that their mourning might be considered as accusing the Divine justice of undue severity.

### Verse 7

[¶7] The anointing oil of the Lord is upon you - They were consecrated to the Divine service, and this required their constant attendance, and most willing and cheerful service.

### Verse 9

[¶9] Do not drink wine nor strong drink - The cabalistical commentator, Baal Hatturim, and others, have supposed, from the introduction of this command here, that Aaron's sons had sinned through excess of wine, and that they had attempted to celebrate the Divine service in a state of inebriation. Strong drink - The word שכר shechar, from shachar, to inebriate, signifies any kind of fermented liquors. This is exactly the same prohibition that was given in the case of John Baptist, [Luk 1:15] : Οινον και σικερα ου μη πιῃ· Wine and sikera he shall not drink. Any inebriating liquor, says St. Jerome, (Epist. ad nepot)., is called sicera, whether made of corn, apples, honey, dates, or other fruit. One of the four prohibited drinks among the Mohammedans in India is called sakar, (see the Hedaya, vol. iv., p. 158), which signifies inebriating drink in general, but especially date wine or arrack. From the original word probably we have borrowed our term cider or sider, which among us exclusively signifies the fermented juice of apples. See on [Luk 1:15] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶11] That we may put difference between holy and unholy - This is a strong reason why they should drink no inebriating liquor, that their understanding being clear, and their judgment correct, they might be always able to discern between the clean and the unclean, and ever pronounce righteous judgment. Injunctions similar to this were found among the Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Greeks. Indeed, common sense itself shows that neither a drunkard nor a sot should ever be suffered to minister in holy things.

### Verse 14

[¶13] Wave-breast and heave-shoulder - See Leviticus 7 (note), and [Exo 29:27] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶15] Moses diligently sought the goat - The goat which was offered the same day for the sins of the priests and the people, (see [Lev 9:15], [Lev 9:16]), and which, through the confusion that happened on account of the death of Nadab and Abihu, was burnt instead of being eaten. See [Lev 10:16-18].

### Verse 17

[¶17] To bear the iniquity of the congregation - See on [Lev 6:26] (note), etc.

### Verse 19

[¶19] And such things have befallen me, etc. - The excuse which Aaron makes for not feasting on the sin-offering according to the law is at once appropriate and dignified; as if he had said: "God certainly has commanded me to eat of the sin-offering; but when such things as these have happened unto me, could it be good in the sight of the Lord? Does he not expect that I should feel as a father under such afflicting circumstances?" With this spirited answer Moses was satisfied; and God, who knew his situation, took no notice of the irregularity which had taken place in the solemn service. To human nature God has given the privilege to weep in times of affliction and distress. In his infinite kindness he has ordained that tears, which are only external evidences of our grief, shall be the outlets to our sorrows, and tend to exhaust the cause from which they flow. See on [Lev 10:3] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶21] When Moses heard that, he was content - The argument used by Aaron had in it both good sense and strong reason, and Moses, as a reasonable man, felt its force; and as God evidenced no kind of displeasure at this irregularity, which was, in a measure at least, justified by the present necessity, he thought proper to urge the matter no farther. Though the punishment of Nadab and Abihu may appear severe, because the sacred text does not specify clearly the nature and extent of their crime, we may rest assured that it was of such a nature as not only to justify but to demand such a punishment. God has here given us a full proof that he will not suffer human institutions to take the place of his own prescribed worship. It is true this is frequently done, for by many what is called natural religion is put in the place of Divine revelation; and God seems not to regard it: but though vengeance is not speedily executed on an evil work, and therefore the hearts of the children of men are set to do wickedness, yet God ceases not to be just; and those who have taken from or added to his words, or put their own inventions in their place, shall be reproved and found liars in the great day. His long-suffering leads to repentance; but if men will harden their hearts, and put their own ceremonies, rites, and creeds, in the place of Divine ordinances and eternal truths, they must expect to give an awful account to him who is shortly to judge the quick and the dead. Were the religion of Christ stripped of all that state policy, fleshly interest, and gross superstition have added to it, how plain and simple, and may we not add, how amiable and glorious, would it appear! Well may we say of human inventions in Divine worship what one said of the paintings on old cathedral windows, Their principal tendency is to prevent the light from coming in. Nadab and Abihu would perform the worship of God not according to his command, but in their own way; and God not only would not receive the sacrifice from their hands, but, while encompassing themselves with their own sparks, and warming themselves with their own fire, this had they from the hand of the Lord - they lay down in sorrow, for there went out a fire from the Lord, and devoured them. What is written above is to be understood of persons who make a religion for themselves, leaving Divine revelation; for, being wilfully ignorant of God's righteousness, they go about to establish their own. This is a high offense in the sight of God. Reader, God is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Such worshippers the Father seeketh.

### Introduction

[¶23] Laws concerning clean and unclean animals, [Lev 11:1], [Lev 11:2]. Of Quadrupeds, those are clean which divide the hoof and chew the cud, [Lev 11:3]. Those to be reputed unclean which do not divide the hoof, though they chew the cud, [Lev 11:4-6]. Those to be reputed unclean also which, though they divide the hoof, do not chew the cud, [Lev 11:7]. Whosoever eats their flesh, or touches their carcasses, shall be reputed unclean, [Lev 11:8]. Of Fish, those are clean, and may be eaten which have fins and scales, [Lev 11:9]. Those which have not fins and scales to be reputed unclean, [Lev 11:10-12]. Of Fowls, those which are unclean, [Lev 11:13-21]. Of Insects, the following may be eaten: the bald locust, beetle, and grasshopper, [Lev 11:22]. All others are unclean and abominable, their flesh not to be eaten, nor their bodies touched, [Lev 11:23-25]. Farther directions relative to unclean beasts, [Lev 11:26-28]. Of Reptiles, and some small quadrupeds, those which are unclean, [Lev 11:29], [Lev 11:39]. All that touch them shall be unclean, [Lev 11:31]; and the things touched by their dead carcasses are unclean also, [Lev 11:32-35]. Large fountains, or pits of water, are not defiled by their carcasses, provided a part of the water be drawn out, [Lev 11:36]. Nor do they defile seed by accidentally touching it, provided the water which has touched their flesh do not touch or moisten the seed, [Lev 11:37], [Lev 11:38]. A beast that dieth of itself is unclean, and may not be touched or eaten, [Lev 11:39], [Lev 11:40]. All creeping things are abominable, [Lev 11:41-44]. The reason given for these laws, [Lev 11:45-47].

### Verse 1

[¶25] And the Lord spake unto Moses - In the preceding chapter the priests are expressly forbidden to drink wine; and the reason for this law is given also, that they might be able at all times to distinguish between clean and unclean, and be qualified to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord had spoken, [Lev 10:10], [Lev 10:11]; for as inebriation unfits a person for the regular performance of every function of life, it must be especially sinful in those who minister in holy things, and to whom the teaching of the ignorant, and the cure of souls in general, are entrusted. Scheuchzer has remarked that no Christian state has made any civil law against drunkenness, (he must only mean the German states, for we have several acts of parliament against it in England), and that it is only punished by contempt. "Custom," says he, "that tyrant of the human race, not only permits it, but in some sort authorizes the practice, insomuch that we see priests and ministers of the Church ascend the pulpit in a state of intoxication, judges seat themselves upon the benches, physicians attend their patients, and others attempt to perform the different avocations of life, in the same disgraceful state." - Physic. Sacr., vol. iii., p. 64. This is a horrible picture of German manners; and while we deplore the extensive ravages made by this vice, and the disgrace with which its votaries are overwhelmed, we have reason to thank God that it very rarely has ever appeared in the pulpit, and perhaps was never once seen upon the bench, in our own country. Having delivered the law against drinking wine, Moses proceeds to deliver a series of ordinances, all well calculated to prevent the Israelites from mixing with the surrounding nations, and consequently from being contaminated by their idolatry. In Leviticus 11 he treats of unclean Meats. In [Lev 12:1-8], 13, 14, and 15, he treats of unclean Persons, Garments, and Dwellings. In Leviticus 16 he treats of the uncleanness of the Priests and the People, and prescribes the proper expiations and sacrifices for both. In Leviticus 17 he continues the subject, and gives particular directions concerning the mode of offering, etc. In Leviticus 18 he treats of unclean matrimonial connections. In Leviticus 19 he repeats sundry laws relative to these subjects, and introduces some new ones. In Leviticus 20 he mentions certain uncleannesses practiced among the idolatrous nations, and prohibits them on pain of death. In Leviticus 21 he treats of the mourning, marriages, and personal defects of the priests, which rendered them unclean. And in Leviticus 22 he speaks of unclean sacrifices, or such as should not be offered to the Lord. After this, to the close of the book, many important and excellent political and domestic regulations are enjoined, the whole forming an eccleslastico-political system superior to any thing the world ever saw. Bishop Wilson very properly observes that, "by these laws of clean and unclean animals, etc., God did keep this people separated from the idolatrous world: and this is a standing proof, even to the present day, of the Divine authority of these Scriptures; for no power or art of man could have obliged so great and turbulent a nation to submit to such troublesome precepts as the Jews always have submitted to, had they not been fully convinced, from the very first, that the command was from God, and that it was to be obeyed at the peril of their souls."

### Verse 3

[¶27] Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed - These two words mean the same thing - a divided hoof, such as that of the ox, where the hoof is divided into two toes, and each toe is cased with horn.

[¶28] Cheweth the cud - Ruminates; casts up the grass, etc., which had been taken into the stomach for the purpose of mastication. Animals which chew the cud, or ruminate, are provided with two, three or four stomachs. The ox has four: in the first or largest, called the ventriculus or paunch, the food is collected without being masticated, the grass, etc., being received into it as the beast crops it from the earth. The food, by the force of the muscular coats of this stomach, and the liquors poured in, is sufficiently macerated; after which, formed into small balls, it is thrown up by the esophagus into the mouth, where it is made very small by mastication or chewing, and then sent down into the second stomach, into which the esophagus or gullet opens, as well as into the first, ending exactly where the two stomachs meet. This is what is termed chewing the cud. The second stomach, which is called the reticulum, honeycomb, bonnet, or king's hood, has a great number of small shallow cells on its inward surface, of a pentagonal or five-sided form, exactly like the cells in a honey-comb; in this the food is farther macerated, and then pushed onward into the third stomach, called the omasum or many-plies, because its inward surface is covered with a great number of thin membranous partitions. From this the food passes into the fourth stomach, called the abomasum, or rede. In this stomach it is digested, and from the digested mass the chyle is formed, which, being absorbed by the lacteal vessels, is afterwards thrown into the mass of blood, and becomes the principle of nutrition to all the solids and fluids of the body. The intention of rumination, or chewing the cud, seems to be, that the food may be sufficiently comminuted, that, being more fully acted on by the stomachs, it may afford the greatest possible portion of nutritive juices. The word cud is probably not originally Saxon, though found in that language in the same signification in which it is still used. Junius, with great show of probability, derives it from the Cambro-British chwyd, a vomit, as it is the ball of food vomited, or thrown up, from the first stomach or paunch through the esophagus into the mouth, which is called by this name. Those who prefer a Saxon derivation may have it in the verb whence our word chew; and so cud might be considered a contraction of chewed, but this is not so likely as the preceding.

### Verse 5

[¶30] The coney - שפן shaphan, not the rabbit, but rather a creature nearly resembling it, which abounds in Judea, Palestine, and Arabia, and is called by Dr. Shaw daman Israel, and by Mr. Bruce ashkoko. As this creature nearly resembles the rabbit, with which Spain anciently abounded, Bochart supposes that the Phoenicians might have given it the name of שפניה spaniah, from the multitude of שפנים shephanim (or spanim, as others pronounce it) which were found there. Hence the emblem of Spain is a woman sitting with a rabbit at her feet. See a coin of Hadrian in Scheuchzer.

### Verse 6

[¶32] The hare - ארנבת arnebeth, as Bochart and others suppose, from ארה arah, to crop, and ניב nib, the produce of the ground, these animals being remarkable for destroying the fruits of the earth. That they are notorious for destroying the tender blade of the young corn, is well known. It is very likely that different species of these animals are included under the general terms שפן shaphan, and ארנבת arnebeth, for some travelers have observed that there are four or five sorts of these animals, which are used for food in the present day in those countries. See Harmer, vol. iii., p. 331, edit. 1808. Some think the mountain rat, marmot, squirrel, and hedgehog, may be intended under the word shaphan.

### Verse 7

[¶34] And the swine - חזיר chazir, one of the most gluttonous, libidinous, and filthy quadrupeds in the universe; and, because of these qualities, sacred to the Venus of the Greeks and Romans, and the Friga of our Saxon ancestors; and perhaps on these accounts forbidden, as well as on account of its flesh being strong and difficult to digest, affording a very gross kind of aliment, apt to produce cutaneous, scorbutic, and scrofulous disorders, especially in hot climates.

### Verse 9

[¶36] Whatsoever hath fins and scales - Because these, of all the fish tribe, are the most nourishing; the others which are without scales, or whose bodies are covered with a thick glutinous matter, being in general very difficult of digestion.

### Verse 13

[¶38] And these - among the fowls - the eagle - נשר nesher, from nashar, to lacerate, cut, or tear to pieces; hence the eagle, a most rapacious bird of prey, from its tearing the flesh of the animals it feeds on; and for this purpose birds of prey have, in general, strong, crooked talons and a hooked beak. The eagle is a cruel bird, exceedingly ravenous, and almost insatiable.

[¶39] The ossifrage - Or bone-breaker, from os, a bone, and frango, I break, because it not only strips off the flesh, but breaks the bone in order to extract the marrow. In Hebrew it is called פרס peres, from paras, to break or divide in two, and probably signifies that species of the eagle anciently known by the name of ossifraga, and which we render ossifrage.

[¶40] Ospray - עזניה ozniyah, from עזן azan, to be strong, vigorous; generally supposed to mean the black eagle, such as that described by Homer, Iliad. lib. xxi., ver. 252. Αιετου οιματ' εχων μελανος, του θηρητηρος, Ὁς θ' αμα καρτιστος τε και ωκιστος πετεηνων. "Having the rapidity of the black eagle, that bird of prey, at once the swiftest and the strongest of the feathered race." Among the Greeks and Romans the eagle was held sacred, and is represented as carrying the thunderbolts of Jupiter. This occurs so frequently, and is so well known, that references are almost needless. See Scheuchzer.

### Verse 14

[¶42] The vulture - דאה daah, from the root to fly, and therefore more probably the kite or glede, from its remarkable property of gliding or sailing with expanded wings through the air. The דאה daah is a different bird from the דיה daiyah, which signifies the vulture. See Bochart, vol. iii., col. 195.

[¶43] The kite - איה aiyah, thought by some to be the vulture, by others the merlin. Parkhurst thinks it has its name from the root אוה avah, to covet, because of its rapaciousness; some contend that the kite is meant. That it is a species of the hawk, most learned men allow. See Bochart, vol. iii., col..

## 136. Leviticus · 12 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/136/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/136/#p-N

### Verse 15

[¶1] Every raven - ערב oreb, a general term comprehending the raven, crow, rook, jackdaw, and magpie.

### Verse 16

[¶3] The owl - בת היענה bath haiyaanah, the daughter of vociferation, the female ostrich, probably so called from the noise they make. "In the lonesome part of the night," says Dr. Shaw, "the ostriches frequently make a very doleful and hideous noise, sometimes resembling the roar of the lion; at other times, the hoarser voice of the bull or ox." He adds, "I have heard them groan as if in the deepest agonies." - Travels, 4th edition, p. 455. The ostrich is a very unclean animal, and eats its own ordure as soon as it voids it, and of this Dr. Shaw observes, (see above), it is remarkably fond! This is a sufficient reason, were others wanting, why such a fowl should be reputed to be unclean, and its use as an article of diet prohibited.

[¶4] The night hawk - תחמס tachmas, from חמס chamas, to force away, act violently and unjustly; supposed by Bochart and Scheuchzer to signify the male ostrich, from its cruelty towards its young; (see [Job 39:13-18]); but others, with more reason, suppose it to be the bird described by Hasselquist, which he calls the strix Orientalis, or Oriental owl. "It is of the size of the common owl, living in the ruins and old deserted houses of Egypt and Syria; and sometimes in inhabited houses. The Arabs in Egypt call it Massasa, the Syrians Bana. It is very ravenous in Syria, and in the evenings, if the windows be left open, it flies into the house and kills infants, unless they are carefully watched; wherefore the women are much afraid of it." - Travels, p. 196. If this is the fowl intended, this is a sufficient reason why it should be considered an abomination.

[¶5] The cuckoo - שחף shachaph, supposed rather to mean the sea mew; called shachaph, from שחפת shachepheth, a wasting distemper, or atrophy, (mentioned [Lev 26:16]; [Deu 28:22]), because its body is the leanest, in proportion to its bones and feathers, of most other birds, always appearing as if under the influence of a wasting distemper. A fowl which, from its natural constitution or manner of life, is incapable of becoming plump or fleshy, must always be unwholesome; and this is reason sufficient why such should be prohibited.

[¶6] And the hawk - נץ nets, from the root נצה natsah, to shoot forth or spring forward, because of the rapidity and length of its flight, the hawk being remarkable for both. As this is a bird of prey, it is forbidden, and all others of its kind.

### Verse 17

[¶8] The little owl - כוס cos, the bittern, night-raven or night-owl, according to most interpreters. Some think the onocrotalus or pelican may be intended; for as the word כוס cos signifies a cup in Hebrew, and the pelican is remarkable for a pouch or bag under the lower jaw, it might have had its Hebrew name from this circumstance; but the kaath in the following verse is rather supposed to mean this fowl, and the cos some species of the bubo or owl. See Bochart, vol. iii., col. 272.

[¶9] The cormorant - שלך shalach, from the root which signifies to cast down; hence the Septuagint καταρρακτης, the cataract, or bird which falls precipitately down upon its prey. It probably signifies the plungeon or diver, a sea fowl, which I have seen at sea dart down as swift as an arrow into the water, and seize the fish which it had discovered while even flying, or rather soaring, at a very great height.

[¶10] The great owl - ינשוף yanshuph, according to the Septuagint and the Vulgate, signifies the ibis, a bird well known and held sacred in Egypt. Some critics, with our translation, think it means a species of owl or night bird, because the word may be derived from נשף nesheph, which signifies the twilight, the time in which owls chiefly fly about. See Bochart, vol. iii., col. 281.

### Verse 18

[¶12] The swan - תנשמת tinshemeth. The Septuagint translate the word by πορφυριωνα, the porphyrion, purple or scarlet bird. Could we depend on this translation, we might suppose the flamingo or some such bird to be intended. Some suppose the goose to be meant, but this is by no means likely, as it cannot be classed either among ravenous or unclean fowls. Bochart thinks the owl is meant.

[¶13] The pelican - קאת kaath. As קאת kaah signifies to vomit up, the name is supposed to be descriptive of the pelican, who receives its food into the pouch under its lower jaw, and, by pressing it on its breast with its bill, throws it up for the nourishment of its young. Hence the fable which represents the pelican wounding her breast with her bill, that she might feed her young with her own blood; a fiction which has no foundation but in the above circumstance. Bochart thinks the bittern is meant, vol. iii., col. 292.

[¶14] The gier eagle - רחם racham. As the root of this word signifies tenderness and affection, it is supposed to refer to some bird remarkable for its attachment to its young; hence some have thought that the pelican is to be understood. Bochart endeavors to prove that it means the vulture, probably that species called the golden vulture - Bochart, vol. iii., col. 303.

### Verse 19

[¶16] The stork - חסידה chasidah, from חסד chasad, which signifies to be abundant in kindness, or exuberant in acts of beneficence; hence applied to the stork, because of its affection to its young, and its kindness in tending and feeding its parents when old; facts attested by the best informed and most judicious of the Greek and Latin natural historians. See Bochart, Scheuchzer, and Parkhurst, under the word חסד chasad. It is remarkable for destroying and eating serpents, and on this account might be reckoned by Moses among unclean birds.

[¶17] The heron - אנפה anaphah. This word has been variously understood: some have rendered it the kite, others the woodcock, others the curlew, some the peacock, others the parrot, and others the crane. The root אנף anaph, signifies to breathe short through the nostrils, to snuff, as in anger; hence to be angry: and it is supposed that the word is sufficiently descriptive of the heron, from its very irritable disposition. It will attack even a man in defense of its nest; and I have known a case where a man was in danger of losing his life by the stroke of a heron's bill, near the eye, who had climbed up into a high tree to take its nest. Bochart supposes a species of the eagle to be meant, vol. iii., col. 335.

[¶18] The lapwing - דוכיפת duchiphath, the upupa, hoopoe, or hoop, a crested bird, with beautiful plumage, but very unclean. See Bochart, and Scheuchzer. Concerning the genuine meaning of the original, there is little agreement among interpreters.

[¶19] The bat - עטלף atalleph, so called, according to Parkhurst, from עט at, to fly, and עלף alaph, darkness or obscurity, because it flies about in the dusk of the evening, and in the night: so the Septuagint νυκτερις, from νυξ, the night; and the Vulgate vespertilio, from vesper, the evening. This being a sort of monster partaking of the nature of both a bird and beast, it might well be classed among unclean animals, or animals the use of which in food should be avoided.

### Verse 20

[¶21] All fowls that creep - Such as the bat, already mentioned, which has claws attached to its leathern wings, and which serve in place of feet to crawl by, the feet and legs not being distinct; but this may also include all the different kinds of insects, with the exceptions in the following verse.

[¶22] Going upon all four - May signify no more than walking regularly or progressively, foot after foot as quadrupeds do; for it cannot be applied to insects literally, as they have in general six feet, many of them more, some reputed to have a hundred, hence called centipedes; and some a thousand, hence called millipedes; words which often signify no more than that such insects have a great number of feet.

### Verse 21

[¶24] Which have legs above their feet - This appears to refer to the different kinds of locusts and grasshoppers, which have very remarkable hind legs, long, and with high joints, projecting above their backs, by which they are enabled to spring up from the ground, and leap high and far.

### Verse 22

[¶26] The locust - ארבה arbeh, either from ארב arab, to lie in wait or in ambush, because often immense flights of them suddenly alight upon the fields, vineyards, etc., and destroy all the produce of the earth; or from רבה rabah, he multiplied, because of their prodigious swarms. See a particular account of these insects in the notes on [Exo 10:4] (note).

[¶27] The bald locust - סלעם solam, compounded, says Mr. Parkhurst, from סלע sala, to cut, break, and עם am, contiguity; a kind of locust, probably so called from its rugged, craggy form. See the first of Scheuchzer's plates, vol. iii., p. 100.

[¶28] The beetle - חרגל chargol. "The Hebrew name seems a derivative from חרג charag, to shake, and רגל regel, the foot; and so to denote the nimbleness of its motions. Thus in English we call an animal of the locust kind a grasshopper; the French name of which is souterelle, from the verb sauter, to leap" - Parkhurst. This word occurs only in this place. The beetle never can be intended here, as that insect never was eaten by man, perhaps, in any country of the universe.

[¶29] The grasshopper - חגב chagab. Bochart supposes that this species of locust has its name from the Arabic verb hajaba to veil; because when they fly, as they often do, in great swarms, they eclipse even the light of the sun. See the notes on [Exo 10:4], and the description of ten kinds of locusts in Bochart, vol. iii., col. 441. And see the figures in Scheuchzer, in whose plates 20 different species are represented, vol. iii., p. 100. And see Dr. Shaw on the animals mentioned in this chapter. Travels, p. 419, etc., 4th. edition; and when all these are consulted, the reader will see how little dependence can be placed on the most learned conjectures relative to these and the other animals mentioned in Scripture. One thing however is fully evident, viz., that the locust was eaten, not only in those ancient times, in the time of John Baptist, [Mat 3:4], but also in the present day. Dr. Shaw ate of them in Barbary "fried and salted," and tells us that "they tasted very like crayfish." They have been eaten in Africa, Greece, Syria, Persia, and throughout Asia; and whole tribes seem to have lived on them, and were hence called acridophagoi, or locust-eaters by the Greeks. See Strabo lib. xvi., and Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xvii., c. 30.

### Verse 27

[¶31] Whatsoever goeth upon his paws - כפיו cappaiv, his palms or hands, probably referring to those animals whose feet resemble the hands and feet of the human being, such as apes, monkeys, and all creatures of that genus; together with bears, frogs, etc.

### Verse 29

[¶33] The weasel - חלד choled, from chalad, Syr., to creep in. Bochart conjectures, with great propriety, that the mole, not the weasel, is intended by the Hebrew word: its property of digging into the earth, and creeping or burrowing under the surface, is well known.

[¶34] The mouse - עחבר achbar. Probably the large field rat, or what is called by the Germans the hamster, though every species of the mus genus may be here prohibited.

[¶35] The tortoise - צב tsab. Most critics allow that the tortoise is not intended here, but rather the crocodile, the frog, or the toad. The frog is most probably the animal meant, and all other creatures of its kind.

### Verse 30

[¶37] The ferret - אנקה anakah, from אנק anak, to groan, to cry out: a species of lizard, which derives its name from its piercing, doleful cry. See Bochart, vol. ii., col. 1066.

[¶38] The chameleon - כח coach. Bochart contends that this is the waril or guaril, another species of lizard, which derives its name from its remarkable strength and vigor in destroying serpents, the Hebrew כח cach signifying to be strong, firm, vigorous: it is probably the same with the mongoose, a creature still well known in India, where it is often domesticated in order to keep the houses free from snakes, rats, mice, etc.

[¶39] The lizard - לטאה letaah. Bochart contends that this also is a species of lizard, called by the Arabs wahara, which creeps close to the ground, and is poisonous.

[¶40] The snail - חמט chomet, another species of lizard, according to Bochart, called huluka by the Arabians, which lives chiefly in the sand - Vol. ii., col. 1075.

[¶41] The mole - תנשמת tinshameth, from נשם nasham, to breathe. Bochart seems to have proved that this is the chameleon, which has its Hebrew name from its wide gaping mouth, very large lungs, and its deriving its nourishment from small animals which float in the air, so that it has been conjectured by some to feed on the air itself - Vol. iii., col. 1073. A bird of the same name is mentioned [Lev 11:18], which Bochart supposes to be the night-owl - Vol. iii., col. 286.

### Verse 32

[¶43] Any vessel of wood - Such as the wooden bowls still in use among the Arabs. Or raiment, or skin - any trunks or baskets covered with skins, another part of the furniture of an Arab tent; the goat-skins, in which they churn their milk, may be also intended. Or sack - any hair-cloth used for the purpose of transporting goods from place to place.

### Verse 33

[¶45] And every earthen vessel - Such pitchers as are commonly used for drinking out of, and for holding liquids. M. De la Roque observes that hair-sacks, trunks, and baskets, covered with skin, are used among the travelling Arabs to carry their household utensils in, which are kettles or pots, great wooden bowls, hand-mills, and pitchers. It is very likely that these are nearly the same with those used by the Israelites in their journeyings in the wilderness, for the customs of these people do not change.

## 137. Leviticus · 13 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/137/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/137/#p-N

### Verse 35

[¶1] Ranges for pots - To understand this, we must observe that the Arabs dig a hole in their tent, about a foot and a half deep; three-fourths of this, says Rauwolff, they lay about with stones, and the fourth part is left open for the purpose of throwing in their fuel. This little temporary building is probably what is here designed by ranges for pots; and this was to be broken down when any unclean thing had fallen upon it. See Harmer, vol. 1., p. 464.

### Verse 36

[¶3] A fountain or pit, etc. - This must either refer to running water, the stream of which soon carries off all impurities, or to large reservoirs where the water soon purifies itself; the water in either which touched the unclean thing, being considered as impure, the rest of the water being clean.

### Verse 37

[¶5] Any sowing seed - If any part of an impure carcass fall accidentally on seed about to be sown, it shall not on that account be deemed unclean; but if the water put to the seed to prepare it for being sown, shall be touched by such impure carcass, the seed shall be considered as unclean, [Lev 11:38]. Probably this may be the meaning of these passages.

### Verse 42

[¶7] Whatsoever goeth upon the belly - In the word גהון gahon, the vau holem, in most Hebrew Bibles, is much larger than the other letters; and a Masoretic note is added in the margin, which states that this is the middle letter of the law; and consequently this verse is the middle verse of the Pentateuch.

[¶8] Whatsoever hath more feet - Than four; that is, all many-footed reptiles, as well as those which go upon the belly having no feet, such as serpents; besides the four-footed smaller animals mentioned above.

### Verse 44

[¶10] Ye shall - sanctify yourselves - Ye shall keep yourselves separate from all the people of the earth, that ye may be holy; for I am holy. And this was the grand design of God in all these prohibitions and commands; for these external sanctifications were only the emblems of the internal purity which the holiness of God requires here, and without which none can dwell with him in glory hereafter. See at the conclusion of this chapter. The contents of this chapter must furnish many profitable reflections to a pious mind.

[¶11] 1. From the great difficulty of ascertaining what animals are meant in this part of the law, we may at once see that the law itself must be considered as abrogated; for there is not a Jew in the universe who knows what the animals are, a very few excepted, which are intended by these Hebrew words; and therefore he may be repeatedly breaking this law by touching and being touched either by the animals themselves or their produce, such as hair, wool, fur, skin, intestines, differently manufactured, etc., etc. It therefore appears that this people have as little law as they have gospel.

[¶12] 2. While God keeps the eternal interests of man steadily in view, he does not forget his earthly comfort; he is at once solicitous both for the health of his body and his soul. He has not forbidden certain aliments because he is a Sovereign, but because he knew they would be injurious to the health and morals of his people. The close connection that subsists between the body and the soul we cannot fully comprehend; and as little can we comprehend the influence they have on each other. Many moral alterations take place in the mind in consequence of the influence of the bodily organs; and these latter are greatly influenced by the kind of ailment which the body receives. God knows what is in man, and he knows what is in all creatures; he has therefore graciously forbidden what would injure both body and mind, and commanded what is best calculated to be useful to both. Solid-footed animals, such as the horse, and many-toed animals, such as the cat, etc., are here prohibited. Beasts which have bifid or cloven hoofs, such as the ox and sheep, are considered as proper for food, and therefore commanded. The former are unclean, i. e., unwholesome, affording a gross nutriment, often the parent of scorbutic and scrofulous disorders; the latter clean, i. e., affording a copious and wholesome nutriment, and not laying the foundation of any disease. Ruminating animals, i. e., those which chew the cud, concoct their food better than the others which swallow it with little mastication, and therefore their flesh contains more of the nutritious juices, and is more easy of digestion, and consequently of assimilation to the solids and fluids of the human body; on this account they are termed clean, i. e., peculiarly wholesome, and fit for food. The animals which do not ruminate do not concoct their food so well, and hence they abound with gross animal juices, which yield a comparatively unwholesome nutriment to the human system. Even the animals which have bifid hoofs but do not chew the cud, such as the swine, and those which chew the cud but are not bifid, such as the hare and rabbit, are by Him who knows all things forbidden, because he knew them to be comparatively innutritive. In all this God shows himself as the tender Father of a numerous family, pointing out to his inexperienced, froward, and ignorant children, those kinds of aliments which he knows will be injurious to their health and domestic happiness, and prohibiting them on pain of his highest displeasure. On the same ground he forbade all fish that have not both fins and scales, such as the conger, eel, etc., which abound in gross juices and fat which very few stomachs are able to digest. Who, for instance, that lives solely on swine's flesh, has pure blood and healthy juices? And is it not evident, in many cases, that the man partakes considerably of the nature of the brute on which he exclusively feeds? I could pursue this inquiry much farther, and bring many proofs founded on indisputable facts, but I forbear; for he who might stand most in need of caution, would be the first to take offense.

[¶13] 3. As the body exists only for the sake of the soul, and God feeds and nourishes it through the day of probation, that the soul may here be prepared for the kingdom of heaven; therefore he shows in the conclusion of these ordinances, that the grand scope and design of all was that they might be a holy people, and that they might resemble him who is a holy God - God Is Holy; and this is the eternal reason why all his people should be holy - should be purified from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. No faith in any particular creed, no religious observance, no acts of benevolence and charity, no mortification, attrition, or contrition, can be a substitute for this. We must be made partakers of the Divine nature. We must be saved from our sins - from the corruption that is in the world, and be made holy within and righteous without, or never see God. For this very purpose Jesus Christ lived, died, and revived, that he might purify us unto himself; that through faith in his blood our sins might be blotted out, and our souls restored to the image of God - Reader, art thou hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Then blessed art thou, for thou shalt be filled.

### Introduction

[¶15] Ordinances concerning the purification of women after child-birth, [Lev 12:1]; after the birth of a son, who is to be circumcised the eighth day, [Lev 12:2], [Lev 12:3]. The mother to be considered unclean for forty days, [Lev 12:4]. After the birth of a daughter, fourscore days, [Lev 12:5]. When the days of her purifying were ended, she was to bring a lamb for a burnt-offering, and a young pigeon or a turtle-dove for a sin-offering, [Lev 12:6], [Lev 12:7]. If poor, and not able to bring a lamb, she was to bring either two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, [Lev 12:8].

### Verse 2

[¶17] If a woman have conceived - In the extent mentioned here the ordinances of this chapter have little relation to us: and to inquire into their physical reasons, as far as they related to the Jews, could afford but little edification; and to make such a subject sufficiently plain would require such minute examination and circumstantial detail as could scarcely be proper for several readers. All that is necessary to be said the reader will find on [Lev 12:4].

### Verse 3

[¶19] And in the eighth day - Before this time the child could scarcely be considered as having strength sufficient to bear the operation; after this time it was not necessary to delay it, as the child was not considered to be in covenant with God, and consequently not under the especial protection of the Divine providence and grace, till this rite had been performed. On circumcision see Clarke's note on [Gen 17:10]. Circumcision was to every man a constant, evident sign of the covenant into which he had entered with God, and of the moral obligations under which he was thereby laid. It was also a means of purity, and was especially necessary among a people naturally incontinent, and in a climate not peculiarly favorable to chastity. This is a light in which this subject should ever be viewed, and in which we see the reasonableness, propriety, expediency, and moral tendency of the ceremony.

### Verse 4

[¶21] The blood of her purifying - A few words will make this subject sufficiently plain.

[¶22] 1. God designs that the human female should bring forth children.

[¶23] 2. That children should derive, under his providence, their being, all their solids and all their fluids, in a word, the whole mass of their bodies, from the substance of the mother.

[¶24] 3. For this purpose he has given to the body of the female an extra quantity of blood and nutritious juices.

[¶25] 4. Before pregnancy this superabundance is evacuated at periodical times.

[¶26] 5. In pregnancy, that which was formerly evacuated is retained for the formation and growth of the fetus, or the general strengthening of the system during the time of pregnancy.

[¶27] 6. After the birth of the child, for seven or fourteen days, more or less according to certain circumstances, that superabundance, no longer necessary for the growth of the child as before, continues to be evacuated: this was called the time of the female's purification among the Jews.

[¶28] 7. When the lacerated vessels are rejoined, this superfluity of blood is returned into the general circulation, and, by a wise law of the Creator, becomes principally useful to the breasts, and helps in the production of milk for the nourishment of the new-born infant.

[¶29] 8. And thus it continues till the weaning of the child, or renewed pregnancy takes place. Here is a series of mercies and wise providential regulations which cannot be known without being admired, and which should be known that the great Creator and Preserver may have that praise from his creatures which his wonderful working demands.

[¶30] The term purifying here does not imply that there is any thing impure in the blood at this or the other times referred to above; on the contrary, the blood is pure, perfectly so, as to its quality, but is excessive in quantity for the reasons above assigned. The idle tales found in certain works relative to the infectious nature of this fluid, and of the female in such times are as impious as they are irrational and absurd.

### Verse 6

[¶32] When the days of her purifying - It is not easy to account for the difference in the times of purification, after the birth of a male and female child. After the birth of a boy the mother was considered unclean for forty days; after the birth of a girl, four-score days. There is probably no physical reason for this difference, and it is difficult to assign a political one. Some of the ancient physicians assert that a woman is in the order of nature much longer in completely recovering after the birth of a female than after the birth of a male child. This assertion is not justified either by observation or matter of fact. Others think that the difference in the time of purification after the birth of a male and female is intended to mark the inferiority of the female sex. This is a miserable reason, and pitifully supported.

[¶33] She shall bring - a burnt-offering, and - a sin-offering - It is likely that all these ordinances were intended to show man's natural impurity and original defilement by sin, and the necessity of an atonement to cleanse the soul from unrighteousness.

### Verse 8

[¶35] And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons - As the Virgin Mary brought only the latter, hence it is evident that she was not able, i. e., she was not rich enough to provide the former; for such a holy woman would not have brought the less offering had she been capable of bringing the greater. How astonishing is this! The only heir to the throne of David was not able to bring a lamb to offer in sacrifice to God! How abominable must sin be when it required him who was in the form of God thus to empty and to humble himself, yea, even to the death of the cross, in order to make an atonement for it, and to purify the soul from all defilement!

[¶36] The priest shall make an atonement for her - Every act of man is sinful, but such as proceed from the influence of the grace and mercy of God. Her sorrow in conception, and her pain in bringing forth children, reminded the woman of her original offense; an offense which deserved death, an offense which she could not expiate, and for which a sacrifice must be offered: and in reference to better things the life of an animal must be offered as a ransom for her life. And being saved in childbed, though she deserved to die, she is required, as soon as the days of her separation were ended, to bring a sacrifice according to her ability to the priest, that he might offer it to God as an atonement for her. Thus, wherever God keeps up the remembrance of sin, he keeps up also the memorial of sacrifice, to show that the state of a sinner, howsoever deplorable, is not hopeless, for that he himself has found out a ransom. Every where, in the law and in the Gospel, in every ordinance and in every ceremony, we may see both the justice and the mercy of God. Hence, while we have the knowledge of our sin we have also the knowledge of our cure. Reader, whilst thou art confessing thy own misery do not forget the Lord's mercy; and remember, be saves to the uttermost all that come through Christ unto him.

### Introduction

[¶38] Laws relative to the leprosy. It is to be known by a rising in the flesh, a scab, or a bright spot, [Lev 13:1], [Lev 13:2]. When the priest sees these signs he shall pronounce the man unclean, infected with the leprosy, and unfit for society, [Lev 13:3]. Dubious or equivocal signs of this disorder, and how the person is to be treated in whom they appear, [Lev 13:4-8]. In what state of this disorder the priest may pronounce a man clean or unclean, [Lev 13:9-13]. Of the raw flesh, the sign of the unclean leprosy, [Lev 13:14], [Lev 13:15]. Of the white flesh, the sign of the leprosy called clean, [Lev 13:16], [Lev 13:17]. Of the leprosy which succeeds a boil, [Lev 13:18-20]. Equivocal marks relative to this kind of leprosy, [Lev 13:21], [Lev 13:22]. Of the burning boil, [Lev 13:23]. Of the leprosy arising out of the burning boil, [Lev 13:24], [Lev 13:25]. Equivocal marks relative to this kind of leprosy, [Lev 13:26-28]. Of the plague on the head or in the beard, [Lev 13:29]. Of the scall, and how it is to be treated, [Lev 13:30-37]. Of the plague of the bright white spots, [Lev 13:38], [Lev 13:39]. Of the bald head, [Lev 13:40], [Lev 13:41]. Of the white reddish sore in the bald head, [Lev 13:42-44]. The leper shall rend his clothes, put a patch on his upper lip, and cry unclean, [Lev 13:45]. He shall be obliged to avoid society, and live by himself without the camp, [Lev 13:46]. Of the garments infected by the leprosy, and the signs of this infection, [Lev 13:47-52]. Equivocal marks relative to this infection, and how the garment is to be treated, by washing or by burning, [Lev 13:53-58]. Conclusion relative to the foregoing particulars, [Lev 13:59].

### Verse 2

[¶40] The plague of leprosy - This dreadful disorder has its name leprosy, from the Greek λεποα, from λεπις, a scale, because in this disease the body was often covered with thin white scales, so as to give it the appearance of snow. Hence it is said of the hand of Moses, [Exo 4:6], that it was leprous as snow; and of Miriam, [Num 12:10], that she became leprous, as white as snow; and of Gehazi, [2Kgs 5:27], that, being judicially struck with the disease of Naaman, he went out from Elisha's presence a leper as white as snow. See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:6]. In Hebrew this disease is termed צרעת tsaraath, from צרע mor tsara, to smite or strike; but the root in Arabic signifies to cast down or prostrate, and in Ethiopian, to cause to cease, because, says Stockius, "it prostrates the strength of man, and obliges him to cease from all work and labor." There were three signs by which the leprosy was known.

[¶41] 1. A bright spot.

[¶42] 2. A rising (enamelling) of the surface.

[¶43] 3. A scab; the enamelled place producing a variety of layers, or stratum super stratum, of these scales.

[¶44] The account given by Mr. Maundrell of the appearance of several persons whom he saw infected with this disorder in Palestine, will serve to show, in the clearest light, its horrible nature and tendency. "When I was in the Holy Land," says he, in his letter to the Rev. Mr. Osborn, Fellow of Exeter College, "I saw several that labored under Gehazi's distemper; particularly at Sichem, (now Naplosu), there were no less than ten that came begging to us at one time. Their manner is to come with small buckets in their hands, to receive the alms of the charitable; their touch being still held infectious, or at least unclean. The distemper, as I saw it on them, was quite different from what I have seen it in England; for it not only defiles the whole surface of the body with a foul scurf, but also deforms the joints of the body, particularly those of the wrists and ankles, making them swell with a gouty scrofulous substance, very loathsome to look on. I thought their legs like those of old battered horses, such as are often seen in drays in England. The whole distemper, indeed, as it there appeared, was so noisome, that it might well pass for the utmost corruption of the human body on this side the grave. And certainly the inspired penman could not have found out a fitter emblem, whereby to express the uncleanness and odiousness of vice." - Maundrell's Travels. Letters at the end. The reader will do well to collate this account with that given from Dr. Mead; see the note on [Exo 4:6] (note).

## 138. Leviticus · 14 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/138/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/138/#p-N

### Verse 3

[¶1] The priest shall - pronounce him unclean - וטמא אתו vetimme otho; literally, shall pollute him, i. e., in the Hebrew idiom, shall declare or pronounce him polluted; and in [Lev 13:23], it is said, the priest shall pronounce him clean, וטהרו הכהן vetiharo haccohen, the priest shall cleanse him, i. e., declare him clean. In this phrase we have the proper meaning of [Mat 16:19] : Whatsoever ye bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. By which our Lord intimates that the disciples, from having the keys, i. e., the true knowledge of the doctrine, of the kingdom of heaven, should, from particular evidences, be at all times able to distinguish between the clean and the unclean, the sincere and the hypocrite; and pronounce a judgment as infallible as the priest did in the case of the leprosy, from the tokens already specified. And as this binding and loosing, or pronouncing fit or unfit for fellowship with the members of Christ, must in the case of the disciples be always according to the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven, the sentence should be considered as proceeding immediately from thence, and consequently as Divinely ratified. The priest polluted or cleansed, i. e., declared the man clean or unclean, according to signs well known and infallible. The disciples or ministers of Christ bind or loose, declare to be fit or unfit for Church fellowship, according to unequivocal evidences of innocence or guilt. In the former case, the priest declared the person fit or unfit for civil society; in the latter, the ministers of Christ declare the person against whom the suspicion of guilt is laid, fit or unfit for continued association with the Church of God. The office was the same in both, a declaration of the truth, not from any power that they possessed of cleansing or polluting, of binding or of loosing, but by the knowledge they gained from the infallible signs and evidences produced on the respective cases.

### Verse 13

[¶3] If the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean - Why is it that the partial leper was pronounced unclean, and the person totally covered with the disease clean? This was probably owing to a different species or stage of the disease; the partial disease was contagious, the total not contagious. That there are two different species or degrees of the same disease described here, is sufficiently evident. In one, the body was all covered with a white enamelled scurf; in the other, there was a quick raw flesh in the risings. On this account the one might be deemed unclean, i. e., contagious, the other not; for contact with the quick raw flesh would be more likely to communicate the disease than the touch of the hard dry scurf. The ichor proceeding from the former, when brought into contact with the flesh of another, would soon be taken into the constitution by means of the absorbent vessels; but where the whole surface was perfectly dry, the absorbent vessels of another person coming in contact with the diseased man could imbibe nothing, and therefore there was comparatively no danger of infection. Hence that species or stage of the disease that exhibited the quick raw rising was capable of conveying the infection for the reasons already assigned, when the other was not. Dr. Mead thus accounts for the circumstance mentioned in the text. See on [Lev 13:18] (note). As the leprosy infected bodies, clothes, and even the walls of houses, is it not rational to suppose that it was occasioned by a species of animalcula or vermin burrowing under the skin? Of this opinion there are some learned supporters.

### Verse 18

[¶5] In the skin thereof, was a boil - Scheuchzer supposes this and the following verse to speak of phlegmonic, erysipelatous, gangrenous, and phagedenic ulcers, all of which were subjected to the examination of the priest, to see whether they were infectious, or whether the leprosy might not take its origin from them. A person with any sore or disposition to contagion was more likely to catch the infection by contact with the diseased person, than he was whose skin was whole and sound, and his habit good.

### Verse 29

[¶7] A plague upon the head or the beard - This refers to a disease in which, according to the Jews, the hair either on the head or the chin dropped out by the roots.

### Verse 33

[¶9] The scall shall he not shave - Lest the place should be irritated and inflamed, and assume in consequence other appearances besides those of a leprous infection; in which case the priest might not be able to form an accurate judgment.

### Verse 45

[¶11] His clothes shall be rent, etc. - The leprous person is required to be as one that mourned for the dead, or for some great and public calamity. He was to have his clothes rent in token of extreme sorrow; his head was to be made bare, the ordinary bonnet or turban being omitted; and he was to have a covering upon his upper lip, his jaws being tied up With a linen cloth, after the same manner in which the Jews bind up the dead, which custom is still observed among the Jews in Barbary on funeral occasions: a custom which, from [Eze 24:17], we learn had prevailed very anciently among the Jews in Palestine. He was also to cry, Unclean, unclean, in order to prevent any person from coming near him, lest the contagion might be thus communicated and diffused through society; and hence the Targumist render it, Be not ye made unclean! Be not ye made unclean! A caution to others not to come near him.

### Verse 47

[¶13] The garment also - The whole account here seems to intimate that the garment was fretted by this contagion; and hence it is likely that it was occasioned by a species of small animals, which we know to be the cause of the itch; these, by breeding in the garments, must necessarily multiply their kind, and fret the garments, i. e., corrode a, portion of the finer parts, after the manner of moths, for their nourishment. See [Lev 13:52] (note).

### Verse 52

[¶15] He shall therefore burn that garment - There being scarcely any means of radically curing the infection. It is well known that the garments infected by the psora, or itch animal, have been known to communicate the disease even six or seven years after the first infection. This has been also experienced by the sorters of rags at some paper mills.

### Verse 54

[¶17] He shall shut it up seven days more - To give time for the spreading of the contagion, if it did exist there; that there might be the most unequivocal marks and proofs that the garment was or was not infected.

### Verse 58

[¶19] It shall be washed the second time - According to the Jews the first washing was to put away the plague, the second to cleanse it. Both among Jews and Gentiles the leprosy has been considered as a most expressive emblem of sin, the properties and circumstances of the one pointing out those of the other. The similitude or parallel has been usually run in the following manner: -

[¶20] 1. The leprosy began with a spot, a simple hidden infection being the cause.

[¶21] 2. This spot was very conspicuous, and argued the source whence it proceeded.

[¶22] 3. It was of a diffusive nature, soon spreading over the whole body.

[¶23] 4. It communicated its infectious nature, not only to the whole of the person's body, but also to his clothes and habitation.

[¶24] 5. It rendered the infected person loathsome, unfit for and dangerous to society because of its infectious nature.

[¶25] 6. The person infected was obliged to be separated from society, both religious and civil; to dwell by himself without the camp or city, and hold commerce with none.

[¶26] 7. He was obliged to proclaim his own uncleanness, publicly acknowledge his defilement, and, sensible of his plague, continue humbled and abased before God and man.

[¶27] How expressive all these are of the nature of sin and the state of a sinner, a spiritual mind will at once perceive.

[¶28] 1. The original infection or corruption of nature is the grand hidden cause, source, and spring of all transgression.

[¶29] 2. Iniquity is a seed that has its growth, gradual increase, and perfection. As the various powers of the mind are developed, so it diffuses itself, infecting every passion and appetite through their whole extent and operation.

[¶30] 3. As it spreads in the mind, so it diffuses itself through the life; every action partaking of its influence, till the whole conduct becomes a tissue of transgression, because every imagination of the thoughts of a sinner's heart is only evil continually, Genesis 6. This is the natural state of man.

[¶31] 4. As a sinner is infected, so is he infectious; by his precept and example he spreads the infernal contagion wherever he goes; joining with the multitude to do evil, strengthening and being strengthened in the ways of sin and death, and becoming especially a snare and a curse to his own household.

[¶32] 5. That a sinner is abominable in the sight of God and of all good men, that he is unfit for the society of the righteous, and that he cannot, as such, be admitted into the kingdom of God, needs no proof.

[¶33] 6. It is owing to the universality of the evil that sinners are not expelled from society as the most dangerous of all monsters, and obliged to live without having any commerce with their fellow creatures. Ten lepers could associate together, because partaking of the same infection: and civil society is generally maintained, because composed of a leprous community.

[¶34] 7. He that wishes to be saved from his sins must humble himself before God and man, sensible of his own sore and the plague of his heart; confess his transgressions; look to God for a cure, from whom alone it can be received; and bring that Sacrifice by which alone the guilt can be taken away, and his soul be purified from all unrighteousness. See the conclusion of the following chapter at [Lev 14:53] (note).

### Introduction

[¶36] Introduction to the sacrifices and ceremonies to be used in cleansing the leper, [Lev 14:1-3]. Two living birds, cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop, to be brought for him who was to be cleansed, [Lev 14:4]. One of the birds to be killed, [Lev 14:5]; and the living bird, with the cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop, to be dipped in the blood, and to be sprinkled on him who had been infected with the leprosy, [Lev 14:6], [Lev 14:7]; after which he must wash his clothes, shave his head, eye brows, beard, etc., bathe himself, tarry abroad seven days, [Lev 14:8], [Lev 14:9]; on the eighth day he must bring two he-lambs, one ewe lamb, a tenth deal of flour, and a log of oil, [Lev 14:10]; which the priest was to present as a trespass-offering, wave-offering, and sin-offering before the Lord, [Lev 14:11-13]. Afterwards he was to sprinkle both the blood and oil on the person to be cleansed, [Lev 14:14-18]. The atonement made by these offerings, [Lev 14:19], [Lev 14:20]. If the person were poor, one lamb, with the flour and oil, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, were only required, [Lev 14:21], [Lev 14:22]. These to be presented, and the blood and oil applied as before, [Lev 14:23-32]. Laws and ordinances relative to houses infected by the leprosy, vv. 33-48. An atonement to be made in order to cleanse the house, similar to that made for the healed leper, [Lev 14:49-53]. A summary of this and the preceding chapter, relative to leprous persons, garments, and houses, [Lev 14:54-56]. The end for which these different laws were given, [Lev 14:57].

### Verse 3

[¶38] The priest shall go forth out of the camp - As the leper was separated from the people, and obliged, because of his uncleanness, to dwell without the camp, and could not be admitted till the priest had declared that he was clean; hence it was necessary that the priest should go out and inspect him, and, if healed, offer for him the sacrifices required, in order to his re-admission to the camp. As the priest alone had authority to declare a person clean or unclean, it was necessary that the healed person should show himself to the priest, that he might make a declaration that he was clean and fit for civil and religious society, without which, in no case, could he be admitted; hence, when Christ cleansed the lepers, [Mat 8:2-4], he commanded them to go and show themselves to the priest, etc.

### Verse 4

[¶40] Two birds alive and clean, etc. - Whether these birds were sparrows, or turtledoves, or pigeons, we know not; probably any kind of clean bird, or bird proper to be eaten, might be used on this occasion, though it is more likely that turtle-doves or pigeons were employed, because these appear to have been the only birds offered in sacrifice. Of the cedarwood, hyssop, clean bird, and scarlet wool or fillet, were made an aspergillum, or instrument to sprinkle with. The cedar-wood served for the handle, the hyssop and living bird were attached to it by means of the scarlet wool or crimson fillet. The bird was so bound to this handle as that its tail should be downwards, in order to be dipped into the blood of the bird that had been killed. The whole of this made an instrument for the sprinkling of this blood, and when this business was done, the living bird was let loose, and permitted to go whithersoever it would. In this ceremony, according to some rabbins, "the living bird signified that the dead flesh of the leper was restored to soundness; the cedar-wood, which is not easily corrupted, that he was healed of his putrefaction; the scarlet thread, wool, or fillet, that he was restored to his good complexion; and the hyssop, which was purgative and odoriferous, that the disease was completely removed, and the bad scent that accompanied it entirely gone." Ainsworth, Dodd, and others, have given many of these rabbinical conceits. Of all these purifications, and their accompanying circumstances, we may safely say, because authorized by the New Testament so to do, that they pointed out the purification of the soul through the atonement and Spirit of Christ; but to run analogies between the type and the thing typified is difficult, and precarious. The general meaning and design we sufficiently understand; the particulars are not readily ascertainable, and consequently of little importance; had they been otherwise, they would have been pointed out.

### Verse 5

[¶42] Over running water - Literally, living, that is, spring water. The meaning appears to be this: Some water (about a quarter of a log, an eggshell and a half full, according to the rabbins) was taken from a spring, and put into a clean earthen vessel, and they killed the bird over this water, that the blood might drop into it; and in this blood and water mixed, they dipped the instrument before described, and sprinkled it seven times upon the person who was to be cleansed. The living or spring water was chosen because it was purer than what was taken from pits or wells, the latter being often in a putrid or corrupt state; for in a ceremony of purifying or cleansing, every thing must be as pure and perfect as possible.

### Verse 7

[¶44] Shall let the living bird loose - The Jews teach that wild birds were employed on this occasion, no tame or domestic animal was used. Mr. Ainsworth piously conjectures that the living and dead birds were intended to represent the death and resurrection of Christ, by which an atonement was made to purify the soul from its spiritual leprosy. The bird let loose bears a near analogy to the scapegoat. See Leviticus 16.

## 139. Leviticus · 15 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/139/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/139/#p-N

### Verse 8

[¶1] And shave off all his hair - That the water by which he was to be washed should reach every part of his body, that he might be cleansed from whatever defilement might remain on any part of the surface of his body. The Egyptian priests shaved the whole body every third day, to prevent all manner of defilement.

### Verse 10

[¶3] Two he-lambs - One for a trespass-offering, [Lev 14:12], the other for a burnt-offering, [Lev 14:19], [Lev 14:20].

[¶4] One ewe-lamb - This was for a sin-offering [Lev 14:19]. Three tenth deals - Three parts of an ephah, or three omers; See all these measures explained in [Exo 16:16] (note). The three tenth deals of flour were for a minchah, meat or gratitude-offering, [Lev 14:20]. The sin-offering was for his impurity; the trespass-offering for his transgression; and the gratitude-offering for his gracious cleansing. These constituted the offering which each was ordered to bring to the priest; see [Mat 8:4].

### Verse 12

[¶6] Wave-offering - See [Exo 29:27], and Leviticus 7, where the reader will find an ample account of all the various offerings and sacrifices used among the Jews.

### Verse 14

[¶8] Upon the tip of the right ear, etc. - See Clarke's note on [Exo 29:20].

### Verse 21

[¶10] And if he be poor - he shall take one lamb - There could be no cleansing without a sacrifice. On this ground the apostle has properly observed that all things under the law are purged with blood; and that without shedding of blood there is no remission. Even if the person be poor, he must provide one lamb; this could not be dispensed with: - so every soul to whom the word of Divine revelation comes, must bring that Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. There is no redemption but in his blood.

### Verse 34

[¶12] When ye be come into the land - and I put the plague of leprosy - It was probably from this text that the leprosy has been generally considered to be a disease inflicted immediately by God himself; but it is well known that in Scripture God is frequently represented as doing what, in the course of his providence, he only permits or suffers to be done. It is supposed that the infection of the house, as well as of the person and the garments, proceeded from animalcula. See Clarke's note on [Lev 13:47], and [Lev 13:52] (note).

### Verse 45

[¶14] He shall break down the house - "On the suspicion of a house being infected, the priest examined it, and ordered it to be shut up seven days; if he found the plague, or signs of the plague, (hollow streaks, greenish or reddish), were not spread, he commanded it to be shut up seven days more. On the thirteenth day he revisited it; and if he found the infected place dim, or gone away, he took out that part of the wall, carried it out to an unclean place, mended the wall, and caused the whole house to be new plastered. It was then shut up a third seven days, and he came on the nineteenth, and if he found that the plague was broken out anew, he ordered the house to be pulled down." See Ainsworth. From all this may we not learn a lesson of instruction? If the means made use of by God and his ministers for the conversion of a sinner be, through his willful obstinacy, rendered of no avail; if by his evil practices he trample under foot the blood of the covenant wherewith he might have been sanctified, and do despite to the Spirit of God; then God will pull down his house - dislodge his soul from its earthly tabernacle, consign the house, the body, to corruption, and the spirit to the perdition of ungodly men. Reader, see well how it stands with thy soul. God is not mocked: what a man soweth, that shall he reap.

### Verse 53

[¶16] He shall let go the living bird - This might as well be called the scape-bird; as the goat, in Leviticus 16, is called the scape-goat. The rites are similar in both cases, and probably had nearly the same meaning. We have already taken occasion to observe (see the end of the preceding chapter at [Lev 13:58] (note)) that the leprosy was strongly emblematical of sin; to which we may add here: -

[¶17] 1. That the leprosy was a disease generally acknowledged to be incurable by any human means; and therefore the Jews did not attempt to cure it. What is directed to be done here was not in order to cure the leper, but to declare him cured and fit for society. In like manner the contagion of sin, its guilt and its power, can only be removed by the hand of God; all means, without his especial influence, can be of no avail.

[¶18] 2. The body must be sprinkled and washed, and a sacrifice offered for the sin of the soul, before the leper could be declared to be clean. To cleanse the spiritual leper, the Lamb of God must be slain, and the sprinkling of his blood be applied. Without the shedding of this blood there is no remission.

[¶19] 3. When the leper was cleansed, he was obliged to show himself to the priest, whose province it was to pronounce him clean, and declare him fit for intercourse with civil and religious society. When a sinner is converted from the error of his ways, it is the business, as it is the prerogative, of the ministers of Christ, after having duly acquainted themselves with every circumstance, to declare the person converted from sin to holiness, to unite him with the people of God, and admit him to all the ordinances which belong to the faithful.

[¶20] 4. When the leper was cleansed, he was obliged by the law to offer a gift unto the Lord for his healing, as a proof of his gratitude, and an evidence of his obedience. When a sinner is restored to the Divine favor, he should offer continually the sacrifice of a grateful heart, and, in willing obedience, show forth the virtues of Him who has called him from darkness and wretchedness to marvelous light and happiness.

[¶21] Reader, such was the leprosy, its destructive nature and consequences, and the means of removing it; such is the spiritual evil represented by it, such its consequences, and such the means by which alone it can be removed. The disease of sin, inflicted by the devil, can only be cured by the power of God.

[¶22] 1. Art thou a leper? Do the spots of this spiritual infection begin to appear on thee?

[¶23] 2. Art thou young, and only entering into the ways of the world and sin? Stop! bad habits are more easily conquered to-day than they will be tomorrow.

[¶24] 3. Art thou stricken in years, and rooted in transgression? How kind is thy Maker to have preserved thee alive so long! Turn from thy transgressions, humble thy soul before him, confess thine iniquity and implore forgiveness. Seek, and thou shalt find. Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!

[¶25] 4. Hast thou been cleansed, and hast not returned to give glory to God? hast not continued in the truth, serving thy Maker and Savior with a loving and obedient heart? How cutting is that word, Were there not Ten cleansed? but where are the Nine? Thou art probably one of them. Be confounded at thy ingratitude, and distressed for thy backsliding; and apply a second time for the healing efficacy of the great Atonement. Turn, thou backslider; for he is married unto thee, and will heal thy backslidings, and will love thee freely. Amen. So be it, Lord Jesus!

### Introduction

[¶27] Laws concerning uncleanness of men, [Lev 15:1-12]. Mode of cleansing, [Lev 15:13-15]. Of uncleanness, accidental and casual, [Lev 15:16-18]. Laws concerning the uncleanness of women, vv. 10-27. Mode of cleansing, [Lev 15:28-30]. Recapitulation of the ordinances relative to the preceding cases, [Lev 15:31-33].

### Verse 2

[¶29] When any man hath a running issue - The cases of natural uncleanness, both of men and women, mentioned in this chapter, taken in a theological point of view, are not of such importance to us as to render a particular description necessary, the letter of the text being, in general, plain enough. The disease mentioned in the former part of this chapter appears to some to have been either the consequence of a very bad infection, or of some criminal indulgence; for they find that it might be communicated in a variety of ways, which they imagine are here distinctly specified. On this ground the person was declared unclean, and all commerce and connection with him strictly forbidden. The Septuagint version renders הזב hazzab, the man with the issue, by ὁ γονορῥυης, the man with a gonorrhea, no less than nine times in this chapter; and that it means what in the present day is commonly understood by that disorder, taken not only in its mild but in its worst sense, they think there is little room to doubt. Hence they infer that a disease which is supposed to be comparatively recent in Europe, has existed almost from time immemorial in the Asiatic countries; that it ever has been, in certain measures, what it is now; and that it ever must be the effect of sensual indulgence, and illicit and extravagant intercourse between the sexes. The disgraceful disorder referred to here is a foul blot which the justice of God in the course of providence has made in general the inseparable consequent of these criminal indulgences, and serves in some measure to correct and restrain the vice itself. In countries where public prostitution was permitted, where it was even a religious ceremony among those who were idolaters, this disease must necessarily have been frequent and prevalent. When the pollutions and libertinism of former times are considered, it seems rather strange that medical men should have adopted the opinion, and consumed so much time in endeavoring to prove it, viz., that the disease is modern. It must have existed, in certain measures, ever since prostitution prevailed in the world; and this has been in every nation of the earth from its earliest era. That the Israelites might have received it from the Egyptians, and that it must, through the Baal-peor and Ashteroth abominations which they learned and practiced, have prevailed among the Moabites, etc., there can be little reason to doubt. Supposing this disease to be at all hinted at here, the laws and ordinances enjoined were at once wisely and graciously calculated to remove and prevent it. By contact, contagion of every kind is readily communicated; and to keep the whole from the diseased must be essential to the check and eradication of a contagious disorder. This was the wise and grand object of this enlightened Legislator in the ordinances which he lays down in this chapter. I grant, however, that it was probably of a milder kind in ancient times; that it has gained strength and virulence by continuance; and that, associated with some foreign causes, it became greatly exacerbated in Europe about 1493, the time in which some have supposed it first began to exist, though there are strong evidences of it in this country ever since the eleventh century.

### Verse 11

[¶31] And whomsoever he toucheth - Here we find that the saliva, sitting on the same seat, lying on the same bed, riding on the same saddle, or simple contact, was sufficient to render the person unclean, meaning, possibly, in certain cases, to communicate the disorder; and it is well known that in all these ways the contagion of this disorder may be communicated. Is it not even possible that the effluvia from the body of an infected person may be the means of communicating the disease? Sydenham expressly says that it may be communicated by lactation, handling, the saliva, sweat, and by the breath itself, as well as by those grosser means of which there is no question. But the term unclean, in this and the following cases, is generally understood in a mere legal sense, the rendering a person unfit for sacred ordinances. And as there was a mild kind of gonorrhea that was brought on by excessive fatigue and the like, it may be that kind only which the law has in view in the above ordinances.

### Verse 18

[¶33] They shall both bathe themselves - What a wonderful tendency had these ordinances to prevent all excesses! The pains which such persons must take, the separations which they must observe, and the privations which, in consequence, they must be exposed to in the way of commerce, traffic, etc., would prevent them from making an unlawful use of lawful things.

### Verse 24

[¶35] The common sense of all mankind has led them to avoid the gross impropriety referred to in this verse - and it has been a general opinion, that off-spring obtained in this way has been infected with leprous, scrofulous, and other deeply radicated diseases, from which they and their posterity have been scarcely ever freed. In [Lev 20:18], persons guilty of this are condemned to death; here only to a seven days' separation; because, in the former case, Moses speaks of the act when both the man and woman were acquainted with the situation: in the latter, he speaks of a case where the circumstance was not known till afterwards; at least, so it appears these two places should be understood, so as to be reconciled.

### Verse 29

[¶37] Two turtles, or two young pigeons - In all these cases moral pollution was ever considered as being less or more present, as even such infirmities sprang from the original defection of man. On these accounts sacrifices must be offered; and in the case of the woman, one of the birds above mentioned must be sacrificed as a sin-offering, the other as a burnt-offering, [Lev 15:30].

### Verse 31

[¶39] Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness - By this separation the cause became less frequent, and the contagion, if it did exist, was prevented from spreading. So pest-houses and fever-wards are constructed for the purpose of separating the infected from the sound; and thus contagion is lessened, and its diffusion prevented.

[¶40] That they die not - That life may be prolonged by these prudential cares; and that he who is morally and legally unclean, may not presume to enter into the tabernacle of God till purified, lest he provoke Divine justice to consume him, while attempting to worship with a polluted mind and impure hands.

[¶41] 1. How unpromising and how forbidding, at the first view, is this chapter! and yet how full of wise, humane, and moral regulations, manifesting at once the wisdom and kindness of the great Legislator! Every word of God is pure in itself, and of great importance to us. He who cannot derive instruction from the chapter before him, and be led by a proper consideration of its contents to adore the wisdom and goodness of God, must have either a very stupid or a very vitiated mind.

[¶42] 2. In all these ordinances we may plainly see that God has purity of heart continually in view - that the soul may be holy, he cuts off the occasions of sin; and that men may be obliged to keep within due bounds, and possess their vessels in sanctification and honor, he hedges up their way with briars and thorns, and renders transgression painful, shameful, and expensive.

[¶43] 3. Preventing grace is not less necessary than that which saves and which preserves. These three chapters, avoided and neglected by most, contain lessons of instruction for all; and though many things contained in them belong exclusively to the Jewish people as to the letter, yet in their spirit and gracious design they form a part of those revealed things which are for us and for our children; and although they cannot be made the subject of public oral instruction, yet they are highly necessary to be known, and hence the advantage of reading the Scriptures in regular order in private.

[¶44] May we read so as to understand, and practice what we know, that, being wise unto salvation, we may walk as children of the light and of the day, in whom there shall be no occasion of stumbling!

## 140. Leviticus · 16 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/140/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/140/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The solemn yearly expiation for the high priest, who must not come at all times into the holy place, [Lev 16:1], [Lev 16:2]. He must take a bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, bathe himself, and be dressed in his sacerdotal robes, [Lev 16:3], [Lev 16:4]. He shall take two goats, one of which is to be determined by lot to be a sacrifice; the other to be a scapegoat, [Lev 16:5-10]. He shall offer a bullock for himself and for his family, [Lev 16:11-14]. And shall kill the goat as a sin-offering for the people, and sprinkle its blood upon the mercy-seat, and hallow the altar of burnt-offerings, [Lev 16:15-19]. The scapegoat shall be then brought, on the head of which he shall lay his hands, and confess the iniquities of the children of Israel; after which the goat shall be permitted to escape to the wilderness, [Lev 16:20-22]. After this Aaron shall bathe himself, and make a burnt-offering for himself and for the people, [Lev 16:23-28]. This is to be an everlasting statute, and the day on which the atonement is to be made shall be a Sabbath, or day of rest, through all their generations, [Lev 16:29-34].

### Verse 1

[¶3] After the death of the two sons of Aaron - It appears from this verse that the natural place of this chapter is immediately after the tenth, where probably it originally stood; but the transposition, if it did take place, must be very ancient, as all the versions acknowledge this chapter in the place in which it now stands.

### Verse 2

[¶5] That he come not at all times into the holy place - By the holy place we are to understand here what is ordinarily called the Holy of Holies, or most holy place; that place within the veil where the ark of the covenant, etc., were laid up; and where God manifested his presence between the cherubim. In ordinary cases the high priest could enter this place only once in the year, that is, on the day of annual atonement; but in extraordinary cases he might enter more frequently, viz., while in the wilderness, in decamping and encamping, he must enter to take down or adjust the things; and on solemn pressing public occasions, he was obliged to enter in order to consult the Lord: but he never entered without the deepest reverence and due preparation. That it may appear that the grand subject of this chapter, the ordinance of the scape-goat, typified the death and resurrection of Christ, and the atonement thereby made, I beg leave to refer to [Heb 9:7-12], and [Heb 9:24-26], which I shall here transcribe, because it is a key to the whole of this chapter. "Into the second [tabernacle] went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come, a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the Blood of Goats and Calves, but by his Own Blood; he entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others; (for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world); but now once in the end of the world, hath he appeared To Put Away Sin By The Sacrifice Of Himself."

### Verse 3

[¶7] With a young bullock for a sin-offering - The bullock was presented as a sin-offering for himself, his family, the whole priesthood, and probably the Levites. The ram was for a burnt-offering, to signify that he and his associates were wholly consecrated, and to be wholly employed in this work of the ministry. The ceremonies with which these two sacrifices were accompanied are detailed in the following verses.

### Verse 4

[¶9] He shall put on the holy linen coat - He was not to dress in his pontifical garments, but in the simple sacerdotal vestments, or those of the Levites, because it was a day of humiliation; and as he was to offer sacrifices for his own sins, it was necessary that he should appear in habits suited to the occasion. Hence he has neither the robe, the ephod, the breastplate, the mitre, etc.; these constituted his dress of dignity as the high priest of God, ministering for others and the representative of Christ: but now he appears, before God as a sinner, offering an atonement for his transgressions, and his garments are those of humiliation.

### Verse 7

[¶11] And he shall take the two goats - It is allowed on all hands that this ceremony, taken in all its parts, pointed out the Lord Jesus dying for our sins and rising again for our justification; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Two goats are brought, one to be slain as a sacrifice for sin, the other to have the transgressions of the people confessed over his head, and then to be sent away into the wilderness. The animal by this act was represented as bearing away or carrying off the sins of the people. The two goats made only one sacrifice, yet only one of them was slain. One animal could not point out both the Divine and human nature of Christ, nor show both his death and resurrection, for the goat that was killed could not be made alive. The Divine and human natures in Christ were essential to the grand expiation: yet the human nature alone suffered, for the Divine nature could not suffer; but its presence in the human nature, while agonizing unto death, stamped those agonies, and the consequent death, with infinite merit. The goat therefore that was slain prefigured his human nature and its death; the goat that escaped pointed out his resurrection. The one shows the atonement for sin, as the ground of justification; the other Christ's victory, and the total removal of sin in the sanctification of the soul. Concerning these ceremonies we shall see farther particulars as we proceed. According to Maimonides fifteen beasts were offered on this day. "The daily, or morning and evening sacrifice, was offered as usual: besides a bullock, a ram, and seven lambs, all burnt-offerings; and a goat for a sin-offering, which was eaten in the evening. Then a bullock for a sin-offering, and this they burnt; and a ram for a burnt-offering: these both for the high priest. Then the ram for the consecration, (see [Lev 16:5]) which is called the people's ram. They brought also for the congregation two he-goats; the one for a sin-offering, the other for a scape-goat. Thus all the beasts offered on this great solemn day were Fifteen: the two daily sacrifices, one bullock, two rams, and seven lambs: all of these burnt-offerings. Two goats for sin-offerings; one offered without and eaten on the evening, the other offered within and burnt; and one bullock for a sin-offering for the high priest. The service of all these fifteen beasts is performed on this day by the high priest only." See Maimonides and Ainsworth on the place.

### Verse 8

[¶13] Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats - The Jews inform us that there were two lots made either of wood, stone, or any kind of metal. On one was written לשם Lashshem, for the Name, i. e., יהוה Jehovah, which the Jews will neither write nor pronounce: on the other was written לעזאזל Laazazel, for the Scape-Goat: then they put the two lots into a vessel which was called קלפי kalpey, the goats standing with their faces towards the west. Then the priest came, and the goats stood before him, one on the right hand and the other on the left; the kalpey was then shaken, and the priest put in both his hands and brought out a lot in each: that which was in his right hand he laid on the goat that was on his right, and that in his left hand he laid on the goat that was on his left; and according to what was written on the lots, the scape-goat and the goat for sacrifice were ascertained. See the Mishna, in Tract. Yoma. The determining this solemn business by lot, the disposal of which is with the Lord, [Pro 16:33], shows that God alone was to select and point out the person by whom this great atonement was to be made; hence he says: Behold I lay in Zion a stone, elect (that is, chosen by himself) and precious - of infinite value.

### Verse 10

[¶15] To be the scape-goat - עזאזל azazel, from עז az, a goat, and אזל azal, to dismiss; the dismissed or sent away goat, to distinguish it from the goat that was to be offered in sacrifice. Most ancient nations had vicarious sacrifices, to which they transferred by certain rites and ceremonies the guilt of the community at large, in the same manner in which the scapegoat was used by the Jews. The white bull that was sacrificed by the Egyptians to their god Apis was of this kind; they cut off the head of the victim which they had sacrificed, and after having loaded it with execrations, "that if there be any evil hanging over them or the land of Egypt, it may be poured out upon that head," they either sold it to the Greeks or threw it into the Nile - See Herod. Euterp., p. 104, edit. Gale.

[¶16] Petronius Arbiter says that it was a custom among the ancient inhabitants of Marseilles, whenever they were afflicted by any pestilence, to take one of the poorer citizens who offered himself for the purpose, and having fed him a whole year with the purest and best food, they adorned him with vervain, and clothed him with sacred vestments: they then led him round their city, loading him with execrations; and having prayed that all the evils to which the city was exposed might fall upon him, they then precipitated him from the top of a rock - Satiricon, in fine.

[¶17] Suidas, under the word περιψημα, observes that it was a custom to devote a man annually to death for the safety of the people, with these words, Περιψἡμα ημων γενου, Be thou our purifier; and, having said so, to throw him into the sea as a sacrifice to Neptune. It was probably to this custom that Virgil alludes when speaking of the pilot Palinurus, who fell into the sea and was drowned, he says: -

[¶18] Unum pro multis dabiter caput -

[¶19] Aen., lib. v., ver. 815. "One life is given for the preservation of many."

[¶20] But the nearest resemblance to the scapegoat of the Hebrews is found in the Ashummeed Jugg of the Hindoos, where a horse is used instead of a goat, the description of which I shall here introduce from Mr. Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws; Introduction, p. xix. "That the curious," says he, "may form some idea of this Gentoo sacrifice when reduced to a symbol, as well as from the subsequent plain account given of it in a chapter of the Code, sec. ix., p. 127, an explanation of it is here inserted from Darul Shekh's famous Persian translation of some commentaries upon the four Beids, or original Scriptures of Hindostan. The work itself is extremely scarce, and it was by mere accident that this little specimen was procured: - "The Ashummeed Jugg does not merely consist in the performance of that ceremony which is open to the inspection of the world, namely, in bringing a horse and sacrificing him; but Ashummeed is to be taken in a mystic signification, as implying that the sacrificer must look upon himself to be typified in that horse, such as he shall be described; because the religious duty of the Ashummeed Jugg comprehends all those other religious duties to the performance of which the wise and holy direct all their actions, and by which all the sincere professors of every different faith aim at perfection. The mystic signification thereof is as follows: The head of that unblemished horse is the symbol of the morning; his eyes are the sun; his breath, the wind; his wide-opening mouth is the bish-waner, or that innate warmth which invigorates all the world; his body typifies one entire year; his back, paradise; his belly, the plains; his hoof, this earth; his sides, the four quarters of the heavens; the bones thereof, the intermediate spaces between the four quarters; the rest of his limbs represent all distinct matter; the places where those limbs meet, or his joints, imply the months, and halves of the months, which are called peche, (or fortnights); his feet signify night and day; and night and day are of four kinds:

[¶21] 1. The night and day of Brihma;

[¶22] 2. The night and day of angels;

[¶23] 3. The night and day of the world of the spirits of deceased ancestors;

[¶24] 4. The night and day of mortals.

[¶25] These four kinds are typified in his four feet. The rest of his bones are the constellations of the fixed stars, which are the twenty-eight stages of the moon's course, called the lunar year; his flesh is the clouds; his food, the sand; his tendons, the rivers; his spleen and liver, the mountains; the hair of his body, the vegetables; and his long hair, the trees; the forepart of his body typifies the first half of the day, and the hinder part, the latter half; his yawning is the flash of the lightning, and his turning himself is the thunder of the cloud; his urine represents the rain, and his mental reflection is his only speech. The golden vessels which are prepared before the horse is let loose are the light of the day, and the place where those vessels are kept is a type of the ocean of the east; the silver vessels which are prepared after the horse is let loose are the light of the night, and the place where those vessels are kept is a type of the ocean of the west. These two sorts of vessels are always before and after the horse. The Arabian horse, which on account of his swiftness is called Hy, is the performer of the journeys of angels; the Tajee, which is of the race of Persian horses, is the performer of the journeys of the Kundherps, (or good spirits); the Wazba, which is of the race of the deformed Tazee horses, is the performer of the journeys of the Jins, (or demons); and the Ashov, which is of the race of Turkish horses, is the performer of the journeys of mankind: this one horse which performs these several services on account of his four different sorts of riders, obtains the four different appellations. The place where this horse remains is the great ocean, which signifies the great spirit of Perm-Atma, or the universal soul, which proceeds also from that Perm-Atma, and is comprehended in the same Perm-Atma. The intent of this sacrifice is, that a man should consider himself to be in the place of that horse, and look upon all these articles as typified in himself; and conceiving the Atma (or Divine soul) to be an ocean, should let all thought of self be absorbed in that Atma." This sacrifice is explained, in sec. ix., p. 127, of the Code of Hindoo Laws, thus: - "An Ashummeed Jugg is when a person, having commenced a Jugg, (i. e., religious ceremony), writes various articles upon a scroll of paper on a horse's neck, and dismisses the horse, sending along with the horse a stout and valiant person, equipped with the best necessaries and accoutrements to accompany the horse day and night whithersoever he shall choose to go; and if any creature, either man, genius, or dragon, should seize the horse, that man opposes such attempt, and having gained the victory upon a battle, again gives the horse his freedom. If any one in this world, or in heaven, or beneath the earth, would seize this horse, and the horse of himself comes to the house of the celebrator of the Jugg, upon killing that horse he must throw the flesh of him upon the fire of the Juk, and utter the prayers of his deity; such a Jugg is called a Jugg Ashummeed, and the merit of it as a religious work is infinite." This is a most curious circumstance; and the coincidence between the religious rites of two people who probably never had any intercourse with each other, is very remarkable. I would not however say that the Hindoo ceremony could not have been borrowed from the Jews; (though it is very unlikely); no more than I should say, as some have done, that the Jewish rite was borrowed from the Egyptian sacrifice to Apis mentioned above, which is still more unlikely. See particularly Clarke's note on [Lev 1:4] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶27] Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head, etc. - What this imposition of hands meant see in the notes on [Exo 29:10] (note), and [Lev 1:4] (note).

[¶28] And confess over him all the iniquities - transgressions - sins - The three terms used here, Iniquities, עונת avonoth, from עוה avah, to pervert, distort, or turn aside; Transgressions, פשעים peshaim, from פשע pasha, to transgress, to rebel; and Sins, חטאת chattaoth, from חטא chata, to miss the mark, are supposed by the Jews to comprise every thing that implies a breach of the Divine law, or an offense against God. See Clarke's note on [Gen 12:13]. Maimonides gives us the confession in the following words: - "O Lord, thy people, the house of Israel, have sinned and done iniquity, and trespassed before thee. O Lord, make atonement now for the iniquities and transgressions and sins that thy people, the house of Israel, have sinned and transgressed against thee; as it is written in the law of Moses thy servant, saying: That in this day he shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and ye shall be clean." - See the Mishna, vol. ii., p. 329. When this confession was finished, the goat was sent by a proper hand to the wilderness, and there let loose; and nothing farther was ever heard of it. Did not all this signify that Christ has so carried and borne away our sins, that against them who receive him as the only true atoning sacrifice they should never more be brought to remembrance? On the head of the scape-goat, a piece of scarlet cloth was tied, and the tradition of the Jews states that if God accepted the sacrifice, the scarlet cloth turned white while the goat was led to the desert; but if God had not accepted this expiation, the redness continued, and the rest of the year was spent in mourning. From the foundation of the Church of God it was ever believed by his followers, that there were certain infallible tokens by which he discovered to genuine believers his acceptance of them and their services. This was sometimes done by a fire from heaven consuming the sacrifice; sometimes by an oracular communication to the priest or prophet; and at other times, according to the Jewish account, by changing the fillet or cloth on the head of the scape-goat from scarlet to white: but most commonly, and especially under the Gospel dispensation, he gives this assurance to true believers by the testimony of his Spirit in their consciences, that he has forgiven their iniquities, transgressions, and sins, for his sake who has carried their griefs, and borne their sorrows.

### Verse 26

[¶30] He that let go the goat - shall wash, etc. - Not only the person who led him away, but the priest who consecrated him, was reputed unclean, because the goat himself was unclean, being considered as bearing the sins of the whole congregation. On this account both the priest and the person who led him to the wilderness were obliged to wash their clothes and bathe themselves, before they could come into the camp.

### Verse 29

[¶32] The seventh month, on the tenth day of the month - The commandment of fasting, and sanctifying this tenth day, is again repeated [Lev 23:27-32]; but in the last verse it is called the ninth day at even, because the Jewish day began with the evening. The sacrifices which the day of atonement should have more than other days, are mentioned [Num 29:7-11]; and the jubilee which was celebrated every fiftieth year was solemnly proclaimed by sound of trumpet on this tenth day, [Lev 25:8], [Lev 25:9]. A shadow, says Mr. Ainsworth, of that acceptable year of the Lord, the year of freedom, which Christ has proclaimed by the trumpet of his Gospel, [Luk 4:18-21]; [2Cor 6:2]. This seventh month was Tisri, and answers to a part of our September and October. It was the seventh of the sacred and the first month of the civil year.

[¶33] The great day of atonement, and the sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies prescribed for it, were commanded to be solemnized by the Jews through the whole of their dispensation, and as long as God should acknowledge them for his people: yet in the present day scarcely a shadow of these things remains; there is no longer a scape-goat, nor a goat for sacrifice, provided by them in any place. They are sinners, and they are without an atonement. How strange it is that they do not see that the essence of their religion is gone, and that consequently God has thrown them entirely out of covenant with himself! The true expiation, the Christ crucified, they refuse to receive, and are consequently without temple, altar, scape-goat, atonement, or any means of salvation! The state of the Gentile world is bad, but that of the Jews is doubly deplorable. Their total excision excepted, wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. What a proof is this of the truth of the predictions in their own law, and of those in the Gospel of Christ! Who, with the Jews and the Bible before his eyes, can doubt the truth of that Bible as a Divine revelation? Had this people been extinct, we might have doubted whether there were ever a people on the earth that acknowledged such a law, or observed such ordinances; but the people, their law, and their prophets are still in being, and all proclaim what God has wrought, and that he has now ceased to work among them, because they have refused to receive and profit by the great atonement; and yet he preserves them alive, and in a state of complete separation from all the people of the earth in all places of their dispersion! How powerfully does the preservation of the Jews as a distinct people bear testimony at once to the truth of their own law which they acknowledge, and the Gospel of Christ which they reject!

[¶34] 2. But while the Jews sit in thick darkness, because of the veil that is on their hearts, though the light of the glory of God is shining all around them, but not into them because of their unbelief; in what state are those who profess to see their unbelief and obstinacy, acknowledge the truth of the New Testament, and yet are living without an atonement applied to their souls for the removal of their iniquities, transgressions, and sins? These are also in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. An all-sufficient Savior held out in the New Testament, can do them no more good than a scape-goat and day of atonement described in the law can do the Jews. As well may a man imagine that the word bread can nourish his body, as that the name Christ can save his soul. Both must be received and applied in order that the man may live.

[¶35] 3. The Jews prepared themselves to get benefit from this most solemn ordinance by the deepest humiliations. According to their canons, they were obliged to abstain from all meat and drink - from the bath - from anointing themselves - to go barefoot - and to be in a state of perfect continency. He who is likely to get benefit for his soul through the redemption that is in Christ, must humble himself under the mighty hand of God, confess his iniquity, abstain from every appearance of evil, and believe on him who died for his offenses, and rose again for his justification. The soul that seeks not shall not find, even under the Gospel of Christ.

### Introduction

[¶37] The people are commanded to bring all the cattle they intend to kill to the door of the tabernacle, where they are to be made an offering to the Lord; and those who disobey are to be cut off, [Lev 17:1-5]. The priest is to sprinkle the blood, [Lev 17:6]. They are forbidden to offer sacrifices to devils, [Lev 17:7]. The injunction to bring their offerings to the door of the tabernacle is repeated, [Lev 17:8], [Lev 17:9]. The eating of blood is solemnly forbidden, [Lev 17:10]. It is the life of the beast, and is given to make an atonement for their souls, [Lev 17:11], [Lev 17:12]. If a bird or beast be taken in hunting, its blood must be poured out and covered with dust, for the reasons before assigned, [Lev 17:13], [Lev 17:14]. None shall eat an animal that dies of itself, or is torn by beasts; if any act otherwise he must bathe his clothes and his flesh, or bear his iniquity, [Lev 17:15], [Lev 17:16].

### Verse 4

[¶39] And bringeth it not unto the door - As sacrifice was ever deemed essential to true religion, it was necessary that it should be performed in such a way as to secure the great purpose of its institution. God alone could show how this should be done so as to be pleasing in his sight, and therefore he has given the most plain and particular directions concerning it. The Israelites, from their long residence in Egypt, an idolatrous country, had doubtless adopted many of their usages; and many portions of the Pentateuch seem to have been written merely to correct and bring them back to the purity of the Divine worship. That no blood should be offered to idols, God commands every animal used for food or sacrifice to be slain at the door of the tabernacle. While every animal was slain in this sacrificial way, even the daily food of the people must put them in mind of the necessity of a sacrifice for sin. Perhaps St. Paul had this circumstance in view when he said, Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God, [1Cor 10:31]; and, Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. While the Israelites were encamped in the wilderness, it was comparatively easy to prevent all abuses of this Divine institution; and therefore they were all commanded to bring the oxen, sheep, and goats to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, that they might be slain there, and their blood sprinkled upon the altar of the Lord. But when they became settled in the promised land, and the distance, in many cases, rendered it impossible for them to bring the animals to be slain for domestic uses to the temple, they were permitted to pour out the blood in a sacrificial way unto God at their respective dwellings, and to cover it with the dust; see [Lev 17:13], and [Deu 12:20], [Deu 12:21].

[¶40] Blood shall be imputed unto that man - Having poured out the blood improperly, he shall be considered as guilty of murder, because that blood, had it been properly and sacrificially employed, might have made atonement for the life of a man.

### Verse 7

[¶42] They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils - They shall not sacrifice לשעירים lasseirim, to the hairy ones, to goats. The famous heathen god, Pan, was represented as having the posteriors, horns, and ears of a goat; and the Mendesians, a people of Egypt, had a deity which they worshipped under this form. Herodotus says that all goats were worshipped in Egypt, but the he-goat particularly. It appears also that the different ape and monkey species were objects of superstitious worship; and from these sprang, not only Mendes and Jupiter Ammon, who was worshipped under the figure of a ram, but also Pan and the Sileni, with the innumerable herd of those imaginary beings, satyrs, dryads, hamadryads, etc. etc., all woodland gods, and held in veneration among the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.

[¶43] After whom they have gone a whoring - Though this term is frequently used to express idolatry, yet we are not to suppose that it is not to be taken in a literal sense in many places in Scripture, even where it is used in connection with idolatrous acts of worship. It is well known that Baal-Peor and Ashtaroth were worshipped with unclean rites; and that public prostitution formed a grand part of the worship of many deities among the Egyptians, Moabites, Canaanites, Greeks, and Romans. The great god of the two latter nations, Jupiter, was represented as the general corrupter of women; and of Venus, Flora, Priapus, and others, it is needless to speak. That there was public prostitution in the patriarchal times, see Clarke on [Gen 38:21] (note). And that there was public prostitution of women to goats in Egypt, see Herodotus, lib. ii., c. 46, p. 108, edit. Gale, who gives a case of this abominable kind that took place in Egypt while he was in that country. See also many examples in Bochart, vol. ii., col. 641; and see Clarke's note on [Lev 20:16].

## 141. Leviticus · 17 of 27

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### Verse 11

[¶1] For the life of the flesh is in the blood - This sentence, which contains a most important truth, had existed in the Mosaic writings for 3600 years before the attention of any philosopher was drawn to the subject. This is the more surprising, as the nations in which philosophy flourished were those which especially enjoyed the Divine oracles in their respective languages. That the blood actually possesses a living principle, and that the life of the whole body is derived from it, is a doctrine of Divine revelation, and a doctrine which the observations and experiments of the most accurate anatomists have served strongly to confirm. The proper circulation of this important fluid through the whole human system was first taught by Solomon in figurative language, [Ecc 12:6]; and discovered, as it is called, and demonstrated, by Dr. Harvey in 1628; though some Italian philosophers had the same notion a little before. This accurate anatomist was the first who fully revived the Mosaic notion of the vitality of the blood; which notion was afterward adopted by the justly celebrated Dr. John Hunter, professor of anatomy in London, and fully established by him by a great variety of strong reasoning and accurate experiments. To support this opinion Dr. Hunter proves: -

[¶2] 1. That the blood unites living parts in some circumstances as certainly as the yet recent juices of the branch of one tree unite with that of another; and he thinks that if either of these fluids were dead matter, they would act as stimuli, and no union would take place in the animal or vegetable kingdom; and he shows that in the nature of things there is not a more intimate connection between life and a solid than between life and a fluid.

[¶3] 2. He shows that the blood becomes vascular, like other living parts of the body; and he demonstrated this by a preparation in which vessels were clearly seen to arise from what had been a coagulum of blood; for those vessels opened into the stream of the circulating blood, which was in contiguity with this coagulated mass.

[¶4] 3. He proves that if blood be taken from the arm in the most intense cold that the human body can suffer, it will raise the thermometer to the same height as blood taken in the most sultry heat. This is a very powerful argument for the vitality of the blood, as it is well known that living bodies alone have the power of resisting great degrees of heat and cold, and of maintaining in almost every situation while in health that temperature which we distinguish by the name of animal heat.

[¶5] 4. He proves that blood is capable of being acted upon by a stimulus, as it coagulates on exposure to the air, as certainly as the cavities of the abdomen and thorax become inflamed from the same cause. The more the blood is alive, i. e., the more the animal is in health, the sooner the blood coagulates on exposure; and the more it has lost of the living principle, as in cases of violent inflammation, the less sensible it is to the stimulus produced by being exposed, and coagulates more slowly.

[¶6] 5. He proves that the blood preserves life in different parts of the body. When the nerves going to any part are tied or cut, the part becomes paralytic, and loses all power of motion, but it does not mortify. But let the artery be cut, and then the part dies and mortification ensues. It must therefore be the vital principle of the blood that keeps the part alive; nor does it appear that this fact can be accounted for on any other principle.

[¶7] 6. He thinks this vitality farther proved from the case of a person who was brought to St. George's hospital for a simple fracture of the os humeri, and who died about a month after. As the bones had not united, he injected the arm, and thus found that the coagulated blood which filled the cavity between the extremities of the fractured bones was become vascular, and in some places very much so, which vessels, had it been dead matter, it never could have produced.

[¶8] This system has been opposed, and arguments have been adduced to prove that the principle of vitality exists not in the blood but in the nervous system. But every argument on this ground appears to be done away by the simple consideration that the whole nervous system, as well as every other part of the body, is originally derived from the blood; for is it not from the blood of the mother that the fetus has its being and nourishment in the womb? Do not all the nerves, as well as the brain, etc., originate from that alone? And if it be not vital can it give the principle of vitality to something else, which then exclusively (though the effect of a cause) becomes the principle of vitality to all the solids and fluids of the body? This seems absurd. That the human being proceeded originally from the blood admits of no doubt; and it is natural and reasonable to suppose that as it was the cause under God which generated all the other parts of the body, so it still continues to be the principle of life, and by it alone all the wastes of the system are repaired. Two points relative to this subject are strongly asserted in Divine revelation, one by Moses, the other by St. Paul.

[¶9] 1. Moses says, The Life of the flesh is in the Blood, [Lev 17:11]. This has been proved by the most indisputable facts.

[¶10] 2. St. Paul says, God hath made of One Blood all nations of men, [Act 17:26]. And this is demonstrated, not only from there being only one pair from whom all the nations of men have been derived, but also from the fact that every human being, from the first-born of Eve to the present hour, has been formed out of and supported by the mother's blood; and that from the agency of this fluid the human body, after being born into the world, has its increment and support.

[¶11] The reason given by God for the law against eating blood is perfectly conclusive: I will set my face against that soul that eateth blood - for the Life (נפש nephesh) of the flesh is in the Blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls (נפשתיכם naphshotheychem, your Lives): for it is the blood (because it is the Life, נפש nephesh) that maketh an atonement for the soul (בנפש bannephesh, for the life; for the word is the same in all these cases). By transgression a man forfeits his Life to Divine justice, and he must die, did not mercy provide him a substitute. The life of a beast is appointed and accepted by God as a substitute for the sinner's life (in reference to the life of Christ, which was to be given for the life of the world); but as this life is in the Blood, and as the blood is the grand principle of vitality, therefore the blood is to be poured out upon the altar: and thus the life of the beast becomes a substitute for the life of the man.

[¶12] And it is well worthy of being remarked, that Christ not only died for sinners, but our redemption is everywhere attributed to his Blood, and the shedding of that blood; and that on the altar of the cross, this might make an atonement for the lives and souls of men, he not only bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, but his side was opened, the pericardium and the heart evidently pierced, that the vital fluid might be poured out from the very seat of life, and that thus the blood, which is the life, should be poured out to make an atonement for the life of the soul. The doctrine of Moses and Paul proves the truth of the doctrine of Harvey and Hunter; and the reasonings and experiments of Harvey and Hunter illustrate and confirm the doctrine of Moses and Paul - Here then is a farther proof of the truth and authority of Divine revelation. See Clarke's note on [Gen 9:4]; Dr. J. Corrie's Essay on the Vitality of the Blood; and the article Blood, in the Encyclopaedias.

### Verse 14

[¶14] Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh - Independently of the moral reasons given above, we may add,

[¶15] 1. That blood, being highly alkalescent, especially in hot climates, is subject to speedy putrefaction.

[¶16] 2. That it affords a gross nutriment, being very difficult of digestion, so much so that bull's blood was used in ancient times as poison, "Its extreme viscidity rendering it totally indigestible by the powers of the human stomach."

[¶17] 3. It is allowed that when blood was used in this country in great quantities, the scurvy was more frequent than at other times.

[¶18] 4. It appears from history that those nations who lived most on it were very fierce, savage, and barbarous, such as the Scythians, Tartars, Arabs of the desert, the Scandinavians, etc., etc., some of whom drank the blood of their enemies, making cups of their sculls!

### Verse 15

[¶20] That which died of itself, or that which was torn - Because, in both cases, the blood was retained in the body; hence the council at Jerusalem forbade things strangled as well as blood, because in such beasts the blood was coagulated in the veins and arteries. See [Act 15:28-29]. Every thing considered, surely there is as little propriety in eating of blood as there is necessity to do it. They who will do otherwise must bear their iniquity. If blood eating be no offense, then they have no sin to answer for. The principal subjects of this chapter have been already so amply handled in the notes, that there is no need to add any thing by way of reflection or improvement.

### Introduction

[¶22] The people are commanded to avoid the doings of the Egyptians and Canaanites, [Lev 18:1-3]. They are to do God's judgments, and to keep his ordinances, that they may live, [Lev 18:4], [Lev 18:5]. Marriages with those who are near of kin are prohibited, [Lev 18:6]. None to marry with his mother or step-mother, [Lev 18:7], [Lev 18:8]; with his sister or step-sister, [Lev 18:9]; with his grand-daughter, [Lev 18:10]; nor with the daughter of his step-mother, [Lev 18:11]; nor with his aunt, by father or mother, [Lev 18:12], [Lev 18:13]; nor with his uncle's wife, [Lev 18:14]; nor with his daughter-in-law, [Lev 18:15]; nor sister-in-law, [Lev 18:16]; nor with a woman and her daughter, son's daughter, or daughter's daughter, [Lev 18:17]; nor with two sisters at the same time, [Lev 18:18]. Several abominations prohibited, [Lev 18:19-23], of which the Canaanites, etc., were guilty, and for which they were cast out of the land, [Lev 18:24], [Lev 18:25]. The people are exhorted to avoid these abominations, lest they be treated as the ancient inhabitants of the land were treated, and so cast out, [Lev 18:26-28]. Threatenings against the disobedient, [Lev 18:29], and promises to the obedient, [Lev 18:30].

### Verse 3

[¶24] The doings of the land of Egypt - the land of Canaan - The worshipping of demons, beasts, etc., as mentioned in the preceding chapter, [Lev 17:7], and the abominations mentioned in this chapter from [Lev 18:21-23].

### Verse 6

[¶26] Any that is near of kin - כל שאר בשרו col shear besaro, any remnant of his flesh, i.e., to any particularly allied to his own family, the prohibited degrees in which are specified from the 7th to the 17th verse ([Lev 18:7-17]) inclusive. Notwithstanding the prohibitions here, it must be evident that in the infancy of the world, persons very near of kin must have been joined in matrimonial alliances; and that even brothers must have matched with their own sisters. This must have been the case in the family of Adam. In these first instances necessity required this; when this necessity no longer existed, the thing became inexpedient and improper for two reasons:

[¶27] 1. That the duties owing by nature to relatives might not be confounded with those of a social or political kind; for could a man be a brother and a husband, a son and a husband, at the same time, and fulfill the duties of both? Impossible.

[¶28] 2. That by intermarrying with other families, the bonds of social compact might be strengthened and extended, so that the love of our neighbor, etc., might at once be felt to be not only a maxim of sound policy, but also a very practicable and easy duty; and thus feuds, divisions, and wars be prevented.

### Verse 16

[¶30] Thy brother's wife - This was an illegal marriage, unless the brother died childless. In that case it was not only lawful for her to marry her brother-in-law, but he was obliged by the law, [Deu 25:5], to take her to wife.

### Verse 18

[¶32] A wife to her sister - Thou shalt not marry two sisters at the same time, as Jacob did Rachel and Leah; but there is nothing in this law that rendered it illegal to marry a sister-in-law when her sister was dead; therefore the text says, Thou shalt not take her in her life time, to vex her, alluding probably to the case of the jealousies and vexations which subsisted between Leah and Rachel, and by which the family peace was so often disturbed. Some think that the text may be so understood as also to forbid polygamy.

### Verse 19

[¶34] As long as she is put apart - See Clarke's note on [Lev 15:24].

### Verse 20

[¶36] Thy neighbor's wife - See Clarke's note on [Exo 20:14].

### Verse 21

[¶38] Pass through the fire to Molech - The name of this idol is mentioned for the first time in this place. As the word מלח molech or melech signifies king or governor, it is very likely that this idol represented the sun; and more particularly as the fire appears to have been so much employed in his worship. There are several opinions concerning the meaning of passing through the fire to Molech.

[¶39] 1. Some think that the semen humanum was offered on the fire to this idol.

[¶40] 2. Others think that the children were actually made a burnt-offering to him.

[¶41] 3. But others suppose the children were not burnt, but only passed through the fire, or between two fires, by way of consecration to him.

[¶42] That some were actually burnt alive to this idol several scriptures, according to the opinion of commentators, seem strongly to intimate; see among others, [Psa 106:38]; [Jer 7:31], and [Eze 23:37-39]. That others were only consecrated to his service by passing between two fires the rabbins strongly assert; and if Ahaz had but one son, Hezekiah, (though it is probable he had others, see [2Chr 28:3]), he is said to have passed through the fire to Molech, [2Kgs 16:3], yet he succeeded his father in the kingdom, [2Kgs 18:1], therefore this could only be a consecration, his idolatrous father intending thereby to initiate him early into the service of this demon. See Clarke's note on [Lev 20:2].

### Verse 22

[¶44] With mankind - This abominable crime, frequent among the Greeks and Romans as well as the Canaanites, may be punished with death in this country.

## 142. Leviticus · 18 of 27

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### Verse 23

[¶1] With any beast - This abomination is also punishable with death by the laws of this country. Any woman stand before a beast - That this was often done in Egypt there can be no doubt; and we have already seen, from the testimony of Herodotus, that a fact of this kind actually took place while he was in Egypt. See Clarke's note on [Lev 17:7], and See Clarke on [Lev 20:16] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶3] The land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants - This is a very nervous prosopopoeia or personification; a figure by which any part of inanimate nature may be represented as possessing the passions and reason of man. Here the land is represented as an intelligent being, with a deep and refined sense of moral good and evil: information concerning the abominations of the people is brought to this personified land, with which it is so deeply affected that a nausea is produced, and it vomits out its abominable and accursed inhabitants. It was natural for the inspired penman to make use of such a figure, as the description he was obliged to give of so many and enormous abominations must have affected him nearly in the same way in which he represents the land to be affected.

### Verse 30

[¶5] Shall ye keep mine ordinance - The only way to be preserved from all false worship is seriously to consider and devoutly to observe the ordinances of the true religion. He who in the things of God goes no farther than he can say, Thus it is written, and thus it behoves me to do, is never likely to receive a false creed, nor perform a superstitious act of worship.

[¶6] 1. How true is that word, The law of the Lord is Perfect! In a small compass, and in a most minute detail, it comprises every thing that is calculated to instruct, direct, convince, correct, and fortify the mind of man. Whatever has a tendency to corrupt or injure man, that it forbids; whatever is calculated to comfort him, promote and secure his best interests, that it commands. It takes him in all possible states, views him in all connections, and provides for his present and eternal happiness.

[¶7] 2. As the human soul is polluted and tends to pollution, the great doctrine of the law is holiness to the Lord: this it keeps invariably in view in all its commands, precepts, ordinances, rites, and ceremonies. And how forcibly in all these does it say, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thy neighbor as thyself! This is the prominent doctrine of the preceding chapter; and this shall be fulfilled in all them who believe, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to them that believe.

[¶8] Reader, magnify God for his law, for by it is the knowledge of sin; and magnify him for his Gospel, for by this is the cure of sin. Let the law be thy schoolmaster to bring thee to Christ, that thou mayest be justified by faith; and that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in thee, and that thou mayest walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

### Introduction

[¶10] Exhortations to holiness, and a repetition of various laws, [Lev 19:1], [Lev 19:2] Duty to parents, and observance of the Sabbath, [Lev 19:3]. Against idolatry, [Lev 19:4]. Concerning peace-offerings, [Lev 19:5-8]. The gleanings of the harvest and vintage to be left for the poor, [Lev 19:9], [Lev 19:10]. Against stealing and lying, [Lev 19:11]; false swearing, [Lev 19:12]; defrauding the hireling, [Lev 19:13]. Laws in behalf of the deaf and the blind, [Lev 19:14]. Against respect of persons in judgment, [Lev 19:15]; tale-bearing, [Lev 19:16]; hatred and uncharitableness, [Lev 19:17]; revenge, [Lev 19:18]; unlawful mixtures in cattle, seed, and garments, [Lev 19:19]. Laws relative to the bondmaid that is betrothed, [Lev 19:20-22]. The fruit of the trees of the land not to be eaten for the first three years, [Lev 19:23]; but this is lawful in the fourth and fifth years, [Lev 19:24], [Lev 19:25]. Against eating of blood, and using incantations, [Lev 19:26]; superstitious cutting of the hair, [Lev 19:27]; and cutting of the flesh in the times of mourning, [Lev 19:28]; prostitution, [Lev 19:29]. Sabbaths to be reverenced, [Lev 19:30]. Against consulting those who are wizards, and have familiar spirits, [Lev 19:31]. Respect must be shown to the aged, [Lev 19:32]. The stranger shall not be oppressed, [Lev 19:33], [Lev 19:34]. They shall keep just measures, weights, and balances, [Lev 19:35], [Lev 19:36]. Conclusion, [Lev 19:37].

### Verse 3

[¶12] Ye shall fear every man his mother, etc. - Ye shall have the profoundest reverence and respect for them. See Clarke's note on [Gen 48:12], and see Clarke's note on [Exo 20:8], and see Clarke's note on [Exo 20:12].

### Verse 4

[¶14] Turn ye not unto idols - אלילם elilim, literally nothings; and to this St. Paul seems to allude [1Cor 8:4], where he says, We know that an idol is Nothing in the world.

### Verse 5

[¶16] Peace-offerings - See the notes at the conclusion of Leviticus 7 at [Lev 7:38] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶18] It is be eaten - on the third day - See the note on [Lev 7:15].

### Verse 9

[¶20] When ye reap the harvest - Liberty for the poor to glean both the corn-fields and vineyards was a Divine institution among the Jews; for the whole of the Mosaic dispensation, like the Christian, breathed love to God and benevolence to man. The poor in Judea were to live by gleanings from the corn-fields and vine yards. To the honor of the public and charitable spirit of the English, this merciful law is in general as much attended to as if it had been incorporated with the Gospel.

### Verse 11

[¶22] Ye shall not steal, etc. - See the notes on [Exo 20:15].

### Verse 13

[¶24] The wages - shall not abide with thee all night - For this plain reason, it is the support of the man's life and family, and they need to expend it as fast as it is earned.

### Verse 14

[¶26] Thou shalt not curse the deaf - Or speak evil of him, because he cannot hear, and so cannot vindicate his own character.

[¶27] Nor put a stumbling - block before the blind - He who is capable of doing this, must have a heart cased with cruelty. The spirit and design of these precepts are, that no man shall in any case take advantage of the ignorance, simplicity, or inexperience of his neighbor, but in all things do to his neighbor as he would, on a change of circumstances, that his neighbor should do to him.

### Verse 16

[¶29] Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer - רכיל rachil signifies a trader, a peddler, and is here applied to the person who travels about dealing in scandal and calumny, getting the secrets of every person and family, and retailing them wherever he goes. A more despicable character exists not: such a person is a pest to society, and should be exiled from the habitations of men.

[¶30] Neither shalt thou stand against the blood, etc. - Thou shalt not be as a false witness, because by such testimony the blood - the life of an innocent man may be endangered.

### Verse 17

[¶32] Thou shalt not hate thy brother - Thou shalt not only not do him any kind of evil, but thou shalt harbor no hatred in thy heart towards him. On the contrary, thou shalt love him as thyself, [Lev 19:18]. Many persons suppose, from misunderstanding our Lord's words, [Joh 13:34], A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another, etc., that loving our neighbor as ourselves was first instituted under the Gospel. This verse shows the opinion to be unfounded: but to love another as Christ has loved us, i. e., to lay down our lives for each other, is certainly a new commandment; we have it simply on the authority of Jesus Christ alone.

[¶33] And not suffer sin upon him - If thou see him sin, or know him to be addicted to any thing by which the safety of his soul is endangered, thou shalt mildly and affectionately reprove him, and by no means permit him to go on without counsel and advice in a way that is leading him to perdition. In a multitude of cases timely reproof has been the means of saving the soul. Speak to him privately if possible; if not, write to him in such a way that himself alone shall see it.

### Verse 19

[¶35] Gender with a diverse kind - These precepts taken literally seem to imply that they should not permit the horse and the she-ass, nor the he-ass and the cow, (as they do in the East), to couple together; nor sow different kinds of seeds in the same field or garden; nor have garments of silk and woolen, cotton and silk, linen and wool, etc. And if all these were forbidden, there must have been some moral reason for the prohibitions, because domestic economy required several of these mixtures, especially those which relate to seeds and clothing. With respect to heterogeneous mixtures among cattle, there is something very unnatural in it, and it was probably forbidden to prevent excitements to such unnatural lusts as those condemned in the preceding chapter, [Lev 18:22], [Lev 18:23]. As to seeds, in many cases it would be very improper to sow different kinds in the same plot of ground. It would be improvident to sow oats and wheat together: the latter would be injured, the former ruined. The turnip and carrot would not succeed conjointly, where either of them separately would prosper and yield a good crop; so we may say of many other kinds of seeds; and if this be all that is intended, the counsels are prudential agricultural maxims. As to different kinds of garments, such as the linsey woolsey, the prohibition here might be intended as much against pride and vanity as any thing else; for it is certain that both these articles may be so manufactured in conjunction as to minister to pride, though in general the linsey woolsey or drugget is the clothing of the poor. But we really do not know what the original word שעטנז shaatnez, which we translate linen and woolen, means: it is true that in [Deu 22:11], where it is again used, it seems to be explained by the words immediately following, Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of linen and woolen together; but this may as well refer to a garment made up of a sort of patchwork differently colored and arranged for pride and for show. A folly of this kind prevailed anciently in this very land, and I shall give a proof of it, taken from a sermon against luxury in dress, composed in the fourteenth century. "As to the first sinne in superfluitie of clothing, soche that maketh it so dere, to the harme of the peple, nat only the cost of enbrauderlng, the disguised endenting, or barring, ounding paling, winding or bending and semblable wast of clothe in vanite. But there is also the costlewe furring in their gounes, so moche pounsing of chesel, to make holes; so moche dagging with sheres foorth; with the superfluitie in length of the forsaied gounes, - to grete dammage of pore folke - And more ouer - they shewe throughe disguising, in departing of ther hosen in white and red, semeth that halfe ther members were slain - They departe ther hosen into other colors, as is white and blewe, or white and blacke, or blacke and red, and so forth; than semeth it as by variaunce of color, that the halfe part of ther members ben corrupt by the fire of Saint Anthony, or by canker, or other suche mischaunce."

[¶36] The Parson's Tale, in Chaucer, p. 198. Urry's edit.

[¶37] The reader will pardon the antiquated spelling. "What could exhibit," says Dr. Henry, "a more fantastical appearance than an English beau of the 14th century? He wore long pointed shoes, fastened to his knees by gold or silver chains; hose of one color on the one leg, and of another color on the other; short breeches which did reach to the middle of his thighs; a coat the one half white, the other half black or blue; a long beard; a silk hood buttoned under his chin, embroidered with grotesque figures of animals, dancing men, etc., and sometimes ornamented with gold and precious stones." This dress was the height of the mode in the reign of King Edward III. Something of the same kind seems to have existed in the patriarchal times; witness the coat of many colors made by Jacob for his son Joseph. See the note on [Gen 37:3]. Concerning these different mixtures much may be seen in the Mishna, Tract, Kilaim, and in Ainsworth, and Calmet on this place.

### Verse 20

[¶39] A woman that is a bondmaid - Had she been free, the law required that she should be put to death; (see [Deu 22:24]); but as she was a slave, she is supposed to have less self-command, and therefore less guilt: but as it is taken for granted she did not make resistance, or did consent, she is to be scourged, and the man is to bring a ram for a trespass-offering.

### Verse 23

[¶41] Three years shall it be as uncircumcised - I see no great reason to seek for mystical meanings in this prohibition. The fruit of a young tree cannot be good; for not having arrived at a state of maturity, the juices cannot be sufficiently elaborated to produce fruit excellent in its kind. The Israelites are commanded not to eat of the fruit of a tree till the fifth year after its planting: in the three first years the fruit is unwholesome; in the fourth year the fruit is holy, it belongs to God, and should be consecrated to him, [Lev 19:24]; and in the fifth year and afterward the fruit may be employed for common use, [Lev 19:25].

### Verse 26

[¶43] Neither shall ye use enchantment - לא תנחשו lo thenachashu. Conjecture itself can do little towards a proper explanation of the terms used in this verse. נחש nachash; See note at [Gen 3:1] (note), we translate serpent, and with very little propriety; but though the word may not signify a serpent in that place, it has that signification in others. Possibly, therefore, the superstition here prohibited may be what the Greeks called Ophiomanteia, or divination by serpents.

[¶44] Nor observe times - ולא תעוננו velo teonenu, ye shall not divine by clouds, which was also a superstition much in practice among the heathens, as well as divination by the flight of birds. What these prohibitions may particularly refer to, we know not. See Clarke's note on [Gen 41:8].

## 143. Leviticus · 19 of 27

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### Verse 27

[¶1] Ye shall not round the corners your heads - This and the following verse evidently refer to customs which must have existed among the Egyptians when the Israelites sojourned in Egypt; and what they were it is now difficult, even with any probability, to conjecture. Herodotus observes that the Arabs shave or cut their hair round, in honor of Bacchus, who, they say, had his hair cut in this way, lib. iii., cap. 8. He says also that the Macians, a people of Libya, cut their hair round, so as to leave a tuft on the top of the head, lib. iv., cap. 175. In this manner the Chinese cut their hair to the present day. This might have been in honor of some idol, and therefore forbidden to the Israelites.

[¶2] The hair was much used in divination among the ancients, and for purposes of religious superstition among the Greeks; and particularly about the time of the giving of this law, as this is supposed to have been the era of the Trojan war. We learn from Homer that it was customary for parents to dedicate the hair of their children to some god; which, when they came to manhood, they cut off and consecrated to the deity. Achilles, at the funeral of Patroclus, cut off his golden locks which his father had dedicated to the river god Sperchius, and threw them into the flood: - Στας απανευθε πυρης ξονθην απεκειρατο χαιτην, Την ῥα Σπερχειῳ ποταμῳ τρεφε τηλεθοωσαν· Οχθησας δ' αρα ειπεν, ιδων επι οινοπα ποντον· Σπερχει', αλλως σοι γε πατηρ ηρησατο Πηλευς. κ. τ. λ.

[¶3] Iliad, 1. xxiii., ver. 142, etc.

[¶4] But great Achilles stands apart in prayer,

[¶5] And from his head divides the yellow hair,

[¶6] Those curling locks which from his youth he vowed,

[¶7] And sacred threw to Sperchius' honored flood.

[¶8] Then sighing, to the deep his looks he cast,

[¶9] And rolled his eyes around the watery waste.

[¶10] Sperchius! whose waves, in mazy errors lost,

[¶11] Delightful roll along my native coast!

[¶12] To whom we vainly vowed, at our return,

[¶13] These locks to fall, and hecatombs to burn

[¶14] So vowed my father, but he vowed in vain,

[¶15] No more Achilles sees his native plain;

[¶16] In that vain hope these hairs no longer grow;

[¶17] Patrocius bears them to the shades below.

[¶18] Pope.

[¶19] From Virgil we learn that the topmost lock of hair was dedicated to the infernal gods; see his account of the death of Dido: - "Nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem

[¶20] Abstulerat, Stygioque caput damnaverat orco - Hunc ego Diti Sacrum jussa fero; teque isto corpore solvo.

[¶21] Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat."

[¶22] Aeneid, lib. iv., ver. 698.

[¶23] The sisters had not cut the topmost hair,

[¶24] Which Proserpine and they can only know.

[¶25] Nor made her sacred to the shades below -

[¶26] This offering to the infernal gods I bear;

[¶27] Thus while she spoke, she cut the fatal hair.

[¶28] Dryden.

[¶29] If the hair was rounded, and dedicated for purposes of this kind, it will at once account for the prohibition in this verse. The corners of thy beard - Probably meaning the hair of the cheek that connects the hair of the head with the beard. This was no doubt cut in some peculiar manner, for the superstitious purposes mentioned above. Several of our own countrymen wear this said hair in a curious form; for what purposes they know best: we cannot say precisely that it is the ancient Egyptian custom revived. From the images and paintings which remain of the ancient Egyptians, we find that they were accustomed to shave the whole hair off their face, except merely that upon the chin, which last they cut off only in times of mourning.

### Verse 28

[¶31] Any cuttings in your flesh for the dead - That the ancients were very violent in their grief, tearing the hair and face, beating the breast, etc., is well known. Virgil represents the sister of Dido "tearing her face with her nails, and beating her breast with her fists." "Unguibus ora soror foedans, et pectora pugnis."

[¶32] Aen., l. iv., ver. 672.

[¶33] Nor print any marks upon you - It was a very ancient and a very general custom to carry marks on the body in honor of the object of their worship. All the castes of the Hindoos bear on their foreheads or elsewhere what are called the sectarian marks, which distinguish them, not only in a civil but also in a religious point of view, from each other. Most of the barbarous nations lately discovered have their faces, arms, breasts, etc., curiously carved or tattooed, probably for superstitious purposes. Ancient writers abound with accounts of marks made on the face, arms, etc., in honor of different idols; and to this the inspired penman alludes, [Rev 13:16], [Rev 13:17]; [Rev 14:9], [Rev 14:11]; [Rev 15:2]; [Rev 16:2]; [Rev 19:20]; [Rev 20:4], where false worshippers are represented as receiving in their hands and in their forehead the marks of the beast. These were called στιγματα stigmata among the Greeks, and to these St. Paul refers when he says, I bear about in my body the Marks (stigmata) of the Lord Jesus; [Gal 6:17]. I have seen several cases where persons have got the figure of the cross, the Virgin Mary, etc., made on their arms, breasts, etc., the skin being first punctured, and then a blue colouring matter rubbed in, which is never afterward effaced. All these were done for superstitious purposes, and to such things probably the prohibition in this verse refers. Calmet, on this verse, gives several examples. See also Mariner's Tonga Islands, vol. i. p. 311-313.

### Verse 29

[¶35] Do not prostitute thy daughter - This was a very frequent custom, and with examples of it writers of antiquity abound. The Cyprian women, according to Justin, gained that portion which their husbands received with them at marriage by previous public prostitution. And the Phoenicians, according to Augustine, made a gift to Venus of the gain acquired by the public prostitution of their daughters, previously to their marriage. "Veneri donum dabant, et prostitutiones filiarum, antequam jungerent eas viris." - De Civit. Del, lib. xviii., c. 5; and see Calmet.

### Verse 31

[¶37] Regard not them that have familiar spirits - The Hebrew word אבות oboth probably signifies a kind of engastromuthoi or ventriloquists, or such as the Pythoness mentioned [Act 16:16], [Act 16:18]; persons who, while under the influence of their demon, became greatly inflated, as the Hebrew word implies, and gave answers in a sort of frenzy. See a case of this kind in Virgil, Aeneid, l. vi., ver. 46, etc.: - " - Deus ecce, Deus! cui talla fanti

[¶38] Ante fores, subito non vultus, non color unus,

[¶39] Non comptae mansere comae; sed pectus anhelum,

[¶40] Et rabie fera corda tument; majorque videri,

[¶41] Nec mortale sonans, afflata est numine quando

[¶42] Jam propiore Dei." - Invoke the skies, I feel the god, the rushing god, she cries.

[¶43] While yet she spoke, enlarged her features grew,

[¶44] Her color changed, her locks dishevelled flew.

[¶45] The heavenly tumult reigns in every part,

## 144. Leviticus · 20 of 27

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[¶0] Pants in her breast, and swells her rising heart:

[¶1] Still swelling to the sight, the priestess glowed,

[¶2] And heaved impatient of the incumbent god.

[¶3] Pitt.

[¶4] Neither seek after wizards - ידענים yiddeonim, the wise or knowing ones, from ידע yada, to know or understand; called wizard in Scotland, wise or cunning man in England; and hence also the wise woman, the white witch. Not only all real dealers with familiar spirits, or necromantic or magical superstitions, are here forbidden, but also all pretenders to the knowledge of futurity, fortune-tellers, astrologers, etc., etc. To attempt to know what God has not thought proper to reveal, is a sin against his wisdom, providence, and goodness. In mercy, great mercy, God has hidden the knowledge of futurity from man, and given him hope - the expectation of future good, in its place. See Clarke's note on [Exo 22:18].

### Verse 32

[¶6] Before the hoary head - See Clarke's note on [Gen 48:12].

### Verse 33

[¶8] If a stranger sojourn - This law to protect and comfort the stranger was at once humane and politic. None is so desolate as the stranger, and none needs the offices of benevolence and charity more: and we may add that he who is not affected by the desolate state of the stranger has neither benevolence nor charity. It was politic to encourage strangers, as in consequence many came, not only to sojourn, but to settle among the Jews, and thus their political strength became increased; and many of these settlers became at least proselytes of the gate if not proselytes of the covenant, and thus got their souls saved. Hence humanity, sound policy, and religion said, Vex not the stranger; thou shalt love him as thyself. The apostle makes use of a strong argument to induce men to hospitality towards strangers: Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares, [Heb 13:2]. Moses also uses a powerful motive: Ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. The spirit of the precept here laid down, may be well expressed in our Lord's words: Do unto all men as ye would they should do unto you.

### Verse 35

[¶10] Ye shall do no unrighteousness - Ye shall not act contrary to the strictest justice in any case, and especially in the four following, which properly understood, comprise all that can occur between a man and his fellow.

[¶11] 1. Judgment in all cases that come before the civil magistrate; he is to judge and decide according to the law.

[¶12] 2. Mete-Yard, במדה bammiddah, in measures of length and surface, such as the reed, cubit, foot, span, hand's breadth, among the Jews; or ell, yard, foot, and inch, among us.

[¶13] 3. Weight, במשכל bammishkal, in any thing that is weighed, the weights being all according to the standards kept for the purpose of trying the rest in the sanctuary, as appears from [Exo 30:13]; [1Chr 23:29]; these weights were the talent, shekel, barleycorn, etc.

[¶14] 4. Measure, במשורה bammesurah, from which we derive our term. This refers to all measures of capacity, such as the homer, ephah, seah, hin, omer, kab, and log. See all these explained at [Exo 16:16] (note).

### Verse 36

[¶16] Just balances - Scales, steel-yard, etc. Weights, אבנים abanim, stones, as the weights appear to have been originally formed out of stones. Ephah, hin, etc., see before.

### Verse 37

[¶18] Shall ye observe all my statutes - חקתי chukkothi, from חק chak, to describe, mark, or trace out; the righteousness which I have described, and the path of duty which I have traced out. Judgments, משפטי mishpatai, from שפט shaphat, to discern, determine, direct, etc.; that which Divine Wisdom has discerned to be best for man, has determined shall promote his best interest, and has directed him conscientiously to use. See the note on [Lev 26:15].

[¶19] 1. Many difficulties occur in this very important chapter, but they are such only to us; for there can be no doubt of their having been perfectly well known to the Israelites, to whom the precepts contained in this chapter were given. Considerable pains however have been taken to make them plain, and no serious mind can read them without profit.

[¶20] 2. The precepts against injustice, fraud, slander, enmity, etc., etc., are well worth the notice of every Christian; and those against superstitious usages are not less so; and by these last we learn, that having recourse to astrologers, fortune-tellers, etc., to get intelligence of lost or stolen goods, or to know the future events of our own lives, or those of others, is highly criminal in the sight of God. Those who have recourse to such persons renounce their baptism, and in effect renounce the providence as well as the word of God.

[¶21] 3. The precepts of humanity and mercy relative to the poor, the hireling, and the stranger, are worthy of our most serious regard. Nor are those which concern weights and measures, traffic, and the whole system of commutative justice, less necessary to be observed for the benefit and comfort of the individual, and the safety and prosperity of the state.

### Introduction

[¶23] Of giving seed to Molech, and the punishment of this crime, [Lev 20:1-5]. Of consulting wizards, etc., [Lev 20:6-8]. Of disrespect to parents, [Lev 20:9]. Of adultery, [Lev 20:10]. Of incestuous mixtures, [Lev 20:11], [Lev 20:12]. Bestiality, [Lev 20:13-16]. Different cases of incest and uncleanness, [Lev 20:17-21]. Exhortations and promises, [Lev 20:22-24]. The difference between clean and unclean animals to be carefully observed, [Lev 20:25]. The Israelites are separated from other nations, that they may be holy, [Lev 20:26]. A repetition of the law against wizards and them that have familiar spirits, [Lev 20:27].

### Verse 2

[¶25] That giveth any of his seed unto Molech - To what has been said in the note on [Lev 18:21] (note), we may add, that the rabbins describe this idol, who was probably a representative or emblematical personification of the solar influence, as made of brass, in the form of a man, with the head of an ox; that a fire was kindled in the inside, and the child to be sacrificed to him was put in his arms, and roasted to death. Others say that the idol, which was hollow, was divided into seven compartments within; in one of which they put flour, in the second turtle-doves, in the third a ewe, in the fourth a ram, in the fifth a calf, in the sixth an ox, and in the seventh a child, which, by heating the statue on the outside, were all burnt alive together. I question the whole truth of these statements, whether from Jewish or Christian rabbins. There is no evidence of all this in the sacred writings. And there is but presumptive proof, and that not very strong, that human sacrifices were at all offered to Molech by the Jews. The passing through the fire, so frequently spoken of, might mean no more than a simple rite of consecration to the service of this idol. Probably a kind of ordeal was meant, the persons passing suddenly through the flame of a large fire, by which, though they might be burnt or scorched, yet they were neither killed nor consumed. Or they might have passed between two large fires, as a sort of purification. See the notes on [Lev 20:14]; See the notes on [Lev 18:21]. Caesar, in his history of the Gallic war, lib. vi., c. 16, mentions a custom of the Druids similar to this. They made an image of wickerwork, enclosed those in it whom they had adjudged to death, and, setting the whole on fire, all were consumed together.

### Verse 6

[¶27] Familiar spirits - See the notes on [Lev 19:31]; and [Exo 22:18] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶29] Curseth his father or his mother - See the notes on [Gen 48:12], and [Exo 20:12] (note). He who conscientiously keeps the fifth commandment can be in no danger of this judgment. The term יקלל yekallel signifies, not only to curse, but to speak of a person contemptuously and disrespectfully, to make light of; so that all speeches which have a tendency to lessen our parents in the eyes of others, or to render their judgment, piety, etc., suspected and contemptible, may be here included; though the act of cursing, or of treating the parent with injurious and opprobrious language, is that which is particularly intended.

### Verse 10

[¶31] Committeth adultery - To what has been said in the note on See [Exo 20:14] (note), we may add, that the word adultery comes from the Latin adulterium, which is compounded of ad, to or with, and alter, another, or, according to Minshieu, of ad alterius forum, he that approaches to another man's bed.

### Verse 12

[¶33] They have wrought confusion - See Leviticus 18, and especially the note on [Lev 18:6] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶35] They shall be burnt with fire - As there are worse crimes mentioned here, (see [Lev 20:11] and [Lev 20:17]), where the delinquent is ordered simply to be put to death, or to be cut off, it is very likely that the crime mentioned in this verse was not punished by burning alive, but by some kind of branding, by which they were ever after rendered infamous. I need not add that the original, באש ישרפו baesh yishrephu, may, without violence to its grammatical meaning, be understood as above, though in other places it is certainly used to signify a consuming by fire. But the case in question requires some explanation; it is this: a man marries a wife, and afterward takes his mother-in-law or wife's mother to wife also: now for this offense the text says all three shall be burnt with fire, and this is understood as signifying that they shall be burnt alive. Now the first wife, we may safely presume, was completely innocent, and was legally married: for a man may take to wife the daughter if single, or the mother if a widow, and in neither of these cases can any blame attach to the man or the party he marries; the crime therefore lies in taking both. Either, therefore, they were all branded as infamous persons, and this certainly was severe enough in the case of the first wife; or the man and the woman taken last were burnt: but the text says, both he and they; therefore, we should seek for another interpretation of they shall be burnt with fire, than that which is commonly given. Branding with a hot iron would certainly accomplish every desirable end both for punishment and prevention of the crime; and because the Mosaic laws are so generally distinguished by humanity, it seems to be necessary to limit the meaning of the words as above.

### Verse 16

[¶37] If a woman approach unto any beast - We have the authority of one of the most eminent historians in the world, Herodotus, to say that this was a crime not unknown in Egypt; yea, that a case of this nature actually took place while he was there. Εγενετο δ' εν τῳ νο μῳ τουτῳ επ' εμευ τουτο το τερας, Γυναικι Τραγος εμισγετο αναφανδον. Τουτο ες επιδειξιν ανθρωπων απικετο. - Herod. in Euterp., p. 108. Edit. Gale, Lond. 1679. "In this district, within my own recollection, this portentous business took place: a goat coupled so publicly with a woman that every person knew it," etc. After this, need we wonder that God should have made laws of this nature, when it appears these abominations were not only practiced among the Egyptians, but were parts of a superstitious religious system? This one observation will account for many of those strange prohibitions which we find in the Mosaic law; others, the reasons of which are not so plain, we should see the propriety of equally, had we ampler historic records of the customs that existed in that country.

### Verse 22

[¶39] The land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out - See this energetic prosopopoeia explained in the note on [Lev 18:25] (note). From this we learn that the cup of the iniquities of the Canaanitish nations was full; and that, consistently with Divine justice, they could be no longer spared.

### Verse 24

[¶41] A land that floweth with milk and honey - See this explained [Exo 3:8] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶43] Between clean beasts and unclean - See the notes on Leviticus 11 (note).

## 145. Leviticus · 21 of 27

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### Verse 27

[¶1] A familiar spirit - A spirit or demon, which, by magical rites, is supposed to be bound to appear at the call of his employer. See the notes on [Gen 41:8]; [Exo 7:11] (note), [Exo 7:22] (note), [Exo 7:25] (note); and [Lev 19:31] (note). From the accounts we have of the abominations both of Egypt and Canaan, we may blush for human nature; for wherever it is without cultivation, and without the revelation of God, it is every thing that is vile in principle and detestable in practice. Nor would any part of the habitable globe materially differ from Egypt and Canaan, had they not that rule of righteousness, the revealed Law of God, and had not life and immortality been brought to light by the Gospel among them. From these accounts, for which we could easily find parallels in ancient Greece and Italy, we may see the absolute need of a Divine revelation, without which man, even in his best estate, differs little from the brute.

### Introduction

[¶3] The priests shall not mourn for the dead, except for near relatives, such as mother, father, son, daughter, and sister if a virgin, [Lev 21:1-4]. They shall not shave their heads nor beards, nor make any cuttings in the flesh, because they are holy unto God, [Lev 21:5], [Lev 21:6]. A priest shall not marry a woman who is a whore, profane, or divorced from her husband, [Lev 21:7], [Lev 21:8]. Of the priest's daughter who profanes herself, [Lev 21:9]. The high priest shall not uncover his head, or rend his clothes, [Lev 21:10]; nor go in unto a dead body, [Lev 21:11]; nor go out of the sanctuary, [Lev 21:12]. Of his marriage and off-spring, [Lev 21:13-15]. No person shall be made a priest that has any blemish nor shall any person with any of the blemishes mentioned here be permitted to officiate in the worship of God, [Lev 21:16-24].

### Verse 1

[¶5] There shall none be defiled for the dead - No priest shall assist in laying out a dead body, or preparing it for interment. Any contact with the dead was supposed to be of a defiling nature, probably because putrefaction had then taken place; and animal putrefaction was ever held in detestation by all men.

### Verse 4

[¶7] A chief man among his people - The word בעל baal signifies a master, chief, husband, etc., and is as variously translated here.

[¶8] 1. He being a chief among the people, it would be improper to see him in such a state of humiliation as mourning for the dead necessarily implies.

[¶9] 2. Though a husband he shall not defile himself even for the death of a wife, because the anointing of his God is upon him. But the first sense appears to be the best.

### Verse 5

[¶11] They shall not make baldness - See the note on [Lev 19:27]. It is supposed that these things were particularly prohibited, because used superstitiously by the Egyptian priests, who, according to Herodotus, shaved the whole body every third day, that there might be no uncleanness about them when they ministered in their temples. This appears to have been a general custom among the heathen. In the book of Baruch 6:31, the priests of Babylon are represented sitting in their temples, with their clothes rent, and their heads and beards shaven, and having nothing upon their heads. Every person knows the tonsure of the Catholic priests. Should not this be avoided as an approach to a heathenish custom?

### Verse 7

[¶13] That is a whore - A prostitute, though even reclaimed.

[¶14] Profane - A heathen, or one who is not a cordial believer in the true God. Put away from her husband - Because this very circumstance might lead to suspicion that the priest and the divorced woman might have been improperly connected before.

### Verse 9

[¶16] She shall be burnt with fire - Probably not burnt alive, but strangled first, and then burnt afterward. Though it is barely possible that some kind of branding may be intended.

### Verse 10

[¶18] He that is the high priest - This is the first place where this title is introduced; the title is very emphatic, הכהן הגדול haccohen haggadol, that priest, the great one. For the meaning of כהן cohen, see the note on [Gen 14:18]. As the chief or high priest was a representative of our blessed Lord, therefore he was required to be especially holy; and he is represented as God's king among the people.

### Verse 12

[¶20] The crown of the anointing oil - is upon him - By his office the priest represented Christ in his sacrificial character; by his anointing, the prophetic influence; and by the crown, the regal dignity of our Lord.

### Verse 13

[¶22] He shall take a wife in her virginity - בתוליה bethuleyha. This is a full proof that בתולה bethulah is the proper Hebrew term for a virgin; from the emphatic root בתל bathal, to separate; because such a person was in her separate state, and had never been in any way united to man.

### Verse 17

[¶24] Whosoever - hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God - Never was a wiser, a more rational, and a more expedient law enacted relative to sacred matters. The man who ministers in holy things, who professes to be the interpreter of the will of God, should have nothing in his person nor in his manner which cannot contribute to render him respectable in the eyes of those to whom he ministers. If, on the contrary, he has any personal defect, any thing that may render him contemptible or despicable, his usefulness will be greatly injured, if not entirely prevented. If however a man have received any damage in the work of God, by persecution or otherwise, his scars are honorable, and will add to his respectability. But if he be received into the ministry with any of the blemishes specified here, he never will and never can have that respect which is essentially necessary to secure his usefulness. Let no man say this is a part of the Mosaic law, and we are not bound by it. It is an eternal law, founded on reason, propriety, common sense, and absolute necessity. The priest, the prophet, the Christian minister, is the representative of Jesus Christ; let nothing in his person, carriage, or doctrine, be unworthy of the personage he represents. A deformed person, though consummate in diplomatic wisdom, would never be employed as an ambassador by any enlightened court, if any fit person, unblemished, could possibly be procured.

### Verse 18

[¶26] A blind man - That is, in one eye; for he that was utterly blind could not possibly be employed in such a service. A flat nose, like that of an ape; so the best versions. Any thing superfluous, such as six fingers, six toes, etc.

### Verse 19

[¶28] Broken-footed, or broken-handed - Club-footed, bandy-legged, etc.; or having the ankle, wrist, or fingers dislocated.

### Verse 20

[¶30] Crooked-backed - Hunch-backed or gibbous. A dwarf, דק dak, a person too short or too thin, so as to be either particularly observable, or ridiculous in his appearance.

[¶31] A blemish in his eye - A protuberance on the eye, observable spots or suffusions.

[¶32] Scurvy, or scabbed - A bad habit of body, evidenced by scorbutic or scrofulous affections.

[¶33] Stones broken - Is ruptured; an infirmity which would render him incapable of fulfilling the duties of his office, which might be often very fatiguing. In the above list of blemishes we meet with some that might render the priest contemptible in the eyes of men, and be the means of leading them, not only to despise the man, but to despise the ministry itself; and we meet with others that would be a very great impediment in the discharge of his ministerial duties, and therefore any person thus blemished is by this law precluded from the ministry. The blemishes here enumerated have been considered by some in an allegorical point of view, as if only referring to the necessity of moral purity; but although holiness of heart and righteousness of life be essentially necessary in a minister of God, yet an absence of the defects mentioned above is, I fully believe, what God intends here, and for the reasons too which have been already advanced. It must however be granted, that there have been some eminent divines who have been deformed; and some with certain blemishes have been employed in the Christian ministry, and have been useful. The Mosaic rule, however, will admit of but few exceptions, when even examined according to the more extended interpretation of the Christian system. "The Hebrews say there are in all 120 blemishes which disable the priest - eight in the head, two in the neck, nine in the ears, five in the brows, seven in the eyelids, nineteen in the eyes, nine in the nose, nine in the mouth, three in the belly, three in the back, seven in the hands, sixteen in the secrets, eight in any part of the body, eight in the skin, and seven in the strength and in the breath." - Ainsworth. In ancient times, even among heathens, persons of the most respectable appearance were appointed to the priesthood; and the emperor, both among the ancient Greeks and Romans, was both king and priest. It is reported of Metellus, that, having lost an eye in endeavoring to save the Palladium from the flames, when the temple of Vesta was on fire, he was denied the priesthood, though he had rendered such an excellent piece of service to the public; yet the public opinion was that a priest who was defective in any member was to be avoided as ominous - See Dodd. "At Elis, in Greece, the judges chose the finest looking man to carry the sacred vessels of the deity; he that was next to him in beauty and elegance led the ox; and the third in personal beauty, etc., carried the garlands, ribbons, wine, and the other matters used for the sacrifice." - Athen. Deipnisoph., l. xiii., c. 2.

[¶34] Formerly the Church of England was very cautious in admitting to her ministry those who had gross personal defects; but now we find the hump-backed, the jolt-headed, bandy-legged, club-footed, one-eyed, etc., priests even of her high places. Why do our prelates ordain such?

### Verse 23

[¶36] He shall not go in unto the veil - The priest with a blemish was not permitted to enter into the holy of holies, nor to burn incense, nor to offer the shew-bread, nor to light the golden candlestick, etc. In short, he was not permitted to perform any essential function of the priesthood.

[¶37] 1. The great perfection required in the Jewish high priest was intended principally to point out the perfection of that priesthood of which the Jewish was only the type. And yet, as the apostle assures us, that law made nothing perfect, but pointed out that most perfect priesthood and sacrifice by which we draw near to God.

[¶38] 2. As none who had a blemish could enter into the holy of holies, and this holy of holies was a type of the kingdom of God, so nothing that is defiled can enter into heaven; for he gave himself for his Church that he might purify it to himself, and present it at last before the presence of the Divine glory having neither spot nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, [Eph 5:27]; a passage which evidently refers to the directions in the preceding verse. Reader, art thou become a king and priest unto God and the Lamb? and hast thou obtained, or art thou earnestly seeking, that holiness without which thou canst not see the kingdom of heaven?

### Introduction

[¶40] Of the uncleanness of the priests, by which they were prevented from ministering in holy things, [Lev 22:1-5]. How they should be cleansed, [Lev 22:6], [Lev 22:7]. The priest must not eat of any animal that had died of itself, or was torn by wild beasts, but must keep God's ordinances, [Lev 22:8], [Lev 22:9]. No stranger, sojourner, nor hired servant shall eat of the holy things, [Lev 22:10]. A servant bought with money may eat of them, [Lev 22:11]. Who of the priest's family may not eat of them, [Lev 22:12], [Lev 22:13]. Of improper persons who partake of the holy things unknowingly, [Lev 22:14-16]. Freewill-offerings, and sacrifices in general, must be without blemish, [Lev 22:17-25]. The age at which different animals were to be offered to God, [Lev 22:26], [Lev 22:27]. No animal and its young shall be offered on the same day, [Lev 22:28]. How the sacrifice of thanks-giving was to be offered, [Lev 22:29], [Lev 22:30]. All God's testimonies to be observed, and the reason, [Lev 22:31-33].

### Verse 2

[¶42] Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves - The same subject is continued in this chapter as in the preceding, with this addition, that besides the perfection of the priests, it was indispensably necessary that the sacrifices also should be perfect. In the service of God, according to the law, neither an imperfect offering nor an imperfect offerer could be admitted. What need then of a mediator between a holy God and sinful men! And can we expect that any of our services, however sincere and well-intentioned, can be accepted, unless offered on that living Altar that sanctifies the gift?

### Verse 4

[¶44] Is a leper, or hath a running issue - See the case of the leper treated at large in the notes on Leviticus 13 (note) and Leviticus 14 (note); and for other uncleannesses, see the notes on Leviticus 15 (note).

## 146. Leviticus · 22 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/146/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/146/#p-N

### Verse 10

[¶1] There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing - For the meaning of the word stranger, see the note on [Exo 12:43]. The Jews suppose that stranger here means one who has had his ear pierced, (see the note on [Exo 21:6]), and that sojourner means a servant who is to go free on the Sabbatical year. Neither of these was permitted to eat of the holy things, because they were not properly members of the priest's family, and might go out and defile themselves even with the abominations of the heathen; but the servant or slave that was bought with money, [Lev 22:11], might eat of these things, because he was the property of the master for ever. We see that it was lawful, under the Mosaic economy, to have slaves under certain restrictions; but these were taken from among the heathen, and instructed in the true religion: hence we find, as in the above case, that they were reckoned as a part of the priest's own family, and treated as such. They certainly had privileges which did not extend either to sojourners or to hired servants; therefore their situation was incomparably better than the situation of the slaves under different European governments, of whose souls their pitiless possessors in general take no care, while they themselves venture to profess the Christian religion, and quote the Mosaic law in vindication of their system of slavery. How preposterous is such conduct! and how intolerable!

### Verse 13

[¶3] But if the priest's daughter be a widow - and is returned unto her father's house - A widow in Bengal not infrequently returns to her father's house on the death of her husband: the union betwixt her and her own family is never so dissolved as among European nations. Thousands of widows in Bengal, whose husbands die before the consummation of marriage, never leave their parents - Ward.

### Verse 14

[¶5] Then he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it - The holy thing of which he has unknowingly eaten shall be fairly valued, and to this value he shall add one fifth more, and give the whole to the priest.

### Verse 20

[¶7] Whatsoever hath a blemish - The same perfection is required in the sacrifice that was required in the priest; see on [Lev 22:2] (note), and the notes on Leviticus 21 (note).

### Verse 23

[¶9] That hath anything superfluous or lacking - The term שרוע sarua signifies any thing extended beyond the usual size, and the term קלוט kalut signifies any thing unusually contracted; and both mean any monstrosity, whether in redundance or defect. Such things, it seems, might be offered for a freewill-offering, because that was not prescribed by the law; God left it to a man's piety and gratitude to offer such additional gifts as he could: what the law required was indispensably necessary, because it pointed out the Gospel economy; but he that made a vow to offer such a sacrifice as the law had not required, could of course bring an imperfect offering. Some contend that the last clause of this verse should be thus read: If thou offer it either for a freewill-offering, or for a vow, it shall not be accepted. It was the opinion of the Jews, and it appears to be correct, that none of these imperfect animals were ever offered on the altar; but the person who made the freewill-offering of such things as he had, sold the animal, and gave its price for the support of the sanctuary.

### Verse 24

[¶11] Bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut - That is, no bullock or lamb that is injured in any of the above ways, shall be offered unto the Lord.

### Verse 25

[¶13] Their corruption is in them - Viz., they are bruised, crushed, broken, etc.

### Verse 27

[¶15] When a bullock - is brought forth - This is a most unfortunate as well as absurd translation. The creature called an ox is a bull castrated; surely then a bullock was never yet brought forth! The original word שור shor signifies a bull, a bullock, or indeed any thing of the neat kind: here, even common sense required that it should be translated calf; and did I not hold myself sacredly bound to print the text of the common version with scrupulous exactness, I should translate the former clause of this verse thus, and so enter it into the text: When a Calf, or a Lamb, or a Kid is brought forth, instead of, When a bullock, a sheep, or a goat is brought forth, the absurdity of which is glaring.

[¶16] Seven days under the dam - In vindication of the propriety of this precept it may be justly asserted, that the flesh of very young animals is comparatively innutritive, and that animal food is not sufficiently nourishing and wholesome till the animal has arrived at a certain growth, or acquired the perfection of its nature. There is something brutish in eating the young of beast or fowl before the hair and hoofs are perfect in the one, and the feathers and claws in the other. Before this period their flesh is not good for food. See the note on [Lev 9:1].

### Verse 28

[¶18] Ye shall not kill it and her young in one day - This precept was certainly intended to inculcate mercy and tenderness of heart; and so the Jews understood it. When it is necessary to take away the lives of innocent animals for the support of our own, we should do it in such a way as not to blunt our moral feelings; and deplore the necessity, while we feel an express gratitude to God for permission, to do it.

### Verse 30

[¶20] Leave none of it until the morrow - See the note on [Lev 7:15].

### Verse 32

[¶22] Neither shall ye profane my holy name - God's name is profaned or rendered common when we treat his commands as we often do those of our fellows, when they do not appear to have self-interest to recommend them. He therefore profanes God's holy name who does not both implicitly believe and conscientiously obey all his words and all his precepts.

[¶23] I will be hallowed among the children of Israel - The words children of Israel, בני ישראל beney Yishrael, which so frequently occur, should be translated either the descendants or posterity of Israel, or the people of Israel. The word children has a tendency to beget a false notion, especially in the minds of young people, and lead them to think that children, in the proper sense of the word, i. e., little ones, are meant.

### Verse 33

[¶25] Brought you out of the land of Egypt - By such a series of miraculous interferences, to be your God - to save you from all idolatry, false and superstitious worship, teach you the right way, lead and support you in it, and preserve you to my eternal kingdom and glory. God, infinite in his own perfections, has no need of his creatures; but they need him; and, as a source of endless felicity, he opens himself to all his intelligent offspring.

### Introduction

[¶27] The feast of the Lord, [Lev 23:1], [Lev 23:2]. The Sabbath, [Lev 23:3]. The passover and unleavened bread, [Lev 23:4-8]. The feast of first-fruits, [Lev 23:9-14]. The feast of pentecost, [Lev 23:15-21]. Gleanings to be left for the poor, [Lev 23:22]. The feast of trumpets, [Lev 23:23-25]. The great day of atonement, [Lev 23:26-32]. The feast of tabernacles, [Lev 23:33-44].

### Verse 2

[¶29] These are my feasts - The original word מועד moad is properly applied to any solemn anniversary, by which great and important ecclesiastical, political, or providential facts were recorded; see Clarke on [Gen 1:14] (note). Anniversaries of this kind were observed in all nations; and some of them, in consequence of scrupulously regular observation, became chronological epochs of the greatest importance in history: the Olympiads, for example.

### Verse 3

[¶31] The seventh day is the Sabbath - This, because the first and greatest solemnity, is first mentioned. He who kept not this, in the most religious manner, was not capable of keeping any of the others. The religious observance of the Sabbath stands at the very threshold of all religion. See Clarke's note on [Gen 2:3].

### Verse 5

[¶33] The Lord's passover - See this largely explained in the notes on [Exo 12:21-27] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶35] He shalt wave the sheaf - He shall move it to and fro before the people, and thereby call their attention to the work of Divine Providence, and excite their gratitude to God for preserving to them the kindly fruits of the earth. See Clarke's note on [Exo 29:27], and Exodus 7 at end.

### Verse 14

[¶37] Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears - It is right that God, the dispenser of every blessing, should be acknowledged as such, and the first-fruits of the field, etc., dedicated to him. Concerning the dedication of the first-fruits, see the note on [Exo 22:29]. Parched ears of corn and green ears, fried, still constitute a part, and not a disagreeable one, of the food of the Arabs now resident in the Holy Land. See Hasselquist.

### Verse 15

[¶39] Ye shall count unto you - seven Sabbaths - That is, from the sixteenth of the first month to the sixth of the third month. These seven weeks, called here Sabbaths, were to be complete, i. e., the forty-nine days must be finished, and the next day, the fiftieth, is what, from the Septuagint, we call pentecost. See the note on [Luk 6:1].

### Verse 22

[¶41] Neither shalt thou gather any gleaning - See the note on [Lev 19:9].

### Verse 24

[¶43] A memorial of blowing of trumpets - This is generally called the feast of trumpets; and as it took place on the first day of the seventh month, Tisri, which answers to September, which month was the commencement of what was called the civil year, the feast probably had no other design than to celebrate the commencement of that year, if indeed such a distinction obtained among the ancient Jews. See the note on [Exo 12:2]. Some think creation began at this time.

### Verse 28

[¶45] A day of atonement - See the note on [Lev 16:2], etc., where this subject is largely explained.

## 147. Leviticus · 23 of 27

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### Verse 34

[¶1] The feast of tabernacles - In this solemnity the people left their houses, and dwelt in booths or tents made of the branches of goodly trees and thick trees, (of what kind the text does not specify), together with palm-trees and willows of the brook, [Lev 23:40]. And in these they dwelt seven days, in commemoration of their forty years' sojourning and dwelling in tents in the wilderness while destitute of any fixed habitations. In imitation of this feast among the people of God, the Gentiles had their feasts of tents. Plutarch speaks particularly of feasts of this kind in honor of Bacchus, and thinks from the custom of the Jews in celebrating the feast of tabernacles, that they worshipped the god Bacchus, "because he had a feast exactly of the same kind called the feast of tabernacles, Σκηνη, which they celebrated in the time of vintage, bringing tables out into the open air furnished with all kinds of fruit, and sitting under tents made of vine branches and ivy." - Plut. Symp., lib. iv., Q. 6. According to Ovid the feast of Anna Perenna was celebrated much in the same way. Some remained in the open air, others formed to themselves tents and booths made of branches of trees, over which they spread garments, and kept the festival with great rejoicings. "Sub Jove pars durat; pauci tentoria ponunt;

[¶2] Sunt, quibus e ramis frondea facta easa est.

[¶3] Pars sibi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis;

[¶4] Desuper extentas imposuere togas."

[¶5] Ovid, Fast., lib. ill.

[¶6] Concerning this feast of tabernacles, see the note on [Joh 7:37], [Joh 7:38]; and for the various feasts among the Jews, See the note on [Exo 23:14].

### Verse 40

[¶8] Boughs of goodly trees - The Jews and many critics imagine the citron-tree to be intended, and by boughs of thick tree the myrtle.

### Verse 43

[¶10] That your generations may know, etc. - By the institution of this feast God had two great objects in view:

[¶11] 1. To perpetuate the wonderful display of his providence and grace in bringing them out of Egypt, and in preserving them in the wilderness.

[¶12] 2. To excite and maintain in them a spirit of gratitude and obedience, by leading them to consider deeply the greatness of the favors which they had received from his most merciful hands.

[¶13] Signal displays of the mercy, kindness, and providential care of God should be particularly remembered. When we recollect that we deserve nothing at his hands, and that the debt of gratitude is all the debt we can pay, in it we should be cheerful, fervent, and frequent. An ungrateful heart is an unfeeling, unloving, unbelieving, and disobedient heart. Reader, pray to God that he may deliver thee from its influence and its curse.

### Introduction

[¶15] Pure olive oil must be provided for the lamps, [Lev 24:1], [Lev 24:2]. Aaron is to take care that the lamps be lighted from evening to morning continually, [Lev 24:3], [Lev 24:4]. How the shew-bread is to be made and ordered, [Lev 24:5-8]. Aaron and his sons shall eat this bread in the holy place, [Lev 24:9]. Of the son of Shelomith, an Israelitish woman, who blasphemed the name, [Lev 24:10], [Lev 24:11]. He is imprisoned till the mind of the Lord should be known, [Lev 24:12]. He is commanded to be stoned to death, [Lev 24:13], [Lev 24:14]. The ordinance concerning cursing and blaspheming the Lord, [Lev 24:15], [Lev 24:16]. The law against murder, [Lev 24:17]. The lex talionis, or law of like for like, repeated, [Lev 24:18-21]. This law to be equally binding both on themselves and on strangers, [Lev 24:22]. The blasphemer is stoned, [Lev 24:23].

### Verse 2

[¶17] Pure oil olive - See every thing relative to this ordinance explained on [Exo 27:20], [Exo 27:21] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶19] Bake twelve cakes - See the whole account of the shew-bread in the notes on [Exo 25:30] (note); and relative to the table on which they stood, the golden candlestick and silver trumpets carried in triumph to Rome, see the note on [Exo 25:31].

### Verse 10

[¶21] The son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, etc. - This is a very obscure account, and is encumbered with many difficulties.

[¶22] 1. It seems strange that a person proceeding from such an illegal mixture should have been incorporated with the Israelites.

[¶23] 2. What the cause of the strife between this mongrel person and the Israelitish man was is not even hinted at. The rabbins, it is true, supply in their way this deficiency; they say he was the son of the Egyptian whom Moses slew, and that attempting to pitch his tent among those of the tribe of Dan, to which he belonged by his mother's side, [Lev 24:11], he was prevented by a person of that tribe as having no right to a station among them who were true Israelites both by father and mother. In consequence of this they say he blasphemed the name of the Lord. But,

[¶24] 3. The sacred text does not tell us what name he blasphemed; it is simply said ויקב את השם vaiyihkob eth hashshem, he pierced through, distinguished, explained, or expressed the name. (See below, article 10). As the Jews hold it impious to pronounce the name יהוה Yehovah, they always put either אדני Adonai, Lord, or השם hashshem, The Name, in the place of it; but in this sense hashshem was never used prior to the days of rabbinical superstition, and therefore it cannot be put here for the word Jehovah.

[¶25] 4. Blaspheming the name of the Lord is mentioned in [Lev 24:16], and there the proper Hebrew term is used שם יהוה shem Yehovah, and not the rabbinical השם hashshem, as in [Lev 24:11].

[¶26] 5. Of all the manuscripts collated both by Kennicott and De Rossi, not one, either of the Hebrew or Samaritan, has the word Jehovah in this place.

[¶27] 6. Not one of the ancient Versions, Targum of Onkelos, Hebraeo-Samaritan, Samaritan version, Syriac, Arabic, Septuagint, or Vulgate Latin, has even attempted to supply the sacred name.

[¶28] 7. Houbigant supposes that the Egypto-Israelitish man did not use the name of the true God at all, but had been swearing by one of his country gods; and if this was the case the mention of the name of a strange god in the camp of Israel would constitute a very high crime, and certainly expose to the punishment mentioned in [Lev 24:14].

[¶29] 8. Probably the word השם hashshem was the proper name of some Egyptian deity.

[¶30] 9. The fifteenth verse seems to countenance the supposition that the god whose name was produced on this occasion was not the true God, for it is there said, whosoever curseth his god, אלהיו elohaiv, shall bear his sin - shall have the punishment due to him as an idolater; but he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, שם יהוה shem Yehovah, shall surely be put to death - when he blasphemeth the name (שם shem) he shall die, [Lev 24:16].

[¶31] 10. The verb נקב nakab, which we translate blaspheme, signifies to pierce, bore, make hollow; also to Express or Distinguish by Name; see [Isa 62:2]; [Num 1:17]; [1Chr 12:31]; [1Chr 16:41]; [1Chr 28:15]; or, as the Persian translator has it, sherah kerd, mir an nam, he expounded or interpreted the name. Hence all that we term blasphemy here may only signify the particularizing some false god, i. e., naming him by his name, or imploring his aid as a helper, and when spoken of the true God it may signify using that sacred name as the idolaters did the names of their idols. On blaspheming God, and the nature of blasphemy, see the notes on [Mat 9:3]. In whatever point of view we consider the relation which has been the subject of this long note, one thing is sufficiently plain, that he who speaks irreverently of God, of his works, his perfections, his providence, etc., is destitute of every moral feeling and of every religious principle, and consequently so dangerous to society that it would be criminal to suffer him to be at large, though the longsuffering of God may lead him to repentance, and therefore it may be consistent with mercy to preserve his life.

### Verse 14

[¶33] Lay their hands upon his head - It was by this ceremony that the people who heard him curse bore their public testimony in order to his being fully convicted, for without this his punishment would not have been lawful. By this ceremony also they in effect said to the man, Thy blood be upon thy own head.

### Verse 15

[¶35] Whosoever curseth his God - יקלל אלהיו yekallel Elohaiv, he who makes light of him, who does not treat him and sacred things with due reverence, shall bear his sin - shall have the guilt of this transgression imputed to him, and may expect the punishment.

### Verse 16

[¶37] Blasphemeth the name of the Lord - ונקב שם יהוה venokeb shem Yehovah, he who pierces, transfixes, or, as some translate it, expounds, the name of Jehovah; see the note on [Lev 24:10]. This being the name by which especially the Divine Essence was pointed out, it should be held peculiarly sacred. We have already seen that the Jews never pronounce this name, and so long has it been disused among them that the true pronunciation is now totally lost; See on the word Jehovah, [Exo 6:3] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶39] He that killeth any man - Blasphemy against God, i. e., speaking injuriously of his name, his attributes, his government, and his revelation, together with murder, is to be punished with death: he that blasphemes God is a curse in society, and he who takes away, wilfully and by malicious intent, the life of any man, should certainly be put to death. In this respect God has absolutely required that life shall go for life.

### Verse 20

[¶41] Breach for breach - This is a repetition of the lex talionis, which See explained [Exo 21:24] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶43] Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger as for one of your own country - Equal laws, where each individual receives the same protection and the same privileges, are the boast only of a sound political constitution. He who respects and obeys the laws has a right to protection and support, and his person and property are as sacred in the sight of justice as the person and property of the prince. He who does not obey the laws of his country forfeits all right and title to protection and privilege; his own actions condemn him, and justice takes him up on the evidence of his own transgressions. He who does what is right need not fear the power of the civil magistrate, for he holds the sword only to punish transgressors. Universal obedience to the laws is the duty of every citizen; none can do more, none should do less: therefore each individual in a well regulated state must have equal rights and privileges in every thing that relates to the safety of his person, and the security of his property. Reader, such was the Mosaic code; such Is the British Constitution.

## 148. Leviticus · 24 of 27

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### Verse 23

[¶1] And stone him with stones - We are not to suppose that the culprit was exposed to the unbridled fury of the thousands of Israel; this would be brutality, not justice, for the very worst of tempers and passions might be produced and fostered by such a procedure. The Jews themselves tell us that their manner of stoning was this: they brought the condemned person without the camp, because his crime had rendered him unclean, and whatever was unclean must be put without the camp. When they came within four cubits of the place of execution, they stripped the criminal, if a man, leaving him nothing but a cloth about the waist. The place on which he was to be executed was elevated, and the witnesses went up with him to it, and laid their hands upon him, for the purposes mentioned [Lev 24:14]. Then one of the witnesses struck him with a stone upon the loins; if he was not killed with that blow, then the witnesses took up a great stone, as much as two men could lift, and threw it upon his breast. This was the coup de grace, and finished the tragedy. When a man was stoned by the mob, then brutal rage armed every man, justice was set aside, and the will and fury of the people were law, judge, jury, and executioner. Such disgraceful stonings as these were, no doubt, frequent among the Jews. See Calmet's Dict., article Stoning, and Ainsworth on this place. What the crime of Shelomith's son was, we cannot distinctly say; doubtless it was some species of blasphemy: however, we find it was a new and unprecedented case; and as there was no law by which the quantum of guilt could be ascertained, nor consequently the degree of punishment, it was necessary to consult the great Lawgiver on the occasion; the man was therefore secured till the mind of the Lord should be known. Moses, no doubt, had recourse to the tabernacle, and received the directions afterward mentioned from Him who dwelt between the cherubim. In what way the answer of the Lord was communicated we know not, (probably by Urim and Thummim), but it came in such a manner as to preclude all doubt upon the subject: the man was declared to be guilty, and was sentenced to be stoned to death; and on this occasion a law is made relative to blasphemy in general. However sinful the Jews might have been at this time, we have reason to believe they did not take the name of the Lord in vain, and blasphemy was not known among them. But what shall we say of Christians, so called, whose mouths are full of cursing and bitterness? Were every blasphemer among us to be stoned to death, how many of the people would fall in every corner of the land! God is longsuffering; may this lead them to repentance! We have excellent laws against all profaneness, but, alas, for our country! they are not enforced; and he who attempts to put the laws in force against profane swearers, Sabbath breakers, etc., is considered a litigious man, and a disturber of the peace of society. Will not God visit for these things? This is not only contempt of God's holy word and commandments, but rebellion against the laws.

### Introduction

[¶3] The law concerning the Sabbatical or seventh year repeated, [Lev 25:1-7]. The law relative to the jubilee, or fiftieth year, and the hallowing of the fiftieth, [Lev 25:8-12]. In the year of jubilee every one to return unto his possessions, [Lev 25:13]. None to oppress another in buying and selling, [Lev 25:14]. Purchases to be rated from jubilee to jubilee, according to the number of years unexpired, [Lev 25:15-17]. Promises to obedience, [Lev 25:18], [Lev 25:19]. Promises relative to the Sabbatical year, [Lev 25:20-22]. No inheritance must be finally alienated, [Lev 25:23], [Lev 25:24]. No advantage to be taken of a man's poverty in buying his land, [Lev 25:25-28]. Ordinances relative to the selling of a house in a walled city, [Lev 25:29], [Lev 25:30]; in a village, [Lev 25:31]. Houses of the Levites may be redeemed at any time, [Lev 25:32], [Lev 25:33]. The fields of the Levites in the suburbs must not be sold, [Lev 25:34]. No usury to be taken from a poor brother, [Lev 25:35-38]. If an Israelite be sold to an Israelite, he must not be obliged to serve as a slave, [Lev 25:39], but be as a hired servant or as a sojourner, till the year of jubilee, [Lev 25:40], when he and his family shall have liberty to depart, [Lev 25:41]; because God claims all Israelites as his servants, having redeemed them from bondage in Egypt, [Lev 25:42], [Lev 25:43]. The Israelites are permitted to have bond-men and bond-women of the heathens, who, being bought with their money, shall be considered as their property, [Lev 25:44-46]. If an Israelite, grown poor, be sold to a sojourner who has waxed rich, he may be redeemed by one of his relatives, an uncle or uncle's son, [Lev 25:47-49]. In the interim between the jubilees, he may be redeemed; but if not redeemed, he shall go free in the jubilee, [Lev 25:50-54]. Obedience enforced by God's right over them as his servants, [Lev 25:55].

### Verse 2

[¶5] The land keep a Sabbath - See this ordinance explained, [Exo 23:11] (note). It may be asked here: if it required all the annual produce of the field to support the inhabitants, how could the people be nourished the seventh year, when no produce was received from the fields? To this it may be answered, that God sent his blessing in an especial manner on the sixth year, (see [Lev 25:21], [Lev 25:22]), and it brought forth fruit for three years. How astonishing and convincing was this miracle! Could there possibly be any deception here? No! The miracle speaks for itself, proves the Divine authenticity of the law, and takes every prop and stay from the system that wishes to convict the Mosaic ordinances of imposture. See [Exo 23:11]. It is evident from this that the Mosaic law must have had a Divine origin, as no man in his senses, without God's authority, could have made such an ordinance as this; for the sixth year, from its promulgation, would have amply refuted his pretensions to a Divine mission.

### Verse 8

[¶7] Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years - This seems to state that the jubilee was to be celebrated on the forty-ninth year; but in [Lev 25:10] and [Lev 25:11] it is said, Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and, A jubilee shall this fiftieth year be. Probably in this verse Moses either includes the preceding jubilee, and thus with the forty-ninth makes up the number fifty; or he speaks of proclaiming the jubilee on the forty-ninth, and celebrating it on the fiftieth year current. Some think it was celebrated on the forty-ninth year, as is stated in [Lev 25:8]; and this prevented the Sabbatical year, or seventh year of rest, from being confounded with the jubilee, which it must otherwise have been, had the celebration of this great solemnity taken place on the fiftieth year; but it is most likely that the fiftieth was the real jubilee.

### Verse 11

[¶9] A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be - The literal meaning of the word jubilee, יובל yobel in Hebrew, and יוביל yobil in the Samaritan, has not been well ascertained. Josephus and the rabbins have caused many to err; the former says the word signifies liberty; Ελευθεριαν δε σημαινει τουνομα, Antiq., l. 3, cap. 12, edit. Haverc., vol. 1, p. 184; but the word liberty signifies rather the intention of the institution, than the meaning of the Hebrew term. The rabbins say it signifies a ram's horn, because the trumpets which were used in proclaiming this solemnity were made out of ram's horns. This meaning is adopted in a few places in our translation, but none of the ancient versions acknowledge this sense of the term, the Chaldee excepted. Some derive it from יבל yabal, to bring, carry away, because the Israelites at this time carried away the right of repossessing their inheritances which had been forfeited or alienated. The most natural derivation is from הוביל hobil, to cause to bring back, or recall, because estates, etc., which had been alienated, were then brought back to their primitive owners. This was a wise and excellent institution, but appears to have been little regarded by the Jews after the Babylonish captivity. Indeed, it is not mentioned under the second temple, and the observance must have ceased among the Jews when they were brought under a foreign yoke. The jubilee seems to have been typical,

[¶10] 1. Of the great time of release, the Gospel dispensation, when all who believe in Christ Jesus are redeemed from the bondage of sin - repossess the favor and image of God, the only inheritance of the human soul, having all debts cancelled, and the right of inheritance restored. To this the prophet Isaiah seems to allude, [Isa 26:13], and particularly [Isa 61:1-3].

[¶11] 2. Of the general resurrection. "It is," says Mr. Parkhurst, "a lively prefiguration of the grand consummation of time, which will be introduced in like manner by the trump of God, [1Cor 15:52], when the children and heirs of God shall be delivered from all their forfeitures, and restored to the eternal inheritance allotted to them by their Father; and thenceforth rest from their labors, and be supported in life and happiness by what the field of God shall supply."

[¶12] It is worthy of remark that the jubilee was not proclaimed till the tenth day of the seventh month, on the very day when the great annual atonement was made for the sins of the people; and does not this prove that the great liberty or redemption from thraldom, published under the Gospel, could not take place till the great Atonement, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, had been offered up? See [Lev 25:9].

### Verse 14

[¶14] Ye shall not oppress one another - Ye shall take no advantage of each other's ignorance either in buying or selling; for he that buys an article at less than it is worth, or sells one for more than it is worth, taking advantage in both cases of the ignorance of the vender or buyer, is no better than a thief, as he actually robs his neighbor of as much property as he has bought the article at below or sold it above its current value.

### Verse 15

[¶16] According to the number of years - The purchases that were to be made of lands were to be regulated by the number of years unelapsed of the current jubilee. This was something like buying the unexpired term of a lease among us; the purchase is always regulated by the number of years between the time of purchase and the expiration of the term.

### Verse 20

[¶18] What shall we eat the seventh year? - A very natural question, which could only be laid at rest by the sovereign promise in the next verse:

[¶19] I will Command my Blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for Three Years. See on [Lev 25:2] (note).

### Verse 23

[¶21] The land shall not be sold for ever - the land is mine - As God in a miraculous manner gave them possession of this land, they were therefore to consider themselves merely as tenants to him; and on this ground he, as the great landholder or lord of the soil, prescribes to them all the conditions on which they shall hold it. This one circumstance was peculiarly favorable to their advancement in religion, in righteousness, and true holiness; for feeling that they had nothing which they could call their own upon earth, they must frequently, by this, be put in mind of the necessity of having a permanent dwelling in the heavenly inheritance, and of that preparation without which it could not be possessed.

### Verse 25

[¶23] Any of his kin come to redeem it - The land that was sold might be redeemed, in the interim between jubilee and jubilee, by the former owner or by one of his kinsmen or relatives. This kinsman is called in the text גאל goel or redeemer; and was not this a lively emblem of the redemption of man by Christ Jesus? That he might have a right to redeem man, he took upon him human nature, and thus became a kinsman of the great family of the human race, and thereby possessed the right of redeeming that fallen nature of which he took part, and of buying back to man that inheritance which had been forfeited by transgression.

### Verse 29

[¶25] Sell a dwelling house in a walled city - A very proper difference is put between houses in a city and houses in the country. If a man sold his house in the city, he might redeem it any time in the course of a year; but if it were not redeemed within that time, it could no more be redeemed, nor did it go out even in the jubilee. It was not so with a house in the country; such a house might be redeemed during any part of the interim; and if not redeemed, must go out at the jubilee. The reason in both cases is sufficiently evident; the house in the city might be built for purposes of trade or traffic merely, the house in the country was built on or attached to the inheritance which God had divided to the respective families, and it was therefore absolutely necessary that the same law should apply to the house as to the inheritance. But the same necessity did not hold good with respect to the house in the city: and as we may presume the house in the city was merely for the purpose of trade, when a man bought such a house, and got his business established there, it would have been very inconvenient for him to have removed; but as it was possible that the former owner might have sold the house rashly, or through the pressure of some very urgent necessity, a year was allowed him, that during that time he might have leisure to reconsider his rash act, or so to get through his pressing necessity as to be able to get back his dwelling. This time was sufficiently long in either of the above cases; and as such occurrences might have been the cause of his selling his house, it was necessary that he might have the opportunity of redeeming his pledge. Again, as the purchaser, having bought the house merely for the purpose of trade, manufacture, etc., must have been at great pains and expense to fit the place for his work, and establish his business, in which himself, his children, and his children's children, were to labor and get their bread; hence it was necessary that he should have some certainty of permanent possession, without which, we may naturally conjecture, no such purchases ever would be made. This seems to be the simple reason of the law in both cases.

### Verse 32

[¶27] The cities of the Levites - The law in this and the following verses was also a very wise one. A Levite could not ultimately sell his house: if sold he could redeem it at any time in the interim between the two jubilees; but if not redeemed, it must go out at the following jubilee. And why? "Because Moses framed his laws so much in favor of the priesthood, that they had peculiar privileges?" etc. Just the reverse: they were so far from being peculiarly favored that they had no inheritance in Israel, only their cities, to dwell in: and because their houses in these cities were the whole that they could call their own, therefore these houses could not be ultimately alienated. All that they had to live on besides was from that most precarious source of support, the freewill-offerings of the people, which depended on the prevalence of pure religion in the land.

### Verse 36

[¶29] Take thou no usury of him - Usury, at present, signifies unlawful interest for money. Properly, it means the reward or compensation given for the use of a thing, but is principally spoken of money. For the definition of the original term, See the note on [Exo 22:25].

### Verse 42

[¶31] For they are my servants - As God redeemed every Israelite out of Egyptian bondage, they were therefore to consider themselves as his property, and that consequently they should not alienate themselves from him. It was in being his servants, and devoted to his work, that both their religious and political service consisted. And although their political liberty might be lost, they knew that their spiritual liberty never could be forfeited except by an utter alienation from God. God therefore claims the same right to their persons which he does to their lands; See the note on [Lev 25:23].

### Verse 43

[¶33] Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor - What is rigorous service? "Service which is not determined, and service whereof there is no need." This is the definition given by the Jews; but much more is implied in this command than is expressed here. Labour beyond the person's strength, or labor too long continued, or in unhealthy or uncomfortable places and circumstances, or without sufficient food, etc., is labor exacted with rigour, and consequently inhuman; and this law is made, not for the Mosaic dispensation and the Jewish people, but for every dispensation and for every people under heaven.

### Verse 50

[¶35] The price of his sale shall be, etc. - This was a very equitable law, both for the sojourner to whom the man was sold, and to the Israelite who had been thus sold. The Israelite might redeem himself, or one of his kindred might redeem him; but this must not be done to the prejudice of his master, the sojourner. They were therefore to reckon the years he must have served from that time till the jubilee; and then, taking the current wages of a servant per year at that time, multiply the remaining years by that sum, and the aggregate was the sum to be given to his master for his redemption. The Jews hold that the kindred of such a person were bound, if in their power, to redeem him, lest he should be swallowed up among the heathen; and we find, from [Neh 5:8], that this was done by the Jews on their return from the Babylonish captivity: We, after our ability, have redeemed our brethren the Jews, who were sold unto the heathen.

### Verse 55

[¶37] For unto me the children of Israel are servants - The reason of this law we have already seen, (See on [Lev 25:42] (note)), but we must look farther to see the great end of it. The Israelites were a typical people; they represented those under the Gospel dispensation who are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. But these last have a peculiarity of blessing: they are not merely servants, but they are Sons; though they also serve God, yet it is in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. And to this difference of state the apostle seems evidently to allude, [Gal 4:6], etc.: And because ye are Sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a Servant, but a Son; and if a Son, then an Heir of God through Christ; genuine believers in Christ not being heirs of an earthly inheritance, nor merely of a heavenly one, for they are heirs of God. God himself therefore is their portion, without whom even heaven itself would not be a state of consummate blessedness to an immortal spirit. The jubilee was a wonderful institution, and was of very great service to the religion, freedom, and independence of the Jewish people. "The motive of this law," says Calmet, "was to prevent the rich from oppressing the poor, and reducing them to perpetual slavery; and that they should not get possession of all the lands by way of purchase, mortgage, or, lastly, usurpation. That debts should not be multiplied too much, lest thereby the poor should be entirely ruined; and that slaves should not continue always, they, their wives and children, in servitude. Besides, Moses intended to preserve, as much as possible, personal liberty, an equality of property, and the regular order of families, among the Hebrews. Lastly, he designed that the people should be strongly attached to their country, lands, and inheritances; that they should have an affection for them, and consider them as estates which descended to them from their ancestors which they were to leave to their posterity, without any fear of their going ultimately out of their families." But this institution especially pointed out the redemption of man by Christ Jesus:

[¶38] 1. Through him, he who was in debt to God's justice had his debt discharged, and his sin forgiven.

[¶39] 2. He who sold himself for naught, who was a bondslave of sin and Satan, regains his liberty and becomes a son of God through faith in his blood.

[¶40] 3. He who by transgression had forfeited all right and title to the kingdom of God, becomes an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. Heaven, his forfeited inheritance, is restored, for the kingdom of heaven is open to all believers; and thus, redeemed from his debt, restored to his liberty, united to the heavenly family, and re-entitled to his inheritance, he goes on his way rejoicing, till he enters the paradise of his Maker, and is for ever with the Lord.

[¶41] Reader, hast thou applied for this redemption? Does not the trumpet of the jubilee, the glad tidings of salvation by Christ Jesus, sound in the land? Surely it does. Why then continue a bond-slave of sin, a child of wrath, and an heir of hell, when such a salvation is offered unto thee without money and without price? O suffer not this provision to be made ultimately in vain for thee! For what art thou advantaged if thou gain the whole world and lose thy soul?

### Introduction

[¶43] Idolatry forbidden, [Lev 26:1]. The Sabbath to be sanctified, [Lev 26:2-3]. Promises to obedience, of fruitful fields, plentiful harvests, and vintage, [Lev 26:4-5]. Of peace and security, [Lev 26:6]. Discomfiture of their enemies, [Lev 26:7-9]. Of abundance, [Lev 26:10]. Of the divine presence, [Lev 26:11-13]. Threatenings against the disobedient, [Lev 26:14-15]. Of terror and dismay, [Lev 26:16]. Their enemies shall prevail against them, [Lev 26:17-18]. Of barrenness, [Lev 26:19-20]. Of desolation by wild beasts, [Lev 26:21-22]. And if not humbled and reformed, worse evils shall be inflicted upon them, [Lev 26:23-24]. Their enemies shall prevail, and they shall be wasted by the pestilence, [Lev 26:25-26]. If they should still continue refractory, they shall be yet more sorely punished, [Lev 26:27-28]. The famine shall so increase that they shall be obliged to eat their own children, [Lev 26:29]. Their carcasses shall be cast upon the carcasses of their idols, [Lev 26:30]. Their cities shall be wasted, and the sanctuary desolated, [Lev 26:31]; the land destroyed, [Lev 26:32]; themselves scattered among their enemies, and pursued with utter confusion and distress, [Lev 26:33-39]. If under these judgments they confess their sin and return to God, He will remember them in mercy, [Lev 26:40-43]; visit them even in the land of their enemies, [Lev 26:44]; and remember His covenant with their fathers, [Lev 26:45]. The conclusion, stating these to be the judgments and laws which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, [Lev 26:46].

### Verse 1

[¶45] Ye shall make you no idols - See note on [Exo 20:4], and see the note on [Gen 28:18-19] (note), concerning consecrated stones. Not only idolatry in general is forbidden here, but also the superstitious use of innocent and lawful things. Probably the stones or pillars which were first set up, and anointed by holy men in commemoration of signal interposition of God in their behalf, were afterward abused to idolatrous and superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited. This we know was the case with the brazen serpent, [2Kgs 18:4].

## 149. Leviticus · 25 of 27

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/149/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/149/#p-N

### Verse 3

[¶1] If ye walk in my statutes - For the meaning of this and similar words used in the law, See the note on [Lev 26:15].

### Verse 4

[¶3] Rain in due season - What in Scripture is called the early and the latter rain. The first fell in Palestine at the commencement of spring, and the latter in autumn - Calmet.

### Verse 5

[¶5] Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage - According to Pliny, Hist. Nat., l. xviii., c. 18, the Egyptians reaped their barley six months, and their oats seven months, after seed time; for they sowed all their grain about the end of summer, when the overflowings of the Nile had ceased. It was nearly the same in Judaea: they sowed their corn and barley towards the end of autumn, and about the month of October; and they began their barley-harvest after the passover, about the middle of March; and in one month or six weeks after, about pentecost, they began that of their wheat. After their wheat-harvest their vintage commenced. Moses here leads the Hebrews to hope, if they continued faithful to God, that between their harvest and vintage, and between their vintage and seed-time, there should be no interval, so great should the abundance be; and these promises would appear to them the more impressive, as they had just now come out of a country where the inhabitants were obliged to remain for nearly three months shut up within their cities, because the Nile had then inundated the whole country. See Calmet. "This is a nervous and beautiful promise of such entire plenty of corn and wine, that before they could have reaped and threshed out their corn the vintage should be ready, and before they could have pressed out their wine it would be time to sow again. The Prophet Amos, [Amo 9:13] expresses the same blessing in the same manner: The ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who soweth seed." - Dodd.

### Verse 11

[¶7] I will set my tabernacle among you - This and the following verse contain the grand promise of the Gospel dispensation, viz. the presence, manifestation, and indwelling of God in human nature, and his constant in dwelling in the souls of his followers. So [Joh 1:14] the Word was made flesh, και εσκηνωσεν εν ἡμιν, and Made His Tabernacle among us. And to this promise of the law St. Paul evidently refers, [2Cor 6:16-18] and [2Cor 7:1]

### Verse 15

[¶9] If ye shall despise my statutes - abhor my judgments - As these words, and others of a similar import, which point out different properties of the revelation of God, are frequently occurring, I Judge it best to take a general view of them, once for all, in this place, and show how they differ among themselves, and what property of the Divine law each points out.

[¶10] 1. Statutes. חקת chukkoth, from חק chak, to mark out, define, etc. This term seems to signify the things which God has defined, marked, and traced out, that men might have a perfect copy of pure conduct always before their eyes, to teach them how they might walk so as to please him in all things, which they could not do without such instruction as God gives in his word, and the help which he affords by his Spirit.

[¶11] 2. Judgments. שפטים shephatim, from שפט shaphat, to distinguish, regulate, and determine; meaning those things which God has determined that men shall pursue, by which their whole conduct shall be regulated, making the proper distinction between virtue and vice, good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice; in a word, between what is proper to be done, and what is proper to be left undone.

[¶12] 3. Commandments. מצות mitsvoth, from צוה tsavah, to command, ordain, and appoint, as a legislator. This term is properly applied to those parts of the law which contain the obligation the people are under to act according to the statutes, judgments, etc., already established, and which prohibit them by penal sanctions from acting contrary to the laws.

[¶13] 4. Covenant. ברית berith, from בר bar, to clear, cleanse, or purify; because the covenant, the whole system of revelation given to the Jews, was intended to separate them from all the people of the earth, and to make them holy. Berith also signifies the covenant-sacrifice, which prefigured the atonement made by Christ for the sin of the world, by which he purifies believers unto himself, and makes them a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Besides those four, we may add the following, from other places of Scripture.

[¶14] 5. Testimonies. עדות edoth, from עד ad, beyond, farther, besides; because the whole ritual law referred to something farther on or beyond the Jewish dispensation, even to that sacrifice which in the fullness of time was to be offered for the sins of men. Thus all the sacrifices, etc., of the Mosaic law referred to Christ, and bore testimony to him who was to come.

[¶15] 6. Ordinances. משמרות mishmaroth, from שמר shamar, to guard, keep safe, watch over; those parts of Divine revelation which exhorted men to watch their ways, keep their hearts, and promised them, in consequence, the continual protection and blessing of God their Maker.

[¶16] 7. Precepts. פקודים pikkudim, from פקד pakad, to overlook, take care or notice of, to visit; a very expressive character of the Divine testimonies, the overseers of a man's conduct, those who stand by and look on to see whether he acts according to the commands of his Master; also the visitors, because God's precepts are suited to all the circumstances of human life; some are applicable in adversity, others in prosperity; some in times of temptation and sadness, others in seasons of spiritual joy and exultation, etc., etc. Thus they may be said to overlook and visit man in all times, places, and circumstances.

[¶17] 8. Truth. אמת emeth, from אם am, to support, sustain, confirm; because God is immutable who has promised, threatened, commanded, and therefore all his promises, threatenings, commandments, etc., are unalterable and eternal. Error and falsity promise to direct and sustain, but they fail. God's word is supported by his own faithfulness, and it supports and confirms them who conscientiously believe it.

[¶18] 9. Righteousness. צדקה tsedakah, from צדק which, though not used as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, seems to convey, from its use as a noun, the idea of giving just weight or good measure, see [Lev 19:36]. This is one of the characters which is attributed to the revelation God makes of himself; (see [Psa 119:137-144]); and by this the impartiality of the Divine testimonies is pointed out. God gives to all their due, and his word distributes to every man according to his state, circumstances, talents, graces, etc.; to none too much, to none too little, to all enough.

[¶19] 10. Word Of Jehovah. דבר יהוה debar Yehovah, from דבר, dabar, to drive, lead, bring forward, hence to bring forward, or utter one's sentiments; so the word of God is what God has brought forth to man from his own mind and counsel; it is a perfect similitude of his own righteousness, holiness, goodness, and truth. This Divine law is sometimes expressed by: -

[¶20] 11. אמרה imrah, speech or word, variously modified from אמר amar, to branch out, because of the interesting details into which the word of God enters in order to instruct man and make him wise unto salvation, or, as the apostle expresses it, "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets," πολυμερως και πολυτροπως, in many distinct parcels, and by various tropes or figures; a curious and elegant description of Divine revelation; [Heb 1:1].

[¶21] 12. All these collectively are termed the Law תורה torah, or תורת יהוה torath Yehovah, the law of the Lord, from ירה yarah, to direct, set straight and true, as stones in a building, to teach and instruct, because this whole system of Divine revelation is calculated to direct men to the attainment of present and eternal felicity, to set them right in their notions concerning the supreme God, to order and adjust them in the several departments of civil and religious society, and thus to teach and instruct them in the knowledge of themselves, and in the true knowledge of God. Thus those who receive the truth become the city of the living God - the temple of the Most High, built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. To complete this description of the word law, See the note on [Exo 12:49], where other properties of the law of God are specified.

### Verse 16

[¶23] I will even appoint over you terror, etc. - How dreadful is this curse! A whole train of evils are here personified and appointed to be the governors of a disobedient people. Terror is to be one of their keepers. How awful a state! to be continually under the influence of dismay, feeling indescribable evils, and fearing worse! Consumption, שחפת shachepheth, generally allowed to be some kind of atrophy or marasmus, by which the flesh was consumed, and the whole body dried up by raging fever through lack of sustenance. See the note on [Lev 11:16]. How circumstantially were all these threatenings fulfilled in this disobedient and rebellious people! Let a deist read over this chapter and compare it with the state of the Jews since the days of Vespasian, and then let him doubt the authenticity of this word if he can.

### Verse 22

[¶25] I will also send wild beasts among you - God fulfilled these threatenings at different times. He sent fiery Serpents among them, [Num 21:6]; Lions, [2Kgs 17:25]; Bears, [2Kgs 2:24], and threatened them with total desolation, so that their land should be overrun with wild beasts, etc., see [Eze 5:17]. "Spiritually," says Mr. Ainsworth, "these are wicked rulers and tyrants that kill and spoil, [Pro 28:15]; [Dan 7:3-6]; [Psa 80:13]; and false prophets that devour souls, [Mat 7:15]; [Rev 13:1], etc. So the prophet, speaking of their punishment by tyrants, says: A Lion out of the forest shall slay them; a Wolf of the evening shall spoil them; a Leopard shall watch over their cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn to pieces, because their transgressions be many. And of their prophets it is said: O Israel, thy prophets are like Foxes in the deserts, [Eze 13:4]; [Jer 8:17]; [Jer 15:3]."

### Verse 26

[¶27] Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven - Though in general every family in the East bakes its own bread, yet there are some public bakehouses where the bread of several families is baked at a certain price. Moses here foretells that the desolation should be so great and the want so pressing that there should be many idle hands to be employed, many mouths to be fed, and very little for each: Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, etc.

### Verse 29

[¶29] Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, etc. - This was literally fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book vii., chap. ii., gives us a particular instance in dreadful detail of a woman named Mary, who, in the extremity of the famine during the siege, killed her sucking child, roasted, and had eaten part of it when discovered by the soldiers! See this threatened, [Jer 19:9] (note).

### Verse 34

[¶31] Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths - This Houbigant observes to be a historical truth - "From Saul to the Babylonish captivity are numbered about four hundred and ninety years, during which period there were seventy Sabbaths of years; for 7, multiplied by 70, make 490. Now the Babylonish captivity lasted seventy years, and during that time the land of Israel rested. Therefore the land rested just as many years in the Babylonish captivity, as it should have rested Sabbaths if the Jews had observed the laws relative to the Sabbaths of the land." This is a most remarkable fact, and deserves to be particularly noticed, as a most literal fulfillment of the prophetic declaration in this verse: Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land. May it not be argued from this that the law concerning the Sabbatical year was observed till Saul's time, as it is only after this period the land enjoyed its rest in the seventy years' captivity? And if that breach of the law was thus punished, may it not be presumed it had been fulfilled till then, or else the captivity would have lasted longer, i. e., till the land had enjoyed all its rests, of which it had ever been thus deprived?

### Verse 38

[¶33] The land of your enemies shall eat you up - Does this refer to the total loss of the ten tribes? These are so completely swallowed up in some enemies' land, that nothing concerning their existence or place of residence remains but mere conjecture.

### Verse 44

[¶35] Neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly - Though God has literally fulfilled all his threatenings upon this people in dispossessing them of their land, destroying their polity, overturning their city, demolishing their temple, and scattering themselves over the face of the whole earth; yet he has, in his providence, strangely preserved them as a distinct people, and in very considerable numbers also. He still remembers the covenant of their ancestors, and in his providence and grace he has some very important design in their favor. All Israel shall yet be saved, and, with the Gentiles, they shall all be restored to his favor; and under Christ Jesus, the great Shepherd; become, with them, one grand everlasting fold.

### Verse 46

[¶37] These are the statutes, and judgments, etc. - See on [Lev 26:15] (note). This verse appears to be the proper concluding verse of the whole book; and I rather think that the 27th chapter originally followed the 25th. As the law was anciently written upon skins of parchment, sheep or goat skins, pasted or stitched together, and all rolled up in one roll, the matter being written in columns, one of those columns might have been very easily displaced, and thus whole chapters might have been readily interchanged - It is likely that this might have been the case in the present instance. Others endeavor to solve this difficulty, by supposing that the 27th chapter was added after the book had been finished; and therefore there is apparently a double conclusion, one at the end of the 26th and the other at the end of the 27th chapter. However the above may have been, all the ancient versions agree in concluding both the chapters in nearly the same way; yet the 26th chapter must be allowed to be by far the most natural conclusion of the book. The most important points in this chapter have already been particularly noticed in the notes; and to those on the 15th, 34th, and 44th verses, the reader is especially referred. How unwilling is God to cast off his people! and yet how sure is their rejection if they refuse to obey and live to him! No nation has ever been so signally elected as the Jews; and yet no nation has ever been so signally and so awfully reprobated. O Britain, be not high-minded, but fear! Behold here the goodness and severity of God!

### Introduction

[¶39] Laws concerning vows, [Lev 27:1], [Lev 27:2]. Of males and females from twenty to sixty years of age, and their valuation, [Lev 27:3], [Lev 27:4]. Of the same from five to twenty years, [Lev 27:5]. Of the same from a month to five years of age, [Lev 27:6]. Of males and females from sixty years old and upwards, and their valuation, [Lev 27:7]. The priest shall value the poor according to his ability, [Lev 27:8]. Concerning beasts that are vowed, and their valuation, [Lev 27:9-13]. Concerning the sanctification of a house, [Lev 27:14], [Lev 27:15]. Concerning the field that is sanctified or consecrated to the Lord, to the year of jubilee, [Lev 27:16-24]. Every estimation shall be made in shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, [Lev 27:25]. The firstlings of clean beasts, being already the Lord's, cannot be vowed, [Lev 27:26]. That of an unclean beast may be redeemed, [Lev 27:27]. Every thing devoted to God shall be unalienable and unredeemable, and continue the Lord's property till death, [Lev 27:28], [Lev 27:29]. All the tithe of the land is the Lord's, [Lev 27:30]; but it may be redeemed by adding a fifth part, [Lev 27:31]. The tithe of the herd and the flock is also his, [Lev 27:32]. The tenth that passes under the rod shall not be changed, [Lev 27:33]. The conclusion of the book, [Lev 27:34].

### Verse 2

[¶41] When a man shall make a singular vow - The verse is short and obscure, and may be translated thus: A man who shall have separated a vow, according to thy estimation, of souls unto the Lord; which may be paraphrased thus: He who shall have vowed or consecrated a soul, i. e., a living creature, whether man or beast, if he wish to redeem what he has thus vowed or consecrated, he shall ransom or redeem it according to the priest's estimation; for the priest shall judge of the properties, qualifications, and age of the person or beast, and the circumstances of the person who has vowed it, and shall regulate the value accordingly; and the money shall be put into his hands for the service of the sanctuary. A vow (says Mr. Ainsworth) is a religious promise made unto the Lord, and for the most part with prayer, and paid with thanksgiving, [Num 21:2], [Num 21:3]; [Psa 66:12], [Psa 66:14]. Vows were either of abstinence, such as are spoken of Numbers 30, and the vow of the Nazarite, Numbers 6; or they were to give something to the Lord, as sacrifices, [Lev 7:16], or the value of persons, beasts, houses, or lands, concerning which the law is here given. A man might vow or devote himself, his children, ([Lev 27:5], [Lev 27:6]), his domestics, his cattle, his goods, etc. And in this chapter rules are laid down for the redemption of all these things. But if, after consecrating these things, he refused to redeem them, then they became the Lord's property for ever. The persons continued all their lives devoted to the service of the sanctuary; the goods were sold for the profit of the temple or the priests; the animals, if clean, were offered in sacrifice; if not proper for sacrifice, were sold, and the price devoted to sacred uses. This is a general view of the different laws relative to vows, mentioned in this chapter.

### Verse 3

[¶43] From twenty years old even unto sixty-fifty shekels - A man from twenty to sixty years of age, if consecrated to the Lord by a vow, might be redeemed for fifty shekels, which, at 3s. each, amounted to 7. 10s. sterling.

## 150. Leviticus · 26 of 27

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### Verse 4

[¶1] And if it be a female - The woman, at the same age, vowed unto the Lord, might be redeemed for thirty shekels, 4. 10s. sterling, a little more than one half of the value of the man; for this obvious reason, that a woman, if employed, could not be of so much use in the service of the sanctuary as the man, and was therefore of much less value.

### Verse 5

[¶3] From five years old - The boy that was vowed might be redeemed for twenty shekels, 3. sterling; the girl, for ten shekels, just one half, 1. 10s.

### Verse 6

[¶5] A month old - The male child, five shekels, 15s., the female, three shekels, 9s. Being both in comparative infancy, they were nearly of an equal value. None were vowed under a month old: the first-born being always considered as the Lord's property, could not be vowed, see [Lev 27:26].

### Verse 7

[¶7] Sixty years old - The old man and the old woman, being nearly past labor, were nearly of an equal value; hence the one was estimated at fifteen shekels, 2. 5s., the other at ten shekels, 1. 10s. This was about the same ratio as that of the children, [Lev 27:5], and for the same reason.

### Verse 10

[¶9] He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, etc. - Whatever was consecrated to God by a vow, or purpose of heart, was considered from that moment as the Lord's property; to change which was impiety; to withhold it, sacrilege. Reader, hast thou ever dedicated thyself, or any part of thy property, to the service of thy Maker? If so, hast thou paid thy vows? Or hast thou altered thy purpose, or changed thy offering? Has he received from thy hands a bad for a good? Wast thou not vowed and consecrated to God in thy baptism? Are his vows still upon thee? Hast thou "renounced the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh?" Dost thou feel thyself bound "to keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of thy life?" Was not this thy baptismal covenant? And hast thou renounced It? Take heed! God is not mocked: that which thou sowest, thou shalt also reap. If thou rob God of thy heart, he will deprive thee of his heaven.

### Verse 11

[¶11] Any unclean beast - See on [Lev 27:2] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶13] Shall add a fifth part - This was probably intended to prevent rash vows and covetous redemptions. The priest alone was to value the thing; and to whatever his valuation was, a fifth part must be added by him who wished to redeem the consecrated thing. Thus, if the priest valued it at forty shekels, if the former owner redeemed it he was obliged to give forty-eight.

### Verse 14

[¶15] Shall sanctify his house - The yearly rent of which, when thus consecrated, went towards the repairs of the tabernacle, which was the house of the Lord.

### Verse 16

[¶17] Some part of a field - Though the preceding words are not in the text, yet it is generally allowed they should be supplied here, as it was not lawful for a man to vow his whole estate, and thus make his family beggars, in order to enrich the Lord's sanctuary: this God would not permit. The rabbins teach that the land or field, whether good or bad, was valued at forty-eight shekels, for all the years of the jubilee, provided the field was large enough to sow a homer of barley. The חמר chomer was different from the עמר omer: the latter held about three quarts, the former, seventy-five gallons three pints; See the note on [Exo 16:16]. Some suppose that the land was rated, not at fifty shekels for the whole of the years of the jubilee, for this would be but about 3s. per annum; but that it was rated according to its produce, fifty shekels for every homer of barley it produced.

### Verse 21

[¶19] As a field devoted - It is חרם cherem, a thing so devoted to God as never more to be capable of being redeemed. See on [Lev 27:29] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶21] Shekel of the sanctuary - A standard shekel; the standard being kept in the sanctuary to try and regulate all the weights in the land by. See [Gen 20:16]; [Gen 23:15].

### Verse 28

[¶23] No devoted thing - shall be sold or redeemed - This is the חרם cherem, which always meant an absolute unredeemable grant to God.

### Verse 29

[¶25] Which shall be devoted of men - Every man who is devoted shall surely be put to death; or, as some understand it, be the Lord's property, or be employed in his service, till death. The law mentioned in these two verses has been appealed to by the enemies of Divine revelation as a proof, that under the Mosaic dispensation human sacrifices were offered to God; but this can never be conceded. Had there been such a law, it certainly would have been more explicitly revealed, and not left in the compass of a few words only, where the meaning is very difficult to be ascertained; and the words themselves differently translated by most interpreters. That there were persons, devoted to destruction under the Mosaic dispensation, is sufficiently evident, for the whole Canaanitish nations were thus devoted by the Supreme Being himself, because the cup of their iniquity was full; but that they were not sacrificed to God, the whole history sufficiently declares. Houbigant understands the passage as speaking of these alone; and says, Non alios licebat anathemate voveri, quam Chananaeos, quos jusserat Deus ad internecionem deleri. "It was not lawful to devote any persons to death but the Canaanites, whom God had commanded to be entirely extirpated." This is perfectly correct; but he might have added that it was because they were the most impure idolaters, and because the cup of their iniquity was full. These God commanded to be put to death; and who can doubt his right to do so, who is the Maker of man, and the Fountain of justice? But what has this to do with human sacrifices? Just nothing. No more than the execution of an ordinary criminal, or a traitor, in the common course of justice, has to do with a sacrifice to God. In the destruction of such idolaters, no religious formality whatever was observed; nor any thing that could give the transaction even the most distant semblance of a sacrifice. In this way Jericho was commanded to be destroyed, [Jos 6:17], and the Amalekites, [Deu 25:19]; [1Sam 15:3] : but in all these cases the people commanded to be destroyed were such sinners as God's justice did not think proper to spare longer. And has not every system of law the same power? And do we not concede such power to the civil magistrate, for the welfare of the state? God, who is the sovereign arbiter of life and death, acts here in his juridical and legislative capacity; but these are victims to justice, not religious sacrifices. It may be necessary just farther to note that two kinds of vows are mentioned in this chapter: -

[¶26] 1. The נדר neder, (see on Leviticus 7 (note))., which comprehends all those things which, when once devoted, might be redeemed at a certain price, according to the valuation of the priest.

[¶27] 2. The חרם cherem, those things vowed to God of which there remained no power of redemption; they were most holy, i. e., so absolutely devoted to God that they could neither be changed, alienated, nor redeemed: probably because no mental reservation had been made, as in the above case may be supposed. On this ground the word was afterward applied to the most solemn and awful kind of excommunication, meaning a person so entirely devoted to the stroke of vindictive justice, as never to be capable of receiving pardon; and hence the word may be well applied in this sense to the Canaanites, the cup of whose iniquity was full, and who were consigned, without reprieve, to final extermination.

### Verse 30

[¶29] All the tithe of the land - This God claims as his own; and it is spoken of here as being a point perfectly settled, and concerning which there was neither doubt nor difficulty. See my view of this subject [Gen 28:22] (note), to which I do not see the necessity of adding any thing.

### Verse 32

[¶31] Whatsoever passeth under the rod - The signification of this verse is well given by the rabbins: "When a man was to give the tithe of his sheep or calves to God, he was to shut up the whole flock in one fold, in which there was one narrow door capable of letting out one at a time. The owner, about to give the tenth to the Lord, stood by the door with a rod in his hand, the end of which was dipped in vermilion or red ochre. The mothers of those lambs or calves stood without: the door being opened, the young ones ran out to join themselves to their dams; and as they passed out the owner stood with his rod over them, and counted one, two, three, four, five, etc., and when the tenth came, he touched it with the coloured rod, by which it was distinguished to be the tithe calf, sheep, etc., and whether poor or lean, perfect or blemished, that was received as the legitimate tithe." It seems to be in reference to this custom that the Prophet Ezekiel, speaking to Israel, says: I will cause you to pass under the rod, and will bring you into the bond of the covenant - you shall be once more claimed as the Lord's property, and be in all things devoted to his service, being marked or ascertained, by especial providences and manifestations of his kindness, to be his peculiar people.

### Verse 34

[¶33] These are the commandments - This conclusion is very similar to that at the end of the preceding chapter. I have already supposed that this chapter should have followed the 25th, and that the 26th originally terminated the book. Mr. Ainsworth, the whole of whose writings are animated with the spirit of piety, concludes this book with the following excellent remarks: - "The tithes in Israel being thus sanctified by the commandment of God to his honor, the maintenance of his ministers, and the relief of the poor, it taught them and teaches us to honor the Lord with our substance, ([Pro 3:9]), acknowledging him to be the author of all our increase and store; ([Deu 8:13-18]; [Hos 2:8]); to honor his Ministers, and to communicate unto them in all good things, ([1Tim 5:17], [1Tim 5:18]; [Gal 6:6]), that they who sow unto us spiritual things should reap our carnal things, ([1Cor 9:11]), and to give Alms of such things as we have, that all things may be clear unto us, ([Luk 11:41]), yea, even to sell that we have, and give alms; to provide ourselves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. [Luk 12:33]." They who forget their Maker, his ministers, and the poor, are never likely to hear that blessed word in the great day: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you; for I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; naked, and ye clothed me; sick and in prison, and ye came unto me."

[¶34] Reader, thou hast now gone through the whole of this most interesting book; a book whose subject is too little regarded by Christians in general. Here thou mayest discover the rigid requisitions of Divine justice, the sinfulness of sin, the exceeding breadth of the commandment, and the end of all human perfection. And now what thinkest thou of that word, "Whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law?" [Rom 3:19]. But who are under the law - the condemning power of the pure, rigid, moral law of God? Not the Jews only, but every soul of man: all to whom it is sent, and who acknowledge it as a Divine revelation, and have not been redeemed from the guilt of sin by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; for "cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." By this law then is the knowledge, but not the cure, of sin. Here then what God saith unto thee: "If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law), what farther need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law; [Heb 7:11], [Heb 7:12]. Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man; [Heb 8:1], [Heb 8:2]. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins; [Heb 10:4]. But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, - neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament, that, by means of death, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. And without shedding of blood is no remission. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation;" [Heb 9:11], [Heb 9:12], [Heb 9:15], [Heb 9:22], [Heb 9:28]. We see then that Christ was the End of the law for righteousness (for justification) to every one that believeth. "Unto him, therefore, who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." [Rev 1:5], [Rev 1:6].

[¶35] Sections in the Book of Leviticus, carried on from Exodus, which ends with the Twenty-Third.

[¶36] The Twenty-Fourth, called ויקרא valyikra, begins [Lev 1:6], and ends [Lev 6:7].

[¶37] The Twenty-Fifth, called צו tsav, begins [Lev 6:8], and ends [Lev 8:36].

[¶38] The Twenty-Sixth, called שמיני shemini, begins [Lev 9:1], and ends [Lev 11:47].

[¶39] The Twenty-Seventh, called תזריע tazria, begins [Lev 12:1], and ends [Lev 13:59].

[¶40] The Twenty-Eighth, called מצרע metsora, begins [Lev 14:1], and ends [Lev 15:33].

[¶41] The Twenty-Ninth, called אחרי מות acharey moth, begins [Lev 16:1], and ends [Lev 18:30].

[¶42] The Thirtieth, called קדשים kedoshim, begins [Lev 19:1], and ends [Lev 20:27].

[¶43] The Thirty-First, called אמר emor, begins [Lev 21:1], and ends [Lev 24:23].

[¶44] The Thirty-Second, called בהר סיני behar Sinai, begins [Lev 25:1], and ends [Lev 26:2].

[¶45] The Thirty-Third, called בחקתי bechukkothai, begins [Lev 26:3], and ends [Lev 27:34].

## 151. Leviticus · 27 of 27

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[¶0] These sections, as was observed on Exodus, have their technical names from some remarkable word, either in the first or second verse of their commencement.

## 152. Numbers · 1 of 34

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### Preface to the Book of Numbers

[¶1] This, which is the fourth book in order of the Pentateuch, has been called Numbers, from its containing an account of the numbering and marshalling the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness to the promised land. Its English name is derived from the title it bears in the Vulgate Latin, Numeri, which is a literal translation of the Greek word Αριθμοι, its title in the Septuagint; and from both, our Saxon ancestors called it numeration, "because in this the children of Israel were numbered," This title, however, does not properly apply to more than the three first chapters, and the 26th. This book, like the preceding, takes its name among the Hebrews from a distinguishing word in the commencement. It is frequently called וידבר Vaidabber, and he spoke, from its initial word; but in most Hebrew Bibles its running title is במדבר Bemidbar, in the wilderness, which is the fifth word in the first verse.

[¶2] The contents of the book of Numbers are briefly the following: On the first day of the first month of the second year after the departure from Egypt, the tabernacle being erected, and it and the priests consecrated, Moses is commanded to make a census or enumeration of the people, the Levites excepted, who were appointed to watch over, guard, pitch, and carry the tabernacle and its holy furniture; Numbers 1.

[¶3] To form the vast mass of the people into a regular camp, each tribe by itself under its own captain or chief, known by his proper standard, and occupying an assigned place in reference to the tabernacle; Numbers 2.

[¶4] Moses is commanded to separate the Levites to the service of the tabernacle, whom God chooses to take, instead of the first-born of every family, which he claimed as his own. When these were selected in their families, etc., the sum amounted to 22,273; Numbers 3.

[¶5] All this tribe is appointed to serve the tabernacle in a variety of offices, each person from the age of thirty till fifty, after which he was excused from farther service; Numbers 4.

[¶6] When these points were settled, God commands them to purify the camp by the expulsion of every unclean person, and establishes the trial of the suspected adulteress by the waters of jealousy; Numbers 5.

[¶7] He next institutes the laws relative to Nazarites; and lays down the form according to which the people shall be blessed; Numbers 6.

[¶8] Then follows a particular account of the offerings made to the tabernacle by the princes, or chiefs of the twelve tribes, and the amount of those offerings; Numbers 7.

[¶9] When this work was finished, the Levites were consecrated to their respective services, and the duration of the service of each ascertained; Numbers 8.

[¶10] The passover is commanded to be kept, and the first one is celebrated in the wilderness on the 14th of the first month of the second year after their departure from Egypt; Numbers 9.

[¶11] Moses is commanded to make two silver trumpets; he is informed of their use, in what order the different tribes shall march, with the ceremonies at fixing and removing the tabernacle and the departure of the people from the wilderness of Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year of their exodus from Egypt; Numbers 10.

[¶12] The people murmuring, the fire of the Lord consumes many of them; it ceases on the intercession of Moses: they murmur again, quails are sent, and they are smitten with a great plague; Numbers 11.

[¶13] Miriam and her brother Aaron rise up seditiously against Moses, having conceived some dislike against his Cushite wife, and supposing that he assumed too great an authority over the people: at this sedition the Lord is displeased, and smites Miriam with the leprosy; Numbers 12.

[¶14] Twelve spies are sent to examine the promised land; they pass through the whole, return at the end of forty days, and by bringing an evil report, dishearten the people; Numbers 13.

[¶15] In consequence of this the whole congregation meditate a return to Egypt: God is displeased, and pronounces that all of them, from twenty years old and upwards, shall die in the wilderness. They repent, attack the Amalekites contrary to the commandment of God, and are discomfited; Numbers 14.

[¶16] A number of ordinances and directions are given relative to the manner of conducting the worship of God in the promised land: different laws are repeated, and a Sabbath-breaker stoned to death; Numbers 15.

[¶17] Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their associates, form an insurrection against Moses: they are swallowed up by an earthquake: the congregation murmur, and 14,700 of them are cut off; Numbers 16.

[¶18] As a proof that God had called Aaron and his family to the priesthood, his rod, or staff, buds, and miraculously brings forth blossoms and fruit, and is commanded to be laid up before the testimony; [Num 17:1-13].

[¶19] The charges of the priests and Levites, and the portions they were to have of the Lord's offerings, for their support in the work; Numbers 18.

[¶20] The ordinances of the red heifer; the water of purification, and its uses; Numbers 19.

[¶21] The death of Miriam; the waters of Meribah. The Lord tells Moses that because he did not sanctify him in the eyes of the congregation, he shall not bring the people into the promised land. The king of Edom refuses the Israelites a passage through his territories. Aaron is stripped of his sacerdotal vestments on Mount Hor, and they are put on Eleazar, his son, who is to be a high priest in his stead. Aaron dies, and the people mourn for him thirty days; Numbers 20.

[¶22] Arad, one of the Canaanitish kings, attacks Israel, and he and his people are utterly destroyed. The people murmur for lack of bread and water; fiery serpents are sent among them, they repent; are healed by looking at a brazen serpent. They journey and come to Beer, where they find water; Sihon, king of the Amorites, attacks them, and is defeated; so is likewise Og, king of Bashan, and the people possess the lands of both; Numbers 21.

[¶23] Balak, king of Moab, sends for Balaam to curse Israel; he departs, is opposed by an angel, and reproved by his ass, whom God, for the purpose, miraculously endued with the gift of speech. He comes to Balak, king of Moab, and shows him that Jehovah had limited his power; Numbers 22.

[¶24] Balak offers sacrifices, and Balaam, under the influence of God, prophesies good concerning Israel; Numbers 23.

[¶25] Continuing to foretell the prosperity of Israel, and the destruction of their enemies, the king of Moab dismisses Balaam in great wrath; Numbers 24.

[¶26] The Israelites, seduced by the women of Moab and Midian, commit fornication and idolatry - the chiefs are hanged - bold act of Phinehas; Numbers 25.

[¶27] A second census or enumeration of the people takes place, and the amount is 601,730, among whom not one of those of the first census was now found except Joshua and Caleb; Numbers 26.

[¶28] From the case of the daughters of Zelophehad a law is made to enable daughters to inherit. Moses ascends Mount Abarim, sees the promised land, and constitutes Joshua his successor; Numbers 27.

[¶29] A repetition of the laws relative to burnt-offerings, the Sabbath, the passover, first-fruits, etc.; Numbers 28.

[¶30] The three solemnities of the seventh month are commanded to be held on the first, tenth, and fourteenth days of the month; Numbers 29.

[¶31] Several laws and ordinances concerning vows of different kinds, made by various persons; when they should be confirmed, and in what cases annulled; Numbers 30.

[¶32] Twelve thousand Israelites go against the people of Midian and slay them, their five kings, and Balaam their prophet; and the Israelites take immense booty in persons, cattle, gold, silver, and precious stones, of which they make a great offering to the Lord, because in this contest they lost not one man; Numbers 31.

[¶33] The children of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, request to receive for their inheritance the territories of Sihon and Og on the east side of Jordan; their desire is granted on the condition of their going over armed with their brethren, to assist them in conquering the land; Numbers 32.

[¶34] A circumstantial account of the forty-two journeys of the Israelites from their departure from Rameses till their arrival at Jordan. They are commanded to expel all the ancient inhabitants; Numbers 33.

[¶35] The borders of the land are described, and the persons appointed by God, who should assist Joshua in dividing the land among the nine tribes and half; Numbers 34.

[¶36] Forty-eight cities are to be assigned to the Levites, out of the twelve tribes, for their goods and for their cattle: and out of these they were to appoint six cities of refuge for the person who had unawares slain his neighbor; to one of which cities the manslayer was to escape, and tarry there till the death of the high priest; Numbers 35.

[¶37] A law established that the daughters to whom the paternal inheritance descends, shall not marry out of their own tribes, lest their inheritances should become alienated and lost by being blended with those of other tribes; [Num 36:1-13]. See the case of Zelophehad's daughters, Numbers 27.

[¶38] In this book, which comprehends the history of between thirty-eight and thirty-nine years, we have in one word a distinct account of the several stages of the Israelites' journey in the wilderness, the various occurrences on the way, their trials, rebellions, punishments, deliverances, conquests, etc., with several laws and ordinances not mentioned in the preceding books, together with a repetition and explanation of some others which had been previously delivered; the whole forming a most interesting history of the justice, mercy, and providence of God.

[¶39] On the first day of the second month of the second year after Israel came out of Egypt, God commands Moses to number all the males of the people from twenty years and upward, who were effective men and able to go to war, [Num 1:1-3]. A chief of each tribe is associated with Moses and Aaron in this business, [Num 1:4]; the names of whom are given, [Num 1:5-16]. Moses assembles the people, who declare their pedigrees according to their families, [Num 1:17-19]. The descendants of Reuben are numbered, and amount to 46,500, [Num 1:20], [Num 1:21]. Those of Simeon, 59,300, [Num 1:22], [Num 1:23]. Those of Gad, 45,650, [Num 1:24], [Num 1:25]. Those of Judah, 74,600, [Num 1:26], [Num 1:27]. Those of Issachar, 54,400, [Num 1:28], [Num 1:29]. Those of Zebulun, 57,400, [Num 1:30], [Num 1:31]. Those of Ephraim, 40,500, [Num 1:32], [Num 1:33]. Those of Manasseh, 32,200, [Num 1:34], [Num 1:35]. Those of Benjamin, 35,400, [Num 1:36], [Num 1:37]. Those of Dan, 62,700, [Num 1:38], [Num 1:39]. Those of Asher, 41,500, [Num 1:40], [Num 1:41]. Those of Naphtali, 53,400, [Num 1:42], [Num 1:43]. The amount of all the effective men in Israel, from twenty years old and upward, was 603,550, [Num 1:44-46]. The Levites are not numbered with the tribes, because they were dedicated to the service of God. Their particular work is specified, [Num 1:47-54].

### Verse 1

[¶41] The Lord spake unto Moses - on the first day of the second month - As the tabernacle was erected upon the first day of the first month, in the second year after their coming out of Egypt, [Exo 40:17]; and this muster of the people was made on the first day of the second month, in the same year; it is evident that the transactions related in the preceding book must all have taken place in the space of one month, and during the time the Israelites were encamped at Mount Sinai, before they had begun their Journey to the promised land.

### Verse 2

[¶43] Take ye the sum, etc. - God, having established the commonwealth of Israel by just and equitable laws, ordained every thing relative to the due performance of his own worship, erected his tabernacle, which was his throne, and the place of his residence among the people, and consecrated his priests who were to minister before him; he now orders his subjects to be mustered,

[¶44] 1. That they might see he had not forgotten his promise to Abraham, but was multiplying his posterity.

## 153. Numbers · 2 of 34

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[¶0] 2. That they might observe due order in their march toward the promised land.

[¶1] 3. That the tribes and families might be properly distinguished; that all litigations concerning property, inheritance, etc., might, in all future times, be prevented.

[¶2] 4. That the promise concerning the Messiah might be known to have its due accomplishment, when in the fullness of time God should send him from the seed of Abraham through the house of David. And,

[¶3] 5. That they might know their strength for war; for although they should ever consider God as their protector and defense, yet it was necessary that they should be assured of their own fitness, naturally speaking, to cope with any ordinary enemy, or to surmount any common difficulties.

### Verse 3

[¶5] From twenty years old and upward - In this census no women were reckoned, nor children, nor strangers, nor the Levites, nor old men, which, collectively, must have formed an immense multitude; the Levites alone amounted to 22,300. True-born Israelites only are reckoned; such as were able to carry arms, and were expert for war.

### Verse 14

[¶7] Eliasaph, the son of Deuel - This person is called Reuel, [Num 2:14]. As the ד daleth is very like the ר resh, it was easy to mistake the one for the other. The Septuagint and the Syriac have Reuel in this chapter; and in [Num 2:14], the Vulgate, the Samaritan, and the Arabic have Deuel instead of Reuel, with which reading a vast number of MSS. concur; and this reading is supported by [Num 10:20]; we may safely conclude therefore that דעואל Deuel, not רעואל Reuel, was the original reading. See Kennicott. An ancient Jewish rabbin pretends to solve every difficulty by saying that "Eliasaph was a proselyte; that before he embraced the true faith he was called the son of Reuel, but that after his conversion he was called the son of Deuel." As Reuel may be translated the breach of God, and Deuel the knowledge of God, I suppose the rabbin grounded his supposition on the different meanings of the two words.

### Verse 16

[¶9] These were the renowned - Literally, the called, of the congregation - those who were summoned by name to attend. The order of the tribes In the above enumeration may be viewed thus: -

[¶10] Sons of Leah

[¶11] 1. Reuben

[¶12] 2. Simeon

[¶13] 3. Judah

[¶14] 4. Issachar

[¶15] 5. Zebulun

[¶16] Sons of Rachel

[¶17] 6. Ephraim

[¶18] 7. Manasseh

[¶19] 8. Benjamin 1st son of Bilhah, Rachel's maid

[¶20] 9. Dan 2d son of Zilpah, Leah's maid

[¶21] 10. Asher 1st son of Zilpah.

[¶22] 11. Gad 2d son of Bilhah.

[¶23] 12. Naphtali

### Verse 25

[¶25] Forty and five thousand six hundred and fifty - Mr. Ainsworth has remarked that Gad, the handmaid's son, is the only one of all the tribes whose number ends with fifty, all the others are by thousands, and end with hundreds; which shows God's admirable providence and blessing in multiplying them so, that no odd or broken number was among all the tribes. But see on [Num 1:46] (note).

### Verse 33

[¶27] The tribe of Ephraim - forty thousand and five hundred - Ephraim, as he was blessed beyond his eldest brother Manasseh, [Gen 48:20], so here he is increased by thousands more than Manasseh, and more than the whole tribe of Benjamin, and his blessing continued above his brother, [Deu 33:17]. And thus the prophecy, [Gen 48:19], was fulfilled: His younger brother (Ephraim) shall be greater than he, (Manasseh). No word of God can possibly fall to the ground: he alone sees the end from the beginning; his infinite wisdom embraces all occurrences, and it is his province alone to determine what is right, and to predict what himself has purposed to accomplish.

### Verse 46

[¶29] All they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty - What an astonishing increase from seventy souls that went down into Egypt, [Gen 46:27], about 215 years before, where latterly they had endured the greatest hardships! But God's promise cannot fail ([Gen 16:5]); and who can resist his will, and bring to naught his counsel? That a comparative view may be easily taken of the state of the tribes, I shall produce them here from the first census mentioned in the first chapter of this book, in their decreasing proportion, beginning with the greatest and proceeding to the least; and in the second census, mentioned Numbers 26, where the increase of some and the decrease of others may be seen in one point of view. It may be just remarked, that except in the case of Gad in this chapter, and Reuben in Numbers 26, all the numbers are what may be called whole or round numbers, beginning with thousands, and ending with hundreds, Gad and Reuben alone ending with tens; but the Scripture generally uses round numbers, units and fractions being almost constantly disregarded. 1st Census - Ch. 1 2d Census - Ch. 26 1. Judah 74,600 76,500 2. Dan 62,700 64,400 3. Simeon 59,300 22,200 4. Zebulun 57,400 60,500 5. Issachar 54,400 64,300 6. Naphtali 53,400 45,400 7. Reuben 46,500 43,730 8. Gad 45,650 40,500 9. Asher 41,500 53,400 10. Ephraim 40,500 32,500 11. Benjamin 35,400 45,600 12. Manasseh 32,200 52,700 Total 603,550 Total 601,730

[¶30] Thus we find Judah, the most populous tribe, and Manasseh the least so; the difference between them being so great as 42,400, for which no very satisfactory reason can be assigned. In the second census, mentioned [Num 26:34], Judah still has the pre-eminency; and Simeon, the third in number before, is become the least. Now we see also that the little tribe of Manasseh occupies the seventh place for number. Seven of the tribes had an increase; five a decrease. Manasseh had an increase of 20,500; Judah, 1,900; Issachar, 9,900; Zebulun, 3,100; Benjamin, 10,200; Dan, 1,700; Asher, 11,900. On the contrary there was a decrease in Reuben of 2,770; in Simeon, 37,100; Gad, 5,150; Ephraim, 8,000; Naphtali, 8,000. Decrease in the whole, 61,020 effective men. See on Numbers 26 (note); but balanced with the increase, the decrease was upon the whole 1,820. On the subject of these enumerations, and the manner in which this vast multitude sprang in about four generations from seventy-five persons, Scheuchzer has some valuable calculations, though liable to some objections, which I shall take the liberty to insert, as they tend to throw considerable light upon the subject. "We find in the writings of Moses three enumerations of the Jewish people, that follow each other pretty closely: - The first, which was made at their departure from Egypt, [Exo 12:37], amounted to 600,000 One year after, to 603,550 On entering the land of Canaan, to 601,730 If we add to the number 603,550 that of the Levites given us in [Num 3:39], and which amounted to 22,000 - We shall have for the sum total - 625,550 "We find the same number, on adding that of each tribe given us in detail, which is the best proof of the exactness of the calculation. "I think I shall afford the reader some degree of pleasure by presenting him, in this place, the number of each tribe separately, beginning at their earliest ancestors. We shall see, by this means, how faithfully God fulfilled the promise he had made to Abraham, as well as the great utility of the mathematics for the right understanding of the Holy Scriptures. I shall begin with a Genealogical Table of that family which God so wonderfully blessed; and to it I shall afterward add each separate tribe, following the calculation of Reyher, (Math. Mos., p. 222). And we shall see that the fourth generation, taken with the third, produces the very number mentioned in the text

[¶31] Children of Jacob by Leah - [Gen 46:15]. Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun Dinah Hanoch Jemuel Gershon - Libni - Shimei7,500 - [Num 3:22] Shelah Tola Sered Phallu Jamin Kohath - Amram - Izehar - Hebron - Uzziel8,600 - [Num 3:26] Pharez Phuvah Elon Hezron Ohad Merari - Mahli - Mushi6,200 - [Num 3:34] Zerah Job Jahleel Carmi Jachin Hazron Shimron Zohar Hamul Shaul 46,500[Num 1:21] 59,300[Num 1:23] 22,300[Num 3:22], [Num 3:26], [Num 3:34] 74,600[Num 1:27] 54,400[Num 1:29] 57,400[Num 1:31] by Zilpah - [Gen 46:18] Gad Asher Ziphion Jimnah Haggai Ishuah Shuni Isui Ezbon Beriah - Heber - Malchial Eri Arodi Areli 45,650[Num 1:25] 41,500[Num 1:41] by Rachel - [Gen 46:22] Joseph Benjamin Manasseh 32,200 Belah Ephraim 40,500 Becher Ashbel Gerah Naaman Ehi Rosh Muppim Huppim Ard 72,700 35,400[Num 1:37] by Bilhah - [Gen 46:25] Dan Naphtali Hushim Jahzeel Guni Jezer Shillem 62,700[Num 1:39] 53,400[Num 1:43]

[¶32] 1. Reuben - 46,500 "Let us now descend to the particular enumeration of each tribe. Reuben had four sons: now if we suppose that one of these four sons had seven, and that each of the other three had eight, we shall find the number 31 for the first Egyptian generation. If we afterward suppose that each of these 31 sons had five sons, the second generation will amount to 155, which, multiplied by 15, will produce 2,325 for the third generation; and these, multiplied by 19, will make 44,175 for the fourth; so that the third, together with the fourth, will make 46,500. We shall have the same product if the given sum, 46,500, be divided by the most probable number of children, for example, by the number 19; we shall then have 2,447 for the third generation; which sum being deducted from the sum total, there will remain 44,053 for the fourth generation, which is exactly the number that is produced in multiplying 2,440 of the third generation by 18, and the other 7 by 19. If we wish to make the same calculation with respect to the preceding generations, i. e., divide them by the most probable number of children, we shall have the following sums: -

[¶33] Sons of Reuben I. Generation 31 II. Generation 215 III. Generation 2,583 IV. Generation 43,917 Amount of generations III and IV. 46,500

[¶34] 2. Simeon - 59,300 "Simeon had six sons. Let us suppose that each of the three first had six children, and each of the three others seven, we shall have thirty-nine for the first generation. If we multiply 31 of this number by 9, and 8 by 10, we shall have for the second generation 359; of which number, if we multiply 355 by 11, and 4 by 12, the third generation will give us 3,953. Let us then multiply 3,948 of these by 14, and 5 of them by 15, and we shall have for the fourth 55,347. The third and fourth, added together, will make 59,300.

[¶35] 3. Levi - 22,300 "Gershon, Levi's eldest son, had two children: let us give to one of these 16 children, and to the other 17, and we shall have 33 for the second generation; 28 of which, multiplied by 15, and 5 by 16, will produce 500 for the third. Multiply each by 14, and these will produce 7,000; and the third and fourth together, 7,500. "Kohath, Levi's second son, had four sons, which form the first line. Give to one of them 10 sons, and 11 to each of the other three, for the second generation there will be 43. Multiply them by 10, there will be 430 for the third; these, multiplied by 19 for the fourth, will produce the number of 8,170. The third and fourth added together make 8,600. "Merari, the third son of Levi, had two sons. Give 10 children to each of them, there will then be 20 for the second generation. Now if we say that 10 of these 20 had each 15 sons, and each of the others 16, we shall have 310, which, multiplied by 19, will give us 5,890 for the fourth; and the two last together, 6,200. This may be seen by the following example: -

[¶36] Generations Gershonites Kohathites Merarites I 2 4 2 II 33 43 20 III 500 430 310 IV 7,000 8,170 5,890 Amount of generations III and IV 7,500 8,600 6,200 Total number of Levites - 22,300.

[¶37] 4. Judah - 74,600 "The sons of Judah were Shelah, Pharez, and Zerah. His grandsons by Pharez were Hezron and Hamul. Hezron had two sons. Suppose each of them had six children, which will make 12 for the first generation; to eight of whom allow eight children, and nine to each of the others, and there will be 100 for the second generation. To 92 of these then give 18 children, and 19 to the eight others; this will produce for the third generation 1,808. If we then suppose that 1,800 of these had each 18 children, and that each of the other eight had 19, the fourth generation will be 32,552, which, added to the product of the third, will make the descendants of Hezron amount to 34,360. "Hamul had two sons, who, multiplied by 10, produce the number of 20 for the second generation: these, multiplied by 20, will make 400 for the third, and these again by 25 will produce 10,000 for the fourth. And thus the two last generations will amount together to the number of 10,400. "If we allow five sons to Shelah, and six to Zerah, we shall have 11 for the first generation. To three of whom allow 10 children and 11 to the other eight, this will give us 118 for the second. To 113 of these give 14, and 15 to the other five, and 1,657 will be produced for the third. Give 17 to 1,643, and 18 to the 14 remaining, and for the fourth there will be 28,183. The third and fourth added together will produce the number of 29,840. "According to this calculation, all these generations will amount to the following numbers: -

[¶38] Hezronites 34,360 Hamulites. 10,400 Shelanites and Zarhites 29,840 Total 74,600 5. Issachar - 54,400 "Issachar had five sons. Suppose that three of them had each five children, and the other two, six, we shall have 27 for the first generation. If we then imagine that of these 19 had each nine sons, and each of the other eight 10, the second generation will be 251. Now 241 of these, multiplied by 12, will produce 2,892, and the 10 others, multiplied by 13, will make 130; consequently the third generation will amount to 3,022. If 3,018 of these had each 17 sons, and each of the other four had 18, the fourth generation will be 51,378; the third and fourth generations, then, will produce a number of 54,400.

[¶39] 6. Zebulun - 57,400 "Zebulun had three sons. If we suppose that two of them had in all fourteen children, and the third, six, here will be 20 for the first generation. The second will produce 143, on multiplying 17 by 7, and 3 by 8. If we multiply 135 by 16, and 8 by 17, the third will amount to 2,296. By multiplying the third by 24, the fourth will give us 55,104. The two last will produce, together, 57,400.

[¶40] 7. Gad - 45,650 "Gad had seven sons.

[¶41] Generations of Gad I. Generation multiply 3 by 9, and 4 by 10 = 67 II. Generation multiply 61 by 7, and 6 by 8 = 475 III. Generation multiply 471 by 8, and 4 by 9 = 3,804 IV. Generation multiply 3,802 by 11, and 2 by 12 = 41,846 Amount of generations III and IV = 45,650 7. Asher - 41,500 "The sons of Asher, Jimnah, Ishua, and Isui, multiplied by 8, produce for the I. Generation = 24 II. Generation multiply 24 by 8 = 192 III. Generation multiply 182 by 11, and 10 by 12 = 2,122 IV. Generation multiply 2,118 by 12, and 4 by 13 = 25,468 Amount of generations III and IV = 27,590 "Heber and Malchiel were sons of Beriah. Now these two sons multiplied by 5, give us for I. Generation = 10 II. Generation multiply 10 by 11 = 110 III. Generation multiply by 9 = 990 IV. Generation multiply by 12 = 11,880 Amount of generations III and IV = 12,870 "Another son of Beriah had in the I. Generation = 1 II. Generation multiply by 8 = 8 III. Generation multiply by 10 = 80 IV. Generation multiply by 12 = 960 Amount of generations III and IV = 1,040

[¶42] All these generations added together amount to 41,500

[¶43] 9. Joseph

[¶44] Manasseh - 32,200 I. Generation = 10 II. Generation multiply 6 by 13, and 4 by 14 = 134 III. Generation multiply 132 by 12, and 2 by 13 = 1,610 IV. Generation multiply by 19 = 30,590 Amount of generations III and IV = 32,200

## 154. Numbers · 3 of 34

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[¶0] Ephraim - 40,500 I. Generation = 16 II. Generation multiply by 10 = 160 III. Generation multiply 152 by 12, and 8 by 13 = 1,928 IV. Generation multiply 1916 by 20, and 12 by 21 = 38,572 Amount of generations III and IV = 32,200

[¶1] 10. Benjamin - 35,400 "He had 10 sons; two of whom, multiplied by 9, and the other 8 by 10, will give for the

[¶2] I. Generation = 98 II. Generation multiply 95 by 9, and 3 by 10 = 885 III. Generation multiply by 5 = 4,425 IV. Generation multiply by 7 = 30,975 Amount of generations III and IV = 35,400

[¶3] 11. Dan - 62,700

[¶4] I. Generation = 11 II. Generation multiply by 12 = 132 III. Generation multiply by 19 = 2508 IV. Generation multiply by 24 = 60,192 Amount of generations III and IV = 62,700

[¶5] 12. Naphtali - 53,400 "He had 4 sons, the half of whom, multiplied by 7, and the other half by 6, give us for the

[¶6] I. Generation = 26 II. Generation multiply 16 by 11, and 10 by 12 = 296 III. Generation multiply 288 by 12, and 8 by 13 = 3,560 IV. Generation multiply by 14 = 49,840 Amount of generations III and IV = 53,400

[¶7] Total Number of All the Tribes I. Reuben 46,500 II. Simeon 59,300 III. Levi 22,300 IV. Judah 74,600 V. Issachar 54,400 VI. Zebulun 57,400 VII. Gad 45,650 VIII. Asher 41,500 IX. Manasseh 32,200 Ephraim 40,500 X. Benjamin 35,400 XI. Dan 62,700 XII. Naphtali 53,400 Total 625,850 "And indeed, without counting the Levites, the number of the Israelites ([Num 1:46]) amounts to 603,550 The Levites ([Num 3:39]) amount to 22,300. The whole number together, as above 625,850" In the above calculations, Scheuchzer and Reyher take for granted,

[¶8] 1. That from the going down to Egypt to the exodus there were four generations.

[¶9] 2. That the first two generations had died in Egypt.

[¶10] 3. That the promise of God in multiplying them as the stars of heaven, had taken place particularly in the two last generations.

[¶11] 4. That these two last generations alone form the aggregate sums given in the sacred text.

[¶12] 5. That their method of accounting for this aggregate through the four generations, is not only perfectly natural and mathematical, but strictly accordant with the promises made by God to them, as the sum of each tribe sufficiently proves.

[¶13] 6. That the whole account shows the truth of the Divine promise, the great accuracy of the Jewish lawgiver, and a proof of the inspiration of the sacred writings.

[¶14] But even to these calculations and deductions there may be objections, e. g. "Scheuchzer gives to 2,508 families of Dan, 24 male children, each above the age of 20: we may fairly allow an equal number of females, and add 5 more under 20, as in the note under "[Exo 12:37], and we have 53 children on the average through all the families of a tribe; whilst to 4,425 families of Benjamin are allotted 7 males aged 20, and adding 7 females at 5 children, we have 19 children in each family; a tolerable number; but apparently more reasonable than the other." - Anon.

### Introduction

[¶16] Moses commanded to teach the Israelites how they are to pitch their tents, and erect the ensigns of their fathers' houses, [Num 2:1], [Num 2:2]. Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, on the East, amounting to 186,400 men, [Num 2:3-9]. Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, on the South, with 151,450 men, [Num 2:10-16]. The Levites to be in the midst of the camp, [Num 2:17]. Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, on the West, with 108,100 men, [Num 2:18-24]. Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, on the North, with 157,600 men, [Num 2:25-31]. The sum total of the whole, v. 603,550 men, [Num 2:32]. But the Levites are not included, [Num 2:33]. The people do as the Lord commands them, [Num 2:34].

### Verse 2

[¶18] Every man - shall pitch by his own standard - Commentators, critics, philosophers, and professional men, have taken a great deal of pains to illustrate this chapter by showing the best method of encampment for such a vast number of men, and the manner in which they conceive the Israelites formed their camp in the wilderness. As God gave them the plan, it was doubtless in every respect perfect; and fully answered the double purpose of convenience and security. Scheuchzer has entered into this subject with his usual ability, and in very considerable detail. Following the plan of Reyher, as in the preceding chapter, he endeavors to ascertain the precise order in which the several tribes were disposed; and as his work is both scarce and dear, the reader will not be displeased - to meet here with a translation of all that refers to the subject.

[¶19] Scheuchzer's Description and Plan of the Encampments of the Israelites in the Wilderness "If we form a proper idea of God, of his essence and his attributes, we shall easily perceive that this infinite and supreme Being wills and executes what his Divine wisdom appoints; in a word, we shall see that he is the God of order. This order displays itself in the perfection, arrangement, and assemblage of all created beings; in the construction of the earth which we inhabit, where every thing is formed in order, number, weight, and measure; and in all bodies, great and small. It is certain that Noah's ark is a perfect model of naval architecture. The temple of Solomon, and that of Ezekiel were likewise masterpieces in their kind. But at present we are to consider the Divine arrangement of the Israelitish camp, and the manner in which it was formed. "The Israelitish army was divided Into three principal divisions. The first, which was the least in extent, but the strongest and the most powerful, occupied the center of the army: this was the throne of God, i. e., the Tabernacle. The second, which was composed of the priests and Levites, surrounded the first. The third, and the farthest from the center, took in all the other tribes of Israel, who were at least about a mile from the tabernacle. For it appears from Josephus, iii. 4, that the nearest approach they dared make to the ark, except during the time of worship, was a distance of 2,000 cubits. The reverence due to the Divine Majesty, the numerous army of the Israelites, composed of 600,000 soldiers, with their families, which made about 3,000,000 souls, naturally demanded a considerable extent of ground. We are not to imagine that all these families pitched their tents pell-mell, without order, like beasts, or as the troops of Tartary, and the eastern armies; on the contrary, their camp was divided according to the most exact rules. And we cannot even doubt that their camp was laid out, and the place of every division and tribe exactly assigned by some engineers, or geometricians, before the army stopped to encamp, in order that every person might at once find his own quarter, and the road he ought to take to reach the other tents. "Four divisions, which faced the four quarters of the heavens, each with his own ensign, formed the center of the army. Judah was placed on the east, and under him he had Issachar and Zebulun; on the south was Reuben, and under him Simeon and Gad: on the west was Ephraim, and under him Manasseh and Benjamin; finally, Dan was on the north, and he had under him Asher and Naphtali. It has been pretended by some that these four principal divisions were not alone distinguished by their ensigns, but that each particular tribe had likewise its standard or ensign. On this subject we might refer to the Talmudists, who have gone so far as to define the colors, and the figures or arms, of the very ensigns. They pretend that on that of Judah a lion was painted, with this inscription: 'Rise, Lord, let thine enemies be dispersed, and let those that hate thee flee before thee;' and they found this description of Judah's ensign in [Gen 49:9]. They give to Issachar an ass, [Gen 49:14]; to Zebulun a ship, [Gen 49:13]; to Reuben a river, [Gen 49:4], (others give Reuben the figure of a man); to Simeon a sword, [Gen 49:5]; to Gad a lion, [Deu 33:20]; to Ephraim a unicorn, [Deu 33:17]; an ox to Manasseh, [Deu 33:17]; a wolf to Benjamin, [Gen 49:27]; and a serpent to Dan, [Gen 49:17], though others give him an eagle. In short, they pretend that the ensign of Asher was a handful of corn, [Gen 49:20], and that of Naphtali a stag, [Gen 49:21]. "To prove that the sums here are correctly added, we have but to join together the detached numbers, and see if they agree with the total. The text will furnish us with an example of this: there was in the quarter of: -

[¶20] Judah 186,400 [Num 2:9] Reuben 151,450 [Num 2:16] Ephraim 108,100 [Num 2:24] Dan 157,600 [Num 2:31] "Among other things we must remark that rule of military tactics which requires that the advanced and rear guards should be stronger than the center. "In a well-regulated camp, cleanliness is considered indispensably necessary; this is particularly remarkable in the Israelitish army, where the most exact order was maintained. Hence every person who had any kind of disease, and those who were reputed unclean, were forbidden to enter it; [Num 5:2], [Num 5:3]; [Deu 23:10]. "Those who have the health of men, and of a whole army confided to them, are not ignorant that diseases may be easily produced by putrid exhalations from excrementitious matter; and that such matter will produce in camps pestilential fevers and dysenteries. For this reason, care should be always taken that offices, at a distance from the camp, be provided for the soldiers, and also that those who are sick should be separated from the others, and sent to hospitals to be properly treated. "In military tactics we find two distinct wings spoken of; the right and the left. The Israelitish army not only had them on one side, as is customary, but on all their four sides. On the eastern side, the tribe of Issachar formed the right, that of Zebulun the left, and that of Judah the center. On the south, Simeon formed the right wing, Gad the left, and Reuben the center. Towards the west, Manasseh composed the right, Benjamin the left, and Ephraim the center. And on the north, Asher was on the right wing, Naphtali on the left wing, and Dan in the center.

[¶21] Notwithstanding this, however, the army was not in danger of being easily broken; for every tribe being numerous, they were supported by several ranks, in such a manner that the first being broken, the second was capable of making resistance; and if the second gave way, or shared the same fate as the first, it found itself supported by the third, and so on with the rest. The square form in which the Jewish army was ordinarily placed, was the very best for security and defense. The use and importance of the hollow square in military tactics is well known. "For so large a multitude of people, and for so numerous an army, it was needful that all the necessary articles of life should be prepared beforehand, or be found ready to purchase. In these respects nothing was wanting to the Israelites. Their bread came down to them from heaven, and they had besides an abundance of every thing that could contribute to magnificence. If we may credit Josephus, they had amongst them public markets, and a variety of shops. Ant., i. iii. c. 12, sec. 5. The tabernacle being erected, it was placed in the midst of the camp, each of the three tribes stretching themselves on the wings, and leaving between them a sufficient space to pass. "It was, says Josephus, like a well appointed market where every thing was ready for sale in due order, and all sorts of artificers kept their shops; so that this camp might be considered a movable city. "In [Exo 32:27] we likewise find that mention is made of the gates of the camp: 'Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp.' From whence we may certainly conclude that if the camp had gates, the Israelites had also sentinels to guard them. If this be true, we may also believe that they were surrounded with entrenchments, or that at least their gates were defended by some fortifications. Sagittarius (de Jan. Vet., c. 18. 10) pretends that the tabernacle was not only guarded by the Levites, but that there were likewise sentinels at the gates, and at the entrance of the Israelitish camps. See the note on [Exo 32:27]. "If we examine and compare the camp of Israel with that of our most numerous armies, which in these days are composed of 100,000 or of 150,000 men, we cannot but consider it of vast extent. The Jews say it was twelve miles in circumference; this is not at all improbable, and consequently the front of each wing must be three miles in extent. But taking in the tents, the soldiers and their numerous families, the beasts of burden, the cattle, and the goods, it certainly must have formed a very considerable enclosure, much more than twelve miles. See the notes on [Exo 12:37], and [Exo 13:18] (note). Reyher (Math. Mos., p. 568) assigns to the Tribe of Judah, A space of 298 2/5 cubits in breadth and 250 in length - Which makes 74,600 square cubits. "We must observe that we are here merely speaking of the ground which the soldiers of this tribe occupied whilst remaining close to each other in their ranks, and that in this computation there is but one cubit square allowed for each man; wherefore, if we take in the arrangement of the soldiers, the tents, the necessary spaces, the families, the beasts of burden, and the movables, a much larger extent of ground is requisite. All those circumstances do not come into Reyher's calculation. He continues thus: -

[¶22] For the tribe of Issachar, 217 3/5cubits in breadth 250 in length - Total 54,400 square cubits.

[¶23] For the tribe of Gad, 140 5/11 cubits in breadth 325 in length - Total 45,650 square cubits.

[¶24] For the tribe of Zebulun, 229 3/4 cubits in breadth 250 in length - Total 57,400 square cubits.

[¶25] For the tribe of Ephraim, 202 1/2 cubits in breadth 200 in length - Total 40,500 square cubits.

[¶26] For the tribe of Reuben, 143 1/5 cubits in breadth 325 in length - Total 46,500 square cubits.

[¶27] For the tribe of Manasseh, 161 cubits in breadth 200 in length - Total 32,200 square cubits.

[¶28] For the tribe of Simeon, 182 6/13 cubits in breadth 325 in length - Total 59,300 square cubits.

[¶29] For the tribe of Benjamin, 177 cubits in breadth 200 in length - Total 35,400 square cubits.

[¶30] For the tribe of Dan, 156 3/4 cubits in breadth 400 in length - Total 62,700 square cubits.

[¶31] For the tribe of Asher, 103 3/4 cubits in breadth 400 in length - Total 41,500 square cubits.

[¶32] For the tribe of Naphtali, 133 1/2 cubits in breadth 400 in length - Total 53,400 square cubits. "If we make the ichnography, or even the scenography, of the camp on this plan, in following it we must first, in the center, form a parallelogram of 100 cubits long and 50 broad for the court of the tabernacle with an empty space all round of 50 cubits broad. We must then place the camp of the Levites in the following order: -

[¶33] To the west, the Gershonites, [Num 3:22], [Num 3:23]. Breadth 30 cubits Length 250 cubits - Total 7,500

[¶34] To the south, the Kohathites, [Num 3:28], [Num 3:29]. Breadth 86 cubits Length 100 cubits - Total 8,600

[¶35] To the north, the Merarites, [Num 3:34], [Num 3:35]. Breadth 62 cubits Length 100 cubits - Total 6,200 "On the east we must place tents for Moses, Aaron, and his sons, [Num 3:38]. "At the place where the camp of the Levites ends, a space must be left of 2,000 square cubits, after which we must take the dimensions of the camp of the twelve tribes. "This plan is in the main well imagined, but it does not afford an ichnography of sufficient extent. To come more accurately to a proper understanding of this subject, I shall examine the rules that are now in use for encampments, and compare them afterward with what is laid down in the Holy Scriptures, in order that we may hereby form to ourselves an idea of the camp of God, the grandeur and perfection of which surpassed every thing of the kind ever seen. I shall now mention what I am about to propose as the foundation upon which I shall proceed. "In [Exo 18:21], [Deu 1:15], we find the advice given by Jethro to Moses respecting political government and military discipline: 'Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.' [See the note on [Exo 18:21]]. We may very well compare these tribunes, or rather these chiliarchs, to our colonels, the centurions or hecatontarchs to commanders or captains, the quinquagenaries or pentecontarchs to lieutenants, and the decurions or decarchs to our sergeants. These chiefs, whether they were named magistrates or officers, were each drawn from his own particular tribe, so that it was not permitted to place over one tribe an officer taken from another. Whatever matter the decarchs could not decide upon or terminate, went to the pentecontarchs, and from thence by degrees to the hecatontarchs, to the chiliarchs, to Moses, and at length to God himself, the sovereign head of the army. If we divide the whole army (such as it was at its departure from Egypt) by the numbers already laid down, we shall find 600 chiliarchs, 6,000 hecatontarchs, 12,000 pentecontarchs, 60,000 decarchs, which in all make 78,600 officers. Josephus regulates the number of them still more exactly by saying that there were chiefs set over 10,000, 1,000, 500, 50, 30, 20, and 10. We find this regulation in Ant. Jud., b. iii., c. 4: 'Take a review of the army, and appoint chosen rulers over tens of thousands, and then over thousands, then divide them into five hundreds, and again into hundreds, and into fifties, and set rulers over each of them who may distinguish them into thirties, and keep them in order; and at last number them by twenties and by tens, and let there be one commander over each number, to be denominated from the number of those over whom they are rulers.' "We ought not to pass over in silence this division by tens, for twice 10 make 20, three times 10, 30, five times 10, 50, ten times 10, 100, ten times 50, 500, ten times 1,000, 10,000. It was in this manner, as is pretended, that Cangu, the first of the great Khans, (as he is called), and after him Tamerlane, drew out an army, i.e., by 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, mentioned in Alhazen, c. v. Probably these Tartars borrowed from the very Hebrews themselves this manner of laying out a camp. At all events it is certain that nothing more ancient of the kind can be found than that mentioned in the books of Moses. To distinguish it from that of the Greeks and Romans we may with justice call it the Hebrew castrametation, or, if we judge it more proper, the Divine castrametation, and consequently the most perfect of all. For although Moses places the pentecontarchs in the middle, between the hecatontarchs and the decarchs, i.e., 50 between 100 and 10; and although Josephus afterward places 1,000 between 500 and 10,000, and 30 and 20 between 10 and 50, this does not at all derange the progression by tens, which Is the foundation of arithmetic. These subaltern officers were equally useful and necessary, as we now see that their number, far from creating confusion, helps maintain order, and that the more there are of them the better is order preserved. According to the modern method of carrying on war, the next in rank to the generals of the army (who have the supreme command) are field marshals and brigadiers, who command 5,000 men.

[¶36] There are then between the chiliarchs or colonels and the hecatontarchs or captains, lieutenant-colonels; and between the hecatontarchs and the decarchs, lieutenant-captains; and these have under them lieutenants and ensigns. "It is certain that this method of distributing an army by tens, and of encamping, which is very concise, has far greater advantages even with respect to expense than the very best plans of the Greeks, Romans, or any other ancient nation. On this subject we have the testimony of Simon Steven, Castrametat. c. 1, art. 1, and c. 4. art. 3, Oper. Math., p. 574 and 596, etc. According to this arrangement each soldier, or if more proper, each father of a family, being thus placed by ten and ten in a straight line one after the other, might very easily name themselves first, second, etc. Each troop in like manner might be distinguished by its ensigns, that of 100 might have them small, that of 1,000 larger, and that of 10,000 still larger. Every officer, from the lowest subaltern to the general officers of the camp, and even to the generalissimos themselves, had only an easy inspection of ten men each; the decarch had the inspection of 10 soldiers, the hecatontarch of 10 decarchs, and the chiliarch of 10 hecatontarchs. After the chiliarchs, which in no troop can amount to ten, there is the chief or head of each tribe. Each then exactly fulfilling the duty assigned him, we may suppose every thing to be in good order, even were the camp larger and more numerous. The same may be said respecting the contentions that might arise among the soldiers, as well as every thing relative to the general duty of the officers, as to the labors they were to undertake, whether for striking their tents for works of fortification or for making entrenchments. This arrangement might be easily retained in the memory, or a general list be kept of the names of both officers and soldiers to distribute to them their pay, and to keep exact accounts. "It was possible in one moment to know the number of those who were either wanting or were out of their ranks, and to avoid this disorder in future by obliging each man to attend to his duty and keep in his rank. If by chance it happened that any one man wished to desert or had escaped, it was easy to notice him and inflict on him the punishment he merited. The ensigns being distinguished by their marks, and the company being known, it was easy to find any soldier whatever. "The armies themselves might have certain marks to distinguish them, and by that means they might at once ascertain the person in question; for example: 8. 2. 7. 3. might signify the eighth soldier or father of a family, of the second rank, of the seventh company, in the third chiliad; 7. 3. 5. the halberdier of the decurion or sergeant of the seventh line, in the third company, of the fifth chiliad or thousand; 5. 8. the hecatontarchs or captains of the fifth company, in the eighth chiliad; 7. the chiliarchs or colonels of the seventh rank; 0. finally, the general of the whole army. Farther, by the same means the loss or misplacing of their arms might be prevented. Again, the soldiers might in a very short time be instructed and formed to the exercise of arms, each decad having its sergeant for its master; and the chariots or other carriages might easily be divided amongst several, 10 under the decurion, 100 under the hecatontarch; and by thus following the above method, every thing might be kept in good order.

[¶37] A Plan of the Whole Israelitish Camp "We shall finally, in one plate, represent the whole camp of the Israelites, in that order which appears the most proper. For this purpose we must extract the square roots of the preceding spaces, in order that we may be able to assign to each tribe square areas, or rectangular parallelograms. I therefore find for

[¶38] Tribe Square Cubits Reuben 3049 Simeon 3443 The Gershonites 1224 The Kohathites 1311 The Merarites 1113 Judah 3862 Issachar 3298 Zebulun 3388 Gad 3019 Asher 2880 Manasseh 2537 Ephraim 2846 Benjamin 2660 Dan 3541 Naphtali 3268 "The tabernacle, which was 100 cubits long and 50 broad, I place in the center of the camp, at the distance of 840 feet from the camp of the Levites, which is placed exactly in the same manner as described in the sacred writings. I find therefore that the whole space of the camp is 259,600,000 feet. Now, according to the manner we have just divided the camp for each tribe, the sum total being 125,210,000, it follows that the space between the tents contained 134,390,000. If, with Eisenschmid, we estimate the Roman mile at 766 French fathoms and two feet, (consequently 21,141,604 square feet to a Roman square mile), the Israelitish camp will contain a little more than 12 such square miles." The reader will have the goodness to observe that the preceding observations, as well as the following plate or diagram, which was made by Scheuchzer on the exactest proportions, could not be accurately copied here without an engraved plate; and after all, the common reader could have profited no more by the plate than he can by the diagram. It is not even hoped that disquisitions of this kind can give any thing more than a general idea how the thing probably was; for to pretend to minute exactness, in such cases, would be absurd. The sacred text informs us that such and such tribes occupied the east, such the west, etc., etc.; but how they were arranged individually we cannot pretend absolutely to say. Scheuchzer's plan is such as we may suppose judgment and skill would lay down; but still it is very probable that the plan of the Israelites' castrametation was more perfect than any thing we can well imagine; for as it was the plan which probably God himself laid down, it must be in every respect what it ought to be, for the comfort and safety of this numerous multitude. As there are some differences between the mode of distributing the command of a large army among the British, and that used on the continent, which is followed by Scheuchzer, I shall lay down the descending scale of British commanders, which some may think applies better to the preceding arrangement of the Israelitish army than the other. The command of a large army in the British service is thus divided: -

[¶39] 1. The Commander-in-chief.

[¶40] 2. Lieutenant-generals, who command divisions of the army: (these divisions consist of 2 or 3 brigades each, which, on an average, amount to 5,000 men).

[¶41] 3. Major-generals, who command brigades: (these brigades consist of from 2 to 3,000 men [2,500 is perhaps the average] according to the strength of the respective regiments of which the brigade is composed).

[¶42] 4. Colonels in the army, or lieutenant-colonels, who command single regiments; they are assisted in the command of these regiments by the majors of the regiments. [I mention the major, that there may be no break in the descending scale of gradation of ranks, as in the event of the absence of the above two officers, he is the next in command].

[¶43] 5. Captains who command companies: these companies (on the war establishment) consist of 100 men each, and there are 10 companies in every regiment, consequently a colonel, or lieutenant-colonel, commands 1,000 men.

[¶44] 6. Lieutenants, of which there are 2 to every company

## 155. Numbers · 4 of 34

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/155/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/155/#p-N

[¶0] 7. Ensign; 1 to each company.

[¶1] The Lietuenants and ensigns are subaltern officers, having no command, but assisting the captain.

[¶2] 1. Commander-in-chief2. Lieutenant-generals commanding divisions of 5,000 each3. Major-generals, brigades 2,500. }} These are called general officers. 4. Colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and majors; }} Three officers belonging to each regiment in the service, and are solely employed in the disciplining and commanding the men; these are mounted on horseback, and termed field-officers. 5. 1 Captain 6. 2 Lieutenants7. 1 Ensign }} to each company

[¶3] Ascending scale of ranks which every officer must pass through.

[¶4] EnsignLieutenantCaptainMajorLieutenant-colonelColonel }} to every regiment Major-general, brigade-commander. Lieutenant-general, division-commander. General-in-chief, who commands the whole army Diagram of the Israelitish Camp

[¶5] Though I particularly refer the reader to the above diagram (see Scheuchzer's plate #1) of the Israelitish camp, taken from Scheuchzer's plate, which I have thought necessary to be subjoined to his description, yet I think it also proper to introduce that on the next page (see Scheuchzer's plate #2), as it gives a general and tolerably correct idea of this immense camp, in the description of which the inspired writer has been so very particular; but still I must say these things are to be considered as probably, not as absolutely certain; as comprising a general view of what may be supposed probably, likely, and practicable.

[¶6] The whole may be said to consist of three camps, viz.,

[¶7] 1. The camp of the Lord;

[¶8] 2. The camp of the Levites; and

[¶9] 3. The camp of the people.

[¶10] These in the grand camp in the wilderness, corresponded with the holy of holies, the holy place, and the outward court of the Temple at Jerusalem. See Ainsworth.

### Introduction

[¶12] The generations of Aaron and Moses, [Num 3:1-4]. The tribe of Levi to minister to the Lord under Aaron and his sons, [Num 3:5-10]. They are taken in the place of the first-born, [Num 3:11-13]. Moses is commanded to number them, [Num 3:14-16]. Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, the names of the three heads of families of the Levites, [Num 3:17]. Of Gershon and his family, [Num 3:18-21]. Their number, 7,500, [Num 3:22]. Their place behind the tabernacle, westward, [Num 3:23]. Their chief, Eliasaph, [Num 3:24]. Their charge, [Num 3:25], [Num 3:26]. Of Kohath and his family, [Num 3:27]. Their number, 8,600, [Num 3:28]. Their place, beside the tabernacle, southward, [Num 3:29]. Their chief, Elizaphan, [Num 3:30]. Their charge, [Num 3:31]. The chief of the Levites, Eleazar, son of Aaron, [Num 3:32]. Of Merari and his family, [Num 3:33]. Their number, 6,200, [Num 3:34]. Their chief, Zuriel, they shall pitch beside the tabernacle, northward, [Num 3:35]. Their charge, [Num 3:35-37]. Moses and Aaron to encamp before the tabernacle, eastward, [Num 3:38]. The amount of all the males among the Levites from a month old and upwards, 22,000, [Num 3:39]. Moses is commanded to number the first-born, [Num 3:40]; and to take the Levites and their cattle, instead of the first-born of man and beast among the Israelites, [Num 3:41]. Moses numbers the first-born, who amount to 22,273, [Num 3:43]. As the first-born were 273 more than the Levites, Moses is commanded to take from the people five shekels apiece for them, [Num 3:44-47], which is to be given to Aaron and his sons, [Num 3:48]. Moses does accordingly, and finds the amount of the money to be 1,365 shekels, [Num 3:49], [Num 3:50], which is given to Aaron and his sons, [Num 3:51].

### Verse 1

[¶14] The generations of Aaron and Moses - Though Aaron and Moses are both mentioned here, yet the family of Aaron alone appears in the list: hence some have thought that the word Moses was not originally in the text. Others think that the words ואלה תלדות veelleh toledoth, these are the generations, should be rendered these are the acts, or transactions, or the history of the lives, as the same phrase may be understood in [Gen 2:4]; [Gen 6:9]. However this may be, it is evident that in this genealogy the family of Aaron are alone mentioned, probably because these belonged to the priesthood. Moses passes by his own family, or immediate descendants; he gave no rank or privilege to them during his life, and left nothing to them at his death. They became incorporated with the Levites, from or amongst whom they are never distinguished. What a strong proof is this of the celestial origin of his religion! Had it been of man, it must have had the gratification of some impure passion for its object; lust, ambition, or avarice: but none of these ever appear during the whole of his administration amongst the Israelites, though he had it constantly in his power to have gratified each. What an essential difference between the religion of the Pentateuch and that of the Koran! The former is God's workmanship; the latter is a motley mixture of all bad crafts, with here and there a portion of heavenly fire, stolen from the Divine altar in the Old and New Testaments, to give some vitality to the otherwise inert mass.

### Verse 4

[¶16] Nadab and Abihu died - See the notes on Leviticus 10 (note).

### Verse 6

[¶18] Bring the tribe of Levi near - The original word הקרב hakreb is properly a sacrificial word, and signifies the presenting of a sacrifice or offering to the Lord. As an offering, the tribe of Levi was given up entirely to the service of the sanctuary, to be no longer their own, but the Lord's property.

### Verse 7

[¶20] The charge of the whole congregation - They shall work for the whole congregation; and instead of the first-born.

### Verse 8

[¶22] All the instruments - The tabernacle itself and all its contents: see all described, [Num 3:25], [Num 3:26], [Num 3:31], [Num 3:36], [Num 3:37]. The Levites were to perform the most common and laborious offices. It was their business to take down, put up, and carry the tabernacle and its utensils; for it was the object of their peculiar care. In a word, they were the servants of the priests.

### Verse 10

[¶24] Aaron and his sons - shall wait on their priest's office - It was the business of the priests to offer the different sacrifices to God; to consecrate the shew-bread, pour out the libations, burn the incense, sprinkle the blood of the victims, and bless the people. In a word, they were the servants of God alone.

### Verse 12

[¶26] I have taken the Levites - instead of all the first-born - The Levites are taken for the service of the sanctuary in place of the first-born. The first-born were dedicated to God in commemoration of his slaying the first-born of the Egyptians, and preserving those of the Israelites. Even the cattle of the Levites were taken in place of the first-born of the cattle of the rest of the tribes. See [Num 3:45]. Several reasons have been assigned why God should give this honor to the tribe of Levi in preference to all the others, but they do not seem to me to be conclusive. Their zeal in destroying those who had corrupted the worship of God in the business of the golden calf, [Exo 32:28], has been thought a sufficient reason. A better reason is, that this was the smallest tribe, and they were quite enough for the service. To have had a more numerous tribe at this time would have been very inconvenient. Aaron, says Mr. Ainsworth, being in his priesthood a type of Christ, all these rites are fulfilled in him. For unto Christ God gave children, [Heb 2:13]. And they are a congregation of first-born, whose names are written in heaven, [Heb 12:23], being of God's own will begotten by the word of truth, that they should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures, [Jam 1:18], to whom he also gives the first-fruits of his Spirit, [Rom 8:23]. These wait on and follow the Lamb, being first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb, [Rev 14:4]; and Christ hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, that we may serve him day and night in his temple, [Rev 1:6]; [Rev 7:15].

### Verse 15

[¶28] A month old and upward - The males of all the other tribes were numbered, from twenty years and upward; had the Levites been numbered in this way, they would not have been nearly equal in number to the firstborn of the twelve tribes. Add to this, that as there must have been first-born of all ages in the other tribes, it was necessary that the Levites, who were to be their substitutes, should be also of all ages; and it appears to have been on this ground, at least partly, that the Levites were numbered from four weeks old and upward.

### Verse 16

[¶30] Moses numbered them - Though Moses and Aaron conjointly numbered the twelve tribes, yet Moses alone numbered the Levites; "for as the money with which the first-born of Israel, who exceeded the number of Levites, were redeemed, was to be paid to Aaron and his sons, [Num 3:48], it was decent that he, whose advantage it was that the number of the first-born of Israel should exceed, should not be authorized to take that number himself." - Dodd, from Bishop Kidder.

### Verse 22

[¶32] Seven thousand and five hundred - Perhaps originally ר resh, 200, instead of ך caph, 500; see the following note [Num 3:39] (note).

### Verse 39

[¶34] Which Moses and Aaron numbered - The word ואהרן veaharon, "and Aaron." has a point over each of its letters, probably designed as a mark of spuriousness. The word is wanting in the Samaritan, Syriac, and Coptic; it is wanting also in eight of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and in four of De Rossi's. Moses alone, as Houbigant observes, is commanded to take the number of the Levites; see [Num 3:5], [Num 3:11], [Num 3:40], [Num 3:44], and [Num 3:51].

[¶35] All the males - were twenty and two thousand - This total does not agree with the particulars; for the Gershonites were 7,500, the Kohathites 8,600, the Merarites 6,200, total 22,300. Several methods of solving this difficulty have been proposed by learned men; Dr. Kennicott's is the most simple. Formerly the numbers in the Hebrew Bible were expressed by letters, and not by words at full length; and if two nearly similar letters were mistaken for each other, many errors in the numbers must be the consequence. Now it is probable that an error has crept into the number of the Gershonites, [Num 3:22], where, instead of 7,500, we should read 7,200, as ך caph, 500, might have been easily mistaken for ר resh, 200, especially if the down stroke of the caph had been a little shorter than ordinary, which is often the case in MSS. The extra 300 being taken off, the total is just 22,000, as mentioned in the 39th verse.

### Verse 43

[¶37] All the first-born males - were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen - Thus we find there were 273 first-born beyond the number of the Levites. These are ordered, [Num 3:46], to be redeemed; and the redemption price is to be five shekels each, [Num 3:47], about 15s. And this money, amounting to 1,365 shekels, equal to 204 15s. English, he took of the first-born of Israel, [Num 3:50]. But how was this collected among 22,273 persons? Rabbi Solomon Jarchi says, "to prevent contention, Moses took 22,000 slips of parchment, and wrote on each a son of Levi, and 273 others, on which he wrote five shekels; then he mixed them in a basket, and each man took out one; those who drew the slips on which five shekels were written, paid the money; the others went free." This is a most stupid and silly tale, for such a mode of settlement never could have been resorted to by an intelligent people. It would have been much more simple to have paid it out of a general fund; and it is very likely that in this way the expense was defrayed. This species of redeeming of men is referred to by St. Peter, [1Pet 1:18], [1Pet 1:19] : "Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious (τιμιω αἱματι, valuable) blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot," etc. And it is not the first-born only which are thus redeemed, for he, by the grace of God, tasted death for Every man; [Heb 2:9]. Reader, give glory to God that such a ransom has been paid for thy soul, and see that, redeemed from thy vain conversation, thy empty, fruitless, and graceless observances, on which thou hast built thy hopes of salvation, thou walk in newness of life, giving thy whole soul with thankfulness unto the Father who hath translated thee from darkness, and placed thee in the kingdom of his beloved Son. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen.

### Introduction

[¶39] Moses is commanded to take the sum of the sons of Kohath from thirty years old and upward, [Num 4:1-4]. The service which they had to perform, [Num 4:5-15]. The office of Eleazar, [Num 4:16]. The family of Kohath to be continued among the Levites, [Num 4:17-19]. They are not to go into the holy of holies, [Num 4:20]. The sum of the sons of Gershon, [Num 4:21-23]. The service they had to perform, [Num 4:24-27]. They are to be under Ithamar, [Num 4:28]. The sum of the sons of Merari, [Num 4:29], [Num 4:30]. The service they had to perform, [Num 4:31-33]. The sum of all the families of Kohath, 2,750, [Num 4:34-37]. The sum of the families of Gershon, 2,630, [Num 4:38-41]. The sum of the families of Merari, 3,200, [Num 4:42-45]. The sum total of the families of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, 8,580, [Num 4:46-49].

### Verse 3

[¶41] From thirty years old - In [Num 8:24], the Levites are ordered to enter on the service of the tabernacle at the age of twenty-five years; and in [1Chr 23:24], they were ordered to commence that work at twenty years of age. How can these different times be reconciled?

[¶42] 1. At the time of which Moses speaks here, the Levitical service was exceedingly severe, and consequently required men full grown, strong, and stout, to perform it; the age therefore of thirty years was appointed as the period for commencing this service, the weightier part of which is probably here intended.

[¶43] 2. In [Num 8:24], Moses seems to speak of the service in a general way; the severe, which was to be performed by the full-grown Levites, and the less laborious work which younger men might assist in: hence the age of twenty-five is fixed.

[¶44] 3. In David's time and afterwards, in the fixed tabernacle and temple, the laboriousness of the service no longer existed, and hence twenty years was the age fixed on for all Levites to enter into the work of the sanctuary. The rabbins say that the Levites began to learn to do the service at twenty-five, and that having been instructed five years, they began the public service at thirty, and thus they reconcile the two periods referred to above. We may well suppose that the sons of the prophets continued a considerable time under instructions before they were called fully to exercise themselves in the prophetic office.

## 156. Numbers · 5 of 34

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[¶0] Until fifty years old - This was allowing twenty years for public severe service; a very considerate and merciful ordinance. A preacher who devotes his whole time and strength to the service of the Church of God from twenty to fifty or sixty years of age, should be then excused from his severer labor, and maintained at the charge of the sanctuary. This would not only be a great comfort to a worn-out servant of God, but also of great use to the work of the ministry, which, to be faithfully and effectually performed, requires all the powers of the body and mind of man. Old faithful ministers are to be highly respected for their work's sake, and to be supplied with all the necessaries and comforts of life; but how little can they do in the public ministry of the word, however willing to work, when their eye waxes dim and their bodily strength fails! See [Num 8:25]. Both for their own sakes, and for the good of the Church, they should be excused from a labor to which they must be almost every way inadequate. But notwithstanding this comparative inactivity, their counsels, advice, and experience will always be considered as a treasure to the Church of Christ

### Verse 20

[¶2] When the holy things are covered - Literally, כבלע keballa, when they are swallowed down; which shows the promptitude with which every thing belonging to the holy of holies was put out of sight, for these mysteries must ever be treated with the deepest reverence; and indeed without this they could not have been to them the representatives of heavenly realities. See the concluding note [Num 4:36] (note).

### Verse 36

[¶4] Those that were numbered - In [Num 3:27], etc., we have an account of the whole number of the Levites, and here of those only who were able to serve the Lord in the sanctuary. By comparing the two places we find the numbers to stand thus: -

[¶5] LeviteFamily AbleMen UnableMen Total Kohathites 2,750 5,850 8,600 Gershonites 2,630 4,870 7,500 Merarites 3,200 3,000 6,200

[¶6] Thus we find that the whole number of the Levites amounted to 22,300, of whom 3,580 were fit for service, and 13,720 unfit, being either too old or too young. What an astonishing number of men, all properly ecclesiastics; all performing some service by which God was glorified, and the congregation at large benefited! See Ainsworth.

[¶7] From this and the preceding chapter we see the very severe labor which the Levites were obliged to perform while the journeyings of the Israelites lasted. When we consider that there was not less than 10 tons 13 cwt. 24 lb. 14 oz., i. e., almost ten tons and fourteen hundred pounds' weight of metal employed in the tabernacle, (see the notes on Exodus 38 (note)), besides the immense weight of the skins, hangings, cords, boards, and posts, we shall find it was no very easy matter to transport this movable temple from place to place.

[¶8] The Gershonites, who were 7,500 men in the service, had to carry the tent, coverings, veils, hangings of the court, etc., etc., [Num 3:25], [Num 3:26].

[¶9] The Kohathites, who were 8,600 men, had to carry the ark, table, candlestick, altars, and instruments of the sanctuary, [Num 3:31].

[¶10] The Merarites, who were 6,200 men, had to carry the boards, bars, pillars, sockets, and all matters connected with these belonging to the tabernacle, with the pillars of the court, their sockets, pins, and cords, [Num 3:36], [Num 3:37].

[¶11] The tabernacle was an epitome of the temple: the temple and tabernacle were representatives of the Church of the living God, and of the humanity of our blessed Lord. As God dwelt in the tabernacle and temple, so his fullness dwelt in the man Christ Jesus. These again were types of the Christian Church, which is termed the body of Christ, [Eph 1:23], where he dwells in the plenitude of the graces of his Spirit.

[¶12] Mr. Ainsworth has a very useful note on the [Num 4:20] verse of this chapter, the most edifying part of which I shall here lay before the reader. He considers the tabernacle and temple, not only as pointing out the old dispensation, the annulling of which was typified by their destruction, but he considers also the former as emblematical of the body of man. "The apostle," says he, "treating of the death of the saints, uses this similitude: 'If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For we that are in This Tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life;' [2Cor 5:1-4]. So Peter calls his death the putting off of his Tabernacle, [2Pet 1:14]. And this similitude is very fit; for, as here, in the tabernacle of Moses,

[¶13] 1. The holy things were first covered and taken away, (see [Num 4:20]), so the soul and its powers are first withdrawn from the body by death.

[¶14] 2. As the curtains and coverings were taken off and folded up, so the skin and flesh of our bodies are pulled off and consumed.

[¶15] 3. As the boards of the tabernacle were disjointed and pulled asunder, so shall our bones and sinews: compare Job's description of the formation of man, [Num 10:8-12]; and Solomon's account of his dissolution, [Ecc 12:3], [Ecc 12:4].

[¶16] 4. As the disjointed and dissolved tabernacle was afterwards set up again, [Num 10:21], so shall our bodies in the day of the resurrection; see [1Cor 15:51-54].

### Introduction

[¶18] The Israelites are commanded to purify the camp by excluding all lepers, and all diseased and unclean persons, [Num 5:1-3]. They do so, [Num 5:4]. Law concerning him who has defrauded another - he shall confess his sin, restore the principal and add besides one fifth of its value, [Num 5:5-7]. If he have no kinsman to whom the recompense can be made, it shall be given unto the Lord, [Num 5:8]. All the holy things offered to the Lord shall be the priest's portion, [Num 5:9], [Num 5:10]. The law concerning jealousy, [Num 5:11-14]. The suspected woman's offering, [Num 5:15]. She is to be brought before the Lord, [Num 5:16]. The priest shall take holy water, and put it in dust from the floor of the tabernacle, [Num 5:17]. Shall put the offering in her hand, and adjure her, [Num 5:18-20]. The form of the oath, [Num 5:21], [Num 5:22]; which is to be written on a book, blotted out in the bitter waters, and these the suspected person shall be obliged to drink, [Num 5:23], [Num 5:24]. The jealousy-offering shall be waved before the Lord, [Num 5:25], [Num 5:26]. The effect which shall be produced if the suspected person be guilty, [Num 5:27]. The effect if not guilty, [Num 5:28]. Recapitulation, with the purpose and design of the law, [Num 5:29], [Num 5:30].

### Verse 2

[¶20] Put out of the camp every leper - According to the preceding plan, it is sufficiently evident that each camp had a space behind it, and on one side, whither the infected might be removed, and where probably convenient places were erected for the accommodation of the infected; for we cannot suppose that they were driven out into the naked wilderness. But the expulsion mentioned here was founded,

[¶21] 1. On a purely physical reason, viz., the diseases were contagious, and therefore there was a necessity of putting those afflicted by them apart, that the infection might not be communicated.

[¶22] 2. There was also a spiritual reason; the camp was the habitation of God, and nothing impure should be permitted to remain where he dwelt.

[¶23] 3. The camp was an emblem of the Church, where nothing that is defiled should enter, and in which nothing that is unholy should be tolerated. All lepers - all persevering impenitent sinners, should be driven from the sacred pale, nor should any such ever be permitted to enter.

### Verse 4

[¶25] And the children of Israel - put them out - This is the earliest account we have of such separations; and probably this ordinance gave the first idea of a hospital, where all those who are afflicted with contagious disorders are put into particular wards, under medical treatment. Though no mention be made of the situation, circumstances, etc., of those expelled persons, we may certainly infer that they were treated with that humanity which their distressed state required. Though sinners must be separated from the Church of God, yet they should be treated with affectionate regard, because they may be reclaimed. It is too often the case when a man backslides from the way of truth, he is abandoned by all; finding his case desperate, he plunges yet deeper into the mire of sin, and the man who, with tender treatment, might have been reclaimed, becomes incurably hardened. One class says, he cannot finally fall, and shall in due time be restored; another class says, he may finally fall and utterly perish. If the unfortunate person be restored, his recovery is taken as a proof of the first doctrine; if he be not, his wretched end is considered a proof of the second. In the first case the person himself may presume on his restoration as a point infallibly determined in the Divine counsel; or in the second, he may consider his case hopeless, and so abandon himself to profligacy and desperation. Thus both parties leave him, and both opinions (misunderstood certainly) render him secure or desperate; and in either case totally inactive in behalf of his own soul. Who is he that properly estimates the worth of one immortal spirit? He who does will at once feel that, in a state of probation, any man may fall through sin, and any sinner may be renewed again unto repentance, through the infinitely meritorious sacrifice, and all powerfully efficacious grace, of Christ. This truth properly felt equally precludes both presumption and despair, and will induce the followers of God to be active in preserving those who have escaped from the corruption that is in the world, and make them diligent to recover those who have turned back to earth and sin.

### Verse 7

[¶27] Shall confess their sin - Without confession or acknowledgment of sin, there was no hope of mercy held out.

[¶28] He shall recompense - For without restitution, in every possible case, God will not for give the iniquity of a man's sin. How can any person in a case of defraud, with his neighbor's property in his possession, expect to receive mercy from the hand of a just and holy God? See this subject considered in the notes on [Gen 42:38] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶30] If the man have no kinsman - The Jews think that this law respects the stranger and the sojourner only, because every Israelite is in a state of affinity to all the rest; but there might be a stranger in the camp who has no relative in any of the tribes of Israel.

### Verse 14

[¶32] The spirit of jealousy - רוח קנאה ruach kinah, either a supernatural diabolic influence, exciting him to jealousy, or the passion or affection of jealousy, for so the words may be understood.

### Verse 17

[¶34] Holy water - Water out of the laver, called holy because consecrated to sacred uses. This is the most ancient case of the trial by ordeal. See at [Num 5:31] (note).

[¶35] In an earthen vessel - Supposed by the Jews to be such as had never been previously used.

[¶36] Dust that is in the floor - Probably intended to point out the baseness of the crime of which she was accused.

### Verse 18

[¶38] Uncover the woman's head - To take off a woman's veil, and expose her to the sight of men, would be considered a very great degradation in the East. To this St. Paul appears to allude, [1Cor 11:5], [1Cor 11:6],[1Cor 11:10].

### Verse 21

[¶40] The Lord make thee a curse and an oath - Let thy name and punishment be remembered and mentioned as an example and terror to all others. Like that mentioned [Jer 29:22], [Jer 29:23] : "The Lord make thee like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives." - Ainsworth.

### Verse 22

[¶42] Thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot - What is meant by these expressions cannot be easily ascertained. לנפל ירך lanpel yarech signifies literally thy thigh to fall. As the thigh, feet, etc., were used among the Hebrews delicately to express the parts which nature conceals, (see [Gen 46:26]), the expression here is probably to be understood in this sense; and the falling down of the thigh here must mean something similar to the prolapsus uteri, or falling down of the womb, which might be a natural effect of the preternatural distension of the abdomen. In [1Cor 11:29], St. Paul seems to allude to the case of the guilty woman drinking the bitter cursed waters that caused her destruction: He who eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (κριμα, condemnation or judgment) to himself; and there is probably a reference to the same thing in [Psa 109:18], and in [Dan 9:11].

[¶43] And the woman shall say, Amen, amen - This is the first place where this word occurs in the common form of a concluding wish in prayer. The root אמן aman signifies to be steady, true, permanent. And in prayer it signifies let it be so - make it steady - let it be ratified. Some have supposed that it is composed of the initial letters of אדני מלך נאמן Adonai Melech Neeman, My Lord the faithful King, but this derivation is both far-fetched and unnecessary.

## 157. Numbers · 6 of 34

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### Verse 23

[¶1] The priest shall write these curses - and he shall blot them out - It appears that the curses which were written down with a kind of ink prepared for the purpose, as some of the rabbins think, without any calx of iron or other material that could make a permanent dye, were washed off the parchment into the water which the woman was obliged to drink, so that she drank the very words of the execration. The ink used in the East is almost all of this kind - a wet sponge will completely efface the finest of their writings. The rabbins say that the trial by the waters of jealousy was omitted after the Babylonish captivity, because adulteries were so frequent amongst them, that they were afraid of having the name of the Lord profaned by being so frequently appealed to! This is a most humiliating confession. "Though," says pious Bishop Wilson, "this judgment is not executed now on adulteresses, yet they have reason from this to conclude that a more terrible vengeance will await them hereafter without a bitter repentance; these being only a shadow of heavenly things, i. e., of what the Gospel requires of its professors, viz., a strict purity, or a severe repentance." The pious bishop would not preclude the necessity of pardon through the blood of the cross, for without this the severest repentance would be of no avail.

### Verse 24

[¶3] The bitter water that causeth the curse - Though the rabbins think that the priest put some bitter substance in the water, yet as nothing of the kind is intimated by Moses, we may consider the word as used here metaphorically for affliction, death, etc. These waters were afflicting and deadly to her who drank them, being guilty. In this sense afflictions are said to be bitter, [Isa 38:17]; so also is death, [1Sam 15:32] : [Ecc 7:26].

### Verse 29

[¶5] This is the law of jealousies - And this is the most singular law in the whole Pentateuch: a law that seems to have been copied by almost all the nations of the earth, whether civilized or barbarian, as we find that similar modes of trial for suspected offenses were used when complete evidence was wanting to convict; and where it was expected that the object of their worship would interfere for the sake of justice, in order that the guilty should be brought to punishment, and the innocent be cleared. For general information on this head see at the end of this chapter. (See [Num 5:31] (note)).

### Verse 31

[¶7] This woman shall bear her iniquity - That is, her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot; see [Num 5:22] (note). But if not guilty after such a trial, she had great honor, and, according to the rabbins, became strong, healthy, and fruitful; for if she was before barren, she now began to bear children; if before she had only daughters, she now began to have sons; if before she had hard travail, she now had easy; in a word, she was blessed in her body, her soul, and her substance: so shall it be done unto the holy and faithful woman, for such the Lord delighteth to honor; see [1Tim 2:15].

[¶8] On the principal subject of this chapter. I shall here introduce a short account of the trial by ordeal, as practiced in different parts of the world, and which is supposed to have taken its origin from the waters of jealousy.

[¶9] The trial by what was afterwards called Ordeal is certainly of very remote antiquity, and was evidently of Divine appointment. In this place we have an institution relative to a mode of trial precisely of that kind which among our ancestors was called ordeal; and from this all similar trials in Asia, Africa, and Europe, have very probably derived their origin.

[¶10] Ordeal, Latin, ordalium, is, according to Verstegan, from the Saxon, ordal and ordel, and is derived by some from great, and Dael, judgment, signifying the greatest, most solemn, and decisive mode of judgment - Hickes. Others derive it from the Francic or Teutonic Urdela, which signifies simply to judge. But Lye, in his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, derives the term from an Anglo-Saxon word, which is often in Anglo-Saxon, a privative particle, and, distinction or difference; and hence applied to that kind of judgment in which there was no respect of persons, but every one had absolute justice done him, as the decision of the business was supposed to belong to God alone. It always signified an appeal to the immediate interposition of God, and was therefore called Judicium Dei, God's Judgment; and we may naturally suppose was never resorted to but in very important cases, where persons accused of great crimes protested their innocence, and there was no sufficient evidence by which they could be cleared from the accusation, or proved to be guilty of the crime laid to their charge. Such were the cases of jealousy referred to in this chapter.

[¶11] The rabbins who have commented on this text give us the following information: When any man, prompted by the spirit of jealousy, suspected his wife to have committed adultery, he brought her first before the judges, and accused her of the crime; but as she asserted her innocency, and refused to acknowledge herself guilty, and as he had no witnesses to produce, he required that she should be sentenced to drink the waters of bitterness which the law had appointed; that God, by this means, might discover what she wished to conceal. After the judges had heard the accusation and the denial, the man and his wife were both sent to Jerusalem, to appear before the Sanhedrin, who were the sole judges in such matters. The rabbins say that the judges of the Sanhedrin, at first endeavored with threatenings to confound the woman, and cause her to confess her crime; when she still persisted in her innocence, she was led to the eastern gate of the court of Israel, where she was stripped of the clothes she wore, and dressed in black before a number of persons of her own sex. The priest then told her that if she knew herself to be innocent she had no evil to apprehend; but if she were guilty, she might expect to suffer all that the law threatened: to which she answered, Amen, amen.

[¶12] The priest then wrote the words of the law upon a piece of vellum, with ink that had no vitriol in it, that it might be the more easily blotted out. The words written on the vellum were, according to the rabbins, the following: - "If a strange man have not come near thee, and thou art not polluted by forsaking the bed of thy husband, these bitter waters which I have cursed will not hurt thee: but if thou have gone astray from thy husband, and have polluted thyself by coming near to another man, may thou be accursed of the Lord, and become an example for all his people; may thy thigh rot, and thy belly swell till it burst! may these cursed waters enter into thy belly, and, being swelled therewith, may thy thigh putrefy!"

[¶13] After this the priest took a new pitcher, filled it with water out of the brazen bason that was near the altar of burnt-offering, cast some dust into it taken from the pavement of the temple, mingled something bitter, as wormwood, with it, and having read the curses above mentioned to the woman, and received her answer of Amen, he scraped off the curses from the vellum into the pitcher of water. During this time another priest tore her clothes as low as her bosom, made her head bare, untied the tresses of her hair, fastened her torn clothes with a girdle below her breasts, and presented her with the tenth part of an ephah, or about three pints of barley-meal, which was in a frying pan, without oil or incense.

[¶14] The other priest, who had prepared the waters of jealousy, then gave them to be drank by the accused person, and as soon as she had swallowed them, he put the pan with the meal in it into her hand. This was waved before the Lord, and a part of it thrown into the fire of the altar. If the woman was innocent, she returned with her husband; and the waters, instead of incommoding her, made her more healthy and fruitful than ever: if on the contrary she were guilty, she was seen immediately to grow pale, her eyes started out of her head, and, lest the temple should be defiled with her death, she was carried out, and died instantly with all the ignominious circumstances related in the curses, which the rabbins say had the same effect on him with whom she had been criminal, though he were absent and at a distance. They add, however, that if the husband himself had been guilty with another woman, then the waters had no bad effect even on his criminal wife; as in that case the transgression on the one part was, in a certain sense, balanced by the transgression on the other.

[¶15] There is no instance in the Scriptures of this kind of ordeal having ever been resorted to; and probably it never was during the purer times of the Hebrew republic. God had rendered himself so terrible by his judgments, that no person would dare to appeal to this mode of trial who was conscious of her guilt; and in case of simple adultery, where the matter was either detected or confessed, the parties were ordered by the law to be put to death.

[¶16] But other ancient nations have also had their trials by ordeal.

[¶17] We learn from Ferdusi, a Persian poet, whose authority we have no reason to suspect, that the fire ordeal was in use at a very early period among the ancient Persians. In the famous epic poem called the Shah Nameh of this author, who is not improperly styled the Homer of Persia, under the title Dastan Seeavesh ve Soodabeh, The account of Seeavesh and Soodabeh, he gives a very remarkable and circumstantial account of a trial of this kind.

[¶18] It is very probable that the fire ordeal originated among the ancient Persians, for by them fire was not only held sacred, but considered as a god, or rather as the visible emblem of the supreme Deity; and indeed this kind of trial continues in extensive use among the Hindoos to the present day. In the code of Gentoo laws it is several times referred to under the title of Purrah Reh, but in the Shah Nameh, the word Soogend is used, which signifies literally an oath, as the persons were obliged to declare their innocence by an oath, and then put their veracity to test by passing through the kohi atesh, or fire pile; see the Shah Nameh in the title Dastan Seeavesh ve Soodabeh, and Halhed's code of Gentoo laws; Preliminary Discourse, p. lviii., and chap. v., sec. iii., pp. 117, etc.

[¶19] A circumstantial account of the different kinds of ordeal practiced among the Hindoos, communicated by Warren Hastings, Esq., who received it from Ali Ibrahim Khan, chief magistrate at Benares, may be found in the Asiatic Researches, vol. i., p. 389.

[¶20] This trial was conducted among this people nine different ways: first, by the balance; secondly, by fire; thirdly, by water; fourthly, by poison; fifthly, by the cosha, or water in which an idol has been washed; sixthly, by rice; seventhly, by boiling oil; eighthly, by red hot iron; ninthly, by images.

[¶21] There is, perhaps, no mode of judiciary decision that has been in more common use in ancient times, than that of ordeal, in some form or other. We find that it was also used by the ancient Greeks 500 years before the Christian era; for in the Antigone of Sophocles, a person suspected by Creon of a misdemeanor, declares himself ready "to handle hot iron, and to walk over fire," in proof of his innocence, which the scholiast tells us was then a very usual purgation. Ημεν δ' ἑτοιμοι και μυδρους αιρειν χεροιν, Και πυρ διερπειν, και θεους ὁρκωμοτειν.

### Ver. 270

[¶23] The scholiast on this line informs us that the custom in binding themselves by the most solemn oath, was this: they took red hot iron in their hands, and throwing it into the sea, swore that the oath should be inviolate till that iron made its appearance again. Virgil informs us that the priests of Apollo at Soracte were accustomed to walk over burning coals unhurt. - Et medium, freti pietate, per ignem

[¶24] Cultores multa premimus vestigia pruna.

[¶25] Aen. xi. 787.

[¶26] Grotius gives many instances of water ordeal in Bithynia, Sardinia, and other places. Different species of fire and water ordeal are said to have prevailed among the Indians on the coast of Malabar; the negroes of Loango, Mozambique, etc., etc., and the Calmuc Tartars.

[¶27] The first formal mention I find of this trial in Europe is in the laws of King Ina, composed about a. d. 700. See L. 77. entitled, Decision by hot iron and water. I find it also mentioned in the council of Mentz, a. d. 847; but Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, wrote against it sixty years before this time. It is afterwards mentioned in the council of Trevers, a. d. 895. It did not exist in Normandy till after the Conquest, and was probably first introduced into England in the time of Ina, in whose laws and those of Athelstan and Ethelred, it was afterwards inserted. The ordeal by fire was for noblemen and women, and such as were free born: the water ordeal was for husbandmen, and the meaner classes of the people, and was of two sorts; by cold water and by hot. See the proceedings in these trials declared particularly in the law of King Ina; Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxonae, p. 27.

[¶28] Several popes published edicts against this species of trial. Henry III. abolished trials by ordeal in the third year of his reign, 1219. See the act in Rymer, vol. i., p. 228; and see Dugdale's Origines Juridicales, fol. 87; Spelman's Glossary, Wilkins, Hickes, Lombard, Somner, and Du Cange, art. Ferrum.

[¶29] The ordeal or trial by battle or combat is supposed to have come to us from the Lombards, who, leaving Scandinavia, overran Europe: it is thought that this mode of trial was instituted by Frotha III., king of Denmark, about the time of the birth of Christ; for he ordained that every controversy should be determined by the sword. It continued in Holsatia till the time of Christian III., king of Denmark, who began his reign in 1535. From these northern nations the practice of duels was introduced into Great Britain. I need scarcely add, that this detestable form of trial was the foundation of the no less detestable crime of dueling, which so much disgraces our age and nation, a practice that is defended only by ignorance, false honor, and injustice: it is a relic of barbarous superstition, and was absolutely unknown to those brave and generous nations, the Greeks and Romans, whom it is so much the fashion to admire; and who, in this particular, so well merit our admiration!

[¶30] The general practice of dueling is supposed to have taken its rise in 1527, at the breaking up of a treaty between the Emperor Charles V. and Francis I. The former having sent a herald with an insulting message to Francis, the king of France sent back the herald with a cartel of defiance, in which he gave the emperor the lie, and challenged him to single combat: Charles accepted it; but after several messages concerning the arrangement of all the circumstances relative to the combat, the thoughts of it were entirely laid aside. The example of two personages so illustrious drew such general attention, and carried with it so much authority, that it had considerable influence in introducing an important change in manners all over Europe. It was so much the custom in the middle ages of Christianity to respect the cross, even to superstition, that it would have been indeed wonderful if the same ignorant bigotry had not converted it into an ordeal: accordingly we find it used for this purpose in so many different ways as almost to preclude description. Another trial of this kind was the Corsned, or the consecrated bread and cheese: this was the ordeal to which the clergy commonly appealed when they were accused of any crime. A few concluding observations from Dr. Henry may not be unacceptable to the reader: - "If we suppose that few or none escaped conviction who exposed themselves to these fiery trials, we shall be very much mistaken. For the histories of those times contain innumerable examples of persons plunging their naked arms into boiling water, handling red hot balls of iron, and walking upon burning ploughshares, without receiving the least injury. Many learned men have been much puzzled to account for this, and disposed to think that Providence graciously interposed in a miraculous manner for the preservation of injured innocence. "But if we examine every circumstance of these fiery ordeals with due attention, we shall see sufficient reason to suspect that the whole was a gross imposition on the credulity of mankind. The accused person was committed wholly to the priest who was to perform the ceremony three days before the trial, in which he had time enough to bargain with him for his deliverance, and give him instructions how to act his part. On the day of trial no person was permitted to enter the church but the priest and the accused till after the iron was heated, when twelve friends of the accuser, and twelve of the accused, and no more, were admitted and ranged along the wall on each side of the church, at a respectful distance. After the iron was taken out of the fire several prayers were said: the accused drank a cup of holy water, and sprinkled his hand with it, which might take a considerable time if the priest were indulgent. The space of nine feet was measured by the accused himself, with his own feet, and he would probably give but scanty measure. He was obliged only to touch one of the marks with the toe of his right foot, and allowed to stretch the other foot as far towards the other mark as he could, so that the conveyance was almost instantaneous. His hand was not immediately examined, but wrapped in a cloth prepared for that purpose three days. May we not then, from all these precautions, suspect that these priests were in possession of some secret that secured the hand from the impression of such a momentary touch of hot iron, or removed all appearances of these impressions in three days; and that they made use of this secret when they saw reason? Such readers as are curious in matters of this kind may find two different directions for making ointments that will have this effect, in the work here quoted. What greatly strengthens these suspicions is, that we meet with no example of any champion of the Church who suffered the least injury from the touch of hot iron in this ordeal: but where any one was so fool-hardy as to appeal to it, or to that of hot water, with a view to deprive the Church of any of her possessions, he never failed to burn his fingers, and lose his cause." I have made the scanty extract above from a very extensive history of the trial by ordeal, which I wrote several years ago, but never published. All the forms of adjuration for the various ordeals of hot water, cold water, red hot iron, bread and cheese, etc., may be seen in the Codex Legum Antiquarum, Lindenbrogii, fol. Franc. 1613, p. 1299, etc.

### Introduction

[¶32] The vow of the Nazarite, [Num 6:1], [Num 6:2]. In what it consisted, [Num 6:3-8]. When accidentally defiled, how he is to be purified, [Num 6:9-12]. The sacrifices he is to bring, and the rites he is to perform, when the vow of his separation is fulfilled, [Num 6:13-21]. The manner in which the priests are to bless the people, [Num 6:22-26]. The name of the Lord is to be put on the children of Israel, whom He promises to bless, [Num 6:27].

### Verse 2

[¶34] When either man or woman shall separate, etc. - The word נזיר nazir, from נזר nazar, to separate, signifies merely a separated person, i. e., one peculiarly devoted to the service of God by being separated from all servile employments. From the Nazarites sprang the Rechabites, from the Rechabites the Essenes, from the Essenes the Anchorites or Hermits, and in imitation of those, the different monastic orders. Some contend strongly that the Nazarite was a type of our Lord; but neither analogy nor proof can be produced. Our blessed Lord both drank wine and touched the dead, which no Nazarite would do: as to his either shaving his hair or letting it grow, we know nothing. His being called a Nazarene, [Mat 2:23], is nothing to the purpose, as it can mean no more than either that he was an inhabitant of Nazareth, which was a place of no credit, and therefore used as a term of reproach; or that he was in a general sense consecrated to the service of God - so were Samson, Samuel, Jeremiah, and John Baptist; or rather, that he was the נצר netser or Branch, [Isa 11:1], and צמח tsemach, [Zac 3:8]; [Zac 6:12], which is quite a different word; but this title is expressly applied to our blessed Lord by the above prophets; but in no place do they or any other prophets call him a Nazarite, in the sense in which נזיר nazir is used. Indeed it could not in truth be applied to him, as the distinguishing marks of a Nazarite never belonged to him. He was, it is true, the נצר netser or branch out of the root of Jesse, the genuine heir to the throne of David, whose dominion should extend over the universe, who should be King of kings, and Lord of Lords; but the word Ναζωραιος, [Mat 2:23], signifies merely a Nazoraean, or inhabitant of Nazareth.

### Verse 3

[¶36] No vinegar of wine, etc. - חמץ chomets signifies fermented wine, and is probably used here to signify wine of a strong body, or any highly intoxicating liquor. Dr. Lightfoot supposes that the Leper being the most defiled and loathsome of creatures, was an emblem of the wretched, miserable state of man by the fall; and that the Nazarite was the emblem of man in his state of innocence. Wine and grapes are here particularly forbidden to the Nazarite because, as the doctor thinks, being an emblem of man in his paradisiacal state, he was forbidden that tree and its fruits by eating of which Adam fell; for the doctor, as well as the Jewish rabbins, believed the tree of knowledge to have been none other than the vine.

[¶37] Vinegar of strong drink - See the note on [Lev 10:9].

### Verse 5

[¶39] There shall no razor come upon his head - The vow of the Nazarite consisted in the following particulars: -

[¶40] 1. He consecrated himself in a very especial and extraordinary manner to God.

[¶41] 2. This was to continue for a certain season, probably never less than a whole year, that he might have a full growth of hair to burn in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace-offering, [Num 6:18].

[¶42] 3. During the time of his separation, or nazarate, he drank no wine nor strong drink; nor used any vinegar formed from any inebriating liquor, nor ate the flesh or dried grapes, nor tasted even the kernels or husks of any thing that had grown upon the vine.

[¶43] 4. He never shaved his head, but let his hair grow, as the proof of his being in this separated state, and under vows of peculiar austerity.

[¶44] 5. He never touched any dead body, nor did any of the last offices, even to his nearest kin; but was considered as the priests, who were wholly taken up with the service of God, and regarded nothing else.

[¶45] 6. All the days of his separation he was holy, [Num 6:8].

## 158. Numbers · 7 of 34

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[¶0] During the whole time he was to be incessantly employed in religious acts.

### Verse 7

[¶2] The consecration of his God is upon his head - Literally, The separation of his God is upon his head; meaning his hair, which was the proof and emblem of his separation. Now as the hair of the Nazarite was a token of his subjection to God through all the peculiarities of his nazarate, a woman, who is married, is considered as a Nazarite for life, i. e., separated from all others, and joined to one husband who is her lord; hence St. Paul, probably alluding to this circumstance, says, [1Cor 11:10] : The woman ought to have power upon her head, i.e., wear her hair and veil; for this hair is a proof of her nazarate, and of her being in subjection to her husband, as the Nazarite was under subjection to the Lord by the rule of his order.

### Verse 10

[¶4] Two turtles, or two young pigeons - The same kind of offering made by him who had an issue, [Lev 15:14], etc.

### Verse 18

[¶6] Shall take the hair - and put it in the fire - The hair was permitted to grow for this purpose; and as the Nazarite was a kind of sacrifice, offered to God through the whole term of his nazarate or separation, and no human flesh or blood could be offered on the altar of the Lord, he offered his hair at the conclusion of his separation, as a sacrifice - that hair which was the token of his complete subjection to the Lord, and which was now considered as the Lord's property. The Hindoos, after a vow, do not cut their hair during the term of their vow; but at the expiration of it they shave it off at the place where the vow was made.

[¶7] That the hair of the head was superstitiously used among different nations, we have already had occasion to remark; (See the notes on [Lev 19:27]); and that the Gentiles might have learned this from the Jews is possible, though some learned men think that this consecration of the hair to a deity was in use among the heathens before the time of Moses, and in nations who had no intercourse or connection with the Jews.

### Verse 21

[¶9] This is the law of the Nazarite - We learn from Maimonides, in his Treatise of the Nazarite, that a man might become a Nazarite in behalf of another; that is, might assist him in bearing the expenses of the sacrifices, etc. "A son may fulfill the vow his deceased father hath made, but did not live to accomplish: - He that saith, upon me be the shaving of a Nazarite, he is bound to bring the offerings of shaving for cleanness, and may offer them by the hand of what Nazarite he will. If he say, Upon me be half the oblations of a Nazarite, then he bringeth half the offerings by what Nazarite he will, and that Nazarite payeth his offerings out of that which is his." "By this," says Mr. Ainsworth, "we may see the reason of that which James said to Paul, though he had no Nazarite's vow upon him: 'We have four men who have a vow on them; them take and sanctify thyself with them, and Be At Charges With Them, that they may shave their heads, etc. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, sanctifying himself with them, entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of sanctification, (or Nazariteship), until that an offering should be offered for every one of them;' see [Act 21:23-26]. For though Paul had not vowed or fulfilled a Nazariteship himself, yet might he contribute with them, and partake of their charges about the sacrifices."

### Verse 23

[¶11] On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel - The prayer which God makes for his followers, and puts into their mouth, we are sure must be right; and to it, when sincerely, faithfully, and fervently offered, we may confidently expect an answer. If he condescended to give us a form of blessings or a form of prayer, we may rest assured that he will accept what he himself has made. This consideration may produce great confidence in them who come with either prayer or praise to the throne of grace, both of which should be, as far as circumstances will admit, in the very words of Scripture; for we can readily attach a consequence to the words of God, which we shall find difficult to attach to the best ordered words of men. Take with you words, and turn unto the Lord. What words? Why those which God immediately puts into their mouths. Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips; we shall then give the sacrifices of which our lips have spoken, when we made our vows unto thee. See [Hos 14:2].

### Verse 24

[¶13] The Lord bless thee - There are three forms of blessing here, any or all of which the priests might use on any occasion. The following is a verbal translation: -

[¶14] 1. May Jehovah bless thee and preserve thee!

[¶15] 2. May Jehovah cause his faces to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee!

[¶16] 3. May Jehovah lift up his faces upon thee, and may be put prosperity unto thee!

[¶17] This is a very comprehensive and excellent prayer, and may be paraphrased thus: -

[¶18] 1. May God speak good unto thee, by giving thee his excellent promises! (See the note on [Gen 2:3]). May he preserve thee in the possession of all the good thou hast, and from all the evil with which thou art threatened!

[¶19] 2. May the Holy Trinity illuminate thy heart, giving thee the true knowledge of thyself and of thy Maker; and may he show thee his graciousness in pardoning thy sins, and supporting thy soul!

[¶20] 3. May God give thee communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit, with a constant sense of his approbation; and grant thee prosperity in thy soul, and in all thy secular affairs!

[¶21] This I suppose to be the spirit and design of this form of benediction. Others will doubtless interpret it after their manner. Several wise and learned men believe that the mystery of the Holy Trinity is not obscurely hinted at in it. God the Father blesses and keeps his followers. God the Son is gracious unto sinners in remitting their offenses, which he died to blot out. God the Holy Spirit takes of the things which are Christ's, and shows them unto genuine Christians, and diffuses the peace of God in their hearts. In a word, Christ, the gift of the Father by the energy of the Holy Spirit, came to bless every one of us by turning us away from our iniquities.

[¶22] 1. Every genuine Christian is a true Nazarite. He is separated from the world, and dedicated solely to the service of God.

[¶23] 2. His life is a life of self-denial; he mortifies and keeps the flesh in obedience to the Spirit.

[¶24] 3. All this enters into the spirit of his baptismal vow; for in that he promises to renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh - to keep God's holy word and commandments, and to walk in the same all the days of his life.

[¶25] 4. The person who is faithful has the blessing of God entailed upon him. Thus shall ye bless the children of Israel, etc., etc. See the notes on [Num 6:5-7] (note).

### Introduction

[¶27] When the tabernacle was fully set up, it appeared that the princes of the twelve tribes had prepared six covered wagons, drawn by two oxen each, one wagon for two tribes, for the service of the tabernacle, [Num 7:1-3]. Moses is commanded to receive this offering, and distribute the whole to the Levites according to their service, [Num 7:4], [Num 7:5]. Moses does so, and gives two wagons and four oxen to the sons of Gershon, [Num 7:6], [Num 7:7]; and four wagons and eight oxen to the sons of Merari, [Num 7:8]. The sons of Kohath have none, because they were to bear the ark, etc., on their shoulders, [Num 7:9]. Each prince is to take a day for presenting his offerings, [Num 7:10], [Num 7:11]. On the first day Nahshon, of the tribe of Judah, offers a silver charger, a silver bowl, a golden spoon, a young bullock, a ram, a lamb, and a kid, for a Sin-Offering; two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, and five lambs, for a Peace-Offering, [Num 7:12-17]. On the second day Nethaneel, of the tribe of Issachar, offers the like, [Num 7:18-23]. On the third day Eliab, of the tribe of Zebulun, offers the like, [Num 7:24-29]. On the fourth day Elizur, of the tribe of Reuben, offers the like, [Num 7:30-35]. On the fifth day Shelumiel, of the tribe of Simeon, made a similar offering, [Num 7:36-41]. On the sixth day Eliasaph, of the tribe of Gad, made his offering, [Num 7:42-47]. On the seventh day Elishama, of the tribe of Ephraim, made his offering, [Num 7:48-53]. On the eighth day Gamaliel, of the tribe of Manasseh, made his offering, [Num 7:54-59]. On the ninth day Abidan, of the tribe of Benjamin, made his offering, [Num 7:60-65]. On the tenth day Ahiezer, of the tribe of Dan, made his offering, [Num 7:66-71]. On the eleventh day Pagiel, of the tribe of Asher, made his offering, [Num 7:72-77]. On the twelfth day Ahira, of the tribe of Naphtali, made the same kind of offering, [Num 7:78-83]. The sum total of all vessels and cattle which were offered was twelve silver chargers, and twelve silver bowls; twelve golden spoons; twelve bullocks, twelve rams, and twelve kids; twenty-four bullocks, sixty rams, sixty he-goats, and sixty lambs, [Num 7:84-88]. The offerings being ended, Moses goes into the tabernacle, and hears the voice of the Lord from the mercy-seat, [Num 7:89].

### Verse 1

[¶29] On the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle - The transactions mentioned in this chapter took place on the second day of the second month of the second year after their departure from Egypt; and the proper place of this account is immediately after the tenth chapter of Leviticus.

### Verse 3

[¶31] Six covered wagons - שש עגלת צב shesh egloth tsab, six tilted wagons, the Septuagint translate ἑξ ἁμαξας λαμπηνικας, with which the Coptic agrees; but what lampenic chariots were, no person pretends to know. Covered or tilted is probably the meaning of the original. The wagons were given for the more convenient exporting of the heavier parts of the tabernacle, which could not be conveniently carried on men's shoulders.

### Verse 5

[¶33] According to his service - That is, distribute them among the Levites as they may need them, giving most to those who have the heaviest burdens to bear.

### Verse 7

[¶35] Two wagons - unto the sons of Gershon - The Gershonites carried only the curtains, coverings, and hangings, [Num 4:25]. And although this was a cumbersome carriage, and they needed the wagons, yet it was not a heavy one.

### Verse 8

[¶37] Four wagons - unto the sons of Merari - Because they had the boards, bars, pillars, and sockets of the tabernacle to carry, [Num 4:31], [Num 4:32], therefore they had as many more wagons as the Gershonites.

### Verse 9

[¶39] Unto the sons of Kohath he gave none - Because they had the charge of the ark, table, candlestick, altars, etc., [Num 4:5-15], which were to be carried upon their shoulders; for those sacred things must not be drawn by beasts.

### Verse 10

[¶41] And the princes offered - Every prince or chief offered in the behalf, and doubtless at the expense, of his whole tribe.

### Verse 13

[¶43] One silver charger - קערת kaarath, a dish, or deep bowl, in which they kneaded the paste. See [Exo 25:29]. One silver bowl - מזרק mizrak, a bason, to receive the blood of the sacrifice in. See on [Exo 27:3] (note).

## 159. Numbers · 8 of 34

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### Verse 14

[¶1] One spoon - כף caph, a censer, on which they put the incense. See [Exo 25:29]. It is worthy of remark that the different tribes are represented here as bringing their offerings precisely in the same order in which they encamped about the tabernacle. See Numbers 2 and Numbers 10.

[¶2] Tribe Chief Verse Location 1. Judah Nahshon 12 2. Issachar Nethaneel 18 East 3. Zebulun Eliab 24 4. Reuben Elizur 30 5. Simeon Shelumiel 36 South 6. Gad Eliasaph 42 7. Ephraim Elishama 48 8. Manasseh Gamaliel 54 West 9. Benjamin Abidan 60 10. Dan Ahiezer 66 11. Asher Pagiel 72 North 12. Naphtali Ahira 78 It is worthy of remark also, that every tribe offers the same kind of offering, and in the same quantity, to show, that as every tribe was equally indebted to God for its support, so each should testify an equal sense of obligation. Besides, the vessels were all sacrificial vessels, and the animals were all clean animals, such as were proper for sacrifices; and therefore every thing was intended to point out that the people were to be a holy people, fully dedicated to God, and that God was to dwell among them; hence there were fine flour and oil, for a meat-offering, [Num 7:13]. A bullock, a ram, and a lamb, for a burnt-offering, [Num 7:15], [Num 7:16]. Five oxen, five rams, five he-goats, and five lambs, for a peace-offering, [Num 7:17]. Thus, as the priests, altars, etc., were anointed, and the tabernacle dedicated, so the people, by this offering, became consecrated to God. Therefore every act here was a religious act. "Thus," says Mr. Ainsworth, "by sacrifices of all sorts, figuring the death of Christ, and the benefits that were to be received thereby, they reconciled and made themselves and theirs acceptable to God, and were made partakers of his grace, to remission of sins, and sanctification through faith, and in the work of the Holy Ghost, in the communion and feeling whereof they rejoiced before God."

### Verse 48

[¶4] On the seventh day - Both Jewish and Christian writers have been surprised that this work of offering went forward on the seventh day, which they suppose to have been a Sabbath, as well as on the other days. But

[¶5] 1. There is no absolute proof that this seventh day of offering was a Sabbath.

[¶6] 2. Were it even so, could the people be better employed than in thus consecrating themselves and their services to the Lord?

[¶7] We have already seen that every act was a religious act; and we may rest assured that no day was too holy for the performance of such acts as are recorded here.

### Verse 72

[¶9] On the eleventh day - The Hebrew form of expression, here and in the 78th verse, has something curious in it. ביום עשתי עשר יום beyom ashtey asar yom, In the day, the first and tenth day; ביום שנים עשר יום beyom sheneym asar yom, In the day, two and tenth day. But this is the idiom of the language, and to an original Hebrew our almost anomalous words eleventh and twelfth, by which we translate the original, would appear as strange as his, literally translated, would appear to us. In reckoning after twelve, it is easy to find out the composition of the words thirteen, as three and ten, fourteen, four and ten, and so on; but eleven and twelve bear scarcely any analogy to ten and one, and ten and two, which nevertheless they intend. But this is a subject of philology rather than of Biblical criticism.

### Verse 84

[¶11] This was the dedication of the altar, in the day, etc. - Meaning here the time in which it was dedicated; for as each tribe had a whole day for its representative or prince to present the offerings it had provided, consequently the dedication, in which each had his day, must have lasted twelve days: the words therefore, in this text, refer to the last day or twelfth, in which this dedication was completed.

### Verse 88

[¶13] After that it was anointed - By the anointing the altar was consecrated to God; by this dedication it was solemnly appointed to that service for which it had been erected.

### Verse 89

[¶15] To speak with him - To confer with God, and to receive farther discoveries of his will. He heard the voice of one speaking unto him - Though Moses saw no similitude, but only heard a voice, yet he had the fullest proof of the presence as well as of the being of the Almighty. In this way God chose to manifest himself during that dispensation, till the fullness of the time came, in which the Word was made flesh, and Dwelt Among Us. No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

[¶16] The mercy-seat - See the note on [Exo 25:17]. As God gave oracular answers from this place, and spoke to Moses as it were face to face, hence the place was called the Oracle, דביר debir, or speaking place, from דבר dabar, he spoke, [1Kgs 6:23]. And as this mercy-seat represented our blessed Redeemer, so the apostle says that God, who had at sundry times, and in divers manners, Spoken in time past to the fathers by the prophets, hath, in these last days, Spoken unto us by his Son. [Heb 1:1], [Heb 1:2]. Hence the incarnated Christ is the true דביר debir or oracle, in and by whom God speaks unto man. On this occasion we find there were offered 12 silver chargers each weighing 130 shekels. 12 silver bowls, each 70 shekels.

[¶17] Total amount of silver vessels 2,400 shekels. 12 golden spoons, each weighing 10 shekels.

[¶18] Total amount of golden vessels 120 shekels. oz. dwts. gr. A silver charger at 130 shekels reduced to troy weight makes 75 9 16 8/31 A silver bowl at 70 shekels amounts to 40 12 21 21/31 Total weight of the 12 chargers. 905 16 3 3/31 Total weight of the 12 bowls 487 14 20 4/31 Total 1393 10 23 7/31 Which, at 5s. per oz., is equal to 348 7s. 9d. oz. dwts. gr. The 12 golden spoons, allowing each to be 5 16 3 3/31 Amount to 69 13 13 5/31 Which, at 4 per ounce, equals 278 14s. 2 1/2 d And added to the amount of the silver 348 7s. 9d. Make a total of 627 1s. 11d.

[¶19] Besides the above there were

[¶20] Bullocks 12 Rams 12 Lambs 12 Goats 24 Rams 60 He-goats 60 Lambs 60 - Total 240 clean beasts for sacrifice.

[¶21] By which we may at once see that though the place in which they now sojourned was a wilderness, as to cities, villages, and regular inhabitants, yet there was plenty of pasturage, else the Israelites could not have furnished these cattle, with all the sacrifices necessary for different occasions, and especially for the passover, which was celebrated during their sojourning in the desert, and which itself must have required an immense number of lambs, (see Numbers 9) when each family of the 600,000 males was obliged to provide one for itself.

### Introduction

[¶23] Directions how the lamps are to be lighted, [Num 8:1-3]. How the candlestick was formed, [Num 8:4]. The Levites to be consecrated to their service by being cleansed, sprinkled, shaved, purified, and their clothes washed, [Num 8:5-7]. To offer a meat-offering and a sin-offering, [Num 8:8]. The people to put their hands upon them, [Num 8:9], [Num 8:10]. Aaron is to offer them before the Lord, [Num 8:11]. The Levites to lay their hands on the heads of the bullocks, etc., [Num 8:12]. The Levites are taken to assist Aaron and his sons in the place of all the first-born of Israel, [Num 8:13-19]. Moses and Aaron do as they were commanded, the Levites are presented, purified, and commence their service, [Num 8:20-22]. They are to begin their service at twenty-five years of age, and leave off at fifty, [Num 8:23-25]. After this they shall have the general inspection of the service, [Num 8:26].

### Verse 2

[¶25] The seven lamps shall give light - The whole seven shall be lighted at one time, that seven may be ever burning.

### Verse 4

[¶27] This work of the candlestick, etc. - See many curious particulars relative to this candlestick, See the note on [Exo 25:31] and [Exo 25:39] (note). The candlestick itself was an emblem of the Church of Christ; the oil, of the graces and gifts of the Spirit of God; and the light, of those gifts and graces in action among men. See [Rev 1:12-20]. God builds his Church and sends forth his Spirit to dwell in it, to sanctify and cleanse it, that it may be shown unto the world as his own workmanship. The seven lights in the candlesticks point out the seven Spirits of God, the Holy Ghost being thus termed, [Rev 3:1], from the variety and abundance of his gifts and influences; seven being used among the Hebrews to denote any thing full, complete, and perfect. A candlestick or lamp without oil is of no use; oil not burning is of no use. So a Church or society of religious people without the influence of the Holy Ghost are dead while they have a name to live; and if they have a measure of this light, and do not let it shine by purity of living and holy zeal before men, their religion is neither useful to themselves nor to others. Reader, it is possible to be in the Church of God and not be of that Church; it is possible to have a measure of the Spirit and neither profit nor be profited. Feel this dreadful possibility, and pray to God that thou be not a proof of it.

### Verse 7

[¶29] Sprinkle water of purifying - מי חטאת mey chattath, water of sin, or water of the sin-offering. As this purifying water was made by the ashes of the red heifer, cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet; and the heifer herself was sacrificed, and her blood sprinkled seven times before the tabernacle, [Num 19:3-6]; she may be considered as a proper sacrifice for sin, and consequently the water thus prepared be termed the water of the sin-offering. As the ashes were kept ready at hand for purifying from all legal pollutions, the preparation might be considered as a concentration of the essential properties of the sin-offering, and might be resorted to at all times with comparatively little expense or trouble, and no loss of time. As there were so many things by which legal pollution might be contracted, it was necessary to have always at hand, in all their dwellings, a mode of purifying at once convenient and inexpensive.

[¶30] As the water by which the Levites were here purified must have been the water prepared from the ashes of the red heifer, this ordinance was undoubtedly instituted before this time, though not described till [Num 19:1-10] of this book; but that chapter might be in connection with any of the preceding ordinances, as well as where it is now found.

[¶31] We see from [Heb 9:13], [Heb 9:14], that these ashes mingled with water, and sprinkled on the unclean, and which sanctified to the purification of the flesh, were intended to typify the blood of Christ, which purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God, [Heb 9:15]; for as without this sprinkling with the water of the sin-offering the Levites were not fit to serve God in the wilderness, so without this sprinkling of the blood of Christ no conscience can be purged from dead works to serve the living God. See the notes on [Num 19:1-10] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶33] Shall put their hands upon the Levites - It has been argued from this that the congregation had a part in the appointment of their own ministers, and that this was done by the imposition of hands. However that may be, it appears that what was done on this occasion meant no more than that the people gave up this whole tribe to God in place of their firstborn; and that by this act they bound themselves to provide for them who, because of their sacred service, could follow no secular work. And surely it was right, that they who served the altar should live by the altar. The ministers of God perform offices for the people which the people cannot perform for themselves; and nothing can be more reasonable than that the people should give them the necessaries and comforts of life while they are thus employed in their behalf.

### Verse 17

[¶35] For all the first-born - are mine - See the manner of redeeming the first-born, [Num 18:6].

### Verse 21

[¶37] And Aaron made an atonement for them - Though the Levites had been most solemnly consecrated to the Lord's service, and though all legal washings and purifications were duly performed on the occasion, yet they could not approach God till an atonement had been made for them. How strange is it, after all these significations, of the will and purpose of God relative to man, that any priest or any people will attempt to draw nigh to God without an atonement! As sure as God hath spoken it, there is no entrance into the holiest but through the blood of Jesus, [Heb 10:19], [Heb 10:20].

### Verse 24

[¶39] From twenty and five years old - See the note on [Num 4:3], where the two terms of twenty-five and thirty years are reconciled.

### Verse 26

[¶41] To keep the charge, and shall do no service - They shall no longer be obliged to perform any laborious service, but act as general directors and counsellors; therefore they were to be near the camp, sing praises to God, and see that no stranger or unclean person was permitted to enter. So the Jews and many other persons have understood this place.

[¶42] 1. If it required so much legal purity to fit the Levites for their work in the tabernacle, can we suppose that it requires less spiritual purity to fit ministers of the Gospel to proclaim the righteousness of the Most High, and administer the sacred ordinances of Christianity to the flock of Christ? If these must be without spot, as the priests before without blemish, and these were only typical men, we may rest assured that a Christian minister requires no ordinary measures of holiness to prepare him for an acceptable and profitable discharge of his office.

[¶43] 2. If the Christian ministry be established to prepare men for the kingdom of God, of the holiness of which the purity of the camp was but a faint emblem, how can any man expect to enter that place of blessedness, who has not his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and his body washed with pure water; his life and conversation agreeable to the sacred precepts laid down in the Gospel of Christ? If the law of Moses were more read in reference to the Gospel, the Gospel itself and its requisitions would be much better understood.

[¶44] Reader, however it may be with thee, Antinomianism is more general among religious people than is usually imagined. What multitudes of all denominations are expecting to enter into the kingdom of God without any proper preparation for the place! Without holiness none shall see the Lord; and from this decision of the Divine justice there shall never be any appeal.

## 160. Numbers · 9 of 34

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/160/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/160/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The Israelites are reminded of the law that required them to keep the passover at its proper time, and with all its rites, [Num 9:1-3]. They kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, [Num 9:4], [Num 9:5]. The case of the men who, being unclean through touching a dead body, could not keep the passover, [Num 9:6], [Num 9:7]. Moses inquires at the Lord concerning them, [Num 9:8]; and the Lord appoints the fourteenth day of the second month for all those who through any accidental uncleanness, or by being absent on a journey, could not keep it at the usual time, [Num 9:9-12]. Those who neglect to keep this solemn feast to be cut off from among his people, [Num 9:13]. The stranger who wishes to keep the passover is at liberty to do it, [Num 9:14]. The cloud covers the tabernacle both by day and night, from the time of its dedication, [Num 9:15], [Num 9:16]. This cloud regulates all the encampments and marchings of the Israelites through the wilderness, [Num 9:17-22]. Their journeyings and restings were all directed by the commandment of the Lord, [Num 9:23].

### Verse 1

[¶3] The Lord spake unto Moses - The fourteen first verses of this chapter certainly refer to transactions that took place at the time of those mentioned in the commencement of this book, before the numbering of the people, and several learned men are of opinion that these fourteen verses should be referred back to that place. We have already met with instances where transpositions have very probably taken place, and it is not difficult to account for them. As in very early times writing was generally on leaves of the Egyptian flag papyrus, or on thin laminae of different substances, facts and transactions thus entered were very liable to be deranged; so that when afterwards a series was made up into a book, many transactions might be inserted in wrong places, and thus the exact chronology of the facts be greatly disturbed. MSS. written on leaves of trees, having a hole in each, through which a cord is passed to keep them all in their places, are frequently to be met with in the cabinets of the curious, and many such are now before me, especially in Singalese, Pali, and Burman. Should the cord break, or be accidentally unloosed, it would be exceedingly difficult to string them all in their proper places; accidents of this kind I have often met with to my very great perplexity, and in some cases found it almost impossible to restore each individual leaf to its own place; for it should be observed that these separate pieces of oriental writing are not always paged like the leaves of our printed books; nor are there frequently any catch-words or signatures at the bottom to connect the series. This one consideration will account for several transpositions, especially in the Pentateuch, where they occur more frequently than in any other part of the sacred writings. Houbigant, who grants the existence of such transpositions, thinks that this is no sufficient reason why the present order of narration should be changed: "It is enough," says he, non ignorare libros eos Mosis esse acta rerum suo tempore gestarum, non historiam filo perpetuo elaboratam," "to know that these books contain an account of things transacted in the days of Moses, though not in their regular or chronological order.'

### Verse 3

[¶5] According to all the rites of it - See all those rites and ceremonies largely explained in the notes on Exodus 12 (note).

### Verse 7

[¶7] We are defiled by the dead body of a man - It is probable that the defilement mentioned here was occasioned by assisting at the burial of some person - a work both of necessity and mercy. This circumstance however gave rise to the ordinance delivered in [Num 9:10-14], so that on particular occasions the passover might be twice celebrated:

[¶8] 1. At its regular time, the 14th of the first month;

[¶9] 2. An extra time, the 14th of the second month.

[¶10] But the man who had no legal hinderance, and did not celebrate it on one or other of these times, was to be cut off from the people of God; and the reason given for this cutting off is, that he brought not the offering of God in his appointed season - therefore that man shall bear his sin, [Num 9:13].

[¶11] We have already seen, from the authority of St. Paul, that Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us; and that it was his sacrifice that was pointed out by the paschal lamb: on this, therefore, we may observe, that those who do not sooner or later eat the true Passover, and get the salvation procured by the sprinkling of his blood, shall be cut off from among those that shall enter into the rest prepared for the people of God; and for the same reason too; they bring not the offering of God in its appointed season, and therefore they shall bear their sin.

### Verse 15

[¶13] The cloud covered the tabernacle - See the whole account of this supernatural cloud largely explained, [Exo 23:21]; and [Exo 40:34-38]. Calmet observes that the 15th verse, beginning a new subject, should begin a new chapter, as it has no connection with what goes before; and he thinks this chapter, begun with the 15th verse, should end with the 28th verse of the following. ([Exo 10:28])

### Verse 21

[¶15] Whether - by day or by night - As the heat of the day is very severe in that same desert, the night season is sometimes chosen for the performance of a journey; though it is very likely that in the case of the Israelites this was seldom resorted to.

### Verse 22

[¶17] Two days - a month - a year - It was by the Divine counsel alone that they were directed in all their peregrinations: and from the above words we see that their times of tarrying at different stations were very unequal.

### Verse 23

[¶19] Kept the charge of the Lord - When we consider the strong disposition which this people ever testified to follow their own will in all things, we may be well surprised to find them, in these journeyings, so implicitly following the directions of God. There could be no trick or imposture here. Moses, had he been the most cunning of men, never could have imitated the appearances referred to in this chapter. The cloud, and every thing in its motion, was so evidently supernatural, that the people had no doubt of its being the symbol of the Divine presence. God chose to keep this people so dependent upon himself, and so submissive to the decisions of his own will, that he would not even give them regular times of marching or resting; they were to do both when and where God saw best. Thus they were ever kept ready for their march, though perfectly ignorant of the time when they should commence it. But this was all well; they had the presence of God with them; the cloud by day and the fire by night demonstrated that God was amongst them. Reader, thou art here a tenant at will to God Almighty. How soon, in what place, or in what circumstances, he may call thee to march into the eternal world, thou knowest not. But this uncertainty cannot perplex thee, if thou be properly subject to the will of God, ever willing to lose thy own in it. But thou canst not be thus subject, unless thou have the testimony of the presence and approbation of God. How awful to be obliged to walk into the valley of the shadow of death without this! Reader, prepare to meet thy God.

### Introduction

[¶21] Moses is commanded to make two silver trumpets for calling the assembly, [Num 10:1], [Num 10:2]. On what occasions these trumpets should be sounded. First, for calling the assembly to the door of the tabernacle, [Num 10:3]. Secondly, to summon the princes and captains of the thousands of Israel, [Num 10:4]. Thirdly, to make the eastern camps strike their tents, [Num 10:5]. Fourthly, to make those on the south do the like, [Num 10:6]. No alarm to be sounded when the congregation only is to be assembled, [Num 10:7]. The sons of Aaron alone shall sound these trumpets, it shall be a perpetual ordinance, [Num 10:8]. Fifthly, the trumpets are to be sounded in the time of war, [Num 10:9]. Sixthly, on festival occasions, [Num 10:10] On the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, the Israelites began their journey from the wilderness of Sinai, and came to the wilderness of Paran, [Num 10:11], [Num 10:12]. By the commandment of God to Moses the first division, at the head of which was the standard of Judah, marched, first, [Num 10:13], [Num 10:14]. Under him followed the tribe of Issachar, [Num 10:15]; and after them the tribe of Zebulun, [Num 10:16]. Then the Gershonites and Merarites followed with the tabernacle, [Num 10:17]. At the head of the second division was the standard and camp of Reuben, [Num 10:18]; and under him were that of Simeon, [Num 10:19]; and that of Gad, [Num 10:20]. Next followed the Kohathites bearing the sanctuary, [Num 10:21]. Then followed the third division, at the head of which was the standard of the camp of Ephraim, [Num 10:22]; and under him Manasseh, [Num 10:23]; and Benjamin, [Num 10:24]. At the head of the fourth division was the standard of the camp of Dan, [Num 10:25]; and under him Asher, [Num 10:26]; and Naphtali, [Num 10:27]. This was their ordinary method of marching in the wilderness, [Num 10:28]. Moses entreats Hobab the Midianite to accompany them through the wilderness, [Num 10:29]. He refuses, [Num 10:30]. Moses continues and strengthens his entreaties with reasonings and promises, [Num 10:31], [Num 10:32]. They depart from Sinai three days' journey, [Num 10:33]. The cloud accompanies them by day and night, [Num 10:34]. The words used by Moses when the ark set forward, [Num 10:35], and when it rested, [Num 10:36].

### Verse 2

[¶23] Make thee two trumpets of silver - The necessity of such instruments will at once appear, when the amazing extent of this numerous army is considered; and how even the sound of two trumpets could reach them all is difficult to conceive; but we may suppose that, when they were sounded, the motion of those that were within reach of that sound taught the others in succession what they should do.

[¶24] As the trumpets were to be blown by the priests only, the sons of Aaron, there were only two, because there were only two such persons to use them at this time, Eleazar and Ithamar. In the time of Joshua there were seven trumpets used by the priests, but these were made, according to our text, of rams' horns, [Jos 6:4]. In the time of Solomon, when the priests had greatly increased, there were 120 priests sounding with trumpets, [2Chr 5:12].

[¶25] Josephus intimates that one of these trumpets was always used to call the nobles together, the other to assemble the people; see [Num 10:4]. It is possible that these trumpets were made of different lengths and wideness, and consequently they would emit different tones. Thus the sound itself would at once show which was the summons for the congregation, and which for the princes only. These trumpets were allowed to be emblematical of the sound of the Gospel, and in this reference they appear to be frequently used. Of the fate of the trumpets of the sanctuary, See the note on [Exo 25:31].

### Verse 5

[¶27] When ye blow an alarm - תרועה teruah, probably meaning short, broken, sharp tones, terminating with long ones, blown with both the trumpets at once. From the similarity in the words some suppose that the Hebrew teruah was similar to the Roman taratantara, or sound of their clarion.

### Verse 6

[¶29] When ye blow an alarm the second time - A single alarm, as above stated, was a signal for the eastward division to march; two such alarms, the signal for the south division; and probably three for the west division, and four for the north. It is more likely that this was the case, than that a single alarm served for each, with a small interval between them. The camps, or grand divisions of this great army, always lay, as we have already seen, to the east, south, west, and north: and here the east and south camps alone are mentioned; the first containing Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; the second, Reuben, Simeon, and Gad. The west and north divisions are not named, and yet we are sure they marched in consequence of express orders or signals, as well as the other two. There appears therefore a deficiency here in the Hebrew text, which is thus supplied by the Septuagint: Και σαλπιειτε σημασιαν τριτην, και εξαρουσιν αἱ παρεμβολαι αἱ παρεμβαλλουσαι παρα θαλασσαν· και σαλπιειτε σημασιαν τεταρτην, και εξαρουσιν αἱ παρεμβολαι αἱ παρεμβαλλουσαι προς βορῥαν. "And when ye blow a third alarm or signal, the camps on the west shall march: and when ye blow a fourth alarm or signal, the camps on the north shall march." This addition, however, is not acknowledged by the Samaritan, nor by any of the other versions but the Coptic. Nor are there any various readings in the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi, which countenance the addition in the above versions. Houbigant thinks this addition so evidently necessary, that he has inserted the Latin in his text, and in a note supplied the Hebrew words, and thinks that these words were originally in the Hebrew text, but happened to be omitted in consequence of so many similar words occurring so often in the same verse, which might dazzle and deceive the eye of a transcriber.

### Verse 9

[¶31] If ye go to war - These trumpets shall be sounded for the purpose of collecting the people together, to deliberate about the war, and to implore the protection of God against their enemies.

[¶32] Ye shall be remembered before the Lord - When ye decamp, encamp, make war, and hold religious festivals, according to his appointment, which appointment shall be signified to you by the priests, who at the command of God, for such purposes, shall blow the trumpets, then ye may expect both the presence and blessing of Jehovah in all that ye undertake.

### Verse 10

[¶34] In the day of your gladness - On every festival the people shall be collected by the same means.

### Verse 11

[¶36] The twentieth day of the second month - The Israelites had lain encamped in the wilderness of Sinai about eleven months and twenty days; compare [Exo 19:1] with this verse. They now received the order of God to decamp, and proceed towards the promised land; and therefore the Samaritan introduces at this place the words which we find in [Deu 1:6-8] : "The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying: Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount, turn and take your journey," etc.

### Verse 12

[¶38] The cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran - This was three days' journey from the wilderness of Sinai, (see [Num 10:33]), and the people had three stations; the first at Kibroth-hattaavah, the second at Hazeroth, [Num 11:35], and the third in the wilderness of Paran, see [Num 12:16]. But it is extremely difficult to determine these journeyings with any degree of exactness; and we are often at a loss to know whether the place in question was in a direct or retrograde position from the place previously mentioned.

### Verse 14

[¶40] The standard - of Judah - See this order of marching explained at large on Numbers 2 (note). The following is the order in which this vast company proceeded in their march: -

[¶41] Judah Issachar Zebulun Gershonites, and Merarites carrying the tabernacle.

[¶42] Reuben Simeon Gad The Kohathites with the sanctuary.

[¶43] Ephraim Manasseh Benjamin

[¶44] Dan Asher Naphtali.

## 161. Numbers · 10 of 34

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/161/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/161/#p-N

### Verse 29

[¶1] Moses said unto Hobab - For a circumstantial account of this person see the notes on [Exo 2:15], [Exo 2:16] (note), [Exo 2:18] (note); [Exo 3:1]; [Exo 4:20] (note), [Exo 4:24] (note); and for the transaction recorded here, and which is probably out of its place, see [Exo 18:5] (note), where the subject is discussed at large.

[¶2] We are journeying - God has brought us out of thraldom, and we are thus far on our way through the wilderness, travelling towards the place of rest which he has appointed us, trusting in his promise, guided by his presence, and supported by his power. Come thou with us, and we will do thee good. Those who wish to enjoy the heavenly inheritance must walk in the way towards it, and associate with the people who are going in that way. True religion is ever benevolent. They who know most of the goodness of God are the most forward to invite others to partake of that goodness. That religion which excludes all others from salvation, unless they believe a particular creed, and worship in a particular way, is not of God. Even Hobab, the Arab, according to the opinion of Moses, might receive the same blessings which God had promised to Israel, provided he accompanied them in the same way.

[¶3] The Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel - The name Israel is taken in a general sense to signify the followers of God, and to them all the promises in the Bible are made. God has spoken good of them, and he has spoken good to them; and not one word that he hath spoken shall fail. Reader, hast thou left thy unhallowed connections in life? Hast thou got into the camp of the Most High? Then continue to follow God with Israel, and thou shalt be incorporated in the heavenly family, and share in Israel's benedictions.

### Verse 30

[¶5] I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred - From the strong expostulations in [Num 10:31] and [Num 10:32], and from [Jdg 1:16]; [Jdg 4:11], and [1Sam 15:6], it is likely that Hobab changed his mind; or that, if he did go back to Midian, he returned again to Israel, as the above scriptures show that his posterity dwelt among the Israelites in Canaan. Reader, after having been almost persuaded to become a Christian, to take Christ, his cross, his reproach, and his crown, for thy portion, art thou again purposing to go back to thy own land, and to thy kindred? Knowest thou not that this land is the place of destruction - that the children of this world, who are not taking God for their portion, are going to perdition? Up, get thee hence, for the Lord will destroy this place by fire; and all who are not of the kindred and family of Christ shall perish at the brightness of his appearing!

### Verse 31

[¶7] Thou mayest be to us instead of eyes - But what need had they of Hobab, when they had the pillar and fire continually to point out their way? Answer: The cloud directed their general journeys, but not their particular excursions. Parties took several journeys while the grand army lay still. (See Numbers 13, 20, 31, 32, etc). They therefore needed such a person as Hobab, who was well acquainted with the desert, to direct these particular excursions; to point them out watering places, and places where they might meet with fuel, etc., etc. What man cannot, under the direction of God's providence, do for himself, God will do in the way of especial mercy. He could have directed them to the fountains and to the places of fuel, but Hobab can do this, therefore let Hobab be employed; and let Hobab know for his encouragement that, while he is serving others in the way of God's providence, he is securing his own best interests. On these grounds Hobab should be invited, and for this reason Hobab should go. Man cannot do God's work; and God will not do the work which he has qualified and commanded man to perform. Thus then the Lord is ever seen, even while he is helping man by man. See some valuable observations on this subject in Harmer, vol. ii., 286. Instead of, And thou mayest be to us instead of eyes, the Septuagint translate the passage thus: Και εσῃ εν ἡμιν πρεσβυτης, And thou shalt be an elder among us. But Moses probably refers to Hobab's accurate knowledge of the wilderness, and to the assistance he could give them as a guide.

### Verse 33

[¶9] The ark - went before them - We find from [Num 10:21] that the ark was carried by the Kohathites in the center of the army; but as the army never moved till the cloud was taken up, it is said to go before them, i. e., to be the first to move, as without this motion the Israelites continued in their encampments.

### Verse 35

[¶11] Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered - If God did not arise in this way and scatter his enemies, there could be no hope that Israel could get safely through the wilderness. God must go first, if Israel would wish to follow in safety.

### Verse 36

[¶13] Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel - These were the words spoken by Moses, at the moment the divisions halted in order to pitch their tents. In reference to this subject, and the history with which it is connected, the 68th Psalm seems to have been composed, though applied by David to the bringing the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem. See the notes on Psalm 68 (note). Many thousands, literally the ten thousand thousands. Unless the ark went with them, and the cloud of the Divine glory with it, they could have neither direction nor safety; unless the ark rested with them, and the cloud of glory with it, they could have neither rest nor comfort. How necessary are the word of God and the Spirit of God for the direction, comfort, and defense of every genuine follower of Christ! Reader, pray to God that thou mayest have both with thee through all the wilderness, through all the changes and chances of this mortal life: if thou be guided by his counsel, thou shalt be at last received into his glory.

### Introduction

[¶15] The people complain, the Lord is displeased, and many of them are consumed by fire, [Num 11:1]. Moses intercedes for them, and the fire is quenched, [Num 11:2]. The place is called Taberah, [Num 11:3]. The mixed multitude long for flesh, and murmur, [Num 11:4-6]. The manna described, [Num 11:7-9]. The people weep in their tents, and the Lord is displeased, [Num 11:10]. Moses deplores his lot in being obliged to hear and bear with all their murmurings, [Num 11:11-15]. He is commanded to bring seventy of the elders to God that he may endue them with the same spirit, and cause them to divide the burden with him, [Num 11:16], [Num 11:17]. He is also commanded to inform the people that they shall have flesh for a whole month, [Num 11:18-20]. Moses expresses his doubt of the possibility of this, [Num 11:21], [Num 11:22]. The Lord confirms his promise, [Num 11:23]. The seventy men are brought to the tabernacle, [Num 11:24]; and the spirit of prophecy rests upon them, [Num 11:25]. Eldad and Medad stay in the camp and prophesy, [Num 11:26], [Num 11:27]. Joshua beseeches Moses to forbid them, [Num 11:28]. Moses refuses, [Num 11:29], [Num 11:30]. A wind from the Lord brings quails to the camp, [Num 11:31], [Num 11:32]. While feeding on the flesh, a plague from the Lord falls upon them, and many of them die, [Num 11:33]. The place is called Kibroth-hattaavah, or the graves of lust, [Num 11:34]. They journey to Hazeroth, [Num 11:35].

### Verse 1

[¶17] And when the people complained - What the cause of this complaining was, we know not. The conjecture of St. Jerome is probable; they complained because of the length of the way. But surely no people had ever less cause for murmuring; they had God among them, and miracles of goodness were continually wrought in their behalf.

[¶18] It displeased the Lord - For his extraordinary kindness was lost on such an ungrateful and rebellious people. And his anger was kindled - Divine justice was necessarily incensed against such inexcusable conduct.

[¶19] And the fire of the Lord burnt among them - Either a supernatural fire was sent for this occasion, or the lightning was commissioned against them, or God smote them with one of those hot suffocating winds which are very common in those countries.

[¶20] And consumed - in the uttermost parts of the camp - It pervaded the whole camp, from the center to the circumference, carrying death with it to all the murmurers; for we are not to suppose that it was confined to the uttermost parts of the camp, unless we could imagine that there were none culpable any where else. If this were the same with the case mentioned [Num 11:4], then, as it is possible that the mixed multitude occupied the outermost parts of the camp, consequently the burning might have been confined to them.

### Verse 2

[¶22] The fire was quenched - Was sunk, or swallowed up, as in the margin. The plague, of whatever sort, ceased to act, and the people had respite.

### Verse 4

[¶24] The mixed multitude - האספסף hasaphsuph, the collected or gathered people. Such as came out of Egypt with the Israelites; and are mentioned [Exo 12:38]. This mongrel people, who had comparatively little of the knowledge of God, feeling the difficulties and fatigues of the journey, were the first to complain; and then we find the children of Israel joined them in their complainings, and made a common cause with these demi-infidels.

### Verse 5

[¶26] We remember, etc. - The choice aliments which those murmurers complained of having lost by their leaving Egypt, were the following: fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. A European may smile at such delicacies; but delicacies they were in that country. Their fish is excellent; their cucumbers and water melons highly salubrious and refreshing; and their onions, garlic, etc., exquisitely flavoured, differing as much from vegetables of the same species in these northern climes as a bad turnip does from a good apple. In short, this enumeration takes in almost all the commonly attainable delicacies in those countries.

### Verse 7

[¶28] The manna was as coriander seed - Probably this short description is added to show the iniquity of the people in murmuring, while they had so adequate a provision. But the baseness of their minds appears in every part of their conduct. About the bdellium of the ancients the learned are not agreed; and I shall not trouble the reader with conjectures. See the note on [Gen 2:12]. Concerning the manna, see the notes on Exodus 16 (note). [Num 11:11-15]. The complaint and remonstrance of Moses in these verses serve at once to show the deeply distressed state of his mind, and the degradation of the minds of the people. We have already seen that the slavery they had so long endured had served to debase their minds, and to render them incapable of every high and dignified sentiment, and of every generous act.

### Verse 17

[¶30] I will take of the spirit which is upon thee - From this place Origen and Theodoret take occasion to compare Moses to a lamp, at which seventy others were lighted, without losing any of its brightness. To convince Moses that God had sufficiently qualified him for the work which he had given him to do, he tells him that of the gifts and graces which he has given him he will qualify seventy persons to bear the charge with him. This was probably intended as a gracious reproof. Query. Did not Moses lose a measure of his gifts in this business? And is it not right that he whom God has called to and qualified for some particular office, should lose those gifts which he either undervalues or refuses to employ for God in the way appointed? Is there not much reason to believe that many cases have occurred where the spiritual endowments of particular persons have been taken away and given to others who made a better use of them? Hence the propriety of that exhortation, [Rev 3:11] : Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. The gracious God never called a man to perform a work without furnishing him with adequate strength; and to refuse to do it on the pretense of inability is little short of rebellion against God. This institution of the seventy persons to help Moses the rabbins consider as the origin of their grand council called the Sanhedrin. But we find that a council of seventy men, elders of Israel, had existed among the people a year before this time. See [Exo 24:9] (note); see the advice given to Jethro to Moses, [Exo 18:17] (note), etc., and the notes there.

### Verse 22

[¶32] Shall the flocks and the herds be slain - There is certainly a considerable measure of weakness and unbelief manifested in the complaints and questions of Moses on this occasion; but his conduct appears at the same time so very simple, honest, and affectionate, that we cannot but admire it, while we wonder that he had not stronger confidence in that God whose miracles he had so often witnessed in Egypt.

### Verse 23

[¶34] Is the Lord's hand waxed short? - Hast thou forgotten the miracles which I have already performed? or thinkest thou that my power is decreased? The power that is unlimited can never be diminished.

### Verse 25

[¶36] When the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied - By prophesying here we are to understand their performing those civil and sacred functions for which they were qualified; exhorting the people to quiet and peaceable submission, to trust and confidence in the goodness and providence of God, would make no small part of the duties of their new office. The ideal meaning of the word נבא naba is to pray, entreat, etc. The prophet is called נביא nabi, because he prays, supplicates, in reference to God; exhorts, entreats, in reference to man. See on [Gen 20:7] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶38] Eldad and Medad do prophesy, etc. -

[¶39] Eldad, they said, and Medad there,

[¶40] Irregularly bold,

[¶41] By Moses uncommission'd, dare

[¶42] A separate meeting hold!

[¶43] And still whom none but heaven will own.

[¶44] Men whom the world decry,

[¶45] Men authorized by God alone,

## 162. Numbers · 11 of 34

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[¶0] Presume to prophesy!

### Verse 28

[¶2] My lord Moses, forbid them -

[¶3] How often have I blindly done

[¶4] What zealous Joshua did,

[¶5] Impatient to the rulers run,

[¶6] And cried, "My lords, forbid!

[¶7] Silence the schismatics, constrain

[¶8] Their thoughts with ours t' agree,

[¶9] And sacrifice the souls of men

[¶10] To idol unity!"

### Verse 29

[¶12] Enviest thou for my sake? -

[¶13] Moses, the minister of God,

[¶14] Rebukes our partial love,

[¶15] Who envy at the gifts bestow'd

[¶16] On those we disapprove.

[¶17] We do not our own spirit know,

[¶18] Who wish to see suppress'd

[¶19] The men that Jesu's spirit show,

[¶20] The men whom God hath bless'd.

[¶21] Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets -

[¶22] Shall we the Spirit's course restrain,

[¶23] Or quench the heavenly fire?

[¶24] Let God his messengers ordain,

[¶25] And whom he will inspire.

[¶26] Blow as he list, the Spirit's choice

[¶27] Of instruments we bless;

[¶28] We will, if Christ be preached, rejoice,

[¶29] And wish the word success.

[¶30] Can all be prophets then? are all

[¶31] Commission'd from above?

[¶32] No; but whome'er the Lord shall call

[¶33] We joyfully approve.

[¶34] O that the Church might all receive

[¶35] The spirit of prophecy,

[¶36] And all in Christ accepted live,

[¶37] And all in Jesus die!

[¶38] Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, by Charles Wesley, M. A., and Presbyter of the Church of England. Bristol, 1762. 2 vols. 12mo.

[¶39] These sentiments are the more particularly remarkable as they come from one who was sufficiently bigoted to what was called ecclesiastical orders and regularity.

### Verse 31

[¶41] A wind from the Lord - An extraordinary one, not the effect of a natural cause. And brought quails, a bird which in great companies visits Egypt about the time of the year, March or April, at which the circumstance marked here took place. Mr. Hasselquist, the friend and pupil of the famous Linnaeus, saw many of them about this time of the year, when he was in Egypt. See his Travels, p. 209.

[¶42] Two cubits high upon the face of the earth - We may consider the quails as flying within two cubits of the ground; so that the Israelites could easily take as many of them as they wished, while flying within the reach of their hands or their clubs. The common notion is, that the quails were brought round about the camp, and fell there in such multitudes as to lie two feet thick upon the ground; but the Hebrew will not bear this version. The Vulgate has expressed the sense, Volabantque in aere duobus cubitis altitudine super terram. "And they flew in the air, two cubits high above the ground."

### Verse 32

[¶44] The people stood up, etc. - While these immense flocks were flying at this short distance from the ground, fatigued with the strong wind and the distance they had come, they were easily taken by the people; and as various flocks continued to succeed each other for two days and a night, enough for a month's provision might be collected in that time. If the quails had fallen about the tents, there was no need to have stood up two days and a night in gathering them; but if they were on the wing, as the text seems to suppose, it was necessary for them to use dispatch, and avail themselves of the passing of these birds whilst it continued. See Harmer, and see the note on [Exo 16:13].

## 163. Numbers · 12 of 34

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[¶0] And they spread them all abroad - Maillet observes that birds of all kinds come to Egypt for refuge from the cold of a northern winter; and that the people catch them, pluck, and bury them in the burning sand for a few minutes, and thus prepare them for use. This is probably what is meant by spreading them all abroad round the camp. Some authors think that the word שלוים salvim, rendered quails in our translation, should be rendered locusts. There is no need of this conjecture; all difficulties are easily resolved without it. The reader is particularly referred to the note on [Exo 16:13] (note).

### Verse 33

[¶2] The wrath of the Lord was kindled - In what way, and with what effects, we cannot precisely determine. Some heavy judgment fell upon those murmurers and complainers, but of what kind the sacred writer says nothing.

### Verse 34

[¶4] Kibroth-hattaavah - The graves of lust; and thus their scandalous crime was perpetuated by the name of the place.

[¶5] 1. St. Jude speaks of persons who were murmurers and complainers, walking after their own lusts, [Jde 1:16], and seems to have this people particularly in view, whom the sacred text calls μεμψιμοιροι, complainers of their lot. They could never be satisfied; even God himself could not please them, because they were ever preferring their own wisdom to his. God will save us in his own way, or not at all; because that way, being the plan of infinite wisdom, it is impossible that we can be saved in any other. How often have we professed to pray, "Thy will be done!" And how seldom, very seldom, have our hearts and lips corresponded! How careful should we be in all our prayers to ask nothing but what is perfectly consistent with the will of God! Many times our prayers and desires are such that, were they answered, our ruin would be inevitable. "Thy will be done!" is the greatest of all prayers; and he who would pray safely and successfully, must at least have the spirit of these words in all his petitions. The Israelites asked flesh when they should not have asked for it; God yields to their murmuring, and the death of multitudes of these murmurers was the consequence! We hear of such punishments, and yet walk in the same way, presuming on God's mercy, while we continue to provoke his justice. Let us settle it in our minds as an indisputable truth, that God is better acquainted with our wants than we are ourselves; that he knows infinitely better what we need; and that he is ever more ready to hear than we are to pray, and is wont to give more than we can desire or deserve.

[¶6] 2. In no case has God at any time withheld from his meanest followers any of the spiritual or temporal mercies they needed. Were he to call us to travel through a wilderness, he would send us bread from heaven, or cause the wilderness to smile and blossom as the rose. How strange is it that we will neither believe that God has worked, or will work, unless we see him working!

### Introduction

[¶8] Miriam and Aaron raise a sedition against Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman he had married, [Num 12:1], and through jealousy of his increasing power and authority, [Num 12:2]. The character of Moses, [Num 12:3]. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam are suddenly called to the tabernacle, [Num 12:4]. The Lord appears in the pillar of the cloud, and converses with them, [Num 12:5]. Declares his purpose to communicate his will to Moses only, [Num 12:6-8]. His anger is kindled against Miriam, and she is smitten with the leprosy, [Num 12:9], [Num 12:10]. Aaron deplores his transgression, and entreats for Miriam, [Num 12:11], [Num 12:12]. Moses intercedes for her, [Num 12:13]. The Lord requires that she be shut out of the camp for seven days, [Num 12:14]. The people rest till she is restored, [Num 12:15], and afterwards leave Hazeroth, and pitch in the wilderness of Paran, [Num 12:16].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses - It appears that jealousy of the power and influence of Moses was the real cause of their complaint though his having married an Ethiopian woman-האשה הכשית haishshah haccushith - That Woman, the Cushite, probably meaning Zipporah, who was an Arab born in the land of Midian - was the ostensible cause.

### Verse 2

[¶12] Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? - It is certain that both Aaron and Miriam had received a portion of the prophetic spirit, (see [Exo 4:15], and [Exo 15:20]), and therefore they thought they might have a share in the government; for though there was no kind of gain attached to this government, and no honor but such as came from God, yet the love of power is natural to the human mind; and in many instances men will sacrifice even honor, pleasure, and profit to the lust of power.

### Verse 3

[¶14] Now the man Moses was very meek - How could Moses, who certainly was as humble and modest as he was meek, write this encomium upon himself? I think the word is not rightly understood; ענו anav, which we translate meek, comes from ענה anah, to act upon, to humble, depress, afflict, and is translated so in many places in the Old Testament; and in this sense it should be understood here: "Now this man Moses was depressed or afflicted more than any man האדמה haadamah, of that land." And why was he so? Because of the great burden he had to bear in the care and government of this people, and because of their ingratitude and rebellion both against God and himself: of this depression and affliction, see the fullest proof in the preceding chapter, Numbers 11 (note). The very power they envied was oppressive to its possessor, and was more than either of their shoulders could sustain.

### Verse 4

[¶16] And the Lord spake suddenly - The sudden interference of God in this business shows at once the importance of the case and his displeasure.

### Verse 6

[¶18] If there be a prophet - We see here the different ways in which God usually made himself known to the prophets, viz., by visions - emblematic appearances, and by dreams, in which the future was announced by dark speeches, בחידת bechidoth, by enigmas or figurative representations, [Num 12:8]. But to Moses God had communicated himself in a different way - he spoke to him face to face, apparently, showing him his glory: not in dark or enigmatical speeches; this could not be admitted in the case in which Moses was engaged, for he was to receive laws by Divine inspiration, the precepts and expressions of which must all be ad captum vulgi, within the reach of the meanest capacity. As Moses, therefore, was chosen of God to be the lawgiver, so was he chosen to see these laws duly enforced for the benefit of the people among whom he presided.

### Verse 7

[¶20] Moses - is faithful - נאמן neeman, a prefect or superintendent. So Samuel is termed, [1Sam 2:35]; [1Sam 3:20]; David is so called, [1Sam 18:27], Neeman, and son-in-law of the king. [Job 12:20], speaks of the Neemanim as a name of dignity. It seems also to have been a title of respect given to ambassadors, [Pro 13:17]; [Pro 25:13]. Calmet well observes that the word fidelity is often used for an employ, office, or dignity, and refers to [1Chr 9:22], [1Chr 9:26], [1Chr 9:31]; [2Chr 31:12], [2Chr 31:15]; [2Chr 34:12], etc. Moses was a faithful, well-tried servant in the house of God, and therefore he uses him as a familiar, and puts confidence in him.

### Verse 10

[¶22] Miriam became leprous - It is likely Miriam was chief in this mutiny; and it is probable that it was on this ground she is mentioned first, (see [Num 12:1]), and punished here, while Aaron is spared. Had he been smitten with the leprosy, his sacred character must have greatly suffered, and perhaps the priesthood itself have fallen into contempt. How many priests and preachers who deserved to be exposed to reproach and infamy, have been spared for the sake of the holy character they bore, that the ministry might not be blamed! But the just God will visit their transgressions in some other way, if they do not deeply deplore them and find mercy through Christ. Nothing tends to discredit the work of God so much as the transgressions and miscarriages of those who minister in holy things.

### Verse 14

[¶24] If her father had but spit in her face - This appears to have been done only in cases of great provocation on the part of the child, and strong irritation on the side of the parent. Spitting in the face was a sign of the deepest contempt. See [Job 30:10]; [Isa 50:6]; [Mar 14:65]. In a case where a parent was obliged by the disobedient conduct of his child to treat him in this way, it appears he was banished from the father's presence for seven days. If then this was an allowed and judged case in matters of high provocation on the part of a child, should not the punishment be equally severe where the creature has rebelled against the Creator? Therefore Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and thus debarred from coming into the presence of God her father, who is represented as dwelling among the people. To a soul who knows the value and inexpressible blessedness of communion with God, how intolerable must seven days of spiritual darkness be! But how indescribably wretched must their case be who are cast out into outer darkness, where the light of God no more shines, and where his approbation can no more be felt for ever! Reader, God save thee from so great a curse!

[¶25] Several of the fathers suppose there is a great mystery hidden in the quarrel of Miriam and Aaron with Moses and Zipporah. Origen (and after him several others) speaks of it in the following manner: - "1. Zipporah, a Cushite espoused by Moses, evidently points out the choice which Jesus Christ has made of the Gentiles for his spouse and Church.

[¶26] 2. The jealousy of Aaron and Miriam against Moses and Zipporah signifies the hatred and envy of the Jews against Christ and the apostles, when they saw that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven had been opened to the Gentiles, of which they had rendered themselves unworthy.

[¶27] 3. The leprosy with which Miriam was smitten shows the gross ignorance of the Jews, and the ruinous, disordered state of their religion, in which there is neither a head, a temple, nor a sacrifice.

[¶28] 4. Of none but Jesus Christ can it be said that he was the most meek and patient of men; that he saw God face to face; that he had every thing clearly revealed without enigmatical representations; and that he was faithful in all the house of God." This, and much more, Origen states in the sixth and seventh homilies on the book of Numbers, and yet all this he considers as little in comparison of the vast mysteries that lie hidden in these accounts; for the shortness of the time, and the magnitude of the mysteries, only permit him "to pluck a few flowers from those vast fields - not as many as the exuberance of those fields afford, but only such as by their odour he was led to select from the rest." Licebat tamen ex ingentibus campis paucos flosculos legere, et non quantum ager exuberet, sed quantum ordoratui supiciat, carpere.

### Verse 16

[¶30] The wilderness of Paran - This could not be the same Paran with that mentioned [Deu 1:1], for that was on the borders of the promised land, see the note on [Deu 1:1], [Deu 1:2]; they were long near the borders of Canaan, and might have speedily entered into it, had it not been for their provocations and iniquities. They spent thirty-eight years in a journey which might have been accomplished in a few weeks! How many through their unfaithfulness have been many years in gaining that for which, in the ordinary procedure of Divine grace, a few days had been sufficient! How much ground may a man lose in the Divine life by one act of unfaithfulness or transgression! Israel wandered in the wilderness because Israel despised the pleasant land, and did not give credence to the word of the Lord. They would have a golden calf, and they had nothing but tribulation and woe in return.

### Introduction

[¶32] Twelve men, one out of every tribe, are sent to examine the nature and state of the land of Canaan, [Num 13:1-3]. Their names, [Num 13:4-16]. Moses gives them particular directions, [Num 13:17-20]. They proceed on their journey, [Num 13:21], [Num 13:22]. Come to Eshcol, and cut down a branch with a cluster of grapes, which they bear between two of them upon a staff, [Num 13:23], [Num 13:24]. After forty days they return to Paran, from searching the land, and show to Moses and the people the fruit they had brought with them, [Num 13:25], [Num 13:26]. Their report - they acknowledge that the land is good, but that the inhabitants are such as the Israelites cannot hope to conquer, [Num 13:27-29]. Caleb endeavors to do away the bad impression made, by the report of his fellows, upon the minds of the people, [Num 13:30]. But the others persist in their former statement, [Num 13:31] : and greatly amplify the difficulties of conquest, [Num 13:32], [Num 13:33].

### Verse 2

[¶34] Send thou men, that they may search - It appears from [Deu 1:19-24] that this was done in consequence of the request of the people, after the following address of Moses: "And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness - and we came unto Kadesh-Barnea; and I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said: We Will Send Men Before Us, And They Shall Search Us Out The Land and bring us word again, by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well, and I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe," etc., etc. Nearly the whole of these verses is added here by the Samaritan.

[¶35] Every one a ruler - Not any of the princes of the people, (see Numbers 1) for these names are different from those; but these now sent were men of consideration and importance in their respective tribes.

### Verse 13

[¶37] Sethur, the son of Michael - It would have been strange had the numerous searches after the explanation of the mystical number 666, [Rev 13:18]; [Rev 17:5], met with nothing to their purpose in the name of this son of Michael. סתור Sethur, from סתר sathar, to hide or conceal, signifies hidden or mysterious, and includes in it the numerical letters of the No. 666: ס60, + ת400, + ו6, + ר200, = 666. But of what utility can such expositions be to any subject of history or theology?

### Verse 16

[¶39] And Moses called Oshea Jehoshua - Oshea, Heb. הושע should be written Hoshea: the word signifies saved, or a savior, or salvation; but יהושע, he shall save, or the salvation of God; a letter, says Calmet, of the incommunicable name of God, being added to his former name. This was not the first time in which he had the name Joshua; see [Exo 17:9] (note), and the note there. Some suppose he had this change of name in consequence of his victory over Amalek; see [Exo 17:13], [Exo 17:14].

### Verse 18

[¶41] See the land, what it is - What sort of a Country it is; how situated; its natural advantages or disadvantages.

[¶42] And the people - whether they be strong or weak - Healthy, robust, hardy men; or little, weak, and pusillanimous.

### Verse 20

[¶44] The land - whether it be fat or lean - Whether the Soil be rich or poor; which might be known by its being well wooded, and by the fruits it produced; and therefore they were desired to examine it as to the trees, etc., and to bring some of the fruits with them.

## 164. Numbers · 13 of 34

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### Verse 21

[¶1] From the wilderness of Zin - The place called; צן Tsin, here, is different from that called סין Sin or Seen. [Exo 16:1]; the latter was nigh to Egypt, but the former was near Kadesh Barnea, not far from the borders of the promised land. "The spies having left Kadesh Barnea, which was in the desert of Paran, see [Num 13:26], they proceeded to the desert of Tsin, all along the land of Canaan, nearly following the course of the river Jordan, till they came to Rehob, a city situated near Mount Libanus, at the northern extremity of the Holy Land, towards the road that leads to Hamath. Thence they returned through the midst of the same land by the borders of the Sidonians and Philistines, and passing by Mount Hebron, rendered famous by the residence of Abraham formerly, and by the gigantic descendants of Anak at that time, they passed through the valley of the brook of Eshcol, where they cut down the bunch of grapes mentioned [Num 13:23], and returned to the Israelitish camp after an absence of forty days," [Num 13:25]. See Calmet on this place.

### Verse 22

[¶3] Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt - The Zoan of the Scriptures is allowed to be the Tanis of the heathen historians, which was the capital of Lower Egypt. Some think it was to humble the pride of the Egyptians, who boasted the highest antiquity, that this note concerning the higher antiquity of Hebron was introduced by Moses. Some have supposed that it is more likely to have been originally a marginal note, which in process of time crept into the text; but all the versions and all the MSS. that have as yet been collated, acknowledge it.

### Verse 23

[¶5] They bare it between two upon a staff - It would be very easy to produce a great number of witnesses to prove that grapes in the promised land, and indeed in various other hot countries, grow to a prodigious size. By Calmet, Scheuchzer, and Harmer, this subject has been exhausted, and to these I may refer the reader. Pliny mentions bunches of grapes in Africa each of which was larger than an infant. Radzvil saw at Rhodes bunches of grapes three quarters of an ell in length, each grape as large as a plum. Dandini saw grapes of this size at Mount Libanus; and Paul Lucas mentions some bunches which he saw at Damascus that weighed above forty-five pounds. From the most authentic accounts the Egyptian grape is very small, and this being the only one with which the Israelites were acquainted, the great size of the grapes of Hebron would appear still more extraordinary. I myself once cut down a bunch of grapes nearly twenty pounds in weight. Those who live in cold climates can scarcely have any conception to what perfection both grapes and other fruits grow in climates that are warm, and where the soil is suitable to them.

[¶6] From what is mentioned [Num 23:20], Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes, it is very probable that the spies received their orders about the beginning of August, and returned about the middle of September, as in those countries grapes, pomegranates, and figs, are ripe about this time; see Harmer, vol. i., p. 108-110. At Sheeraz, in Persia, I find from a MS. journal, that the small white grape, askerie, came into season August 6; and pomegranates September 6; and the large red grape, sahibi, September 10.

[¶7] The spies' carrying the bunch of grapes on a staff between two men was probably not rendered necessary by the size of the bunch or cluster; but to preserve it from being bruised, that the Israelites might have a fair specimen of the fruit As Joshua and Caleb were the only persons who gave a favorable account of the land, it is most likely that they were the persons who had gathered these fruits, and who brought them to the Israelitish camp. And it is likely they were gathered as short a time as possible before their return, that they might not be injured by the length of the time they had been separated from their respective trees.

### Verse 27

[¶9] We came unto the land, etc. - It is astonishing that men so dastardly as these should have had courage enough to risk their persons in searching the land. But probably though destitute of valor they had a sufficiency of cunning, and this carried them through. The report they brought was exceedingly discouraging, and naturally tended to produce the effect mentioned in the next chapter. The conduct of Joshua and Caleb was alone magnanimous, and worthy of the cause in which they were embarked.

### Verse 32

[¶11] Men of a great stature - אנשי מדות anshey middoth, men of measures - two men's height; i. e., exceedingly tall men.

### Verse 33

[¶13] There we saw the giants - נפלים nephilim. It is evident that they had seen a robust, sturdy, warlike race of men, and of great stature; for the asserted fact is not denied by Joshua or Caleb.

[¶14] Tales of gigantic men are frequent in all countries, but they are generally of such as have lived in times very remote from those in which such tales are told. That there have been giants at different times, in various parts of the earth, there can be no doubt; but that there ever was a nation of men twelve and fourteen feet high, we cannot, should not believe. Goliath appears to have been at least nine feet high: this was very extraordinary. I knew three young men in my own neighborhood, two of them brothers, each of whom was upwards of seven feet, the third was eight feet six inches, and these men were very well proportioned. Others I have seen of extraordinary stature, but they were generally disproportioned, especially in their limbs. These instances serve to prove the possibility of cases of this nature. The Anakim might appear to the Israelites as a very tall, robust nation; and in comparison of the latter it is very probable that they were so, as it is very likely that the growth of the Israelites had been greatly cramped with their long and severe servitude in Egypt. And this may in some measure account for their alarm. On this subject the reader is desired to turn back to the note on [Gen 6:4] (note).

[¶15] Canaan was a type of the kingdom of God; the wilderness through which the Israelites passed, of the difficulties and trials to be met with in the present world. The promise of the kingdom of God is given to every believer; but how many are discouraged by the difficulties in the way! A slothful heart sees dangers, lions, and giants, every where; and therefore refuses to proceed in the heavenly path. Many of the spies contribute to this by the bad reports they bring of the heavenly country. Certain preachers allow "that the land is good, that it flows with milk and honey," and go so far as to show some of its fruits; but they discourage the people by stating the impossibility of overcoming their enemies. "Sin," say they, "cannot be destroyed in this life - it will always dwell in you - the Anakim cannot be conquered - we are but as grasshoppers against the Anakim," etc., etc. Here and there a Joshua and a Caleb, trusting alone in the power of God, armed with faith in the infinite efficacy of that blood which cleanses from all unrighteousness, boldly stand forth and say: "Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; let us go up at once and possess the land, for we are well able to overcome." We can do all things through Christ strengthening us: he will purify us unto himself, and give us that rest from sin here which his death has procured and his word has promised. Reader, canst thou not take God at his word? He has never yet failed thee. Surely then thou hast no reason to doubt. Thou hast never yet tried him to the uttermost. Thou knowest not how far and how fully he can save. Do not be dispirited: the sons of Anak shall fall before thee, if thou meet them in the name of the Lord of Hosts.

### Introduction

[¶17] The whole congregation weep at the account brought by the spies, [Num 14:1]. They murmur, [Num 14:2], [Num 14:3]; and propose to make themselves a captain, and go back to Egypt, [Num 14:4]. Moses and Aaron are greatly affected, [Num 14:5]. Joshua and Caleb endeavor to appease and encourage the people, [Num 14:6-9]. The congregation are about to stone them, [Num 14:10]. The glory of the Lord appears, and he is about to smite the rebels with the pestilence, [Num 14:11], [Num 14:12]. Moses makes a long and pathetic intercession in their behalf, [Num 14:13-19]. The Lord hears and forbears to punish, [Num 14:20]; but purposes that not one of that generation shall enter into the promised land save Joshua and Caleb, [Num 14:21-24]. Moses is commanded to turn and get into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea, [Num 14:25]. The Lord repeats his purpose that none of that generation shall enter into the promised land - that their carcasses shall fall in the wilderness, and that their children alone, with Joshua and Caleb, shall possess the land of the Canaanites, etc., [Num 14:26-32]. As many days as they have searched the land shall they wander years in the desert, until they shall be utterly consumed, [Num 14:33-35]. All the spies save Joshua and Caleb die by a plague, [Num 14:36-38]. Moses declares God's purpose to the people, at which they are greatly affected, [Num 14:39]. They acknowledge their sin, and purpose to go up at once and possess the land, [Num 14:40]. Moses cautions them against resisting the purpose of God, [Num 14:41-43]. They, notwithstanding, presume to go, but Moses and the ark abide in the camp, [Num 14:44]. The Amalekites and Canaanites come down from the mountains, and defeat them, [Num 14:45].

### Verse 1

[¶19] Cried; and - wept that night - In almost every case this people gave deplorable evidence of the degraded state of their minds. With scarcely any mental firmness, and with almost no religion, they could bear no reverses, and were ever at their wit's end. They were headstrong, presumptuous, pusillanimous, indecisive, and fickle. And because they were such, therefore the power and wisdom of God appeared the more conspicuously in the whole of their history.

### Verse 4

[¶21] Let us make a captain - Here was a formal renunciation of the authority of Moses, and flat rebellion against God. And it seems from [Neh 9:17] that they had actually appointed another leader, under whose direction they were about to return to Egypt. How astonishing is this! Their lives were made bitter, because of the rigor with which they were made to serve in the land of Egypt; and yet they are willing, yea eager, to get back into the same circumstances again! Great evils, when once some time past, affect the mind less than present ills, though much inferior. They had partly forgot their Egyptian bondage, and now smart under a little discouragement, having totally lost sight of their high calling, and of the power and goodness of God.

### Verse 6

[¶23] And Joshua, etc. - See on [Num 13:33] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶25] Their defense - צלם tsillam, their shadow, a metaphor highly expressive of protection and support in the sultry eastern countries. The protection of God is so called; see [Psa 91:1]; [Psa 121:5]; see also [Isa 51:16]; [Isa 49:2]; [Isa 30:2].

[¶26] The Arabs and Persians have the same word to express the same thing. nemayeed zulli doulet mamdood bad. "May the shadow of thy prosperity be extended!" nemayced zulli doulet ber mufareki khayr khwahen mamdood bad. "May the shadow of thy prosperity be spread over the heads of thy well-wishers!"

[¶27] They have also the following elegant distich: -

[¶28] Sayahat kem mubad az seri ma

[¶29] Bast Allah zullikem abeda. "May thy protection never be removed from my head!

[¶30] May God extend thy shadow eternally!"

[¶31] Here the Arabic zull answers exactly to the Hebrew צל tsel, both signifying that which overspreads or overshadows. See the note on [Num 14:14].

### Verse 10

[¶33] The glory of the Lord appeared - This timely appearance of the Divine glory prevented these faithful servants of God from being stoned to death by this base and treacherous multitude. "Every man is immortal till his work is done," while in simplicity of heart he is following his God.

### Verse 14

[¶35] That thy cloud standeth over them - This cloud, the symbol of the Divine glory, and proof of the Divine presence, appears to have assumed three different forms for three important purposes.

[¶36] 1. It appeared by day in the form of a pillar of a sufficient height to be seen by all the camp, and thus went before them to point out their way in the desert. [Exo 40:38].

[¶37] 2. It appeared by night as a pillar of fire to give them light while travelling by night, which they probably sometimes did; (see [Num 9:21]); or to illuminate their tents in their encampment; [Exo 13:21], [Exo 13:22].

[¶38] 3. It stood at certain times above the whole congregation, overshadowing them from the scorching rays of the sun; and probably at other times condensed the vapours, and precipitated rain or dew for the refreshment of the people. He spread a cloud for their covering; and fire to give light in the night; [Psa 105:39]. It was probably from this circumstance that the shadow of the Lord was used to signify the Divine protection, not only by the Jews, but also by other Asiatic nations. See the note on [Num 14:9], and see particularly the note on [Exo 13:21] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶40] The Lord is longsuffering - See the note on [Exo 34:6].

### Verse 19

[¶42] Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people - From [Num 14:13] to [Num 14:19] inclusive we have the words of Moses's intercession; they need no explanation, they are full of simplicity and energy; his arguments with God (for be did reason and argue with his Maker) are pointed, cogent, and respectful; and while they show a heart full of humanity, they evidence the deepest concern for the glory of God. The argumentum ad hominem is here used in the most unexceptionable manner, and with the fullest effect.

### Verse 20

[¶44] I have pardoned - That is, They shall not be cut off as they deserve, because thou hast interceded for their lives.

## 165. Numbers · 14 of 34

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### Verse 21

[¶1] All the earth shall be filled, etc. - כל הארץ kol haarets, all This land, i. e., the land of Canaan which was only fulfilled to the letter when the preaching of Christ and his apostles was heard through all the cities and villages of Judea. It does not appear that the whole of the terraqueous globe is meant by this expression in any of the places where it occurs connected with this promise of the diffusion of the Divine light. See [Psa 72:19]; [Isa 40:5]; [Hab 2:14].

### Verse 24

[¶3] But my servant Caleb, etc. - Caleb had another spirit - not only a bold, generous, courageous, noble, and heroic spirit; but the Spirit and influence of the God of heaven thus raised him above human inquietudes and earthly fears, therefore be followed God fully; וימלא אחרי vaimalle acharai, literally, he filled after me: God showed him the way he was to take, and the line of conduct he was to pursue, and he filled up this line, and in all things followed the will of his Maker. He therefore shall see the promised land, and his seed shall possess it. A dastardly spirit in the things of God is a heavy curse. How many are retarded in their course, and fall short of the blessings of the Gospel, through magnifying the number and strength of their adversaries, their own weakness and the difficulties of the way, with which we may connect their distrust of the power, faithfulness, and goodness of God! And how many are prevented from receiving the higher degrees of salvation by foolishly attributing insurmountable power, either to their inward corruptions or outward enemies! Only such men as Joshua and Caleb, who take God at his word, and who know that against his wisdom no cunning can stand, and against his might no strength can prevail, are likely to follow God fully, and receive the heights, lengths, breadths, and depths of the salvation of God.

### Verse 34

[¶5] After the number of the days - The spies were forty days in searching the land, and the people who rebelled on their evil report are condemned to wander forty years in the wilderness! Now let them make them a captain and go back to Egypt if they can. God had so hedged them about with his power and providence that they could neither go back to Egypt nor get forward to the promised land! God has provided innumerable spiritual blessings for mankind, but in the pursuit of earthly good they lose them, and often lose the others also! If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the fruit of the land, but not otherwise; unless for your farther punishment God give you your portion in this life, and ye get none in the life to come. From so great a curse may God save thee, thou money-loving, honor-hunting, pleasure-taking, thoughtless, godless man!

[¶6] And ye shall know my breach of promise - This is certainly a most harsh expression; and most learned men agree that the words את תנואתי eth tenuathi should be translated my vengeance, which is the rendering of the Septuagint, Vulgate, Coptic, and Anglo-Saxon, and which is followed by almost all our ancient English translations. The meaning however appears to be this: As God had promised to bring them into the good land, provided they kept his statutes, ordinances, etc., and they had now broken their engagements, he was no longer held by his covenant; and therefore, by excluding them from the promised land, he showed them at once his annulling of the covenant which they had broken, and his vengeance because they had broken it.

### Verse 37

[¶8] Those men that did bring up the evil report died - Thus ten of the twelve that searched out the land were struck dead, by the justice of God, on the spot! Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, and Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim, alone escaped, because they had followed God fully. Let preachers of God's word take heed how they straiten the way of salvation, or render, by unjust description, that way perplexed and difficult which God has made plain and easy.

### Verse 40

[¶10] We - will go up unto the place, etc. - They found themselves on the very borders of the land, and they heard God say they should not enter it, but should be consumed by a forty years' wandering in the wilderness; notwithstanding, they are determined to render vain this purpose of God, probably supposing that the temporary sorrow they felt for their late rebellion would be accepted as a sufficient atonement for their crimes. They accordingly went up, and were cut down by their enemies; and why? God went not with them. How vain is the counsel of man against the wisdom of God! Nature, poor, fallen human nature, is ever running into extremes. This miserable people, a short time ago, thought that though they had Omnipotence with them they could not conquer and possess the land! Now they imagine that though God himself go not with them, yet they shall be sufficient to drive out the inhabitants, and take possession of their country! Man is ever supposing he can either do all things or do nothing; he is therefore sometimes presumptuous, and at other times in despair. Who but an apostle, or one under the influence of the same Spirit, can say, I can do All Things Through Christ who strengtheneth me?

### Introduction

[¶12] Directions concerning the different offerings they should bring unto the Lord when they should come to the land of Canaan, [Num 15:1-3]. Directions relative to the meat-offering, [Num 15:4]; to the drink-offering, [Num 15:5]. Of the burnt-offering, vow-offering, peace-offering, drink-offering, etc., [Num 15:6-12]. All born in the country must perform these rites, [Num 15:13], and the strangers also, [Num 15:14-16]. They shall offer unto the Lord a heave-offering of the first-fruits of the land, [Num 15:17-21]. Concerning omissions through ignorance, and the sacrifices to be offered on such occasions, [Num 15:22-29]. He who sins presumptuously shall be cut off, [Num 15:30], [Num 15:31]. History of the person who gathered sticks on the Sabbath, [Num 15:32]. He is brought to Moses and Aaron, [Num 15:33]. They put him in confinement till the mind of the Lord should be known on the case, [Num 15:34]. The Lord commands him to be stoned, [Num 15:35]. He is stoned to death, [Num 15:36]. The Israelites are commanded to make fringes to the borders of their garments, [Num 15:37], [Num 15:38]. The end for which these fringes were to be made, that they might remember the commandments of the Lord, that they might be holy, [Num 15:39-41].

### Verse 2

[¶14] When ye be come into the land - Some learned men are of opinion that several offerings prescribed by the law were not intended to be made in the wilderness, but in the promised land; the former not affording those conveniences which were necessary to the complete observance of the Divine worship in this and several other respects.

### Verse 3

[¶16] And will make an offering - For the different kinds of offerings, sacrifices, etc., see [Lev 1:2], [Lev 1:7].

### Verse 5

[¶18] The fourth part of a hin - The quantity of meal and flour was augmented in proportion to the size of the sacrifice with which it was offered. With a Lamb or a Kid were offered one tenth deal of flour, (the tenth part of an ephah, see on [Exo 29:40] (note)), the fourth part of a hin of oil, and the fourth part of a hin of wine. With a Ram, two tenth deals of flour, a third part of a hin of oil, and a third part of a hin of wine. With a Bullock, three tenth deals of flour, half a hin of oil, and half a hin of wine. See [Num 15:4-11].

### Verse 14

[¶20] If a stranger sojourn - See the notes on [Lev 19:33];[Lev 22:9]. When the case of the Jewish people is fairly considered, and their situation with respect to the surrounding idolatrous nations, we shall see the absolute necessity of having but one form of worship in the land. That alone was genuine which was prescribed by the Almighty, and no others could be tolerated, because they were idolatrous. All strangers - all that came to sojourn in the land, were required to conform to it; and it was right that those who did conform to it should have equal rights and privileges with the Hebrews themselves, which we find was the case. But under the Christian dispensation, as no particular form of worship is prescribed, the types and ceremonies of the Mosaic institution being all fulfilled, unlimited toleration should be allowed; and while the sacred writings are made the basis of the worship offered to God, every man should be allowed to worship according to his own conscience, for in this respect every one is "Lord of himself, accountable to none

[¶21] But to his conscience and his God alone."

### Verse 20

[¶23] Ye shall offer - the first of your dough - Concerning the offerings of first-fruits, see the notes on [Exo 22:29].

### Verse 24

[¶25] If aught be committed by ignorance - See the notes on [Lev 4:2], and [Lev 5:17]. The case here probably refers to the whole congregation; the cases above, to the sin of an individual.

### Verse 25

[¶27] The priest shall make an atonement - Even sins committed through ignorance required an atonement; and God in his mercy has provided one for them.

### Verse 30

[¶29] But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously - Bold daring acts of transgression against the fullest evidence, and in despite of the Divine authority, admitted of no atonement; the person was to be cut off - to be excluded from God's people, and from all their privileges and blessings.

[¶30] Probably the presumption mentioned here implied an utter contempt of the word and authority of God, springing from an idolatrous or atheistical mind. In such a case all repentance was precluded, because of the denial of the word and being of God. It is probably a case similar to that mentioned [Heb 6:4-8] (note); [Heb 10:26-31] (note); on which passages see the notes.

### Verse 32

[¶32] They found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath - This was in all likelihood a case of that kind supposed above: the man despised the word of the Lord, and therefore broke his commandment; see [Num 15:31]. On this ground he was punished with the utmost rigor of the law.

### Verse 36

[¶34] Stoned him - See the note on [Lev 24:23].

### Verse 38

[¶36] Bid them - make them fringes - We learn from [Num 15:39] that these fringes were emblematical of the various commands of God. That there was any analogy between a fringe and a precept, it would be bold to assert; but when a thing is appointed to represent another, no matter how different, that first object be comes the regular representative or sign of the other. There is no analogy between the term bread and the farinaceous nutritive substance thereby signified; but because this term is used to express and represent that thing, every person thus understands it; and when the word bread is seen or heard, a perfect knowledge, not of the letters which compose that word, but of the thing signified by it, is conveyed to the mind. So the fringes, being appointed by God to represent and bring to mind the commandments of God, [Num 15:39], the mention or sight of them conveyed the intelligence intended. All the Jews wore these, and so probably did our Lord; see [Mat 9:20], where the word κρασπε ον is rather to be understood of the fringe than of the hem of his garment.

### Introduction

[¶38] The rebellion of Korah and his company against Moses, [Num 16:1-3]. He directs them how to try, in the course of the next day, whom God had called to the priesthood, [Num 16:4-11]. Dathan and Abiram use the most seditious speeches, [Num 16:12-14]. Moses is wroth, [Num 16:15]; and orders Korah and his company to be ready on the morrow with their censers and incense, [Num 16:16-18]. Korah gathers his company together, [Num 16:19]. The glory of the Lord appears, and he threatens to consume them, [Num 16:20], [Num 16:21]. Moses and Aaron intercede for them, [Num 16:22]. The people are commanded to leave the tents of the rebels, [Num 16:23-26]. They obey, and Korah and his company come out and stand before the door of their tents, [Num 16:27]. Moses in a solemn address puts the contention to issue, [Num 16:28-30]. As soon as he had done speaking, the earth clave and swallowed them, and all that appertained to them, [Num 16:31-34]; and the 250 men who offered incense are consumed by fire, [Num 16:35]. The Lord commands Eleazar to preserve the censers, because they were hallowed, [Num 16:36-38]. Eleazar makes of them a covering for the altar, [Num 16:39], [Num 16:40]. The next day the people murmur anew, the glory of the Lord appears, and Moses and Aaron go to the tabernacle, [Num 16:41-43]. They are commanded to separate themselves from the congregation, [Num 16:44], [Num 16:45]. Moses, perceiving that God had sent a plague among them, directs Aaron to hasten and make an atonement, [Num 16:46]. Aaron does so, and the plague is stayed, [Num 16:47], [Num 16:48]. The number of those who died by the plague, 14,700 men, [Num 16:49], [Num 16:50].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Now Korah - took men - Had not these been the most brutish of men, could they have possibly so soon forgotten the signal displeasure of God manifested against them so lately for their rebellion. The word men is not in the original; and the verb ויקח vaiyikkach, and he took, is not in the plural but the singular, hence it cannot be applied to the act of all these chiefs. In every part of the Scripture where this rebellion is referred to it is attributed to Korah, (see [Num 26:3], and [Jde 1:11]), therefore the verb here belongs to him, and the whole verse should be translated thus: - Now Korah, son of Yitsar son of Kohath, son of Levi, He Took even Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, son of Peleth, Son Of Reuben; and they rose up, etc. This makes a very regular and consistent sense, and spares all the learned labor of Father Houbigant, who translates יקח yikkach, by rebellionem fecerunt, they rebelled, which scarcely any rule of criticism can ever justify. Instead of בני ראובן beney Reuben, Sons of Reuben, some MSS. have בן ben, Son, in the singular; this reading, supported by the Septuagint and the Samaritan text, I have followed in the above translation. But as Eliab and Peleth were both Reubenites, the common reading, Sons, may be safely followed.

### Verse 3

[¶42] Ye take too much upon you - The original is simply רב לכם rab lachem, too much for you. The spirit of this saying appears to me to be the following: - "Holy offices are not equally distributed: you arrogate to yourselves the most important ones, as if your superior holiness entitled you alone to them; whereas all the congregation are holy, and have an equal right with you to be employed in the most holy services." Moses retorts this saying [Num 16:7] : Ye take too much upon you, רב לכם rab lachem; Ye have too much already, ye sons of Levi; i.e., by your present spirit and disposition you prove yourselves to be wholly unworthy of any spiritual employment.

### Verse 5

[¶44] The Lord will show who are his - It is supposed that St. Paul refers to this place, [2Tim 2:19] : The foundation of God - the whole sacrificial system, referring to Christ Jesus, the foundation of the salvation of men; standeth sure, notwithstanding the rebellions, intrusions, and false doctrines of men; having this seal - this stamp of its Divine authenticity, The Lord knoweth them that are his; εγνω Κυριος τους οντας αυτου, a literal translation of וידע יהוה את אשר לו veyoda Yehovah eth asher lo; and both signifying, The Lord approveth of his own; or, will own that which is of his own appointment. And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity, alluding to the exhortation of Moses, [Num 16:26] : Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men.

## 166. Numbers · 15 of 34

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### Verse 15

[¶1] Respect not thou their offering - There was no danger of this: they wished to set up a priesthood and a sacrificial system of their own; and God never has blessed, and never can bless, any scheme of salvation which is not of his own appointment. Man is ever supposing that he can mend his Maker's work, or that he can make one of his own that will do in its place.

### Verse 22

[¶3] O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh - אל אלהי הרוחת לכל בשר El Elohey haruchoth lechol basar. This address sufficiently proves that these holy men believed that man is a being compounded of flesh and spirit, and that these principles are perfectly distinct. Either the materiality of the human soul is a human fable, or, if it be a true doctrine, these men did not pray under the influence of the Divine Spirit. In [Num 27:16] there is a similar form of expression: Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh. And in [Job 12:10] : In whose hand is the soul (נפש nephesh) of all living; and the spirit (רוח ruach) of all flesh of man. Are not these decisive proofs that the Old Testament teaches that there is an immortal spirit in man? "But does not רוח ruach signify wind or breath?" Sometimes it does, but certainly not here; for how absurd would it be to say, O God, the God of the breaths of all flesh!

### Verse 30

[¶5] If the Lord make a new thing - ואם בריאה יברא יהוה veim beriah yibra Yehovah, and if Jehovah should create a creation, i. e., do such a thing as was never done before.

[¶6] And they go down quick into the pit - שאלה sheolah, a proof, among many others, that שאל sheol, signifies here a chasm or pit of the earth, and not the place called hell; for it would be absurd to suppose that their houses had gone to hell; and it would be wicked to imagine that their little innocent children had gone thither, though God was pleased to destroy their lives with those of their iniquitous fathers.

### Verse 33

[¶8] They, and all that appertained to them - Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and all that appertained to their respective families, went down into the pit caused by this supernatural earthquake; while the fire from the Lord consumed the 250 men that bare censers. Thus there were two distinct punishments, the pit and the fire, for the two divisions of these rebels.

### Verse 37

[¶10] The censers - are hallowed - קדשו kadeshu, are consecrated, i. e., to the service of God though in this instance improperly employed.

### Verse 41

[¶12] On the morrow all the congregation - murmured - It is very likely that the people persuaded themselves that Moses and Aaron had used some cunning in this business, and that the earthquake and fire were artificial; else, had they discerned the hand of God in this punishment, could they have dared the anger of the Lord in the very face of justice?

### Verse 46

[¶14] The plague is begun - God now punished them by a secret blast, so as to put the matter beyond all dispute; his hand, and his alone, was seen, not only in the plague, but in the manner in which the mortality was arrested. It was necessary that this should be done in this way, that the whole congregation might see that those men who had perished were not the people of the Lord; and that God, not Moses and Aaron, had destroyed them.

### Verse 48

[¶16] He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague, etc. - What the plague was we know not, but it seems to have begun at one part of the camp, and to have proceeded regularly onward; and Aaron went to the quarter where it was then prevailing, and stood with his atonement where it was now making its ravages, and the plague was stayed; but not before 14,700 had fallen victims to it, [Num 16:49].

[¶17] If Aaron the high priest, with his censer and incense, could disarm the wrath of an insulted, angry Deity, so that a guilty people, who deserved nothing but destruction, should be spared; how much more effectual may we expect the great atonement to be which was made by the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom Aaron was only the type! The sacrifices of living animals pointed out the death of Christ on the cross; the incense, his intercession. Through his death salvation is purchased for the world; by his intercession the offending children of men are spared. Hence St. Paul, [Rom 5:10], says: If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved Through His Life, i. e., by the prevalence of his continual intercession. [2Cor 5:18], [2Cor 5:19] : "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." By the awful transactions recorded in this chapter, we may see how jealous God is of the sole right of appointing the way and means of salvation. Had any priesthood, and any kind of service, no matter how solemn and sincere, been equally available in the sight of Divine justice and mercy, God would not have resented in so awful a manner the attempts of Korah and his company in their new service. The way of God's own appointment, the agony and death of Christ, is the only way in which souls can be saved. His is the priesthood, and his is the only available sacrifice. All other modes and schemes of salvation are the inventions of men or devils, and will in the end prove ruinous to all those who trust in them. Reader, forget not the Lord who bought thee.

### Introduction

[¶19] The twelve chiefs of the tribes are commanded to take their rods, and to write the name of each tribe upon the rod that belonged to its representative; but the name of Aaron is to be written on the rod of the tribe of Levi, [Num 17:1-3]. The rods are to be laid up before the Lord, who promises that the man's rod whom he shalt choose for priest shall blossom, [Num 17:4], [Num 17:5]. The rods are produced and laid up before the tabernacle, [Num 17:6], [Num 17:7]. Aaron's rod alone buds, blossoms, and bears fruit, [Num 17:8], [Num 17:9]. It is laid up before the testimony as a token of the manner in which God had disposed of the priesthood, [Num 17:10], [Num 17:11]. The people are greatly terrified, and are apprehensive of being destroyed, [Num 17:12], [Num 17:13].

### Verse 2

[¶21] And take of every one of them a rod - מטה matteh, the staff or scepter, which the prince or chief of each tribe bore, and which was the sign of office or royalty among almost all the people of the earth.

### Verse 5

[¶23] The man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom - It was necessary that something farther should be done to quiet the minds of the people, and for ever to settle the dispute, in what tribe the priesthood should be fixed. God therefore took the method described in the text, and it had the desired effect; the Aaronical priesthood was never after disputed.

### Verse 8

[¶25] The rod of Aaron - was budded, etc. - That is, on the same rod or staff were found buds, blossoms, and ripe fruit. This fact was so unquestionably miraculous, as to decide the business for ever; and probably this was intended to show that in the priesthood, represented by that of Aaron, the beginning, middle, and end of every good work must be found. The buds of good desires, the blossoms of holy resolutions and promising professions, and the ripe fruit of faith, love, and obedience, all spring from the priesthood of the Lord Jesus. It has been thought by some that Aaron's staff (and perhaps the staves of all the tribes) was made out of the amygdala communis, or common almond tree. In a favorable soil and climate it grows to twenty feet in height; is one of the most noble, flourishing trees in nature: its flowers are of a delicate red, and it puts them forth early in March, having begun to bud in January. It has its name שקד shaked from shakad, to awake, because it buds and flowers sooner than most other trees. And it is very likely that the staves of office, borne by the chiefs of all the tribes, were made of this tree, merely to signify that watchfulness and assiduous care which the chiefs should take of the persons committed, in the course of the Divine providence, to their keeping.

[¶26] Every thing in this miracle is so far beyond the power of nature, that no doubt could remain on the minds of the people, or the envious chiefs, of the Divine appointment of Aaron, and of the especial interference of God in this case. To see a piece of wood long cut off from the parent stock, without bark or moisture remaining, laid up in a dry place for a single night, with others in the same circumstances - to see such a piece of wood resume and evince the perfection of vegetative life, budding, blossoming, and bringing forth ripe fruit at the same time, must be such a demonstration of the peculiar interference of God, as to silence every doubt and satisfy every scruple. It is worthy of remark that a scepter, or staff of office, resuming its vegetative life, was considered an absolute impossibility among the ancients; and as they were accustomed to swear by their sceptres, this circumstance was added to establish and confirm the oath. A remarkable instance of this we have in Homer, Iliad, lib. i., ver. 233, etc., where Achilles, in his rage against Agamemnon, thus speaks: - Αλλ' εκ τοι ερεω, και επι μεγαν ὁρκον ομουμαι· Ναι μα τοδε σκηπτρον, το μεν ουποτε φυλλα και οζους Φυσει, επειδη πρωτα τομην εν ορεσσι λελοιπεν, Ουδ' αναθηλησει· περι γαρ ῥα ἑ χαλκος ελεψε Φυλλα τε και φλοιον· ὁ δε τοι μεγας εσσεται ὁρκος.

[¶27] But hearken: I shall swear a solemn oath:

[¶28] By this same scepter which shall never bud,

[¶29] Nor boughs bring forth, as once; which, having left

[¶30] Its parent on the mountain top, what time

[¶31] The woodman's axe lopp'd off its foliage green,

[¶32] And stripp'd its bark, shall never grow again.

[¶33] Cowper.

[¶34] Virgil represents King Latinus swearing in the same way, to confirm his covenant with Aeneas: -

[¶35] Ut Sceptrum hoc (dextra sceptrum nam forte gerebat)

[¶36] Nunquam fronde levi fundet virgulta neque umbras,

[¶37] Cum semel in silvis imo de stirpe recisum.

[¶38] Matre caret, posuitque comas et brachia ferro;

[¶39] Olim arbos, nunc artificis manus aere decoro

[¶40] Inclusit, patribusque dedit gestare Latinis,

[¶41] Talibus inter se firmabant foedera dictis.

[¶42] Aen., lib. xii., ver. 206-12.

[¶43] Even as this royal Sceptre (for he bore

[¶44] A scepter in his hand) shall never more

## 167. Numbers · 16 of 34

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[¶0] Shoot out in branches, or renew the birth;

[¶1] An orphan now, cut from the mother earth

[¶2] By the keen axe, dishonor'd of its hair,

[¶3] And cased in brass, for Latian kings to bear.

[¶4] And thus in public view the peace was tied

[¶5] With solemn vows, and sworn on either side.

[¶6] Dryden.

[¶7] When the circumstance of the rod or scepter being used anciently in this way, and the absolute impossibility of its reviviscence so strongly appealed to, is considered, it appears to have been a very proper instrument for the present occasion, for the change that passed on it must be acknowledged as an immediate and incontestable miracle.

### Verse 12

[¶9] Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish - גוענו gavaenu signifies not so much to die simply, as to feel an extreme difficulty of breathing, which, producing suffocation, ends at last in death. See the folly and extravagance of this sinful people. At first, every person might come near to God, for all, they thought, were sufficiently holy, and every way qualified to minister in holy things. Now, no one, in their apprehension, can come near to the tabernacle without being consumed, [Num 17:13]. In both cases they were wrong; some there were who might approach, others there were who might not. God had put the difference. His decision should have been final with them; but sinners are ever running into extremes.

### Introduction

[¶11] The priests are to bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, [Num 18:1]. The Levites to minister to the priests, and have charge of the tabernacle, [Num 18:2-4]. The priests alone to have the charge of the sanctuary, etc., no stranger to come nigh on pain of death, [Num 18:5-7] The portion allowed for their maintenance, [Num 18:8]. They shall have every meat-offering; and they shall eat them in the holy place, [Num 18:9], [Num 18:10]. The wave-offerings, [Num 18:11]. The first-fruits of the oil, wine, and wheat, and whatever is first ripe, and every devoted thing, [Num 18:12-14]; also, all the first-born of men and beasts, [Num 18:15-18]; and heave-offerings, [Num 18:19]. The priests shall have no inheritance, [Num 18:20]. The Levites shall have no inheritance, but shall have the tenth of the produce in Israel, [Num 18:21-24], of which they are to give a tenth to the priests, taken from the best parts, [Num 18:25-30].

### Verse 1

[¶13] Thou and thy sons - shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, etc. - That is, They must be answerable for its legal pollutions, and must make the necessary atonements and expiations. By this they must feel that though they had got a high and important office confirmed to them by a miraculous interference, yet it was a place of the highest responsibility; and that they must not be high-minded, but fear.

### Verse 2

[¶15] Thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi - may be joined unto thee - There is a fine paronomasia, or play upon words, in the original. לוי Levi comes from the root לוה lavah, to join to, couple, associate: hence Moses says, the Levites, ילוו yillavu, shall be joined, or associated with the priests; they shall conjointly perform the whole of the sacred office, but the priests shall be principal, the Levites only their associates or assistants.

### Verse 15

[¶17] The first-born of man - and the firstling of unclean beasts - Thus vain man is ranked with the beasts that perish; and with the worst kinds of them too, those deemed unclean.

### Verse 16

[¶19] Shalt thou redeem - for the money of five shekels - Redemption of the first-born is one of the rites which is still practiced among the Jews. According to Leo of Modena, it is performed in the following manner: -

[¶20] When the child is thirty days old, the father sends for one of the descendants of Aaron: several persons being assembled on the occasion, the father brings a cup containing several pieces of gold and silver coin. The priest then takes the child into his arms, and addressing himself to the mother, says: Is this thy son?

[¶21] Mother. Yes.

[¶22] Priest. Hast thou never had another child, male or female, a miscarriage or untimely birth?

[¶23] Mother. No.

[¶24] Priest. This being the case, this child, as first-born, belongs to me.

[¶25] Then, turning to the father, he says: If it be thy desire to have this child, thou must redeem it.

[¶26] Father. I present thee with this gold and silver for this purpose.

[¶27] Priest. Thou dost wish, therefore, to redeem the child?

[¶28] Father. I do wish so to do.

[¶29] The priest then, turning himself to the assembly, says: Very well; this child, as first-born, is mine, as it is written in Bemidbar, ([Num 18:16]), Thou shalt redeem the first-born of a month old for five shekels, but I shall content myself with this in exchange. He then takes two gold crowns, or thereabouts, and returns the child to his parents.

### Verse 19

[¶31] It is a covenant of salt - That is, an incorruptible, everlasting covenant. As salt was added to different kinds of viands, not only to give them a relish, but to preserve them from putrefaction and decay, it became the emblem of incorruptibility and permanence. Hence, a covenant of salt signified an everlasting covenant. We have already seen that, among the Asiatics, eating together was deemed a bond of perpetual friendship; and as salt was a common article in all their repasts, it may be in reference to this circumstance that a perpetual covenant is termed a covenant of salt; because the parties ate together of the sacrifice offered on the occasion, and the whole transaction was considered as a league of endless friendship. See the note on [Lev 2:13].

### Verse 20

[¶33] I am thy part and thine inheritance - The principal part of what was offered to God was the portion of the priests, therefore they had no inheritance of land in Israel; independently of that they had a very ample provision for their support. The rabbins say twenty-four gifts were given to the priests, and they are all expressed in the law. Eight of those gifts the priests ate nowhere but in the sanctuary: these eight are the following: -

[¶34] 1. The flesh of the Sin-Offering, whether of beasts or fowls, [Lev 6:25], [Lev 6:26].

[¶35] 2. The flesh of the Trespass-Offering, [Lev 7:1], [Lev 7:6].

[¶36] 3. The Peace-Offerings of the congregation, [Lev 23:19], [Lev 23:20].

[¶37] 4. The remainder of the Omer or Sheaf, [Lev 23:10], etc.

[¶38] 5. The remnants of the Meat-Offerings of the Israelites, [Lev 6:16].

[¶39] 6. The two Loaves, [Lev 23:17].

[¶40] 7. The Shew-Bread, [Lev 24:9].

[¶41] 8. The Log of oil offered by the leper, [Lev 14:10], etc.

[¶42] Five of those gifts they ate only in Jerusalem: -

[¶43] 1. The breast and shoulder of the Peace-Offerings, [Lev 7:31], [Lev 7:34].

[¶44] 2. The Heave-Offering of the sacrifice of confession, [Lev 7:12-14].

## 168. Numbers · 17 of 34

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[¶0] 3. The Heave-Offering of the Nazarite's ram, [Lev 6:17-20].

[¶1] 4. The Firstling of the clean beast, [Num 18:15]; [Deu 15:19], [Deu 15:20].

[¶2] 5. The First-Fruits, [Num 18:13].

[¶3] Five gifts were not due unto them by the law, but in the land of Israel only: -

[¶4] 1. The heave-offering or First-Fruits, [Num 18:12].

[¶5] 2. The heave-offering of the Tithe, [Num 18:28].

[¶6] 3. The Cake, [Num 15:20].

[¶7] These three were holy.

[¶8] 4. The first-fruits of the Fleece, [Deu 18:4].

[¶9] 5. The Field of Possession, Numbers 35.

[¶10] These two were common.

[¶11] Five gifts were due unto them both within and without the land: -

[¶12] 1. The gifts of the Beasts Slain, [Deu 18:3].

[¶13] 2. The redemption of the First-Born Son, [Num 18:15].

[¶14] 3. The Lamb for the firstling of an ass, [Exo 4:20]; Numbers 18.

[¶15] 4. The restitution of that taken by violence from a stranger, [Num 5:8].

[¶16] 5. All Devoted things, [Num 18:14].

[¶17] One gift was due unto them from the sanctuary: -

[¶18] 1. The skins of the burnt-offering, and all the skins of the other most holy things, [Lev 7:8].

[¶19] In all 24. See Ainsworth.

[¶20] The gifts which the females of the priests' families had a part in were these: -

[¶21] 1. The heave-offering, or first-fruits.

[¶22] 2. The heave-offering of the tithe.

[¶23] 3. The cake.

[¶24] 4. The gifts of the beast, [Deu 18:3].

[¶25] 5. The first of the fleece. - See Mishna, Tract. Biccurim, and Ainsworth on the Pentateuch.

[¶26] Besides all this the priests had the tribute money mentioned [Num 31:28], [Num 31:29].

### Verse 21

[¶28] Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth -

[¶29] 1. The Levites had the tenth of all the productions of the land.

[¶30] 2. They had forty-eight cities, each forming a square of 4,000 cubits.

[¶31] 3. They had 2,000 cubits of ground round each city. Total of the land they possessed, 53,000 acres.

[¶32] 4. They had the first-fruits and certain parts of all the animals killed in the land.

[¶33] Canaan contained about 11,264,000 acres; therefore the portion possessed by the Levites was rather less than as one to two hundred and twelve; for 11,264,000 divided by 53,000, quotes only 212 28/53 - See Lowman, Dodd, etc. But though this was a very small proportion for a whole tribe that had consented to annihilate its political existence, that it might wait upon the service of God, and labor for the people's souls; yet let it be considered that what they possessed was the best of the land: and while it was a slender remuneration for their services, yet their portion was such as rendered them independent, and kept them comfortable; so that they could wait on the Lord's work without distraction. This is a proper pattern for the maintenance of the ministers of God: let them have a sufficiency for themselves and families, that there may be no distracting cares; and let them not be encumbered with riches or worldly possessions, that they may not be prevented from taking care of souls.

### Verse 28

[¶35] Thus ye also shall offer a heave-offering - As the Levites had the tithe of the whole land, they themselves were obliged to give the tithe of this tithe to the priests, so that this considerably lessened their revenue. And this tithe or tenth they were obliged to select from the best part of the substance they had received, [Num 18:29], etc. A portion of all must be given to God, as an evidence of his goodness, and their dependence on him. See the end at [Num 20:28].

### Introduction

[¶37] The ordinance of the red heifer, [Num 19:1], [Num 19:2]. She shall be slain by Eleazar without the camp, and her blood sprinkled before the tabernacle, [Num 19:3], [Num 19:4]. Her whole body and appurtenance shall be reduced to ashes, and while burning, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop, shall be thrown into the fire, [Num 19:5], [Num 19:6]. The priest, and he that burns her, to bathe themselves, and be reputed unclean till the evening, [Num 19:7], [Num 19:8]. Her ashes to be laid up for a water of purification, [Num 19:9]. How, and in what cases it is to be applied, [Num 19:10-13]. The law concerning him who dies in a tent, or who is killed in the open field, [Num 19:14-16]. How the persons, tent, and vessels are to be purified by the application of these ashes, [Num 19:17-19]. The unclean person who does not apply them, to be cut off from the congregation, [Num 19:20]. This is to be a perpetual statute, [Num 19:21], [Num 19:22].

### Verse 2

[¶39] Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring thee, etc. - The ordinance of the red heifer was a sacrifice of general application. All the people were to have an interest in it, and therefore the people at large are to provide the sacrifice. This Jewish rite certainly had a reference to things done under the Gospel, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has remarked: "For if," says he, "the blood of bulls and of goats," alluding, probably, to the sin-offerings and the scape-goat, "and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!" [Heb 9:13], [Heb 9:14]. As the principal stress of the allusion here is to the ordinance of the red heifer, we may certainly conclude that it was designed to typify the sacrifice of our blessed Lord.

[¶40] We may remark several curious particulars in this ordinance.

[¶41] 1. A heifer was appointed for a sacrifice, probably, in opposition to the Egyptian superstition which held these sacred, and actually worshipped their great goddess Isis under this form; and this appears the more likely because males in general were preferred for sacrifice, yet here the female is chosen.

[¶42] 2. It was to be a red heifer, because red bulls were sacrificed to appease the evil demon Typhon, worshipped among the Egyptians. See Spencer.

[¶43] 3. The heifer was to be without spot - having no mixture of any other color. Plutarch remarks, De Iside et de Osiride, that if there was a single hair in the animal either white or black, it marred the sacrifice. See Calmet, and see the note on [Num 8:7].

[¶44] 4. Without blemish - having no kind of imperfection in her body; the other, probably, applying to the hair or color.

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[¶0] 5. On which never came yoke, because any animal which had been used for any common purpose was deemed improper to be offered in sacrifice to God. The heathens, who appear to have borrowed much from the Hebrews, were very scrupulous in this particular. Neither the Greeks nor Romans, nor indeed the Egyptians, would offer an animal in sacrifice that had been employed for agricultural purposes. Of this we have the most positive evidence from Homer, Porphyry, Virgil, and Macrobius.

[¶1] Just such a sacrifice as that prescribed here, does Diomede vow to offer to Pallas - Iliad, lib. x., ver. 291. Ὡς νυν μοι εθελουσα παριστασο, και με φυλασσε· Σοι δ' αυ εγω ῥεξω βουν ηνιν ευρυμετωπον, Αδμητην, ἡν ουπω ὑπο ζυγον ηγαγεν ανηρ· Την τοι εγω ῥεξω, χρυσον κερασιν περιχευας. "So now be present, O celestial maid;

[¶2] So still continue to the race thine aid;

[¶3] A yearling heifer falls beneath the stroke,

[¶4] Untamed, unconscious of the galling yoke,

[¶5] With ample forehead and with spreading horns,

[¶6] Whose tapering tops refulgent gold adorns."

[¶7] Altered from Pope.

[¶8] In the very same words Nestor, Odyss., lib. iii., ver. 382, promises a similar sacrifice to Pallas.

[¶9] The Romans had the same religion with the Greeks, and consequently the same kind of sacrifices; so Virgil, Georg. iv., ver. 550.

[¶10] Quatuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros

[¶11] Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice juveneas. " - From his herd he culls

[¶12] For slaughter four the fairest of his bulls;

[¶13] Four heifers from his female stock he took,

[¶14] All fair, and all unknowing of the yoke."

[¶15] Dryden.

[¶16] It is very likely that the Gentiles learnt their first sacrificial rites from the patriarchs; and on this account we need not wonder to find so many coincidences in the sacrificial system of the patriarchs and Jews, and all the neighboring nations.

### Verse 9

[¶18] For a water of separation - That is, the ashes were to be kept, in order to be mixed with water, [Num 19:17], and sprinkled on those who had contracted any legal defilement.

### Verse 11

[¶20] He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days - How low does this lay man! He who touched a dead beast was only unclean for one day, [Lev 11:24], [Lev 11:27], [Lev 11:39]; but he who touches a dead man is unclean for seven days. This was certainly designed to mark the peculiar impurity of man, and to show his sinfulness - seven times worse than the vilest animal! O thou son of the morning, how art thou fallen!

### Verse 12

[¶22] He shall purify himself with it - יתחטא בו yithchatta bo, literally, he shall sin himself with it. This Hebrew form of speech is common enough among us in other matters. Thus to fleece, to bark, and to skin, do not signify to add a fleece, another bark, or a skin, but to take one away; therefore, to sin himself, in the Hebrew idiom, is not to add sin, but to take it away, to purify. The verb חטא chata signifies to miss the mark, to sin, to purify from sin, and to make a sin-offering. See the note on [Gen 13:13].

[¶23] The Hebrews generally sacrificed males, no matter of what color; but here a heifer, and a heifer of a red color, is ordered. The reason of these circumstances is not very well known. "The rabbins, with all their boldness," says Calmet, "who stick at nothing when it is necessary to explain what they do not understand, declare that the cause of this law is entirely unknown; and that Solomon, with all his wisdom, could not find it out."

[¶24] Several fathers, as well modern as ancient, profess to understand the whole clearly.

[¶25] 1. The red heifer with them signifies the flesh of our Lord, formed out of an earthly substance.

[¶26] 2. Being without spot, etc., the infinite holiness of Christ.

[¶27] 3. The sex of the animal, the infirmity of our flesh, with which he clothed himself.

[¶28] 4. The red color, his passion.

[¶29] 5. Being unyoked, his being righteous in all his conduct, and never under the yoke of sin.

[¶30] 6. Eleazar's sacrificing the heifer instead of Aaron, [Gen 13:3], signifies the change of the priesthood from the family of Aaron, in order that a new and more perfect priesthood might take place.

[¶31] 7. The red heifer being taken without the camp ([Gen 13:3]) to be slain, points out the crucifixion of our Lord without the city.

[¶32] 8. The complete consuming of the heifer by fire, the complete offering of the whole body and soul of Christ as a sacrifice to God for the sin of man: for as the heifer was without blemish, the whole might be offered to God; and as Christ was immaculate, his whole body and soul were made a sacrifice for sin.

[¶33] 9. As the fire of this sacrifice ascended up to God, so it points out the resurrection and ascension of our blessed Lord.

[¶34] 10. And as the ashes of this victim communicated a legal purity to those who were defiled, so true repentance, signified by those ashes, is necessary for the expiation of the offenses committed after baptism.

[¶35] A great part of this is true in itself; but how little evidence is there that all these things were intended in the ordinance of the red heifer? See on [Num 8:7] (note).

### Introduction

[¶37] The Israelites come to Zin, and Miriam dies, [Num 20:1]. They murmur for want of water, [Num 20:2-5]. Moses and Aaron make supplication at the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord appears, [Num 20:6]. He commands Moses to take his rod, gather the congregation together, and bring water out of the rock, [Num 20:7], [Num 20:8]. Moses takes the rod, gathers the Israelites together, chides with them, and smites the rock twice, and the waters flow out plenteously, [Num 20:9-11]. The Lord is offended with Moses and Aaron because they did not sanctify him in the sight of the children of Israel, [Num 20:12]. The place is called Meribah, [Num 20:13]. Moses sends a friendly message to the king of Edom, begging liberty to pass through his territories, [Num 20:14-17]. The Edomites refuse, [Num 20:18]. The Israelites expostulate, [Num 20:19]. The Edomites still refuse, and prepare to attack them, [Num 20:20], [Num 20:21]. The Israelites go to Mount Hor, [Num 20:22]. Aaron is commanded to prepare far his death, [Num 20:23], [Num 20:24]. Aaron is stripped on Mount Hor, and his vestments put on Eleazar his son; Aaron dies, [Num 20:25-28]. The people mourn for him thirty days, [Num 20:29].

### Verse 1

[¶39] Then came the children of Israel, etc. - This was the first month of the fortieth year after their departure from Egypt. See [Num 33:38], compared with [Num 20:28] of this chapter, and [Deu 1:3]. The transactions of thirty-seven years Moses passes by, because he writes not as a historian but as a legislator; and gives us particularly an account of the laws, ordinances, and other occurrences of the first and last years of their peregrinations. The year now spoken of was the last of their journeyings; for from the going out of the spies, Numbers 13, unto this time, was about thirty-eight years, [Deu 1:22], [Deu 1:23]; [Deu 2:14].

[¶40] Desert of Zin - Calmet contends that this is not the same desert mentioned [Exo 16:1], where Israel had their eighth encampment; that in Exodus being called in the original סין sin, this here צין tsin: but this is no positive proof, as letters of the same organ are frequently interchanged in all languages, and particularly in Hebrew.

[¶41] And Miriam died there - Miriam was certainly older than Moses. When he was an infant, exposed on the river Nile, she was entrusted by her parents to watch the conduct of Pharaoh's daughter, and to manage a most delicate business, that required much address and prudence. See Exodus 2. It is supposed that she was at the time of her death one hundred and thirty years of age, having been at least ten years old at her brother's birth. The Catholic writers represent her as a type of the Virgin Mary; as having preserved a perpetual virginity; as being legislatrix over the Israelitish women, as Moses was over the men; and as having a large portion of the spirit of prophecy. Eusebius says that her tomb was to be seen at Kadesh, near the city of Petra, in his time. She appears to have died about four months before her brother Aaron, [Num 33:38], and eleven before her brother Moses; so that these three, the most eminent of human beings, died in the space of one year!

### Verse 2

[¶43] And there was no water for the congregation - The same occurrence took place to the children of Israel at Kadesh, as did formerly to their fathers at Rephidim, see [Exo 17:1]; and as the fathers murmured, so also did the children.

## 170. Numbers · 19 of 34

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Because ye believed me not - What was the offense for which Moses was excluded from the promised land? It appears to have consisted in some or all of the following particulars:

[¶2] 1. God had commanded him ([Num 20:8]) to take the rod in his hand, and go and Speak To The Rock, and it should give forth water. It seems Moses did not think speaking would be sufficient, therefore he smote the rock without any command so to do.

[¶3] 2. He did this twice, which certainly in this case indicated a great perturbation of spirit, and want of attention to the presence of God.

[¶4] 3. He permitted his spirit to be carried away by a sense of the people's disobedience, and thus, being provoked, he was led to speak unadvisedly with his lips: Hear now, ye Rebels, [Num 20:10].

[¶5] 4. He did not acknowledge God in the miracle which was about to be wrought, but took the honor to himself and Aaron: "Must We fetch you water out of this rock?"

[¶6] Thus it plainly appears that they did not properly believe in God, and did not honor him in the sight of the people; for in their presence they seem to express a doubt whether the thing could be possibly done. As Aaron appears to have been consenting in the above particulars, therefore he is also excluded from the promised land.

### Verse 14

[¶8] Sent messengers - unto the king of Edom - Archbishop Usher supposes that the king now reigning in Edom was Hadar, mentioned [Gen 36:39].

[¶9] Thus saith thy brother Israel - The Edomites were the descendants of Edom or Esau, the brother of Jacob or Israel, from whom the Israelites were descended.

### Verse 17

[¶11] We will go by the king's high-way - This is the first time this phrase occurs; it appears to have been a public road made by the king's authority at the expense of the state.

### Verse 21

[¶13] Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border - Though every king has a right to refuse passage through his territories to any strangers; yet in a case like this, and in a time also in which emigrations were frequent and universally allowed, it was both cruelty and oppression in Edom to refuse a passage to a comparatively unarmed and inoffensive multitude, who were all their own near kinsmen. It appears however that it was only the Edomites of Kadesh that were thus unfriendly and cruel; for from [Deu 2:29] we learn that the Edomites who dwelt in Mount Seir treated them in a hospitable manner. This cruelty in the Edomites of Kadesh is strongly reprehended, and threatened by the Prophet Obadiah, [Oba 1:10], etc.

### Verse 26

[¶15] Strip Aaron of his garments - This was, in effect, depriving him of his office; and putting the clothes on his son Eleazar implied a transfer of that office to him. A transfer of office, from this circumstance of putting the clothes of the late possessor on the person intended to succeed him, was called investing or investment, (clothing); as removing a person from an office was termed divesting or unclothing. Among the Catholics, and in the Church of England, this same method is used in degrading ecclesiastics. Hence such a degradation is termed by the common people stripping a man of his gown.

### Verse 28

[¶17] And Aaron died there - Hence, as Dr. Lightfoot has justly observed, we have an "indisputable proof that the earthly Canaan was not the utmost felicity at which God's promises to the Israelites aimed since the best men among them were excluded from it."

[¶18] The remark of some of the fathers here is worthy of attention: "Neither Moses the representative of the law, nor Miriam the representative of the prophets, nor Aaron the representative of the priesthood and its sacrificial rites, could bring the Israelites into possession of the promised land. This was reserved for Joshua, who was in name and conduct the lively type of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." He alone can bring those who believe in his name into that rest which remains for the people of God.

[¶19] There are some observations made by Dr. Lightfoot on this and some of the preceding chapters which should be more generally known. "The place where the people murmured upon the return of the spies was Kadesh-Barnea, [Num 13:26]; [Num 32:8]; [Deu 1:19]. This place was called Rithmah before, ([Num 33:18], compared with [Num 12:16], and [Num 13:26]), and was so called probably from the juniper trees that grew there; but is now named Kadesh, because the Lord was there sanctified upon the people, as [Num 20:13]; and Barnea, or the wandering son, because here was the decree made of their long wandering in the wilderness. They continued a good space at Kadesh before they removed; for so said Moses, Ye abode in Kadesh many days; or as the Hebrew, According to the days that ye had made abode, namely, at Sinai, [Num 20:6]. And so they spent one whole year there, for so they had done at Sinai. And whereas God commands them at their murmuring to turn back to the Red Sea, ([Deu 1:40]), his meaning was, that at their next march, whensoever it was, they should not go forward unto Canaan, but back again towards the Red Sea, whence they came; (but see on [Deu 1:1] (note)). And they did so, for they wandered by many stations and marches from Kadesh-Barnea till they came to Kadesh-Barnea again, seven or eight and thirty years after they had first left it. These marches, mentioned in Numbers 33, were these: From Kadesh or Rithmah to Rimmon Parez, to Libnah, to Rissah, to Kehelathah, to Mount Shapher, to Haradah, to Makheloth, to Tahath, to Tarah, to Mithcah, to Hashmonah, to Moseroth, to Benejaaken, to Horhagidgad, to Jotbathah, to Ebronah, to Ezion-Gaber, to Kadesh again, in the fortieth year. And though it was only eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea, ([Deu 1:2]), they made it above thrice eleven years' journey!" Had they trusted in God, and obeyed him, their enemies long ere this would have been discomfited, and themselves quietly established in possession of the promised inheritance. But they grieved the Spirit of God, and did not believe his promise; and it would have been inconsistent with the whole economy of grace to have introduced unbelievers into that rest which was a type of the kingdom of God.

### Introduction

[¶21] Arad, a king of the Canaanites, attacks Israel, and makes same prisoners, [Num 21:1]. They devote him and his people to destruction, [Num 21:2]; which they afterwards accomplished, [Num 21:3]. They journey from Hor, and are greatly discouraged, [Num 21:4]. They murmur against God and Moses, and loathe the manna, [Num 21:5]. The Lord sends fiery serpents among them, [Num 21:6]. They repent, and beg Moses to intercede for them, [Num 21:7]. The Lord directs him to make a brazen serpent, and set it on a pole, that the people might look on it and be healed, [Num 21:8]. Moses does so, and the people who beheld the brazen serpent lived, [Num 21:9]. They journey to Oboth, Ije-abarim, Zared, and Arnon, [Num 21:10-13]. A quotation from the book of the wars of the Lord, [Num 21:14], [Num 21:15]. From Arnon they came to Beer, [Num 21:16]. Their song of triumph, [Num 21:17-20]. Moses sends messengers to the Amorites for permission to pass through their land, [Num 21:21], [Num 21:22]. Sihon their king refuses, attacks Israel, is defeated, and all his cities destroyed, [Num 21:23-26]. The poetic proverbs made on the occasion, [Num 21:27-30]. Israel possesses the land of the Amorites, [Num 21:31], [Num 21:32]. They are attacked by Og king of Bashan, [Num 21:33]. They defeat him, destroy his troops and family, and possess his land, [Num 21:34], [Num 21:35].

### Verse 1

[¶23] The way of the spies - אתרים atharim. Some think that this signifies the way that the spies took when they went to search the land. But this is impossible, as Dr. Kennicott justly remarks, because Israel had now marched from Meribah-Kadesh to Mount Hor, beyond Ezion-Gaber, and were turning round Edom to the south-east; and therefore the word is to be understood here as the name of a place.

### Verse 3

[¶25] The Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel - The whole of this verse appears to me to have been added after the days of Joshua. It is certain the Canaanites were not utterly destroyed at the time here spoken of, for this did not take place till after the death of Moses. If, instead of utterly destroyed them, ויחרם vaiyacharem, we translate they devoted them to utter destruction, it will make a good sense, and not repugnant to the Hebrew; though some think it more probable that the verse was added afterwards by Joshua or Ezra, in testimony of the fulfillment of God's promise; for Arad, who is mentioned as being destroyed here, is mentioned among those destroyed by Joshua long after, (see [Jos 12:14]): but this is quite consistent with their being devoted to destruction, as this might be fulfilled any time after. See the note on Leviticus 27 (note).

### Verse 5

[¶27] This light bread - הקלקל hakkelokel, a word of excessive scorn; as if they had said, This innutritive, unsubstantial, cheat - stomach stuff.

### Verse 6

[¶29] Fiery serpents - הנחשים השרפים hannechashim hasseraphim. I have observed before, on Gen. iii., that it is difficult to assign a name to the creature termed in Hebrew nachash; it has different significations, but its meaning here and in Gen. iii. is most difficult to be ascertained. Seraphim is one of the orders of angelic beings, [Isa 6:2], [Isa 6:6]; but as it comes from the root שרף saraph, which signifies to burn, it has been translated fiery in the text. It is likely that St. Paul alludes to the seraphim, [Heb 1:7] : Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a Flame Of Fire. The animals mentioned here by Moses may have been called fiery because of the heat, violent inflammation, and thirst, occasioned by their bite; and consequently, if serpents, they were of the prester or dipsas species, whose bite, especially that of the former, occasioned a violent inflammation through the whole body, and a fiery appearance of the countenance. The poet Lucan has well expressed this terrible effect of the bite of the prester, and also of the dipsas, in the ninth book of his Pharsalia, which, for the sake of those who may not have the work at hand, I shall here insert.

[¶30] Of the mortal effects of the bite of the dipsas in the deserts of Libya he gives the following description: - "Signiferum juvenem Tyrrheni sanguinis Aulum

[¶31] Torta caput retro dipsas calcata momordit.

[¶32] Vix dolor aut sensus dentis fuit: ipsaque laeti

[¶33] Frons caret invidia: nec quidquam plaga minatur.

[¶34] Ecce subit virus tacitum, carpitque medullas

[¶35] Ignis edax, calidaque incendit viscera tabe.

[¶36] Ebibit humorem circum vitalia fusum

[¶37] Pestis, et in sicco linguam torrere palato

[¶38] Coepit: defessos iret qui sudor in artus

[¶39] Non fuit, atque oculos lacrymarum vena refugit."

[¶40] Aulus, a noble youth of Tyrrhene blood,

[¶41] Who bore the standard, on a dipsas trod;

[¶42] Backward the wrathful serpent bent her head,

[¶43] And, fell with rage, the unheeded wrong repaid.

[¶44] Scarce did some little mark of hurt remain,

[¶45] And scarce he found some little sense of pain.

## 171. Numbers · 20 of 34

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[¶0] Nor could he yet the danger doubt, nor fear

[¶1] That death with all its terrors threatened there.

[¶2] When lo! unseen, the secret venom spreads,

[¶3] And every nobler part at once invades;

[¶4] Swift flames consume the marrow and the brain,

[¶5] And the scorched entrails rage with burning pain;

[¶6] Upon his heart the thirsty poisons prey,

[¶7] And drain the sacred juice of life away.

[¶8] No kindly floods of moisture bathe his tongue,

[¶9] But cleaving to the parched roof it hung;

[¶10] No trickling drops distil, no dewy sweat,

[¶11] To ease his weary limbs, and cool the raging heat.

[¶12] Rowe.

[¶13] The effects of the bite of the prester are not less terrible: "Nasidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri

[¶14] Percussit prester: illi rubor igneus ora

[¶15] Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura,

[¶16] Miscens cuncta tumor toto jam corpore major:

[¶17] Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra

[¶18] Effiatur sanies, late tollente veneno."

[¶19] A fate of different kind Nasidius found,

[¶20] A burning prester gave the deadly wound;

[¶21] And straight, a sudden flame began to spread,

[¶22] And paint his visage with a glowing red.

[¶23] With swift expansion swells the bloated skin.

[¶24] Naught but an undistinguished mass is seen;

[¶25] While the fair human form lies lost within.

[¶26] The puffy poison spreads, and leaves around,

[¶27] Till all the man is in the monster drowned.

[¶28] Rowe.

[¶29] Bochart supposes that the hydrus or chersydrus is meant; a serpent that lives in marshy places, the bite of which produces the most terrible inflammations, burning heat, fetid vomitings, and a putrid solution of the whole body. See his works, vol. iii., col. 421. It is more likely to have been a serpent of the prester or dipsas kind, as the wilderness through which the Israelites passed did neither afford rivers nor marshes, though Bochart endeavors to prove that there might have been marshes in that part; but his arguments have very little weight. Nor is there need of a water serpent as long as the prester or dipsas, which abound in the deserts of Libya, might have abounded in the deserts of Arabia also. But very probably the serpents themselves were immediately sent by God for the chastisement of this rebellious people. The cure was certainly preternatural; this no person doubts; and why might not the agent be so, that inflicted the disease?

### Verse 8

[¶31] Make thee a fiery serpent - Literally, make thee a seraph.

[¶32] And put it upon a pole - על נס al nes, upon a standard or ensign.

### Verse 9

[¶34] And Moses made a serpent of brass - נחש נחשת nechash nechosheth. Hence we find that the word for brass or copper comes from the same root with nachash, which here signifies a serpent, probably on account of the color; as most serpents, especially those of the bright spotted kind, have a very glistening appearance, and those who have brown or yellow spots appear something like burnished brass: but the true meaning of the root cannot be easily ascertained. On the subject of the cure of the serpent-bitten Israelites, by looking at the brazen serpent, there is a good comment in the book of The Wisdom of Solomon, (Apoch). [Num 16:4-12], in which are these remarkable words: "They were admonished, having a sign of salvation, (i. e., the brazen serpent), to put them in remembrance of the commandments of thy law. For he that turned himself towards it was not saved by the Thing that he saw, but by Thee, that art the Savior of all." To the circumstance of looking at the brazen serpent in order to be healed, our Lord refers, [Joh 3:14], [Joh 3:15] : "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The brazen serpent was certainly no type of Jesus Christ; but from our Lord's words we may learn,

[¶35] 1. That as the serpent was lifted up on the pole or ensign, so Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross.

[¶36] 2. That as the Israelites were to look at the brazen serpent, so sinners must look to Christ for salvation.

[¶37] 3. That as God provided no other remedy than this looking for the wounded Israelites, so he has provided no other way of salvation than faith in the blood of his Son.

[¶38] 4. That as he who looked at the brazen serpent was cured and did live, so he that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life.

[¶39] 5. That as neither the serpent, nor looking at it, but the invisible power of God healed the people, so neither the cross of Christ, nor his merely being crucified, but the pardon he has bought by his blood, communicated by the powerful energy of his Spirit, saves the souls of men.

[¶40] May not all these things be plainly seen in the circumstances of this transaction, without making the serpent a type of Jesus Christ, (the most exceptionable that could possibly be chosen), and running the parallel, as some have done, through ten or a dozen particulars?

### Verse 12

[¶42] They - pitched in the valley of Zared - נחל זרד nachal zared. This should be translated the brook Zared, as it is in [Deu 2:13], [Deu 2:14]. This stream has its origin in the mountains eastward of Moab, and runs from east to west, and discharges itself into the Dead Sea.

### Verse 13

[¶44] Arnon - Another river which takes its rise in the mountains of Moab, and, after having separated the ancient territories of the Moabites and Ammonites, falls into the Dead Sea, near the mouth of Jordan.

## 172. Numbers · 21 of 34

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### Verse 14

[¶1] The book of the wars of the Lord - There are endless conjectures about this book, both among ancients and moderns. Dr. Lightfoot's opinion is the most simple, and to me bears the greatest appearance of being the true one. "This book seems to have been some book of remembrances and directions, written by Moses for Joshua's private instruction for the management of the wars after him. See [Exo 17:14-16]. It may be that this was the same book which is called the book of Jasher, i. e., the book of the upright, or a directory for Joshua, from Moses, what to do and what to expect in his wars; and in this book it seems as if Moses directed the setting up of archery, see [2Sam 1:18], and warrants Joshua to command the sun, and expect its obedience, [Jos 10:13]."

[¶2] What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon - This clause is impenetrably obscure. All the versions, all the translators, and all the commentators, have been puzzled with it. Scarcely any two agree. The original is את והב בסופה eth vaheb besuphah, which our translators render, what he did in the Red Sea, following here the Chaldee Targum; but not satisfied with this version, they have put the most difficult words in English letters in the margin, Vaheb in Suphah. Calmet's conjecture here is ingenious, and is adopted by Houbigant; instead of והב vaheb, he reads זרד zared. Now a ז zain may be easily mistaken for a ו vau, and vice versa; and a ה he for a ר, resh, if the left limb happened to be a little obliterated, which frequently occurs, not only in MSS., but in printed books; the ב beth also might be mistaken for a ד daleth, if the ruled line on which it stood happened in that place to be a little thicker or blacker than usual. Thus then והב vaheb might be easily formed out of זרד zared, mentioned [Num 21:12]; the whole might then be read, They encamped at the brook Zared, and they came to Suphah, and thence to the brook Arnon. Take the passage as we may, it is evidently defective. As I judge the whole clause to have been a common proverb in those days, and Vaheb to be a proper name, I therefore propose the following translation, which I believe to be the best: From Vaheb unto Suph, and unto the streams of Arnon. If we allow it to have been a proverbial expression, used to point out extensive distance, then it was similar to that well known phrase, From Dan even unto Beersheba.

### Verse 17

[¶4] Spring up, O well, etc. - This is one of the most ancient war songs in the world, but is not easily understood, which is commonly the case with all very ancient compositions, especially the poetic. See the remarks [Exo 15:1] (note), etc.

### Verse 18

[¶6] The princes digged the well - with their staves - This is not easily understood. Who can suppose that the princes dug this well with their staves? And is there any other idea conveyed by our translation? The word חפרו chapharu, which is translated they digged, should be rendered they searched out, which is a frequent meaning of the root; and במשענתם bemishanotham, which we render with their staves, should be translated on their borders or confines, from the root שען shaan, to lie along. With these corrections the whole song may be read thus: -

[¶7] Spring up, O well! Answer ye to it.

[¶8] The well, the princes searched it out.

[¶9] The nobles of the people have digged it.

[¶10] By a decree, upon their own borders

[¶11] This is the whole of the quotation from what is called the book of the wars of the Lord. But see Dr. Kennicott's remarks at the end of this chapter.

### Verse 26

[¶13] For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, etc. - It appears therefore that the territory now taken from Sihon by the Israelites was taken from a former king of Moab, in commemoration of which an epikedion or war song was made, several verses of which, in their ancient poetic form, are here quoted by Moses.

### Verse 27

[¶15] They that speak in proverbs - המשלים hammoshelim, from משל mashal, to rule, to exercise authority; hence a weighty proverbial saying, because admitted as an axiom for the government of life. The moshelim of the ancient Asiatics were the same, in all probability, as the Poetae among the Greeks and Latins, the shaara among the Arabs, who were esteemed as Divine persons, and who had their name from shaara, he knew, understood; whose poems celebrated past transactions, and especially those which concerned the military history of their nation. These poets were also termed sahebi deewan, companions or lords of the council of state, because their weighty sayings and universal knowledge were held in the highest repute. Similar to these were the bards among the ancient Druids, and the Sennachies among the ancient Celtic inhabitants of these nations.

[¶16] The ode from the 27th to the 30th verse is composed of three parts. The first takes in [Num 21:27] and [Num 21:28]; the second [Num 21:29]; and the third [Num 21:30].

[¶17] The first records with bitter irony the late insults of Sihon and his subjects over the conquered Moabites.

[¶18] The second expresses the compassion of the Israelites over the desolations of Moab, with a bitter sarcasm against their god Chemosh, who had abandoned his votaries in their distress, or was not able to rescue them out of the hands of their enemies.

[¶19] The third sets forth the revenge taken by Israel upon the whole country of Sihon, from Heshbon to Dibon, and from Nophah even to Medeba. See [Isa 15:1], [Isa 15:2].

[¶20] The whole poem, divided into its proper hemistichs, as it stands in Kennicott's Hebrew Bible, is as follows: -

[¶21] Verse 27. Part I

[¶22] Come ye to Heshbon, let it be rebuilt;

[¶23] The city of Sihon, let it be established.

### Verse 28

[¶25] For from Heshbon the fire went out,

[¶26] And a flame from the city of Sihon:

[¶27] It hath consumed the city of Moab,

[¶28] With the lords of the heights of Arnon.

[¶29] Verse 29. Part 2

[¶30] Alas for thee, O Moab!

[¶31] Thou hast perished, O people of Chemosh!

[¶32] He hath given up his fugitive sons

[¶33] And his daughters into captivity,

[¶34] To the king of the Amorites, Sihon.

[¶35] Verse 30. Part 3

[¶36] But on them have We lifted destruction,

[¶37] From Heshbon even to Dibon;

[¶38] We have destroyed even to Nophah,

[¶39] The fire did reach to Medebah.

[¶40] See Kennicott's Remarks.

### Verse 35

[¶42] So they smote him, and his sons - There is a curious note of Dr. Lightfoot here, of which I should think it wrong to deprive the reader. "Sihon and Og conquered, A. M. 2553. Of the life of Moses, 120. From the Exodus, 40. It is now six and twenty generations from the creation, or from Adam to Moses; and accordingly doth Psalm 136, rehearse the durableness of God's mercy six and twenty times over, beginning the story with the creation, and ending it in the conquest of Sihon and Og. The numerals of the name יהוה Jehovah amount to the sum of six and twenty."

[¶43] On some difficulties in this chapter Dr. Kennicott makes the following observations: - "This one chapter has several very considerable difficulties; and some verses, as now translated, are remarkably unintelligible, A true state of this chapter is not, however, to be despaired of; and it has in it some circumstances which merit more than common attention. It contains the history of the last part of the travels of the Israelites in their way to the promised land; beginning with them at Mount Hor, the thirty-fourth encampment, and concluding with them, as in their forty-second and last encampment, near Jordan, in the country which they had acquired by conquest over Sihon, king of the Amorites. "It begins with saying - that King Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the south, (in the land of Canaan, [Num 33:40]), attacked Israel and was defeated, and that Israel destroyed their cities; and that, after destroying these Canaanite cities, and consequently after being in a part of Canaan, a part of the very country they were going to, on the west of the Dead Sea, they returned towards the Red Sea, and near the eastern tongue or gulf of the Red Sea, on the south of Edom, marched round Edom to the east of the Dead Sea, in order to enter Canaan from the east side of Jordan! "This surprising representation of so vast and dangerous a march, quite unnecessarily performed, is owing to two circumstances. The first is, ([Num 21:1]), the Canaanites heard that Israel was coming by the way of the spies, meaning, by the way the spies went from Kadesh-Barnea into Canaan. But this being impossible, because Israel had now marched from Meribah-Kadesh to Mount Hor, beyond Ezion-gaber, and were turning round Edom, to the south-east; it is happy that the word rendered spies, in our version, is in the Greek a proper name, (Atharim), which removes that difficulty: and the other difficulty ([Num 21:2], [Num 21:3]) is removed by the Greek version likewise, according to which, the vow made, with the facts subsequent, does not signify destroying the Canaanite cities, but devoting them to destruction at some future time. See Wall's Crit. Notes. "It proceeds with saying, that after defeating the Canaanites at Mount Hor, they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, (in the road from Ammon, Midian, etc., to the eastern gulf of the Red Sea), to compass the land of Edom; that on their murmuring for want both of bread and of water they were punished by fiery serpents, after which they marched to Oboth, and thence to Ije-abarim in the wilderness, east of Moab. The encampments of the Israelites, amounting to forty-two, are recorded all together, in historical succession, in Numbers 33, where Ije-abarim is the 38th; Dibon-gad, 39; Almon-Diblathaim, 40; mountains of Abarim, 41; and the plains of Moab, by Jordan, 42. This regular detail in Numbers 33 has occasioned great perplexity as to Numbers 21, where, after the stations at Oboth and Ije-abarim, in [Num 21:10], [Num 21:11], we have, in [Num 21:19], [Num 21:20], the words Mattanah, Nahaliel, and Bamoth; which are usually considered as the proper names of three places, but widely different from the three proper names after Ije-abarim in the catalogue at Numbers 33. "But there is, in reality, no inconsistency here. In the plain and historical catalogue (Numbers 33). the words are strictly the proper names of the three places; but here the words Mattanah, Nahaliel, and Bamoth follow some lines of poetry, and seem to form a continuation of the song. They evidently express figurative and poetical ideas. The verbs journeyed from and pitched in are not found here, though necessary to prose narration: see [Num 33:10] and [Num 33:11] here, and Numbers 33. Lastly, [Num 21:20], (in this 21st chapter), usually supposed to express the last encampment, does not. Pisgah signifies a hill; and the Israelites could not encamp on the top of any single hill, such as this is described. Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which looketh toward Jeshimon, ([Num 23:28]), which Peor undoubtedly was in Moab. He took him to another hill in Moab, when he took him ([Num 23:14]) to the top of Pisgah, in the field of Zophim. And if the Pisgah or hill in [Num 21:20], was in the country of Balak, it could not point out the last encampment, which was not in Balak's country, but north of Arnon. "The word Mattanah probably alludes to a place distinguished by some gift or blessing from God. Fagius says:

[¶44] Nomen loci, ab eventu aquarum quas Dominus ibi dedit, sic appellati; מתנה nam significat donum- 'The name of the place was so called, from the circumstance of the waters which the Lord gave there; for Mattanah signifies a gift.' נהליאל Nahaliel is torrentes Dei; i. e., great streams, particularly seasonable or salutary. And במות Bamoth ([Num 21:20]) may point out any high places of signal benefit in the country of Moab, or it may answer to the last station but one, which was the mountains of Abarim.

## 173. Numbers · 22 of 34

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[¶0] If, therefore, these words were meant to express poetically some eminent blessing, what blessing was so likely to be then celebrated as copious streams of water? And after they had wandered nearly forty years through many a barren desert, and after (compare [Deu 8:15]) having passed through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and drought, where there was no water, it is no wonder they should shout for joy at finding water in plenty, and finding it almost on the banks of Arnon, the last river they were to pass, in their way to their last station, east of Jordan. No wonder they should sing in poetic rapture, that after the wilderness was (Mattanah) the Gift Of God; meaning the great well in Moab, dug by public authority; and no wonder that, after such a gift, there were (Nahaliel) blessed streams, by which they passed, till they came to (Bamoth) the high places from which, perhaps, these streams descended. And the thanksgiving ends, where the blessing was no longer wanted, on their coming down into the valley, along the banks of Arnon, which was then the north boundary of Moab. "The Israelites had spent no less than thirty-eight years in coming from Kadesh-Barnea to their encampment north of Zared. Here, at this fortieth station, they were commanded to pass through Moab by ער Ar, the chief city; but were not to stop till they came to the valley on the south of Arnon. At this last station but one they probably continued no longer than was necessary for sending messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, at Heshbon, and receiving his answer. They then crossed the Arnon; and having vanquished Sihon and Og, took possession of the forty-second and last encampment. "This one chapter has three pieces of poetry, either fragments or complete; and poetry, seldom found in a historical narrative, may be here accounted for from the exuberance of joy which must have affected these wearied travelers, when arriving thus happily near their journey's end. What occurs first is in [Num 21:14]; and has often been called the fragment of an old Amorite song. But it may have been Amorite or Moabite, or either or neither, for the subject matter of it, as it is generally understood, if indeed it can be said to be understood at all. The words את והב בסופה ואת הנתליס ארנו, usually supposed to contain this fragment, do not signify, as in our English version, What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon. Without enumerating the many interpretations given by others, I shall offer a new one, which seems to make good sense, and a sense very pertinent. "Observe first, that there must have been a place called Suph, near the conflux of the Arnon and Jordan; because Moses, whilst in that last station, begins Deuteronomy with saying, he was on this side (i. e., east) of Jordan, over against Suph. By this word is not here meant the Red Sea; partly, because that has every where else the word for sea before it, and partly, because of the great distance of the Red Sea now from Moses. The single word, therefore, signifies here some place in itself obscure, because no where mentioned but in these two passages. And yet we cannot wonder that Moses should mention it twice, as the word Suph, introduced in speaking of the two last encampments, recalled to mind the Sea of Suph, so glorious to Israel, near the beginning of their march towards Canaan. "Moses had now led Israel from the Red Sea to the river Arnon, through many dreadful dangers, partly from hostile nations, partly from themselves; such dangers as no other people ever experienced, and such as no people could have surmounted, without the signal favor of the Almighty. And here, just before the battles with Sihon and Og, he reminds them of Pharaoh, etc.; and he asserts, that in the history of the wars it shall be recorded that Jehovah, who had triumphantly brought Israel through the Sea of Suph, near Egypt, at first, had now conducted him to Suph, near Arnon; that

[¶1] Jehovah went with him to Suph,

[¶2] And he came to the streams of Arnon. "This version removes the difficulties urged by Hobbes, page 266, fol. 1750; by Spinoza, page 108, 4th., 1670; and retailed in a deistical pamphlet called The Doubts of the Infidels, page 4, 8vo., 1781. "The general meaning of the next piece of poetry seems to be this: that at some distance from the city of Ar, by which the Israelites were to pass, ([Deu 2:18]), they came to A Well of uncommon size and magnificence, which seems to have been sought out, built up, and adorned for the public, by the rulers of Moab. And it is no wonder that, on their arrival at such a well, they should look upon it as a blessing from Heaven, and speak of it as a new miracle in their favor.

[¶3] 17. Then Israel sang this song: - Spring up, O Well! Sing ye hitherto!

[¶4] 18. The Well! princes searched it out;The nobles of the people have digged it;By their decree, by their act of government,So, after the wilderness, was Mattanah!

[¶5] 19. And after Mattanah were Nahaliel!And after Nahaliel were Bamoth!

[¶6] 20. And after Bamoth was the valley;Where, in the country of Moab, Appeareth the top of Pisgah,Which is over against Jeshimon.

[¶7] See Dr. Kennicott's Remarks upon Select Passages in the Old Testament.

### Introduction

[¶9] The Israelites pitch in the plains of Moab, [Num 22:1]. Balak, king of Moab, is greatly terrified, [Num 22:2-4]; and sends to Balaam, a diviner, to come and curse them, [Num 22:5], [Num 22:6]. The elders of Moab take a reward and carry it to Balaam, [Num 22:7]. He inquires of the Lord, and is positively ordered not to go with them, [Num 22:8-12]. He communicates this to the elders of Moab, [Num 22:13]. They return to Balak with this information, [Num 22:14]. He sends some of his princes to Balaam with promises of great honor, [Num 22:15-17]. He consults God, and is permitted! to go, on certain conditions, [Num 22:18-20]. Balaam sets off, is opposed by an angel of the Lord, and the Lord miraculously opens the mouth of his ass to reprove him, [Num 22:21-30]. Balaam sees the angel, and is reproved by him, [Num 22:31-33]. He humbles himself, and offers to go back, [Num 22:34]; but is ordered to proceed, on the same conditions as before, [Num 22:35]. The king of Moab goes out to meet him, [Num 22:36]. His address to him, [Num 22:37]. Balaam's firm answer, [Num 22:38]. Balak sacrifices, and takes Balaam to the high places of Baal, that he may see the whole of the Israelitish camp, [Num 22:39-41].

### Verse 1

[¶11] And pitched in the plains of Moab - They had taken no part of the country that at present appertained to the Moabites; they had taken only that part which had formerly belonged to this people, but had been taken from them by Sihon, king of the Amorites.

[¶12] On this side Jordan - On the east side. By Jericho, that is, over against it.

### Verse 5

[¶14] To Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people - Dr. Kennicott justly remarks, that "the description now given of Balaam's residence, instead of being particular, agrees with any place in any country where there is a river; for he lived by Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people. But was Pethor then near the Nile in Egypt? Or in Canaan, near Jordan? Or in Mesopotamia, near the Euphrates, and belonging to the Ammonites? This last was in fact the case; and therefore it is well that twelve Hebrew MSS. (with two of De Rossi's) confirm the Samaritan text here in reading, instead of עמו ammo, his people, עמון Ammon, with the Syriac and Vulgate versions." Houbigant properly contends for this reading; and necessity urges the propriety of adopting it. It should therefore stand thus: by the river of the land of the children of Ammon; and thus it agrees with [Deu 23:4].

### Verse 6

[¶16] Come now, therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people - Balaam, once a prophet of the true God, appears to have been one of the Moshelim, (see [Num 21:27]), who had added to his poetic gift that of sorcery or divination. It was supposed that prophets and sorcerers had a power to curse persons and places so as to confound all their designs, frustrate their counsels, enervate their strength, and fill them with fear, terror, and dismay. See [Gen 9:25]; [Psa 109:6], [Psa 109:20]; [Jos 6:26]; [Jer 17:5], [Jer 17:6].

[¶17] Macrobius has a whole chapter De carmine quo evocari solebant dii tutelares, et aut urbes, aut exercitus devoveri. "Of the incantations which were used to induce the tutelary gods to forsake the cities, etc., over which they presided, and to devote cities and whole armies to destruction." See Saturnal., lib. iii., cap. ix. He gives us two of the ancient forms used in reference to the destruction of Carthage; the first, to call over the protecting deities, was pronounced by the dictator or general, and none other, when they began the siege. It is as follows, literatim et punctatim: -

[¶18] Si. Deus. si. Dea. est. cui. popolus. civitas. que. Karthaginiensis. est in. tutela. te. que. maxime, ille. qui. urbis. hujus. popoli. que. tutelam. recepisti. precor. veneror, que. veniam. que. a. vobis. peto. ut. vos. popolum. civitatem. que. Karthaginiensem. deseratis. loca. templa. sacra. urbem. que. eorum. relinquatis. absque. his. abeatis. ei. que. popolo. civitati. que. metum. formidinem. oblivionem. injiciatis. proditi. que. Romam. ad. me. meos. que. veniatis. nostra. que. vobis. loca. templa. sacra. urbs. acceptior. probatior. que. sit. mihi. que. popolo. que. Romano. militibus. que. meis. praepositi. sitis. ut. sciamus. intelligamus. que. Si. ita. feceritis. voveo. vobis. templa. ludos. que. facturum. "Whether it be god or goddess, under whose protection the people and city of Carthage are placed; and thee, especially, who hast undertaken to defend this city and people; I pray, beseech, and earnestly entreat that you would forsake the people and city of Carthage, and leave their places, temples, sacred things, and city, and depart from them: and that you would inspire this people and city with fear, terror, and forgetfulness: and that, coming out from them, you would pass over to Rome, to me, and to mine: and that our places, temples, sacred things, and city may be more agreeable and more acceptable to you: and that you would preside over me, the Roman people, and my soldiers; that we may know and perceive it. If ye will do this, I promise to consecrate to your honor both temples and games."

[¶19] The second, to devote the city to destruction, which it was supposed the tutelary gods had abandoned, is the following:

[¶20] Dis. Pater. Vejovis. Manes. sive. vos. quo. allo. nomine. fas. est. nominare. ut. omnes. iliam. urbem. Karthaginem. exercitum. que. quem. ego. me. sentio. dicere. fuga. formidine. terrore. que. compleatis. qui. que. adversum. legiones. exercitum. que. nostrum. arma. tela. que. ferent. Uti. vos. eum. exercitum. eos. hostes. eos. que. homines. urbes. agros. que. eorum. et. qui. in. his. locis. regionibus. que. agris. urbibus. ve. habitant. abducatis. lumine. supero. privetis. exercitum. que. hostium. urbes. agros. que. eorum. quos. me. sentio. dicere. uti. vos. eas. urbes. agros. que. capita. aetates. que. eorum. devotas. consecratas. que. habeatis. illis. legibus. quibus. quando. que. sunt. maxime. hostes. devoti. eos. que. ego. vicarios. pro. me. fide. magistratu. que. meo. pro. popolo. Romano. exercitibus. legionibus. que. nostris. do. devoveo. ut. me. meam. que. fidem. imperium. que. legiones. exercitum. que. nostrum. qui. in. his. rebus. gerundis. sunt. bene. salvos. siritis. esse. Si. haec. ita. faxitis. ut. ego. sciam. sentiam. intelligam. que. tune. quisquis. hoc. votum. faxit. ubi. ubi. faxit. recte. factum. esto. ovibus. atris. tribus. Tellus. mater. te. que. Juppiter. obtestor. "Dis. Pater. Vejosis. Manes., or by whatsoever name you wish to be invoked, I pray you to fill this city of Carthage with fear and terror; and to put that army to flight which I mention, and which bears arms or darts against Our legions and armies: and that ye may take away this army, those enemies, those men, their cities and their country, and all who dwell in those places, regions, countries, or cities; and deprive them of the light above: and let all their armies, cities, country, chiefs, and people be held by you consecrated and devoted, according to those laws by which, and at what time, enemies can be most effectually devoted. I also give and devote them as vicarious sacrifices for myself and my magistracy; for the Roman people, and for all our armies and legions; and for the whole empire, and that all the armies and legions which are employed in these countries may be preserved in safety. If therefore ye will do these things, as I know, conceive, and intend, then he who makes this vow wheresoever and whensoever he shall make it, I engage shall sacrifice three black sheep to thee, O mother Earth, and to thee. O Jupiter." "When the execrator mentions the earth, he stoops down and places both his hands on it; and when he names Jupiter, he lifts up both his hands to heaven; and when he mentions his vow, he places his hands upon his breast." Among the ancient records, Macrobius says he found many cities and people devoted in this way. The Romans held that no city could be taken till its tutelary god had forsaken it; or if it could be taken, it would be unlawful, as it would be sacrilegious to have the gods in captivity. They therefore endeavored to persuade the gods of their enemies to come over to their party. Virgil intimates that Troy was destroyed, only because the tutelary gods had forsaken it: -

[¶21] Excessere omnes, adytis arisque relictis,

[¶22] Dii, quibus imperium hoc steterat.

[¶23] Aen., lib. ii., ver. 351. "All the gods, by whose assistance the empire had hitherto been preserved, forsook their altars and their temples."

[¶24] And it was on this account that the Greeks employed all their artifice to steal away the Palladium, on which they believed the safety of Troy depended.

[¶25] Tacitus observes that when Suetonius Paulinus prepared his army to cross over into Mona, (Anglesea), where the Britons and Druids made their last stand, the priestesses, with dishevelled hair, white vestments, and torches in their hands, ran about like furies, devoting their enemies to destruction; and he farther adds that the sight, the attitude, and horrible imprecations of these priestesses had such effect on the Roman soldiers, that for a while they stood still and suffered themselves to be pierced with the darts of the Britons, without making any resistance. Tacit. Ann., l. xiv., c. 29. Many accounts are related in the Hindoo Pooran of kings employing sages to curse their enemies when too powerful for them - Ward's Customs.

[¶26] The Jews also had a most horrible form of execration, as may be seen in Buxtorf's Talmudical Lexicon under the word תדם. These observations and authorities, drawn out in so much detail, are necessary to cast light on the strange and curious history related in this and the two following chapters.

### Verse 7

[¶28] The rewards of divination - Whoever went to consult a prophet took with him a present, as it was on such gratuitous offerings the prophets lived; but here more than a mere present is intended, perhaps every thing necessary to provide materials for the incantation. The drugs, etc., used on such occasions were often very expensive. It appears that Balaam was very covetous, and that he loved the wages of unrighteousness, and probably lived by it; see [2Pet 2:15].

### Verse 8

[¶30] I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall speak - So it appears he knew the true God, and had been in the habit of consulting him, and receiving oracles from his mouth.

### Verse 12

[¶32] Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people - That is, Thou shalt not go with them to curse the people. With them he might go, as we find he afterwards did by God's own command, but not to curse the people; this was wholly forbidden. Probably the command, Thou shalt not go, refers here to that time, viz., the first invitation: and in this sense it was most punctually obeyed by Balaam; see [Num 22:13].

### Verse 14

[¶34] Balaam refuseth to come with us - "Observe," says Mr. Ainsworth, "Satan's practice against God's word, seeking to lessen the same, and that from hand to hand, till he bring it to naught. Balaam told the princes less than God told him, and they relate to Balak less than Balaam told them; so that when the answer came to the king of Moab, it was not the word of God, but the word of man; it was simply, Balaam refuseth to come, without ever intimating that God had forbidden him." But in this Balaam is not to blame; he told the messengers in the most positive manner, Jehovah refuseth to give me leave to go with you, [Num 22:13]; and more explicit he could not be.

### Verse 18

[¶36] I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God - Balaam knew God too well to suppose he could reverse any of his purposes; and he respected him too much to attempt to do any thing without his permission. Though he was covetous, yet he dared not, even when strongly tempted both by riches and honors, to go contrary to the command of his God. Many make all the professions of Balaam, without justifying them by their conduct. "They pretend," says one, "they would not do any thing against the word of God for a house full of gold, and yet will do it for a handful!"

### Verse 19

[¶38] What the Lord will say unto me more - He did not know but God might make a farther discovery of his will to him, and therefore he might very innocently seek farther information.

### Verse 20

[¶40] If the men come - go with them - This is a confirmation of what was observed on the twelfth verse; though we find his going was marked with the Divine displeasure, because he wished, for the sake of the honors and rewards, to fulfill as far as possible the will of the king of Moab. Mr. Shuckford observes that the pronoun הוא hu is sometimes used to denote a person's doing a thing out of his own head, without regard to the directions of another. Thus in the case of Balaam, when God had allowed him to go with the messengers of Balak, if they came in the morning to call him; because he was more hasty than he ought to have been, and went to them instead of staying till they should come to him, it was said of him, not כי הלך ki halach, that he went, but כי הולך הוא ki holech hu, i. e., he went of his own head - without being called; and in this, Mr. Shuckford supposes, his iniquity chiefly lay - Connex., vol. iii., p. 115. How many are restrained from sinning, merely through the fear of God! They would gladly do the evil, but it is forbidden on awful penalties; they wish the thing were not prohibited for they have a strong desire to do it.

### Verse 23

[¶42] And the ass saw the angel - When God granted visions those alone who were particularly interested saw them while others in the same company saw nothing; see [Dan 10:7]; [Act 9:7].

### Verse 26

[¶44] And the angel - stood in a narrow place - In this carriage of the angel says Mr. Ainsworth the Lord shows us the proceedings of his judgments against sinners: First he mildly shakes his rod at them but lets them go untouched. Secondly he comes nearer and touches them with an easy correction as it were wringing their foot against the wall. Thirdly, when all this is ineffectual, he brings them into such straits, that they can neither turn to the right hand nor to the left, but must fall before his judgments, if they do not fully turn to him.

## 174. Numbers · 23 of 34

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### Verse 28

[¶1] The Lord opened the mouth of the ass - And where is the wonder of all this? If the ass had opened her own mouth, and reproved the rash prophet, we might well be astonished; but when God opens the mouth, an ass can speak as well as a man. It is worthy of remark here, that Balaam testifies no surprise at this miracle, because he saw it was the Lord's doing. Of animate and inanimate things receiving for a short time the gift of speech, the heathen mythology furnishes many fictitious examples, with which I do not deem it proper to occupy the reader's time.

### Verse 33

[¶3] Surely now also I had slain thee - How often are the meanest animals, and the most trivial occurrences, instruments of the preservation of our lives, and of the salvation of our souls! The messenger of justice would have killed Balaam, had not the mercy of God prevented the ass from proceeding.

### Verse 34

[¶5] If it displease thee, I will get me back again - Here is a proof, that though he loved the wages of unrighteousness, yet he still feared God; and he is now willing to drop the enterprise if God be displeased with his proceeding. The piety of many called Christians does not extend thus far; they see that the thing displeases God, and yet they proceed. Reader, is this thy case?

### Verse 38

[¶7] The word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak - Here was a noble resolution, and he was certainly faithful to it: though he wished to please the king, and get wealth and honor, yet he would not displease God to realize even these bright prospects. Many who slander this poor semi-antinomian prophet, have not half his piety.

### Verse 40

[¶9] And Balak offered oxen, etc. - This was to gain the favor of his gods, and perhaps to propitiate Jehovah, that the end for which he had sent for Balaam might be accomplished.

### Verse 41

[¶11] That - he might see the utmost part of the people - As he thought Balaam must have them all in his eye when he pronounced his curse, lest it might not extend to those who were not in sight. On this account he took him up into the high places of Baal.

### Introduction

[¶13] Being arrived at the high places of Baal, ([Num 22:41]), Balaam orders Balak to build seven altars, and prepare oxen and rams for sacrifice, [Num 23:1], [Num 23:2]. Balaam inquires of the Lord, receives an answer, with which he returns to Balak, [Num 23:3-10]. Balak, finding that this was a prediction of the prosperity of the Israelites, is greatly troubled, [Num 23:11]. Balaam excuses himself, [Num 23:12]. He brings him to another place, where he might see only a part of Israel, and repeats his sacrifices, [Num 23:13], [Num 23:14]. Balaam again consults the Lord, [Num 23:15-17]. Returns with his answer, and again predicts the glory of Israel, [Num 23:18-24]. Balak is angry, [Num 23:25]; and Balaam again excuses himself. Balak proposes another trial, takes him to another place, and repeats the same sacrifices, [Num 23:26-30].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Build me here seven altars, etc. - The oxen and the rams were such as the Mosaic law had ordered to be offered to God in sacrifice; the building of seven altars was not commanded. Some think that these seven altars were built to the seven planets: this is most gratuitously said; of it there is no proof whatever; it is mere trifling, even with conjecture. As seven was a number of perfection, Balaam chose it on this occasion, because he intended to offer a grand sacrifice, and to offer a bullock and a ram upon each of the altars; the whole to be made a burnt-offering at the same time. And as he intended to offer seven bullocks and seven rams at the same time, it could not be conveniently done on one altar, therefore he ordered seven to be built. We need go no farther to find out his reasons.

### Verse 3

[¶17] Stand by thy burnt-offering - We have already seen that blessing and cursing in this way were considered as religious rites, and therefore must be always preceded by sacrifice. See this exemplified in the case of Isaac, before he blessed Jacob and Esau, Genesis 27 (note), and the notes there. The venison that was brought to Isaac, of which he did eat, was properly the preparatory sacrifice.

### Verse 7

[¶19] And he took up his parable - משלו meshalo, see on [Num 21:27] (note). All these oracular speeches of Balaam are in hemistich metre in the original. They are highly dignified, and may be considered as immediate poetic productions of the Spirit of God; for it is expressly said, [Num 23:5], that God put the word in Balaam's mouth, and that the Spirit of God came upon him, [Num 24:2].

### Verse 8

[¶21] How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? - It was granted on all hands that no incantations nor imprecations could avail, unless God concurred and ratified them. From God's communication to Balaam he saw that God was determined to bless and defend Israel, and therefore all endeavors to injure them must be in vain.

### Verse 9

[¶23] From the top of the rocks I see him - That is, from the high places of Baal where he went, [Num 22:41], that he might the more advantageously see the whole camp of Israel.

[¶24] The people shall dwell alone - They shall ever be preserved as a distinct nation. This prophecy has been literally fulfilled through a period of 3300 years to the present day. This is truly astonishing.

### Verse 10

[¶26] Let me die the death of the righteous - Probably Balaam had some presentiment that he should be taken off by a premature death, and therefore he lodges this petition against it. The death of the righteous in those times implied being gathered to one's fathers in a good old age, having seen his children, and children's children; and to this, probably, the latter part of this petition applies: And let my last end be like his, (ותהי אחריתי כמהו uthehi acharithi chamohu, And let my Posterity be like his). It has been generally supposed that Balaam is here praying for a happy death, such as true Christians die who die in the Lord; and in this way his words are generally applied; but I am satisfied this is not their meaning. The prayer, however, understood in the common way, is a good one, and may be offered to God profitably. A righteous man is one who is saved from his sins, who is justified and sanctified through the blood of the covenant, and who lives, not only an innocent, but also a holy and useful life. He who would die well should live well; for a bad death must be the issue of a bad life.

### Verse 13

[¶28] Thou shalt see but the utmost part of them - Balak thought that the sight of such an immense camp had intimidated Balaam, and this he might gather from what he said in the tenth verse: Who can count the dust of Jacob, etc.; he thought therefore that he might get Balaam to curse them in detached parties, till the whole camp should be devoted to destruction by successive execrations.

### Verse 17

[¶30] What hath the Lord spoken? - Balak himself now understood that Balaam was wholly under the influence of Jehovah, and would say nothing but what God commanded him; but not knowing Jehovah as Balaam did, he hoped that he might be induced to change his mind, and curse a people whom he had hitherto determined to bless.

### Verse 19

[¶32] God is not a man, that he should lie - This seems to be spoken to correct the foregoing supposition of Balak that God could change his mind. Even the heathen would not allow that their supreme god could be caught in a falsity. Hence Aeschylus, in Prometh. vinct. 1068: - Ψευδηγορειν γαρ ουκ επισταται στομα Το Διον, αλλα παν επος τελει. "The mouth of Jove knows not to frame a lie;

[¶33] But every word finds full accomplishment."

### Verse 21

[¶35] He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel - This is a difficult passage; for if we take the words as spoken of the people Israel, as their iniquity and their perverseness were almost unparalleled, such words cannot be spoken of them with strict truth. If we consider them as spoken of the patriarch Jacob and Israel, or of Jacob after he became Israel, they are most strictly true, as after that time a more unblemished and noble character (Abraham excepted) is not to be found in the page of history, whether sacred or profane; and for his sake, and for the sake of his father Isaac, and his grandfather Abraham, God is ever represented as favoring, blessing, and sparing a rebellious and undeserving people; see the note on [Gen 49:33]. In this way, I think, this difficult text may be safely understood.

[¶36] There is another way in which the words may be interpreted, which will give a good sense. און aven not only signifies iniquity, but most frequently trouble, labor, distress, and affliction; and these indeed are its ideal meanings, and iniquity is only an accommodated or metaphorical one, because of the pain, distress, etc., produced by sin. עמל amal, translated here perverseness, occurs often in Scripture, but is never translated perverseness except in this place. It signifies simply labor, especially that which is of an afflictive or oppressive kind. The words may therefore be considered as implying that God will not suffer the people either to be exterminated by the sword, or to be brought under a yoke of slavery. Either of these methods of interpretation gives a good sense, but our common version gives none.

[¶37] Dr. Kennicott contends for the reading of the Samaritan, which, instead of לא הביט lo hibbit, he hath not seen, has לא אבט lo abbit, I do not see, I do not discover any thing among them on which I could ground my curse. But the sense above given is to be preferred.

### Verse 22

[¶39] The strength of a unicorn - ראם reem and ראים reim. It is generally allowed that there is no such beast in nature as the unicorn; i. e., a creature of the horse kind, with one long rich curled horn in the forehead. The creature painted from fancy is represented as one of the supporters of the royal arms of Great Britain. It is difficult to say what kind of beast is intended by the original word. The Septuagint translate the word μονοκερως, the unicorn, or one-horned animal; the Vulgate, sometimes, unicornus; and in the text rhinocerotis, by which the rhinoceros, a creature which has its name from the horn on its nose, is supposed to be meant. That no single-horned animal can be intended by the reem of Moses, is sufficiently evident from this, that Moses, speaking of Joseph, says, "he has the Horns of A unicorn," or reem, where the horns are spoken of in the plural, the animal in the singular. The creature referred to is either the rhinoceros, some varieties of which have two horns on the nose, or the wild bull, urus, or buffalo; though some think the beast intended is a species of goat; but the rhinoceros seems the most likely. There is literally a monoceros, or unicorn, with one large curled ivory horn growing horizontally out of his snout; but this is not a land animal, it is the modiodan or nurwal, a marine animal of the whale kind, a horn of which is now before me, measuring seven feet four inches; but I believe the rhinoceros is that intended by the sacred writers.

### Verse 23

[¶41] There is no enchantment, etc. - Because God has determined to save them, therefore no enchantment can prevail against them.

[¶42] According to this time, etc. - I think this clause should be read thus: "As at this time it shall be told to Jacob and to Israel what God worketh;" i. e., this people shall always have prophetic information of what God is about to work. And indeed, they are the only people under heaven who ever had this privilege. When God himself designed to punish them because of their sins, he always forewarned them by the prophets; and also took care to apprise them of all the plots of their enemies against them.

### Verse 24

[¶44] Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion - לביא labi, the great, mighty, or old lion, the king of the forest, who is feared and respected by all the other beasts of the field; so shall Israel be the subduer and possessor of the whole land of Canaan. And as a young lion, ארי ari from ארה arah, to tear off, the predatory lion, or the lion in the act of seizing and tearing his prey; - the nations against whom the Israelites are now going shall be no more able to defend themselves against their attacks, than the feeblest beasts of the forest are against the attacks of the strong lion.

## 175. Numbers · 24 of 34

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### Verse 28

[¶1] Unto the top of Peor - Probably the place where the famous Baal-peor had his chief temple. He appears to have been the Priapus of the Moabites, and to have been worshipped with the same obscene and abominable rites.

### Introduction

[¶3] Balaam, finding that God was determined to bless Israel, seeks no longer for enchantments, [Num 24:1]. The Spirit of God coming upon him, he delivers a most important prophetic parable, [Num 24:2-9]. Balak's anger is kindled against him, and he commands him to depart to his own country, [Num 24:10], [Num 24:11]. Balaam vindicates his conduct, [Num 24:12], [Num 24:13]; and delivers a prophecy relative to the future destruction of Moab by the Israelites, [Num 24:14-17]; also of Edom, [Num 24:18], [Num 24:19]; of the Amalekites, [Num 24:20]; and of the Kenites, [Num 24:21], [Num 24:22]. Predicts also the destruction of Asshur and Eber, by the naval power of Chittim, which should afterwards be itself destroyed, [Num 24:23], [Num 24:24]. Balaam and Balak separate, [Num 24:25].

### Verse 1

[¶5] He went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments - We have already had occasion to observe that the proper meaning of the word נחש nachash is not easily ascertained; see [Num 21:9] (note), and [Gen 3:1] (note). Here the plural נחשים nechashim is rendered enchantments; but it probably means no more than the knowledge of future events. When Balaam saw that it pleased God to bless Israel, he therefore thought it unnecessary to apply for any farther prophetic declarations of God's will as he had done before, for he could safely infer every good to this people, from the evident disposition of God towards them.

### Verse 2

[¶7] The Spirit of God came upon him - This Divine afflatus he had not expected on the present occasion, but God had not yet declared the whole of his will.

### Verse 3

[¶9] He took up his parable - His prophetic declaration couched in highly poetic terms, and in regular metre, as the preceding were.

[¶10] The man whose eyes are open - I believe the original שתם shethum, should be translated shut, not open; for in the next verse, where the opening of his eyes is mentioned, a widely different word is used, גלה galah, which signifies to open or reveal. At first the eyes of Balaam were shut, and so closely too that he could not see the angel who withstood him, till God opened his eyes; nor could he see the gracious intentions of God towards Israel, till the eyes of his understanding were opened by the powers of the Divine Spirit. This therefore he mentions, we may suppose, with humility and gratitude, and to the credit of the prophecy which he is now about to deliver, that the Moabites may receive it as the word of God, which must be fulfilled in due season. His words, in their meaning, are similar to those of the blind man in the Gospel: "Once I was blind, but now I see."

### Verse 4

[¶12] Falling into a trance - There is no indication in the Hebrew that he fell into a trance; these words are added by our translators, but they are not in the original. נפל nophel is the only word used, and simply signifies falling, or falling down, perhaps in this instance by way of religious prostration.

### Verse 6

[¶14] Lign aloes which the Lord hath planted - Or, as the tents which the Lord hath pitched; for it is the same word, אהלים ohalim, which is used in the 5th verse. But from other parts of Scripture we find that the word also signifies a species of tree, called by some the sandal tree, and by others the lignum or wood aloes. This tree is described as being eight or ten feet high, with very large leaves growing at the top; and it is supposed that a forest of those at some distance must bear some resemblance to a numerous encampment. As the word comes from the root אהל ahal, which signifies to spread or branch out, and therefore is applied to tents, because of their being extended or spread out on the ground; so when it is applied to trees it must necessarily mean such as were remarkable for their widely-extended branches; but what the particular species is, cannot be satisfactorily ascertained. By the Lord's planting are probably meant such trees as grow independently of the cultivation of man - Nullis hominum cogentibus; or, as Virgil expresses it,

[¶15] Sponte sua quae se tollunt in luminis oras.

[¶16] Virg., Geor. ii., 47. "Such as sprung up, spontaneously into the regions of light."

[¶17] As cedar trees - Gabriel Sionita, a very learned Syrian Maronite, who assisted in editing the Paris Polyglot, a man worthy of all credit, thus describes the cedars of Mount Lebanon, which he had examined on the spot: - "The cedar grows on the most elevated part of the mountain, is taller than the pine, and so thick that five men together could scarcely fathom one. It shoots out its branches at ten or twelve feet from the ground; they are large, and distant from each other, and are perpetually green. The cedar distils a kind of gum, to which different effects are attributed. The wood of it is of a brown color, very solid, and incorruptible if preserved from wet. It bears a small apple, like to that of the pine."

[¶18] Deuteronomy la Roque relates some curious particulars concerning this tree, which he learned from the Maronites of Mount Libanus: "The branches grow in parallel rows round the tree, but lessen gradually from the bottom to the top, shooting out parallel to the horizon, so that the tree is, in appearance, similar to a cone. As the snows, which fall in vast quantities on this mountain, must necessarily, by their weight on such a vast surface, break down these branches, nature, or rather the God of nature, has so ordered it, that at the approach of winter, and during the snowy season, the branches erect themselves, and cling close to the body of the tree, and thus prevent any quantity of snow from lodging on them."

[¶19] Mr. Maundrell, who visited Mount Libanus in 1697, gives the following description of the cedars still growing there: - "These noble trees grow among the snow, near the highest part of Lebanon, and are remarkable, as well for their own age and largeness as for those frequent allusions to them in the word of God. Some of them are very old, and of a prodigious bulk; others younger, and of a smaller size. Of the former I could reckon only sixteen, but the latter are very numerous. I measured one of the largest, and found it twelve yards and six inches in girt, and yet sound, and thirty-seven yards in the spread of its branches. At about five or six yards from the ground it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal to a great tree." - Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 142.

### Verse 7

[¶21] He shall pour the water out of his buckets, etc. - Here is a very plain allusion to their method of raising water in different parts of the East. By the well a tall pole is erected, which serves as a fulcrum to a very long lever, to the smaller end of which a bucket is appended. On the opposite end, which is much larger, are many notches cut in the wood, which serve as steps for a man, whose business it is to climb up to the fulcrum, in order to lower the bucket into the well, which, when filled, he raises by walking back on the opposite arm, till his weight brings the bucket above the well's mouth: a person standing by the well empties the bucket into a trench, which communicates with the ground intended to be watered.

[¶22] His seed shall be in many waters - Another simple allusion to the sowing of rice. The ground must not only be well watered, but flooded, in order to serve for the proper growth of this grain. The rice that was sown in many waters must be the most fruitful. By an elegant and chaste metaphor all this is applied to the procreation of a numerous posterity.

[¶23] His king shall be higher than Agag - This name is supposed to have been as common to all the Amalekitish kings as Pharaoh was to those of Egypt. But several critics, with the Septuagint, suppose that a small change has taken place here in the original word, and that instead of מאגג meagag, than Agag, we should read מגוג miggog, than Gog. As Gog in Scripture seems to mean the enemies of God's people, then the promise here may imply that the true worshippers of the Most High shall ultimately have dominion over all their enemies.

### Verse 8

[¶25] God brought him forth out of Egypt - They were neither expelled thence, nor came voluntarily away. God alone, with a high hand and uplifted arm, brought them forth. Concerning the unicorn, see [Num 23:22] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶27] He couched, he lay down as a lion, etc. - See the original terms explained [Num 23:24] (note).

[¶28] These oracles, delivered by Balaam, are evident prophecies of the victories which the Israelites should gain over their enemies, and of their firm possession of the promised land. They may also refer to the great victories to be obtained by the Lord Jesus Christ, that Lion of the tribe of Judah, over sin, death, and Satan, the grand enemies of the human race; and to that most numerous posterity of spiritual children which should be begotten by the preaching of the Gospel.

### Verse 11

[¶30] Lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honor - A bitter and impious sarcasm. "Hadst thou cursed this people, I would have promoted thee to great honor; but thou hast chosen to follow the directions of Jehovah rather than mine, and what will he do for thee?"

### Verse 15

[¶32] The man whose eyes are open - See on [Num 24:3] (note). It seems strange that our version should have fallen into such a mistake as to render שתם shethum, open, which it does not signify, when the very sound of the word expresses the sense. The Vulgate has very properly preserved the true meaning, by rendering the clause cujus obturatus est oculus, he whose eyes are shut. The Targum first paraphrased the passage falsely, and most of the versions followed it.

### Verse 17

[¶34] I shall see him, but not now - Or, I shall see him, but he is not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh - I shall have a full view of him, but the time is yet distant. That is, The person of whom I am now prophesying does not at present exist among these Israelites, nor shall he appear in this generation. There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel - a person eminent for wisdom, and formidable for strength and power, shall arise as king among this people. He shall smite the corners of Moab - he shall bring the Moabites perfectly under subjection; (See [2Sam 8:2]); and destroy all the children of Sheth. The original word קרקר karkar, from קרה karah, to meet, associate, join, blend, and the like, is variously translated; vastabit, he shall waste, Vulgate - προνομευσει, shall prey on, Sept - ישלוט yishlot, shall rule over, Targum - Shall shake, Arabic - barbend, shall put a yoke on, Pers - Shall unwall, Ainsworth, etc., etc.

[¶35] The Targum of Onkelos translates the whole passage thus: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but he is not near. When a king shall arise from the house of Jacob, and the Messiah be anointed from the house of Israel, he shall slay the princes of Moab, and rule over all the children of men."

[¶36] The Jerusalem Targum is a little different: "A king shall arise from the house of Jacob, a redeemer and governor from the house of Israel, who shall slay the chiefs of the Moabites, and empty out and destroy all the children of the East."

[¶37] Rabbi Moses ben Maimon has, in my opinion, perfectly hit the meaning of the prophecy in the following paraphrase of the text: "I shall see him, but not now. This is David - I shall behold him, but not nigh. This is the king Messiah - A Star shall come out of Jacob. This is David - And a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel. This is the king Messiah - And shall smite the corners of Moab. This is David, (as it is written, [2Sam 8:2] : And he smote Moab, casting them down to the ground) - And shall destroy all the children of Sheth. This is the king Messiah, of whom it is written, ([Psa 72:8]), He shall have dominion from sea to sea."

### Verse 18

[¶39] And Edom shall be a possession - That is, to David: as it is said: "And all they of Edom became David's servants;" [2Sam 8:14].

[¶40] Seir also shall be a possession - That is, unto the king Messiah; as it is said: "And saviours shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's;" [Oba 1:21]. See Ainsworth.

### Verse 19

[¶42] Out of Jacob shall come, etc. - This is supposed to refer to Christ, because of what is said [Gen 49:10].

[¶43] It is exceedingly difficult to fix the true sense of this prophecy in all its particulars. Probably the star, [Num 24:17], is only an emblem of kingly power. Among the Egyptians a star is said to have been the symbol of the Divine Being. The scepter refers to the kingly power in exercise. The corners or outskirts may mean the petty Moabitish governments, as the Chaldee has understood the term. If karkar, which we translate utterly destroy, be not the name of a place here, as it is in [Jdg 8:10], (which is not very likely), it may be taken in one of those senses assigned to it, (see on [Num 24:17] (note)), and signify the blending together the children of Sheth, that is, all the inhabitants of the earth; for so the children of Sheth must necessarily be understood, unless we consider it here as meaning some king of the Moabites, according to Grotius, or a city on the borders of Moab, according to Rabbi Nathan. As neither Israel nor the Messiah ever destroyed all the children of men, we must (in order to leave the children of Sheth what they are generally understood to be, all the inhabitants of the world) understand the whole as a prophecy of the final universal sway of the scepter of Christ, when the middle wall of partition shall be broken down, and the Jews and Gentiles become one united, blended fold, under one shepherd and bishop of their souls.

[¶44] I cannot think that the meteoric star which guided the wise men of the east to Bethlehem can be intended here; nor do I think that Peter refers to this prophecy when he calls Christ the day star, [2Pet 1:19]; nor that [Rev 2:28], where Christ is called the morning star, nor [Rev 22:16], where he is called the bright and morning star, refers at all to this prophecy of Balaam. Nor do I think that the false Christ who rose in the time of Adrian, and who called himself Barcochab, which literally signifies the son of a star, did refer to this prophecy. If he had, he must have defeated his own intention, because the Son of the star is not The Star that should arise, but at the utmost a descendant; and then, to vindicate his right to the Jewish throne, he must show that the person who was called the star, and of whom he pretended to be the son or descendant, had actually reigned before him. As the sun, moon, stars, planets, light, splendours, effulgence, day, etc., were always considered among the Asiatics as emblems of royalty, government, etc., therefore many, both men and women, had these names given to them as titles, surnames, etc. So the queen of Alexander the Great, called Roxana by the Greeks, was a Persian princess, and in her native tongue her name was Roushen, splendor. Hadassah, who became queen to Ahasuerus, in place of the repudiated Vashti, and is called Esther by Europeans in general, was called in the language of Persia Sitareh; from whence by corruption came both Esther, the Persian queen, and our word star. And to waive all farther examples, a Mohammedan prince, at first named Eesouf or Joseph, was called Roushen Akhter when he was raised to the throne, which signifies a splendid or luminous star. This prince, by a joyful reverse of fortune, was brought from a gloomy prison and exalted to the throne of Hindostan; on which account the following couplet was made, in which there is a paronomasia or play on the name Roushen Akhter; and the last line alludes to the history of the patriarch Joseph, who was brought out of prison and exalted to the highest honors in Egypt.

## 176. Numbers · 25 of 34

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[¶0] Roushen Akhter bood, aknoon mah shud̀

[¶1] Yousef az zendan ber amd shah shud. "He was a bright star, but is now become a moon.

[¶2] Joseph is brought out of prison, and is become a glorious king."

### Verse 20

[¶4] Amalek was the first of the nations - The most ancient and most powerful of all the nations or states then within the view of Balaam; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever, or his posterity אחריתו acharitho, shall be destroyed, or shall utterly fail. This oracle began to be fulfilled by Saul, [1Sam 15:7], [1Sam 15:8], who overthrew the Amalekites, and took their king, Agag, prisoner. Afterwards they were nearly destroyed by David, [1Sam 27:8], and they were finally exterminated by the sons of Simeon in the days of Hezekiah, [1Chr 4:41-43]; since that time they have ceased to exist as a people, and now no vestige of them remains on the face of the earth; so completely is their posterity cut off, according to this prophecy. The marginal reading does not appear to give the proper sense.

### Verse 21

[¶6] He looked on the Kenites - Commentators are not well agreed who the Kenites were. Dr. Dodd's opinion is, I think, nearest to the truth. Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, is called a priest or prince of Midian, [Exo 3:1], and in [Jdg 1:16] he is called a Kenite; we may infer, therefore, says he, that the Kenites and the Midianites were the same, or at least that the Kenites and the Midianites were confederate tribes. Some of these we learn from Judges 1, followed the Israelites, others abode still among the Midianites and Amalekites. When Saul destroyed the latter, we find he had no commission against the Kenites, [1Sam 15:6], for it appears that they were then a small and inconsiderable people; they had doubtless been wasted, as the text says, though by what means does not appear from history. On the other hand, it may be observed that the Midianites mentioned here lived close to the Dead Sea, at a great distance from the Midian where Jethro lived, which was near Horeb. Perhaps they were a colony or tribe that had migrated from the vicinity of Mount Sinai. It seems that at this time the Kenites occupied a very strong position: Strong is thy dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock; where there is a play on the original word קי, which signifies both a Kenite and a nest. High rocks in these countries were generally used as their strong places.

### Verse 22

[¶8] Until Asshur shall carry thee away captive - The Assyrians and Babylonians who carried away captive the ten tribes, [2Kgs 17:6], and the Jews into Babylon, 2 Kings 25, probably carried away the Kenites also. Indeed this seems pretty evident, as we find some Kenites mentioned among the Jews after their return from the Babylonish captivity, [1Chr 2:55].

### Verse 23

[¶10] Who shall live when God doeth this! - There are two senses in which these words may be taken: -

[¶11] 1. That the event is so distant that none then alive could possibly live to see it.

[¶12] 2. That the times would be so distressing and desolating that scarcely any should be able to escape.

[¶13] The words are very similar to those of our Lord, and probably are to be taken in the same sense: "Wo to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days."

### Verse 24

[¶15] Ships shall come from the coast of Chittim - Some think by Chittim the Romans, others the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, are meant. It is certain that the Romans did conquer the Assyrians, including all the people of Syria, Mesopotamia, etc., but Calmet strongly contends that by Chittim Macedonia is meant, and that the prophecy refers to the conquests of Alexander. Chittim was one of the sons of Javan, the son of Japheth, the son of Noah, [Gen 10:4]; and his posterity, according to Josephus, Antiq., 1. iii., c. 22, settled in Cilicia, Macedonia, Cyprus, and Italy also; and therefore, says Mr. Ainsworth, the prophecy may imply both the troubles that befell the Assyrians and Jews by the Greeks and Seleucidae, in the troublous days of Antiochus.

[¶16] And shall afflict Eber - Probably not the Hebrews, as some think, but the people on the other side the Euphrates, from עבר abar, to pass over, go beyond; all which people were discomfited, and their empire destroyed by Alexander the Great.

### Verse 25

[¶18] And Balaam - returned to his place - Intended to have gone to Mesopotamia, his native country, (see [Deu 23:4]), but seems to have settled among the Midianites, where he was slain by the Israelites; see [Num 31:8].

[¶19] Though the notes in the preceding chapters have been extended to a considerable length, yet a few additional remarks may be necessary: the reader's attention is earnestly requested to the following propositions: -

[¶20] 1. It appears sufficiently evident from the preceding account that Balaam knew and worshipped the true God.

[¶21] 2. That he had been a true prophet, and appears to have been in the habit of receiving oracles from God.

[¶22] 3. That he practiced some illicit branches of knowledge, or was reputed by the Moabites as a sorcerer, probably because of the high reputation he had for wisdom; and we know that even in our own country, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, persons who excelled their contemporaries in wisdom were reputed as magicians.

[¶23] 4. That though he was a believer in the true God, yet he was covetous; he loved the wages of unrighteousness.

[¶24] 5. That it does not appear that in the case before us he wished to curse Israel when he found they were the servants of the true God.

[¶25] 6. That it is possible he did not know this at first. Balak told him that there was a numerous people come out of Egypt; and as marauders, wandering hordes, freebooters, etc., were frequent in those days, he might take them at first for such spoilers, and the more readily go at Balak's request to consult God concerning them.

[¶26] 7. That so conscientiously did he act in the whole business, that as soon as he found it displeased God he cheerfully offered to return; and did not advance till he had not only the permission, but the authority of God to proceed.

[¶27] 8. That when he came in view of the Israelitish camp he did not attempt to make use of any means of sorcery, evocation of spirits, necromantic spells, etc., to accomplish the wish of Balak.

[¶28] 9. That he did seek to find out the will of the true God, by using those means which God himself had prescribed, viz., supplication and prayer, and the sacrifice of the clean beasts.

[¶29] 10. That though he knew it would greatly displease Balak, yet he most faithfully and firmly told him all that God said on every occasion.

[¶30] 11. That notwithstanding his allowed covetous disposition, yet he refused all promised honors and proffered rewards, even of the most extensive kind, to induce him to act in any respect contrary to the declared will of God.

[¶31] 12. That God on this occasion communicated to him some of the most extraordinary prophetic influences ever conferred on man.

[¶32] 13. That his prophecies are, upon the whole, clear and pointed, and have been fulfilled in the most remarkable manner, and furnish a very strong argument in proof of Divine revelation.

[¶33] 14. That notwithstanding the wicked counsel given to the Midianites, the effects of which are mentioned in the following chapter, on which account he probably lost his life, ([Num 31:8]), the badness of this man's character has been very far overrated; and that it does not appear that he was either a hypocrite, false prophet, or a sorcerer in the common acceptation of the term, and that he risked even life itself in following and fulfilling the will of the Lord!

[¶34] 15. That though it is expressly asserted, [Num 31:16], and [Rev 2:14], that Israel's committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab was brought about by the evil counsel given by Balaam to cast this stumbling-block in their way, yet it does not appear from the text that he had those most criminal intentions which are generally attributed to him; for as we have already seen so much good in this man's character, and that this, and his love of money (and who thinks this a sin?) are almost the only blots in it, it must certainly be consistent with candour and charity to suggest a method of removing at least some part of this blame.

[¶35] 16. I would therefore simply say that the counsel given by Balaam to Balak might have been "to form alliances with this people, especially through the medium of matrimonial connections; and seeing they could not conquer them, to endeavor to make them their friends." Now, though this might not be designed by Balaam to bring them into a snare, yet it was a bad doctrine, as it led to the corruption of the holy seed, and to an unequal yoking with unbelievers; which, though even in a matrimonial way, is as contrary to sound policy as to the word of God. See the notes on [Num 25:3] and [Num 25:6] (note).

[¶36] 17. That it was the Moabitish women, not Balaam, that called the people to the sacrifice of their gods; and it argued great degeneracy and iniquity in the hearts of the people on so slight an invitation to join so suddenly so impure a worship, and so speedily to cast off the whole form of godliness, with every portion of the fear of the Almighty; therefore the high blame rests ultimately with themselves.

### Introduction

[¶38] While Israel abode in Shittim the people commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, [Num 25:1]. They become idolaters, [Num 25:2]. The anger of the Lord is kindled against them, and he commands the ringleaders to be hanged, [Num 25:3], [Num 25:4]. Moses causes the judges to slay the transgressors, [Num 25:5]. Zimri, one of the Israelitish princes of the tribe of Simeon, brings a Midianitish princess, named Cozbi, into his tent, while the people are deploring their iniquity before the tabernacle, [Num 25:6]. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, incensed by this insult to the laws and worship of God, runs after them and pierces them both with a javelin, [Num 25:7], [Num 25:8]. Twenty-four thousand die of the plague, sent as a punishment for their iniquity, [Num 25:9]. The Lord grants to Phinehas a covenant of peace and an everlasting priesthood, [Num 25:10-13]. The name and quality of the Israelitish man and Midianitish woman, [Num 25:14], [Num 25:15]. God commands the Israelites to vex and smite the Midianites, who had seduced them to the worship of Baal-peor, [Num 25:16-18].

### Verse 3

[¶40] Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor - The same as the Priapus of the Romans, and worshipped with the same obscene rites as we have frequently had occasion to remark.

[¶41] The joining to Baal-peor, mentioned here, was probably what St. Paul had in view when he said, [2Cor 6:14] : Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And this joining, though done even in a matrimonial way, was nevertheless fornication, (see [Rev 2:14]), as no marriage between an Israelite and a Midianite could be legitimate, according to the law of God. See the propositions at the close of the preceding chapter [Num 24:25] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶43] Take all the heads of the people, etc. - Meaning the chiefs of those who had transgressed; as if he had said, "Assemble the chiefs and judges, institute an inquiry concerning the transgressors, and hang them who shall be found guilty before the Lord, as a matter required by his justice." Against the sun - in the most public manner, and in daylight. Dr. Kennicott has remarked that the Samaritan and Hebrew texts must be both taken together, to make the sense here complete: And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto all the heads of the people; And Let Them Slay The Men That Were Joined To Baal-Peor; and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, etc.

## 177. Numbers · 26 of 34

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Slay ye every one his men - In the different departments where you preside over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, slay all the culprits that shall be found.

### Verse 6

[¶3] One of the children of Israel - Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief family in the tribe of Simeon, [Num 25:14], brought a Midianitish woman, Cozbi, daughter of Zur, head over a people of one of the chief families in Midian, [Num 25:15]. The condition of these two persons plainly proves it to have been a matrimonial alliance, the one was a prince, the other a princess; therefore I must conclude that fornication or whoredom, in the common sense of the word, was not practiced on this occasion. The matter was bad enough, as the marriage was in flat opposition to the law of God; and we need not make it worse by representing the woman as a common prostitute, as the Vulgate and several others have done. In such a case this is absolutely inadmissible. Josephus positively says that Zimri had married Cozbi, Antiq., 1. iv., cap. 6; and if he had not said so, still the thing is nearly self-evident. See [Num 24:25] (note).

[¶4] The children of Israel, who were weeping - This aggravated the crime, because the people were then in a state of great humiliation, because of the late impure and illegal transactions.

### Verse 8

[¶6] Thrust both of them through - Inspired undoubtedly by the Spirit of the God of justice to do this act, which can never be a precedent on any common occasion. An act something similar occurs in our own history. In 1381, in the minority of Richard II., a most formidable insurrection took place in Kent and Essex; about 100,000 men, chiefly under the direction of Wat Tyler, seized on London, massacred multitudes of innocent people, and were proceeding to the greatest enormities, when the king requiring a conference in Smithfield with the rebel leader, Sir William Walworth, then mayor of London, provoked at the insolence with which Tyler behaved to his sovereign, knocked him off his horse with his mace, after which he was instantly dispatched. While his partisans were bending their bows to revenge the death of their leader, Richard, then only sixteen years of age, rode up to them, and with great courage and presence of mind thus addressed them: "What, my people, will you kill your king! be not concerned for the death of your leader; follow me, and I will be your general." They were suddenly appeased, and the rebellion terminated. The action of Sir William Walworth was that of a zealot, of essential benefit at the time, and justified only by the pressing exigencies of the case.

### Verse 9

[¶8] Those that died - were twenty and four thousand - St. Paul, [1Cor 10:8], reckons only twenty-three thousand; though some MSS. and versions, particularly the latter Syriac and the Armenian, have twenty-four thousand, with the Hebrew text. Allowing the 24,000 to be the genuine reading, and none of the Hebrew MSS. exhibit any various reading here, the two places may be reconciled thus: 1,000 men were slain in consequence of the examination instituted [Num 25:4], and 23,000 in consequence of the orders given [Num 25:5]; making 24,000 in the whole. St. Paul probably refers only to the latter number.

### Verse 12

[¶10] My covenant of peace - of an everlasting priesthood - As the word peace implied all kinds of blessings, both spiritual and temporal, it may mean no more here than the promise of God, to grant him and his family the utmost prosperity in reference to both worlds. The everlasting priesthood refers properly to the priesthood of Christ which was shadowed out by the priesthood under the law; no matter in what family it was continued. Therefore the כהנת עולם kehunnath olam, or eternal priesthood, does not merely refer to any sacerdotal ministrations which should be continued in the family of Phinehas, during the Mosaic dispensation, but to that priesthood of Christ typified by that of Aaron and his successors. The priesthood alone is everlasting, and a covenant or grant of that was made to Phinehas, and his descendants. The Jews reckon twelve high priests of the race of Phinehas, from this time to the days of Solomon, nine more from that time to the captivity, (see [1Chr 6:4], [1Chr 6:15]), and fifteen from their return to the time of Antiochus Eupator, the last of whom was Onias, slain by Lysias. Ezra, the great priest and scribe, was of this line, [Ezr 7:1], [Ezr 7:5]. The family of Ithamar, uncle of Phinehas, had the priesthood for about 150 years; but it was restored to the family of Phinehas in the person of Zadok the priest, [1Chr 6:50], in which it continued in the whole about 950 years. Probably the Maccabees were of the same family; but though this is not certain, there is no evidence against it. See Calmet. God therefore sufficiently fulfilled his promise; he gave to him and his descendants almost the utmost temporal length that could be given of that priesthood which is, in its own nature, eternal. Here then the word עולם olam means, not a limited time, but what is eternal in its duration. See the note on [Gen 21:33].

### Verse 17

[¶12] Vex the Midianites, etc. - See this order fulfilled, Numbers 31:1-20. Twelve thousand Israelites attacked the Midianites, destroyed all their cities, slew their five kings, every male, and every grown up woman, and took all their spoils.

### Introduction

[¶14] Moses and Eleazar are commanded to take the sum of the Israelites, in the plains of Moab, [Num 26:1-4]. Reuben and his posterity, 43,730, [Num 26:5-11]. Simeon and his posterity, 22,200, [Num 26:12-14]. Gad and his posterity, 40,500, [Num 26:15-18]. Judah and his posterity, 76,500, [Num 26:19-22]. Issachar and his posterity, 64,300, [Num 26:23-25]. Zebulun and his posterity, 60,500, [Num 26:26], [Num 26:27]. Manasseh and his posterity, 52,700, [Num 26:28-34]. Ephraim and his posterity, 32,500, [Num 26:35-37]. Benjamin and his posterity, 45,600, [Num 26:38-41]. Dan and his posterity, 64,400, [Num 26:42], [Num 26:43]. Asher and his posterity, 53,400, [Num 26:44-47]. Naphtali and his posterity, 45,400, [Num 26:48-50]. Total amount of the twelve tribes, 601,730, [Num 26:51]. The land is to be divided by lot, and how, [Num 26:52-56]. The Levites and their families, [Num 26:57], [Num 26:58]. Their genealogy, [Num 26:59-61]. Their number, [Num 26:23],000, [Num 26:62]. In this census or enumeration not one man was found, save Joshua and Caleb, of all who had been reckoned 38 years before, the rest having died in the wilderness, [Num 26:63-65].

### Verse 2

[¶16] Take the sum of all the congregation - After thirty-eight years God commands a second census of the Israelites to be made, to preserve the distinction in families, and to regulate the tribes previously to their entry into the promised land, and to ascertain the proportion of land which should be allowed to each tribe. For though the whole was divided by lot, yet the portions were so disposed that a numerous tribe did not draw where the lots assigned small inheritances. See [Num 26:53-56], and also see the note on [Num 1:1].

### Verse 10

[¶18] Together with Korah - The Samaritan text does not intimate that Korah was swallowed up, but that he was burnt, as appears in fact to have been the case. And the earth swallowed them up, what time that company died; and the fire devoured Korah with the two hundred and fifty men, who became a sign.

### Verse 11

[¶20] The children of Korah died not - It is difficult to reconcile this place with [Num 16:27], [Num 16:31-33], where it seems to be intimated that not only the men, but the wives, and the sons, and the little ones of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, were swallowed up by the earthquake; see especially [Num 16:27], collated with [Num 16:33]. But the text here expressly says, The children of Korah died not; and on a close inspection of [Num 16:27], we shall find that the sons and the little ones of Dathan and Abiram alone are mentioned. So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out - and their wives, and their sons, and their little ones. Here is no mention of the children of Korah, they therefore escaped, while it appears those of Dathan and Abiram perished with their fathers. See the note on [Num 16:30].

### Verse 51

[¶22] These were the numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand seven hundred and thirty - The following comparative statement will show how much some of the tribes had increased, and others had diminished, since the enumeration in Numbers 1.

[¶23] Tribe Chapter 26 Chapter1 Variation Reuben 43,730 to 46,500 2,770 decrease Simeon 22,200 to 59,300 37,100 decrease Gad 40,500 to 45,650 5,150 decrease Judah 76,500 to 74,600 1,900 increase Issachar 64,300 to 54,400 9,900 increase Zebulun 60,500 to 57,400 3,100 increase Manasseh 52,700 to 32,200 20,500 increase Ephraim 32,500 to 40,500 8,000 decrease Benjamin 45,600 to 35,400 10,200 increase Dan 64,400 to 62,700 1,700 increase Asher 53,400 to 41,500 11,900 increase Naphtali 45,400 to 53,400 8,000 decrease Total 601,730 to 603,550 1,820 decrease on the whole, in 38 years. Decrease in all, 61,020. Increase in all, 59,200.

[¶24] Let it be observed,

[¶25] 1. That among these there was not a man of the former census, save Joshua and Caleb, see [Num 26:64], [Num 26:65].

[¶26] 2. That though there was an increase in seven tribes of not less than 74,800 men, yet so great was the decrease in the other five tribes, that the balance against the present census is 1,820, as appears above: thus we find that there was an in crease of 601,728 from 603,550 in the space of thirty-eight years.

[¶27] Notwithstanding the amazing increase in some and decrease in other tribes, the same sort of proportion is preserved in the east, west, north, and south divisions, as before; so as to keep the division of Judah, which was always in the front or van, the largest; and the division of Dan, which was always in the rear, the next in number. But it is worthy of remark that as they are now, properly speaking, to commence their grand military operations, so their front, or advanced division, is increased from 186,400 to 201,300; and their rear from 157,600 to 163,200. The first division is strengthened 14,900 men, and the last division 5,600 men. The reasons for this are sufficiently obvious.

[¶28] Mr. Ainsworth has a curious remark on the number of families in the 12 tribes.

[¶29] Number of Families 1. Of Manasseh 8 7. Of Reuben 4 2. Of Benjamin 7 8. Of Issachar 4 3. Of Gad 7 9. Of Ephraim 4 4. Of Simeon 5 10. Of Naphtali 4 5. Of Judah 5 11. Of Zebulun 3 6. Of Asher 5 12. Of Dan 1 "In all 57; to whom if we add the 12 patriarchs, and Jacob their father, the whole number is 70, the exact number of the souls in Jacob's house that went down to Egypt, [Gen 46:27]." In a variety of things in this ancient economy there is a most surprising proportion kept up, which never could have been a fortuitous effect of general causes. But proportion, harmony, and order distinguish all the works of God, both in the natural and moral world.

### Verse 55

[¶31] The land shall be divided by lot - The word גורל goral, translated lot, is supposed by some to signify the stone or pebble formerly used for the purpose of what we term casting lots. The word hlot is Anglo-Saxon, from to divide, or portion out, i. e., fortuitously: it answers to the Greek κληρος, which some think comes from κλαω to break; because the lot, being a sort of appeal to God, ("The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord," [Pro 16:33]), broke off all contentions and litigations relative to the matter in dispute. From this original division of the promised land by lot to the children of Israel, all portions, appointments, offices, shares, or divisions in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters, were termed lots. So in the New Testament, the word κληρος, lot, is used to signify a portion of spiritual blessedness, and κληρονομια, a division by lot, an inheritance; and κληροι, the lotted or appointed persons to different works, shares, etc.; hence our word clergy, κληροι, persons appointed by lot to a lot, portion, or inheritance; see the case of Matthias, [Act 1:26]. Persons thus appointed were by accommodation termed inheritors, because originally, when there could be no claims of exclusive right, all lands where a wandering tribe chose to take up its residence were divided by lot, as the promised land in the case before us. So Judah says to Simeon his brother, [Jdg 1:3] : "Come up with me into my lot." And as God was ever supposed to be the whole disposer in such matters, whatever fell out in the course of God's providence was called a lot. "This is the lot of them that rob us;" [Isa 17:14]. "Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter;" [Act 8:21]. A lot in the promised land was evidently typical of a place in eternal glory. "That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance (κληρον, a lot) among them that are sanctified;" [Act 26:18]. "Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance, κληρου, of the lot) of the saints in light;" [Col 1:12]. "Which is the earnest of our inheritance, (κληρονομιας, of our allotted portion;") [Eph 1:4]. "What is the riches of the glory of his inheritance," (κληρονομιας, allotted portion); [Eph 1:18]. As therefore the promised land was divided by lot to the believing Israelites, God determining the lot as he saw good, none of the people having any claim on or right to it; so the kingdom of heaven is a lot given by the mere good will of God to them that believe and obey him; for as unbelief and disobedience threw 600,000 people out of the inheritance of the promised land; so none who disbelieve God's word, and rebel against his authority, shall ever enter into the kingdom of heaven - See Ainsworth. These things happened unto them for examples: see then, reader, that thou fall not after the same example of unbelief.

### Introduction

[¶33] The daughters of Zelophehad claim their inheritance, [Num 27:1-4]. Moses brings their case before the Lord, [Num 27:5]. He allows their claim, [Num 27:6], [Num 27:7]; and a law is made to regulate the inheritance of daughters, [Num 27:8-11]. Moses is commanded to go up to Mount Abarim, and view the promised land, [Num 27:12]; is apprised of his death, [Num 27:13]; and because he did not sanctify God at the waters of Meribah, he shall not enter into it, [Num 27:14]. Moses requests the Lord to appoint a person to supply his place as leader of the Israelites, [Num 27:15-17]. God appoints Joshua, commands Moses to lay his hands upon him, to set him before Eleazar the priest, and give him a charge in the sight of the people, [Num 27:18-20]. Eleazar shall ask counsel for him by Urim, and at his command shall the Israelites go out and come in, [Num 27:21]. Moses does as the Lord commanded him, and consecrates Joshua, [Num 27:22], [Num 27:23].

### Verse 1

[¶35] The daughters of Zelophehad - The singular case of these women caused an additional law to be made to the civil code of Israel, which satisfactorily ascertained and amply secured the right of succession in cases of inheritance. The law, which is as reasonable as it is just, stands thus:

[¶36] 1. On the demise of the father the estate goes to the sons;

[¶37] 2. If there be no son, the daughters succeed; 3. If there be no daughter, the brothers of the deceased inherit;

[¶38] 4. If there be no brethren or paternal uncles, the estate goes to the brothers of his father;

[¶39] 5. If there be no grand uncles or brothers of the father of the deceased, then the nearest akin succeeds to the inheritance.

[¶40] Beyond the fifth degree the law does not proceed, because as the families of the Israelites were kept distinct in their respective tribes, there must always be some who could be called kinsmen, and were really such, having descended without interruption from the patriarch of the tribe.

### Verse 7

[¶42] Thou shalt surely give them - an inheritance among their father's brethren - There is a curious anomaly here in the Hebrew text which cannot be seen in our translation. In Hebrew they, them, and their, you, ye, and your, are both of the masculine and feminine genders, according as the nouns are to which they are affixed; but these words are of no gender in English. In this verse, speaking of the brethren of the father of those women, the masculine termination הם hem, Their, is used instead of the feminine, הן hen, governed by בנות benoth, daughters. So להם lahem, to Them, and אביהם abihem, Their fathers, masculine, are found in the present text, instead of להן lahen and אביהן abihen, feminine. Interpreters have sought for a hidden meaning here, and they have found several, whether hidden here or not. One says, "the masculine gender is used because these daughters are treated as if they were heirs male." Another, "that it is because of their faith and conscientious regard to the ancient customs, and to keep the memory of their father in being, which might well benefit men." Another, "that it signifies the free gift of God in Christ, where there is neither male nor female, bond or free, for all are one in Christ;" and so on, for where there is no rule there is no end to conjecture. Now the plain truth is, that the masculine is in the present printed text a mistake for the feminine. The Samaritan, which many think by far the most authentic copy of the Pentateuch, has the feminine gender in both places; so also have upwards of fourscore of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi. Therefore all the curious reasons for this anomaly offered by interpreters are only serious trifling on the blunder of some heedless copyists.

[¶43] While on the subject of mysterious reasons and meanings, some might think it unpardonable if I passed by the mystery of the fall, recovery, and full salvation of man, signified, as some will have it, by the names of Zelophehad and his daughters. "1. Zelophehad's daughters, claiming a portion in the promised land, may represent believers in Christ claiming an inheritance among the saints in light.

[¶44] 2. These five virgins may be considered as the five wise virgins, ([Mat 25:1-10]), who took oil in their vessels with their lamps, and consequently are types of those who make a wise provision for their eternal state.

[¶45] 3. They are examples of encouragement to weak and destitute believers, who, though they are orphans in this world, shall not be deprived of their heavenly inheritance.

## 178. Numbers · 27 of 34

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[¶0] 4. Their names are mysterious; for Zelophehad, צלפחד Tselophchad, signifies the shadow of fear or dread. His first daughter, מחלה Machlah, infirmity; the second, נעה Noah, wandering; the third, חגלה Choglah, turning about or dancing for joy: the fourth, מלכה Milcah, a queen; the fifth, תרצה Tirtsah, well-pleasing or acceptable.

[¶1] By these names we may observe our reviving by grace in Christ; for we are all born of the shadow of fear, (Tselophchad), being brought forth in sin, and through fear of death being all our life time subject to bondage, [Heb 2:15]. This begets (Machlah) infirmity or sickness - grief of heart for our estate. After which (Noah) wandering about for help and comfort we find it in Christ, by whom our sorrow is turned into joy (Choglah). He communicates of his royalty (Milcah) to us, making us kings and priests unto God and his Father, [Rev 1:6]. So we shall at last be presented unto him glorious and without blemish, being (Tirtsah) well-pleasing and acceptable in his sight." This is a specimen of pious Ingenuity, which has been endeavoring to do the work of an Evangelist in the Church of God from the time of Origen to the present day.

### Verse 12

[¶3] Get thee up into this Mount Abarim - The mountain which Moses was commanded to ascend was certainly Mount Nebo, see [Deu 32:49], etc., which was the same as Pisgah, see [Deu 34:1]. The mountains of Abarim, according to Dr. Shaw, are a long ridge of frightful, rocky, precipitous hills, which are continued all along the eastern coast of the Dead Sea, as far as the eye can reach. As in Hebrew עבר abar signifies to pass over, Abarim here probably signifies passages; and the ridge in this place had its name in all likelihood from the passage of the Israelites, as it was opposite to these that they passed the Jordan into the promised land.

### Verse 14

[¶5] Ye rebelled against my commandment - See the notes on [Num 20:12].

### Verse 16

[¶7] The Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh - See the notes on [Num 16:22].

### Verse 17

[¶9] That the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd - This is a beautiful expression, and shows us in what light Moses viewed himself among his people. He was their shepherd; he sought no higher place; he fed and guided the flock of God under the direction of the Divine Spirit, and was faithful in all his Master's house. To this saying of Moses our Lord alludes, [Mat 9:36].

### Verse 18

[¶11] In whom is the spirit - This must certainly mean the Spirit of God; and because he was endued with this Spirit, therefore he was capable of leading the people. How miserably qualified is that man for the work of God who is not guided and influenced by the Holy Ghost! God never chooses a man to accomplish his designs but that one whom he himself has qualified for the work.

### Verse 20

[¶13] And thou shalt put, etc. - מחודך mechodecha, of thine honor or authority upon him. Thou shalt show to the whole congregation that thou hast associated him with thyself in the government of the people.

### Verse 21

[¶15] Eleazar the priest - shall ask counsel for him - Here was a remarkable difference between him and Moses. God talked with Moses face to face; but to Joshua only through the medium of the high priest.

### Verse 23

[¶17] He laid his hands upon him - As a proof of his being appointed to and qualified for the work. So at the word of Joshua they were to go out, and at his word to come in, [Num 27:21]. And thus he was a type of our blessed Lord as to his mediatorial office, and Divine appointment as man to the work of our salvation; and to this circumstance of the appointment of Joshua to this work, and his receiving of Moses's honor and glory, St. Peter seems to refer in these words, [2Pet 1:16], [2Pet 1:17] : "We were eye-witnesses of his majesty; for he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him." See [Mat 17:5]. But one infinitely greater than either Moses or Joshua is here.

### Introduction

[¶19] All the offerings of God to be offered in their due season, [Num 28:1], [Num 28:2]. The continual burnt-offering for the morning, [Num 28:3-6]; and its drink-offering, [Num 28:7]. The continual burnt-offering for the evening, [Num 28:8]. The offerings for the Sabbath, [Num 28:9], [Num 28:10]. The offerings for the beginning of each month, [Num 28:11-15]. Repetition of the ordinances concerning the passover, [Num 28:16-25]. Ordinances concerning the day of first-fruits or pentecost, [Num 28:26-31].

### Verse 2

[¶21] Command the children of Israel, etc. - It is not easy to account for the reason of the introduction of these precepts here, which had been so circumstantially delivered before in different parts of the books of Exodus and Leviticus. It is possible that the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly services had been considerably interrupted for several years, owing to the unsettled state of the people in the wilderness, and that it was necessary to repeat these laws for two reasons:

[¶22] 1. Because they were now about to enter into the promised land, where these services must be established and constant.

[¶23] 2. Because the former generations being all dead, multitudes of the present might be ignorant of these ordinances.

[¶24] In their due season - Moses divides these offerings into: -

[¶25] 1. Daily. The morning and evening sacrifices: a lamb each time, [Num 28:3], [Num 28:4].

[¶26] 2. Weekly. The Sabbath offerings, two lambs of a year old, [Num 28:9], etc.

[¶27] 3. Monthly. At the beginning of each month two young bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs of a year old, and a kid for a sin-offering, [Num 28:11], etc.

[¶28] 4. Annual.1. The passover to last seven days; the offerings, two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of a year old, and a he-goat for a sin-offering, [Num 28:16], etc. 2. The day of First-Fruits. The sacrifices, the same as on the beginning of the month, [Num 28:26], etc.

[¶29] With these sacrifices were offered libations, or drink-offerings of strong wine, [Num 28:7], [Num 28:14], and minchahs, or meat-offerings, composed of fine flour mingled with oil, [Num 28:8], [Num 28:12], etc. For an ample account of all these offerings, see the notes on Leviticus 7 (note) and Exodus 12 (note).

### Verse 7

[¶31] Strong wine - Sikera; see the note on [Lev 10:9], where this is largely explained.

### Verse 26

[¶33] Day of the first-fruits - Called also the feast of weeks, and the feast of pentecost. See it explained [Exo 23:14] (note), and [Lev 23:15] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶35] Without blemish - This is to be understood as applying, not only to the animals, but also to the flour, wine, and oil; every thing must be perfect in its kind.

### Introduction

[¶37] The feast of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, and its sacrifices, [Num 29:1-6]. The feast of expiation, or annual atonement, on the tenth day of the same month, with its sacrifices, [Num 29:7-11]. The feast of tabernacles, held on the fifteenth day of the same month, with its eight days' offerings, [Num 29:12]. The offerings of the first day, thirteen bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs, and one kid, [Num 29:13-16]. The offerings of the second day, twelve bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs, and one kid, [Num 29:17-19]. The offerings of the third day, eleven bullocks; the rest as before, [Num 29:20-22]. The offerings of the fourth day, ten bullocks; the rest as before, [Num 29:23-25]. The offerings of the fifth day, nine bullocks, etc., [Num 29:26-28]. The offerings of the sixth day, eight bullocks, etc., [Num 29:29-31]. The offerings of the seventh day, seven bullocks, etc., [Num 29:32-34]. The offerings of the eighth day, one bullock, one ram, seven lambs, and one goat, [Num 29:35-38]. These sacrifices to be offered, and feasts to be kept, besides vows, freewill-offerings, etc., etc., [Num 29:39]. Moses announces all these things to the people, [Num 29:40].

### Verse 1

[¶39] And in the seventh month, etc. - This was the beginning of their civil year, and was a time of great festivity, and was ushered in by the blowing of trumpets. It answers to a part of our September. In imitation of the Jews different nations began their new year with sacrifices and festivity. The ancient Egyptians did so; and the Persians still celebrate their nawi rooz, or new year's day, which they hold on the vernal equinox. The first day of the year is generally a time of festivity in all civilized nations. On this day the Israelites offered one young bullock, one ram, seven lambs, and a kid, for a sin-offering, besides minchahs or meat-offerings.

### Verse 7

[¶41] On the tenth day - See the notes on [Lev 16:29], and [Lev 23:24] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶43] On the fifteenth day of the seventh month - On this day there was to be a solemn assembly, and for seven days sacrifices were to be offered; on the first day thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs. On each succeeding day one bullock less, till on the seventh day there were only seven, making in all seventy. What an expensive service! How should we magnify God for being delivered from it! Yet these were all the taxes they had to pay. At the public charge there were annually offered to God, independently of trespass-offerings and voluntary vows, fifteen goats, twenty-one kids, seventy-two rams, one hundred and thirty-two bullocks, and eleven hundred and one lambs! But how little is all this when compared with the lambs slain every year at the passover, which amounted in one year to the immense number of 255,600 slain in the temple itself, which was the answer that Cestius, the Roman general, received when he asked the priests how many persons had come to Jerusalem at their annual festivals; the priests, numbering the people by the lambs that had been slain, said, "twenty-five myriads, five thousand and six hundred." - For an account of the feast of tabernacles, see on [Lev 23:34] (note).

## 179. Numbers · 28 of 34

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### Verse 35

[¶1] On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly - This among the Jews was esteemed the chief or high day of the feast, though fewer sacrifices were offered on it than on the others; the people seem to have finished the solemnity with a greater measure of spiritual devotion, and it was on this day of the feast that our blessed Lord called the Jews from the letter to the spirit of the law, proposing himself as the sole fountain whence they could derive the streams of salvation, [Joh 7:37]. On the subject of this chapter see the notes on [Lev 12:1-8] (note), Leviticus 16 (note), Leviticus 23 (note).

### Introduction

[¶3] The law concerning vows of men, [Num 30:1], [Num 30:2]. Of women under age, and in what cases the father may annul them, [Num 30:3-5]. The vows of a wife, and in what cases the husband may annul them, [Num 30:6-8]. The vows of a widow, or divorced woman, in what cases they may be considered either as confirmed or annulled, [Num 30:9-15]. Recapitulation of these ordinances, [Num 30:16].

### Verse 2

[¶5] If a man vow a vow - A vow is a religious promise made to God. Vows were of several kinds: -

[¶6] 1. Of abstinence or humiliation, see [Num 30:13];

[¶7] 2. Of the Nazarite, see Numbers 6;

[¶8] 3. Of giving certain things or sacrifices to the Lord, [Lev 7:16];

[¶9] 4. Of alms given to the poor, see [Deu 23:21].

[¶10] The law in this chapter must have been very useful, as it both prevented and annulled rash vows, and provided a proper sanction for the support and performance of those that were rationally and piously made. Besides, this law must have acted as a great preventive of lying and hypocrisy. If a vow was properly made, a man or woman was bound, under penalty of the displeasure of God, to fulfill it.

### Verse 3

[¶12] In her youth - That is, say the rabbins, under twelve years of age; and under thirteen in case of a young man. Young persons of this age were considered to be under the authority of their parents, and had consequently no power to vow away the property of another. A married woman was in the same circumstances, because she was under the authority of her husband. If however the parents or the husband heard of the vow, and objected to it in the same day in which they heard of it, ([Num 30:5]), then the vow was annulled; or, if having heard of it, they held their peace, this was considered a ratification of the vow.

[¶13] A rash vow was never to be kept; "for," says Philo, and common sense and justice say the same, "he who commits an unjust action because of his vow adds one crime to another,

[¶14] 1. By making an unlawful vow;

[¶15] 2. By doing an unlawful action."

### Verse 12

[¶17] Concerning the bond of her soul - Her life is at stake if she fulfill not the obligation under which she has laid herself.

### Verse 16

[¶19] These are the statutes - It is very probable that this law, like that concerning the succession of daughters, (Numbers 27)., rose from the exigency of some particular case that had just then occurred.

[¶20] Making vows, in almost any case, is a dangerous business; they seldom do any good, and often much evil. He who does not feel himself bound to do what is fit, right, and just, from the standing testimony of God's word, is not likely to do it from any obligation he may lay upon his own conscience. If God's word lack weight with him, his own will prove lighter than vanity. Every man who professes the Christian religion is under the most solemn obligation to devote body, soul, and spirit to God, not only to the utmost extent of his powers, but also as long as he exists. Being baptized, and receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, are additional ratifications of the great, general, Christian vow; but every true follower of Christ should always remember, and frequently renew, his covenant with God.

### Introduction

[¶22] The command of the Lord to make war on the Midianites, [Num 31:1], [Num 31:2]. One thousand men are chosen out of each of the twelve tribes, and sent with Phinehas against the Midianites, [Num 31:3-6]. They slay all the males, [Num 31:7]; their five kings and Balaam, [Num 31:8]. They take all the women captives, with the flocks and goods, [Num 31:9]; burn their cities, and bring away the spoil, [Num 31:10], [Num 31:11]. They bring the captives, etc., to Moses, who is wroth with the officers for sparing the women, who had formerly been the cause of their transgression and punishment, [Num 31:12-16]. He commands all the male children and all the grown up females to be slain, [Num 31:17], [Num 31:18]. How the soldiers were to purify themselves, [Num 31:19], [Num 31:20]; and the different articles taken in war, [Num 31:21-24]. They are commanded to take the sum of the prey, to divide it into two parts; one for the 12,000 warriors, and the other for the rest of the congregation, [Num 31:25-27]. One of 500, both of persons and cattle, of the share of the warriors, to be given to the Lord, [Num 31:28], [Num 31:29]; and one part of fifty, of the people's share, to be given to the Levites, [Num 31:30]. The sum of the prey remaining after the above division; sheep 675,000, beeves 72,000, asses 61,000, young women 32,000, [Num 31:31-35]. How the soldiers' part was divided, [Num 31:36-40]. How the part belonging to the congregation was divided, [Num 31:41-47]. The officers report that they had not lost a man in this war, [Num 31:48], [Num 31:49]. They bring a voluntary oblation to God, of gold and ornaments, [Num 31:50], [Num 31:51]; the amount of which was 16,750 shekels, [Num 31:52], [Num 31:53]. Moses and Eleazar bring the gold into the tabernacle for a memorial, [Num 31:54].

### Verse 2

[¶24] Gathered unto thy people - Where? Not in the grave surely. Moses was gathered with none of them, his burial-place no man ever knew. "But being gathered unto one's people means dying." It does imply dying, but it does not mean this only. The truth is, God considers all those who are dead to men in a state of conscious existence in another world. Therefore he calls himself the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob; now God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; because all Live to Him, whether dead to men or not. Moses therefore was to be gathered to his people - to enter into that republic of Israel which, having died in the faith, fear, and love of God, were now living in a state of conscious blessedness beyond the confines of the grave. See the note on [Gen 25:8], and [Gen 49:33] (note).

### Verse 3

[¶26] Avenge the Lord of Midian - It was God's quarrel, not their own, that they were now to take up. These people were idolaters; idolatry is an offense against God; the civil power has no authority to meddle with what belongs to Him, without especial directions, certified in the most unequivocal way. Private revenge, extension of territory, love of plunder, were to have no place in this business; the Lord is to be avenged; and through Him the children of Israel, ([Num 31:2]), because their souls as well as their bodies had been well nigh ruined by their idolatry.

### Verse 6

[¶28] A thousand of every tribe - Twelve thousand men in the whole. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar; some think he was made general in this expedition, but this is not likely. The ark and its contents must proceed to this battle, because the battle was the Lord's, and he dwelt between the cherubim over the ark; and Phinehas, who had before got a grant in the eternal priesthood, was chosen to accompany the ark in place of his father Eleazar, who was probably now too far advanced in years to undergo the fatigue. Who then was general? Joshua, without doubt, though not here mentioned, because the battle being the Lord's, he alone is to have the supreme direction, and all the glory. Besides, it was an extraordinary war, and not conducted on the common principle, for we do not find that peace was offered to the Midianites, and that they refused it; see [Deu 20:10], etc. In such a case only hostilities could lawfully commence; but they were sinners against God; the cup of their iniquity was full, and God thought proper to destroy them. Though a leader there certainly was, and Joshua was probably that leader, yet because God, for the above reason, was considered as commander-in-chief, therefore no one else is mentioned; for it is evident that the sole business of Phinehas was to take care of the holy instruments and to blow with the trumpet.

### Verse 8

[¶30] Balaam - they slew with the sword - This man had probably committed what St. John calls the sin unto death - a sin which God punishes with temporal death, while at the same time he extends mercy to the soul. See the remarks at [Num 24:25] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶32] Kill every male among the little ones - For this action I account simply on the principle that God, who is the author and supporter of life, has a right to dispose of it when and how he thinks proper; and the Judge of all the earth can do nothing but what is right. Of the women killed on this occasion it may be safely said, their lives were forfeited by their personal transgressions; and yet even in this case there can be little doubt that God showed mercy to their souls. The little ones were safely lodged; they were taken to heaven and saved from the evil to come.

### Verse 23

[¶34] The water of separation - The water in which the ashes of the red heifer were mingled; See [Num 8:7] (note), [Num 19:2] (note), etc. Garments, whether of cloth or skins, were to be washed. Gold, silver, brass, iron, tin, and lead, to pass through the fire, probably to be melted down.

### Verse 28

[¶36] And levy a tribute unto the Lord - one soul of five hundred, etc. - The person to be employed in the Lord's service, under the Levites - the cattle either for sacrifice, or for the use of the Levites, [Num 31:30]. Some monsters have supposed that one out of every five hundred of the captives was offered in sacrifice to the Lord! but this is abominable. When God chose to have the life of a man, he took it in the way of justice, as in the case of Midianites above, but never in the way of sacrifice.

### Verse 32

[¶38] The booty - It appears from the enumeration here that the Israelites, in this war against the Midianites, took 32,000 female prisoners, 61,000 asses, 72,000 beeves, 675,000 sheep and small cattle; besides the immense number of males who fell in battle, and the women and children who were slain by the Divine command, [Num 31:17]. And it does not appear that in this expedition, a single man of Israel fell! This was naturally to be expected, because the battle was the Lord's, [Num 31:49].

[¶39] As the booty was divided into two equal parts, [Num 31:22], one for the soldiers employed in the expedition, and the other for those who, being equally willing to be employed, were ordered to stay in the camp; so each of the parties in this booty was to give a certain proportion to the Lord. The soldiers to give to the Lord one out of every five hundred persons, beeves, asses, and sheep, [Num 31:28]. The people, who by staying at home risked nothing, and had no fatigue, were to give one out of fifty of the above, [Num 31:30]. The booty, its divisions among the soldiers and people, the proportion given by each to the Lord and to the Levites, will be seen in one view by the following table, which I copy from Houbigant.

[¶40] Total of sheep - 675,000

[¶41] To the soldiers - 337,500

[¶42] To the Lord from the soldiers - 675

[¶43] To the people - 337,500

[¶44] To the Levites from the people - 6,750

[¶45] Total of beeves - 72, 00

## 180. Numbers · 29 of 34

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[¶0] To the soldiers - 36,000

[¶1] To the Lord from the soldiers - 72

[¶2] To the people - 36,000

[¶3] To the Levites from the people - 720

[¶4] Total of asses - 1,000

[¶5] To the soldiers - 30,500

[¶6] To the Lord from the soldiers - 61

[¶7] To the people - 30,500

[¶8] To the Levites from the people - 610

[¶9] Total of persons - 32,000

[¶10] To the soldiers.. 16,000

[¶11] To the Lord from the soldiers - 32

[¶12] To the Levites from the people - 320

[¶13] To the people - 16,000

[¶14] In this table the booty is equally divided between the people and the soldiers; a five-hundredth part being given to the Lord, and a fiftieth part to the Levites.

### Verse 50

[¶16] We have - brought an oblation for the Lord - So it appears there was a great deal of booty taken which did not come into the general account; and of this the soldiers, of their own will, made a very extensive offering to God, because he had preserved them from falling in battle. That not one man should have been slain is a most extraordinary circumstance, and powerfully marks the peculiar superintendence of God's especial providence. The Midianites must certainly have made some resistance; but that was ineffectual, because it was against the Lord. When any nation undertakes a crusade against those whom they are pleased to call the Lord's enemies, let them bring from the contest this proof of their Divine mission, viz., that not one man of them is either lost or missing; and then, and not till then, shall we believe that God hath sent them.

[¶17] To make an atonement for our souls - That is, to make an acknowledgment to God for the preservation of their lives. The gold offered on this occasion amounted to 16,750 shekels, equal to 37,869, 16s. 5d. of our money. See the note on [Exo 25:39], where the true value of the shekel is given, and a rule laid down to reduce it to English money.

### Introduction

[¶19] The Reubenites and Gadites request Moses to give them their inheritance on this side of Jordan, [Num 32:1-5]. Moses expostulates with and reproves them, [Num 32:6-15]. They explain themselves, and propose conditions, with which Moses is satisfied - they are to build cities for their wives and children, and folds for their cattle, and go ever Jordan armed with the other tribes, and fight against their enemies till the land is subdued; after which they are to return, [Num 32:16-27]. Moses proposes the business to Eleazar, Joshua, and the elders, [Num 32:28-30]. The Gadites and Reubenites promise a faithful observance of the conditions, [Num 32:31], [Num 32:32]; on which Moses assigns to them, and the half tribe of Manasseh, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, [Num 32:33]. The cities built by the Gadites, [Num 32:34-36]. The cities built by the Reubenites, [Num 32:37], [Num 32:38]. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, expel the Amorites from Gilead, [Num 32:39], which Moses grants to them, [Num 32:40]. Jair, the son of Manasseh, takes the small towns of Gilead, [Num 32:41]. And Nobah takes Kenath and its villages, [Num 32:42].

### Verse 3

[¶21] Ataroth, and Dibon, etc. - The places mentioned here belonged to Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, which being conquered by the Israelites, constituted ever after a part of their territories, [Num 32:33].

### Verse 5

[¶23] Let this land be given unto thy servants - Because it was good for pasturage, and they had many flocks, [Num 32:1].

### Verse 12

[¶25] Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite - It was Jephunneh that was the Kenezite, and not Caleb. Kenaz was probably the father of Jephunneh.

### Verse 16

[¶27] We will build - cities for our little ones - It was impossible for these, numerous as they might be, to build cities and fortify them for the defense of their families in their absence. Calmet supposes they meant no more than repairing the cities of the Amorites which they had lately taken; which work might have been very easily accomplished in the time which they spent on this side of Jordan, before they went over with their brethren, to put them in possession of the land.

### Verse 17

[¶29] Because of the inhabitants of the land - These were the Ammonites, Moabites, Idumeans, and the remains of the Midianites and Amorites. But could the women and children even keep the defenced cities, when placed in them? This certainly cannot be supposed possible. Many of the men of war must of course stay behind. In the last census, Numbers 26, the tribe of Reuben consisted of 43,730 men; the tribe of Gad, 40,500; the tribe of Manasseh, 52,700; the half of which is 26,350. Add this to the sum of the other two tribes, and the amount is 110,580. Now from [Jos 4:13] we learn that of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half of the tribe of Manasseh, only 40,000 armed men passed over Jordan to assist their brethren in the reduction of the land: consequently the number of 70,580 men were left behind for the defense of the women, the children, and the flocks. This was more than sufficient to defend them against a people already panic struck by their late discomfitures and reverses.

### Verse 34

[¶31] The children of Gad built - Aroer - This was situated on the river Arnon, [Deu 2:36]; [2Kgs 10:33]. It was formerly inhabited by the Emim, a warlike and perhaps gigantic people. They were expelled by the Moabites; the Moabites by the Amorites; and the Amorites by the Israelites. The Gadites then possessed it till the captivity of their tribe, with that of Reuben and the half of the tribe of Manasseh, by the Assyrians, [2Kgs 15:29], after which the Moabites appear to have repossessed it, as they seem to have occupied it in the days of Jeremiah, [Jer 48:15-20].

### Verse 38

[¶33] And Nebo - their names being changed - That is, Those who conquered the cities called them after their own names. Thus the city Kenath, being conquered by Nobah, was called after his name, [Num 32:42].

### Verse 41

[¶35] Havoth-jair - That is, the villages or habitations of Jair; and thus they should have been translated. As these two tribes and a half were the first, says Ainsworth, who had their inheritance assigned to them in the promised land, so they were the first of all Israel that were carried captive out of their own land, because of their sins. "For they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after other gods. And God delivered them into the hands of Pul and Tiglath-Pilneser, kings of Assyria, and they brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and Gozan, unto this day." See [1Chr 5:25], [1Chr 5:26].

### Introduction

[¶37] The journeyings of the Israelites written out by Moses, according to the commandment of the Lord, [Num 33:1], [Num 33:2]. They depart from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the passover, the first-born of the Egyptians having been slain, [Num 33:3], [Num 33:4]. Their forty-two stations enumerated, vv. 5-49. They are authorized to expel all the former inhabitants, and destroy all remnants of idolatry, [Num 33:50-53]. The land is to be divided by lot, [Num 33:54]. Should they not drive out the former inhabitants, they shall be to them as pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides, [Num 33:55]. And if not obedient, God will deal with them as he has purposed to do with the Canaanites, [Num 33:56].

### Verse 2

[¶39] And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys - We may consider the whole book of Numbers as a diary, and indeed the first book of travels ever published. Dr. Shaw, Dr. Pococke, and several others, have endeavored to mark out the route of the Israelites, through this great, dreary, and trackless desert, and have ascertained many of the stages here described. Indeed there are sufficient evidences of this important journey still remaining, for the descriptions of many are so particular that the places are readily ascertained by them; but this is not the case with all. Israel was the Church of God in the wilderness, and its unsettled, wandering state under Moses may point out the unsettled state of religion under the law. Their being brought, after the death of Moses, into the promised rest by Joshua, may point out the establishment, fixedness, and certainty of that salvation provided by Jesus Christ, of whom Joshua, in name and conduct, was a remarkable type. Mr. Ainsworth imagines that the forty-two stations here enumerated, through which the Israelites were brought to the verge of the promised land, and afterwards taken over Jordan into the rest which God had promised, point out the forty-two generations from Abraham unto Christ, through whom the Savior of the world came, by whose blood we have an entrance into the holiest, and enjoy the inheritance among the saints in light. And Mr. Bromley, in his Way to the Sabbath of Rest, considers each name and place as descriptive of the spiritual state through which a soul passes in its way to the kingdom of God. But in cases of this kind fancy has much more to do than judgment.

### Verse 3

[¶41] From Rameses - This appears to have been the metropolis of the land of Goshen, and the place of rendezvous whence the whole Israelitish nation set out on their journey to the promised land; and is supposed to be the same as Cairo. See the notes on [Exo 12:37].

[¶42] Here Follow the Forty-Two Stations

[¶43] Station 1.

## 181. Numbers · 30 of 34

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### Verse 5

[¶1] And pitched in Succoth - This name signifies booths or tents, and probably refers to no town or village, but simply designates the place where they pitched their tents for the first time after their departure from Rameses.

[¶2] Stat. 2.

### Verse 6

[¶4] Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness - This place is not well known; Dr. Shaw supposes it to have been one mile from Cairo. Calmet thinks it is the city of Buthum mentioned by Herodotus, which he places in Arabia, on the frontiers of Egypt.

[¶5] Stat. 3.

### Verse 7

[¶7] Pi-hahiroth - See on [Exo 14:1] (note), and [Exo 14:2] (note). Baal-zephon Calmet supposes to be the Clysma of the Greeks, and the Kolzum of the Arabians.

[¶8] Stat. 4.

### Verse 8

[¶10] And went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham - Called the wilderness of Shur, [Exo 15:22].

[¶11] And pitched in Marah - Dr. Shaw supposes this place to be at Sedur, over against the valley of Baideah, on the opposite side of the Red Sea.

[¶12] Stat. 5.

### Verse 9

[¶14] And came unto Elim - A place on the skirts of the deserts of Sin, two leagues from Tor, and nearly thirty from Corondel, a large bay on the east side of the Red Sea. Dr. Shaw, when he visited this place, found but nine of the twelve wells mentioned in the text, and instead of 70 palm trees, he found upwards of 2,000. See on [Exo 15:27] (note).

[¶15] Stat. 6.

### Verse 10

[¶17] Encamped by the Red Sea - It is difficult to assign the place of this encampment, as the Israelites were now on their way to Mount Sinai, which lay considerably to the east of Elim, and consequently farther from the sea than the former station. It might be called by the Red Sea, as the Israelites had it, as the principal object, still in view. This station however is mentioned nowhere else. By the Red Sea we are not to understand a sea, the waters of which are red, or the sand red, or any thing else about or in it red; for nothing of this kind appears. It is called in Hebrew ים סוף yam suph, which signifies the weedy sea. The Septuagint rendered the original by θαλασσα εραθρα, and the Vulgate after it by mare rubrum, and the European versions followed these, and, in opposition to etymology and reason, translated it the Red Sea. See the note on [Exo 10:19].

[¶18] Stat. 7.

### Verse 11

[¶20] The wilderness of Sin - This lies between Elim and Mount Sinai. Dr. Shaw and his companions traversed these plains in nine hours.

[¶21] Stat. 8.

### Verse 12

[¶23] Dophkah - This place is not mentioned in Exodus and its situation is not known.

[¶24] Stat. 9.

### Verse 13

[¶26] Alush - Neither is this mentioned in Exodus and its situation is equally unknown.

[¶27] Stat. 10.

### Verse 14

[¶29] Rephidim - Remarkable for the rebellion of the Israelites against Moses, because of the want of water, Exodus 17.

[¶30] Stat. 11.

### Verse 15

[¶32] The wilderness of Sinai - Somewhere northward of Mount Sinai, on the straight road to the promised land, to which they now directed their course.

[¶33] Stat. 12.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Kibroth-hattaavah - No city, village, etc., but a place in the open desert, which had its name from the plague that fell upon the Israelites, through their murmuring against God, and their inordinate desire of flesh. See on Numbers 11 (note). But it appears that the Israelites had traveled three days' journey in order to reach this place, [Num 10:33], and commentators suppose there must have been other stations which are not laid down here, probably because the places were not remarkable.

[¶36] Stat. 13.

### Verse 17

[¶38] Hazeroth - This place Dr. Shaw computes to have been about thirty miles distant from Mount Sinai.

[¶39] Stat. 14.

### Verse 18

[¶41] Rithmah - This place lay somewhere in the wilderness of Paran, through which the Israelites were now passing. See [Num 13:1], [Num 13:3]. The name signifies the juniper tree; and the place probably had its name from the great number of those trees growing in that district.

[¶42] Stat. 15.

### Verse 19

[¶44] Rimmon-parez - Unknown.

[¶45] Stat. 16.

## 182. Numbers · 31 of 34

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### Verse 20

[¶1] Libnah - The situation of this place is uncertain. A city of this name is mentioned [Jos 10:29], as situated between Kadesh-barnea and Gaza.

[¶2] Stat. 17.

### Verse 21

[¶4] Bissah - A place mentioned nowhere else in the sacred writings. Its situation utterly uncertain.

[¶5] Stat. 18.

### Verse 22

[¶7] Kehelathah - Utterly unknown; though some conjecture that it might have been the place called Keilah, [1Sam 23:1], etc., but this is unlikely.

[¶8] Stat. 19.

### Verse 23

[¶10] Shapher - Where this mountain lay cannot be determined.

[¶11] Stat. 20.

### Verse 24

[¶13] Haradah - Unknown, Calmet supposes that it may be the place called Bered, [Gen 16:14], which was in the vicinity of Kadesh.

[¶14] Stat. 21.

### Verse 25

[¶16] Makheloth - A name found nowhere else in Scripture.

[¶17] Stat. 22.

### Verse 26

[¶19] Tahath - Unknown.

[¶20] Stat. 23.

### Verse 27

[¶22] Tarah - Also unknown.

[¶23] Stat. 24.

### Verse 28

[¶25] Mithcah - Calmet conjectures that this may be Mocha, a city in Arabia Petraea.

[¶26] Stat. 25.

### Verse 29

[¶28] Hashmonah - Supposed by some to be the same as Azmon, [Num 34:4].

[¶29] Stat. 26.

### Verse 30

[¶31] Moseroth - Situation unknown. In [Deu 10:6] it is said that the Israelites took their journey from Beeroth, the wells of the children of Jaakan, to Mosera, and there Aaron died. If so, Mosera, Moseroth, and Hor, must be different names of the same place; or Moseroth, or Mosera, must have been some town or village near Mount Hor, for there Aaron died. See [Num 33:38].

[¶32] Stat. 27.

### Verse 31

[¶34] Bene-jaakan - Unknown. The sons of Jaakan. See the preceding verse, [Num 33:30] (note).

[¶35] Stat. 28.

### Verse 32

[¶37] Hor-hagidgad - The hole or pit of Gidgad. Unknown. It was a place perhaps remarkable for some vast pit or cavern, from which it took its name.

[¶38] Stat. 29.

### Verse 33

[¶40] Jotrathah - Situation unknown. It is said in [Deu 10:7] to be a land of rivers of waters.

[¶41] Stat. 30.

### Verse 34

[¶43] Ebronah - Nowhere else mentioned. Stat. 31.

## 183. Numbers · 32 of 34

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### Verse 35

[¶1] Ezion-gaber - Dr. Shaw places this port on the western coast of the Elantic gulf of the Red Sea. It is now called Meenah el Dsahab, or the golden port, by the Arabs; because it was from this place that Solomon sent his ships for gold to Ophir, [1Kgs 9:26]. He supposes it to be about sixty miles distant from Mount Sinai - Travels, p. 322, 4th. edition.

[¶2] Stat. 32.

### Verse 36

[¶4] Zin, which is Kadesh - A place remarkable for the death of Miriam the prophetess, and bringing water out of the rock. As this place was on the borders of Edom, the Israelites, being denied permission to pass through their land, which lay on the direct road to the promised land, were obliged to turn to the right to Mount Hor, now called Accaba by the Arabs.

[¶5] Stat. 33.

### Verse 37

[¶7] Hor - Famous for the death of Aaron. See on Numbers 20 (note). Perhaps Moseroth or Mosera, [Num 33:30] (note), was a village near this mountain.

[¶8] Stat. 34.

### Verse 41

[¶10] Zalmonah - Probably in the neighborhood of the land of Edom. As צלם tselem signifies an image, this place probably had its name from the brazen serpent set up by Moses. See [Num 21:9] (note), etc. From the same root the word telesm, corruptly called talisman, which signifies a consecrated image, is derived.

[¶11] Stat. 35.

### Verse 42

[¶13] Punon - A place in Idumea. Nowhere else mentioned.

[¶14] Stat. 36.

### Verse 43

[¶16] Oboth - Mentioned before, [Num 21:10].

[¶17] Stat. 37.

### Verse 44

[¶19] Ije-abarim - The heaps of Abarim. See [Num 21:11]. Situation uncertain. It is called Iim in the following verse. As the word signifies heaps or protuberances, it probably means tumuil or small hills near some of the fords of Jordan.

[¶20] Stat. 38.

### Verse 45

[¶22] Dibon-gad - Supposed to be the same as Dibon, [Num 32:34], and to be situated on the brook Arnon.

[¶23] Stat. 39.

### Verse 46

[¶25] Almon-diblathaim - Situation not known. It belonged to the Moabites in the time of the prophet Jeremiah. [Jer 48:22].

[¶26] Stat. 40.

### Verse 47

[¶28] Mountains of Abarim, before Nebo - The mountain on which Moses died. They came to this place after the overthrow of the Amorites. See Numbers 21.

[¶29] Stat. 41.

### Verse 48

[¶31] The Plains of Moab - This was the scene of the transactions between Balaam and Balak; see Numbers 23, 24, 25.

[¶32] Stat. 42.

### Verse 49

[¶34] From Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim - The former of these places fell to the Reubenites, [Jos 13:15-20]. The Israelites were now come to the edge of Jordan, over against Jericho, where they afterwards passed.

[¶35] For further information on the subject of these different encampments, the reader is requested to refer to the extracts from Dr. Shaw at the end of the book of Exodus.

### Verse 52

[¶37] Ye shall - destroy all their pictures - משכיתם maskiyotham, from שחה sachah, to be like, or resemble, either pictures, carved work, or embroidery, as far as these things were employed to exhibit the abominations of idolatry. Molten images צלמי מסכתם tsalmey massechotham, metallic talismanical figures, made under certain constellations, and supposed in consequence to be possessed of some extraordinary influences and virtues.

### Verse 55

[¶39] Shall be pricks in your eyes - Under these metaphors, the continual mischief that should be done to them, both in soul and body, by these idolaters, is set forth in a very expressive manner. What can be more vexatious than a continual goading of each side, so that the attempt to avoid the one throws the body more forcibly on the other? And what can be more distressing than a continual pricking in the eye, harassing the mind, tormenting the body, and extinguishing the sight?

[¶40] 1. It has been usual among pious men to consider these Canaanites remaining in the land, as emblems of indwelling sin; and it must be granted that what those remaining Canaanites were to the people of Israel, who were disobedient to God, such is indwelling sin to all those who will not have the blood of the covenant to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. For a time, while conscience is tender, such persons feel themselves straitened in all their goings, hindered in all their religious services, and distressed beyond measure because of the law - the authority and power of sin, which they find warring in their members: by and by the eye of their mind becomes obscured by the constant piercings of sin, till at last, fatally persuaded that sin must dwell in them as long as they live, they accommodate their minds to their situation, their consciences cease to be tender, and they content themselves with expecting redemption where and when it has never been promised, viz., beyond the grave! On the subject of the journeyings of the Israelites, the following observations from old Mr. Ainsworth cannot fail to interest the reader.

[¶41] 2. "The Travels of Israel through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water, [Deu 8:15], which was a land of deserts, and of pits, a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt, [Jer 2:6], signified the many troubles and afflictions through which we must enter into the kingdom of God, [Act 14:22]. The helps, comforts, and deliverances which God gave unto his people in their distresses, are examples of his love and mercy towards his followers; for he comforts them in all their tribulation, that as the sufferings of Christ abound in them, so their consolation also abounds in Christ, [2Cor 1:5]. The punishments which God inflicted upon the disobedient, who perished in the wilderness for their sins, happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come, [1Cor 10:1], [1Cor 10:11]; [Heb 3:17], [Heb 3:18], [Heb 3:19]; [Heb 4:1], [Heb 4:2]. By the names of their encamping places, and histories adjoined, it appears how Israel came sometimes into straits and troublesome ways, as at Pihahiroth, [Exo 14:2], [Exo 14:3], [Exo 14:10], etc.; and at Zalmonah, [Num 2:1], [Num 2:4], etc.; sometimes into large and ample room, as at the plains of Moab; sometimes to places of hunger and thirst, as at Rephidim and Kadesh, Exodus 16, 17; Numbers 20; sometimes to places of refreshing, as at Elim and Beer, [Exo 15:27]; [Num 21:16]; sometimes where they had wars, as at Rephidim, Kadesh, Edrei, [Exo 17:8]; [Num 21:1], [Num 21:33]; sometimes where they had rest, as at Mount Sinai: sometimes they went right forward, as from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea; sometimes they turned backward, as from Kadesh-barnea to the Red Sea: sometimes they came to mountains, as Sinai, Shapher, Hor-Gidgad; sometimes to valleys, as Tahath, etc.; sometimes to places of bitterness, as Marah; sometimes, of sweetness, as Mithcah.

[¶42] 3. "The Sins which they committed in the wilderness were many and great; as open Idolatry by the calf, at Horeb, Exodus 32, and with Baal-peor, Numbers 25. Unbelief, at Kadesh, Numbers 14; and afterwards Presumptuous Boldness in the same place; Murmuring against God sundry times, with tempting of Christ, (as the apostle speaks, 1 Corinthians 15). Contention and Rebellion against their governors often; lusting for flesh to fill their appetites, and loathing manna, the heavenly food; Whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and many other provocations; so that this complaint is after made of them, How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! [Psa 78:40]. All sorts of persons sinned against God; the multitude of people very often; the mixed multitude of strangers among them, Numbers 11. The princes, as the ten spies, Dathan, Abiram, etc. The Levites, as Korah and his company; Miriam the prophetess, Numbers 12; Aaron the priest with her, besides his sin at Horeb, Exodus 32; and at the water of Meribah, Numbers 20. Moses also himself at the same place, for which he was excluded from the land of Canaan.

[¶43] 4. "The Punishments laid on them by the Lord for their disobedience were many. They died by the sword of the enemy, as of the Amalekites, Exodus 17, and of the Canaanites, [Num 14:45]; and some by the sword of their brethren, Exodus 32. Some were burned with fire, Numbers 11, 16; some died with surfeit, Numbers 11; some were swallowed up alive in the earth, Numbers 16; some were killed with serpents, Numbers 21; many died of the pestilence, [Num 16:46], and [Num 5:25]; and generally all that generation which were first mustered, after their coming out of Egypt, perished, [Num 26:64], [Num 26:65]. God consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror, [Psa 78:33].

[¶44] 5. "Nevertheless, for his name's sake, he magnified his Mercies unto them and their posterity. He had divided the sea, and led them through on dry land, drowning their enemies, Exodus 14. He led them with a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, continually. He gave them manna from heaven daily. He clave the rock, and gave them water for their thirst. He fed them with quails, when they longed for flesh. He sweetened the bitter waters. He saved them from the sword of their enemies. He delivered them from the fiery serpents and scorpions. Their raiment waxed not old upon them, neither did their foot swell for forty years, [Deu 8:4]. He delivered them from the intended curse of Balaam, and turned it into a blessing, because he loved them, Numbers 22; [Deu 23:5]. He came down from Mount Sinai, and spake with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and gave also his good Spirit to instruct them, [Neh 9:13], [Neh 9:20]. In the times of his wrath he remembered mercy; his eye spared them from destroying them, neither did he make an end of them in the wilderness, [Eze 20:17], [Eze 20:22]. He gave them kingdoms and nations, and they possessed the lands of their enemies; and he multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land promised unto their forefathers. [Neh 9:22], [Neh 9:23]. Now whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope, [Rom 15:4]." Let him that readeth understand."

## 184. Numbers · 33 of 34

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### Introduction

[¶1] The land of Canaan is described, [Num 34:1], [Num 34:2]. The south quarter, [Num 34:3-5]. The western border, [Num 34:6]. The north border, [Num 34:7-9]. The east border, [Num 34:10-12]. This land to be divided by lot among the nine tribes and half, [Num 34:13]; two tribes and half, Reuben and Gad, and the half of Manasseh, having already got their inheritance on the east side of Jordan, [Num 34:14], [Num 34:15]. Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, to assist in dividing the land, [Num 34:16], [Num 34:17]; and with them a chief out of every tribe, [Num 34:18]. The names of the twelve chiefs, [Num 34:19-29].

### Verse 2

[¶3] The land of Canaan with the coasts thereof - All description here is useless. The situation and boundaries of the land of Canaan can only be known by actual survey, or by consulting a good map.

### Verse 3

[¶5] The salt sea - The Dead Sea, or lake Asphaltites. See the note on [Gen 19:25].

### Verse 5

[¶7] The river of Egypt - The eastern branch of the river Nile; or, according to others, a river which is south of the land of the Philistines, and fails into the gulf or bay near Calieh.

### Verse 6

[¶9] Ye shall even have the great sea for a border - The Mediterranean Sea, called here the Great Sea, to distinguish it from the Dead Sea, the Sea of Tiberias, etc., which were only a sort of lakes. In Hebrew there is properly but one term, ים yam, which is applied to all collections of water apparently stagnant, and which is generally translated sea. The Greek of the New Testament follows the Hebrew, and employs, in general, the word θαλασσα, Sea, whether it speaks of the Mediterranean, or of the sea or lake of Galilee.

### Verse 11

[¶11] The sea of Chinnereth - The same as the sea of Galilee, sea of Tiberias, and sea of Gennesareth.

### Verse 12

[¶13] The border shall go down to Jordan - This river is famous both in the Old and New Testaments. It takes its rise at the foot of Mount Libanus, passes through the sea of Chinnereth or Tiberias, and empties itself into the lake Asphaltites or Dead Sea, from which it has no outlet. In and by it God wrought many miracles. God cut off the waters of this river as he did those of the Red Sea, so that they stood on a heap on each side, and the people passed over on dry ground. Both Elijah and Elisha separated its waters in a miraculous way, [2Kgs 2:8-14]. Naaman, the Syrian general, by washing in it at the command of the prophet, was miraculously cured of his leprosy, [2Kgs 5:10-14]. In this river John baptized great multitudes of Jews; and in it was Christ himself baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and the voice from heaven proclaimed him the great and only Teacher and Savior of men, [Mat 3:16], [Mat 3:17]; [Mar 1:5-11].

### Verse 13

[¶15] This is the land which ye shall inherit by lot - Much of what is said concerning this land is peculiarly emphatic. It is a land that contains a multitude of advantages in its climate, its soil, situation, etc. It is bounded on the south by a ridge of mountains, which separate it from Arabia, and screen it from the burning and often pestiferous winds which blow over the desert from that quarter. On the west it is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea; on the north, by Mount Libanus, which defends it from the cold northern blasts; and on the east by the river Jordan, and its fertile, well-watered plains. It is described by God himself as "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land wherein there was no scarcity of bread, and where both iron and copper mines abounded," [Deu 8:7-9] : a land finely diversified with hills and valleys, and well watered by the rain of heaven, in this respect widely different from Egypt; a land which God cared for, on which his eyes were continually placed from the beginning to the end of the year; watched over by a most merciful Providence; in a word, a land which flowed with milk and honey, and was the most pleasant of all lands; [Deu 11:11], [Deu 11:12]; [Eze 20:6]. Such was the land, and such were the advantages that this most favored people were called to possess. They were called to possess it by lot that each might be satisfied with his possession, as considering it to be appointed to him by the especial providence of God; and its boundaries were ascertained on Divine authority, to prevent all covetousness after the territories of others.

### Verse 19

[¶17] And the names of the men - are these - It is worthy of remark that Moses does not follow any order hitherto used of placing the tribes, neither that in Numbers 1, nor that in Numbers 7, nor that in Numbers 26, nor any other; but places them here exactly in that order in which they possessed the land.

[¶18] 1. Judah

[¶19] 2. Simeon

[¶20] 3. Benjamin

[¶21] 4. Dan

[¶22] 5. Manasseh

[¶23] 6. Ephraim

[¶24] 7. Zebulun

[¶25] 8. Issachar

[¶26] 9. Asher

[¶27] 10. Naphtali

[¶28] Judah is first, having the first lot; and he dwelt in the south part of the land, [Jos 15:1], etc.; and next to him Simeon, because his inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah, [Jos 19:1]. Benjamin was third; he had his inheritance by Judah, between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph, [Jos 18:11]. Dan was the fourth; his lot fell westward of that of Benjamin, in the country of the Philistines, as may be seen in [Jos 19:40], [Jos 19:41], etc. Fifth, Manasseh; and sixth, by him, his brother Ephraim, whose inheritances were behind that of Benjamin, [Jos 16:7]. Next to these dwelt, seventh, Zebulun; and eighth, Issachar; concerning whose lots see [Jos 19:10-17]. Ninth, Asher; and tenth, Naphtali; see [Jos 19:24], [Jos 19:32], etc.

[¶29] And as in encamping about the tabernacle they were arranged according to their fraternal relationship, (see Numbers 2)., so they were in the division and inheriting of the promised land. Judah and Simeon, both sons of Leah, dwelt abreast of each other. Benjamin, son of Rachel, and Dan, son of Rachel's maid, dwelt next abreast. Manasseh and Ephraim, both sons of Joseph, son of Rachel, had the next place abreast. Zebulun and Issachar, who dwelt next together, were both sons of Leah; and the last pair were Asher, of Leah's maid, and Naphtali, of Rachel's maid. Thus God, in nominating princes that should divide the land, signified beforehand the manner of their possession, and that they should be so situated as to dwell together as brethren in unity, for the mutual help and comfort of each other. See Ainsworth. In this arrangement there is much skill, judgment, and kindness every where displayed.

### Introduction

[¶31] The Israelites are commanded to give the Levites, out of their inheritances, cities and their suburbs for themselves and for their cattle, goods, etc., [Num 35:1-3]. The suburbs to be 3,000 cubits round about from the wall of the city, [Num 35:4], [Num 35:5]. The cities to be forty-two, to which six cities of refuge should be added, in all forty-eight cities, [Num 35:6], [Num 35:7]. Each tribe shall give of these cities in proportion to its possessions, [Num 35:8]. These cities to be appointed for the person who might slay his neighbor unawares, [Num 35:9-12]. Of these six cities there shall be three on each side Jordan, [Num 35:13], [Num 35:14]. The cities to be places of refuge for all who kill a person unawares, whether they be Israelites, strangers, or sojourners, [Num 35:15]. Cases of murder to which the benefit of the cities of refuge shall not extend, [Num 35:16-21]. Cases of manslaughter to which the benefits of the cities of refuge shall extend, [Num 35:22], [Num 35:23]. How the congregation shall act between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, [Num 35:24], [Num 35:25]. The manslayer shall abide in the city of refuge till the death of the high priest; he shall then return to the land of his possession, [Num 35:26-28]. Two witnesses must attest a murder before a murderer can be put to death, [Num 35:29], [Num 35:30]. Every murderer to be put to death, [Num 35:31]. The manslayer is not to be permitted to come to the land of his inheritance till the death of the high priest, [Num 35:32]. The land must not be polluted with blood, for the Lord dwells in it, [Num 35:33], [Num 35:34].

### Verse 4

[¶33] And the suburbs of the cities - shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about.

### Verse 5

[¶35] And ye shall measure from without the city - two thousand cubits, etc. - Commentators have been much puzzled with the accounts in these two verses. In [Num 35:4] the measure is said to be 1,000 cubits from the wall; in [Num 35:5] the measure is said to be 2,000 from without the city. It is likely these two measures mean the same thing; at least so it was understood by the Septuagint and Coptic, who have δισχιλιους πηχεις, 2,000 cubits, in the fourth, as well as in the fifth verse; but this reading of the Septuagint and Coptic is not acknowledged by any other of the ancient versions, nor by any of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi. We must seek therefore for some other method of reconciling this apparently contradictory account. Sundry modes have been proposed by commentators, which appear to me, in general, to require full as much explanation as the text itself. Maimonides is the only one intelligible on the subject. "The suburbs," says he, "of the cities are expressed in the law to be 3,000 cubits on every side from the wall of the city and outwards. The first thousand cubits are the suburbs, and the 2,000, which they measured without the suburbs, were for fields and vineyards." The whole, therefore, of the city, suburbs, fields, and vineyards, may be represented by the diagram.

### Verse 11

[¶37] Ye shall appoint - cities of refuge - The cities of refuge among the Israelites were widely different from the asyla among the Greeks and Romans, as also from the privileged altars among the Roman Catholics. Those among the Hebrews were for the protection of such only as had slain a person involuntarily. The temples and altars among the latter often served for the protection of the most profligate characters. Cities of refuge among the Hebrews were necessary, because the old patriarchal law still remained in force, viz., that the nearest akin had a right to avenge the death of his relation by slaying the murderer; for the original law enacted that whosoever shed man's blood, by man should his blood be shed, [Gen 9:6], and none was judged so proper to execute this law as the man who was nearest akin to the deceased. As many rash executions of this law might take place, from the very nature of the thing, it was deemed necessary to qualify its claims, and prevent injustice; and the cities of refuge were judged proper for this purpose. Nor do we ever read that they were ever found inefficient, or that they were ever abused.

### Verse 12

[¶39] Until he stand before the congregation in judgment - So one of these cities was not a perpetual asylum; It was only a pro tempore refuge, till the case could be fairly examined by the magistrates in the presence of the people, or the elders their representatives; and this was done in the city or place where he had done the murder, [Jos 20:4], [Jos 20:6]. If he was found worthy of death, they delivered him to the avenger that he might be slain, [Deu 19:12]; if not, they sent him back to the city of refuge, where he remained till the death of the high priest, [Num 35:25]. Before the cities of refuge were appointed, the altar appears to have been a sanctuary for those who had killed a person unwittingly; see on [Exo 21:13] (note), and [Exo 21:14] (note).

### Verse 19

[¶41] The revenger of blood - גאל הדם goel haddam, the redeemer of blood; the next in blood to him who was slain. See on [Num 35:12] (note).

### Verse 30

[¶43] But one witness shall not testify against any - This was a just and necessary provision. One may be mistaken, or so violently prejudiced as to impose even on his own judgment, or so wicked as to endeavor through malice to compass the life of his neighbor: but it is not likely that two or more should be of this kind; and even were they, their separate examination would lead to a discovery of the truth, and to their conviction.

### Verse 31

[¶45] Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer - No atonement could be made for him, nor any commutation, so as to save him from death. All the laws of the civilized world have either adjudged the murderer to death, or to a punishment equivalent to it; such as perpetual imprisonment, in a dungeon, under ground, on a stone floor, without light, and to be fed on a small portion of bread and water. In such circumstances a man could live but a short time; and though it is not called the punishment of death, yet, from its inevitable consequences, it only differed from it by being a little longer respite than was usual where the punishment of death was awarded. See the note on [Gen 9:6].

## 185. Numbers · 34 of 34

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### Verse 32

[¶1] Until the death of the priest - Probably intended to typify, that no sinner can be delivered from his banishment from God, or recover his forfeited inheritance, till Jesus Christ, the great high priest, had died for his offenses, and risen again for his justification.

### Verse 33

[¶3] For blood it defileth the land - The very land was considered as guilty till the blood of the murderer was shed in it. No wonder God is so particularly strict in his laws against murderers,

[¶4] 1. Because he is the author of life, and none have any right to dispose of it but himself.

[¶5] 2. Because life is the time to prepare for the eternal world, and on it the salvation of the soul accordingly depends; therefore it is of infinite consequence to the man that his life be lengthened out to the utmost limits assigned by Divine Providence. As he who takes a man's life away before his time may be the murderer of his soul as well as of his body, the severest laws should be enacted against this, both to punish and prevent the crime.

[¶6] The Mosaic cities of refuge have in general been considered, not merely as civil institutions, but as types or representations of infinitely better things; and in this light St. Paul seems to have considered them and the altar of God, which was a place of general refuge, as it is pretty evident that he had them in view when writing the following words: "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, (his oath and promise), in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have Fled for Refuge to lay Hold upon the Hope set before us," [Heb 6:17], [Heb 6:18]. Independently of this, it was a very wise political institute; and while the patriarchal law on this point continued in force, this law had a direct tendency to cool and moderate the spirit of revenge, to secure the proper accomplishment of the ends of justice, and to make way for every claim of mercy and equity. But this is not peculiar to the ordinance of the cities of refuge; every institution of God is distinguished in the same way, having his own glory, in the present and eternal welfare of man, immediately in view.

### Introduction

[¶8] The inconveniences which might be produced by daughters, inheritances, marrying out of their own tribe, remedied on the recommendation of certain chiefs of the tribe of Joseph, who stated the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, [Num 36:1-4]. The daughters of Zelophehad are commanded to marry in their own tribe, [Num 36:5], [Num 36:6]; which is to be an ordinance in all similar circumstances, [Num 36:7-9]. The daughters of Zelophehad marry their father's brother's sons, and thus their inheritance is preserved in their own tribe, [Num 36:10-12]. The conclusion of the commandments given by the Lord to the Israelites in the plains of Moab, [Num 36:13].

### Verse 2

[¶10] To give the inheritance of Zelophehad - unto his daughters - See this case spoken of at large on Numbers 27 (note).

[¶11] Either the first eleven verses of Numbers 27 should come in before this chapter, or this chapter should come in immediately after those eleven verses; they certainly both make parts of the same subject.

[¶12] Here Moses determines that heiresses should marry in their own tribe, that no part of the ancient inheritance might be alienated from the original family.

### Verse 6

[¶14] Let them marry to whom they think best - Here was latitude sufficient, and yet a salutary and reasonable restraint, which prevented a vexatious mixture of property and possession.

### Verse 8

[¶16] Every daughter that possesseth an inheritance - This law affected none but heiresses; all others were at liberty to marry into any of the other tribes. The priests and Levites, who could have no inheritance, were exempt from the operation of this law. Jehoiada had the king of Judah's daughter to wife, [2Chr 22:11]. And another priest had for wife one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, [Ezr 2:61]. "By reason of such marriages," says Mr. Ainsworth, "there might be kindred between Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, who was of the daughters of Aaron, and Mary the virgin, the mother of our Lord, who was of the lineage of David, and tribe of Judah;" [Luk 1:5], [Luk 1:36]; [Luk 3:23-31].

### Verse 11

[¶18] Mahlah, Tirza, etc. - For a curious account of these names, see the notes on [Num 27:7].

### Verse 12

[¶20] And their inheritance remained in - the family - "By this example, and the law of inheritances in the Holy Land, the people of God," says Ainsworth, "are taught to hold fast their inheritance in his promises, and their right in Christ, which they hold by faith; that as the Father hath made them meet to be partakers of the inheritance among the saints in light, [Col 1:12], so they may keep the faith and grace which they have received to the end."

### Verse 13

[¶22] These are the commandments, etc. - See these different terms analyzed and explained, [Lev 26:15] (note).

[¶23] Thus ends the book of Numbers, containing a series of astonishing providences and events. Scarcely any piece of history in the sacred writings is better calculated to impress the mind of a serious reader with a sense of the goodness and severity of God. In every transaction his holiness and justice appear in closest union with his benevolence and mercy. From such a Being what have the wicked not to fear! From such a Father and Friend what have the upright not to hope! His justice requires him to punish iniquity, but his mercy inclines him to pardon all who truly repent and believe in the Son of his love.

[¶24] The journeyings of this people, from the time they left Egypt, exhibit a series of providential wonders. Every where, and in every circumstance, God appears: and yet there is no circumstance or occasion that does not justify those signal displays of his Grace and his Justice. The genuine history of God's providence must be sought for in this book alone; and as every occurrence happened as an example, we have authority to conclude that in every case where his own glory and the salvation of man are interested, he will interfere and give the fullest proofs that he is the same to-day that he was yesterday, and will continue unchangeable for ever and ever. Reader, are these matters ensamples to thee? Art thou, like the Israelites, come into the plains of Moab, on the very verge of the promised land? Jordan alone separates thee from the promised inheritance. O, watch and pray, that thou come not short of the glory of God. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death; see then that the sting of death, which is sin, be extracted from thy soul, that, being justified by Christ's blood, thou mayest be made an heir according to the hope of an eternal life. Amen, amen. "I will bring you into the Wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the Wilderness of the land of Egypt. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and bring you into the bond of the covenant," [Eze 20:35-37]. "He (Christ) is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance," [Heb 9:15].

[¶25] Sections In the Book of Numbers, carried on from Leviticus, which ends with the Thirty-Third.

[¶26] The Thirty-Fourth, called במדבר bemidbar, begins [Num 1:1], and ends [Num 4:20].

[¶27] The Thirty-Fifth, called נשא nasa, begins [Num 4:21], and ends [Num 7:89].

[¶28] The Thirty-Sixth, called בהעלתך behaalothecha, begins [Num 8:1], and ends [Num 12:16].

[¶29] The Thirty-Seventh, called שלח shelach, begins [Num 13:1], and ends [Num 15:41].

[¶30] The Thirty-Eighth, called קרח korach, begins [Num 16:1], and ends [Num 18:32].

[¶31] The Thirty-Ninth, called חקת chukkath, begins [Num 19:1], and ends [Num 22:1].

[¶32] The Fortieth, called בלק balak, begins [Num 22:2], and ends [Num 25:9].

[¶33] The Forty-First, called פינחס pinechas, begins [Num 25:10], and ends [Num 30:1].

[¶34] The Forty-Second, called מטות mattoth, begins [Num 30:2], and ends [Num 32:42].

[¶35] The Forty-Third, called מסעי masey, begins [Num 33:1], and ends [Num 36:13].

## 186. Deuteronomy · 1 of 29

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### Preface to the Book of Deuteronomy

[¶1] We have borrowed the name of this book, as in former cases, from the Vulgate Latin, Deuteronomium, as the Vulgate has done from the Greek version of the Septuagint, Δευτερονομιον, which is a compound term literally signifying the second law, because it seems to contain a repetition of the preceding laws, from which circumstance it has been termed by the rabbins משנה mishneh, the iteration or doubling.

[¶2] It appears that both these names are borrowed from [Deu 17:18], where the king is commanded to write him a copy of this law; the original is משנה התורה mishneh hattorah, a repetition or doubling of the law, which the Septuagint have translated το δευτερονομιον, this second law, which we, properly enough, translate a copy of the law: but in Hebrew, like the preceding books, it takes its name from its commencement, אלה הדברים Elleh Haddebarim, these are the words; and in the best rabbinical Bibles its running title is ספר דברים Sepher Debarim, the book of debarim, or the book of the words. Our Saxon ancestors termed it the after law.

[¶3] The Book of Deuteronomy contains an account of what passed in the wilderness from the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt to the seventh day of the twelfth month of the same; making in the whole a history of the transactions of exactly five weeks, the months of the Jews being lunar. The history is continued about seven days after the death of Moses; for he began to deliver his first discourse to the people in the plains of Moab the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, [Deu 1:3], and died on the first day of the twelfth month of the same year, aged 120 years.

[¶4] As the Israelites were now about to enter into the promised land, and many of them had not witnessed the different transactions in the wilderness, the former generations having been all destroyed except Joshua and Caleb; to impress their hearts with a deep sense of their obligation to God, and to prepare them for the inheritance which God had prepared for them. Moses here repeats the principal occurrences of the forty years, now almost elapsed; shows them the absolute necessity of fearing, loving, and obeying God; repeats the ten commandments, and particularly explains each, and the ordinances belonging to them, adding others which he had not delivered before; confirms the whole law in a most solemn manner, with exceeding great and precious promises to them that keep it, and a denunciation of the most awful judgments against those who should break it; renews the covenant between God and the people; prophesies of things which should come to pass in the latter days; blesses each of the tribes, prophetically, with the choicest spiritual and temporal blessings; and then, having viewed the whole extent of the land, from the top of Mount Nebo or Pisgah, he yielded up the ghost, and was privately buried by God, leaving Joshua the son of Nun for his successor.

[¶5] The Book of Deuteronomy and the Epistle to the Hebrews contain the best comment on the nature, design, and use of the law; the former may be considered as an evangelical commentary on the four preceding books, in which the spiritual reference and signification of the different parts of the law are given, and given in such a manner as none could give who had not a clear discovery of the glory which was to be revealed. It may be safely asserted that very few parts of the Old Testament Scriptures can be read with greater profit by the genuine Christian than the Book of Deuteronomy.

[¶6] The contents of the different chapters may be thus briefly summed up: -

[¶7] On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, after the departure from Egypt, the Israelites being then on the east side of Jordan, in the land of the Moabites, Moses gives them a brief recapitulation of what took place in the wilderness, from their leaving Mount Horeb till they came to Kadesh; Deuteronomy 1.

[¶8] Their travels from Kadesh till they come to the country of the Amorites, with the defeat of Sihon their king; Deuteronomy 2. The war with Og, king of Bashan, with the dividing his land and that of Sihon among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; Deuteronomy 3.

[¶9] Moses exhorts them to observe the Divine precepts; threatens those who should violate them; and appoints Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan, to be the cities of refuge on the east side of Jordan; Deuteronomy 4.

[¶10] Repeats the decalogue, and tells the people what effect the publication of it had on their fathers, when God spoke to them from the mount; Deuteronomy 5.

[¶11] Exhorts them to love God with all their heart, and promises them an abundance of good things; Deuteronomy 6.

[¶12] Repeats the command to exterminate the Canaanites, and all vestiges of their idolatry; Deuteronomy 7.

[¶13] Recites the many interpositions of God's kindness which they had received during their forty years' travel in the wilderness, and strongly exhorts them to remember those mercies, and not to forfeit a continuance of his favors by ingratitude and disobedience; Deuteronomy 8.

[¶14] Shows them that they were to pass Jordan in a short time, and that God was about to bring them in, not on account of their goodness, but of his mercy; Deuteronomy 9.

[¶15] Gives an account of the second tables of the law, which he made at the command of God; mentions their journey from Beeroth to Jotbath, the choosing of the Levites, and the necessity of having the heart circumcised; Deuteronomy 10.

[¶16] Continues an account of God's mighty acts in their behalf, and shows the blessings which should come on them who kept his law, and the curse on those who were disobedient. The blessings to be pronounced on Mount Gerizim, and the curses on Mount Ebal; Deuteronomy 11.

[¶17] Commands them to destroy all monuments of idolatry in the land, to offer the different offerings and sacrifices, and to avoid eating of blood; Deuteronomy 12.

[¶18] Ordinances against false prophets, idolatrous cities, etc.; Deuteronomy 13.

[¶19] Forbids their cutting themselves at funerals, recapitulates the law concerning clean and unclean animals, and exhorts them to remember the Levites; Deuteronomy 14.

[¶20] Every seventh year shall be a year of release for the poor of usury; first-born, etc.; Deuteronomy 15.

[¶21] Concerning the annual feasts, passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; the establishment of judges and officers; no groves to be planted near the altar of God; Deuteronomy 16.

[¶22] Idolaters are to be put to death; difficult cases in equity to be referred to the superior judges; of a king and his duties; Deuteronomy 17.

[¶23] All divination is prohibited. The grand promise of an Extraordinary Prophet. How false prophets are to be distinguished; Deuteronomy 18.

[¶24] The laws relative to the cities of refuge, and how the intentional murderer is to be treated; Deuteronomy 19.

[¶25] Laws relative to the carrying on of war; who should be sent back from the army, how they are to treat the Canaanites, and how they are to commence sieges, Deuteronomy 20.

[¶26] How to make expiation for an uncertain murder; marriages with captives; rights of the first-born, etc.; Deuteronomy 21.

[¶27] Things lost or strayed are to be restored to their right owners; men and women must not interchange apparel; improper mixtures to be avoided; of the tokens of virginity; adulterers and adulteresses to be put to death; Deuteronomy 22.

[¶28] Eunuchs, bastards, Moabites, and Ammonites, are not to be permitted to enter into the congregation of the Lord. Harlots not to be tolerated; Deuteronomy 23.

[¶29] Laws relative to divorce; privileges of the newly-married man: concerning pledges, wages, gleanings, etc.; Deuteronomy 24.

[¶30] More than forty stripes shall not be given. If a man die childless, his brother shall take his wife. Of weights, measures, etc.; Deuteronomy 25. Different ceremonies to be used in offering the first-fruits; tithes. Of full self-consecration to God; Deuteronomy 26.

[¶31] The words of the law to be written on stones, and to be set up on Mount Ebal. The tribes which stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the obedient, and those which should stand on Mount Ebal to curse the disobedient. Who they are that are to be cursed; Deuteronomy 27.

[¶32] The blessings of those who are faithful; curses against the disobedient; Deuteronomy 28.

[¶33] A recital of the covenant of God, made not only with them, but for their posterity; Deuteronomy 29.

[¶34] Promises of pardon to the penitent; good and evil, life and death, are set before them; Deuteronomy 30.

[¶35] Moses, being now 120 years old, delivers a copy of the law which he had written into the hands of the priests, to be laid up in the ark, and to be publicly read every seventh year; a charge is given to Joshua; Deuteronomy 31.

[¶36] The prophetical and historical song of Moses: he is commanded to go up to Mount Nebo that he may see the promised land; Deuteronomy 32.

[¶37] The prophetical blessing of the twelve tribes. The indescribable happiness of Israel; Deuteronomy 33.

[¶38] Moses views the promised land from the top of Mount Nebo, dies, and is privately buried by the Lord. The Israelites mourn for him thirty days.

[¶39] Joshua takes command of the people. The character of Moses; [Deu 34:1-12].

[¶40] At the close of this book I have added a number of useful Tables, such as no edition of the Bible ever could boast, viz.:

[¶41] Table I. A perpetual table, showing through the course of 13 lunar cycles (which embrace every possible variation) the day of the week with which the Jewish year begins, and on which the passover is held; as also the lengths of the months Marchesvan and Cisleu.

[¶42] Table II. Containing the whole variations in the reading of the Pareshioth or sections of the law for every year of the Jewish cycle of 247 years.

[¶43] Table III. To find, with the help of Table IV., the day of the week upon which any Jewish new moon or festival happens.

[¶44] Table IV. To determine upon what day of the week any Jewish month commences for any given year; as also the day of the week upon which the Jews celebrate their principal fasts and festivals.

## 187. Deuteronomy · 2 of 29

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[¶0] Table V. Containing the order of reading the Pareshioth and Haphtaroth for 90 Jewish years, i. e., from A. M. 5572 to A. M. 5661, both inclusive, connected with the corresponding dates in the Christian Era, according to the Gregorian or new style.

[¶1] Table VI. Containing the year of the Jewish lunar cycle, the golden number, the first day of the Jewish pass over, Easter Sunday, and the commencement of each Jewish year according to the Gregorian Calendar, a. d. 1812 to a. d. 1900, both inclusive. All concluded with an explanation of the preceding tables. To them succeeds A Chronology of the Pentateuch, with the Book of Joshua; or a Systematic Arrangement of Events from the creation of Adam, A. M. 1, to the birth of Peleg, A. M. 1757, and thence to the death of Joshua, A. M. 2561. This chronology includes two tables, viz.: Table I. The birth and death of all the patriarchs, from Adam, A. M. 1, to Rhea, son of Peleg, A. M. 1787. Table II. A chronology of ancient kingdoms synchronized with the sacred history, from A. M. 1757, B. C. 2247, to A. M. 2561, B. C. 1443. The whole so calculated as to prevent the necessity of having recourse to systems of chronology for historic facts in anywise connected with those mentioned in the Sacred Writings.

[¶2] The great utility of these tables will, I think, be at once evident to every Biblical critic, chronologist, and antiquary; and for the immense labor employed in their construction the editor, no doubt, will have their hearty thanks.

[¶3] Adam Clarke.

[¶4] Introduction to the book, [Deu 1:1], [Deu 1:2]. Moses addresses the people in the fortieth year after the exodus from Egypt, [Deu 1:3-5]; and shows how God had spoken to them in Horeb, and the directions he gave them, [Deu 1:6-8]. How, at the commandment of the Lord, he had appointed officers, judges, etc., to share the government with him, [Deu 1:9-18]. Of their travels in the terrible wilderness, [Deu 1:19-21]. The people's request to have spies sent to search out the land, [Deu 1:22-25]. Of their murmuring and rebellion when they heard the report of the spies, [Deu 1:26-28]. How Moses encouraged them, [Deu 1:29-33]. The displeasure of the Lord against them because of their murmurings, and his purpose to exclude them from the good land, and give it to their children only, [Deu 1:34-40]. How they repented, and yet, without the authority of God, went against the Amorites, by whom they were defeated, [Deu 1:41-44]. Their return to Kadesh, where they abode many days, [Deu 1:45], [Deu 1:46].

### Verse 1

[¶6] These be the words which Moses spake - The five first verses of this chapter contain the introduction to the rest of the book: they do not appear to be the work of Moses, but were added probably either by Joshua or Ezra.

[¶7] On this side Jordan - בעבר beeber, at the passage of Jordan, i. e., near or opposite to the place where the Israelites passed over after the death of Moses. Though עבר eber is used to signify both on this side and on the other side, and the connection in which it stands can only determine the meaning; yet here it signifies neither, but simply the place or ford where the Israelites passed over Jordan.

[¶8] In the plain - That is, of Moab; over against the Red Sea - not the Red Sea, for they were now farther from it than they had been: the word sea is not in the text, and the word סוף suph, which we render red, does not signify the Red Sea, unless joined with ים yam, sea; here it must necessarily signify a place in or adjoining to the plains of Moab. Ptolemy mentions a people named Sophonites, that dwelt in Arabia Petraea, and it is probable that they took their name from this place; but see the note from Lightfoot, Numbers 20 (note), at the end.

[¶9] Paran - This could not have been the Paran which was contiguous to the Red Sea, and not far from Mount Horeb; for the place here mentioned lay on the very borders of the promised land, at a vast distance from the former.

[¶10] Dizahab - The word should be separated, as it is in the Hebrew, די זהב Di Zahab. As Zahab signifies gold, the Septuagint have translated it τα χρυσια, the gold mines; and the Vulgate ubi aurum est plurimum, where there is much gold. It is more likely to be the name of a place.

### Verse 2

[¶12] There are eleven days' journey - The Israelites were eleven days in going from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, where they were near the verge of the promised land; after which they were thirty-eight years wandering up and down in the vicinity of this place, not being permitted, because of their rebellions, to enter into the promised rest, though they were the whole of that time within a few miles of the land of Canaan!

### Verse 3

[¶14] The fortieth year - This was a melancholy year to the Hebrews in different respects; in the first month of this year Miriam died, Numbers 20; on the first day of the fifth month Aaron died, [Num 33:38]; and about the conclusion of it, Moses himself died.

### Verse 5

[¶16] Began Moses to declare this law - Began, הואיל hoil, willingly undertook; to declare, באר beer, to make bare, clear, etc., fully to explain, this law. See the conclusion of the preface.

### Verse 6

[¶18] Ye have dwelt long enough, etc. - They came to Sinai in the third month after their departure from Egypt, [Exo 19:1], [Exo 19:2]; and left it the twentieth of the second month of the second year, so it appears they had continued there nearly a whole year.

### Verse 7

[¶20] Go to the mount of the Amorites - On the south of the land of Canaan, towards the Dead Sea.

[¶21] Land of the Canaanites - That is, Phoenicia, the country of Sidon, and the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea from the country of the Philistines to Mount Libanus. The Canaanites and Phoenicians are often confounded.

[¶22] The river Euphrates - Thus Moses fixes the bounds of the land, to which on all quarters the territories of the Israelites might be extended, should the land of Canaan, properly so called, be found insufficient for them. Their South border might extend to the mount of the Amorites; their West to the borders of the Mediterranean Sea; their North to Lebanon; and their East border to the river Euphrates: and to this extent Solomon reigned; see [1Kgs 4:21]. So that in his time, at least, the promise to Abraham was literally fulfilled; see below.

### Verse 10

[¶24] Ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude - This was the promise God made to Abraham, [Gen 15:5], [Gen 15:6]; and Moses considers it now as amply fulfilled. But was it really so? Many suppose the expression to be hyperbolical; and others, no friends to revelation, think it a vain empty boast, because the stars, in their apprehension, amount to innumerable millions. Let us consider this subject. How many in number are the stars which appear to the naked eye? for it is by what appears to the naked eye we are to be governed in this business, for God brought Abraham forth abroad, i. e., out of doors, and bade him look towards heaven, not with a telescope, but with his naked eyes, [Gen 15:5]. Now I shall beg the objector to come forth abroad, and look up in the brightest and most favorable night, and count the stars - he need not be terrified at their abundance; the more they are, the more he can count; and I shall pledge myself to find a male Israelite in the very last census taken of this people, Numbers 26, for every star he finds in the whole upper hemisphere of heaven. The truth is, only about 3,010 stars can be seen by the naked eye in both the northern and southern hemispheres; and the Israelites, independently of women and children, were at the above time more than 600,000. And suppose we even allow that, from the late discoveries of Dr. Herschel and others with telescopes which have magnified between 35 and 36,000 times, there may be 75 millions of stars visible by the help of such instruments, which is the highest calculation ever made, yet still the Divine word stands literally true: St. Matthew says, Deuteronomy 1, that the generations from Abraham to Christ were 42; now we find at the second census that the fighting men among the Hebrews amounted to 603,000; and the Israelites, who have never ceased to be a distinct people, have so multiplied as far to exceed the number of all the fixed stars taken together.

### Verse 13

[¶26] Take you wise men - חכמים chachamim, such as had gained knowledge by great labor and study. Understanding נבנים nebonim, persons of discernment, judicious men. Known, ידעים yeduim, persons practiced in the operations of nature, capable of performing curious and important works.

### Verse 15

[¶28] Captains over thousands, etc. - What a curious and well-regulated economy was that of the Israelites! See its order and arrangement:

[¶29] 1. God, the King and Supreme Judge;

[¶30] 2. Moses, God's prime minister;

[¶31] 3. The priests, consulting him by Urim and Thummim;

[¶32] 4. The chiefs or princes of the twelve tribes;

[¶33] 5. Chilliarchs, or captains over thousands;

[¶34] 6. Centurions, or captains over hundreds;

[¶35] 7. Tribunes, or captains over fifty men;

[¶36] 8. Decurions, or captains over ten men; and,

[¶37] 9. Officers, persons who might be employed by the different chiefs in executing particular commands.

[¶38] All these held their authority from God, and yet were subject and accountable to each other. See the notes on Numbers 2 (note).

### Verse 17

[¶40] Ye shall not respect persons - Heb. faces. Let not the bold, daring countenance of the rich or mighty induce you to give an unrighteous decision; and let not the abject look of the poor man induce you either to favor him in an unrighteous cause, or to give judgment against him at the demand of the oppressor. Be uncorrupt and incorruptible, for the judgment is God's; ye minister in the place of God, act like Him.

### Verse 22

[¶42] We will send men before us - See on Numbers 13 (note).

### Verse 28

[¶44] Cities - walled up to heaven - That is, with very high walls which could not be easily scaled. High walls around houses, etc., in these parts of Arabia are still deemed a sufficient defense against the Arabs, who scarcely ever attempt any thing in the way of plunder but on horseback. The monastery on Mount Sinai is surrounded with very high walls without any gate; in the upper part of the wall there is a sort of window, or opening, from which a basket is suspended by a pulley, by which both persons and goods are received into and sent from the place. It is the same with the convent of St. Anthony, in Egypt; and this sort of wall is deemed a sufficient defense against the Arabs, who, as we have already observed, scarcely ever like to alight from their horses.

## 188. Deuteronomy · 3 of 29

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### Verse 30

[¶1] The Lord - shall fight for you - In the Targum of Onkelos, it is, the Word of the Lord shall fight for you. In a great number of places the Targums or Chaldee paraphrases use the term מימרא דיי meimera dayeya or Yehovah, the Word of the Lord, exactly in the same way in which St. John uses the term Λογος Logos in the first chapter of his Gospel. Many instances of this have already occurred.

### Verse 34

[¶3] The Lord - was wroth - That is, his justice was incensed, and he evidenced his displeasure against you; and he could not have been a just God if he had not done so.

### Verse 36

[¶5] Caleb - wholly followed the Lord - See on [Num 14:24] (note).

### Verse 37

[¶7] The Lord was angry with me - See on [Num 20:12] (note), etc., where a particular account is given of the sin of Moses.

### Verse 44

[¶9] The Amorites - chased you - See the note on [Num 14:40] : as bees do - by irresistible numbers.

### Verse 46

[¶11] According unto the days that ye abode there - They had been a long time at this place, see [Num 13:27]; [Num 20:1], [Num 20:14], [Num 20:21]. And some think that the words mean, "Ye abode as long at Kadesh, when you came to it the second time, as ye did at the first." Or, according to others, "While ye were in that part of the desert, ye encamped at Kadesh."

[¶12] 1. As one grand object of the law of God was to instruct the people in those things which were calculated to promote their peace and insure their prosperity; and as they were apt to lose sight of their spiritual interests, without a due attention to which their secular interest could not be promoted; Moses, not only in this chapter, but through the whole book, calls upon them to recollect their former miserable situation, in which they held neither life nor property but at the will of a merciless tyrant, and the great kindness and power of God manifested in their deliverance from a bondage that was as degrading as it was oppressive. These things properly remembered would lead them to prize their blessings, and duly appreciate the mercy of their Maker.

[¶13] 2. But it was not only this general display of God's kindness, in the grand act of their deliverance from Egypt, that he wished them to keep constantly in view, but also that gracious providence which was manifested in every step they took; which directed all their movements, provided for all their wants, continually showing what they should do, how they should do it, and also the most proper time and place for every act, whether religious or civil. By bringing before them in one point of view the history of almost forty years, in which the strangest and most stupendous occurrences had taken place that had ever been exhibited to the world, he took the readiest way to impress their minds, not only with their deep obligation to God, but also to show them that they were a people on whom their Maker had set his heart to do them good, and that if they feared him they should lack nothing that was good. He lays out also before them a history of their miscarriages and rebellion, and the privations and evils they had suffered in consequence, that this might act as a continual warning, and thus become, in the hands of God, a preventive of crimes.

[¶14] 3. If every Christian were thus to call his past life into review, he would see equal proofs of God's gracious regards to his body and soul; equal proofs of eternal mercy in providing for his deliverance from the galling yoke and oppressive tyranny of sin, as the Israelites had in their deliverance from Egypt; and equal displays of a most gracious providence, that had also been his incessant companion through all the changes and chances of this mortal life, guiding him by its counsel, that he might be at last received into glory. O reader, remember what God has done for thee during thy forty, fifty, etc., years! He has nourished, fed, clothed, protected, and saved thee. How often and how powerfully has his Spirit striven with thee! How often and how impressively thou hast heard his voice in his Gospel and in his providences! Remember the good resolutions thou hast made, the ingratitude and disobedience that have marked thy life; how his vows are still upon thee, and how his mercy still spares thee! And wilt thou live so as to perish for ever? God forbid! He still waits to be gracious, and rejoices over thee to do thee good. Learn from what is before thee how thou shouldst fear, love, believe in, and obey thy God. The Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, is still before the throne; and whosoever cometh unto God through him shall in nowise be cast out. He who believes these things with an upright heart will soon be enabled to live a sanctified life.

### Introduction

[¶16] Moses continues to relate how they compassed Mount Seir, [Deu 2:1]. And the commands they received not to meddle with the descendants of Esau, [Deu 2:2-8]; nor to distress the Moabites, [Deu 2:9]. Of the Emims, [Deu 2:10], [Deu 2:11]; the Horims, [Deu 2:12]. Their passage of the brook Zered, [Deu 2:13]. The time they spent between Kadesh-barnea and Zered, [Deu 2:14]; during which all the men of war that came out of Egypt were consumed, [Deu 2:15], [Deu 2:16]. The command not to distress the Ammonites, [Deu 2:17-19]. Of the Zamzummims, [Deu 2:20], the Anakims, [Deu 2:21], the Horims, [Deu 2:22], the Avims and Caphtorims, all destroyed by the Ammonites, [Deu 2:23]. They are commanded to cross the river Arnon, and are promised the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, [Deu 2:24], [Deu 2:25]. Of the message sent to Sihon, to request a passage through his territories, [Deu 2:26-29]. His refusal, [Deu 2:30].The consequent war, [Deu 2:31], [Deu 2:32]. His total overthrow, [Deu 2:33]; and extermination of his people, [Deu 2:34]. The spoils that were taken, [Deu 2:35]. And his land possessed from Aroer to Arnon by the Israelites, [Deu 2:36]; who took care, according to the command of God, not to invade any part of the territories of the Ammonites, [Deu 2:37].

### Verse 3

[¶18] Turn you northward - From Mount Seir, in order to get to Canaan. This was not the way they went before, viz., by Kadesh-barnea, but they were to proceed between Edom on the one hand, and Moab and Ammon on the other, so as to enter into Canaan through the land of the Amorites.

### Verse 5

[¶20] Meddle not with them - That is, the Edomites. See on [Num 20:14-21] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶22] The Lord - hath blessed thee, etc. - God had given them much property, and therefore they had no need of plunder; they had gold and silver to buy the provender they needed, and therefore God would not permit them to take any thing by violence.

### Verse 10

[¶24] The Emims dwelt therein - Calmet supposes that these people were destroyed in the war made against them by Chedorlaomer and his allies, [Gen 14:5]. Lot possessed their country after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. They are generally esteemed as giants; probably they were a hardy, fierce, and terrible people, who lived, like the wandering Arabs, on the plunder of others. This was sufficient to gain them the appellation of giants, or men of prodigious stature. See next verse, [Deu 2:11] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶26] Which also were accounted giants - This is not a fortunate version. The word is not giants, but רפאים Rephaim, the name of a people. It appears that the Emim, the Anakim, and the Rephaim, were probably the same people, called by different names in the different countries where they dwelt; for they appear originally to have been a kind of wandering free-booters, who lived by plunder. (See on [Deu 2:10] (note)). It must be granted, however, that there were several men of this race of extraordinary stature. And hence all gigantic men have been called Rephaim. (See on [Gen 6:4] (note), and [Gen 14:5] (note)). But we well know that fear and public report have often added whole cubits to men's height. It was under this influence that the spies acted, when they brought the disheartening report mentioned [Num 13:33].

### Verse 12

[¶28] The Horims also dwelt in Seir - The whole of this verse was probably added by Joshua or Ezra.

### Verse 20

[¶30] That also was accounted a land of giants - That was accounted the land or territory of the Rephaim.

[¶31] Zamzummims - Supposed to be the same as the Zuzim, [Gen 14:5]. Of these ancient people we know very little; they were probably inconsiderable tribes or clans, "pursuing and pursued, each other's prey," till at length a stronger totally destroyed or subdued them, and their name became either extinct or absorbed in that of their conquerors. From the 10th to the 12th, and from the 20th to the 23d verse inclusive ([Deu 2:10-12], [Deu 2:20-23]), we have certain historical remarks introduced which do not seem to have been made by Moses, but rather by Joshua or Ezra. By the introduction of these verses the thread of the narrative suffers considerable interruption. Dr. Kennicott considers both these passages to be interpolations. That they could not have made a part of the speech of Moses originally, needs little proof.

### Verse 29

[¶33] As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir - See the note on [Num 20:21].

### Verse 30

[¶35] The Lord - hardened his spirit - See the notes on [Exo 4:21], and [Exo 9:15] (note), etc.

### Verse 36

[¶37] From Aroer - by the brink of the river of Arnon - See on [Num 21:13] (note), etc.

### Verse 37

[¶39] Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not - God gave them their commission; and those only were to be cut off, the cup of whose iniquity was full. Though the Moabites and Ammonites were thus spared, they requited good with evil, for they fought against the Israelites, and cast them out of their possessions, [Jdg 11:4], [Jdg 11:5]; [2Chr 20:1], etc., and committed the most shocking cruelties; see [Amo 1:13]. Hence God enacted a law, that none of these people should enter into the congregation of the Lord even to their tenth generation: see [Deu 23:3-6].

### Introduction

[¶41] The war with Og, king of Bashan, [Deu 3:1], [Deu 3:2]. He is defeated, [Deu 3:3]. Sixty fortified cities with many unwalled towns taken, [Deu 3:4], [Deu 3:5]. The utter destruction of the people, [Deu 3:6]. The spoils, [Deu 3:7]; and extent of the land taken, [Deu 3:8-10]. Account of Og's iron bedstead, [Deu 3:11]. The land given to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, [Deu 3:12], [Deu 3:13]. Jair takes the country of Argob, [Deu 3:14]. Gilead is given unto Machir, [Deu 3:15]. And the rest of the land possessed by the Reubenites and Gadites, [Deu 3:16], [Deu 3:17]. The directions given to those tribes, [Deu 3:18-20]. The counsel given to Joshua, [Deu 3:21], [Deu 3:22]. Moses's prayer to God for permission to go into the promised land, [Deu 3:23-25]; and God's refusal, [Deu 3:26]. He is commanded to go up to Mount Pisgah to see it, [Deu 3:27]; and to encourage Joshua, [Deu 3:28]. They continue in the valley opposite to Beth-peor, [Deu 3:29].

### Verse 4

[¶43] All the region of Argob - כל חבל ארגב col chebel Argob, all the cable or cord of Argob; this expression, which is used in various other parts of Scripture, (see, in the original, [Amo 7:17]; [Mic 2:5]; [Deu 32:9]; [Psa 16:6]), shows that anciently land was measured by lines or cords of a certain length, in a similar way to that by the chain among us, and the schoenus or cord among the Egyptians. Some think that it was the region of Argob that was afterwards called the region of Trachonites.

## 189. Deuteronomy · 4 of 29

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### Verse 9

[¶1] Hermon the Sidonians call - Shenir - I suppose this verse to have been a marginal remark, which afterwards got incorporated with the text, or an addition by Joshua or Ezra.

### Verse 11

[¶3] Og king of Bashan remained - Og was the last king of the Amorites; his kingdom appears to have taken its name from the hill of Bashan; the country has been since called Batanaea.

[¶4] Remnant of giants - Of the Rephaim. See on [Deu 2:10] (note), [Deu 2:11] (note).

[¶5] His bedstead was - of iron - Iron was probably used partly for its strength and durability, and partly to prevent noxious vermin from harbouring in it.

[¶6] Is it not in Rabbath, of the children of Ammon? - The bedstead was probably taken in some battle between the Ammonites and Amorites, in which the former had gained the victory. The bedstead was carried a trophy and placed in Rabbath, which appears, from [2Sam 12:26], to have been the royal city of the children of Ammon.

[¶7] Nine cubits was the length - four cubits the breadth - Allowing the bedstead to have been one cubit longer than Og, which is certainly sufficient, and allowing the cubit to be about eighteen inches long, for this is perhaps the average of the cubit of a man, then Og was twelve feet high. This may be deemed extraordinary, and perhaps almost incredible, and therefore many commentators have, according to their fancy, lengthened the bedstead and shortened the man, making the former one-third longer than the person who lay on it, that they might reduce Og to six cubits; but even in this way they make him at least nine feet high.

[¶8] On this subject the rabbins have trifled most sinfully. I shall give one specimen. In the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on [Num 21:33-35], it is said that "Og having observed that the camp of the Israelites extended six miles, he went and tore up a mountain six miles in its base, and put it on his head, and carried it towards the camp, that he might throw it on the Israelites and destroy them; but the word of the Lord prepared a worm, which bored a hole in the mountain over his head, so that it fell down upon his shoulders: at the same time his teeth growing out in all directions, stuck into the mountain, so that he could not cast it off his head. Moses, (who was himself ten cubits high), seeing Og thus entangled, took an axe ten cubits long, and having leaped ten cubits in height, struck Og on the ankle bone, so that he fell and was slain."

[¶9] From this account the distance from the sole of Og's foot to his ankle was thirty cubits in length! I give this as a very slight specimen of rabbinical comment. I could quote places in the Talmud in which Og is stated to be several miles high! This relation about Og I suppose to be also an historical note added by a subsequent hand.

### Verse 14

[¶11] Bashan-havoth-jair - Bashan of the cities of Jair; see [Num 32:41].

### Verse 17

[¶13] From Chinnereth - See on [Num 34:11] (note).

### Verse 24

[¶15] The prayer of Moses recorded in these two verses, and his own reflections on it, [Deu 3:26], are very affecting. He had suffered much both in body and mind in bringing the people to the borders of the promised land; and it was natural enough for him to wish to see them established in it, and to enjoy a portion of that inheritance himself, which he knew was a type of the heavenly country. But notwithstanding his very earnest prayer, and God's especial favor towards him, he was not permitted to go over Jordan! He had grieved the Spirit of God, and he passed a sentence against him of exclusion from the promised land. Yet he permitted him to see it, and gave him the fullest assurances that the people whom he had brought out of Egypt should possess it. Thus God may choose to deprive those of earthly possessions to whom he is nevertheless determined to give a heavenly inheritance.

### Verse 26

[¶17] Let it suffice thee - רב לך rab lach, there is an abundance to thee - thou hast had honor enough already, and may well dispense with going over Jordan. He surely has no reason to complain who is taken from earthly felicity to heavenly glory. In this act God showed to Moses both his goodness and severity.

### Verse 28

[¶19] But charge Joshua, etc. - Give him authority in the sight of the people, let them see that he has the same commission which I gave to thee. Encourage him; for he will meet with many difficulties in the work to which he is called. And strengthen him - show him my unfailing promises, and exhort him to put his trust in me alone; for he shall go over before this people, and shall cause them to inherit the land; of this let him rest perfectly assured.

### Verse 29

[¶21] Beth-peor - This was a city in the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites; and as בית beth signifies a house, the place probably had its name from a temple of the god Peor, who was worshipped there. Peor was nearly the same among the Moabites that Priapus was among the Romans - the obscene god of an obscene people. This we have already seen.

[¶22] It is very likely that what God speaks here, both concerning Moses and Joshua, was designed to be typical of the procedure of his justice and grace in the salvation of man.

[¶23] 1. The land of Canaan was a type of the kingdom of heaven.

[¶24] 2. The law, which shows the holiness of God and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, could not bring the people to the possession of that kingdom.

[¶25] 3. Moses may probably be considered here as the emblem of that law by which is the knowledge of sin, but not redemption from it

[¶26] 4. Joshua, the same as Jesus, the name signifying a Savior, is appointed to bring the people into the rest which God had provided for them; thus it is by Jesus Christ alone that the soul is saved - fitted for and brought into the possession of the heavenly inheritance, (see [Joh 1:17]; [Gal 2:16]; [Gal 3:12], [Gal 3:13], [Gal 3:24]); for he is the end of the law - the great scope and design of the law, for righteousness - for justification, to them that believe; [Rom 10:4]. Such a use as this every pious reader may make of the circumstances recorded here, without the danger of pushing analogy or metaphor beyond their reasonable limits.

### Introduction

[¶28] Exhortations to obedience, [Deu 4:1]. Nothing to be added to or taken from the testimonies of God, [Deu 4:2]. The people are exhorted to recollect how God had destroyed the ungodly among them, [Deu 4:3]; and preserved those who were faithful, [Deu 4:4]. The excellence of the Divine law, [Deu 4:5], [Deu 4:6]. No nation in the world could boast of any such statutes, judgments, etc., [Deu 4:7], [Deu 4:8]. They are exhorted to obedience by the wonderful manifestations of God in their behalf, [Deu 4:9-13]. Moses exhorts them to beware of idolatry, and to make no likeness of any thing in heaven or earth as an object of adoration, [Deu 4:14-20]. He informs them that he must die in that land as God had refused to let him go into the promised land, being angry with him on their account, [Deu 4:21], [Deu 4:22]. Repeats his exhortation to obedience, [Deu 4:23], [Deu 4:24]. Predicts the judgments of God against them, should they turn to idolatry, [Deu 4:25-28]. Promises of God's mercy to the penitent, [Deu 4:29-31]. The grand and unparalleled privileges of the Israelites, [Deu 4:32-40]. Moses severs three cities on the east side of Jordan for cities of refuge, [Deu 4:41], [Deu 4:42]. Their names, [Deu 4:43]. When and where Moses gave these statutes and judgments to Israel, [Deu 4:44-49].

### Verse 1

[¶30] Hearken - unto the statutes - Every thing that concerned the rites and ceremonies of religion; judgments - all that concerned matters of civil right and wrong.

### Verse 2

[¶32] Ye shall not add - Any book, chapter, verse or word, which I have not spoken; nor give any comment that has any tendency to corrupt, weaken, or destroy any part of this revelation.

[¶33] Neither shall ye diminish - Ye shall not only not take away any larger portion of this word, but ye shall not take one jot or tittle from the Law; it is that word of God that abideth for ever.

### Verse 6

[¶35] Keep - and do them; for this is your wisdom - There was no mode of worship at this time on the face or the earth that was not wicked, obscene, puerile, foolish, or ridiculous, except that established by God himself among the Israelites. And every part of this, taken in its connection and reference, may be truly called a wise and reasonable service.

[¶36] The nations - and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people - Almost all the nations in the earth showed that they had formed this opinion of the Jews, by borrowing from them the principal part of their civil code. Take away what Asia and Europe, whether ancient or modern, have borrowed from the Mosaic laws, and you leave little behind that can be called excellent.

### Verse 9

[¶38] Only take heed to thyself - Be circumspect and watchful.

[¶39] Keep thy soul diligently - Be mindful of thy eternal interests. Whatever becomes of the body, take care of the soul.

[¶40] Lest thou forget - God does his work that they may be had in everlasting remembrance; and he that forgets them, forgets his own mercies. Besides, if a man forget the work of God on his soul, he loses that work.

[¶41] Lest they depart from thy heart - It is not sufficient to lay up Divine things in the memory, they must be laid up in the heart. Thy word have I hidden in my heart, says David, that I might not sin against thee. The life of God in the soul of man can alone preserve the soul to life everlasting; and this grace must be retained all the days of our life. When Adam fell, his condition was not meliorated by the reflection that he had been once in paradise; nor does it avail Satan now that he was once an angel of light. Those who let the grace of God depart from their hearts, lose that grace; and those who lose the grace, fall from the grace; and as some have fallen and risen no more, so may others; therefore, take heed to thyself, etc. Were it impossible for men finally to fall from the grace of God, exhortations of this kind had never been given, because they would have been unnecessary, and God never does an unnecessary thing.

[¶42] But teach them thy sons - If a man know the worth of his own soul, he will feel the importance of the salvation of the souls of his family. Those who neglect family religion, neglect personal religion; if more attention were paid to the former, even among those called religious people, we should soon have a better state of civil society. On family religion God lays much stress; and no head of a family can neglect it without endangering the final salvation of his own soul. See the note at the conclusion of [Gen 18:32] (note), [Gen 19:38] (note), and [Deu 6:7] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶44] Ye saw no manner of similitude - Howsoever God chose to appear or manifest himself, he took care never to assume any describable form. He would have no image worship, because he is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. These outward things tend to draw the mind out of itself, and diffuse it on sensible, if not sensual, objects; and thus spiritual worship is prevented, and the Holy Ghost grieved. Persons acting in this way can never know much of the religion of the heart.

## 190. Deuteronomy · 5 of 29

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### Verse 16

[¶1] The likeness of male or female - Such as Baal-peor and the Roman Priapus, Ashtaroth or Astarte, and the Greek and Roman Venus; after whom most nations of the world literally went a whoring.

### Verse 17

[¶3] The likeness of any beast, etc. - Such as the Egyptian god Apis, who was worshipped under the form of a white bull; the ibis and hawk, among the fowls, had also Divine honors paid to them; serpents and the crocodile among reptiles; besides monkeys, dogs, cats, the scarabaeus, leeks, and onions! See this explained at large, [Exo 20:4] (note).

### Verse 19

[¶5] When thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars - The worship of the heavenly bodies was the oldest species of idolatry. Those who had not the knowledge of the true God were led to consider the sun, moon, planets, and stars, as not only self-existing, but the authors of all the blessings possessed by mankind. The knowledge of a rational system of astronomy served to destroy this superstition; and very little of it remains now in the world, except among a few Christian and Mohammedan astrologers; those miserable sinners who endeavor, as much as possible, to revive the old idolatry, while vainly professing to believe in the true God! Nor is it to be doubted that God will proceed with them as he has done of old with the worshippers of the host of heaven. Sound philosophy is next in importance to sound divinity; and next to the study of the work of grace is that of the operations of God in nature; for these visible things make known his eternal power and Godhead.

### Verse 20

[¶7] Out of the iron furnace - From this mention of the word iron furnace there can be little doubt that the Israelites were employed in Egypt in the most laborious works of metallurgy. Digging, smelting, and forging of iron in so hot a climate must have been oppressive work indeed.

### Verse 21

[¶9] The Lord was angry with me - And if with me, so as to debar me from entering into the promised land, can you think to escape if guilty of greater provocations?

### Verse 24

[¶11] Thy God is a consuming fire - They had seen him on the mount as an unconsuming fire, while appearing to Moses, and giving the law; and they had seen him as a consuming fire in the case of Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their company. They had, therefore, every good to expect from his approbation, and every evil to dread from his displeasure.

### Verse 26

[¶13] I call heaven and earth to witness against you - A most solemn method of adjuration, in use among all nations in the world. So Virgil, Aen., lib. xii., ver. 176, etc.

[¶14] Tum pius Aeneas stricto sic ense precatur:

[¶15] Esto nunc Sol testis et haec mihi terra vocanti -

[¶16] Fontesque fluviosque voco, quaeque aetheris alti

[¶17] Relllgio, et quae caeruleo sunt numina ponto, etc. "Then the great Trojan prince unsheathed his sword,

[¶18] And thus, with lifted hands, the gods adored:

[¶19] Thou land for which I wage this war, and thou

[¶20] Great source of day, be witness to my vow! -

[¶21] Almighty king of heaven and queen of air,

[¶22] Propitious now and reconciled by prayer, -

[¶23] Ye springs, ye floods, ye various powers who lie

[¶24] Beneath the deep, or tread the golden sky, -

[¶25] Hear and Attest!"

[¶26] Pitt.

[¶27] God and man being called upon to bear testimony to the truth of what was spoken, that if there was any flaw or insincerity, it might be detected; and if any crime, it might not go unpunished. Such appeals to God, for such purposes, show at once both the origin and use of oaths. See the note on [Deu 6:13].

### Verse 27

[¶29] The Lord shall scatter you among the nations - This was amply verified in their different captivities and dispersions.

### Verse 28

[¶31] There ye shall serve gods - wood and stone - This was also true of the Israelites, not only in their captivities, but also in their own land. And it may now be literally the case with the ten tribes who were carried away captive by the Assyrians, and of whose residence no man at present knows any thing with certainty. That they still exist there can be no doubt; but they are now, most probably, so completely incorporated with the idolaters among whom they dwell, as to be no longer distinguish able: yet God can gather them.

### Verse 29

[¶33] But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord - God is longsuffering, and of tender mercy; and waits, ever ready, to receive a backsliding soul when it returns to him. Is not this promise left on record for the encouragement and salvation of lost Israel?

### Verse 30

[¶35] When thou art in tribulation in the latter days - Are not these the times spoken of? And is there not still hope for Israel? Could we see them become zealous for their own law and religious observances - could we see them humble themselves before the God of Jacob - could we see them conduct their public worship with any tolerable decency and decorum - could we see them zealous to avoid every moral evil, inquiring the road to Zion, with their faces thitherward; then might we hope that the redemption of Israel was at hand: but alas! there is not the most distant evidence of any thing of the kind, except in a very few solitary instances. They are, perhaps, in the present day, more lost to every sacred principle of their own institutions than they have ever been since their return from the Babylonish captivity. By whom shall Jacob arise? for in this sense he is small - deeply fallen, and greatly degraded.

### Verse 33

[¶37] Did ever people hear the voice of God - It seems to have been a general belief that if God appeared to men, it was for the purpose of destroying them; and indeed most of the extraordinary manifestations of God were in the way of judgment; but here it was different; God did appear in a sovereign and extraordinary manner; but it was for the deliverance and support of the people.

[¶38] 1. They heard his voice speaking with them in a distinct, articulate manner.

[¶39] 2. They saw the fire, the symbol of his presence, the appearances of which demonstrated it to be supernatural.

[¶40] 3. Notwithstanding God appeared so terrible, yet no person was destroyed, for he came, not to destroy, but to save.

### Verse 34

[¶42] From the midst of another nation - This was a most extraordinary thing, that a whole people, consisting of upwards of 600,000 effective men, besides women and children, should, without striking a blow, be brought out of the midst of a very powerful nation, to the political welfare of which their services were so essential; that they should be brought out in so open and public a manner; that the sea itself should be supernaturally divided to afford this mighty host a passage; and that, in a desert utterly unfriendly to human life, they should be sustained for forty years. These were such instances of the almighty power and goodness of God as never could be forgotten.

[¶43] In this verse Moses enumerates seven different means used by the Almighty in effecting Israel's deliverance.

[¶44] 1. Temptations, מסת massoth, from נשה nasah, to try or prove; the miracles which God wrought to try the faith and prove the obedience of the children of Israel.

[¶45] 2. Signs, אתת othoth, from אתה athah, to come near; such signs as God gave them of his continual presence and especial providence, particularly the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, keeping near to them night and day, and always directing their journeys, showing them when and where to pitch their tents, etc., etc.

## 191. Deuteronomy · 6 of 29

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[¶0] 3. Wonders, מופתים mophethim, from יפת yaphath, to persuade; persuasive facts and events, says Parkhurst, whether strictly miraculous, and exceeding the powers of nature, as [Exo 7:9]; [Exo 11:9], [Exo 11:10]; or not, as [Isa 20:3]; [Eze 12:6], [Eze 12:11]. It probably means typical representations: in this signification the word is used, [Zac 3:8]. Joshua, the high priest, and his companions were אנשי מופת anshey mopheth, typical men, raised up by God as types of Christ, and proofs that God would bring his servant The Branch. All the dealings of God with this people, and even the people themselves, were types - present significators of distant facts and future occurrences.

[¶1] 4. War, מלחמה milchamah, hostile engagements; such as those with the Amalekites, the Amorites, and the Bashanites, in which the hand of God was seen rather than the hand of man.

[¶2] 5. A Mighty Hand, יד חזקה yad chazakah; one that is strong to deal its blows, irresistible in its operations, and grasps its enemies hard, so that they cannot escape, and protects its friends so powerfully that they cannot be injured. Neither stratagem nor policy was used in this business, but the openly displayed power of God.

[¶3] 6. A Stretched-Out Arm, זרוע נטויה ,mrA zeroa netuyah; a series of almighty operations, following each other in quick astonishing succession. Let it be noted that in the Scriptures, 1. The finger of God denotes any manifestation of the Divine power, where effects are produced beyond the power of art or nature. 2. The hand of God signifies the same power, but put forth in a more signal manner. 3. The arm of God, the Divine omnipotence manifested in the most stupendous miracles. 4. The arm of God stretched out, this same omnipotence exerted in a continuation of stupendous miracles, both in the way of judgment and mercy. In this latter sense it appears to be taken in the text: the judgments were poured out on the Egyptians; the mercies wrought in favor of the Israelites.

[¶4] 7. Great Terrors, מוראים גדלים moraim gedolim; such terror, dismay, and consternation as were produced by the ten plagues, to which probably the inspired penman here alludes: or, as the Septuagint has it, εν ὁραμασιν μεγαλοις, with great or portentous sights; such as that when God looked out of the cloud upon the Egyptians, and their chariot wheels were taken off, [Exo 14:24], [Exo 14:25]. More awful displays of God's judgments, power, and might, were never witnessed by man.

### Verse 41

[¶6] Then Moses severed three cities - See the law relative to the cities of refuge explained, [Num 35:11] (note), etc.

### Verse 43

[¶8] Bezer in the wilderness - As the cities of refuge are generally understood to be types of the salvation provided by Christ for sinners; so their names have been thought to express some attribute of the Redeemer of mankind. See them explained [Jos 20:7-8] (note).

[¶9] I Suppose the last nine verses of this chapter to have been added by either Joshua or Ezra.

### Introduction

[¶11] God's covenant with the people in Horeb, [Deu 5:1-4]. Moses the mediator of it, [Deu 5:5]. A repetition of the ten commandments, vv. 6-21; which God wrote on two tables of stone, [Deu 5:22]. The people are filled with dread at the terrible majesty of God, [Deu 5:23-26]; and beseech Moses to be their mediator, [Deu 5:27]. The Lord admits of their request, [Deu 5:28]; and deplores their ungodliness, [Deu 5:29]. They are exhorted to obedience, that they may be preserved in the possession of the promised land, [Deu 5:30-33].

### Verse 1

[¶13] And Moses called all Israel, and said - Hear, etc. -

[¶14] 1. God speaks to the people.

[¶15] 2. The people are called to hear what God speaks.

[¶16] 3. To learn what they heard, that they may be thoroughly instructed in the will of God.

[¶17] 4. To keep God's testimonies ever in mind, and to treasure them up in a believing and upright heart.

[¶18] 5. That they might do them - obey the whole will of God, taking his word for the invariable rule of their conduct. Should not all these points be kept in view by every Christian assembly?

### Verse 3

[¶20] The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers (only) but with us (also).

### Verse 6

[¶22] I am the Lord thy God - See these commandments explained in the notes on Exodus 20 (note).

### Verse 15

[¶24] And remember that thou wast a servant - In this and the latter clause of the preceding verse Moses adds another reason why one day in seven should be sanctified, viz., that the servants might rest, and this is urged upon them on the consideration of their having been servants in the land of Egypt. We see therefore that God had three grand ends in view by appointing a Sabbath.

[¶25] 1. To commemorate the creation.

[¶26] 2. To give a due proportion of rest to man and beast. When in Egypt they had no rest; their cruel task-masters caused them to labor without intermission; now God had given rest, and as he had showed them mercy, he teaches them to show mercy to their servants: Remember that thou wast a servant.

[¶27] 3. To afford peculiar spiritual advantages to the soul, that it might be kept in remembrance of the rest which remains at the right hand of God.

[¶28] Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day - Here is a variation in the manner of expression, Sabbath day for seventh, owing, it is supposed, to a change of the day at the exodus from Sunday to Saturday, effected upon the gathering of the manna, [Exo 16:23]. The Sabbath now became a twofold memorial of the deliverance, as well as of the creation; and this accounts for the new reason assigned for its observance: "Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." See Dr. A. Bayley's Hebr. and Eng. Bible, and see the note on [Exo 16:23].

### Verse 21

[¶30] His field - This clause is not in the tenth commandment as it stands in [Exo 20:17].

### Verse 23

[¶32] And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice - See the notes on [Exo 20:18], etc.

### Verse 29

[¶34] O that there were such a heart in them - Or rather, מי יתן והיה לבבם זה mi yitten vehayah lebabam zeh, Who will give such a heart to them, that they may fear, etc. They refuse to receive such a heart from me; who then can supply it? If they had not been such perfectly free agents as could either use or abuse their liberty, could God have made the complaint or expressed the earnest desire we find in this verse? He made the human will free; and in spite of all the influence of sin and Satan, he preserves its liberty. Had man no free will, he could neither be punished nor rewarded, because a mere machine, and consequently no more accountable for his actions than the fire for its consuming quality, or the stone for its gravity; the one having burned the house of the righteous, the other having crushed the innocent to death. See the note on [Deu 29:4].

### Verse 32

[¶36] Ye shall observe to do - He who marks not the word of God is never likely to fulfill the will of God.

[¶37] Ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left - The way of truth and righteousness is a right line; a man must walk straight forward who wishes to go to glory; no crooked or devious path ever led to God or happiness.

### Verse 33

[¶39] Ye shall walk in all the ways, etc. - God never gave a commandment to man which he did not design that he should obey. He who selects from the Divine testimonies such precepts as he feels but little inclination to transgress, and lives in the breach of others, sins against the grand legislative authority of God, and shall be treated as a rebel.

[¶40] That ye may live - תחיון ticheyun, that ye may enjoy life, (for the paragogic nun, at the end of the word, deepens the sense), that it may be well with you ותוב לכם vetob lachem, and good shall be to you - God will prosper you in all things essential to the welfare of your bodies, and the salvation of your souls.

[¶41] That ye may prolong your days in the land - That ye may arrive at a good old age, and grow more and more meet for the inheritance among the saints in light.

[¶42] On this very important verse we may remark, a long life is a great blessing, if a man live to God, because it is in life, and in life alone, that a preparation for eternal glory may be acquired. Those who wish to die soon, have never yet learned to live, and know not the value of life or time. Many have a vain hope that they shall get either in death, or in the other world, a preparation for glory. This is a fatal error. Here, alone, we may acquaint ourselves with God, and receive that holiness without which none can see him. Reader, be thankful to him that thou art still in a state of probation; and pray that thou mayest live for eternity.

### Introduction

[¶44] The great design of God in giving his laws is, that the people may fear and obey him, that they may continue in peace and prosperity, and be mightily increased, [Deu 6:1-3]. The great commandment of the law, [Deu 6:4], [Deu 6:5], which shall be laid up in their hearts, [Deu 6:6]; taught to their children, [Deu 6:7]; and affixed as a sign to their hands, heads, doors, and gates, [Deu 6:8], [Deu 6:9]. How they are to act when they shall come into the promised land, [Deu 6:10-19]. How they shall instruct their children, and relate the history to them of God's wonderful acts, [Deu 6:20-25].

## 192. Deuteronomy · 7 of 29

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Now these are the commandments, etc. - See the difference between commandments, statutes, judgments, etc., pointed out, [Lev 26:15] (note).

[¶2] Do them - That is, live in the continual practice of them; for by this they were to be distinguished from all the nations of the world, and all these were to be in force till the Son of God should come. Whither ye go. עברים oberim, whither ye pass over, referring to the river Jordan, across which they must pass to get into Canaan.

### Verse 2

[¶4] That thou mightest fear the Lord - Respect his sovereign authority as a lawgiver, and ever feel thyself bound to obey him. No man can walk either conscientiously or safely who has not the fear of God continually before his eyes. When this is gone, more than a guardian angel is fled.

[¶5] Thou, and thy son, and thy son's son - Through all thy successive generations. Whoever fears God will endeavor to bring up his children in the way of righteousness, that they also may fear God, and that pure and undefiled religion may be preserved in his family through all its generations, not only in word, but in practice also.

### Verse 3

[¶7] Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it - Literally, Ye shall hear, O Israel, and thou shalt keep to do them.

[¶8] 1. God is to be heard; no obligation without law to found it on, and no law in religion but from God.

[¶9] 2. The commandment must be understood in order to be obeyed.

[¶10] 3. It must be observed - attentively considered, in order to be understood. And,

[¶11] 4. It must be performed, that the end for which it was given may be accomplished, viz., that God may be glorified, and that it may be well with the people.

[¶12] What is here spoken applies powerfully to every part of the moral law; God has given it as a rule of life, therefore obedience to it is indispensably necessary, not to the purchase of salvation, for no human merit can ever extend to that, but it is the way by which both the justice and mercy of God choose to conduct men to heaven. But let it be fully understood that no man can walk in the way of obedience but by and under the influence of the grace of God.

### Verse 4

[¶14] Hear, O Israel - שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד shema Yisrael, Yehovah Eloheinu, Yehovah achad. These words may be variously rendered into English; but almost all possible verbal varieties in the translation (and there can be none other) amount to the same sense: "Israel, hear! Jehovah, our God, is one Jehovah;" or, "Jehovah is our God, Jehovah is one;" or, "Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone;" or, "Jehovah is our God, Jehovah who is one;" or, "Jehovah, who is our God, is the one Being." On this verse the Jews lay great stress; it is one of the four passages which they write on their phylacteries, and they write the last letter in the first and last words very large, for the purpose of exciting attention to the weighty truth it contains. It is perhaps in reference to this custom of the Jews that our blessed Lord alludes, [Mat 22:38]; [Mar 12:29], [Mar 12:30], where he says, This is the first and great commandment; and this is nearly the comment that Maimonides gives on this place: "Hear, O Israel; because in these words the property, the love, and the doctrine of God are contained."

[¶15] Many think that Moses teaches in these words the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity. It may be so; but if so, it is not more clearly done than in the first verse of Genesis, to which the reader is referred. When this passage occurs in the Sabbath readings in the synagogue, the whole congregation repeat the last word אחד achad for several minutes together with the loudest vociferations: this I suppose they do to vent a little of their spleen against the Christians, for they suppose the latter hold three Gods, because of their doctrine of the Trinity; but all their skill and cunning can never prove that there is not a plurality expressed in the word אלהינו Eloheinu, which is translated our God; and were the Christians, when reading this verse, to vociferate Eloheinu for several minutes as the Jews do achad, it would apply more forcibly in the way of conviction to the Jews of the plurality of persons in the Godhead, than the word achad, of one, against any pretended false tenet of Christianity, as every Christian receives the doctrine of the unity of God in the most conscientious manner. It is because of their rejection of this doctrine that the wrath of God continues to rest on them; for the doctrine of the atonement cannot be received, unless the doctrine of the Godhead of Christ is received too. Some Christians have joined the Jews against this doctrine, and some have even outdone them, and have put themselves to extraordinary pains to prove that אלהים Elohim is a noun of the singular number! This has not yet been proved. It would be as easy to prove that there is no plural in language.

### Verse 5

[¶17] Thou shalt love the Lord, etc. - Here we see the truth of that word of the apostle, [1Tim 1:5] : Now the End of the Commandment is Love out of a pure heart, etc. See the whole of the doctrine contained in this verse explained on [Mat 22:36-40] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶19] Shall be in thine heart - For where else can love be? If it be not in the heart, it exists not. And if these words be not in the heart - if they are not esteemed, prized, and received as a high and most glorious privilege, what hope is there that this love shall ever reign there?

### Verse 7

[¶21] Thou shalt teach them diligently - שננתם shinnantam, from שנן shanan, to repeat, iterate, or do a thing again and again; hence to whet or sharpen any instrument, which is done by reiterated friction or grinding. We see here the spirit of this Divine injunction. God's testimonies must be taught to our children, and the utmost diligence must be used to make them understand them. This is a most difficult task; and it requires much patience, much prudence, much judgment, and much piety in the parents, to enable them to do this good, this most important work, in the best and most effectual manner. See at the end of this chapter, [Deu 6:25] (note).

[¶22] And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house - Thou shalt have religion at home, as well as in the temple and tabernacle.

[¶23] And when thou walkest by the way - Thou shalt be religious abroad as well as at home, and not be ashamed to own God wheresoever thou art.

[¶24] When thou liest down, and when thou risest up - Thou shalt begin and end the day with God, and thus religion will be the great business of thy life. O how good are these sayings, but how little regarded!

### Verse 8

[¶26] Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thins hand - Is not this an allusion to an ancient and general custom observed in almost every part of the world? When a person wishes to remember a thing of importance, and is afraid to trust to the common operations of memory, he ties a knot on some part of his clothes, or a cord on his hand or finger, or places something out of its usual order, and in view, that his memory may be whetted to recollection, and his eye affect his heart. God, who knows how slow of heart we are to understand, graciously orders us to make use of every help, and through the means of things sensible, to rise to things spiritual.

[¶27] And they shall be as frontlets - טטפת totaphoth seems to have the same meaning as phylacteries has in the New Testament; and for the meaning and description of these appendages to a Jew's dress and to his religion, see the notes on [Exo 13:9], and [Mat 23:5] (note), where a phylactery is particularly described.

### Verse 9

[¶29] Write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates - The Jews, forgetting the spirit and design of this precept, used these things as superstitious people do amulets and charms, and supposed, if they had these passages of Scripture written upon slips of pure parchment, wrapped round their foreheads, tied to their arm, or nailed to their door-posts, that they should then be delivered from every evil! And how much better are many Christians, who keep a Bible in their house merely that it may keep the devil out; and will have it in their rooms, or under their pillows, to ward off spirits and ghosts in the night? How ingenious is the heart of man to find out every wrong way, and to miss the right!

### Verse 12

[¶31] Beware lest thou forget the Lord - In earthly prosperity men are apt to forget heavenly things. While the animal senses have every thing they can wish, it is difficult for the soul to urge its way to heaven; the animal man is happy, and the desires of the soul are absorbed in those of the flesh. God knows this well; and therefore, in his love to man, makes comparative poverty and frequent affliction his general lot. Should not every soul therefore magnify God for this lot in life? "Before I was afflicted," says David, "I went astray;" and had it not been for poverty and affliction, as instruments in the hands of God's grace, multitudes of souls now happy in heaven would have been wretched in hell. It is not too much to speak thus far; because we ever see that the rich and the affluent are generally negligent of God and the interests of their souls. It must however be granted that extreme poverty is as injurious to religion as excessive affluence. Hence the wisdom as well as piety of Agur's prayer, [Pro 30:7-9] : "Give me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full and deny thee, or lest I be poor and steal," etc.

### Verse 13

[¶33] Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God - Thou shalt respect and reverence him as thy Lawgiver and Judge; as thy Creator, Preserver, and the sole object of thy religious adoration.

[¶34] And serve him - Our blessed Lord, in [Mat 4:10]; [Luk 4:8], quotes these words thus: And him Only (αυτῳ μονῳ) shalt thou serve. It appears, therefore, that לבדו lebaddo was anciently in the Hebrew text, as it was and is in the Septuagint, (αυτῳ μονῳ), from which our Lord quoted it. The Coptic preserves the same reading; so do also the Vulgate, (illi soli), and the Anglo-Saxon. Dr. Kennicott argues, that without the word only the text would not have been conclusive for the purpose for which our Lord advanced it; for as we learn from Scripture that some men worshipped false gods in conjunction with the true, the quotation here would not have been full to the point without this exclusive word. It may be proper to observe that the omitted word לבדו lebaddo, retained in the above versions, does not exist in the Hebrew printed text, nor in any MS. hitherto discovered.

[¶35] Shalt swear by his name - תשבע tishshabea, from שבע shaba, he was full, satisfied, or gave that which was full or satisfactory. Hence an oath and swearing, because appealing to God, and taking him for witness in any case of promise, etc., gave full and sufficient security for the performance; and if done in evidence, or to the truth of any particular fact, it gave full security for the truth of that evidence. An oath, therefore, is an appeal to God, who knows all things, of the truth of the matter in question: and when a religious man takes such an oath, he gives full and reasonable satisfaction that the thing is so, as stated; for it is ever to be presumed that no man, unless in a state of the deepest degradation, would make such an appeal falsely, for this would imply an attempt to make God a party in the deception.

### Verse 14

[¶37] Ye shall not go after other gods - The object of religious worship among every people, whether that object be true or false, is ever considered as the pattern or exemplar to his worshippers. Christians are termed the followers of God; they take God for their pattern, and walk - act, as he does. Hence we see the meaning of the terms in this verse: Ye shall not go after - ye shall not take false gods for your patterns. The Canaanites, Greeks, Romans, etc., were a most impure people, because the objects of their worship were impure, and they went after them, i. e., were like their gods. This serves to show us that such as our Redeemer is, such should we be; and indeed this is the uniform language of God to man: Be ye holy, for I am holy, [Lev 21:8]; Be ye perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect, [Mat 5:48].

### Verse 15

[¶39] A jealous God - Jehovah has betrothed you to himself as a bride is to her husband. Do not be unfaithful, else that love wherewith he has now distinguished you shall assume the form of jealousy, and so divorce and consume you.

### Verse 16

[¶41] Ye shall not tempt the Lord - Ye shall not provoke him by entertaining doubts of his mercy, goodness, providence, and truth.

[¶42] As ye tempted him in Massah - How did they tempt him in Massah? They said, Is the Lord among us or not? [Exo 17:1-7]. After such proofs as they had of his presence and his kindness, this was exceedingly provoking. Doubting God's kindness where there are so many evidences of it, is highly insulting to God Almighty.

### Verse 17

[¶44] Ye shall diligently keep, etc. - On this and the following verse see the note on [Deu 6:3].

## 193. Deuteronomy · 8 of 29

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### Verse 20

[¶1] And when thy son asketh thee, etc. - "Here," as Mr. Ainsworth justly remarks, "followeth a brief catechism, containing the grounds of religion."

[¶2] What mean the testimonies, etc. - The Hebrew language has no word to express to mean or signify, and therefore uses simply the substantive verb what is, i. e., what mean or signify, etc. The seven thin ears Are, i. e., signify, seven years of famine. This form of speech frequently occurs.

### Verse 25

[¶4] It shall be our righteousness - The evidence that we are under the influence of the fear and love of God. Moses does not say that this righteousness could be wrought without the influence of God's mercy, nor does he say that they should purchase heaven by it: but, God required them to be conformed to his will in all things, that they might be holy in heart, and righteous in every part of their moral conduct.

[¶5] 1. On a very important subject in this chapter, it may be necessary to make some farther observations.

[¶6] A most injurious and destructive maxim has lately been advanced by a few individuals, which it is to be hoped is disowned by the class of Christians to which they belong, though the authors affect to be thought Christians, and rational ones, too; the sum of the maxim is this: "Children ought not to be taught religion for fear of having their minds biased to some particular creed, but they should be left to themselves till they are capable of making a choice, and choose to make one." This maxim is in flat opposition to the command of God, and those who teach it show how little they are affected by the religion they profess. If they felt it to be good for any thing, they would certainly wish their children to possess it; but they do not teach religion to their children, because they feel it to be of no use to themselves. Now the Christian religion properly applied saves the soul, and fills the heart with love to God and man; for the love of God is shed abroad in the heart of a genuine believer, by the Holy Ghost given to him. These persons have no such love, because they have not the religion that inspires it; and the spurious religion which admits of the maxim above mentioned, is not the religion of God, and consequently better untaught than taught. But what can be said to those parents who, possessing a better faith, equally neglect the instruction of their children in the things of God! They are highly criminal; and if their children perish through neglect, which is very probable, what a dreadful account must they give in the great day! Parents! hear what the Lord saith unto you: Ye shall diligently teach your children that there is one Lord, Jehovah, Elohim; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: and that they must love him with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their might. And as children are heedless, apt to forget, liable to be carried away by sensible things, repeat and re-repeat the instruction, and add line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, carefully studying time, place, and circumstances, that your labor be not in vain: show it in its amiableness, excite attention by exciting interest; show how good, how useful, how blessed, how ennobling, how glorious it is. Whet these things on their hearts till the keenest edge is raised on the strongest desire, till they can say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee!"

[¶7] See the notes on [Deu 4:9], and Genesis 18 (note), and Genesis 29 (note) at the end.

[¶8] 2. Without offense to any, I hope, a few words more may be said on the nature of an oath, in addition to the note, see [Deu 6:13] (note). The matter is important, and perhaps not well understood by many.

[¶9] The making an appeal to the Supreme Being, and calling him to witness and record, constitutes the spirit and essence of an oath. It is no matter in what form this appeal is made, whether by putting the hand under the thigh, as among the patriarchs; by the water of the Ganges, as among the Hindoos; on a surat or chapter of the Koran, as among the Mohammedans; on a Hebrew Pentateuch, as among the Jews; on the form of the cross, as among the Roman Catholics; kissing the New Testament, as among Protestants in general; or holding up the hand, and making affirmation, as among the people called Quakers; still the oath is the same, for the appeal is made to God. On this ground (and this is the true ground), the holding up of the hand in a court of justice, is as perfect, as substantial, and as formal an oath, as kissing the New Testament. Why then so many objections against taking an oath in a court of justice by any one particular form, when the same thing is done in spirit, essence, and substance, when God is called to witness and record, though the form be different? When God says, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt swear by his name, he says, in effect, Thou shalt have no god besides me; thou shalt consider me the fountain of truth, the rewarder of righteousness, and the punisher of perfidy and wickedness. Swear by my name - bind thyself to me; take me for witness to all thy actions; and act in all things as having me continually before thine eyes, and knowing that for every act and word thou shalt give account to me in the day of judgment. Our Lord's command, Swear not at all, can never relate to an oath in a civil cause, taken according to the definition above given: profane and common swearing, with all light, irreverent oaths and imprecations, and all such oaths as are not required by the civil magistrate, in cases where the Lord is supposed to be witness, are certainly intended in our blessed Lord's prohibition. See on [Deu 4:26] (note).

### Introduction

[¶11] With the seven nations that God shall cast out, [Deu 7:1], they shall make no covenant, [Deu 7:2], nor form any matrimonial alliances, [Deu 7:3]; lest they should be enticed into idolatry, [Deu 7:4]. All monuments of idolatry to be destroyed, [Deu 7:5]. The Israelites are to consider themselves a holy people, [Deu 7:6]; and that the Lord had made them such, not for their merits, but for his own mercies, [Deu 7:7], [Deu 7:8]. They shall therefore love him, and keep his commandments, [Deu 7:9-11]. The great privileges of the obedient, [Deu 7:12-24]. All idolatry to be avoided, [Deu 7:25], [Deu 7:26].

### Verse 1

[¶13] Seven nations greater and mightier than thou - In several places of the Hebrew text, each of these seven nations is not enumerated, some one or other being left out, which the Septuagint in general supply. How these nations were distributed over the land of Canaan previously to the entering in of the Israelites, the reader may see in the note on [Jos 3:10] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶15] Thou shalt smite them, etc. - These idolatrous nations were to be utterly destroyed, and all the others also which were contiguous to the boundaries of the promised land, provided they did not renounce their idolatry and receive the true faith: for if they did not, then no covenant was to be made with them on any secular or political consideration whatever; no mercy was to be shown to them, because the cup of their iniquity also was now full; and they must either embrace, heartily embrace, the true religion, or be cut off.

### Verse 3

[¶17] Neither shalt thou make marriages, etc. - The heart being naturally inclined to evil, there is more likelihood that the idolatrous wife should draw aside the believing husband, than that the believing husband should be able to bring over his idolatrous wife to the true faith.

### Verse 6

[¶19] Thou art a holy people - And therefore should have no connection with the workers of iniquity.

[¶20] A special people - סגלה segullah, - Septuagint, λαον περιουσιον, - a peculiar people, a private property. The words as they stand in the Septuagint are quoted by the apostle, [1Pet 2:9].

### Verse 8

[¶22] But because the Lord loved you - It was no good in them that induced God to choose them at this time to be his peculiar people: he had his reasons, but these sprang from his infinite goodness. He intended to make a full discovery of his goodness to the world, and this must have a commencement in some particular place, and among some people. He chose that time, and he chose the Jewish people; but not because of their goodness or holiness.

### Verse 12

[¶24] The Lord - shall keep unto thee the covenant - So we find their continuance in the state of favor was to depend on their faithfulness to the grace of God. If they should rebel, though God had chosen them through his love, yet he would cast them off in his justice. The elect, we see, may become unfaithful, and so become reprobates. So it happened to 24,000 of them, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness because they had sinned; yet these were of the elect that came out of Egypt. Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall.

### Verse 22

[¶26] Put out those nations - by little and little - The Israelites were not as yet sufficiently numerous to fill the whole land occupied by the seven nations mentioned [Deu 7:1]. And as wild and ferocious animals might be expected to multiply where either there are no inhabitants, or the place is but thinly peopled, therefore God tells them that, though at present, by force of arms, they might be able to expel them, it would be impolitic so to do, lest the beasts of the field should multiply upon them.

### Verse 25

[¶28] Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them - Some of the ancient idols were plated over with gold, and God saw that the value of the metal and the excellence of the workmanship might be an inducement for the Israelites to preserve them; and this might lead, remotely at least, to idolatry. As the idols were accursed, all those who had them, or any thing appertaining to them, were accursed also, [Deu 7:26].

### Introduction

[¶30] An exhortation to obedience from a consideration of God's past mercies, [Deu 8:1], [Deu 8:2]. Man is not to live by bread only, but by every word of God, [Deu 8:3]. How God provided for them in the wilderness, [Deu 8:4]. The Lord chastened them that they might be obedient, [Deu 8:5], [Deu 8:6]. A description of the land into which they were going, [Deu 8:7-9]. Cautions lest they should forget God in their prosperity, [Deu 8:10-16], and lest they should attribute that prosperity to themselves, and not to God, [Deu 8:17], [Deu 8:18]. The terrible judgments that shall fall upon them, should they prove unfaithful, [Deu 8:19], [Deu 8:20].

### Verse 2

[¶32] Thou shalt remember all the way - The various dealings of God with you; the dangers and difficulties to which ye were exposed, and from which God delivered you; together with the various miracles which he wrought for you, and his longsuffering towards you.

### Verse 3

[¶34] He - suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee - God never permits any tribulation to befall his followers, which he does not design to turn to their advantage. When he permits us to hunger, it is that his mercy may be the more observable in providing us with the necessaries of life. Privations, in the way of providence, are the forerunners of mercy and goodness abundant.

### Verse 4

[¶36] Thy raiment waxed not old, etc. - The plain meaning of this much-tortured text appears to me to be this: "God so amply provided for them all the necessaries of life, that they never were obliged to wear tattered garments, nor were their feet injured for lack of shoes or sandals." If they had carvers, engravers, silversmiths, and jewelers among them, as plainly appears from the account we have of the tabernacle and its utensils, is it to be wondered at if they also had habit and sandal makers, etc., etc., as we are certain they had weavers, embroiderers, and such like? And the traffic which we may suppose they carried on with the Moabites, or with travelling hordes of Arabians, doubtless supplied them with the materials; though, as they had abundance of sheep and neat cattle, they must have had much of the materials within themselves. It is generally supposed that God, by a miracle, preserved their clothes from wearing out: but if this sense be admitted, it will require, not one miracle, but a chain of the most successive and astonishing miracles ever wrought, to account for the thing; for as there were not less than 600,000 males born in the wilderness, it would imply, that the clothes of the infant grew up with the increase of his body to manhood, which would require a miracle to be continually wrought on every thread, and on every particle of matter of which that thread was composed. And this is not all; it would imply that the clothes of the parent became miraculously lessened to fit the body of the child, with whose growth they were again to stretch and grow, etc. No such miraculous interference was necessary.

### Verse 8

[¶38] A land of wheat, etc. - On the subject of this verse I shall introduce the following remarks, which I find in Mr. Harmer's Observations on the Fertility of the Land of Judea, vol. iii., p. 243. "Hasselquist tells us that he ate olives at Joppa (upon his first arrival in the Holy Land) which were said to grow on the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem; and that, independently of their oiliness, they were of the best kind he had tasted in the Levant. As olives are frequently eaten in their repasts, the delicacy of this fruit in Judea ought not to be forgotten; and the oil that is gotten from these trees much less, because still more often made use of. In the progress of his journey he found several fine vales, abounding with olive trees. He saw also olive trees in Galilee; but none farther, he says, than the mountain where it is supposed our Lord preached his sermon. "The fig trees in the neighborhood of Joppa, Hasselquist goes on to inform us, were as beautiful as any he had seen in the Levant. "The reason why pomegranates are distinctly mentioned, in this description of the productions of the land of promise, may be their great usefulness in forming cooling drinks, for they are used among the Asiatics nearly in the same way that we use lemons; see vol. ii., 145. "Honey is used in large quantities in these countries; and Egypt was celebrated for the assiduous care with which the people there managed their bees. Maillet's account of it is very amusing. 'There are,' says he, 'abundance of bees in that country; and a singular manner of feeding them, introduced by the Egyptians of ancient times, still continues there. Towards the end of October, when the Nile, upon its decrease, gives the peasants an opportunity of sowing the lands, sainfoin is one of the first things sown, and one of the most profitable. As the Upper Egypt is hotter than the Lower, and the inundation there goes sooner off the lands, the sainfoin appears there first. The knowledge they have of this causes them to send their bee-hives from all parts of Egypt, that the bees may enjoy, as soon as may be, the richness of the flowers, which grow in this part of the country sooner than in any other district of the kingdom. The hives, upon their arrival at the farther end of Egypt, are placed one upon another in the form of pyramids, in boats prepared for their reception, after having been numbered by the people who place them in the boats. The bees feed in the fields there for some days; afterwards, when it is believed they have nearly collected the honey and wax, which were to be found for two or three leagues round, they cause the boats to go down the stream, two or three leagues lower, and leave them there, in like manner, such a proportion of time as they think to be necessary for the gathering up the riches of that canton. At length, about the beginning of February, after having gone the whole length of Egypt, they arrive at the sea, from whence they are conducted, each of them, to their usual place of abode; for they take care to set down exactly, in a register, each district from whence the hives were carried in the beginning of the season, their number and the names of the persons that sent them, as well as the number of the boats, where they are ranged according to the places they are brought from. What is astonishing in this affair is, that with the greatest fidelity of memory that can be imagined, each bee finds its own hive, and never makes any mistake. That which is still more amazing to me is, that the Egyptians of old should be so attentive to all the advantages deducible from the situation of their country; that after having observed that all things came to maturity sooner in Upper Egypt, and much later in Lower, which made a difference of above six weeks between the two extremities of their country, they thought of collecting the wax and the honey so as to lose none of them, and hit upon this ingenious method of making the bees do it successively, according to the blossoming of the flowers, and the arrangement of nature.'"

[¶39] If this solicitude were as ancient as the dwelling of Israel in Egypt, they must have been anxious to know whether honey, about which they took such care in Egypt, was plentiful in the land of promise; and they must have been pleased to have been assured it was. It continues to be produced there in large quantities: Hasselquist, in the progress of his journey from Acra to Nazareth, tells us that he found "great numbers of bees, bred thereabouts, to the great advantage of the inhabitants." He adds, "they make their bee-hives, with little trouble, of clay, four feet long, and half a foot in diameter, as in Egypt. They lay ten or twelve of them, one on another, on the bare ground, and build over every ten a little roof." Mr. Maundrell, observing also many bees in the Holy Land, takes notice that by their means the most barren places in other respects of that country become useful, perceiving in many places of the great salt plain near Jericho a smell of honey and wax as strong as if he had been in an apiary.

[¶40] By Hasselquist's account it appears, that the present inhabitants of Palestine are not strangers to the use of hives. They are constructed of very different materials from ours, but just the same with the Egyptian hives. They seem to be an ancient contrivance; and indeed so simple an invention must be supposed to be as old as the days of Moses, when arts, as appears from his writings, of a much more elevated nature were known in Egypt. I cannot then well persuade myself to adopt the opinion of some of the learned, that those words of Moses, in [Deu 32:13], He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil cut of the flinty rock, are to be understood of his causing Israel to dwell in a country where sometimes they might find honey-comb in holes of the rock. It is very possible that in that hot country these insects, when not taken due care of, may get into hollow places of the rocks, and form combs there, as they sometimes construct them in ours in hollow trees, though I do not remember to have met with any traveler that has made such an observation. But would this have been mentioned with so much triumph by Moses in this place? The quantities of honey produced after this manner could be but small, compared with what would be collected in hives properly managed; when found, it must often cost a great deal of pains to get the honey out of these little cavities in the hard stone, and much the greatest part must be absolutely lost to the inhabitants. The interpretation is the more strange, because when it is said in the next clause, "and oil out of the flinty rock," it is evidently meant that they should have oil produced in abundance by olive trees growing on flinty rocks; and consequently, the sucking honey out of the rock should only mean their enjoying great quantities of honey, produced by bees that collected it from flowers growing among the rocks: the rocky mountains of this country, it is well known, produce an abundance of aromatic plants proper for the purpose. Nor does Asaph, in the close of the eighty-first Psalm, speak, I apprehend, of honey found in cavities of rocks; nor yet is he there describing it as collected from the odoriferous plants that grow in the rocky hills of those countries, if the reading of our present Hebrew copies be right: but the prophet tells Israel that, had they been obedient, God would have fed them with the fat of wheat, and with the rock of honey would he have satisfied them, that is, with the most delicious wheat, and with the richest, most invigorating honey, in large quantities, both for eating and making agreeable drink. Its reviving, strengthening quality appears in the story of Jonathan, Saul's son, [1Sam 14:27]; as the using the term rock to signify strength, etc., appears in a multitude of places. The rock of a sword, [Psa 89:43], for the edge of the sword, in which its energy lies, is, perhaps, as strange an expression to western ears.

[¶41] I shall have occasion to speak of the excellence of the grapes of Judea in a succeeding chapter; I may therefore be excused from pursuing the farther examination of the productions of this country, upon giving my reader a remark of Dr. Shaw's to this purpose, that it is impossible for pulse, wheat, or grain of any kind, to be richer or better tasted than what is sold at Jerusalem. Only it may not be amiss to add, with respect to this country's being well watered, that the depth, תהם tehom, spoken of in this passage, seems to mean reservoirs of water filled by the rains of winter, and of great use to make their lands fertile; as the second word תעלתיה tealotheiha seems to mean wells, or some such sort of conveniences, supplied by springs, and the first word; נהרתיה naharotheiha rivers or running streams, whether carrying a larger or smaller body of water. What an important part of this pleasing description, especially in the ears of those that had wandered near forty years in a most dry and parched wilderness! I will only add, without entering into particulars, that the present face of the country answers this description.

### Verse 9

[¶43] A land whose stones are iron - Not only meaning that there were iron mines throughout the land, but that the loose stones were strongly impregnated with iron, ores of this metal (the most useful of all the products of the mineral kingdom) being every where in great plenty.

[¶44] Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass - As there is no such thing in nature as a brass mine, the word נחשת nechosheth should be translated copper; of which, by the addition of the lapis calaminaris, brass is made. See on [Exo 25:3] (note).

## 194. Deuteronomy · 9 of 29

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### Verse 15

[¶1] Who led thee through that - terrible wilderness - See the account of their journeying in the notes, [Exo 16:1] (note), etc.; Numbers 21 (note), etc.

[¶2] Fiery serpents - Serpents whose bite occasioned a most violent inflammation, accompanied with an unquenchable thirst, and which terminated in death. See on [Num 21:6] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶4] Who fed thee - with manna - See this miracle described in [Exo 16:13] (note), etc.

### Verse 18

[¶6] God - giveth thee power to get wealth - Who among the rich and wealthy believes this saying? Who gives wisdom, understanding, skill, bodily strength, and health? Is it not God? And without these, how can wealth be acquired? Whose is providence? Who gives fertility to the earth? And who brings every proper purpose to a right issue? Is it not God? And without these also can wealth be acquired? No. Then the proposition in the text is self-evident: it is God that giveth power to get wealth, and to God the wealthy man must account for the manner in which he has expended the riches which God hath given him.

### Introduction

[¶8] The people are informed that they shall shortly pass over Jordan, and that God shall go over before them, to expel the ancient inhabitants, [Deu 9:1-3]. They are cautioned not to suppose that it is on account of their righteousness that God is to give them that land, [Deu 9:4-6]. They are exhorted to remember their various provocations of the Divine Majesty, especially at Horeb, [Deu 9:7-14]; and how Moses interceded for them, and destroyed the golden calf, [Deu 9:15-21]. How they murmured at Taberah, [Deu 9:22]; and rebelled at Kadesh-barnea, [Deu 9:23]; and had been perverse from the beginning, [Deu 9:24]. An account of the intercession of Moses in their behalf, [Deu 9:25-29].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Thou art to pass over Jordan this day - היום haiyom, this time; they had come thirty-eight years before this nearly to the verge of the promised land, but were not permitted at that day or time to pass over, because of their rebellions; but this time they shall certainly pass over. This was spoken about the eleventh month of the fortieth year of their journeying, and it was on the first month of the following year they passed over; and during this interim Moses died.

### Verse 5

[¶12] For the wickedness of these nations - So then it was not by any sovereign act of God that these people were cast out, but for their wickedness; they had transgressed the law of their Creator; they had resisted his Spirit, and could no longer be tolerated. The Israelites were to possess their land, not because they deserved it, but first, because they were less wicked than the others; and secondly, because God thus chose to begin the great work of his salvation among men. Thus then the Canaanites were cut off, and the Israelites were grafted in; and the Israelites, because of their wickedness, were afterwards cut off and the Gentiles grafted in. Let the latter not be high-minded, but fear; if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee. But let it be remembered that this land was originally their own, and that the present possessors had no legal right to it.

### Verse 10

[¶14] Tables of stone - See the notes on [Exo 31:18], [Exo 32:15] (note), and [Exo 32:16].

### Verse 12

[¶16] Thy people - have corrupted themselves - Debased themselves by making and worshipping an Egyptian idol. See on Exodus 32 (note).

### Verse 21

[¶18] I took your sin, the calf which ye had made - See this fully explained [Exo 32:20] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶20] At Kibroth-hattaavah - See the note on [Num 11:34].

### Verse 27

[¶22] Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - As if he had said: "These are their descendants, and the covenant was made with those patriarchs in behalf of these." God bestows many blessings on comparatively worthless persons, either for the sake of their pious ancestors, or on account of the religious people with whom they are connected; therefore union with the Church of God is a blessing of no common magnitude. The reader will find the grand subject of this chapter explained at large in the notes on Exodus 31 and 32, to which he is particularly desired to refer.

### Introduction

[¶24] Moses is commanded to make a second set of tables, [Deu 10:1], [Deu 10:2]. He makes an ark, prepares the two tables, God writes on them the ten commandments, and Moses lays them up in the ark, [Deu 10:3-5]. The Israelites journey from Beeroth to Mosera, where Aaron dies, [Deu 10:6]; and from thence to Gudgodah and Jotbath, [Deu 10:7]. At that time God separated the tribe of Levi for the service of the sanctuary, [Deu 10:8], [Deu 10:9]. How long Moses stayed the second time in the mount, [Deu 10:10], [Deu 10:11]. What God requires of the Israelites, [Deu 10:12-15]. Their heart must be circumcised, [Deu 10:16]. God's character and conduct, [Deu 10:17], [Deu 10:18]. They are commanded to love the stranger, [Deu 10:19]; to fear, love, and serve God, [Deu 10:20], because he had done such great things for them and their fathers, [Deu 10:21], [Deu 10:22].

### Verse 1

[¶26] Hew thee two tables of stone - See the notes on [Exo 34:1].

### Verse 3

[¶28] Shittim wood - See the note on [Exo 25:5], and succeeding verses, and on the parallel places in the margin.

### Verse 4

[¶30] Ten commandments - See the note on [Exo 20:1], etc.

### Verse 6

[¶32] And the children of Israel took their journey, etc. - On this and the three following verses see Kennicott's remarks at the end of this chapter.

### Verse 12

[¶34] Now, Israel, what doth the Lord - require of thee - An answer is immediately given. God requires,

[¶35] 1. That ye fear him as Jehovah your God; him who made, preserves, and governs you.

[¶36] 2. That ye walk in all his ways - that, having received his precepts, all of which are good and excellent, ye obey the whole; walking in God's ways, not your own, nor in the ways of the people of the land.

[¶37] 3. That ye love him - have confidence in him as your father and friend, have recourse to him in all your necessities, and love him in return for his love.

[¶38] 4. That you serve him - give him that worship which he requires, performing it with all your heart - the whole of your affections, and with all your soul - your will, understanding, and judgment. In a word, putting forth your whole strength and energy of body and soul in the sacred work.

### Verse 14

[¶40] Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens - All these words in the original are in the plural number: הן השמים ושמי השמים hen hashshamayim, ushemey hashshamayim; behold the heavens and the heavens of heavens. But what do they mean? To say that the first means the atmosphere, the second the planetary system, and the third the region of the blessed, is saying but very little in the way of explanation. The words were probably intended to point out the immensity of God's creation, in which we may readily conceive one system of heavenly bodies, and others beyond them, and others still in endless progression through the whole vortex of space, every star in the vast abyss of nature being a sun, with its peculiar and numerous attendant worlds! Thus there may be systems of systems in endless gradation up to the throne of God!

### Verse 16

[¶42] Circumcise - the foreskin of your heart - A plain proof from God himself that this precept pointed out spiritual things, and that it was not the cutting away a part of the flesh that was the object of the Divine commandment, but the purification of the soul, without which all forms and ceremonies are of no avail. Loving God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, the heart being circumcised to enable them to do it, was, from the beginning, the end, design, and fulfillment of the whole law.

### Verse 17

[¶44] God of gods, and Lord of lords - That is, He is the source whence all being and power proceed; every agent is finite but himself; and he can counteract, suspend, or destroy all the actions of all creatures whensoever he pleases. If he determine to save, none can destroy; if he purpose to destroy, none can save. How absolutely necessary to have such a God for our friend!

## 195. Deuteronomy · 10 of 29

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[¶0] A great God - mighty - האל הגבר hael haggibbor, the mighty God; this is the very title that is given to our blessed Lord and Savior, [Isa 9:6].

### Verse 21

[¶2] He is thy praise - It is an eternal honor to any soul to be in the friendship of God. Why are people ashamed of being thought religious? Because they know nothing of religion. He who knows his Maker may glory in his God, for without him what has any soul but disgrace, pain, shame, and perdition? How strange is it that those who fear God should be ashamed to own it, while sinners boldly proclaim their relationship to Satan!

### Verse 22

[¶4] With threescore and ten persons - And now, from so small a beginning, they were multiplied to more than 600,000 souls; and this indeed in the space of forty years, for the 603,000 which came out of Egypt were at this time all dead but Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. How easily can God increase and multiply, and how easily diminish and bring low! In all things, because of his unlimited power, he can do whatsoever he will; and he will do whatsoever is right.

[¶5] On a very important subject in this chapter Dr. Kennicott has the following judicious observations: - "The book of Deuteronomy contains the several speeches made to the Israelites by Moses just before his death, recapitulating the chief circumstances of their history, from their deliverance out of Egypt to their arrival on the banks of Jordan. What in this book he has recorded as spoken will be best understood by comparing it with what he has recorded as done in the previous history; and this, which is very useful as to the other parts of this book, is absolutely necessary as to the part of the tenth chapter here to be considered. "The previous circumstances of the history necessary to be here attended to are these: In Exodus 20, God speaks the ten commandments; in Exodus 24, Moses, on Mount Sinai, receives the two tables, and is there forty days and nights; in Exodus 25, 26, 27, God appoints the service of the tabernacle; in Exodus 28, separates Aaron and his sons for the priest's office, by a statute for ever, to him and his seed after him; in Exodus 30, Moses, incensed at the golden calf, breaks the tables; yet he prays for the people, and God orders him to lead them towards Canaan; in Exodus 34, Moses carries up two other tables, and stays again forty days and nights. In Numbers 3, the tribe of Levi is selected; Numbers 8, consecrated; Numbers 10 and 11, the Israelites march from Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month in the second year; in Numbers 13 spies sent; in Numbers 14, the men are sentenced to die in the wilderness during the forty years; in Numbers 18, the Levites are to have no lot nor large district in Canaan, but to be the Lord's inheritance; in Numbers 20, Aaron dies on Mount Hor; lastly, in the complete catalogue of the whole march (Numbers 33). we are told that they went from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan, thence to Hor-hagidgad, to Jotbathah, to Ebronah, to Ezion-gaber, to Zin, (which is Kadesh), and thence to Mount Hor, where Aaron died in the fortieth and last year. In Deuteronomy 9, Moses tells the Israelites, ([Deu 9:7]), that they had been rebels, from Egypt even to Jordan, particularly at Horeb, (9:8-29), whilst he was with God, and received the tables at the end of forty days and nights; and that, after breaking the tables, he fasted and interceded for his brethren during a second period of forty days and nights; and this ninth chapter ends with the prayer which he then made. Chapter 10 begins thus: 'At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up,' etc. And from [Deu 10:1] to the end of [Deu 10:5] he describes the second copy of the ten commandments, as written also by God, and deposited by himself in the ark. "After this we have now four verses, ([Deu 10:6], [Deu 10:7],[Deu 10:8], and [Deu 10:9]), which not only have no kind of connection with the verses before and after them, but also, as they stand in the present Hebrew text, directly contradict that very text; and the two first of these verses have not, in our Hebrew text, the least connection with the two last of them. Our Hebrew text, ([Deu 10:6]), says that Israel journeyed from Bene-jaakan to Mosera. Whereas that very text in the complete catalogue, ([Num 33:31]), says they journeyed from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan. Again: Aaron is here said to have died at Mosera, whereas he died on Mount Hor, the seventh station afterwards; see [Num 33:38]. And again: they are here said to go from Bene-jaakan to Mosera, thence to Gudgodah, and thence to Jotbath; whereas the complete catalogue says, Moseroth to Bene-jaakan, thence to Hor-hagidgad, and thence to Jotbathah. But if the marches could possibly be true as they now stand in these two verses, yet what connection can there be between Jotbath and the Separation Of The Tribe Of Levi? It is very happy that these several difficulties in the Hebrew text are removed by the Samaritan Pentateuch: for that text tells us here rightly that the march was from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan; to Hagidgad, to Jotbathah, to Ebronah, to Ezion-gaber, to Zin, (which is Kadesh), and thence to Mount Hor, where Aaron died. Again: as the regular deduction of these stations ends with Mount Hor and Aaron's death, we have then what we had not before, a regular connection with the two next verses, and the connection is this: That when Aaron, the son of Amram, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, died, neither the tribe of Levi nor the priesthood was deserted, but God still supported the latter by maintaining the former; and this, not by allotting that tribe any one large part of Canaan, but separate cities among the other tribes, and by allowing them to live upon those offerings which were made by the other tribes to God himself. These four verses therefore, ([Deu 10:6], [Deu 10:7], [Deu 10:8], and [Deu 10:9]), in the same text, stand thus: ([Deu 10:6]), When the children of Israel journeyed from Moseroth, and encamped in Bene-jaakan; from thence they journeyed and encamped at Hagidgad; from thence they journeyed and encamped in Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water: ([Deu 10:7]) From thence they journeyed and encamped in Ebronah; in Ezion-gaber; in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh; and then at Mount Hor; And Aaron Died There, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his stead. ([Deu 10:8]) At that time the Lord Had separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord, to minister unto him, and to bless in his name unto this day. ([Deu 10:9]) Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him. "But however consistent these four verses are now with themselves, it will be still demanded, What connection have they with the fifth verse before them, and with the tenth verse after them? I confess I cannot discover their least pertinency here, because Aaron's Death and Levi's Separation seem totally foreign to the speech of Moses in this place. And this speech without these four verses is a regularly connected admonition from Moses to this purpose: that his brethren were for ever to consider themselves as indebted to him, under God, for the renewal of the two tables, and also to his intercession for rescuing them from destruction. The words are these: ([Deu 10:4]), 'The Lord wrote again the ten commandments, and gave them unto me. ([Deu 10:5]) And I came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark, which I Had made: - ([Deu 10:10]) Thus I stayed in the mount according to the first time, forty days and forty nights: and the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also; the Lord would not destroy thee. ([Deu 10:11]) And the Lord said unto me, Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land,' etc. But then, if these four verses were not at first a part of this chapter, but are evidently interpolated, there arises another inquiry, Whether they are an insertion entirely spurious, or a genuine part of the sacred text, though removed hither out of some other chapter? As they contain nothing singular or peculiar, are of no particular importance, and relate to no subject of disputation, they are not likely to have arisen from fraud or design; but, perfectly coinciding in sense with other passages, they may safely be considered as another instance of a large transposition [86 words] in the present text, arising from accident and want of care. And the only remaining question therefore is, Whether we can discover, though not to demonstration, yet with any considerable degree of probability, the original place of these four verses, that so they may be at last restored to that neighborhood and connection from which they have been, for so many ages, separated? "It was natural for Moses, in the course of these several speeches to his brethren in Deuteronomy, to embrace the first opportunity of impressing on their memories a matter of such particular importance as the continuation of the priesthood among the Levites after Aaron's death. And the first proper place seems to be in the second chapter, after the first verse. At [Deu 1:19], he speaks of their march from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea, whence they sent the spies into Canaan. He then sets forth their murmurings, and God's sentence that they should die in the wilderness, and he ends the first chapter with their being defeated by the Amorites, their weeping before the Lord, and abiding many days in Kadesh, which is Kadesh-Barnea, near Canaan. "Deuteronomy 2 begins thus: Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spake unto me: and We Compassed Mount Seir Many Days. Now, the many days, or long time, which they spent in compassing Mount Seir, that is, going round on the south-west coasts of Edom in order to proceed north-east from Edom through Moab to Arnon, must include several of their stations, besides that eminent one at Mount Hor, where Aaron died. And as part of their road, during this long compass, lay through Ezion-gaber, (which was on the eastern tongue of the Red Sea, and the south boundary of Edom), thence to Zin, (which is Kadesh, that is, Meribah Kadesh), and thence to Mount Hor, as they marched to the north-east; so it is probable that the five stations preceding that of Ezion-gaber were on the extremity of Mount Seir, to the south-west. And if their first station at entering the south-west borders of Edom, and beginning to compass Mount Seir, was Moseroth, this gives the reason wanted why Moses begins this passage at Moseroth, and ends it with Aaron's death at Mount Hor. And this will discover a proper connection between the four dislocated verses and the context here - [Deu 1:46] : 'So ye abode in Kadesh (Barnea) many days.' [Deu 2:1] : 'Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spake unto me; and We Compassed Mount Seir Many Days.' "'For the children of Israel journeyed from Moseroth, and pitched in Bene-jaakan: from thence they journeyed and pitched in Hagidgad: from thence they journeyed and pitched in Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water: from thence they journeyed and pitched in Ebronah: from thence they journeyed and pitched in Ezion-gaber: from thence they journeyed and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh: from thence they journeyed and pitched in Mount Hor, and Aaron died there, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his stead. At that time the Lord had separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name unto this day. Wherefore, Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him.' "And this paragraph being thus inserted at the end of the first verse, the second begins a new paragraph, thus: And the Lord spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough; turn you northward - through the east side of Seir (or Edom) towards Moab on the north. See [Deu 2:4-8]." - Kennicott's Remarks, p. 74.

[¶6] These remarks should not be hastily rejected.

### Introduction

[¶8] The people are exhorted to obedience from a consideration of God's goodness to their fathers in Egypt, [Deu 11:1-4], and what he did in the wilderness, [Deu 11:5], and the judgment on Dathan and Abiram, [Deu 11:6], and from the mercies of God in general, [Deu 11:7-9]. A comparative description of Egypt and Canaan, [Deu 11:10-12]. Promises to obedience, [Deu 11:13-15]. Dissuasives from idolatry, [Deu 11:16], [Deu 11:17]. The words of God to be laid up in their hearts, to be for a sign on their hands, foreheads, gates, etc., [Deu 11:18], taught to their children, made the subject of frequent conversation, to the end that their days may be multiplied, [Deu 11:19-21]. If obedient, God shall give them possession of the whole land, and not one of their enemies shall be able to withstand them, [Deu 11:22-25]. Life and death, a blessing and a curse, are set before them, [Deu 11:26-28]. The blessings to be put on Mount Gerizim and the curses on Mount Ebal, [Deu 11:29], [Deu 11:30]. The promise that they should pass over Jordan, and observe these statutes in the promised land, [Deu 11:31], [Deu 11:32].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Thou shalt love the Lord - Because without this there could be no obedience to the Divine testimonies, and no happiness in the soul; for the heart that is destitute of the love of God, is empty of all good, and consequently miserable. See the note on [Deu 10:12].

### Verse 6

[¶12] What he did unto Dathan, etc. - See the notes on Numbers 16 (note).

### Verse 8

[¶14] Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments - Because God can execute such terrible judgments, and because he has given such proofs of his power and justice; and because, in similar provocations, he may be expected to act in a similar way; therefore keep his charge, that he may keep you unto everlasting life.

### Verse 10

[¶16] Wateredst it with thy foot - Rain scarcely ever falls in Egypt, and God supplies the lack of it by the inundations of the Nile. In order to water the grounds where the inundations do not extend, water is collected in ponds, and directed in streamlets to different parts of the field where irrigation is necessary. It is no unusual thing in the East to see a man, with a small mattock, making a little trench for the water to run by, and as he opens the passage, the water following, he uses his foot to raise up the mould against the side of this little channel, to prevent the water from being shed unnecessarily before it reaches the place of its destination. Thus he may be said to water the ground with his foot. See several useful observations on this subject in Mr. Harmer, vol. i., pp. 23-26, and vol. iii., p. 141. "For watering land an instrument called janta is often used in the north of Bengal: It consists of a wooden trough, about fifteen feet long, six inches wide, and ten inches deep, which is placed on a horizontal beam lying on bamboos fixed in the bank of a pond or river in the form of a gallows. One end of the trough rests upon the bank, where a gutter is prepared to carry off the water, and the other is dipped into the water by a man standing on a stage near that end, and plunging it in with his foot. A long bamboo, with a large weight of earth at the farther end of it, is fastened to that end of the janta near the river, and passing over the gallows, poises up the janta full of water, and causes it to empty itself into the gutter." This, Mr. Ward supposes, illustrates this passage. See Hindoo Customs, etc., vol. iii., p. 104. But after all, the expression, wateredst it with thy foot, may mean no more than doing it by labor; for, as in the land of Egypt there is scarcely any rain, the watering of gardens, etc., must have been all artificial. But in Judea it was different, as there they had their proper seasons of rain. The compound word ברגל beregel, with, under, or by the foot, is used to signify any thing under the power, authority, etc., of a person; and this very meaning it has in the sixth verse, all the substance that was in their possession, is, literally, all the substance that was under their feet, ברגליהם beragleyhem, that is, in their power, possession, or what they had acquired by their labor.

### Verse 14

[¶18] The rain - in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain - By the first or former rain we are to understand that which fell in Judea about November, when they sowed their seed, and this served to moisten and prepare the ground for the vegetation of the seed. The latter rain fell about April, when the corn was well grown up, and served to fill the ears, and render them plump and perfect. Rain rarely fell in Judea at any other seasons than these. If the former rain were withheld, or not sent in due season, there could be no vegetation: if the latter rain were withheld, or not sent in its due season, there could be no full corn in the ear, and consequently no harvest. Of what consequence then was it that they should have their rain in due season! God, by promising this provided they were obedient, and threatening to withhold it should they be disobedient, shows that it is not a general providence that directs these things, but that the very rain of heaven falls by particular direction, and the showers are often regulated by an especial providence.

### Verse 18

[¶20] Therefore shall ye lay up these my words - See [Deu 6:4-8] (note), and [Exo 13:9] (note).

### Verse 24

[¶22] From the river - Euphrates, which was on the east, to the uttermost sea - the Mediterranean, which lay westward of the promised land. This promise, notwithstanding the many provocations of the Israelites, was fulfilled in the time of Solomon, for "he reigned over all the kings from the river (Euphrates) even unto the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt." See [2Chr 9:26], and the note, [Num 34:12] (note).

### Verse 26

[¶24] Behold, I set before you - a blessing and a curse - If God had not put it in the power of this people either to obey or disobey; if they had not had a free will, over which they had complete authority, to use it either in the way of willing or nilling; could God, with any propriety, have given such precepts as these, sanctioned with such promises and threatenings? If they were not free agents, they could not be punished for disobedience, nor could they, in any sense of the word, have been rewardable for obedience. A Stone is not rewardable because, in obedience to the laws of gravitation, it always tends to the center; nor is it punishable be cause, in being removed from that center, in its tending or falling towards it again it takes away the life of a man.

[¶25] That God has given man a free, self-determining Will, which cannot be forced by any power but that which is omnipotent, and which God himself never will force, is declared in the most formal manner through the whole of the sacred writings. No argument can affect this, while the Bible is considered as a Divine revelation; no sophistry can explain away its evidence, as long as the accountableness of man for his conduct is admitted, and as long as the eternal bounds of moral good and evil remain, and the essential distinctions between vice and virtue exist. If ye will obey, (for God is ever ready to assist), ye shall live; if ye will disobey and refuse that help, ye shall die. So hath Jehovah spoken, and man cannot reverse it.

### Verse 29

[¶27] Thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal - The etymology of these names may be supposed to cast some light on this institution. גרזים gerizzim, from גרז garaz, to cut, cut off, cut down; hence גרזים gerizzim, the cutters down, fellers, and reapers or harvest-men, this mountain being supposed to have its name from its great fertility, or the abundance of the crops it yielded, which is a possible case. Of עיבל ebal or eybal the root is not found in Hebrew; but in Arabic abala signifies rough, rugged, curled, etc.; and abalo, from the same root, signifies white stones, and a mountain in which such stones are found; alabalo, the mount of white stones. See Giggeius and Golius. And as it is supposed that the mountain had this name because of its barrenness, on this metaphorical interpretation the sense of the passage would appear to be the following: God will so superintend the land, and have it continually under the eye of his watchful providence, that no change can happen in it but according to his Divine counsel, so that its fertility shall ever be the consequence of the faithful obedience of its inhabitants, and a proof of the blessing of God upon it; on the contrary, its barrenness shall be a proof that the people have departed from their God, and that his curse has in consequence fallen upon the land. See the manner of placing these blessings and curses, [Deu 27:12], etc. That Gerizim is very fruitful, and that Ebal is very barren, is the united testimony of all who have traveled in those parts. See Ludolf, Reland, Rab, Benjamin, and Mr. Maundrell. Sychem lies in the valley between these two mountains.

[¶28] That the land of Judea was naturally very fertile, can scarcely be supposed by any who considers the accounts given of it by travelers; with the exception of a few districts, the whole land is dry, stony, and barren, and particularly all the southern parts of Judea, and all the environs of Jerusalem, most of which are represented as absolutely incapable of cultivation. How then could it ever support its vast number of inhabitants? By the especial providence of God. While God kept that people under his continual protection, their land was a paradise; they lent to all nations and borrowed from none. What has it been since? A demi-solitude, because that especial blessing no longer descends upon it. No land, says Calmet, was more fertile while under the benediction of God; none more barren when under his curse. Its present state is a proof of the declaration of Moses, [Deu 28:23] : "The heaven over their head is brass; the earth under their feet, iron." The land itself, in its present state is an ample proof of the authenticity of the Pentateuch. Should facts of this kind be lost sight of by any who read the sacred writings?

### Introduction

[¶30] All monuments of idolatry in the promised land to be destroyed, [Deu 12:1-3]; and God's service to be duly performed, [Deu 12:4-7]. The difference between the performance of that service in the wilderness and in the promised land, [Deu 12:8-11]. The people are to be happy in all their religious observances, [Deu 12:12]. The offerings must be brought to the place which God appoints, and no blood is to be eaten, [Deu 12:13-16]. The tithe of corn, wine, oil, etc., to be eaten in the place that God shall choose, [Deu 12:17], [Deu 12:18]. The Levite must not be forsaken, [Deu 12:19]. All clean beasts may be eaten, but the blood must be poured out before the Lord, and be eaten on no pretense whatever, [Deu 12:20-25]. Of vows, burnt-offerings, etc., [Deu 12:26], [Deu 12:27]. These precepts are to be carefully obeyed, [Deu 12:28]. Cautions against the abominations of the heathen, [Deu 12:29-31]. Nothing to be added to or diminished from the word of God, [Deu 12:32].

### Verse 3

[¶32] Ye shall overthrow their altars - Where unholy sacrifices have been offered; and break their pillars, probably meaning statues and representations of their gods cut out of stone; and burn their groves, such as those about the temple of Ashtaroth, the Canaanitish Venus, whose impure rites were practiced in different parts of the enclosures or groves round her temples; and ye shall hew down the graven images, probably implying all images carved out of wood; and destroy the names of them, which were no doubt at first graven on the stones, and carved on the trees, and then applied to the surrounding districts. In various instances the names of whole mountains, valleys, and districts were borrowed from the gods worshipped there.

### Verse 14

[¶34] The place which the Lord shall choose - To prevent idolatry and bring about a perfect uniformity in the Divine worship, which at that time was essentially necessary; because every rite and ceremony had a determinate meaning, and pointed out the good things which were to come, therefore one place must be established where those rites and ceremonies should be carefully and punctually observed. Had it not been so, every man would have formed his worship according to his own mind, and the whole beauty and importance of the grand representative system would have been destroyed, and the Messiah and the glories of his kingdom could not have been seen through the medium of the Jewish ritual. For uniformity in every part of the Divine worship the same necessity does not now exist; because that which was typified is come, and the shadows have all fled away. Yet, when it can be obtained, how desirable is it that all sincere Christians should with one mouth, as well as with one heart, glorify their common Lord and Savior!

### Verse 15

[¶36] Thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates - With the proviso that the blood be poured out on the ground.

[¶37] 1. The blood should not be eaten.

[¶38] 2. It should be poured out by way of sacrifice. I think this is the meaning; and not that they should pour out the blood with as little ceremony and respect as they poured water upon the ground, which is the meaning according to Calmet and others.

[¶39] The roebuck, and - the hart - It is very likely that by צבי tsebi the antelope is meant; and by איל aiyal, the hart or deer. This is the opinion of Dr. Shaw; and from the report of travelers we learn that both these animals are found in that desert to the present day. See Harmer, vol. iv., p. 25, etc. Of the propriety of eating clean animals there could be no question, but the blood must be poured out; yet there were cases in which they might kill and eat in all their gates, cities, and dwellings - such as the roebuck and the hart, or all clean wild beasts, for these being taken in hunting, and frequently shot by arrows, their blood could not be poured out at the altar. Therefore the command appears to take in only such tame beasts as were used for food.

### Verse 19

[¶41] Forsake not the Levite - These had no inheritance, and were to live by the sanctuary: if therefore the offerings were withheld by which the Levites were supported, they of course must perish. Those who have devoted themselves to the service of God in ministering to the salvation of the souls of men, should certainly be furnished at least with all the necessaries of life. Those who withhold this from them sin against their own mercies, and that ordinance of God by which a ministry is established for the salvation of souls.

### Verse 23

[¶43] For the blood is the life - And the life being offered as an atonement, consequently the blood should not be eaten. See the notes on [Lev 17:11], where the subject of the vitality of the blood is largely considered.

## 196. Deuteronomy · 11 of 29

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### Verse 31

[¶1] Their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire - Almost all the nations in the world agreed in offering human victims to their gods on extraordinary occasions, by which it is evident that none of those nations had any right notion of the Divine nature. How necessary, then, was the volume of revelation, to teach men what that religion is with which God can be well pleased! The Hindoos to this day offer human victims to their goddess Cali, and at the temple of Jaggernaut; and yet, notwithstanding this, there are found certain persons who, while they profess Christianity, are absolutely unwilling to send the Hindoos the Gospel of Christ, because they think it would not be politically wise! But the wisdom of this world has ever been foolishness with God; and in spite of all this infidel policy, the word of the Lord shall have free course and be glorified.

### Introduction

[¶3] Of false prophets and their lying signs, [Deu 13:1-6]. Of those who endeavor to entice and seduce people to idolatry, [Deu 13:7-8]. The punishment of such, [Deu 13:9-11]. Of cities perverted from the pure worship of God, [Deu 13:12-14]. How that city is to be treated, [Deu 13:15]. All the spoil of it to be destroyed, [Deu 13:16]. Promises to them who obey these directions, [Deu 13:17], [Deu 13:18].

### Verse 1

[¶5] If there arise among you a prophet - Any pretending to have a Divine influence, so as to be able perfectly to direct others in the way of salvation; or a dreamer of dreams - one who pretends that some deity has spoken to him in the night-season; and giveth thee a sign, אות oth, what appears to be a miraculous proof of his mission; or a wonder, מופת mopheth, some type or representation of what he wishes to bring you over to: as some have pretended to have received a consecrated image from heaven; hence the origin of the Palladium, Numa's Shields, and many of the deities among the Hindoos. But here the word seems to mean some portentous sign, such as an eclipse, which he who knew when it would take place might predict to the people who knew nothing of the matter, and thereby accredit his pretensions.

### Verse 3

[¶7] The Lord your God proveth you - God permits such impostors to arise to try the faith of his followers, and to put their religious experience to the test; for he who experimentally knows God cannot be drawn away after idols. He who has no experimental knowledge of God, may believe any thing. Experience of the truths contained in the word of God can alone preserve any man from Deism, or a false religion. They who have not this are a prey to the pretended prophet, and to the dreamer of dreams.

### Verse 6

[¶9] If thy brother - or thy son - The teacher of idolatry was to be put to death; and so strict was this order that a man must neither spare nor conceal his brother, son, daughter, wife, nor friend, because this was the highest offense that could be committed against God, and the most destructive to society; hence the severest laws were enacted against it.

### Verse 13

[¶11] Children of Belial - בליעל, from בל bal, not, and יעל yaal, profit; - Sept. ανδρες παρανομοι, lawless men; - persons good for nothing to themselves or others, and capable of nothing but mischief.

### Verse 15

[¶13] Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants - If one city were permitted to practice idolatry, the evil would soon spread, therefore the contagion must be destroyed in its birth.

### Verse 17

[¶15] And there shall cleave naught of the cursed thing - As God did not permit them to take the spoils of these idolatrous cities, they could be under no temptation to make war upon them. It could only be done through a merely religious motive, in obedience to the command of God, as they could have no profit by the subversion of such places. How few religious wars would there ever have been in the world had they been regulated by this principle: "Thou shalt neither extend thy territory, nor take any spoils!"

### Introduction

[¶17] The Israelites are not to adopt superstitious customs in mourning, [Deu 14:1], [Deu 14:2]. The different kinds of clean and unclean animals, vv. 3-20. Nothing to be eaten that dieth of itself, [Deu 14:21]. Concerning offerings which, from distance cannot be carried to the altar of God, and which may be turned into money, [Deu 14:22-26]. The Levite is not to be forsaken, [Deu 14:27]. The third year's tithe for the Levite, stranger, widow, etc., [Deu 14:28], [Deu 14:29].

### Verse 1

[¶19] Ye are the children of the Lord - The very highest character that can be conferred on any created beings; ye shall not cut yourselves, i. e., their hair, for it was a custom among idolatrous nations to consecrate their hair to their deities, though they sometimes also made incisions in their flesh.

### Verse 4

[¶21] These are the beasts which ye shall eat - On Leviticus 11. I have entered into considerable detail relative to the clean and unclean animals there mentioned. For the general subject, the reader is referred to the notes on that chapter; but as there are particulars mentioned here which Moses does not introduce in Leviticus, it will be necessary to consider them in this place.

[¶22] The ox - שור shor: Bos, fifth order Pecora, of the genus Mammalia, species 41. This term includes all clean animals of the beeve kind; not only the ox properly so called, but also the bull, the cow, heifer, and calf.

[¶23] The sheep - שה seh: Ovis, fifth order Pecora, of the genus Mammalia, species 40; including the ram, the wether, the ewe, and the lamb.

[¶24] The goat - עז az: Capra, fifth order Pecora, of the genus Mammalia, species 39; including the he-goat, she-goat, and kid. The words in the text, שה כשבים seh chesabim, signify the lamb or young of sheep; and שה עזים seh izzim, the young or kid of goats: but this is a Hebrew idiom which signifies every creature of the genus, as בן אנוש ben enosh and בן אדם ben adam, son of man, signify any human being. See [Psa 144:3]; [Job 25:6].

[¶25] The flesh of these animals is universally allowed to be the most wholesome and nutritive. They live on the very best vegetables; and having several stomachs, their food is well concocted, and the chyle formed from it the most pure because the best elaborated, as it is well refined before it enters into the blood. On ruminating or chewing the cud, see the note on [Lev 11:3].

### Verse 5

[¶27] The hart - איל aiyal, the deer, according to Dr. Shaw: see the note on [Deu 12:15].

[¶28] The roebuck - צבי tsebi, generally supposed to be the antelope, belonging to the fifth order Pecora, genus Mammalia, and species 38. It has round twisted spiral horns, hairy tufts on the knees, browses on tender shoots, lives in hilly countries, is fond of climbing rocks, and is remarkable for its beautiful black eyes. The flesh is good and well flavoured.

[¶29] The fallow deer - יחמור yachmur, from חמר chamar, to be troubled, disturbed, disordered: this is supposed to mean, not the fallow deer, but the bubalus or buffalo, which is represented by Dr. Shaw, and other travelers and naturalists, as a sullen, malevolent, and spiteful animal, capricious, ferocious, and every way brutal. According to the Linnaean classification, the buffalo belongs to the fifth order Pecora, genus Mammalia, species bos. According to [1Kgs 4:23], this was one of the animals which was daily served up at the table of Solomon. Though the flesh of the buffalo is not considered very delicious, yet in the countries where it abounds it is eaten as frequently by all classes of persons as the ox is in England. The yachmur is not mentioned in the parallel place, Leviticus 11.

[¶30] The wild goat - אקו akko. It is not easy to tell what creature is intended by the akko. Dr. Shaw supposed it to be a kind of very timorous goat, known in the East by the name fishtall and serwee, and bearing a resemblance both to the goat and the stag, whence the propriety of the name given it by the Septuagint and Vulgate, tragelaphus, the goat-stag; probably the rupicapra or rock-goat. The word is found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.

[¶31] The pygarg - דישן dishon. As this word is nowhere else used, we cannot tell what animal is meant by it. The word pygarg πυγαργος, literally signifies white buttocks, and is applied to a kind of eagle with a white tail; but here it evidently means a quadruped. It was probably some kind of goat, common and well known in Judea.

[¶32] The wild ox - תאו teo. This is supposed to be the oryx of the Greeks, which is a species of large stag. It may be the same with the bekker el wash, described by Dr. Shaw as "a species of the deer kind, whose horns are exactly in the fashion of our stag, but whose size is only between the red and fallow deer." In [Isa 51:20] a creature of the name of תוא to is mentioned, which we translate wild bull; it may be the same creature intended above, with the interchange of the two last letters.

[¶33] The chamois - זמר zemer. This was probably a species of goat or deer, but of what kind we know not: that it cannot mean the chamois is evident from this circumstance, "that the chamois inhabits only the regions of snow and ice, and cannot bear the heat." - Buffon. The Septuagint and Vulgate translate it the Camelopard, but this creature is only found in the torrid zone and probably was never seen in Judea; consequently could never be prescribed as a clean animal, to be used as ordinary food. I must once more be permitted to say, that to ascertain the natural history of the Bible is a hopeless case. Of a few of its animals and vegetables we are comparatively certain, but of the great majority we know almost nothing. Guessing and conjecture are endless, and they have on these subjects been already sufficiently employed. What learning, deep, solid, extensive learning, and judgment could do, has already been done by the incomparable Bochart in his Hierozoicon. The learned reader may consult this work, and, while he gains much general information, will have to regret that he can apply so little of it to the main and grand question. As I have consulted every authority within my reach, on the subject of the clean and unclean animals mentioned in the law, and have detailed all the information I could collect in my notes on Leviticus 11, I must refer my readers to what I have there laid down.

### Verse 13

[¶35] The vulture after his kind - The word דאה daah is improperly translated vulture [Lev 11:14], and means a kite or glede. The word דיה daiyah in this verse is not only different from that in Leviticus, but means also a different animal, properly enough translated vulture. See the note on [Lev 11:14].

### Verse 21

[¶37] Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk - Mr.

[¶38] Calmet thinks that this precept refers to the paschal lamb only, which was not to be offered to God till it was weaned from its mother; but see the note on [Exo 23:19].

### Verse 22

[¶40] Thou shalt truly tithe - Meaning the second tithe which themselves were to eat, [Deu 14:23], for there was a first tithe that was given to the Levites, out of which they paid a tenth part to the priests, [Num 18:24-28]; [Neh 10:37], [Neh 10:38]. Then of that which remained, the owners separated a second tithe, which they ate before the Lord the first and second year; and in the third year it was given to the Levites and to the poor, [Deu 14:28], [Deu 14:29]. In the fourth and fifth years it was eaten again by the owners, and in the sixth year was given to the poor. The seventh year was a Sabbath to the land, and then all things were common, [Exo 23:10], [Exo 23:11], where see the notes, [Exo 23:11] (note), and see Ainsworth on this verse.

### Verse 26

[¶42] Or for strong drink - What the sikera or strong drink of the Hebrews was, see in the note on [Lev 10:9] (note). This one verse sufficiently shows that the Mosaic law made ample provision for the comfort and happiness of the people.

### Verse 29

[¶44] And the Levite (because he hath no part nor inheritance - And hence much of his support depended on the mere freewill-offerings of the people. God chose to make his ministers thus dependent on the people, that they might be induced (among other motives) to labor for their spiritual profiting, that the people, thus blessed under their ministry, might feel it their duty and privilege to support and render them comfortable.

## 197. Deuteronomy · 12 of 29

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### Introduction

[¶1] The Sabbatical year of release, [Deu 15:1]. The manner in which this release shall take place, [Deu 15:2-5]. Of lending to the poor, and the disposition in which it should be done, [Deu 15:6-11]. Of the Hebrew servant who has served six years, and who shall be dismissed well furnished, [Deu 15:12-15]. The ceremony of boring the ear, when the servant wishes to continue with his master, [Deu 15:16-18]. Of the firstlings of the flock and herd, [Deu 15:19], [Deu 15:20]. Nothing shall be offered that has any blemish, [Deu 15:21]. The sacrifice to be eaten both by the clean and unclean, except the blood, which is never to be eaten, but poured out upon the ground, [Deu 15:22], [Deu 15:23].

### Verse 1

[¶3] At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release - For an explanation of many things in this chapter, see the notes on Exodus 21 (note), Exodus 23 (note), and Leviticus 25 (note).

### Verse 4

[¶5] There shall be no poor - That is, comparatively; see [Deu 15:11].

### Verse 8

[¶7] Thou shalt open thine hand wide - Thy benevolence shall be in proportion to his distress and poverty, and thy ability. Thou shalt have no other rule to regulate thy charity by.

### Verse 9

[¶9] Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart - לבבך בליעל lebabecha beliyaal, thy belial heart, that is, thy good-for-nothing or unprofitable heart; See on [Deu 13:13] (note).

[¶10] And thine eye be evil - An evil eye signifies a covetous disposition. See the same form of expression used by our Lord in the same sense, [Mat 6:23]. If thine eye be evil - If thou be a covetous person. Evil eye is by our Lord opposed to single eye, i. e., a person of a liberal, benevolent mind. Covetousness darkens the soul; liberality and benevolence enlighten it.

[¶11] And he cry unto the Lord against thee - What a consolation to the poor and the oppressed, that they have a sure friend in God, who will hear their cry and redress their grievances!

### Verse 11

[¶13] For the poor shall never cease out of the land - To this passage our Lord appears to allude [Mar 14:7] : For ye have the poor with you always. God leaves these in mercy among men to exercise the feelings of compassion, tenderness, mercy, etc. And without occasions afforded to exercise these, man would soon become a Stoic or a brute.

### Verse 13

[¶15] Thou shalt not let him go away empty - Because during the time he served thee, he made no property for himself, having been always honest towards thee; and now when he leaves thee, he has nothing to begin the world with.

### Verse 14

[¶17] Thou shalt furnish him - out of thy flock - Thou shalt give him some cattle to breed with; out of thy floor - some corn for seed and for bread; and out of thy wine press - an adequate provision of wine for present necessity.

### Verse 17

[¶19] Thou shalt take an awl - See the note on [Exo 21:6].

### Verse 20

[¶21] Thou shalt eat it - in the place which the Lord shall choose - Thus God in his mercy made their duty and interest go hand in hand. And in every case God acts thus with his creatures; well, therefore, might Satan ask, Doth Job serve God for naught? No! nor does God design that any man should.

### Verse 21

[¶23] If there be any blemish - See the notes on [Lev 22:20]. God will have both a perfect priest and a perfect offering.

### Introduction

[¶25] The month of Abib to be observed, [Deu 16:1]. The feast of the passover and of unleavened bread, [Deu 16:2-8]. The feast of weeks, [Deu 16:9-12]. The feast of tabernacles, [Deu 16:13-15]. All the males to appear before the Lord thrice in the year, none to come empty, each to give according to his ability, [Deu 16:16], [Deu 16:17]. Judges and officers to be made in all their cities, [Deu 16:18]. Strict justice shall be executed, [Deu 16:19], [Deu 16:20]. No grove to be planted near the altar of God, nor any image to be set up, [Deu 16:21], [Deu 16:22].

### Verse 1

[¶27] Keep the passover - A feast so called because the angel that destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians, seeing the blood of the appointed sacrifice sprinkled on the lintels and door-posts of the Israelites' houses, passed over Them, and did not destroy any of their firstborn. See the notes on [Exo 12:2], and [Exo 12:3] (note), etc.

### Verse 3

[¶29] Bread of affliction - Because, being baked without leaven, it was unsavoury, and put them in mind of their afflictive bondage in Egypt.

### Verse 11

[¶31] Thou shalt rejoice - The offerings of the Israelites were to be eaten with festivity, communicated to their friends with liberality, and bestowed on the poor with great generosity, that they might partake with them in these repasts with joy before the Lord. To answer these views it was necessary to eat the flesh while it was fresh, as in that climate putrefaction soon took place; therefore they were commanded to let nothing remain until the morning, [Deu 16:4]. This consideration is sufficient to account for the command here, without having recourse to those moral and evangelical reasons that are assigned by the learned and devout Mr.

[¶32] Ainsworth for the command. How beneficent and cheerful is the design of this institution! - Harmer, vol. i., p. 396.

### Verse 16

[¶34] Three times in a year - See [Exo 23:14] (note), where all the Jewish feasts are explained. See also [Lev 23:34] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶36] Judges and officers shalt thou make - Judges, שפטים shophetim, among the Hebrews, were probably the same as our magistrates or justices of the peace. Officers, שטרים shoterim, seem to have been the same as our inquest sergeants, beadles, etc., whose office it was to go into the houses, shops, etc., and examine weights, measures, and the civil conduct of the people. When they found any thing amiss, they brought the person offending before the magistrate, and he was punished by the officer on the spot. They seem also to have acted as heralds in the army, [Deu 20:5]. See also Rab. Maimon in Sanhedrin. In China, for all minor offenses, the person when found guilty is punished on the spot, in the presence of the magistrate or mandarin of justice.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Thou shalt not plant thee a grove, etc. - We have already seen that groves were planted about idol temples for the purpose of the obscene worship performed in them. (See on [Deu 12:3] (note)). On this account God would have no groves or thickets about his altar, that there might be no room for suspicion that any thing contrary to the strictest purity was transacted there. Every part of the Divine worship was publicly performed, for the purpose of general edification.

### Introduction

[¶40] All sacrifices to be without blemish, [Deu 17:1]. Of persons consisted of idolatry and their punishment, [Deu 17:2-7]. Difficult matters in judgment to be laid before the priests and judges, and to be determined by them; and all to submit to their decision, [Deu 17:8-13]. The king that may be chosen to be one of their brethren; no stranger to be appointed to that office, [Deu 17:14], [Deu 17:15]. He shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return unto Egypt, [Deu 17:16]. Nor multiply wives, money, etc., [Deu 17:17]. He shall write a copy of the law for his own use, and read and study it all his days, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, [Deu 17:18-20].

### Verse 1

[¶42] Wherein is blemish - God must not have that offered to him which thou wouldst not use thyself. This not only refers to the perfect sacrifice offered by Christ Jesus, but to that sincerity and uprightness of heart which God requires in all those who approach him in the way of worship.

### Verse 4

[¶44] If it be told thee - In a private way by any confidential person. And thou hast heard of it; so that it appears to be notorious, very likely to be true, and publicly scandalous. And hast inquired diligently - sought to find out the truth of the report by the most careful examination of persons reporting, circumstances of the case, etc. And, behold, it be true - the report is not founded on vague rumor, hearsay, or malice. And the thing certain - substantiated by the fullest evidence. Then shalt thou bring forth that man, [Deu 17:5]. As the charge of idolatry was the most solemn and awful that could be brought against an Israelite, because it affected his life, therefore God required that the charge should be substantiated by the most unequivocal facts, and the most competent witnesses. Hence all the precautions mentioned in the fourth verse must be carefully used, in order to arrive at so affecting and so awful a truth.

## 198. Deuteronomy · 13 of 29

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Two witnesses - One might be deceived, or be prejudiced or malicious; therefore God required two substantial witnesses for the support of the charge.

### Verse 8

[¶3] If there arise a matter too hard for thee - These directions are given to the common magistrates, who might not be able to judge of or apply the law in all cases that might be brought before them. The priests and Levites, who were lawyers by birth and continual practice, were reasonably considered as the best qualified to decide on difficult points.

### Verse 12

[¶5] The man that will do presumptuously - The man who refused to abide by this final determination forfeited his life, as being then in a state of rebellion against the highest authority, and consequently the public could have no pledge for his conduct.

### Verse 15

[¶7] One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee - It was on the ground of this command that the Jews proposed that insidious question to our Lord, Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, Or No? [Mat 22:17]; for they were then under the authority of a foreign power. Had Christ said Yes, then they would have condemned him by this law; had he said No, then they would have accused him to Caesar. See this subject discussed in great detail in the notes, [Mat 22:16] (note), etc.

### Verse 16

[¶9] He shall not multiply horses - As horses appear to have been generally furnished by Egypt, God prohibits these,

[¶10] 1. Lest there should be such commerce with Egypt as might lead to idolatry.

[¶11] 2. Lest the people might depend on a well-appointed cavalry as a means of security, and so cease from trusting in the strength and protection of God. And,

[¶12] 3. That they might not be tempted to extend their dominion by means of cavalry, and so get scattered among the surrounding idolatrous nations, and thus cease, in process of time, to be that distinct and separate people which God intended they should be, and without which the prophecies relative to the Messiah could not be known to have their due and full accomplishment.

### Verse 17

[¶14] Neither shall he multiply wives - For this would necessarily lead to foreign alliances, and be the means of introducing the manners and customs of other nations, and their idolatry also. Solomon sinned against this precept, and brought ruin on himself and on the land by it; see [1Kgs 11:4].

### Verse 18

[¶16] He shall write him a copy of this law - משנה התורה הזאת mishneh hattorah hazzoth, an iteration or duplicate of this law; translated by the Septuagint, το δευτερονομιον τουτο this deuteronomy. From this version both the Vulgate Latin and all the modern versions have taken the name of this book; and from the original word the Jews call it Mishneh. See the preface to this book.

[¶17] Out of that which is before the priests the Levites - It is likely this means, that the copy which the king was to write out was to be taken from the autograph kept in the tabernacle before the Lord, from which, as a standard, every copy was taken and with which doubtless every copy was compared; and it is probable that the priests and Levites had the revising of every copy that was taken off, in order to prevent errors from creeping into the sacred text.

### Verse 19

[¶19] And it shall be with him, etc. - It was the surest way to bring the king to an acquaintance with the Divine law to oblige him to write out a fair copy of it with his own hand, in which he was to read daily. This was essentially necessary, as these laws of God were all permanent, and no Israelitish king could make any new law, the kings of this people being ever considered as only the vice-gerents of Jehovah.

### Verse 20

[¶21] He, and his children, in the midst of Israel - From this verse it has been inferred that the crown of Israel was designed to be hereditary, and this is very probable; for long experience has proved to almost all the nations of the world that hereditary succession in the regal government is, on the whole, the safest, and best calculated to secure the public tranquillity.

### Introduction

[¶23] The priests and Levites to have no inheritance, [Deu 18:1], [Deu 18:2]. What is the priest's due, [Deu 18:3-5]. Of the Levites that come from any of the other cities, [Deu 18:6-8]. The Israelites must not copy the abominations of the former inhabitants, [Deu 18:9]. None to cause his son or daughter to pass through the fire, or use any kind of divination or enchantment, as the former inhabitants did, [Deu 18:10-14]. The great prophet which God promised to raise up, [Deu 18:15-19]. Of false prophets, [Deu 18:20]; and how to discern them, [Deu 18:21], [Deu 18:22].

### Verse 1

[¶25] The priests the Levites - shall have no part - That is, says Rab. Maimon, they shall have no part in the spoils taken from an enemy.

### Verse 2

[¶27] The Lord is their inheritance - He is the portion of their souls; and as to their bodies, they shall live by the offerings of the Lord made by fire, i. e., the meat-offering, the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; and whatever was the Lord's right, in these or other offerings, he gave to the priests.

### Verse 3

[¶29] Offer a sacrifice - זבחי הזבח zobechey hazzebach. The word זבח zebach is used to signify, not only an animal sacrificed to the Lord, but also one killed for common use. See [Gen 46:1]; [Pro 17:1]; [Eze 39:17]. And in this latter sense it probably should be understood here; and, consequently, the command in this verse relates to what the people were to allow the priests and Levites from the animals slain for common use. The parts to be given to the priests were,

[¶30] 1. The shoulder, probably cut off from the beast with the skin on; so Maimonides.

[¶31] 2. The two cheeks, which may include the whole head.

[¶32] 3. The maw - the whole of those intestines which are commonly used for food.

### Verse 4

[¶34] The first-fruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, etc. - All these firstfruits and firstlings were the Lord's portion, and these he gave to the priests.

### Verse 8

[¶36] The sale of his patrimony - So we find that, though the Levites might have no part of the land by lot, yet they were permitted to make purchases of houses, goods, and cattle, yea, of fields also. See the case of Abiathar, [1Kgs 2:26] (note), and of Jeremiah, [Jer 32:7-8] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶38] To pass through the fire - Probably in the way of consecration to Molech, or some other deity. It is not likely that their being burnt to death is here intended. See on [Lev 18:21] (note).

[¶39] Divination - קסם קסמים kosem kesamim, one who endeavors to find out futurity by auguries, using lots, etc.

[¶40] Observer of times - מעונן meonen, one who pretends to foretell future events by present occurrences, and who predicts great political or physical changes from the aspects of the planets, eclipses, motion of the clouds, etc., etc. See on [Gen 41:8] (note).

[¶41] Enchanter - מנחש menachesh, from נחש nichesh, to view attentively; one who inspected the entrails of beasts, observed the flight of birds, etc., etc., and drew auguries thence. Some think divination by serpents is meant, which was common among the heathen.

[¶42] A witch - מחשף mechashsheph, probably those who by means of drugs, herbs, perfumes, etc., pretended to bring certain celestial influences to their aid. See the note on [Lev 19:26].

### Verse 11

[¶44] A charmer - חבר חבר chober chaber, one who uses spells; a peculiar conjunction, as the term implies, of words, or things, tying knots, etc., for the purposes of divination. This was a custom among the heathen, as we learn from the following verses: -

[¶45] Necte Tribus Nodis ternos, Amarylli, colores:

## 199. Deuteronomy · 14 of 29

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[¶0] Necte, Amarylli, modo; et Veneris, dic, vincula necto.

[¶1] Virg. Ecl. viii., ver. 77. "Knit with three Knots the fillets, knit them straight;

[¶2] Then say, these Knots to love I consecrate."

[¶3] Dryden.

[¶4] A consulter with familiar spirits - שאל אוב shoel ob, a Pythoness, one who inquires by the means of one spirit to get oracular answers from another of a superior order. See on [Lev 19:31] (note).

[¶5] A wizard - ידעני yiddeoni, a wise one, a knowing one. Wizard was formerly considered as the masculine of witch, both practising divination by similar means. See on [Exo 22:13] (note), and [Lev 19:31] (note).

[¶6] Or a necromancer - דרש אל המתים doresh el hammethim, one who seeks from or inquires of the dead. Such as the witch at Endor, who professed to evoke the dead, in order to get them to disclose the secrets of the spiritual world.

### Verse 15

[¶8] The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet - Instead of diviners, observers of times, etc., God here promises to give them an infallible guide, who should tell them all things that make for their peace, so that his declarations should completely answer the end of all the knowledge that was pretended to be gained by the persons already specified.

[¶9] Like unto me - Viz., a prophet, a legislator, a king, a mediator, and the head or chief of the people of God. This was the very person of whom Moses was the type, and who should accomplish all the great purposes of the Divine Being. Such a prophet as had never before appeared, and who should have no equal till the consummation of the world.

[¶10] This prophet is the Lord Jesus, who was in the bosom of the Father, and who came to declare him to mankind. Every word spoken by him is a living infallible oracle from God himself; and must be received and obeyed as such, on pain of the eternal displeasure of the Almighty. See [Deu 18:19], and [Act 3:22], [Act 3:23]; and see the conclusion of this chapter, [Deu 18:22] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶12] If the thing follow not - It is worthy of remark that the prophets in general predicted those things which were shortly to come to pass, that the people might have the fullest proof of their Divine mission, and of the existence of God's providence in the administration of the affairs of men.

[¶13] The promise contained in the [Deu 18:15] and [Deu 18:18] verses of this chapter has long been considered of the first importance in the controversies between the Christians and Jews. "Christ," says Ainsworth, "was to be a man, and of the stock of the Jews, by promise, because the people could not endure to hear the voice of God, [Deu 18:16]. And as in respect of his prophecy, so of the priesthood: for every high priest is taken from among men, [Heb 5:1]; and also of his kingdom, as in [Deu 17:15] : From among thy brethren shalt thou set a king over thee like unto me. "1. Christ alone was like unto Moses as a Prophet; for it is written, There arose not a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do, [Deu 34:10], [Deu 34:11], [Deu 34:12]. This therefore cannot be understood of the ordinary prophets which were raised up in Israel, but of Christ only, as the apostles expound it [Act 2:22-26].

[¶14] 2. Christ was like unto Moses in respect to his office of mediation between God and his people, [Deu 5:5]; [1Tim 2:5]; but greater than Moses as being the mediator of a better covenant, (or testament), which was established upon better promises, [Heb 8:6].

[¶15] 3. Christ was like unto Moses in excellency; for as Moses excelled all the prophets in speaking to God mouth to mouth, [Num 12:6], [Num 12:7],[Num 12:8], so Christ excelled him and all men in that being in the bosom of the Father, he hath come down from heaven and declared God unto us, [Joh 1:18]; [Joh 3:13].

[¶16] 4. Christ was like to Moses in faithfulness, but therein also excelling; for Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, but Christ as the son over his own house, [Heb 3:2], [Heb 3:5], [Heb 3:6].

[¶17] 5. Christ was like to Moses in signs and wonders, wherein he also excelled Moses, as the history of the Gospel shows; for he was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, [Luk 24:19]. A man approved of God among them, by miracles, signs, and wonders, which God did by him in the midst of them, [Act 2:22]. For he did among them the works which no other man did, [Joh 15:24]. Unto him, that is, not unto the diviners, wizards, or any such like, but unto him, and him only; as Him thou shalt serve, [Deu 6:13], is expounded, Him only, [Mat 4:10]. And though this is principally meant of Christ in person, of whom God said, Hear him, [Mat 17:5]; yet it implies also his ministers, as himself said, He that heareth you heareth me, [Luk 10:16]." To these may be added,

[¶18] 6. As Moses was king among his people, in this respect Christ is like to him, but infinitely greater; for he is King of kings and Lord of lords, [Rev 19:16]; [1Tim 6:15].

[¶19] 7. He was like to Moses as a legislator. Moses gave laws to Israel by the authority and commandment of God, which the Jews have ever acknowledged as coming from the immediate inspiration of the Almighty: these are contained in the Pentateuch. Christ gave a new law, the Gospel contained in the four Evangelists and Acts of the Apostles, on which the Christian Church is founded, and by which all genuine Christians are governed both in heart and life. To all which may be added,

[¶20] 8. That God never commissioned any human beings to give laws to mankind but Moses and Christ; and therefore, as a lawgiver, Christ alone resembles Moses; for to the present hour none but themselves have given laws in the name of God, which he has ratified and confirmed by the most indubitable and infallible signs, proofs, and miracles.

[¶21] Dr. Jortin, in his Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, has drawn a parallel between Moses and Christ in a great number of particulars, which he concludes thus: "Let us search all the records of universal history, and see if we can find a man who was so like to Moses as Christ was, and so like to Christ as Moses was. If we cannot find such a one, then have we found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write to be Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God." On this subject see Ainsworth, Calmet, and Dodd, who have all marked this striking correspondence between Moses and Christ.

### Introduction

[¶23] Three cities of refuge to be appointed in the midst of the promised land; the land being divided into three parts, a city is to be placed in each, a proper way to which is to be prepared, [Deu 19:1-3]. In what cases of manslaughter the benefit of those cities may be claimed, [Deu 19:4-6]. Three cities more to be added should the Lord enlarge their coasts, and the reasons why, [Deu 19:7-10]. The intentional murderer shall have no benefit from these cities, [Deu 19:11-13]. The landmark is not to be shifted, [Deu 19:14]. One witness shall not be deemed sufficient to convict a man, [Deu 19:15]. How a false witness shall be dealt with - he shall bear the punishment which he designed should have been inflicted on his neighbor, [Deu 19:16-20]. Another command to establish the lex talionis, [Deu 19:21].

### Verse 2

[¶25] Thou shalt separate three cities - See on [Num 35:11] (note), etc.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Thou shalt prepare thee a way - The Jews inform us that the roads to the cities of refuge were made very broad, thirty-two cubits; and even, so that there should be no impediments in the way; and were constantly kept in good repair.

### Verse 9

[¶29] Shalt thou add three cities more - This was afterwards found necessary, and accordingly six cities were appointed, three on either side Jordan. See [Jos 21:1-3], etc. In imitation of these cities of refuge the heathens had their asyla, and the Catholics their privileged altars. See [Exo 21:13] (note), [Exo 21:14] (note), and [Num 35:11] (note), etc.

### Verse 11

[¶31] If any man hate his neighbor - See on [Exo 21:13] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶33] Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark - Before the extensive use of fences, landed property was marked out by stones or posts, set up so as to ascertain the divisions of family estates. It was easy to remove one of these landmarks, and set it in a different place; and thus the dishonest man enlarged his own estate by contracting that of his neighbor. The termini or landmarks among the Romans were held very sacred, and were at last deified.

[¶34] To these termini Numa Pompillus commanded offerings of broth, cakes, and firstfruits, to be made. And Ovid informs us that it was customary to sacrifice a lamb to them, and sprinkle them with its blood: -

[¶35] Spargitur et caeso communis terminus agno.

[¶36] Fast. lib. ii., ver. 655.

[¶37] And from Tibullus it appears that they sometimes adorned them with flowers and garlands: -

[¶38] Nam veneror, seu stipes habet desertus inagris,

[¶39] Seu vetus in trivio florida serta lap is.

[¶40] Eleg. lib. i., E. i., ver. 11. "Revere each antique stone bedeck'd with flowers,

[¶41] That bounds the field, or points the doubtful way."

[¶42] Grainger.

[¶43] It appears from Juvenal that annual oblations were made to them: - - Convallem ruris aviti

[¶44] Improbus, aut campum mihi si vicinus ademit,

## 200. Deuteronomy · 15 of 29

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[¶0] Aut sacrum effodit medio de limite saxum,

[¶1] Quod mea cum vetulo colult puls annua libo.

[¶2] Sat. xvi., ver. 36. "If any rogue vexatious suits advance

[¶3] Against me for my known inheritance,

[¶4] Enter by violence my fruitful grounds,

[¶5] Or take the sacred landmark from my bounds,

[¶6] Those bounds which, with procession and with prayer

[¶7] And offer'd cakes, have been my annual care."

[¶8] Dryden.

[¶9] In the digests there is a vague law, de termino moto, Digestor. lib. xlvii., Tit. 21, on which Calmet remarks that though the Romans had no determined punishment for those who removed the ancient landmarks; yet if slaves were found to have done it with an evil design, they were put to death; that persons of quality were sometimes exiled when found guilty; and that others were sentenced to pecuniary fines, or corporal punishment.

### Verse 15

[¶11] One witness shall not rise up, etc. - See [Num 35:30] (note).

### Verse 19

[¶13] Then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother - Nothing can be more equitable or proper than this, that if a man endeavor to do any injury to or take away the life of another, on detection he shall be caused to undergo the same evil which he intended for his innocent neighbor.

[¶14] Some of our excellent English laws have been made on this very ground. In the 37th of Edw. III., chap. 18, it is ordained that all those who make suggestion shall incur the same pain which the other should have had, if he were attainted, in case his suggestions be found evil. A similar law was made in the 38th of the same reign, chap. 9. By a law of the twelve Tables, a false witness was thrown down the Tarpeian rock. In short, false witnesses have been execrated by all nations.

### Verse 21

[¶16] Life - for life, eye for eye, etc. - The operation of such a law as this must have been very salutary: if a man prized his own members, he would naturally avoid injuring those of others. It is a pity that this law were not still in force: it would certainly prevent many of those savage acts which now both disgrace and injure society. I speak this in reference to law generally, and the provision that should be made to prevent and punish ferocious and malevolent offenses. A Christian may always act on the plan of forgiving injuries; and where the public peace and safety may not be affected, he should do so; but if law did not make a provision for the safety of the community by enactment against the profligate, civil society would soon be destroyed.

### Introduction

[¶18] Directions concerning campaigns, [Deu 20:1]. The priest shall encourage the people with the assurance that God will accompany and fight for them, [Deu 20:2-4]. The officers shalt dismiss from the army all who had just built a new house, but had not dedicated it, [Deu 20:5]. All who had planted a vineyard, but had not yet eaten of its fruits, [Deu 20:6]. All who had betrothed a wife, but had not brought her home, [Deu 20:7]. And all who were timid and faint-hearted, [Deu 20:8]. The commanders to be chosen after the timid, etc., had retired, [Deu 20:9]. No city to be attacked till they had proclaimed conditions of peace to it, provided it be a city beyond the bounds of the seven Canaanitish nations; if it submitted, it was to become tributary; if not, it was to be besieged, sacked, and all the males put to the sword; the women, children, and cattle to be taken as booty, [Deu 20:10-15]. No such offers to be made to the cities of the Canaanites; of them nothing shall be preserved, and the reason, [Deu 20:16-18]. In besieging a city no trees to be cut down but those which do not bear fruit, [Deu 20:19], [Deu 20:20].

### Verse 1

[¶20] When thou goest out to battle - This refers chiefly to the battles they were to have with the Canaanites, in order to get possession of the promised land; for it cannot be considered to apply to any wars which they might have with the surrounding nations for political reasons, as the Divine assistance could not be expected in wars which were not undertaken by the Divine command.

### Verse 2

[¶22] The priest shall approach, and speak unto the people - The priest on these occasions was the representative of that God whose servant he was, and whose worship he conducted. It is remarkable that almost all ancient nations took their priests with them to battle, as they did not expect success without having the object of their adoration with them, and they supposed they secured his presence by having that of his representative.

### Verse 5

[¶24] That hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? - From the title of [Psa 30:1-12], - A Psalm or Song at the Dedication of the House of David - it is evident that it was a custom in Israel to dedicate a new house to God with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving; and this was done in order to secure the Divine presence and blessing, for no pious or sensible man could imagine he could dwell safely in a house that was not under the immediate protection of God. Hence it has been a custom in the most barbarous nations to consecrate a part of a new house to the deity they worshipped. The houses of the inhabitants of Bonny, in Africa, are generally divided into three apartments: one is a kind of state room or parlour; another serves for a common room, or kitchen; and the third is dedicated to the Juju, the serpent god, which they worship; for even those savages believe that in every house their god should have his temple! At the times of dedication among the Jews, besides prayer and praise, a feast was made, to which the relatives and neighbors were invited. Something of this custom is observed in some parts of our own country in what is called warming the house; but in these cases the feasting only is kept up - the prayer and praise forgotten! so that the dedication appears to be rather more to Bacchus than to Jehovah, the author of every good and perfect gift.

### Verse 7

[¶26] Betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? - It was customary among the Jews to contract matrimony, espouse or betroth, and for some considerable time to leave the parties in the houses of their respective parents: when the bridegroom had made proper preparations, then the bride was brought home to his house, and thus the marriage was consummated. The provisions in this verse refer to a case of this kind; for it was deemed an excessive hardship for a person to be obliged to go to battle, where there was a probability of his being slain, who had left a new house unfinished; a newly purchased heritage half tilled; or a wife with whom he had just contracted marriage. Homer represents the case of Protesilaus as very afflicting, who was obliged to go to the Trojan war, leaving his wife in the deepest distress, and his house unfinished. Του δε και αμφιδρυφης αλοχος Φυλακῃ ελελειπτο, Και δομος ἡμιτελης· τον δ' εκτανε Δαρδανος ανηρ, Νηος αποθρωσκοντα πολυ πρωτιστον Αχαιων.

[¶27] Iliad, 1. ii., ver. 100. "A wife he left,

[¶28] To rend in Phylace her bleeding cheeks,

[¶29] And an unfinish'd mansion: first he died

[¶30] Of all the Greeks; for as he leap'd to land,

[¶31] Long ere the rest, a Dardan struck him dead."

[¶32] Cowper.

### Verse 8

[¶34] What man is there that is fearful and faint - hearted? - The original רך rach, signifies tender or soft-hearted. And a soft heart the man must have who, in such a contest, after such a permission, could turn his back upon his enemies and his brethren. However, such were the troops commanded by Gideon in his war against the Midianites; for after he gave this permission, out of 32,000 men only 10,000 remained to fight! [Jdg 7:3]. There could be no deception in a business of this kind; for the departure of the 22,000 was the fullest proof of their dastardliness which they could possibly give.

### Verse 10

[¶36] Proclaim peace unto it - Interpreters are greatly divided concerning the objects of this law. The text, taken in connection with the context, (see [Deu 20:15-18]), appears to state that this proclamation or offer of peace to a city is only to be understood of those cities which were situated beyond the limits of the seven anathematized nations, because these latter are commanded to be totally destroyed. Nothing can be clearer than this from the bare letter of the text, unless some of the words, taken separately, can be shown to have a different meaning. For the common interpretation, the following reasons are given.

[¶37] God, who knows all things, saw that they were incurable in their idolatry; that the cup of their iniquity was full; and as their Creator, Sovereign, and Judge, he determined to destroy them from off the face of the earth, "lest they should teach the Israelites to do after all their abominations," [Deu 20:18]. After all, many plausible arguments have been brought to prove that even these seven Canaanitish nations might be received into mercy, provided they,

[¶38] 1. Renounced their idolatry;

[¶39] 2. Became subject to the Jews; and,

[¶40] 3. Paid annual tribute: and that it was only in case these terms were rejected, that they were not to leave alive in such a city any thing that breathed, [Deu 20:16].

### Verse 17

[¶42] But thou shalt utterly destroy them - The above reasoning will gain considerable strength, provided we could translate כי החרם תחרימם ki hacharem tacharimem, thou shalt utterly subdue them - slaying them if they resist, and thus leaving nothing alive that breathed; or totally expel them from the land, or reduce them to a state of slavery in it, that they might no longer exist as a people. This certainly made them an anathema as a nation, wholly destroying their political existence. Probably this was so understood by the Gibeonites, viz., that they either must be slain or utterly leave the land, which last was certainly in their power, and therefore, by a stratagem, they got the princes of Israel to make a league with them. When the deceit was discovered, the Israelites, though not bound by their oath, because they were deceived by the Gibeonites, and therefore were under no obligation to fulfill their part of the covenant; yet, though they had this command before their eyes, did not believe that they were bound to put even those deceivers to death; but they destroyed their political existence, by making them hewers of wood and drawers of water to the congregation; i. e., slaves to the Israelites. (See Joshua 9). Rahab and her household also were spared. So that it does not appear that the Israelites believed that they were bound to put every Canaanite to death. Their political existence was under the anathema, and this the Hebrews annihilated.

[¶43] That many of the Canaanites continued in the land even to the days of Solomon, we have the fullest proof; for we read, [2Chr 8:7] : "All the people of the land that were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were left in the land, whom the children of Israel consumed not, them did Solomon make to pay tribute to this day." Thus Solomon destroyed their political existence, but did not consider himself bound by the law of God to put them to death.

[¶44] Verse 19 (For the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege - The original is exceedingly obscure, and has been variously translated, כי האדם עץ השדה לבא מפניך במצור ki haadam ets hassadeh labo mippaneycha bammatsor. The following are the chief versions: For, O man, the trees of the field are for thee to employ Them in the siege - or, For it is man, and the tree of the field, that must go before thee for a bulwark - or, For it is a tree, and not men, to increase the number of those who come against thee to the siege - or, lastly, The tree of the field (is as) a man, to go before thy face for a bulwark. The sense is sufficiently clear, though the strict grammatical meaning of the words cannot be easily ascertained: it was a merciful provision to spare all fruit-bearing trees, because they yielded the fruit which supported man's life; and it was sound policy also, for even the conquerors must perish if the means of life were cut off.

## 201. Deuteronomy · 16 of 29

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/201/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/201/#p-N

[¶0] It is diabolic cruelty to add to the miseries of war the horrors of famine; and this is done where the trees of the field are cut down, the dykes broken to drown the land, the villages burnt, and the crops wilfully spoiled. O execrable war! subversive of all the charities of life!

[¶1] There are several curious particulars in these verses:

[¶2] 1. The people had the most positive assurances from God that their enemies should not be able to prevail against them by strength, numbers, nor stratagem, because God should go with them to lead and direct them, and should fight for them; and against his might none could prevail.

[¶3] 2. All such interferences were standing proofs of the being of God, of his especial providence, and of the truth of their religion.

[¶4] 3. Though God promised them such protection, yet they were to expect it in the diligent use of their own prudence and industry. The priests, the officers, and the people, had their respective parts to act in this business; if they did their duty respectively, God would take care that they should be successful. Those who will not help themselves with the strength which God has already given them, shall not have any farther assistance from him. In all such cases, the parable of the talents affords an accurate rule.

[¶5] 4. Their going to war against their enemies must not deprive them of mercy and tenderness towards their brethren. He who had built a house and had not yet dwelt in it, who had planted a vineyard and had not eaten of its fruits, who had betrothed a wife and had not yet taken her to his house, was not obliged to go to battle, lest he should fall in the war, and the fruits of his industry and affection be enjoyed by others. He who was faint-hearted was also permitted to return, lest he should give way in the heat of battle, and his example have a fatal influence on others.

### Introduction

[¶7] If a man be found slain in a field, and the cause of his death be unknown, the murder shall be expiated by the sacrifice of a heifer in an uncultivated valley, [Deu 21:1-4]. The rites to be used on the occasion, [Deu 21:5-9]. The ordinance concerning marriage with a captive, [Deu 21:10-14]. The law relative to the children of the hated and beloved wives: if the son of the hated wife should be the first-born he shall not be disinherited by the son of the beloved wife, but shall have a double portion of all his father's goods, [Deu 21:15-18]. The law concerning the stubborn and rebellious son, who, when convicted, is to be stoned to death, [Deu 21:19-21]. Of the person who is to be hanged, [Deu 21:22]. His body shall not be left on the tree all night; every one that is hanged on a tree is accursed of God, [Deu 21:23].

### Verse 4

[¶9] Shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley - נחל איתן nachal eythan might be translated a rapid stream, probably passing through a piece of uncultivated ground where the elders of the city were to strike off the head of the heifer, and to wash their hands over her in token of their innocence. The spot of ground on which this sacrifice was made must be uncultivated, because it was considered to be a sacrifice to make atonement for the murder, and consequently would pollute the land. This regulation was calculated to keep murder in abhorrence, and to make the magistrates alert in their office, that delinquents might be discovered and punished, and thus public expense saved.

### Verse 6

[¶11] Shall wash their hands over the heifer - Washing the hands, in reference to such a subject as this, was a rite anciently used to signify that the persons thus washing were innocent of the crime in question. It was probably from the Jews that Pilate learned this symbolical method of expressing his innocence.

### Verse 11

[¶13] And seest - a beautiful woman - No forcible possession was allowed even in this case, when the woman was taken in war, and was, by the general consent of ancient nations, adjudged as a part of the spoils. The person to whose lot or share such a woman as is here described fell, might, if he chose, have her for a wife on certain conditions; but he was not permitted to use her under any inferior character.

### Verse 12

[¶15] She shall shave her head - This was in token of her renouncing her religion, and becoming a proselyte to that of the Jews. This is still a custom in the East; when a Christian turns Mohammedan his head is shaven, and he is carried through the city crying, la alahila allah we Mohammed resooli Allah; "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

[¶16] Pare her nails - ועשתה את צפרניה veasethah eth tsipporneyha, "she shall make her nails." Now whether this signifies paring or letting them grow, is greatly doubted among learned men. Possibly it means neither, but colouring the nails, staining them red with the hennah, which is much practiced in India to the present day, and which was undoubtedly practiced among the ancient Egyptians, as is evident from the nails of mummies which are found thus stained. The hennah, according to Hasselquist, grows in India, and in Upper and Lower Egypt; it flowers from May to August. The manner of using it is this: the leaves are powdered, and made into a paste with water: they bind this paste on the nails of their fingers and toes, and let it stand on all night; in the morning they are found to be of a beautiful reddish yellow, and this lasts three weeks or a month, after which they renew the application. They often stain the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet in the same way, as appears from many paintings of eastern ladies done in India and Persia, which now lie before me. This staining the soles of the feet with the hennah is probably meant in [2Sam 19:24] : Mephibosheth had not dressed (literally made) his feet - they had not been thus coloured.

### Verse 15

[¶18] One beloved, and another hated - That is, one loved less than the other. This is the true notion of the word hate in Scripture. So Jacob Hated Leah, that is, he loved her less than he did Rachel; and Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I Hated, that is, I have shown a more particular affection to the posterity of Jacob than I have to the posterity of Esau. See the note on [Gen 29:31]. From this verse we see that polygamy did exist under the Mosaic laws, and that it was put under certain regulations; but it was not enjoined, Moses merely suffered it, because of the hardness of their hearts, as our Lord justly remarks [Mat 19:8].

### Verse 18

[¶20] The stubborn, rebellious, gluttonous, and drunken son is to be stoned to death - This law, severe as it may seem, must have acted as a powerful preventive of crime. If such a law were in force now, and duly executed, how many deaths of disobedient and profligate children would there be in all corners of the land!

### Verse 23

[¶22] His body shall not remain all night upon the tree - Its exposure for the space of one day was judged sufficient. The law which required this answered all the ends of public justice, exposed the shame and infamy of the conduct, but did not put to torture the feelings of humanity by requiring a perpetual exhibition of a human being, a slow prey to the most loathsome process of putrefaction. Did ever the spiking of the heads of state criminals prevent high treason? or the gibbeting of a thief or a murderer, prevent either murder or robbery? These questions may be safely answered in the negative; and the remains of the ancient barbarism which requires these disgusting and abominable exhibitions, and which are deplored by every feeling heart, should be banished with all possible speed. In the case given in the text, God considers the land as defiled while the body of the executed criminal lay exposed, hence it was enjoined, Thou shalt in any wise bury him that day.

[¶23] For he that is hanged is accursed of God - That is, he has forfeited his life to the law; for it is written, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them; and on his body, in the execution of the sentence of the law, the curse was considered as alighting; hence the necessity of removing the accursed thing out of sight. How excellent are all these laws! How wondrously well calculated to repress crimes by showing the enormity of sin! It is worthy of remark that in the infliction of punishment prescribed by the Mosaic law, we ever find that Mercy walks hand in hand with Judgment.

### Introduction

[¶25] Ordinances relative to strayed cattle and lost goods, [Deu 22:1-3]. Humanity to oppressed cattle, [Deu 22:4]. Men and women shall not wear each other's apparel, [Deu 22:5]. No bird shall be taken with her nest of eggs or young ones, [Deu 22:6], [Deu 22:7]. Battlements must be made on the roofs of houses, [Deu 22:8]. Improper mixtures to be avoided, [Deu 22:9-11]. Fringes on the garments, [Deu 22:12]. Case of the hated wife, and the tokens of virginity, and the proceedings thereon, [Deu 22:13-21]. The adulterer and adulteress to be put to death, [Deu 22:22]. Case of the betrothed damsel corrupted in the city, [Deu 22:23], [Deu 22:24]. Cases of rape and the punishment, [Deu 22:25-27]; of fornication, [Deu 22:28], [Deu 22:29]. No man shall take his father's wife, [Deu 22:30].

### Verse 1

[¶27] Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray - The same humane, merciful, and wise regulations which we met with before, [Exo 23:4], [Exo 23:5], well calculated to keep in remembrance the second grand branch of the law of God, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. A humane man cannot bear to see even an ass fall under his burden, and not endeavor to relieve him; and a man who loves his neighbor as himself cannot see his property in danger without endeavoring to preserve it. These comparatively small matters were tests and proofs of matters great in themselves, and in their consequences. See the note on [Exo 23:4].

### Verse 3

[¶29] Thou mayest not hide thyself - Thou shalt not keep out of the way of affording help, nor pretend thou didst not see occasion to render thy neighbor any service. The priest and the Levite, when they saw the wounded man, passed by on the other side of the way, [Luk 10:31], [Luk 10:32]. This was a notorious breach of the merciful law mentioned above.

### Verse 5

[¶31] The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man - כלי גבר keli geber, the instruments or arms of a man. As the word גבר geber is here used, which properly signifies a strong man or man of war, it is very probable that armor is here intended; especially as we know that in the worship of Venus, to which that of Astarte or Ashtaroth among the Canaanites bore a striking resemblance, the women were accustomed to appear in armor before her. It certainly cannot mean a simple change in dress, whereby the men might pass for women, and vice versa. This would have been impossible in those countries where the dress of the sexes had but little to distinguish it, and where every man wore a long beard. It is, however, a very good general precept understood literally, and applies particularly to those countries where the dress alone distinguishes between the male and the female. The close-shaved gentleman may at any time appear like a woman in the female dress, and the woman appear as a man in the male's attire. Were this to be tolerated in society, it would produce the greatest confusion. Clodius, who dressed himself like a woman that he might mingle with the Roman ladies in the feast of the Bona Dea, was universally execrated.

### Verse 7

[¶33] Thou shalt - let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee - This passage may be understood literally. If they destroyed both young and old, must not the breed soon fail, and would it not in the end be ill with them; and by thus cutting off the means of their continual support, must not their days be shortened on the land? But we may look for a humane precept in this law. The young never knew the sweets of liberty; the dam did: they might be taken and used for any lawful purpose, but the dam must not be brought into a state of captivity. They who can act otherwise must be either very inconsiderate or devoid of feeling; and such persons can never be objects of God's peculiar care and attention, and therefore need not expect that it shall be well with them, or that they shall prolong their days on the earth. Every thing contrary to the spirit of mercy and kindness the ever blessed God has in utter abhorrence. And we should remember a fact, that he who can exercise cruelty towards a sparrow or a wren, will, when circumstances are favorable, be cruel to his fellow creatures. The poet Phocylides has a maxim in his admonitory poem very similar to that in the sacred text: - Μηδε τις ορυιθας καλιης ἁμα παντας ἑλεσθω· Μητερα δ' εκπρολιπῃς, ἱν' εχῃς παλι τησδε νεοττους.

[¶34] Phocyl. Ποιημα Νουθετ., ver. 80. "Nor from a nest take all the birds away;

[¶35] The mother spare, she'll breed a future day."

### Verse 8

[¶37] A battlement for thy roof - Houses in the East are in general built with flat roofs, and on them men walk to enjoy the fresh air, converse together, sleep, etc.; it was therefore necessary to have a sort of battlement or balustrade to prevent persons from falling off. If a man neglected to make a sufficient defense against such accidents, and the death of another was occasioned by it, the owner of the house must be considered in the light of a murderer.

### Verse 9

[¶39] Divers seeds - See the note on [Lev 19:19].

### Verse 10

[¶41] Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass - It is generally supposed that mixtures of different sorts in seed, breed, etc., were employed for superstitious purposes, and therefore prohibited in this law. It is more likely, however, that there was a physical reason for this; two beasts of a different species cannot associate comfortably together, and on this ground never pull pleasantly either in cart or plough; and every farmer knows that it is of considerable consequence to the comfort of the cattle to put those together that have an affection for each other. This may be very frequently remarked in certain cattle, which, on this account, are termed true yoke-fellows. After all, it is very probable that the general design was to prevent improper alliances in civil and religious life. And to this St. Paul seems evidently to refer, [2Cor 6:14] : Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers; which is simply to be understood as prohibiting all intercourse between Christians and idolaters in social, matrimonial, and religious life. And to teach the Jews the propriety of this, a variety of precepts relative to improper and heterogeneous mixtures were interspersed through their law, so that in civil and domestic life they might have them ever before their eyes.

### Verse 12

[¶43] Fringes - See on [Num 15:38] (note).

## 202. Deuteronomy · 17 of 29

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/202/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/202/#p-N

### Verse 15

[¶1] Tokens of the damsel's virginity - This was a perfectly possible case in all places where girls were married at ten, twelve, and fourteen years of age, which is frequent in the East. I have known several instances of persons having had two or three children at separate births before they were fourteen years of age. Such tokens, therefore, as the text speaks of, must be infallibly exhibited by females so very young on the consummation of their marriage.

### Verse 17

[¶3] They shall spread the cloth, etc. - A usage of this kind argues a roughness of manners which would ill comport with the refinement of European ideas on so delicate a subject. Attempts have been made to show that the law here is to be understood metaphorically; but they so perfectly fail to establish any thing like probability, that it would be wasting my own and my reader's time to detail them. A custom similar to that above is observed among the Mohammedans to the present day.

### Verse 22

[¶5] Shall both of them die - Thus we find that in the most ancient of all laws adultery was punished with death in both the parties.

### Verse 25

[¶7] And the man force her - A rape also, by these ancient institutions, was punished with death, because a woman's honor was considered equally as precious as her life; therefore the same punishment was inflicted on the ravisher as upon the murderer. This offense is considered in the same point of view in the British laws, and by them also it is punished with death.

### Verse 30

[¶9] A man shall not take his father's wife - This is to be understood as referring to the case of a stepmother. A man in his old age may have married a young wife, and on his dying, his son by a former wife may desire to espouse her: this the law prohibits. It was probably on pretense of having broken this law, that Solomon put his brother Adonijah to death, because he had desired to have his father's concubine to wife, [1Kgs 2:13-25].

### Introduction

[¶11] Neither eunuchs, bastards, Ammonites, nor Moabites, shall be incorporated with the genuine Israelites, [Deu 23:1-3]. The reason why the Ammonites and Moabites were excluded, [Deu 23:4-6]. Edomites and Egyptians to be respected, [Deu 23:7]. Their descendants in the third generation may be incorporated with the Israelites, [Deu 23:8]. Cautions against wickedness when they go forth against their enemies, [Deu 23:9]. To keep the camp free from every defilement, and the reason why, [Deu 23:10-14]. The slave who had taken refuge among them is not to be delivered up to his former master, [Deu 23:15], [Deu 23:16]. There shall be no prostitutes nor sodomites in the land, [Deu 23:17]. The hire of a prostitute or the price of a dog is not to be brought into the house of God, [Deu 23:18]. The Israelites shall not lend on usury to each other, [Deu 23:19]; but they may take usury from strangers, [Deu 23:20]. Vows must be diligently paid, [Deu 23:21-23]. In passing through a vine yard or field a man may eat of the grapes or corn, but must carry away none with him, [Deu 23:24], [Deu 23:25].

### Verse 1

[¶13] Shall not enter into the congregation, etc. - If by entering the congregation be meant the bearing a civil office among the people, such as magistrate, judge, etc., then the reason of the law is very plain; no man with any such personal defect as might render him contemptible in the sight of others should bear rule among the people, lest the contempt felt for his personal defects might be transferred to his important office, and thus his authority be disregarded. The general meaning of these words is, simply, that the persons here designated should not be so incorporated with the Jews as to partake of their civil privileges.

### Verse 2

[¶15] A bastard shall not enter - ממזר mamzer, which is here rendered bastard, should be understood as implying the offspring of an illegitimate or incestuous mixture.

### Verse 3

[¶17] An Ammonite or Moabite - These nations were subjected for their impiety and wickedness, (see [Deu 23:4] and [Deu 23:5]), to peculiar disgrace, and on this account were not permitted to hold any office among the Israelites. But this did not disqualify them from being proselytes: Ruth, who was a Moabitess, was married to Boaz, and she became one of the progenitors of our Lord.

[¶18] Even to their tenth generation - That is, for ever, as the next clause explains; see [Neh 13:1].

### Verse 12

[¶20] These directions may appear trifling to some, but they were essentially necessary to this people in their present circumstances. Decency and cleanliness promote health, and prevent many diseases.

### Verse 15

[¶22] Thou shalt not deliver - the servant which is escaped - unto thee - That is, a servant who left an idolatrous master that he might join himself to God and to his people. In any other case, it would have been injustice to have harboured the runaway.

### Verse 17

[¶24] There shall be no whore - See on [Gen 38:15-21] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶26] The hire of a whore, or the price of a dog - Many public prostitutes dedicated to their gods a part of their impure earnings; and some of these prostitutes were publicly kept in the temple of Venus Melytta, whose gains were applied to the support of her abominable worship.

### Verse 19

[¶28] Usury - See on [Lev 25:36] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶30] When thou shalt vow, etc. - See on [Num 30:2] (note), etc.

### Verse 24

[¶32] Thou shalt not put any in thy vessel - Thou shalt carry none away with thee. The old English proverb, Eat thy fill but pocket none, seems to have been founded on this law.

### Verse 25

[¶34] Thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand - It was on the permission granted by this law that the disciples plucked the ears of corn, as related [Mat 12:1]. This was both a considerate and humane law, and is no dishonor to the Jewish code.

### Introduction

[¶36] The case of a divorced wife, [Deu 24:1-4]. No man shall be obliged to undertake any public service for the first year of his marriage, [Deu 24:5]. The mill-stones shall not be taken as a pledge, [Deu 24:6]. The man-stealer shall be put to death, [Deu 24:7]. Concerning cases of leprosy, [Deu 24:8], [Deu 24:9]. Of receiving pledges, and returning those of the poor before bed-time, [Deu 24:10-13]. Of servants and their hire, [Deu 24:14], [Deu 24:15]. Parents and children shall not be put to death for each other, [Deu 24:16]. Of humanity to the stranger, fatherless, widow, and bondman, [Deu 24:17], [Deu 24:18]. Gleanings of the harvest, etc., to be left for the poor, stranger, widow, fatherless, etc., [Deu 24:19-22].

### Verse 1

[¶38] Some uncleanness - Any cause of dislike, for this great latitude of meaning the fact itself authorizes us to adopt, for it is certain that a Jew might put away his wife for any cause that seemed good to himself; and so hard were their hearts, that Moses suffered this; and we find they continued this practice even to the time of our Lord, who strongly reprehended them on the account, and showed that such license was wholly inconsistent with the original design of marriage; see [Mat 5:31] (note), etc.; [Mat 19:3] (note), etc., and the notes there.

### Verse 3

[¶40] And write her a bill of divorcement - These bills, though varying in expression, are the same in substance among the Jews in all places. The following, collected from Maimonides and others, is a general form, and contains all the particulars of such instruments. The reader who is curious may find a full account of divorces in the Biblioth. Rab. of Bartolocci, and the following form in that work, vol. iv., p. 550. "In - day of the week, or day - of the month A., in - year from the creation of the world, or from the supputation (of Alexander) after the account that we are accustomed to count by, here, in the place B., I, C., the son of D., of the place B., (or if there be any other name which I have, or my father hath had, or which my place or my father's place hath had), have voluntarily, and with the willingness of my soul, without constraint, dismissed, and left, and put away thee, even thee, E., the daughter of F., of the city G., (or if thou have any other name or surname, thou or thy father, or thy place or thy father's place), who hast been my wife heretofore; but now I dismiss thee, and leave thee, and put thee away, that thou mayest be free, and have power over thy own life, to go away to be married to any man whom thou wilt; and that no man be refused of thine hand, for my name, from this day and for ever. And thus thou art lawful for any man; and this is unto thee, from me, a writing of divorcement, and book (instrument) of dismission, and an epistle of putting away; according to the Law of Moses and Israel.

[¶41] A., son of B., witness.C., son of D., witness."

### Verse 4

[¶43] She is defiled - Does not this refer to her having been divorced, and married in consequence to another? Though God, for the hardness of their hearts, suffered them to put away their wives, yet he considered all after-marriages in that case to be pollution and defilement; and it is on this ground that our Lord argues in the places referred to above, that whoever marries the woman that is put away is an adulterer: now this could not have been the case if God had allowed the divorce to be a legal and proper separation of the man from his wife; but in the sight of God nothing can be a legal cause of separation but adultery on either side. In such a case, according to the law of God, a man may put away his wife, and a wife may put away her husband; (see [Mat 19:9]); for it appears that the wife had as much right to put away her husband as the husband had to put away his wife, see [Mar 10:12].

### Verse 5

[¶45] When a man hath taken a new wife - Other people made a similar provision for such circumstances. Alexander ordered those of his soldiers who had married that year to spend the winter with their wives, while the army was in winter quarters. See Arrian, lib. i.

## 203. Deuteronomy · 18 of 29

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### Verse 6

[¶1] The nether or the upper mill-stone - Small hand-mills which can be worked by a single person were formerly in use among the Jews, and are still used in many parts of the East. As therefore the day's meal was generally ground for each day, they keeping no stock beforehand, hence they were forbidden to take either of the stones to pledge, because in such a case the family must be without bread. On this account the text terms the millstone the man's life.

### Verse 8

[¶3] The plague of leprosy - See on Leviticus 13 (note), and Leviticus 14 (note).

### Verse 12

[¶5] And if the man be poor, etc. - Did not this law preclude pledging entirely, especially in case of the abjectly poor? For who would take a pledge in the morning which he knew, if not redeemed, he must restore at night? However, he might resume his claim in the morning, and have the pledge daily returned, and thus keep up his property in it till the debt was discharged; see the note on [Exo 22:26]. The Jews in several cases did act contrary to this rule, and we find them cuttingly reproved for it by the Prophet Amos, [Amo 2:8].

### Verse 15

[¶7] He is poor, and setteth his heart upon it - How exceedingly natural is this! The poor servant who seldom sees money, yet finds from his master's affluence that it procures all the conveniences and comforts of life, longs for the time when he shall receive his wages; should his pay be delayed after the time is expired, he may naturally be expected to cry unto God against him who withholds it. See most of these subjects treated at large on [Exo 22:21-27] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶9] The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, etc. - This law is explained and illustrated in sufficient detail, Ezekiel 18.

### Verse 18

[¶11] Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman - Most people who have affluence rose from comparative penury, for those who are born to estates frequently squander them away; such therefore should remember what their feelings, their fears, and anxieties were, when they were poor and abject. A want of attention to this most wholesome precept is the reason why pride and arrogance are the general characteristics of those who have risen in the world from poverty to affluence; and it is the conduct of those men which gave rise to the rugged proverb, "Set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride to the devil."

### Verse 19

[¶13] When thou cuttest down thine harvest - This is an addition to the law, [Lev 19:9]; [Lev 23:22]. The corners of the field, the gleanings, and the forgotten sheaf, were all the property of the poor. This the Hebrews extended to any part of the fruit or produce of a field, which had been forgotten in the time of general ingathering, as appears from the concluding verses of this chapter.

### Introduction

[¶15] Punishment by whipping not to exceed forty stripes, [Deu 25:1-3]. The ox that treads out the corn is not to be muzzled, [Deu 25:4]. The ordinance concerning marrying the wife of that brother who has died childless, [Deu 25:5-10]. Of the woman who acts indecently in succouring her husband, [Deu 25:11], [Deu 25:12]. Of false weights and measures, [Deu 25:13-16]. Amalek is to be destroyed, [Deu 25:17-19].

### Verse 1

[¶17] They shall justify the righteous - This is a very important passage, and is a key to several others. The word צדק tsadak is used here precisely in the same sense in which St. Paul sometimes uses the corresponding word δικαιοω, not to justify or make just, but to acquit, declare innocent, to remit punishment, or give reasons why such a one should not be punished; so here the magistrates הצדיקו hitsdiku, shall acquit, the righteous - declare him innocent, because he is found to be righteous and not wicked: so the Septuagint: και δικαιωσουσιν τον δικαιον they shall make righteous the righteous - declare him free from blame, not liable to punishment, acquitted; using the same word with St. Paul when he speaks of a sinner's justification, i. e., his acquittance from blame and punishment, because of the death of Christ in his stead.

### Verse 2

[¶19] The judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face - This precept is literally followed in China; the culprit receives in the presence of the magistrate the punishment which the law directs to be inflicted. Thus then justice is done, for the magistrate sees that the letter of the law is duly fulfilled, and that the officers do not transgress it, either by indulgence on the one hand, or severity on the other. The culprit receives nothing more nor less than what justice requires.

### Verse 3

[¶21] Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed - According to God's institution a criminal may receive forty stripes; not one more! But is the institution from above or not, that for any offense sentences a man to receive three hundred, yea, a thousand stripes? What horrible brutality is this! and what a reproach to human nature, and to the nation in which such shocking barbarities are exercised and tolerated! Most of the inhabitants of Great Britain have heard of Lord Macartney's embassy to the emperor of China, and they have also heard of its complete failure; but they have not heard the cause. It appears to have been partly occasioned by the following circumstance: A soldier had been convicted of some petty traffic with one of the natives, and he was sentenced by a court-martial to receive sixty lashes! Hear my author: - "The soldiers were drawn up in form in the outer court of the place where we resided; and the poor culprit, being fastened to one of the pillars of the great portico, received his punishment without mitigation. The abhorrence excited in the breasts of the Chinese at this cruel conduct, as it appeared to them, was demonstrably proved by their words and looks. They expressed their astonishment that a people professing the mildest, the most benevolent religion on earth, as they wished to have it believed, could be guilty of such flagrant inattention to its merciful dictates. One of the principal Mandarins, who knew a little English, expressed the general sentiment, Englishmen too much cruel, too much bad." - Accurate account of Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, by an attendant on the embassy, 12mo., 1797, p. 88.

[¶22] The following is Mr. Ainsworth's note on this verse: "This number forty the Scripture uses sundry times in cases of humiliation, affliction, and punishment. As Moses twice humbled himself in fasting and prayer forty days and forty nights, [Deu 9:9], [Deu 9:18]. Elijah fasted forty days, [1Kgs 19:8]; and our Savior, [Mat 4:2]. Forty years Israel was afflicted in the wilderness for their sins, [Num 14:33], [Num 14:34]. And forty years Egypt was desolate for treacherous dealing with Israel, [Eze 29:11-13]. Forty days every woman was in purification for her uncleanness for a man-child that she bare, and twice forty days for a woman-child, [Lev 12:4], [Lev 12:5]. Forty days and forty nights it rained at Noah's flood, [Gen 7:12]. Forty days did Ezekiel bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, [Eze 4:6]. Jonah preached, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, [Jon 3:4]. Forty years' space the Canaanites had to repent after Israel came out of Egypt, and wandered so many years in the wilderness, [Num 14:33]. And thrice forty years the old world had Noah preaching unto them repentance, [Gen 6:3]. It was forty days ere Christ ascended into heaven after his resurrection, [Act 1:3], [Act 1:9]. And forty years' space he gave unto the Jews, from the time that they killed him, before he destroyed their city and temple by the Romans. "By the Hebrews this law is expounded thus: How many stripes do they beat (an offender) with? With forty, lacking one: as it is written, ([Deu 25:2], [Deu 25:3]), by number forty, that is, the number which is next to forty, Talmud Bab, in Maccoth, chap. 3. This their understanding is very ancient, for so they practiced in the apostles' days; as Paul testified: Of the Jews five times received I forty (stripes) save one; [2Cor 11:24]. But the reason which they give is not solid; as when they say, If it had been written Forty In Number, I would say it were full forty; but being written In Number Forty, it means the number which reckons forty next after it, that is, thirty-nine. By this exposition they confound the verses and take away the distinction. I rather think this custom was taken up by reason of the manner of their beating forespoken of, which was with a scourge that had three cords, so that every stroke was counted for three stripes, and then they could not give even forty, but either thirty-nine or forty-two, which was above the number set of God. And hereof they write thus: When they judge (or condemn) a sinner to so many (stripes) as he can bear, they judge not but by strokes that are fit to be trebled [that is, to give three stripes to one stroke, by reason of the three cords]. If they judge that he can bear twenty, they do not say he shall be beaten with one and twenty, to the end that they may treble the stripes, but they give him eighteen - Maimon in Sanhedrin, chap. xvii., sec. 2. Thus he that was able to bear twenty stripes, had but eighteen: the executioner smote him but six times, for if he had smitten him the seventh they were counted one and twenty stripes, which was above the number adjudged: so he that was adjudged to forty was smitten thirteen times, which being counted one for three, make thirty-nine. And so R. Bechaios, writing hereof, says, The strokes are trebled; that is, every one is three, and three times thirteen are nine and thirty."

[¶23] Thy brother be vile, or be contemptible - By this God teaches us to hate and despise the sin, not the sinner, who is by this chastisement to be amended; as the power which the Lord hath given is to edification, not to destruction, [2Cor 13:10].

### Verse 4

[¶25] Thou shalt not muzzle the ox, etc. - In Judea, as well as in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, they make use of beeves to tread out the corn; and Dr. Shaw tells us that the people of Barbary continue to tread out their corn after the custom of the East. Instead of beeves they frequently made use of mules and horses, by tying by the neck three or four in like manner together, and whipping them afterwards round about the nedders, as they call the treading floors, (the Libycae areae Hor), where the sheaves lie open and expanded, in the same manner as they are placed and prepared with us for threshing. This indeed is a much quicker way than ours, though less cleanly, for as it is performed in the open air, ([Hos 13:3]), upon any round level plot of ground, daubed over with cow's dung to prevent as much as possible the earth, sand, or gravel from rising; a great quantity of them all, notwithstanding this precaution, must unavoidably be taken up with the grain, at the same time that the straw, which is their chief and only fodder, is hereby shattered to pieces; a circumstance very pertinently alluded to in [2Kgs 13:7], where the king of Syria is said to have made the Israelites like the dust by threshing - Travels, p. 138. While the oxen were at work some muzzled their mouths to hinder them from eating the corn, which Moses here forbids, instructing the people by this symbolical precept to be kind to their servants and laborers, but especially to those who ministered to them in holy things; so St. Paul applies it [1Cor 9:9], etc.; [1Tim 5:18]. Le Clerc considers the injunction as wholly symbolical; and perhaps in this view it was intended to confirm the laws enjoined in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the former chapter. See Dodd and Shaw.

[¶26] In Bengal, where the same mode of treading cut the corn is used, some muzzle the ox, and others do not, according to the disposition of the farmer - Ward.

### Verse 9

[¶28] And loose his shoe - It is difficult to find the reason of these ceremonies of degradation. Perhaps the shoe was the emblem of power; and by stripping it off, deprivation of that power and authority was represented. Spitting in the face was a mark of the utmost ignominy; but the Jews, who are legitimate judges in this case, say that the spitting was not in his face, but before his face on the ground. And this is the way in which the Asiatics express their detestation of a person to the present day, as Niebuhr and other intelligent travelers assure us. It has been remarked that the prefix ב beth is seldom applied to פני peney; but when it is it signifies as well before as in the face. See [Jos 21:44]; [Jos 23:9]; [Est 9:2]; and [Eze 42:12]; which texts are supposed to be proofs in point. The act of spitting, whether in or before the face, marked the strong contempt the woman felt for the man who had slighted her. And it appears that the man was ever after disgraced in Israel; for so much is certainly implied in the saying, [Deu 25:10] : And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

### Verse 13

[¶30] Divers weights - אבן ואבן eben vaaben, a stone and a stone, because the weights were anciently made of stone, and some had two sets of stones, a light and a heavy. With the latter they bought their wares, by the former they sold them. In our own country this was once a common case; smooth, round, or oval stones were generally chosen by the simple country people for selling their wares, especially such as were sold in pounds and half pounds. And hence the term a stone weight, which is still in use, though lead or iron be the matter that is used as a counterpoise: but the name itself shows us that a stone of a certain weight was the material formerly used as a weight. See the notes on [Lev 19:35], [Lev 19:36].

### Verse 14

[¶32] Divers measures - Literally, an ephah and an ephah; one large, to buy thy neighbor's wares, another small, to sell thy own by. So there were knaves in all ages, and among all nations. See the notes on [Exo 16:16], and [Lev 19:35] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶34] Smote the hindmost of thee - See the note on [Exo 17:8]. It is supposed that this command had its final accomplishment in the death of Haman and his ten sons, Esther iii., vii., ix., as from this time the memory and name of Amalek was blotted out from under heaven, for through every period of their history it might be truly said, They feared not God.

### Introduction

[¶36] First-fruits must be offered to God, [Deu 26:1], [Deu 26:2]. The form of confession to be used on the occasion, [Deu 26:3-11]. The third year's tithe to be given to the Levites and the poor, [Deu 26:12], and the form of confession to be used on this occasion, [Deu 26:13-15]. The Israelites are to take Jehovah for their God, and to keep his testimonies, [Deu 26:16], [Deu 26:17]. And Jehovah is to take them for his people, and make them high above all the nations of the earth, [Deu 26:18], [Deu 26:19].

### Verse 2

[¶38] Thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit, etc. - This was intended to keep them in continual remembrance of the kindness of God, in preserving them through so many difficulties and literally fulfilling the promises he had made to them. God being the author of all their blessings, the first-fruits of the land were consecrated to him, as the author of every good and perfect gift.

### Verse 5

[¶40] A Syrian ready to perish was my father - This passage has been variously understood, both by the ancient versions and by modern commentators. The Vulgate renders it thus: Syrus persequebatur patrem meum, "A Syrian persecuted my father." The Septuagint thus: Συριαν απεβαλεν ὁ πατηρ μου, "My father abandoned Syria." The Targum thus: לבן ארמאה בעא לאובדא ית אבא Laban arammaah bea leobada yath abba, "Laban the Syrian endeavored to destroy my father." The Syriac: "My father was led out of Syria into Egypt." The Arabic: "Surely, Laban the Syrian had almost destroyed my father." The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel: "Our father Jacob went at first into Syria of Mesopotamia, and Laban sought to destroy him."

[¶41] Father Houbigant dissents from all, and renders the original thus: Fames urgebat patrem meum, qui in Aegyptum descendit, "Famine oppressed my father, who went down into Egypt." This interpretation Houbigant gives the text, by taking the י yod from the word ארמי arammi, which signifies an Aramite or Syrian, and joining it to יאבד yeabud, the future for the perfect, which is common enough in Hebrew, and which may signify constrained; and seeking for the meaning of ארם aram in the Arabic arama, which signifies famine, dearth, etc., he thus makes out his version, and this version he defends at large in his notes. It is pretty evident, from the text, that by a Syrian we are to understand Jacob, so called from his long residence in Syria with his father-in-law Laban. And his being ready to perish may signify the hard usage and severe labor he had in Laban's service, by which, as his health was much impaired, so his life might have often been in imminent danger.

### Verse 8

[¶43] With a mighty hand, etc. - See on [Deu 4:34] (note).

## 204. Deuteronomy · 19 of 29

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### Verse 11

[¶1] Thou shalt rejoice - God intends that his followers shall be happy; that they shall eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart, praising him. Those who eat their meat grudgingly, under the pretense of their unworthiness, etc., profane God's bounties and shall have no thanks for their voluntary humility.

[¶2] Thou, and the Levite, and the stranger - They were to take care to share God's bounties among all those who were dependent on them. The Levite has no inheritance, let him rejoice with thee. The stranger has no home, let him feel thee to be his friend and his father.

### Verse 12

[¶4] The third year, which is the year of tithing - This is supposed to mean the third year of the seventh or Sabbatical year, in which the tenths were to be given to the poor. See the law, [Deu 14:28]. But from the letter in both these places it would appear that the tithe was for the Levites, and that this tithe was drawn only once in three years.

### Verse 14

[¶6] I have not - given aught thereof for the dead - That is, I have not consecrated any of it to an idol which was generally a dead man whom superstition and ignorance had deified. From [1Cor 10:27], [1Cor 10:28], we learn that it was customary to offer that flesh to idols which was afterwards sold publicly in the shambles; probably the blood was poured out before the idol in imitation of the sacrifices offered to the true God. Perhaps the text here alludes to a similar custom.

### Verse 17

[¶8] Thou hast avouched the Lord - The people avouch - publicly declare, that they have taken Jehovah to be their God.

### Verse 18

[¶10] And the Lord hath avouched - Publicly declared, by the blessings he pours down upon them, that he has taken them to be his peculiar people. Thus the covenant is made and ratified between God and his followers.

### Verse 19

[¶12] Make thee high above all nations - It is written, Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people, [Pro 14:34]. While Israel regarded God's word and kept his testimonies, they were the greatest and most respectable of all nations; but when they forsook God and his law, they became the most contemptible. O Britain, even more highly favored than ancient Israel! learn wisdom by what they have suffered. It is not thy fleets nor thine armies, howsoever excellent and well appointed, that can ultimately exalt and secure thy permanence among the nations. It is righteousness alone. Become irreligious, neglect God's ordinances, profane his Sabbath, despise his word, persecute his followers, and thou art lost. But fear, love, and serve him, and thy enemies shall be found liars, thou shalt defeat their projects, and trample on their high places.

[¶13] The form of confession when bringing the first-fruits, related [Deu 26:4-10], is both affecting and edifying. Even when brought into a state of affluence and rest, they were commanded to remember and publicly acknowledge their former degradation and wretchedness, that they might be ever kept humble and dependent; and they must bring their offering as a public acknowledgment to God that it was by his mercy their state was changed, and by his bounty their comforts were continued. If a man rise from poverty to affluence, and forget his former state, he becomes proud, insolent, and oppressive. If a Christian convert forget his former state, the rock whence he was hewn, and the hole of the pit whence he was digged, he soon becomes careless, unthankful, and unholy. The case of the ten lepers that were cleansed, of whom only one returned to give God thanks, is an awful lesson. How many are continually living on the bounty of God, who feel no gratitude for his mercies! Reader, Is this thy state? If so, then expect the just God to curse thy blessings.

### Introduction

[¶15] Moses commands the people to write the law upon stones, when they shall come to the promised land, [Deu 27:1-3]. And to set up these stones on Mount Ebal, [Deu 27:4]; and to build an altar of unhewn stones, and to offer on it burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, [Deu 27:5-7]. The words to be written plainly, and the people to be exhorted to obedience, [Deu 27:8-10]. The six tribes which should stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, [Deu 27:11], [Deu 27:12]. Those who are to stand upon Mount Ebal to curse the transgressors, [Deu 27:13]. The different transgressors against whom the curses are to be denounced, [Deu 27:14-26].

### Verse 2

[¶17] Thou shalt set thee up great stones - How many is not specified, possibly twelve, and possibly only a sufficient number to make a surface large enough to write the blessings and the curses on.

[¶18] Plaster them with plaster - Perhaps the original ושדת אתם בשיד vesadta otham bassid should be translated, Thou shalt cement them with cement, because this was intended to be a durable monument. In similar cases it was customary to set up a single stone, or a heap, rudely put together, where no cement or mortar appears to have been used; and because this was common, it was necessary to give particular directions when the usual method was not to be followed. Some suppose that the writing was to be in relievo, and that the spaces between the letters were filled up by the mortar or cement. This is quite a possible case, as the Eastern inscriptions are frequently done in this way. There is now before me a large slab of basaltes, two feet long by sixteen inches wide, on which there is an inscription in Persian, Arabic, and Tamul; in the two former the letters are all raised, the surface of the stone being dug out, but the Tamul is indented. A kind of reddish paint had been smeared over the letters to make them more apparent. Two Arabic marbles in the University of Oxford have the inscriptions in relievo, like those on the slab of basalt in my possession. In the opinion of some even this case may cast light upon the subject in question

### Verse 3

[¶20] All the words of this law - After all that has been said by ingenious critics concerning the law ordered to be written on these stones, some supposing the whole Mosaic law to be intended, others, only the decalogue, I am fully of opinion that the (תורה torah) law or ordinance in question simply means the blessings and curses mentioned in this and in the following chapter; and indeed these contained a very good epitome of the whole law in all its promises and threatenings, in reference to the whole of its grand moral design. See at the end of this chapter, [Deu 27:26] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶22] Set up these stones - in Mount Ebal - So the present Hebrew text, but the Samaritan has Mount Gerizim. Dr. Kennicott has largely defended the reading of the Samaritan in his second dissertation on the present state of the Hebrew text, and Dr. Parry has defended the Hebrew against the Samaritan in his Case between Gerizim and Ebal fairly stated. So has J. H. Verschuir, in his Dissert. Critica. Many still think Dr. Kennicott's arguments unanswerable, and have no doubt that the Jews have here corrupted the text through their enmity to the Samaritans. On all hands it is allowed that Gerizim abounds with springs, gardens, and orchards, and that it is covered with a beautiful verdure, while Ebal is as naked and as barren as a rock. On this very account the former was highly proper for the ceremony of blessing, and the latter for the ceremony of cursing.

### Verse 12

[¶24] These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people - Instead of upon Mount, etc., we may translate by, as the particle על al is sometimes used; for we do not find that the tribes did stand on either mount, for in [Jos 8:33], when this direction was reduced to practice, we find the people did not stand on the mountains, but over against them on the plain. See the observations at the end of this chapter, [Deu 27:26] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶26] Cursed be the man, etc. - Other laws, previously made, had prohibited all these things; and penal sanctions were necessarily understood; but here God more openly declares that he who breaks them is cursed - falls under the wrath and indignation of his Maker and Judge. See the note on [Exo 20:4].

### Verse 16

[¶28] Setteth light by his father or his mother - See the note on [Exo 20:12].

### Verse 17

[¶30] Removeth his neighbor's landmark - See before on [Deu 19:14] (note), and on [Exo 20:17] (note). And for all the rest of these curses, see the notes on Exodus 20 (note), and the observations at the end of it.

### Verse 18

[¶32] The blind to wander out of the way - A sin against the sixth commandment. See on [Exo 20:13] (note).

### Verse 26

[¶34] That confirmeth not all the words of this law - The word כל col, All, is not found in any printed copy of the Hebrew text; but the Samaritan preserves it, and so do six MSS. in the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi, besides several copies of the Chaldee Targum. The Septuagint also, and St. Paul in his quotation of this place, [Gal 3:10]. St. Jerome says that the Jews suppressed the word, that it might not appear that they were bound to fulfill All the precepts in the law of Moses.

[¶35] 1. Dr. Kennicott, who contends that it was the Decalogue that was written on the stones mentioned in this chapter, says, "If we examine these twelve curses, they will appear to contain a strong enforcement of the ten commands; and it is highly probable that the curses were here proclaimed principally to secure obedience to the commandments, as will be made more clear by the table: -

[¶36] The first, second, third, and fourth Commandments [Gal 3:15] - Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination to the Lord, etc.

[¶37] The fifth Commandment [Gal 3:16] - Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother.

[¶38] The sixth Commandment [Gal 3:25] - Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. [Gal 3:24] - Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbor secretly. [Gal 3:18] - Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way.

[¶39] The seventh Commandment [Gal 3:20] - Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife. [Gal 3:21] - Cursed be he that lieth with any beast. [Gal 3:22] - Cursed be he that lieth with his sister. [Gal 3:23] - Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law.

[¶40] The eighth Commandment [Gal 3:17] - Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark.

[¶41] The ninth Commandment [Gal 3:19] - Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow.

[¶42] The tenth Commandment [Gal 3:26] - Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them."

[¶43] Many will think this arrangement fanciful; and the analogy far from being natural.

[¶44] 2. In pronouncing these blessings and curses, the Talmud says, six tribes went up towards the top of Mount Gerizim, and six towards the top of Mount Ebal; and the priests and the Levites, and the ark stood beneath in the midst. The priests encompassed the ark, and the Levites stood around about the priests; and all Israel on this side and on that; see [Jos 8:33]. Then they turned their faces towards Mount Gerizim and pronounced the blessings, Blessed be the man, etc., and those on each side answered Amen! then they turned their faces towards Mount Ebal, and pronounced the curse, Cursed be the man, etc., and those on each side answered Amen! till they had finished the blessings and the curses; and afterwards they brought stones and built an altar. Some suppose that the Levites were divided into two grand bodies, part standing at or on Mount Gerizim, and part on Mount Ebal, and that with each division were some of the priests. The whole Dr. Parry supposes to have been arranged in the following manner: -

[¶45] 3. It is worthy of remark that Moses assigns to the children of Rachel and Leah, the two mothers of the family, the office of blessing the people, as being the most honorable; and these he places on Mount Gerizim. On the contrary, he assigns the office of cursing the people to the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah, as being the least honorable office; but with these he joins Zebulun, the youngest of Leah's sons, and Reuben, the eldest. As there must be six tribes on each mountain, it was necessary that while six of the sons of Rachel and Leah, the legitimate wives, should be employed in blessing, two tribes descending from the same mothers should be joined to the other four who proceeded from the handmaids in order to make up the number six. The question is, which two of the more honorable tribes should be joined to the four least honorable, in order to complete the number six? Zebulun is chosen, because being the sixth and youngest of all Leah's sons, he was the least honorable of those who proceeded from the free woman; and Reuben is chosen, who, though the eldest of Jacob's sons, and entitled to the birthright, had lost it by his transgression. And hence he, in his posterity, was degraded, and was obliged to pronounce the curse, Cursed is he that lieth with his father's wife. See [Gen 49:3-4] (note), and [Gen 35:22] (note), and the notes on both places.

## 205. Deuteronomy · 20 of 29

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[¶0] 4. It is strange how long the disgrace consequent on some flagrant transaction of a parent may cleave to his posterity! See this exemplified in the posterity of Reuben. Hence, with great propriety we may pray, Remember not, Lord, our offenses, nor the offenses of our forefathers; neither take thou vengeance of our sins." - Litany. For the offenses of our forefathers may be so remembered against their posterity, that God, in the course of his providence, may still keep up a controversy in secular matters with the descendants (though even pious) of unholy ancestors; for as all men are seminally included in the parents, they come into the world depraved with their depravity, and in some sort liable to their curses, though not so far as to affect their eternal interests without the addition of their own personal offenses. Thus God may be said to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, even unto the third and fourth generation; as he may have a controversy with the land for the evil which has been done in it, and for which no proper atonement has been made. Why is it that at this moment Spain is suffering the most afflictive and cruel desolations? What has she done to merit all this? Is she more wicked than all the European nations because she suffers such things? Here is the mystery: Nations, as such, can only be punished in this world. Look at the torrents of innocent blood shed by their ancestors in South America 300 years ago; and see now and adore the awful hand of retributive justice! (December, 1811). We often see persons tried and afflicted, for whose distresses we can give no legitimate reason. We find others who, though they rise early, sit up late, work hard, eat the bread of carefulness, and have a full knowledge of their business, yet never get on in life. Who can account for this? Shall we say that some injustice in their ancestors has brought down the displeasure of God upon the earthly possessions that descended in that line, so that the goods ill gotten shall never be permitted to multiply? I knew an honest man, dead many years since, who by great diligence, punctuality, and integrity in his business, had acquired considerable property. Some time before his death, having by will divided his substance among his sons and his daughters, he expressed himself thus: "Children, you need not fear the curse of God on this property; every penny of it was honestly earned." Many years have since elapsed, and the blessing of God has been in the basket and in the store of all his children. Parents! leave nothing behind you that you cannot say before your God, with a clear conscience, "This has been honestly earned." If all bequests of a contrary description were to be deducted from last wills and testaments, the quantum of descending property would be, in many cases, small indeed.

### Introduction

[¶2] The blessings which God pronounces on the obedient, [Deu 28:1-6]. Particular privileges which the faithful shall receive, [Deu 28:7-13]. The curses pronounced against the ungodly and idolatrous, [Deu 28:14-19]. A detailed account of the miseries which should be inflicted on them, should they neglect the commandments of the Lord, [Deu 28:20]. They shall be smitten with the pestilence, [Deu 28:21]; with consumption, fever, etc., [Deu 28:22]; drought and barrenness, [Deu 28:23], [Deu 28:24]; they shall be defeated by their enemies, [Deu 28:25], [Deu 28:26]; they shall be afflicted with the botch of Egypt, [Deu 28:27]; with madness and blindness, [Deu 28:28], [Deu 28:29]; they shall be disappointed in all their projects, [Deu 28:30]; deprived of all their possessions, and afflicted in all their members, [Deu 28:31-35]; they and their king shall go into captivity, [Deu 28:36], and become a by-word among the nations, [Deu 28:37]. Their land shall be unfruitful, and they shall be the lowest of all people, [Deu 28:38-44]. All these curses shall come on them should they be disobedient, [Deu 28:45-48]. Character of the people by whom they should be subdued, [Deu 28:49], [Deu 28:50]. Particulars of their dreadful sufferings, [Deu 28:51-57]. A recapitulation of their wretchedness, [Deu 28:58-63]. The prediction that they shall be scattered among all the nations of the earth, [Deu 28:64-68].

### Verse 2

[¶4] All these blessings shall come on thee - God shall pour out his blessing from heaven upon thee. And overtake thee. Upright men are represented as going to the kingdom of God, and God's blessings as following and overtaking them in their heavenly journey. There are several things in this verse worthy of the most careful observation: - 1. If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. The voice of God must be heard; without a Divine revelation how can the Divine will be known? And if not known, it cannot be fulfilled. 2. When God speaks, men must hearken to the words of his mouth. He who does not hearken will not obey. 3. He who hearkens to the words of God must set out for the kingdom of heaven. The curse must fall on him who stands in the way of sinners, and will overtake them who loiter in the way of righteousness. 4. Those who run in the way of God's testimonies shall have an abundance of blessing. Blessings shall come upon them, and blessings shall overtake them - in every part of their march through life they shall continue to receive the fulfillment of the various promises of God which relate to all circumstances, vicissitudes, trials, stages of life, etc., etc., each overtaking them in the time and place where most needed.

### Verse 3

[¶6] In the city - In all civil employments. In the field - in all agricultural pursuits.

### Verse 4

[¶8] Fruit of thy body - All thy children. Increase of thy kine, etc.; every animal employed in domestic and agricultural purposes shall be under the especial protection of Divine Providence.

### Verse 5

[¶10] Thy basket - Thy olive gathering and vintage, as the basket was employed to collect those fruits.

[¶11] Store - משארת mishereth, kneading-trough, or remainder; all that is laid up for future use, as well as what is prepared for present consumption. Some think that by basket all their property abroad may be meant, and by store all that they have at home, i. e., all that is in the fields, and all that is in the houses. The following note of Mr. Harmer is important: - "Commentators seem to be at a great loss how to explain the basket and the store mentioned [Deu 28:5], [Deu 28:17]. Why Moses, who in the other verses mentions things in general, should in this case be so minute as to mention baskets, seems strange; and they that interpret either the first or the second of these words of the repositories of their corn, etc., forget that their barns or storehouses are spoken of presently after this in [Deu 28:8]. Might I be permitted to give my opinion here, I should say that the basket, טנא tene, in this place means their travelling baskets, and the other word משארת mishereth, (their store), signifies their leathern bags, in both which they were wont to carry things in travelling. The first of these words occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures but in the account that is given us of the conveyance in which they were to carry their first-fruits to Jerusalem; the other nowhere but in the description of the hurrying journey of Israel out of Egypt, where it means the utensils in which they then carried their dough, which I have shown elsewhere in these papers means a piece of leather drawn together by rings, and forming a kind of bag. Agreeably to this, Hasselquist informs us that the Eastern people use baskets in travelling; for, speaking of that species of the palm tree which produces dates, and its great usefulness to the people of those countries, he tells us that of the leaves of this tree they make baskets, or rather a kind of short bags, which are used in Turkey on journeys and in their houses; pages 261,262. Hampers and panniers are English terms denoting travelling baskets, as tene seems to be a Hebrew word of the same general import, though their forms might very much differ, as it is certain that of the travelling baskets mentioned by Hasselquist now does. "In like manner as they now carry meal, figs, and raisins, in a goat's skin in Barbary for a viaticum, they might do the same anciently, and consequently might carry merchandise after the same manner, particularly their honey, oil, and balm, mentioned [Eze 27:17]. They were the proper vessels for such things. So Sir J. Chardin, who was so long in the East, and observed their customs with so much care, supposed, in a manuscript note on [Gen 43:11], that the balm and the honey sent by Jacob into Egypt for a present were carried in a goat or kid's skin, in which all sorts of things, both dry and liquid, are wont to be carried in the East. "Understood after this manner, the passage promises Israel success in their commerce, as the next verse (the 6th) promises them personal safety in their going out and in their return. In this view the passage appears with due distinctness, and a noble extent." - Observations, vol. 2:, p. 181.

### Verse 6

[¶13] When thou comest in - From thy employment, thou shalt find that no evil has happened to the family or dwelling in thy absence.

[¶14] When thou goest out - Thy way shall be made prosperous before thee, and thou shalt have the Divine blessing in all thy labors.

### Verse 7

[¶16] The Lord shall cause thine enemies, etc. - This is a promise of security from foreign invasion, or total discomfiture of the invaders, should they enter the land. They shall come against thee one way - in the firmest and most united manner. And flee seven ways - shall be utterly broken, confounded, and finally routed.

### Verse 8

[¶18] The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee - Every thing that thou hast shall come by Divine appointment; thou shalt have nothing casually, but every thing, both spiritual and temporal, shall come by the immediate command of God.

### Verse 9

[¶20] The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself - This is the sum of all blessings, to be made holy, and be preserved in holiness.

[¶21] If thou shalt keep, etc. - Here is the solemn condition; if they did not keep God's testimonies, taking them for the regulators of their lives, and according to their direction walking in his ways, under the influence and aids of his grace, then the curses, and not the blessings, must be their portion. See [Deu 28:15], etc.

### Verse 12

[¶23] The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure - The clouds, so that a sufficiency of fructifying showers should descend at all requisite times, and the vegetative principle in the earth should unfold and exert itself, so that their crops should be abundant.

### Verse 14

[¶25] Thou shalt not go aside - to the right hand or to the left - The way of obedience is a straight way; it goes right forward; he who declines either to right or left from this path goes astray and misses heaven.

### Verse 20

[¶27] Cursing - This shall be thy state; vexation - grief, trouble, and anguish of heart; rebuke - continual judgments, and marks of God's displeasure.

### Verse 21

[¶29] The pestilence cleave unto thee - ידבק יהוה בך אה הדבר yadbek Yehovah becha eth haddaber, the Lord shall cement the pestilence or plague to thee. Sept., Προσκολλησει Κυριος εις σε τον θανατον, The Lord will glue - inseparably attach, the death unto thee. How dreadful a plague it must be that ravages without intermission, any person may conceive who has ever heard the name.

### Verse 22

[¶31] Consumption - שחפת shachepheth, atrophy through lack of food; from שחף shacaph, to be in want.

[¶32] Fever - קדחת kaddachath, from קדח kadach, to be kindled, burn, sparkle; a burning inflammatory fever.

[¶33] Inflammation - דלקת dalleketh, from דלק dalak, to pursue eagerly, to burn after; probably a rapidly consuming cancer.

[¶34] Extreme burning - חרחר charchur, burning upon burning, scald upon scald; from חר char, to be heated, enraged, etc. This probably refers, not only to excruciating inflammations on the body, but also to the irritation and agony of a mind utterly abandoned by God, and lost to hope. What an accumulation of misery! how formidable! and especially in a land where great heat was prevalent and dreadful.

[¶35] Sword - War in general, enemies without, and civil broils within. This was remarkably the case in the last siege of Jerusalem.

[¶36] Blasting - שדפון shiddaphon, probably either the blighting east wind that ruined vegetation, or those awful pestilential winds which suffocate both man and beast wherever they come. These often prevail in different parts of the East, and several examples have already been given. See [Gen 41:6] (note).

[¶37] Mildew - ירקון yerakon, an exudation of the vegetative juice from different parts of the stalk, by which the maturity and perfection of the plant are utterly prevented. It comes from ירק yarak, to throw out moisture.

[¶38] Of these seven plagues, the five former were to fall on their bodies, the two latter upon their substance. What a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God!

### Verse 23

[¶40] Thy heaven - shall be brass, and the earth - iron - The atmosphere should not be replenished with aqueous vapours, in consequence of which they should have neither the early nor the latter rain; hence the earth - the ground, must be wholly intractable, and, through its hardness, incapable of cultivation. God shows them by this that he is Lord of nature; and that drought and sterility are not casualties, but proceed from the immediate appointment of the Lord.

### Verse 24

[¶42] The rain of thy land powder and dust - As their heavens - atmosphere, clouds, etc., were to be as brass - yielding no rain; so the surface of the earth must be reduced to powder; and this, being frequently taken up by the strong winds, would fall down in showers instead of rain. Whole caravans have been buried under showers of sand; and Thevenot, a French traveler, who had observed these showers of dust, etc., says, "They grievously annoy all they fall on, filling their eyes, ears, nostrils, etc." - Travels in the East, part 1, book ii., chap. 80. The ophthalmia in Egypt appears to be chiefly owing to a very fine sand, the particles of which are like broken glass, which are carried about by the wind, and, entering into the ciliary glands, produce grievous and continual inflammations.

### Verse 27

[¶44] The Lord will smite thee with the botch - שחין shechin, a violent inflammatory swelling. In Job ii., one of the Hexapla versions renders it ελεφας, the elephantiasis, a disease the most horrid that can possibly afflict human nature. In this disorder, the whole body is covered with a most loathsome scurf; the joints are all preternaturally enlarged, and the skin swells up and grows into folds like that of an elephant, whence the disease has its name. The skin, through its rigidity, breaks across at all the joints, and a most abominable ichor flows from all the chinks, etc. See an account of it in Aretaeus, whose language is sufficient to chill the blood of a maniac, could he attend to the description given by this great master, of this most loathsome and abominable of all the natural productions of death and sin. This was called the botch of Egypt, as being peculiar to that country, and particularly in the vicinity of the Nile. Hence those words of Lucretius: -

## 206. Deuteronomy · 21 of 29

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[¶0] Est Elephas morbus, qui circum flumina Nili

[¶1] Nascitur, Aegypto in media; nec praeterea usquam.

[¶2] Lib. vi., ver. 1112.

[¶3] Emerods - עפלים ophalim, from עפל aphal, to be elevated, raised up; swellings, protuberances; probably the bleeding piles.

[¶4] Scab - brg garab does not occur as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, but gharb, in Arabic, signifies a distemper in the corner of the eye, (Castel)., and may amount to the Egyptian ophthalmia, which is so epidemic and distressing in that country: some suppose the scurvy to be intended.

[¶5] Itch - חרס cheres, a burning itch, probably something of the erysipelatous kind, or what is commonly called St. Anthony's fire.

[¶6] Whereof thou canst not be healed - For as they were inflicted by God's justice, they could not of course be cured by human art.

### Verse 28

[¶8] The Lord shall smite thee with madness - שגעון shiggaon, distraction, so that thou shalt not know what to do.

[¶9] And blindness - עורון ivvaron, blindness, both physical and mental; the גרב garab, ([Deu 28:27]), destroying their eyes, and the judgments of God confounding their understandings.

[¶10] Astonishment - תמהון timmahon, stupidity and amazement. By the just judgments of God they were so completely confounded, as not to discern the means by which they might prevent or remove their calamities, and to adopt those which led directly to their ruin. How true is the ancient saying, Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat! "Those whom God is determined to destroy, he first infatuates." But this applies not exclusively to the poor Jews: how miserably infatuated have the powers of the continent of Europe been, in all their councils and measures, for several years past! And what is the result? They have fallen - most deplorably fallen!

### Verse 29

[¶12] Thou shalt be only oppressed, etc. - Perhaps no people under the sun have been more oppressed and spoiled than the rebellious Jews. Indeed, this has been their portion, with but little intermission, for nearly 1,800 years. And still they grope at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness - they do not yet discover, notwithstanding the effulgence of the light by which they are encompassed, that the rejection of their own Messiah is the cause of all their calamities.

### Verse 30

[¶14] Thou shalt betroth a wife, etc. - Can any heart imagine any thing more grievous than the evils threatened in this and the following verses? To be on the brink of all social and domestic happiness, and then to be suddenly deprived of all, and see an enemy possess and enjoy every thing that was dear to them, must excite them to the utmost pitch of distraction and madness. They have, it is true, grievously sinned; but, O ye Christians, have they not grievously suffered for it? Is not the stroke of God heavy enough upon them? Do not then, by unkind treatment or cruel Oppression, increase their miseries. They are, above all others, the men who have seen affliction by the stroke of his rod; [Lam 3:1].

### Verse 32

[¶16] Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people - In several countries, particularly in Spain and Portugal, the children of the Jews have been taken from them by order of government, and educated in the Popish faith. There have been some instances of Jewish children being taken from their parents even in Protestant countries.

### Verse 35

[¶18] With a sore botch - שחין shechin, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil. See [Deu 28:27].

### Verse 36

[¶20] Can any thing be conceived more dreadful than the calamities threatened in these verses?

### Verse 48

[¶22] Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies - Because they would not serve God, therefore they became slaves to men.

### Verse 49

[¶24] A nation - from far - Probably the Romans.

[¶25] As the eagle flieth - The very animal on all the Roman standards. The Roman eagle is proverbial.

[¶26] Whose tongue thou shalt not understand - The Latin language, than which none was more foreign to the structure and idiom of the Hebrew.

### Verse 52

[¶28] He - Nebuchadnezzar first, ([2Kgs 25:1], [2Kgs 25:2], etc)., and Titus next; shall besiege thee - beset thee round on every side, and cast a trench around thee: viz., lines of circumvallation, as our Lord predicted; (see [Mat 24:1], etc., and [Luk 21:5], etc.); in all thy gates throughout all thy land - all thy fenced cities, which points out that their subjugation should be complete, as both Jerusalem and all their fortified places should be taken. This was done literally by Nebuchadnezzar and the Romans.

### Verse 56

[¶30] The tender and delicate woman - This was literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans; a woman named Mary, of a noble family, driven to distraction by famine, boiled and ate her own child! See a similar case [2Kgs 6:29] (note); and [Lev 26:29] (note).

### Verse 57

[¶32] Toward her young one - and toward her children which she shall bear - There seems to be a species of tautology in the two clauses of this verse, which may be prevented by translating the last word, שליתה shilyathah, literally, her secondines, which is the meaning of the Arabic sala, not badly understood by the Septuagint, χοριον αυτης, the chorion or exterior membrane, which invests the fetus in the womb; and still better translated by Luther, the after-birth; which saying of Moses strongly marks the deepest distress, when the mother is represented as feeling the most poignant regret that her child was brought forth into such a state of suffering and death; and 2dly, that it was likely, from the favorable circumstances after the birth, that she herself should survive her inlaying. No words can more forcibly depict the miseries of those dreadful times. On this ground I see no absolute need for Kennicott's criticism, who, instead of ובשליתה ubeshilyathah, against her secondines, reads ובשלה ubashelah, and she shall boll, and translates the 56th and 57th verses as follows: "The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter. 57. And she shall boil that which cometh out from between her feet, even her children, which she shall bear, for she shall eat them, for want of all things, secretly." These words, says he, being prophetical, are fulfilled in [2Kgs 6:29], for we read there that two women of Samaria having agreed to eat their own children, one was actually boiled, where the very same word, בשל bashal is used. See Kennicott's Dissertations on 1 Chronicles 11, etc., p. 421.

### Verse 64

[¶34] The Lord shall scatter thee among all people - How literally has this been fulfilled! The people of the Jews are scattered over every nation under heaven.

### Verse 65

[¶36] No ease - a trembling heart, and failing of eyes - The trembling of heart may refer to their state of continual insecurity, being, under every kind of government, proscribed, and, even under the most mild, uncertain of toleration and protection; and the failing of eyes, to their vain and ever-disappointed expectation of the Messiah.

### Verse 68

[¶38] And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again - That is, into another state of slavery and bondage similar to that of Egypt, out of which they had been lately brought. And there ye shall be sold, that is, be exposed to sale, or expose yourself to sale as the word התמכרתם hithmaccartem may be rendered; they were vagrants, and wished to become slaves that they might be provided with the necessaries of life. And no man shall buy you; even the Romans thought it a reproach to have a Jew for a slave, they had become so despicable to all mankind. When Jerusalem was taken by Titus, many of the captives, which were above seventeen years of age, were sent into the works in Egypt. See Josephus, Antiq., b. xii, 100:1, 2, War b. vi., c. 9, s. 2; and above all, see Bp. Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies.

[¶39] The first verse of the next chapter, in some of the most correct Hebrew Bibles, makes the 69th of this; and very properly, as the second verse of the following chapter begins a new subject.

[¶40] This is an astonishing chapter: in it are prophecies delivered more than 3,000 years ago, and now fulfilling.

[¶41] O God, how immense is thy wisdom, and how profound thy counsels! To thee alone are known all thy works from the beginning to the end. What an irrefragable proof does this chapter, compared with the past and present state of the Jewish people, afford of the truth and Divine origin of the Pentateuch!

### Introduction

[¶43] A recapitulation of God's gracious dealings with Israel, [Deu 29:1-8]. An exhortation to obedience, and to enter into covenant with their God, that they and their posterity may be established in the good land, [Deu 29:9-15]. They are to remember the abominations of Egypt, and to avoid them, [Deu 29:16], [Deu 29:17]. He who hardens his heart, when he hears these curses, shall be utterly consumed, [Deu 29:18-21]. Their posterity shall be astonished at the desolations that shall fall upon them, [Deu 29:22], [Deu 29:23]; shall inquire the reason, and shall be informed that the Lord has done thus to them because of their disobedience and idolatry, [Deu 29:24-28]. A caution against prying too curiously into the secrets of the Divine providence, and to be contented with what God has revealed, [Deu 29:29].

## 207. Deuteronomy · 22 of 29

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### Verse 1

[¶1] These are the words of the covenant - This verse seems properly to belong to the preceding chapter, as a widely different subject is taken up at [Deu 29:2] of this; and it is distinguished as the 69th verse in some of the most correct copies of the Hebrew Bible.

[¶2] Commanded Moses to make - לכרת lichroth, to cut, alluding to the covenant sacrifice which was offered on the occasion and divided, as is explained, [Gen 15:18] (note).

[¶3] Beside the covenant which he made - in Horeb - What is mentioned here is an additional institution to the ten words given on Horeb; and the curses denounced here are different from those denounced against the transgressors of the decalogue.

### Verse 4

[¶5] The Lord hath not given you a heart, etc. - Some critics read this verse interrogatively: And hath not God given you a heart, etc.? because they suppose that God could not reprehend them for the non-performance of a duty, when he had neither given them a mind to perceive the obligation of it, nor strength to perform it, had that obligation been known. Though this is strictly just, yet there is no need for the interrogation, as the words only imply that they had not such a heart, etc., not because God had not given them all the means of knowledge, and helps of his grace and Spirit, which were necessary; but they had not made a faithful use of their advantages, and therefore they had not that wise, loving, and obedient heart which they otherwise might have had. If they had had such a heart, it would have been God's gift, for he is the author of all good; and that they had not such a heart was a proof that they had grieved his Spirit, and abused the grace which he had afforded them to produce that gracious change, the want of which is here deplored. Hence God himself is represented as grieved because they were unchanged and disobedient: "O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children for ever!" See [Deu 5:29] (note), and the note there.

### Verse 5

[¶7] Your clothes are not waxen old - See on [Deu 8:4] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶9] Ye have not eaten bread, etc. - That is, ye have not been supported in an ordinary providential way; I have been continually working miracles for you, that ye might know that I am the Lord. Thus we find that God had furnished them with all the means of this knowledge, and that the means were ineffectual, not because they were not properly calculated to answer God's gracious purpose, but because the people were not workers with God; consequently they received the grace of God in vain. See [2Cor 6:1].

### Verse 10

[¶11] Ye stand - all of you before the Lord - They were about to enter into a covenant with God; and as a covenant implies two parties contracting, God is represented as being present, and they and all their families, old and young, come before him.

### Verse 12

[¶13] That thou shouldest enter - לעבר leaber, to pass through, that is, between the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice. See [Gen 15:18] (note).

[¶14] And into his oath - Thus we find that in a covenant were these seven particulars:

[¶15] 1. The parties about to contract were considered as being hitherto separated.

[¶16] 2. They now agree to enter into a state of close and permanent amity.

[¶17] 3. They meet together in a solemn manner for this purpose.

[¶18] 4. A sacrifice is offered to God on the occasion, for the whole is a religious act.

[¶19] 5. The victim is separated exactly into two equal parts, the separation being in the direction of the spine; and those parts are laid opposite to each other, sufficient room being allowed for the contracting parties to pass between them.

[¶20] 6. The contracting parties meet in the victim, and the conditions of the covenant by which they are to be mutually bound are recited.

[¶21] 7. An oath is taken by these parties that they shall punctually and faithfully perform their respective conditions, and thus the covenant is made and ratified. See [Jer 34:18], [Jer 34:19], and the notes on [Gen 6:18] (note); [Gen 15:18] (note); [Exo 29:45] (note); Leviticus 26 (note).

### Verse 15

[¶23] Him that standeth here - The present generation. Him that is not here - all future generations of this people.

### Verse 18

[¶25] A root that beareth gall and wormwood - That is, as the apostle expresses it, [Heb 3:12], An evil heart of unbelief departing from the living God; for to this place he evidently refers. It may also signify false doctrines, or idolatrous persons among themselves.

### Verse 19

[¶27] To add drunkenness to thirst - A proverbial expression denoting the utmost indulgence in all sensual gratifications.

### Verse 26

[¶29] Gods - whom he had not given unto them - This is an unhappy translation. Houbigant renders the original words ולו חלק להם velo chalak lahem, et quibuscum nulla eis societas, "And with whom they had no society;" and falls unmercifully on Le Clerc because he had translated it, From whom they had received no benefits. I must differ from both these great men, because I think they differ from the text. חלק chalak signifies a portion, lot, inheritance, and God is frequently represented in Scripture as the portion or inheritance of his people. Here, therefore, I think the original should be rendered, And there was no portion to them, that is, the gods they served could neither supply their wants nor save their souls - they were no portion.

### Verse 29

[¶31] The secret things belong unto the Lord, etc. - This verse has been variously translated. Houbigant renders it thus: Quae apud Dominum nostrum abscondita sunt, nobis ea filiisque nostris palam facta sunt ad multas aetates, "The things which were hidden with the Lord our God, are made manifest to us and our children for many generations." I am not satisfied with this interpretation, and find that the passage was not so understood by any of the ancient versions. The simple general meaning seems to be this: "What God has thought proper to reveal, he has revealed; what he has revealed is essential to the well-being of man, and this revelation is intended not for the present time merely, nor for one people, but for all succeeding generations. The things which he has not revealed concern not man but God alone, and are therefore not to be inquired after." Thus, then, the things that are hidden belong unto the Lord, those that are revealed belong unto us and our children. But possibly the words here refer to the subjects of these chapters, as if he had said, "Apostasy from God and his truth is possible. When a national apostasy among us may take place, is known only to God; but he has revealed himself to us and our children that we may do all the words of this law, and so prevent the dreadful evils that shall fall on the disobedient."

[¶32] The Jews have always considered these verses as containing subjects of the highest importance to them, and have affixed marks to the original לנו ולבנינו lanu ulebaneynu, "to Us and to our Children," in order to fix the attention of the reader on truths which affect them individually, and not them only, but the whole of their posterity.

### Introduction

[¶34] Gracious promises are given to the penitent, [Deu 30:1-6]. The Lord will circumcise their heart, and put all these curses on their enemies, if they hearken to his voice and keep his testimonies, [Deu 30:7-10]. The word is near to them, and easy to be understood, [Deu 30:11-14]. Life and death, a blessing and a curse, are set before them; and they are exhorted to love the Lord, obey his voice, and cleave unto him, that they may inherit the land promised to Abraham, [Deu 30:15-20].

### Verse 1

[¶36] When all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse - So fully did God foresee the bad use these people would make of their free agency in resisting the Holy Ghost, that he speaks of their sin and punishment as certain; yet, at the same time, shows how they might turn to himself and live, even while he was pouring out his indignation upon them because of their transgressions.

### Verse 3

[¶38] Gather thee from all the nations - This must refer to a more extensive captivity than that which they suffered in Babylon.

### Verse 5

[¶40] Will bring thee into the land - As this promise refers to a return from a captivity in which they had been scattered among all nations, consequently it is not the Babylonish captivity which is intended; and the repossession of their land must be different from that which was consequent on their return from Chaldea.

### Verse 6

[¶42] God will circumcise thine heart - This promise remains yet to be fulfilled. Their heart, as a people, has never yet been circumcised; nor have the various promises in this chapter been ever yet fulfilled. There remaineth, therefore, a rest for this people of God. Now, as the law, properly speaking, made no provision for the circumcision of the heart, which implies the remission of sins, and purification of the soul from all unrighteousness; and as circumcision itself was only a sign of spiritual good, consequently the promise here refers to the days of the Messiah, and to this all the prophets and all the apostles give witness: "for circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter," [Rom 2:29]; and the genuine followers of God are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands - by the circumcision of Christ," [Col 2:11], [Col 2:12]. Hence we see these promises cannot be fulfilled to the Jews but in their embracing the Gospel of Christ. To look, therefore, for their restoration is idle and nugatory, while their obstinacy and unbelief remain.

### Verse 11

[¶44] This commandment - is not hidden - Not too wonderful or difficult for thee to comprehend or perform, as the word נפלאת niphleth implies. Neither is it far off - the word or doctrine of salvation shall be proclaimed in your own land; for He is to be born in Bethlehem of Judah, who is to feed and save Israel; and the Prophet who is to teach them is to be raised up from among their brethren.

## 208. Deuteronomy · 23 of 29

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### Verse 12

[¶1] It is not in heaven - Shall not be communicated in that way in which the prophets received the living oracles; but the Word shall be made flesh, and dwell among you.

### Verse 13

[¶3] Neither is it beyond the sea - Ye shall not be obliged to travel for it to distant nations, because salvation is of the Jews.

### Verse 14

[¶5] But the word is very nigh unto thee - The doctrine of salvation preached by the apostles; in thy mouth, the promises of redemption made by the prophets forming a part of every Jew's creed; in thy heart - the power to believe with the heart unto righteousness, that the tongue may make confession unto salvation. In this way, it is evident, St. Paul understood these passages; see [Rom 10:6-8], etc.

### Verse 15

[¶7] Life and good - Present and future blessings.

[¶8] Death and evil - Present and future miseries: termed, [Deu 30:19], Life and death, blessing and cursing. And why were these set before them?

[¶9] 1. That they might comprehend their import.

[¶10] 2. That they might feel their importance.

[¶11] 3. That they might choose life, and the path of believing, loving obedience, that led to it.

[¶12] 4. That they and their posterity, thus choosing life and refusing evil, might be the favourites of God in time and eternity.

[¶13] Were there no such thing as free will in man, who could reconcile these sayings either with sincerity or common sense? God has made the human will free, and there is no power or influence either in heaven, earth, or hell, except the power of God, that can deprive it of its free volitions; of its power to will and nill, to choose and refuse, to act or not act or force it to sin against God. Hence man is accountable for his actions, because they are his; were he necessitated by fate, or sovereign constraint, they could not be his. Hence he is rewardable, hence he is punishable. God, in his creation, willed that the human creature should be free, and he formed his soul accordingly; and the Law and Gospel, the promise and precept, the denunciation of woe and the doctrine of eternal life, are all constructed on this ground; that is, they all necessarily suppose the freedom of the human will: nor could it be will if it were not free, because the principle of freedom or liberty is necessarily implied in the idea of volition. See on the [Deu 5:29] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶15] That thou mayest love the Lord - Without love there can be no obedience.

[¶16] Obey his voice - Without obedience love is fruitless and dead.

[¶17] And cleave unto him - Without close attachment and perseverance, temporary love, however sincere and fervent - temporary obedience, however disinterested, energetic, and pure while it lasts - will be ultimately ineffectual. He alone who endures to the end, shall be saved. Reader, how do matters stand between God and thy soul? He cannot persevere in the grace of God whose soul is not yet made a partaker of that grace. Many talk strenuously on the impossibility of falling from grace, who have not yet tasted that the Lord is gracious. How absurd to talk and dispute about the infallibility of arriving safely at the end of a way in which a man has never yet taken one hearty step! It is never among those that have the grace of God, but among those that have it not, that we find an overweening confidence.

### Introduction

[¶19] Moses, being one hundred and twenty years old and about to die, calls the people together, and exhorts them to courage and obedience, [Deu 31:1-6]. Delivers a charge to Joshua, [Deu 31:7], [Deu 31:8]. Delivers the law which he hod written to the priests, with a solemn charge that they should read it every seventh year, publicly to all the people, [Deu 31:9-13]. The Lord calls Moses and Joshua to the tabernacle, [Deu 31:14]. He appears to them, informs Moses of his approaching death, and delivers to him a prophetical and historical song, or poem, which he is to leave with Israel, for their instruction and reproof, [Deu 31:15-21]. Moses writes the song the same day, and teaches it to the Israelites, [Deu 31:22]; gives Joshua a charge, [Deu 31:23]; finishes writing the book of the law, [Deu 31:24]. Commands the Levites to lay it up in the side of the ark, [Deu 31:25], [Deu 31:26]. Predicts their rebellions, [Deu 31:27]. Orders the elders to be gathered together, and shows them what evils would befall the people in the latter days, [Deu 31:28], [Deu 31:29], and repeats the song to them, [Deu 31:30].

### Verse 2

[¶21] I am a hundred and twenty years old - The life of Moses, the great prophet of God and lawgiver of the Jews, was exactly the same in length as the time Noah employed in preaching righteousness to the antediluvian world. These one hundred and twenty years were divided into three remarkable periods: forty years he lived in Egypt, in Pharaoh's court, acquiring all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians; (see [Act 7:20], [Act 7:23]); forty years he sojourned in the land of Midian in a state of preparation for his great and important mission; ([Act 7:29], [Act 7:30]); and forty years he guided, led, and governed the Israelites under the express direction and authority of God: in all, one hundred and twenty years.

### Verse 3

[¶23] Joshua, he shall go over before thee - See on [Num 27:17] (note), etc.

### Verse 6

[¶25] Be strong - חזקו chizku, the same word that is used [Exo 4:21] (note), [Exo 9:15] (note), for hardening Pharaoh's heart. See the notes there. The Septuagint, in this and the following verse, have, Ανδριζου και ισχυε, Play the man, and be strong; and from this St. Paul seems to have borrowed his ideas, [1Cor 16:13] : Στηκετε εν τῃ πιστει· ανδριζεσθε, κρατιουσθε: Stand firm in the faith; play the man - act like heroes; be vigorous.

### Verse 8

[¶27] The Lord - doth go before thee - To prepare thy way, and to direct thee.

[¶28] He will be with thee - Accompany thee in all thy journeys, and assist thee in all thy enterprises.

[¶29] He will not fail thee - Thy expectation, however strong and extensive, shall never be disappointed: thou canst not expect too much from him.

[¶30] Neither forsake thee - He knows that without him thou canst do nothing, and therefore he will continue with thee, and in such a manner too that the excellence of the power shall appear to be of him, and not of man.

### Verse 9

[¶32] Moses wrote this law - Not the whole Pentateuch, but either the discourses and precepts mentioned in the preceding chapters, or the book of Deuteronomy, which is most likely.

[¶33] Some of the rabbins have pretended that Moses wrote thirteen copies of the whole Pentateuch; that he gave one to each of the twelve tribes, and the thirteenth was laid up by the ark. This opinion deserves little credit. Some think that he wrote two copies, one of which he gave to the priests and Levites for general use, according to what is said in this verse, the other to be laid up beside the ark as a standard copy for reference, and to be a witness against the people should they break it or become idolatrous. This second copy is supposed to be intended [Deu 31:26]. As the law was properly a covenant or contract between God and the people, it is natural to suppose there were two copies of it, that each of the contracting parties might have one: therefore one was laid up beside the ark, this was the Lord's copy; another was given to the priests and Levites, this was the people's copy.

### Verse 10

[¶35] At the end of every seven years - thou shalt read this law - Every seventh year was a year of release, [Deu 15:1], at which time the people's minds, being under a peculiar degree of solemnity, were better disposed to hear and profit by the words of God. I suppose on this ground also that the whole book of Deuteronomy is meant, as it alone contains an epitome of the whole Pentateuch. And in this way some of the chief Jewish rabbins understand this place.

[¶36] It is strange that this commandment, relative to a public reading of the law every seven years, should have been rarely attended to. It does not appear that from the time mentioned [Jos 8:30], at which time this public reading first took place, till the reign of Jehoshaphat [2Chr 17:7], there was any public seventh year reading - a period of 530 years. The next seventh year reading was not till the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, [2Chr 34:30], a space of two hundred and eighty-two years. Nor do we find any other publicly mentioned from this time till the return from the Babylonish captivity, [Neh 8:2]. Nor is there any other on record from that time to the destruction of Jerusalem. See Dodd.

### Verse 16

[¶38] Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers - שכב shocheb, thou shalt lie down; it signifies to rest, take rest in sleep, and, metaphorically, to die. Much stress cannot be safely laid on this expression to prove the immortality of the soul, or that the people in the time of Moses had a distinct notion of its separate existence. It was, however, understood in this sense by Jonathan ben Uzziel, who in his Targum paraphrases the word thus: "Thou shalt lie down in the dust with thy fathers; and thy soul (נשמתך nishmethach) shall be laid up in the treasury of the life to come with thy fathers."

### Verse 18

[¶40] I will surely hide my face - Withdraw my approbation and my protection. This is a general meaning of the word in Scripture.

### Verse 19

[¶42] Write ye this song - The song which follows in the next chapter. Things which were of great importance and of common concern were, among the ancients, put into verse, as this was found the best method of keeping them in remembrance, especially in those times when writing was little practiced. Even prose was sometimes sung. The history of Herodotus was divided into Nine books, and each inscribed with the name of one of the Nine Muses, because these books were anciently sung. Homer is reported to have sung his poems through different Greek cities. Aristotle observes that anciently the people sung their laws. And Cicero observes that it was a custom among the ancient Romans to sing the praises of their heroes at the public festivals. This was the case among the northern inhabitants of Europe, particularly in Ireland and Scotland; hence the Gaelic poetry of Ossian and others. See Dodd; and see the note on [Exo 15:1], where the subject is largely treated.

### Verse 21

[¶44] This song shall testify against them - Because in it their general defection is predicted, but in such a way as to show them how to avoid the evil; and if they did not avoid the evil, and the threatened punishment should come upon them, then the song should testify against them, by showing that they had been sufficiently warned, and might have lived to God, and so escaped those disasters.

## 209. Deuteronomy · 24 of 29

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### Verse 26

[¶1] Take this book of the law - The standard copy to which all transcripts must ultimately refer: another copy was put into the bands of the priests. See the note on [Deu 31:9].

### Verse 27

[¶3] While I am yet alive - ye have been rebellious - Such was the disposition of this people to act contrary to moral goodness that Moses felt himself justified in inferring what would take place from what had already happened.

[¶4] 1. Never was a people more fully and faithfully warned, and from this very circumstance we may see that they were under no fatal constraining necessity to commit sin against God; they might have avoided it, but they would not. God was present to help them, till by their repeated provocations they forced him to depart: wrath therefore came upon them to the uttermost because they sinned when they might have lived to the glory of God. Those who abuse God's grace shall not only have that grace taken away from them, but shall be punished for the abuse of it, as well as for the transgression. Every sin is double, and must have a twofold punishment; for 1. Grace is resisted; 2. Transgression is committed; and God will visit for both.

[¶5] 2. How astonishing it is that, with such examples of God's justice before their eyes, the Jews should be so little affected; and that the Gentiles, who have received the Gospel of God, should act as if God would no more punish transgression, or that he must be so partial to them as to pass by iniquities for which the hand of his justice still continues heavy upon the descendants of Jacob! Let them take heed, for if God spared not the natural branches, he will not spare them. If they sin after the manner of the Jews, they may expect to be partakers with them in their punishments. What God does to nations he will do to individuals who reject his mercy, or trample under foot his grace; the soul that sinneth, and returns not to God by repentance and faith, shall die. This is a decree of God that shall never be reversed, and every day bears witness how strictly he keeps it in view.

[¶6] 3. The ode composed by Moses for this occasion was probably set to some lively and affecting air, and sung by the people. It would be much easier to keep such a song in remembrance, than an equal quantity of prose. The whole would have the additional circumstances of cadence and tune to cause it to be often repeated; and thus insure its being kept in memory. Poetry, though often, nay, generally abused, is nevertheless a gift from God, and may be employed with the best effect in his service. A very considerable part of the Old Testament is written in poetry; particularly the whole book of Psalms, great part of the prophet Isaiah, the Lamentations, and much of the minor prophets. Those who speak against poetic compositions in the service of God, speak against what they do not understand. All that a man hath should be consecrated to his Maker, and employed in his service; not only the energy of his heart and mind, the physical force of his body, but also the musical tones and modulations of his voice.

### Introduction

[¶8] The prophetical and historical song of Moses, showing forth the nature of God's doctrine, [Deu 32:1-3]. The character of God, [Deu 32:4]. The corruption of the people, [Deu 32:5], [Deu 32:6]. They are called to remember God's kindness, [Deu 32:7], and his dealings with them during their travels in the wilderness, [Deu 32:8-14]. Their ingratitude and iniquity, [Deu 32:15-18]. They are threatened with his judgments, [Deu 32:19-28]. A pathetic lamentation over them because of their sins, [Deu 32:29-35]. Gracious purposes in their behalf, mixed with reproaches for their manifold idolatries, and threatenings against his enemies, [Deu 32:36-42]. A promise of salvation to the Gentiles, [Deu 32:43]. Moses, having finished the song, warmly exhorts the people to obedience, [Deu 32:44-47]. God calls him up to the mount, that he may see the good land and then die, [Deu 32:48-52].

### Verse 1

[¶10] On the inimitable excellence of this ode much has been written by commentators, critics, and poets - and it is allowed by the best judges to contain a specimen of almost every species of excellence in composition. It is so thoroughly poetic that even the dull Jews themselves found they could not write it in the prose form; and hence it is distinguished as poetry in every Hebrew Bible by being written in its own hemistichs or short half lines, which is the general form of the Hebrew poetry; and were it translated in the same way it would be more easily understood. The song itself has suffered both by transcribers and translators, the former having mistaken some letters in different places, and made wrong combinations of them in others. As to the translators, most of them have followed their own fancy, from good Mr. Ainsworth, who ruined it by the most inanimate rhyming version, to certain latter poets, who have cast it unhallowedly into a European mould. See the observations at the end of the chapter, [Deu 32:52].

[¶11] Give ear, O ye heavens - Let angels and men hear, and let this testimony of God be registered both in heaven and earth. Heaven and earth are appealed to as permanent witnesses.

### Verse 2

[¶13] My doctrine - לקחי likchi, from לקח lakach, to take, carry away; to attract or gain over the heart by eloquence or persuasive speech.

[¶14] Hence the Septuagint translate the word αποφθεγμα, an apophthegm, a sententious and weighty saying, for the regulation of the moral conduct such, properly, are the sayings in this inimitable ode.

[¶15] Shall drop as the rain - It shall come drop by drop as the shower, beginning slowly and distinctly, but increasing more and more till the plenitude of righteousness is poured down, and the whole canon of Divine revelation completed.

[¶16] My speech shall distil as the dew - אמרתי imrathi; my familiar, friendly, and affectionate speeches shall descend gently and softly, on the ear and the heart, as the dew, moistening and refreshing all around. In hot regions dew is often a substitute for rain, without it there could be no fertility, especially in those places where rain seldom falls. And in such places only can the metaphor here used be felt in its perfection. Homer uses a similar figure when speaking of the eloquence of Ulysses; he says, Il. iii., ver. 221: - Αλλ' ὁτε δη ῥοπα τε μεγαλην εκ στηθεος ἱει, Και επεα νιφαδεσσιν εοικοτα χειμεριῃσιν - "But when he speaks what elocution flows!

[¶17] Soft as the fleeces of descending snows."

[¶18] On the manner in which dew is produced, philosophers are not yet agreed. It was long supposed to descend, and to differ only from rain as less from more; but the experiments of a French chemist seemed to prove that dew ascended in light thin vapours, and that, meeting with a colder region of the air, it became condensed and fell down upon the earth. Other recent experiments, though they have not entirely invalidated the former, have rendered the doctrine of the ascent of dew doubtful. Though we know nothing certain as to the manner of its production, yet we know that the thing exists, and that it is essentially useful. So much we know of the sayings of our God, and the blessed effects produced by them: God hath spoken, and the entering in of his words gives light and life. See the note on [Gen 2:6].

[¶19] As the small rain - שעירם seirim, from שער saar, to be rough or tempestuous; sweeping showers, accompanied with a strong gale of wind.

[¶20] And as the showers - רביבים rebibim, from רבה rabah to multiply, to increase greatly; shower after shower, or rather a continual rain, whose drops are multiplied beyond calculation, upon the earth; alluding perhaps to the rainy seasons in the East, or to those early and latter rains so essentially necessary for the vegetation and perfection of the grain.

[¶21] No doubt these various expressions point out that great variety in the word or revelation of God whereby it is suited to every place, occasion, person, and state; being "profitable for doctrine, reproof, and edification in righteousness." Hence the apostle says that God, at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, and in these last times has spoken unto us by his Son; [Heb 1:1], [Heb 1:2]. By every prophet, evangelist, and apostle, God speaks a particular language; all is his doctrine, his great system of instruction, for the information and salvation of the souls of men. But some portions are like the sweeping showers, in which the tempest of God's wrath appears against sinners. Others are like the incessant showers of gentle rain, preparing the soil for the germination of the grain, and causing it to take root. And others still are like the dew, mildly and gently insinuating convictions, persuasions, reproofs, and consolations. The preacher of righteousness who wishes to handle this word profitably, must attend closely to those distinctions, that he may rightly divide the word of truth, and give each of his hearers his portion of the bread of life in due season.

### Verse 4

[¶23] He is the Rock - The word צור tsur is rendered Creator by some eminent critics; and khalyk is the reading in the Arabic Version. Rab. Moses ben Maimon, in his valuable work, Moreh Nebochim, observes that the word צור tsur, which is ordinarily translated rock, signifies origin, fountain, first cause, etc., and in this way it should be translated here: "He is the first principle, his work is perfect." As he is the cause of all things, he must be infinitely perfect; and consequently all his works must be perfect in their respective kinds. As is the cause, so must the effect be. Some think the word rock gives a very good sense: for, as in those lands, rocks were the ordinary places of defense and security, God may be metaphorically represented thus, to signify his protection of his followers. I prefer the opinion of Maimon.

### Verse 5

[¶25] Their spot is not the spot of his children - This verse is variously translated and variously understood. They are corrupted, not his, children of pollution - Kennicott. They are corrupt, they are not his children, they are blotted - Houbigant. This is according to the Samaritan. The interpretation commonly given to these words is as unfounded as it is exceptionable: "God's children have their spots, i. e., their sins, but sin in them is not like sin in others; in others sin is exceedingly sinful, but God does not see the sins of his children as he sees the sins of his enemies," etc. Unfortunately for this bad doctrine, there is no foundation for it in the sacred text, which, though very obscure, may be thus translated: He (Israel) hath corrupted himself. They (the Israelites) are not his children: they are spotted. Coverdale renders the whole passage thus: "The froward and overthwart generation have marred themselves to himward, and are not his children because of their deformity." This is the sense of the verse. Let it be observed that the word spot, which is repeated in our translation, occurs but once in the original, and the marginal reading is greatly to be preferred: He hath corrupted to himself, that they are not his children; that is their blot. And because they had the blot of sin on them, because they were spotted with iniquity and marked idolaters, therefore God renounces them. There may be here an allusion to the marks which the worshippers of particular idols had on different parts of their bodies, especially on their foreheads; and as idolatry is the crime with which they are here charged, the spot or mark mentioned may refer to the mark or stigma of their idol. The different sects of idolaters in the East are distinguished by their sectarian marks, the stigma of their respective idols. These sectarian marks, particularly on the forehead, amount to nearly one hundred among the Hindoos, and especially among the two sects, the worshippers of Seeva, and the worshippers of Vishnoo. In many cases these marks are renewed daily, for they account it irreligious to perform any sacred rite to their god without his mark on the forehead; the marks are generally horizontal and perpendicular lines, crescents, circles, leaves, eyes, etc., in red, black, white, and yellow. This very custom is referred to in [Rev 20:4], where the beast gives his mark to his followers, and it is very likely that Moses refers to such a custom among the idolatrous of his own day. This removes all the difficulty of the text. God's children have no sinful spots, because Christ saves them from their sins; and their motto or mark is, Holiness to the Lord.

### Verse 8

[¶27] When the Most High divided to the nations, etc. - [Deu 32:8] and [Deu 32:9], says Dr. Kennicott, give us express authority for believing that the earth was very early divided in consequence of a Divine command, and probably by lot, (see [Act 17:26]); and as Africa is called the land of Ham, ([Psa 78:51]; [Psa 105:23], [Psa 105:27]; [Psa 106:22]), probably that country fell to him and to his descendants, at the same time that Europe fell to Japheth, and Asia to Shem, with a particular reserve of Palestine to be the Lord's portion, for some one peculiar people. And this separation of mankind into three bodies, called the general migration, was commanded to Noah, and by him to his sons, so as to take place in the days of Peleg, about two hundred years afterwards. This general migration was prior to the partial dispersion from Babel by about five hundred years.

[¶28] He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel - The Septuagint is very curious, Εστησεν ὁρια εθνων κατα αριθμον αγγελων του Θεου. "He established the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God." The meaning of the passage seems to be, that when God divided the earth among mankind, he reserved twelve lots, according to the number of the sons of Jacob, which he was now about to give to their descendants, according to his promise.

### Verse 9

[¶30] The Lord's portion is his people - What an astonishing saying! As holy souls take God for their portion, so God takes them for his portion. He represents himself as happy in his followers; and they are infinitely happy in, and satisfied with, God as their portion. This is what is implied in being a saint. He who is seeking for an earthly portion, has little commerce with the Most High.

### Verse 10

[¶32] He - the Lord, found him - Jacob, in his descendants, in a desert land - the wilderness. He led him about forty years in this wilderness, [Deu 8:2], or יסבבנהו yesobebenhu, he compassed him about, i. e., God defended them on all hands, and in all places. He instructed him - taught them that astonishing law through which we have now almost passed, giving them statutes and judgments which, for depth of wisdom, and correct political adaptation to times, places, and circumstances, are so wondrously constructed, as essentially to secure the comfort, peace, and happiness of the individual, and the prosperity and permanency of the moral system. Laws so excellent that they have met with the approbation of the wise and good in all countries, and formed the basis of the political institutions of all the civilized nations in the universe.

[¶33] Notwithstanding the above gives the passage a good sense, yet probably the whole verse should be considered more literally. It is certain that in the same country travelers are often obliged to go about in order to find proper passes between the mountains, and the following extracts from Mr. Harmer well illustrate this point. "Irwin farther describes the mountains of the desert of Thebais (Upper Egypt) as sometimes so steep and dangerous as to induce even very bold and hardy travelers to avoid them by taking a large circuit; and that for want of proper knowledge of the way, such a wrong path may be taken as may on a sudden bring them into the greatest dangers, while at other times a dreary waste may extend itself so prodigiously as to make it difficult, without assistance, to find the way to a proper outlet. All which show us the meaning of those words of the song of Moses, [Deu 32:10] : He led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. "Jehovah certainly instructed Israel in religion by delivering to him his law in this wilderness; but it is not, I presume, of this kind of teaching Moses speaks, as Bishop Patrick supposes, but God's instructing Israel how to avoid the dangers of the journey, by leading the people about this and that dangerous, precipitous hill, directing them to proper passes through the mountains, and guiding them through the intricacies of that difficult journey which might, and probably would, have confounded the most consummate Arab guides. They that could have safely enough conducted a small caravan of travelers through this desert, might have been very unequal to the task of directing such an enormous multitude, encumbered with cattle, women, children, and utensils. The passages of Irwin, that establish the observation I have been making, follow here: 'At half past eleven we resumed our march, and soon came to the foot of a prodigious hill, which we unexpectedly found we were to ascend. It was perpendicular, like the one we had passed some hours before; but what rendered the access more difficult, the path which we were to tread was nearly right up and down. The captain of the robbers seeing the obstacles we had to overcome, wisely sent all his camels round the mountain where he knew there was a defile, and only accompanied us with the beast he rode. We luckily met with no accident in climbing this height.' p. 325. They afterwards descended, he tells us, into a valley, by a passage easy enough, and stopping to dine at half past five o'clock, they were joined by the Arabs, who had made an astonishing march to overtake them, p. 326. 'We soon quitted the dale, and ascended the high ground by the side of a mountain that overlooks it in this part. The path was narrow and perpendicular, and much resembled a ladder. To make it worse, we preceded the robbers, and an ignorant guide among our people led us astray. Here we found ourselves in a pretty situation: we had kept the lower road on the side of the hill, instead of that towards the summit, until we could proceed no farther; we were now obliged to gain the heights, in order to recover the road, in performing which we drove our poor camels up such steeps that we had the greatest difficulty to climb after them. We were under the necessity of leaving them to themselves, as the danger of leading them through places where the least false step would have precipitated both man and beast to the unfathomable abyss below, was too critical to hazard. We hit at length upon the proper path, and were glad to find ourselves in the road of our unerring guides the robbers, after having won every foot of the ground with real peril and fatigue.' p. 324. Again: 'Our road after leaving the valley lay over level ground. As it would be next to an impossibility to find the way over these stony flats, where the heavy foot of a camel leaves no impression, the different bands of robbers have heaped up stones at unequal distances for their direction through this desert. We have derived great assistance from the robbers in this respect, who are our guides when the marks either fail, or are unintelligible to us.' The predatory Arabs were more successful guides to Mr. Irwin and his companions, than those he brought with him from Ghinnah; but the march of Israel through deserts of the like nature, was through such an extent and variety of country, and in such circumstances as to multitudes and incumbrances, as to make Divine interposition necessary. The openings through the rocks seem to have been prepared by Him to whom all things from the beginning of the world were foreknown, with great wisdom and goodness, to enable them to accomplish this stupendous march." See Harmer's Observat., vol. iv. p. 125.

[¶34] He kept him as the apple of his eye - Nothing can exceed the force and delicacy of this expression. As deeply concerned and as carefully attentive as man can be for the safety of his eyesight, so was God for the protection and welfare of this people. How amazing this condescension!

### Verse 11

[¶36] As an eagle stirreth up her nest - Flutters over her brood to excite them to fly; or, as some think, disturbs her nest to oblige the young ones to leave it; so God by his plagues in Egypt obliged the Israelites, otherwise very reluctant, to leave a place which he appeared by his judgments to have devoted to destruction.

[¶37] Fluttereth over her young - ירחף yeracheph, broodeth over them, communicating to them a portion of her own vital warmth: so did God, by the influences of his Spirit, enlighten, encourage, and strengthen their minds. It is the same word which is used in [Gen 1:2].

[¶38] Spreadeth abroad her wings, etc. - In order, not only to teach them how to fly, but to bear them when weary. For to this fact there seems an allusion, it having been generally believed that the eagle, through extraordinary affection for her young, takes them upon her back when they are weary of flying, so that the archers cannot injure them but by piercing the body of the mother. The same figure is used [Exo 19:4] (note); in the note. The נשר nesher, which we translate eagle, is supposed by Mr. Bruce to mean the rachama, a bird remarkable for its affection to its young, which it is known actually to bear on its back when they are weary.

### Verse 12

[¶40] So the Lord alone did lead him - By his power, and by his only, were they brought out of Egypt, and supported in the wilderness.

[¶41] And there was no strange god - They had help from no other quarter. The Egyptian idols were not able to save their own votaries; but God not only saved his people, but destroyed the Egyptians.

### Verse 13

[¶43] He made him ride - ירכבהו yarkibehu, he will cause him to ride. All the verbs here are in the future tense, because this is a prophecy of the prosperity they should possess in the promised land. The Israelites were to ride - exult, on the high places, the mountains and hills of their land, in which they are promised the highest degrees of prosperity; as even the rocky part of the country should be rendered fertile by the peculiar benediction of God.

[¶44] Suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock - This promise states that even the most barren places in the country should yield an abundance of aromatic flowers, from which the bees should collect honey in abundance; and even the tops of the rocks afford sufficient support for olive trees, from the fruit of which they should extract oil in abundance: and all this should be occasioned by the peculiar blessing of God upon the land.

## 210. Deuteronomy · 25 of 29

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### Verse 14

[¶1] Fat of kidneys of wheat - Almost every person knows that the kidney is enveloped in a coat of the purest fat in the body of the animal, for which several anatomical reasons might be given. As the kidney itself is to the abundantly surrounding fat, so is the germ of the grain to the lobes or farinaceous parts. The expression here may be considered as a very strong and peculiarly happy figure to point out the finest wheat, containing the healthiest and most vigorous germ, growing in a very large and nutritive grain; and consequently the whole figure points out to us a species of wheat, equally excellent both for seed and bread. This beautiful metaphor seems to have escaped the notice of every commentator.

[¶2] Pure blood of the grape - Red wine, or the pure juice of whatever color, expressed from the grapes, without any adulteration or mixture with water: blood here is synonymous with juice. This intimates that their vines should be of the best kind, and their wine in abundance, and of the most delicious flavour.

### Verse 15

[¶4] Jeshurun - ישרון the upright. This appellative is here put for Israel, and as it comes from ישר yashar, he was right, straight, may be intended to show that the people who once not only promised fair, but were really upright, walking in the paths of righteousness, should, in the time signified by the prophet, not only revolt from God, but actually fight against him; like a full fed horse, who not only will not bear the harness, but breaks away from his master, and endeavors to kick him as he struggles to get loose. All this is spoken prophetically, and is intended as a warning, that the evil might not take place. For were the transgression unavoidable, it must be the effect of some necessitating cause, which would destroy the turpitude of the action, as it referred to Israel; for if the evil were absolutely unavoidable, no blame could attach to the unfortunate agent, who could only consider himself the miserable instrument of a dire necessity. See a case in point, [1Sam 23:11-12] (note), where the prediction appears in the most absolute form, and yet the evil was prevented by the person receiving the prediction as a warning. The case is the following: -

[¶5] The Philistines attacked Keilah and robbed the threshing-floors; David, being informed of it, asked counsel of God whether he should go and relieve it; he is ordered to go, and is assured of success; he goes, routs the Philistines, and delivers Keilah. Saul, hearing that David was in Keilah, determines to besiege the place. David, finding that Saul meditated his destruction, asked counsel of the Lord, thus: "O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? And the Lord said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up. Then David and his men (about six hundred) arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go: and it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah, and he forbore to go forth." Here was the most positive prediction that Saul would come to Keilah, and that the men of Keilah would deliver David into his hands; yet neither of these events took place, because David departed from Keilah. But had he continued there, Saul would have come down, and the men of Keilah would have betrayed their deliverer. Thus the prediction was totally conditional; and so were all these prophecies relative to the apostasy of Israel. They were only fulfilled in those who did not receive them as warnings. See [Jer 18:8-10].

[¶6] The Rock of his salvation - He ceased to depend on the fountain whence his salvation issued; and thinking highly of himself, he lightly esteemed his God; and having ceased to depend on him, his fall became inevitable. The figure is admirably well supported through the whole verse. We see, first, a miserable, lean steed, taken under the care and into the keeping of a master who provides him with an abundance of provender. We see, secondly, this horse waxing fat under this keeping. We see him, thirdly, breaking away from his master, leaving his rich pasturage, and running to the wilderness, unwilling to bear the yoke or harness, or to make any returns for his master's care and attention. We see, fourthly, whence this conduct proceeds - from a want of consciousness that his strength depends upon his master's care and keeping; and a lack of consideration that leanness and wretchedness must be the consequence of his leaving his master's service, and running off from his master's pasturage. How easy to apply all these points to the case of the Israelites! and how illustrative of their former and latter state! And how powerfully do they apply to the case of many called Christians, who, having increased in riches, forget that God from whose hand alone those mercies flowed!

### Verse 17

[¶8] They sacrificed unto devils - The original word שדים shedim has been variously understood. The Syriac, Chaldee, Targums of Jerusalem and Jonathan, and the Samaritan, retain the original word: the Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, Persic, Coptic, and Anglo-Saxon, have devils or demons. The Septuagint has εθυσαν δαιμονιοις, they sacrificed to demons: the Vulgate copies the Septuagint: the Arabic has sheeateen, the plural of Sheetan, Satan, by which the rebellious angels appear to be intended, as the word comes from the root shatana, he was obstinate, proud, refractory, went far away. And it is likely that these fallen spirits, having utterly lost the empire at which they aimed, got themselves worshipped under various forms and names in different places. The Anglo-Saxon has devils.

[¶9] New gods that came newly up - מקרב באו mikkarob bau, "which came up from their neighbors;" viz., the Moabites and Amorites, whose gods they received and worshipped on their way through the wilderness, and often afterwards.

### Verse 18

[¶11] Of the Rock that begat thee - צור tsur, the first cause, the fountain of thy being. See the note on [Deu 32:4].

### Verse 19

[¶13] When the Lord saw it, etc. - More literally, And the Lord saw it, and through indignation he reprobated his sons and his daughters. That is, When the Lord shall see such conduct, he shall be justly incensed, and so reject and deliver up to captivity his sons and daughters.

### Verse 20

[¶15] Children in whom is no faith - לא אמן בם lo emon bam, "There is no steadfastness in them," they can never be depended on. They are fickle, because they are faithless.

### Verse 21

[¶17] They have moved me to jealousy - This verse contains a very pointed promise of the calling of the Gentiles, in consequence of the rejection of the Jews, threatened [Deu 32:19]; and to this great event it is applied by St. Paul, [Rom 10:19].

### Verse 22

[¶19] The lowest hell - שאול תחתית sheol tachtith, the very deepest destruction; a total extermination, so that the earth - their land, and its increase, and all their property, should be seized; and the foundations of their mountains - their strongest fortresses, should be razed to the ground. All this was fulfilled in a most remarkable manner in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, so that of the fortifications of that city not one stone was left on another. See the notes on Matthew 24 (note).

### Verse 23

[¶21] I will spend mine arrows upon them - The judgments of God in general are termed the arrows of God, [Job 6:4]; [Psa 38:2], [Psa 38:3]; [Psa 91:5]; see also [Eze 5:16]; [Jer 50:14]; [2Sam 22:14], [2Sam 22:15]. In this and the following verses, to the 28th inclusive, ([Deu 32:23-28]), God threatens this people with every species of calamity that could possibly fall upon man. How strange it is that, having this law continually in their hands, they should not discern those threatened judgments, and cleave to the Lord that they might be averted!

[¶22] It was customary among the heathens to represent any judgment from their gods under the notion of arrows, especially a pestilence; and one of their greatest deities, Apollo, is ever represented as bearing a bow and quiver full of deadly arrows; so Homer, Il. i., ver. 43, where he represents him, in answer to the prayer of his priest Chryses, coming to smite the Greeks with the pestilence: - Ὡς εφατ' ευχομενος· του δ' εκλυε Φοιβος Απολλων· Βη δε κατ' Ουλυμποιο καρηνων χωομενος κηρ, Τοξ' ωμοισιν εχων αμφηρεφεα τε φαρετρην. - Ἑζετ' επειτ' απανευθε νεων· μετα δ' ιον ἑηκε· Δεινη δε κλαγγη γενετ' αργυρεοιο βιοιο. κ. τ. λ. "Thus Chryses pray'd; the favoring power attends,

[¶23] And from Olympus' lofty tops descends.

[¶24] Bent was his bow the Grecian hearts to wound;

[¶25] Fierce as he moved, his silver shafts resound; -

[¶26] The fleet in view, he twang'd his deadly' bow,

[¶27] And hissing fly the feather'd fates below.

[¶28] On mules and dogs the infection first began;

[¶29] And last the vengeful arrows fix'd in man."

[¶30] How frequently the same figure is employed in the sacred writings, every careful reader knows; and quotations need not be multiplied.

### Verse 24

[¶32] They shall be burnt with hunger - Their land shall be cursed, and famine shall prevail. This is one of the arrows.

[¶33] Burning heat - No showers to cool the atmosphere; or rather boils, blains, and pestilential fevers; this was a second.

[¶34] Bitter destruction - The plague; this was a third.

[¶35] Teeth of beasts - with the poison of serpents - The beast of the field should multiply upon and destroy them; this was a fourth: and poisonous serpents, infesting all their steps, and whose mortal bite should produce the utmost anguish, were to be a fifth arrow. Added to all these, the sword of their enemies - terror among themselves, [Deu 32:25], and captivity were to complete their ruin, and thus the arrows of God were to be spent upon them. There is a beautiful saying in the Toozuki Teemour, which will serve to illustrate this point, while it exhibits one of the finest metaphors that occurs in any writer, the sacred writers excepted. "It was once demanded of the fourth Khaleefeh, (Aaly), on whom be the mercy of the Creator, 'If the canopy of heaven were a Bow; and if the earth were the cord thereof; and if calamities were Arrows; if mankind were the mark for those arrows; and if Almighty God, the tremendous and the glorious, were the unerring Archer; to whom could the sons of Adam flee for protection?' The Khaleefeh answered, saying, 'The sons of Adam must flee unto the Lord.'"

### Verse 27

[¶37] Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy - Houbigant and others contend that wrath here refers not to the enemy, but to God; and that the passage should be thus translated: "Indignation for the adversary deters me, lest their enemies should be alienated, and say, The strength of our hands, and not of the Lord's, hath done this." Had not God punished them in such a way as proved that his hand and not the hand of man had done it, the heathens would have boasted of their prowess, and Jehovah would have been blasphemed, as not being able to protect his worshippers, or to punish their infidelities. Titus, when he took Jerusalem, was so struck with the strength of the place, that he acknowledged that if God had not delivered it into his hands, the Roman armies never could have taken it.

### Verse 29

[¶39] That they would consider their latter end! - אחריתם archaritham, properly, their latter times - the glorious days of the Messiah, who, according to the flesh, should spring up among them. Should they carefully consider this subject, and receive the promised Savior, they would consequently act as persons under infinite obligations to God; his strength would be their shield, and then: -

### Verse 30

[¶41] How should one chase a thousand - If therefore they had not forgotten their Rock, God their author and defense, it could not possibly have come to pass that a thousand of them should flee before one of their enemies.

### Verse 31

[¶43] For their rock - The gods and pretended protectors of the Romans.

[¶44] Is not as our Rock - Have neither power nor influence like our God.

[¶45] Our enemies themselves being judges - For they often acknowledged the irresistible power of that God who fought for Israel. See [Exo 14:25]; [Num 23:8-12], [Num 23:19-21]; [1Sam 4:8].

## 211. Deuteronomy · 26 of 29

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[¶0] There is a passage in Virgil, Eclog. iv., ver. 58, very similar to this saying of Moses: -

[¶1] Pan Deus Arcadia mecum si judice certet,

[¶2] Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se judice victum. "Should the god Pan contend with me," (in singing the praises of the future hero, the deliverer, prophesied of in the Sibylline books), "were even

[¶3] Arcadia judge, Pan would acknowledge himself to be vanquished, Arcadia herself being judge."

### Verse 32

[¶5] For their vine is of the vine of Sodom - The Jews are as wicked and rebellious as the Sodomites; for by the vine the inhabitants of the land are signified; see [Isa 5:2], [Isa 5:7].

[¶6] Their grapes - Their actions, are gall and worm-wood-producing nothing but mischief and misery to themselves and others.

[¶7] Their clusters are bitter - Their united exertions, as well as their individual acts, are sin, and only sin, continually. That by vine is meant the people, and by grapes their moral conduct, is evident from [Isa 5:1-7]. It is very likely that the grapes produced about the lake Asphaltites, where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood, were not only of an acrid, disagreeable taste, but of a deleterious quality; and to this, it is probable, Moses here alludes.

### Verse 33

[¶9] Their wine - Their system of doctrines and teaching, is the poison of dragons, etc., fatal and destructive to all them who follow it.

### Verse 34

[¶11] Sealed up among my treasures? - Deeds or engagements by which persons were bound at a specified time to fulfill certain conditions, were sealed and laid up in places of safety; so here God's justice is pledged to avenge the quarrel of his broken covenant on the disobedient Jews, but the time and manner were sealed in his treasures, and known only to himself. Hence it is said: -

### Verse 35

[¶13] Their foot shall slide in due time, etc. - But Calmet thinks that this verse is spoken against the Canaanites, the enemies of the Jewish people.

### Verse 36

[¶15] The Lord shall judge his people - He has an absolute right over them as their Creator, and authority to punish them for their rebellions as their Sovereign; yet he will repent himself - he will change his manner of conduct towards them, when he seeth that their power is gone - when they are entirely subjugated by their adversaries, so that their political power is entirely destroyed; and there is none shut up or left - not one strong place untaken, and not one family left, all being carried into captivity, or scattered into strange lands. Or, he will do justice to his people, and avenge them of their adversaries; see [Deu 32:35].

### Verse 37

[¶17] He shall say - He shall begin to expostulate with them, to awaken them to a due sense of their ingratitude and rebellion. This may refer to the preaching of the Gospel to them in the latter days.

### Verse 39

[¶19] See now that I-am he - Be convinced that God alone can save, and God alone can destroy, and that your idols can neither hurt nor help you.

[¶20] I kill, and I make alive, etc. - My mercy is as great as my justice, for I am as ready to save the penitent as I was to punish the rebellious.

### Verse 40

[¶22] For I lift up my hand to heaven - See concerning oaths and appeals to God in the note on [Deu 6:13] (note).

### Verse 42

[¶24] From the beginning of revenges - The word פרעות paroth, rendered revenges, a sense in which it never appears to be taken, has rendered this place very perplexed and obscure. Mr. Parkhurst has rendered the whole passage thus: -

[¶25] I will make my arrows drunk with blood;

[¶26] And my sword shall devour flesh,

[¶27] With the blood of the slain and captive

[¶28] From the hairy head of the enemy.

[¶29] Probably מראש פרעות merosh paroth may be more properly translated, from the naked head - the enemy shall have nothing to shield him from my vengeance; the crown of dignity shall fall off, and even the helmet be no protection against the sword and arrows of the Lord.

### Verse 43

[¶31] Rejoice, O ye nations - Ye Gentiles, for the casting off of the Jews shall be the means of your ingathering with his people, for they shall not be utterly cast off. (See [Rom 15:9], for in this way the apostle applies it). But how shall the Gentiles be called, and the Jews have their iniquity purged? He will be merciful unto his land and to his people, וכפר vechipper, he shall cause an atonement to be made for his land and people; i. e., Jesus Christ, the long promised Messiah, shall be crucified for Jews and Gentiles, and the way to the holiest be made plain by his blood.

[¶32] The people have long been making atonements for themselves, but to none effect, for their atonements were but signs, and not the thing signified, for the body is Christ; now the Lord himself makes an atonement, for the Lamb of God alone taketh away the sin of the world. This is a very proper and encouraging conclusion to the awfully important matter of this poem.

[¶33] Israel shall be long scattered, peeled, and punished, but they shall have mercy in the latter times; they also shall rejoice with the Gentiles, in the common salvation purchased by the blood of the Savior of all mankind.

### Verse 44

[¶35] And Moses came - Probably from the tabernacle, where God had given him this prophetic ode, and he rehearsed it in the ears of the people.

### Verse 46

[¶37] Set your hearts unto all the words - Another proof that all these awful denunciations of Divine wrath, though delivered in an absolute form, were only declaratory of what God would do If they rebelled against him.

### Verse 47

[¶39] Through this thing ye shall prolong your days - Instead of being cut off, as God here threatens, ye shall be preserved and rendered prosperous in the land which, when they passed over Jordan, they should possess.

### Verse 49

[¶41] Get thee up into this mountain Abarim - The mount of the passages, i. e., of the Israelites when they entered into the promised land. See the notes on [Num 27:12].

### Verse 50

[¶43] And die in the mount - as Aaron - Some have supposed that Moses was translated; but if so, then Aaron was translated, for what is said of the death of the one is said of the death of the other.

## 212. Deuteronomy · 27 of 29

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### Verse 51

[¶1] Ye trespassed against me - at the waters of Meribah - See the note on [Num 20:12].

### Verse 52

[¶3] Thou shalt see the land before thee - See [Num 27:12], etc. How glorious to depart out of this life with God in his heart and heaven in his eye! his work, his great, unparalleled usefulness, ending only with his life. The serious reader will surely join in the following pious ejaculation of the late Rev. Charles Wesley, one of the best Christian poets of the last century: - "O that without a lingering groan

[¶4] I may the welcome word receive;

[¶5] My body with my charge lay down,

[¶6] And cease at once to work and live!"

[¶7] It would require a dissertation expressly formed for the purpose to point out the general merit and extraordinary beauties of this very sublime ode. To enter into such particulars can scarcely comport with the nature of the present work. Drs. Lowth, Kennicott, and Durell, have done much in this way; and to their respective works the critical reader is referred. A very considerable extract from what they have written on this chapter may be found in Dr. Dodd's notes. In writing this ode the design of Moses was,

[¶8] 1. To set forth the Majesty of God; to give that generation and all successive ones a proper view of the glorious perfections of the object of their worship. He therefore shows that from his holiness and purity he must be displeased with sin; from his justice and righteousness he must punish it; and from the goodness and infinite benevolence of his nature he is ever disposed to help the weak, instruct the ignorant, and show mercy to the wretched, sinful sons and daughters of men.

[¶9] 2. To show the duty and interest of his people. To have such a Being for their friend is to have all possible happiness, both spiritual and temporal, secured; to have him for their enemy is to be exposed to inevitable destruction and ruin.

[¶10] 3. To warn them against irreligion and apostasy; to show the possibility of departing from God, and the miseries that would overwhelm them and their posterity should they be found walking in opposition to the laws of their Creator.

[¶11] 4. To give a proper and impressive view of the providence of God, by referring to the history of his gracious dealings with them and their ancestors; the minute attention he paid to all their wants, the wonderful manner in which he led, fed, clothed, protected, and saved them, in all their travels and in all perils.

[¶12] 5. To leave on record an everlasting testimony against them, should they ever cast off his fear and pollute his worship, which should serve at once as a warning to the world, and a vindication of his justice, when the judgments he had threatened were found to be poured out upon them; for he who loved them so long and so intensely could not become their enemy but in consequence of the greatest and most unprincipled provocations.

[¶13] 6. To show the shocking and unprecedented ingratitude which induced a people so highly favored, and so wondrously protected and loved, to sin against their God; and how reasonable and just it was, for the vindication of his holiness, that God should pour out upon them such judgments as he had never inflicted on any other people, and so mark their disobedience and ingratitude with fresh marks of his displeasure, that the punishment should bear some proportion to the guilt, and that their preservation as a distinct people might afford a feeling proof both of the providence and justice of God.

[¶14] 7. To show the glory of the latter days in the re-election of the long reprobated Jewish nation, and the final diffusion of his grace and goodness over the earth by means of the Gospel of Christ.

[¶15] And all this is done with such strength and elegance of diction, with such appropriate, energetic, and impressive figures and metaphors, and in such a powerful torrent of that soul-penetrating, pure poetic spirit that comes glowing from the bosom of God, that the reader is alternately elated or depressed, filled with compunction or confidence, with despair or hope, according to the quick transitions of the inimitable writer to the different topics which form the subject of this incomparable and wondrously varied ode. May that Spirit by which it was dictated give it its fullest, most durable, and most effectual impression upon the mind of every reader!

### Introduction

[¶17] Moses delivers a prophetical blessing to the children of Israel, [Deu 33:1]. The introduction, [Deu 33:2-5]. Prophetic declarations concerning Reuben, [Deu 33:6]; concerning Judah, [Deu 33:7]; concerning Levi, [Deu 33:8-11]; concerning Benjamin, [Deu 33:12]; concerning Joseph, [Deu 33:13-17]; concerning Zebulun, [Deu 33:18], [Deu 33:19]; concerning Gad, [Deu 33:20], [Deu 33:21]; concerning Dan, [Deu 33:22]; concerning Naphtali, [Deu 33:23]; concerning Asher, [Deu 33:24], [Deu 33:25]. The glory of the God of Jeshurun, and the glorious privileges of his true followers, [Deu 33:26-29].

### Verse 1

[¶19] And this is the blessing wherewith Moses - blessed, etc. - The general nature of this solemn introduction, says Dr. Kennicott, is to show the foundation which Moses had for blessing his brethren, viz., because God had frequently manifested his glory in their behalf; and the several parts of this introduction are disposed in the following order: -

[¶20] 1. The manifestation of the Divine glory on Sinai, as it was prior in time and more magnificent in splendor, is mentioned first.

[¶21] 2. That God manifested his glory at Seir is evident from [Jdg 5:4] : Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the fields of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, etc.

[¶22] 3. The next place is Paran, where the glory of the Lord appeared before all the children of Israel, [Num 14:10].

[¶23] Instead of he came with ten thousand saints, by which our translators have rendered מרבבת קדש meribeboth kodesh, Dr. Kennicott reads Meribah-Kadesh, the name of a place: for we find that, towards the end of forty years, the Israelites came to Kadesh, [Num 20:1], which was also called Meribah, on account of their contentious opposition to the determinations of God in their favor, [Num 20:13]; and there the glory of the Lord again appeared, as we are informed [Num 20:6]. These four places, Sinai, Seir, Paran, and Meribah-Kadesh, mentioned by Moses in the text, are the identical places where God manifested his glory in a fiery appearance, the more illustriously to proclaim his special providence over and care of Israel.

### Verse 3

[¶25] Yea, he loved the people - This is the inference which Moses makes from those glorious appearances, that God truly loved the people; and that all his saints, קדשיו kedoshaiv, the people whom he had consecrated to himself, were under his especial benediction; and that in order to make them a holy nation, God had displayed his glory on Mount Sinai, where they had fallen prostrate at his feet with the humblest adoration, sincerely promising the most affectionate obedience; and that God had there commanded them a law which was to be the possession and inheritance of the children of Jacob, [Deu 33:4]. And to crown the whole, he had not only blessed them as their lawgiver, but had also vouchsafed to be their king, [Deu 33:5].

[¶26] Dr. Kennicott proposes to translate the whole five verses thus: -

### Verse 1

[¶28] And this is the blessing wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death - And he said [Deu 33:2]. Jehovah came from Sinai, And he arose upon them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And he came from Meribah-kadesh: From his right hand a fire shone forth upon them. [Deu 33:3]. Truly, he loved the people, And he blessed all his saints For they fell down at his feet, And they received of his words. [Deu 33:4]. He commanded us a law, The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. [Deu 33:5]. And he became king in Jeshurun; When the heads of the people were assembled, Together with the tribes of Israel.

[¶29] We have already seen that Dr. Kennicott reads מריבה קדש Meribah-Kadesh, the name of a place, instead of מרבבת קדש meribeboth kodesh, which, by a most unnatural and forced construction, our version renders ten thousands of saints, a translation which no circumstance of the history justifies. Instead of a fiery law, אש דת esh dath, he reads, following the Samaritan version, אש אור esh ur, a fire shining out upon them. In vindication of this change in the original, it may be observed,

[¶30] 1. That, though דת dath signifies a law, yet it is a Chaldee term, and appears nowhere in any part of the sacred writings previously to the Babylonish captivity: תורה torah being the term constantly used to express the Law, at all times prior to the corruption of the Hebrew, by the Chaldee.

[¶31] 2. That the word itself is obscure in its present situation, as the Hebrew Bibles write it and esh in one word אשדת eshdath, which has no meaning; and which, in order to give it one, the Massorah directs should be read separate, though written connected.

[¶32] 3. That the word is not acknowledged by the two most ancient versions, the Septuagint and Syriac.

[¶33] 4. That in the parallel place, [Hab 3:3], [Hab 3:4], a word is used which expresses the rays of light, קרנים karnayim, horns, that is, splendours, rays, or effulgence of light.

[¶34] 5. That on all these accounts, together with the almost impossibility of giving a rational meaning to the text as it now stands, the translation contended for should be adopted.

[¶35] Instead of All his saints are in his hand, Dr. Kennicott reads, He blessed all his saints - changing בידך beyadecha, into ברך barach, he blessed, which word, all who understand the Hebrew letters will see, might be easily mistaken for the other; the ד daleth and the ר resh being, not only in MSS., but also in printed books, often so much alike, that analogy alone can determine which is the true letter; and except in the insertion of the י yod, which might have been easily mistaken for the apex at the top of the ב beth very frequent in MSS., both words have the nearest resemblance. To this may be added, that the Syriac authorizes this rendering. Instead of לרגלך leraglecha, and מדברתיך middabberotheycha, Thy feet, and Thy words, Dr. Kennicott reads the pronouns in the third person singular, לרגליו leraglaiv and מדברותיו middabberothaiv, His feet, His words, in which he is supported both by the Septuagint and Vulgate. He also changes ישא yissa, He shall receive, into ישאו yisseu, They shall receive. He contends also that משה Mosheh, Moses, in the fourth verse, was written by mistake for the following word מורשה morashah, inheritance; and when the scribe found he had inserted a wrong word, he added the proper one, and did not erase the first. The word Moses, he thinks, should therefore be left out of the text, as it is improbable that he should here introduce his own name; and that if the word be allowed to be legitimate, then the word king must apply to him, and not to God, which would be most absurd. See Kennicott's first Dissertation, p. 422, etc.

### Verse 6

[¶37] Let Reuben live, and not die - Though his life and his blessings have been forfeited by his transgression with his father's concubine, [Gen 49:3], [Gen 49:4]; and in his rebellion with Korah, [Num 16:1-3], etc., let him not become extinct as a tribe in Israel. "It is very usual," says Mr. Ainsworth, "in the Scripture, to set down things of importance and earnestness, by affirmation of the one part, and denial of the other; [Isa 38:1] : Thou shalt die, and not live; [Num 4:19] : That they may live, and not die; [Psa 118:17] : I shall not die, but live; [Gen 43:8] : That we may live, and not die; [Jer 20:14] : Cursed be the day - let not that day be blessed; [1Jn 2:4] : He is a liar, and the truth is not in him; [1Jn 2:27] : Is truth, and no lie; [Joh 1:20] : He confessed, and denied not; [1Sam 1:11] : Remember me, and not forget thy handmaid; [Deu 9:7] : Remember, forget not; [Deu 32:6] : O foolish people, and unwise. In all these places it is evident that there is a peculiar emphasis in this form of expression, as if he had said, Let him not only not die, but let him live in great and increasing peace and prosperity. Do not only not forget me, but keep me continually in remembrance. He denied not, but confessed Fully and Particularly. O foolish people - silly and stupid, and unwise - destitute of all true wisdom."

[¶38] And let not his men be few - It is possible that this clause belongs to Simeon. In the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint the clause stands thus: Και Συμεων εστω πολυς εν αριτμῳ, and let Simeon be very numerous, but none of the other versions insert the word. As the negative particle is not in the Hebrew, but is supplied in our translation, and the word Simeon is found in one of the most ancient and most authentic copies of the Septuagint version; and as Simeon is nowhere else mentioned here, if not implied in this place, probably the clause anciently stood: Let Reuben live, and not die; but let the men of Simeon be few. That this tribe was small when compared with the rest, and with what it once was, is evident enough from the first census, taken after they came out of Egypt, and that in the plains of Moab nearly forty years after. In the first, Simeon was 59,300; in the last, 22,200, a decrease of 37,100 men!

### Verse 7

[¶40] And this is the blessing of Judah - Though the word blessing is not in the text, yet it may be implied from [Deu 33:1]; but probably the words, he spake, are those which should be supplied: And this he spake of Judah, Lord, hear the voice of Judah; that is, says the Targum, receive his prayer when he goes out to battle, and let him be brought back in safety to his own people. Let his hands be sufficient for him - let him have a sufficiency of warriors always to support the tribe, and vindicate its rights; and let his enemies never be able to prevail against him! Three things are expressed here:

[¶41] 1. That the tribe of Judah, conscious of its weakness, shall depend on the Most High, and make prayer and supplication to him;

[¶42] 2. That God will hear such prayer; and,

[¶43] 3. That his hands shall be increased, and that he shall prevail over his enemies. This blessing has a striking affinity with that which this tribe received from Jacob, [Gen 49:9]; and both may refer to our blessed Lord, who sprang from this tribe, as is noticed on the above passage, who has conquered our deadly foes by his death, and whose praying posterity ever prevail through his might.

### Verse 8

[¶45] Of Levi he said - Concerning the Urim and Thummim, see [Exo 28:30] (note).

## 213. Deuteronomy · 28 of 29

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[¶0] Thy holy one - Aaron primarily, who was anointed the high priest of God, and whose office was the most holy that man could be invested with.

[¶1] Therefore Aaron was called God's holy one, and the more especially so as he was the type of the Most Holy and blessed Jesus, from whom the Urim - all light and wisdom, and Thummim - all excellence, completion, and perfection, are derived.

[¶2] Whom thou didst prove, etc. - God contended with Aaron as well as with Moses at the waters of Meribah, and excluded him from the promised land because he did not sanctify the Lord before the people.

[¶3] From the words of St. Paul, [1Cor 10:8-12], it is evident that these words, at least in a secondary sense, belong to Christ. He is the Holy One who was tempted by them at Massah, who suffered their manners in the wilderness, who slew 23,000 of the most incorrigible transgressors, and who brought them into the promised land by his deputy, Joshua, whose name and that of Jesus have the same signification.

### Verse 9

[¶5] Who said unto his father, etc. - There are several difficulties in this and the following verses. Some think they are spoken of the tribe of Levi; others, of all the tribes; others, of the Messiah, etc.; but several of the interpretations founded on these suppositions are too recondite, and should not be resorted to till a plain literal sense is made out. I suppose the whole to be primarily spoken of Aaron and the tribe of Levi. Let us examine the words in this way, Who said unto his father, etc. The law had strictly enjoined that if the father, mother, brother, or child of the high priest should die, he must not mourn for them, but act as if they were not his kindred; see [Lev 21:11], [Lev 21:12]. Neither must Aaron mourn for his sons Nadab and Abihu, etc., though not only their death, but the circumstances of it, were the most afflicting that could possibly affect a parent's heart. Besides, the high priest was forbidden, on pain of death, to go out from the door of the tabernacle, [Lev 10:2-7], for God would have them more to regard their function (as good Mr. Ainsworth observes) and duty in his service, than any natural affection whatever. And herein Christ was figured, who, when he was told that his mother and brethren stood without, and wished to speak with him, said: "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? whosoever shall do the will of my father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother;" [Mat 12:46-50]. It is likely also that Moses may refer here to the fact of the Levites, according to the command of Moses, killing every man his brother, friend, neighbor, and even son, who had sinned in worshipping the golden calf, [Exo 32:26]; and in this way the Chaldee paraphrast understands the words.

### Verse 10

[¶7] They shall teach Jacob, etc. - This was the office of the Levites, to teach, by their significant service and typical ceremonies, the way of righteousness and truth to the children of Israel. And of their faithfulness in this respect God bears testimony by the prophet, "My covenant was with him of life and peace," [Mal 2:5]; and, "The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity;" [Mal 2:6]. These words are a sufficient comment on the words of the text.

### Verse 11

[¶9] Bless, Lord, his substance - The blessing of God to the tribe of Levi was peculiarly necessary, because they had no inheritance among the children of Israel, and lived more immediately than others upon the providence of God. Yet, as they lived by the offerings of the people and the tithes, the increase of their substance necessarily implied the increase of the people at large: the more fruitful the land was, the more abundant would the tithes of the Levites be; and thus in the increased fertility of the land the substance of Levi would be blessed.

### Verse 12

[¶11] Of Benjamin - the beloved of the Lord - Alluding to his being particularly beloved of his father Jacob, [Gen 49:27], etc.

[¶12] Shall dwell in safety by him - That is, by the Lord, whose temple, which is considered as his dwelling-place, was in the tribe of Benjamin, for a part of Jerusalem belonged to this tribe.

[¶13] Shall cover him all the day - Be his continual protector; and he shall dwell between his shoulders - within his coasts, or in his chief city, viz., Jerusalem, where the temple of God was built, on his mountains Zion and Moriah, here poetically termed his shoulders.

[¶14] Some object to our translation of the Hebrew ידיד yedid by the term beloved, and think the original should be divided as it is in the Samaritan, יד יד yad yad, the hand, even the hand of the Lord shall dwell for safety or protection, עליו alaiv, upon him. This makes a good sense, and the reader may choose.

### Verse 13

[¶16] Blessed - be his land - The whole of this passage certainly relates to the peculiar fertility of the soil in the portion that fell to this tribe which, the Jews say, yielded a greater abundance of all good things than any other part of the promised land.

[¶17] The precious things of heaven - The peculiar mildness and salubrity of its atmosphere.

[¶18] For the dew - A plentiful supply of which was a great blessing in the dry soil of a hot climate. The deep that coucheth beneath - Probably referring to the plentiful supply of water which should be found in digging wells: hence the Septuagint have αβυσσων πηγων, fountains of the deeps. Some suppose there has been a slight change made in the word מטל mittal, for the dew, which was probably at first מעל meal, From Above, and then the passage would read thus: For the precious things of heaven From Above, and for the deep that coucheth Beneath. This reading is confirmed by several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The Syriac and Chaldee have both readings: The dew of heaven from above.

### Verse 14

[¶20] The precious fruits brought forth by the sun - All excellent and important productions of the earth, which come to perfection once in the year. So the precious things put forth by the moon may imply those vegetables which require but about a month to bring them to perfection, or vegetables of which several crops may be had in the course of a year.

### Verse 15

[¶22] The chief things of the ancient mountains - ומראש הררי קדם umerosh harerey kedem, and from the head or top of the ancient or eastern mountains, the precious things or productions being still understood. And this probably refers to the large trees, etc., growing on the mountain tops, and the springs of water issuing from them. The mountains of Gilead may be here intended, as they fell to the half tribe of Manasseh. And the precious things of the lasting hills may signify the metals and minerals which might be digged out of them.

### Verse 16

[¶24] The good will of him that dwelt in the bush - The favor of him who appeared in the burning bush on Mount Sinai, who there, in his good will - mere love and compassion, took Israel to be his people; and who has preserved and will preserve, in tribulation and distress, all those who trust in him, so that they shall as surely escape unhurt, as the bush, though enveloped with fire, was unburnt.

[¶25] The top of the head, etc. - The same words are used by Jacob in blessing this tribe, [Gen 49:26]. The meaning appears to be that God should distinguish this tribe in a particular way, as Joseph himself was separated, נזיר nazir, a Nazarite, a consecrated prince to God, from among and in preference to all his brethren. See the notes on [Gen 49:25], etc.

### Verse 17

[¶27] His glory is like the firstling of his bullock - This similitude is very obscure. A bullock was the most excellent of animals among the Jews, not only because of its acceptableness in sacrifice to God, but because of its great usefulness in agriculture. There is something peculiarly noble and dignified in the appearance of the ox, and his greatest ornament are his fine horns; these the inspired penman has particularly in view, as the following clause proves; and it is well known that in Scriptural language horns are the emblem of strength, glory, and sovereignty; [Psa 75:5], [Psa 75:10]; [Psa 89:17], [Psa 89:24]; [Psa 112:9]; [Dan 8:3], etc.; [Luk 1:69]; [Rev 17:3], etc.

[¶28] His horns are like the horns of unicorns - ראם reem, which we translate unicorn, from the μονοκερως monokeros of the Septuagint, signifies, according to Bochart, the mountain goat; and according to others, the rhinoceros, a very large quadruped with one great horn on his nose, from which circumstance his name is derived. See the notes on [Num 23:22]; [Num 24:8]. Reem is in the singular number, and because the horns of a unicorn, a one-horned animal, would have appeared absurd, our translators, with an unfaithfulness not common to them, put the word in the plural number.

[¶29] To the ends of the earth - Of the land of Canaan, for Joshua with his armies conquered all this land, and drove the ancient inhabitants out before him.

[¶30] They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, etc. - That is, The horns signify the ten thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh. Jacob prophesied, [Gen 48:19], that the younger should be greater than the elder; so here Tens of thousands are given to Ephraim, and only thousands to Manasseh. See the census, [Num 1:33-35] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶32] Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out - That is, Thou shalt be very prosperous in thy coasting voyages; for this tribe's situation was favorable for traffic, having many sea-ports. See [Gen 49:13] (note).

[¶33] And, Issachar, in thy tents - That is, as Zebulun should be prosperous in his shipping and traffic, so should Issachar be in his tents - his agriculture and pasturage.

### Verse 19

[¶35] They shall call the people unto the mountain - By their traffic with the Gentiles (for so I think עמים ammim should be understood here) they shall be the instruments in God's hands of converting many to the true faith; so that instead of sacrificing to idols, they should offer sacrifices of righteousness.

[¶36] They shall suck of the abundance of the seas - That is, grow wealthy by merchandise.

[¶37] And of treasures hid in the sand - Jonathan ben Uzziel has probably hit upon the true meaning of this difficult passage: "From the sand," says he, "are produced looking-glasses and glass in general; the treasures - the method of finding and working this, was revealed to these tribes." Several ancient writers inform us that there were havens in the coasts of the Zebulunites in which the vitreous sand, or sand proper for making glass, was found. See Strabo, lib. xvi.; see also Pliny, Hist. Nat. l. xxxvi., c. 26; Tacitus, Hist. l. v., c. 7. The words of Tacitus are remarkable: Et Belus amnis Judaico mari illabitur; circa ejus os lectae arenae admixto nitro in vitrum excoquuntur. "The river Belus falls into the Jewish sea, about whose mouth those sands, mixed with nitre, are collected, out of which glass is formed," or which is melted into glass. Some think that the celebrated shell-fish called murex, out of which the precious purple dye was extracted, is here intended by the treasure hid in the sand: this also Jonathan introduces in this verse. And others think that it is a general term for the advantages derived from navigation and commerce.

### Verse 20

[¶39] Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad - As deliverance out of distress is termed enlarging, (see [Psa 4:1]), this may refer to God's deliverance of the tribe of Gad out of that distress mentioned [Gen 49:19], and to the enlargement obtained through means of Jephthah, [Jdg 11:33], and probably also to the victories obtained by Gad and Reuben over the Hagarites, [1Chr 5:18-20].

[¶40] He dwelleth as a lion - Probably the epithet of lion or lion-like was applied to this tribe from their fierce and warlike disposition. And on this supposition, [1Chr 12:8], will appear to be a sufficient comment: And of the Gadites there were men of might, men of war for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were Like The Faces Of Lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains. Tearing the arm or shoulder with the crown of the head seems simply to mean that no force should be able to prevail over them, or stand against them; as the arm or shoulder signifies dominion, and the crown of the head, sovereign princes.

### Verse 21

[¶42] He provided the first part - That is, he chose for himself a very excellent portion, viz., the land of Sihon and Og, in which this tribe had requested to be settled by the lawgiver, viz., Moses, from whom they requested this portion, [Num 32:1-5].

[¶43] He came with the heads of the people - Notwithstanding this portion fell unto them on the east side of Jordan, yet they proceeded with the heads of the people, the chiefs of the other tribes.

[¶44] To execute the justice of the Lord - To extirpate the old inhabitants of the country, according to the decree and purpose of the Lord. See on Numbers 32 (note).

## 214. Deuteronomy · 29 of 29

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### Verse 22

[¶1] Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan - The Jewish interpreters observe that Bashan was a place much frequented by lions, who issued thence into all parts to look for prey. By this probably Moses intended to point out the strength and prowess of this tribe, that it should extend its territories, and live a sort of predatory life. It appears from [Jos 19:47], that the portion originally assigned to this tribe was not sufficient for them; hence we find them going out to war against Leshem and taking it, adding it to their territories, and calling it by the name of the tribe. Jacob, in his prophetic blessing of this tribe, represents it under the notion of a serpent in the path, [Gen 49:17]. The character there, and that given here, constitute the complete warrior-stratagem and courage. See the note on [Gen 49:17].

### Verse 23

[¶3] O Naphtali, satisfied with favor - Though this may refer to the very great fertility of the country that fell to this tribe, yet certainly something more is intended. Scarcely any of the tribes was more particularly favored by the wondrous mercy and kindness of God, than this and the tribe of Zebulun. The light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shone brightly here, [Mat 4:13], [Mat 4:15], [Mat 4:16]. Christ's chief residence was at Capernaum in this tribe, [Mat 9:1]; [Mar 2:1]; and this city, through Christ's constant residence, and the mighty miracles he wrought in it, is represented as being exalted unto heaven, [Mat 11:23]. And it is generally allowed that the apostles were principally of the tribe of Naphtali, who were to possess the west and the south - to dispense the Gospel through all the other tribes. The word ים yam, which we here translate west, literally signifies the sea, and probably refers to the sea of Gennesareth, which was in this tribe.

### Verse 24

[¶5] Let Asher be blessed with children - Let him have a numerous posterity, continually increasing.

[¶6] Let him be acceptable to his brethren - May he be in perfect union and harmony with the other tribes.

[¶7] Let him dip his foot in oil - Let him have a fertile soil, and an abundance of all the conveniences and comforts of life.

### Verse 25

[¶9] Thy shoes shall be iron and brass - Some suppose this may refer to the iron and copper mines in their territory; but it is more likely that it relates to their warlike disposition, as we know that greaves, boots, shoes, etc., of iron, brass, and tin, were used by ancient warriors. Goliath had greaves of brass on his legs, [1Sam 17:6]; and the brazen-booted Greeks, χαλκοκνημιδες Αχαιοι, is one of the epithets given by Homer to his heroes; see Iliad. lib. viii., ver. 41.

[¶10] And as thy days, so shall thy strength be - If we take this clause as it appears here, we have at once an easy sense; and the saying, I have no doubt, has comforted the souls of multitudes. The meaning is obvious: "Whatever thy trials or difficulties may be, I shall always give thee grace to support thee under and bring thee through them." The original is only two words, the latter of which has been translated in a great variety of ways, וכימיך דבאך ucheyameycha dobecha. Of the first term there can be no doubt, it literally means, and as thy days; the second word, דבא dobe, occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible: the Septuagint have rendered it by ισχυς, strength, and most of the versions have followed them; but others have rendered it affliction, old age, fame, weakness, etc., etc. It would be almost endless to follow interpreters through their conjectures concerning its meaning. It is allowed among learned men, that where a word occurs not as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, its root may be legitimately sought in the Arabic. He who controverts this position knows little of the ground on which he stands. In this language the root is found; daba signifies he rested, was quiet. This gives a very good sense, and a very appropriate one; for as the borders of this tribe lay on the vicinity of the Phoenicians, it was naturally to be expected that they should be constantly exposed to irruptions, pillage, etc.; but God, to give them confidence in his protection, says, According to thy days - all circumstances and vicissitudes, so shall thy Rest be - while faithful to thy God no evil shall touch thee; thy days shall increase, and thy quiet be lengthened out. This is an unfailing promise of God: "I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon me, because he trusteth in me;" therefore "trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength;" [Isa 26:4]. Some derive it from dabi, he abounded in riches; the interpretation then would be, As thy days increase, so shall thy riches. This makes a very good sense also. See Rosenmuller.

[¶11] Moses, having now finished what God gave him to predict concerning the twelve tribes, and what he was led in the fullness of his heart to pray for in their behalf, addresses all the tribes collectively under the names Jeshurun and Israel; and in an ode of astonishing energy and elegance describes this wondrous people, and their still more wonderful privileges. The reader will observe that, though the latter part of this chapter appears in the form of prose in our Bibles, yet it is written in hemistichs or short metrical lines in the original, which is the form in which all the Hebrew poetry is written; and as in other cases, so in this, it would contribute much to the easy understanding of the author's meaning, were the translation produced in lines corresponding to those of the original.

### Verse 26

[¶13] There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun - We have already seen the literal meaning of Jeshurun, [Deu 32:15]; but besides its literal meaning, it seems to be used as an expression of particular affection: hence Calmet understands it as a diminutive of the word Israel. We know that τεκνοι, sons, in the mouth of St. John, signifies much less than τεκνια, which, properly translated, would be beloved children, a term which at once shows the helplessness of the offspring, and the tender affection of the parent. So Jeshurun may be understood here: and hence the Septuagint seem to have apprehended the full force of the word by translating it του ηγαπημενου, the beloved one, the object of God's especial delight.

[¶14] Israel's God, and God's Israel, have no fellows. What were all the gods of the nations, even supposing they were real beings, in comparison of the Almighty? And what nation under heaven could be compared to the Israel of God? It was, however, from God's excellence that they derived theirs.

[¶15] Rideth upon the heaven, etc. - Unites heaven and earth in thy defense and support, and comes with irresistible velocity to succor and defend thee, and to discomfit thine adversaries.

### Verse 27

[¶17] The eternal God - אלהי קדם elohey kedem, the former God; He who was of old. Not like the gods which were lately come up. He who ever was and ever will be; and He who was, is, and will be unchangeably holy, wise, just, and merciful. See the note on [Gen 21:33].

[¶18] Everlasting arms - As the arm is the emblem of power, and of power in a state of exertion, the words here state that an unlimited and unconquerable power shall be eternally exerted in the defense of God's Church, and in the behalf of all those who trust in Him.

[¶19] Thrust out the enemy - He will expel all the ancient inhabitants, and put thee in possession of their land.

### Verse 28

[¶21] Israel then shall dwell - alone - This people shall not be incorporated with any other people under heaven. A prophecy which continues to be fulfilled to the very letter. Every attempt to unite them with any other people has proved absolutely ineffectual.

[¶22] The fountain of Jacob - His offspring, shall possess a most fertile land; such was Palestine.

### Verse 29

[¶24] Happy art thou, etc. - אשרי ashrey. O the happiness of Israel! it is ineffable, inconceivable, because they are a people saved by the Lord - have such a salvation as it becomes the infinite perfections of God to bestow; he is their help - their never-failing strength, and the shield of that help - he defends their defense, saves them and preserves them in the state of salvation.

[¶25] Sword of thy excellency - Or whose sword - his all-conquering Word, is thine excellency, in its promises, threatenings, precepts, etc., etc. St. Paul, in his exhortation to the Christians at Ephesus, uses the same metaphor, Take unto you the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

[¶26] Thine enemies shall be found liars - Who said thou shouldst never be able to gain the possession of this good land; for thou shalt tread on - subdue, their high places - even their best fortified cities.

[¶27] The blessings contained in this chapter belong also to the spiritual Israel of God, who, according to the Divine promise, shall have a complete victory over all their spiritual foes, shall have all their inward enemies, the whole of the carnal mind, destroyed, (for the blood of Jesus Christ, applied by the energy of the eternal Spirit, shall not only blot out all their sin, but purify their hearts from all unrighteousness); and thus, being delivered from their enemies, they shall love God with all their heart, and serve him in righteousness and true holiness, without fear before him all the days of their life. There are many circumstances and expressions in this ode similar to several in the prophetical blessing pronounced by Jacob on his twelve sons, Gen. 49, for the subject is the same in both chapters, the reader is therefore requested to compare the two places, and to consider the notes on each, as they have some tendency to cast light on each other. Both these chapters constitute a part of those Scriptures which, according to St. Paul, [Rom 15:4], were written for our learning; and, as to instruct the reader and make him wise unto salvation was the gracious design of God, we should particularly beg of him "that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, by patience and comfort of his holy word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which he has given us in our Savior Jesus Christ" - Collect for the second Sunday in Advent.

### Introduction

[¶29] Moses goes up Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, and God shews him the whole extent of the land which he promised to give to the descendants of Abraham, [Deu 34:1-4]. There Moses died, and was so privately buried by the Lord that his sepulcher was never discovered, [Deu 34:5], [Deu 34:6]. His age and strength of constitution, [Deu 34:7]. The people weep for him thirty days, [Deu 34:8]. Joshua being filled with the spirit of wisdom, the Israelites hearken to him, as the Lord commanded them, [Deu 34:9]. The character of Moses as a prophet, and as a worker of the most extraordinary miracles, both in the sight of the Egyptians, and the people of Israel: conclusion of the Pentateuch, [Deu 34:10-12].

### Verse 1

[¶31] And Moses went up - This chapter could not have been written by Moses. A man certainly cannot give an account of his own death and burial. We may therefore consider Moses's words as ending with the conclusion of the preceding chapter, as what follows could not possibly have been written by himself. To suppose that he anticipated these circumstances, or that they were shown to him by an especial revelation, is departing far from propriety and necessity, and involving the subject in absurdity; for God gives no prophetic intimations but such as are absolutely necessary to be made; but there is no necessity here, for the Spirit which inspired the writer of the following book, would naturally communicate the matter that concludes this. I believe, therefore, that [Deu 34:1-12], should constitute the first chapter of the book of Joshua.

[¶32] On this subject the following note from an intelligent Jew cannot be unacceptable to the reader: - "Most commentators are of opinion that Ezra was the author of the last chapter of Deuteronomy; some think it was Joshua, and others the seventy elders, immediately after the death of Moses; adding, that the book of Deuteronomy originally ended with the prophetic blessing upon the twelve tribes: 'Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord,' etc.; and that what now makes the last chapter of Deuteronomy was formerly the first of Joshua, but was removed from thence and joined to the former by way of supplement. This opinion will not appear unnatural if it be considered that sections and other divisions, as well as points and pauses, were invented long since these books were written; for in those early ages several books were connected together, and followed each other on the same roll. The beginning of one book might therefore be easily transferred to the end of another, and in process of time be considered as its real conclusion, as in the case of Deuteronomy, especially as this supplemental chapter contains an account of the last transactions and death of the great author of the Pentateuch." - Alexander's Heb. and Eng. Pentateuch.

[¶33] This seems to be a perfectly correct view of the subject. This chapter forms a very proper commencement to the book of Joshua, for of this last chapter of Deuteronomy the first chapter of Joshua is an evident continuation. If the subject be viewed in this light it will remove every appearance of absurdity and contradiction with which, on the common mode of interpretation, it stands sadly encumbered.

### Verse 5

[¶35] So Moses - died - according to the word of the Lord - על פי יהוה al pi Yehovah, at the mouth of Jehovah; i. e., by the especial command and authority of the Lord; but it is possible that what is here said refers only to the sentence of his exclusion from the promised land, when he offended at the waters of Meribah.

### Verse 6

[¶37] He buried him - It is probable that the reason why Moses was buried thus privately was, lest the Israelites, prone to idolatry, should pay him Divine honors; and God would not have the body of his faithful servant abused in this way. Almost all the gods of antiquity were defiled men, great lawgivers, eminent statesmen, or victorious generals. See the account of the life of Moses at the end of this chapter, [Deu 34:10] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶39] His eye was not dim - Even at the advanced age of a hundred and twenty; nor his natural force abated - he was a young man even in old age, notwithstanding the unparalleled hardships he had gone through. See the account of his life at the end of this chapter, [Deu 34:10] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶41] Laid his hands upon him - See on [Num 27:18-23] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶43] There arose not a prophet, etc. - Among all the succeeding prophets none was found so eminent in all respects nor so highly privileged as Moses; with him God spoke face to face - admitted him to the closest familiarity and greatest friendship with himself. Now all this continued true till the advent of Jesus Christ, of whom Moses said, "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me;" but how great was this person when compared with Moses! Moses desired to see God's glory; this sight he could not bear; he saw his back parts, probably meaning God's design relative to the latter days: but Jesus, the Almighty Savior, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, who lay in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared God to man. Wondrous system of legal ordinances that pointed out and typified all these things! And more wonderful system of Gospel salvation, which is the body, soul, life, energy, and full accomplishment of all that was written in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning the sufferings and death of Jesus, and the redemption of a ruined world "by his agony and bloody sweat, by his cross and passion, by his death and burial, by his glorious resurrection and ascension, and by the coming of the Holy Ghost!" Thus ends the Pentateuch, commonly called the Law of Moses, a work every way worthy of God its author, and only less than the New Covenant, the law and Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

[¶44] Now to the ever blessed and glorious Trinity, Father, Word, and Spirit, the infinite and eternal One, from whom alone wisdom, truth, and goodness can proceed, be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

## 215. Joshua · 1 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/215/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/215/#p-N

### Preface to the Book of Joshua

[¶1] Joshua, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, was first called Oshea or Hoshea, הושע, [Num 13:16], which signifies saved, a savior, or salvation; but afterwards Moses, guided no doubt by a prophetic spirit, changed his name into יהוש Yehoshua or Joshua, which signifies he shall save, or the salvation of Jehovah; referring, no doubt, to his being God's instrument in saving the people from the hands of their enemies, and leading them from victory to victory over the different Canaanitish nations, till he put them in possession of the promised land. On the change and meaning of the name, see the note on [Num 13:16]. By the Septuagint he is called Ιησους Ναυη, Jesus Naue, or Jesus son of Nave: and in the New Testament he is expressly called Ιησους, Jesus; see [Act 7:45]; [Heb 4:8]. Joshua was denominated the servant of Moses, as he seems to have acted sometimes as his secretary, sometimes as his aid-du-camp, and sometimes as the general of the army. He was early appointed to be the successor of Moses, see [Exo 17:14]; and under the instruction of this great master he was fully qualified for the important office. He was a great and pious man, and God honored him in a most extraordinary manner, as the sequel of the history amply proves. From the preceding books it appears that he became attached to Moses shortly after the exodus from Egypt; that he was held by him in the highest esteem; had the command of the army confided to him in the war with the Amalekites; and accompanied his master to the Mount, when he went up to receive the Law from God. These were the highest honors he could possibly receive during the life-time of Moses.

[¶2] Commentators and critics are divided in opinion whether the book that goes under his name was actually compiled by him.

[¶3] It is argued by those who deny Joshua to be the author, that there are both names and transactions in it which did not exist till considerably after Joshua's time. The account we have, [Jos 4:9], of the twelve stones set up by Joshua in the midst of Jordan remaining to the present day, seems to prove that the book, at least this verse, was not written till after Joshua's time; the same may be said of the account of Ai, that Joshua made it a heap for ever, even a desolation to the present day, [Jos 8:28], which is a proof, however, that the book was not written after the time of the kings, as Ai subsisted after the return from the captivity; see [Ezr 2:28] : The men of Beth-el and Ai, two hundred twenty and three. It is supposed also, that the relation of the marriage of Achsah, daughter of Caleb, with Othniel the son of Kenaz, necessarily belongs to the time of the Judges; [Jos 15:16-19]; as also the account of the capture of Leshem by the Danites [Jos 19:47], compared with [Jdg 18:7], [Jdg 18:29]. "What is related, [Jos 15:63], concerning the Jebusites dwelling with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day, must certainly have been written before the time of David; for he took the strong hold of Zion, and expelled the Jebusites; see [2Sam 5:7-9]. Also, what is said, [Jos 16:10], They drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, but they dwelt among the Ephraimites unto this day, must have been written before the time of Solomon, for in his time Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had taken Gezer, burnt it with fire, slain the Canaanites that dwelt in it, and given it a present to his daughter, the wife of Solomon, [1Kgs 9:16]. The country of Cabul, mentioned [Jos 19:27], had not this name till the time of Solomon, as appears from [1Kgs 9:13]; and the city called Joktheel, [Jos 15:38], had not this name till the reign of Joash, as appears from [2Kgs 14:7], it having been previously called Selah. The like may be said of Tyre, [Jos 19:29]; and of Galilee [Jos 20:7]; [Jos 21:32]."

[¶4] These are the principal objections which are made against the book as being the work of Joshua. Some of these difficulties might be so removed as to render it still probable that Joshua was the author of the whole book, as some think to be intimated [Jos 24:26]; And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of the Lord; (but this probably refers to nothing more than the words of the covenant which was then made, and which is included in Joshua 24:2-24); but there are other difficulties that cannot be removed on the above supposition and therefore it has been generally supposed that the book was written by some inspired person after the time of Joshua; and positively before many kings had reigned in Israel. The book has been attributed to Samuel, though some give this honor to Ezra.

[¶5] After all, I cannot help considering the book in the main as the composition of Joshua himself. It is certain that Moses kept an accurate register of all the events that took place during his administration in the wilderness, at least from the giving of the law to the time of his death. And in that wilderness he wrote the book of Genesis, as well as the others that bear his name. Now, it is not likely that Joshua, the constant servant and companion of Moses, could see all this - be convinced, as he must be, of its utility - and not adopt the same practice; especially as at the death of Moses he came into the same office. I therefore take it for granted, that the Book of Joshua is as truly his work, as the Commentaries of Caesar are his; and all the real difficulties mentioned above may be rationally and satisfactorily accounted for on the ground, that in transcribing this book in after ages, especially between the times of Joshua and the Kings, some few changes were made, and a very few slight additions, which referred chiefly to the insertion of names by which cities were then known instead of those by which they had been anciently denominated. This book therefore I conceive to be not the work of Ezra, nor of Samuel, nor of any other person of those times; nor can I allow that "it is called the Book of Joshua, because he is the chief subject of it, as the heroic poem of Virgil is called the Aeneis, because of the prince whose travels and actions it relates;" but I conceive it to be called the Book of Joshua,

[¶6] 1. Because Joshua wrote it.

[¶7] 2. Because it is the relation of his own conduct in the conquest, division, and settlement of the promised land.

[¶8] 3. Because it contains a multitude of particulars that only himself, or a constant eye-witness, could possibly relate.

[¶9] 4. Because it was evidently designed to be a continuation of the Book of Deuteronomy, and is so connected with it, in narrative, as to prove that it must have been immediately commenced on the termination of the other.

[¶10] 5. I might add to this, that with the exception of a few individuals, the whole of the ancient Jewish and Christian Churches have uniformly acknowledged Joshua to be its author.

[¶11] The Book of Joshua is one of the most important writings in the old covenant, and should never be separated from the Pentateuch, of which it is at once both the continuation and completion. Between this Book and the five Books of Moses, there is the same analogy as between the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The Pentateuch contains a history of the Acts of the great Jewish legislator, and the Laws on which the Jewish Church should be established. The Book of Joshua gives an account of the establishment of that Church in the Land of Canaan, according to the oft-repeated promises and declarations of God. The Gospels give an account of the transactions of Jesus Christ, the great Christian legislator, and of those Laws on which his Church should be established, and by which it should be governed. The Acts of the Apostles gives an account of the actual establishment of that Church, according to the predictions and promises of its great founder. Thus, then, the Pentateuch bears as pointed a relation to the Gospels as the Book of Joshua does to the Acts of the Apostles. And we might, with great appearance of probability, carry this analogy yet farther, and show that the writings of several of the Prophets bear as strict a relation to the Apostolical Epistles, as the Books of Ezekiel and Daniel do to the Apocalypse. On this very ground of analogy Christ obviously founded the Christian Church; hence he had his twelve disciples, from whom the Christian Church was to spring, as the Jewish Church or twelve tribes sprang from the twelve sons of Jacob. He had his seventy or seventy-two disciples, in reference to the seventy-two elders, six chosen out of each of the twelve tribes, who were united with Moses and Aaron in the administration of justice, etc., among the people. Christ united in his person the characters both of Moses and Aaron, or legislator and high priest; hence he ever considers himself, and is considered by his apostles and followers, the same in the Christian Church that Moses and Aaron were in the Jewish. As a rite of initiation into his Church, he instituted baptism in the place of circumcision, both being types of the purification of the heart and holiness of life; and as a rite of establishment and confirmation, the holy eucharist in place of the paschal lamb, both being intended to commemorate the atonement made to God for the sins of the people. The analogies are so abundant, and indeed universal, that time would fail to enumerate them. On this very principle it would be a matter of high utility to read these Old Testament and the New Testament books together, as they reflect a strong and mutual light on each other, bear the most decided testimony to the words and truth of prophecy, and show the ample fulfillment of all the ancient and gracious designs of God. This appears particularly evident in the five Books of Moses and the Book of Joshua compared and collated with the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles; and the analogy will be the more complete as to the number of those books, though that is a matter of minor consideration, when we consider Joshua, as we ought, a continuation of the Book of Deuteronomy, though written by a different hand, which two books should be rated only as one history. Of Judges and Ruth it may be said they are a sort of supplement to the Book of Joshua.

[¶12] Whoever goes immediately from the reading of the Pentateuch to the reading of the Gospels, and from the reading of Joshua to that of the Acts, will carry with him advantages which on no other plan he will be able to command. Even a commentator himself will derive advantages from this plan, which he will seek in vain from any other. To see the wisdom and goodness of God in the ritual of Moses, we must have an eye continually on the incarnation and death of Christ, to which it refers. And to have a proper view of the great atonement made by the sacrifice of our Lord, we must have a constant reference to the Mosaic law, where this is shadowed forth. Without this reference the law of Moses is a system of expensive and burdensome ceremonies, destitute of adequate meaning; and without this entering in of the law that the offense might abound, to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the frailty of man, and the holiness of God; the Gospel of Christ, including the account of his incarnation, preaching, miracles, passion, death, burial, ascension, and intercession, would not appear to have a sufficient necessity to explain and justify it. By the Law is the knowledge of sin, and by the Gospel its cure. Either, taken separately, will not answer the purpose for which God gave these astonishing revelations of his justice and his grace.

[¶13] Moses being dead, God commissions Joshua to bring the people into the promised land, [Jos 1:1], [Jos 1:2]. The extent of the land to be possessed, [Jos 1:3], [Jos 1:4]. Joshua is assured of victory over all his enemies, and is exhorted to courage and activity, [Jos 1:5], [Jos 1:6]; and to be careful to act, in all things, according to the law of Moses, in which he us to meditate day and night, [Jos 1:7], [Jos 1:8]. He is again exhorted to courage, with the promise of continued support, [Jos 1:9]. Joshua commands the officers to prepare the people for their passage over Jordan, [Jos 1:10], [Jos 1:11]. The Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, are put in mind of their engagement to pass over with their brethren, [Jos 1:12-15]. They promise the strictest obedience, and pray for the prosperity of their leader, [Jos 1:16-18].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Now after the death of Moses - ויהי vayehi, and it was or happened after the death of Moses. Even the first words in this book show it to be a continuation of the preceding, and intimately connected with the narrative in the last chapter in Deuteronomy, of which I suppose Joshua to have been the author, and that chapter to have originally made the commencement of this book, [Deu 34:1-12] (note). The time referred to here must have been at the conclusion of the thirty days in which they mourned for Moses.

### Verse 2

[¶17] Moses my servant - The word, servant, as applied both to Moses and Joshua, is to be understood in a very peculiar sense. It signifies God's prime minister, the person by whom he issued his orders, and by whom he accomplished all his purposes and designs. No person ever bore this title in the like sense but the Redeemer of mankind, of whom Moses and Joshua were types.

[¶18] Go over this Jordan - The account given by Josephus of this river may not be unacceptable here. "Panium is thought to be the mountain of Jordan, but in reality it is carried thither in an occult manner from the place called Phiala. This place lies on the road to Trachonitis, and is one hundred and twenty furlongs from Caesarea, not far out of the road, on the right hand. It has its name Phiala, (a bowl or basin), very justly, from the roundness of its circumference, being round like a wheel. It is always full, without ever sinking or running over. This origin of the Jordan was not known till the time of Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis, who having ordered some chaff to be thrown in at Phiala, it was found at Panium. Jordan's visible stream arises from this cavern, (Panium), and divides the marshes and fens of the lake Semechon; and when it has run another hundred and twenty furlongs, it first passes by the city Julias, and then passes through the middle of the lake Gennesareth, after which, running a long way over the desert, it empties itself into the lake Asphaltites." - War, book iii. chap. x., sect. 7. See the note on [Num 34:12].

### Verse 3

[¶20] The sole of your foot shalt tread upon - That is, the whole land occupied by the seven Canaanitish nations, and as far as the Euphrates on the east; for this was certainly the utmost of the grant now made to them; and all that was included in what is termed the promised land, the boundaries of which have already been defined. See [Deu 34:1-4], and see [Jos 1:4] (note) below. It has been supposed that the words, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, were intended to express the ease with which they were to conquer the whole land, an instance of which occurs in the taking of Jericho. It was only their unfaithfulness to God that rendered the conquest in any case difficult.

### Verse 4

[¶22] From the wilderness and this Lebanon - Joshua appears to be standing with his face towards the promised land, and pointing out the different places, or their situation, with his hand, This Lebanon, etc. The utmost of their limits should be from the desert of Arabia Petraea on the South to Lebanon on the North: and from the Euphrates on the East to the Mediterranean Sea on the West. The Israelites did not possess the full extent of this grant till the days of David. See [2Sam 8:3], etc., and [2Chr 9:26].

[¶23] Land of the Hittites - These are generally reputed to have been the most hardy and warlike of all the Canaanitish nations; and as they occupied the mountainous countries on the south of the land of Canaan, it is natural to suppose that they would be the most difficult to subdue, and on this account, it is supposed, God particularly specifies these: "Ye shall subdue and possess even all the land of the Hittites," but it is probable that under this one term all the other nations are included, as it is certain they are in other places under the term Amorites. Great sea: The Mediterranean, called great in respect of the lakes in the land of Judea, such as the sea of Gennesareth, or the sea of Tiberias, and the Dead Sea, which were comparatively small lakes; but the Hebrews gave the name of sea, ים yam, to every large collection of waters.

### Verse 5

[¶25] Be able to stand before thee - Because God shall be with thee, therefore thou shalt be irresistible. This promise was most punctually literally fulfilled.

### Verse 7

[¶27] Only be thou strong, and very courageous - Ισχυε ουν, και ανδριζου σφοδρα. - Sept. Be strong therefore, and play the man to the uttermost. Though God had promised him that no man should be able to stand before him, yet it was on condition that he should use all his military skill, and avail himself to the uttermost of all the means, natural and providential, which God should place within his reach. God will not have them who refuse to help themselves.

### Verse 8

[¶29] This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth - The law which had already been written by Moses, and from which he and the people were to take all those precepts by which their lives were to be governed. Though there was a copy of the law laid up in the sanctuary, yet this was not sufficient. Joshua must have a copy for himself, and he was to consult it incessantly, that his way might be made prosperous, and that he might have good success. If he kept God's word, God would keep him in body and soul; if he should observe to do according to that word, then God would cause all his way to be prosperous. Those who are obedient to God lack no manner of thing that is good.

### Verse 10

[¶31] Commanded the officers - שטרים shoterim. These were different from the שפטים shophetim, who were judges among the people, and whose business it was to determine in all civil cases. The shoterim have been supposed to be subordinate officers, whose business it was to see the decisions of the shophetim carried into effect. Calmet conjectures that the shoterim here may have been the heralds of the army like those so often met with in Homer, who were called the messengers both of the gods and men; who bore sceptres, and whose persons were ever held sacred. See on [Deu 1:13-16] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶33] Prepare you victuals - צדה tsedah, such prey or provisions as they had taken from the conquered countries, such as corn, oxen, sheep, etc.; for the word signifies prey, or what is taken by hunting, etc. This was necessary, as they were about to undergo considerable fatigue in marching, and in making preparations for the passage of the Jordan; for although the manna had not ceased to fall, yet such other provisions as are mentioned above were necessary on this occasion.

[¶34] For within three days ye shall pass - Calmet contends, with great appearance of truth, that these three days should be reckoned from the first day of their encamping at Jordan, three days after the return of the spies, i.e., on the eighth day of the first month, on the tenth of which they passed over Jordan. The text therefore is supposed to mean, Prepare victuals for three days' march, for "on the third day after your decampment from Shittim ye shall pass over this Jordan."

### Verse 13

[¶36] Remember the word - He puts the Reubenites, etc., in remembrance of the engagements they had made with Moses (See [Num 32:20]) when he granted them their portion on the east side of Jordan.

### Verse 14

[¶38] Your wives, your little ones - And with these it appears, from [Num 32:17], were left behind 70,580 effective men to guard them and their property; only 40,000 having passed over Jordan to assist the nine tribes and half to conquer the land. See [Jos 4:13].

[¶39] Armed - חמשים chamushim, by fives; in several lines, five in front, probably the usual method of marching; but it seems to signify arrayed, equipped, accoutred, well-armed, and ready for battle. See the note on [Exo 13:18].

### Verse 15

[¶41] Toward the sun-rising - This is the East, as toward the going down of the sun signifies the West.

### Verse 16

[¶43] All that thou commandest us we will do - Here they acknowledge the Divine mission of Joshua, as they had done that of Moses, and consequently promise to follow his directions in all things.

## 216. Joshua · 2 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/216/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/216/#p-N

### Verse 17

[¶1] Only the Lord thy God be with thee - Provided God be with thee, as he was with Moses, we will implicitly obey thee. The words however may mean no more than an earnest prayer for Joshua's prosperity: May God be with thee, as he was with Moses!

### Verse 18

[¶3] He shall be put to death - This was martial law; he who disobeyed the command of his general should be put to death. To this the people agreed, and it was essentially necessary in order that proper discipline should be kept up in this great army. By insubordination their fathers had suffered much in the wilderness; they rejected the authority of Moses, mutinied and made themselves a leader to conduct them back to Egypt. (See [Num 14:4]). And Joshua himself, for attempting to encourage them against their fears, was near being stoned to death. It was necessary, therefore, that they should give him the most positive assurance that they would not act as their fathers had done.

[¶4] 1. Notwithstanding the great honor God put on his servants Moses, Aaron, Phinehas, and Joshua, yet we find him using every means to induce the people to trust in himself alone. Hence he is ever showing them that even those great men had nothing but what they had received, and that they were as fully dependent upon himself as the meanest of the people. What was even Moses without his God?

[¶5] 2. Is it not strange that at the death of Moses utter despair had not overwhelmed the whole camp, as he whom they expected to give them rest had died before any conquest was made in Canaan? We find, however, that they are not discouraged; he who gave them Moses, has now given them Joshua in his place; and they had now fully learned that if God be for them, none could be successfully against them.

[¶6] 3. From all this we may learn, that when God has a great work to accomplish, he will provide himself suitable instruments; and though one which he has greatly honored, appear to fail, we should know that he is not confined to work by that one alone. He has way every where, and all things serve the purposes of his will. He will as surely support his Church on earth, as he will support the earth itself; and while the sun and moon endure, the Church shall flourish: this is for his own honor, and he certainly is more concerned for his own glory in the administration of justice, judgment, and salvation in the earth, than any of the children of men can possibly be.

[¶7] 4. Though God had so implicitly promised them his help, yet he strongly insists on their own co-operation. He requires the use of every power and talent he has given; even Joshua himself must be strong and very courageous, and the people must obey him in all things, in order that they may go over the Jordan to possess the good land; and without this they had never got into the promised rest.

[¶8] Shall we suppose, then, that if we be not workers together with God we shall be saved? Vain expectation! He works in us to will and to do, i.e., he gives the principle of volition in things that are holy, and the principle of power to bring the acts of will into good practical effect; therefore, says the apostle, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Will, therefore, under the influence of the gracious principle of volition; act under the influence of the principle of power. Without the power you can neither will nor do; but having the power it is your duty to will and do. It is enough that God gives the power. It is our duty, when we receive these talents, to improve them. In a million of cases a man may be both able to will and to do, and yet do neither to the salvation of his soul.

### Introduction

[¶10] Joshua sends out two spies to examine the state of the inhabitants of the land, particularly those of Jericho, who are entertained at the house of Rahab, [Jos 2:1]. The king of Jericho is informed of their being in the town, and sends to Rahab, commanding her to deliver them up, [Jos 2:2], [Jos 2:3]. She hides the spies, and tells the messengers that the men were departed and gone towards the mountain, [Jos 2:4], [Jos 2:5]. When the officers of the king of Jericho were departed, she took the spies to the house-top, and covered them with flax, [Jos 2:6], [Jos 2:7]. She relates to them that the fear of the Israelites had fallen on all the inhabitants of the country on hearing of their victories over the Amorites; that she knew none could resist the God of Israel, and therefore desired them to give her an oath that, when they took Jericho, they would preserve the lives of her and her family, [Jos 2:8-13]. The spies swear to her, [Jos 2:14]. She lets them down by a cord from the house-top, and gives them directions how to proceed, in order to avoid the pursuers, [Jos 2:15], [Jos 2:16]. She is to tie a scarlet line to the window, through which she had let them down, which should be the sign to the Israelites to spare that house and its inhabitants, [Jos 2:17-19]. Having bound her to secresy, they depart, [Jos 2:20], [Jos 2:21]. After three days' stay in the mountain, they return to Joshua, and make a favorable report, [Jos 2:22-24].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Joshua - sent - two men to spy secretly - It is very likely that these spies had been sent out soon after the death of Moses, and therefore our marginal reading, had sent, is to be preferred. Secretly - It is very probable also that these were confidential persons, and that the transaction was between them and him alone. As they were to pass over the Jordan opposite to Jericho, it was necessary that they should have possession of this city, that in case of any reverses they might have no enemies in their rear. He sent the men, therefore, to see the state of the city, avenues of approach, fortifications, etc., that he might the better concert his mode of attack.

[¶13] A harlot's house - Harlots and inn-keepers seem to have been called by the same name, as no doubt many who followed this mode of life, from their exposed situation, were not the most correct in their morals. Among the ancients women generally kept houses of entertainment, and among the Egyptians and Greeks this was common. I shall subjoin a few proofs.

[¶14] Herodotus, speaking concerning the many differences between Egypt and other countries, and the peculiarity of their laws and customs, expressly says: Εν τοισι αἱ μεν γυναικες αγοραζουσι και καπηλευουσι· οἱ δε ανδρες, κατ' οικους εοντες, ὑφαινουσι. "Among the Egyptians the women carry on all commercial concerns, and keep taverns, while the men continue at home and weave." Herod. in Euterp., c. xxxv. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i., s. 8, and c. xxvii., asserts that "the men were the slaves of the women in Egypt, and that it is stipulated in the marriage contract that the woman shall be the ruler of her husband, and that he shall obey her in all things." The same historian supposes that women had these high privileges among the Egyptians, to perpetuate the memory of the beneficent administration of Isis, who was afterwards deified among them. Nymphodorus, quoted by the ancient scholiast on the Oedipus Coloneus of Sophocles, accounts for these customs: he says that "Sesostris, finding the population of Egypt rapidly increasing, fearing that he should not be able to govern the people or keep them united under one head, obliged the men to assume the occupations of women, in order that they might be rendered effeminate." Sophocles confirms the account given by Herodotus; speaking of Egypt he says: - Εκει γαρ οἱ μεν αρσενες κατα στεγας Θακουσιν ἱστουργουντες αἱ δε ξυννομοι Τα' ξω βιου τροφεια προσυνους' αει

[¶15] Oedip. Col. v. 352. "There the men stay in their houses weaving cloth, while the women transact all business out of doors, provide food for the family," etc. It is on this passage that the scholiast cites Nymphodorus for the information given above, and which he says is found in the 13th chapter of his work "On the Customs of Barbarous Nations." That the same custom prevailed among the Greeks we have the following proof from Apuleius: Ego vero quod primate ingressui stabulum conspicatus sum, accessi, et de Quadam Anu Caupona illico percontor. - Aletam. lib. i., p. 18, Edit. Bip. "Having entered into the first inn I met with, and there seeing a certain Old Woman, the Inn-Keeper, I inquired of her."

[¶16] It is very likely that women kept the places of public entertainment among the Philistines; and that it was with such a one, and not with a harlot, that Samson lodged; (see [Jdg 16:1], etc.); for as this custom certainly did prevail among the Egyptians, of which we have the fullest proof above, we may naturally expect it to have prevailed also among the Canaanites and Philistines, as we find from Apuleius that it did afterwards among the Greeks. Besides there is more than presumptive proof that this custom obtained among the Israelites themselves, even in the most polished period of their history; for it is much more reasonable to suppose that the two women, who came to Solomon for judgment, relative to the dead child, ([1Kgs 3:16], etc), were inn-keepers, than that they were harlots. It is well known that common prostitutes, from their abandoned course of life, scarcely ever have children; and the laws were so strict against such in Israel, ([Deu 23:18]), that if these had been of that class it is not at all likely they would have dared to appear before Solomon. All these circumstances considered, I am fully satisfied that the term זונה zonah in the text, which we translate harlot, should be rendered tavern or inn-keeper, or hostess. The spies who were sent out on this occasion were undoubtedly the most confidential persons that Joshua had in his host; they went on an errand of the most weighty importance, and which involved the greatest consequences. The risk they ran of losing their lives in this enterprise was extreme. Is it therefore likely that persons who could not escape apprehension and death, without the miraculous interference of God, should in despite of that law which at this time must have been so well known unto them, go into a place where they might expect, not the blessing, but the curse, of God? Is it not therefore more likely that they went rather to an inn to lodge than to a brothel? But what completes in my judgment the evidence on this point is, that this very Rahab, whom we call a harlot, was actually married to Salmon, a Jewish prince, see [Mat 1:5]. And is it probable that a prince of Judah would have taken to wife such a person as our text represents Rahab to be?

[¶17] It is granted that the Septuagint, who are followed by [Heb 11:31], and [Jam 2:25], translate the Hebrew זונה zonah by πορνη, which generally signifies a prostitute; but it is not absolutely evident that the Septuagint used the word in this sense. Every scholar knows that the Greek word πορνη comes from περναω, to sell, as this does from περαω, to pass from one to another; transire facio a me ad alterum; Damm. But may not this be spoken as well of the woman's goods as of her person? In this sense the Chaldee Targum understood the term, and has therefore translated it אתתא פונדקיתא ittetha pundekitha, a woman, a Tavern-Keeper. That this is the true sense many eminent men are of opinion; and the preceding arguments render it at least very probable. To all this may be added, that as our blessed Lord came through the line of this woman, it cannot be a matter of little consequence to know what moral character she sustained; as an inn-keeper she might be respectable, if not honorable; as a public prostitute she could be neither; and it is not very likely that the providence of God would have suffered a person of such a notoriously bad character to enter into the sacred line of his genealogy. It is true that the cases of Tamar and Bathsheba may be thought sufficient to destroy this argument; but whoever considers these two cases maturely will see that they differ totally from that of Rahab, if we allow the word harlot to be legitimate. As to the objection that her husband is nowhere mentioned in the account here given; it appears to me to have little weight. She might have been either a single woman or a widow; and in either of these cases there could have been no mention of a husband; or if she even had a husband it is not likely he would have been mentioned on this occasion, as the secret seems to have been kept religiously between her and the spies. If she were a married woman her husband might be included in the general terms, all that she had, and all her kindred, [Jos 6:23]. But it is most likely that she was a single woman or a widow, who got her bread honestly by keeping a house of entertainment for strangers. See below.

### Verse 3

[¶19] The king of Jericho sent unto Rahab - This appears to be a proof of the preceding opinion: had she been a prostitute or a person of ill fame he could at once have sent officers to have seized the persons lodged with her as vagabonds; but if she kept a house of entertainment, the persons under her roof were sacred, according to the universal custom of the Asiatics, and could not be molested on any trifling grounds. A guest or a friend is sacred in whatever house he may be received, in every part of the east to the present day.

### Verse 4

[¶21] And hid them - Probably she secreted them for the time being in some private corner, till she had the opportunity of concealing them on the house-top in the manner mentioned [Jos 2:6].

### Verse 5

[¶23] When it was dark - So it appears that it was after night that the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, ordering her to produce the persons who lodged with her. The season itself was friendly to the whole plot: had these transactions taken place in daylight, it is scarcely possible that the spies could have escaped. But this is no excuse for the woman's prevarication, for God could have saved his messengers independently of her falsity. God never says to any, Do evil that good may come of it. See at the end of the chapter, [Jos 2:24] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶25] Hid then with the stalks of flax - It is a matter of little consequence whether we translate פסתי העיץ pistey haets stalks of flax, or stalks of hemp: the word עץ ets, which signifies wood, serves to show that whether it was hemp or flax, it was in its rough, unmanufactured state; and as this was about the season, viz., the end of March or the beginning of April, in which the flax is ripe in that country, consequently Rahab's flax might have been recently pulled, and was now drying on the roof of her house. The reader may find some useful remarks upon this subject in Harmer's Observations, vol. iv., p. 97, etc.

[¶26] Upon the roof - We have already seen that all the houses in the east were made flat-roofed; for which a law is given [Deu 22:8]. On these flat roofs the Asiatics to this day walk, converse, and oftentimes even sleep and pass the night. It is probable that this hiding was after that referred to in the fourth verse.

### Verse 9

[¶28] I know that the Lord hath given you the land - It is likely she had this only from conjecture, having heard of their successes against the Amorites, their prodigious numbers, and seeing the state of terror and dismay to which the inhabitants of her own land were reduced.

### Verse 11

[¶30] He is God in heaven above, and to earth beneath - This confession of the true God is amazingly full, and argues considerable light and information. As if she had said, "I know your God to be omnipotent and omnipresent:" and in consequence of this faith she hid the spies, and risked her own life in doing it. But how had she this clear knowledge of the Divine nature?

[¶31] 1. Possibly the knowledge of the true God was general in the earth at this time, though connected with much superstition and idolatry; the people believing that there was a god for every district, and for every people; for the mountains and for the valleys; see [1Kgs 20:23].

[¶32] 2. Or she received this instruction from the spies, with whom she appears to have had a good deal of conversation; or,

[¶33] 3. She had it from a supernatural influence of God upon her own soul. She probably made a better use of the light she had received than the rest of her countrymen, and God increased that light.

### Verse 12

[¶35] Swear unto me by the Lord - This is a farther proof that this woman had received considerable instruction in the Jewish faith; she acknowledged the true God by his essential character Jehovah; and knew that an oath in his name was the deepest and most solemn obligation under which a Jew could possibly come. Does not this also refer to the command of God, Thou shalt fear the Lord, and shalt swear by his name? See the note on [Deu 6:13].

### Verse 13

[¶37] Deliver our lives from death - She had learned, either from the spies or otherwise, that all the inhabitants of the land were doomed to destruction, and therefore she obliges them to enter into a covenant with her for the preservation of herself and her household.

### Verse 14

[¶39] Our life for yours - "May our life be destroyed if we suffer yours to be injured!" This is what was anciently called in our country pledging - staking, a man's life for that of his neighbor or friend.

### Verse 15

[¶41] Then she let them down by a cord etc. - The natural place of this verse is after the first clause of [Jos 2:21]; for it is certain that she did not let them down in the basket till all those circumstances marked from [Jos 2:16-20] inclusive had taken place.

[¶42] She dwelt upon the wall - That is, either the wall of the city made a part of her house or her house was built close to the wall, so that the top or battlements of it were above the wall with a window that looked out to the country. As the city gates were now shut there was no way for the spies to escape but through this window; and in order to this she let them down through the window in a basket suspended by a cord, till they reached the ground on the outside of the wall.

### Verse 16

[¶44] Hide yourselves there three days - They were to travel by night, and hide themselves in the day-time; otherwise they might have been discovered by the pursuers who were in search of them.

## 217. Joshua · 3 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/217/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/217/#p-N

### Verse 18

[¶1] This line of scarlet thread - תקות חוט השני tikvath chut hashshani. Probably this may mean, this piece of scarlet cloth, or, this cloth (made) of scarlet thread. When the Israelites took the city this piece of red cloth seems to have been hung out of the window by way of flag; and this was the sign on which she and the spies had agreed.

### Verse 20

[¶3] If thou utter this our business - It was prudent to make her life depend on her secresy; had it been otherwise she might have been tempted to give information, not only concerning the spies, but concerning the designs of the Israelites. But her life being at stake, added to every other motive, she kept the secret for the sake of her own personal safety and that of all her relatives.

### Verse 23

[¶5] So the two men returned - Having concealed themselves in the mountains that night, all the next day, and the night ensuing, on the third day they returned to Joshua.

### Verse 24

[¶7] Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land - How different was this report from that brought by the spies on a former occasion! They found that all the inhabitants of the land were panic-struck. The people had heard of the great exploits of the Israelites on the other side of Jordan; and as they had destroyed the potent kings of the Amorites, they took it for granted that nothing could stand before them. This information was necessary to Joshua to guide him in forming the plan of his campaign.

[¶8] 1. It may be asked, Did not Rahab lie in the account she gave to the officers of the king of Jericho, ([Jos 2:4], [Jos 2:5]), There came men unto me, etc.? I answer, She certainly did; and the inspired writer sets down the fact merely as it stood, without making the Spirit of God responsible for the dissimulation of the woman. But was she not rewarded, etc.? Yes; for her hospitality and faith, not for her lie. But could she have saved the spies without telling a lie? Yes, she certainly might; but what notion could a woman of her occupation, though nothing worse than an inn-keeper, have of the nicer distinctions between truth and falsehood, living among a most profligate and depraved people, where truth could scarcely be known?

[¶9] 2. There is a lax morality in the world that recommends a lie rather than the truth, when the purposes of religion and humanity can be served by it. But when can this be? The religion of Christ is one eternal system of truth, and can neither be served by a lie nor admit one. On this vile subject fine words have been spoken. Tasso, in his elegant episode of Sophronia and Olindo, in the Gerusalemme Liberata, b. ii., v. 22, represents the former as telling a lie to Saladdin, relative to the stealing of an image, for which, as he could not discover the culprit, he doomed all the Christians in his power to death. Sophronia, a pious Christian virgin, getting into the presence of the tyrant, in order to save her people, accuses herself, though perfectly innocent, of the theft. Her conduct on this occasion the poet embellishes in the following manner, for which the religion of that time, which dealt in holy frauds, would no doubt applaud him. 'Ed ella: il reo si trova al tuo cospetto;

[¶10] Opra e il furto, Signor, di questa mano

[¶11] Io l'immagine tolsi; Io son colei

[¶12] Che tu ricerchi, e me punir tu dei.

[¶13] Cosi al pubblico fato il capo altero

[¶14] Offerse, e 'l volle in se sol racorre.

[¶15] Magnanima Menzogna! or quando e il Vero

[¶16] Si Bello, che si possa a te preporre?"

[¶17] Then she: "Before thy sight the guilty stands;

[¶18] The theft, O King, committed by these hands.

[¶19] In me the thief who stole the image view!

[¶20] To me the punishment decreed is due."

[¶21] Thus, filled with public zeal, the generous dame

[¶22] A victim for her people's ransom came.

[¶23] O great deceit! O lie divinely fair!

[¶24] What truth with such a falsehood can compare!

[¶25] Hoole.

[¶26] Thus a lie is ornamented with splendid decorations both by the Italian and English poet, and the whole formed into an anti-apostolic maxim, Let us do Evil, that Good may come of it. A purer morality was taught by one of the most ancient heathen writers than is here preached by these demi-christians: - Εχθρος γαρ μοι κεινος, ὁμως αΐδαο πυλησιν, Ὁς χ' ἑτερον μεν κευθει ενι φρεσιν, αλλο δε βαζει.

[¶27] Iliad. l. ix., v. 312.

[¶28] My soul detests him as the gates of hell,

[¶29] Who knows the truth and dares a falsehood tell.

[¶30] The following is the advice of a genuine Christian poet, and one of the holiest men of his time: -

[¶31] Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God;

[¶32] Thy tongue to it, thy actions to them both

[¶33] Cowards tell lies, and those who fear the rod;

[¶34] The stormy working soul spits lies and froth.

[¶35] Dare To Be True! nothing can Need a lie.

[¶36] The fault that needs it most grows Two thereby.

[¶37] Herbert.

[¶38] For other observations on this subject see the notes on [Gen 12:20], at the end, and [Gen 20:12].

[¶39] 3. Though the hand of God was evidently in every thing that concerned the Israelites, and they were taught to consider that by his might alone they were to be put in possession of the promised land; yet they were as fully convinced that if they did not use the counsel, prudence, and strength which they had received from him, they should not succeed. Hence, while they depended on the Divine direction and power, they exercised their own prudence, and put forth their own strength; and thus they were workers together with him, and did not receive the grace of God in vain. The application of this maxim is easy; and we cannot expect any success, either in things spiritual or temporal, unless we walk by the same rule and mind the same thing.

### Introduction

[¶41] The Israelitish camp removes from Shittim to Jordan, [Jos 3:1]. The officers inform them how they are to pass the river, and the distance they are to keep from the ark, [Jos 3:2-4]. Joshua directs the people, [Jos 3:5], [Jos 3:6]; and the Lord gives directions to Joshua, [Jos 3:7], [Jos 3:8]. He delivers the Lord's message to the people, and foretells the miraculous passage and division of Jordan, [Jos 3:9-13]. The priests, bearing the ark, enter the river, and immediately the waters are cut off, and the priests stand on dry ground, in the bed of the river, till all the camp passes over, [Jos 3:14-17].

### Verse 1

[¶43] Joshua rose early - Archbishop Usher supposes that this was upon Wednesday, the 28th of April, A. M. 2553, the fortieth year after the exodus from Egypt. From Shittim, where they had lately been encamped, to Jordan, was about sixty stadia, according to Josephus; that is, about eight English miles.

### Verse 2

[¶45] After three days - These three days are probably to be thus understood: As soon as Joshua took the command of the army, he sent the spies to ascertain the state of Jericho; as we have seen [Jos 1:12]. They returned at the end of three days, or rather on the third day, and made their report. It was at this time, immediately on the return of the spies, that he made the proclamation mentioned here; in consequence of which the people immediately struck their tents, and marched forward to Jordan.

## 218. Joshua · 4 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/218/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/218/#p-N

### Verse 4

[¶1] About two thousand cubits - This distance they were to keep,

[¶2] 1. For the greater respect, because the presence of the ark was the symbol and pledge of the Divine presence.

[¶3] 2. That the ark, which was to be their pilot over these waters, might be the more conspicuous which it could not have been had the people crowded upon it.

### Verse 5

[¶5] Sanctify yourselves - What was implied in this command we are not informed; but it is likely that it was the same as that given by Moses, [Exo 19:10-14]. They were to wash themselves and their garments, and abstain from every thing that might indispose their minds from a profitable attention to the miracle about to be wrought in their behalf.

### Verse 6

[¶7] Spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark - It is remarkable that the priests, not the Levites, whose ordinary business it was were employed to carry the ark on this occasion. Calmet conjectures that this was because it was probably carried without being wrapped up in its curtains, as it always was when the Levites carried it. Though it was the business of the Levites, the sons of Kohath, to carry the ark; yet on certain occasions the priests alone performed this office.

[¶8] 1. In the present case.

[¶9] 2. When they encompassed Jericho, [Jos 6:6].

[¶10] 3. When it was carried to the war against the Philistines by the priests, the sons of Eli, [2Sam 15:25].

[¶11] 4. When David sent it back to Jerusalem, at the time he was obliged to fly from it, through the rebellion of his son Absalom, [2Sam 15:25]; and,

[¶12] 5. At the time that it was taken out of the tabernacle, to be deposited in the temple; see [1Kgs 8:6-11].

[¶13] These were the most solemn occasions, and on such alone, we may presume, the priests performed this office instead of the Levites. In all their former marches the ark was carried in the center of this immense camp; (see the scheme at the end of [Num 2:2] (note) of the book of Numbers); but now it was to proceed at the head of the army, and to go before them, and at such a distance, about three quarters of a mile, that the whole camp might see it as their guide.

### Verse 7

[¶15] This day will I begin to magnify thee - By making him the instrument in this miraculous passage, he did him honor and gave him high credit in the sight of the people: hence his authority was established, and obedience to him as their leader fully secured. What must have confirmed this authority was, his circumstantially foretelling how the waters should be cut off as soon as the feet of the priests had touched them, [Jos 3:13]. This demonstrated that the secret of the Lord was with him.

### Verse 8

[¶17] Ye shall stand still in Jordan - The priests proceeded first with the ark, and entered into the bed of the river the course of which was immediately arrested, the waters collecting above the place where the priests stood, while the stream fell off towards the Dead Sea; so that the whole channel below where the priests were standing became dry. The whole camp, therefore, passed over below where the priests were standing, keeping at the distance of two thousand cubits from the ark; this they would readily do, as the whole bed of the river was dry for many miles below the place where the priests entered.

### Verse 10

[¶19] Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you - The Israelites were apt to be discouraged, and to faint at even the appearance of danger; it was necessary, therefore, that they should have the fullest assurance of the presence and assistance of God in the important enterprise on which they were now entering. They are to combat idolaters, who have nothing to trust in and help them but gods of wood, stone, and metal: whereas they are to have the living God in the midst of them - He who is the author of life and of being - who can give, or take it away, at his pleasure; and who by this miracle proved that he had undertaken to guide and defend them: and Joshua makes this manifestation of God the proof that he will drive out the Hittites, Hivites, etc, before them. With regard to the situation of each of these nations in the land of Canaan, Calmet remarks, that those called Canaanites chiefly inhabited what is called Phoenicia, the environs of Tyre and Sidon: the Hittites occupied the mountains, southward of the promised land: the Hivites dwelt by Ebal and Gerizim, Sichem and Gibeon, towards the mountains of Hermon: the Perizzites were probably not a distinct nation or tribe, but rather villagers, scattered through the country in general: the Girgashites possessed the country beyond the Jordan, towards the lake of Gennesareth: the Jebusites possessed Jerusalem: and the Amorites occupied the mountainous country in the vicinity of the western part of the Dead Sea, and also that part of the land of Moab which the Israelites conquered from Sihon and Og.

### Verse 12

[¶21] Take you twelve men - See the note on [Jos 4:2].

### Verse 15

[¶23] And the feet of the priests - were dipped in the brim of the water - Thus we find that every thing occurred exactly in the way in which Joshua had foretold it. This must have greatly increased his credit among the people.

[¶24] For Jordan overfloweth all his banks, etc. - It has often been remarked that there was no need of a miracle in crossing Jordan, as it is but an inconsiderable stream, easily fordable, being but about twenty yards in breadth. But the circumstance marked here by the sacred historian proves that there was a time in the year, viz., in the harvest, that this said river overflowed its banks; and this is confirmed by another place in Scripture, [1Chr 12:15]. As the miracle reported here took place about the beginning of April, a time in which rivers in general are less than in winter, it may be asked how there could be such an increase of waters at this time? The simple fact is, that the Jordan, as we have already seen, has its origin at the foot of Mount Lebanon, which mountain is always covered with snow during the winter months; in those months therefore the river is low: but when the summer's sun has melted these snows, there is consequently a prodigious increase of waters, so that the old channel is not capable of containing them; this accounts for the statement in the text that the Jordan overfloweth his banks all the time of harvest; and this was the time which God chose they should pass over it, that a miraculous interposition might be necessary, and that by the miracle they should be convinced of his omnipotence, who was not only their guide, but had promised to put them in possession of this good land.

### Verse 16

[¶26] Rose up upon a heap - That is, they continued to accumulate, filling up the whole of the channel toward the source, and the adjacent ground over which they were now spread, to a much greater depth, the power of God giving a contrary direction to the current. We need not suppose them to be gathered up like a mountain, instar montis, as the Vulgate expresses it, but that they continued to flow back in the course of the channel; and ere they could have reached the lake of Gennesareth, where they might have been easily accumulated, the whole Israelitish army would have all got safely to the opposite side.

[¶27] Very far from the city Adam - beside Zaretan - Where these places were it is difficult to say. The city Adam is wholly unknown. From [1Kgs 4:12] we learn that Zartanah was below Jezreel near Bethshean, or Scythopolis, and not far from Succoth, [1Kgs 7:46]. And it appears from [Gen 33:17], [Jos 13:27], that Succoth lay on the east side of Jordan, not far from the lake of Gennesareth; and probably Adam was on the same side to the north of Succoth. It is probable that the Israelites crossed the Jordan near Bethabara, where John baptized, [Joh 1:28], and which probably had its name, the house of passage, from this very circumstance. After all, it is extremely difficult to ascertain the exact situation of these places, as in the lapse of upwards of 3,000 years the face of the country must have been materially changed. Seas, rivers, and mountains, change not; and though we cannot ascertain the spot, it is sufficiently evident that we can come near to the place. It has been considered a lame objection against the truth of the Iliad that the situation of Troy cannot now be exactly ascertained. There are even many ancient cities and considerable towns in Europe, that, though they still bear their former names, do not occupy the same spot. There are not a few of those even in England; among such Norwich, Salisbury, etc., may be ranked, neither of which is in its primitive situation.

[¶28] Right against Jericho - It would be impossible for the whole camp to pass over in the space opposite to Jericho, as they must have taken up some miles in breadth, besides the 2,000 cubits which were left on the right between them and the ark; but the river was divided opposite to Jericho, and there the camp began to pass over.

### Verse 17

[¶30] The priests - stood firm on dry ground - They stood in the mid channel, and shifted not their position till the camp, consisting of nearly 600,000 effective men, besides women, children, etc., had passed over.

[¶31] 1. Is it not surprising that the Canaanites did not dispute this passage with the Israelites? It is likely they would, had they had any expectation that such a passage would have been attempted. They must have known that the Israelitish camp was on the other side of the Jordan, but could they have supposed that a passage for such a host was possible when the banks of the Jordan were quite overflowed? It was not merely because they were panic struck that they did not dispute this passage, but because they must have supposed it impossible; and when they found the attempt was made, the passage was effected before they could prepare to prevent it.

[¶32] 2. God now appears in such a way, and works in such a manner, as to leave no doubt concerning his presence or his power, or of his love to Israel. After this, was it possible for this people ever to doubt his being or his bounty? This, with the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, were well calculated to have established their faith for ever; and those who did not yield to the evidence afforded by these two miracles were incapable of rational conviction.

[¶33] 3. In some respects the passage of the Jordan was more strikingly miraculous than that even of the Red Sea. In the latter God was pleased to employ an agent; the sea went back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, [Exo 14:21]. Nothing of this kind appeared in the passage of the Jordan; a very rapid river (for so all travelers allow it to be) went back to its source without any kind of agency but the invisible hand of the invisible God.

[¶34] 4. Through the whole period of the Jewish history these miracles, so circumstantially related, were never denied by any, but on the contrary conscientiously believed by all. Nor did any of them in their revolts from God, which were both foul and frequent, ever call these great facts in question, when even so full of enmity against God as to blaspheme his name, and give his glory to dumb idols! Is not this a manifest proof that these facts were incontestable? and that Jehovah had so done his marvellous works that they should be had in everlasting remembrance? Reader, the same God who is over all is rich in mercy to all that call upon him. He changes not, neither is he weary: trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength; and He ever saves his followers out of the hands of all their enemies, and, having guided them by his counsel, will receive them into his glory.

### Introduction

[¶36] When the people are passed over, Joshua commands twelve men, one taken out of each tribe, to take up a stone on his shoulder out of the midst of the river, and carry it to the other side, to be set up as a memorial of this miraculous passage, [Jos 4:1-7]. They do so, and set up the stones in the place where they encamp the first night, [Jos 4:8], [Jos 4:9]. The priests stand in the river, till all the people are passed over, [Jos 4:10], [Jos 4:11]. Of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 40,000 fighting men pass over with the other tribes, [Jos 4:12], [Jos 4:13]. Joshua is magnified in the sight of the people, and they fear him as they did Moses, [Jos 4:14]. The priests are commanded to come up out of the river, which, on their leaving it, immediately returns, and overflows its banks as before, [Jos 4:15-18]. This miraculous passage takes place the tenth day of the first month, [Jos 4:19]. The stones are set up in Gilgal, and Joshua teaches the people what use they are to make of them, [Jos 4:20-24].

### Verse 2

[¶38] Take you twelve men - From [Jos 3:12], it appears that the twelve men had been before appointed, one taken out of each of the twelve tribes; and now they are employed for that purpose for which they had been before selected.

### Verse 3

[¶40] Where ye shall lodge this night - This was in the place that was afterwards called Gilgal. See [Jos 4:19].

### Verse 4

[¶42] Twelve men, whom he had prepared - This must refer to their appointment, [Jos 3:12].

### Verse 6

[¶44] This may be a sign - Stand as a continual memorial of this miraculous passage, and consequently a proof of their lasting obligation to God.

## 219. Joshua · 5 of 30

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### Verse 9

[¶1] And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan - It seems from this chapter that there were two sets of stones erected as a memorial of this great event; twelve at Gilgal, [Jos 4:20] and twelve in the bed of Jordan, [Jos 4:9]. The twelve stones in the bed of Jordan might have been so placed on a base of strong stone-work so high as always to be visible, and serve to mark the very spot where the priests stood with the ark. The twelve stones set up at Gilgal would stand as a monument of the place of the first encampment after this miraculous passage. Though this appears to me to be the meaning of this place, yet Dr. Kennicott's criticism here should not be passed by. "It is well known," says he, "that when Joshua led the Israelites over Jordan, he was commanded to take twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, to be a memorial that the ground in the very midst of that river had been made dry. But where was this memorial to be set up? The ninth verse says; Joshua set up these stones In the midst of Jordan. But is it likely that the stones should be placed or set down where they were taken up; and that the memorial should be erected there where, when the river was again united, it would be concealed, and of course could be no memorial at all? This however flatly contradicts the rest of the chapter, which says these stones were pitched in Gilgal, where Israel lodged in Canaan for the first time. The solution of this difficulty is, that בתוך bethoch In the midst, should be here מתוך mittoch, From the midst, as in [Jos 4:3], [Jos 4:8], [Jos 4:20], and as the word is here also in the Syrian version. The true rendering therefore is, And Joshua set up the twelve stones (taken) From the midst of Jordan," etc. I confess I see no need for this criticism, which is not supported by a single MS. either in his own or De Rossi's collection, though they amount to four hundred and ninety-four in number. Twelve stones might be gathered in different parts of the bed of the Jordan, and be set up as a pillar in another, and be a continual visible memorial of this grand event. And if twelve were set up in Gilgal as a memorial of their first encampment in Canaan, it is still more likely that twelve would be set up in the bed of the river to show where it had been divided, and the place where the whole Israelitish host had passed over dry-shod. The reader may follow the opinion he judges most likely.

### Verse 10

[¶3] And the people hasted and passed over - How very natural is this circumstance! The people seeing the waters divided, and Jordan running back, might be apprehensive that it would soon resume its wonted course; and this would naturally lead them to hasten to get over, with as much speed as possible. The circumstance itself thus marked is a proof that the relater was an eyewitness of this miraculous passage.

### Verse 12

[¶5] The children of Reuben, and - Gad - Concerning the numbers of these tribes that stayed behind to take care of the women, children, and cattle, and which amounted to 70,580 men, see the note on [Num 32:17].

[¶6] Passed over armed - See the note on [Jos 1:14].

### Verse 14

[¶8] The Lord magnified Joshua - See the note on [Jos 3:7].

### Verse 18

[¶10] The waters of Jordan returned unto their place - It is particularly remarked by the sacred historian, that as soon as the soles of the priests' feet touched the water, the stream of the Jordan was cut off, [Jos 3:15], and the course of the river continued to be inverted all the time they continued in its channel; and that as soon as the soles of their feet had touched the dry land, on their return from the bed of the river, the waters immediately resumed their natural course. All this was done by the sovereign influence of that God whose presence was represented by the ark of the covenant.

### Verse 19

[¶12] On the tenth day of the first month - As the Israelites left Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, A.M. 2513, (see Exodus 14:1-31), and they entered into Canaan the tenth of the first month, A.M. 2553, it is evident that forty years, wanting five days, had elapsed from the time of their exodus from Egypt to their entrance into the promised inheritance.

[¶13] Encamped in Gilgal - That is, in the place that was afterwards called Gilgal, see [Jos 5:9]; for here the name is given it by anticipation. In Hebrew, גל gal signifies to roll; and the doubling of the root, גלגל galgal or gilgal, signifies rolling round and round, or rolling off or away, because, in circumcising the children that had been born in the wilderness, Joshua rolled away, rolled off completely, the reproach of the people. From this time Gilgal became a place of considerable eminence in the sacred history.

[¶14] 1. It was the place where the Israelitish camp rested the first night of their entering into that land which had been promised to their fathers from the days of Abraham.

[¶15] 2. It was the place in which Joshua circumcised all the people who had been born in the wilderness, during the forty years of their wandering, after they left Egypt.

[¶16] 3. It was the place in which Joshua had what we might term his fortified camp, and to which he and his army constantly returned after each of their expeditions against the inhabitants of the land.

[¶17] 4. It appears to have been the place where all the women, children, cattle, and goods, etc., were lodged, probably during the whole of the Canaanitish war.

[¶18] 5. It was the place where they celebrated the first passover they kept in the promised land.

[¶19] 6. It was the place where Saul, the first king of Israel, was proclaimed.

[¶20] 7. There the manna ceased to fall. And,

[¶21] 8. There the ark was fixed till, after the conquest of the country, it was removed to Shiloh. Gilgal was about ten furlongs from Jericho, and fifty from Jordan: Jericho being on the west, and Jordan on the east, Gilgal being between both. See Josephus, De Bello, etc., lib. v., c. 4, and Calmet on this place. Calmet supposes there was neither city nor town here before the arrival of the Israelites.

### Verse 20

[¶23] Those twelve stones - It is very likely that a base of mason-work was erected of some considerable height, and then the twelve stones placed on the top of it; and that this was the case both in Jordan and in Gilgal: for twelve such stones as a man could carry a considerable way on his shoulder, see [Jos 4:5], could scarcely have made any observable altar, or pillar of memorial: but erected on a high base of mason-work they would be very conspicuous, and thus properly answer the end for which God ordered them to be set up.

### Verse 22

[¶25] Then ye shall let your children know - The necessity of an early religious education is inculcated through the whole oracles of God. The parents who neglect it have an awful account to give to the Judge of quick and dead.

### Verse 24

[¶27] That all the people of the earth might know - It is very likely that כל עמי הארץ col ammey haarets means simply, all the people of this land - all the Canaanitish nations, to whom, by the miracles wrought in behalf of his people, he intended to show his eternal power and Godhead, the excellence of his protection, and the unavailableness of human might against his omnipotence; and the miracles he wrought for this people, in the sight of the heathen, were well calculated to make these things known.

[¶28] 1. God intends that his religion should be maintained and propagated in the earth; therefore he has given a revelation of himself to men, that it may be taught in the world; and he particularly requires that parents should be diligent and fervent in teaching their children the knowledge of his name.

[¶29] 2. This is one great use of the ordinances of the Gospel, and the rites of religion. They are all significators of sacred things, and point out matters of infinite importance beyond themselves.

[¶30] 3. A spirit of inquiry is common to every child: the human heart is ever panting after knowledge; and if not rightly directed when young, will, like that of our first mother, go astray after forbidden science.

[¶31] 4. If we wish our children to be happy we should show them where happiness is to be found. If we wish them to be wise, we should lead them unto God by means of his word and ordinances. It is natural for a child to inquire, "What do you mean by this baptism? - by this sacrament? - by praying - by singing psalms and hymns?" etc. And what fine opportunities do such questions give pious and intelligent parents to instruct their children in every article of the Christian faith, and in every fact on which these articles are established! Oh why is this neglected, while the command of God is before our eyes, and the importance of the measure so strikingly obvious?

### Introduction

[¶33] The effect produced on the minds of the Canaanites by the late miracle, [Jos 5:1]. Joshua is commanded to circumcise the Israelites, [Jos 5:2]. He obeys, [Jos 5:3]. Who they were that were circumcised, and why it was now done, [Jos 5:4-7]. They abide in the camp till they are whole, [Jos 5:8]. The place is called Gilgal, and why, [Jos 5:9]. They keep the passover in the same place, [Jos 5:10]. They eat unleavened cakes and parched corn, on the morrow after the passover, [Jos 5:11]. The manna ceases, [Jos 5:12]. The captain of the Lord's host appears to Joshua, [Jos 5:13-15].

### Verse 1

[¶35] The Amorites which were on the side of Jordan westward - It has already been remarked that the term Amorite is applied sometimes to signify all the nations or tribes of Canaan. It appears from this verse that there were people thus denominated that dwelt on both sides of the Jordan. Those on the east side had already been destroyed in the war which the Israelites had with Sihon and Og; with those on the west side Joshua had not yet waged war. It is possible however that the Amorites of whom we read in this verse, were the remains of those who dwelt on the east side of the Jordan, and who had taken refuge here on the defeat of Og and Sihon.

### Verse 2

[¶37] Make thee sharp knives - חרבות צרים charboth tsurim, knives of rock, stone, or flint. Before the use of iron was common, all the nations of the earth had their edge-tools made of stones, flints, etc. In the lately discovered islands this is found to be a common case. Our ancestors in these countries made their arrow and spear-heads of flint: these I have often seen turned up by the plough. But we cannot suppose that at the time here referred to the Israelites were destitute of iron, and were therefore obliged to use knives made of stone or flint, their different manufactures in the wilderness prove that they must have had both iron and steel. Why then use knives made of stone? Probably it was unlawful to use metal of any kind in this religious rite; and indeed this seems likely from the circumstance of Zipporah ([Exo 4:25]) taking a sharp stone and circumcising her son; and we find, from the most ancient and authentic accounts, that the Egyptians considered it unlawful or profane to use any kind of metal to make incisions in the human body, when preparing it for embalming; see the note on [Gen 50:2], and on [Exo 4:25]. That it was deemed improper to use any other kind of instrument in circumcision we have a proof in the tribe Alnajab, in Ethiopia, who follow the Mosaic institution, and perform the rite of circumcision, according to Ludolf, cultris lapidibus, with knives made of stone. - Hist. Aethiop., lib. iii., c. 1. And as God commanded the people to make him an altar of unhewn stones, on which no tool of iron had been lifted up, because this would pollute it, (see [Exo 20:25], and [Deu 27:5]), he might require that no instrument of iron should be used in a rite by which the body and soul of the person were in the most solemn and sacred manner dedicated to him to be his house and temple, the heart itself being the altar on which continual sacrifices to God must be offered. A physical reason has been given for preferring knives of stone in this operation, "the wound suffers less through inflammation, and is sooner healed." For this a reason may be given. It is almost impossible to get an edge made so even and firm as not to leave particles of the metal in the incisions made even in the most delicate flesh; these particles would soon become oxidized by the action of the air, and extra inflammation in the part would be the consequence. The great aptitude of iron to be oxidized, i.e., to be converted to rust, is well known; but how far this reasoning, thus applied, may be supported by fact, I cannot pretend to determine: it is sufficiently evident that it was a common custom to use knives of stone in circumcision, and in all operations on those parts of the human body. I shall give a few examples. Pliny says, when they amputate certain parts they do it with a sharp stone, because nothing else could be employed without danger. Samia testa virilitatem amputabant: nec aliter citra perniciem. Ovid, Fast. lib. iv., ver. 237, relates a circumstance where the saxum acutum, or sharp stone, was used about those parts: -

[¶38] Ille etiam Saxo corpus laniavit Acuto,

[¶39] Longaque in immundo pulvere tracta coma est.

[¶40] Voxque fuit, Merui; meritas dem sanguine poenas;

[¶41] Ah! pereant partes quae nocuere mihi;

[¶42] Ah! pereant; dicebat adhuc, onus inguinis aufert;

[¶43] Nullaque sunt subito signa relicta viri.

[¶44] This quotation is produced in order to prove that a knife made of a sharp stone was used in making incisions and amputations of certain parts of the body, even when the use of iron was well known; but a translation of the verse is not necessary, and would be improper. The

## 220. Joshua · 6 of 30

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[¶0] Mollia qui Rapta secuit Genitalia Testa of Juvenal (Sat. vi., ver. 513) is a farther proof of this. Many other proofs might be produced but those who wish for more may consult Calmet and Scheuchzer.

[¶1] Circumcise again the children of Israel the second time - This certainly does not mean that they should repeat circumcision on those who had already received it. This would have been as absurd as impracticable. But the command implies that they were to renew the observance of a rite which had been neglected in their travels in the desert: this is sufficiently evident from the following verses.

### Verse 4

[¶3] This is the cause why Joshua did circumcise - The text here explains itself. Before the Israelites left Egypt all the males were circumcised; and some learned men think that all those who were born during their encampment at Sinai were circumcised also, because there they celebrated the passover; but after that time, during the whole of their stay in the wilderness, there were none circumcised till they entered into the promised land. Owing to their unsettled state, God appears to have dispensed, for the time being, with this rite; but as they were about to celebrate another passover, it was necessary that all the males should be circumcised; for without this they could not be considered within the covenant, and could not keep the passover, which was the seal of that covenant. As baptism is generally understood to have succeeded to circumcision, and the holy eucharist to the passover, hence, in the Church of England, and probably in most others, no person is permitted to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper till he has been baptized.

### Verse 8

[¶5] They abode - in the camp, till they were whole - This required several days; see the notes on [Gen 34:24], [Gen 34:25]. Sir J. Chardin informs us that when adults were circumcised they were obliged to keep their beds for about three weeks, or at least during that time they are not able to walk about but with great difficulty. The account he had from several renegadoes, who had received circumcision among the Mohammedans. Is it not strange that during this time they were not attacked by the inhabitants of the land, and utterly destroyed, which might have been easily effected? See the case of the poor Shechemites, as related in [Gen 34:24-31], with the notes there. Joshua, as an able general, would at once perceive that this very measure must expose his whole host to the danger of being totally annihilated; but he knew that God could not err, and that it was his duty to obey; therefore in the very teeth of his enemies he reduced the major part of his army to a state of total helplessness, simply trusting for protection in the arm of Jehovah! The sequel shows that his confidence was not misplaced; during the whole time God did not permit any of their enemies to disturb them. The path of duty is the path of safety; and it is impossible for any soul to be injured while walking in the path of obedience. But why did not God order them to be circumcised while they were on the east side of Jordan in a state of great security? Because he chose to bring them into straits and difficulties where no counsel or might but his own could infallibly direct and save them; and this he did that they might see that the excellence of the power was of God, and not of man. For the same reason he caused them to pass the Jordan at the time that it overflowed its banks, and not at the time when it was low and easily fordable, that he might have the better opportunity to show them that they were under his immediate care and protection; and convince them of his almighty power, that they might trust in him for ever, and not fear the force of any adversaries. In both cases how apparent are the wisdom, power, and goodness of God!

### Verse 9

[¶7] The reproach of Egypt - Their being uncircumcised made them like the uncircumcised Egyptians; and the Hebrews ever considered all those who were uncircumcised as being in a state of the grossest impurity. Being now circumcised, the reproach of uncircumcision was rolled away. This is another proof that the Israelites did not receive circumcision from the Egyptians; for they could not have considered those in a state of abomination, from whom they received that rite by which they conceived themselves to be made pure. The Israelites had this rite from Abraham; and Abraham had it from the express order of God himself. See [Gen 17:10] (note), and the note there.

[¶8] The place is called Gilgal - A rolling away or rolling off. See the note on [Jos 4:19], where the word is largely explained.

### Verse 10

[¶10] Kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month - If the ceremony of circumcision was performed on the eleventh day of the month, as many think; and if the sore was at the worst on the thirteenth, and the passover was celebrated on the fourteenth, the people being then quite recovered; it must have been rather a miraculous than a natural healing. We have already seen from the account of Sir J. Chardin, that it required about three weeks to restore to soundness adults who had submitted to circumcision: if any thing like this took place in the case of the Israelites at Gilgal, they could not have celebrated the passover on the third or fourth day after their circumcision. The apparent impossibility of this led Mr. Harmer to suppose that they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month, the preceding time having been employed in the business of the circumcision. See his Observations, vol. iv., p. 427, etc.

### Verse 11

[¶12] They did eat of the old corn of the land - The Hebrew word עבור abur, which we translate old corn, occurs only in this place in such a sense, if that sense be legitimate. The noun, though of doubtful signification, is evidently derived from עבר abar, to pass over, to go beyond; and here it may be translated simply the produce, that which passes from the land into the hands of the cultivator; or according to Cocceius, what passes from person to person in the way of traffic; hence bought corn, what they purchased from the inhabitants of the land.

[¶13] On the morrow after the passover - That is, on the fifteenth day; for then the feast of unleavened bread began. But they could neither eat bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, till the first-fruits of the harvest had been waved at the tabernacle; (see [Lev 23:9], etc.); and therefore in this case we may suppose that the Israelites had offered a sheaf of the barley-harvest, the only grain that was then ripe, before they ate of the unleavened cakes and parched corn.

### Verse 12

[¶15] And the manna ceased - after they had eaten of the old corn - This miraculous supply continued with them as long as they needed it. While they were in the wilderness they required such a provision; nor could such a multitude, in such a place, be supported without a miracle. Now they are got into the promised land, the anathematized inhabitants of which either fall or flee before them, they find an old stock, and they are brought in just at the commencement of the harvest; hence, as there is an ample provision made in the ordinary way of Providence, there is no longer any need of a miraculous supply; therefore the manna ceased which they had enjoyed for forty years. The circumstances in which it was first given, its continuance with them through all their peregrinations in the wilderness, its accompanying them over Jordan, and ceasing as soon as they got a supply in the ordinary way of Providence, all prove that it was a preternatural gift. "On the fourteenth of Nisan they sacrificed the paschal lamb: on the fifteenth, i.e., according to our calculation, the same day after sunset, they disposed themselves for eating it, and actually did eat it. On the morrow, the sixteenth, after having offered to God the homer, they began eating the corn of the country; and the seventeenth, the manna ceased to fall from heaven. What supports this calculation is, that the homer or sheaf was offered the sixteenth of Nisan, in broad daylight, though pretty late. Now the manna did not fall till night, or very early in the morning; so that it cannot be said to have ceased falling the same day that the Israelites began to eat of the produce of the country." - Dodd.

### Verse 13

[¶17] When Joshua was by Jericho - The sixth chapter should have commenced here, as this is an entirely new relation; or these two chapters should have made but one, as the present division has most unnaturally divided the communication which Joshua had from the angel of the Lord, and which is continued to [Jos 6:5]. It is very likely that Joshua had gone out privately to reconnoitre the city of Jericho when he had this vision; and while contemplating the strength of the place, and probably reflecting on the extreme difficulty of reducing it, God, to encourage him, granted him this vision, and instructed him in the means by which the city should be taken.

[¶18] There stood a man over against him - It has been a very general opinion, both among the ancients and moderns, that the person mentioned here was no other than the Lord Jesus in that form which, in the fullness of time, he was actually to assume for the redemption of man. That the appearance was supernatural is agreed on all hands; and as the name Jehovah is given him, ([Jos 6:2]), and he received from Joshua Divine adoration, we may presume that no created angel is intended.

[¶19] And Joshua went unto him - This is a very natural relation, and carries with it all the appearances and characteristics of a simple relation of fact. The whole history of Joshua shows him to have been a man of the most undaunted mind and intrepid courage - a genuine Hero. An ordinary person, seeing this man armed, with a drawn sword in his hand, would have endeavored to have regained the camp, and sought safety in flight; but Joshua, undismayed though probably slightly armed, walks up to this terrible person and immediately questions him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? probably at first supposing that he might be the Canaanitish general coming to reconnoitre the Israelitish camp, as himself was come out to examine the city of Jericho.

### Verse 14

[¶21] But as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come - By this saying Joshua was both encouraged and instructed. As if he had said, "Fear not; Jehovah hath sent from heaven to save thee and thy people from the reproach of them that would swallow thee up. Israel is the Lord's host; and the Lord of hosts is Israel's Captain. Thou thyself shalt only be captain under me, and I am now about to instruct thee relative to thy conduct in this war."

[¶22] And Joshua - did worship - Nor was he reprehended for offering Divine worship to this person, which he would not have received had he been a created angel. See [Rev 22:8], [Rev 22:9].

### Verse 15

[¶24] Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, etc. - These were the same words which the angel, on Mount Sinai, spoke to Moses; (see [Exo 3:5-8]); and from this it seems likely that it was the same person that appeared in both places: in the first, to encourage Moses to deliver the oppressed Israelites, and bring them to the promised land; in the second, to encourage Joshua in his arduous labor in expelling the ancient inhabitants, and establishing the people in the inheritance promised to their fathers. There is scarcely a more unfortunate division of chapters in the whole Bible than that here. Through this very circumstance many persons have been puzzled to know what was intended by this extraordinary appearance, because they supposed that the whole business ends with the chapter, whereas, it is continued in the succeeding one, the first verse of which is a mere parenthesis, simply relating the state of Jericho at the time that Joshua was favored by this encouraging vision. We may draw two useful reflections from the subjects of this chapter: -

[¶25] 1. As the manna had now failed, the people always greatly addicted to incredulity, might have been led to imagine that God had now given them up, and would be no longer in their armies, had he not given them this strong assurance, that the Angel of his presence should be with them as the guide and protector of the whole camp; for Joshua undoubtedly informed them of the encouragement he had received from the captain of the Lord's host.

[¶26] 2. By this vision he showed them that their help came from himself, and that it was not by human might or power, but by the Lord of hosts, they were to have the victory over all their adversaries; and he gave them the most convincing proof of this in the miraculous destruction of Jericho. By this means he continued to keep them dependent on his arm alone, without which dependence the spirit of religion could not have been preserved among them.

### Introduction

[¶28] The inhabitants of Jericho close their gates, [Jos 6:1]. Continuation of the discourse between the captain of the Lord's host and Joshua. He commands the people to march round the city six days, the seven priests blowing with their trumpets; and to give a general shout, while marching round it on the seventh, and promises that then the walls of the city shall fall down, [Jos 6:2-5]. Joshua delivers these directions to the priests and to the people, [Jos 6:6], [Jos 6:7]. The priests and people obey; the order of their procession, [Jos 6:8-16]. He commands them to spare the house of Rahab, [Jos 6:17], and not to touch any part of the property of the city, the whole of which God had devoted to destruction, [Jos 6:18], [Jos 6:19]. On the seventh day the walls fall down, and the Israelites take the city, [Jos 6:20], [Jos 6:21]. The spies are ordered to take care of Rahab and her family - the city is burnt, but the silver, gold, brass, and iron, are put into the treasury of the house of the Lord, [Jos 6:22-24]. Rahab dwells among the Israelites, [Jos 6:25]; and the city is laid under a curse, [Jos 6:26].

### Verse 1

[¶30] Now Jericho was straitly shut up - The king of Jericho, finding that the spies had escaped, though the city was always kept shut by night, took the most proper precaution to prevent every thing of the kind in future, by keeping the city shut both day and night, having, no doubt, laid in a sufficiency of provisions to stand a siege, being determined to defend himself to the uttermost.

### Verse 2

[¶32] And the Lord said unto Joshua - This is the same person who in the preceding chapter is called the captain or prince of the Lord's host, the discourse being here continued that was begun at the conclusion of the preceding chapter, from which the first verses of this are unnaturally divided.

[¶33] I have given into thine hand Jericho, etc. - From [Jos 24:11], it seems as if there had been persons of all the seven Canaanitish nations then in Jericho, who might have come together at this time to help the king of Jericho against the invading Israelites. The Targum intimates that the place was very strong, having "gates of iron and bars of brass; and was shut up so closely that none came out, either to combat or make offers of peace."

### Verse 3

[¶35] Ye shall compass the city - In what order the people marched round the city does not exactly appear from the text. Some think they observed the same order as in their ordinary marches in the desert; (see the note on [Num 10:14], and see the plans, [Num 2:2] (note)); others think that the soldiers marched first, then the priests who blew the trumpets, then those who carried the ark, and lastly the people.

### Verse 4

[¶37] Seven trumpets of rams' horns - The Hebrew word יובלים yobelim does not signify rams' horns; (see the note on [Lev 25:11]); nor do any of the ancient versions, the Chaldee excepted, give it this meaning. The instruments used on this occasion were evidently of the same kind with those used on the jubilee, and were probably made of horn or of silver; and the text in this place may be translated, And seven priests shall bear before the ark the seven jubilee trumpets, for they appear to have been the same kind as those used on the jubilee.

[¶38] Seven times - The time was thus lengthened out that the besiegers and the besieged might be the more deeply impressed with that supernatural power by which alone the walls fell.

### Verse 5

[¶40] The wall of the city shall fall down flat - Several commentators, both Jews and Christians, have supposed that the ground under the foundation of the walls opened, and the wall sunk into the chasm, so that there remained nothing but plain ground for the Israelites to walk over. Of this the text says nothing: - ונפלה חומת העיר תחתיה venaphelah chomath hair tachteyha, literally translated, is, The wall of the city shall fall down Under Itself; which appears to mean no more than, The wall shall fall down From Its Very Foundations. And this probably was the case in every part, though large breaches in different places might be amply sufficient to admit the armed men first, after whom the whole host might enter, in order to destroy the city.

### Verse 9

[¶42] The rereward came after the ark - The word מאסף measseph, from אסף asaph, to collect or gather up, may signify either the rereward, as our translation understands it, or the people who carried the baggage of the army; for on the seventh day this was necessary, as much fighting might be naturally expected in the assault, and they would need a supply of arms, darts, etc., as well as conveniences for those who might happen to be wounded: or the persons here intended might be such as carried the sacred articles belonging to the ark, or merely such people as might follow in the procession, without observing any particular order. The Jews think the division of Dan is meant, which always brought up the rear. See [Num 10:25].

### Verse 14

[¶44] So they did six days - It is not likely that the whole Israelitish host went each day round the city. This would have been utterly impossible: the fighting men alone amounted to nearly 600,000, independently of the people, who must have amounted at least to two or three millions; we may therefore safely assert that only a select number, such as was deemed necessary for the occasion, were employed. Jericho could not have been a large city: and to reduce it could not have required a hundredth part of the armed force under the command of Joshua.

## 221. Joshua · 7 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/221/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/221/#p-N

### Verse 15

[¶1] The seventh day - they rose early - Because on this day they had to encompass the city seven times; a proof that the city could not have been very extensive, else this going round it seven times, and having time sufficient left to sack and destroy it, would have been impossible. It is evident that in the course of these seven days there must have been a Sabbath, and that on this Sabbath the host must have encompassed the city as on the other days: the Jews themselves allow this, and Rab. De Kimchi says "He who had ordained the observance of the Sabbath commanded it to be broken for the destruction of Jericho." But it does not appear that there could be any breach in the Sabbath by the people simply going round the city, the ark in company, and the priests sounding the sacred trumpets. This was a mere religious procession, performed at the command of God, in which no servile work was done. Therefore Marcion's objection, that the God of the Hebrews showed a changeableness of disposition in commanding the Sabbath to be kept sacred at one time, and then to be broken at another, is without foundation; for I must contend that no breach took place on this occasion, unless it could be made to appear that the day on which Jericho was taken was the Sabbath which is very unlikely, and which none can prove. But if even this were to be conceded, it is a sufficient answer to all such cavils, that the God who commanded the Sabbath to be set apart for rest and religious purposes, has always authority to suspend for a season the operation of merely ceremonial laws, or to abrogate them entirely, when the purpose of their institution is fulfilled. The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

### Verse 17

[¶3] The city shall be accursed - That is, it shall be devoted to destruction; ye shall take no spoils, and put all that resist to the sword. Though this may be the meaning of the word חרם cherem in some places, see the note on [Lev 27:29], yet here it seems to imply the total destruction of all the inhabitants, see [Jos 6:21]; but it is likely that peace was offered to this city, and that the extermination of the inhabitants was in consequence of the rejection of this offer.

### Verse 19

[¶5] But all the silver, and gold - shall come into the treasury - The Brahmins will receive from any caste, however degraded, gold, silver, etc.: but to receive from Shoodras food, garments, etc., would be considered a great degradation. - Ward.

### Verse 20

[¶7] The people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down - There has been much learned labor spent to prove that the shouting of the people might be the natural cause that the wall fell down! To wait here, either to detail or refute any such arguments, would be lost time: enough of them may be seen in Scheuchzer. The whole relation evidently supposes it to have been a supernatural interference, as the blowing of the trumpets, and the shouting of the people, were too contemptible to be used even as instruments in this work, with the expectation of accomplishing it in a natural way.

### Verse 21

[¶9] They utterly destroyed - both man, and woman, etc. - As this act was ordered by God himself, who is the Maker and Judge of all men, it must be right: for the Judge of all the earth cannot do wrong. Nothing that breathed was permitted to live; hence the oxen, sheep, and asses, were destroyed, as well as the inhabitants.

### Verse 23

[¶11] Brought out Rahab, and her father, etc. - Rahab having been faithful to her vow of secrecy, the Israelites were bound by the oath of the spies, who acted as their representatives in this business, to preserve her and her family alive.

[¶12] And left them without the camp - They were considered as persons unclean, and consequently left without the camp; (see [Lev 13:46]; [Num 12:14]). When they had abjured heathenism, were purified, and the males had received circumcision, they were doubtless admitted into the camp, and became incorporated with Israel.

### Verse 24

[¶14] Only the silver, and the gold - they put into the treasury, etc. - The people were to have no share of the spoils, because they had no hand in the conquest. God alone overthrew the city; and into his treasury only the spoils were brought. This is one proof that the agitation of the air, by the sound of the people's voice, was not the cause of the fall of the city walls.

[¶15] Vessels of brass and of iron - Instead of כלי keley, Vessels, the Septuagint, in the Alexandrian copy, evidently have read כל col, All, with the omission of the י yod; for in [Jos 6:19] they translate πας χαλκος και σιδηρος, All the brass and iron: but this reading does not appear in any of Kennicott's or De Rossi's MSS.

### Verse 25

[¶17] And she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day - This is one proof that the book was written in the time to which it is commonly referred; and certainly might have been done by the hand of Joshua himself, though doubtless many marginal notes may have since crept into the text, which, to superficial observers, give it the appearance of having been written after the days of Joshua. See the preface to this book.

### Verse 26

[¶19] And Joshua adjured them at that time - It appears that he had received intimations from God that this idolatrous city should continue a monument of the Divine displeasure: and having convened the princes and elders of the people, he bound them by an oath that they should never rebuild it; and then, in their presence, pronounced a curse upon the person who should attempt it. The ruins of this city continuing would be a permanent proof, not only of God's displeasure against idolatry, but of the miracle which he had wrought in behalf of the Israelites; and for these reasons God willed that it should not be rebuilt: nevertheless, he left men to the operation of their own free will, and recorded the penalty which those must pay who should disobey him.

[¶20] He shall lay the foundation thereof, etc. - This is a strange execration; but it may rather be considered in the light of a prediction. It seems to intimate that he who should attempt to rebuild this city, should lose all his children in the interim, from laying the foundation to the completion of the walls; which the author of [1Kgs 16:34] says was accomplished in Hiel the Beth-elite, who rebuilt Jericho under the reign of Ahab, and laid the foundation of it in Abiram, his first-born, and set up its gates in his youngest son Segub: this was 550 years after Joshua pronounced the curse. But we are not sure that this means that the children either died a natural or violent death on this occasion for we may understand the history as relating to the slow progress of the work. Hiel having begun the work at the birth of his first-born, was not able to conclude before the birth of his last child, who was born many years after: and as their names are mentioned, it is very likely that the distance of time between the birth of each was well known when this history was written; and that the extraordinary length of time spent in the work, in which a multitude of vexatious delays had taken place, is that to which the prophetic execration relates. Yet the first opinion is the most probable. We must not suppose that Jericho had been wholly neglected from its overthrow by Joshua to the days of Hiel; if it be the same with the city of palm trees, mentioned [Deu 34:3]. We find it mentioned as an inhabited place in the beginning of [Jdg 1:16], a short time after the death of Joshua: And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees, with the children of Judah, etc.; and this said city (if the same with the city of palm trees) was taken from the Israelites by Eglon king of Moab, [Jdg 3:13]. The ambassadors of David, who were disgracefully treated by Hanun king of the Ammonites, were commanded to tarry at Jericho till their beards should grow, [2Sam 10:4], [2Sam 10:5]. It appears, therefore, that there was a city which went under this name long before the time of Hiel, unless we can suppose that the city of palm trees was a different place from Jericho, or that the name Jericho was given to some part of the circumjacent country after the city was destroyed, which is very probable. After Hiel had rebuilt this city, it became of considerable consequence in the land of Judea: the courses of priests lodged there, who served in their turns at the temple; see [Luk 10:30]. There was a school of the prophets there, which was visited by Elijah and Elisha, [2Kgs 2:4], [2Kgs 2:5], [2Kgs 2:18]; and it was at this city that our Lord miraculously healed blind Bartimeus, [Mar 10:46]; [Luk 18:35], etc. At present, Jericho is almost entirely deserted, having but thirty or forty miserable cabins in it, which serve for a place of refuge to some wretched Moors and Arabs, who live there like beasts. The plain of Jericho, formerly so celebrated for its fertility, is at present uncultivated, producing nothing but a few wild trees, and some very indifferent fruits. See Calmet.

### Verse 27

[¶22] So the Lord was with Joshua - Giving him miraculous assistance in all his enterprises; and this was what he was naturally led to expect from the communication made to him by the captain of the Lord's host, [Jos 5:14], etc.

[¶23] 1. Many attempts have been made either to deny the miracle in the fall of Jericho, or to account for it on natural causes. Reference has already been made to some of these in the note on [Jos 6:20]. But to those who believe the Divine authenticity of the New Testament, every objection of this kind is removed by the authority of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, [Heb 11:30]; By Faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been compassed about seven days. Hence we find that it was a miraculous interference; and that Joshua's faith in the promise made to him by the captain of the Lord's host, was the instrument which God chose to employ in the accomplishment of this important purpose.

[¶24] 2. The same is said of Rahab: By Faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace, [Heb 11:31]. She believed that the true God was on the side of the Hebrews, and that all opposition to them must be in vain; and this faith led her to put herself under the Divine protection, and in virtue of it she escaped the destruction that fell on her countrymen. Thus God has ever chosen to put honor on faith, as the instrument by which he will perform his greatest miracles of justice and mercy. God, who cannot lie, has given the promise; he that believes shall have it accomplished; for with God nothing shall be impossible, and all things are possible to him that believes. These are Scriptural maxims, and God cannot deny himself.

[¶25] 3. On the curse pronounced by Joshua on those who should rebuild Jericho, it may be necessary to make a few remarks. In ancient history we have many instances of execrations against those who should rebuild those cities which had been destroyed in war, the revival of whose power and influence was dreaded; especially such cities as had been remarkable for oppression, insolence, or perfidy. Strabo observes, lib. xiii., p. 898, ed. 1707, that Agamemnon pronounced execrations on those who should rebuild Troy, as Croesus did against those who should rebuild Sidena, in which the tyrant Glaucias had taken refuge; and this mode of execrating cities, according to Strabo, was an ancient custom - Ειτε και καταρασαμενου του Αγαμεμνονος κατα παλαιον εθος· καθαπερ και ὁ Κροισος εξελων την Σιδηνην, εις ἡν ὁ τυραννος κατεφυγε Γλαυκιας, αρας εθετο κατα των τειχιουντων παλιν τον τοπον. The Romans made a decree full of execrations against those who should rebuild Carthage, which had been the rival of their empire; and which, from its advantageous situation, might again become formidable should it be rebuilt. See Zonaras, Anal. The Ionians, according to Isocrates, pronounced the most awful execrations on those who should rebuild the temples destroyed by the Persians, that they might remain to posterity an endless monument of the impiety of those barbarians; and that none might put confidence in a people who were so wicked as to make war on the gods themselves. The other Greeks who had suffered by the Persians acted in the same way, leaving the desolated temples as a public monument of the enmity that should ever subsist between the two nations. See Calmet, and see the notes on [Num 22:6].

### Introduction

[¶27] The trespass of the Israelites, [Jos 7:1]. Joshua sends men to view the state of Ai, [Jos 7:2]. They return with a favorable report, [Jos 7:3]. Three thousand men are sent against it, who are defeated, and thirty-six killed, [Jos 7:4], [Jos 7:5]. Joshua is greatly distressed, prostrates himself, and inquires of the Lord the reason why he has abandoned Israel to their enemies, [Jos 7:6-9]. The Lord raises him, and informs him that, contrary to the command, some of the people had secreted some of the spoils of Jericho, [Jos 7:10-12]. He is directed how to discover the delinquent, [Jos 7:13-15]. Joshua inquires in what Tribe the guilt is found, and finds it to be in the tribe of Judah; in what Family, and finds it to be among the Zarhites; in what Household, and finds it to be in that of Zabdi; in what Individual, and finds it to be Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, [Jos 7:16-18]. Joshua exhorts him to confess his sin, [Jos 7:19]. He does so, and gives a circumstantial account, [Jos 7:20], [Jos 7:21]. Joshua sends for the stolen articles, [Jos 7:22], [Jos 7:23]. And Achan and all that belonged to him are brought to the valley of Achor, stoned and burnt, [Jos 7:22-26].

### Verse 1

[¶29] The children of Israel committed a trespass - It is certain that one only was guilty; and yet the trespass is imputed here to the whole congregation; and the whole congregation soon suffered shame and disgrace on the account, as their armies were defeated, thirty-six persons slain, and general terror spread through the whole camp. Being one body, God attributes the crime of the individual to the whole till the trespass was discovered, and by a public act of justice inflicted on the culprit the congregation had purged itself of the iniquity. This was done to render every man extremely cautious, and to make the people watchful over each other, that sin might be no where tolerated or connived at, as one transgression might bring down the wrath of God upon the whole camp. See on [Jos 7:12] (note).

[¶30] The accursed thing - A portion of the spoils of the city of Jericho, the whole of which God had commanded to be destroyed.

[¶31] For Achan, the son of Carmi, etc. - Judah had two sons by Tamar: Pharez and Zarah. Zarah was father of Zabdi, and Zabdi of Carmi, the father of Achan. These five persons extend through a period of 265 years; and hence Calmet concludes that they could not have had children before they were fifty or fifty-five years of age. This Achan, son of Zabdi, is called, in [1Chr 2:6], Achar, son of Zimrie; but this reading is corrected into Achan by some MSS. in the place above cited.

### Verse 2

[¶33] Sent men from Jericho to Ai - This is the place called Hai, [Gen 12:8]. It was in the east of Beth-el, north of Jericho, from which it was distant about ten or twelve miles. From [Jos 7:4], [Jos 7:5] it appears to have been situated upon a hill, and belonged to the Amorites, as we learn from [Jos 7:7]. It is very likely that it was a strong place, as it chose to risk a siege, notwithstanding the extraordinary destruction of Jericho which it had lately witnessed.

### Verse 4

[¶35] About three thousand men - The spies sent to reconnoitre the place ([Jos 7:3]) reported that the town was meanly garrisoned, and that two or three thousand men would be sufficient to take it. These were accordingly sent up, and were repulsed by the Amorites.

### Verse 5

[¶37] They chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim - They seem to have presumed that the men of Ai would have immediately opened their gates to them, and therefore they marched up with confidence; but the enemy appearing, they were put to flight, their ranks utterly broken, and thirty-six of them killed. שברים Shebarim signifies breaches or broken places, and may here apply to the ranks of the Israelites, which were broken by the men of Ai; for the people were totally routed, though there were but few slain. They were panic-struck, and fled in the utmost confusion.

[¶38] The hearts of the people melted - They were utterly discouraged; and by this gave an ample proof that without the supernatural assistance of God they could never have conquered the land.

### Verse 6

[¶40] Joshua rent his clothes, etc. - It was not in consequence of this slight discomfiture, simply considered in itself, that Joshua laid this business so much to heart; but

[¶41] 1. Because the people melted, and became as water, and there was little hope that they would make any stand against the enemy; and

[¶42] 2. Because this defeat evidently showed that God had turned his hand against them. Had it not been so, their enemies could not have prevailed.

[¶43] Put dust upon their heads - Rending the clothes, beating the breast, tearing the hair, putting dust upon the head, and falling down prostrate, were the usual marks of deep affliction and distress. Most nations have expressed their sorrow in a similar way. The example of the distressed family of King Latinus, so affectingly related by Virgil, may be adduced in illustration of many passages in the history of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, etc.

[¶44] Regina ut testis venientem prospicit hostem -

## 222. Joshua · 8 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/222/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/222/#p-N

[¶0] Purpureos moritura manu discindit amictus -

[¶1] Filia prima manu flavos Lavinia crines,

[¶2] Et roseas laniata genas. -

[¶3] It scissa veste Latinus -

[¶4] Canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpans.

[¶5] Aen. lib. xii., ver. 594. "The queen, who saw the foes invade the town,

[¶6] And brands on tops of burning houses thrown,

[¶7] She raves against the gods, she beats her breast,

[¶8] And tears, with both her hands, her purple vest.

[¶9] The sad Lavinia rends her yellow hair,

[¶10] And rosy cheeks; the rest her sorrow share.

[¶11] Latinus tears his garments as he goes,

[¶12] Both for his public and his private woes;

[¶13] With filth his venerable beard besmears,

[¶14] And sordid dust deforms his silver hairs."

[¶15] Dryden.

### Verse 7

[¶17] Alas, O Lord God - Particles of exclamations and distress, or what are called interjections, are nearly the same in all languages: and the reason is because they are the simple voice of nature. The Hebrew word which we translate alas is אהה ahah. The complaint of Joshua in this and the following verses seems principally to have arisen from his deep concern for the glory of God, and the affecting interest he took in behalf of the people: he felt for the thousands of Israel, whom he considered as abandoned to destruction: and he felt for the glory of God, for he knew should Israel be destroyed God's name would be blasphemed among the heathen; and his expostulations with his Maker, which have been too hastily blamed by some, as savouring of too great freedom and impatience are founded on God's own words, [Deu 32:26], [Deu 32:27], and on the practice of Moses himself, who had used similar expressions on a similar occasion; see [Exo 5:22], [Exo 5:23]; [Num 14:13-18].

### Verse 10

[¶19] Wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? - It is plain there was nothing in Joshua's prayer or complaint that was offensive to God, for here there is no reprehension: Why liest thou thus? this is no time for complaint; something else is indispensably necessary to be done.

### Verse 11

[¶21] Israel hath sinned - It is impossible that God should turn against his people, if they had not turned away from him. They have taken of the accursed thing, notwithstanding my severe prohibition. They have also stolen, supposing, if not seen by their brethren, I should either not see or not regard it. They have dissembled - pretended to have kept strictly the command I gave them; and have put it among their own stuff - considered it now as a part of their own property.

### Verse 12

[¶23] Because they were accursed - From this verse it appears that the nature of the execration or anathema was such, that those who took of the thing doomed to destruction fell immediately under the same condemnation. The inhabitants of Jericho and all that they had were accursed: therefore they and all their substance were to be destroyed. The Israelites took of the accursed thing, and therefore became accursed with it. This was certainly understood when the curse was pronounced: Every man who touches this property shall be involved in the same execration. Achan therefore was sufficiently aware of the risk he ran in taking any part of the anathematized thing; and when viewed in this light, the punishment inflicted on him will appear to be perfectly just and proper.

### Verse 13

[¶25] Up, sanctify the people - Joshua, all the time that God spake, lay prostrate before the ark: he is now commanded to get up, and sanctify the people, i.e., cause them to wash themselves, and get into a proper disposition to hear the judgment of the Lord relative to the late transactions.

### Verse 14

[¶27] Ye shall be brought according to your tribes - It has been a subject of serious inquiry in what manner and by what means the culpable tribe, family, household, and individual, were discovered. The Jews have many conceits on the subject; the most rational is, that the tribes being, in their representatives, brought before the high priest, the stone on the breastplate gave immediate intimation by suddenly losing its lustre. According to them, this is what is termed consulting God by Urim and Thummim. It is however most probable that the whole was determined by the lot; and that God chose this method to detect the guilty tribe, next the family, thirdly the household, and lastly the individual. This was nearly the plan pursued in the election of Saul by Samuel. "Now therefore," says he, "present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands. And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken. When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken," [1Sam 10:19], [1Sam 10:20]. If the lot was used in the one case it was doubtless used in the other also, as the procedure in the main was entirely similar. The same mode was used to find out who it was that transgressed the king's command, when it was found that Jonathan had eaten a little honey, [1Sam 14:40-43]. It is well known that the promised land was divided by lot among the Israelites; (see [Num 26:55]; [Num 33:54]; [Deu 1:38], etc.); and that the courses of the priests were regulated by lot in the days of David, [1Chr 24:5], etc. That this was a frequent mode of determining difficult questions, and appointed by God himself, is evident from [Lev 16:8]; [Psa 51:18]; [Pro 16:33]; [Pro 18:18]; [Act 1:26].

### Verse 17

[¶29] And he brought the family of Judah - Dr. Kennicott observes, "All Israel came near by Tribes, and one tribe was fixed on; then that tribe came by its Families, and one family was fixed on; then came that family by its Households, and one household was fixed on, and then that household, coming Man by Man, one man was fixed on. Yet according to the present text, in the execution of this command, all Israel came, and the tribe of Judah was fixed on; secondly came the families of Judah, and the family of the Zarhites was fixed on; thirdly came the family of the Zarhites Man by Man, and Zabdi was fixed on; and fourthly came the household of Zabdi Man by Man, and Achan was fixed on. So that in the third article the word for by households is most certainly left out; and the fourth article, man by man, is improperly expressed twice. Instead of לגברים laggebarim, Man by Man, in [Jos 7:17], the true word לבתים labbottim, by Households, is preserved in six Hebrew copies, and the Syriac version. By this method was discovered Achan, as he is here five times called, though the valley in which he was stoned is called Achor. He is also called Achar in the text, and in all the versions, in [1Chr 2:7]. He is called Achar in the five places of Joshua in the Syrian version; also in all five in the Greek of the Vatican MS., and twice in the Alexandrian MS., and so in Josephus." - Kennicott's Observat.

### Verse 19

[¶31] My son, give - glory to the Lord God - The person being now detected, Joshua wishes him to acknowledge the omniscience of God, and confess his crime. And doubtless this was designed, not only for the edification of the people, and a vindication of the righteous judgment of God, but in reference to his own salvation; for as his life was now become forfeited to the law, there was the utmost necessity of humiliation before God that his soul might be saved. Give glory to God signifies the same as, Make a thorough confession as in the presence of God, and disguise no part of the truth. In this way and in these very words the Jews adjured the man who had been born blind that he would truly tell who had healed him; for they pretended to believe that Christ was such a sinner that God would not work a miracle by him. [Joh 9:24].

### Verse 20

[¶33] I have sinned against the Lord God - This seems a very honest and hearty confession, and there is hope that this poor culprit escaped perdition.

### Verse 21

[¶35] A goodly Babylonish garment - אדרת שנער addereth shinar, a splendid or costly robe of Shinar; but as Babylon or Babel was built in the plain of Shinar, the word has in general been translated Babylon in this place. It is very probable that this was the robe of the king of Jericho, for the same word is used, [Jon 3:6], to express the royal robe, of the king of Nineveh which he laid aside in order to humble himself before God. Bochart and Calmet have shown at large that Babylonish robes were very splendid, and in high reputation. "They are," says Calmet, "generally allowed to have been of various colors, though some suppose they were woven thus; others, that they were embroidered with the needle; and others, that they were painted. Silius Italicus appears to think they were woven thus: -

[¶36] Vestis spirantes referens subtemine vultus,

[¶37] Quos radio caelat Babylon.

[¶38] Punic. lib. xiv., ver. 667.

[¶39] Martial seems to say they were embroidered with the needle: -

[¶40] Non ego praetulerim Babylonia Picta superbe

[¶41] Textra, Semiramia quae variantur Acu.

[¶42] Lib. viii., E. 28, ver. 17.

[¶43] Pliny (lib. viii., c. 48) and Apuleius (Florid. lib. i). speak of them as if painted: "Colores diversos picturae intexere Babylon maxime celebravit, et nomen imposuit." Thus far Calmet: but it may be observed that the clothes woven of divers colors at Babylon, which were so greatly celebrated, and hence called Babylonish garments, appear rather to have had the pictures woven or embroidered in them than painted on them, as Calmet supposes, though it is most likely the figures referred to were the work of the needle after the cloth came from the loom. Aquila translates the original, אדרת שנער addereth shinar, by στολην βαβυλονικην, a Babylonish robe; Symmachus, ενδυμα συναρ, a robe of Synar; the Septuagint, ψιλην ποικιλην, a fine garment of different colors; and the Vulgate, pallium coccineum, a scarlet cloak. There is no doubt it was both beautiful and costly, and on these grounds it was coveted by Achan.

[¶44] Two hundred shekels of silver - At three shillings per shekel, amount to about 30l. sterling.

## 223. Joshua · 9 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/223/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/223/#p-N

[¶0] A wedge of gold - A tongue of gold, לשון זהב leshon zahab what we commonly call an ingot of gold, a corruption of the word lingot, signifying a little tongue, of fifty shekels weight. These fifty shekels, in weight 29 oz. 15 15/31 gr., at 2l. 5s. 2 1/2 42/93d. per shekel, would be worth about 113l. 0s. 10 3/4d. This verse gives us a notable instance of the progress of sin. It

[¶1] 1. enters by the eye;

[¶2] 2. sinks into the heart;

[¶3] 3. actuates the hand; and,

[¶4] 4. leads to secrecy and dissimulation.

[¶5] I saw, etc, I coveted, etc. I took and hid them in the earth. Thus says St. James: "When lust (evil desire) is conceived it bringeth forth sin; and when sin is finished it bringeth forth death," [Jos 1:15].

### Verse 24

[¶7] Joshua - took Achan - and all that he had - He and his cattle and substance were brought to the valley to be consumed; his sons and his daughters, probably, to witness the judgments of God inflicted on their disobedient parent. See [Jos 7:25].

### Verse 25

[¶9] Why hast thou troubled us? - Here is a reference to the meaning of Achan's or Achar's name, מה עכרתנו meh Achar-tanu; and as עכר achar is used here, and not עכן achan, and the valley is called the valley of Achor, and not the valley of Achan, hence some have supposed that Achar was his proper name, as it is read [1Chr 2:7], and in some MSS., and ancient versions. See the note on [Jos 7:17].

[¶10] And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones - With great deference to the judgment of others, I ask, Can it be fairly proved from the text that the sons and daughters of Achan were stoned to death and burnt as well as their father? The text certainly leaves it doubtful, but seems rather to intimate that Achan alone was stoned, and that his substance was burnt with fire. The reading of the present Hebrew text is, They stoned Him with stones, and burnt Them with fire, after they had stoned Them with stones. The singular number being used in the first clause of the verse, and the plural in the last, leaves the matter doubtful. The Vulgate is very clear: Lapidavitque Eum omnis Israel; et cuncta quae illius erant, igne consumpta sunt, "All Israel stoned him; and all that he had was consumed with fire." The Septuagint add this and the first clause of the next verse together: Και ελιθοβολησαν αυτον λιθοις πας Ισραηλ, και επεστησαν αυτῳ σωρον λιθων μεγαν: And all Israel stoned Him with stones, and raised over Him a great heap of stones. The Syriac says simply, They stoned Him with stones, and burned what pertained to Him with fire. The Targum is the same as the Hebrew. The Anglo-Saxon seems to refer the whole to Achan and his Goods: And Him they stoned there, and burnt his goods. The Arabic version alone says, They stoned Him and his Children, and his goods. Instead of burnt Them, אתם otham, two of De Rossi's MSS. read אתו otho, Him; which reading, if genuine, would make the different members of the verse agree better. It is possible that Achan, his oxen, asses, sheep, tent, and all his household goods, were destroyed, but his sons and daughters left uninjured. But it may be asked, Why are they brought out into the valley with the rest? Why, that they might see and fear, and be for ever deterred by their father's punishment from imitating his example. I have gone thus far into this important transaction, in which the justice and mercy of God are so much concerned, that I might be able to assign to each its due. That Achan's life was forfeited to justice by his transgression, no one doubts: he sinned against a known and positive law. His children could not suffer with him, because of the law, [Deu 24:16], unless they had been accomplices in his guilt: of this there is no evidence; and the text in question, which speaks of Achan's punishment, is extremely dubious, as far as it relates to this point. One circumstance that strengthens the supposition that the children were not included, is the command of the Lord, [Jos 7:15] : "He that is taken with the accursed thing, shall be burnt with fire; he, and all that he hath." Now, all that he hath may certainly refer to his goods, and not to his children; and his punishment, and the destruction of his property would answer every purpose of public justice, both as a punishment and preventive of the crime; and both mercy and justice require that the innocent shall not suffer with the guilty, unless in very extraordinary cases, where God may permit the righteous or the innocent to be involved in those public calamities by which the ungodly are swept away from the face of the earth: but in the case before us, no necessity of this kind urged it, and therefore I conclude that Achan alone suffered, and that his repentance and confession were genuine and sincere; and that, while Justice required his life, Mercy was extended to the salvation of his soul.

### Verse 26

[¶12] They raised over him a great heap of stones - The burial-places, both of heroes and eminent culprits, were anciently thus distinguished; and transactions of this kind gave rise to those great piles of stones called cairns, that are so frequently to be met with, especially in northern countries. From the whole of this account we may see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the great danger of not withstanding its first approaches. By covetousness many lives and many souls have been destroyed, and yet the living lay it not to heart! Who fears the love of money, provided he can get riches? Through the intensity of this desire, every part of the surface of the earth, and as far as possible its bowels, are ransacked in order to get wealth; and God alone can tell, who sees all things, to how many private crimes, frauds, and dissimulations, this gives birth; by which the wrath of God is brought down upon the community at large! Who is an enemy to his country? The sinner against his God. An open foe may be resisted and repelled, because he is known; but the covetous man, who, as far as his personal safety will admit, is outraging all the requisitions of justice, is an unseen pestilence, sowing the seeds of desolation and ruin in society. Achan's covetousness, which led him to break the law of God, had nearly proved the destruction of the Israelitish camp, nor would the Lord turn away from his displeasure till the evil was detected, and the criminal punished. Reader, is the face of God turned against thee, because of some private transgression? Are not thy circumstances and family suffering in consequence of something in thy private life? O search and try thy ways, return to God, and humble thyself before him lest thy iniquity instantly find thee out.

### Introduction

[¶14] The Lord encourages Joshua, and promises to deliver Ai into his hands, and instructs him how he is to proceed against it, [Jos 8:1], [Jos 8:2]. Joshua takes thirty thousand of his best troops, and gives them instructions concerning his intention of taking Ai by stratagem, [Jos 8:3-8]. The men dispose themselves according to these directions, [Jos 8:9-13]. The king of Ai attacks the Israelites, who, feigning to be beaten, fly before him, in consequence of which all the troops of Ai issue out, and pursue the Israelites, [Jos 8:14-17]. Joshua, at the command of God, stretches out his spear towards Ai, and then five thousand men that he had placed in ambush in the valley rise up, enter the city, and set it on fire, [Jos 8:18], [Jos 8:19]. Then Joshua and his men turned against the men of Ai, and, at the same time, those who had taken the city sallied forth and attacked them in the rear; thus the men of Ai were defeated, their king taken prisoner, the city sacked, and twelve thousand persons slain, [Jos 8:20-26]. The Israelites take the spoils, and hang the king of Ai, [Jos 8:27-29]. Joshua builds an altar to God on Mount Ebal, and writes on it a copy of the law of Moses, [Jos 8:30-32]. The elders, officers, and judges, stand on each side of the ark, one half over against Mount Gerizim, and the other against Mount Ebal, and read all the blessings and curses of the law, according to the command of Moses, [Jos 8:33-35].

### Verse 1

[¶16] Fear not - The iniquity being now purged away, because of which God had turned his hand against Israel, there was now no cause to dread any other disaster, and therefore Joshua is ordered to take courage.

[¶17] Take all the people of war with thee - From the letter of this verse it appears that all that were capable of carrying arms were to march out of the camp on this occasion: thirty thousand chosen men formed an ambuscade in one place; five thousand he placed in another, who had all gained their positions in the night season: with the rest of the army he appeared the next morning before Ai, which the men of that city would naturally suppose were the whole of the Israelitish forces; and consequently be the more emboldened to come out and attack them. But some think that thirty thousand men were the whole that were employed on this occasion; five thousand of whom were placed as an ambuscade on the west side of the city between Beth-el and Ai, [Jos 8:12], and with the rest he appeared before the city in the morning. The king of Ai seeing but about twenty-five thousand coming against him, and being determined to defend his city and crown to the last extremity, though he had but twelve thousand persons in the whole city, [Jos 8:25], scarcely one half of whom we can suppose to be effective men, he was determined to risk a battle; and accordingly issued out, and was defeated by the stratagem mentioned in the preceding part of this chapter. Several eminent commentators are of opinion that the whole Israelitish force was employed on this occasion, because of what is said in the first verse; but this is not at all likely.

[¶18] 1. It appears that but thirty thousand were chosen out of the whole camp for this expedition, the rest being drawn up in readiness should their co-operation be necessary. See [Jos 8:3], [Jos 8:10].

[¶19] 2. That all the people were mustered in order to make this selection, [Jos 8:1].

[¶20] 3. That these thirty thousand were sent off by night, [Jos 8:3], Joshua himself continuing in the camp a part of that night, [Jos 8:9], with the design of putting himself at the head of the army next morning.

[¶21] 4. That of the thirty thousand men five thousand were directed to lie in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of the city, [Jos 8:12]; the twenty-five thousand having taken a position on the north side of the city, [Jos 8:11].

[¶22] 5. That the whole of the troops employed against Ai on this occasion were those on the north and west, [Jos 8:13], which we know from the preceding verses were composed of thirty thousand chosen men.

[¶23] 6. That Joshua went in the course of the night, probably before daybreak, into the valley between Beth-el and Ai, where the ambuscade of five thousand men was placed, [Jos 8:13], and gave them the proper directions how they were to proceed, and agreed on the sign he was to give them at the moment he wished them to act, see [Jos 8:18] : and that, after having done so, he put himself at the head of the twenty-five thousand men on the north side of the city: for we find him among them when the men of Ai issued out, [Jos 8:15], though he was the night before in the valley on the west side, where the ambuscade lay, [Jos 8:13].

[¶24] 7. That as Ai was but a small city, containing only twelve thousand inhabitants, it would have been absurd to have employed an army of several hundred thousand men against them.

[¶25] 8. This is confirmed by the opinion of the spies, [Jos 7:3], who, from the smallness of the place, the fewness of its inhabitants, and the panic-struck state in which they found them, judged that three thousand troops would be quite sufficient to reduce the place.

[¶26] 9. That it appears this judgment was correctly enough formed, as the whole population of the place amounted only to twelve thousand persons, as we have already seen, [Jos 8:25].

[¶27] 10. That even a less force might have been sufficient for the reduction of this place, had they been supplied with battering-rams, and such like instruments, which it does not appear the Israelites possessed.

[¶28] 11. That this is the reason why Joshua employed the stratagems detailed in this chapter: having no proper instruments or machines by means of which he might hope to take the city by assault, (and to reduce it by famine, which was quite possible, would have consumed too much time), he used the feigned flight, [Jos 8:19], to draw the inhabitants from the city, that the ambush, [Jos 8:12], [Jos 8:15], might then enter, and take possession of it.

[¶29] 12. That had he advanced with a greater force against the city the inhabitants would have had no confidence in risking a battle, and consequently would have kept within their walls, which would have defeated the design of the Israelites, which was to get them to issue from their city.

[¶30] 13. That, all these circumstances considered thirty thousand men, disposed as above, were amply sufficient for the reduction of the city, and were the whole of the Israelitish troops which were employed on the occasion.

### Verse 8

[¶32] Ye shall set the city on fire - Probably this means no more than that they should kindle a fire in the city, the smoke of which should be an indication that they had taken it. For as the spoils of the city were to be divided among the people, had they at this time set fire to the city itself, all the property must have been consumed, for the five thousand men did not wait to save any thing, as they immediately issued out to attack the men of Ai in the rear.

### Verse 10

[¶34] Numbered the people - ויפקד את העם vaiyiphkod eth haam, he visited the people - inspected their ranks to see whether every thing was in perfect readiness, that in case they should be needed they might be led on to the attack. There is no doubt that Joshua had left the rest of the army so disposed and ready, part of it having probably advanced towards Ai, that he might easily receive reinforcements in case of any disaster to the thirty thousand which had advanced against the city; and this consideration will serve to remove a part of the difficulty which arises from [Jos 8:1], [Jos 8:3], [Jos 8:10], collated with other parts of this chapter. Had he brought all his troops in sight, the people of Ai would not have attempted to risk a battle, and would consequently have kept within their walls, from which it was the object of Joshua to decoy them. See the preceding observations, particularly [Jos 8:10-12] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶36] There was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el - It is very likely that the principal strength of Beth-el had been previously brought into Ai, as the strongest place to make a stand in; Beth-el being but about three miles distant from Ai, and probably not greatly fortified. Therefore Ai contained on this occasion all the men of Beth-el - all the warriors of that city, as well as its own troops and inhabitants. Others think that the Beth-elites, seeing the Israelites fly, sallied out of their city as against a common enemy; but that, finding the men of Ai discomfited, and the city taken, they returned to Beth-el, which Joshua did not think proper to attack at this time. From [Jdg 1:24] we find that Beth-el was then a walled city, in the hands of the Canaanites, and was taken by the house of Joseph.

### Verse 18

[¶38] Stretch out the spear - It is very probable that Joshua had a flag or ensign at the end of his spear, which might be easily seen at a considerable distance; and that the unfurling or waving of this was the sign agreed on between him and the ambush. (see [Jos 8:13], and the preceding observations on [Jos 8:1] (note), observation 6); and on seeing this flag or ensign unfurled, the men who lay in ambush arose and entered the city, making the fire previously agreed on. See [Jos 8:8].

### Verse 19

[¶40] Set the city on fire - See on [Jos 8:8] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶42] They had no power to flee this way or that way - They were in utter consternation; they saw that the city was taken, they found themselves in the midst of their foes; that their wives, children, and property, had fallen a prey to their enemies, in consequence of which they were so utterly panic-struck as to be incapable of making any resistance.

### Verse 24

[¶44] Returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. - This must refer to the women, children, and old persons, left behind; for it is likely that all the effective men had sallied out when they imagined the Israelites had fled. See [Jos 8:16].

## 224. Joshua · 10 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/224/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/224/#p-N

### Verse 26

[¶1] Joshua drew not his hand back - He was not only the general, but the standard-bearer or ensign of his own army, and continued in this employment during the whole of the battle. See on [Jos 8:18] (note). Some commentators understand this and [Jos 8:18] figuratively, as if they implied that Joshua continued in prayer to God for the success of his troops; nor did he cease till the armies of Ai were annihilated, and the city taken and destroyed. The Hebrew word כידון kidon, which we render spear, is rendered by the Vulgate clypeum, buckler; and it must be owned that it seems to have this signification in several passages of Scripture: (see [1Sam 17:6], [1Sam 17:45]; [Job 39:23]): but it is clear enough also that it means a spear, or some kind of offensive armor, in other places: see [Job 41:29]; [Jer 6:23]. I cannot therefore think that it has any metaphorical meaning, such as that attributed to the holding up of Moses's hands, [Exo 17:10-12], which is generally allowed to have a spiritual meaning, though it might be understood as the act of Joshua is here; and to this meaning an indirect glance is given in the note on the above place. But however the place in Exodus may be understood, that before us does not appear to have any metaphorical or equivocal meaning; Joshua continued to hold up or stretch out his spear, and did not slack from the pursuit till the forces of Ai were utterly discomfited.

### Verse 27

[¶3] Only the cattle and the spoil - In the case of Jericho these were all consigned to destruction, and therefore it was criminal to take any thing pertaining to the city, as we have already seen; but in the case before us the cattle and spoils were expressly given to the conquerors by the order of God. See [Jos 8:2].

### Verse 28

[¶5] Unto this day - This last clause was probably added by a later hand.

### Verse 29

[¶7] The king of Ai he hanged on a tree - He had gone out at the head of his men, and had been taken prisoner, [Jos 8:23]; and the battle being over, he was ordered to be hanged, probably after having been strangled, or in some way deprived of life, as in the case mentioned [Jos 10:26], for in those times it was not customary to hang people alive.

[¶8] As soon as the sun was down - It was not lawful to let the bodies remain all night upon the tree. See the note on [Deu 21:23]. The Septuagint say the king of Ai was hanged επι ξυλον διδυμον, upon a double tree, which probably means a forked tree, or something in the form of a cross. The tree on which criminals were hanged among the Romans was called arbor infelix, and lignum infelix, the unfortunate, ill-fated, or accursed tree.

[¶9] Raise thereon a great heap of stones - This was a common custom through all antiquity in every country, as we have already seen in the case of Achan, [Jos 7:20].

### Verse 30

[¶11] Then Joshua built an altar - This was done in obedience to the express command of God, [Deu 27:4-8] (note).

### Verse 32

[¶13] A copy of the law of Moses - משנה תורת mishneh torath, the repetition of the law; that is, a copy of the blessings and curses, as commanded by Moses; not a copy of the Decalogue, as some imagine, nor of the book of Deuteronomy, as others think; much less of the whole Pentateuch; but merely of that part which contained the blessings and curses, and which was to be read on this solemn occasion. See the note on [Deu 27:3].

### Verse 33

[¶15] Half of them over against Mount Gerizim - See the arrangement of the whole of this business in the note and observations on [Deu 27:26] (note). And see also the notes on Deuteronomy 28:1-68 (note).

### Verse 35

[¶17] With the women and the little ones - It was necessary that all should know that they were under the same obligations to obey; even the women are brought forward, not only because of their personal responsibility, but because to them was principally intrusted the education of the children. The children also witness this solemn transaction, that a salutary fear of offending God might be early, diligently, and deeply impressed upon their hearts. Thus every precaution is taken to ensure obedience to the Divine precepts, and consequently to promote the happiness of the people; for this every ordinance of God is remarkable, as he ever causes the interest and duty of his followers to go hand in hand.

[¶18] 1. It may be asked, Seeing God promised to deliver Ai into the hands of the Israelites, why needed they to employ so many men and so many stratagems in order to its reduction? To this it may be answered, that God will have man to put forth the wisdom and power with which he has endued him, in every important purpose of life; that he endued him with those powers for this very end; and that it would be inconsistent with his gracious design so to help man at any time as to render the powers he had given him useless.

[¶19] 2. It is only in the use of lawful means that we have any reason to expect God's blessing and help. One of the ancients has remarked, "Though God has made man without himself he will not save him without himself;" and therefore man's own concurrence of will, and co-operation of power with God, are essentially necessary to his preservation and salvation. This co-operation is the grand condition, sine qua non, on which God will help or save. But is not this "endeavoring to merit salvation by our own works?" No: for this is impossible, unless we could prove that all the mental and corporeal powers which we possess came from and are of ourselves, and that we held them independently of the power and beneficence of our Creator, and that every act of these was of infinite value, to make it an equivalent for the heaven we wished to purchase. Putting forth the hand to receive the alms of a benevolent man, can never be considered a purchase-price for the bounty bestowed. For ever shall that word stand true in all its parts, Christ is the Author of eternal salvation to all them that Obey him, [Heb 5:9].

### Introduction

[¶21] All the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, unite them forces against Joshua, [Jos 9:1], [Jos 9:2]. The inhabitants of Gibeon, hearing what Joshua had done to Ai, sent ambassadors to him, feigning themselves to come from a very distant tribe, requesting a friendly alliance with him, [Jos 9:3-5]. Their address to Joshua, and the means they used to deceive the Israelites, [Jos 9:6-13]. The Israelitish elders are deceived, and make a league with them, which they confirm with an oath, [Jos 9:14], [Jos 9:15]. After three day they are informed that the Gibeonites belong to the seven Canaanitish nations, yet they spare their cities, [Jos 9:16], [Jos 9:17]. The congregation murmuring because of this, the elders excuse themselves because of their oath, [Jos 9:18], [Jos 9:19]. They purpose to make the Gibeonites slaves to the congregation, [Jos 9:20], [Jos 9:21]. Joshua calls them, and pronounces this sentence against them, [Jos 9:22], [Jos 9:23]. They vindicate themselves, and submit to their lot, [Jos 9:24], [Jos 9:25]. They are spared, and made hewers of wood and drawers of water to the congregation and to the altar, [Jos 9:26], [Jos 9:27].

### Verse 1

[¶23] And it came to pass, when all the kings - heard thereof - From this account it appears that the capture and destruction of Jericho and Ai had been heard of to the remotest parts of the land, that a general fear of the Israelitish arms prevailed, and that the different dynasties or petty governments into which the land was divided, felt all their interests at stake, and determined to make the defense of their country a common cause. This was the most prudent step they could take in their circumstances, and therefore they entered into a confederation in order to arrest the progress of the Israelites. The Great Sea mentioned here is the Mediterranean Sea, the coasts of which were inhabited by the Phoenicians, Syrians, Sidonians, and Philistines. It is very likely that all these united with the Canaanites for their common safety.

### Verse 3

[¶25] The inhabitants of Gibeon heard - These alone did not join the confederation. Gibeon is supposed to have been the capital of the Hivites. In the division of the land it fell to the lot of Benjamin, [Jos 18:25], and was afterwards given to the priests, [Jos 21:17]. See the note on [Jos 10:2].

### Verse 4

[¶27] They did work wilily - Finesse of this kind is allowed by the conduct of all nations; and stratagems in war are all considered as legal. Nine tenths of the victories gained are attributable to stratagem; all sides practice them, and therefore none can condemn them. Much time and labor have been lost in the inquiry, "Did not the Gibeonites tell lies?" Certainly they did, and what is that to us? Does the word of God commend them for it? It does not. Are they held up to us as examples! Surely no. They did what any other nation would have done in their circumstances, and we have nothing to do with their example. Had they come to the Israelites, and simply submitted themselves without opposition and without fraud, they had certainly fared much better. Lying and hypocrisy always defeat their own purpose, and at best can succeed only for a short season. Truth and honesty never wear out.

[¶28] Old sacks - and wine bottles, old, etc. - They pretended to have come from a very distant country, and that their sacks and the goat-skins that served them for carrying their wine and water in, were worn out by the length of the journey.

### Verse 5

[¶30] Old shoes and clouted - Their sandals, they pretended had been worn out by long and difficult travelling, and they had been obliged to have them frequently patched during the way; their garments also were worn thin; and what remained of their bread was mouldy - spotted with age, or, as our old version has it, bored - pierced with many holes by the vermin which had bred in it, through the length of the time it had been in their sacks; and this is the most literal meaning of the original נקדים nikkudim, which means spotted or pierced with many holes. The old and clouted shoes have been a subject of some controversy: the Hebrew word בלות baloth signifies worn out, from בלה balah, to wear away; and מטלאות metullaoth, from טלא tala, to spot or patch, i.e., spotted with patches. Our word clouted, in the Anglo-Saxon signifies seamed up, patched; from clout, rag, or small piece of cloth, used for piecing or patching. But some suppose the word here comes from clouet, the diminutive of clou, a small nail, with which the Gibeonites had fortified the soles of their shoes, to prevent them from wearing out in so long a journey; but this seems very unlikely; and our old English term clouted - seamed or patched - expresses the spirit of the Hebrew word.

### Verse 6

[¶32] Make ye a league with us - כרתו לנו ברית kirethu lanu berith, cut, or divide, the covenant sacrifice with us. From this it appears that heathenism at this time had its sacrifices, and covenants were ratified by sacrificing to and invoking the objects of their adoration.

### Verse 7

[¶34] Peradventure ye dwell among us - It is strange they should have had such a suspicion, as the Gibeonites had acted so artfully; and it is as strange that, having such a suspicion, they acted with so little caution.

### Verse 8

[¶36] We are thy servants - This appears to have been the only answer they gave to the question of the Israelitish elders, and this they gave to Joshua, not to them, as they saw that Joshua was commander-in-chief of the host.

[¶37] Who are ye? and from whence come ye? - To these questions, from such an authority, they felt themselves obliged to give an explicit answer; and they do it very artfully by a mixture of truth, falsehood, and hypocrisy.

### Verse 9

[¶39] Because of the name of the Lord thy God - They pretend that they had undertaken this journey on a religious account; and seem to intimate that they had the highest respect for Jehovah, the object of the Israelites' worship; this was hypocrisy.

[¶40] We have heard the fame of him - This was true: the wonders which God did in Egypt, and the discomfiture of Sihon and Og, had reached the whole land of Canaan, and it was on this account that the inhabitants of it were panic-struck. The Gibeonites, knowing that they could not stand where such mighty forces had fallen, wished to make the Israelites their friends. This part of their relation was strictly true.

### Verse 11

[¶42] Wherefore our elders, etc. - All this, and what follows to the end of [Jos 9:13], was false, contrived merely for the purpose of deceiving the Israelites, and this they did to save their own lives; as they expected all the inhabitants of Canaan to be put to the sword.

### Verse 14

[¶44] The men took of their victuals - This was done in all probability in the way of friendship; for, from time immemorial to the present day, eating together, in the Asiatic countries, is considered a token of unalterable friendship; and those who eat even salt together, feel themselves bound thereby in a perpetual covenant. But the marginal reading of this clause should not be hastily rejected.

## 225. Joshua · 11 of 30

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[¶0] And asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord - They made the covenant with the Gibeonites without consulting God by Urim and Thummim, which was highly reprehensible in them, as it was a state transaction in which the interests and honor of God their king were intimately concerned.

### Verse 15

[¶2] Joshua made peace with them - Joshua agreed to receive them into a friendly connection with the Israelites, and to respect their lives and properties; and the elders of Israel bound themselves to the observance of it, and confirmed it with an oath. As the same words are used here as in [Jos 9:6], we may suppose that the covenant was made in the ordinary way, a sacrifice being offered on the occasion, and its blood poured out before the Lord. See on [Gen 15:10] (note), etc.

### Verse 16

[¶4] At the end of three days - Gibeon is reputed to be only about eight leagues distant from Gilgal, and on this account the fraud might be easily discovered in the time mentioned above.

### Verse 17

[¶6] The children of Israel - came unto their cities - Probably when the fraud was discovered, Joshua sent out a detachment to examine their country, and to see what use could be made of it in the prosecution of their war with the Canaanites. Some of the cities mentioned here were afterwards in great repute among the Israelites: and God chose to make one of them, Kirjath-jearim, the residence of the ark of the covenant for twenty years, in the reigns of Saul and David. There is no evidence that the preservation of the Gibeonites was displeasing to Jehovah.

### Verse 18

[¶8] All the congregation murmured - Merely because they were deprived of the spoils of the Gibeonites. They had now got under the full influence of a predatory spirit; God saw their proneness to this, and therefore, at particular times, totally interdicted the spoils of conquered cities, as in the case of Jericho.

### Verse 19

[¶10] We have sworn unto them - Although the Israelites were deceived in this business, and the covenant was made on a certain supposition which was afterwards proved to have had no foundation in truth, and consequently the whole engagement on the part of the deceived was hereby vitiated and rendered null and void; yet, because the elders had eaten with them, offered a covenant sacrifice, and sworn by Jehovah, they did not consider themselves at liberty to break the terms of the agreement, as far as the lives of the Gibeonites were concerned. That their conduct in this respect was highly pleasing to God is evident from this, that Joshua is nowhere reprehended for making this covenant, and sparing the Gibeonites; and that Saul, who four hundred years after this thought himself and the Israelites loosed from this obligation, and in consequence oppressed and destroyed the Gibeonites, was punished for the breach of this treaty, being considered as the violator of a most solemn oath and covenant engagement. See [2Sam 21:2-9], and [Eze 17:18], [Eze 17:19]. All these circumstances laid together, prove that the command to destroy the Canaanites was not so absolute as is generally supposed: and should be understood as rather referring to the destruction of the political existence of the Canaanitish nations, than to the destruction of their lives. See the notes on [Deu 20:10], [Deu 20:17].

### Verse 21

[¶12] Hewers of wood and drawers of water - Perhaps this is a sort of proverbial expression, signifying the lowest state of servitude, though it may also be understood literally. See below.

### Verse 23

[¶14] Now therefore ye are cursed - Does not this refer to what was pronounced by Noah, [Gen 9:26], against Ham and his posterity? Did not the curse of Ham imply slavery, and nothing else? Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be; and does it not sufficiently appear that nothing else than perpetual slavery is implied in the curse of the Gibeonites? They were brought, no doubt, under tribute; performed the meanest offices for the Israelites, being in the same circumstances with the servile class of Hindoos called the Chetrees; had their national importance annihilated, and yet were never permitted to incorporate themselves with the Israelites. And we may reasonably suppose that this was the purpose of God relative to all the Canaanitish nations: those who would not renounce their idolatry, etc., were to be extirpated; those who did were to be preserved alive, on condition of becoming tributary, and serving as slaves. See the note on [Deu 20:17].

[¶15] Hewers of wood and drawers of water - The disgrace of this state lay not in the laboriousness of it, but in its being the common employment of the females; if the ancient customs among the same people were such as prevail now. The most intelligent travelers in those countries represent collecting wood for fuel, and carrying water, as the peculiar employment of the females. The Arab women of Barbary do so, according to Dr. Shaw. The daughters of the Turcomans in Palestine are employed, according to D'Arvieux, in fetching wood and water for the accommodation of their respective families. From these circumstances Mr. Harmer reasons thus: "The bitterness of the doom of the Gibeonites does not seem to have consisted in the laboriousness of the service enjoined them, for it was usual for women and children to perform what was required of them; but its degrading them from the characteristic employment of men, that of bearing arms; and condemning them and their posterity for ever to the employment of females. The not receiving them as allies was bitter; the disarming them who had been warriors, and condemning them to the employment of females, was worse; but the extending this degradation to their posterity, was bitterest of all. It is no wonder that in these circumstances they are said to have been cursed." - Obs., vol. iv., p. 297.

### Verse 24

[¶17] We were sore afraid of our lives - Self-preservation, which is the most powerful law of nature, dictated to them those measures which they adopted; and they plead this as the motive of their conduct.

### Verse 25

[¶19] We are in thine hand - Entirely in thy power.

[¶20] As it seemeth good and right unto thee - do - Whatever justice and mercy dictate to thee to do to us, that perform. They expect justice, because they deceived the Israelites; but they expect mercy also, because they were driven to use this expedient for fear of losing their lives. The appeal to Joshua is full of delicacy and cogent argument.

### Verse 26

[¶22] And so did he unto them - That is, he acted according to justice and mercy: he delivered them out of the hands of the people, so that they slew them not - here was mercy; and he made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and to the altar of God - here was justice. Thus Joshua did nothing but what was good and right, not only in his own eyes, but also in the eyes of the Lord. How long the Gibeonites were preserved as a distinct people after this, we know not. That they existed in the time of David, is evident from the circumstance mentioned on [Jos 9:19]. They are not mentioned after the captivity; and it is probable that they were nearly annihilated by the persecution raised up against them by Saul. Some suppose that the Gibeonites existed under the appellation of Nethinim; but of this there is no decisive proof; the Nethinim were probably slaves of a different race.

[¶23] On what we meet with in this chapter, we may make the following observations.

[¶24] 1. The Gibeonites told lies, in order to save their lives. No expediency can justify this, nor are we called to attempt it. The Gibeonites were heathens, and we can expect nothing better from them. See note at the end of [Jos 2:24] (note).

[¶25] 2. They did not profit by their falsity: had they come in fairly, sought peace, and renounced their idolatry, they would have had life on honorable terms. As it was, they barely escaped with their lives, and were utterly deprived of their political liberty. Even the good that is sought by unlawful means has God's curse on it.

[¶26] 3. We need not be solicitous for the character of the Gibeonites here; they are neither our models, nor believers in the true God, and therefore pure religion is not concerned in their prevarication and falsity.

[¶27] 4. We see here of what solemn importance an oath was considered among the people of God; they swore to their own hurt, and changed not. When once they had bound themselves to their Maker, they did not believe that any changing circumstances could justify a departure from so awful an obligation. Thus, reader, shouldst thou fear a lie, and tremble at an oath.

### Introduction

[¶29] Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, hearing of the capture of Ai, and that the Gibeonites had made peace with Israel, calls to his assistance four other kings to fight against Gibeon, [Jos 10:1-4]. They join forces, and encamp against Gibeon, [Jos 10:5]. The Gibeonites send to Joshua for succor, [Jos 10:6], who immediately marches to their relief, receives encouragement from God, and falls suddenly on the confederate forces, [Jos 10:7-9], and defeats them; they fly, and multitudes of them are slain by a miraculous shower of hail-stones, [Jos 10:10], [Jos 10:11]. Joshua, finding that the day began to fail, prayed that the sun and moon might stand still, that they might have time to pursue and utterly destroy these confederate forces, [Jos 10:12]. The sun and moon stand still, and make that day as long as two, [Jos 10:13], [Jos 10:14]. Joshua and the people return to their camp at Gilgal, [Jos 10:15]. The five kings having taken shelter in a cave at Makkedah, Joshua commanded the people to roll great stones against the mouth of the cave, and set a watch to keep it, while Israel were pursuing their enemies, [Jos 10:16-19]. The Israelites return to Makkedah, bring forth the five kings, then slay and hang them on five trees, [Jos 10:20-27]. The Israelites take and destroy Makkedah, [Jos 10:28], and Libnah, [Jos 10:29], [Jos 10:30], and Lachish, [Jos 10:31], [Jos 10:32], and defeat Horam king of Gezer, [Jos 10:33], and take Eglon, [Jos 10:34], [Jos 10:35], and Hebron, [Jos 10:36], [Jos 10:37], and Debir, [Jos 10:38], [Jos 10:39], and all the country of the hills, south, vale, and springs, and the whole country from Kadesh-Barnea to Gibeon, [Jos 10:40-42]. They return to Gilgal, [Jos 10:43].

### Verse 1

[¶31] Adoni-zedec - This name signifies the Lord of justice or righteousness; and it has been conjectured that the Canaanitish kings assumed this name in imitation of that of the ancient patriarchal king of this city, Melchizedek, whose name signifies king of righteousness, or my righteous king: a supposition that is not improbable, when the celebrity of Melchizedek is considered.

[¶32] Jerusalem - ירושלם Yerushalam. This word has been variously explained; if it be compounded of שלם shalam, peace, perfection, etc., and ראה raah, he saw, it may signify the vision of peace - or, he shall see peace or perfection.

### Verse 2

[¶34] As one of the royal cities - Not a regal city, but great, well inhabited and well fortified, as those cities which served for the royal residence generally were. It does not appear that the Gibeonites had any king - they seem to have been a small but powerful republic, all the men thereof were mighty, merely governed by their elders: for in their address to Joshua, [Jos 9:11], they mention no king, but simply state that they were sent by their elders and the inhabitants of their country; nor do we any where read of their king; and therefore we may naturally suppose that they had none.

### Verse 3

[¶36] Hoham king of Hebron - This city was situated in the mountains, southward of Jerusalem, from which it was about thirty miles distant. It fell to the tribe of Judah.

[¶37] Piram king of Jarmuth - There were two cities of this name; one belonged to the tribe of Issachar, see [Jos 21:29]; that mentioned here fell to the tribe of Judah, see [Jos 15:35]; it is supposed to have been about eighteen miles distant from Jerusalem.

[¶38] Japhia king of Lachish - This city is celebrated in Scripture; in that city Amaziah was slain by conspirators, [2Kgs 14:19]. It was besieged by Sennacherib, [2Kgs 18:14], [2Kgs 18:17]; and without effect by the king of Assyria, as we learn from [Isa 37:8] : it was also besieged by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, see [Jer 34:7]; it also fell to the lot of Judah, [Jos 15:39].

[¶39] Debir king of Eglon - Where this city was situated is very uncertain; but we learn from [Jos 15:39], that it fell to the lot of the tribe of Judah.

### Verse 5

[¶41] The five kings of the Amorites - This is a general name for the inhabitants of Canaan, otherwise called Canaanites; and it is very likely that they had this appellation because the Amorites were the most powerful tribe or nation in that country. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were Jebusites, [Jos 15:63]; those of Hebron were Hittites, [Gen 23:2], [Gen 23:3]; [Gen 25:9], [Gen 25:10]; and the Gibeonites were Hivites, [Jos 9:7]; and yet all these are called Amorites occasionally, probably for the reason already mentioned, viz., because that tribe was most numerous and powerful.

### Verse 9

[¶43] Joshua - came unto them suddenly - This he did by a forced march during the night, for he went up from Gilgal all night; from Gilgal to Gibeon was about eighteen or twenty miles; and, having fallen so unexpectedly on these confederate kings, they were immediately thrown into confusion.

## 226. Joshua · 12 of 30

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### Verse 10

[¶1] Slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon - Multitudes of them fell in the onset; after which they fled, and the Israelites pursued them by the way of Beth-horon. There were two cities of this name, the upper and lower, both in the tribe of Ephraim, and built by Sherah, the daughter of Ephraim, [1Chr 7:24]. The situation of these two cities is not exactly known.

[¶2] To Azekah, and unto Makkedah - These two cities were in the tribe of Judah, [Jos 15:35-41].

### Verse 11

[¶4] The Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them - Some have contended that stones, in the common acceptation of the word, are intended here; and that the term hail-stones is only used to point out the celerity of their fall, and their quantity. That stones have fallen from the clouds, if not from a greater height, is a most incontestable fact. That these have fallen in different parts of the world is also true; the East Indies, America, France, Germany, England, Ireland, etc., have all witnessed this phenomenon: of such stones I possess and have seen several fragments; some considerable pieces may be seen in the British Museum. That God might have cast down such stones as these on the Canaanites, there can be no doubt, because his power is unlimited; and the whole account proves that here there was a miraculous interference. But it is more likely that hail-stones, in the proper sense of the word, are meant as well as expressed in the text. That God on other occasions has made use of hail-stones to destroy both men and cattle, we have ample proof in the plague of hail that fell on the Egyptians. See the note on [Exo 9:18]. There is now before me a square of glass, taken out of a south window in the house of Mr. Ball of Crockerton, in the parish of Longbridge Deverell, county of Wilts., through which a hail-stone passed in a shower that fell there June 1, 1780, at two o'clock, P.M. The hole is an obtuse ellipsis or oval, and is cut as true as if it had been done with a diamond: it is three inches and a half in diameter; a proof that the stone that pierced it, which was about eleven inches in circumference, came with inconceivable velocity, else the glass must have been shivered to pieces. I have known a cannon ball go through a square of glass in the cabin window of a ship, and make precisely the same kind of hole, without either shattering or even starring the glass. It is needless to add that this hail-shower did great damage, breaking even trees in pieces, and destroying the vegetation through the whole of its extent. But allowing that extraordinary showers of hail have fallen in England or France, is it likely that such showers ever fell in the promised land or its vicinity? They certainly have. Albertus Aquensis, one of the writers in the collection Gesta Dei per Francos, in describing the expedition of Baldwin I. in the Holy Land, observes that, when he and his army were in the Arabian mountains, in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, they suffered incredibly from horrible hail, terrible frost, and indescribable rain and snow, so that thirty of his men perished by them. His words are: "Sexta vero die montanis permensis, in extremo illorum cacumine maxima pertulerunt pericula, in Grandine horribili, in Glacie terribili, in Pluvia et Nive inaudita, quorum immanitate, et horrore ingruente ad triginta homines pedites prae frigore mortui sunt." - Hist. Hieros., p. 307. I conclude, therefore, that a shower of hail-stones may be meant; and that this shower, though natural in itself, was supernaturally employed on this occasion, and miraculously directed to fall where it did, and do the execution described. But I am ready to grant, notwithstanding, that as a most stupendous miracle was in this instance wrought, in causing the sun and moon to stand still; there can be no doubt that the shower of stones, which was also miraculous, might have been of real stones as well as hail-stones. Of late, this subject of the fall of real stones from the clouds has been very closely investigated, and not only the possibility of the fall of such stones from the clouds, or from much higher regions, but the certainty of the case has been fully demonstrated. These substances are now, in philosophical language denominated aeroliths or air-stones; and the following table constructed by M. Izarn, a foreign chemist, exhibits a variety of facts of this kind, and shows the places and times in which these substances fell, and the testimony by which these facts are supported. As it is as possible that God might have projected a shower of stones on these idolaters, even from the moon, as to arrest that planet in her course, I give the table, and leave the reader to decide, in the present case, for aeroliths or hail-stones, as may seem to him most congruous to the fact here related.

[¶5] Historical Record of Large Hail Stones Substances Places Where They Fell Period of Their Fall Testimony Shower of stones At Rome Under Tullus Hostilius Livy Shower of stones At Rome Consuls, C. Martius and M. Torquatus J. Obsequens A very large stone Near the river Negos, Thrace Second year of the 78th Olympiad Pliny Three large stones In Thrace Year before J.C., 452 Ch. of Count Marcellin Stone of 72 lbs Near Larissa, Macedonia January, 1706 Paul Lucas About 1,200 stones; one 120 lbs. Near Padua in Italy In 1510 Carden, Varcit Another of 60 lbs Near Padua in Italy In 1510 Carden, Varcit Another of 59 lbs On Mount Vasier, Provence November 27, 1627 Gassendi Two large stones weighing 20 lbs Liponas, in Bresse September, 1753 De La Lande A stony mass Niort, Normandy In 1750 De La Lande A stone of 7 1/2 lbs At Luce, in Le Maine September 13, 1768 Bachelay A stone At Aire, in Artois In 1768 Gurson de Boyaval A stone In Le Cotentin In 1768 Morand Extensive shower of stones Environs of Agen July 24, 1790 St. Amand, Baudin, etc About 12 stones Sienna, Tuscany July, 1794 Earl of Bristol A large stone of 56 lbs Wold Cottage, Yorkshire December 13, 1795 Captain Topham A stone of 10 lbs In Portugal February 19, 1796 Southey A stone of about 120 lbs Sal, department of the Rhone March 17, 1798 Le Lievre and De Dre Shower of stones Benares, East Indies December 19, 1798 J. Lloyd Williams, Esq. Shower of stones At Plann, near Tabor, Bohemia July 3, 1753 B. de Born Mass of iron, 70 cubic feet America April 5, 1800 Philosophical Magazine Mass of iron, 14 quintals Abakauk, Siberia Very old Pallas, Chladni, etc Shower of stones Barboutan, near Roquefort July, 1789 Darcet, jun., Lomet, etc Large stone, 260 lbs Ensisheim, Upper Rhine November 7, 1492 Butenschoen Two stones, 200 and 300 lbs Near Verona In 1762 Acad. de Bourd A stone of 20 lbs Sales, near Ville Franche March 12, 1798 De Dre Several stones from 10 to 17 lbs Near L'Aigle, Normandy April 26, 1803 Fourcroy

[¶6] These stones generally appear luminous in their descent, moving in oblique directions with very great velocities, and commonly with a hissing noise. They are frequently heard to explode or burst, and seem to fly in pieces, the larger parts falling first. They often strike the earth with such force as to sink several inches below the surface. They are always different from the surrounding bodies, but in every case are similar to one another, being semi-metallic, coated with a thin black incrustation. They bear strong marks of recent fusion. Chemists have found on examining these stones that they very nearly agree in their nature and composition, and in the proportions of their component parts. The stone which fell at Ensisheim in Alsace, in 1492, and those which fell at L'Aigle in France, in 1803, yielded, by the Analysis of Fourcroy and Vanquelin, as in this table: -

[¶7] Their specific gravities are generally about three of four times that of water, being heavier than common stones. From the above account it is reasonable to conclude that they have all the same origin. To account for this phenomenon, various hypotheses have appeared; we shall mention three:

[¶8] 1. That they are little planets, which, circulating in space, fall into the atmosphere, which, by its friction, diminishes the velocity, so that they fall by their weight.

[¶9] 2. That they are concretions formed in the atmosphere.

[¶10] 3. That they are projected from lunar volcanoes. These are the most probable conjectures we can meet with, and of these the two former possess a very small degree of probability, but there are very strong reasons in favor of the last. Among the reasons we may notice the following:

[¶11] 1. Volcanoes in the moon have been observed by means of the telescope.

[¶12] 2. The lunar volcanoes are very high, and the surface of that globe suffers frequent changes, as appears by the late observations of Schroeter.

[¶13] 3. If a body be projected from the moon to a distance greater than that of the point of equilibrium between the attraction of the earth and moon, it will, on the known principle of gravitation, fall to the earth.

[¶14] 4. That a body may be projected from the lunar volcanoes beyond the moon's influence, is not only possible but very probable; for on calculation it is found that four times the force usually given to a twelve pounder, will be quite sufficient for this purpose; it is to be observed that the point of equilibrium is much nearer the moon, and that a projectile from the moon will not be so much retarded as one from the earth, both on account of the moon's rarer atmosphere, and its less attractive force. On this subject, see Mr. Haward's valuable paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1802, and Dr. Hutton's dissertation in the new abridgment, part xxi. It is highly probable that the ancile, or sacred shield, that fell from heaven in the reign of Numa Pompilius, was a stone of this sort. The description of its fall, as given by Ovid, Fast. lib. iii., bears a striking resemblance to recent accounts of stones falling from the atmosphere, particularly in the luminous appearance and hissing noise with which it was accompanied.

[¶15] Dum loquitur, totum jam sol emerserat orbem,

[¶16] Et gravis aethereo venit ab axe fragor.

[¶17] Ter tonuit sine nube Deus, tria fulgura misit:

[¶18] Credite dicenti; mira, sed acta, loquor.

[¶19] A media coelum regione dehiscere coepit:

[¶20] Summisere oculos cum duce turba suos.

[¶21] Ecce levi scutum versatum leniter aura

[¶22] Decidit, a pupulo clamor ad astra venit.

[¶23] Tolit humo munus -

[¶24] Idque ancile vocat, quod ab omni parte recisum est.

[¶25] It is very possible that the Palladium of Troy, and the Image of the Ephesian Diana, were stones which really fell from the atmosphere, bearing some rude resemblance to the human form. See the Imperial Encyclopedia, article Aerolith. I believe it is generally agreed among philosophers,

[¶26] 1. That all these aerial stones, chemically analyzed, show the same properties;

[¶27] 2. That no stone found on our earth possesses exactly the same properties, nor in the same proportions. This is an extraordinary circumstance, and deserves particular notice.

### Verse 12

[¶29] Then spake Joshua to the Lord - Though Joshua saw that the enemies of his people were put to flight, yet he well knew that all which escaped would rally again, and that he should be obliged to meet them once more in the field of battle if permitted now to escape; finding that the day was drawing towards a close, he feared that he should not have time sufficient to complete the destruction of the confederate armies; in this moment, being suddenly inspired with Divine confidence, he requested the Lord to perform the most stupendous miracle that had ever been wrought, which was no less than to arrest the sun in his course, and prolong the day till the destruction of his enemies had been completed! Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou,

[¶30] Moon, in the valley of Ajalon - To account for this miracle, and to ascertain the manner in which it was wrought, has employed the pens of the ablest divines and astronomers, especially of the last two centuries. By their learned labors many difficulties have been removed from the account in general; but the very different and contradictory methods pursued by several, in their endeavors to explain the whole, and make the relation accord with the present acknowledged system of the universe, and the phenomena of nature, tend greatly to puzzle the plain, unphilosophical reader. The subject cannot be well explained without a dissertation; and a dissertation is not consistent with the nature of short notes, or a commentary on Scripture. It is however necessary to attempt an explanation, and to bring that as much as possible within the apprehension of common readers, in order to this, I must beg leave to introduce a few preliminary observations, or what the reader may call propositions if he pleases.

[¶31] 1. I take it for granted that a miracle was wrought as nearly as circumstances could admit, in the manner in which it is here recorded. I shall not, therefore, seek for any allegorical or metaphorical interpretations; the miracle is recorded as a fact, and as a fact I take it up.

[¶32] 2. I consider the present accredited system of the universe, called sometimes the Pythagorean, Copernican, or Newtonian system, to be genuine; and also to be the system of the universe laid down in the Mosaic writings - that the Sun is in the center of what is called the solar system; and that the earth and all the other planets, whether primary or secondary, move round him in certain periodical times, according to the quantity of their matter, and distance from him, their center.

[¶33] 3. I consider the sun to have no revolution round any orbit, but to revolve round his own axis, and round the common center of gravity in the planetary system, which center of gravity is included within his own surface; and in all other respects I consider him to be at rest in the system.

[¶34] 4. I consider the earth, not only as revolving round the sun in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 48 seconds, but as revolving round its own axis, and making this revolution in 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds; that in the course of 24 hours complete, every part of its surface is alternately turned to the sun; that this revolution constitutes our day and night, as the former does our year; and it is day to all those parts which have the sun above the horizon, and night to those which have the sun below it; and that this diurnal revolution of the earth, or revolving round its own axis, in a direction from west to east, occasions what is commonly called the rising and setting of the sun, which appearance is occasioned, not by any motion in the sun himself, but by this motion of the earth; which may be illustrated by a ball or globe suspended by a thread, and caused to turn round. If this be held opposite to a candle, it will appear half enlightened and half dark; but the dark parts will be seen to come successively into the light, and the enlightened parts into the shade; while the candle itself which gives the light is fixed, not changing its position.

[¶35] 5. I consider the solar influence to be the cause both of the annual and diurnal motion of the earth; and that, while that influence continues to act upon it according to the law which God originally impressed on both the earth and the sun, the annual and diurnal motions of the earth must continue; and that no power but the unlimited power of God can alter this influence, change, or suspend the operation of this law; but that he is such an infinitely Free Agent, that He can, when his unerring wisdom sees good, alter, suspend, or even annihilate all secondary causes and their effects: for it would be degrading to the perfections of his nature to suppose that he had so bound himself by the laws which he has given for the preservation and direction of universal nature, that he could not change them, alter their effects, or suspend their operations when greater and better effects, in a certain time or place, might be produced by such temporary change or suspension.

[¶36] 6. I consider that the miracle wrought on this occasion served greatly to confirm the Israelites, not only in the belief of the being and perfections of God, but also in the doctrine of an especial providence, and in the nullity of the whole system of idolatry and superstition.

[¶37] 7. That no evil was done by this miraculous interference, nor any law or property of nature ultimately changed; on the contrary, a most important good was produced, which probably, to this people, could not have been brought about any other way; and that therefore the miracle wrought on this occasion was highly worthy of the wisdom and power of God.

[¶38] 8. I consider that the terms in the text employed to describe this miracle are not, when rightly understood, contrary to the well-established notions of the true system of the universe; and are not spoken, as some have contended, ad captum vulgi, to the prejudices of the common people, much less do they favor the Ptolemaic or any other hypothesis that places the earth in the center of the solar system. Having laid down these preliminaries, some short observations on the words of the text may be sufficient. Joshua's address is in a poetic form in the original, and makes the two following hemistichs: - שמש בגבעון דום וירח בעמק אילון

[¶39] Shemesh begibon dom:

[¶40] Veyareach beemek Aiyalon.

[¶41] Sun! upon Gibeon be dumb:

[¶42] And the moon on the vale of Ajalon.

[¶43] The effect of this command is related, [Jos 10:13], in the following words: - וידם השמש וירח עמד vaiyiddom Hashshemesh Veyareach amad, And the sun was dumb or silent and the moon stood still. And in the latter clause of this verse it is added: And the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

[¶44] It seems necessary here to answer the question, At what time of the day did this miracle take place? The expression בחצי השמים bachatsi hashshamayim, in the midst of heaven, seems to intimate that the sun was at that time on the meridian of Gibeon, and consequently had one half of its course to run; and this sense of the place has been strongly contended for as essential to the miracle, for the greater display of the glory of God: "Because," say its abettors, "had the miracle been wrought when the sun was near the going down, it might have been mistaken for some refraction of the rays of light, occasioned by a peculiarly moist state of the atmosphere in the horizon of that place, or by some such appearance as the Aurora Borealis." To me there seems no solidity in this reason. Had the sun been arrested in the meridian, the miracle could scarcely have been noticed, and especially in the hurry and confusion of that time; and we may be assured, that among the Canaanites there were neither clocks nor time-keepers, by which the preternatural length of such a day could have been accurately measured: but, on the contrary, had the sun been about the setting, when both the pursuers and the pursued must be apprehensive of its speedy disappearance, its continuance for several hours above the horizon, so near the point when it might be expected to go down, must have been very observable and striking. The enemy must see, feel, and deplore it; as their hope of escape must, in such circumstances, be founded on the speedy entering in of the night, through which alone they could expect to elude the pursuing Israelites. And the Israelites themselves must behold with astonishment and wonder that the setting sun hasted not to go down about a whole day, affording them supernatural time totally to destroy a routed foe, which otherwise might have had time to rally, confederate, choose a proper station, and attack in their turn with peculiar advantages, and a probability of success. It appears, therefore, much more reasonable that Joshua should require this miracle to be performed when daylight was about to fail, just as the sun was setting. If we were to consider the sun as being at the meridian of Gibeon, as some understand the midst of heaven, it may be well asked, How could Joshua know that he should not have time enough to complete the destruction of his enemies, who were now completely routed? Already multitudes of them had fallen by the hail-stones and by the sword: and if he had yet half a day before him, it would have been natural enough for him to conclude that he had a sufficiency of time for the purpose, his men having been employed all night in a forced march, and half a day in close fighting; and indeed had he not been under an especial inspiration, he could not have requested the miracle at all, knowing, as he must have done, that his men must be nearly exhausted by marching all night and fighting all day. But it may be asked, What is the meaning of בחצי השמים bachatsi hashshamayim, which we translate in the midst of heaven? If, with Mr. Bate, we translate חצה chatsah, to part, divide asunder, then it may refer to the horizon, which is the apparent division of the heavens into the upper and lower hemisphere; and thus the whole verse has been understood by some eminently learned men, who have translated the whole passage thus: And the sun stood still in the (upper) hemisphere of heaven, and hasted not to go down when the day was complete; that is, though the day was then complete, the sun being on the horizon; the line that to the eye constituted the mid heaven - yet it hasted not to go down; was miraculously sustained in its then almost setting position; and this seems still more evident from the moon's appearing at that time, which it is not reasonable to suppose could be visible in the glare of light occasioned by a noon-day sun.

[¶45] But the main business relative to the standing still of the sun still remains to be considered.

## 227. Joshua · 13 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/227/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/227/#p-N

[¶0] I have already assumed, as a thoroughly demonstrated truth, that the sun is in the center of the system, moving only round his own axis, and the common center of the gravity of the planetary system, while all the planets revolve round him, Prop. 2 and 3; that his influence is the cause of the diurnal and annual revolutions of the earth; nor can I see what other purpose his revolution round his own axis can possibly answer, Prop. 5.

[¶1] I consider that the word דום dom, in the text, refers to the withholding or restraining this influence, so that the cessation of the earth's motion might immediately take place. The desire of Joshua was, that the sun might not sink below the horizon; but as it appeared now to be over Gibeon, and the moon to be over the valley of Ajalon, he prayed that they might continue in these positions till the battle should be ended; or, in other words, that the day should be miraculously lengthened out.

[¶2] Whether Joshua had a correct philosophical notion of the true system of the universe, is a subject that need not come into the present inquiry: but whether he spoke with strict propriety on this occasion is a matter of importance, because he must be considered as acting under the Divine influence, in requesting the performance of such a stupendous miracle; and we may safely assert that no man in his right mind would have thought of offering such a petition had he not felt himself under some Divine afflatus. Leaving, therefore, his philosophic knowledge out of the question, he certainly spoke as if he had known that the solar influence was the cause of the earth's rotation, and therefore, with the strictest philosophic propriety, he requested that that influence might be for a time restrained, that the diurnal motion of the earth might be arrested, through which alone the sun could be kept above the horizon, and day be prolonged. His mode of expression evidently considers the sun as the great ruler or master in the system; and all the planets (or at least the earth) moving in their respective orbits at his command. He therefore desires him, in the name and by the authority of his Creator, to suspend his mandate with respect to the earth's motion, and that of its satellite, the moon. Had he said, Earth, stand thou still, the cessation of whose diurnal motion was the effect of his command, it could not have obeyed him; as it is not even the secondary cause either of its annual motion round the sun, or its diurnal motion round its own axis. Instead of doing so, he speaks to the sun, the cause (under God) of all these motions, as his great archetype did when, in the storm on the sea of Tiberias, he rebuked the wind first, and then said to the waves, Peace! be still! Σιωπα, πεφιμωσο· Be Silent! be Dumb! [Mar 4:39]; and the effect of this command was a cessation of the agitation in the sea, because the wind ceased to command it, that is, to exert its influence upon the waters. The terms in this command are worthy of particular note: Joshua does not say to the sun, Stand still, as if he had conceived him to be running his race round the earth; but, Be silent or inactive, that is, as I understand it, Restrain thy influence - no longer act upon the earth, to cause it to revolve round its axis; a mode of speech which is certainly consistent with the strictest astronomical knowledge; and the writer of the account, whether Joshua himself or the author of the book of Jasher, in relating the consequence of this command is equally accurate, using a word widely different when he speaks of the effect the retention of the solar influence had on the moon: in the first case the sun was silent or inactive, דום dom; in the latter, the moon stood still, עמד amad. The standing still of the moon, or its continuance above the horizon, would be the natural effect of the cessation of the solar influence, which obliged the earth to discontinue her diurnal rotation, which of course would arrest the moon; and thus both it and the sun were kept above the horizon, probably for the space of a whole day. As to the address to the moon, it is not conceived in the same terms as that to the sun, and for the most obvious philosophical reasons; all that is said is simply, and the moon on the vale of Ajalon, which may be thus understood: "Let the sun restrain his influence or be inactive, as he appears now upon Gibeon, that the moon may continue as she appears now over the vale of Ajalon." It is worthy of remark that every word in this poetic address is apparently selected with the greatest caution and precision. Persons who are no friends to Divine revelation say "that the account given of this miracle supposes the earth to be in the center of the system, and the sun moveable; and as this is demonstrably a false philosophy, consequently the history was never dictated by the Spirit of truth." Others, in answer, say "that the Holy Spirit condescends to accommodate himself to the apprehensions of the vulgar. The Israelites would naturally have imagined that Joshua was deranged had he bid the earth stand still, which they grant would have been the most accurate and philosophical mode of command on this occasion." But with due deference both to the objectors and defenders I must assert, that such a form of speech on such an occasion would have been utterly unphilosophic; and that the expressions found in the Hebrew text are such as Sir Isaac Newton himself might have denominated, every thing considered, elegant, correct, and sublime. Nor does it at all appear that the prejudices of the vulgar were consulted on this occasion; nor is there a word here, when properly understood that is inconsistent with the purest axiom of the soundest philosophy, and certainly nothing that implies any contradiction. I grant that when the people have to do with astronomical and philosophical matters, then the terms of the science may be accommodated to their apprehensions; it is on this ground that Sir Isaac Newton himself speaks of the rising and of the setting of the sun, though all genuine philosophers know that these appearances are produced by the rotation of the earth on its own axis from west to east. But when matters of this kind are to be transacted between God and his prophets, as in the above case, then subjects relative to philosophy are conceived in their proper terms, and expressed according to their own nature. At the conclusion of the 13th verse a different expression is used when it is said, So the sun stood still, it is not דסם dom, but עמד amad; ויעמד השמש vaiyaamod hashshemesh, which expression, thus varying from that in the command of Joshua, may be considered as implying that in order to restrain his influence which I have assumed to be the cause of the earth's motion, the sun himself became inactive, that is, ceased to revolve round his own axis, which revolution is probably one cause, not only of the revolution of the earth, but of all the other planetary bodies in our system, and might have affected all the planets at the time in question; but this neither could nor did produce any disorder in nature; and the delay of a few hours in the whole planetary motions dwindles away into an imperceptible point in the thousands of years of their revolutions. But the whole effect mentioned here might have been produced by the cessation of the diurnal motion of the earth, the annual being still continued; and I contend that this was possible to Omnipotence, and that such a cessation might have taken place without occasioning the slightest disturbance in the motions of any others of the planetary system. It is vain to cry out and say, "Such a cessation of motion in one planet could not take place without disordering the motions of all the rest;" this I deny, and those who assert it neither know the Scripture nor the power of God; therefore they do greatly err. That the day was preternaturally lengthened, is a Scripture fact. That it was so by a miracle, is asserted; and whether that miracle was wrought as above stated, is a matter of little consequence; the thing is a Scripture fact, whether we know the modus operandi or not. I need scarcely add that the command of Joshua to the sun is to be understood as a prayer to God (from whom the sun derived his being and his continuance) that the effect might be what is expressed in the command: and therefore it is said, [Jos 10:14], that the Lord Hearkened unto the Voice of a Man, for the Lord fought for Israel. I have thus gone through the different parts of this astonishing miracle, and have endeavored to account for the whole in as plain and simple a manner as possible. It is not pretended that this account should satisfy every reader, and that every difficulty is solved; it would be impossible to do this in such a compass as that by which I am necessarily circumscribed; and I have been obliged, for the sake of brevity, to throw into the form of propositions or observations, several points which may appear to demand illustration and proof; for such I must refer the reader to Astronomical Treatises. Calmet, Scheuchzer, and Saurin, with several of our own countrymen, have spoken largely on this difficult subject, but in such a way as, I am obliged to confess, has given me little satisfaction, and which appears to me to leave the main difficulties unremoved. Conscious of the difficulties of this subject, I beg leave to address every candid reader in the often quoted words of an eminent author: -

[¶3] Vive, Vale! si quid novisti rectius istis,

[¶4] Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum.

[¶5] Hor. Epist. l. i., E. vi., ver. 68.

[¶6] Farewell! and if a better system's thine,

[¶7] Impart it frankly or make use of mine.

[¶8] Francis.

[¶9] Book of Jasher - The book of the upright. See the note on [Num 21:14]. Probably this was a book which, in reference to Joshua and his transactions, was similar to the commentaries of Caesar, on his wars with the Gauls. Critics and commentators are greatly divided in their sentiments relative to the nature of this book. The opinion above appears to me the most probable.

### Verse 14

[¶11] And there was no day like that - There was no period of time in which the sun was kept so long above the horizon as on that occasion. Some learned men have supposed that the Fable of Phaeton was founded on this historic fact. The fable may be seen with all the elegance of poetic embellishment in the commencement of the second book of Ovid's Metamorphoses; but I confess I can see nothing in the pretended copy that can justify the above opinion.

### Verse 15

[¶13] And Joshua returned - unto the camp to Gilgal - That the Israelitish army did not return to the camp at Gilgal till after the hanging of the five kings and the destruction of their cities, is sufficiently evident from the subsequent parts of this chapter. When all this business was done, and not before, they returned unto the camp to Gilgal; see [Jos 10:43]. This verse is omitted by the Septuagint and by the Anglo-Saxon; and it does not appear to have existed in the ancient hexaplar versions; it stands in its proper place in [Jos 10:43], and is not only useless where it is, but appears to be an encumbrance to the narrative. Should it be considered as genuine and in its proper place, I would propose that מקדה makkedah should be read instead of גלגלה gilgalah, for we find from [Jos 10:21] that Joshua had a temporary camp there. Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Makkedah; after which we may suppose that Joshua having secured the cave, sent some detachments to scour the country and cut off all the remaining straggling Canaanites; when this was done they also returned to the camp at Makkedah, as is related [Jos 10:21], and when the business was completed they struck the camp at Makkedah, and all returned to their fortified camp at Gilgal, [Jos 10:43].

### Verse 16

[¶15] Hid themselves in a cave - It is very likely that this cave was a fortified place among some rocks; for there were many such places in different parts of Palestine.

### Verse 21

[¶17] None moved his tongue - The whole transaction of this important day had been carried on so evidently under the direction of God that there was not the least murmuring, nor cause for it, among them, for their enemies were all discomfited. There is an expression similar to this, [Exo 11:7], on which the reader is requested to consult the note.

### Verse 24

[¶19] Put your feet upon the necks of these kings - This act was done symbolically, as a token, not only of the present complete victory, but of their approaching triumph over all their adversaries, which is the interpretation given of it by Joshua in the succeeding verse.

### Verse 26

[¶21] Smote - slew - and hanged them on five trees - Hanging alive seems a barbarous custom: among the Hebrews, criminals were first deprived of life; this was the debt required by justice: then they were hanged up, perhaps generally by the hands, not by the neck; this was done by way of example, to deter others from committing the crimes for which those had suffered: but they were never permitted to hang thus exposed all night, as this could have answered no purpose, either of justice or example, as they could not be seen in the night-season. One day also was deemed enough for their exposure, it being thought sufficient to show the public that justice had been executed; and to have exhibited them longer would have appeared to be a barbarous cruelty which attempted to extend punishment beyond the possible requisitions of justice. See the note on [Deu 21:23].

### Verse 28

[¶23] That day Joshua took Makkedah - It is very possible that Makkedah was taken on the evening of the same day in which the miraculous solstice took place; but as to the other cities mentioned in this chapter, they certainly were subdued some days after, as it is not possible that an army, exhausted as this must have been with a whole night's march, and two days' hard fighting, could have proceeded farther than Makkedah that night; the other cities were successively taken in the following days.

### Verse 29

[¶25] Fought against Libnah - This city was near Makkedah, see [Jos 15:42], and fell to the tribe of Judah, [Jos 10:20], [Jos 10:42], and was given to the priests, [Jos 21:13]. Sennacherib besieged it, after he had been obliged to raise the siege of Lachish. See [2Kgs 19:8]; [Isa 37:8].

### Verse 32

[¶27] Lachish - It appears that this was anciently a very strong place; notwithstanding the people were panic-struck, and the Israelites flushed with success, yet Joshua could not reduce it till the second day, and the king of Assyria afterwards was obliged to raise the siege. See above, and see the note on [Jos 10:3].

### Verse 33

[¶29] Horam king of Gezer - It is likely that Horam was in a state of alliance with the king of Lachish, and therefore came to his assistance as soon as it appeared that he was likely to be attacked. Joshua probably sent a detachment against him, before he was able to form a junction with the forces of Lachish; and utterly destroyed him and his army. Gezer is supposed to have been situated near Azotus. See 1 Maccabees 16:34. It fell to the tribe of Ephraim, [Jos 16:3], but was probably taken afterwards by some of the remnant of the Canaanitish nations; for we find it was given by Pharaoh to his son-in-law Solomon, [1Kgs 9:16], which proves that it had got out of the possession of the Israelites previously to the days of Solomon.

### Verse 34

[¶31] Eglon - It is likely that this town was not any great distance from Lachish. See on [Jos 10:3] (note).

### Verse 36

[¶33] Hebron - and the king thereof - See the note on [Jos 10:3]. From [Jos 10:23] we learn that the king of Hebron was one of those five whom Joshua slew and hanged on five trees at Makkedah. How then can it be said that he slew the king of Hebron when he took the city, which was some days after the transactions at Makkedah? Either this slaying of the king of Hebron must refer to what had already been done, or the Hebronites, finding that their king fell in battle, had set up another in his place; which was the king Joshua slew, after he had taken the city and its dependencies, as is related [Jos 10:37]. It appears that the city of Hebron had fallen back into the hands of the Canaanites, for it was again taken from them by the tribe of Judah, [Jdg 1:10]. Debir had also fallen into their hands, for it was reconquered by Othniel, the son-in-law of Caleb, [Jdg 1:11-13]. The manner in which Calmet accounts for this is very natural: Joshua, in his rapid conquests, contented himself with taking, demolishing, and burning those cities; but did not garrison any of them, for fear of weakening his army. In several instances no doubt the scattered Canaanites returned, repeopled, and put those cities in a state of defense. Hence the Israelites were obliged to conquer them a second time. This is a more rational way of accounting for these things, than that which supposes that the first chapter of Judges gives the more detailed account of the transactions recorded here; for there it is expressly said, that these transactions took place after the death of Joshua, (see [Jdg 1:1]), and consequently cannot be the same that are mentioned here.

### Verse 39

[¶35] Destroyed all the souls - ויחרימו את כל נפש vaiyacharimu eth col nephesh, they brought every person under an anathema; they either slew them or reduced them to a state of slavery. Is it reasonable to say those were slain who were found in arms, of the others they made slaves?

### Verse 40

[¶37] All the country of the hills - See the note on [Deu 1:7].

[¶38] Destroyed all that breathed - Every person found in arms who continued to resist; these were all destroyed, - those who submitted were spared: but many no doubt made their escape, and afterwards reoccupied certain parts of the land. See [Jos 10:36], [Jos 10:37].

### Verse 41

[¶40] And all the country of Goshen - Calmet contends that this was the very same country in which the Hebrews dwelt before their departure from Egypt; and according to this hypothesis he has constructed his map, causing it to extend from the Nile, which was called the river of Egypt, along the frontiers of the land of Cush or Arabia. It however appears plain that there was a city named Goshen in the tribe of Judah, see [Jos 15:51]; and this probably gave name to the adjacent country which may be that referred to above.

### Verse 42

[¶42] Did Joshua take at one time - That is, he defeated all those kings, and took all their cities, in One campaign; this appears to be the rational construction of the Hebrew. But these conquests were so rapid and stupendous, that they cannot be attributed either to the generalship of Joshua, or the valor of the Israelites; and hence the author himself, disclaiming the merit of them, modestly and piously adds, because the Lord Good of Israel fought for Israel. It was by this aid that Joshua took all these kings and their land at one time - in a single campaign. And when all the circumstances related in this chapter are properly weighed, we shall find that God alone could have performed these works, and that both reason and piety require that to Him alone they should be attributed.

[¶43] 1. The principal subjects of this important chapter have been considered so much in detail in the preceding notes, that there is little room to add any thing to what has already been said. The principal subject is the miracle of the sun's standing still; and to assert that all difficulties have been removed by the preceding notes and observations, would be to say what the writer does not believe, and what few readers would perhaps feel disposed to credit. Yet it is hoped that the chief difficulties have been removed, and the miracle itself shown to have nothing contradictory in it. If, as is generally believed, the sun and moon were objects of the Canaanitish adoration, the miracle was graciously calculated to check this superstition, and to show the Israelites, as well as the Canaanites, the vanity of such worship, and the folly of such dependence. Even their gods at the command of a servant of Jehovah, were obliged to contribute to the destruction of their votaries. This method of checking superstition and destroying idolatry God adopted in the plagues which he inflicted upon the Egyptians; and by it at once showed his justice and his mercy. See the concluding observations on [Exo 12:51] (note).

[¶44] 2. The same God who appeared so signally in behalf of his people of old is still the governor of the heavens and the earth; and, if applied to, will do every thing essentially necessary for the extension of his truth and the maintenance of his religion among men. How is it that faith is so rarely exercised in his power and goodness? We have not, because we ask not. Our experience of his goodness is contracted, because we pray little and believe less. To holy men of old the object of faith was more obscurely revealed than to us, and they had fewer helps to their faith; yet they believed more, and witnessed greater displays of the power and mercy of their Maker. Reader, have faith in God, and know that to excite, exercise, and crown this, he has given thee his word and his Spirit; and learn to know that without him thou canst do nothing.

## 228. Joshua · 14 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/228/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/228/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The Kings of Hazor, Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph, with those of the mountains, plains, etc., and various chiefs of the Canaanites and Amorites, confederate against Israel, [Jos 11:1-3]. They pitch their tents at the waters of Merom, [Jos 11:4], [Jos 11:5]. The Lord encourages Joshua, [Jos 11:6]. He attacks and discomfits them, [Jos 11:7], [Jos 11:8]. Houghs all their horses, and burns all their chariots, [Jos 11:9]. Takes and burns several of their cities, [Jos 11:10-13]. The Israelites take the spoils, [Jos 11:14], [Jos 11:15]. An account of the country taken by Joshua, [Jos 11:16-18]. The Gibeonites only make peace with Israel, [Jos 11:19]. All the rest resist and are overcome, [Jos 11:20]. Joshua cuts off the Anakim, [Jos 11:21], [Jos 11:22]. The conquered lands are given to Israel, and the war is concluded, [Jos 11:23].

### Verse 1

[¶3] Jabin king of Hazor - It is probable that Jabin was the common name of all the kings of Hazor. That king, by whom the Israelites were kept in a state of slavery for twenty years, and who was defeated by Deborah and Barak, was called by this name; see [Jdg 4:2], [Jdg 4:3], [Jdg 4:23]. The name signifies wise or intelligent. The city of Hazor was situated above the Lake Semechon, in Upper Galilee, according to Josephus, Antiq. lib. v., c. 6. It was given to the tribe of Naphtali, [Jos 19:36], who it appears did not possess it long; for though it was burnt by Joshua, [Jos 11:11], it is likely that the Canaanites rebuilt it, and restored the ancient government, as we find a powerful king there about one hundred and thirty years after the death of Joshua, [Jdg 4:1]. It is the same that was taken by Tiglath-pileser, together with Kadesh, to which it is contiguous; see [2Kgs 15:29]. It is supposed to have given name to the Valley or Plain of Hazor or Nasor, situated between it and Kadesh, where Jonathan and Mattathias defeated the armies of Demetrius, and slew three thousand of their men, 1 Maccabees 11:63-74. It was in ancient times the metropolitan city of all that district, and a number of petty kings or chieftains were subject to its king, see [Jos 11:10]; and it is likely that it was those tributary kings who were summoned to attend the king of Hazor on this occasion; for Joshua having conquered the southern part of the promised land, the northern parts seeing themselves exposed made now a common interest, and, joining with Jabin, endeavored to put a stop to the progress of the Israelites. See Calmet

[¶4] Jobab king of Madon - This royal city is nowhere else mentioned in Scripture except in [Jos 12:19]. The Vatican copy of the Septuagint reads Μαρων, Maron, which, if legitimate, Calmet thinks may mean Maronia or Merath in Phoenicia, to the north of Mount Libanus. The Hebrew text reads מרון Meron, [Jos 12:20], after Shimron, which is probably the same with מדון Madon, [Jos 11:19], the word having casually dropped out of the preceding place into the latter, and the ר resh and ד daleth being interchanged, which might have easily happened from the great similarity of the letters. Hence Calmet conjectures that it may be the same place with מרוז Meroz, [Jdg 5:23], the ז zain and final ן nun being interchanged, which they might easily, as they are so very similar.

[¶5] King of Shimron - This city is supposed to be the same with Symira, in Coelosyria, joined to Maron or Marath, by Pliny and Pomponius Mela. It cannot be Samaria, as that had its name long after by Omri king of Israel. See [1Kgs 16:24].

[¶6] King of Achshaph - Calmet supposes this to have been the city of Ecdippe, mentioned by Pliny, Ptolemy, Josephus, and Eusebius. The latter places it within ten miles of Ptolemais, on the road to Tyre. It fell to the tribe of Asher. See [Jos 19:26].

### Verse 2

[¶8] On the north of the mountains - Or the mountain, probably Hermon, or some mountain not far from the lake of Gennesareth.

[¶9] And of the plains - That is, the valleys of the above mountains, which had the sea of Chinneroth or Gennesareth on the south.

[¶10] Chinneroth - This city is supposed by St. Jerome and several others since his time, to be the same as was afterwards called Tiberias. From this city or village the sea of Chinneroth or Gennesareth probably had its name.

[¶11] And in the borders of Dor - Calmet supposes this to mean the champaign country of the higher and lower Galilee, on to the Mediterranean Sea, and to the village or city of Dor, which was the farthermost city of Phoenicia. Dor was in the lot of the half tribe of Manasseh, and was situated on the Mediterranean Sea, three leagues from Caesarea, and seven from Ptolemais.

### Verse 3

[¶13] The Canaanite on the east, etc. - Those who dwelt on the borders of Jordan, south of the sea of Tiberias.

[¶14] On the west - Those were the Phoenicians who dwelt on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, from Dor northwards, on the way to Mount Libanus. - Calmet.

[¶15] The Hivite under Hermon - Mount Hermon was to the east of Libanus and the fountains of Jordan; it is the same with Syrion and Baal Hermon in Scripture.

[¶16] The land of Mizpeh - There were several cities of this name: one in the tribe of Judah, ([Jos 15:38]); a second in the tribe of Benjamin, ([Jos 18:26]); a third beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Gad; and a fourth beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Manasseh, which is that mentioned in the text. See Wells's Geography. Calmet supposes this Mizpeh to be the place where Laban and Jacob made their covenant, and from which circumstance it took its name. See [Gen 31:48], [Gen 31:49].

### Verse 4

[¶18] Much people, even as the sand - This form of speech, by some called a hyperbole, conveys simply the idea of a vast or unusual number - a number of which no regular estimate could be easily formed. Josephus, who seldom finds difficulties in such cases, and makes no scruple of often speaking without book, tells us that the allied armies amounted to 300,000 foot 10,000 horse, and 20,000 chariots of war. Antiq. lib. v., c. 1. That chariots were frequently used in war, all the records of antiquity prove; but it is generally supposed that among the Canaanites they were armed with iron scythes fastened to their poles and to the naves of their wheels. Terrible things are spoken of these, and the havoc made by them when furiously driven among the ranks of infantry. Of what sort the cavalry was, we know not; but from the account here given we may see what great advantages these allies possessed over the Israelites, whose armies consisted of infantry only.

### Verse 5

[¶20] The waters of Merom - Where these waters were, interpreters are not agreed. Whether they were the waters of the Lake Semechon, or the waters of Megiddo, mentioned [Jdg 5:19], cannot be easily determined. The latter is the more probable opinion.

### Verse 6

[¶22] Be not afraid - of them - To meet such a formidable host so well equipped, in their own country, furnished with all that was necessary to supply a numerous army, required more than ordinary encouragement in Joshua's circumstances. This communication from God was highly necessary, in order to prevent the people from desponding on the eve of a conflict, in which their all was at stake.

### Verse 7

[¶24] By the waters of Merom suddenly - Joshua, being apprised of this grand confederation, lost no time, but marched to meet them; and before they could have supposed him at hand, fell suddenly upon them, and put them to the rout.

### Verse 8

[¶26] Great Zidon - If this were the same with the Sidon of the ancients, it was illustrious long before the Trojan war; and both it and its inhabitants are frequently mentioned by Homer as excelling in works of skill and utility, and abounding in wealth: - Ενθ' εσαν οἱ πεπλοι παμποικιλοι, εογα γυναικων Σιδονιων.

[¶27] Iliad, lib. vi., ver. 289. "There lay the ventures of no vulgar art,

[¶28] Sidonian maids embroidered every part."

[¶29] Pope. Αργυρεον κρητηρα τετυγμενον· ἑξ δ' αρα μετρα Χανδανεν, αυταρ καλλει ενικα πασαν επ' αιαν Πολλον, επι Σιδονες πολυδαιδαλοι ευ ησκησαν.

[¶30] Iliad, lib. xxiii., ver. 741. "A silver urn that full six measures held,

[¶31] By none in weight or workmanship excell'd;

[¶32] Sidonian artists taught the frame to shine,

[¶33] Elaborate with artifice divine."

[¶34] Pope. Εκ μεν Σιδωνος πολυχαλκου ευχομαι ειναι.

[¶35] Odyss. xv. 424. "I am of Sidon, famous for her wealth."

[¶36] The art of making glass is attributed by Pliny to this city: Sidon artifex vitri, Hist. Nat. l. v., c. 19.

[¶37] Misrephoth-maim - Or, Misrephoth of the waters. What this place was is unknown, but Calmet conjectures it to be the same with Sarepta, a city of Phoenicia, contiguous to Sidon. The word signifies the burning of the waters, or inflammation; probably it was a place noted for its hot springs: this idea seems to have struck Luther, as he translates it, die warme wasser, the hot waters.

### Verse 9

[¶39] He houghed their horses - The Hebrew word עקר akar, which we render to hough or hamstring, signifies to wound, cut, or lop off. It is very likely that it means here, not only an act by which they were rendered useless, but by which they were destroyed; as God had purposed that his people should not possess any cattle of this kind, that a warlike and enterprising spirit might not be cultivated among them; and that, when obliged to defend themselves and their country, they might be led to depend upon God for protection and victory. On the same ground, God had forbidden the kings of Israel to multiply horses, [Deu 17:16] (note). See the note there containing the reasons on which this prohibition was founded.

[¶40] Burnt their chariots - As these could have been of no use without the horses.

### Verse 10

[¶42] Took Hazor - See on [Jos 11:1] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶44] The cities that stood still in their strength - The word תלם tillam, which we translate their strength, and the margin, their heap, has been understood two ways.

## 229. Joshua · 15 of 30

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[¶0] 1. As signifying those cities which had made peace with the Israelites, when conditions of peace were offered according to the command of the law; and consequently were not destroyed. Such as the cities of the Hivites; see [Jos 11:19].

[¶1] 2. The cities which were situated upon hills and mountains, which, when taken, might be retained with little difficulty. In this sense the place is understood by the Vulgate, as pointing out the cities quae erant in collibus et tumulis sitae, "which were situated on hills and eminences." As the cities of the plain might be easily attacked and carried, Joshua destroyed them; but as those on mountains, hills, or other eminences, might be retained with little trouble, prudence would dictate their preservation, as places of refuge in any insurrection of the people, or invasion of their adversaries. The passage in Jeremiah, [Jer 30:18], Jerusalem shall be builded on her own heap, תלה tillah, if understood as above, conveys an easy and clear sense: Jerusalem shall be re-established on her Own Hill.

### Verse 14

[¶3] All the spoil of these cities - Israel took - With the exception of those things which had been employed for idolatrous purposes; see [Deu 7:25].

### Verse 16

[¶5] The mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same - This place has given considerable trouble to commentators; and it is not easy to assign such a meaning to the place as may appear in all respects satisfactory.

[¶6] 1. If we consider this verse and the 21st to have been added after the times in which the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were divided, the difficulty is at once removed.

[¶7] 2. The difficulty will be removed if we consider that mountain and valley are put here for mountains and valleys, and that these include all mountains and valleys which were not in the lot that fell to the tribe of Judah. Or,

[¶8] 3. If by mountain of Israel we understand Beth-el, where God appeared to Jacob, afterwards called Israel, and promised him the land of Canaan, a part of the difficulty will be removed. But the first opinion seems best founded; for there is incontestable evidence that several notes have been added to this book since the days of Joshua. See the preface.

### Verse 17

[¶10] From the mount Halak - All the mountainous country that extends from the south of the land of Canaan towards Seir unto Baal-gad, which lies at the foot of Mount Libanus or Hermon, called by some the mountains of Separation, which serve as a limit between the land of Canaan and that of Seir; see [Jos 12:7].

[¶11] The valley of Lebanon - The whole extent of the plain which is on the south, and probably north, of Mount Libanus. Calmet conjectures that Coelesyria is here meant.

### Verse 18

[¶13] Joshua made war a long time - The whole of these conquests were not effected in one campaign: they probably required six or seven years. There are some chronological notices in this book, and in Deuteronomy, by which the exact time may be nearly ascertained. Caleb was forty years old when he was sent from Kadesh-barnea by Moses to search out the land, about A.M. 2514; and at the end of this war he was eighty-five years old; (compare [Jos 14:10] with Numbers 13, and Deuteronomy 1); consequently the war ended in 2559, which had begun, by the passage of Jordan, on the tenth day of the first month of the year 2554. From this date to the end of 2559 we find exactly six years; the first of which Joshua seems to have employed in the conquest of the south part of the land of Canaan, and the other five in the conquest of all the territories situated on the north of that country. See Dodd. Calmet computes this differently, and allows the term of seven years for the conquest of the whole land. "Caleb was forty years old when sent from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land. At the conclusion of the war he was eighty-five years old, as himself says, [Jos 14:10]. From this sum of eighty-five subtract forty, his age when he went from Kadesh-barnea, and the thirty-eight years which he spent in the wilderness after his return, and there will remain the sum of seven years, which was the time spent in the conquest of the land."

[¶14] 1. By protracting the war the Canaanites had time to repent, having sufficient opportunity to discern the hand of Jehovah.

[¶15] 2. Agriculture was carried on, and thus provision was made even for the support of the conquerors, for had the land been subdued and wasted at once, tillage must have stopped, and famine would have ensued.

[¶16] 3. Wild beasts would have multiplied upon them, and the land have been desolated by their means.

[¶17] 4. Had these conquests been more rapid the people of Israel would have been less affected, and less instructed by miracles that had passed in such quick succession before their eyes; and, as in this case they would have obtained the dominion with comparatively little exertion, they might have felt themselves less interested in the preservation of an inheritance, to obtain which they had been but at little trouble and little expense.

[¶18] What we labor under the Divine blessing to acquire we are careful to retain; but what comes lightly generally goes lightly. God obliged them to put forth their own strength in this work, and only blessed and prospered them while they were workers together with him. See the note on [Jos 13:6].

### Verse 20

[¶20] It was of the Lord to harden their hearts - They had sinned against all the light they had received, and God left them justly to the hardness, obstinacy, and pride of their own hearts; for as they chose to retain their idolatry, God was determined that they should be cut off. For as no city made peace with the Israelites but Gibeon and some others of the Hivites, [Jos 11:19], it became therefore necessary to destroy them; for their refusal to make peace was the proof that they wilfully persisted in their idolatry.

### Verse 21

[¶22] Cut off the Anakims - from Hebron, from Debir - This is evidently a recapitulation of the military operations detailed [Jos 10:36-41].

[¶23] Destroyed - their cities - That is, those of the Anakims; for from [Jos 11:13] we learn that Joshua preserved certain other cities.

### Verse 22

[¶25] In Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod - The whole race of the Anakims was extirpated in this war, except those who had taken refuge in the above cities, which belonged to the Philistines; and in which some of the descendants of Anak were found even in the days of David.

### Verse 23

[¶27] So Joshua took the whole land - All the country described here and in the preceding chapter. Besides the multitudes that perished in this war, many of the Canaanites took refuge in the confines of the land, and in the neighboring nations. Some suppose that a party of these fugitive Canaanites made themselves masters of Lower Egypt, and founded a dynasty there known by the name of the shepherd kings; but it is more probable that the shepherds occupied Egypt long before the time that Jacob went thither to sojourn. It is said they founded Tingris or Tangier, where, according to Procopius, they erected two white pillars with an inscription in the Phoenician language, of which this is the translation: We Are the Persons Who Have Fled from the Face of Joshua the Plunderer, the Son of Nave or Nun. See Bochart, Phaleg and Canaan, lib. i., c. xxiv., col. 476. Many, no doubt, settled in different parts of Africa, in Asia Minor, in Greece, and in the different islands of the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea: it is supposed also that colonies of this people were spread over different parts of Germany and Sclavonia, etc., but their descendants are now so confounded with the nations of the earth, as no longer to retain their original names, or to be discernible.

[¶28] And Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel - He claimed no peculiar jurisdiction over it; his own family had no peculiar share of it, and himself only the ruined city of Timnath-serah, in the tribe of Ephraim, which he was obliged to rebuild. See [Jos 19:49], [Jos 19:50], and see his character at the end of the book, [Jos 24:33] (note).

[¶29] And the land rested from war - The whole territory being now conquered, which God designed the Israelites should possess at this time. According to the apostle, [Heb 4:8], etc., Joshua himself was a type of Christ; the promised land, of the kingdom of heaven, the victories which he gained, of the victory and triumph of Christ; and the rest he procured for Israel, of the state of blessedness, at the right hand of God. In this light we should view the whole history, in order to derive those advantages from it which, as a portion of the revelation of God, it was intended to convey. Those who finally reign with Christ are they who, through his grace, conquer the world, the devil, and the flesh; for it is only of those who thus overcome that he says, "They shall sit with me on my throne, as I have overcome, and am set down with the Father on the Father's throne;" [Rev 3:21]. Reader, art thou a conqueror?

### Introduction

[¶31] A list of the kings on the east of Jordan, which were conquered by Moses, with their territories, [Jos 12:1-6]. A list of those on the west side of Jordan, conquered by Joshua, in number thirty-one, vv. 7-24.

### Verse 1

[¶33] From the river Arnon unto Mount Hermon - Arnon was the boundary of all the southern coast of the land occupied by the Israelites beyond Jordan; and the mountains of Hermon were the boundaries on the north. Arnon takes its rise in the mountains of Gilead, and having run a long way from north to south falls into the Dead Sea, near the same place into which Jordan discharges itself.

[¶34] And all the plain on the east - All the land from the plains of Moab to Mount Hermon.

### Verse 2

[¶36] From Aroer - Aroer was situated on the western side of the river Arnon, in the middle of the valley through which this river takes its course. The kingdom of Sihon extended from the river Arnon and the city of Aroer on the south to the river Jabbok on the north.

[¶37] And from half Gilead - The mountains of Gilead extended from north to south from Mount Hermon towards the source of the river Arnon, which was about the midst of the extent of the kingdom of Sihon: thus Sihon is said to have possessed the half of Gilead, that is, the half of the mountains and of the country which bore the name of Gilead on the east of his territories.

[¶38] River Jabbok - This river has its source in the mountains of Gilead; and, running from east to west, falls into Jordan. It bounds the territories of Sihon on the north, and those of the Ammonites on the south.

### Verse 3

[¶40] The sea of Chinneroth - Or Gennesareth, the same as the lake or sea of Tiberias.

[¶41] The Salt Sea on the east - ים המלח yam hammelach, which is here translated the Salt Sea, is understood by others to mean the sea of the city Melach. Where can we find any thing that can be called a salt sea on the east of the lake of Gennesareth? Some think that the lake Asphaltites, called also the Dead Sea, Sea of the Desert, Sea of Sodom, and Salt Sea, is here intended.

[¶42] Beth-jeshimoth - A city near the Dead Sea in the plains of Moab.

[¶43] Ashdoth-pisgah - Supposed to be a city at the foot of Mount Pisgah.

## 230. Joshua · 16 of 30

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Coast of Og king of Bashan - Concerning this person see the notes on [Deu 3:11], and on [Num 21:35], etc.

[¶2] The remnant or the giants - Or, Rephaim. See the notes on [Gen 6:4]; [Gen 14:5], and [Deu 2:7], [Deu 2:11].

### Verse 5

[¶4] The border of the Geshurites - The country of Bashan, in the days of Moses and Joshua, extended from the river Jabbok on the south to the frontiers of the Geshurites and Maachathites on the north, to the foot of the mountains of Hermon.

### Verse 7

[¶6] From Baal-gad - A repetition of what is mentioned [Jos 11:17].

### Verse 9

[¶8] The king of Jericho, etc. - On this and the following verses see the notes on [Jos 10:1-3] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶10] The king of Geder - Probably the same with Gedor, [Jos 15:58]; it was situated in the tribe of Judah.

### Verse 14

[¶12] The king of Hormah - Supposed to be the place where the Israelites were defeated by the Canaanites see [Num 14:45]; and which probably was called Hormah, הרמה chormah, or destruction, from this circumstance.

### Verse 15

[¶14] Adullam - A city belonging to the tribe of Judah, [Jos 15:35]. In a cave at this place David often secreted himself during his persecution by Saul; [1Sam 22:1].

### Verse 17

[¶16] Tappuah - There were two places of this name: one in the tribe of Judah, [Jos 15:34], and another in the tribe of Ephraim on the borders of Manasseh; but which of the two is meant here cannot be ascertained. See the note on [Jos 15:53].

[¶17] Hepher - The same, according to Calmet, as Ophrah in the tribe of Benjamin, [Jos 18:23].

### Verse 18

[¶19] Aphek - There were several cities of this name: one in the tribe of Asher, [Jos 19:30], another in the tribe of Judah, [1Sam 4:1]; [1Sam 29:1]; and a third in Syria, [1Kgs 20:26], and [2Kgs 13:17]. Which of the two former is here intended cannot be ascertained.

[¶20] Lasharon - There is no city of this name known. Some consider the ל lamed in the word לשרון lashsharon to be the sign of the genitive case, and in this sense it appears to have been understood by the Vulgate, which translates rex Saron, the king of Sharon. This was rather a district than a city, and is celebrated in the Scriptures for its fertility; [Isa 33:9]; [Isa 35:2]. Some suppose it was the same with Saron, near Lydda, mentioned [Act 9:35].

### Verse 20

[¶22] Shimron-meron - See on [Jos 11:1] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶24] Taanach - A city in the half tribe of Manasseh, to the west of Jordan, not far from the frontiers of Zebulun, [Jos 17:11]. This city was assigned to the Levites, [Jos 21:25].

### Verse 22

[¶26] Kedesh - There was a city of this name in the tribe of Naphtali, [Jos 19:37]. It was given to the Levites, and was one of the cities of refuge, [Jos 20:7].

[¶27] Jokneam of Carmel - This city is said to have been at the foot of Mount Carmel, near the river Belus, in the tribe of Zebulun, [Jos 19:11]. It was given to the Levites, [Jos 21:34].

### Verse 23

[¶29] The king of Dor - The city of this name fell to the lot of the children of Manasseh, [Jos 17:11]. Bochart observes that it was one of the oldest royal cities in Phoenicia. The Canaanites held it, [Jdg 1:27]. Antiochus Sydetes besieged it in aftertimes, but could not make himself master of it. See Bochart, Canaan, lib. i., c. 28, and Dodd.

[¶30] The king of the nations of Gilgal - This is supposed to mean the higher Galilee, surnamed Galilee of the Gentiles or, nations, as the Hebrew word גוים goyim means. On this ground it should be read king of Galilee of the nations. Others suppose it is the same country with that of which Tidal was king, see [Gen 14:1]. The place is very uncertain, and commentators have rendered it more so by their conjectures.

### Verse 24

[¶32] King of Tirzah - This city appears to have been for a long time the capital of the kingdom of Israel, and the residence of its kings. See [1Kgs 14:17]; [1Kgs 15:21], [1Kgs 15:33]. Its situation cannot be exactly ascertained; but it is supposed to have been situated on a mountain about three leagues south of Samaria.

[¶33] All the kings thirty and one - The Septuagint say εικοσι εννεα, twenty-nine, and yet set down but twenty-eight, as they confound or omit the kings of Beth-el, Lasharon, and Madon.

[¶34] So many kings in so small a territory, shows that their kingdoms must have been very small indeed. The kings of Beth-el and Ai had but about 12,000 subjects in the whole; but in ancient times all kings had very small territories. Every village or town had its chief; and this chief was independent of his neighbors, and exercised regal power in his own district. In reading all ancient histories, as well as the Bible, this circumstance must be kept constantly in view; for we ought to consider that in those times both kings and kingdoms were but a faint resemblance of those now.

[¶35] Great Britain, in ancient times, was divided into many kingdoms: in the time of the Saxons it was divided into seven, hence called the Saxon heptarchy. But when Julius Caesar first entered this island, he found four kings in Kent alone; Cingetorix, Carnilius, Taximagulus, and Segonax. Hence we need not wonder at the numbers we read of in the land of Canaan. Ancient Gaul was thus divided; and the great number of sovereign princes, secular bishops, landgraves, dukes, etc., etc., in Germany, are the modern remains of those ancient divisions.

### Introduction

[¶37] Joshua being old, the Lord informs him of the land yet remaining to be possessed, [Jos 13:1]. Of the unconquered land among the Philistines, [Jos 13:2], [Jos 13:3]. Among the Canaanites, Sidonians, and Amorites, [Jos 13:4], [Jos 13:5]. The inhabitants of the hill country and the Sidonians to be driven out, [Jos 13:6]. The land on the east side of Jordan, that was to be divided among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, [Jos 13:7-12]. The Geshurites and the Maachathites not expelled, [Jos 13:13]. The tribe of Levi receive no inheritance, [Jos 13:14]. The possessions of Reuben described, [Jos 13:15-23]. The possessions of Gad, [Jos 13:24-28]. The possessions of the half tribe of Manasseh, [Jos 13:29-31]. Recapitulation of the subjects contained in this chapter, [Jos 13:32], [Jos 13:33].

### Verse 1

[¶39] Joshua was old - He is generally reputed to have been at this time about a hundred years of age: he had spent about seven years in the conquest of the land, and is supposed to have employed about one year in dividing it; and he died about ten years after, aged one hundred and ten years. It is very likely that he intended to subdue the whole land before he made the division of it among the tribes; but God did not think proper to have this done. So unfaithful were the Israelites that he appears to have purposed that some of the ancient inhabitants should still remain to keep them in check, and that the respective tribes should have some labor to drive out from their allotted borders the remains of the Canaanitish nations.

[¶40] There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed - That is, very much when compared with that on the other side Jordan, which was all that could as yet be said to be in the hands of the Israelites.

### Verse 2

[¶42] The borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri - The borders of the Philistines may mean the land which they possessed on the sea-coast, southwest of the land of Canaan. There were several places named Geshuri, but that spoken of here was probably the region on the south of Canaan, towards Arabia, or towards Egypt. - Calmet. Cellarius supposes it to have been a country in the vicinity of the Amalekites.

### Verse 3

[¶44] From Sihor, which is before Egypt - Supposed by some to be the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, near to the Arabian Desert; called also the river of Egypt, [Num 34:5]; [Jer 2:18]. On this subject an intelligent friend favors me with the following opinion: - "The river Sihor is supposed by some to be the Nile, or a branch of it. Others think it the same as what is frequently called the river of Egypt, which lay before or towards the borders of Egypt; which arose out of the mountains of Paran, and ran westward, falling into that bay of the Mediterranean which lies south of the land of the Philistines. This river is often mentioned as the boundary of the Israelites to the southwest, as Euphrates, the great river, was on the northeast. "There was a desert of considerable distance between what is called the river of Egypt and the isthmus of Suez. Solomon reigned to the borders of Egypt, i.e., to this desert; but not in Egypt, nor to the river Nile. "Upon the whole, (though there are difficulties in the matter), I incline to think that the river in question was not the Nile. Sihor (black) might, from some circumstances, be applied to another river as well as the Nile; though some places in Isaiah and Jeremiah seem to restrict it to the Nile." - J. C.

[¶45] Ekron northward - Ekron was one of the five lordships of the Philistines, and the most northern of all the districts they possessed. Baal-zebub, its idol, is famous in Scripture; see [2Kgs 1:2], etc. The five lordships of the Philistines were Gaza, Ashdod, Askalon, Gath, and Ekron. There is no proof that ever the Israelites possessed Ekron; though, from [Jos 15:11], some think it was originally given to Judah, but the text does not say so; it only states that the border of the tribe of Judah went out Unto the Side of Ekron. From [Jos 19:43], we learn that it was a part of the lot of Dan, but it does not appear to have been possessed by any of those tribes.

## 231. Joshua · 17 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/231/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/231/#p-N

[¶0] Counted to the Canaanite - It is generally allowed that the original possessors of this country were the descendants of Canaan, the youngest son of Ham. The Philistines sprang from Mizraim, the second son of Ham, and, having dispossessed the Avim from the places they held in this land, dwelt in their stead. See [Gen 10:13], [Gen 10:14].

[¶1] Five lords of the Philistines - These dynasties are famous in the Scriptures for their successful wars against the Israelites, of whom they were almost the perpetual scourge.

[¶2] Also the Avites - These must not be confounded with the Hivites. The Avites seem to have been a very inconsiderable tribe, who dwelt in some of the skirts of Palestine. They had been originally deprived of their country by the Caphtorim; and though they lived as a distinct people, they had never afterwards arrived to any authority.

### Verse 4

[¶4] The land of the Canaanites - This lay on the south of the country of the Philistines, towards the sea-coast.

[¶5] Mearah - Supposed to be the city Maratha, on the Mediterranean Sea. - Calmet. Or the river Majora, which falls into the Mediterranean Sea, between Sidon and Berytus. See Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. v., c. 20.

[¶6] Aphek - See on [Jos 12:18] (note).

[¶7] To the borders of the Amorites - Though the term Amorite is sometimes used to designate the inhabitants in general of the land of Canaan, yet it must be considered in a much more restricted sense in this place. As no Amorites are known to have dwelt in this quarter, Calmet supposes we should read Aramites or Syrians. Joshua, says he, proceeds from Sidon to Aphek, a city of Syria, between Heliopolis and Babylon where was the temple of the Venus of Aphek, and which is spoken of in [1Kgs 20:26]; [2Kgs 13:17], as the capital of the kings of Syria. From this Joshua passes on to the frontiers of the Syrians, towards Gebal or Gabala, which, according to Ptolemy, was situated in Phoenicia. This conjecture of Calmet is not supported by any authority either from the ancient versions or MSS. Houbigant, however, approves of it: the emendation is simple as it consists in the interchange of only two letters in the same word, הארמי haarammi, for האמרי haemori.

### Verse 5

[¶9] The land of the Giblites - This people dwelt beyond the precincts of the land of Canaan, on the east of Tyre and Sidon. See [Eze 27:9]; [Psa 83:7]; their capital was named Gebal. See Dodd.

[¶10] All Lebanon - See on [Jos 11:17] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶12] Misrephoth-maim - See on [Jos 11:7] (note).

[¶13] These will I drive out - That is, if the Israelites continued to be obedient; but they did not, and therefore they never fully possessed the whole of that land which, on this condition alone, God had promised them: the Sidonians were never expelled by the Israelites, and were only brought into a state of comparative subjection in the days of David and Solomon. Some have taken upon them to deny the authenticity of Divine revelation relative to this business, "because," say they, "God is stated to have absolutely promised that Joshua should conquer the whole land, and put the Israelites in possession of it." This is a total mistake.

[¶14] 1. God never absolutely, i.e., unconditionally, promised to put them in possession of this land. The promise of their possessing the whole was suspended on their fidelity to God. They were not faithful, and therefore God was not bound by his promise to give them any part of the land, after their first act of national defection from his worship.

[¶15] 2. God never said that Joshua should conquer the whole land, and give it to them; the promise was simply this: "Thou shalt bring them into the land, and thou shalt divide it among them:" both of which he did, and procured them footing by his conquests, sufficient to have enabled them to establish themselves in it for ever.

[¶16] 3. It was never said, Thou shalt conquer it all, and then divide it; no. Several of the tribes, after their quota was allotted them, were obliged to drive out the ancient inhabitants. See on [Jos 11:18] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶18] The nine tribes, and the half tribe of Manasseh - The other half tribe of Manasseh, and the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, had got their inheritance on the other side of Jordan, in the land formerly belonging to Og king of Bashan, and Sihon king of the Amorites.

### Verse 9

[¶20] From Aroer - See on [Jos 12:2] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶22] Border of the Geshurites - See on [Jos 12:5] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶24] Bamoth-baal - The high places of Baal, probably so called from altars erected on hills for the impure worship of this Canaanitish Priapus.

### Verse 18

[¶26] Jahaza - A city near Medeba and Dibon. It was given to the Levites, [1Chr 6:78].

[¶27] Kedemoth - Mentioned [Deu 2:26]; supposed to have been situated beyond the river Arnon.

[¶28] Mephaath - Situated on the frontiers of Moab, on the eastern part of the desert. It was given to the Levites, [Jos 21:37].

### Verse 19

[¶30] Kirjathaim - This city, according to Eusebius, was nine miles distant from Medeba, towards the east. It passed from the Emim to the Moabites, from the Moabites to the Amorites, and from the Amorites to the Israelites, [Gen 14:6]; [Deu 2:20]. Calmet supposes the Reubenites possessed it till the time they were carried away by the Assyrians; and then the Moabites appear to have taken possession of it anew, as he collects from [Jer 48:1] etc., and [Eze 25:9] etc.

[¶31] Sibmah - A place remarkable for its vines. See [Isa 16:8], [Isa 16:9], [Jer 48:32].

[¶32] Zareth-shahar, in the mount of the valley - This probably means a town situated on or near to a hill in some flat country.

### Verse 20

[¶34] Beth-peor - The house or temple of Peor, situated at the foot of the mountain of the same name. See [Num 25:3].

### Verse 21

[¶36] The princes of Midian - See the history of this war, [Num 31:1], etc.; and from that place this and the following verse seem to be borrowed, for the introduction of the death of Balaam here seems quite irrelevant.

### Verse 23

[¶38] The cities and the villages - By villages, חצרים chatserim, it is likely that moveable villages or tents are meant, such as are in use among the Bedouin Arabs; places where they were accustomed to feed and pen their cattle.

### Verse 25

[¶40] Half the land on the children of Ammon - This probably was land which had been taken from the Ammonites by Sihon, king of the Amorites, and which the Israelites possessed by right of conquest. For although the Israelites were forbidden to take the land of the Ammonites, [Deu 2:37], yet this part, as having been united to the territories of Sihon, they might possess when they defeated that king and subdued his kingdom.

### Verse 26

[¶42] Ramath-mizpeh - The same as Ramoth-gilead. It was one of the cities of refuge, [Jos 20:8]; [Deu 4:47].

[¶43] Mahanaim - Or the two camps. Situated on the northern side of the brook Jabbok, celebrated for the vision of the two camps of angels which Jacob had there; see [Gen 32:2].

## 232. Joshua · 18 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/232/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/232/#p-N

### Verse 27

[¶1] Beth-aram - This city was rebuilt by Herod, and called Livias, in honor of Livia, the wife of Augustus. Josephus calls it Julias, Julia being the name which the Greeks commonly give to Livia. - Calmet.

[¶2] Succoth - A place between Jabbok and Jordan where Jacob pitched his tents, from which circumstance it obtained its name, see [Gen 33:17].

### Verse 29

[¶4] The half tribe of Manasseh - When the tribes of Reuben and Gad requested to have their settlement on the east side of Jordan, it does not appear that any part of the tribe of Manasseh requested to be settled in the same place. But as this tribe was numerous, and had much cattle, Moses thought proper to appoint one half of it to remain on the east of Jordan, and the other to go over and settle on the west side of that river.

### Verse 30

[¶6] The towns of Jair - These were sixty cities; they are mentioned afterwards, and in [1Chr 2:21], etc. They are the same with the Havoth-jair mentioned [Num 32:41]. Jair was son of Segub, grandson of Esron or Hezron, and great-grandson of Machir by his grandmother's side, who married Hezron of the tribe of Judah. See his genealogy, [1Chr 2:21-24].

### Verse 32

[¶8] Which Moses did distribute - Moses had settled every thing relative to these tribes before his death, having appointed them to possess the territories of Og king of Bashan, and Sihon king of the Amorites. For particulars on this chapter, the reader, if he judge it of consequence, may consult Calmet.

### Introduction

[¶10] Eleazar, Joshua, and the heads of the fathers, distribute the land by lot to the people, [Jos 14:1-3]. The Levites receive no land, but cities to dwell in, and suburbs for their cattle, [Jos 14:4], [Jos 14:5]. Caleb requests to have Mount Hebron for an inheritance, because of his former services, [Jos 14:6-12]. Joshua grants his request, [Jos 14:13-15].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Eleazar the priest, etc. - Eleazar, as being the minister of God in sacred things is mentioned first. Joshua, as having the supreme command in all things civil, is mentioned next. And the Heads or Princes of the twelve tribes, who in all things acted under Joshua, are mentioned last. These heads or princes were twelve, Joshua and Eleazar included; and the reader may find their names in [Num 34:19-28]. It is worthy of remark that no prince was taken from the tribes of Reuben and Gad, because these had already received their inheritance on the other side of Jordan, and therefore could not be interested in this division.

### Verse 2

[¶14] By lot was their inheritance - Concerning the meaning and use of the lot, see the note on [Num 26:55]; and concerning the manner of casting lots in the case of the scapegoat, see the note on [Lev 16:8], [Lev 16:9]. On this subject Dr. Dodd has selected some good observations from Calmet and Masius, which I here borrow: "Though God had sufficiently pointed out by the predictions of Jacob when dying, and those of Moses, what portions he designed for each tribe, we readily discern an admirable proof of his wisdom in the orders he gave to decide them by lot. By this means the false interpretations which might have been given to the words of Jacob and Moses were prevented; and by striking at the root of whatever might occasion jealousies and disputes among the tribes, he evidently secured the honesty of those who were to be appointed to distribute to them the conquered countries in the land of Canaan. Besides, the success of this method gave a fresh proof of the Divinity of the Jewish religion, and the truth of its oracles. Each tribe finding itself placed by lot exactly in the spot which Jacob and Moses had foretold, it was evident that Providence had equally directed both those predictions and that lot. The event justified the truth of the promises. The more singular it was, the more clearly we discern the finger of God in it. The portion, says Masius, fell to each tribe just as Jacob had declared two hundred and fifty years before in the last moments of his life, and Moses, immediately before his death; for to the tribe of Judah fell a country abounding in vineyards and pastures; to Zebulun and Issachar, seacoasts; in that of Asher was plenty of oil, wheat, and metals; that of Benjamin, near to the temple, was, in a manner, between the shoulders of the Deity; Ephraim and Manasseh were distinguished with a territory blessed in a peculiar manner by Heaven; the land of Naphtali extended from the west to the south of the tribe of Judah. Since therefore the lot so well corresponded to these predictions, would it not be insolence and stupidity in the highest degree, not to acknowledge the inspiration of God in the word of Jacob and Moses, the direction of his hand in the lot, and his providence in the event?" How the lot was cast in this case cannot be particularly determined. It is probable,

[¶15] 1. That the land was geographically divided into ten portions.

[¶16] 2. That each portion was called by a particular name.

[¶17] 3. That the name of each portion was written on a separate slip of parchment, wood, etc.

[¶18] 4. That the names of the claimants were also written on so many slips.

[¶19] 5. The names of the portions, and of the tribes, were put into separate vessels.

[¶20] 6. Joshua, for example, put his hand into the vessel containing the names of the tribes, and took out one slip; while Eleazar took out one from the other vessel, in which the names of the portions were put.

[¶21] 7. The name drawn, and the portion drawn, being read, it was immediately discerned what the district was which God had designed for such a tribe. This appears to be the most easy way to determine such a business.

### Verse 4

[¶23] The children of Joseph were two tribes - This was ascertained by the prophetic declaration of their grandfather Jacob, [Gen 48:5], [Gen 48:6]; and as Levi was taken out of the tribes for the service of the sanctuary, one of these sons of Joseph came in his place, and Joseph was treated as the first-born of Jacob, in the place of Reuben, who forfeited his right of primogeniture.

[¶24] With their suburbs for their cattle - For the meaning of this passage the reader is referred to the note on [Num 35:6].

### Verse 5

[¶26] They divided the land - This work was begun some time before at Gilgal, and was finished some time after at Shiloh. It must have required a very considerable time to make all the geographical arrangements that were necessary for this purpose.

### Verse 6

[¶28] Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite - In the note on the parallel place, [Num 32:12], it is said Kenaz was probably the father of Jephunneh, and that Jephunneh not Caleb, was the Kenezite; but still, allowing this to be perfectly correct, Caleb might also be called the Kenezite, as it appears to have been a family name, for Othniel, his nephew and son-in-law, is called the son of Kenaz, [Jos 15:17]; [Jdg 1:13], and [1Chr 4:13]; and a grandson of Caleb is also called the son of Kenaz, [1Chr 4:15]. In [1Chr 2:18], Caleb is called the son of Hezron, but this is only to be understood of his having Hezron for one of his ancestors; and son here may be considered the same as descendant; for Hezron, of the tribe of Judah, having come into Egypt one hundred and seventy-six years before the birth of Caleb, it is not at all likely that he could be called his father in the proper sense of the term. Besides, the supposition above makes a very good sense, and is consistent with the use of the terms father, son, and brother, in different parts of the sacred writings.

[¶29] Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said - In the place to which Caleb seems to refer, viz., [Num 14:24], there is not a word concerning a promise of Hebron to him and his posterity; nor in the place ([Deu 1:36]) where Moses repeats what had been done at Kadesh-barnea: but it may be included in what is there spoken. God promises, because he had another spirit within him, and had followed God fully, therefore he should enter into the land whereinto he came, and his seed should possess it. Probably this relates to Hebron, and was so understood by all parties at that time. This seems tolerably evident from the pointed reference made by Caleb to this transaction.

### Verse 7

[¶31] As it was in mine heart - Neither fear nor favor influenced him on the occasion; he told what he believed to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

### Verse 9

[¶33] The land whereon thy feet have trodden - This probably refers to Hebron, which was no doubt mentioned on this occasion.

### Verse 10

[¶35] These forty and five years - See the note on [Jos 13:1].

### Verse 11

[¶37] Even so is my strength now - I do not ask this place because I wish to sit down now, and take my ease; on the contrary, I know I must fight, to drive out the Anakim, and I am as able and willing to do it as I was forty-five years ago, when Moses sent me to spy out the land.

### Verse 12

[¶39] I shall be able to drive them out - He cannot mean Hebron merely, for that had been taken before by Joshua; but in the request of Caleb doubtless all the circumjacent country was comprised, in many parts of which the Anakim were still in considerable force. It has been conjectured that Hebron itself had again fallen under the power of its former possessors, who, taking the advantage of the absence of the Israelitish army, who were employed in other parts of the country, re-entered the city, and restored their ancient domination. But the first opinion seems best founded.

### Verse 13

[¶41] Joshua blessed him - As the word bless often signifies to speak good or well of or to any person, (see the note on [Gen 2:3]), here it may mean the praise bestowed on Caleb's intrepidity and faithfulness by Joshua, as well as a prayer to God that he might have prosperity in all things; and especially that the Lord might be with him, as himself had expressed in the preceding verse.

### Verse 14

[¶43] Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb - Joshua admitted his claim, recognized his right, and made a full conveyance of Hebron and its dependencies to Caleb and his posterity; and this being done in the sight of all the elders of Israel, the right was publicly acknowledged, and consequently this portion was excepted from the general determination by lot; God having long before made the cession of this place to him and to his descendants.

### Verse 15

[¶45] And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba - That is, the city of Arba, or rather, the city of the four, for thus קרית ארבע kiryath arba may be literally translated. It is very likely that this city had its name from four Anakim, gigantic or powerful men, probably brothers, who built or conquered it. This conjecture receives considerable strength from [Jos 15:14], where it is said that Caleb drove from Hebron the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai: now it is quite possible that Hebron had its former name, Kirjath-arba, the city of the four, from these three sons and their father, who, being men of uncommon stature or abilities, had rendered themselves famous by acts proportioned to their strength and influence in the country. It appears however from [Jos 15:13] that Arba was a proper name, as there he is called the father of Anak. The Septuagint call Hebron the metropolis of the Enakim, μητροπολις των Ενακιμ. It was probably the seat of government, being the residence of the above chiefs, from whose conjoint authority and power it might have been called חברון chebron; as the word חבר chabar literally signifies to associate, to join in fellowship, and appears to be used, [Job 41:6], for "associated merchants, or merchants' companions, who traveled in the same caravan." Both these names are expressive, and serve to confirm the above conjecture. No notice need be taken of the tradition that this city was called the city of the four because it was the burial-place of Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Such traditions confute themselves.

## 233. Joshua · 19 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/233/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/233/#p-N

[¶0] The land had rest from war - There were no more general wars; the inhabitants of Canaan collectively could make no longer any head, and when their confederacy was broken by the conquests of Joshua, he thought proper to divide the land, and let each tribe expel the ancient inhabitants that might still remain in its own territories. Hence the wars after this time were particular wars; there were no more general campaigns, as it was no longer necessary for the whole Israelitish body to act against an enemy now disjointed and broken. This appears to be the most rational meaning of the words, The land had rest from war.

[¶1] The Jewish economy furnishes, not only a history of God's revelations to man, but also a history of his providence, and an ample, most luminous, and glorious comment on that providence. Is it possible that any man can seriously and considerately sit down to the reading even of this book, without rising up a wiser and a better man? This is the true history which everywhere exhibits God as the first mover and prime agent, and men only as subordinate actors. What a miracle of God's power, wisdom, grace, justice, and providence are the people of Israel in every period of their history, and in every land of their dispersions! If their fall occasioned the salvation of the Gentile world, what shall their restoration produce! Their future inheritance is not left to what men would call the fortuitous decision of a lot; like Caleb's possession it is confirmed by the oath of the Lord; and when the end shall be, this people shall stand in their lot at the end of the days, and shall again be great to the ends of the earth.

### Introduction

[¶3] The lot of the tribe of Judah described, [Jos 15:1]. Their south border, [Jos 15:2-4]. Their east border, [Jos 15:5-11]. Their west border, [Jos 15:12]. Caleb's conquest, [Jos 15:13-15]. Promises his daughter to the person who should take Kirjath-sepher, [Jos 15:16]. Othniel his kinsman renders himself master of it, and gets Achsah to wife, [Jos 15:17]. Her request to her father to get a well watered land, which is granted, [Jos 15:18], [Jos 15:19]. The cities of the tribe of Judah are enumerated, vv. 20-63.

### Verse 1

[¶5] This then was the lot of the tribe of - Judah - The geography of the sacred writings presents many difficulties, occasioned by the changes which the civil state of the promised land has undergone, especially for the last two thousand years. Many of the ancient towns and villages have had their names so totally changed, that their former appellations are no longer discernible; several lie buried under their own ruins, and others have been so long destroyed that not one vestige of them remains. On these accounts it is very difficult to ascertain the situation of many of the places mentioned in this and the following chapters. But however this may embarrass the commentator, it cannot affect the truth of the narrative. Some of the principal cities in the universe, cities that were the seats of the most powerful empires, are not only reduced to ruins, but so completely blotted out of the map of the world that their situation cannot be ascertained. Where is Babylon? Where are Nineveh, Carthage, Thebes, Tyre, Baalbec, Palmyra, and the so far-famed and greatly celebrated Troy? Of the former and the latter, so renowned by historians and poets, scarcely a vestige, properly speaking, remains; nor can the learned agree on the spot once occupied by the buildings of those celebrated cities! Should this circumstance invalidate the whole history of the ancient world, in which they made so conspicuous a figure? And can the authenticity of our sacred historian be impaired, because several of the places he mentions no longer exist? Surely no: nor can it be called in question but by the heedless and superficial, or the decidedly profane. Although some of the cities of the holy land are destroyed, and it would be difficult to ascertain the geography of several, yet enough remain, either under their ancient names, or with such decisive characteristics, that through their new names their ancient appellatives are readily discernible. It is natural to suppose that the division mentioned here was made after an accurate survey of the land, which might have been made by proper persons accompanying the conquering army of the Israelites. Nine tribes and a half were yet to be accommodated, and the land must be divided into nine parts and a half. This was no doubt done with the utmost judgment and discretion, the advantages and disadvantages of each division being carefully balanced. These were the portions which were divided by lot; and it appears that Judah drew the first lot; and, because of the importance and pre-eminence of this tribe, this lot is first described.

[¶6] By their families - It is supposed that the family divisions were not determined by lot. These were left to the prudence and judgment of Joshua, Eleazar, and the ten princes, who appointed to each family a district in proportion to its number, etc., the general division being that alone which was determined by the lot.

[¶7] To the border of Edom - The tribe of Judah occupied the most southerly part of the land of Canaan. Its limits extended from the extremity of the Dead Sea southward, along Idumea, possibly by the desert of Sin, and proceeding from east to west to the Mediterranean Sea, and the most eastern branch of the river Nile, or to what is called the river of Egypt. Calmet very properly remarks, that Joshua is particular in giving the limits of this tribe, as being the first, the most numerous, most important; that which was to furnish the kings of Judea; that in which pure religion was to be preserved, and that from which the Messiah was to spring.

### Verse 2

[¶9] From the bay that looketh southward - These were the southern limits of the tribe of Judah, which commenced at the extremity of the lake Asphaltites or Dead Sea, and terminated at Sihor or the river of Egypt, and Mediterranean Sea; though some think it extended to the Nile.

### Verse 3

[¶11] Maaleh-acrabbim - The ascent of the Mount of Scorpions, probably so called from the multitude of those animals found in that place.

[¶12] Kadesh-barnea - This place was called Enmishpat, [Gen 14:7]. It was on the edge of the wilderness of Paran, and about twenty-four miles from Hebron. Here Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, died; and here Moses and Aaron rebelled against the Lord; hence the place was called Meribah-Kadesh, or the contention of Kadesh.

[¶13] Karkaa - Supposed to be the Coracea of Ptolemy, in Arabia Petraea. - Calmet.

### Verse 4

[¶15] Toward Azmon - This was the last city they possessed toward Egypt.

[¶16] The river of Egypt - The most eastern branch of the river Nile. See on [Jos 13:3] (note). But there is much reason to doubt whether any branch of the Nile be meant, and whether the promised land extended to that river. On this subject it is impossible to decide either way.

### Verse 5

[¶18] The east border was the Salt Sea - The Salt Sea is the same as the Dead Sea, lake Asphaltites, etc. And here it is intimated that the eastern border of the tribe of Judah extended along the Dead Sea, from its lowest extremity to the end of Jordan, i.e., to the place where Jordan falls into this sea.

### Verse 6

[¶20] Beth-hogla - A place between Jericho and the Dead Sea, belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, [Jos 18:21], though here serving as a frontier to the tribe of Judah.

[¶21] Stone of Bohan - This must have been some remarkable place, probably like the stone of Jacob, which afterwards became Bethel; but where it was situated is uncertain.

### Verse 7

[¶23] The valley of Achor - Debir mentioned in this verse is unknown. The valley of Achor had its name from the punishment of Achan. See the account, [Jos 7:24] (note), etc.

[¶24] En-shemesh - The fountain of the sun; it was eastward of Jerusalem, on the confines of Judah and Benjamin.

### Verse 8

[¶26] The valley of the son of Hinnom - Who Hinnom was is not known, nor why this was called his valley. It was situated on the east of Jerusalem; and is often mentioned in Scripture. The image of the idol Molech appears to have been set up there; and there the idolatrous Israelites caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire in honor of that demon, [2Kgs 23:10]. It was also called Tophet, see [Jer 7:32]. When King Josiah removed the image of this idol from this valley, it appears to have been held in such universal execration, that it became the general receptacle of all the filth and impurities which were carried out of Jerusalem; and it is supposed that continual fires were there kept up, to consume those impurities and prevent infection. From the Hebrew words גי בן הנם gei ben Hinnom, the valley of the son of Hinnom, and by contraction, גי הנם gei Hinnom, the valley of Hinnom, came the Γεεννα, Gehenna of the New Testament, called also Γεεννα του πυρος, the Gehenna of fire, which is the emblem of hell, or the place of the damned. See [Mat 5:22], [Mat 5:29], [Mat 5:30]; [Mat 10:28]; [Mat 18:9], etc. In the East it is common to add the name of the father to that of the son, e.g., "This land belongs to Goborka the son of Kake Prusada." But this addition is not made till after the father's death. This custom prevailed also in the west. It is common among the aborigines of both Ireland and Wales.

[¶27] The same is Jerusalem - This city was formerly called Jebus; a part of it was in the tribe of Benjamin; Zion, called its citadel, was in the tribe of Judah.

[¶28] The valley of the giants - Of the Rephaim. See the notes on [Gen 6:4]; [Gen 14:5]; [Deu 2:7], [Deu 2:11]. On this subject, a very intelligent clergyman favors me with his opinion in the following terms: - "The boundary between Judah and Benjamin went up from the valley of Hinnom on the east to the top of the hill southward, leaving Jebusi (or Jerusalem) to the northwest adjoining to Benjamin. This mount (Jebusi) lay between the two tribes, which the Jebusites possessed till the time of David. At the 63d verse here, it is said Judah could not drive out these people; and in [Jdg 1:21], the same is said of the Benjamites. Each tribe might have attacked them at various times. There were various mounts or tops to these hills. Mount Zion and Moriah, where the temple stood, was in the tribe of Judah; [Psa 78:68], [Psa 78:69]; [Psa 87:2]. "In [Deu 33:12] it is said of Benjamin, the Lord shall dwell by him, i.e., near him, or beside his borders, between his shoulders; the line might be circular between the two hills or tops so as in part to encompass Mount Zion in the tribe of Judah, on which the temple stood. Benjamin's gate, (mentioned [Jer 37:12], [Jer 37:13]; [Jer 38:7]), was the gate leading out of the city, into the tribe of Benjamin. So the gate of Ephraim, ([2Kgs 14:13]), was a gate which led towards the tribe of Ephraim. We give names to roads, etc., in the same way now. "Mount Calvary, (which was on the outside of the gate), seems to have been in the tribe of Benjamin. Query. Whether Calvary or Golgotha was so called from skulls being scattered about there, (as say some), or rather from the figure of the rock being shaped like a man's skull, with one face of it nearly perpendicular? I incline to this latter opinion. I believe the Jews did not suffer human bones, even of malefactors, to lie about." - J. C.

### Verse 9

[¶30] Baalah, which is Kirjath-jearim - This place was rendered famous in Scripture, in consequence of its being the residence of the ark, for twenty years after it was sent back by the Philistines; see 1 Samuel 5:1-7:2.

### Verse 10

[¶32] Beth-shemesh - The house or temple of the sun. It is evident that the sun was an object of adoration among the Canaanites; and hence fountains, hills, etc., were dedicated to him. Beth-shemesh is remarkable for the slaughter of its inhabitants, in consequence of their prying curiously, if not impiously, into the ark of the Lord, when sent back by the Philistines. See [1Sam 6:19].

### Verse 12

[¶34] The great sea - The Mediterranean.

### Verse 13

[¶36] And unto Caleb - he gave a part - See the notes on [Jos 14:14], etc.

### Verse 14

[¶38] The three sons of Anak - See on [Jos 14:15] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶40] Kirjath-sepher - The city of the book. Why so named is uncertain. It was also called Debir, and Kirjath-sannah. See [Jos 15:49].

### Verse 16

[¶42] Will I give Achsah my daughter - In ancient times fathers assumed an absolute right over their children, especially in disposing of them in marriage; and it was customary for a king or great man to promise his daughter in marriage to him who should take a city, kill an enemy, etc. So Saul promised his daughter in marriage to him who should kill Goliath, [1Sam 17:25]; and Caleb offers his on this occasion to him who should take Kirjath-sepher. Profane writers furnish many similar examples.

### Verse 18

[¶44] As she came - As she was now departing from the house of her father to go to that of her husband.

## 234. Joshua · 20 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/234/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/234/#p-N

[¶0] She moved him - Othniel, to ask of her father a field, one on which she had set her heart, as contiguous to the patrimony already granted.

[¶1] She lighted off her ass - ותצנח vattitsnach, she hastily, suddenly alighted, as if she had forgotten something, or was about to return to her father's house. Which being perceived by her father, he said, What wouldest thou? What is the matter? What dost thou want?

### Verse 19

[¶3] Give me a blessing - Do me an act of kindness. Grant me a particular request.

[¶4] Thou hast given me a south land - Which was probably dry, or very ill, watered.

[¶5] Give me also springs of water - Let me have some fields in which there are brooks or wells already digged.

[¶6] The upper springs, and the nether springs - He gave her even more than she requested; he gave her a district among the mountains and another in the plains well situated and well watered. There are several difficulties in this account, with which I shall not trouble the reader. What is mentioned above appears to be the sense.

### Verse 24

[¶8] Ziph - There were two cities of this name in the tribe of Judah, that mentioned here, and another [Jos 15:55]. One of these two is noted for the refuge of David when persecuted by Saul; and the attempts made by its inhabitants to deliver him into the hands of his persecutor. See [1Sam 23:14-24].

### Verse 28

[¶10] Beer-sheba - A city, famous in the book of Genesis as the residence of the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, [Gen 22:19]; [Gen 28:10]; [Gen 46:1]. See the note on [Gen 21:31]. It lay on the way between Canaan and Egypt, about forty miles from Jerusalem.

### Verse 30

[¶12] Hormah - A place rendered famous by the defeat of the Hebrews by the Canaanites. See [Num 14:45], [Deu 1:44].

### Verse 31

[¶14] Ziklag - The Philistines seem to have kept possession of this city till the time of David, who received it from Achish, king of Gath, [1Sam 27:6]; after which time it remained in the possession of the kings of Judah.

### Verse 32

[¶16] All the cities are twenty and nine, with their villages - But on a careful examination we shall find thirty-eight; but it is supposed that nine of these are excepted; viz., Beersheba, Moladah, Hazarshual, Baalah, Azem, Hormah, Ziklag, Ain, and Rimmon, which were afterwards given to the tribe of Simeon. This may appear satisfactory, but perhaps the truth will be found to be this: Several cities in the promised land are expressed by compound terms; not knowing the places, different translations combine what should be separated, and in many cases separate what should be combined. Through this we have cities formed out of epithets. On this ground we have thirty-eight cities as the sum here, instead of twenty-nine.

### Verse 33

[¶18] Eshtaol, and Zoreah - Here Samson was buried, it being the burial-place of his fathers; see [Jdg 16:31]. These places though first given to Judah, afterwards fell to the lot of Dan, [Jos 19:41].

### Verse 35

[¶20] Jarmuth - See the note on [Jos 10:3].

[¶21] Adullam - See the note on [Jos 12:15].

[¶22] Socoh - It was near this place that David fought with and slew Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, [1Sam 17:1].

### Verse 36

[¶24] Gederah - See the note on [Jos 12:13].

[¶25] Fourteen cities - Well reckoned, we shall find fifteen cities here; but probably Gederah and Gederothaim ([Jos 15:36]) are the same. See the note on [Jos 15:32].

### Verse 39

[¶27] Lachish - and Eglon - See on [Jos 10:3] (note).

### Verse 41

[¶29] Beth-dagon - The house or temple of Dagon. This is a well known idol of the Philistines, and probably the place mentioned here was in some part of their territories; but the situation at present is unknown.

### Verse 42

[¶31] Libnah - See the note on [Jos 10:29].

[¶32] Ether - From [Jos 19:7] we learn that this city was afterwards given to the tribe of Simeon.

### Verse 44

[¶34] Keilah - This town was near Hebron, and is said to have been the burying-place of the prophet Habakkuk. David obliged the Philistines to raise the siege of it; (see [1Sam 23:1-13]); but finding that its inhabitants had purposed to deliver him into the hands of Saul, who was coming in pursuit of him, he made his escape. See this remarkable case explained in the note on [Deu 32:15] (note).

[¶35] Mareshah - Called also Maresheth and Marasthi; it was the birth-place of the prophet Micah. Near this place was the famous battle between Asa, king of Judah, and Zera, king of Cush or Ethiopia, who was at the head of one thousand thousand men, and three hundred chariots. Asa defeated this immense host and took much spoil, [2Chr 14:9-15].

### Verse 46

[¶37] Ekron - One of the five Philistine lordships; see the note on [Jos 13:3].

### Verse 47

[¶39] Ashdod - Called also Azotus, [Act 8:40].

[¶40] Unto the river of Egypt - The Pelusiac branch of the Nile, or Sihor. But see on [Jos 15:4] (note).

[¶41] The great sea - The Mediterranean.

### Verse 48

[¶43] Socoh - See a town of this name, [Jos 15:35] (note).

## 235. Joshua · 21 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/235/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/235/#p-N

### Verse 49

[¶1] Kirjath-sannah - See the note on [Jos 15:15].

### Verse 51

[¶3] Goshen - See the note on [Jos 10:41].

[¶4] Giloh - The country of the traitor Ahithophel, [2Sam 15:12].

### Verse 53

[¶6] Beth-tappuah - The house of the apple or citron tree. Probably a place where these grew in great abundance and perfection.

[¶7] Aphekah - See the note on [Jos 12:18].

### Verse 54

[¶9] Kirjath-arba - See the note on [Jos 14:15].

### Verse 55

[¶11] Maon - In a desert to which this town gave name, David took refuge for a considerable time from the persecution of Saul; and in this place Nabal the Carmelite had great possessions. See [1Sam 23:24], [1Sam 23:25]; [1Sam 25:2].

[¶12] Carmel - Not the celebrated mount of that name, but a village, the residence of Nabal. See [1Sam 25:2]. It was near Maon, mentioned above, and was about ten miles eastward of Hebron. It is the place where Saul erected a trophy to himself after the defeat of the Amalekites; see [1Sam 15:12].

[¶13] Ziph - See on [Jos 15:24] (note).

### Verse 57

[¶15] Timnah - A frontier town of the Philistines; it was in this place that Samson got his wife, see Judges 14:1-15:20.

### Verse 58

[¶17] Gedor - See the note on [Jos 12:13]. In this place the Alexandrian MS. of the Septuagint and the Codex Vaticanus add the eleven following towns: Theca, and Ephratha, (that is, Bethlehem), and Phagor, and Etan, and Kulon, and Tatam, and Thebes, and Karam, and Galam, and Thether, and Manocho; eleven cities and their villages. St. Jerome, on [Mic 5:1], mentions them, so that we find they were in the copies he used. Dr. Kennicott contends that they should be restored to the text, and accounts thus for their omission: "The same word וחצרויהן vechatsreyhen, and their villages, occurring immediately before this passage and at the end of it, the transcriber's eye passed from one to the other by mistake. A similar accident has caused the omission of two whole verses, the 35th and 36th of Joshua 21." See the note on [Jos 21:35], [Jos 21:36].

### Verse 60

[¶19] Kirjath-baal - The same as Baalah. See on [Jos 15:9] (note).

### Verse 62

[¶21] The city of Salt - Or of Melach. This city was somewhere in the vicinity of the lake Asphaltites, the waters of which are the saltest perhaps in the world. The whole country abounds with salt: see the note on [Gen 19:25]. Some suppose that it is the same as Zoar, the place to which Lot escaped after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[¶22] En-gedi - The well of the kid: it was situated between Jericho and the lake of Sodom or Dead Sea.

### Verse 63

[¶24] The Jebusites dwell - at Jerusalem unto this day - The whole history of Jerusalem, previously to the time of David, is encumbered with many difficulties. Sometimes it is attributed to Judah, sometimes to Benjamin, and it is probable that, being on the frontiers of both those tribes, each possessed a part of it. If the Jebusites were ever driven out before the time of David, it is certain they recovered it again, or at least a part of it - what is called the citadel or strong hold of Zion, (see [2Sam 5:7]), which he took from them; after which the city fell wholly into the hands of the Israelites. This verse is an additional proof that the book of Joshua was not written after the times of the Jewish kings, as some have endeavored to prove; for when this verse was written, the Jebusites dwelt with the children of Judah, which they did not after the days of David; therefore the book was written before there were any kings in Judea.

[¶25] It is very likely, not only that many cities have by the lapse of time changed their names or been totally destroyed, (see the note on [Jos 15:1]), but that the names of those in the preceding catalogue have been changed also, several of them repeated that should have been mentioned but once, and not a few confounded with the terms by which they are described. But we must not suppose that every repetition of the name is through the carelessness of copyists; for there are often two places which bear the same name, which is frequently the case in England. But besides this, villages are mentioned as being apparently in the tribe of Judah, which afterwards appear to have been in an other tribe. The reason appears to be this: many towns are mentioned which were frontier towns, and when the limits of a tribe are pointed out, such places must necessarily be mentioned, though allotted to a different tribe. This consideration will serve to remove several difficulties which occur in the reading of this and the following chapters.

### Introduction

[¶27] Borders of the children of Joseph, [Jos 16:1-4]. The borders of the Ephraimites, [Jos 16:5-9]. The Canaanites dwell tributary among them, [Jos 16:10].

### Verse 1

[¶29] The children of Joseph - Ephraim and Manasseh, and their descendants. The limits of the tribe of Ephraim extended along the borders of Benjamin and Dan, from Jordan on the east to the Mediterranean on the west.

### Verse 2

[¶31] From Bethel to Luz - From [Gen 28:19] (note) it appears that the place which Jacob called Beth-el was formerly called Luz; see the note there: but here they seem to be two distinct places. It is very likely that the place where Jacob had the vision was not in Luz, but in some place within a small distance of that city or village, (see the note on [Gen 28:12]), and that sometimes the whole place was called Beth-el, at other times Luz, and sometimes, as in the case above, the two places were distinguished. As we find the term London comprises, not only London, but also the city of Westminster and the borough of Southwark; though at other times all three are distinctly mentioned.

[¶32] Archi to Ataroth - Archi was the country of Hushai, the friend of David, [2Sam 15:32], who is called Hushai the Archite. Ataroth, called Ataroth-addar, Ataroth the illustrious, [Jos 16:5], and simply Ataroth, [Jos 16:7], is supposed to have been about fifteen miles from Jerusalem.

### Verse 3

[¶34] Beth-horon the nether - This city was about twelve miles from Jerusalem, on the side of Nicopolis, formerly Emmaus. - Calmet. See the note on [Jos 10:10].

### Verse 5

[¶36] Ataroth-addar - See the note on [Jos 16:2].

[¶37] Beth-horon the upper - The situation of this town is little known. It was eastward of Beth-horon the nether, and consequently not far from it.

### Verse 8

[¶39] Tappuah - This was a city in the tribe of Manasseh, and gave name to a certain district called the land of Tappuah. See [Jos 17:8].

[¶40] The sea - The Mediterranean, as before.

### Verse 9

[¶42] And the separate cities - That is, the cities that were separated from the tribe of Manasseh to be given to Ephraim; see [Jos 17:9].

### Verse 10

[¶44] The Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer - It appears that the Canaanites were not expelled from this city till the days of Solomon, when it was taken by the king of Egypt his father-in-law, who made it a present to his daughter, Solomon's queen. See [1Kgs 9:16]. And see the note on [Jos 10:33]. The Ephraimites, however, had so far succeeded in subjecting these people as to oblige them to pay tribute, though they could not, or at least did not, totally expel them.

[¶45] Of the names and places in this chapter, we may say the same as of others already mentioned. See the note on [Jos 15:1]. Many of those towns were small, and, we may rationally conclude, slightly built, and consequently have perished perhaps more than a thousand years ago. It would be therefore useless to look for such places now. Several of the towns in England, a land not exposed to such revolutions as that of Palestine has ever been, mentioned by Caesar and other ancient writers, are no longer discernible. Several have changed their names, and not a few their situation. Tradition states that the city of Norwich anciently stood some miles from its present situation; and we have the fullest proof that this was the case with the city of Salisbury. Such changes do not affect the truth of the ancient geography of our own country; nor can they impeach that of the sacred historian before us.

## 236. Joshua · 22 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/236/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/236/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The lot of the half tribe of Manasseh, [Jos 17:1], [Jos 17:2]. Case of the daughters of Zelophehad, [Jos 17:3-6]. The borders of Manasseh described, [Jos 17:7-11]. The Canaanites dwell among them, but are laid under tribute, [Jos 17:12], [Jos 17:13]. The children of Joseph complain of the scantiness of their lot, [Jos 17:14-16]. Joshua authorizes them to possess the mountainous wood country of the Perizzites, and gives them encouragement to expel them, though they were strong and had chariots of iron, [Jos 17:17], [Jos 17:18].

### Verse 1

[¶3] There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh - It was necessary to mark this because Jacob, in his blessing, ([Gen 48:19], [Gen 48:20]), did in a certain sense set Ephraim before Manasseh, though the latter was the first-born; but the place here shows that this preference did not affect the rights of primogeniture.

[¶4] For Machir - because he was a man of war - It is not likely that Machir himself was now alive; if he were, he must have been nearly 200 years old: It is therefore probable that what is spoken here is spoken of his children, who now possessed the lot that was originally designed for their father, who it appears had signalized himself as a man of skill and valor in some of the former wars, though the circumstances are not marked. His descendants, being of a warlike, intrepid spirit, were well qualified to defend a frontier country, which would be naturally exposed to invasion.

### Verse 2

[¶6] The rest of the children of Manasseh - That is, his grandchildren; for it is contended that Manasseh had no other son than Machir; and these were very probably the children of Gilead, the son of Machir.

### Verse 3

[¶8] Zelophehad - had no sons, but daughters - See this case considered at large in the notes on [Num 27:1-7] (note); [Num 36:1] (note), etc.

### Verse 5

[¶10] There fell ten portions to Manasseh - The Hebrew word חבלי chabley, which we translate portions, signifies literally cords or cables, and intimates that by means of a cord, cable, or what we call a chain, the land was divided. We have but little account of the arts and sciences of the Hebrews, yet from the sketches which we find in different parts of the Old Testament it appears that their minds were in many respects well cultivated; nor could the division, which is mentioned in this book, have been made without such a measure of geographical knowledge, as we find it difficult to grant them. Suppose even in this case, the land was not measured with a chain, which in some cases would have been impracticable, because the ancient inhabitants still occupied the places which were allotted to certain tribes or families; yet the allusion to this mode of measurement shows that it was well known among them. As there were six sons and five daughters, among whom this division was to be made, there should be eleven portions; but Zelophehad, son of Hepher, having left five daughters in his place, neither he nor Hepher is reckoned. The lot of Manasseh therefore was divided into ten parts; five for the five sons of Gilead, who were Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, and Shemida; and five for the five daughters of Zelophehad, viz., Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. Calmet.

### Verse 9

[¶12] Unto the river Kanah - Literally, the river or valley of the reeds, translated by the Vulgate, vallis arundintei. The tribe of Manasseh appears to have been bounded on the north by this torrent or valley, and on the south by the Mediterranean Sea.

### Verse 10

[¶14] They met together in Asher on the north - The tribe of Asher extended from the Mediterranean Sea to Mount Carmel, [Jos 19:26], and the tribe of Manasseh extended to Dor and her towns, (see the following verse, [Jos 17:11] (note)), which were in the vicinity of Carmel; and thus it appears that these two tribes formed a junction at the Mediterranean Sea. This may serve to remove the difficulties in this verse; but still it does appear that in several cases the tribes were intermingled; for Manasseh had several towns, both in Issachar and in Asher, see [Jos 17:11]. In like manner, Judah had towns in Dan and Simeon; and Simeon had towns in Judah; and what is spoken of the boundaries of the tribes, may be sometimes understood of those towns which certain tribes had within the limits of others. For, in several cases, towns seem to be interchanged, or purchased, by mutual consent, so that in some instances the possessions were intermingled, without any confusion of the tribes or families.

### Verse 11

[¶16] Beth-shean - Called afterwards Scythopolis; the city of the Scythians or Cuthites, those who were sent into the different Samaritan cities by the kings of Assyria.

[¶17] Dor - On the Mediterranean Sea, about eight miles from Caesarea, on the road to Tyre.

[¶18] En-dor - The well or fountain of Dor, the place where Saul went to consult the witch; [1Sam 28:7], etc.

### Verse 12

[¶20] Could not drive out, etc. - They had neither grace nor courage to go against their enemies, and chose rather to share their territories with those whom the justice of God had proscribed, than exert themselves to expel them. But some commentators give a different turn to this expression, and translate the passage thus: But the children of Manasseh could not (resolve) to destroy those cities, but the Canaanites consented to dwell in the land. And as they were willing to pay tribute, and the others chose to tolerate them on those terms, they agreed to dwell together: but this paying of tribute seems not to have taken place till some time after, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, etc.

### Verse 15

[¶22] If thou be a great people - Joshua takes them at their own word; they said, [Jos 17:14], that they were a great people; then said he, If thou be a great people or seeing thou art a great people, go to the wood country, and clear away for thyself. Joshua would not reverse the decision of the lot; but as there was much woodland country, he gave them permission to clear away as much of it as they found necessary to extend themselves as far as they pleased.

### Verse 16

[¶24] The hill is not enough for us - The mountain of Gilboa being that which had fallen to them by lot.

[¶25] Chariots of iron - We cannot possess the plain country, because that is occupied by the Canaanites; and we cannot conquer them, because they have chariots of iron, that is, very strong chariots, and armed with scythes, as is generally supposed.

### Verse 18

[¶27] The outgoings of it shall be thine - Clear away the wood, occupy the mountain, and you shall soon be able to command all the valleys; and, possessing all the defiles of the country, you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron: your situation will be advantageous, your numbers very respectable, and the hand of God will be upon you for good.

[¶28] 1. From the whole history of the Israelites we find that it was difficult to please them; they had a dissatisfied mind, and hence were rarely contented. From the above account we learn that the children of Joseph were much inclined to quarrel with Joshua, because they had not such a lot as they wished; though they could not be ignorant that their lot, as that of the others, had been determined by the especial providence of God.

[¶29] 2. Joshua treats them with great firmness; he would not attempt to alter the appointment of God, and he saw no reason to reverse or change the grant already made. They were both numerous and strong, and if they put forth their strength under the direction of even the ordinary providence of God, they had every reason to expect success.

[¶30] 3. Slothfulness is natural to man; it requires much training to induce him to labor for his daily bread; if God should miraculously send it he will wonder and eat it, and that is the whole. Strive to enter in at the strait gate is an ungracious word to many; they profess to trust in God's mercy, but labor not to enter into that rest: God will not reverse his purpose to meet their slothfulness; they alone who overcome shall sit with Jesus upon his throne. Reader, take unto thee the whole armor of God, that thou mayest be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all - to Stand. And remember, that he only who endures to the end shall be saved.

### Introduction

[¶32] The tabernacle is set up at Shiloh, [Jos 18:1]. Seven of the tribes having not yet received their inheritance, [Jos 18:2]. Joshua orders three men from each tribe to be chosen, and sent to examine the land and divide it into seven parts, which should be distributed among them by lot, [Jos 18:3-7]. The men go and do as commanded, and return to Joshua, [Jos 18:8], [Jos 18:9]. Joshua casts lots for them, [Jos 18:10]. The lot of Benjamin, how situated, [Jos 18:11]. Its northern boundaries, [Jos 18:12-14]. Its southern boundaries, [Jos 18:15-19]. Its eastern boundary, [Jos 18:20]. Its cities, [Jos 18:21-28].

### Verse 1

[¶34] Israel assembled together at Shiloh - This appears to have been a considerable town about fifteen miles from Jerusalem, in the tribe of Ephraim, and nearly in the center of the whole land. To this place both the camp of Israel, and the ark of the Lord, were removed from Gilgal, after a residence there of seven years. Here the tabernacle remained one hundred and thirty years, as is generally supposed, being the most conveniently situated for access to the different tribes, and for safety, the Israelites having possession of the land on all sides; for it is here added, the land was subdued before them - the Canaanites were so completely subdued, that there was no longer any general resistance to the Israelitish arms.

### Verse 3

[¶36] How long are ye slack to go to possess the land - We find an unaccountable backwardness in this people to enter on the inheritance which God had given them! They had so long been supported by miracle, without any exertions of their own, that they found it difficult to shake themselves from their inactivity. When it was necessary that all the people should go out to battle, they went with a measure of confidence, expecting miraculous help from God, and confiding in their numbers, but when each tribe found it necessary to fight for itself, in order to its establishment and the extension of its borders, it was discouraged, and chose rather a life of inglorious ease than the possession of an inheritance which would cost it much labor to conquer.

### Verse 4

[¶38] Three men for each tribe - Probably meaning only three from each of the seven tribes who had not yet received their inheritance. It is likely that these twenty-one men were accompanied by a military guard, for without this they might have been easily cut off by straggling parties of the Canaanites.

[¶39] They shall - describe it - It is likely they were persons well acquainted with geography and mensuration, without which it would have been impossible for them to have divided the land in the way necessary on this occasion.

### Verse 5

[¶41] Judah shall abide - on the south, and the house of Joseph - on the north - Joshua does not mean that the tribe of Judah occupied the south, and the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh the north of the promised land; this was not the fact: but being now at Shiloh, a considerable way in the territory of Ephraim, and not far from that of Judah, he speaks of them in relation to the place in which he then was. Calmet considers him as thus addressing the deputies: "Go and examine the whole of the country which remains yet to be possessed; do not take into consideration the tribe of Judah, which is on the south, nor the tribe of Ephraim, which is on the north of where we now are, but carefully divide the remaining land which is not occupied by these tribes into seven equal parts." This makes a very good sense, and frees the place from embarrassment.

### Verse 7

[¶43] The priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance - We have already seen that the priests and Levites had the sacrifices, oblations tithes, first-fruits, redemption-money of the firstborn, etc., for their inheritance; they had no landed possessions in Israel; the Lord was their portion.

## 237. Joshua · 23 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/237/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/237/#p-N

### Verse 9

[¶1] And described it in a book - This as far as I can recollect, is the first act of surveying on record. These men and their work differed widely from those who had searched the land in the time of Moses; they went only to discover the nature of the country, and the state of its inhabitants; but these went to take an actual geographical survey of it, in order to divide it among the tribes which had not yet received their portions. We may suppose that the country was exactly described in a book, that is, a map, pointing out the face of the country, accompanied with descriptions of each part.

### Verse 11

[¶3] And the lot - of Benjamin came up - On the manner of casting the lot, see on [Jos 14:2] (note), and [Num 26:55] (note). There were probably two urns, one of which contained the names of the seven tribes, and the other that of the seven portions. They therefore took out one name out of the first urn, and one portion out of the second, and thus the portion was adjudged to that tribe.

### Verse 12

[¶5] The wilderness of Beth-aven - This was the same as Beth-el; but this name was not given to it till Jeroboam had fixed one of his golden calves there. Its first name signifies the house of God; its second, the house of iniquity.

### Verse 16

[¶7] To the side of Jebusi - The mountain of Zion, that was near Jerusalem; for Jebusi, or Jebus, was the ancient name of this city.

### Verse 17

[¶9] En-shemesh - The fountain of the sun; a proof of the idolatrous nature of the ancient inhabitants of this land.

[¶10] Geliloth - As the word signifies borders or limits, it is probably not the proper name of a place: And went forth towards the Borders which are over against the ascent to Adummim.

### Verse 19

[¶12] The north bay of the Salt Sea - As the word לשון leshon signifies the tongue, it may here refer to the point of the Dead or Salt Sea. Of these tongues or points it had two, one on the north, and the other on the south.

### Verse 21

[¶14] Now the cities - Some of these cities have been mentioned before, and described; of others we know nothing but the name.

### Verse 24

[¶16] And Gaba - Supposed to be the same as Gibeah of Saul, a place famous for having given birth to the first king of Israel; and infamous for the shocking act towards the Levite's wife, mentioned [Jdg 19:16-30], which was the cause of a war in which the tribe of Benjamin was nearly exterminated. Judges 20:29-48.

### Verse 25

[¶18] Gibeon - See before, [Jos 10:1-14] (note). This place is famous for the confederacy of the five kings against Israel, and their miraculous defeat. Ramah, a place about six or eight miles north of Jerusalem. Beeroth, i.e., wells; one of the four cities which belonged to the Gibeonites, who made peace with the Israelites by stratagem. See [Jos 9:3-15].

### Verse 26

[¶20] And Mizpeh - This place is celebrated in the sacred writings. Here the people were accustomed to assemble often in the presence of the Lord, as in the deliberation concerning the punishment to be inflicted on the men of Gibeah, for the abuse of the Levite's wife. [Jdg 20:1-3]. Samuel assembled the people here to exhort them to renounce their idolatry, [1Sam 7:5], [1Sam 7:6]. In this same place Saul was chosen to be king, [1Sam 10:17]. It was deemed a sacred place among the Israelites; for we find, from 1 Maccabees 3:46, that the Jews assembled here to seek God, when their enemies were in possession of the temple.

### Verse 28

[¶22] And Zelah - This was the burying-place of Saul, Jonathan, and the family of Kish. See [2Sam 21:14].

[¶23] Jebusi, which is Jerusalem - We often meet with this name, and it is evident that it was the ancient name of Jerusalem, which was also called Salem; and was probably the place in which Melchizedek reigned in the days of Abraham; though some think a different place is meant; for that there was another place of the same name, is evident from [Joh 3:23]. This place, called Salim by the evangelist, is said to be near to Enon, and there John baptized, because there was much water in the place. This, however, must not be confounded with the Salem mentioned above; for that this was a name of Jerusalem, is evident from [Psa 76:1], [Psa 76:2] : In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion. This must refer to Jerusalem, where the temple was situated. Whether Jebus or Jebusi had its name from the Jebusites, or the Jebusites from it, cannot be ascertained.

### Introduction

[¶25] The lot of Simeon, [Jos 19:1-9]. Of Zebulun, [Jos 19:10-16]. Of Issachar, [Jos 19:17-23]. Of Asher, [Jos 19:24-31]. Of Naphtali, [Jos 19:32-39]. Of Dan, [Jos 19:40-48]. Joshua's portion, [Jos 19:49], [Jos 19:50]. The conclusion of the division of the land, [Jos 19:51].

### Verse 1

[¶27] The second lot came forth to Simeon - In this appointment the providence of God may be especially remarked. For the iniquitous conduct of Simeon and Levi, in the massacre of the innocent Shechemites, [Gen 34:25-31], Jacob, in the spirit of prophecy, foretold that they should be divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel, [Gen 49:7]. And this was most literally fulfilled in the manner in which God disposed of both these tribes afterwards. Levi was scattered through all Palestine, not having received any inheritance, only cities to dwell in, in different parts of the land; and Simeon was dispersed in Judah, with what could scarcely be said to be their own, or a peculiar lot. See the note on [Gen 49:7].

### Verse 2

[¶29] Beer-sheba - The well of the oath. See the note on [Gen 21:31].

### Verse 3

[¶31] Hazar-shual - For this and several of the following places, see the notes on [Jos 15:32].

### Verse 5

[¶33] Beth-marcaboth - The house or city of chariots. Probably a place where their war-chariots and cavalry were laid up.

### Verse 6

[¶35] Beth-lebaoth - The house or city of lionesses. Probably so called from the numbers of those animals which bred there.

### Verse 8

[¶37] Baalath-beer - The well of the mistresses. Probably so called from some superstitious or impure worship set up there.

### Verse 13

[¶39] Gittah-hepher - The same as Gath-hepher, the birth-place of the prophet Jonah.

### Verse 15

[¶41] Shimron - See on [Jos 12:20] (note).

[¶42] Beth-lehem - The house of bread; a different place from that in which our Lord was born.

### Verse 17

[¶44] The fourth lot came out to Issachar - It is remarkable, that though Issachar was the eldest brother, yet the lot of Zebulun was drawn before his lot; and this is the order in which Jacob himself mentions them, [Gen 49:13], [Gen 49:14], though no reason appears, either here or in the place above, why this preference should be given to the younger; but that the apparently fortuitous lot should have distinguished them just as the prophetic Jacob did, is peculiarly remarkable. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning: he has reasons for his conduct, which in many cases are too great for any of his creatures to comprehend, but he works all things after the counsel of his own will, which is ever right and good; and in this case his influence may be as easily seen in the decision by the lot, as on the mind of the patriarch Jacob, when he predicted what should befall his children in the latter days, and his providence continued to ripen, and bring forward what his judgment had deemed right to be done.

## 238. Joshua · 24 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/238/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/238/#p-N

### Verse 18

[¶1] Jezreel - This city, according to Calmet, was situated in an open country, having the town of Legion on the west, Bethshan on the east, on the south the mountains of Gilboa, and on the north those of Hermon.

[¶2] Shunem - This city was rendered famous by being the occasional abode of the prophet Elisha, and the place where he restored the son of a pious woman to life. [2Kgs 4:8]. It was the place where the Philistines were encamped on that ruinous day in which the Israelites were totally routed at Gilboa, and Saul and his sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, killed. [1Sam 28:4]; [1Sam 31:1], etc.

### Verse 22

[¶4] Beth-shemesh - The house or temple of the sun; there were several cities or towns of this name in Palestine; an ample proof that the worship of this celestial luminary had generally prevailed in that idolatrous country.

### Verse 26

[¶6] Carmel - The vineyard of God; a place greatly celebrated in Scripture, and especially for the miracles of Elijah; see 1 Kings 18:19-40. The mountain of Carmel was so very fruitful as to pass into a proverb. There was another Carmel in the tribe of Judah, (see [Jos 15:55]), but this, in the tribe of Asher, was situated about one hundred and twenty furlongs south from Ptolemais, on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Calmet observes that there was, in the time of Vespasian, a temple on this mountain, dedicated to a god of the same name. There was a convent, and a religious order known by the name of Carmelites, established on this mountain in honor of Elijah: the time of the foundation of this order is greatly disputed. Some pretend that it was established by Elijah himself; while others, with more probability, fix it in a.d. 1180 or 1181, under the pontificate of Pope Alexander III.

### Verse 27

[¶8] Cabul on the left hand - That is, to the north of Cabul, for so the left hand, when referring to place, is understood among the Hebrews. We must not confound this town or Cabul with the twenty cities given by Solomon to Hiram, with which he was displeased, and which in contempt he called the land of Cabul, the dirty or paltry land, [1Kgs 9:11-13] : there was evidently a town of this name, widely different from the land so called, long before the time of Solomon, and therefore this cannot be adduced as an argument that the book of Joshua was written after the days of David. The town in question is supposed to be the same which Josephus in his Life calls Χωβουλω Choboulo, and which he says was situated by the sea-side, and nigh to Ptolemais. De Bell. Jud., lib. iii., c. 4.

### Verse 28

[¶10] Unto great Zidon - The city of Sidon and the Sidonians are celebrated from the remotest antiquity. They are frequently mentioned by Homer. See the note on [Jos 11:8].

### Verse 29

[¶12] The strong city Tyre - I suspect this to be an improper translation. Perhaps the words of the original should be retained: And the coast turneth to Ramah and to the city, מבצר צר mibtsar tsor. Our translators have here left the Hebrew, and followed the Septuagint and Vulgate, a fault of which they are sometimes guilty. The former render the place ἑως πολεως οχυρωματος των Τυριων, unto the fortified city of the Tyrians. The Vulgate is nearly the same: ad civitatem munitissimam Tyrum, to the well-fortified city Tyre; but this must be incorrect for the famous city of Tyre was not known till about A.M. 2760, about two hundred years after the days of Joshua. Homer, who frequently mentions Sidon and the Sidonians, never mentions Tyre; a proof that this afterwards very eminent city was not then known. Homer is allowed by some to have flourished in the time of Joshua, though others make him contemporary with the Israelitish judges. The word צר Tsor or Tsar, which we translate or change into Tyre, signifies a rock or strong place; and as there were many rocks in the land of Judea, that with a little art were formed into strong places of defense, hence several places might have the name of Tsar or Tyre. The ancient and celebrated Tyre, so much spoken of both in sacred and profane history, was a rock or small island in the sea, about six or seven hundred paces from the main land. In order to reduce this city, Alexander the Great was obliged to fill up the channel between it and the main land, and after all took it with much difficulty. It is generally supposed that a town on the main land, opposite to this fortified rock, went by the same name; one being called old Tyre, the other, new Tyre: it was out of the ruins of the old Tyre, or that which was situated on the main land, that Alexander is said to have filled up the channel between it and the new city. Of this city Isaiah, Isaiah 23:1-18, and Ezekiel, Ezekiel 27:1-28:26, have given a very grand description, and also predicted its irreparable ruin which prophecies have been most literally fulfilled. See more on the above places.

[¶13] Achzib - Called afterwards Ecdippe, and now called Zib; it is about nine miles' distance from Ptolemais, towards Tyre.

### Verse 30

[¶15] Twenty and two cities - There are nearly thirty cities in the above enumeration instead of twenty-two, but probably several are mentioned that were but frontier towns, and that did not belong to this tribe, their border only passing by such cities; and on this account, though they are named, yet they do not enter into the enumeration in this place. Perhaps some of the villages are named as well as the cities.

### Verse 34

[¶17] And to Judah upon Jordan - It is certain that the tribe of Naphtali did not border on the east upon Judah, for there were several tribes betwixt them. Some think that as these two tribes were bounded by Jordan on the east, they might be considered as in some sort conjoined, because of the easy passage to each other by means of the river; but this might be said of several other tribes as well as of these. There is considerable difficulty in the text as it now stands; but if, with the Septuagint, we omit Judah, the difficulty vanishes, and the passage is plain: but this omission is supported by no MS. hitherto discovered. It is however very probable that some change has taken place in the words of the text, וביהודה הירדן ubihudah haiyarden, "and by Judah upon Jordan." Houbigant, who terms them verba sine re ac sententia, "words without sense or meaning," proposes, instead of them, to read ובגדות הירדן ubigdoth haiyarden, "and by the banks of Jordan;" a word which is used [Jos 3:15], and which here makes a very good sense.

### Verse 35

[¶19] Chinnereth - See the note on [Jos 11:2].

### Verse 36

[¶21] Hazor - See the note on [Jos 11:1].

### Verse 38

[¶23] Nineteen cities - But if these cities be separately enumerated they amount to twenty-three; this is probably occasioned by reckoning frontier cities belonging to other tribes, which are only mentioned here as the boundaries of the tribe. See on [Jos 19:30] (note).

### Verse 41

[¶25] Zorah, and Eshtaol - See the note on [Jos 15:33].

[¶26] Ir-shemesh - The city of sun; another proof of the idolatry of the Canaanites. Some think this was the same as Beth-shemesh.

### Verse 42

[¶28] Shaalabbin - The foxes. Of this city the Amorites kept constant possession. See [Jdg 1:35].

[¶29] Ajalon - There was a place of this name about two miles from Nicopolis or Emmaus, on the road to Jerusalem. - Calmet.

### Verse 43

[¶31] Thimnathah - Probably the same as Timnah. See on [Jos 15:57] (note).

[¶32] Ekron - A well-known city of the Philistines and the metropolis of one of their five dynasties.

### Verse 45

[¶34] Jehud, and Bene-berak - Or Jehud of the children of Berak.

### Verse 46

[¶36] Japho - The place since called Joppa, lying on the Mediterranean, and the chief sea-port, in the possession of the twelve tribes.

### Verse 47

[¶38] Went out too little for them - This is certainly the meaning of the passage; but our translators have been obliged to add the words too little to make this sense apparent. Houbigant contends that an ancient copyist, meeting frequently with the words ויצאהגבול vaiyetse haggebul, in the preceding history, became so familiarized to them that he wrote them here instead of ויאץ הגבול vaiyaats haggebul, and the border of the children of Dan was Strait for them. It was on this account that they were obliged to go and fight against Leshem, and take and possess it, their former inheritance being too strait for their increasing population.

[¶39] And called Leshem, Dan - This city was situated near the origin of Jordan, at the utmost northern extremity of the promised land, as Beer-sheba was at that of the south; and as after its capture by the Danites it was called Dan, hence arose the expression from Dan even to Beer-sheba, which always signified the whole extent of the promised land. Some suppose that Leshem was the same with Caesarea Philippi, but others with reason reject this opinion. It must be granted that the whole account given in this verse refers indisputably to a fact which did not take place till after the death of Joshua. It is another of the marginal or explicative notes which were added by some later hand. The whole account of this expedition of the Danites against Leshem is circumstantially given in the book of Judges, chapter 18, and to that chapter the reader is referred.

### Verse 50

[¶41] Timnath-serah - Called Timnath-heres in [Jdg 2:9], where we find that the mountain on which it was built was called Gaash. It is generally allowed to have been a barren spot in a barren country.

### Verse 51

[¶43] At the door of the tabernacle - All the inheritances were determined by lot, and this was cast before the Lord - every thing was done in his immediate presence, as under his eye; hence there was no murmuring, each having received his inheritance as from the hand of God himself, though some of them thought they must have additional territory, because of the great increase of their families.

### Introduction

[¶45] Joshua is commanded to appoint cities of refuge, [Jos 20:1], [Jos 20:2]. The purpose of their institution, [Jos 20:3-6]. Three cities are appointed in the promised land, [Jos 20:7]; and three on the east side of Jordan, [Jos 20:8], [Jos 20:9].

## 239. Joshua · 25 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/239/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/239/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] Cities of refuge - An institution of this kind was essentially necessary wherever the patriarchal law relative to the right of redemption and the avenging of blood was in force; we have already seen that the nearest of kin to a deceased person had not only the right of redeeming an inheritance that had been forfeited or alienated, but had also authority to slay on the spot the person who had slain his relative. Now, as a man might casually kill another against whom he had no ill-will, and with whom he had no quarrel, and might have his life taken away by him who was called the avenger of blood, though he had not forfeited his life to the law; therefore these privileged cities were appointed, where the person might have protection till the cause had been fully heard by the magistrates, who certainly had authority to deliver him up to the avenger, if they found, on examination, that he was not entitled to this protection. On this subject see the notes on [Num 35:11] to the end.

### Verse 7

[¶3] They appointed Kedesh in Galilee - The cities of refuge were distributed through the land at proper distances from each other that they might be convenient to every part of the land; and it is said they were situated on eminences, that they might be easily seen at a distance, the roads leading to them being broad, even, and always kept in good repair. In the concluding note on [Num 35:33] it has been stated that these cities were a type of our blessed Lord, and that the apostle refers to them as such, [Heb 6:17], [Heb 6:18]. Hence their names have been considered as descriptive of some character or office of Christ. I shall give each and its signification, and leave the application to others.

[¶4] 1. קדש Kedesh, from kadash, to separate or set apart, because it implies the consecration of a person or thing to the worship or service of God alone; hence to make or be holy, and hence Kedesh, holiness, the full consecration of a person to God.

[¶5] 2. שכם Shechem, from shacham, to be ready, forward, and diligent; hence Shechem, the shoulder, because of its readiness to bear burdens, prop up, sustain, etc., and from this ideal meaning it has the metaphorical one of Government.

[¶6] 3. חברון chebron; Hebron, from חבר chabar, to associate, join, conjoin, unite as friends; and hence chebron, fellowship, friendly association, or with the diminutive nun, the little fellow-ship or association.

[¶7] 4. בצר Bezer, from batsar, to restrain, enclose, shut up, or encompass with a wall; and hence the goods or treasure thus secured, and hence a fortified place, a fortress.

[¶8] 5. ראמות Ramoth, from ראם raam, to be raised, made high or exalted, and hence Ramoth, high places, eminences.

[¶9] 6. גולן Golan, from גלה galah, to remove, transmigrate, or pass away; hence Golan, a transmigration or passage. Some derive it from גל gal, to rejoice, hence Golan, rejoicing or exultation.

[¶10] A person of the spirit and turn of Origen could preach the whole Gospel from these particulars. Kedesh and Hebron were at the two extremities of the promised land; one was in Galilee, the other in the tribe of Judah, both in mountainous countries; and Shechem was in the tribe of Ephraim, nearly in the middle, between both. Bezer was on the east side of Jordan, in the plain, opposite to Jericho. Ramoth was about the midst of the country occupied by the two tribes and a half, about the middle of the mountains of Gilead. Golan was the capital of a district called Gaulonitis, in the land of Bashan, towards the southern extremity of the lot of Manasseh.

### Verse 9

[¶12] For all the children of Israel, and for the stranger - As these typified the great provision which God was making for the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles, hence the stranger as well as the Israelite had the same right to the benefits of these cities of refuge. Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?

[¶13] Until he stood before the congregation - The judges and elders of the people, in trying civil and criminal causes, always sat; the persons who came for judgment, or who were tried, always stood; hence the expressions so frequent in Scripture, Standing before the Lord, the judges, the elders, etc. It is worthy of remark that the cities of refuge were given to the Levites; see the following chapter, Joshua 21 (note). The sacrificial system alone afforded refuge; and while the suspected person was excluded from his family, etc., he had the advantage of being with those whose business it was to instruct the ignorant, and comfort the disconsolate. Thus he had the means constantly at hand, by a careful use of which he might grow wiser and better; secure the favor of his God, and a lot of blessedness in a better world. How wise, equal, and beneficent are all the institutions of God!

### Introduction

[¶15] The Levites apply to Eleazar, Joshua, and the elders, for the cities to dwell in which Moses had promised, [Jos 21:1], [Jos 21:2]. Their request is granted, [Jos 21:3]. The priests receive thirteen cities out of the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, [Jos 21:4]. The Levites receive ten cities out of the tribes of Ephraim, Dan, and the half tribe of Manasseh, [Jos 21:5]; and thirteen out of the other half tribe of Manasseh, and the tribes of Issachar, Asher, and Naphtali, [Jos 21:6]. The children of Merari had twelve cities out of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun, [Jos 21:7]. The names of the cities given out of the tribes of Judah and Simeon, [Jos 21:8-16]. Those granted out of the tribe of Benjamin, [Jos 21:17-19]. Out of Ephraim, [Jos 21:20-22]. Those out of Dan, [Jos 21:23], [Jos 21:24]. Those out of both the halves of the tribe of Manasseh, [Jos 21:25-27]. Those out of the tribe of Issachar, [Jos 21:28], [Jos 21:29]. Those out of Asher, [Jos 21:30], [Jos 21:31]. Those out of Naphtali, [Jos 21:32]. These were the cities of the Gershonites, [Jos 21:33]. The cities of the Merarites, [Jos 21:34-40]. The sum of the cities given to the Levites, forty-eight, [Jos 21:41], [Jos 21:42]. The exact fulfillment of all God's promises, [Jos 21:43-45].

### Verse 1

[¶17] The heads of the fathers of the Levites - The Levites were composed of three brand families, the Gershonites, Koathites, and Merarites, independently of the family of Aaron, who might be said to form a fourth. To none of these had God assigned any portion in the division of the land. But in this general division it must have been evidently intended that the different tribes were to furnish them with habitations; and this was according to a positive command of God, [Num 35:2], etc. Finding now that each tribe had its inheritance appointed to it, the heads of the Levites came before Eleazar, Joshua, and the chiefs of the tribes who had been employed in dividing the land, and requested that cities and suburbs should be granted them according to the Divine command.

### Verse 3

[¶19] And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites - They cheerfully obeyed the Divine command, and cities for habitations were appointed to them out of the different tribes by lot, that it might as fully appear that God designed them their habitations, as he designed the others their inheritances.

### Verse 4

[¶21] Out of the tribe of Judah - Simeon, and - Benjamin, thirteen cities - These tribes furnished more habitations to the Levites in proportion than any of the other tribes, because they possessed a more extensive inheritance; and Moses had commanded, [Num 35:8], From them that have many, ye shall give many; and from them that have few, ye shall give few: every one shall give of his cities unto the Levites, according to his inheritance. It is worthy of remark, that the principal part of this tribe, whose business was to minister at the sanctuary, which sanctuary was afterwards to be established in Jerusalem, had their appointment nearest to that city; so that they were always within reach of the sacred work which God had appointed them.

### Verse 5

[¶23] And the rest of the children of Kohath - That is, the remaining part of that family that were not priests, for those who were priests had their lot in the preceding tribes. Those, therefore, of the family of Kohath, who were simply Levites, and not of the priests or Aaron's family, (see [Jos 21:10]), had their habitations in Ephraim, Dan, and the half tribe of Manasseh. It has been asked in what sense did the Levites possess those cities, seeing they had no inheritance? To which it may be answered that it is not likely the Levites had the exclusive property of the cities in which they dwelt, for it is evident that the other Israelites dwelt among them. We know, says Calmet, by history, that the cities of the Levites were almost entirely filled with Israelites of other tribes. For instance, Gibeah of Benjamin, which is here given to the Levites, [Jos 21:17], was always peopled by the Benjamites, as appears from the history of the Levite, whose wife was so horribly abused by them; [Jdg 19:22-27]. Saul and all his family dwelt in the same city; and David and his court spent the first years of his reign at Hebron, which was also a city of the Levites, [Jos 21:10]. It appears, therefore, that they had no other property in those cities than merely the right to certain houses, which they might sell, but always with the right of perpetual redemption, for they could finally alienate nothing; and if the possessor of such a house, having sold it, did not redeem it at the year of jubilee, it reverted to the Levites. And as to their lands for their cattle, which extended two thousand cubits without the city, these they were not permitted to sell: they were considered as the Lord's property. See [Lev 25:32-34] (note), and the notes there. It is therefore very likely that, in the first instance, the Levites had simply the right to choose, in all the cities assigned them, the houses in which they were to dwell, and that those of the tribe to which the city belonged occupied all the other dwellings. There is also reason to believe that in process of time, when the families of the Levites increased, they had more dwellings assigned to them, which were probably built at the public expense. We may also observe that the Levites were not absolutely bound to live in these and no other cities: for when the tabernacle was at Nob, priests and Levites dwelt there, see [1Sam 21:1], etc.; and when the worship of God was established at Jerusalem, multitudes both of priests and Reviles dwelt there, though it was no Levitical city: as did the courses of priests afterwards at Jericho. This was a circumstance which Moses had foreseen, and for which he had provided. See [Deu 18:6], etc.

### Verse 11

[¶25] The city of Arba - See the note on [Jos 14:15].

### Verse 12

[¶27] The fields of the city - gave they to Caleb - This was an exclusive privilege to him and his family, with which the grant to the Levites did not interfere. See the notes on [Jos 14:14].

### Verse 18

[¶29] Anathoth - Celebrated as the birthplace of Jeremiah, about three miles northward of Jerusalem, according to St. Jerome.

### Verse 19

[¶31] Thirteen cities with their suburbs - At the time mentioned here certainly thirteen cities were too large a proportion for the priests, as they and their families amounted to a very small number: but this ample provision was made in reference to their great increase in after times, when they formed twenty-four courses, as in the days of David.

### Verse 22

[¶33] Beth-horon - There were two cities of this name, the upper and the nether; but which is intended here, cannot be ascertained.

### Verse 24

[¶35] Aijalon - See on [Jos 10:12] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶37] Golan in Bashan - On this and the other cities of refuge mentioned here, see the note on [Jos 20:7].

### Verse 35

[¶39] Dimnah with her suburbs, etc. - It is well known to every Hebrew scholar that the two following verses are wholly omitted by the Masora; and are left out in some of the most correct and authentic Hebrew Bibles. Between critics there is no small controversy relative to the authenticity of these verses; and those who wish to see the arguments at large on both sides, must consult the Variae Lectiones of De Rossi on this place. Dr. Kennicott, who is a strenuous advocate for their authenticity argues thus in their behalf: "[Jos 21:41] and [Jos 21:42] of this chapter tell us that the Levitical cities were forty-eight, and that they had been all as such described; so that they must have been all specified in this chapter: whereas now in all the Hebrew copies printed in full obedience to the Masora, which excludes two verses containing four of these cities, the number amounts only to forty-four. "The cities are first mentioned, in the general, as being thirteen and ten, with thirteen and twelve, which are certainly forty-eight. And yet when they are particularly named, [Jos 21:13-19] gives thirteen cities; [Jos 21:20-26] gives ten cities; [Jos 21:27-33] gives thirteen; [Jos 21:34-36] gives four cities; and [Jos 21:35-36] gives four more, all which can make but forty-four. And what still increases the wonder is, that [Jos 21:40] infers from the verses immediately preceding, that the cities allowed to the Merarites were twelve, though they here make eight only, unless we admit the four other cities expressed in those two verses, which have been rejected by that blind guide the Masora. In defiance of this authority these two verses, thus absolutely necessary, were inserted in the most early editions of the Hebrew text, and are found in Walton's Polyglot, as well as in our English Bible. But they have scarce ever been as yet printed completely, thus, And out of the tribe or Reuben, A City of Refuge for the Slayer, Bezer, in the Wilderness, with her suburbs, and Jahazah with her suburbs, Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs; four cities. See on this place my edition of the Hebrew Bible, where no less than one hundred and forty-nine copies are described, which happily preserve these verses, most clearly essential to the truth and consistency of this chapter. See also General Discourse, pp. 19, 26, 54."

[¶40] Though this reasoning of Dr. Kennicott appears very conclusive, yet there are so many and important variations among the MSS. that retain, and those that reject these verses, as to render the question of their authenticity very difficult to be determined. To Dr. Kennicott's one hundred and forty-nine MSS. which have these two verses, may be added upwards of forty collated by De Rossi. Those who deny their authenticity say they have been inserted here from [1Chr 6:78], [1Chr 6:79], where they are found it is true, in general, but not exactly as they stand here, and in Dr. Kennicott's Hebrew Bible.

### Verse 36

[¶42] Jahazah - See on [Jos 13:18] (note).

### Verse 41

[¶44] Forty and eight cities - At the last census of the Hebrew people, related Numbers 26, we find from [Num 26:62] that the tribe of Levi amounted only to 23,000; and it is supposed that forty-eight cities were too great a proportion for this tribe, the other tribes having so very few. But,

## 240. Joshua · 26 of 30

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[¶0] 1. All the cities of the other tribes are not enumerated.

[¶1] 2. They had the circumjacent country as well as the cities.

[¶2] 3. The Levites had no other cities than those enumerated.

[¶3] 4. They had no country annexed to their cities, the 2,000 cubits for their cattle, etc., excepted.

[¶4] 5. Cities in those ancient times were very small, as most villages went under this appellation.

[¶5] 6. The Levites had now the appointment that was suited to their consequent increase. The other tribes might enlarge their borders and make conquests, but this was not suitable to the mere servants of God; besides, had they made conquests, they would have become proprietors of the conquered land; and God determined that they should have no inheritance in Israel, He himself being their portion.

### Verse 43

[¶7] And the Lord gave - all the land which he sware - All was now divided by lot unto them, and their enemies were so completely discomfited that there was not a single army of the Canaanites remaining to make head against them; and those which were left in the land served under tribute, and the tribute that they paid was the amplest proof of their complete subjugation. Add to this, they had as much of the land in actual possession as they could occupy; and, as they increased, God enabled them to drive out the rest of the ancient inhabitants; but in consequence of the infidelity of the Israelites, God permitted their enemies often to straiten them, and sometimes to prevail against them. It should also be remembered, that God never promised to give them the land, or to maintain them in it, but on condition of obedience; and so punctually did he fulfill this intention, that there is not a single instance on record in which they were either straitened or subjugated, while obedient and faithful to their God.

[¶8] The cavil is as foolish as it is unprincipled which states, "The Israelites never did possess the whole of the land which was promised to them, and therefore that promise could not come by Divine revelation." With as much reason might it be urged that Great Britain has not subdued the French West India Islands and Batavia, (Feb. 1812), because the ancient inhabitants still remain in them; but is not their serving under tribute an absolute proof that they are conquered, and under the British dominion? So was the whole land of Canaan conquered, and its inhabitants subdued, though the whole of the ground was not occupied by the Israelites till the days of David and Solomon. In the most correct and literal sense it might be said, There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel: all came to pass. Nor shall one word of his ever fail to any of his followers while the sun and moon endure.

### Introduction

[¶10] Joshua assembles, commends, blesses, and then dismisses the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, [Jos 22:1-8]. They return and build an altar by the side of Jordan, [Jos 22:9], [Jos 22:10]. The rest of the Israelites hearing of this, and suspecting that they had built the altar for idolatrous purposes, or to make a schism in the national worship, prepare to go to war with them, [Jos 22:11], [Jos 22:12]; but first send a deputation to know the truth, [Jos 22:13], [Jos 22:14]. They arrive and expostulate with their brethren, [Jos 22:15-20]. The Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, make a noble defense, and show that their altar was built as a monument only to prevent idolatry, [Jos 22:21-29]. The deputation are satisfied, and return to the ten tribes and make their report, [Jos 22:30-32]. The people rejoice and praise God, [Jos 22:33]; and the Reubenites and Gadites call the altar they had raised Ed, that it might be considered a witness between them and their brethren on the other side Jordan, [Jos 22:34].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Then Joshua called the Reubenites, etc. - We have already seen that 40,000 men of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, had passed over Jordan armed, with their brethren, according to their stipulation with Moses. The war being now concluded, Joshua assembles these warriors, and with commendations for their services and fidelity, he dismisses them, having first given them the most pious and suitable advices. They had now been about seven years absent from their respective families; and though there was only the river Jordan between the camp at Gilgal and their own inheritance, yet it does not appear that they had during that time ever revisited their own home, which they might have done any time in the year, the harvest excepted, as at all other times that river was easily fordable.

### Verse 5

[¶14] But take diligent heed, etc. - Let us examine the force of this excellent advice; they must ever consider that their prosperity and continued possession of the land depended on their fidelity and obedience to God; to this they must take diligent heed.

[¶15] Do the commandment - They must pay the strictest regard to every moral precept.

[¶16] And the law - They must observe all the rites and ceremonies of their holy religion.

[¶17] Love the Lord your God - Without an affectionate filial attachment to their Maker, duty would be irksome, grievous, and impossible.

[¶18] Walk in all his ways - They must not only believe and love, but obey: walk not in your own ways, but walk in those which God has pointed out.

[¶19] Keep his commandments - They must love him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves.

[¶20] Cleave unto him - They must be cemented to him, in a union that should never be dissolved.

[¶21] Serve him - They must consider him as their Master, having an absolute right to appoint them when, where, how, and in what measure they should do his work.

[¶22] With all your heart - Having all their affections and passions sanctified and united to him.

[¶23] And with all your soul - Giving up their whole life to him, and employing their understanding, judgment, and will, in the contemplation and adoration of his perfections; that their love and obedience might increase in proportion to the cultivation and improvement of their understanding.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Then he blessed them - Spoke respectfully of their fidelity and exertions, wished them every spiritual and temporal good, prayed to God to protect and save them, and probably gave some gifts to those leaders among them that had most distinguished themselves in this seven years' war. In all the above senses the word bless is frequently taken in Scripture.

### Verse 8

[¶27] Return with much riches - It appears they had their full proportion of the spoils that were taken from the Canaanites, and that these spoils consisted in cattle, silver, gold, brass, iron, and raiment.

[¶28] Divide the spoil - with your brethren - It was right that those who stayed at home to defend the families of those who had been in the wars, and to cultivate the ground, should have a proper proportion of the spoils taken from the enemy, for had they not acted as they did the others could not have safely left their families.

### Verse 10

[¶30] The borders of Jordan, that are in - Canaan - This verse can never mean that they built the altar on the west side of Jordan, for this was not in their territories; nor could it be a place for the purpose of public worship to their own people, if built on the opposite side of Jordan; besides, the next verse says it was built over against the land of Canaan. It appears that when they came to the river they formed the purpose of building the altar; and when they had crossed it they executed their purpose.

[¶31] A great altar to see to - A vast mass of earth, stones, etc., elevated to a great height, to serve as a memorial of the transactions that had already taken place. Probably it was intended also to serve as a kind of watchtower, being of a stupendous height, altare infinitae magnitudinis, an altar of an immense size, as the Vulgate terms it.

### Verse 12

[¶33] To go up to war against them - Supposing that they had built this altar in opposition to that which Moses, by the command of God, had erected, and were consequently become rebels against God and the Israelitish constitution, and should be treated as such. Their great concern for the glory of God led them to take this step, which at first view might appear precipitate; but, that they might do nothing rashly, they first sent Phinehas and ten princes, one out of each tribe, to require an explanation of their motives in erecting this altar.

### Verse 17

[¶35] Is the iniquity of Peor too little - See this history, [Num 25:3] (note), etc., and the notes there. Phinehas takes it for granted that this altar was built in opposition to the altar of God erected by Moses, and that they intended to have a separate service, priesthood, etc., which would be rebellion against God, and bring down his curse on them and their posterity; and, in order to show that God is jealous of his glory, he refers to the business of Baal Peor, which took place in that very country they were now about to possess, the destructive consequences of which he, through his zeal for the glory of God, was the means of preventing.

### Verse 19

[¶37] If the land of your possessions be unclean - The generous mind of Phinehas led him to form this excuse for them. If ye suppose that this land is impure, as not having been originally included in the covenant, and ye think that ye cannot expect the blessing of God unless ye have an altar, sacrifices, etc., then pass ye over unto the land of the possession of the Lord, wherein the Lord's tabernacle dwelleth, the only legitimate place where sacrifices and offerings can be made. We will divide this land with you, and rather straiten ourselves than that you should conceive yourselves to be under any necessity of erecting a new altar besides the altar of the Lord our God.

### Verse 20

[¶39] Did not Achan the son of Zerah - Your sin will not be merely against yourselves; your transgressions will bring down the wrath of God upon all the people; this was the case in the transgression of Achan; he alone sinned, and yet God on that account turned his face against the whole congregation, so that they fell before their enemies. We cannot therefore be unconcerned spectators of your transgression, we may all be implicated in its criminality; let this and the dishonor which we apprehend is done to our God plead our excuse, and vindicate the necessity of the present warlike appearance which we make before you. See the history of Achan referred to here, (Joshua 7:11-26 (note)), and the notes there.

### Verse 21

[¶41] Then the children of Reuben - answered - Though conscious of their own innocency they permitted Phinehas to finish his discourse, though composed of little else than accusations; there was a decency in this, and such a full proof of good breeding, as does them the highest credit. There are many public assemblies in the present day which lay claim to the highest refinement, who might take a very useful lesson from these Reubenites and their associates.

### Verse 22

[¶43] The Lord God of gods - The original words are exceedingly emphatic, and cannot be easily translated. אל אלהים יהוה El Elohim Yehovah, are the three principal names by which the supreme God was known among the Hebrews, and may be thus translated, the strong God, Elohim, Jehovah, which is nearly the version of Luther, der starcte Gott der Herr, "The strong God the Lord." And the Reubenites, by using these in their very solemn appeal, expressed at once their strong unshaken faith in the God of Israel; and by this they fully showed the deputation from the ten tribes, that their religious creed had not been changed; and, in the succeeding part of their defense they show that their practice corresponded with their creed. The repetition of these solemn names by the Reubenites, etc., shows their deep concern for the honor of God, and their anxiety to wipe off the reproach which they consider cast on them by the supposition that they had been capable of defection from the pure worship of God, or of disaffection to their brethren.

[¶44] Save us not this day - This was putting the affair to the most solemn issue; and nothing but the utmost consciousness of their own integrity could have induced them to make such an appeal, and call for such a decision. "Let God the Judge cause us to perish this day, if in principle or practice we have knowingly departed from him."

## 241. Joshua · 27 of 30

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### Verse 24

[¶1] For fear of this thing - The motive that actuated us was directly the reverse of that of which we have been suspected.

### Verse 26

[¶3] An altar, not for burnt-offering, nor for sacrifice - Because this would have been in flat opposition to the law, [Lev 17:8], [Lev 17:9]; [Deu 12:4-6], [Deu 12:10], [Deu 12:11], [Deu 12:13], [Deu 12:14], which most positively forbade any sacrifice or offering to be made in any other place than that one which the Lord should choose. Therefore the altar built by the Reubenites, etc., was for no religious purpose, but merely to serve as a testimony that they were one people with those on the west of Jordan, having the same religious and civil constitution, and bound by the same interests to keep that constitution inviolate.

### Verse 29

[¶5] God forbid that we should rebel - These words not only express their strong abhorrence of this crime, but also show that without God they could do no good thing, and that they depended upon him for that strength by which alone they could abstain from evil.

### Verse 31

[¶7] We perceive that the Lord is among us - Or, according to the Targum of Jonathan. "This day we know that the majesty of Jehovah dwelleth among us, because ye have not committed this prevarication against the Word of the Lord, and thus ye have delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Word of the Lord." They rejoice to find them innocent, and that there is no ground of quarrel between the children of the same family. And from this they draw a very favorable conclusion, that as God was among them as the sole object of their religious worship, so he would abide with them as their protector and their portion; and as they were his friends, they take it for granted that he will deliver them from the hands of their enemies.

### Verse 33

[¶9] And did not intend to go up against them in battle - That is, they now relinquished the intention of going against them in battle, as this explanation proved there was no cause for the measure.

### Verse 34

[¶11] Called the altar Ed - The word עד Ed, which signifies witness or testimony, is not found in the common editions of the Hebrew Bible, and is supplied in Italics by our translators, at least in our modern copies; for in the first edition of this translation it stands in the text without any note of this kind; and it is found in several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and also in the Syriac and Arabic. Several also of the early printed editions of the Hebrew Bible have the word עד, either in the text or in the margin, and it must be allowed to be necessary to complete the sense. It is very probable that an inscription was put on this altar, which pointed out the purposes for which it was erected.

[¶12] From the contents of this chapter we learn that the Israelites were dreadfully alarmed at the prospect of a schism in their own body, both as it related to ecclesiastical and civil matters. A few observations on this subject may not be useless.

[¶13] Schism in religion is a dangerous thing, and should be carefully avoided by all who fear God. But this word should be well understood. Σχισμα, in theology, is generally allowed to signify a rent in, or departure from, the doctrine and practice of the apostles, especially among those who had been previously united in that doctrine and practice. A departure from human institutions in religion is no schism, for this reason that the Word of God alone is the sufficient rule of the faith and practice of Christians; and as to human institutions, forms, modes, etc., those of one party may be as good as those of another.

[¶14] When the majority of a nation agrees in some particular forms and modes in their religious service; no conscientious man will lightly depart from these; nor depart at all, unless he find that they are not only not authorized by the word of God, but repugnant to it. It is an object greatly to be desired, that a whole people, living under the same laws may, as much as possible, glorify God, not only with one heart, but also with one mouth.

[¶15] But there may be a dissent from established forms without schism; for if that dissent make no rent in the doctrines or practice of Christianity, as laid down in the New Testament, it is an abuse of terms to call it a schism; besides, there may be a dissent among religious people relative to certain points both in creed and practice, which, not affecting the essentials of Christianity, nor having any direct tendency to alienate the affections of Christians from each other, cannot be called a schism; but when professing Christians separate from each other, to set up one needless or non-essential form, etc., in the place of others which they call needless or non-essential, they are highly culpable. This not only produces no good, but tends to much evil; for both parties, in order to make the points of their difference of sufficient consequence to justify their dissension, magnify these non-essential matters beyond all reason, and sometimes beyond conscience itself: and thus mint and cummin are tithed, while the weightier matters of the law - judgment and the love of God - are utterly neglected. If Christians either cannot or will not think alike on all points, surely they can agree to disagree, and let each go to heaven his own way. "But should we take this advice, would it not lead to a total indifference about religion?" Not at all; for in the things which concern the essentials of Christianity, both in doctrine and practice, we should ever feel zealously affected, and earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.

### Introduction

[¶17] Joshua, being old, calls for the rulers and different heads of the Israelites, [Jos 23:1], [Jos 23:2], to whom he relates how God had put them in possession of the promised land, [Jos 23:3], [Jos 23:4]; from which all their remaining enemies should be expelled, [Jos 23:5]. Exhorts them to be faithful to God, and to avoid all connections with the idolatrous nations, [Jos 23:6-8]. Encourages them with the strongest promises, that no enemy should ever be able to prevail against them, if they continued to love the Lord their God, [Jos 23:9-11]. Lays also before them the consequences of disobedience, [Jos 23:12], [Jos 23:13]. Shows them that as all God's promises had been fulfilled to them while they were obedient, so his threatening should be fulfilled own them if they revolted from his service; and that if they did so, they should be utterly destroyed from off the good land, [Jos 23:14-16].

### Verse 1

[¶19] A long time after that the Lord had given rest - This is supposed to have been in the last or one hundred and tenth year of the life of Joshua, about thirteen or fourteen years after the conquest of Canaan, and seven after the division of the land among the tribes.

### Verse 2

[¶21] Joshua called for all Israel - There are four degrees of civil distinction mentioned here:

[¶22] 1. זקנים zekenim, the elders or senate, the Princes of the tribes.

[¶23] 2. ראשים rashim or rashey aboth, the Chiefs or Heads of families.

[¶24] 3. שפטים shophetim, the Judges who interpreted and decided according to the law.

[¶25] 4. שטרים shoterim, the Officers, serjeants, etc., who executed the decisions of the judges.

[¶26] Whether this assembly was held at Timnath-serah, where Joshua lived, or at Shiloh, where the ark was, or at Shechem, as in [Jos 24:1], we cannot tell. Some think that the meaning here, and that mentioned in [Jos 24:1], were the same, and if so, Shechem was the place of assembling; but it is more likely that the two chapters treat of two distinct assemblies, whether held at the same place or not.

### Verse 3

[¶28] For the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you - There is much both of piety and modesty in this address. It was natural for the Israelites to look on their veteran, worn-out general, who had led them on from conquest to conquest, with profound respect; and to be ready to say, "Had we not had such a commander, we had never got possession of this good land." Joshua corrects this opinion, and shows them that all their enemies had been defeated, because the Lord their God had fought for them. That the battle was the Lord's, and not his; and that God alone should have the glory.

### Verse 4

[¶30] I have divided - these nations that remain - The whole of the promised land had been portioned out, as well those parts which had not yet been conquered, as those from which the ancient inhabitants had been expelled. The Canaanitish armies had long ago been broken in pieces, so that they could make no head against the Israelites, but in many districts the old inhabitants remained, more through the supineness of the Israelites, than through their own bravery.

[¶31] From Jordan - unto the great sea - All the land that lay between the river Jordan, from Phiala, where it rose, to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, and to the Mediterranean Sea, through the whole extent of its coast, opposite to Jordan.

### Verse 5

[¶33] And drive them - out - and ye shall possess - The same Hebrew word ירש yarash is used here to signify to expel from an inheritance, and to succeed those thus expelled. Ye shall disinherit them from your sight, and ye shall inherit their land.

### Verse 6

[¶35] Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do, etc. - It requires no small courage to keep a sound creed in the midst of scoffers, and not less to maintain a godly practice among the profane and profligate.

[¶36] That is written in the book - By the word of God alone his followers are bound. Nothing is to be received as an article of faith which God has not spoken.

### Verse 7

[¶38] Come not among these nations - Have no civil or social contracts with them, (see [Jos 23:12]), as these will infallibly lead to spiritual affinities, in consequence of which ye will make honorable mention of the name of their gods, swear by them as the judges of your motives and actions, serve them in their abominable rites, and bow yourselves unto them as your creators and preservers; thus giving the whole worship of God to idols: and all this will follow from simply coming among them. He who walks in the counsel of the ungodly will soon stand in the way of sinners, and shortly sit in the seat of the scornful. Nemo repente fuit turpissimus. "No man rises to the highest stages of iniquity but by degrees." Nero himself, under the instructions of Seneca, was a promising youth.

### Verse 10

[¶40] One man of you shall chase a thousand - Do not remain inactive on the supposition that you must be much more numerous before you can drive out your enemies, for it is the Lord that shall drive out nations great and strong; and under his direction and influence one of you shall chase a thousand.

### Verse 11

[¶42] Take good heed - unto yourselves that ye love the Lord - לנפשתיכם lenaphshotheychem, Take heed To Your Souls, literally; but נפש nephesh and nefs, both in Hebrew and Arabic, signify the whole self, as well as soul and life; both soul and body must be joined in this work, for it is written, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.

### Verse 12

[¶44] Else if ye do - go back - The soldier who draws back when going to meet the enemy, forfeits his life. These were the Lord's soldiers, and if they drew back they drew back unto perdition, their lives being forfeited by their infidelity.

## 242. Joshua · 28 of 30

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### Verse 13

[¶1] They shall be snares - לפח lephach, a net or gin, set by the artful fowler to catch heedless birds.

[¶2] And traps - מוקש mokesh, any snare, toil, or trap, placed on the ground to catch the unwary traveler or wild beast by the foot.

[¶3] Scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes - Nothing can be conceived more vexatious and distressing than a continual goad in the side, or thorn in the eye. They will drive you into obedience to their false gods, and put out the eyes of your understandings by their idolatries. And God will preserve them merely to distress and punish you.

### Verse 14

[¶5] The way of all the earth - I am about to die; I am going into the grave.

[¶6] Not one thing hath failed, etc. - God had so remarkably and literally fulfilled his promises, that not one of his enemies could state that even the smallest of them had not had its most literal accomplishment: this all Israel could testify.

### Verse 15

[¶8] So shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things - His faithfulness in fulfilling his promises is a proof that he will as faithfully accomplish his threatenings, for the veracity of God is equally pledged for both.

### Verse 16

[¶10] Ye shall perish quickly from off the good land - The following note from Mr. John Trapp is very judicious: "This judgment Joshua inculcates [Jos 23:13], [Jos 23:15], and here, because he knew it would be a very grievous thing to them to forego so goodly a land, so lately gotten, and so short a while enjoyed. In the beginning of a speech τα ηθη, the milder affections, suit best; but towards the end τα παθη, passionate and piercing passages; according to the orator. This rule Joshua observes, being Ex utroque Caesar; no less an orator than a warrior."

[¶11] In all this exhortation we see how closely Joshua copies the example of his great master Moses. See [Lev 26:7], [Lev 26:8], [Lev 26:14], etc.; [Deu 28:7]; [Deu 32:30]. He was tenderly concerned for the welfare of the people, and with a deeply affected heart he spoke to their hearts. No people ever were more fairly and fully warned, and no people profited less by it. The threatenings pronounced here were accomplished in the Babylonish captivity, but more fully in their general dispersion since the crucifixion of our Lord. And should not every Christian fear when he reads, If God spared not the natural branches, take heed that he spare not thee? Surely a worldly, carnal, and godless Christian has no more reason to expect indulgence from the justice of God than a profligate Jew. We have a goodly land, but the justice of God can decree a captivity from it, or a state of bondage in it. The privileges that are abused are thereby forfeited. And this is as applicable to the individual as to the whole system.

### Introduction

[¶13] Joshua gathers all the tribes together at Shechem, [Jos 24:1]; and gives them a history of God's gracious dealings with Abraham, [Jos 24:2], [Jos 24:3]; Isaac, Jacob, and Esau, [Jos 24:4]; Moses and Aaron, and their fathers in Egypt, [Jos 24:5], [Jos 24:6]. His judgments on the Egyptians, [Jos 24:7]. On the Amorites, [Jos 24:8]. Their deliverance from Balak and Balaam, [Jos 24:9], [Jos 24:10]. Their conquests in the promised land, and their establishment in the possession of it, [Jos 24:11-13]. Exhorts them to abolish idolatry, and informs them of his and his family's resolution to serve Jehovah, [Jos 24:14], [Jos 24:15]. The people solemnly promise to serve the Lord alone, and mention his merciful dealings towards them, [Jos 24:16-18]. Joshua shows them the holiness of God, and the danger of apostasy, [Jos 24:19], [Jos 24:20]. The people again promise obedience, [Jos 24:21]. Joshua calls them to witness against themselves, that they had promised to worship God alone, and exhorts them to put away the strange gods, [Jos 24:22], [Jos 24:23]. They promise obedience, [Jos 24:24]. Joshua makes a covenant with the people, writes it in a book, sets up a stone as a memorial of it, and dismisses the people, [Jos 24:25-28]. Joshua's death, [Jos 24:29], and burial, [Jos 24:30]. The people continue faithful during that generation, [Jos 24:31]. They bury the bones of Joseph in Shechem, [Jos 24:32]. Eleazar the high priest dies also, [Jos 24:33].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Joshua gathered all the tribes - This must have been a different assembly from that mentioned in the preceding chapter, though probably held not long after the former.

[¶16] To Shechem - As it is immediately added that they presented themselves before God, this must mean the tabernacle; but at this time the tabernacle was not at Shechem but at Shiloh. The Septuagint appear to have been struck with this difficulty, and therefore read Σηλω. Shiloh, both here and in [Jos 24:25], though the Aldine and Complutensian editions have Συχεμ, Shechem, in both places. Many suppose that this is the original reading, and that Shechem has crept into the text instead of Shiloh. Perhaps there is more of imaginary than real difficulty in the text. As Joshua was now old and incapable of travelling, he certainly had a right to assemble the representatives of the tribes wherever he found most convenient, and to bring the ark of the covenant to the place of assembling: and this was probably done on this occasion. Shechem is a place famous in the patriarchal history. Here Abraham settled on his first coming into the land of Canaan, [Gen 12:6], [Gen 12:7]; and here the patriarchs were buried, [Act 7:16]. And as Shechem lay between Ebal and Gerizim, where Joshua had before made a covenant with the people, [Jos 8:30], etc., the very circumstance of the place would be undoubtedly friendly to the solemnity of the present occasion. Shuckford supposes that the covenant was made at Shechem, and that the people went to Shiloh to confirm it before the Lord. Mr. Mede thinks the Ephraimites had a proseucha, or temporary oratory or house of prayer, at Shechem, whither the people resorted for Divine worship when they could not get to the tabernacle; and that this is what is called before the Lord; but this conjecture seems not at all likely, God having forbidden this kind of worship.

### Verse 2

[¶18] On the other side of the flood - The river Euphrates.

[¶19] They served other gods - Probably Abraham as well as Terah his father was an idolater, till he received the call of God to leave that land. See on [Gen 11:31] (note); [Gen 12:1] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶21] Then Balak - arose and warred against Israel - This circumstance is not related in Numbers 22:1-41, nor does it appear in that history that the Moabites attacked the Israelites; and probably the warring here mentioned means no more than his attempts to destroy them by the curses of Balaam, and the wiles of the Midianitish women.

### Verse 11

[¶23] The men of Jericho fought against you - See the notes on Joshua 3:1-16 (note) and [Jos 6:1] (note), etc. The people of Jericho are said to have fought against the Israelites, because they opposed them by shutting their gates, etc., though they did not attempt to meet them in the field.

### Verse 12

[¶25] I sent the hornet before you - See the note on [Exo 23:28].

### Verse 14

[¶27] Fear the Lord - Reverence him as the sole object of your religious worship.

[¶28] Serve him - Perform his will by obeying his commands.

[¶29] In sincerity - Having your whole heart engaged in his worship.

[¶30] And in truth - According to the directions he has given you in his infallible word.

[¶31] Put away the gods, etc. - From this exhortation of Joshua we learn of what sort the gods were, to the worship of whom these Israelites were still attached.

[¶32] 1. Those which their fathers worshipped on the other side of the flood: i.e., the gods of the Chaldeans, fire, light, the sun.

[¶33] 2. Those of the Egyptians, Apis, Anubis, the ape, serpents, vegetables, etc.

[¶34] 3. Those of the Canaanites, Moabites, etc., Baal-peor or Priapus, Astarte or Venus, etc., etc.

[¶35] All these he refers to in this and the following verse. See at the conclusion of [Jos 24:33] (note). How astonishing is this, that, after all God had done for them, and all the miracles they had seen, there should still be found among them both idols and idolaters! That it was so we have the fullest evidence, both here and in [Jos 24:23]; [Amo 5:26]; and in [Act 7:41]. But what excuse can be made for such stupid, not to say brutish, blindness? Probably they thought they could the better represent the Divine nature by using symbols and images, and perhaps they professed to worship God through the medium of these. At least this is what has been alleged in behalf of a gross class of Christians who are notorious for image worship. But on such conduct God will never look with any allowance, where he has given his word and testimony.

### Verse 15

[¶37] Choose you this day whom ye will serve - Joshua well knew that all service that was not free and voluntary could be only deceit and hypocrisy, and that God loveth a cheerful giver. He therefore calls upon the people to make their choice, for God himself would not force them - they must serve him with all their heart if they served him at all. As for himself and family, he shows them that their choice was already fixed, for they had taken Jehovah for their portion.

### Verse 16

[¶39] God forbid that we should forsake the Lord - That they were now sincere cannot be reasonably doubted, for they served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and the elders that outlived him, [Jos 24:31]; but afterwards they turned aside, and did serve other gods. "It is ordinary," says Mr. Trapp, "for the many-headed multitude to turn with the stream - to be of the same religion with their superiors: thus at Rome, in Diocletian's time, they were pagans; in Constantine's Christians; in Constantius's, Arians; in Julian's apostates, and in Jovinian's, Christians again! And all this within less than the age of a man. It is, therefore, a good thing that the heart be established with grace."

### Verse 19

[¶41] Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is a holy God - If we are to take this literally, we cannot blame the Israelites for their defection from the worship of the true God; for if it was impossible for them to serve God, they could not but come short of his kingdom: but surely this was not the case. Instead of לא תוכלו lo thuchelu, ye Cannot serve, etc., some eminent critics read לא תכלו lo thechallu, ye shall not Cease to serve, etc. This is a very ingenious emendation, but there is not one MS. in all the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi to support it. However, it appears very possible that the first ו vau in תוכלו did not make a part of the word originally. If the common reading be preferred, the meaning of the place must be, "Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is holy and jealous, unless ye put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the flood. For he is a jealous God, and will not give to nor divide his glory with any other. He is a holy God, and will not have his people defiled with the impure worship of the Gentiles."

### Verse 21

[¶43] And the people said - Nay; but we will serve, etc. - So they understood the words of Joshua to imply no moral impossibility on their side: and had they earnestly sought the gracious assistance of God, they would have continued steady in his covenant.

## 243. Joshua · 29 of 30

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### Verse 22

[¶1] Ye are witnesses against yourselves - Ye have been sufficiently apprised of the difficulties in your way - of God's holiness - your own weakness and inconstancy - the need you have of Divine help, and the awful consequences of apostasy; and now ye deliberately make your choice. Remember then, that ye are witnesses against yourselves, and your own conscience will be witness, judge, and executioner; or, as one terms it, index, judex, vindex.

### Verse 23

[¶3] Now therefore put away - As you have promised to reform, begin instantly the work of reformation. A man's promise to serve God soon loses its moral hold of his conscience if he do not instantaneously begin to put it in practice. The grace that enables him to promise is that by the strength of which he is to begin the performance.

### Verse 25

[¶5] Joshua made a covenant - Literally, Joshua cut the covenant, alluding to the sacrifice offered on the occasion.

[¶6] And set then a statute and an ordinance - He made a solemn and public act of the whole, which was signed and witnessed by himself and the people, in the presence of Jehovah; and having done so, he wrote the words of the covenant in the book of the law of God, probably in some part of the skin constituting the great roll, on which the laws of God were written, and of which there were some blank columns to spare. Having done this, he took a great stone and set it up under an oak - that this might be עד ed or witness that, at such a time and place, this covenant was made, the terms of which might be found written in the book of the law, which was laid up beside the ark. See [Deu 31:26].

### Verse 27

[¶8] This stone - hath heard all the words - That is, the stone itself, from its permanency, shall be in all succeeding ages as competent and as substantial a witness as one who had been present at the transaction, and heard all the words which on both sides were spoken on the occasion.

### Verse 28

[¶10] So Joshua - After this verse the Septuagint insert [Jos 24:31].

### Verse 29

[¶12] Joshua the son of Nun - died - This event probably took place shortly after this public assembly; for he was old and stricken in years when he held the assembly mentioned [Jos 23:2]; and as his work was now all done, and his soul ripened for a state of blessedness, God took him to himself, being one hundred and ten years of age; exactly the same age as that of the patriarch Joseph. See [Gen 50:26].

### Verse 30

[¶14] And they buried him - in Timnath-serah - This was his own inheritance, as we have seen [Jos 19:50]. The Septuagint add here, "And they put with him there, in the tomb in which they buried him, the knives of stone with which he circumcised the children of Israel in Gilgal, according as the Lord commanded when he brought them out of Egypt; and there they are till this day." St. Augustine quotes the same passage in his thirtieth question on the book of Joshua, which, in all probability, he took from some copy of the Septuagint. It is very strange that there is no account of any public mourning for the death of this eminent general; probably, as he was buried in his own inheritance, he had forbidden all funeral pomp, and it is likely was privately interred.

### Verse 31

[¶16] And Israel served the Lord, etc. - Though there was private idolatry among them, for they had strange gods, yet there was no public idolatry all the days of Joshua and of the elders that overlived Joshua; most of whom must have been advanced in years at the death of this great man. Hence Calmet supposes that the whole of this time might amount to about fifteen years. It has already been noted that this verse is placed by the Septuagint after [Jos 24:28].

### Verse 32

[¶18] And the bones of Joseph - See the note on [Gen 50:25], and on [Exo 13:19]. This burying of the bones of Joseph probably took place when the conquest of the land was completed, and each tribe had received its inheritance; for it is not likely that this was deferred till after the death of Joshua.

### Verse 33

[¶20] And Eleazar - died - Probably about the same time as Joshua, or soon after; though some think he outlived him six years. Thus, nearly all the persons who had witnessed the miracles of God in the wilderness were gathered to their fathers; and their descendants left in possession of the great inheritance, with the Law of God in their hands, and the bright example of their illustrious ancestors before their eyes. It must be added that they possessed every advantage necessary to make them a great, a wise, and a holy people. How they used, or rather how they abused, these advantages, their subsequent history, given in the sacred books, amply testifies.

[¶21] A hill that pertained to Phinehas his son - This grant was probably made to Phinehas as a token of the respect of the whole nation, for his zeal, courage, and usefulness: for the priests had properly no inheritance. At the end of this verse the Septuagint add: - "In that day the children of Israel, taking up the ark of the covenant of God, carried it about with them, and Phinehas succeeded to the high priest's office in the place of his father until his death; and he was buried in Gabaath, which belonged to himself. "Then the children of Israel went every man to his own place, and to his own city. "And the children of Israel worshipped Astarte and Ashtaroth, and the gods of the surrounding nations, and the Lord delivered them into the hands of Eglon king of Moab, and he tyrannized over them for eighteen years."

[¶22] The last six verses in this chapter were, doubtless, not written by Joshua; for no man can give an account of his own death and burial. Eleazar, Phinehas, or Samuel, might have added them, to bring down the narration so as to connect it with their own times; and thus preserve the thread of the history unbroken. This is a common case; many men write histories of their own lives, which, in the last circumstances, are finished by others, and who has ever thought of impeaching the authenticity of the preceding part, because the subsequent was the work of a different hand? Hirtius's supplement has never invalidated the authenticity of the Commentaries of Caesar, nor the work of Quintus Smyrnaeus, that of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer; nor the 13th book of Aeneid, by Mapheus Viggius, the authenticity of the preceding twelve, as the genuine work of Virgil. We should be thankful that an adequate and faithful hand has supplied those circumstances which the original author could not write, and without which the work would have been incomplete. Mr. Saurin has an excellent dissertation on this grand federal act formed by Joshua and the people of Israel on this very solemn occasion, of the substance of which the reader will not be displeased to find the following very short outline, which may be easily filled up by any whose business it is to instruct the public; for such a circumstance may with great propriety be brought before a Christian congregation at any time: - "Seven things are to be considered in this renewal of the covenant.

[¶23] I. The dignity of the mediator.

[¶24] II. The freedom of those who contracted.

[¶25] III. The necessity of the choice.

[¶26] IV. The extent of the conditions.

[¶27] V. The peril of the engagement.

[¶28] VI. The solemnity of the acceptance.

[¶29] VII. The nearness of the consequence. "I. The dignity of the mediator. - Take a view of his names, Hosea and Jehoshua. God will save: he will save. The first is like a promise; the second, the fulfillment of that promise. God will save some time or other: - this is the very person by whom he will accomplish his promise. Take a view of Joshua's life: his faith, courage, constancy, heroism, and success. A remarkable type of Christ. See [Heb 4:8]. "II. The freedom of those who contracted. - Take away the gods which your fathers served beyond the flood; and in Egypt, etc., [Jos 24:14], etc. Joshua exhibits to the Israelites all the religions which were then known:

[¶30] 1. That of the Chaldeans, which consisted in the adoration of fire.

[¶31] 2. That of the Egyptians, which consisted in the worship of the ox Apis, cats, dogs, and serpents; which had been preceded by the worship even of vegetables, such as the onion, etc.

[¶32] 3. That of the people of Canaan, the principal objects of which were Astarte, (Venus), and Baal Peor, (Priapus). Make remarks on the liberty of choice which every man has, and which God, in matters of religion, applies to, and calls into action. "III. The necessity of the choice. - To be without religion, is to be without happiness here, and without any title to the kingdom of God. To have a false religion, is the broad road to perdition; and to have the true religion, and live agreeably to it, is the high road to heaven. Life is precarious - death is at the door - the Judge calls - much is to be done, and perhaps little time to do it in! Eternity depends on the present moment. Choose - choose speedily - determinately, etc. "IV. The extent of the conditions. - Fear the Lord, and serve him in truth and righteousness. Fear the Lord. Consider his being, his power, holiness, justice, etc. This is the gate to religion. Religion itself consists of two parts.

[¶33] I. Truth.

[¶34] 1. In opposition to the detestable idolatry of the forementioned nations.

[¶35] 2. In reference to that revelation which God gave of himself.

[¶36] 3. In reference to that solid peace and comfort which false religions may promise, but cannot give; and which the true religion communicates to all who properly embrace it.

[¶37] II. Uprightness or integrity, in opposition to those abominable vices by which themselves and the neighboring nations had been defiled.

[¶38] 1. The major part of men have one religion for youth, another for old age. But he who serves God in integrity, serves him with all his heart in every part of life.

[¶39] 2. Most men have a religion of times, places, and circumstances. This is a defective religion. Integrity takes in every time, every place, and every circumstance; God's law being ever kept before the eyes, and his love in the heart, dictating purity and perfection to every thought, word, and work.

[¶40] 3. Many content themselves with abstaining from vice, and think themselves sure of the kingdom of God because they do not sin as others. But he who serves God in integrity, not only abstains from the act and the appearance of evil, but steadily performs every moral good.

[¶41] 4. Many think that if they practice some kind of virtues, to which they feel less of a natural repugnance, they bid fair for the kingdom; but this is opposite to uprightness. The religion of God equally forbids every species of vice, and recommends every kind of virtue. "V. The peril of the engagement. - This covenant had in it the nature of an oath; for so much the phrase before the Lord implies: therefore those who entered into this covenant bound themselves by oath unto the Lord, to be steady and faithful in it. But it may be asked, 'As human nature is very corrupt, and exceedingly fickle, is there not the greatest danger of breaking such a covenant; and is it not better not to make it, than to run the risk of breaking it, and exposing one's self to superadded punishment on that account?' Answer: He who makes such a covenant in God's strength, will have that strength to enable him to prove faithful to it. Besides, if the soul do not feel itself under the most solemn obligation to live to God, it will live to the world and the flesh. Nor is such a covenant as this more solemn and strict than that which we have often made; first in our baptism, and often afterwards in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, etc. Joshua allows there is a great danger in making this covenant. Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy, strong, and jealous God, etc. But this only supposes that nothing could be done right but by his Spirit, and in his strength. The energy of the Holy Spirit is equal to every requisition of God's holy law, as far as it regards the moral conduct of a believer in Christ. "VI. The solemnity of the acceptance. - Notwithstanding Joshua faithfully laid down the dreadful evils which those might expect who should abandon the Lord; yet they entered solemnly into the covenant. God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, but we will serve the Lord. They seemed to think that not to covenant in this case was to reject. "VII. The nearness of the consequence. - There were false gods among them, and these must be immediately put away. As ye have taken the Lord for your God, then put away the strange gods which are among you, [Jos 24:23]. The moment the covenant is made, that same moment the conditions of it come into force. He who makes this covenant with God should immediately break off from every evil design, companion, word, and work. Finally, Joshua erected two monuments of this solemn transaction:

[¶42] 1. He caused the word to be written in the book of the law, [Jos 24:26].

[¶43] 2. He erected a stone under an oak, [Jos 24:27]; that these two things might be witnesses against them if they broke the covenant which they then made, etc."

[¶44] There is the same indispensable necessity for every one who professes Christianity, to enter into a covenant with God through Christ. He who is not determined to be on God's side, will be found on the side of the world, the devil, and the flesh. And he who does not turn from all his iniquities, cannot make such a covenant. And he who does not make it now, may probably never have another opportunity. Reader, death is at the door, and eternity is at hand. These are truths which are everywhere proclaimed - everywhere professedly believed - everywhere acknowledged to be important and perhaps nowhere laid to heart as they should be. And yet all grant that they are born to die!

[¶45] On the character and conduct of Joshua, much has already been said in the notes; and particularly in the preface to this book. A few particulars may be added.

## 244. Joshua · 30 of 30

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[¶0] It does not appear that Joshua was ever married, or that he had any children. That he was high in the estimation of God, we learn from his being chosen to succeed Moses in the government of the people. He was the person alone, of all the host of Israel, who was deemed every way qualified to go out before the congregation, and go in: to lead them out, and bring them in; and be the shepherd of the people, because the Spirit of God was in him. See [Num 27:17], etc. He is called the servant of God, as was Moses; and was, of all men of that generation, next in eminence to that great legislator.

[¶1] Like his great master, he neither provided for himself nor his relatives; though he had it constantly in his power so to do. He was the head and leader of the people; the chief and foremost in all fatigues and dangers; without whose piety, prudence, wisdom, and military skill, the whole tribes of Israel, humanly speaking, must have been ruined. And yet this conqueror of the nations did not reserve to him self a goodly inheritance, a noble city, nor any part of the spoils of those he had vanquished. His countrymen, it is true, gave him an inheritance among them, [Jos 19:50]. This, we might suppose, was in consideration of his eminent services, and this, we might naturally expect, was the best inheritance in the land! No! they gave him Timnath-serah, in the barren mountains of Ephraim, and even this he asked [Jos 19:50]. But was not this the best city in the land? No - it was even No city; evidently no more than the ruins of one that had stood in that place; and hence it is said, he builded the city and dwelt therein - he, with some persons of his own tribe, revived the stones out of the rubbish, and made it habitable.

[¶2] Joshua believed there was a God; he loved him, acted under his influence, and endeavored to the utmost of his power to promote the glory of his Maker, and the welfare of man: and he expected his recompense in another world.

[¶3] Like Him of whom he was an illustrious type, he led a painful and laborious life, devoting himself entirely to the service of God and the public good. How unlike was Joshua to those men who, for certain services, get elevated to the highest honors: but, not content with the recompense thus awarded them by their country, use their new influence for the farther aggrandizement of themselves and dependents, at the expense, and often to the ruin of their country!

[¶4] Joshua retires only from labor when there is no more work to be done, and no more dangers to be encountered. He was the first in the field, and the last out of it; and never attempted to take rest till all the tribes of Israel had got their possessions, and were settled in their inheritances! Of him it might be truly said as of Caesar, he continued to work, nil actum reputans, si quid superesset agendum: for "he considered nothing done, while any thing remained undone."

[¶5] Behold this man retiring from office and from life without any kind of emolument! the greatest man of all the tribes of Israel; the most patriotic, and the most serviceable; and yet the worst provided for! Statesmen! naval and military commanders! look Joshua in the face; read his history; and learn from It what true Patriotism means. That man alone who truly fears and loves God, credits his revelation, and is made a partaker of his Spirit, is capable of performing disinterested services to his country and to mankind!

[¶6] Masoretic Notes on Joshua

[¶7] The number of verses in the Book of Joshua is 656, (should be 658, see on [Jos 21:36] (note), etc.), of which the symbol is found in the word ותרן vetharon, (and shall sing), [Isa 35:6].

[¶8] Its middle verse is [Jos 13:26].

[¶9] Its Masoretic sections are 14; the symbol of which is found in the word יד yad, (the hand), [Eze 37:1]. See the note at the end of Genesis.

## 245. Judges · 1 of 29

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### Preface to the Book of Judges

[¶1] The persons called Judges, שופטים Shophetim, from שפט, shaphat, to judge, discern regulate, and direct, were the heads or chiefs of the Israelites who governed the Hebrew republic from the days of Moses and Joshua till the time of Saul. The word judge is not to be taken here in its usual signification, i.e., one who determines controversies, and denounces the judgment of the law in criminal cases, but one who directs and rules a state or nation with sovereign power, administers justice, makes peace or war, and leads the armies of the people over whom he presides. Officers, with the same power, and nearly with the same name, were established by the Tyrians in new Tyre, after the destruction of old Tyre, and the termination of its regal state. The Carthaginian Suffetes appear to have been the same as the Hebrew Shophetim; as were also the Archons among the Athenians, and the Dictators among the ancient Romans. But they were neither hereditary governors, nor were they chosen by the people: they were properly vicegerents or lieutenants of the Supreme God; and were always, among the Israelites, chosen by Him in a supernatural way. They had no power to make or change the laws; they were only to execute them under the direction of the Most High. God, therefore, was king in Israel: the government was a theocracy; and the judges were His deputies. The office, however, was not continual, as there appear intervals in which there was no judge in Israel. And, as they were extraordinary persons, they were only raised up on extraordinary occasions to be instruments in the hands of God of delivering their nation from the oppression and tyranny of the neighboring powers. They had neither pomp nor state; nor, probably, any kind of emoluments.

[¶2] The chronology of the Book of Judges is extremely embarrassed and difficult; and there is no agreement among learned men concerning it. When the deliverances, and consequent periods of rest, so frequently mentioned in this book, took place, cannot be satisfactorily ascertained. Archbishop Usher, and those who follow him, suppose that the rests, or times of peace, should be reckoned, not from the time in which a particular judge gave them deliverance; but from the period of the preceding deliverance, e.g.: It is said that Othniel, son of Kenaz, defeated Cushan-rishathaim, [Jdg 3:9], and the land had rest forty years. After the death of Othniel the Israelites again did wickedly, and God delivered them into the hands of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Amalekites; and this oppression continued eighteen years; [Jdg 3:14]. Then God raised up Ehud, who, by killing Eglon, king of Moab, and gaining a great victory over the Moabites, in which he slew ten thousand of their best soldiers, obtained a rest for the land which lasted forty years: [Jdg 3:15], [Jdg 3:30]; which rest is not counted from this deliverance wrought by Ehud, but from that wrought by Othniel, mentioned above; leaving out the eighteen years of oppression under Eglon king of Moab: and so of the rest. This is a most violent manner of settling chronological difficulties, a total perversion of the ordinary meaning of terms, and not likely to be intended by the writer of this book.

[¶3] Sir John Marsham, aware of this difficulty, has struck out a new hypothesis: he supposes that there were judges on each side Jordan; and that there were particular wars in which those beyond Jordan had no part. He observes, that from the exodus to the building of Solomon's temple was four hundred and eighty years, which is precisely the time mentioned in the sacred writings; ([1Kgs 6:1]); and that from the time in which the Israelites occupied the land beyond Jordan, to the days of Jephthah, was three hundred years. But in reckoning up the years of the judges, from the death of Moses to the time of Ibzan, who succeeded Jephthah, there appears to be more than three hundred years; and from Jephthah to the fourth year of Solomon, in which the foundation of the temple was laid, there are again more than one hundred and fifty years; we must, therefore, either find out some method of reconciling these differences, or else abandon these epochs; but as the latter cannot be done, we must have recourse to some plan of modification. Sir John Marsham's plan is of this kind; the common plan is that of Archbishop Usher. I shall produce them both, and let the reader choose for himself.

[¶4] Who the author of the Book of Judges was, is not known; some suppose that each judge wrote his own history, and that the book has been compiled from those separate accounts; which is very unlikely. Others ascribe it to Phinehas, to Samuel, to Hezekiah, and some to Ezra. But it is evident that it was the work of an individual, and of a person who lived posterior to the time of the judges, (see [Jdg 2:10], etc.), and most probably of Samuel.

[¶5] The duration of the government of the Israelites by judges, from the death of Joshua to the commencement of the reign of Saul, was about three hundred and thirty-nine years. But as this book does not include the government of Eli, nor that of Samuel, but ends with the death of Samson, which occurred in A.M. 2887; consequently, it includes only three hundred and seventeen years; but the manner in which these are reckoned is very different, as we have seen above; and as will be more particularly evident in the following tables by Archbishop Usher and Sir John Marsham.

[¶6] After the death of Joshua the Israelites purpose to attack the remaining Canaanites; and the tribe of Judah is directed to go up first, [Jdg 1:1], [Jdg 1:2]. Judah and Simeon unite, attack the Canaanites and Perrizites, kill ten thousand of them, take Adoni-bezek prisoner, cut off his thumbs and great toes, and bring him to Jerusalem, where he dies, [Jdg 1:3-7]. Jerusalem conquered, [Jdg 1:8]. A new war with the Canaanites under the direction of Caleb, [Jdg 1:9-11]. Kirjath-sepher taken by Othniel, on which he receives, as a reward, Achsah, the daughter of Caleb and with her a south land with springs of water, [Jdg 1:12-15]. The Kenites dwell among the people, [Jdg 1:16]. Judah and Simeon destroy the Canaanites in Zephath, Gaza, etc., [Jdg 1:17-19]. Hebron is given to Caleb, [Jdg 1:20]. Of the Benjamites, house of Joseph, tribe of Manasseh, etc., [Jdg 1:21-27]. The Israelites put the Canaanites to tribute, [Jdg 1:28]. Of the tribes of Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali, [Jdg 1:29-33]. The Amorites force the children of Dan into the mountains, [Jdg 1:34-36].

### Verse 1

[¶8] Now after the death of Joshua - How long after the death of Joshua this happened we cannot tell; it is probable that it was not long. The enemies of the Israelites, finding their champion dead, would naturally avail themselves of their unsettled state, and make incursions on the country.

[¶9] Who shall go up - Joshua had left no successor, and every thing relative to the movements of this people must be determined either by caprice, or an especial direction of the Lord.

### Verse 2

[¶11] The Lord said, Judah shall go up - They had inquired of the Lord by Phinehas the high priest; and he had communicated to them the Divine counsel.

### Verse 3

[¶13] Come up with me into my lot - It appears that the portions of Judah and Simeon had not been cleared of the Canaanites, or that these were the parts which were now particularly invaded.

### Verse 5

[¶15] And they found Adoni-bezek - The word מצא matsa, "he found," is used to express a hostile encounter between two parties; to attack, surprise, etc. This is probably its meaning here. Adoni-bezek is literally the lord of Bezek. It is very probable that the different Canaanitish tribes were governed by a sort of chieftains, similar to those among the clans of the ancient Scottish Highlanders. Bezek is said by some to have been in the tribe of Judah. Eusebius and St. Jerome mention two villages of this name, not in the tribe of Judah, but about seventeen miles from Shechem.

### Verse 6

[¶17] Cut off his thumbs - That he might never be able to draw his bow or handle his sword, and great toes, that he might never be able to pursue or escape from an adversary.

### Verse 7

[¶19] Threescore and ten kinds - Chieftains, heads of tribes, or military officers. For the word king cannot be taken here in its proper and usual sense.

[¶20] Having their thumbs and their great toes cut off - That this was an ancient mode of treating enemies we learn from Aelian, who tells us, Var. Hist. l. ii., c. 9, that "the Athenians, at the instigation of Cleon, son of Cleaenetus, made a decree that all the inhabitants of the island of Aegina should have the thumb cut off from the right hand, so that they might ever after be disabled from holding a spear, yet might handle an oar." This is considered by Aelian an act of great cruelty; and he wishes to Minerva, the guardian of the city, to Jupiter Eleutherius, and all the gods of Greece, that the Athenians had never done such things. It was a custom among those Romans who did not like a military life, to cut off their own thumbs, that they might not be capable of serving in the army. Sometimes the parents cut off the thumbs of their children, that they might not be called into the army. According to Suetonius, in Vit. August., c. 24, a Roman knight, who had cut off the thumbs of his two sons to prevent them from being called to a military life was, by the order of Augustus, publicly sold, both he and his property. These are the words of Suetonius: Equitem Romanum, quod duobus filis adolescentibus, causa detractandi sacramenti, pollices amputasset, ipsum bonaque subjecit hastae. Calmet remarks that the Italian language has preserved a term, poltrone, which signifies one whose thumb is cut off, to designate a soldier destitute of courage and valor. We use poltroon to signify a dastardly fellow, without considering the import of the original. There have been found frequent instances of persons maiming themselves, that they might be incapacitated for military duty. I have heard an instance in which a knavish soldier discharged his gun through his hand, that he might be discharged from his regiment. The cutting off of the thumbs was probably designed for a double purpose:

[¶21] 1. To incapacitate them for war; and,

[¶22] 2. To brand them as cowards.

[¶23] Gathered their meat under my table - I think this was a proverbial mode of expression, to signify reduction to the meanest servitude; for it is not at all likely that seventy kings, many of whom must have been contemporaries, were placed under the table of the king of Bezek, and there fed; as in the houses of poor persons the dogs are fed with crumbs and offal, under the table of their owners.

[¶24] So God hath requited me - The king of Bezek seems to have had the knowledge of the true God, and a proper notion of a Divine providence. He now feels himself reduced to that state to which he had cruelly reduced others. Those acts in him were acts of tyrannous cruelty; the act towards him was an act of retributive justice.

[¶25] And there he died - He continued at Jerusalem in a servile and degraded condition till the day of his death. How long he lived after his disgrace we know not.

### Verse 8

[¶27] Had fought against Jerusalem - We read this verse in a parenthesis, because we suppose that it refers to the taking of this city by Joshua; for as he had conquered its armies and slew its king, [Jos 10:26], it is probable that he took the city: yet we find that the Jebusites still dwelt in it, [Jos 15:63]; and that the men of Judah could not drive them out, which probably refers to the strong hold or fortress on Mount Zion, which the Jebusites held till the days of David, who took it, and totally destroyed the Jebusites. See [2Sam 5:6-9], and [1Chr 11:4-8]. It is possible that the Jebusites who had been discomfited by Joshua, had again become sufficiently strong to possess themselves of Jerusalem; and that they were now defeated, and the city itself set on fire: but that they still were able to keep possession of their strong fort on Mount Zion, which appears to have been the citadel of Jerusalem.

### Verse 9

[¶29] The Canaanites, that dwelt to the mountain - The territories of the tribe of Judah lay in the most southern part of the promised land, which was very mountainous, though towards the west it had many fine plains. In some of these the Canaanites had dwelt; and the expedition marked here was for the purpose of finally expelling them. But probably this is a recapitulation of what is related [Jos 10:36]; [Jos 11:21]; [Jos 15:13].

### Verse 12

[¶31] And Caleb, etc. - See this whole account, which is placed here by way of recapitulation, in [Jos 15:13-19] (note), and the explanatory notes there.

### Verse 16

[¶33] The children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law - For an account of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, see Exodus 18:1-27 (note); [Num 10:29] (note), etc.

[¶34] The city of palm trees - This seems to have been some place near Jericho, which city is expressly called the city of palm trees, [Deu 34:3]; and though destroyed by Joshua, it might have some suburbs remaining where these harmless people had taken up their residence. The Kenites, the descendants of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, were always attached to the Israelites: they remained with them, says Calmet, during their wanderings in the wilderness, and accompanied them to the promised land. They received there a lot with the tribe of Judah, and remained in the city of palm trees during the life of Joshua; but after his death, not contented with their portion, or molested by the original inhabitants, they united with the tribe of Judah, and went with them to attack Arad. After the conquest of that country, the Kenites established themselves there, and remained in it till the days of Saul, mingled with the Amalekites. When this king received a commandment from God to destroy the Amalekites, he sent a message to the Kenites to depart from among them, as God would not destroy them with the Amalekites. From them came Hemath, who was the father of the house of Rechab, [1Chr 2:55], and the Rechabites, of whom we have a remarkable account [Jer 35:1], etc.

### Verse 17

[¶36] The city was called Hormah - This appears to be the same transaction mentioned [Num 21:1] (note), etc., where see the notes.

### Verse 18

[¶38] Judah took Gaza - and Askelon - and Ekron - There is a most remarkable variation here in the Septuagint; I shall set down the verse: Και ουκ εκληρονομησεν Ιουδας την Γαζαν, ουδε τα ὁρια αυτης· ουδε την Ασκαλωνα, ουδε τα ὁρια αυτης· και την Ακκαρων, ουδε τα ὁρια αυτης· την Αζωτον, ουδε τα περισπορια αυτης· και ην Κυριος μετα Ιουδα. "But Judah Did Not possess Gaza, Nor the coast thereof; neither Askelon, nor the coasts thereof, neither Ekron, nor the coasts thereof; neither Azotus, nor its adjacent places: and the Lord was with Judah." This is the reading of the Vatican and other copies of the Septuagint: but the Alexandrian MS., and the text of the Complutensian and Antwerp Polyglots, agree more nearly with the Hebrew text. St. Augustine and Procopius read the same as, the Vatican MS.; and Josephus expressly says that the Israelites took only Askelon and Azotus, but did not take Gaza nor Ekron; and the whole history shows that these cities were not in the possession of the Israelites, but of the Philistines; and if the Israelites did take them at this time, as the Hebrew text states, they certainly lost them in a very short time after.

### Verse 19

[¶40] And the Lord was with Judah, and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron - Strange! were the iron chariots too strong for Omnipotence? The whole of this verse is improperly rendered. The first clause, The Lord was with Judah should terminate the 18th verse, and this gives the reason for the success of this tribe: The Lord was with Judah, and therefore he slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, etc., etc. Here then is a complete period: the remaining part of the verse either refers to a different time, or to the rebellion of Judah against the Lord, which caused him to withdraw his support. Therefore the Lord was with Judah, and these were the effects of his protection; but afterwards, when the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim, etc., God was no longer with them, and their enemies were left to be pricks in their eyes, and thorns in their side, as God himself had said. This is the turn given to the verse by Jonathan ben Uzziel, the Chaldee paraphrast: "And the Word of Jehovah was in the support of the house of Judah, and they extirpated the inhabitants of the mountains; but afterwards, When They Sinned, they were not able to extirpate the inhabitants of the plain country, because they had chariots of iron." They were now left to their own strength, and their adversaries prevailed against them. From a work called the Dhunoor Veda, it appears that the ancient Hindoos had war chariots similar to those of the Canaanites. They are described as having many wheels, and to have contained a number of rooms. - Ward's Customs.

### Verse 20

[¶42] They gave Hebron unto Caleb - See this whole transaction explained [Jos 14:12] (note), etc.

### Verse 21

[¶44] The Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin - Jerusalem was situated partly in the tribe of Judah, and partly in the tribe of Benjamin, the northern part belonging to the latter tribe, the southern to the former. The Jebusites had their strongest position in the part that belonged to Benjamin, and from this place they were not wholly expelled till the days of David. See the notes on [Jdg 1:8]. What is said here of Benjamin is said of Judah, [Jos 15:63]. There must be an interchange of the names in one or other of these places.

## 246. Judges · 2 of 29

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[¶0] Unto this day - As the Jebusites dwelt in Jerusalem till the days of David, by whom they were driven out, and the author of the book of Judges states them to have been in possession of Jerusalem when he wrote; therefore this book was written before the reign of David.

### Verse 22

[¶2] The house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel - That is, the tribe of Ephraim and the half tribe of Manasseh, who dwelt beyond Jordan. Beth-el was not taken by Joshua, though he took Ai, which was nigh to it. Instead of בית יוסף beith Yoseph, "the house of Joseph," ten of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. and six of De Rossi's have בני יוסף beney Yoseph, "the children of Joseph;" and this is the reading of both the Septuagint and Arabic, as well as of two copies in the Hexapla of Origen.

### Verse 23

[¶4] Beth-el - the name of the city before was Luz - Concerning this city and its names, see the notes on [Gen 28:19].

### Verse 24

[¶6] Show us - the entrance into the city - Taken in whatever light we choose, the conduct of this man was execrable. He was a traitor to his country, and he was accessary to the destruction of the lives and property of his fellow citizens, which he most sinfully betrayed, in order to save his own. According to the rules and laws of war, the children of Judah might avail themselves of such men and their information; but this does not lessen, on the side of this traitor, the turpitude of the action.

### Verse 26

[¶8] The land of the Hittites - Probably some place beyond the land of Canaan, in Arabia, whither this people emigrated when expelled by Joshua. The man himself appears to have been a Hittite, and to perpetuate the name of his city he called the new one which he now founded Luz, this being the ancient name of Beth-el.

### Verse 27

[¶10] Beth-shean - Called by the Septuagint Σκυθωνπολις, Scythopolis, or the city of the Scythians. On these towns see the notes, [Jos 17:12-13] (note).

### Verse 29

[¶12] Neither did Ephraim - See the notes on the parallel passages, [Jos 16:5-10] (note).

### Verse 30

[¶14] Neither did Zebulun drive out - See on [Jos 19:10-15] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶16] Neither did Asher - See on [Jos 19:24-31] (note).

[¶17] Accho - Supposed to be the city of Ptolemais, near to Mount Carmel.

### Verse 33

[¶19] Neither did Naphtali - See the notes on [Jos 19:32-39] (note).

### Verse 34

[¶21] The Amorites forced the children of Dan, etc. - Just as the ancient Britons were driven into the mountains of Wales by the Romans; and the native Indians driven back into the woods by the British settlers in America.

### Verse 35

[¶23] The Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres - They perhaps agreed to dwell in the mountainous country, being unable to maintain themselves on the plain, and yet were so powerful that the Danites could not totally expel them; they were, however, laid under tribute, and thus the house of Joseph had the sovereignty. The Septuagint have sought out a literal meaning for the names of several of these places, and they render the verse thus: "And the Amorites began to dwell in the mount of Tiles, in which there are bears, and in which there are foxes." Thus they translate Heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim.

### Verse 36

[¶25] Akrabbim - Of scorpions; probably so called from the number of those animals in that place.

[¶26] From the rock, and upward - The Vulgate understands by סלע sela, a rock, the city Petra, which was the capital of Arabia Petraea.

[¶27] The whole of this chapter appears to be designed as a sort of supplement to those places in the book of Joshua which are referred to in the notes and in the margin; nor is there any thing in it worthy of especial remark. We everywhere see the same fickle character in the Israelites, and the goodness and long-suffering of God towards them. An especial Providence guides their steps, and a fatherly hand chastises them for their transgressions. They are obliged to live in the midst of their enemies, often straitened, but never overcome so as to lose the land which God gave them as their portion. We should learn wisdom from what they have suffered, and confidence in the protection and providence of God from their support, because these things were written for our learning. Few can be persuaded that adversity is a blessing, but without it how little should we learn! He, who in the school of affliction has his mind turned towards God, "Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

[¶28] Sermons in stones, and good in every thing."

### Introduction

[¶30] An angel comes to the Israelites at Bochim, and gives them various reproofs, at which they are greatly affected, [Jdg 2:1-5]. They served the Lord during the days of Joshua, and the elders who succeeded him, [Jdg 2:6], [Jdg 2:7]. Joshua having died, and all that generation, the people revolted from the true God and served idols, [Jdg 2:8-13]. The Lord, being angry, delivered them into the hands of spoilers, and they were greatly distressed, [Jdg 2:14], [Jdg 2:15]. A general account of the method which God used to reclaim them, by sending them judges whom they frequently disobeyed, [Jdg 2:16-19]. Therefore God left the various nations of the land to plague and punish them, [Jdg 2:20-23].

### Verse 1

[¶32] An angel of the Lord - In the preceding chapter we have a summary of several things which took place shortly after the death of Joshua; especially during the time in which the elders lived (that is, the men who were contemporary with Joshua, but survived him), and while the people continued faithful to the Lord. In this chapter, and some parts of the following, we have an account of the same people abandoned by their God and reduced to the heaviest calamities, because they had broken their covenant with their Maker. This chapter, and the first eight verses of the next, may be considered as an epitome of the whole book, in which we see, on one hand, the crimes of the Israelites; and on the other, the punishments inflicted on them by the Lord; their repentance, and return to their allegiance; and the long-suffering and mercy of God, shown in pardoning their backslidings, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies. The angel of the Lord, mentioned here, is variously interpreted; some think it was Phinehas, the high priest, which is possible; others, that it was a prophet, sent to the place where they were now assembled, with an extraordinary commission from God, to reprove them for their sins, and to show them the reason why God had not rooted out their enemies from the land; this is the opinion of the Chaldee paraphrast, consequently of the ancient Jews; others think that an angel, properly such, is intended; and several are of opinion that it was the Angel of the Covenant, the Captain of the Lord's host, which had appeared unto Joshua, [Jdg 5:14], and no less than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I think it more probable that some extraordinary human messenger is meant, as such messengers, and indeed prophets, apostles, etc., are frequently termed angels, that is, messengers of the Lord. The person here mentioned appears to have been a resident at Gilgal, and to have come to Bochim on this express errand.

[¶33] I will never break my covenant - Nor did God ever break it. A covenant is never broken but by him who violates the conditions of it: when any of the contracting parties violates any of the conditions, the covenant is then broken, and by that party alone; and the conditions on the other side are null and void.

### Verse 3

[¶35] I will not drive them out from before you - Their transgressions, and breach of the covenant, were the reasons why they were not put in entire possession of the promised land. See note at the end of this chapter, [Jdg 2:23] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶37] They called the name of that place Bochim - The word בכים bochim signifies weepings or lamentations; and is translated by the Septuagint Κλαυθυων or Κλαυθυωνες, bewailings; and it is supposed that the place derived its name from these lamentations of the people. Some think the place itself, where the people were now assembled, was Shiloh, now named Bochim because of the above circumstance. It should be observed, that the angel speaks here in the person of God, by whom he was sent; as the prophets frequently do.

### Verse 6

[¶39] When Joshua had let the people go - The author of this book is giving here a history of the people, from the division of the land by Joshua to the time in which the angel speaks. Joshua divided the land to them by lot; recommended obedience to God, which they solemnly promised: and they continued faithful during his life, and during the lives of those who had been his contemporaries, but who had survived him. When all that generation who had seen the wondrous works of God in their behalf had died, then the succeeding generation, who knew not the Lord - who had not seen his wondrous works - forsook his worship, and worshipped Baalim and Ashtaroth, the gods of the nations among whom they lived, and thus the Lord was provoked to anger; and this was the reason why they were delivered into the hands of their enemies. This is the sum of their history to the time in which the angel delivers his message.

### Verse 8

[¶41] Joshua - died - See the notes on [Jos 24:29], [Jos 24:30].

### Verse 11

[¶43] Served Baalim - The word בעלים baalim signifies lords. Their false gods they considered supernatural rulers or governors, each having his peculiar district and office; but when they wished to express a particular בעל baal, they generally added some particular epithet, as Baal-zephon, Baal-peor, Baal-zehub, Baal-shamayim, etc., as Calmet has well observed. The two former were adored by the Moabites; Baal-zebub by the Ekronites. Baal-berith was honored at Shechem; and Baal-shamayim, the lord or ruler of the heavens, was adored among the Phoenicians, Syrians, Chaldeans, etc. And whenever the word baal is used without an epithet, this is the god that is intended; and probably, among all these people, it meant the sun.

## 247. Judges · 3 of 29

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Which brought them out of the land of Egypt - This was one of the highest aggravations of their offense; they forsook the God who brought them out of Egypt; a place in which they endured the most grievous oppression and were subjected to the most degrading servitude, from which they never could have rescued themselves; and they were delivered by such a signal display of the power, justice, and mercy of God, as should never have been forgotten, because the most stupendous that had ever been exhibited. They forsook Him, and served idols as destitute of real being as of influence and power.

### Verse 13

[¶3] Served Baal and Ashtaroth - In a general way, probably, Baal and Ashtaroth mean the sun and moon; but in many cases Ashtaroth seems to have been the same among the Canaanites as Venus was among the Greeks and Romans, and to have been worshipped with the same obscene rites.

### Verse 14

[¶5] The hands of spoilers - Probably marauding parties of the Canaanites, making frequent incursions in their lands, carrying away cattle, spoiling their crops, etc.

### Verse 15

[¶7] The hand of the Lord was against them - The power which before protected them when obedient, was now turned against them because of their disobedience. They not only had not God with them, but they had God against them.

### Verse 16

[¶9] The Lord raised up judges - That is, leaders, generals, and governors, raised up by an especial appointment of the Lord, to deliver them from, and avenge them on, their adversaries. See the preface.

### Verse 17

[¶11] Went a whoring after other gods - Idolatry, or the worship of strange gods, is frequently termed adultery, fornication, and whoredom, in the sacred writings. As many of their idolatrous practices were accompanied with impure rites, the term was not only metaphorically but literally proper.

### Verse 18

[¶13] The Lord was with the judge - God himself was king, and the judge was his representative.

[¶14] It repented the Lord - He changed his purpose towards them: he purposed to destroy them because of their sin; they repented and turned to him, and he changed this purpose. The purpose was to destroy them if they did not repent; when they did repent, his not destroying them was quite consistent with his purpose.

### Verse 19

[¶16] When the judge was dead - It appears that in general the office of the judge was for life.

[¶17] Their stubborn way - Their hard or difficult way. Most sinners go through great tribulation, in order to get to eternal perdition; they would have had less pain in their way to heaven.

### Verse 20

[¶19] The anger of the Lord was hot - They were as fuel by their transgressions; and the displeasure of the Lord was as a fire about to kindle and consume that fuel.

### Verse 21

[¶21] I will not henceforth drive out - As a people, they never had personal courage, discipline, or hardihood, sufficient to stand before their enemies: the advantages they gained were by the peculiar interference of God. This they had while obedient; when they ceased to obey, his strong arm was no longer stretched out in their behalf; therefore their enemies continued to possess the land which God purposed to give them as their inheritance for ever.

### Verse 22

[¶23] That through them I may prove Israel - There appeared to be no other way to induce this people to acknowledge the true God, but by permitting them to fall into straits from which they could not be delivered but by his especial providence. These words are spoken after the manner of men; and the metaphor is taken from the case of a master or father, who distrusts the fidelity or obedience of his servant or son, and places him in such circumstances that, by his good or evil conduct, he may justify his suspicions, or give him proofs of his fidelity.

### Verse 23

[¶25] Without driving them out hastily - Had God expelled all the ancient inhabitants at once, we plainly see, from the subsequent conduct of the people, that they would soon have abandoned his worship, and in their prosperity forgotten their deliverer. He drove out at first as many as were necessary in order to afford the people, as they were then, a sufficiency of room to settle in; as the tribes increased in population, they were to extend themselves to the uttermost of their assigned borders, and expel all the remaining inhabitants. On these accounts God did not expel the aboriginal inhabitants hastily or at once; and thus gave the Israelites time to increase; and by continuing the ancient inhabitants, prevented the land from running into waste, and the wild beasts from multiplying; both of which must have infallibly taken place had God driven out all the old inhabitants at once, before the Israelites were sufficiently numerous to occupy the whole of the land.

[¶26] These observations are important, as they contain the reason why God did not expel the Canaanites. God gave the Israelites a grant of the whole land, and promised to drive out their enemies from before them if they continued faithful. While they continued faithful, God did continue to fulfill his promise; their borders were enlarged, and their enemies fled before them. When they rebelled against the Lord, he abandoned them, and their enemies prevailed against them. Of this, their frequent lapses and miscarriages, with God's repeated interpositions in their behalf, are ample evidence. One or two solitary instances might not be considered as sufficient proof; but by these numerous instances the fact is established. Each rebellion against God produced a consequent disaster in their affairs; each true humiliation was invariably followed by an especial Divine interposition in their behalf. These afforded continual proof of God's being, providence, and grace. The whole economy is wondrous; and its effects, impressive and convincing. The people were not hastily put in possession of the promised land, because of their infidelity. Can the infidels controvert this statement? If not then their argument against Divine revelation, from "the failure of positive promises and oaths," falls to the ground. They have not only in this, but in all other respects, lost all their props. "Helpless and prostrate all their system lies

[¶27] Cursing its fate, and, as it curses, dies."

### Introduction

[¶29] An account of the nations that we left to prove Israel, [Jdg 3:1-4]. How the people provoked the Lord, [Jdg 3:5-7]. They are delivered into the power of the king of Mesopotamia, by whom they are enslaved eight years, [Jdg 3:8]. Othniel is raised up as their deliverer; he discomfits the king of Mesopotamia, delivers Israel, and the land enjoys peace for forty years, [Jdg 3:9-11]. They again rebel, and are delivered into the hand of the king of Moab, by whom they are enslaved eighteen years, [Jdg 3:12-14]. They are delivered by Ehud, who kills Eglon, king of Moab, and slays ten thousand Moabites, and the land rests fourscore years, vv. 15-30.

### Verse 1

[¶31] Now these are the nations - The nations left to prove the Israelites were the five lordships or satrapies of the Philistines, viz., Gath, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gaza; the Sidonians, the Hivites of Lebanon, Baal-hermon, etc.; with the remains of the Canaanites, viz., the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, and Jebusites. Those who were left to be proved were those Israelites that had not seen all the wars of Canaan.

### Verse 2

[¶33] That - Israel might know, to teach them war - This was another reason why the Canaanites were left in the land, that the Israelites might not forget military discipline, but habituate themselves to the use of arms, that they might always be able to defend themselves against their foes. Had they been faithful to God, they would have had no need of learning the art of war; but now arms became a sort of necessary substitute for that spiritual strength which had departed from them. Thus Gods in his judgments leaves one iniquitous nation to harass and torment another. Were all to turn to God, men need learn war no more.

### Verse 4

[¶35] To know whether they would hearken - This would be the consequence of the Canaanites being left among them: if they should be faithful to God, their enemies would not be able to enslave them; should they be rebellious, the Lord would abandon them to their foes.

### Verse 6

[¶37] And they took their daughters - They formed matrimonial alliances with those proscribed nations, served their idols, and thus became one with them in politics and religion.

### Verse 7

[¶39] Served Baalim and the groves - No groves were ever worshipped, but the deities who were supposed to be resident in them; and in many cases temples and altars were built in groves, and the superstition of consecrating groves and woods to the honor of the deities was a practice very usual with the ancients. Pliny assures us that trees, in old times, served for the temples of the gods. Tacitus reports this custom of the old Germans; Quintus Curtius, of the Indians; and Caesar, and our old writers, mention the same of the Druids in Britain. The Romans were admirers of this way of worship and therefore had their luci or groves in most parts of the city, dedicated to some deity. But it is very probable that the word אשרות asheroth which we translate groves, is a corruption of the word עשתרות ashtaroth, the moon or Venus, (see on [Jdg 2:13] (note)), which only differs in the letters ע ת, from the former. Ashtaroth is read in this place by the Chaldee Targum, the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Vulgate, and by one of Dr. Kennicott's MSS.

### Verse 8

[¶41] Chushan-rishathaim - Kushan, the wicked or impious; and so the word is rendered by the Chaldee Targum, the Syriac, and the Arabic, wherever it occurs in this chapter.

[¶42] King of Mesopotamia - King of ארם נהרים Aram naharayim, "Syria of the two rivers;" translated Mesopotamia by the Septuagint and Vulgate. It was the district situated between the Tigris and Euphrates, called by the Arabian geographers Maverannaher, "the country beyond the river," it is now called Diarbek. See the note on [Act 2:9].

[¶43] Served Chushan - eight years - He overran their country, and forced them to pay a very heavy tribute.

### Verse 9

[¶45] Raised up - Othniel, the son of Kenaz - This noble Hebrew was of the tribe of Judah, and nephew and son-in-law to Caleb, whose praise stands without abatement in the sacred records. Othniel had already signalized his valor in taking Kirjath-sepher, which appears to have been a very hazardous exploit. By his natural valor, experience in war, and the peculiar influence of the Divine Spirit, he was well qualified to inspire his countrymen with courage, and to lead them successfully against their oppressors.

## 248. Judges · 4 of 29

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### Verse 10

[¶1] His hand prevailed - We are not told or what nature this war was, but it was most decisive; and the consequence was an undisturbed peace of forty years, during the whole life of Othniel. By the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him, the Chaldee understands the spirit of prophecy; others understand the spirit of fortitude and extraordinary courage, as opposed to the spirit of fear or faintness of heart; but as Othniel was judge, and had many offices to fulfill besides that of a general, he had need of the Spirit of God, in the proper sense of the word, to enable him to guide and govern this most refractory and fickle people; and his receiving it for these purposes, shows that the political state of the Jews was still a theocracy. No man attempted to do any thing in that state without the immediate inspiration of God, the pretension to which was always justified by the event.

### Verse 12

[¶3] The children of Israel did evil - They forgat the Lord and became idolaters, and God made those very people, whom they had imitated in their idolatrous worship, the means of their chastisement.

[¶4] The Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab - The success he had against the Israelites was by the especial appointment and energy of God.

[¶5] He not only abandoned the Israelites, but strengthened the Moabites against them. Eglon is supposed to have been the immediate successor of Balak. Some great men have borne names which, when reduced to their grammatical meaning, appear very ridiculous: the word עגלון Eglon signifies a little calf!

### Verse 13

[¶7] The city of palm trees - This the Targum renders the city of Jericho; but Jericho had been destroyed by Joshua, and certainly was not rebuilt till the reign of Ahab, long after this, [1Kgs 16:34]. However, as Jericho is expressly called the city of palm trees, [Deu 34:3], the city in question must have been in the vicinity or plain of Jericho, and the king of Moab had seized it as a frontier town contiguous to his own estates. Calmet supposes that the city of palm trees means En-gaddi.

### Verse 15

[¶9] Ehud the son of Gera - a man left handed - איש אטר יד ימינו ish itter yad yemino, a man lame in his right hand, and therefore obliged to use his left. The Septuagint render it ανδρα αμφοτεροδεξιον, an ambidexter, a man who could use both hands alike. The Vulgate, qui utraque manu pro dextera utebatur, a man who could use either hand as a right hand, or to whom right and left were equally ready. This is not the sense of the original, but it is the sense in which most interpreters understand it. It is well known that to be an ambidexter was in high repute among the ancients: Hector boasts of it: - Αυταρ εγων εν οιδα μαχας τ,ανδροκτασιας τε· Οιδ' επι δεξια, οιδ' επ' αριστερα νωμησαι βων Αζαλεην, το μοι εστι ταλαυρινον πολεμιζειν.

[¶10] Iliad, lib. vii., ver. 237. "But am in arms well practiced; many a Greek

[¶11] Hath bled by me, and I can shift my shield

[¶12] From right to left; reserving to the last

[¶13] Force that suffices for severest toil."

[¶14] Cowper.

[¶15] Asteropaeus is also represented by Homer as an ambidexter, from which he derives great advantages in fight: - Ὡς φατ' απειλησας· ὁ δ' ανεσχετο διος Αχιλλευς Πηλιαδα μελιην· ὁ δ' ὁμαρτη δουρασιν αμφις Ἡρως Αστεροπαιος, επει περιδεξιος ηε.

[¶16] Iliad, lib. xxi., ver. 161.

[¶17] So threatened he. Then raised Achilles high

[¶18] The Pelian ash: - and his two spears at once

[¶19] Alike, (a practiced warrior), with both hands

[¶20] Asteropaeus hurled."

[¶21] Cowper.

[¶22] We are informed by Aristotle, that Plato recommended to all soldiers to acquire by study and exercise an equal facility of using both hands. Speaking of Plato, he says: Και την εν τοις πολεμικοισασκεσιν, ὁπως αμφιδεξιοι γινωνται κατα την μελετην, ὡς δεον μη την μεν χρησιμον ειναι ταιν χεροιν, την δε αχρηστον. - De Repub., lib. ii., cap. 12. "He (Plato) also made a law concerning their warlike exercises, that they should acquire a habit of using both hands alike; as it is not fit that one of the hands should be useful and the other useless." In [Jdg 20:16] of this book we have an account of seven hundred men of Benjamin, each of whom was אטר יד ימינו itter yad yemino, lame of his right hand, and yet slinging stones to a hair's breadth without missing: these are generally thought to be ambidexters.

[¶23] Sent a present unto Eglon - This is generally understood to be the tribute money which the king of Moab had imposed on the Israelites.

### Verse 16

[¶25] A dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length - The word גמד gomed, which we translate cubit, is of very doubtful signification. As the root seems to signify contracted, it probably means an instrument made for the purpose shorter than usual, and something like the Italian stiletto. The Septuagint translate it by σπιθαμη, a span, and most of the versions understand it in the same sense.

[¶26] Upon his right thigh - Because he was left-handed. Ordinarily the sword is on the left side, that it may be readily drawn out by the right hand; but as Ehud was left-handed, to be convenient his sword must be on the right side.

### Verse 17

[¶28] Eglon was a very fat man - The איש בריא ish bari of the text is translated by the Septuagint ανηρ αστειος σφοδρα, a very beautiful or polite man, and in the Syriac, a very rude man. It probably means what we call lusty or corpulent.

### Verse 18

[¶30] Made an end to offer the present - Presents, tribute, etc., in the eastern countries were offered with very great ceremony; and to make the more parade several persons, ordinarily slaves, sumptuously dressed, and in considerable number, were employed to carry what would not be a burden even to one. This appears to have been the case in the present instance.

### Verse 19

[¶32] He - turned - from the quarries - פסילים pesilim. Some of the versions understand this word as meaning idols or graven images, or some spot where the Moabites had a place of idolatrous worship. As פסל pasal signifies to cut, hew, or engrave, it may be applied to the images thus cut, or to the place, or quarry whence they were digged: but it is most likely that idols are meant. Some think that trenches are meant, and that pesilim here may mean the boundaries of the two countries: and when Ehud had got thus far, he sent away the people that were with him, under pretense of having a secret message to Eglon, and so got rid of his attendants, in presence of whom he could not have executed his scheme, nor have secured his escape afterwards. But I do not see the evidence of this mode of interpretation.

### Verse 20

[¶34] He was sitting in a summer parlor - Besides the platforms, says Dr. Shaw, which were upon the ancient houses of the East, and which are found there to this day, it is probable that heretofore, as well as at present, most of the great houses had a smaller one annexed, which seldom consisted of more than one or two rooms and a terrace. Others, built as they frequently are above the porch or gateway, have, if we except the ground-floor, all the conveniences belonging to the house, properly so called. There is a door of communication from them into the gallery of the house, kept open or shut at the discretion of the master of the house, besides another door which opens immediately from a privy stairs down into the porch or street, without giving the least disturbance to the house. In these back houses strangers are usually lodged and entertained; hither the men are wont to retire from the hurry and noise of their families, to be more at leisure for meditation or diversions; and they are often used for wardrobes and magazines. These the Arabs call oleah, which exactly answers to the Hebrew word עלית aliyath found in this place; and without doubt such was the apartment in which Eglon received Ehud, by the privy stairs belonging to which he escaped, after having killed Eglon. The doors of the Eastern buildings are large, and their chambers spacious, conveniences well adapted to those hotter climates; but in the present passage something more seems to be meant; at least there are now other conveniences in the East to give coolness to particular rooms, which are very common. In Egypt the cooling their rooms is effected by openings at the top, which let in the fresh air. Mons. Maillet informs us that their halls are made very large and lofty, with a dome at the top, which towards the north has several open windows, so constructed as to throw the north wind down into the rooms; and by this means, though the country is excessively hot, they can make the coolness of those apartments so great, as often not to be borne without being wrapped in furs. Eglon's was a chamber; and some contrivance to mitigate the heat of it was the more necessary, as he appears to have kept his court at Jericho, [Jdg 3:13], [Jdg 3:28], where the heat is so excessive as sometimes to prove fatal. See Harmer's Observations.

[¶35] I have a message from God unto thee - דבר אלהים לי אליך debar elohim li aleycha, a word of the gods to me, unto thee. It is very likely that the word elohim is used here to signify idols, or the pesilim mentioned above, [Jdg 3:19]. Ehud, having gone so far as this place of idolatry, might feign he had there been worshipping, and that the pesilim had inspired him with a message for the king; and this was the reason why the king commanded silence, why every man went out, and why he rose from his seat or throne, that he might receive it with the greater respect. This, being an idolater, he would not have done to any message coming from the God of Israel. I have a message from God unto thee is a popular text: many are fond of preaching from it. Now as no man should ever depart from the literal meaning of Scripture in his preaching, we may at once see the absurdity of taking such a text as this; for such preachers, to be consistent, should carry a two-edged dagger of a cubit length on their right thigh, and be ready to thrust it into the bowels of all those they address! This is certainly the literal meaning of the passage, and that it has no other meaning is an incontrovertible truth.

### Verse 22

[¶37] The haft also went in after the blade - As the instrument was very short, and Eglon very corpulent, this might readily take place.

[¶38] And the dirt came out - This is variously understood: either the contents of the bowels issued through the wound, or he had an evacuation in the natural way through the fright and anguish. The original, פרשדונה parshedonah, occurs only here, and is supposed to be compounded of פרש peresh, dung, and שדה shadah, to shed, and may be very well applied to the latter circumstance; so the Vulgate understood it: Statinque per secreta naturae alvi stercora proruperunt.

### Verse 24

[¶40] He covereth his feet - He has lain down on his sofa in order to sleep; when this was done they dropped their slippers, lifted up their feet, and covered them with their long loose garments. But the versions, in general, seem to understand it as implying a certain natural act.

### Verse 26

[¶42] Passed beyond the quarries - Beyond the pesilim, which appear to have been the Moabitish borders, where they had set up those hewn stones as landmarks, or sacred boundary stones.

### Verse 28

[¶44] Took the fords of Jordan - It is very likely that the Moabites, who were on the western side of Jordan, hearing of the death of Eglon, were panic-struck, and endeavored to escape over Jordan at the fords near Jericho, when Ehud blew his trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and thus to get into the land of the Moabites, which lay on the east of Jordan; but Ehud and his men, seizing the only pass by which they could make their escape, slew ten thousand of them in their attempt to cross at those fords. What is called here the fords was doubtless the place where the Israelites had passed Jordan when they (under Joshua) took possession of the promised land.

## 249. Judges · 5 of 29

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### Verse 29

[¶1] All lusty, and all men of valor - Picked, chosen troops, which Eglon kept among the Israelites to reduce and overawe them.

### Verse 30

[¶3] The land had rest fourscore years - This is usually reckoned from the deliverance under Othniel, that being a term from which they dated every transaction, as in other cases they dated from the exodus, from the building of Solomon's temple, etc., and as other nations did from particular events: the Romans, from the building of the city; the Mohammedans, from the Hijreh, or flight of Mohammed to Medina; the Christians, from the birth of Christ, etc., etc. But see the preface, and the different chronological schemes there mentioned.

### Verse 31

[¶5] And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath - Dr. Hales supposes that "Shamgar's administration in the West included Ehud's administration of eighty years in the East; and that, as this administration might have been of some continuance, so this Philistine servitude which is not noticed elsewhere, might have been of some duration; as may be incidentally collected from Deborah's thanksgiving, [Jdg 5:6]."

[¶6] Slew - six hundred men with an ox-goad - מלמד הבקר malmad habbakar, the instructer of the oxen. This instrument is differently understood by the versions: the Vulgate has vomere, with the coulter or ploughshare, a dreadful weapon in the hand of a man endued with so much strength; the Septuagint has αροτροποδι των βοων, with the ploughshare of the oxen; the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, understand it of the goad, as does our translation.

[¶7] 1. That the ox-goad, still used in Palestine, is a sufficiently destructive weapon if used by a strong and skillful hand, is evident enough from the description which Mr. Maundrell gives of this implement, having seen many of them both in Palestine and Syria: "It was observable," says he, "that in ploughing they used goads of an extraordinary size; upon measuring of several I found them about eight feet long, and at the bigger end about six inches in circumference. They were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle for driving the oxen, and at the other end with a small spade or paddle of iron, strong and massy, for cleansing the plough from the clay that encumbers it in working." See his Journey from Aleppo, etc., 7th edit., pp. 110, 111. In the hands of a strong, skillful man, such an instrument must be more dangerous and more fatal than any sword. It is worthy of remark that the ox-goad is represented by Homer to have been used prior to this time in the same way. In the address of Diomed to Glaucus, Iliad. lib. vi., ver. 129, Lycurgus is represented as discomfiting Bacchus and the Bacchanals with this weapon. The siege of Troy, according to the best chronologers, happened within the time of the Israelitish judges. Ουκ αν εγωγε θεοισιν επουρανιοισι μαχοιμην· Ουδε γαρ ουδε Δρυαντος υἱος κρατερος Λυκουργος Σευε κατ' ηγαθεον Νυσσηΐον· αἱ δ' ἁμα πασαι Θυσθλα χαμαι κατεχευαν, ὑπ' ανδροφονοιο Λυκουργου Θεινομεναι βουπληγι. "I fight not with the inhabitants of heaven;

[¶8] That war Lycurgus, son of Dryas, waged,

[¶9] Nor long survived. - From Nyssa's sacred heights

[¶10] He drove the nurses of the frantic god,

[¶11] Thought drowning Bacchus: to the ground they cast

[¶12] All cast, their leafy wands; while, ruthless, he

[¶13] Spared not to smite them with his murderous goad."

[¶14] The meaning of this fable is: Lycurgus, king of Thrace, finding his subjects addicted to drunkenness, proscribed the cultivation of the vine in his dominions, and instituted agriculture in its stead; thus θυσθλα, the thyrsi, were expelled, βουπληγι, by the ox-goad. The account, however, shows that Shamgar was not the only person who used the ox-goad as an offensive weapon. If we translate βουπληξ a cart-whip, the parallel is lost.

[¶15] 2. It appears that Shamgar was merely a laboring man; that the Philistines were making an inroad on the Israelites when the latter were cultivating their fields; that Shamgar and his neighbors successfully resisted them; that they armed themselves with their more portable agricultural instruments; and that Shamgar, either with a ploughshare or an ox-goad, slew six hundred of those marauders.

[¶16] 3. The case of Ehud killing Eglon is a very serious one; and how far he was justified in this action is with all a question of importance, and with not a few a question of difficulty. "Is it right to slay a tyrant?" I, without hesitation, answer, No individual has a right to slay any man, except it be in his own defense, when a person attacks him in order to take away his life. "But may not any of his oppressed subjects put an end to the life of a tyrant?" No. The state alone can judge whether a king is ruling contrary to the laws and constitution of that state; and if that state have provided laws for the punishment of a ruler who is endeavoring to destroy or subvert that constitution, then let him be dealt with according to those laws. But no individual or number of individuals in that state has any right to dispose of the life of the ruler but according to law. To take his life in any other way is no less than murder. It is true God, the author of life and the judge of all men, may commission one man to take away the life of a tyrant. But the pretension to such a commission must be strong, clear, and unequivocal; in short, if a man think he have such a commission, to be safe, he should require the Lord to give him as full an evidence of it as he did to Moses; and when such a person comes to the people, they should require him to give as many proofs of his Divine call as the Hebrews did Moses, before they should credit his pretensions. "But had not Ehud a Divine call?" I cannot tell. If he had, he did not murder Eglon; if he had not, his act, however it succeeded, was a murderous act; and if he had no message from God, (and there is no proof that he had), then he was a most base and hypocritical assassin. The sacred historian says nothing of his motives nor call; he mentions simply the fact, and leaves it without either observation or comment, and every reader is left to draw his own inference. The life of any ruler can only be at the disposal of the constitution, or that system of rules, laws, and regulations, by which the people he rules should be governed; if he rule not according to these, he is, ipso facto, deposed from his government. If he break the constitution, to the great injury or ruin of his subjects, then he is to be judged by those laws according to which he must have pledged himself to govern. If a king be deposed on any other account, it is rebellion. If his life be taken away by any means but those provided by the constitution, it is murder. No pretended or proved tyranny can justify his being taken off in any other way, or on any other account. And what constitution in the civilized world provides for the death of the supreme magistrate? It is true the good people, as they were called, of England and France, have each under a pretense of law, beheaded their king; and they endeavored to justify their conduct on the ground that those kings had broken the constitution: this being proved, they should have been deposed. But by what law, either of those nations or of the civilized world, were their lives taken away? Let it be remembered that the inflation of the punishment of death, either against or without law, is murder.

### Introduction

[¶18] The Israelites again rebel against God, and they are delivered into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, [Jdg 4:1], [Jdg 4:2]. They cry unto God, and he raises up Deborah and Barak to deliver then, [Jdg 4:3-10]. Some account of Heber the Kenite, [Jdg 4:11]. Barak attacks Sisera, captain of Jabin's army, at the river Kishon, and gives him a total overthrow, [Jdg 4:12-16]. Sisera leaves his chariot, and flies away on foot; enters the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber, by whom he is slain, while secreting himself in her apartment, [Jdg 4:17-24].

### Verse 1

[¶20] When Ehud was dead - Why not when Shamgar was dead? Does this not intimate that Shamgar was not reckoned in the number of the judges?

### Verse 2

[¶22] Jabin king of Canaan - Probably a descendant of the Jabin mentioned [Jos 11:1], etc., who had gathered together the wrecks of the army of that Jabin defeated by Joshua. Calmet supposes that these Canaanites had the dominion over the tribes of Naphtali, Zebulun, and Issachar; while Deborah judged in Ephraim, and Shamgar in Judah.

### Verse 3

[¶24] Nine hundred chariots of iron - Chariots armed with iron scythes, as is generally supposed; they could not have been made all of iron, but they might have been shod with iron, or had iron scythes projecting from the axle on each side, by which infantry might be easily cut down or thrown into confusion. The ancient Britons are said to have had such chariots.

### Verse 4

[¶26] Deborah, a prophetess - One on whom the Spirit of God descended, and who was the instrument of conveying to the Israelites the knowledge of the Divine will, in things sacred and civil.

[¶27] She judged Israel - This is, I believe, the first instance of gynaecocrasy, or female government, on record. Deborah seems to have been supreme both in civil and religious affairs; and Lapidoth, her husband, appears to have had no hand in the government. But the original may as well be translated a woman of Lapidoth, as the wife of Lapidoth.

### Verse 5

[¶29] The palm tree of Deborah - It is common for the Hindoos to plant trees in the names of themselves and their friends; and some religious mendicants live for a considerable time under trees. - Ward.

### Verse 6

[¶31] She sent and called Barak - She appointed him to be general of the armies on this occasion; which shows that she possessed the supreme power in the state.

[¶32] Mount Tabor - "Mount Tabor," says Maundrell, "stands by itself, about two or three furlongs within the plains of Esdraelon. It has a plain area at the top, both fertile and delicious of an oval figure, extending about one furlong in breadth, and two in length. The prospect from the top is beautiful: on the N.W. is the Mediterranean; and all around you have the spacious plains of Esdraelon and Galilee, which present you with a view of many places famous for the resort and miracles of the Son of God. At the bottom of Tabor, westward, stands Daberah, a small village, supposed to have taken its name from Deborah. Near this valley is the brook Kishon. During the rainy season, all the water that falls on the eastern side of the mountain, or upon the rising ground to the southward, empties itself into it, in a number of torrents: at which conjuncture it overflows its banks, acquires a wonderful rapidity, and carries all before it. It might be at such a time as this when the stars are said to fight against Sisera, [Jdg 5:20], [Jdg 5:21], by bringing an abundance of rain, whereby the Kishon became so high and rapid as to sweep away the host of Sisera, in attempting to ford it." See Maundrell and Shaw. This mountain is very difficult of ascent; it took Mr. Maundrell nearly an hour to reach the top; this, with its grand area on the summit, made a very proper place for the rendezvous of Barak's army. Antiochus used it for the same purpose in his wars; and Josephus appears to have fortified it; and Placidus, one of Vespasian's generals, was sent to reduce it. See more in Calmet.

### Verse 9

[¶34] The Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman - Does not this mean, If I go with thee, the conquest shall be attributed to me, and thou wilt have no honor? Or, is it a prediction of the exploit of Jael? In both these senses the words have been understood. It seems, however, more likely that Jael is intended. The Septuagint made a remarkable addition to the speech of Barak: "If thou wilt go with me I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, I will not go; Ὁτι ουκ οιδα την ἡμεραν εν ῃ ευοδοι Κυριος τον αγγελον μετ' εμου, because I know not the day in which the Lord will send his angel to give me success." By which he appears to mean, that although he was certain of a Divine call to this work, yet, as he knew not the time in which it would be proper for him to make the attack, he wishes that Deborah, on whom the Divine Spirit constantly rested, would accompany him to let him know when to strike that blow, which he knew would be decisive. This was quite natural, and quite reasonable, and is no impeachment whatever of Barak's faith. St. Ambrose and St. Augustine have the same reading; but it is found in no MS. nor in any other of the versions. See [Jdg 4:14].

### Verse 10

[¶36] Ten thousand men at his feet - Ten thousand footmen. He had no chariots; his army was all composed of infantry.

### Verse 11

[¶38] Hohab the father-in-law of Moses - For a circumstantial account of this person, and the meaning of the original word חתן chothen, which is translated son-in-law in [Gen 19:14], see the notes on [Exo 2:15], [Exo 2:16], [Exo 2:18]; [Exo 3:1]; [Exo 4:20], [Exo 4:24]; [Exo 18:5].

### Verse 14

[¶40] Up; for this is the day - This is exactly the purpose for which the Septuagint state, [Jdg 4:8], that Barak wished Deborah to accompany him. "I know not," says he, "The Day in which God will send his angel to give me prosperity: come thou with we that thou mayest direct me in this respect." She went, and told him the precise time in which he was to make the attack: Up, for This is the Day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand.

[¶41] Went down from Mount Tabor - He had probably encamped his men on and near the summit of this mount. See the note on [Jdg 4:6].

### Verse 15

[¶43] The Lord discomfited Sisera - ויהם יהוה vayiahom Jehovah; the Lord Confounded, threw them all into confusion, drove them pell-mell - caused chariots to break and overthrow chariots, and threw universal disorder into all their ranks. In this case Barak and his men had little to do but kill and pursue, and Sisera in order to escape, was obliged to abandon his chariot. There is no doubt all this was done by supernatural agency; God sent his angel and confounded them.

## 250. Judges · 6 of 29

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### Verse 18

[¶1] Jael went out to meet Sisera - He preferred the woman's tent because of secrecy; for, according to the etiquette of the eastern countries, no person ever intrudes into the apartments of the women. And in every dwelling the women have a separate apartment.

### Verse 19

[¶3] She opened a bottle of milk - She gave more than he requested; and her friendship increased his confidence and security.

### Verse 20

[¶5] Stand in the door of the tent - As no man would intrude into the women's apartment without permission, her simply saying, there is no man in my tent, would preclude all search.

### Verse 21

[¶7] A nail of the tent - One of the spikes by which they fasten to the ground the cords which are attached to the cloth or covering.

[¶8] He was fast asleep and weary - As he lay on one side, and was overwhelmed with sleep through the heat and fatigues of the day, the piercing of his temples must have in a moment put him past resistance.

### Verse 22

[¶10] Behold, Sisera lay dead - What impression this made on the victorious Barak is not said: it could not give him much pleasure, especially when he learned the circumstances of his death.

### Verse 24

[¶12] The hand of the children of Israel prospered - ותלך הלוך vattelech haloch, it went, going - they followed up this victory, and the consequence was, they utterly destroyed Jabin and his kingdom. It will naturally be expected that something should be said to justify the conduct of Jael: it must be owned that she slew Sisera in circumstances which caused the whole transaction to appear exceedingly questionable. They are the following: -

[¶13] 1. There was peace between her family and the king of Canaan.

[¶14] 2. That peace was no doubt made, as all transactions of the kind were, with a sacrifice and an oath.

[¶15] 3. Sisera, knowing this, came to her tent with the utmost confidence.

[¶16] 4. She met him with the most friendly greetings and assurances of safety.

[¶17] 5. Having asked for water, to show her friendship and respect she gave him cream, and that in a vessel suitable to his dignity.

[¶18] 6. She put him in the secret part of her own tent, and covered him in such a way as to evidence her good faith, and to inspire him with the greater confidence.

[¶19] 7. She agreed to keep watch at the door, and deny his being there to any that might inquire.

[¶20] 8. As she gave him permission to secrete himself with her, and gave him refreshment, she was bound by the rules of Asiatic hospitality to have defended his life, even at the risk of her own.

[¶21] 9. Notwithstanding, she took the advantage of his weariness and deep sleep, and took away his life!

[¶22] 10. She exulted in her deed, met Barak, and showed him in triumph what she had done.

[¶23] Now do we not find, in all this, bad faith, deceit, deep hypocrisy, lying, breach of treaty, contempt of religious rites, breach of the laws of hospitality, deliberate and unprovoked murder? But what can be said in her justification? All that can be said, and all that has been said is simply this: "She might have been sincere at first, but was afterwards Divinely directed to do what she did." If this was so, she is sufficiently vindicated by the fact; for God has a right to dispose of the lives of his creatures as he pleases: and probably the cup of Sisera's iniquity was full, and his life already forfeited to the justice of God. But does it appear that she received any such direction from God? There is no sufficient evidence of it: it is true that Deborah, a prophetess, declares her blessed above women; and this seems to intimate that her conduct was pleasing to God. If Deborah was inspired on this occasion, her words are a presumptive proof that the act was right; unless we are to understand it as a simple declaration of the reputation she should be held in among her own sex. But we do not find one word from Jael herself, stating how she was led to do an act repugnant to her feelings as a woman, contrary to good faith, and a breach of the rules of hospitality. Nor does the sacred penman say one word to explain the case; as in the case of Ehud, he states the fact, and leaves his readers to form their own opinion. To say, as has been said in the case of Eglon, that "Sisera was a public enemy, and any of the people whom he oppressed might be justified in taking away his life," is a very dangerous position, as it refers one of the most solemn acts of judgment and justice to the caprice, or prejudice, or enthusiastic feeling of every individual who may persuade himself that he is not only concerned in the business, but authorized by God to take vengeance by his own hand. While justice and law are in the world, God never will, as he never did, abandon cases of this kind to the caprice, prejudice, or party feeling, of any man. The conduct of Ehud and Jael are before the tribunal of God: I will not justify, I dare not absolutely condemn; there I leave them, and entreat my readers to do the like; after referring them to the observations at the end of the preceding chapter, where the subject is considered more at large.

### Introduction

[¶25] The triumphant song of Deborah and Barak, after the defeat of Sisera, captain of the armies of Jabin, king of Canaan.

### Verse 1

[¶27] Then sang Deborah, and Barak - There are many difficulties in this very sublime song; and learned men have toiled much to remove them. That there are several gross mistakes in our version will be instantly acknowledged by all who can critically examine the original. Dr. Kennicott has distributed it into parts, assigned to Deborah and Barak alternately. But his division is by far too artificial. Dr. Hales has also given a version of it which, perhaps, comes nearer to the simplicity of the original; but it also leaves several difficulties behind. As these are the two best versions I have met with, I shall lay them both in parallel columns before the reader, after introducing the general description of this song, given by each of these learned men. These the reader will find at the conclusion of the chapter.

### Verse 2

[¶29] For the avenging of Israel - See the notes, etc., at the end of the chapter, [Jdg 5:28] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶31] When thou wentest out of Seir - Here is an allusion to the giving of the law, and the manifestation of God's power and glory at that time; and as this was the most signal display of his majesty and mercy in behalf of their forefathers, Deborah very properly begins her song with a commemoration of this transaction.

### Verse 6

[¶33] The highways were unoccupied - The land was full of anarchy and confusion, being everywhere infested with banditti. No public road was safe; and in going from place to place, the people were obliged to use unfrequented paths.

### Verse 7

[¶35] The villages ceased - The people were obliged to live together in fortified places; or in great numbers, to protect each other against the incursions of bands of spoilers.

### Verse 8

[¶37] They chose new gods - This was the cause of all their calamities; they forsook Jehovah, and served other gods; and then was war in their gates - they were hemmed up in every place, and besieged in all their fortified cities; and they were defenseless, they had no means of resisting their adversaries; for even among forty thousand men, there was neither spear nor shield to be seen. The Vulgate gives a strange and curious turn to this verse: Nova bella elegit Dominus, et portas hostium ipse subvertit; "The Lord chose a new species of war, and himself subverted the gates of the enemy." Now, what was this new species of war? A woman signifies her orders to Barak; he takes 10,000 men, wholly unarmed, and retires to Mount Tabor, where they are immediately besieged by a powerful and well-appointed army. On a sudden Barak and his men rush upon them, terror and dismay are spread through the whole Cannanitish army, and the rout is instantaneous and complete. The Israelites immediately arm themselves with the arms of their enemies, and slay all before them; they run, and are pursued in all directions. Sisera, their general, is no longer safe in his chariot; either his horses fail, or the unevenness of the road obliges him to desert it, and fly away on foot; in the end, the whole army is destroyed, and the leader ingloriously slain. This was a new species of war, and was most evidently the Lord's doings. Whatever may be said of the version of the Vulgate, (and the Syriac and Arabic are something like it), the above are all facts, and show the wondrous working of the Lord.

### Verse 10

[¶39] Ye that ride on white asses - Perhaps אתנות צחרות athonoth tsechoroth should be rendered sleek or well-fed asses; rendered asinos nitentes, shining asses, by the Vulgate.

[¶40] Ye that sit in judgment - ישבי על מדין yoshebey al middin; some have rendered this, ye who dwell in Middin. This was a place in the tribe of Judah, and is mentioned [Jos 15:61].

[¶41] And walk by the way - Persons who go from place to place for the purposes of traffic.

### Verse 11

[¶43] In the places of drawing water - As wells were very scarce in every part of the East, and travelers in such hot countries must have water, robbers and banditti generally took their stations near tanks, pools, and springs, in order that they might suddenly fall upon those who came to drink; and when the country was badly governed, annoyances of this kind were very frequent. The victory gained now by the Israelites put the whole country under their own government, and the land was cleansed from such marauders. Dr. Shaw, in his account of the sea-coast of the Mauritania Caesariensis, page 20, mentions a beautiful rill of water that runs into a basin of Roman workmanship, called shrub we krub, "drink and be off," because of the danger of meeting with assassins in the place. Instead of such danger and insecurity, Deborah intimates that they may sit down at the place of drawing water, and there rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord; the land being now everywhere in peace, order and good government being restored.

[¶44] Go down to the gates - They may go down to the gates to receive judgment and justice as usual. It is well known that the gate was the place of judgment in the East.

## 251. Judges · 7 of 29

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Lead thy captivity captive - Make those captives who have formerly captivated us.

### Verse 13

[¶3] Make him that remaineth - This appears to be spoken of Barak, who is represented as being only a remnant of the people.

### Verse 14

[¶5] Out of Ephraim - a root of them - Deborah probably means that out of Ephraim and Benjamin came eminent warriors. Joshua, who was of the tribe of Ephraim, routed the Amalekites a short time after the Israelites came out of Egypt, [Exo 17:10]. Ehud, who was of the tribe of Benjamin, slew Eglon, and defeated the Moabites, the friends and allies of the Ammonites and Amalekites. Machir, in the land of Gilead, produced eminent warriors; and Zebulun produced eminent statesmen, and men of literature. Probably Deborah speaks here of the past wars, and not of any thing that was done on this occasion; for we know that no persons from Gilead were present in the war between Jabin and Israel. See [Jdg 5:17]. Gilead abode beyond Jordan.

### Verse 15

[¶7] The princes of Issachar - They were at hand and came willingly forth, at the call of Deborah, to this important war. Barak - was sent on foot - I have no doubt that ברגלין, without regarding the points, should be translated with his footmen or infantry. Thus the Alexandrian Septuagint understood it, rendering the clause thus: Οὑτω Βαρακ εξαπεστειλεν πεζους αυτου εις την κοιλαδα, "Barak also sent forth his footmen into the valley." Luther has perfectly hit the meaning, Barak mit seinen fussvoleke, "Barak with his footmen."

[¶8] For the divisions of Reuben - Either the Reubenites were divided among themselves into factions, which prevented their co-operation with their brethren, or they were divided in their judgment concerning the measures now to be pursued, which prevented them from joining with the other tribes till the business was entirely settled. The thoughts of heart, and searchings of heart, might refer to the doubts and uneasiness felt by the other tribes, when they found the Reubenites did not join them; for they might have conjectured that they were either unconcerned about their liberty, or were meditating a coalition with the Canaanites.

### Verse 17

[¶10] Gilead abode beyond Jordan - That is, the Gadites, who had their lot in those parts, and could not well come to the aid of their brethren at a short summons. But the words of Deborah imply a criminal neglect on the part of the Danites; they were intent upon their traffic, and trusted in their ships. Joppa was one of their sea-ports.

[¶11] Asher continued on the seashore - The lot of Asher extended along the Mediterranean Sea; and being contiguous to Zebulun and Naphtali, they might have easily succoured their brethren; but they had the pretense that their posts were unguarded, and they abode in their breaches, in order to defend them.

### Verse 18

[¶13] Zebulun and Naphtali - jeoparded their lives - The original is very emphatic, חרף נפשו למות chereph naphsho lamuth, they desolated their lives to death - they were determined to conquer or die, and therefore plunged into the thickest of the battle. The word jeoparded is a silly French term, and comes from the exclamation of a disappointed gamester: Jeu perdu! The game is lost; or J'ai perdue! I have lost.

### Verse 19

[¶15] The kings came and fought - It is conjectured that Jabin and his confederates had invaded Manasseh, as both Taanach and Megiddo were in that tribe: and that they were discomfited by the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali at Taanach and Megiddo; while Barak defeated Sisera at Mount Tabor.

[¶16] They took no gain of money - They expected much booty in the total rout of the Israelites; but they were defeated, and got no prey; or, if applied to the Israelites, They fought for liberty, not for plunder.

### Verse 20

[¶18] They fought from heaven - The angels of God came to the assistance of Israel: and the stars in their orbits fought against Sisera; probably some thunder storm, or great inundation from the river Kishon, took place at that time, which in poetic language was attributed to the stars. So our poet sung relative to the storms which dispersed the Spanish armada in 1588: - "Both winds and waves at once conspire

[¶19] To aid old England - frustrate Spain's desire."

[¶20] Perhaps it means no more than this: the time which was measured and ruled by the heavenly bodies seemed only to exist for the destruction of the Canaanites. There may be also a reference to the sun and moon standing still in the days of Joshua.

### Verse 21

[¶22] The river of Kishon swept them away - This gives plausibility to the above conjecture, that there was a storm at this time which produced an inundation in the river Kishon, which the routed Canaanites attempting to ford were swept away.

### Verse 22

[¶24] Then were the horsehoofs broken - In very ancient times horses were not shod; nor are they to the present day in several parts of the East. Sisera had iron chariots when his hosts were routed; the horses that drew these, being strongly urged on by those who drove them, had their hoofs broken by the roughness of the roads; in consequence of which they became lame, and could not carry off their riders. This is marked as one cause of their disaster.

### Verse 23

[¶26] Curse ye Meroz - Where Meroz was is not known; some suppose it was the same as Merom, nigh to Dotham. The Syriac and Arabic have Merod; but where this was is equally uncertain. It was certainly some city or district, the inhabitants of which would not assist in this war.

[¶27] Curse ye bitterly - ארו ארור oru aror, curse with cursing - use the most awful execrations.

[¶28] Said the angel of the Lord - That is, Barak, who was Jehovah's angel or messenger in this war; the person sent by God to deliver his people.

[¶29] To the help of the Lord - That is, to the help of the people of the Lord.

[¶30] Against the mighty - בגבורים baggibborim, "with the heroes;" that is, Barak and his men, together with Zebulun and Naphtali: these were the mighty men, or heroes, with whom the inhabitants of Meroz would not join.

### Verse 24

[¶32] Blessed above women shall Jael - be - She shall be highly celebrated as a most heroic woman; all the Israelitish women shall glory in her. I do not understand these words as expressive of the Divine approbation towards Jael. See the observations at the end of [Jdg 4:24] (note). The word bless, both in Hebrew and Greek, often signifies to praise, to speak well of, to celebrate. This is most probably its sense here.

### Verse 25

[¶34] She brought forth butter - As the word חמאה chemah, here translated butter, signifies disturbed, agitated, etc., it is probable that buttermilk is intended. The Arabs form their buttermilk by agitating the milk in a leathery bag, and the buttermilk is highly esteemed because of its refreshing and cooling quality; but there is no reason why we may not suppose that Jael gave him cream: Sisera was not only thirsty, but was also exhausted with fatigue; and nothing could be better calculated to quench his thirst, and restore his exhausted strength, than a bowl of cream. I am surprised that Mr. Harmer should see any difficulty in this. It is evident that Deborah wishes to convey the idea that Jael was more liberal and kind than Sisera had requested. He asked for water, and she brought him cream; and she brought it to him, not in an ordinary pitcher, but in the most superb dish or bowl which she possessed. See at the end of [Jdg 4:24] (note).

### Verse 26

[¶36] She smote off his head - The original does not warrant this translation; nor is it supported by fact. She smote his head, and transfixed him through the temples. It was his head that received the death wound, and the place where this wound was inflicted was the temples. The manner in which Jael despatched Sisera seems to have been this:

[¶37] 1. Observing him to be in a profound sleep she took a workman's hammer, probably a joiner's mallet, and with one blow on the head deprived him of all sense.

[¶38] 2. She then took a tent nail and drove it through his temples, and thus pinned him to the earth; which she could not have done had she not previously stunned him with the blow on the head. Thus she first smote his head, and secondly pierced his temples.

### Verse 27

[¶40] At her feet he bowed - בין רגליה bein ragleyha, "between her feet." After having stunned him she probably sat down, for the greater convenience of driving the nail through his temples.

[¶41] He bowed - he fell - He probably made some struggles after he received the blow on the head, but could not recover his feet. Aeschylus represents Agamemnon rising, staggering, and finally falling, under the blows of Clytemnestra. - Agam. v. 1384.

### Verse 28

[¶43] Cried through the lattice - This is very natural: in the women's apartments in the East the windows are latticed, to prevent them from sending or receiving letters, etc. The latticing is the effect of the jealousy which universally prevails in those countries.

[¶44] Why is his chariot so long in coming? - Literally, Why is his chariot ashamed to come? Dr. Lowth has very justly observed, that this is a striking image of maternal solicitude, and of a mind divided between hope and fear. "The mother of Sisera looked out at a window;

[¶45] She cried through the lattice, 'Why is his chariot so long in coming?

## 252. Judges · 8 of 29

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[¶0] Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?' "Immediately, impatient of delay, she prevents the comfort of her companions; elate in mind, and bursting forth into female levity and jactation, impotent to hope for any thing, and drunk with her good fortune, "Her wise ladies earnestly answered her;

[¶1] Yea, she immediately returned answer to herself; 'Have they not sped? have they not divided the spoil?' "We see how consonant to the person speaking is every idea, every word. She dwells not upon the slaughter of the enemies, the number of the captives, the valor and great exploits of the victor, but, burning with the female love of spoils, on those things rather which captivate the light mind of the vainest woman; damsels, gold, garments. Nor does she dwell upon them only; but she repeats, she accumulates, she augments every thing. She seems, as it were, to handle the spoils. dwelling as she does on every particular. 'Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey?

[¶2] A damsel, yea, two damsels to every man:

[¶3] To Sisera, a prey of divers colors;

[¶4] A prey of divers colors of needlework,

[¶5] Finely coloured of needlework on both sides,

[¶6] A spoil for adorning the neck.'

[¶7] To enhance the beauty of this passage, there is, in the poetic conformation of the sentences, an admirable neatness in the diction, great force, splendor, accuracy; in the very redundance of the repetitions the utmost brevity; and, lastly, the most striking disappointment of the woman's hope, tacitly insinuated by that sudden and unexpected apostrophe, 'So let all thine enemies perish, O Jehovah!' is expressed more fully and strongly by this silence than could have been painted by any colouring of words." See Dr. Lowth, 13th Prelection, [Pro 4:18], [Pro 4:19]. "We cannot do better," says Dr. Dodd, "than conclude this chapter with the words of Pelicanus: 'Let a Homer, or a Virgil, go and compare his poetry, if he be able, with the song of this woman; and, if there be anyone who excels in eloquence and learning, let him celebrate the praises and learning of this panegyric, more copiously than I am able.'"

[¶8] For other matters relative to this song I must refer to the two translations which immediately follow; and their authors' notes on them.

[¶9] Dr. Kennicott says, "This celebrated song of triumph is most deservedly admired; though some parts of it are at present very obscure, and others unintelligible in our English version. Besides particular difficulties, there is a general one that pervades the whole; arising as I humbly apprehend, from its being considered as entirely the song of Deborah. It is certain, though very little attended to, that it is said to have been sung by Deborah and By Barak. It is also certain there are in it parts which Deborah could not sing, as well as parts which Barak could not sing; and therefore it seems necessary, in order to form a better judgment of this song, that some probable distribution should be made of it; whilst those words which seem most likely to have been sung by either party should be assigned to their proper name; either to that of Deborah the prophetess, or to that of Barak the captain. "For example: Deborah could not call upon Deborah, exhorting herself to awake, etc., as in [Jdg 5:12]; neither could Barak exhort himself to arise, etc., in the same verse. Again, Barak could not sing, Till I, Deborah, arose a mother in Israel, [Jdg 5:7]; nor could Deborah sing about a damsel or two for every soldier, [Jdg 5:30]; though, indeed, as to this last article, the words are probably misunderstood. There are other parts also which seem to require a different rendering. [Jdg 5:2], For the avenging of Israel, where the address is probably to those who took the lead in Israel on this great occasion, for the address in the next words is to those among the people who were volunteers; as again, [Jdg 5:9]. [Jdg 5:11], [Jdg 5:13-15], have many great difficulties. It seems impossible that ([Jdg 5:23]) any person should be cursed for not coming to the help of Jehovah; to the help of Jehovah against the mighty. Nor does it seem more probable that Jael should, in a sacred song, be styled blessed above women for the death of Sisera. [Jdg 5:26] mentions butter, of which nothing is said in the history in [Jdg 4:19]; nor does the history say that Jael smote off Sisera's head with a hammer, or indeed that she smote it off at all, as here, [Jdg 5:26]. Lastly, as to [Jdg 5:30], there being no authority for rendering the words a damsel or two damsels, and the words in Hebrew being very much like two other words in this same verse, which make excellent sense here, it seems highly probable that they were originally the same. And at the end of this verse, which contains an excellent compliment paid to the needlework of the daughters of Israel, and which is here put with great art in the mouth of Sisera's Mother, the true sense seems to be, the hopes She had of some very rich prize to adorn Her Own Neck." - Kennicott's Remarks, p. 94.

[¶10] Dr. Hales observes, "That the design of this beautiful ode, which breathes the characteristic softness and luxuriance of female composition, seems to be twofold, religious and political; first, to thank God for the recent victory and deliverance of Israel from Canaanitish bondage and oppression; and next, to celebrate the zeal and alacrity with which some of the rulers volunteered their services against the common enemy, and to censure the lukewarmness and apathy of others who stayed at home, and thus betrayed the public cause; and, by this contrast and exposure, to heal those fatal divisions among the tribes, so injurious to the commonwealth. The first verse, as a title, briefly recites the design or subject of the poem, which consists of eight stanzas. "The first opens with a devout thanksgiving, to which she calls the attention of all, friends and foes. "The second describes, in the sublime imagery of Moses, the magnificent scenes at Mount Sinai, Seir, etc., in the deserts of Arabia, while they were led by the Divine power and presence from Egypt to Canaan. "The third states their offending afterwards by their apostasies in serving new gods, as foretold by Moses, [Deu 32:16], [Deu 32:17], and their consequent oppression by their enemies; the insecurity of travelling, and desertion of the villages, during the twenty years that intervened from the death of Shamgar till Jael's exploit, and till Deborah became judge. By this time they were disarmed by the Philistines and Canaanites, and scarcely a sword or a spear was to be seen in Israel. This policy was adopted by the Philistines in Saul's time, [1Sam 13:19], and was probably introduced before, when Shamgar, for want of other weapons, had recourse to an ox-goad, which was only left with them for the purpose of agriculture, [1Sam 13:21]. "The fourth contrasts their present happy state of security from the incursions and depredations of their foes, especially at the watering places, which were most exposed to attacks; owing to the Divine protection which crowned the victory, the zeal and exertions of 'a remnant of the people,' or a part of the tribes, against the enemy, under her conduct; these were the midland tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, including, perhaps, Judah and Simeon, which bordered on Amalek southward, and Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali, northward. "The fifth censures the recreant tribes Reuben and Gad, beyond Jordan eastward; and Dan and Asher, on the Mediterranean Sea westward, who deserted the common cause in consequence of their divisions, and their paltry attachment to their own concerns. "The sixth records the miraculous defeat of the confederate kings of Canaan, who were swept away by the torrents issuing from the different springs of the river Kishon, swollen by uncommon rains. Meroz was probably a place in the neighborhood. "The seventh contains a panegyric on Jael, who is here 'blessed above women,' for attempting an exploit above her sex to perform; and a picturesque description of her giving Sisera buttermilk to drink, which is considered as a great treat at present among the Arabs. Then follows a minute and circumstantial description of her mode of slaying him. "The eighth affords an admirable representation of the impatience of the mother of Sisera at his delay in returning; her sanguine anticipation of his success; in which she dwells, not upon the greatness of his exploits, or the slaughter of his enemies, but upon the circumstances most likely to engage a light female mind, such as captive damsels, and embroidered garments, or the spoils of victory, which she repeats and exemplifies with much grace and elegance. "The unexpected and abrupt apostrophe which concludes the poem, So perish all thine enemies, O Lord! tacitly insinuates the utter disappointment of their vain hopes of conquest and spoil more fully and forcibly than any express declaration in words; while it marks the author's piety, and sole reliance upon the Divine protection of His people, and the glorious prospect of a future and greater deliverance, perhaps, by the Sun of righteousness." - New Anal. Chron. p. 324.

### Introduction

[¶12] The Israelites again do evil, and are delivered into the hands of the Midianites, by whom they are oppressed seven years, [Jdg 6:1], [Jdg 6:2]. Different tribes spoil their harvests, and take away their cattle, [Jdg 6:3-5]. They cry unto the Lord, and he sends them a prophet to reprehend and instruct them, [Jdg 6:6-10]. An angel appears unto Gideon, and gives him commission to deliver Israel, and works several miracles, to prove that he is Divinely appointed to this work, [Jdg 6:11-23]. Gideon builds an altar to the Lord, under the name of Jehovah-shalom; and throws down the altar of Baal, [Jdg 6:24-27]. His townsmen conspire against him; he expostulates with them, and they are pacified, [Jdg 6:28-32]. The Midianites and Amalekites gather together against Israel; Gideon summons Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, who join his standard, [Jdg 6:33-35]. The miracle of the fleece of wool, [Jdg 6:36-40].

### Verse 1

[¶14] Delivered them unto the hand of Midian - The Midianites were among the most ancient and inveterate of the enemies of Israel. They joined with the Moabites to seduce them to idolatry, and were nearly extirpated by them; [Num 31:1-12]. The Midianites dwelt on the eastern borders of the Dead Sea, and their capital was Arnon.

### Verse 2

[¶16] Made them the dens which are in the mountains - Nothing can give a more distressing description of the state of the Israelites than what is here related. They durst not reside in the plain country, but were obliged to betake themselves to dens and caves of the mountains, and live like wild beasts, and were hunted like them by their adversaries.

### Verse 3

[¶18] Children of the East - Probably those who inhabited Arabia Deserta, Ishmaelites.

### Verse 4

[¶20] Encamped against them - Wandering hordes of Midianites, Amalekites, and Ishmaelites came, in the times of harvest and autumn, and carried away their crops, their fruit, and their cattle. And they appear to have come early, encamped in the plains, and watched the crops till they were ready to be carried off. This is frequently the case even to the present day.

[¶21] Till thou come unto Gaza - That is, the whole breadth of the land, from Jordan to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Thus the whole land was ravaged, and the inhabitants deprived of the necessaries of life.

### Verse 5

[¶23] They came up with their cattle and their tents - All this proves that they were different tribes of wanderers who had no fixed residence; but, like their descendants the Bedouins or wandering Arabs, removed from place to place to get prey for themselves and forage for their cattle.

### Verse 8

[¶25] The Lord sent a prophet - The Jews say that this was Phinehas; but it is more likely that it was some prophet or teacher raised up by the Lord to warn and instruct them. Such were his witnesses, and they were raised up from time to time to declare the counsel of God to his rebellious people.

### Verse 11

[¶27] There came an angel of the Lord - The prophet came to teach and exhort, the angel comes to confirm the word of the prophet, to call and commission him who was intended to be their deliverer, and to work miracles, in order to inspire him with supernatural courage and a confidence of success.

[¶28] Ophrah - Or Ephra, was a city, or village rather, in the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan.

[¶29] His son Gideon threshed wheat - This is not the only instance in which a man taken from agricultural employments was made general of an army, and the deliverer of his country. Shamgar was evidently a ploughman, and with his ox-goad he slew many Philistines, and became one of the deliverers of Israel. Cincinnatus was taken from the plough, and was made dictator and commander-in-chief of the Roman armies. There is a great similarity between his case and that of Gideon.

[¶30] Threshed wheat by the winepress - This was a place of privacy; he could not make a threshing-floor in open day as the custom was, and bring either the wheel over the grain, or tread it out with the feet of the oxen, for fear of the Midianites, who were accustomed to come and take it away as soon as threshed. He got a few sheaves from the field, and brought them home to have them privately threshed for the support of the family. As there could be no vintage among the Israelites in their present distressed circumstances, the winepress would never be suspected by the Midianites to be the place of threshing corn.

### Verse 12

[¶32] The Lord is with thee - "The Word of the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." - Targum. It appears that Gideon had proved himself, on former occasions, to be a man of courage and personal prowess; and this would naturally excite the confidence of his countrymen. God chooses for his work those instruments which, in the course of his operations in nature and providence, he has qualified for his purpose. The instruments thus chosen are generally unlikely, but they will be ever found the best qualified for the Divine employment.

### Verse 13

[¶34] And Gideon said unto him - This speech is remarkable for its energy and simplicity; it shows indeed a measure of despondency, but not more than the circumstances of the case justified.

### Verse 14

[¶36] Go in this thy might - What does the angel mean? He had just stated that Jehovah was with him; and he now says, Go in This thy might, i.e., in the might of Jehovah, who is with thee.

### Verse 15

[¶38] Wherewith shall I save Israel? - I have neither men nor money.

[¶39] Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh - הנה אלפי הדל, Behold, my thousand is impoverished. Tribes were anciently divided into tens, and fifties, and hundreds, and thousands; the thousands therefore marked grand divisions, and consequently numerous families; Gideon here intimates that the families of which he made a part were very much diminished. But if we take אלפי alpey for the contracted form of the plural, which is frequently in Hebrew nouns joined with a verb in the singular, then the translation will be, "The thousands in Manasseh are thinned;" i.e., this tribe is greatly reduced, and can do little against their enemies.

### Verse 16

[¶41] Thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man - Thou shalt as surely conquer all their host as if thou hadst but one man to contend with; or, Thou shalt destroy them to a man.

### Verse 17

[¶43] Show me a sign - Work a miracle, that I may know that thou hast wisdom and power sufficient to authorize and quality me for the work.

## 253. Judges · 9 of 29

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### Verse 18

[¶1] And bring forth my present - My minchah; generally an offering of bread, wine, oil, flour, and such like. It seems from this that Gideon supposed the person to whom he spoke to be a Divine person. Nevertheless, what he prepared and brought out appears to be intended simply as an entertainment to refresh a respectable stranger.

### Verse 19

[¶3] Made ready a kid - the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot - The manner in which the Arabs entertain strangers will cast light on this verse. Dr. Shaw observes: "Besides a bowl of milk, and a basket of figs, raisins, or dates, which upon our arrival were presented to us to stay our appetite, the master of the tent fetched us from his flock according to the number of our company, a kid or a goat, a lamb or a sheep; half of which was immediately seethed by his wife, and served up with cucasoe; the rest was made kab-ab, i.e., cut to pieces and roasted, which we reserved for our breakfast or dinner next day." May we not suppose, says Mr. Harmer, that Gideon, presenting some slight refreshment to the supposed prophet, according to the present Arab mode, desired him to stay till he could provide something more substantial; that he immediately killed a kid, seethed part of it, and, when ready, brought out the stewed meat in a pot, with unleavened cakes of bread which he had baked; and the other part, the kab-ab, in a basket, for him to carry with him for some after-repast in his journey. See Shaw's and Pococke's Travels, and Harmer's Observations.

[¶4] Brought it out unto him under the oak - Probably where he had a tent, which, with the shade of the oak, sheltered them from the heat of the sun, and yet afforded the privilege of the refreshing breeze. Under a shade in the open air the Arabs, to the present day, are accustomed to receive their guests.

### Verse 20

[¶6] Take the flesh, etc. - The angel intended to make the flesh and bread an offering to God, and the broth a libation.

### Verse 21

[¶8] The angel - put forth the end of the staff - He appeared like a traveler with a staff in his hand; this he put forth, and having touched the flesh, fire rose out of the rock and consumed it. Here was the most evident proof of supernatural agency.

[¶9] Then the angel - departed out of his sight - Though the angel vanished out of his sight, yet God continued to converse with him either by secret inspiration in his own heart, or by an audible voice.

### Verse 22

[¶11] Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen - This is an elliptical sentence, a natural expression of the distressed state of Gideon's mind: as if he had said, Have mercy on me, O Lord God! else I shall die; because I have seen an angel of Jehovah face to face. We have frequently seen that it was a prevalent sentiment, as well before as under the law, that if any man saw God, or his representative angel he must surely die. On this account Gideon is alarmed, and prays for his life. This notion prevailed among the heathens, and we find an instance of it in the fable of Jupiter and Semele. She wished to see his glory; she saw it, and was struck dead by the effulgence. See the notes on [Exo 33:20]. We find that a similar opinion prevailed very anciently among the Greeks. In the hymn of Callimachus, Εις Λουτρα της Παλλαδος, ver. 100, are these words: - Κρονιοι δ' ὡδε λεγοντι νομοι· Ὁς κε τιν' αθανατων, ὁκα μη θεος αυτος ἑληται, Αθρησῃ, μισθῳ τουτον ιδειν μεγαλῳ. "The laws of Saturn enact, that if any man see any of the immortal gods, unless that god himself shall choose it, he shall pay dearly for that sight."

### Verse 23

[¶13] Fear not: thou shalt not die - Here the discovery is made by God himself: Gideon is not curiously prying into forbidden mysteries, therefore he shall not die.

### Verse 24

[¶15] Gideon built an altar - and called it Jehovah-shalom - The words יהוה שלום Yehovah shalom signify The Lord is my peace, or The peace of Jehovah; and this name he gave the altar, in reference to what God had said, [Jdg 6:23], Peace be unto thee, שלום לך shalom lecha, "Peace to thee;" which implied, not only a wish, but a prediction of the prosperous issue of the enterprise in which he was about to engage. It is likely that this is the altar which is mentioned in [Jdg 6:26], and is spoken of here merely by anticipation.

### Verse 25

[¶17] Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock - There is some difficulty in this verse, for, according to the Hebrew text, two bullocks are mentioned here; but there is only one mentioned in [Jdg 6:26], [Jdg 6:28]. But what was this second bullock? Some think that it was a bullock that was fattened in order to be offered in sacrifice to Baal. This is very probable, as the second bullock is so particularly distinguished from another which belonged to Gideon's father. As the altar was built upon the ground of Joash, yet appears to have been public property, (see [Jdg 6:29], [Jdg 6:30]), so this second ox was probably reared and fattened at the expense of the men of that village, else why should they so particularly resent its being offered to Jehovah?

### Verse 26

[¶19] With the wood of the grove - It is probable that אשרה Asherah here signifies Astarte; and that there was a wooden image of this goddess on the altar of Baal. Baal-peor was the same as Priapus, Astarte as Venus; these two impure idols were proper enough for the same altar. In early times, and among rude people, the images of the gods were made of wood. This is the case still with the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, with the Indians of America, and with the inhabitants of Ceylon: many of the images of Budhoo are of wood. The Scandinavians also had wooden gods.

### Verse 27

[¶21] He feared his father's household - So it appears that his father was an idolater: but as Gideon had ten men of his own servants whom he could trust in this matter, it is probable that he had preserved the true faith, and had not bowed his knee to the image of Baal.

### Verse 28

[¶23] The second bullock was offered - It appears that the second bullock was offered because it was just seven years old, [Jdg 6:25], being calved about the time that the Midianitish oppression began; and it was now to be slain to indicate that their slavery should end with its life. The young bullock, [Jdg 6:25], is supposed to have been offered for a peace-offering; the bullock of seven years old, for a burnt-offering.

### Verse 29

[¶25] Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing - They fixed on him the more readily because they knew he had not joined with them in their idolatrous worship.

### Verse 30

[¶27] The men of the city said - They all felt an interest in the continuance of rites in which they had often many sensual gratifications. Baal and Ashtaroth would have more worshippers than the true God, because their rites were more adapted to the fallen nature of man.

### Verse 31

[¶29] Will ye plead for Baal? - The words are very emphatic "Will ye plead in earnest תריבן for Baal? Will ye תושיען really save him? If he be God, אלהים Elohim, let him contend for himself, seeing his altar is thrown down." The paragogic letters in the words plead and save greatly increase the sense. Joash could not slay his son; but he was satisfied he had insulted Baal: if Baal were the true God, he would avenge his own injured honor. This was a sentiment among the heathens. Thus Tacitus, lib. i., c. 73, A.U.C. 768, mentioning the letter of Tiberius to the consuls in behalf of Cassius and Rubrius, two Roman knights, one of whom was accused of having sold a statue of Augustus in the auction of his gardens; and the other, of having sworn falsely by the name of Augustus, who had been deified by the senate; among other things makes him say: Non ideo decretum patri suo coelum, ut in perniciem civium is honor verteretur. Nec contra religiones fieri quod effigies ejus, utalia nu minum simulachra, venditionibus hortorum et domuum accedant. Jusjurandum perinde aestimandum quam si Jovem fefellisset: deorum injuriae diis curae - "That Divine honors were not decreed to his father (Augustus) to lay snares for the citizens; and if his statue, in common with the images of the gods in general, was put up to sale with the houses and gardens, it could not be considered an injury to religion. That any false oath must be considered as an attempt to deceive Jupiter himself; but the gods themselves must take cognizance of the injuries done unto them." Livy has a similar sentiment, Hist. lib. x., c. 6, where, speaking of some attempts made to increase the number of the augurs out of the commons, with which the senators were displeased, he says: Simulabant ad deos id magis, quam ad se pertinere; ipsos visuros, ne sacra sua polluantur. - "They pretended that these things belonged more to the gods than themselves; and that they would take care that their sacred rites were not polluted."

### Verse 32

[¶31] He called him Jerubbaal - That is, Let Baal contend; changed, [2Sam 11:21], into Jerubbesheth, he shall contend against confusion or shame; thus changing baal, lord, into bosheth, confusion or ignominy. Some think that Jerubbaal was the same with Jerombalus, who, according to Sanchoniatho and Porphyry, was a priest of Jevo. But the history of Sanchoniatho is probably a forgery of Porphyry himself, and worthy of no credit.

### Verse 33

[¶33] Then all the Midianites - Hearing of what Gideon had done, and apprehending that this might be a forerunner of attempts to regain their liberty, they formed a general association against Israel.

### Verse 34

[¶35] The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon - He was endued with preternatural courage and wisdom.

### Verse 36

[¶37] If thou wilt save Israel - Gideon was very bold, and God was very condescending. But probably the request itself was suggested by the Divine Spirit. On the miracle of the fleece, dew, and dry ground, Origen, in his eighth homily on the book of Judges, has many curious and interesting thoughts, I shall insert the substance of the whole: - The fleece is the Jewish nation. The fleece covered with dew, while all around is dry, the Jewish nation favored with the law and the prophets. The fleece dry, the Jewish nation cast off for rejecting the Gospel. All around watered, the Gospel preached to the Gentiles. and they converted to God. The fleece on the threshing-floor, the Jewish people in the land of Judea, winnowed, purged, and fanned by the Gospel. The dew wrung out into the bowl, the doctrines of Christianity, extracted from the Jewish writings, shadowed forth by Christ's pouring water into a basin, and washing the disciples' feet. The pious father concludes that he has now wrung this water out of the fleece of the book of Judges, as he hopes by and by to do out of the fleece of the book of Kings, and out of the fleece of the book of Isaiah or Jeremiah; and he has received it into the basin of his heart, and there conceived its true sense; and is desirous to wash the feet of his brethren, that they may be able to walk in the way of the preparation of the Gospel of peace. - Origen, Op. vol. ii., p. 475, edit. Benedict. All this to some will doubtless appear trifling; but it is not too much to say that scarcely any pious mind can consider the homily of this excellent man without drinking into a measure of the same spirit, so much sincerity, deep piety, and unction, appear throughout the whole: yet as I do not follow such practices, I cannot recommend them. Of dealers in such small wares, we have many that imitate Benjamin Keach, but few that come nigh to Origen.

### Introduction

[¶39] The Lord commands Gideon to make a selection of a small number of his men to go against the Midianites. Three hundred only are selected; and into the hands of these God promises to deliver the whole Midianitish host, [Jdg 7:1-8]. Gideon is directed to go down unto the host in the night, that he may be encouraged on hearing what they say, [Jdg 7:9-12]. He obeys, and hears a Midianite tell a remarkable dream unto his fellow, which predicted the success of his attack, [Jdg 7:13-15]. He takes encouragement, divides his men into three companies, and gives each a trumpet with a lighted lamp concealed in a pitcher, with directions how to use them, [Jdg 7:16-18]. They come to the Midianitish camp at night, when all suddenly blowing their trumpets and exposing their lamps, the Midianites are thrown into confusion, fly, and are stopped by the Ephraimites at the passage of Jordan, and slain, [Jdg 7:19-24]. Oreb and Zeeb, two Midianitish princes, are slain, [Jdg 7:25].

### Verse 1

[¶41] Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon - It appears that Jerubbaal was now a surname of Gideon, from the circumstance mentioned [Jdg 6:32]. See [Jdg 8:35].

[¶42] The well of Harod - If this was a town or village, it is nowhere else mentioned. Probably, as חרד charad signifies to shake or tremble through fear, the fountain in question may have had its name from the terror and panic with which the Midianitish host was seized at this place.

### Verse 2

[¶44] The people that are with thee are too many - Had he led up a numerous host against his enemies, the excellence of the power by which they were discomfited might have appeared to be of man and not of God. By the manner in which this whole transaction was conducted, both the Israelites and Midianites must see that the thing was of God. This would inspire the Israelites with confidence, and the Midianites with fear.

## 254. Judges · 10 of 29

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### Verse 3

[¶1] Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return - from Mount Gilead - Gideon was certainly not at Mount Gilead at this time, but rather near Mount Gilboa. Gilead was on the other side of Jordan. Calmet thinks there must either have been two Gileads, which does not from the Scripture appear to be the case, or that the Hebrew text is here corrupted, and that for Gilead we should read Gilboa. This reading, though adopted by Houbigant, is not countenanced by any MS., nor by any of the versions. Dr. Hales endeavors to reconcile the whole, by the supposition that there were in Gideon's army many of the eastern Manassites, who came from Mount Gilead; and that these probably were more afraid of their neighbors, the Midianites, than the western tribes were; and therefore proposes to read the text thus: Whosoever from Mount Gilead is fearful and afraid, let him return (home) and depart early. So there returned (home) twenty-two thousand of the people. Perhaps this is on the whole the best method of solving this difficulty.

[¶2] There returned of the people twenty and two thousand - Gideon's army was at this time thirty-two thousand strong, and after the above address twenty-two thousand went away. How astonishing, that in thirty-two thousand men there should be found not less than twenty-two thousand poltroons, who would neither fight for God nor their oppressed country! A state of slavery debases the mind of man, and renders it incapable of being influenced by the pure principles of patriotism or religion. In behalf of the army of Gideon we may say, if the best appointed armies in Europe had the same address, bona fide, from their generals as the Israelites had, at least an equal proportion would return home.

### Verse 5

[¶4] Every one that lappeth of the water - as a dog - The original word ילק yalok is precisely the sound which a dog makes when he is drinking.

### Verse 6

[¶6] The number of them that lapped - From this account it appears that some of the people went down on their knees, and putting their mouths to the water, sucked up what they needed; the others stooped down, and taking up water in the hollow of their hands, applied it to their mouth.

### Verse 8

[¶8] So the people took victuals - The three hundred men that he reserved took the victuals necessary for the day's expenditure, while the others were dismissed to their tents and their houses as they thought proper.

### Verse 9

[¶10] I have delivered it into thine hand - I have determined to do it, and it is as sure as if it were done.

### Verse 11

[¶12] Unto the outside of the armed men - No doubt the vast multitudes of Midianites, etc., which came merely for plunder, were wholly unarmed; but they had a guard of armed men, as all the caravans have, and those guards were on the outside of the multitudes; it was to these that Gideon and his servant came.

### Verse 13

[¶14] Told a dream - Both the dream and the interpretation were inspired by God for the purpose of increasing the confidence of Gideon, and appalling his enemies.

### Verse 14

[¶16] Into his hand hath God delivered Midian - This is a full proof that God had inspired both the dream and its interpretation.

### Verse 16

[¶18] He divided the three hundred men - Though the victory was to be from the Lord, yet he knew that he ought to use prudential means; and those which he employed on this occasion were the best calculated to answer the end. If he had not used these means, it is not likely that God would have delivered the Midianites into his hands. Sometimes, even in working a miracle, God will have natural means used: Go, dip thyself seven times in Jordan. Go, wash in the pool Siloam.

### Verse 18

[¶20] The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon - The word חרב chereb, "sword," is not found in this verse, though it is necessarily implied, and is found in [Jdg 7:20]. But it is found in this place in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, and in eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The reading appears to be genuine.

### Verse 20

[¶22] Blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers - How astonishing must the effect be, in a dark night, of the sudden glare of three hundred torches, darting their splendor, in the same instant, on the half-awakened eyes of the terrified Midianites, accompanied with the clangour of three hundred trumpets, alternately mingled with the thundering shout of חרב ליהוה ולגדעון chereb layhovah ulegidon, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!" Origen, in his ninth homily on this book, makes these three hundred men types of the preachers of the Gospel; their trumpets of the preaching of Christ crucified; and their lights or torches, of the holy conduct of righteous men. In some verses of an ancient author, attributed to Tertullian, and written against the heretic Marcion, Gideon's three hundred men are represented as horsemen; and in this number he finds the mystery of the cross; because the Greek letter Τ, tau, which is the numeral for 300, is itself the sign of the cross. The verses, which may be found in vol. v. of the Pisaurian Collection of the Latin heathen and Christian poets, Advers, Marcion., lib. 3, ver. 18, as being very curious, and not often to be met with, I shall here subjoin: -

[¶23] Ex quibus ut Gideon dux agminis, acer in hostem,

[¶24] Non virtute sua tutelam acquirere genti

[¶25] Firmatusque fide signum petit excita menti,

[¶26] Quo vel non posset, vel posset vincere bellum,

[¶27] Vellus ut in noctem positum de rore maderet,

[¶28] Et tellus omnis circum siccata jaceret,

[¶29] Hoc inimicorum palmam coalescere mundo;

[¶30] Atque iterum solo remanenti vellere sicco,

[¶31] Hoc eadem tellus roraret nocte liquore,

[¶32] Hoc etenim signo praedonum stravit acervos.

[¶33] Congressus populo Christi, sine milite multo:

[¶34] Tercenteno equite (numerus Tau littera Graeca)

[¶35] Armatis facibusque et cornibus ore canentum.

[¶36] Vellus erat populus ovium de semine sancto.

[¶37] Nam tellus variae gentes fusaeque per orbem,

[¶38] Verbum quod nutrit, sed nox est mortis imago.

[¶39] Tau signum crucis et cornu praeconia vitae,

[¶40] Lucentesque faces in lychno spiritus ardens. "Gideon, keen in arms, was captain of the host,

[¶41] And acquired redemption for his people, but not by his own power.

[¶42] Being strengthened in faith, his heart was influenced to ask a sign

[¶43] By which he might know whether or not he should be successful in battle.

[¶44] A fleece was so placed by night, that it might be wet with dew;

[¶45] And all the surrounding earth remain dry.

## 255. Judges · 11 of 29

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[¶0] By this he was to learn that he should gain the victory over his enemies.

[¶1] The sign was reversed; the fleece remaining dry while all the ground was moist;

[¶2] And by this sign he was to know that he should slaughter those troops of robbers.

[¶3] The people of Christ conquer without any military force;

[¶4] Three hundred horsemen, (for the Greek letter T, tau, is the emblem of the number),

[¶5] Armed with torches, and blowing with trumpets.

[¶6] The fleece of the sheep are the people sprung from the Messiah,

[¶7] And the earth are the various nations dispersed over the world.

[¶8] It is the word which nourishes; but might is the image of death.

[¶9] Tau is the sign of the cross; and the trumpets, the emblems of the heralds of life;

[¶10] And the burning torches in the pitchers, the emblems of the Holy Spirit."

[¶11] We see here what abstruse meanings a strong imagination, assisted by a little piety, may extract from what was never intended to be understood as a mystery.

### Verse 21

[¶13] They stood every man in his place - Each of the three companies kept its station, and continued to sound their trumpets. The Midianites seeing this, and believing that they were the trumpets of a numerous army which had then penetrated their camp, were thrown instantly into confusion; and supposing that their enemies were in the midst of them, they turned their swords against every man they met, while at the same time they endeavored to escape for their lives. No stratagem was ever better imagined, better executed, or more completely successful.

### Verse 22

[¶15] Fled to Beth-shittah - This is no where else mentioned in Scripture.

[¶16] Zererath - This and Tabbath are nowhere else to be found.

[¶17] Abel-meholah - This was the birth-place of the prophet Elisha, [1Kgs 19:16]. It was beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Manasseh, [1Kgs 4:12]. The Zartanah, mentioned in this last quoted verse, was probably the same as Zererath. Its situation corresponds well with Abel-meholah.

### Verse 23

[¶19] The men of Israel gathered - It is very likely that these were some persons whom Gideon had sent home the day before, who now hearing that the Midianites were routed, went immediately in pursuit.

### Verse 24

[¶21] Take before them the waters unto Beth-barah - This is probably the same place as that mentioned [Joh 1:28], where the Hebrews forded Jordan under the direction of Joshua. To this place the Midianites directed their flight that they might escape into their own country; and here, being met by the Ephraimites, they appear to have been totally overthrown, and their two generals taken.

### Verse 25

[¶23] They slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb - These two generals had taken shelter, one in the cavern of the rock, the other in the vat of a winepress; both of which places were from this circumstance, afterwards called by their names.

[¶24] Brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon - Oreb signifies a raven and Zeeb a wolf. In all ancient nations we find generals and princes taking their names from both birds and beasts; the Romans had their Gracchi, jackdaws; Corvini, crows; Aquilini, eagles, etc. We have the same in our Crows, Wolfs, Lyons, Hawkes, Bulls, Kidds, etc. Among barbarous nations the head of the conquered chief was often brought to the conqueror. Pompey's head was brought to Caesar; Cicero's head, to Mark Antony; the heads of Ahab's children, to Jehu, etc. These barbarities are not often practiced now, except among the Mohammedans or the savages of Africa and America; and for the credit of human nature it is a pity that such barbarous atrocities had ever been committed.

### Introduction

[¶26] The Ephraimites are angry with Gideon because he did not call them particularly to his assistance; he pacifies them, [Jdg 8:1-3]. Gideon and his three hundred men pass over Jordan, pursuing the Midianites; and, being faint, ask victuals from the princes of Succoth, but are refused, [Jdg 8:4-7]. They make the like application to the people of Penuel, and are also refused, [Jdg 8:8], [Jdg 8:9]. Gideon defeats Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, and takes them prisoners, [Jdg 8:10-12]. He chastises the men of Succoth and Penuel, [Jdg 8:13-17]. He slays Zebah and Zalmunna, who had killed his brethren, [Jdg 8:18-21]. The Israelites offer him the kingdom, which he refuses, [Jdg 8:22], [Jdg 8:23]. He requires from them the gold rings which they had taken from the Ishmaelites, and makes an ephod, which he sets up at Ophrah; and it became an instrument of idolatry, [Jdg 8:24-27]. The land enjoys peace forty years; Gideon dies, having seventy-one sons, [Jdg 8:28-32]. The Israelites fall into idolatry, and forget their obligations to Gideon's family, [Jdg 8:33-35].

### Verse 1

[¶28] The men of Ephraim said - This account is no doubt displaced; for what is mentioned here could not have taken place till the return of Gideon from the pursuit of the Midianites; for he had not yet passed Jordan, [Jdg 8:4]. And it was when he was beyond that river that the Ephraimites brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to him, [Jdg 7:25].

### Verse 2

[¶30] Is not the gleaning, etc. - That is, The Ephraimites have performed more important services than Gideon and his men; and he supports the assertion by observing that it was they who took the two Midianitish generals, having discomfited their hosts at the passes of Jordan.

### Verse 3

[¶32] Then their anger was abated - A soft answer turneth away wrath. He might have said that he could place but little dependence on his brethren when, through faint-heartedness, 22,000 left him at one time; but he passed this by, and took a more excellent way.

### Verse 4

[¶34] Faint, yet pursuing - The Vulgate paraphrases this, et prae lassitudine, fugientes persequi non poterant; "and, through fatigue, unable to pursue the fugitives."

### Verse 5

[¶36] Give, I pray you, loaves of bread - As Gideon was engaged in the common cause of Israel, he had a right to expect succor from the people at large. His request to the men of Succoth and Penuel was both just and reasonable.

### Verse 6

[¶38] Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand - They feared to help Gideon, lest, if he should be overpowered, the Midianites would revenge it upon them; and they dared not trust God.

### Verse 7

[¶40] I will tear your flesh - What this punishment consisted in I cannot say; it must mean a severe punishment: as if he had said, I will thresh your flesh with briers and thorns, as corn is threshed out with threshing instruments; or, Ye shall be trodden down under the feet of my victorious army, as the corn is trodden out with the feet of the ox. Succoth was beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Gad. Penuel was also in the same tribe, and not far distant from Succoth.

### Verse 9

[¶42] I will break down this tower - Probably they had not only denied him, but insultingly pointed to a tower in which their chief defense lay; and intimated to him that he might do his worst, for they could amply defend themselves.

### Verse 10

[¶44] Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor - If this were a place, it is nowhere else mentioned in Scripture. Some contend that קרקר karkor signifies rest; and thus the Vulgate understood it: Zebah and Zalmunna requiescebant, rested, with all their army. And this seems the most likely, for it is said, [Jdg 8:11], that Gideon smote the host, for the host was secure.

## 256. Judges · 12 of 29

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/256/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/256/#p-N

### Verse 13

[¶1] Returned from battle before the sun was up - This does not appear to be a proper translation of מלמעלה החרס milmaaleh hechares. It should be rendered from the ascent of Chares: this is the reading of the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic.

### Verse 14

[¶3] He described unto him the princes of Succoth - The young man probably gave him the names of seventy persons, the chief men of Succoth, who were those who were most concerned in refusing him and his men the refreshment he requested.

### Verse 16

[¶5] He taught the men of Succoth - Instead of וידע he taught, Houbigant reads וידש he tore; and this is not only agreeable to what Gideon had threatened, [Jdg 8:7], but is supported by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The Hebrew text might have been easily corrupted in this place by the change of ש shin into ע ain, letters very similar to each other.

### Verse 18

[¶7] What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? - We have no antecedent to this question; and are obliged to conjecture one: it seems as if Zebah and Zalmunna had massacred the family of Gideon, while he was absent on this expedition. Gideon had heard some confused account of it, and now questions them concerning the fact. They boldly acknowledge it, and describe the persons whom they slew, by which he found they were his own brethren. This determines him to avenge their death by slaying the Midianitish kings, whom he otherwise was inclined to save. He might have heard that his brethren had been taken prisoners, and might have hoped to have exchanged them for the kings now in his hand; but when he found they had been all slain, he decrees the death of their murderers. There is something in this account similar to that in the 12th Aeneis of Virgil: - When Turnus was overthrown, and supplicated for his life, and Aeneas was inclined to spare him; he saw the belt of his friend Pallas, whom Turnus had slain, and which he now wore as a trophy: this immediately determined the Trojan to sacrifice the life of Turnus to the manes of his friend. The story is well told: -

[¶8] Stetit acer in armis

[¶9] Aeneas, volvens oculos, dextramque repressit.

[¶10] Et jam jamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo

[¶11] Coeperat: infelix humero cum apparuit ingens

[¶12] Balteus, et notis fulserunt cingula bullis

[¶13] Pallantis pueri; victum quem vulnere Turnus

[¶14] Straverat, atque humeris inimicum insigne gerebat.

[¶15] Ille oculis postquam saevi monumenta doloris

[¶16] Exuviasque hausit: furiis accensus et ira

[¶17] Terribilis: Tune hinc spoliis indute meorum

[¶18] Eripiare mihi? - Pallas, te hoc vulnere Pallas

[¶19] Immolat; et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit.

[¶20] Hoc dicens furrum adverso sub pectore condit Fervidus.

[¶21] Virg. Aen. lib. xii., ver. 938. "In deep suspense the Trojan seem'd to stand,

[¶22] And, just prepared to strike, repress'd his hand.

[¶23] He roll'd his eyes, and every moment felt

[¶24] His manly soul with more compassion melt.

[¶25] When, casting down a casual glance, he spied

[¶26] The golden belt that glitter'd on his side;

[¶27] The fatal spoils which haughty Turnus tore

[¶28] From dying Pallas, and in triumph wore.

[¶29] Then roused anew to wrath, he loudly cries, (Flames, while he spoke, came flashing from his eyes),

[¶30] Traitor! dost thou! dost thou to grace pretend,

[¶31] Clad, as thou art, in trophies of my friend? -

[¶32] To his sad soul a grateful offering go; 'Tis Pallas, Pallas gives this deadly blow.

[¶33] He rais'd his arm aloft; and at the word,

[¶34] Deep in his bosom drove the shining sword."

[¶35] Dryden.

[¶36] The same principle impels Gideon to slay Zebah and Zalmunna which induced Aeneas to kill Turnus: and perhaps the ornaments which he took from their camels' necks, [Jdg 8:21], were some of the spoils of his slaughtered brethren.

### Verse 20

[¶38] He said unto Jether his first-born - By the ancient laws of war, prisoners taken in war might be either slain, sold, or kept for slaves. To put a captive enemy to death no executioner was required. Gideon slays Zebah and Zalmunna with his own hand. So Samuel is said to have hewn Agag in pieces, [1Sam 15:33]. Benaiah slew Joab, [1Kgs 2:25]. Saul orders his guards to slay the priests who had contributed to the escape of David, [1Sam 22:17]; and David caused one of his attendants to slay the Amalekite who pretended to have slain Saul, [2Sam 1:15].

### Verse 21

[¶40] Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise, thou, and fall upon us - It was disgraceful to fall by the hands of a child; and the death occasioned by the blows of such a person must be much more lingering and tormenting. Some have even employed children to despatch captives. Civilis, a Roman knight, headed a revolt of the Gauls against Rome, in the year of the city 824. Of him Tacitus says, Hist. lib. iv., c. 61: Ferebatur parvulo filio quosdam captivorum sagittis jaculisque puerilibus figendos obtulisse: "He is said to have given to his little son some prisoners, as butts to be shot at with little darts and arrows." This was for their greater torment and dishonor; and to inure his child to blood! Could any thing like this have been the design of Gideon?

[¶41] The ornaments that were on their camels' necks. - The heads, necks, bodies, and legs of camels, horses, and elephants, are highly ornamented in the eastern countries, and indeed this was common, from the remotest antiquity, in all countries. Virgil refers to it as a thing long before his time, and thus describes the horses given by King Latinus to the ambassadors of Aeneas. - Aen. lib. vii., ver. 274.

[¶42] Haec effatus equos numero pater eligit omni.

[¶43] Stabant tercentum nitidi in praesepibus altis:

[¶44] Omnibus extemplo Teucris jubet ordine duci

## 257. Judges · 13 of 29

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[¶0] Instratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis. Aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent: Tecti auro fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum. "He said, and order'd steeds to mount the band: In lofty stalls three hundred coursers stand; Their shining sides with crimson cover'd o'er; The sprightly steeds embroider'd trappings wore, With golden chains, refulgent to behold: Gold were their bridles, and they champ'd on gold."

[¶1] Pitt.

[¶2] Instead of ornaments, the Septuagint translate τους μηνισκους, the crescents or half-moons; and this is followed by the Syriac and Arabic. The worship of the moon was very ancient; and, with that of the sun, constituted the earliest idolatry of mankind. We learn from [Jdg 8:24] that the Ishmaelites, or Arabs, as they are termed by the Targum, Syriac, and Arabic, had golden ear-rings, and probably a crescent in each; for it is well known that the Ishmaelites, and the Arabs who descended from them, were addicted very early to the worship of the moon; and so attached were they to this superstition, that although Mohammed destroyed the idolatrous use of the crescent, yet it was universally borne in their ensigns, and on the tops of their mosques, as well as in various ornaments.

### Verse 22

[¶4] Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son - That is, Become our king, and let the crown be hereditary in thy family. What a weak, foolish, and inconstant people were these! As yet their government was a theocracy; and now, dazzled with the success of a man who was only an instrument in the hands of God to deliver them from their enemies, they wish to throw off the Divine yoke, and shackle themselves with an unlimited hereditary monarchy! An unlimited monarchy is a curse; a limited monarchy may be a blessing: the latter may be an appointment of God; the former never can. Those who cast off their allegiance to their Maker, are guilty of folly and extravagance of every kind.

### Verse 23

[¶6] The Lord shall rule over you - Few with such power at their command would have acted as Gideon. His speech calls them back to their first principles, and should have excited in them both shame and contrition. How different is this speech from that of Oliver Cromwell when the commons offered him the crown of England!

### Verse 24

[¶8] Give me every man the ear-rings of his prey - The spoils taken from their enemies in this warfare. This is a transaction very like to that of the Israelites and Aaron; when they brought him their golden ear-rings, out of which he made the molten calf, [Exo 32:2], etc. Whether Gideon designed this ephod for an instrument of worship, or merely as a trophy, is not very clear. It is most likely that he had intended to establish a place of worship at Ophrah; and he took this occasion to provide the proper sacerdotal vestments.

### Verse 26

[¶10] The weight of the golden ear-rings - was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold - Taking the shekel at half an ounce weight, the sum of the gold collected in ear-rings was seventy pounds ten ounces; and worth, as gold now rates, about 3,100 sterling. This computation of the weight of the golden ear-rings, taken from the slaughtered Ishmaelites, will bring to the reader's mind the slaughter of the Roman knights by the Carthaginians at the battle of Cannae, from whose spoils Hannibal sent three bushels of gold rings to the city of Carthage!

### Verse 27

[¶12] Gideon made an ephod thereof - That is, he made an ephod out of this mass of gold; but he could not employ it all in making this one garment, for it is not likely that any man could wear a coat of nearly one hundred pounds weight. It is likely that he made a whole tabernacle service in miniature out of this gold.

[¶13] All Israel went thither a whoring after it - This form of speech often occurs, and has been often explained. The whole Jewish nation is represented as being united to God as a wife is to her husband. Any act of idolatry is considered as a breach of their covenant with God, as an act of whoredom is the breach of the marriage agreement between man and wife. God calls himself the husband of the Jewish nation, and their idolatries acts of whoredom, adultery, and fornication. All Israel paid idolatrous worship to the ephod or sacerdotal establishment made by Gideon at Ophrah, and this is called going a whoring after it; see on [Jdg 8:33] (note). For a description of the ephod, see [Exo 25:7] (note); and for the other garments of the priests, see [Exo 28:4] (note), etc.

### Verse 28

[¶15] Forty years in the days of Gideon - The Midianites were so completely humbled that they could make head no more against Israel during the forty years in which the government of Gideon lasted.

### Verse 31

[¶17] His concubine - A lawful but secondary wife, whose children could not inherit.

[¶18] Whose name he called Abimelech - That is, my father is king, or my father hath reigned. This name was doubtless given by the mother, and so it should be understood here; she wished to raise her son to the supreme government, and therefore gave him a name which might serve to stimulate him to seek that which she hoped he should enjoy in his father's right. See the following chapter, Judges 9 (note).

### Verse 32

[¶20] Gideon - died in a good old age - Supposed to have been A.M. 2799; b.c. 1205.

### Verse 33

[¶22] A whoring after Baalim - This term has probably a different meaning here from what it has [Jdg 8:7]; for it is very likely that in most parts of the pagan worship there were many impure rites, so that going a whoring after Baalim may be taken in a literal sense.

[¶23] Baal-berith - Literally, the lord of the covenant; the same as Jupiter faederis, or Mercury, among the Romans; the deity whose business it was to preside over compacts, leagues, treaties, covenants, etc. Some of the versions understand it as if the Israelites had made a covenant or agreement to have Baal for their god; so the Vulgate: Percusseruntque cum Baal faedus, ut esset eis in deum.

### Verse 34

[¶25] Remembered not the Lord their God - They attributed their deliverance to some other cause, and did not give him the glory of their salvation.

### Verse 35

[¶27] Neither showed they kindness to the house of - Gideon - They were both unthankful and unholy. Though they had the clearest proofs of God's power and goodness before their eyes, yet they forgot him. And although they were under the greatest obligations to Gideon, and were once so sensible of them that they offered to settle the kingdom on him and his family, yet they forgot him also; for, becoming foes to God, they could not be friends to Man. Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon. - This is improper; it should be Jerubbaal Gideon, as we say Simon Peter, or call any man by his Christian name and surname.

[¶28] The ancients, particularly St. Ambrose and Augustine, have endeavored to find out a parallel between our blessed Lord and Gideon. We have already seen what Origen has made of the whole account, who is followed in the main by the above Latin fathers. As I believe no such parallel was intended by the Spirit of God, I must be excused from going into their details. It is no credit either to Christ or Christianity to be compared to such persons and their transactions.

[¶29] 1. Of Gideon the most we can say is that which the angel said, he was a mighty man of valor.

[¶30] 2. He was also a true patriot, he loved his country, and hazarded his life for it; and yet he would not stir till he had the most incontestable proofs that God would, by his supernatural assistance, make him victorious.

[¶31] 3. He was most evidently disinterested, and void of ambition; he refused the kingdom when it was offered to him and to his heirs after him. But, consistently with the belief he had in God, he could not accept it, as this would have been a complete alteration of the Jewish constitution, which acknowledged no ruler but God himself.

[¶32] 4. His motive in making the ephod is not well understood; probably it was done with no reprehensible design. But the act was totally wrong; he had no Divine authority to make such an innovation in the religious worship of his country. The ark was at Shechem; and there was the proper and only accredited priest. The act therefore can never be excused, whatever may be said of his motive.

[¶33] 5. His private character does not appear to have been very exemplary; he had many wives, and seventy sons by them, besides one by a concubine, which he kept at Shechem, where he was often obliged to go as judge, for the purpose of administering justice. In short, there is scarcely a trait in his character worthy to be compared with any thing in the conduct of the Redeemer of mankind.

[¶34] 6. Parallels to Christ, and the work of his Spirit in the salvation of men, have been diligently sought in the sacred writings, by both commentators and preachers; and we have had voluminous treaties on types and antitypes; and how little has sound doctrine or true piety derived from them! They have often served to unsettle the former, and have been rather inimical than favorable to the interests of the latter. When the Spirit of God says such things are types and such things are allegories, it is our duty to believe and examine; when men produce their types and metaphors, it may be our duty to doubt, be suspicious, and pass on.

### Introduction

[¶36] Abimelech is made king; and, to secure himself in the kingdom, slays his brethren; Jotham, the youngest only escapes, [Jdg 9:1-4]. Jotham reproves him and the Shechemites by a curious and instructive parable, [Jdg 9:7-21]. Abimelech having reigned three years, the Shechemites, headed by Gaal the son of Ebed, conspire against him, [Jdg 9:22-29]. Zebul, governor of the city, apprises Abimelech of the insurrection, who comes with his forces, and discomfits Gaal, [Jdg 9:30-40]. Abimelech assaults the city, takes, beats it down, and sows it with salt, [Jdg 9:41-45]. Several of the Shechemites take refuge in the temple of Baal-berith; Abimelech sets fire to it, and destroys in it about one thousand men and women, [Jdg 9:46-50]. He afterwards besieges and takes Thebez; but while he is assaulting the citadel, a woman threw a piece of millstone upon his head, and killed him. Thus God requited him and the men of Shechem for their wickedness, and their ingratitude to the family of Gideon, [Jdg 9:51-57].

### Verse 1

[¶38] Abimelech - went to Shechem - We have already seen that Abimelech was the son of Gideon, by his concubine at Shechem. His going thither immediately after his father's death was to induce his townsmen to proclaim him governor in the place of his father. Shechem was the residence of his mother, and of all her relatives.

### Verse 2

[¶40] Whether is better for you, either that all the sons - This was a powerful argument: Whether will you have seventy tyrants or only one? For, as he had no right to the government, and God alone was king at that time in Israel; so he must support his usurped rule by whatever means were most likely to effect it: a usurped government is generally supported by oppression and the sword.

### Verse 3

[¶42] He is our brother - We shall be raised to places of trust under him, and our city will be the capital of the kingdom.

### Verse 4

[¶44] Threescore and ten pieces of silver - Probably shekels; and this was the whole of his exchequer. As he was now usurping the government of God, he begins with a contribution from the idol temple. A work begun under the name and influence of the devil is not likely to end to the glory of God, or to the welfare of man.

## 258. Judges · 14 of 29

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[¶0] Hired vain and light persons - אנשים ריקים ופחזים anashim reykim uphochazim, worthless and dissolute men; persons who were living on the public, and had nothing to lose. Such was the foundation of his Babel government. By a cunning management of such rascals most revolutions have been brought about.

### Verse 5

[¶2] Slew his brethren - His brothers by the father's side, [Jdg 8:30]. This was a usual way of securing an ill-gotten throne; the person who had no right destroying all those that had right, that he might have no competitors.

[¶3] Yet Jotham - was left - That is, all the seventy were killed except Jotham, if there were not seventy besides Jotham. All the histories of all the nations of the earth are full of cruelties similar to those of Abimelech: cousins, uncles, brothers, husbands, and fathers have been murdered by their cousins, nephews, brothers, wives, and children, in order that they might have the undisturbed possession of an ill-gotten throne. Europe, Asia, and Africa, can witness all this. Even now, some of these horribly obtained governments exist.

### Verse 6

[¶5] And all the house of Millo - If Millo be the name of a place, it is nowhere else mentioned in the sacred writings. But it is probably the name of a person of note and influence in the city of Shechem - the men of Shechem and the family of Millo.

### Verse 7

[¶7] Stood in the top of Mount Gerizim - Gerizim and Ebal were mounts very near to each other; the former lying to the north, the latter to the south, and at the foot of them Shechem. But see some remarks on the extent of the human voice in some hilly countries in the following extract from a late traveler in the East: - "The great extent to which the sound of the voice is conveyed may be mentioned. Some persons have thought this a proof of the extreme rarity of the atmosphere. A similar observation is made by Captain Parry in his Voyage of Discovery to the Polar Regions in 1819-20, where he states that in the depth of winter the sound of the men's voices was heard at a much greater distance than usual. This phenomenon is constantly observed on the Neilgherries. I have heard the natives, especially in the morning and evening, when the air was still, carry on conversation from one hill to another, and that apparently without any extraordinary effort. They do not shout in the manner that strangers think necessary in order to be heard at so great a distance, but utter every syllable as distinctly as if they were conversing face to face. When listening to them, I have often been reminded of those passages in holy writ where it is recorded that Jotham addressed the ungrateful men of Shechem from Mount Gerizim, that David cried 'from the top of a hill afar off' to Abner and to the people that lay about their master Saul, and that Abner addressed Joab from the top of a hill." - Letters on the Climate, Inhabitants, Productions, etc., etc., of the Neilgherries, or Blue Mountains of Coimbatoor, South India, by James Hough, of Madras: 1829.

[¶8] That God may hearken unto you - It appears that Jotham received this message from God, and that he spoke on this occasion by Divine inspiration.

### Verse 8

[¶10] The trees went forth on a time - This is the oldest, and without exception the best fable or apologue in the world. See the observations at the end of this chapter, [Jdg 9:56] (note). It is not to be supposed that a fable, if well formed, requires much illustration; every part of this, a few expressions excepted, illustrates itself, and tells its own meaning.

[¶11] To anoint a king - Hence it appears that anointing was usual in the installation of kings, long before there was any king in Israel; for there is much evidence that the book of Judges was written before the days of Saul and David.

[¶12] The olive tree - The olive was the most useful of all the trees in the field or forest, as the bramble was the meanest and the most worthless.

### Verse 9

[¶14] Wherewith - they honor God and man - I believe the word אלהים elohim here should be translated gods, for the parable seems to be accommodated to the idolatrous state of the Shechemites. Thus it was understood by the Vulgate, Arabic, and others. It is true that olive oil was often used in the service of God: the priests were anointed with it; the lamps in the tabernacle lighted with it; almost all the offerings of fine flour, cakes prepared in the pan, etc., had oil mingled with them; therefore Jotham might say that with it they honor God; and as priests, prophets, and kings were anointed, and their office was the most honorable, he might with propriety say, therewith they honor man. But I am persuaded he used the term in the first sense. See on [Jdg 9:13] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶16] But the fig tree said - Should I forsake my sweetness - The fruit of the fig tree is the sweetest or most luscious of all fruits. A full-ripe fig, in its own climate, has an indescribable sweetness; so much so that it is almost impossible to eat it, till a considerable time after it is gathered from the trees, and has gone through an artificial preparation. This I have often noticed.

### Verse 13

[¶18] Which cheereth God and man - I believe אלהים elohim here is to be taken in the same sense proposed on [Jdg 9:9]. Vast libations of wine, as well as much oil, were used in heathenish sacrifices and offerings; and it was their opinion that the gods actually partook of, and were delighted with, both the wine and oil. The pagan mythology furnishes the most exquisite wines to its gods in heaven, and hence the nectar and ambrosia so much talked of and praised by the ancients. It is not reasonable to suppose that Jotham makes any reference here to the sacrifices, oblations, and perfumes offered to the true God. This language the idolatrous Shechemites could scarcely understand. What could the worshippers of Baal-berith know of the worship of the God who gave his law to Moses? And it is not very likely that Jotham himself was well acquainted with the sacred rites of the Mosaic religion, as they had been little preached in his time.

### Verse 14

[¶20] Then said all the trees unto the bramble - The word אטד atad, which we translate bramble, is supposed to mean the rhamnus, which is the largest of thorns, producing dreadful spikes, similar to darts. See Theodoret on [Psa 58:10]. There is much of the moral of this fable contained in the different kinds of trees mentioned.

[¶21] 1. The olive; the most profitable tree to its owner, having few equals either for food or medicine.

[¶22] 2. The fig tree; one of the most fruitful of trees, and yielding one of the most delicious fruits, and superior to all others for sweetness.

[¶23] 3. The vine, which alone yields a liquor that, when properly prepared, and taken in strict moderation, is friendly both to the body and mind of man, having a most direct tendency to invigorate both.

[¶24] 4. The bramble or thorn, which, however useful as a hedge, is dangerous to come near; and is here the emblem of an impious, cruel, and oppressive king.

[¶25] As the olive, fig, and vine, are said in this fable to refuse the royalty, because in consequence, they intimate, they should lose their own privileges, we learn that to be invested with power for the public good can be no privilege to the sovereign. If he discharge the office faithfully, it will plant his pillow with thorns, fill his soul with anxious cares, rob him of rest and quiet, and, in a word, will be to him a source of distress and misery. All this is represented here under the emblem of the trees losing their fatness, their sweetness and good fruits, and their cheering influence. In short, we see from this most sensible fable that the beneficent, benevolent, and highly illuminated mind, is ever averse from the love of power; and that those who do seek it are the thoughtless, the vain, the ambitious, and those who wish for power merely for the purpose of self-gratification; persons who have neither the disposition nor the knowledge to use power for the advantage of the community; and who, while they boast great things, and make great pretensions and promises, are the tyrants of the people, and often through their ambition, like the bramble in the fable kindle a flame of foreign or domestic war, in which their subjects are consumed. The sleepless nights and corroding cares of sovereignty, are most forcibly described by a poet of our own, whose equal in describing the inward workings of the human heart, in all varieties of character and circumstances, has never appeared either in ancient or modern times. Hear what he puts in the mouth of two of his care-worn kings: - "How many thousand of my poorest subjects

[¶26] Are at this hour asleep? - Sleep, gentle sleep,

[¶27] Nature's soft nurse! how have I frighted thee,

[¶28] That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,

[¶29] And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

[¶30] Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

[¶31] Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

[¶32] And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber

[¶33] Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,

[¶34] Under the canopies of costly state,

[¶35] And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody?

[¶36] O thou dull god! why liest thou with the vile

[¶37] In loathsome beds; and leav'st the kingly couch

[¶38] A watch-case, or a common 'larum bell?

[¶39] Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast

[¶40] Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains

[¶41] In cradle of the rude imperious surge;

[¶42] And in the visitation of the winds,

[¶43] Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

[¶44] Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them,

## 259. Judges · 15 of 29

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[¶0] With deafening clamours, in the slippery clouds,

[¶1] That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?

[¶2] Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose

[¶3] To the wet sea-boy, in an hour so rude;

[¶4] And, in the calmest and most stillest night,

[¶5] With all appliances and means to boot,

[¶6] Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!

[¶7] Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." - "O hard condition! twin-born with greatness,

[¶8] Subjected to the breath of every fool,

[¶9] Whose sense no more can feel but his own wringing!

[¶10] What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect,

[¶11] That private men enjoy!

[¶12] And what have kings, that privates have not too,

[¶13] Save ceremony, save general ceremony?" - "'Tis not the balm, the scepter, and the ball,

[¶14] The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,

[¶15] The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,

[¶16] The farced title running 'fore the king,

[¶17] The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp

[¶18] That beats upon the high shore of this world,

[¶19] No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,

[¶20] Not all these, laid in bed majestical,

[¶21] Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave."

[¶22] Shakespeare

[¶23] This is precisely the sentiment expressed in the denial of the olive, fig tree, and vine.

### Verse 15

[¶25] Come and put your trust in any shadow - The vain boast of the would-be sovereign; and of the man who is seeking to be put into power by the suffrages of the people. All promise, no performance.

[¶26] Let fire come out of the bramble - A strong catachresis. The bramble was too low to give shelter to any tree; and so far from being able to consume others, that the smallest fire will reduce it to ashes, and that in the shortest time. Hence the very transitory mirth of fools is said to be like the cracking of thorns under a pot. Abimelech was the bramble; and the cedars of Lebanon, all the nobles and people of Israel. Could they therefore suppose that such a low-born, uneducated, cruel, and murderous man, could be a proper protector, or a humane governor? He who could imbrue his hands in the blood of his brethren in order to get into power, was not likely to stop at any means to retain that power when possessed. If, therefore, they took him for their king, they might rest assured that desolation and blood would mark the whole of his reign. The condensed moral of the whole fable is this: Weak, worthless, and wicked men, will ever be foremost to thrust themselves into power; and, in the end, to bring ruin upon themselves, and on the unhappy people over whom they preside.

### Verse 20

[¶28] Let fire come out from Abimelech - As the thorn or bramble may be the means of kindling other wood, because it may be easily ignited; so shall Abimelech be the cause of kindling a fire of civil discord among you, that shall consume the rulers and great men of your country. A prophetic declaration of what would take place.

### Verse 21

[¶30] Went to Beer - Mr. Maundrell, in his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 64, 5th edit., mentions a place of this name, which he thinks to be that to which Jotham fled, and supposed to be the same as Mishmash, [1Sam 14:5], [1Sam 14:31]. It is situated, he says, towards the south, on an easy declivity; and has a fountain of excellent water at the bottom of the hill from which it has taken its name.

### Verse 23

[¶32] God sent an evil spirit - He permitted jealousies to take place which produced factions; and these factions produced insurrections, civil contentions, and slaughter.

### Verse 25

[¶34] The men of Shechem set liers in wait - It pleased God to punish this bad man by the very persons who had contributed to his iniquitous elevation. So God often makes the instruments of men's sins the means of their punishment. It is likely that although Abimelech had his chief residence at Shechem, yet he frequently went to Ophrah, the city of his father; his claim to which there was none to oppose, as he had slain all his brethren. It was probably in his passage between those two places that the Shechemites had posted cut-throats, in order to assassinate him; as such men had no moral principle, they robbed and plundered all who came that way.

### Verse 26

[¶36] Gaal the son of Ebed - Of this person we know no more than is here told. He was probably one of the descendants of the Canaanites, who hoped from the state of the public mind, and their disaffection to Abimelech, to cause a revolution, and thus to restore the ancient government as it was under Hamor, the father of Shechem.

### Verse 28

[¶38] Zebul his officer - פקידו pekido, his overseer; probably governor of Shechem in his absence.

### Verse 29

[¶40] Would to God this people were under my hand - The very words and conduct of a sly, hypocritical demagogue.

[¶41] Increase thine army, and come out - When he found his party strong, and the public feeling warped to his side, then he appears to have sent a challenge to Abimelech, to come out and fight him.

### Verse 31

[¶43] They fortify the city against thee - Under pretense of repairing the walls and towers, they were actually putting the place in a state of defense, intending to seize on the government as soon as they should find Abimelech coming against them. Fortifying the city may mean seducing the inhabitants from their loyalty to Abimelech.

## 260. Judges · 16 of 29

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### Verse 35

[¶1] Stood in the entering of the gate - Having probably got some intimation of the designs of Zebul and Abimelech.

### Verse 37

[¶3] By the plain of Meonenim - Some translate, by the way of the oaks, or oaken groves; others, by the way of the magicians, or regarders of the times, as in our margin. Probably it was a place in which augurs and soothsayers dwelt.

### Verse 45

[¶5] And sowed it with salt - Intending that the destruction of this city should be a perpetual memorial of his achievements. The salt was not designed to render it barren, as some have imagined; for who would think of cultivating a city? but as salt is an emblem of incorruption and perpetuity, it was no doubt designed to perpetuate the memorial of this transaction, and as a token that he wished this desolation to be eternal. This sowing a place with salt was a custom in different nations to express permanent desolation and abhorrence. Sigonius observes that when the city of Milan was taken, in a.d. 1162, the walls were razed, and it was sown with salt. And Brantome informs us that it was ancient custom in France to sow the house of a man with salt, who had been declared a traitor to his king. Charles IX., king of France, the most base and perfidious of human beings, caused the house of the Admiral Coligni (whom he and the Duke of Guise caused to be murdered, with thousands more of Protestants, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, 1572) to be sown with salt! How many houses have been since sown with salt in France by the just judgments of God, in revenge for the massacre of the Protestants on the eve of St. Bartholomew! Yet for all this God's wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

### Verse 46

[¶7] A hold of the house of the god Berith - This must mean the precincts of the temple, as we find there were a thousand men and women together in that place.

### Verse 53

[¶9] A piece of a millstone - פלח רכב pelach recheb, a piece of a chariot wheel; but the word is used in other places for upper millstones, and is so understood here by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.

[¶10] And all to break his skull - A most nonsensical version of ותרץ את גלגלתו vattarits eth gulgolto, which is literally, And she brake, or fractured, his skull. Plutarch, in his life of Pyrrhus, observes that this king was killed at the siege of Thebes, by a piece of a tile, which a woman threw upon his head.

### Verse 54

[¶12] Draw thy sword, and slay me - It was a disgrace to be killed by a woman; on this account, Seneca the tragedian deplores the death of Hercules: -

[¶13] O turpe fatum! femina Herculeae necis

[¶14] Autor feritur.

[¶15] Herc. Oetaeus, ver. 1177. "O dishonorable fate! a woman is reported to have been author of the death of Hercules."

[¶16] Abimelech was also afraid that if he fell thus mortally wounded into the hands of his enemies they might treat him with cruelty and insult.

### Verse 56

[¶18] Thus God rendered, etc. - Both the fratricide Abimelech, and the unprincipled men of Shechem, had the iniquity visited upon them of which they had been guilty. Man's judgment may be avoided; but there is no escape from the judgments of God.

[¶19] I Have said that the fable of Jotham is the oldest, and perhaps the best, in the world; and referred for other particulars to the end of the chapter.

[¶20] On the general subject of fable, apologue, and parable, the reader will find a considerable dissertation at the end of [Mat 13:58]; I shall add but a few things here, and they shall refer to the oldest collection of fables extant. These are of Indian origin, and are preserved in the Sanscreet, from which they have been translated into different languages, both Asiatic and European, under various titles. The collection is called Hitopadesa, and the author Veshnoo Sarma; but they are known in Europe by The Tales and Fables of Bidpay, or Pilpay, an ancient Indian Philosopher. Of this collection Sir William Jones takes the following notice: - "The fables of Veshnoo Sarma, whom we ridiculously call Pilpay, are the most beautiful, if not the most ancient, collection of apologues in the world. They were first translated from the Sanscreet, in the sixth century, by Buzerchumihr, or bright as the sun, the chief physician, and afterwards the vizir of the great Anushirwan; and are extant under various names, in more than twenty languages. But their original title is Hitopadesa, or amicable instruction; and as the very existence of Aesop, whom the Arabs believe to have been an Abyssinian, appears rather doubtful, I am not disinclined to suppose that the first moral fables which appeared in Europe were of Indian or Aethiopian origin."

[¶21] Mr. Frazer, in his collection of Oriental MSS. at the end of his History of Nadir Shah, gives us the following account of this curious and instructive work: - "The ancient brahmins of India, after a good deal of time and labor, compiled a treatise, (which they called Kurtuk Dumnik), in which were inserted the choicest treasure of wisdom and the most perfect rules for governing a people. This book they presented to their rajahs, who kept it with the greatest secrecy and care. About the time of Mohammed's birth or the latter end of the sixth century, Noishervan the Just, who then reigned in Persia, discovered a great inclination to see that book; for which purpose Burzuvia, a physician, who had a surprising talent in learning several languages, particularly Sanskerritt, was introduced to him as the most proper person to be employed to get a copy of it. He went to India, where, after some years' stay, and great trouble, he procured it. It was translated into the Pehluvi (the ancient Persian language) by him and Buzrjumehr, the vizir. Noishervan, ever after, and all his successors, the Persian kings, had this book in high esteem, and took the greatest care to keep it secret. At last Abu Jaffer Munsour zu Nikky, who was the second caliph of the Abassi reign, by great search got a copy of it in the Pehluvi language, and ordered Imam Hassan Abdal Mokaffa, who was the most learned of the age, to translate it into Arabic. This prince ever after made it his guide, not only in affairs relating to the government, but also in private life. "In the year 380 of the Hegira, Sultan Mahmud Ghazi put into verse; and afterwards, in the year 515, by order of Bheram Shah ben Massaud, that which Abdal Mokaffa had translated was retranslated into Persic by Abdul Mala Nasser Allah Mustofi; and this is that Kulila Dumna which is now extant. As this latter had too many Arabic verses and obsolete phrases in it, Molana Ali beg Hessein Vaes, at the request of Emir Soheli, keeper of the seals to Sultan Hossein Mirza, put it into a more modern style, and gave it the title of Anuar Soheli. "In the year 1002, the great moghul Jalal o Din Mohommed Akbar ordered his own secretary and vizir, the learned Abul Fazl, to illustrate the obscure passages, abridge the long digressions, and put it into such a style as would be most familiar to all capacities; which he accordingly did, and gave it the name of Ayar Danish, or the Criterion of Wisdom." This far Mr. Frazer, under the word Ayar Danish. "In the year 1709," says Dr. Wilkins, "the Kulila Dumna, the Persian version of Abul Mala Nasser Allah Mustofi, made in the 515th year of the Hegira, was translated into French, with the title of Les Conseils et les Maximes de Pilpay, Philosophe Indien, sur les divers Etats de la Vie. This edition resembles the Hitopadesa more than any other then seen; and is evidently the immediate original of the English Instructive and entertaining Fables of Pilpay, an ancient Indian philosopher, which, in 1775, had gone through five editions. "The Anuar Soheli, above mentioned, about the year 1540, was rendered into the Turkish language; and the translator is said to have bestowed twenty years' labor upon it. In the year 1724, this edition M. Galland began to translate into French, and the first four chapters were then published; but, in the year 1778, M. Cardonne completed the work, in three volumes, giving it the name of Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokman; traduites d'Ali Tcheleby ben Saleh, amateur Turk; 'Indian Tales and Fables of Bidpay and Lockman, translated from Aly Tcheleby ben Saleh, a Turkish author.'"

[¶22] The fables of Lockman were published in Arabic and Latin, with notes, by Erpenius, 4th. Amstel., 1636; and by the celebrated Golius, at the end of his edition of Erpen's Arabic Grammar, Lugd. Bat., 1656, with additional notes; and also in the edition of the same Grammar, by Albert Schultens, Lugd. Bat., 1748, 4th. They are only thirty-seven in number.

[¶23] Of the Hitopadesa, or fables of Veshnoo Sarma, we have two very elegant English translations from the original Sanscreet: one by Sir William Jones, printed in his works, 4th., vol. 6, Lond. 1799; the other by the father of Sanscreet literature in Europe, Dr. Charles Wilkins, of the India House, 8 vo., Bath, 1787, with a collection of very important notes.

[¶24] The Bahar Danush, or Sea of Wisdom, abounds with maxims, apothegms, etc., similar to those in the preceding works; this was most faithfully translated from the Persian, by Dr. Jonathan Scott, late Persian secretary to his excellency Warren Hastings, published in three vols. 12 mo., with notes, Shrewsbury, 1799. This is the most correct version of any Persian work yet offered to the public. The original is by Einaut Ullah. Of these works it may be said, they contain the wisdom of the oriental world; and many of the numerous maxims interspersed through them yield in importance only to those in the sacred writings. The fables attributed to Aesop have been repeatedly published in Greek and Latin, as well as in all the languages of Europe, and are well known. Those of Phaedrus are in general only a metrical version of the fables of Aesop. The compositions of La Fontaine, in French, and those of Mr. Gay, in English, are very valuable.

### Introduction

[¶26] Tola judges Israel twenty-three years, [Jdg 10:1], [Jdg 10:2]. Jair is judge twenty-two years, [Jdg 10:3-5]. After him the Israelites rebel against God, and are delivered into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites eighteen years, [Jdg 10:6-9]. They humble themselves, and God reproves them, [Jdg 10:10-14]. They put away their strange gods, and gather together against the Ammonites, [Jdg 10:15-17]. The chiefs of Gilead inquire concerning a captain to head them against the Ammonites, [Jdg 10:18].

### Verse 1

[¶28] Tola the son of Puah - As this Tola continued twenty-three years a judge of Israel after the troubles of Abimelech's reign, it is likely that the land had rest, and that the enemies of the Israelites had made no hostile incursions into the land during his presidency and that of Jair; which, together continued forty-five years.

### Verse 4

[¶30] He had thirty sons, etc. - It appears that there was both peace and prosperity during the time that Jair governed Israel; he had, it seems, provided for his family, and given a village to each of his thirty sons; which were, in consequence, called Havoth Jair or the villages of Jair. Their riding on thirty ass colts seems to intimate that they were persons of consideration, and kept up a certain dignity in their different departments.

### Verse 6

[¶32] And served Baalim - They became universal idolaters, adopting every god of the surrounding nations. Baalim and Ashtaroth may signify gods and goddesses in general. These are enumerated:

[¶33] 1. The gods of Syria; Bel and Saturn, or Jupiter and Astarte.

[¶34] 2. Gods of Zidon; Ashtaroth, Astarte or Venus.

[¶35] 3. The gods of Moab; Chemosh.

[¶36] 4. Gods of the children of Ammon; Milcom.

[¶37] 5. Gods of the Philistines; Dagon.

[¶38] See [1Kgs 11:33] (note), and [1Sam 5:2] (note). These are called gods because their images and places of worship were multiplied throughout the land.

### Verse 7

[¶40] The anger of the Lord was hot - This Divine displeasure was manifested in delivering them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites. The former dwelt on the western side of Jordan; the latter, on the eastern: and it appears that they joined their forces on this occasion to distress and ruin the Israelites, though the Ammonites were the most active.

### Verse 11

[¶42] And the Lord said - By what means these reproofs were conveyed to the Israelites, we know not: it must have been by an angel, a prophet, or some holy man inspired for the occasion.

### Verse 15

[¶44] We have sinned - The reprehension of this people was kind, pointed, and solemn; and their repentance deep. And they gave proofs that their repentance was genuine, by putting away all their idols: but they were ever fickle and uncertain.

## 261. Judges · 17 of 29

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### Verse 16

[¶1] And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel - What a proof of the philanthropy of God! Here his compassions moved on a small scale; but it was the same principle that led him to give his Son Jesus Christ to be a sacrifice for the sins of the Whole world. God grieves for the miseries to which his creatures are reduced by their own sins. Be astonished, ye heavens, at this; and shout for joy, all ye inhabitants of the earth! for, through the love whence this compassion flowed, God has visited and redeemed a lost world!

### Verse 17

[¶3] The children of Ammon were gathered together - Literally, they cried against Israel - they sent out criers in different directions to stir up all the enemies of Israel; and when they had made a mighty collection, they encamped in Gilead.

### Verse 18

[¶5] What man is he that will begin to fight - It appears that, although the spirit of patriotism had excited the people at large to come forward against their enemies, yet they had no general, none to lead them forth to battle. God, however, who had accepted their sincere repentance, raised them up an able captain in the person of Jephthah; and in him the suffrages of the people were concentrated, as we shall see in the following chapter. In those ancient times much depended on the onset; a war was generally terminated in one battle, the first impression was therefore of great consequence, and it required a person skillful, valorous, and strong, to head the attack. Jephthah was a person in whom all these qualifications appear to have met. When God purposes to deliver, he, in the course of his providence, will find out, employ, and direct the proper means.

### Introduction

[¶7] The history of Jephthah, and his covenant with the Gileadites, [Jdg 11:1-10]. He is elected by the people, [Jdg 11:11]. Sends an embassy to the king of the Ammonites, to inquire why they invaded Israel; and receives an answer, to which he sends back a spirited reply, vv. 12-27. This is disregarded by the Ammonites, and Jephthah prepares for battle, [Jdg 11:28], [Jdg 11:29]. His vow, [Jdg 11:30], [Jdg 11:31]. He attacks and defeats them, [Jdg 11:32], [Jdg 11:33]. On his return to Mizpeh he is met by his daughter, whom, according to his vow, he dedicates to the Lord, [Jdg 11:34-40].

### Verse 1

[¶9] Now Jephthah - was the son of a harlot - I think the word זונה zonah, which we here render harlot, should be translated, as is contended for on [Jos 2:1] (note), viz. a hostess, keeper of an inn or tavern for the accommodation of travelers; and thus it is understood by the Targum of Jonathan on this place: והוא בר אתתא פונדקיתא vehu bar ittetha pundekitha, "and he was the son of a woman, a tavern keeper." She was very probably a Canaanite, as she is called, [Jdg 11:2], a strange woman, אשה אחרת ishshah achereth, a woman of another race; and on this account his brethren drove him from the family, as he could not have a full right to the inheritance, his mother not being an Israelite.

### Verse 3

[¶11] There were gathered vain men to Jephthah - אנשים ריקים anashim reykim, empty men - persons destitute of good sense, and profligate in their manners. The word may, however, mean in this place poor persons, without property, and without employment. The versions in general consider them as plunderers.

### Verse 4

[¶13] The children of Ammon made war - They had invaded the land of Israel, and were now encamped in Gilead. See [Jdg 10:17].

### Verse 6

[¶15] Come, and be our captain - The Israelites were assembled in Mizpeh, but were without a captain to lead them against the Ammonites. And we find, from the conclusion of the preceding chapter, that they offered the command to any that would accept it.

### Verse 8

[¶17] Therefore we turn again to thee now - We are convinced that we have dealt unjustly by thee, and we wish now to repair our fault, and give thee this sincere proof of our regret for having acted unjustly, and of our confidence in thee.

### Verse 11

[¶19] Jepthah went with the elders - The elders had chosen him for their head; but, to be valid, this choice must be confirmed by the people; therefore, it is said, the people made him head. But even this did not complete the business; God must be brought in as a party to this transaction; and therefore Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord - the terms made with the elders and the people on which he had accepted the command of the army; and, being sure of the Divine approbation, he entered on the work with confidence.

### Verse 12

[¶21] Jepthah sent messengers - He wished the Ammonites to explain their own motives for undertaking a war against Israel; as then the justice of his cause would appear more forcibly to the people.

### Verse 13

[¶23] From Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan - That is, all the land that had formerly belonged to the Amorites, and to the Moabites, who it seems were confederates on this occasion.

### Verse 22

[¶25] From the wilderness even unto Jordan - From Arabia Deserta on the east to Jordan on the west.

### Verse 23

[¶27] The Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites - Jephthah shows that the Israelites did not take the land of the Moabites or Ammonites, but that of the Amorites, which they had conquered from Sihon their king, who had, without cause or provocation, attacked them; and although the Amorites had taken the lands in question from the Ammonites, yet the title by which Israel held them was good, because they took them not from the Ammonites, but conquered them from the Amorites. So now the Lord - hath dispossessed the Amorites. - The circumstances in which the Israelites were when they were attacked by the Amorites, plainly proved, that, unless Jehovah had helped them, they must have been overcome. God defeated the Amorites, and made a grant of their lands to the Israelites; and they had, in consequence, possessed them for three hundred years, [Jdg 11:26].

### Verse 24

[¶29] Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee - As if he had said: "It is a maxim with you, as it is among all nations, that the lands which they conceive to be given them by their gods, they have an absolute right to, and should not relinquish them to any kind of claimant. You suppose that the land which you possess was given you by your god Chemosh and therefore you will not relinquish what you believe you hold by a Divine right. Now, we know that Jehovah, our God, who is the Lord of heaven and earth, has given the Israelites the land of the Amorites; and therefore we will not give it up." The ground of Jephthah's remonstrance was sound and good.

[¶30] 1. The Ammonites had lost their lands in their contests with the Amorites.

[¶31] 2. The Israelites conquered these lands from the Amorites, who had waged a most unprincipled war against them.

[¶32] 3. God, who is the Maker of heaven and earth had given those very lands as a Divine grant to the Israelites.

[¶33] 4. In consequence of this they had possession of them for upwards of three hundred years.

[¶34] 5. These lands were never reclaimed by the Ammonites, though they had repeated opportunities of doing it, whilst the Israelites dwelt in Heshbon, in Aroer, and in the coasts of Arnon; but they did not reclaim them because they knew that the Israelites held them legally. The present pretensions of Ammon were unsupported and unjustifiable.

### Verse 27

[¶36] The Lord the Judge be judge - between the children of Israel - If you be right, and we be wrong, then Jehovah, who is the sovereign and incorruptible Judge, shall determine in your favor; and to Him I submit the righteousness of my cause.

### Verse 29

[¶38] Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah - The Lord qualified him for the work he had called him to do, and thus gave him the most convincing testimony that his cause was good.

### Verse 31

[¶40] Shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering - The text is והיה ליהוה והעליתיהו עולה vehayah layhovah, vehaalithihu olah; the translation of which, according to the most accurate Hebrew scholars, is this: I will consecrate it to the Lord, or I will offer it for a burnt-offering; that is, "If it be a thing fit for a burnt-offering, it shall be made one; if fit for the service of God, it shall be consecrated to him." That conditions of this kind must have been implied in the vow, is evident enough; to have been made without them, it must have been the vow of a heathen, or a madman. If a dog had met him, this could not have been made a burnt-offering; and if his neighbor or friend's wife, son, or daughter, etc., had been returning from a visit to his family, his vow gave him no right over them. Besides, human sacrifices were ever an abomination to the Lord; and this was one of the grand reasons why God drove out the Canaanites, etc., because they offered their sons and daughters to Molech in the fire, i.e., made burnt-offerings of them, as is generally supposed. That Jephthah was a deeply pious man, appears in the whole of his conduct; and that he was well acquainted with the law of Moses, which prohibited all such sacrifices, and stated what was to be offered in sacrifice, is evident enough from his expostulation with the king and people of Ammon, [Jdg 11:14-27]. Therefore it must be granted that he never made that rash vow which several suppose he did; nor was he capable, if he had, of executing it in that most shocking manner which some Christian writers ("tell it not in Gath") have contended for. He could not commit a crime which himself had just now been an executor of God's justice to punish in others.

[¶41] It has been supposed that "the text itself might have been read differently in former times; if instead of the words והעליתיהו עולה, I will offer It a burnt-offering, we read והעליתי הוא עולה, I will offer Him (i.e., the Lord) a burnt-offering: this will make a widely different sense, more consistent with everything that is sacred; and it is formed by the addition of only a single letter, (א aleph), and the separation of the pronoun from the verb. Now the letter א aleph is so like the letter ע ain, which immediately follows it in the word עולה olah, that the one might easily have been lost in the other, and thus the pronoun be joined to the verb as at present, where it expresses the thing to be sacrificed instead of the person to whom the sacrifice was to be made. With this emendation the passage will read thus: Whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me - shall be the Lord's; and I will offer Him a burnt-offering." For this criticism there is no absolute need, because the pronoun הו hu, in the above verse, may with as much propriety be translated him as it. The latter part of the verse is, literally, And I will offer him a burnt-offering, עולה olah, not לעולה leolah, For a burnt-offering, which is the common Hebrew form when for is intended to be expressed. This is strong presumption that the text should be thus understood: and this avoids the very disputable construction which is put on the ו vau, in והעליתיהו vehaalithihu, Or I will offer It up, instead of And I will offer Him a burnt-offering. "From [Jdg 11:39] it appears evident that Jephthah's daughter was not Sacrificed to God, but consecrated to him in a state of perpetual virginity; for the text says, She knew no man, for this was a statute in Israel. ותהי חק בישראל vattehi chok beyishrael; viz., that persons thus dedicated or consecrated to God, should live in a state of unchangeable celibacy. Thus this celebrated place is, without violence to any part of the text, or to any proper rule of construction, cleared of all difficulty, and caused to speak a language consistent with itself, and with the nature of God."

[¶42] Those who assert that Jephthah did sacrifice his daughter, attempt to justify the opinion from the barbarous usages of those times: but in answer to this it may be justly observed, that Jephthah was now under the influence of the Spirit of God, [Jdg 11:29]; and that Spirit could not permit him to imbrue his hands in the blood of his own child; and especially under the pretense of offering a pleasing sacrifice to that God who is the Father of mankind, and the Fountain of love, mercy, and compassion.

[¶43] The versions give us but little assistance in clearing the difficulties of the text. In the Targum of Jonathan there is a remarkable gloss which should be mentioned, and from which it will appear that the Targumist supposed that the daughter of Jephthah was actually sacrificed: "And he fulfilled the vow which he had vowed upon her; and she knew no man: and it was made a statute in Israel, that no man should offer his son or his daughter for a burnt-offering, as did Jephthah the Gileadite, who did not consult Phinehas the priest; for if he had consulted Phinehas the priest, he would have redeemed her with money."

[¶44] The Targumist refers here to the law, [Lev 27:1-5], where the Lord prescribes the price at which either males or females, who had been vowed to the Lord, might be redeemed. "When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord at thy estimation: the male from twenty years old even unto sixty, shall be fifty shekels of silver; and if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels; and from five years old unto twenty years, the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten." This also is an argument that the daughter of Jephthah was not sacrificed; as the father had it in his power, at a very moderate price, to have redeemed her: and surely the blood of his daughter must have been of more value in his sight than thirty shekels of silver.

[¶45] Dr. Hales has entered largely into the subject: his observations may be seen at the end of this chapter.

## 262. Judges · 18 of 29

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/262/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/262/#p-N

### Verse 33

[¶1] Twenty cities - That is, he either took or destroyed twenty cities of the Ammonites, and completely routed their whole army.

### Verse 34

[¶3] With timbrels and with dances - From this instance we find it was an ancient custom for women to go out to meet returning conquerors with musical instruments, songs, and dances; and that it was continued afterwards is evident from the instance given [1Sam 18:6], where David was met, on his return from the defeat of Goliath and the Philistines, by women from all the cities of Israel, with singing and dancing, and various instruments of music.

### Verse 35

[¶5] Thou hast brought me very low - He was greatly distressed to think that his daughter, who was his only child, should be, in consequence of his vow, prevented from continuing his family in Israel; for it is evident that he had not any other child, for besides her, says the text, he had neither son nor daughter, [Jdg 11:34]. He might, therefore, well be grieved that thus his family was to become extinct in Israel.

### Verse 36

[¶7] And she said unto him - What a pattern of filial piety and obedience! She was at once obedient, pious, and patriotic. A woman to have no offspring was considered to be in a state of the utmost degradation among the Hebrews; but she is regardless of all this, seeing her father is in safety, and her country delivered.

### Verse 37

[¶9] I and my fellows - Whether she meant the young women of her own acquaintance, or those who had been consecrated to God in the same way, though on different accounts, is not quite clear; but it is likely she means her own companions: and her going up and down upon the mountains may signify no more than her paying each of them a visit at their own houses, previously to her being shut up at the tabernacle; and this visiting of each at their own home might require the space of two months. This I am inclined to think is the meaning of this difficult clause.

### Verse 39

[¶11] And she knew no man - She continued a virgin all the days of her life.

### Verse 40

[¶13] To lament the daughter of Jephthah - I am satisfied that this is not a correct translation of the original לתנות לבת יפתח lethannoth lebath yiphtach. Houbigant translates the whole verse thus: Sed iste mos apud Israel invaluit, ut virgines Israel, temporibus diversis, irent ad filiam Jepthe-ut eam quotannis dies quatuor consolarentur; "But this custom prevailed in Israel that the virgins of Israel went at different times, four days in the year, to the daughter of Jephthah, that they might comfort her." This verse also gives evidence that the daughter of Jephthah was not sacrificed: nor does it appear that the custom or statute referred to here lasted after the death of Jephthah's daughter.

[¶14] The following is Dr. Hales' exposition of Jephthah's vow: - "When Jephthah went forth to battle against the Ammonites, he vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, 'If thou wilt surely give the children of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall either be the Lord's, or I will offer it up (for) a burnt-offering,' [Jdg 11:30], [Jdg 11:31]. According to this rendering of the two conjunctions, ו vau in the last clause 'either,' 'or,'(which is justified by the Hebrew idiom thus, 'He that curseth his father and his mother,' [Exo 21:17], is necessarily rendered disjunctively, 'His father or his mother,' by the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldee, and English, confirmed by [Mat 15:4], the paucity of connecting particles in that language making it necessary that this conjunction should often be understood disjunctively), the vow consisted of two parts:

[¶15] 1. That what person soever met him should be the Lord's or be dedicated to his service; and,

[¶16] 2. That what beast soever met him, if clean, should be offered up for a burnt-offering unto the Lord. "This rendering and this interpretation is warranted by the Levitical law about vows. "The נדר neder, or vow, in general, included either persons, beasts, or things dedicated to the Lord for pious uses; which, if it was a simple vow, was redeemable at certain prices, if the person repented of his vow, and wished to commute it for money, according to the age or sex of the person, [Lev 27:1-8] : this was a wise regulation to remedy rash vows. But if the vow was accompanied with חרם cherem, devotement, it was irredeemable, as in the following case, [Lev 27:28]. "Notwithstanding, no devotement which a man shall devote unto the Lord, (either) of man, or beast, or of land of his own property, shall be sold or redeemed. Every thing devoted is most holy to the Lord. "Here the three ו vaus in the original should necessarily be rendered disjunctively, or as the last actually is in our translation, because there are three distinct subjects of devotement to be applied to distinct uses, the man to be dedicated to the service of the Lord, as Samuel by his mother Hannah, [1Sam 1:11]; the cattle, if clean, such as oxen, sheep, goats, turtle-doves, or pigeons, to be sacrificed; and if unclean, as camels, horses, asses, to be employed for carrying burdens in the service of the tabernacle or temple; and the lands, to be sacred property. "This law therefore expressly applied in its first branch to Jephthah's case, who had devoted his daughter to the Lord, or opened his mouth to the Lord, and therefore could not go back, as he declared in his grief at seeing his daughter and only child coming to meet him with timbrels and dances: she was, therefore necessarily devoted, but with her own consent to perpetual virginity in the service of the tabernacle, [Jdg 11:36], [Jdg 11:37]; and such service was customary, for in the division of the spoils taken in the first Midianitish war, of the whole number of captive virgins the Lord's tribute was thirty-two persons, Numbers 31:15-40. This instance appears to be decisive of the nature of her devotement. "Her father's extreme grief on the occasion and her requisition of a respite for two months to bewail her virginity, are both perfectly natural. Having no other issue, he could only look forward to the extinction of his name or family; and a state of celibacy, which is reproachful among women everywhere, was peculiarly so among the Israelites, and was therefore no ordinary sacrifice on her part; who, though she generously gave up, could not but regret the loss of, becoming 'a mother in Israel.' And he did with her according to his vow which he had vowed, and she knew no man, or remained a virgin, all her life, [Jdg 11:34-39]. "There was also another case of devotement which was irredeemable, and follows the former, [Lev 27:29]. This case differs materially from the former. "1. It is confined to Persons devoted, omitting beasts and lands.

[¶17] 2. It does not relate to private property, as in the foregoing. And,

[¶18] 3. The subject of it was to be utterly destroyed, instead of being most holy unto the Lord.

[¶19] This law, therefore, related to aliens, or public enemies devoted to destruction either by God, the people, or by the magistrate. Of all these we have instances in Scripture. "1. The Amalekites and Canaanites were devoted by God himself. Saul was, therefore, guilty of a breach of the law for sparing Agag the king of the Amalekites, as Samuel reproached him, [1Sam 15:33] : 'And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord;' not as a sacrifice, according to Voltaire, but as a criminal, whose sword had made many women childless. By this law the Midianitish women who had been spared in battle were slain, [Num 31:14-17]. "2. In Mount Hor, when the Israelites were attacked by Arad, king of the southern Canaanites, who took some of them prisoners, they vowed a vow unto the Lord that they would utterly destroy the Canaanites and their cities, if the Lord should deliver them into their hand, which the Lord ratified; whence the place was called Hormah, because the vow was accompanied by cherem, or devotement to destruction, [Num 21:1-3]; and the vow was accomplished, [Jdg 1:17]. "3. In the Philistine war Saul adjured the people, and cursed any one who should taste food till the evening. His own son Jonathan inadvertently ate a honey-comb, not knowing his father's oath, for which Saul sentenced him to die. But the people interposed, and rescued him for his public services; thus assuming the power of dispensing, in their collective capacity, with an unreasonable oath. This latter case, therefore, is utterly irrelative to Jephthah's vow, which did not regard a foreign enemy or a domestic transgressor devoted to destruction, but on the contrary was a vow of thanksgiving, and therefore properly came under the former case.

[¶20] And that Jephthah could not possibly have sacrificed his daughter, (according to the vulgar opinion), may appear from the following considerations: - "1. The sacrifice of children to Molech was an abomination to the Lord, of which in numberless passages he expresses his detestation, and it was prohibited by an express law, under pain of death, as a defilement of God's sanctuary, and a profanation of his holy name, [Lev 20:2], [Lev 20:3]. Such a sacrifice, therefore, unto the Lord himself, must be a still higher abomination, and there is no precedent of any such under the law in the Old Testament. "2. The case of Isaac before the law is irrelevant, for Isaac was not sacrificed, and it was only proposed for a trial of Abraham's faith. "3. No father, merely by his own authority, could put an offending, much less an innocent, child to death upon any account, without the sentence of the magistrate, ([Deu 21:18-21]), and the consent of the people, as in Jonathan's case. "4. The Mischna, or traditional law of the Jews is pointedly against it; ver. 212. 'If a Jew should devote his son or daughter, his man or maid servant, who are Hebrews, the devotement would be void, because no man can devote what is not his own, or whose life he has not the absolute disposal of.' These arguments appear to be decisive against the sacrifice; and that Jephthah could not have devoted his daughter to celibacy against her will is evident from the history, and from the high estimation in which she was always held by the daughters of Israel for her filial duty and her hapless fate, which they celebrated by a regular anniversary commemoration four days in the year; [Jdg 11:40]." - New Analysis of Chronology, vol. iii., p. 319.

[¶21] The celebrated sacrifice of Iphigenia has been supposed by many learned men to be a fable founded on this account of Jephthah's daughter; and M. De Lavaur, Conference de la Fable avec l'Histoire Sainte, has thus traced the parallel: - "The fable of Iphigenia, offered in sacrifice by Agamemnon her father, sung by so many poets, related after them by so many historians, and celebrated in the Greek and French theatres, has been acknowledged by all those who knew the sacred writings, and who have paid a particular attention to them, as a changed copy of the history of the daughter of Jephthah, offered in sacrifice by her father. Let us consider the several parts particularly, and begin with an exposition of the original, taken from the eleventh chapter of the book of Judges. "The sacred historian informs us that Jephthah, the son of Gilead, was a great and valiant captain. The Israelites, against whom God was irritated, being forced to go to war with the Ammonites, (nearly about the time of the siege of Troy), assembled themselves together to oblige Jephthah to come to their succor, and chose him for their captain against the Ammonites. He accepted the command on conditions that, if God should give him the victory, they would acknowledge him for their prince. This they promised by oath; and all the people elected him in the city of Mizpeh, in the tribe of Judah. He first sent ambassadors to the king of the Ammonites to know the reason why he had committed so many acts of injustice, and so many ravages on the coast of Israel. The other made a pretext of some ancient damages his people had suffered by the primitive Israelites, to countenance the ravages he committed, and would not accord with the reasonable propositions made by the ambassadors of Jephthah. Having now supplicated the Lord and being filled with his Spirit, he marched against the Ammonites, and being zealously desirous to acquit himself nobly, and to ensure the success of so important a war, he made a vow to the Lord to offer in sacrifice or as a burnt-offering the first thing that should come out of the house to meet him at his return from victory. "He then fought with and utterly discomfited the Ammonites; and returning victorious to his house, God so permitted it that his only daughter was the first who met him. Jephthah was struck with terror at the sight of her, and tearing his garments, he exclaimed, Alas! alas! my daughter, thou dost exceedingly trouble me; for I have opened my mouth against thee, unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. His daughter, full of courage and piety, understanding the purport of his vow, exhorted him to accomplish what he had vowed to the Lord, which to her would be exceedingly agreeable, seeing the Lord had avenged him of his and his country's enemies; desiring liberty only to go on the mountains with her companions, and to bewail the dishonor with which sterility was accompanied in Israel, because each hoped to see the Messiah born of his or her family. Jephthah could not deny her this request. She accordingly went, and at the end of two months returned, and put herself into the hands of her father, who did with her according to his vow. "Several of the rabbins, and many very learned Christian expositors, believe that Jephthah's daughter was not really sacrificed, but that her virginity was consecrated to God, and that she separated from all connection with the world; which indeed seems to be implied in the sacred historian's account: And she knew no man. This was a kind of mysterious death, because it caused her to lose all hope of the glory of a posterity from which the Messiah might descend. From this originated the custom, observed afterwards in Israel, that on a certain season in the year the virgins assembled themselves on the mountains to bewail the daughter of Jephthah for the space of four days. Let us now consider the leading characters of the fable of Iphigenia. According to good chronological reckonings, the time of the one and of the other very nearly agree. The opinion that the name of Iphigenia is taken from the daughter of Jephthah, appears well founded; yea, the conformity is palpable. By a very inconsiderable change Iphigenia makes Iphthygenia, which signifies literally, the daughter of Jephthah. Agamemnon, who is described as a valiant warrior and admirable captain, was chosen by the Greeks for their prince and general against the Trojans, by the united consent of all Greece, assembled together at Aulis in Baeotia. "As soon as he had accepted the command, he sent ambassadors to Priam, king of Troy, to demand satisfaction for the rape of Helen, of which the Greeks complained. The Trojans refusing to grant this, Agamemnon, to gain over to his side the gods, who appeared irritated against the Greeks and opposed to the success of their enterprise, after having sacrificed to them went to consult their interpreter, Chalchas, who declared that the gods, and particularly Diana, would not be appeased but by the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon. "Cicero, in his Offices, says that Agamemnon, in order to engage the protection of the gods in his war against the Trojans, vowed to sacrifice to them the most beautiful of all that should be born in his kingdom; and as it was found that his daughter Iphigenia surpassed all the rest in beauty, he believed himself bound by his vow to sacrifice her. Cicero condemns this, rightly judging that it would have been a less evil to have falsified his vow than to have committed parricide. This account of Cicero renders the fable entirely conformable to the history. "Agamemnon was at first struck with and troubled at this order, nevertheless consented to it: but he afterwards regretted the loss of his daughter. He is represented by the poets as deliberating, and being in doubt whether the gods could require such a parricide; but at last a sense of his duty and honor overcame his paternal affection, and his daughter, who had warmly exhorted him to fulfill his vow to the gods, was led to the altar amidst the lamentations of her companions; as Ovid and Euripides relate, see Met., lib. 13. "Some authors have thought she really was sacrificed; but others, more humane, say she was caught up in a cloud by the gods, who, contented with the intended sacrifice, substituted a hind in her place, with which the sacrifice was completed. Dictys Cretensis says that this animal was substituted to save Iphigenia. "The chronology of times so remote cannot, in many respects, but be uncertain. Both the Greeks and Romans grant that there was nothing else than fables before the first Olympiad, the beginning of which was at least four hundred and fifty years after the destruction of Troy, and two hundred and forty years after Solomon. As to the time of Solomon, nothing can be more certain than what is related in the sixth chapter of the first book of Kings, that from the going out of Egypt, under Moses, till the time in which he began to build the temple, was four hundred and eighty years. "According to the common opinion, the taking of Troy is placed one hundred and eighty years before the reign of Solomon; but his reign preceded Homer three centuries, according to some learned men, and always at least one century by those who related it lowest. Indeed, there is much uncertainty in fixing the express time in which Homer flourished. "Pausanias found so much difference concerning this in authors, that he was at a loss how to judge of it. However, it is sufficient for us that it was granted that Solomon was at least a century before Homer, who wrote more than two centuries after the taking of Troy and who is the most ancient historian of this famous siege."

### Introduction

[¶23] The Ephraimites are incensed against Jephthah, because he did not call them to war against the Ammonites; and threaten his destruction, [Jdg 12:1]. He vindicates himself, [Jdg 12:2], [Jdg 12:3]; and arms the Gileadites against the men of Ephraim; they fight against them, and kill forty-two thousand Ephraimites at the passages of Jordan, [Jdg 12:4-6]. Jephthah dies, having judged Israel six years, [Jdg 12:7]. Ibzan judge seven years, [Jdg 12:8]. His posterity and death, [Jdg 12:9], [Jdg 12:10]. Elon judge ten years, and dies, [Jdg 12:11], [Jdg 12:12]. Abdon judge eight years, [Jdg 12:13]. His posterity and death, [Jdg 12:14], [Jdg 12:15].

### Verse 1

[¶25] The men of Ephraim gathered themselves together - ויצעק vaiyitstsaek, they called each other to arms; summoning all their tribe and friends to arm themselves to destroy Jephthah and the Gileadites, being jealous lest they should acquire too much power.

### Verse 3

[¶27] I put my life in my hands - I exposed myself to the greatest difficulties and dangers. But whence did this form of speech arise? Probably from a man's laying hold of his sword, spear, or bow. "This is the defender of my life; on this, and my proper use of it, my life depends." When a man draws his sword against his foe, his enemy will naturally aim at his life; and his sword in his hand is his sole defense. It is then, Fight and conquer, or die. Thus Jephthah took his life in his hand. This phrase occurs in some other places of Scripture; see [1Sam 19:5]; [1Sam 28:21]. And the words of the Conqueror, [Isa 63:5], seem to confirm the above view of the subject: I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; i.e., by mine own arm I saved my life, and brought destruction on mine enemies.

### Verse 4

[¶29] And fought with Ephraim - Some commentators suppose that there were two battles in which the Ephraimites were defeated: the first mentioned in the above clause; and the second occasioned by the taunting language mentioned in the conclusion of the verse, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim. Where the point of this reproach lies, or what is the reason of it, cannot be easily ascertained.

### Verse 6

[¶31] Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth - The original differs only in the first letter ס samech, instead of ש sheen; אמר נא שבלת ויאמר סבלת emar na Shibboleth, vaiyomer Sibboleth. The difference between ש seen, without a point, which when pointed is pronounced sheen, and ס samech, is supposed by many to be imperceptible. But there can be no doubt there was, to the ears of a Hebrew, a most sensible distinction. Most Europeans, and, indeed, most who have written grammars of the language, perceive scarcely any difference between the Arabic seen and saad; but as both those letters are radical not only in Arabic but in Hebrew, the difference of enunciation must be such as to be plainly perceivable by the ear; else it would be impossible to determine the root of a word into which either of these letters entered, except by guessing, unless by pronunciation the sounds were distinct. One to whom the Arabic is vernacular, hearing a native speak, discerns it in a moment; but the delicate enunciation of the characteristic difference between those letters ש seen and ס samech, and seen and saad, is seldom caught by a European. Had there been no distinction between the seen and samech but what the Masoretic point gives now, then ס samech would not have been used in the word סבלת sibboleth, but ש seen, thus שבלת: but there must have been a very remarkable difference in the pronunciation of the Ephraimites, when instead of שבלת shibboleth, an ear of corn, (see [Job 24:24]), they said סבלת sibboleth, which signifies a burden, [Exo 6:6]; and a heavy burden were they obliged to bear who could not pronounce this test letter. It is likely that the Ephraimites were, in reference to the pronunciation of sh, as different from the Gileadites as the people in some parts of the north of England are, in the pronunciation of the letter r, from all the other inhabitants of the land. The sound of th cannot be pronounced by the Persians in general; and yet it is a common sound among the Arabians. To this day multitudes of the German Jews cannot pronounce ת th, but put ss in the stead of it: thus for בית beith (a house) they say bess. Mr. Richardson, in his "Dissertation on the Languages, Literature, and Manners of the Eastern Nations," prefixed to his Persian and Arabic Dictionary, p. ii., 4th. edition, makes some observations on the different dialects which prevailed in Arabia Felix, the chief of which were the Hemyaret and Koreish; and to illustrate the point in hand, he produces the following story from the Mohammedan writers: "An envoy from one of the feudatory states, having been sent to the tobba, (the sovereign), that prince, when he was introduced, pronounced the word T'heb, which in the Hemyaret implied, Be seated: unhappily it signified, in the native dialect of the ambassador, Precipitate thyself; and he, with a singular deference for the orders of his sovereign, threw himself instantly from the castle wall and perished." Though the Ephraimites had not a different dialect, they had, it appears, a different pronunciation, which confounded, to others, letters of the same organ, and thus produced, not only a different sound, but even an opposite meaning. This was a sufficient test to find out an Ephraimite; and he who spake not as he was commanded, at the fords of Jordan, spoke against his own life.

[¶32] For he could not frame to pronounce it right - This is not a bad rendering of the original ולא יכין לדבר כן velo yachin ledabber ken; "and they did not direct to speak it thus." But instead of יכין yachin, to direct, thirteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with two ancient editions, read יבין yabin; "they did not understand to speak it thus." The versions take great latitude in this verse. The Vulgate makes a paraphrase: Dic ergo Shibboleth, quod interpretatur spica: qui respondebat Sibboleth; eadem litera spicam exprimere non valens. "Say therefore, Shibboleth; which interpreted is an ear of corn: but he answered, Sibboleth; not being able to express an ear of corn by that letter." In my very ancient copy of the Vulgate, probably the editio princeps, there is sebboleth in the first instance as the test word, and thebboleth as the Ephraimite pronunciation. But cebboleth is the reading of the Complutensian Polyglot, and is supported by one of my own MSS., yet the former reading, thebboleth, is found in two of my MSS. The Chaldee has שובלתא shubbaltha for the Gileaditish pronunciation, and סבלתא subbaltha for that of Ephraim. The Syriac has shelba and sebla. The Arabic has the same word, with sheen and seen; and adds, "He said Sebla, for the Ephraimites could not pronounce the letter sheen." These notices, however trivial at first view, will not be thought unimportant by the Biblical critic.

### Verse 8

[¶34] And after him Ibzan - It appears that during the administration of Jephthah, six years - Ibzan, seven years - Elon, ten years - and Abdon, eight years, (in the whole thirty-one years), the Israelites had peace in all their borders; and we shall find by the following chapter that in this time of rest they corrupted themselves, and were afterwards delivered into the power of the Philistines.

[¶35] 1. We find that Ibzan had a numerous family, sixty children; and Abdon had forty sons and thirty grandsons; and that they lived splendidly, which is here expressed by their riding on seventy young asses; what we would express by they all kept their carriages; for the riding on fine asses in those days was not less dignified than riding in coaches in ours.

[¶36] 2. It does not appear that any thing particular took place in the civil state of the Israelites during the time of these latter judges; nothing is said concerning their administration, whether it was good or bad; nor is any thing mentioned of the state of religion. It is likely that they enjoyed peace without, and their judges were capable of preventing discord and sedition within. Yet, doubtless, God was at work among them, though there were none to record the operations either of his hand or his Spirit; but the people who feared him no doubt bore testimony to the word of his grace.

### Introduction

[¶38] The Israelites corrupt themselves, abut are delivered into the hands of the Philistines forty years, [Jdg 13:1]. An Angel appears to the wife of Manoah, foretells the birth of her son, and gives her directions how to treat both herself and her child, who was to be a deliverer of Israel, [Jdg 13:2-5]. She informs her husband of this transaction, [Jdg 13:6], [Jdg 13:7]. Manoah prays that the Angel may reappear; he is heard, and the Angel appears to him and his wife, and repeats his former directions concerning the mother and the child, [Jdg 13:8-14]. Manoah presents an offering to the Lord, and the Angel ascends in the flame, [Jdg 13:15-20]. Manoah is alarmed, but is comforted by the judicious rejections of his wife, [Jdg 13:21-23]. Samson is born, and begins to feel the influence of the Divine Spirit, [Jdg 13:24], [Jdg 13:25].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Delivered them into the hand of the Philistines - It does not appear that after Shamgar, to the present time, the Philistines were in a condition to oppress Israel, or God had not permitted them to do it; but now they have a commission, the Israelites having departed from the Lord. Nor is it evident that the Philistines had entirely subjected the Israelites, as there still appears to have been a sort of commerce between the two people. They had often vexed and made inroads upon them, but they had them not in entire subjection; see [Jdg 15:11].

### Verse 2

[¶42] A certain man of Zorah - A town in the tribe of Judah, but afterwards given to Dan.

### Verse 3

[¶44] The angel of the Lord - Generally supposed to have been the same that appeared to Moses, Joshua, Gideon, etc., and no other than the second person of the ever-blessed Trinity.

## 263. Judges · 19 of 29

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Beware - drink not wine - As Samson was designed to be a Nazarite from the womb, it was necessary that, while his mother carried and nursed him, she should live the life of a Nazarite, neither drinking wine nor any inebriating liquor, nor eating any kind of forbidden meat. See the account of the Nazarite and his vow in the notes on [Num 6:2] (note), etc.

### Verse 5

[¶3] He shall begin to deliver Israel - Samson only began this deliverance, for it was not till the days of David that the Israelites were completely redeemed from the power of the Philistines.

### Verse 6

[¶5] But I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name - This clause is rendered very differently by the Vulgate, the negative Not being omitted: Quem cum interrogassem quis esset, et unde venisset, et quo nomine vocaretur, noluit mihi dicere; sed hoc respondit. "Who, when I asked who he was and whence he came, and by what name he was called, would not tell me; but this he said," etc. The negative is also wanting in the Septuagint, as it stands in the Complutensian Polyglot: Και ηρωτων αυτον ποθεν εστιν, και το ονομα αυτου ουκ απηγγειλε μοι; "And I asked him whence he was, and his name, but he did not tell me." This is also the reading of the Codex Alexandrinus; but the Septuagint, in the London Polyglot, together with the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, read the negative particle with the Hebrew text, I asked Not his name, etc.

### Verse 9

[¶7] The angel of God came again - This second appearance of the angel was probably essential to the peace of Manoah, who might have been jealous of his wife had he not had this proof that the thing was of the Lord.

### Verse 15

[¶9] Until we shall have made ready a kid - Not knowing his quality, Manoah wished to do this as an act of hospitality.

### Verse 16

[¶11] I will not eat of thy bread - As I am a spiritual being, I subsist not by earthly food.

[¶12] And if thou wilt offer a burnt-offering - Neither shall I receive that homage which belongs to God; thou must therefore offer thy burnt-offering to Jehovah.

### Verse 18

[¶14] Seeing it is secret? - It was because it was secret that they wished to know it. The angel does not say that it was secret, but הוא פלאי hu peli it is Wonderful; the very character that is given to Jesus Christ, [Isa 9:6] : His name shall be called, פלא Wonderful; and it is supposed by some that the angel gives this as his name, and consequently that he was our blessed Lord.

### Verse 19

[¶16] The angel did wondrously - He acted according to his name; he, being wonderful, performed wonderful things; probably causing fire to arise out of the rock and consume the sacrifice, and then ascending in the flame.

### Verse 22

[¶18] We shall surely die, because we have seen God - See the note on [Jdg 6:22].

### Verse 23

[¶20] If the Lord were pleased to kill us, etc. - This is excellent reasoning, and may be of great use to every truly religious mind, in cloudy and dark dispensations of Divine Providence. It is not likely that God, who has preserved thee so long, borne with thee so long, and fed and supported thee all thy life long, girding thee when thou knewest him not, is less willing to save and provide for thee and thine now than he was when, probably, thou trustedst less in him. He who freely gave his Son to redeem thee, can never be indifferent to thy welfare; and if he give thee power to pray to and trust in him, is it at all likely that he is now seeking an occasion against thee, in order to destroy thee? Add to this the very light that shows thee thy wretchedness, ingratitude, and disobedience, is in itself a proof that he is waiting to be gracious to thee; and the penitential pangs thou feelest, and thy bitter regret for thy unfaithfulness, argue that the light and fire are of God's own kindling, and are sent to direct and refine, not to drive thee out of the way and destroy thee. Nor would he have told thee such things of his love, mercy, and kindness, and unwillingness to destroy sinners, as he has told thee in his sacred word, if he had been determined not to extend his mercy to thee.

### Verse 24

[¶22] And called his name Samson - The original שמשון shimshon, which is from the root שמש shamash, to serve, (whence shemesh, the sun), probably means either a little sun, or a little servant; and this latter is so likely a name to be imposed on an only son, by maternal fondness, that it leaves but little doubt of the propriety of the etymology.

[¶23] And the Lord blessed him - Gave evident proofs that the child was under the peculiar protection of the Most High; causing him to increase daily in stature and extraordinary strength.

### Verse 25

[¶25] The Spirit of the Lord began to move him - He felt the degrading bondage of his countrymen, and a strong desire to accomplish something for their deliverance. These feelings and motions he had from the Divine Spirit.

[¶26] Camp of Dan - Probably the place where his parents dwelt; for they were Danites, and the place is supposed to have its name from its being the spot where the Danites stopped when they sent some men of their company to rob Micah of his teraphim, etc. See [Jdg 18:13-20]. As he had these influences between Zorah and Eshtaol, it is evident that this was while he dwelt at home with his parents; for Zorah was the place where his father dwelt; see [Jdg 13:2]. Thus God began, from his infancy, to qualify him for the work to which he had called him.

### Introduction

[¶28] Samson marries a wife of the Philistines, [Jdg 14:1-4]. Slays a young lion at Timnath, in the carcass of which he afterwards finds a swarm of bees, [Jdg 14:5-9]. He makes a feast; they appoint him thirty companions, to whom he puts forth a riddle, which they cannot expound, [Jdg 14:10-14]. They entice his wife to get the interpretation from him; she succeeds, informs them, and they tell the explanation, [Jdg 14:15-18]. He is incensed, and slays thirty of the Philistines, [Jdg 14:19], [Jdg 14:20].

### Verse 1

[¶30] Went down to Timnath - A frontier town of the Philistines, at the beginning of the lands belonging to the tribe of Judah, [Jos 15:57]; but afterwards given up to Dan, [Jos 19:43]. David took this place from the Philistines, but they again got possession of it in the reign of Ahaz, [2Chr 28:18].

### Verse 3

[¶32] Is there never a woman - To marry with any that did not belong to the Israelitish stock, was contrary to the law, [Exo 34:16]; [Deu 7:3]. But this marriage of Samson was said to be of the Lord, [Jdg 14:4]; that is, God permitted it, (for in no other sense can we understand the phrase), that it might be a means of bringing about the deliverance of Israel.

[¶33] For she pleaseth me well - כי היאישרה בעיני ki hi yisherah beeynai, for she is right in my eyes. This is what is supposed to be a sufficient reason to justify either man or woman in their random choice of wife or husband; the maxim is the same with that of the poet: - "Thou hast no fault, or I no fault can spy;

[¶34] Thou art all beauty or all blindness I."

[¶35] When the will has sufficient power, its determinations are its own rule of right. That will should be pure and well directed that says, It shall be so, because I Will it should be so. A reason of this kind is similar to that which I have seen in a motto on the brass ordnance of Lewis XIV., Ultima Ratio Regum, the sum of regal logic; i.e., "My will, backed by these instruments of destruction, shall be the rule of right and wrong." The rules and principles of this logic are now suspected; and it is not likely to be generally received again without violent demonstration.

### Verse 5

[¶37] A young lion roared against him - Came fiercely out upon him, ready to tear him to pieces.

### Verse 6

[¶39] He rent him as he would have rent a kid - Now it is not intimated that he did this by his own natural strength, but by the Spirit of the Lord coming mightily upon him: so that his strength does not appear to be his own, nor to be at his command; his might was, by the will of God, attached to his hair and to his Nazarate.

### Verse 7

[¶41] And talked with the woman - That is, concerning marriage; thus forming the espousals.

### Verse 8

[¶43] After a time - Probably about one year; as this was the time that generally elapsed between espousing and wedding.

[¶44] A swarm of bees and honey in the carcass - By length of time the flesh had been entirely consumed off the bones, and a swarm of bees had formed their combs within the region of the thorax, nor was it an improper place; nor was the thing unfrequent, if we may credit ancient writers; the carcasses of slain beasts becoming a receptacle for wild bees. The beautiful espisode in the 4th Georgic of Virgil, beginning at ver. 317, proves that the ancients believed that bees might be engendered in the body of a dead ox: -

## 264. Judges · 20 of 29

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[¶0] Pastor Aristaeus fugiens Peneia Tempe -

[¶1] Quatuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros

[¶2] Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice juvencas.

[¶3] Post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus.

[¶4] Inferias Orphei mittit, lucumque revisit.

[¶5] Hic ver o subitum, ac dietu mirabile monstrum

[¶6] Adspiciunt, liquefacta bourn per viscera toto

[¶7] Stridere apes utero, et ruptis effervere costis;

[¶8] Immensasque trahi nubes, jamque arbore summa

[¶9] Confluere, et lentis uvam demittere ramis.

[¶10] Virg. Geor. lib. iv., ver. 550. "Sad Aristaeus from fair Tempe fled,

[¶11] His bees with famine or diseases dead -

[¶12] Four altars raises, from his herd he culls

[¶13] For slaughter four the fairest of his bulls;

[¶14] Four heifers from his female store he took,

[¶15] All fair, and all unknowing of the yoke.

[¶16] Nine mornings thence, with sacrifice and prayers,

[¶17] The powers atoned, he to the grove repairs.

[¶18] Behold a prodigy! for, from within

[¶19] The broken bowels, and the bloated skin,

[¶20] A buzzing noise of bees his ears alarms,

[¶21] Straight issuing through the sides assembling swarms!

[¶22] Dark as a cloud, they make a wheeling flight,

[¶23] Then on a neighboring tree descending light,

[¶24] Like a large cluster of black grapes they show,

[¶25] And make a large dependance from the bough.

[¶26] Dryden.

### Verse 10

[¶28] Samson made there a feast - The marriage feast, when he went to marry his espoused wife.

### Verse 11

[¶30] They brought thirty companions - These are called in Scripture children of the bride-chamber, and friends of the bridegroom. See the whole of this subject particularly illustrated in the observations at the end of [Joh 3:25] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶32] I will now put forth a riddle - Probably this was one part of the amusements at a marriage-feast; each in his turn proposing a riddle, to be solved by any of the rest on a particular forfeit; the proposer forfeiting, if solved, the same which the company must forfeit if they could not solve it.

[¶33] Thirty sheets - I have no doubt that the Arab hayk, or hake, is here meant; a dress in which the natives of the East wrap themselves, as a Scottish Highlander does in his plaid. In Asiatic countries the dress scarcely ever changes; being nearly the same now that it was 2000 years ago. Mr. Jackson, in his account of the Empire of Morocco, thus mentions the Moorish dress: "It resembles," says he, "that of the ancient patriarchs, as represented in paintings; (but the paintings are taken from Asiatic models); that of the men consists of a red cap and turban, a (kumja) shirt, which hangs outside of the drawers, and comes down below the knee; a (caftan) coat, which buttons close before, and down to the bottom, with large open sleeves; over which, when they go out of doors, they throw carelessly, and sometimes elegantly, a hayk, or garment of white cotton, silk, or wool, five or six yards long, and five feet wide. The Arabs often dispense with the caftan, and even with the shirt, wearing nothing but the hayk." When an Arab does not choose to wrap himself in the hayk, he throws it over his left shoulder, where it hangs till the weather, etc., obliges him to wrap it round him. The hayk is either mean or elegant, according to the quality of the cloth, and of the person who wears it. I have myself seen the natives of Fez, with hayks, or hykes, both elegant and costly. By the changes of garments, it is very likely that the kumja and caftan are meant, or at least the caftan; but most likely both: for the Hebrew has חליפות בגדים chaliphoth begadim, changes or succession of garments. Samson, therefore, engaged to give or receive thirty hayks, and thirty kumjas and caftans, on the issue of the interpretation or non-interpretation of his riddle: these were complete suits.

### Verse 14

[¶35] And he said unto there - Thus he states or proposes his riddle: -

[¶36] Out of the eater came forth meat,

[¶37] And out of the strong came forth sweetness.

[¶38] Instead of strong, the Syriac and Arabic have bitter. I have no doubt that the riddle was in poetry; and perhaps the two hemistichs above preserve its order. This was scarcely a fair riddle; for unless the fact to which it refers were known, there is no rule of interpretation by which it could be found out. We learn from the Scholiast, on Aristophanes, Vesp. v. 20, that it was a custom among the ancient Greeks to propose at their festivals, what were called γριφοι, griphoi, riddles, enigmas, or very obscure sayings, both curious and difficult, and to give a recompense to those who found them out, which generally consisted in either a festive crown, or a goblet full of wine. Those who failed to solve them were condemned to drink a large portion of fresh water, or of wine mingled with a sea-water, which they were compelled to take down at one draught, without drawing their breath, their hands being tied behind their backs. Sometimes they gave the crown to the deity in honor of whom the festival was made: and if none could solve the riddle, the reward was given to him who proposed it. Of these enigmas proposed at entertainments etc., we have numerous examples in Athenaeus, Deipnosoph, lib. x., c. 15, p. 142, edit. Argentorat., and some of them very like this of Samson for example: - Διδους τις ουκ εδωκεν, ουδ' εχων εχει; "Who gives, and does not give?

[¶39] Who has not, and yet has?"

[¶40] This may be spoken of an enigma and its proposer: he gives it, but he does not give the sense; the other has it, but has not the meaning. Εστι φυσις θηλεια βρεφη σοζους' ὑπο κολποις Αυτης· ταυτα δ' αφωνα βοην ἱστησι γεγωνον. Και δια ποντιον οιδμα, και ηπειρου δια πασης, Οἱς εθελει θνητων· τοις δ' ου παρεουσις ακουειν Εξεστι· κωφην δ' ακοης αισθησιν εχουσιν. "There is a feminine Nature, fostering her children in her bosom; who, although they are dumb, send forth a distinct voice over every nation of the earth, and every sea, to whom soever they please. It is possible for those who are absent to hear, and for those who are deaf to hear also."

[¶41] The relator brings in Sappho interpreting it thus: - Θηλεια μεν ουν εστι φυσις, επιστολη. Βρεφη δ' εν αυτῃ περιφερει τα γραμματα Αφωνα δ' οντα ταυτα τοις πορῥω λαλει, Οἱς βουλεθ\uu903? ἑτερος δ' αν τυχῃ τις πλησιον Ἑστως αναγινωσκοντος, ουκ ακουσεται. "The Nature, which is feminine, signifies an epistle; and her children whom she bears are alphabetical characters: and these, being dumb, speak and give counsel to any, even at a distance; though he who stands nigh to him who is silently reading, hears no voice."

[¶42] Here is another, attributed by the same author to Theodectes: - Της φυσεως ὁσα γαια φερει τροφος, ουδ' ὁσα ποντος, Ουτε βροτοισιν εχει γυιων αυξησιν ὁμοιαν. Αλλ' εν μεν γενεσει πρωτοσπορῳ εστι μεγιστη, Εν δε μεσαις ακμαις μικρα, γηρᾳ δε προς αυτῳ Μορφῃ και μεγεθει μειζων παλιν εστιν ἁπαντων. "Neither does the nourishing earth so bear by nature, nor the sea, nor is there among mortals a like increase of parts; for at the period of its birth it is greatest, but in its middle age it is small, and in its old age it is again greater in form and size than all."

[¶43] This is spoken of a shadow. At the rising of the sun in the east, the shadow of an object is projected illimitably across the earth towards the west; at noon, if the sun be vertical to that place, the shadow of the object is entirely lost; at sunsetting, the shadow is projected towards the east, as it was in the morning towards the west.

[¶44] Here is another, from the same author: - Εισι κασιγνηται διτται, ὡν ἡ μια τικτει Την ἑπεραν, αυτη δε τεκους' ὑπο τησδε τεκνουται. "There are two sisters, the one of whom begets the other, and she who is begotten produces her who begat her."

## 265. Judges · 21 of 29

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[¶0] Day and night solve this enigma.

[¶1] The following I have taken from Theognis: - Ηδη γαρ με κεκληκε θαλαττιος οικαδε νεκρος, Τεθνηκως, ζωῳ φθεγγομενος στοματι.

[¶2] Theogn. Gnom., in fine. "A dead seaman calls me to his house; And, although he be dead, he speaks with a living mouth."

[¶3] This dead seaman is a conch or large shellfish, of which the poet was about to eat. The mouth by which it spoke signifies its being used as a horn; as it is well known to produce, when opened at the spiral end and blown, a very powerful sound.

### Verse 17

[¶5] And she wept before him - Not through any love to him, for it appears she had none, but to oblige her paramours; and of this he soon had ample proof.

### Verse 18

[¶7] If ye had not ploughed with my heifer - If my wife had not been unfaithful to my bed, she would not have been unfaithful to my secret; and, you being her paramours, your interest was more precious to her than that of her husband. She has betrayed me through her attachment to you. Calmet has properly remarked, in quoting the Septuagint, that to plough with one's heifer, or to plough in another man's ground, are delicate turns of expression used both by the Greeks and Latins, as well as the Hebrews, to point out a wife's infidelities. Thus Theognis, Gnom. v. 581: - Εχθαιρω δε γυναικα περιδρομον, ανδρα τε μαργον. Ὁς την αλλονριην βουλετ' αρουραν αρουν. "I detest a woman who gads about, and also a libidinous man, who wishes to plough in another man's ground."

[¶8] Fundum alienium arat, incultum familiarem deserit.

[¶9] Plautus. "He ploughs another's farm, and leaves his own heritage uncultivated."

[¶10] Milo domi non est, perepre at Milone profecto

[¶11] Arva vacant, uxor non minus inde parit.

[¶12] Martial. "Milo is not at home, and Milo being from home, his field lies uncultivated; his wife, nevertheless, continues to breed, and brings forth children."

[¶13] There is the same metaphor in the following lines of Virgil: -

[¶14] Hoc faciunt, nimo ne luxu obtusior usus,

[¶15] Sit genitali arvo, sulcosque oblimet inertes.

[¶16] Geor. l. iii., v. 135.

[¶17] In this sense Samson's words were understood by the Septuagint, by the Syriac, and by Rabbi Levi. See Bochart, Hierozoic. p. 1, lib. ii., cap. 41, col. 406. The metaphor was a common one, and we need seek for no other interpretation of the words of Samson.

### Verse 19

[¶19] The Spirit of the Lord came upon him - "The spirit of fortitude from before the Lord." - Targum. He was inspired with unusual courage, and he felt strength proportioned to his wishes.

[¶20] He - slew thirty men - and took their spoils - He took their hayks, their kumjas, and caftans, and gave them to the thirty persons who, by unfair means, had solved his riddle; thus they had what our version calls thirty sheets, and thirty changes of raiment. See the note on [Jdg 14:12].

### Verse 20

[¶22] But Samson's wife was given to his companion - This was the same kind of person who is called the friend of the bridegroom, [Joh 3:29]. And it is very likely that she loved this person better than she loved her husband, and went to him as soon as Samson had gone to his father's house at Zorah. She might, however, have thought herself abandoned by him, and therefore took another; this appears to have been the persuasion of her father, [Jdg 15:2]. But her betraying his secret and his interests to his enemies was a full proof he was not very dear to her; though, to persuade him to the contrary, she shed many crocodile tears; see [Jdg 14:16]. He could not keep his own secret, and he was fool enough to suppose that another would be more faithful to him than he was to himself. Multitudes complain of the treachery of friends betraying their secrets, etc., never considering that they themselves have been their first betrayers, in confiding to others what they pretend to wish should be a secret to the whole world! If a man never let his secret out of his own bosom, it is impossible that he should ever be betrayed.

### Introduction

[¶24] Samson, going to visit his wife, finds her bestowed on another, [Jdg 15:1], [Jdg 15:2]. He is incensed, vows revenge, and burns the corn of the Philistines, [Jdg 15:3-5]. They burn Samson's wife and her father, [Jdg 15:6]. He is still incensed, makes a great slaughter among them, [Jdg 15:7], [Jdg 15:8]. The Philistines gather together against Israel, and to appease them the men of Judah bind Samson, and deliver him into their hands, [Jdg 15:9-13]. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him; he breaks his bonds, finds the jaw-bone of an ass, and therewith kills a thousand men, [Jdg 15:14-16]. He is sorely fatigued; and, being thirsty, God miraculously produces water from an opening of the ground in Lehi, and he is refreshed, [Jdg 15:17-19]. He judges Israel in the time of the Philistines twenty years, [Jdg 15:20].

### Verse 1

[¶26] Visited his wife with a kid - On her betraying him, he had, no doubt, left her in great disgust. After some time his affection appears to have returned; and, taking a kid, or perhaps a fawn, as a present, he goes to make reconciliation, and finds her given to his brideman; probably, the person to whom she betrayed his riddle.

### Verse 2

[¶28] Thou hadst utterly hated her - As he was conscious she had given him great cause so to do.

[¶29] Her younger sister - The father appears to have been perfectly sincere in this offer.

### Verse 4

[¶31] Went and caught three hundred foxes - There has been much controversy concerning the meaning of the term שועלים shualim, some supposing it to mean foxes or jackals, and others handfuls or sheaves of corn. Much of the force of the objections against the common version will be diminished by the following considerations: -

[¶32] 1. Foxes, or jackals, are common and gregarious in that country.

[¶33] 2. It is not hinted that Samson collected them alone; he might have employed several hands in this work.

[¶34] 3. It is not said he collected them all in one day; he might have employed several days, as well as many persons, to furnish him with these means of vengeance.

[¶35] 4. In other countries, where ferocious beasts were less numerous, great multitudes have been exhibited at once.

[¶36] Sylla, in a public show to the Roman citizens, exhibited one hundred lions; Caesar, four hundred, and Pompey, nearly six hundred. The Emperor Probus let loose in the theater, at one time, one thousand ostriches, one thousand stags, one thousand wild boars, one thousand does, and a countless multitude of other wild animals; at another time he exhibited one hundred leopards from Libya, one hundred from Syria, and three hundred bears. - See Flavius Vopiscus in the Life of Probus, cap. xix., beginning with Dedit Romanis etiam voluptates, etc.

[¶37] That foxes, or the creature called shual, abounded in Judea, is evident from their frequent mention in Scripture, and from several places bearing their name. It appears they were so numerous that even their cubs ruined the vineyards; see [Sol 2:15] : Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil our vines. Jeremiah complains that the foxes had occupied the mountains of Judea, [Lam 5:18]. They are mentioned as making incursions into enclosures, etc., [Neh 4:3]. Ezekiel compares the numerous false prophets to these animals, [Eze 13:4]. In [Jos 15:28] we find a place called Hazar Shual, "the court of the foxes:" and in [Jos 19:42] a place called Shaal-abbin, "the foxes;" no doubt from the number of those animals in that district. And mention is made of the land of Shual, or of the fox, [1Sam 13:17].

[¶38] The creature called shual is represented by travelers and naturalists who have been in Judea as an animal between a wolf and a fox. Hasselquist, who was on the spot, and saw many of them, calls it the little Eastern fox. They are frequent in the East, and often destroy infirm persons and children.

[¶39] Dr. Kennicott, however, objects to the common interpretation; and gives reasons, some of which are far from being destitute of weight. "The three hundred foxes," says he, "caught by Samson, have been so frequently the subject of banter and ridicule, that we should consider whether the words may not admit a more rational interpretation: for, besides the improbability arising here from the number of these foxes, the use made of them is also very strange. If these animals were tied tail to tail, they would probably pull contrary ways, and consequently stand still; whereas a firebrand tied to the tail of each fox singly would have been far more likely to answer the purpose here intended. To obviate these difficulties it has been well remarked, that the word שועלים shualim, here translated foxes, signifies also handfuls, [Eze 13:19], handfuls of barley; if we leave out that one letter ו vau, which has been inserted or omitted elsewhere, almost at pleasure. No less than seven Hebrew MSS. want that letter here, and read שעלים shealim. Admitting this version, we see that Samson took three hundred handfuls or sheaves of corn, and one hundred and fifty firebrands; that he turned the sheaves end to end, and put a firebrand between the two ends in the midst; and then, setting the brands on fire, sent the fire into the standing corn of the Philistines. The same word is now used twice in one chapter, ([Eze 13:4], [Eze 13:19]); in the former verse signifying foxes, in the latter handfuls: and in [1Kgs 20:10], where we render it handfuls, it is αλωπεξι, foxes, in the Greek version." - Remarks on Select Passages.

[¶40] The reasoning of Dr. Kennicott in the first part of this criticism has already been answered; other parts shall be considered below. Though there are seven MSS., which agree in the reading contended for by Dr. Kennicott, yet all the versions are on the other side. I see no improbability in the common version.

[¶41] Turned tail to tail - Had he put a firebrand to each, which Dr. Kennicott thinks more reasonable, the creature, naturally terrified at fire, would have instantly taken to cover, and thus the design of Samson would have been frustrated. But, tying two of them together by their tails, they would frequently thwart each other in running, pull hither and thither, and thus make the greater devastation. Had he tied them all together, the confusion would have been so great that no execution could have been done.

### Verse 6

[¶43] Burnt her and her father - This was probably done to appease Samson: as they saw he had been unjustly treated both by his wife and her father; therefore they destroyed them both, that they might cause his wrath to cease from them. And this indeed seems intimated in the following verse: And Samson said - Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you; that is, I am not yet satisfied: ye have done me great wrongs, I must have proportionate redress; then I shall rest satisfied.

## 266. Judges · 22 of 29

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### Verse 8

[¶1] He smote them hip and thigh - This also is variously understood; but the general meaning seems plain; he appears to have had no kind of defensive weapon, therefore he was obliged to grapple with them, and, according to the custom of wrestlers, trip up their feet, and then bruise them to death. Some translate heaps upon heaps; others, he smote horsemen and footmen; others, he wounded them from their legs to their thighs, etc., etc. See the different versions. Some think in their running away from him he kicked them down, and then trod them to death: thus his leg or thigh was against their hip; hence the expression.

[¶2] The top of the rock Etam - It is very likely that this is the same place as that mentioned [1Chr 4:32]; it was in the tribe of Simeon, and on the borders of Dan, and probably a fortified place.

### Verse 10

[¶4] To bind Samson are we come up - It seems they did not wish to come to an open rupture with the Israelites, provided they would deliver up him who was the cause of their disasters.

### Verse 11

[¶6] Three thousand men of Judah went - It appears evidently from this that Samson was strongly posted, and they thought that no less than three thousand men were necessary to reduce him.

### Verse 12

[¶8] That ye will not fall upon me yourselves - He could not bear the thought of contending with and slaying his own countrymen; for there is no doubt that he could have as easily rescued himself from their hands as from those of the Philistines.

### Verse 13

[¶10] They bound him with two new cords - Probably his hands with one and his legs with the other.

### Verse 14

[¶12] When he came unto Lehi - This was the name of the place to which they brought him, either to put him to death, or keep him in perpetual confinement.

[¶13] Shouted against him - His capture was a matter of public rejoicing.

### Verse 15

[¶15] He found a new jaw-bone of an ass - I rather think that the word טריה teriyah, which we translate new, and the margin moist, should be understood as signifying the tabia or putrid state of the ass from which this jawbone was taken. He found there a dead ass in a state of putrefaction; on which account he could the more easily separate the jaw from its integuments; this was a circumstance proper to be recorded by the historian, and a mark of the providence of God. But were we to understand it of a fresh jaw-bone, very lately separated from the head of an ass, the circumstance does not seem worthy of being recorded.

[¶16] With the jaw-bore of an ass, heaps upon heaps - I cannot see the propriety of this rendering of the Hebrew words בלחי החמור חמור חמרתים bilchi hachamor, chemor chamorathayim; I believe they should be translated thus: - "With the jaw-bone of this ass, an ass (the foal) of two asses; "With the jaw-bone of this ass I have slain a thousand men."

[¶17] This appears to have been a triumphal song on the occasion; and the words are variously rendered both by the versions, and by expositors.

### Verse 17

[¶19] Ramath-lehi - The lifting up or casting away of the jaw-bone. Lehi was the name of the place before, Ramath was now added to it here; he lifted up the jaw-bone against his enemies, and slew them.

### Verse 18

[¶21] I die for thirst - The natural consequence of the excessive fatigue he had gone through in this encounter.

### Verse 19

[¶23] God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw - אשר בלחי asher ballechi, that was in Lehi; that is, there was a hollow place in this Lehi, and God caused a fountain to spring up in it. Because the place was hollow it was capable of containing the water that rose up in it, and thus of becoming a well.

[¶24] En-hakkore - The well of the implorer; this name he gave to the spot where the water rose, in order to perpetuate the bounty of God in affording him this miraculous supply.

[¶25] Which is in Lehi unto this day - Consequently not In the jaw-bone of the ass, a most unfortunate rendering.

### Verse 20

[¶27] He judged Israel - twenty years - In the margin it is said, He seems to have judged southwest Israel during twenty years of their servitude of the Philistines, [Jdg 13:1]. Instead of עשרים שנה esrim shanah, twenty years, the Jerusalem Talmud has ארבעים שנה arbaim shanah, forty years; but this reading is not acknowledged by any MS. or version. According to Calmet, the twenty years of the judicature of Samson began the eighteenth year of the subjection of Israel to the Philistines; and these twenty years are included in the judicature of the high priest Eli.

[¶28] The burning of the Philistines' corn by the means of foxes and firebrands is a very remarkable circumstance; and there is a story told by Ovid, in the 4th book of his Fasti, that bears a striking similitude to this; and is supposed by some learned men to allude to Samson and his foxes. The poet is at a loss to account for this custom, but brings in an old man of Carseoli, with what must have appeared to himself a very unsatisfactory solution. The passage begins as follows: -

[¶29] Tertia post Hyadas cum luxerit orta, remotas,

[¶30] Carcere partitos Circus habebit equos

[¶31] Cur igitur missae vinctis ardentia taedis

[¶32] Terga ferant vulpes, causa docenda mihi?

[¶33] Vid. Ovid, Fastor. lib. iv., ver. 679.

[¶34] The substance of the whole account, which is too long to be transcribed, is this: It was a custom in Rome, celebrated in the month of April to let loose a number of foxes in the circus, with lighted flambeaux on their backs; and the Roman people took pleasure in seeing these animals run about till roasted to death by the flames with which they were enveloped. The poet wishes to know what the origin of this custom was, and is thus informed by an old man of the city of Carseoli: "A frolicksome young lad, about ten years of age, found, near a thicket, a fox that had stolen away many fowls from the neighboring roosts. Having enveloped his body with hay and straw, he set it on fire, and let the fox loose. The animal, in order to avoid the flames, took to the standing corn which was then ready for the sickle; and the wind, driving the flames with double violence, the crops were everywhere consumed. Though this transaction is long since gone by, the commemoration of it still remains; for, by a law of this city, every fox that is taken is burnt to death. Thus the nation awards to the foxes the punishment of being burnt alive, for the destruction of the ripe corn formerly occasioned by one of these animals."

[¶35] Both Serrarius and Bochart reject this origin of the custom given by Ovid; and insist that the custom took its rise from the burning of the Philistines' corn by Samson's foxes. The origin ascribed to the custom by the Carseolian they consider as too frivolous and unimportant to be commemorated by a national festival. The time of the observation does not accord with the time of harvest about Rome and in Italy, but it perfectly accords with the time of harvest in Palestine, which was at least as early as April. Nor does the circumstance of the fox wrapped in hay and let loose, the hay being set on fire, bear any proper resemblance to the foxes let loose in the circus with burning brands on their backs.

[¶36] These learned men therefore conclude that it is much more natural to suppose that the Romans derived the custom from Judea, where probably the burning of the Philistines' corn might, for some time, have been annually commemorated.

[¶37] The whole account is certainly very singular, and has not a very satisfactory solution in the old man's tale, as related by the Roman poet.

[¶38] All public institutions have had their origin in facts; and if, through the lapse of time or loss of records, the original facts be lost, we may legitimately look for them in cases where there is so near a resemblance as in that above.

### Introduction

[¶40] Samson comes to Gaza; they lay wait for him; he rises by night, and carries away the city gates, [Jdg 16:1-3]. Falls in love with Delilah, [Jdg 16:4]. The lords of the Philistines promise her money if she will obtain from Samson the secret in which his strength lay, [Jdg 16:5]. By various artifices she at last obtains this; and communicates it to the Philistines, who seize and bind him, put out his eyes, and cause him to grind in the prison-house, vv. 6-21. At a public festival to Dagon he is brought out to make sport; when, being weary, he requests to be placed between the two pillars which supported the roof of the house, on which three thousand men and women were stationed to see him make sport, [Jdg 16:22-27]. He prays to God to strengthen him, and pulls down the pillars; by which (the house falling) both himself, the lords of the Philistines, and a vast multitude of the people, are slain, [Jdg 16:28-30]. His relatives come and take away his body, and bury it, [Jdg 16:31].

### Verse 1

[¶42] Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there a harlot - The Chaldee, as in the former case, renders the clause thus: Samson saw there a woman, an inn-keeper. Perhaps the word זונה zonah is to be taken here in its double sense; one who keeps a house for the entertainment of travelers, and who also prostitutes her person. Gaza was situated near the Mediterranean Sea, and was one of the most southern cities of Palestine. It has been supposed by some to have derived its name from the treasures deposited there by Cambyses, king of the Persians; because they say Gaza, in Persian, signifies treasure; so Pomponius Mela and others. But it is more likely to be a Hebrew word, and that this city derived its name, עזה azzah, from עזז azaz, to be strong, it being a strong or well fortified place. The Hebrew ע ain in this word is, by the Septuagint, the Arabic, and the Vulgate, rendered G; hence instead of azzah, with a strong guttural breathing, we have Gaza, a name by which this town could not be recognized by an ancient Hebrew.

### Verse 2

[¶44] They compassed him in - They shut up all the avenues, secured the gates, and set persons in ambush near them, that they might attack him on his leaving the city early the next morning.

## 267. Judges · 23 of 29

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### Verse 3

[¶1] Took the doors of the gate - Though Samson was a very strong man, yet we do not find that he was a giant; consequently we may conjecture that the gates of the city were not very large, as he took at once the doors, the two posts, and the bar, with him. The cities of those days would appear to disadvantage among modern villages.

[¶2] A hill - before Hebron - Possibly there were two Hebrons; it could not be the city generally understood by the word Hebron, as that was about twenty miles distant from Gaza: unless we suppose that על פני חברון al peney Chebron is to be understood of the road leading to Hebron: he carried all to the top of that hill which was on the road leading to Hebron.

### Verse 4

[¶4] He loved a woman in the valley of Sorek - Some think Samson took this woman for his wife; others, that he had her as a concubine. It appears she was a Philistine; and however strong his love was for her, she seems to have had none for him. He always matched improperly, and he was cursed in all his matches. Where the valley or brook of Sorek was, is not easy to be ascertained. Eusebius and Jerome say it lay southward of Eleutheropolis; but where was Eleutheropolis? Ancient writers take all their measurements from this city; but as it is nowhere mentioned in the Scriptures, it is impossible to fix its situation for we know not its ancient name.

### Verse 5

[¶6] See wherein his great strength lieth - They saw that his stature was not remarkable: and that, nevertheless, he had most extraordinary strength; therefore they supposed that it was the effect of some charm or amulet. The lords of the Philistines were the five following: Gaza, Gath, Askelon, Ekron, and Ashdod. All these considered Samson as a public enemy; and they promised this bad woman a large sum of money if she would obtain from him the important secret wherein his strength lay, that, depriving him of this supernatural power, they might be able to reduce him to bondage.

### Verse 7

[¶8] Seven green withs - That is, any kind of pliant, tough wood, twisted in the form of a cord or rope. Such are used in many countries formed out of osiers, hazel, etc. And in Ireland, very long and strong ropes are made of the fibres of bog-wood, or the larger roots of the fir, which is often dug up in the bogs or mosses of that country. But the Septuagint, by translating the Hebrew יתרים לחים yetharim lachim by νευραις ὑγραις, and the Vulgate by nerviceis funibus, understand these bonds to be cords made of the nerves of cattle, or perhaps rather out of raw hides, these also making an exceedingly strong cord. In some countries they take the skin of the horse, cut it lengthwise from the hide into thongs about two inches broad, and after having laid them in salt for some time, take them out for use. This practice is frequent in the country parts of Ireland; and both customs, the wooden cord, and that made of the raw or green hide, are among the most ancient perhaps in the world. Among the Irish peasantry this latter species of cord is called the tug and is chiefly used for agricultural purposes, particularly for drawing the plough and the harrow, instead of the iron chains used in other countries.

### Verse 9

[¶10] Men lying in wait - They probably did not appear, as Samson immediately broke his bonds when this bad woman said, The Philistines be upon thee.

### Verse 11

[¶12] If they bind me fast with new ropes - Samson wishes to keep up the opinion which the Philistines held; viz., that his mighty strength was the effect of some charm; and therefore he says, Seven green withs which had not been dried; new ropes that were never occupied; weave the seven locks of my hair with the web, etc.; the green withs, the new ropes, and the number seven, are such matters as would naturally be expected in a charm or spell.

### Verse 13

[¶14] The seven locks of my head - Probably Samson had his long hair plaited into seven divisions, and as his vow of a Nazarite obliged him to wear his hair, so, seven being a number of perfection among the Hebrews, his hair being divided into seven locks might more particularly point out the perfection designed by his Nazarite state. Every person must see that this verse ends abruptly, and does not contain a full sense. Houbigant has particularly noticed this, and corrected the text from the Septuagint, the reading of which I shall here subjoin: Εαν ὑφανῃς τας ἑπτα σειρας της κεφαλης μον αυν τῳ διασματι, και εγκρουσῃς τῳ πασσαλῳ εις τον τοιχον, και εσομαι ὡς εἱς των ανθρωπων ασθενης· Και εγενετο εν τῳ κοιμασθαι αυτον, και ελαβε Δαλιδα τας ἑπτα σειρας της κεφαλης αυτου, και ὑφανεν εν τῳ διασματι, και επηξε τῳ πασσαλῳ εις τον τοιχον; "If thou shalt weave the seven locks of my head with the web, and shalt fasten them with the pin in the wall, I shall become weak like other men: And so it was that, when he slept, Dalida took the seven locks of his head, and wove them with the web, and fastened it with the pin to the wall and said unto him," etc.

[¶15] All the words printed here in italic, are wanting in the present Hebrew copies; but are preserved in the Septuagint, and are most obviously necessary to complete the sense; else Delilah appears to do something that she is not ordered to do, and to omit what she was commanded.

### Verse 16

[¶17] His soul was vexed unto death - What a consummate fool was this strong man! Might he not have seen, from what already took place, that Delilah intended his ruin? After trifling with her, and lying thrice, he at last commits to her his fatal secret, and thus becomes a traitor to himself and to his God. Well may we adopt the sensible observation of Calmet on this passage: La foiblesse du caeur de Samson, dans torte cette histoire, est encore plus etonnante que la force de son corps; "The weakness of Samson's heart in the whole of this history, is yet more astonishing than the strength of his body."

### Verse 17

[¶19] If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me - The miraculous strength of Samson must not be supposed to reside either in his hair or in his muscles, but in that relation in which he stood to God as a Nazarite, such a person being bound by a solemn vow to walk in a strict conformity to the laws of his Maker. It was a part of the Nazarite's vow to permit no razor to pass on his head; and his long hair was the mark of his Nazirate, and of his vow to God. When Samson permitted his hair to be shorn off, he renounced and broke his Nazir vow; in consequence of which God abandoned him, and therefore we are told, in [Jdg 16:20], that the Lord was departed from him.

### Verse 19

[¶21] She began to affect him - She had probably tied his hands slyly, while he was asleep, and after having cut off his hair, she began to insult him before she called the Philistines, to try whether he were really reduced to a state of weakness. Finding he could not disengage himself, she called the Philistines, and he, being alarmed, rose up, thinking he could exert himself as before, and shake himself, i.e., disengage himself from his bonds and his enemies: but he wist not that the Lord was departed from him; for as Delilah had cut off his locks while he was asleep, he had not yet perceived that they were gone.

### Verse 21

[¶23] Put out his eyes - Thus was the lust of the eye, in looking after and gazing on strange women, punished. As the Philistines did not know that his strength might not return, they put out his eyes, that he might never be able to plan any enterprise against them.

[¶24] He did grind in the prison-house - Before the invention of wind and water-mills, the grain was at first bruised between two stones, afterwards ground in hand-mills. This is practiced in China and in different parts of the East still; and women and slaves are the persons who are obliged to turn these mills. Such instruments were anciently used in this country, and called querns, from the Anglo-Saxon and cweorn and cwyrn, which has the signification of a mill; hence cweorn stan, a millstone: and as quern conveys the notion of grinding, hence, cweornteth, the dentes molares or grinders in the jaws of animals. This clause of the verse is thus translated in the Saxon Octateuch: "And the Philistines laid their fangs, (seized) him soon, and led him away to their burgh, (city), and shut him up in prison, and made him grind at their hand-querne." So late as half a century ago I have seen these querns or hand-mills in these kingdoms.

### Verse 22

[¶26] The hair of his head began to grow again - And may we not suppose that, sensible of his sin and folly, he renewed his Nazir vow to the Lord, in consequence of which his supernatural strength was again restored?

### Verse 23

[¶28] Unto Dagon their god - Diodorus Siculus describes their god thus: Το μεν προσωπον εχει γυναικος, το δ' αλλο σωμα παν ιχθους; "It had the head of a woman, but all the rest of the body resembled a fish."

[¶29] Dagon was called Dorceto among the heathens. Horace, in the following lines, especially in the third and fourth, seems to have in view the image of Dagon: -

[¶30] Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam

[¶31] Pingere si velit; et varias inducere plumas,

[¶32] Undique collatis Inembris; ut turpiter atrum

[¶33] Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne;

[¶34] Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici?

[¶35] De Art. Poet., V. 1. "Suppose a painter to a human head

[¶36] Should join a horse's neck; and wildly spread

[¶37] The various plumage of the feather'd kind

[¶38] O'er limbs of different beasts, absurdly join'd;

[¶39] Or if he gave to view a beauteous maid,

[¶40] Above the waist with every charm array'd,

[¶41] Should a foul fish her lower parts infold,

[¶42] Would you not smile such pictures to behold?"

[¶43] Francis.

### Verse 25

[¶45] Call for Samson, that he may make us sport - What the sport was we cannot tell; probably it was an exhibition of his prodigious strength. This seems to be intimated by what is said, [Jdg 16:22], of the restoration of his hair; and the exertions he was obliged to make will account for the weariness which gave him the pretense to ask for leave to lean against the pillars. Some think he was brought out to be a laughing-stock, and that he was variously insulted by the Philistines; hence the version of the Septuagint: και ερραπιζον αυτον, and they buffeted him. Josephus, Antiq. Jud. lib. v., cap. 8, s. 12, says: He was brought out, ὁπως ενυβρισωσιν αυτον παρα τον ποτον, that they might insult him in their cups.

## 268. Judges · 24 of 29

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### Verse 27

[¶1] Now the house was full of men - It was either the prison-house, house of assembly, or a temple of Dagon, raised on pillars, open on all sides, and flat-roofed, so that it could accommodate a multitude of people on the top.

### Verse 28

[¶3] Samson called unto the Lord - It was in consequence of his faith in God that he should be strengthened to overthrow his enemies and the enemies of his country, that he is mentioned, [Heb 11:32], among those who were remarkable for their faith.

### Verse 29

[¶5] The two middle pillars upon which the house stood - Much learned labor has been lost on the attempt to prove that a building like this might stand on two pillars. But what need of this? There might have been as many pillars here as were in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and yet the two center pillars be the key of the building; these being once pulled down, the whole house would necessarily fall.

### Verse 30

[¶7] So the dead which he slew - We are informed that the house was full of men and women, with about three thousand of both sexes on the top; now as the whole house was pulled down, consequently the principal part of all these were slain; and among them we find there were the lords of the Philistines. The death of these, with so many of the inferior chiefs of the people, was such a crush to the Philistine ascendancy, that they troubled Israel no more for several years, and did not even attempt to hinder Samson's relatives from taking away and burying his dead body.

### Verse 31

[¶9] He judged Israel twenty years - It is difficult to ascertain the time of Samson's magistracy, and the extent of country over which he presided. His jurisdiction seems to have been very limited, and to have extended no farther than over those parts of the tribe of Dan contiguous to the land of the Philistines. This is what our margin intimates on [Jdg 15:20]. Many suppose that he and Eli were contemporaries, Samson being rather an executor of the Divine justice upon the enemies of his people, than an administrator of the civil and religious laws of the Hebrews. Allowing Eli and Samson to have been contemporaries, this latter part might have been entirely committed to the care of Eli.

[¶10] 1. Samson does not appear to have left any posterity. His amours with the different women mentioned in the history were unproductive as to issue. Had he married according to the laws of his country, he would have been both a more useful and a more happy man, and not have come to a violent death.

[¶11] 2. We seldom find much mental energy dwelling in a body that in size and bulk greatly surpasses the ordinary pitch of man; and wherever there are great physical powers, we seldom find proportionate moral faculties. Samson was a man of a little mind, a slave to his passions, and the wretched dupe of his mistresses. He was not a great though he was a strong man; and even his muscular force would have been lost, or spent in beating the air, had he not been frequently under the impulse of the Divine Spirit. He often got himself into broils and difficulties from which nothing but supernatural interposition could have saved him. His attacks upon the Philistines were never well planned, as he does not appear to have asked counsel from God; indeed, he seems to have consulted nothing but his own passions, particularly those of inordinate love and revenge; and the last effort of his extraordinary strength was, not to avenge his people for the oppressions which they had suffered under the Philistinian yoke, nor to avenge the quarrel of God's covenant against the enemies of his truth, but to be avenged of the Philistines for the loss of his two eyes.

[¶12] 3. Samson is a solemn proof how little corporeal prowess avails where judgment and prudence are wanting, and how dangerous all such gifts are in the hands of any man who has not his passions under proper discipline, and the fear of God continually before his eyes.

[¶13] 4. A parallel has been often drawn between Samson and our blessed Lord, of whom he has been supposed to be a most illustrious type. By a fruitful imagination, and the torture of words and facts, we may force resemblances everywhere; but that not one will naturally result from a cool comparison between Jesus Christ and Samson, is most demonstrable. A more exceptionable character is not to be found in the sacred oracles. It is no small dishonor to Christ to be thus compared. There is no resemblance in the qualities of Samson's mind, there is none in his moral conduct, that can entitle him even to the most distant comparison with the chaste, holy, benevolent, and immaculate Jesus. That man dishonors the law of unchangeable righteousness, who endeavors to make Samson a type of any thing or person that can be called holy, just, and pure.

[¶14] 5. Those who compare him to Hercules have been more successful. Indeed, the heathen god of strength appears to have been borrowed from the Israelitish judge; but if we regard what is called the choice of Hercules, his preference of virtue to pleasure, we shall find that the heathen is, morally speaking, vastly superior to the Jew. M. De Lavaur, in his Conference de la Fable avec l'Histoire Sainte, vol. ii., p. 1, has traced the parallel between Hercules and Samson in the following manner: - "Hercules was figured by the poets as supernatural both in his birth and actions, and was therefore received by the people as a god of the first order. They attributed to him the miracles wrought by several illustrious chiefs among the people of God, which they found described in the sacred oracles, more ancient than their most ancient accounts, or which they had learned by tradition, and their commerce with the Egyptians and Phoenicians, who were spread through various countries, but particularly in Greece. It is also to the time of these chiefs, and to the government of the Israelites by their judges, that the heroes and grand events of fable owe their origin; to which time, indeed, they are referred by the common consent of authors, sacred and profane. "Every ancient nation, which had writers who left monuments of their country's glory, had a Hercules of its own, forged on the same plan." Varro reckons more than forty, and Cicero reckons six. (Book iii. De Natura Deorum). "Herodotus, (book ii., entitled Euterpe), only speaks of the Egyptian and Greek Hercules. Although a Greek himself, this father of history, as Cicero calls him, who lived the nearest of any of these writers to the period he describes, informs us that Greece had borrowed its Hercules from Egypt, and that Amphitryon his father, and Alcmena his mother, were both Egyptians; so that, notwithstanding the desire the Greeks had to make Hercules a native of their country, they could not conceal his origin, which was either Egyptian or Hebrew; for the Greeks and Phoenicians looked upon the Israelites, who were settled in Canaan or Phoenicia, as Egyptians, whose ancestors, after residing in Egypt some centuries, had certainly come from that country. "M. Jaquelot, in his 'Treatise on the Existence of God,' believes that the Tyrian Hercules, who was the most ancient, was no other than Joshua. But St. Augustine (City of God, book xviii., chap. 19). has made it appear that it was after Samson (because of his prodigious and incomparable strength) that they forged their Hercules; first in Egypt, afterwards in Phoenicia, and lastly in Greece, each of whose writers has united in him all the miraculous actions of the others. In fact, it appears that Samson, judge of the Israelites from about A.M. 2867 to 2887, celebrated in the book of Judges, and mentioned by Josephus in his history, is the original and essential Hercules of fable: and although the poets have united these several particulars, drawn from Moses and Joshua, and have added their own inventions; yet the most capital and considerable belong to Samson, and are distinguished by characteristics so peculiar to him, as to render him easily discerned throughout the whole. "In Hebrew the name of Samson (שמשון) signifies the sun, and in Syriac (servitium vel ministerium ejus) subjection to some one, servitude. Macrobius says that the name of Hercules signifies only the sun; for, he adds, in Greek Hercules means, it is glory of the air, or the light of the sun. The Greeks and Egyptians have exactly followed the Syriac signification by imposing on their Hercules, during the whole of his life, a subjection to Eurystheus in all his exploits, and who appointed him his famous enterprises. This necessity they attribute to fate and the law of his birth. Having spoken of his name, we will now examine the circumstances of his birth, as mentioned in the sacred writings, Judges 13:2-24, and in the History of the Jews, chap. x. "Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, had married a woman who was barren, which led them to pray earnestly that the Lord would bless them with an offspring. One day, this woman being alone, an angel appeared to her, and told her he was sent by God to inform her she should have a son of the most extraordinary strength, who was to raise the glory of their nation, and to humble their enemies. Upon the arrival of her husband, she imparted to him the message and discourse of the angel. Some time after this heavenly messenger showed himself to them both as they were in the house together, and ascended up to heaven in their sight, after having confirmed the promises made before to the woman, who soon after became pregnant, and was in due time delivered of Samson. "The singular birth of Hercules, in fable, is similar to the above account, with a trifling alteration taken from the ideas the poets entertained of their gods. Amphitryon, the most considerable person and the chief of the Thebans, had married Alcmena, whom he loved to distraction, but had not any children by her. Jupiter, desirous of making her the mother of Hercules, repaired to Alcmena one night, in the absence and under the figure of her husband. On Amphitryon's return, his wife said she had seen him before, on such a night mentioning the visit she had received. Amphitryon, transported with jealousy, and enraged with his wife, whatever good opinion he might entertain of her virtue, would neither be appeased nor consoled till Jupiter appeared to vindicate her conduct; and, in order to convince Amphitryon of his being a god, visibly ascended up to heaven, after informing him that he alone had visited Alcmena, assuring him of her virtue, and promising him a son, who was to be distinguished for his strength; whose glory was to confer honor on his race and family; who was to humble their enemies; and who, finally, was to be immortal. "The Spirit of God, with which Samson was from the very first endowed, caused him, even in his youth, to effect prodigies of strength. He once met with a furious young lion which attacked him; Samson, then unarmed, immediately rent the lion in pieces, as if it had been a lamb; and, resolving to revenge himself upon the Philistines, who had grievously afflicted the children of Israel, he slew vast numbers of them at different times, weakened them excessively, and thus began to deliver Israel out of the hands of their enemies as the angel had predicted. "Fable, likewise, causes Hercules to perform exploits requiring prodigious strength; but, as its exaggerations are beyond all bounds, it attributes to him, while still an infant, the strangling enormous serpents which fell upon him in his cradle, and the first and most illustrious exploit of his youth was the defeat of a terrible lion in the Nemaean forest, which he slew without the help of any weapon of defense: the skin of this lion he afterwards wore as a garment. He likewise formed and executed the design of delivering his country from the tyrannic oppression of the Myrmidons. We ought not to be surprised that fable, which disfigures so many events by transforming them to its fancy, has altered the other adventures of Samson; that it has added to them others of its own invention; that it attributes to him the actions of other chiefs and heroes, and ascribes some of the performances of Samson to other persons than Hercules; for this reason we find the account of the foxes Samson caught and tied by the tail preserved indeed, but transferred to another country. "Fable then borrows in favor of our hero, Hercules, the miracle which God wrought for Joshua, when he assisted the Gibeonites against the five kings of the Amorites, when the Lord cast down great stones upon them from heaven, so that more of those who fled from the Israelites perished by the hail than did by the sword. In imitation of this miracle, fable says (Pliny, book iii., chap. iv.; Pomponius Mela, De Situ Orbis, book 2:, chap. v). that when Hercules was engaged in a combat with the Ligurians, Jupiter assisted him by sending him a shower of stones. The quantity of stones which are still to be seen on the plains of Crau (called by the ancients Campi Lapidei) in Provence, has occasioned the poets to consider this place as the theater of the above miracle. "The jaw-bone of the ass, rendered so famous from Samson having slain one thousand Philistines with it, has been changed into the celebrated club of Hercules with which he defeated giants, and slew the many enemies that opposed him. The similarity of the Greek words κορῥη and κορυνη may have given rise to this alteration; corre signifying jaw, and coronae, a mace or club. The change of one of these words for the other is not difficult, especially as it seemed more suitable to arm Hercules with a club than with the jaw-bone of an ass. But fable has, however, more clearly preserved the miracle of the spring of water that God produced in this bone, to preserve Samson from perishing with thirst, after the defeat of the Philistines; for it relates that when Hercules had slain the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides, and he was in danger of perishing with thirst in the scorching deserts of Libya, the gods caused a fountain to issue from a rock he struck with his foot; Apol. book xxxvi. of Argonauts, ver. 1446. "The extraordinary strength of Samson was accompanied with a constant and surprising weakness, viz., his love for women. These two characteristics compose his history, and are equally conspicuous throughout the whole of his life: the latter however predominated; and after having frequently exposed him to great danger, at length completed his ruin. Fable has not omitted this characteristic weakness in its Hercules; in him this passion was excited by every woman that presented herself to his view; it led him to the performance of many base actions, and, after precipitating him into several dangers, at length put an end to his miserable existence. Samson, who well knew that his strength depended upon the preservation of his hair, was so imprudent as to impart this secret to Delilah, his mistress. This woman, whose sole design in importuning him was to betray him, cut his hair off while asleep, and delivered him, thus deprived of all his strength, into the hands of the Philistines, who took from him both his liberty and eyesight, and treated him as the vilest and most wretched of slaves. Tradition, which spoils and disfigures the ancient histories and those of distant countries, has transferred this adventure to Nisus, king of Megara, and his daughter Scylla. Megara was also the name of one of Hercules' wives the daughter of Creon, king of Thebes. The name of Scylla is taken from the crime and impiety of the daughter of Nisus, from the Greek verb συλαω, sulao, which signifies to rob or strip with impiety. The destiny or welfare of Nisus depended on the preservation of a lock of purple hair which grew on his head. Scylla, having conceived an affection for Minos, who was at that time besieging the capital of her father's kingdom, betrayed her parent, cut off this lock of purple hair while he was asleep, and delivered him into the hands of his enemy. Nisus lost both his senses and his life, and according to fable, was changed into a bird. - Ovid, Met., book viii. "But the most remarkable and striking event in the history of Samson, is that by which he lost his life. The Philistines, when offering solemn sacrifices to their god, by way of thanksgiving for his having delivered into their hands their formidable enemy, caused Samson to be brought out of prison, in order to make a laughing-stock of him. Samson, as though wishing to rest himself, requested his conductors to let him lean against the pillars which supported the temple, which was at that time filled with a great multitude of persons, among whom were many princes of the Philistines. Samson then, invoking the Lord, and exerting all his strength, which was returning with the growth of his hair, laid hold of the pillars with both his hands, and shook them so violently as to pull the building down upon the whole multitude therein assembled. By this fatal catastrophe Samson killed a greater number of Philistines than he had done during his life. "Fable and tradition could not efface this event in the copy of Samson, which is Hercules. Herodotus relates it as a fabulous tradition, invented by the Greeks, and rejects it as having no foundation either in the history itself, or in the manners and customs of the Egyptians; among whom the Greeks say this event had happened. They relate (says this historian, book ii., entitled Euterpe, p. 47) that Hercules, having fallen into the hands of the Egyptians, was condemned to be sacrificed to Jupiter. He was adorned like a victim, and led with much pomp to the foot of the altar: after permitting himself to be conducted thus far, and stopping a moment to collect his strength, he fell upon and massacred all those who were assembled to be either actors in, or spectators of, this pompous sacrifice, to the number of many thousands. "The conformity between these adventures of Samson and Hercules is self-evident, and proves beyond a doubt that the fable of the one was composed from the history of the other. The remark of Herodotus respecting the impossibility of this last adventure, according to the Greek tradition, and the folly of attributing it to the Egyptians, serves to confirm the truth of its having been borrowed, and of its being but a disfigured copy, whose original must be sought for elsewhere. "In fact, it appears that Samson, judge of the Israelites, particularly mentioned in the book of Judges, and by Josephus, Ant. lib. v., c. 10, is the original and essential Hercules of fable; and although the poets have united some particulars drawn from Moses and Joshua, and have added their own inventions, yet the most capital and considerable belong to Samson, and are distinguished by characteristics so peculiar to him, as render him easily discernible throughout the whole."

[¶15] The above is the substance of what M. De Lavaur has written on the subject, and contains, as some think, a very clear case; and is an additional proof how much the heathens have been indebted to the Bible.

### Introduction

[¶17] Micah, an Ephraimite, restores to his mother eleven hundred shekels of silver, which he had taken from her, [Jdg 17:1], [Jdg 17:2]. She dedicates this to God; and out of a part of it makes a graven image and a molten image, and gets them up in the house of Micah, [Jdg 17:3], [Jdg 17:4]; who consecrates one of his sons to be his priest, [Jdg 17:5]. He afterwards finds a Levite, whom he consecrates for a priest, and gives him annually ten shekels of silver, with his food and clothing, [Jdg 17:6-13].

### Verse 1

[¶19] And there was a man of Mount Ephraim - It is extremely difficult to fix the chronology of this and the following transactions. Some think them to be here in their natural order; others, that they happened in the time of Joshua, or immediately after the ancients who outlived Joshua. All that can be said with certainty is this, that they happened when there was no king in Israel; i.e., about the time of the Judges, or in some time of the anarchy, [Jdg 17:6].

### Verse 2

[¶21] About which thou cursedst - Houbigant and others understand this of putting the young man to his oath. It is likely that when the mother of Micah missed the money, she poured imprecations on the thief; and that Micah, who had secreted it, hearing this, was alarmed, and restored the money lest the curses should fall on him.

### Verse 3

[¶23] I had wholly dedicated - From this it appears that Micah's mother, though she made a superstitious use of the money, had no idolatrous design, for she expressly says she had dedicated it ליהוה layhovah, to Jehovah; and this appears to have been the reason why she poured imprecations on him who had taken it.

### Verse 4

[¶25] A graven image and a molten image - What these images were, we cannot positively say; they were most probably some resemblance of matters belonging to the tabernacle. See below.

### Verse 5

[¶27] The man Micah had a house of gods - בית אלהים beith Elohim should, I think, be translated house or temple of God; for it is very likely that both the mother and the son intended no more than a private or domestic chapel, in which they proposed to set up the worship of the true God.

[¶28] Made an ephod - Perhaps the whole of this case may be stated thus: Micah built a house of God - a chapel in imitation of the sanctuary; he made a graven image representing the ark, a molten image to represent the mercy-seat, teraphim to represent the cherubim above the mercy-seat, and an ephod in imitation of the sacerdotal garments; and he consecrated one of his sons to be priest. Thus gross idolatry was not the crime of Micah; he only set up in his own house an epitome of the Divine worship as performed at Shiloh. What the teraphim were, see the note on [Gen 31:19]; for the ephod, see the note on [Exo 25:7]; and for the sacerdotal vestments in general, see the note on [Exo 28:4], etc.

[¶29] Who became his priest - כהן cohen, which the Targum translates chumera. The word כהן cohen is the common name in Hebrew for a priest of the true God; but sometimes it is applied to idolatrous priests. When it is to be understood in the former sense, the Targum renders it cahen; when in the latter, it uses the word כומרא chumera, by which it always understands an idolatrous priest. But that this was not a case of idolatry, and that the true God was worshipped here, is evident from the word Jehovah being used, [Jdg 17:4], and oracular answers being given at this house, as we see from [Jdg 18:6], etc.

### Verse 6

[¶31] There was no king in Israel - The word מלך melech, which generally means king, is sometimes taken for a supreme governor, judge, magistrate, or ruler of any kind; (see [Gen 36:31], and [Deu 33:5]); and it is likely it should be so understood here.

[¶32] Every man did that which was right in his own eyes - He was his own governor, and what he did he said was right; and, by his cunning and strength, defended his conduct. When a man's own will, passions, and caprice, are to be made the rule of law, society is in a most perilous and ruinous state. Civil government is of God; and without it the earth must soon be desolated. There was a time when there was no king in England; and that was, in general, a time of scandal to religion, and oppression to men.

### Verse 7

[¶34] Of the family of Judah - The word family may be taken here for tribe; or the young man might have been of the tribe of Judah by his mother, and of the tribe of Levi by his father, for he is called here a Levite; and it is probable that he might have officiated at Shiloh, in the Levitical office. A Levite might marry into any other tribe, providing the woman was not an heiress.

### Verse 8

[¶36] To sojourn where he could find - He went about the country seeking for some employment, for the Levites had no inheritance: besides, no secure residence could be found where there was no civil government.

### Verse 10

[¶38] Be unto me a father and a priest - Thou shalt be master of my house, as if thou wert my father; and, as priest, thou shalt appear in the presence of God for me. The term father is often used to express honor and reverence.

[¶39] Ten shekels of silver - About thirty shillings per annum, with board, lodging, and clothes. Very good wages in those early times.

### Verse 11

[¶41] The Levite was content - He thought the place a good one, and the wages respectable.

### Verse 12

[¶43] Micah consecrated the Levite - וימלא את יד vayemalle eth yad, he filled his hands, i.e., he gave him an offering to present before the Lord, that he might be accepted by him. He appointed him to be priest; God was to accept and consecrate him; and for this purpose he filled his hand; i.e., furnished him with the proper offering which he was to present on his inauguration.

## 269. Judges · 25 of 29

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### Verse 13

[¶1] Now know I that the Lord will do me good - As he had already provided an epitome of the tabernacle, a model of the ark, mercy-seat, and cherubim; and had got proper sacerdotal vestments, and a Levite to officiate; he took for granted that all was right, and that he should now have the benediction of God. Some think that he expected great gain from the concourse of the people to his temple; but of this there is no evidence in the text. Micah appears to have been perfectly sincere in all that he did.

[¶2] I Have already remarked that there is no positive evidence that Micah or his mother intended to establish any idolatrous worship. Though they acted without any Divine command in what they did; yet they appear, not only to have been perfectly sincere, but also perfectly disinterested. They put themselves to considerable expense to erect this place of worship, and to maintain, at their own proper charges, a priest to officiate there; and without this the place, in all probability, would have been destitute of the worship and knowledge of the true God. His sincerity, disinterestedness, and attachment to the worship of the God of his fathers, are farther seen in the joy which he expressed on finding a Levite who might legally officiate in his house. It is true, he had not a Divine warrant for what he did; but the state of the land, the profligacy of his countrymen, his distance from Shiloh, etc., considered, he appears to deserve more praise than blame, though of the latter he has received a most liberal share from every quarter. This proceeds from that often-noticed propensity in man to take every thing which concerns the character of another by the worst handle. It cannot be considered any particular crime, should these notes be found at any time leaning to the other side.

### Introduction

[¶4] Some Danites, seeking an inheritance, send five men to search the land, who arrive at the house of Micah, [Jdg 18:1], [Jdg 18:2]. They employ the Levite, who served to his house as priest, to ask counsel for them of God, [Jdg 18:3-5]. He inquires, and promises them success, [Jdg 18:6]. They depart, and go to Laish, and find the inhabitants secure, [Jdg 18:7]. They return to their brethren, and encourage them to attempt the conquest of the place, [Jdg 18:8-10]. They send six hundred men, who, coming to the place where Micah dwelt, enter the house, and carry off the priest and his consecrated things, [Jdg 18:11-21]. Micah and his friends pursue them; but, being threatened, are obliged to return, [Jdg 18:22-26]. The Danites come to Laish, and smite it, and build a city there, which they call Dan, [Jdg 18:27-29]. They make the Levite their priest, and set up the images at this new city, [Jdg 18:30], [Jdg 18:31].

### Verse 1

[¶6] There was no king in Israel - See [Jdg 17:6] (note). The circumstances related here show that this must have happened about the time of the preceding transactions.

[¶7] The tribe of the Danites - That is, a part of this tribe; some families of it.

[¶8] All their inheritance - That is, they had not got an extent of country sufficient for them. Some families were still unprovided for, or had not sufficient territory; for we find from [Jos 19:40], etc., that, although the tribe of Dan did receive their inheritance with the rest of the tribes of Israel, yet their coasts went out too little for them, and they went and fought against Leshem, (called here Laish), and took it, etc. This circumstance is marked here more particularly than in the book of Joshua. See on [Jos 19:47] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶10] Five men - men of valor - The Hebrew word חיל chayil has been applied to personal prowess, to mental energy, and to earthly possessions. They sent those in whose courage, judgment, and prudence, they could safely confide.

### Verse 3

[¶12] They knew the voice of the young man - They knew, by his dialect or mode of pronunciation, that he was not an Ephraimite. We have already seen ([Jdg 12:6] (note)) that the Ephraimites could not pronounce certain letters.

### Verse 5

[¶14] Ask counsel - of God - As the Danites use the word אלהים Elohim here for God, we are necessarily led to believe that they meant the true God; especially as the Levite answers, [Jdg 18:6], Before the Lord (יהוה Yehovah) is your way. Though the former word may be sometimes applied to idols, whom their votaries clothed with the attributes of God; yet the latter is never applied but to the true God alone. As the Danites succeeded according to the oracle delivered by the Levite, it is a strong presumption that the worship established by Micah was not of an idolatrous kind. It is really begging the question to assert, as many commentators have done, that the answer was either a trick of the Levite, or suggested by the devil; and that the success of the Danites was merely accidental. This is taking the thing by the worst handle, to support an hypothesis, and to serve a system. See the end of the preceding chapter, [Jdg 17:13] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶16] After the manner of the Zidonians - Probably the people of Laish or Leshem were originally a colony of the Sidonians, who, it appears, were an opulent people; and, being in possession of a strong city, lived in a state of security, not being afraid of their neighbors. In this the Leshemites imitated them, though the sequel proves they had not the same reason for their confidence.

[¶17] They were far from the Zidonians - Being, as above supposed, a Sidonian colony, they might naturally expect help from their countrymen; but, as they dwelt a considerable distance from Sidon, the Danites saw that they could strike the blow before the news of invasion could reach Sidon; and, consequently, before the people of Laish could receive any succours from that city.

[¶18] And had no business with any man - In the most correct copies of the Septuagint, this clause is thus translated: Και λογος ουκ ην αυτοις μετα Συριας; and they had no transactions with Syria. Now it is most evident that, instead of אדם adam, Man, they read ארם aram, Syria; words which are so nearly similar that the difference which exists is only between the ר resh and ד daleth, and this, both in MSS. and printed books, is often indiscernible. This reading is found in the Codex Alexandrinus, in the Complutensian Polyglot, in the Spanish Polyglot, and in the edition of the Septuagint published by Aldus. It may be proper to observe, that Laish was on the frontiers of Syria; but as they had no intercourse with the Syrians, from whom they might have received the promptest assistance, this was an additional reason why the Danites might expect success.

### Verse 9

[¶20] Arise, etc. - This is a very plain and nervous address; full of good sense, and well adapted to the purpose. It seems to have produced an instantaneous effect.

### Verse 11

[¶22] Six hundred men - These were not the whole, for we find they had children, etc., [Jdg 18:21]; but these appear to have been six hundred armed men.

### Verse 12

[¶24] Mahaneh-dan - "The camp of Dan;" so called from the circumstance of this armament encamping there. See [Jdg 13:25] (note), which affords some proof that this transaction was previous to the days of Samson.

### Verse 14

[¶26] Consider what ye have to do - They probably had formed the design to carry off the priest and his sacred utensils.

### Verse 18

[¶28] These went unto Micah's house - The five men went in, while the six hundred armed men stood at the gate.

### Verse 19

[¶30] Lay thine hand upon thy mouth - This was the token of silence. The god of silence, Harpocrates, is represented on ancient statues with his finger pressed on his lips.

### Verse 20

[¶32] Went to the midst of the people - He was glad to be employed by the Danites; and went into the crowd, that he might not be discovered by Micah or his family.

### Verse 21

[¶34] The little ones and the cattle, etc. - These men were so confident of success that they removed their whole families, household goods, cattle, and all.

[¶35] And the carriage - כבודה kebudah, their substance, precious things, or valuables; omne quod erat pretiosum, Vulgate: or rather the luggage or baggage; what Caesar calls in his commentaries impedimenta; and what the Septuagint here translate βαρος, weight or baggage. We are not to suppose that any wheel carriage is meant.

### Verse 24

[¶37] Ye have taken away my gods - As Micah was a worshipper of the true God, as we have seen, he cannot mean any kind of idols by the word אלהי elohai here used. He undoubtedly means those representations of Divine things, and symbols of the Divine presence such as the teraphim, ephod, etc.; for they are all evidently included under the word elohai, which we translate my gods.

### Verse 25

[¶39] And thou lose thy life - This was argumentum ad hominem; he must put up with the loss of his substance, or else lose his life! It was the mere language of a modern highwayman: Your life or your money.

### Verse 27

[¶41] Unto a people - at quiet and secure - They found the report given by the spies to be correct. The people were apprehensive of no danger, and were unprepared for resistance; hence they were all put to the sword, and their city burnt up.

### Verse 28

[¶43] There was no deliverer - They had no succor, because the Sidonians, from whom they might have expected it, were at too great a distance.

### Verse 29

[¶45] Called the name of the city Dan - This city was afterwards very remarkable as one of the extremities of the promised land. The extent of the Jewish territories was generally expressed by the phrase, From Dan to Beer-Sheba; that is, From the most northern to the southern extremity.

## 270. Judges · 26 of 29

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### Verse 30

[¶1] The children of Dan set up the graven image - They erected a chapel, or temple, among themselves, as Micah had done before; having the same implements and the same priest.

[¶2] And Jonathan the son of Gershom - Either this was the name of the young Levite; or they had turned him off, and got this Jonathan in his place.

[¶3] The son Manasseh - Who this Manasseh was, none can tell; nor does the reading appear to be genuine. He could not be Manasseh the son of Joseph, for he had no son called Gershom nor could it be Manasseh king of Israel, for he lived eight hundred years afterwards. Instead of מנשה Manasseh, the word should be read משה Mosheh, Moses, as it is found in some MSS., in the Vulgate, and in the concessions of the most intelligent Jews. The Jews, as R. D. Kimchi acknowledges, have suspended the letter: נ nun, over the word משה, thus, נ משה which, by the addition of the points, they have changed into Manasseh, because they think it would be a great reproach to their legislator to have had a grandson who was an idolater. That Gershom the son of Moses is here intended, is very probable. See the arguments urged by Dr. Kennicott, Dissertation I., p. 55, etc.; and see the Var. Lect. of De Rossi on this place.

[¶4] Until the day of the captivity of the land - Calmet observes, "The posterity of this Jonathan executed the office of priest in the city of Dan, all the time that the idol of Micah (the teraphim, ephod, etc). was there. But this was only while the house of the Lord was at Shiloh; and, consequently, the sons of Jonathan were priests at Dan only till the time in which the ark was taken by the Philistines, which was the last year of Eli, the high priest; for after that the ark no more returned to Shiloh." This is evident; and on this very ground Houbigant contends that, instead of הארץ haarets, the Land, we should read הארן haaron, the Ark; for nothing is easier than the ו vau and final nun to be mistaken for the ץ final tsade, which is the only difference between the captivity of the Land and the captivity of the Ark. And this conjecture is the more likely, because the next verse tells us that Micah's graven image, etc., continued at Dan all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh; which was, till the ark was taken by the Philistines. Those who wish to see more on this subject may consult Calmet, and the writers in Pool's Synopsis. This chapter is an important supplement to the conclusion of the 19th chapter of Joshua, on which it casts considerable light.

[¶5] The Danites were properly the first dissenters from the public established worship of the Jews; but they seem to have departed as little as possible from the Jewish forms, their worship being conducted in the same way, but not in the same place. Surely it was better to have had this, allowing it to be unconstitutional worship, than to have been wholly destitute of the ordinances of God. I think we have not sufficient ground from the text to call these persons idolaters; I believe they worshipped the true God according to their light and circumstances, from a conviction that they could not prosper without his approbation, and that they could not expect that approbation if they did not offer to him a religious worship. They endeavored to please him, though the means they adopted were not the most proper.

### Introduction

[¶7] A Levite and his concubine disagree; and she leaves him and goes to her father's house, [Jdg 19:1], [Jdg 19:2]. He follows to bring her back, and is kindly entertained by her father five days, [Jdg 19:3-8]. He returns; and lodges the first night at Gibeah, in the tribe of Benjamin, [Jdg 19:9-21]. The men of Gibeah attack the house, and insist on abusing the body of the Levite; who, to save himself, delivers to them his concubine, whose life falls a victim to their brutality, [Jdg 19:22-27]. The Levite divides her dead body into twelve pieces, and sends one to each of the twelve tribes; they are struck with horror, and call a council on the subject, [Jdg 19:28-30].

### Verse 1

[¶9] There was no king in Israel - All sorts of disorders are attributed to the want of civil government; justice, right, truth, and humanity, had fallen in the streets.

[¶10] Took to him a concubine - We have already seen that the concubine was a sort of secondary wife; and that such connections were not disreputable, being according to the general custom of those times. The word פילגש pilegesh, concubine, is supposed by Mr. Parkhurst to be compounded of פלג palag, "to divide, or share;" and נגש nagash, "to approach;" because the husband shared or divided his attention and affections between her and the real wife; from whom she differed in nothing material, except in her posterity not inheriting.

### Verse 2

[¶12] Played the whore - Neither the Vulgate, Septuagint, Targum, nor Josephus, understand this word as implying any act of conjugal infidelity on the woman's part. They merely state that the parties disagreed, and the woman returned to her father's house. Indeed all the circumstances of the case vindicate this view of the subject. If she had been a whore, or adulteress, it is not very likely that her husband would have gone after her to speak friendly, literally, to speak to her heart, and entreat her to return. The Vulgate simply states, quae reliquit eum, that she left him; the Septuagint, ωργισθη αυτῳ, that she was angry with him; the Targum ובסרת עלוהי ubserath alohi, that she despised him; Josephus, αλλοτοιως ειχε, that she was alienated, or separated herself, from him. Houbigant translates the clause: quae cum ab eo alienata esset, vel irata in eum esset, eum reliquit; "who when she was alienated from him, or angry with him, left him;" and he defends this version in his note. I think the true meaning to be among the above interpretations. They had contentions; she ceased to love him, her affections were alienated from him; and she left his house, and went home to her father.

### Verse 3

[¶14] He rejoiced to meet him - He hoped to be able completely to reconcile his daughter and her husband.

### Verse 8

[¶16] And they tarried until afternoon - Merely that they might avoid the heat of the day, which would have been very inconvenient in travelling.

### Verse 9

[¶18] The day groweth to an end - חנות היום chanoth haiyom, "the day is about to pitch its tent;" that is, it was near the time in which travelers ordinarily pitched their tents, to take up their lodging for the night.

### Verse 11

[¶20] When they were by Jebus - This was Jerusalem, in which, though after the death of Joshua it appears to have been partly conquered by the tribe of Judah, yet the Jebusites kept the strong hold of Zion till the days of David, by whom they were finally expelled. See the note on [Jdg 1:8].

### Verse 15

[¶22] No man - took them into his house to lodging - There was probably no inn or house of public entertainment in this place, and therefore they could not have a lodging unless furnished by mere hospitality. To say that there were no inns in those primitive times, is not true; there were such places, though not very frequent. Joseph's brethren found their money in their sacks when they loosed them at an inn, [Gen 42:27]. The house of Rahab was an inn, [Jos 2:1]. And the woman whose house Samson frequented at Gaza was a hostess, or one who kept a place of public entertainment.

### Verse 19

[¶24] There is both straw and provender for our asses - In the countries principally devoted to pasturage, there was no hay; but as they raised some corn, they took great care of their straw, chopped it very small, and having mixed it with barley, beans, or the pounded kernels of dates, made it into balls, and fed their cattle with it. Straw, cut into what is called chaff, is not unfrequently used in England for the same purpose.

### Verse 20

[¶26] All thy wants lie upon me - Here was genuine hospitality: "Keep your bread and wine for yourselves, and your straw and provender for your asses; you may need them before you finish your journey; I will supply all your wants for this night, therefore do not lodge in the street."

### Verse 22

[¶28] Sons of Belial - Profligate fellows. See the notes on [Deu 13:13].

[¶29] That we may know him - See [Gen 19:5]. These were genuine sodomites as to their practice; sons of Belial, rascals and miscreants of the deepest dye; worse than brutes, being a compound of beast and devil inseparably blended.

### Verse 24

[¶31] Here is my daughter, a maiden - Such a proposal was made by Lot to the men of Sodom, [Gen 19:8], but nothing can excuse either. That the rights of hospitality were sacred in the East, and most highly regarded we know; and that a man would defend, at the expense of his life, the stranger whom he had admitted under his roof, is true; but how a father could make such a proposal relative to his virgin daughter, must remain among those things which are incomprehensible.

### Verse 25

[¶33] So the man took his concubine - The word יחזק yachazek, which we here translate simply took, signifies rather to take or seize by violence. The woman would not go out to them; but her graceless husband forced her to go, in order that he might save his own body. He could have but little love for her, and this was the cause of their separation before. The men of Gibeah who wished to abuse the body of the Levite; the Levite who wished to save his body at the expense of the modesty, reputation, and life of his wife; and the old man who wished to save his guest at the expense of the violation of his daughter; are all characters that humanity and modesty wish to be buried in everlasting oblivion.

[¶34] When the day began to spring - Their turpitude could not bear the full light of the day; and they dismissed the poor woman when the day began to break.

### Verse 26

[¶36] Fell down at the door - She had strength to reach the door, but not to knock for admittance: when she reached the door she fell down dead! The reason of this abominable and horrid catastrophe is strongly signified by the original words, [Jdg 19:25] : וידעו אותה ויתעללו בה כל הלילה vaiyedu othah, vaiyithallelu bah col hallailah, which we modestly translate, and they knew her, and they abused her all the night. More literally, but still not fully: Illi cum ea rem habuerunt, et alternatim in eam tota nocte ascenderunt. The hithpahel used here in the verb עלל greatly increases the sense: Conjugatio hithpahel frequentiam actus et immanem libidinem designat. The Arabic is not too strong; the following is its meaning: Exercuerunt in ea cupiditates suas, et maechati, sunt in ea ad matutinum usque.

### Verse 29

[¶38] Divided her - into twelve pieces - There is no doubt that with the pieces he sent to each tribe a circumstantial account of the barbarity of the men of Gibeah; and it is very likely that they considered each of the pieces as expressing an execration, "If ye will not come and avenge my wrongs, may ye be hewn in pieces like this abused and murdered woman!" It was a custom among the ancient Highlanders in Scotland, when one clan wished to call all the rest to avenge its wrongs, to take a wooden cross, dip it in blood, and send it by a special messenger through all the clans. This was called the fire cross, because at sight of it each clan lighted a fire or beacon, which gave notice to all the adjoining clans that a general rising was immediately to take place.

### Verse 30

[¶40] There was no such deed done nor seen - They were all struck with the enormity of the crime; and considered it a sovereign disgrace to all the tribes of Israel.

[¶41] Consider of it - Literally, Put it to yourselves; take counsel upon it; and speak. This was the prelude to the council held, and the subsequent operations, which are mentioned in the following chapter.

[¶42] I Have passed over the abominable transactions of this chapter as lightly as I could, and shall make no apology to the learned or unlearned reader for leaving some things untranslated.

[¶43] What a blessing are wholesome laws, and a vigorous and attentive magistracy! These wretched people had no form of government, and every one did what was right in his own eyes: their own eye (corrupt inclination) was the measure and rule of their conduct; and how bad a rule, the abuse and murder of the Levite's wife testify. Reader, bless God for a civil government.

## 271. Judges · 27 of 29

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### Introduction

[¶1] The heads of the eleven tribes come before the Lord in Mizpeh, and examine the Levite relative to the murder of his wife, who gives a simple narrative of the whole affair, [Jdg 20:1-7]. They unanimously resolve to avenge the wrong, and make provision for a campaign against the Benjamites, [Jdg 20:8-11]. They desire the Benjamites to deliver up the murderers; they refuse, and prepare for battle, having assembled an army of twenty-six thousand seven hundred men, [Jdg 20:12-16]. The rest of the Israelites amount to four hundred thousand, who, taking counsel of God, agree to send the tribe of Judah against the Benjamites, [Jdg 20:17], [Jdg 20:18]. They attack the Benjamites, and are routed with the loss of twenty-two thousand men, [Jdg 20:19-21]. They renew the battle next day, and are discomfited with the loss of eighteen thousand men, [Jdg 20:22-25]. They weep, fast, and pray, and offer sacrifices; and again inquire of the Lord, who promises to deliver Benjamin into their hands, [Jdg 20:26-28]. They concert plans, attack the Benjamites, and rout them, killing twenty-five thousand one hundred men, and destroy the city of Gibeah, [Jdg 20:29-37]. A recapitulation of the different actions in which they were killed, [Jdg 20:38-46]. Six hundred men escape to the rock Rimmon, [Jdg 20:47]. The Israelites destroy all the cities of the Benjamites, [Jdg 20:48].

### Verse 1

[¶3] Unto the Lord in Mizpeh - This city was situated on the confines of Judah and Benjamin, and is sometimes attributed to the one, sometimes to the other. It seems that there was a place here in which the Lord was consulted, as well as at Shiloh; in 1 Maccabees 3:46, we read, In Maspha was the place where they prayed aforetime in Israel. These two passages cast light on each other. Some think that Shiloh is meant, because the ark was there; but the phrase before the Lord may signify no more than meeting in the name of God to consult him, and make prayer and supplication. Wherever God's people are, there is God himself; and it ever was true, that wherever two or three were assembled in his name, he was in the midst of them.

### Verse 2

[¶5] The chief of all the people - The corners פנות pinnoth; for as the corner-stones are the strength of the walls, so are the chiefs the strength of the people. Hence Christ is called the chief corner-stone.

[¶6] In the assembly of the people of God - The Septuagint translate, And all the tribes of Israel stood up before the face of the Lord, εν εκκλησιᾳ του λαου του Θεου, in the Church of the people of God. Here was a Church, though there was no priest; for, as Tertullian says, Ubi tres, ecclesia est, licet laici; "Wheresoever three are gathered together in the name of the Lord, there is a Church, although there be none but the laity."

### Verse 3

[¶8] Tell us, how was this wickedness? - They had heard before, by the messengers he sent with the fragments of his wife's body; but they wish to hear it, in full council, from himself.

### Verse 8

[¶10] We will not any of us go to his tent - We will have satisfaction for this wickedness before we return home.

### Verse 10

[¶12] Ten men of a hundred - Expecting that they might have a long contest, they provide suttlers for the camp; and it is probable that they chose these tenths by lot.

### Verse 13

[¶14] Deliver us the men - Nothing could be fairer than this. They wish only to make the murderers answerable for their guilt.

[¶15] Benjamin would not hearken - Thus making their whole tribe partakers of the guilt of the men of Gibeah. By not delivering up those bad men, they in effect said: "We will stand by them in what they have done, and would have acted the same part had we been present." This proves that the whole tribe was excessively depraved.

### Verse 15

[¶17] Twenty and six thousand - Some copies of the Septuagint have twenty-three thousand, others twenty-five thousand. The Vulgate has this latter number; the Complutensian Polyglot and Josephus have the same.

### Verse 16

[¶19] Left-handed - They were ambidexters - could use the right hand and the left with equal ease and effect. See the note on [Jdg 3:15].

[¶20] Could sling stones at a hair - and not miss - ולא יחטא velo yachati, and not sin: και ουκ εξαμαρτανοντες; Sept. Here we have the true import of the term sin; it signifies simply to miss the mark, and is well translated in the New Testament by ἁμαρτανω, from α, negative, and μαρπτω, to hit the mark. Men miss the mark of true happiness in aiming at sensual gratifications; which happiness is to be found only in the possession and enjoyment of the favor of God, from whom their passions continually lead them. He alone hits the mark, and ceases from sin, who attains to God through Christ Jesus.

[¶21] It is worthy of remark that the Persian khuta kerden, which literally signifies to sin or mistake, is used by the Mohammedans to express to miss the mark.

[¶22] The sling was a very ancient warlike instrument, and, in the hands of those who were skilled in the use of it, it produced astonishing effects. The inhabitants of the isles called Baleares, now Majorca and Minorca, were the most celebrated slingers of antiquity. They did not permit their children to break their fast till they had struck down the bread they were to eat from the top of a pole, or some distant eminence. They had their name Baleares from the Greek word βαλλειν to dart, cast, or throw.

[¶23] Concerning the velocity of the ball out of the sling, there are strange and almost incredible things told by the ancients. The leaden ball, when thus projected, is said to have melted in its course. So Ovid, Met. lib. ii.. ver. 726.

[¶24] Obstupuit forma Jove natus: et aethere pendens

[¶25] Non secus exarsit, quam cum balearica plumbum

[¶26] Funda jacit; volat illud, et incandescit eundo;

[¶27] Et, quos non habuit, sub nubibus invenit ignes.

[¶28] Hermes was fired as in the clouds he hung;

[¶29] So the cold bullet that, with fury slung

[¶30] From Balearic engines, mounts on high,

[¶31] Glows in the whirl, and burns along the sky.

[¶32] Dryden.

[¶33] This is not a poetic fiction; Seneca, the philosopher, in lib. iii. Quaest. Natural., c. 57, says the same thing: Sic liquescit excussa glans funda, et adtritu aeris velut igne distillat; "Thus the ball projected from the sling melts, and is liquefied by the friction of the air, as if it were exposed to the action of fire." I have often, by the sudden and violent compression of the air, produced fire; and by this alone inflamed tinder, and lighted a match. Vegetius de Re Militari, lib. ii., cap. 23, tells us that slingers could in general hit the mark at six hundred feet distance. Funditores scopas-pro signo ponebant; ita ut Sexcentos Pedes removerentur a signo-signum saepius tangerent. These things render credible what is spoken here of the Benjamite slingers.

### Verse 18

[¶35] Went up to the house of God - Some think that a deputation was sent from Shiloh, where Phinehas the high priest was, to inquire, not concerning the expediency of the war, nor of its success, but which of the tribes should begin the attack. Having so much right on their side, they had no doubt of the justice of their cause. Having such a superiority of numbers, they had no doubt of success. See the note on [Jdg 20:1].

[¶36] And the Lord said, Judah - But he did not say that they should conquer.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Destroyed down to the ground - twenty-two thousand men - That is, so many were left dead on the field of battle.

### Verse 23

[¶40] Go up against him - It appears most evident that the Israelites did not seek the protection of God. They trusted in the goodness of their cause and in the multitude of their army. God humbled them, and delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and showed them that the race was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.

### Verse 26

[¶42] And wept - Had they humbled themselves, fasted, and prayed, and offered sacrifices at first, they had not been discomfited.

[¶43] And fasted that day until even - This is the first place where fasting is mentioned as a religious ceremony, or as a means of obtaining help from God. And in this case, and many since, it has been powerfully effectual. At present it is but little used; a strong proof that self-denial is wearing out of fashion.

### Verse 28

[¶45] Phinehas, the son of Eleazar - This was the same Phinehas who is mentioned [Num 25:7], and consequently these transactions must have taken place shortly after the death of Joshua.

## 272. Judges · 28 of 29

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### Verse 29

[¶1] Israel set liers in wait - Though God had promised them success, they knew they could expect it only in the use of the proper means. They used all prudent precaution, and employed all their military skill.

### Verse 32

[¶3] Let us - draw them from the city - They had two reasons for this:

[¶4] 1. They had placed an ambuscade behind Gibeah, which was to enter and burn the city as soon as the Benjamites had left it.

[¶5] 2. It would seem that the slingers, by being within the city and its fortifications, had great advantage against the Israelites by their slings, whom they could not annoy with their swords, unless they got them to the plain country.

### Verse 33

[¶7] Put themselves in array at Baal-tamar - The Israelites seem to have divided their army into three divisions; one was at Baal-tamar, a second behind the city in ambush, and the third skirmished with the Benjamites before Gibeah.

### Verse 35

[¶9] Twenty and five thousand and a hundred - As the Benjamites consisted only of twenty-six thousand and seven hundred slingers; or, as the Vulgate, Septuagint, and others read, twenty-five thousand, which is most probably the true reading; then the whole of the Benjamites were cut to pieces, except six hundred men, who we are informed fled to the rock Rimmon, where they fortified themselves.

### Verse 38

[¶11] Now there was an appointed sign - From this verse to the end of the chapter we have the details of the same operations which are mentioned, in a general way, in the preceding part of the chapter.

### Verse 45

[¶13] Unto the rock of Rimmon - This was some strong place, but where situated is not known. Here they maintained themselves four months, and it was by these alone that the tribe of Benjamin was preserved from utter extermination. See the following chapter, Judges 21 (note).

[¶14] It is scarcely possible to imagine any thing more horrid than the indiscriminate and relentless slaughter of both innocent and guilty mentioned in this chapter. The crime of the men of Gibeah was great, but there was no adequate cause for this relentless extermination of a whole tribe. There was neither justice nor judgment in this case; they were on all sides brutal, cruel, and ferocious: and no wonder; there was no king in Israel - no effective civil government, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. There was no proper leader; no man that had authority and influence to repress the disorderly workings of the pell-mell mob.

### Introduction

[¶16] The Israelites mourn because of the desolation of Benjamin, and consult the Lord, [Jdg 21:1-4]. They inquire who of Israel had not come to this war, as they had vowed that those who would not make this a common cause should be put to death, [Jdg 21:5], [Jdg 21:6]. They consult how they shall procure wives for the six hundred men who had fled to the rock Rimmon, [Jdg 21:7]. Finding that the men of Jabesh-gilead had not come to the war, they send twelve thousand men against them, smite them, and bring off four hundred virgins, which they give for wives to those who had taken refuge in Rimmon, [Jdg 21:8-14]. To provide for the two hundred which remained, they propose to carry off two hundred virgins of the daughters of Shiloh, who might come to the annual feast of the Lord, held at that place, [Jdg 21:15-22]. They take this counsel, and each carries away a virgin from the feast, [Jdg 21:23-25].

### Verse 1

[¶18] Now the men of Israel had sworn - Of this oath we had not heard before; but it appears they had commenced this war with a determination to destroy the Benjamites utterly, and that if any of them escaped the sword no man should be permitted to give him his daughter to wife. By these means the remnant of the tribe must soon have been annihilated.

### Verse 2

[¶20] The people came to the house of God - Literally, the people came בית־אל to Bethel; this is considered as the name of a place by the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint.

[¶21] And wept sore - Their revenge was satisfied, and now reflection brings them to contrition for what they had done.

### Verse 3

[¶23] Why is this come to pass - This was a very impertinent question. They knew well enough how it came to pass. It was right that the men of Gibeah should be punished, and it was right that they who vindicated them should share in that punishment; but they carried their revenge too far, they endeavored to exterminate both man and beast, [Jdg 20:48].

### Verse 4

[¶25] Built there an altar - This affords some evidence that this was not a regular place of worship, else an altar would have been found in the place; and their act was not according to the law, as may be seen in several places of the Pentateuch. But there was neither king nor law among them, and they did whatever appeared right in their own eyes.

### Verse 7

[¶27] How shall we do for wives for them - From this it appears that they had destroyed all the Benjamitish women and children! They had set out with the purpose of exterminating the whole tribe, and therefore they massacred the women, that if any of the men escaped, they might neither find wife nor daughter; and they bound themselves under an oath not to give any of their females to any of the remnant of this tribe, that thus the whole tribe might utterly perish.

### Verse 8

[¶29] There came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead - As they had sworn to destroy those who would not assist in this war, [Jdg 21:5], they determined to destroy the men of Jabesh, and to leave none alive except the virgins, and to give these to the six hundred Benjamites that had escaped to the rock Rimmon. So twelve thousand men went, smote the city, and killed all the males and all the married women. The whole account is dreadful; and none could have been guilty of all these enormities but those who were abandoned of God. The crime of the men of Gibeah was of the deepest die; the punishment, involving both the guilty and innocent, was extended to the most criminal excess; and their mode or redressing the evil which they had occasioned was equally abominable.

### Verse 13

[¶31] And to call peaceably unto them - To proclaim peace to them; to assure them that the enmity was all over, and that they might with safety leave their strong hold.

### Verse 14

[¶33] Yet so they sufficed them not - There were six hundred men at Rimmon, and all the young women they saved from Jabesh were only four hundred; therefore, there were two hundred still wanting.

### Verse 19

[¶35] There is a feast of the Lord - What this feast was is not known: it might be either the passover, pentecost, or the feast of tabernacles, or indeed some other peculiar to this place. All the above feasts were celebrated at that time of the year when the vines were in full leaf; therefore the Benjamites might easily conceal themselves in the vineyards; and the circumstances will answer to any of those feasts.

[¶36] On the east side of the highway, etc. - I can see no reason for this minute description, unless it intimates that this feast was to be held this year in rather a different place to that which was usual: and, as the Benjamites had been shut up in their strong hold in Rimmon, they might not have heard of this alteration; and it was necessary, in such a case, to give them the most circumstantial information, that they might succeed in their enterprise without being discovered.

### Verse 21

[¶38] And catch you every man his wife - That is, Let each man of the two hundred Benjamites seize and carry off a woman, whom he is, from that hour, to consider as his wife.

### Verse 22

[¶40] Be favorable unto them - They promise to use their influence with the men of Shiloh to induce them to consent to a connection thus fraudulently obtained, and which the necessity of the case appeared to them to justify.

[¶41] We reserved not to each man his wife in the war - The reading of the Vulgate is very remarkable: Miseremini eorum, non enim rapuerunt eas jure bellantium atque victorum, sed rogantibus ut acciperent non dedistis, et a vestra parte peccatum est. - "Pardon them, for they have not taken them as victors take captives in war; but when they requested you to give them you did not; therefore the fault is your own." Here it is intimated that application had been made to the people of Shiloh to furnish these two hundred Benjamites with wives, and that they had refused; and it was this refusal that induced the Benjamites to seize and carry them off. Does not St. Jerome, the translator, refer to the history of the rape of the Sabine virgins? See below. Houbigant translates the Hebrew thus: Veniam quaeso illis date; non enim ad bellum duxerant suam quisque uxorem; et nisi eas illis nunc concedetis, delicti rei eritis. - "Pardon them, I beseech you, for they have not each taken his wife to the war; and unless you now give these to them, you will sin." This intimates that, as the Benjamites had not taken their wives with them to the war, where some, if not all, of them might have escaped; and the Israelites found them in the cities, and put them all to the sword; therefore the people of Shiloh should give up those two hundred young women to them for wives; and if they did not, it would be a sin, the circumstances of the case being considered.

[¶42] Our translation seems to give as a reason to the men of Shiloh why they should pardon this rape, that as they had not permitted the women to live in their war with Benjamin, therefore these men are now destitute; and the concession which they wish them to make may be considered as more of an obligation to the Israelites than to the Benjamites. It is an obscure sentence; and the reader, if not pleased with what is laid down, may endeavor to satisfy himself with others which he may find in different versions and commentators. The Vulgate gives a good sense to the passage; but probably Houbigant comes nearest to the meaning.

### Verse 23

[¶44] They went and returned unto their inheritance - It appears that the Benjamites acted in the most honorable way by the women whom they had thus violently carried off; and we may rest assured they took them to an inheritance at least equal to their own, for it does not appear that any part of the lands of the Benjamites was alienated from them, and the six hundred men in question shared, for the present, the inheritance of many thousands.

## 273. Judges · 29 of 29

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### Verse 24

[¶1] Every man to his tribe - Though this must have been four months after the war with Benjamin, [Jdg 20:47]; yet it appears the armies did not disband till they had got the remnant of Benjamin settled, as is here related.

### Verse 25

[¶3] In those days there was no king in Israel - Let no one suppose that the sacred writer, by relating the atrocities in this and the preceding chapters, justifies the actions themselves; by no means. Indeed, they cannot be justified; and the writer by relating them gives the strongest proof of the authenticity of the whole, by such an impartial relation of facts that were highly to be discredit of his country.

[¶4] I Have already referred to the rape of the Sabine virgins. The story is told by Livy, Hist. lib. i., cap. 9, the substance of which is as follows: Romulus having opened an asylum at his new-built city of Rome for all kinds of persons, the number of men who flocked to his standard was soon very considerable; but as they had few women, or, as Livy says, penuria mulierum, a dearth of women, he sent to all the neighboring states to invite them to make inter-marriages with his people. Not one of the tribes around him received the proposal; and some of them insulted his ambassador, and said, Ecquod feminis quoque asylum aperuissent? Id enim demum compar connubium fore? "Why have you not also opened an asylum for Women, which would have afforded you suitable matches?" This exasperated Romulus, but he concealed his resentment, and, having published that he intended a great feast to Neptune Equester, invited all the neighboring tribes to come to it: they did so, and were received by the Romans with the greatest cordiality and friendship. The Sabines, with their wives and children, came in great numbers, and each Roman citizen entertained a stranger. When the games began, and each was intent on the spectacle before them, at a signal given, the young Romans rushed in among the Sabine women, and each carried off one, whom however they used in the kindest manner, marrying them according to their own rites with due solemnity, and admitting them to all the rights and privileges of the new commonwealth. The number carried off on this occasion amounted to near seven hundred; but this act of violence produced disastrous wars between the Romans and the Sabines, which were at last happily terminated by the mediation of the very women whose rape had been the cause of their commencement. The story may be seen at large in Livy, Plutarch, and others.

[¶5] Thus ends the book of Judges; a work which, while it introduces the history of Samuel and that of the kings of Judah and Israel, forms in some sort a supplement to the book of Joshua, and furnishes the only account we have of those times of anarchy and confusion, which extended nearly from the times of the elders who survived Joshua, to the establishment of the Jewish monarchy under Saul, David, and their successors. For other uses of this book, see the preface.

[¶6] Masoretic Notes on the Book of Judges

[¶7] The number of verses in this book is six hundred and eighteen.

[¶8] Its Masoretic chapters are fourteen.

[¶9] And its middle verse is [Jdg 10:8] : And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel, etc.

[¶10] Corrected for a new edition, December 1, 1827. - A. C.

## 274. Ruth · 1 of 5

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### Preface to the Book of Ruth

[¶1] When and by whom the book of Ruth was written, are points not agreed on among critics and commentators.

[¶2] As to the transactions recorded in it, they are variously placed. In the book itself there is no other notation of time than merely this, that the things came to pass in the days when the judges ruled; therefore some have placed these transactions under Ehud; others, under Gideon; others, under Barak; others, under Abimelech; and others, under Shamgar. This last is the opinion of Archbishop Usher; and most chronologers adopt it. The book is evidently an Appendix to the book of Judges, and contains a perfect history in itself; and therefore should not be inserted in any part of that book. It also seems to be an Introduction to the books of Samuel, in which the history of David is contained, as it gives the genealogy of this prince. It is also not without its use in matters which respect the Gospels, as it ascertains the line by which Jesus Christ came.

[¶3] As to the author, he is as uncertain as the time. It has been attributed to Hezekiah, to Ezra, and to Samuel; and it is most likely that the author of the two books of Samuel was also the writer of this little book, as it seems necessary to complete his plan of the history of David. See the preface to the first book of Samuel.

[¶4] The sum of the history contained in this book is the following: A man of Bethlehem, named Elimelech, with his wife Naomi, and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, left his own country in the time of a famine, and went to sojourn in the land of Moab. There he died; and Naomi married her two sons to two Moabitish women: Mahlon married Ruth, who is the chief subject of this book; and Chilion married one named Orpah. In about ten years both these brethren died; and Naomi, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, set out to return to the land of Judah, she having heard that plenty was again restored to her country. On the way she besought her daughters to return to their own country and kindred. Orpah took her advice, and, after an affectionate parting, returned; but Ruth insisted on accompanying her mother-in-law. They arrived in Bethlehem about the time of harvest; and Ruth went into the fields to glean for their support. The ground on which she was accidentally employed belonged to Boaz, one of the relatives of Elimelech, her father-in-law; who, finding who she was, ordered her to be kindly treated, and appointed her both meat and drink with his own servants. Finding that she was by marriage his kinswoman, he purposed to take her to wife, if a nearer kinsman who was then living should refuse. He was accordingly applied to, refused to take Ruth, and surrendered his right to her, according to the custom of those times, at the gate of Bethlehem, before the elders of the city. Boaz then took her to wife, by whom she had Obed, who was father to Jesse, the father of David.

[¶5] To the questions, Who was Boaz? and, Who was Ruth? no satisfactory answer can be given: all we know for certain is, that Boaz was an Ephraimite of Bethlehem; and Ruth a Moabitess, and consequently educated a heathen. But what we want in certainty several have attempted to supply by conjecture; with them Boaz was the same as Ibzan, [Jdg 12:8-10]; and Ruth was the daughter of Eglon, king of Moab. This is the opinion maintained by the Chaldee Targum on this book; to which I shall, in the course of the notes, have farther occasion to refer. The rabbins say that Elimelech was brother to Salmon, who married Rahab; and that Naomi was his niece.

[¶6] The genealogy of David, as stated in this book, is as follows: -

[¶7] A.M. 2236 Judah Pharez Ezron, called also Hezron Aram, called also Ram Amminadab Nahshon Salmon, who married Rahab Boaz, who married Ruth Obed, who begat Jesse A.M. 2919 David born

[¶8] This chronology is according to Archbishop Usher; and includes, from Judah to David six hundred and seventy years.

[¶9] Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, flee from a famine in the land of Israel, and go to sojourn in Moab, [Rut 1:1], [Rut 1:2]. Here his two sons marry; and, in the space of ten years, both their father and they die, [Rut 1:3-6]. Naomi sets out on her return to her own country, accompanied by her daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth; whom she endeavors to persuade to return to their own people, [Rut 1:7-13]. Orpah returns, but Ruth accompanies her mother-in-law, [Rut 1:14-18]. They arrive at Beth-lehem in the time of the barley harvest, [Rut 1:19-22].

### Verse 1

[¶11] When the judges ruled - We know not under what judge this happened; some say under Ehud, others under Shamgar. See the preface.

[¶12] There was a famine - Probably occasioned by the depredations of the Philistines, Ammonites, etc., carrying off the corn as soon as it was ripe, or destroying it on the field.

[¶13] The Targum says: "God has decreed ten grievous famines to take place in the world, to punish the inhabitants of the earth, before the coming of Messiah the king. The first in the days of Adam; the second in the days of Lamech; the third in the days of Abraham; the fourth in the days of Isaac; the fifth in the days of Jacob; the sixth in the days of Boaz, who is called Abstan, (Ibzan), the just, of Beth-lehem-judah; the seventh in the days of David, king of Israel; the eighth in the days of Elijah the prophet; the ninth in the days of Elisha, in Samaria; the tenth is yet to come, and it is not a famine of bread or of water but of hearing the word of prophecy from the mouth of the Lord; and even now this famine is grievous in the land of Israel."

### Verse 2

[¶15] Elimelech - That is, God is my king.

[¶16] Naomi - Beautiful or amiable.

[¶17] Mahlon - Infirmity.

[¶18] Chilion - Finished, completed.

### Verse 3

[¶20] Elimelech - died - Probably a short time after his arrival in Moab.

### Verse 4

[¶22] And they took them wives - The Targum very properly observes, that they transgressed the decree of the word of the Lord, and took to themselves strange women.

### Verse 5

[¶24] And Mahlon and Chilion died - The Targum adds, And because they transgressed the decree of the word of the Lord, and joined affinity with strange people, therefore their days were cut off. It is very likely that there is more here than conjecture.

### Verse 6

[¶26] She had heard - By the mouth of an angel, says the Targum.

[¶27] The Lord had visited his people - "Because of the righteousness of Ibzan the judge, and because of the supplications of pious Boaz." - Targum.

[¶28] It is imagined, and not without probability, that Mahlon and Chilion are the same with Joash and Saraph, mentioned [1Chr 4:22], where the Hebrew should be thus translated, and Joash and Saraph, who married in Moab, and dwelt in Lehem. See the Hebrew.

### Verse 11

[¶30] Are there yet any more sons - This was spoken in allusion to the custom, that when a married brother died without leaving posterity, his brother should take his widow; and the children of such a marriage were accounted the children of the deceased brother. There is something very persuasive and affecting in the address of Naomi to her daughters-in-law. Let us observe the particulars: -

[¶31] 1. She intimates that she had no other sons to give them.

[¶32] 2. That she was not with child; so there could be no expectation.

[¶33] 3. That she was too old to have a husband.

[¶34] 4. That though she should marry that night, and have children, yet they could not wait till such sons were marriageable; she therefore begs them to return to their own country where they might be comfortably settled among their own kindred.

### Verse 14

[¶36] And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law - The Septuagint add, Και επεστρεψεν εις τον λαον αυτης, And returned to her own people. The Vulgate, Syrian, and Arabic, are to the same purpose.

### Verse 15

[¶38] Gone back - unto her gods - They were probably both idolaters, their having been proselytes is an unfounded conjecture. Chemosh was the grand idol of the Moabites. The conversion of Ruth probably commenced at this time.

### Verse 16

[¶40] And Ruth said - A more perfect surrender was never made of friendly feelings to a friend: I will not leave thee - I will follow thee: I will lodge where thou lodgest - take the same fare with which thou meetest; thy people shall be my people - I most cheerfully abandon my own country, and determine to end my days in thine. I will also henceforth have no god but thy God, and be joined with thee in worship, as I am in affection and consanguinity. I will cleave unto thee even unto death; die where thou diest; and be buried, if possible, in the same grave. This was a most extraordinary attachment, and evidently without any secular motive.

[¶41] The Targum adds several things to this conversation between Naomi and Ruth. I shall subjoin them: "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee," for I desire to become a proselyte. And Naomi said, We are commanded to keep the Sabbath and other holy days; and on it not to travel more than two thousand cubits. And Ruth said, "Whither thou goest, I will go." And Naomi said, We are commanded not to lodge with the Gentiles. Ruth answered, "Where thou lodgest, I will lodge." And Naomi said, We are commanded to observe the one hundred and thirteen precepts. Ruth answered, What thy people observe, that will I observe; as if they had been my people of old. And Naomi said, We are commanded not to worship with any strange worship. Ruth answered, "Thy God shall be my God." Naomi said, We have four kinds of capital punishment for criminals; stoning, burning, beheading, and hanging. Ruth answered, "In whatsoever manner thou diest, I will die." Naomi said, We have a house of burial. Ruth answered, "And there will I be buried."

[¶42] It is very likely that some such conversation as this took place between the elders and those who were becoming proselytes. This verse is famous among those who strive to divine by the Bible. I should relate the particulars, but am afraid they might lead to a continuance of the practice. In my youth I have seen it done, and was then terrified.

### Verse 17

[¶44] The Lord do so to me, and more - May he inflict any of those punishments on me, and any worse punishment, if I part from thee till death. And it appears that she was true to her engagement; for Naomi was nourished in the house of Boaz in her old age, and became the fosterer and nurse of their son Obed, [Rut 4:15], [Rut 4:16].

## 275. Ruth · 2 of 5

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### Verse 19

[¶1] All the city was moved about them - It appears that Naomi was not only well known, but highly respected also at Bethlehem; a proof that Elimelech was of high consideration in that place.

### Verse 20

[¶3] Call me not Naomi - That is, beautiful or pleasant.

[¶4] Call me Mara - That is, bitter; one whose life is grievous to her.

[¶5] The Almighty - שדי Shaddai, He who is self-sufficient, has taken away the props and supports of my life.

### Verse 21

[¶7] I went out full - Having a husband and two sons.

[¶8] The Lord hath brought me home again empty - Having lost all three by death. It is also likely that Elimelech took considerable property with him into the land of Moab; for as he fled from the face of the famine, he would naturally take his property with him; and on this Naomi subsisted till her return to Bethlehem, which she might not have thought of till all was spent.

### Verse 22

[¶10] In the beginning of barley harvest - This was in the beginning of spring, for the barley harvest began immediately after the passover, and that feast was held on the 15th of the month Nisan, which corresponds nearly with our March.

[¶11] The Targum says, "They came to Beth-lehem on that day in which the children of Israel began to mow the sheaf of barley which was to be waved before the Lord." This circumstance is the more distinctly marked, because of Ruth's gleaning, mentioned in the succeeding chapter.

[¶12] 1. The native, the amiable simplicity, in which the story of the preceding chapter is told, is a proof of its genuineness. There are several sympathetic circumstances recorded here which no forger could have invented. There is too much of nature to admit any thing of art.

[¶13] 2. On the marriage of Orpah and Ruth, and the wish of Naomi that they might find rest in the house of their husbands, there are some pious and sensible observations in Mr. Ness's History and Mystery of the Book of Ruth, from which I shall lay the following extract before my readers: - "A married estate is a state of rest; so it is called here, and in [Rut 3:1]. Hence marriage is called portus juventutis, the port or haven of young people; whose affections, while unmarried, are continually floating or tossed to and fro, like a ship upon the waters, till they come into this happy harbour. There is a natural propension in most persons towards nuptial communion, as all created beings have a natural tendency towards their proper center, (leve sursum, et grave deorsum), and are restless out of it, so the rabbins say, Requiret vir costam suam, et requiret femina sedem suam, 'The man is restless while he misses his rib that was taken out of his side; and the woman is restless till she get under the man's arm, from whence she was taken.' O! look up to God then, ye unmarried ones, and cry with good Naomi, The Lord grant me rest for my roving affections in the house of some good consort, that I may live in peace and plenty, with content and comfort all my days. Know that your marriage is, of all your civil affairs, of the greatest importance, having an influence upon your whole life. It is either your making or marring in this world; 'tis like a stratagem in war, wherein a miscarriage cannot be recalled when we will, for we marry for life. I am thine, and thou art mine, brevis quidem cantiuncula est, 'is a short song;' sed longum habet epiphonema, 'but it hath a long undersong.' So an error here is irrecoverable; you have need of Argus's hundred eyes to look withal before you leap."

[¶14] This is good advice; but who among the persons concerned will have grace enough to take it?

### Introduction

[¶16] Ruth goes to glean in the field of Boaz, [Rut 2:1-3]. Boaz finds her, and inquires who she is, [Rut 2:4-7]. He speaks kindly to her, gives her permission to follow his reapers, and orders them to use her well, [Rut 2:8-16]. She returns in the evening to Naomi, and tells her of her fare; from whom she receives encouragement and advice, [Rut 2:17-23].

### Verse 1

[¶18] A mighty man of wealth - We have already seen that some suppose Boaz to have been one of the judges of Israel; he was no doubt a man of considerable property.

### Verse 2

[¶20] Glean ears of corn - The word glean comes from the French glaner, to gather ears or grains of corn. This was formerly a general custom in England and Ireland; the poor went into the fields and collected the straggling ears of corn after the reapers; and it was long supposed that this was their right, and that the law recognized it. But although it has been an old custom, I find that it is now settled, by a solemn judgment in the court of common pleas, that a right to glean in the harvest field cannot be claimed by any person at common law; see Law Dictionary, article gleaning. Any person may permit or prevent it in his own grounds. By the Irish acts, 25 Hen. VIII., c. 1, and 28 Hen. VIII., c. 24, gleaning and leasing are so restricted as to be in fact prohibited in that part of the United Kingdom. See the note on [Lev 19:9].

[¶21] After him in whose sight I shall find grace - She did not mean Boaz; but she purposed to go out where they were now reaping, and glean after any person who might permit her, or use her in a friendly manner. The words seem to intimate that, notwithstanding the law of Moses, the gleaners might be prevented by the owner of the field.

### Verse 3

[¶23] And her hap was - So she was accidentally or providentially led to that part of the cultivated country which belonged to Boaz.

### Verse 4

[¶25] Boaz came from Beth-lehem - This salutation between Boaz and his reapers is worthy of particular regard; he said, יהוה עמחם Yehovah immachem, "Jehovah be with you!" They said, יברכך יהוה yebarechecha Yehovah, "May Jehovah bless thee!" Can a pious mind read these godly salutations without wishing for a return of those simple primitive times? The words may be thus paraphrased: "May God be with you, to preserve you from accidents, and strengthen you to accomplish your work!" "May God bless Thee with the increase of the field, and grace to use his bounty to the glory of the Giver!"

### Verse 5

[¶27] His servant that was set over the reapers - This was a kind of steward or hind who had the under management of the estate. Some think that an officer of this kind is intended in the description given by Homer of the labors of a harvest field, as represented by Vulcan on one compartment of the shield which he made for Achilles: - Εν δ' ετιθει τεμενος βαθυληΐον· ενθα δ εριθοι Ἡμων, οξειας δρεπανας εν χερσιν εχοντες· Δραγματα δ' αλλα μετ' ογμον επμον επητριμα πιπτον εραζε, Αλλα δ' αμαλλοδετηρες εν ελλεδανοισι δεοντο. Τρεις δ' αρ' αμαλλοδετηρες εφεστασαν· αυταρ οπισθε Παιδες δραγμευοντες, εν αγκαλιδεσσι φεροντες, Ασπερχες παρεχον· βασιλευς δ' εν τοισι σιωπῃ Σκηπτρον εχων ἑστηκει επ' ογμου γηθοσυνος κηρ. Κηρυκες δ' απανευθεν ὑπο δρυΐ δαιτα πενοντο· Βουν δ' ἱερευσαντες μεγαν, αμφεπον· αἱ δε γυναικες Δειπνον εριθοισιν, λευκ' αλφιτα πολλα παλυνον.

[¶28] Iliad xviii., v. 550.

[¶29] There too he form'd the likeness of a field

[¶30] Crowded with corn, in which the reapers toil'd,

[¶31] Each with a sharp-tooth'd sickle in his hand.

[¶32] Along the furrow here, the harvest fell

[¶33] In frequent handfuls; there, they bound the sheaves.

[¶34] Three binders of the sheaves their sultry task

[¶35] All plied industrious, and behind them boys

[¶36] Attended, filling with the corn their arms,

[¶37] And offering still their bundles to be bound.

[¶38] Amid them, staff in hand, the master stood,

[¶39] Enjoying, mute the order of the field:

[¶40] While, shaded by an oak, apart his train

[¶41] Prepared the banquet - a well thriven ox

[¶42] New slain, and the attendant maidens mix'd

[¶43] Large supper for the hinds, of whitest flour.

[¶44] Cowper.

## 276. Ruth · 3 of 5

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[¶0] This scene is well described; and the person who acts as overseer is here called βασιλευς, king, and his staff is called σκηπτρον, a scepter; and he stands in mute dignity, merely to see that the work is well done, and that each person performs his task; and there appear to me to be gleaners in the description, viz., the boys who gather the handfuls after the three binders. See the Greek.

### Verse 7

[¶2] That she tarried a little in the house - It seems as if the reapers were now resting in their tent, and that Ruth had just gone in with them to take her rest also.

### Verse 8

[¶4] Abide here fast by my maidens - These were probably employed in making bands, and laying on them enough to form a sheaf, which the binders would tie and form into shocks or thraves. When the maidens had gathered up the scattered handfuls thrown down by the reapers, Ruth picked up any straggling heads or ears which they had left.

### Verse 9

[¶6] The young men that they shall not touch thee - This was peculiarly necessary, as she was a stranger and unprotected.

### Verse 10

[¶8] Then she fell on her face - Prostrated herself, as was the custom in the East when inferiors approached those of superior rank. The Targum adds to the conversation between Ruth and Boaz: "How, says she, have I obtained grace in thy sight, that thou shouldest acknowledge me who am a stranger and one of the daughters of Moab, of whom it is said, The unclean shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord? And Boaz, answered, It has been certainly told me by the word of the wise, that what the Lord hath decreed, he hath not decreed concerning the women but the men. And it hath been surely said to me by prophecy, that kings and prophets shall proceed from thee because of the good which thou hast done," etc.

### Verse 12

[¶10] The Lord recompense thy work - The dutiful respect which thou hast paid to thy husband, and thy tender and affectionate attachment to thy aged mother-in-law.

[¶11] And a full reward be given thee - This is spoken with great modesty and piety: The kindness I show thee is little in comparison of thy desert; God alone can give thee a full reward for thy kindness to thy husband and mother-in-law, and he will do it, because thou art come to trust under his wings - to become a proselyte to his religion. The metaphor is taken from the young of fowls, who, seeing a bird of prey, run to their mother to be covered by her wings from danger, and also to take shelter from storms, tempests, cold, etc. It is evident from this that Ruth had already attached herself to the Jewish religion.

### Verse 13

[¶13] Not like unto one of thine hand-maidens - I am as unworthy of thy regards as any of thine own maidservants, and yet thou showest me distinguished kindness.

### Verse 14

[¶15] Dip thy morsel in the vinegar - The חמץ chomets, which we here translate vinegar, seems to have been some refreshing kind of acid sauce used by the reapers to dip their bread in, which both cooled and refreshed them. Vinegar, rob of fruits, etc., are used for this purpose in the East to the present day; and the custom of the Arabs, according to Dr. Shaw, is to dip the bread and hand together into these cooling and refreshing articles.

[¶16] Parched corn - This was a frequent repast among the ancients in almost all countries; see the notes on [Lev 2:1-14] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶18] Let her glean even among the sheaves - This was a privilege; for no person should glean till the sheaves were all bound, and the shocks set up.

### Verse 17

[¶20] An ephah of barley - Not less than seven gallons and a half; a good day's work. On Hebrew measures of capacity, see the note on [Exo 16:16].

### Verse 18

[¶22] And gave to her that she had reserved - As Ruth had received a distinct portion at dinner-time, of which she had more than she could eat, [Rut 2:14]; it appears she brought the rest home to her mother-in-law, as is here related.

### Verse 20

[¶24] To the living and to the dead - Naomi and Ruth were the living; and they were also the representatives of Elimelech and Mahlon, who were dead. Naomi was of the family; and Ruth, though not of the family, was a representative of one of its deceased branches, being the widow of Mahlon.

[¶25] One of our next kinsmen - מגאלינו miggoaleynu, of our redeemers, one who has the right to redeem the forfeited inheritance of the family. The word גאל goel signifies a near kinsman - one who by the Mosaic law had a right to redeem an inheritance, and also was permitted to vindicate or revenge the death of his relation by killing the slayer, if he found him out of the cities of refuge.

[¶26] In order to prevent families from running to decay, if a brother died childless, the next unmarried brother took his widow; and the children from that marriage were reputed the children of the deceased brother. The office of the next akin was threefold:

[¶27] 1. It belonged to him to buy back the forfeited inheritance, or the liberty of him who had been obliged to sell himself for a servant.

[¶28] 2. It was his right to avenge the blood of any of the family who had been killed, by killing the murderer.

[¶29] 3. It belonged to him to take the widow of a deceased brother or relative, if he died childless.

[¶30] If the nearest akin in any case refused, he was treated with indignity, lost his right to the inheritance, and the next akin to him might come forward and take the widow, etc., as in the case of Boaz. See [Rut 4:4-10].

### Verse 21

[¶32] Keep fast by my young men - The word הנערים hannearim should be translated servants, both the male and female being included in it; the latter especially, as we see in [Rut 2:22], [Rut 2:23].

### Verse 23

[¶34] And of wheat harvest - That is, she was to continue gleaning in the farm of Boaz to the end of the barley harvest; and then, when the wheat harvest began, to continue to its conclusion in the same way. In the interim, as well as each night, she lodged with her mother-in-law.

[¶35] 1. Ruth seems to have been a woman of a very amiable mind: she was modest, and she was industrious, and most probably a comely woman; and all these things served to attract the attention of Boaz, and to engage his affection. Her attachment also to her mother-in-law could not fail to secure his esteem. All these things worked together in the course of Providence, to bring about a matrimonial connection, which in its issue was intimately connected with the salvation of a lost world; for, from this very line, Jesus Christ, according to the flesh, sprang; and Ruth showed herself as worthy to be one of His progenitors as the Virgin Mary was to be His mother. See the notes on Matthew 1:1-16 (note).

[¶36] 2. We should carefully attend to the leadings and to the workings of God's providence; it is our duty and our interest to do both, for the path of duty is ever the way of safety. Had not Ruth acted thus, how dreary and uncomfortable must her life have been! but she followed God fully, and in a path apparently dangerous, and yet, not only sustained no injury, but succeeded well in all things: from this, as well as from innumerable other circumstances, we see the truth of that word, Acknowledge him in all thy ways, and he will direct thy steps; and with this we may ever connect, Trust in the Lord with thy whole heart, and lean not to thy own understanding. Whosoever follows God in simplicity of heart, will most assuredly be guided into all truth.

### Introduction

[¶38] Naomi's advice to Ruth, how to procure herself a marriage with Boaz, [Rut 3:1-5]. She acts according to her mother-in-law's direction, and is kindly received by Boaz, who promises to marry her, should her nearer kinsman refuse, [Rut 3:6-13]. He gives her six measures of barley, and sends her away privately to her mother-in-law, who augurs favorably of the issue of the plan she had laid, [Rut 3:14-18].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Shall I not seek rest for thee - That is, Shall I not endeavor to procure thee a proper husband? See [Rut 1:9], and the observations at the end of that chapter.

### Verse 2

[¶42] He winnoweth barley tonight - It is very likely that the winnowing of grain was effected by taking up, in a broad thin vessel or sieve, a portion of the corn, and letting it down slowly in the wind; thus the grain would, by its own weight, fall in one place, while the chaff, etc., would be carried to a distance by the wind. It is said here that this was done at night; probably what was threshed out in the day was winnowed in the evening, when the sea breeze set in, which was common in Palestine; and as this took place in the evening only, that was the time in which they would naturally winnow their corn.

### Verse 3

[¶44] Wash thyself, therefore - She made Ruth put on her best dress, that Boaz might, in the course of the day, be the more attracted by her person, and be the better disposed to receive her as Naomi wished.

## 277. Ruth · 4 of 5

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Uncover his feet, and lay thee down - It is said that women in the East, when going to the bed of their lawful husbands, through modesty, and in token of subjection, go to the bed's foot, and gently raising the clothes, creep under them up to their place. See Calmet.

[¶2] On the whole, we must say, had not Boaz been a person of extraordinary piety, prudence, and continence, this experiment might have been fatal to Ruth. We cannot easily account for this transaction, probably Naomi knew more than she revealed to her daughter-in-law. The experiment however was dangerous, and should in no sense be imitated.

[¶3] He will tell thee what thou shalt do - The Targum reads the clause thus: Thou shalt ask counsel from him, "and he shall tell thee what thou shouldest do."

### Verse 7

[¶5] When Boaz had eaten and drunk - The Targum adds, "He blessed the name of the Lord, who had heard his prayer, and removed famine from the land of Israel."

[¶6] Went to lie down - As the threshing-floors of the Eastern nations are in general in the open air, it is very likely that the owner or some confidential person continued in the fields till the grain was secured, having a tent in the place where the corn was threshed and winnowed. Boaz seems to have acted thus.

### Verse 8

[¶8] The man was afraid, and turned himself - The verb ילפת yillapheth, which we render he turned himself, has puzzled even the Targumist, who translates the clause thus: "The man trembled, and his flesh became like a (boiled) turnip through fear." It is fully evident Boaz had no intimation of the present proceedings. To this verse the Targumist adds much; he says, "Boaz subdued his concupiscence, and acted towards her as Joseph did to the Egyptian wife of his master, and as Pelatiel, the son of Laish the pious, did to Michal, the daughter of Saul, the wife of David, who put a sword between Michal and himself, because he would not approach to her."

### Verse 9

[¶10] Spread therefore thy skirt over thine hand maid - Hebrew, Spread thy wing. The wing is the emblem of protection, and is a metaphor taken from the young of fowls, which run under the wings of their mothers, that they may be saved from birds of prey. The meaning here is, Take me to thee for wife; and so the Targum has translated it, Let thy name be called on thy handmaid to take me for wife, because thou art the redeemer; i.e., thou art the גאל goel, the kinsman, to whom the right of redemption belongs. See on [Rut 2:20] (note). Even to the present day, when a Jew marries a woman, he throws the skirt or end of his talith over her, to signify that he has taken her under his protection.

### Verse 10

[¶12] In the latter end than at the beginning - It is not easy to find out what Boaz means. Perhaps חסד chesed, which we translate kindness, means piety; as if he had said: Thou hast given great proof of thy piety in this latter instance, when thou hast avoided the young, and those of thy own age, to associate thyself with an elderly man, merely for the purpose of having the Divine injunction fulfilled, viz., that the brother, or next akin, might take the wife of the deceased, and raise a family to him who had died childless, that his name might not become extinct in Israel: this latter act is a greater proof of thy piety and sincerity than any thing that could be inferred from thy becoming a proselyte.

[¶13] Whether poor or rich - So it appears from this that it was not to mend her condition in life that Ruth endeavored to get Boaz for her husband, for she might have had a rich young man, but she preferred the building up the house of her deceased husband. See above.

### Verse 12

[¶15] There is a kinsman nearer than I - It is very likely that Naomi was not acquainted with this circumstance. Some have supposed that there was a brother of Elimelech remaining, who was nearer than Boaz, who is supposed to have been only a nephew; the former, therefore, must have a prior right.

### Verse 13

[¶17] As the Lord liveth - Thus he bound himself by an oath to take her to wife if the other should refuse.

### Verse 15

[¶19] Bring the veil - המט פחת hammit pachath; this seems to have been a cloak, plaid, or what the Arabs call hayk, which has been largely explained elsewhere. See [Jdg 14:12].

[¶20] Six measures of barley - We supply the word measures, for the Hebrew mentions no quantity. The Targum renders six seahs, שית סאין shith sein, which, as a seah was about two gallons and a half, must have been a very heavy load for a woman; and so the Targumist thought, for he adds, And she received strength from the Lord to carry it. If the omer be meant, which is about six pints, the load would not be so great, as this would amount to but about four gallons and a half; a very goodly present. The Targum says, that on receiving these six measures "it was said in the spirit of prophecy, that from her should proceed the six righteous persons of the world, viz., David, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and the King Messiah; each of whom should be blessed with six benedictions." It is, however, remarkable, that the Targum makes the Messiah to spring from her through the line of David, and goes down to Daniel and his companions; which Daniel prophesied so clearly, not only of the advent of Messiah the prince, but also of the very time in which he was to come, and the sacrificial death he was to die.

### Verse 18

[¶22] Until thou know how the matter will fall - That is, whether he who is nearer of kin than Boaz will take thee to wife; do not return again till this thing is determined. Boaz lost no time to bring this to an issue, as we shall see in the following chapter, Ruth 4 (note).

### Introduction

[¶24] Boaz gathers a council of the elders at the city gates, states the case, and proposes to the nearest kinsman to redeem the inheritance of Elimelech, and take Ruth to wife, [Rut 4:1-5]. The kinsman refuses, and relinquishes has right to Boaz, [Rut 4:6]. The manner of redemption in such cases, [Rut 4:7], [Rut 4:8]. Boaz redeems the inheritance in the presence of the elders, and of the people, who witness the contract, and pray for God's blessing upon the marriage, [Rut 4:9-12]. Boaz takes Ruth for wife, and she bears a son, [Rut 4:13]. The people's observations on the birth of the child, [Rut 4:14], [Rut 4:15]. It is given to Naomi to nurse, [Rut 4:16]. The neighboring women name the child, and the book concludes with the genealogy of David, [Rut 4:17-22].

### Verse 1

[¶26] Then went Boaz up to the gate - We have often had occasion to remark that the gate or entrance to any city or town was the place where the court of justice was ordinarily kept. For an account of the officers in such places, see the note on [Deu 16:18].

[¶27] Ho, such a one! - sit down here - This familiar mode of compellation is first used here. The original is שבה פה פלני אלמני shebah poh, peloni almoni! "Hark ye, Mr. Such-a-one of such a place! come and sit down here." This is used when the person of the individual is known, and his name and residence unknown. אלמני almoni comes from אלם alam, to be silent or hidden, hence the Septuagint render it by κρυφε thou unknown person: פלני peloni comes from פלה palah, to sever or distinguish; you of such a particular place. Modes of compellation of this kind are common in all languages.

### Verse 2

[¶29] He took ten men - Probably it required this number to constitute a court. How simple and how rational was this proceeding!

[¶30] 1. The man who had a suit went to the city gates.

[¶31] 2. Here he stopped till the person with whom he had the suit came to the gate on his way to his work.

[¶32] 3. He called him by name, and he stopped and sat down.

[¶33] 4. Then ten elders were called, and they came and sat down.

[¶34] 5. When all this was done, the appellant preferred his suit.

[¶35] 6. Then the appellee returned his answer.

[¶36] 7. When the elders heard the case, and the response of the appellee, they pronounced judgment, which judgment was always according to the custom of the place.

[¶37] 8. When this was done, the people who happened to be present witnessed the issue.

[¶38] And thus the business was settled without lawyers or legal casuistry. A question of this kind, in one of our courts of justice, in these enlightened times, would require many days' previous preparation of the attorney, and several hours' arguing between counsellor Botherum and counsellor Borum, till even an enlightened and conscientious judge would find it extremely difficult to decide whether Naomi might sell her own land, and whether Boaz or Peloni might buy it! O, glorious uncertainty of modern law!

### Verse 3

[¶40] Naomi - selleth a parcel of land - She was reduced to want; the immediate inheritors were extinct, and it was now open for the next heir to purchase the land, and thus preserve the inheritance in the family according to the custom of Israel.

### Verse 4

[¶42] I thought to advertise thee - Both Dr. Kennicott and Father Houbigant have noticed several corruptions in the pronouns of this and the following verses; and their criticisms have been confirmed by a great number of MSS. since collated. The text corrected reads thus: "And I said I will reveal this to thy ear, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it; but if thou wilt not redeem it, tell me, that I may know; for there is none to redeem it but thou, and I who am next to thee. And he said, I will redeem it. And Boaz said, In the day that thou redeemest the land from the hand of Naomi, thou wilt also acquire Ruth, the wife of the dead, that thou mayest raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance;" [Rut 4:4], [Rut 4:5]. - See Kennicott's Dissertations, vol. i., p. 449; Houbigant in loco; and the Variae Lectiones of Kennicott and De Rossi. This is Boaz's statement of the case before the kinsman, and before the people and the elders.

[¶43] I will redeem it - I will pay down the money which it is worth. He knew not of the following condition.

## 278. Ruth · 5 of 5

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Thou must buy it also of Ruth - More properly, Thou wilt also acquire Ruth. Thou canst not get the land without taking the wife of the deceased and then the children which thou mayest have shall be reputed the children of Mahlon, thy deceased kinsman.

### Verse 6

[¶3] I cannot redeem it for myself - The Targum gives the proper sense of this passage: "And the kinsman said, On this ground I cannot redeem it, because I have a wife already; and I have no desire to take another, lest there should be contention in my house, and I should become a corrupter of my inheritance. Do thou redeem it, for thou hast no wife; for I cannot redeem it." This needs no comment. But still the gloss of the Targum has no foundation in the law of Moses. See the law, [Deu 25:5-9].

### Verse 7

[¶5] A man plucked off his shoe - The law of such a case is given at large in [Deu 25:5-9]. It was simply this: If a brother, who had married a wife, died without children, the eldest brother was to take the widow, and raise up a family to the brother deceased; and he had a right to redeem the inheritance, if it had been alienated. But if the person who had the right of redemption would not take the woman, she was to pull off his shoe and spit in his face, and he was ever after considered as a disgraced man. In the present case the shoe only is taken off, probably because the circumstances of the man were such as to render it improper for him to redeem the ground and take Ruth to his wife; and because of this reasonable excuse, the contemptuous part of the ceremony is omitted. See the note on [Deu 25:9].

### Verse 11

[¶7] We are witnesses - It is not very likely that any writing was drawn up. There was an appeal made to the people then present, whether they had seen and understood the transaction; who answered, We have witnessed it. If any minutes of court were kept, then the transaction was entered probably in some such words as these: "On day of , Boaz bought the land of Elimelech from Naomi his widow, and took Ruth, her daughter-in-law, to wife; , who had the nearest right, refusing to buy the land on the conditions then proposed."

[¶8] The Lord make this woman - like Rachel and like Leah - May thy family be increased by her means, as the tribes were formed by means of Rachel and Leah, wives of the patriarch Jacob!

[¶9] Which two did build the house of Israel - We have already seen that בן ben, a son, comes from the root בנה banah, he built; and hence אבן eben, a stone, because as a house is built of stones, so is a family of children. There is a similar figure in Plautus, Mostell. Act i., sec. 2, ver. 37. - Nunc etiam volo Dicere, ut homines aedium esse similes arbitremini.

[¶10] Primum dum parentes fabri liberum sunt,

[¶11] Et fundamentum liberorum substruunt. "I would also observe, that ye men are similar to houses; ye parents are the fabricators of the children, and they are the foundation of the building."

### Verse 12

[¶13] Like the house of Pharez - This was very appropriate; for from Pharez, the son of Judah, by Tamar, came the family of the Beth-lehemites and that of Elimelech.

### Verse 13

[¶15] So Boaz took Ruth - The law of Moses had prohibited the Moabites, even to the tenth generation, from entering into the congregation of the Lord; but this law, the Jews think, did not extend to women; and even if it had, Ruth's might be considered an exempt case, as she had been already incorporated into the family by marriage; and left her own country, people, and gods, to become a proselyte to the true God in the land of Israel.

### Verse 16

[¶17] Naomi took the child - This might do for Naomi, but it was bad for the child. A child, unless remarkably healthy and robust, will suffer considerably by being nursed by an old woman, especially if the child sleep with her. The aged gain refreshment and energy by sleeping with the young; and from the same means the young derive premature decrepitude. The vigor which is absorbed by the former is lost by the latter. It is a foolish and destructive custom to permit young children, which is a common case, to sleep with aged aunts and old grandmothers. Bacon's grand secret of the cure of old age, couched in so many obscure and enigmatical terms, is simply this: Let young persons sleep constantly with those who are aged and infirm. And it was on this principle that the physicians of David recommended a young healthy girl to sleep with David in his old age. They well knew that the aged infirm body of the king would absorb a considerable portion of healthy energy from the young woman.

### Verse 17

[¶19] The neighbors gave it a name - That is, they recommended a name suitable to the circumstances of the case; and the parents and grandmother adopted it.

[¶20] They called his name Obed - עובד obed, serving, from עבד abad, he served. Why was this name given? Because he was to be the nourisher of her old age, [Rut 4:15]. And so he must be by lying in her bosom, even if services in future life were wholly left out of the question. These neighbors of Naomi were skillful people. See on [Rut 4:16] (note). Other meanings, of which I am not ignorant, have been derived from these words; those who prefer them have my consent.

[¶21] He is the father of Jesse, the father of David - And for the sake of this conclusion, to ascertain the line of David, and in the counsel of God to fix and ascertain the line of the Messiah was this instructive little book written.

### Verse 18

[¶23] Now these are the generations - The Targum gives a copious paraphrase on this and the following verses, I shall insert the principal parts in their proper places.

### Verse 19

[¶25] Hezron begat Ram - He is called Aram here by the Septuagint, and also by St. Matthew, [Mat 1:3].

### Verse 20

[¶27] Amminadab begat Nahshon - The Targum adds, "And Nahshon was chief of the house of his father in the tribe of Judah."

[¶28] Nahshon begat Salmon - In the Hebrew it is שלמה Salmah, which Houbigant thinks was an error of an ancient scribe, before any final letters were acknowledged in the Hebrew alphabet: for then the word would be written שלמון Salmon, which a scribe, after final letters were admitted, might mistake for שלמה Salmah, and so write it, instead of שלמון Salmon, the ו vau and final nun in conjunction (ון) bearing some resemblance to ה.

[¶29] The Targum calls him "Salmah the Just; he was the Salmah of Beth-lehem and Netopha, whose sons abolished the watches which Jeroboam set over the highways; and their works and the works of their father were good in Netopha."

### Verse 21

[¶31] And Salmon begat Boaz - The Targum goes on, "And Salmon begat Absan the judge; he is Boaz the Just, on account of whose righteousness the people of the house of Israel were redeemed from the hands of their enemies; and at whose supplication the famine departed from the land of Israel."

[¶32] And Boaz begat Obed - "Who served the Lord in this world with a perfect heart."

### Verse 22

[¶34] And Obed begat Jesse - "Who," says the Targum, "also is called Nachash, נחש because neither iniquity nor corruption was found in him, that he should be delivered into the hands of the angel of death, that he might take away his soul from him. And he lived many days until the counsel was remembered before the Lord, that the serpent gave to Eve the wife of Adam, that she should eat of the tree; by eating of the fruit of which they became wise, to distinguish between good and evil: and by that counsel all the inhabitants of the earth became guilty of death; and by this iniquity Jesse the Just died." Here is no mean or indistinct reference to the doctrine of original sin: and it shows us, at least, what the very ancient rabbins thought on the subject. I should observe that these additions are taken from the London Polyglot; they are not found in that of Antwerp; but they are the same that appear in the Targum of the great Bible printed by Bomberg, at Venice, in 1547-49.

[¶35] And Jesse begat David - To this no comment is added by the Targumist, as the history of this king is found in the following book.

[¶36] The ten persons whose genealogy is recorded in the five last verses, may be found, with a trifling change of name, in the genealogical list in [Mat 1:3-6], as forming important links in the line of the Messiah. To introduce this appears to have been the principal object of the writer, as introductory to the following books, where the history of David, the regal progenitor and type of the Messiah, is so particularly detailed.

[¶37] For the account of the birth of Pharez and his brother Zarah, the reader is requested to refer to Genesis 38:12-30, and to the notes there; and for several particulars in the genealogy itself, to the notes on Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38, where the wisdom, goodness, and providence of God, in the preservation of this line, are particularly noticed.

[¶38] Masoretic Notes on Ruth

[¶39] Number of verses in Ruth is 85.

[¶40] Middle verse is [Rut 2:21].

[¶41] We have already seen that Archbishop Usher places the event mentioned here in A.M. 2686, about one hundred years after the conquest of Canaan.

## 279. 1 Samuel · 1 of 37

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### Preface to the First Book of Samuel Otherwise Called The First Book of the Kings

[¶1] This and the three following books were formerly termed the first, second, third, and fourth books of Kings, and the two books of Samuel made in ancient times but one; the separation which has taken place seems to have been done without reason or necessity. These books are, properly speaking, a continuation of the book of Judges, as they give us an account of the remaining judges of Israel, down to the election of Saul; and of all the kings of Israel and Judah to the Babylonish captivity.

[¶2] Of this book, called the first book of Samuel, the following are the contents: The birth and education of Samuel; the high priesthood of Eli; the Philistines attack the Israelites, overthrow them with a terrible slaughter, take the ark of the Lord, and set it up in the temple of their god Dagon; they are visited with Divine judgments, and are obliged to send back the ark with offerings and presents; Samuel, long acknowledged as a prophet of the Lord, takes the government of the people. Under his wise and pious administration, the affairs of Israel become re-established, and the Philistines are subdued. The sons of Samuel, who principally administered the secular concerns of the kingdom, acting unworthily, the people desire to have a king, who should be supreme, both in civil and military affairs. Samuel, after expostulations, yields to their entreaties; and, under the direction of God, Saul the son of Kish, whilst seeking the lost asses of his father, is met by the prophet, and anointed king over Israel. This man, not conducting himself in the government according to the direction of God, is rejected, and David the son of Jesse anointed king in his place, though Saul continues still in the government. This person soon becomes advantageously known to Israel by his single combat with a gigantic Philistine chief, called Goliath, whom he slays; on which the Israelites attack the Philistines, and give them a total overthrow. Saul, envious of David's popularity, seeks his destruction; he is in consequence obliged to escape for his life, and take refuge sometimes among the Moabites, sometimes among the Philistines, and sometimes in the caves of the mountains of Judah, everywhere pursued by Saul, and everywhere visibly protected by the Lord. At last Saul, being pressed by the Philistines, and finding that the Lord had forsaken him, had recourse to a witch that dwelt at En-dor, whom he consulted relative to the issue of the present war with the Philistines; he loses the battle, and being sorely wounded, and his three sons slain, he falls on his own sword, and expires on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines find his body, and the bodies of his three sons, among the slain; they cut off Saul's head, and affix the bodies to the walls of Beth-shan. The men of Jabesh-gilead, hearing this, go by night, and take the bodies from the walls of Beth-shan, bring them to Jabesh, burn them there, bury the bones, and mourn over their fallen king, fasting seven days. Thus concludes the first book of Samuel.

[¶3] Concerning the author of these books there have been various conjectures. Because, in most of the Hebrew copies, they bear the name of Samuel, as a running title, it has been generally supposed that he was the author. But his name does not appear to have been anciently prefixed to these books, at least in those copies used by the Greek interpreters, commonly called the Septuagint, as they simply term each βασιλεΐων. The History or Book of Kingdoms. The Chaldee has no inscription. The Syriac and Arabic call each The Book of Samuel the Prophet; and the Vulgate, The Book of Samuel, simply. The Jews, in general, believe that Samuel is the author of the first twenty-seven chapters of this book, which contain the history of his own life and government, and what respects Saul and David during that time. The remaining four chapters they suppose were added by the prophets Gad and Nathan. This opinion is founded on what is said [1Chr 29:29] : Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer. Others suppose the books to be more recent than the persons already named, but that they were compiled out of their memoirs.

[¶4] But who was the compiler? Some of the most learned among the Jews suppose it to have been Jeremiah the prophet, and that the style bears a near resemblance to his prophecies. That they were the work of a more recent author than Samuel, etc., Grotius thinks evident from this circumstance, that the names of the months are comparatively modern, and were not known among the ancient Jews. Others have attributed them to David; others, to Hezekiah; and others, to Ezra the scribe, on his return from the Babylonish captivity.

[¶5] Calmet's opinion is as probable as any, viz., "That these books were written by the same hand, though composed out of the memoirs left by persons of that time; and that the compiler has generally used the same terms he found in those memoirs, adding here and there something of his own by way of illustration." The equality of the style, the frequent eulogiums on the character of Samuel, the connection of the materials, particular quotations, and remarks on certain events, are, he thinks, proofs sufficiently clear of what he assumes. These books contain remarks or expressions which could only proceed from a contemporary author, and others which are evidences of a much later age.

[¶6] 1. For instance, we read, [1Sam 3:1], The word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision; i.e., in the days of Eli, the high priest: hence it is evident that the author lived in times in which prophecy was more common; which, in fact, it was after Samuel, under David, and the succeeding kings of Israel and Judah.

[¶7] 2. Again, in the time of the author of this book, Beth-el was called Beth-aven, [1Sam 13:5], which name was given to it in derision after Jeroboam had placed there his golden calves.

[¶8] 3. Again, it is said, [1Sam 6:18], that the ark of the Lord was set down in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, where it remained to the time of this author; and yet, in [1Sam 7:15], he speaks of Samuel as being already dead: And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

[¶9] 4. It is not natural to suppose that Samuel would have spoken of himself as is done [1Sam 2:26] : And the child Samuel grew, and was in favor both with the Lord and with men; but if he were dead when this book was written, any author might have added this with the strictest propriety.

[¶10] 5. In [1Sam 27:6], it is said that Achish gave Ziklag to David, Wherefore Ziklag pertaineth to the kings of Judah unto this day. This is a proof that when this book was written the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were separated; and that, although the tribe of Simeon belonged to the kings of Israel, yet Ziklag, which was in that tribe, remained in the hands of the kings of Judah.

[¶11] Here, therefore, are proofs that this book contains matters which must have been written by a contemporary author; and others which could not have been inserted but in times much posterior. These seeming contradictions are reconciled by the hypothesis that the books were compiled, by a comparatively recent author, out of materials of a much earlier date, the author not changing many of the expressions which he found in those ancient documents.

[¶12] Several other proofs might be here adduced to support this opinion; but as the reader will find them noticed in the places where they occur, it is not necessary to repeat them here. Those who wish to see the subject farther discussed, may consult Calmet. We may rest satisfied with these three things:

[¶13] 1. That the books of Samuel were constructed out of original and authentic documents.

[¶14] 2. That the compiler was not contemporary with the facts he narrates. And,

[¶15] 3. That both the author and time in which he compiled his history, though comparatively more recent than the facts themselves, are nevertheless both uncertain.

[¶16] Some account of Elkanah and his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah, [1Sam 1:1], [1Sam 1:2]. His annual worship at Shiloh and the portions he gave at such times to his wives, [1Sam 1:3-5]. Hannah, being barren, is reproached by Peninnah, especially in their going up to Shiloh; at which she is sorely grieved, [1Sam 1:6], [1Sam 1:7]. Elkanah comforts her, [1Sam 1:8]. Her prayer and vow in the temple, that if God would give her a son, she would consecrate him to His service, [1Sam 1:9-11]. Eli, the high priest, indistinctly hearing her pray, charges her with being drunk, [1Sam 1:12-14]. Her defense of her conduct, [1Sam 1:15], [1Sam 1:16]. Eli, undeceived, blesses her; on which she takes courage, [1Sam 1:17], [1Sam 1:18]. Hannah and Elkanah return home; she conceives, bears a son, and calls him Samuel, [1Sam 1:19], [1Sam 1:20]. Elkanah and his family go again to Shiloh to worship; but Hannah stays at home to nurse her child, purposing, as soon as he is weaned, to go and offer him to the Lord, according to her vow, [1Sam 1:21-23]. When weaned, she takes him to Shiloh, presents hear child to Eli to be consecrated to the Lord, and offers three bullocks, an ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, for his consecration, [1Sam 1:24-28].

### Verse 1

[¶18] Ramathaim-zophim - Literally, the two high places of the watchman; these were, no doubt, two contiguous hills, on which watchtowers were built, and in which watchmen kept continual guard for the safety of the country and which afterwards gave name to the place.

### Verse 2

[¶20] He had two wives - The custom of those times permitted polygamy; but wherever there was more than one wife, we find the peace of the family greatly disturbed by it.

[¶21] The name of the one was Hannah - חנה Channah, which signifies fixed or settled, and the other פננה Peninnah, which signifies a jewel or pearl.

### Verse 3

[¶23] Went up out of his city yearly to worship - As the ark was at Shiloh, there was the temple of God, and thither all the males were bound by the law to go once a year, on each of the great national festivals: viz., the passover, pentecost, and feast of tabernacles.

[¶24] The Lord of hosts - יהוה צבאות Yehovah tsebaoth, Jehovah of armies. As all the heavenly bodies were called the hosts of heaven, צבא השמים tseba hashshamayim, Jehovah being called Lord of this host showed that he was their Maker and Governor; and consequently He, not they, was the proper object of religious worship. The sun, moon, planets, and stars, were the highest objects of religious worship to the heathens in general. The Jewish religion, teaching the knowledge of a Being who was the Lord of all these, showed at once its superiority to all that heathenism could boast. This is the first place where Lord of hosts is mentioned in the Bible; and this is so much in the style of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc., that it gives some weight to the supposition that this book was written by a person who lived in or after the times of these prophets. See the preface.

### Verse 4

[¶26] He gave - portions - The sacrifices which were made were probably peace-offerings, of which the blood was poured out at the foot of the altar; the fat was burnt on the fire; the breast and right shoulder were the portion of the priest, and the rest belonged to him who made the offering; on it he and his family feasted, each receiving his portion; and to these feasts God commands them to invite the Levite, the poor, the widow, and the orphan, [Deu 16:11].

### Verse 5

[¶28] Unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion - The Hebrew here is very obscure, יתן מנה אחת אפים yitten manah achath appayim; he gave her one portion of two faces; which the Syriac renders, he gave her one Double Part; and the Chaldee, he gave her one Chosen part; the Arabic is nearly the same; the Vulgate Annae autem dedit unam partem tristis, but to Anna he being sorrowful gave one part. As the shew-bread that was presented to the Lord was called לחם פנים lechem panim, the bread of faces, because it was placed before the face or appearances of the Lord; probably this was called מנה אפים manah appayim, because it was the portion that belonged to, or was placed before, the person who had offered the sacrifice. On this ground it might be said that Elkanah gave Hannah his own portion or a part of that which was placed before himself. Whatever it was, it was intended as a proof of his especial love to her; for, it is added, he loved Hannah.

### Verse 6

[¶30] And her adversary - That is, Peninnah.

[¶31] Provoked her sore - Was constantly striving to irritate and vex her, to make her fret - to make her discontented with her lot, because the Lord had denied her children.

### Verse 7

[¶33] And as he did so year by year - As the whole family went up to Shiloh to the annual festivals, Peninnah had both sons and daughters to accompany her, [1Sam 1:4], but Hannah had none; and Peninnah took this opportunity particularly to twit Hannah with her barrenness, by making an ostentatious exhibition of her children.

[¶34] Therefore she wept - She was greatly distressed, because it was a great reproach to a woman among the Jews to be barren; because, say some, every one hoped that the Messiah should spring from her line.

### Verse 8

[¶36] Am not I better to thee than ten sons? - Ten, a certain for an uncertain number. Is not my especial affection to thee better than all the comfort thou couldst gain, even from a numerous family?

### Verse 9

[¶38] Eli - sat upon a seat - על הכסא al hakkisse, upon the throne, i.e., of judgment; for he was then judge of Israel.

[¶39] By a post of the temple of the Lord - I think this is the first place where היכל יהוה heychal Yehovah, "temple of Jehovah," is mentioned. This gives room for a strong suspicion that the books of Samuel were not compiled till the first temple was built, or after the days of Solomon. After this the word temple is frequent in the books of Kings, Chronicles, and in the prophets. Perhaps those Psalms in which this word occurs were, like many others in the Psalms, not of David's composition; some of them were evidently made long after his time.

### Verse 11

[¶41] I will give him unto the Lord - Samuel, as a descendant of the house of Levi, was the Lord's property from twenty-five years of age till fifty; but the vow here implies that he should be consecrated to the Lord from his infancy to his death, and that he should not only act as a Levite, but as a Nazarite, on whose head no razor should pass.

### Verse 13

[¶43] Spake in her heart; only her lips moved - She prayed; her whole heart was engaged: and though she spake not with an audible voice, yet her lips formed themselves according to the pronunciation of the words which her heart uttered.

## 280. 1 Samuel · 2 of 37

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### Verse 15

[¶1] I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink - Neither wine nor inebriating drink has been poured out unto me; but I have poured out my soul unto the Lord. There is a great deal of delicacy and point in this vindication.

### Verse 16

[¶3] Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial - אל תתן את אמתך לפני בת בליעל al titten eth amathecha liphney bath Beliyael; 'Put not thy handmaiden before the faces of a daughter of Belial." "If I am a drunkard, and strive by the most execrable hypocrisy (praying in the house of God) to cover my iniquity, then I am the chief of the daughters of Belial." Or, "Give not thy handmaid (to reproach) before the faces of the daughters of Belial." Several of these probably attended there for the purposes of prostitution and gain; for it is said, [1Sam 2:22], that Eli's sons lay with the women at the door of the tabernacle, though this may refer to the women who kept the door.

### Verse 17

[¶5] Grant thee thy petition - He was satisfied he had formed a wrong judgment, and by it had added to the distress of one already sufficiently distressed.

[¶6] The fact that Eli supposed her to be drunken, and the other of the conduct of Eli's sons already mentioned, prove that religion was at this time at a very low ebb in Shiloh; for it seems drunken women did come to the place, and lewd women were to be found there.

### Verse 18

[¶8] Let thine handmaid find grace - Continue to think favorably of me, and to pray for me.

### Verse 20

[¶10] Called his name Samuel - As she gave this name to her son because she had asked him of the Lord, the word שמואל Shemuel must be here considerably contracted; if it express this sentiment, the component parts of it are the following: שאול מאל shaul meEl, "asked of God." This name would put both the mother and the son in continual remembrance of the Divine interposition at his birth. See on [1Sam 1:28] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶12] The man Elkanah and all his house - He and the whole of his family, Hannah and her child excepted, who purposed not to go up to Shiloh till her son was old enough to be employed in the Divine service.

[¶13] And his vow - Probably he had also made some vow to the Lord on the occasion of his wife's prayer and vow; in which, from his love to her. he could not be less interested than herself.

### Verse 23

[¶15] Until thou have weaned him - On the nature of this weaning, and the time in which it was usually done, the reader will be pleased to refer to the note on [Gen 21:8].

[¶16] The Lord establish his word - Or, may the Lord establish his word - preserve the child, cause him to grow up, and make him a blessing to Israel.

### Verse 24

[¶18] With three bullocks - The Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, read, a bullock of three years old; and this is probably correct, because we read, [1Sam 1:25], that they slew את הפר eth happar, The bullock. We hear of no more, and we know that a bullock or heifer of three years old was ordinarily used, see [Gen 15:9].

[¶19] One ephah of flour - Seven gallons and a half.

[¶20] A bottle of wine - נבל יין nebel yayin, a skin full of wine. Their bottles for wine and fluids in general were made out of skins of goats, stripped off without being cut up; the places whence the legs were extracted sewed up, as also the lower part; and the top tied. She the notes on [Gen 21:14], and [Mat 9:17]. These three things, the ox, the flour, and the wine, probably constituted the consecration-offering.

### Verse 26

[¶22] As thy soul liveth - As sure as thou art a living soul, so surely am I the person who stood by thee here praying.

### Verse 28

[¶24] Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord - There is here a continual reference to her vow, and to the words which she used in making that vow.

[¶25] The word Samuel, as we have already seen, is a contraction of the words שאול מאל Shaul meEl, that is, asked or lent of God; for his mother said, [1Sam 1:27], The Lord hath given me my petition, which שאלתי Shaalti, I Asked of him. In [1Sam 1:28] she says: הוא ששול ליהוה hu Shaul layhouah, he shall be Lent unto the Lord: here we find the verb is the same; and it is remarked by grammarians that שאל shaal, he asked, making in the participle pahul שאול shaul, Asked, in the conjugation hiphil signifies to lend; therefore, says his mother, [1Sam 1:28], השאלתיהו ליהוה Hishiltihu layhovah, I have Lent him to the Lord. This twofold meaning of the Hebrew root is not only followed by our translators, but also by the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Syriac.

[¶26] And he worshipped the Lord there - Instead of וישתחו vaiyishtachu, He worshipped, וישתחוו vaiyishtachavu, and They worshipped, is the reading of six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., of some copies of the Septuagint, and of the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic.

[¶27] This and the following chapter are connected in most copies of the Septuagint and Vulgate thus: And Anna worshipped, and said, My soul is strengthened in the Lord, etc. It is very likely that the whole passage, from the beginning of [1Sam 1:26] to the end of [1Sam 2:10] of the ensuing chapter, contains the words of Hannah alone; and that even the clause, He worshipped the Lord there, should be, And she worshipped the Lord there, and prayed, and said, etc. Indeed this latter clause is wanting in the Polyglot Septuagint, as I have stated above.

### Introduction

[¶29] Hannah's prophetic hymn, [1Sam 2:1-10]. Samuel ministers to the Lord, [1Sam 2:11]. The abominable conduct of Eli's sons, [1Sam 2:12-17]. Farther account of Samuel, and of the Divine blessing on Elkanah and Hannah, [1Sam 2:18-21]. Eli's reprehensible remissness towards his sons in not restraining them in their great profligacy, [1Sam 2:22-26]. The message of God to Eli, and the prophecy of the downfall of his family, and slaughter of his wicked sons Hophni and Phinehas, [1Sam 2:27-36].

### Verse 1

[¶31] And Hannah prayed, and said - The Chaldee very properly says, And Hannah prayed in the spirit of prophecy; for indeed the whole of this prayer, or as it may be properly called oracular declaration, is a piece of regular prophecy, every part of it having respect to the future, and perhaps not a little - of it declaratory oil the Messiah's kingdom.

[¶32] Dr. Hales has some very good observations on this prophetic song. "This admirable hymn excels in simplicity of composition, closeness of connection, and uniformity of sentiment; breathing the pious effusions of a devout mind, deeply impressed with a conviction of God's mercies to herself in particular, and of his providential government of the world in general; exalting the poor in spirit or the humble-minded, and abasing the rich and the arrogant; rewarding the righteous, and punishing the wicked. Hannah was also a prophetess of the first class, besides predicting her own fruitfulness, [1Sam 2:5], (for she bore six children in all, [1Sam 2:21]), she foretold not only the more immediate judgments of God upon the Philistines during her son's administration, [1Sam 2:10], but his remoter judgments 'upon the ends of the earth,' [1Sam 2:10], in the true spirit of the prophecies of Jacob, Balaam, and Moses. Like them, she describes the promised Savior of the world as a King, before there was any king in Israel; and she first applied to him the remarkable epithet Messiah in Hebrew, Christ in Greek, and Anointed in English, which was adopted by David, Nathan, Ethan, Isaiah, Daniel, and the succeeding prophets of the Old Testament; and by the apostles and inspired writers of the New. And the allusion thereto by Zacharias, the father of the Baptist, in his hymn, [Luk 1:69], where he calls Christ a 'horn of salvation,' and the beautiful imitation of it by the blessed Virgin throughout in her hymn, [Luk 1:46-55], furnishing the finest commentary thereon, clearly prove that Hannah in her rejoicing had respect to something higher than Peninnah her rival, or to the triumphs of Samuel, or even of David himself; the expressions are too magnificent and sublime to be confined to such objects. Indeed the learned rabbi, David Kimchi, was so struck with them that he ingenuously confessed that 'the King of whom Hannah speaks is the Messiah,' of whom she spake either by prophecy or tradition; for, continues he, 'there was a tradition among the Israelites, that a great zing should arise in Israel; and she seals up her song with celebrating this King who was to deliver them from all their enemies.' The tradition, as we have seen, was founded principally on Balaam's second and third prophecies, [Num 24:7-17]; and we cannot but admire that gracious dispensation of spiritual gifts to Hannah (whose name signifies grace) in ranking her among the prophets who should first unfold a leading title of the blessed Seed of the woman."

[¶33] In the best MSS. the whole of this hymn is written in hemistich or poetic lines. I shall here produce it in this order, following the plan as exhibited in Kennicott's Bible, with some trifling alterations of our present version: - [1Sam 2:1]. My heart exulteth in Jehovah; My horn is exalted in Jehovah. My mouth is incited over mine enemies, For I have rejoiced in thy salvation. [1Sam 2:2]. There is none holy like Jehovah, For there is none besides thee; There is no rock like our God. [1Sam 2:3]. Do not magnify yourselves, speak not proudly, proudly. Let not prevarication come out of your mouth; For the God of knowledge is Jehovah, And by him actions are directed. [1Sam 2:4]. The bows of the heroes are broken, And the tottering are girded with strength. [1Sam 2:5]. The full have hired out themselves for bread, And the famished cease for ever. The barren hath borne seven, And she who had many children is greatly enfeebled. [1Sam 2:6]. Jehovah killeth, and maketh alive; He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. [1Sam 2:7]. Jehovah maketh poor, and maketh rich; He bringeth down, and he even exalteth. [1Sam 2:8]. He lifteth up the poor from the dust; From the dunghill he exalteth the beggar, To make him sit with the nobles, And inherit the throne of glory. For to Jehovah belong the pillars of the earth, And upon them he hath placed the globe. [1Sam 2:9]. The foot of his saints he shall keep, And the wicked shall be silent in darkness; For by strength shall no man prevail. [1Sam 2:10]. Jehovah shall bruise them who contend with him; Upon them shall be thunder in the heavens. Jehovah shall judge the ends of the earth; And he shall give strength to his King. And shall exalt the horn of his Messiah.

[¶34] It is not particularly stated here when Hannah composed or delivered this hymn; it appears from the connection to have been at the very time in which she dedicated her son to God at the tabernacle, though some think that she composed it immediately on the birth of Samuel. The former sentiment is probably the most correct.

[¶35] Mine horn is exalted in the Lord - We have often seen that horn signifies power, might, and dominion. It is thus constantly used in the Bible, and was so used among the heathens. The following words of Horace to his jar are well known, and speak a sentiment very similar to that above: -

[¶36] Tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis,

[¶37] Viresque et addis Cornua pauperi.

[¶38] Hor. Odar. lib. iii., Od. 21, v. 18.

[¶39] Thou bringest back hope to desponding minds; And thou addest strength and horns to the poor man.

[¶40] Paraphrastically expressed by Mr. Francis: - "Hope, by thee, fair fugitive,

[¶41] Bids the wretched strive to live.

[¶42] To the beggar you dispense

[¶43] Heart and brow of confidence."

[¶44] In which scarcely any thing of the meaning is preserved.

[¶45] My mouth is enlarged - My faculty of speech is incited, stirred up, to express God's disapprobation against my adversaries.

## 281. 1 Samuel · 3 of 37

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### Verse 2

[¶1] None holy - Holiness is peculiar to the God of Israel; no false god ever pretended to holiness; it was no attribute of heathenism, nor of any religion ever professed in the world before or since the true revelation of the true God.

[¶2] There is none beside thee - There can be but one unoriginated, infinite, and eternal Being; that Being is Jehovah.

[¶3] Any rock like our God - Rabbi Maimon has observed that the word צור tsur, which we translate rock, signifies, when applied to Jehovah, fountain, source, spring. There is no source whence continual help and salvation can arise but our God.

### Verse 3

[¶5] A God of knowledge - He is the most wise, teaching all good, and knowing all things.

[¶6] Actions are weighed - נתכנו nithkenu, they are directed; it is by his counsel alone that we can successfully begin, continue, or end, any work.

### Verse 4

[¶8] The bows of the mighty - The Targum considers the first verse as including a prophecy against the Philistines; the second verse, against Sennacherib and his army; the third, against Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans; the fourth, against the Greeks; the fifth, against Haman and his posterity; and the tenth, against Magog, and the enemies of the Messiah.

### Verse 5

[¶10] They that were full - All the things mentioned in these verses frequently happen in the course of the Divine providence; and indeed it is the particular providence of God that Hannah seems more especially to celebrate through the whole of this simple yet sublime ode.

### Verse 6

[¶12] The Lord killeth - God is the arbiter of life and death; he only can give life, and he only has a right to take it away.

[¶13] He bringeth down to the grave - The Hebrew word שאול sheol, which we translate grave, seems to have the same meaning in the Old Testament with ἁδης, hades in the New, which is the word generally used by the Septuagint for the other. It means the grave, the state of the dead, and the invisible place, or place of separate spirits. Sometimes we translate it hell, which now means the state of perdition, or place of eternal torments; but as this comes from the Saxon, to cover or conceal, it means only the covered place. In some parts of England the word helling is used for the covers of a book, the slating of a house, etc. The Targum seems to understand it of death and the resurrection. "He kills and commands to give life; he causes to descend into Sheol, that in the time to come he may bring them into the lives of eternity," i.e., the life of shame and everlasting contempt, and the life of glory.

### Verse 7

[¶15] The Lord maketh poor - For many cannot bear affluence, and if God should continue to trust them with riches, they would be their ruin.

[¶16] Maketh rich - Some he can trust, and therefore makes them stewards of his secular bounty.

### Verse 8

[¶18] To set them among princes - There have been many cases where, in the course of God's providence, a person has been raised from the lowest and most abject estate to the highest; from the plough to the imperial dignity: from the dungeon to the throne; from the dunghill to nobility. The story of Cincinnatus is well known; so is that of the patriarch Joseph; but there is one not less in point, that of Roushen Akhter, who was brought out of a dungeon, and exalted to the throne of Hindustan. On this circumstance the following elegant couplet was made: - "He was a bright star, but now is become a moon,

[¶19] Joseph is taken from prison, and is become a king."

[¶20] There is a play here on Roushen Akhter, which signifies a bright star; and there is an allusion to the history of the patriarch Joseph, because of the similarity of fortune between him and the Mohammedan prince.

[¶21] For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's - He is almighty, and upholds all things by the word of his power.

### Verse 9

[¶23] He will keep the feet of his saints - He will order and direct all their goings, and keep them from every evil way.

[¶24] The wicked shall be silent in darkness - The Targum understands this of their being sent to the darkness of hell; they shall be slain.

[¶25] By strength shall no man prevail - Because God is omnipotent, and no power can be successfully exerted against him.

### Verse 10

[¶27] The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken - Those who contend with him, מריביו meribaiu, by sinning against his laws, opposing the progress of his word, or persecuting his people.

[¶28] Shall judge the ends on the earth - His empire shall be extended over all mankind by the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, for to this the afterpart of the verse seems to apply: He shall give strength unto his king, and shall exalt the horn of his Christ, or, as the Targum says, וירבי מלכות משיחיה viribbey malcuth Meshicheyh, "he shall multiply the kingdom of the Messiah." Here the horn means spiritual as well as secular dominion.

[¶29] After the clause, The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, the Septuagint add the following words: Μη καυχασθω ὁ φρονιμος εν τῃ φρονησει αυτου, κ. τ. λ. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom and let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glorieth rather glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth the Lord; and that he executeth judgment and righteousness in the midst of the earth. This is a very long addition, and appears to be taken from [Jer 9:23], but on collating the two places the reader will find the words to be materially different. This clause is wanting in the Complutensian Polyglot, but it is in the edition of Aldus, in that of Cardinal Caroffa, and in the Codex Alexandrinus.

### Verse 11

[¶31] And Elkanah went to Ramah - Immediately after the 10th verse, the Septuagint add, Και κατελιπεν αυτον εκει ενωπιον Κυριου· και απηλθεν εις Αραματαια, And she left him there before the Lord, and went unto Arimathea. Thus the Septuagint suppose that the song of Hannah was composed when she brought Samuel to present him to the Lord; and as soon as she had completed this fine ode, she delivered him into the hands of Eli the high priest, and the child entered immediately on his ministration, under the direction and instructions of Eli.

### Verse 12

[¶33] The sons of Eli were sons of Belial - They were perverse, wicked, profligate men; devil's children. They knew not the Lord. "They know! nor would an angel show Him; They would not know, nor choose to know Him."

[¶34] These men were the principal cause of all the ungodliness of Israel. Their most execrable conduct, described [1Sam 2:13-17], caused the people to abhor the Lord's offering. An impious priesthood is the grand cause of the transgressions and ruin of any nation; witness France, Germany, Spain, Ac., from 1792 to 1814.

### Verse 13

[¶36] When any man offered sacrifice - That is, when a peace-offering was brought, the right shoulder and the breast belonged to the priest, the fat was burnt upon the altar, and the blood was poured at the bottom of the altar; the rest of the flesh belonged to the offerer. Under pretense of taking only their own part, they took the best of all they chose, and as much as they chose.

### Verse 14

[¶38] Kettle - caldron, or pot - We know not what these were, nor of what capacity; nor is it of any consequence.

### Verse 15

[¶40] Before they burnt the fat - They would serve themselves before God was served! This was iniquity and arrogance of the first magnitude.

[¶41] He will not have sodden flesh - He chooses roast meat, not boiled; and if they had it in the pot before the servant came, he took it out that it might be roasted.

### Verse 17

[¶43] Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great - That is, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli.

[¶44] Men abhorred the offering - As the people saw that the priests had no piety, and that they acted as if there was no God; they despised God's service, and became infidels.

## 282. 1 Samuel · 4 of 37

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[¶0] A national priesthood, when the foundation is right, may be a great blessing; but if the priesthood becomes corrupt, though the foundation itself stand sure, the corruption of the national manners will be the unavoidable consequence.

### Verse 18

[¶2] Girded with a linen ephod - This the Targum translates אסיר כרדוט דבוץ asir cardut debuts, "Girded with a cardit of byssus, or fine linen." The word cardut they seem to have borrowed from the Greek χειριδωτος, a tunic, having χειριδας, i.e., sleeves that came down to, or covered, the hands. This was esteemed an effeminate garment among the Romans. See Buxtorf's Talmudic Lexicon.

### Verse 19

[¶4] Made him a little coat - מעיל קטן meil katon, a little cloak, or surtout, an upper garment: probably intended to keep him from the cold, and to save his other clothes from being abused in his meaner services. It is probable that she furnished him with a new one each year, when she came up to one of the annual sacrifices.

### Verse 20

[¶6] Eli blessed Elkanah - The natural place of this verse seems to be before the 11th; after which the 21st should come in; after the 21st, perhaps the 26th should come in. The subjects in this chapter seem very much entangled and confused by the wrong position of the verses.

### Verse 22

[¶8] They lay with the women that assembled - It is probable that these were persons who had some employment about the tabernacle. See the note on [Exo 38:8], where the Hebrew text is similar to that in this place.

### Verse 23

[¶10] Why do ye such things! - Eli appears to have been a fondly affectionate, easy father, who wished his sons to do well, but did not bring them under proper discipline, and did not use his authority to restrain them. As judge, he had power to cast them immediately out of the vineyard, as wicked and unprofitable servants; this he did not, and his and their ruin was the consequence.

### Verse 25

[¶12] If one man sin against another - All differences between man and man may be settled by the proper judge; but if a man sin against the Supreme Judge, God himself, who shall reconcile him to his Maker? Your sin is immediately against God himself, and is the highest insult that can be offered, because it is in the matter of his own worship, therefore ye may expect his heaviest judgments.

[¶13] But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? - This was a question of the most solemn importance under the old covenant, especially after the death of Moses, the mediator. The law had determined what sins should be punished with death; and it was supposed that there was not any appeal from the decision there pronounced. [1Jn 2:1] is an answer to this question; but it is an answer which the Gospel alone can give: My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not; but if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

[¶14] Because the Lord would slay them - The particle כי ki, which we translate because, and thus make their continuance in sin the effect of God's determination to destroy them, should be translated therefore, as it means in many parts of the sacred writings. See Noldius's Particles, where the very text in question is introduced: Sed non auscultarunt, etc., Ideo voluit Jehova eos interficere; "But they would not hearken, etc.; Therefore God purposed to destroy them." It was their not hearkening that induced the Lord to will their destruction.

### Verse 27

[¶16] There came a man of God - Who this was we know not, but the Chaldee terms him נביא דיי nebiya daya, a prophet of Jehovah.

[¶17] Unto the house of thy father - That is, to Aaron; he was the first high priest; the priesthood descended from him to his eldest son Eleazar, then to Phinehas. It became afterwards established in the younger branch of the family of Aaron; for Eli was a descendant of Ithamar, Aaron's youngest son. From Eli it was transferred back again to the family of Eleazar, because of the profligacy of Eli's sons.

### Verse 28

[¶19] And did I choose him - The high priesthood was a place of the greatest honor that could be conferred on man, and a place of considerable emolument; for from their part of the sacrifices they derived a most comfortable livelihood.

### Verse 29

[¶21] Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice - They disdained to take the part allowed by law; and would take for themselves what part they pleased, and as much as they pleased, [1Sam 2:13-16] : thus they kicked at the sacrifices.

[¶22] Honourest thy sons above me - Permitting them to deal, as above, with the offerings and sacrifices, and take their part before the fat, etc., was burnt unto the Lord: thus they were first served. At this Eli connived, and thus honored his sons above God.

### Verse 30

[¶24] Should walk before me for ever - See [Exo 29:9]; [Exo 40:15]; [Num 25:10-13], where it is positively promised that the priesthood should be continued in the family of Aaron For Ever. But although this promise appears to be absolute, yet we plainly see that, like all other apparently absolute promises of God, it is conditional, i.e., a condition is implied though not expressed.

[¶25] But now - be it far from me - You have walked unworthily; I shall annul my promise, and reverse my ordinance. See [Jer 18:9], [Jer 18:10].

[¶26] For them that honor me - This is a plan from which God will never depart; this can have no alteration; every promise is made in reference to it; "they who honor God shall be honored; they who despise him shall be lightly esteemed."

### Verse 31

[¶28] I will cut off thine arm - I will destroy the strength, power, and influence of thy family.

### Verse 32

[¶30] Thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation - Every version and almost every commentator understands this clause differently. The word צר tsar, which we translate an enemy, and the Vulgate aemulum, a rival, signifies calamity; and this is the best sense to understand it in here. The calamity which he saw was the defeat of the Israelites, the capture of the ark, the death of his wicked sons, and the triumph of the Philistines. All this he saw, that is, knew to have taken place, before he met with his own tragical death.

[¶31] In all the wealth which God shall give Israel - This also is dark. The meaning may be this: God has spoken good concerning Israel; he will, in the end, make the triumph of the Philistines their own confusion; and the capture of the ark shall be the desolation of their gods; but the Israelites shall first be sorely pressed with calamity. Or, the affliction of the tabernacle, for all the wealth which God would have given Israel.

[¶32] There shall not be an old man - This is repeated from the preceding verse, all the family shall die in the flower of their years, as is said in the following verse.

### Verse 33

[¶34] And the man of thine - Of this passage Calmet observes: "The posterity of Eli possessed the high priesthood to the time of Solomon; and even when that dynasty was transferred to another family, God preserved that of Eli, not to render it more happy, but to punish it by seeing the prosperity of its enemies, to the end that it might see itself destitute and despised. This shows the depth of the judgments of God and the grandeur of his justice, which extends even to distant generations, and manifests itself to sinners both in life and death; both in their own disgrace, and in the prosperity of their enemies."

### Verse 34

[¶36] They shall die both of them - Hophni and Phinehas were both killed very shortly after in the great battle with the Philistines in which the Israelites were completely routed, and the ark taken. See [1Sam 4:1-11].

### Verse 35

[¶38] A faithful priest - This seems to have been spoken of Zadok, who was anointed high priest in the room of Abiathar, the last descendant of the house of Eli; see [1Kgs 2:26], [1Kgs 2:27]. Abiathar was removed because he had joined with Adonijah, who had got himself proclaimed king; see [1Kgs 1:7].

[¶39] I will build him a sure house - I will continue the priesthood in his family.

[¶40] He shall walk before mine Anointed - He shall minister before Solomon, and the kings which shall reign in the land. The Targum says, "He shall walk קדם משיחי kodam Meshichi, before my Messiah," and the Septuagint expresses it, ενωπιον Χριστου μον, "before my Christ;" for, in their proper and more extended sense, these things are supposed to belong to our great High Priest and the Christian system: but the word may refer to the Israelitish people. See the note on [Heb 9:26].

### Verse 36

[¶42] Shall come and crouch to him - Shall prostrate himself before him in the most abject manner, begging to be employed even in the meanest offices about the tabernacle, in order to get even the most scanty means of support.

[¶43] A piece of silver - אגורת כסף agorath keseph, translated by the Septuagint, οβολου αργυριου, an obolus of silver. The Targum translates it מעא mea, which is the same as the Hebrew gerah, and weighed about sixteen grains of barley.

[¶44] A morsel of bread - A mouthful; what might be sufficient to keep body and soul together. See the sin and its punishment. They formerly pampered themselves, and fed to the full on the Lord's sacrifices; and now they are reduced to a morsel of bread. They fed themselves without fear; and now they have cleanness of teeth in all their dwellings. They wasted the Lord's heritage, and now they beg their bread!

## 283. 1 Samuel · 5 of 37

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[¶0] In religious establishments, vile persons, who have no higher motive, may and do get into the priest's office, that they may clothe themselves with the wool, and feed themselves with the fat, while they starve the flock. But where there is no law to back the claims of the worthless and the wicked, men of piety and solid merit only can find support; for they must live on the free-will offerings of the people. Where religion is established by law, the strictest ecclesiastical discipline should be kept up, and all hireling priests and ecclesiastical drones should be expelled from the Lord's vineyard. An established religion, where the foundation is good, as is ours, I consider a great blessing; but it is liable to this continual abuse, which nothing but careful and rigid ecclesiastical discipline can either cure or prevent. If our high priests, our archbishops and bishops, do not their duty, the whole body of the clergy may become corrupt or inefficient. If they be faithful, the establishment will be an honor to the kingdom, and a praise in the earth.

[¶1] The words pillars of the earth, מצקי ארץ metsukey erets, Mr. Parkhurst translates and defends thus: "The compressors of the earth; i.e., the columns of the celestial fluid which compress or keep its parts together." This is all imaginary; we do not know this compressing celestial fluid; but there is one that answers the same end, which we do know, i.e., the Air, the columns of which press upon the earth in all directions; above, below, around, with a weight of fifteen pounds to every square inch; so that a column of air of the height of the atmosphere, which on the surface of the globe measures one square inch, is known by the most accurate and indubitable experiments to weigh fifteen pounds. Now as a square foot contains one hundred and forty-four square inches, each foot must be compressed with a weight of incumbent atmospheric air equal to two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds. And as the earth is known to contain a surface of five thousand five hundred and seventy-five billions of square feet; hence, allowing two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds to each square foot, the whole surface of the globe must sustain a pressure of atmospheric air equal to twelve trillions and forty-one thousand billions of pounds; or six thousand and twenty-one billions of tons. This pressure, independently of what is called gravity, is sufficient to keep all the parts of the earth together, and perhaps to counteract all the influence of centrifugal force. But adding to this all the influence of gravity or attraction, by which every particle of matter tends to the center, these compressors of the earth are sufficient to poise, balance, and preserve the whole terraqueous globe. These pillars or compressors are an astonishing provision made by the wisdom of God for the necessities of the globe. Without this, water could not rise in fountains, nor the sap in vegetables. Without this, there could be no respiration for man or beast, and no circulation of the blood in any animal. In short, both vegetable and animal life depend, under God, on these pillars or compressors of the earth; and were it not for this compressing power, the air contained in the vessels of all plants and animals would by its elasticity expand and instantly rupture all those vessels, and cause the destruction of all animal and vegetable life: but God in his wisdom has so balanced these two forces, that, while they appear to counteract and balance each other, they serve, by mutual dilations and compressions, to promote the circulation of the sap in vegetables, and the blood in animals.

### Introduction

[¶3] Samuel ministers to the Lord before Eli, [1Sam 3:1]. He is thrice called by the Lord; who informs him of the evils which shall be brought on the house of Eli, [1Sam 3:2-15]. Eli inquires of Samuel what the Lord had said, [1Sam 3:16], [1Sam 3:17]. He gives a faithful reunion of the whole, which Eli receives with great submission, [1Sam 3:18]. Samuel prospers; is established as a prophet in Israel; and the Lord reveals himself to him to Shiloh, [1Sam 3:19-21].

### Verse 1

[¶5] Samuel ministered unto the Lord - He performed minor services in the tabernacle, under the direction of Eli, such as opening the doors, etc. See [1Sam 3:15].

[¶6] The word of the Lord was precious - There were but few revelations from God; and because the word was scarce, therefore it was valuable. The author of this book probably lived at a time when prophecy was frequent, See the preface.

[¶7] There was no open vision - There was no public accredited prophet; one with whom the secret of the Lord was known to dwell, and to whom all might have recourse in cases of doubt or public emergency.

### Verse 2

[¶9] Eli was laid down in his place - It is very likely that as the ark was a long time at Shiloh, they had built near to it certain apartments for the high priest and others more immediately employed about the tabernacle. In one of these, near to that of Eli, perhaps under the same roof, Samuel lay when he was called by the Lord.

### Verse 3

[¶11] Ere the lamp of God went out - Before sunrise; for it is likely that the lamps were extinguished before the rising of the sun. See [Exo 27:21]; [Lev 24:3].

### Verse 4

[¶13] The Lord called Samuel - The voice probably came from the holy place, near to which Eli and Samuel were both lying.

### Verse 7

[¶15] Samuel did not yet know the Lord - He had not been accustomed to receive any revelation from him. He knew and worshipped the God of Israel; but he did not know him as communicating especial revelation of His will.

### Verse 9

[¶17] Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth - This was the usual way in which the prophets spoke, when they had intimations that the Lord was about to make some especial revelation.

### Verse 10

[¶19] The Lord came, and stood - He heard the voice as if it was approaching nearer and nearer; till at last, from the sameness of the tone, he could imagine that it ceased to approach: and this is what appears to be represented under the notion of God standing and calling.

### Verse 11

[¶21] The Lord said to Samuel - He probably saw nothing, and only heard the voice; for it was not likely that any extraordinary representation could have been made to the eyes of a person so young. He heard a voice, but saw no similitude.

[¶22] The ears - shall tingle - It shall be a piercing word to all Israel; it shall astound them all; and, after having heard it, it will still continue to resound in their ears.

### Verse 12

[¶24] I will perform - all things which I have spoken - That is, what He had declared by the prophet, whose message is related [1Sam 2:27], etc.

[¶25] When I begin, I will also make an end - I will not delay the execution of my purpose: when I begin, nothing shall deter me from bringing all my judgments to a conclusion.

### Verse 13

[¶27] I will judge his house for ever - I will continue to execute judgments upon it till it is destroyed.

[¶28] His sons made themselves vile - See [1Sam 2:12-17], [1Sam 2:22-25].

[¶29] He restrained them not - He did not use his parental and juridical authority to curb them, and prevent the disorders which they committed. See at the conclusion of the chapter, [1Sam 3:21] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶31] Shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering - That is, God was determined that they should be removed by a violent death. They had committed the sin unto death; and no offering or sacrifice could prevent this. What is spoken here relates to their temporal death only.

### Verse 15

[¶33] Samuel feared to show Eli - He reverenced him as a father, and he feared to distress him by showing what the Lord had purposed to do. It does not appear that God had commanded Samuel to deliver this message: he, therefore, did not attempt it till adjured by Eli, [1Sam 3:17].

### Verse 17

[¶35] God do so to thee, and more also - This was a very solemn adjuration: he suspected that God had threatened severe judgments, for he knew that his house was very criminal; and he wished to know what God had spoken. The words imply thus much: If thou do not tell me fully what God has threatened, may the same and greater curses fall on thyself.

### Verse 18

[¶37] Samuel told him every whit - Our word whit, or wid, comes from the Anglo-Saxon, which signifies person, thing, etc.; every whit is every thing. The Hebrew את כל הדברים et col haddebarim, "all these words."

[¶38] It is the Lord - He is Sovereign, and will do what he pleases; he is righteous, and will do nothing but what is just.

[¶39] Let him do what seemeth him good - There is much of a godly submission, as well as a deep sense of his own unworthiness, found in these words. He also had sinned, so as to be punished with temporal death; but surely there is no evidence that the displeasure of the Lord against him was extended to a future state.

### Verse 19

[¶41] Samuel grew - Increased to manhood.

[¶42] The Lord was with him - Teaching him, and filling him with grace and holiness.

[¶43] None of his words fall - Whatever prediction he uttered, God fulfilled it; and his counsels were received as coming from the Lord.

## 284. 1 Samuel · 6 of 37

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### Verse 20

[¶1] All Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba - Through the whole extent of Palestine; Dan being at the northern, Beer-sheba at the southern extremity.

[¶2] Was established to be a prophet - The word נאמן neeman, which we translate established, signifies faithful: The faithful Samuel was a prophet of the Lord.

### Verse 21

[¶4] The Lord appeared again - וישף יהוה להראה vaiyoseph Yehovah leheraoh, "And Jehovah added to appear;" that is, he continued to reveal himself to Samuel at Shiloh.

[¶5] By the word of the Lord - By the spirit and word of prophecy.

[¶6] In this chapter we read again of the fearful consequences of a neglected religious education. Eli's sons were wicked: their father knew the Lord; but he neither taught his children, nor restrained them by his parental authority. I have already had occasion to remark, that were a proper line of conduct pursued in the education of children, how few profligate sons and daughters, and how few broken-hearted parents should we find! The neglect of early religious education, connected with a wholesome and affectionate restraint, is the ruin of millions. Many parents, to excuse their indolence and most criminal neglect, say, "We cannot give our children grace." What do they mean by this? That God, not themselves, is the author of the irregularities and viciousness of their children. They may shudder at this imputation: but when they reflect that they have not given them right precepts, have not brought them under firm and affectionate restraint; have not showed them, by their own spirit, temper, and conduct, how they should be regulated in theirs; when either the worship of God has not been established in their houses, or they have permitted their children, on the most trifling pretenses, to absent themselves from it; when all these things are considered, they will find that, speaking after the manner of men, it would have been a very extraordinary miracle indeed if the children had been found preferring a path in which they did not see their parents conscientiously tread. Let those parents who continue to excuse themselves by saying, "We cannot give grace to our children," lay their hand on their conscience, and say whether they ever knew an instance where God withheld his grace, while they were, in humble subserviency to him, performing their duty. The real state of the case is this: parents cannot do God's work, and God will not do theirs; but if they use the means, and train up the child in the way he should go, God will not withhold his blessing.

[¶7] It is not parental fondness, nor parental authority, taken separately, that can produce this beneficial effect. A father may be as fond of his offspring as Eli, and his children be sons of Belial; he may be as authoritative as the grand Turk, and his children despise and plot rebellion against him. But let parental authority be tempered with fatherly affection; and let the rein of discipline be steadily held by this powerful but affectionate hand; and there shall the pleasure of God prosper; there will he give his blessing, even life for evermore. Many fine families have been spoiled, and many ruined, by the separate exercise of these two principles. Parental affection, when alone, infallibly degenerates into foolish fondness; and parental authority frequently degenerates into brutal tyranny when standing by itself. The first sort of parents will be loved without being respected; the second sort will be dreaded, without either respect or esteem. In the first case obedience is not exacted, and is therefore felt to be unnecessary, as offenses of great magnitude pass without punishment or reprehension: in the second case, rigid exaction renders obedience almost impossible; and the smallest delinquency is often punished with the extreme of torture, which, hardening the mind, renders duty a matter of perfect indifference.

[¶8] Parents, lay these things to heart: remember Eli and his sons; remember the dismal end of both! Teach your children to fear God, use wholesome discipline, be determined, begin in time, mingle severity and mercy together in all your conduct, and earnestly pray to God to second your godly discipline with the power and grace of his Spirit.

[¶9] Education is generally defined that series of means by which the human understanding is gradually enlightened, and the dispositions of the heart are corrected, formed, and brought forth, between early infancy and the period when a young person is considered as qualified to take a part in active life. Whole nations have been corrupted, enfeebled, and destroyed, through the want of proper education: through this multitudes of families have degenerated; and a countless number of individuals have come to an untimely end. Parents who neglect this, neglect the present and eternal interests of their offspring.

### Introduction

[¶11] A battle between Israel and the Philistines, in which the former are defeated, with the loss of four thousand men, [1Sam 4:1], [1Sam 4:2]. They resolve to give the Philistines battle once more, and bring the ark of the Lord, with Hophni and Phinehas the priests, into the camp, [1Sam 4:3], [1Sam 4:4]. They do so, and become vainly confident, [1Sam 4:5]. At this the Philistines are dismayed, [1Sam 4:6-9]. The battle commences; the Israelites are again defeated, with the loss of thirty thousand men; Hophni and Phinehas are among the slain; and the ark of the Lord is taken, [1Sam 4:10], [1Sam 4:11]. A Benjamite runs with the news to Eli; who, hearing of the capture of the ark, falls from his seat, and breaks his neck, [1Sam 4:12-18]. The wife of Phinehas, hearing of the death of her husband, and father-in-law, and of the capture of the ark, is taken in untimely travail, beings forth a son, calls him I-chabod, and expires, [1Sam 4:19-22].

### Verse 1

[¶13] The word of Samuel came to all Israel - This clause certainly belongs to the preceding chapter, and is so placed by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.

[¶14] Pitched beside Eben-ezer - This name was not given to this place till more than twenty years after this battle, see [1Sam 7:12]; for the monument called האבן העזר haeben haezer, the "Stone of Help," was erected by Samuel in the place which was afterwards from this circumstance, called Eben-ezer, when the Lord had given the Israelites a signal victory over the Philistines. It was situated in the tribe of Judah, between Mizpeh and Shen, and not far from the Aphek here mentioned. This is another proof that this book was compiled after the times and transactions which it records, and probably from memoranda which had been made by a contemporary writer.

### Verse 2

[¶16] Put themselves in array - There is no doubt that both the Philistines and Israelites had what might be called the art of war, according to which they marshalled their troops in the field, constructed their camps, and conducted their retreats, sieges, etc.; but we know not the principles on which they acted.

[¶17] They slew of the army in the field about four thousand men - This must have been a severe conflict, as four thousand were left dead on the field of battle. The contest also must have lasted some considerable time, as these were all slain hand to hand; swords and spears being in all probability the only weapons then used.

### Verse 3

[¶19] Let us fetch the ark - They vainly supposed that the ark could save them, when the God of it had departed from them because of their wickedness. They knew that in former times their fathers had been beaten by their enemies, when they took not the ark with them to battle; as in the case of their wars with the Canaanites, [Num 14:44], [Num 14:45]; and that they had conquered when they took this with them, as in the case of the destruction of Jericho, [Jos 6:4]. From the latter clause they took confidence; but the cause of their miscarriage in the former they laid not to heart. It was customary with all the nations of the earth to take their gods and sacred ensigns with them to war. The Persians, Indians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Philistines, etc., did so. Consecrated crosses, blessing and hallowing of colors and standards, are the modern remains of those ancient superstitions.

### Verse 4

[¶21] The Lord of hosts - See on [1Sam 1:3] (note).

[¶22] Dwelleth between the cherubims - Of what shape the cherubim were, we know not; but there was one of these representative figures placed at each end of the ark of the covenant; and between them, on the lid or cover of that ark, which was called the propitiatory or mercy-seat, the shechinah, or symbol of the Divine presence, was said to dwell. They thought, therefore, if they had the ark, they must necessarily have the presence and influence of Jehovah.

### Verse 5

[¶24] All Israel shouted - Had they humbled themselves, and prayed devoutly and fervently for success, they would have been heard and saved. Their shouting proved both their vanity and irreligion.

### Verse 7

[¶26] God is come into the camp - They took for granted, as did the Israelites, that his presence was inseparable from his ark or shrine.

### Verse 8

[¶28] These mighty Gods - מיד האלהים האדרים miyad haelohim haaddirim, from the hand of these illustrious Gods. Probably this should be translated in the singular, and not in the plural: Who shall deliver us from the hand of this illustrious God?

### Verse 9

[¶30] Be strong, etc. - This was the address to the whole army, and very forcible it was. "If ye do not fight, and acquit yourselves like men, ye will be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you; and you may expect that they will avenge themselves of you for all the cruelty you have exercised towards them."

### Verse 11

[¶32] Hophni and Phinehas were slain - They probably attempted to defend the ark, and lost their lives in the attempt.

### Verse 12

[¶34] Came to Shiloh the same day - The field of battle could not have been at any great distance, for this young man reached Shiloh the same evening after the defeat.

[¶35] With his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head - These were signs of sorrow and distress among all nations. The clothes rent, signified the rending, dividing, and scattering, of the people; the earth, or ashes on the head, signified their humiliation: "We are brought down to the dust of the earth; we are near to our graves." When the Trojan fleet was burnt, Aeneas is represented as tearing his robe from his shoulder, and invoking the aid of his gods: -

[¶36] Tum pius Aeneas humeris abscindere vestem,

[¶37] Auxilioque vocare Deos, et tendere palmas.

[¶38] Virg. Aen. lib. v., ver. 685. "The prince then tore his robes in deep despair,

[¶39] Raised high his hands, and thus address'd his prayer."

[¶40] Pitt.

[¶41] We have a remarkable example in the same poet, where he represents the queen of King Latinus resolving on her own death, when she found that the Trojans had taken the city by storm: -

[¶42] Purpueros moritura manu discindit amictus.

[¶43] Aen. lib. xii., ver. 603.

[¶44] She tears with both her hands her purple vest.

[¶45] But the image is complete in King Latinus himself, when he heard of the death of his queen, and saw his city in flames: - - It scissa veste Latinus, Conjugis attonitus fatis, urbisque ruina,

## 285. 1 Samuel · 7 of 37

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[¶0] Canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpans.

[¶1] Ib., ver. 609.

[¶2] Latinus tears his garments as he goes.

[¶3] Both for his public and his private woes:

[¶4] With filth his venerable beard besmears,

[¶5] And sordid dust deforms his silver hairs.

[¶6] Dryden.

[¶7] We find the same custom expressed in one line by Catullus: -

[¶8] Canitiem terra, atque infuso pulvere foedans.

[¶9] Epith. Pelei et Thetidos, ver. 224.

[¶10] Dishonoring her hoary locks with earth and sprinkled dust.

[¶11] The ancient Greeks in their mourning often shaved off their hair: - Τουτο νυ και γερας οιον οΐζυροισι βροτοισι, Κειρασθαι τε κομην, βαλεειν τ' απο δακρυ παρειων.

[¶12] Hom. Odyss. lib. iv., ver. 197. "Let each deplore his dead: the rites of wo

[¶13] Are all, alas! the living can bestow

[¶14] O'er the congenial dust, enjoin'd to shear

[¶15] The graceful curl, and drop the tender tear."

[¶16] Pope.

[¶17] And again: - Κατθεμεν εν λεχεεσσι καθηραντες χροα καλον Ὑδατι τε λιαρῳ και αλειφατι· πολλα δε σ' αμφις Δακρυα θερμα χεον Δαναοι, κειροντο τε χαιτας.

[¶18] Ib., lib. xxiv., ver. 44. "Then unguents sweet, and tepid streams, we shed;

[¶19] Tears flow'd from every eye; and o'er the dead

[¶20] Each clipp'd the curling honors of his head."

[¶21] Pope.

[¶22] The whole is strongly expressed in the case of Achilles, when he heard of the death of his friend Patroclus: - Ὡς φατο· τον δ' αχεος νεφεος νεφελη εκαλυψε μελαινα Αμφοτερῃσι δε χερσιν ἑλων κονιν αοθαλοεσσαν, Χευατο κακ κεφαλης, χαριεν δ' ῃσχυνε προσωπον· Νεκταρεῳ δε χιτωνι μελαιν' αμφιζανε τεφρη.

[¶23] Iliad, lib. xviii., ver. 22. "A sudden horror shot through all the chief,

[¶24] And wrapp'd his senses in the cloud of grief.

[¶25] Cast on the ground, with furious hands he spread

[¶26] The scorching ashes o'er his graceful head:

[¶27] His purple garments, and his golden hairs.

[¶28] Those he deforms with dust, and these with tears."

[¶29] Pope.

[¶30] It is not unusual, even in Europe, and in the most civilized parts of it, to see grief expressed by tearing the hair, beating the breasts, and rending the garments; all these are natural signs, or expression of deep and excessive grief, and are common to all the nations of the world.

### Verse 13

[¶32] His heart trembled for the ark of God - He was a most mild and affectionate father, and yet the safety of the ark lay nearer to his heart than the safety of his two sons. Who can help feeling for this aged, venerable man?

### Verse 17

[¶34] And the messenger answered - Never was a more afflictive message, containing such a variety of woes, each rising above the preceding, delivered in so few words.

[¶35] 1. Israel is fled before the Philistines.

[¶36] This was a sore evil: that Israel should turn their backs upon their enemies, was bad; and that they should turn their backs on such enemies as the

[¶37] Philistines, was yet worse; for now they might expect the chains of their slavery to be strengthened and riveted more closely.

[¶38] 2. There hath also been a great slaughter among the people.

[¶39] A rout might have taken place without any great previous slaughter; but in this case the field was warmly contested, thirty thousand were laid dead on the spot. This was a deeper cause of distress than the preceding; as if he had said, "The flower of our armies is destroyed; scarcely a veteran now to take the field."

[¶40] 3. Thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead.

[¶41] This was still more afflictive to him as a father, to lose both his sons, the only hope of the family; and to have them taken away by a violent death when there was so little prospect of their having died in the peace of God, was more grievous than all.

[¶42] 4. The ark of God is taken.

[¶43] This was the most dreadful of the whole; now Israel is dishonored in the sight of the heathen, and the name of the Lord will be blasphemed by them. Besides, the capture of the ark shows that God is departed from Israel; and now there is no farther hope of restoration for the people, but every prospect of the destruction of the nation, and the final ruin of all religion! How high does each wo rise on the back of the preceding! And with what apparent art is this very laconic message constructed! And yet, probably, no art at all was used, and the messenger delivered the tidings just as the facts rose up in his own mind.

[¶44] How vapid, diffused, and alliterated, is the report of the messenger in the Persae of Aeschylus, who comes to the queen with the tremendous account of the destruction of the whole naval power of the Persians, at the battle of Salamis? I shall give his first speech, and leave the reader to compare the two accounts. Ω γης ἁπασης Ασιδος πολισματα, Ω Περσις αια, και πολυς πλουτου λιμην, Ὡς εν μιᾳ πληγῃ κατεφθαρται πολυς Ολβος, το Περσων δ' ανθος οιχται πεσον. Ωμοι, κακον μεν πρωτον αγγελλειν κακα· Περσαις, στρατος γαρ πας αλωλε βαρβαρων.

## 286. 1 Samuel · 8 of 37

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[¶0] Of which I subjoin the following translation by Mr. Potter: -

[¶1] Wo to the towns through Asia's peopled realms!

[¶2] Wo to the land of Persia, once the port

[¶3] Of boundless wealth! how is thy glorious state

[¶4] Vanish'd at once, and all thy spreading honors

[¶5] Fallen, lost! Ah me! unhappy is his task

[¶6] That bears unhappy tidings; but constraint

[¶7] Compels me to relate this tale of wo:

[¶8] Persians! the whole barbaric host is fallen.

[¶9] This is the sum of his account, which he afterwards details in about a dozen of speeches.

[¶10] Heroes and conquerors, ancient and modern, have been celebrated for comprising a vast deal of information in a few words. I will give three examples, and have no doubt that the Benjamite in the text will be found to have greatly the advantage.

[¶11] 1. Julius Caesar having totally defeated Pharnaces, king of Pontus, wrote a letter to the Roman senate, which contained only these three words: -

[¶12] Veni, Vidi, Vici;

[¶13] I came, I saw, I conquered.

[¶14] This war was begun and ended in one day.

[¶15] 2. Admiral Hawke having totally defeated the French fleet, in 1759, off the coast of Brittany, wrote as follows to King George II.: - "Sire, I have taken, burnt, and destroyed all the French fleet, as per margin. - Hawke."

[¶16] 3. Napoleon Buonaparte, then general-in-chief of the French armies in Italy, wrote to Josephine, his wife, the evening before he attacked Field Marshal Alvinzi, the imperial general: - "Demain j'attaquerai l'enemie; je le battrai; et j'en finirai." "To-morrow I shall attack the enemy; I shall defeat them, and terminate the business."

[¶17] He did so: the imperialists were totally defeated, Mantua surrendered, and the campaign for that year (1796) was concluded.

[¶18] In the above examples, excellent as they are in their kind, we find little more than one idea, whereas the report of the Benjamite includes several; for, in the most forcible manner, he points out the general and particular disasters of the day, the rout of the army, the great slaughter, the death of the priests, who were in effect the whole generals of the army, and the capture of the ark; all that, on such an occasion, could affect and distress the heart of an Israelite. And all this he does in four simple assertions.

### Verse 18

[¶20] When he made mention of the ark of God - Eli bore all the relation till the messenger came to this solemn word; he had trembled before for the ark, and now, hearing that it was captured, he was transfixed with grief, fell down from his seat, and dislocated his neck! Behold the judgments of God! But shall we say that this man, however remiss in the education of his children, and criminal in his indulgence towards his profligate sons, which arose more from the easiness of his disposition than from a desire to encourage vice, is gone to perdition? God forbid! No man ever died with such benevolent and religious feelings, and yet perished.

[¶21] He had judged Israel forty years - Instead of forty years, the Septuagint has here εικοσι ετη, twenty years. All the other versions, as well as the Hebrew text, have forty years.

### Verse 19

[¶23] And his daughter-in-law - This is another very affecting story; the defeat of Israel, the capture of the ark, the death of her father-in-law, and the slaughter of her husband, were more than a woman in her circumstances, near the time of her delivery could bear. She bowed, travailed, was delivered of a son, gave the child a name indicative of the ruined state of Israel, and expired!

### Verse 20

[¶25] But she answered not - She paid no attention to what the women had said concerning her having borne a son; that information she regarded not.

### Verse 21

[¶27] She named the child I-chabod - The versions are various on the original words כבוד I-chabod; the Septuagint, ουαιβαρχαβωθ ouaibrachaboth; the Syriac, yochobor; the Arabic, yochabad. But none of these give us much light on the subject. It is pretty evident they did not know well what signification to give the name; and we are left to collect its meaning from what she says afterwards, The glory is departed from Israel; the words literally mean, Where is the glory? And indeed where was it, when the armies of Israel were defeated by the Philistines, the priests slain, the supreme magistrate dead, and the ark of the Lord taken?

[¶28] This is a very eventful, interesting, and affecting chapter, and prepares the reader for those signal manifestations of God's power and providence by which the ark was restored, the priesthood re-established, an immaculate judge given to Israel, the Philistine yoke broken, and the people of the Most High caused once more to triumph. God humbled them that he might exalt them; he suffered his glory for a time to become eclipsed, that he might afterwards cause it to break out with the greater effulgence.

### Introduction

[¶30] The Philistines set up the ark in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod; whose image is found next morning prostrate before it, broken in pieces, [1Sam 5:1-5]. The Philistines are also smitten with a sore disease, [1Sam 5:6]. The people of Ashdod refuse to let the ark stay with them; and the lords of the Philistines, with whom they consulted, order it to be carried to Gath, [1Sam 5:7], [1Sam 5:8]. They do so; and God smites the inhabitants of that city, young and old, with the same disease, [1Sam 5:9]. They send the ark to Ekron, and a heavy destruction fags upon that city, and they resolve to send it back to Shiloh, [1Sam 5:10-12].

### Verse 1

[¶32] Brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod - Ashdod or Azotus was one of the five satrapies or lordships of the Philistines.

### Verse 2

[¶34] The house of Dagon - On this idol, which was supposed to be partly in a human form, and partly in that of a fish, see the note on [Jdg 16:23]. Some think that this idol was the same with Dirceto, Attergatis, the Venus of Askelon, and the Moon. - See Calmet's Dissertation on the gods of the Philistines.

[¶35] The motive which induced the Philistines to set up the ark in the temple of Dagon, may be easily ascertained. It was customary, in all nations, to dedicate the spoils taken from an enemy to their gods:

[¶36] 1. As a gratitude-offering for the help which they supposed them to have furnished; and,

[¶37] 2. As a proof that their gods, i.e., the gods of the conquerors, were more powerful than those of the conquered.

[¶38] It was, no doubt, to insult the God of Israel, and to insult and terrify his people, that they placed his ark in the temple of Dagon. When the Philistines had conquered Saul, they hung up his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, [1Sam 31:10]. And when David slew Goliath, he laid up his sword in the tabernacle of the Lord, [1Sam 21:8], [1Sam 21:9]. We have the remains of this custom in the depositing of colors, standards, etc., taken from an enemy, in our churches; but whether this may be called superstition or a religious act, is hard to say. If the battle were the Lord's, which few battles are, the dedication might be right.

### Verse 3

[¶40] They of Ashdod arose early on the morrow - Probably to perform some act of their superstition in the temple of their idol.

[¶41] Dagon was fallen upon his face - This was one proof, which they little expected, of the superiority of the God of Israel.

[¶42] Set him in his place again - Supposing his fall might have been merely accidental.

### Verse 4

[¶44] Only the stump of Dagon was left - Literally, Only דגן dagon (i.e., the little fish) was left. It has already been remarked that Dagon had the head, arms and hands of a man or woman, and that the rest of the idol was in the form of a fish, to which Horace is supposed to make allusion in the following words: -

## 287. 1 Samuel · 9 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/287/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/287/#p-N

[¶0] Desinat in piscem mulisr formosa superne "The upper part resembling a beautiful woman; the lower, a fish."

[¶1] All that was human in his form was broken off from what resembled a fish. Here was a proof that the affair was not accidental; and these proofs of God's power and authority prepared the way for his judgments.

### Verse 5

[¶3] Tread on the threshold - Because the arms, etc., of Dagon were broken off by his fall on the threshold, the threshold became sacred, and neither his priests nor worshippers ever tread on the threshold. Thus it was ordered, in the Divine providence, that, by a religious custom of their own, they should perpetuate their disgrace, the insufficiency of their worship, and the superiority of the God of Israel.

[¶4] It is supposed that the idolatrous Israelites, in the time of Zephaniah, had adopted the worship of Dagon: and that in this sense [1Sam 1:9] is to be understood: In the same day will I punish all those who leap upon the threshold. In order to go into such temples, and not tread on the threshold, the people must step or leap over them; and in this way the above passage may be understood. Indeed, the thresholds of the temples in various places were deemed so sacred that the people were accustomed to fall down and kiss them. When Christianity became corrupted, this adoration of the thresholds of the churches took place.

### Verse 6

[¶6] Smote them with emerods - The word עפלים apholim, from עפל aphal, to be elevated, probably means the disease called the bleeding piles, which appears to have been accompanied with dysentery, bloody flux, and ulcerated anus.

[¶7] The Vulgate says, Et percussit in secretiori parte natium; "And he smote them in the more secret parts of their posteriors." To this the psalmist is supposed to refer, [Psa 78:66], He smote all his enemies in the Hinder Parts; he put them to a perpetual reproach. Some copies of the Septuagint have εξεζεσεν αυτοις εις τας ναυς, "he inflamed them in their ships:" other copies have εις τας ἑδρας, "in their posteriors." The Syriac is the same. The Arabic enlarges: "He smote them in their posteriors, so that they were affected with a dysenteria." I suppose them to have been affected with enlargements of the haemorrhoidal veins, from which there came frequent discharges of blood.

[¶8] The Septuagint and Vulgate make a very material addition to this verse: Και μεσον της χωρας αυτης ανεφυεσιν μυες· και εγενετο συγχυσις θανατου μεγαλη εν τη πολει; Et ebullierunt villae et agri in medio regionis illius; et nati sunt mures, et facta est confusio mortis magnae in civitate: "And the cities and fields of all that region burst up, and mice were produced, and there was the confusion of a great death in the city." This addition Houbigant contends was originally in the Hebrew text; and this gives us the reason why golden mice were sent, as well as the images of the emerods, ([1Sam 6:4]), when the ark was restored.

### Verse 7

[¶10] His hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god - Here the end was completely answered: they now saw that they had not prevailed against Israel, on account of their god being more powerful than Jehovah; and they now feel how easily this God can confound and destroy their whole nation.

### Verse 8

[¶12] The lords of the Philistines - The word סרני sarney, which we translate lords, is rendered by the Chaldee טורני tureney, tyrants. The Syriac is the same. By the Vulgate and Septuagint, satrapae, satraps. Palestine was divided into five satrapies: Ashdod, Ekron, Askelon, Gath, and Gaza. See [Jos 13:8]. But these were all federates and acted under one general government, for which they assembled in council.

[¶13] Let the ark - be carried about - They probably thought that their affliction rose from some natural cause; and therefore they wished the ark to be carried about from place to place, to see what the effects might be. If they found the same evil produced wherever it came, then they must conclude that it was a judgment from the God of Israel.

### Verse 9

[¶15] The hand of the Lord was against the city - As it was at Ashdod, so it was at Gath. The Vulgate says, Et computrescebant prominenter extales eorum; which conveys the idea of a bloody flux, dysentery, and ulcerated anus; and it adds, what is not to be found in the Hebrew text, nor many of the versions, except some traces in the Septuagint, Et fecerunt sibi sedes pelliceas, "And they made unto themselves seats of skins;" for the purpose of sitting more easy, on account of the malady already mentioned.

### Verse 11

[¶17] Send away the ark - It appears that it had been received at Ekron, for there was a deadly destruction through the whole city. They therefore concluded that the ark should be sent back to Shiloh.

### Verse 12

[¶19] The men that died not - Some it seems were smitten with instant death; others with the haemorrhoids, and there was a universal consternation; and the cry of the city went up to heaven - it was an exceeding great cry.

[¶20] It does not appear that the Philistines had any correct knowledge of the nature of Jehovah, though they seemed to acknowledge his supremacy. They imagined that every country, district, mountain, and valley, had its peculiar deity; who, in its place, was supreme over all others. They thought therefore to appease Jehovah by sending him back his ark or shrine: and, in order to be redeemed from their plagues, they send golden mice and emerods as telesms, probably made under some particular configurations of the planets. See at the end of [1Sam 6:21] (note).

### Introduction

[¶22] After the ark had been seven months in the land of the Philistines, they consult their priests and diviners about sending it to Shiloh, [1Sam 6:1], [1Sam 6:2]. They advise that it be sent back with a trespass-offering of five golden emerods, and five golden mice, [1Sam 6:3-6]. They advise also that it be sent back on a new cart, drawn by two milch kine from whom their calves shall be tied up; and then conclude that if these cows shalt take the way of Beth-shemesh, as going to the Israelitish border, then the Lord had afflicted them, if not, then their evils were accidental, [1Sam 6:7-9]. They do as directed; and the kine take the way of Beth-shemesh, [1Sam 6:10-13]. They stop in the field of Joshua; and the men of Beth-shemesh take them, and offer them to the Lord for a burnt-offering, and cleave the wood of the cart to burn them, and make sundry other offerings, [1Sam 6:14], [1Sam 6:15]. The offerings of the five lords of the Philistines, [1Sam 6:16-18]. For too curiously looking into the ark, the men of Beth-shemesh are smitten of the Lord, [1Sam 6:19], [1Sam 6:20]. They send to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, that they may take away the ark, [1Sam 6:21].

### Verse 2

[¶24] The diviners - קסמים kosemim, from קסם kasam, to presage or prognosticate. See [Deu 18:10]. In what their pretended art consisted, we know not.

### Verse 3

[¶26] Send it not empty - As it appears ye have trespassed against him, send him an offering for this trespass.

[¶27] Why his hand is not removed - The sense is, If you send him a trespass-offering, and ye be cured, then ye shall know why his judgments have not been taken away from you previously to this offering.

[¶28] It is a common opinion, says Calmet, among all people, that although the Supreme Being needs nothing of his creatures, yet he requires that they should consecrate to him all that they have; for the same argument that proves his independence, infinitude, and self-sufficiency, proves our dependence, and the obligation we are under to acknowledge him by offering him due marks of our gratitude and submission. Such sentiments were common among all people; and God himself commands his people not to appear before him without an offering, [Exo 23:15] : None shall appear before me empty.

### Verse 4

[¶30] Five golden emerods, and five golden mice - One for each satrapy. The emerods had afflicted their bodies; the mice had marred their land. Both, they considered, as sent by God; and, making an image of each, and sending them as a trespass-offering, they acknowledged this. See at the end.

### Verse 5

[¶32] He will lighten his hand from off you - The whole land was afflicted; the ground was marred by the mice; the common people and the lords afflicted by the haemorrhoids, and their gods broken in pieces.

### Verse 6

[¶34] Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts - They had heard how God punished the Egyptians, and they are afraid of similar plagues. It appears that they had kept the ark long enough.

[¶35] Did they not let the people go - And has he not wrought wonderfully among us? And should we not send back his ark?

### Verse 7

[¶37] Make a new cart - It was indecent and improper to employ in any part of the worship of God any thing that had before served for a common purpose. Every thing in the worship of God is said to be sanctified: now the general meaning of that word is, to separate a thing from all earthly and common uses, and devote it solely to the service of God.

[¶38] When David removed the ark from the house of Abinadab, he put it on a new cart, [2Sam 6:3].

[¶39] Bring their calves home from them - So it appears that their calves had been with them in the fields. This was a complete trial: unless they were supernaturally influenced, they would not leave their calves; unless supernaturally directed, they would not leave their home, and take a way unguided, which they had never gone before.

### Verse 8

[¶41] The jewels of gold - The word קלי keley, which our translators so often render jewels, signifies vessels, implements, ornaments, etc. A jewel of gold has an odd sound to those who always attach the idea of a precious stone to the term.

### Verse 9

[¶43] A chance that happened to us - The word מקרה mikreh, from קרה karah, to meet or coalesce, signifies an event that naturally arises from such concurring causes as, in the order and nature of things, must produce it.

[¶44] Thus a bad state of the atmosphere, putrid exhalations, bad diet, occasioned by any general scarcity, might have produced the disease in question; and to something of this kind they would attribute it, if the other evidences did not concur. This gives us the proper notion of chance; and shows us that it is a matter as dependent upon the Divine providence, as any thing can be: in short, that these occurrences are parts of the Divine government.

## 288. 1 Samuel · 10 of 37

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[¶0] The word chance, though often improperly used to signify such an occurrence as is not under the Divine government, is of itself, not only simple, but expressive; and has nearly the meaning of the Hebrew word: it comes from the French cheoir, or escheoir, to fall out, to occur, to fall to. Hence our law-term escheat, any lands that fall to the lord of the manor by forfeiture, or for want of heirs: i.e., these are the occurrences which naturally throw the lands into the hands of the lord.

### Verse 12

[¶2] Lowing as they went - Calling for their calves.

[¶3] To the right hand or to the left - Some think they were placed where two roads met; one going to Ekron, the other to Beth-shemesh. It is possible that they were put in such circumstances as these for the greater certainty of the affair: to have turned from their own homes, from their calves and known pasture, and to have taken the road to a strange country, must argue supernatural influence.

[¶4] The lords of the Philistines went after - They were so jealous in this business that they would trust no eyes but their own. All this was wisely ordered, that there might be the fullest conviction of the being and interposition of God.

### Verse 14

[¶6] They clave the wood of the cart - Both the cart and the cattle having been thus employed, could no longer be devoted to any secular services; therefore the cattle were sacrificed, and the cart was broken up for fuel to consume the sacrifice.

### Verse 15

[¶8] The Levites took down - It appears there were some of the tribe of Levi among the people of Beth-shemesh: to them appertained the service of the tabernacle.

### Verse 17

[¶10] These are the golden emerods - Each of these cities, in what may be called its corporate capacity, sent a golden emerod.

### Verse 18

[¶12] And the golden mice - The desolation that had been made through the land by these animals had excited a general concern; and it appears from the text, that all the cities of the Philistines, as well fended as without walls, sent a golden mouse as a trespass-offering.

[¶13] Remaineth unto this day - Some think the ark is intended, which continued on the stone of Abel for some considerable time after it was placed there; and that the memoranda from which this book was afterwards compiled, were made before it was removed: but it is not likely that it remained any time exposed in the open field. Therefore it is most natural to suppose that it is the stone of Abel which is here intended; and so our translators have understood the place, and have used supplementary words to express this sentiment: "Which stone remaineth unto this day."

### Verse 19

[¶15] He smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men - The present Hebrew text of this most extraordinary reading stands thus: ויך באנשי בית־שמש - ויך בעם שבעים איש חמשים אלף איש vaiyach beanshey Beith-shemesh - vaiyach baam shibim ish, chamishshim eleph ish; "And he smote among the men of Beth-shemesh, (because they looked into the ark of Jehovah), and he smote among the people Seventy men, Fifty Thousand men."

[¶16] From the manner in which the text stands, and from the great improbability of the thing, it is most likely that there is a corruption in this text, or that some explanatory word is lost, or that the number fifty thousand has been added by ignorance or design; it being very improbable that such a small village as Beth-shemesh should contain or be capable of employing fifty thousand and seventy men in the fields at wheat harvest, much less that they could all peep into the ark on the stone of Abel, in the corn-field of Joshua.

[¶17] That the words are not naturally connected in the Hebrew text, is evident; and they do not stand better in the versions.

[¶18] 1. The Vulgate renders it thus: - Et percussit de populo Septuaginta viros; et Quinquaginta Milla plebis; "And he smote of the (chief) people Seventy men, and Fifty Thousand of the (common) people." This distinction, I suppose, St. Jerome intended between plebis and populus; which he might think was warranted by the אנשים anashim, and איש ish, of the Hebrew text.

[¶19] 2. The Targum of Jonathan is something similar to the Vulgate: - "And he smote בסבי עמא besabey amma, of the elders of the people Seventy men; ובקהלא ubekahala, and of the congregation Fifty Thousand men."

[¶20] 3. The Septuagint follow the Hebrew text: Και επαταξεν εν αυτοις ἑβδομηκοντα ανδρας, και πεντηκοντα χιλιαδας ανδρων; "And he smote of them Seventy men; and Fifty Thousand men." εκ του λαου, of the people, is added by some copies.

[¶21] 4. The Syriac has forty-five thousand less! It is as follows: wamacho Morio beamo chamesho alapin weshabein gabrin; "And the Lord smote among the people Five thousand and Seventy men."

[¶22] 5. The Arabic is nearly similar: "And the Lord smote among the people; and there died of them Five thousand and Seventy men." We have no other versions from which we can receive any farther light.

[¶23] 6. Josephus is different from all the rest, and has fifty thousand less, for he renders the place thus, Antiq. Jud. libe. vi., cap. i., sect. 4: Θργη δε και χολος του Θεου μετεισιν, ὡστε ἑβδομηκοντα των εκ της Βηθσαμης κωμησ-βαλων απεκτεινεν "But the displeasure and wrath of God pursued them so, that Seventy men of the village of Beth-shemesh, approaching the ark, which they were not worthy to touch, (not being priests), were struck with lightning." Here we find the whole fifty thousand is omitted.

[¶24] 7. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, giving the opinion of other rabbins as well as his own, says, "Our rabbins say Seventy men, and each of them was worth fifty thousand men; or fifty thousand, every one of whom was worth the seventy of the Sanhedrin." This only shows embarrassment, but gives very little light.

[¶25] All these discordances, together with the utter improbability of the thing, lead us to suppose there must be a corruption in this place, either by adding or omitting.

[¶26] Dr. Kennicott has found three very reputable MSS. in which the words חמשים אלף איש chamishshim eleph ish, fifty thousand men, are wanting. The 1st, No. 84, a MS. from Holland; the 2d, No. 210, one of the Parisian MSS.; the 3d, No. 418, a MS. belonging to Milan; all three written about the beginning of the twelfth century, and numbered as above in Dr. K's Bible.

[¶27] Perhaps the omission in these MSS. was occasioned by a mistake of the transcriber, which might have easily happened, because of the word איש ish, which occurs both after שבעים shibim and after אלף eleph; for, having written the first, and taking his eye off, when he recommenced he might have supposed he had written the latter, and so proceed, leaving the words in question out of his copy. Two, three, or more persons might have been thus deceived, and so produce the above MSS.; or the mistake once made, all the MSS. copied from that would show the same omission. The common reading may be defended, if we only suppose the omission of a single letter, the particle of comparison כ ke, like, as, or equal to, before the word חמשים chamishshim: thus כחמשים kechamishshim; the passage would then read: "And he smote of the people Seventy men, equal to Fifty Thousand men;" that is, they were the elders or governors of the people.

[¶28] Some solve the difficulty by translating, "He slew Seventy men Out Of fifty thousand men." There are various other methods invented by learned men to remove this difficulty, which I shall not stop to examine; all, however, issue in this point, that only Seventy Men were slain; and this is, without doubt the most probable. The Fifty Thousand, therefore, must be an interpolation, or be understood in some such way as that mentioned above. But the omission of the particle of similitude solves every difficulty; and this would account for the reading in Josephus, who in his recital would naturally leave out such an explanation of the worth of the seventy men, as his Roman readers could not easily comprehend such comparisons.

[¶29] With a great slaughter - Seventy men slain, out of an inconsiderable village in a harvest day, was certainly a great slaughter.

### Verse 20

[¶31] Who is able to stand - Why this exclamation? They knew that God had forbidden any to touch his ark but the priests and Levites; but they endeavored to throw that blame on God, as a Being hard to be pleased, which belonged solely to themselves.

### Verse 21

[¶33] To the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim - They wished the ark away out of their village, but why they sent to this city instead of sending to Shiloh, does not appear: probably Shiloh had been destroyed by the Philistines, after the late defeat of Israel. This is most likely, as the ark was never more taken back to that place.

[¶34] It was a very ancient usage, when a plague or other calamity infested a country, city, etc. for the magicians to form an image of the destroyer, or of the things on which the plague particularly rested, in gold, silver, ivory, wax, clay, etc., under certain configurations of the heavens; and to set this up in some proper place, that the evils thus represented might be driven away. These consecrated images were the same that are called talismans, or rather telesms, among the Asiatics. Mr. Locke calls the diviners talismans, but this is a mistake; the image, not the fabricator, was called by this name.

[¶35] I have seen several of these talismans, of different countries; and such images were probably the origin of all the forms of gods which, in after times, were the objects of religious worship. It is well known that Ireland is not infested with any venomous creature; no serpent of any kind is found in it: - "No poison there infects, no scaly snake

[¶36] Lurks in the grass, nor toads annoy the lake."

[¶37] This has been attributed to a telesm, formed with certain rites under the sign Scorpio. Such opinions have been drawn from very ancient pagan sources: e.g.: A stone engraved with the figure of a scorpion, while the moon is in the sign Scorpio, is said to cure those who are stung by this animal. Apollonius Tyaneus is said to have prevented flies from infesting Antioch, and storks from appearing in Byzantium, by figures of those animals formed under certain constellations. A brazen scorpion, placed on a pillar in the city of Antioch, is said to have expelled all such animals from that country. And a crocodile of lead is also said to have preserved Cairo from the depredations of those monsters. See Calmet.

[¶38] Virgil refers to this custom, Eclogue viii., ver. 80, where he represents a person making two images or telesms, one of wax, another of clay, which were to represent an absent person, who was to be alternately softened or hardened, as the wax or clay image was exposed to the fire: -

[¶39] Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit

[¶40] Uno et eodem igni: sic nostro Daphnis amore. "As this clay hardens, and this wax softens, by one and the same fire, so may Daphnis by my love."

[¶41] This thought is borrowed from Theocritus, Idyl. ii., ver. 28.

[¶42] A beautiful marble figure of Osiris, about four inches and a quarter high, now stands before me, entirely covered with hieroglyphics; he is standing, and holds in each hand a scorpion and a snake by the tails, and with each foot he stands on the neck of a crocodile. This I have no doubt was a telesm, formed under some peculiar configuration of the heavens, intended to drive away both scorpions and crocodiles. This image is of the highest antiquity, and was formed probably long before the Christian era.

[¶43] Tavernier observes that something like what is mentioned in the text is practiced among the Indians; for when a pilgrim goes to one of the idol temples for a cure, he brings the figure of the member affected, made either of gold, silver, or copper, according to his circumstances, which he offers to his god. This custom was common among the heathens, and they consecrated to their gods the monuments of their deliverance. From heathenism it was adopted by corrupt Christianity; and Theodoret informs us that in his time there might be seen about the tombs of the martyrs figures of eyes, hands, feet, and other parts of the body, which represented those of the offerers which they supposed had been healed by the intercession of those holy persons! This degrading superstition is continued among the papists to the present day: I have seen at St. Winifred's well, in Holywell, Flintshire several staves, crutches, and handbarrows, hung up in different places, which were reported to be the votive offerings of the maimed, the halt, the withered, etc., who had received their cure by the virtue of the saint! It is true the crutches are such as no man or woman could ever walk with; and the barrows are such as most evidently never carried any human being. But they serve the purpose of superstition, and keep up an idolatrous reverence for the well and the legendary virgin.

[¶44] After all, I need not say that the system of judicial astrology is vain, unfounded, absurd, and wicked. It in effect presumes to take the government of the world out of the hand of an all-wise God, and to abandon it to the most fortuitous and unconnected occurrences of life; for the stars have their influences according to this pretended science, conformably to the occurrences here below: e.g., if a child be born but one hour sooner or later than a particular configuration of the heavens, his destiny will be widely different from what it otherwise would have been; and as an almost infinite number of casualties may accelerate or retard a birth, consequently the whole destiny of man is influenced and ruled by these casualties: to say nothing of the absurdity, that those omnipotent stars ever can affect the infant while invested with a thin covering of flesh in the womb of its parent. But the whole science is a tissue of absurdities.

## 289. 1 Samuel · 11 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/289/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/289/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The men of Kirjah-jearim bring the ark from Beth-shemesh, and consecrate Eleazar, the son of Abinadab, to keep it; and there it continued twenty years, [1Sam 7:1], [1Sam 7:2]. Samuel reproves and exhorts the people, and gathers them together at Mizpeh, where they fast and pray, and confess their sins, [1Sam 7:3-6]. The Philistines go up against them; the Israelites cry unto the Lord for help; Samuel offers sacrifices; and the Lord confounds the Philistines with thunder; Israel discomfits and pursues them to Beth-car, [1Sam 7:7-11]. Samuel erects a stone for a memorial, and calls it Eben-ezer, [1Sam 7:12]. The Philistines are totally subdued, and Israel recovers all its lost cities, [1Sam 7:13], [1Sam 7:14]. Samuel acts as an itinerant judge in Israel, [1Sam 7:15-17].

### Verse 1

[¶3] Fetched up the ark - When these people received the message of the Beth-shemites, they probably consulted Samuel, with whom was the counsel of the Lord, and he had encouraged them to go and bring it up, else they might have expected such destruction as happened to the Beth-shemites.

[¶4] Sanctified Eleazar - Perhaps this sanctifying signifies no more than setting this man apart, simply to take care of the ark.

### Verse 2

[¶6] It was twenty years - This chapter contains the transactions of at least twenty years, but we know not the date of each event.

### Verse 3

[¶8] And Samuel spake - We have heard nothing of this judge since he served in the tabernacle. He was now grown up, and established for a prophet in the land of Israel.

[¶9] If ye do return - From your backsliding and idolatry.

[¶10] With all your hearts - For outward services and professions will avail nothing.

[¶11] Put away the strange gods - Destroy their images, altars, and groves: they are strange; you do not know them as helpers, saviours, or defenders.

[¶12] Prepare your hearts - Let your hearts be straight and steady.

[¶13] And serve him only - Have no other religious service but his, and obey his laws.

[¶14] He will deliver you - Vain are your own exertions; he will deliver you in such a way as to show that the excellence of the power is of himself alone.

### Verse 4

[¶16] Put away Baalim and Ashtaroth - These were not two particular deities, but two genera of idols; the one masculine, Baalim; the other feminine, Ashtaroth; both the words are in the plural number, and signify all their gods and goddesses.

### Verse 5

[¶18] Gather all Israel to Mizpeh - This appears to have been an armed assembly, though probably collected principally for religious and political purposes; but Samuel knew that an unarmed multitude could not safely be convened in the vicinity of the Philistines.

### Verse 6

[¶20] Drew water, and poured it out - It is not easy to know what is meant by this; it is true that pouring out water, in the way of libation, was a religious ordinance among the Hebrews, ([Isa 12:3]), and among most other nations, particularly the Greeks and Romans, who used, not only water, but wine, milk, honey, and blood, as we find by Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Sophocles, Porphyry, and Lucian. Our Lord seems to allude to this ceremony, [Joh 7:37-38] (note), where see the note.

[¶21] The Chaldee Paraphrast understands the place differently, for he translates: "And they poured out their hearts in penitence, as Waters, before the Lord." That deep penitential sorrow was represented under the notion of pouring out water, we have a direct proof in the case of David, who says, [Psa 22:14], I am Poured Out like Water, my heart is like wax; it is Melted in the midst of my bowels. And to repentance, under this very similitude, the prophet exhorts fallen Jerusalem: Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the watches Pour Out thine Heart Like Water before the face of the Lord; [Lam 2:19]. David uses the same image, [Psa 62:8] : Trust in him at all times, ye people; Pour Out your hearts before him. The same figure is used by Hannah in [1Sam 1:15] of this book; I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit; I have Poured Out my soul before the Lord. Perhaps the drawing and pouring out of water mentioned in the text was done emblematically, to represent the contrition of their hearts.

[¶22] And Samuel judged - He gave them ordinances, heard and redressed grievances, and taught them how to get reconciled to God. The assembly, therefore, was held for religio-politico-military purposes.

### Verse 7

[¶24] The Philistines went up against Israel - They went to give them battle before that, by continual accessions of numbers, they should become too powerful.

### Verse 8

[¶26] Cease not to cry unto the Lord - They had strong confidence in the intercession of Samuel, because they knew he was a holy man of God.

### Verse 9

[¶28] Samuel took a sucking lamb - This sucking lamb must have been eight days under its mother before it could be offered, as the law says, [Lev 22:27].

[¶29] Though Samuel was not a priest, yet he offered this sacrifice; or he might have ordered Eleazar to offer it, and still be said to have done it himself: Qui facit per alterum, facit per se; "He who procures a thing to be done, may be said to do it himself." His not sacrificing at the tabernacle was justified by the necessity of the case; neither tabernacle nor ark was at hand.

### Verse 10

[¶31] The Lord thundered with a great thunder - Literally, The Lord thundered with a great voice - he confounded them with a mighty tempest of thunder and lightning, and no doubt slew many by the lightning.

### Verse 11

[¶33] Under Beth-car - We know not where this place was; the Septuagint have Beth-chor; the Targum, Beth-saron; and the Syriac and Arabic, Beth-jasan.

### Verse 12

[¶35] Called the name of it Eben-ezer - אבן העזר Eben haezer, "The Stone of Help;" perhaps a pillar is meant by the word stone.

### Verse 13

[¶37] They came no more into the coast of Israel - Perhaps a more signal victory was never gained by Israel; the Lord had brought them low, almost to extermination; and now, by his miraculous interference, he lifts them completely up, and humbles to the dust their proud oppressors. God often suffers nations and individuals to be brought to the lowest extremity, that he may show his mercy and goodness by suddenly rescuing them from destruction, when all human help has most evidently failed.

### Verse 14

[¶39] The cities which the Philistines had taken - We are not informed of the particulars of these reprisals, but we may rest assured all this was not done in one day: perhaps the retaking of the cities was by slow degrees, through the space of several years.

[¶40] There was peace between Israel and the Amorites - That is, all the remaining Canaanites kept quiet, and did not attempt to molest the Israelites, when they found the Philistines, the most powerful of the ancient inhabitants of the land, broken and subdued before them.

### Verse 15

[¶42] Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life - Samuel is supposed to have lived one hundred years; he did not begin to judge Israel till he was about forty years of age; and if he was one hundred years of age when he died, he must have been a judge sixty years, and consequently filled that office during the whole of Saul's reign. But that he had been dead before Saul's last battle, is evident from the transactions of that king with the witch of En-dor, and probably not long before. Samuel was the prophet of that time; declared the will of the Lord, and frequently directed both the civil and military transactions of the kingdom. Samuel seems, in many respects, to have been considered the governor of the people, while Saul was only looked on as the general of the armies.

### Verse 16

[¶44] He went from year to year in circuit - When he was at Beth-el, the tribe of Ephraim, and all the northern parts of the country, could attend him; when at Gilgal, the tribe of Benjamin, and those beyond Jordan, might have easy access to him; and when at Mizpeh, he was within reach of Judah, Simeon, and Gad; but Ramah was the place of his ordinary abode; and there he held his court, for there he judged Israel; and, as it is probable that Shiloh was destroyed, it is said, [1Sam 7:17], that there (viz., at Ramah) he built an altar unto the Lord. This altar, being duly consecrated, the worship performed at it was strictly legal. Ramah, which is said to be about six miles from Jerusalem, was the seat of prophecy during the life of Samuel; and there it is probable all Israel came to consult him on matters of a spiritual nature, as there was the only altar of God in the land of Israel.

## 290. 1 Samuel · 12 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/290/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/290/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] Samuel, grown old, makes his sons judges in Beer-sheba, [1Sam 8:1], [1Sam 8:2]. They pervert judgment; and the people complain, and desire a king, [1Sam 8:3-5]. Samuel is displeased, and inquires of the Lord, [1Sam 8:6]. The Lord is also displeased; but directs Samuel to appoint them a king, and to show them solemnly the consequences of their choice, [1Sam 8:7-9]. Samuel does so; and shows them what they may expect from an absolute monarch, and how afflicted they should be under his administration, [1Sam 8:10-18]. The people refuse to recede from their demand; and Samuel lays the matter before the Lord, and dismisses them, [1Sam 8:19-22].

### Verse 1

[¶3] When Samuel was old - Supposed to be about sixty.

[¶4] He made his sons judges - He appointed them as his lieutenants to superintend certain affairs in Beer-sheba, which he could not conveniently attend to himself. But they were never judges in the proper sense of the word; Samuel was the last judge in Israel, and he judged it to the day of his death. See [1Sam 7:16].

### Verse 3

[¶6] His sons walked not in his ways - Their iniquity is pointed out in three words:

[¶7] 1. They turned aside after lucre; the original (בצע batsa) signifies to cut, clip, break off; and therefore Mr. Parkhurst thinks that it means nearly the same with our clipping of coin. It however expresses here the idea of avarice, of getting money by hook or by crook. The Targum says, "They looked after ממון דשקר mamon dishkar, the mammon of unrighteousness;" of which they did not make unto themselves friends but enemies; see the note on [Mat 6:24].

[¶8] 2. They took bribes; שחד shochad, gifts or presents, to blind their eyes.

[¶9] 3. They perverted judgment - they turned judgment aside; they put it out of its regular path; they sold it to the highest bidder: thus the wicked rich man had his cause, and the poor man was oppressed and deprived of his right.

[¶10] This was the custom in our own country before Magna Charta was obtained; he that would speed in the king's court must bribe all the officers, and fee both the king and queen! I have found in our ancient records the most barefaced and shameful examples of this kind; but it was totally abolished, invito rege, by that provision in the above charter which states, Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimvs ant differemus rectum aut judicium; "To no man will we sell, to no man will we deny or defer, justice and right." It was customary in those inauspicious times, for judgment to be delayed in banco regis, in the king's court, as long as there was any hope that more money would be paid in order to bring it to issue. And there were cases, where the king did not like the party, in which he denied justice and judgment entirely! Magna Charta brought them to book, and brought the subject to his right.

[¶11] Of those times it might well be said, as Homer did, Iliad xvi., ver. 387. Οἱ βιῃ αγορη σκολιας κρινωσι θεμιστας, Εκ δε δικην ελασωσι, θεων οπιν ουκ αλεγοντες. "When guilty mortals break the eternal laws,

[¶12] Or judges, bribed, betray the righteous cause." "When the laws are perverted by force; when justice is expelled from her seat; when judges are swayed from the right, regardless of the vengeance of Heaven." Or, in other words, these were times in which the streams of justice were poisoned in their source, and judges neither feared God nor regarded man.

### Verse 5

[¶14] Make us a king - Hitherto, from the time in which they were a people, the Israelites were under a theocracy, they had no other king but God. Now they desire to have a king like the other nations around them, who may be their general in battle; for this is the point at which they principally aim.

### Verse 6

[¶16] The thing displeased Samuel - Because he saw that this amounted to a formal renunciation of the Divine government.

[¶17] Samuel prayed unto the Lord - He begged to know his mind in this important business.

### Verse 7

[¶19] They have rejected me - They wish to put that government in the hands of a mortal, which was always in the hands of their God. But hearken unto their voice - grant them what they request. So we find God grants that in his displeasure which he withholds in his mercy.

### Verse 9

[¶21] Show them the manner of the king - The word משפט mishpat, which we here render manner, signifies simply what the king would and might require, according to the manner in which kings in general ruled; all of whom, in those times, were absolute and despotic.

[¶22] The whole of this manner of the king is well illustrated by Puffendorf. "Hitherto," says he, "the people of Israel had lived under governors raised up of God, who had exacted no tribute of them, nor put them to any charge; but, little content with this form of government. they desire to have a king like other nations, who should live in magnificence and pomp, keep armies, and be able to resist any invasion. Samuel informs them what it was they desired; that when they understood it, they might consider whether they would persist in their choice If they would have a king splendidly attended, he tells them that he would take their sons for his chariots, etc.; if they would have him keep up constant forces, then he would appoint them for colonels and captains, and employ those in his wars who were accustomed to follow their family business; and since, after the manner of other kings, he must keep a stately court, they must be content that their daughters should serve in several offices, which the king would think below the dignity of his wives and daughters, [1Sam 8:13]. Many ministers also, in several departments, both of war and peace, must have salaries to support them, which must be paid out of their fields and vineyards, [1Sam 8:14]. In one word, that to sustain his dignity their king would exact the tenth of all they possessed, and be maintained in a royal manner out of their estates."

[¶23] It is perfectly vain in Grotius, or any one else, to state that this shows what a king, as king, may any where in virtue of his office, claim and exact; and that he can take the property and persons of his subjects, and dispose of them as he may judge necessary for the exigence of the state. This was the manner of Saul, but Saul was not a king of God's choosing: "He gave him in his wrath, and took him away in his displeasure;" and the manner of such a king should not be arrogated by any potentate who affects to rule jure divino, by Divine right. The manner of the king of God's choice is distinctly detailed, [Deu 17:15-20], to which the reader will do well to refer, that he may have an impartial statement of the subject.

### Verse 19

[¶25] The people refused to obey - They would have the king, his manner and all, notwithstanding the solemn warning which they here receive.

### Verse 20

[¶27] May judge us - This appears to be a rejection of Samuel.

[¶28] Go out before us - Be in every respect our head and governor.

[¶29] And fight our battles - Be the general of our armies.

### Verse 21

[¶31] Rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord - He went to the altar, and in his secret devotion laid the whole business before God.

### Verse 22

[¶33] Hearken unto their voice - Let them have what they desire, and let them abide the consequences.

[¶34] Go ye every man unto his city - It seems the elders of the people had tarried all this time with Samuel, and when he had received his ultimate answer from God, he told them of it and dismissed them.

[¶35] On this account we may observe:

[¶36] 1. That God did not change the government of Israel; it was the people themselves who changed it.

[¶37] 2. That though God permitted them to have a king, yet he did not approve of him.

[¶38] 3. That, notwithstanding he did not suffer them to choose the man, he ordered his servant Samuel to choose him by lot, he disposing of that lot.

[¶39] 4. That God never gave up the supreme government; he was still King in Israel, and the king, so called, was only the vicegerent or deputy of the Lord.

[¶40] 5. That no king of Judah attempted to be supreme, therefore they never made new laws, nor altered the old; which was a positive confession that God was the supreme Legislator.

[¶41] 6. That an absolute monarchy is always an evil, and is contrary to all the rights, civil and religious, of mankind; a mode of government that all people should avoid, as pregnant with evils to mankind.

[¶42] 7. That although it was a sin in the Israelites to desire a king, that is, to change a constitution of which God was the author, yet kingly government, properly understood, is a good of the first magnitude to the civil happiness of mankind.

[¶43] 8. That by kingly government, properly understood, I mean such a monarchical government as that of Great Britain, where the king, the nobles, and the people, are duly mixed, each having his proper part in the government, and each preventing the other from running to excess, and all limited by law.

[¶44] 9. That the three grand forms of government which have obtained among mankind, viz., monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, have each certain advantages without which no state can be well preserved; but they have evils by which any state may be injured.

## 291. 1 Samuel · 13 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/291/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/291/#p-N

[¶0] 10. That, from a proper mixture of these, the advantages of the whole may be reaped without any of their attendant evils, and that this is the British constitution; which, not merely the wisdom of our ancestors, but the providence of God has given unto us, and of which no other state has had common sense enough to avail themselves, though they see that because of this the British empire is the most powerful and the most happy in the universe, and likely at last to give laws to the whole world.

[¶1] The manner of our king is constitutional, widely different from that of Saul, and from that of any other potentate in the four quarters of the globe. He is the father of his people, and the people feel and love him as such. He has all the power necessary to do good; they have all the liberty necessary to their political happiness, had they only a diminution of taxes, which at present are too heavy for any nation to bear.

### Introduction

[¶3] Saul's lineage and description; he is sent by his father to seek some lost asses, [1Sam 9:1-5]. Not finding them, he purposes to go and consult Samuel concerning the proper method of proceeding, [1Sam 9:6-14]. The Lord informs Samuel that he should anoint Saul king, [1Sam 9:15], [1Sam 9:16]. Samuel invites Saul to dine with him, and informs him that the asses are found; and gives him an intimation that he is to be king, [1Sam 9:17-21]. Saul dines with Samuel, and afterwards he is taken to the house-top, where both commune together, [1Sam 9:22-27].

### Verse 1

[¶5] A mighty man of power - Literally, a strong man; this appears to be the only power he possessed; and the physical strength of the father may account for the extraordinary size of the son. See [1Sam 9:2].

### Verse 2

[¶7] From his shoulders and upwards - It was probably from this very circumstance that he was chosen for king; for, where kings were elective, in all ancient times great respect was paid to personal appearance.

### Verse 3

[¶9] The asses of Kish - were lost - What a wonderful train of occurrences were connected in order to bring Saul to the throne of Israel! Every thing seems to go on according to the common course of events, and yet all conspired to favor the election of a man to the kingdom who certainly did not come there by the approbation of God.

[¶10] Asses grow to great perfection in the East; and at this time, as there were no horses in Judea, they were very useful; and on them kings and princes rode.

### Verse 5

[¶12] Were come to the land of Zuph - Calmet supposes that Saul and his servant went from Gibeah to Shalisha, in the tribe of Dan; from thence to Shalim, near to Jerusalem; and thence, traversing the tribe of Benjamin, they purposed to return to Gibeah; but passing through the land of Zuph, in which Ramatha, the country of Samuel, was situated, they determined to call on this prophet to gain some directions from him; the whole of this circuit he supposes to have amounted to no more than about twenty-five leagues, or three days' journey. We do not know where the places were situated which are here mentioned: the Targum translates thus: "And he passed through the mount of the house of Ephraim, and went into the southern land, but did not meet with them. And he passed through the land of Mathbera, but they were not there; and he passed through the land of the tribe of Benjamin, but did not find them; then they came into the land where the prophet of the Lord dwelt. And Saul said to his servant," etc.

### Verse 7

[¶14] There is not a present to bring to the man of God - We are not to suppose from this that the prophets took money to predict future events: Saul only refers to an invariable custom, that no man approached a superior without a present of some kind or other. We have often seen this before; even God, who needs nothing, would not that his people should approach him with empty hands. "It is very common in Bengal for a person, who is desirous of asking a favor from a superior, to take a present of fruits or sweetmeats in his hand. If not accepted, the feelings of the offerer are greatly wounded. The making of presents to appease a superior is also very common in Bengal." - Ward's Customs.

### Verse 8

[¶16] The fourth part of a shekel of silver - We find from the preceding verse, that the bread or provisions which they had brought with them for their journey was expended, else a part of that would have been thought a suitable present; and here the fourth part of a shekel of silver, about ninepence of our money, was deemed sufficient: therefore the present was intended more as a token of respect than as an emolument.

### Verse 9

[¶18] Beforetime in Israel - This passage could not have been a part of this book originally: but we have already conjectured that Samuel, or some contemporary author, wrote the memoranda, out of which a later author compiled this book. This hypothesis, sufficiently reasonable in itself, solves all difficulties of this kind.

[¶19] Was beforetime called a seer - The word seer, ראה roeh, occurs for the first time in this place; it literally signifies a person who Sees; particularly preternatural sights. A seer and a prophet were the same in most cases; only with this difference, the seer was always a prophet, but the prophet was not always a seer. A seer seems to imply one who frequently met with, and saw, some symbolical representation of God. The term prophet was used a long time before this; Abraham is called a prophet, [Gen 20:7], and the term frequently occurs in the law. Besides, the word seer does not occur before this time; but often occurs afterwards down through the prophets, for more than three hundred years. See [Amo 7:12]; [Mic 3:7].

[¶20] All prophets, false and true, profess to see God; see the case of Balaam, [Num 24:4], [Num 24:16], and [Jer 14:14]. All diviners, in their enthusiastic flights, boasted that they had those things exhibited to their sight which should come to pass. There is a remarkable account in Virgil which may serve as a specimen of the whole; the Sibyl professes to be a seer: - - Bella, horrida bella,

[¶21] Et Tyberim molto spumantem sanguine

[¶22] Cerno. Aen. lib. vi., ver. 86.

[¶23] Wars, horrid wars, I View; a field of blood;

[¶24] And Tyber rolling with a purple flood.

[¶25] I think the 9th verse comes more naturally in after the 11th.

### Verse 11

[¶27] Young maidens going out to draw water - So far is it from being true, that young women were always kept closely shut up at home, that we find them often in the field, drawing and carrying water, as here.

### Verse 12

[¶29] He came to - day to the city - Though Samuel lived chiefly in Ramah, yet he had a dwelling in the country, at a place called Naioth, where it is probable there was a school of the prophets. See [1Sam 19:18-24].

[¶30] A sacrifice of the people - A great feast. The animals used were first sacrificed to the Lord; that is, their blood was poured out before him; and then all the people fed on the flesh. By high place probably Samuel's altar is alone meant; which no doubt was raised on an eminence.

### Verse 13

[¶32] He doth bless the sacrifice - He alone can perform the religious rites which are used on this occasion.

[¶33] Afterwards they eat that be bidden - Among the Arabs, often a large feast is made of sacrificed camels, etc., and then the people of the vicinity are invited to come and partake of the sacrifice. This is the custom to which allusion is made here.

### Verse 14

[¶35] Come out against them - Met them.

### Verse 15

[¶37] Now the Lord had told Samuel - How this communication was made, we cannot tell.

### Verse 16

[¶39] Thou shalt anoint him to be captain - Not to be king, but to be נגיד nagid or captain of the Lord's host. But in ancient times no king was esteemed who was not an able warrior. Plutarch informs us that Alexander the Great esteemed the following verse the most correct, as to its sentiment, of any in the whole Iliad of Homer: - Ουτος γ' Ατρειδης ευρυκρειων Αγαμεμνων, Αμφοτερον βασιλευς τ' αγαθος, κρατερος τ' αιχμητης. "The king of kings, Atrides, you survey;

[¶40] Great in the war, and great in acts of sway."

[¶41] Pope.

### Verse 17

[¶43] Behold the man whom I spake to thee of - What an intimate communion must Samuel have held with his God! A constant familiarity seems to have existed between them.

## 292. 1 Samuel · 14 of 37

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### Verse 19

[¶1] I am the seer - This declaration would prepare Saul for the communications afterwards made.

### Verse 20

[¶3] As for thine asses - Thus he shows him that he knew what was in his heart, God having previously revealed these things to Samuel.

[¶4] And on whom is all the desire of Israel? - Saul understood this as implying that he was chosen to be king.

### Verse 21

[¶6] Am not I a Benjamite - This speech of Saul is exceedingly modest; he was now becomingly humble; but who can bear elevation and prosperity? The tribe of Benjamin had not yet recovered its strength, after the ruinous war it had with the other tribes, Judges 20:29-46.

### Verse 22

[¶8] Brought them into the parlour - It might as well be called kitchen; it was the place where they sat down to feast.

### Verse 23

[¶10] Said unto the cook - טבח tabbach, here rendered cook; the singular of טבחות tabbachoth, female cooks, [1Sam 8:13], from the root tabach, to slay or butcher. Probably the butcher is here meant.

### Verse 24

[¶12] The shoulder, and that which was upon it - Probably the shoulder was covered with a part of the caul, that it might be the better roasted. The Targum has it the shoulder and its thigh; not only the shoulder merely, but the fore-leg bone to the knee; perhaps the whole fore-quarter. Why was the shoulder set before Saul? Not because it was the best part, but because it was an emblem of the government to which he was now called. See [Isa 9:6] : And the government shall be upon his Shoulder.

### Verse 25

[¶14] Upon the top of the house - All the houses in the East were flat-roofed; on these people walked, talked, and frequently slept, for the sake of fresh and cooling air.

### Verse 26

[¶16] Called Saul to the top of the house - Saul had no doubt slept there all night; and now, it being the break of day, "Samuel called to Saul on the top of the house, saying, Up, that I may send thee away." There was no calling him to the house-top a second time he was sleeping there, and Samuel called him up.

### Verse 27

[¶18] As they were going down - So it appears that Saul arose immediately, and Samuel accompanied him out of the town, and sent the servant on that he might show Saul the word, the counsel or design, of the Lord. What this was we shall see in the following chapter, 1 Samuel 10 (note).

### Introduction

[¶20] Samuel anoints Saul captain of the Lord's inheritance, [1Sam 10:1]. Instructs him concerning his return home, whom he should meet, and what he should do, [1Sam 10:2-8]. Saul meets a company of prophets, the Spirit of the Lord comes on him, and he prophesies among them, [1Sam 10:9-13]. He meets his uncle, and converses with him, [1Sam 10:14-16]. Samuel calls the people together to Mizpeh, and upbraids them for having rejected the Lord as their king, [1Sam 10:17-19]. Lots are cast to find out the person proper to be appointed king; Saul is chosen, [1Sam 10:20-24]. Samuel shows the manner of the king, and writes it in a book, [1Sam 10:25]. Saul goes to Gibeah; and certain persons refuse to acknowledge him as king, [1Sam 10:26], [1Sam 10:27].

### Verse 1

[¶22] Took a vial of oil - The reasons of this rite the reader will find largely stated in the note on [Exo 29:7]. The anointing mentioned here took place in the open field. See the preceding chapter, [1Sam 9:26-27] (note). How simple was the ancient ceremony of consecrating a king! A prophet or priest poured oil upon his head, and kissed him; and said, Thus the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance. This was the whole of the ceremony. Even in this anointing, Saul is not acknowledged as king, but simply נגיד nagid, a captain - one who goes before and leads the people.

### Verse 2

[¶24] Rachel's sepulcher - This was nigh to Bethlehem. See [Gen 35:19].

[¶25] At Zelzah - If this be the name of a place, nothing is known of it.

[¶26] The Hebrew בצלצח betseltsach is translated by the Septuagint ἁλλομενους μεγαλα, dancing greatly: now this may refer to the joy they felt and expressed on finding the asses, or it may refer to those religious exultations, or playing on instruments of music, mentioned in the succeeding verses.

### Verse 3

[¶28] Three men going up to God to Bethel - Jacob's altar was probably there still, [Gen 28:19]. However this might be, it was still considered, as its name implies, the house of God; and to it they were now going, to offer sacrifice.

[¶29] The three kids were for sacrifice; the three loaves of bread to be offered probably as a thank-offering; and the bottle or skin full of wine, for a libation. When the blood was poured out before the Lord, then they feasted on the flesh and on the bread; and probably had a sufficiency of the wine left for their own drinking.

### Verse 4

[¶31] And they will salute thee - ושאלו לך לשלום veshaalu lecha leshalom, "And they will inquire of thee concerning peace," i.e., welfare. In the East, if this salutation be given, then the person or persons giving it may be reckoned friends; if the others return it, then there is friendship on both sides. Salaam alicum, Peace to you! is the mode of compellation: Alicum essalaam, To you be peace! is the return. If you give the former and receive not the latter, you may expect hostility. The meaning of the prophet is, When you come to the plain of Tabor, ye shall meet three men; you need not be afraid of them, for they are friends; and they will show this friendship, not only by bidding you good speed, but by giving you two loaves of bread, a provision which you will need for the remaining part of your journey.

### Verse 5

[¶33] The hill of God - The Targum says, "The hill on which the ark of the Lord was. Calmet supposes it to be a height near Gibeah.

[¶34] The garrison of the Philistines - Probably they kept a watch on the top of this hill, with a company of soldiers to keep the country in check.

[¶35] A company of prophets - A company of scribes, says the Targum. Probably the scholars of the prophets; for the prophets seem to have been the only accredited teachers, at particular times, in Israel; and at this time there does not appear to have been any other prophet besides Samuel in this quarter. Probably the teacher of this school was not an inspired man, but one acting under the direction of Samuel. Mr. Harmer thinks that the following custom among the Mohammedans greatly illustrates this obscure place: "When the children have gone through the Koran, their relations borrow a fine horse and furniture, and carry them about the town in procession, with the book in their hand, the rest of their companions following, and all sorts of music of the country going before. Dr. Shaw, in p. 195, mentions the same custom; adding the acclamations of their school-fellows, but taking no notice of the music. We have no reason, however, to doubt the fact on account of the doctor's silence; especially as it relates to another part of Barbary, and is given us by those who resided some years in that country. The doctor makes no use of this circumstance relating to the education of youth in Barbary; but the account of the procession above given seems to be a lively comment on that ancient Jewish custom mentioned in these verses. That the word prophet often signifies sons or scholars of the prophets, and that prophesying often implies singing, has been already remarked; but no author that I know of has given any account of the nature of this procession, or its design. We are sometimes told that high places were used for sacrifices; and in one case music, it is certain, played before them when they went up to worship, [Isa 30:29]. But did they not also return from sacrifice with it? We are told that music was used by the prophets to calm and compose them, and to invite the Divine influences; which is indeed very true. But is it to the purpose? Did they go forth in this manner from their college into the noise and interruptions of the world, to call down the prophetic impulse? But if we consider them as a company of the sons of the prophets, going in procession with songs of praise and music playing before them, and recollect that it is usual in this day for young scholars to go in procession with acclamations and music, the whole mystery seems to be unravelled. To which may be added, that Saul was to meet them, and find himself turned into another man; into a man, perhaps, who is instantaneously made as knowing in the law of God as the youth to whom they were doing the above honors, or any of his convoy; which acquaintance with the law of God was very necessary for one who was to judge among his brethren as their king. For this reason the Jewish kings were to write out a copy of the law of God, and read it continually, that they might be perfect masters of it, [Deu 17:18], [Deu 17:20], which accomplishment some youth had gained whom Saul met with, and who was honored with the solemnity the sacred historian speaks of, if the customs of South Barbary may be supposed to be explanatory of those of Judea."

[¶36] On the word prophet, and the general account given here, I shall introduce the following illustrations from another work: - "The word prophet generally conveys the idea of a person so far acquainted with futurity as to discern some purpose of the Divine Being relative to his government of the natural and moral world, but which is not sufficiently matured by the economy of Providence to make, as yet, its public appearance among men, and to prophesy is usually understood to imply the foretelling such an event, the time of its appearance, and the place of its operation, with some preceding and subsequent circumstances. But that this was the original and only meaning of the word prophet or prophesy, is very far from being clear. The first place the word occurs in is [Gen 20:7], where the Lord says of Abraham to Abimelech, He is a prophet, (נביא הוא nabi hu), and will pray (ויתפלל veyith-pallel, will make earnest intercession) for thee. In the common acceptation of the word it is certain Abraham was no prophet; but here it seems to signify a man well acquainted with the Supreme Being, capable of teaching others in Divine things, and especially a man of prayer - one who had great influence with the God he worshipped, and whose intercessions were available in the behalf of others. And in this sense the original word נביא nabi is used in several places in the Old Testament. "It was through inattention to this meaning of the word, which appears to me to be the true, original, and ideal one, that all the commentators and critics that I have met with have been so sadly puzzled with that part of the history of Saul which is related [1Sam 10:9-13]; [1Sam 19:20-24]. In these passages the sacred historian represents Saul, who was neither a prophet nor the son of one, associating with the prophets, and prophesying among them, to which he was led by the Spirit of the Lord which came upon him. "That this can mean no more here than prayer and supplication to God, accompanied probably with edifying hymns of praise and thanksgiving, (for they had instruments of music, [1Sam 10:5]), needs, in my opinion, little proof. If Saul had prophesied in the common acceptation of the word, it is not likely that we should have been kept absolutely in the dark concerning the subject and design of his predictions, of which, by the way, not one syllable is spoken in the oracles of God. The simple fact seems to have been this: God, who had chosen this man to govern Israel, designed to teach him that the Most High alone is the fountain of power, and that by him only kings could reign so as to execute justice properly, and be his ministers for good to the people. To accomplish this gracious purpose, he gave him another heart ([1Sam 10:9])-a disposition totally different from what he had ever before possessed, and taught him to pray. "Coming among the sons of the prophets, on whom the Spirit of the Lord rested, and who were under the instruction of Samuel, ([1Sam 19:20]), while they worshipped God with music and supplication, Saul also was made a partaker of the same Divine influence, and prophesied, i.e., made prayer and supplication among them. To see one who did not belong to the prophetic school thus incorporated with the prophets, pouring out his soul in prayer and supplication, was an unusual sight, which could not pass unnoticed, especially by those of Saul's acquaintance who probably knew him in times past to have been as careless and ungodly as themselves, (for it was only now he got that other good Spirit from God, a sufficient proof that he had it not before). These companions of his, being unacquainted with that grace which can in a moment influence and change the heart, would, according to an invariable custom, express their astonishment with a sneer: Is Saul also among the prophets? That is, in modern language, 'Can this man pray or preach? He whose education has been the same as our own, employed in the same secular offices, and formerly companion with us in what he now affects to call folly and sin? Can such a person be among the prophets?' Yes, for God may have given him a new heart; and the Spirit of God, whose inspiration alone can give sound understanding in sacred things, may have come upon him for this very purpose, that he might announce unto you the righteousness of the Lord, and speak unto your ruined souls to edification, and to exhortation, and to comfort. "The history of Elijah and the priests of Baal, mentioned in 1 Kings 18:17-40, throws farther light on this subject. In [1Kgs 18:26] it is said, 'They (the priests of Baal) took a bullock and dressed it, and called on the name of Baal, from morning to noon, saying, O Baal, hear us! And they leaped upon the altar, and cried aloud, and cut themselves with knives, till the blood gushed out; and they prophesied (ויתנבאו vaiyithnabbeu, and they made supplication) until the time of the evening sacrifice.' From the whole context it is plain that earnest, importunate prayer, is alone what is meant by prophesying in this text. See also [1Cor 14:3] (note). "And as all the prophets of God, whose principal business it was to instruct the people in the way of righteousness, were men of prayer, who were continually interceding with God in behalf of those to whom they ministered, the term נביא nabi became their proper appellative; and thus a part of their office, intercessors for the people, might have given rise to that name by which the Spirit of God thought proper in after times to distinguish those whom he sent, not only to pray for and instruct the people, but also to predict those future events which concerned the punishment of the incorrigible and the comfort and exaltation of his own servants." See a sermon which I have printed on [1Cor 14:3], entitled, "The Christian Prophet and his Work;" and see the note on [Gen 20:7].

[¶37] A psaltery - נבל nebel. As the word signifies in other places a bottle or flagon, it was probably something like the utricularia tibia or Bag-Pipe. It often occurs both with the Greeks and Romans, and was evidently borrowed from the Hebrews.

[¶38] A tabret - תף toph; a sort of drum or cymbal.

[¶39] A pipe - חליל chalil, from חל chal, to make a hole or opening; a sort of pipe, flute, hautboy, clarionet, or the like.

[¶40] A harp - כנור kinnor; a stringed instrument similar to our harp, or that on the model of which a harp was formed. On these different instruments I shall have occasion to speak more at large when I come to the Psalms.

### Verse 7

[¶42] Thou do as occasion serve thee - After God has shown thee all these signs that thou art under his especial guidance, fear not to undertake any thing that belongs to thy office, for God is with thee.

[¶43] What a number of circumstances thus precisely foretold! Does not this prove that Samuel was under the continual inspiration of the Almighty?

### Verse 8

[¶45] Seven days shalt thou tarry - I will come to thee within seven days, offer sacrifices, receive directions from the Lord, and deliver them to thee. It is likely that these seven days referred to the time in which Samuel came to Saul to Gilgal, offered sacrifices, and confirmed the kingdom to him, after he had defeated the Ammonites. See [1Sam 11:14], [1Sam 11:15].

## 293. 1 Samuel · 15 of 37

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### Verse 10

[¶1] Behold, a company of prophets - See on [1Sam 10:5] (note), etc.

### Verse 12

[¶3] But who is their father? - The Septuagint, in its principal editions, adds ου Κεις; is it not Kish? This makes the sense more complete.

### Verse 13

[¶5] He came to the high place - I suppose this to mean the place where Saul's father lived; as it is evident the next verse shows him to be at home.

### Verse 14

[¶7] Saul's uncle - The word דוד dod signifies a beloved one, love, a lover, friend, etc.; and is the same as David. It is supposed to mean uncle here; but I think it means some familiar friend.

### Verse 18

[¶9] I brought up Israel out of Egypt - These are similar to the upbraidings in [1Sam 8:7], etc.

### Verse 19

[¶11] Present yourselves - by your tribes - It appears that, in order to find out the proper person who should be made their king, they must determine by lot:

[¶12] 1. The tribe.

[¶13] 2. The thousands or grand divisions by families.

[¶14] 3. The smaller divisions by families. And,

[¶15] 4. The individual.

[¶16] When the lot was cast for the tribe, Benjamin was taken; when for the thousand, the division of Matri was taken; when for the family, the family of Kish was taken; when for the individual, Saul, the son of Kish, was taken.

### Verse 21

[¶18] When they sought him, he could not be found - Through modesty or fear he had secreted himself.

### Verse 22

[¶20] The Lord answered - What a continual access to God! and what condescension in his attention to all their requests!

[¶21] The stuff among which he had secreted himself may mean the carts, baggage, etc., brought by the people to Mizpeh.

### Verse 24

[¶23] God save the king - There is no such word here; no, nor in the whole Bible; nor is it countenanced by any of the versions. The words which we thus translate here and elsewhere are simply יחי המלך yechi hammelech, "May the king live;" and so all the versions, the Targum excepted, which says, May the king prosper! The French Vive le roi! is a proper version of the Hebrew.

### Verse 25

[¶25] The manner of the kingdom - It is the same word as in [1Sam 8:9]; and doubtless the same thing is implied as is there related. But possibly there was some kind of compact or covenant between them and Saul; and this was the thing that was written in a book, and laid up before the Lord, probably near the ark.

### Verse 26

[¶27] A band of men - Not a military band, as I imagine, but some secret friends, or companions, who were personally attached to him. Others think that all the men fit to bear arms are intended; but this seems inconsistent with the life that Saul led for some time afterwards; for he appears to have gone into his agricultural concerns, and waited for a call from the Divine providence. See [1Sam 11:5].

### Verse 27

[¶29] Brought him no presents - They gave him no proofs that they acknowledged either the Divine appointment or his authority. The Arab chiefs are, to this day, when on a march or excursion of any kind, supplied with every necessary by the free-will offerings or presents of the people in the villages or places where they encamp. Saul was now a public character, and had a right to support from the public. These sons of Belial refused to bear their part; they brought him no presents. He marked it, but at present held his peace; he was as if he were deaf: so says the text. He was prudent, and did not immediately assume all the consequence to which his office entitled him. It is probable, however, that tribute is meant by the word present. The people in general finding they had now a king, took it for granted that they must pay tribute or taxes to him. This was a part of the manner of the king which Samuel had shown them; the great majority had done so, but certain refractory people refused to pay any thing, on the pretense that such a person as Saul could not be a deliverer of Israel. How, say they, shall this man save us?

### Introduction

[¶31] Nahash, king of the Ammonites, besieges Jabesh-gilead; and proposes to its inhabitants the most degrading conditions of peace, [1Sam 11:1], [1Sam 11:2]. They apply to their brethren for help, [1Sam 11:3], [1Sam 11:4]. Saul hears of their distress; takes a yoke of oxen, hews them in pieces, and sends them throughout the coasts of Israel, with the threat that all who did not come to his standard should have his cattle served in like manner; in consequence of which he is soon at the head of an army of three hundred and thirty thousand men, [1Sam 11:5-8]. He sends to Jabesh-gilead, and promises help, [1Sam 11:9], [1Sam 11:10]. Saul attacks the Ammonites next morning, and gives them a total overthrow, [1Sam 11:11]. The people are greatly encouraged, and propose to put to death those who are opposed to Saul's government: but this he prevents, [1Sam 11:12], [1Sam 11:13]. Samuel leads the people to Gilgal: they offer sacrifices, and renew the kingdom to Saul, [1Sam 11:14], [1Sam 11:15].

### Verse 1

[¶33] Nahash the Ammonite - In the Vulgate this chapter begins thus: Et factum est quasi post mensem, "And it came to pass about a month after." This addition appears also in the principal copies of the Septuagint; though it is wanting in the Complutensian edition, both in the Greek and Latin, and is not acknowledged by any of the Oriental versions. But it is in Josephus, and probably was inserted from him into some copies of the Septuagint, and thence into the Vulgate. It appears to be of very little authority.

[¶34] We know little about Nahash; there was a king of this name among the Ammonites in the time of David, [2Sam 10:2], but probably not the same person. Nahash might have been a common name of the Ammonitish kings.

[¶35] Make a covenant with us - They found they were in no condition to risk a war; and they wish to have peace, and desire to know his conditions.

### Verse 2

[¶37] I may thrust out all your right eves - This cruel condition would serve at once as a badge of their slavery, and a means of incapacitating them from being effective warriors. Theodoret observes, "He who opposes his shield to the enemy with his left hand, thereby hides his left eye, and looks at his enemy with his right eye; he therefore who plucks out that right eye makes men useless in war." Josephus gives the same reason.

### Verse 3

[¶39] Give us seven days respite - Such promises are frequently made by besieged places: "We will surrender if not relieved in so many days;" and such conditions are generally received by the besiegers.

### Verse 4

[¶41] Then came the messengers to Gibeah - It does not appear that the people of Jabesh-gilead knew any thing of Saul's appointment to the kingdom, for the message is not directed to him but to the people.

[¶42] The people lifted up their voices and wept - They saw no hope of deliverance, and they expected that their reproach would be laid on all Israel.

### Verse 5

[¶44] Saul came after the herd - He had been bred up to an agricultural life, and after his consecration he returned to it, waiting for a call of Divine providence, which he considered he had now received in the message from Jabesh-gilead.

## 294. 1 Samuel · 16 of 37

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[¶0] It has often been remarked, that mighty kings and accomplished generals have been chosen from among those who were engaged in agricultural concerns. In these observations one fact is lost sight of, viz., that in ancient times agriculture was the only employment. Trade and commerce were scarcely known; therefore all descriptions of official dignities must be chosen out of this class, there being no other to choose them from. We need not wonder at these words of the poet: -

[¶1] Jura dabat populis posito modo consul aratro; Pascebatque suas ipse senator oves. "The consul, having now laid aside his plough, gives laws to the people; And the senator himself feeds his own sheep."

[¶2] Ovid, Fast. lib. i., v. 204-207.

### Verse 6

[¶4] The Spirit of God came upon Saul - He felt himself strongly excited to attempt the relief of his brethren.

[¶5] And his anger was kindled greatly - I believe this means no more than that his courage was greatly excited, he felt himself strong for fight, and confident of success.

### Verse 7

[¶7] He took a yoke of open - The sending the pieces of the oxen was an act similar to that of the Levite, [Jdg 19:29] (note), where see the note. And both customs are similar to the sending about of the bloody cross, to call the clans to battle, practiced by the ancient Highlanders of Scotland. See at the end of this chapter, [1Sam 11:15] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶9] The children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand - This was a vast army, but the Septuagint make it even more: "All the men of Israel were ἑξακοσιας χιλιαδας, Six Hundred thousand; and the men of Judah ἑβδομηκοντα χιλιαδας, Seventy thousand." Josephus goes yet higher with the number of the Israelites: "He found the number of those whom he had gathered together to be ἑβδομηκοντα μυριαδας Seven Hundred thousand." Those of the tribe of Judah he makes seventy thousand, with the Septuagint. These numbers are not all right; and I suspect even the Hebrew text to be exaggerated, by the mistake or design of some ancient scribe.

### Verse 10

[¶11] To-morrow we will come out unto you - They concealed the information they had received of Saul's promised assistance. They did come out unto them; but it was in a different manner to what the Ammonites expected.

### Verse 11

[¶13] Put the people in three companies - Intending to attack the Ammonites in three different points, and to give his own men more room to act.

[¶14] In the morning watch - He probably began his march in the evening, passed Jordan in the night, and reached the camp of the Ammonites by daybreak.

[¶15] That two of them were not left together - This proves that the rout was complete.

### Verse 12

[¶17] Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign - Now, flushed with victory and proud of their leader, they wished to give him a proof of their attachment by slaying, even in cool blood, the persons who were at first averse from his being intrusted with the supreme power! The common soldier is scarcely ever inspired by his victory to acts of magnanimity; he has shed blood - he wishes to shed more!

### Verse 13

[¶19] There shall not a man be put to death - This was as much to Saul's credit as the lately proposed measure was to the discredit of his soldiers.

### Verse 14

[¶21] Renew the kingdom - The unction of Saul, in the first instance, was a very private act; and his being appointed to be king was not known to the people in general. He had now shown himself worthy to command the people; and Samuel takes advantage of this circumstance to gain the general consent in his favor. Josephus says that Saul was anointed a second time at this convocation.

### Verse 15

[¶23] There they made Saul king - It is likely, from these words, that Saul was anointed a second time; he was now publicly acknowledged, and there was no gainsayer. Thus far Saul acted well, and the kingdom seemed to be confirmed in his hand; but soon through imprudence he lost it.

[¶24] On the custom referred to in [1Sam 11:7] I am favored with the following observations by a learned correspondent: - "It is considered that the authenticity of records respecting a peculiar people cannot be better illustrated, or the fidelity of the historian more clearly ascertained, than by proving that the manners and customs recorded are in unison with, or bear a resemblance to, the manners and customs of other nations of the same antiquity; or, what may be more correct, in a similar state of improvement; and the records of such rites and customs may possibly acquire an additional mark of authenticity, when the similarity is not so exact as to admit a presumption that the customs of one nation were merely copied from the other. "Sir Walter Scott, in the third canto of the Lady of the Lake, describes the rites, incantations, and imprecations, used prior to the fiery cross being circulated, to summon the rough warriors of ancient times to the service of their chief; and in the first note of this canto he alludes to this ancient custom which, in comparatively modern times, has been used in Scotland, and proves that a similar punishment of death or destruction of the houses for disobeying the summons was inflicted by the ancient Scandinavians, as recorded by Olaus Magnus, in his history of the Goths. A custom still more in point than the one cited may be found to have existed in a more ancient nation, whose history is supposed the most, if not the only authentic narrative of deeds of ancient times, and which also records the sanguinary manners of uncultivated nations; see the preceding chapter, [1Sam 10:1-8] (note). The similarity of the custom is to be found in the seventh verse; with the Highlanders a goat was slain; with the Israelites, an ox. The exhibition of a cross stained with the blood of the sacrificed animal was the summons of the former, while part of the animal was the mandate of the latter. Disobedience in the one nation was punished with the death of the parties, and burning of their dwellings; in the other, the punishment was more simple, and more allusive to the sacrificed emblem, the forfeiture or destruction of their oxen. It is not difficult to judge whether the comparison be correct. "The first verses record the sanguinary practices of ancient times, which to many appear merely as the gratification of revenge, or as proofs of victory; yet when it is considered that the right eye must chiefly aid the warrior in aiming at his adversary, whether the weapon be of ancient or modern warfare, here arises a military reason, corroborative of the truth of history, for the deprivation, and in some degree lessening the cruelty of the mutilation, which would be increased if it were caused by revenge or wantonness; though Nahash declares it to be a reproach upon all Israel."

### Introduction

[¶26] Samuel, grown old, testifies his integrity before the people, which they confirm, [1Sam 12:1-5]. He reproves them for their ingratitude and disobedience; and gives a summary of the history of their fathers, [1Sam 12:6-12]. He exhorts them to future obedience, and calls for a sign from heaven to confirm his authority, and to show them their disobedience: God sends an extraordinary thunder and rain, [1Sam 12:13-19]. He warns them against idolatry, and exhorts to obedience, and promises to intercede for them, [1Sam 12:20-23]. Sums up their duty, and concludes with a solemn warning, [1Sam 12:24], [1Sam 12:25].

### Verse 1

[¶28] And Samuel said - It is very likely that it was at this public meeting Samuel delivered the following address; no other time seems to be given for it, and this is the most proper that could be chosen.

### Verse 2

[¶30] My sons are with you - It is generally agreed that these words intimate that Samuel had deprived them of their public employ, and reduced them to a level with the common people.

[¶31] Have walked before you from my childhood - He had been a long, steady, and immaculate servant of the public.

### Verse 3

[¶33] Witness against me - Did ever a minister of state, in any part of the world, resign his office with so much self-consciousness of integrity, backed with the universal approbation of the public? No man was oppressed under his government, no man defrauded! He had accumulated no riches for himself; he had procured none for his friends; nor had one needy dependant been provided for out of the public purse. He might have pardoned his own sons, who had acted improperly, before he quitted the government; but though he was the most tender of parents, he would not, but abandoned them to national justice, with only a tacit solicitation of mercy: Behold, my sons are with you! They have acted improperly; I deprived them of their authority; they are amenable to you for their past conduct; I have walked uprightly and disinterestedly among you; they have not followed my steps: but can you forgive them for their father's sake? As a minister of justice, he abandons them to their fate; as a tender father, he indirectly and modestly pleads for them on the ground of his own services. Had he not acted thus in both these relations, he would have been unworthy of that character which he so deservedly bears.

### Verse 4

[¶35] They said, Thou hast not defrauded - Of what minister or governor can any nation under heaven say such things?

### Verse 7

[¶37] Now therefore stand still - I have arraigned myself before God and you; I now arraign you before God.

### Verse 8

[¶39] The Lord sent Moses and Aaron - He shows them that through all their history God had ever raised them up deliverers, when their necessities required such interference.

### Verse 9

[¶41] The hand of Sisera - See these transactions in the book of Judges, [Jdg 4:2] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶43] Jerubbaal - That is, Gideon. And Bedan: instead of Bedan, whose name occurs nowhere else as a judge or deliverer of Israel, the Septuagint have Barak; the same reading is found in the Syriac and Arabic. The Targum has Samson. Many commentators are of this opinion; but Calmet thinks that Jair is intended, who judged Israel twenty-two years, [Jdg 10:3]. Instead of Samuel the Syriac and Arabic have Samson; and it is most natural to suppose that Samuel does not mention himself in this place. St. Paul's authority confirms these alterations: The time would fail me, says he, to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David, etc.

## 295. 1 Samuel · 17 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/295/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/295/#p-N

### Verse 12

[¶1] When ye saw that Nahash - This was not the first time they had demanded a king; see before, [1Sam 8:5]. But at the crisis mentioned here they became more importunate; and it was in consequence of this that the kingdom was a second time confirmed to Saul. Saul was elected at Mizpeh, he was confirmed at Gilgal.

### Verse 14

[¶3] If ye will fear the Lord, etc. - On condition that ye rebel no more, God will take you and your king under his merciful protection, and he and his kingdom shall be confirmed and continued.

### Verse 16

[¶5] This great thing - This unusual occurrence.

### Verse 17

[¶7] Is it not wheat harvest to-day? - That is, This is the time of wheat harvest. According to St. Jerome, who spent several years in the promised land, this harvest commenced about the end of June or beginning of July, in which he says he never saw rain in Judea: Nunquam enim in fine mensis Junii, sive in mense Julio, in his provinciis, maximeque in Judea, pluvias vidimus. - Hier. in [Amo 4:7]; where he refers to this very history. What occurred now hardly ever occurs there but in the winter months.

### Verse 18

[¶9] The Lord sent thunder and rain that day - This was totally unusual; and, as it came at the call of Samuel, was a most evident miracle.

[¶10] Greatly feared the Lord - They dreaded His terrible majesty; and they feared Samuel, perceiving that he had so much power with God.

### Verse 19

[¶12] Pray for thy servants - that we die not - As they knew they had rebelled against God, they saw that they had every thing to fear from his justice and power.

[¶13] We have added unto all our sins this evil - It is no sin to have a king; a good king is one of the greatest blessings of God's providence; but it is a sin to put a man in the place of God. Is it not strange that they did not now attempt to repair their fault? They might have done it, but they did not; they acknowledged their sin, but did not put it away. This is the general way of mankind. "God help us, we are all sinners!" is the general language of all people: but though to be a sinner is to be in the most solemn and awful circumstances, yet they are contented to bear the character, heedless of the consequences!

### Verse 20

[¶15] Ye have done all this wickedness - That is, although ye have done all this wickedness: what was past God would pass by, provided they would be obedient in future.

### Verse 21

[¶17] After vain things - That is, idols; which he calls here התהו hattohu, the same expression found [Gen 1:2]. The earth was תהו tohu; it was waste, empty, and formless: so idols; they are confusion, and things of naught, for an idol is nothing in the world, it is not the representative of any intelligent being.

### Verse 22

[¶19] The Lord will not forsake his people - He will not as yet cast you off, though you have deserved it. His purpose in preserving them in their land and religion was not yet accomplished. It was not however for their sake that he would not cast them off, but for his own great name's sake. He drew his reasons from himself.

### Verse 23

[¶21] God forbid that I should sin - They had earnestly begged him, [1Sam 12:19], to pray to God for them, that they might not die; and he tells them that he should consider himself a sinner, should he cease to be their intercessor.

[¶22] But I will teach you the good and the right way - I will show you, as long as I am with you, what true religion is; it is the way to happiness and heaven. It is right - there is no crookedness in it; it is good - there is no evil in it.

### Verse 24

[¶24] Only fear the Lord - Know, respect, and reverence him.

[¶25] Serve him - Consider him your Lord and Master; consider yourselves his servants.

[¶26] In truth - Be ever honest, ever sincere; with all your heart - have every affection engaged in the work of obedience; act not merely from a principle of duty, but also from a pious, affectionate sense of obligation. Act towards your God as an affectionate child should act towards a tender and loving parent.

[¶27] Consider how great things - Review the history of your fathers, review your own life; see what interpositions of power, mercy, goodness, and truth, God has displayed in your behalf! Has he not daily loaded you with his benefits?

### Verse 25

[¶29] Ye shall be consumed - If ye do wickedly you shall be destroyed, your kingdom destroyed, and your king destroyed. Here they had set before them life and good, death and evil. Never was a people more fully warned, and never did a people profit less by the warning; and they continue to this day monuments of God's justice and forbearance. Reader, What art thou? Perhaps a similar monument. Consider therefore what great things God has done for thee.

### Introduction

[¶31] Saul chooses a body of troops, [1Sam 13:1], [1Sam 13:2]. Jonathan smites a garrison of the Philistines, [1Sam 13:3], [1Sam 13:4]. The Philistines gather together an immense host against Israel, [1Sam 13:5]. The Israelites are afraid; and some hide themselves in caves, and others flee over Jordan, [1Sam 13:6], [1Sam 13:7]. Samuel delaying his coming, Saul offers sacrifice, [1Sam 13:8], [1Sam 13:9]. Samuel comes and reproves him, and Saul excuses himself, [1Sam 13:10-12]. Samuel shows him that God has rejected him from being captain over his people, [1Sam 13:13], [1Sam 13:14]. Samuel departs; and Saul and Jonathan, with six hundred men abide in Gibeah, [1Sam 13:15], [1Sam 13:16]. The Philistines send out foraging companies, and waste the land, [1Sam 13:17], [1Sam 13:18]. Desolate state of the Israelitish army, having no weapons of defense against their enemies, [1Sam 13:19-23].

### Verse 1

[¶33] Saul reigned one year - A great deal of learned labor has been employed and lost on this verse, to reconcile it with propriety and common sense. I shall not recount the meanings put on it. I think this clause belongs to the preceding chapter, either as a part of the whole, or a chronological note added afterwards; as if the writer had said, These things (related in 1 Samuel 12:1-25) took place in the first year of Saul's reign: and then he proceeds in the next place to tell us what took place in the second year, the two most remarkable years of Saul's reign. In the first he is appointed, anointed, and twice confirmed, viz., at Mizpeh and at Gilgal; in the second, Israel is brought into the lowest state of degradation by the Philistines, Saul acts unconstitutionally, and is rejected from being king. These things were worthy of an especial chronological note.

[¶34] And when he had reigned - This should begin the chapter, and be read thus: "And when Saul had reigned two years over Israel, he chose him three thousand," etc. The Septuagint has left the clause out of the text entirely, and begins the chapter thus: "And Saul chose to himself three thousand men out of the men of Israel."

### Verse 2

[¶36] Two thousand were with Saul - Saul, no doubt, meditated the redemption of his country from the Philistines; and having chosen three thousand men, he thought best to divide them into companies, and send one against the Philistine garrison at Michmash, another against that at Beth-el, and the third against that at Gibeah: he perhaps hoped, by surprising these garrisons, to get swords and spears for his men, of which we find, ([1Sam 13:22]), they were entirely destitute.

### Verse 3

[¶38] Jonathan smote - He appears to have taken this garrison by surprise, for his men had no arms for a regular battle, or taking the place by storm. This is the first place in which this brave and excellent man appears; a man who bears one of the most amiable characters in the Bible.

[¶39] Let the Hebrews hear - Probably this means the people who dwelt beyond Jordan, who might very naturally be termed here העברים haibrim, from עבר abar, he passed over; those who are beyond the river Jordan: as Abraham was called עברי Ibri because he dwelt beyond the river Euphrates.

### Verse 4

[¶41] The people were called together - The smiting of this garrison was the commencement of a war, and in effect the shaking off of the Philistine yoke; and now the people found that they must stand together, and fight for their lives.

### Verse 5

[¶43] Thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen - There is no proportion here between the chariots and the cavalry. The largest armies ever brought into the field, even by mighty emperors, never were furnished with thirty thousand chariots.

[¶44] I think שלשים sheloshim, Thirty, is a false reading for שלש shalosh, Three. The Syriac has telotho alpin, and the Arabic thalathato alf, both signifying Three thousand; and this was a fair proportion to the horsemen. This is most likely to be the true reading.

## 296. 1 Samuel · 18 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/296/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/296/#p-N

### Verse 6

[¶1] The people did hide themselves - They, being few in number, and totally unarmed as to swords and spears, were terrified at the very numerous and well-appointed army of the Philistines. Judea was full of rocks, caves, thickets, etc., where people might shelter themselves from their enemies. While some hid themselves, others fled beyond Jordan: and those who did cleave to Saul followed him trembling.

### Verse 8

[¶3] He tarried seven days according to the set time - Samuel in the beginning had told Saul to wait seven days, and he would come to him, and show him what to do, [1Sam 10:8]. What is here said cannot be understood of that appointment, but of a different one. Samuel had at this time promised to come to him within seven days, and he kept his word, for we find him there before the day was ended; but as Saul found he did not come at the beginning of the seventh day, he became impatient, took the whole business into his own hand, and acted the parts of prophet, priest, and king; and thus he attempted a most essential change in the Israelitish constitution. In it the king, the prophet, and the priest, are in their nature perfectly distinct. What such a rash person might have done, if he had not been deprived of his authority, who can tell? But his conduct on this occasion sufficiently justifies that deprivation. That he was a rash and headstrong man is also proved by his senseless adjuration of the people about food, [1Sam 14:24], and his unfeeling resolution to put the brave Jonathan, his own son, to death, because he had unwittingly acted contrary to this adjuration, [1Sam 14:44]. Saul appears to have been a brave and honest man, but he had few of those qualities which are proper for a king, or the governor of a people.

### Verse 9

[¶5] And he offered the burnt-offering - This was most perfectly unconstitutional; he had no authority to offer, or cause to be offered, any of the Lord's sacrifices.

### Verse 10

[¶7] Behold, Samuel came - Samuel was punctual to his appointment; one hour longer of delay would have prevented every evil, and by it no good would have been lost. How often are the effects of precipitation fatal!

### Verse 11

[¶9] And Saul said - Here he offers three excuses for his conduct:

[¶10] 1. The people were fast leaving his standard.

[¶11] 2. Samuel did not come at the time, למועד lemoed; at the very commencement of the time he did not come, but within that time he did come.

[¶12] 3. The Philistines were coming fast upon him.

[¶13] Saul should have waited out the time; and at all events he should not have gone contrary to the counsel of the Lord.

### Verse 12

[¶15] I forced myself - It was with great reluctance that I did what I did. In all this Saul was sincere, but he was rash, and regardless of the precept of the Lord, which precept or command he most evidently had received, [1Sam 13:13]. And one part of this precept was, that the Lord should tell him what he should do. Without this information, in an affair under the immediate cognizance of God, he should have taken no step.

### Verse 14

[¶17] The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart - That this man was David is sufficiently clear from the sequel. But in what sense was he a man after God's own heart? Answer:

[¶18] 1. In his strict attention to the law and worship of God.

[¶19] 2. In his admitting, in the whole of his conduct, that God was King in Israel, and that he himself was but his vicegerent.

[¶20] 3. In never attempting to alter any of those laws, or in the least change the Israelitish constitution.

[¶21] 4. In all his public official conduct he acted according to the Divine mind, and fulfilled the will of his Maker: thus was he a man after God's own heart. In reference to his private or personal moral conduct, the word is never used. This is the sense alone in which the word is used here and elsewhere; and it is unfair and wicked to put another meaning on it in order to ridicule the revelation of God, as certain infidels have done.

### Verse 15

[¶23] And Samuel arose - Though David, in the Divine purpose, is appointed to be captain over the people, yet Saul is not to be removed from the government during his life; Samuel therefore accompanies him to Gibeah, to give him the requisite help in this conjuncture.

[¶24] About six hundred men - The whole of the Israelitish army at this time, and not one sword or spear among them!

### Verse 17

[¶26] The spoilers came out - The Philistines, finding that the Israelites durst not hazard a battle, divided their army into three bands, and sent them in three different directions to pillage and destroy the country. Jonathan profited by this circumstance, and attacked the remains of the army at Michmash, as we shall see in the succeeding chapter, 1 Samuel 14 (note).

### Verse 19

[¶28] Now there was no smith found - It is very likely that in the former wars the Philistines carried away all the smiths from Israel, as Porsenna did in the peace which he granted to the Romans, not permitting any iron to be forged except for the purposes of agriculture: "Ne ferro, nisi in agricultura, uterentur." The Chaldeans did the same to the Jews in the time of Nebuchadnezzar; they carried away all the artificers, [2Kgs 24:14]; [Jer 24:1]; [Jer 29:2]. And in the same manner did Cyrus treat the Lydians, Herod. lib. i., c. 145. See several examples in Calmet.

### Verse 20

[¶30] But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines - We find from this that they did not grant them as much as Porsenna did to the Romans; he permitted the people to manufacture the implements of husbandry.

### Verse 21

[¶32] Yet they had a file - The Hebrew פצירה petsirah, from פצר patsar, to rub hard, is translated very differently by the versions and by critics. Our translation may be as likely as any: they permitted them the use of files, (I believe the word means grindstone), to restore the blunted edges of their tridents, axes, and goads.

### Verse 22

[¶34] In the day of battle - these was neither sword nor spear - But if the Israelites enjoyed such profound peace and undisturbed dominion under Samuel, how is it that they were totally destitute of arms, a state which argues the lowest circumstances of oppression and vassalage? In answer to this we may observe, that the bow and the sling were the principal arms of the Israelites; for these they needed no smith: the most barbarous nations, who have never seen iron, have nevertheless bows and arrows; the arrow heads generally made of flint. Arrows of this kind are found among the inhabitants of the South Sea islands; and even axes, and different implements of war, all made of stone, cut and polished by stone, are frequent among them. The arms of the aboriginal Irish have been of this kind. I have frequently seen heads of axes and arrows of stone, which have been dug up out of the ground, formed with considerable taste and elegance. The former the common people term thunderbolts; the latter, elf-stones. Several of these from Ireland, from Zetland, and from the South Sea islands, are now before me.

[¶35] Now it is possible that the Israelites had still bows and arrows: these they could have without the smith; and it is as likely that they had slings, and for these they needed none. But then these were missiles; if they came into close fight, they would avail them nothing: for attacks of this kind they would require swords and spears; of these none were found but with Saul and Jonathan.

[¶36] We see, in this chapter, Israel brought to as low a state as they were under Eli; when they were totally discomfited, their priests slain, their ark taken, and the judge dead. After that, they rose by the strong hand of God; and in this way they are now to rise, principally by means of David, whose history will soon commence.

### Introduction

[¶38] Jonathan and his armor-bearer purpose to attack a garrison of the Philistines, [1Sam 14:1]. Saul and his army, with Ahiah the priest, tarry in Gibeah, [1Sam 14:2], [1Sam 14:3]. Jonathan plans his attack of the Philistine garrison, [1Sam 14:4-10]. He and his armor-bearer climb over a rock: attack and rout the garrison, [1Sam 14:11-15]. Saul and has company, seeing confusion on the Philistine host, come out against them; as did the men who had hidden themselves; and the Philistines are defeated, [1Sam 14:16-23]. Saul lays every man under a curse who shall eat food until the evening; in consequence of which the people are sorely distressed, [1Sam 14:24-26]. Jonathan, not hearing the adjuration, eats a little honey, which he found on the ground, [1Sam 14:27-30]. The Philistines being defeated, the people seize on the spoil, and begin to eat flesh without previously bleeding the animals, which Saul endeavors to prevent, [1Sam 14:31-34]. He builds an altar there, [1Sam 14:35]. Inquires of the Lord if he may pursue the Philistines by night, but receives no answer, [1Sam 14:36], [1Sam 14:37]. Attributes this to some sin committed by some unknown person: makes inquiry by lot; and finds that Jonathan had tasted the honey, on which he purposes to put him to death, [1Sam 14:38-44]. The people interpose, and rescue Jonathan, [1Sam 14:45]. Saul fights against the Moabites, Ammonites, and Amalekites, [1Sam 14:46-48]. An account of the family of Saul, [1Sam 14:49-52].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Come, and let us go over - This action of Jonathan was totally contrary to the laws of war; no military operation should be undertaken without the knowledge and command of the general. But it is likely that he was led to this by a Divine influence.

[¶41] The armor-bearer is the origin of what we call esquire, from escu, old French, a shield; armiger is the Latin, from arma, weapons, and gero, I bear. In the times of chivalry, the armiger, or esquire, was the servant of the knight who went after him, and carried his lance, shield, etc. It is now (strange to tell!) a title of honor.

### Verse 2

[¶43] Under a pomegranate tree - Under Rimmon, which not only signifies a pomegranate tree, but also a strong rock, in which six hundred Benjamites took shelter, [Jdg 20:45]. Probably it was in this very rock that Saul and his six hundred men now lay hidden.

### Verse 3

[¶45] Ahiah, the son of Ahitub - Phinehas, son of Eli the high priests had two sons, Ahitub and I-chabod; the latter was born when the ark was taken, and his mother died immediately after. Ahiah is also called Ahimelech, [1Sam 22:9].

## 297. 1 Samuel · 19 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/297/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/297/#p-N

[¶0] Wearing an ephod - That is, performing the functions of the high priest. This man does not appear to have been with Saul when he offered the sacrifices, [1Sam 13:9], etc.

### Verse 4

[¶2] The name of the one was Bozez - Slippery; and the name of the other Seneh, treading down. - Targum.

### Verse 6

[¶4] Let us go over - Moved, doubtless, by a Divine impulse.

[¶5] There is no restraint to the Lord - This is a fine sentiment; and where there is a promise of defense and support, the weakest, in the face of the strongest enemy, may rely on it with the utmost confidence.

### Verse 7

[¶7] Behold, I am with thee - I shall accompany thee whithersoever thou goest, and share all thy dangers.

### Verse 9

[¶9] If they say thus unto us - Jonathan had no doubt asked this as a sign from God; exactly as Eliezer the servant of Abraham did, [Gen 24:12].

### Verse 12

[¶11] Come up to us, and we will show you a thing - This was the favorable sign which Jonathan had requested. The Philistines seem to have meant, Come, and we will show you how well fortified we are, and how able to quell all the attacks of your countrymen.

### Verse 13

[¶13] Jonathan climbed up - It seems he had a part of the rock still to get over. When he got over he began to slay the guards, which were about twenty in number, these were of a sort of outpost or advanced guard to the garrison.

[¶14] Slew after him - Jonathan knocked them down, and the armor-bearer despatched them. This seems to be the meaning.

### Verse 14

[¶16] A half acre of land - The ancients measured land by the quantum which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day. The original is obscure, and is variously understood. It is probably a proverbial expression for a very small space.

### Verse 15

[¶18] There was trembling in the host - They were terrified and panic-struck; the people in general round about, those in the garrison, the spoilers, and the whole country, were struck with terror; the commotion was universal and most extraordinary. The trembling of the earth is probably not to be taken literally, but as a metaphor for a great commotion in the country, though God might have interposed in an extraordinary manner, and produced a real earthquake; but their being panic-struck was sufficient to produce all the requisite confusion and dismay.

### Verse 16

[¶20] The watchmen of Saul - Those who were sent out as scouts to observe the motions of the army.

[¶21] Melted away - There was no order in the Philistine camp, and the people were dispersing in all directions. The Vulgate has, Et ecce multitudo prostrata, "And behold the multitude were prostrate;" many lay dead upon the field, partly by the sword of Jonathan and his armor-bearer, and partly by the swords of each other, [1Sam 14:20].

### Verse 17

[¶23] Number now - Saul perceived that the Philistines were routed, but could not tell by what means; supposing that it must be by some of his own troops, he called a muster to see who and how many were absent.

### Verse 18

[¶25] Bring hither the ark of God - He wished to inquire what use he should make of the present favorable circumstances, and to proceed in the business as God should direct.

### Verse 19

[¶27] While Saul talked unto the priest - Before he had made an end of consulting him, the increasing noise of the panic-struck Philistines called his attention; and finding there was no time to lose, he immediately collected his men and fell on them.

### Verse 21

[¶29] The Hebrews that were with the Philistines - We may understand such as they held in bondage, or who were their servants. Instead of Hebrews the Septuagint read, οἱ δουλοι, the slaves; from which it is evident that, instead of עברים Ibrim, Hebrews, they found in their text עבדים abadim, servants. But this reading is not countenanced by any other version, nor by any MS. yet discovered.

### Verse 22

[¶31] The men - which had hid themselves - See [1Sam 13:6].

[¶32] The Vulgate and the Septuagint add here, And there were with Saul about ten thousand men; but this is supported by no other authority.

### Verse 24

[¶34] Saul had adjured the people - He was afraid, if they waited to refresh themselves, the Philistines would escape out of their hands, and therefore he made the taking any food till sunset a capital crime. This was the very means of defeating his own intention; for as the people were exhausted for want of food, they could not continue the pursuit of their enemies: had it not been for this foolish adjuration, there had been a greater slaughter of the Philistines, [1Sam 14:30].

### Verse 25

[¶36] There was honey upon the ground - There were many wild bees in that country, and Judea is expressly said to be a land flowing with milk and honey.

### Verse 26

[¶38] The honey dropped - It seems to have dropped from the trees on the ground. Honey dews, as they are called, are not uncommon in most countries; and this appears to have been something of this kind. I have seen honey in considerable quantity on the trees and long grass in the fields, and have often eaten of it.

### Verse 27

[¶40] His eyes were enlightened - Hunger and fatigue affect and dim the sight; on taking food, this affection is immediately removed. This most people know to be a fact.

### Verse 31

[¶42] They smote the Philistines - from Mishmash to Aijalon - The distance Calmet states to be three or four leagues.

### Verse 32

[¶44] The people did eat them with the blood - They were faint through hunger, and did not take time to bleed the cattle on which they fed. This was another bad effect of Saul's rash adjuration.

## 298. 1 Samuel · 20 of 37

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### Verse 33

[¶1] Roll a great stone unto me - Probably this means that they should set up an altar to the Lord, on which the animals might be properly slain, and the blood poured out upon the earth; and a large stone was erected for an altar.

### Verse 35

[¶3] Saul built an altar - And this we are informed was the first he had built; Samuel, as prophet had hitherto erected the altars, and Saul thought he had sufficient authority to erect one himself without the prophet, as he once offered sacrifice without him.

### Verse 36

[¶5] Then said the priest - It is evident that Ahiah doubted the propriety of pursuing the Philistines that night; and as a reverse of fortune might be ruinous after such a victory, he wished to have specific directions from the Lord.

### Verse 37

[¶7] He answered him not that day - Why was this answer delayed? Surely Jonathan's eating the honey was no sin. This could not have excited God's displeasure. And yet the lot found out Jonathan! But did this argue that he had incurred guilt in the sight of God? I answer: It did not; for Jonathan was delivered, by the authority of the people, from his father's rash curse; no propitiation is offered for his supposed transgression to induce God to pardon it; nor do we find any displeasure of God manifested on the occasion. See below.

### Verse 41

[¶9] Lord God of Israel, Give a perfect lot - Both the Vulgate and Septuagint add much to this verse: And Saul said to the Lord God of Israel, Lord God of Israel, give judgment. Why is it that thou hast not answered thy servant to-day? If the iniquity be in me, or Jonathan my son, make it manifest. Or if this iniquity be in thy people, give sanctification.

### Verse 42

[¶11] And Jonathan was taken - The object of the inquiry most evidently was, "Who has gone contrary to the king's adjuration today?" The answer to that must be Jonathan. But was this a proof of the Divine displeasure against the man? By no means: the holy oracle told the truth, but neither that oracle nor the God who gave it fixed any blame upon Jonathan, and his own conscience acquits him. He seeks not pardon from God, because he is conscious he had not transgressed. But why did not God answer the priest that day? Because he did not think it proper to send the people by night in pursuit of the vanquished Philistines. Saul's motive was perfectly vindictive: Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and spoil them unto the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them; that is, Let us burn, waste, destroy, and slay all before us! Was it right to indulge a disposition of this kind, which would have led to the destruction of many innocent country people, and of many Israelites who resided among the Philistines? Besides, was there not a most manifest reason in the people why God could not be among them? Multitudes of them were defiled in a very solemn manner; they had eaten the flesh with the blood; and however sacrifices might be offered to atone for this transgression of the law, they must continue unclean till the evening. Here were reasons enough why God would not go on with the people for that night.

### Verse 44

[¶13] And Saul answered - thou shalt surely die, Jonathan - To save thy rash oath! So must John Baptist's head be taken off at the desire of an impure woman, because a Herod had sworn to give her whatever she might request! Unfeeling brute! However, the king was Judge. But what said the people, who were the Jury?

### Verse 45

[¶15] And the people said - "Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid! As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground." Here was a righteous and impartial jury, who brought in a verdict according to the evidence: No man should die but for a breach of the law of God; but Jonathan hath not broken any law of God; therefore Jonathan should not die. And because he should not, therefore he shall not.

[¶16] He hath wrought with God this day - God has been commander-in-chief; Jonathan has acted under his directions.

[¶17] So the people rescued Jonathan - And God testified no displeasure; and perhaps he permitted all this that he might correct Saul's propensity to rashness and precipitancy.

### Verse 47

[¶19] So Saul took the kingdom - The Targum appears to give the meaning of this expression: "Saul prospered in his government over Israel." And the proofs of his prosperity are immediately subjoined.

[¶20] Fought against all his enemies - Of the wars which are mentioned here we have no particulars; they must have endured a long time, and have been, at least in general, successful.

### Verse 48

[¶22] Smote the Amalekites - This war is mentioned in the following chapter.

### Verse 49

[¶24] Now the sons of Saul - We do not find Ishbosheth here. Calmet says it was "because he was too young, and did not go with him to the war, for he mentions only those who were with him." Why then mention his daughters and his wife? Did they go with him to the war?

### Verse 52

[¶26] When Saul saw any strong man - This was very politic. He thus continued to recruit his army with strong and effective men.

### Introduction

[¶28] Samuel sends Saul to destroy the Amalekites, and all their substance, [1Sam 15:1-3]. Saul collects an immense army and comes against their city, [1Sam 15:4], [1Sam 15:5]. He desires the Kenites to remove from among the Amalekites, [1Sam 15:6]. He smites the Amalekites, and takes their king, Agag, prisoner, and saves the best of the spoil, [1Sam 15:7-9]. The Lord is displeased, and sends Samuel to reprove him, [1Sam 15:10], [1Sam 15:11]. The conversation between Samuel and Saul, in which the latter endeavors to justify his conduct, [1Sam 15:12-23]. He is convinced that he has done wrong, and asks pardon, [1Sam 15:24-31]. Samuel causes Agag to be slain; for which he assigns the reasons, [1Sam 15:32-35].

### Verse 1

[¶30] The Lord sent me to anoint thee - This gave him a right to say what immediately follows.

### Verse 2

[¶32] I remember that which Amalek did - The Amalekites were a people of Arabia Petraea, who had occupied a tract of country on the frontiers of Egypt and Palestine. They had acted with great cruelty towards the Israelites on their coming out of Egypt. (See [Exo 17:8] (note), and the notes there). They came upon them when they were faint and weary, and smote the hindermost of the people - those who were too weak to keep up with the rest. (See [Deu 25:18]). And God then purposed that Amalek, as a nation, should be blotted out from under heaven; which purpose was now fulfilled by Saul upwards of four hundred years afterwards!

### Verse 3

[¶34] Slay both man and woman - Nothing could justify such an exterminating decree but the absolute authority of God. This was given: all the reasons of it we do not know; but this we know well, The Judge of all the earth doth right. This war was not for plunder, for God commanded that all the property as well as all the people should be destroyed.

### Verse 4

[¶36] Two hundred thousand - and ten thousand - The Septuagint, in the London Polyglot, have Four Hundred thousand companies of Israel, and Thirty thousand companies of Judah. The Codex Alexandrinus has Ten thousand of each. The Complutensian Polyglot has Two Hundred thousand companies of Israel, and Ten thousand of Judah. And Josephus has Four Hundred thousand of Israel, and Thirty thousand of Judah. All the other versions are the same with the Hebrew text; and there is no difference in the MSS.

### Verse 5

[¶38] Saul came to a city of Amalek - I believe the original should be translated, and Saul came to the city Amalek; their capital being called by the name of their tribe.

### Verse 6

[¶40] Said unto the Kenites - The Kenites were an ancient people. Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a Kenite. Hobab his son (if the same person be not meant) was guide to the Hebrews through the wilderness. They had a portion of the promised land, near to the city Arad. See [Jdg 1:16]; and for more particulars concerning them and the Amalekites, see the notes on [Num 26:20-21] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶42] From Havilah - to Shur - From Pelusium in Egypt, unto the Red Sea. - Josephus. But Havilah lay eastward from the Red Sea; the Amalekites lay between this and the way to Egypt towards Shur.

### Verse 11

[¶44] It repenteth me that I have set up Saul - That is, I placed him on the throne; I intended, if he had been obedient, to have established his kingdom. He has been disobedient; I change my purpose, and the kingdom shall not be established in his family. This is what is meant by God's repenting - changing a purpose according to conditions already laid down or mentally determined.

## 299. 1 Samuel · 21 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/299/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/299/#p-N

### Verse 12

[¶1] He set him up a place - Literally, a hand, יד yad. Some say it was a monument; others, a triumphal arch: probably it was no more than a hand, pointing out the place where Saul had gained the victory. Absalom's pillar is called the hand of Absalom, [2Sam 18:18].

### Verse 15

[¶3] The people spared the best of the sheep - It is very likely that the people did spare the best of the prey; and it is as likely that Saul might have restrained them if he would. That they might not love war, God had interdicted spoil and plunder, so the war was undertaken merely from a sense of duty, without any hope of enriching themselves by it.

### Verse 17

[¶5] Little in thine own sight - Who can bear prosperity? Is it not of the Lord's great goodness that the majority of the inhabitants of the earth are in comparative poverty?

### Verse 21

[¶7] To sacrifice unto the Lord - Thus he endeavors to excuse the people. They did not take the spoil in order to enrich themselves by it, but to sacrifice unto the Lord; and did not this motive justify their conduct?

### Verse 22

[¶9] Hath the Lord as great delight, etc. - This was a very proper answer to, and refutation of Saul's excuse. Is not obedience to the will of God the end of all religion, of its rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices?

### Verse 23

[¶11] For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry - This is no translation of those difficult words, כי חטאת קסם מרי ואון ותרפים הפצר ki chattath kesem meri veaven utheraphim haphtsar. It appears to me that the three nouns which occur first in the text refer each to the three last in order. Thus, חטאת chattath, Transgression, refers to און aven, Iniquity, which is the principle whence transgression springs. קסם kesem, Divination, refers to תרפים teraphim, consecrated images or telesms, vulgarly talismans, used in incantations. And מרי meri, Rebellion, refers evidently to הפצר haphstar, Stubbornness, whence rebellion springs. The meaning therefore of this difficult place may be the following: As transgression comes from iniquity, divination from teraphim, and rebellion from stubbornness, so, because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. All the versions are different.

### Verse 24

[¶13] I have sinned - because I feared the people - This was the best excuse he could make for himself; but had he feared God more, he need have feared the People less.

### Verse 25

[¶15] Pardon my sin - Literally, bear my sin; take it away; forgive what I have done against thee, and be my intercessor with God, that he may forgive my offense against him; turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.

### Verse 26

[¶17] I will not return with thee - I cannot acknowledge thee as king, seeing the Lord hath rejected thee.

### Verse 29

[¶19] The Strength of Israel will not lie - What God has purposed he will bring to pass, for he has all power in the heavens and in the earth; and he will not repent - change his purpose - concerning thee.

[¶20] We may say it was some extenuation of Saul's fault that the people insisted on preserving the best of the prey; for who could resist the demands of a victorious mob? But his crime was in consenting; had he not, the crime would have been theirs alone.

### Verse 32

[¶22] Agag came unto him delicately - The Septuagint have τρεμων, trembling; the original, מעדנת maadannoth, delicacies; probably איש ish, man, understood; a man of delights, a pleasure-taker: the Vulgate, pinguissimus et tremens, "very fat and trembling."

[¶23] Surely the bitterness of death is past - Almost all the versions render this differently from ours. Surely death is bitter, is their general sense; and this seems to be the true meaning.

### Verse 33

[¶25] As thy sword hath made women childless - It appears that Agag had forfeited his life by his own personal transgressions, and that his death now was the retribution of his cruelties.

[¶26] And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces -

[¶27] 1. What Samuel did here he did in his magisterial capacity; and,

[¶28] 2. It is not likely he did it by his own sword, but by that of an executioner. What kings, magistrates, and generals do, in an official way, by their subjects, servants, or soldiers, they are said to do themselves; qui facit per alterum, facit per se.

### Verse 35

[¶30] And Samuel came no more to see Saul - But we read, [1Sam 19:22-24], that Saul went to see Samuel at Naioth, but this does not affect what is said here. From this time Samuel had no connection with Saul; he never more acknowledged him as king; he mourned and prayed for him, and continued to perform his prophetic functions at Ramah, and at Naioth, superintending the school of the prophets in that place.

### Introduction

[¶32] Samuel is sent from Ramah to Bethlehem, to anoint David, [1Sam 16:1-13]. The Spirit of the Lord departs from Saul, and an evil spirit comes upon him, [1Sam 16:14]. His servants exhort him to get a skillful harper to play before him, [1Sam 16:15], [1Sam 16:16]. He is pleased with the counsel, and desires them to find such a person, [1Sam 16:17]. They recommend David, [1Sam 16:18]. He is sent for, comes, plays before Saul, and finds favor in his sight, [1Sam 16:19-23].

### Verse 1

[¶34] Fill thine horn with oil - Horns appear to have been the ancient drinking vessels of all nations; and we may suppose that most persons who had to travel much, always carried one with them, for the purpose of taking up water from the fountains to quench their thirst. Such a horn had Samuel; and on this occasion he was commanded to fill it with oil, for the purpose of consecrating a king over Israel from among the sons of Jesse.

### Verse 2

[¶36] Take a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice - This was strictly true; Samuel did offer a sacrifice; and it does not appear that he could have done the work which God designed, unless he had offered this sacrifice, and called the elders of the people together, and thus collected Jesse's sons. But he did not tell the principal design of his coming; had he done so, it would have produced evil and no good: and though no man, in any circumstances, should ever tell a lie, yet in all circumstances he is not obliged to tell the whole truth, though in every circumstance he must tell nothing but the truth, and in every case so tell the truth that the hearer shall not believe a lie by it.

### Verse 3

[¶38] Call Jesse to the sacrifice - The common custom was, after the blood of the victim had been poured out to God, and the fat burnt, to feast on the flesh of the sacrifice. This appears to have been the case in all, except in the whole burnt-offering; this was entirely consumed.

### Verse 4

[¶40] The elders of the town trembled at his coming - They knew he was a prophet of the Lord, and they were afraid that he was now come to denounce some judgments of the Most High against their city.

### Verse 5

[¶42] Sanctify yourselves - Change your clothes, and wash your bodies in pure water, and prepare your minds by meditation, reflection, and prayer; that, being in the spirit of sacrifice, ye may offer acceptably to the Lord.

### Verse 7

[¶44] Man looketh on the outward appearance - And it is well he should, and confine his looks to that; for when he pretends to sound the heart, he usurps the prerogative of God.

## 300. 1 Samuel · 22 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/300/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/300/#p-N

[¶0] In what way were these communications made from God to Samuel? It must have been by direct inspirations into his heart. But what a state of holy familiarity does this argue between God and the prophet! I believe Moses himself was not more highly favored than Samuel.

### Verse 10

[¶2] Seven of his sons - This certainly was not done publicly; Samuel, Jesse, and his children, must have been in a private apartment, previously to the public feast on the sacrifice; for Samuel says, [1Sam 16:11], We will not sit down till he (David) come.

### Verse 12

[¶4] He was ruddy - I believe the word here means red-haired, he had golden locks. Hair of this kind is ever associated with a delicate skin and florid complexion.

### Verse 13

[¶6] The Spirit of the Lord came upon David - God qualified him to be governor of his people, by infusing such graces as wisdom, prudence, counsel, courage, liberality, and magnanimity.

### Verse 14

[¶8] The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul - He was thrown into such a state of mind by the judgments of God, as to be deprived of any regal qualities which he before possessed. God seems to have taken what gifts he had, and given them to David; and then the evil spirit came upon Saul; for what God fills not, the devil will.

[¶9] An evil spirit from the Lord - The evil spirit was either immediately sent from the Lord, or permitted to come. Whether this was a diabolic possession, or a mere mental malady, the learned are not agreed; it seems to have partaken of both. That Saul had fallen into a deep melancholy, there is little doubt; that the devil might work more effectually on such a state of mind, there can be but little question. There is an old proverb, Satan delights to fish in troubled waters; and Saul's situation of mind gave him many advantages.

[¶10] The theory of Dr. Scheuchzer, in his Physica Sacra, on the malady of Saul, is allowed to be very ingenious. It is in substance as follows: Health consists in a moderate tension of the fibres, which permits all the fluids to have an entire freedom of circulation, and to the spirits, that of diffusing themselves through all the limbs; on the contrary, disease consists in tensions of the fibres morbidly weak or morbidly strong. This latter seems to have been the case of Saul; and as the undulations of the air which convey sound communicate themselves to and through the most solid bodies, it is easy to suppose that by the modulations of music all the fibres of his body, which were under the influence of the morbidly increased tension, might be so relaxed as to be brought back into their natural state, and thus permit the re-establishment of a free and gentle circulation of the fluids, and consequently of the animal spirits, and thus induce calmness and tranquillity of mind. I believe this theory to be correct, and I should find no difficulty to amplify and to illustrate the subject. Even a skillful playing upon the harp was one means to bring a disordered state of the nervous and fibrous system into a capacity of affording such uninterrupted tranquillity to the mind as to render it capable of receiving the prophetic influence; see the case of Elisha, [2Kgs 3:14], [2Kgs 3:15]. It has been said: - "Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast."

[¶11] This has been literally proved: a musician was brought to play on his instrument while they were feeding a savage lion in the tower of London; the beast immediately left his food, came towards the grating of his den, and began to move in such a way as to show himself affected by the music. The musician ceased, and the lion returned to his food; he recommenced, and the lion left off his prey, and was so affected as to seem by his motions to dance with delight. This was repeatedly tried, and the effects were still the same.

### Verse 18

[¶13] I have seen a son of Jesse - Dr. Warburton supposes the story is anticipated from [1Sam 16:14-23], and that the true chronology of this part of David's life is the following: -

[¶14] 1. David is anointed by Samuel;

[¶15] 2. Carries provisions to his brethren in the army;

[¶16] 3. Fights with and kills Goliath;

[¶17] 4. Is received into the king's court,

[¶18] 5. Contracts a friendship with Jonathan;

[¶19] 6. Incurs Saul's jealousy;

[¶20] 7. Retires to his father's house;

[¶21] 8. Is after some time sent for by Saul to sooth his melancholy with his harp;

[¶22] 9. Again excites Saul's jealousy, who endeavors to smite him with his javelin.

[¶23] This anticipation between the 14th and 23d verse comes in, in the order of time, between [1Sam 16:9] and [1Sam 16:10], [1Sam 18:9], [1Sam 18:10], where the breach is apparent.

### Verse 20

[¶25] Took an ass laden with bread - He must send a present to Saul to introduce his son, and this was probably the best he had. Dr. Warburton pleads still farther on the propriety of his rectification of the chronology in this place. David had at this time vanquished the Philistine, was become a favourite with the people, had excited Saul's jealousy, and retired to shun its effects. In the interim Saul was seized with the disorder in question, and is recommended by his servants to try the effects of music. They were acquainted with David's skill on the harp, and likewise with Saul's bad disposition towards him; the point was delicate, it required to be managed with address, and therefore they recommend David in this artful manner: "As you must have one constantly in attendance, both in court and on your military expeditions; to be always at hand on occasion, the son of Jesse will become both stations well; he will strengthen your camp and adorn your court, for he is a tried soldier and of a graceful presence. You have nothing to fear from his ambition, for you saw with what prudence he went into voluntary banishment when his popularity had incurred your displeasure." Accordingly Saul is prevailed on, David is sent for, and succeeds with his music; this dissipates all former umbrage, and, as one who is ever to be in attendance, he is made Saul's armor-bearer. This sunshine still continued till his great successes awakened Saul's jealousy afresh, and then the lifted javelin was to strike off all obligations. Thus we see what light is thrown upon the whole history by the supposition of an anticipation in the latter part of this chapter; an anticipation the most natural, proper, and necessary, for the purpose of the historian. Thus reasons Bishop Warburton, and with very considerable plausibility, though the intelligent reader may still have his doubts.

### Verse 23

[¶27] The evil spirit from God - The word evil is not in the common Hebrew text, but it is in the Vulgate, Septuagint, Targum, Syriac, and Arabic, and in eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., which present the text thus: רוח אלהים רעה ruach Elohim raah, spiritus Domini malus, the evil spirit of God. The Septuagint leave out Θεου, of God, and have πνευμα πονηρον, the evil spirit. The Targum says, The evil spirit from before the Lord; and the Arabic has it. The evil spirit by the permission of God; this is at least the sense.

[¶28] And the evil spirit departed from him - The Targum says, And the evil spirit descended up from off him. This considers the malady of Saul to be more than a natural disease.

[¶29] There are several difficulties in this chapter; those of the chronology are pretty well cleared, in the opinion of some, by the observations of Bishop Warburton; but there is still something more to be done to make this point entirely satisfactory. Saul's evil spirit, and the influence of music upon it, are not easily accounted for. I have considered his malady to be of a mixed kind, natural and diabolical; there is too much of apparent nature in it to permit us to believe it was all spiritual, and there is too much of apparent supernatural influence to suffer us to believe that it was all natural.

### Introduction

[¶31] The Philistines gather together against Israel at Ephes-dammim, and Saul and his men pitch their camp near the valley of Elah, [1Sam 17:1-3]. Goliath of Gath, a gigantic man, whose height was six cubits and a span, defies the armies of Israel, and proposes to end all contests by single combat; his armor is described, [1Sam 17:4-11]. Saul and his host are greatly dismayed, [1Sam 17:12]. David, having been sent by his father with provisions to his brethren in the army, hears the challenge, inquires into the circumstances, thinks it a reproach to Israel that no man can be found to accept the challenge, is brought before Saul, and proposes to undertake the combat, vv. 13-32. Saul objects to his youth and inexperience, [1Sam 17:33]. David shows the grounds on which he undertakes it, [1Sam 17:34-37]. Saul arms him with his own armor: but David, finding them an encumbrance, puts them off, and takes his staff, his sling, and five stones out of the brook, and goes to meet Goliath, [1Sam 17:38-40]. The Philistine draws near, despises, defies, and curses him, [1Sam 17:41-44]. David retorts his defiance, [1Sam 17:45-47]. They draw near to each other, and David slings a stone, hits Goliath in the forehead, slays him, and cuts off his head with his own sword, [1Sam 17:48-51]. The Philistines flee, and are pursued by the Israelites, [1Sam 17:52], [1Sam 17:53]. David brings the head of the Philistine to Jerusalem, [1Sam 17:54]. Conversation between Saul and Abner concerning David, who is in consequence brought before Saul, [1Sam 17:55-58].

### Verse 1

[¶33] Now the Philistines gathered together - Calmet thinks that this war happened eight years after the anointing of David, and ten or twelve years after the war with the Amalekites. We have already seen that there was war between Saul and the Philistines all his days. See [1Sam 14:52].

[¶34] Shochoh and Azekah - Places which lay to the south of Jerusalem and to the west of Bethlehem; about five leagues from the former. Ephes-dammim was somewhere in the vicinity, but it is not known where. See Calmet.

### Verse 2

[¶36] The valley of Elah - Some translate this the turpentine valley, or the valley of the terebinth trees; and others, the valley of oaks. The situation of this valley is well known.

### Verse 3

[¶38] The Philistines stood on a mountain - These were two eminences or hills, from which they could see and talk with each other.

### Verse 4

[¶40] There went out a champion - Our word champion comes from campus, the field; Campio est enim ille qui pugnat in campo, hoc est, in castris, "Champion is he, properly, who fights in the field; i.e., in camps." A man well skilled in arms, strong, brave, and patriotic.

[¶41] But is this the meaning of the original איש הבנים ish habbenayim, a middle man, the man between two; that is, as here, the man who undertakes to settle the disputes between two armies or nations. So our ancient champions settled disputes between contending parties by what was termed camp fight, hence the campio or champion. The versions know not well what to make of this man. The Vulgate calls him sir spurius, "a bastard;" the Septuagint, ανηρ δυνατος, "a strong or powerful man;" the Targum, גברא מביניהון gabra mibbeyneyhon, "a man from between them;" the Arabic, rujil jibar, "a great or gigantic man;" the Syriac is the same; and Josephus terms him ανηρ παμμεγεθιστατος, "an immensely great man." The Vulgate has given him the notation of spurius or bastard, because it considered the original as expressing a son of two, i.e., a man whose parents are unknown. Among all these I consider our word champion, as explained above, the best and most appropriate to the original terms.

[¶42] Whose height was six cubits and a span - The word cubit signifies the length from cubitus, the elbow, to the top of the middle finger, which is generally rated at one foot six inches. The span is the distance from the top of the middle finger to the end of the thumb, when extended as far as they can stretch on a plain; this is ordinarily nine inches. Were we sure that these were the measures, and their extent, which are intended in the original words, we could easily ascertain the height of this Philistine; it would then be nine feet nine inches, which is a tremendous height for a man.

[¶43] But the versions are not all agreed in his height. The Septuagint read τεσσαρων πηχεων και σπιθαμης, four cubits and a span; and Josephus reads the same. It is necessary however to observe that the Septuagint, in the Codex Alexandrinus, read with the Hebrew text. But what was the length of the ancient cubit? This has been variously computed; eighteen inches, twenty inches and a half, and twenty-one inches. If we take the first measurement, he was nine feet nine; if the second, and read palm instead of span, with the Vulgate and others, he was ten feet seven inches and a half; if we take the last, which is the estimate of Graevius, with the span, he was eleven feet three inches; or if we go to the exactest measurement, as laid down in Bishop Cumberland's tables, where he computes the cubit at 21.888 inches, the span at 10.944 inches, and the palm at 3.684 inches, then the six cubits and the span will make exactly 11 feet 10.272 inches. If we take the palm instead of the span, then the height will be 11 feet 3.012 inches. But I still think that the nine feet nine inches is the most reasonable.

## 301. 1 Samuel · 23 of 37

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### Verse 5

[¶1] He was armed with a coat of mail - The words in the original, שרון קשקשים shiryon kaskassim, mean a coat of mail formed of plates of brass overlapping each other, like the scales of a fish, or tiles of a house. This is the true notion of the original terms.

[¶2] With thin plates of brass or iron, overlapping each other, were the ancient coats of mail formed in different countries; many formed in this way may be now seen in the tower of London.

[¶3] The weight - five thousand shekels - Following Bishop Cumberland's tables, and rating the shekel at two hundred and nineteen grains, and the Roman ounce at four hundred and thirty-eight grains, we find that Goliath's coat of mail, weighing five thousand shekels, was exactly one hundred and fifty-six pounds four ounces avoirdupois. A vast weight for a coat of mail, but not all out of proportion to the man.

### Verse 6

[¶5] Greaves of brass upon his legs - This species of armor may be seen on many ancient monuments. It was a plate of brass (though perhaps sometimes formed of laminae or plates, like the mail) which covered the shin or fore part of the leg, from the knee down to the instep, and was buckled with straps behind the leg. From ancient monuments we find that it was commonly worn only on one leg. Vegetius, de Re Militari, says, Pedites Scutati etiam ferreas ocreas in dextris cruribus copebantur accipere. "The foot soldiers, called Scutati, from their particular species of shield, were obliged to use iron greaves on their right legs." One of these may be seen in the monument of the gladiator Buto, in Montfaucon; and another in the Mosaic pavement at Bognor, in Surrey.

[¶6] A target of brass between his shoulders - When not actually engaged, soldiers threw their shields behind their back, so that they appeared to rest or hang between the shoulders.

[¶7] There are different opinions concerning this piece of armor, called here כידון kidon. Some think it was a covering for the shoulders; others, that it was a javelin or dart; others, that it was a lance; some, a club; and others, a sword. It is certainly distinguished from the shield, [1Sam 17:41], and is translated a spear, [Jos 8:18].

### Verse 7

[¶9] The staff on his spear was like a weaver's beam - Either like that on which the warp is rolled, or that on which the cloth is rolled. We know not how thick this was, because there were several sorts of looms, and the sizes of the beams very dissimilar. Our woollen, linen, cotton, and silk looms are all different in the size of their beams; and I have seen several that I should not suppose too thick, though they might be too short, for Goliath's spear.

[¶10] His spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron - That is, his spear's head was of iron, and it weighed six hundred shekels; this, according to the former computation, would amount to eighteen pounds twelve ounces.

[¶11] And one bearing a shield - הצנה hatstsinnah, from צן tsan, pointed or penetrating, if it do not mean some kind of a lance, must mean a shield, with what is called the umbo, a sharp protuberance, in the middle, with which they could as effectually annoy their enemies as defend themselves. Many of the old Highland targets were made with a projecting dagger in the center. Taking the proportions of things unknown to those known, the armor of Goliath is supposed to have weighed not less than two hundred and seventy-two pounds thirteen ounces! Plutarch informs us that the ordinary weight of a soldier's panoply, or complete armor, was one talent, or sixty pounds; and that one Alcimus, in the army of Demetrius, was considered as a prodigy, because his panoply weighed two talents, or one hundred and twenty pounds.

### Verse 8

[¶13] I a Philistine - The Targum adds much to this speech. This is the substance: "I am Goliath the Philistine of Gath, who killed the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas the priests; and led into captivity the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and placed it in the temple of Dagon my god; and it remained in the cities of the Philistines seven months. Also, in all our battles I have gone at the head of the army, and we conquered and cut down men, and laid them as low as the dust of the earth; and to this day the Philistines have not granted me the honor of being chief of a thousand men. And ye, men of Israel, what noble exploit has Saul, the son of Kish, of Gibeah, done, that ye should have made him king over you? If he be a hero, let him come down himself and fight with me; but if he be a weak or cowardly man, then choose you out a man that he may come down to me."

### Verse 9

[¶15] Then will we be your servants - Of this stipulation we hear nothing farther.

### Verse 10

[¶17] I defy - אני חרפתי ani cheraphti, "I strip and make bare," the armies of Israel; for none dared to fight him. From the Dhunoor Veda Shastra it appears that, among the Hindoos, it was common, before the commencement of an engagement, to challenge the enemy by throwing out some terms of abuse, similar to those used by Goliath. We find this also in Homer: his heroes scold each other heartily before they begin to fight. See on [1Sam 17:43] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶19] Saul and all Israel - were dismayed - They saw no man able to accept the challenge.

### Verse 12

[¶21] The 12th verse, to the 31st inclusive, are wanting in the Septuagint; as also the 41st verse; and from the 54th to the end; with the first five verses of 1 Samuel 18, and the 9th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, and 19th of the same.

[¶22] All these parts are found in the Codex Alexandrinus; but it appears that the MS. from which the Codex Alexandrinus was copied, had them not. See observations at the end of this chapter, [1Sam 17:58] (note). Dr. Kennicott has rendered it very probable that these portions are not a genuine part of the text.

[¶23] Notwithstanding what Bishop Warburton and others have done to clear the chronology of the present printed Hebrew, it is impossible to make a clear consistent sense of the history, unless these verses are omitted. Let any one read the eleventh verse in connection with the thirty-second, leave out the forty-first, and connect the fifty-fourth with the sixth of 1 Samuel 18, and he will be perfectly convinced that there is nothing wanting to make the sense complete; to say nothing of the other omissions noted above. If the above be taken in as genuine, the ingenuity of man has hitherto failed to free the whole from apparent contradiction and absurdity. I must confess that where every one else has failed, I have no hope of succeeding: I must, therefore, leave all farther attempts to justify the chronology; and refer to those who have written for and against the genuineness of this part of the common Hebrew text. At the end of the chapter I shall introduce some extracts from Kennicott and Pilkington: and leave the whole with the unprejudiced and discerning reader.

### Verse 18

[¶25] Carry these ten cheeses - Cheeses of milk, says the margin. In the East they do not make what we call cheese: they press the milk but slightly, and carry it in rush baskets. It is highly salted, and little different from curds.

### Verse 19

[¶27] Fighting with the Philistines - See at the end of the chapter, [1Sam 17:58] (note).

### Verse 29

[¶29] Is there not a cause? - הלוא דבר הוא halo dabar hu. I believe the meaning is what several of the versions express: I have spoken but a word. And should a man be made an offender for a word?

### Verse 32

[¶31] And David said - This properly connects with the eleventh verse.

### Verse 33

[¶33] Thou art but a youth - Supposed to be about twenty-two or twenty-three years of age.

### Verse 34

[¶35] Thy servant kept his father's sheep - He found it necessary to give Saul the reasons why he undertook this combat; and why he expected to be victorious.

[¶36] 1. I have courage to undertake it, and strength to perform it.

[¶37] 2. Both have been tried in a very signal manner: (1). A lion came upon my flock, and seized a lamb; I ran after him, he attacked me, I seized hold of him by his shaggy locks, smote and slew him, and delivered the lamb. (2). A bear came in the same way, and I attacked and slew him.

[¶38] 3. This, with whom I am to fight, is a Philistine, an uncircumcised man; one who is an enemy to God: God therefore will not be on his side. On that ground I have nothing to fear.

[¶39] 4. He has defied the armies of the Lord; and has in effect defied Jehovah himself: therefore the battle is the Lord's, and he will stand by me.

[¶40] 5. I have perfect confidence in his protection and defense; for they that trust in him shall never be confounded.

[¶41] 6. I conclude, therefore, that the Lord, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine.

### Verse 35

[¶43] The slaying of the lion and the bear mentioned here, must have taken place at two different times; perhaps the verse should be read thus: I went out after him, (the lion). and smote him, etc. And when he (the bear) rose up against me, I caught him by the beard and slew him.

### Verse 37

[¶45] Go, and the Lord be with thee - Saul saw that these were reasonable grounds of confidence, and therefore wished him success.

## 302. 1 Samuel · 24 of 37

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### Verse 38

[¶1] Saul armed David - He knew that although the battle was the Lord's, yet prudent means should be used to secure success.

### Verse 39

[¶3] I cannot go with these - In ancient times it required considerable exercise and training to make a man expert in the use of such heavy armor; armor which in the present day scarcely a man is to be found who is able to carry; and so it must have been then, until that practice which arises from frequent use had made the proprietor perfect. I have not proved them says David: I am wholly unaccustomed to such armor and it would be an encumbrance to me.

### Verse 40

[¶5] He took his staff - What we would call his crook.

[¶6] Five smooth stones -

[¶7] 1. Had they been rough or angular, they would not have passed easily through the air, and their asperities would, in the course of their passage, have given them a false direction.

[¶8] 2. Had they not been smooth, they could not have been readily despatched from the sling.

[¶9] A shepherd's bag - That in which he generally carried his provisions while keeping the sheep in the open country.

[¶10] And his sling - The sling, both among the Greeks and Hebrews, has been a powerful offensive weapon. See what has been said on [Jdg 20:16] (note). It is composed of two strings and a leathern strap; the strap is in the middle, and is the place where the stone or bullet lies. The string on the right end of the strap is firmly fastened to the hand; that on the left is held between the thumb and middle joint of the fore finger. It is then whirled two or three times round the head; and when discharged, the finger and thumb let go their hold of the left end string. The velocity and force of the sling are in proportion to the distance of the strap, where the bullet lies, from the shoulder joint. Hence the ancient Baleares, or inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca, are said to have had three slings of different lengths, the longest they used when the enemy was at the greatest distance; the middle one, on their nearer approach; and the shortest, when they came into the ordinary fighting distance in the field. The shortest is the most certain, though not the most powerful. The Balearians are said to have had one of their slings constantly bound about their head, to have used the second as a girdle, and to have carried the third always in their hand. See Diod. Sic. lib. v., c. 18, p. 286, edit. Bipont.

[¶11] In the use of the sling it requires much practice to hit the mark; but when once this dexterity is acquired, the sling is nearly as fatal as the musket or bow; see on [1Sam 17:49] (note). David was evidently an expert marksman; and his sling gave him greatly the advantage over Goliath; an advantage of which the giant does not seem to have been aware. He could hit him within any speaking distance, if he missed once, he had as many chances as he had stones; and after all, being unencumbered with armor, young, and athletic, he could have saved his life by flight. Against him the Philistine could do but little, except in close fight; it is true he appears to have had a javelin or missile spear, (see on [1Sam 17:6] (note)), but David took care to prevent the use of all such weapons, by giving him the first blow.

### Verse 41

[¶13] The man that bare the shield - See on [1Sam 17:7] (note).

### Verse 42

[¶15] He disdained him - He held him in contempt; he saw that he was young, and from his ruddy complexion supposed him to be effeminate.

### Verse 43

[¶17] Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? - It is very likely that Goliath did not perceive the sling, which David might have kept coiled up within his hand.

[¶18] Cursed David by his gods - Prayed his gods to curse him. This long parley between David and Goliath is quite in the style of those times. A Hindoo sometimes in a fit of anger says to his enemy, The goddess Kalee shall devour thee! May Doorga destroy thee! Homer's heroes have generally an altercation before they engage; and sometimes enter into geographical and genealogical discussions, and vaunt and scold most contemptibly.

### Verse 44

[¶20] Come to me, and I will give thy flesh - He intended, as soon as he could lay hold on him, to pull him to pieces.

### Verse 45

[¶22] Thou comest to me with a sword - I come to thee with the name (בשם beshem) of Jehovah of hosts; the God of the armies of Israel. What Goliath expected from his arms, David expected from the ineffable name.

### Verse 46

[¶24] This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand - This was a direct and circumstantial prophecy of what did take place.

### Verse 47

[¶26] For the battle is the Lord's - It is the Lord's war: you are fighting against him and his religion, as the champion of your party; I am fighting for God, as the champion of his cause.

### Verse 48

[¶28] The Philistine arose - This was an end of the parley; the Philistine came forward to meet David, and David on his part ran forward to meet the Philistine.

### Verse 49

[¶30] Smote the Philistine in his forehead - Except his face, Goliath was everywhere covered over with strong armor. Either he had no beaver to his helmet, or it was lifted up so as to expose his forehead; but it does not appear that the ancient helmets had any covering for the face. The Septuagint however supposes that the stone passed through the helmet, and sank into his forehead: Και διεδυ ὁ λιθος δια της περικεφαλαιας εις το μετωπον αυτου, "and the stone passed through his helmet, and sank into his skull." To some this has appeared perfectly improbable; but we are assured by ancient writers that scarcely any thing could resist the force of the sling.

[¶31] Diodorus Siculus, lib. v., c. 18, p. 287, edit. Bipont, says "The Baleares, in time of war, sling greater stones than any other people, and with such force, that they seem as if projected from a catapult. Διο και κατα τας τειχομαχιας εν ταις προσβολαις τυπτοντες τους προ των επαλξεων εφεστωτας κατατραυματιζουσιν· εν δε ταις παραταξεσι τους τε θυρεους, και τα κρανη, και παν σκεπαστηριον ὁπλον συντριβουσι. Κατα δε την ευστοχιαν οὑτως ακριβεις εισιν, ὡστε κατα το πλειστον μη ἁμαρτανειν του προκειμενου σκοπου Therefore, in assaults made on fortified towns, they grievously wound the besieged; and in battle they break in pieces the shields, helmets, and every species of armor by which the body is defended. And they are such exact marksmen that they scarcely ever miss that at which they aim." The historian accounts for their great accuracy and power in the use of the sling, from this circumstance: Αιτιαι δε τουτων, κ.τ.λ. "They attain to this perfection by frequent exercise from their childhood; for while they are young and under their mother's care, they are obliged to learn to sling; for they fasten bread for a mark at the top of the pole; and till the child hit the bread he must remain fasting; and when he has hit it, the mother gives it to him to eat." - Ibid.

[¶32] I have given these passages at large, because they contain several curious facts, and sufficiently account for the force and accuracy with which David slung his stone at Goliath. We find also in the μη ἁμαρτανειν, not miss the mark, of the historian, the true notion of ἁμαρτανειν, to sin, which I have contended for elsewhere. He who sins, though he aims thereby at his gratification and profit, misses the mark of present and eternal felicity.

### Verse 51

[¶34] When the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled - They were panic-struck; and not being willing to fulfill the condition which was stipulated by Goliath, they precipitately left the field. The Israelites took a proper advantage of these circumstances, and totally routed their enemies.

### Verse 54

[¶36] David took the head of the Philistine - It has been already remarked that this, with the following verses, and the five first verses of the eighteenth chapter, are omitted by the Septuagint. See the observations at the end, [1Sam 17:58] (note).

### Verse 58

[¶38] Whose son art thou, thou young man? - That Saul should not know David with whom he had treated a little before, and even armed him for the combat, and that he should not know who his father was, though he had sent to his father for permission to David to reside constantly with him, ([1Sam 16:22]), is exceedingly strange! I fear all Bishop Warburton's attempts to rectify the chronology by assumed anticipations, will not account for this. I must honestly confess they do not satisfy me; and I must refer the reader to what immediately follows on the authenticity of the verses which concern this subject.

[¶39] On the subject of that large omission in the Septuagint of which I have spoken on [1Sam 17:12], I here subjoin the reasons of Mr. Pilkington and Dr. Kennicott for supposing it to be an interpolation of some rabbinical writer, added at a very early period to the Hebrew text. "Had every version of the Hebrew text," says Mr. Pilkington, "agreed to give a translation of this passage, as we now find, the attempts of clearing it from its embarrassments would have been attended with very great difficulties; but, as in several other cases before mentioned, so here, the providence of God seems to have so far secured the credit of those who were appointed to be the penmen of the oracles of truth, that the defense of their original records may be undertaken upon good grounds, and supported by sufficient evidence. For we are now happily in possession of an ancient version of these two chapters, which appears to have been made from a Hebrew copy, which had none of the thirty-nine verses which are here supposed to have been interpolated, nor was similar to what we have at present in those places which are here supposed to have been altered. This version is found in the Vatican copy of the Seventy, which whoever reads and considers, will find the accounts there given regular, consistent, and probable. It will be proper, therefore, to examine the several parts where such alterations are supposed to have been made in the Hebrew text, in order to produce such other external or internal evidence, as shall be necessary to support the charge of interpolation, which ought not to be laid merely upon the authority of any single version. "The first passage, which is not translated in the Vatican copy of the Greek version, is from the 11th to the 32d verse of the 17th chapter wherein we have an account:

[¶40] 1. Of David's being sent to the camp to visit his brethren.

[¶41] 2. Of his conversation with the men of Israel, relating to Goliath's challenge; and their informing him of the premium Saul had offered to any one that should accept it, and come off victorious.

[¶42] 3. Of Eliab's remarkable behavior to his brother David, upon his making this inquiry. And,

[¶43] 4. Of Saul's being made acquainted with what David had said upon this occasion. "It is obvious to remark upon this passage: - "1. That, after David had been of so much service to the king, in causing the evil spirit to depart from him; after its being recorded how greatly Saul loved him, and that he had made him his armor-bearer; after the king had sent to Jesse to signify his intention of keeping his son with him; all of which are particularly mentioned in the latter part of the preceding chapter; the account of his keeping his father's sheep afterwards, and being sent to his brethren upon this occasion, must appear to be somewhat improbable.

[¶44] 2. That what is here said of the premium that Saul had offered to him who should conquer the Philistine, is not well consistent with the accounts afterwards given, of which we shall have occasion to take particular notice.

## 303. 1 Samuel · 25 of 37

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[¶0] 3. That Eliab's behavior, as here represented, is not only remarkable but unaccountable and absurd. And,

[¶1] 4. That the inquiries of a young man, who is not said to have declared any intentions of accepting the challenge of the Philistine, would scarcely have been related to the king.

[¶2] But now, if this passage be supposed to have been interpolated, we must see how the connection stands upon its being omitted." "[1Sam 17:11]. 'When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.' "[1Sam 17:32]. 'Then David said unto Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.' "No connection can be more proper, and in this view David is represented as being at that time an attendant upon the king; and when we had been told just before, ([1Sam 16:21]), that Saul had made him his armor-bearer, we might justly expect to find him with him when the battle was set in array; [1Sam 17:2]. In this connection David is also represented as fully answering the character before given of him: 'A mighty valiant man, and a man of war,' [1Sam 16:18], and ready to fight with the giant upon the first proposal, (for the account of the Philistine presenting himself forty days is in this passage here supposed to have been interpolated, [1Sam 17:16]). I shall leave it to the critical Hebrew reader to make what particular remarks he may think proper in respect to the style and manner of expression in these twenty verses, and let Jesse go for an old man amongst men in the days of Saul, etc." - Pilkington's Remarks upon several Passages of Scripture, p. 62. "The authorities," says Dr. Kennicott, "here brought to prove this great interpolation are the internal evidence arising from the context, and the external arising from the Vatican copy of the Greek version. But how then reads the Alexandrian MS.? The remarks acknowledge that this MS. agrees here with the corrupted Hebrew; and therefore was probably translated, in this part, from some late Hebrew copy which had thus been interpolated; see pages 72, 75. Now that these two MSS. do contain different readings in some places, I observed in pages 398-404, and 414. And in this 17th chapter of Samuel, [1Sam 17:4], the Alexandrian MS. says, agreeably to the present Hebrew, that the height of Goliath was six cubits and a span, i.e., above eleven feet; but the Vatican MS., agreeably to Josephus, that it was four cubits and a span, i.e., near eight feet. And in [1Sam 17:43], what the Vatican renders he cursed David by his gods, the Alexandrian renders by his idols. But though the Hebrew text might be consulted and a few words differently rendered by the transcriber of one of these MSS., or by the transcribers of the MSS. from which these MSS. were taken; yet, as these MSS. do contain, in this chapter, such Greek as is almost universally the same, (in verb, noun, and particle), I presume that they contain here the same translation with the designed alteration of a few words, and with the difference of the interpolated verses found in the Alexandrian MS. "But, after all, what if the Alexandrian MS., which now has these verses should itself prove them interpolated? What if the very words of this very MS. demonstrate that these verses were not in some former Greek MS.? Certainly if the Alexandrian MS. should be thus found, at last, not to contradict, but to confirm the Vatican in its omission of these twenty verses, the concurrence of these authorities will render the argument much more forcible and convincing. "Let us then state the present question; which is, Whether the twenty verses between [1Sam 17:11] and [1Sam 17:32], which are now in the Hebrew text, are interpolated? The Vatican MS. goes on immediately from the end of the 11th verse (και εφοβηθησαν σφοδρα) to [1Sam 17:32], which begins και ειπε Δαυιδ: whereas the 12th verse in the Hebrew begins, not with a speech, but with David's birth and parentage. If then the Alexandrian MS. begins its present 12th verse as the 32d verse begins, and as the 12th verse could not begin properly, I appeal to any man of judgment whether the transcriber was not certainly copying from a ME. in which the 32d verse succeeded the 11th verse; and if so, then from a MS. which had not these intermediate verses? Now that this is the fact, the case will at once appear upon examining the Alexandrian copy, where the 12th verse begins with ΚΑΙ ΕΙΠΕ ΔΑΥΙΔ; as the 32d verse begins, and as the 12th verse could not begin properly. "The case seems clearly to be, that the transcriber, having wrote what is now in the 11th verse, was beginning what is now the 32d verse; when, after writing και ειπε Δαυιδ, he perceived that either the Hebrew, or some other Greek copy, or the margin of his own copy, had several intermediate verses: upon which, without blotting out the significant word ΕΙΠΕ, he goes on to write the addition: thus fortunately leaving a decisive proof of his own great interpolation. if this addition was in the margin of that MS. from which the Alexandrian was transcribed, it might be inserted by that transcriber; but if it was inserted either from the Hebrew, or from any other Greek copy, the transcriber of this MS. seems to have had too little learning for such a proceeding. If it was done by the writer of that former MS., then the interpolation may be a hundred or a hundred and fifty years older than the Alexandrian MS. Perhaps the earliest Christian writer who enlarges upon the strong circumstance of David's coming from the sheep to the army, is Chrysostom, in his homily upon David and Saul; so that it had then been long in some copies of the Greek version. The truth seems to be, that the addition of these twenty verses took its first rise from what Josephus had inserted in his variation and embellishment of this history; but that many circumstances were afterwards added to his additions. "For (and it is extremely remarkable) though Josephus has some, he has not half the improbabilities which are found at present in the sacred history: as for instance: Nothing of the armies being fighting in the valley, or fighting at all, when David was sent by his father, as in [1Sam 17:19]. Nothing of the host going forth, and shouting for the battle, at the time of David's arrival, as in [1Sam 17:20]. Nothing of all the men of Israel fleeing from Goliath, as in [1Sam 17:24]; on the contrary, the two armies, (it should seem), continued upon their two mountains. Nothing of David's long conversation with the soldiers, [1Sam 17:25-27], in seasons so very improper, as, whilst they were shouting for the battle, or whilst they were fleeing from Goliath; and fleeing from a man after they had seen him and heard him twice in every day for forty days together, [1Sam 17:16], the two armies, all this long while, leaning upon their arms, and looking very peaceably at one another. Nothing of Goliath's repeating his challenge every morning and every evening, as in [1Sam 17:16]. David, (it is said, [1Sam 17:23]), happened to hear one of these challenges; but if he heard the evening challenge, it would have been then too late for the several transactions before, and the long pursuit after, Goliath's death; and David could not well hear the morning challenge, because he could scarce have arrived so early, after travelling from Beth-lehem to the army, (about fifteen miles), and bringing with him an ephah of parched corn, and ten loaves, and ten cheeses, as in [1Sam 17:17], [1Sam 17:18]. Nothing of encouraging any man to fight Goliath, by an offer of the kinds daughter, [1Sam 17:25]; which, as it seems from the subsequent history, had never been thought of; and which, had it been offered, would probably have been accepted by some man or other out of the whole army. Nothing of Eliab's reprimanding David for coming to see the battle, as in [1Sam 17:28]; but for a very different reason; and, indeed, it is highly improbable that Eliab should treat him at all with contempt and scurrility, after having seen Samuel anoint him for the future king of Israel, see [1Sam 16:1-13]. Nothing of a second conversation between David and the soldiers, as in [1Sam 17:30], [1Sam 17:31]. Nothing of Saul and Abner's not knowing who was David's father, at the time of his going forth against the Philistine, as in [1Sam 17:55]. Nothing of David's being introduced to the king by Abner, in form, after killing the Philistine, [1Sam 17:57], at a time when the king and the captain of the host had no leisure for complemental ceremony; but were set out, [1Sam 17:57], in immediate and full pursuit of the Philistines. Nor, lastly, is any notice taken here by Josephus of what now begins the 18th chapter, Jonathan's friendship for David, which is related elsewhere, and in a different manner; on the contrary, as soon as Josephus has mentioned Goliath's death, and told us that Saul and all Israel shouted, and fell at once upon the Philistines, and that, when the pursuit was ended, the head of Goliath was carried by David into his own tent, (and he could have then no tent of his own if he had not been then an officer in the army): I say, as soon as Josephus has recorded these circumstances, he goes on to Saul's envy and hatred of David, arising from the women's songs of congratulation; exactly as these capital parts of the history are connected in the Vatican MS. And with this circumstance I shall conclude these remarks; earnestly recommending the whole to the learned reader's attentive examination. "It must not however be forgot, that the learned F. Houbigant has, in his Bible, placed these twenty verses (from the 11th to the 32d) between hooks, as containing a passage which comes in very improperly. "If it be inquired as to this interpolation in Samuel, when it could possibly be introduced into the text? It may be observed that, about the time of Josephus, the Jews seem to have been fond of enlarging and, as they vainly thought, embellishing the sacred history, by inventing speeches, and prayers, and hymns, and also new articles of history, and these of considerable length; witness the several additions to the book of Esther; witness the long story concerning wine, women, and truth, inserted amidst parts of the genuine history of Ezra and Nehemiah, and worked up into what is now called the First Book of Esdras; witness the hymn of the three children in the fiery furnace, added to Daniel; and witness also the many additions in Josephus. Certainly, then, some few remarks might be noted by the Jews, and some few of their historical additions might be inserted in the margin of their Hebrew copies; which might afterwards be taken into the text itself by injudicious transcribers. "The history of David's conquest of the mighty and insulting Philistine is certainly very engaging; and it gives a most amiable description of a brave young man, relying with firm confidence upon the aid of the God of battle against the blaspheming enemy. It is not therefore very strange that some fanciful rabbin should be particularly struck with the strange circumstances of the Philistines daring to challenge all Israel; and David's cutting off the giant's head with the giant's own sword. And then, finding that Josephus had said that David came from the sheep to the camp, and happened to hear the challenge, the rabbin might think it very natural that David should be indignant against the giant, and talk valorously to the soldiers, and that the soldiers should mightily encourage David; and then, to be sure, this was the most lucky season to introduce the celebrated friendship of Jonathan for David; particularly when, according to these additions, Jonathan had seen Abner leading David in triumph to the king's presence; every one admiring the young hero, as he proudly advanced with the grim head of the Philistine in his hand. So that this multiform addition and fanciful embellishment of the rabbin reminds one of the motley absurdity described by the poet in the famous lines: -

[¶3] Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam

[¶4] Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plasmas, etc. "The passage supposed to be interpolated here, was in the Hebrew text before the time of Aquila; because there are preserved a few of the differences in those translations of it which were made by Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus. These verses, being thus acknowledged at that time, would doubtless be found in such copies as the Jews then declared to be genuine, and which they delivered afterwards to Origen as such. And that Origen did refer to the Jews for such copies as they held genuine, he allows in his epistle to Africanus; for there he speaks of soothing the Jews, in order to get pure copies from them." - Kennicott's Second Dissertation on the Hebrew Text, p. 419.

[¶5] In the general dissertation which Dr. Kennicott has prefixed to his edition of the Hebrew Bible, he gives additional evidence that the verses in question were not found originally in the Septuagint, and consequently not in the Hebrew copy used for that version. Several MSS. in the royal library at Paris either omit these verses or have them with asterisks or notes of dubiousness. And the collation by Dr. Holmes and his continuators has brought farther proof of the fact. From the whole, there is considerable evidence that these verses were not in the Septuagint in the time of Origen; and if they were not in the MSS. used by Origen, it is very probable they were not in that version at first; and if they were not in the Septuagint at first, it is very probable that they were not in the Hebrew text one hundred and fifty years before Christ; and if not then in the Hebrew text, it is very probable they were not in that text originally. See Dissertation on Gen., p. 9; and Remarks on Select Passages, p. 104.

[¶6] I have only to remark here, that the historical books of the Old Testament have suffered more by the carelessness or infidelity of transcribers than any other parts of the sacred volume; and of this the two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, and the two books of Chronicles, give the most decided and unequivocal proofs. Of this also the reader has already had considerable evidence; and he will find this greatly increased as he proceeds.

[¶7] It seems to me that the Jewish copyists had not the same opinion of the Divine inspiration of those books as they had of those of the law and the prophets; and have therefore made no scruple to insert some of their own traditions, or the glosses of their doctors, in different parts; for as the whole must evidently appear to them as a compilation from their public records, they thought it no harm to make different alterations and additions from popular statements of the same facts, which they found in general circulation. This is notoriously the case in Josephus; this will account, and it does to me very satisfactorily, for many of the various readings now found in the Hebrew text of the historical books. They were held in less reverence, and they were copied with less care, and emended with less critical skill, than the pentateuch and the prophets; and on them the hands of careless, ignorant, and temerarious scribes, have too frequently been laid. To deny this, only betrays a portion of the same ignorance which was the parent of those disorders; and attempts to blink the question, though they may with some be an argument of zeal, yet with all the sincere and truly enlightened friends of Divine revelation, will be considered to be as dangerous as they are absurd.

[¶8] Where the rash or ignorant hand of man has fixed a blot on the Divine records, let them who in the providence of God are qualified for the task wipe it off; and while they have the thanks of all honest men, God will have the glory.

[¶9] There have been many who have affected to deny the existence of giants. There is no doubt that the accounts given of several are either fabulous or greatly exaggerated. But men of an extraordinary size are not uncommon even in our own day: I knew two brothers of the name of Knight, who were born in the same township with myself, who were seven feet six inches high; and another, in the same place, Charles Burns who was eight feet six! These men were well and proportionately made. I have known others of this height, whose limbs were out of all proportion; their knees bent in, and joints rickety.

[¶10] Ireland, properly speaking, is the only nation on the earth that produces Giants; and let me tell the poor, that this is the only nation in the world that may be said to live on potatoes; with little bread, and less flesh-meat.

[¶11] I have seen and entertained in my house the famous Polish dwarf, the Count Boruwlaski, who was about thirty-six inches high, every part of whose person was formed with the most perfect and delicate symmetry. The prodigious height and bulk of Charles Burns, and the astonishing diminutiveness of Count Boruwlaski, could not be properly estimated but by comparing both together. Each was a perfect man; and yet, in quantum, how disproportionate! Man is the only creature in whom the extremes of minuteness and magnitude are so apparent, and yet the proportion of the parts in each strictly correlative.

### Introduction

[¶13] Jonathan and David commence a lasting friendship; and David acts prudently with respect to Saul, [1Sam 18:1-5]. Saul becomes jealous of David, on account of the esteem in which he is held in Israel; and, in his fury endeavors to destroy him, [1Sam 18:6-12]. David is made captain over a thousand; and the people love and respect him, [1Sam 18:13-16]. Saul, in order to ensnare him, offers him his daughter in marriage, [1Sam 18:17-24]; and requires a hundred foreskins of the Philistines for dowry; hoping that, in endeavoring to procure them, David might fall by the hands of the Philistines, [1Sam 18:25]. David agrees to the conditions, fulfils them, and has Michal to wife, [1Sam 18:26-30].

### Verse 1

[¶15] When he had made an end of speaking - These first five verses are omitted by the Septuagint. See the notes on the preceding chapter, 1 Samuel 17 (note).

[¶16] Jonathan loved him as his own soul - The most intimate friendship subsisted between them; and they loved each other with pure hearts fervently. No love was lost between them; each was worthy of the other. They had a friendship which could not be affected with changes or chances, and which exemplified all that the ancients have said on the subject; Την φιλιαν ισοτητα ειναι, και μιαν ψυχην, τον φιλον ἑτερον αυτον; "Friendship produces an entire sameness; it is one soul in two bodies: a friend is another self."

### Verse 4

[¶18] Jonathan stripped himself - Presents of clothes or rich robes, in token of respect and friendship, are frequent in the East. And how frequently arms and clothing were presented by warriors to each other in token of friendship, may be seen in Homer and other ancient writers.

### Verse 5

[¶20] Set him over the men of war - Made him generalissimo; or what we would call field marshal.

### Verse 6

[¶22] When David was returned - This verse connects well with the 54th verse of the preceding chapter; and carries on the narration without any break or interruption. See the notes on [1Sam 17:54].

[¶23] The women came out - It was the principal business of certain women to celebrate victories, sing at funerals, etc.

[¶24] With instruments of music - The original word (שלשים shalishim) signifies instruments with three strings; and is, I think, properly translated by the Vulgate, cum sistris, "with sistrums." This instrument is well known as being used among the ancient Egyptians: it was made of brass, and had three, sometimes more, brass rods across; which, being loose in their holes, made a jingling noise when the instrument was shaken.

### Verse 7

[¶26] Saul hath slain his thousands - As it cannot literally be true that Saul had slain thousands, and David ten thousands; it would be well to translate the passage thus: Saul hath smitten or fought against thousands; David against tens of thousands. "Though Saul has been victorious in all his battles; yet he has not had such great odds against him as David has had; Saul, indeed, has been opposed by thousands; David, by ten thousands." We may here remark that the Philistines had drawn out their whole forces at this time: and when Goliath was slain, they were totally discomfited by the Israelites, led on chiefly by David.

### Verse 10

[¶28] The evil spirit from God - See on [1Sam 16:14] (note), etc.

[¶29] He prophesied in the midst of the house - He was beside himself; made prayers, supplications, and incoherent imprecations: "God preserve my life," "Destroy my enemies," or such like prayers, might frequently escape from him in his agitated state. The Arabic intimates that he was actually possessed by an evil spirit, and that through it he uttered a sort of demoniacal predictions.

[¶30] But let us examine the original more closely: it is said that Saul prophesied in the midst of his house, that is, he prayed in his family, while David was playing on the harp; and then suddenly threw his javelin, intending to have killed David. Let it be observed that the word ויתנבא vaiyithnabbe is the third person singular of the future hithpael; the sign of which is not only to do an action on or for one's self, but also to feign or pretend to do it. The meaning seems to be, Saul pretended to be praying in his family, the better to conceal his murderous intentions, and render David unsuspicious; who was, probably, at this time performing the musical part of the family worship. This view of the subject makes the whole case natural and plain.

### Verse 11

[¶32] Saul cast the javelin - The javelin or spear was the emblem of regal authority; kings always had it at hand, and in ancient monuments they are always represented with it.

[¶33] In ancient times, says Justin, kings used a spear instead of a diadem: Per ea tempora reges hastas pro diademate habebant, Hist. lib. xliii. And as spears were the emblems of supreme power, hence they were reputed as attributes of the Divinity, and were worshipped as representatives of the gods. Ab origne verum, pro Diis immortalibus veteres Hastas coluerent, ob cujus religionis memoriam, adhuc deorum simulachris Hastae adduntur. - Ibid.

### Verse 13

[¶35] Made him his captain - This was under pretense of doing him honor, when it was in effect only to rid himself of the object of his envy.

### Verse 15

[¶37] He was afraid of him - He saw that, by his prudent conduct, he was every day gaining increasing influence.

### Verse 17

[¶39] Fight the Lord's battles - Mr. Calmet properly remarks that the wars of the Hebrews, while conducted by the express orders of God, were truly the wars of the Lord; but when the spirit of worldly ambition and domination became mingled with them, they were no longer the wars of the Lord, but wars of lust and profanity.

### Verse 21

[¶41] That she may be a snare to him - Saul had already determined the condition on which he would give his daughter to David; viz., that he should slay one hundred Philistines: this he supposed he would undertake for the love of Michal, and that he must necessarily perish in the attempt; and thus Michal would become a snare to him.

### Verse 25

[¶43] But a hundred foreskins - That is, Thou shalt slay one hundred Philistines, and thou shalt produce their foreskins, as a proof, not only that thou hast killed one hundred men, but that these are of the uncircumcised. A custom similar to this still prevails among the Abyssinians, according to Bruce. See his Travels.

## 304. 1 Samuel · 26 of 37

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### Verse 27

[¶1] Slew - two hundred men - The Septuagint has only one hundred men. Saul covenanted with David for a hundred; and David himself says, [2Sam 3:14], that he espoused Michal for a hundred: hence it is likely that one hundred is the true reading.

### Verse 30

[¶3] Then the princes of the Philistines went forth - Probably to avenge themselves on David and the Israelites: but of this war we know no more than that David was more skillful and successful in it than any of the other officers of Saul. His military skill was greater, and his success was proportionate to his skill and courage; hence it is said, he behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul.

### Introduction

[¶5] Jonathan pleads for David before Saul, who is for the present reconciled, [1Sam 19:1-7]. David defeats the Philistines; and Saul becomes again envious, and endeavors to slay him, but he escapes, [1Sam 19:8-10]. Saul sends men to David's house, to lie in wait for him; but Michal saves him by a stratagem, [1Sam 19:11-17]. David flees to Samuel, at Ramah, [1Sam 19:18]. Saul, hearing of it, sends messengers three several times to take him; but the Spirit of coming upon them, they prophesy, [1Sam 19:19-21]. Saul, hearing of this, goes after David himself, and falls under the same influence, [1Sam 19:22-24].

### Verse 1

[¶7] That they should kill David - Nothing less than the especial interposition of God could have saved David's life, when every officer about the king's person, and every soldier, had got positive orders to despatch him.

### Verse 2

[¶9] Take heed to thyself until the morning - Perhaps the order was given to slay him the next day; and therefore Jonathan charges him to be particularly on his guard at that time, and to hide himself.

### Verse 4

[¶11] Jonathan spake good of David - It is evident that Jonathan was satisfied that David was an innocent man; and that his father was most unjustly incensed against him.

### Verse 5

[¶13] For he did put his life in his hand - The pleadings in this verse, though short, are exceedingly cogent; and the argument is such as could not be resisted.

### Verse 6

[¶15] He shall not be slain - In consequence of this oath, we may suppose he issued orders contrary to those which he had given the preceding day.

### Verse 7

[¶17] He was in his presence, as in times past - By Jonathan's advice he had secreted himself on that day on which he was to have been assassinated: the king having sworn that he should not be slain, David resumes his place in the palace of Saul.

### Verse 9

[¶19] And the evil spirit from the Lord - His envy and jealousy again returned, producing distraction of mind, which was exacerbated by diabolic influence. See on [1Sam 16:14] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶21] But he slipped away - He found he could not trust Saul; and therefore was continually on his watch. His agility of body was the means of his preservation at this time.

### Verse 11

[¶23] To slay him in the morning - When they might be able to distinguish between him and Michal his wife; for, had they attempted his life in the night season, there would have been some danger to Michal's life. Besides, Saul wished to represent him as a traitor; and consequently an attack upon him was justifiable at any time, even in the fullest daylight.

### Verse 12

[¶25] Let David down through a window - As Saul's messengers were sent to David's house to watch him, they would naturally guard the gate, or lie in wait in that place by which David would come out. Michal, seeing this let him down to the ground through a window probably at the back part of the house; and there being neither entrance nor issue that way, the liers in wait were easily eluded.

### Verse 13

[¶27] Michal took an image - את התרפים eth hatteraphim, the teraphim. The Hebrew word appears to mean any kind of image, in any kind of form, as a representative of some reality. Here it must have been something in the human form; because it was intended to represent a man lying in bed indisposed.

[¶28] A pillow of goats' hair - Perhaps she formed the appearance of a sick man's head muffled up by this pillow or bag of goats' hair. So I think the original might be understood. The goats' hair was merely accidental; unless we could suppose that it was designed to represent the hair of David's head, which is not improbable.

### Verse 17

[¶30] Let me go; why should I kill thee? - That is, If thou do not let me go, I will kill thee. This she said to excuse herself to her father: as a wife she could do not less than favor the escape of her husband, being perfectly satisfied that there was no guilt in him. It is supposed that it was on this occasion that David wrote the fifty-ninth Psalm, Deliver me from mine enemies, etc.

### Verse 18

[¶32] David fled, and escaped - to Samuel - He, no doubt, came to this holy man to ask advice; and Samuel thought it best to retain him for the present, with himself at Naioth, where it is supposed he had a school of prophets.

### Verse 20

[¶34] The company of the prophets prophesying - Employed in religious exercises.

[¶35] Samuel - appointed over them - Being head or president of the school at this place.

[¶36] The Spirit of God was upon the messengers - They partook of the same influence, and joined in the same exercise; and thus were prevented from seizing David.

### Verse 23

[¶38] He went on, and prophesied - The Divine Spirit seemed to have seized him at the well of Sechu; and he went on from that prophesying - praying, singing praises, etc.; till he came to Naioth.

### Verse 24

[¶40] He stripped off his clothes - Threw off his royal robes or military dress, retaining only his tunic; and continued so all that day and all that night, uniting with the sons of the prophets in prayers, singing praises, and other religious exercises, which were unusual to kings and warriors; and this gave rise to the saying, Is Saul also among the prophets? By bringing both him and his men thus under a Divine influence, God prevented them from injuring the person of David. See the notes on [1Sam 10:6] (note), etc.; and see my sermon on The Christian Prophet and his Work.

### Introduction

[¶42] David complains to Jonathan of Saul's enmity against him; Jonathan comforts him, [1Sam 20:1-10]. They walk out into the field, and renew their covenant, [1Sam 20:11-17]. David asks Jonathan's leave to absent himself from Saul's court; and Jonathan informs him how he shall ascertain the disposition of his father towards him, [1Sam 20:18-23]. David hides himself; is missed by Saul; Jonathan is questioned concerning his absence; makes an excuse for David; Saul is enraged, and endeavors to kill Jonathan, [1Sam 20:24-33]. Jonathan goes out to the field; gives David the sign which they had agreed on, and by which he was to know that the king had determined to take away his life, [1Sam 20:34-39]. He sends his servant back into the city; and then he and David meet, renew their covenant, and have a very affectionate parting, [1Sam 20:40-42].

### Verse 1

[¶44] David fled from Naioth - On hearing that Saul had come to that place, knowing that he was no longer in safety, he fled for his life.

## 305. 1 Samuel · 27 of 37

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### Verse 2

[¶1] My father will do nothing - Jonathan thought that his father could have no evil design against David, because of the oath which he had sworn to himself [1Sam 19:6]; and at any rate, that he would do nothing against David without informing him.

### Verse 3

[¶3] There is but a step between me and death - My life is in the most imminent danger. Your father has, most assuredly, determined to destroy me.

[¶4] The same figure used here, there is but a step between me and death, may be found in Juvenal, who, satirizing those who risk their lives for the sake of gain in perilous voyages, speaks thus: -

[¶5] I nune et ventis animam committe, dolato

[¶6] Confisus ligno, digitis a morte remotus

[¶7] Quatuor aut septem, si sit latissima teda.

[¶8] Sat. xii., ver. 57. "Go now, and commit thy life to the winds, trusting to a hewn plank, four or seven fingers thick, if the beam out of which it has been cut have been large enough."

### Verse 5

[¶10] To-morrow is the new moon - The months of the Hebrews were lunar months, and they reckoned from new moon to new moon. And as their other feasts, particularly the passover, were reckoned according to this, they were very scrupulous in observing the first appearance of each new moon. On these new moons they offered sacrifices, and had a feast; as we learn from [Num 10:10]; [Num 28:11]. And we may suppose that the families, on such occasions, sacrificed and feasted together. To this David seems to refer; but the gathering together all the families of a whole tribe seems to have taken place only once in the year. There is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family, [1Sam 20:6].

### Verse 8

[¶12] If there be in me iniquity - If thou seest that I am plotting either against the state, or the life of thy father, then slay me thyself.

### Verse 10

[¶14] Who shall tell me? - Who shall give me the necessary information? What means wilt thou use to convey this intelligence to me?

### Verse 11

[¶16] Come, and let us go out into the field - In answer to David's question, he now shows him how he shall convey this intelligence to him.

### Verse 12

[¶18] Jonathan said - O Lord God of Israel - There is, most evidently, something wanting in this verse. The Septuagint has, The Lord God of Israel doth Know. The Syriac and Arabic, The Lord God of Israel is Witness. Either of these makes a good sense. But two of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. supply the word חי chai, "liveth;" and the text reads thus, As the Lord God of Israel Liveth, when I have sounded my father - if there be good, and I then send not unto thee, and show it thee, the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan. This makes a still better sense.

### Verse 13

[¶20] The Lord be with thee, as he hath been with my father - From this, and other passages here it is evident that Jonathan knew that the Lord had appointed David to the kingdom.

### Verse 14

[¶22] Show me the kindness of the Lord - When thou comest to the kingdom, if I am alive, thou shalt show kindness to me, and thou shalt continue that kindness to my family after me.

### Verse 20

[¶24] I will shoot three arrows - Jonathan intended that David should stay at the stone Ezel, where probably there was some kind of cave, or hiding place; that, to prevent all suspicion, he would not go to him himself, but take his servant into the fields, and pretend to be exercising himself in archery; that he would shoot three arrows, the better to cover his design; and that, if he should say to his servant, who went to bring back the arrows, "The arrows are on this side of thee," this should be a sign to David that he might safely return to court, no evil being designed; but if he should say, "The arrows are beyond thee," then David should escape for his life, Saul having determined his destruction.

### Verse 25

[¶26] The king sat upon his seat - It seems that there was one table for Saul, Jonathan, David, and Abner; Saul having the chief seat, that next to the wall. As only four sat at this table, the absence of any one would soon be noticed.

### Verse 29

[¶28] Our family hath a sacrifice - Such sacrifices were undoubtedly festal ones; the beasts slain for the occasion were first offered to God, and their blood poured out before him; afterwards all that were bidden to the feast ate of the flesh. This was a family entertainment, at the commencement of which God was peculiarly honored.

### Verse 30

[¶30] Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman - This clause is variously translated and understood. The Hebrew might be translated, Son of an unjust rebellion; that is, "Thou art a rebel against thy own father." The Vulgate, Fili mulieris virum ultro rapientis; "Son of the woman who, of her own accord, forces the man." The Septuagint is equally curious, Υἱε κορασιων αυτομολουντων; "Son of the damsels who came of their own accord." Were these the meaning of the Hebrew, then the bitter reflection must refer to some secret transaction between Saul and Jonathan's mother; which certainly reflects more dishonor on himself than on his brave son. Most sarcasms bear as hard upon the speaker, as they do on him against whom they are spoken. Abusive language always argues a mean, weak, and malevolent heart.

### Verse 34

[¶32] Jonathan arose - in fierce anger - We should probably understand this rather of Jonathan's grief than of his anger, the latter clause explaining the former: for he was grieved for David. He was grieved for his father - he was grieved for his friend.

### Verse 38

[¶34] Make speed, haste, stay not - Though these words appear to be addressed to the lad, yet they were spoken to David, indicating that his life was at stake, and only a prompt flight could save him.

### Verse 40

[¶36] Jonathan gave his artillery - I believe this to be the only place in our language where the word artillery is not applied to cannon or ordnance. The original (כלי keley) signifies simply instruments, and here means the bow, quiver, and arrows.

### Verse 41

[¶38] Until David exceeded - David's distress must, in the nature of things, be the greatest. Besides his friend Jonathan, whom he was now about to lose for ever, he lost his wife, relatives, country; and, what was most afflictive, the altars of his God, and the ordinances of religion.

[¶39] Saul saw David's growing popularity, and was convinced of his own maladministration. He did not humble himself before God, and therefore became a prey to envy, pride, jealousy, cruelty, and every other malevolent temper. From him David had every thing to fear, and therefore he thought it was safer to yield to the storm, than attempt to brave it; though he could have even raised a very powerful party in Israel, had he used the means which were so much in his power. But as he neither sought not affected the kingdom, he left it to the providence of God to bring him in by such means, at such a way, and in such a time, as was most suited to his godly wisdom. He that believeth shall not make haste: God's way and time are ever the best; and he who, even in God's way, runs before he is sent, runs at random; runs without light, and without Divine strength.

[¶40] Feeble, therefore, must be his own might, his own counsel, and his own wisdom: though he encompass himself with his own sparks yet this hath he at the Lord's hand - he shalt lie down in sorrow.

### Introduction

[¶42] David comes to Ahimelech at Nob, receives provisions from him, and the sword of Goliath; and is noticed by Doeg, one of the servants of Saul, [1Sam 21:1-9]. He leaves Nob, and goes to Achish, king of Gath, [1Sam 21:10]. But on being recognised as the vanquisher of Goliath by the servants of Achish, he feigns himself deranged, and Achish sends him away, [1Sam 21:11-15].

### Verse 1

[¶44] Then came David to Nob - There were two places of this name, one on this side, the second on the other side of Jordan; but it is generally supposed that Nob, near Gibeah of Benjamin, is the place here intended; it was about twelve miles from Jerusalem.

[¶45] Why art thou alone - Ahimelech probably knew nothing of the difference between Saul and David; and as he knew him to be the king's son-in-law, he wondered to see him come without any attendants.

## 306. 1 Samuel · 28 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/306/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/306/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] The king hath commanded me a business - All said here is an untruth, and could not be dictated by the Spirit of the Lord; but there is no reason to believe that David was under the influence of Divine inspiration at this time. It is well known that from all antiquity it was held no crime to tell a lie, in order to save life. Thus Diphilus: - Ὑπολαμβανω το ψευδος επι σωτηριᾳ Λεγομενον, ουδεν περιποιεισθαι δυσχερες. "I hold it right to tell a lie, in order to procure my personal safety; nothing should be avoided in order to save life."

[¶2] A heathen may say or sing thus; but no Christian can act thus, and save his soul, though he by doing so may save his life.

### Verse 6

[¶4] So the priest gave him hallowed bread - To this history our Lord alludes, [Mar 2:25], in order to show that in cases of absolute necessity a breach of the ritual law was no sin. It was lawful for the priests only to eat the shew-bread; but David and his companions were starving, no other bread could be had at the time, and therefore he and his companions ate of it without sin.

### Verse 7

[¶6] Detained before the Lord - Probably fulfilling some vow to the Lord, and therefore for a time resident at the tabernacle.

[¶7] And his name was Doeg - From [1Sam 22:9] we learn that this man betrayed David's secret to Saul, which caused him to destroy the city, and slay eighty-five priests. We learn from its title that the fifty-second Psalm was made on this occasion; but titles are not to be implicitly trusted.

### Verse 9

[¶9] The sword of Goliath - It has already been conjectured (see 1 Samuel 17:1-58) that the sword of Goliath was laid up as a trophy in the tabernacle.

### Verse 10

[¶11] Went to Achish the king of Gath - This was the worst place to which he could have gone: it was the very city of Goliath, whom he had slain, and whose sword he now wore; and he soon found, from the conversation of the servants of Achish, that his life was in the most imminent danger in this place.

### Verse 13

[¶13] And he changed his behavior - Some imagine David was so terrified at the danger to which he was now exposed, that he was thrown into a kind of frenzy, accompanied with epileptic fits. This opinion is countenanced by the Septuagint, who render the passage thus: Ιδου ιδετε ανδρα επιλητον; "Behold, ye see an epileptic man. Why have ye introduced him to me?" Μη ελαττουμαι επιληπτων εγω; "Have I any need of epileptics, that ye have brought him to have his fits before me, (επιληπτευεσθαι προς με?") It is worthy of remark, that the spittle falling upon the beard, i.e., slavering or frothing at the mouth, is a genuine concomitant of an epileptic fit.

[¶14] If this translation be allowed, it will set the conduct of David in a clearer point of view than the present translation does. But others think the whole was a feigned conduct, and that he acted the part of a lunatic or madman in order to get out of the hands of Achish and his courtiers. Many vindicate this conduct of David; but if mocking be catching, according to the proverb, he who feigns himself to be mad may, through the just judgment of God, become so. I dare not be the apologist of insincerity or lying. Those who wish to look farther into this subject may consult Dr. Chandler, Mr. Saurin, and Ortlob, in the first volume of Dissertations, at the end of the Dutch edition of the Critici Sacri.

### Verse 15

[¶16] Shall this fellow come into my house? - I will not take into my service a man who is liable to so grievous a disease. Chandler, who vindicates David's feigning himself, mad, concludes thus: "To deceive the deceiver is in many instances meritorious, in none criminal. And what so likely to deceive as the very reverse of that character which they had so misconstrued? He was undone as a wise man, he had a chance to escape as a madman; he tried, and the experiment succeeded." I confess I can neither feel the force nor the morality of this. Deceit and hypocrisy can never be pleasing in the sight of God.

### Introduction

[¶18] David flees to the cave of Adullam, where he is joined by four hundred men of various descriptions, [1Sam 22:1], [1Sam 22:2]. He goes afterwards to Moab; and by the advice of the prophet Gad, to the forest of Hareth, [1Sam 22:3-5]. Saul, suspecting his servants of infidelity, upbraids them, [1Sam 22:6-8]. Doeg informs him of David's coming to Nob; of his being entertained by Ahimelech; on which Saul slays Ahimelech and all the priests, to the number of eighty-five, and destroys the city of Nob, [1Sam 22:9-19]. Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, only escapes; he joins with David, by whom he is assured of protection, [1Sam 22:20-23].

### Verse 1

[¶20] The cave Adullam - This was in the tribe of Judah, and, according to Eusebius and Jerome, ten miles eastward of what they call Eleutheropolis.

### Verse 2

[¶22] And every one that was in distress - debt - discontented - It is very possible that these several disaffected and exceptionable characters might at first have supposed that David, unjustly persecuted, would be glad to avail himself of their assistance that he might revenge himself upon Saul, and so they in the mean time might profit by plunder, etc. But if this were their design they were greatly disappointed, for David never made any improper use of them. They are never found plundering or murdering; on the contrary, they always appear under good discipline, and are only employed in services of a beneficent nature, and in defense of their country. Whatever they were before they came to David, we find that he succeeded in civilizing them, and making profitable to the state those who were before unprofitable. It is not necessary to strain the words of the original in order to prove that these were oppressed people, and not exceptionable characters, as some have done.

### Verse 3

[¶24] He said unto the king of Moab - David could not trust his parents within the reach of Saul, and he found it very inconvenient to them to be obliged to go through all the fatigues of a military life, and therefore begs the king of Moab to give them shelter. The king of Moab, being one of Saul's enemies, would be the more ready to oblige a person from whom he might at least expect friendship, if not considerable services.

### Verse 5

[¶26] Get thee into the land of Judah - Gad saw that in this place alone he could find safety.

### Verse 6

[¶28] Saul abode in Gibeah - Saul and his men were in pursuit of David, and had here, as is the general custom in the East, encamped on a height, for so Ramah should be translated, as in the margin. His spear, the ensign of power (see on [1Sam 18:11] (note)), was at hand, that is stuck in the ground where he rested, which was the mark to the soldiers that there was their general's tent.

[¶29] And all his servants were standing about him - That is, they were encamped around him, or perhaps here there is a reference to a sort of council of war called by Saul for the purpose of delivering the speech recorded in the following verses.

### Verse 8

[¶31] There is none that showeth me - He conjectured that Jonathan had made a league with David to dethrone him, and he accuses them of disloyalty for not making the discovery of this unnatural treason. Now it was impossible for any of them to show what did not exist, no such league having ever been made between David and Jonathan.

### Verse 9

[¶33] Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul - In [1Sam 21:7] he is said to be the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul, and the Septuagint intimate that he was over the mules of Saul. Probably he was what we call the king's equery or groom.

### Verse 10

[¶35] And he inquired of the Lord for him - This circumstance is not related in history; but it is probably true, as David would most naturally wish to know where to direct his steps in this very important crisis.

### Verse 14

[¶37] And who is so faithful - The word נאמן neeman, which we here translate faithful, is probably the name of an officer. See the note on [Num 12:7].

### Verse 15

[¶39] Did I then begin to inquire of God - He probably means that his inquiring now for David was no new thing, having often done so before, and without ever being informed it was either wrong in itself, or displeasing to the king. Nor is it likely that Ahimelech knew of any disagreement between Saul and David. He knew him to be the king's son-in-law, and he treated him as such.

### Verse 17

[¶41] But the servants of the king would not - They dared to disobey the commands of the king in a case of such injustice, inhumanity, and irreligion.

### Verse 18

[¶43] And Doeg - fell upon the priests - A ruthless Edomite, capable of any species of iniquity.

[¶44] Fourscore and five persons - The Septuagint read τριακοσιους και πεντε ανδρας, three hundred and five men; and Josephus has three hundred and eighty-five men. Probably the eighty-five were priests; the three hundred, the families of the priests; three hundred and eighty-five being the whole population of Nob.

## 307. 1 Samuel · 29 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/307/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/307/#p-N

[¶0] That did wear a linen ephod - That is, persons who did actually administer, or had a right to administer, in sacred things. The linen ephod was the ordinary clothing of the priests.

### Verse 19

[¶2] And Nob - smote he with the edge of the sword - This is one of the worst acts in the life of Saul; his malice was implacable, and his wrath was cruel, and there is no motive of justice or policy by which such a barbarous act can be justified.

### Verse 20

[¶4] Abiathar, escaped - This man carried with him his sacerdotal garments, as we find from [1Sam 23:6], [1Sam 23:9].

### Verse 22

[¶6] I knew it that day - When I saw Doeg there, I suspected he would make the matter known to Saul.

[¶7] I have occasioned the death of all the persons - I have been the innocent cause of their destruction.

### Verse 23

[¶9] He that seeketh my life seeketh thy life - The enmity of Saul is directed against thee as well as against me, and thou canst have no safety but in being closely attached to me; and I will defend thee even at the risk of my own life. This he was bound in duty and conscience to do.

### Introduction

[¶11] David succours Keilah, besieged by the Philistines; defeats them, and delivers the city, [1Sam 23:1-6]. Saul, hearing that David was at Keilah, determines to come and seize him, [1Sam 23:7], [1Sam 23:8]. David inquires of the Lord concerning the fidelity of the men of Keilah towards him; is informed that if he stays in the city, the men of Keilah will betray him to Saul, [1Sam 23:9-12]. David and his men escape from the city, and come to the wilderness of Ziph, [1Sam 23:13-15]. Jonathan meets David in the wood of Ziph, strengthens his hand in God, and they renew their covenant, [1Sam 23:16-18]. The Ziphites endeavor to betray David to Saul, but he and his men escape to Maon, [1Sam 23:19-22]. Saul comes to Maon; and having surrounded the mountain on which David and his men were, they must inevitably have fallen into his hands, had not a messenger come to call Saul to the succor of Judah, then invaded by the Philistines, [1Sam 23:25-27]. Saul leaves the pursuit of David, and goes to succor the land; and David escapes to En-gedi, [1Sam 23:28], [1Sam 23:29].

### Verse 1

[¶13] The Philistines fight against Keilah - Keilah was a fortified town in the tribe of Judah near to Eleutheropolis, on the road to Hebron.

[¶14] Rob the threshing-floors - This was an ancient custom of the Philistines, Midianites, and others. See [Jdg 6:4]. When the corn was ripe and fit to be threshed, and they had collected it at the threshing-floors, which were always in the open field, then their enemies came upon them and spoiled them of the fruits of their harvest.

### Verse 2

[¶16] Therefore David inquired of the Lord - In what way David made this inquiry we are not told, but it was probably by means of Abiathar; and therefore I think, with Houbigant that the sixth verse should be read immediately after the first. The adventure mentioned here was truly noble. Had not David loved his country, and been above all motives of private and personal revenge, he would have rejoiced in this invasion of Judah as producing a strong diversion in his favor, and embroiling his inveterate enemy. In most cases a man with David's wrongs would have joined with the enemies of his country, and avenged himself on the author of his adversities; but he thinks of nothing but succouring Keilah, and using his power and influence in behalf of his brethren! This is a rare instance of disinterested heroism.

[¶17] The Lord said - Go and smite - He might now go with confidence, being assured of success. When God promises success, who need be afraid of the face of any enemy?

### Verse 4

[¶19] David inquired of the Lord yet again - This was to satisfy his men, who made the strong objections mentioned in the preceding verse.

### Verse 5

[¶21] Brought away their cattle - The forage and spoil which the Philistines had taken, driving the country before them round about Keilah.

### Verse 6

[¶23] Came down with an ephod - I think this verse should come immediately after [1Sam 23:1] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶25] Saul called all the people together - That is, all the people of that region or district, that they might scour the country, and hunt out David from all his haunts.

### Verse 9

[¶27] Bring hither the ephod - It seems as if David himself, clothed with the ephod, had consulted the Lord; and [1Sam 23:10-12] contain the words of the consultation, and the Lord's answer. But see on [1Sam 23:2] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶29] In these verses we find the following questions and answers: - David said, Will Saul come down to Keilah? And the Lord said, He will come down. Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up. In this short history we find an ample proof that there is such a thing as contingency in human affairs; that is, God has poised many things between a possibility of being and not being, leaving it to the will of the creature to turn the scale. In the above answers of the Lord the following conditions were evidently implied: - If thou continue in Keilah, Saul will certainly come down; and If Saul come down, the men of Keilah will deliver thee into his hands. Now though the text positively asserts that Saul would come to Keilah, yet he did not come; and that the men of Keilah would deliver David into his hand, yet David was not thus delivered to him. And why? Because David left Keilah; but had he stayed, Saul would have come down, and the men of Keilah would have betrayed David. We may observe from this that, however positive a declaration of God may appear that refers to any thing in which man is to be employed, the prediction is not intended to suspend or destroy free agency, but always comprehends in it some particular condition.

### Verse 14

[¶31] Wilderness of Ziph - Ziph was a city in the southern part of Judea, not far from Carmel.

### Verse 16

[¶33] And Jonathan - strengthened his hand in God - It is probable that there was always a secret intercourse between David and Jonathan, and that by this most trusty friend he was apprised of the various designs of Saul to take away his life. As Jonathan well knew that God had appointed David to the kingdom, he came now to encourage him to trust in the Most High, and to assure him that the hand of Saul should not prevail against him; and at this interview they renewed their covenant of friendship. Now all this Jonathan could do, consistently with his duty to his father and his king. He knew that David had delivered the kingdom; he saw that his father was ruling unconstitutionally; and he knew that God had appointed David to succeed Saul. This he knew would come about in the order of Providence; and neither he nor David took one step to hasten the time. Jonathan, by his several interferences, prevented his father from imbruing his hands in innocent blood: a more filial and a more loyal part he could not have acted; and therefore, in his attachment to David, he is wholly free of blame.

### Verse 25

[¶35] The wilderness of Maon - Maon was a mountainous district in the most southern parts of Judah. Calmet supposes it to be the city of Menois, which Eusebius places in the vicinity of Gaza; and the Maenaemi Castrum, which the Theodosian code places near to Beersheba.

### Verse 26

[¶37] Saul went on this side of the mountain - Evidently not knowing that David and his men were on the other side.

### Verse 27

[¶39] There came a messenger - See the providence of God exerted for the salvation of David's life! David and his men are almost surrounded by Saul and his army, and on the point of being taken, when a messenger arrives and informs Saul that the Philistines had invaded the land! But behold the workings of Providence! God had already prepared the invasion of the land by the Philistines, and kept Saul ignorant how much David was in his power; but as his advanced guards and scouts must have discovered him in a very short time, the messenger arrives just at the point of time to prevent it. Here David was delivered by God, and in such a manner too as rendered the Divine interposition visible.

### Verse 28

[¶41] They called that place Sela-hammah-lekoth - That is, the rock of divisions; because, says the Targum, the heart of the king was divided to go hither and thither. Here Saul was obliged to separate himself from David, in order to go and oppose the invading Philistines.

### Verse 29

[¶43] Strong holds at En-gedi - En-gedi was situated near to the western coast of the Dead Sea, not far from Jeshimon: it literally signifies the kid's well, and was celebrated for its vineyards, [Sol 1:14]. It was also celebrated for its balm. It is reported to be a mountainous territory, filled with caverns; and consequently proper for David in his present circumstances.

[¶44] How threshing-floors were made among the ancients, we learn from Cato, De Re Rustica, chap. 91, and 129. And as I believe it would be an excellent method to make the most durable and efficient barn-floors, I will set it down: - Aream sic facito. Locum ubi facies confodito; postea amurca conspergito bene, sinitoque combibat. Postea comminuito glebas bene. Deinde coaequato, et paviculis verberato. Postea denuo amurca conspergito, sinitoque arescat. Si ita feceris neque formicae nocebunt, neque herbae nascentur: et cum pluerit, lutum non erit. "Make a threshing-floor thus: dig the place thoroughly; afterwards sprinkle it well with the lees of oil, and give it time to soak in. Then beat the clods very fine, make it level, and beat it well down with a paver's rammer. When this is done, sprinkle it afresh with the oil lees, and let it dry. This being done, the mice cannot burrow in it, no grass can grow through it, nor will the rain dissolve the surface to raise mud."

## 308. 1 Samuel · 30 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/308/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/308/#p-N

[¶0] The directions of Columella are nearly the same; but as there as some differences of importance, I will subjoin his account: -

[¶1] Area quoque si terrena erit, ut sit ad trituram satis habilis, primum radatur, deinde confodiatur, permixtis paleis cum amurca, quae salem non accepit, extergatur; nam ea res a populatione murium formicarumque frumenta defendit. Tum aequate paviculis, vel molari lapide condensetur, et rursus subjectis paleis inculcetur, atque ita solibus siccanda relinquatur.

[¶2] De Re Rustica, lib. ii., c. 20. "If you would have a threshing-floor made on the open ground, that it may be proper for the purpose, first pare off the surface, then let it be well digged, and mixed with lees of oil, unsalted, with which chaff has been mingled, for this prevents the mice and ants from burrowing and injuring the corn. Then level it with a paver's rammer, or press it down with a millstone. Afterwards scatter chaff over it, tread it down, and leave it to be dried by the sun."

[¶3] This may be profitably used within doors, as well as in the field; and a durable and solid floor is a matter of very great consequence to the husbandman, as it prevents the flour from being injured by sand or dust.

### Introduction

[¶5] Saul is informed that David is at En-gedi, and goes to seek him with three thousand men, [1Sam 24:1], [1Sam 24:2]. He goes into a cave to repose, where David and his men lay hid; who, observing this, exhort David to take away his life: David refuses, and contents himself with privily cutting off Saul's skirt, [1Sam 24:3-7]. When Saul departed, not knowing what was done, David called after him; showed him that his life had been in his power; expostulates strongly with him; and appeals to God, the Judge of his innocence, [1Sam 24:8-15]. Saul confesses David's uprightness, acknowledges his obligation to him for sparing his life; and causes him to swear that, when he should come to the kingdom, he would not destroy his seed, [1Sam 24:17-21]. Saul returns home, and David and his men stay in the hold, [1Sam 24:22].

### Verse 1

[¶7] Saul was returned - It is very probable that it was only a small marauding party that had made an excursion in the Israelitish borders, and this invasion was soon suppressed.

### Verse 2

[¶9] Rocks of the wild goats - The original (צורי היעלים tsurey haiyeelim) is variously understood. The Vulgate makes a paraphrase: Super abruptissimas petras quae solis ibicibus perviae sunt; "On the most precipitous rocks over which the ibexes alone can travel." The Targum: the caverns of the rocks. The Septuagint make the original a proper name; for out of צרוי היעלים tsurey haiyeelim, they make Σαδδαιεμ Saddaiem, and in some copies Αειαμειν Aeiamein, which are evidently corruptions of the Hebrew.

### Verse 3

[¶11] The sheep-cotes - Caves in the rocks, in which it is common, even to the present time, for shepherds and their flocks to lodge. According to Strabo there are caverns in Syria, one of which is capable of containing four thousand men: Ὡν ἑν και τετρακισχιλιους ανθρωπους δεξασθαι δυναμενον; lib. xvi. p. 1096. Edit. 1707.

[¶12] Saul went in to cover his feet - Perhaps this phrase signifies exactly what the Vulgate has rendered it, ut purparet ventrem. The Septuagint, the Targum, and the Arabic understand it in the same way. It is likely that, when he had performed this act of necessity, he lay down to repose himself, and it was while he was asleep that David cut off the skirt of his robe. It is strange that Saul was not aware that there might be men lying in wait in such a place; and the rabbins have invented a most curious conceit to account for Saul's security: "God, foreseeing that Saul would come to this cave, caused a spider to weave her web over the mouth of it, which, when Saul perceived, he took for granted that no person had lately been there, and consequently he entered it without suspicion." This may be literally true; and we know that even a spider in the hand of God may be the instrument of a great salvation. This is a Jewish tradition, and one of the most elegant and instructive in their whole collection.

[¶13] David and his men remained in the sides of the cave - This is no hyperbole; we have not only the authority of Strabo as above mentioned, but we have the authority of the most accurate travelers, to attest the fact of the vast capacity of caves in the East.

[¶14] Dr. Pococke observes: "Beyond the valley (of Tekoa) there is a very large grotto, which the Arabs call El Maamah, a hiding place; the high rocks on each side of the valley are almost perpendicular, and the way to the grotto is by a terrace formed in the rock, which is very narrow. There are two entrances into it; we went by the farthest, which leads by a narrow passage into a large grotto, the rock being supported by great natural pillars; the top of it rises in several parts like domes; the grotto is perfectly dry. There is a tradition that the people of the country, to the number of thirty thousand, retired into this grotto to avoid a bad air. This place is so strong that one would imagine it to be one of the strong holds of En-gedi, to which David and his men fled from Saul; and possibly it may be that very cave in which he cut off Saul's skirt, for David and his men might with great ease lie hid there and not be seen by him." - Pococke's Travels, vol. ii., part 1, p. 41.

### Verse 4

[¶16] And the men of David said - We know not to what promise of God the men of David refer; they perhaps meant no more than to say, "Behold, the Lord hath delivered thine enemy into thy land, now do to him as he wishes to do to thee."

[¶17] Then David arose - Though I have a high opinion of the character of David, yet the circumstances of the case seem to indicate that he arose to take away the life of Saul, and that it was in reference to this that his heart smote him. It appears that he rose up immediately at the desire of his men to slay his inveterate enemy, and one whom he knew the Lord had rejected; but when about to do it he was prevented by the remonstrance of God in his conscience, and instead of cutting off his head, as he might have done, an act which the laws and usages of war would have justified, he contented himself with cutting off the skirt of his robe; and he did this only to show Saul how much he had been in his power.

### Verse 6

[¶19] The Lord's anointed - However unworthily Saul was now acting, he had been appointed to his high office by God himself, and he could only be removed by the authority which placed him on the throne. Even David, who knew he was appointed to reign in his stead, and whose life Saul had often sought to destroy, did not conceive that he had any right to take away his life; and he grounds the reasons of his forbearance on this - He is my master, I am his subject. He is the Lord's anointed, and therefore sacred as to his person in the Lord's sight. It is an awful thing to kill a king, even the most untoward, when he has once been constitutionally appointed to the throne. No experiment of this kind has ever succeeded; the Lord abhors king killing. Had David taken away the life of Saul at this time, he would, in the sight of God, have been a murderer.

### Verse 7

[¶21] Suffered them not to rise against Saul - As he could restrain them, it was his duty to do so; had he connived at their killing him, David would have been the murderer. In praying for the king we call God the only Ruler of princes, for this simple reason, that their authority is the highest among men, and next to that of God himself; hence he alone is above them. We find this sentiment well expressed by an elegant poet: -

[¶22] Regum timendorum in proprios greges,

[¶23] Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis.

[¶24] Horace, Odar. lib. iii., Od. i., ver. 5.

[¶25] Kings are supreme over their own subjects;

[¶26] Jove is supreme over kings themselves.

### Verse 12

[¶28] The Lord judge between me and thee - Appeals of this kind to God are the common refuge of the poor and oppressed people. So also among the Hindoos: God will judge between us. Mother Kalee will judge. Sometimes this springs from a consciousness of innocence, and sometimes from a desire of revenge.

### Verse 13

[¶30] Wickedness proceeded from the wicked - This proverb may be thus understood: He that does a wicked act, gives proof thereby that he is a wicked man. From him who is wicked, wickedness will proceed; he who is wicked will add one iniquity to another. Had I conspired to dethrone thee, I should have taken thy life when it was in my power, and thus added wickedness to wickedness.

### Verse 14

[¶32] After a dead dog - A term used among the Hebrews to signify the most sovereign contempt; see [2Sam 16:9]. One utterly incapable of making the least resistance against Saul, and the troops of Israel. The same idea is expressed in the term flea. The Targum properly expresses both thus: one who is weak, one who is contemptible.

### Verse 15

[¶34] The Lord therefore be judge - Let God determine who is guilty.

### Verse 16

[¶36] My son David? - David had called Saul his master, lord, and king. Saul accosts him here as his son, to show that he felt perfectly reconciled to him, and wished to receive him as formerly into his family.

### Verse 19

[¶38] If a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? - Or rather, Will he send him in a good way? But Houbigant translates the whole clause thus: Si quis, inimicum suum reperiens, dimittit eum in viam bonam, redditur ei adomino sua merces; "If a man, finding his enemy, send him by a good way, the Lord will give him his reward." The words which are here put in italic, are not in the Hebrew text, but they are found, at least in the sense, in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, and seem necessary to complete the sense; therefore, adds Saul, the Lord will reward thee good for what thou hast done unto me.

### Verse 20

[¶40] I know well that thou shalt surely be king - Hebrew, Reigning, thou shalt reign. He knew this before; and yet he continued to pursue him with the most deadly hatred.

### Verse 21

[¶42] Swear now - Saul knew that an oath would bind David, though it was insufficient to bind himself; see [1Sam 19:6]. He had sworn to his son Jonathan that David should not be slain; and yet sought by all means in his power to destroy him!

### Verse 22

[¶44] Saul went home - Confounded at a sense of his own baseness, and overwhelmed with a sense of David's generosity.

## 309. 1 Samuel · 31 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/309/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/309/#p-N

[¶0] David and his men gat them up unto the hold - Went up to Mizpeh, according to the Syriac and Arabic. David could not trust Saul with his life; the utmost he could expect from him was that he should cease from persecuting him; but even this was too much to expect from a man of such a character as Saul. He was no longer under the Divine guidance; an evil spirit had full dominion over his soul. What God fills not, the devil will occupy.

### Introduction

[¶2] The death of Samuel, [1Sam 25:1]. The history of Nabal, and his churlishness towards David and his men, [1Sam 25:2-12]. David, determining to punish him, is appeased by Abigail, Nabal's wife, vv. 13-35. Abigail returns, and tells Nabal of the danger that he has escaped: who on hearing it is thunderstruck, and dies in ten days, [1Sam 25:36-38] David, hearing of this, sends and takes Abigail to wife, [1Sam 25:39-42]. He marries also Ahinoam of Jezreel, Saul having given Michal, David's wife, to Phalti, the son of Laish, [1Sam 25:43], [1Sam 25:44].

### Verse 1

[¶4] And Samuel died - Samuel lived, as is supposed, about ninety-eight years; was in the government of Israel before Saul from sixteen to twenty years; and ceased to live, according to the Jews, about four months before the death of Saul; but according to Calmet and others, two years. But all this is very uncertain; how long he died before Saul, cannot be ascertained. For some account of his character, see the end of the chapter, [1Sam 25:44] (note).

[¶5] Buried him in his house - Probably this means, not his dwelling-house, but the house or tomb he had made for his sepulture; and thus the Syriac and Arabic seem to have understood it.

[¶6] David - went down to the wilderness of Paran - This was either on the confines of Judea, or in Arabia Petraea, between the mountains of Judah and Mount Sinai; it is evident from the history that it was not far from Carmel, on the south confines of Judah.

### Verse 3

[¶8] The name of the man was Nabal - The word נבל nabal signifies to be foolish, base, or villanous; and hence the Latin word nebulo, knave, is supposed to be derived.

[¶9] The name of his wife Abigail - The joy or exultation of my father. A woman of sense and beauty, married to the boor mentioned above, probably because he was rich. Many women have been thus sacrificed.

[¶10] Of the house of Caleb - והוא כלבי vehu Chalibbi, "he was a Calebite." But as the word caleb signifies a dog, the Septuagint have understood it as implying a man of a canine disposition, and translate it thus, και ὁ ανθρωπος κυνικος, he was a doggish man. It is understood in the same way by the Syriac and Arabic.

### Verse 6

[¶12] Peace be both to thee - This is the ancient form of sending greetings to a friend: Peace to Thee, peace to thy Household, and peace to all that Thou Hast. That is, May both thyself, thy family, and all that pertain unto thee, be in continual prosperity!

[¶13] Perhaps David, by this salutation, wished Nabal to understand that he had acted so towards him and his property that nothing had been destroyed, and that all had been protected; see [1Sam 25:15-17].

### Verse 7

[¶15] Thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not - It is most evident that David had a claim upon Nabal, for very essential services performed to his herdmen at Carmel. He not only did them no hurt, and took none of their flocks for the supply of his necessities, but he protected them from the rapacity of others; they were a Wall unto us, said Nabal's servants, both by night and day. In those times, and to the present day, wandering hordes of Arabs, under their several chiefs, think they have a right to exact contributions of provisions, etc., wherever they come; David had done nothing of this kind, but protected them against those who would.

### Verse 8

[¶17] Whatsoever cometh to thine hand - As thou art making a great feast for thy servants, and I and my men, as having essentially served thee, would naturally come in for a share were we present; send a portion by my ten young men, for me and my men, that we also may rejoice with you. Certainly this was a very reasonable and a very modest request. This mode of address is not unfrequent among the Hindoos: "O father, fill the belly of thy son; he is in distress."

### Verse 10

[¶19] Who is David? - Nabal's answer shows the surliness of his disposition. It was unjust to refuse so reasonable a request; and the manner of the refusal was highly insulting. It is true what his own servants said of him, He is such a son of Belial that one cannot speak to him, [1Sam 25:17].

### Verse 18

[¶21] Took two hundred loaves - The Eastern bread is ordinarily both thin and small; and answers to our cakes.

[¶22] Two bottles of wine - That is, two goat-skins full. The hide is pulled off the animal without ripping up; the places where the legs, etc., were are sewed up, and then the skin appears one large bag. This is properly the Scripture and Eastern bottle. There is one such before me.

[¶23] Five sheep - Not one sheep to one hundred men.

[¶24] Clusters of raisins - Raisins dried in the sun.

[¶25] Cakes of figs - Figs cured, and then pressed together. We receive the former in jars, and the latter in small barrels; and both articles answer the description here given.

[¶26] Now all this provision was a matter of little worth, and, had it been granted in the first instance, it would have perfectly satisfied David, and secured the good offices of him and his men. Abigail showed both her wisdom and prudence in making this provision. Out of three thousand sheep Nabal could not have missed five; and as this claim was made only in the time of sheep-shearing, it could not have been made more than once in the year: and it certainly was a small price for such important services.

### Verse 20

[¶28] She came down - and David - came down - David was coming down Mount Paran; Abigail was coming down from Carmel. - Calmet.

### Verse 22

[¶30] So and more also do God - Nothing can justify this part of David's conduct. Whatever his provocation might have been, he had suffered, properly speaking, no wrongs; and his resolution to cut off a whole innocent family, because Nabal had acted ungenerously towards him, was abominable and cruel, not to say diabolic. He who attempts to vindicate this conduct of David is, at least constructively, a foe to God and truth. David himself condemns this most rash and unwarrantable conduct, and thanks God for having prevented him from doing this evil, [1Sam 25:32], etc.

[¶31] Any that pisseth against the wall - This expression certainly means either men or dogs, and should be thus translated, if I leave, any male; and this will answer both to men and dogs, and the offensive mode of expression be avoided. I will not enter farther into the subject: Bochart and Calmet have done enough, and more than enough; and in the plainest language too.

### Verse 28

[¶33] And evil hath not been found in thee - Thou hast not committed any act of this kind hitherto.

### Verse 29

[¶35] Shall be bound in the bundle of life - Thy life shall be precious in the sight of the Lord: it shall be found in the bundle of life; it shall be supported by Him who is the Spring and Fountain of life, and ever be found united to those who are most favored by the Almighty.

[¶36] Them shall he sling out - Far from being bound and kept together in union with the Fountain of life, he will cast them off from himself as a stone is cast out from a sling. This betokens both force and violence.

### Verse 37

[¶38] His heart died within him, and he became as a stone - He was thunderstruck, and was so terrified at the apprehension of what he had escaped, that the fear overcame his mind, he became insensible to all things around him, probably refused all kinds of nourishment, and died in ten days.

### Verse 39

[¶40] To take her to him to wife - It is likely that he had heard before this that Saul, to cut off all his pretensions to the throne, had married Michal to Phalti; and this justified David in taking Abigail or any other woman; and, according to the then custom, it was not unlawful for David to take several wives. By his marriage with Abigail, it is probable he became possessed of all Nabal's property in Carmel and Maon.

### Verse 43

[¶42] David also took Ahinoam - Many think that this was his wife before he took Abigail; she is always mentioned first in the list of his wives, and she was the mother of his eldest son Ammon.

[¶43] Of Jezreel - There were two places of this name; one in the tribe of Issachar, the other in the tribe of Judah.

## 310. 1 Samuel · 32 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/310/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/310/#p-N

### Verse 44

[¶1] Phalti - Called also Phaltiel, [2Sam 3:16].

[¶2] Of Gallim - Probably a city or town in the tribe of Benjamin; see [Isa 10:30]. It is likely therefore that Saul chose this man because he was of his own tribe.

[¶3] In this chapter we have the account of the death of Samuel, who from his infancy had been devoted to God and the service of his people. He was born at a time in which religion was at a very low ebb in Israel, as there were but very few prophets, and no open vision - scarcely any revelation from God. Those who might be called prophets had no regular ministry of God's word; they were extraordinary messengers sent for a particular purpose, and not continued in the work any longer than the time necessary to deliver their extraordinary message.

[¶4] Samuel is supposed to have been the first who established academies or schools for prophets, at least we do not hear of them before his time; and it is granted that they continued till the Babylonish captivity. This was a wise institution, and no doubt contributed much to the maintenance of pure religion, and the prevention of idolatry among that people.

[¶5] Samuel reformed many abuses in the Jewish state, and raised it to a pitch of political consequence to which it had been long a stranger. He was very zealous for the honor of God, and supported the rights of pure religion, of the king, and of the people, against all encroachments. He was chief magistrate in Israel before the appointment of a king, and afterwards he acted as prime minister to Saul, though without being chosen or formally appointed to that station. Indeed, he seems on the whole to have been the civil and ecclesiastical governor, Saul being little more than general of the Israelitish forces.

[¶6] In his office of minister in the state, he gave the brightest example of zeal, diligence, inflexible integrity, and uncorruptedness. He reproved both the people and the king for their transgressions, with a boldness which nothing but his sense of the Divine authority could inspire, and yet he tempered it with a sweetness which showed the interest he felt in their welfare, and the deep and distressing concern he felt for their back-slidings and infidelities.

[¶7] He was incorrupt; he received no man's bribe; he had no pension from the state; he enriched none of his relatives from the public purse; left no private debts to be discharged by his country. He was among the Hebrews what Aristides is said to have been among the Greeks, so poor at his death, though a minister of state, that he did not leave property enough to bury him. Justice was by him duly and impartially administered, and oppression and wrong had no existence.

[¶8] If there ever was a heaven-born minister, it was Samuel; in whose public and private conduct there was no blemish, and whose parallel cannot be found in the ancient or modern history of any country in the universe.

[¶9] Let ministers of state who have sought for nothing but their own glory, and have increased the public burdens by their improvident expenditure; who have endeavored, by their wordy representations, to dazzle and elude the people, and impose false grandeur in the place of true greatness and solid prosperity; who have oppressed the many, and enriched the worthless few; fall down at the feet of This heaven-born man, and learn, from this immaculate judge of Israel, what a faithful servant to his king, and an incorruptible minister of state, means, and in retiring from their high station, or in going to appear before the judgment-seat of God, see whether, in the presence of their king, and in the face of the thousands of their people, they can boldly say, "Behold, here am I! Witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose ass have I seized? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, by the imposition of heavy taxes for the support of needless expenses, and the payment of venal men? Or of whose hand have I taken any bribe to blind my eyes? Scrutinize my conduct, examine the state of my family, compare their present circumstances with what they were previously to my administration, and see if you can find aught in my hands." See [1Sam 12:1], etc.

[¶10] O, how seldom in the annals of the world, from the assembled heads of the great body politic, can the departing prime minister hear, "Thou hast not defrauded us, thou hast not oppressed us; neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand!" This voice call be heard from Gilgal; but of what other minister can this be spoken but of Samuel the seer, who was the gift of God's mercy to the people of Israel; whose memory was too precious to be intrusted to public monuments, but stands, and alas; almost unique in the Book of God? Of Daniel, and his administration, I shall have occasion to speak elsewhere.

[¶11] A prime minister, deeply devoted to God and faithful to his king and to his country, is so rare a character in the world, that when he does occur, he should be held up to public admiration. But I have no parallel for Samuel. See the notes on 1 Samuel 12:1-25 (note) and on [1Sam 24:6] (note).

### Introduction

[¶13] The Ziphites inform Saul of David's hiding place, [1Sam 26:1]. Saul, with three thousand men, goes in pursuit of him, [1Sam 26:2], [1Sam 26:3]. David sends out spies; and finds where Saul had pitched his camp; and he and Abishai come to the camp by night, find all asleep, and bring away Saul's spear, and the cruse of water that was at his head, [1Sam 26:4-12]. David goes to the opposite hill; awakes Abner, captain of Saul's host; chides him for being so careless of his master's life; and calls on Saul to send one of his servants for the spear; and severely chides him for his continued hostility to him, [1Sam 26:13-24]. Saul humbles himself to David; promises to persecute him no more; and returns to his own place, [1Sam 26:25].

### Verse 1

[¶15] The Ziphites came - This is the second time that these enemies of David endeavored to throw him into the hands of Saul. See [1Sam 23:19].

### Verse 2

[¶17] Three thousand chosen men - Though they knew that David was but six hundred strong, yet Saul thought it was not safe to pursue such an able general with a less force than that mentioned in the text; and, that he might the better depend on them, they were all elect or picked men out of the whole of his army.

### Verse 5

[¶19] David arose - As David and his men knew the country, they had many advantages over Saul and his men; and no doubt could often watch them without being discovered.

[¶20] Saul lay in the trench - The word במעגל bammaegal, which we translate in the trench, and in the margin in the midst of his carriages, is rendered by some in a ring of carriages, and by others in the circle, i.e., which was formed by his troops. Luther himself translates it wagenburg, a fortress formed of wagons or carriages.

[¶21] As עגל agal signifies any thing round, it may here refer to a round pavilion or tent made for Saul, or else to the form of his camp. The Arabs, to the present day, always form a circle in their encampments, and put their principal officers in the center.

### Verse 6

[¶23] Abishai the son of Zeruiah - She was David's sister; and therefore Abishai and Joab were nephews to David.

### Verse 8

[¶25] God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand - Here Abishai uses the same language as did David's men, when Saul came into the cave at En-gedi, (see [1Sam 24:4], etc.), and David uses the same language in reply.

### Verse 10

[¶27] The Lord shall smite him - He shall die by a stroke of the Divine judgment; or his day shall come to die - he shall die a natural death; which in the course of things must be before mine, and thus I shall get rid of mine enemy; or he shall descend into the battle, and perish - he shall fall by the enemies of his country. These are the three ordinary ways by which man accomplishes, as a hireling, his day. Murder David could not consider to be lawful; this would have been taking the matter out of God's hand, and this David would not do.

### Verse 12

[¶29] David took the spear and the cruse - The spear, we have already seen, was the emblem of power and regal dignity. But it is usual, in Arab camps, for every man to have his lance stuck in the ground beside him, that he may be ready for action in a moment. The cruse of water resembled, in some measure, the canteens of our soldiers. In such a climate, where water was always scarce, it was necessary for each man to carry a little with him, to refresh him on his march.

[¶30] A deep sleep from the Lord - It is the same word which is used, [Gen 2:21], to describe the sleep which God caused to fall upon Adam, when he formed Eve out of his side.

### Verse 15

[¶32] Art not thou a valiant man? - This is a strong irony. Ye are worthy to die; ye are sons of death - ye deserve death for this neglect of your king. And had not Saul been so deeply affected with David's generosity in preserving his life, he had doubtless put Abner and his chief officers to death; though they were not to blame, as their apparent neglect was the effect of a supernatural sleep.

### Verse 19

[¶34] Let him accept an offering - If God have stirred thee up against me, why, then, let him deliver my life into thy hand, and accept it as a sacrifice. But as the word is מנחה minchah, a gratitude-offering, perhaps the sense may be this: Let God accept a gratitude-offering from thee, for having purged the land of a worker of iniquity; for, were I not such, God would never stir thee up against me.

[¶35] But if they be the children of men - If men have, by false representations, lies, and slanders, stirred thee up against an innocent man, then let them be cursed before the Lord. If I am guilty, I deserve to die; if not, those who seek my life should be destroyed.

[¶36] Saying, Go, serve other gods - His being obliged to leave the tabernacle, and the place where the true worship of God was performed, and take refuge among idolaters, said in effect, Go, serve other gods.

### Verse 20

[¶38] As when one doth hunt a partridge - It is worthy of remark that the Arabs, observing that partridges, being put up several times, soon become so weary as not to be able to fly; they in this manner hunt them upon the mountains, till at last they can knock them down with their clubs.

[¶39] It was in this manner that Saul hunted David, coming hastily upon him, and putting him up from time to time, in hopes that he should at length, by frequent repetitions of it, be able to destroy him. See Harmer.

### Verse 21

[¶41] I have sinned - Perhaps the word חטאתי chatathi, "I have sinned," should be read, I have erred, or, have been mistaken. I have taken thee to be a very different man from what I find thee to be. Taken literally it was strictly true. He often purposed the spilling of David's blood; and thus, again and again, sinned against his life.

### Verse 25

[¶43] Thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. - The Hebrew is גם עשה תעשה וגם יכל תוכל gam asoh thaaseh, vegam yachol tuchal; "Also in doing thou shalt do, and being able thou shalt be able; which the Targum translates, also in reigning thou shalt reign, and in prospering thou shalt prosper; which in all probability is the meaning.

[¶44] There is a vast deal of dignity in this speech of David, arising from a consciousness of his own innocence. He neither begs his life from Saul, nor offers one argument to prevail upon him to desist from his felonious attempts, but refers the whole matter to God, as the judge and vindicator of oppressed innocence. Saul himself is speechless, except in the simple acknowledgment of his sin; and in the behalf of their king not one of his officers has one word to say! It is strange that none of them offered now to injure the person of David; but they saw that he was most evidently under the guardian care of God, and that their master was apparently abandoned by him. Saul invites David to return, but David knew the uncertainty of Saul's character too well to trust himself in the power of this infatuated king. How foolish are the counsels of men against God! When he undertakes to save, who can destroy? And who can deliver out of his hands?

## 311. 1 Samuel · 33 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/311/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/311/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] David flies to Achish, king of Gath, who receives him kindly, and gives him Ziklag to dwell in, where he continues a year and four months, [1Sam 27:1-7]. David invades the Geshurites and Amalekites, and leaves neither man nor woman alive, [1Sam 27:8], [1Sam 27:9]. He returns to Achish, and pretends that he had been making inroads on the Israelites, and Achish believes it, [1Sam 27:10-12].

### Verse 1

[¶3] I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul - This was a very hasty conclusion: God had so often interposed in behalf of his life, that he was authorized to believe the reverse. God had hitherto confounded all Saul's stratagems, and it was not at all likely that he would now abandon him: there was now no additional reason why he should withdraw from David his helping hand.

### Verse 2

[¶5] David arose, and he passed over - unto Achish - There is not one circumstance in this transaction that is not blameable. David joins the enemies of his God and of his country, acts a most inhuman part against the Geshurites and Amalekites, without even the pretense of a Divine authority; tells a most deliberate falsehood to Achish, his protector, relative to the people against whom he had perpetrated this cruel act; giving him to understand that he had been destroying the Israelites, his enemies. I undertake no defense of this conduct of David; it is all bad, all defenceless; God vindicates him not. The inspired penman tells what he did, but passes no eulogium upon his conduct; and it is false to say that, because these things are recorded, therefore they are approved. In all these transactions David was in no sense a man after God's own heart. Chandler attempts to vindicate all this conduct: those who can receive his saying, let them receive it.

### Verse 3

[¶7] Every man with his household - So it appears that the men who consorted with David had wives and families. David and his company resembled a tribe of the wandering Arabs.

### Verse 5

[¶9] Why should thy servant dwell in the royal city - He seemed to intimate that two princely establishments in the same city were too many. Achish appears to have felt the propriety of his proposal, and therefore appoints him Ziklag.

### Verse 6

[¶11] Achish gave him Ziklag - Ziklag was at first given to the tribe of Judah, but afterwards it was ceded to that of Simeon, [Jos 15:31]; [Jos 19:5]. The Philistines had, however, made themselves masters of it, and held it to the time here mentioned; it then fell into the tribe of Judah again, and continued to be the property of the kings of Judah. This verse is a proof that this book was written long after the days of Samuel, and that it was formed by a later hand, out of materials which had been collected by a contemporary author. See the preface.

### Verse 9

[¶13] David smote the land - Here was a complete extirpation of all these people, not one being left alive, lest he should carry tidings of the disasters of his country! The spoil which David took consisted of sheep, oxen, asses, camels, and apparel.

### Verse 10

[¶15] Whither have ye made a road today? - He had probably been in the habit of making predatory excursions. This seems to be implied in the question of Achish.

### Verse 12

[¶17] He hath made his people - utterly to abhor him - This deception, which Dr. Delaney says "did harm to nobody, and to the account of which he is at an utter loss what degree of guilt to charge," imposed upon Achish, had the most direct tendency to make him imagine himself secure, while in the utmost danger; and to have a faithful friend and able ally in David, while he was the veriest enemy he could possibly have. Shame on him who becomes the apologist of such conduct! As to Dr. Chandler, he should know that no lie is of the truth, and that all falsity is an abomination to the Lord.

### Introduction

[¶19] The Philistines prepare to attack the Israelites, and Achish informs David that he shall accompany him to battle, [1Sam 28:1], [1Sam 28:2]. Saul, unable to obtain any answer from God, applies to a witch at En-dor to bring up Samuel that he may converse with him on the issue of the war, [1Sam 28:3-11]. Samuel appears, [1Sam 28:12-14]. He reproaches Saul with his misconduct, and informs him of his approaching ruin, [1Sam 28:15-19]. He is greatly distressed; but at the solicitations of the woman and his own servants, he takes some food, and departs the same night, [1Sam 28:20-25].

### Verse 1

[¶21] The Philistines gathered their armies together - Sir Isaac Newton conjectures that the Philistines had got a great increase to their armies by vast numbers of men which Amasis had driven out of Egypt. This, with Samuel's death, and David's disgrace, were no inconsiderable motives to a new war, front which the Philistines had now every thing to hope.

[¶22] Thou shalt go out with me to battle - This he said, being deceived by what David had told him.

### Verse 2

[¶24] Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do - This was another equivocal answer; and could only be understood by his succeeding conduct. It might imply what he could do in favor of the Philistines against Israel; or in favor of Israel against the Philistines. Achish understood it in the former sense; and therefore he said to David, I will make thee keeper of my head for ever; i.e., Thou shalt be captain of my life-guards.

### Verse 3

[¶26] Samuel was dead - And there was no longer a public accredited prophet to consult.

[¶27] Those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards - See the note on [Lev 19:31], and [Exo 22:18].

### Verse 5

[¶29] When Saul saw - He saw from the superiority of his enemies, from the state of his army, and especially from his own state towards God, that he had every thing to fear.

### Verse 6

[¶31] The Lord answered him not - He used the three methods by which supernatural intelligence was ordinarily given: -

[¶32] 1. Dreams. - The person prayed for instruction; and begged that God would answer by a significant dream.

[¶33] 2. Urim. - This was a kind of oracular answer given to the high priest when clothed with the ephod, on which were the Urim and Thummim. How these communicated the answer, is not well known.

[¶34] 3. Prophets. - Who were requested by the party concerned to consult the Lord on the subject in question, and to report his answer. The prophets at that time could only be those in the schools of the prophets, which Samuel had established at Naioth and Gibeah. These were the only successors of Samuel that we know of.

### Verse 7

[¶36] Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit - Literally, Seek me a woman, בעלת אוב baalath ob, the mistress of the Obidiah or Pythonic spirit - one who had a familiar spirit, whom she could invoke when she pleased, and receive answers from him relative to futurity.

[¶37] Strange that a man, who had banished all such from the land, as dangerous to the state, as impostors and deceivers, should now have recourse to them as the only persons in whom he could safely put his confidence in the time in which Jehovah had refused to help him!

[¶38] At En-dor - This was a city in the valley of Jezreel, at the foot of Mount Gilboa, where the army of Saul had now encamped.

### Verse 8

[¶40] Saul disguised himself - That he might not be known by the woman, lest she, being terrified, should refuse to use her art.

### Verse 11

[¶42] Whom shall I bring up - The woman certainly meant no more than making her familiar personify whomsoever the querist should wish. In the evocation of spirits this is all that, according to the professed rules of their art, such persons pretend to; for over human souls in paradise or in the infernal regions they have no power. If we allow that there is such an art founded on true principles, all it can pretend to is, to bring up the familiar; cause him when necessary to assume the form and character of some particular person, and to give such notices relative to futurity as he is able to collect. And this even in the cases to which authenticity is generally allowed, is often scanty, vague, and uncertain, for fallen spirits do not abound in knowledge: this is an attribute of God, and rays of this perfection are imparted to pure and holy intelligences; and even Satan himself, as may be seen from most of his temptations, is far from excelling in knowledge. He may be cunning and insidious, but he certainly is not wise and prudent; we in general give this fallen spirit credit for much more wisdom than he possesses.

### Verse 12

[¶44] When the woman saw Samuel - That Samuel did appear on this occasion, is most evident from the text; nor can this be denied from any legitimate mode of interpretation: and it is as evident that he was neither raised by the power of the devil nor the incantations of the witch, for the appearances which took place at this time were such as she was wholly unacquainted with. Her familiar did not appear; and from the confused description she gives, it is fully evident that she was both surprised and alarmed at what she saw, being so widely different from what she expected to see.

## 312. 1 Samuel · 34 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/312/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/312/#p-N

### Verse 13

[¶1] I saw gods ascending out of the earth - The word אלהום elohim, which we translate gods, is the word which is used for the Supreme Being throughout the Bible; but all the versions, the Chaldee excepted, translate it in the plural number, as we do. The Chaldee has, I see מלאכא דיי malacha dayeya, an angel of the Lord, ascending from the earth. This sight alarmed the woman; it was what she did not expect; in this she could not recognise her familiar, and she was terrified at the appearance.

### Verse 14

[¶3] An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle - This seems to have been a second apparition; she cannot mean that she had seen gods ascending out of the earth, and these gods were like an old man with a mantle. The angelic appearance first mentioned prepared the way for Samuel; and the whole was done so as to show to the woman that her art had not prevailed in the present instance, and that what was now taking place was wholly independent of her incantations.

[¶4] Saul perceived that it was Samuel - The description was suitable to his person and clothing.

### Verse 15

[¶6] Why hast thou disquieted me - The complaint is not directed against the woman but against Saul. Indeed, her incantations had no influence in the business, and it does not appear that she had commenced her operations before the angels had prepared the way of the prophet, and before the prophet himself had made his appearance.

[¶7] That thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do - In his former difficulties, and when pressed by his enemies, he was in the habit of consulting Samuel; and now he applies to him as his former preceptor. God, he knew, might answer by such a man as Samuel, when he would answer by no other means.

### Verse 16

[¶9] Wherefore then dost thou ask of me - Was ever I wont to give answers that were not dictated by the Lord? It is his counsel alone that I communicate.

### Verse 17

[¶11] The Lord hath done to him - I believe these words are spoken of Saul; and as they are spoken to him, it seems evident that him should be thee. The Vulgate has tibi, the Septuagint σοι, to Thee: and this is the reading of five of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., as well as of both the Bibles printed at Venice in 1518, where we read לך lecha, to Thee, instead of לו lo, to Him.

[¶12] As he spake by me - Here was no illusion; none but Samuel could say this.

### Verse 18

[¶14] Nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek - See [1Sam 15:1-9] (note) and the notes there.

### Verse 19

[¶16] To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me - What an awful message! In the course of the ensuing day thou shalt be slain, thy three sons shall be slain, and the armies of Israel shall be delivered into the hands of the Philistines! Can any person read this, properly considering the situation of this unfortunate monarch, the triumph of the enemies of God, and the speedy ruin in which the godlike Jonathan is about to be involved, without feeling the keenest anguish of heart?

[¶17] But Samuel says, "He and his sons should be with him." Does not this mean that they were to go to paradise? I suppose it means no more than that they should all die. Yet the paraphrase of the Rev. C. Wesley is beautiful: - "What do these solemn words portend?

[¶18] A ray of hope when life shall end.

[¶19] Thou and thy sons, though slain, shall be

[¶20] To-morrow in repose with me.

[¶21] Not in a state of hellish pain,

[¶22] If Saul with Samuel do remain:

[¶23] Not in a state of damn'd despair,

[¶24] If loving Jonathan be there."

[¶25] Saul had committed the sin unto death - the sin to be visited with a violent death, while tile mercy of God was extended to the soul. Thus say my faith, my hope, and my charity; and doth not the mercy of God say the same?

### Verse 20

[¶27] Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth - Literally, he fell with his own length, or with the fullness of his stature. He was so overwhelmed with this most dreadful message, that he swooned away, and thus fell at his own length upon the ground. The woman, being terrified, had probably withdrawn to some distance at the first appearance of the prophet; and Saul was left alone with Samuel. After some short time, the woman came again unto Saul, found him sore troubled, and offered him those succours which humanity dictated.

### Verse 23

[¶29] I will not eat - It is no wonder that not only his strength, but also his appetite, had departed from him.

[¶30] And sat upon the bed - Beds or couches were the common places on which the ancients sat to take their repasts.

### Verse 24

[¶32] The woman had a fat calf - The ancients used great despatch in their cookery. In hot countries they could not keep flesh meat by them any length of time; hence they generally kept young animals, such as calves, lambs, and kids, ready for slaughter; and when there was occasion, one of them was killed, and dressed immediately.

[¶33] Unleavened bread - There was not time to bake leavened bread; that would have taken considerable time, in order that the leaven might leaven the whole lump.

### Verse 25

[¶35] They rose up, and went away that night - The transactions of this chapter occupy one night only.

[¶36] 1. Saul came by night to En-dor, [1Sam 28:8].

[¶37] 2. He consulted the woman, and had his conference with Samuel the same night; for no time whatever appears to have been lost after his arrival at En-dor.

[¶38] 3. He was overcome by the heavy tidings which he heard; and which for a time appear to have deprived him of all power.

[¶39] 4. The woman kills a calf; dresses a part; makes and bakes bread; and Saul and his servants eat. And,

[¶40] 5. They rose and went away that night, [1Sam 28:25]. The next day, in all probability, the battle happened in which Israel was defeated, and Saul and his sons lost their lives.

[¶41] There is a considerable diversity of opinion, both among learned and pious men, relative to the subject mentioned in this chapter, that of raising Samuel from the dead. Some deny the possibility of the thing, and say that it was the devil that personified Samuel; and others, that the whole was the imposition of this cunning woman, and that there was no supernatural agency in the business. This is not a proper place to argue the point. I have given my opinion in the notes. I may sum up in a few particulars.

[¶42] 1. I believe there is a supernatural and spiritual world, in which Human spirits, both good and bad, live in a state of consciousness.

[¶43] 2. I believe there is an invisible world, in which various orders of spirits, not human, live and act.

[¶44] 3. I believe that any of these spirits may, according to the order of God, in the laws of their place of residence, have intercourse with this world, and become visible to mortals.

[¶45] 4. I believe there is a possibility, by arts not strictly good, to evoke and have intercourse with spirits, not Human; and to employ, in a certain limited way, their power and influence.

## 313. 1 Samuel · 35 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/313/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/313/#p-N

[¶0] 5. I believe that the woman of En-dor had no power over Samuel; and that no incantation can avail over any departed saint of God, nor indeed over any human disembodied spirit.

[¶1] 6. I believe Samuel did actually appear to Saul; and that he was sent by the especial mercy of God to warn this infatuated king of his approaching death, that he might have an opportunity to make his peace with his Maker.

[¶2] 7. I believe that the woman found, from the appearances, that her real or pretended charms had no effect; and that what now took place came from a totally different disposition of things from those with which she was conversant.

[¶3] 8. I believe that direct, circumstantial, and unequivocal oracles were now delivered concerning things which neither human nor diabolical wisdom could foresee or penetrate; that the defeat of the Israelites, and the death of Saul and his three sons on the following day, were matters which, from their nature, could only be known to God himself; and that no demon or bad spirit could be employed in such a transaction.

### Introduction

[¶5] The Philistines gather their armies together against Israel, and encamp at Aphek; while the Israelites encamp at Jezreel, [1Sam 29:1]. The lords of the Philistines refuse to let David go to battle with them, lest he should betray them, [1Sam 29:2-5]. Achish expresses his confidence in David; but begs him to return, [1Sam 29:6-10]. David and his men return, [1Sam 29:11].

### Verse 1

[¶7] To Aphek - This was a place in the valley of Jezreel, between Mounts Tabor and Gilboa.

[¶8] Pitched by a fountain - To be near a fountain, or copious spring of water, was a point of great importance to an army in countries such as these, where water was so very scarce. It is supposed, as William of Tyre says, that it was at this same fountain that Saladin pitched his camp, while Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, pitched his by another fountain between Nazareth and Sephoris; each being anxious to secure that without which it was impossible for their armies to subsist.

### Verse 2

[¶10] By hundreds, and by thousands - They were probably divided, as the Jewish armies, by fifties, hundreds, and thousands; each having its proper officer or captain.

### Verse 3

[¶12] These days, or these years - I suppose these words to mark no definite time, and may be understood thus: "Is not this David, who has been with me for a considerable time?"

### Verse 4

[¶14] The princes of the Philistines were wroth - It is strange that they had not yet heard of David's destruction of a village of the Geshurites, Gezrites, and Amalekites, [1Sam 27:8], [1Sam 27:9]. Had they heard of this, they would have seen much more cause for suspicion.

### Verse 6

[¶16] Thou hast been upright - So he thought, for as yet he had not heard of the above transaction; David having given him to understand that he had been fighting against Israel.

### Verse 8

[¶18] David said - what have I done? - Dr. Chandler and others may say what they will to make David act a consistent part in this business; but it is most evident, whatever his intentions might be as to the part he was to take in the approaching battle, he did intend to persuade Achish that he would fight against Israel; and affects to feel his reputation injured by not being permitted on this occasion to show his fidelity to the king of Gath.

[¶19] It was in the order of God's gracious providence that the Philistine lords refused to let David go with them to this battle. Had he gone, he had his choice of two sins - First, If he had fought for the Philistines, he would have fought against God and his country. Secondly If he had in the battle gone over to the Israelites, he would have deceived and become a traitor to the hospitable Achish. God, therefore, so ordered it in his mercy that he was not permitted to go to a battle in which he was sure to be disgraced, whatever side he took, or with what success soever he might be crowned.

### Verse 9

[¶21] As an angel of God - There is some reason to think that Achish had actually embraced or was favourably disposed towards the Jewish religion. He speaks here of the angels of God, as a Jew might be expected to speak; and in [1Sam 29:6] he appeals to, and swears by Jehovah; which, perhaps, no Philistine ever did. It is possible that he might have learned many important truths from David, during the time he sojourned with him.

### Verse 10

[¶23] With thy master's servants - Who were these? has been very properly asked; and to this question there can be but two answers: -

[¶24] 1. The six hundred Israelites which were with him; and who might still be considered the subjects of Saul, though now residing in a foreign land.

[¶25] 2. The servants of achish; i.e., David's men thus considered; because on his coming to Gath, he had in effect given up himself and his men to Achish. But Saul may be the master to whom Achish refers, and the words convey a delicate information to David that he is no vassal, but still at liberty.

### Introduction

[¶27] While David is absent with the army of Achish, the Amalekites invade Ziklag, and burn it with fire, and carry away captive David's wives, and those of his men, [1Sam 30:1], [1Sam 30:2]. David and his men return; and, finding the desolate state of their city, are greatly affected, [1Sam 30:3-5]. The men mutiny, and threaten to stone David, who encourages himself in the Lord, [1Sam 30:6]. David inquires of the Lord, and is directed to pursue the Amalekites, with the promise that he shall recover all, [1Sam 30:7], [1Sam 30:8]. He and his men begin the pursuit, but two hundred, through fatigue are obliged to stay behind at the brook Besor, [1Sam 30:9], [1Sam 30:10]. They find a sick Egyptian, who directs them in their pursuit, [1Sam 30:11-15]. David finds the Amalekites secure, feasting on the spoils they had taken; he attacks and destroys the whole host, except four hundred, who escape on camels, [1Sam 30:16], [1Sam 30:17]. The Israelites recover their wives, their families, and all their goods, [1Sam 30:18-20]. They come to the two hundred who were so faint as not to be able to pursue the enemy, with whom they divide the spoil; and this becomes a statute in Israel, [1Sam 30:21-25]. David sends part of the spoil which he had taken to different Jewish cities, which had suffered by the incursion of the Amalekites; and where David and his men had been accustomed to resort, [1Sam 30:26-31].

### Verse 1

[¶29] On the third day - This was the third day after he had left the Philistine army at Aphek. Calmet supposes that Aphek was distant from Ziklag more than thirty leagues.

[¶30] The Amalekites had invaded - These were, doubtless, a travelling predatory horde, who, availing themselves of the war between the Philistines and the Israelites, plundered several unprotected towns, and among them Ziklag. It is likely they had not heard of what David did to some of their tribes, else they would have avenged themselves by slaying all they found in Ziklag.

### Verse 4

[¶32] Wept, until they had no more power to weep - This marks great distress; they wept, as says the Vulgate, till their tears failed them.

### Verse 6

[¶34] The people spake of stoning him - David had done much to civilize those men; but we find by this of what an unruly and ferocious spirit they were; and yet they strongly felt the ties of natural affection, they "grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters."

[¶35] David encouraged himself in the Lord - He found he could place very little confidence in his men; and, as he was conscious that this evil had not happened either through his neglect or folly, he saw he might the more confidently expect succor from his Maker.

### Verse 7

[¶37] Bring me hither the ephod - It seems as if David had put on the ephod, and inquired of the Lord for himself; but it is more likely that he caused Abiathar to do it.

### Verse 9

[¶39] The brook Besor - This had its source in the mountain of Idumea, and fell into the Mediterranean Sea beyond Gaza. Some suppose it to have been the same with the river of the wilderness, or the river of Egypt. The sense of this and the following verse is, that when they came to the brook Besor, there were found two hundred out of his six hundred men so spent with fatigue that they could proceed no farther. The baggage or stuff was left there, [1Sam 30:24], and they were appointed to guard it.

### Verse 12

[¶41] A cake of figs - See on [1Sam 25:18] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶43] My master left me, because three days agone I fell sick - This was very inhuman: though they had booty enough, and no doubt asses sufficient to carry the invalids, yet they left this poor man to perish; and God visited it upon them, as he made this very person the means of their destruction, by the information which he was enabled to give to David and his men.

## 314. 1 Samuel · 36 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/314/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/314/#p-N

### Verse 14

[¶1] Upon the south of the Cherethites - Calmet and others maintain, that the כרתי kerethi, which, without the points, might be read Creti, were not only at this time Philistines, but that they were aborigines of Crete, from which they had their name Cherethites or Cretans, and are those of whom Zephaniah speaks, [Zep 2:5] : Wo to the inhabitants of the sea-coasts, the nation of the Cherethites. And by Ezekiel, [Eze 25:16] : Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and will cut off the Cherethim. In [2Sam 15:18] we find that the Cherethites formed a part of David's guards.

[¶2] South of Caleb - Somewhere about Kirjath-arba, or Hebron, and Kirjath-sepher; these being in the possession of Caleb and his descendants.

### Verse 15

[¶4] Swear unto me - At the conclusion of this verse, the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic add, that David swore to him. This is not expressed in the Hebrew, but is necessarily implied.

### Verse 16

[¶6] Out of the land of the Philistines - That these Amalekites were enemies to the Philistines is evident, but it certainly does not follow from this that those whom David destroyed were enemies also. This, I think, has been too hastily assumed by Dr. Chandler and others, in order the better to vindicate the character of David.

### Verse 17

[¶8] There escaped not a man of them - It is well known to every careful reader of the Bible, that the Amalekites were a proscribed people, even by God himself, and that in extirpating them it has been supposed David fulfilled the express will of God. But all this depends on whether he had an express commission to do so, received from God himself, as Saul had.

### Verse 20

[¶10] And David took all the flocks - He and his men not only recovered all their own property, but they recovered all the spoil which these Amalekites had taken from the south of Judah, the Cherethites, and the south of Caleb. When this was separated from the rest, it was given to David, and called David's spoil.

### Verse 22

[¶12] Men of Belial - This is a common expression to denote the sour, the rugged, the severe, the idle, and the profane.

### Verse 23

[¶14] That which the Lord hath given us - He very properly attributes this victory to God; the numbers of the Amalekites being so much greater than his own. Indeed, as many fled away on camels as were in the whole host of David.

### Verse 25

[¶16] He made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel - Nothing could be more just and proper than this law: he who stays at home to defend house and property, has an equal right to the booty taken by those who go out to the war. There was a practice of this kind among the Israelites long before this time; see [Num 31:27]; [Jos 22:8]; and the note on this latter verse.

[¶17] Unto this day - This is another indication that this book was composed long after the facts it commemorates. See the hypothesis in the preface.

### Verse 26

[¶19] Unto the elders of Judah - These were the persons among whom he sojourned during his exile, and who had given him shelter and protection. Gratitude required these presents.

### Verse 27

[¶21] To them which were in Beth-el - This was in the tribe of Ephraim.

[¶22] South Ramoth - So called to distinguish it from Ramoth Gilead, beyond Jordan. This Ramoth belonged to the tribe of Simeon, [Jos 19:8].

[¶23] In Jattir - Supposed by Calmet to be the same as Ether, [Jos 15:42], but more probably Jattir, [Jos 15:48]. It was situated in the mountains, and belonged to Judah.

### Verse 28

[¶25] In Aroer - Situated beyond Jordan, on the banks of the river Arnon, in the tribe of God.

[¶26] Siphmoth - Supposed to be the same with Shepham, [Num 34:10], on the eastern border of the promised land.

[¶27] Eshtemoa - Another city in the tribe of Judah. See [Jos 15:50].

### Verse 29

[¶29] Them which were in Rachal - We know not where this place was; it is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. Calmet conjectures that Hachilah, [1Sam 23:19], may be the same place; here we know David did conceal himself for some time, till the Ziphites endeavored to betray him to Saul.

[¶30] The cities of the Jerahmeelites - See before, [1Sam 27:10] (note).

[¶31] And - the cities of the Kenites - A very small tract on the southern coast of the Dead Sea.

### Verse 30

[¶33] Hormah - The general name of those cities which belonged to Arad, king of Canaan; and were devoted to destruction by the Hebrews, and thence called Hormah. See [Num 21:1-3].

[¶34] In Chor-ashan - Probably the same as Ashan in the tribe of Judah: see [Jos 15:42] (note). It was afterwards ceded to Simeon, [Jos 19:7].

[¶35] To them which were in Athach - Probably the same as Ether, [Jos 19:7].

### Verse 31

[¶37] To them which were in Hebron - This was a place strongly attached to David, and David to it, and the place where he was proclaimed king, and where he reigned more than seven years previously to the death of Ishbosheth, Saul's son, who was, for that time, his competitor in the kingdom.

[¶38] David's having sent presents to all these places, not only shows his sense of gratitude, but that the booty which he took from the Amalekites must have been exceedingly great. And we learn from this also that David sojourned in many places which are not mentioned in the preceding history; for these are all said to be places where David and his men were wont to haunt.

[¶39] We are not to suppose that the transactions mentioned here and in the preceding chapter took place after Saul's interview with the woman of En-dor, they were considerably antecedent to this, but how long we do not know. What is recorded in the following chapter must have taken place the next day after Saul left En-dor.

### Introduction

[¶41] A battle in Mount Gilboa between Israel and the Philistines; in which the former are defeated, and Saul's three sons slain, [1Sam 31:1], [1Sam 31:2]. Saul, being mortally wounded, and afraid to fall alive into the hands of the Philistines, desires his armor-bearer to despatch him; which he refusing, Saul falls on his sword, and his armor-bearer does the same, [1Sam 31:3-6]. The Israelites on the other side of the valley forsake their cities, and the Philistines come and dwell in them, [1Sam 31:7]. The Philistines, finding Saul and his three sons among the slain, strip them of their armor, which they put in the house of Ashtaroth, cut of their heads, send the news to all the houses of their idols, and fasten the bodies of Saul and his three sons to the walls of Beth-shan, [1Sam 31:8-10]. Valiant men of Jabesh-gilead go by night, and take away the bodies; burn them at Jabesh; bury their bones under a tree; and fast seven days, [1Sam 31:11-13].

### Verse 1

[¶43] Now the Philistines fought - This is the continuation of the account given in [1Sam 29:1-11].

[¶44] The men of Israel fled - It seems as if they were thrown into confusion at the first onset, and turned their backs upon their enemies.

## 315. 1 Samuel · 37 of 37

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/315/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/315/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] Followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons - They, seeing the discomfiture of their troops, were determined to sell their lives as dear as possible, and therefore maintained the battle till the three brothers were slain.

### Verse 3

[¶3] He was sore wounded of the archers - It is likely that Saul's sons were slain by the archers, and that Saul was now mortally wounded by the same. Houbigant translates, The archers rushed upon him, from whom he received a grievous wound. He farther remarks that had not Saul been grievously wounded, and beyond hope of recovery, he would not have wished his armor-bearer to despatch him; as he might have continued still to fight, or have made his escape from this most disastrous battle. Some of the versions render it, He Feared the archers greatly; but this is by no means likely.

### Verse 4

[¶5] Draw thy sword, and thrust me through - Dr. Delaney has some good observations on this part of the subject: "Saul and his armor-bearer died by the same sword. That his armor-bearer died by his own sword is out of all doubt; the text expressly tells us so; and that Saul perished by the same sword is sufficiently evident. Draw Thy sword, says he to him, and thrust me through; which, when he refused, Saul, says the text, took The sword, (את החרב eth hachereb, the very sword), and fell upon it. What sword? Not his own, for then the text would have said so; but, in the plain natural grammatical construction, the sword before mentioned must be the sword now referred to, that is, his armor-bearer's, [1Chr 10:4], [1Chr 10:5]. Now it is the established tradition of all the Jewish nation that this armor-bearer was Doeg, and I see no reason why it should be discredited; and if so, then Saul and his executioner both fell by that weapon with which they had before massacred the priests of God. So Brutus and Cassius killed themselves with the same swords with which they stabbed Caesar; and Calippus was stabbed with the same sword with which he stabbed Dio."

### Verse 6

[¶7] And all his men - Probably meaning those of his troops which were his life or body guards: as to the bulk of the army, it fled at the commencement of the battle, [1Sam 31:1].

### Verse 7

[¶9] The men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley - They appear to have been panic-struck, and therefore fled as far as they could out of the reach of the Philistines. As the Philistines possessed Beth-shan, situated near to Jordan, the people on the other side of that river, fearing for their safety, fled also.

### Verse 8

[¶11] On the morrow - It is very likely that the battle and pursuit continued till the night, so that there was no time till the next day to strip and plunder the slain.

### Verse 9

[¶13] And they cut off his head - It is possible that they cut off the heads of his three sons likewise; for although only his head is said to be cut off, and his body only to be fastened to the walls of Beth-shan, yet we find that the men of Jabesh-gilead found both his body and the bodies of his three sons, fastened to the walls, [1Sam 31:12].

[¶14] Perhaps they only took off Saul's head, which they sent about to their temples as a trophy of their victory, when they sent the news of the defeat of the Israelites through all their coasts, and at last placed it in the temple of Dagon, [1Chr 10:10].

### Verse 10

[¶16] They put his armor in the house of Ashtaroth - As David had done in placing the sword of Goliath in the tabernacle. We have already seen that it was common for the conquerors to consecrate armor and spoils taken in war, to those who were the objects of religious worship.

[¶17] They fastened his body to the wall - Probably by means of iron hooks; but it is said, [2Sam 21:12], that these bodies were fastened in the Street of Beth-shan. This may mean that the place where they were fastened to the wall was the main street or entrance into the city.

### Verse 11

[¶19] When the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard - This act of the men of Jabesh-gilead was an act of gratitude due to Saul, who, at the very commencement of his reign, rescued them from Nahash, king of the Ammonites, (see [1Sam 11:1], etc.), and by his timely succours saved them from the deepest degradation and the most oppressive tyranny. This heroic act, with the seven days' fast, showed that they retained a due sense of their obligation to this unfortunate monarch.

### Verse 12

[¶21] And burnt them there - It has been denied that the Hebrews burnt the bodies of the dead, but that they buried them in the earth, or embalmed them, and often burnt spices around them, etc. These no doubt were the common forms of sepulture, but neither of these could be conveniently practiced in the present case. They could not have buried them about Beth-shan without being discovered; and as to embalming, that was most likely out of all question, as doubtless the bodies were now too putrid to bear it. They therefore burnt them, because there was no other way of disposing of them at that time so as to do them honor; and the bones and ashes they collected, and buried under a tree or in a grove at Jabesh.

### Verse 13

[¶23] And fasted seven days - To testify their sincere regret for his unfortunate death, and the public calamity that had fallen upon the land.

[¶24] Thus ends the troublesome, and I had almost said the useless, reign of Saul. A king was chosen in opposition to the will of the Most High; and the government of God in effect rejected, to make way for this king.

[¶25] Saul was at first a very humble young man, and conducted himself with great propriety; but his elevation made him proud, and he soon became tyrannical in his private conduct and in his political measures. His natural temper was not good; he was peevish, fretful, and often outrageous; and these bad dispositions, unchecked by proper application to the grace of God, became every day more headstrong and dangerous. Through their violence he seems at times to have been wholly carried away and deranged; and this derangement appears to have been occasionally greatly exacerbated by diabolical influences. This led him to take his friends for his foes; so that in his paroxysms he strove to imbrue his hands in their blood, and more than once attempted to assassinate his own son; and most causelessly and inhumanly ordered the innocent priests of the Lord at Nob to be murdered. This was the worst act in his whole life.

[¶26] Saul was but ill qualified for a proper discharge of the regal functions. The reader will remember that he was chosen rather as a general of the armies than as civil governor. The administration of the affairs of the state was left chiefly to Samuel, and Saul led forth the armies to battle.

[¶27] As a general he gave proof of considerable capacity; he was courageous, prompt, decisive, and persevering; and, except in the last unfortunate battle in which he lost his life, generally led his troops to victory.

[¶28] Saul was a weak man, and very capricious; this is amply proved by his unreasonable jealousy against David, and his continual suspicion that all were leagued against him. It is also evident, in his foolish adjuration relative to the matter of the honey (see [1Sam 14:24-30], [1Sam 14:38-44]) in which, to save his rash and nonsensical oath, he would have sacrificed Jonathan his son!

[¶29] The question, "Was Saul a good king?" has already in effect been answered. He was on the whole a good man, as far as we know, in private life; but he was a bad king; for he endeavored to reign independently of the Jewish constitution; he in effect assumed the sacerdotal office and functions, and thus even changed what was essential to that constitution. He not only offered sacrifices which belonged to the priests alone; but in the most positive manner went opposite to the orders of that God whose vicegerent he was.

[¶30] Of his conduct in visiting the woman at En-dor I have already given my opinion, and to this I must refer. His desperate circumstances imposed on the weakness of his mind; and he did in that instance an act which, in his jurisprudential capacity, he had disapproved by the edict which banished all witches, etc., from Israel. Yet in this act he only wished to avail himself of the counsel and advice of his friend Samuel.

[¶31] To the question, "Was not Saul a self-murderer?" I scruple not to answer, "No." He was to all appearance mortally wounded, when he begged his armor-bearer to extinguish the remaining spark of life; and he was afraid that the Philistines might abuse his body, if they found him alive; and we can scarcely say how much of indignity is implied in this word; and his falling on his sword was a fit of desperation, which doubtless was the issue of a mind greatly agitated, and full of distraction. A few minutes longer, and his life would in all probability have ebbed out; but though this wound accelerated his death, yet it could not be properly the cause of it, as he was mortally wounded before, and did it on the conviction that he could not survive.

[¶32] Taking Saul's state and circumstances together, I believe there is not a coroner's inquest in this nation that would not have brought in a verdict of derangement; while the pious and the humane would everywhere have consoled themselves with the hope that God had extended mercy to his soul.

[¶33] Millbrook, June 11, 1818.

[¶34] Ended this examination August 13, 1827. - A.C.

## 316. 2 Samuel · 1 of 24

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### Introduction to the Second Book of Samuel Otherwise Called the Second Book of the Kings

[¶1] As this is a continuation of the preceding history, without any interruption, it can scarcely be called another book. Originally this and the preceding made but one book, and they have been separated without reason or necessity. For a general account of both, see the preface to the first book of Samuel.

[¶2] It is generally allowed that this book comprehends a period of forty years, from about A.M. 2949 to 2989. See the prefixed chronological account.

[¶3] It has been divided into three parts: in the first we have an account of the happy commencement of David's reign, 2 Samuel 1-10. In the second, David's unhappy fall, and its miserable consequences, 2 Samuel 11-18. In the third, his restoration to the Divine favor, the re-establishment of his kingdom, and the events which signalized the latter part of his reign, 2 Samuel 19-24.

[¶4] An Amalekite comes to David, and informs him that the Philistines had routed the Israelites; and that Saul and his sons were slain, [2Sam 1:1-4]. And pretends that he himself had despatched Saul, finding him ready to fall alive into the hands of the Philistines, and had brought his crown and bracelets to David, [2Sam 1:5-10]. David and his men mourn for Saul and his sons, [2Sam 1:11], [2Sam 1:12]. He orders the Amalekite, who professed that he had killed Saul, to be slain, [2Sam 1:13-16]. David's funeral song for Saul and Jonathan, [2Sam 1:17-27].

### Verse 2

[¶6] A man came out of the camp - The whole account which this young man gives is a fabrication: in many of the particulars it is grossly self-contradictory. There is no fact in the case but the bringing of the crown, or diadem, and bracelets of Saul; which, as he appears to have been a plunderer of the slain, he found on the field of battle; and he brought them to David, and told the lie of having despatched Saul, merely to ingratiate himself with David.

### Verse 8

[¶8] I am an Amalekite - Dr. Delaney remarks that an Amalekite took that crown from off the head of Saul, which he had forfeited by his disobedience in the case of Amalek.

### Verse 10

[¶10] The crown - and the bracelet - The crown was probably no more than a royal fillet or diadem, both being the ensigns of royalty. It is sometimes customary in the East for a sovereign prince to give a crown and bracelets, when investing others with dominion or authority over certain provinces. Had Saul these in token of his being God's vicegerent, and that he held the kingdom from him alone?

### Verse 16

[¶12] Thy blood be upon thy head - If he killed Saul, as he said he did, then he deserved death; at that time it was not known to the contrary, and this man was executed on his own confession.

### Verse 17

[¶14] David lamented - See this lamentation, and the notes on it at the end of this chapter, [2Sam 1:21] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶16] The use of the bow - The use of is not in the Hebrew; it is simply the bow, that is, a song thus entitled. See the observations at the end, [2Sam 1:21] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶18] As though he had not been - In stead of בלי beli, Not, I read כלי keley, Instruments.

[¶19] Anointed with oil - See the observations at the end. [2Sam 1:18], etc.: He bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow, קשת kasheth.

[¶20] The word kasheth is to be understood of the title of the song which immediately follows, and not of the use of the bow, as our translation intimates.

[¶21] Many of David's Psalms have titles prefixed to them; some are termed Shosannim, some Maschil, Nehiloth, Neginoth, etc., and this one here, Kadesh or The Bow, because it was occasioned by the Philistine archers. [1Sam 31:3] : "And the archers hit him."

[¶22] But especially respecting the bow of Jonathan, "which returned not back from the blood of the slain," as the song itself expresses. And David could not but remember the bow of Jonathan, out of which "the arrow was shot beyond the lad," [1Sam 20:36]. It was the time when that covenant was made, and that affection expressed between them "which was greater than the love of women."

[¶23] On these accounts the song was entitled Kasheth, or The song of the Bow, and David commanded the chief musicians, Ethan, Heman, and Jeduthun, to teach the children of Judah to sing it. "It is written in the book of Jasher." Sept., επι βιβλιου του ευθους, "in the book of the upright." ספרא דאוריתא siphra deoraitha, "The book of the Law." - Jonathan.

[¶24] The Arabic says, "Behold it is written in the book of Ashee; this is the book of Samuel;" the interpretation of which is, "book of songs or canticles."

[¶25] This lamentation is justly admired as a picture of distress the most tender and the most striking; unequally divided by grief into longer and shorter breaks, as nature could pour them forth from a mind interrupted by the alternate recurrence of the most lively images of love and greatness.

[¶26] His reverence for Saul and his love for Jonathan have their strongest colourings; but their greatness and bravery come full upon him, and are expressed with peculiar energy.

[¶27] Being himself a warrior, it is in that character he sees their greatest excellence; and though his imagination hurries from one point of recollection to another, yet we hear him - at first, at last, everywhere - lamenting, How are the mighty fallen!

[¶28] It is almost impossible to read the noble original without finding every word swollen with a sigh or broken with a sob. A heart pregnant with distress, and striving to utter expressions descriptive of its feelings, which are repeatedly interrupted by an excess of grief, is most sensibly painted throughout the whole. Even an English reader may be convinced of this, from the following specimen in European characters: -

[¶29] 19. Hatstsebi Yishrael al bamotheycha chalal; Eych naphelu gibborim;

[¶30] 20. Al taggidu begath, Al tebasseru bechutsoth Ashkelon; Pen tismachnah benoth Pelishtim, Pen taalozenah benoth haarelim.

[¶31] 21. Harey baggilboa al tal, Veal matar aleychem usedey terumoth; Ki sham nigal magen Gibborim. Magen Shaul keley Mashiach bashshamen!

[¶32] 22. Middam chalalim, mecheleb gibborim, Kesheth Yehonathan lo nashog achor; Vechereb Shaul lo thashub reykam.

[¶33] 23. Shaul Vihonathan, Hannee habim vehanneimim bechaiyeyhem, Ubemotham lo niphradu. Minnesharim kallu, mearayoth gaberu!

[¶34] 24. Benoth Yishrael el Shaul becheynah; Hammalbishchem shani im adanim, Hammaaleh adi zahab al lebushechen.

[¶35] 25. Eych naphelu gibborim bethoch hammilchamah! Yehonathan al bamotheycha chalal!

[¶36] 26. Tsar li aleycha achi Yehonathan, naamta li meod Niphleathah ahabathecha li meahabath nashim!

[¶37] 27. Eych naphelu gibborim, Vaiyobedu keley milchamah!

[¶38] The three last verses in this sublime lamentation have sense and sound so connected as to strike every reader.

[¶39] Dr. Kennicott, from whom I have taken several of the preceding remarks, gives a fine Latin version of this song, which I here subjoin: -

[¶40] O decus Israelis, super excelsa tua Miles!

[¶41] Quomodo ceciderunt Fortes!

[¶42] Nolite indicare in Gatho,

[¶43] Nolite indicare in plateis Ascalonis:

[¶44] Ne laetentur filiae Philistaeorum,

## 317. 2 Samuel · 2 of 24

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[¶0] Ne exultent filiae incircumcisorum.

[¶1] Montes Gilboani super vos

[¶2] Nec ros, nec pluvia, neque agri primitiarum;

[¶3] Ibi enim abjectus fuit clypeus fortium.

[¶4] Clypeus Saulis, arma inuncti olec!

[¶5] Sine sanguine Militum,

[¶6] Sine adipe Fortium.

[¶7] Arcus Jonathanis non retrocesserat;

[¶8] Gladiusque Saulis non redierat incassum.

[¶9] Saul et Jonathan

[¶10] Amabiles erant et jucundi in vitis suis,

[¶11] Et in morte sua non separati.

[¶12] Prae aquilis veloces!

[¶13] Prae leonibus fortes!

[¶14] Filiae Israelis deflete Saulem;

[¶15] Qui coccino cum deliciis vos vestivit,

[¶16] Qui vestibus vestris ornamenta imposuit aurea!

[¶17] Quomodo ceciderunt Fortes, in medio belli!

[¶18] O Jonathan, super excelsa tua Miles!

[¶19] Versor in angustiis, tui causa, Frater mi, Jonathan!

[¶20] Mihi fuisti admodum jucundus!

[¶21] Mihi tuus amor admodum mirabilis,

[¶22] Mulierum exuperans amorem!

[¶23] Quomodo ceciderunt fortes,

[¶24] Et perierunt arma belli!

[¶25] Dissertation I., p. 122.

[¶26] In [2Sam 1:21] I have inserted כלי keley for בלי beli. Dr. Delaney rightly observes that the particle בלי beli is not used in any part of the Bible in the sense of quasi non, as though not, in which sense it must be used here if it be retained as a genuine reading: The shield of Saul as though it had not been anointed with oil.

[¶27] In a MS. written about the year 1200, numbered 30 in Kennicott's Bible, כלי keley is found; and also in the first edition of the whole Hebrew Bible, printed Soncini 1488. Neither the Syriac nor Arabic versions, nor the Chaldee paraphrase, acknowledge the negative particle בלי beli, which they would have done had it been in the copies from which they translated. It was easy to make the mistake, as there is such a similarity between ב beth and כ caph; the line therefore should be read thus: The shield of Saul, weapons anointed with oil.

[¶28] In [2Sam 1:22] נשוג nashog, to obtain, attain, seems to have been written for נסוג nasog, to recede, return. The former destroys the sense, the latter, which our translation has followed, and which is supported by the authority of 30 MSS., makes it not only intelligible but beautiful.

[¶29] In [2Sam 1:19], [2Sam 1:22], and [2Sam 1:25], חלל and חללים chalal and chalalim occur, which we translate the Slain, but which Dr. Kennicott, I think from good authority, renders soldier and soldiers; and thus the version is made more consistent and beautiful. חלל chalal signifies to bore or pierce through; and this epithet might be well given to a soldier, q.d., the Piercer, because his business is to transfix or pierce his enemies with sword, spear, and arrows.

[¶30] If it be translated soldiers in the several places of the Old Testament, where we translate it Slain or Wounded, the sense will be much mended; see [Jdg 20:31], [Jdg 20:39]; [Psa 89:11]; [Pro 7:26]; [Jer 51:4], [Jer 51:47], [Jer 51:49]; [Eze 11:6], [Eze 11:7]; [Eze 21:14]. In several others it retains its radical signification of piercing, wounding, etc.

[¶31] After these general observations I leave the particular beauties of this inimitable song to be sought out by the intelligent reader. Much has been written upon this, which cannot, consistently with the plan of these notes, be admitted here. See Delaney, Kennicott, Lowth, etc.; and, above all, let the reader examine the Hebrew text.

### Introduction

[¶33] David, by the direction of God, goes up to Hebron, and is there anointed king over the house of Judah, [2Sam 2:1-4]. He congratulates the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead on their kindness in rescuing the bodies of Saul and his sons from the Philistines, [2Sam 2:5-7]. Abner anoints Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, king over Gilead, the Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel; over whom he reigned two years, [2Sam 2:8-10]. David reigns over Judah, in Hebron, seven years and six months, [2Sam 2:11]. Account of a battle between Abner, captain of the Israelites, and Joab, captain of the men of Judah; in which the former are routed with the loss of three hundred and sixty men: but Asahel, the brother of Joab, is killed by Abner, vv. 12-32.

### Verse 1

[¶35] David inquired of the Lord - By means of Abiathar the priest; for he did not know whether the different tribes were willing to receive him, though he was fully persuaded that God had appointed him king over Israel.

[¶36] Unto Hebron - The metropolis of the tribe of Judah, one of the richest regions in Judea. The mountains of Hebron were famed for fruits, herbage, and honey; and many parts were well adapted for vines, olives, and different kinds of grain, abounding in springs of excellent water, as the most accurate travelers have asserted.

### Verse 4

[¶38] Anointed David king - He was anointed before by Samuel, by which he acquired jus ad regnum, a right To the kingdom; by the present anointing he had jus in regno, authority Over the kingdom. The other parts of the kingdom were, as yet, attached to the family of Saul.

### Verse 5

[¶40] David sent messengers unto - Jabesh-gilead - This was a generous and noble act, highly indicative of the grandeur of David's mind. He respected Saul as his once legitimate sovereign; he loved Jonathan as his most intimate friend. The former had greatly injured him, and sought his destruction; but even this did not cancel his respect for him, as the anointed of God, and as the king of Israel. This brings to my remembrance that fine speech of Saurin, when speaking of the banishment of the Protestants from France by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He thus at the Hague apostrophizes Louis XIV., their persecutor: Et toi, prince redoubtable, que j'honorai jadis comme mon roi, et que je respecte encore comme le fleau do Seigneur. "And thou, O formidable prince, whom I once honored as my king, and whom I still reverence as the scourge of the Lord!"

### Verse 7

[¶42] Now let your hands be strengthened - David certainly wished to attach the men of Jabesh to his interest; he saw that they were generous and valiant, and must be of great service to him whose part they espoused; and he was no doubt afraid that they would attach themselves to the house of Saul, in consideration of the eminent services Saul had rendered them in rescuing them from Nahash, king of the Ammonites.

### Verse 8

[¶44] Abner the son of Ner - This man had long been one of the chief captains of Saul's army, and commander-in-chief on several occasions; he was probably envious of David's power, by whom he had often been out-generalled in the field.

## 318. 2 Samuel · 3 of 24

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### Verse 9

[¶1] Made him king over Gilead - These were places beyond Jordan; for as the Philistines had lately routed the Israelites, they were no doubt in possession of some of the principal towns, and were now enjoying the fruits of their victory. Abner was therefore afraid to bring the new king to any place where he was likely to meet with much resistance, till he had got his army well recruited.

[¶2] Who the Ashurites were is not generally agreed; probably men of the tribe of Ashur.

### Verse 10

[¶4] Ish-bosheth - reigned two years - It is well observed that Ish-bosheth reigned all the time that David reigned in Hebron, which was seven years and six months. Perhaps the meaning of the writer is this: Ish-bosheth reigned two years before any but the tribe of Judah had attached themselves to the interest of David. Some think that Abner in effect reigned the last five years of Ish-bosheth, who had only the name of king after the first two years. Or the text may be understood thus: When Ish-bosheth had reigned two years over Israel, he was forty years of age. Houbigant, dissatisfied with all the common modes of solution, proposes to read ששית שנה shishshith shanah, six years, for the שתים שנים shetayim shanim, two years, of the text, which he contends is a solecism; for in pure Hebrew the words would be שתים שנה as they are everywhere read in the first book; and שנה is the reading of eleven of Kennicott's MSS., and nine of De Rossi's; but the number two is acknowledged by all the ancient versions, and by all the MSS. yet collated. The critical reader may examine Houbigant on the place. After all, probably the expedition mentioned in the succeeding verses is that to which the writer refers, and from which he dates. Ish-bosheth had reigned two years without any rupture with David or his men, till under the direction of Abner, captain of his host, the Israelites passed over Jordan, from Mahanaim to Gibeon, and being opposed by Joab, captain of David's host, that battle took place which is described in the following verses.

### Verse 14

[¶6] Let the young men - play before us - This was diabolical play, where each man thrust his sword into the body of the other, so that the twenty-four (twelve on each side) fell down dead together! But this was the signal for that sanguinary skirmish which immediately took place.

### Verse 16

[¶8] Caught every one his fellow by the head - Probably by the beard, if these persons were not too young to have one, or by the hair of the head. Alexander ordered all the Macedonians to shave their beards; and being asked by Parmenio why they should do so, answered, "Dost thou not know that in battle there is no better hold than the beard?"

[¶9] Helkath-hazzurim - "The portion of the mighty;" or, "The inheritance of those who were slain," according to the Targum.

### Verse 18

[¶11] Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe - To be swift of foot was deemed a great accomplishment in the heroes of antiquity; ποδας ωκυς Αχιλλευς, the swift-footed Achilles, is an epithet which Homer gives to that hero no less than thirty times in the course of the Ilias. It has a qualification also among the Roman soldiers; they were taught both to run swiftly, and to swim well.

### Verse 21

[¶13] Take thee his armor - It seems Asahel wished to get the armor of Abner as a trophy; this also was greatly coveted by ancient heroes. Abner wished to spare him, for fear of exciting Joab's enmity; but as Asahel was obstinate in the pursuit, and was swifter of foot than Abner, the latter saw that he must either kill or be killed, and therefore he turned his spear and ran it through the body of Asahel. This turning about that he might pierce him is what we translate "the hinder end of his spear." This slaying of Asahel cost Abner his life, as we shall find in the next chapter.

### Verse 27

[¶15] And Joab said - The meaning of this verse appears to be this: If Abner had not provoked the battle, (see [2Sam 2:14]), Joab would not have attacked the Israelites that day; as his orders were probably to act on the defensive. Therefore the blame fell upon Israel.

### Verse 29

[¶17] They came to Mahanaim - So they returned to the place whence they set out. See [2Sam 2:12]. This was the commencement of the civil wars between Israel and Judah, and properly the commencement of the division of the two kingdoms, through which both nations were deluged with blood.

### Introduction

[¶19] Account of the children born to David in Hebron, [2Sam 3:1-5]. Abner being accused by Ish-bosheth of familiarities with Rizpah, Saul's concubine, he is enraged; offers his services to David; goes to Hebron, and makes a league with him, vv. 6-22. Joab, through enmity to Abner, pretends to David that he came as a spy, and should not be permitted to return, [2Sam 3:23-25]. He follows Abner, and treacherously slays him, [2Sam 3:26], [2Sam 3:27]. David hearing of it is greatly incensed against Joab, and pronounces a curse upon him and upon his family, [2Sam 3:28], [2Sam 3:29]. He commands a general mourning for Abner, and himself follows the bier weeping, [2Sam 3:30-32]. David's lamentation over Abner, [2Sam 3:33], [2Sam 3:34]. The people solicit David to take meat; but he fasts the whole day, and complains to them of the insolence and intrigues of Joab and his brothers: the people are pleased with his conduct, [2Sam 3:35-39].

### Verse 1

[¶21] There was long war - Frequent battles and skirmishes took place between the followers of David and the followers of Ish-bosheth, after the two years mentioned above, to the end of the fifth year, in which Ish-bosheth was slain by Rechab and Baanah.

### Verse 6

[¶23] Abner made himself strong - This strengthening of himself, and going in to the late king's concubine, were most evident proofs that he wished to seize upon the government. See [1Kgs 2:21], [1Kgs 2:22]; [1Kgs 12:8]; [1Kgs 16:21].

### Verse 8

[¶25] Am I a dog's head - Dost thou treat a man with indignity who has been the only prop of thy tottering kingdom, and the only person who could make head against the house of David?

### Verse 9

[¶27] Except, as the Lord hath sworn to David - And why did he not do this before, when he knew that God had given the kingdom to David? Was he not now, according to his own concession, fighting against God?

### Verse 11

[¶29] He could not answer Abner a word - Miserable is the lot of a king who is governed by the general of his army, who may strip him of his power and dignity whenever he pleases! Witness the fate of poor Charles I. of England and Louis XVI. of France. Military men, above all others, should never be intrusted with any civil power, and should be great only in the field.

### Verse 13

[¶31] Except thou first bring Michal - David had already six wives at Hebron; and none of them could have such pretensions to legitimacy as Michal, who had been taken away from him and married to Phaltiel. However distressing it was to take her from a husband who loved her most tenderly, (see [2Sam 3:16]), yet prudence and policy required that he should strengthen his own interest in the kingdom as much as possible; and that he should not leave a princess in the possession of a man who might, in her right, have made pretensions to the throne. Besides, she was his own lawful wife, and he had a right to demand her when he pleased.

### Verse 14

[¶33] Deliver me my wife - It is supposed that he meant to screen Abner; and to prevent that violence which he might have used in carrying off Michal.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Weeping behind her - If genuine affection did not still subsist between David and Michal, it was a pity to have taken her from Phaltiel, who had her to wife from the conjoint authority of her father and her king.

[¶36] Nevertheless David had a legal right to her, as she had never been divorced, for she was taken from him by the hand of violence.

### Verse 18

[¶38] The Lord hath spoken of David - Where is this spoken? Such a promise is not extant. Perhaps it means no more than, "Thus, it may be presumed, God hath determined."

### Verse 21

[¶40] He went in peace - David dismissed him in good faith, having no sinister design in reference to him.

### Verse 27

[¶42] And smote him there - Joab feared that, after having rendered such essential services to David, Abner would be made captain of the host: he therefore determined to prevent it by murdering the man, under pretense of avenging the death of his brother Asahel.

[¶43] The murder, however, was one of the most unprovoked and wicked: and such was the power and influence of this nefarious general, that the king dared not to bring him to justice for his crime. In the same way he murdered Amasa, a little time afterwards. See [2Sam 20:10]. Joab was a cool-blooded, finished murderer. "Treason and murder ever keep together, like two yoke-devils."

## 319. 2 Samuel · 4 of 24

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### Verse 29

[¶1] Let it rest on the head - All these verbs may be rendered in the future tense: it will rest on the head of Joab, etc. This was a prophetic declaration, which sufficiently showed the displeasure of God against this execrable man.

### Verse 31

[¶3] David said to Joab - He commanded him to take on him the part of a principal mourner.

### Verse 33

[¶5] The king lamented over Abner - This lamentation, though short, is very pathetic. It is a high strain of poetry; but the measure cannot be easily ascertained. Our own translation may be measured thus: -

[¶6] Died Abner as a fool dieth?

[¶7] Thy hands were not bound,

[¶8] Nor thy feet put into fetters.

[¶9] As a man falleth before the wicked.

[¶10] So hast thou fallen!

[¶11] Or thus: -

[¶12] Shall Abner die a death like to a villain's?

[¶13] Thy hands not bound,

[¶14] Nor were the fetters to thy feet applied.

[¶15] Like as one falls before the sons of guilt,

[¶16] So hast thou fallen!

[¶17] He was not taken away by the hand of justice, nor in battle, nor by accident: he died the death of a culprit by falling into the hands of a villain.

[¶18] This song was a heavy reproof to Joab; and must have galled him extremely, being sung by all the people.

### Verse 36

[¶20] The people took notice - They saw that the king's grief was sincere, and that he had no part nor device in the murder of Abner: see [2Sam 3:37].

### Verse 39

[¶22] I am this day weak - Had Abner lived, all the tribes of Israel would have been brought under my government.

[¶23] Though anointed king - I have little else than the title: first, having only one tribe under my government; and secondly, the sons of Zeruiah, Joab and his brethren, having usurped all the power, and reduced me to the shadow of royalty.

[¶24] The Lord shall reward the doer of evil - That is, Joab, whom he appears afraid to name.

[¶25] We talk much of ancient manners, their simplicity and ingenuousness; and say that the former days were better than these. But who says this who is a judge of the times? In those days of celebrated simplicity, etc., there were not so many crimes as at present I grant: but what they wanted in number they made up in degree: deceit, cruelty, rapine, murder, and wrong of almost every kind, then flourished. We are refined in our vices; they were gross and barbarous in theirs: they had neither so many ways nor so many means of sinning; but the sum of their moral turpitude was greater than ours. We have a sort of decency and good breeding, which lay a certain restraint on our passions, they were boorish and beastly, and their bad passions were ever in full play. Civilization prevents barbarity and atrocity; mental cultivation induces decency of manners: those primitive times were generally without these. Who that knows them would wish such ages to return?

### Introduction

[¶27] Some account of Rechab and Baanah, two of Ish-bosheth's captains, and of Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, [2Sam 4:1-4]. Rechab and Baanah murder Ish-bosheth, and escape; and bring his head to David, [2Sam 4:5-8]. David is greatly irritated, and commands them to be slain, [2Sam 4:9-12].

### Verse 1

[¶29] All the Israelites were troubled - Abner was their great support; and on him they depended; for it appears that Ish-bosheth was a feeble prince, and had few of those qualities requisite for a sovereign.

### Verse 2

[¶31] Captains of bands - Principes latronum, captains of banditti, says the Vulgate; the Syriac is the same. Whether Ish-bosheth kept bands of marauders, whose business it was to make sudden incursions into the country places, and carry off grain, provisions, cattle, etc., we know not; but such persons would be well qualified for the bloody work in which these two men were afterwards employed.

### Verse 3

[¶33] The Beerothites fled to Gittaim - Probably the same as Gath; as Ramathaim is the same as Ramah.

### Verse 4

[¶35] He fell, and became lame - Dislocated his ankle, knee, or thigh; which was never after reduced; and thus he became lame. Lovely Jonathan! unfortunate in thy life, and in thy progeny.

### Verse 5

[¶37] Lay on a bed at noon - It is a custom in all hot countries to travel or work very early and very late, and rest at noonday, in which the heat chiefly prevails.

### Verse 6

[¶39] As though they would have fetched wheat - The king's stores were probably near his own dwelling; and these men were accustomed to go thither for provisions for themselves, their cattle, and their men. This supposition which is natural, renders unnecessary all the emendations of Houbigant and others.

[¶40] As these men were accustomed to bring wheat from these stores, from which it appears there was an easy passage to the king's chamber, (especially if we consider this a summer-house, as it most probably was), no man would suspect their present errand, as they were in the habit of going frequently to that place.

### Verse 8

[¶42] They brought the head - unto David - They thought, as did the poor lying Amalekite, to ingratiate themselves with David by this abominable act.

### Verse 9

[¶44] Who hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity - This was, in David's case, a very proper view of the goodness and watchful providence of God towards him. His life was frequently in danger; murderers had often laid wait for it: but God, the living God, had always redeemed that life from all adversity; and called on him now to punish such evil-minded and blood-thirsty men.

## 320. 2 Samuel · 5 of 24

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/320/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/320/#p-N

### Verse 10

[¶1] A reward for his tidings - Ὡ εδει με δουναι ευαγγελια, Septuagint. Here is a proof that ευαγγελιον, evangelium or gospel, signifies the reward which the bringer of good tidings is entitled to receive. See my preface to St. Matthew's Gospel.

### Verse 11

[¶3] How much more - Here are several things which aggravated the guilt of those wicked men.

[¶4] 1. Ish-bosheth was an innocent man, and therefore none could have any ground of quarrel against him.

[¶5] 2. He was in his own house, which was his sanctuary, and none but the worst of men would disturb him there.

[¶6] 3. He was upon his bed, resting in the heat of the day, and so free from suspicion that he was not even attended by his guards, nor had he his doors secured. To take away the life of such a man, in such circumstances, whom also they professed to hold as their sovereign, was the most abandoned treachery.

### Verse 12

[¶8] And they slew them - None ever more richly deserved death; and by this act of justice, David showed to all Israel that he was a decided enemy to the destruction of Saul's family; and that none could lift up their hands against any of them without meeting with condign punishment. In all these cases I know not that it was possible for David to show more sincerity, or a stricter regard for justice.

### Introduction

[¶10] The elders of all the tribes of Israel come and anoint David king over all Israel, [2Sam 5:1-5]. He goes against the Jebusites, and takes the strong hold of Zion, and afterwards the city itself; which is called the city of David, [2Sam 5:6-9]. David's prosperity, and friendship with Hiram, king of Tyre, [2Sam 5:10-12]. He takes more concubines, and begets several sons and daughters, [2Sam 5:13-16]. The Philistines gather together against him in the valley of Rephaim; he defeats them; they abandon their idols, and David and his men burn them, [2Sam 5:17-21]. They assemble once more in the valley of Rephaim, and David smites them from Geba to Gazer, [2Sam 5:22-25].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Then came all the tribes of Israel - Ish-bosheth the king, and Abner the general, being dead, they had no hope of maintaining a separate kingdom, and therefore thought it better to submit to David's authority. And they founded their resolution on three good arguments:

[¶13] 1. David was their own countryman; We are thy bone and thy flesh.

[¶14] 2. Even in Saul's time David had been their general, and had always led them to victory; Thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel.

[¶15] 3. God had appointed him to the kingdom, to govern and protect the people; The Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people and be a captain over Israel.

### Verse 3

[¶17] They anointed David king - This was the third time that David was anointed, having now taken possession of the whole kingdom.

### Verse 6

[¶19] The king and his men went to Jerusalem - This city was now in the hands of the Jebusites; but how they got possession of it is not known, probably they took it during the wars between Ish-bosheth and David. After Joshua's death, what is called the lower city was taken by the Israelites; and it is evident that the whole city was in their possession in the time of Saul, for David brought the head of Goliath thither, [1Sam 17:54]. It appears to have been a very strong fortress, and, from what follows, deemed impregnable by the Jebusites. It was right that the Israelites should repossess it; and David very properly began his reign over the whole country by the siege of this city.

[¶20] Except thou take away the blind and the lame - Scarcely a passage in the sacred oracles has puzzled commentators more than this. For my own part, I do not think that it is worth the labor spent upon it, nor shall I encumber these pages with the discordant opinions of learned men. From the general face of the text it appears that the Jebusites, vainly confiding in the strength of their fortress, placed lame and blind men upon the walls, and thus endeavored to turn into ridicule David's attempt to take the place: Thou shalt not come in hither, except thou take away the blind and the lame; nothing could be more cutting to a warrior.

[¶21] Dr. Kennicott has taken great pains to correct this passage, as may be seen in his First Dissertation on the Hebrew Text, pages 27 to 47. I shall insert our present version with his amended text line for line, his translation being distinguished by italics; and for farther information refer to Dr. K.'s work. [2Sam 5:6].

[¶22] And the king and his men went to And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: who spake unto David, saying, the land; who spake unto David, saying; Except thou take away the blind and the Thou shalt not come in hither; for the blind lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, and the lame shall drive thee away by saying, David cannot come in hither. "David shall not come in hither." [2Sam 5:8].

[¶23] And David said - Whosoever getteth And David said - Whosoever smiteth the up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, Jebusites, and through the subterranean passage and the lame and the blind, that are hated reacheth the lame and the blind who of David's soul - Wherefore they said, The hate the life of David (because the blind and blind and the lame shall not come into the the lame said, "He shall not come into the house. house,") shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, and was chief.

### Verse 11

[¶25] Hiram king of Tyre - He was a very friendly man, and no doubt a believer in the true God. He was not only a friend to David, but also of his son Solomon, to whom, in building the temple, he afforded the most important assistance.

### Verse 13

[¶27] David took him more concubines - He had, in all conscience, enough before; he had, in the whole, eight wives and ten concubines. That dispensation permitted polygamy, but from the beginning it was not so; and as upon an average there are about fourteen males born to thirteen females, polygamy is unnatural, and could never have entered into the original design of God.

### Verse 14

[¶29] These be the names - Eleven children are here enumerated in the Hebrew text; but the Septuagint has no less than twenty-four. I shall insert their names, and the reader if he please may collate them with the text: Sammus, Sobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ebear, Elisue, Naphek, Jephies, Elisama, Elidae, Eliphalath, Samae, Jessibath, Nathan, Galimaan, Jebaar, Theesus, Eliphalat, Naged, Naphek, Jonathan, Leasamus, Baalimath, and Eliphaath. There is no doubt some corruption in these names; there are two of the name of Nathan, two of Eliphalath, and two of Naphek; and probably Sammus and Samae are the same.

### Verse 17

[¶31] The Philistines came up to seek David - Ever since the defeat of the Israelites and the fall of Saul and his sons, the Philistines seem to have been in undisturbed possession of the principal places in the land of Israel; now, finding that David was chosen king by the whole nation, they thought best to attack him before his army got too numerous, and the affairs of the kingdom were properly settled.

### Verse 19

[¶33] David inquired of the Lord - He considered himself only the captain of the Lord's host, and therefore would not strike a stroke without the command of his Superior.

### Verse 20

[¶35] The Lord hath broken forth - He very properly attributes the victory of Jehovah, without whose strength and counsel he could have done nothing.

[¶36] Baal-perazim - The plain or chief of breaches, because of the breach which God made in the Philistine army; and thus he commemorated the interference of the Lord.

### Verse 21

[¶38] They left their images - It was the custom of most nations to carry their gods with them to battle: in imitation of this custom the Israelites once took the ark and lost it in the field; see [1Sam 4:10], [1Sam 4:11].

### Verse 23

[¶40] Fetch a compass behind them - When they may be had, God will not work without using human means. By this he taught David caution, prudence, and dependence on the Divine strength.

### Verse 24

[¶42] When thou hearest the sound of a going - If there had not been an evident supernatural interference, David might have thought that the sleight or ruse de guerre which he had used was the cause of his victory. By the going in the tops of the mulberry trees probably only a rustling among the leaves is intended. The Targum says, a noise; the Arabic has it, the noise of horses' hoofs.

### Verse 25

[¶44] And David did so - He punctually obeyed the directions of the Lord, and then every thing succeeded to his wish.

[¶45] How is it that such supernatural directions and assistances are not communicated now? Because they are not asked for; and they are not asked for because they are not expected; and they are not expected because men have not faith; and they have not faith because they are under a refined spirit of atheism, and have no spiritual intercourse with their Maker. Who believes that God sees all things and is everywhere? Who supposes that he concerns himself with the affairs of his creatures? Who acknowledges him in all his ways? Who puts not his own wisdom, prudence, and strength, in the place of God Almighty? Reader, hast thou faith in God? Then exercise it, cultivate it, and thou mayest remove mountains.

## 321. 2 Samuel · 6 of 24

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/321/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/321/#p-N

[¶0] It is worthy of remark that David was, by the appointment of God, to feed the people. As he had formerly the care of a flock of sheep, which he was to watch over, defend, lead in and out, and for which he was to find pasture; now he is to watch over, defend, lead in and out, feed, and protect, the Israelites. He is to be the shepherd of the people, not the tyrant or oppressor.

[¶1] In ancient times, among the Greeks, kings were denominated ποιμενες λαου, shepherds of the people; and all good kings were really such: but, in process of time, this pleasing title was changed for βασιλευς and τυραννος, sovereign and tyrant; in neither of which names does any thing of the original title exist. And such are the different political constitutions of the kingdoms of the earth, that it is impossible that in any of them, the British excepted, the king can be the shepherd and father of his people. All the other regal constitutions under the sun permit the sovereign to be despotic, and consequently oppressive and tyrannical if he please. The British alone gives no power of this kind to the prince; by the constitution he is a patriotic king, and by the influence of those maxims of state which are continually presented to his view, and according to which all acts of government are formed, he becomes habitually the father of his people, and in this light alone do the British people behold the British king.

[¶2] David, by his own authority, without any form of law, could slay the Amalekite who said he had killed Saul; and could cut off the heads of Rechab and Baanah, who murdered Ish-bosheth; but, in the government of Britain, the culprit is to be heard in his vindication, witnesses are to be examined, the facts viewed by an upright judge in the light of the law; and then the alleged criminality is left to the decision of twelve honest men, the equals of the accused, who are bound by a solemn oath to decide according to the evidence brought before them. The Israelitish constitution was radically good, but the British constitution is much better. In the former, while the king ruled according to the spirit of the constitution, he could do no wrong, because he was only the vicegerent of the Almighty; in the latter, the king can do no wrong, because he is bound both by the spirit and letter of the law, to do nothing but what is according to the rules of eternal justice and equity laid down in that law; nothing is left to mere regal power or authority, and nothing trusted to human fickleness or caprice. In all his acts he is directed by his nobles and commons; who, being the representatives of all classes of the people, are always supposed to speak their mind. Well may it be said, Blessed are the people who are in such a case!

### Introduction

[¶4] David goes with thirty thousand men to being the ark from Kiriath-jearim to Jerusalem, [2Sam 6:1-5]. The ox stumbling, Uzzah, who drove the cart on which the ark was placed, put forth his hand to save it from falling: the Lord was displeased, and smote him so that he died, [2Sam 6:6], [2Sam 6:7]. David, being alarmed, carries the ark to the house of Obed-edom, [2Sam 6:8-10]. Here it remained three months; and God prospered Obed-edom, in whose house it was deposited, [2Sam 6:11]. David, hearing of this, brings the ark, with sacrifices and solemn rejoicings, to Jerusalem, [2Sam 6:12-15]. Michal, seeing David dance before the ark, despises him, [2Sam 6:16]. He offers burnt-offerings and peace offerings, and deals among all the people, men and women, a cake of bread, a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine each, [2Sam 6:17-19]. Michal coming to meet him, and seeing him dance extravagantly before the ark, reproaches him for his conduct: he vindicates himself, reproves her, and she dies childless, [2Sam 6:20-23].

### Verse 1

[¶6] Thirty thousand - This is supposed to have been a new levy; and thus he augmented his army by 30,000 fresh troops. The Septuagint has 70,000.

### Verse 2

[¶8] From Baale of Judah - This is supposed to be the same city which, in [Jos 15:60], is called Kirjah-baal or Kirjath-jearim; (see [1Chr 13:6]); or Baalah, [Jos 15:9].

[¶9] Whose name is called by the name of the Lord - That is, The ark is called the ark of the Lord of hosts. But this is not a literal version; the word שם shem, Name, occurs twice together; probably one of them should be read שם sham, There. There the name of the Lord of hosts was invoked, etc.

### Verse 3

[¶11] A new cart - Every thing used in the worship of God was hallowed or set apart for that purpose: a new cart was used through respect, as that had never been applied to any profane or common purpose. But this was not sufficient, for the ark should have been carried on the shoulders of the priests; and the neglect of this ceremony was the cause of the death of Uzzah.

### Verse 5

[¶13] On all manner of instruments made of fir wood - This place should be corrected from the parallel place, [1Chr 13:8] : "All Israel played before God, with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries," etc. Instead of בכל עצי bechol atsey, "with all woods" or "trees;" the parallel place is בכל עז bechol oz. "with all their strength:" this makes a good sense, the first makes none. The Septuagint, in this place, has the verse reading; εν ισχυΐ, with might.

### Verse 6

[¶15] Uzzah put forth his hand - In [Num 4:15-20], the Levites are forbidden to touch the ark on pain of death, this penalty was inflicted upon Uzzah, and he was the first that suffered for a breach of this law.

### Verse 7

[¶17] Smote him there for his error - Uzzah sinned through ignorance and precipitancy; he had not time to reflect, the oxen suddenly stumbled; and, fearing lest the ark should fall, he suddenly stretched out his hand to prevent it. Had he touched the ark with impunity, the populace might have lost their respect for it and its sacred service, the example of Uzzah must have filled them with fear and sacred reverence; and, as to Uzzah, no man can doubt of his eternal safety. He committed a sin unto death, but doubtless the mercy of God was extended to his soul.

### Verse 10

[¶19] But David carried it aside - The house of Obed-edom appears to have been very near the city, which they were about to enter, but were prevented by this accident, and lodged the ark with the nearest friend.

### Verse 11

[¶21] The Lord blessed Obed-edom - And why? Because he had the ark of the Lord in his house. Whoever entertains God's messengers, or consecrates his house to the service of God, will infallibly receive God's blessing.

### Verse 12

[¶23] So David - brought up the ark - The Vulgate adds to this verse: And David had seven choirs, and a calf for a sacrifice. The Septuagint make a greater addition: "And he had seven choirs carrying the ark, a sacrifice, a calf, and lambs. And David played on harmonious organs before the Lord; and David was clothed with a costly tunic; and David and all the house of Israel, brought the ark of the Lord with rejoicing, and the sound of a trumpet." Nothing of this is found in any MS., nor in the Chaldee, the Syriac, nor the Arabic, nor in the parallel place, [1Chr 15:25].

### Verse 14

[¶25] And David danced before the Lord - Dancing is a religious ceremony among the Hindoos, and they consider it an act of devotion to their idols. It is evident that David considered it in the same light. What connection dancing can have with devotion I cannot tell. This I know, that unpremeditated and involuntary skipping may be the effect of sudden mental elation.

### Verse 16

[¶27] She despised him in her heart - She did not blame him outwardly; she thought he had disgraced himself, but she kept her mind to herself.

### Verse 18

[¶29] He blessed the people in the name of the Lord - David acted here as priest, for it was the general prerogative of the priests to bless the people, but it appears, by both David and Solomon, that it was the prerogative of the kings also.

### Verse 19

[¶31] A cake of bread - Such as those which are baked without leaven, and are made very thin.

[¶32] A good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine - The words of flesh and of wine we add; they are not in the Hebrew. The Chaldee translates one part and one portion; but all the other versions understand the Hebrew as we do.

### Verse 20

[¶34] To bless his household - This was according to the custom of the patriarchs, who were priests in their own families. It is worthy of remark, that David is called patriarch by Stephen, [Act 2:29], though living upwards of four hundred years after the termination of the patriarchal age.

[¶35] How glorious was the king of Israel - This is a strong irony. From what Michal says, it is probable that David used some violent gesticulations, by means of which some parts of his body became uncovered. But it is very probable that we cannot guess all that was implied in this reproach.

### Verse 21

[¶37] It was before the Lord, which chose me - David felt the reproach, and was strongly irritated, and seems to have spoken to Michal with sufficient asperity.

### Verse 22

[¶39] I will yet be more vile - The plain meaning of these words appears to be this: "I am not ashamed of humbling myself before that God who rejected thy father because of his obstinacy and pride, and chose me in his stead to rule his people; and even those maid-servants, when they come to know the motive of my conduct, shall acknowledge its propriety, and treat me with additional respect; and as for thee, thou shalt find that thy conduct is as little pleasing to God as it is to me." Then it is said, Michal had no child till the day of her death: probably David never more took her to his bed; or God, in his providence, might have subjected her to barrenness which in Palestine was considered both a misfortune and a reproach. Michal formed her judgment without reason, and meddled with that which she did not understand. We should be careful how we attribute actions, the reasons of which we cannot comprehend, to motives which may appear to us unjustifiable or absurd. Rash judgments are doubly pernicious; they hurt those who form them, and those of whom they are formed.

### Introduction

[¶41] David consults the prophet Nathan about building a temple for the Lord, and is encouraged by him to do it, [2Sam 7:1-3]. That night Nathan receives a revelation from God, stating that Solomon, not David, should build the temple, [2Sam 7:4-16]. Nathan delivers the Divine message, and David magnifies God for his mercies, and makes prayer and supplication, [2Sam 7:17-29].

### Verse 1

[¶43] When the king sat in his house - That is, when he became resident in the palace which Hiram, king of Tyre, had built for him.

[¶44] And the Lord had given him rest - This was after he had defeated the Philistines, and cast them out of all the strong places in Israel which they had possessed after the overthrow of Saul; but before he had carried his arms beyond the land of Israel, against the Moabites, Syrians, and Idumeans. See [2Sam 8:1-14].

## 322. 2 Samuel · 7 of 24

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### Verse 2

[¶1] I dwell in a house of cedar - That is, a house whose principal beams, ceiling, and wainscot, were cedar.

[¶2] Dwelleth within curtains - Having no other residence but the tabernacle, which was a place covered with the skins of beasts, [Exo 26:14].

### Verse 3

[¶4] Nathan said to the king - In this case he gave his judgment as a pious and prudent man, not as a prophet; for the prophets were not always under a Divine afflatus; it was only at select times they were thus honored.

[¶5] For the Lord is with thee - Thou hast his blessing in all that thou doest, and this pious design of thine will most certainly meet with his approbation.

### Verse 5

[¶7] Shalt thou build me a house - That is, Thou shalt not: this is the force of the interrogative in such a case.

### Verse 7

[¶9] With any of the tribes - "Spake I a word to any of the Judges" is the reading in the parallel place, [1Chr 17:6], and this is probably the true reading. Indeed, there is but one letter of difference between them, and letters which might be easily mistaken for each other: שבטי shibtey, tribes, is almost the same in appearance with שפטי ht shophetey, judges; the ב beth and the פ pe being the same letter, the apex under the upper stroke of the פ pe excepted. If this were but a little effaced in a MS., it would be mistaken for the other, and then we should have tribes instead of judges. This reading seems confirmed by [2Sam 7:11].

### Verse 10

[¶11] I will appoint a place - I have appointed a place, and have planted them. See the observations at the end, [2Sam 7:25] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶13] The Lord - will make thee a house - Thou hast in thy heart to make me a house; I have it in my heart to make thee a house: thy family shall be built up, and shall prosper in the throne of Israel; and thy spiritual posterity shall remain for ever. God is the author of all our holy purposes, as well as of our good works, he first excites them; and if we be workers together with him, he will crown and reward them as though they were our own, though he is their sole author.

### Verse 13

[¶15] He shall build - That is, Solomon shall build my temple, not thou, because thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars. See [1Chr 22:8] (note); and see also the observations at the end, [2Sam 7:25] (note).

[¶16] The throne of his kingdom for ever - This is a reference to the government of the spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of the Messiah, agreeably to the predictions of the prophet long after, and by which this passage is illustrated: "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it, with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even For Ever." [Isa 9:7].

### Verse 14

[¶18] If he commit iniquity - Depart from the holy commandment delivered to him; I will chasten him with the rod of men-he shall have affliction, but his government shall not be utterly subverted. But this has a higher meaning. See the observations at the end, [2Sam 7:25] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶20] But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul - His house shall be a lasting house, and he shall die in the throne of Israel, his children succeeding him; and the spiritual seed, Christ, possessing and ruling in that throne to the end of time.

[¶21] The family of Saul became totally extinct; the family of David remained till the incarnation. Joseph and Mary were both of that family; Jesus was the only heir to the kingdom of Israel; he did not choose to sit on the secular throne, he ascended the spiritual throne, and now he is exalted to the right hand of God, a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance and remission of sins. See the observations at the end of the chapter, [2Sam 7:25] (note).

[¶22] Many have applied these verses and their parallels to support the doctrine of unconditional final perseverance; but with it the text has nothing to do; and were we to press it, because of the antitype, Solomon, the doctrine would most evidently be ruined, for there is neither proof nor evidence of Solomon's salvation.

### Verse 18

[¶24] Sat before the Lord - Sometimes, when a Hindoo seeks a favor from a superior, he sits down in his presence in silence; or if he solicits some favor of a god, as riches, children, etc., he places himself before the idol, and remains in a waiting posture, or repeats the name of the god, counting the beads in his necklace. - Ward.

### Verse 19

[¶26] And is this the manner of man - Literally: And this, O Lord God, is the law of Adam. Does he refer to the promise made to Adam, The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent? From my line shall the Messiah spring, and be the spiritual and triumphant King, for ever and ever. See the additions at the end, [2Sam 7:25] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶28] What can David say more - How can I express my endless obligation to thee?

### Verse 25

[¶30] And do as thou hast said - David well knew that all the promises made to himself and family were conditional; and therefore he prays that they may be fulfilled. His posterity did not walk with God, and therefore they were driven from the throne. It was taken from them by the neighboring nations, and it is now in the hands of the Mohammedans; all the promises have failed to David and his natural posterity, and to Christ and his spiritual seed alone are they fulfilled. Had David's posterity been faithful, they would, according to the promises of God, have been sitting on the Israelitish throne at this day.

[¶31] It is worthy of remark how seldom God employs a soldier in any spiritual work, just for the same reason as that given to David; and yet there have been several eminently pious men in the army, who have labored for the conversion of sinners. I knew a remarkable instance of this; I was acquainted with Mr. John Haime, a well known preacher among the people called Methodists. He was a soldier in the queen's eighth regiment of dragoons, in Flanders, in the years 1739-46. He had his horse shot under him at the battle of Fontenoy, May 11, 1745; and was in the hottest fire of the enemy for above seven hours; he preached among his fellow soldiers frequently, and under the immediate patronage of his royal highness the Duke of Cumberland, commander-in-chief; and was the means of reforming and converting many hundreds of the soldiers. He was a man of amazing courage and resolution, and of inflexible loyalty. One having expressed a wonder "how he could reconcile killing men with preaching the Gospel of the grace and peace of Christ," he answered, "I never killed a man." "How can you tell that? were you not in several battles?" "Yes, but I am confident I never killed nor wounded a man." "How was this? did you not do your duty?" "Yes, with all my might; but when in battle, either my horse jumped aside or was wounded, or was killed, or my carbine missed fire, and I could never draw the blood of the enemy." "And would you have done it if you could?" "Yes, I would have slain the whole French army, had it been in my power; I fought in a good cause, for a good king, and for my country; and though I struck in order to cut, and hack, and hew, on every side, I could kill no man." This is the substance of his answers to the above questions, and we see from it a remarkable interfering Providence; God had appointed this man to build a spiritual house in the British army, in Flanders, and would not permit him to shed the blood of his fellow creatures. "This chapter is one of the most important in the Old Testament, and yet some of its most interesting verses are very improperly rendered in our translation; it therefore demands our most careful consideration. And as in the course of these remarks I propose to consider, and hope to explain, some of the prophecies descriptive of The Messiah, which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, among which prophecies that contained in this chapter is worthy of particular attention, I shall introduce it with a general state of this great argument. "It having pleased God that, between the time of a Messiah being promised and the time of his coming, there should be delivered by the prophets a variety of marks by which the Messiah was to be known, and distinguished from every other man; it was impossible for any one to prove himself the Messiah, whose character did not answer to these marks; and of course it was necessary that all these criteria, thus Divinely foretold, should be fulfilled in the character of Jesus Christ. That these prophetic descriptions of the Messiah were numerous, appears from Christ and his apostles, ([Luk 24:27], [Luk 24:44]; [Act 17:2], [Act 17:3]; [Act 28:23], etc.), who referred the Jews to the Old Testament as containing abundant evidence of his being The Messiah, because he fulfilled all the prophecies descriptive of that singular character. The chief of these prophecies related to his being miraculously born of a virgin; the time and place of his birth; the tribe and family from which he was to descend; the miracles he was to perform; the manner of his preaching; his humility and mean appearance; the perfect innocence of his life; the greatness of his sufferings; the treachery of his betrayer; the circumstances of his trial; the nature of his death and burial; and his miraculous resurrection. Now amongst all the circumstances which form this chain of prophecy, the first reference made in the New Testament relates to his descent; for the New Testament begins with asserting that Jesus Christ was the son of David, the son of Abraham. As to the descent of Christ from Abraham, every one knows that Christ was born a Jew, and consequently descended from Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. And we all know that the promise given to Abraham concerning the Messiah is recorded in the history of Abraham's life, in [Gen 22:18]. Christ being also to descend from David, there can be no doubt that this promise, as made to David, was recorded likewise in the history of David. It is remarkable that David's life is given more at large than that of any other person in the Old Testament; and can it be supposed that the historian omitted to record that promise which was more honorable to David than any other circumstance? The record of this promise, if written at all, must have been written in this chapter; in the message from God by Nathan to David, which is here inserted. Here, I am fully persuaded, the promise was, and still is, recorded; and the chief reason why our divines have so frequently missed it, or been so much perplexed about it, is owing to our very improper translation of the 10th and 14th verses. "This wrong translation in a part of Scripture so very interesting, has been artfully laid hold of, and expatiated upon splendidly, by the deistical author of The Ground and Reasons of the Christian Religion; who pretends to demonstrate that the promise of a Messiah could not be here recorded. His reasons, hitherto I believe unanswered, are three:

[¶32] 1. Because, in [2Sam 7:10], the prophet speaks of the future prosperity of the Jews, as to be afterwards fixed, and no more afflicted; which circumstances are totally repugnant to the fate of the Jews, as connected with the birth and death of Christ.

[¶33] 2. Because the son here promised was ([2Sam 7:13]) to build a house; which house, it is pretended, must mean the temple of Solomon; and of course Solomon must be the son here promised. And,

[¶34] 3. Because [2Sam 7:14] supposes that this son might commit iniquity, which could not be supposed of the Messiah.

[¶35] The first of these objections is founded on our wrong translation of [2Sam 7:10], where the words should be expressed as relating to the time past or present. For the prophet is there declaring what great things God had already done for David and his people; that he had raised David from the sheepfold to the throne; and that he had planted the Israelites in a place of safety, at rest from all those enemies who had so often before afflicted them. That the verbs ושמתי vesamti, and ונטעתי unetati, may be rendered in the time past or present, is allowed by our own translators; who here ([2Sam 7:11]) render והניחתי vahanichothi, and have caused thee to rest, and also render והגיד vehiggid, and telleth; which construction, made necessary here by the context, might be confirmed by other proofs almost innumerable. The translation, therefore, should run thus: I took thee from the sheepcote; and have made thee a great name; and I Have Appointed a place for my people Israel; and Have Planted them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more. Neither Do the children of wickedness afflict them any more; as before-time, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over Israel: and I Have Caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. "Objection the second is founded on a mistake in the sense. David indeed had proposed to build a house for God, which God did not permit. Yet, approving the piety of David's intention, God was pleased to reward it by promising that he would make a house for David; which house, to be thus erected by God, was certainly not material, or made of stones, but a spiritual house, or family, to be raised up for the honor of God, and the salvation of mankind. And this house, which God would make, was to be built by David's Seed; and this seed was to be raised up After David slept with his fathers; which words clearly exclude Solomon, who was set up and placed upon the throne Before David was dead. This building promised by God, was to be erected by one of David's descendants, who was also to be an everlasting king; and indeed the house and the kingdom were both of them to be established forever. Now that this house or spiritual building was to be set up, together with a kingdom, by the Messiah, is clear from Zechariah; who very emphatically says, ([Zac 6:12], [Zac 6:13]), Behold the man whose name is The Branch; He Shall Build the Temple of the Lord. Even He Shall Build the Temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his Throne, etc. Observe also the language of the New Testament. In [1Cor 3:9-17], St. Paul says, Ye are God's Building - Know ye not that Ye are the temple of God - the temple of God is holy, which temple Ye are. And the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to have his eye upon this very promise in Samuel concerning a son to David, and of the house which he should build; when he says, ([Heb 3:6]), Christ, As a Son Over His Own House, Whose House Are We. "As to the third and greatest difficulty, that also may be removed by a more just translation of [2Sam 7:14]; for the Hebrew words do not properly signify what they are now made to speak. It is certain that the principal word, בהעותו behaavotho, is not the active infinitive of kal, which would be בעותו, but העות from עיה is in niphal, as הגלות from גלה. It is also certain that a verb, which in the active voice signifies to commit iniquity, may, in the passive signify to suffer for iniquity; and hence it is that nouns from such verbs sometimes signify iniquity, sometimes punishment. See Lowth's Isaiah, p, 187, with many other authorities which shall be produced hereafter. The way being thus made clear, we are now prepared for abolishing our translation, if he commit iniquity; and also for adopting the true one, even in his suffering for iniquity. The Messiah, who is thus the person possibly here spoken of, will be made still more manifest from the whole verse thus translated: I will be his father, and he shall be my son: Even in His Suffering for Iniquity, I shall chasten him with the rod of men, (with the rod due to men), and with the stripes (due to) the children of Adam. And this construction is well supported by [Isa 53:4], [Isa 53:5] : He hath carried Our Sorrows, (i.e., the sorrows due to us, and which we must otherwise have suffered), he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. See note, p. 479, in Hallet, on [Heb 11:26]. Thus, then, God declares himself the Father of the Son here meant; (see also [Heb 1:5]); and promises that, even amidst the sufferings of this Son, (as they would be for the sins of others, not for his own), his mercy should still attend him: nor should his favor be ever removed from this king, as it had been from Saul. And thus (as it follows) thine house (O David) and thy kingdom shall, in Messiah, be established for ever before Me: (before God): thy throne shall be established for ever. Thus the angel, delivering his message to the virgin mother, [Luk 1:32], [Luk 1:33], speaks as if he was quoting from this very prophecy: The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob For Ever: and of his kingdom there shall be no end. In [2Sam 7:16], לפניך lephaneycha, is rendered as לפני lephanai, on the authority of three Hebrew MSS., with the Greek and Syriac versions; and, indeed, nothing could be established for ever in the presence of David, but in the presence of God only. "Having thus shown that the words fairly admit here the promise made to David, that from his seed should arise Messiah, the everlasting King; it may be necessary to add that, if the Messiah be the person here meant, as suffering innocently for the sins of others, Solomon cannot be; nor can this be a prophecy admitting such double sense, or be applied properly to two such opposite characters. Of whom speaketh the prophet this? of Himself, or of Some Other man? This was a question properly put by the Ethiopian treasurer, ([Act 8:34]), who never dreamed that such a description as he was reading could relate to different persons; and Philip shows him that the person was Jesus only. So here it may be asked, Of whom speaketh the prophet this? of Solomon, or of Christ? It must be answered, Of Christ: one reason is, because the description does not agree to Solomon; and therefore Solomon being necessarily excluded in a single sense, must also be excluded in a double. Lastly, if it would be universally held absurd to consider the promise of Messiah made to Abraham as relating to any other person besides Messiah; why is there not an equal absurdity in giving a double sense to the promise of Messiah thus made to David? "Next to our present very improper translation, the cause of the common confusion here has been - not distinguishing the promise here made as to Messiah alone, from another made as to Solomon alone: the first brought by Nathan, the second by Gad; the first near the beginning of David's reign, the second near the end of it; the first relating to Messiah's spiritual kingdom, everlasting without conditions, the second relating to the fate of the temporal kingdom of Solomon, and his heirs, depending entirely on their obedience or rebellion, [1Chr 22:8-13]; [1Chr 28:7]. Let the first message be compared with this second in [1Chr 22:8-13], which the Syriac version (at [1Chr 22:8]) tells us was delivered by a prophet, and the Arabian says by the prophet Gad. This second message was after David's many wars, when he had shed much blood; and it was this second message that, out of all David's sons, appointed Solomon to be his successor. At the time of the first message Solomon was not born; it being delivered soon after David became king at Jerusalem: but Solomon was born at the time of this second message. For though our translation very wrongly says, ([1Chr 22:9]), a son Shall Be born to thee - and his name shall be Solomon; yet the Hebrew text expressly speaks of him as then born - Behold a son, (נולד, natus est), Is Born to thee: and therefore the words following must be rendered, Solomon Is his name, and I will give peace in his days: he shall build a house for my name, etc. "From David's address to God, after receiving the message by Nathan, it is plain that David understood the Son promised to be The Messiah: in whom his house was to be established for ever. But the words which seem most expressive of this are in this verse now rendered very unintelligibly: And is this the manner of man? Whereas the words וזאת תורת האדם vezoth torath haadam literally signify, and this is (or must be) the law of the man, or of the Adam; i.e., this promise must relate to the law or ordinance made by God to Adam, concerning the seed of the woman; the man, or the second Adam; as the Messiah is expressly called by St. Paul, [1Cor 15:45], [1Cor 15:47]. This meaning will be yet more evident from the parallel place, [1Chr 17:17], where the words of David are now miserably rendered thus: And thou hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree; whereas the words וראיתני כתור האדם המעלה ureithani kethor haadam hammaalah literally signify, and thou hast regarded me according to the order of the Adam that Is Future, or The Man that Is from Above: (for the word המעלה hammaalah very remarkably signifies hereafter as to time, and from above as to place): and thus St. Paul, including both senses - The Second Man Is the Lord from Heaven - and Adam is the figure of him that was to come, or the future, [Rom 5:14]. - See the Preface of the late learned Mr. Peters on Job, referred to and confirmed as to this interesting point in a note subjoined to my Sermon on A Virgin Shall Conceive, etc., P. 46-52, 8 vo. 1765. A part of that note here follows: 'The speech of David ([2Sam 7:18-29]) is such as one might naturally expect from a person overwhelmed with the greatness of the promised blessing: for it is abrupt, full of wonder, and fraught with repetitions. And now what can David say unto thee? What, indeed! For thou, Lord God knowest thy servant - thou knowest the hearts of all men, and seest how full my own heart is. For thy word's sake - for the sake of former prophecies, and according to thine own heart - from the mere motive of thy wisdom and goodness, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them. I now perceive the reason of those miraculous providences which have attended me from my youth up; taken from following the sheep, and conducted through all difficulties to be ruler of thy people; and shall I distrust the promise now made me? Thy words be true. If the preceding remarks on this whole passage be just and well grounded, then may we see clearly the chief foundation of what St. Peter tells us ([Act 2:30]) concerning David: that being a prophet, and Knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, etc.'"

### Introduction

[¶37] David subdues the Philistines, [2Sam 8:1]; and the Moabites, [2Sam 8:2]; and the king of Zobah, [2Sam 8:3], [2Sam 8:4]; and the Syrians in general, [2Sam 8:5-8]. Toi, king of Hamath, sends to congratulate him on his victories over the king of Zobah, and sends him rich presents, [2Sam 8:9-10]. David dedicates all the spoils to God, [2Sam 8:11-13]. He garrisons Edom, [2Sam 8:14]; and reigns over all Israel, [2Sam 8:15]. An account of his chief officers, [2Sam 8:16-18].

### Verse 1

[¶39] David took Metheg-ammah - This is variously translated. The Vulgate has, Tulit David fraenum tributi, David removed the bondage of the tribute, which the Israelites paid to the Philistines. Some think it means a fortress, city, or strong town; but no such place as Metheg-ammah is known. Probably the Vulgate is nearest the truth. The versions are all different. See the following comparison of the principal passages here collated with the parallel place in 1 Chr: - 2 Samuel 1 Chronicles [2Sam 8:1]. - David took Metheg-ammah [2Sam 8:3]. David [1Chr 18:1]. - David took Gath and her towns. [1Chr 18:3]. David smote Hadadezer [2Sam 8:4]. And David took from him smote Hadarezer [1Chr 18:4]. And David took from him 1000 and 700 horsemen, and 20,000 foot. 1000 chariots, and 7000 horsemen, and 20,000 foot. [2Sam 8:6]. Then David put garrisons in Syria [2Sam 8:8]. And [1Chr 18:6]. Then David put in Syria [1Chr 18:8]. And from Betah and Berothai cities of Hadadezer. [2Sam 8:9]. from Tibhath and Chun cities of Hadarezer. [1Chr 18:9]. When Toi heard that David had smitten When Tou heard that David had smitten Hadadezer [2Sam 8:10]. Then Toi sent Joram his son Hadarezer [1Chr 18:10]. He sent Hadoram his son [2Sam 8:12]-Syria and Moab [2Sam 8:13]. - Syrians, in the valley [1Chr 18:11]-Edom and Moab [1Chr 18:12]. - Edomites, in the valley of salt, 18,000 [2Sam 8:17]. - Ahimelech - and Seraiah of salt, 18,000 [1Chr 18:16]. - Abimelech - and Shausha was the scribe. [2Sam 10:16]. Shobach the captain was scribe. [1Chr 19:16]. Shophach the captain [2Sam 10:17]. David passed over Jordan, and came הלאמה [1Chr 19:17]. David passed over Jordan and came אלהם to Helam. [2Sam 10:18]. David slew 700 upon them [1Chr 19:18]. David slew of the Syrians 7000 chariots of the Syrians, and 40,000 horsemen; chariots, and 40,000 footmen; and smote Shobach, etc. and killed Shophach, etc.

### Verse 2

[¶41] And measured them with a line - even with two lines - It has been generally conjectured that David, after he had conquered Moab, consigned two-thirds of the inhabitants to the sword; but I think the text will bear a meaning much more reputable to that king. The first clause of the verse seems to determine the sense; he measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground - to put to death, and with one line to keep alive. Death seems here to be referred to the cities by way of metaphor; and, from this view of the subject we may conclude that two-thirds of the cities, that is, the strong places of Moab, were erased; and not having strong places to trust to, the text adds, So the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts, i.e., were obliged to pay tribute. The word line may mean the same here as our rod, i.e., the instrument by which land is measured. There are various opinions on this verse, with which I shall not trouble the reader. Much may be seen in Calmet and Dodd.

### Verse 3

[¶43] David smote - Hadadezer - He is supposed to have been king of all Syria, except Phoenicia; and, wishing to extend his dominions to the Euphrates, invaded a part of David's dominions which lay contiguous to it; but being attacked by David, he was totally routed.

## 323. 2 Samuel · 8 of 24

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### Verse 4

[¶1] A thousand chariots - It is strange that there were a thousand chariots, and only seven hundred horsemen taken, and twenty thousand foot. But as the discomfiture appears complete, we may suppose that the chariots, being less manageable, might be more easily taken, while the horsemen might, in general, make their escape. The infantry also seem to have been surrounded, when twenty thousand of them were taken prisoners.

[¶2] David houghed all the chariot horses - If he did so, it was both unreasonable and inhuman; for, as he had so complete a victory, there was no danger of these horses falling into the enemy's hands; and if he did not choose to keep them, which indeed the law would not permit, he should have killed them outright; and then the poor innocent creatures would have been put out of pain. But does the text speak of houghing horses at all? It does not. Let us hear; ויעקר דוד את כל הרכב vayeakker David eth col harecheb, And David disjointed all the chariots, except a hundred chariots which he reserved for himself. Now, this destruction of the chariots, was a matter of sound policy, and strict piety. God had censured those who trusted in chariots; piety therefore forbade David the use of them: and lest they should fall into the enemy's hands, and be again used against him, policy induced him to destroy them. The Septuagint render the words nearly as I have done, και παρελυσε Δαυιδ παντα τα ἁρματα.

[¶3] He kept however one hundred; probably as a sort of baggage or forage wagons.

### Verse 6

[¶5] Brought gifts - Paid tribute.

### Verse 7

[¶7] David took the shields of gold - We know not what these were. Some translate arms, others quivers, others bracelets, others collars, and others shields. They were probably costly ornaments by which the Syrian soldiers were decked and distinguished. And those who are called servants here, were probably the choice troops or body-guard of Hadadezer, as the argyraspides were of Alexander the Great. See Quintus Curtius.

### Verse 9

[¶9] Toi king of Hamath - Hamath is supposed to be the famous city of Emesa, situated on the Orontes, in Syria. This was contiguous to

[¶10] Hadadezer; and led him to wage war with Toi, that he might get possession of his territories. For a comparison of the 10th verse, see [1Chr 18:9].

### Verse 13

[¶12] David gat him a name - Became a very celebrated and eminent man. The Targum has it, David collected troops; namely, to recruit his army when he returned from smiting the Syrians. His many battles had no doubt greatly thinned his army.

[¶13] The valley of salt - Supposed to be a large plain abounding in this mineral, about a league from the city of Palmyra or Tadmor in the wilderness.

### Verse 14

[¶15] He put garrisons in Edom - He repaired the strong cities which he had taken, and put garrisons in them to keep the country in awe.

### Verse 16

[¶17] Joab - was over the host - General and commander-in-chief over all the army.

[¶18] Ahilud - recorder - מזכיר mazkir, remembrancer; one who kept a strict journal of all the proceedings of the king and operations of his army; a chronicler. Or, remembrancer, or, writer of chronicles.

### Verse 17

[¶20] Seraiah - the scribe - Most likely the king's private secretary. See [1Chr 24:3] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶22] Benaiah - The chief of the second class of David's worthies. We shall meet with him again.

[¶23] The Cherethites and the Pelethites - The former supposed to be those who accompanied David when he fled from Saul; the latter, those who came to him at Ziklag. But the Targum translates these two names thus, the archers and the slingers; and this is by far the most likely. It is not at all probable that David was without a company both of archers and slingers. The bow is celebrated in the funeral lamentation over Saul and Jonathan; and the sling was renowned as the weapon of the Israelites, and how expert David was in the use of it we learn from the death of Goliath. I take for granted that the Chaldee paraphrast is correct. No weapons then known were equally powerful with these; the spears, swords, and javelins, of other nations, were as stubble before them. The bow was the grand weapon of our English ancestors; and even after the invention of firearms, they were with difficulty persuaded to prefer them and leave their archery.

### Introduction

[¶25] David inquires after the family of Jonathan, and is informed of Mephibosheth his son, [2Sam 9:1-4]. He sends for him and gives him all the land of Saul, [2Sam 9:5-8]; and appoints Ziba the servant of Saul, and his family, to till the ground for Mephibosheth, [2Sam 9:9-13].

### Verse 1

[¶27] Is there yet any that is left - David recollecting the covenant made with his friend Jonathan, now inquires after his family. It is supposed that political considerations prevented him from doing this sooner. Reasons of state often destroy all the charities of life.

### Verse 3

[¶29] That I may show the kindness of God unto him? - That is, the utmost, the highest degrees of kindness; as the hail of God, is very great hail, the mountains of God, exceeding high mountains: besides, this kindness was according to the covenant of God made between him and the family of Jonathan.

### Verse 4

[¶31] Lo-debar - Supposed to have been situated beyond Jordan; but there is nothing certain known concerning it.

### Verse 7

[¶33] Will restore thee all the land - I believe this means the mere family estate of the house of Kish, which David as king might have retained, but which most certainly belonged, according to the Israelitish law, to the descendants of the family.

[¶34] And thou shalt eat bread at my table - This was kindness, (the giving up the land was justice), and it was the highest honor that any subject could enjoy, as we may see from the reference made to it by our Lord, [Luk 22:30] (note): That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. For such a person David could do no more. His lameness rendered him unfit for any public employment.

### Verse 9

[¶36] I have given unto thy master's son - Unless Ziba had been servant of Jonathan, this seems to refer to Micha, son of Mephibosheth, and so some understand it; but it is more likely that Mephibosheth is meant, who is called son of Saul instead of grandson. Yet it is evident enough that the produce of the land went to the support of Micha, (see [2Sam 9:10]), for the father was provided for at the table of David; but all the patrimony belonged to Mephibosheth.

### Verse 10

[¶38] Thou therefore, and thy sons - shall till the land - It seems that Ziba and his family had the care of the whole estate, and cultivated it at their own expense, yielding the half of the produce to the family of Mephibosheth. Ziba was properly the hind, whose duty and interest it was to take proper care of the ground, for the better it was cultivated the more it produced; and his half would consequently be the greater.

### Verse 11

[¶40] So shall thy servant do - The promises of Ziba were fair and specious, but he was a traitor in his heart, as we shall see in the rebellion of Absalom, and David's indulgence to this man is a blot in his character; at this time however he suspected no evil; circumstances alone can develope the human character. The internal villain can be known only when circumstances occur which can call his propensities into action; till then he may be reputed an honest man.

### Verse 13

[¶42] Did eat continually at the king's table - He was fit for no public office, but was treated by the king with the utmost respect and affection.

### Introduction

[¶44] The king of Ammon being dead, David sends ambassadors to comfort his son Hanun, [2Sam 10:1], [2Sam 10:2]. Hanun, misled by his courtiers, treats the messengers of David with great indignity, [2Sam 10:3-5]. The Ammonites, justly dreading David's resentment, send, and hire the Syrians to make war upon him, [2Sam 10:6]. Joab and Abishai meet them at the city of Medeba, and defeat them, [2Sam 10:7-14]. The Syrians collect another army, but are defeated by David with great slaughter, and make with him a separate peace, [2Sam 10:15-19].

## 324. 2 Samuel · 9 of 24

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### Verse 2

[¶1] I will show kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash - We do not know exactly the nature or extent of the obligation which David was under to the king of the Ammonites; but it is likely that the Nahash here mentioned was the same who had attacked Jabesh-gilead, and whom Saul defeated: as David had taken refuge with the Moabites, ([1Sam 22:3]), and this was contiguous to the king of the Ammonites, his hatred to Saul might induce him to show particular kindness to David.

### Verse 3

[¶3] Thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father - It has been a matter of just complaint through all the history of mankind, that there is little sincerity in courts. Courtiers, especially, are suspicious of each other, and often mislead their sovereigns. They feel themselves to be insincere, and suspect others to be so too.

### Verse 4

[¶5] Shaved off the one half of their beards - The beard is held in high respect in the East: the possessor considers it his greatest ornament; often swears by it; and, in matters of great importance, pledges it. Nothing can be more secure than a pledge of this kind; its owner will redeem it at the hazard of his life. The beard was never cut off but in mourning, or as a sign of slavery. Cutting off half of the beard and the clothes rendered the men ridiculous, and made them look like slaves: what was done to these men was an accumulation of insult.

### Verse 5

[¶7] Tarry at Jericho - This city had not been rebuilt since the time of Joshua; but there were, no doubt, many cottages still remaining, and larger dwellings also, but the walls had not been repaired. As it must have been comparatively a private place, it was proper for these men to tarry in, as they would not be exposed to public notice.

### Verse 6

[¶9] The children of Ammon saw that they stank - That is, that their conduct rendered them abominable. This is the Hebrew mode of expressing such a feeling. See [Gen 34:30].

[¶10] The Syrians of Bethrehob - This place was situated at the extremity of the valley between Libanus and Anti-libanus. The Syrians of Zoba were subject to Hadadezer. Maacah was in the vicinity of Mount Hermon, beyond Jordan, in the Trachonitis.

[¶11] Ish-tob - This was probably the same with Tob, to which Jephthah fled from the cruelty of his brethren. It was situated in the land of Gilead.

### Verse 7

[¶13] All the host of the mighty - All his worthies, and the flower of his army.

### Verse 8

[¶15] At the entering in of the gate - This was the city of Medeba, as we learn from [1Chr 19:7].

### Verse 9

[¶17] Before and behind - It is probable that one of the armies was in the field, and the other in the city, when Joab arrived. When he fronted this army, the other appears to have issued from the city, and to have taken him in the rear; he was therefore obliged to divide his army as here mentioned; one part to face the Syrians commanded by himself, and the other to face the Ammonites commanded by his brother Abishai.

### Verse 12

[¶19] Be of good courage - This is a very fine military address, and is equal to any thing in ancient or modern times. Ye fight pro aris et focis; for every good, sacred and civil; for God, for your families, and for your country.

### Verse 14

[¶21] The Syrians were fled - They betook themselves to their own confines, while the Ammonites escaped into their own city.

### Verse 16

[¶23] The Syrians that were beyond the river - That is, the Euphrates.

[¶24] Hadarezer - This is the same that was overthrown by David, [2Sam 8:3] and there called Hadadezer; which is the reading here of about thirty of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. But the ר resh and ד daleth are easily interchanged.

### Verse 17

[¶26] David - gathered all Israel together - He thought that such a war required his own presence.

### Verse 18

[¶28] Seven Hundred chariots - and forty thousand Horsemen - In the parallel place, [1Chr 19:18], it is said, David slew of the Syrians Seven Thousand men, which fought in chariots. It is difficult to ascertain the right number in this and similar places. It is very probable that, in former times, the Jews expressed, as they often do now, their numbers, not by words at full length, but by numeral letters; and, as many of the letters bear a great similarity to each other, mistakes might easily creep in when the numeral letters came to be expressed by words at full length. This alone will account for the many mistakes which we find in the numbers in these books, and renders a mistake here very probable. The letter ז zain, with a dot above, stands for seven thousand, נ nun for seven hundred: the great similarity of these letters might easily cause the one to be mistaken for the other, and so produce an error in this place.

### Verse 19

[¶30] Made peace with Israel - They made this peace separately, and were obliged to pay tribute to the Israelites. Some copies of the Vulgate add here after the word Israel, Expaverunt et fugerunt quinquaginta et octo millia coram Israel; "and they were panic-struck, and fled fifty-eight thousand of them before Israel." This reading is nowhere else to be found. "Thus," observes Dr. Delaney, "the arms of David were blessed; and God accomplished the promises which he had made to Abraham, [Gen 15:18], and renewed to Joshua, [Jos 1:2], [Jos 1:4]." And thus, in the space of nineteen or twenty years, David had the good fortune to finish gloriously eight wars, all righteously undertaken, and all honourably terminated; viz.

[¶31] 1. The civil war with Ish-bosheth.

[¶32] 2. The war against the Jebusites.

[¶33] 3. The war against the Philistines and their allies.

[¶34] 4. The war against the Philistines alone.

[¶35] 5. The war against the Moabites.

[¶36] 6. The war against Hadadezer.

[¶37] 7. The war against the Idumeans.

[¶38] 8. The war against the Ammonites and Syrians.

[¶39] This last victory was soon followed by the complete conquest of the kingdom of the Ammonites, abandoned by their allies. What glory to the monarch of Israel, had not the splendor of this illustrious epoch been obscured by a complication of crimes, of which one could never have even suspected him capable!

[¶40] We have now done with the first part of this book, in which we find David great, glorious, and pious: we come to the second part, in which we shall have the pain to observe him fallen from God, and his horn defiled in the dust by crimes of the most flagitious nature. Let him that most assuredly standeth take heed lest he fall.

### Introduction

[¶42] David sends Joab against the Ammonites, who besieges the city of Rabbah, [2Sam 11:1]. He sees Bath-sheba, the wife of Uriah, bathing; is enamoured of her; sends for and takes her to his bed, [2Sam 11:2-4]. She conceives, and informs David, [2Sam 11:5]. David sends to Joab, and orders him to send to him Uriah, [2Sam 11:6]. He arrives; and David having inquired the state of the army, dismisses him, desiring him to go to his own house, [2Sam 11:7], [2Sam 11:8]. Uriah sleeps at the door of the king's house, [2Sam 11:9]. The next day the king urges him to go to his house; but he refuses to go, and gives the most pious and loyal reasons for his refusal, [2Sam 11:10-11]. David after two days sends him back to the army, with a letter to Joab, desiring him to place Uriah in the front of the battle, that he may be slain, [2Sam 11:12-15]. He does so; and Uriah falls, [2Sam 11:16], [2Sam 11:17]. Joab communicates this news in an artful message to David, [2Sam 11:18-25]. David sends for Bath-sheba and takes her to wife, and she bears him a son, [2Sam 11:26], [2Sam 11:27].

### Verse 1

[¶44] When kings go forth - This was about a year after the war with the Syrians spoken of before, and about the spring of the year, as the most proper season for military operations. Calmet thinks they made two campaigns, one in autumn and the other in spring; the winter being in many respects inconvenient, and the summer too hot.

## 325. 2 Samuel · 10 of 24

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### Verse 2

[¶1] In an evening-tide - David arose - He had been reposing on the roof of his house, to enjoy the breeze, as the noonday was too hot for the performance of business. This is still a constant custom on the flat-roofed houses in the East.

[¶2] He saw a woman washing herself - How could any woman of delicacy expose herself where she could be so fully and openly viewed? Did she not know that she was at least in view of the king's terrace? Was there no design in all this? Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri. In a Bengal town pools of water are to be seen everywhere, and women may be seen morning and evening bathing in them, and carrying water home. Thus David might have seen Bath-sheba, and no blame attach to her. [2Sam 11:4] shows us that this washing was at the termination of a particular period.

### Verse 3

[¶4] The daughter of Eliam - Called, [1Chr 3:5], Ammiel; a word of the same meaning, The people of my God, The God of my people. This name expressed the covenant - I will be your God; We will be thy people.

### Verse 4

[¶6] And she came in unto him - We hear nothing of her reluctance, and there is no evidence that she was taken by force.

### Verse 5

[¶8] And the woman conceived - A proof of the observation on [2Sam 11:4]; as that is the time in which women are most apt to conceive.

### Verse 8

[¶10] Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet - Uriah had come off a journey, and needed this refreshment; but David's design was that he should go and lie with his wife, that the child now conceived should pass for his, the honor of Bath-sheba be screened, and his own crime concealed. At this time he had no design of the murder of Uriah, nor of taking Bath-sheba to wife.

[¶11] A mess of meat from the king - All this was artfully contrived.

### Verse 9

[¶13] Slept at the door - That is, in one of the apartments or niches in the court of the king's house. But in Bengal servants and others generally sleep on the verandahs or porches in face of their master's house.

### Verse 10

[¶15] Camest thou not from thy journey? - It is not thy duty to keep watch or guard; thou art come from a journey, and needest rest and refreshment.

### Verse 11

[¶17] The ark, and Israel - abide in tents - It appears therefore that they had taken the ark with them to battle.

[¶18] This was the answer of a brave, generous and disinterested man. I will not indulge myself while all my fellow soldiers are exposed to hardships, and even the ark of the Lord in danger. Had Uriah no suspicion of what had been done in his absence?

### Verse 13

[¶20] He made him drunk - Supposing that in this state he would have been off his guard, and hastened down to his house.

### Verse 14

[¶22] David wrote a letter - This was the sum of treachery and villany. He made this most noble man the carrier of letters which prescribed the mode in which he was to be murdered. This case some have likened to that of Bellerophon, son of Glaucus, king of Ephyra, who being in the court of Proetus, king of the Argives, his queen Antia, or as others Sthenoboea, fell violently in love with him; but he, refusing to gratify her criminal passions, was in revenge accused by her to Proetus her husband, as having attempted to corrupt her. Proetus not willing to violate the laws of hospitality by slaying him in his own house, wrote letters to Jobates, king of Lycia, the father of Sthenoboea, and sent them by the hand of Bellerophon, stating his crime, and desiring Jobates to put him to death. To meet the wishes of his son-in-law, and keep his own hands innocent of blood, he sent him with a small force against a very warlike people called the Solymi; but, contrary to all expectation, he not only escaped with his life, but gained a complete victory over them. He was afterwards sent upon several equally dangerous and hopeless expeditions, but still came off with success; and to reward him Jobates gave him one of his daughters to wife, and a part of his kingdom. Sthenoboea, hearing this, through rage and despair killed herself.

[¶23] I have given this history at large, because many have thought it not only to be parallel to that of Uriah, but to be a fabulous formation from the Scripture fact: for my own part, I scarcely see in them any correspondence, but in the simple circumstance that both carried those letters which contained their own condemnation. From the fable of Bellerophon came the proverb, Bellerophontis literas portare, "to carry one's own condemnation".

### Verse 17

[¶25] Uriah the Hittite died also - He was led to the attack of a place defended by valiant men; and in the heat of the assault, Joab and his men retired from this brave soldier, who cheerfully gave up his life for his king and his country.

### Verse 20

[¶27] If - the king's wrath arise - It is likely that Joab had by some indiscretion suffered loss about this time;; and he contrived to get rid of the odium by connecting the transaction with the death of Uriah, which he knew would be so pleasing to the king.

### Verse 25

[¶29] The sword devoureth one as well as another - What abominable hypocrisy was here! He well knew that Uriah's death was no chance-medley; he was by his own order thrust on the edge of the sword.

### Verse 26

[¶31] She mourned for her husband - The whole of her conduct indicates that she observed the form without feeling the power of sorrow.

[¶32] She lost a captain and got a king for her spouse; this must have been deep affliction indeed: and therefore: - - Lachrymas non sponte cadentes Effudit; gemitusque expressit pectore laeto. "She shed reluctant tears, and forced out groans from a joyful heart.

### Verse 27

[¶34] When the mourning was past - Probably it lasted only seven days.

[¶35] She became his wife - This hurried marriage was no doubt intended on both sides to cover the pregnancy.

[¶36] But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord - It was necessary to add this, lest the splendor of David's former virtues should induce any to suppose his crimes were passed over, or looked on with an indulgent eye, by the God of purity and justice. Sorely he sinned, and sorely did he suffer for it; he sowed one grain of sweet, and reaped a long harvest of calamity and wo.

[¶37] On a review of the whole, I hesitate not to say that the preceding chapter is an illustrious proof of the truth of the sacred writings. Who that intended to deceive, by trumping up a religion which he designed to father on the purity of God, would have inserted such an account of one of its most zealous advocates, and once its brightest ornament? God alone, whose character is impartiality, has done it, to show that his religion, librata ponderibus suis, will ever stand independently of the conduct of its professors.

[¶38] Drs. Delaney, Chandler, and others, have taken great pains to excuse and varnish this conduct of David; and while I admire their ingenuity, I abhor the tendency of their doctrine, being fully convinced that he who writes on this subject should write like the inspired penman, who tells the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth.

[¶39] David may be pitied because he had fallen from great eminence; but who can help deploring the fate of the brave, the faithful, the incorruptible Uriah? Bath-sheba was probably first in the transgression, by a too public display of her charms; by which accidentally, the heart of David was affected wounded, and blinded. He committed one crime which he employed many shifts to conceal; these all failing, he is led from step to step to the highest degree of guilt. Not only does he feel that his and her honor, but even their lives, are at stake; for death, by the law of Moses, was the punishment of adultery. He thought therefore that either Uriah must die, or he and Bath-sheba perish for their iniquity; for that law had made no provision to save the life of even a king who transgressed its precepts. He must not imbrue his own hands in the blood of this brave man; but he employs him on a service from which his bravery would not permit him to shrink; and it which, from the nature of his circumstances, he must inevitably perish. The awful trial is made, and it succeeds. The criminal king and his criminal paramour are for a moment concealed; and one of the bravest of men falls an affectionate victim for the safety and support of him by whom his spotless blood is shed! But what shall we say of Joab, the wicked executor of the base commands of his fallen master? He was a ruffian, not a soldier; base and barbarous beyond example, in his calling; a pander to the vices of his monarch, while he was aware that he was outraging every law of religion, piety, honor, and arms! It is difficult to state the characters, and sum up and apportion the quantity of vice chargeable on each.

[¶40] Let David, once a pious, noble, generous, and benevolent hero, who, when almost perishing with thirst, would not taste the water which his brave men had acquired at the hazard of their lives; let this David, I say, be considered an awful example of apostasy from religion, justice, and virtue; Bath-sheba, of lightness and conjugal infidelity; Joab, of base, unmanly, and cold-blooded cruelty; Uriah, of untarnished heroism, inflexible fidelity, and unspotted virtue; and then justice will be done to each character. For my own part, I must say, I pity David; I venerate Uriah; I detest Joab, and think meanly of Bath-sheba. Similar crimes have been repeatedly committed in similar circumstances. I shall take my leave of the whole with: -

[¶41] Id commune malum; semel insanivimus omnes;

[¶42] Aut sumus, aut fuimus, aut possumus, omne quod hic est.

[¶43] God of purity and mercy! save the reader from the ευπεριστατος ἁμαρτια, well circumstanced sin; and let him learn, "Where many mightier have been slain,

[¶44] By thee unsaved, he falls."

[¶45] See the notes on the succeeding chapter, 2 Samuel 12 (note).

## 326. 2 Samuel · 11 of 24

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### Introduction

[¶1] The Lord sends Nathan the prophet to reprove David; which he does by means of a curious parable, [2Sam 12:1-4]. David is led, unknowingly, to pronounce his on condemnation, [2Sam 12:5], [2Sam 12:6]. Nathan charges the guilt home on his conscience; and predicts a long train of calamities which should fall on him and his family, [2Sam 12:7-12]. David confesses his sin; and Nathan gives him hope of God's mercy, and foretells the death of the child born in adultery, [2Sam 12:13], [2Sam 12:14]. The child is taken ill; David fasts and prays for its restoration, [2Sam 12:15-17]. On the seventh day the child dies, and David is comforted, [2Sam 12:18-24]. Solomon is born of Bath-sheba, [2Sam 12:25], [2Sam 12:26]. Joab besieges Rabbah of the Ammonites, takes the city of waters, and sends for David to take Rabbah, [2Sam 12:27], [2Sam 12:28]. He comes, takes it, gets much spoil, and puts the inhabitants to hard labor, [2Sam 12:29-31].

### Verse 1

[¶3] There were two men in one city - See a discourse on fables at the end of [Jdg 9:56] (note), and a discourse on parabolic writing at the end of the thirteenth chapter of Matthew.

[¶4] There is nothing in this parable that requires illustration; its bent is evident; and it was construed to make David, unwittingly, pass sentence on himself. It was in David's hand, what his own letters were in the hands of the brave but unfortunate Uriah.

### Verse 3

[¶6] And lay in his bosom - This can only mean that this lamb was what we call a pet or favourite in the family, else the circumstance would be very unnatural, and most likely would have prevented David from making the application which he did, as otherwise it would have appeared absurd. It is the only part of this parable which is at variance with nature and fact.

### Verse 5

[¶8] The man - shall surely die - Literally בן מות ben maveth, "he is a son of death," a very bad man, and one who deserves to die. But the law did not sentence a sheep-stealer to death; let us hear it: If a man steal an ox or a sheep, he shall restore Five Oxen for an ox, and Four Sheep for a sheep, [Exo 22:1]; and hence David immediately says, He shall restore the lamb Fourfold.

### Verse 7

[¶10] Thou art the man - What a terrible word! And by it David appears to have been transfixed, and brought into the dust before the messenger of God.

[¶11] Thou Art this son of death, and thou shalt restore this lamb Fourfold. It is indulging fancy too much to say David was called, in the course of a just Providence to pay this fourfold debt? to lose four sons by untimely deaths, viz., this son of Bath-sheba, on whom David had set his heart, was slain by the Lord; Amnon, murdered by his brother Absalom; Absalom, slain in the oak by Joab; and Adonijah, slain by the order of his brother Solomon, even at the altar of the Lord! The sword and calamity did not depart from his house, from the murder of wretched Amnon by his brother to the slaughter of the sons of Zedekiah, before their father's eyes, by the king of Babylon. His daughter was dishonored by her own brother, and his wives contaminated publicly by his own son! How dreadfully, then, was David punished for his sin! Who would repeat his transgression to share in its penalty? Can his conduct ever be an inducement to, or an encouragement in, sin? Surely, No. It must ever fill the reader and the hearer with horror. Behold the goodness and severity of God! Reader, lay all these solemn things to heart.

### Verse 8

[¶13] Thy master's wives into thy bosom - Perhaps this means no more than that he had given him absolute power over every thing possessed by Saul; and as it was the custom for the new king to succeed even to the wives and concubines, the whole harem of the deceased king, so it was in this case; and the possession of the wives was a sure proof that he had got all regal rights. But could David, as the son-in-law of Saul, take the wives of his father-in-law? However, we find delicacy was seldom consulted in these cases; and Absalom lay with his own father's wives in the most public manner, to show that he had seized on the kingdom, because the wives of the preceding belonged to the succeeding king, and to none other.

### Verse 9

[¶15] Thou hast killed Uriah - Thou art the Murderer, as having planned his death; the sword of the Ammonites was Thy instrument only.

### Verse 11

[¶17] I will take thy wives - That is, In the course of my providence I will permit all this to be done. Had David been faithful, God, by his providence, would have turned all this aside; but now, by his sin, he has made that providence his enemy which before was his friend.

### Verse 13

[¶19] The Lord - hath put away thy sin - Many have supposed that David's sin was now actually pardoned, but this is perfectly erroneous; David, as an adulterer, was condemned to death by the law of God; and he had according to that law passed sentence of death upon himself. God alone, whose law that was could revoke that sentence, or dispense with its execution; therefore Nathan, who had charged the guilt home upon his conscience, is authorized to give him the assurance that he should not die a temporal death for it: The Lord hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. This is all that is contained in the assurance given by Nathan: Thou shalt not die that temporal death; thou shalt be preserved alive, that thou mayest have time to repent, turn to God, and find mercy. If the fifty-first Psalm, as is generally supposed, was written on this occasion, then it is evident (as the Psalm must have been written after this interview) that David had not received pardon for his sin from God at the time he composed it; for in it he confesses the crime in order to find mercy.

[¶20] There is something very remarkable in the words of Nathan: The Lord also hath Put Away thy sin; thou shalt not die; גם יהוה העביר חטאתך לא תמות gam Yehovah heebir chattathecha lo thamuth, Also Jehovah Hath Caused thy sin To Pass Over, or transferred thy sin; Thou shalt not die. God has transferred the legal punishment of this sin to the child; He shall die, Thou shalt not die; and this is the very point on which the prophet gives him the most direct information: The child that is born unto thee shall Surely die; מות ימות moth yamuth, dying he shall die - he shall be in a dying state seven days, and then he shall die. So God immediately struck the child, and it was very sick.

### Verse 16

[¶22] David - besought God for the child - How could he do so, after the solemn assurance that he had from God that the child should die? The justice of God absolutely required that the penalty of the law should be exacted; either the father or the son shall die. This could not be reversed.

### Verse 20

[¶24] David arose from the earth, and washed - Bathing, anointing the body, and changing the apparel, are the first outward signs among the Hindoos of coming out of a state of mourning or sickness.

### Verse 22

[¶26] Who can tell - David, and indeed all others under the Mosaic dispensation, were so satisfied that all God's threatenings and promises were conditional, that even in the most positive assertions relative to judgments, etc., they sought for a change of purpose. And notwithstanding the positive declaration of Nathan, relative to the death of the child, David sought for its life, not knowing but that might depend on some unexpressed condition, such as earnest prayer, fasting, humiliation, etc., and in these he continued while there was hope. When the child died, he ceased to grieve, as he now saw that this must be fruitless. This appears to be the sole reason of David's importunity.

### Verse 23

[¶28] I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me - It is not clear whether David by this expressed his faith in the immortality of the soul; going to him may only mean, I also shall die, and be gathered to my fathers, as he is. But whether David expressed this or not, we know that the thing is true; and it is one of the most solid grounds of consolation to surviving friends that they shall by and by be joined to them in a state of conscious existence. This doctrine has a very powerful tendency to alleviate the miseries of human life and reconcile us to the death of most beloved friends. And were we to admit the contrary, grief, in many cases, would wear out its subject before it wore out itself. Even the heathens derived consolation from the reflection that they should meet their friends in a state of conscious existence. And a saying in Cicero De Senectute, which he puts in the mouth of Cato of Utica, has been often quoted, and is universally admired: -

[¶29] O praelarum diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum concilium coetumque proficiscar, cumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam! Proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros de quibus ante dixi; sed etiam ad Catonem meum quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemo pietate praestantior: cujus a me corpus crematum est; quod contra decuit ab illo meum. Animus vero non me deserens, sed respectans, in ea profecto loca discessit, quo mihi ipsi cernebat esse veniendum: quem ego meum catum fortiter ferre visus sum: non quod aequo animo ferrem: sed me ipse consolabar, existimans, non longinquum inter nos digressum et discessum fore. Cato Major, De Senectute, in fin. "O happy day, (says he), when I shall quit this impure and corrupt multitude, and join myself to that divine company and council of souls who have quitted the earth before me! There I shall find, not only those illustrious personages to whom I have spoken, but also my Cato, who I can say was one of the best men ever born, and whom none ever excelled in virtue and piety. I have placed his body on that funeral pyre whereon he ought to have laid mine. But his soul has not left me; and, without losing sight of me, he has only gone before into a country where he saw I should soon rejoin him. This my lot I seem to bear courageously; not indeed that I do bear it with resignation, but I shall comfort myself with the persuasion that the interval between his departure and mine will not be long."

[¶30] And we well know who has taught us not to sorrow as those without hope for departed friends.

### Verse 24

[¶32] David comforted Bath-sheba - His extraordinary attachment to this beautiful woman was the cause of all his misfortunes.

[¶33] He called his name Solomon - This name seems to have been given prophetically, for שלמה sholomah signifies peaceable, and there was almost uninterrupted peace during his reign.

### Verse 25

[¶35] Called - Jedidiah - ידידיה, literally, the beloved of the Lord. This is the first instance I remember of a minister of God being employed to give a name to the child of one of his servants. But it is strange that the name given by the father was that alone which prevailed.

### Verse 26

[¶37] And took the royal city - How can this be, when Joab sent to David to come to take the city, in consequence of which David did come and take that city? The explanation seems to be this: Rabbah was composed of a city and citadel; the former, in which was the king's residence, Joab had taken, and supposed he could soon render himself master of the latter, and therefore sends to David to come and take it, lest, he taking the whole, the city should be called after his name.

### Verse 27

[¶39] And have taken the city of waters - The city where the tank or reservoir was that supplied the city and suburbs with water. Some think that the original, לכדתי את עיר המים lachadti eth ir hammayim, should be translated I have intercepted, or cut off, the waters of the city: and Houbigant translates the place, et aquas ab urbe jam derivavi; "And I have already drawn off the waters from the city." This perfectly agrees with the account in Josephus, who says των τε ὑδατων αυτους αποτεμνομενος, having cut off their waters, Antiq., lib. vii., cap. 7. This was the reason why David should come speedily, as the citadel, deprived of water, could not long hold out.

### Verse 30

[¶41] The weight whereof was a talent of gold - If this talent was only seven pounds, as Whiston says, David might have carried it on his head with little difficulty; but this weight, according to common computation, would amount to more than one hundred pounds!

[¶42] If, however, משקלה mishkalah be taken for the value, not the weight then all is plain as the worth of the crown will be about 5075 15s. 7d. sterling. Now this seems to be the true sense, because of the added words with the precious stones; i.e., the gold of the crown, and the jewels with which it was adorned, were equal in value to a talent of gold.

### Verse 31

[¶44] He brought forth the people - And put them under saws. From this representation a great cry has been raised against "David's unparalleled, if not diabolic, cruelty." I believe this interpretation was chiefly taken from the parallel place, [1Chr 20:3], where it is said, he cut them with saws, and with axes, etc. Instead of וישר vaiyasar, he sawed, we have here (in Samuel) וישם vaiyasem, he put them; and these two words differ from each other only in a part of a single letter, ר resh for ם mem. And it is worthy of remark, that instead of וישר vaiyasar, he sawed, in [1Chr 20:3], six or seven MSS. collated by Dr. Kennicott have וישם vaiyasem, he put them; nor is there found any various reading in all the MSS. yet collated for the text in this chapter, that favors the common reading in Chronicles. The meaning therefore is, He made the people slaves, and employed them in sawing, making iron harrows, or mining, (for the word means both), and in hewing of wood, and making of brick. Sawing asunder, hacking, chopping, and hewing human beings, have no place in this text, no more than they had in David's conduct towards the Ammonites.

## 327. 2 Samuel · 12 of 24

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[¶0] It is surprising, and a thing to be deplored, that in this and similar cases our translators had not been more careful to sift the sense of the original words by which they would have avoided a profusion of exceptionable meanings with which they have clothed many passages of the sacred writings. Though I believe our translation to be by far the best in any language, ancient or modern, yet I am satisfied it stands much in need of revision. Most of the advantages which our unbelievers have appeared to have over certain passages of Scripture, have arisen from an inaccurate or false translation of the terms in the original; and an appeal to this has generally silenced the gainsayers. But in the time in which our translation was made, Biblical criticism was in its infancy, if indeed it did exist; and we may rather wonder that we find things so well, than be surprised that they are no better.

### Introduction

[¶2] Amnon falls in love with his half-sister Tamar, and feigns himself sick, and requests her to attend him, [2Sam 13:1-6]. David sends her to him, and he violates her, [2Sam 13:7-14]. He then hates her, and expels her from his house, [2Sam 13:15-17], She rends her garments, puts ashes on her head, and goes forth weeping, [2Sam 13:18], [2Sam 13:19]. She is met by Absalom her brother, who, understanding her case, determines the death of Amnon, [2Sam 13:20-22]. Two years after, he invites all his brothers to a sheep-shearing, when he orders his servants to murder Amnon, [2Sam 13:23-29]. Tidings come to David that Absalom has slain all the king's sons, which fill him with the bitterest distress, [2Sam 13:30], [2Sam 13:31]. The rest soon arrive, and he finds that Amnon only is killed, [2Sam 13:32-36]. Absalom flees to Talmai, king of Geshur, where he remains three years, [2Sam 13:37], [2Sam 13:38]. David longs after Absalom, having become reconciled to the death of Amnon, [2Sam 13:39].

### Verse 1

[¶4] Whose name was Tamar - Tamar was the daughter of David and Maacah, daughter of the king of Geshur, and the uterine sister of Absalom. Amnon was David's eldest son by Ahinoam. She was therefore sister to Amnon only by the father's side, i.e., half-sister; but whole sister to Absalom.

### Verse 2

[¶6] Amnon was so vexed - for she was a virgin - It has been well remarked that "the passion of love is nowhere so wasting and vexatious, as where it is unlawful. A quick sense of guilt, especially where it is enormous, as in the present instance, strikes the soul with horror; and the impossibility of an innocent gratification loads that horror with desperation: a conflict too cruel and too dreadful for human bearing." - Delaney.

### Verse 3

[¶8] Jonadab was a very subtle man - And most diabolic advice did he give to his cousin. We talk of the simplicity and excellence of primitive times! "Say not thou what is the cause that the former days were better than these." Take them altogether, we may thank God that they are past, and pray him that they may never return.

### Verse 12

[¶10] Nay, my brother - There is something exceedingly tender and persuasive in this speech of Tamar; but Amnon was a mere brute, and it was all lost on him.

### Verse 13

[¶12] Speak unto the king - So it appears that she thought that the king, her father, would give her to him as wife. This is another strong mark of indelicacy in those simple but barbarous times. There might have been some excuse for such connections under the patriarchal age, but there was none now. But perhaps she said this only to divert him from his iniquitous purpose, that she might get out of his hands.

### Verse 15

[¶14] Hated her exceedingly - Amnon's conduct to his sister was not only brutal but inexplicable. It would be easy to form conjectures concerning the cause, but we can arrive at no certainty.

### Verse 18

[¶16] A garment of divers colors - See the note on [Gen 37:3], where the same words occur.

### Verse 21

[¶18] But when King David heard - To this verse the Septuagint add the following words: Και ουκ ελυπησε το πνευμα Αμνων του υἱου αυτου, ὁτι ηγαπα αυτον, ὁτι πρωτοτοκος αυτου ην; "But he would not grieve the soul of Amnon his son, for he loved him, because he was his first-born." The same addition is found in the Vulgate and in Josephus, and it is possible that this once made a part of the Hebrew text.

### Verse 23

[¶20] Absalom had sheep-shearers - These were times in which feasts were made, to which the neighbors and relatives of the family were invited.

### Verse 26

[¶22] Let my brother Amnon go - He urged this with the more plausibility, because Amnon was the first-born, and presumptive heir to the kingdom; and he had disguised his resentment so well before, that he was not suspected.

### Verse 30

[¶24] Absalom hath slain all the king's sons - Fame never lessens but always magnifies a fact. Report, contrary to the nature of all other things, gains strength by going.

[¶25] Virgil has given, in his best manner, a fine personification of Fame or Evil Report. - Aen. iv., 173.

[¶26] Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes;

[¶27] Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum,

[¶28] Mobilitate viget, viresque adquirit eundo, etc. "Now Fame, tremendous fiend! without delay,

[¶29] Through Libyan cities took her rapid way;

[¶30] Fame, the swift plague, that every moment grows,

[¶31] And gains new strength and vigor as she goes," etc.

### Verse 32

[¶33] And Jonadab - said - Amnon only is dead - This was a very bad man, and here speaks coolly of a most bloody tragedy, which himself had contrived.

### Verse 37

[¶35] Absalom fled - As he had committed wilful murder, he could not avail himself of a city of refuge, and was therefore obliged to leave the land of Israel, and take refuge with Talmai, king of Geshur, his grandfather by his mother's side. See [2Sam 3:3].

### Verse 39

[¶37] David longed to go forth unto Absalom - We find that he had a very strong paternal affection for this young man, who appears to have had little to commend him but the beauty of his person. David wished either to go to him, or to bring him back; for the hand of time had now wiped off his tears for the death of his son Amnon. Joab had marked this disposition, and took care to work on it, in order to procure the return of Absalom. It would have been well for all parties had Absalom ended his days at Geshur. His return brought increasing wretchedness to his unfortunate father. And it may be generally observed that those undue, unreasonable paternal attachments are thus rewarded.

### Introduction

[¶39] A woman of Tekoah, by the advice of Joab, comes to the king; and by a fictitious story persuades him to recall Absalom, vv. 1-20. Joab is permitted to go to Geshur, and bring Absalom from thence, [2Sam 14:21-23]. Absalom comes to Jerusalem to his own house, but is forbidden to see the king's face, [2Sam 14:24]. An account of Absalom's beauty, and the extraordinary weight of his hair, [2Sam 14:25], [2Sam 14:26]. His children, [2Sam 14:27]. He strives to regain the king's favor, and employs Joab as an intercessor, [2Sam 14:28-32]. David is reconciled to him, [2Sam 14:33].

### Verse 2

[¶41] Joab sent to Tekoah - Tekoah, according to St. Jerome, was a little city in the tribe of Judah, about twelve miles from Jerusalem.

[¶42] There are several circumstances relative to this woman and her case which deserve to be noticed: -

[¶43] 1. She was a widow, and therefore her condition of life was the better calculated to excite compassion.

[¶44] 2. She lived at some distance from Jerusalem, which rendered the case difficult to be readily inquired into; and consequently there was the less danger of detection.

## 328. 2 Samuel · 13 of 24

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[¶0] 3. She was advanced in years, as Josephus says, that her application might have the more weight.

[¶1] 4. She put on mourning, to heighten the idea of distress.

[¶2] 5. She framed a case similar to that in which David stood, in order to convince him of the reasonableness of sparing Absalom.

[¶3] 6. She did not make the similitude too plain and visible, lest the king should see her intention before she had obtained a grant of pardon. Thus her circumstances, her mournful tale, her widow's needs, her aged person, and her impressive manner, all combined to make one united impression on the king's heart. We need not wonder at her success. See Bishop Patrick.

### Verse 5

[¶5] I am indeed a widow woman - It is very possible that the principal facts mentioned here were real, and that Joab found out a person whose circumstances bore a near resemblance to that which he wished to represent.

### Verse 7

[¶7] The whole family is risen - They took on them the part of the avenger of blood; the nearest akin to the murdered person having a right to slay the murderer.

[¶8] They shall quench my coal which is left - A man and his descendants or successors are often termed in Scripture a lamp or light. So, [2Sam 21:17], the men of David said, when they sware that he should no more go out with them to battle, That thou Quench not the Light of Israel. See also [Psa 132:17]. And to raise up a lamp to a person signifies his having a posterity to continue his name and family upon the earth: thus, quench my coal that is left means destroying all hope of posterity, and extinguishing the family from among the people. The heathens made use of the same similitude. The few persons who survived the deluge of Deucalion are termed ζωπυρα living coals, because by them the vital flame of the human race was to be rekindled on the earth.

### Verse 8

[¶10] I will give charge concerning thee - This would not do, it was too distant; and she could not by it bring her business to a conclusion: so she proceeds: -

### Verse 9

[¶12] The iniquity be on me - She intimates that, if the king should suppose that the not bringing the offender to the assigned punishment might reflect on the administration of justice in the land, she was willing that all blame should attach to her and her family, and the king and his throne be guiltless.

### Verse 10

[¶14] Whosoever saith aught unto thee - Neither did this bring the matter to such a bearing that she could come to her conclusion, which was, to get the king pledged by a solemn promise that all proceedings relative to the case should be stopped.

### Verse 11

[¶16] Let the king remember the Lord thy God - Consider that when God is earnestly requested to show mercy, he does it in the promptest manner; he does not wait till the case is hopeless: the danger to which my son is exposed is imminent; if the king do not decide the business instantly, it may be too late.

[¶17] And he said, As the Lord liveth - Thus he binds himself by a most solemn promise and oath; and this is what the woman wanted to extort.

### Verse 13

[¶19] Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing - The woman, having now got the king's promise confirmed by all oath, that her son should not suffer for the murder of his brother, comes immediately to her conclusion: Is not the king to blame? Does he now act a consistent part? He is willing to pardon the meanest of his subjects the murder of a brother at the instance of a poor widow, and he is not willing to pardon his son Absalom, whose restoration to favor is the desire of the whole nation. Is that clemency to be refused to the king's son, the hope of the nation and heir to the throne, which is shown to a private individual, whose death or life can only be of consequence to one family? Why, therefore, dost thou not bring back thy banished child?

### Verse 14

[¶21] For we must needs die - Whatever is done must be done quickly; all must die; God has not exempted any person from this common lot. Though Amnon be dead, yet the death of Absalom cannot bring him to life, nor repair this loss. Besides, for his crime, he justly deserved to die; and thou, in this case didst not administer justice. Horrible as this fratricide is, it is a pardonable case: the crime of Amnon was the most flagitious; and the offense to Absalom, the ruin of his beloved sister, indescribably great. Seeing, then, that the thing is so, and that Amnon can be no more recalled to life than water spilt upon the ground can be gathered up again; and that God, whose vicegerent thou art, and whose example of clemency as well as justice thou art called to imitate, devises means that those who were banished from him by sin and transgression, may not be finally expelled from his mercy and his kingdom; restore thy son to favor, and pardon his crime, as thou hast promised to restore my son, and the Lord thy God will be with thee. This is the sum and sense of the woman's argument.

[¶22] The argument contained in this 14th verse is very elegant, and powerfully persuasive; but one clause of it has been variously understood, Neither doth God respect any person; the Hebrew is, ולא ישא אלהים נפש velo yissa Elohim nephesh, "And God doth not take away the soul." The Septuagint has it, Και ληψεται ὁ Θεος την ψυχην; And God will receive the soul. This intimates that, after human life is ended, the soul has a state of separate existence with God. This was certainly the opinion of these translators, and was the opinion of the ancient Jews, at least three hundred years before the incarnation; about which time this translation was made. The Vulgate has, Nec volt Deus perire animam, "Nor does God will the destruction of the soul." God is not the author of death; neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living; imitate him; pardon and recall thy son.

### Verse 20

[¶24] According to the wisdom of an angel of God - This is quite in the style of Asiatic flattery. A European is often addressed, "Saheb can do every thing; we can do nothing; none can prevent the execution of Saheb's commands; Saheb is God." See Ward.

### Verse 21

[¶26] And the king said unto Joab - It appears that Joab was present at the time when the woman was in conference with the king, and no doubt others of David's courtiers or officers were there also.

### Verse 24

[¶28] Let him not see my face - He would not at once restore him to favor, though he had now remitted his crime; so that he should not die for it. It was highly proper to show this detestation of the crime, and respect for justice.

### Verse 25

[¶30] None to be so much praised as Absalom - It was probably his personal beauty that caused the people to interest themselves so much in his behalf; for the great mass of the public is ever caught and led by outward appearances.

[¶31] There was no blemish in him - He was perfect and regular in all his features, and in all his proportions.

### Verse 26

[¶33] When he polled his head - Not at any particular period, but when the hair became too heavy for him. On this account of the extraordinary weight of Absalom's hair, see the observations at the end of this chapter, [2Sam 14:30] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶35] Unto Absalom there were born - These children did not survive him; see [2Sam 18:18].

[¶36] Tamar - The Septuagint adds, And she became the wife of Roboam, the son of Solomon, and bare to him Abia; see [Mat 1:7]. Josephus says the same. This addition is not found in the other versions.

### Verse 30

[¶38] Go and set it on fire - This was strange conduct, but it had the desired effect. He had not used his influence to get Absalom to court; now he uses it, and succeeds.

[¶39] Additional observations on [2Sam 14:26] : - "And at every year's end, he (Absalom) polled his head; and he weighed the hair at two hundred shekels."

[¶40] The very learned Bochart has written a dissertation on this subject (vide Bocharti Opera, vol. iii., col. 883, edit. Lugd. 1692) in a letter to his friend M. Faukell. I shall give the substance in what follows.

[¶41] There is nothing more likely than that corruptions in the Scripture numerals have taken place. Budaeus de Asse (lib. ii., p. 49 and 51, also lib. iii., p. 67 etc). complains loudly of this.

[¶42] This might easily have happened, as in former times the numbers in the sacred writings appear to have been expressed by single letters. The letter ר resh stands for two hundred, and might in this place be easily mistaken for ד daleth which signifies four; but this may be thought to be too little, as it would not amount to more than a quarter of a pound; yet, if the two hundred shekels be taken in the amount will be utterly incredible; for Josephus says, (Antiq. lib. vii., cap. 8), Σικλους διακοσιους, οὑτοι δε εισι πεντε μναι, i.e., "Two hundred shekels make five minae," and in lib. xiv., cap. 12. he says, Ἡ δε μνα παρ' ἡμιν ισχει λιτρας β' και ημισυ; "And a mina with us (i.e., the Jews) weighs two pounds and a half." This calculation makes Absalom's hair weigh twelve pounds and a half! Credat Judaeus Apella!

[¶43] Indeed, the same person tells us that the hair of Absalom was so thick, etc., ὡς μολις αυτην ἡμεραις αποκειρειν οκτω, "that eight days were scarcely sufficient to cut it off in!" This is rabbinism, with a witness.

[¶44] Epiphanius, in his treatise De Ponderibus et Mensuris, casts much more light on this place, where he says, Σικλος ὁ λεγεται και κοδραντης τεταρτον μεν εστι της ουγκιας, ἡμισυ δε του στατηρος, δυο δραχμας εχων; "A shekel, (i.e., a common or king's shekel, equal to half a shekel of the sanctuary), which is called also a quarter, is the fourth part of an ounce, or half a stater; which is about two drachms." This computation seems very just, as the half-shekel, (i.e., of the sanctuary), [Exo 30:13], which the Lord commanded the children of Israel to give as an offering for their souls, is expressly called in [Mat 17:24], το διδραχμον, "two drachms:" and our Lord wrought a miracle to pay this, which the Romans then exacted by way of tribute: and Peter took out of the fish's mouth a stater, which contained exactly four drachms or one shekel, (of the sanctuary), the tribute money for our Lord and himself.

## 329. 2 Samuel · 14 of 24

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[¶0] The king's shekel was about the fourth part of an ounce, according to what Epiphanius says above; and Hesychius says the same: Δυναται δε ὁ σικλος δυο δραχμας Αττικας; "A shekel is equal to, or worth, two Attic drachms." The whole amount, therefore, of the two hundred shekels is about fifty ounces, which make four pounds two ounces, Troy weight, or three pounds two ounces, Avoirdupois. This need not, says my learned author, be accounted incredible, especially as abundance of oil and ointments were used by the ancients in dressing their heads; as is evident, not only from many places in the Greek and Roman writers, but also from several places in the sacred writings. See [Psa 23:5]; [Ecc 9:8]; [Mat 6:17].

[¶1] Josephus also informs us that the Jews not only used ointments, but that they put gold dust in their hair, that it might flame in the sun; and this they might do in considerable quantities, as gold was so plentiful among them. I must own I have known an instance that makes much for Bochart's argument: an officer, who had upwards of two pounds of powder and ointments put on his head daily, whose hair did not weigh a fourth part of that weight. And Absalom, being exceedingly vain, might be supposed to make a very extensive use of these things. There are some, however, who endeavor to solve the difficulty by understanding שקל shakal to mean rather the value than the weight.

[¶2] Bochart concludes this elaborate dissertation, in which he appears to have ransacked all the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman authors for proofs of his opinion, by exhorting his friend in these words of Horace: - - Si quid novisti rectius istis,

[¶3] Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum.

[¶4] To me the above is quite unsatisfactory; and, with due deference to so great a character, I think I have found out something better.

[¶5] I believe the text is not here in its original form; and that a mistake has crept into the numeral letters. I imagine that ל lamed, Thirty, was first written; which, in process of time, became changed for ר resh, Two Hundred, which might easily have happened from the similarity of the letters. But if this be supposed to be too little, (which I think it is not), being only seven ounces and a half in the course of a year; let it be observed that the sacred text does not limit it to that quantity of time, for מקץ ימים לימים mikkets yamim laiyamim signifies literally, "From the end of days to days;" which Jonathan properly renders, מזמן עדן לעדן mizzeman iddan leiddan, "at proper or convenient times," viz., when it grew too long or weighty, which it might be several times in the year. Besides, this was not all his hair; for his head was not shaved but polled, i.e., the redundancy cut off.

[¶6] But how was it probable that these two numerals should be interchanged? Thus; if the upper stroke of the ל lamed were but a little impaired, as it frequently is both in MSS. and printed books, it might be very easily taken for ר resh, and the remains of the upper part of the lamed might be mistaken for the stroke over the ר, which makes it the character of two hundred.

[¶7] But how could מאתים mathayim, two hundred, in the text, be put in the place of שלשים sheloshim, thirty? Very easily, when the numbers became expressed by words at length instead of numeral letters.

[¶8] The common reading of the text appears to me irreconcilable with truth; and I humbly hope that what I have offered above solves every difficulty, and fully accounts for all that the sacred historian speaks of this vain-comely lad. Verse 27 "Absalom had a daughter, whose name was Tamar."

### Introduction

[¶10] Absalom conspires against his father, and uses various methods to seduce the people from their allegiance to their king, [2Sam 15:1-4]. Under pretense of paying a vow at Hebron, he obtains leave from David to go thither; and, by emissaries sent through the land, prepares the people for revolt, [2Sam 15:7-11]. He gains over Ahithophel, David's counsellor, [2Sam 15:12]. David is informed of the general defection of the people; on which he, and his life-guards and friends, leave the city, and go towards the wilderness, [2Sam 15:13-18]. The steadfast friendship of Ittai, the Gittite, [2Sam 15:19-22]. David's affecting departure from the city, [2Sam 15:23]. He sends Zadok and Abiathar with the ark back to Jerusalem, [2Sam 15:24-29]. He goes up Mount Olivet; prays that the counsel of Ahithophel may be turned into foolishness, [2Sam 15:30-31]. He desires Hushai to return to Jerusalem, and to send him word of all that occurs, [2Sam 15:32-37].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Absalom prepared him chariots and horses - After all that has been said to prove that horses here mean horsemen, I think it most likely that the writer would have us to understand chariots drawn by horses; not by mules or such like cattle.

[¶13] Fifty men to run before him - Affecting in every respect the regal state by this establishment. Of this man Calmet collects the following character: "He was a bold, violent, revengeful, haughty, enterprising, magnificent, eloquent, and popular prince; he was also rich, ambitious, and vain of his personal accomplishments: after the death of Amnon, and his reconciliation to his father, he saw no hindrance in his way to the throne. He despised Solomon because of the meanness of his birth, and his tender years. He was himself of the blood royal, not only by his father David, but also by his mother Maacah, daughter to Talmai, king of Geshur: and, doubtless, in his own apprehension, of sufficient age, authority, and wisdom, to sustain the weight of government. There was properly now no competitor in his way: Amnon, David's first-born, was dead. Of Chileab, his second son by Abigail, we hear nothing; and Absalom was the third: see [2Sam 3:2-5]. He, therefore, seemed to stand nearest to the throne; but his sin was, that he sought it during his father's life, and endeavored to dethrone him in order to sit in his stead.

### Verse 6

[¶15] So Absalom stole the hearts - His manner of doing this is circumstantially related above. He was thoroughly versed in the arts of the demagogue; and the common people, the vile mass, heard him gladly. He used the patriot's arguments, and was every thing of the kind, as far as promise could go. He found fault with men in power; and he only wanted their place, like all other pretended patriots, that he might act as they did, or worse.

### Verse 7

[¶17] After forty years - There is no doubt that this reading is corrupt, though supported by the commonly printed Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee. But the Syriac has arba shanin, Four years; the Arabic the same arba shinin, Four years; and Josephus has the same; so also the Sixtine edition of the Vulgate, and several MSS. of the same version. Theodoret also reads four, not forty; and most learned men are of opinion that ארבעים arbaim, Forty, is an error for אברע arba, Four; yet this reading is not supported by any Hebrew MS. yet discovered. But two of those collated by Dr. Kennicott have יום yom instead of שנה shanah, i.e., forty Days, instead of forty Years; and this is a reading more likely to be true than that in the commonly received text. We know that Absalom did stay Three years with his grandfather at Geshur, [2Sam 13:38]; and this probably was a year after his return: the era, therefore, may be the time of his slaying his brother Amnon; and the four years include the time from his flight till the conspiracy mentioned here.

### Verse 8

[¶19] While I abode at Geshur in Syria - Geshur, the country of Talmai, was certainly not in Syria, but lay on the south of Canaan, in or near Edom, as is evident from [Jdg 1:10]; [1Sam 27:8]; [2Sam 13:37]. Hence it is probable that ארם Aram, Syria, is a mistake for אדם Edom; ד daleth and ר resh being easily interchangeable. Edom is the reading both of the Syriac and Arabic.

[¶20] I will serve the Lord - Here he pretended to be a strict follower of Jehovah, even while he was in a heathen country; and now he desires liberty to go and perform a vow at Hebron, which he pretends to have made while he was resident at Geshur. And all this was the more perfectly to organize his system of rebellion against his venerable father.

### Verse 10

[¶22] Absalom sent spies - These persons were to go into every tribe; and the trumpet was to be blown as a signal for all to arise, and proclaim Absalom in every place. The trumpet was probably used as a kind of telegraph by the spies: trumpet exciting trumpet from place to place; so that, in a few minutes all Israel would hear the proclamation.

### Verse 11

[¶24] Went two hundred men - These were probably soldiers, whom he supposed would be of considerable consequence to him. They had been seduced by his specious conduct, but knew nothing of his present design.

### Verse 12

[¶26] Sent for Ahithophel - When Absalom got him, he in effect got the prime minister of the kingdom to join him.

### Verse 13

[¶28] The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom - It is very difficult to account for this general defection of the people. Several reasons are given:

[¶29] 1. David was old or afflicted, and could not well attend to the administration of justice in the land.

[¶30] 2. It does appear that the king did not attend to the affairs of state, and that there were no properly appointed judges in the land; see [2Sam 15:3].

[¶31] 3. Joab's power was overgrown; he was wicked and insolent, oppressive to the people, and David was afraid to execute the laws against him.

[¶32] 4. There were still some partisans of the house of Saul, who thought the crown not fairly obtained by David.

[¶33] 5. David was under the displeasure of the Almighty, for his adultery with Bath-sheba, and his murder of Uriah; and God let his enemies loose against him.

[¶34] 6. There are always troublesome and disaffected men in every state, and under every government; who can never rest, and are ever hoping for something from a change.

[¶35] 7. Absalom appeared to be the real and was the undisputed heir to the throne; David could not, in the course of nature, live very long; and most people are more disposed to hail the beams of the rising, than exult in those of the setting, sun.

[¶36] No doubt some of these causes operated, and perhaps most of them exerted less or more influence in this most scandalous business.

### Verse 14

[¶38] David said - Arise - let us flee - This, I believe, was the first time that David turned his back to his enemies. And why did he now flee? Jerusalem, far from not being in a state to sustain a siege, was so strong that even the blind and the lame were supposed to be a sufficient defense for the walls, see [2Sam 5:6]. And he had still with him his faithful Cherethites and Pelethites; besides six hundred faithful Gittites, who were perfectly willing to follow his fortunes. There does not appear any reason why such a person, in such circumstances, should not act on the defensive; at least till he should be fully satisfied of the real complexion of affairs. But he appears to take all as coming from the hand of God; therefore he humbles himself, weeps, goes barefoot, and covers his head! He does not even hasten his departure, for the habit of mourners is not the habit of those who are flying before the face of their enemies. He sees the storm, and he yields to what he conceives to be the tempest of the Almighty.

### Verse 17

[¶40] And tarried in a place - He probably waited till he saw all his friends safely out of the city.

### Verse 19

[¶42] Thou art a stranger, and also an exile - Some suppose that Ittai was the son of Achish, king of Gath, who was very much attached to David, and banished from his father's court on that account. He and his six hundred men are generally supposed to have been proselytes to the Jewish religion.

### Verse 20

[¶44] Mercy and truth be with thee - May God ever show thee mercy, as thou showest it to me, and his truth ever preserve thee from error and delusion!

## 330. 2 Samuel · 15 of 24

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### Verse 23

[¶1] The brook Kidron - This was an inconsiderable brook, and only furnished with water in winter, and in the rains. See [Joh 18:1].

### Verse 24

[¶3] Bearing the ark - The priests knew that God had given the kingdom to David; they had no evidence that he had deposed him: they therefore chose to accompany him, and take the ark, the object of their charge, with them.

### Verse 25

[¶5] Carry back the ark - David shows here great confidence in God, and great humility. The ark was too precious to be exposed to the dangers of his migrations; he knew that God would restore him if he delighted in him, and he was not willing to carry off from the city of God that without which the public worship could not be carried on. He felt, therefore, more for this public worship and the honor of God, than he did for his own personal safety.

### Verse 27

[¶7] Art not thou a seer? return into the city in peace - That is, As thou art the only organ of the public worship, that worship cannot be carried on without thee; and as thou art the priest of God, thou hast no cause to fear for thy personal safety: the nation has not abandoned their God, though they have abandoned their king. It appears also, that he wished these priests, by means of their sons, Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, to send him frequent intelligence of the motions and operations of the enemy.

### Verse 30

[¶9] Had his head covered - This was not only the attitude of a mourner, but even of a culprit; they usually had their heads covered when condemned. See the case of Haman. When the king had pronounced his condemnation, they immediately covered his face, and led him out to punishment; [Est 7:8] (note). See also Quintus Curtius, De Philota, cap. vi.: I, Lictor; caput obnubito.

### Verse 31

[¶11] Turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness - Ahithophel was a wise man, and well versed in state affairs; and God alone could confound his devices.

### Verse 32

[¶13] Where he worshipped God - Though in danger of his life, he stops on the top of Mount Olivet for prayer! How true is the adage, Prayer and provender never hinder any man's journey! Reader, dost thou do likewise?

[¶14] Hushai the Archite - He was the particular friend of David, and was now greatly affected by his calamity.

### Verse 33

[¶16] Then thou shalt be a burden unto me - It appears that Hushai was not a warrior, but was a wise, prudent, and discreet man, who could well serve David by gaining him intelligence of Absalom's conspiracy; and he directs him to form a strict confederacy with the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and to make use of their sons as couriers between Jerusalem and David's place of retreat.

### Verse 37

[¶18] Absalom came into Jerusalem - It is very probable that he and his partisans were not far from the city when David left it, and this was one reason which caused him to hurry his departure.

[¶19] Reader, behold in the case of David a sad vicissitude of human affairs, and a fearful proof of their instability. Behold a king, the greatest that ever lived, a profound politician, an able general, a brave soldier, a poet of the most sublime genius and character, a prophet of the Most High God, and the deliverer of his country, driven from his dominions by his own son, abandoned by his fickle people, and for a time even by his God! See in his desolate state that there is none so exalted that God cannot abase, and none so abased that God cannot exalt. He was forsaken for a time, and his enemies triumphed; God returned, and his enemies were confounded. His crime, it is true, was great and God had declared by Nathan what had now come to pass. God is just, and in numberless instances sees right to show his displeasure even at those sins which his mercy has forgiven. In all cases it is a fearful and bitter thing to sin against the Lord.

### Introduction

[¶21] Ziba, servant of Mephibosheth, meets David with provisions, and by false insinuations obtains the grant of his masters property, [2Sam 16:1-4]. Shimei abuses and curses David, who restrains Abishai from slaying him, [2Sam 16:5-14]. Hushai makes a feigned tender of his services to Absalom, [2Sam 16:15-19]. Absalom calls a council and Ahithophel advises him to go in to his father's concubines, [2Sam 16:20-22]. Character of Ahithophel as a counselor, [2Sam 16:23].

### Verse 1

[¶23] Two hundred loaves of bread - The word loaf gives us a false idea of the ancient Jewish bread; it was thin cakes, not yeasted and raised like ours.

[¶24] Bunches of raisins - See on [1Sam 25:18] (note).

[¶25] Summer fruits - These were probably pumpions, cucumbers, or watermelons. The two latter are extensively used in those countries to refresh travelers in the burning heat of the summer. Mr. Harmer supposes they are called summer fruits on this very account.

[¶26] A bottle of wine - A goat's skin full of wine; this I have already shown was the general bottle in the Eastern countries; see on [1Sam 25:18] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶28] The asses be for the king's household - This is the Eastern method of speaking when any thing is presented to a great man: "This and this is for the slaves of the servants of your majesty," when at the same time the presents are intended for the sovereign himself, and are so understood. It is a high Eastern compliment: These presents are not worthy of your acceptance; they are only fit for the slaves of your slaves.

### Verse 3

[¶30] To-day shall the house of Israel - What a base wretch was Ziba! and how unfounded was this accusation against the peaceable, loyal and innocent Mephibosheth!

### Verse 4

[¶32] Thine are all - This conduct of David was very rash; he spoiled an honorable man to reward a villain, not giving himself time to look into the circumstances of the case. But David was in heavy afflictions, and these sometimes make even a wise man mad. Nothing should be done rashly; he who is in the habit of obeying the first impulse of his passions or feelings, will seldom do a right action, and never keep a clear conscience.

### Verse 5

[¶34] David came to Bahurim - This place lay northward of Jerusalem, in the tribe of Benjamin. It is called Almon, [Jos 21:18]; and Alemeth, [1Chr 6:60]. Bahurim signifies youths, and Almuth youth; so the names are of the same import.

[¶35] Cursed still as he came - Used imprecations and execrations.

### Verse 10

[¶37] Because the Lord hath said - The particle וכי vechi should be translated for if, not because. For If the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David, who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so!

### Verse 11

[¶39] Let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him - No soul of man can suppose that ever God bade one man to curse another, much less that he commanded such a wretch as Shimei to curse such a man as David; but this is a peculiarity of the Hebrew language, which does not always distinguish between permission and commandment. Often the Scripture attributes to God what he only permits to be done; or what in the course of his providence he does not hinder. David, however, considers all this as being permitted of God for his chastisement and humiliation. I cannot withhold from my readers a very elegant poetic paraphrase of this passage, from the pen of the Rev. Charles Wesley, one of the first of Christian poets: - "Pure from the blood of Saul in vain,

[¶40] He dares not to the charge reply:

[¶41] Uriah's doth the charge maintain,

[¶42] Uriah's doth against him cry!

[¶43] Let Shimei curse: the rod he bears

[¶44] For sins which mercy had forgiven:

## 331. 2 Samuel · 16 of 24

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[¶0] And in the wrongs of man reveres

[¶1] The awful righteousness of heaven.

[¶2] Lord, I adore thy righteous will,

[¶3] Through every instrument of ill

[¶4] My Father's goodness see;

[¶5] Accept the complicated wrong

[¶6] Of Shimei's hand and Shimei's tongue

[¶7] As kind rebukes from Thee.

### Verse 15

[¶9] The men of Israel - These words are wanting in the Chaldee, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic, and in two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.

### Verse 18

[¶11] Whom the Lord and this people - choose - Here is an equivocation; Hushai meant in his heart that God and all the people of Israel had chosen David; but he spake so as to make Absalom believe that he spoke of him: for whatever of insincerity may appear in this, Hushai is alone answerable. What he says afterwards may be understood in the same way.

### Verse 21

[¶13] Go in unto thy father's concubines - It may be remembered that David left ten of them behind to take care of the house, see [2Sam 15:16]. Ahithophel advised this infernal measure, in order to prevent the possibility of a reconciliation between David and his son; thus was the prophecy to Nathan fulfilled, [2Sam 12:11]. And this was probably transacted in the very same place where David's eye took the adulterous view of Bath-sheba; see [2Sam 11:2].

[¶14] The wives of the conquered king were always the property of the conqueror; and in possessing these, he appeared to possess the right to the kingdom. Herodotus informs us that Smerdis, having seized on the Persian throne after the death of Cambyses, espoused all the wives of his predecessor, lib. iii., c. 68. But for a son to take his father's wives was the sum of abomination, and was death by the law of God, [Lev 20:11]. This was a sin rarely found, even among the Gentiles.

[¶15] Every part of the conduct of Absalom shows him to have been a most profligate young man; he was proud, vindictive, adulterous, incestuous, a parricide, and, in fine, reprobate to every good word and work. We still however recollect that David had grievously sinned, and we should also recollect that he suffered grievously for it; and that his humiliation, repentance, and amendment, were most decisive and exemplary. Reader, God is as just as he is merciful.

### Introduction

[¶17] Ahithophel counsels Absalom to pursue his father with twelve thousand men, [2Sam 17:1-4]. Hushai gives a different counsel, and is followed, [2Sam 17:5-14]. Hushai informs Zadok and Abiathar; and they send word to David, [2Sam 17:15-21]. David and his men go beyond Jordan, [2Sam 17:22]. Ahithophel, finding his counsel slighted, goes home, sets his house in order, and hangs himself, [2Sam 17:23]. David moves to Mahanaim; and Absalom follows him over Jordan, [2Sam 17:24-26]. Several friends meet David at Mahanaim with refreshments and provisions, [2Sam 17:27-29].

### Verse 1

[¶19] Let me now choose out twelve thousand men - Had this counsel been followed, David and his little troop would soon have been destroyed; nothing but the miraculous interposition of God could have saved them. Twelve thousand chosen troops coming against him, in his totally unprepared state, would have soon settled the business of the kingdom. Ahithophel well saw that, this advice neglected, all was lost.

### Verse 3

[¶21] The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned - Only secure David, and all Israel will be on thy side. He is the soul of the whole; destroy him, and all the rest will submit.

### Verse 8

[¶23] As a bear robbed of her whelps - All wild beasts are very furious when robbed of their young; but we have some remarkable instances of the maternal affection of the bear in such circumstances; see one at the end of the chapter.

### Verse 13

[¶25] Shall all Israel bring ropes to that city - The original word חבלים chabalim, which signifies ropes, and from which we have our word cable, may have some peculiarity of meaning here; for it is not likely that any city could be pulled down with ropes. The Chaldee, which should be best judge in this case, translates the original word by משרין mashreyan, towers: this gives an easy sense.

### Verse 17

[¶27] En-rogel - The fullers' well; the place where they were accustomed to tread the clothes with their feet; hence the name עין ein, a well, and רגל regel, the foot, because of the treading above mentioned.

[¶28] And a wench went and told them - The word wench occurs nowhere else in the Holy Scriptures: and, indeed, has no business here; as the Hebrew word שפחה shiphchah, should have been translated girl, maid, maid-servant. The word either comes from the Anglo-Saxon, a maid, or the Belgic wunch, desire, a thing wished for: multum enim ut plurimum Puellae a Juvenibus desiderantur, seu appetuntur. So Minsheu. Junius seems more willing to derive it from wince, to frisk, to be skittish, etc., for reasons sufficiently obvious, and which he gives at length. After all, it may as likely come from the Gothic wens or weins, a word frequently used in the gospels of the Codex Argenteus for wife. Coverdale's Bible, 1535, has damsell. Becke's Bible, 1549, has wenche. The same in Cardmarden's Bible, 1566; but it is maid in Barker's Bible, 1615. Wench is more of a Scotticism than maid or damsel; and King James probably restored it, as he is said to have done lad in [Gen 21:12], and elsewhere. In every other place where the word occurs, our translators render it handmaid, bondmaid, maiden, womanservant, maidservant, and servant. Such is the latitude with which they translate the same Hebrew term in almost innumerable instances.

### Verse 23

[¶30] Put his household in order - This self-murder could not be called lunacy, as every step to it was deliberate. He foresaw Absalom's ruin; and he did not choose to witness it, and share in the disgrace: and he could expect no mercy at the hands of David. He was a very bad man, and died an unprepared and accursed death.

### Verse 25

[¶32] Amasa captain of the host - From the account in this verse, it appears that Joab and Amasa were sisters' children, and both nephews to David.

### Verse 28

[¶34] Brought beds - These no doubt consisted in skins of beasts, mats, carpets, and such like things.

[¶35] Basons - ספות sappoth. Probably wooden bowls, such as the Arabs still use to eat out of, and to knead their bread in.

[¶36] Earthen vessels - כלי יוצר keley yotser. Probably clay vessels, baked in the sun. These were perhaps used for lifting water, and boiling those articles which required to be cooked.

[¶37] Wheat, and barley, etc. - There is no direct mention of flesh-meat here; little was eaten in that country, and it would not keep. Whether the sheep mentioned were brought for their flesh or their milk. I cannot tell.

[¶38] According to Mr. Jones, "the Moors of west Barbary use the flour of parched barley, which is the chief provision they make for their journeys, and often use it at home; and this they carry in a leathern satchel." These are ordinarily made of goat-skins. One of them now lies before me: it has been drawn off the animal before it was cut up; the places where the fore-legs, the tail, and the anus were, are elegantly closed, and have leathers thongs attached to them, by which it can be slung over the back of man, ass, or camel. The place of the neck is left open, with a running string to draw it up, purse-like, when necessary. The skin itself is tanned; and the upper side is curiously embroidered with red, black, blue, yellow, and flesh-coloured leather, in very curious and elegant forms and devices. Bags of this kind are used for carrying wine, water, milk, butter, grain, flour, clothes, and different articles of merchandise. This is, as I have before stated, the Scripture bottle. Mr. Jones farther says: "Travellers use zumeet, tumeet, and limereece. Zumeet is flour mixed with honey, butter, and spice; tumeet is flour done up with organ oil; and limereece is flour mixed with water for drink. This quenches the thirst much better than water alone; satisfies a hungry appetite; cools and refreshes tired and weary spirits; overcoming those ill effects which a hot sun and fatiguing journey might well occasion."

[¶39] This flour might be made of grain or pulse of any kind: and probably may be that which we here term parched corn and parched pulse; and in the forms above mentioned was well calculated, according to Mr. Jones's account, for the people hungry, weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness. This was a timely supply for David and his men, and no doubt contributed much to the victory mentioned in the following chapter.

[¶40] A Remarkable account of maternal affection in a she-bear: "In the year 1772, the Seahorse frigate and Carcass bomb, under the command of the Hon. Captain C. J. Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, were sent on a voyage of discovery to the north seas. In this expedition the late celebrated admiral Lord Nelson served as midshipman. While the Carcass lay locked in the ice, early one morning, the man at the masthead gave notice that three bears were making their way very fast over the frozen sea, and were directing their course towards the ship. They had no doubt been invited by the scent of some blubber of a seahorse that the crew had killed a few days before, which had been set on fire, and was burning on the ice at the time of their approach. They proved to be a she-bear and her two cubs, but the cubs were nearly as large as the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, and drew out from the flames part of the flesh of the seahorse that remained unconsumed, and ate voraciously. The crew from the ship threw great lumps of flesh of the seahorse, which they had still left upon the ice, which the old bear fetched away singly, laid every lump before her cubs as she brought it, and dividing it, gave each a share, reserving but a small portion to herself. As she was fetching away the last piece, they levelled their muskets at the cubs, and shot them both dead; and in her retreat they wounded the dam, but not mortally. It would have drawn tears of pity from any but unfeeling minds, to have marked the affectionate concern expressed by this poor beast in the dying moments of her expiring young. Though she was sorely wounded, and could but just crawl to the place where they lay, she carried the lump of flesh she had fetched away, as she had done the others before, tore it in pieces and laid it down before them; and when she saw that they refused to eat, she laid her paws first upon one, and then upon the other, and endeavored to raise them up; all this while it was piteous to hear her moan. When she found she could not move them, she went off; and being at some distance, looked back and moaned. This not availing to entice them away, she returned, and smelling around them, began to lick their wounds. She went off a second time, as before; and having crawled a few paces, looked again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But still her cubs not rising to follow her, she returned to them again, and with signs of inexpressible fondness went round one, and round the other, pawing them and moaning. Finding at last that they were cold and lifeless, she raised her head towards the ship, and growled a curse upon the murderers, which they returned with a volley of musket balls. She fell between her cubs, and died licking their wounds."

[¶41] Had this animal got among the destroyers of her young, she would have soon shown what was implied in the chafed mind of a bear robbed of her whelps.

### Introduction

[¶43] David reviews and arranges the people, and gives the command to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, [2Sam 18:1], [2Sam 18:2]. On his expressing a desire to accompany them to the battle, they will not permit him, [2Sam 18:3]. He reviews them as they go out of the city, and gives commandment to the captains to save Absalom, [2Sam 18:4], [2Sam 18:5]. They join battle with Absalom and his army, who are discomfited with the loss of twenty thousand men, [2Sam 18:6-8]. Absalom, fleeing away, is caught by his head in an oak; Joab finds him, and transfixes him with three darts, [2Sam 18:9-15]. The servants of David are recalled, and Absalom buried, [2Sam 18:16-18]. Ahimaaz and Cushi bring the tidings to David, who is greatly distressed at hearing of the death of Absalom, and makes bitter lamentation for him, [2Sam 18:19-33].

## 332. 2 Samuel · 17 of 24

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### Verse 1

[¶1] And set captains of thousands - By this time David's small company was greatly recruited; but what its number was we cannot tell. Josephus says it amounted to four thousand men. Others have supposed that they amounted to ten thousand; for thus they understand a clause in [2Sam 18:3], which they think should be read, We are now ten thousand strong.

### Verse 3

[¶3] But now thou art worth ten thousand of us - The particle יתה attah, now, is doubtless a mistake for the pronoun אתה attah, thou; and so it appears to have been read by the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the Chaldee, and by two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.

### Verse 5

[¶5] Deal gently - with the young man - David was the father of this worthless young man; and is it to be wondered at that he feels as a father? Who in his circumstances, that had such feelings as every man should have, would have felt, or acted otherwise?

### Verse 7

[¶7] Twenty thousand men - Whether these were slain on the field of battle, or whether they were reckoned with those slain in the wood of Ephraim, we know not.

### Verse 8

[¶9] The wood devoured more people - It is generally supposed that, when the army was broken, they betook themselves to the wood, fell into pits, swamps, etc., and, being entangled, were hewn down by David's men; but the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, state that they were devoured by wild beasts in the wood.

### Verse 9

[¶11] And his head caught hold of the oak - It has been supposed that Absalom was caught by the hair, but no such thing is intimated in the text. Probably his neck was caught in the fork of a strong bough, and he was nearly dead when Joab found him; for it is said, [2Sam 18:14], he was yet alive, an expression which intimates he was nearly dead.

### Verse 10

[¶13] I saw Absalom hanged in an oak - He must have hung there a considerable time. this man saw him hanging; how long he had been hanging before he saw him, we cannot tell. He came and informed Joab; this must have taken up a considerable time. Joab went and pierced him through with three darts; this must have taken up still more time. It is therefore natural to conclude that his life must have been nearly gone after having been so long suspended, and probably was past recovery, even if Joab had taken him down.

### Verse 11

[¶15] And a girdle - The military belt was the chief ornament of a soldier, and was highly prized in all ancient nations; it was also a rich present from one chieftain to another. Jonathan gave his to David, as the highest pledge of his esteem and perpetual friendship, [1Sam 18:4]. And Ajax gave his to Hector, as a token of the highest respect. - Hom. Il. vii., ver. 305.

### Verse 13

[¶17] Thou thyself wouldest have set thyself against me - This is a strong appeal to Joab's loyalty, and respect for the orders of David; but he was proof against every fine feeling, and against every generous sentiment.

### Verse 14

[¶19] I may not tarry thus with thee - He had nothing to say in vindication of the purpose he had formed.

[¶20] Thrust them through the heart of Absalom - He was determined to make sure work, and therefore he pierced his heart.

[¶21] Joab should have obeyed the king's commandment: and yet the safety of the state required the sacrifice of Absalom. But independently of this, his life was quadruply forfeited to the law: -

[¶22] 1. In having murdered his brother Amnon.

[¶23] 2. In having excited an insurrection in the state.

[¶24] 3. In having taken up arms against his own father, [Deu 21:18], [Deu 21:21].

[¶25] 4. In having lain with his father's concubines, [Lev 18:29].

[¶26] Long ago he should have died by the hand of justice; and now all his crimes are visited on him in his last act of rebellion. Yet, in the present circumstances, Joab's act was base and disloyal, and a cowardly murder.

### Verse 15

[¶28] Ten young men - smote Absalom and slew him - That is, they all pierced the body; but there could be no life in it after three darts had been thrust through the heart: but they added as much as would have killed him had he been alive.

### Verse 16

[¶30] Joab blew the trumpet - He knew that the rebellion was now extinguished by the death of Absalom; and was not willing that any farther slaughter should be made of the deluded people.

### Verse 17

[¶32] And laid a very great heap of stones - This was the method of burying heroes, and even traitors, the heap of stones being designed to perpetuate the memory of the event, whether good or bad. The ancient cairns or heaps of stones, in different parts of the world, are of this kind. The various tumuli or barrows in England are the same as the cairns in different parts of Ireland and Scotland. In the former, stones were not plenty; hence they heaped up great mounds of earth.

### Verse 18

[¶34] Reared up for himself a pillar - There was a marble pillar in the time of Josephus called Absalom's pillar: and there is one shown to the present day under this name; but it is comparatively a modern structure.

[¶35] Absalom's place - Literally Absalom's Hand. See the note on [1Sam 15:12].

### Verse 21

[¶37] Tell the king what thou hast seen - At this time the death of Absalom was not publicly known; but Joab had given Cushi private information of it. This Ahimaaz had not, for he could not tell the king whether Absalom were dead. To this Joab seems to refer, [2Sam 18:22] : "Thou hast no tidings ready.

### Verse 24

[¶39] David sat between the two gates - He was probably in the seat of justice. Before the gate of the city it is supposed there was an enclosure, which had its gate also; David sat in the space between these two doors. Over the larger gate there appears to have been a turret, on which a sentinel or watchman stood continually, and gave information of what he saw in the country.

### Verse 25

[¶41] If he be alone, there is tidings - That is, good tidings. For if the battle had been lost men would have been running in different directions through the country.

### Verse 29

[¶43] I saw a great tumult - It was very probable that Ahimaaz did not know of the death of Absalom; he had seen the rout of his army, but did not know of his death. Others think he knew all, and told this untruth that he might not be the messenger of bad news to David.

### Verse 30

[¶45] Stand here - He intended to confront two messengers, and compare their accounts.

## 333. 2 Samuel · 18 of 24

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/333/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/333/#p-N

### Verse 32

[¶1] Is the young man Absalom safe? - This was the utmost of his solicitude, and it well merited the reproof which Joab gave him, [2Sam 19:5].

### Verse 33

[¶3] O my son Absalom - It is allowed by the most able critics that this lamentation is exceedingly pathetic. In what order the words were pronounced, for much depends on this, we cannot say. Perhaps it was the following: - בני אבשלום בני Beni Abshalom, beni! My son Absalom! O my son! בני אבשלום Beni Abshalom! O my son Absalom! מי יתן מותי אני תחתיך Mi yitten muthi ani thachteicha. O that I had died in thy stead! אבשלום בני בני Abshalom, beni! beni! O Absalom, my son, my son!

[¶4] Is there no hope for the soul of this profligate young man? He died in his iniquity: but is it not possible that he implored the mercy of his Maker while he hung in the tree? And is it not possible that the mercy of God was extended to him? And was not that suspension a respite, to the end that he might have time to deprecate the wrath of Divine justice?

[¶5] This is at least a charitable conjecture, and humanity will delight in such a case to lay hold even on possibilities. If there be any room for hope in such a death, who that knows the worth of an immortal soul, would not wish to indulge in it?

### Introduction

[¶7] David continues his lamentation for his son, and the people are greatly discouraged, [2Sam 19:1-4]. Joab reproves and threatens him with the general defection of the people, [2Sam 19:5-7]. David lays aside his mourning, and shows himself to the people, who are thereby encouraged, [2Sam 19:8]. The tribes take counsel to bring the king back to Jerusalem, [2Sam 19:9-12]. He makes Amasa captain of the host in place of Joab, [2Sam 19:13]. The king, returning, is met by Judah at Gilgal, [2Sam 19:14], [2Sam 19:15]. Shimei comes to meet David, and entreats for his life, which David grants, [2Sam 19:16-23]. Mephibosheth also meets him, and shows how he had been slandered by Ziba, [2Sam 19:24-30]. David is met by Barzillai, and between them there is an affecting interview, [2Sam 19:31-40]. Contention between the men of Judah and the men of Israel, about bringing back the king, [2Sam 19:41-43].

### Verse 2

[¶9] The victory - was turned into mourning - Instead of rejoicing that a most unnatural and ruinous rebellion had been quashed, the people mourned over their own success, because they saw their king so immoderately afflicted for the loss of his worthless son.

### Verse 4

[¶11] The king covered his face - This was the custom of mourners.

[¶12] O my son Absalom - Calmet has properly remarked that the frequent repetition of the name of the defunct, is common in the language of lamentation. Thus Virgil, act. v., ver. 51: - - Daphnin que team tollemus ad astra;

[¶13] Daphnin ad astra feremus: amavit nos quoque Daphnis. "With yours, my song I cheerfully shall join,

[¶14] To raise your Daphnis to the powers Divine.

[¶15] Daphnis I'll raise unto the powers above,

[¶16] For dear to me was Daphnis' well tried love."

[¶17] See the notes on the preceding chapter, 2 Samuel 18 (note).

### Verse 5

[¶19] Thou hast shamed this day - Joab's speech to David on his immoderate grief for the death of his rebellious son is not only remarkable for the insolence of office, but also for good sense and firmness. Every man who candidly considers the state of the case, must allow that David acted imprudently at least; and that Joab's firm reproof was necessary to arouse him to a sense of his duty to his people. But still, in his manner, Joab had far exceeded the bonds of that reverence which a servant owes to his master, or a subject to his prince. Joab was a good soldier, but in every respect a bad man, and a dangerous subject.

### Verse 8

[¶21] The king - sat in the gate - The place where justice was administered to the people.

### Verse 11

[¶23] Speak unto the elders of Judah - David was afraid to fall out with this tribe: they were in possession of Jerusalem, and this was a city of great importance to him. They had joined Absalom in his rebellion; and doubtless were now ashamed of their conduct. David appears to take no notice of their infidelity, but rather to place confidence in them, that their confidence in him might be naturally excited: and, to oblige them yet farther, purposes to make Amasa captain of the host in the place of Joab.

### Verse 14

[¶25] And he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah - The measures that he pursued were the best calculated that could be to accomplish this salutary end. Appear to distrust those whom you have some reason to suspect, and you increase their caution and distrust. Put as much confidence in them as you safely can, and this will not fail to excite their confidence towards you.

### Verse 16

[¶27] Shimei the son of Gera - It appears that Shimei was a powerful chieftain in the land; for he had here, in his retinue, no less than a thousand men.

### Verse 18

[¶29] There went over a ferry-boat - This is the first mention of any thing of the kind. Some think a bridge or raft is what is here intended.

### Verse 20

[¶31] For thy servant doth know that I have sinned - This was all he could do; his subsequent conduct alone could prove his sincerity. On such an avowal as this David could not but grant him his life.

### Verse 24

[¶33] Neither dressed his feet - He had given the fullest proof of his sincere attachment to David and his cause; and by what he had done, amply refuted the calumnies of his servant Ziba.

### Verse 27

[¶35] The king is as an angel of God - As if he had said, I state my case plainly and without guile; thou art too wise not to penetrate the motives from which both myself and servant have acted. I shall make no appeal; with whatsoever thou determinest I shall rest contented.

### Verse 29

[¶37] I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land - At first, David gave the land of Saul to Mephibosheth; and Ziba, his sons, and his servants, were to work that land; and to Mephibosheth, as the lord, he was to give the half of the produce. Ziba met David in his distress with provisions, and calumniated Mephibosheth: David, too slightly trusting to his misrepresentation, and supposing that Mephibosheth was actually such a traitor as Ziba represented him, made him on the spot a grant of his master's land. Now he finds that he has acted too rashly, and therefore confirms the former grant; i.e. that Ziba should cultivate the ground, and still continue to give to Mephibosheth, as the lord, the half of the produce. This was merely placing things in statu quo, and utterly annulling the gift that he had made to Ziba. But why did he leave this treacherous man any thing? Answer,

[¶38] 1. He was one of the domestics of Saul, and David wished to show kindness to that house.

[¶39] 2. He had supplied him with the necessaries of life when he was in the greatest distress; and he thinks proper to continue him in his old office, by way of remuneration.

[¶40] But it was certainly too great a compensation for his services, however then important, when all the circumstances are considered.

### Verse 32

[¶42] Barzillai was a very aged man - This venerable person had given full proof of his attachment to David by the supplies he had given him when he lay at Mahanaim, where his case was all but desperate; the sincerity of his congratulations now none can suspect. David's offer to him was at once noble and liberal: he wished to compensate such a man, and he wished to have at hand such a friend.

### Verse 35

[¶44] Can thy servant taste what I eat - Here is at once an affecting description of the infirmities of old age; and a correct account of the mode of living at an Eastern court in ancient times.

## 334. 2 Samuel · 19 of 24

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[¶0] Barzillai was fourscore years old; his ear was become dull of hearing, and his relish for his food was gone: he therefore appears to have been not only an old man, but an infirm old man. Besides delicate meats and drinks, we find that vocal music constituted a principal part of court entertainments: male and female singers made a necessary appendage to these banquets, as they do in most Eastern courts to the present day. As David was a most sublime poet, and emphatically styled the sweet singer of Israel, he no doubt had his court well supplied with vocal as well as instrumental performers; and, probably, with poets and poetesses; for it is not likely that he was the only poet of his time, though he undoubtedly was the most excellent.

### Verse 37

[¶2] Thy servant Chimham - It is generally understood that this was Barzillai's son; and this is probable from [1Kgs 2:7], where, when David was dying, he said, Show kindness to the sons of Barzillai: and it is very probable that this Chimham was one of them. In [Jer 41:17] mention is made of the habitation of Chimham, which was near to Bethlehem; and it is reasonably conjectured that David had left that portion, which was probably a part of his paternal estate, to this son of Barzillai.

### Verse 39

[¶4] The king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him - The kiss was the token of friendship and farewell; the blessing was a prayer to God for his prosperity, probably a prophetical benediction.

### Verse 42

[¶6] Wherefore then be ye angry for this matter? - We have not done this for our own advantage; we have gained nothing by it; we did it through loyal attachment to our king.

### Verse 43

[¶8] We have ten parts in the king, and - more right - We are ten tribes to one, or we are ten times so many as you; and consequently should have been consulted in this business.

[¶9] The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel - They had more weight, for they had more reason on their side.

[¶10] It is pleasant when every province, canton, district, and county, vie with each other in personal attachment to the prince, and loyal attachment to his government. From such contentions as these civil wars are never likely to arise. And how blessed it must be for the country where the king merits all this! where the prince is the pastor and father of his people, and in all things the minister of and to them for good!

[¶11] It is criminal in the prince not to endeavor to deserve the confidence and love of his people; and it is highly criminal in the people not to repay such endeavors with the most loyal and affectionate attachment.

[¶12] Where the government is not despotic, the king acts by the counsels of his ministers, and while he does so he is not chargeable with miscarriages and misfortunes; they either came through bad counsels, or directly thwarting providences. On this ground is that political maxim in our laws formed, the king can do no wrong. Sometimes God will have things otherwise than the best counsels have determined, because he sees that the results will, on the whole, be better for the peace and prosperity of that state. "God is the only Ruler of princes." And as the peace of the world depends much on civil government, hence kings and civil governors are peculiar objects of the Almighty's care. Wo to him who labors to bring about a general disaffection; as such things almost invariably end in general disappointment and calamity. It is much easier to unsettle than to settle; to pull down than to build up.

### Introduction

[¶14] Sheba raises an insurrection, and gains a party in Israel, [2Sam 20:1], [2Sam 20:2]. David shuts up the ten concubines who were defiled by Absalom, [2Sam 20:3]. Amasa is sent to assemble the men of Judah, [2Sam 20:4], [2Sam 20:5]. And in the mean time Abishai is sent to pursue Sheba, [2Sam 20:6], [2Sam 20:7]. Joab treacherously murders Amasa, [2Sam 20:8-12]. Joab and the army continue the pursuit of Sheba, [2Sam 20:13], [2Sam 20:14]. He is besieged in Abel; and, by the counsels of a wise woman, the people of Abel cut off his head, and throw it over the wall to Joab; who blows the trumpet of peace, and he and his men return to Jerusalem, [2Sam 20:15-22]. Account of David's civil and military officers, [2Sam 20:23-26].

### Verse 1

[¶16] Sheba, the son of Bichri - As this man was a Benjamite, he probably belonged to the family of Saul; and he seems to have had considerable influence in Israel to raise such an insurrection: but we know nothing farther of him than what is related in this place.

[¶17] We have no part in David - We of Israel, we of the ten tribes, are under no obligation to the house of David. Leave him, and let every man fall into the ranks under his own leader.

### Verse 3

[¶19] The ten women - He could not well divorce them; he could not punish them, as they were not in the transgression; he could no more be familiar with them, because they had been defiled by his son; and to have married them to other men might have been dangerous to the state: therefore he shut them up and fed them - made them quite comfortable, and they continued as widows to their death.

### Verse 4

[¶21] Then said the king to Amasa - Thus he invests him with the command of the army, and sends him to collect the men of Judah, and to come back to receive his orders in relation to Sheba, in three days. It appears that Amasa found more difficulty in collecting his country-men than was at first supposed; and this detaining him beyond the three days, David, fearing that Sheba's rebellion would get head, sent Abishai, who it appears was accompanied by Joab, to pursue after Sheba.

[¶22] Amasa, it seems, got up with them at Gibeon, [2Sam 20:8], where he was treacherously murdered by the execrable Joab.

### Verse 8

[¶24] Joab's garment - It appears that this was not a military garment; and that Joab had no arms but a short sword, which he had concealed in his girdle; and this sword, or knife, was so loose in its sheath that it could be easily drawn out. It is thought farther, that Joab, in passing to Amasa, stumbled, (for so some of the versions, and able critics, understand the words it fell out). and that the sword fell down when he stumbled; that he took it up with his left hand as if he had no bad intention; and then, taking Amasa by the beard with his right hand, pretending to kiss him, he, with his sword in his left hand, ripped up his bowels. This seems to be the meaning of this very obscure verse. It is worthy of remark that in the Eastern country it is the beard, not the man, which is usually kissed.

### Verse 10

[¶26] In the fifth rib - I believe חמש chomesh, which we render here and elsewhere the fifth rib, means any part of the abdominal region. The Septuagint translate it την ψοαν, the groin; the Targum, the right side of the thigh, i.e., (the phrase of the Targumist being interpreted), the privy parts. That it means some part of the abdominal region, is evident from what follows, And shed out his bowels to the ground. It appears from this that, in plain English, he ripped up his belly.

### Verse 11

[¶28] He that favoureth Joab - As if he had said, There is now no other commander besides Joab; and Joab is steadily attached to David: let those therefore who are loyal follow Joab.

### Verse 12

[¶30] Amasa wallowed in blood - It is very likely that Amasa did not immediately die; I have known instances of persons living several hours after their bowels had been shed out.

### Verse 14

[¶32] Unto Abel - This is supposed to have been the capital of the district called Abilene in St. Luke's Gospel, [Luk 3:1].

[¶33] Beth-maachah - Is supposed to have been in the northern part of the Holy Land, on the confines of Syria, and probably in the tribe of Naphtali.

### Verse 15

[¶35] They cast up a bank against the city - The word סללה solelah, which we render bank, means, most probably, a battering engine of some kind, or a tower overlooking the walls, on which archers and slingers could stand and annoy the inhabitants, while others of the besiegers could proceed to sap the walls. That it cannot be a bank that stood in the trench, is evident from the circumstance thus expressed.

### Verse 16

[¶37] A wise woman - She was probably governess.

### Verse 18

[¶39] They shall surely ask counsel at Abel - This is a proverb, but from what it originated we know not; nor can we exactly say what it means: much must be supplied to bring it to speak sense. Abel was probably famed for the wisdom of its inhabitants; and parties who had disputes appealed to their judgment, which appears to have been in such high reputation as to be final by consent of all parties. To this the wise woman refers, and intimates to Joab that he should have proceeded in this way before he began to storm the city, and destroy the peaceable inhabitants.

### Verse 19

[¶41] I - peaceable and faithful in Israel - I am for peace, not contention of any kind; I am faithful - I adhere to David, and neither seek nor shall sanction any rebellion or anarchy in the land. Why then dost thou proceed in such a violent manner? Perhaps the woman speaks here in the name and on behalf of the city: "I am a peaceable city, and am faithful to the king."

[¶42] A mother in Israel - That is, a chief city of a district; for it is very likely that the woman speaks of the city, not of herself.

### Verse 21

[¶44] His head shall be thrown to thee - Thus it appears she had great sway in the counsels of the city; and that the punishment of a state rebel was then, what it is now in this kingdom, beheading.

## 335. 2 Samuel · 20 of 24

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### Verse 23

[¶1] Joab was over all the host - He had murdered Amasa, and seized on the supreme command: and such was his power at present, and the service which he had rendered to the state by quelling the rebellion of Sheba, that David was obliged to continue him; and dared not to call him to account for his murders without endangering the safety of the state by a civil war.

[¶2] Benaiah - over the Cherethites - Benaiah was over the archers and slingers.

[¶3] See the notes on [2Sam 8:18].

### Verse 24

[¶5] Adoram was over the tribute - Probably the chief receiver of the taxes; or Chancellor of the Exchequer, as we term it.

[¶6] Jehoshaphat - recorder - The registrar of public events.

### Verse 25

[¶8] Shevah was scribe - The king's secretary.

### Verse 26

[¶10] Ira - was a chief ruler about David - The Hebrew is כהן לדויד cohen ledavid, a priest to David; and so the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. The Chaldee has רב rab, a prince, or chief. He was probably a sort of domestic chaplain to the king. We know that the kings of Judah had their seers, which is nearly the same: Gad was David's seer, [2Sam 24:11], and Jeduthun was the seer of King Josiah, [2Chr 35:16].

[¶11] The conclusion of this chapter is very similar to the conclusion of [2Sam 8:16-18] (note), where see the notes.

### Introduction

[¶13] A famine taking place three successive years in Israel, David inquired of the Lord the cause; and was informed that it was on account of Saul and his bloody house, who had slain the Gibeonites, [2Sam 21:1]. David inquires of the Gibeonites what atonement they require, and they answer, seven sons of Saul, that they may hang them up in Gibeah, [2Sam 21:2-6]. Names of the seven sons thus given up, [2Sam 21:7-9]. Affecting account of Rizpah, who watched the bodies through the whole of the time of harvest, to prevent them from being devoured by birds and beasts of prey, [2Sam 21:10]. David is informed of Rizpah's conduct, and collects the bones of Saul, Jonathan, and the seven men that were hanged at Gibeah, and buries them; and God is entreated for the land, [2Sam 21:11-14]. War between the Israelites and Philistines, in which David is in danger of being slain by Ishbi-benob, but is succoured by Abishai, [2Sam 21:15-17]. He, and several gigantic Philistines, are slain by David and his servants, [2Sam 21:18-22].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Then there was a famine - Of this famine we know nothing; it is not mentioned in any part of the history of David.

[¶16] Because he slew the Gibeonites - No such fact is mentioned in the life and transactions of Saul; nor is there any reference to it in any other part of Scripture.

### Verse 2

[¶18] The remnant of the Amorites - The Gibeonites were Hivites, not Amorites, as appears from [Jos 11:19] : but Amorites is a name often given to the Canaanites in general, [Gen 15:16]; [Amo 2:9], and elsewhere.

### Verse 3

[¶20] Wherewith shall I make the atonement - It is very strange that a choice of this kind should be left to such a people. Why not ask this of God himself?

### Verse 6

[¶22] Seven men of his sons - Meaning sons, grandsons, or other near branches of his family. It is supposed that the persons chosen were principal in assisting Saul to exterminate the Gibeonites. But where is the proof of this?

### Verse 8

[¶24] Five sons of Michal - whom she brought up - Michal, Saul's daughter, was never married to Adriel, but to David, and afterwards to Phaltiel; though it is here said she bore ילדה yaledah, not brought up, as we falsely translate it: but we learn from [1Sam 18:19], that Merab, one of Saul's daughters, was married to Adriel.

[¶25] Two of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. have Merab, not Michal; the Syriac and Arabic have Nadab; the Chaldee has properly Merab; but it renders the passage thus: - And the five sons of Merab which Michal the daughter of Saul brought up, which she brought forth to Adriel the son of Barzillai. This cuts the knot.

### Verse 9

[¶27] In the beginning of barley harvest - This happened in Judea about the vernal equinox, or the 21st of March.

### Verse 10

[¶29] Rizpah - took sackcloth - Who can read the account of Rizpah's maternal affection for her sons that were now hanged, without feeling his mind deeply impressed with sorrows?

[¶30] Did God require this sacrifice of Saul's sons, probably all innocent of the alleged crime of their father? Was there no other method of averting the Divine displeasure? Was the requisition of the Gibeonites to have Saul's sons sacrificed to God, to be considered as an oracle of God? Certainly not; God will not have man's blood for sacrifice, no more than he will have swine's blood. The famine might have been removed, and the land properly purged, by offering the sacrifices prescribed by the law, and by a general humiliation of the people.

[¶31] Until water dropped upon them - Until the time of the autumnal rains, which in that country commence about October. Is it possible that this poor broken-hearted woman could have endured the fatigue, (and probably in the open air), of watching these bodies for more than five months? Some think that the rain dropping on them out of heaven means the removal of the famine which was occasioned by drought, by now sending rain, which might have been shortly after these men were hanged; but this by no means agrees with the manner in which the account is introduced: "They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. And Rizpah - took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest, until water dropped upon them out of heaven." No casual or immediately providential rain can be here intended; the reference must be to the periodical rains above mentioned.

### Verse 12

[¶33] Took the bones of Saul - The reader will recollect that the men of Jabesh-gilead burned the bodies of Saul and his sons, and buried the remaining bones under a tree at Jabesh. See [1Sam 31:12], [1Sam 31:13]. These David might have digged up again, in order to bury them in the family sepulcher.

### Verse 15

[¶35] Moreover the Philistines had yet war - There is no mention of this war in the parallel place, [1Chr 20:4], etc.

[¶36] David waxed faint - This circumstance is nowhere else mentioned.

### Verse 16

[¶38] Being girded with a new sword - As the word sword is not in the original, we may apply the term new to his armor in general; he had got new arms, a new coat of mail, or something that defended him well, and rendered him very formidable: or it may mean a strong or sharp sword.

### Verse 17

[¶40] That thou quench not the light of Israel - David is here considered as the lamp by which all Israel was guided, and without whom all the nation must be involved in darkness. The lamp is the emblem of direction and support. Light is used in this sense by Homer: - Ουδε τι Πατροκλῳ γενομην φαος, αυδ' ἑταροισι Τοις αλλοις, οἱ δη πολεες δαμεν Ἑκτορι διῳ.

[¶41] Iliad, lib. xviii. ver. 102. "I have neither been a Light to Patroclus nor to his companions, who have been slain by the noble Hector."

### Verse 18

[¶43] A battle - at Gob - Instead of Gob, several editions, and about forty of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., have Nob; but Gezer is the name in the parallel place, [1Chr 20:4].

## 336. 2 Samuel · 21 of 24

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### Verse 19

[¶1] Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim - slew - Goliath the Gittite - Here is a most manifest corruption of the text, or gross mistake of the transcriber; David, not Elhanan, slew Goliath. In [1Chr 20:5], the parallel place, it stands thus: "Elhanan, the son of Jair, slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff was like a weaver's beam." This is plain; and our translators have borrowed some words from Chronicles to make both texts agree. The corruption may be easily accounted for by considering that ארגים oregim, which signifies weavers, has slipped out of one line into the other; and that בית הלחמי beith hallachmi, the Beth-lehemite, is corrupted from את לחמי eth Lachmi; then the reading will be the same as in Chronicles. Dr. Kennicott has made this appear very plain in his First Dissertation on the Hebrew Text, p. 78, etc.

### Verse 20

[¶3] On every hand six fingers - This is not a solitary instance: Tavernier informs us that the eldest son of the emperor of Java, who reigned in 1648, had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. And Maupertuis, in his seventeenth letter, says that he met with two families near Berlin, where sedigitism was equally transmitted on both sides of father and mother. I saw once a young girl, in the county of Londonderry, in Ireland, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, but her stature had nothing gigantic in it. The daughters of Caius Horatius, of patrician dignity, were called sedigitae, because they had six fingers on each hand. Volcatius, a poet, was called sedigitus for the same reason. See Pliny's Hist. Nat., lib. xi., cap. 43.

[¶4] There are evidently many places in this chapter in which the text has suffered much from the ignorance or carelessness of transcribers; and indeed I suspect the whole has suffered so materially as to distort, if not misrepresent the principal facts. It seems as if a Gibeonite has had something to do with the copies that are come down to us, or that the first fourteen verses have been inserted from a less authentic document than the rest of the book. I shall notice some of the most unaccountable, and apparently exceptionable particulars: -

[¶5] 1. The famine, [2Sam 21:1], is not spoken of anywhere else, nor at all referred to in the books of Kings or Chronicles; and, being of three years' duration, it was too remarkable to be omitted in the history of David.

[¶6] 2. The circumstance of Saul's attempt to exterminate the Gibeonites is nowhere else mentioned; and, had it taken place, it is not likely it would have been passed over in the history of Saul's transgressions. Indeed, it would have been such a breach of the good faith by which the whole nation was bound to this people, that an attempt of the kind could scarcely have failed to raise an insurrection through all Israel.

[¶7] 3. The wish of David that the Gibeonites, little better than a heathenish people, should bless the inheritance of the Lord, is unconstitutional and unlikely.

[¶8] 4. That God should leave the choice of the atonement to such a people, or indeed to any people, seems contrary to his established laws and particular providence.

[¶9] 5. That he should require seven innocent men to be hung up in place of their offending father, in whose iniquity they most likely never had a share, seems inconsistent with justice and mercy.

[¶10] 6. In [2Sam 21:8], there is mention made of five sons of Michal, which she bore (ילדה yaledah) unto Adriel. Now,

[¶11] 1. Michal was never the wife of Adriel, but of David and Phaltiel.

[¶12] 2. She never appears to have had any children, see [2Sam 6:23]; this I have been obliged to correct in the preceding notes by putting Merab in the place of Michal.

[¶13] 7. The seven sons of Saul, mentioned here, are represented as a sacrifice required by God, to make an atonement for the sin of Saul. Does God in any case require human blood for sacrifice? And is it not such a sacrifice that is represented here? Dr. Delaney and others imagine that these seven sons were principal agents in the execution of their father's purpose; but of this there is no proof. Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, certainly had no hand in this projected massacre, he was ever lame, and could not be so employed; and yet he would have been one of the seven had it not been for the covenant made before with his father: But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan - because of the Lord's oath that was between them, [2Sam 21:7].

[¶14] 8. The circumstance of Rizpah's watching the bodies of those victims, upon a rock, and probably in the open air, both day and night, from March to October, or even for a much less period, is, as it is here related, very extraordinary and improbable.

[¶15] 9. The hanging the bodies so long was against an express law of God, which ordained that those who were hanged on a tree should be taken down before sunset, and buried the same day, lest the land should be defiled, ([Deu 21:22], [Deu 21:23]). Therefore,

[¶16] 1. God did not command a breach of his own law.

[¶17] 2. David was too exact an observer of that law to require it.

[¶18] 3. The people could not have endured it; for, in that sultry season, the land would indeed have been defiled by the putrefaction of the dead bodies; and this would, in all likelihood, have added pestilence to famine.

[¶19] 10. The story of collecting and burying the bones of Saul and Jonathan is not very likely, considering that the men of Jabesh-gilead had burned their bodies, and buried the remaining bones under a tree at Jabesh, [1Sam 31:12], [1Sam 31:13]; yet still it is possible.

[¶20] 11. Josephus takes as much of this story as he thinks proper, but says not one word about Rizpah, and her long watching over her slaughtered sons.

[¶21] 12. Even the facts in this chapter, which are mentioned in other places, (see [1Chr 20:4], etc.), are greatly distorted and corrupted; for we have already seen that Elhanan is made here to kill Goliath the Gittite, whom it is well known David slew; and it is only by means of the parallel place above that we can restore this to historical truth.

[¶22] That there have been attempts to remove some of these objections, I know; and I know also that these attempts have been in general without success.

[¶23] Till I get farther light on the subject, I am led to conclude that the whole chapter is not now what it would be, coming from the pen of an inspired writer; and that this part of the Jewish records has suffered much from rabbinical glosses, alterations, and additions. The law, the prophets, and the hagiographa, including Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, etc., have been ever considered as possessing the highest title to Divine inspiration; and therefore have been most carefully preserved and transcribed; but the historical books, especially Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, have not ranked so high, have been less carefully preserved, and have been the subjects of frequent alteration and corruption. Yet still the great foundation of God standeth sure and is sufficiently attested by his own broad seal of consistency, truth, and holiness.

### Introduction

[¶25] David's psalm of thanksgiving for God's powerful deliverance and manifold blessings, including prophetic declarations relative to the humiliation and exaltation of the Messiah, vv. 1-51.

### Verse 1

[¶27] David spake unto the Lord the words of this song - This is the same in substance, and almost in words, with Psalm 18:1-50, and therefore the exposition of it must be reserved till it occurs in its course in that book, with the exception of a very few observations, and Dr. Kennicott's general view of the subject.

### Verse 5

[¶29] When the waves of death compassed me - Though in a primary sense many of these things belong to David, yet generally and fully they belong to the Messiah alone.

### Verse 11

[¶31] He rode upon a cherub, and did fly - he was seen upon the things of the wind - In the original of this sublime passage, sense and sound are astonishingly well connected. I shall insert the Hebrew, represent it in English letters for the sake of the unlearned reader, and have only to observe, he must read from the right to the left. רוח כנפי על וירא ויעף כרוב על וירכב ruach canphey al vaiyera vaiyaoph kerub al vayirkab wind the of wings the upon seen was he and; fly did and cherub upon rode he

[¶32] The clap of the wing, the agitation and rush through the air are expressed here in a very extraordinary manner.

[¶33] Other beauties of this kind will be noted in the exposition of the Psalm alluded to above.

[¶34] I now subjoin Dr. Kennicott's remarks on this chapter: - "The very sublime poetry contained in this chapter is universally admired, and yet it cannot be perfectly understood, till it is known Who is the speaker, who the person thus triumphant over mighty enemies, whose Sufferings occasioned such a dreadful convulsion of nature, and, who, upon his deliverance, inflicted such vengeance on his own people, and also became thus a king over the heathen. Should we be told that this person was David, it will be very difficult to show how this description can possibly agree with that character: but if it did in fact agree, yet would it contradict St. Paul, who quotes part of it as predicting the conversion of the Gentiles under Christ the Messiah. [Rom 15:9]; [Heb 2:13]; and see Peirce's Commentary, p. 50. Now if the person represented as speaking through this Divine ode be David only, the Messiah is excluded. In consequence of the difficulties resulting from each of these suppositions, the general idea has been that it relates both to David and to the Messiah as a prophecy of a double sense; first, as spoken by David of himself, and yet to be understood in a secondary sense, of the Messiah. But it must be remarked here, that if spoken only of David, it is not a prediction of any thing future, but a thanksgiving for favors past, and therefore is no prophecy at all. And farther, it could not be a prophecy descriptive of David unless the particulars agreed to David, which they evidently do not. If then David be here necessarily excluded from the single sense, he must be excluded also from the double sense, because nothing can be intended by any sacred writer, to relate to two persons, unless it be True of both; but it not being the case here as to David, we must conclude that this song relates only to the Messiah; and on this subject an excellent Dissertation, by the late Mr. Peirce, is subjoined to his comment on the Epistle to the Hebrews. It may be necessary to add here two remarks: the twenty-fourth verse now ends with, I have kept myself from mine iniquity, which words, it is objected, are not proper, if applied to the Messiah. But this difficulty is removed, in part, by the context, which represents the speaker as perfectly innocent and righteous; and this exactly agrees with the proof arising from the Syriac and Arabic versions, and also the Chaldee paraphrase, that this word was anciently מעונים ab iniquitatibus; consequently, this is one of the many instances where the ם final mem is improperly omitted by the Jewish transcribers. See my General Dissertation. Lastly, the difficulty arising from the title, which ascribes the Psalm to David, and which seems to make him the speaker in it, may be removed, either by supposing that the title here, like those now prefixed to several Psalms, is of no sufficient authority; or rather, by considering this title as only meant to describe the time when David composed this prophetic hymn, that when delivered from all his other enemies as well as from the hand of Saul, he then consecrated his leisure by composing this sublime prophecy concerning Messiah, his son, whom he represents here as speaking, (just as in Psalm 22, 40, and other places), and as describing,

[¶35] 1. His triumph over death and hell;

[¶36] 2. The manifestations of Omnipotence in his favor, earth and heaven, trembling at God's awful presence;

[¶37] 3. The speaker's innocence thus divinely attested;

[¶38] 4. The vengeance he was to take on his own people the Jews, in the destruction of Jerusalem; and,

[¶39] 5. The adoption of the heathen, over whom he was to be the head and ruler. "Another instance of a title denoting only the time of a prophecy, occurs in the very next chapter; where a prophecy concerning the Messiah is entitled, The Last words of David; i.e., a hymn which he composed a little before his death, after all his other prophecies. And perhaps this ode in 2 Samuel 22, which immediately precedes that in 2 Samuel 23, was composed but a little while before; namely, when all his wars were over. Let it be added, that Josephus, immediately before he speaks of David's mighty men, which follow in this same chapter of Samuel, considers the two hymns in 2 Samuel 22 and 23, as both written after his wars were over - Jam Davides, bellis et periculis perfunctus, pacemque deinceps profundam agitans, odas in Deum hymnosque composuit. Tom. i., page 401."

### Introduction

[¶41] The last words of David, [2Sam 23:1-7]. The names and exploits of has thirty-seven worthies, vv. 8-39.

### Verse 1

[¶43] These be the last words of David - I suppose the last poetical composition is here intended. He might have spoken many words after these in prose, but none in verse. Other meanings are given; this I prefer.

[¶44] The words of this song contain a glorious prediction of the Messiah's kingdom and conquests, in highly poetic language.

[¶45] The sweet psalmist of Israel - This character not only belonged to him as the finest poet in Israel, but as the finest and most Divine poet of the whole Christian world. The sweet psalmist of Israel has been the sweet psalmist of every part of the habitable world, where religion and piety have been held in reverence.

## 337. 2 Samuel · 22 of 24

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### Verse 2

[¶1] The Spirit of the Lord spake by me - Hence the matter of his writing came by direct and immediate inspiration.

[¶2] His word was in my tongue - Hence the words of this writing were as directly inspired as the matter.

### Verse 3

[¶4] The Rock of Israel - The Fountain whence Israel was derived.

[¶5] He that ruleth over men must be just - More literally, מושל באדם צדיק moshel baadam tsaddik, He that ruleth in man is the just one; or, The just one is the ruler among men.

[¶6] Ruling in the fear of God - It is by God's fear that Jesus Christ rules the hearts of all his followers; and he who has not the fear of God before his eyes, can never be a Christian.

### Verse 4

[¶8] He shall be as the light of the morning - This verse is very obscure, for it does not appear from it who the person is of whom the prophet speaks. As the Messiah seems to be the whole subject of these last words of David, he is probably the person intended. One of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. Supplies the word יהוה Yehovah; and he therefore translates, As the light of the morning ariseth Jehovah (see below) He shall be the Sun of righteousness, bringing salvation in his rays, and shining - illuminating the children of men, with increasing splendor, as long as the sun and moon endure.

[¶9] As the tender grass - The effects of this shining, and of the rays of his grace, shall be like the shining of the sun upon the young grass or corn, after a plentiful shower of rain.

### Verse 5

[¶11] Although my house be not so with God - Instead of כן ken, so, read כן kun, established; and let the whole verse be considered as an interrogation, including a positive assertion; and the sense will be at once clear and consistent: "for is not my house (family) established with God; because he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all, and preserved? For this (He) is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it (or him) not to spring up." All is sure relative to my spiritual successor, though he do not as yet appear; the covenant is firm, and it will spring forth in due time. See the observations at the end of the chapter, [2Sam 23:39]note).

### Verse 6

[¶13] But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns - There is no word in the text for sons; it is simply Belial, the good-for-nothing man, and may here refer - first to Saul, and secondly to the enemies of our Lord.

[¶14] As thorns thrust away - A metaphor taken from hedging; the workman thrusts the thorns aside either with his bill or hand, protected by his impenetrable mitten or glove, till, getting a fair blow at the roots, he cuts them all down. The man is fenced with iron, and the handle of his bill is like the staff of a spear. This is a good representation of the dubbing-bill, with which they slash the thorn hedge on each side before they level the tops by the pruning-shears. The handle is five or six feet long. This is a perfectly natural and intelligible image.

### Verse 8

[¶16] These be the names of the mighty men - This chapter should be collated with the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 11:11-47; and see Kennicott's First Dissertation on the printed Hebrew text, pages 64-471.

[¶17] The Tachmonite that sat in the seat - Literally and properly, Jashobeam the Hachmonite. See [1Chr 11:11].

[¶18] The same was Adino the Eznite - This is a corruption for he lift up his spear. See [1Chr 11:11].

[¶19] Eight hundred, whom he slew at one time - Three hundred is the reading in Chronicles, and seems to be the true one. The word חלל chalal, which we translate slain, should probably be translated soldiers, as in the Septuagint, στρατιωτας; he withstood three hundred Soldiers at one time. See the note on David's lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, [2Sam 1:21] (note), and Kennicott's First Dissertation, p. 101. Dr. Kennicott observes: "This one verse contains three great corruptions in the Hebrew text:

[¶20] 1. The proper name of the hero Jashobeam is turned into two common words, rendered, that sat in the seat.

[¶21] 2. The words, he lift up his spear, הואעורר את חניתו hu orer eth chanitho, are turned into two proper names wholly inadmissible here: הוא עדינו העצני hu Adino haetsni, he was Adino the Eznite; it being nearly as absurd to say that Jashobeam the Hachmonite was the same with Adino the Eznite, as that David the Beth-lehemite was the same with Elijah the Tishbite.

[¶22] 3. The number eight hundred was probably at first three hundred, as in [1Chr 11:11]."

[¶23] See Kennicott, ubi supr.

### Verse 9

[¶25] When they defied the Philistines that were there gathered - This is supposed to refer to the war in which David slew Goliath.

### Verse 11

[¶27] A piece of ground full of lentiles - In [1Chr 11:13] it is a parcel of ground full of barley. There is probably a mistake of עדשים adashim, lentiles, for שעורים seorim, barley, or vice versa. Some think there were both lentiles and barley in the field, and that a marauding party of the Philistines came to destroy or carry them off, and these worthies defeated the whole, and saved the produce of the field. This is not unlikely.

### Verse 13

[¶29] And three of the thirty - The word שלשים shalishim, which we translate thirty, probably signifies an office or particular description of men. Of these shalishim we have here thirty-seven, and it can scarcely be said with propriety that we have thirty-seven out of thirty; and besides, in the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 11:11-47, there are sixteen added. The captains over Pharaoh's chariots are termed שלשים shalishim, [Exo 14:7].

[¶30] The Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim - This is the same war which is spoken of [2Sam 5:17], etc.

### Verse 15

[¶32] The water of the well of Bethlehem - This was David's city, and he knew the excellence of the water which was there; and being near the place, and parched with thirst, it was natural for him to wish for a draught of water out of that well. These three heroes having heard it, though they received no command from David, broke through a company of the Philistines, and brought away some of the water. When brought to David he refused to drink it: for as the men got it at the hazard of their lives, he considered it as their blood, and gave thereby a noble instance of self-denial. There is no evidence that David had requested them to bring it; they had gone for it of their own accord, and without the knowledge of David.

### Verse 16

[¶34] Poured it out unto the Lord - To make libations, both of water and wine, was a frequent custom among the heathens. We have an almost similar account in Arrian's Life of Alexander: "When his army was greatly oppressed with heat and thirst, a soldier brought him a cup of water; he ordered it to be carried back, saying, I cannot bear to drink alone while so many are in want, and this cup is too small to be divided among the whole." Tunc poculo pleno sicut oblatum est reddito: Non solus, inquit, bibere sustineo, nec tam exiguum dividere omnibus possum. - Arrian, lib. vi.

[¶35] The example was noble in both cases, but David added piety to bravery; he poured it out unto the Lord.

### Verse 20

[¶37] Two lion-like men of Moab - Some think that two real lions are meant; some that they were two savage gigantic men; others, that two fortresses are meant. The words שני אראל מואב sheney ariel Moab may signify, as the Targum has rendered it, ית תרין רברבי מואב yath terein rabrebey Moab, "The two princes of Moab."

### Verse 21

[¶39] He slew an Egyptian - This man in [1Chr 11:23] is stated to have been five cubits high, about seven feet six inches.

[¶40] He went down to him with a staff - I have known men who, with a staff only for their defense, could render the sword of the best practiced soldier of no use to him. I have seen even a parallel instance of a man with his staff being attacked by a soldier with his hanger; he soon beat the weapon out of the soldier's hand, and could easily have slain him with his own sword.

[¶41] We have a good elucidation of this in a duel between Dioxippus the Athenian and Horratas a Macedonian, before Alexander: "The Macedonian, proud of his military skill, treated the naked Athenian with contempt, and then challenged him to fight with him the ensuing day. The Macedonian came armed cap-a-pie to the place; on his left arm he had a brazen shield, and in the same hand a spear called sarissa; he had a javelin in his right hand, and a sword girded on his side; in short, he appeared armed as though he were going to contend with a host. Dioxippus came into the field with a chaplet on his head, a purple sash on his left arm, his body naked, smeared over with oil, and in his right hand a strong knotty club, (dextra validum nodosumque stipitem praeferebat). Horratas, supposing he could easily kill his antagonist while at a distance, threw his javelin, which Dioxippus, suddenly stooping, dexterously avoided, and, before Horratas could transfer the spear from his left to his right hand, sprang forward, and with one blow of his club, broke it in two. The Macedonian being deprived of both his spears, began to draw his sword; but before he could draw it out Dioxippus seized him, tripped up his heels, and threw him with great violence on the ground, (pedibus repente subductis arietavit in terram). He then put his foot on his neck, drew out his sword, and lifting up his club, was about to dash out the brains of the overthrown champion, had he not been prevented by the king." - Q. Curt. lib. ix., cap. 7.

[¶42] How similar are the two cases! He went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hands, and slew him with his own spear. Benaiah appears to have been just such another clubsman as Dioxippus.

### Verse 23

[¶44] David set him over his guard - The Vulgate renders this, Fecitque eun sibi David auricularium a secreto, "David made him his privy counsellor;" or, according to the Hebrew, He put him to his ears, i.e., confided his secrets to him. Some think he made him a spy over the rest. It is supposed that the meaning of the fable which attributes to Midas very long ears, is, that this king carried the system of espionage to a great length; that he had a multitude of spies in different places.

## 338. 2 Samuel · 23 of 24

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### Verse 24

[¶1] Asahel - was one of the thirty - Asahel was one of those officers, or troops, called the shalishim. This Asahel, brother of Joab, was the same that was killed by Abner, [2Sam 2:23].

### Verse 25

[¶3] Shammah the Harodite - There are several varieties in the names of the following shalishim; which may be seen by comparing these verses with [1Chr 11:27].

### Verse 39

[¶5] Uriah the Hittite: thirty and seven in all - To these the author of [1Chr 11:41] adds Zabad son of Ahlai. [1Chr 11:42] - Adina the son of Shiza the Reubenite, a captain of the Reubenites, and thirty with him. [1Chr 11:43] - Hanan the son of Maachah, and Joshaphat the Mithnite, [1Chr 11:44] - Uzzia the Ashterathite, Shama and Jehiel the sons of Hothan the Aroerite, [1Chr 11:45] - Jediael the son of Shimri, and Joha his brother, the Tizite, [1Chr 11:46] - Eliel the Mahavite, and Jeribai, and Joshaviah, the sons of Elnaam, and Ithmah the Moabite, [1Chr 11:47] - Eliel, and Obed, and Jasiel the Mesobaite.

[¶6] The 4th and 5th verses are very obscure; L. De Dieu gives them a good meaning, if not the true one: - "The perpetuity of his kingdom David amplifies by a comparison to three natural things, which are very grateful to men, but not constant and stable. For the sun arises and goes down again; the morning may be clear, but clouds afterwards arise; and the tender grass springs up, but afterwards withers. Not so, said he, is my kingdom before God; it is flourishing like all these, but perpetual, for he has made an everlasting covenant with me, though some afflictions have befallen me; and he has not made all my salvation and desire to grow."

[¶7] De Dieu repeats כ ke, the note of similitude, thrice; and the following is his version: - "The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake unto me, (or concerning me): The just man ruleth among men; he ruleth in the fear of God. And, as the sun ariseth with a shining light; as the morning is without clouds by reason of its splendor; as, from rain, the tender grass springeth out of the earth; truly so is not my house with God: because he hath made an everlasting covenant with me; disposed in all things, and well kept and preserved in that order. Although he doth not make all my deliverance and desire to grow, i.e., though some adversities happen to me and my family; yet, that always remains, which, in the covenant of God made with me, is in all things orderly, disposed, and preserved."

[¶8] See Bishop Patrick on the place.

[¶9] Once more I must beg the reader to refer to the First Dissertation of Dr. Kennicott, on the present state of the printed Hebrew text; in which there is not only great light cast on this subject, several corruptions in the Hebrew text being demonstrated, but also many valuable criticisms on different texts in the sacred writings. There are two Dissertations, 2 vols. 8 vo.; and both very valuable.

### Introduction

[¶11] David is tempted by Satan to number Israel and Judah, [2Sam 24:1]. Joab remonstrates against it, but the king determines that it shall be done; and Joab and the captains accomplish the work, and bring the sum total to the king: viz.: eight hundred thousand warriors in Israel, and five hundred thousand in Judah, [2Sam 24:2-9]. David is convinced that he has done wrong; and the prophet Gad is sent to him, to give him his choice of three judgments, one of which God is determined to inflict upon the nation, [2Sam 24:10-13]. David humbles himself before God; and a pestilence is sent, which destroys seventy thousand men, [2Sam 24:14], [2Sam 24:15]. The angel of the Lord being about to destroy Jerusalem, David makes intercession, and the plague is stayed, [2Sam 24:16], [2Sam 24:17]. Gad directs him to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah, where the plague was stayed, [2Sam 24:18]. He purchases this place for the purpose, and offers burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, [2Sam 24:19-25].

### Verse 1

[¶13] He moved David against them - God could not be angry with David for numbering the people if he moved him to do it; but in the parallel place ([1Chr 21:1]) it is expressly said, Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. David, in all probability, slackening in his piety and confidence toward God, and meditating some extension of his dominions without the Divine counsel or command, was naturally curious to know whether the number of fighting men in his empire was sufficient for the work which he had projected. See more on [2Sam 24:10] (note). He therefore orders Joab and the captains to take an exact account of all the effective men in Israel and Judah. God is justly displeased with this conduct, and determines that the props of his vain ambition shall be taken away, either by famine, war, or pestilence.

### Verse 3

[¶15] Joab said unto the king - This very bad man saw that the measure now recommended by the king was a wrong one, and might be ruinous to the people, and therefore he remonstrates against it in a very sensible speech; but the king was infatuated, and would hear no reason.

### Verse 5

[¶17] And pitched in Aroer - This was beyond Jordan, on the river Arnon, in the tribe of Gad: hence it appears, says Calmet, that they began their census with the most eastern parts of the country beyond Jordan.

### Verse 6

[¶19] Tahtim-hodshi - Where this place was is not exactly known: some think that the words refer to a newly conquered country, as our margin, the nether land newly inhabited; and if so, this was probably the country eastward of Gilead, which the Israelites, in the time of Saul, had conquered from the Hagarites, and dwelt in themselves. See [1Chr 5:10], where this transaction is recorded.

[¶20] To Dan-jaan - Or, to Dan of the woods. This is the place so frequently mentioned, situated at the foot of Mount Libanus, near to the source of the Jordan, the most northern city of all the possessions of the Israelites in what was called the promised land, as Beer-sheba was the most southern: hence the common form of speech, From Dan to Beer-sheba, i.e., from north to south.

### Verse 7

[¶22] The strong hold of Tyre - This must have been the old city of Tyre, which was built on the main land: the new city was built on a rock in the sea.

### Verse 8

[¶24] Nine months and twenty days - This was a considerable time; but they had much work to do, nor did they complete the work, as appears from [1Chr 21:6]; [1Chr 27:24]. William the Conqueror made a survey of all England, particularizing "how many hides or carucates the land is taxed at; whose it was in the time of his predecessor Edward; who the present owners and sub-tenants; what and how much arable land, meadow, pasture, and wood there is, how much in demesne, i.e., held and cultivated by the landowners; how much in tenantcy, and what number of ploughs it will keep; what mills and fisheries; how many sockmen, freemen, co-liberti, cotarii, bordarii, radmanni, radchenisters, villains, maid-servants, and bondmen, there are; how many hogs the woods would support; how many churches, priests, or parsons; what customary rents, prestations, and services, are to be paid and rendered out of the lands; what has been added to the manor; what has been withheld from it, and by whom; what land is waste, and what the whole was let for in the time of King Edward; and what the nett rent, and whether it was too dear rented, and whether it might be improved." This survey was begun in the year 1080, and was finished in the year 1086, six years having been employed in the work. This most important document is still preserved; it is in the Chapter House, Westminster, in two volumes, one in folio, on three hundred and eighty-two leaves of vellum. the other in quarto, on four hundred and fifty leaves; and is in as good preservation as it was seven hundred years ago. This work was much more difficult than that which was performed by Joab and his fellows. The work itself is known by the name Domesday Book.

### Verse 9

[¶26] In Israel eight hundred thousand - the men of Judah were five hundred thousand - In the parallel place, [1Chr 21:5], the sums are widely different: in Israel one million one hundred thousand, in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand. Neither of these sums is too great, but they cannot be both correct; and which is the true number is difficult to say. The former seems the most likely; but more corruptions have taken place in the numbers of the historical books of the Old Testament, than in any other part of the sacred records. To attempt to reconcile them in every part is lost labor; better at once acknowledge what cannot be successfully denied, that although the original writers of the Old Testament wrote under the influence of the Divine Spirit, yet we are not told that the same influence descended on all copiers of their words, so as absolutely to prevent them from making mistakes. They might mistake, and they did mistake; but a careful collation of the different historical books serves to correct all essential errors of the scribes. See the Dissertations of Dr. Kennicott mentioned at the conclusion of the preceding chapter.

### Verse 10

[¶28] David said - I have sinned greatly - We know not exactly in what this sin consisted. I have already hinted, [2Sam 24:1], that probably David now began to covet an extension of empire, and purposed to unite some of the neighboring states with his own; and having, through the suggestions of Satan or some other adversary, (for so the word implies), given way to this covetous disposition, he could not well look to God for help, and therefore wished to know whether the thousands of Israel and Judah might be deemed equal to the conquests which he meditated. When God is offended and refuses assistance, vain is the help of man.

### Verse 11

[¶30] For when David was up - It is supposed that David's contrition arose from the reproof given by Gad, and that in the order of time the reproof came before the confession stated in the 10th verse.

[¶31] David's seer - A holy man of God, under the Divine influence, whom David had as a domestic chaplain.

### Verse 13

[¶33] Shall seven years of famine - In [1Chr 21:12], the number is three, not seven; and here the Septuagint has three, the same as in Chronicles: this is no doubt the true reading, the letter ז zain, Seven, being mistaken for ג gimel, Three. A mistake of this kind might be easily made from the similarity of the letters.

### Verse 14

[¶35] I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord - David acted nobly in this business. Had he chosen war, his own personal safety was in no danger, because there was already an ordinance preventing him from going to battle. Had he chosen famine, his own wealth would have secured his and his own family's support. But he showed the greatness of his mind in choosing the pestilence, to the ravages of which himself and household were exposed equally with the meanest of his subjects.

### Verse 15

[¶37] From the morning - to the time appointed - That is, from the morning of the day after David had made his election till the third day, according to the condition which God had proposed, and he had accepted: but it seems that the plague was terminated before the conclusion of the third day, for Jerusalem might have been destroyed, but it was not. Throughout the land, independently of the city, seventy thousand persons were slain! This was a terrible mortality in the space of less than three days.

### Verse 16

[¶39] The angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem - By what means this destruction took place, we know not: it appears that an angel was employed in it, and that this minister of Divine justice actually appeared as an object. of sight; for it is said, [2Sam 24:17], When David saw the angel that smote the people, he said, etc.; and both Ornan and his four sons saw him and were affrighted, [1Chr 21:20].

[¶40] The threshing-place of Araunah - These threshing-places, we have already seen, were made in the open air. In the parallel place, [1Chr 21:15], [1Chr 21:20], etc., this person is called Ornan. The word that we render Araunah is written in this very chapter אורנה Auarnah, [2Sam 24:16], ארניה Araniah, [2Sam 24:18], ארונה Araunah or Araunah, [2Sam 24:20], and the following: but in every place in 1 Chronicles 21:1-30 where it occurs it is written ארנן Ornan. It is likely he had both names, Araunah and Ornan: but the varieties of spelling in 2 Samuel must arise from the blunders of transcribers.

### Verse 17

[¶42] But these sheep, what have they done? - It seems that in the order of Providence there is no way of punishing kings in their regal capacity, but by afflictions on their land, in which the people must necessarily suffer. If the king, therefore, by his own personal offenses, in which the people can have no part, bring down God's judgments upon his people, (though they suffer innocently), grievous will be the account that he must give to God. The people generally suffer for the miscarriages of their governors: this has been observed in every age.

[¶43] Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi. - "When doting monarchs urge

[¶44] Unsound resolves, their subjects feel the scourge."

## 339. 2 Samuel · 24 of 24

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[¶0] Hor. Ep. lib. i., ep. 2, ver. 14.

[¶1] Against my father's house - That is, against his own family; even to cut it off from the face of the earth.

### Verse 18

[¶3] Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord - This place is supposed to be Mount Moriah: on which, according to the rabbins, Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices; where Abraham attempted to sacrifice Isaac, and where the temple of Solomon was afterwards built.

### Verse 22

[¶5] Here be oxen for burnt-sacrifice - He felt for the king; and showed his loyalty to him by this offer. He felt for the people; and was willing to make any sacrifice to get the plague stayed. He felt for his own personal safety; and therefore was willing to give up all to save his life. He felt for the honor of God; and therefore was glad that he had a sacrifice to offer, so that God might magnify both his justice and mercy.

### Verse 23

[¶7] As a king, give unto the king - Literally, All these did King Araunah give unto the king. That there could not be a king of the Jebusites on Mount Moriah, is sufficiently evident; and that there was no other king than David in the land, is equally so: the word המלך hammelech, "the king," given here to Araunah, is wanting in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic; in three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and in the parallel place in Chronicles: and, it is very probable, never made a part of the text. Perhaps it should be read, All these did Arnunah give unto the king.

[¶8] There is, however, a difficulty here. David had taken the fortress of the Jebusites many years before; yet it is evident that Araunah was proprietor of the soil at this time. It is not clear that he was a subject of David; but he paid him respect as a neighbor and a king. This is merely possible.

### Verse 24

[¶10] Neither will I offer burnt-offerings - It is a maxim from heaven, "Honour the Lord with thy substance." He who has a religion that costs him nothing, has a religion that is worth nothing: nor will any man esteem the ordinances of God, if those ordinances cost him nothing. Had Araunah's noble offer been accepted, it would have been Araunah's sacrifice, not David's; nor would it have answered the end of turning away the displeasure of the Most High. It was David that sinned, not Araunah: therefore David must offer sacrifice, and at his own expense too.

### Verse 25

[¶12] David - offered burnt-offerings - And that these sacrifices were pleasing to the Lord, is evident from a circumstance marked in the parallel place, [1Chr 21:26] : David called upon the Lord, and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.

[¶13] The plague was stalled - Jerusalem did not share in the common calamity, seventy thousand being the whole that were slain throughout the land.

[¶14] This book is unfinished, and requires 1 Chronicles 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29, to complete it. A few things relative to this history may be found in the beginning of the following book; but the information in 1 Chronicles is much more extensive and satisfactory.

## 340. 1 Kings · 1 of 30

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### Preface to the First Book of the Kings Otherwise Called the Third Book of the Kings

[¶1] In the most correct and ancient editions of the Hebrew Bible, the two books of Kings make but one, with sometimes a little break, the first book beginning with 1 Samuel 22:40. Some of the ancient fathers seem to have begun the First Book of Kings at the death of David, [1Kgs 2:12]. The more modern copies of the Hebrew Bible have the same division as ours; but in the time of the Masoretes they certainly made but one book; as both, like the books of Samuel, are included under one enumeration of sections, verses, etc., in the Masora.

[¶2] The titles to these books have been various, though it appears from Origen that they had their name from their first words, והמלך דוד vehammelech David, "and King David;" as Genesis had its name from בראשית bereshith, "in the beginning." The Septuagint simply term it βασιλειων, of reigns, or kingdoms; of which it calls Samuel the first and second, and these two the third and fourth. The Vulgate has Liber Regum tertius; secundum Hebraeos, Liber Malachim: "The Third Book of Kings; but, according to the Hebrews, the First Book of Malachim." The Syriac has, "Here follows the Book of the Kings who flourished among this ancient people; and in this is also exhibited the history of the prophets who flourished in their times." The Arabic has the following title: "In the name of the most merciful and compassionate God; the Book of Solomon, the son of David the prophet, whose benedictions be upon us. - Amen."

[¶3] The author of these books is unknown: that they are a compilation out of public and private records, as the books of Samuel are, there is little doubt; but by whom this compilation was made nowhere appears. Some have attributed it to Isaiah and to Jeremiah, because there are several chapters in both these prophets which are similar to some found in the first and second books of Kings; compare 2 Kings 18, 19, and 20, with Isaiah 36, 37, 38, and [Isa 39:1-8]; and [2Kgs 24:18]; [2Kgs 25:1], etc., with [Jer 52:1], etc.

[¶4] But rather than allow those prophets to be the authors or compilers of these books, some very learned men have judged that the chapters in question have been taken from the books of Kings in after times, and inserted in those prophets. It is worthy of remark that the fifty-second chapter found in Jeremiah is marked so as to intimate that it is not the composition of that prophet; for at the end of Jeremiah 51 we find these words, Thus far are the words of Jeremiah; intimating that the following chapter is not his.

[¶5] But the most common opinion is, that Ezra was the author, or rather the compiler of the history found in these books. Allowing only the existence of ancient documents from which it was compiled, it appears,

[¶6] 1. That it is the work of one person; as is sufficiently evident from the uniformity of the style, and the connection of events.

[¶7] 2. That this person had ancient documents from which he compiled, and which he often only abridged, is evident from his own words, The rest of the acts of such and such a prince, are they not written in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, or of Israel, which occur frequently.

[¶8] 3. These books were written during or after the Babylonish captivity, as at the end of the second book that event is particularly described. The author states also, [2Kgs 17:23], that Israel was, in his time, in captivity in Assyria, according to the declaration of God by his prophets.

[¶9] 4. That the writer was not contemporary with the facts which he relates, is evident from the reflections he makes on the facts that he found in the memoirs which he consulted. See 2 Kings 17:6-24.

[¶10] 5. There is every reason to believe that the author was a priest or a prophet; he studies less to describe acts of heroism, successful battles, conquests, political address, etc., than what regards the temple, religion, religious ceremonies, festivals, the worship of God, the piety of princes, the fidelity of the prophets, the punishment of crimes, the manifestation of God's anger against the wicked, and his kindness to the righteous. He appears everywhere strongly attached to the house of David; he treats of the kings of Israel only accidentally; his principal object seems to be the kingdom of Judah, and the matters which concern it.

[¶11] Now, all this agrees well with the supposition that Ezra was the compiler of these books. He was not only a priest, a zealous servant of God, and a reformer of the corruptions which had crept into the Divine worship, but is universally allowed by the Jews to have been the collector and compiler of the whole sacred code, and author of the arrangement of the different books which constitute the Old Testament. If some things be found in these books of Kings which do not agree to his time, they may be easily accounted for on his often taking the facts as he found them in the documents which he consults, without any kind of alteration; and this is so far a proof of his great sincerity and scrupulous exactness.

[¶12] The First Book of Kings contains the history of one hundred and nineteen years, from A.M. 2989 to A.M. 3108. It contains a great variety of interesting particulars, the chief of which are the following: The death of David; the reign of Solomon; the building and dedication of the temple; the building of Solomon's palace; an account of his great wisdom; his magnificence, and his fall; the division of Israel and Judah under Rehoboam; the idolatry of the ten tribes over whom Jeroboam became king. It states how Judah, Benjamin, and Levi attached themselves to the house of David; how Rehoboam was attacked by Shishak, king of Egypt, who pillaged the temple; how Baasha destroyed the house of Jeroboam, and seized on the government of Israel; how Jehu predicted the ruin of Baasha; how Ahab married the impious Jezebel, and persecuted the prophets of the Lord. It relates the acts of Elijah; the destruction of the prophets of Baal; the cruel death of Naboth; the death of Ahab; the good reign of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; and the wicked reign of Ahaziah, king of Israel, etc. See Calmet's preface to the first and second books of Kings.

[¶13] David, grown old, is, by the advice of his physicians, cherished by Abishag the Shunammite, [1Kgs 1:1-4]. Adonijah conspires with Joab and Abiathar to seize on the government, [1Kgs 1:5-10]. Nathan and Bathsheba communicate these tidings to the aged king, vv. 11-27. David immediately pronounces Solomon his successor, and causes Zadok and Nathan to proclaim and anoint him king, [1Kgs 1:28-40]. Adonijah and his friends hear of it, are afraid, and flee away, Adonijah laying hold on the horns of the altar, from which he refuses to go till Solomon shall promise him his life; this he does, and banishes him to his own house, [1Kgs 1:41-53].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Now King David was old - He was probably now about sixty-nine years of age. He was thirty years old when he began to reign, reigned forty, and died in the seventieth year of his age, [2Sam 5:4], and [1Kgs 2:11]; and the transactions mentioned here are supposed to have taken place about a year before his death.

[¶16] But he gat no heat - Sixty-nine was not an advanced age; but David had been exhausted with various fatigues, and especially by family afflictions, so that he was much older in constitution than he was in years. Besides he seems to have labored under some wasting maladies, to which there is frequent reference in the Psalms.

### Verse 2

[¶18] Let there be sought - a young virgin - This was the best remedy which in his state could be prescribed. His nearly exhausted frame would infallibly absorb from her young and healthy body an additional portion of animal heat, and consequently trim and revive the flame of animal life. This is properly, as I have elsewhere expressed it, Friar Bacon's secret for the cure of old age.

### Verse 4

[¶20] The king knew her not - The maxim of Bacon in his enigmatical cure is, "Take all you can from the medicine, but give nothing to it; if you give any thing, it increases the disease and hastens death." I have seen this abundantly verified; but it is a subject on which it would be improper to dilate except in a medical work. An extract from Friar Bacon's Cure of Old Age may be found at the end of the chapter.

### Verse 5

[¶22] Adonijah the son of Haggith - Who this woman was we know not; Adonijah was evidently David's eldest son now living, and one of whom his father was particularly fond; see [1Kgs 1:6].

[¶23] Prepared him chariots and horsemen - He copied the conduct of his brother Absalom in every respect. See [2Sam 15:1].

### Verse 7

[¶25] And he conferred with Joab - Joab well knew, if he made the new king, he would necessarily be continued in the command of the army, and so govern him.

### Verse 8

[¶27] And Nathan - Some suppose that he was the preceptor of Solomon.

### Verse 9

[¶29] Slew sheep and oven - Making a royal feast, in reference to his inauguration. As he had Abiathar the priest with him, no doubt these animals were offered sacrificially, and then the guests fed on the flesh of the victims. He had not only a splendid feast, but a great sacrifice; and he gave by this a popular color to his pretensions, by affecting to receive his authority from God.

### Verse 11

[¶31] Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign - He was now considered as being legally appointed to the regal office, and no doubt was about to begin to perform its functions.

### Verse 12

[¶33] Save thine own life, and the life of thy son - Nathan took for granted that Adonijah would put both Bath-sheba and Solomon to death as state criminals, if he got established on the throne. O cursed lust of rule! a father will destroy his son, a son depose his father, and a brother murder a brother, in order to obtain a crown! At this time the monarchy of Israel was unsettled; no man knew who was to succeed to the crown, and the minds of the people were as unsettled as the succession. I have examined both systems, and find that, with all its alleged disadvantages, hereditary monarchy has a high balance of evidence in its favor beyond that which is elective, and is every way more safe for the state and more secure for the subject.

### Verse 13

[¶35] Go and get thee in unto King David - He knew that this woman had a sovereign influence over the king. If Bath-sheba was a source of pleasure to David, must she not also have been a source of pain to him? For could he ever forget the guilty manner in which he acquired her?

[¶36] Didst not thou - swear - It is very likely that David made such an oath, and that was known only to Bath-sheba and Nathan. It is nowhere else mentioned.

### Verse 20

[¶38] That thou shouldest tell - who shall sit on the throne - This was a monarchy neither hereditary nor elective; the king simply named his successor. This obtained less or more, anciently, in most countries.

### Verse 21

[¶40] Shall be counted offenders - When Adonijah and his party shall find that I and my son have had this promise from thee by oath, he will slay us both.

### Verse 28

[¶42] Call me Bath-sheba - She had gone out when Nathan came in, and he retired when she was re-admitted. Each had a separate audience, but to Nathan the king did not express any will.

### Verse 33

[¶44] Take with you the servants of your lord - By these we may understand the kings guards, the guards of the city, the Cherethites and Pelethites, who were under the command of Benaiah; and in short, all the disposable force that was at hand.

## 341. 1 Kings · 2 of 30

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[¶0] Solomon - to ride upon mine own mule - No subject could use any thing that belonged to the prince, without forfeiting his life. As David offered Solomon to ride on his own mule, this was full evidence that he had appointed him his successor.

### Verse 34

[¶2] Blow ye with the trumpet - After he has been anointed, make proclamation that he is king.

### Verse 36

[¶4] Sit upon my throne - The matter of conducting a business of this kind seems to have been this:

[¶5] 1. The king elect was placed on the mule of his predecessor, and caused to ride abroad to one of the public wells, or to a river where there was the greatest concourse of people, that they might see who he was that was appointed. Solomon was here taken to the river Gihon, in order to be anointed; the continual stream or constantly running fountain, denoting the perpetuity of the kingdom.

[¶6] 2. The priest and the prophet anointed him in the name of the Lord; and thereby signified that he should be endued with all the kingly virtues; that he should reign by, under, and for the Lord.

[¶7] 3. The trumpet was then to be blown, and solemn proclamation made, that he was anointed king.

[¶8] 4. He was then brought and solemnly placed on the throne, to signify that he had now assumed the reins of government, and was about to administer justice and judgement to the people.

### Verse 37

[¶10] Make his throne greater than the throne of - David - A wish of this kind a king will suffer in behalf of his son, but it is never in ordinary cases considered a compliment to say, "I hope this child will make a better man than his father," because it seems to insinuate some reflections on his father's conduct or character. Many foolish people deal in such compliments, and they may rest assured, for the reasons given above, that they are far from being either welcome or agreeable.

[¶11] Claudian, in his panegyric De Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augusti, ver. 428, has words something similar to those of Benaiah, when he describes a father, worn out with toils and difficulties, committing the reins of government to the hands of his son: -

[¶12] Adspice, completur votum: jam natus adaequat

[¶13] Te meritis; et, quod magis est optabile, vincit. "Behold, thy desire is accomplished.

[¶14] Even now thy son equals thee in worth; and what is still more desirable, surpasses thee.

### Verse 39

[¶16] Zadok - took a horn of oil - Pottery and glass were little in use in those times; and horns were frequently used to hold oil and wine. The oil used here was the holy anointing oil, which was laid up in the tabernacle, and which was used for the anointing of both priests and kings.

### Verse 40

[¶18] The people piped with pipes - They danced, sang, and played on what instruments of music they possessed.

[¶19] The earth rent - We use a similar expression in precisely the same sense: They rent the air with their cries.

### Verse 43

[¶21] Jonathan answered - He was properly a messenger about the court; we have met with him and Ahimaaz before, [2Sam 15:36]. He had now been an observer, if not a spy, on all that was doing, and relates the transactions to Adonijah, in the very order in which they took place.

[¶22] 1. David has nominated Solomon his successor.

[¶23] 2. Zadok, Nathan, and Benaiah, have been appointed to set him on the king's mule.

[¶24] 3. They have taken him to Gihon, and anointed him there.

[¶25] 4. They have brought him up to Jerusalem and placed him on the throne of the kingdom.

### Verse 47

[¶27] Moreover, the king's servants came - The king himself was at this time confined to his own house, and probably to his bed, and could not possibly see these ceremonies; therefore his confidential servants came and told him. We know not how Jonathan, in so short a time, possessed himself of so much information.

### Verse 50

[¶29] Adonijah feared - He knew he had usurped the kingdom, and had not his father's consent; and, as he finds now that Solomon is appointed by David, he knows well that the people will immediately respect that appointment, and that his case is hopeless; he therefore took sanctuary, and, fleeing to the tabernacle, laid hold on one of the horns of the altar, as if appealing to the protection of God against the violence of men. The altar was a privileged place, and it was deemed sacrilege to molest a man who had taken refuge there. See [1Kgs 2:28].

### Verse 52

[¶31] If he will show himself a worthy man - If, from henceforth, he behave well, show himself to be contented, and not endeavor to make partisans, or stir up insurrections among the people, he shall be safe; but if wickedness be found in him - if he act at all contrary to this - he shall die; his blood shall be upon him.

### Verse 53

[¶33] Go to thine house - Intimating that he should have no place about the king's person, nor under the government. Adonijah must have seen that he stood continually on his good behavior.

[¶34] Friar Bacon's method of restoring and strengthening the Natural Heat "I have read many volumes of the wise: I find few things in physic which restore the natural heat, weakened by dissolution of the innate moisture, or increase of a foreign one. "But certain wise men have tacitly made mention of some medicine, which is likened to that which goes out of the mine of the noble animal. They affirm that in it there is a force and virtue which restores and increases the natural heat. As to its disposition, they say it is like youth itself, and contains an equal and temperate complexion. "And the signs of a temperate complexion in men are when their color is made up of white and red, when the hair is yellow, inclined to redness and curling. "This medicine indeed is like to such a complexion, for it is of a temperate heat: its flame is temperate and sweet, and grateful to the smell. When it departs from this temperature, it departs so far from its virtue and goodness. "This medicine therefore temperately heats, because it is temperately hot; it therefore heals because it is whole. When it is sick, it makes a man sick; when it is distempered, it breeds distempers, and changes the body to its own disposition, because of the similitude it has with the body. "For the infirmity of a brute animal rarely passes into a man, but into another animal of the same kind; but the infirmity of man passes into man; and so does health, because of likeness. "This thing is seldom found; and although sometimes it be found, yet it cannot commodiously be had of all men. "Now, when this thing is like to youth, that is, of temperate complexion, it has good operations; if its temperature be better, it produces better effects: sometimes it is even in the highest degree of its perfection, and then it operates best; and then there is that property whereof we have spoken before. "This differs from other medicines and nutriments, which heat and moisten after a certain temperate manner, and are good for old men. For other medicines principally heat and moisten the body; and, secondarily, they strengthen the native heat, and after that refresh the body, by moistening and heating it. For it brings back this heat in old men, who have it but weakly and deficient, to a certain stronger and more vehement power. "If a plaster be made hereof, and applied to the stomach, it will help very much, for it will refresh the stomach itself, and excite an appetite; it will very much recreate an old man, and change him to a kind of youth; and will make complexions, by what means soever depraved or corrupted, better. But it is to be observed, that Venus doth weaken and diminish the power and virtue of this thing! "And it is very likely that the son of the prince, in his second canon of the Operations of Simple Medicines spoke of this thing, where he saith, that there is a certain medicine, concealed by wise men, lest the incontinent should offend their Creator. There is such a heat in this thing, as is in young men of sound complexion; and if I durst declare the properties of this heat, this most hidden secret should presently be revealed. For this heat doth help the palsical, it restores and preserves the wasted strength of the native heat, and causeth it to flourish in all the members, and gently revives the aged. "But the simple medicine which restores the native heat, when wasted and weakened, is that which is likened to the complexion of a healthy young man."

[¶35] All this covered and enigmatical description is intended simply to point out that very medicine recommended by the Jewish physicians to restore and invigorate the dying king. I could show the bearing of every sentence, but I must leave something to the good sense of my readers. By attending to the words in italics, the sense will be more easily discovered. See my note on [Rut 4:16] (note).

### Introduction

[¶37] David leaves his dying charge with Solomon, relative to his own personal conduct, [1Kgs 2:1-4]; to Joab, [1Kgs 2:5], [1Kgs 2:6]; to Barzillai, [1Kgs 2:7]; to Shimei, [1Kgs 2:8], [1Kgs 2:9]. He dies, and Solomon is established in the kingdom, [1Kgs 2:10-12]. Adonijah requests to have Abishag to wife, and is put to death by Solomon, [1Kgs 2:13-25]. Abiathar the priest is banished to his estate at Anathoth, [1Kgs 2:26], [1Kgs 2:27]. Joab, fearing for his life, flees to the horns of the altar, and is slain there by Benaiah, [1Kgs 2:28-34]. Benaiah is made captain of the host in his stead, [1Kgs 2:35]. Shimei is ordered to confine himself to Jerusalem, and never leave it on pain of death, [1Kgs 2:36-38]. After three years he follows some of his runaway servants to Gath, and thereby forfeits his life, [1Kgs 2:39], [1Kgs 2:40]. Solomon sends for him, upbraids him, and commands him to be slain by Benaiah, [1Kgs 2:41-46].

### Verse 2

[¶39] I go the way of all the earth - I am dying. All the inhabitants of the earth must come to the dust. In life, some follow one occupation, some another; but all must, sooner or later, come to the grave. Death is no respecter of persons; he visits the palace of the king as well as the cottage of the peasant.

[¶40] Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,

[¶41] Regumque turres. -

[¶42] Hor. Odar. lib. i., od. iv., ver. 13. "With equal pace, impartial fate

[¶43] Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate."

[¶44] Francis. - Sed omnes una manet nox,

## 342. 1 Kings · 3 of 30

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[¶0] Et calcanda semel via lethi. -

[¶1] Ib. od. xxviii., ver. 15. "One dreary night for all mankind remains,

[¶2] And once we all must tread the shadowy plains."

[¶3] Ibid.

[¶4] There is no respect to age or youth more than to station or external circumstance: -

[¶5] Mixta senum ac juvenum densantur funera: nullum

[¶6] Saeva caput Proserpina fugit.

[¶7] Ib. od. xxviii., ver. 19.

[¶8] Thus age and youth promiscuous crowd the tomb;

[¶9] No mortal head can shun the impending doom."

[¶10] Ibid.

[¶11] And it is not merely man that is subjected to this necessity; all that have in them the breath of life must lose it; it is the way of all the earth, both of men and inferior animals. - Terrestria quando Mortales animas vivunt sortita, neque ulla est Aut parvo aut magno lethi fuga.

[¶12] Vive memor quam sis aevi brevis.

[¶13] Hor. Sat. l. ii., s. vi., ver. 93. "All that tread the earth are subject to mortality; neither great nor small can avoid death.

[¶14] Live therefore conscious that your time is short."

[¶15] It is painful to the pride of the great and mighty that, however decorated their tombs may be, they must undergo the same dissolution and corruption with the vulgar dead; for the grave is the house appointed for all living: man is born to die.

[¶16] Omnium idem exitus est, sed et idem domicilium. "For all have the same end, and are huddled together in the same narrow house."

[¶17] Here emperors, kings, statesmen, warriors, heroes, and butchers of all kinds, with peasants and beggars, meet; however various their routes, they terminate in the same point. This and all other kindred sentiments on the subject are well expressed in that excellent little poem of Mr. Blair, entitled "The Grave," which opens with the following lines: -

[¶18] While some affect the sun, and some the shade; Some flee the city, some the hermitage; Their aims as various as the roads they take In journeying through life; the task be mine To paint the gloomy horrors of the tomb, The appointed place of rendezvous, where all These travelers meet.

[¶19] Show thyself a man - Act like a rational being, and not like a brute; and remember, that he acts most like a man who is most devoted to his Good.

### Verse 3

[¶21] Keep the charge of the Lord - Keep what God has given thee to keep.

[¶22] 1. Walk in his ways. Not in thine own, nor in the ways of a wicked, perishing world.

[¶23] 2. Keep his statutes. Consider all his appointments to be holy, just, and good; receive them as such, and conscientiously observe them.

[¶24] 3. Keep his commandments. Whatever he has bidden thee to do, perform; what he has forbidden thee to do, omit.

[¶25] 4. Keep his judgments. What he has determined to be right, is essentially and inherently right; what he has determined to be wrong or evil, is inherently and essentially so. A thing is not good because God has commanded it; a thing is not evil because he has forbidden it. He has commanded the good, because it is in its own nature good and useful; he has forbidden the evil, because it is in its own nature bad and hurtful. Keep therefore his judgments.

[¶26] 5. Keep his testimonies. Bear witness to all to which he has borne witness. His testimonies are true; there is no deceit or falsity in them. His testimonies refer also to future good things and good times; they are the significators of coming blessedness: as such, respect them.

[¶27] That thou mayest prosper - If thou hast God's approbation, thou wilt have God's blessing. If thy ways please him, he will not withhold from thee any manner of thing that is good.

### Verse 4

[¶29] That the Lord may continue his word - The prosperity which God has promised to grant to my family will depend on their faithfulness to the good they receive; if they live to God, they shall sit for ever on the throne of Israel. But alas! they did not; and God's justice cut off the entail made by his mercy.

### Verse 5

[¶31] Thou knowest - what Joab - did to me - He did every thing bad and dishonorable in itself, in the murder of Abner and Amasa, and indeed in the death of the profligate Absalom.

[¶32] Shed the blood of war - upon his girdle - and in his shoes - He stabbed them while he pretended to embrace them, so that their blood gushed out on his girdle, and fell into his shoes! This was a most abominable aggravation of his crimes.

### Verse 6

[¶34] Let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace - It would have been an insult to justice not to have taken the life of Joab. David was culpable in delaying it so long; but probably the circumstances of his government would not admit of his doing it sooner. According to the law of God, Joab, having murdered Abner and Amasa, should die. And had not David commanded Solomon to perform this act of justice, he could not have died in the approbation of his Maker.

### Verse 7

[¶36] But show kindness unto the sons of Barzillai - See the notes on [2Sam 19:31] (note), etc.

### Verse 8

[¶38] Thou hast with thee Shimei - See on [2Sam 16:5] (note), etc., and the notes on [2Sam 19:18-23] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶40] Hold him not guiltless - Do not consider him as an innocent man, though I have sworn to him that I would not put him to death by the sword; yet as thou art a wise man, and knowest how to treat such persons, treat him as he deserves; only as I have sworn to him, and he is an aged man, let him not die a violent death; bring not down his hoary head to the grave with blood. So Solomon understood David, and so I think David should be understood; for the negative particle לא lo, in the former clause, hold him Not guiltless, should be repeated in this latter clause, though not expressed, his hoary head bring thou Not down; instances of which frequently occur in the Hebrew Bible. See Dr. Kennicott's note at the end of this chapter, [1Kgs 2:46] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶42] David slept with his fathers - His life was a life of remarkable providences, of much piety, and of great public usefulness. In general he lived well, and it is most evident that he died well; and as a king, a general, a poet, a father, and a friend, he has had few equals, and no superior, from his own time to the present day. But I shall reserve a more particular consideration of his character till I come to the book of Psalms, in which that character, with all its lights and shades, is exhibited by his own masterly hand. And it is from this composition alone that we can know David, and the maxims by which he was governed in public and private life.

[¶43] Was buried in the city of David - And Solomon, says Josephus, deposited immense treasures with him, in the grave, where they continued unmolested for thirteen hundred years, till Hyrcanus, the high priest, being besieged by Antiochus, opened the sepulcher, and took thence three thousand talents, part of which he gave to Antiochus, to raise the siege. It is added that, many years afterwards, Herod the Great ransacked this tomb and got considerable riches. Little credit is due to this account, though we know that was customary in ancient times to deposit with the more illustrious dead, gold, silver, and precious stones. That the tomb of David existed in the days of the apostles, we learn from [Act 2:29], where St. Peter, addressing the Jews, says, Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David; that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. St. Jerome speaks of it as existing in his time, and modern travelers pretend that it is still in existence. But both monks and Mohammedans have long united to impose on Christian pilgrims; and there is scarcely any dependence to be placed on any of their relations; absurdity and self-contradiction are their principal characteristics.

## 343. 1 Kings · 4 of 30

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### Verse 15

[¶1] Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine - It certainly was his by the right of primogeniture, and it was his by the voice of the people, and the consent of the high priest. But there was a right paramount to all these, the right of God; it was his kingdom; the kings were his lieutenants, and he had a right to give the crown to whomsoever he pleased, and he was pleased to give it to Solomon.

### Verse 17

[¶3] That he give me Abishag - to wife - He cheerfully gives up all right to the kingdom, and only desires to have this young woman, who, though she had been his father's wife or concubine, was still in a state of virginity. Some think that Joab and Abiathar had advised Adonijah to make this application, not doubting, if he got Abishag, that the popular tide would again turn in his favor, and that Solomon, whom they did not like, might soon be deposed; and that it was on this account that Solomon was so severe. But there is little evidence to support these conjectures. It does not appear that Adonijah by desiring to have Abishag had any thought of the kingdom, or of maintaining any right to it, though Solomon appears to have understood him in this sense. But without farther evidence, this was a flimsy pretext to imbrue his hands in a brother's blood. The fable of the wolf and lamb is here very applicable, and the old English proverb not less so: It is an easy thing to find a staff to beat a dog with. We readily find an excuse for whatever we are determined to do. He who attempts to varnish over this conduct of Solomon by either state necessity or a Divine command, is an enemy, in my mind, to the cause of God and truth. See on [1Kgs 2:25] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶5] Solomon sent - Benaiah - and he fell upon him that he died. - Benaiah seems to have been the public state executioner, and yet he was generalissimo of all the forces. See him employed in a similar work, [1Kgs 2:34] (note), [1Kgs 2:46] (note). I suppose him to have been such another general as Suwarrow, butcher-general of the Turks and Poles to the late Empress Catharine of Russia: like mistress, like man. But they have long since been called to an impartial tribunal.

[¶6] That this was an act of cruelty towards Adonijah, needs no proof. He is suspected, condemned, and slain, without a hearing. Calmet vindicates all this by various assumptions, and lays down a doctrine that is calculated for the meridian of Fez or Morocco; hear him: Un prince, dans ses jugemens, ne peut pas toujours suivre les regles de la plus parfaite morale; la politique, et le bien de l'etat, obligent souvent a des choses opposees aux conseils de l'evangile; "A prince in his judgments cannot always follow the rules of the most perfect morality; policy and the good of the state often require things to be done which are contrary to the counsels of the Gospel." What a diabolic maxim is this! And is this indeed the way that French kings ruled and ministers decreed judgment? Then we need not wonder at a revolution in that state, nor of the scourge that desolated the land. O England! magnify God for your constitution, your constitutional king, and the laws according to which he reigns.

### Verse 27

[¶8] So Solomon thrust out Abiathar - This was for having taken part before with Adonijah, but by it a remarkable prophecy was fulfilled; see 1 Samuel 2:13-35 (note), and the notes there. God had told Eli that the priesthood should depart from his house; Abiathar was the last of the descendants of Ithamar, of which family was Eli the high priest. Zadok, who was made priest in the stead of Abiathar, was of the family of Eliezer; and by this change the priesthood reverted to its ancient channel. Abiathar deserved this degradation; he supported Adonijah in his unnatural assumption of the royal dignity, even during the life of his father. This was the head and front of his offending.

### Verse 28

[¶10] Tidings came to Joab - He heard that Adonijah had been slain and Abiathar banished, and probably he had heard of David's dying charge to Solomon. Fearing therefore for his personal safety, he takes refuge at the tabernacle, as claiming Divine protection, and desiring to have his case decided by God alone; or perhaps a spark of remorse is now kindled; and, knowing that he must die, he wishes to die in the house of God, as it were under the shadow, that he might receive the mercy of the Almighty.

### Verse 30

[¶12] Nay; but I will die here - The altars were so sacred among all the people, that, in general, even the vilest wretch found safety, if he once reached the altar. This led to many abuses, and the perversion of public justice; and at last it became a maxim that the guilty should be punished, should they even have taken refuge at the altars. God decreed that the presumptuous murderer who had taken refuge at the altar should be dragged thence, and put to death; see [Exo 21:14]. The heathens had the same kind of ordinance; hence Euripides: - Εγω γαρ ὁστις μη δικαιος ων ανηρ Βωμον προσιζει, τον νομον χαιρειν εων, Προς την δικην αγοιμ' αν, αυ τρεσας θεους· Κακον γαρ ανδρα χρη κακως πασχειν αει.

[¶13] Euripid. Frag. 42. Edit. Musg. "If an unrighteous man, availing himself of the law, should claim the protection of the altar, I would drag him to justice, nor fear the wrath of the gods; for it is necessary that every wicked man should suffer for his crimes."

### Verse 34

[¶15] So Benaiah - went up - and slew him - It appears he slew him at the very altar. Joab must have been both old and infirm at this time, and now he bleeds for Abner, he bleeds for Amasa, and he bleeds for Uriah. The two former he murdered; of the blood of the latter he was not innocent; yet he had done the state much service, and they knew it. But he was a murderer, and vengeance would not suffer such to live.

### Verse 36

[¶17] Build thee a house - Thus he gave him the whole city for a prison, and this certainly could have reduced him to no hardships.

### Verse 37

[¶19] Thy blood shall be upon thine own head - Thou knowest what to expect; if thou disobey my orders thou shalt certainly be slain, and then thou shalt be considered as a self-murderer; thou alone shalt be answerable for thy own death. Solomon knew that Shimei was a seditious man, and he chose to keep him under his own eye; for such a man at large, in favorable circumstances, might do much evil. His bitter revilings of David were a sufficient proof.

### Verse 40

[¶21] And Shimei - went to Gath - It is astonishing that with his eyes wide open he would thus run into the jaws of death.

### Verse 45

[¶23] King Solomon shall be blessed - He seems to think that, while such bad men remained unpunished, the nation could not prosper; that it was an act of justice which God required him to perform, in order to the establishment and perpetuity of his throne.

### Verse 46

[¶25] And the kingdom was established - He had neither foes within nor without. He was either dreaded or loved universally. His own subjects were affectionately bound to him, and the surrounding nations did not think proper to make him their enemy.

[¶26] As there are serious doubts relative to the dying charge of David as it relates to Shimei, most believing that, in opposition to his own oath, David desired that Solomon should put him to death; I shall here insert Dr. Kennicott's criticism on this part of the text: - "David is here represented in our English version as finishing his life with giving a command to Solomon to kill Shimei, and to kill him on account of that very crime for which, as David here says, he had sworn to him by the Lord he would not put him to death. The behavior thus imputed to the king and prophet, and which would be justly censurable if true, should be examined very carefully as to the ground it stands upon; and when the passage is duly considered, I presume it will appear highly probable that an injury has been here done to this illustrious character. The point to which I now beg the reader's attention is this: That it is not uncommon in the Hebrew language to omit the negative in a second part of the sentence, and to consider it as repeated, when it has been once expressed, and is followed by the connecting particle. And thus on [Isa 13:22] the late learned annotator says: 'The negative is repeated or referred to by the conjunction vau, as in many other places.' So also [Isa 23:4]. The necessity of so very considerable an alteration as inserting the particle Not, may be here confirmed by some other instances. [Psa 1:5] : The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor (the Hebrew is And, signifying and not) sinners in the congregation of the righteous. [Psa 9:18] : The needy shall not alway be forgotten, (and then the negative, understood as repeated by the conjunction, now dropped), the expectation of the poor shall (Not) perish for ever. [Psa 38:1] : O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath; Neither (And, for and not) chasten me in thy hot displeasure. [Psa 75:5] : Lift not up your horn on high, (and then the negative, understood as repeated by the conjunction, now dropped), speak (Not) with a stiff neck. [Pro 24:12], (our version is this): Doth not he, that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth the soul, doth (Not) he know it? and shall (Not) he render to every man according to his works? And [Pro 30:3] : I neither learned wisdom, Nor (And, for and not) have the knowledge of the holy. If then there are in fact many such instances, the question is, Whether the negative here, expressed in the former part of David's command, may not be understood as to be repeated in the latter part; and if this may be, a strong reason will be added why it should be, so interpreted. The passage will run thus: 'Behold, thou hast with thee Shimei, who cursed me - but I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death by the sword. Now, therefore, hold him Not guiltless, (for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him), but bring Not down his hoar head to the grave with blood.' Now if the language itself will admit of this construction, the sense thus given to the sentence derives a very strong support from the context. For how did Solomon understand this charge? Did he kill Shimei in consequence of it? Certainly he did not; for after he had immediately commanded Joab to be slain, in obedience to his father, he sends for Shimei, and knowing that Shimei ought to be well watched, confines him to a particular spot in Jerusalem for the remainder of his life; [1Kgs 2:36-42]. See also [Job 23:17]; [Job 30:20]; [Job 31:20]." This is the best mode of interpreting this text.

### Introduction

[¶28] Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter, [1Kgs 3:1], [1Kgs 3:2]. He serves God, and offers a thousand burnt-offerings upon one altar, at Gibeon, [1Kgs 3:3], [1Kgs 3:4]. God appears to him in a dream at Gibeon; and asks what he shall give him, [1Kgs 3:5]. He asks wisdom; with which God is well pleased, and promises to give him not only that, but also riches and honor; and, if obedient, long life, [1Kgs 3:6-14]. He comes back to Jerusalem; and offers burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and makes a feast for his servants, [1Kgs 3:15]. His judgment between the two harlots, [1Kgs 3:16-27]. He rises in the esteem of the people, [1Kgs 3:28].

### Verse 1

[¶30] Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh - This was no doubt a political measure in order to strengthen his kingdom, and on the same ground he continued his alliance with the king of Tyre; and these were among the most powerful of his neighbors. But should political considerations prevail over express laws of God? God had strictly forbidden his people to form alliances with heathenish women, lest they should lead their hearts away from him into idolatry. Let us hear the law: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son; for they will turn away thy son from following me, etc. [Exo 34:16]; [Deu 7:3], [Deu 7:4]. Now Solomon acted in direct opposition to these laws; and perhaps in this alliance were sown those seeds of apostacy from God and goodness in which he so long lived, and in which he so awfully died.

[¶31] Those who are, at all hazards, his determinate apologists, assume,

[¶32] 1. That Pharaoh's daughter must have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion, else Solomon would not have married her.

[¶33] 2. That God was not displeased with this match.

[¶34] 3. That the book of Song of Solomon, which is supposed to have been his epithalamium, would not have found a place in the sacred canon had the spouse, whom it all along celebrates, been at that time an idolatress.

[¶35] 4. That it is certain we nowhere in Scripture find Solomon blamed for this match. See Dodd.

[¶36] Now to all this I answer,

[¶37] 1. We have no evidence that the daughter of Pharaoh was a proselyte, no more than that her father was a true believer. It is no more likely that he sought a proselyte here than that he sought them among the Moabites, Hittites, etc., from whom he took many wives.

[¶38] 2. If God's law be positively against such matches, he could not possibly be pleased with this breach of it in Solomon; but his law is positively against them, therefore he was not pleased.

[¶39] 3. That the book of Song of Solomon being found in the sacred canon is, according to some critics, neither a proof that the marriage pleased God, nor that the book was written by Divine inspiration; much less that it celebrates the love between Christ and his Church, or is at all profitable for doctrine, for reproof, or for edification in righteousness.

[¶40] 4. That Solomon is most expressly reproved in Scripture for this very match, is to me very evident from the following passages: Did Not Solomon, king of Israel, Sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin; [Neh 13:26]. Now it is certain that Pharaoh's daughter was an outlandish woman; and although it be not expressly said that Pharaoh's daughter is here intended, yet there is all reasonable evidence that she is included; and, indeed, the words seem to intimate that she is especially referred to. In [1Kgs 3:3] it is said, Solomon Loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David; and Nehemiah says, Did not Solomon, king of Israel, Sin By These Things, who Was Beloved of His God; referring, most probably, to this early part of Solomon's history. But supposing that this is not sufficient evidence that this match is spoken against in Scripture, let us turn to [1Kgs 11:1], [1Kgs 11:2], of this book, where the cause of Solomon's apostasy is assigned; and there we read, But King Solomon loved many Strange Women, Together with the Daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in unto them; neither shall they come in unto you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon Clave unto These in Love. Here the marriage with Pharaoh's daughter is classed most positively with the most exceptionable of his matrimonial and concubinal alliances: as it no doubt had its predisposing share in an apostacy the most unprecedented and disgraceful.

[¶41] Should I even be singular, I cannot help thinking that the reign of Solomon began rather inauspiciously: even a brother's blood must be shed to cause him to sit securely on his throne, and a most reprehensible alliance, the forerunner of many others of a similar nature, was formed for the same purpose. But we must ever be careful to distinguish between what God has commanded to be done, and what was done through the vile passions and foolish jealousies of men. Solomon had many advantages, and no man ever made a worse use of them.

### Verse 2

[¶43] The people sacrificed in high places - Could there be any sin in this, or was it unlawful till after the temple was built? for prophets, judges, the kings which preceded Solomon, and Solomon himself, sacrificed on high places, such as Gibeon, Gilgal, Shiloh, Hebron, Kirjath-jearim, etc. But after the temple was erected, it was sinful to offer sacrifices in any other place; yet here it is introduced as being morally wrong, and it is introduced, [1Kgs 3:3], as being an exceptionable trait in the character of Solomon. The explanation appears to be this: as the ark and tabernacle were still in being, it was not right to offer sacrifices but where they were; and wherever they were, whether on a high place or a plain, there sacrifices might be lawfully offered, previously to the building of the temple. And the tabernacle was now at Gibeon, [2Chr 1:3]. Possibly the high places may be like those among the Hindoos, large raised-up terraces, on which they place their gods when they bathe, anoint, and worship them. Juggernaut and Krishnu have large terraces or high places, on which they are annually exhibited. But there was no idol in the above case.

### Verse 5

[¶45] The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream - This was the night after he had offered the sacrifices, (see [2Chr 1:7]), and probably after he had earnestly prayed for wisdom; see Wis. 7:7: Wherefore I prayed, and understanding was given me: I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. If this were the case, the dream might have been the consequence of his earnest prayer for wisdom: the images of those things which occupy the mind during the day are most likely to recur during the night; and this, indeed, is the origin of the greater part of our dreams. But this appears to have been supernatural.

## 344. 1 Kings · 5 of 30

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[¶0] Gregory Nyssen, speaking of different kinds of dreams, observes that our organs and brain are not unlike a musical instrument; while the strings of such instruments have their proper degree of tension, they give, when touched, a harmonious sound, but as soon as they are relaxed or screwed down, they give no sound at all. During our waking hours, our senses, touched by our reason, produce the most harmonious concert; but as soon as we are asleep, the instrument is no longer capable of emitting any sound, unless it happen that the remembrance of what passed during the day returns and presents itself to the mind while we are asleep, and so forms a dream; just as the strings of an instrument continue to emit feeble sounds for some time after the musician has ceased to strike them. - See Greg. Nyss. De opificio hominis, cap. xii., p. 77. Oper. vol. i., edit. Morell., Par. 1638.

[¶1] This may account, in some measure, for common dreams: but even suppose we should not allow that Solomon had been the day before earnestly requesting the gift of wisdom from God, yet we might grant that such a dream as this might be produced by the immediate influence of God upon the soul. And if Solomon received his wisdom by immediate inspiration from heaven, this was the kind of dream that he had; a dream by which that wisdom was actually communicated. But probably we need not carry this matter so much into miracle: God might be the author of his extraordinary wisdom, as he was the author of his extraordinary riches. Some say, "He lay down as ignorant as other men, and yet arose in the morning wiser than all the children of men." I think this is as credible as that he lay down with a scanty revenue, and in the morning, when he arose, found his treasury full. In short, God's especial blessing brought him riches through the medium of his own care and industry; as the inspiration of the Almighty gave him understanding, while he gave his heart to seek and search out by his wisdom, concerning all things under the sun, [Ecc 1:13]. God gave him the seeds of an extraordinary understanding, and, by much study and research, they grew up under the Divine blessing, and produced a plentiful harvest; but, alas! they did not continue to grow.

### Verse 7

[¶3] I know not how to go out or come in - I am just like an infant learning to walk alone, and can neither go out nor come in without help.

### Verse 9

[¶5] Give - an understanding heart to judge thy people - He did not ask wisdom in general, but the true science of government. This wisdom he sought, and this wisdom he obtained.

### Verse 12

[¶7] I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart - I have given thee a capacious mind, one capable of knowing much: make a proper use of thy powers, under the direction of my Spirit, and thou shalt excel in wisdom all that have gone before thee; neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. But, query, Was not all this conditional? If he should walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and commandments, [1Kgs 3:14]. Was it not to depend upon his proper use of initiatory inspirations? Did he ever receive all this wisdom? Did not his unfaithfulness prevent the fulfillment of the Divine purpose? Instead of being the wisest of men, did he not become more brutish than any man? Did he not even lose the knowledge of his Creator, and worship the abominations of the Moabites, Zidonians, etc., etc.! And was not such idolatry a proof of the grossest stupidity? How few proofs does his life give that the gracious purpose of God was fulfilled in him! He received much; but he would have received much more, had he been faithful to the grace given. No character in the sacred writings disappoints us more than the character of Solomon.

[¶8] None like thee before thee - That is, no king, either in Israel or among the nations, as the following verse explains.

### Verse 16

[¶10] Then came there two women - harlots - The word זנות zonoth, which we here, and in some other places, improperly translate harlots, is by the Chaldee (the best judge in this case) rendered פונדקין pundekayan, tavern-keepers. (See on [Jos 2:1] (note)). If these had been harlots, it is not likely they would have dared to appear before Solomon; and if they had been common women, it is not likely they would have had children; nor is it likely that such persons would have been permitted under the reign of David. Though there is no mention of their husbands, it is probable they might have been at this time in other parts, following their necessary occupations; and the settling the present business could not have been delayed till their return; the appeal to justice must be made immediately.

### Verse 25

[¶12] Divide the living child in two - This was apparently a very strange decision, and such as nothing could vindicate had it been carried into execution; but Solomon saw that the only way to find out the real mother was by the affection and tenderness which she would necessarily show to her offspring. He plainly saw that the real mother would rather relinquish her claim to her child than see it hewn in pieces before her eyes, while it was probable the pretender would see this with indifference. He therefore orders such a mode of trial as would put the maternal affection of the real mother to the utmost proof; the plan was tried, and it succeeded. This was a proof of his sound judgment, penetration, and acquaintance with human nature; but surely it is not produced as a proof of extraordinary and supernatural wisdom. We have several similar decisions even among heathens.

[¶13] Suetonius, in his life of the Emperor Claudius, cap. xv., whom he celebrates for his wonderful sagacity and penetration on some particular occasions, tells us, that this emperor discovered a woman to be the mother of a certain young man, whom she refused to acknowledge as her son, by commanding her to marry him, the proofs being doubtful on both sides; for, rather than commit this incest, she confessed the truth. His words are: Feminam, non agnoscentem fllium suum, dubia utrinque argumentorum fide, ad confessionem compulit, indicto matrimonio juvenis.

[¶14] Ariopharnes, king of Thrace, being appointed to decide between three young men, who each professed to be the son of the deceased king of the Cimmerians, and claimed the crown in consequence, found out the real son by commanding each to shoot an arrow into the body of the dead king: two of them did this without hesitation, the third refused, and was therefore judged by Ariopharnes to be the real son of the deceased. Grotius, on this place, quotes this relation from Diodorus Siculus; I quote this on his authority, but have not been able to find the place in Diodorus. This is a parallel case to that in the text; a covert appeal was made to the principle of affection; and the truth was discovered, as in the case of the mother of the living child.

### Verse 28

[¶16] They feared the king - This decision proved that they could not impose upon him; and they were afraid to do those things which might bring them before his judgment-seat.

[¶17] They saw that the wisdom of God was in him - They perceived that he was taught of God, judged impartially, and could not be deceived. What was done to the other woman we are not told; justice certainly required that she should be punished for her lies and fraud.

### Introduction

[¶19] An account of Solomon's chief officers, [1Kgs 4:1-6]. Names of the twelve officers that were over twelve districts, to provide victuals for the king's household monthly, [1Kgs 4:7-19]. Judah and Israel are very populous; and Solomon reigns over many provinces, [1Kgs 4:20], [1Kgs 4:21]. The daily provision for his family, [1Kgs 4:22], [1Kgs 4:23]. The extent and peace of his dominions, [1Kgs 4:24], [1Kgs 4:25]. His horses, chariots, and dromedaries; with the provision made for them, [1Kgs 4:26-28]. His wisdom and understanding, [1Kgs 4:29-31]. The number of his proverbs and songs; and his knowledge in natural history, [1Kgs 4:32], [1Kgs 4:33]. People from all nations come to hear his wisdom, [1Kgs 4:34].

### Verse 2

[¶21] These were the princes which he had; Azariah the son of Zadok the priest - These were his great, chief, or principal men. None of them were princes in the common acceptation of the word.

### Verse 3

[¶23] Elihoreph and Ahiah - scribes - Secretaries to the king.

[¶24] Jehoshaphat - recorder - Historiographer to the king, who chronicled the affairs of the kingdom. He was in this office under David see [2Sam 20:24].

### Verse 5

[¶26] Azariah - was over the officers - He had the superintendence of the twelve officers mentioned below; see [1Kgs 4:7].

[¶27] Zabud - was principal officer - Perhaps what we call premier, or prime minister.

[¶28] The king's friend - His chief favourite - his confidant.

### Verse 6

[¶30] Ahishar was over the household - The king's chamberlain.

[¶31] Adoniram - was over the tribute - What we call chancellor of the exchequer. He received and brought into the treasury all the proceeds of taxes and tributes. He was in this office under David; see [2Sam 20:24].

### Verse 7

[¶33] Twelve officers - The business of these twelve officers was to provide daily, each for a month, those provisions which were consumed in the king's household; see [1Kgs 4:22], [1Kgs 4:23]. And the task for such a daily provision was not an easy one.

### Verse 13

[¶35] Threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars - These were fortified cities: their gates and bars covered with plates of brass. Such were the gates in Priam's palace: -

[¶36] Ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni

[¶37] Limina perrumpit, Postes que a cardine vellit

[¶38] Aeratos. Virg. Aen., lib. ii. ver. 479.

[¶39] Fierce Pyrrhus in the front, with forceful sway,

[¶40] Plied the huge axe, and hew'd the beams away;

[¶41] The solid timbers from the portal tore,

[¶42] And rent from every hinge the Brazen door.

[¶43] Pitt.

## 345. 1 Kings · 6 of 30

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### Verse 20

[¶1] Eating and drinking, and making merry - They were very comfortable, very rich, very merry, and very corrupt. And this full feeding and dissipation led to a total corruption of manners.

### Verse 21

[¶3] Solomon reigned over all kingdoms - The meaning of this verse appears to be, that Solomon reigned over all the provinces from the river Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to the frontiers of Egypt. The Euphrates was on the east of Solomon's dominions; the Philistines were westward on the Mediterranean sea; and Egypt was on the south. Solomon had, therefore, as tributaries, the kingdoms of Syria, Damascus, Moab, and Ammon, which lay between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. See Calmet. Thus he appears to have possessed all the land that God covenanted with Abraham to give to his posterity.

### Verse 22

[¶5] Solomon's provision for one day: -

[¶6] Of fine flour 30 measures, or cors. Of meal 60 ditto. Stall-fed oxen 10 Ditto from the pasture 20 Sheep 100; with harts, roebucks, fallow deer, and fat fowls. The כר cor was the same as the homer, and contained nearly seventy-six gallons, wine measure, according to Bishop Cumberland.

[¶7] Sheep - צאן tson, comprehending both sheep and goats.

[¶8] Harts - מאיל meaiyal, the deer.

[¶9] Roebucks - צבי tsebi, the gazal, antelope, or wild goat.

[¶10] Fallow deer - יחמור yachmur, the buffalo. See the notes on [Deu 12:15]; [Deu 14:5].

[¶11] Fatted fowl - ברברים אבוסים barburim abusim, I suppose, means all the wild fowls in season during each month. Michaelis derives ברברים barburim from ברא bara, which in Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, signifies a field, a desert; all that is without the cities and habitations of men: hence חיות ברא cheyvath bara, wild beasts, [Dan 2:38], תור בר tor bar, wild bull; and therefore barburim may signify creatures living in the fields, woods, and deserts, which are taken by hunting, and opposed to those which are domesticated; and, consequently, may include beasts as well as fowls. Many have translated the word capons; but, query, was any such thing known among the ancient Jews? Solomon's table, therefore, was spread with all the necessaries and delicacies which the house or the field could afford.

[¶12] But how immense must the number of men have been who were fed daily at the palace of the Israelitish king! Vilalpandus computes the number to be not less than forty-eight thousand, six hundred; and Calvisius makes, by estimation from the consumption of food, fifty-four thousand! These must have included all his guards, each of whom received a ration from the king's store.

### Verse 25

[¶14] Every man under his vine - They were no longer obliged to dwell in fortified cities for fear of their enemies; they spread themselves over all the country, which they everywhere cultivated; and had always the privilege of eating the fruits of their own labors. This is the meaning of the phrase.

### Verse 26

[¶16] Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses - and twelve thousand horsemen - In [2Chr 9:25], instead of forty thousand stalls, we read four thousand; and even this number might be quite sufficient to hold horses for twelve thousand horsemen; for stalls and stables may be here synonymous. In [1Kgs 10:26] it is said he had one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; and this is the reading in [2Chr 1:14]. In [2Chr 9:25], already quoted, instead of forty thousand stalls for horses, the Septuagint has τεσσαρες χιλιαδες θηλειαι ἱπποι, four thousand mares; and in this place the whole verse is omitted both by the Syriac and Arabic. In the Targum of Rabbi Joseph on this book we have ארבע מאה arba meah, four hundred, instead of the four thousand in Chronicles, and the forty thousand in the text. From this collation of parallel places we may rest satisfied that there is a corruption in the numbers somewhere; and as a sort of medium, we may take for the whole four thousand stalls, one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

### Verse 28

[¶18] And dromedaries - The word רכש rechesh, which we translate thus, is rendered beasts, or beasts of burden, by the Vulgate; mares by the Syriac and Arabic; chariots by the Septuagint; and race-horses by the Chaldee. The original word seems to signify a very swift kind of horse, and race-horse or post-horse is probably its true meaning. To communicate with so many distant provinces, Solomon had need of many animals of this kind.

### Verse 29

[¶20] God gave Solomon wisdom, etc. - He gave him a capacious mind, and furnished him with extraordinary assistance to cultivate it.

[¶21] Even as the sand that is on the sea-shore - Lord Bacon observes on this: "As the sand on the sea-shore encloses a great body of waters, so Solomon's mind contained an ocean of knowledge." This is a happy and correct illustration.

### Verse 30

[¶23] The children of the east country - That is the Chaldeans, Persians, and Arabians, who, with the Egyptians, were famed for wisdom and knowledge through all the world.

### Verse 31

[¶25] He was wiser than all men - He was wiser than any of those who were most celebrated in his time, among whom were the four after mentioned, viz., Ethan, Heman, Chalcol, and Darda. Ethan was probably the same as is mentioned in some of the Psalms, particularly [Psa 89:1], title; and among the singers in [1Chr 6:42]. There is a Heman mentioned in the title to [Psa 88:1]. In [1Chr 2:6] we have all the four names, but they are probably not the same persons, for they are there said to be the sons of Zerah, and he flourished long before Solomon's time.

[¶26] Some suppose that בני מחול beney machol should be rendered masters of dancing or music, as מחול machol signifies not only a dance or choir, but also an instrument of music of the pipe kind. Perhaps a reference is here made to Solomon's skill in music and poetry, as he is compared to persons who appear to have been eminent poets and musicians.

### Verse 32

[¶28] He spake three thousand proverbs - The book of Proverbs, attributed to Solomon, contain only about nine hundred or nine hundred and twenty-three distinct proverbs; and if we grant with some that the first nine chapters are not the work of Solomon, then all that can be attributed to him is only about six hundred and fifty.

[¶29] Of all his one thousand and five songs or poems we have only one, the book of Song of Solomon, remaining, unless we include [Psa 127:1-5], Except the Lord build the house, etc., which in the title is said to be by or for him, though it appears more properly to be a psalm of direction, left him by his father David, relative to the building of the temple.

### Verse 33

[¶31] He spake of trees - beasts - fowl - creeping things, and of fishes - This is a complete system of natural history, as far as relates to the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and the first intimation we have of any thing of the kind: Solomon was probably the first natural historian in the world.

[¶32] O, how must the heart of Tournefort, Ray, Linne, Buffon, Cuvier, Swammerdam, Blosch, and other naturalists, be wrung, to know that these works of Solomon are all and for ever lost! What light should we have thrown on the animal and vegetable kingdoms, had these works been preserved! But the providence of God has not thought fit to preserve them, and succeeding naturalists are left to invent the system which he probably left perfect. If there be any remains of his wisdom, they must be sought among the orientals, among whom his character is well known, and rates as high as it does with either Jews or Christians. I shall give some extracts from their works relative to Solomon when I come to consider his character at the end of [1Kgs 11:43].

### Verse 34

[¶34] There came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon - We learn from 1 Kings 10, that the queen of Sheba was one of those visitants, and perhaps the most remarkable, as we have the particulars of her visit, but not of the others.

[¶35] It is astonishing that of a person so renowned for wisdom, so little should be left to prove the truth of a fact of which all the civilized nations of the world have heard, and of which scarcely any man has ever doubted. The people that came from all kings of the earth were probably ambassadors, who came to form and maintain friendship between their sovereigns and the Israelitish king. We cannot understand the place as speaking of people who, either through an idle or laudable curiosity, came to see and converse with Solomon; to give free access to such people would ill comport with the maintenance of his dignity.

### Introduction

[¶37] Hiram, king of Tyre, sends to congratulate Solomon on his accession to the kingdom, [1Kgs 5:1]. Solomon consults him on building a temple for the Lord, and requests his assistance, [1Kgs 5:2-6]. Hiram is pleased and specifies the assistance which he will afford, [1Kgs 5:7-9]. He sends cedars and fir trees, [1Kgs 5:10]. The return made by Solomon, [1Kgs 5:11]. They form a league, [1Kgs 5:12]. Solomon makes a levy of men in Israel to prepare wood and stones, [1Kgs 5:13-18].

### Verse 1

[¶39] Hiram king of Tyre - It must have been at the beginning of Solomon's reign that these ambassadors were sent; and some suppose that the Hiram mentioned here is different from him who was the friend of David; but there seems no very solid reason for this supposition. As Hiram had intimate alliance with David, and built his palace, [2Sam 5:11], he wished to maintain the same good understanding with his son, of whose wisdom he had no doubt heard the most advantageous accounts; and he loved the son because he always loved the father, for Hiram was ever a lover of David.

### Verse 2

[¶41] Solomon sent to Hiram - Made an interchange of ambassadors and friendly greetings. Josephus tells us that the correspondence between Hiram and Solomon was preserved in the archives of the Tyrians even in his time. But this, like many other assertions of the same author, is worthy of little credit.

### Verse 4

[¶43] There is neither adversary - אין שטן eyn satan, there is no satan - no opposer, nor any kind of evil; all is peace and quiet, both without and within. God has given me this quiet that I may build his temple. Deus nobis haec otia fecit.

### Verse 5

[¶45] A house unto the name of the Lord - The name of God is God himself. I purpose to build a house to that infinite and eternal Being called Jehovah.

## 346. 1 Kings · 7 of 30

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Any that can skill to hew timber - An obsolete and barbarous expression for any that know how to cut timber. They had neither sawyers, carpenters, joiners, nor builders among them, equal to the Sidonians. Sidon was a part of the territories of Hiram, and its inhabitants appear to have been the most expert workmen. It requires more skill to fell and prepare timber than is generally supposed. Vitruvius gives some rules relative to this, lib. ii., cap. 9, the sum of which is this:

[¶2] 1. Trees should be felled in autumn, or in the winter, and in the wane of the moon; for in this season the trees recover their vigor and solidity, which was dispersed among their leaves, and exhausted by their fruit, in spring and summer; they will then be free from a certain moisture, very apt to engender worms and rot them, which in autumn and winter is consumed and dried up.

[¶3] 2. Trees should not be cut down at once; they should be cut carefully round towards the pith, that the sap may drop down and distil away, and thus left till thoroughly dry, and then cut down entirely.

[¶4] 3. When fully dried, a tree should not be exposed to the south sun, high winds, and rain; and should be smeared over with cow-dung to prevent its splitting.

[¶5] 4. It should never be drawn through the dew, but be removed in the afternoon.

[¶6] 5. It is not fit for floors, doors, or windows, till it has been felled three years. Perhaps these directions attended to, would prevent the dry rot. And we see from them that there is considerable skill required to hew timber, and in this the Sidonians excelled. We do every thing in a hurry, and our building is good for nothing.

### Verse 7

[¶8] Blessed be the Lord this day - From this, and indeed from every part of Hiram's conduct, it is evident that he was a worshipper of the true God; unless, as was the case with many of the heathens, he supposed that every country had its own god, and every god his own country, and he thanked the God of Israel that he had given so wise a prince to govern those whom he considered his friends and allies: but the first opinion seems to be the most correct.

### Verse 9

[¶10] Shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea - As the river Adonis was in the vicinity of the forest of Lebanon, and emptied itself into the Mediterranean sea, near Biblos, Hiram could transport the timber all squared, and not only cut to scantling, but cut so as to occupy the place it was intended for in the building, without any farther need of axe or saw. It might be readily sent down the coast on rafts and landed at Joppa, or Jamnia, just opposite to Jerusalem, at the distance of about twenty-five miles. See [2Chr 2:16]. The carriage could not be great, as the timber was all fitted for the building where it was hewn down. The materials had only to be put together when they arrived at Jerusalem. See [1Kgs 6:7].

### Verse 11

[¶12] And Solomon gave Hiram, etc. - The information in this verse of the annual stipend paid to Hiram, is deficient, and must be supplied out of [2Chr 2:10]. Here twenty thousand measures of wheat, and twenty measures of pure oil, is all that is promised: there, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, twenty thousand measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil, is the stipulation; unless we suppose the first to be for Hiram's own family, the latter for his workmen. Instead of twenty measures of oil, the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint, have twenty thousand measures, as in Chronicles. In 2 Chron., instead of cors of oil, it is baths. The bath was a measure much less than the cor.

### Verse 13

[¶14] The levy was thirty thousand men - We find from the following verse that only ten thousand were employed at once, and those only for one month at a time; and having rested two months, they again resumed their labor. These were the persons over whom Adoniram was superintendent, and were all Israelites.

### Verse 15

[¶16] Threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens - These were all strangers, or proselytes, dwelling among the Israelites; as we learn from the parallel place, [2Chr 2:17], [2Chr 2:18].

### Verse 16

[¶18] Besides - three thousand and three hundred which ruled over the people - In the parallel place, [2Chr 2:18], it is three thousand six hundred. The Septuagint has here the same number.

### Verse 17

[¶20] Great stones - Stones of very large dimensions.

[¶21] Costly stones - Stones that cost much labor and time to cut them out of the rock.

[¶22] Hewed stones - Everywhere squared and polished.

### Verse 18

[¶24] And the stone-squarers - Instead of stone-squarers the margin very properly reads Giblites, הגבלים haggiblim; and refers to [Eze 27:9], where we find the inhabitants of Gebal celebrated for their knowledge in ship-building. Some suppose that these Giblites were the inhabitants of Biblos, at the foot of Mount Libanus, northward of Sidon, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; famous for its wines; and now called Gaeta. Both Ptolemy and Stephanus Byzantinus speak of a town called Gebala, to the east of Tyre: but this was different from Gebal, or Biblos. It seems more natural to understand this of a people than of stone-squarers, though most of the versions have adopted this idea which we follow in the text.

### Introduction

[¶26] In the four hundred and eightieth year from the exodus, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, and in the second month, he laid the foundations of the temple; the length sixty cubits, the breadth twenty, and the height thirty cubits; besides the porch, which was twenty cubits in length, and ten cubits in height, [1Kgs 6:1-3]. A description of its different external parts, [1Kgs 6:4-10]. God's promise to Solomon, [1Kgs 6:11-13]. Description of its internal parts and contents, vv. 14-36. Temple finished in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, being seven years in building, [1Kgs 6:37], [1Kgs 6:38].

### Verse 1

[¶28] In the four hundred and eightieth year - The Septuagint has the four hundred and fortieth year. It need scarcely be noticed, that among chronologists there is a great difference of opinion concerning this epocha. Glycas has 330 years; Melchior Canus, 590 years; Josephus, 592 years; Sulpicius Severus, 588; Clemens Alexandrinus, 570; Cedrenus, 672; Codomanus, 598; Vossius and Capellus, 580; Serarius, 680; Nicholas Abraham, 527; Maestlinus, 592; Petavius and Valtherus, 520. Here are more than a dozen different opinions; and after all, that in the common Hebrew text is as likely to be the true one as any of the others.

[¶29] The month Zif - This answers to a part of our April and May; and was the second month of the sacred year, but the eighth month of the civil year. Before the time of Solomon, the Jews do not appear to have had any names for their months, but mentioned them in the order of their consecutive occurrence, first month, second month, third month, etc. In this chapter we find Zif and Bul; and in [1Kgs 8:2], we find another, Ethanim; and these are supposed to be borrowed from the Chaldeans; and consequently this book was written after the Babylonish captivity. Before this time we find only the word Abib mentioned as the name of a month, [Exo 13:4]. Whether there were any others at that time, or whether Abib was really intended as the name of a month, we cannot absolutely say. The present names of the Hebrew months are: - Tisri, answering to a part of September and October, Marchesvan, Cisleu, Tebeth, Shebat, Adar, Nisan, Ijar, Sivan, Tamuz, Ab, and Elul.

### Verse 2

[¶31] The length thereof was threescore cubits - A cubit, according to Bishop Cumberland, is 21 inches, and 888 decimals, or 1 foot, 9 inches, and 888 decimals. According to this Yds. Ft. Inch. The length, 60 cubits, was 36 1 5.28 The breadth, 20 cubits, was 12 0 5.76 The height, 30 cubits, was 18 0 8.64 This constituted what was called the temple or house, the house of God, etc. But, besides this, there were courts and colonnades, where the people might assemble to perform their devotions and assist at the sacrifices, without being exposed to the open air. The court surrounded the temple, or holy place, into which the priests alone entered. Sometimes the whole of the building is called the temple; at other times that, the measurement of which is given above. But as no proper account can be given of such a building in notes; and as there is a great variety of opinion concerning the temple, its structure, ornaments, etc., as mentioned in the books of Kings and Chronicles, in Ezekiel, and by Josephus; and as modern writers, such as Vilalpandus, Dr. Lightfoot, and Dr. Prideaux, professing to be guided by the same principles, have produced very different buildings; I think it best to hazard nothing on the subject, but give that description at the end of the chapter which Calmet with great pains and industry has collected: at the same time, pledging myself to no particular form or appearance, as I find I cannot give any thing as the likeness of Solomon's temple which I could say, either in honor or conscience, bears any affinity to it. For other particulars I must refer the reader to the three large volumes of Vilalpandus, Dr. Lightfoot's Works, and to the Connections of Dr. Prideaux.

### Verse 4

[¶33] Windows of narrow lights - The Vulgate says, fenestras obliquas, oblique windows; but what sort of windows could such be?

[¶34] The Hebrew is חלוני שקפים אטמים challoney shekuphim atumim, windows to look through, which shut. Probably latticed windows: windows through which a person within could see well; but a person without, nothing. Windows, says the Targum, which were open within and shut without. Does he mean windows with shutters; or, are we to understand, with the Arabic, windows opening wide within, and narrow on the outside; such as we still see in ancient castles? This sense our margin expresses. We hear nothing of glass or any other diaphanous substance. Windows, perhaps originally windore, a door to let the wind in, in order to ventilate the building, and through which external objects might be discerned.

### Verse 7

[¶36] The house - was built of stone - It appears that every stone was hewn and squared, and its place in the building ascertained, before it came to Jerusalem: the timbers were fitted in like manner. This greatly lessened the trouble and expense of carriage. On this account, that all was prepared at Mount Lebanon, there was neither hammer, axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the building; nothing except mallets to drive the tenons into the mortises, and drive in the pins to fasten them, was necessary: therefore there was no noise. But why is this so particularly marked? Is it not because the temple was a type of the kingdom of God; and the souls of men are to be prepared here for that place of blessedness? There, there is no preaching, exhortations, repentance, ears, cries, nor prayers; the stones must be all squared and fitted here for their place in the New Jerusalem, and, being living stones, must be built up a holy temple for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

### Verse 9

[¶38] Covered the house with beams and boards of cedar - The Eastern custom is very different from ours: we ceil with plaster, and make our floors of wood; they make their floors of plaster or painted tiles, and make their ceilings of wood. But it may not be improper to observe that, in ancient times, our buildings were somewhat similar. Westminster Hall is a proof of this.

### Verse 11

[¶40] The word of the Lord came to Solomon - Some think that this is the same revelation as that mentioned [1Kgs 9:2], etc., which took place after the dedication of the temple: but to me it appears different; it was a word to encourage him while building; to warn him against apostasy, and to assure him of God's continued protection of him and his family, if they continued faithful to the grace which God had given.

### Verse 15

[¶42] The walls of the ceiling - See the note on [1Kgs 6:9].

### Verse 19

[¶44] The oracle he prepared - See the description of the temple at the end of this chapter, [1Kgs 6:38] (note).

## 347. 1 Kings · 8 of 30

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### Verse 22

[¶1] The whole house he overlaid with gold - It is impossible to calculate this expense, or the quantity of gold employed in this sacred building.

### Verse 26

[¶3] The height of the one cherub was ten cubits - Concerning the cherubs, their form, etc., see my note on [Exo 25:18] (note). The height of each cherub was about eighteen feet and three inches.

### Verse 36

[¶5] Three rows of hewed stone, and a row of cedar beams - Does not this intimate that there were three courses of stone, and then one course of timber all through this wall? Three strata of stone and one stratum of timber, and so on. If so, could such a building be very durable? This is also referred to in the succeeding chapter, [1Kgs 7:11]; and as both the temple and Solomon's house were built in the same manner, we may suppose that this was the ordinary way in which the better sort of buildings were constructed. Calmet thinks that to this mode of building the prophet alludes, [Hab 2:11] : The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. But it should be observed that this was in the inner court, and therefore the timber was not exposed to the weather. The outer court does not appear to have been built stratum super stratum of stone and wood.

### Verse 38

[¶7] In the eleventh year - was the house finished - It is rather strange that this house required seven years and about six months to put all the stones and the timbers in their places, for we have already seen that they were all prepared before they came to Jerusalem; but the ornamenting, gilding, or overlaying with gold, making the carved work, cherubim, trees, flowers, etc., must have consumed a considerable time. The month Bul answers to a part of our October and November, as Zif, in which it was begun, answers to a part of April and May.

[¶8] The dedication did not take place till the following year, the twelfth of Solomon, because then, according to Archbishop Usher, the jubilee happened.

[¶9] So was he seven years in building it - Properly seven years and six months; but the Scripture generally expresses things in round numbers.

[¶10] Diana's temple at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the world. It is said that almost all Asia was employed in the building of it for about two hundred years; but it was certainly more extensive than the temple at Jerusalem, for it may be justly questioned, notwithstanding the profusion of gold, silver, precious stones, etc., employed in the temple of Solomon, whether it cost any thing like the money expended on the temple of Diana.

[¶11] Pliny informs us, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxvi., cap. 12, that, in order to build one of the pyramids in Egypt, no less than three hundred and sixty thousand men were employed for the space of twenty years. But neither was the temple any such work as this. We may also observe that the temple was never intended to hold a vast concourse of people; it was only for the service of the Lord, and the priests were those alone who were employed in it. The courts, chambers, and other apartments, were far more extensive than the temple itself; it was never designed to be a place to worship in, but a place to worship at. There God was known to have a peculiar residence, and before him the tribes came, and the priests were a sort of mediators between him and the people. In short, the temple was to the Jews in the promised land what the tabernacle was to the Hebrews in the wilderness; the place where God's honor dwelt, and whither the people flocked to pay their adoration. "Solomon laid the foundation of the temple in the year of the world 2992, before Christ 1008, before the vulgar era, 1012; and it was finished in the year of the world 3000, and dedicated in 3001, before Christ 999, before the vulgar era 1003; [1Kgs 8:1] etc.; [2Chr 5:1]; [2Chr 7:1]; [2Chr 8:1] etc. The place that was pitched on for erecting this magnificent structure was on the side of Mount Sion called Moriah. Its entrance or frontispiece stood towards the east, and the most holy or most retired part was towards the west. The author of the first book of Kings, and of the second of Chronicles has chiefly made it his business to describe the temple properly so called, that is the sanctuary, the sanctum, and the apartments belonging to them, as also the vessels, the implements, and the ornaments of the temple, without giving any description scarcely of the courts and open areas, which, however, made a principal part of the grandeur of this august edifice. "But Ezekiel has supplied this defect by the exact plan he has delineated of these necessary parts. Indeed it must be owned that the temple as described by Ezekiel was never restored after the captivity of Babylon, according to the model and the mensuration that this prophet has given of it. But as the measures he sets down for the sanctum and the sanctuary are, within a small matter, the same as those of the temple of Solomon; and as this prophet, who was himself a priest, had seen the first temple; it is to be supposed that the description he gives us of the temple of Jerusalem is the same as that of the temple of Solomon. "The ground-plot upon which the temple was built was a square of six hundred cubits, or twenty-five thousand royal feet; [Eze 45:1] etc. This space was encompassed with a wall of the height of six cubits, and of the same breadth. Beyond this wall was the court of the Gentiles, being fifty cubits wide. After this was seen a great wall, which encompassed the whole court of the children of Israel. This wall was a square of five hundred cubits. The court of Israel was a hundred cubits square, and was encompassed all round with magnificent galleries supported by two or three rows of pillars. It had four gates or entrances; one to the east, another to the west, a third to the north, and the fourth to the south. They were all of the same form and largeness, and each had an ascent of seven steps. The court was paved with marble of divers colors, and had no covering; but the people in case of need could retire under the galleries that were all round about. These apartments were to lodge the priests in, and to lay up such things as were necessary for the use of the temple. There were but three ways to come in, to the east, to the north, and to the south, and they went to it by an ascent of eight steps. Before, and over against the gate of the court of the priests, in the court of Israel, was erected a throne for the king, being a magnificent alcove, where the king seated himself when he came into the temple. Within the court of the priests, and over against the same eastern gate, was the altar of burnt-offerings, of twelve cubits square, according to [Eze 43:16], or of ten cubits high and twenty broad, according to [2Chr 4:1]. They went up to it by stairs on the eastern side. "Beyond this, and to the west of the altar of burnt-offerings was the temple, properly so called, that is to say, the sanctuary, the sanctum, and the porch of entrance. The porch was twenty cubits wide and six cubits deep. Its gate was fourteen cubits wide. The sanctum was forty cubits wide and twenty deep. There stood the golden candlestick, the table of shew-bread, and the golden altar, upon which the incense was offered. The sanctuary was a square of twenty cubits. There was nothing in the sanctuary but the ark of the covenant, which included the tables of the law. The high priest entered here but once a year, and none but himself was allowed to enter. Solomon had embellished the inside of this holy place with palm trees in relief, and cherubim of wood covered with plates of gold, and in general the whole sanctuary was adorned, and as it were overlaid, with plates of gold. "Round the sanctum and sanctuary were three stories of chambers, to the number of thirty-three. Ezekiel makes them but four cubits wide; but the first book of Kings, [1Kgs 6:6], allows five cubits to the first story, six to the second, and seven to the third. "Since the consecration or dedication of the temple by Solomon in the year of the world 3001, this edifice has suffered many revolutions, which it is proper to take notice of here. "In the year of the world 3033, before Christ 967, before the vulgar era 971, Shishak, king of Egypt, having declared war with Rehoboam, king of Judah, took Jerusalem, and carried away the treasures of the temple; [1Kgs 14:25], [1Kgs 14:26]; [2Chr 12:1-9]. "In 3146, Jehoash, king of Judah, got silver together to go upon the repairs of the temple; they began to work upon it in earnest in 3148, before Christ 852, before the vulgar era 856; [2Kgs 12:4], [2Kgs 12:5], and [2Chr 24:7-9], etc. "Ahaz king of Judah having called to his assistance Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, against the kings of Israel and Damascus, who were at war with him, robbed the temple of the Lord of its riches to give away to this strange king, [2Chr 28:21], [2Chr 28:22], etc., in the year of the world 3264, before Christ 736, before the vulgar era 740, and not contented with this, he profaned this holy place by setting up there an altar like one he had seen at Damascus, and taking away the brazen altar that Solomon had made; [2Kgs 16:10-12], etc. He also took away the brazen sea from off the brazen oxen that supported it, and the brazen basons from their pedestals, and the king's throne or oratory, which was of brass. These he took away to prevent their being carried away by the king of Assyria. Nor did he stop here, but carried his wickedness so far as to sacrifice to strange gods, and to erect profane altars in all the corners of the streets of Jerusalem; [2Chr 28:24], [2Chr 28:25]. He pillaged the temple of the Lord, broke the sacred vessels, and, lastly, shut up the house of God. This happened in the year of the world 3264, before Christ 736, before the vulgar era 740, to his death, which happened in 3278, before Christ 722, before the vulgar era 726. "Hezekiah, the son and successor of Ahaz, opened again and repaired the gates of the temple which his father had shut up and robbed of their ornaments; [2Chr 29:3], [2Chr 29:4], etc., in the year of the world 3278, before Christ 722, before the vulgar era 726. He restored the worship of the Lord and the sacrifices, and made new sacred vessels in the place of those that Ahaz had destroyed. But in the fourteenth year of his reign, [2Kgs 18:15], [2Kgs 18:16], in the year of the world 3291, before Christ 709, before the vulgar era 713, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, coming with an army into the land of Judah, Hezekiah was forced to take all the riches of the temple, and even the plates of gold that he himself had put upon the gates of the temple, and give them to the king of Assyria. But when Sennacherib was gone back into his own country, there is no doubt that Hezekiah restored all these things to their first condition. "Manasseh, son and successor of Hezekiah, profaned the temple of the Lord, by setting up altars to all the host of heaven, even in the courts of the house of the Lord; [2Kgs 21:4-7]; [2Chr 33:5-7]; in the year of the world 3306, and the following years. He set up idols there, and worshipped them. God delivered him into the hands of the king of Babylon, who loaded him with chains, and carried him away beyond the Euphrates; [2Chr 33:11], [2Chr 33:12], etc.; in the year of the world 3328, before Christ 672, before the vulgar era 676. There he acknowledged and repented of his sins; and being sent back to his own dominions, he redressed the profanations he had made of the temple of the Lord, by taking away the idols, destroying the profane altars, and restoring the altar of burnt-offering, upon which he offered his sacrifices. "Josiah, king of Judah, labored with all his might in repairing the edifices of the temple, ([2Kgs 22:4-6], etc.; [2Chr 34:8-10]; in the year of the world 3380, before Christ 620, before the vulgar era 624), which had been either neglected or demolished by the kings of Judah, his predecessors. He also commanded the priests and Levites to replace the ark of the Lord in the sanctuary, in its appointed place; and ordered that it should not any more be removed from place to place as it had been during the reigns of the wicked kings, his predecessors, [2Chr 35:3]. "Nebuchadnezzar took away a part of the sacred vessels of the temple of the Lord, and placed them in the temple of his god at Babylon, under the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah; [2Chr 36:6], [2Chr 36:7], in the year of the world 3398, before Christ 602, before the vulgar era 606. He also carried away others under the reign of Jehoiachin, [2Chr 36:10]; in the year of the world 3405, before Christ 595, before the vulgar era 599. Lastly, he took the city of Jerusalem, and entirely destroyed the temple, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the year of the world 3416, before Christ 584, before the vulgar era 588; [2Kgs 25:1-3], etc.; [2Chr 36:18], [2Chr 36:19]. "The temple continued buried in its ruins for the space of fifty-two years, till the first year of Cyrus at Babylon, in the year of the world 3468, before Christ 532, before the vulgar era 536. Then Cyrus gave permission to the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and there to rebuild the temple of the Lord, [Ezr 1:1-3], etc. The following year they laid the foundation of the second temple; but they had hardly been at work upon it one year, when either Cyrus or his officers, being gained over by the enemies of the Jews, forbade them to go on with their work; [Ezr 4:5]; in the year of the world 3470, before Christ 530, before the vulgar era 534. After the death of Cyrus and Cambyses, they were again forbidden by the magian, who reigned after Cambyses, and whom the Scripture calls by the name of Artaxerxes; [Ezr 4:7], [Ezr 4:17], [Ezr 4:18], etc.; in the year of the world 3483, before Christ 517, before the vulgar era 521. Lastly, these prohibitions being superseded, under the reign of Darius, son of Hystaspes, ([Ezr 5:1]; [Ezr 6:14]; [Hag 1:1], etc.; in the year of the world 3485, before Christ 515, before the vulgar era 519), the temple was finished and dedicated four years after, in the year of the world 3489, before Christ 511, before the vulgar era 515, twenty years after the return from the captivity. "This temple was profaned by order of Antiochus Epiphanes in the year of the world 3837. The ordinary sacrifices were discontinued therein, and the idol of Jupiter Olympus was set up upon the altar. It continued in this condition for three years; then Judas Maccabeus purified it, and restored the sacrifice and the worship of the Lord, 1 Maccabees 4:36; in the year of the world 8840, before Christ 160, before the vulgar era 164. "Herod the Great undertook to rebuild the whole temple of Jerusalem anew, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and in the year of the world 3986; Joseph., Antiq., lib. xv., cap. 14. He began to lay the foundation of it in the year of the world 3987, forty-six years before the first passover of Jesus Christ, as the Jews observe to him by saying, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? [Joh 2:20]. This is not saying that Herod had employed six and forty years in building it; for Josephus assures us that he finished it in nine years and a half; Joseph., Antiq., lib. xv., cap. 14. But, after the time of this prince, they all continued to make some new addition to it; and the same Josephus tells us that they went on working upon it, even to the beginning of the Jewish war; Joseph., Antiq., lib. xx., cap. 8. "This temple, built by Herod, did not subsist more than seventy-seven years, being destroyed in the year of the world 4073, of Christ 73, of the vulgar era 69. It was begun by Herod in 3987, finished in 3996, burnt and destroyed by the Romans in 4073. "This temple of Herod was very different from that of Solomon, and from that which was rebuilt by Zerubbabel after the captivity. This is the description that Josephus has left us of it, who himself had seen it: - "The temple, properly so called, was built sixty cubits high, and as many broad; but there were two sides of front, like two arms or shoulderings, which advanced twenty cubits on each side, which gave in the whole front a hundred cubits wide, as well as in height. The stones made use of in this building were white and hard, twenty-five cubits long, eight in height, and twelve in width; Joseph., de Bell., lib. vi., p. 917. "The front of this magnificent building resembled that of a royal palace. The two extremes of each face were lower than the middle, which middle was so exalted that those who were over against the temple, or that approached towards it at a distance, might see it, though they were many furlongs from it. The gates were almost of the same height as the temple; and on the top of the gates were veils or tapestry of several colors, embellished with purple flowers. On the two sides of the doors were two pillars, the cornices of which were adorned with the branches of a golden vine, which hung down with their grapes and clusters, and were so well imitated, that art did not at all yield to nature. Herod made very large and very high galleries about the temple, which were suitable to the magnificence of the rest of the building, and exceeded in beauty and sumptuousness all of the kind that had been seen before. "The temple was built upon a very irregular mountain, and at first there was hardly place enough on the top of it for the site of the temple and altar. The rest of it was steep and sloping: Joseph., de Bell, lib. vi., p. 915, εκφιδ.; Antiq., lib. xv., c. 14. But when King Solomon built it, he raised a wall towards the east, to support the earth on that side; and after this side was filled up, he then built one of the porticoes or galleries. At that time this face only was cased with stone, but in succeeding times, the people endeavoring to enlarge this space, and the top of the mountain being much extended, they broke down the wall which was on the north side, and enclosed another space as large as that which the whole circumference of the temple contained at first. So that at last, against all hope and expectation, this work was carried so far that the whole mountain was surrounded by a treble wall. But, for the completing of this great work whole ages were no more than sufficient; and all the sacred treasures were applied to this use, that the devotion of the people had brought to the temple from all the provinces of the world. In some places these walls were above three hundred cubits high, and the stones used in these walls were some forty cubits long. They were fastened together by iron cramps and lead, to be able to resist the injuries of time. The platform on which the temple was built was a furlong square, or one hundred and twenty-five paces." Thus far Calmet and Josephus.

### Introduction

[¶13] Solomon builds his own house, and completes it in thirteen years, [1Kgs 7:1]. He builds another called the house of the forest of Lebanon; and a house for Pharaoh's daughter, [1Kgs 7:2-12]. He brings Hiram, a coppersmith, out of Tyre, who makes much curious work for the temple, [1Kgs 7:13-20]. He makes the two pillars Jachin and Boaz, [1Kgs 7:21], [1Kgs 7:22]. The molten sea, and the twelve oxen that bare it, [1Kgs 7:23-26]. And ten brazen bases, and the ten lavers with pots, shovels, and basons, all of which he cast in the plain of Jordan, vv. 27-46. The quantity of brass too great to be weighed; and the vessels of the temple were all of pure gold, [1Kgs 7:47-50]. Solomon brings into the house the silver and gold which his father had dedicated, [1Kgs 7:51].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Building his own house - This house is said to have been situated in Jerusalem, and probably was, what some call it, his winter's residence. It is called the king's house, [1Kgs 9:10].

### Verse 2

[¶17] The house of the forest of Lebanon - It was not built in Lebanon, but is thought to have been on Mount Sion. And why it was called the house of the forest of Lebanon does not appear; probably it was because it was built almost entirely of materials brought from that place. See the following verses.

### Verse 7

[¶19] A porch for the throne - One porch appears to have been devoted to the purposes of administering judgment, which Solomon did in person.

### Verse 8

[¶21] A house for Pharaoh's daughter - This appears to have been a third house; probably the whole three made but one building, and were in the same place, but distinguished from each other; the first as Solomon's palace, the second as a house of judgment, a court-house; the third, the harem, or apartments for the women.

### Verse 13

[¶23] Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre - This was not the Tyrian king, mentioned before, but a very intelligent coppersmith, of Jewish extraction by his mother's side, who was probably married to a Tyrian. In [2Chr 2:14], this woman is said to be of the daughters of Dan, but here of the tribe of Naphtali. The king of Tyre, who gives the account as we have it in Chronicles, might have made the mistake, and confounded the two tribes; or she might have been of Naphtali by her father, and of Dan by her mother, and so be indifferently called of the tribe of Naphtali or of the daughters of Dan. This appears to be the best solution of the difficulty. The versions and MSS. give no help here.

### Verse 15

[¶25] He cast two pillars - eighteen cubits high - That is, about thirty feet in English measure.

[¶26] A line of twelve cubits - In circumference. It would be difficult even now to procure a founder who could cast such massive pillars, whether solid or hollow.

### Verse 21

[¶28] The right pillar - Jachin - That is, He shall establish. The left pillar - Boaz, that is, in strength. These were no doubt emblematical; for notwithstanding their names, they seem to have supported no part of the building.

### Verse 27

[¶30] He made ten bases - That is, pedestals, for the ten lavers to rest on.

### Verse 38

[¶32] Then made he ten lavers - These were set on the ten bases or pedestals, and were to hold water for the use of the priests in their sacred office, particularly to wash the victims that were to be offered as a burnt-offering, as we learn from [2Chr 4:6]; but the brazen sea was for the priests to wash in. The whole was a building of vast art, labor, and expense.

### Verse 40

[¶34] So Hiram made an end - It is truly surprising, that in so short a time one artist could design and execute works of such magnitude, taste, and variety, however numerous his assistants might be. The mere building of the house was a matter of little difficulty in comparison of these internal works.

### Verse 46

[¶36] Cast them, in the clay ground - In this place he found that particular kind of clay that was proper for his purpose. Some suppose that the place where Hiram had his foundry was on the other side, some on this side, of Jordan. Calmet supposes that it was near Bethshan.

### Verse 51

[¶38] Solomon brought in the things - It has been a question whether Solomon, in the structure of the temple, used any of the gold and silver which David had provided? And here it seems answered in the negative; for after the house was finished, with all its utensils and ornaments, with its immense profusion of gold, it is here said that Solomon brought in the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, which David his father had dedicated. It appears therefore that Solomon had employed four years to make preparation for the work before it was begun. During the whole time of the building, he was no doubt still appropriating a part of the public revenue for this purpose; and the provision made by his father he placed among the treasures of the house; but the temple was truly Solomon's, as he had provided all its materials, and borne every expense.

[¶39] As the temple was built in some measure on the model of the tabernacle, and dedicated to the same use, I wish to refer the reader to the description of the former, in Exodus 25-27 (note) and Exodus 35-39 (note).

### Introduction

[¶41] Solomon assembles the elders of Israel, and brings up the ark, and the holy vessels, and the tabernacle, out of the city of David, and places them in the temple; on which account a vast number of sheep and oxen are sacrificed, [1Kgs 8:1-8]. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, [1Kgs 8:9]. The cloud of God's glory fills the house, [1Kgs 8:10], [1Kgs 8:11]. Solomon blesses the people, [1Kgs 8:12-21]. His dedicatory prayer, vv. 22-53. Afterwards he blesses and exhorts the people, [1Kgs 8:54-61]. They offer a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, [1Kgs 8:62], [1Kgs 8:63]. He hallows the middle of the court for offerings; as the brazen altar which was before the Lord was too little, [1Kgs 8:64]. He holds the feast of the dedication for seven days; and for other seven days, the feast of tabernacles; and on the eighth day blesses the people, and sends them away joyful, [1Kgs 8:65], [1Kgs 8:66].

### Verse 1

[¶43] Then Solomon assembled - It has already been observed that Solomon deferred the dedication of the temple to the following year after it was finished, because that year, according to Archbishop Usher, was a jubilee. "This," he observes, "was the ninth jubilee, opening the fourth millenary of the world, or A.M. 3001, wherein Solomon with great magnificence celebrated the dedication of the temple seven days, and the feast of tabernacles other seven days; and the celebration of the eighth day of tabernacles being finished, upon the twenty-third day of the seventh month the people were dismissed every man to his home. The eighth day of the seventh month, viz., the thirtieth of our October, being Friday, was the first of the seven days of dedication; on the tenth day, Saturday, November 1, was the fast of expiation or atonement held; whereon, according to the Levitical law, the jubilee was proclaimed by sound of trumpet. The fifteenth day, Friday, November 6, was the feast of tabernacles; the twenty-second, November 13, being also Friday, was the feast of tabernacles, which was always very solemnly kept, [2Chr 7:9]; [Lev 23:36]; [Joh 7:37]; and the day following, November 14, being our Saturday, when the Sabbath was ended, the people returned home. "In the thirteenth year after the temple was built, Solomon made an end also of building his own house, having spent full twenty years upon both of them; seven and a half upon the temple, and thirteen or twelve and a half upon his own." - Usher's Annals, sub. A.M. 3001.

## 348. 1 Kings · 9 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/348/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/348/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] At the feast in the month Ethanim - The feast of tabernacles, which was celebrated in the seventh month of what is called the ecclesiastical gear.

### Verse 4

[¶3] They brought up - the tabernacle - It is generally agreed that there were now two tabernacles at Gibeon, and the other in the city of David, which one David had constructed as a temporary residence for the ark, in the event of a temple being built. Which of these tabernacles was brought into the temple at this time, is not well known; some think both were brought in, in order to prevent the danger of idolatry. I should rather suppose that the tabernacle from Gibeon was brought in, and that the temporary one erected by David was demolished.

### Verse 8

[¶5] And there they are unto this day - This proves that the book was written before the destruction of the first temple, but how long before we cannot tell.

### Verse 9

[¶7] Save the two tables of stone - See my notes on [Heb 9:4] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶9] When the priests were come out - That is, after having carried the ark into the holy of holies, before any sacred service had yet commenced.

### Verse 11

[¶11] The glory of the Lord had filled the house - The cloud, the symbol of the Divine glory and presence, appears to have filled not only the holy of holies, but the whole temple, court and all, and to have become evident to the people; and by this Solomon knew that God had honored the place with his presence, and taken it for his habitation in reference to the people of Israel.

### Verse 12

[¶13] The Lord said - he would dwell - It was under the appearance of a cloud that God showed himself present with Israel in the wilderness; see [Exo 14:19], [Exo 14:20]. And at the dedication of the tabernacle in the wilderness, God manifested himself in the same way that he did here at the dedication of the temple; see [Exo 40:34], [Exo 40:35].

### Verse 13

[¶15] I have surely built thee a house - He was now fully convinced that the thing pleased God, and that he had taken this place for his settled habitation.

### Verse 14

[¶17] Blessed all the congregation - Though this blessing is not particularly stated, yet we may suppose that it was such as the high priest pronounced upon the people: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee! The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace!" (see [Num 6:24-26]), for Solomon seems now to be acting the part of the high priest. But he may have in view more particularly the conduct of Moses, who, when he had seen that the people had done all the work of the tabernacle, as the Lord had commanded them, he blessed them, [Exo 39:43]; and the conduct of his father David, who, when the ark had been brought into the city of David, and the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings completed, blessed the people in the name of the Lord, [2Sam 6:18].

### Verse 16

[¶19] Since the day, etc. - Mention is here made, says Dr. Kennicott, of some one place and some one person preferred before all others; and the preference is that of Jerusalem to other places, and of David to other men. In consequence of this remark, we shall see the necessity of correcting this passage by its parallel in [2Chr 6:5], [2Chr 6:6], where the thirteen Hebrew words now lost in Kings are happily preserved. Let us compare the passages: -

[¶20] I would just observe here, that I do not think these thirteen words ever made a part of Kings, and consequently, are not lost from it; nor do they exist here in any of the versions; but their being found in Chronicles helps to complete the sense.

### Verse 21

[¶22] Wherein is the covenant of the Lord - As it is said, [1Kgs 8:9], that there was nothing in the ark but the two tables of stone, consequently these are called the Covenant, i.e., a sign of the covenant; as our Lord calls the cup the new covenant in his blood, that is, the sign of the new covenant: for This is my body implies, This is the sign or emblem of my body.

### Verse 22

[¶24] Stood - He ascended the brazen scaffold, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and then kneeled down upon his knees, with his hands spread up to heaven, and offered up the following prayer: see [1Kgs 8:54], and [2Chr 5:12], [2Chr 5:13].

[¶25] And spread forth his hands toward heaven - This was a usual custom in all nations: in prayer the hands were stretched out to heaven, as if to invite and receive assistance from thence; while, humbly kneeling on their knees, they seemed acknowledge at once their dependence and unworthiness. On this subject I have spoken elsewhere. In the Scriptures we meet with several examples of the kind: Hear my voice - when I Lift Up My Hands toward thy holy oracle; [Psa 28:2]. Lift Up Your Hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord; [Psa 134:2]. Let my prayer be set forth - and the Lifting Up of My Hands as the evening sacrifice; [Psa 141:2]. And see [1Tim 2:8], etc.

[¶26] In heathen writers examples are not less frequent:

[¶27] Sustulit exutas vinclis ad sidera Palmas.

[¶28] Vos aeterni ignes, et non violabile vestrum Testor numen, ait.

[¶29] Virg. Aen. lib. ii., ver. 153.

[¶30] Ye lamps of heaven, he said, and Lifted High His Hands, now free; thou venerable sky, Inviolable powers!

[¶31] And that they kneeled down when supplicating I have also proved. Of this too the Scriptures afford abundant evidence, as do also the heathen writers.

[¶32] I need add but one word: -

[¶33] Et Genbius Pronis supplex, similisque roganti,

[¶34] Circumfert tacitos, tanquam sun brachia, vultus.

[¶35] Ovid, Met. lib. iii., f. 3, ver. 240.

[¶36] Indeed, so universal were these forms in praying, that one of the heathens has said, "All men, in praying, lift up their hands to heaven.

### Verse 24

[¶38] Who has kept with thy servant David - This is in reference to [2Sam 7:13], where God promises to David that Solomon shall build a house for the name of the Lord. The temple being now completed, this promise was literally fulfilled.

### Verse 27

[¶40] But will God indeed dwell on the earth? - This expression is full of astonishment, veneration, and delight. He is struck with the immensity, dignity, and grandeur of the Divine Being, but especially at his condescension to dwell with men: and though he sees, by his filling the place, that he has come now to make his abode with them, yet he cannot help asking the question, How can such a God dwell in such a place, and with such creatures?

[¶41] Behold, the heaven - The words are all in the plural number in the Hebrew: השמים ושמי השמים hashshamayim, ushemey hashshamayim; "the heavens, and the heavens of heavens." What do these words imply? That there are systems, and systems of systems, each possessing its sun, its primary and secondary planets, all extending beyond each other in unlimited space, in the same regular and graduated order which we find to prevail in what we call our solar system; which probably, in its thousands of millions of miles in diameter, is, to some others, no more than the area of the lunar orbit to that of the Georgium Sidus. When God, his manifold wisdom, his creative energy, and that space which is unlimited, are considered, it is no hyperbole to say that, although the earth has been created nearly six thousand years ago, suns, the centres of systems, may have been created at so immense a distance that their light has not yet reached our earth, though travelling at the rate of one hundred and ninety thousand miles every second, or upwards of a million times swifter than the motion of a cannon ball! This may be said to be inconceivable; but what is even all this to the vast immensity of space! Had God created a system like ours in every six days since the foundation of the world, and kept every seventh as a Sabbath; and though there might have been by this time [A.M. 5823 ineunte, a.d. 1819, ineunte] three hundred and three thousand five hundred and seventy-five mundane systems, they would occupy but a speck in the inconceivable immensity of space. Reader, all this and millions more is demonstrably possible; and if so, what must God be - illud inexprimibile - who i-n-h-a-b-i-t-e-t-h E-t-e-r-n-i-t-y!

### Verse 29

[¶43] My name shall be there - I will there show forth my power and my glory by enlightening, quickening, pardoning, sanctifying, and saving all my sincere worshippers.

### Verse 30

[¶45] Toward this place - Both tabernacle and temple were types of our Lord Jesus, or of God manifested in the flesh; and he was and is the Mediator between God and man. All prayer, to be acceptable, and to be entitled to a hearing, must go to God through Him. The human nature of Christ is the temple in which dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; therefore with propriety all prayer must be offered to God through Him. "If they pray toward this place, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place; and when thou hearest, forgive." This appears to me to be the true sense and doctrine of this verse.

## 349. 1 Kings · 10 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/349/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/349/#p-N

### Verse 31

[¶1] If any man trespass against his neighbor - Solomon puts here seven cases, in all of which the mercy and intervention of God would be indispensably requisite; and he earnestly bespeaks that mercy and intervention on condition that the people pray towards that holy place, and with a feeling heart make earnest supplication.

[¶2] The First case is one of doubtfulness; where a man has sustained an injury, and charges it on a suspected person, though not able to bring direct evidence of the fact, the accused is permitted to come before the altar of God, and purge himself by his personal oath. Solomon prays that God may not permit a false oath to be taken, but that he will discover the truth, so that the wicked shall be condemned, and the righteous justified.

### Verse 33

[¶4] When thy people Israel be smitten down, etc. - The Second case. When their enemies make inroads upon them, and defeat them in battle, and lead them into captivity, because God, being displeased with their transgressions, has delivered them up; then if they shall turn again, confess the name of God, which they had in effect denied, by either neglecting his worship, or becoming idolatrous; and pray and make supplication; then, says Solomon, hear thou in heaven - and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.

### Verse 35

[¶6] When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain - The Third case. When, because of their sin, and their ceasing to walk in the good way in which they should have walked, God refuses to send the early and latter rain, so that the appointed weeks of harvest come in vain, as there is no crop: then, if they pray and confess their sin, hear thou in heaven, etc.

### Verse 37

[¶8] If there be in the land famine - pestilence - The Fourth case includes several kinds of evils:

[¶9] 1. Famine; a scarcity or total want of bread, necessarily springing from the preceding cause, drought.

[¶10] 2. Pestilence; any general and contagious disease.

[¶11] 3. Blasting; any thing by which the crops are injured, so that the ear is never matured; but instead of wholesome grain, there is a black offensive dust.

[¶12] 4. Mildew; any thing that vitiates or corrodes the texture of the stalk, destroys the flowers and blossoms, or causes the young shaped fruits to fall off their stems.

[¶13] 5. Locust, a well known curse in the East, a species of grasshopper that multiplies by millions, and covers the face of the earth for many miles square, destroying every green thing; leaving neither herb nor grass upon the earth, nor leaf nor bark upon the trees.

[¶14] 6. Caterpillar; the locust in its young or nympha state. The former refers to locusts brought by winds from other countries and settling on the land; the latter, to the young locusts bred in the land.

[¶15] 7. An enemy, having attacked their defenced cities, the keys and barriers of the land.

[¶16] 8. Any other kind of plague; that which affects the surface of the body; blotch, blain, leprosy, ophthalmia, etc.

[¶17] 9. Sickness; whatever impaired the strength, or affected the intestines, disturbing or destroying their natural functions.

[¶18] All such cases were to be brought before the Lord, the persons having a deep sense of the wickedness which induced God thus to afflict, or permit them to be afflicted: for only those who knew the plague of their own hearts, ([1Kgs 8:38]), the deep-rooted moral corruption of their nature, and the destructive nature and sinfulness of sin, were likely to pray in such a manner as to induce God to hear and forgive.

### Verse 41

[¶20] Moreover, concerning a stranger - The Fifth case relates to heathens coming from other countries with the design to become proselytes to the true religion; that they might be received, blessed, and protected as the true Israelites, that the name of Jehovah might be known over the face of the earth.

### Verse 44

[¶22] If thy people go out to battle - The Sixth case refers to wars undertaken by Divine appointment: whithersoever thou shalt send them; for in no other wars could they expect the blessing and concurrence of the Lord; in none other could the God of truth and justice maintain their cause. There were such wars under the Mosaic dispensation, there are none such under the Christian dispensation: nor can there be any; for the Son of man is come, not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Except mere defensive war, all others are diabolic; and, query, if there were no provocations, would there be any attacks, and consequently any need of defensive wars?

### Verse 46

[¶24] If they sin against thee - This Seventh case must refer to some general defection from truth, to some species of false worship, idolatry, or corruption of the truth and ordinances of the Most High; as for it they are here stated to be delivered into the hands of their enemies and carried away captive, which was the general punishment for idolatry, and what is called, [1Kgs 8:47], acting perversely and committing wickedness.

[¶25] In [1Kgs 8:46] we read, If they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not. On this verse we may observe that the second clause, as it is here translated, renders the supposition in the first clause entirely nugatory; for if there be no man that sinneth not, it is useless to say, If they sin; but this contradiction is taken away by reference to the original, כי יחטאו לך ki yechetu lach, which should be translated If they shall sin against thee, or should they sin against thee; כי אין אדם אשר לא יחטא ki ein Adam asher lo yecheta, for there is no man that May not sin; i.e., there is no man impeccable, none infallible, none that is not liable to transgress. This is the true meaning of the phrase in various parts of the Bible, and so our translators have understood the original: for even in the thirty-first verse of this chapter they have translated יחטא yecheta, If a man Trespass; which certainly implies he might or might not do it; and in this way they have translated the same word, If a soul Sin, in [Lev 5:1]; [Lev 6:2]; [1Sam 2:25]; [2Chr 6:22], and in several other places. The truth is, the Hebrew has no mood to express words in the permissive or optative way, but to express this sense it uses the future tense of the conjugation kal.

[¶26] This text has been a wonderful strong hold for all who believe that there is no redemption from sin in this life, that no man can live without committing sin, and that we cannot be entirely freed from it till we die.

[¶27] 1. The text speaks no such doctrine: it only speaks of the possibility of every man sinning, and this must be true of a state of probation.

[¶28] 2. There is not another text in the Divine records that is more to the purpose than this.

[¶29] 3. The doctrine is flatly in opposition to the design of the Gospel; for Jesus came to save his people from their sins, and to destroy the works of the devil.

[¶30] 4. It is a dangerous and destructive doctrine; and should be blotted out of every Christian's creed. There are too many who are seeking to excuse their crimes by all means in their power; and we need not embody their excuses in a creed, to complete their deception, by stating that their sins are unavoidable.

### Verse 50

[¶32] And give them compassion before them who carried them captive - He does not pray that they may be delivered out of that captivity, but that their enemies may use them well; and that they may, as formerly, be kept a separate and distinct people.

### Verse 55

[¶34] He stood, and blessed all the congregation - This blessing is contained in [1Kgs 8:57], [1Kgs 8:58].

### Verse 59

[¶36] And let these my words - This and the following verse is a sort of supplement to the prayer which ended [1Kgs 8:53]; but there is an important addition to this prayer in the parallel place, [2Chr 6:41], [2Chr 6:42] : "Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant."

### Verse 61

[¶38] Let your heart therefore be perfect - Be sincere in your faith, be irreproachable in your conduct.

### Verse 63

[¶40] Two and twenty thousand oxen - This was the whole amount of the victims that had been offered during the fourteen days; i.e., the seven days of the dedication, and the seven days of the feast of tabernacles. In what way could they dispose of the blood of so many victims?

### Verse 64

[¶42] Did the king hallow the middle of the court - The great altar of burnt-offerings was not sufficient for the number of sacrifices which were then made; therefore the middle of the court was set apart, and an altar erected there for the same purpose.

### Verse 65

[¶44] From - Hamath - Supposed to be Antioch of Syria; unto the river of Egypt - to the Rhinocorura; the former being on the north, the latter on the south: i.e., from one extremity of the land to the other.

## 350. 1 Kings · 11 of 30

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### Verse 66

[¶1] They blessed the king - Wished him all spiritual and temporal happiness. They were contented with their king, at peace among themselves, and happy in their God; so that they returned to their houses magnifying their God for all his bounty to them, their country, and their king. How happy must these people have been, and how prosperous, had their king continued to walk uprightly before God! But alas! the king fell, and the nation followed his example.

### Introduction

[¶3] The Lord appears a second time to Solomon, and assures him that he had heard his prayer; and that he would establish his worship for ever in that temple, and him and his successors on the throne of Israel, provided he and they would keep his statutes and judgments, [1Kgs 9:1-5]; but if they should transgress and forsake the Lord, then they should be cast off, the temple itself abandoned, and their enemies permitted to prevail over them, [1Kgs 9:6-9]. Solomon having finished the temple and the king's house, about which he was employed twenty years, and having received assistance from Hiram king of Tyre, he gave him in return twenty cities in Galilee, with which he was not pleased, [1Kgs 9:10-14]. Solomon's levies, buildings, and the persons employed, [1Kgs 9:15-23]. Pharaoh's daughter comes to the city of David, [1Kgs 9:24]. He sacrifices thrice a year at the temple, [1Kgs 9:25]. Solomon's navy, and the gold they brought from Ophir, [1Kgs 9:26-28].

### Verse 2

[¶5] The Lord appeared to Solomon - The design of this appearance, which was in a dream, as that was at Gibeon, was to assure Solomon that God had accepted his service, and had taken that house for his dwelling-place, and would continue it, and establish him and his descendants upon the throne of Israel for ever, provided they served him with an upright heart; but, on the contrary, if they forsook him, he would abandon both them and his temple.

### Verse 7

[¶7] A proverb and a by - word among all people - And so they are to the present; the unbelieving Jews, the stubborn, stiff-necked Jews, are words still in common use. They forsook the Lord, rejected his Christ, and are cast off, their temple destroyed, and they scattered over the face of the earth.

### Verse 9

[¶9] Have taken hold upon other gods - When an indigent person claims the protection of a superior, he casts himself down before him, and lays hold of his feet; and this expression is frequently used when there is no prostration: I have taken hold of thy feet. When a person is called into the presence of the Burman monarch, he is said to go to the golden foot. - Ward's Customs.

### Verse 10

[¶11] At the end of twenty years - He employed seven years and a half in building the temple, and twelve years and a half in building the king's house; see [1Kgs 7:1]; [2Chr 8:1].

### Verse 11

[¶13] Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities - It is very likely that Solomon did not give those cities to Hiram so that they should be annexed to his Tyrian dominions, but rather gave him the produce of them till the money was paid which he had advanced to Solomon for his buildings. It appears however that either Hiram did not accept them, or that having received the produce till he was paid, he then restored them to Solomon; for in the parallel place, [2Chr 8:2], it is said, The cities which Hiram had restored to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there. Some think that they were heathen cities which Solomon had conquered, and therefore had a right to give them if he pleased, as they were not any part of the land given by promise to the Israelites.

### Verse 13

[¶15] Called them the land of Cabul - Whether this epithet was given to this land by Hiram as a mark of disapprobation, or what is its proper meaning, the learned are not agreed. That there was a country of this name in the promised land in the time of Joshua, is evident enough from [Jos 19:27], as it was one part of the boundary of the tribe of Asher; hence some interpret the word border or boundary, and so, the Septuagint understood it, for they have translated the Hebrew word ὁριον, which signifies the same. The margin gives another meaning.

### Verse 14

[¶17] Sixscore talents of gold - This was the sum which Hiram had lent, and in order to pay this Solomon had laid a tax upon his people, as we afterward learn. The whole is very darkly expressed.

### Verse 15

[¶19] This is the reason of the levy - That is, in order to pay Hiram the sixscore talents of gold which he had borrowed from him (Hiram not being willing to take the Galilean cities mentioned above; or, having taken them, soon restored them again) he was obliged to lay a tax upon the people; and that this was a grievous and oppressive tax we learn from [1Kgs 12:1-4], where the elders of Israel came to Rehoboam, complaining of their heavy state of taxation, and entreating that their yoke might be made lighter.

[¶20] And Millo - This is supposed to have been a deep valley between Mount Sion and what was called the city of Jebus, which Solomon filled up, and it was built on, and became a sort of fortified place, and a place for public assemblies. - See Calmet.

### Verse 16

[¶22] Pharaoh - had gone up, and taken Gezer - This city Joshua had taken from the Canaanites, [Jos 10:33]; [Jos 12:12], and it was divided by lot to the tribe of Ephraim, and was intended to be one of the Levitical cities; but it appears that the Canaanites had retaken it, and kept possession till the days of Solomon, when his father-in-law, Pharaoh king of Egypt, retook it, and gave it to Solomon in dowry with his daughter.

### Verse 18

[¶24] And Tadmor in the wilderness - This is almost universally allowed to be the same with the celebrated Palmyra, the ruins of which remain to the present day, and give us the highest idea of Solomon's splendor and magnificence. Palmyra stood upon a fertile plain surrounded by a barren desert, having the river Euphrates on the east. The ruins are well described by Messrs. Dawkes and Wood, of which they give fine representations. They are also well described in the ancient part of the Universal History, vol. i., p. 367-70. The description concludes thus: "The world never saw a more glorious city; the pride, it is likely, of ancient times, and the reproach of our own; a city not more remarkable for the state of her buildings and unwontedness of her situation than for the extraordinary personages who once flourished there, among whom the renowned Zenobia and the incomparable Longinus must for ever be remembered with admiration and regret."

### Verse 19

[¶26] And all the cities of store - Though, by the multitude and splendor of his buildings, Solomon must have added greatly to the magnificence of his reign; yet, however plenteous silver and gold were in his times, his subjects must have been greatly oppressed with the taxation necessary to defray such a vast public expenditure.

### Verse 21

[¶28] A tribute of bond-service - He made them do the most laborious part of the public works, the Israelites being generally exempt. When Sesostris, king of Egypt, returned from his wars, he caused temples to be built in all the cities of Egypt, but did not employ one Egyptian in the work, having built the whole by the hands of the captives which he had taken in his wars. Hence he caused this inscription to be placed upon each temple: - Ουδεις εγχωριος εις αυτα μεμοχθηκε.

[¶29] No native has labored in these

[¶30] Diodor. Sic. Bibl., lib. i., c. 56.

[¶31] It appears that Solomon might with propriety have placed a similar inscription on most of his works.

### Verse 25

[¶33] Three times in a year did Solomon offer - These three times were:

[¶34] 1. The passover.

[¶35] 2. The feast of pentecost.

[¶36] 3. The feast of tabernacles.

### Verse 26

[¶38] A navy of ships - Literally, אני oni, a ship: in the parallel place, [2Chr 8:17], it is said that Hiram sent him אניות oniyoth, ships; but it does not appear that Solomon in this case built more than one ship, and this was manned principally by the Tyrians.

### Verse 28

[¶40] And they came to Ophir - No man knows certainly, to this day, where this Ophir was situated. There were two places of this name; one somewhere in India, beyond the Ganges, and another in Arabia, near the country of the Sabaeans, mentioned by Job, [Job 22:24] : Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust; and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. And [Job 28:16] : It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. Calmet places this country at the sources of the Euphrates and Tigris.

[¶41] But there are several reasons to prove that this was not the Ophir of the Bible, which it seems was so situated as to require a voyage of three years long to go out, load, and return. Mr. Bruce has discussed this subject at great length; see his Travels, vol. ii., chap. iv., p. 354, etc. He endeavors to prove

[¶42] 1. That Ezion-geber is situated on the Elanitic branch of the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea.

[¶43] 2. That Tharshish is Moka, near to Melinda, in the Indian Ocean, in about three degrees south latitude.

[¶44] 3. That Ophir lies somewhere in the land of Sofala, or in the vicinity of the Zimbeze river, opposite the island of Madagascar, where there have been gold and silver mines in great abundance from the remotest antiquity. And he proves,

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[¶0] 4. That no vessel could perform this voyage in less than Three years, because of the monsoons; that more time need not be employed, and that this is the precise time mentioned in [1Kgs 10:22].

[¶1] 5. That this is the country of the queen of Sheba, or Sabia, or Azeba, who on her visit to Solomon, brought him one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices and precious stones great store, [1Kgs 10:10]. And that gold, ivory, silver, etc., are the natural productions of this country.

[¶2] To illustrate and prove his positions he has given a map on a large scale, "showing the track of Solomon's fleet in their three years' voyage from the Elanitic Gulf to Ophir and Tharshish;" to which, and his description, I must refer the reader.

### Introduction

[¶4] The queen of Sheba visits Solomon, and brings rich presents; and tries him by hard questions, which he readily solves, [1Kgs 10:1-3]. She expresses great surprise at his wisdom, his buildings, his court, etc.; and praises God for placing him on the Jewish throne, [1Kgs 10:4-9]. She gives him rich presents, [1Kgs 10:10]. What the navy of Hiram brought from Ophir, [1Kgs 10:11], [1Kgs 10:12]. The queen of Sheba returns, [1Kgs 10:13]. Solomon's annual revenue, [1Kgs 10:14], [1Kgs 10:15]. He makes two hundred targets and three hundred shields of gold, [1Kgs 10:16], [1Kgs 10:17]. His magnificent ivory throne, [1Kgs 10:18-20]. His drinking vessels all of gold, [1Kgs 10:21]. What the navy of Tharshish brought every three years to Solomon, [1Kgs 10:22]. His great riches, numerous chariots, and horsemen, [1Kgs 10:23-27]. He brings chariots and horses out of Egypt, [1Kgs 10:28], [1Kgs 10:29].

### Verse 1

[¶6] When the queen of Sheba heard - As our Lord calls her queen of the south, ([Mat 12:42]), it is likely the name should be written Saba, Azab, or Azaba, all of which signify the south. She is called Balkis by the Arabians, but by the Abyssinians Maqueda. See the account at the end of this chapter, [1Kgs 10:29] (note).

[¶7] With hard questions - בחידות bechidoth; Septuagint, εν αινιγμασι, riddles. With parables and riddles, says the Arabic.

### Verse 2

[¶9] She came to Jerusalem with - spices, etc. - Those who contend that she was queen of the Sabaeans, a people of Arabia Felix, towards the southern extremity of the Red Sea, find several proofs of their opinion:

[¶10] 1. That the Sabaeans abounded in riches and spices.

[¶11] India mittit ebur, molles sua thura Sabaei "India furnishes ivory, and the effeminate Sabaeans their frankincense."

[¶12] Virg. Geor. i., ver. 57.

[¶13] And again: -

[¶14] Divisae arboribus patriae: sola India nigrum

[¶15] Fert ebenum; solis est thurea virga Sabaeis.

[¶16] Geor. ii., ver. 116.

[¶17] All sorts of trees their several countries know:

[¶18] Black ebon only will in India grow;

[¶19] And odorous frankincense on the Sabaean bough.

[¶20] Dryden. - Ubi templum illi centumque Sabaeo Thure calent arae.

[¶21] Where to her fame a hundred altars rise,

[¶22] And pour Sabaean odours to the skies.

[¶23] Pliny (Hist. Nat. lib. xii., c. 17) observes,

[¶24] Non alia ligni genera in usu sunt quam odorata; cibosque Sabaei coquunt thuris ligno; alii myrrhae. "The Sabaeans use odorous wood only, and even use the incense tree and myrrh to cook their victuals."

[¶25] 2. All ancient authors speak, not only of their odoriferous woods, but of their rich gold and silver mines, and of their precious stones. See Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvii., c. 6, etc.

[¶26] 3. It is also well known that the Sabaeans had queens for their sovereigns, and not kings. So Claudian, in Eutrop. lib. i. - Medis levibusque Sabaeis Imperat hic sexus, reginarumque sub armis Barbariae pars magna jacet.

[¶27] By this is meant, says Mr. Bruce, the country between the tropic and mountains of Abyssinia, the country of shepherds, from berber, a shepherd. And he contends that these Sabaeans were a distinct people from the Ethiopians and the Arabs, and that Saba was a distinct state.

### Verse 3

[¶29] Solomon told her all her questions - Riddles, problems, fables, apologues, etc., formed the principal part of the wisdom of the East; indeed they use and delight in them to the present day. See the case of Samson and his friends, [Jdg 14:12] (note), [Jdg 14:14] (note), and the notes there.

### Verse 4

[¶31] Had seen all Solomon's wisdom - By the answers which he gave to her subtle questions.

[¶32] And the house that he had built - Most probably his own house.

### Verse 5

[¶34] The meat of his table - The immense supply of all kinds of food daily necessary for the many thousands which were fed at and from his table. See [1Kgs 4:22-23] (note).

[¶35] And the sitting of his servants - The various orders and distinctions of his officers.

[¶36] The attendance of his ministers - See the account of these and their attendance, [1Kgs 4:1], etc.

[¶37] And their apparel - The peculiarity of their robes, and their splendor and costliness.

[¶38] And his cup-bearers - The original משקיו mashkaiv may as well be applied to his beverage, or to his drinking utensils, as to his cup-bearers.

[¶39] And his ascent by which he went up - It seems very strange that the steps to the temple should be such a separate matter of astonishment. The original is ועלתו אשר יעלה בית יהוה which all the versions have translated, And the holocausts which he offered in the house of the Lord. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, all express this sense: so does the German translation of Luther, from which, in this place, we have most pitifully departed: And seine Brandopfer, die er in dem Hause des Herrn opferte; "And his burnt-offering which he offered in the house of the Lord."

[¶40] There was no more spirit in her - She was overpowered with astonishment; she fainted. I have seen precisely the same effect produced; a lady who was herself an artist, viewing some exquisitely finished oriental paintings, was so struck with astonishment that she twice nearly fainted, and was obliged to leave the room. What happened to the queen of Sheba is a natural and not an uncommon effect which will be produced in a delicate sensible mind at the sight of rare and extraordinary productions of art.

[¶41] Of the profusion of Solomon's sacrifices we have already had proof, [1Kgs 8:63]; [1Kgs 9:25].

### Verse 8

[¶43] Happy are thy men - All these are very natural expressions from a person in her state of mind.

## 352. 1 Kings · 13 of 30

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### Verse 10

[¶1] A hundred and twenty talents of gold - The worth of these one hundred and twenty talents of gold, according to Mr. Reynolds, is equal to 843,905. 10s. 4 3/4d. of our British sterling. But the spices and precious stones might have been yet of more value. After this verse the 13th should be read, which is here most evidently misplaced; and then the account of the queen of Sheba will be concluded, and that of Solomon's revenue will stand without interruption.

### Verse 11

[¶3] Great plenty of almug trees - In the parallel place, [2Chr 9:10], [2Chr 9:11], these are called algum trees, the ם mem and the ג gimel being transposed; probably the latter is the more correct orthography. What the algum trees were we do not exactly know. The Vulgate calls it ligna thyina, the thya or lignum vitae wood; and Mr. Parkhurst thinks that the original אלגומים algumim, comes from אל al, not, and גם gem, to fill; because the lignum vitae is of so close a texture that it can imbibe no water, and cannot be affected by wet weather. The Septuagint translate it ξυλα πυκινα, pine timber; the Syriac kaise dakisotho, probably cypress wood, or what the translators render ligna brasilica; the Arabic translates coloured wood, and subjoins a paraphrase, for that wood was by nature painted with various colors. Perhaps the Arabic comes nearest the truth; wood shaded of different colors, such as the rose wood and such like, which are brought to us from various parts of the East Indies. The whole passage as it stands in the Arabic is this: "And the ships of Hiram brought gold from the land of Hind, (India), and they carried also much coloured wood, (but this wood is naturally painted of various colors), and very precious jewels. And Solomon put some of that same painted wood which was brought to him in the house of the Lord, and in his own house; and with it he adorned them." And for inlaying and veneering nothing can be finer than this wood.

### Verse 13

[¶5] All her desire whatsoever she asked - Some imagine she desired progeny from the wise king of Israel; and all the traditions concerning her state that she had a son by Solomon called Menilek, who was brought up at the Israelitish court, succeeded his mother in the kingdom of Saba, and introduced among his subjects the Jewish religion. See at the end of the chapter, [1Kgs 10:29] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶7] The weight of gold - was six hundred threescore and six talents - This would amount in our money to 4,683, 675 12s. 8 1/2d. sterling.

[¶8] This seems to be what he got annually of bullion; but independently of this, he had tribute of all the kings of Arabia, duties from merchantmen, and the traffic of spice merchants; see [1Kgs 10:25].

### Verse 16

[¶10] Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold - I have already conjectured that the צנה tsinnah might resemble the Highland targe or target, with a dagger projecting from the Umbo or center.

### Verse 17

[¶12] He made three hundred shields - The מגן magen was a large shield by which the whole body was protected.

[¶13] Mr. Reynolds computes that the two hundred targets, on each of which were employed three hundred shekels of gold, were worth 28,131 16s. 9 1/2d.

[¶14] And the three hundred shields, in forming each of which three pounds of gold were employed, were worth 210,976 7s. 7d.

### Verse 19

[¶16] The throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side - This description seems to indicate that the throne was in the form of one of our ancient round-topped, two-armed chairs. This throne or chair of state was raised on a platform, the ascent to which consisted of six steps. What we call stays is in the Hebrew ידת yadoth, hands, which serves to confirm the conjecture above.

### Verse 22

[¶18] A navy of Tharshish - For probable conjectures concerning this place, and the three years' voyage, see at the end of this, [1Kgs 10:29] (note) and the preceding chapter, 1 Kings 9 (note).

[¶19] Apes - קפים kophim; probably a species of monkey rather than ape.

### Verse 23

[¶21] Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches - Mr. Reynolds, stating the yearly tribute of Solomon, 666 talents of gold, at about four times as much as his father left him, hence reckons that he had 4,909, 371 8s. 8d. each year, 94,410 19s. 9 1/4d. per week, 13,487 5s. 8d. per day, taking each day, week, and year, one with another.

### Verse 25

[¶23] They brought every man his present - This means tribute; and it shows us of what sort that tribute was, viz., vessels of gold and silver, probably ingots; garments of very rich stuffs; armor, for little of this kind was ever made in Judea; spices, which doubtless sold well in that country; horses, which were very rare; and mules, the most necessary animal for all the purposes of life.

### Verse 26

[¶25] He had a thousand and four hundred chariots - See the note on [1Kgs 4:26].

### Verse 27

[¶27] Made silver - as stones - He destroyed its value by making it so exceedingly plenty.

[¶28] As the sycamore trees - He planted many cedars, and doubtless had much cedar wood imported; so that it became as common as the sycamore trees, which appear to have grown there in great abundance. This is considered to be a tree that partakes of the nature of the fig tree, and of the mulberry. Of the former it has the fruit, and of the latter the leaves; that is, the fruit had a considerable resemblance to the fig, and the leaf to that of the mulberry tree: hence its name sycamore, from the Greek συκον, a fig, and μορεα, a mulberry tree.

### Verse 28

[¶30] Horses brought out of Egypt - It is thought that the first people who used horses in war were the Egyptians; and it is well known that the nations who knew the use of this creature in battle had greatly the advantage of those who did not. God had absolutely prohibited horses to be imported or used; but in many things Solomon paid little attention to the Divine command.

[¶31] And linen yarn - The original word, מקוה mikveh, is hard to be understood, if it be not indeed a corruption.

[¶32] The versions are all puzzled with it: the Vulgate and Septuagint make it a proper name: "And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and from Coa, or Tekoa." Some think it signifies a tribute, thus Bochart: "They brought horses to Solomon out of Egypt; and as to the tribute, the farmers of this prince received it at a price." They farmed the tribute, gave so much annually for it, taking the different kinds to themselves, and giving a round sum for the whole.

[¶33] Some suppose that Mikveh signifies the string or cord by which one horse's head is tied to the tail of another; and that the meaning is, Solomon brought droves of horses, thus tied, out of Egypt.

[¶34] Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, in his comment on the parallel place, [2Chr 1:14], says that מקוה mikveh signifies a collection or drove of horses, or what the Germans call stutte, a stud. He observes on that place, "That he has heard that there was a company of merchants in Egypt, who bought horses from the Egyptians at a certain price, on condition that no person should be permitted to bring a horse out of Egypt but through them." Houbigant supposes the place to be corrupt, and that for מקוה mikveh we should read מרכבה mercabah, chariots: "And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and chariots; and the king's merchants received the chariots at a price: and a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver," etc. This makes a very good and consistent sense; but none of the versions acknowledged it, nor is there any various reading here in any of the MSS. yet collated.

[¶35] If we understand it of thread, it may refer to the byssus or fine flax for which Egypt was famous; but I do not see on what authority we translate it linen thread. Bochart's opinion appears to me the most probable, as the text now stands; but the charge contended for by Houbigant makes the text far more simple and intelligible.

### Verse 29

[¶37] A chariot came up - for six hundred shekels - This was the ordinary price of a chariot, as a hundred and fifty shekels were for a horse.

[¶38] Kings of the Hittites - These must have been the remains of the original inhabitants of Canaan, who had gone to some other country, probably Syria, and formed themselves into a principality there. It seems that neither horses nor chariots came out of Egypt but by means of Solomon's servants.

### Introduction

[¶40] Solomon's attachment to strange women, and consequent idolatry, [1Kgs 11:1], [1Kgs 11:2]. Number of his wives and concubines, [1Kgs 11:3]. In his old age they turn away his heart from God, [1Kgs 11:4]. He builds temples to idols, burns incense and sacrifices to them, [1Kgs 11:5-8]. The Lord is angry with him, and threatens to deprive him of the kingdom, but will leave one tribe for David's sake, [1Kgs 11:9-13]. The Lord stirs up Hadad, the Edomite, to be his enemy; the history of this man, [1Kgs 11:14-22]. He stirs another adversary against him, Rezon the son of Eliadah. He and Hadad plague Israel, [1Kgs 11:23-25]. Jeroboam also becomes his enemy, and the reason why, [1Kgs 11:26-28]. Ahijah the prophet meets Jeroboam, and promises, in the name of the Lord, that God will rend Israel from the family of Solomon, and give him ten tribes, [1Kgs 11:29-39]. Solomon, hearing of this, seeks to put Jeroboam to death, who escapes to Egypt, where he continues till the death of Solomon, [1Kgs 11:40]. Solomon dies, after having reigned over Israel forty years; and his son Rehoboam reigns in his stead, [1Kgs 11:41-43].

### Verse 1

[¶42] Many strange women - That is, idolaters; together with the daughter of Pharaoh: she was also one of those strange women and an idolater. But many think she became a proselyte to the Jewish religion; of this there is no evidence.

### Verse 3

[¶44] He had seven hundred wives, princesses - How he could get so many of the blood royal from the different surrounding nations, is astonishing; but probably the daughters of noblemen, generals, etc., may be included.

[¶45] And three hundred concubines - These were wives of the second rank, who were taken according to the usages of those times; but their offspring could not inherit. Sarah was to Abraham what these seven hundred princesses were to Solomon; and the three hundred concubines stood in the same relation to the Israelitish king as Hagar and Keturah did to the patriarch.

## 353. 1 Kings · 14 of 30

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[¶0] Here then are one thousand wives to form this great bad man's harem! Was it possible that such a person could have any piety to God, who was absorbed by such a number of women? We scarcely allow a man to have the fear of God who has a second wife or mistress; in what state then must the man be who has one thousand of them? We may endeavor to excuse all this by saying, "It was a custom in the East to have a multitude of women, and that there were many of those whom Solomon probably never saw," etc., etc. But was there any of them whom he might not have seen? Was it for reasons of state, or merely court splendor, that he had so many? How then is it said that he loved many strange women? - that he clave to them in love? And did he not give them the utmost proofs of his attachment when he not only tolerated their iniquitous worship in the land, but built temples to their idols, and more, burnt incense to them himself? As we should not condemn what God justifies, so we should not justify what God condemns. He went after Ashtaroth, the impure Venus of the Sidonians; after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; after Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites; and after the murderous Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. He seems to have gone as far in iniquity as it was possible.

### Verse 7

[¶2] The hill that is before Jerusalem - This was the Mount of Olives.

### Verse 9

[¶4] The Lord was angry with Solomon - Had not this man's delinquency been strongly marked by the Divine disapprobation, it would have had a fatal effect on the morals of mankind. Vice is vice, no matter who commits it. And God is as much displeased with sin in Solomon as he can be with it in the most profligate, uneducated wretch. And although God sees the same sin in precisely the same degree of moral turpitude as to the act itself, yet there may be circumstances which greatly aggravate the offense, and subject the offender to greater punishment. Solomon was wise; he knew better; his understanding showed him the vanity as well as the wickedness of idolatry. God had appeared unto him twice, and thus given him the most direct proof of his being and of his providence. The promises of God had been fulfilled to him in the most remarkable manner, and in such a way as to prove that they came by a Divine counsel, and not by any kind of casualty. All these were aggravations of Solomon's crimes, as to their demerit; for the same crime has, in every case, the same degree of moral turpitude in the sight of God; but circumstances may so aggravate, as to require the offender to be more grievously punished; so the punishment may be legally increased where the crime is the same. Solomon deserved more punishment for his worship of Ashtaroth than any of the Sidonians did, though they performed precisely the same acts. The Sidonians had never known the true God; Solomon had been fully acquainted with him.

### Verse 11

[¶6] Forasmuch as this is done of thee - Was not this another warning from the Lord? And might not Solomon have yet recovered himself? Was there not mercy in this message which he might have sought and found?

### Verse 13

[¶8] Will give one tribe - for David my servant's sake - The line of the Messiah must be preserved. The prevailing lion must come out of the tribe of Judah: not only the tribe must be preserved, but the regal line and the regal right. All this must be done for the true David's sake: and this was undoubtedly what God had in view by thus miraculously preserving the tribe of Judah and the royal line, in the midst of so general a defection.

[¶9] And for Jerusalem's sake - As David was a type of the Messiah, so was Jerusalem a type of the true Church: therefore the Old Jerusalem must be preserved in the hands of the tribe of Judah, till the true David should establish the New Jerusalem in the same land, and in the same city. And what a series of providences did it require to do all these things!

### Verse 14

[¶11] The Lord stirred up an adversary - A satan, שטן. When he sent to Hiram to assist him in building the temple of the Lord, he could say, There was no satan, see [1Kgs 5:4]; and all his kingdom was in peace and security, - every man dwelt under his vine, and under his fig tree, [1Kgs 4:25] : but now that he had turned away from God, three satans rise up against him at once, Hadad, Rezon, and Jeroboam.

### Verse 15

[¶13] Was gone up to bury the slain - The slain Edomites; for Joab had in the course of six months exterminated all the males, except Hadad and his servants, who escaped to Egypt. Instead of bury the slain, the Targum has to take the spoils of the slain.

### Verse 17

[¶15] Hadad being yet a little child - נער קטן naar katan, a little boy; one who was apprehensive of his danger, and could, with his father's servants, make his escape: not an infant.

### Verse 18

[¶17] These arose out of Midian - They at first retired to Midian, which lay to the southwest of the Dead Sea. Not supposing themselves in safety there, they went afterwards to Paran in the south of Idumea, and getting a number of persons to join them in Paran, they went straight to Egypt, where we find Hadad became a favourite with Pharaoh, who gave him his sister-in-law to wife; and incorporated him and his family with his own.

### Verse 22

[¶19] Let me go in any wise - It does not appear that he avowed his real intention to Pharaoh; for at this time there must have been peace between Israel and Egypt, Solomon having married the daughter of Pharaoh.

### Verse 23

[¶21] Rezon the son of Eliadah - Thus God fulfilled his threatening by the prophet Nathan: If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; [2Sam 7:14].

### Verse 24

[¶23] And reigned in Damascus - Rezon was one of the captains of Hadadezer, whom David defeated. It seems that at this time Rezon escaped with his men; and; having lived, as is supposed, some time by plunder, he seized on Damascus, and reigned there till David took Damascus, when he subdued Syria, and drove out Rezon. But after Solomon's defection from God, Rezon, finding that God had departed from Israel, recovered Damascus; and joining with Hadad, harassed Solomon during the remaining part of his reign. But some think that Hadad and Rezon were the same person.

### Verse 26

[¶25] Jeroboam the son of Nebat - From the context we learn that Jeroboam while a young man was employed by Solomon to superintend the improvements and buildings at Millo, and had so distinguished himself there by his industry and good conduct as to attract general notice, and to induce Solomon to set him over all the laborers employed in that work, belonging to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, called here the house of Joseph. At first it appears that Solomon employed none of the Israelites in any drudgery; but it is likely that, as he grew profane, he grew tyrannical and oppressive: and at the works of Millo he changed his conduct; and there, in all probability, were the seeds of disaffection sown. And Jeroboam, being a clever and enterprising man, knew well how to avail himself of the general discontent.

### Verse 29

[¶27] When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem - On what errand he was going out of Jerusalem, we know not.

[¶28] Ahijah the Shilonite - He was one of those who wrote the history of the reign of Solomon, as we find from [2Chr 9:29], and it is supposed that it was by him God spake twice to Solomon; and particularly delivered the message which we find in this chapter, [1Kgs 11:11-13].

### Verse 31

[¶30] Take thee ten pieces - The garment was the symbol of the kingdom of Israel; the twelve pieces the symbol of the twelve tribes; the ten pieces given to Jeroboam, of the ten tribes which should be given to him, and afterwards form the kingdom of Israel, ruling in Samaria, to distinguish it from the kingdom of Judah, ruling in Jerusalem.

### Verse 36

[¶32] That David my servant may have a light alway - That his posterity may never fail, and the regal line never become extinct. This, as we have already seen, was in reference to the Messiah. He was not only David's light, but he was a light to enlighten the Gentiles.

### Verse 37

[¶34] According to all that thy soul desireth - It appears from this that Jeroboam had affected the kingdom, and was seeking for an opportunity to seize on the government. God now tells him, by his prophet, what he shall have, and what he shall not have, in order to prevent him from attempting to seize on the whole kingdom, to the prejudice of the spiritual seed of David.

### Verse 38

[¶36] And build thee a sure house - He would have continued his posterity on the throne of Israel, had he not by his wickedness forfeited the promises of God, and thrown himself out of the protection of the Most High.

### Verse 39

[¶38] But not for ever - They shall be in affliction and distress till the Messiah come, who shall sit on the throne of David to order it and establish it in judgment and justice for ever. Jarchi says, on this verse, "When the Messiah comes, the kingdom shall be restored to the house of David.

### Verse 40

[¶40] Sought - to kill Jeroboam - He thought by this means to prevent the punishment due to his crimes.

[¶41] Unto Shishak king of Egypt - This is the first time we meet with the proper name of an Egyptian king, Pharaoh being the common name for all the sovereigns of that country. Some suppose that this Shishak was the Sesostris so renowned for his wars and his conquests. But it is likely that this king lived long before Solomon's time.

### Verse 41

[¶43] The book of the acts of Solomon? - These acts were written by Nathan the prophet, Ahijah the Shilonite, and Iddo the seer; as we learn from [2Chr 9:29]. Probably from these were the Books of Kings and Chronicles composed; but the original documents are long since lost.

## 354. 1 Kings · 15 of 30

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### Verse 42

[¶1] Solomon reigned - forty years - Josephus says fourscore years, which is sufficiently absurd. Calmet supposes him to have been eighteen years old when he came to the throne, and that he died A.M. 3029, aged fifty-eight years; and, when we consider the excess in which he lived, and the criminal passions which he must have indulged among his thousand wives, and their idolatrous and impure worship, this life was as long as could be reasonably expected.

### Verse 43

[¶3] Solomon slept with his fathers - He died in almost the flower of his age, and, it appears unregretted. His government was no blessing to Israel; and laid, by its exactions and oppressions, the foundation of that schism which was so fatal to the unhappy people of Israel and Judah, and was the most powerful procuring cause of the miseries which have fallen upon the Jewish people from that time until now.

[¶4] I. It may now be necessary to give a more distinct outline of the character of this king.

[¶5] 1. In his infancy and youth he had the high honor of being peculiarly loved by the Lord; and he had a name given him by the express authority of God himself, which to himself and others must ever call to remembrance this peculiar favor of the Most High.

[¶6] There is little doubt that he was a most amiable youth, and his whole conduct appeared to justify the high expectations that were formed of him.

[¶7] 2. He ascended the Israelitish throne at a time the most favorable for the cultivation of those arts so necessary to the comfort and improvement of life. Among all the surrounding nations Israel had not one open enemy; there was neither adversary, nor evil occurrent, [1Kgs 5:4]. He had rest on every side, and from the universal and profound peace which he enjoyed, the very important name Jedidiah, "beloved of the Lord" which was given him by Divine authority was changed to that of Solomon, the Peaceable, [2Sam 12:24], [2Sam 12:25], which at once indicated the state of the country, and the character of his own mild, pacific mind.

[¶8] 3. To the dying charge of his pious father relative to the building a temple for the Lord, he paid the most punctual attention. He was fond of architecture, as we may learn from the account that is given of his numerous buildings and improvements; and yet it does not appear that he at all excelled in architectural knowledge. Hiram, the amiable king of Tyre, and his excellent workmen, were the grand directors and executors of the whole. By his public buildings he doubtless rendered Jerusalem highly respectable; but his passion for such works was not on the whole an advantage to his subjects, as it obliged him to have recourse to a burdensome system of taxation, which at first oppressed and exasperated his people, and ultimately led to the fatal separation of Israel and Judah.

[¶9] 4. That he improved the trade and commerce of his country is sufficiently evident: by his public buildings vast multitudes were employed; and knowledge in the most beneficial arts must have been greatly increased, and the spirit of industry highly cultivated.

[¶10] Commerce does not appear to have been much regarded, if even known, in Israel, previously to the days of Solomon. The most celebrated maritime power then in the world was that of the Tyrians. With great address and prudence he availed himself of their experience and commercial knowledge, sent his ships in company with theirs to make long and dangerous but lucrative voyages, and, by getting their sailors aboard of his own vessels, gained possession of their nautical skill, and also a knowledge of those safe ports in which they harboured, and of the rich countries with which they traded. His friendly alliance with the king of Tyre was a source of advantage to Israel, and might have been much more so had it been prudently managed. But after the time of Solomon we find it scarcely mentioned, and therefore it does not appear that the Jews continued to follow a track which had been so successfully opened to them; their endless contentions, and the ruinous wars of the two kingdoms, paralyzed all their commercial exertions: till at length all the maritime skill which they had acquired from the expert and industrious Tyrians, dwindled down to the puny art of managing a few boats on the internal lakes of their own country. Had it not been for the destructive feuds that reigned between the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, that country might have become one of the best and richest maritime powers of either Asia or Europe. Their situation was grand and commanding, but their execrable jealousies deprived them of its advantages, exposed them to the aggressions of their enemies, and finally brought them to ruin.

[¶11] 5. I have intimated that Solomon was truly pious in his youth; of this there can be no doubt; it was on this account that the Lord loved him, and his zeal in the cause of true religion, and high respect for the honor of God, are strong indications of such a frame of mind. Had we no other proof of this than his prayer for wisdom, and his prayer at the dedication of the temple, it would put the matter for ever beyond dispute, independently of the direct testimonies we have from God himself on the subject. He loved the worship and ordinances of God, and was a pattern to his subjects of the strictest attention to religious duties. He even exceeded the requisitions of the law in the multitude of his sacrifices, and was a careful observer of those annual festivals so necessary to preserve the memory of the principal facts of the Israelitish history, and those miraculous interventions of God in the behalf of that people.

[¶12] 6. There can be no doubt that Solomon possessed the knowledge of governing well; of the importance of this knowledge he was duly aware, and this was the wisdom that he so particularly sought from God. "I am," said he, "but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in; and thy servant is in the midst of a great people that cannot be counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, and that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing;" [1Kgs 3:8-10]. This wisdom he did receive from God; and he is here a pattern to all kings, who, as they are the vicegerents of the Lord, should earnestly seek that wisdom which is from above, that they may be able to know how to govern the people intrusted to their care; because, in every civil government, there are a multitude of things on which a king may be called to decide, concerning which neither the laws, nor the commonly received political maxims by which, in particular cases, the conduct of a governor is to be regulated, can give any specific direction.

[¶13] 7. But the wisdom of Solomon was not confined to the art of government, he appears to have possessed a universal knowledge. The sages of the East were particularly distinguished by their accurate knowledge of human nature, from which they derived innumerable maxims for the regulation of man in every part of his moral conduct, and in all the relations in which he could possibly be placed. Hence their vast profusion of maxims, proverbs, instructive fables, apologues, enigmas, etc.; great collections of which still remain locked up in the languages of Asia, particularly the Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian; besides those which, by the industry of learned men, have been translated and published in the languages of Europe. Much of this kind appears in the books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha, and in the very excellent collections of D'Herbelot, Visdelou, and Galand, in the Bibliotheque Orientale. That Solomon possessed this wisdom in a very high degree, the book of Proverbs bears ample testimony, leaving Ecclesiastes for the present out of the consideration.

[¶14] 8. As a poet, Solomon stands deservedly high, though of his one thousand and five poems not one, except the book of Song of Solomon, remains. This ode alone, taken in a literary point of view, is sufficient to raise any man to a high degree of poetic fame. It is a most interesting drama, where what Racine terms the genie createur, the creative genius, every where appears; in which the imagery, which is always borrowed from nature, is impressive and sublime; the characters accurately distinguished and defined, the strongest passion, in its purest and most vigorous workings, elegantly portrayed; and in which allusions the most delicate, to transactions of the tenderest complexion, while sufficiently described to make them intelligible, are nevertheless hidden from the eye of the gross vulgar by a tissue as light as a gossamer covering. Such is the nature of this inimitable ode, which, had it not been perverted by weak but well designing men to purposes to which it can never legitimately apply, would have ranked with the highest productions of the Epithalamian kind that ever came from the pen of man. But alas! for this exquisite poem, its true sense has been perverted; it has been forced to speak a language that was never intended, a language far from being honorable to the cause which it was brought to support, and subversive of the unity and simplicity of the ode itself. By a forced mode of interpretation it has been hackneyed to death, and allegorized to destruction. It is now little read, owing to the injudicious manner in which it has been interpreted.

[¶15] It was scarcely to be expected that the son of such a father should not, independently of inspiration, have caught a portion of the pure poetic fire. Though the spirit of poetry, strictly speaking, is not transmissible by ordinary generation, yet most celebrated poets have had poetical parents; but in many cases the talent has degenerated into that of music, and the spirit of poetry in the sire has become a mere musical instrument in the hands of the son. This however was not the case with the son of David, for though vastly inferior to his father in this gift, he had nevertheless the spirit and powers of a first-rate poet.

[¶16] 9. His knowledge in natural history must have been very extensive; it is said, "He spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spake also of beasts, of fowls, of reptiles, and of fishes;" [1Kgs 4:33]. All this knowledge has perished; his countrymen, the prophets excepted, were without taste, and took no pains to preserve what they did not relish. A man of such mental power and comprehension under the direction of Divine light must have spoken of things as they are. His doctrine therefore of generation and corruption, of nutrition, vegetation, production, aliments, tribes, classes, families, and habits, relative to the different subjects in botany, zoology, ornithology, entomology, and ichthyology, which are all evidently referred to here, must have been at once correct, instructive, and delightful. I have already lamented the labor it has cost our Rays, Tourneforts, Linnes, Buffons, Willoughbys, Swammerdams, and Bloschs, to regain those sciences which possibly were possessed in their highest degree by the Israelitish king, and which, alas! are all lost, except a few traces in the book of Ecclesiastes, if that work can be traced to so remote an age as that of Solomon.

[¶17] 10. As a moral philosopher the author of the book of Ecclesiastes occupies no mean rank. At present we may consider this work as a production of Solomon, though this is disputed, and the question shall be considered in its proper place. This book contains such a fund of wisdom, applied to the regulation of life, and all referred to the proper end, that it most deservedly occupies a high place in Biblical ethics, and deserves the closest attention of every reader.

[¶18] 11. The proofs of Solomon's vast wisdom, as brought into practical effect, lie in a very small compass, because his history in the Bible is short, his own writings in general lost, and the annals of his reign, as compiled by Nathan the prophet, Ahijah the Shilonite, and Iddo the seer, long since perished. The decision between the two harlots is almost the only instance.

[¶19] Of his interesting interview with the queen of Sheba, and the discussions into which they entered, we have only the fact stated, without the least detail of particulars. Those who have read the Concessus of Harari, or the Heetopadesa, of Veeshnoo Sarma, will regret that the conversations of the wisest of men, with probably the most intelligent of women, should have been lost to the world, which may be reasonably concluded to have been as far superior to the excellent works above referred to, as they are beyond the maxims of Rochefoucault, and the sayings of Madame Maintenon.

[¶20] 12. The wisdom of the East has ever been celebrated; and if we may believe their own best writers, much of what they possess has been derived from Solomon. Encomiums of his wisdom are everywhere to be met with in the Asiatic writers; and his name is famous in every part of the East. Most of the oriental historians, poets, and philosophers, mention Soliman ben Daoud, "Solomon the son of David." They relate that he ascended the throne of Israel at the death of his father, when he was only twelve years of age, and that God subjected to his government, not only men, but good and evil spirits, the fowls of the air, and the winds of heaven. They agree with the sacred writers in stating that he employed seven years in building the temple at Jerusalem.

[¶21] Solomon's seal, and Solomon's ring, are highly celebrated by them, and to these they attribute a great variety of magical effects. They state that without his ring he had not the science of government; and having once lost it, he did not remount his throne for forty days, as being destitute of that wisdom without which he could not decide according to truth and equity. But these things are probably spoken allegorically by their oldest writers. Of the throne of this prince they speak in terms of the most profound admiration. I have met with the most minute description of its magnificence, its ivory, gold, and jewels, and an estimate of its cost in lacs of rupees! According to those writers it had 12,000 seats of gold on the right hand for patriarchs and prophets, and as many on the left for the doctors of the law, who assisted him in the distribution of justice.

[¶22] In various parts of the Koran Solomon is spoken of in terms of the highest respect, and is represented as a true believer; though, through the envy of demons, magic and sorcery were attributed to him. Mohammed speaks of this in the second surat of his Koran. The story, in sum, is this: The devils, by God's permission, having tempted Solomon without success, made use of the following stratagem to blast his reputation: they wrote several books of magic, and hid them under his throne; and, after his death, told the chief men that if they wished to know by what means Solomon had obtained absolute dominion over men, genii, and the winds, they should dig under his throne. This they did, and found the aforesaid books full of impious superstitions. The better sort would not learn these incantations; but the common people did, and published them as the genuine works of Solomon. From this imputation the Koran justifies him, by saying, Solomon was not an unbeliever, surat 2. From the wonder-working signet and ring of the Asiatics came the Clavicle of Solomon, so celebrated among the Jewish rabbins, and the Christian occult philosophers; for such things found in Cornelius Agrippa, and such like writers, are not late inventions, but have descended from a very remote antiquity, as the Koran and the various commentators on it sufficiently prove. See Calmet and Sale.

[¶23] The oriental traditions concerning this prince have been embodied in the Soliman Nameh of Ferdusi, in Persian, and in the Soliman Nameh of Uscobi, in Turkish. D'Herbelot mentions one of these histories in Persian verse, containing 1571 couplets.

[¶24] Indeed, the traditions concerning the wonderful knowledge of Solomon, which abound so much in the East, are at least an indirect proof that many things relative to this prince have been preserved among them which are not mentioned in our sacred books, but which they have blended so miserably with fables that it is impossible now to distinguish the precious from the vile.

[¶25] Works attributed to Solomon have existed in different ages, from his time till the present. Eusebius states that Hezekiah, finding the Jews putting too much confidence in the books of Solomon, relative to cures and different occult arts, ordered them to be suppressed. Josephus positively says that Solomon did compose books of charms to cure diseases, and conjurations to expel demons, Antiq., lib. viii., cap. 2. He states farther, that a Jew named Eliezar cured several demoniacs in the presence of Vespasian, by reciting the charms which had been invented by Solomon. R. D. Kimchi speaks of a book of Solomon entitled The Cure of Diseases, which Genebrard supposes to be the same work of which Josephus speaks. And Origen speaks of conjurations which were used by the Jews in his time, and which they professed to derive from the books of Solomon.

[¶26] There are still extant books of this kind attributed to Solomon, such as The Enchantments, The Clavicle, The Ring, The Hygromantia, The New Moons, and The Shadows of Ideas; but these, as they now stand, are the inventions of quacks and impostors, and entitled to no regard. If there were any books containing the wisdom of Solomon, they are either irrecoverably lost, or exist in mutilated fragments among the Asiatic sages; and are disfigured by being connected with improbable tales, and pretended mantras or charms.

[¶27] II. Hitherto we have looked only at the bright side of Solomon's character: we must now take a much less satisfactory view of this singular man; one in whom every thing great, glorious, wise, and holy, and every thing little, mean, foolish and impious, predominated by turns. He forsook the God of his mercies in a great variety of ways.

[¶28] 1. Whatever may be thought of the step in a political point of view, he most assuredly went out of the way of God's providence, and acted contrary to his law, in making affinity with Pharaoh's daughter. The sacred writers frequently refer to this; and it is never mentioned with approbation: it is rather associated with circumstances that place it in a reprehensible point of view. She was doubtless an idolater; and the question of her becoming a proselyte is far from being satisfactorily settled. I believe she was the first means of drawing off his heart from the true God.

[¶29] 2. His expensive buildings obliging him to have recourse to a system of oppressive taxation, was another flaw in his character. Though with great zeal and honorable industry, and at great expense, he built a temple for the Lord, which he completed in seven years, yet the expense here was little in comparison of what was incurred by his own house, called the house of the forest of Lebanon, in which he spent incredible sums, and consumed nearly thirteen years; almost twice the time employed in building the temple at Jerusalem. This would have had no evil operation provided he had not been obliged to impose heavy taxes on his subjects, which produced an almost universal disaffection. Add to this, he had a most expensive household; one thousand women, part wives, part mistresses, would require immense riches to support their pomp and gratify their ambition. The people therefore justly complained of an establishment which, notwithstanding the riches brought into the country, must be both odious and oppressive.

[¶30] 3. He began his reign by an inauspicious act, the death of his brother Adonijah. This was a sin against God and nature: and no art of man can ever wash out its guilt. If state policy required it, which is very questionable, what had that to do with the feelings of humanity, and the love of God? On no pretense whatever is Solomon justified in this act.

[¶31] 4. His inordinate love of women. He had no doubt formed matrimonial alliances with all kingdoms and neighboring states, by taking their sisters and daughters to be his wives, to the fearful amount of no less than seven hundred! Politicians may endeavor to justify these acts by asserting, that in the Asiatic countries they were matters of a sound policy, rather than an argument of the prevalence of an irregular and unbridled passion. Let this stand for its value; but what can such apologists say for the additional three hundred concubines, for the taking of whom no such necessity can be pleaded? But even allowing that state policy might require such extensive alliances, what are we to say to the flagrant breaches of a most positive law of God? Most solemnly and most authoritatively had he said that his people should not give their daughters to the heathen, nor take the daughters of the heathen to be their wives; lest they should turn their hearts away from serving the Lord. In the face of this most positive declaration, Solomon took wives of the most idolatrous of the surrounding nations; who succeeded, according to what was foretold in turning his heart away from God.

[¶32] 5. He became an idolater. He worshipped "Ashtaroth, the Venus of the Sidonians; Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites; and Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon." He did more: he built a temple to each of these; "and to all the gods of all his strange wives which burned incense, and sacrificed unto their gods," [1Kgs 11:5-8].

[¶33] 6. By this time we may suppose that the light of God had entirely departed from his mind. He who knew so well the true God, now served him not; or, if he did, it was in conjunction with those idols, thus bringing the Supreme Being on a level with demons, or the figments of impure hearts and disordered fancies. We need not wonder at the tale of the mighty Samson betraying his life's secret in the lap of Delilah; or of the unconquerable Hercules handling the distaff among the maids of Omphale, queen of Lydia; when we see the son of David, the once well-beloved of the Lord, the wisest of human beings, for the love of his millenary of wives and concubines, erecting temples to devils, and burning incense to them that were no gods; not considering that an idol is nothing in the world. To what an indescribable state of blindness and fatuity must this man have been brought, before he could have been capable of such acts as these! O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou fallen!

[¶34] 7. I have already hinted that Solomon's oppressive taxation laid the foundation of that discontent which shortly after his death produced the separation of Israel and Judah; also the long and ruinous wars which drenched these states in blood: and this was doubtless the cause that ten-twelfths of the Jewish people became idolaters; which crime was punished, by the just judgments of God, by the Babylonish captivity, which lasted seventy years; and by the carrying away of the ten Israelitish tribes by the Assyrians, who are lost from the map of the universe, and no longer numbered among the children of men!

[¶35] 8. What greatly aggravates the whole of this most dismal tale is, that this strange defection from God, truth, reason, and common sense, was persisted in to his old age; or that in his old age, meaning undoubtedly his latter days, his wives turned away his heart from God. But his idolatry must have been of many years' standing; he meddled with it in his connection with the princes of Egypt; each of his idolatrous wives in succession increased the propensity: to chastise him for this very idolatry the Lord stirred up an adversary unto him, Hadad, the Edomite, and Rezon, the son of Eliadah, who was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, [1Kgs 11:14-25], which surely intimates that this idolatry was not the sin merely of his old age; as to chastise him for it Rezon was an adversary to Israel all his days. And as Solomon reigned forty years, we may fairly presume that a principal part of that time was spent in idolatrous practices.

[¶36] 9. This dismal account has a more dismal close still; for, in the same place in which we are informed of his apostasy, we are informed of his death, without the slightest intimation that he ever repented and turned to God. It is true that what is wanting in fact is supplied by conjecture; for it is firmly believed that "he did repent, and wrote the book of Ecclesiastes after his conversion, which is a decided proof of his repentance." I am sorry I cannot strengthen this opinion; of which I find not the shadow of a proof.

[¶37] 1. The book of Ecclesiastes, though it speaks much of the vanity of the creatures, yet speaks little or nothing of the vanity or sin of idolatry.

[¶38] 2. It is not the language of a man who was recovering from a state of the most awful backsliding. Is there any direct confession of sin in it? Is there any thing in it like the penitential confessions of his father, or like the lamentations of Jeremiah? Is there any where to be heard in it the sighing of a broken heart, or strong crying and tears to deprecate the justice and implore the mercy of a deeply offended God? Does it any where exhibit the language of a penitent, or expressions suitable to the state and circumstances of this supposed penitent king of Israel? Excellent as it is in its kind, is it any thing more than a valuable collection of experimental ethics, relative to the emptiness of the creature, and the folly of earthly pursuits and worldly anxieties?

[¶39] 3. Nor is it even past doubt that Solomon wrote this book: it certainly does in several places bear evidences of times posterior to those of Solomon. Eminent scholars have discerned a deterioration in the style from the pure classical Hebrew, with an admixture of exotic terms that did not exist in the Hebrew language previously to the Babylonish captivity. But supposing that they are mistaken here, I still contend that it is not the language of a penitent soul.

[¶40] 4. It has been supposed, that, as Solomon was a type of Christ, it is not likely that he has finally perished. To this I answer, (1). I know not that Solomon was a type of Christ. The reference to [Sol 3:7]; [Sol 8:11], [Sol 8:12], is to me no proof whatever of the point. (2). Were it even otherwise, this would be no proof of his repentance, when the Scriptures are silent on the subject. The brazen serpent was a type of Christ, [Joh 3:14], and was held in great veneration for a considerable time among the Jews; but when it became an incitement to idolatry, it was called nehushtan, a brazen trifle, taken down, and destroyed; [2Kgs 18:4]. Typical persons and typical things may perish as well as others; the antitype alone will infallibly remain.

[¶41] 5. Finally, there seems every evidence that he died in his sins. His crimes were greatly aggravated: he forsook the Lord, who had appeared to him twice; his wives turned away his heart in his old age: there is not a single testimony in the Old or New Testament that intimates he died in a safe state. That awful denunciation of Divine justice stands point blank in the way of all contrary suppositions: "If thou forsake the Lord, he will cast thee off for ever," [1Chr 28:9]. He did forsake the Lord; and he forsook him in his very last days; and there is no evidence that he ever again clave to him. Ergo.

[¶42] Reader, let him that standeth take heed lest he fall; not only foully but finally. Certainly, unconditional final perseverance will find little support in the case of Solomon. He was once most incontrovertibly in grace. He lost that grace and sinned most grievously against God. He was found in this state in his old age. He died, as far as the Scripture informs us, without repentance. Even the doubtfulness in which the bare letter of the Scripture leaves the eternal state of this man, is a blast of lightning to the syren song of "Once in grace, and still in grace;" "Once a child, and a child for ever."

[¶43] I shall close these observations with the account given by Abul Farage, an Arabic writer of the thirteenth century, in his work entitled The History of the Dynasties, p. 55. "But in this Solomon transgressed, because towards the end of his life he took other women of foreign nations besides the daughter of Pharaoh; nations with whom God had forbidden the children of Israel to form matrimonial alliances; but leaning towards their gods, he worshipped their idols. In the thirty-fourth year of his reign he built a house for idols in the mount which is opposite to Jerusalem; and the length of it was one hundred cubits, its breadth fifty, and its height thirty. He made also for himself golden shields, and a brazen sea, supported on the horns of brazen oxen. God reproved him for his infidelity, and gave him for punishment in this world that he took away from his son the greater part of the kingdom. Moreover, the duration of his reign was forty years; and he died without repentance, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father David."

[¶44] For other particulars relative to the different transactions of this reign, the reader is referred to the notes in the order of their occurrence; and to those treatises which have been written on the probability that Solomon did or did not repent of his idolatry: and also to the notes on Ecclesiastes, where the subject will be again reviewed.

## 355. 1 Kings · 16 of 30

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### Introduction

[¶1] The people go to Shechem to make Rehoboam king, and send for Jeroboam out of Egypt, who with the heads of the tribes, requests relief from the heavy burdens laid on them by Solomon, [1Kgs 12:1-4]. He requires three days to consider their petition, [1Kgs 12:5]. He rejects the counsel of the elders, who served his father, and follows that of young men, and returns the people a provoking answer, [1Kgs 12:6-15]. The people therefore renounce the family of David, stone to death Adoram, who came to receive their tribute, and make Jeroboam king; none cleaving to Rehoboam but the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, [1Kgs 12:16-20]. Rehoboam comes to Jerusalem, and assembles all the fighting men of Judah and Benjamin, and finds the number to be one hundred and eighty thousand; and with these he purposes to reduce the men of Israel to his allegiance, but is forbidden by the Prophet Shemaiah, [1Kgs 12:21-24]. Jeroboam builds Shechem in Mount Ephraim and Penuel, [1Kgs 12:25]. And lest the people should be drawn away from their allegiance to him by going up to Jerusalem to worship, he makes two golden calves, and sets them up, one in Dan, the other in Beth-el, and the people worship them, [1Kgs 12:26-30]. He makes priests of the lowest of the people, and establishes the fifteenth day of the eighth month as a feast to his new gods; makes offerings, and burns incense, [1Kgs 12:31-33].

### Verse 1

[¶3] Rehoboam went to Shechem - Rehoboam was probably the only son of Solomon; for although he had a thousand wives, he had not the blessing of a numerous offspring; and although he was the wisest of men himself, his son was a poor, unprincipled fool. Had Solomon kept himself within reasonable bounds in matrimonial affairs, he would probably have had more children; and such as would have had common sense enough to discern the delicacy of their situation, and rule according to reason and religion.

### Verse 4

[¶5] The grievous service - and - heavy yoke - They seem here to complain of two things - excessively laborious service, and a heavy taxation. At first it is supposed Solomon employed no Israelite in drudgery: afterwards, when he forsook the God of compassion, he seems to have used them as slaves, and to have revived the Egyptian bondage.

### Verse 7

[¶7] If thou wilt be a servant unto this people - This is a constitutional idea of a king: he is the servant, but not the slave of his people; every regal act of a just king is an act of service to the state. The king is not only the fountain of law and justice; but as he has the appointment of all officers and judges, consequently he is the executor of the laws; and all justice is administered in his name. Properly speaking, a good and constitutional king is the servant of his people; and in being such he is their father and their king.

[¶8] They will be thy servants for ever - The way to insure the obedience of the people is to hold the reins of empire with a steady and impartial hand; let the people see that the king lives for them, and not for himself; and they will obey, love, and defend him. The state is maintained on the part of the ruler and the ruled by mutual acts of service and benevolence. A good king has no self-interest; and such a king will ever have obedient and loving subjects. The haughty, proud tyrant will have a suspicious and jealous people, hourly ripening for revolt. The king is made for the people, not the people for the king. Let every potentate wisely consider this; and let every subject know that the heaviest cares rest on the heart, and the heaviest responsibility rests on the head, of the king. Let them therefore, under his government, fashion themselves as obedient children; acknowledge him their head; and duly consider whose authority he has; that they may love, honor and obey him. Happy are the people who have such a king; safe is the king who has such a people.

### Verse 10

[¶10] And the young men that were grown up with him - It was a custom in different countries to educate with the heir to the throne young noblemen of nearly the same age. This, as Calmet observes, answered two great and important ends: -

[¶11] 1. It excited the prince to emulation; that he might, as far as possible, surpass in all manly exercises, and in all acts of prudence and virtue, those whom one day he was to surpass in the elevation and dignity of his station.

[¶12] 2. That he might acquire a correct knowledge of the disposition and views of those who were likely to be, under him, the highest officers of the state; and consequently, know the better how to trust and employ them. The old counsellors Rehoboam did not know; with the young nobility he had been familiar.

[¶13] My little finger shall be thicker - A proverbial mode of expression: "My little finger is thicker than my father's thigh." As much as the thigh surpasses the little finger in thickness, so much does my power exceed that of my father; and the use that I shall make of it, to employ and tax you, shall be in proportion.

### Verse 11

[¶15] Chastise you with scorpions - Should you rebel, or become disaffected, my father's whip shall be a scorpion in my hand. His was chastisement, mine shall be punishment. St. Isidore, and after him Calmet and others, assert that the scorpion was a sort of severe whip, the lashes of which were armed with iron points, that sunk into and tore the flesh. We know that the scorpion was a military engine among the Romans for shooting arrows, which, being poisoned, were likened to the scorpion's sting, and the wound it inflicted.

### Verse 15

[¶17] The cause was from the Lord - God left him to himself, and did not incline his heart to follow the counsel of the wise men. This is making the best of our present version; but if we come to inquire into the meaning of the Cause of all this confusion and anarchy, we shall find it was Rehoboam's folly, cruelty, and despotic tyranny: and was this from the Lord? But does the text speak this bad doctrine? No: it says סבה sibbah, the Revolution, was from the Lord. This is consistent with all the declarations which went before. God stirred up the people to revolt from a man who had neither skill nor humanity to govern them. We had such a סבה revolution in these nations in 1688; and, thank God, we have never since needed another. None of our ancient translations understood the word as our present version does: they have it either the Turning Away was from the Lord, or it was the Lord's Ordinance; viz., that they should turn away from this foolish king.

### Verse 16

[¶19] So Israel departed unto their tents - That is, the ten tribes withdrew their allegiance from Rehoboam; only Judah and Benjamin, frequently reckoned one tribe, remaining with him.

### Verse 18

[¶21] King Rehoboam sent Adoram - As this was the person who was superintendent over the tribute, he was probably sent to collect the ordinary taxes; but the people, indignant at the master who had given them such a brutish answer, stoned the servant to death. The sending of Adoram to collect the taxes, when the public mind was in such a state of fermentation, was another proof of Rehoboam's folly and incapacity to govern.

### Verse 20

[¶23] Made him king over all Israel - What is called Israel here, was ten-twelfths of the whole nation; and had they a right to call another person to the throne? They had not, - they had neither legal nor constitutional right. Jeroboam was not of the blood royal; he had no affinity to the kingdom. Nothing could justify this act, but the just judgment of God. God thus punished a disobedient and gainsaying people; and especially Solomon's family, whose sins against the Lord were of no ordinary magnitude.

### Verse 24

[¶25] For this thing is from me - That is, the separation of the ten tribes from the house of David.

[¶26] They - returned to depart - This was great deference, both in Rehoboam and his officers, to relinquish, at the demand of the prophet, a war which they thought they had good grounds to undertake. The remnant of the people heard the Divine command gratefully, for the mass of mankind are averse from war. No nations would ever rise up against each other, were they not instigated to it or compelled by the rulers.

### Verse 27

[¶28] And they shall kill me - He found he had little cause to trust this fickle people; though they had declared for him it was more from caprice, desire of change, and novelty, than from any regular and praiseworthy principle.

### Verse 28

[¶30] Made two calves of gold - He invented a political religion, instituted feasts in his own times different from those appointed by the Lord, gave the people certain objects of devotion, and pretended to think it would be both inconvenient and oppressive to them to have to go up to Jerusalem to worship. This was not the last time that religion was made a state engine to serve political purposes. It is strange that in pointing out his calves to the people, he should use the same words that Aaron used when he made the golden calf in the wilderness, when they must have heard what terrible judgments fell upon their forefathers for this idolatry.

### Verse 29

[¶32] One in Beth-el, and the other - in Dan - One at the southern and the other at the northern extremity of the land. Solomon's idolatry had prepared the people for Jeroboam's abominations!

### Verse 31

[¶34] A house of high places - A temple of temples; he had many high places in the land, and to imitate the temple at Jerusalem, he made one chief over all the rest, where he established a priesthood of his own ordination. Probably a place of separate appointment, where different idols were set up and worshipped; so it was a sort of pantheon.

[¶35] Made priests of the lowest of the people - He took the people indifferently as they came, and made them priests, till he had enough, without troubling himself whether they were of the family of Aaron or the house of Levi, or not. Any priests would do well enough for such gods. But those whom he took seem to have been worthless, good-for-nothing fellows, who had neither piety nor good sense. Probably the sons of Levi had grace enough to refuse to sanction this new priesthood and idolatrous worship.

### Verse 32

[¶37] Ordained a feast - The Jews held their feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; Jeroboam, who would meet the prejudices of the people as far as he could, appointed a similar feast on the fifteenth of the eighth month; thus appearing to hold the thing while he subverted the ordinance.

### Verse 33

[¶39] He offered upon the altar - Jeroboam probably performed the functions of high priest himself, that he might in his own person condense the civil and ecclesiastical power.

### Introduction

[¶41] A man of God prophesies against Jeroboam's altar, and foretells the destruction of that altar, and of its idolatrous priests by Josiah; and gives Jeroboam a sign that the prophecy should be accomplished, [1Kgs 13:1-3]. Jeroboam is enraged, and orders the man of God to be seized; and stretching out his hand for this purpose, his arm dries up, [1Kgs 13:4]. The altar is rent, and the ashes poured out, according to the sign given by the man of God; and at his intercession Jeroboam's arm is restored, [1Kgs 13:5], [1Kgs 13:6]. Jeroboam wishes to engage him in his service, but he refuses, and tells him that he was ordered by God not even to eat or drink in that place; and he accordingly departs, [1Kgs 13:7-10]. An old prophet that dwelt at Beth-el, hearing of this, rides after the man of God; deceives him; brings him back to his house, and persuades him to eat and drink, [1Kgs 13:11-19]. While he is eating, the word of the Lord comes to the old prophet, and he foretells the death of the man of God; who departing is met by a lion, and slain, [1Kgs 13:20-25]. On hearing this, the old prophet goes to the place, finds the carcass, brings it home, burns it, and mourns over it, charging his sons to bury him, when dead, in the same grave, [1Kgs 13:26-32]. Notwithstanding these warnings, Jeroboam continues in his idolatry, [1Kgs 13:33], [1Kgs 13:34].

### Verse 1

[¶43] There came a man of God - Who this was we know not. The Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic call him a prophet. The Vulgate and Septuagint follow the Hebrew, איש אלהים ish elohim means a Divine person, one wholly devoted to God's service. Some have thought it was Shemaiah, others Joel, and others Iddo. It could not have been the latter, for he wrote the acts of Jeroboam, [2Chr 9:29], and the prophet was killed before he returned home; but conjecture is idle on such a subject.

[¶44] Jeroboam stood by the altar - Like gods, like priest; he made himself high priest, and he took of the lowest of the people, and made them priests of the high places; they proved themselves to be fools by worshipping calves.

## 356. 1 Kings · 17 of 30

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### Verse 2

[¶1] He cried against the altar - He denounced the destruction of this idolatrous system.

[¶2] A child shall be born - Josiah by name - This is one of the most remarkable and most singular prophecies in the Old Testament. It here most circumstantially foretells a fact which took place three hundred and forty years after the prediction; a fact which was attested by the two nations. The Jews, in whose behalf this prophecy was delivered, would guard it most sacredly; and it was the interest of the Israelites, against whom it was levelled, to impugn its authenticity and expose its falsehood, had this been possible. This prediction not only showed the knowledge of God, but his power. He gave, as it were, this warning to idolatry, that it might be on its guard, and defend itself against this Josiah whenever a person of that name should be found sitting on the throne of David; and no doubt it was on the alert, and took all prudent measures for its own defense; but all in vain, for Josiah, in the eighteenth year of his reign, literally accomplished this prophecy, as we may read, [2Kgs 23:15-20]. And from this latter place we find that the prophecy had three permanent testimonials of its truth.

[¶3] 1. The house of Israel;

[¶4] 2. The house of Judah; and,

[¶5] 3. The tomb of the prophet who delivered this prophecy, who, being slain by a lion, was brought back and buried at Beth-el, the superscription on whose tomb remained till the day on which Josiah destroyed that altar, and burnt dead men's bones upon it. See above, [2Kgs 23:16-18].

### Verse 3

[¶7] And he gave a sign - A miracle to prove that the prophecy should be fulfilled in its season.

### Verse 4

[¶9] Lay hold on him - No doubt, stretching out his own hand at the same time, through rage, pride, and haste, to execute his own orders.

[¶10] And his hand dried up - The whole arm became suddenly rigid; the nerves no longer communicated their influence, and the muscles ceased to obey the dictates of the will.

### Verse 5

[¶12] The altar was also rent - It split or clave of its own accord; and, as the split parts would decline at the top from the line of their perpendicular, so the ashes and coals would fall off, or be poured out.

### Verse 6

[¶14] Entreat - the face of the Lord thy God - The face of God is his favor, as we see in many parts of the sacred writings. He says, thy God; for Jeroboam knew that he was not his God, for he was now in the very act of acknowledging other gods, and had no portion in the God of Jacob.

[¶15] And the king's hand was restored - Both miracles were wrought to show the truth of the Jewish religion, and to convince this bold innovator of his wickedness, and to reclaim him from the folly and ruinous tendency of his idolatry.

### Verse 7

[¶17] Come home with me - and I will give thee a reward - Come and be one of my priests, and I will give thee a proper salary.

### Verse 9

[¶19] For so it was charged me - Eat no bread, etc. - That is, Have no kind of communication with those idolaters. He was charged also not to return by the way that he came; probably lest the account of what was done should have reached the ears of any of the people through whom he had passed, and he suffer inconveniences on the account, either by persecution from the idolaters, or from curious people delaying him, in order to cause him to give an account of the transactions which took place at Beth-el. This is a reason why he should not return by the same way; but what the reason of this part of the charge was, if not the above, is not easy to see.

### Verse 11

[¶21] An old prophet - Probably once a prophet of the Lord, who had fallen from his steadfastness, and yet not so deeply as to lose the knowledge of the true God, and join with Jeroboam in his idolatries. We find he was not at the king's sacrifice, though his sons were there; and perhaps even they were there, not as idolaters, but as spectators of what was done.

### Verse 14

[¶23] And went after the man of God - I can hardly think that this was with any evil design. His sons had given him such an account of the prediction, the power, and influence of this prophet, that he wished to have a particular acquaintance with him, in order that he might get farther information relative to the solemn import of the prophecy which he had denounced against the idolatry at Beth-el. This good man could not have been an object of the old prophet's malevolence.

### Verse 18

[¶25] An angel spake unto me - That he lied unto him is here expressly asserted, and is amply proved by the event. But why should he deceive him? The simple principle of curiosity to know all about this prediction, and the strange facts which had taken place, of which he had heard at second hand by means of his sons, was sufficient to induce such a person to get the intelligence he wished by any means. We may add to this, that, as he found the man of God sitting under an oak, probably faint with fatigue and fasting, for he had had no refreshment, his humanity might have led him to practice this deception, in order to persuade him to take some refreshment. Having fallen from God, as I have supposed, [1Kgs 13:11], his own tenderness of conscience was gone; and he would not scruple to do a moral evil, if even a temporal good could come of it. Again, is it not possible that the old prophet was himself deceived? for, though he lied unto him, it is possible that he was not conscious of his lie, for Satan, as an angel of light, might have deceived him in order to lead him to deceive the other. He does not say, as the man of God did, It was said to me by the word of the Lord; no: but, An angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord. And I think it very likely that an angel did appear to him on the occasion; an angel of darkness and idolatry, in the garb of an angel of light, who wished to use him as an instrument to bring discredit on the awful transactions which had lately taken place, and to destroy him who had foretold the destruction of his power and influence.

### Verse 19

[¶27] So he went back with him - He permitted himself to be imposed on; he might have thought, as he had accomplished every purpose for which God sent him, and had actually begun to return by another way, God, who had given him the charge, had authority to say, "As thy purpose was to obey every injunction, even to the letter, I now permit thee to go with this old prophet, and take some refreshment." Now God might as well have dispensed with this part of the injunction, as he did in the case of Abraham: Take thy son Isaac, thy only son, whom thou lovest - and offer him for a burnt-offering; but, when he saw his perfect readiness, he dispensed with the actual offering, and accepted a ram in his stead. Thus much may be said in vindication of the man of God: but if this be so, why should he be punished with death, for doing what he had reason and precedent to believe might be the will of God? I answer: He should not have taken a step back, till he had remission of the clause from the same authority which gave him the general message. He should have had it from the word of the Lord to himself, in both cases, as Abraham had; and not taken an apparent contradiction of what was before delivered unto him, from the mouth of a stranger, who only professed to have it from an angel, who pretended to speak unto him by the word of the Lord. In this, and in this alone, lay the sinfulness of the act of the man of God, who came out of Judah.

### Verse 20

[¶29] The word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back - "A great clamor," says Dr. Kennicott, "has been raised against this part of the history, on account of God's denouncing sentence on the true prophet by the mouth of the false prophet: but if we examine with attention the original words here, they will be found to signify either he who brought him back; or, whom he had brought back; for the very same words, אשר השיבו asher heshibo, occur again in [1Kgs 13:23], where they are now translated, whom he had brought back; and where they cannot be translated otherwise. This being the case, we are at liberty to consider the word of the Lord as delivered to the true prophet thus brought back; and then the sentence is pronounced by God himself, calling to him out of heaven, as in [Gen 22:11]. And that this doom was thus pronounced by God, not by the false prophet, we are assured in [1Kgs 13:26] : 'The Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, according to the word of the Lord which He spake unto him.' Josephus expressly asserts that the sentence was declared by God to the true prophet." The Arabic asserts the same.

### Verse 21

[¶31] And he - That is, according to the above interpretation, the voice of God from heaven addressing the man of God, the old prophet having nothing to do in this business.

### Verse 22

[¶33] Thy carcass shall not come - This intimated to him that he was to die an untimely death, but probably did not specify by what means.

### Verse 24

[¶35] A lion met him - and slew him - By permitting himself to be seduced by the old prophet, when he should have acted only on the expressly declared counsel of God, he committed the sin unto death; that is, such a sin as God will punish with the death of the body, while he extends mercy to the soul. See my notes on [1Jn 5:16] (note), [1Jn 5:17] (note).

[¶36] From the instance here related, we see, as in various other cases, that often judgment begins at the house of God. The true prophet, for receiving that as a revelation from God which was opposed to the revelation which himself had received, and which was confirmed by so many miracles, is slain by a lion, and his body deprived of the burial of his fathers; while the wicked king, and the old fallen prophet, are both permitted to live! If this was severity to the man of God, it was mercy to the others, neither of whom was prepared to meet his judge. Here we may well say, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?"

### Verse 28

[¶38] The lion had not eaten the carcass, nor torn the ass - All here was preternatural. The lion, though he had killed the man, does not devour him; the ass stands quietly by, not fearing the lion; and the lion does not attempt to tear the ass: both stand as guardians of the fallen prophet. How evident is the hand of God in all!

### Verse 30

[¶40] Alas, my brothers - This lamentation is very simple, very short, and very pathetic. Perhaps the old prophet said it as much in reference to himself, who had been the cause of his untimely death, as in reference to the man of God, whose corpse he now committed to the tomb. But the words may be no more than the burden of each line of the lamentation which was used on this occasion. See instances of this among the Asiatics in the note on [Jer 22:18] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶42] Lay my bones beside his bones - This argues a strong conviction in the mind of the old prophet, that the deceased was a good and holy man of God; and he is willing to have place with him in the general resurrection.

### Verse 32

[¶44] In the cities of Samaria - It is most certain that Samaria, or as it is called in Hebrew Shomeron, was not built at this time. We are expressly told that Omri, king of Israel, founded this city on the hill which he bought for two talents of silver, from a person of the name of Shemer, after whom he called the city Samaria or Shomeron; (see [1Kgs 16:24]); and this was fifty years after the death of Jeroboam. How then could the old prophet speak of Samaria, not then in existence, unless he did it by the spirit of prophecy, calling things that are not as though they were; as the man of God called Josiah by name three hundred years before he was born? Some suppose that the historian adds these words because Samaria existed in his time, and he well knew that it did not exist in the time of the old prophet; for himself, in the sixteenth chapter, gives us the account of its foundation by Omri. After all, it is possible that God might have given this revelation to the old prophet; and thus by anticipation which is the language of prophecy, spoke of Samaria as then existing. This is the solution of Houbigant, and is thought sound by many good critics.

## 357. 1 Kings · 18 of 30

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### Verse 33

[¶1] Jeroboam returned not from his evil way - There is something exceedingly obstinate and perverse, as well as blinding and infatuating, in idolatry. The prediction lately delivered at Beth-el, and the miracles wrought in confirmation of it, were surely sufficient to have affected and alarmed any heart, not wholly and incorrigibly hardened; and yet they had no effect on Jeroboam!

[¶2] Made - the lowest of the people priests - So hardy was this bad man in his idolatry that he did not even attempt to form any thing according to the model of God's true worship: he would have nothing like God and truth. In his calves, or rather oxen, he copied the manner of Egypt; and in the formation of his priesthood, he seems to have gone aside from all models. Amongst the worst of heathens, the priesthood was filled with respectable men; but Jeroboam took of the lowest of the people, and put them in that office.

[¶3] Whosoever would, he consecrated him - He made no discrimination: any vagabond that offered was accepted even of those who had no character, who were too idle to work, and too stupid to learn.

### Verse 34

[¶5] And this thing became sin - These abominations were too glaring, and too insulting to the Divine Majesty, to be permitted to last; therefore his house was cut off, and destroyed from the face of the earth.

[¶6] A Holy priesthood, a righteous ministry, is a blessing to any state, because it has a most powerful effect on the morals of the community; inducing order, sobriety, and habits of industry, among the people: on the contrary, the profligacy of the clergy, and false principles of religion, are the most likely to unsettle a kingdom, and to bring about destructive revolutions in the state. This is the principle on which all national establishments of religion were originally formed. The state thought proper to secure a permanency of religion, that religion might secure the safety of the state; because it was supposed from the general aversion of men from good, that, if left to themselves, they would have no religion at all. Where the religion of the country is pure, founded solely on the oracles of God, it deserves the utmost sanction of the state, as well as the attention of every individual. A Christian state has surely authority to enact, The Christian religion is and shall be the religion of this land; and, prejudice apart, should not the laws provide for the permanence of this system? Is the form of Christianity likely to be preserved in times of general profligacy, if the laws do not secure its permanence? What would our nation have been if we had not had a version of the sacred writings established by the authority of the laws: and a form of sound words for general devotion established by the same authority? Whatever the reader may do the writer thanks God for the religious establishment of his country. For abuses in church or state, he is the last to contend.

### Introduction

[¶8] Abijah, son of Jeroboam, falls sick, [1Kgs 14:1]. Jeroboam sends his wife disguised to Ahijah the prophet, and with her a present, to inquire concerning his son, [1Kgs 14:2-4]. Ahijah discovers her by a Divine intimation and delivers to her a heavy message concerning the destruction of Jeroboam's house, and the death of her son, [1Kgs 14:5-16]. The child dies, according to the prediction of Ahijah, [1Kgs 14:17]. Jeroboam's reign and death, [1Kgs 14:18-20]. Rehoboam's bad reign, and the apostasy of Judah, [1Kgs 14:21-24]. Shishak, king of Egypt, invades Judea, spoils the temple, and takes away the golden shields made by Solomon; instead of which Rehoboam makes others of brass, [1Kgs 14:25-28]. Rehoboam's reign and death, [1Kgs 14:29-31].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Abijah - fell sick - This was but a prelude to the miseries which fell on the house of Jeroboam; but it was another merciful warning, intended to turn him from his idolatry and wickedness.

### Verse 3

[¶12] Ten loaves - Probably common or household bread.

[¶13] Cracknels - נקדים nikkuddim, spotted, or perforated bread; thin cakes, pierced through with many holes, the same as is called Jews' bread to the present day, and used by them at the passover. It was customary to give presents to all great personages; and no person consulted a prophet without bringing something in his hand.

### Verse 5

[¶15] Feign herself to be another woman - It would have been discreditable to Jeroboam's calves, if it had been known that he had consulted a prophet of Jehovah.

### Verse 8

[¶17] And rent the kingdom away from the house of David - That is, permitted it to be rent, because of the folly and insolence of Rehoboam.

### Verse 10

[¶19] Him that pisseth against the wall - Every male. The phrase should be thus rendered wherever it occurs.

### Verse 11

[¶21] Shall the dogs eat - They shall not have an honorable burial: and shall not come into the sepulchres of their fathers.

### Verse 13

[¶23] In him there is found some good thing - Far be it from God to destroy the righteous with the wicked; God respects even a little good, because it is a seed from himself. The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed.

### Verse 15

[¶25] For the Lord shall smite Israel - See this prophecy fulfilled, [1Kgs 15:28-30], when Baasha destroyed all the house and posterity of Jeroboam.

### Verse 19

[¶27] The rest of the acts of Jeroboam - are written in the - chronicles - For some important particulars relative to this reign, see 2 Chronicles 13:1-20.

### Verse 24

[¶29] There were also sodomites in the land - קדשים kedeshim, consecrated persons; persons who had devoted themselves, in practices of the greatest impurity, to the service of the most impure idols.

### Verse 26

[¶31] He took away the treasures - All the treasures which Solomon had amassed, both in the temple and in his own houses; a booty the most immense ever acquired in one place.

[¶32] All the shields of gold which Solomon had made - These were three hundred in number, and were all made of beaten gold. See a computation of their value in the note on [1Kgs 10:17] (note).

### Verse 28

[¶34] The guard bare them - The guard probably were just three hundred, answering to the number of the shields.

### Verse 31

[¶36] Naamah an Ammonitess - He was born of a heathen mother, and begotten of an apostate father. From such an impure fountain could sweet water possibly spring?

[¶37] Abijam his son reigned in his stead - Though righteousness cannot be propagated, because it is supernatural, yet unrighteousness may, for that is a genuine offspring of nature. Abijam was the wicked son of an apostate father and heathenish mother. Grace may be grafted on a crab stock; but let none do evil that good may come of it. A bad stock will produce bad fruit.

[¶38] Dr. Kennicott observes that the name of this king of Judah is now expressed three ways: here and in four other places it is Abijam or Abim; in two others it is Abihu, but in eleven other places it is Abiah, as it is expressed by St. Matthew, [Mat 1:7], Ῥοβοαμ εγεννησε τον ΑΒΙΑ; and this is the reading of thirteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and of thirteen respectable editions of the Hebrew Bible. The Syriac is the same. The Septuagint in the London Polyglot has αβιου, Abihu; but in the Complutensian and Antwerp Polyglots, it is αβια, Abiah. Though the common printed Vulgate has Abiam, yet the Editio Princeps of the Vulgate, some MSS., and the text in the Complutensian and Antwerp Polyglots, have Abia; which without doubt is the reading that should in all cases be followed.

[¶39] The rabbins say, and particularly Rab. Sol. Jarchi, that the Shishak mentioned in this chapter is Pharaoh Necho, and that he invaded Israel in order to get the ivory throne of his son-in-law Solomon, which he had always coveted; and this throne he carried away. It appears however that he spoiled the temple, the king's palace, etc., and in short took every thing away without resistance which he chose to carry off. It is very likely that this had a good effect on Rehoboam; it probably caused him to frequent the temple, [1Kgs 14:28], which it is likely he had before neglected. This history is more particularly told in 2 Chron. 12, to which the reader will do well to refer; and as to Rehoboam, though so much positive iniquity is not laid to his charge as to his father, yet little can be said for his piety; the idolatry introduced by Solomon does not appear to have been lessened in the days of Rehoboam.

### Introduction

[¶41] Abijam's wicked reign, and death, [1Kgs 15:1-8]. Asa succeeds him in the kingdom of Judah, and rules well, [1Kgs 15:9-15]. He makes a league with the king of Syria against Baasha king of Israel, who is obliged to desist in his attempts against Judah, [1Kgs 15:16-22]. He is diseased in his feet and dies, and is succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat, [1Kgs 15:23-25]. Nadab, son of Jeroboam, reigns over Israel; but is slain by Baasha, who reigns in ha stead, [1Kgs 15:26-28]. Baasha destroys all the house of Jeroboam, according to the prediction of Ahijah, [1Kgs 15:29], [1Kgs 15:30]. Baasha continues the idolatry of Jeroboam, [1Kgs 15:31-34].

### Verse 1

[¶43] Reigned Abijam over Judah - Of this son of Rehoboam, of his brethren, and of Rehoboam's family in general, see 2 Chronicles 12, where many particulars are added.

### Verse 3

[¶45] His heart was not perfect - He was an idolater, or did not support the worship of the true God. This appears to be the general meaning of the heart not being perfect with God.

## 358. 1 Kings · 19 of 30

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### Verse 4

[¶1] The Lord - give him a lamp - That is, a son to succeed him; see [1Kgs 11:36].

### Verse 5

[¶3] Save only in the matter of Uriah - Properly speaking, this is the only flagrant fault or crime in the life of David. It was a horrible offense, or rather a whole system of offenses. See the notes on 2 Samuel 11 (note), and 2 Samuel 12 (note).

### Verse 6

[¶5] There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam - This was mentioned in the preceding chapter, [1Kgs 14:30], and it can mean no more than this: there was a continual spirit of hostility kept up between the two kingdoms, and no doubt frequent skirmishing between bordering parties; but it never broke out into open war, for this was particularly forbidden. See [1Kgs 12:24]. Hostility did exist, and no doubt frequent skirmishes; but open war and pitched battles there were none.

[¶6] But why is this circumstance repeated, and the history of Abijam interrupted by the repetition? There is some reason to believe that Rehoboam is not the true reading, and that it should be Abijam: "Now there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam all the days of his life." And this is the reading of fourteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The Syriac has Abia the son of Rehoboam; the Arabic has Abijam. In the Septuagint the whole verse is omitted in the London Polyglot, but it is extant in those of Complutum and Antwerp. Some copies of the Targum have Abijam also, and the Editio Princeps of the Vulgate has Abia. This is doubtless the true reading, as we know there was a very memorable war between Abia and Jeroboam; see it particularly described [2Chr 13:3] (note), etc.

### Verse 10

[¶8] His mother's name - Our translators thought that grandmother was likely to be the meaning, and therefore have put it in the margin.

[¶9] The daughter of Abishalom - She is called, says Calmet, the daughter of Absalom, according to the custom of the Scriptures, which give the name of daughter indifferently to the niece, the grand-daughter, and great grand-daughter.

### Verse 12

[¶11] The sodomites - הקדשים hakkedeshim; literally, the holy or consecrated ones. See on [1Kgs 14:24] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶13] She had made an idol in a grove - The original word, מפלצת miphletseth, is variously understood. I shall give its different views in the versions: - "Besides, he removed his mother Maacha from being chief in the sacred rites of Priapus, and in his grove which she had consecrated." - Vulgate. "And Ana, [other copies Maacha], he removed from being governess, because she had made an assembly in her grove." - Septuagint. "Moreover, he deprived Maacha, his mother, of her own magnificence, because she had celebrated a solemnity to her own worship." - Syriac. "And even Maacha, his mother, he removed from the kingdom, because she had made an idol in a grove." - Chaldee. "Besides, he removed Maacha, his mother, from her kingdom, because she had made a high tree into an idol." - Arabic. "Also he removed Maacha, his mother, from the kingdom, because she had made a horrible statue; and our rabbins say that it was called מפלצת miphletseth, because מפליא ליצנותא maphli leytsanutha, it produced wonderful ridicule; for she made it ad instar membri virilis, and she used it daily." - Rabbi Solomon Jarchi.

[¶14] From the whole, it is pretty evident that the image was a mere Priapus, or something of the same nature, and that Maachah had an assembly in the grove where this image was set up, and doubtless worshipped it with the most impure rites. What the Roman Priapus was I need not tell the learned reader; and as to the unlearned, it would not profit him to know. Maachah was most likely another Messalina; and Asa probably did for his mother what Claudius did for his wife.

### Verse 14

[¶16] The high places were not removed - He was not able to make a thorough reformation; this was reserved for his son Jehoshaphat.

[¶17] Asa's heart was perfect - He worshipped the true God, and zealously promoted his service; see on [1Kgs 15:3] (note). And even the high places which he did not remove were probably those where the true God alone was worshipped; for that there were such high places the preceding history amply proves, and Jarchi intimates that these were places which individuals had erected for the worship of Jehovah.

### Verse 15

[¶19] Which his father had dedicated - On what account he and his father dedicated the things mentioned below, we know not; but it appears that Asa thought himself bound by the vow of his father.

### Verse 16

[¶21] There was war - That is, there was continual enmity; see on [1Kgs 15:6] (note). But there was no open war till the thirty-sixth year of Asa, when Baasha, king of Israel, began to build Ramah, that he might prevent all communication between Israel and Judah; see [2Chr 15:19]; [2Chr 16:1]. But this does not agree with what is said here, [1Kgs 16:8], [1Kgs 16:9], that Elah, the son and successor of Baasha, was killed by Zimri, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Asa. Chronologers endeavor to reconcile this by saying that the years should be reckoned, not from the beginning of the reign of Asa, but from the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It is most certain that Baasha could not make war upon Asa in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, when it is evident from this chapter that he was dead in the twenty-sixth year of that king. We must either adopt the mode of solution given by chronologists, or grant that there is a mistake in some of the numbers; most likely in the parallel places in Chronicles, but which we have no direct means of correcting. But the reader may compare [2Chr 14:1], with [2Chr 15:10], [2Chr 15:19]; [2Chr 16:1].

### Verse 17

[¶23] And Baasha - built Ramah - As the word signifies a high place, what is here termed Ramah was probably a hill, (commanding a defile through which lay the principal road to Jerusalem), which Baasha fortified in order to prevent all intercourse with the kingdom of Judah, lest his subjects should cleave to the house of David. Ramah was about two leagues northward of Jerusalem.

### Verse 18

[¶25] Asa took all the silver - Shishak, king of Egypt, had not taken the whole, or there had been some treasures brought in since that time.

[¶26] Ben-hadad - This was the grandson of Rezon, called here Hezion, who founded the kingdom of Damascus. See [1Kgs 11:23], [1Kgs 11:24]; and Calmet.

### Verse 19

[¶28] There is a league between me and thee - Or, Let there be a league between me and thee; as there was between my father and thy father. There was no reason why Asa should have emptied his treasures at this time to procure the aid of the Syrian king; as it does not appear that there was any danger which himself could not have turned aside. He probably wished to destroy the kingdom of Israel; and to effect this purpose, even robbed the house of the Lord.

### Verse 20

[¶30] Ijon, and Dan, etc. - He appears to have attacked and taken those towns which constituted the principal strength of the kingdom of Israel.

### Verse 21

[¶32] Dwelt in Tirzah - This seems to have been the royal city; see [1Kgs 15:33], and [1Kgs 14:17]; and in this Baasha was probably obliged to shut himself up.

### Verse 22

[¶34] None was exempted - Every man was obliged to go and help to dismantle the fortress at Ramah which Baasha had built. This was a general levee en masse of the people: every one was obliged to lend a helping hand, as the state was then supposed to be in danger, and all exemptions necessarily ceased. This is a maxim of civil policy, Ubi adversus hostem muniendi sent limites, omnis immunitas cessat: "Where the boundaries are to be fortified against an enemy, then all exemptions cease.

### Verse 23

[¶36] And the cities which he built - Such as Geba and Mizpah, which he built out of the spoils of Ramah.

[¶37] He was diseased in his feet - Probably he had a strong rheumatic affection, or the gout. This took place in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, three years before his death; and it is said that he sought to physicians rather than to the Lord, [2Chr 16:12], [2Chr 16:13].

### Verse 24

[¶39] Asa slept with his fathers - Of his splendid and costly funeral we read [1Chr 16:14].

### Verse 25

[¶41] Nadab - began to reign over Israel - He began his reign in the second year of the reign of Asa, and reigned two years.

### Verse 27

[¶43] Smote him at Gabbethon - This was a city in the tribe of Dan, and generally in the possession of the Philistines.

## 359. 1 Kings · 20 of 30

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### Verse 29

[¶1] He smote all the house of Jeroboam - This was according to Ahijah's prophetic declaration; see [1Kgs 14:10], [1Kgs 14:14]. Thus God made use of one wicked man to destroy another.

### Verse 32

[¶3] There was war - See on [1Kgs 15:16] (note).

### Verse 34

[¶5] Walked in the way of Jeroboam - The entail of iniquity cannot be cut off but by a thorough conversion of the soul to God; and of this, these bad kings seem to have had no adequate notion. The wicked followed the steps of the wicked, and became still more wicked; sin gathers strength by exercise and age.

### Introduction

[¶7] Jehu the prophet denounces the destruction of Baasha, [1Kgs 16:1-7]. Zimri conspires against him, and slays him and his family, and reigns seven days, [1Kgs 16:8-15]. The people make Omri king, and besiege Zimri in Tirzah; who, finding no way to escape, sets fire to his palace, and consumes himself in it, [1Kgs 16:16-20]. The people are divided, half following Tibni, and half Omri; the latter faction overcomes the former, Tibni is slain, and Omri reigns alone, [1Kgs 16:21-23]. He founds Samaria, [1Kgs 16:24]. His bad character and death, [1Kgs 16:25-28]. Ahab reigns in his stead; marries Jezebel, restores idolatry, and exceeds his predecessors in wickedness, [1Kgs 16:29-33]. Hiel the Beth-elite rebuilds Jericho, [1Kgs 16:34].

### Verse 1

[¶9] Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu - Of this prophet we know nothing but from this circumstance. It appears from [2Chr 16:7-10], that his father Hanani was also a prophet, and suffered imprisonment in consequence of the faithful discharge of his ministry to Asa.

### Verse 2

[¶11] Made thee prince over my people - That is, in the course of my providence, I suffered thee to become king; for it is impossible that God should make a rebel, a traitor, and a murderer, king over his people, or over any people. God is ever represented in Scripture as doing those things which, in the course of his providence, he permits to be done.

### Verse 7

[¶13] And because he killed him - This the Vulgate understands of Jehu the prophet, put to death by Baasha: Ob hanc causam occidit eum, hoe est. Jehu filium Hanani prophetam; "On this account he killed him, that is, Jehu the prophet, the son of Hanani." Some think Baasha is intended, others Jeroboam, and others Nadab the son of Jeroboam. This last is the sentiment of Rab. Sol. Jarchi, and of some good critics. The order is here confused; and the seventh verse should probably be placed between the 4th and 5th.

### Verse 9

[¶15] Captain of half his chariots - It is probable that Zimri, and some other who is not here named, were commanders of the cavalry.

### Verse 11

[¶17] He slew all the house of Baasha - He endeavored to exterminate his race, and blot out his memory; and the Jews say, when such a matter is determined, they not only destroy the house of the person himself, but the five neighboring houses, that the memory of such a person may perish from the earth.

### Verse 13

[¶19] For all the sins of Baasha - We see why it was that God permitted such judgments to fall on this family. Baasha was a grievous offender, and so also was his son Elah; and they caused the people to sin; and they provoked God to anger by their idolatries.

### Verse 15

[¶21] The people were encamped against Gibbethon - It appears that, at this time, the Israelites had war with the Philistines, and were now besieging Gibbethon, one of their cities. This army, hearing that Zimri had rebelled and killed Elah, made Omri, their general, king, who immediately raised the siege of Gibbethon, and went to attack Zimri in the royal city of Tirzah; who, finding his affairs desperate, chose rather to consume himself in his palace than to fall into the hands of his enemies.

### Verse 21

[¶23] Divided into two parts - Why this division took place we cannot tell; the people appear to have been for Tibni, the army for Omri; and the latter prevailed.

### Verse 23

[¶25] In the thirty and first year of Asa - There must be a mistake here in the number thirty-one; for, in [1Kgs 16:10] and [1Kgs 16:15], it is said that Zimri slew his master, and began to reign in the twenty-seventh year of Asa; and as Zimri reigned only seven days, and Omri immediately succeeded him, this could not be in the thirty-first, but in the twenty-seventh year of Asa, as related above. Rab. Sol. Jarchi reconciles the two places thus: "The division of the kingdom between Tibni and Omri began in the twenty-seventh year of Asa; this division lasted five years, during which Omri had but a share of the kingdom. Tibni dying, Omri came into the possession of the whole kingdom, which he held seven years; this was in the thirty-first year of Asa. Seven years he reigned alone; five years he reigned over part of Israel; twelve years in the whole. The two dates, the twenty-seventh and thirty-first of Asa, answering, the first to the beginning of the division, the second to the sole reign of Omri." Jarchi quotes Sedar Olam for this solution.

### Verse 24

[¶27] He bought the hill Samaria of Shemer - This should be read, "He bought the hill of Shomeron from Shomer, and called it Shomeron, (i.e., Little Shomer), after the name of Shomer, owner of the hill." At first the kings of Israel dwelt at Shechem, and then at Tirzah; but this place having suffered much in the civil broils, and the place having been burnt down by Zimri, Omri purposed to found a new city, to which he might transfer the seat of government. He fixed on a hill that belonged to a person of the name of Shomer; and bought it from him for two talents of silver, about 707 3s. 9d. Though this was a large sum in those days, yet we cannot suppose that the hill was very large which was purchased for so little; and probably no other building upon it than Shomer's house, if indeed he had one there. Shomeron, or, as it is corruptly written, Samaria, is situated in the midst of the tribe of Ephraim, not very far from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and about midway between Dan and Beer-sheba: thus Samaria became the capital of the ten tribes, the metropolis of the kingdom of Israel, and the residence of its kings. The kings of Israel adorned and fortified it; Ahab built a house of ivory in it, [1Kgs 22:39]; the kings of Syria had magazines or storehouses in it, for the purpose of commerce; see [1Kgs 20:34]. And it appears to have been a place of considerable importance and great strength.

[¶28] Samaria endured several sieges; Ben-hadad king of Syria, besieged it twice, [1Kgs 20:1], etc.; and it cost Shalmaneser a siege of three years to reduce it, [2Kgs 17:6], etc. After the death of Alexander the Great, it became the property of the kings of Egypt; but Antiochus the Great took it from the Egyptians; and it continued in the possession of the kings of Syria till the Asmoneans took and razed it to the very foundation. Gabinius, pro-consul of Syria, partially rebuilt it, and called it Gabiniana. Herod the Great restored it to its ancient splendor, and placed in it a colony of six thousand men, and gave it the name of Sebaste, in honor of Augustus. It is now a place of little consequence.

### Verse 25

[¶30] Did worse than all - before him - Omri was,

[¶31] 1. An idolater in principle;

[¶32] 2. An idolater in practice;

[¶33] 3. He led the people to idolatry by precept and example; and, which was that in which he did worse than all before him,

[¶34] 4. He made statutes in favor of idolatry, and obliged the people by law to commit it. See [Mic 6:16], where this seems to be intended: For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab.

### Verse 31

[¶36] He took to wife Jezebel - This was the head and chief of his offending; he took to wife, not only a heathen, but one whose hostility to the true religion was well known, and carried to the utmost extent.

[¶37] 1. She was the idolatrous daughter of an idolatrous king;

[¶38] 2. She practiced it openly;

[¶39] 3. She not only countenanced it in others, but protected it, and gave its partisans honors and rewards;

[¶40] 4. She used every means to persecute the true religion;

[¶41] 5. She was hideously cruel, and put to death the prophets and priests of God;

[¶42] 6. And all this she did with the most zealous perseverance and relentless cruelty.

[¶43] Notwithstanding Ahab had built a temple, and made an altar for Baal, and set up the worship of Asherah, the Sidonian Venus, which we, [1Kgs 16:33], have transformed into a grove; yet so well known was the hostility of Jezebel to all good, that his marrying her was esteemed the highest pitch of vice, and an act the most provoking to God, and destructive to the prosperity of the kingdom.

### Verse 33

[¶45] Ahab made a grove - אשרה Asherah, Astarte, or Venus; what the Syriac calls an idol, and the Arabic, a tall tree; probably meaning, by the last, an image of Priapus, the obscene keeper of groves, orchards, and gardens.

## 360. 1 Kings · 21 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/360/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/360/#p-N

### Verse 34

[¶1] Did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho - I wish the reader to refer to my note on [Jos 6:26], for a general view of this subject. I shall add a few observations. Joshua's curse is well known: "Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho; he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born; and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it," [Jos 6:26]. This is the curse, but the meaning of its terms is not very obvious. Let us see how this is to be understood from the manner in which it was accomplished. "In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho; he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub; according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun." This prediction was delivered upwards of five hundred years before the event; and though it was most circumstantially fulfilled, yet we know not the precise meaning of some of the terms used in the original execration, and in this place, where its fulfillment is mentioned. There are three opinions on the words, lay the foundation in his first-born, and set up the gates in his youngest son.

[¶2] 1. It is thought that when he laid the foundation of the city, his eldest son, the hope of his family, died by the hand and judgment of God, and that all his children died in succession; so that when the doors were ready to be hung, his youngest and last child died, and thus, instead of securing himself a name, his whole family became extinct.

[¶3] 2. These expressions signify only great delay in the building; that he who should undertake it should spend nearly his whole life in it; all the time in which he was capable of procreating children; in a word, that if a man laid the foundation when his first-born came into the world, his youngest and last son should be born before the walls should be in readiness to admit the gates to be set up in them; and that the expression is of the proverbial kind, intimating greatly protracted labor, occasioned by multitudinous hinderances and delays.

[¶4] 3. That he who rebuilt this city should, in laying the foundation, slay or sacrifice his firstborn, in order to consecrate it, and secure the assistance of the objects of his idolatrous worship; and should slay his youngest at the completion of the work, as a gratitude-offering for the assistance received. This latter opinion seems to be countenanced by the Chaldee, which represents Hiel as slaying his first-born Abiram, and his youngest son Segub.

[¶5] But who was Hiel the Beth-elite? The Chaldee calls him Hiel of Beth-mome, or the Beth-momite; the Vulgate, Hiel of Beth-el; the Septuagint, Hiel the Baithelite; the Syriac represents Ahab as the builder: "Also in his days did Ahab build Jericho, the place of execration;" the Arabic, "Also in his days did Hiel build the house of idols - to wit, Jericho." The MSS. give us no help. None of these versions, the Chaldee excepted, intimates that the children were either slain or died; which circumstance seems to strengthen the opinion, that the passage is to be understood of delays and hinderances. Add to this, Why should the innocent children of Hiel suffer for their father's presumption? And is it likely that, if Hiel lost his first-born when he laid the foundation, he would have proceeded under this evidence of the Divine displeasure, and at the risk of losing his whole family? Which of these opinions is the right one, or whether any of them be correct, is more than I can pretend to state. A curse seems to rest still upon Jericho: it is not yet blotted out of the map of Palestine, but it is reduced to a miserable village, consisting of about thirty wretched cottages, and the governor's dilapidated castle; nor is there any ruin there to indicate its former splendor.

### Introduction

[¶7] Elijah's message to Ahab concerning the three years' drought, [1Kgs 17:1]. He is commanded to go to the brook Cherith; where he is fed by ravens, [1Kgs 17:2-7]. He afterwards goes to a widow's house at Zarephath, and miraculously multiplies her meal and oil, [1Kgs 17:8-16]. Her son dies, and Elijah restores him to life, [1Kgs 17:17-24].

### Verse 1

[¶9] Elijah the Tishbite - The history of this great man is introduced very abruptly; his origin is enveloped in perfect obscurity. He is here said to be a Tishbite. Tishbeh, says Calmet, is a city beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, and in the land of Gilead. Who was his father, or from what tribe he sprang, is not intimated; he seems to have been the prophet of Israel peculiarly, as we never find him prophesying in Judah. A number of apocryphal writers have trifled at large about his parentage, miraculous birth, of his continual celibacy, his academy of the prophets, etc., etc., all equally worthy of credit. One opinion, which at first view appears strange, bears more resemblance to truth than any of the above, viz., that he had no earthly parentage known to any man; that he was an angel of God, united for a time to a human body, in order to call men back to perfect purity, both in doctrine and manners, from which they had totally swerved. His Hebrew name, which we have corrupted into Elijah and Elias, is אליהו Alihu, or, according to the vowel points, Eliyahu; and signifies he is my God. Does this give countenance to the supposition that this great personage was a manifestation in the flesh of the Supreme Being? He could not be the Messiah; for we find him with Moses on the mount of transfiguration with Christ. The conjecture that he was an angel seems countenanced by the manner of his departure from this world; yet, in [Jam 5:17], he is said to be a man ὁμοιοπαθης, of like passions, or rather with real human propensities: this, however, is irreconcilable with the conjecture.

[¶10] There shall not be dew nor rain these years - In order to remove the abruptness of this address, R. S. Jarchi dreams thus: - "Elijah and Ahab went to comfort Hiel in his grief, concerning his sons. And Ahab said to Elijah, Is it possible that the curse of Joshua, the son of Nun, who was only the servant of Moses, should be fulfilled; and the curse of Moses, our teacher, not be fulfilled; who said, [Deu 11:16], [Deu 11:17] : If ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them, then the Lord's wrath shall be kindled against you; and he will shut up the heaven that there be no rain? Now all the Israelites serve other gods, and yet the rain is not withheld. Then Elijah said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." This same mode of connecting this and the preceding chapter, is followed by the Jerusalem and Babylonish Talmuds, Sedar Olam, Abarbanel, etc.

### Verse 3

[¶12] Hide thyself by the brook Cherith - This brook, and the valley through which it ran, are supposed to have been on the western side of Jordan, and not far from Samaria. Others suppose it to have been on the eastern side, because the prophet is commanded to go eastward, [1Kgs 17:3]. It was necessary, after such a declaration to this wicked and idolatrous king, that he should immediately hide himself; as, on the first drought, Ahab would undoubtedly seek his life. But what a proof was this of the power of God, and the vanity of idols! As God's prophet prayed, so there was rain or drought; and all the gods of Israel could not reverse it! Was not this sufficient to have converted all Israel?

### Verse 4

[¶14] I have commanded the ravens to feed thee - Thou shalt not lack the necessaries of life; thou shalt be supplied by an especial providence.

[¶15] See more on this subject at the end of the chapter, [1Kgs 17:24] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶17] And the ravens brought him bread and flesh - The Septuagint, in the Codex Vaticanus, and some ancient fathers, read the passage thus: - Και οἱ κορακες εφερον αυτῳ αρτους το πρωΐ, και κρεα το δειλης, And the crows brought him bread in the morning, and flesh in the evening: but all the other versions agree with the Hebrew text. This is the first account we have of flesh-meat breakfasts and flesh-meat suppers; and as this was the food appointed by the Lord for the sustenance of the prophet, we may naturally conjecture that it was the food of the people at large.

### Verse 7

[¶19] The brook dried up - Because there had been no rain in the land for some time, God having sent this drought as a testimony against the idolatry of the people: see [Deu 11:16], [Deu 11:17].

### Verse 9

[¶21] Get thee to Zarephath - This was a town between Tyre and Sidon, but nearer to the latter, and is therefore called in the text Zarephath which belongeth to Sidon; or, as the Vulgate and other versions express it, Sarepta of the Sidonians. Sarepta is the name by which it goes in the New Testament; but its present name is Sarphan. Mr. Maundrell, who visited it, describes it as consisting of a few houses only on the tops of the mountains; but supposes that it anciently stood in the plain below, where there are still ruins of a considerable extent.

### Verse 12

[¶23] A handful of meal in a barrel - The word כד cad is to be understood as implying an earthen jar; not a wooden vessel, or barrel of any kind. In the East they preserve their corn and meal in such vessels; without which precaution the insects would destroy them. Travellers in Asiatic countries abound with observations of this kind.

[¶24] The word cruse, צפחת tsappachath, says Jarchi, signifies what in our tongue is expressed by bouteille, a bottle. Jarchi was a French rabbin.

### Verse 13

[¶26] But make me thereof a little cake first - This was certainly putting the widow's faith to an extraordinary trial: to take and give to a stranger, of whom she knew nothing, the small pittance requisite to keep her child from perishing, was too much to be expected.

### Verse 16

[¶28] The barrel of meal wasted not - She continued to take out of her jar and out of her bottle the quantity of meal and oil requisite for the consumption of her household; and without carefully estimating what was left, she went with confidence each time for a supply, and was never disappointed. This miracle was very like that wrought by Jesus at the marriage at Cana in Galilee: as the servants drew the water out of the pots, they found it turned into wine; and thus they continued to draw wine from the water-pots till the guests had been sufficiently supplied.

### Verse 17

[¶30] There was no breath left in him - He ceased to breathe and died.

### Verse 18

[¶32] To call my sin to remembrance - She seems to be now conscious of some secret sin, which she had either forgotten, or too carelessly passed over; and to punish this she supposes the life of her son was taken away. It is mostly in times of adversity that we duly consider our moral state; outward afflictions often bring deep searchings of heart.

### Verse 21

[¶34] Stretched himself upon the child three times - It is supposed that he did this in order to communicate some natural warmth to the body of the child, in order to dispose it to receive the departed spirit. Elisha, his disciple, did the same in order to restore the dead child of the Shunammite, [2Kgs 4:34]. And St. Paul appears to have stretched himself on Eutychus in order to restore him to life, [Act 20:10].

[¶35] Let this child's soul come into him again - Surely this means no more than the breath. Though the word נפש nephesh may sometimes signify the life, yet does not this imply that the spirit must take possession of the body in order to produce and maintain the flame of animal life? The expressions here are singular: Let his soul, נפש nephesh, come into him, על קרבו al kirbo, into the midst of him.

### Verse 22

[¶37] And the soul - נפש nephesh, of the child came into him again, על קרבו al kirbo, into the midst of him; and he revived, ויח vaiyechi, and he became alive. Did he not become alive from the circumstance of the immaterial principle coming again into him?

[¶38] Although רוח ruach is sometimes put for the breath, yet נפש generally means the immortal spirit, and where it seems to refer to animal life alone, it is only such a life as is the immediate and necessary effect of the presence of the immortal spirit.

[¶39] The words and mode of expression here appear to me a strong proof, not only of the existence of an immortal and immaterial spirit in man, but also that that spirit can and does exist in a separate state from the body. It is here represented as being in the midst of the child, like a spring in the center of a machine, which gives motion to every part, and without which the whole would stand still.

### Verse 24

[¶41] The word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth - Three grand effects were produced by this temporary affliction:

[¶42] 1. The woman was led to examine her heart, and try her ways;

[¶43] 2. The power of God became highly manifest in the resurrection of the child;

[¶44] 3. She was convinced that the word of the Lord was truth, and that not one syllable of it could fall to the ground. Through a little suffering all this good was obtained.

## 361. 1 Kings · 22 of 30

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[¶0] The subject in the fourth verse of this chapter deserves a more particular consideration.

[¶1] I have commanded the ravens to feed thee. - It is contended that if we consider ערבים orebim to signify ravens, we shall find any interpretation on this ground to be clogged with difficulties. I need mention but a few. The raven is an unclean bird, And these ye shall have in abomination among the fowls - every raven after his kind; [Lev 11:13-15]; that is, every species of this genus shall be considered by you unclean and abominable. Is it therefore likely that God would employ this most unclean bird to feed his prophet? Besides, where could the ravens get any flesh that was not unclean? Carrion is their food; and would God send any thing of this kind to his prophet? Again: If the flesh was clean which God sent, where could ravens get it? Here must be at least three miracles: one to bring from some table the flesh to the ravens; another, to induce the ravenous bird to give it up; and the third, to conquer its timidity towards man, so that it could come to the prophet without fear. Now, although God might employ a fowl that would naturally strive to prey on the flesh, and oblige it, contrary to its nature, to give it up; yet it is by no means likely that he would employ a bird that his own law had pronounced abominable. Again, he could not have employed this means without working a variety of miracles at the same time, in order to accomplish one simple end; and this is never God's method: his plan is ever to accomplish the greatest purposes by the simplest means.

[¶2] The original word orebim has been considered by some as meaning merchants, persons occasionally trading through that country, whom God directed, by inspiration, to supply the prophet with food. To get a constant supply from such hands in an extraordinary way was miracle enough; it showed the superintendence of God, and that the hearts of all men are in his hands.

[¶3] But in answer to this it is said, that the "original word never signifies merchants; and that the learned Bochart has proved this." I have carefully read over cap. 13, part. ii., lib. 2, of the Hierozoicon of this author, where he discusses this subject; and think that he has never succeeded less than in his attempt to prove that ravens are meant in this passage. He allows that the Tyrian merchants are described by this periphrasis, ערבי מערבך, the occupiers of thy merchandise, [Eze 27:27]; and asserts that ערבים orebim, per se, mercatores nusquam significat, "by itself, never signifies merchants." Now, with perfect deference to so great an authority, I assert that ערבי oreby, the contracted form of ערבים orebim, does signify merchants, both in [Eze 27:9] and [Eze 27:27], and that מערב maarab signifies a place for merchandise, the market-place or bazaar, in [Eze 27:9], [Eze 27:13], [Eze 27:17], [Eze 27:19]; as also the goods sold in such places, [Eze 27:33]; and therefore that ערבים for aught proved to the contrary, signify merchants in the text.

[¶4] As to Bochart's objection, that, the prophet being ordered to go to the brook Cherith, that he might lie hid, and the place of his retreat not be known, if any traders or merchants supplied his wants, they would most likely discover where he was, etc., I think there is no weight in it; for the men might be as well bound by the secret inspiration of God not to discover the place of his retreat, as they were to supply his wants; besides, they might have been of the number of those seven thousand men who had not bowed their knees to the image of Baal, and consequently would not inform Ahab and Jezebel of their prophet's hiding place.

[¶5] Some have supposed that the original means Arabians; but Bochart contends that there were no Arabians in that district: this is certainly more than he or any other man can prove. Colonies of Arabs, and hordes and families of the same people, have been widely scattered over different places for the purpose of temporal sojournment and trade; for they were a wandering people, and often to be found in different districts remote enough from the place of their birth. But, letting this pass merely for what it is worth, and feeling as I do the weight of the objections that may be brought against the supposition of ravens being the agents employed to feed the prophet, I would observe that there was a town or city of the name of Orbo, that was not far from the place where Elijah was commanded to hide himself. In Bereshith Rabba, a rabbinical comment on Genesis, we have these words עיר היא בתחום ביתשאן ושמה ערבו ir hi bithchom Beithshean, veshemo Orbo; "There is a town in the vicinity of Beth-shan, (Scythopolis), and its name is Orbo." We may add to this from St. Jerome, Orbim, accolae villae in finibus Arabum, Eliae dederunt alimenta; "The Orbim, inhabitants of a town in the confines of the Arabs, gave nourishment to Elijah." Now, I consider Jerome's testimony to be of great worth, because he spent several years in the holy land, that he might acquire the most correct notion possible of the language and geography of the country, as well as of the customs and habits of the people, in order to his translating the sacred writings, and explaining them. Had there not been such a place in his time, he could not have written as above: and although in this place the common printed editions of the Vulgate have corvi, "crows or ravens;" yet in [2Chr 21:16], St. Jerome translates the same word ערבים, "the Arabians;" and the same in [Neh 4:7]; it is therefore most likely that the inhabitants of Oreb or Orbo, as mentioned above, furnished the aliment by which the prophet was sustained; and that they did this being specially moved thereto by the Spirit of the Lord. Add to all these testimonies that of the Arabic version, which considers the words as meaning a people, Orabim, and not ravens or fowls of any kind. In such a case this version is high authority.

[¶6] It is contended that those who think the miracle is lost if the ravens be not admitted, are bound to show,

[¶7] 1. With what propriety the raven, an unclean animal, could be employed?

[¶8] 2. Why the dove, or some such clean creature, was not preferred?

[¶9] 3. How the ravens could get properly dressed flesh to bring to the prophet?

[¶10] 4. From whose table it was taken; and by what means?

[¶11] 5. Whether it be consistent with the wisdom of God, and his general conduct, to work a tissue of miracles where one was sufficient?

[¶12] 6. And whether it be not best, in all cases of this kind, to adopt that mode of interpretation which is most simple; the wisdom, goodness, and providence of God being as equally apparent as in those cases where a multitude of miracles are resorted to in order to solve difficulties?

### Introduction

[¶14] Elijah is commanded by the Lord to show himself to Ahab, [1Kgs 18:1], [1Kgs 18:2]. Ahab, and Obadiah his steward, search the land to find provender for the cattle, [Oba 1:3-6]. Obadiah meets Elijah, who commands him to inform Ahab that he is ready to present himself before him, [1Kgs 18:7-15]. Elijah and Ahab meet, [1Kgs 18:16-18]. Elijah proposes that the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal should be gathered together at Mount Carmel; that they should offer a sacrifice to their god, and he to Jehovah; and the God who should send down fire to consume the sacrifice should be acknowledged as the true God, [1Kgs 18:19-24]. The proposal is accepted, and the priests of Baal call in vain upon their god through the whole day, [1Kgs 18:25-29]. Elijah offers his sacrifice, prays to Gods and fire comes down from heaven and consumes it; whereupon the people acknowledge Jehovah to be the true God, and slay all the prophets of Baal, [1Kgs 18:30-40]. Elijah promises Ahab that there shall be immediate rain; it comes accordingly, and Ahab and Elijah come to Jezreel, [1Kgs 18:41-46].

### Verse 1

[¶16] After many days - in the third year - We learn from our Lord, [Luk 4:25], that the drought which brought on the famine in Israel lasted three years and six months. St. James, [Jam 5:17], gives it the same duration. Probably Elijah spent six months at the brook Cherith, and three years with the widow at Sarepta.

[¶17] I will send rain upon the earth - The word האדמה haadamah should be translated the ground or the land, as it is probable that this drought did not extend beyond the land of Judea.

### Verse 3

[¶19] Obadiah feared the Lord greatly - He was a sincere and zealous worshipper of the true God, and his conduct towards the persecuted prophets was the full proof both of his piety and humanity.

### Verse 4

[¶21] Fed them with bread and water - By these are signified the necessaries of life, of whatsoever kind.

### Verse 5

[¶23] Unto all fountains of water - All marshy or well-watered districts, where grass was most likely to be preserved.

### Verse 10

[¶25] There is no nation or kingdom - He had sent through all his own states and to the neighboring governments to find out the prophet, as he knew, from his own declaration, that both rain and drought were to be the effect of his prayers. Had he found him, he no doubt intended to oblige him to procure rain, or punish him for having brought on this drought.

[¶26] He took an oath - Ahab must have had considerable power and authority among the neighboring nations to require and exact this, and Elijah must have kept himself very secret to have shunned such an extensive and minute search.

### Verse 12

[¶28] The Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee - Obadiah supposed that the Spirit of the Lord had carried him to some strange country during the three years and a half of the drought; and as he had reason to think that Ahab would slay Elijah if he found him, and that the God of the prophet would not suffer his servant to fall into such murderous hands, he took for granted that as soon as he should come into danger, so soon would the Spirit of the Lord carry him away, or direct him to some hiding place.

### Verse 13

[¶30] When Jezebel slew the prophets - This persecution was probably during the dearth, for as this bad woman would attribute the public calamity to Elijah, not being able to find him, she would naturally wreak her vengeance on the prophets of Jehovah who were within her reach.

### Verse 18

[¶32] I have not troubled Israel - Here the cause of the dearth is placed on its true ground: the king and the people had forsaken the true God, and God shut up the heavens that there was no rain. Elijah was only the minister whom God used to dispense this judgment.

### Verse 19

[¶34] Gather to me all Israel - The heads of tribes and families; the rulers of the people.

[¶35] The prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty - the prophets of the groves four hundred - The king and queen had different religious establishments; the king and his servants worshipped Baal, the supreme lord and master of the world, the sun. For this establishment four hundred and fifty priests were maintained. The queen and her women worshipped אשרה Asherah, Astarte, or Venus; and for this establishment four hundred priests were maintained. These latter were in high honor; they ate at Jezebel's table; they made a part of her household. It appears that those eight hundred and fifty priests were the domestic chaplains of the king and queen, and probably not all the priests that belonged to the rites of Baal and Asherah in the land; and yet from the following verse we learn that Ahab had sent to all the children of Israel to collect these prophets; but Jezebel had certainly four hundred of them in her own house who were not at the assembly mentioned here. Those of Baal might have a more extensive jurisdiction than those of Asherah, the latter being constantly resident in Samaria.

### Verse 21

[¶37] How long halt ye between two opinions? - Literally, "How long hop ye about upon two boughs?" This is a metaphor taken from birds hopping about from bough to bough, not knowing on which to settle. Perhaps the idea of limping through lameness should not be overlooked. They were halt, they could not walk uprightly; they dreaded Jehovah, and therefore could not totally abandon him; they feared the king and queen, and therefore thought they must embrace the religion of the state. Their conscience forbade them to do the former; their fear of man persuaded them to do the latter, but in neither were they heartily engaged; and at this juncture their minds seemed in equipoise, and they were waiting for a favorable opportunity to make their decision. Such an opportunity now, through the mercy of God, presented itself.

### Verse 22

[¶39] I only, remain a prophet of the Lord - That is, I am the only prophet of God present, and can have but the influence of an individual; while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men! It appears that the queen's prophets, amounting to four hundred, were not at this great assembly; and these are they whom we meet with [1Kgs 22:6], and whom the king consulted relative to the battle at Ramoth-gilead.

### Verse 24

[¶41] The God that answereth by fire - Elijah gave them every advantage when he granted that the God who answered by fire should be acknowledged as the true God; for as the Baal who was worshipped here was incontestably Apollo, or the sun, he was therefore the god of fire, and had only to work in his own element.

### Verse 25

[¶43] For ye are many - And therefore shall have the preference, and the advantage of being first in your application to the deity.

## 362. 1 Kings · 23 of 30

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### Verse 26

[¶1] From morning even until noon - It seems that the priests of Baal employed the whole day in their desperate rites. The time is divided into two periods:

[¶2] 1. From morning until noon; this was employed in preparing and offering the sacrifice, and in earnest supplication for the celestial fire. Still there was no answer, and at noon Elijah began to mock and ridicule them, and this excited them to commence anew. And,

[¶3] 2. They continued from noon till the time of offering the evening sacrifice, dancing up and down, cutting themselves with knives, mingling their own blood with their sacrifice, praying, supplicating, and acting in the most frantic manner.

[¶4] And they leaped upon the altar - Perhaps it will be more correct to read with the margin, they leaped up and down at the altar; they danced round it with strange and hideous cries and gesticulations, tossing their heads to and fro, with a great variety of bodily contortions.

[¶5] A heathen priest, a high priest of Budhoo, has been just showing me the manner in which they dance and jump up and down, and from side to side, twisting their bodies in all manner of ways, when making their offerings to their demon gods; a person all the while beating furiously on a tom-tom, or drum, to excite and sustain those frantic attitudes; at the same time imploring the succor of their god, frequently in some such language as this: "O loving brother devil, hear me, and receive my offering!" To perform these sacrificial attitudes they have persons who are taught to practice them from their earliest years, according to directions laid down in religious books; and to make the joints and body pliant, much anointing of the parts and mechanical management are used; and they have masters, whose business it is to teach these attitudes and contortions according to the rules laid down in those books. It seems therefore that this was a very general practice of idolatry, as indeed are the others mentioned in this chapter.

### Verse 27

[¶7] At noon - Elijah mocked them - Had not Elijah been conscious of the Divine protection, he certainly would not have used such freedom of speech while encompassed by his enemies.

[¶8] Cry aloud - Make a great noise; oblige him by your vociferations to attend to your suit.

[¶9] For he is a god - כי אלהים הוא ki Elohim hu, he is the supreme God, you worship him as such, he must needs be such, and no doubt jealous of his own honor and the credit of his votaries! A strong irony.

[¶10] He is talking - He may be giving audience to some others; let him know that he has other worshippers, and must not give too much of his attention to one. Perhaps the word שיח siach should be interpreted as in the margin, he meditateth; he is in a profound revery; he is making some god-like projects; he is considering how he may best keep up his credit in the nation. Shout! let him know that all is now at stake.

[¶11] He is pursuing - He may be taking his pleasure in hunting, and may continue to pursue the game in heaven, till he have lost all his credit and reverence on earth. The original words, שיג לו sig lo, are variously translated; He is in a hotel, in diversorio, Vulgate. Perhaps he is delivering oracles, μη ποτε χρηματιζει αυτος, Septuagint. Or, he is on some special business. Therefore, cry aloud!

[¶12] He is in a journey - He has left his audience chamber, and is making some excursions; call aloud to bring him back, as his all is at stake.

[¶13] Peradventure he sleepeth - Rab. S. Jarchi gives this the most degrading meaning; I will give it in Latin, because it is too coarse to be put in English; Fortassis ad locum secretum abiit, ut ventrem ibi exomeret; "Perhaps he is gone to the ." This certainly reduces Baal to the lowest degree of contempt, and with it the ridicule and sarcasm are complete.

[¶14] Among Asiatic idolaters their gods have different functions to fulfill, and require sleep and rest. Vishnoo sleeps four months in the year. Budhoo is represented in his temple as sleep, though his eyes are open. Vayoo manages the winds; Varoona, the waters; Indra, the clouds, etc.; and according to many fables in the Pooranas, the gods are often out on journeys, expeditions, etc.

### Verse 28

[¶16] They cried aloud - The poor fools acted as they were bidden.

[¶17] And cut themselves after their manner - This was done according to the rites of that barbarous religion; if the blood of the bullock would not move him they thought their own blood might; and with it they smeared themselves and their sacrifice. This was not only the custom of the idolatrous Israelites, but of the Syrians, Persians, Greeks, Indians, and in short of all the heathen world.

### Verse 29

[¶19] They prophesied - They made incessant prayer and supplication; a farther proof that to pray or supplicate is the proper ideal meaning of the word נבא naba, which we constantly translate to prophesy, when even all the circumstances of the time and place are against such a meaning. See what is said on the case of Saul among the prophets, in the note on [1Sam 10:5] (note).

### Verse 30

[¶21] He repaired the altar of the Lord - There had been an altar of Jehovah in that place, called, even among the heathens, the altar of Carmel, probably built in the time of the judges, or, as the rabbins imagine, by Saul. Tacitus and Suetonius mention an altar on Mount Carmel, which Vespasian went to consult; there was no temple nor statue, but simply an altar that was respectable for its antiquity. "Est Judaeam inter Syriamque Carmelus; ita vocant montem Deumque: nec simulachrum Deo, aut templum situm tradidere majores: aram tantum, et reverentiam." - Tacit. Hist. lib. ii., c. 78. A priest named Basilides officiated at that altar, and assured Vespasian that all his projects would be crowned with success.

[¶22] Suetonius speaks to this purpose: "Apud Judaeam Carmeli Dei oraculum consulentem ita confirmavere sortes, ut quicquid cogitaret volveretque animo quamlibet magnum, id esse proventurum pollicerentur." Suet. in Vespas. cap. 5. The mount, the absence of a temple, no image, but a simple altar, very ancient, and which was held in reverence on account of the true answers which had been given there, prove that this was originally the altar of Jehovah: though in the time of Vespasian it seems to have been occupied by a heathen priest, and devoted to lying vanities.

### Verse 31

[¶24] Took twelve stones - He did this to show that all the twelve tribes of Israel should be joined in the worship of Jehovah.

### Verse 32

[¶26] He made a trench - This was to detain the water that might fall down from the altar when the barrels should be poured upon it, [1Kgs 18:35].

### Verse 33

[¶28] Fill four barrels - This was done to prevent any kind of suspicion that there was fire concealed under the altar. An ancient writer under the name of Chrysostom, quoted by Calmet, says that he had seen under the altars of the heathens, holes dug in the earth with funnels proceeding from them, and communicating with openings on the tops of the altars. In the former the priests concealed fire, which, communicating through the funnels with the holes, set fire to the wood and consumed the sacrifice; and thus the simple people were led to believe that the sacrifice was consumed by a miraculous fire. Elijah showed that no such knavery could be practiced in the present case. Had there been a concealed fire under the altar, as in the case mentioned above, the water that was thrown on the altar must have extinguished it most effectually. This very precaution has for ever put this miracle beyond the reach of suspicion.

### Verse 36

[¶30] Lord God of Abraham - He thus addressed the Supreme Being, that they might know when the answer was given, that it was the same God whom the patriarchs and their fathers worshipped, and thus have their hearts turned back again to the true religion of their ancestors.

### Verse 38

[¶32] Then the fire of the Lord fell - It did not burst out from the altar; this might still, notwithstanding the water, have afforded some ground for suspicion that fire had been concealed, after the manner of the heathens, under the altar.

[¶33] Pindar's account of the Rhodians' settling is the isle of Rhodes, and their first sacrifice there, bears a near affinity to the account here given: the shower of gold descending on the sacrifice offered up without fire, to show the approbation of their god, is little more than a poetic account of the above transactions. Καιτοι γαρ αιθουσας εχοντες Σπερμ' ανεβαν φλογος ου Τευξαν δ' απυροις ἱεροις Αλσος εν ακροπολει· κεινοισι μεν ξαν - θαν αγαγων νεφελαι· Πολυν ὑσε χρυσον

[¶34] Pind. Olymp. Od. 7, ver. 86.

[¶35] The Rhodians, mindful of their sire's behest,

[¶36] Straight in the citadel an altar reared;

[¶37] But with imperfect rites the Power addressed,

[¶38] And without fire their sacrifice prepared;

[¶39] Yet Jove, approving, o'er the assembly spread

[¶40] A yellow cloud, that dropped with golden dews.

[¶41] West.

[¶42] Consumed the burnt-sacrifice - The process of this consumption is very remarkable, and all calculated to remove the possibility of a suspicion that there was any concealed fire.

[¶43] 1. The fire came down from heaven.

[¶44] 2. The pieces of the sacrifice were first consumed.

[¶45] 3. The wood next, to show that it was not even by means of the wood that the flesh was burned.

## 363. 1 Kings · 24 of 30

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[¶0] 4. The twelve stones were also consumed, to show that it was no common fire, but one whose agency nothing could resist.

[¶1] 5. The dust, the earth of which the altar was constructed, was burned up.

[¶2] 6. The water that was in the trench was, by the action of this fire, entirely evaporated.

[¶3] 7. The action of this fire was in every case downward, contrary to the nature of all earthly and material fire. Nothing can be more simple and artless than this description, yet how amazingly full and satisfactory is the whole account!

### Verse 39

[¶5] Fell on their faces - Struck with awe and reverence at the sight of this incontestable miracle.

[¶6] And they said - We should translate the words thus: Jehovah, He is the God! Jehovah, He is the God! Baal is not the God; Jehovah alone is the God of Israel.

[¶7] As our term Lord is very equivocal, we should every where insert the original word יהוה, which we should write Yeve or Yeheveh, or Yahvah or Yehueh, or, according to the points, Yehovah.

### Verse 40

[¶9] Let not one of them escape - They had committed the highest crime against the state and the people by introducing idolatry, and bringing down God's judgments upon the land; therefore their lives were forfeited to that law which had ordered every idolater to be slain. It seems also that Ahab, who was present, consented to this act of impartial justice.

### Verse 41

[¶11] Get thee up, eat and drink - It appears most evidently that Ahab and the prophet were now on good terms, and this is a farther evidence that the slaying of the false prophets was by the king's consent.

### Verse 42

[¶13] Put his face between his knees - He kneeled down, and then bowed his head to the earth, so that, while his face was between his knees, his forehead touched the ground.

### Verse 43

[¶15] Look toward the sea - From the top of Mount Carmel the Mediterranean Sea was full in view.

### Verse 44

[¶17] There ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. - ככף איש kechaph ish, like the hollow of a man's hand. In the form of the hand bent, the concave side downmost. I have witnessed a resemblance of this kind at sea previously to a violent storm, a little cloud the size of a man's hand first appearing, and this increasing in size and density every moment, till at last it covered the whole heavens, and then burst forth with incredible fury.

[¶18] Mr. Bruce mentions a similar appearance in Abyssinia: - "Every morning, in Abyssinia, is clear, and the sun shines. About nine a small cloud, not above four hundred feet broad, appears in the east, whirling violently round, as if upon an axis; but arrived near the zenith, it first abates its motion, then loses its form, and extends itself greatly, and seems to call up vapours from all opposite quarters. These clouds, having attained nearly the same height, rush against each other with great violence, and put me always in mind of Elijah foretelling rain on Mount Carmel." - Travels, vol. v., page 336, edit. 1806.

### Verse 46

[¶20] Ran before Ahab - Many think that Elijah ran before the king in order to do him honor; and much learned labor has been spent on this passage in order to show that Elijah had put himself at the head of a company of chanters who ran before the king reciting his praises, or the praises of God; a custom which still exists in Arabian countries! I believe all these entirely mistake the writer's meaning: Ahab yoked his chariot, and made all speed to Jezreel. The hand of the Lord, or, as the Targum says, the spirit of strength, came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins, that is, tucked up his long garments in his girdle, and ran; and notwithstanding the advantage the king had by means of his chariot, the prophet reached Jezreel before him. There is no intimation here that he ran before the horses' heads. All this was intended to show that he was under the peculiar influence and inspiration of the Almighty, that the king might respect and fear him, and not do or permit to be done to him any kind of outrage.

### Introduction

[¶22] Ahab tells Jezebel what Elijah had done; she is enraged, and threatens to take away his life, [1Kgs 19:1], [1Kgs 19:2]. He leaves Jezreel, and comes to Beer-sheba, and thence to the wilderness, where he is fed and encouraged by an angel, [1Kgs 19:3-9]. His complaint and the vision by which God instructs him, [1Kgs 19:10-14]. He is sent to Damascus, in order to anoint Hazael king over Syria, and Jehu king over Israel, [1Kgs 19:15-18]. He meets with Elisha, who becomes his servant, [1Kgs 19:19-21].

### Verse 1

[¶24] Ahab told Jezebel - Probably with no evil design against Elijah.

### Verse 2

[¶26] So let the gods do - If I do not slay thee, let the gods slay me with the most ignominious death.

### Verse 3

[¶28] He arose, and went for his life - He saw it was best to give place to this storm, and go to a place of safety. He probably thought that the miracle at Carmel would have been the means of effecting the conversion of the whole court and of the country, but, finding himself mistaken, he is greatly discouraged.

[¶29] To Beer-sheba - This being at the most southern extremity of the promised land, and under the jurisdiction of the king of Judah, he might suppose himself in a place of safety.

[¶30] Left his servant there - Being alone, he would be the more unlikely to be discovered; besides, he did not wish to risk the life of his servant.

### Verse 4

[¶32] A day's journey into the wilderness - Probably in his way to Mount Horeb. See [1Kgs 19:8].

[¶33] Juniper tree - A tree that afforded him a shade from the scorching sun.

[¶34] It is enough - I have lived long enough! I can do no more good among this people; let me now end my days.

### Verse 5

[¶36] As he lay and slept - Excessive anguish of mind frequently induces sleep, as well as great fatigue of body.

[¶37] An angel touched him - He needed refreshment, and God sent an angel to bring him what was necessary.

### Verse 6

[¶39] A cake baken on the coals - All this seems to have been supernaturally provided.

### Verse 7

[¶41] The journey is too great for thee - From Beer-sheba to Horeb was about one hundred and fifty miles.

### Verse 8

[¶43] Forty days and forty nights - So he fasted just the same time as Moses did at Horeb, and as Christ did in the wilderness.

## 364. 1 Kings · 25 of 30

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### Verse 9

[¶1] He came thither unto a cave - Conjectured by some to be the same cave in which God put Moses that he might give him a glimpse of his glory. See [Exo 33:22].

[¶2] What doest thou here, Elijah? - Is this a reproach for having fled from the face of Jezebel, through what some call unbelieving fears, that God would abandon him to her rage?

### Verse 10

[¶4] I have been very jealous for the Lord - The picture which he draws here of apostate Israel is very affecting: -

[¶5] 1. They have forsaken thy covenant - They have now cleaved to and worshipped other gods.

[¶6] 2. Thrown down thine altars - Endeavoured, as much as they possibly could, to abolish thy worship, and destroy its remembrance from the land.

[¶7] 3. And slain thy prophets - That there might be none to reprove their iniquity, or teach the truth; so that the restoration of the true worship might be impossible.

[¶8] 4. I only, am left - They have succeeded in destroying all the rest of the prophets, and they are determined not to rest till they slay me.

### Verse 11

[¶10] Stand upon the mount before the Lord - God was now treating Elijah nearly in the same way that he treated Moses; and it is not unlikely that Elijah was now standing on the same place where Moses stood, when God revealed himself to him in the giving of the law. See [Exo 19:9], [Exo 19:16].

[¶11] The Lord passed by - It appears that the passing by of the Lord occasioned the strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire; but in none of these was God to make a discovery of himself unto the prophet; yet these, in some sort, prepared his way, and prepared Elijah to hear the still small voice. The apparatus, indicating the presence of the Divine Majesty, is nearly the same as that employed to minister the law to Moses; and many have supposed that God intended these things to be understood thus: that God intended to display himself to mankind not in judgment, but in mercy; and that as the wind, the earthquake, and the fire, were only the forerunners of the still small voice, which proclaimed the benignity of the Father of spirits; so the law, and all its terrors, were only intended to introduce that mild spirit of the Gospel of Jesus, proclaiming glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will unto men. Others think that all this was merely natural; and that a real earthquake, and its accompaniments, are described.

[¶12] 1. Previously to earthquakes the atmosphere becomes greatly disturbed, mighty winds and tempests taking place.

[¶13] 2. This is followed by the actual agitation of the earth.

[¶14] 3. In this agitation fire frequently escapes, or a burning lava is poured out, often accompanied with thunder and lightning.

[¶15] 4. After these the air becomes serene, the thunder ceases to roll, the forked lightnings no longer play, and nothing remains but a gentle breeze.

[¶16] However correct all this may be, it seems most probably evident that what took place at this time was out of the ordinary course of nature; and although the things, as mentioned here, may often be the accompaniments of an earthquake that has nothing supernatural in it; yet here, though every thing is produced in its natural order, yet the exciting cause of the whole is supernatural. Thus the Chaldee understands the whole passage: "And behold the Lord was revealed; and before him was a host of the angels of the wind, tearing the mountains, and breaking the rocks before the Lord, but the Majesty (Shechinah) of the Lord was not in the host of the angels of the wind. And after the host of the angels of the wind, there was a host of the angels of commotion; but the Majesty of the Lord was not in the host of the angels of commotion. And after the host of the angels of commotion, a fire; but the Majesty of the Lord was not in the host of the angels of fire. And after the host of the angels of fire, a voice singing in silence," etc.; that is, a sound with which no other sound was mingled. Perhaps the whole of this is intended to give an emblematical representation of the various displays of Divine providence and grace.

### Verse 13

[¶18] Wrapped his face in his mantle - This he did to signify his respect; so Moses hid his face, for he dared not to look upon God [Exo 3:6]. Covering the face was a token of respect among the Asiatics, as uncovering the head is among the Europeans.

### Verse 15

[¶20] To the wilderness of Damascus - He does not desire him to take a road by which he might be likely to meet Jezebel, or any other of his enemies.

[¶21] Anoint Hazael - For what reason the Lord was about to make all these revolutions, we are told in [1Kgs 19:17]. God was about to bring his judgments upon the land, and especially on the house of Ahab. This he exterminated by means of Jehu; and Jehu himself was a scourge of the Lord to the people. Hazael also grievously afflicted Israel; see the accomplishment of these purposes, 2 Kings 8 (note), and 2 Kings 9 (note).

### Verse 16

[¶23] Elisha - shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room - Jarchi gives a strange turn to these words: "Thy prophecy (or execution of the prophetic office) does not please me, because thou art the constant accuser of my children." With all their abominations, this rabbin would have us to believe that those vile idolaters and murderers were still the beloved children of God! And why? Because God had made a covenant with their fathers; therefore said the ancient as well as the modern siren song: "Once in the covenant, always in the covenant; once a son, and a son for ever." And yet we have here the testimony of God's own prophet, and the testimony of their history, that they had forsaken the covenant, and consequently renounced all their interest in it.

### Verse 17

[¶25] Shall Elisha slay - We do not find that Elisha either used the sword, or commissioned it to be used, though he delivered solemn prophecies against this disobedient people: and this is probably the sense in which this should be understood, as Elisha was prophet before Hazael was king, and Hazael was king before Jehu; and the heavy famine which he brought on the land took place before the reign either of Jehu or Hazael. The meaning of the prophecy may be this: Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, shall be the ministers of my vengeance against this disobedient and rebellious people. The order of time, here, is not to be regarded.

### Verse 18

[¶27] Seven thousand in Israel - That is, many thousands; for seven is a number of perfection, as we have often seen: so, The barren has borne seven - has had a numerous off-spring; Gold seven times purified - purified till all the dross is perfectly separated from it. The court and multitudes of the people had gone after Baal; but perhaps the majority of the common people still worshipped in secret the God of their fathers.

[¶28] Every mouth which hath not kissed him - Idolaters often kissed their hand in honor of their idols; and hence the origin of adoration - bringing the hand to the mouth after touching the idol, if it were within reach; and if not, kissing the right hand in token of respect and subjection. The word is compounded of ad, to, and os, oris, the mouth. Dextera manu deum contingentes, ori admovebant: "Touching the god with their right hand, they applied it to their mouth." So kissing the hand, and adoration, mean the same thing -

[¶29] Thus Pliny,

[¶30] Inter adorandum, dexteram ad osculum referimus, totum corpus circumagimus: Nat. Hist. lib. xxviii., cap. 2. - "In the act of adoration we kiss the right hand, and turn about the whole body."

[¶31] Cicero mentions a statue of Hercules, the chin and lips of which were considerably worn by the frequent kissing of his worshippers:

[¶32] Ut rictus ejus, et mentum paulo sit attritius, quod in precibus et gratulationibus, non solum id venerari, sed etiam osculari solent. - Orat. in Verrem.

[¶33] I have seen several instances of this, especially in the paintings of old saints: the lips and mouth of beautiful paintings literally worn away by the unmerciful osculations of devotees.

### Verse 19

[¶35] Twelve yoke of oxen - Elisha must have had a considerable estate, when he kept twelve yoke of oxen to till the ground. If, therefore, he obeyed the prophetic call, he did it to considerable secular loss.

[¶36] He with the twelfth - Every owner of an inheritance among the Hebrews, and indeed among the ancients in general, was a principal agent in its cultivation.

[¶37] Cast his mantle upon him - Either this was a ceremony used in a call to the prophetic office, or it indicated that he was called to be the servant of the prophet. The mantle, or pallium, was the peculiar garb of the prophet, as we may learn from [Zac 13:4]; and this was probably made of skin dressed with the hair on. See also [2Kgs 1:8]. It is likely, therefore, that Elijah threw his mantle on Elisha to signify to him that he was called to the prophetic office. See more on this subject below.

### Verse 20

[¶39] Let me - kiss my father and my mother - Elisha fully understood that he was called by this ceremony to the prophetic office: and it is evident that he conferred not with flesh and blood, but resolved, immediately resolved, to obey; only he wished to bid farewell to his relatives. See below.

[¶40] What have I done to thee? - Thy call is not from me, but from God: to him, not to me, art thou accountable for thy use or abuse of it.

### Verse 21

[¶42] He returned back - He went home to his house; probably he yet lived with his parents, for it appears he was a single man: and he slew a yoke of the oxen - he made a feast for his household, having boiled the flesh of the oxen with his agricultural implements, probably in token that he had abandoned secular life: then, having bidden them an affectionate farewell, he arose, went after Elijah, who probably still awaited his coming in the field or its vicinity, and ministered unto him.

[¶43] On the call of Elisha, I may make a few remarks.

[¶44] 1. Elijah is commanded, [1Kgs 19:16], to anoint Elisha prophet in his room. Though it is generally believed that kings, priests, and prophets, were inaugurated into their respective offices by the right of unction, and this I have elsewhere supposed; yet this is the only instance on record where a prophet is commanded to be anointed; and even this case is problematical, for it does not appear that Elijah did anoint Elisha. Nothing is mentioned in his call to the prophetic office, but the casting the mantle of Elijah upon him; wherefore it is probable that the word anoint, here signifies no more than the call to the office, accompanied by the simple rite of having the prophet's mantle thrown over his shoulders.

[¶45] 2. A call to the ministerial office, though it completely sever from all secular occupations, yet never supersedes the duties of filial affection. Though Elisha must leave his oxen, and become a prophet to Israel: yet he may first go home, eat and drink with his parents and relatives, and bid them an affectionate farewell.

## 365. 1 Kings · 26 of 30

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[¶0] 3. We do not find any attempt on the part of his parents to hinder him from obeying the Divine call: they had too much respect for the authority of God, and they left their son to the dictates of his conscience. Wo to those parents who strive, for filthy lucre's sake, to prevent their sons from embracing a call to preach Jesus to their perishing countrymen, or to the heathen, because they see that the life of a true evangelist is a life of comparative poverty, and they had rather he should gain money than save souls.

[¶1] 4. The cloak, we have already observed, was the prophet's peculiar habit; it was probably in imitation of this that the Greek philosophers wore a sort of mantle, that distinguished them from the common people; and by which they were at once as easily known as certain academical characters are by their gowns and square caps. The pallium was as common among the Greeks as the toga was among the Romans. Each of these was so peculiar to those nations, that Palliatus is used to signify a Greek, as Togatus is to signify a Roman.

[¶2] 5. Was it from this act of Elijah, conveying the prophetic office and its authority to Elisha by throwing his mantle upon him, that the popes of Rome borrowed the ceremony of collating an archbishop to the spiritualities and temporalities of his see, and investing him with plenary sacerdotal authority, by sending him what is well known in ecclesiastical history by the name pallium, pall, or cloak? I think this is likely; for as we learn from [Zac 13:4], and [2Kgs 1:8], that this mantle was a rough or hairy garment, so we learn from Durandus that the pallium or pall was made of white wool, after the following manner: -

[¶3] The nuns of St. Agnes, annually on the festival of their patroness, offer two white lambs on the altar of their church, during the time they sing Agnus Dei, in a solemn mass; which lambs are afterwards taken by two of the canons of the Lateran church, and by them given to the pope's sub-deacons, who send them to pasture till shearing time; and then they are shorn, and the pall is made of their wool, mixed with other white wool. The pall is then carried to the Lateran church, and there placed on the high altar by the deacons, on the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul; and, after a usual watching or vigil, it is carried away in the night, and delivered to the sub-deacons, who lay it up safely. Now, because it was taken from the body of St. Peter, it signifies the plenitude of ecclesiastical power: and, therefore, the popes assume it as their prerogative, being the professed successors of this apostle, to invest other prelates with it. This was at first confined to Rome, but afterwards it was sent to popish prelates in different parts of the world.

[¶4] 6. It seems, from the place in Zechariah, quoted above, that this rough cloak or garment became the covering of hypocrites and deceivers; and that persons assumed the prophetic dress without the prophetic call, and God threatens to unmask them. We know that this became general in the popish Church in the beginning of the 16th century; and God stripped those false prophets of their false and wicked pretensions, and exposed them to the people. Many of them profited by this exposure, and became reformed; and the whole community became at least more cautious. The Romish Church should be thankful to the Reformation for the moral purity which is now found in it; for, had not its vices, and usurpations, and super-scandalous sales of indulgences, been thus checked, the whole fabric had by this time been probably dissolved. Should it carry its reformation still farther, it would have a more legitimate pretension to the title of apostolic. Let them compare their ritual with the Bible and common sense, and they will find cause to lop many cumbrous and rotten branches from a good tree.

### Introduction

[¶6] Ben-hadad, king of Syria, and thirty-two kings, besiege Samaria, [1Kgs 20:1]. He sends an insulting message to Ahab; and insists on pillaging the whole city, [1Kgs 20:2-7]. The elders of Israel counsel the king not to submit to such shameful conditions, [1Kgs 20:8]. He sends a refusal to Ben-hadad; who, being enraged, vows revenge, [1Kgs 20:9-12]. A prophet comes to Ahab, and promises him victory, and gives him directions how he should order the battle, [1Kgs 20:13-19]. The Syrians are discomfited, and Ben-hadad scarcely escapes, [1Kgs 20:20], [1Kgs 20:21]. The prophet warns Ahab to be on his guard, for the Syrians would return next year, [1Kgs 20:22]. The counsellors of the king of Syria instruct him how he may successfully invade Israel, [1Kgs 20:23-25]. He leads an immense army to Aphek, to fight with Ahab, [1Kgs 20:26], [1Kgs 20:27]. A man of God encourages Ahab, who attacks the Syrians, and kills one hundred thousand of them, [1Kgs 20:28], [1Kgs 20:29]. They retreat to Aphek, where twenty-seven thousand of them are slain by a casualty, [1Kgs 20:30]. Ben-hadad and his courtiers, being closely besieged in Aphek, and unable to escape, surrender themselves with sackcloth on their loins, and halters on their heads; the king of Israel receives them in a friendly manner, and makes a covenant with Ben-hadad, [1Kgs 20:31-34]. A prophet, by a symbolical action, shows him the impolicy of his conduct in permitting Ben-hadad to escape, and predicts his death and the slaughter of Israel, [1Kgs 20:35-43].

### Verse 1

[¶8] Ben-hadad - Several MSS., and some early printed editions, have Ben-hadar, or the son of Hadar, as the Septuagint. He is supposed to be the same whom Asa stirred up against the king of Israel, [1Kgs 15:18]; or, as others, his son or grandson.

[¶9] Thirty and two kings - Tributary chieftains of Syria and the adjacent countries. In former times every town and city had its independent chieftain. Both the Septuagint and Josephus place this war after the history of Naboth.

### Verse 4

[¶11] I am thine, and all that I have - He probably hoped by this humiliation to soften this barbarous king, and perhaps to get better conditions.

### Verse 6

[¶13] Whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes - It is not easy to discern in what this second requisition differed from the first; for surely his silver, gold, wives, and children, were among his most pleasant or desirable things. Jarchi supposes that it was the book of the law of the Lord which Ben-hadad meant, and of which he intended to deprive Israel. It is however evident that Ben-hadad meant to sack the whole city, and after having taken the royal treasures and the wives and children of the king, to deliver up the whole to be pillaged by his soldiers.

### Verse 8

[¶15] Hearken not unto him - The elders had every thing at stake, and they chose rather to make a desperate defense than tamely to yield to such degrading and ruinous conditions.

### Verse 10

[¶17] If the dust of Samaria shall suffice - This is variously understood. Jonathan translates thus: "If the dust of Shomeron shall be sufficient for the soles of the feet of the people that shall accompany me;" i.e., I shall bring such an army that there will scarcely be room for them to stand in Samaria and its vicinity.

### Verse 11

[¶19] Let not him that girdeth on - This was no doubt a proverbial mode of expression. Jonathan translates, "Tell him, Let not him who girds himself and goes down to the battle, boast as he who has conquered and returned from it.

### Verse 12

[¶21] In the pavilions - This word comes from papilio, a butterfly, because tents, when pitched or spread out, resembled such animals; partly because of the mode of their expansion, and partly because of the manner in which they were painted.

[¶22] Set yourselves in array - The original word, שימו simu, which we translate by this long periphrasis, is probably a military term for Begin the attack, Invest the city, Every man to his post, or some such like expression.

### Verse 13

[¶24] There came a prophet - Who this was we cannot tell; Jarchi says it was Micaiah, son of Imlah. It is strange that on such an occasion we hear nothing of Elijah or Elisha. Is it not possible that this was one of them disguised?

### Verse 14

[¶26] By the young men of the princes of the provinces - These were probably some chosen persons out of the militia of different districts, raised by the princes of the provinces; the same as we would call lord-lieutenants of counties.

### Verse 15

[¶28] Two hundred and thirty-two - These were probably the king's life or body guards; not all the militia, but two hundred and thirty of them who constituted the royal guard in Samaria. They were therefore the king's own regiment, and he is commanded by the prophet to put himself at their head.

[¶29] Seven thousand - How low must the state of Israel have been at this time! These Jarchi thinks were the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

### Verse 18

[¶31] Take them alive - He was confident of victory. Do not slay them; bring them to me, they may give us some useful information.

### Verse 20

[¶33] The Syrians fled - They were doubtless panic-struck.

### Verse 23

[¶35] Their gods are gods of the hills - It is very likely that the small Israelitish army availed itself of the heights and uneven ground, that they might fight with greater advantage against the Syrian cavalry, for Ben-hadad came up against Samaria with horses and chariots, [1Kgs 20:1]. These therefore must be soon thrown into confusion when charging in such circumstances; indeed, the chariots must be nearly useless.

[¶36] Let us fight against them in the plain - There our horses and chariots will all be able to bear on the enemy, and there their gods, whose influence is confined to the hills, will not be able to help them. It was a general belief in the heathen world that each district had its tutelary and protecting deity, who could do nothing out of his own sphere.

### Verse 24

[¶38] Take the kings away - These were not acquainted with military affairs, or they had not competent skill. Put experienced captains in their place, and fight not but on the plains, and you will be sure of victory.

### Verse 26

[¶40] Ben-hadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek - There were several towns of this name; see the notes on [Jos 12:18]. It is supposed that the town mentioned here was situated in Libanus, upon the river Adonis, between Heliopolis and Biblos.

### Verse 28

[¶42] Because the Syrians have said - God resents their blasphemy, and is determined to punish it. They shall now be discomfited in such a way as to show that God's power is every where, and that the multitude of a host is nothing against him.

### Verse 29

[¶44] Slew a hundred thousand footmen in one day - This number is enormous; but the MSS. and versions give no various reading.

## 366. 1 Kings · 27 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/366/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/366/#p-N

### Verse 30

[¶1] A wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand - From the first view of this text it would appear that when the Syrians fled to Aphek, and shut themselves within the walls, the Israelites immediately brought all hands, and sapped the walls, in consequence of which a large portion fell, and buried twenty-seven thousand men. But perhaps the hand of God was more immediately in this disaster; probably a burning wind is meant. See at the end of the chapter, [1Kgs 20:43] (note).

[¶2] Came into the city, into an inner chamber - However the passage above may be understood, the city was now, in effect, taken; and Ben-hadad either betook himself with his few followers to the citadel or to some secret hiding-place, where he held the council with his servants immediately mentioned.

### Verse 31

[¶4] Put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads - Let us show ourselves humbled in the deepest manner, and let us put ropes about our necks, and go submitting to his mercy, and deprecating his wrath. The citizens of Calais are reported to have acted nearly in the same way when they surrendered their city to Edward III., king of England, in 1346. See at the end, [1Kgs 20:43] (note).

### Verse 32

[¶6] Thy servant Ben-hadad - See the vicissitude of human affairs! A little before he was the haughtiest of all tyrants, and Ahab calls him his lord; now, so much is he humbled, that he will be glad to be reputed Ahab's slave!

### Verse 33

[¶8] Did hastily catch it - They were watching to see if any kind word should be spoken by him, from which they might draw a favorable omen; and when they heard him use the word brother, it gave them much encouragement.

### Verse 34

[¶10] Thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus - It appears that it was customary for foreigners to have a place assigned to them, particularly in maritime towns, where they might deposit and vend their merchandise. This was the very origin of European settlements in Asiatic countries: "The people gave an inch to those strangers; and in consequence they took an ell." Under the pretense of strengthening the place where they kept their wares, to prevent depredations, they built forts, and soon gave laws to their entertainers. In vain did the natives wish them away; they had got power, and would retain it; and at last subjected these countries to their own dominion.

[¶11] It was customary also, in the time of the crusades, to give those nations which were engaged in them streets, churches, and post dues, in those places which they assisted to conquer. The Genoese and Venetians had each a street in Accon, or St. Jean d'Acre, in which they had their own jurisdiction; with oven, mill, bagnio, weights, and measures. - See William of Tyre, and Harmer's Observations.

[¶12] He made a covenant with him - According to the words recited above, putting him under no kind of disabilities whatsoever.

### Verse 35

[¶14] In the word of the Lord - By the word or command of the Lord; that is, God has commanded thee to smite me. Refusing to do it, this man forfeited his life, as we are informed in the next verse.

[¶15] By this emblematical action he intended to inform Ahab that, as the man forfeited his life who refused to smite him when he had the Lord's command to do it; so he (Ahab) had forfeited his life, because he did not smite Ben-hadad when he had him in his power.

### Verse 36

[¶17] A lion found him, and slew him - This seems a hard measure, but there was ample reason for it. This person was also one of the sons of the prophets, and he knew that God frequently delivered his counsels in this way, and should have immediately obeyed; for the smiting could have had no evil in it when God commanded it, and it could be no outrage or injury to his fellow when he himself required him to do it.

### Verse 38

[¶19] Disguised himself with ashes upon his face - It does not immediately appear how putting ashes upon his face could disguise him. Instead of אפר apher, dust, Houbigant conjectures that it should be אפד aphad, a fillet or bandage. It is only the corner of the last letter which makes the difference; for the ד daleth and ר resh are nearly the same, only the shoulder of the former is square, the latter round. That bandage, not dust, was the original reading, seems pretty evident from its remains in two of the oldest versions, the Septuagint and the Chaldee; the former has Και κατεδησατο εν τελαμωνι τους οφθαλμους αυτου, "And he bound his eyes with a fillet." The latter has וכריך במעפריאעינוהי ukerich bemaaphira einohi; "And he covered his eyes with a cloth." The MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi contain no various reading here; but bandage is undoubtedly the true one. However, in the way of mortification, both the Jews and Hindoos put ashes upon their heads and faces, and make themselves sufficiently disgusting.

### Verse 39

[¶21] Keep this man - The drift of this is at once seen; but Ahab, not knowing it, was led to pass sentence on himself.

### Verse 41

[¶23] Took the ashes away - He took the bandage from off his eyes: see on [1Kgs 20:38] (note). It was no doubt of thin cloth, through which he could see, while it served for a sufficient disguise.

### Verse 42

[¶25] Thy life shall go for his life - This was fulfilled at the battle of Ramoth-gilead, where he was slain by the Syrians; see [1Kgs 22:34], [1Kgs 22:35].

### Verse 43

[¶27] Heavy and displeased - Heavy or afflicted, because of these dreadful tidings; and displeased with the prophet for having announced them. Had he been displeased with himself, and humbled his soul before God, even those judgments, so circumstantially foretold, might have been averted.

[¶28] 1. We have already seen, in [1Kgs 20:30], that according to our text, twenty-seven thousand men were slain by the falling of a wall. Serious doubts are entertained concerning the legitimacy of this rendering. I have, in the note, given the conjecture concerning sapping the foundation of the wall, and thus overthrowing them that were upon it. If instead of חומה chomah, a wall, we read חומה confusion or disorder, then the destruction of the twenty-seven thousand men may appear to have been occasioned by the disorganized state into which they fell; of which their enemies taking advantage, they might destroy the whole with ease.

[¶29] But חומה chomah, a wall, becomes, as Dr. Kennicott has observed, a very different word when written without the ו vau, חמה which signifies heat; sometimes the sun, vehement heat, or the heat of the noon-day sun; and also the name of a wind, from its suffocating, parching quality.

[¶30] The same noun, from יחם yacham, Dr. Castel explains by excandescentia, furor, venenum; burning, rage, poison. These renderings, says Dr. Kennicott, all concur to establish the sense of a burning wind, eminently blasting and destructive. I shall give a few instances from the Scripture: - We read in [Job 27:21] : The east wind carrieth him away; where the word קדים kadim is καυσων, burning, in the Septuagint; and in the Vulgate, ventus urens, a burning wind. In [Eze 19:12] : She was plucked up בחמה she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit; her strong rods were withered, and the fire consumed them. Hosea ([Hos 13:15]) mentions the desolation brought by an east wind, the wind of the Lord. What in [Amo 4:9] is, I have smitten you with blasting, in the Vulgate is, in vento vehemente, "with a vehement wind;" and in the Syriac, with a hot wind.

[¶31] Let us apply these to the history: when Ben-hadad, king of Syria, was besieging Samaria the second time, the Israelites slew of the Syrians one hundred thousand footmen in one day; and it follows, that when the rest of the army fled to Aphek, twenty-seven thousand of the men that were left were suddenly destroyed by החומה hachomah, or החמה hachamah, a burning wind. That such is the true interpretation, will appear more clearly if we compare the destruction of Ben-hadad's army with that of Sennacherib, whose sentence is that God would send upon him a Blast, רוח ruach, a wind; doubtless such a wind as would be suddenly destructive. The event is said to be that in the night one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians were smitten by the angel of the Lord, [2Kgs 19:7], [2Kgs 19:35]. The connection of this sentence with the execution of it is given by the psalmist, who says, [Psa 104:4] : God maketh his angels רחות ruchoth, winds; or, maketh the winds his angels, i.e., messengers for the performance of his will. In a note on [Psa 11:6], Professor Michaelis has these words: Ventus Zilgaphoth, pestilens eurus est, orientalibus notissimus, qui obvia quaevis necat; "The wind Zilgaphoth is a pestilent east wind, well known to the Asiastics, which suddenly kills those who are exposed to it." Thevenot mentions such a wind in 1658, that in one night suffocated twenty thousand men. And the Samiel he mentions as having, in 1665, suffocated four thousand persons. "Upon the whole, I conclude," says the doctor, 'that as Thevenot has mentioned two great multitudes destroyed by this burning wind, so has holy Scripture recorded the destruction of two much greater multitudes by a similar cause; and therefore we should translate the words thus: But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and The Burning Wind fell upon the twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left."

[¶32] 2. On the case of Ben-hadad and his servants coming out to Ahab with sackcloth on their loins and ropes about their necks, [1Kgs 20:31], I have referred to that of the six citizens of Calais, in the time of Edward III. I shall give this affecting account from Sir John Froissart, who lived in that time, and relates the story circumstantially, and with that simplicity and detail that give it every appearance of truth. He is the only writer, of all his contemporaries, who gives the relation; and as it is not only illustrative of the text in question, but also very curious and affecting, I will give it in his own words; only observing that, King Edward having closely invested the city in 1346, and the king of France having made many useless attempts to raise the siege, at last withdrew his army, and left it to its fate. "Then," says Froissart, chap. cxliv., "after the departure of the king of France with his army, the Calesians saw clearly that all hopes of succor were at an end; which occasioned them so much sorrow and distress that the hardiest could scarcely support it. They entreated therefore, most earnestly, the lord Johns de Vienne, their governor, to mount upon the battlements, and make a sign that he wished to hold a parley. "The king of England, upon hearing this, sent to him Sir Walter Manny and Lord Basset. When they were come near, the lord de Vienne said to them: 'Dear gentlemen, you, who are very valiant knights, know that the king of France, whose subjects we are, has sent us hither to defend this town and castle from all harm and damage. This we have done to the best of our abilities; all hopes of help have now left us, so that we are most exceedingly straitened; and if the gallant king, your lord, have not pity upon us, we must perish with hunger. I therefore entreat that you would beg of him to have compassion upon us, and to have the goodness to allow us to depart in the state we are in; and that he will be satisfied with having possession of the town and castle, with all that is within them, as he will find therein riches enough to content him.' To this Sir Walter Manny replied: 'John, we are not ignorant of what the king our lord's intentions are, for he has told them to us; know then, that it is not his pleasure that you should get off so, for he is resolved that you surrender yourselves wholly to his will, to allow those whom he pleases their ransom, or to be put to death; for the Calesians have done him so much mischief, and have, by their obstinate defense, cost him so many lives, and so much money, that he is mightily enraged.' "The lord de Vienne answered: 'These conditions are too hard for us; we are but a small number of knights and squires, who have loyally served our lord and master, as you would have done, and have suffered much ill and disquiet: but we will endure more than any men ever did in a similar situation, before we consent that the smallest boy in the town should fare worse than the best. I therefore once more entreat you, out of compassion, to return to the king of England, and beg of him to have pity on us; he will, I trust, grant you this favor; for I have such an opinion of his gallantry as to hope that, through God's mercy, he will alter his mind.' "The two lords returned to the king and related what had passed. The king said: 'He had no intention of complying with the request, but should insist that they surrendered themselves unconditionally to his will.' Sir Walter replied: 'My lord, ye may be to blame in this, as you will set us a very bad example; for if you order us to go to any of your castles, we shall not obey you so cheerfully if you put these people to death, for they will retaliate upon us in a similar case.' "Many barons who were present supported this opinion; upon which the king replied: 'Gentlemen, I am not so obstinate as to hold my opinion alone against you all. Sir Walter, you will inform the governor of Calais, that the only grace he is to expect from me is, that six of the principal citizens of Calais march out of the town with bare heads and feet, with ropes round their necks, and the keys of the town and castle in their hands. These six persons shall be at my absolute disposal, and the remainder of the inhabitants pardoned.' "Sir Walter returned to the lord de Vienne, who was waiting for him on the battlements, and told him all that he had been able to gain from the king. 'I beg of you,' replied the governor, 'that you would be so good as to remain here a little, whilst I go and relate all that has passed to the townsmen; for, as they have desired me to undertake this it is but proper that they should know the result of it.' "He went to the market place, and caused the bell to be rung; upon which all the inhabitants, men and women, assembled in the town-hall. He then related to them what he had said, and the answers he had received, and that he could not obtain any conditions more favorable; to which they must give a short and immediate answer. "This information caused the greatest lamentations and despair, so that the hardest heart would have had compassion on them; even the lord de Vienne wept bitterly. "After a short time the most wealthy citizen of the town, by name Eustace de St. Pierre, rose up and said: 'Gentlemen, both high and low, it would be a very great pity to suffer so many people to die through famine, if any means could be found to prevent it; and it would be highly meritorious in the eyes of our Savior, if such misery could be averted. I have such faith and trust in finding grace before God, if I die to save my townsmen, that I name myself as first of the six.' "When Eustace had done speaking, they all rose up and almost worshipped him: many cast themselves at his feet with tears and groans. Another citizen, very rich and respected, rose up and said, 'He would be the second to his companion Eustace;' his name was John Daire. After him James Wisant, who was very rich in merchandise and lands, offered himself as companion to his two cousins, as did Peter Wisant, his brother. Two others then named themselves, which completed the number demanded by the king of England. The lord John de Vienne then mounted a small hackney, for it was with difficulty he could walk, (he had been wounded in the siege), and conducted them to the gate. There was the greatest sorrow and lamentation over all the town; and in such manner were they attended to the gate, which the governor ordered to be opened and then shut upon him and the six citizens, whom he led to the barriers, and said to Sir Walter Manny, who was there waiting for him, 'I deliver up to you, as governor of Calais, with the consent of the inhabitants, these six citizens; and I swear to you that they were, and are at this day, the most wealthy and respectable inhabitants of Calais. I beg of you, gentle sir, that you would have the goodness to beseech the king that they may not be put to death.' 'I cannot answer for what the king will do with them,' replied Sir Walter; 'but you may depend that I will do all in my power to save them.' "The barriers were opened, when these six citizens advanced towards the pavilion of the king, and the lord de Vienne re-entered the town. "When Sir Walter Manny had presented these six citizens to the king, they fell upon their knees, and with uplifted hands said: 'Most gallant king, see before you six citizens of Calais, who have been capital merchants, and who bring you the keys of the castle and of the town. We surrender ourselves to your absolute will and pleasure, in order to save the remainder of the inhabitants of Calais, who have suffered much distress and misery. Condescend, therefore, out of your nobleness of mind, to have mercy and compassion upon us.' All the barons knights, and squires, that were assembled there in great numbers, wept at this sight. "The king eyed them with angry looks, (for he hated much the people of Calais, for the great losses he had formerly suffered from them at sea), and ordered their heads to be stricken off. All present entreated the king that he would be more merciful to them, but he would not listen to them. Then Sir Walter Manny said: 'Ah, gentle king, let me beseech you to restrain your anger; you have the reputation of great nobleness of soul, do not therefore tarnish it by such an act as this, nor allow any one to speak in a disgraceful manner of you. In this instance all the world will say you have acted cruelly, if you put to death six such respectable persons, who of their own free will have surrendered themselves to your mercy, in order to save their fellow citizens.' Upon this the king gave a wink, saying, Be it so, and ordered the headsman to be sent for; for that the Calesians had done him so much damage, it was proper they should suffer for it. "The queen of England, who was at that time very big with child, fell on her knees, and with tears said: 'Ah, gentle sir, since I have crossed the sea with great danger to see you, I have never asked you one favor; now I most humbly ask as a gift, for the sake of the Son of the blessed Mary, and for your love to me, that you will be merciful to these six men.' The king looked at her for some time in silence, and then said: 'Ah, lady, I wish you had been any where else than here; you have entreated in such a manner that I cannot refuse you; I therefore give them to you, to do as you please with them.' "The queen conducted the six citizens to her apartments, and had the halters taken from round their necks, new clothed, and served them with a plentiful dinner; she then presented each with nobles, and had them escorted out of the camp in safety." This is the whole of this affecting account, which is mentioned by no other writer, and has been thought a proper subject for the pen of the poet, the pencil of the painter, and the burin of the engraver; and which has seldom been fairly represented in the accounts we have of it from our historians."

[¶33] The translation I have borrowed from the accurate edition of Froissart, by Mr. Johns, of Hafod; and to his work, vol. i., p. 367, I must refer for objections to the authenticity of some of the facts stated by the French historian. We see in Eustace de St. Pierre and his five companions the portrait of genuine patriotism. - a principle, almost as rare in the world as the Egyptian phoenix, which leads its possessors to devote their property and consecrate their lives to the public weal; widely different from that spurious birth which is deep in the cry of My country! while it has nothing in view but its places, pensions, and profits. Away with it!

### Introduction

[¶35] Ahab covets the vineyard of Naboth, and wishes to have it either by purchase or exchange, [1Kgs 21:1], [1Kgs 21:2]. Naboth refuses to alienate it on any account, because it was his inheritance from his fathers, [1Kgs 21:3]. Ahab becomes disconsolate, takes to his bed, and refuses to eat, [1Kgs 21:4]. Jezebel, finding out the cause, promises to give him the vineyard, [1Kgs 21:5-7]. She writes to the nobles of Jezreel to proclaim a fast, to accuse Naboth of blasphemy, carry him out, and stone him to death; which is accordingly done, [1Kgs 21:8-14]. She then tells Ahab to go and take possession of the vineyard; he goes, and is met by Elijah, who denounces on him the heaviest judgments, [1Kgs 21:15-24]. Ahab's abominable character, [1Kgs 21:25], [1Kgs 21:26]. He humbles himself; and God promises not to bring the threatened public calamities in his days, but in the days of his son, [1Kgs 21:27-29].

### Verse 1

[¶37] After these things - This and the twentieth chapter are transposed in the Septuagint; this preceding the account of the Syrian war with Ben-hadad. Josephus gives the history in the same order.

### Verse 2

[¶39] Give me thy vineyard - The request of Ahab seems at first view fair and honorable. Naboth's vineyard was nigh to the palace of Ahab, and he wished to add it to his own for a kitchen garden, or perhaps a grass-plat, גן ירק gan yarak; and he offers to give him either a better vineyard for it, or to give him its worth in money. Naboth rejects the proposal with horror: The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee. No man could finally alienate any part of the parental inheritance; it might be sold or mortgaged till the jubilee, but at that time it must revert to its original owner, if not redeemed before; for this God had particularly enjoined [Lev 25:14-17], [Lev 25:25-28] : therefore Naboth properly said, [1Kgs 21:3], The Lord forbid it me, to give the inheritance of my fathers. Ahab most evidently wished him to alienate it finally, and this is what God's law had expressly forbidden; therefore he could not, consistently with his duty to God, indulge Ahab; and it was high iniquity in Ahab to tempt him to do it; and to covet it showed the depravity of Ahab's soul. But we see farther that, despotic as those kings were, they dared not seize on the inheritance of any man. This would have been a flagrant breach of the law and constitution of the country; and this indeed would have been inconsistent with the character which they sustained, viz., the Lord's vicegerents. The Jewish kings had no authority either to alter the old laws, or to make new ones. "The Hindoos," says Mr. Ward, "are as strongly attached to their homesteads as the Jews were. Though the heads of the family be employed in a distant part of the country, and though the homesteads may be almost in ruins, they cling still to the family inheritance with a fondness bordering on superstition.

### Verse 4

[¶41] He laid him down upon his bed - Poor soul! he was lord over ten-twelfths of the land, and became miserable because he could not get a poor man's vineyard added to all that he possessed! It is a true saying, "That soul in which God dwells not, has no happiness: and he who has God has a satisfying portion." Every privation and cross makes an unholy soul unhappy; and privations and crosses it must ever meet with, therefore: - "Where'er it goes is hell; itself is hell!"

### Verse 7

[¶43] Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? - Naboth, not Ahab, is king. If he have authority to refuse, and thou have no power to take, he is the greater man of the two. This is the vital language of despotism and tyranny.

## 367. 1 Kings · 28 of 30

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### Verse 8

[¶1] She wrote letters in Ahab's name - She counterfeited his authority by his own consent; and he lent his signet to stamp that authority.

### Verse 9

[¶3] Proclaim a fast - Intimate that there is some great calamity coming upon the nation, because of some evil tolerated in it.

[¶4] Set Naboth on high - Bring him to a public trial.

### Verse 10

[¶6] Set two men - For life could not be attainted but on the evidence of two witnesses at least.

[¶7] Sons of Belial - Men who will not scruple to tell lies and take a false oath.

[¶8] Thou didst blaspheme God and the king - Thou art an atheist and a rebel. Thou hast spoken words injurious to the perfections and nature of God; and thou hast spoken words against the crown and dignity of the king. The words literally are, Naboth hath Blessed Clod and the king; or, as Parkhurst contends, "Thou hast blessed the false gods and Molech," ברכת אלהים ומלך And though Jezebel was herself an abominable idolatress; yet, as the law of Moses still continued in force, she seems to have been wicked enough to have destroyed Naboth, upon the false accusation of blessing the heathen Aleim and Molech, which subjected him to death by [Deu 12:6]; [Deu 17:2-7]. The first meaning appears the most simple.

[¶9] Many think that the word ברך barach signifies both to bless and curse; and so it is interpreted in most Lexicons: it is passing strange that out of the same word proceedeth blessing and cursing; and to give such opposite and self-destructive meanings to any word is very dangerous. Parkhurst denies that it ever has the meaning of cursing, and examines all the texts where it is said to occur with this meaning; and shows that blessing, not cursing, is to be understood in all those places: see him under ברך, sec. vi.

### Verse 13

[¶11] And stoned him with stones - As they pretended to find him guilty of treason against God and the king, it is likely they destroyed the whole of his family; and then the king seized on his grounds as confiscated, or as escheated to the king, without any heir at law. That his family was destroyed appears strongly intimated, [2Kgs 9:26]; Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, And the Blood of His Sons, saith the Lord.

### Verse 15

[¶13] Arise, take possession - By what rites or in what forms this was done, we do not know.

### Verse 18

[¶15] Go down to meet Ahab - This was the next day after the murder, as we learn from the above quotation, [2Kgs 9:26].

### Verse 19

[¶17] In the place where dogs licked, etc. - It is in vain to look for a literal fulfillment of this prediction. Thus it would have been fulfilled, but the humiliation of Ahab induced the merciful God to say, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in the days of his son, [1Kgs 21:29]. Now dogs did lick the blood of Ahab; but it was at the pool of Samaria, where his chariot and his armor were washed, after he had received his death wound at Ramoth-gilead; but some think this was the place where Naboth was stoned: see [1Kgs 22:38]. And how literally the prediction concerning his son was fulfilled, see [2Kgs 9:25], where we find that the body of Jehoram his son, just then slain by an arrow that had passed through his heart, was thrown into the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; and there, doubtless, the dogs licked his blood, if they did not even devour his body. There is a similar idea of the propriety of punishment overtaking the culprit in the place where he had committed the crime, expressed by Orestes to Aegisthus, Soph. Elect. 1495. - Χωρει δ' ενθαπερ κατεκτανες Πατερα τον αμον, ὡς εν ταυτῳ θανῃς. - Go where thou slew'st my father,

[¶18] That in the self-same place thou too may'st die.

### Verse 20

[¶20] Thou hast sold thyself to work evil - See a similar form of speech, [Rom 7:14] (note). Thou hast totally abandoned thyself to the service of sin. Satan is become thy absolute master, and thou his undivided slave.

### Verse 23

[¶22] The dogs shall eat Jezebel - This was most literally fulfilled; see [2Kgs 9:36]. The carcasses of poor Hindoos, and of persons who have received public punishment, are thrown into the rivers, and floating to the side, are devoured by dogs, vultures, and crows.

### Verse 25

[¶24] Did sell himself to work wickedness - He hired himself to the devil for this very purpose, that he might work wickedness. This was to be his employment, and at this he labored.

[¶25] In the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up - A good wife is from the Lord; a bad wife is from the devil: Jezebel was of this kind; and she has had many successors.

### Verse 27

[¶27] He rent his clothes - He was penetrated with sorrow, and that evidently unfeigned.

[¶28] Put sackcloth upon his flesh - He humbled himself before God and man.

[¶29] And fasted - He afflicted his body for his soul's benefit.

[¶30] Lay in sackcloth - Gave the fullest proof that his repentance was real.

[¶31] And went softly - Walked barefooted; so the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The Vulgate has demisso capite, "with his head hanging down." Houbigant translates went groaning. Jarchi says that the word אט at, used here, signifies to be unshod. This is its most likely sense. All these things prove that Ahab's repentance was genuine; and God's approbation of it puts it out of doubt. The slow and measured pace which always accompanies deep and reflective sorrow is also alluded to by Aeschylus, where the Chorus are thus shortly addressed on the defeat of Xerxes. - Aesch. Pers. 1073. Γοασθ' ἁβροβαται "With light and noiseless step lament."

### Verse 29

[¶33] Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself - He did abase himself; he did truly repent him of his sins, and it was such a repentance as was genuine in the sight of God: He humbleth himself Before Me.

[¶34] The penitent heart ever meets the merciful eye of God; repentance is highly esteemed by the Father of compassion, even where it is comparatively shallow and short-lived. Any measure of godly sorrow has a proportionate measure of God's regard; where it is deep and lasting, the heart of God is set upon it. He that mourns shall be comforted; thus hath God spoken, and though repentance for our past sins can purchase no favor, yet without it God will not grant us his salvation.

### Introduction

[¶36] Jehoshaphat King of Judah, and Ahab King of Israel, unite against the Syrians, in order to recover Ramoth-gilead, [1Kgs 22:1-4]. They inquire of false prophets, who promise them success. Micaiah, a true prophet, foretells the disasters of the war, [1Kgs 22:5-17]. A lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab's prophets persuades Ahab to go up against Ramoth, [1Kgs 22:18-29]. The confederate armies are routed, and the king of Israel slain, [1Kgs 22:30-36]. Death and burial of Ahab, [1Kgs 22:37-40]. Character of Jehoshaphat, [1Kgs 22:41-47]. He makes a fleet in order to go to Ophir for gold, which is wrecked at Ezion-geber, [1Kgs 22:48]. His death, [1Kgs 22:49]. He is succeeded by his son Jehoram, [1Kgs 22:50]. Ahaziah succeeds his father Ahab, and reigns wickedly, [1Kgs 22:51], [1Kgs 22:52].

### Verse 1

[¶38] Three years without war - That is, from the time that Ahab made the covenant with Ben-hadad, mentioned [1Kgs 20:34]. And probably in that treaty it was stipulated that Ramoth-gilead should be restored to Israel; which not being done, Ahab formed a confederacy with Judah, and determined to take it by force.

### Verse 4

[¶40] Wilt thou go with me - We find that there was a good understanding between Jehoshaphat and Ahab, which no doubt was the consequence of a matrimonial alliance between the son of the former, Jehoram, and the daughter of the latter, Athaliah; see [2Chr 18:1]; [2Kgs 8:18]. This coalition did not please God, and Jehoshaphat is severely reproved for it by Jehu the seer, [2Chr 19:1-3].

### Verse 6

[¶42] About four hundred men - These were probably the prophets of Asherah or Venus, maintained by Jezebel, who were not present at the contention on Mount Carmel. See [1Kgs 18:19], etc.

### Verse 8

[¶44] Micaiah the son of Imlah - The Jews suppose that it was this prophet who reproved Ahab for dismissing Ben-hadad, [1Kgs 20:35], etc. And that it was because of the judgments with which he had threatened him, that Ahab hated him: I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.

## 368. 1 Kings · 29 of 30

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### Verse 9

[¶1] The king of Israel called an officer - סריס saris, literally a eunuch; probably a foreigner, for it was not lawful to disgrace an Israelite by reducing him to such a state.

### Verse 11

[¶3] Zedekiah - made him horns of iron - This was in imitation of that sort of prophecy which instructed by significative actions. This was frequent among the prophets of the Lord.

### Verse 13

[¶5] The words of the prophets declare good - What notion could these men have of prophecy, when they supposed it was in the power of the prophet to model the prediction as he pleased, and have the result accordingly?

### Verse 15

[¶7] Go, and prosper - This was a strong irony; as if he had said, All your prophets have predicted success; you wish me to speak as they speak: Go, and prosper; for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king. These were the precise words of the false prophets, (see [1Kgs 22:6], [1Kgs 22:12]), and were spoken by Micaiah in such a tone and manner as at once showed to Ahab that he did not believe them; hence the king adjures him, [1Kgs 22:16], that he would speak to him nothing but truth; and on this the prophet immediately relates to him the prophetic vision which pointed out the disasters which ensued.

[¶8] It is worthy of remark that this prophecy of the king's prophets is couched in the same ambiguous terms by which the false prophets in the heathen world endeavored to maintain their credit, while they deluded their votaries. The reader will observe that the word it is not in the original: The Lord will deliver It into the hand of the king; and the words are so artfully constructed that they may be interpreted for or against; so that, be the event whatever it might, the juggling prophet could save his credit by saying he meant what had happened. Thus then the prophecy might have been understood: The Lord will deliver (Ramoth-gilead) into the king's (Ahab's) hand; or, The Lord will deliver (Israel) into the king's hand; i.e., into the hand of the king of Syria. And Micaiah repeats these words of uncertainty in order to ridicule them and expose their fallacy.

[¶9] The following oracles among the heathens were of this same dubious nature, in order that the priests' credit might be saved, let the event turn out as it might. Thus the Delphic oracle spoke to Croesus words which are capable of a double meaning, and which he understood to his own destruction: -

[¶10] Croesus, Halym penetrans, magnam subvertet opum vim,

[¶11] Which says, in effect: - "If you march against Cyrus, he will either overthrow you, or you will overthrow him."

[¶12] He trusted in the latter, the former took place. He was deluded, and yet the oracle maintained its credit. So in the following: -

[¶13] Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse

[¶14] Ibis redibis nunquam in bello peribis.

[¶15] Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, understood by this that he should conquer the Romans, against whom he was then making war; but the oracle could be thus translated: "The Romans shall overcome thee." He trusted in the former, made unsuccessful war, and was overcome; and yet the juggling priest saved his credit. The latter line is capable of two opposite meanings: - "Thou shalt go, thou shalt return, thou shalt never perish in war."

[¶16] Or, "Thou shalt go, thou shalt never return, thou shalt perish in war."

[¶17] When prophecies and oracles were not delivered in this dubious way, they were generally couched in such intricate and dark terms that the assistance of the oracle was necessary to explain the oracle, and then it was ignotum per ignotius, a dark saying paraphrased by one yet more obscure.

### Verse 17

[¶19] These have no master - Here the prophet foretells the defeat of Israel, and the death of the king; they were as sheep that had not a shepherd, people that had no master, the political shepherd and master (Ahab) shall fall in battle.

### Verse 19

[¶21] I saw the Lord sitting on his throne - This is a mere parable, and only tells in figurative language, what was in the womb of providence, the events which were shortly to take place, the agents employed in them, and the permission on the part of God for these agents to act. Micaiah did not choose to say before this angry and impious king, "Thy prophets are all liars; and the devil, the father of lies, dwells in them;" but he represents the whole by this parable, and says the same truths in language as forcible, but less offensive.

### Verse 22

[¶23] Go forth, and do so - This is no more than, "God has permitted the spirit of lying to influence the whole of thy prophets; and he now, by my mouth, apprises thee of this, that thou mayest not go and fall at Ramoth-gilead." Never was a man more circumstantially and fairly warned; he had counsels from the God of truth, and counsels from the spirit of falsity; he obstinately forsook the former and followed the latter. He was shown by this parable how every thing was going on, and that all was under the control and direction of God, and that still it was possible for him to make that God his friend whom by his continual transgressions he had made his enemy; but he would not: his blood was therefore upon his own head.

### Verse 23

[¶25] The Lord hath put a lying spirit - He hath permitted or suffered a lying spirit to influence thy prophets. Is it requisite again to remind the reader that the Scriptures repeatedly represent God as doing what, in the course of his providence, he only permits or suffers to be done? Nothing can be done in heaven, in earth, or hell, but either by his immediate energy or permission. This is the reason why the Scripture speaks as above.

### Verse 24

[¶27] Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me - This is an expression of as great insolence as the act was of brutal aggression. "Did the Spirit of the Lord, who rests solely upon me, condescend to inspire thee? Was it at this ear [where he smote him] that it entered, in order to hold communion with thee?" Josephus tells an idle rabbinical tale about this business, which is as unworthy of repetition as it is of credit. See his Antiq. of the Jews, book viii., c. 10.

### Verse 25

[¶29] When thou shalt go into an inner chamber - It is probable that this refers to some Divine judgment which fell upon this deceiver. Hearing of the tragical result of the battle, he no doubt went into a secret place to hide himself from the resentment of Jezebel, and the Israelitish courtiers, and there it is probable he perished; but how, when, or where, is not mentioned.

### Verse 27

[¶31] Feed him with bread of affliction - Deprive him of all the conveniences and comforts of life; treat him severely; just keep him alive, that he may see my triumph.

### Verse 30

[¶33] I will disguise myself - Probably he had heard of the orders given by Ben-hadad to his thirty-two captains, to fight with the king of Israel only; that is, to make their most powerful attack where he commanded, in order to take him prisoner, that he might lead him captive whose captive he formerly was; and therefore he disguised himself that he might not be known.

[¶34] But put thou on thy robes - What is meant by this? He could not mean, "Appear as the king of Judah, for they will not molest thee, as the matter of contention lies between them and me;" this is Jarchi's turn. For if Jehoshaphat aided Ahab, is it to be supposed that the Syrians would spare him in battle? A general in the civil wars of England, when he had brought his army in sight of their foes, thus addressed them: "Yonder are your enemies; if you do not kill them, they will kill you." So it might be said in the case of Jehoshaphat and the Syrians.

[¶35] The Septuagint gives the clause a different and more intelligible turn: "I will cover (conceal) myself, and enter into the battle; και συ ενδυσαι τον ἱματισμον μου, but put thou on My robes." And does it not appear that he did put on Ahab's robes? And was it not this that caused the Syrians to mistake him for the king of Israel? [1Kgs 22:32].

### Verse 34

[¶37] Drew a bow at a venture - It is supposed that he shot, as the archers in general did, not aiming at any person in particular.

[¶38] The word לתמו lethummo, which we translate in his simplicity, has been variously understood; in his integrity, his uprightness; in his perfection; i.e., to the utmost of his skill and strength. This is most probably the meaning; and may imply both aim and power, having his butt full in view.

[¶39] In cases where the archers wished to do the greatest execution, they bent their bows, and pulled till the subtending string drew back the arrow up to its head. This they could not do always, because it required their whole strength; and they could not put forth their utmost effort each time and continue to discharge many shots. Our old national ballad of the Chevy-chace mentions the slaying of Sir Hugh Montgomery, who had slain Earl Percy, in nearly the same way that Ahab appears to have been shot: - "And thus did both these nobles die,

[¶40] Whose courage none could stain:

[¶41] An English archer then perceived

[¶42] His noble lord was slain,

[¶43] Who had a bow bent in his hand

[¶44] Made of a trusty tree;

[¶45] An arrow, of a cloth-yard long,

## 369. 1 Kings · 30 of 30

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[¶0] Up to the head drew he; Against

[¶1] Sir Hugh Montgomery then

[¶2] So right his shaft he set,

[¶3] The gray goose wing that was thereon

[¶4] In his heart's blood was wet."

[¶5] Between the joints of the harness - "Between the cuirass and the lower part of the helmet;" and then the arrow must pass through the neck, just above the breast: or "between the cuirass and the cuissarts;" and then the arrow must pass through the abdomen, or just where the armor of the thighs joins to that which covers the breast and belly.

[¶6] The Vulgate has Inter pulmonem et stomachum; "Between the lungs and the stomach;" consequently, in the region of the heart.

### Verse 35

[¶8] The king was stayed up - He did not wish his misfortune should be known, lest his troops should be discouraged.

### Verse 36

[¶10] Every man to his city - It appears that the Israelites and Jews maintained the fight the whole of the day; but when at evening the king died, and this was known, there was a proclamation made, probably with the consent of both Syrians and Israelites, that the war was over. Ahab being dead, his subjects did not choose to contend for Ramoth-gilead; so the Israelites went to their own cities, and the Syrians to their own country.

### Verse 38

[¶12] The dogs licked up his blood - Some of the rabbins think that this was in the very place where Naboth was stoned; see on [1Kgs 21:19] (note). The Septuagint translates this verse strangely: "And the swine and the dogs licked his blood, and the whores bathed themselves in his blood, according to the word of the Lord." It is certain that the Hebrew words, הזנות רחצו hazzonoth rachatsu, "washed his armor," might be translated as the Septuagint have done; "and the whores (or public women) washed," etc. And so the rabbins seem to have understood the words; but then they suppose that Jezebel had made him two images of prostitutes, which he had with him in the chariot. It is not worth inquiring into the use for which they say these images were made. See Kimchi and Jarchi.

### Verse 39

[¶14] Ivory house - A royal palace which he built in Samaria, decorated with ivory, and hence called the ivory house. Amos the prophet speaks against this luxury, [Amo 3:15].

### Verse 43

[¶16] The high places were not taken away - In [2Chr 17:6], it is expressly said, that he did take away the high places. Allowing that the text is right in 2 Chron., the two places may be easily reconciled. There were two kinds of high places in the land:

[¶17] 1. Those used for idolatrous purposes.

[¶18] 2. Those that were consecrated to God, and were used before the temple was built. The former he did take away; the latter he did not.

[¶19] But some think the parallel place in [2Chr 17:6] is corrupted, and that, instead of ועוד הסיר veod hesir, "and moreover he took away," we should read, ולא הסיר velo hesir, "and he did Not take away."

### Verse 46

[¶21] The remnant of the sodomites - הקדש of the consecrated persons; or it may rather apply here to the system of pollution, effeminacy, and debauch. He destroyed the thing itself; the abominations of Priapus, and the rites of Venus, Baal, and Ashtaroth. No more of that impure worship was to be found in Judea.

### Verse 47

[¶23] There was no king in Edom - It is plain that the compiler of this book lived after the days of Jehoshaphat, in whose time the Edomites revolted; see [2Kgs 8:22]. David had conquered the Edomites, and they continued to be governed by deputies, appointed by the kings of Judah, till they recovered their liberty, as above. This note is introduced by the writer to account for Jehoshaphat's building ships at Ezion-geber, which was in the territory of the Edomites, and which showed them to be at that time under the Jewish yoke.

### Verse 48

[¶25] Ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold - In the parallel place ([2Chr 20:36]) it is said that Jehoshaphat joined himself to Ahaziah, to make ships to go to Tharshish; and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. Concerning these places, and the voyage thither, see the notes on [1Kgs 9:26-28] (note); [1Kgs 10:11] (note), [1Kgs 10:22] (note). Some translate, instead of ships of Tharshish, ships of burden. See Houbigant, who expresses himself doubtful as to the meaning of the word.

### Verse 49

[¶27] But Jehoshaphat would not - It appears from the above cited place in Chronicles that Jehoshaphat did join in making and sending ships to Tharshish, and it is possible that what is here said is spoken of a second expedition, in which Jehoshaphat would not join Ahaziah. But instead of ולא אבה velo abah, "he would not," perhaps we should read ולו אבה velo abah, "he consented to him;" two words pronounced exactly in the same way, and differing but in one letter, viz., an א aleph for a ו vau. This reading, however, is not supported by any MS. or version; but the emendation seems just; for there are several places in these historical books in which there are mistakes of transcribers which nothing but violent criticism can restore, and to this it is dangerous to resort, but in cases of the last necessity. Critics have recommended the 48th and 49th verses to be read thus: "Jehoshaphat had built ships of burden at Ezion-geber, to go to Ophir for gold. 49. And Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, had said to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants, I pray thee, go with thy servants in the ships: to which Jehoshaphat consented. But the ships went not thither; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber." This is Houbigant's translation, who contends that "the words of the 48th verse, but they went not, should be placed at the end of the 49th verse, for who can believe that the sacred writer should first relate that the ships were broken, and then that Ahaziah requested of Jehoshaphat that his servants might embark with the servants of Jehoshaphat?" This bold critic, who understood the Hebrew language better than any man in Europe, has, by happy conjectures, since verified by the testimony of MSS., removed the blots of many careless transcribers from the sacred volume.

## 370. 2 Kings · 1 of 30

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### Preface to the Second Book of the Kings Otherwise Called the Fourth Book of the Kings

[¶1] In the preface to the First Book of Kings, I have spoken at large concerning both these books, the author, time of writing, etc., etc., to which I must refer my readers, as that preface is common to both.

[¶2] The Second Book of Kings contains the history of three hundred and eight years, from the rebellion of Moab, A.M. 3108, to the ruin of the kingdom of Judah, A.M. 3416.

[¶3] The history, on the whole, exhibits little less than a series of crimes, disasters, Divine benefits, and Divine judgments. In the kingdom of Judah we meet with a few kings who feared God, and promoted the interests of pure religion in the land; but the major part were idolaters and profligates of the highest order.

[¶4] The kingdom of Israel was still more corrupt: all its kings were determined idolaters; profligate, vicious, and cruel tyrants. Elijah and Elisha stood up in the behalf of God and truth in this fallen, idolatrous kingdom, and bore a strong testimony against the corruptions of the princes, and the profligacy of the people: their powerful ministry was confined to the ten tribes; Judah had its own prophets, and those in considerable number.

[¶5] At length the avenging hand of God fell first upon Israel, and afterwards upon Judah. Israel after many convulsions, torn by domestic and foreign wars, was at length wholly subjugated by the king of Assyria, the people led away into captivity, and the land re-peopled by strangers, A.M. 3287.

[¶6] The kingdom of Judah continued some time longer, but was at last overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar; Zedekiah, its last king, was taken prisoner; his eyes put out; and the principal part of the people were carried into captivity, which lasted about seventy years. The captivity began under Jehoiakim, A.M. 3402, and ended under Belshazzar, A.M. 2470 or 3472. There was after this a partial restoration of the Jews, but they never more rose to any consequence among the nations; and at last their civil polity was finally dissolved by the Romans, and their temple burnt, a.d. 70; and from that time until now they became fugitives and vagabonds over the face of the earth, universally detested by mankind. But should they not be loved for their fathers' sake? Are they not men and brothers? Will persecution and contempt convert them to Christianity, or to any thing that is good?

### Introduction

[¶8] Ahaziah, being hurt by a fall, sends messengers to Baal-zebub to inquire whether he shall recover, [2Kgs 1:1], [2Kgs 1:2]. They are met by Elijah, who sends them back with the information that he shall surely die, [2Kgs 1:3-8]. The king sends a captain and fifty men, to bring Elijah to Samaria, on which fire comes down from heaven, and destroys both him and his men, [2Kgs 1:9], [2Kgs 1:10]. Another captain and fifty men are sent, who are likewise destroyed, [2Kgs 1:11], [2Kgs 1:12]. A third is sent, who behaves himself humbly, and Elijah is commanded to accompany him; he obeys, comes to the king, reproves his idolatry, and announces his death, [2Kgs 1:13-16]. Ahaziah dies and Jehoram reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 1:17], [2Kgs 1:18].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Moab rebelled - The Moabites had been subdued by David, and laid under tribute, [2Kgs 3:4], and [2Sam 8:2]. After the division of the two kingdoms, the Moabites fell partly under the dominion of Israel, and partly under that of Judah, until the death of Ahab, when they arose and shook off this yoke. Jehoram confederated with the king of Judah and the king of Edom, in order to reduce them. See this war, [2Kgs 3:5].

### Verse 2

[¶12] Fell down through a lattice - Perhaps either through the flat root of his house, or over or through the balustrades with which the roof was surrounded.

[¶13] Go, inquire of Baal-zebub - Literally, the fly-god, or master of flies. The Septuagint has βααλ μυιαν, Baal the fly. He was the tutelary god of Ekron, and probably was used at first as a kind of telesm, to drive away flies. He became afterwards a very respectable devil, and was supposed to have great power and influence. In the New Testament Beelzebub is a common name for Satan himself, or the prince of devils. See my notes on [Mat 10:25] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶15] But shalt surely die - The true God tells you this; he in whose hands are both life and death, who can kill and make alive. Baal-zebub can do nothing; God has determined that your master shall die.

### Verse 8

[¶17] He was a hairy man - That is, he wore a rough garment, either made of camels' hair, as his successor John Baptist's was, or he wore a skin dressed with the hair on. Some think that the meaning is, he had very long hair and a long beard. The ancient prophets all wore rough garments, or upper coats made of the skins of beasts: They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, says the apostle, [Heb 11:37].

### Verse 9

[¶19] A captain of fifty with his fifty - It is impossible that such a man as Ahaziah, in such circumstances, could have had any friendly designs in sending a captain and fifty soldiers for the prophet; and the manner in which they are treated shows plainly that they went with a hostile intent.

[¶20] And he spake unto him, Thou man of God - Thou prophet of the Most High.

### Verse 10

[¶22] And there came down fire - Some have blamed the prophet for destroying these men, by bringing down fire from heaven upon them. But they do not consider that it was no more possible for Elijah to bring down fire from heaven, than for them to do it. God alone could send the fire; and as he is just and good, he would not have destroyed these men had there not been a sufficient cause to justify the act. It was not to please Elijah, or to gratify any vindictive humor in him, that God thus acted; but to show his own power and justice. No entreaty of Elijah could have induced God to have performed an act that was wrong in itself. Elijah, personally, had no concern in the business. God led him simply to announce on these occasions what he himself had determined to do. If I be a man of God, i.e., as surely as I am a man of God, fire Shall come down from heaven, and Shall consume thee and thy fifty. This is the literal meaning of the original; and by it we see that Elijah's words were only declarative, and not imprecatory.

### Verse 15

[¶24] And the angel of the Lord said - Go down with him - This is an additional proof that Elijah was then acting under particular inspirations: he had neither will nor design of his own. He waited to know the counsel, declare the will, and obey the command, of his God.

[¶25] And he arose, and went down - He did not even regard his personal safety or his life; he goes without the least hesitation to the king, though he had reason to suppose he would be doubly irritated by his prediction, and the death of one hundred of his men. But with all these consequences he had nothing to do; he was the ambassador of the King eternal, and his honor and life were in the hands of his Master.

### Verse 17

[¶27] And Jehoram reigned in his stead - The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Syriac say, Jehoram His Brother reigned in his stead, in the second year of Jehoram. There were two Jehorams who were contemporary: the first, the son of Ahab, brother to Ahaziah, and his successor in the kingdom of Israel; the second, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who succeeded his father in Judah. But there is a difficulty here: "How is it that Jehoram the brother of Ahaziah began to reign in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, seeing that, according to [2Kgs 3:1], he began his reign in the eighteenth year of the reign of Jehoshaphat; and, according to [2Kgs 8:16], Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began to reign in the fifth year of Jehoram king of Israel?" Calmet and others answer thus: "Jehoram king of Israel began to reign in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, which was the second year after this same Jehoshaphat had given the viceroyalty to his son Jehoram; and afterwards Jehoshaphat communicated the royalty to Jehoram his successor, two years before his death, and the fifth year of Jehoram, king of Israel." Dr. Lightfoot takes another method: - "Observe," says he, "these texts, [1Kgs 22:51] : Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years; and [2Kgs 1:17] : And Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken, and Jehoram reigned in his stead, in the second gear of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; and [2Kgs 3:1] : Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. By these scriptures it is most plain, that both Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, and Ahaziah the son of Ahab, began to reign in the seventeenth of Jehoshaphat; for who sees not in these texts that Jehoshaphat's eighteenth, when Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign, is called the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat? Now Jehoshaphat's reign was not yet expired by eight or nine years, for this was in his seventeenth year, and he reigned twenty-five years, [1Kgs 22:42]; nor was Ahab's reign expired by two or three years, for this was in his twentieth year, and he reigned twenty-two years. [1Kgs 16:29]. But the reason why both their sons came thus into their thrones in their lifetime, and both in the same year, was because their fathers, Jehoshaphat and Ahab, were both engaged in the war against the Syrians about Ramoth-gilead: and while they were providing for it, and carrying it on, they made their sons viceroys, and set them to reign in their stead, while they were absent or employed upon that expedition."

[¶28] This is very probable, and seems well supported by the above texts, and would solve all the difficulties with which many have been puzzled and not a few stumbled, had we sufficient evidence for the viceroyalty here mentioned.

### Introduction

[¶30] Elijah, about to be taken up to heaven, goes in company with Elisha from Gilgal to Beth-el, [2Kgs 2:1], [2Kgs 2:2]. Thence to Jericho, [2Kgs 2:3-5]. And thence to Jordan, [2Kgs 2:6], [2Kgs 2:7]. Elijah smites the waters with his mantle; they divide, and he and Elisha pass over on dry ground, [2Kgs 2:8]. Elijah desires Elisha to ask what he should do for him; who requests a double portion of his spirit, which is promised on a certain condition, [2Kgs 2:9], [2Kgs 2:10]. A chariot and horses of fire descend; and Elijah mounts, and ascends by a whirlwind to heaven, [2Kgs 2:11]. Elisha gets his mantle, comes back to Jordan, smites the waters with it, and they divide, and he goes over, [2Kgs 2:12-14]. The sons of the prophets see that the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha, [2Kgs 2:15]. They propose to send fifty men to seek Elijah, supposing the Spirit of the Lord might have cast him on some mountain or valley; after three days' search, they return not having found him, [2Kgs 2:16-18]. The people of Jericho apply to Elisha to heal their unwholesome water, [2Kgs 2:19]. He casts salt into the spring in the name of Jehovah, and the water becomes wholesome, [2Kgs 2:20-22]. Forty-two young persons of Bethel, mocking him, are slain by two she-bears, [2Kgs 2:23], [2Kgs 2:24]. He goes to Carmel, and returns to Samaria, [2Kgs 2:25].

### Verse 1

[¶32] When the Lord would take up Elijah - It appears that God had revealed this intended translation, not only to Elijah himself, but also to Elisha, and to the schools of the prophets, both at Beth-el and Jericho, so that they were all expecting this solemn event.

### Verse 2

[¶34] Tarry here, I pray thee - He either made these requests through humility, not wishing any person to be witness of the honor conferred on him by God, or with the desire to prove the fidelity of Elisha, whether he would continue to follow and serve him.

### Verse 3

[¶36] Knowest thou that the Lord - Thus we see that it was a matter well known to all the sons of the prophets. This day the Lord will take thy master and instructer from thee.

### Verse 7

[¶38] Fifty men of the sons of the prophets - They fully expected this extraordinary event, and they could have known it only from Elijah himself, or by a direct revelation from God.

### Verse 8

[¶40] Took his mantle - Την μηλωτην αυτου, his sheep-skin, says the Septuagint. The skins of beasts, dressed with the hair on, were formerly worn by prophets and priests as the simple insignia of their office. As the civil authority was often lodged in the hands of such persons, particularly among the Jews, mantles of this kind were used by kings and high civil officers when they bore no sacred character. The custom continues to the present day; a lamb's skin hood or cloak is the badge which certain graduates in our universities wear; and the royal robes of kings and great officers of state are adorned with the skins of the animal called the ermine.

[¶41] They were divided hither and thither - This was a most astonishing miracle, and could be performed only by the almighty power of God.

### Verse 9

[¶43] A double portion of thy spirit be upon me - This in reference to the law, [Deu 21:17] : He shall acknowledge the first-born, by giving him a Double Portion of all that he hath-the right of the first-born is his. Elisha considered himself the only child or first-born of Elijah, as the disciples of eminent teachers were called their children; so here he claims a double portion of his spiritual influence, any other disciples coming in for a single share only. Sons of the prophets means no more than the disciples or scholars of the prophets. The original words פי שנים pi shenayim, mean rather two parts, than double the quantity.

## 371. 2 Kings · 2 of 30

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### Verse 10

[¶1] A hard thing - This is what is not in my power, God alone can give this; yet if thou see me taken away from thee, it shall be so. Perhaps this means no more than, "If thou continue with me till I am translated, God will grant this to thee;" for on the mere seeing or not seeing him in the moment in which he was taken away, this Divine gift could not depend.

### Verse 11

[¶3] Elijah went up - into heaven - He was truly translated; and the words here leave us no room to indulge the conjecture of Dr. Priestley, who supposes that as "Enoch, (probably Moses), Elijah, and Christ, had no relation to any other world or planet, they are no doubt in this;" for we are told that Elijah went up into heaven; and we know, from the sure testimony of the Scripture, that our blessed Lord is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ever living to make intercession for us.

### Verse 12

[¶5] The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof - The Chaldee translates these words thus: "My master, my master! who, by thy intercession, wast of more use to Israel than horses and chariots." This is probably the sense.

[¶6] In the Book of Ecclesiasticus 48:1, etc., the fiery horses and chariot are considered as an emblem of that burning zeal which Elijah manifested in the whole of his ministry: "Then stood up Elijah the prophet as fire, and his word burned as a lamp," etc.

[¶7] And rent them in two pieces - As a sign of sorrow for having lost so good and glorious a master.

### Verse 13

[¶9] He took - the mantle - The same with which he had been called by Elijah to the prophetic office, and the same by which Elijah divided Jordan. His having the mantle was a proof that he was invested with the authority and influence of his master.

### Verse 14

[¶11] Where is the Lord God of Elijah? - The Vulgate gives a strange turn to this verse:

[¶12] Et percussit aquas, et non sunt divisae; et dixu, Ubi est Deus Eliae etiam nunc? Percussitque aquas, et divisae sunt huc et illuc. "And he smote the waters, but they did not divide; and he said, Where is the God of Elijah even now? And he struck the waters and they were divided hither and thither."

[¶13] The act of striking the waters seems to be twice repeated in the verse, though we get rid of the second striking by rendering the second clause, when he also had smitten the waters: which has the same Hebrew words as the first, and which we translate, he mote the waters. The Vulgate supposes he smote once in vain, perhaps confiding too much in his own strength; and then, having invoked the God of Elijah, he succeeded. This distinction is not followed by any of the other versions; nor is the clause, et non sunt divisae, "and they divided not," expressed by the Hebrew text.

### Verse 15

[¶15] The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha - This was a natural conclusion, from seeing him with the mantle, and working the same miracle. This disposed them to yield the same obedience to him they had done to his master: and in token of this, they went out to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

### Verse 16

[¶17] Fifty strong men - Probably the same fifty who are mentioned [2Kgs 2:7], and who saw Elijah taken up in the whirlwind.

[¶18] Cast him upon some mountain - Though they saw him taken up towards heaven, yet they thought it possible that the Spirit of the Lord might have descended with him, and left him on some remote mountain or valley.

[¶19] Ye shall not send - He knew that he was translated to heaven, and that therefore it would be useless.

### Verse 17

[¶21] Till he was ashamed - He saw they would not be satisfied unless they made the proposed search; he felt therefore that he could not, with any good grace, resist their importunity any longer.

### Verse 19

[¶23] The water is naught, and the ground barren - The barrenness of the ground was the effect of the badness of the water.

### Verse 21

[¶25] And cast the salt in there - He cast in the salt at the place where the waters sprang out of the earth. Jarchi well observes here, "Salt is a thing which corrupts water; therefore, it is evident that this was a true miracle." What Elisha did on this occasion, getting the new cruse and throwing in the salt, was only to make the miracle more conspicuous. If the salt could have had any natural tendency to render the water salubrious, it could have acted only for a short time, and only on that portion of the stream which now arose from the spring; and in a few moments its effects must have disappeared. But the miracle here was permanent: the death of men and cattle, which had been occasioned by the insalubrity of the waters, ceased, the land was no longer barren; and the waters became permanently fit for all agricultural and domestic uses.

### Verse 23

[¶27] There came forth little children out of the city - These were probably the school of some celebrated teacher; but under his instruction they had learned neither piety nor good manners.

[¶28] Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head - עלה קרח עלה קרח aleh kereach, aleh kereach. Does not this imply the grossest insult? Ascend, thou empty skull, to heaven, as it is pretended thy master did! This was blasphemy against God; and their punishment (for they were Beth-elite idolaters) was only proportioned to their guilt. Elisha cursed them, i.e., pronounced a curse upon them, in the name of the Lord, בשם יהוה beshem Yehovah, by the name or authority of Jehovah. The spirit of their offense lies in their ridiculing a miracle of the Lord: the offense was against Him, and He punished it. It was no petulant humor of the prophet that caused him to pronounce this curse; it was God alone: had it proceeded from a wrong disposition of the prophet, no miracle would have been wrought in order to gratify it. "But was it not a cruel thing to destroy forty-two little children, who, in mere childishness, had simply called the prophet bare skull, or bald head?" I answer, Elisha did not destroy them; he had no power by which he could bring two she-bears out of the wood to destroy them. It was evidently either accidental, or a Divine judgment; and if a judgment, God must be the sole author of it. Elisha's curse must be only declaratory of what God was about to do. See on [2Kgs 1:10] (note). "But then, as they were little children, they could scarcely be accountable for their conduct; and consequently, it was cruelty to destroy them." If it was a judgment of God, it could neither be cruel nor unjust; and I contend, that the prophet had no power by which he could bring these she-bears to fall upon them. But were they little children? for here the strength of the objection lies. Now I suppose the objection means children from four to seven or eight years old; for so we use the word: but the original, נערים קטנים nearim ketannim, may mean young men, for קטן katon signifies to be young, in opposition to old, and is so translated in various places in our Bible; and נער naar signifies, not only a child, but a young man, a servant, or even a soldier, or one fit to go out to battle; and is so translated in a multitude of places in our common English version. I shall mention but a few, because they are sufficiently decisive: Isaac was called נער naar when twenty-eight years old, [Gen 21:5-12]; and Joseph was so called when he was thirty-nine, [Gen 41:12]. Add to these [1Kgs 20:14] : "And Ahab said, By whom [shall the Assyrians be delivered into my hand?] And he said, Thus saith the Lord, by the Young Men, בנערי benaarey, of the princes of the provinces." That these were soldiers, probably militia, or a selection from the militia, which served as a bodyguard to Ahab, the event sufficiently declares; and the persons that mocked Elisha were perfectly accountable for their conduct.

[¶29] But is it not possible that these forty-two were a set of unlucky young men, who had been employed in the wood, destroying the whelps of these same she-bears, who now pursued them, and tore them to pieces, for the injury they had done? We have already heard of the ferocity of a bear robbed of her whelps; see at the end of [2Sam 17:28]. The mention of She-bears gives some color to the above conjecture; and, probably, at the time when these young fellows insulted the prophet, the bears might be tracing the footsteps of the murderers of their young, and thus came upon them in the midst of their insults, God's providence ordering these occurrences so as to make this natural effect appear as a Divine cause. If the conjecture be correct, the bears were prepared by their loss to execute the curse of the prophet, and God's justice guided them to the spot to punish the iniquity that had been just committed.

### Introduction

[¶31] The reign and idolatry of Jehoram, king of Israel, [2Kgs 3:1-3]. Mesha, king of Moab, rebels against Israel, [2Kgs 3:4], [2Kgs 3:5]. Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom join against the Moabites, and are brought into great distress for want of water, [2Kgs 3:6-10]. The three kings go to Elisha to inquire of the Lord; who promises them water, and a complete victory, [2Kgs 3:11-19]. Water comes the next morning, and fills the trenches which these kings had made in the valley, [2Kgs 3:20]. The Moabites arm against them; and suppose, when they see the sun shining upon the waters, which look like blood, that the confederate kings have fallen out, and slain each other; and that they have nothing to do but take the spool, [2Kgs 3:21-23]. The Israelites attack and completely rout then, beat down their cities, and mar their land, [2Kgs 3:24], [2Kgs 3:25]. The king of Moab, having made an unsuccessful attack on the king of Edom, takes his eldest son, and of offers him for a burnt-offering upon the wall; and there is great indignation against Israel, [2Kgs 3:26], [2Kgs 3:27].

### Verse 2

[¶33] He put away the image of Baal - He abolished his worship; but he continued that of the calves at Dan and Beth-el.

### Verse 4

[¶35] Was a sheepmaster - The original is נקד naked, of which the Septuagint could make nothing, and therefore retained the Hebrew word νωκηδ: but the Chaldee has מרי גיתי marey githey, "a sheepmaster;" Aquila has ποιμνιοτροφος; and Symmachus, τρεφων βοσκηματα; all to the same sense. The original signifies one who marks or brands, probably from the marking of sheep. He fed many sheep, etc., and had them all marked in a particular way, in order to ascertain his property.

[¶36] A hundred thousand lambs - The Chaldee and Arabic have a hundred thousand fat oxen.

### Verse 7

[¶38] My people as thy people - We find that Jehoshaphat maintained the same friendly intercourse with the son, as he did with the father. See [1Kgs 22:4].

### Verse 8

[¶40] Through the wilderness of Edom - Because he expected the king of Edom to join them, as we find he did; for, being tributary to Judah, he was obliged to do it.

### Verse 9

[¶42] A compass of seven days' journey - By taking a circuitous route, to go round the southern part of the Dead Sea, they probably intended to surprise the Moabites; but it appears their journey was ill planned, as they at last got into a country in which it was impossible to obtain water, and they were brought in consequence to the utmost extremity.

### Verse 10

[¶44] The Lord hath called these three kings together - That is, This is a Divine judgment; God has judicially blinded us, and permitted us to take this journey to our destruction.

## 372. 2 Kings · 3 of 30

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### Verse 11

[¶1] Is there not here a prophet of the Lord - The kings of Judah still acknowledged the true God, and him only.

[¶2] Poured water on the hands of Elijah - That is, was his constant and confidential servant.

### Verse 12

[¶4] The word of the Lord is with him - He has the gift of prophecy.

### Verse 13

[¶6] Get thee to the prophets of thy father - This was a just, but cutting reproof.

[¶7] Nay - The Chaldee adds here, I beseech thee, do not call the sins of this impiety to remembrance, but ask mercy for us; because the Lord hath called, etc. The Arabic has, I beseech thee, do not mention of our transgressions, but use kindness towards us. It is very likely that some such words were spoken on the occasion; but these are the only versions which make this addition.

### Verse 14

[¶9] Were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat - He worshipped the true God; Jehoram was an idolater.

### Verse 15

[¶11] Bring me a minstrel - A person who played on the harp. The rabbins, and many Christians, suppose that Elisha's mind was considerably irritated and grieved by the bad behavior of the young men at Beth-el, and their tragical end, and by the presence of the idolatrous king of Israel; and therefore called for Divine psalmody, that it might calm his spirits, and render him more susceptible of the prophetic influence. To be able to discern the voice of God, and the operation of his hand, it is necessary that the mind be calm, and the passions all in harmony, under the direction of reason; that reason may be under the influence of the Divine Spirit.

[¶12] The hand of the Lord came upon him - The playing of the harper had the desired effect; his mind was calmed, and the power of God descended upon him. This effect of music was generally acknowledged in every civilized nation. Cicero, in his Tusculan Questions, lib. iv., says, that "the Pythagoreans were accustomed to calm their minds, and soothe their passions, by singing and playing upon the harp." Pythagoraei mentes suas a cogitationum intentione cantu fidibusque ad tranquillitatem traducebant. I have spoken elsewhere of the heathen priests who endeavored to imitate the true prophets, and were as actually filled with the devil as the others were with the true God. The former were thrown into violent agitations and contortions by the influence of the demons which possessed them, while the latter were in a state of the utmost serenity and composure.

### Verse 16

[¶14] Make this valley full of ditches - The word נחל nachal may be translated brook, as it is by the Vulgate and Septuagint. There probably was a river here, but it was now dry; and the prophet desires that they would enlarge the channel, and cut out various canals from it, and reservoirs, where water might be collected for the refreshment of the army and of the cattle; and these were to be made so wide that the reflection of the sun's rays from this water might be the means of confounding and destroying the Moabites.

### Verse 17

[¶16] Ye shall not see wind - There shall be no wind to collect vapours, and there shall be no showers, and yet the whole bed of this river, and all the new made canals, shall be filled with water.

### Verse 19

[¶18] Shall fell every good tree - Every tree by which your enemies may serve themselves for fortifications, etc. But surely fruit trees are not intended here; for this was positively against the law of God, [Deu 20:19], [Deu 20:20] : "When thou shalt besiege a city - thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof - for the tree of the field is man's life - only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down."

[¶19] Stop all wells of water - In those hot countries this would lead sooner than any thing else to reduce an enemy.

[¶20] Mar every good piece of land with stones - Such a multitude of men, each throwing a stone on a good field as they passed, would completely destroy it.

### Verse 20

[¶22] When the meat-offering was offered - This was the first of all offerings, and was generally made at sun-rising.

[¶23] There came water - This supply was altogether miraculous, for there was neither wind nor rain, nor any other natural means by which it could be supplied.

### Verse 22

[¶25] Saw the water on the other side as red as blood - This might have been an optical deception; I have seen the like sight when there was no reason to suspect supernatural agency. The Moabites had never seen that valley full of water, and therefore did not suspect that their eyes deceived them, but took it for the blood of the confederate hosts, who they thought might have fallen into confusion in the darkness of night and destroyed each other, as the Midianites had formerly done, [Jdg 7:22], and the Philistines lately, [1Sam 14:20].

### Verse 23

[¶27] Therefore, Moab, to the spoil - Thus they came on in a disorderly manner, and fell an easy prey to their enemies.

### Verse 25

[¶29] On every good piece of land - On all cultivated ground, and especially fields that were sown.

[¶30] Only in Kir-haraseth - This was the royal city of the Moabites, and, as we learn from Scripture, exceedingly strong; (see [Isa 16:7], [Isa 16:11]); so that it is probable the confederate armies could not easily reduce it. The slingers, we are informed, went about the wall, and smote all the men that appeared on it, while no doubt the besieging army was employed in sapping the foundations.

### Verse 26

[¶32] Seven hundred men - These were no doubt the choice of all his troops, and being afraid of being hemmed up and perhaps taken by his enemies, whom he found on the eve of gaining possession of the city, he made a desperate sortie in order to regain the open country; and supposing that the quarter of the Edomites was weakest, or less carefully guarded, he endeavored to make his impression there; but they were so warmly received by the king of Edom that they failed in the attempt, and were driven back into the city. Hence he was led to that desperate act mentioned in the following verse.

### Verse 27

[¶34] Took his eldest son - The rabbins account for this horrible sacrifice in the following way: -

[¶35] When the king of Moab found himself so harassed, and the royal city on the point of being taken, he called a council of his servants, and asked them how it was these Israelites could perform such prodigies, and that such miracles were wrought for them? His servants answered, that it was owing to their progenitor Abraham, who, having an only son, was commanded by Jehovah to offer him in sacrifice. Abraham instantly obeyed, and offered his only son for a burnt-offering; and the Israelites being his descendants, through his merits the holy blessed God wrought such miracles in their behalf. The king of Moab answered, I also have an only son, and I will go and offer him to my God. Then he offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall.

[¶36] Upon the wall - על החמה al hachamah. Rab. Sol. Jarchi says that the letter ו vau is wanting in this word, as it should be written חומה chomah, to signify a wall; but חמה chammah signifies the sun, and this was the god of the king of Moab: "And he offered his first-born son for a burnt-offering unto the sun." This is not very solid.

[¶37] There was great indignation - The Lord was displeased with them for driving things to such an extremity: or the surrounding nations held them in abomination on the account; and they were so terrified themselves at this most horrid sacrifice, that they immediately raised the siege and departed. In cases of great extremity it was customary in various heathen nations to offer human sacrifices, or to devote to the infernal gods the most precious or excellent thing or person they possessed. This was frequent among the Phoenicians, Romans, and Greeks; and it was the natural fruit of a religious system which had for the objects of its worship cruel and merciless divinities. How different the Christian system! "Wilt thou that we shall bring down fire from heaven and destroy them? Ye know not what manner of spirits ye are of; the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

### Introduction

[¶39] A widow of one of the prophets, oppressed by a merciless creditor, applies to Elisha, who multiplies her oil; by a part of which she pays her debt, abut subsists on the rest, [2Kgs 4:1-7]. His entertainment at the house of a respectable woman in Shunem, [2Kgs 4:8-10]. He foretells to his hostess the birth of a son, [2Kgs 4:11-17]. After some years the child dies, and the mother goes to Elisha at Carmel; he comes to Shunem, and raises the child to life, vv. 18-37. He comes to Gilgal, and prevents the sons of the prophets from being poisoned by wild gourds, [2Kgs 4:38-41]. He multiplies a scanty provision, so as to make it sufficient to feed one hundred men, [2Kgs 4:42-44].

### Verse 1

[¶41] Now there cried a certain woman - This woman, according to the Chaldee, Jarchi, and the rabbins, was the wife of Obadiah.

[¶42] Sons of the prophets - תלמידי נבייא talmidey nebiyaiya, "disciples of the prophets:" so the Targum here, and in all other places where the words occur, and properly too.

[¶43] The creditor is come - This, says Jarchi, was Jehoram son of Ahab, who lent money on usury to Obadiah, because he had in the days of Ahab fed the Lord's prophets. The Targum says he borrowed money to feed these prophets, because he would not support them out of the property of Ahab.

[¶44] To take unto him my two sons to be bondmen - Children, according to the laws of the Hebrews, were considered the property of their parents, who had a right to dispose of them for the payment of their debts. And in cases of poverty, the law permitted them, expressly, to sell both themselves and their children; [Exo 21:7], and [Lev 25:39]. It was by an extension of this law, and by virtue of another, which authorized them to sell the thief who could not make restitution, [Exo 22:3], that creditors were permitted to take the children of their debtors in payment. Although the law has not determined any thing precisely on this point, we see by this passage, and by several others, that this custom was common among the Hebrews. Isaiah refers to it very evidently, where he says, Which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves; [Isa 50:1]. And our Lord alludes to it, [Mat 18:25], where he mentions the case of an insolvent debtor, Forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded Him to be Sold, and his Wife and Children, and all that he had; which shows that the custom continued among the Jews to the very end of their republic. The Romans, Athenians, and Asiatics in general had the same authority over their children as the Hebrews had: they sold them in time of poverty; and their creditors seized them as they would a sheep or an ox, or any household goods. Romulus gave the Romans an absolute power over their children which extended through the whole course of their lives, let them be in whatever situation they might. They could cast them into prison, beat, employ them as slaves in agriculture, sell them for slaves, or even take away their lives! - Dionys. Halicarn. lib. ii., pp. 96, 97.

[¶45] Numa Pompilius first moderated this law, by enacting, that if a son married with the consent of his father, he should no longer have power to sell him for debt.

## 373. 2 Kings · 4 of 30

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[¶0] The emperors Diocletian and Maximilian forbade freemen to be sold on account of debt:

[¶1] Ob aes alienum servire liberos creditoribus, jura non patiuntur. - Vid. Lib. ob. aes C. de obligat.

[¶2] The ancient Athenians had the same right over their children as the Romans; but Solon reformed this barbarous custom. - Vid. Plutarch in Solone.

[¶3] The people of Asia had the same custom, which Lucullus endeavored to check, by moderating the laws respecting usury.

[¶4] The Georgians may alienate their children; and their creditors have a right to sell the wives and children of their debtors, and thus exact the uttermost farthing of their debt. - Tavernier, lib. iii., c. 9. And we have reason to believe that this custom long prevailed among the inhabitants of the British isles. See Calmet here.

[¶5] In short, it appears to have been the custom of all the inhabitants of the earth. We have some remains of it yet in this country, in the senseless and pernicious custom of throwing a man into prison for debt, though his own industry and labor be absolutely necessary to discharge it, and these cannot be exercised within the loathsome and contagious walls of a prison.

### Verse 2

[¶7] Save a pot of oil - Oil was used as aliment, for anointing the body after bathing, and to anoint the dead. Some think that this pot of oil was what this widow had kept for her burial: see [Mat 26:12].

### Verse 6

[¶9] And the oil stayed - While there was a vessel to fill, there was oil sufficient; and it only ceased to flow when there was no vessel to receive it. This is a good emblem of the grace of God. While there is an empty, longing heart, there is a continual overflowing fountain of salvation. If we find in any place or at any time that the oil ceases to flow, it is because there are no empty vessels there, no souls hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We find fault with the dispensations of God's mercy, and ask, Why were the former days better than these? Were we as much in earnest for our salvation as our forefathers were for theirs, we should have equal supplies, and as much reason to sing aloud of Divine mercy.

### Verse 7

[¶11] Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt - He does not inveigh against the cruelty of this creditor, because the law and custom of the country gave him the authority on which he acted; and rather than permit a poor honest widow to have her children sold, or that even a Philistine should suffer loss who had given credit to a genuine Israelite, he would work a miracle to pay a debt which, in the course of providence, it was out of her power to discharge.

### Verse 8

[¶13] Elisha passed to Shunem - This city was in the tribe of Issachar, to the south of the brook Kishon, and at the foot of Mount Tabor.

[¶14] Where was a great woman - In Pirkey Rab. Eliezer, this woman is said to have been the sister of Abishag, the Shunammite, well known in the history of David.

[¶15] Instead of great woman, the Chaldee has, a woman fearing sin; the Arabic, a woman eminent for piety before God. This made her truly great.

### Verse 9

[¶17] This is a holy man of God - That is, a prophet, as the Chaldee interprets it.

[¶18] Which passeth by us continually - It probably lay in his way to some school of the prophets that he usually attended.

### Verse 10

[¶20] Let us make a little chamber - See the note upon [Jdg 3:20] (note). As the woman was convinced that Elisha was a prophet, she knew that he must have need of more privacy than the general state of her house could afford; and therefore she proposes what she knew would be a great acquisition to him, as he could live in this little chamber in as much privacy as if he were in his own house. The bed, the table, the stool, and the candlestick, were really every thing he could need, by way of accommodation, in such circumstances.

### Verse 12

[¶22] Gehazi his servant - This is the first time we hear of this very indifferent character.

### Verse 13

[¶24] Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king - Elisha must have had considerable influence with the king, from the part he took in the late war with the Moabites. Jehoram had reason to believe that the prophet, under God, was the sole cause of his success, and therefore he could have no doubt that the king would grant him any reasonable request.

[¶25] Or to the captain of the host? - As if he had said, Wilt thou that I should procure thee and thy husband a place at court, or get any of thy friends a post in the army?

[¶26] I dwell among mine own people - I am perfectly satisfied and contented with my lot in life; I live on the best terms with my neighbors, and am here encompassed with my kindred, and feel no disposition to change my connections or place of abode.

[¶27] How few are there like this woman on the earth! Who would not wish to be recommended to the king's notice, or get a post for a relative in the army, etc.? Who would not like to change the country for the town, and the rough manners of the inhabitants of the villages for the polished conversation and amusements of the court? Who is so contented with what he has as not to desire more? Who trembles at the prospect of riches; or believes there are any snares in an elevated state, or in the company and conversation of the great and honorable? How few are there that will not sacrifice every thing - peace, domestic comfort, their friends, their conscience, and their God - for money, honors, grandeur, and parade?

### Verse 14

[¶29] What then is to be done for her? - It seems that the woman retired as soon as she had delivered the answer mentioned in the preceding verse.

### Verse 16

[¶31] Thou shalt embrace a son - This promise, and the circumstances of the parties, are not very dissimilar to that relative to the birth of Isaac, and those of Abraham and Sarah.

[¶32] Do not lie - That is, Let thy words become true; or, as the rabbins understand it, Do not mock me by giving me a son that shall soon be removed by death; but let me have one that shall survive me.

### Verse 18

[¶34] When the child was grown - We know not of what age he was, very likely four or six, if not more years; for he could go out to the reapers in the harvest field, converse, etc.

### Verse 19

[¶36] My head, my head - Probably affected by the coup de soleil, or sun stroke, which might, in so young a subject, soon occasion death, especially in that hot country.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Laid him on the bed of the man of God - She had no doubt heard that Elijah had raised the widow's son of Zarephath to life; and she believed that he who had obtained this gift from God for her, could obtain his restoration to life.

### Verse 23

[¶40] Wherefore wilt thou go - She was a very prudent woman; she would not harass the feelings of her husband by informing him of the death of his son till she had tried the power of the prophet. Though the religion of the true God was not the religion of the state, yet there were no doubt multitudes of the people who continued to worship the true God alone, and were in the habit of going, as is here intimated, on new moons and Sabbaths, to consult the prophet.

### Verse 24

[¶42] Drive, and go forward - It is customary in the East for a servant to walk along side or drive the ass his master rides. Sometimes he walks behind, and goads on the beast; and when it is to turn, he directs its head with the long pole of the goad. It is probably to this custom that the wise man alludes when he says, "I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking as servants on the earth," on the ground.

### Verse 26

[¶44] It is well - How strong was her faith in God and submission to his authority! Though the heaviest family affliction that could befall her and her husband had now taken place; yet, believing that it was a dispensation of Providence which was in itself neither unwise nor unkind, she said, It is well with me, with my husband, and with my child. We may farther remark that, in her days, the doctrine of reprobate infants had not disgraced the pure religion of the God of endless compassion. She had no doubts concerning the welfare of her child, even with respect to another world; and who but a pagan or a stoic can entertain a contrary doctrine?

## 374. 2 Kings · 5 of 30

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### Verse 27

[¶1] The Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me - In reference to this point he had not now the discernment of spirits. This, and the gift of prophecy, were influences which God gave and suspended as his infinite wisdom saw good.

### Verse 28

[¶3] Did I desire a son of my lord? - I expressed no such wish to thee; I was contented and happy; and when thou didst promise me a son, did I not say, Do not deceive me? Do not mock me with a child which shall grow up to be attractive and engaging, but of whom I shall soon be deprived by death.

### Verse 29

[¶5] Salute him not - Make all the haste thou possibly canst, and lay my staff on the face of the child; he probably thought that it might be a case of mere suspended animation or a swoon, and that laying the staff on the face of the child might act as a stimulus to excite the animal motions.

### Verse 30

[¶7] I will not leave thee - The prophet it seems had no design to accompany her; he intended to wait for Gehazi's return; but as the woman was well assured the child was dead, she was determined not to return till she brought the prophet with her.

### Verse 32

[¶9] Behold, the child was dead - The prophet then saw that the body and spirit of the child were separated.

### Verse 33

[¶11] Prayed unto the Lord - He had no power of his own by which he could restore the child.

### Verse 34

[¶13] Lay upon the child - Endeavored to convey a portion of his own natural warmth to the body of the child; and probably endeavored, by blowing into the child's mouth, to inflate the lungs, and restore respiration. He uses every natural means in his power to restore life, while praying to the Author of it to exert a miraculous influence. Natural means are in our power; those that are supernatural belong to God. We should always do our own work, and beg of God to do his.

### Verse 35

[¶15] The child sneezed seven times - That is, it sneezed abundantly. When the nervous influence began to act on the muscular system, before the circulation could be in every part restored, particular muscles, if not the whole body, would be thrown into strong contractions and shiverings, and sternutation or sneezing would be a natural consequence; particularly as obstructions must have taken place in the head and its vessels, because of the disorder of which the child died. Most people, as well as philosophers and physicians, have remarked how beneficial sneezings are to the removal of obstructions in the head. Sternutamenta, says Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xxviii., cap. 6, gravedinem capitis emendant; "Sneezing relieves disorders of the head."

### Verse 37

[¶17] She went in and fell at his feet - Few can enter into the feelings of this noble woman. What suspense must she have felt during the time that the prophet was employed in the slow process referred to above! for slow in its own nature it must have been, and exceedingly exhausting to the prophet himself.

### Verse 38

[¶19] Came again to Gilgal - He had been there before with his master, a short time prior to his translation.

[¶20] Set on the great pot and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets - It was in a time of dearth, and all might now stand in need of refreshment; and it appears that the prophet was led to put forth the power he had from God to make a plentiful provision for those who were present. The father of the celebrated Dr. Young, author of the Night Thoughts, preaching a charity sermon for the benefit of the sons of the clergy, took the above words for his text; nor could they be said to be inappropriate.

### Verse 39

[¶22] Wild gourds - This is generally thought to be the coloquintida, the fruit of a plant of the same name, about the size of a large orange. It is brought hither from the Levant, and is often known by the name of the bitter apple; both the seeds and pulp are intensely bitter, and violently purgative. It ranks among vegetable poisons, as all intense bitters do; but, judiciously employed, it is of considerable use in medicine.

### Verse 40

[¶24] There is death in the pot - As if they had said, "We have here a deadly mixture; if we eat of it, we shall all die."

### Verse 41

[¶26] Bring meal - Though this might, in some measure, correct the strong acrid and purgative quality; yet it was only a miracle which could make a lapful of this fruit shred into pottage salutary.

### Verse 42

[¶28] Bread of the first-fruits - This was an offering to the prophet, as the first-fruits themselves were an offering to God.

[¶29] Corn in the husk - Probably parched corn or corn to be parched, a very frequent food in the East; full ears, before they are ripe, parched on the fire.

### Verse 43

[¶31] Thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof - It was God, not the prophet, who fed one hundred men with these twenty loaves, etc. This is something like our Lord's feeding the multitude miraculously. Indeed, there are many things in this chapter similar to facts in our Lord's history: and this prophet might be more aptly considered a type of our Lord, than most of the other persons in the Scriptures who have been thus honored.

### Introduction

[¶33] The history of Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, a leper; who was informed by a little Israelitish captive maid that a prophet of the Lord, in Samaria, could cure him, [2Kgs 5:1-4]. The king of Syria sends him, with a letter and rich presents, to the king of Israel, that he should recover him of his leprosy, [2Kgs 5:5], [2Kgs 5:6]. On receiving the letter, the king of Israel is greatly distressed, supposing that the Syrian king designed to seek a quarrel with him; in desiring him to cleanse a leper, when it was well known that none could cure that disorder but God, [2Kgs 5:7]. Elisha, hearing this, orders Naaman to be sent to him, [2Kgs 5:8]. He comes to Elisha's house in great state, [2Kgs 5:9]. And the prophet sends a messenger to him, ordering him to wash in Jordan seven times, and he should be made clean, [2Kgs 5:10]. Naaman is displeased that he is received with so little ceremony, and departs in a rage, [2Kgs 5:11], [2Kgs 5:12]. His servants reason with him; he is persuaded, goes to Jordan, washes, and is made clean, [2Kgs 5:13], [2Kgs 5:14]. He returns to Elisha; acknowledges the true God; and offers him a present, which the prophet refuses, [2Kgs 5:15], [2Kgs 5:16]. He asks directions, promises never to sacrifice to any other god, and is dismissed, [2Kgs 5:17-19]. Gehazi runs after him, pretends he is sent by his master for a talent of silver and two changes of raiment; which he receives, brings home, and hides, [2Kgs 5:20-24]. Elisha questions him; convicts him of his wickedness; pronounces a curse of leprosy upon him, with which he is immediately afflicted; and departs from his master a leper, as white as snow, [2Kgs 5:25-27].

### Verse 1

[¶35] Naaman, captain of the host - Of Naaman we know nothing more than is related here. Jarchi and some others say that he was the man who drew the bow at a venture, as we term it, and slew Ahab: see [1Kgs 22:34] (note), and the notes there. He is not mentioned by Josephus, nor has he any reference to this history; which is very strange, as it exists in the Chaldee, Septuagint, and Syriac.

[¶36] King of Syria - The Hebrew is מלך ארם melech Aram, king of Aram; which is followed by the Chaldee and Arabic. The Syriac has Adom; but as the Syriac dolath is the same element as the Syriac rish, differing only in the position of the diacritic point, it may have been originally Aram. The Septuagint and Vulgate have Syria, and this is a common meaning of the term in Scripture. If the king of Syria be meant, it must be Ben-hadad; and the contemporary king of Israel was Jehoram.

[¶37] A great man - He was held in the highest esteem.

[¶38] And honorable - Had the peculiar favor and confidence of his master; and was promoted to the highest trusts.

[¶39] Had given deliverance unto Syria - That is, as the rabbins state, by his slaying Ahab, king of Israel; in consequence of which the Syrians got the victory.

[¶40] A mighty man in valor - He was a giant, and very strong, according to the Arabic. He had, in a word, all the qualifications of an able general.

[¶41] But he was a leper - Here was a heavy tax upon his grandeur; he was afflicted with a disorder the most loathsome and the most humiliating that could possibly disgrace a human being. God often, in the course of his providence, permits great defects to be associated with great eminence, that he may hide pride from man; and cause him to think soberly of himself and his acquirements.

### Verse 2

[¶43] The Syrians had gone out by companies - גדודים gedudim, troops. When one hundred or two hundred men go out by themselves to make prey of whatever they can get, that is called, says Jarchi, גדוד gedud, a troop. They had gone out in marauding parties; and on such occasions they bring away grain, cattle, and such of the inhabitants as are proper to make slaves.

[¶44] A little maid - Who, it appears, had pious parents, who brought her up in the knowledge of the true God. Behold the goodness and the severity of the Divine providence! affectionate parents are deprived of their promising daughter by a set of lawless freebooters, without the smallest prospect that she should have any lot in life but that of misery, infamy, and wo.

## 375. 2 Kings · 6 of 30

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[¶0] Waited on Naaman's wife - Her decent orderly behavior, the consequence of her sober and pious education, entitled her to this place of distinction; in which her servitude was at least easy, and her person safe.

[¶1] If God permitted the parents to be deprived of their pious child by the hands of ruffians, he did not permit the child to be without a guardian. In such a case, were even the father and mother to forsake her, God would take her up.

### Verse 3

[¶3] Would God my lord - אחלי achaley, I wish; or, as the Chaldee, Syrian, and Arabic have, "Happy would it be for my master if he were with the prophet," etc.

[¶4] Here the mystery of the Divine providence begins to develop itself. By the captivity of this little maid, one Syrian family at least, and that one of the most considerable in the Syrian empire, is brought to the knowledge of the true God.

### Verse 4

[¶6] Thus and thus said the maid - So well had this little pious maid conducted herself, that her words are credited; and credited so fully, that an embassy from the king of Syria to the king of Israel is founded upon them!

### Verse 5

[¶8] The king of Syria said - He judged it the best mode of proceeding to send immediately to the king, under whose control he supposed the prophet must be, that he would order the prophet to cure his general.

[¶9] Ten talents of silver - This, at 353 11s. 10 1/2d. the talent, would amount to 3,535 18s. 9d.

[¶10] Six thousand pieces of gold - If shekels are here meant, as the Arabic has it, then the six thousand shekels, at 1 16s. 5d. will amount to 10,925; and the whole, to 14,460 18s. 9d. sterling: besides the value of the ten caftans, or changes of raiment. This was a princely present, and shows us at once how high Naaman stood in the esteem of his master.

### Verse 7

[¶12] Am I God, to kill and to make alive - He spoke thus under the conviction that God alone could cure the leprosy; which, indeed, was universally acknowledged: and must have been as much a maxim among the Syrians as among the Israelites, for the disorder was equally prevalent in both countries; and in both equally incurable. See the notes on Leviticus 13 (note) and Leviticus 14 (note). And it was this that led the king of Israel to infer that the Syrian king sought a quarrel with him, in desiring him to do a work which God only could do; and then declaring war upon him because he did not do it.

### Verse 8

[¶14] Let him come now to me - Do not be afflicted; the matter belongs to me, as the prophet of the Most High; send him to me, and he shall know that I am such.

### Verse 9

[¶16] Came with his horses and with his chariot - In very great pomp and state. Closely inspected, this was preposterous enough; a leper sitting in state, and affecting it!

### Verse 10

[¶18] Sent a messenger - Did not come out to speak with him: he had got his orders from God, and he transmitted them to Naaman by his servant.

[¶19] Wash in Jordan seven times - The waters of Jordan had no tendency to remove this disorder but God chose to make them the means by which he would convey his healing power. He who is the author of life, health, and salvation, has a right to dispense, convey, and maintain them, by whatsoever means he pleases.

### Verse 11

[¶21] Naaman was wroth - And why? Because the prophet treated him without ceremony; and because he appointed him an expenseless and simple mode of cure.

[¶22] Behold, I thought - God's ways are not as our ways; he appoints that mode of cure which he knows to be best. Naaman expected to be treated with great ceremony; and instead of humbling himself before the Lord's prophet, he expected the prophet of the Lord to humble himself before him! Behold I thought; - and what did he think? Hear his words, for they are all very emphatic: -

[¶23] 1. "I thought, He will surely come Out to Me. He will never make his servant the medium of communication between Me and himself.

[¶24] 2. And stand - present himself before me, and stand as a servant to hear the orders of his God.

[¶25] 3. And call on the name of Jehovah his God; so that both his God and himself shall appear to do me service and honor.

[¶26] 4. And strike his hand over the place; for can it be supposed that any healing virtue can be conveyed without contact? Had he done these things, then the leper might have been recovered."

### Verse 12

[¶28] Are not Abana and Pharpar - At present these rivers do not exist by these names; and where they are we know not; nor whether they were the Orontes and Chrysorroes. Mr. Maundrell, who traveled over all this ground, could find no vestige of the names Abana and Pharpar. The river Barrady he accurately describes: it has its source in Antilibanus; and, after having plentifully watered the city of Damascus and the gardens, dividing into three branches, (one of which goes through the city, and the two others are distributed among the gardens), it is lost in the marshy country about five or six leagues from Damascus. Two of these branches were doubtless called in the time of Elisha Abana, or Amana, as many copies have it; and Pharpar. And in the time in which the Arabic version was made, one of these branches were called Barda and Toura, for these are the names by which this version translates those of the text.

[¶29] May I not wash in them, and be clean? - No, for God has directed thee to Jordan! and by its waters, or none, shalt thou be cleansed. Abana and Pharpar may be as good as Jordan; and in respect to thy cleansing, the simple difference is, God will convey his influence by the latter, and not by the former.

[¶30] There is often contention among the people of Bengal and other places, concerning the superior efficacy of rivers; though the Ganges bears the bell in Bengal, as the Thames does in England, and the Nile in Egypt.

### Verse 13

[¶32] My father - A title of the highest respect and affection.

[¶33] Had bid thee do some great thing - If the prophet had appointed thee to do something very difficult in itself, and very expensive to thee, wouldst thou not have done it? With much greater reason shouldst thou do what will occupy little time, be no expense, and is easy to be performed.

### Verse 14

[¶35] Then went he down - He felt the force of this reasoning, and made a trial, probably expecting little success.

[¶36] Like unto the flesh of a little child - The loathsome scurf was now entirely removed; his flesh assumed the appearance and health of youth; and the whole mass of his blood, and other juices, became purified, refined, and exalted! How mighty is God! What great things can he do by the simplest and feeblest of means!

### Verse 15

[¶38] He returned to the man of God - He saw that the hand of the Lord was upon him; he felt gratitude for his cleansing; and came back to acknowledge, in the most public way, his obligation to God and his servant.

[¶39] Stood before him - He was now truly humbled, and left all his state behind him. It is often the case that those who have least to value themselves on are proud and haughty; whereas the most excellent of the earth are the most humble, knowing that they have nothing but what they have received. Naaman, the leper, was more proud and dictatorial than he was when cleansed of his leprosy.

[¶40] There is no God in all the earth - Those termed gods are no gods; the God of Israel is sole God in all the earth. See my sermon on this subject.

[¶41] Take a blessing - Accept a present. Take an expiatory gift. - Arabic. He desired to offer something for his cleansing. He thought it right thus to acknowledge the hand from which he had received his healing, and thus honor the Lord by giving something to his servant.

### Verse 16

[¶43] I will receive none - It was very common to give presents to all great and official men; and among these, prophets were always included: but as it might have appeared to the Syrians that he had taken the offered presents as a remuneration for the cure performed, he refused; for as God alone did the work, he alone should have all the glory.

## 376. 2 Kings · 7 of 30

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### Verse 17

[¶1] Shall there not then, I pray thee - This verse is understood two different ways. I will give them both in a paraphrase: -

[¶2] 1. Shall there not then be given unto thy servant [viz., Naaman] two mules' burden of this Israelitish earth, that I may build an altar with it, on which I may offer sacrifices to the God of Israel? For thy servant, etc.

[¶3] 2. Shall there not be given to thy [Elisha's] servant [Gehazi] two mules' burden of this earth? i.e., the gold and silver which he brought with him; and which he esteemed as earth, or dust, in comparison of the cure he received. For thy servant [Naaman] will henceforth, etc.

[¶4] Each of these interpretations has its difficulties. Why Naaman should ask for two mules' burden of earth, which he might have taken up any where on the confines of the land, without any such liberty, is not easy to see. As to the prophet's permission, though the boon was ever so small, it was not his to give; only the king of Israel could give such a permission: and what sort of an altar could he build with two mules' burden of earth, carried from Samaria to Damascus? If this be really the meaning of the place, the request was exceedingly foolish, and never could have come from a person enjoying the right use of his reason. The second opinion, not without its difficulties, seems less embarrassed than the former. It was natural for Naaman to wish to give something to the prophet's servant, as the master had refused his present. Again, impressed with the vast importance of the cure he had received, to take away all feeling of obligation, he might call two or ten talents of silver by the name of earth, as well as Habakkuk, [Hab 2:6], calls silver and gold thick clay; and by terms of this kind it has been frequently denominated, both by prophets and heathen writers: "Tyrus heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets;" [Zac 9:3]. And the king made silver and gold at Jerusalem as stones; [2Chr 1:15]. Which is agreeable to the sentiments of the heathen: Χρυσος τις κονις εστι, και αργυρος, Gold and silver are only a certain kind of earth. - Arist. Eth. Nicomach.

[¶5] Should it be said, The gold and silver could not be two mules' burden; I answer, Let the quantity that Naaman brought with him be only considered, and it will be found to be as much, when put into two bags, as could be well lifted upon the backs of two mules, or as those beasts could conveniently carry. The silver itself would weigh 233lbs. 9oz. 15 1/2dwts., and the gold 1,140lbs. 7oz. 10dwts.; in the whole 1,3741bs. 50Z. 5 1/2dwts. Troy weight. Should it be objected that, taken in this sense, there is no visible connection between the former and latter clauses of the verse, I answer that there is as much connection between the words taken in this sense as in the other, for something must be brought in to supply both; besides, this makes a more complete sense than the other: "Shall there not, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of this silver and gold, [to apply it as he may think proper; I regard it not], for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, [for the cure he has now received; or by way of worship at any time]; but unto Jehovah." The reader may choose which of these interpretations he pleases.

### Verse 18

[¶7] In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant - It is useless to enter into the controversy concerning this verse. By no rule of right reasoning, nor by any legitimate mode of interpretation, can it be stated that Naaman is asking pardon for offenses which he may commit, or that he could ask or the prophet grant indulgence to bow himself in the temple of Rimmon, thus performing a decided act of homage, the very essence of that worship which immediately before he solemnly assured the prophet he would never practice. The original may legitimately be read, and ought to be read, in the past, and not in the future tense. "For this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, for that when my master Hath Gone into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he Hath Leaned upon mine hand, that I also Have Bowed myself in the house of Rimmon; for my worshipping in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing." This is the translation of Dr. Lightfoot, the most able Hebraist of his time in Christendom.

[¶8] To admit the common interpretation is to admit, in effect, the doctrine of indulgences; and that we may do evil that good may come of it; that the end sanctifies the means; and that for political purposes we may do unlawful acts.

### Verse 19

[¶10] And he said unto him - There is a most singular and important reading in one of De Rossi's MSS., which he numbers 191. It has in the margin לא ק that is, "read לא lo, not, instead of לו lo, to him." Now this reading supposes that Naaman did ask permission from the prophet to worship in Rimmon's temple; to which the prophet answers, No; go in peace: that is, maintain thy holy resolutions, be a consistent worshipper of the true God, and avoid all idolatrous practices. Another MS., No. 383, appears first to have written לו to him, but to have corrected it immediately by inserting an א aleph after the ו vau; and thus, instead of making it לא no, it has made it לוא lu, which is no word.

### Verse 20

[¶12] My master hath spared - this Syrian - He has neither taken any thing from him for himself, nor permitted him to give any thing to me.

### Verse 21

[¶14] He lighted down from the chariot - He treats even the prophet's servant with the profoundest respect, alights from his chariot, and goes to meet him.

[¶15] Is all well? - השלום hashalom; Is it peace, or prosperity?

### Verse 22

[¶17] And he said - שלום shalom. It is peace; all is right. This was a common mode of address and answer.

[¶18] There be come to me from mount Ephraim - There was probably a school of the prophets at this mount.

### Verse 23

[¶20] He - bound two talents of silver - It required two servants to carry these two talents, for, according to the computation above, each talent was about 120lbs. weight.

### Verse 24

[¶22] When he came to the tower - The Chaldee, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic understand the word עפל ophel, which we translate tower, as signifying a secret, dark, or hiding place. He was doing a deed of darkness, and he sought darkness to conceal it. He no doubt put them in a place little frequented, or one to which few had access besides himself. But the prophet's discerning spirit found him out.

### Verse 26

[¶24] Went not mine heart with thee - The Chaldee gives this a good turn: By the prophetic spirit it was shown unto me, when the man returned from his chariot to meet thee.

[¶25] Is it a time to receive money - He gave him farther proof of this all-discerning prophetic spirit in telling him what he designed to do with the money; he intended to set up a splendid establishment, to have men-servants and maid-servants, to have oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, This, as the Chaldee says, he had thought in his heart to do.

### Verse 27

[¶27] The leprosy of Naaman - shall cleave unto thee - Thou hast got much money, and thou shalt have much to do with it. Thou hast got Naaman's silver, and thou shalt have Naaman's leprosy. Gehazi is not the last who has got money in an unlawful way, and has got God's curse with it.

[¶28] A leper as white as snow - The moment the curse was pronounced, that moment the signs of the leprosy began to appear. The white shining spot was the sign that the infection had taken place. See on [Lev 13:2] (note), and the notes at [Lev 13:58] (note).

[¶29] 1. Some have thought, because of the prophet's curse, The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and thy seed for ever, that there are persons still alive who are this man's real descendants, and afflicted with this horrible disease. Mr. Maundrell when he was in Judea made diligent inquiry concerning this, but could not ascertain the truth of the supposition. To me it appears absurd; the denunciation took place in the posterity of Gehazi till it should become extinct, and under the influence of this disorder this must soon have taken place. The for ever implies as long as any of his posterity should remain. This is the import of the word לעולם leolam. It takes in the whole extent or duration of the thing to which it is applied. The for ever of Gehazi was till his posterity became extinct.

[¶30] 2. The god Rimmon, mentioned [2Kgs 5:18], we meet with nowhere else in the Scriptures, unless it be the same which Stephen calls Remphan. See [Act 7:43] (note), and the note there. Selden thinks that Rimmon is the same with Elion, a god of the Phoenicians, borrowed undoubtedly from the עליון Elion, the Most High, of the Hebrews, one of the names of the supreme God, which attribute became a god of the Phoenicians. Hesychius has the word Ῥαμας Ramas, which he translates ὁ ὑψιστος Θεος, the Most High God, which agrees very well with the Hebrew רמון Rimmon, from רמה ramah, to make high or exalt. And all these agree with the sun, as being the highest or most exalted in what is called the solar system. Some think Saturn is intended, and others Venus. Much may be seen on this subject in Selden De Diis Syris.

[¶31] 3. Let us not suppose that the offense of Gehazi was too severely punished.

[¶32] 1. Look at the principle, covetousness.

[¶33] 2. Pride and vanity; he wished to become a great man. 3, His lying, in order to impose on Naaman: Behold even now there be come to me, etc.

[¶34] 4. He in effect sells the cure of Naaman for so much money; for if Naaman had not been cured, could he have pretended to ask the silver and raiment?

[¶35] 5. It was an act of theft; he applied that to his own use which Naaman gave him for his master.

[¶36] 6. He dishonored his master by getting the money and raiment in his name, who had before so solemnly refused it.

[¶37] 7. He closed the whole by lying to his master, denying that he had gone after Naaman, or that he had received any thing from him. But was it not severe to extend the punishment of his crime to his innocent posterity? I answer, it does not appear that any of Gehazi's children, if he had any prior to this, were smitten with the leprosy; and as to those whom he might beget after this time, their leprosy must be the necessary consequence of their being engendered by a leprous father.

[¶38] Reader, see the end of avarice and ambition; and see the truth of those words, "He that Will be rich, shall fall into temptation, and a snare, and into divers hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition." - St. Paul.

[¶39] 4. We have already remarked the apparently severe and manifestly kind providence of God in this business.

[¶40] 1. A marauding party was permitted to spoil the confines of the land of Israel.

[¶41] 2. They brought away, to reduce to captivity, a little maid, probably the hope of her father's house.

[¶42] 3. She became Naaman's property, and waited on his wife.

[¶43] 4. She announced God and his prophet.

[¶44] 5. Naaman, on the faith of her account, took a journey to Samaria.

[¶45] 6. Gets healed of his leprosy.

## 377. 2 Kings · 8 of 30

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[¶0] 7. Is converted to the Lord; and, doubtless, brought at least his whole family to believe to the saving of their souls. What was severe to the parents of the little maid was most kind to Naaman and his family; and the parents lost their child only a little time, that they might again receive her with honor and glory for ever. How true are the words of the poet! "Behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face."

[¶1] And see the benefits of a religious education! Had not this little maid been brought up in the knowledge of the true God, she had not been the instrument of so great a salvation. See my sermon on this subject [2Kgs 5:12] (note).

### Introduction

[¶3] The sons of the prophets wish to enlarge their dwelling-place, and go to the banks of Jordan to cut down wood, when one of them drops his axe into the water, which Elisha causes to swim, [2Kgs 6:1-7]. Elisha, understanding all the secret designs of the king of Syria against Israel, informs the king of Israel of them, [2Kgs 6:8-10]. The king of Syria, finding that Elisha had thus penetrated his secrets and frustrated his attempts, sends a great host to Dothan, to take the prophet; the Lord strikes them with blindness; and Elisha leads the whole host to Samaria, and delivers them up to the king of Israel, [2Kgs 6:11-19]. The Lord opens their eyes, and they see their danger, [2Kgs 6:20]. But the king of Israel is prevented from destroying them; and, at the order of the prophet, gives them meat and drink, and dismisses them to their master, [2Kgs 6:21-23]. Ben-hadad besieges Samaria, and reduces the city to great distress, of which several instances are given, [2Kgs 6:24-30]. The king of Israel vows the destruction of Elisha, and sends to have him beheaded, [2Kgs 6:31-33].

### Verse 1

[¶5] The place - is too strait for us - Notwithstanding the general profligacy of Israel, the schools of the prophets increased. This was no doubt owing to the influence of Elisha.

### Verse 2

[¶7] Every man a beam - They made a sort of log-houses with their own hands.

### Verse 5

[¶9] Alas, master! for it was borrowed - אהה אדני והוא שאול ahah adonia, vehu shaul! Ah! ah, my master; and it has been sought. It has fallen in, and I have sought it in vain. Or, it was borrowed, and therefore I am the more afflicted for its loss; and Jarchi adds, I have nothing wherewith to repay it.

### Verse 6

[¶11] He cut down a stick - This had no natural tendency to raise the iron; it was only a sign or ceremony which the prophet chose to use on the occasion.

[¶12] The iron did swim - This was a real miracle; for the gravity of the metal must have for ever kept it at the bottom of the water.

### Verse 8

[¶14] The king of Syria warred against Israel - This was probably the same Ben-hadad who is mentioned [2Kgs 6:24]. What was the real or pretended cause of this war we cannot tell; but we may say, in numberless war cases, as Calmet says in this: "An ambitious and restless prince always finds a sufficiency of reasons to color his enterprises."

[¶15] In such and such a place - The Syrian king had observed, from the disposition of the Israelitish army, in what direction it was about to make its movements; and therefore laid ambuscades where he might surprise it to the greatest advantage.

### Verse 9

[¶17] Beware that thou pass not such a place - Elisha must have had this information by immediate revelation from heaven.

### Verse 10

[¶19] Sent to the place - To see if it were so. But the Vulgate gives it quite a different turn: Misit rex Israel ad locum, et praeoccupavit eum. The king of Israel sent previously to the place, and took possession of it; and thus the Syrians were disappointed. This is very likely, though it is not expressed in the Hebrew text. The prophet knew the Syrians marked such a place; he told the king of Israel, and he hastened and sent a party of troops to pre-occupy it; and thus the Syrians found that their designs had been detected.

### Verse 13

[¶21] Behold, he is in Dothan - This is supposed to be the same place as that mentioned in [Gen 37:17]. It lay about twelve miles from Samaria.

### Verse 14

[¶23] He sent thither horses - It is strange he did not think that he who could penetrate his secrets with respect to the Israelitish army, could inform himself of all his machinations against his own life.

### Verse 16

[¶25] For they that be with us are more, etc. - What astonishing intercourse had this man with heaven! It seems the whole heavenly host had it in commission to help him.

### Verse 17

[¶27] Lord - open his eyes - Where is heaven? Is it not above, beneath, around us? And were our eyes open as were those of the prophet's servant, we should see the heavenly host in all directions. The horses and chariots of fire were there, before the eyes of Elisha's servant were opened.

### Verse 18

[¶29] Smite this people - with blindness - Confound their sight so that they may not know what they see, and so mistake one place for another.

### Verse 19

[¶31] I will bring you to the man whom ye seek - And he did so; he was their guide to Samaria, and showed himself to them fully in that city.

### Verse 20

[¶33] Open the eyes of these men - Take away their confusion of vision, that they may discern things as they are, and distinguish where they are.

### Verse 21

[¶35] My father, shall I smite - This was dastardly; the utmost he could have done with these men, when thus brought into his hand, was to make them prisoners of war.

### Verse 22

[¶37] Whom thou hast taken captive - Those who in open battle either lay down their arms, or are surrounded, and have their retreat cut off, are entitled to their lives, much more those who are thus providentially put into thy hand, without having been in actual hostility against thee. Give them meat and drink, and send them home to their master, and let them thus know that thou fearest him not, and art incapable of doing an ungenerous or unmanly action.

### Verse 23

[¶39] He prepared great provision for them - These, on the return to their master, could tell him strange things about the power of the God of Israel, and the magnanimity of its king.

[¶40] So the bands of Syria came no more - Marauding parties were no more permitted by the Syrian king to make inroads upon Israel. And it is very likely that for some considerable time after this, there was no war between these two nations. What is mentioned in the next verse was more than a year afterwards.

### Verse 25

[¶42] And, behold, they besieged it - They had closed it in on every side, and reduced it to the greatest necessity.

[¶43] An ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver - I suppose we are to take the ass's head literally; and if the head sold for so much, what must other parts sell for which were much to be preferred? The famine must be great that could oblige them to eat any part of an animal that was proscribed by the law; and it must be still greater that could oblige them to purchase so mean a part of this unclean animal at so high a price. The piece of silver was probably the drachm, worth about seven pence three farthings of our money; the whole amounting to about two pounds nine shillings.

[¶44] And the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung - The cab was about a quart or three pints. Dove's dung, חריונים chiriyonim. Whether this means pigeon's dung literally, or a kind of pulse, has been variously disputed by learned men. After having written much upon the subject, illustrated with quotations from east, west, north, and south, I choose to spare my reader the trouble of wading through them, and shall content myself with asserting that it is probable a sort of pease are meant, which the Arabs to this day call by this name. "The garvancos, cicer, or chick pea," says Dr. Shaw, "has been taken for the pigeon's dung, mentioned in the siege of Samaria; and as the cicer is pointed at one end, and acquires an ash color in parching, the first of which circumstances answers to the figure, the second to the usual color of dove's dung, the supposition is by no means to be disregarded."

## 378. 2 Kings · 9 of 30

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[¶0] I should not omit saying that dove's dung is of great value in the East, for its power in producing cucumbers, melons, etc., which has induced many learned men to take the words literally. Bochart has exhausted this subject, and concludes that a kind of pulse is meant. Most learned men are of his opinion.

### Verse 27

[¶2] If the Lord do not help thee - Some read this as an imprecation, May God save thee not! how can I save thee?

### Verse 29

[¶4] So we boiled my son - This is horrible; but for the sake of humanity we must allow that the children died through hunger, and then became food for their starved, desperate parents.

[¶5] She hath hid her son - He was already dead, says Jarchi; and she hid him, that she might eat him alone.

[¶6] This very evil Moses had foretold should come upon them if they forsook God; see [Deu 28:53-57]. The same evil came upon this wretched people when besieged by Nebuchadnezzar; see [Eze 5:10]. And also when Titus besieged Jerusalem; see Josephus, De Bell. Judaic. lib. vi., cap. 3, and my notes on [Mat 24:19].

### Verse 30

[¶8] He had sackcloth within upon his flesh - The king was in deep mourning for the distresses of the people.

### Verse 31

[¶10] If the head of Elisha - shall stand on him - Either he attributed these calamities to the prophet, or else he thought he could remove them, and yet would not. The miserable king was driven to desperation.

### Verse 32

[¶12] This son of a murderer - Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel. But Ahab is called a murderer because of the murder of Naboth.

[¶13] Shut the door - He was obliged to make use of this method for his personal safety, as the king was highly incensed.

[¶14] The sound of his master's feet behind him? - That is, King Jehoram is following his messenger, that he may see him take off my head.

### Verse 33

[¶16] Behold, this evil is of the Lord - It is difficult to know whether it be the prophet, the messenger, or the king, that says these words. It might be the answer of the prophet from within to the messenger who was without, and who sought for admission, and gave his reason; to whom Elisha might have replied: "I am not the cause of these calamities; they are from the Lord; I have been praying for their removal; but why should I pray to the Lord any longer, for the time of your deliverance is at hand?" And then Elisha said, - see the following chapter, 2 Kings 7 (note), where the removal of the calamity is foretold in the most explicit manner; and indeed the chapter is unhappily divided from this. The seventh chapter should have begun with [2Kgs 6:24] of this chapter, as, by the present division, the story is unnaturally interrupted.

[¶17] How natural is it for men to lay the cause of their suffering on any thing or person but themselves! Ahab's iniquity was sufficient to have brought down God's displeasure on a whole nation; and yet he takes no blame to himself, but lays all on the prophet, who was the only salt that preserved the whole nation from corruption. How few take their sins to themselves! and till they do this, they cannot be true penitents; nor can they expect God's wrath to be averted till they feel themselves the chief of sinners.

### Introduction

[¶19] Elisha foretells abundant relief to the besieged inhabitants of Samaria, [2Kgs 7:1]. One of the lords questions the possibility of it; and is assured that he shall see it on the morrow, but not taste of it, [2Kgs 7:2]. Four lepers, perishing with hunger, go to the camp of the Syrians to seek relief and find it totally deserted, [2Kgs 7:3-5]. How the Syrians were alarmed, and fled, [2Kgs 7:6], [2Kgs 7:7]. The lepers begin to take the spoil, but at last resolve to carry the good news to the city, [2Kgs 7:8-11]. The king, suspecting some treachery, sends some horsemen to scour the country, and see whether the Syrians are not somewhere concealed; they return, and confirm the report that the Syrians are totally fled, [2Kgs 7:12-15]. The people go out and spoil the camp, in consequence of which provisions become as plentiful as Elisha had foretold, [2Kgs 7:16]. The unbelieving lord, having the charge of the gate committed to him, is trodden to death by the crowd, [2Kgs 7:17-20].

### Verse 1

[¶21] To-morrow about this time - This was in reply to the desponding language of the king, and to vindicate himself from the charge of being author of this calamity. See the end of the preceding chapter, [2Kgs 6:33] (note).

[¶22] A measure of fine flour - for a shekel - A seah of fine flour: the seah was about two gallons and a half; the shekel, two shillings and four-pence at the lowest computation. A wide difference between this and the price of the ass's head mentioned above.

### Verse 2

[¶24] Then a lord - שליש shalish. This word, as a name of office, occurs often, and seems to point out one of the highest offices in the state. So unlikely was this prediction to be fulfilled, that he thought God must pour out wheat and barley from heaven before it could have a literal accomplishment.

[¶25] But shalt not eat thereof - This was a mere prediction of his death, but not as a judgment for his unbelief; any person in his circumstances might have spoken as he did. He stated in effect that nothing but a miracle could procure the plenty predicted, and by a miracle alone was it done; and any person in his place might have been trodden to death by the crowd in the gate of Samaria.

### Verse 3

[¶27] There were four leprous men - The Gemara in Sota, R. Sol. Jarchi, and others, say that these four lepers were Gehazi and his three sons.

[¶28] At the entering in of the gate - They were not permitted to mingle in civil society.

### Verse 5

[¶30] The uttermost part of the camp - Where the Syrian advanced guards should have been.

### Verse 6

[¶32] The Lord had made the - Syrians to hear a noise - This threw them into confusion; they imagined that they were about to be attacked by powerful auxiliaries, which the king of Israel had hired against them.

### Verse 12

[¶34] The king arose in the night - This king had made a noble defense; he seems to have shared in all the sufferings of the besieged, and to have been ever at his post. Even in vile Ahab there were some good things!

[¶35] They know that we be hungry - This was a very natural conclusion; the Syrians by the closest blockade could not induce them to give up the city, but knowing that they were in a starving condition, they might make use of such a stratagem as that imagined by the king, in order to get possession of the city.

### Verse 13

[¶37] And one of his servants answered - This is a very difficult verse, and the great variety of explanations given of it cast but little light on the subject. I am inclined to believe, with Dr. Kennicott, that there is an interpolation here which puzzles, if not destroys, the sense. "Several instances," says he, "have been given of words improperly repeated by Jewish transcribers, who have been careless enough to make such mistakes, and yet cautious not to alter or erase, for fear of discovery. This verse furnishes another instance in a careless repetition of seven Hebrew words, thus: - הנשארים אשר נשארו בה הנם ככל ההמון ישראל אשר נשארו בה הנם ככל המון ישראל אשר תמי

[¶38] The exact English of this verse is this: And the servant said, Let them take now five of the remaining horses, which remain in it; behold they are as all the multitude of Israel, which [remain in it; behold they are as all the multitude of Israel which] are consumed; and let us send and see. "Whoever considers that the second set of these seven words is neither in the Septuagint nor Syriac versions, and that those translators who suppose these words to be genuine alter them to make them look like sense, will probably allow them to have been at first an improper repetition; consequently to be now an interpolation strangely continued in the Hebrew text." They are wanting in more than forty of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. In some others they are left without points; in others they have been written in, and afterwards blotted out; and in others four, in others five, of the seven words are omitted. De Rossi concludes thus: Nec verba haec legunt Lxx., Vulg., Syrus simplex, Syrus Heptaplaris Parisiensis, Targum. They stand on little authority, and the text should be read, omitting the words enclosed by brackets, as above.

[¶39] They are consumed - The words אשר תמו asher tamu should be translated, which are perfect; i.e., fit for service. The rest of the horses were either dead of the famine, killed for the subsistence of the besieged, or so weak as not to be able to perform such a journey.

### Verse 14

[¶41] They took - two chariot horses - They had at first intended to send five; probably they found on examination that only two were effective. But if they sent two chariots, each would have two horses, and probably a single horse for crossing the country.

### Verse 15

[¶43] All the way was full of garments and vessels - A manifest proof of the hurry and precipitancy with which they fled.

## 379. 2 Kings · 10 of 30

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### Verse 17

[¶1] And the people trode upon him - This officer being appointed by the king to have the command of the gate, the people rushing out to get spoil, and in to carry it to their houses, he was borne down by the multitude and trodden to death. This also was foreseen by the spirit of prophecy. The literal and exact fulfillment of such predictions must have acquired the prophet a great deal of credit in Israel.

[¶2] Dr. Lightfoot remarks that, between the first and last year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, there are very many occurrences mentioned which are not referred nor fixed to their proper year; and, therefore, they must be calculated in a gross sum, as coming to pass in one of these years. These are the stories contained in chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7, of this book; and in [2Chr 21:6-19]. They may be calculated thus: In the first year of Jehoram, Elisha, returning out of Moab into the land of Israel, multiplies the widow's oil; he is lodged in Shunem, and assures his hostess of a child. The seven years' famine was then begun, and he gives the Shunammite warning of its continuance.

[¶3] The second year she bears her child in the land of the Philistines, [2Kgs 8:2]. And Elisha resides among the disciples of the prophets at Gilgal, heals the poisoned pottage, and feeds one hundred men with twenty barley loaves and some ears of corn. That summer he cures Naaman of his leprosy, the only cure of this kind done till Christ came.

[¶4] The third year he makes iron to swim, prevents the Syrians' ambushments, strikes those with blindness who were sent to seize him, and sends them back to their master.

[¶5] The fourth year Jehoshaphat dies, and Edom rebels and shakes off the yoke laid upon them by David: Libnah also rebels.

[¶6] The fifth year Samaria is besieged by Ben-hadad, the city is most grievously afflicted; and, after being nearly destroyed by famine, it is suddenly relieved by a miraculous interference of God, which had been distinctly foretold by Elisha.

[¶7] The sixth year the Philistines and Arabians oppress Jehoram, king of Judah, and take captive his wives and children, leaving only one son behind.

[¶8] The seventh year Jehoram falls into a grievous sickness, so that his bowels fall out, [2Chr 21:19]. And in the same year the seven years' famine ends about the time of harvest; and at that harvest, the Shunammite's son dies, and is restored to life by Elisha, though the story of his birth and death is related together; and yet some years must have passed between them. Not long after this the Shunammite goes to the king to petition to be restored to her own land, which she had left in the time of the famine, and had sojourned in the land of the Philistines.

[¶9] This year Elisha is at Damascus, Ben-hadad falls sick; Hazael stifles him with a wet cloth, and reigns in his stead. All these things Dr. Lightfoot supposes happened between A.M. 3110 and 3117. - See Lightfoot's Works, vol. i., p. 88. In examining the facts recorded in these books, we shall always find it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to ascertain the exact chronology. The difficulty is increased by a custom common among these annalists, the giving the whole of a story at once, though several incidents took place at the distance of some years from the commencement of the story: as they seem unwilling to have to recur to the same history in the chronological order of its facts.

### Introduction

[¶11] Account of the sojourning of the Shunammite in the land of the Philistines, during the seven years famine, [2Kgs 8:1], [2Kgs 8:2]. She returns, and solicits the king to let her have back her land; which, with its fruits, he orders to be restored to her, [2Kgs 8:3-6]. Elisha comes to Damascus, and finds Ben-hadad sick; who sends his servant Hazael to the prophet to inquire whether he shall recover, [2Kgs 8:7-9]. Elisha predicts his death, tells Hazael that he shall be king, and shows him the atrocities he will commit, [2Kgs 8:10-14]. Hazael returns, stifles his master with a wet cloth, and reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 8:15]. Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, becomes king over Judah; his bad reign, [2Kgs 8:16-19]. Edom and Libnah revolt, [2Kgs 8:20-22]. Jehoram dies, and his son Ahaziah reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 8:23], [2Kgs 8:24]. His bad reign, [2Kgs 8:25-27]. He joins with Joram, son of Ahab, against Hazael; Joram is wounded by the Syrians, and goes to Jezreel to be healed, [2Kgs 8:28], [2Kgs 8:29].

### Verse 1

[¶13] Then spake Elisha - As this is the relation of an event far past, the words should be translated, "But Elisha had spoken unto the woman whose son he had restored unto life; and the woman had arisen, and acted according to the saying of the man of God, and had gone with her family, and had sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years." What is mentioned in these two verses happened several years before the time specified in the third verse. See the observations at the end of the preceding chapter, [2Kgs 7:17] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶15] The king talked with Gehazi - This is supposed to have happened before the cleansing of Naaman, for is it likely that the king would hold conversation with a leprous man; or that, knowing Gehazi had been dismissed with the highest disgrace from the prophet's service, he could hold any conversation with him concerning his late master, relative to whom he could not expect him to give either a true or impartial account?

[¶16] Some think that this conversation might have taken place after Gehazi became leprous; the king having an insatiable curiosity to know the private history of a man who had done such astonishing things: and from whom could he get this information, except from the prophet's own confidential servant? It agrees better with the chronology to consider what is here related as having taken place after the cure of Naaman. As to the circumstance of Gehazi's disease, he might overlook that, and converse with him, keeping at a reasonable distance, as nothing but actual contact could defile.

### Verse 5

[¶18] This is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life - This was a very providential occurrence in behalf of the Shunammite. The relation given by Gehazi was now corroborated by the woman herself; the king was duly affected, and gave immediate orders for the restoration of her land.

### Verse 7

[¶20] Elisha came to Damascus - That he might lead Gehazi to repentance; according to Jarchi and some others.

### Verse 8

[¶22] Take a present in thine hand - But what an immense present was this-forty camels' burden of every good thing of Damascus! The prophet would need to have a very large establishment at Damascus to dispose of so much property.

### Verse 10

[¶24] Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die - That is, God has not determined thy death, nor will it be a necessary consequence of the disease by which thou art now afflicted; but this wicked man will abuse the power and trust thou hast reposed in him, and take away thy life. Even when God has not designed nor appointed the death of a person, he may nevertheless die, though not without the permission of God. This is a farther proof of the doctrine of contingent events: he might live for all his sickness, but thou wilt put an end to his life.

### Verse 11

[¶26] He settled his countenance steadfastly - Of whom does the author speak? Of Hazael, or of Elisha? Several apply this action to the prophet: he had a murderer before him and he saw the bloody acts he was about to commit, and was greatly distressed; but he endeavored to conceal his feelings: at last his face reddened with anguish, his feelings overcame him, and he burst out and wept.

[¶27] The Septuagint, as it stands in the Complutensian and Antwerp Polyglots, makes the text very plain: Και ἑστη Αζαηλ κατα πρωσοπον αυτου, και παρεθηκεν ενωπιον αυτου δωρα, ἑως ῃσχυνετο· και εκλαυσεν ὁ ανθρωπος του Θεου, And Hazael stood before his face, and he presented before him gifts till he was ashamed; and the man of God wept.

[¶28] The Codex Vaticanus, and the Codex Alexandrinus, are nearly as the Hebrew. The Aldine edition agrees in some respects with the Complutensian; but all the versions follow the Hebrew.

### Verse 12

[¶30] I know the evil that thou wilt do - We may see something of the accomplishment of this prediction, [2Kgs 10:32], [2Kgs 10:33]; [2Kgs 13:3], [2Kgs 13:7].

### Verse 13

[¶32] But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great things - I believe this verse to be wrongly interpreted by the general run of commentators. It is generally understood that Hazael was struck with horror at the prediction; that these cruelties were most alien from his mind; that he then felt distressed and offended at the imputation of such evils to him; and yet, so little did he know his own heart, that when he got power, and had opportunity, he did the whole with a willing heart and a ready hand. On the contrary, I think he was delighted at the prospect; and his question rather implies a doubt whether a person so inconsiderable as he is shall ever have it in his power to do such great, not such evil things; for, in his sight, they had no turpitude. The Hebrew text stands thus: כי מה עבדך הכלב כי יעשה הדבר הגדול הזה ki mah abdecha hakkeleb, ki yaaseh haddabar haggadol hazzeh? "But, what! thy servant, this dog! that he should do this great work!" Or, "Can such a poor, worthless fellow, such a dead dog, [ὁ κυων ὁ τεθνηκως, Sept.], perform such mighty actions? thou fillest me with surprise." And that this is the true sense, his immediate murder of his master on his return fully proves. "Our common version of these words of Hazael," as Mr. Patten observes, "has stood in the front of many a fine declamation utterly wide of his real sentiment. His exclamation was not the result of horror; his expression has no tincture of it; but of the unexpected glimpse of a crown! The prophet's answer is plainly calculated to satisfy the astonishment he had excited. A dog bears not, in Scripture, the character of a cruel, but of a despicable animal; nor does he who is shocked with its barbarity call it a Great deed." - David Vindicated.

### Verse 15

[¶34] A thick cloth - The versions, in general, understand this of a hairy or woollen cloth.

[¶35] So that he died - He was smothered, or suffocated.

### Verse 16

[¶37] In the fifth year of Joram - This verse, as it stands in the present Hebrew text, may be thus read: "And in the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, [and of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah], reigned Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah." The three Hebrew words, ויהושפט מלך יהודה, and of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, greatly disturb the chronology in this place. It is certain that Jehoshaphat reigned twenty-five years, and that Jehoram his son reigned but eight; [1Kgs 22:42]; [2Kgs 8:17]; [2Chr 20:31]; [2Chr 21:5]. So that he could not have reigned during his father's life without being king twenty years, and eight years! These words are wanting in three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. in the Complutensian and Aldine editions of the Septuagint, in the Peshito Syriac, in the Parisian Heptapler Syriac, the Arabic, and in many copies of the Vulgate, collated by Dr. Kennicott and De Rossi, both printed and manuscript; to which may be added two MSS. in my own library, one of the fourteenth, the other of the eleventh century, and in what I judge to be the Editio Princeps of the Vulgate. And it is worthy of remark that in this latter work, after the fifteenth verse, ending with Quo mortuo regnavit Azahel pro eo, the following words are in a smaller character, Anno quinto Joram filii Achab regis Israhel, regnavit Joram filius Josaphat rex Juda. Triginta, etc. We have already seen that it is supposed that Jehoshaphat associated his son with him in the kingdom; and that the fifth year in this place only regards Joram king of Israel, and not Jehoshaphat king of Judah. See the notes on [2Kgs 1:17].

### Verse 17

[¶39] He reigned eight years in Jerusalem - Beginning with the fifth year of Joram, king of Israel. He reigned three years with Jehoshaphat his father, and five years alone; i.e., from A.M. 3112 to 3119, according to Archbishop Usher.

### Verse 18

[¶41] The daughter of Ahab was his wife - This was the infamous Athaliah; and through this marriage Jehoshaphat and Ahab were confederates; and this friendship was continued after Ahab's death.

### Verse 19

[¶43] To give him alway a light - To give him a successor in his own family.

### Verse 21

[¶45] Joram went over to Zair - This is the same as Seir, a chief city of Idumea. So [Isa 21:11] : The burden of Dumah (Idumea). He calleth to me out of Seir.

## 380. 2 Kings · 11 of 30

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[¶0] Smote the Edomites - It appears that the Israelites were surrounded by the Idumeans; and that in the night Joram and his men cut their way through them, and so got every man to his tent, for they were not able to make any farther head against these enemies; and therefore it is said, that Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day.

### Verse 23

[¶2] Are they not written in the book of the chronicles - Several remarkable particulars relative to Joram may be found in 2 Chron. 21.

### Verse 26

[¶4] Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign - In [2Chr 22:2], it is said, forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; this is a heavy difficulty, to remove which several expedients have been used. It is most evident that, if we follow the reading in Chronicles, it makes the son two years older than his own father! for his father began to reign when he was thirty-two years old, and reigned eight years, and so died, being forty years old; see [2Kgs 8:17]. Dr. Lightfoot says, "The original meaneth thus: Ahaziah was the son of two and forty years; namely, of the house of Omri, of whose seed he was by the mother's side; and he walked in the ways of that house, and came to ruin at the same time with it. This the text directs us to look after, when it calleth his mother the daughter of Omri, who was indeed the daughter of Ahab. Now, these forty-two years are easily reckoned by any that will count back in the Chronicle to the second of Omri. Such another reckoning there is about Jechoniah, or Jehoiachin, [2Kgs 24:8] : Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign. But, [2Chr 36:9], Jehoiachin was the son of the eight years; that is, the beginning of his reign fell in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar, and of Judah's first captivity." - Works, vol. i., p. 87.

[¶5] After all, here is a most manifest contradiction, that cannot be removed but by having recourse to violent modes of solution. I am satisfied the reading in [2Chr 22:2] (note), is a mistake; and that we should read there, as here, twenty-two instead of forty-two years; see the note there. And may we not say with Calmet, Which is most dangerous, to acknowledge that transcribers have made some mistakes in copying the sacred books, or to acknowledge that there are contradictions in them, and then to have recourse to solutions that can yield no satisfaction to any unprejudiced mind? I add, that no mode of solution yet found out has succeeded in removing the difficulty; and of all the MSS. which have been collated, and they amount to several hundred, not one confirms the reading of twenty-two years. And to it all the ancient versions are equally unfriendly.

### Verse 28

[¶7] The Syrians wounded Joram - Ahaziah went with Joram to endeavor to wrest Ramoth-gilead out of the hands of the Syrians, which belonged to Israel and Judah. Ahab had endeavored to do this before, and was slain there; see [1Kgs 22:3] (note), etc., and the notes there.

### Verse 29

[¶9] Went back to be healed in Jezreel - And there he continued till Jehu conspired against and slew him there. And thus the blood of the innocents, which had been shed by Ahab and his wife Jezebel, was visited on them in the total extinction of their family. See the following chapters, where the bloody tale of Jehu's conspiracy is told at large.

[¶10] I Have already had to remark on the chronological difficulties which occur in the historical books; difficulties for which copyists alone are responsible. To remove them by the plan of reconciliation, is in many cases impracticable; to conjectural criticism we must have recourse. And is there a single ancient author of any kind, but particularly those who have written on matters of history and chronology, whose works have been transmitted to us free of similar errors, owing to the negligence of transcribers?

### Introduction

[¶12] Elisha sends one of the disciples of the prophets to Ramoth-gilead, to anoint Jehu king of Israel, [2Kgs 9:1-3]. He acts according to his orders, and informs Jehu that he is to cut off the whole house of Ahab, [2Kgs 9:4-10]. Jehu's captains proclaim him king, [2Kgs 9:11-14]. He goes again Jezreel; where he finds Joram and Ahaziah king of Judah, who had come to visit him; he slays them both: the former is thrown into the portion of Naboth; the latter, having received a mortal wound, gives to Megiddo, and dies there, and is carried to Jerusalem, and buried in the city of David, [2Kgs 9:15-29]. He commands Jezebel to be thrown out of her window; and he treads her under the feet of his horses; and the dogs eat her, according to the word of the Lord, [2Kgs 9:30-37].

### Verse 1

[¶14] One of the children of the prophets - The Jews say that this was Jonah the prophet, the son of Amittai.

[¶15] Gird up thy loins - What thou hast to do requires the utmost despatch.

### Verse 4

[¶17] The young man the prophet - This should be translated, The servant of the prophet; that is, the servant which Elisha now had in place of Gehazi.

### Verse 6

[¶19] King over the people of the Lord - This pointed out to Jehu that he was to rule that people according to God's law; and consequently, that he was to restore the pure worship of the Most High in Israel.

### Verse 7

[¶21] Thou shalt smite the house of Ahab - For their most cruel murders they have forfeited their own lives, according to that immutable law, "He that sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed." This and the two following verses contain the commission which Jehu received from the Lord against the bloody house of Ahab.

### Verse 10

[¶23] The dogs shall eat Jezebel - How most minutely was this prophecy fulfilled! See [2Kgs 9:33], etc.

### Verse 11

[¶25] Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? - Was it because he was a holy man of God that he was reputed by a club of irreligious officers to be a madman? In vain do such pretend that they fight for religion, and are the guardians of the public welfare and morals, if they persecute religion and scoff at holy men. But this has been an old custom with all the seed, the sons, of the serpent. As to religious soldiers, they are far to seek, and ill to find, according to the old proverb.

[¶26] Ye know the man, and his communication - Ye know that he is a madman, and that his message must be a message of folly. Jehu did not appear willing to tell them what had been done, lest it should promote jealousy and envy.

### Verse 12

[¶28] They said, It is false - Or, as the Chaldee has it, Thou liest. Or, perhaps, it might be thus understood, "We know he has said nothing but folly and lies, nevertheless, let us hear what he has said.

### Verse 13

[¶30] Took every man his garment - This was a ceremony by which they acknowledged him as king; and it was by such a ceremony that the multitudes acknowledged Jesus Christ for the Messiah and King of Israel, a little before his passion: see [Mat 21:7] (note), and the note there. The ceremony was expressive: "As we put our garments under his feet, so we place every thing under his authority, and acknowledge ourselves his servants."

[¶31] On the top of the stairs - The Chaldee, the rabbins, and several interpreters, understand this of the public sun-dial; which in those ancient times, was formed of steps like stairs, each step serving to indicate, by its shadow, one hour, or such division of time as was commonly used in that country. This dial was, no doubt, in the most public place; and upon the top of it, or on the platform on the top, would be a very proper place to set Jehu, while they blew their trumpets, and proclaimed him king. The Hebrew מעלות maaloth is the same word which is used [2Kgs 20:9-11], to signify the dial of Ahaz; and this was probably the very same dial on which that miracle was afterwards wrought: and this dial, מעלות maaloth, from עלה alah, to go up, ascend, was most evidently made of steps; the shadows projected on which, by a gnomon, at the different elevations of the sun, would serve to show the popular divisions of time. See the notes on [2Kgs 20:9] (note), etc.

### Verse 14

[¶33] Joram had kept Ramoth-gilead - The confederate armies appear to have taken this city; but they were obliged to watch their conquests, as they perceived that Hazael was determined to retake it if possible.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Jehu - went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there - From the preceding verse we learn, that Joram had been wounded in his attack on Ramoth-gilead, and had gone to Jezreel to be cured; and neither he nor Ahaziah knew any thing of the conspiracy in Ramoth-gilead, because Jehu and his captains took care to prevent any person from leaving the city; so that the two kings at Jezreel knew nothing of what had taken place.

### Verse 17

[¶37] A watchman on the tower - These watchmen, fixed on elevated places and generally within hearing of each other, served as a kind of telegraphs, to communicate intelligence through the whole country. But, in some cases, it appears that the intelligence was conveyed by a horseman to the next stage, as in the case before us. At this time, when the armies were at Ramoth-gilead, they were, no doubt, doubly watchful to observe the state of the country, and to notice every movement. See on [2Sam 13:34] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶39] What hast thou to do with peace? - "What is it to thee whether there be peace or war? Join my company, and fall into the rear."

### Verse 20

[¶41] He driveth furiously - Jehu was a bold, daring, prompt, and precipitate general. In his various military operations he had established his character; and now it was almost proverbial.

### Verse 21

[¶43] Joram - and Ahaziah - went out - They had no suspicion of what was done at Ramoth-gilead; else they would not have ventured their persons as they now did.

## 381. 2 Kings · 12 of 30

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### Verse 22

[¶1] What peace, so long as the whoredoms - Though the words whoredom, adultery, and fornication, are frequently used to express idolatry, and false religion, in general; yet here they may be safely taken in their common and most obvious sense, as there is much reason to believe that Jezebel was the patroness and supporter of a very impure system of religion; and to this Jehu might refer, rather than to the calf-worship, to which himself was most favourably disposed.

### Verse 23

[¶3] There is treachery, O Ahaziah - This was the first intimation he had of it: he feels for the safety of his friend Ahaziah, and now they fly for their lives.

### Verse 24

[¶5] Drew a bow with his full strength - The marginal reading is correct: He filled his hand with a bow. That is, "He immediately took up his bow, set his arrow, and let fly." This is the only meaning of the passage.

[¶6] Between his arms - That is, between his shoulders; for he was now turned, and was flying from Jehu.

### Verse 25

[¶8] Cast him in the portion of the field - This was predicted, 1 Kings 21; and what now happened to the son of Ahab is foretold in [1Kgs 21:29] of that chapter.

### Verse 26

[¶10] The blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons - We are not informed in 1 Kings 21 that any of Naboth's family was slain but himself: but as the object both of Ahab and Jezebel was to have Naboth's vineyard entirely, and for ever, it is not likely that they would leave any of his posterity, who might at a future time reclaim it as their inheritance. Again, to secure this point, Jezebel had Naboth convicted of treason and atheism; in order that his whole family might be involved in his ruin.

### Verse 27

[¶12] Fled by the way of the garden - The account of the death of Ahaziah, as given in [2Chr 22:8], [2Chr 22:9], is very different from that given here: When Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab - he sought Ahaziah; and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria), and brought him to Jehu; and when they had slain him, they buried him. "The current of the story at large is this," says Dr. Lightfoot: "Jehu slayeth Joram in the field of Jezreel, as Ahaziah and Joram were together; Ahaziah, seeing this, flees, and gets into Samaria, and hides himself there. Jehu marcheth to Jezreel, and makes Jezebel dogs' meat: from thence he sends to Samaria for the heads of Ahab's children and posterity: which are brought him by night, and showed to the people in the morning. Then he marcheth to Samaria, and by the way slayeth forty-two of Ahab's kinsmen; and findeth Jehonadab, the father of the Rechabites. Coming into Samaria, he maketh search for Ahaziah: they find him hid, bring him to Jehu, and he commands to carry him up towards Gur, by Ibleam, and there to slay him. It may be, his father Joram had slain his brethren there, as Ahab had done Naboth, in Jezreel. They do so; smite him there in his chariot; and his charioteer driveth away to Megiddo before he dies. The story in the book of Kings is short: but the book of Chronicles shows the order." Lightfoot's Works, vol. i., p. 88.

### Verse 29

[¶14] In the eleventh year of Joram - The note in our margin contains as good an account of this chronological difficulty as can be reasonably required: Then he began to reign as viceroy to his father in his sickness; [2Chr 21:18], [2Chr 21:19]. But in Joram's twelfth year he began to reign alone; [2Kgs 8:26].

### Verse 30

[¶16] She painted her face, and tired her head - She endeavored to improve the appearance of her complexion by paint, and the general effect of her countenance by a tiara or turban head-dress. Jonathan, the Chaldee Targumist, so often quoted, translates this וכחלת בצדידא עינהא vechachalath bitsdida eynaha: "She stained her eyes with stibium or antimony." This is a custom in Astatic countries to the present day. From a late traveler in Persia, I borrow the following account: - "The Persians differ as much from us in their notions of beauty as they do in those of taste. A large soft, and languishing black eye, with them constitutes the perfection of beauty. It is chiefly on this account that the women use the powder of antimony, which, although it adds to the vivacity of the eye, throws a kind of voluptuous languor over it, which makes it appear, (if I may use the expression), dissolving in bliss. The Persian women have a curious custom of making their eye-brows meet; and if this charm be denied them, they paint the forehead with a kind of preparation made for that purpose." E. S. Waring's Tour to Sheeraz, 4th., 1807, page 62.

[¶17] This casts light enough on Jezebel's painting, etc., and shows sufficiently with what design she did it, to conquer and disarm Jehu, and induce him to take her for wife, as Jarchi supposes. This staining of the eye with stibium and painting was a universal custom, not only in Asiatic countries, but also in all those that bordered on them, or had connections with them. The Prophet Ezekiel mentions the painting of the eyes, [Eze 23:40].

[¶18] That the Romans painted their eyes we have the most positive evidence. Pliny says, Tanta est decoris affectatio, ut tinguantur oculi quoque. Hist. Nat. lib. xi., cap. 37. "Such is their affection of ornament, that they paint their eyes also." That this painting was with stibium or antimony, is plain from these words of St. Cyprian, De Opere et Eleemosynis, Inunge aculos tuos non stibio diaboli, sed collyrio Christi, "Anoint your eyes, not with the devil's antimony, but with the eye-salve of Christ." Juvenal is plain on the same subject. Men as well as women in Rome practiced it: -

[¶19] Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactum

[¶20] Obliqua producit acu pingitque trementes

[¶21] Attollens oculos.

[¶22] Sat. ii., ver. 93. "With sooty moisture one his eye-brows dyes,

[¶23] And with a bodkin paints his trembling eyes."

[¶24] The manner in which the women in Barbary do it Dr. Russel particularly describes: - "Upon the principle of strengthening the sight, as well as an ornament, it is become a general practice among the women to black the middle of their eye-lids by applying a powder called ismed. Their method of doing it is by a cylindrical piece of silver, steel, or ivory, about two inches long, made very smooth, and about the size of a common probe. This they wet with water, in order that the powder may stick to it, and applying the middle part horizontally to the eye, they shut the eye-lids upon it, and so drawing it through between them, it blacks the inside, leaving a narrow black rim all round the edge. This is sometimes practiced by the men, but is then regarded as foppish." Russel's Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, page 102. See Parkhurst, sub voc. פך

### Verse 31

[¶26] Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? - Jarchi paraphrases this place thus: "If thou hast slain thy master, it is no new thing; for Zimri also slew Elah, the son of Baasha;" which words were rather intended to conciliate than to provoke. But the words are understood by most of the versions thus: Health to Zimri, the slayer of his master!

### Verse 33

[¶28] So they threw her down - What a terrible death! She was already, by the fall, almost dashed to pieces; and the brutal Jehu trampled her already mangled body under his horse's feet!

### Verse 34

[¶30] She is a king's daughter - Jezebel was certainly a woman of a very high lineage. She was daughter of the king of Tyre; wife of Ahab, king of Israel; mother of Joram, king of Israel; mother-in-law of Joram, king of Judah; and grandmother of Ahaziah, king of Judah.

### Verse 35

[¶32] The skull - the feet, and the palms of her hands - The dogs did not eat those parts, say Jarchi and Kimchi, because in her festal dances she danced like a dog, on her hands and feet, wantonly moving her head. What other meaning these rabbins had, I do not inquire. She was, no doubt, guilty of the foulest actions, and was almost too bad to be belied.

[¶33] How literally was the prediction delivered in the preceding book, ([1Kgs 21:23], The dogs shall eat Jezebel, by the wall of Jezreel), fulfilled! And how dearly did she and her husband Ahab pay for the murder of innocent Naboth!

### Verse 37

[¶35] And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung - As it was not buried under the earth, but was eaten by the dogs, this saying was also literally fulfilled.

[¶36] They shall not say, This is Jezebel - As she could not be buried, she could have no funeral monument. Though so great a woman by her birth, connections, and alliances, she had not the honor of a tomb! There was not even a solitary stone to say, Here lies Jezebel! not even a mound of earth to designate the place of her sepulture! Judgment is God's strange work; but when he contends, how terrible are his judgments! and when he ariseth to execute judgment, who shall stay his hand? How deep are his counsels, and how terrible are his workings!

### Introduction

[¶38] Jehu sends an ironical letter to the elders of Samaria, telling them to choose one of the best of their master's sons, and put him on the throne; to which they return a submissive answer, [2Kgs 10:1-6]. He writes a second letter, and orders them to send him the heads of Ahab's seventy sons; they do so, and they are laid in two heaps at the gate of Jezreel, [2Kgs 10:7], [2Kgs 10:8]. Jehu shows them to the people, and excuses himself, and states that all is done according to the word of the Lord, [2Kgs 10:9], [2Kgs 10:10]. He destroys all the kindred of Ahab that remained in Jezreel, [2Kgs 10:11]. He also destroys forty-two men, the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, [2Kgs 10:12-14]. He meets with Jehonadab, and takes him with him in his chariot, [2Kgs 10:15], [2Kgs 10:16]. He comes to Samaria, and destroys all that were of the kindred of Ahab there, [2Kgs 10:17]. He pretends a great zeal for the worship of Baal, and gathers all his priests together, under the pretense of a grand sacrifice, and slays them all, [2Kgs 10:18-25]. He burns Baal's images, and makes his temple a draught house, [2Kgs 10:26-28]. But he does not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, and does not prosper, [2Kgs 10:29-31]. Hazael vexes Israel, [2Kgs 10:32], [2Kgs 10:33]. Jehu dies, having reigned over Israel, in Samaria, twenty-eight years, [2Kgs 10:34-36].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Ahab had seventy sons - As he had several wives, he might have many children. The Israelites, from the earliest part of their history, were remarkably fruitful. How amazingly did they multiply in Egypt, even under the hand of the severest oppression! And as to the individuals of whose families we have an account, they are quite remarkable: Rehoboam had thirty-eight sons; Abdon had forty; Tola had thirty; Ahab, seventy; and Gideon, seventy-one.

[¶41] Unto the rulers of Jezreel - It certainly should be, unto the rulers of Samaria; for to them and to that city the whole context shows us the letters were sent. See [2Kgs 10:6].

[¶42] To them that brought up Ahab's children - It appears that the royal children of Israel and Judah were intrusted to the care of the nobles, and were brought up by them, (see [2Kgs 10:6]); and to these, therefore, Jehu's letters are directed. It is supposed Isaiah ([Isa 49:23]) alludes to this custom: Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers.

### Verse 2

[¶44] A fenced city also - All here seems to refer to Samaria alone; in it were the magazines and implements of war, etc. No reader need be told that these letters were all ironical. It was the same as if he had said, "Ye have no means of defense; Israel is with me: if you yield not up yourselves and the city, I will put you all to the sword.

## 382. 2 Kings · 13 of 30

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Two kings stood not before him - That is Joram and Ahaziah.

### Verse 5

[¶3] He that was over the house, etc. - Thus all the constituted authorities agreed to submit.

[¶4] Will do all that thou shalt bid us - They made no conditions, and stood pledged to commit the horrid murders which this most execrable man afterwards commanded.

### Verse 6

[¶6] Come to me to Jezreel - Therefore the letters were not written to Jezreel, but from Jezreel to Samaria.

### Verse 7

[¶8] Put their heads in baskets - What cold-blooded wretches were the whole of these people!

### Verse 8

[¶10] Lay ye them in two heaps - It appears that the heads of these princes had arrived at Jezreel in the night time: Jehu ordered them to be left at the gate of the city, a place of public resort, that all the people might see them, and be struck with terror, and conclude that all resistance to such authority and power would be vain.

### Verse 9

[¶12] Ye be righteous - Another irony, intended partly to excuse himself, and to involve them in the odium of this massacre, and at the same time to justify the conduct of both, by showing that all was done according to the commandment of the Lord.

### Verse 11

[¶14] Jehu slew all - So it appears that the great men who had so obsequiously taken off the heads of Ahab's seventy sons, fell also a sacrifice to the ambition of this incomparably bad man.

### Verse 12

[¶16] The shearing house - Probably the place where the shepherds met for the annual sheep shearing.

### Verse 13

[¶18] The brethren of Ahaziah - The relatives of his family; for it does not appear that he had any brethren, properly so called: but we know that the term brethren among the Jews signified the relatives of the same family, and especially brothers' and sisters' children: and that these were such, see [2Chr 22:8].

[¶19] We go down to salute, etc. - So promptly had Jehu executed all his measures, that even the nearest relatives of the murdered kings had not heard of their death, and consequently had no time to escape. They were all taken as in a net.

### Verse 14

[¶21] The pit of the shearing house - Probably the place where they washed the sheep previously to shearing, or the fleeces after they were shorn off.

### Verse 15

[¶23] Jehonadab the son of Rechab - For particulars concerning this man, his ancestry, and posterity, see the notes on Jeremiah 35 (note).

[¶24] Is thine heart right - With me, in the prosecution of a reform in Israel; as my heart is with thy heart in the true religion of Jehovah, and the destruction of Baal?

[¶25] It is - I wish a reform in the religion of the country; I am his friend who shall endeavor to promote it.

[¶26] Give me thine hand - This has been generally considered as exacting a promise from Jehonadab; but does it mean any more than his taking him by the hand, to help him to step into his chariot, in which Jehu was then sitting? Jehonadab was doubtless a very honorable man in Israel; and by carrying him about with him in his chariot, Jehu endeavored to acquire the public esteem. "Jehu must be acting right, for Jehonadab is with him, and approves his conduct."

### Verse 16

[¶28] Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord - O thou ostentatious and murderous hypocrite! Thou have zeal for Jehovah and his pure religion! Witness thy calves at Dan and Bethel, and the general profligacy of thy conduct. He who can call another to witness his zeal for religion, or his works of charity, has as much of both as serves his own turn.

### Verse 18

[¶30] Ahab served Baal a little - Jehu had determined to have no worship in Israel but that of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel; therefore he purposes to destroy all the worshippers of Baal: and that he may do it without suspicion, he proclaims a great sacrifice; and that he may do it the more easily, he gathers them all together into one place.

### Verse 19

[¶32] Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live - Because, as he will thereby show himself without zeal for the service of his God, he will justly forfeit his life. All this was done in the very spirit of deceit.

### Verse 22

[¶34] He said unto him that was over the vestry - The word vestry comes from vestiarium, and that from vestes, garments, from vestio, I clothe; and signifies properly the place where the sacerdotal robes and pontifical ornaments are kept. The priests of Baal had their robes as well as the priests of the Lord; but the garments were such that one could be easily distinguished from the other.

### Verse 23

[¶36] None of the servants of the Lord - Though he was not attached to that service, yet he would tolerate it; and as he was led to suppose that he was fulfilling the will of Jehovah in what he was doing, he would of course treat his worship and worshippers with the more respect.

[¶37] He might have ordered the search to be made on pretense of expelling any of those whom they would consider the profane, especially as this was "a solemn assembly for Baal," as was the custom with the heathen when any extraordinary exhibition of or for their god was expected; thus Callimachus, (Hymn to Apollo), after imagining the temple and its suburbs to be shaken by the approach of Apollo, cries out, Εκας, ἑκας, ὁστις, αλιτρος. To prevent any suspicion of his real design, such might have been Jehu's plea, else alarm must have been excited, and perhaps some would have escaped.

### Verse 25

[¶39] As soon as he had made an end of offering - Had Jehu been a man of any conscientious principle in religion, he would have finished the tragedy before he offered the burnt-offering; but to a man of no religion, the worship of Jehovah and of Baal are alike. If he prefers either, it is merely as a statesman, for political purposes.

[¶40] To the guard and to the captains - לרצים ולשלשים leratsim uleshalashim; to the couriers or runners, and the shalashim, the men of the third rank, those officers who were next to the nobles, the king and these being only their superiors. The runners were probably a sort of light infantry.

[¶41] The city of the house of Baal - Does not this mean a sort of holy of holies, where the most sacred images of Baal were kept? A place separated from the temple of Baal, as the holy of holies in the temple of Jehovah was separated from what was called the holy place.

### Verse 27

[¶43] Made it a draught house - A place for human excrement; so all the versions understand it. Nothing could be more degrading than this; he made it a public necessary.

### Verse 30

[¶45] Thy children of the fourth generation - These four descendants of Jehu were Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam the second, and Zechariah; see 2 Kings 14 and 15. This was all the compensation Jehu had in either world, as a recompense of his zeal for the Lord.

## 383. 2 Kings · 14 of 30

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### Verse 31

[¶1] Jehu took no heed - He never made it his study; indeed, he never intended to walk in this way; it neither suited his disposition nor his politics.

### Verse 32

[¶3] The Lord began to cut Israel short - The marginal reading is best: The Lord cut off the ends; and this he did by permitting Hazael to seize on the coasts, to conquer and occupy the frontier towns. This was the commencement of those miserable ravages which Elisha predicted; see [2Kgs 8:12]. And we find from the next verse that he seized on all the land of Gilead, and that of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; in a word, whatever Israel possessed on the east side of Jordan.

### Verse 34

[¶5] Are they not written in the book of the chronicles - We have no chronicles in which there is any thing farther spoken of this bad man. His reign was long, twenty-eight years; and yet we know nothing of it but the commencement.

[¶6] For barbarity and hypocrisy Jehu has few parallels; and the cowardliness and baseness of the nobles of Samaria have seldom been equalled. Ahab's bloody house must be cut off; but did God ever design that it should be done by these means? The men were, no doubt, profligate and wicked, and God permitted their iniquity to manifest itself in this way; and thus the purpose of God, that Ahab's house should no more reign, was completely accomplished: see [1Kgs 21:19], [1Kgs 21:21], [1Kgs 21:29]. And by this conduct Jehu is said to have executed what was right in God's eyes, [2Kgs 10:30]. The cutting off of Ahab's family was decreed by the Divine justice; the means by which it was done, or at least the manner of doing, were not entirely of his appointing: yet the commission given him by the young prophet, [2Kgs 9:7], was very extensive. Yet still many things seem to be attributed to God, as the agent, which he does not execute, but only permits to be done.

### Introduction

[¶8] Athaliah destroys all that remain of the seed royal of Judah, [2Kgs 11:1]. Jehosheba hides Joash the son of Ahaziah, and he remains hidden in the house of the Lord six years; and Athaliah reigns over the land, [2Kgs 11:2], [2Kgs 11:3]. Jehoiada, the high priest, calls the nobles privately together into the temple, shows them the kings son, takes an oath of them, arms them, places guards around the temple, and around the young king's person; they anoint and proclaim him, [2Kgs 11:4-12]. Athaliah is alarmed, comes into the temple, is seized, carried forth, and slain, [2Kgs 11:13-16]. Jehoiada causes the people to enter into a covenant with the Lord; they destroy Baal's house, priest, and images, [2Kgs 11:17], [2Kgs 11:18]. Joash is brought to the king's house, reigns, and all the land rejoices, [2Kgs 11:19-21].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Athaliah - This woman was the daughter of Ahab, and grand-daughter of Omri, and wife of Joram king of Judah, and mother of Ahaziah.

[¶11] Destroyed all the seed royal - All that she could lay her hands on whom Jehu had left; in order that she might get undisturbed possession of the kingdom.

[¶12] How dreadful is the lust of reigning! it destroys all the charities of life; and turns fathers, mothers, brothers, and children, into the most ferocious savages! Who, that has it in his power, makes any conscience "To swim to sovereign rule through seas of blood?"

[¶13] In what a dreadful state is that land that is exposed to political revolutions, and where the succession to the throne is not most positively settled by the clearest and most decisive law! Reader, beware of revolutions; there have been some useful ones, but they are in general the heaviest curse of God.

### Verse 2

[¶15] Daughter of - Joram, sister of Ahaziah - It is not likely that Jehosheba was the daughter of Athaliah; she was sister, we find, to Ahaziah the son of Athaliah, but probably by a different mother. The mother of Jehoash was Zibiah of Beer-sheba; see [2Kgs 12:1].

### Verse 3

[¶17] He was - hid in the house of the Lord - This might be readily done, because none had access to the temple but the priests; and the high priest himself was the chief manager of this business.

### Verse 4

[¶19] And the seventh year Jehoiada sent - He had certainly sounded them all, and brought them into the interests of the young king, before this time; the plot having been laid, and now ripe for execution, he brings the chief officers of the army and those of the body guard into the temple, and there binds them by an oath of secrecy, and shows them the king's son, in whose behalf they are to rise.

### Verse 5

[¶21] That enter in on the Sabbath - It appears that Jehoiada chose the Sabbath day to proclaim the young king, because as that was a day of public concourse, the gathering together of the people who were in this secret would not be noticed; and it is likely that they all came unarmed, and were supplied by Jehoiada with the spears and shields which David had laid up in the temple, [2Kgs 11:10].

[¶22] The priests and Levites were divided into twenty-four classes by David, and each served a week by turns in the temple, and it was on the Sabbath that they began the weekly service, all this favored Jehoiada's design.

### Verse 10

[¶24] King David's spears and shields - Josephus expressly says that David had provided an arsenal for the temple, out of which Jehoiada took those arms. His words are; Ανοιξας δε Ιωαδος την εν τῳ ἱερῳ ὁπλοθηκην, ἡν Δαβιδης κατεσκευασε, διεμερισε τοις ἑκατονταρχαις ἁμα και ἱεροισι και Λευιταις ἁπανθ' ὁσα εὑρεν εν αυτῃ δορατα τε και φαρετρας, και ει τι ἑτερον ειδος ὁπλου κατελαβε. "And Jehoiada having opened the arsenal in the temple, which David had prepared, he divided among the centurions, priests, and Levites, the spears, (arrows), and quivers, and all other kinds of weapons which he found there." - Ant. lib. ix., c. 7, s. 8.

### Verse 12

[¶26] Put the crown upon him - This was a diadem or golden band that went round the head.

[¶27] And - the testimony - Probably the book of the law, written on a roll of vellum. This was his scepter. Some think that it was placed upon his head, as well as the diadem. The diadem, the testimony, and the anointing oil, were essential to his consecration.

[¶28] They clapped their hands - This I believe is the first instance on record of clapping the hands as a testimony of joy.

[¶29] God save the king - יחי המלך yechi hannmelech; May the king live! So the words should be translated wherever they occur.

### Verse 14

[¶31] The king stood by a pillar - Stood On a pillar or tribunal; the place or throne on which they were accustomed to put the kings when they proclaimed them.

[¶32] Treason, Treason - קשר קשר kesher, kasher; A conspiracy, A conspiracy! from kashar, to bind, unite together.

### Verse 15

[¶34] Have her forth - She had pressed in among the guards into the temple.

[¶35] And him that followeth - The person who takes her part, let him instantly be slain.

### Verse 16

[¶37] By the way - which the horses came - They probably brought her out near the king's stables. It has been supposed, from [Eze 46:1], [Eze 46:2], that the east gate of the inner court was that by which the king entered on the Sabbath day, whereas on all other days he entered by the south gate.

[¶38] And there was another gate, called the horse gate, in the wall of the city, ([Jer 31:40]), for the king's horses to go out at from the stables at Millo, which is therefore called, [2Chr 23:15], the horse gate toward the king's house.

### Verse 17

[¶40] Jehoiada made a covenant - A general covenant was first made between the Lord, the Supreme King, the king his viceroy, and the people, that they should all be the Lord's people; each being equally bound to live according to the Divine law.

[¶41] Then, secondly, a particular covenant was made between the king and the people, by which the king was bound to rule according to the laws and constitution of the kingdom, and to watch and live for the safety of the public. And the people were bound on their part, to love, honor, succor, and obey the king. Where these mutual and just agreements are made and maintained, there can be nothing else than prosperity in the Church and the state.

### Verse 18

[¶43] His altars and images brake they in pieces - It is probable that Athaliah had set up the worship of Baal in Judah, as Jezebel had done in Israel; or probably it had never been removed since the days of Solomon. It was no wonder that Jehoiada began his reform with this act, when we learn from [2Chr 24:7], that the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim.

## 384. 2 Kings · 15 of 30

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### Verse 20

[¶1] The people - rejoiced - They were glad to get rid of the tyranny of Athaliah.

[¶2] And the city was in quiet - She had no partisans to rise up and disturb the king's reign.

### Verse 21

[¶4] Seven years old was Jehoash - The first instance on record of making a child seven years old the king of any nation, and especially of such a nation as the Jews, who were at all times very difficult to be governed.

### Introduction

[¶6] Jehoash reigns well under the instructions of Jehoiada the priest, [2Kgs 12:1-3]. He directs the repairing of the temple; the account of what was done, [2Kgs 12:4-16]. Hazael takes Gath; and, proceeding to besiege Jerusalem, is prevented by Jehoash, who gives him all the treasures and hallowed things of the house of the Lord, [2Kgs 12:17], [2Kgs 12:18]. The servants of Jehoash conspire against and slay him, [2Kgs 12:19-21].

### Verse 2

[¶8] Jehoash did - right in the sight of the Lord - While Jehoiada the priest, who was a pious, holy man, lived, Jehoash walked uprightly; but it appears from [2Chr 24:17], [2Chr 24:18], that he departed from the worship of the true God after the death of this eminent high priest, lapsed into idolatry, and seems to have had a share in the murder of Zechariah, who testified against his transgressions, and those of the princes of Judah. See above, [2Kgs 11:20-21] (note).

[¶9] O how few of the few who begin to live to God continue unto the end!

### Verse 3

[¶11] The high places were not taken away - Without the total destruction of these there could be no radical reform. The toleration of any species of idolatry in the land, whatever else was done in behalf of true religion, left, and in effect fostered, a seed which springing up, regenerated in time the whole infernal system. Jehoiada did not use his influence as he might have done; for as he had the king's heart and hand with him, he might have done what he pleased.

### Verse 4

[¶13] All the money of the dedicated things - From all this account we find that the temple was in a very ruinous state; the walls were falling down, some had perhaps actually fallen, and there was no person so zealous for the pure worship of God, as to exert himself to shore up the falling temple!

[¶14] The king himself seems to have been the first who noticed these dilapidations, and took measures for the necessary repairs. The repairs were made from the following sources:

[¶15] 1. The things which pious persons had dedicated to the service of God.

[¶16] 2. The free-will offerings of strangers who had visited Jerusalem: the money of every one that passeth.

[¶17] 3. The half-shekel which the males were obliged to pay from the age of twenty years ([Exo 30:12]) for the redemption of their souls, that is their lives, which is here called the money that every man is set at.

[¶18] All these sources had ever been in some measure open, but instead of repairing the dilapidations in the Lord's house, the priests and Levites had converted the income to their own use.

### Verse 6

[¶20] In the three and twentieth year - In what year Jehoash gave the orders for these repairs, we cannot tell; but the account here plainly intimates that they had been long given, and that nothing was done, merely through the inactivity and negligence of the priests; see [2Chr 24:6].

[¶21] It seems that the people had brought money in abundance, and the pious Jehoiada was over the priests, and yet nothing was done! Though Jehoiada was a good man, he does not appear to have had much of the spirit of an active zeal; and simple piety, without zeal and activity, is of little use when a reformation in religion and manners is necessary to be brought about. Philip Melancthon was orthodox, pious, and learned, but he was a man of comparative inactivity. In many respects Martin Luther was by far his inferior, but in zeal and activity he was a flaming and consuming fire; and by him, under God, was the mighty Reformation, from the corruptions of popery, effected. Ten thousand Jehoiadas and Melancthons might have wished it in vain; Luther worked, and God worked by him, in him, and for him.

### Verse 9

[¶23] Jehoiada - took a chest - This chest was at first set beside the altar, as is here mentioned; but afterwards, for the convenience of the people, it was set without the gate; see [2Chr 24:8].

### Verse 10

[¶25] The king's scribe and the high priest - It was necessary to associate with the high priest some civil authority and activity, in order to get the neglected work performed.

### Verse 13

[¶27] Howbeit there were not made - bowls, etc. - That is, there were no vessels made for the service of the temple till all the outward repairs were completed; but after this was done, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels of gold and silver; [2Chr 24:14].

### Verse 15

[¶29] They reckoned not with the men - They placed great confidence in them, and were not disappointed, for they dealt faithfully.

### Verse 17

[¶31] Hazael - fought against Gath, and took it - This city, with its satrapy or lordship, had been taken from the Philistines by David, (see [2Sam 8:1], and [1Chr 18:1]); and it had continued in the possession of the kings of Judah till this time. On what pretense Hazael seized it, we cannot tell; he had the ultima ratio regum, power to do it, and he wanted more territory.

### Verse 18

[¶33] Took all the hallowed things - He dearly bought a peace which was of short duration, for the next year Hazael returned, and Jehoash, having no more treasures, was obliged to hazard a battle, which he lost, with the principal part of his nobility, so that Judah was totally ruined, and Jehoash shortly after slain in his bed by his own servants; [2Chr 24:23].

### Verse 19

[¶35] The rest of the acts of Joash - We have already seen that this man, so promising in the beginning of his reign, apostatized, became an idolater, encouraged idolatry among his subjects, and put the high priest Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada his benefactor, to death; and now God visited that blood upon him by the hands of the tyrannous king of Syria, and by his own servants.

### Verse 20

[¶37] The house of Millo - Was a royal palace, built by David; (see [2Sam 5:9]); and Silla is supposed to be the name of the road or causeway that led to it. Millo was situated between the old city of Jerusalem, and the city of David.

### Verse 21

[¶39] For Jozachar - This person is called Zabad in [2Chr 24:26]; and Shimeath his mother is said to be an Ammonitess, as Jehozabad is said to be the son, not of Shomer, but of Shimrith, a Moabitess.

[¶40] They buried him with his fathers in the city of David - But they did not bury him in the sepulchres of the kings; this is supposed to express the popular disapprobation of his conduct. Thus ended a reign full of promise and hope in the beginning, but profligate, cruel, and ruinous in the end. Never was the hand of God's justice more signally stretched out against an apostate king and faithless people, than at this time. Now Hazael had a plenary commission; the king, the nobles, and the people, were food for his sword, and by a handful of Syrians the mighty armies of Israel were overthrown: For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God, [2Chr 24:24]. Thus, as righteousness exalteth a nation, so sin is the disgrace and confusion of any people. Sin destroys both counsel and strength; and the wicked flee when none pursue.

### Introduction

[¶42] Jehoahaz reigns in Israel seventeen years; his various acts, and wars with the Syrians, [2Kgs 13:1-8]. He dies, and Joash reigns in his stead, and does evil in the sight of the Lord, [2Kgs 13:9-13]. Elisha's last sickness; he foretells a three-fold defeat of the Syrians, and dies, [2Kgs 13:14-20]. A dead man raised to life by touching the bones of Elisha, [2Kgs 13:21]. Hazael dies, having long oppressed Israel; but Jehoash recovers many cities out of the hands of Ben-hadad, his successor, and defeats him three times, [2Kgs 13:22-25].

### Verse 1

[¶44] In the three and twentieth year of Joash - The chronology here is thus accounted for; Jehoahaz began his reign at the commencement of the twenty-third year of Joash, and reigned seventeen years, fourteen alone, and three years with his son Joash; the fourteenth year was but just begun.

## 385. 2 Kings · 16 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/385/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/385/#p-N

### Verse 5

[¶1] And the Lord gave Israel a savior - This was undoubtedly Joash, whose successful wars against the Syrians are mentioned at the conclusion of the chapter. Houbigant recommends to read the seventh verse after the fourth, then the fifth and sixth, and next the eighth, etc.

### Verse 6

[¶3] The grove also in Samaria - Asherah, or Astarte, remained in Samaria, and there was she worshipped, with all her abominable rites.

### Verse 10

[¶5] In the thirty and seventh year - Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, was associated with his father in the government two years before his death. It is this association that is spoken of here. He succeeded him two years after, a little before the death of Elisha. Joash reigned sixteen years, which include the years he governed conjointly with his father. - Calmet.

### Verse 12

[¶7] Wherewith he fought against Amaziah - This war with Amaziah may be seen in ample detail 2 Chron. 25; it ended in the total defeat of Amaziah, who was taken prisoner by Joash, and afterwards slain in a conspiracy at Lachish. Joash took Jerusalem, broke down four hundred cubits of the wall, and took all the royal treasures, and the treasures of the house of God. See [2Chr 25:20-27].

### Verse 14

[¶9] Now Elisha was fallen sick - This is supposed to have taken place in the tenth year of Joash; and if so, Elisha must have prophesied about sixty-five years.

[¶10] O my father, my father - "What shall I do now thou art dying? thou art the only defense of Israel." He accosts him with the same words which himself spoke to Elijah when he was translated; see [2Kgs 2:12] (note), and the note there.

### Verse 15

[¶12] Take bow and arrows - The bow, the arrows, and the smiting on the ground, were all emblematical things, indicative of the deliverance of Israel from Syria.

### Verse 17

[¶14] Open the window eastward - This was towards the country beyond Jordan, which Hazael had taken from the Israelites.

[¶15] The arrow of - deliverance from Syria - That is, As surely as that arrow is shot towards the lands conquered from Israel by the Syrians, so surely shall those lands be reconquered and restored to Israel.

[¶16] It was an ancient custom to shoot an arrow or cast a spear into the country which an army intended to invade. Justin says that, as soon as Alexander the Great had arrived on the coasts of Iona, he threw a dart into the country of the Persians. "Cum delati in continentem essent, primus Alexander jaculum velut in hostilem terram jacit." - Just. lib. ii.

[¶17] The dart, spear, or arrow thrown, was an emblem of the commencement of hostilities. Virgil (Aen. lib. ix., ver. 51) represents Turnus as giving the signal of attack by throwing a spear: -

[¶18] Ecquis erit mecum, O Juvenes, qui primus in hostem?

[¶19] En, ait: et jaculum intorquens emittit in auras,

[¶20] Principium pugnae; et campo sese arduus infert. "Who, first," he cried, "with me the foe will dare?"

[¶21] Then hurled a dart, the signal of the war.

[¶22] Pitt.

[¶23] Servius, in his note upon this place, shows that it was a custom to proclaim war in this stay: the pater patratus, or chief of the Feciales, a sort of heralds, went to the confines of the enemy's country, and, after some solemnities, said with a loud voice, I wage war with you, for such and such reasons; and then threw in a spear. It was then the business of the parties thus defied or warned to take the subject into consideration; and if they did not, within thirty days, come to some accommodation, the war was begun.

[¶24] Thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek - This was a city of Syria, and probably the place of the first battle; and there, it appears, they had a total overthrow. They were, in the language of the text, consumed or exterminated.

### Verse 18

[¶26] Smite upon the ground - As he was ordered to take his arrows, the smiting on the ground must mean shooting arrows into it.

[¶27] He smote thrice, and stayed - The prophet knew that this shooting was emblematical: probably the king was not aware of what depended on the frequency of the action; and perhaps it was of the Lord that he smote only thrice, as he had determined to give Israel those three victories only over the Syrians. Elisha's being wroth because there were only three instead of five or six shots does not prove that God was wroth, or that he had intended to give the Syrians five or six overthrows.

### Verse 20

[¶29] And Elisha died - The two prophets, Elijah and Elisha, were both most extraordinary men. Of the former, it is difficult to say whether he was a man, or an angel in a human body. The arguments for this latter opinion are strong, the objections against it very feeble. His being fed by an angel is no proof that he was not an angel incarnate, for God manifest in the flesh was fed by the same ministry. Of him the following from Ecclesiasticus (chap. 48:1-11) is a nervous character: -

[¶30] 1. Then stood up Elias the prophet as fire, and his word burned like a lamp.

[¶31] 2. He brought a sore famine upon them, and by his zeal he diminished their number.

[¶32] 3. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven, and also three times brought down fire.

[¶33] 4. O Elias, how wast thou honored in thy wondrous deeds! and who may glory like unto thee!

[¶34] 5. Who didst raise up a dead man from death, and his soul from the place of the dead, by the word of the Most High:

[¶35] 6. Who broughtest kings to destruction, and honorable men from their bed:

[¶36] 7. Who heardest the rebuke of the Lord in Sinai, and in Horeb the judgment of vengeance:

[¶37] 8. Who anointedst kings to take revenge, and prophets to succeed after him:

[¶38] 9. Who wast taken up in a whirlwind of fire, and in a chariot of fiery horses:

[¶39] 10. Who wast ordained for reproofs in their times to pacify the wrath of the Lord's judgment, before it brake forth into fury; and to turn the heart of the father unto the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob.

[¶40] 11. Blessed are they that saw thee, and slept in love; for we shall surely live.

[¶41] Elisha was not less eminent than Elijah; the history of his ministry is more detailed than that of his master, and his miracles are various and stupendous. In many things there is a striking likeness between him and our blessed Lord, and especially in the very beneficent miracles which he wrought. Of him the same author gives this character, Ecclus. 48:12-14: Elisha was filled with his spirit: whilst he lived he was not moved with the presence of any prince; neither could any bring him into subjection. Nothing could overcome him; and after his death his body prophesied, i.e., raised a dead man to life, as we learn from the following verse. He did wonders in his life, and at his death there his works marvellous; perhaps referring to his last acts with Joash.

[¶42] The bands of the Moabites - Marauding parties; such as those mentioned [2Kgs 5:2].

### Verse 21

[¶44] They spied a band - They saw one of these marauding parties; and through fear could not wait to bury their dead, but threw the body into the grave of Elisha, which chanced then to be open; and as soon as it touched the bones of the prophet, the man was restored to life. This shows that the prophet did not perform his miracles by any powers of his own, but by the power of God; and he chose to honor his servant, by making even his bones the instrument of another miracle after his death. This is the first, and I believe the last, account of a true miracle performed by the bones of a dead man; and yet on it and such like the whole system of miraculous working relics has been founded by the popish Church.

## 386. 2 Kings · 17 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/386/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/386/#p-N

### Verse 23

[¶1] And the Lord was gracious unto them - ויחן vaiyachon, he had tender affection for them, as a husband has for his wife, or a father for his own children.

[¶2] And had compassion on them - וירחמם vairachamem, his bowels yearned over them; he felt for them, he sympathized with them in all their distress: Therefore are my bowels troubled; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord, [Jer 31:20].

[¶3] And had respect unto them - ויפן vaiyiphen, he turned face towards them, he received them again into favor; and this because of his covenant with their fathers: they must not be totally destroyed; the Messiah must come from them, and through them must come that light which is to enlighten the Gentiles, and therefore he would not make an entire end of them.

[¶4] Neither cast he them from his presence as yet - But now they are cast out from his presence; they have sinned against the only remedy for their souls. They sit in darkness and the shadow of death; the veil is upon their face; but if they yet turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.

### Verse 25

[¶6] Three times did Joash beat him - The particulars of these battles we have not; but these three victories were according to the prediction of Elisha, [2Kgs 13:19]. That these victories were very decisive we learn from their fruits, for Joash took from the Syrians the cities which Hazael had taken from Israel: viz., Gilead, the possessions of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and the country of Bashan; see [2Kgs 10:33].

[¶7] Thus God accomplished his word of judgment, and his word of mercy. The Syrians found themselves to be but men, and the Israelites found they could do nothing without God. In the dispensations of his justice and mercy, God has ever in view, not only the comfort, support, and salvation of his followers, but also the conviction and salvation of his enemies; and by his judgments many of these have been awakened out of their sleep, turned to God, learned righteousness, and finally become as eminent for their obedience, as they were before for their rebellion.

### Introduction

[¶9] Amaziah begins to reign well; his victory over the Edomites, [2Kgs 14:1-7]. He challenges Jehoash, king of Israel, [2Kgs 14:8]. Jehoash's parable of the thistle and the cedar, [2Kgs 14:9], [2Kgs 14:10]. The two armies meet at Beth-shemesh; and the men of Judah are defeated, [2Kgs 14:11], [2Kgs 14:12]. Jehoash takes Jerusalem, breaks down four hundred cubits of the wall; takes the treasures of the king's house, and of the temple; and takes hostages, and returns to Samaria, [2Kgs 14:13], [2Kgs 14:14]. The death and burial of both these kings, [2Kgs 14:15-20]. Azariah, the son of Amaziah, made king; he builds Elath, vv. 21, 22. Jeroboam the second is made king over Israel: his wicked reign and death, vv. 23-29.

### Verse 1

[¶11] In the second year of Joash - This second year should be understood as referring to the time when his father Jehoahaz associated him with himself in the kingdom: for he reigned two years with his father; so this second year of Joash is the first of his absolute and independent government. - See Calmet.

### Verse 5

[¶13] As soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hand - No doubt those wicked men, Jozachar and Jehozabad, who murdered his father, had considerable power and influence; and therefore he found it dangerous to bring them to justice, till he was assured of the loyalty of his other officers: when this was clear, he called them to account, and put them to death.

### Verse 6

[¶15] But the children of the murderers he slew not - Here he showed his conscientious regard for the law of Moses; for God had positively said, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin, [Deu 24:16].

### Verse 7

[¶17] He slew of Edom to the valley of salt - This war is more circumstantially related in [2Chr 25:5], etc. The Idumeans had arisen in the reign of Joram king of Judah, and shaken off the yoke of the house of David. Amaziah determined to reduce them to obedience; he therefore levied an army of three hundred thousand men in his own kingdom, and hired a hundred thousand Israelites, at the price of one hundred talents. When he was about to depart at the head of this numerous army, a prophet came to him and ordered him to dismiss the Israelitish army, for God was not with them: and on the king of Judah expressing regret for the loss of his hundred talents, he was answered, that the Lord could give him much more than that. He obeyed, sent back the Israelites, and at the head of his own men attacked the Edomites in the valley of salt, slew ten thousand on the spot, and took ten thousand prisoners, all of whom he precipitated from the rock, or Selah, which was afterwards called Joktheel, a place or city supposed to be the same with Petra, which gave name to Arabia Petraea, where there must have been a great precipice, from which the place took its name of Selah or Petra.

### Verse 8

[¶19] Come, let us look one another in the face - This was a real declaration of war; and the ground of it is most evident from this circumstance: that the one hundred thousand men of Israel that had been dismissed, though they had the stipulated money, taking the advantage of Amaziah's absence, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-horon, and smote three thousand men, and took much spoil, [2Chr 25:10-13]. Amaziah no doubt remonstrated with Jehoash, but to no purpose; and therefore he declared war against him.

### Verse 9

[¶21] Jehoash - sent to Amaziah - saying - The meaning of this parable is plain. The thistle that was in Lebanon - Amaziah, king of Judah, sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon - Jehoash, king of Israel, saying, Give thy daughter - a part of thy kingdom, to my son to wife - to be united to, and possessed by the kings of Judah. And there passed by a wild beast - Jehoash and his enraged army, and trode down the thistle - utterly discomfited Amaziah and his troops, pillaged the temple, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem: see [2Kgs 14:12-14]. Probably Amaziah had required certain cities of Israel to be given up to Judah; if so, this accounts for that part of the parable, Give thy daughter to my son to wife.

### Verse 10

[¶23] Glory of this, and tarry at home - There is a vast deal of insolent dignity in this remonstrance of Jehoash: but it has nothing conciliatory; no proposal of making amends for the injury his army had done to the unoffending inhabitants of Judah. The ravages committed by the army of Jehoash were totally unprovoked, and they were base and cowardly; they fell upon women, old men, and children, and butchered them in cold blood, for all the effective men were gone off with their king against the Edomites. The quarrel of Amaziah was certainly just, yet he was put to the rout; he did meddle to his hurt; he fell, and Judah fell with him, as Jehoash had said: but why was this? Why it came of God; for he had brought the gods of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burnt incense to them; therefore God delivered them into the hands of their enemies, because they sought after the gods of Edom, [2Chr 25:14], [2Chr 25:20]. This was the reason why the Israelites triumphed.

### Verse 13

[¶25] Took Amaziah king of Judah - It is plain that Amaziah afterwards had his liberty; but how or on what terms he got it, is not known. See on [2Kgs 14:14] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶27] And he took - hostages - התערבות hattaaruboth, pledges; from ערב arab, to pledge, give security, etc., for the performance of some promise. See the meaning of this word interpreted in the note on [Gen 38:17] (note). It is likely that Amaziah gave some of the nobles or some of his own family as hostages, that he might regain his liberty; and they were to get their liberty when he had fulfilled his engagements; but of what kind these were we cannot tell, nor, indeed, how he got his liberty.

### Verse 15

[¶29] How he fought with Amaziah - The only fighting between them was the battle already mentioned; and this is minutely related in [2Chr 25:21-24].

### Verse 19

[¶31] They made a conspiracy against him - His defeat by Jehoash, and the consequent pillaging of the temple, and emptying the royal exchequer, and the dismantling of Jerusalem, had made him exceedingly unpopular; so that probably the whole of the last fifteen years of his life were a series of troubles and distresses.

### Verse 21

[¶33] Took Azariah - He is also called Uzziah, [2Chr 26:1]. The former signifies, The help of the Lord; the latter, The strength of the Lord.

### Verse 22

[¶35] He built Elath - This city belonged to the Edomites; and was situated on the eastern branch of the Red Sea, thence called the Elanitic Gulf. It had probably suffered much in the late war; and was now rebuilt by Uzziah, and brought entirely under the dominion of Judah.

### Verse 25

[¶37] He restored the coast of Israel - From the description that is here given, it appears that Jeroboam reconquered all the territory that had been taken from the kings of Israel; so that Jeroboam the second left the kingdom as ample as it was when the ten tribes separated under Jeroboam the first.

### Verse 26

[¶39] The Lord saw the affliction of Israel - It appears that about this time Israel had been greatly reduced; and great calamities had fallen upon all indiscriminately; even the diseased and captives in the dungeon had the hand of God heavy upon them, and there was no helper; and then God sent Jonah to encourage them, and to assure them of better days. He was the first of the prophets, after Samuel, whose writings are preserved; yet the prophecy delivered on this occasion is not extant; for what is now in the prophecies of Jonah, relates wholly to Nineveh.

### Verse 28

[¶41] How he warred, and - recovered Damascus - We learn from [1Chr 18:3-11], that David had conquered all Syria, and put garrisons in Damascus and other places, and laid all the Syrians under tribute; but this yoke they had not only shaken off, but they had conquered a considerable portion of the Israelitish territory, and added it to Syria. These latter Jeroboam now recovered; and thus the places which anciently belonged to Judah by David's conquests, and were repossessed by Syria, he now conquered, and added to Israel.

### Verse 29

[¶43] Jeroboam slept with his fathers - He died a natural death; and was regularly succeeded by his son Zachariah, who, reigning badly, was, after six months, slain by Shallum, who succeeded him, and reigned but one month, being slain by Menahem, who succeeded him, and reigned ten years over Israel. Amos the prophet lived in the reign of Jeroboam; and was accused by Amaziah, one of the idolatrous priests of Beth-el, of having predicted the death of Jeroboam by the sword, but this was a slander: what he did predict, and which came afterwards to pass, may be seen [Amo 7:10-17]. The interregnum referred to in the margin cannot be accounted for in a satisfactory manner.

### Introduction

[¶45] Azariah begins to reign over Judah, and acts well, but does not remove the high places, [2Kgs 15:1-4]. He becomes leprous, and dies, after having reigned fifty-two years; and Jotham, his son, reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 15:5-7]. Zachariah reigns over Israel, and acts wickedly; and Shallum conspires against him and slays him, after he had reigned six months, [2Kgs 15:8-12]. Shallum reigns one month, and is slain by Menahem, [2Kgs 15:13-15]. Menahem's wicked and oppressive reign; he subsidizes the king of Assyria, and dies, after having reigned ten years, [2Kgs 15:16-22]. Pekahiah, his son, reigns in his stead; does wickedly; Pekah, one of his captains, conspires against and kills him, after he had reigned two years, [2Kgs 15:23-26]. Pekah reigns in his stead, and acts wickedly, [2Kgs 15:27-28]. Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, carries into captivity the inhabitants of many cities, [2Kgs 15:29]. Hoshea conspires against and slays Pekah, after he had reigned twenty years; and reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 15:30], [2Kgs 15:31]. Jotham beans to reign over Judah; he reigns well; dies after a reign of sixteen years, and is succeeded by his son Ahaz, [2Kgs 15:32-38].

## 387. 2 Kings · 18 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/387/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/387/#p-N

### Verse 1

[¶1] In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam - Dr. Kennicott complains loudly here, because of "the corruption in the name of this king of Judah, who is expressed by four different names in this chapter: Ozriah, Oziah, Ozrihu, and Ozihu. Our oldest Hebrew MS. relieves us here by reading truly, in [2Kgs 15:1], [2Kgs 15:6], [2Kgs 15:7], עזיהו Uzziah, where the printed text is differently corrupted. This reading is called true,

[¶2] 1. Because it is supported by the Syriac and Arabic versions in these three verses.

[¶3] 2. Because the printed text itself has it so in [2Kgs 15:32], [2Kgs 15:34] of this very chapter.

[¶4] 3. Because it is so expressed in the parallel place in Chronicles; and,

[¶5] 4. Because it is not Αζαριας, Azariah, but Οζιας, Oziah, (Uzziah), in St. Matthew's genealogy."

[¶6] There are insuperable difficulties in the chronology of this place. The marginal note says, "This is the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam's partnership in the kingdom with his father, who made him consort at his going to the Syrian wars. It is the sixteenth year of Jeroboam's monarchy." Dr. Lightfoot endeavors to reconcile this place with [2Kgs 14:16], [2Kgs 14:17], thus: "At the death of Amaziah, his son and heir Uzziah was but four years old, for he was about sixteen in Jeroboam's twenty-seventh year; therefore, the throne must have been empty eleven years, and the government administered by protectors while Uzziah was in his minority." Learned men are not agreed concerning the mode of reconciling these differences; there is probably some mistake in the numbers. I must say to all the contending chronologers: -

[¶7] Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites.

[¶8] When such men disagree, I can't decide.

### Verse 3

[¶10] He did that which was right - It is said, [2Chr 26:5], that he sought the Lord in the days of Zechariah the prophet, and God made him to prosper; that he fought against the Philistines; broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod; prevailed over the Arabians and Mehunims; and that the Ammonites paid him tribute; and his dominion extended abroad, even to the entering in of Egypt; that he built towers in Jerusalem, at the corner gate, valley gate, and turning of the wall; and built towers also in the desert, and digged many wells; that he had a very strong and well-regulated military force, which he provided with a well-stocked arsenal; and constructed many military engines to shoot arrows and project great stones; and that his fame was universally spread abroad.

### Verse 5

[¶12] The Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper - The reason of this plague is well told in the above quoted chapter, [2Chr 26:16].

[¶13] That his heart being elated, he went into the temple to burn incense upon the altar, assuming to himself the functions of the high priest; that Azariah the priest, with fourscore others, went in after him, to prevent him; and that while they were remonstrating against his conduct, the Lord struck him with the leprosy, which immediately appeared on his forehead; that they thrust him out as an unclean person; and that he himself hurried to get out, feeling that the Lord had smitten him; that he was obliged to dwell in a house by himself, being leprous, to the day of his death; and that during this time the affairs of the kingdom were administered by his son Jotham. A poet, ridiculing the conduct of those who, without an episcopal ordination, think they have authority from God to dispense all the ordinances of the Church, expresses himself thus: -

[¶14] But now the warm enthusiast cries,

[¶15] The office to myself I take;

[¶16] Offering the Christian sacrifice,

[¶17] Myself a lawful priest I make:

[¶18] To me this honor appertains,

[¶19] No need of man when God ordains. [Some go into the contrary extreme, and in effect say, no need of God when Man ordains.]

[¶20] Though kings may not so far presume, 'Tis no presumption in a clown,

[¶21] And, lo, without a call from Rome,

[¶22] My flail or hammer I lay down;

[¶23] And if my order's name ye seek,

[¶24] Come, see a new Melchisedek!

[¶25] Ye upstart (men-made) priests, your sentence know,

[¶26] The marks you can no longer hide;

[¶27] Your daring deeds too plainly show

[¶28] The loathsome leprosy of pride;

[¶29] And if ye still your crime deny,

[¶30] Who lepers live shall lepers die.

[¶31] Charles Wesley.

[¶32] This is very severe, but applies to every man who, through pride, presumption, or the desire of gain, enters into the priest's office, though he have the utmost authority that the highest ecclesiastical officer can confer.

### Verse 10

[¶34] Smote him before the people - In some public assembly: he probably became very unpopular.

### Verse 12

[¶36] This was the word of the Lord - unto Jehu - God had promised to Jehu that his sons should sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation; and so it came to pass, for Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam, and Zachariah, succeeded Jehu, to whom this promise was made. But because he executed the Divine purpose with an uncommanded cruelty, therefore God cut his family short, according to his word by Hosea, I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu; and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel, [Hos 1:4].

### Verse 13

[¶38] He reigned a full month - Menahem is supposed to have been one of Zachariah's generals. Hearing of the death of his master, when he was with the troops at Tirzah, he hastened to Samaria, and slew the murderer, and had himself proclaimed in his stead. But, as the people of Tiphsah did not open their gates to him, he took the place by assault; and as the text tells us, practiced the most cruel barbarities, even ripping up the women that were with child!

### Verse 19

[¶40] Pul, the king of Assyria - This is the first time we hear of Assyria since the days of Nimrod, its founder, [Gen 10:11].

[¶41] Dean Prideaux supposes that this Pul was father of the famous Sardanapalus, the son himself being called Sardan; to which, as was frequent in those times, the father's name, Pul, was added, making Sardanpul of which the Greeks and Latins made Sardanapalus; and this Pul is supposed to be the same that reigned in Nineveh when Jonah preached the terrors of the Lord to that city.

[¶42] That his hand - That is, his power and influence, might be with him: in this sense is the word hand frequently used in Scripture.

### Verse 20

[¶44] Each man fifty shekels of silver - Upwards of five pounds sterling a man.

## 388. 2 Kings · 19 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/388/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/388/#p-N

### Verse 21

[¶1] Are they not written in - the chronicles - There are no chronicles extant, in which there is any thing farther relative to this king.

### Verse 25

[¶3] Smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh - Who Argob and Arieh were we know not; some make them men, some make them statues. Pekah had fifty Gileadites in the conspiracy with him.

### Verse 29

[¶5] Came Tiglath-pileser - He is supposed to have been the successor of Sardanapalus: Dean Prideaux makes him the same with Arbaces, called by Aelian Thilgamus, and by Usher Ninus junior; who, together with Belesis, headed the conspiracy against Sardanapalus, and fixed his seat at Nineveh, the ancient residence of the Assyrian kings; as did Belesis, who is called, in [Isa 39:1], Baladan, fix his at Babylon.

[¶6] Took Ijon - These places belonged to Israel; and were taken by Ben-hadad, king of Syria, when he was in league with Asa, king of Judah. See [1Kgs 15:20]. They were regained by Jeroboam the second; and now they are taken from Israel once more by Tiglath-pileser. From [1Chr 5:26], we learn that Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria, carried away into captivity the two tribes of Reuben, and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; all that belonged to Israel, on the other side of Jordan. These were never restored to Israel.

### Verse 30

[¶8] Hoshea the son of Elah - in the twentieth year of Jotham - There are many difficulties in the chronology of this place. To reconcile the whole, Calmet says: "Hoshea conspired against Pekah, the twentieth year of the reign of this prince, which was the eighteenth after the beginning of the reign of Jotham, king of Judah. Two years after this, that is, the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jotham, Hoshea made himself master of a part of the kingdom, according to [2Kgs 15:30]. Finally, the twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea had peaceable possession of the whole kingdom, according to [2Kgs 17:1]."

### Verse 36

[¶10] Now the rest of the acts of Jotham - These acts are distinctly stated in [2Chr 27:1-9]. He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and he built much on the wall of Ophel. He built cities in the mountains of Judah; and in the forests he built castles and towers. He overthrew the Ammonites; and obliged them to give him one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley, for three consecutive years. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years. These are the particulars which we learn from the place in Chronicles quoted above; few of which are mentioned in this place. As to the higher gate of the house of the Lord, commentators are not well agreed: some think it was a gate which he then made, and which did not exist before, and is the same that is called the new gate, [Jer 26:10], which is very likely.

### Verse 37

[¶12] In those days the Lord began to send - It was about this time that the Assyrian wars, so ruinous to the Jews, began; but it was in the following reigns that they arrived at their highest pitch of disaster to those unfaithful and unfortunate people. However much we may blame the Jews for their disobedience and obstinacy, yet we cannot help feeling for them under their severe afflictions. Grievously they have sinned, and grievously have they suffered for it. And if they be still objects of God's judgments, there is revelation to believe that they will yet be objects of God's goodness. Many think the signs of the times are favorable to this ingathering; but there is no evidence among the people themselves that the day of their redemption is at hand. They do not humble themselves; they do not seek the Lord.

### Introduction

[¶14] Ahaz begins to reign, acts wickedly, and restores idolatry in Judea, [2Kgs 16:1-4]. Rezin, king of Syria, besieges Jerusalem, but cannot take it; he takes Elath, and drives the Jews thence, [2Kgs 16:5], [2Kgs 16:6]. Ahaz hires Tiglath-pileser against the king of Syria and the king of Israel, and gives him the silver and gold that were found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, [2Kgs 16:7], [2Kgs 16:8]. Tiglath-pileser takes Damascus and slays Rezin, [2Kgs 16:9]. Ahaz goes to meet him at Damascus: sees an altar there, a pattern of which he sends to Urijah, the priest; and orders him to make one like it, which he does, [2Kgs 16:10-15]. He makes several alterations in the temple; dies; and Hezekiah his son reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 16:16-20].

### Verse 2

[¶16] Twenty years old was Ahaz - Here is another considerable difficulty in the chronology. Ahaz was but twenty years old when he began to reign, and he died after he had reigned sixteen years; consequently his whole age amounted only to thirty-six years. But Hezekiah his son was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and if this were so, then Ahaz must have been the father of Hezekiah when he was but eleven years of age! Some think that the twenty years mentioned here respect the beginning of the reign of Jotham, father of Ahaz; so that the passage should be thus translated: Ahaz was twenty years of age when his father began to reign; and consequently he was fifty-two years old when he died, seeing Jotham reigned sixteen years: and therefore Hezekiah was born when his father was twenty-seven years of age. This however is a violent solution, and worthy of little credit. It is better to return to the text as it stands, and allow that Ahaz might be only eleven or twelve years old when he had Hezekiah: this is not at all impossible; as we know that the youth of both sexes in the eastern countries are marriageable at ten or twelve years of age, and are frequently betrothed when they are but nine. I know a woman, an East Indian, who had the second of her two first children when she was only fourteen years of age, and must have had the first when between eleven and twelve. I hold it therefore quite a possible case that Ahaz might have had a son born to him when he was but eleven or twelve years old.

### Verse 3

[¶18] Made his son to pass through the fire - On this passage I beg leave to refer the reader to my notes on [Lev 18:21]; [Lev 20:2], [Lev 20:14], where the subject is considered at large.

### Verse 5

[¶20] But could not overcome him - It is likely that this was the time when Isaiah was sent to console Ahaz; (see [Isa 7:1]); and predicted the death both of Rezin and Pekah, his enemies.

### Verse 6

[¶22] Recovered Elath to Syria - See the note on [2Kgs 14:22].

### Verse 7

[¶24] I am thy servant and thy son - I will obey thee in all, and become tributary to thee; only help me against Syria and Israel.

### Verse 9

[¶26] The king of Assyria hearkened unto him - It is said, [2Chr 28:20], that Tilgath-pilneser distressed him, but strengthened him not.

[¶27] Though he came against the Syrians, and took Damascus, and slew Rezin, yet he did not help Ahaz against the Philistines, nor did he lend him any forces to assist against Israel; and he distressed him by taking the royal treasures, and the treasures of the temple, and did him little service for so great a sacrifice. He helped him a little, but distressed him on the whole.

[¶28] It appears that, about this time, Pekah king of Israel nearly ruined Judea: it is said, [2Chr 28:6], that he slew one hundred thousand valiant men in one day; and that he carried away captive to Samaria two hundred thousand women and children, and much spoil; but, at the instance of the prophet Oded, these were all sent back, fed and clothed, [2Chr 28:8-16].

### Verse 10

[¶30] Ahaz went to Damascus - He had received so much help on the defeat of Rezin, that he went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria, and render him thanks.

[¶31] Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar - This was some idolatrous altar, the shape and workmanship of which pleased Ahaz so well that he determined to have one like it at Jerusalem. For this he had no Divine authority, and the compliance of Urijah was both mean and sinful. That Ahaz did this for an idolatrous purpose, is evident from [2Chr 28:21-25] : "For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus; - and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me. And he made high places to burn incense to other gods in every city of Judah."

### Verse 14

[¶33] Put it on the north side - He seems to have intended to conform every thing in the Lord's house as much as possible to the idolatrous temples which he saw at Damascus, and to model the Divine worship in the same way: in a word to honor and worship the gods of Syria, and not the God of heaven. All the alterations specified here were in contempt of the true God. Thus he provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers, [2Chr 28:25].

### Verse 18

[¶35] And the covert for the Sabbath - There are a great number of conjectures concerning this covert, or, as it is in the Hebrew, the מוסך musach, of the Sabbath. As the word, and others derived from the same root, signify covering or booths, it is very likely that this means either a sort of canopy which was erected on the Sabbath days for the accommodation of the people who came to worship, and which Ahaz took away to discourage them from that worship; or a canopy under which the king and his family reposed themselves, and which he transported to some other place to accommodate the king of Assyria when he visited him. Jarchi supposes that it was a sort of covert way that the kings of Judah had to the temple, and Ahaz had it removed lest the king of Assyria, going by that way, and seeing the sacred vessels, should covet them. If that way had been open, he might have gone by it into the temple, and have seen the sacred vessels, and so have asked them from a man who was in no condition to refuse them, however unwilling he might be to give them up. The removing of this, whatever it was, whether throne or canopy, or covered way, cut off the communication between the king's house and the temple; and the king of Assyria would not attempt to go into that sacred place by that other passage to which the priests alone had access.

### Verse 20

[¶37] Was buried with his fathers in the city of David - But it is expressly declared, [2Chr 28:27], that he was not buried in the sepulchres of the kings of Israel; and this was undoubtedly intended as a mark of degradation.

[¶38] His reign was disastrous and impious; and it was disastrous because it was impious. He had been a scourge, not a blessing, to his people. He had not only made illegal alterations in the temple, and in the mode of worship prescribed by the true God, but he had polluted all the cities of Judah with idolatry, and brought ruin upon the nation. On the whole, a worse king than himself had not as yet sat on the Jewish throne; and yet he had many advantages: he had for counsellor one of the greatest men ever produced in the Jewish nation, Isaiah the prophet; and God condescended to interpose especially for him when grievously straitened by the kings of Israel and Syria, both of whom were cut off according to the prediction of this prophet. But he would not lay it to heart, and therefore the wrath of God fell heavily upon him, and upon the stiff-necked and rebellious people whom he governed. He had sufficient warning and was without excuse. He would sin, and therefore he must suffer.

### Introduction

[¶40] Hoshea's wicked reign, [2Kgs 17:1], [2Kgs 17:2]. Shalmaneser comes up against him, makes him tributary, and then casts him into prison, [2Kgs 17:3], [2Kgs 17:4]. He besieges Samaria three years; and at last takes it, and carries Israel captive into Assyria, and places them in different cities of the Assyrians and Medes, [2Kgs 17:5], [2Kgs 17:6]. The reason why Israel was thus afflicted; their idolatry, obstinacy, divination, etc., [2Kgs 17:7-18]. Judah copies the misconduct of Israel, [2Kgs 17:19]. The Lord rejects all the seed of Israel, [2Kgs 17:20-23]. The king of Assyria brings different nations and places them in Samaria, and the cities from which the Israelites had been led away into captivity, [2Kgs 17:24]. Many of these strange people are destroyed by lions, [2Kgs 17:25]. The king of Assyria sends back some of the Israelitish priests to teach these nations the worship of Jehovah; which worship they incorporate with their own idolatry, [2Kgs 17:26-33]. The state of the Israelites, and strange nations in the land of Israel, [2Kgs 17:34-41].

### Verse 3

[¶42] Shalmaneser - This was the son and successor of Tiglath-pileser. He is called Shalman by Hosea, [Hos 10:14], and Enemessar, in the book of Tobit, 1:2.

[¶43] Gave him presents - Became tributary to him.

## 389. 2 Kings · 20 of 30

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Found conspiracy to Hoshea - He had endeavored to shake off the Assyrian yoke, by entering into a treaty with So, King of Egypt; and having done so, he ceased to send the annual tribute to Assyria.

### Verse 5

[¶3] Besieged it three years - It must have been well fortified, well provisioned, and well defended, to have held out so long.

### Verse 6

[¶5] Took Samaria - According to the prophets Hosea, [Hos 13:16], and Micah, [Mic 1:6]. He exercised great cruelties on this miserable city, ripping up the women with child, dashing young children against the stones, etc. etc.

[¶6] Carried Israel away into Assyria - What were the places to which the unfortunate Israelites were carried, or where their successors are now situated, have given rise to innumerable conjectures, dissertations, discourses, etc. Some maintain that they are found on the coast of Guinea; others, in America; the Indian tribes being the descendants of those carried away by the Assyrians. In vol. i. of the Supplement to Sir Wm. Jones's works, we find a translation of the History of the Afghans, by Mr. H. Vansittart; from which it appears that they derive their own descent from the Jews. On this history Sir Wm. Jones writes the following note: - "This account of the Afghans may lead to a very interesting discovery. We learn from Esdras, that the ten tribes, after a wandering journey, came to a country called Arsaret, where we may suppose they settled. Now the Afghans are said by the best Persian historians to be descended from the Jews; they have traditions among themselves of such a descent, and it is even asserted that their families are distinguished by the names of Jewish tribes; although, since their conversion to the Islam, they studiously conceal their origin. The Pushtoo, of which I have seen a dictionary, has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic; and a considerable district under their dominion is called Hazarek or Hazaret, which might easily have been changed into the word used by Esdras. I strongly recommend an inquiry into the literature and history of the Afghans."

[¶7] Every thing considered, I think it by far the most probable that the Afghans are the descendants of the Jews, who were led away captives by the Assyrian kings.

[¶8] Thus ended the kingdom of Israel, after it had lasted two hundred and fifty-four years, from the death of Solomon and the schism of Jeroboam, till the taking of Samaria by Shalmaneser, in the ninth year of Hoshea; after which the remains of the ten tribes were carried away beyond the river Euphrates.

[¶9] The rest of this chapter is spent in vindicating the Divine providence and justice; showing the reason why God permitted such a desolation to fall on a people who had been so long his peculiar children.

### Verse 9

[¶11] Did secretly those things - There was much hidden iniquity and private idolatry among them, as well as public and notorious crimes.

[¶12] From the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city - That is, the idolatry was universal; every place was made a place for some idolatrous rite or act of worship; from the largest city to the smallest village, and from the public watchtower to the shepherd's cot.

### Verse 10

[¶14] Images and groves - Images of different idols, and places for the abominable rites of Ashtaroth or Venus.

### Verse 13

[¶16] Yet the Lord testified against Israel - What rendered their conduct the more inexcusable was, that the Lord had preserved among them a succession of prophets, who testified against their conduct, and preached repentance to them, and the readiness of God to forgive, provided they would return unto him, and give up their idolatries.

### Verse 17

[¶18] Sold themselves to do evil - Abandoned themselves to the will of the devil, to work all iniquity with greediness.

### Verse 18

[¶20] Removed them out of his sight - Banished them from the promised land, from the temple, and from every ordinance of righteousness, as wholly unworthy of any kind of good.

[¶21] None left but the tribe of Judah only - Under this name all those of Benjamin and Levi, and the Israelites, who abandoned their idolatries and joined with Judah, are comprised. It was the ten tribes that were carried away by the Assyrians.

### Verse 24

[¶23] The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon - He removed one people entirely, and substituted others in their place; and this he did to cut off all occasion for mutiny or insurrection; for the people being removed from their own land, had no object worthy of attention to contend for, and no patrimony in the land of their captivity to induce them to hazard any opposition to their oppressors.

[¶24] By men from Babylon, we may understand some cities of Babylonia then under the Assyrian empire; for at this time Babylon had a king of its own; but some parts of what was called Babylonia might have been still under the Assyrian government.

[¶25] From Cuthah - This is supposed to be the same as Cush, the Chaldeans and Syrians changing ש shin into ת tau; thus they make כוש Cush into כות Cuth; and אשור Ashshur, Assyria, into אתור Attur. From these came the Scythae; and from these the Samaritans were called Cuthaeans, and their language Cuthite. The original language of this people, or at least the language they spoke after their settlement in Israel, is contained in the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, printed under the Hebraeo-Samaritan in vol. i. of the London Polyglot. This Cuthah was probably the country in the land of Shinar, first inhabited by Cush.

[¶26] From Ava - The Avim were an ancient people, expelled by the Caphtorim from Hazerim, [Deu 2:23].

[¶27] From Hamath - This was Hemath or Emath of Syria, frequently mentioned in the sacred writings.

[¶28] From Sepharvaim - There was a city called Syphera, near the Euphrates; others think the Saspires, a people situated between the Colchians and the Medes, are meant. There is much uncertainty relative to these places: all that we know is, that the Assyrians carried away the Israelites into Assyria, and placed them in cities and districts called Halah and Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, [2Kgs 17:6]; and it is very likely that they brought some of the inhabitants of those places into the cities of Israel.

### Verse 25

[¶30] The Lord sent lions among them - The land being deprived of its inhabitants, wild beasts would necessarily increase, even without any supernatural intervention; and this the superstitious new comers supposed to be a plague sent upon them, because they did not know how to worship him who was the God of the land; for they thought, like other heathens that every district had its own tutelary deity. Yet it is likely that God did send lions as a scourge on this bad people.

### Verse 26

[¶32] The manner of the God of the land - משפט mishpat, the judgment; the way in which the God of the land is to be worshipped.

### Verse 27

[¶34] Carry thither one of the priests - Imperfect as this teaching was, it, in the end, overthrew the idolatry of these people, so that soon after the Babylonish captivity they were found to be as free from idolatry as the Jews themselves, and continue so to the present day. But they are now nearly annihilated: the small remains of them is found at Naplouse and Jaffa; they are about thirty families; and men, women, and children, amount to about two hundred persons! They have a synagogue, which they regularly attend every Sabbath; and they go thither clothed in white robes. The reader may find much curious information relative to this people, in a Memoire sur L'Etat actuel des Samaritains, by Baron Sylvestre de Sacy, 8vo., Paris, 1812.

### Verse 29

[¶36] Every nation made gods of their own - That is, they made gods after the fashion of those which they had worshipped in their own country.

### Verse 30

[¶38] The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth - This, literally, signifies the tabernacles of the daughters or young women, and most evidently refers to those public prostitutions of young virgins at the temple of Melitta or Venus among the Babylonians. See at the end of the chapter, [2Kgs 17:41] (note). From benoth it is probable that the word Venus came, the B being changed into V, as is frequently the case, and the th into s, benoth, Venos. The rabbins say that her emblem was a hen with her chickens; see Jarchi on the place.

[¶39] The men of Cuth made Nergal - This is supposed to have been the solar orb or light. According to the rabbins, his emblem was a cock. See at the end of the chapter, [2Kgs 17:41] (note).

[¶40] The men of Hamath made Ashima - Perhaps the fire; from אשם asham, to make atonement or to purify. Jarchi says this was in the form of a goat. See below on [2Kgs 17:41] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶42] The Avites made Nibhaz - This was supposed to be the same as the Anubis of the Egyptians; and was in form partly of a dog, and partly of a man. A very ancient image of this kind now lies before me: it is cut out of stone, about seven inches high; has the body, legs, and arms, of a man; the head and feet of a dog; the thighs and legs covered with scales; the head crowned with a tiara; the arms crossed upon the breasts, with the fingers clenched. The figure stands upright, and the belly is very protuberant. See below.

[¶43] And Tartak - This is supposed by some to be another name of the same idol; Jarchi says it was in the shape of an ass. Some think these were the representations of the sun in his chariot; Nibhaz representing the solar orb, and Tartak the chariot. See below.

[¶44] Adrammelech - From אדר adar, glorious, and מלך melech, king. Probably the sun.

[¶45] Anammelech - From anah, to return, and מלך melech, king. Probably, the Moloch of the Ammonites. Jarchi says, the first was in the form of a mule, the second in the form of a horse; this was probably the moon.

## 390. 2 Kings · 21 of 30

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### Verse 32

[¶1] Of the lowest of them priests - One priest was not enough for this motley population; and, as the priesthood was probably neither respectable nor lucrative, it was only the lowest of the people who would enter into the employment.

### Verse 33

[¶3] They feared the Lord, and served their own gods - They did not relinquish their own idolatry but incorporated the worship of the true God with that of their idols. They were afraid of Jehovah, who had sent lions among them; and therefore they offered him a sort of worship that he might not thus afflict them: but they served other gods, devoted themselves affectionately to them, because their worship was such as gratified their grossest passions, and most sinful propensities.

### Verse 36

[¶5] But the Lord - Jehovah, the supreme, self-existent, and eternal Being; author of all being and life. This was to be the sole object of their adoration.

[¶6] Who brought you up - This was a strong reason why they should adore Him only: he had saved them from the hands of their enemies, and he did it in such a way as to show his power to be irresistible; in such a Being they might safely confide.

[¶7] Him shall ye fear - Here is the manner in which he is to be worshipped. Him ye shall reverence as your Lawgiver and Judge; ye shall respect and keep all his commandments; doing what he has enjoined, and avoiding what he has forbidden.

[¶8] Him shall ye worship - Before Him ye shall bow the knee; living in the spirit of obedience, and performing every religious act in the deepest humility.

[¶9] And to him shall ye do sacrifice - Ye shall consider that, as ye have sinned, so ye deserve death; ye shall therefore bring your living victims to the altar of the Lord, and let their life's blood be poured out there, as an atonement for your souls. We see in this verse three important points:

[¶10] 1. The object of their worship.

[¶11] 2. The reasons of that worship; and,

[¶12] 3. The spirit and manner in which it was to be performed: viz.,

[¶13] 1. In fear,

[¶14] 2. Humility; and,

[¶15] 3. By sacrifice.

### Verse 41

[¶17] So do they unto this day - This must have been written before the Babylonish captivity; because, after that time, none of the Israelites ever lapsed into idolatry. But this may chiefly refer to the heathenish people who were sent to dwell among the remains of the ten tribes.

[¶18] On these nations and the objects of their worship, I present my readers with the following extracts from Dodd and Parkhurst. [2Kgs 17:30]. The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth. We have here an account of the idols which were consecrated by the different nations, transplanted by the king of Assyria to Samaria. It is difficult, however, and has afforded a large field for conjecture, to give any satisfactory account concerning them. The reader will find in Selden, Vossius, and Jurieu, much upon the subject. Succoth-benoth may be literally translated, The Tabernacles of the Daughters, or Young Women; or if Benoth be taken as the name of a female idol, from בנה to build up, procreate children, then the words will express the tabernacles sacred to the productive powers feminine. And, agreeably to this latter exposition, the rabbins say that the emblem was a hen and chickens. But however this may be, there is no room to doubt that these succoth were tabernacles wherein young women exposed themselves to prostitution in honor of the Babylonish goddess Melitta. Herodotus, (lib. i., c. 199), gives us a particular account of this detestable service. "Every young woman," says he, "of the country of Babylon must once in her life sit at the temple of Venus, [whom he afterwards tells us the Assyrians called Melitta], and prostitute herself to some stranger. Those who are rich, and so disdain to mingle with the crowd, present themselves before the temple in covered chariots, attended by a great retinue. But the generality of the women sit near the temple, having crowns upon their heads, and holding a cord, some continually coming, others going. [See Baruch 6:43]. The cords are held by them in such a manner as to afford a free passage among the women, that the strangers may choose whom they like. A woman who has once seated herself in this place must not return home till some stranger has cast money into her lap, and led her from the temple, and defiled her. The stranger who throws the money must say, 'I invoke the goddess Melitta for thee.' The money, however small a sum it may be, must not be refused, because it is appointed to sacred uses. [See [Deu 23:18]]. The woman must follow the first man that offers, and not reject him; and after prostitution, having now duly honored the goddess, she is dismissed to her own house. In Cyprus," adds the historian, "they have the same custom." This abomination, implied by Succoth-benoth, the men of Babylon brought with them into the country of Samaria; and both the name of the idol Melitta, and the execrable service performed to her honor, show that by Melitta was originally intended the procreative or productive power of nature, the Venus of the Greeks and Romans. See the beginning of Lucretius's first book De Rerum Natura. Mr. Selden imagines that some traces of the Succoth-benoth may be found in Sicca Veneria, the name of a city of Numidia, not far from the borders of Africa Propria. The name itself bears a near allusion to the obscene custom above taken notice of, and seems to have been transported from Phoenicia: nor can this well be disputed, when we consider that here was a temple where women were obliged to purchase their marriage-money by the prostitution of their bodies. See Univ. Hist., vol. xvii., p. 295, and Parkhurst's Lexicon on the word סך.

[¶19] The men of Cuth made Nergal. - Cuth was a province of Assyria, which, according to some, lies upon the Araxis: but others rather think it to be the same with Cush, which is said by Moses to be encompassed with the river Gihon; and must, therefore, be the same with the country which the Greeks call Susiana, and which to this day is called by the inhabitants Chusesta. Their idol, Nergal, seems to have been the sun, as the causer of the diurnal and annual revolutions of the planets; for it is naturally derived from נר ner, light, and by גל gal, to revolve. The rabbins say that the idol was represented in the shape of a cock; and probably they tell us the truth, for this seems a very proper emblem. Among the latter heathens we find the cock was sacred to Apollo or the sun, (see Pierii Hieroglyph., p. 223), "because," says Heliodorus, speaking of the time when cocks crow, "by a natural sensation of the sun's revolution to us, they are incited to salute the god." Aethiop. lib. i. And perhaps under this name, Nergal, they meant to worship the sun, not only for the diurnal return of its light upon the earth, but also for its annual return or revolution. We may observe that the emblem, a cock, is affected by the latter as well as by the former, and is frequently crowing both day and night, when the days begin to lengthen. See Calmet's Dictionary under the word, and Parkhurst's Lexicon.

[¶20] The men of Hamath made Ashima. - There are several cities and countries which go under the name of Hamath; but what we take to be here meant is that province of Syria which lies upon the Orontes, wherein there was a city of the same name; which when Shalmaneser had taken, he removed the inhabitants from thence into Samaria. Their idol Ashima signifies the atoner or expiator, from אשם asham. The word is in a Chaldee form, and seems to be the same as אשמת שמרון ashmath Shomeron, the sin of Samaria, mentioned [Amo 8:14], where ashmath is rendered by the Lxx. propitiation. It is known to every one who has the least acquaintance with the mythology of the heathen, how strongly and universally they retained the tradition of an atonement or expiation for sin, although they expected it from a false object and wrong means. We find it expressed in very clear terms among the Romans even so late as the time of Horace, lib. i., ode 2: -

[¶21] Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi Jupiter?

[¶22] And whom, to expiate the horrid guilt, Will Jove appoint?

[¶23] The answer is, "Apollo," the god of light. Some think that, as Asuman or Suman, asman, in the Persian language, signifies heaven, the Syrians might from hence derive the name of this god; who, they suppose, was represented by a large stone pillar terminating in a conic or pyramidical figure, whereby they denoted fire. See Parkhurst on the word אשם asham, Calmet's Dictionary, and Tennison on Idolatry. [2Kgs 17:31]. The Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak. - It is uncertain who these Avites were. The most probable opinion seems to be that which Grotius has suggested by observing that there are a people in Bactriana, mentioned by Ptolemy, under the name of Avidia, who possibly might be those transported at this time into Palestine by Shalmaneser. Nibhaz, according to the rabbins, had the shape of a dog, much like the Anubis of the Egyptians. In Pierius's Hieroglyphics, p. 53, is the figure of a cunocephalus, a kind of ape, with a head like a dog, standing upon his hinder feet, and looking earnestly at the moon. Pierius there teaches us that the cunocephalus was an animal eminently sacred amongst the Egyptians, hieroglyphical of the moon, and kept in their temples to inform them of the moon's conjunction with the sun, at which time this animal is strangely affected, being deprived of sight, refusing food, and lying sick on the ground; but on the moon's appearance seeming to return thanks, and congratulate the return of light both to himself and her. See Johnston's Nat. Hist. de Quadruped., p. 100. This being observed, the נבחז nibchaz, (which may well be derived from נבח nabach, to bark, and חזה chazah, to see), gives us reason to conclude that this idol was in the shape of a cunocephalus, or a dog looking, barking, or howling at the moon. It is obvious to common observation that dogs in general have this property; and an idol of the form just mentioned seems to have been originally designed to represent the power or influence of the moon on all sublunary bodies, with which the cunocephaluses and dogs are so eminently affected. So, as we have observed upon Nergal, the influence of the returning solar light was represented by a cock; and the generative power of the heavens by Dagon, a fishy idol. See Parkhurst on נבחז who is of opinion that Tartak תרתק is compounded of תר tar, to turn, go round, and רתק rathak, to chain, tether; and plainly denotes the heavens, considered as confining the planets in their respective orbits, as if they were tethered. The Jews have a tradition that the emblem of this idol was an ass; which, considering the propriety of that animal when tethered to represent this idol, is not improbable; and from this idolatrous worship of the Samaritans, joined perhaps with some confused account of the cherubim, seems to have sprung that stupid story by the heathens, that the Jews had an ass's head in their holy of holies, to which they paid religious worship. See Bochart, vol. ii., p. 221. Jurieu is of opinion that as the word Nibhaz, both in the Hebrew and Chaldee, with a small variation, denotes quick, swift, rapid; and tartak, in the same languages, signifies a chariot, these two idols may both together denominate the sun mounted on his car, as the fictions of the poets and the notions of the mythologists were wont to represent that luminary.

[¶24] The Sepharvites burned their children - to Adrammelech and Anammelech. - As these Sepharvites probably came from the cities of the Medes, whither the Israelites were carried captive, and as Herodotus tells us that between Colchis and Media are found a people called Saspires, in all likelihood they were the same with those here named Sepharvites. Moloch, Milcom, and Melech, in the language of different nations, all signify a king, and imply the sun, which was called the king of heaven; and consequently the addition of אדר adar, which signifies powerful, illustrious, to the one, and of ענה anah, which implies to return, to answer, to the other, means no more than the mighty or the oracular Moloch. And as the children were offered to him, it appears that he was the same with the Moloch of the Ammonites. See Univ. Hist. and Calmet. Mr. Locke is also of opinion that these two names were expressive of one and the same deity. What they were, or in what form, and how worshipped, we have not light from antiquity to determine.

### Introduction

[¶26] Hezekiah begins to reign; he removes the high places, breaks to pieces the brazen serpent, and walks uprightly before God, [2Kgs 18:1-6]. He endeavors to shake off the Assyrian yoke, and defeats the Philistines, [2Kgs 18:7], [2Kgs 18:8]. Shalmaneser comes up against Samaria, takes it, and carries the people away into captivity, [2Kgs 18:9-12]. And then comes against Judah, and takes all the fenced cities, [2Kgs 18:13]. Hezekiah sends a message to him at Lachish to desist, with the promise that he will pay him any tribute he chooses to impose; in consequence of which Shalmaneser exacts three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold; to pay which Hezekiah is obliged to take all his own treasures, and those belonging to the temple, [2Kgs 18:14-16]. The king of Assyria sends, notwithstanding, a great host against Jerusalem; and his general, Rab-shakeh, delivers an insulting and blasphemous message to Hezekiah, vv. 17-35. Hezekiah and his people are greatly afflicted at the words of Rab-shakeh, [2Kgs 18:36], [2Kgs 18:37].

### Verse 1

[¶28] Now - in the third year of Hoshea - See the note on [2Kgs 16:1] (note), where this chronology is considered.

### Verse 3

[¶30] He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord - In chap. 29 of the second book of Chronicles, we have an account of what this pious king did to restore the worship of God. He caused the priests and Levites to cleanse the holy house, which had been shut up by his father Ahaz, and had been polluted with filth of various kinds; and this cleansing required no less than sixteen days to accomplish it. As the passover, according to the law, must be celebrated the fourteenth of the first month, and the Levites could not get the temple cleansed before the sixteenth day, he published the passover for the fourteenth of the second month, and sent through all Judah and Israel to collect all the men that feared God, that the passover might be celebrated in a proper manner. The concourse was great, and the feast was celebrated with great magnificence. When the people returned to their respective cities and villages, they began to throw down the idol altars, statues, images, and groves, and even to abolish the high places; the consequence was that a spirit of piety began to revive in the land, and a general reformation took place.

### Verse 4

[¶32] Brake in pieces the brazen serpent - The history of this may be seen in [Num 21:8] (note), [Num 21:9] (note).

[¶33] We find that this brazen serpent had become an object of idolatry, and no doubt was supposed to possess, as a telesm or amulet, extraordinary virtues, and that incense was burnt before it which should have been burnt before the true God.

[¶34] And he called it Nehushtan - נהשתן. Not one of the versions has attempted to translate this word. Jarchi says, "He called it Nechustan, through contempt, which is as much as to say, a brazen serpent." Some have supposed that the word is compounded of נחש nachash, to divine, and תן tan, a serpent, so it signifies the divining serpent; and the Targum states that it was the people, not Hezekiah, that gave it this name. נחש nachash signifies to view, eye attentively, observe, to search, inquire accurately, etc.; and hence is used to express divination, augury. As a noun it signifies brass or copper, filth, verdigris, and some sea animal, [Amo 9:3]; see also [Job 26:13], and [Isa 26:1]. It is also frequently used for a serpent; and most probably for an animal of the genus Simia, in [Gen 3:1] (note), where see the notes. This has been contested by some, ridiculed by a few, and believed by many. The objectors, because it signifies a serpent sometimes, suppose it must have the same signification always! And one to express his contempt and show his sense, has said, "Did Moses hang up an ape on a pole?" I answer, No, no more than he hanged up you, who ask the contemptible question. But this is of a piece with the conduct of the people of Milan, who show you to this day the brazen serpent which Moses hung up in the wilderness, and which Hezekiah broke in pieces two thousand five hundred years ago!

[¶35] Of serpents there is a great variety. Allowing that נחש nachash signifies a serpent, I may ask in my turn, What kind of a serpent was it that tempted Eve? Of what species was that which Moses hung up on the pole, and which Hezekiah broke to pieces? Who of the wise men can answer these questions? Till this is done I assert, that the word, [Gen 3:1], etc., does not signify a serpent of any kind; and that with a creature of the genus Simia the whole account best agrees.

### Verse 5

[¶37] He trusted in the Lord - See the character of this good king:

[¶38] 1. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel;

[¶39] 2. He clave to the Lord;

[¶40] 3. He was steady in his religion; he departed not from following the Lord;

[¶41] 4. He kept God's commandments. And what were the consequences?

[¶42] 1. The Lord was with him;

[¶43] 2. He prospered whithersoever he went.

## 391. 2 Kings · 22 of 30

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### Verse 8

[¶1] From the tower of the watchmen - See the same words, [2Kgs 17:9] (note). It seems a proverbial mode of expression: he reduced every kind of fortification; nothing was able to stand before him.

### Verse 9

[¶3] In the fourth year - This history has been already given, [2Kgs 17:3], etc.

### Verse 17

[¶5] The king of Assyria sent Tartan, etc. - Calmet has very justly remarked that these are not the names of persons, but of offices. Tartan, תרתן tartan or tantan, as in the parallel place in Isaiah, in the Greek version, signifies he who presides over the gifts or tribute; chancellor of the exchequer.

[¶6] Rabsaris - רב סריס, the chief of the eunuchs. Rab-shakeh, רב שקה master or chief over the wine cellar; or he who had the care of the king's drink.

[¶7] From Lachish - It seems as if the Assyrian troops had been worsted before Lachish, and were obliged to raise the siege, from which they went and sat down before Libnah. While Sennacherib was there with the Assyrian army, he heard that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had invaded the Assyrian territories. Being obliged therefore to hasten, in order to succor his own dominions, he sent a considerable force under the aforementioned officers against Jerusalem, with a most fearful and bloody manifesto, commanding Hezekiah to pay him tribute, to deliver up his kingdom to him, and to submit, he and his people, to be carried away captives into Assyria! This manifesto was accompanied with the vilest insults, and the highest blasphemies. God interposed and the evils threatened against others fell upon himself.

[¶8] Manifestoes of this kind have seldom been honorable to the senders. The conduct of Rab-shakeh was unfortunately copied by the Duke of Brunswick, commander-in-chief of the allied army of the center, in the French revolution, who was then in the plains of Champagne, August 27, 1792, at the head of ninety thousand men, Prussians, Austrians, and emigrants, on his way to Paris, which in his manifesto he threatened to reduce to ashes! This was the cause of the dreadful massacres which immediately took place. And shortly after this time the blast of God fell upon him, for in Sept. 20 of the same year, (three weeks after issuing the manifesto), almost all his army was destroyed by a fatal disease, and himself obliged to retreat from the French territories with shame and confusion. This, and some other injudicious steps taken by the allies, were the cause of the ruin of the royal family of France, and of enormities and calamities the most extensive, disgraceful, and ruinous, that ever stained the page of history. From all such revolutions God in mercy save mankind!

[¶9] Conduit of the upper pool - The aqueduct that brought the water from the upper or eastern reservoir, near to the valley of Kidron, into the city. Probably they had seized on this in order to distress the city.

[¶10] The fuller's field - The place where the washermen stretched out their clothes to dry.

### Verse 18

[¶12] Called to the king - They wished him to come out that they might get possession of his person.

[¶13] Eliakim - over the household - What we would call lord chamberlain.

[¶14] Shebna the scribe - The king's secretary.

[¶15] Joah - the recorder - The writer of the public annals.

### Verse 19

[¶17] What confidence is this - מה הבטחן הזה ma habbittachon hazzeh. The words are excessively insulting: What little, foolish, or unavailing cause of confidence is it, to which thou trustest? I translate thus, because I consider the word בטחון bittachon as a diminutive, intended to express the utmost contempt for Hezekiah's God.

### Verse 21

[¶19] The staff of this bruised reed - Egypt had already been greatly bruised and broken, through the wars carried on against it by the Assyrians.

### Verse 22

[¶21] Whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away - This was artfully malicious. Many of the people sacrificed to Jehovah on the high places; Hezekiah had removed them, ([2Kgs 18:4]), because they were incentives to idolatry: Rab-shakeh insinuates that by so doing he had offended Jehovah, deprived the people of their religious rights, and he could neither expect the blessing of God nor the cooperation of the people.

### Verse 23

[¶23] I will deliver thee two thousand horses - Another insult: Were I to give thee two thousand Assyrian horses, thou couldst not find riders for them. How then canst thou think that thou shalt be able to stand against even the smallest division of my troops?

### Verse 25

[¶25] Am I now come up without the Lord - As Rab-shakeh saw that the Jews placed the utmost confidence in God, he wished to persuade them that by Hezekiah's conduct Jehovah had departed from them, and was become ally to the king of Assyria, and therefore they could not expect any help from that quarter.

### Verse 26

[¶27] Talk not with us in the Jews' language - The object of this blasphemous caitiff was to stir up the people to sedition, that the city and the king might be delivered into his hand.

### Verse 27

[¶29] That they may eat their own dung - That they may be duly apprised, if they hold on Hezekiah's side, Jerusalem shall be most straitly besieged, and they be reduced to such a state of famine as to be obliged to eat their own excrements.

### Verse 28

[¶31] Hear the word of the great king - of Assyria - This was all intended to cause the people to revolt from their allegiance to their king.

### Verse 32

[¶33] Until I come and take you away - This was well calculated to stir up a seditious spirit. Ye cannot be delivered; your destruction, if ye resist, is inevitable; Sennacherib will do with you, as he does with all the nations he conquers, lead you captive into another land: but if you will surrender without farther trouble, he will transport you into a land as good as your own.

### Verse 34

[¶35] Where are the gods of Hamath - Sennacherib is greater than any of the gods of the nations. The Assyrians have already overthrown the gods of Hamath, Arpad, Hena, and Ivah; therefore, Jehovah shall be like one of them, and shall not be able to deliver Jerusalem out of the hand of my master.

[¶36] The impudent blasphemy of this speech is without parallel. Hezekiah treated it as he ought: it was not properly against him, but against the Lord; therefore he refers the matter to Jehovah himself, who punishes this blasphemy in the most signal manner.

### Verse 36

[¶38] Answer him not - The blasphemy is too barefaced; Jehovah is insulted, not you; let him avenge his own quarrel. See the succeeding chapter, 2 Kings 19 (note).

### Verse 37

[¶40] Then came Eliakim - and Shebna - and Joah - to Hezekiah with their clothes rent - It was the custom of the Hebrews, when they heard any blasphemy, to rend their clothes, because this was the greatest of crimes, as it immediately affected the majesty of God, and it was right that a religious people should have in the utmost abhorrence every insult offered to the object of their religious worship. These three ambassadors lay the matter before the king as God's representative; he lays it before the prophet, as God's minister; and the prophet lays it before God, as the people's mediator.

### Introduction

[¶42] Hezekiah as greatly distressed, and sends to Isaiah to pray for him, [2Kgs 19:1-4]. Isaiah returns a comfortable answer, and predicts the destruction of the king of Assyria and his army, [2Kgs 19:5-8]. Sennacherib, hearing that his kingdom was invaded by the Ethiopians, sends a terrible letter to Hezekiah, to induce him to surrender, [2Kgs 19:9-13]. Hezekiah goes to the temple, spreads the letter before the Lord, and makes a most affecting prayer, [2Kgs 19:14-19]. Isaiah is sent to him to assure him that his prayer is heard; that Jerusalem shall be delivered; and that the Assyrians shall be destroyed, [2Kgs 19:20-34]. That very night a messenger of God slays one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians, [2Kgs 19:35]. Sennacherib returns to Nineveh, and is slain by his own sons, [2Kgs 19:36], [2Kgs 19:37].

### Verse 2

[¶44] To Isaiah the prophet - His fame and influence were at this time great in Israel; and it was well known that the word of the Lord was with him. Here both the Church and the state unite in fervent application to, and strong dependence upon, God; and behold how they succeed!

## 392. 2 Kings · 23 of 30

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### Verse 3

[¶1] The children are come to the birth - The Jewish state is here represented under the emblem of a woman in travail, who has been so long in the pangs of parturition, that her strength is now entirely exhausted, and her deliverance is hopeless, without a miracle. The image is very fine and highly appropriate.

[¶2] A similar image is employed by Homer, when he represents the agonies which Agamemnon suffers from his wound: - Οφρα οἱ αἱμ' ετι θερμον ανηνοθεν εξ ωτειλης· Λυταρ επει το μεν ἑλκος ετερσετο παυσατο δ' αἱμα, Οξειαι οδυναι δυνον μενος Ατρειδαο· Ως δ' ὁταν ωδινουσαν εχῃ βελος οξυ γυναικα, Δριμυ, το τε προΐεισι μογοστοκοι Ειλειθυιαι Ἡρης θυγατερες πικ ρας ωδινας εχουσαι· Ὡς οξει' οδυναι δυνον μενος Ατρειδαο.

[¶3] Il. xi., ver. 266.

[¶4] This, while yet warm, distill'd the purple flood;

[¶5] But when the wound grew stiff with clotted blood,

[¶6] Then grinding tortures his strong bosom rend.

[¶7] Less keen those darts the fierce Ilythiae send,

[¶8] The powers that cause the teeming matron's throes,

[¶9] Sad mothers of unutterable woes.

[¶10] Pope

[¶11] Better translated by Macpherson; but in neither well: "So long as from the gaping wound gushed forth, in its warmth, the blood; but when the wound became dry, when ceased the blood to flow amain, sharp pains pervade the strength of Atrides. Racking pangs glide through his frame; as when the Ilythiae, who preside over births, the daughters of white armed Juno, fierce dealers of bitter pains, throw all their darts on hapless women, that travail with child. Such pains pervade the strength of Atrides."

### Verse 4

[¶13] The remnant that are left - That is, the Jews; the ten tribes having been already carried away captive by the kings of Assyria.

### Verse 7

[¶15] Behold, I will send a blast - and he shall hear a rumor - The rumor was, that Tirhakah had invaded Assyria. The blast was that which slew one hundred and eighty-five thousand of them in one night, see [2Kgs 19:35].

[¶16] Cause him to fall by the sword - Alluding to his death by the hands of his two sons, at Nineveh. See [2Kgs 19:35-37].

### Verse 8

[¶18] Libnah - Lachish - These two places were not very distant from each other; they were in the mountains of Judah, southward of Jerusalem.

### Verse 10

[¶20] Let not thy God in whom thou trustest - This letter is nearly the same with the speech delivered by Rab-shakeh. See [2Kgs 18:29].

### Verse 14

[¶22] Spread it before the Lord - The temple was considered to be God's dwelling-place; and that whatever was there was peculiarly under his eye. Hezekiah spread the letter before the Lord, as he wished him to read the blasphemies spoken against himself.

### Verse 15

[¶24] Thou art the God, etc. - Thou art not only God of Israel, but God also of Assyria, and of all the nations of the world.

### Verse 21

[¶26] The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee - "So truly contemptible is thy power, and empty thy boasts, that even the young women of Jerusalem, under the guidance of Jehovah, shall be amply sufficient to discomfit all thy forces, and cause thee to return with shame to thy own country, where the most disgraceful death awaits thee." When Bishop Warburton had published his Doctrine of Grace, and chose to fall foul on some of the most religious people of the land, a young woman of the city of Gloucester exposed his graceless system in a pamphlet, to which she affixed the above words as a motto!

### Verse 23

[¶28] The tall cedar trees - the choice fir trees - Probably meaning the princes and nobles of the country.

[¶29] The forest of his Carmel - Better in the margin: the forest and his fruitful field.

### Verse 24

[¶31] I have dipped and drunk strange waters - I have conquered strange countries, in which I have digged wells for my army; or, I have gained the wealth of strange countries.

[¶32] With the sole of my feet - My infantry have been so numerous that they alone have been sufficient to drink up the rivers of the places I have besieged.

### Verse 25

[¶34] Hast thou not heard - Here Jehovah speaks, and shows this boasting king that what he had done was done by the Divine appointment, and that of his own counsel and might he could have done nothing. It was because God had appointed them to this civil destruction that he had overcome them; and it was not through his might; for God had made their inhabitants of small power, so that he only got the victory over men whom God had confounded, dismayed, and enervated, [2Kgs 19:26].

### Verse 28

[¶36] I will put my hook in thy nose - This seems to be an allusion to the method of guiding a buffalo; he has a sort of ring put into his nose, to which a cord or bridle is attached, by which he can be turned to the right, or to the left, or round about, according to the pleasure of his driver.

### Verse 29

[¶38] This shall be a sign unto thee - To Hezekiah; for to him this part of the address is made.

[¶39] Ye shall eat this year - Sennacherib had ravaged the country, and seed-time was now over, yet God shows them that he would so bless the land, that what should grow of itself that year, would be quite sufficient to supply the inhabitants and prevent all famine; and though the second year was the sabbatical rest or jubilee for the land, in which it was unlawful to plough or sow; yet even then the land, by an especial blessing of God, should bring forth a sufficiency for its inhabitants; and in the third year they should sow and plant, etc. and have abundance, etc. Now this was to be a sign to Hezekiah, that his deliverance had not been effected by natural or casual means; for as without a miracle the ravaged and uncultivated land could not yield food for its inhabitants, so not without miraculous interference could the Assyrian army be cut off and Israel saved.

### Verse 30

[¶41] The remnant - shall yet again take root - As your corn shall take root in the soil, and bring forth and abundantly multiply itself, so shall the Jewish people; the population shall be greatly increased, and the desolations occasioned by the sword soon be forgotten.

### Verse 31

[¶43] Out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant - The Jews shall be so multiplied as not only to fill Jerusalem, but all the adjacent country.

[¶44] And they that escape out of Mount Zion - Some think that this refers to the going forth of the apostles to the Gentile world, and converting the nations by the preaching of the Gospel.

## 393. 2 Kings · 24 of 30

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### Verse 32

[¶1] He shall not, etc. - Here follow the fullest proofs that Jerusalem shall not be taken by the Assyrians.

[¶2] 1. He shall not come into this city;

[¶3] 2. He shall not be able to get so near as to shoot an arrow into it;

[¶4] 3. He shall not be able to bring an army before it,

[¶5] 4. Nor shall he be able to raise any redoubt or mound against it;

[¶6] 5. No; not even an Assyrian shield shall be seen in the country; not even a foraging party shall come near the city.

### Verse 33

[¶8] By the way that he came - Though his army shall not return, yet he shall return to Assyria; for because of his blasphemy he is reserved for a more ignominious death.

### Verse 35

[¶10] That night - The very night after the blasphemous message had been sent, and this comfortable prophecy delivered.

[¶11] The angel of the Lord went out - I believe this angel or messenger of the Lord was simply a suffocating or pestilential Wind; by which the Assyrian army was destroyed, as in a moment, without noise confusion or any warning. See the note [1Kgs 20:30]. Thus was the threatening, [2Kgs 19:7], fulfilled, I will send a Blast upon him; for he had heard the rumor that his territories were invaded; and on his way to save his empire, in one night the whole of his army was destroyed, without any one even seeing who had hurt them. This is called an angel or messenger of the Lord: that is, something immediately sent by him to execute his judgments.

[¶12] When they arose early - That is, Sennacherib, and probably a few associates, who were preserved as witnesses and relaters of this most dire disaster. Rab-shakeh, no doubt, perished with the rest of the army.

### Verse 36

[¶14] Dwelt at Nineveh - This was the capital of the Assyrian empire.

### Verse 37

[¶16] Nisroch his god - We know nothing of this deity; he is nowhere else mentioned.

[¶17] Smote him with the sword - The rabbins say that his sons had learned that he intended to sacrifice them to this god, and that they could only prevent this by slaying him.

[¶18] The same writers add, that he consulted his wise men how it was that such miracles should be wrought for the Israelites; who told him that it was because of the merit of Abraham who had offered his only son to God: he then said, I will offer to him my two sons; which when they heard, they rose up and slew him. When a rabbin cannot untie a knot, he feels neither scruple nor difficulty to cut it.

### Introduction

[¶20] Hezekiah's sickness, and the message of the prophet to him, to prepare for death, [2Kgs 20:1]. His distress and prayer to God, [2Kgs 20:2], [2Kgs 20:3]. The Lord hears, and promises to add fifteen years to his life, and Isaiah prescribes a means of cure, [2Kgs 20:4-7]. Hezekiah seeks a sign; and to assure him of the truth of God's promise, the shadow on the dial of Ahaz goes back ten degrees, [2Kgs 20:8-11]. The King of Babylon sends a friendly message to Hezekiah, to congratulate him on his recovery; and to these messengers he ostentatiously shows all his treasures, [2Kgs 20:12], [2Kgs 20:13]. Isaiah reproves him, and foretells that the Babylonians will come and take away all those treasures, and take the people into captivity; and degrade the royal family of Judah, [2Kgs 20:14-18]. Hezekiah bows to the Divine judgment, [2Kgs 20:19]. His acts and death, [2Kgs 20:20], [2Kgs 20:21].

### Verse 1

[¶22] Set thine house in order - It appears from the text that he was smitten with such a disorder as must terminate in death, without the miraculous interposition of God: and he is now commanded to set his house in order, or to give charge concerning his house; to dispose of his affairs, or in other words, to make his will; because his death was at hand. "This sickness," says Jarchi, "took place three days before the defeat of Sennacherib." That it must have been before this defeat, is evident. Hezekiah reigned only twenty-nine years, [2Kgs 18:2]. He had reigned fourteen years when the war with Sennacherib began, [2Kgs 18:13], and he reigned fifteen years after this sickness, [2Kgs 20:6]; therefore 14+15=29, the term of his reign. Nothing can be clearer than this, that Hezekiah had reigned fourteen years before this time; and that he did live the fifteen years here promised. That Hezekiah's sickness happened before the destruction of Sennacherib's army, is asserted by the text itself: see [2Kgs 20:6].

### Verse 3

[¶24] I beseech thee, O Lord - Hezekiah knew that, although the words of Isaiah were delivered to him in an absolute form, yet they were to be conditionally understood, else he could not have prayed to God to reverse a purpose which he knew to be irrevocable. Even this passage is a key to many prophecies and Divine declarations: see [Isa 18:1-7] of Jeremiah.

[¶25] Hezekiah pleads his uprightness and holy conduct in his own behalf. Was it impious to do so? No; but it certainly did not savor much either of humility or of a due sense of his own weakness. If he had a perfect heart, who made it such? - God. If he did good in God's sights who enabled him to do so? - God. Could he therefore plead in his behalf dispositions and actions which he could neither have felt nor practiced but by the power of the grace of God? I trow not. But the times of this ignorance God winked at. The Gospel teaches us a different lesson.

[¶26] Wept sore - How clouded must his prospects of another world have been! But it is said that, as he saw the nation in danger from the Assyrian army, which was then invading it, and threatened to destroy the religion of the true God, he was greatly affected at the news of his death, as he wished to live to see the enemies of God overthrown. And therefore God promises that he will deliver the city out of the hands of the king of Assyria, at the same time that he promises him a respite of fifteen years, [2Kgs 20:6]. His lamentation on this occasion may be seen in Isaiah, [Isa 38:9-22].

### Verse 4

[¶28] Into the middle court - הצר hatstser, the court. This is the reading of the Masoretic Keri: העיר haair, "of the city," is the reading of the text, and of most MSS.; but the versions follow the Keri.

### Verse 6

[¶30] I will add unto thy days fifteen years - This is the first and only man who was ever informed of the term of his life. And was this a privilege! Surely no. If Hezekiah was attached to life, as he appears to have been, how must his mind be affected to mark the sinking years! He knew he was to die at the end of fifteen years; and how must he feel at the end of every year, when he saw that so much was cut off from life? He must necessarily feel a thousand deaths in fearing one. I believe there would be nothing wanting to complete the misery of men, except the place of torment, were they informed of the precise time in which their lives must terminate. God, in his abundant mercy, has hidden this from their eyes.

### Verse 7

[¶32] Take a lump of figs - and laid it on the boil - We cannot exactly say in what Hezekiah's malady consisted. שחין shechin signifies any inflammatory tumour, boil, abscess, etc. The versions translate it sore, wound, and such like. Some think it was a pleurisy; others, that it was the plague; others, the elephantiasis; and others, that it was a quinsey. A poultice of figs might be very proper to maturate a boil, or to discuss any obstinate inflammatory swelling. This Pliny remarks, Omnibus quae maturanda ant discutienda sunt imponuntur. But we cannot pronounce on the propriety of the application, unless we were certain of the nature of the malady. This, however was the natural means which God chose to bless to the recovery of Hezekiah's health; and without this interposition he must have died.

### Verse 8

[¶34] What shall be the sign - He wished to be fully convinced that his cure was to be entirely supernatural; and, in order to this, he seeks one miracle to prove the truth of the other, that nothing might remain equivocal.

### Verse 11

[¶36] He brought the shadow ten degrees backward - We cannot suppose that these ten degrees meant ten hours; there were ten divisions of time on this dial: and perhaps it would not be right to suppose that the sun went ten degrees back in the heavens, or that the earth turned back upon its axis from east to west, in a contrary direction to its natural course. But the miracle might be effected by means of refraction, for a ray of light we know can be varied or refracted from a right line by passing through a dense medium; and we know also, by means of the refracting power of the atmosphere, the sun, when near rising and setting, seems to be higher above the horizon than he really is, and, by horizontal refraction, we find that the sun appears above the horizon when he is actually below it, and literally out of sight: therefore, by using dense clouds or vapors, the rays of light in that place might be refracted from their direct course ten, or any other number of degrees; so that the miracle might have been wrought by occasioning this extraordinary refraction, rather than by disturbing the course of the earth, or any other of the celestial bodies.

[¶37] The dial of Ahaz - See the note on [2Kgs 9:13], and the observations and diagram at the end of this chapter.

### Verse 12

[¶39] At that time Berodach-baladan - He is called Merodach-Baladan, [Isa 39:1], and by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and by several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.; and also by the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. The true reading seems to be Merodach; the מ mem and ב beth might be easily interchanged, and so produce the mistake.

[¶40] Sent letters and a present - It appears that there was friendship between the king of Babylon and Hezekiah, when the latter and the Assyrians were engaged in a destructive war. The king of Babylon had not only heard of his sickness, but he had heard of the miracle; as we learn from [2Chr 32:31].

### Verse 13

[¶42] Hezekiah hearkened unto them - Instead of וישמע vaiyishma, he hearkened, וישמח vaiyismach, he rejoiced or was glad, is the reading of twelve of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., the parallel place, [Isa 39:2], the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Arabic, some copies of the Targum, and the Babylonian Talmud.

[¶43] All the house of his precious things - Interpreters are not well agreed about the meaning of the original נכתה nechothoh, which we here translate precious things, and in the margin spicery or jewels. I suppose the last to be meant.

[¶44] There was nothing in his house - He showed them through a spirit of folly and exultation, all his treasures, and no doubt those in the house of the Lord. And it is said, [2Chr 32:31], that in this business God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart; and this trial proved that in his heart there was little else than pride and folly.

## 394. 2 Kings · 25 of 30

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### Verse 17

[¶1] Behold, the days come - This was fulfilled in the days of the latter Jewish kings, when the Babylonians had led the people away into captivity, and stripped the land, the temple, etc., of all their riches. See [Dan 1:1-3].

### Verse 18

[¶3] They shall be eunuchs - Perhaps this means no more than that they should become household servants to the kings of Babylon. See the fulfillment, [2Kgs 24:13-15], and [Dan 1:1-3].

### Verse 19

[¶5] Good is the word of the Lord - He has spoken right, I have done foolishly. I submit to his judgments.

[¶6] Is it not good if peace and truth be in my days? - I believe Hezekiah inquires whether there shall be peace and truth in his days. And the question seems to be rather of an interested nature. He does not appear to deplore the calamities that were coming on the land, provided peace and truth might prevail in his days.

### Verse 20

[¶8] The rest of the acts of Hezekiah - See the parallel places in Isaiah and in 2 Chronicles. In this latter book, [2Chr 32:24-33], we find several particulars that are not inserted here; especially concerning his pride, the increase of his riches, his storehouses of corn, wine, and oil; his stalls for all manner of beasts; his cities, flocks, and herds, in abundance; and the bringing the upper water course of Gihon to the west side of the city of David, by which he brought a plentiful supply of water into that city, etc., etc., etc.

[¶9] On the subject of the Babylonian embassy I may say a few words. However we may endeavor to excuse Hezekiah, it is certain that he made an exhibition of his riches and power in a spirit of great vanity; and that this did displease the Lord. It was also ruinous to Judea: when those foreigners had seen such a profusion of wealth, such princely establishments, and such a fruitful land, it was natural for them to conceive the wish that they had such treasures, and from that to covet the very treasures they saw. They made their report to their king and countrymen, and the desire to possess the Jewish wealth became general; and in consequence of this there is little doubt that the conquest of Jerusalem was projected. History is not barren in such instances: the same kind of cause has produced similar effects. Take two or three notable instances.

[¶10] When the barbarous Goth and Vandal nations saw the pleasant and fruitful plains and hills of Italy, and the vast treasures of the Roman people, the abundance of the necessaries, conveniences, comforts, and luxuries of life, which met their eyes in every direction; they were never at rest till their swords put them in possession of the whole, and brought the mistress of the world to irretrievable ruin.

[¶11] Vortigern, a British king, unhappily invited the Saxons, in 445, to assist him against his rebellious subjects: they came, saw the land that it was good, and in the end took possession of it, having driven out, or into the mountains of Wales, all the original Britons.

[¶12] The Danes, in the ninth century, made some inroads into England, found the land better than their own, and never rested till they established themselves in this country, and, after having ruled it for a considerable time, were at last, with the utmost difficulty, driven out.

[¶13] These nations had only to see a better land in order to covet it, and their exertions were not wanting in order to possess it.

[¶14] How far other nations, since those times, have imitated the most foolish and impolitic conduct of the Jewish king, and how far their conduct may have been or may yet be marked with the same consequences, the pages of impartial history have shown and will show: God's ways are all equal, and the judge of all the earth will do right. But we need not wonder, after this, that the Jews fell into the hands of the Babylonians, for this was the political consequence of their own conduct: nor could it be otherwise, the circumstances of both nations considered, unless God, by a miraculous interposition, had saved them; and this it was inconsistent with his justice to do, because they had, in their pride and vanity, offended against him. To be lifted up with pride and vain glory in the possession of any blessings, is the most direct way to lose them; as it induces God, who dispensed them for our benefit, to resume them, because that which was designed for our good, through our own perversity becomes our bane.

[¶15] 1. I have intimated, in the note on [2Kgs 20:11], that the shadow was brought back on the dial of Ahaz by means of refraction. On this subject some farther observations may not be improper.

[¶16] 2. Any person may easily convince himself of the effect of refraction by this simple experiment: Place a vessel on the floor, and put a piece of coin on the bottom, close to that part of the vessel which is farthest off from yourself; then move back till you find that the edge of the vessel next to yourself fairly covers the coin, and that it is now entirely out of sight. Stand exactly in that position, and let a person pour water gently into the vessel, and you will soon find the coin to reappear, and to be entirely in sight when the vessel is full, though neither it nor you have changed your positions in the least.

[¶17] By the refracting power of the atmosphere we have several minutes more of the solar light each day than we should otherwise have. "The atmosphere refracts the sun's rays so as to bring him in sight every clear day, before he rises in the horizon, and to keep him in view for some minutes after he is really set below it. For at some times of the year we see the sun ten minutes longer above the horizon than he would be if there were no refractions, and above six minutes every day at a mean rate." - Ferguson.

[¶18] And it is entirely owing to refraction that we have any morning or evening twilight; without this power in the atmosphere, the heavens would be as black as ebony in the absence of the sun; and at his rising we should pass in a moment from the deepest darkness into the brightest light; and at his setting, from the most intense light to the most profound darkness, which in a few days would be sufficient to destroy the visual organs of all the animals in air, earth, or sea.

[¶19] That the rays of light can be supernaturally refracted, and the sun appear to be where he actually is not, we have a most remarkable instance in Kepler. Some Hollanders, who wintered in Nova Zembla in the year 1596, were surprised to find that after a continual night of three months, the sun began to rise seventeen days sooner than (according to computation deduced from the altitude of the pole, observed to be seventy-six degrees) he should have done; which can only be accounted for by a miracle, or by an extraordinary refraction of the sun's rays passing through the cold dense air in that climate. At that time the sun, as Kepler computes, was almost five degrees below the horizon when he appeared; and consequently the refraction of his rays was about nine times stronger than it is with us.

[¶20] 3. Now this might be all purely natural, though it was extraordinary, and it proves the possibility of what I have conjectured, even on natural principles; but the foretelling of this, and leaving the going back or forward to the choice of the king, and the thing occurring in the place and time when and where it was predicted, shows that it was supernatural and miraculous, though the means were purely natural. Yet in that climate, (Lat. thirty-one degrees fifty minutes north, and Long. thirty-five degrees twenty-five minutes east), where vapors to produce an extraordinary refraction of the solar rays could not be expected, the collecting or producing them heightens and ascertains the miracle. "But why contend that the thing was done by refraction? Could not God as easily have caused the sun, or rather the earth, to turn back, as to have produced this extraordinary and miraculous refraction?" I answer, Yes. But it is much more consistent with the wisdom and perfections of God to perform a work or accomplish an end by simple means, than by those that are complex; and had it been done in the other way, it would have required a miracle to invert and a miracle to restore; and a strong convulsion on the earth's surface to bring it ten degrees suddenly back, and to take it the same suddenly forward. The miracle, according to my supposition, was performed on the atmosphere, and without in the least disturbing even that; whereas, on the other supposition, it could not have been done without suspending or interrupting the laws of the solar system, and this without gaining a hair's breadth in credulity or conviction more by such stupendous interpositions than might be effected by the agency of clouds and vapors. The point to be gained was the bringing back the shadow on the dial ten degrees: this might have been gained by the means I have here described, as well as by the other; and these means being much more simple, were more worthy the Divine choice than those which are more complex, and could not have been used without producing the necessity of working at least double or treble miracles.

[¶21] 4. Before I proceed to the immediate object of inquiry, I shall beg leave to make some observations on the invention and construction of Dials in general.

[¶22] Sundials must have been of great antiquity, though the earliest we hear of is that of Ahaz; but this certainly was not the first of its kind, though it is the first on record. Ahaz began his reign about four hundred years before Alexander, and about twelve years after the foundation of Rome.

[¶23] Anaximenes, the Milesian, who flourished about four hundred years before Christ, is said by Pliny to have been the first who made a sundial, the use of which he taught to the Spartans, but others give this honor to Thales, his countryman, who flourished two hundred years before him.

[¶24] Aristarchus of Samos, who lived before Archimedes, invented a plain horizontal disc, with a gnomon, to distinguish the hours, and had its rim raised all around, to prevent the shadow from extending too far.

[¶25] Probably all these were rude and evanescent attempts, for it does not appear that the Romans, who borrowed all their knowledge from the Greeks, knew any thing of a sundial before that set up by Papirius Cursor, about four hundred and sixty years after the foundation of Rome; before which time, says Pliny, there was no mention of any account of time but by the rising and setting of the sun. This dial was erected near the temple of Quirinus, but is allowed to have been very inaccurate. About thirty years after, the consul Marcus Valerius Messala brought a dial out of Sicily, which he placed on a pillar near the rostrum; but as it was not made for the latitude of Rome, it did not show the time exactly; however it was the only one they had for a hundred years, when Martius Philippus set up one more exact.

[¶26] Since those times the science of dialing has been cultivated in most civilized nations, but we have no professed treatise on the subject before the time of the jesuit Clavius, who, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, demonstrated both the theory and practice of dialling; but he did this after the most rigid mathematical principles, so as to render that which was simple in itself exceedingly obscure. Though we have useful and correct works of this kind from Rivard, De Parcieux, Dom. Bedos de Celles, Joseph Blaise Garnier, Gravesande, Emerson, Martin, and Leadbetter; yet something more specific, more simple, and more general, is a desideratum in the science of sciaterics or dialling.

### Introduction

[¶28] Manasseh succeeds his father Hezekiah, reigns fifty-five years, and fills Jerusalem and the whole land with abominable idolatry and murder, [2Kgs 21:1-9]. God denounces the heaviest judgments against him and the land, [2Kgs 21:10-15]. Manasseh's acts and death, [2Kgs 21:16-18]. Amon his son succeeds him, and reigns two years; is equally profligate with his father; is slain by his servants, and buried in the garden of Uzza; and Josiah his son reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 21:19-26].

### Verse 1

[¶30] Manasseh was twelve years old - He was born about three years after his father's miraculous cure; he was carried captive to Babylon, repented, was restored to his kingdom, put down idolatry, and died at the age of sixty-seven years. See 2 Chronicles 33:1-20.

### Verse 2

[¶32] After the abominations of the heathen - He exactly copied the conduct of those nations which God had cast out of that land.

### Verse 3

[¶34] Made a grove - He made Asherah, the Babylonian Melitta or Roman Venus. See [2Kgs 17:10], and the observations at the end of that chapter; and see here on [2Kgs 21:7] (note).

[¶35] Worshipped all the host of heaven - All the stars and planets, but particularly the sun and the moon.

### Verse 4

[¶37] Built altars - He placed idolatrous altars even in the temple.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Made his son pass through the fire - Consecrated him to Moloch.

[¶40] Observed times - ועונן veonen; he practiced divination by the clouds; by observing their course at particular times, their different kinds, contrary directions, etc., etc.

[¶41] Used enchantments - ונחש venichesh; he used incantations, spells, and charms.

[¶42] Dealt with familiar spirits - ועשה אוב veasah ob; he was a necromancer; was a raiser of spirits, whom he endeavored to press into his service; he had a Python.

[¶43] And wizards - וידענים veyiddeonim; the knowing ones, the white witches, and such like; see on [Lev 19:26-31] (note), where most of these terms are particularly explained and illustrated.

### Verse 7

[¶45] He set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house - Every one may see that Asherah here must signify an idol, and not a grove; and for the proof of this see the observations at the end of the chapter, [2Kgs 21:26] (note).

## 395. 2 Kings · 26 of 30

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Neither will I make the feet of Israel - Had they been faithful to God's testimonies they never had gone into captivity, and should even at this day have been in possession of the promised land.

### Verse 9

[¶3] Seduced them to do more evil - He did all he could to pervert the national character, and totally destroy the worship of the true God; and he succeeded.

### Verse 10

[¶5] The Lord spake by - the prophets - The prophets were Hosea, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Isaiah. These five following verses contain the sum of what these prophets spoke. It is said that Isaiah not only prophesied in those days, but also that he was put to death by Manasseh, being sawn asunder by a wooden saw.

### Verse 12

[¶7] Both his ears shall tingle - תצלנה titstsalnah; something expressive of the sound in what we call, from the same sensation, the tingling of the ears. This is the consequence of having the ears suddenly pierced with a loud and shrill noise; the ears seem to ring for some time after. The prophets spoke to them vehemently, so that the sound seemed to be continued even when they had left off speaking. This was a faithful and solemn testimony.

### Verse 13

[¶9] The line of Samaria - I will treat Jerusalem as I have treated Samaria. Samaria was taken, pillaged, ruined, and its inhabitants led into captivity; Jerusalem shall have the same measure.

[¶10] And the plummet of the house of Ahab - The house of Ahab was totally destroyed, and not a man of his race left to sit upon the throne of Israel: so shall it be done to the house or royal family of Judah; they shall be all finally destroyed, and not a man of their race shall any more sit on the throne of Judah; nor shall Judah have a throne to sit on. Thus Jerusalem shall have the same weight as well as the same measure as Samaria, because it has copied all the abominations which brought that kingdom to total destruction.

[¶11] I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish - The Vulgate translates this clause as follows: Delebo Jerusalem, sicut deleri solent tabulae; "I will blot out Jerusalem as tablets are wont to be blotted out." This is a metaphor taken from the ancient method of writing: they traced their letters with a stile on boards thinly spread over with wax; for this purpose one end of the stile was sharp, the other end blunt and smooth, with which they could rub out what they had written, and so smooth the place and spread back the wax, as to render it capable of receiving any other word. Thus the Lord had written down Jerusalem, never intending that its name or its memorial should be blotted out. It was written down The Holy City, The City of the Great King; but now God turns the stile and blots this out; and the Holy Jerusalem, the City of the Great King, is no longer to be found! This double use of the stile is pointed out in this ancient enigma: -

[¶12] De summo planus; sed non ego planus in imo:

[¶13] Versor utrinque manu, diverso et munere fungor:

[¶14] Altera pars revocat, quicquid pars altera fecit. "I am flat at the top, but sharp at the bottom;

[¶15] I turn either end, and perform a double function:

[¶16] One end destroys what the other end has made."

[¶17] But the idea of emptying out and wiping a dish expresses the same meaning equally well. Jerusalem shall be emptied of all its wealth, and of all its inhabitants, as truly as a dish turned up is emptied of all its contents; and it shall be turned upside down, never to be filled again. This is true from that time to the present hour. Jerusalem is the dish turned upside down, the tablet blotted out to the present day! How great are God's mercies! and how terrible his judgments!

### Verse 14

[¶19] I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance - One part (the ten tribes) was already forsaken, and carried into captivity; the remnant (the tribe of Judah) was now about to be forsaken.

### Verse 16

[¶21] Shed innocent blood very much - Like the deities he worshipped, he was fierce and cruel; an unprincipled, merciless tyrant: he slew innocent people and God's prophets.

### Verse 17

[¶23] Now the rest of the acts - In [2Chr 33:11], etc., we read that the Assyrians took Manasseh, bound him with fetters, and took him to Babylon; that there he repented, sought God, and was, we are not told how, restored to his kingdom; that he fortified the city of David, destroyed idolatry, restored the worship of the true God, and died in peace.

[¶24] In [2Chr 33:18], [2Chr 33:19], His prayer unto God is particularly mentioned. What is called his prayer, is found in the Apocrypha, just before the first book of the Maccabees. There are some good sentiments in it; but whether it be that which was made by Manasseh is more than can be proved. Even the Romish Church have not received it among the canonical books.

[¶25] Are they not written - There are several particulars referred to here, and in [2Chr 33:11-19], which are not found in any chronicles or books which now remain, and what the books of the seers were, mentioned in Chronicles, we cannot tell.

### Verse 18

[¶27] In the garden of his own house - It was probably a burying-place made for his own family, for Amon his son is said to be buried in the same place, [2Kgs 21:26].

### Verse 19

[¶29] He reigned two years in Jerusalem - The remark of the rabbins is not wholly without foundation, that the sons of those kings who were idolaters, and who succeeded their fathers, seldom reigned more than two years. So Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, [1Kgs 15:25]; Elah, the son of Baasha, [1Kgs 16:8]; Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, [1Kgs 22:51]; and Amon, the son of Manasseh, as mentioned here, [2Kgs 21:19].

### Verse 23

[¶31] The servants of Amon conspired - What their reason was for slaying their king we cannot tell. It does not seem to have been a popular act, for the people of the land rose up and slew the regicides. We hear enough of this man when we hear that he was as bad as his father was in the beginning of his reign, but did not copy his father's repentance.

### Verse 26

[¶33] The garden of Uzza - The family sepulcher or burying-place.

[¶34] It is said [2Kgs 21:3], [2Kgs 21:7], that "Manasseh made a grove; and he set a graven image of the grove," etc. וישם את פסל האשרה אשר עשה vaiyasem eth pesel haasherah, asher asah: "And he put the graven image of Asherah, which he had made," into the house.

[¶35] Asherah, which we translate grove, is undoubtedly the name of an idol; and probably of one which was carved out of wood.

[¶36] R. S. Jarchi, on [Gen 12:3], says, "that אשרה asherah means a tree which was worshipped by the Gentiles;" like as the oak was worshipped by the ancient Druids in Britain.

[¶37] Castel, in Lex. Hept. sub voce אשר, defines אשרה asherah thus, Simulacrum ligneum Astartae dicatum; "A wooden image dedicated to Astrate or Venus."

[¶38] The Septuagint render the words by αλσος; and Flamminius Nobilis, on [2Kgs 23:4], says Rursus notat Theodoretus το αλσος esse Astartem et Venerem, et ab aliis interpretibus dictum Ashatroth; i.e. "Again Theodoret observes, αλσος is Astarte and Venus; and by other interpreters called Ashtaroth."

[¶39] The Targum of Ben Uzziel, on [Deu 7:5], ואשירהם תגדעון vaasheyrehem tegaddeun; i.e., "Their groves shall ye cut down" - translates the place thus, ואילני סיגדיהון תקצצון ,suht ecalp e veilaney sigedeyhon tekatsetsun; "And the oaks of their adoration shall ye cut down."

[¶40] From the above it is pretty evident that idols, not groves, are generally intended where אשרה asherah and its derivatives are used.

[¶41] Here follow proofs: -

[¶42] In [2Kgs 23:6], it is said that "Josiah brought out the grove from the house of the Lord." This translation seems very absurd; for what grove could there be in the temple? There was none planted there, nor was there room for any. The plain meaning of ויצא את השרה מבית יהוה vaiyotse eth haasherah mibbeyth Jehovah, is, "And he brought out the (goddess) Asherah from the house of the Lord, and burnt it," etc.

[¶43] That this is the true meaning of the place appears farther from [2Kgs 23:7], where it is said, "He broke down the houses of the sodomites," (הקדשים hakkedeshim, of the whoremongers), "where the women wove hangings for the grove" (בתים לאשרה bottim laasherah, "houses or shrines for Asherah.") Similar perhaps to those which the silversmiths made for Diana, [Act 19:24]. It is rather absurd to suppose that the women were employed in making curtains to encompass a grove.

[¶44] The Syriac and Arabic versions countenance the interpretation I have given above. In [2Kgs 23:6], the former says, "He cast out the idol, dechlotho, from the house of the Lord;" and in [2Kgs 23:7] : "He threw down the houses, dazoine, of the prostitutes; and the women who wove garments, ledechlotho, for the idols which were there." The Arabic is exactly the same.

## 396. 2 Kings · 27 of 30

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[¶0] From the whole it is evident that Asherah was no other than Venus; the nature of whose worship is plain enough from the mention of whoremongers and prostitutes.

[¶1] I deny not that there were groves consecrated to idolatrous worship among the Gentiles, but I am sure that such are not intended in the above-cited passages; and the text, in most places, reads better when understood in this way.

### Introduction

[¶3] Josiah succeeds Amon his father, and reigns thirty-one years, [2Kgs 22:1], [2Kgs 22:2]. He repairs the breaches of the temple, [2Kgs 22:3-7]. Hilkiah finds the book of the law in the temple, [2Kgs 22:8]. It is read by Shaphan the scribe, before the king and his servants, [2Kgs 22:9], [2Kgs 22:10]. The king, greatly affected, sends to inquire of Huldah the prophetess, [2Kgs 22:11-13]. She delivers an afflictive prophecy concerning the evils that were coming upon the land, [2Kgs 22:14-17]. But promises Josiah that these evils shall not come in his time, [2Kgs 22:18-20].

### Verse 1

[¶5] Josiah was eight years old - He was one of the best, if not the best, of all the Jewish kings since the time of David. He began well, continued well, and ended well.

### Verse 4

[¶7] That he may sum the silver - As Josiah began to seek the Lord as soon as he began to reign, we may naturally conclude that the worship of God that was neglected and suppressed by his father, was immediately restored; and the people began their accustomed offerings to the temple. Ten years therefore had elapsed since these offerings began; no one had, as yet, taken account of them; nor were they applied to the use for which they were given, viz., the repairing the breaches of the temple.

### Verse 8

[¶9] I have found the book of the law - Was this the autograph of Moses? It is very probable that it was, for in the parallel place; [2Chr 34:14], it is said to be the book of the law of the Lord by Moses. It is supposed to be that part of Deuteronomy (28, 29, 30, and 31), which contains the renewing of the covenant in the plains of Moab, and which contains the most terrible invectives against the corrupters of God's word and worship.

[¶10] The rabbins say that Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon endeavored to destroy all the copies of the law, and this only was saved by having been buried under a paving-stone. It is scarcely reasonable to suppose that this was the only copy of the law that was found in Judea; for even if we grant that Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon had endeavored to destroy all the books of the law, yet they could not have succeeded so as to destroy the whole. Besides, Manasseh endeavored after his conversion to restore every part of the Divine worship, and in this he could have done nothing without the Pentateuch; and the succeeding reign of Amon was too short to give him opportunity to undo every thing that his penitent father had reformed. Add to all these considerations, that in the time of Jehoshaphat teaching from the law was universal in the land, for he set on foot an itinerant ministry, in order to instruct the people fully: for "he sent to his princes to teach in the cities of Judah; and with them he sent Levites and priests; and they went about through all the cities of Judah, and taught the people, having the book of the Lord with them;" see [2Chr 17:7-9]. And if there be any thing wanting to show the improbability of the thing, it must be this, that the transactions mentioned here took place in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, who had, from the time he came to the throne, employed himself in the restoration of the pure worship of God; and it is not likely that during these eighteen years he was without a copy of the Pentateuch. The simple fact seems to be this, that this was the original of the covenant renewed by Moses with the people in the plains of Moab, and which he ordered to be laid up beside the ark; ([Deu 31:26]); and now being unexpectedly found, its antiquity, the occasion of its being made, the present circumstances of the people, the imperfect state in which the reformation was as yet, after all that had been done, would all concur to produce the effect here mentioned on the mind of the pious Josiah.

### Verse 14

[¶12] Went unto Huldah the prophetess - This is a most singular circumstance: At this time Jeremiah was certainly a prophet in Israel, but it is likely he now dwelt at Anathoth and could not be readily consulted; Zephaniah also prophesied under this reign, but probably he had not yet begun; Hilkiah was high priest, and the priest's lips should retain knowledge. Shaphan was scribe, and must have been conversant in sacred affairs to have been at all fit for his office; and yet Huldah, a prophetess, of whom we know nothing but by this circumstance, is consulted on the meaning of the book of the law; for the secret of the Lord was neither with Hilkiah the high priest, Shaphan the scribe, nor any other of the servants of the king, or ministers of the temple! We find from this, and we have many facts in all ages to corroborate it, that a pontiff, a pope, a bishop, or a priest, may, in some cases, not possess the true knowledge of God; and that a simple woman, possessing the life of God in her soul, may have more knowledge of the Divine testimonies than many of those whose office it is to explain and enforce them.

[¶13] On this subject Dr. Priestley in his note makes the following very judicious remark: - "It pleased God to distinguish several women with the spirit of prophecy, as well as other great attainments, to show that in his sight, and especially in things of a spiritual nature, there is no essential pre-eminence in the male sex, though in some things the female be subject to the male."

### Verse 17

[¶15] My wrath shall be kindled - The decree is gone forth; Jerusalem shall be delivered into the hands of its enemies; the people will revolt more and more; towards them longsuffering is useless; the wrath of God is kindled, and shall not be quenched. This was a dreadful message.

### Verse 19

[¶17] Because thine heart was tender - Because thou hast feared the Lord, and trembled at his word and hast wept before me, I have heard thee, so far that these evils shall not come upon the land in thy lifetime.

### Verse 20

[¶19] Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace - During thy life none of these calamities shall fall upon the people, and no adversary shall be permitted to disturb the peace of Judea, and thou shalt die in peace with God. But was Josiah gathered to the grave in peace? Is it not said, [2Kgs 23:29], that Pharaoh-nechoh slew him at Megiddo? On this we may remark, that the Assyrians and the Jews were at peace; that Josiah might feel it his duty to oppose the Egyptian king going against his friend and ally, and endeavor to prevent him from passing through his territories; and that in his endeavors to oppose him he was mortally wounded at Megiddo: but certainly was not killed there; for his servants put him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died in peace. See [2Chr 35:24]. So that, however we take the place here, we shall find that the words of Huldah were true: he did die in peace, and was gathered to his fathers in peace.

[¶20] From the account in the above chapter, where we have this business detailed, we find that Josiah should not have meddled in the quarrel between the Egyptian and the Assyrian kings, for God had given a commission to the former against the latter; but he did it in error, and suffered for it. But this unfortunate end of this pious man does not at all impeach the credit of Huldah; he died in peace in his own kingdom. He died in peace with God, and there was neither war nor desolation in his land: nor did the king of Egypt proceed any farther against the Jews during his life; for he said, "What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee, but the house wherewith I have war; for God commanded me to make haste: forbear then from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, and hearkened not to the words of Nechoh, from the mouth of God. And the archers shot at King Josiah: and the king said, Bear me away, for I am sore wounded. And his servants took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot, and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died and was buried in the sepulcher of his fathers;" [2Chr 35:21-24].

[¶21] It seems as if the Egyptian king had brought his troops by sea to Caesarea, and wished to cross the Jordan about the southern point of the sea of Tiberias, that he might get as speedily as possible into the Assyrian dependencies; and that he took this road, for God, as he said, had commanded him to make haste.

### Introduction

[¶23] Josiah reads in the temple to the elders of Judah, the priests, the prophets, and the people, the book of the covenant which had been found, [2Kgs 23:1], [2Kgs 23:2]. He makes a covenant, and the people stand to it, [2Kgs 23:3]. He destroys the vessels of Baal and Asherah, and puts down the idolatrous priests; breaks down the houses of the sodomites, and the high places; defiles Topheth; takes away the horses of the sun; destroys the altars of Ahaz; breaks in pieces the images; and breaks down and burns Jeroboam's altar at Beth-el, [2Kgs 23:4-15]. Fulfills the word of the prophet, who cried against the altar at Beth-el, [2Kgs 23:16-18]. Destroys the high places in Samaria, slays the idolatrous priests, and celebrates a great passover, [2Kgs 23:19-23]; and puts away all the dealers with familiar spirits, etc., [2Kgs 23:24]. His eminent character; he is mortally wounded at Megiddo, and buried at Jerusalem, [2Kgs 23:25-30]. Jehoahaz reigns in his stead, and does evil in the sight of the Lord, [2Kgs 23:31], [2Kgs 23:32]. Is dethroned by Pharaoh-nechoh; and Eliakim, his brother, called also Jehoiakim, made king in his stead; the land is laid under tribute by the king of Egypt, and Jehoiakim reigns wickedly, [2Kgs 23:33-37].

### Verse 2

[¶25] The king went up into the house of the Lord - Here is another very singular circumstance. The high priest, scribes, priest, and prophets, are gathered together, with all the elders of the people, and the king himself reads the book of the covenant which had been lately found! It is strange that either the high priest, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, or some other of the prophets, who were certainly there present, did not read the sacred book! It is likely that the king considered himself a mediator between God and them, and therefore read and made the covenant.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Stood by a pillar - He stood, על העמוד al haammud, "upon the stairs or pulpit." This is what is called the brazen scaffold or pulpit which Solomon made, and on which the kings were accustomed to stand when they addressed the people. See [2Chr 6:13], and the parallel places.

[¶28] Made a covenant - This was expressed,

[¶29] 1. In general. To walk after Jehovah; to have no gods besides him.

[¶30] 2. To take his law for the regulation of their conduct.

[¶31] 3. In particular. To bend their whole heart and soul to the observance of it, so that, they might not only have religion without, but, piety within.

[¶32] To this all the people stood up, thus giving their consent, and binding themselves to obedience.

### Verse 4

[¶34] The priests of the second order - These were probably such as supplied the place of the high priest when he was prevented: from fulfilling the functions of his office. So the Chaldee understood the place - the sagan of the high priests. But the words may refer to those of the second course or order established by David: though it does not appear that those orders were now in use, yet the distinction was continued even to the time of our Lord. We find the course of Abia, which was the eighth, mentioned [Luk 1:5] (note); where see the note.

[¶35] All the vessels - These had been used for idolatrous purposes; the king is now to destroy them; for although no longer used in this way, they might, if permitted to remain, be an incentive to idolatry at a future time.

### Verse 5

[¶37] The idolatrous priests - הכמרים hakkemarim. Who these were is not well known. The Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, call them the priests simply, which the kings of Judah had ordained. Probably they were an order made by the idolatrous kings of Judah, and called kemarim, from כמר camar, which signifies to be scorched, shriveled together, made dark, or black, because their business was constantly to attend sacrificial fires, and probably they were black garments; hence the Jews in derision call Christian ministers kemarim, because of their black clothes and garments. Why we should imitate, in our sacerdotal dress, those priests of Baal, is strange to think and hard to tell.

[¶38] Unto Baal, to the sun - Though Baal was certainly the sun, yet here they are distinguished; Baal being worshipped under different forms and attributes, Baal-peor, Baal-zephon, Baal-zebub, etc.

[¶39] The planets - מזלות mazzaloth. The Vulgate translates this the twelve signs, i.e., the zodiac. This is as likely as any of the other conjectures which have been published relative to this word. See a similar word [Job 37:9]; [Job 38:32].

### Verse 6

[¶41] He brought out the grove - He brought out the idol Asherah. See at the end of [2Kgs 21:26] (note).

[¶42] Upon the graves of the children of the people - I believe this; means the burial-place of the common people.

### Verse 7

[¶44] The houses of the sodomites - We have already often met with these קדשים kedeshim or consecrated persons. The word implies all kinds of prostitutes, as well as abusers of themselves with mankind.

## 397. 2 Kings · 28 of 30

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[¶0] Wove hangings for the grove - For Asherah; curtains or tent coverings for the places where the rites of the impure goddess were performed. See at the end of [2Kgs 21:26] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶2] The gate of Joshua - The place where he, as governor of the city, heard and decided causes. Near this we find there were public altars, where sometimes the true God, at other times false gods, were honored.

### Verse 9

[¶4] The priests of the high places came not up - As these priests had offered sacrifices on the high places, though it was to the true God, yet they were not thought proper to be employed immediately about the temple; but as they were acknowledged to belong to the priesthood, they had a right to their support; therefore a portion of the tithes, offerings, and unleavened bread, shew-bread, etc., was appointed to them for their support. Thus they were treated as priests who had some infirmity which rendered it improper for them to minister at the altar. See [Lev 21:17], etc., and particularly [Lev 21:22], [Lev 21:23].

### Verse 10

[¶6] He defiled Topheth - St. Jerome says that Topheth was a fine and pleasant place, well watered with fountains, and adorned with gardens. The valley of the son of Hinnom, or Gehenna, was in one part; here it appears the sacred rites of Molech were performed, and to this all the filth of the city was carried, and perpetual fires were kept up in order to consume it. Hence it has been considered a type of hell; and in this sense it is used in the New Testament.

[¶7] It is here said that Josiah defiled this place that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire. He destroyed the image of Molech, and so polluted the place where he stood, or his temple, that it was rendered in every way abominable. The rabbins say that Topheth had its name from תף toph, a drum, because instruments of this kind were used to drown the cries of the children that were put into the burning arms of Molech, to be scorched to death. This may be as true as the following definition: "Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, was a place near Jerusalem, where the filth and offal of the city were thrown, and where a constant fire was kept up to consume the wretched remains of executed criminals. It was a human shambles, a public chopping-block, where the arms and legs of men and women were quartered off by thousands." Query, On what authority do such descriptions rest?

### Verse 11

[¶9] The horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun - Jarchi says that those who adored the sun had horses which they mounted every morning to go out to meet the sun at his rising. Throughout the East the horse, because of his swiftness and utility, was dedicated to the sun; and the Greeks and Romans feigned that the chariot of the sun was drawn by four horses - Pyroeis, Eous, Aethon, and Phlegon. See the note on [2Kgs 2:11].

[¶10] Whether these were living or sculptured horses, we cannot tell; the latter is the more reasonable supposition.

### Verse 12

[¶12] On the top of the upper chamber - Altars built on the flat roof of the house. Such altars were erected to the sun, moon, stars, etc.

### Verse 13

[¶14] Mount of corruption - This, says Jarchi, following the Chaldee, was the mount of Olives, for this is the mount המשחה hammishchah, of unction; but because of the idolatrous purposes for which it was used, the Scripture changed the appellation to the mount המשחית hammashchith, of corruption.

[¶15] Ashtoreth the abomination, etc. - See on [1Kgs 11:7] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶17] Filled their places with the bones of men - This was allowed to be the utmost defilement to which any thing could be exposed.

### Verse 16

[¶19] And as Josiah turned himself - This verse is much more complete in the Septuagint, and in the Hexaplar Syriac version at Paris. I shall give the whole, making a distinction where, in those versions, any thing is added: "And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burnt them upon the altar, and polluted it: according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed [when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast. And turning about, he cast his eyes on the sepulcher of the man of God] who proclaimed these words." See [1Kgs 13:2] (note), where these things were predicted, and see the notes there.

### Verse 17

[¶21] What title is that - There was either a stone, an image, or an inscription here: the old prophet no doubt took care to have the place made sufficiently remarkable.

### Verse 18

[¶23] The prophet that came out of Samaria - See the note on [1Kgs 13:32].

### Verse 19

[¶25] That were in the cities of Samaria - Israel had now no king; and Josiah, of the blood royal of Judah, had certainly a direct right to the kingdom; he had, at this time, an especial commission from God, to reform every abuse through the whole land - all that ground that was given by the Lord as an inheritance to the twelve sons of Jacob. Therefore he had every right to carry his plans of reformation into the Samaritan states.

### Verse 20

[¶27] Slew all the priests - The lives of these, as corrupters of the people, were forfeited to the law.

### Verse 22

[¶29] Surely there was not holden such a passover - Not one on purer principles, more heartily joined in by the people present, more literally consecrated, or more religiously observed. The words do not apply to the number present, but to the manner and spirit. See the particulars and mode of celebrating this passover in 2 Chronicles 35:1-18 (note).

### Verse 24

[¶31] The workers with familiar spirits - See on [2Kgs 21:5] (note).

[¶32] And the images - The teraphim. See the note on [Gen 31:19].

### Verse 25

[¶34] Like unto him was there no king - Perhaps not one from the time of David; and, morally considered, including David himself, none ever sat on the Jewish throne, so truly exemplary in his own conduct, and so thoroughly zealous in the work of God. David was a greater but not a better man than Josiah.

### Verse 26

[¶36] The Lord turned not - It was of no use to try this fickle and radically depraved people any longer. They were respited merely during the life of Josiah.

### Verse 29

[¶38] In his days Pharaoh-nechoh - See the note on the death of Josiah, [2Kgs 22:20] (note).

[¶39] Nechoh is supposed to have been the son of Psammitichus, king of Egypt; and the Assyrian king, whom he was now going to attack, was the famous Nabopolassar. What the cause of this quarrel was, is not known. Some say it was on account of Carchemish, a city on the Euphrates, belonging to the Egyptians, which Nabopolassar had seized. See [Isa 10:9].

### Verse 30

[¶41] Dead from Megiddo - The word מת meth should here be considered as a participle, dying, for it is certain he was not dead: he was mortally wounded at Megiddo, was carried in a dying state to Jerusalem, and there he died and was buried. See [2Chr 35:24].

[¶42] Herodotus, lib. i., c. 17, 18, 25, and lib. ii. 159, appears to refer to the same war which is here mentioned. He says that Nechoh, in the sixth year of his reign, went to attack the king of Assyria at Magdolum, gained a complete victory, and took Cadytis. Usher and others believe that Magdolum and Megiddo were the same place. The exact place of the battle seems to have been Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddo, for there Zechariah tells us [2Kgs 12:11], was the great mourning for Josiah. Compare this with [2Chr 35:24], [2Chr 35:25].

### Verse 31

[¶44] Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old - This was not the eldest son of Josiah, which is evident from this, that he was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; that he reigned but three months; that, being dethroned, his brother Eliakim was put in his place, who was then twenty-five years of age. Eliakim, therefore, was the eldest brother; but Jehoahaz was probably raised to the throne by the people, as being of a more active and martial spirit.

## 398. 2 Kings · 29 of 30

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### Verse 33

[¶1] Nechoh put him in bands - But what was the cause of his putting him in bands? It is conjectured, and not without reason, that Jehoahaz, otherwise called Shallum, raised an army, met Nechoh in his return from Carchemish, fought, was beaten, taken prisoner, put in chains; and taken into Egypt, where he died; [2Kgs 23:34], and [Jer 22:11], [Jer 22:12]. Riblah or Diblath, the place of this battle, was probably a town in Syria, in the land or district of Hamath.

### Verse 34

[¶3] Turned his name to Jehoiakim - These names are precisely the same in signification: Eliakim is God shall arise; Jehoiakim, Jehovah shall arise; or, the resurrection of God; the resurrection of Jehovah. That is, God's rising again to show his power, justice, etc. The change of the name was to show Nechoh's supremacy, and that Jehoiakim was only his vassal or viceroy. Proofs of this mode of changing the name, when a person of greater power put another in office under himself, may be seen in the case of Mattaniah, changed into Zedekiah; Daniel, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah, into Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; and Joseph into Zaphnath-paaneah. See [Dan 1:6], [Dan 1:7]; [Gen 41:45].

### Verse 35

[¶5] Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold - Nechoh had placed him there as viceroy, simply to raise and collect his taxes.

[¶6] Every one according to his taxation - That is, each was assessed in proportion to his property: that was the principle avowed: but there is reason to fear that this bad king was not governed by it.

### Verse 37

[¶8] He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord - He was a most unprincipled and oppressive tyrant. Jeremiah gives us his character at large, [Jer 22:13-19], to which the reader will do well to refer. Jeremiah was at that time in the land, and was an eyewitness of the abominations of this cruel king.

### Introduction

[¶10] Nebuchadnezzar brings Jehoiakim under subjection; who, after three years, rebels, [2Kgs 24:1]. Bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, invade the land, [2Kgs 24:2-4]. Jehoiakim dies, and Jehoiachin his son reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 24:5], [2Kgs 24:6]. The Babylonians overcome the Egyptians, [2Kgs 24:7]. Nebuchadnezzar takes Jehoiachin and his family, and all his treasures, and those of the temple, and all the chief people and artificers, and carries them to Babylon, [2Kgs 24:8-16]; and makes Mattaniah, brother of Jehoiakim, king, who reigns wickedly, and rebels against the king of Babylon, [2Kgs 24:17-20].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Nebuchadnezzar - This man, so famous in the writings of the prophets, was son of Nabopolassar. He was sent by his father against the rulers of several provinces that had revolted; and he took Carchemish, and all that belonged to the Egyptians, from the Euphrates to the Nile. Jehoiakim, who was tributary to Nechoh king of Egypt, he attacked and reduced; and obliged to become tributary to Babylon. At the end of three years he revolted; and then a mixed army, of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, was sent against him, who ravaged the country, and took three thousand and twenty-three prisoners, whom they brought to Babylon, [Jer 52:28].

### Verse 2

[¶14] According to the word of the Lord - See what Huldah predicted, [2Kgs 22:16], and see chap. 14, 15, and 16 of Jeremiah.

### Verse 6

[¶16] Jehoiachin his son - As this man reigned only three months and was a mere vassal to the Babylonians, his reign is scarcely to be reckoned; and therefore Jeremiah says of Jehoiakim, He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, [Jer 36:30], for at that time it belonged to the king of Babylon, and Jehoiachin was a mere viceroy or governor. Jehoiachin is called Jechonias in [Mat 1:11].

### Verse 7

[¶18] The king of Egypt came not again - He was so crushed by the Babylonians that he was obliged to confine himself within the limits of his own states, and could no more attempt any conquests. The text tells us how much he had lost by the Babylonians. See on [2Kgs 24:1] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶20] Jehoiachin was eighteen years old - He is called Jeconiah, [1Chr 3:16], and Coniah, [Jer 22:24]. In [2Chr 36:9], be is said to be only eight years of age, but this must be a mistake; for we find that, having reigned only three months, he was carried captive to Babylon, and there he had wives; and it is very improbable that a child between eight and nine years of age could have wives; and of such a tender age, it can scarcely be said that, as a king, he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. The place in Chronicles must be corrupted.

[¶21] That he was a grievous offender against God, we learn from [Jer 22:24], which the reader may consult; and in the man's punishment, see his crimes.

### Verse 12

[¶23] Jehoiachin - went out - He saw that it was useless to attempt to defend himself any longer; and he therefore surrendered himself, hoping to obtain better terms.

### Verse 13

[¶25] He carried out thence all the treasures - It has been remarked that Nebuchadnezzar spoiled the temple three times. -

[¶26] 1. He took away the greater part of those treasures when he took Jerusalem under Jehoiakim: and the vessels that he took then he placed in the temple of his god, [Dan 1:2]. And these were the vessels which Belshazzar profaned, [Dan 5:2]; and which Cyrus restored to Ezra, when he went up to Jerusalem, [Ezr 1:2]. It was at this time that he took Daniel and his companions.

[¶27] 2. He took the remaining part of those vessels, and broke them or cut them in pieces, when he came the second tine against Jerusalem under Jeconiah; as is mentioned here, [2Kgs 24:13].

[¶28] 3. He pillaged the temple, took away all the brass, the brazen pillars, brazen vessels, and vessels of gold and silver, which he found there when he besieged Jerusalem under Zedekiah, [2Kgs 25:13-17].

### Verse 14

[¶30] He carried away all Jerusalem - That is, all the chief men, the nobles, and artificers. Among these there were of mighty men seven thousand; of craftsmen and smiths, one thousand.

### Verse 17

[¶32] Made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead - He was the son of Josiah, and brother to Jehoiakim.

[¶33] Changed his name to Zedekiah - See the note on [2Kgs 23:34].

### Verse 19

[¶35] He did - evil - How astonishing is this! not one of them takes warning by the judgments of God, which fell on their sinful predecessors.

### Verse 20

[¶37] Zedekiah rebelled - This was in the eighth year of his reign: and he is strongly reproved for having violated the oath he took to the king of Babylon: see [2Chr 36:13]. This was the filling up of the measure of iniquity; and now the wrath of God descends upon this devoted king, city, and people, to the uttermost. See the catastrophe in the next chapter.

### Introduction

[¶39] Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem; it is taken, after having been sorely reduced by famine, etc.; and Zedekiah, endeavoring to make his escape, is made prisoner, his sons slain before his eyes; then, his eyes being put out, he is put in chains and carried to Babylon, [2Kgs 25:1-7]. Nebuzar-adan burns the temple, breaks down the walls of Jerusalem, and carries away the people captives, leaving only a few to till the ground, [2Kgs 25:8-12]. He takes away all the brass, and all the vessels of the temple, [2Kgs 25:13-17]. Several of the chief men and nobles found in the city, he brings to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, who puts them all to death, [2Kgs 25:18-21]. Nebuchadnezzar makes Gedaliah governor over the poor people that were left, against whom Ishmael rises, and slays him, and others with him; on which the people in general, fearing the resentment of the Chaldeans, flee to Egypt, [2Kgs 25:22-26]. Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, releases Jehoiachin out of prison, treats him kindly, and makes him his friend, [2Kgs 25:27-30].

### Verse 2

[¶41] And the city was besieged, etc. - Nebuchadnezzar, having routed the Egyptian army, returned to Jerusalem, and besieged it so closely that, being reduced by famine, and a breach made in the wall, the Chaldeans entered it on the ninth day of the fourth month, (Wednesday, July 27), Zedekiah and many others endeavoring to make their escape by night.

### Verse 5

[¶43] The army of the Chaldeans pursued - Zedekiah was taken, and brought captive to Riblah in Syria, where Nebuchadnezzar then lay, who ordered his sons to be slain before his face, and then put out his eyes; and having loaded him with chains, sent him to Babylon, (see [Jer 39:4], [Jer 39:7]; [Jer 52:7], [Jer 52:11]), thus fulfilling the prophetic declarations, that his eyes should see the eyes of the king of Babylon, [Jer 32:4]; [Jer 34:3]; but Babylon he should not see, though he was to die there; [Eze 12:13].

## 399. 2 Kings · 30 of 30

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### Verse 8

[¶1] In the fifth month - On the seventh day of the fifth month, (answering to Wednesday, Aug. 24), Nebuzar-adan made his entry into the city; and having spent two days in making provision, on the tenth day of the same month, (Saturday, Aug. 27), he set fire to the temple and the king's palace, and the houses of the nobility, and burnt them to the ground; [Jer 52:13], compared with [Jer 39:8]. Thus the temple was destroyed in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, the first of the XLVIIIth Olympiad, in the one hundred and sixtieth current year of the era of Nabonassar, four hundred and twenty-four years three months and eight days from the time in which Solomon laid its foundation stone.

### Verse 10

[¶3] Brake down the walls - In the same fifth month, [Jer 1:3], the walls of Jerusalem being razed to the ground, all that were left in the city, and all that had fled over formerly to Nebuchadnezzar, and all the common people of the city, with all the king's treasures, those of the nobles, and the whole furniture of the temple, did Nebuzar-adan carry off to Babylon. See [Jer 39:8], [Jer 39:9]; [Jer 52:14], [Jer 52:23]. And thus was Judah carried away out of her own land, four hundred and sixty-eight years after David began to reign over it; from the division of the ten tribes three hundred and eighty-eight years; and from the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, one hundred and thirty-four years; A.M. 3416, and before Christ five hundred and ninety. And thus ends what is called the fifth age of the world. See Usher's Annals.

### Verse 18

[¶5] Seraiah the chief priest - Zephaniah - The person who is here called the second priest was what the Jews call sagan, a sort of deputy, who performed the functions of the high priest when he was prevented by any infirmity from attending the temple service. See on [2Kgs 23:4] (note).

### Verse 19

[¶7] And five men of them that were in the king's presence - These were principal counselors, and confidential officers.

[¶8] In [Jer 52:25], it is said he took seven men who were near the king's person, and the same number is found in the Arabic in this place; and the Chaldee has no less than fifty men; but in Jeremiah this, as well as all the rest of the versions, reads seven. Probably they were no more than five at first, or, perhaps Jeremiah reckoned with the five the officer that was set over the men of war, and the principal scribe of the host mentioned here, as two with the five; and thus made seven in the whole.

### Verse 21

[¶10] The king of Babylon smote them - He had, no doubt, found that these had counselled Zedekiah to revolt.

### Verse 22

[¶12] Made Gedaliah - ruler - This was no regal dignity; he was only a sort of hind or overseer, appointed to regulate the husbandmen.

### Verse 23

[¶14] To Mizpah - This is said to have been situated on the east side of the river Jordan, and most contiguous to Babylon, and therefore the most proper for the residence of Gedaliah, because nearest to the place from which he was to receive his instructions. But there were several places of this name, and we do not exactly know where this was situated.

### Verse 24

[¶16] Gedaliah sware to them - He pledged himself in the most solemn manner to encourage and protect them.

### Verse 25

[¶18] Smote Gedaliah - This was at an entertainment which Gedaliah had made for them; see [Jer 41:1], etc. He was not content with this murder, but slew fourscore more, who were coming with offerings to the temple, and took several as prisoners, among whom were some of the king's daughters; and set off to go to the Ammonites: but Johanan, the son of Careah, hearing of these outrages, raised a number of men, and pursued Ishmael upon which Ishmael's prisoners immediately turned and joined Johanan; so that he, and eight of his accomplices, with difficulty escaped to the Ammonites. See [Jer 41:1], etc. Baalis, king of the Ammonites, had sent Ishmael to murder Gedaliah; and of this he was informed by Johanan, who offered to prevent it, by taking away the life of this murderer. But Gedaliah could not believe that he harbored such foul designs, and therefore took no precaution to save his life. See [Jer 40:13-16].

### Verse 27

[¶20] And it came to pass - Nebuchadnezzar was just now dead; and Evil-merodach, his son, succeeded to the kingdom in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin: and on the seven and twentieth day [Jeremiah says five and twentieth] of the twelfth month of that year, (Tuesday, April 15, A.M. 3442), he brought the long captivated Jewish king out of prison; treated him kindly; and ever after, during his life, reckoned him among the king's friends. This is particularly related in the four last verses of the book of Jeremiah.

### Verse 30

[¶22] A continual allowance given him of the king - He lived in a regal style, and had his court even in the city of Babylon, being supplied with every requisite by the munificence and friendship of the king. In about two years after this, Evil-merodach was slain in a conspiracy; and it is supposed that Jehoiachin, then about fifty-eight years of age, fell with his friend and protector. Thus terminates the catastrophe of the Jewish kings, people, and state; the consequence of unheard-of rebellions and provocations against the Majesty of heaven.

### Verse 1

[¶24] In the ninth year of his reign - Zedekiah, having revolted against the Chaldeans, Nebuchadnezzar, wearied with his treachery, and the bad faith of the Jews, determined the total subversion of the Jewish state. Having assembled a numerous army, he entered Judea on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah; this, according to the computation of Archbishop Usher, was on Thursday, January 30, A.M. 3414, which was a sabbatical year: whereon the men of Jerusalem hearing that the Chaldean army was approaching, proclaimed liberty to their servants; see [Jer 34:8-10], according to the law, [Exo 21:2]; [Deu 15:1], [Deu 15:2], [Deu 15:12] : for Nebuchadnezzar, marching with his army against Zedekiah, having wasted all the country, and taken their strong holds, except Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem, came against the latter with all his forces. See [Jer 34:1-7]. On the very day, as the same author computes, the siege and utter destruction of Jerusalem were revealed to Ezekiel the prophet, then in Chaldea, under the type of a seething pot; and his wife died in the evening, and he was charged not to mourn for her, because of the extraordinary calamity that had fallen upon the land. See [Eze 24:1], [Eze 24:2], etc.

[¶25] Jeremiah, having predicted the same calamities, [Jer 34:1-7], was by the command of Zedekiah shut up in prison, Jeremiah 32:1-16.

[¶26] Pharaoh Hophra, or Vaphris, hearing how Zedekiah was pressed, and fearing for the safety of his own dominions should the Chaldeans succeed against Jerusalem, determined to succor Zedekiah. Finding this, the Chaldeans raised the siege of Jerusalem, and went to meet the Egyptian army, which they defeated and put to flight. Joseph. Antiq., lib. 10, cap. 10. In the interim the Jews, thinking their danger was passed, reclaimed their servants, and put them again under the yoke; [Jer 34:8], etc.

## 400. 1 Chronicles · 1 of 19

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### Preface to the Two Books of Chronicles

[¶1] Anciently these two books were considered but as one: for this we have not only the testimony of St. Jerome, but also that of the Masoretes, who gave the sum of all the sections, chapters, and verses, under one notation at the end of the second book, without mentioning any division; and although the modern Jews divide them, yet they give the Masoretic enumeration of sections, etc., as it was given of old; and all editors of the Masoretic Bibles, whether Jewish or Christian, follow the same plan.

[¶2] These books have had several names. In Hebrew they are denominated דברי הימים dibrey haiyamim; literally, The Words of the Days, i.e., The Journals, particularly of the kings of Israel and kings of Judah. But this name does not appear to have been given by the inspired writer.

[¶3] The Syriac has, The Book of the Transactions in the days of the Kings of Judah: which is called, Dibrey Yamim; referring to the Hebrew title.

[¶4] The Arabic has, The Book of the Annals, which is called in Hebrew, Dibrey Haiyamim.

[¶5] The Septuagint has, παραλειπομενων, of the things that were left or omitted; supposing that these books were a supplement either to Samuel and to the books of Kings, or to the whole Bible. To this the Greek translators might have been led by finding that these books in their time closed the Sacred Canon, as they still do in the most correct editions of the Hebrew Bible.

[¶6] The Vulgate uses the same term as the Septuagint, referring, like the Syriac and Arabic, to the Hebrew name.

[¶7] In our English Bibles these books are termed Chronicles, from the Greek χρονικα, from χρονος, i.e., A History of Times; or, as the matter of the work shows, "A History of Times, Kingdoms, States, Religion, etc., with an Account of the most memorable Persons and Transactions of those Times and Nations." Concerning the author of these books, nothing certain is known. Some think they are the works of different authors; but the uniformity of the style, the connection of the facts, together with the recapitulations and reflections which are often made, prove that they are the work of one and the same person.

[¶8] The Jews, and Christian interpreters in general, believe they were the work of Ezra, assisted by the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. That Ezra was the author is, on the whole, the most probable opinion. That he lived at the conclusion of the Babylonish captivity is well known; and the second book of Chronicles terminates at that period, barely reciting the decree of Cyrus to permit the return of the captivated Israelites to their own land; which subject is immediately taken up in the book of Ezra, in which the operation of that decree is distinctly marked.

[¶9] There are words and terms, both in Chronicles and Ezra, which are similar, and prove that each was written after the captivity, and probably by the same person, as those terms were not in use previously to that time, and some of them are peculiar to Ezra himself: e.g., we have כפורי זהב kipporey zahab, "golden cups;" [Ezr 1:10]; [Ezr 8:27]; and in [1Chr 28:17]; and דרכמון darkemon or drakmon, "a drachma" or; drachm, [1Chr 29:7]; [Ezr 2:69]; [Neh 7:70]; and רפסדות raphsodoth, "rafts" or floats, [2Chr 2:16], widely differing from דברות doberoth, [1Kgs 5:9], which we there translate in the same way. Calmet considers these words as strong evidence that these books were the work of Ezra, and penned after the captivity.

[¶10] We are not to suppose that these books are the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel so often referred to in the historical books of the Old Testament; these have been long lost, and the books before us can only be abridgments, either of such chronicles, or of works of a similar kind.

[¶11] That the ancient Jews took great care to register their civil, military, and ecclesiastical transactions, is sufficiently evident from frequent reference to such works in the sacred writings; and that these registers were carefully and correctly formed, we learn from the character of the persons by whom they were compiled: they were in general prophets, and seem to have been employed by the kings under whom they lived to compile the annals of their reigns; or most likely this was considered a part of the prophet's regular office.

[¶12] Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, wrote under the reign of David; [1Chr 29:29].

[¶13] The acts of the reign of Solomon were written by Nathan, Ahijah, and Iddo; [2Chr 9:29].

[¶14] Shemaiah and Iddo wrote those of Rehoboam; [2Chr 12:15].

[¶15] Iddo wrote also those of Abijah; [2Chr 13:22].

[¶16] It is likely that Hanani the seer wrote those of Asa; [2Chr 16:7].

[¶17] Jehu the prophet, the son of Hanani, [1Kgs 16:1], [1Kgs 16:7], wrote the acts of Jehoshaphat; [2Chr 20:34]. Under this same reign we find Jahaziel the prophet, [2Chr 20:14]; and Eliezer the prophet, [2Chr 20:37].

[¶18] Isaiah recorded the transactions of Uzziah, [2Chr 26:22]; and those of Hezekiah, [2Chr 32:32]; and of Ahaz, of whose reign we find the principal facts in the fifth, sixth, and ninth chapters of his prophecies. Under this reign we find Oded the prophet, [2Chr 28:9].

[¶19] Hosea wrote the history of the reign of Manasseh. See [2Chr 33:19], in the margin.

[¶20] And Jeremiah wrote the history of Josiah and his descendants, the last kings of Judah.

[¶21] This was such a succession of historians as no nation of the world could ever boast. Men, all of whom wrote under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit; some of whom had minds the most highly cultivated, and of the most extraordinary powers. Whether the prophets who flourished in the reigns of the kings of Israel wrote the annals of those kings, we know not, because it is not positively declared. We know that Ahijah the Shilonite lived under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; [1Kgs 11:29]; [1Kgs 14:2]; and Jehu, son of Hanani, under Baasha; [1Kgs 16:7].

[¶22] Elijah and many others flourished under the reign of Ahab. Elisha, Jonah, and many more, succeeded him in the prophetic office.

[¶23] Besides these prophets and prophetic men, we find other persons, whose office it was to record the transactions of the kings under whom they lived. These were called secretaries or recorders; so, under David and Solomon, Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder. מזכיר mazkir, "remembrancer;" [2Sam 8:16], and [1Chr 18:15]. And under Hezekiah we find Joah, the son of Asaph; [2Kgs 18:18]. And under Josiah, Joah the son of Joahaz, who filled the office; [2Chr 34:8].

[¶24] The real object of the author of these books is not very easy to be ascertained. But it is evident that he never could have intended them as a supplement to the preceding books, as he relates many of the same circumstances which occur in them, and often in greater detail; and, except by way of amplification, adds very little that can be called new, and omits many things of importance, not only in the ancient history of the Israelites, but even of those mentioned in the preceding books of Samuel and Kings. Nine chapters of his work are occupied with extensive genealogical tables, but even these are far from being perfect. His history, properly speaking, does not begin till the tenth chapter, and then it commences abruptly with the last unsuccessful battle of Saul and his death, but not a word of his history.

[¶25] Though the writer gives many curious and important particulars in the life of David, yet he passes by his adultery with Bath-sheba, and all its consequences. He says nothing of the incest of Amnon with his sister Tamar, nor a word of the rebellion and abominations of Absalom. He says very little of the kings of Israel, and takes no notice of what concerned that state, from the capture of Amaziah king of Judah by Joash king of Israel; [2Chr 25:17], etc. And of the last wars of these kings, which terminated in the captivity of the ten tribes, he says not one word!

[¶26] The principal design of the writer appears to have been this: to point out, from the public registers, which were still preserved, what had been the state of the different families previously to the captivity, that at their return they might enter on and repossess their respective inheritances. He enters particularly into the functions, genealogies, families, and orders of the priests and Levites; and this was peculiarly necessary after the return from the captivity, to the end that the worship of God might be conducted in the same way as before, and by the proper legitimate persons.

[¶27] He is also very particular relative to what concerns religion, the worship of God, the temple and its utensils, the kings who authorized or tolerated idolatry, and those who maintained the worship of the true God. In his distribution of praise and blame, these are the qualities which principally occupy his attention, and influence his pen.

[¶28] It may be necessary to say something here concerning the utility of these books. That they are in this respect in low estimation, we may learn from the manner in which they are treated by commentators: they say very little concerning them, and suppose the subject has been anticipated in the books of Samuel and Kings. That the persons who treat them thus have never studied them, is most evident, else their judgment would be widely different. Whatever history these books possess, in common with the books of Samuel and Kings, may, in a commentary, be fairly introduced in the examination of the latter; and this I have endeavored to do, as the reader may have already seen. But there are various details, and curious facts and observations, which must be considered in these books alone: nor will a slight mention of such circumstances do them justice.

[¶29] St. Jerome had the most exalted opinion of the books of Chronicles. According to him, "they are an epitome of the Old Testament." He asserts, that "they are of such high moment and importance, that he who supposes himself to be acquainted with the sacred writings, and does not know them, only deceives himself; and that innumerable questions relative to the Gospel are here explained." Paralipomenon liber, id est, Instrumenti Veteris επιτομη, tantus ac talis est, ut abeque illo, si quis scientiam Scripturarum sibi voluerit arrogare, seipsum irrideat. Per singula quippe nomina, juncturasque verborum, et praetermissae in Regum libris tanguntur historiae, et innumerabiles explicantur Evangelii Quaetiones. - Epis. Secund. ad Paulinum Presbyterum., Oper. Edit. Benedict. vol. iv., col. 574. And in another place he asserts, that "all Scripture knowledge is contained in these books;" Omnis eruditio Scripturarum in hoc libro continetur. - Praefat. in lib. Paral. justa Septuaginta Interpret Oper. Edit. Bened., vol. i., col. 1418. This may be going too far; but St. Jerome believed that there was a mystery and meaning in every proper name, whether of man, woman, city, or country, in the book. And yet he complains greatly of the corruption of those names, some having been divided, so as to make two or three names out of one, and sometimes names condensed, so as of three names to make but one. To cure this evil he labored hard, and did much; but still the confusion is great, and in many cases past remedy. To assist the reader in this respect I wish to refer him to the marginal readings and parallel texts, which are here carefully represented in the inner margin; these should be constantly consulted, as they serve to remove many difficulties and reconcile several seeming contradictions. In addition to these helps I have carefully examined the different ancient versions, and the various readings in the MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi, which often help to remove such difficulties.

[¶30] There is one mode of exposition which I have applied to these books, which has not, as far as I know, been as yet used: I mean the Targum, or Chaldee Paraphrase, of Rabbi Joseph. It is well known to all oriental scholars, that a Chaldee Targum, or Paraphrase, has been found and published in the Polyglots, on every book of the Old Testament, purely Hebrew, the books of Chronicles excepted. Neither in the Complutensian, Antwerp, Parisian, nor London Polyglot, is such a Targum to be found; none having been discovered when these works were published. But shortly after the London Polyglot was finished, a MS. was found in the University of Cambridge, containing the Targum on these books: this, with several other pieces, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, etc., Dr. Samuel Clarke collected, and intended to publish, as a supplementary volume to the Polyglot, but was prevented by premature death. The MS. was afterwards copied by Mr. David Wilkins, and printed, with a Latin translation, at Amsterdam, quarto, 1715. Of this work the reader will find I have made a liberal use, as I have of the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, on the preceding books. Rabbi Joseph, the author, lived about three hundred years after the destruction of the second temple, or about a.d. 400. The MS. in question formerly belonged to the celebrated Erpen, and was purchased by the duke of Buckingham, then Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and by him presented to the public library of that University.

[¶31] It is worthy of remark, that the term מימרא meymera, "word," and מימרא דיי meymera dayeya, "the word of Jehovah," is used personally in this Targum; never as a word spoken, but as a Person acting: see the notes on [Joh 1:1].

[¶32] The first book of Chronicles contains a sort of genealogical history from the creation of the world to the death of David, A.M. 2989.

[¶33] The genealogy of Adam to Noah, [1Chr 1:1-3]. Of Noah to Abraham, vv. 4-27. The sons of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac, [1Chr 1:28]. The sons of Ishmael, [1Chr 1:29], [1Chr 1:33]. The sons of Esau, [1Chr 1:34-42]. A list of the kings of Edom, [1Chr 1:43-50]. A list of the dukes of Edom, [1Chr 1:51-54].

### Verse 1

[¶35] Adam, Sheth, Enosh - That is, Adam was the father of Sheth or Seth. Seth was the father of Enosh, Enosh the father of Kenan, and so on. No notice is taken of Cain and Abel, or of any of the other sons of Adam. One line of patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, is what the historian intended to give; and to have mentioned the posterity of Cain or Abel would have been useless, as Noah was not the immediate descendant of either. Besides, all their posterity had perished in the deluge, none remaining of the Adamic family but Noah and his children; and from these all the nations of the earth sprang.

[¶36] How learned must those men be who can take for a text "The first verse of the first chapter of the first book of Chronicles." and find a mystery in each name; which, in the aggregate, amounts to a full view of the original perfection, subsequent fall, consequent misery, and final restoration, of Man! O ye profound illustrators of the names of men and cities! why do ye not give us the key of your wisdom, write comments, and enlighten the world?

### Verse 5

[¶38] After Tiras, the Targum adds, "And the names of their countries were Africa, and Germany, and Media, and Macedonia, Bithynia, and Maesia, and Thrace." And in another copy, "Germany, Getia, and Media, and Ephesus, Bithynia, and Maesia, and Thrace."

### Verse 6

[¶40] To this verse the Targum adds, "And the names of their countries were Asia, and Persia, and Barbary.

### Verse 7

[¶42] The sons of Javan - "But the sons of Macedon, Alsu, and Tarsus, Ilation, and Dardania, or, according to others, Elisha, Alam, Titsas, Achzavia, and Dardania, Ridom, and Chamen, and Antioch." So says this Targum, which I shall henceforth designate by the letter T.

### Verse 8

[¶44] The sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim - "Arabia and Egypt." - T.

## 401. 1 Chronicles · 2 of 19

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### Verse 9

[¶1] Seba, and Havilah - "Sindi and Hindi, and Semadaei, and Libyes and the Zingitae; but the sons of the Mauritanians, Demargad and Mesag." - T.

### Verse 10

[¶3] He began to be mighty upon the earth - "He began to be bold in sin, a murderer of the innocent, and a rebel before the Lord." - T.

### Verse 11

[¶5] Ludim, etc. - "The Nivitaei, the Mariotaei, the Libakaei, and the Pentaskenaei." - T.

### Verse 12

[¶7] Caphthorim - "The Cappadocians." - T.

### Verse 13

[¶9] Canaan begat Zidon - "Canaan begat Bothniam, his first-born, who built Sidon." - T.

### Verse 19

[¶11] The name of the one was Peleg - "Because in his days the inhabitants of the earth were divided according to their languages. And the name of his brother was Joktan, because in his days the years of men began to be shortened, on account of their iniquities." - T.

### Verse 20

[¶13] Joktan begat Almodad - "He divided and measured the earth by lines. Sheleph; he assigned rivers to be boundaries. Hazarmaveth; he prepared a place of snares to kill by the highways. Jerah; he built inns, and when any person came to eat and drink, he gave him deadly poison, and so took his property." - T.

[¶14] According to these traditions, the two first were geographers; the third, a public robber; and the fourth, an unprincipled innkeeper, who gave poison to his rich guests, that he might get their property. Such things have been done even in modern times.

### Verse 23

[¶16] And Ophir - "Whence gold is brought." And Havilah; "whence pearls are brought." - T.

### Verse 24

[¶18] Shem - "The great priest." - T.

### Verse 32

[¶20] Keturah, Abraham's concubine - Abraham's pilegesh, or wife of the second rank; she was neither whore, harlot, nor concubine, in our sense of these words.

### Verse 43

[¶22] Before any king reigned over - Israel - See [Gen 36:31] (note), etc., where the same verses occur, as I have supposed borrowed from this place; and see the notes there.

[¶23] Bela the son of Beor - "Balaam the impious son of Beor, the same as Laban the Syrian, who formed a confederacy with the sons of Esau, to destroy Jacob and his children; and he studied to destroy them utterly. Afterwards he reigned in Sodom; and the name of his royal city was Dinhabah, because it was undeservedly given to him." - T.

### Verse 44

[¶25] Bela was dead - "Being killed by Phineas, in the wilderness." - T.

[¶26] Jobab the son of Zerah - Supposed by some to be the same as Job, whose book forms a part of the canon of Scripture. But in their names there is no similarity; Job being written איוב aiyob; Jobab, יובב yobab. See the notes on Job, and the parallel place in Genesis.

### Verse 46

[¶28] Smote Midian - Nothing is known of this war.

### Verse 48

[¶30] By the river - "Shaul of Plathiutha, a great city, built on the banks of the Euphrates." - T.

### Verse 50

[¶32] Daughter of Mezahab - This word מי זהב mey zahab, is literally the golden waters; or What is gold? The Targumist paraphrases thus: "Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, was so earnest and diligent in business that she became immensely rich; but when she was converted, she said, What is this silver, and What is this gold? That is, They are of no real worth.

### Verse 51

[¶34] Hadad died - "And his kingdom ended; for his land was subdued by the children of Esau, and the dukes of Edom ruled in the land of Gebala." - T.

[¶35] For various particulars in this chapter, see Genesis 10 (note) and Genesis 36 (note), and the parallel places.

### Introduction

[¶37] The twelve sons of Jacob, [1Chr 2:1], [1Chr 2:2]. The posterity of Judah down to David, [1Chr 2:3-15]. The posterity of the children of Jesse and Caleb, vv. 16-55.

### Verse 1

[¶39] These are the sons of Israel - For this genealogy see the parallel places at [Gen 29:32]; [Gen 30:5]; [Gen 35:18], [Gen 35:22]; [Gen 46:8], etc.

### Verse 6

[¶41] Five of them in all - "These were all chief men; and on them the spirit of prophecy rested." - T.

### Verse 17

[¶43] Jether the Ishmeelite - "They called him Jether, because he girded himself with his sword, that he might assist David with the Arabians, when Abner was endeavoring to destroy David and the whole race of Jesse, as being unfit to enter into the congregation of the Lord, on account of Ruth the Moabitess." - T.

## 402. 1 Chronicles · 3 of 19

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### Verse 18

[¶1] Azubah - "And why was she called Azubah? Because she was barren and despised. But her injury was manifested before the Lord; and she was comforted, and adorned with wisdom; and she span, skilfully, goats' hair for the court of the tabernacle." - T.

### Verse 20

[¶3] Uri begat Bezaleel - This was probably the famous artist mentioned [Exo 31:2] (note), etc., where see the notes.

### Verse 34

[¶5] Whose name was Jarha - "And he gave him his liberty, and gave him Sheshan his daughter to wife." - T.

### Verse 42

[¶7] Now the sons of Caleb - This was not Caleb the son of Jephunneh, but Caleb the son of Hezron, [1Chr 2:18], [1Chr 2:50]. But some think that Caleb the son of Hezron was the grandson of Caleb, son of Jephunneh; but this is probably fanciful.

[¶8] The father of Ziph - "The prince of the Ziphites." - T.

### Verse 52

[¶10] Shobal - had sons - "Disciples and priests, to whom belonged the half of the oblations." - T.

### Verse 53

[¶12] The families of Kirjath-jearim - "These were the children of Moses, which Zipporah bare to him, viz., the Jethrites, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites; of these came the disciples of the prophets Zarah and Eshtaol." - T.

### Verse 54

[¶14] The sons of Salma - "The righteous Bethlehemites, who had a good name, as the Netophathites, who removed the guards which Jeroboam had placed in the way lest the people should carry the first-fruits to Jerusalem: for the sons of Salma carried baskets full of first-fruits privately to Jerusalem; and having cloven wood, they made ladders, and brought them to Jerusalem to be laid up in Beth-mokad for oblations. These came from the lineage of Joab the son of Zeruiah; and some of them were priests; and they divided the residue of the sacrifices with the sons of the prophets who were in Zorah." - T.

### Verse 55

[¶16] The families - "The families of the Rechabites, the sons of Eliezer the son of Misco, the disciple of Jabez; he was Othniel, the son of Kenaz. And he was called Jabez, because in his council he instituted a school of disciples; they were called Tirathim, because in their hymns their voice was like trumpets; and Shimathim, because in hearing they lifted up their faces, i.e., in prayer; and Suchathim, because they were overshadowed by the Spirit of prophecy. These Salmaei were the children of Zipporah, who were numbered among the Levites who came from the stock of Moses, the master of Israel, whose righteousness profited them more than chariots and horses." - T. See on [1Chr 4:9-10] (note).

[¶17] Is the above explanation of Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Suchathites, the Targumist refers to the import of the Hebrew roots, whence these names are derived. See [1Chr 4:10]. In this chapter many names of cities are given as the names of men.

### Introduction

[¶19] The children of David which were born to him in Hebron, [1Chr 3:1-4]. Those born to him in Jerusalem, [1Chr 3:5-9]. The regal line from Solomon, [1Chr 3:10-24].

### Verse 1

[¶21] The second, Daniel - In [2Sam 3:3], this person is called Chileab; he probably had two names. The Targum says, "The second, Daniel, who was also called Chileab, because he was in every respect like to his father." The Targumist refers here to the import of the word כלאב ke-le-ab, like to the father. Jarchi says the two names were given to this person because David, having taken Abigail immediately after the death of Nabal, it could not be ascertained whether this child were the son of David or of Nabal, therefore David called him דניאל Daniel, God is my Judge, and כלאב Chileab, he who is like to the father; probably from the striking resemblance he bore to David, his reputed father. "God is my Judge, I have not fathered another man's child; this is entirely like unto myself.

### Verse 3

[¶23] By Eglah his wide - The Targum, Jarchi, and others, maintain that this was Michal, the daughter of Saul; but this does not well agree with [2Sam 6:23] : Michal had no child to the day of her death. Yet she might have had a child before the time that is mentioned above.

### Verse 5

[¶25] Shimea, and Shobab - Solomon is mentioned last, though he was the eldest of these four sons, because the genealogy was to be continued from him. Bath-shua בת שוע is the same as Bath-sheba, בת שבע the ו vau being put by mistake in the former for ב beth in the latter.

### Verse 6

[¶27] Elishama, and Eliphelet - In this and the eighth verse these two names occur twice; some think this is a mistake, but others suppose that two persons of these names died young, and that the next born received the name of the deceased. - See Jarchi.

### Verse 8

[¶29] Nine - There are thirteen if we count the four sons of Bath-sheba, and nine without them; and in the second book of Samuel there are eleven, reckoning the above four, and without them only seven. In the book of Samuel probably only those who were alive were reckoned, while the author of the Chronicles comprises those also who were dead in this enumeration. Jarchi supposes that the duplicate Elishama and Eliphelet are those which increase the regular number seven to nine; and that the dead without posterity, as well as the living, are mentioned to increase the number of David's descendants; for, says he, the whole book is written for the honor of David and his seed.

### Verse 9

[¶31] And Tamar their sister - This is the only daughter of David whose name is on record; and yet he is said to have had both Sons and Daughters, [2Sam 5:13].

### Verse 16

[¶33] Zedekiah his son - If this be the same who was the last king of Judah, before the captivity, the word son must be taken here to signify successor; for it is certain that Zedekiah was the successor of Jeconiah, and that Zedekiah was the son of Josiah, and not of Jehoiakim.

### Verse 17

[¶35] The sons of Jeconiah - Jeremiah has said ([Jer 22:30]) that Jeconiah, or, as he calls him, Coniah, should be childless; but this must refer to his posterity being deprived of the throne, and indeed thus the prophet interprets it himself: For no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

[¶36] Assir - Salathiel was not the son of Assir, but of Jeconiah, [Mat 1:12]. Who then was Assir? Possibly nobody; for as the Hebrew אסר assir signifies a prisoner, it may be considered as an epithet of Jeconiah, who we know was a very long time prisoner in Babylon. See [2Kgs 24:15] and Calmet.

### Verse 18

[¶38] Malchiram also - Calmet supposes we should read here, And the sons of Salathiel were Malchiram and Pedaiah, etc.

### Verse 19

[¶40] The sons of Pedaiah - Houbigant thinks these words should be omitted. Pedaiah is wanting in the Arabic and Syriac. If this be omitted, Zerubbabel will appear to be the son of Salathiel, according to [Mat 1:12], and not the son of Pedaiah, as here stated.

### Verse 22

[¶42] The sons of Shemaiah - six - Five only are found in the text, and the versions give us no assistance; neither do the MSS. correct the place. If the father be not here included with his sons, some name must be lost out of the text.

### Verse 24

[¶44] And Anani - "This is the King Messiah who is to be revealed." - T. Jarchi says the same, and refers to [Dan 7:13] : Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds (ענני ananey) of heaven. For this application of the word he gives a fanciful reason, not worthy to be repeated. The Syriac and Arabic omit several names in this table, and make only twenty-three verses in the chapter: but such differences are frequent in the books of Chronicles.

## 403. 1 Chronicles · 4 of 19

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### Introduction

[¶1] A second genealogy of Judah, vv. 1-23. The account of Jabez, [1Chr 4:9], [1Chr 4:10]. The genealogy of Simeon, [1Chr 4:24-27]. Their cities, [1Chr 4:28-31]. Their villages, and where situated, [1Chr 4:32], [1Chr 4:33]. The heads of families, [1Chr 4:34-38]. Where they settled; and what was their occupation, [1Chr 4:39-43].

### Verse 1

[¶3] The sons of Judah - A genealogy of this tribe has already been given in the second chapter. It is here introduced again, with some variations. Probably there were different copies in the public registers; and the writer of this book, finding that this second one contained some remarkable particulars, thought proper to insert it in this place: and no reader will regret the insertion, when he carefully considers the matter.

### Verse 3

[¶5] These were of the father of Etam - "And these are the rabbins (doctors) living at Etam, Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash." - T.

### Verse 7

[¶7] And Ethnan - After this word we should, with the Targum, read Coz, whose posterity is mentioned in the next verse. Coz was probably the same as Kenaz.

### Verse 8

[¶9] The son of Harum - Jabez should be mentioned at the end of this verse, else he is as a consequent without an antecedent.

### Verse 9

[¶11] And Jabez was more honorable - This whole account is variously understood by some of the principal versions. I shall subjoin a translation of each.

[¶12] Septuagint. - "And Igabes was more glorious than his brethren; and his mother called his name Igabes, saying, I have brought thee forth as Gabes. And Igabes invoked the God of Israel, saying, If in blessing thou wilt bless me, and enlarge my borders, and thy hand be with me, and wilt give me understanding not to depress me: and God brought about all that he requested."

[¶13] Syriac. - "And one of these was dear to his father and to his mother; and he called his name ainai, My Eye. And he said to him, In blessing may the Lord bless thee, and enlarge thy boundary; and may his hand be with thee; and may he preserve thee from evil, that it may not rule over thee; and may he give to thee whatsoever thou shalt request of him!"

[¶14] Arabic. - "And this one (Hastahar or Harum) was beloved of his father and his mother: and they called his name aina, My Eye; and they said unto him, May the Lord bless thee, and multiply thy people, and may his hand be present with thee, because thou wast born in Beth-lehem!"

[¶15] These two latter versions seem to have copied each other, and the Vulgate is nearly, like ours, a literal rendering of the Hebrew; but the Chaldee is widely different from all the rest: -

[¶16] Chaldee. - "And Jabets also, he is Othniel, honorable and skilled in the law beyond his brethren, whose mother called his name Jabets, because she had borne him with sorrow. And Jabets prayed to the God of Israel, saying, O that in blessing thou wouldest bless me with children, and enlarge my borders with disciples; and that thy hand may be with me in business, that thou mayest make me like to my companions, that evil concupiscence may the less grieve me! And the Lord granted that which he prayed for."

[¶17] Of this honorable person we know nothing but what is here mentioned, nor does the name occur in any other part of Scripture except in [1Chr 2:55], where it appears to be the name of a place, but is understood by the Chaldee to be the name of a person, as here. Though I have noticed this particularly in the note on that place, yet I think it right to add the Chaldee here, that all that concerns this worthy person may be seen at one view: - [1Chr 2:55] : "The families of the Rechabites, the son of Eliezer, the son of Moses, the disciples of Jabets; he was Othniel, the son of Kenaz. And he was called Jabets, יעבץ Yabets, because in his counsel [בעיצתיה beqtsatih, from יעץ yaats, he counselled, advised, etc.] he instituted a school for disciples. They were called Tirathim, תרעתים, because in their hymns their voices were like trumpets, [from רע ra, to sound like a trumpet; see [Num 10:9]; [2Chr 13:12]], and Shimathim, שמעתים, because in hearing, they lifted up their faces, i.e. in prayer, [from שמע shama, he heard, hearkened], and Suchathim, שוכתים, because they were overshadowed with the spirit of prophecy, [from שך sach, a tabernacle, or extended covering]." For farther particulars, see at the end of this chapter, [1Chr 4:43] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶19] These are the men of Rechah - "These are the men of the great Sanhedrin." - T.

### Verse 15

[¶21] Caleb the son of Jephunneh - We have already met with this eminent person in [Num 13:6], [Num 13:30]; [Num 14:24], and elsewhere; and seen his courageous piety and inflexible integrity. The Targum says here, "They called him Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, because he had purged his soul from the counsel of the spies.

### Verse 18

[¶23] And his wife Jehudijah - The Targum considers the names in this verse as epithets of Moses: "And his wife Jehuditha educated Moses after she had drawn him out of the water: and she called his name Jered, because he caused the manna to descend upon Israel; and Prince Gedor, because he restored the desolations of Israel; Heber also, because he joined Israel to their heavenly Father; and Prince Socho, because he overshadowed Israel with his righteousness, and Jekuthiel, because the Israelites waited on the God of heaven in his time, forty years in the desert; and prince Zanoah, because God, on his account, had passed by the sins of Israel. These names Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, called him by the spirit of prophecy, for she became a proselyte; and Mered took her to himself to wife: he is Caleb, and was so called because he opposed the counsel of the spies." - T. A similar explanation is given by Jarchi.

### Verse 21

[¶25] That wrought fine linen - "Of the family of those who worked in fine flax to make garments for kings and priests." - T.

### Verse 22

[¶27] And Joash, and Saraph - "And the prophets and scribes which sprang from the seed of Joshua, and the Gibeonites, whose office it was to serve in the house of the sanctuary, because they had lied to the princes of Israel; also Joash, who is the same as Mahlon; and Saraph, who is the same as Chilion, who took wives of the daughters of Moab and Boaz, the chief of the wise men of the college of Bethlehem, and of those who existed in former days." - T.

### Verse 23

[¶29] These were the potters - "These are the disciples of the law, for whose sake the world was created; who preside in judgment, and establish the world; and they build and perfect the fallen down house of Israel: they dwelt there with the Shechinah of the King of the world, in the study of the law and the intercalation or months, and determining the commencement of years and festivals: and they computed the times from heaven in the days of Ruth, the mother of kingdoms, to the days of Solomon the king." - T. I am afraid this paraphrase gives us as little light as the text itself, which speaks of potters, and those who dwelt among plants and hedges. They were probably brickmakers; perhaps potters also, who had their dwelling in low grounds, and fabricated the clay into pots and bricks that was digged up in forming fences in the king's domains.

### Verse 24

[¶31] The sons of Simeon - This genealogy is very different from that given in [Gen 46:10], and [Num 26:12]. This may be occasioned by the same person having several names, one list taking one name, another list some other, and so on: to reconcile is impossible; to attempt it, useless.

### Verse 27

[¶33] Neither did all their family multiply - In [Num 1:23] the number of all the families of Simeon was fifty-nine thousand three hundred; and that of Judah was, [Num 1:27], not less than seventy-four thousand six hundred. When the next census was made, Num. 26, the tribe of Judah amounted to seventy-six thousand five hundred, an increase of one thousand nine hundred; while the tribe of Simeon amounted only to twenty-two thousand two hundred, a decrease of thirty-seven thousand one hundred. It was at that time the smallest tribe in Israel.

### Verse 31

[¶35] These were their cities unto the reign of David - It appears that David took some of the cities of the Simeonites, and added them to Judah; Ziklag for instance, [1Sam 27:6].

[¶36] As the tribe of Simeon had withdrawn their allegiance from the house of David, the kings of Judah extended their domination as far as possible into the territories of that tribe, so that they were obliged to seek pasture for their flocks at Gedor, and in the mountains of Seir, as we find [1Chr 4:39-42].

### Verse 40

[¶38] They of Ham had dwelt there of old - These were probably either Philistines or Egyptians, who dwelt at Gedor, which was situated in the environs of Joppa and Samnia.

[¶39] Those whom the five hundred Simeonites expelled from Seir were Amalekites, [1Chr 4:43].

### Verse 43

[¶41] They smote the rest of the Amalekites - Those who had escaped in the war which Saul made against them, (see [1Sam 14:48]), and from David, who had attacked them afterwards, [2Sam 8:12].

[¶42] The expedition of the Simeonites mentioned here, against Gedor and Seir, was in the days of Hezekiah; and, as Calmet conjectures, near about the time of the captivity of the ten tribes, when the remnant of Simeon would feel themselves obliged to retire more southward, into Arabia Petraea, for fear of the Jews. These may be probable conjectures. - See Calmet.

[¶43] There are several things in the account of Jabez that are very instructive: -

[¶44] 1. He appears to have been a child brought into the world with great difficulty, at the risk of his own life and that of his mother. So much seems to be implied in, she bare him with sorrow, i.e., with peculiar sorrow and danger.

[¶45] 2. To perpetuate the merciful interposition of God in her own and her son's behalf, she gave him a name that must have recalled to her and his remembrance the danger to which both their lives were exposed, and from which they could not have been extricated but by the especial help of God. She called his name Jabez, etc.

## 404. 1 Chronicles · 5 of 19

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[¶0] 3. He was brought up in the fear of God; he was no idolater; he worshipped the God of Israel, and he showed the sincerity of his faith by frequent and earnest prayer.

[¶1] 4. His prayer was at once both enlightened and pious. He had piety towards God, and therefore he trusted in him: he knew that he was the fountain of all good, and therefore he sought all necessaries both for body and soul from him. He prayed to the God of Israel.

[¶2] 5. Both the matter and manner of his prayer were excellent. His heart was deeply impressed with its wants, and therefore he was earnest and fervent; O that thou wouldest bless me indeed; אם ברך תברכני im barech tebarecheni; "O that in blessing thou wouldest bless me!" Let me live under thy benediction! Do thou diligently and frequently bless me!

[¶3] 6. He prays for the things necessary for the body as well as for the soul: And enlarge my coasts - grant me as much territory as may support my family. Let the means of living be adequate to the demands of life; let me have the necessaries, conveniences, and, as far as they may be safely intrusted with me, the comforts of life! O that thou wouldest enlarge my coasts!

[¶4] 7. He is conscious that without the continual support of God he must fail; and therefore he prays to be upheld by his power: That thy hand might be with me! May I ever walk with thee, and ever feel the hand of thy power to support and cover me in all the trials, dangers, and difficulties of life; and the hand of thy providence to supply all my wants in reference to both worlds!

[¶5] 8. He dreads both sin and suffering, and therefore prays against both: O that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! Sin and misery are in every step of the journey of life; keep me from sin, that I grieve thee not; and keep me from sin, that I render not myself miserable! We can never offend God without injuring ourselves; he that sins must suffer. Thorns and scorpions are everywhere in the way to perdition; and he that walks in it must be torn and stung. He alone is happy who walks in the ways of God. Keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me.

[¶6] 9. Prayers that have a right aim will have a right answer; Jabez did not pray in vain, for God granted him that which he requested. He was continually blessed; his family was increased; the hand of God was upon him for good. He was saved from sin, and saved from the pangs and sufferings of a guilty conscience.

[¶7] 10. If we take up the character and conduct of Jabez in the view given by the Chaldee, we shall not only see him as a pious and careful man, deeply interested in behalf of himself and his family, but we shall see him as a benevolent man, laboring for the welfare of others, and especially for the religious instruction of youth. He founded schools, in which the young and rising generation were taught useful knowledge, and especially the knowledge of God. He had disciples, which were divided into three classes, who distinguished themselves by their fervor in the worship of God, by their docility in obediently hearing and treasuring up the advices and instructions of their teachers, and by their deep piety to God in bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit. The spirit of prophecy, that is, of prayer and supplication, rested upon them.

[¶8] 11. He did not do these things merely as a duty he owed to God and his fellows, but from the abundance of a generous and loving heart: In his counsel he erected a school of disciples. God had blessed him with temporal things, and he secures their continuance by devoting them to his service; he honors God with his substance, and God honors him with his especial blessing and approbation.

[¶9] 12. On these accounts he was more honorable than his brethren. He was of the same stock and the same lineage; he had neither nobility of birth, nor was distinguished by earthly titles; in all these respects he was on a level with his brethren: but God tells us that he was more honorable than them all; and why? because he prayed, because he served his Maker, and because he lived to do good among men; therefore he received the honor that cometh from God. Reader, imitate the conduct of this worthy Israelite, that thou mayest be a partaker of his blessings.

[¶10] The things added by the Targumist might have been derived from authentic tradition.

### Introduction

[¶12] The genealogies of Reuben, [1Chr 5:1-10]. Of Gad, [1Chr 5:11-17]. The exploits of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, [1Chr 5:18-22]. The genealogy of the half tribe of Manasseh, [1Chr 5:23], [1Chr 5:24]. The idolatry of these tribes and their captivity by the Assyrians, [1Chr 5:25], [1Chr 5:26].

### Verse 1

[¶14] The sons of Reuben the first-born - As Reuben was the eldest son of Jacob, why was not his genealogy reviewed first? This verse answers the question; he lost the birth-right because of the transgression mentioned [Gen 35:22]; [Gen 49:4], and the precedency was given to Judah; from him therefore came the chief ruler. This appears to be the meaning of the place.

### Verse 2

[¶16] And of him came the chief ruler - This is, by both the Syriac and Arabic, understood of Christ: "From Judah the King Messiah shall proceed." The Chaldee paraphrases the verse thus: "Seeing Judah prevailed over his brethren, so the kingdom was taken from Reuben and given to Judah; and because he was strong, so was his kingdom. Levi also was godly, and did not transgress in the matter of the golden calf; therefore the high priesthood was taken away from the children of Reuben, and on their account from all the first-born, and given to Aaron and his sons. The custody of the sanctuary belonged to the Levites, but the birthright to Joseph." - T.

### Verse 6

[¶18] Beerah his son - After their separation from the house of David the ten tribes continued to have princes of the tribes; and this continued till the time that Tiglath-pileser carried them captives into Assyria. At that time Beerah was their prince or chief; and with him this species of dominion or precedency terminated. According to the Targum, Beerah was the same as Baruch the prophet.

### Verse 8

[¶20] Who dwelt in Aroer - This town was situated on the river Arnon; and Nebo was both a city and a mountain in the same country. They both lay on the other side of Jordan.

### Verse 10

[¶22] And they dwelt in their tents - The Hagarites were tribes of Nomade, or Scenite, Arabs; people who lived in tents, without any fixed dwellings, and whose property consisted in cattle. The descendants of Reuben extirpated these Hagarites, seized on their property and their tents, and dwelt in their place.

### Verse 12

[¶24] Joel the chief - "Joel, prince of the Sanhedrin; and Shapham, master of the college; and Jaanai and Shaphat, judges in Mathnan." - T.

### Verse 13

[¶26] And their brethren - This verse is wanting both in the Syriac and in the Arabic.

### Verse 16

[¶28] The suburbs of Sharon - There were three places of this name: that mentioned here was a district in the country of Bashan beyond Jordan, (see [Jos 12:18]); there was another that lay between Caesarea of Palestine and Joppa; and there was a third between Mount Tabor and the Sea of Tiberias. See Calmet.

### Verse 19

[¶30] They made war with the Hagarites - This is probably the same war that is mentioned [1Chr 5:10]. Those called Hagarites in the text are everywhere denominated by the Targum הונגראיי Hongaraai, Hongarites.

### Verse 20

[¶32] They put their trust in him - Or, as the Targum says, "Because they trusted במימריה bemeymriah, in his Word."

### Verse 21

[¶34] They took away their cattle - This was a war of extermination as to the political state of the people, which nothing could justify but an especial direction of God; and this he could never give against any, unless the cup of their iniquity had been full. The Hagarites were full of idolatry: see [1Chr 5:25].

### Verse 22

[¶36] For there fell down many slain - The hundred thousand men mentioned above were probably made slaves, and were not slain. The Targum says, one hundred thousand souls of men.

[¶37] The war was of God - The Targum says, the war was מן מימרא דיי min meymera dayai, "from the Word of the Lord."

### Verse 25

[¶39] The gods of the people of the land - We see the reason why God delivered the Hagarites into the hands of these tribes; they were abominable idolaters, and therefore God destroyed them.

### Verse 26

[¶41] Tilgath-pilneser - Many MSS. have תגלת Tiglath instead of תלגת Tilgath. The Syriac, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee, have the same reading as in [2Kgs 15:29], etc.

[¶42] Brought them unto Halah - See the notes on [2Kgs 17:6] (note), and [2Kgs 18:11] (note), for many particulars of these wars, and consequent captivity. It is a pity that some method were not found out to harmonize the books of Kings with the books of Chronicles, that the variations might be seen at one view.

### Introduction

[¶44] The genealogy of Levi and Aaron, vv. 1-30. The offices of the priests and Levites, vv. 31-53. The cities assigned them, vv. 54-81.

## 405. 1 Chronicles · 6 of 19

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### Verse 1

[¶1] The sons of Levi - It has been well remarked that the genealogy of Levi is given here more ample and correct than that of any of the others.

[¶2] And this is perhaps an additional proof that the author was a priest, felt much for the priesthood, and took care to give the genealogy of the Levitical and sacerdotal families, from the most correct tables; for with such tables we may presume he was intimately acquainted.

### Verse 4

[¶4] Eleazar begat Phinehas - As the high priesthood continued in this family for a long time, the sacred historian confines himself to this chiefly, omitting Nadab and Abihu, and even the family of Ithamar.

### Verse 8

[¶6] Ahitub begat Zadok - Through this person the high priesthood came again into the family of Eleazar.

### Verse 10

[¶8] Johanan - Supposed to be the same as Jehoiada.

[¶9] Executed the priest's office - Probably this refers to the dignified manner in which Azariah opposed King Uzziah, who wished to invade the priest's office, and offer incense in the temple. See [2Chr 26:17], [2Chr 26:18].

### Verse 14

[¶11] Seraiah - He was put to death by Nebuchadnezzar, [2Kgs 25:18], [2Kgs 25:21].

### Verse 22

[¶13] Korah - See the history of this man, and his rebellion, Numbers 16:1-33.

### Verse 28

[¶15] The first-born Vashni, and Abiah - There is a great mistake in this verse: in [1Sam 8:2] we read, Now the name of his (Samuel's) first-born was Joel; and the name of his second Abiah. The word יואל Joel is lost out of the text in this place, and ושני vesheni, which signifies the second, and which refers to Abiah, is made here into a proper name. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee, copy this blunder; but the Syriac and Arabic read as in [1Sam 8:2]. The MSS. have all copied the corrupted Hebrew in this place. Jarchi labors to restore the true reading, and yet preserve the integrity of the text, by paraphrasing thus: "And the second, (ושני vesheni), in respect of the first, he was Abiah; and the second, in respect of Abiah, he was Joel."

[¶16] These, Joel and Abiah, were the two sons of Samuel, who administered justice so badly that the people, being oppressed, began to murmur, and demanded a king. See [1Sam 8:1], etc.

### Verse 31

[¶18] After that the ark had rest - The Targum says, "These are they whom David set over the service of the singing, in the house of the sanctuary, or tabernacle of the Lord, at the time in which the ark was brought into it;" that is, when it was brought from the house of Obed-edom.

### Verse 32

[¶20] According to their order - This order is specified below.

### Verse 39

[¶22] Asaph - This person, with Heman, the sons of Kora, Ethan, Jeduthun, etc., are celebrated in these books, and in the Psalms, for their skill in singing, and the part they performed in the public worship of God.

[¶23] It is very likely that their singing was only a kind of recitative or chanting, such as we still find in the synagogues. It does not appear that God had especially appointed these singers, much less any musical instruments, (the silver trumpets excepted), to be employed in his service. Musical instruments in the house of God are, at least under the Gospel, repugnant to the spirit of Christianity, and tend not a little to corrupt the worship of God. Those who are fond of music in the theater are fond of it in the house of God when they go thither; and some, professing Christianity, set up such a spurious worship in order to draw people to hear the Gospel! This is doing evil that good may come of it; and by this means, light and trifling people are introduced into the Church of Christ, and when in, are generally very troublesome, hard to be pleased, and difficult to be saved.

### Verse 50

[¶25] These are the sons of Aaron - We have already had a list of these, (see [1Chr 6:3-16]); this is a second, but less extensive, and is a proof that the writer of this book had several lists before him, from which he borrowed as he judged proper.

### Verse 54

[¶27] Theirs was the lot - All the tribes and families obtained their respective inheritances by lot, but to the sons of Aaron was the first lot; and so the Syriac and Arabic have understood this place. The first lot, says Jarchi, fell to Judah, that they might give to the priests and the Levites the cities marked below. See an account of the possessions of the priests and Levites, [Jos 20:1-9], 21.

### Verse 60

[¶29] All their cities - were thirteen - But there are only eleven reckoned here, Gibeon and Juttah being omitted, and the names of some of the others changed. None of the versions give the full number of names, although they all give the whole sum thirteen.

### Verse 65

[¶31] Which are called by their names - Probably each family gave its own name to the city that fell to its lot.

### Verse 69

[¶33] Aijalon with her suburbs - There are the two cities wanting here, Eltekeh and Gibethon. See [Jos 21:23].

### Verse 71

[¶35] We shall see from [Jos 21:28], etc., that several of these cities have different names.

[¶36] How barren to us is this register, both of incident and interest! and yet, as barren rocks and sandy deserts make integral and necessary parts of the globe; so do these genealogical tables make necessary parts of the history of providence and grace in the maintenance of truth, and the establishment of the Church of Christ. Therefore no one that fears God will either despise or lightly esteem them.

### Introduction

[¶38] The genealogy of Issachar, [1Chr 7:1-5]. Of Benjamin, [1Chr 7:6-12]. Of Naphtali, [1Chr 7:13]. Of Manasseh, [1Chr 7:14-19]. Of Ephraim, [1Chr 7:20-29]. And of Asher, [1Chr 7:30-40].

### Verse 2

[¶40] Whose number was in the days of David - Whether this was the number returned by Joab and his assistants, when they made that census of the people with which God was so much displeased, we know not. It is worthy of remark that we read here the sum of three tribes, Benjamin, Issachar, and Asher, under the reign of David, which is mentioned nowhere else; and yet we have no account here of the other tribes, probably because the author found no public registers in which such enumeration was recorded.

### Verse 3

[¶42] The sons of Izrahiah - five - There are, however, only four names in the text. Instead of five, the Syriac and Arabic read four. If five be the true reading, then Izrahiah must be reckoned with his four sons.

### Verse 6

[¶44] The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher and Jediael - In [Gen 46:21], ten sons of Benjamin are reckoned; viz., Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Eri, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. In [Num 26:38], etc., five sons only of Benjamin are mentioned, Bela, Ashbel, Ahiram, Shupham, and Hupham: and Ard and Naaman are there said to be the sons of Bela; consequently grandsons of Benjamin. In the beginning of the following chapter, five sons of Benjamin are mentioned, viz., Bela, Ashbel, Aharah, Nohah, and Rapha; where also Addar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, a second Gera, Shephuphan, and Huram, are all represented as grandsons, not sons, of Benjamin: hence we see that in many cases grandsons are called sons, and both are often confounded in the genealogical tables. To attempt to reconcile such discrepancies would be a task as endless as it would be useless. The rabbins say that Ezra, who wrote this book, did not know whether some of these were sons or grandsons; and they intimate also that the tables from which he copied were often defective, and here we must leave all such matters.

## 406. 1 Chronicles · 7 of 19

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/406/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/406/#p-N

### Verse 21

[¶1] Whom the men of Gath - slew - We know nothing of this circumstance but what is related here. The Targum paraphrases the whole thus: "These were the leaders of the house of Ephraim; and they computed their period [or boundary, כיצא kitsa] from the time in which the Word of the Lord of the universe spake with Abraham between the divisions, [i.e., the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice; see [Gen 15:9-21]], but they erred, for they should have counted from the time in which Isaac was born; they went out of Egypt therefore thirty years before the period: for, thirty years before the birth of Isaac the Word of the Lord of the universe spake with Abraham between the divisions. And when they went out of Egypt, there were with them two hundred thousand warriors of the tribe of Ephraim, whom the men of Gath, the natives of the land of the Philistines, slew, because they came down that they might carry away their cattle. 22. - And Ephraim their father mourned for them many days, and all his brethren came to comfort him. 23. - And he went in to his wife, and she conceived and bare a son, and called his name Beriah, (בריעה in evil), because he was born in the time in which this evil happened to his house.

### Verse 24

[¶3] His daughter was Sherah - That is, remnant; "called so," says the Targum, "because she was the remnant that escaped from the slaughter mentioned above."

### Verse 32

[¶5] And Shua their sister - It is very rarely that women are found in the Jewish genealogies, and they are never inserted but for especial reasons.

### Verse 40

[¶7] The children of Asher - The rabbins say that the daughters of Asher were very beautiful, and were all matched with kings or priests. Several things relative to the subjects in this chapter may be found explained in the parallel places marked in the margin.

### Introduction

[¶9] The genealogy of Benjamin down to Saul, vv. 1-32. The children and descendants of Saul, [1Chr 8:33-40].

### Verse 1

[¶11] Now Benjamin begat, etc. - See what has been said on the preceding chapter, [1Chr 7:6] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶13] He begat of Hodesh his wife - In the preceding verse it is said that Hushim and Baara were his wives; and here it is said he begat of Hodesh his wife, etc. And then his children by Hushim are mentioned, but not a word of Baara! It is likely therefore that Hodesh was another name for Baara, and this is asserted by the Targum: And he begot of Baara, that is Chodesh, his wife; so called because he espoused her anew. It is supposed that he had put her away before, and now remarried her.

### Verse 12

[¶15] Who built Ono, and Lod - The Targum adds, "Which the children of Israel ravaged and burnt with fire, when they made war on the tribe of Benjamin in Gibeah."

### Verse 28

[¶17] These were heads of the fathers - On the following verses Dr. Kennicott has labored hard to restore the true reading. See his detailed comparison of these and their parallel passages in his Hebrew Bible, vol. ii., p. 667.

### Verse 29

[¶19] And at Gibeon - This passage to the end of the 38th verse is found with a little variety in the names, [1Chr 9:35-44].

[¶20] The rabbins say that Ezra, having found two books that had these passages with a variety in the names, as they agreed in general, he thought best to insert them both, not being able to discern which was the best.

[¶21] His general plan was to collate all the copies he had, and to follow the greater number when he found them to agree; those which disagreed from the majority were thrown aside as spurious; and yet, in many cases, probably the rejected copies contained the true text.

[¶22] If Ezra proceeded as R. Sol. Jarchi says, he had a very imperfect notion of the rules of true criticism; and it is no wonder that he has left so many faults in his text.

### Verse 34

[¶24] Merib-baal - The same as Mephibosheth, for, as the Israelites detested Baal, which signifies lord, they changed it into bosheth, which signifies shame or reproach.

### Verse 40

[¶26] The sons of Ulam were mighty men of valor - The Targum speaks honourably of them: "The sons of Ulam were mighty and strong men, subduing by wisdom their evil concupiscence, as men bend a bow; therefore they had many sons and grandsons." Of the six sons of Azel, mentioned [1Chr 8:38], R. S. Jarchi says that their allegorical expositions were sufficient to load thirteen thousand camels! No doubt these were reputed to be deeply learned men. There was a time when the allegorizers and metaphor-men ranked very high among theologians, even in our own enlightened and critical country. At present they are almost totally out of fashion. May they never recover their footing! But what a shameful hyperbole is that of Jarchi! The writings of six men a load for thirteen thousand camels!

### Introduction

[¶28] All Israel reckoned by genealogies, [1Chr 9:1]. The first inhabitants of Jerusalem, after their return from their captivity, who were chiefs of the fathers, [1Chr 9:2-9]. Of the priests, [1Chr 9:10-13]; Levites, [1Chr 9:14-16]; porters, their work, lodgings, etc., [1Chr 9:17-29]; other officers, [1Chr 9:30-32]; the singers, [1Chr 9:33], [1Chr 9:34]. A repetition of the genealogy of Saul and his sons, [1Chr 9:35-44].

### Verse 1

[¶30] Were reckoned by genealogies - Jarchi considers these as the words of Ezra, the compiler of the book; as if he had said: I have given the genealogies of the Israelites as I have found them in a book which was carried into Babylon, when the people were carried thither for their transgressions; and this book which I found is that which I have transcribed in the preceding chapters.

### Verse 2

[¶32] Now the first inhabitants - This is spoken of those who returned from the Babylonish captivity, and of the time in which they returned; for it is insinuated here that other persons afterwards settled at Jerusalem, though these mentioned here were the first on the return from the captivity. Properly speaking, the divisions mentioned in this verse constituted the whole of the Israelitish people, who were, ever since the days of Joshua, divided into the four following classes:

[¶33] 1. The priests.

[¶34] 2. The Levites.

[¶35] 3. The common people, or simple Israelites.

[¶36] 4. The Nethinim, or slaves of the temple, the remains of the Gibeonites, who, having deceived Joshua, were condemned to this service [Jos 9:21], etc. In David's time it is probable that other conquered people were added, as the successors of the Gibeonites were not sufficient to perform all the drudgery of the temple service.

### Verse 3

[¶38] And in Jerusalem dwelt - Several of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, took advantage of the proclamation of Cyrus to return to Jerusalem, and so mingled with the Israelites, and those to whom Jerusalem had previously appertained; and this was necessary in order to provide a sufficient population for so large a city.

### Verse 4

[¶40] Uthai the son of Ammihud - The list here is nearly the same with those found in Ezra and Nehemiah, and contains those who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel; but the list in Nehemiah is more ample, probably because it contains those who came afterwards. The object of the sacred writer here was to give the list of those who came first. Now the first inhabitants, etc.

### Verse 11

[¶42] The ruler of the house of God - The high priest at this time was Jeshua the son of Jozadak, ([Ezr 3:8]), and Seraiah, ([Neh 11:11]), called here Azariah, was the ruler of the house; the person next in authority to the high priest, and who probably had the guard of the temple and command of the priests, Levites, etc. It is likely that the person here was the same as is called the second priest, [2Kgs 25:18] (note), who was the sagan or high priest's deputy. See the note there.

### Verse 13

[¶44] And their brethren - What a prodigious number of ecclesiastics to perform the Divine service of one temple! no less than one thousand seven hundred and eighty able-bodied men! and this number is reckoned independently of the two hundred and twelve porters who served at the gates of the house of the Lord, [1Chr 9:22].

## 407. 1 Chronicles · 8 of 19

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### Verse 18

[¶1] The king's gate - That by which the kings of Judah went to the temple; see on [2Kgs 16:18] (note).

### Verse 19

[¶3] Keepers of the entry - Whose business it was to suffer no person to come to the tabernacle but the priests, during the performance of the sacred service; see Jarchi.

### Verse 20

[¶5] And Phinehas - The Targum says, "And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, was ruler over them from ancient times, from the day in which the tabernacle was set up in the wilderness; and the Word of the Lord was his assistant."

### Verse 30

[¶7] The sons of the priests made the ointment - Only the priests were permitted to make this ointment; all others were forbidden to do it on pain of death; see [Exo 30:34-38] (note), and the notes there.

### Verse 35

[¶9] Whose wife's name was Maachah - Here our translators have departed from the original, for the word is אחתו achotho, his Sister; but the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, have Wife; to which may be added [1Chr 8:29], the parallel place. Almost all the early editions, as well as the MS. editions, have the same reading. Of all the Polyglots the Complutensian alone has אשתו ishto, his Wife. His wife is the reading also of Vatablus's Polyglot, but in the margin he observes that other copies have his sister. There is most certainly a fault somewhere, for Maachah could not be both the sister and wife of Jehiel. Whether, therefore, [1Chr 8:29] has been altered from this, or this altered from that, who can tell? A single letter makes the whole difference: if the word be written with ח cheth, it is Sister; if with ש shin, it is Wife. The latter is most probably the true reading. It is so in three very ancient MSS. in my own possession.

### Verse 41

[¶11] And Ahaz - This is added by our translators from [1Chr 8:35], but such liberties should only be taken in a note; for although the words are now sufficiently distinguished from the text by being printed in Italics, yet it is too much to expect that every editor of a Bible will attend to such distinctions, and in process of time the words will be found incorporated with the text. [1Chr 9:35], and the following verses, are a repetition of what we find in [1Chr 8:29-38] (note), where see the notes.

### Introduction

[¶13] A fatal battle between the Israelites and Philistines in Gilboa, in which Saul is mortally wounded, and has three sons slain, [1Chr 10:1-6]. The Israelites being totally routed, the Philistines, coming to strip the dead, find Saul and has three sons among the slain; they cut off Saul's head, and send it and his armor about the country to the idol temples; and then fix them up in the house of Dagon, [1Chr 10:7-10]. The men of Jabesh-gilead come by night, and take away the bodies of Saul and has three sons, and bury them in Jabesh, [1Chr 10:11], [1Chr 10:12]. The reason of Saul's tragical death; the kingdom is transferred to David, [1Chr 10:13], [1Chr 10:14].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Now the Philistines fought against Israel - The reader will find the same history in almost the same words, in [1Sam 31:1-13], to the notes on which he is referred for every thing important in this.

### Verse 6

[¶17] So Saul died - and all his house - Every branch of his family that had followed him to the war was cut off; his three sons are mentioned as being the chief. No doubt all his officers were slain.

### Verse 11

[¶19] When all Jabesh-gilead heard - For a general account of the principles of heroism and gratitude from which this action of the men of Jabesh-gilead proceeded, see the note on [1Sam 31:11], [1Sam 31:12].

[¶20] By the kindness of a literary friend, I am enabled to lay a farther illustration of this noble act before the reader, which he will find at the conclusion of the chapter.

### Verse 13

[¶22] Saul died for his transgression - See the concluding observations on the first book of Samuel ([1Sam 31:13] (note)).

### Verse 14

[¶24] Inquired not of the Lord - On these two last verses the Targum speaks thus: "And Saul died for the transgression by which he transgressed against the Word of the Lord, and because he did not keep the commandment of the Lord when he warred against the house of Amalek; and because he consulted Pythons, and sought oracular answers from them. Neither did he ask counsel from before the Lord by Urim and Thummim, for he had slain the priests that were in Nob; therefore the Lord slew him, and transferred the kingdom to David the son of Jesse."

[¶25] A Literary friend furnishes the following remarks: - "The sacred writer, in the first book of Samuel, [1Sam 31:11-13], and [1Chr 10:11], [1Chr 10:12], after relating the defeat and death of Saul, and the ignominious treatment of his remains, thus concludes: - "'And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there; and they took the bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.' "Often has this account been read with admiration of the bravery and devotedness of the men of Jabesh-gilead, but without considering that these men had any greater cause than others for honoring the remains of their sovereign; but, on reflection, it will be perceived that the strong impulse of gratitude prompted them to this honorable exertion. They remembered their preservation from destruction, and, which to brave men is more galling, from bearing marks of having been defeated, and being deprived of the honorable hope of wiping off disgrace, or defending their country at future seasons. "Reading these verses in conjunction with the attack of Nahash, we perceive the natural feelings of humanity, of honorable respect, prompting the men of Jabesh to act as they did in rescuing the bones of Saul and his family. "The father of Grecian poetry relates in how great a degree the warriors of ancient days honored the remains of their leaders; how severe were the contests for the body of the fallen chief, more determined oftentimes than the struggle for victory: this point of military honor was possibly excited or heightened by the religious idea so prevalent in his age, and after times, respecting the fate of the spirits of those who were unburied. "Homer wrote of events passing at no distant period from those recorded in the first volume of Samuel; and these accounts mutually corroborate each other, being in unison, not only with the feelings of humanity, but with the customs of ancient nations. These may be farther illustrated by comparing the conduct of the Philistines with regard to Saul and his sons, with that of the hero of the Iliad towards Hector, the most finished character of the poem. Saul had been a severe scourge to the Philistines throughout a long series of years; the illustrious chief of Troy had long warded off the ruin of his country, and destroyed the flower of her foes, independently of his last victory over Patroclus, which drew on his remains that dishonor which, however, fell only on his destroyer. "Should the siege of Troy be considered a fable, it may then be concluded that Homer introduced into his poems the customs and manners known to those for whose perusal he wrote, if these customs were not prevalent among his readers; but anxiety for the body of the illustrious dead, or regret for his death, has often caused success when all exertions prior to this powerful stimulus have not availed; and this even in our days. "The Philistines had long been confined to the southwest angle of the promised land, and in the earlier part of Saul's reign had suffered many and severe losses; yet it appears by this chapter that, alone or in conjunction with allies, they had been able to penetrate nearly to the banks of the Jordan, to fight the battle on Mount Gilboa. This could only have been effected by a march through great part of the kingdom of Israel. "Doubtless the attention of Saul in its defense might have been greatly distracted by his pursuit and fear of David, which appeared to have absorbed his whole mind; and it may account for the defenceless or weakened state of his forces. "These circumstances appear to corroborate the authenticity of these books, independently of the many private transactions therein recorded; particularly the interesting and singular friendship of Jonathan and David, a transaction not likely to occur to a forger of a narrative. J.W."

### Introduction

[¶27] David is anointed king in Hebron, [1Chr 11:1-3]. He wars against the Jebusites, and takes their city, [1Chr 11:4-9]. An account of David's three mightiest heroes; and particularly of their hazardous exploit in bringing water from the well of Beth-lehem, [1Chr 11:10-19]. A list of the rest, and an account of their acts, vv. 20-47.

### Verse 1

[¶29] Then all Israel gathered themselves to David - See [2Sam 5:1-10] (note), for the history contained in the first nine verses of this chapter, and the notes there.

### Verse 11

[¶31] The number of the mighty men - See [2Sam 23:8] (note), etc., and the notes there. The Targum has a remarkable addition here. "These are the numbers of the strong men who were with David; he was the potent chief of the army; he sat upon the throne of judgment, anointed with the holy oil, all the prophets and wise men standing about him. When he went to battle, he was assisted from on high; and when he sat down to teach the law, the true meaning arose up in his mind. He was elect and pleasant, of a beautiful mien and lovely countenance, exercised in wisdom, prudent in counsel, and strong in virtue; the prince of the assembly, of a melodious voice, master in hymns, and chief among the mighty. He was instructed in the use of martial weapons; he carried a spear, to which was appended the ensign of the host of Judah; he went forth according to the voice of the Holy Spirit, was victorious in battle, and overthrew with his spear three hundred men at one time." - T.

[¶32] On this and some of the following verses there is a judicious note of Dr. Kennicott, which I shall take the liberty to introduce, referring to his first Dissertation on the Hebrew text for farther illustration and proof, p. 128-144. "Among the parallel places, a comparison of which may be of very considerable service, scarce any passages will appear more effectually to correct each other than the catalogue of David's mighty men of valor, as it now stands in 2 Samuel 23:8-39, and in this chapter. About thirty-four Hebrew words have been lost out of this part of the passage in Chronicles, which are happily preserved in Samuel. "The chief point of proof is this, that the catalogue divides these thirty-seven warriors into the captain-general, a first three, a second three, and the remaining thirty; and yet that the third captain of the first ternary is now here omitted. The following juxtaposition will show the whole deficiency, and properly supply it. But let it be observed that Jashobeam, the first captain of the first ternary, had been already mentioned, and that the history is here speaking of the second captain, namely, Eleazar. 2 Samuel 1 Chronicles [2Sam 23:9] And after him was Eleazar the son [1Chr 11:12] And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three mighty of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighties. men with David when they defied [1Chr 11:13] He was with David at Pas-dammim, and there the Philistines that were there gathered together to the Philistines were gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away. battle, [2Sam 23:10] He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clave unto the sword; and the Lord wrought a great victory that day: and the people returned after him only to spoil. [2Sam 23:11] And after him was Shammah. The son of Agee, the Hararite: and the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was where was a piece of ground full of lentiles: and the people a parcel of ground full of barley, and the people fled from the Philistines. [2Sam 23:12] But he fled from before the Philistines. [1Chr 11:14] And they set stood in the midst of the ground and defended themselves, in the midst of that parcel, and delivered it, and slew the Philistines: and the Lord it, and slew the Philistines: and the Lord wrought a great victory. saved them by a great deliverance.

### Verse 17

[¶34] David longed - See the notes on [2Sam 23:15-17] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶36] Benaiah - slew two lion-like men of Moab - The Targum says, "Benaiah was a valiant man, fearing sin, and of a righteous conduct in Kabzeel; he slew two of the nobles of Moab, who were like two strong lions. He was a great and righteous man as any in the second sanctuary. On a certain day, having struck his foot against a dead tortoise, he went down to Shiloh, and having broken pieces of ice, he washed himself with them, and afterward went up, and read the book of the law of the priests, in which much is contained, in a short winter's day, viz., the tenth of the month Tebeth."

### Verse 23

[¶38] Plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear - See the note on [2Sam 23:21].

### Verse 25

[¶40] David set him over his guard - "Made him chief ruler over his disciples." - T.

[¶41] For other particulars, see the notes on the parallel places, where the subject is farther considered.

### Introduction

[¶43] The different persons, captains, etc., who joined themselves to David at Ziklag, vv. 1-22. Those who joined him at Hebron, out of the different tribes; Judah, Simeon, Levi, the house of Aaron, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, Dan, Asher, Reuben, etc., to the amount of a hundred and twenty thousand, [1Chr 12:23-37]. Their unanimity, and the provisions they brought for his support, [1Chr 12:38-40].

## 408. 1 Chronicles · 9 of 19

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Came to David to Ziklag - Achish, king of Gath, had given Ziklag to David, as a safe retreat from the wrath of Saul.

### Verse 8

[¶3] And were as swift as the roes - That swiftness was considered to be a grand accomplishment in a warrior, appears from all ancient writings which treat of military affairs.

### Verse 15

[¶5] In the first month - Perhaps this was the month Nisan, which answers to a part of our March and April. This was probably before the snows on the mountains were melted, just as Jordan began to overflow its banks; or if we allow that it had already overflowed its banks, it made their attempt more hazardous, and afforded additional proof of their heroism.

### Verse 18

[¶7] The spirit came upon Amasai - "The spirit of fortitude clothed Amasai, the chief of the mighty men; and he answered, For thy sake, O David, are we come, that we may be with thee, thou son of Jesse.

[¶8] Prosperity be to thee by night and by day; and prosperity be to thy helpers; for the Word of the Lord is thy assistant." - T.

### Verse 22

[¶10] Like the host of God - "That is, a very numerous army; like the army of the angel of God." - T.

### Verse 23

[¶12] And came to David to Hebron - That is, after the death of Ish-bosheth, Saul's son. See [2Sam 4:5].

### Verse 27

[¶14] Jehoiada was the leader of the Aaronites - Abiathar was then high priest, and Jehoiada captain over the warriors of the house of Aaron.

### Verse 32

[¶16] Children of Issachar - According to the Targum they were all astronomers and astrologers: "and the sons of Issachar, who had understanding to know the times, and were skilled in fixing the beginnings of years, the commencement of months, and the intercalation of months and years; skillful in the changes of the moon, and in fixing the lunar solemnities to their proper times; skillful also in the doctrine of the solar periods; astrologers in signs and stars, that they might show Israel what to do; and their teachers were two hundred chiefs of the Sanhedrin: and all their brethren excelled in the words of the law, and were endued with wisdom, and were obedient to their command." - T. It appears that in their wisdom, experience, and skill, their brethren had the fullest confidence; and nothing was done but by their direction and advice.

### Verse 39

[¶18] They were with David three days - These were the deputies of the different people mentioned here: it is not possible that all the thousands mentioned above could have feasted with David for three days; and yet it appears there was even of these a great number, for the men of Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali, who were nearest to this place of rendezvous, had brought all the necessaries for such a feast. From the whole it appears most evident that the great majority of the tribes of Israel wished to see the kingdom confirmed in the hands of David; nor was there ever in any country a man more worthy of the public choice. As a statesman, warrior, hero, poet, and divine, he stands unrivalled in the annals of the world: by him alone were the Israelites raised to a pitch of the highest splendor; and their name became a terror to their enemies, and a praise in the earth. But, alas, how are the mighty now fallen!

### Introduction

[¶20] David consults with his officers, and resolves to bring back the ark from the house of Abinadab, [1Chr 13:1-4]. They place it on a new cart, and Uzza and Ahio drive the cart; the oxen stumbling, Uzza puts forth his hand to save the ark from falling, and he is smitten by the Lord, [1Chr 13:5-10]. David is displeased, and orders the ark to be carried to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, [1Chr 13:11-13]. The ark abides there three months, and the Lord blesses Obed-edom, [1Chr 13:14].

### Verse 1

[¶22] David consulted - Having taken the strong hold of Zion from the Jebusites, organized his army, got assurances of the friendly disposition of the Israelites towards him, he judged it right to do what he could for the establishment of religion in the land; and as a first step, consulted on the propriety of bringing the ark from an obscure village, where it had remained during the reign of Saul, to the royal city or seat of government.

### Verse 5

[¶24] From Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath - "Therefore David gathered all Israel, from the Nile, נילוס Nilos, of Egypt, even to the entrance of Antioch." - T.

### Verse 6

[¶26] Whose name is called on it - "Where his name is invoked." - T.

[¶27] And so the Hebrew, אשר נקרא שם asher nikra shem, should be understood, his name was not called on it, but invoked at it.

### Verse 7

[¶29] In a new cart - Lest it should be profaned by being placed on any carriage that had been employed about common uses.

[¶30] Uzza and Ahio - All the versions understand אחיו achyo as signifying brother or brothers; so does Jarchi, who observes, from [2Sam 6:3], that these were the sons of Abinadab.

### Verse 9

[¶32] Uzza put forth his hand - See this transaction explained [2Sam 6:6] (note), etc.

### Verse 14

[¶34] The Lord blessed the house of Obed-edom - That this man was only a sojourner at Gath, whence he was termed Gittite, and that he was originally a Levite, is evident from [1Chr 15:17], [1Chr 15:18].

[¶35] The Targum ends this chapter thus: "And the Word of the Lord blessed Obed-edom, and his children, and his grand-children; and his wife conceived, and his eight daughters-in-law: and each brought forth eight at one birth, insomuch that in one day there were found, of fathers and children, fourscore and one; and He blessed and increased greatly all that belonged to him." This exposition will not be generally received; but all rabbins must be allowed to deal in the marvellous.

[¶36] For other remarks see on [2Sam 6:1] (note), etc.

### Introduction

[¶38] Hiram sends artificers and materials to David, to build him a house, [1Chr 14:1], [1Chr 14:2]. David's wives and children, [1Chr 14:3-7]. He defeats the Philistines in two battles: one in the valley of Rephaim, [1Chr 14:8-12]; and the other at Gibeon and Gazer, [1Chr 14:13-16]. His fame goes out into all the surrounding nations, [1Chr 14:17].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Now Hiram king of Tyre - See the transactions of this chapter related [2Sam 5:11-25] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶42] These are the names of his children - In [2Sam 5:14-16] (note), eleven persons only are mentioned in the Hebrew text, but the Septuagint has twenty-four, here there are thirteen, and all the versions have the same number, with certain varieties in the names. - See the notes there.

### Verse 8

[¶44] The Philistines went up to seek David - See on [2Sam 5:17] (note).

## 409. 1 Chronicles · 10 of 19

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/409/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/409/#p-N

### Verse 10

[¶1] David inquired of God - "David consulted the Word of the Lord." - T.

### Verse 11

[¶3] Like the breaking forth of waters - "And David said, The Lord hath broken the enemies of David like to the breaking of a potter's vessel full of water." - T.

### Verse 15

[¶5] A sound of going - "When thou shalt hear the sound of the angels coming to thy assistance, then go out to battle; for an angel is sent from the presence of God, that he may render thy way prosperous." - T.

### Verse 17

[¶7] Into all lands - That is, all the surrounding or neighboring lands and nations, for no others can possibly be intended.

### Introduction

[¶9] David prepares to bring home the ark, and musters the Levites, [1Chr 15:1-11]. They sanctify themselves, and bear the ark upon their shoulders, [1Chr 15:12-15]. The solemnities observed on the occasion, [1Chr 15:16-26]. David dances before the ark, and is despised by his wife Michal, [1Chr 15:27-29].

### Verse 1

[¶11] Made him houses - One for himself, and one for the ark; in the latter was a tent, under which the ark was placed.

### Verse 2

[¶13] None ought to carry the ark - but the Levites - It was their business; and he should have thought of this sooner, and then the unfortunate breach on Uzza would have been prevented; see [1Chr 15:13].

### Verse 15

[¶15] Upon their shoulders - That is the staves which went through the rings rested on their shoulders, but the ark itself rested on the staves like a sedan on its poles.

[¶16] As Moses commanded - See [Num 4:5], [Num 4:15].

[¶17] Verse 17 - Heman - Asaph - Ethan - These were the three chief musicians in the time of David; see [1Chr 6:31].

### Verse 20

[¶19] With psalteries on Alamoth - Some suppose that the word signifies virgins, or women singers, the persons mentioned here being appointed to accompany them with psalteries, and preside over them.

[¶20] The Vulgate says arcana cantabant, they sang secret things or mysteries; probably prophetic hymns.

### Verse 21

[¶22] On the Sheminith - According to the Targum, this signifies an instrument that sounded an octave, or, according to others, an instrument with eight strings. The Syriac and Arabic have it, instruments to sing with daily, at the third, sixth, and ninth hour; the Vulgate, an octave, for a song of victory: some think the eighth band of the musicians is intended, who had the strongest and most sonorous voices; and that it is in this sense that shelomith and lenatstseach should be understood.

### Verse 22

[¶24] Chenaniah - he instructed about the song - This appears to have been the master singer; he gave the key and the time, for he presided במשא bemassa, in the elevation, probably meaning what is called pitching the tune, for he was skillful in music, and powerful in his voice, and well qualified to lead the band: be might have been precentor.

### Verse 26

[¶26] God helped the Levites - When they saw that God had made no breach among them, as he had in the case of Uzza, in gratitude for their preservation, and his acceptance of their labor, they sacrificed seven bullocks and seven rams.

### Verse 27

[¶28] A robe of fine linen - A robe made of בוץ buts, probably the tuft or beard of the Pinna Magna, a species of muscle found every where on the shores of the Mediterranean, growing sometimes, as I have seen, to a foot and a half in length. I have seen a pair of gloves made of this very rich stuff; the color is a deep dark yellow, something inclining to what is called the lilac. The buts or byssus was not heard of in Israel before the time of David: after that it is frequently mentioned.

### Verse 29

[¶30] Michal - saw - David dancing - and she despised him - See this whole business explained [2Sam 6:20] (note), etc., where David's conduct is vindicated, and the nature of Michal's disgrace and punishment hinted at, but all left to the reader's determination.

### Introduction

[¶32] David brings the ark into its tent; and offers sacrifices, peace-offerings, and burnt-offerings, [1Chr 16:1], [1Chr 16:2]; and gives portions to the people of Israel, [1Chr 16:3]. He appoints proper ministers and officers for the ark, [1Chr 16:4-6]. He delivers a solemn thanksgiving on the occasion, vv. 7-36. How the different officers served at the ark, [1Chr 16:37-42]. The people return home, [1Chr 16:43].

### Verse 2

[¶34] He blessed the people - "He blessed the people in the name of the Word of the Lord." - T.

### Verse 3

[¶36] To every one a loaf of bread - A whole cake. A good piece of flesh; "the sixth part of an ox, and the sixth part of a hin of wine." - T. See [2Sam 6:18-20]; see Jarchi also.

### Verse 5

[¶38] Asaph - See the preceding chapter, [1Chr 15:17] (note), etc.

### Verse 7

[¶40] David delivered first this psalm - I believe the meaning of this place to be this: David made the psalm on the occasion above specified; and delivered it to Asaph, who was the musician, and to his brethren, to be sung by them in honor of what God had done in behalf of his people.

### Verse 10

[¶42] That seek the Lord - "That seek the Word of the Lord." - T.

### Verse 12

[¶44] Remember his marvellous works - The whole of the psalm refers to God's wondrous actions among the nations in behalf of Israel.

## 410. 1 Chronicles · 11 of 19

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/410/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/410/#p-N

### Verse 22

[¶1] Touch not mine anointed - By this title the patriarchs are generally understood: they had a regal and sacerdotal power in the order of God. In the behalf of the patriarchs God had often especially interfered: in behalf of Abraham, [Gen 12:17]; [Gen 20:3]; and of Jacob, [Gen 31:24]; [Gen 34:26]; [Gen 35:5]. But the title may be applied to all the Jewish people, who were the anointed, as they were the elect and peculiar people of God. See on [Heb 11:26] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶3] Let the heavens be glad - "Let the supreme angels be glad, and the inhabitants of the earth rejoice." - T. In this place the Targumist uses the Greek word αγγελοι, angels, in Hebrew letters thus, אנגלי angeley.

### Verse 35

[¶5] Save us, O God of our salvation - As he is the saving God, so we may pray to him to save us. To pray to God under the attribute the influence of which we need, serves to inspire much confidence. I am weak; Almighty God, help me! I am ignorant; O thou Father of lights, teach me! I am lost; O merciful God, save me; etc. See the notes on [Psa 96:1-13] (note) and Psalm 105 (note).

### Verse 39

[¶7] Zadok the priest - Both Zadok and Abiathar were high priests at this time: the former David established at Gibeah, or Gibeon, where the ark had been all the days of Saul; and the latter he established at Jerusalem, where the ark now was: so there were two high priests, and two distinct services; but there was only one ark. How long the service at Gibeon was continued we cannot tell; the principal functions were no doubt performed at Jerusalem.

### Verse 42

[¶9] Musical instruments of God - Ad canendum Deo, "to sing to God." - Vulgate. Των ωδων του Θεου, "of the sons of God." - Septuagint. The Syriac is remarkable: "These were upright men who did not sing unto God with instruments of music, nor with drums, nor with listra, nor with straight nor crooked pipes, nor with cymbals; but they sang before the Lord Almighty with a joyous mouth, and with a pure and holy prayer, and with innocence and integrity." The Arabic is nearly the same. None of the versions understand the words כלי שיר האלהים keley shir haelohim as implying instruments of music of God, but instruments employed in the song of God, or to praise God; as also the Targum. Query, Did God ever ordain instruments of music to be used in his worship? Can they be used in Christian assemblies according to the spirit of Christianity? Has Jesus Christ, or his apostles, ever commanded or sanctioned the use of them? Were they ever used any where in the apostolic Church? Does the use of them at present, in Christian congregations, ever increase the spirit of devotion? Does it ever appear that bands of musicians, either in their collective or individual capacity, are more spiritual, or as spiritual, as the other parts of the Church of Christ? Is there less pride, self-will, stubbornness, insubordination, lightness, and frivolity, among such persons, than among the other professors of Christianity found in the same religious society? Is it ever remarked or known that musicians in the house of God have attained to any depth of piety, or superior soundness of understanding, in the things of God? Is it ever found that those Churches and Christian societies which have and use instruments of music in Divine worship are more holy, or as holy, as those societies which do not use them? And is it always found that the ministers which affect and recommend them to be used in the worship of Almighty God, are the most spiritual men, and the most spiritual and useful preachers? Can mere sounds, no matter how melodious, where no word nor sentiment is or can be uttered, be considered as giving praise to God? Is it possible that pipes or strings of any kind can give God praise? Can God be pleased with sounds which are emitted by no sentient being, and have in themselves no meaning? If these questions cannot be answered in the affirmative: then, query, Is not the introduction of such instruments into the worship of God antichristian, and calculated to debase and ultimately ruin the spirit and influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? And should not all who wish well to the spread and establishment of pure and undefiled religion, lift up their hand, their influence, and their voice against them? The argument from their use in the Jewish service is futile in the extreme when applied to Christianity.

### Introduction

[¶11] David consults Nathan about building a temple for God, [1Chr 17:1], [1Chr 17:2]. God sends him an answer by Nathan, informing him that Solomon shall build the house, [1Chr 17:3-14]. David receives the Divine purpose with humility and joy, and gives God praise, [1Chr 17:15-27].

### Verse 1

[¶13] Now it came to pass - See every thing recorded in this chapter amply detailed in the notes on [2Sam 7:1] (note), etc.

### Verse 5

[¶15] But have gone from tent to tent - "I have transferred my tabernacle from Gilgal to Nob, from Nob to Shiloh, and from Shiloh to Gibeon." - Targum and Jarchi.

### Verse 9

[¶17] Neither shall the children of wickedness - They shall no more be brought into servitude as they were in the time they sojourned in Egypt. This is what is here referred to.

### Verse 12

[¶19] I will establish his throne for ever - David was a type of Christ; and concerning him the prophecy is literally true. See [Isa 9:7], where there is evidently the same reference.

### Verse 13

[¶21] I will not take my mercy away from him - I will not cut off his family from the throne, as I did that of his predecessor Saul.

### Verse 16

[¶23] And what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? - I am not of any regal family, and have no natural right to the throne.

### Verse 25

[¶25] Hath found in his heart to pray - The Targum expresses a full sense: "Therefore thy servant hath found an opening of mouth, that he might pray before Thee.

### Verse 27

[¶27] For thou blessest, O Lord - "Thou beginnest to bless the house of thy servant, therefore it shall be blessed for ever." - T.

[¶28] The reader is requested to refer to 2 Samuel 7 (note), and the notes there for many particulars that belong to the parallel places here, and which it should answer no good purpose to repeat in this place.

### Introduction

[¶30] David smites the Philistines, and takes Gath, [1Chr 18:1]. Reduces the Moabites, [1Chr 18:2]. Vanquishes Hadarezer, king of Zobah, [1Chr 18:3], [1Chr 18:4]. Overcomes the Syrians of Damascus, and takes several of their cities, [1Chr 18:5-8]. Tou, king of Hamath, congratulates him on his victory, and sends him vessels of silver, gold, and brass, [1Chr 18:9], [1Chr 18:10]. Those and the different spoils he had taken from the conquered nations, he dedicates to God, [1Chr 18:11]. Abishai defeats the Edomites, [1Chr 18:12], [1Chr 18:13]. David reigns over all Israel, [1Chr 18:14]. His officers, [1Chr 18:15-17].

### Verse 1

[¶32] David - took Gath and her towns - See the comparison between this chapter and [2Sam 8:1] (note), etc., in the notes on the latter.

### Verse 2

[¶34] Brought gifts - Were laid under tribute.

### Verse 9

[¶36] Tou king of Hamath - Called Toi in [2Sam 8:9].

### Verse 12

[¶38] Abishai - slew of the Edomites - This victory is attributed to David, [2Sam 8:13]. He sent Abishai against them, and he defeated them: this is with great propriety attributed to David as commander-in-chief; qui facit per alterum, facit per se.

### Verse 15

[¶40] Joab - was over the host - General-in-chief.

[¶41] Jehoshaphat - recorder - The king's remembrancer, or historiographer royal.

### Verse 16

[¶43] Zadok - and Abimelech - priests - Both high priests; one at Gibeon, and the other at Jerusalem, as we have seen [1Chr 16:39].

[¶44] Shavsha was scribe - Called Seraiah, [2Sam 8:17].

## 411. 1 Chronicles · 12 of 19

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/411/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/411/#p-N

### Verse 17

[¶1] Cherethites and the Pelethites - See the note on [2Sam 8:18].

[¶2] The Targum says, "Benaiah was over the great Sanhedrin and the small Sanhedrin, and consulted Urim and Thummim. And at his command the archers and slingers went to battle."

[¶3] The sons of David - These were the highest in authority.

### Introduction

[¶5] David sends a congratulatory message to Hanun, king of Ammon, [1Chr 19:1], [1Chr 19:2]. He treats the messengers with great incivility, [1Chr 19:3], [1Chr 19:4]. David is exasperated, but condoles with the degraded messengers, [1Chr 19:5]. The Ammonites prepare for war, and hire thirty-two thousand chariots, and besiege Medeba, [1Chr 19:6], [1Chr 19:7]. David sends Joab to attack them; he defeats the Syrians and Ammonites, [1Chr 19:8-15]. The discomfited Syrians recruit their army, and invade David's territories beyond Jordan; he attacks them, kills Shophach their general, seven thousand charioteers, and forty thousand of their infantry, [1Chr 19:16-18]. The Syrians abandon the Ammonites and make a separate peace with David, [1Chr 19:19].

### Verse 1

[¶7] Now it came to pass - See the same history, [2Sam 10:1] (note), etc., and the notes there.

### Verse 4

[¶9] And cut off their garments in the midst - Usque ad eorum, pudenda. So the Targum, Jarchi, and others; leaving exposed what nature and decency require to be concealed. See on [2Sam 10:4] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶11] Chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia - These are not mentioned in the parallel place in Samuel; probably they did not arrive till the Ammonites and their other allies were defeated by the Israelites in the first battle.

### Verse 7

[¶13] Thirty and two thousand - The whole number mentioned in Samuel is, Syrians, of Beth-rehob, and of Zoba, twenty thousand; of King Maacah, one thousand; of Ish-tob, twelve thousand; in all thirty-three thousand. Of chariots or cavalry there is no mention. These could not have been the whole army.

### Verse 13

[¶15] Be of good courage - See the note on [2Sam 10:12].

### Verse 18

[¶17] Forty thousand footmen - See this number accounted for in the note on [2Sam 10:18] (note).

### Verse 19

[¶19] They made peace with David, and became his servants - See on [2Sam 10:19] (note), and the concluding note in that place; and see for omissions in Chronicles, the preface to these books.

### Introduction

[¶21] Joab smites the city of Rabbah; and David puts the crown of its king upon his own head, and treats the people of the city with great rigour, [1Chr 20:1-3]. First battle with the Philistines, [1Chr 20:4]. Second battle with the Philistines, [1Chr 20:5]. Third battle with the Philistines, [1Chr 20:6], [1Chr 20:7]. In these battles three giants are slain, [1Chr 20:8].

### Verse 1

[¶23] After the year was expired, at the time that kings go out to battle - About the spring of the year; see the note on [2Sam 11:1].

[¶24] After this verse the parallel place in Samuel relates the whole story of David and Bath-sheba, and the murder of Uriah, which the compiler of these books passes over as he designedly does almost every thing prejudicial to the character of David. All he states is, but David tarried at Jerusalem; and, while he thus tarried, and Joab conducted the war against the Ammonites, the awful transactions above referred to took place.

### Verse 2

[¶26] David took the crown of their king - off his head - See [2Sam 12:30].

[¶27] Precious stones in it - The Targum says, "And there was set in it a precious stone, worth a talent of gold; this was that magnetic stone that supported the woven gold in the air." What does he mean?

### Verse 3

[¶29] He brought out the people - See this transaction particularly explained in the notes on the parallel places, [2Sam 12:30-31] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶31] Elhanan the son of Jair - See the note on [2Sam 21:19]. The Targum says, "David, the son of Jesse, a pious man, who rose at midnight to sing praises to God, slew Lachmi, the brother of Goliath, the same day on which he slew Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-staff was like a weaver's beam."

### Verse 6

[¶33] Fingers and toes were four and twenty - See the note on [2Sam 21:20].

### Verse 8

[¶35] These were born unto the giant in Gath - "These were born להרפא leharapha, to that Rapha in Gath, or to Arapha." So the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Chaldee.

[¶36] The compiler of these books passes by also the incest of Amnon with his sister Tamar, and the rebellion of Absalom, and the awful consequences of all these. These should have preceded the fourth verse. These facts could not be unknown to him, for they were notorious to all; but he saw that they were already amply detailed in books which were accredited among the people, and the relations were such as no friend to piety and humanity could delight to repeat. On these grounds the reader will give him credit for the omission. See on [1Chr 20:1] (note).

### Introduction

[¶38] David is tempted by Satan to take the numbers of the people of Israel and Judah, [1Chr 21:1], [1Chr 21:2]. Joab remonstrates, but the king is determined, and Joab pleads in vain, [1Chr 21:3], [1Chr 21:4]. He returns, and delivers in the number to the king, but reckons not Levi and Benjamin, [1Chr 21:5]. The Lord is displeased, and sends Gad to offer David his choice of three great national calamities; famine, war, or pestilence, [1Chr 21:6-12]. David submits himself to God, and a pestilence is sent, which destroys seventy thousand, [1Chr 21:13], [1Chr 21:14]. At David's intercession the destroying angel is restrained at the threshing-floor of Ornan, [1Chr 21:15-17]. He buys the piece of ground, builds an altar to the Lord and offers sacrifices, and the plague is stayed, [1Chr 21:18-30].

### Verse 1

[¶40] And Satan stood up against Israel - See the notes on the parallel place, [2Sam 24:1] (note), etc.

### Verse 5

[¶42] All they of Israel were a thousand thousand - Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand - In the parallel place, [2Sam 24:9] (note), the men of Israel are reckoned eight hundred thousand, and the men of Judah five hundred thousand.

### Verse 6

[¶44] Levi and Benjamin counted he not - The rabbins give the following reason for this: Joab, seeing that this would bring down destruction upon the people, purposed to save two tribes. Should David ask, Why have you not numbered the Levites? Joab purposed to say, Because the Levites are not reckoned among the children of Israel. Should he ask, Why have you not numbered Benjamin? he would answer, Benjamin has been already sufficiently punished, on account of the treatment of the woman at Gibeah: if, therefore, this tribe were to be again punished, who would remain?

## 412. 1 Chronicles · 13 of 19

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/412/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/412/#p-N

### Verse 12

[¶1] Three days - the pestilence in the land - In [2Sam 24:13] (note), seven years of famine are mentioned.

### Verse 13

[¶3] David said - I am in a great strait - The Targum reasons thus: "And David said to Gad, If I choose famine, the Israelites may say, The granaries of David are full of corn; neither doth he care should the people of Israel die with hunger. And if I choose war, and fly before an enemy, the Israelites may say, David is a strong and warlike man, and he cares not though the people of Israel should fall by the sword. I am brought into a great strait; I will deliver myself now into the Hand of the Word of the Lord, ביד מימרא דיי beyad meymera dayai, for his mercies are many; but into the hands of the children of men I will not deliver myself."

### Verse 15

[¶5] And God sent an angel - Thus the Targum: "And the Word of the Lord sent the angel of death against Jerusalem to destroy it; and he beheld the ashes of the binding of Isaac at the foot of the altar, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, which he made in the Mount of Worship; and the house of the upper sanctuary, where are the souls of the righteous, and the image of Jacob fixed on the throne of glory; and he turned in his Word from the evil which he designed to do unto them; and he said to the destroying angel, Cease; take Abishai their chief from among them, and cease from smiting the rest of the people. And the angel which was sent from the presence of the Lord stood at the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

### Verse 20

[¶7] Ornan turned back, and saw the angel - The Septuagint say, And Orna turned, και ειδε τον βασιλεα, and saw the King. The Syriac and Arabic say, David saw the angel; and do not mention Ornan in this place. Houbigant translates the same reading המלך hammalech, the king, for המלעך hammalach, the angel, and vindicates his version from the parallel place, [2Sam 24:20], where it is said, he saw David: but there is no word of his seeing the angel. But the seeing David is mentioned in [1Chr 21:21]; though Houbigant supposes that the 20th verse refers to his seeing the king while he was at a distance; the 21st, to his seeing him when he came into the threshing-floor. In the first instance he and his sons were afraid when they saw the king coming, and this caused them to hide themselves; but when he came into the threshing-floor, they were obliged to appear before him. One of Kennicott's MSS. has המלך the king, instead of המלאך the angel. Some learned men contend for the former reading.

### Verse 24

[¶9] For the full price - That is, six hundred shekels full weight of pure gold.

### Verse 26

[¶11] He answered him - by fire - In answer to David's prayers, God, to show that he had accepted him, and was now pacified towards him and the people, sent fire from heaven and consumed the offerings.

### Verse 30

[¶13] Because of the sword of the angel - This is given as a reason why David built an altar in the threshing-floor of Ornan: he was afraid to go to Gibeon, because of the sword of the destroying angel, or he was afraid of delaying the offerings so long as his going thither would require, lest the destroying angel should in the mean while exterminate the people; therefore he hastily built an altar in that place, and on it made the requisite offerings, and by the fire from heaven God showed that he had accepted his act and his devotion. Such interventions as these must necessarily maintain in the minds of the people a full persuasion of the truth and Divine origin of their religion.

[¶14] For a more circumstantial account of these transactions, see the notes on [2Sam 24:1], Ac., in which several difficulties of the text are removed.

### Introduction

[¶16] David makes great preparations for building a temple to the Lord, [1Chr 22:1-5]; gives the necessary directions to Solomon concerning it, [1Chr 22:6-16]; and exhorts the princes of Israel to assist in the undertaking, [1Chr 22:17-19].

### Verse 1

[¶18] David said, This is the house of the Lord - Till a temple is built for his name, this place shall be considered the temple of God; and on this altar, and not on that at Gibeon, shall the burnt-offerings of Israel be made. David probably thought that this was the place on which God designed that his house should be built; and perhaps it was this that induced him to buy, not only the threshing-floor, but probably some adjacent ground also, as Calmet supposes, that there might be sufficient room for such a building.

### Verse 2

[¶20] The strangers that were in the land - Those who had become proselytes to the Jewish religion, at least so far as to renounce idolatry, and keep what were called the seven Noahic precepts. These were to be employed in the more servile and difficult parts of the work: see on [1Kgs 9:21] (note). For the account of building the temple, see 1 Kings 5-9 (note), and the notes there.

### Verse 3

[¶22] Irons - for the nails, etc. - Iron for bolts, bars, hinges, etc., etc.

### Verse 6

[¶24] Solomon - is young and tender - He is as yet without complete knowledge and due experience; and it is necessary that I should make as much preparation for the work as I possibly can; especially as the house is to be exceedingly magnificent.

### Verse 8

[¶26] Thou hast shed blood abundantly - Heathens, Jews, and Christians, have all agreed that soldiers of any kind should have nothing to do with Divine offices. Shedding of human blood but ill comports with the benevolence of God or the spirit of the Gospel.

[¶27] Aeneas, overpowered by his enemies, while fighting for his parents, his family, and his country, finding farther resistance hopeless, endeavors to carry off his aged father, his wife, young son, and his household gods; but as he was just come from slaughter, he would not even handle these objects of superstition, but confided them to his father, whom he took on his shoulders, and carried out of the burning of Troy.

[¶28] Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu, patriosque penates:

[¶29] Me bello tanto digressum, et caede recenti,

[¶30] Attrectare nefas; donec me flumine vivo Abluero.

[¶31] Aen. ii., ver. 717. "Our country gods, our relics, and the bands,

[¶32] Hold you, my father, in your guiltless hands:

[¶33] In me 'tis impious holy things to bear,

[¶34] Red as I am with slaughter, new from war;

[¶35] Till, in some living stream, I cleanse the guilt

[¶36] Of dire debate, and blood in battle spilt."

[¶37] Dryden.

[¶38] See the note at the end of [2Sam 7:25] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶40] His name shall be Solomon - שלמה Shelomoh, from שלם shalam, he was peaceable; and therefore, says the Lord, alluding to the name, I will give Peace, שלום Shalom, in his days.

### Verse 14

[¶42] In my trouble I have prepared - Notwithstanding ail the wars in which I have been engaged, all the treacheries with which I have been surrounded, all the domestic troubles with which I have been overwhelmed, I never lost sight of this great object, the building of a house for God, that his worship might be established in the land. I have curtailed my expenses, and have lived in comparative poverty that I might save all I possibly could for this building.

[¶43] A hundred thousand talents of gold - A talent of gold weighed three thousand shekels, and was worth five thousand and seventy-five pounds, fifteen shillings, and seven pence half-penny. One hundred thousand such talents would therefore amount to five hundred and seven millions, five hundred and seventy-eight thousand, one hundred and twenty-five pounds sterling. These sums are variously computed by several writers.

[¶44] A thousand thousand talents of silver - A talent of silver weighed three thousand shekels, and was worth three hundred and fifty-three pounds, eleven shillings, and ten pence. A thousand thousand, or a million, of such talents would amount to the immense sum of three hundred and fifty-three millions, five hundred and ninety-one thousand, six hundred and sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, and four pence, sterling; both sums amounting to eight hundred and sixty-one millions, one hundred and sixty-nine thousand, seven hundred and ninety-one pounds, thirteen shillings, and four pence.

[¶45] Thou mayest add thereto - Save as I have saved, out of the revenues of the state, and thou mayest also add something for the erection and splendor of this house. This was a gentle though pointed hint, which was not lost on Solomon.

## 413. 1 Chronicles · 14 of 19

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### Verse 18

[¶1] Is not the Lord your God with you? - "Is not the Word of the Lord your God your assistant?" - T.

[¶2] Hath he not given you rest on every side? - David at this time was not only king of Judea, but had also subdued most of the surrounding nations.

[¶3] Thus Solomon came to the Jewish throne with every possible advantage. Had he made a proper use of his state and of his talents, he would have been the greatest as well as the wisest of sovereigns. But alas! how soon did this pure gold become dim! He began with an unlawful matrimonial connection; this led him to a commerce that was positively forbidden by the law of God: he then multiplied his matrimonial connections with heathen women; they turned his heart away from God, and the once wise and holy Solomon died a fool and an idolater.

### Introduction

[¶5] David makes Solomon king, [1Chr 23:1]. Numbers the Levites, and appoints them their work, [1Chr 23:2-5]. The sons of Levi, Gershom, Kohath, Merari, and their descendants, [1Chr 23:6-12]. The sons of Amram, and their descendants, [1Chr 23:13]. The sons of Moses, and their descendants, [1Chr 23:14-24]. David appoints the Levites to wait on the priests for the service of the sanctuary, [1Chr 23:25-32].

### Verse 1

[¶7] David was old and full of days - On the phrase full of days, see the note on [Gen 25:8].

### Verse 3

[¶9] Thirty years and upward - The enumeration of the Levites made in the desert, [Num 4:3], was from thirty years upwards to fifty years. In this place, the latter limit is not mentioned, probably because the service was not so laborious now; for the ark being fixed they had no longer any heavy burdens to carry, and therefore even an old man might continue to serve the tabernacle. David made another ordinance afterwards; see on [1Chr 23:24-27] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶11] Four thousand praised the Lord - David made this distribution according to his own judgment, and from the dictates of his piety; but it does not appear that he had any positive Divine authority for such arrangements. As to the instruments of music which he made they are condemned elsewhere; see [Amo 6:5], to which this verse is allowed to be the parallel.

### Verse 11

[¶13] Therefore they were in one reckoning - The family of Shimei, being small, was united with that of Laadan, that the two families might do that work which otherwise belonged to one, but which would have been too much for either of these separately.

### Verse 13

[¶15] To bless in his name - To bless the people by invoking the name of the Lord.

### Verse 14

[¶17] Moses the man of God - "Moses the prophet of God," - T.

### Verse 16

[¶19] To this verse the Targum adds, "The same Jonathan, who became a false prophet, repented in his old age; and David made him his chief treasurer."

### Verse 17

[¶21] But the sons of Rehabiah were very many - The Targum says, "On account of the merits of Moses, the posterity of Rehabiah were multiplied to more than sixty myriads."

### Verse 22

[¶23] Their brethren the sons of Kish took them - This was according to the law made [Num 27:1], etc., and [Num 36:5-9], in favor of the daughters of Zelophehad, that women who were heiresses should marry in the family of the tribe of their father, and that their estates should not be alienated from them.

### Verse 24

[¶25] Twenty years and upward - It appears that this was a different ordinance from that mentioned [1Chr 23:3]. At first he appointed the Levites to serve from thirty years and upward; now from twenty years. These were David's last orders; see [1Chr 23:27]. They should begin at an earlier age, and continue later.

[¶26] This was not a very painful task; the ark being now fixed, and the Levites very numerous, there could be no drudgery.

### Verse 28

[¶28] Purifying of all holy things - Keeping all the vessels and utensils belonging to the sacred service clean and neat.

### Verse 29

[¶30] Both for the shew-bread - It was the priests' office to place this bread before the Lord, and it was their privilege to feed on the old loaves when they were replaced by the new. Some of the rabbins think that the priests sowed, reaped, ground, kneaded, and baked the grain of which the shew-bread was made. This appears to be a conceit. Jerome, in his comment on [Mal 1:6], mentions it in these words: "Panes propositionis quos, juxta traditiones Hebraicas, ipsi serere, ipsi demetere, ipsi molere, ipsi coquere debebatis."

[¶31] For all manner of measure and size - The standards of all weights and measures were kept at the sanctuary, and by those there deposited all the weights and measures of the land were to be tried. See the note on [Exo 30:13].

### Verse 30

[¶33] To stand every morning - At the offering of the morning and evening sacrifice, they sounded their musical instruments, and sang praises to God.

### Verse 32

[¶35] The charge of the sons of Aaron - It was the priests' business to kill, flay, and dress, as well as to offer, the victims, but being few, they were obliged to employ the Levites to flay those animals. The Levites were, properly speaking, servants to the priests, and were employed about the more servile part of Divine worship.

### Introduction

[¶37] David divides the families of Eleazar and Ithamar, by lot, into twenty-four courses, vv. 1-19. How the rest of the sons of Levi were disposed of, [1Chr 24:20-31].

### Verse 2

[¶39] Nadab and Abihu died before their father - That is, during his lifetime.

[¶40] Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest's office - These two served the office during the life of their father Aaron; after his death Eleazar succeeded in the high priesthood. And under Eli the high priest, the family of Ithamar re-entered into that office.

### Verse 3

[¶42] And Ahimelech - Ahimelech is put here for Abiathar, who was high priest in the days of David. Abiathar had also the name of Ahimelech, as well as his father. See Calmet.

### Verse 5

[¶44] They divided by lot - This prevented jealousies: for, as all the families were equally noble, they had equal right to all ecclesiastical and civil distinctions.

## 414. 1 Chronicles · 15 of 19

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### Verse 6

[¶1] And Shemaiah - "Moses the great scribe, who is called Shemaiah, the son of Nethaneel, of the tribe of Levi, wrote them down." - T.

[¶2] One principal household - for Eleazar - The family of Eleazar was the most illustrious of the sacerdotal families, because Eleazar was the first-born of Aaron, Ithamar's family was the second in order and dignity; therefore one of the principal families of Eleazar was first taken, and then one of Ithamar's, and thus alternately till the whole was finished.

### Verse 19

[¶4] Under Aaron their father - That is, they followed the order and plans laid down by Aaron during his lifetime.

### Verse 26

[¶6] The sons of Merari - It is remarkable that not a word is here spoken of the family of Gershom.

### Verse 31

[¶8] These likewise cast lots - The Levites were divided into twenty-four orders; and these were appointed by lot to serve under the twenty-four orders of the priests: the first order of Levities under the first order of priests, and so on. The meaning is not very clear: "both elder and younger," says Bishop Patrick, "had their places by lot, not by seniority of houses. They who were of greater dignity drew lots against those who were of less; and were to take their courses according to the lot they drew." This may have been the case; but we are very little interested in the subject.

### Introduction

[¶10] The number and offices of the singers and players on musical instruments; and their division by lot into twenty-four courses, vv. 1-31.

### Verse 1

[¶12] David and the captains of the host - The chiefs of those who formed the several orders: not military captains.

[¶13] Should prophesy - Should accompany their musical instruments with prayer and singing.

### Verse 2

[¶15] Which prophesied - Sung hymns and prayed. But the Targum understands this of prophesying in the proper sense of the term; and therefore says, "Who prophesied by the Holy Spirit." Jarchi is of the same opinion and quotes the case of Elisha, [2Kgs 3:15]; While the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord [i.e., the spirit of prophecy] was upon him.

### Verse 3

[¶17] The sons of Jeduthun - six - That is, six with their father, otherwise, there are but five. Hence it is said, they were under the hands of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a harp, etc.

### Verse 5

[¶19] To lift up the horn - "The horn of prophecy," says Jarchi; "to sound with the trumpet in the words of prophecy before the Lord." - T.

[¶20] Three daughters - These also were employed among the singers.

### Verse 7

[¶22] Two hundred fourscore and eight - That it twelve classes of twenty-four Levites each; for two hundred and eighty-eight divided by twelve quotes twenty-four.

### Verse 9

[¶24] For Asaph to Joseph - His first-born.

[¶25] The second to Gedaliah - The first-born of Jeduthun.

### Verse 10

[¶27] The third to Zaccur - The first-born of Asaph.

### Verse 11

[¶29] The fourth to Izri - The second son of Jeduthun.

### Verse 12

[¶31] The fifth to Nethaniah - The third son of Asaph. Thus we find the lot did not run in any particular kind of order.

### Verse 14

[¶33] Jesharelah - Supposed to be the same with Uzziel, son of Heman.

### Verse 31

[¶35] Romamti-ezer - Both these names belong to the same person. He is mentioned also [1Chr 25:4].

[¶36] With this immense parade of noise and show, (David's own invention), Christianity has nothing to do.

### Introduction

[¶38] The divisions of the porters, [1Chr 26:1-12]. The gates assigned to them, [1Chr 26:13-19]. Those who were over the treasures, [1Chr 26:20-28]. Different officers, [1Chr 26:29-32].

### Verse 1

[¶40] The divisions of the porters - There were four classes of these, each of which belonged to one of the four gates of the temple, which opened to the four cardinal points of heaven. The eastern gate fell to Shelemiah; the northern, to Zechariah, [1Chr 26:14]; the southern, to Obed-edom, [1Chr 26:15]; the western, to Shuppim and Hosah, [1Chr 26:16]. These several persons were captains of these porter-bands or door-keepers at the different gates. There were probably a thousand men under each of these captains; as we find, from [1Chr 23:5], that there were four thousand in all.

### Verse 5

[¶42] For God blessed him - "That is, Obed-edom; because of the ark of the Lord which was in his house; and to him was given the honor that he should see his children and grand-children, even fourscore and two, masters of the Levites." - T. In [1Chr 26:8], we have only sixty-two mentioned.

### Verse 6

[¶44] They were mighty men of valor - They were not only porters or door-keepers in the ordinary sense of the word, but they were a military guard for the gates: and perhaps in this sense alone we are to understand their office.

## 415. 1 Chronicles · 16 of 19

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### Verse 12

[¶1] The rest of this chapter, with the whole of the 28th, is wanting both in the Syriac and Arabic.

### Verse 13

[¶3] They cast lots - for every gate - None of these captains or their companies were permitted to choose which gate they would guard, but each took his appointment by lot.

### Verse 15

[¶5] The house of Asuppim - The house of the collections; the place where either the supplies of the porters, or the offerings made for the use of the priests and Levites, were laid up.

### Verse 16

[¶7] The gate Shallecheth - The gate of the projections: probably that through which all the offal of the temple was carried out.

### Verse 17

[¶9] Eastward were six Levites - It is supposed that there were more guards set at this eastern gate, because it was more frequented than the others. At each of the other gates were only four; at this, six.

### Verse 20

[¶11] The treasures of the house of God - Where the money was kept, which was to be expended in oblations for the temple. - Jarchi.

### Verse 24

[¶13] Shebuel the son of Gershom - "Shebuel, that is, Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, who returned to God [שבואל shebuel]. And David, seeing him expert in money matters, constituted him chief treasurer." - T.

### Verse 27

[¶15] The spoils won in battles did they dedicate - It seems these were intended for its repairs. This custom prevailed amongst almost all the people of the earth. All who acknowledged any supreme Being, believed that victory could only come through him; and therefore thought it quite rational to give him a share of the spoils. Proofs of this exist in all ancient histories: thus Virgil: -

[¶16] Irruimus ferro, et divos, ipsumque vocamus

[¶17] In partem praedamque Jovem.

[¶18] Aen. iii., ver. 222. "With weapons we the welcome prey invade:

[¶19] Then call the gods for partners of our feast,

[¶20] And Jove himself, the chief invited guest."

[¶21] Dryden.

[¶22] On this passage Servius observes:

[¶23] Ipsum vocamus. Ipsum regem deorum, cui de praeda debetur aliquid: nam Romanis moris fuit, ut bella gessuri de parte praedae aliquid numinibus pollicerentur: adeo ut Romae fuerit unum templum Jovis Praedatoris: non quod praedae praeest, sed quod ei ex praeda aliquid debeatur. "Jupiter himself, the king of the gods, to whom a portion of the prey was due: for it was a custom among the Romans, when entering on a war, to promise some part of the prey to their deities. And there was a temple at Rome dedicated to Jupiter Praedator, not because he presided over the prey, but because a part of the prey was due to him."

### Verse 29

[¶25] Outward business - Work done without the city; cutting of timber, hewing stones, ploughing the fields belonging to the sanctuary. - Jarchi.

### Verse 30

[¶27] In all the business of the Lord - Every thing that concerned ecclesiastical matters.

[¶28] In the service of the king - Every thing that concerned civil affairs: see also [1Chr 26:32].

[¶29] Thus courts of ecclesiastical and civil judicature were established in the land; and due care taken to preserve and insure the peace of the Church, and the safety of the state; without which the public welfare could neither be secured nor promoted. Whatever affects religion in any country, must affect the state or government of that country: true religion alone can dispose men to civil obedience. Therefore, it is the interest of every state to protect and encourage religion. It would certainly be ruinous to true religion, to make the state dependent on the Church; nor should the Church be dependent on the state. Let them mutually support each other; and let the state rule by the laws, and the Church live by the Bible.

### Introduction

[¶31] An account of the twelve captains who were over the monthly course of twenty-four thousand men; each captain serving one month in turn, [1Chr 27:1]. The names of the twelve, and the months in which they served, [1Chr 27:2-15]. The names of the rulers of the twelve tribes, [1Chr 27:16-22]. The reasons why the whole number of Israel and Judah had not been taken, [1Chr 27:23], [1Chr 27:24]. The persons who were over the king's property, treasures, fields, flocks, etc., [1Chr 27:25-31]. His officers of state, [1Chr 27:32-34].

### Verse 1

[¶33] The chief fathers and captains of thousands - The patriarchs, chief generals, or generals of brigade. This enumeration is widely different from the preceding. In that, we have the orders and courses of the priests and the Levites in their ecclesiastical ministrations; in this, we have the account of the order of the civil service, that which related simply to the political state of the king and the kingdom. Twenty-four persons, chosen out of David's worthies, each of whom had a second, were placed over twenty-four thousand men, who all served a month in turn at a time; and this was the whole of their service during the year, after which they attended to their own affairs. Thus the king had always on foot a regular force of twenty-four thousand, who served without expense to him or the state, and were not oppressed by the service, which took up only a twelfth part of their time, and by this plan he could at any time, when the exigency of the state required it, bring into the field twelve times twenty-four thousand, or two hundred and eighty-eight thousand fighting men, independently of the twelve thousand officers, which made in the whole an effective force of three hundred thousand soldiers; and all these men were prepared, disciplined, and ready at a call, without the smallest expense to the state or the king. These were, properly speaking, the militia of the Israelitish kingdom. See Calmet.

### Verse 2

[¶35] First course for the first month - Instead of mentioning first, second, third, etc., month, the Targum names them thus: First month, Nisan; second, Aiyar; third, Sivan; fourth, Tammuz; fifth, Ab; sixth, Elul; seventh, Tishri; eighth, Marchesvan; ninth, Cisleu; tenth, Tebeth; eleventh, Shebat; twelfth, Adar. No mention is made of a veadar or intercalary month.

### Verse 5

[¶37] Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, a chief priest - Why should not this clause be read as it is in the Hebrew? "Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, a captain; and in his course," etc. Or, as the Targum has it, "The third captain of the host for the month Sivan was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, who was constituted a chief." He is distinguished from Benaiah, the Pirathonite, who was over the eleventh month. Some think that the original word הכהן haccohen, which generally signifies priest, should be translated here a principal officer; so the margin has it. But, in the Old Testament, כהן cohen signifies both prince and priest; and translating it by the former removes the difficulty from this place, for we well know that Benaiah never was a priest.

### Verse 7

[¶39] Asahel the brother of Joab - This verse proves that the division and arrangement mentioned above were made before David was acknowledged king in Hebron; for Asahel, the brother of Joab, who was fourth captain, was slain by Abner, while Ishbosheth reigned over Israel at Mahanaim, [2Sam 2:19-23].

### Verse 16

[¶41] Over the tribes of Israel - In this enumeration there is no mention of the tribes of Asher and Gad. Probably the account of these has been lost from this register. These rulers appear to have been all honorary men, without pay, like the lords lieutenants of our counties.

### Verse 24

[¶43] Neither was the number put in the account - Joab did not return the whole number; probably the plague began before he had finished: or, he did not choose to give it in, as he had entered on this work with extreme reluctance; and he did not choose to tell the king how numerous they were.

## 416. 1 Chronicles · 17 of 19

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### Verse 25

[¶1] Over the king's treasures - We see from these verses in what the personal property of David consisted: -

[¶2] 1. Treasures, gold, silver, etc.

[¶3] 2. Goods and grain in castles, cities villages, and in the fields.

[¶4] 3. Vineyards and their produce.

[¶5] 4. Olive-trees and their produce.

[¶6] 5. Neat cattle, in different districts.

[¶7] 6. Camels and asses: they had no horses.

[¶8] 7. Flocks, sheep, goats, etc.

### Verse 34

[¶10] And after Ahithophel - The Targum is curious: "When they went to war, they asked counsel of Ahithophel; and, after the counsel of Ahithophel, they inquired by Urim and Thummim of Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah, prince of the Sanhedrin, and chief of the priesthood; and from Abiathar, the high priest. And after they had inquired by Urim and Thummim, they went out to battle, well armed with bows and slings; and Joab, the general of the king's troops, led them on." It is worthy of remark, that Obil, an Ishmaelite or Arab, was put over the camels, which is a creature of Arabia; and that Jaziz, a Hagarene, (the Hagarenes were shepherds by profession), was put over the flocks: nothing went by favor; each was appointed to the office for which he was best qualified; and thus men of worth were encouraged, and the public service effectually promoted.

### Introduction

[¶12] David assembles the princes of Israel, and informs them that the temple was to be built by Solomon; to whom God had given the most gracious promises, [1Chr 28:1-7]. He exhorts them and him to be obedient to God, that they might continue to prosper, [1Chr 28:8-10]. He gives Solomon a pattern of the work, [1Chr 28:11], [1Chr 28:12]; directs him concerning the courses of the priests and Levites, [1Chr 28:13]; gives also gold, by weight, for the different utensils of the temple, as God had directed him, [1Chr 28:14-19]; encourages Solomon to undertake the work, [1Chr 28:20], [1Chr 28:21].

### Verse 1

[¶14] David assembled - This refers to the persons whose names and offices we have seen in the preceding chapter.

### Verse 2

[¶16] David - stood up upon his feet - He was now very old, and chiefly confined to his bed, (see [1Kgs 1:47]); and while he was addressing his son Solomon, he continued on the bed; but when all the principal nobles of his kingdom came before him he received strength to arise and address them, standing on his feet.

### Verse 3

[¶18] Thou shalt not build a house - See [2Sam 7:6], [2Sam 7:13], and the observations at the end of that chapter.

### Verse 4

[¶20] Over Israel for ever - The government should have no end, provided they continued to walk according to the commandments of God; see [1Chr 28:7]. The government, as referring to Christ, is, and will be, without end.

### Verse 8

[¶22] In the audience of our God - "Before the Word of the Lord." - T.

### Verse 10

[¶24] The Lord hath chosen thee - "The Word of the Lord hath chosen thee." - T.

### Verse 11

[¶26] David gave to Solomon - the pattern - He gave him an ichnograph of the building, with elevations, sections, and specifications of every part; and all this he received by inspiration from God himself, (see [1Chr 28:12], [1Chr 28:19]), just as Moses had received the plan of the tabernacle.

[¶27] The treasuries thereof - גנזכיו ganzaccaiv. The word גנזך ganzach is not Hebrew, but is supposed to be Persian, the same word being found in [Ezr 3:1-13] :19. In this tongue we have the word ganj, a granary, a hidden treasure, and gunjoor, and gunjineh, a treasure, treasury, or barn. Parkhurst supposes that it is compounded of גנז ganaz, to treasure up, and זך zach, pure; a treasury for the most precious things.

### Verse 12

[¶29] All that he had by the Spirit - "By the Spirit of prophecy that was with him." - T.

### Verse 14

[¶31] Of gold by weight - The quantity of gold which was to be put in each article.

### Verse 15

[¶33] For the candlesticks - There was but one chandelier in the tabernacle; there were ten in the temple. See [1Kgs 7:49].

### Verse 18

[¶35] The chariot of the cherubims - "And the figure of the chariot, like to the figure of the propitiatory, where are the figures of the golden cherubim, extending their wings and covering the ark of the covenant of the Lord." - T.

### Verse 19

[¶37] Understand in writing - In some vision of ecstasy he had seen a regularly sketched out plan, which had made so deep an impression on his mind that he could readily describe it to his son. "That the architecture of the temple," says Dr. Delaney, "was of Divine origin, I, for my part, am fully satisfied from this passage, and am confirmed in this opinion by finding from Vilalpandas that the Roman, at least the Greek, architecture is derived from this, as from its fountain; and in my humble opinion even an infidel may easily believe these to be of Divine original, inasmuch as they are, at least the latter is, found perfect in the earliest models; nor hath the utmost reach of human wisdom, invention, and industry, been ever able to improve it, or alter it but to disadvantage, through the course of so many ages."

### Verse 20

[¶39] The Lord God - my God, will be with thee - "The Word of the Lord my God will be thy assistant." - T.

### Verse 21

[¶41] Behold, the courses of the priests - The priests and the Levites, the cunning artificers, and the princes of the people, will be at thy command. Thus David, having assigned him his work, and described the manner in which it was to be done, shows him who were to be his assistants in it, and encourages him in the great undertaking.

[¶42] Here we find piety, good sense, prudence, zeal for the public welfare and God's glory, the strongest attachments to the worship of Jehovah, and concern for the ordinances of religion, all united; and Solomon has his danger, his duty, and his interest placed before him in the truest and most impressive light by his pious and sensible father.

### Introduction

[¶44] David enumerates the gifts which he designed for the building of the temple; and exhorts the princes and people to make their offerings, [1Chr 29:1-5]. They offer willingly, and to a great amount, [1Chr 29:6-9]. David's thanksgiving and prayer to God on the occasion, [1Chr 29:10-19]. The princes and people praise God, offer sacrifices and feasts before him, make Solomon King, and do him homage, [1Chr 29:20-24]. The Lord magnifies Solomon, [1Chr 29:25]. Concluding account of David's reign, character, and death, [1Chr 29:26-30].

## 417. 1 Chronicles · 18 of 19

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### Verse 1

[¶1] The palace is not for man - "The palace is not prepared for the name of a son of man, but for the name of the Word of the Lord God." - T.

### Verse 2

[¶3] And marble stones - אבני שיש abney shayish, which the Vulgate translates marmor Parium, Parian marble. Paros was one of the Cyclade islands, and produced the whitest and finest marble, that of which most of the finest works of antiquity have been made. That the word shaish means marble is probable from the Chaldee, which has אבני מרמורייה abney marmoraiyah, marble stones. Josephus says that the temple was built of large blocks of white marble, beautifully polished, so as to produce a most splendid appearance. - Jos., De Bell. Jud., lib. v., c. 5, s. 2.

### Verse 5

[¶5] To consecrate his service - למלאות ידו lemalloth yado, to fill his hand; to bring an offering to the Lord.

### Verse 7

[¶7] Of gold five thousand talents - These, at five thousand and seventy-five pounds, fifteen shillings, and seven pence halfpenny each, amount to twenty-five millions, three hundred and seventy-eight thousand nine hundred and six pounds, five shillings, sterling. If, with Dr. Prideaux, we estimate the golden talent at upwards of seven thousand pounds sterling, the value of these five thousand talents will be much more considerable. See the notes on [Exo 25:39]; [Mat 18:24]; and the calculations at the end of the notes on [2Chr 9:29].

[¶8] Ten thousand drams - Probably golden darics, worth each about twenty shillings, amounting to ten thousand pounds.

[¶9] Of silver ten thousand talents - These, at three hundred and fifty-three pounds, eleven shillings, and ten-pence halfpenny, each, amount to three millions five hundred and thirty-five thousand, nine hundred and thirty-seven pounds, ten shillings, sterling.

[¶10] Brass eighteen thousand talents - Each six hundred and fifty-seven thousand grains, amount to one thousand and twenty-six tons, eleven hundred weight, and one quarter.

[¶11] One hundred thousand talents of iron - Each six hundred and fifty-seven thousand grains, amount to five thousand seven hundred and three tons, two hundred weight, and a half.

### Verse 11

[¶13] Thine, O Lord, is the greatness - This verse is thus paraphrased by the Targum: "Thine, O Lord, is the magnificence; for thou hast created the world by thy great power, and by thy might hast led our fathers out of Egypt, and with great signs hast caused them to pass through the Red Sea. Thou hast appeared gloriously on Mount Sinai, with troops of angels, in giving law to thy people. Thou hast gained the victory over Amalek; over Sihon and Og, kings of Canaan. By the splendor of thy majesty thou hast caused the sun to stand still on Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, until thy people, the house of Israel, were avenged of their enemies. All things that are in heaven and earth are the work of thy hands, and thou rulest over and sustainest whatsoever is in the heavens and in the earth. Thine, O Lord, is the kingdom in the firmament; and thou art exalted above the heavenly angels, and over all who are constituted rulers upon earth.

### Verse 14

[¶15] Of thine own have we given thee - "For from thy presence all good comes, and of the blessings of thy hands have we given thee." - Targum.

### Verse 15

[¶17] For we are strangers - We have here neither right nor property.

[¶18] And sojourners - Lodging as it were for a night, in the mansion of another.

[¶19] As were all our fathers - These were, as we are supported by thy bounty, and tenants at will to thee.

[¶20] Our days on the earth are as a shadow - They are continually declining, fading, and passing away. This is the place of our sojourning, and here we have no substantial, permanent residence.

[¶21] There is none abiding - However we may wish to settle and remain in this state of things, it is impossible, because every earthly form is passing swiftly away, all is in a state of revolution and decay, and there is no abiding, מקוה mikveh, no expectation, that we shall be exempt from those changes and chances to which our fathers were subjected. "As the shadow of a bird flying in the air [אויר avir] of heaven, such are our days upon the earth; nor is there any hope to any son of man that he shall live for ever." - Targum.

### Verse 18

[¶23] Keep this for ever - All the good dispositions which myself and my people have, came from thee; continue to support and strengthen them by the same grace by which they have been inspired!

### Verse 19

[¶25] Give unto Solomon - a perfect heart - This he did, but Solomon abused his mercies.

### Verse 20

[¶27] Worshipped the Lord, and the king - They did reverence to God as the supreme Ruler, and to the king as his deputy.

### Verse 21

[¶29] With their drink-offerings - The Targum says a thousand drink-offerings, making these libations equal in number to the other offerings.

[¶30] And sacrifices - These were peace-offerings, offered for the people, and on the flesh of which they feasted.

### Verse 22

[¶32] They made Solomon - king the second time - The first time of his being anointed and proclaimed king was when his brother Adonijah affected the throne; and Zadok, Nathan, and Benaiah anointed and proclaimed him in a hurry, and without pomp. See [1Kgs 1:39]. Now that all is quiet, and David his father dead, (for he was probably so at the time of the second anointing), they anointed and proclaimed him afresh, with due ceremonies, sacrifices, etc.

[¶33] To be the chief governor - To be the vicegerent or deputy of Jehovah; for God never gave up his right of king in Israel; those called kings were only his lieutenants: hence it is said, [1Chr 29:23], "that Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father."

### Verse 24

[¶35] Submitted themselves - נתנו יד תחת שלמה nathenu yad tachath Shelomoh. "They gave the hand under Solomon;" they swore fealty to him. We have already seen that putting the hand under the thigh (super sectionem circumcisionis) was the form of taking an oath. See the note on [Gen 24:9].

### Verse 28

[¶37] And he died - David, at his death, had every thing that his heart could wish.

[¶38] 1. A good old age, having lived as long as living could be desirable, and having in the main enjoyed good health.

[¶39] 2. Full of days; having lived till he saw every thing that he lived for either accomplished or in a state of forwardness.

[¶40] 3. Full of riches; witness the immense sums left for the temple.

[¶41] 4. Full of honorer; having gained more renown than any crowned head ever did, either before his time or since - laurels that are fresh to the present hour.

### Verse 29

[¶43] The acts of David - first and last - Those which concerned him in private life, as well as those which grew out of his regal government. All these were written by three eminent men, personally acquainted with him through the principal part of his life; these were Samuel and Gad the seers, and Nathan the prophet. These writings are all lost, except the particulars interspersed in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, none of which are the records mentioned here.

### Verse 30

[¶45] The times that went over him - The transactions of his reign, and the occurrences and vicissitudes in his own kingdom, as well as those which were over all the kingdoms of the countries, i.e., in the surrounding nations, in most of which David had a share during his forty years' reign. Relative to the character of David, see a few remarks in the note on [1Kgs 2:10] (note); and see more at the end of the Psalms.

## 418. 1 Chronicles · 19 of 19

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[¶0] Dr. Delaney gives a just view of his character in a few words: "To sum up all, David was a true believer, a zealous adorer of God, teacher of his law and worship, and inspirer of his praise. A glorious example, a perpetual and inexhaustible fountain of true piety. A consummate and unequalled hero; a skillful and fortunate captain; a steady patriot; a wise ruler; a faithful, generous, and magnanimous friend; and, what is yet rarer, a no less generous and magnanimous enemy. A true penitent, a divine musician, a sublime poet, and an inspired prophet. By birth, a peasant; by merit, a prince; in youth, a hero; in manhood, a monarch; and in age, a saint." The matter of Uriah and Bath-sheba is his great but only blot! There he sinned deeply; and no man ever suffered more in his body, soul, and domestic affairs, than he did in consequence. His penitence was as deep and as extraordinary as his crime; and nothing could surpass both but that eternal mercy that took away the guilt, assuaged the sorrow, and restored this most humbled transgressor to character, holiness, and happiness. Let the God of David be exalted for ever!

## 419. 2 Chronicles · 1 of 24

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### Preface to the Two Books of Chronicles

[¶1] Anciently these two books were considered but as one: for this we have not only the testimony of St. Jerome, but also that of the Masoretes, who gave the sum of all the sections, chapters, and verses, under one notation at the end of the second book, without mentioning any division; and although the modern Jews divide them, yet they give the Masoretic enumeration of sections, etc., as it was given of old; and all editors of the Masoretic Bibles, whether Jewish or Christian, follow the same plan.

[¶2] These books have had several names. In Hebrew they are denominated דברי הימים dibrey haiyamim; literally, The Words of the Days, i.e., The Journals, particularly of the kings of Israel and kings of Judah. But this name does not appear to have been given by the inspired writer.

[¶3] The Syriac has, The Book of the Transactions in the days of the Kings of Judah: which is called, Dibrey Yamim; referring to the Hebrew title.

[¶4] The Arabic has, The Book of the Annals, which is called in Hebrew, Dibrey Haiyamim.

[¶5] The Septuagint has, παραλειπομενων, of the things that were left or omitted; supposing that these books were a supplement either to Samuel and to the books of Kings, or to the whole Bible. To this the Greek translators might have been led by finding that these books in their time closed the Sacred Canon, as they still do in the most correct editions of the Hebrew Bible.

[¶6] The Vulgate uses the same term as the Septuagint, referring, like the Syriac and Arabic, to the Hebrew name.

[¶7] In our English Bibles these books are termed Chronicles, from the Greek χρονικα, from χρονος, i.e., A History of Times; or, as the matter of the work shows, "A History of Times, Kingdoms, States, Religion, etc., with an Account of the most memorable Persons and Transactions of those Times and Nations." Concerning the author of these books, nothing certain is known. Some think they are the works of different authors; but the uniformity of the style, the connection of the facts, together with the recapitulations and reflections which are often made, prove that they are the work of one and the same person.

[¶8] The Jews, and Christian interpreters in general, believe they were the work of Ezra, assisted by the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. That Ezra was the author is, on the whole, the most probable opinion. That he lived at the conclusion of the Babylonish captivity is well known; and the second book of Chronicles terminates at that period, barely reciting the decree of Cyrus to permit the return of the captivated Israelites to their own land; which subject is immediately taken up in the book of Ezra, in which the operation of that decree is distinctly marked.

[¶9] There are words and terms, both in Chronicles and Ezra, which are similar, and prove that each was written after the captivity, and probably by the same person, as those terms were not in use previously to that time, and some of them are peculiar to Ezra himself: e.g., we have כפורי זהב kipporey zahab, "golden cups;" [Ezr 1:10]; [Ezr 8:27]; and in [1Chr 28:17]; and דרכמון darkemon or drakmon, "a drachma" or; drachm, [1Chr 29:7]; [Ezr 2:69]; [Neh 7:70]; and רפסדות raphsodoth, "rafts" or floats, [2Chr 2:16], widely differing from דברות doberoth, [1Kgs 5:9], which we there translate in the same way. Calmet considers these words as strong evidence that these books were the work of Ezra, and penned after the captivity.

[¶10] We are not to suppose that these books are the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel so often referred to in the historical books of the Old Testament; these have been long lost, and the books before us can only be abridgments, either of such chronicles, or of works of a similar kind.

[¶11] That the ancient Jews took great care to register their civil, military, and ecclesiastical transactions, is sufficiently evident from frequent reference to such works in the sacred writings; and that these registers were carefully and correctly formed, we learn from the character of the persons by whom they were compiled: they were in general prophets, and seem to have been employed by the kings under whom they lived to compile the annals of their reigns; or most likely this was considered a part of the prophet's regular office.

[¶12] Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, wrote under the reign of David; [1Chr 29:29].

[¶13] The acts of the reign of Solomon were written by Nathan, Ahijah, and Iddo; [2Chr 9:29].

[¶14] Shemaiah and Iddo wrote those of Rehoboam; [2Chr 12:15].

[¶15] Iddo wrote also those of Abijah; [2Chr 13:22].

[¶16] It is likely that Hanani the seer wrote those of Asa; [2Chr 16:7].

[¶17] Jehu the prophet, the son of Hanani, [1Kgs 16:1], [1Kgs 16:7], wrote the acts of Jehoshaphat; [2Chr 20:34]. Under this same reign we find Jahaziel the prophet, [2Chr 20:14]; and Eliezer the prophet, [2Chr 20:37].

[¶18] Isaiah recorded the transactions of Uzziah, [2Chr 26:22]; and those of Hezekiah, [2Chr 32:32]; and of Ahaz, of whose reign we find the principal facts in the fifth, sixth, and ninth chapters of his prophecies. Under this reign we find Oded the prophet, [2Chr 28:9].

[¶19] Hosea wrote the history of the reign of Manasseh. See [2Chr 33:19], in the margin.

[¶20] And Jeremiah wrote the history of Josiah and his descendants, the last kings of Judah.

[¶21] This was such a succession of historians as no nation of the world could ever boast. Men, all of whom wrote under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit; some of whom had minds the most highly cultivated, and of the most extraordinary powers. Whether the prophets who flourished in the reigns of the kings of Israel wrote the annals of those kings, we know not, because it is not positively declared. We know that Ahijah the Shilonite lived under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; [1Kgs 11:29]; [1Kgs 14:2]; and Jehu, son of Hanani, under Baasha; [1Kgs 16:7].

[¶22] Elijah and many others flourished under the reign of Ahab. Elisha, Jonah, and many more, succeeded him in the prophetic office.

[¶23] Besides these prophets and prophetic men, we find other persons, whose office it was to record the transactions of the kings under whom they lived. These were called secretaries or recorders; so, under David and Solomon, Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder. מזכיר mazkir, "remembrancer;" [2Sam 8:16], and [1Chr 18:15]. And under Hezekiah we find Joah, the son of Asaph; [2Kgs 18:18]. And under Josiah, Joah the son of Joahaz, who filled the office; [2Chr 34:8].

[¶24] The real object of the author of these books is not very easy to be ascertained. But it is evident that he never could have intended them as a supplement to the preceding books, as he relates many of the same circumstances which occur in them, and often in greater detail; and, except by way of amplification, adds very little that can be called new, and omits many things of importance, not only in the ancient history of the Israelites, but even of those mentioned in the preceding books of Samuel and Kings. Nine chapters of his work are occupied with extensive genealogical tables, but even these are far from being perfect. His history, properly speaking, does not begin till the tenth chapter, and then it commences abruptly with the last unsuccessful battle of Saul and his death, but not a word of his history.

[¶25] Though the writer gives many curious and important particulars in the life of David, yet he passes by his adultery with Bath-sheba, and all its consequences. He says nothing of the incest of Amnon with his sister Tamar, nor a word of the rebellion and abominations of Absalom. He says very little of the kings of Israel, and takes no notice of what concerned that state, from the capture of Amaziah king of Judah by Joash king of Israel; [2Chr 25:17], etc. And of the last wars of these kings, which terminated in the captivity of the ten tribes, he says not one word!

[¶26] The principal design of the writer appears to have been this: to point out, from the public registers, which were still preserved, what had been the state of the different families previously to the captivity, that at their return they might enter on and repossess their respective inheritances. He enters particularly into the functions, genealogies, families, and orders of the priests and Levites; and this was peculiarly necessary after the return from the captivity, to the end that the worship of God might be conducted in the same way as before, and by the proper legitimate persons.

[¶27] He is also very particular relative to what concerns religion, the worship of God, the temple and its utensils, the kings who authorized or tolerated idolatry, and those who maintained the worship of the true God. In his distribution of praise and blame, these are the qualities which principally occupy his attention, and influence his pen.

[¶28] It may be necessary to say something here concerning the utility of these books. That they are in this respect in low estimation, we may learn from the manner in which they are treated by commentators: they say very little concerning them, and suppose the subject has been anticipated in the books of Samuel and Kings. That the persons who treat them thus have never studied them, is most evident, else their judgment would be widely different. Whatever history these books possess, in common with the books of Samuel and Kings, may, in a commentary, be fairly introduced in the examination of the latter; and this I have endeavored to do, as the reader may have already seen. But there are various details, and curious facts and observations, which must be considered in these books alone: nor will a slight mention of such circumstances do them justice.

[¶29] St. Jerome had the most exalted opinion of the books of Chronicles. According to him, "they are an epitome of the Old Testament." He asserts, that "they are of such high moment and importance, that he who supposes himself to be acquainted with the sacred writings, and does not know them, only deceives himself; and that innumerable questions relative to the Gospel are here explained." Paralipomenon liber, id est, Instrumenti Veteris επιτομη, tantus ac talis est, ut abeque illo, si quis scientiam Scripturarum sibi voluerit arrogare, seipsum irrideat. Per singula quippe nomina, juncturasque verborum, et praetermissae in Regum libris tanguntur historiae, et innumerabiles explicantur Evangelii Quaetiones. - Epis. Secund. ad Paulinum Presbyterum., Oper. Edit. Benedict. vol. iv., col. 574. And in another place he asserts, that "all Scripture knowledge is contained in these books;" Omnis eruditio Scripturarum in hoc libro continetur. - Praefat. in lib. Paral. justa Septuaginta Interpret Oper. Edit. Bened., vol. i., col. 1418. This may be going too far; but St. Jerome believed that there was a mystery and meaning in every proper name, whether of man, woman, city, or country, in the book. And yet he complains greatly of the corruption of those names, some having been divided, so as to make two or three names out of one, and sometimes names condensed, so as of three names to make but one. To cure this evil he labored hard, and did much; but still the confusion is great, and in many cases past remedy. To assist the reader in this respect I wish to refer him to the marginal readings and parallel texts, which are here carefully represented in the inner margin; these should be constantly consulted, as they serve to remove many difficulties and reconcile several seeming contradictions. In addition to these helps I have carefully examined the different ancient versions, and the various readings in the MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi, which often help to remove such difficulties.

[¶30] There is one mode of exposition which I have applied to these books, which has not, as far as I know, been as yet used: I mean the Targum, or Chaldee Paraphrase, of Rabbi Joseph. It is well known to all oriental scholars, that a Chaldee Targum, or Paraphrase, has been found and published in the Polyglots, on every book of the Old Testament, purely Hebrew, the books of Chronicles excepted. Neither in the Complutensian, Antwerp, Parisian, nor London Polyglot, is such a Targum to be found; none having been discovered when these works were published. But shortly after the London Polyglot was finished, a MS. was found in the University of Cambridge, containing the Targum on these books: this, with several other pieces, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, etc., Dr. Samuel Clarke collected, and intended to publish, as a supplementary volume to the Polyglot, but was prevented by premature death. The MS. was afterwards copied by Mr. David Wilkins, and printed, with a Latin translation, at Amsterdam, quarto, 1715. Of this work the reader will find I have made a liberal use, as I have of the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, on the preceding books. Rabbi Joseph, the author, lived about three hundred years after the destruction of the second temple, or about a.d. 400. The MS. in question formerly belonged to the celebrated Erpen, and was purchased by the duke of Buckingham, then Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and by him presented to the public library of that University.

[¶31] It is worthy of remark, that the term מימרא meymera, "word," and מימרא דיי meymera dayeya, "the word of Jehovah," is used personally in this Targum; never as a word spoken, but as a Person acting: see the notes on [Joh 1:1].

[¶32] The first book of Chronicles contains a sort of genealogical history from the creation of the world to the death of David, A.M. 2989.

[¶33] Solomon, and the chiefs of the congregation, go to Gibeon, where was the tabernacle of the Lord, and the brazen altar; and there he offers a thousand sacrifices, [2Chr 1:1-6]. The Lord appears to him in a dream, and gives him permission to ask any gift, [2Chr 1:7]. He asks wisdom, [2Chr 1:8-10], which is granted; and riches, wealth, and honor besides, [2Chr 1:11], [2Chr 1:12]. His kingdom is established, [2Chr 1:13]. His chariots, horsemen, and horses, [2Chr 1:14]. His abundant riches, [2Chr 1:15]. He brings horses, linen yarn, and chariots, at a fixed price, out of Egypt, [2Chr 1:16], [2Chr 1:17].

### Verse 1

[¶35] And Solomon the son of David - The very beginning of this book shows that it is a continuation of the preceding, and should not be thus formally separated from it. See the preface to the first book.

[¶36] The Lord his God was with him - "The Word of the Lord was his support." - Targum.

### Verse 2

[¶38] Then Solomon spake - This is supposed to have taken place in the second year of his reign.

### Verse 4

[¶40] But the ark - The tabernacle and the brazen altar remained still at Gibeon; but David had brought away the ark out of the tabernacle, and placed it in a tent at Jerusalem; [2Sam 6:2], [2Sam 6:17].

### Verse 5

[¶42] Sought unto it - Went to seek the Lord there.

### Verse 7

[¶44] In that night - The night following the sacrifice. On Solomon's choice, see the notes on [1Kgs 3:5-15] (note).

## 420. 2 Chronicles · 2 of 24

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### Verse 9

[¶1] Let thy promise - דברך debarcha, thy word; פתגמך pithgamach, Targum. It is very remarkable that when either God or man is represented as having spoken a word then the noun פתגם pithgam is used by the Targumist; but when word is used personally, then he employs the noun מימרא meymera, which appears to answer to the Λογος of St. John, [Joh 1:1], etc.

### Verse 14

[¶3] He had a thousand and four hundred chariots - For these numbers, see the notes on [1Kgs 4:26].

### Verse 15

[¶5] Made silver and gold - See on [1Kgs 10:27] (note), [1Kgs 10:28] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶7] Linen yarn - See the note on [1Kgs 10:28], where this subject is particularly examined.

### Verse 17

[¶9] A horse for a hundred and fifty - Suppose we take the shekel at the utmost value at which it has been rated, three shillings; then the price of a horse was about twenty-two pounds ten shillings.

[¶10] On Solomon's multiplying horses, Bishop Warburton has made some judicious remarks: - "Moses had expressly prohibited the multiplying of horses, [Deu 17:16], by which the future king was forbidden to establish a body of cavalry, because this could not be effected without sending into Egypt, with which people God had forbidden any communication, as this would be dangerous to religion. When Solomon had violated this law, and multiplied horses to excess, [1Kgs 4:26], it was soon attended with those fatal consequences that the law foretold: for this wisest of kings having likewise, in violation of another law, married Pharaoh's daughter, (the early fruits of this commerce), and then, by a repetition of the same crime, but a transgression of another law, having espoused more strange women, [1Kgs 11:1]; they first, in defiance of a fourth law, persuaded him to build them idol temples for their use, and afterwards, against a fifth law, brought him to erect other temples for his own. Now the original of all this mischief was the forbidden traffic with Egypt for horses; for thither were the agents of Solomon sent to mount his cavalry. Nay, this great king even turned factor for the neighboring monarchs, [2Chr 1:17], and this opprobrious commerce was kept up by his successors and attended with the same pernicious consequences. Isaiah denounces the mischiefs of this traffic; and foretells that one of the good effects of leaving it would be the forsaking of their idolatries, [Isa 31:1], [Isa 31:4], [Isa 31:6], [Isa 31:7]." - See Divine Legation, vol. iii., p. 289 and Dr. Dodd's Notes.

### Introduction

[¶12] Solomon determines to build a temple, [2Chr 2:1]. The number of his workmen, [2Chr 2:2]. Sends to Huram for artificers and materials, [2Chr 2:3-10]. Huram sends him a favorable answer, and makes an agreement with him concerning the labor to be done, and the wages to be paid to his men, [2Chr 2:11-16]. The number of strangers in the land, and how employed, [2Chr 2:17], [2Chr 2:18].

### Verse 1

[¶14] A house for the name of the Lord - A temple for the worship of Jehovah.

[¶15] A house for his kingdom - A royal palace for his own use as king of Israel.

### Verse 3

[¶17] Solomon sent to Huram - This man's name is written חירם Chiram in Kings; and in Chronicles, חורם Churam: there is properly no difference, only a י yod and a ו vau interchanged. See on [1Kgs 5:2] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶19] Seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens - "For the lower heavens, the middle heavens, and the upper heavens cannot contain him, seeing he sustains all things by the arm of his power. Heaven is the throne of his glory, the earth his footstool; the deep, and the whole world, are sustained by the spirit of his Word, [ברוח מימריה beruach meqmereih]. Who am I, then, that I should build him a house?" - Targum.

[¶20] Save only to burn sacrifice - It is not under the hope that the house shall be able to contain him, but merely for the purpose of burning incense to him, and offering him sacrifice, that I have erected it.

### Verse 7

[¶22] Send me - a man cunning to work - A person of great ingenuity, who is capable of planning and directing, and who may be over the other artists.

### Verse 11

[¶24] Answered in writing - Though correspondence among persons of distinction was, in these early times, carried on by confidential messengers, yet we find that epistolary correspondence did exist, and that kings could write and read in what were called by the proud and insolent Greeks and Romans barbarous nations. Nearly two thousand years after this we find a king on the British throne who could not sign his own name. About the year of our Lord 700, Withred, king of Kent, thus concludes a charter to secure the liberties of the Church: Ego Wythredus rex Cantiae haec omnia suprascripta et confirmavi, atque, a me dictata propria manu signum sanctae crucis pro ignorantia literarum espressi; "All the above dictated by myself, I have confirmed; and because I cannot write, I have with my own hand expressed this by putting the sign of the holy cross +." - See Wilkins' Concilta.

### Verse 13

[¶26] I have sent a cunning man - His name appears to have been Hiram, or Hiram Abi: see the notes on [1Kgs 7:13], [1Kgs 7:14].

### Verse 16

[¶28] In floats by sea to Joppa - See the note on [1Kgs 5:9], and on the parallel places, for other matters contained in this chapter.

### Introduction

[¶30] Solomon begins to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign on Mount Moriah, [2Chr 3:1], [2Chr 3:2]. Its dimensions, ornaments, and pillars, [2Chr 3:3-17].

### Verse 1

[¶32] In Mount Moriah - Supposed to be the same place where Abraham was about to offer his son Isaac; so the Targum: "Solomon began to build the house of the sanctuary of the Lord at Jerusalem, in the place where Abraham had prayed and worshipped in the name of the Lord. This is the place of the earth where all generations shall worship the Lord. Here Abraham was about to offer his son Isaac for a burnt-offering; but he was snatched away by the Word of the Lord, and a ram placed in his stead. Here Jacob prayed when he fled from the face of Esau his brother; and here the angel of the Lord appeared to David, at which time David built an altar unto the Lord in the threshing-floor which he bought from Araunah the Jebusite."

### Verse 3

[¶34] The length - after the first measure was threescore cubits - It is supposed that the first measure means the cubit used in the time of Moses, contradistinguished from that used in Babylon, and which the Israelites used after their return from captivity; and, as the books of Chronicles were written after the captivity, it was necessary for the writer to make this remark, lest it should be thought that the measurement was by the Babylonish cubit, which was a palm or one-sixth shorter than the cubit of Moses. See the same distinction observed by Ezekiel, [Eze 40:5] (note); [Eze 43:13] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶36] The height was a hundred and twenty - Some think this should be twenty only; but if the same building is spoken of as in [1Kgs 6:2], the height was only thirty cubits. Twenty is the reading of the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Septuagint in the Codex Alexandrinus. The MSS. give us no help. There is probably a mistake here, which, from the similarity of the letters, might easily occur. The words, as they now stand in the Hebrew text, are מאה ואשרים meah veesrim, one hundred and twenty. But probably the letters in מאה meah, a hundred, are transposed for אמה ammah, a cubit, if, therefore, the א aleph be placed after the מ mem, then the word will be מאה meah one hundred; if before it the word will be אמה ammah, a cubit; therefore אמה עשרים ammah esrim will be twenty cubits; and thus the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint appear to have read. This will bring it within the proportion of the other measures, but a hundred and twenty seems too great a height.

### Verse 6

[¶38] Gold of Parvaim - We know not what this place was; some think it is the same as Sepharvaim, a place in Armenia or Media, conquered by the king of Assyria, [2Kgs 17:24], etc. Others, that it is Taprobane, now the island of Ceylon, which Bochart derives from taph, signifying the border, and Parvan, i.e., the coast of Parvan. The rabbins say that it was gold of a blood-red color, and had its name from פרים parim, heifers, being like to bullocks' blood.

[¶39] The Vulgate translates the passage thus: Stravit quoque pavimentum templi pretiosissimo marmore, decore multo; porro aurum erat probatissimum; "And he made the pavement of the temple of the most precious marble; and moreover the gold was of the best quality," etc.

### Verse 9

[¶41] The weight of the nails was fifty shekels - Bolts must be here intended, as it should be preposterous to suppose nails of nearly two pounds' weight.

[¶42] The supper chambers - Probably the ceiling is meant.

### Verse 17

[¶44] He reared up the pillars - "The name of that on the right hand was Jachin, because the kingdom of the house of David was established; and the name of the left was Boaz, from the name of Boaz the patriarch of the family of Judah, from whom all the kings of the house of Judah have descended." - Targum. See on [1Kgs 7:21] (note); and see the parallel places for other matters contained in this chapter.

## 421. 2 Chronicles · 3 of 24

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### Introduction

[¶1] The brazen altar, [2Chr 4:1]. Molten sea, and its supporters, [2Chr 4:2-5]. The ten lavers, [2Chr 4:6]. Ten golden candlesticks, [2Chr 4:7]. Ten tables, the hundred golden basons, and the priests' court, [2Chr 4:8-10]. The works which Huram performed, [2Chr 4:11-17]. Solomon finishes the temple, and its utensils, [2Chr 4:18-22].

### Verse 3

[¶3] Under it was the similitude of oxen - In [1Kgs 7:24], instead of oxen, בקרים bekarim, we have knops, פקעים pekaim; and this last is supposed by able critics to be the reading which ought to be received here. What we call knops may signify grapes, mushrooms, apples, or some such ornaments placed round about under the turned over lip or brim of this caldron. It is possible that בקרים bekarim, oxen, may be a corruption of פקעים pekaim, grapes, as the פ pe might be mistaken for a ב beth, to which in ancient MSS. it has often a great resemblance, the dot under the top being often faint and indistinct; and the ע ain, on the same account might be mistaken for a ר resh. Thus grapes might be turned into oxen. Houbigant contends that the words in both places are right; but that בקר bakar does not signify ox here, but al large kind of grape, according to its meaning in Arabic: and thus both places will agree. But I do not find that bakar, or bakarat, has any such meaning in Arabic. He was probably misled by the following, in the Arabic Lexicon, Camus, inserted under bakara, both by Giggeius and Golius, aino albikri, ox-eye, which is interpreted Genus uvae nigrae ac praeprandis, incredibilis dulcedinis. In Palaestina autem pro prunis absolute usurpatur. "A species of black grape, very large, and of incredible sweetness. It is used in Palestine for prune or plum." What is called the Damascene plum is doubtless meant; but בקרים bekarim, in the text, can never have this meaning, unless indeed we found it associated with עין ayin, eye, and then עיני בקרים eyney bekarim might, according to the Arabic, be translated plums, grapes, sloes, or such like, especially those of the largest kind, which in size resemble the eye of an ox. But the criticism of this great man is not solid. The likeliest method of reconciling the two places is supposing a change in the letters, as specified above. The reader will at once see that what are called the oxen, [2Chr 4:3], said to be round about the brim, are widely different from those [2Chr 4:4], by which this molten sea was supported.

### Verse 5

[¶5] It - held three thousand baths - In [1Kgs 7:26], it is said to hold only two thousand baths. As this book was written after the Babylonish captivity, it is very possible that reference is here made to the Babylonish bath which might have been less than the Jewish. We have already seen that the cubit of Moses, or of the ancient Hebrews, was longer than the Babylonish by one palm; see on [2Chr 3:3] (note). It might be the same with the measures of capacity; so that two thousand of the ancient Jewish baths might have been equal to three thousand of those used after the captivity. The Targum cuts the knot by saying, "It received three thousand baths of dry measure, and held two thousand of liquid measure.

### Verse 6

[¶7] He made also ten lavers - The lavers served to wash the different parts of the victims in; and the molten sea was for the use of the priests. In this they bathed, or drew water from it for their personal purification.

### Verse 8

[¶9] A hundred basons of gold - These were doubtless a sort of paterae or sacrificial spoons, with which they made libations.

### Verse 9

[¶11] He made the court of the priests - This was the inner court.

[¶12] And the great court - This was the outer court, or place for the assembling of the people.

### Verse 16

[¶14] Huram his father - אב ab, father, is often used in Hebrew to signify a master, inventor, chief operator, and is very probably used here in the former sense by the Chaldee: All these Chiram his master made for King Solomon; or Chiram Abi, or rather Hiram, made for the king.

### Verse 17

[¶16] In the clay ground - See on [1Kgs 7:46] (note). Some suppose that he did not actually cast those instruments at those places, but that he brought the clay from that quarter, as being the most proper for making moulds to cast in.

### Verse 21

[¶18] And the flowers, and the lamps - Probably each branch of the chandelier was made like a plant in flower, and the opening of the flower was either the lamp, or served to support it.

### Verse 22

[¶20] The doors - were of gold - That is, were overlaid with golden plates, the thickness of which we do not know.

[¶21] That every thing in the tabernacle and temple was typical or representative of some excellence of the Gospel dispensation may be readily credited, without going into all the detail produced by the pious author of Solomon's Temple Spiritualized. We can see the general reference and the principles of the great design, though we may not be able to make a particular application of the knops, the flowers, the pomegranates, the tongs, and the snuffers, to some Gospel doctrines: such spiritualizing is in most cases weak, silly, religious trifling; being ill calculated to produce respect for Divine revelation.

### Introduction

[¶23] Solomon having finished the temple, brings in the things which his father had consecrated, [2Chr 5:1]. He assembles the elders and chiefs of Israel and the Levites, in order to bring up the ark from the city of David, [2Chr 5:2], [2Chr 5:3]. They bring it and its vessels; and having offered innumerable sacrifices, place it in the temple, under the wings of the cherubim, [2Chr 5:4-10]. The Levites, singers, and trumpeters praise God; and his glory descends and fills the house, so that the priests cannot stand to minister, [2Chr 5:11-14].

### Verse 1

[¶25] Brought in all the things - See the note on [1Kgs 7:51].

### Verse 3

[¶27] The feast - "That is, the feast of tabernacles, which was held in the seventh month." - Targum. See [1Kgs 8:2].

### Verse 9

[¶29] They drew out the staves - As the ark was no longer to be carried about, these were unnecessary.

### Verse 10

[¶31] There was nothing in the ark save - The Chaldee paraphrases thus: "There was nothing put in the ark but the two tables which Moses placed there, after the first had been broken on account of the calf which they made in Horeb, and the two other tables had been confirmed which were written with writing expressed in the Ten Words."

### Verse 11

[¶33] When the priests were come out - After having carried the ark into the holy of holies, before the sacred service had commenced.

### Verse 12

[¶35] A hundred and twenty priests - Cymbals, psalteries, and harps, of any kind, in union with a hundred and twenty trumpets or horns, could not produce much harmony; as to melody, that must have been impossible, as the noise was too great.

### Verse 13

[¶37] For he is good - This was either the whole of the song, or the burden of each verse. The Hebrew is very short: - כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו

[¶38] Ki tob ki leolam chasdo.

[¶39] For he is good; for his mercy is endless.

### Verse 14

[¶41] The priests could not stand - What a proof of the being of God, and of the Divine presence! What must those holy men have felt at this time!

### Introduction

[¶43] Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple, vv. 1-42.

## 422. 2 Chronicles · 4 of 24

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### Verse 1

[¶1] The Lord hath said that he would dwell - Solomon, seeing the cloud descend and fill the house, immediately took for granted that the Lord had accepted the place, and was now present. What occurred now was precisely the same with what took place when Moses reared the tabernacle in the wilderness; see [Exo 40:34], [Exo 40:35] : A cloud covered the tent - and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent - because the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

[¶2] The Chaldee paraphrases thus: "Then said Solomon, It has pleased God to place his majesty in the city of Jerusalem, in the house of the sanctuary which I have built to the name of his Word, and he hath placed a dark cloud before him.

### Verse 10

[¶4] For the name of the Lord - "For the name of the Word of the Lord God of Israel." - Targum.

### Verse 14

[¶6] That walk before thee with all their hearts - "With all the will of their souls and with all the affection of their hearts." - Targum.

### Verse 18

[¶8] But will God in very deed dwell with men - "But who could have imagined, who could have thought it credible, that God should place his majesty among men dwelling upon earth? Behold, the highest heavens, the middle heavens, and the lowest heavens, cannot bear the glory of thy majesty, (for thou art the God who sustainest all the heavens, and the earth, and the deep, and all that is in them), nor can this house which I have built contain Thee." - Targum.

### Verse 22

[¶10] If a man sin against his neighbor - For the Seven cases put here by Solomon in his prayer, see the notes on 1 Kings 8:31-46 (note).

### Verse 36

[¶12] For there is no man which sinneth not - See this case largely considered in the note on [1Kgs 8:46] (note).

### Verse 37

[¶14] If they bethink themselves - "If thy fear should return into their hearts." - Targum.

[¶15] The whole of this prayer is amply considered in the parallel place, 1 Kings 8:22-53 (note), where see the notes.

### Verse 41

[¶17] Let thy saints rejoice in goodness - "In the abundance of the tithes and other goods which shall be given to the Levites, as their reward for keeping the ark, and singing before it." - Jarchi.

### Verse 42

[¶19] Turn not away the face of thine anointed - "At least do me good; and if not for my sake, do it for thy own sake." - Jarchi.

[¶20] These two last verses are not in the parallel place in 1 Kings 8:22-53. There are other differences between the two places in this prayer, but they are not of much consequence.

### Introduction

[¶22] Solomon having ended his prayer, the fire of the Lord comes down from heaven and consumes the offerings, [2Chr 7:1]. The people and the priests see this, and glorify God, and offer sacrifices, [2Chr 7:2-4]. Solomon offers twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep; and the priests and Levites attend in their offices, [2Chr 7:5], [2Chr 7:6]. He keeps the feast seven days, and the dedication of the altar seven days, and dismisses the people, [2Chr 7:7-11]. The Lord appears unto him by night, and assures him that he has heard his prayer, [2Chr 7:12-16]; promises him and his posterity a perpetual government, if they be obedient, [2Chr 7:17], [2Chr 7:18]; but utter destruction should they disobey, and become idolaters, [2Chr 7:19-22].

### Verse 1

[¶24] The fire came down - The cloud had come down before, now the fire consumes the sacrifice, showing that both the house and the sacrifices were accepted by the Lord.

### Verse 4

[¶26] The king and all the people offered sacrifices - They presented the victims to the priests, and they and the Levites slew them, and sprinkled the blood: or perhaps the people themselves slew them; and, having caught the blood, collected the fat, etc., presented them to the priests to be offered as the law required.

### Verse 5

[¶28] Twenty and two thousand oxen, etc. - The amount of all the victims that had been offered during the seven days of the feast of tabernacles, and the seven days of the feast of the dedication.

### Verse 8

[¶30] The entering in of Hamath - "From the entrance of Antioch to the Nile of Egypt." - Targum.

### Verse 10

[¶32] On the three and twentieth day - This was the ninth day of the dedication of the temple; but in [1Kgs 8:66] it is called the eighth day. "The meaning is this," says Jarchi: "he gave them liberty to return on the eighth day, and many of them did then return: and he dismissed the remainder on the ninth, what is called here the twenty-third, reckoning the fourteen days for the duration of the two feasts; in all, twenty-three."

[¶33] The Targum paraphrases this verse thus: "The people departed with a glad heart, for all the good which God had done to David his servant, on whose account the doors of the sanctuary were open and for Solomon his son, because God had heard his prayer, and the majesty of the Lord had rested on the house of the sanctuary and for Israel, his people, because God had favourably accepted their oblations, and the heavenly fire had descended, and, burning on the altar, had devoured their sacrifices."

### Verse 12

[¶35] The Lord appeared to Solomon - This was a second manifestation; see [1Kgs 9:2-9] (note), and the notes there. The Targum says, "The Word of the Lord appeared to Solomon."

### Verse 13

[¶37] Or if I send pestilence - "The angel of death." - Targum.

### Verse 15

[¶39] Now mine eyes shall be open - It shall be pleasing to me in the sight of my Word, that I should incline mine ear," etc. - Targum.

### Verse 18

[¶41] There shall not fail thee a man - This promise was not fulfilled, because the condition was not fulfilled; they forsook God, and he cut them off, and the throne also.

### Verse 20

[¶43] Then will I pluck them up by the roots - How completely has this been fulfilled! not only all the branches of the Jewish political tree have been cut off, but the very roots have been plucked up; so that the day of the Lord's anger has left them neither root nor branch.

### Verse 21

[¶45] Shall be an astonishment - The manner in which these disobedient people have been destroyed is truly astonishing: no nation was ever so highly favored, and none ever so severely and signally punished.

## 423. 2 Chronicles · 5 of 24

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### Verse 22

[¶1] Because they forsook the Lord - While they cleaved to God, the most powerful enemy could make no impression on them; but when they forsook him, then the weakest and most inconsiderable of their foes harassed, oppressed, and reduced them to bondage and misery. It was by no personal prowess, genuine heroism, or supereminent military tactics, that the Jews were enabled to resist and overcome their enemies; it was by the Divine power alone; for, destitute of this, they were even worse than other men.

### Introduction

[¶3] Solomon's buildings, conquests, and officers, [2Chr 8:1-10]. He brings Pharaoh's daughter to his new-built palace, [2Chr 8:11]. His various sacrifices, and arrangement of the priests, Levites, and porters, [2Chr 8:12-16]. He sends a fleet to Ophir, [2Chr 8:17], [2Chr 8:18].

### Verse 1

[¶5] At the end of twenty years - He employed seven years and a half in building the temple, and twelve and a half, or thirteen, in building his own house. - Compare this with [1Kgs 7:1].

### Verse 2

[¶7] The cities which Huram had restored - See the note on [1Kgs 9:11].

### Verse 3

[¶9] Hamath-zobah - "Emessa, on the river Orontes." - Calmet.

### Verse 4

[¶11] Tadmor - Palmyra. See the note on [1Kgs 9:18], for an account of this superb city.

### Verse 6

[¶13] All the store cities - See the note on [1Kgs 9:19].

### Verse 9

[¶15] But of the children of Israel - See the note on [1Kgs 9:21].

### Verse 11

[¶17] The daughter of Pharaoh - "And Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, Solomon brought up from the city of David to the palace which he had built for her." - T.

[¶18] Because the places are holy - Is not this a proof that he considered his wife to be a heathen, and not proper to dwell in a place which had been sanctified? Solomon had not yet departed from the true God.

### Verse 13

[¶20] Three times in the year - These were the three great annual feasts.

### Verse 15

[¶22] The commandment of the king - The institutions of David.

### Verse 17

[¶24] Then went Solomon to Ezion-geber - See the notes on [1Kgs 9:26-28] (note), for conjectures concerning Ezion-geber and Ophir.

### Verse 18

[¶26] Knowledge of the sea - Skilful sailors. Solomon probably bore the expenses and his friend, the Tyrian king, furnished him with expert sailors; for the Jews, at no period of their history, had any skill in maritime affairs, their navigation being confined to the lakes of their own country, from which they could never acquire any nautical skill. The Tyrians, on the contrary, lived on and in the sea.

### Introduction

[¶28] The queen of Sheba visits Solomon, and is sumptuously entertained by him, [2Chr 9:1-12]. His great riches, [2Chr 9:13], [2Chr 9:14]. He makes targets and shields of beaten gold, and a magnificent ivory throne, and various utensils of gold, [2Chr 9:15-20]. His navigation to Tarshish, and the commodities brought thence, [2Chr 9:21]. His magnificence and political connections, [2Chr 9:22-28]. The writers of his life, [2Chr 9:29]. He reigns forty years, and is succeeded by his son Rehoboam, [2Chr 9:30], [2Chr 9:31].

### Verse 1

[¶30] The queen of Sheba - See all the particulars of this royal visit distinctly marked and explained in the notes on [1Kgs 10:1-10] (note). The Targum calls her queen of Zemargad.

### Verse 12

[¶32] Beside that which she had brought unto the king - In [1Kgs 10:13] it is stated that Solomon gave her all she asked, besides that which he gave her of his royal bounty. It is not at all likely that he gave her back the presents which she brought to him, and which he had accepted. She had, no doubt, asked for several things which were peculiar to the land of Judea, and would be curiosities in her own kingdom; and besides these, he gave her other valuable presents.

### Verse 14

[¶34] The kings of Arabia - "The kings of Sistevantha." - Targum.

### Verse 15

[¶36] And King Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold - For a more correct valuation of these targets and shields than that in [1Kgs 10:17] (note), see at the end of the chapter.

### Verse 17

[¶38] Made a great throne of ivory - For a very curious description of the throne of Solomon, see at the end of the chapter, [2Chr 9:29] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶40] The king's ships went to Tarshish - "Went to Africa." - Targum.

### Verse 25

[¶42] Four thousand stalls for horses - See the note on [1Kgs 4:26], where the different numbers in these two books are considered. The Targum, instead of four thousand, has ארבע מאה arba meah, four hundred.

### Verse 29

[¶44] Nathan the prophet - These books are all lost. See the account of Solomon, his character, and a review of his works, at the end of [1Kgs 11:43] (note).

## 424. 2 Chronicles · 6 of 24

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[¶0] I. By the kindness of a learned friend, who has made this kind of subjects his particular study, I am able to give a more correct view of the value of the talent of gold and the talent of silver than that which I have quoted [1Kgs 10:17], from Mr. Reynold's State of the Greatest King.

[¶1] 1. To find the equivalent in British standard to an ounce troy of pure gold, valued at eighty shillings, and to a talent of the same which weighs one thousand eight hundred ounces troy.

[¶2] The ounce contains four hundred and eighty grains, and the guinea weighs one hundred and twenty-nine grains, or five pennyweights and nine grains. (1) As 129 grains: 21 shillings:: 480, the number of grains in an ounce: 78.1395348s. or 3l. 18s. 1d. 2.69767q.; the equivalent in our silver coin to one ounce of standard gold. (2) As 78.1395348 shillings, the value of an ounce of standard gold,: 80 shillings, the value of an ounce troy of pure gold,:: 80 shillings: 81.9047619 shillings, the equivalent in British standard to one ounce of pure gold.

[¶3] Instead of the preceding, the following proportions may be used: - (1) As 21.5 shillings: 21 shillings:: 80 shillings: 78.1395348 shillings. This multiplied by 1800, the number of troy ounces in a Hebrew talent, gives 140651.16264s. or 7032l. 11s. 1d. 3.8q., the equivalent to one talent of standard gold. (2) As 21 standard: 21.5 pure:: 80 pure: 81.9047619 standard. This multiplied by 1800 gives 147428.67142s. or 7371l. 8s. 6d. 3.4q., the equivalent to one talent of pure gold.

[¶4] 2. To find the equivalent in British standard to a talent of pure silver, which is valued at four hundred and fifty pounds sterling, or five shillings the ounce troy.

[¶5] The pound troy is 240 pennyweights; and our silver coin has 18 pennyweights of alloy in the pound. From 240 pennyweights take 18, and there will remain 222 pennyweights, the pure silver in the pound.

[¶6] Now as 240 pennyweights: 222 pennyweights:: 20 pennyweights, the weight of a crown piece,: 18 1/2 pennyweights, the weight of the pure silver in the crown.

[¶7] Then, as 18.5 pennyweights: 6 shillings:: 36000, the number of dwts. in a talent,: 9729.729729729729 shillings, or 486 9s. 8 3/4d., the equivalent in our coin to a talent of pure silver.

[¶8] Example 1. To find the equivalent in British standard to the one hundred and twenty talents of gold which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon, [2Chr 9:9].

[¶9] 147428.57142 s. equivalent to one talent of pure gold, 120 number of talents [as found above]. 17691428.5704 = 884,571 8 s. 6 3/4 d., the equivalent to 120 talents. Example 2. To find the equivalent in British standard to Solomon's two hundred targets of beaten gold, each six hundred shekels; and to his three hundred shields, each three hundred shekels, [2Chr 9:15], [2Chr 9:16].

[¶10] A talent is three thousand shekels; therefore six hundred shekels are one-fifth, and three hundred are one-tenth of a talent. - 5)147428.57142s. equivalent to one talent. 29485.71428 equivalent to one target. 200 the number of targets. 2 0)589714 2.856 294,857 2 s. 10 1/4 d. equivalent to 200 targets.

[¶11] One-tenth of a talent is

[¶12] 14742.857142 = one shield. 300 number of shields. 2 0)442285 7.1426 221,142 17 s. 1 1/2 d. = 300 shields. Example 3. To find the equivalent in British standard to the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year, independently of what the chapmen and merchants brought him.

[¶13] 147428.57142 s. = one talent. 666 number of talents. 88457142852 88457142852 88457142852 2 0)9818742 8.56572 4,909, 371 8 s. 6 3/4 d. equivalent to 666 talents. Example 4. To find the equivalent in British standard to the hundred thousand talents of gold, and to the million of talents of silver, which were prepared by David for the temple, [1Chr 22:14].

[¶14] The Gold 147428.57142 s. = one talent. 100000 number of talents 2 0)1474285714 2 737,142, 857 2 s. the equivalent. Or, seven hundred and thirty-seven millions, one hundred and forty-two thousand, eight hundred and fifty-seven pounds, two shillings sterling, for the gold.

[¶15] The Silver 9729.729729729 s. = one talent. 1000000 number of talents. 2 0)9729729721 9.729 486,486, 486 9 s. 8 1/2 d. the equivalent. Or, four hundred and eighty-six millions, four hundred and eighty-six thousand, four hundred and eighty-six pounds, nine shillings, and eightpence halfpenny sterling, for the silver.

[¶16] II. I have referred, in the note on [2Chr 9:17], to a curious account of Solomon's throne, taken from a Persian MS. entitled beet al mukuddus, the Holy House, or Jerusalem. It has already been remarked, in the account of Solomon at the end of [1Kgs 11:43], article 12, that among the oriental writers Solomon is considered, not only as the wisest of all men, but as having supreme command over demons and genii of all kinds; and that he knew the language of beasts and birds, etc.; and therefore the reader need not be surprised if he find, in the following account, Solomon employing preternatural agency in the construction of this celebrated throne. "This famous throne was the work of the Deev Sukhur; it was called Koukab al Jinna. The beauty of this throne has never been sufficiently described; the following are the particulars: - "The sides of it were pure gold; the feet, of emeralds and pearls, intermixed with other pearls, each of which was as large as the egg of an ostrich. "The throne had Seven steps; on each side were delineated orchards full of trees, the branches of which were composed of precious stones, representing ripe and unripe fruits. "On the tops of the trees were to be seen fowls of the most beautiful plumage; particularly the peacock, the etaub, and the kurgus; all these birds were artificially hollowed within, so as occasionally to utter a thousand melodious notes, such as the ears of mortals had never before heard. "On the First step were delineated vine-branches, having bunches of grapes, composed of various sorts of precious stones; fashioned in such a manner as to represent the different colors of purple, violet, green, and red, so as to exhibit the appearance of real fruit. "On the Second step, on each side of the throne, were two lions, of massive gold, of terrible aspect, and as large as life. "The property of this throne was such, that when the prophet Solomon placed his foot upon the First step, all the birds spread their wings, and made a fluttering noise in the air. "On his touching the Second step, the two lions expanded their claws. "On his reaching the Third step, the whole assembly of deevs, peris, and men, repeated the praises of the Deity. "When he arrived at the Fourth step, voices were heard addressing him in the following manner: Son of David be grateful for the blessings which the Almighty has bestowed upon thee. "The same was repeated on his reaching the Fifth step. "On his touching the Sixth step, all the children sang praises. "On his arrival at the Seventh step, the whole throne, with all the birds and other animals, became in motion, and ceased not till he had placed himself in the royal seat; and then the birds, lions, and other animals, by secret springs, discharged a shower of the most precious musk upon the prophet; after which two of the kurguses, descending placed a golden crown upon his head. "Before the throne was a column of burnished gold; on the top of which was placed a golden dove, which had in its beak a roll bound in silver. In this roll were written the Psalms of the prophet David, and the dove having presented the roll to King Solomon, he read a portion of it to the children of Israel. "It is farther related that, on the approach of wicked persons to this throne for judgment, the lions were wont to set up a terrible roaring, and to lash their tails about with violence; the birds also began to erect their feathers; and the whole assembly of deeves and genii uttered such loud cries, that for fear of them no person would dare to be guilty of falsehood, but instantly confess his crimes. "Such was the throne of Solomon, the son of David." Supposing even this splendid description to be literally true, there is nothing here that could not have been performed by ingenuity and art; nothing that needed the aid of supernatural influence."

[¶17] In another MS., on which I cannot now lay my hand, the whole value of this throne, and its ornaments, is computed in lacs of rupees! The above description is founded in the main on the account given here, [2Chr 9:17-19]. The Six steps, and the footstool of the sacred writer, make the Seven steps, in the above description. The twelve lions are not distinguished by the Mohammedan writer. Other matters are added from tradition.

[¶18] This profusion of gold and precious stones was not beyond the reach of Solomon, when we consider the many millions left by his father; no less a sum than one thousand two hundred and twenty-three millions, six hundred and twenty-nine thousand, three hundred and forty-three pounds, eleven shillings, and eight pence halfpenny, besides what Solomon himself furnished.

### Introduction

[¶20] The people apply to Rehoboam to ease them of their burdens, [2Chr 10:1-4]. Rejecting the advice of the aged counsellors, and following that of the young men, he gives them an ungracious answer, [2Chr 10:5-14]. The people are discouraged, and ten tribes revolt, [2Chr 10:15-17]. They stone Hadoram, who went to collect the tribute; and Rehoboam but barely escapes, [2Chr 10:18], [2Chr 10:19].

### Verse 1

[¶22] Rehoboam went to Shechem - This chapter is almost word for word the same as 1 Kings 12:1-19, to the notes on which the reader is referred.

### Verse 10

[¶24] My little finger shall be thicker - "My weakness shall be stronger than the might of my father." - Targum.

### Verse 15

[¶26] For the cause was of God - "For there was an occasion Divinely given." - Targum.

### Verse 16

[¶28] To your tents, O Israel - "To your cities, O Israel." - Targum.

[¶29] Now, David, see to thine own house - "Now, David, rule over the men of thy own house." - Targum.

### Verse 18

[¶31] Stoned him - When he endeavored to collect the tribute which Solomon had imposed on them. - Jarchi.

### Verse 19

[¶33] Israel rebelled - A few soft words, and the removal of a part of the oppressive taxes, (for they said, Ease thou Somewhat the grievous servitude), would have secured this people to the state, and prevented the shedding of a sea of human blood, which was the consequence of the separation of this kingdom. Rehoboam was a fool; and through his folly he lost his kingdom. He is not the only example on record: the Stuarts lost the realm of England much in the same way; and, by a different mode of treatment, the House of Brunswick continues to fill the British throne. May the thread of its fortune, woven by the hand of God, never be undone! and may the current of its power glide on to the latest posterity!

[¶34] Talia secla, suis dixerunt, currite, fusis

[¶35] Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae.

[¶36] Virg. Ecl. iv., ver. 46. "God's firm decree, by which this web was spun,

[¶37] Shall ever bless the clue, and bid it smoothly run."

[¶38] Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis Aevum.

[¶39] Horat. Epist., l. i., c. 2, v. 43. "Still glides the river, and shall ever glide."

[¶40] Amen! Amen!

### Introduction

[¶42] Rehoboam raises an array, purposing to reduce the ten tribes; but is prevented by Shemaiah the prophet, [2Chr 11:1-4]. He builds several cities of defense, and fortifies others, [2Chr 11:5-12]. The priests and Levites being turned out by Jeroboam, come to Rehoboam, [2Chr 11:13], [2Chr 11:14]. Jeroboam's gross idolatry, [2Chr 11:15]. The pious of the land join with Judah, and strengthen the kingdom of Rehoboam, [2Chr 11:16], [2Chr 11:17]. His wives, concubines, and numerous issue, [2Chr 11:18-21]. He places his own sons for governors in the different provinces, [2Chr 11:22], [2Chr 11:23].

### Verse 1

[¶44] Gathered of the house of Judah - See this account [1Kgs 12:21-24] (note), and the notes there.

## 425. 2 Chronicles · 7 of 24

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### Verse 5

[¶1] And built cities for defense in Judah - He was obliged to strengthen his frontiers against the encroachments of the men of Israel; and Jeroboam did the same thing on his part to prevent the inroads of Judah. See [1Kgs 12:25].

### Verse 11

[¶3] Store of victual - In these places he laid up stores of provisions, not only to enable them to endure a siege; but also that they might be able, from their situation, to supply desolate places.

### Verse 14

[¶5] The Levites left their suburbs - They and the priests were expelled from their offices by Jeroboam, lest they should turn the hearts of the people to the true God, and then they would revolt to Judah, [1Kgs 12:26]; and therefore he established a new worship, and made new gods.

### Verse 15

[¶7] And he ordained him priests - for the devils - שעירים seirim, the hairy ones; probably goats: for as the golden calves, or oxen, were in imitation of the Egyptian ox-god, Apis; so they no doubt paid Divine honors to the goat, which we know was an object of religious veneration in Egypt.

### Verse 16

[¶9] Such as set their hearts to seek the Lord - All the truly pious joined him out of every tribe, and the whole tribe of Levi, being deprived of their functions, joined him also. Thus he had Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, and probably a part of Simeon; for he had Etam, which was in that tribe, and the truly religious out of all the other tribes, for they could not bear Jeroboam's idolatry.

### Verse 17

[¶11] For three years they walked in the way of David - During this time he prospered; but for fourteen years after this he and the people were unfaithful to the Lord, except at such intervals as the hand of God's judgments was upon them.

### Verse 18

[¶13] Took him Mahalath - By marrying thus in the family of David, he strengthened his right to the Jewish throne.

### Verse 20

[¶15] Maachah the daughter of Absalom - See the note on [1Kgs 15:10]. She is called Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel, [2Chr 13:2]. For this the Targum gives the following reason: "Abijah reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Michaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibeatha. She is the same as Michah, the daughter of Absalom; but, because she was an upright woman, her name was changed into the more excellent name Michaiah, and her fathers name into that of Uriel of Gibeatha, that the name of Absalom might not be remembered.

### Verse 21

[¶17] Eighteen wives and threescore concubines - Bad enough, but not so abandoned as his father. Of these marriages and concubinage the issue was twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters; eighty-eight children in the whole, to the education of the whole of whom he could pay but little attention. Numerous families are often neglected; and children by different women, must be yet in a worse state.

### Verse 22

[¶19] Made Abijah - the chief - Abijah certainly was not the first-born of Rehoboam; but as he loved Maachah more than any of his wives, so he preferred her son, probably through his mother's influence. In [Deu 21:16], this sort of preference is forbidden; but Rehoboam had a sort of precedent in the preference shown by David to Solomon.

### Verse 23

[¶21] He dealt wisely - It was true policy to disperse his own sons through the different provinces who were not likely to form any league with Jeroboam against their father.

[¶22] He desired many wives - He was much addicted to women; yet we do not find that he formed any heathenish alliances of this nature. And as no particulars are given, we do not know how far he indulged himself in this propensity. He probably strengthened his political connections by these means.

### Introduction

[¶24] Rehoboam and his subjects, forsaking the Lord, are delivered into the hands of Shishak, king of Egypt, [2Chr 12:1-4]. Shemaiah the prophet remonstrates with them, and they humble themselves, and Jerusalem is not destroyed; but Shishak takes away all the treasures, and the golden shields, instead of which Rehoboam makes shields of brass, [2Chr 12:5-12]. He reigns badly seventeen years, dies, and is succeeded by his son Abijah, [2Chr 12:13-16].

### Verse 1

[¶26] He forsook the law of the Lord - This was after the three years mentioned [2Chr 11:17].

### Verse 2

[¶28] Shishak king of Egypt - Concerning this man, and the motive which led him to attack the Jews, see the note on [1Kgs 14:31].

[¶29] Transgressed against the Lord - "Against the Word of the Lord." - Targum.

### Verse 3

[¶31] The Lubims - Supposed to be a people of Libya, adjoining to Egypt; sometimes called Phut in Scripture, as the people are called Lehabim and Ludim.

[¶32] The Sukkiims - The Troglodytes, a people of Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea. They were called Troglodytes, Τρωγλοδυται, οἱ τας τρωγλας οικουντες, "because they dwelt in caves." - Hesych. This agrees with what Pliny says of them, Troglodytae specus excavant, haec illis domus; "The Troglodytes dig themselves caves; and these serve them for houses." This is not very different from the import of the original name סכיים Sukkiyim, from סכה sachah, to cover or overspread; (hence סוך such, a tabernacle); the people who were covered (emphatically) under the earth. The Septuagint translate by the word Τρωγλοδυται, Troglodytes.

[¶33] The Ethiopians - כושים Cushim. Various people were called by this name, particularly a people bordering on the northern coast of the Red Sea; but these are supposed to have come from a country of that name on the south of Egypt.

### Verse 6

[¶35] Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves - This is not mentioned in the parallel place, [1Kgs 14:25-29] : this was the sole reason why Jerusalem was not at this time totally destroyed, and the house of David entirely cut off; for they were totally incapable of defending themselves against this innumerable host.

### Verse 8

[¶37] They shall be his servants - They shall be preserved, and serve their enemies, that they may see the difference between the service of God and that of man. While they were pious, they found the service of the Lord to be perfect freedom; when they forsook the Lord, they found the fruit to be perfect bondage. A sinful life is both expensive and painful.

### Verse 9

[¶39] Took away the treasures - Such a booty as never had before, nor has since, come into the hand of man.

[¶40] The shields of gold - These shields were the mark of the king's body-guard: it was in imitation of this Eastern magnificence that Alexander constituted his Argyraspides, adorned with the spoils taken from Darius. See Quintus Curtius, lib. viii., c. 5, et alibi.

### Verse 13

[¶42] Was one and forty years old - Houbigant thinks he was but sixteen years old when he began to reign; and brings many and forcible arguments to prove that the number forty-one must be a mistake. That he was young when he came to the throne, is evident from his consulting the young men that were brought up with him, [2Chr 10:8], [2Chr 10:10]. They were young men then; and if he was brought up with them, he must have been young then also. Besides, Abijah, in his speech to Jeroboam, [2Chr 13:7], says that at the time Rehoboam came to the throne he was tender-hearted, and therefore could not withstand the children of Belial raised up against him by Jeroboam: but surely at that time no man could be reputed young and tender-hearted - quite devoid of experience, who was above forty years of age. Besides, if this reading were allowed, it would prove that he was born before his father Solomon began to reign, for Solomon reigned only forty years, and Rehoboam immediately succeeded him.

### Verse 15

[¶44] Concerning genealogies - "In the book of the genealogy of the family of David." - Targum.

## 426. 2 Chronicles · 8 of 24

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### Verse 16

[¶1] Abijah his son - Concerning the many varieties in this king's name, see the note on [1Kgs 14:31].

### Introduction

[¶3] Abijah begins to reign over Judah, and has war with Jeroboam, [2Chr 13:1-3]. His speech from Mount Zemaraim to Jeroboam, before the commencement of hostilities, [2Chr 13:4-12]. While thus engaged, Jeroboam despatches some troops which come on the rear of Abijah's army, [2Chr 13:13]. Perceiving this, they cry unto the Lord, and the Israelites are defeated with the loss of five hundred thousand men, [2Chr 13:14-18]. Abijah retakes several cities from Jeroboam, who is smitten by the Lord, and dies, [2Chr 13:19], [2Chr 13:20]. Abijah's marriages and issue, [2Chr 13:21], [2Chr 13:22].

### Verse 2

[¶5] His mother's name - was Michaiah - See on [2Chr 11:20] (note).

### Verse 3

[¶7] Abijah set the battle in array - The numbers in this verse and in the seventeenth seem almost incredible. Abijah's army consisted of four hundred thousand effective men; that of Jeroboam consisted of eight hundred thousand; and the slain of Jeroboam's army were five hundred thousand. Now it is very possible that there is a cipher too much in all these numbers, and that they should stand thus: Abijah's army, forty thousand; Jeroboam's eighty thousand; the slain, fifty thousand. Calmet, who defends the common reading, allows that the Venice edition of the Vulgate, in 1478; another, in 1489; that of Nuremberg, in 1521; that of Basil, by Froben, in 1538; that of Robert Stevens, in 1546; and many others, have the smaller numbers. Dr. Kennicott says: "On a particular collation of the Vulgate version, it appears that the number of chosen men here slain, which Pope Clement's edition in 1592 determines to be five hundred thousand, the edition of Pope Sixtus, printed two years before, determined to be only fifty thousand; and the two preceding numbers, in the edition of Sixtus, are forty thousand and eighty thousand. As to different printed editions, out of fifty-two, from the year 1462 to 1592, thirty-one contain the less number. And out of fifty-one MSS. twenty-three in the Bodleian library, four in that of Dean Aldrich, and two in that of Exeter College, contain the less number, or else are corrupted irregularly, varying only one or two numbers."

[¶8] This examination was made by Dr. Kennicott before he had finished his collation of Hebrew MSS., and before De Rossi had published his Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti; but from these works we find little help, as far as the Hebrew MSS. are concerned. One Hebrew MS., instead of ארבע מאות אלף arba meoth eleph, four hundred thousand, reads ארבע עשר אלף arba eser eleph, fourteen thousand.

[¶9] In all printed copies of the Hebrew, the numbers are as in the common text, four hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, and five hundred thousand.

[¶10] The versions are as follow: - The Targum, or Chaldee, the same in each place as the Hebrew.

[¶11] The Syriac in [2Chr 13:3] has four hundred thousand young men for the army of Abijah, and eight hundred thousand stout youth for that of Jeroboam. For the slain Israelites, in [2Chr 13:17], it has five hundred thousand, falsely translated in the Latin text quinque milia, five thousand, both in the Paris and London Polyglots: another proof among many that little dependence is to be placed on the Latin translation of this version in either of the above Polyglots.

[¶12] The Arabic is the same in all these cases with the Syriac, from which it has been translated.

[¶13] The Septuagint, both as it is published in all the Polyglots, and as far as I have seen in MSS. is the same with the Hebrew text. So also is Josephus.

[¶14] The Vulgate or Latin version is that alone that exhibits any important variations; we have had considerable proof of this in the above-mentioned collations of Calmet and Kennicott. I shall beg liberty to add others from my own collection.

[¶15] In the Editio Princeps of the Latin Bible, though without date or place, yet evidently printed long before that of Fust, in 1462, the places stand thus: [2Chr 13:3]. Cumque inisset certamen, et haberet bellicosissimos viros, et electorum Quadraginta milia: Iheroboam construxit e contra aciem Octoginta milia virorum; "With him Abia entered into battle; and he had of the most warlike and choice men forty thousand; and Jeroboam raised an army against him of eighty thousand men." And in [2Chr 13:17] : Et corruerunt vulnerati ex Israel, Quinquaginta milia virorum fortium; "And there fell down wounded fifty thousand stout men of Israel." In the Glossa Ordinaria, by Strabo Fuldensis, we have forty thousand and eighty thousand in the two first instances, and five hundred thousand in the last. - Bib. Sacr. vol. ii., Antv. 1634.

[¶16] In six ancient MSS. of my own, marked A, B, C, D, E, F. the text stands thus: -

[¶17] A. - Cumque inisset Abia certamen, et haberet bellicosissimos viros, et electorum XL. MIL. Jeroboam instruxit contra aciem LXXX. MIL.

[¶18] And in [2Chr 13:17] : Et corruerunt vulnerati ex Israel L. MIL. virorum fortium. Here we have forty thousand for the army of Abijah, and eighty thousand for that of Jeroboam, and Fifty thousand for the slain of the latter.

[¶19] B. -

[¶20] Quadraginita milia Forty thousand Octoginta milia Eighty thousand Quinquiaginta milia Fifty thousand

[¶21] The numbers being here expressed in words at full length, there can be no suspicion of mistake.

[¶22] C. -

[¶23] CCCC milia 400 thousand DCCC milibus 800 thousand D milia 500 thousand

[¶24] This is the same as the Hebrew text, and very distinctly expressed.

[¶25] D. - xl. m. 40,000 lxxx. m. 80,000 l. v. m. 50 and 5000

[¶26] This, in the two first numbers, is the same as the others above; but the last is confused, and appears to stand for fifty thousand and five thousand. A later hand has corrected the two first cccc numbers in this MS., placing over the first four CCCC, thus 40, thus changing forty into four hundred; and over the second thus, dccc lxxx., thus changing eighty into eight hundred. Over the latter number, which is evidently a mistake of the scribe, there is no correction.

[¶27] E. - xl. m. 40,000 Octoginta m. Eighty thousand l. m. 50,000

[¶28] F. -

[¶29] CCCC. m. 400,000 DCCC. m. 800,000 D. m. 600,000

[¶30] This also is the same as the Hebrew.

[¶31] The reader has now the whole evidence which I have been able to collect before him, and may choose; the smaller numbers appear to be the most correct. Corruptions in the numbers in these historical books we have often had cause to suspect, and to complain of.

### Verse 4

[¶33] Stood up upon Mount Zemaraim - "Which was a mount of the tribe of the house of Ephraim." - Targum. Jarchi thinks that Abijah went to the confines of the tribe of Ephraim to attack Jeroboam. It could not be Shomeron, the mount on which Samaria was built in the days of Omri king of Israel, [1Kgs 16:24].

### Verse 5

[¶35] By a covenant of salt? - For ever. "For as the waters of the sea never grow sweet, neither shall the dominion depart from the house of David." - Targum. See my note on [Num 18:19] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶37] When Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted - Therefore he could not be forty-one when he came to the throne; see the note on [2Chr 13:3]. Children of Belial here signifies men of the most abandoned principles and characters; or men without consideration, education, or brains.

### Verse 9

[¶39] A young bullock and seven rams - He who could provide these for his own consecration was received into the order of this spurious and wicked priesthood. Some think he who could give to Jeroboam a young bullock and seven rams, was thereby received into the priesthood; this being the price for which the priesthood was conferred. The former is most likely.

### Verse 10

[¶41] The Lord is our God - We have not abandoned the Lord; and we still serve him according to his own law.

### Verse 12

[¶43] God himself is with us - Ye have golden calves; we have the living and omnipotent Jehovah.

[¶44] With - trumpets to cry alarm against you - This was appalling: When the priests sound their trumpets, it will be a proof that the vengeance of the Lord shall speedily descend upon you.

## 427. 2 Chronicles · 9 of 24

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### Verse 13

[¶1] But Jeroboam caused an ambushment - While Abijah was thus employed in reproving them, Jeroboam divided his army privately, and sent a part to take Abijah in the rear; and this must have proved fatal to the Jews, had not the Lord interposed.

### Verse 17

[¶3] Slain - five hundred thousand chosen men - Query, fifty thousand? This was a great slaughter: see the note on [2Chr 13:3], where all these numbers are supposed to be overcharged.

### Verse 18

[¶5] Judah prevailed, because - "They depended on the Word of the God of their fathers." - T.

### Verse 19

[¶7] Beth-el - "Beth-lehem." - Targum.

[¶8] Jeshanah - We know not where these towns lay.

### Verse 20

[¶10] The Lord struck him, and he died - Who died? Abijah or Jeroboam? Some think it was Jeroboam; some, that it was Abijah. Both rabbins and Christians are divided on this point; nor is it yet settled. The prevailing opinion is that Jeroboam is meant, who was struck then with that disease of which he died about two years after; for he did not die till two years after Abijah: see [1Kgs 14:20]; [1Kgs 15:9]. It seems as if Jeroboam was meant, not Abijah.

### Verse 21

[¶12] Married fourteen wives - Probably he made alliances with the neighboring powers, by taking their daughters to him for wives.

### Verse 22

[¶14] Written in the story - במדרש bemidrash, "in the commentary;" this, as far as I recollect, is the first place where a midrash or commentary is mentioned. The margin is right.

[¶15] His ways, and his sayings - The commentary of the prophet Iddo is lost. What his sayings were we cannot tell; but from the specimen in this chapter, he appears to have been a very able speaker, and one who knew well how to make the best use of his argument.

### Introduction

[¶17] Asa succeeds his father Abijah, reigns piously, and has peace for ten years, [2Chr 14:1]. He makes a great reformation in Judah, and builds cities of defense, [2Chr 14:2-7]. His military strength, [2Chr 14:8]. He is attacked by Zerah the Ethiopian, with an immense army; Asa cries to the Lord, attacks the Ethiopians, and gives them a total overthrow, [2Chr 14:9-12]. He takes several of their cities, their cattle, etc., and returns to Jerusalem, laden with spoils, [2Chr 14:13-15].

### Verse 1

[¶19] The land was quiet ten years - Calmet thinks these years should be counted from the fifth to the fifteenth of Asa's reign.

### Verse 2

[¶21] Did that which was good - He attended to what the law required relative to the worship of God. He was no idolater, though, morally speaking, he was not exempt from faults, [1Kgs 15:14]. He suppressed idolatry universally, and encouraged the people to worship the true God: see [2Chr 14:3-5].

### Verse 6

[¶23] Fenced cities - To preserve his territories from invasion, and strengthen the frontiers of his kingdom, see [2Chr 14:7].

### Verse 8

[¶25] Targets and spears - Probably targets with the dagger in the center, and javelins for distant fight.

[¶26] Bare shields and drew bows - They were not only archers, but had shield and sword for close fight.

### Verse 9

[¶28] Zerah the Ethiopian - Probably of that Ethiopia which lay on the south of Egypt, near to Libya, and therefore the Libyans are joined with them, [2Chr 16:8].

[¶29] A thousand thousand - If this people had come from any great distance, they could not have had forage for such an immense army.

### Verse 11

[¶31] Whether with many - The same sentiment as that uttered by Jonathan, [1Sam 14:6], when he attacked the garrison of the Philistines.

[¶32] O Lord our God - we rest on thee - "Help us, O Lord our God; because we depend on thy Word, and in the name of thy Word we come against this great host." - Targum.

### Verse 14

[¶34] There was - much spoil in them - These cities being on the rear of this vast army, they had laid up much forage in them; and to get this the Jews overthrew the whole.

### Verse 15

[¶36] Tents of cattle - Those which had carried the baggage of the great army, and which they had left in such places as abounded with pasture. Perhaps sheepfolds, enclosures for camels, mules, etc., may also be intended. The discomfiture was great, because God fought for the people; and the spoil was immense, because the multitude was prodigious, indeed almost incredible, a million of men in one place is almost too much for the mind to conceive, but there may be some mistake in the numerals: it is evident from the whole account that the number was vast and the spoil great.

### Introduction

[¶38] Azariah's prophecy concerning Israel, and his exhortation to Asa, [2Chr 15:1-7]. Asa completes the reformation which he had begun, his kingdom is greatly strengthened, and all to people make a solemn covenant with the Lord, [2Chr 15:8-15]. His treatment of his mother Maachah, [2Chr 15:16]. He brings into the house of God the things that has father had dedicated, [2Chr 15:17], [2Chr 15:18]. And he has no war till the thirty-fifth year of his reign, [2Chr 15:19].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Azariah the son of Oded - We know nothing of this prophet but what is related of him here.

### Verse 2

[¶42] The Lord is with you, while ye be with him - This is the settled and eternal purpose of God; to them who seek him he will ever be found propitious, and them alone will he abandon who forsake him. In this verse the unconditional perseverance of the saints has no place: a doctrine which was first the ruin of the human race, Ye shall not die; and ever since the fall, has been the plague and disgrace of the Church of Christ. The Targum is curious: "Hearken to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Word of the Lord shall be your helper, while ye walk in his ways. If ye seek doctrine from his presence he will be found of you in times of trouble; but if you cast away his fear, he will abandon you."

### Verse 3

[¶44] Now for a long season Israel - "Israel hath followed Jeroboam, and they have not worshipped the true God. They have burnt incense to their golden calves; their priestlings [כומריא cumeraiya, their black, sooty sacrificers] have burnt perfumes with a strange worship, and have not exercised themselves in the law." - Targum. These priests could not teach, because they had not learnt; and as they had abandoned the law of the Lord, consequently they had no proper matter for instruction.

## 428. 2 Chronicles · 10 of 24

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[¶0] There is a great diversity of opinions concerning the meaning of this text. Some consider it a prophecy relative to the future state of this people, and the final destruction of the Jews as to their political existence: others consider it as referring to the state of the people under the reigns of Rehoboam and Abijah, which were happily changed under that of Asa; and this appears to me to be the most natural sense of the words.

### Verse 5

[¶2] But great vexations - Does not our Lord allude to this and the following verse in [Mat 24:6], [Mat 24:7], [Mat 24:9], [Mat 24:13]?

### Verse 8

[¶4] Renewed the altar - Dedicated it afresh, or perhaps enlarged it, that more sacrifices might be offered on it than ever before; for it cannot be supposed that this altar had no victims offered on it till the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa, who had previously been so zealous in restoring the Divine worship.

### Verse 9

[¶6] And the strangers - Many out of the different tribes, particularly out of Simeon, Ephraim, and Manasseh, having reflected that the Divine blessing was promised to the house of David, and finding the government of Jeroboam founded in idolatry, would naturally, through a spirit of piety, leave their own country, and go where they might enjoy the worship of the true God.

### Verse 10

[¶8] The third month - At the feast of pentecost which was held on the third month.

### Verse 11

[¶10] The spoil which they had brought - The spoil which they had taken from Zerah and his auxiliaries, [2Chr 14:14], [2Chr 14:15].

### Verse 12

[¶12] They entered into a covenant - The covenant consisted of two parts:

[¶13] 1. We will seek the God of our fathers with all our heart, and with all our soul.

[¶14] 2. Whosoever, great or small, man or woman, will not worship the true God, and serve him alone, shall be put to death. Thus no toleration was given to idolatry, so that it must be rooted out: and that this covenant might be properly binding, they confirmed it with an oath; and God accepted them and their services.

### Verse 16

[¶16] Concerning Maachah - See the matter fully explained in the note on [1Kgs 15:13] (note).

[¶17] The Jews imagine that Maachah repented, and her name became changed into Michaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah; and that this was done that there might be no mention of her former name, lest it should be a reproach to her: but we have already seen another gloss on this name. See on [2Chr 11:20] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶19] The high places were not taken away - He had totally suppressed or destroyed the idolatry; but some of the places, buildings, or altars, he permitted to remain.

### Verse 18

[¶21] The things that his father had dedicated - As it was a custom to dedicate a part of the spoils taken from an enemy to the service and honor of God, it is natural to suppose that Abijah, having so signally overthrown Jeroboam, ([2Chr 13:15-19]), had dedicated a part of the spoils to the Lord; but they had not been brought into the temple till this time.

[¶22] Silver, and gold, and vessels - The word כלים kelim, which we translate vessels, signifies instruments, utensils, ornaments, etc.

### Verse 19

[¶24] The five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa - Archbishop Usher thinks that this should be counted from the separation of the kingdom, and that this fell on the fifteenth year of Asa's reign. To settle in every respect these chronologies is a most difficult undertaking; and the difficulty does not belong to the sacred books alone, all other chronological tables of all the nations in the world, are in the same predicament. With those of our own history I have often been puzzled, even while I had access to all the archives of the nation. Probably we should read here the five and twentieth year. See the note on [1Kgs 15:16].

### Introduction

[¶26] Baasha, king of Israel, begins to build Ramah, to prevent his subjects from having any intercourse with the Jews, [2Chr 16:1]. Asa hires Ben-hadad, king of Syria, against him; and obliges him to leave off building Ramah, [2Chr 16:2-5]. Asa and his men carry the stones and timbers of Ramah away, and build therewith Geba and Mizpah, [2Chr 16:6]. Asa is reproved by Hanani, the seer, for his union with the king of Syria: he is offended with the seer, and puts him in prison, [2Chr 16:7-10]. Of his acts, [2Chr 16:11]. He is diseased in his feet, and seeks to physicians and not to God, and dies, [2Chr 16:12], [2Chr 16:13]. His sumptuous funeral, [2Chr 16:14].

### Verse 1

[¶28] The six and thirtieth year - After the division of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; according to Usher. This opinion is followed in our margin; see the note on [1Kgs 15:16], where this subject is farther considered.

[¶29] Concerning Baasha's building of Ramah, see the note on [1Kgs 15:17].

### Verse 3

[¶31] There is a league - Let there be a treaty, offensive and defensive, between me and thee: see on [1Kgs 15:22] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶33] Took all Judah - See on [1Kgs 15:22] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶35] Escaped out of thine hand - It is difficult to know what is here intended. Perhaps the Divine providence had intended to give Asa a grand victory over the Syrians, who had always been the inveterate enemies of the Jews; but by this unnecessary and very improper alliance between Asa and Ben-hadad, this purpose of the Divine providence was prevented, and thus the Syrians escaped out of his hands.

### Verse 9

[¶37] Therefore - thou shalt have wars - And so he had with Israel during the rest of his reign, [1Kgs 15:32].

### Verse 10

[¶39] Asa was wroth with the seer - Instead of humbling himself, and deprecating the displeasure of the Lord, he persecuted his messenger: and having thus laid his impious hands upon the prophet, he appears to have got his heart hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; and then he began to oppress the people, either by unjust imprisonments, or excessive taxations.

### Verse 12

[¶41] Diseased in his feet - He had a strong and long fit of the gout; this is most likely.

[¶42] He sought not to the Lord - "He did not seek discipline from the face of the Lord, but from the physicians." - Targum.

[¶43] Are we not taught by this to make prayer and supplication to the Lord in our afflictions, with the expectation that he will heal us when he finds us duly humbled, i.e., when the end is answered for which he sends the affliction?

## 429. 2 Chronicles · 11 of 24

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### Verse 14

[¶1] And laid him in the bed - It is very likely that the body of Asa was burnt; that the bed spoken of here was a funeral pyre, on which much spices and odoriferous woods had been placed; and then they set fire to the whole and consumed the body with the aromatics. Some think the body was not burned, but the aromatics only, in honor of the king.

[¶2] How the ancients treated the bodies of the illustrious dead we learn from Virgil, in the funeral rites paid to Misenus.

[¶3] Nec minus interea Misenum in littore Teucri

[¶4] Flebant, et cineri ingrato suprema ferebant.

[¶5] Principio pinguem taedis et robore secto

[¶6] Ingentem struxere pyram: cui frondibus atris

[¶7] Intexunt latera, et ferales ante cupressas

[¶8] Constituunt, decorantque super fulgentibus armis, etc.

[¶9] Aen. vi. 214. "Meanwhile the Trojan troops, with weeping eyes,

[¶10] To dead Misenus pay their obsequies.

[¶11] First from the ground a lofty pile they rear

[¶12] Of pitch trees, oaks, and pines, and unctuous fir.

[¶13] The fabric's front with cypress twigs they strew,

[¶14] And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew.

[¶15] The topmost part his glittering arms adorn:

[¶16] Warm waters, then, in brazen caldrons borne

[¶17] Are poured to wash his body joint by joint,

[¶18] And fragrant oils the stiffen'd limbs anoint.

[¶19] With groans and cries Misenus they deplore:

[¶20] Then on a bier, with purple cover'd o'er,

[¶21] The breathless body thus bewail'd they lay,

[¶22] And fire the pile (their faces turn'd away).

[¶23] Such reverend rites their fathers used to pay.

[¶24] Pure oil and incense on the fire they throw,

[¶25] And fat of victims which their friends bestow.

[¶26] These gifts the greedy flames to dust devour,

[¶27] Then on the living coals red wine they pour.

[¶28] And last the relics by themselves dispose,

[¶29] Which in a brazen urn the priests enclose.

[¶30] Old Corineus compass'd thrice the crew,

[¶31] And dipp'd an olive branch in holy dew;

[¶32] Which thrice he sprinkled round, and thrice aloud

[¶33] Invoked the dead, and then dismiss'd the crowd."

[¶34] Dryden.

[¶35] All these rites are of Asiatic extraction. Virgil borrows almost every circumstance from Homer; (see Iliad, xxiii., ver. 164, etc.); and we well know that Homer ever describes Asiatic manners. Sometimes, especially in war, several captives were sacrificed to the manes of the departed hero. So, in the place above, the mean-souled, ferocious demon, Achilles, is represented sacrificing twelve Trojan captives to the ghost of his friend Patroclus. Urns containing the ashes and half-calcined bones of the dead occur frequently in barrows or tumuli in this country; most of them, no doubt, the work of the Romans. But all ancient nations, in funeral matters, have nearly the same rites.

### Introduction

[¶37] Jehoshaphat succeeds his father Asa, and reigns piously, and is particularly blessed, [2Chr 17:1-6]. He establishes an itinerant ministry, for the instruction of the people, through all the cities of Judah, which produces the most beneficial effects, [2Chr 17:7-10]. The Philistines and Arabians bring him gifts, [2Chr 17:11]. His greatness, [2Chr 17:12], [2Chr 17:13]. The commanders of his troops, [2Chr 17:14-19].

### Verse 1

[¶39] Jehoshaphat - and strengthened himself against Israel - The kingdoms of Israel and Judah were rivals from the beginning; sometimes one, sometimes the other, prevailed. Asa and Baasha were nearly matched; but, after Baasha's death, Israel was greatly weakened by civil contentions, and Jehoshaphat got the ascendancy. See [1Kgs 16:16-23].

### Verse 2

[¶41] The cities of Ephraim - This conquest from the kingdom of Israel is referred to, [2Chr 15:8]; but when it was made we do not know.

### Verse 3

[¶43] The Lord was with Jehoshaphat - "The Word of the Lord was Jehoshaphat's Helper." - Targum.

### Verse 7

[¶45] To teach in the cities of Judah - "To teach the fear of the Lord in the cities of Judah." - Targum.

## 430. 2 Chronicles · 12 of 24

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[¶0] In these verses we find a remarkable account of an itinerant ministry established by Jehoshaphat; and in this work he employed three classes of men:

[¶1] 1. The princes.

[¶2] 2. The Levites.

[¶3] 3. The priests.

[¶4] We may presume that the princes instructed the people in the nature of the civil law and constitution of the kingdom; the Levites instructed them in every thing that appertained to the temple service, and ritual law; and the priests instructed them in the nature and design of the religion they professed. Thus the nation became thoroughly instructed in their duty to God, to the king, and to each other. They became, therefore, as one man; and against a people thus united, on such principles, no enemy could be successful.

### Verse 9

[¶6] Had the book of the law of the Lord with them - This was their text book: it was the book of God; they taught it as such, and as such the people received it. Its laws were God's laws, and the people felt their obligation, and their consciences were bound. Thus they were obedient to the laws of the land, on the principle of religion. In this they were encouraged and confirmed by the example of all, both in Church and state. The princes were not only pious, but were teachers of piety; the Levites showed them the worth and excellence of their ritual institutions; and the priests showed them the moral use they were to make of the whole: and thus the people became obedient to God as well as to the king, and kept all the civil ordinances, not merely for the sake of a good king, but for the sake of a good and gracious God. By these means the nation enjoyed peace and prosperity; and all insurrections, seditions, and popular commotions, were prevented. The surrounding nations, perceiving this, saw that there was no hope of subduing such a people, so they made no war with Jehoshaphat, [2Chr 17:10]. And they took care not to provoke such a people to fall on them; therefore, it is said, The fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms and lands that were round about Judah. Such an itinerant ministry established in these kingdoms for upwards of fourscore years, teaching the pure, unadulterated doctrines of the Gospel, with the propriety and necessity of obedience to the laws, has been the principal means, in the hand of God, of preserving these lands from those convulsions and revolutions that have ruined and nearly dissolved the European continent. The itinerant ministry, to which this refers, is that which was established in these lands by the late truly reverend, highly learned and cultivated, deeply pious and loyal John Wesley, A.M., formerly a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, whose followers are known by the name of Methodists; a people who are an honor to their country, and a blessing to the government under which they live.

### Verse 11

[¶8] The Philistines brought - presents - They and the Arabians purchased peace with the king of Judah by paying an annual tribute. The Philistines brought silver, and no doubt different kinds of merchandise, The Arabs, whose riches consisted in cattle, brought him flocks in great abundance, principally rams and he-goats.

### Verse 13

[¶10] He had much business in the cities - He kept the people constantly employed; they had wages for their work; and by their labors the empire was both enriched and strengthened.

### Verse 14

[¶12] Adnah, the chief - He was generalissimo of all this host. These are the numbers of the five battalions: under Adnah, three hundred thousand; Jehohanan, two hundred and eighty thousand, Amasiah, two hundred thousand; Eliada, two hundred thousand; Jehozabad, one hundred and eighty thousand; in all, one million one hundred and sixty thousand.

### Verse 19

[¶14] These waited on the king - They were disposable forces, always at the king's command; and were independent of those by which the cities of Judah were garrisoned.

[¶15] There is not a sovereign in Europe or in the world but might read this chapter with advantage.

[¶16] 1. It shows most forcibly that true religion is the basis of the state, and that, wherever it prospers, there the state prospers.

[¶17] 2. It shows also that it is the wisdom of kings to encourage religion with all their power and influence; for if the hearts of the subjects be not bound and influenced by true religion, vain is the application of laws, fines, imprisonments, or corporal punishment of any kind.

[¶18] 3. A religious nation is ever a great nation; it is loved by its friends, it is dreaded by its enemies.

[¶19] 4. It is ever a peaceable and united nation: the blessings of religion, and a wholesome and paternal government, are so fully felt and prized, that all find it their interest to preserve and defend them. Harmony, peace, piety, and strength, are the stability of such times. May Britain know and value them!

### Introduction

[¶21] Jehoshaphat joins affinity with Ahab, king of Israel, [2Chr 18:1], [2Chr 18:2]; who invites him to assist him in the war against the Syrians, to which Jehoshaphat agrees, [2Chr 18:3]. They consult the prophets concerning the success of the war; and all, except Micaiah, promise Ahab victory, [2Chr 18:4-17]. Micaiah relates his vision concerning the lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets, [2Chr 18:18-22]. Zedekiah, a false prophet, opposes Micaiah; and Micaiah is put in prison, [2Chr 18:23-27]. Both the kings go against the Syrians; the confederate armies are defeated, and the king of Israel slain, [2Chr 18:28-31].

### Verse 1

[¶23] Jehoshaphat had riches and honor - The preceding chapter gives ample proof of this.

[¶24] Joined affinity with Ahab - Took his daughter Athalia to be wife to his son Joram.

### Verse 3

[¶26] To Ramoth-gilead - This place belonged to the Israelites, and was now held by the king of Syria.

[¶27] The whole of this chapter is circumstantially explained in the notes on 1 Kings 22:1-53.

### Verse 9

[¶29] The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat - "Ahab consulted false prophets; but Jehoshaphat sought instruction from the presence of the Lord, and prayed at the entering in of Samaria; and before these all the false prophets prophesied lies." - Targum.

### Verse 20

[¶31] Then there came out a spirit - The Targum gives a strange gloss here: "Then the spirit of Naboth of Jezreel came out from the abode of the righteous, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will deceive him. And the Lord said, By what means? To which he answered, I will be a spirit of false prophecy in the mouth of his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou mayest then. But although the power of deceiving them is given unto thee, nevertheless it will not be lawful for thee to sit among the righteous; for whosoever shall speak falsely cannot have a mansion among the righteous. Therefore go forth from me, and do as thou hast said." - Targum.

### Verse 29

[¶33] I will disguise myself - See the note on [1Kgs 22:30].

### Verse 31

[¶35] But Jehoshaphat cried out - "Jehoshaphat cried, and the Word of the Lord brought him assistance." - Targum.

### Verse 33

[¶37] A certain man drew a bow - The Targum tells us who it was. "Now, Naaman, the captain of the host of the great king of Syria, drew a bow against him, (that the prophecy of Elijah the Tishbite, and of Micaiah the son of Imla, might be fulfilled), and smote the king of Israel between the heart and the caul of the liver, through the place where the coat of mail is joined." See the note on [2Kgs 5:1] for this tradition.

### Verse 34

[¶39] Stayed himself up - against the Syrians - There was a great deal of true personal courage and patriotism in this last act of the king of Israel: he well knew that if his troops found that he was mortally wounded, they would immediately give way, and the battle would not only be lost, but the slaughter would be great in the pursuit; therefore he stayed himself up till the evening, when the termination of the day must necessarily bring the battle to a close: and when this was done, the Israelites found that their king was slain, and so they left the field of battle to their foes. Thus Israel had a great loss, and the Syrians had got a great deliverance. Had it not been for this accident, the Syrians had probably been defeated. See on [1Kgs 22:36] (note).

[¶40] In the notes referred to above, the quibbling predictions of false prophets and lying oracles are mentioned, and several instances given; and the whole account of the lying spirit going forth from the Lord to deceive Ahab, particularly considered. See especially the notes as above on [2Chr 18:19] (note), [2Chr 18:23-24] (note).

[¶41] The reader should never forget a truth so very frequently occurring in the Bible, that God is repeatedly represented as doing what, in the course of his providence, he only permits to be done.

### Introduction

[¶43] Jehoshaphat, on his return from Ramoth-gilead, is met by the prophet Jehu, and reproved, [2Chr 19:1-3]. He makes a farther reformation in the land, establishing courts of justice, and giving solemn and pertinent directions to the judges, Levites, etc., to do judgement and justice among the people, in the fear of God, [2Chr 19:4-11].

## 431. 2 Chronicles · 13 of 24

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Returned to his house in peace - That is, in safety, notwithstanding he had been exposed to a danger so imminent, from which only the especial mercy of God could have saved him.

### Verse 2

[¶3] Jehu the son of Hanani - We have met with this prophet before; see the note on [1Kgs 16:7].

[¶4] Therefore is wrath upon thee - That is, Thou deservest to be punished. And who can doubt this, who knows that he did help the ungodly, and did love them that hated Jehovah? And is not the wrath of God upon all those alliances which his people form with the ungodly, whether they be social, matrimonial, commercial, or political?

### Verse 4

[¶6] From Beer-sheba to Mount Ephraim - Before the separation of the ten tribes, in speaking of the extent of the land it was said, From Dan to Beer-sheba; but since that event, the kingdom of Judah was bounded on the south by Beer-sheba, and on the north by the mountains of Ephraim. This shows that Jehoshaphat had gone through all his territories to examine every thing himself, to see that judgment and justice were properly administered among the people.

### Verse 6

[¶8] Take heed what ye do - A very solemn and very necessary caution; judges should feel themselves in the place of God, and judge as those who know they shall be judged for their judgments.

### Verse 8

[¶10] And for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem - Who were they that returned to Jerusalem? Some suppose that it means Jehoshaphat and his courtiers, who returned to Jerusalem after the expedition mentioned [2Chr 19:4] : but if this were so, or if the text spoke of any person returning to Jerusalem, would not לירושלם lirushalem, To Jerusalem, and not the simple word ירושלם Yerushalem, without the preposition, be used?

[¶11] Learned men have supposed, with great plausibility, that the word וישבו vaiyashubu, "and they returned," should be written יושבי yoshebey, "the inhabitants," and that the words should be read, And for the controversies of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. That this was the original reading is very probable from its vestiges in the Vulgate, habitatoribus ejus, "its Inhabitants;" and in the Septuagint it is found totidem verbis, Και κρινειν τους κατοικουντας εν Ἱερουσαλημ, And to judge the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

[¶12] There is a clause in [2Chr 34:9] where we have a similar mistake in our version: And they returned to Jerusalem, וישבו ירושלם where the false keri, or marginal note, directs it, in opposition to common sense and All the versions, to be read וישובו and they returned, which our translation has unhappily followed.

### Verse 10

[¶14] Between blood and blood - Cases of man-slaughter or accidental murder, or cases of consanguinity, the settlement of inheritance, family claims, etc.

[¶15] Between law and commandment - Whatsoever concerns the moral precepts, rites, and ceremonies, of the law, or whatsoever belongs to civil affairs.

### Verse 11

[¶17] Behold, Amariah - Here was a two-fold jurisdiction, ecclesiastical and civil: in the ecclesiastical court, Amariah the high-priest was supreme judge, in the civil court, Zebadiah was supreme. To assist both the Levites were a sort of counsellors.

[¶18] Without good and wholesome laws, no nation can be prosperous: and vain are the best laws if they be not judiciously and conscientiously administered. The things of God and the things of the King should never be confounded in the administration of justice. Amariah the priest, and Zebadiah the ruler, should ever have their distinct places of jurisdiction.

### Introduction

[¶20] The Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, invade Judah, [2Chr 20:1], [2Chr 20:2]. Jehoshaphat proclaims a fast, and gathers the people together to seek the Lord, [2Chr 20:3], [2Chr 20:4]. His prayer to God, [2Chr 20:5-12]. Great and small, male and female, seek the Lord, [2Chr 20:13]. Jahaziel predicts the downfall of their enemies, [2Chr 20:14-17]. The king, the Levites, and the people take courage; praise and magnify God; and go forth to meet their enemies, [2Chr 20:18-21]. The enemies are confounded, and destroy each other, [2Chr 20:22-24]. The men of Judah take the spoil, praise the Lord, and return with joy to Jerusalem, [2Chr 20:25-28]. The fear of the Lord falls upon all their enemies round about; and the land has rest, [2Chr 20:29], [2Chr 20:30]. Transactions and character of Jehoshaphat, [2Chr 20:31-34]. He joins with Ahaziah, king of Israel, in building a fleet of ships to go to Tarshish, but they are wrecked at Ezion-geber, [2Chr 20:35-37].

### Verse 1

[¶22] Children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites - Here there must be a mistake; surely the Ammonites are the same as the children of Ammon. Our translators have falsified the text by inserting the words "other beside," which have nothing properly to represent them in the Hebrew. Literally translated, the words are: "And it happened after this, the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them of the Ammonites:" and thus the Vulgate. The Syriac, which the Arabic follows, has felt the difficulty, and translated, Came together with warlike men to fight, etc. The Septuagint have given it another turn: Και μετ' αυτων εκ των Μιναιων, And with them people of the Minaites; which were a people of Arabia Felix near the Red Sea. The Targum has ועמהון מן אדומאי Ve-immehon min Edomaey, "And with them some of the Edomites." This is very likely to be the true reading, as we find from [2Chr 20:10], [2Chr 20:22], [2Chr 20:23], that they procured men from Mount Seir; and these were the Idumeans or Edomites. We should, in my opinion, read the text thus: The children of Moab, and the children of common, and with them some of the Edomites.

### Verse 2

[¶24] On this side Syria - Instead of מארם mearam, from Syria, I would read with one of Kennicott's MSS. (89) מאדם meedom, from Edom, which alteration brings it to truth and does not require the change of half a letter, as it consists in the almost imperceptible difference between ר resh and ד daleth. We do not read of any Syrians in this invasion, but we know there were Edomites, or inhabitants of Mount Seir.

[¶25] Hazazon-tamar - "In the wood of palm trees, that is, in Engedi." - Targum. This is the meaning of the word, and it is probable that they lay hid here.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Jehoshaphat feared - He found that he could not possibly stand against such a numerous army, and therefore could not expect to be delivered except by the strong arm of God. To get this assistance, it was necessary to seek it; and to get such extraordinary help, they should seek it in an extraordinary way; hence he proclaimed a universal fast, and all the people came up to Jerusalem to seek the Lord.

### Verse 6

[¶29] Jehoshaphat stood - What an instructive sight was this! The king who proclaimed the fast was foremost to observe it, and was on this occasion the priest of the people; offering in the congregation, without form or any premeditation, one of the most sensible, pious, correct, and as to its composition one of the most elegant prayers ever offered under the Old Testament dispensation.

### Verse 7

[¶31] Art not thou our God - "Hast not thou, by thy Word, driven out." - Targum.

### Verse 8

[¶33] Therein for thy name - "For the name of thy Word." - Targum.

### Verse 9

[¶35] For thy name is in this house - "Thy Majesty is in this house." Several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, add נקרא nikra, "is invoked;" Thy name is invoked in this house - here thou dwellest, and here thou art worshipped.

### Verse 11

[¶37] They reward us - Six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. add רעה evil: "Behold, they reward us Evil." This is also the reading of the Targum.

### Verse 12

[¶39] Wilt thou not judge them - That is, Thou wilt inflict deserved punishment upon them.

### Verse 15

[¶41] For the battle is not yours, but God's - God will not employ you in the discomfiture of this great host; he himself will take the matter in hand, deliver you, and destroy them.

### Verse 17

[¶43] For the Lord will be with you - "The Word of the Lord shall be your Helper." - Targum.

### Verse 20

[¶45] Believe in the Lord your God - "Believe in the Word of the Lord your God, and believe in his law, and believe in his prophets; and ye shall prosper." Here the Word and the revelation are most pointedly distinguished; the Word being used personally.

## 432. 2 Chronicles · 14 of 24

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/432/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/432/#p-N

### Verse 22

[¶1] The Lord set ambushments - "The Word of the Lord placed snares among the children of Ammon and Moab; and the inhabitants of the mountain of Gibla, who came to fight with Judah; and they were broken to pieces:" so the Targum.

[¶2] Houbigant translates the place thus: "The Lord set against the children of Ammon and Moab ambushments of those who came from Mount Seir against Judah; and the children of Ammon and Moab were smitten: but they afterwards rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, and utterly destroyed them; who being destroyed, they rose up one against another, and mutually destroyed each other." This is probably the meaning of these verses. Calmet's version is not very different.

### Verse 25

[¶4] Both riches with the dead bodies - For פגרים peparim, dead bodies, בגדים begadim, garments, is the reading of eight MSS. in the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi, and in several ancient editions. None of the versions have dead bodies except the Chaldee. The words might be easily mistaken for each other, as the פ pe, if a little faint in the under dot might easily pass for a ב beth; and we know that the ר resh and ד daleth, are frequently interchanged and mistaken for each other, both in Hebrew and Syriac. I believe garments to be the true reading; and as to the clause which they stripped off for themselves, it should be understood thus: Which they seized for themselves, etc.

### Verse 26

[¶6] Assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah - "The valley of Benediction;" and so in the latter clause. - Targum.

### Verse 27

[¶8] Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them - He was their leader in all these spiritual, holy, fatiguing, and self-denying exercises. What a noble and persuasive pattern!

### Verse 29

[¶10] The Lord fought - "The Word of the Lord made war against the enemies of Israel." - Targum.

### Verse 33

[¶12] The high places were not taken away - The idolatry, as we have seen, was universally suppressed; but some of the places where that worship had been performed were not destroyed. Some of them still remained; and these, to such a fickle people, became the means of idolatry in reigns less propitious to truth and religion.

### Verse 34

[¶14] In the book of Jehu - This is totally lost, though it is evident that it was in being when the books of Chronicles were written.

### Verse 36

[¶16] To go to Tarshish - "In the great sea." - Targum. By which expression they always meant the Mediterranean Sea.

### Verse 37

[¶18] The Lord hath broken, etc. - "The Word of the Lord hath broken." - Targum. Concerning Tarshish, Ezion-geber, and Ophir, and the voyage thither, see the notes on [1Kgs 10:22], and at [1Kgs 10:29] (note), and on [2Chr 9:26-28] (note). The Tarshish here is called by the Chaldee Torsos in the great sea, some place in the Mediterranean. On this subject the reader has, no doubt, already seen a great variety of opinions.

### Introduction

[¶20] Jehoram succeeds his father Jehoshaphat; and commences his reign with the murder of his brethren, and of several of the princes of Israel, [2Chr 21:1-5]. He walks in the way of Ahab, whose bad daughter, Athaliah, he had married, [2Chr 21:6]. God remembers his covenant with David, and does not destroy the nation, [2Chr 21:7]. The Edomites revolt, [2Chr 21:8-10]. Jehoram restores the high places in the mountains of Judah, and greatly corrupts the morals of the people, [2Chr 21:11]. A letter comes to him from Elijah, [2Chr 21:12-15]. The Philistines and Arabians come up against him, pillage his house, and take away his wives, with all his sons except Jehoahaz, [2Chr 21:16], [2Chr 21:17]. He is smitten with an incurable disease in his bowels; of which, in two years, he dies miserably, after a profligate reign of eight years, [2Chr 21:18-20].

### Verse 2

[¶22] And he had brethren - the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. - Jehoshaphat certainly was not king of Israel, but king of Judah. ישראל Yisrael must be a corruption in the text, for יהודה Yehudah; which is the reading of the Syriac, Arabic, Septuagint, and Vulgate: the Chaldee, only agrees with the Hebrew text. And the reading of the versions is supported by thirty-eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The word Judah should therefore be restored to the text.

### Verse 3

[¶24] The kingdom gave he to Jehoram - He made him co-partner with himself in the kingdom about three years before his death; so that he reigned only five years after the death of his father Jehoshaphat. See the notes on [2Kgs 8:16], etc.; and on the same, [2Chr 1:17], where an attempt is made to settle this disturbed chronology.

### Verse 4

[¶26] Slew all his brethren - What a truly diabolic thing is the lust of power! it destroys all the charities of life, and renders those who are under its influence the truest resemblants of the arch fiend. That he might sit the more secure upon his throne, this execrable man imbrues his hands in the blood of his own brothers! There are more instances of this species of cruelty among bad Asiatic kings than among any other class of men. The history of every country abounds in proofs; even that of our own is not the least barren.

### Verse 6

[¶28] He had the daughter of Ahab to wife - This was Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, who was famous for her impieties and cruelty, as was her most profligate mother. It is likely that she was the principal cause of Jehoram's cruelty and profaneness.

### Verse 7

[¶30] To give a light to him - To give him a descendant.

### Verse 8

[¶32] In his days the Edomites revolted - See on [2Kgs 8:21] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶34] To commit fornication - That is, to serve idols. The Israelites were considered as joined to Jehovah as a woman is joined to her husband: when she associates with other men, this is adultery; when they served other gods, this was called by the same name, it was adultery against Jehovah. This is frequently the only meaning of the terms adultery and fornication in the Scriptures.

### Verse 12

[¶36] There came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet - From [2Kgs 2:11], it is evident that Elijah had been translated in the reign of Jehoshaphat, the father of Jehoram. How then could he send a letter to the son? Some say he sent it from heaven by an angel; others, that by the spirit of prophecy he foresaw this defection of Jehoram, and left the letter with Elisha, to be sent to him when this defection should take place; others say that Elijah is put here for Elisha; and others, that this Elijah was not the same that was translated, but another prophet of the same name. There are others who think that, as Elijah was still in the body, for he did not die, but was translated, he sent this letter from that secret place in which he was hidden by the Almighty. All the versions have Elijah, and all the MSS. the same reading. Dr. Kennicott contends that Elisha was the writer; for Elijah had been taken up to heaven thirteen years before the time of this writing. Our margin says, the letter was written before his assumption, and refers to [2Kgs 2:1].

[¶37] These are all conjectures; and I could add another to their number, but still we should be where we were. I should adopt the conjecture relative to Elisha, were not every Hebrew MS., and all the Oriental versions, against it; to which may be added, that the author of this book does not once mention Elisha in any part of his work. It is certainly a possible case that this writing might have been a prediction of Jehoram's impiety and miserable death, delivered in the time of the prophet, and which was now laid before this wicked king for the first time: and by it the prophet, though not among mortals, still continued to speak. I can see no solid reason against this opinion.

### Verse 14

[¶39] Will the Lord smite - "The Word of the Lord will send a great mortality." - Targum.

### Verse 15

[¶41] Until thy bowels fall out - This must have been occasioned by a violent inflammation: by the same death perished Antiochus Epiphanes, and Herod Agrippa.

### Verse 16

[¶43] The Philistines, and - the Arabians - We have no other account of this war. Though it was a predatory war, yet it appears to have been completely ruinous and destructive. What a general curse fell upon this bad king; in his body, soul, substance, family, and government!

## 433. 2 Chronicles · 15 of 24

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### Verse 17

[¶1] Save Jehoahaz the youngest - This person had at least three names, Jehoahaz, Ahaziah, ([2Chr 22:1]), and Azariah, ([2Chr 22:6]).

### Verse 18

[¶3] The Lord smote him - "And after all these things the Word of the Lord smote his bowels," etc. - Targum.

### Verse 19

[¶5] After the end of two years, his bowels fell out - The Targum seems to intimate that he had a constipation and inflammation in his bowels; and that at last his bowels gushed out.

[¶6] No burning - "His people made no burning of aromatic woods for him, as they had done for his forefathers." - Targum. See on [2Chr 16:14] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶8] Departed without being desired - He was hated while he lived, and neglected when he died; visibly cursed of God, and necessarily execrated by the people whom he had lived only to corrupt and oppress. No annalist is mentioned as having taken the pains to write any account of his vile life. This summary mention of him consigns him to the execration of posterity, and holds in the view of every prudent governor, the rock on which he split and wrecked the state.

### Introduction

[¶10] Ahaziah beans to reign; and reigns wickedly under the counsels of his bad mother, [2Chr 22:1-4]. He is slain by Jehu, who destroys all the house of Ahab, [2Chr 22:5-9]. Athaliah destroys all the seed royal of Judah, except Joash, who is hidden by his nurse in the temple six years, [2Chr 22:10-12].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Made Ahaziah his youngest son king - All the others had been slain by the Arabians, etc.; see the preceding chapter, [2Chr 21:17] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶14] Forty and two years old was Ahaziah - See the note on [2Kgs 8:26]. Ahaziah might have been twenty-two years old, according to [2Kgs 8:26] (note), but he could not have been forty-two, as stated here, without being two years older than his own father! See the note there. The Syriac and Arabic have twenty-two, and the Septuagint, in some copies, twenty. And it is very probable that the Hebrew text read so originally; for when numbers were expressed by single letters, it was easy to mistake מ mem, Forty, for כ caph, Twenty. And if this book was written by a scribe who used the ancient Hebrew letters, now called the Samaritan, the mistake was still more easy and probable, as the difference between caph and mem is very small, and can in many instances be discerned only by an accustomed eye.

[¶15] The reading in [2Kgs 8:26] is right, and any attempt to reconcile this in Chronicles with that is equally futile and absurd. Both readings cannot be true; is that therefore likely to be genuine that makes the son two years older than the father who begat him? Apage hae nugae!

### Verse 3

[¶17] His mother was his counsellor - Athaliah, the wicked daughter of a wicked parent, and the wicked spouse of an unprincipled king.

### Verse 5

[¶19] Went with Jehoram - See on [2Kgs 8:28] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶21] He sought Ahaziah - See a different account [2Kgs 9:27] (note), and the note there, where the accounts are reconciled.

### Verse 10

[¶23] All the seed royal of the house of Judah - Nothing but the miraculous intervention of the Divine providence could have saved the line of David at this time, and preserved the prophecy relative to the Messiah. The whole truth of that prophecy, and the salvation of the world, appeared to be now suspended on the brittle thread of the life of an infant of a year old, (see [2Chr 24:1]), to destroy whom was the interest of the reigning power! But God can save by few as well as by many. He had purposed, and vain were the counter-exertions of earth and hell.

### Verse 12

[¶25] Hid in the house of God - "In the house of the sanctuary of God." - Targum. Or, as he says on [2Chr 22:11], בקודש קודשיא bekudash kudeshaiya "in the holy of holies." To this place Athaliah had no access, therefore Joash lay concealed, he and his affectionate aunt-nurse. - See on [2Kgs 11:1] (note).

### Introduction

[¶27] Jehoiada the priest, after having taken counsel with the captains, Levites, etc., proclaims Joash, and anoints him king, [2Chr 23:1-11]. Athaliah, endeavoring to prevent it, is slain, [2Chr 23:12-15]. He makes the people enter into a covenant, that they would serve the Lord, [2Chr 23:16]. The people break down the temple of Baal, and slay Mattan his priest, [2Chr 23:17]. Jehoiada makes several alterations, and remodels the kingdom, [2Chr 23:18-21].

### Verse 1

[¶29] And in the seventh year - See on [2Kgs 11:4] (note), etc.

### Verse 9

[¶31] Spears and bucklers - See on [2Kgs 11:10] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶33] God save the king - May the king live! See on [2Kgs 11:12] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶35] And whoso followeth her, let him be slain with the sword - He who takes her part, or endeavors to prevent the present revolution, let him be immediately slain.

### Verse 15

[¶37] Of the horse-gate - See on [2Kgs 11:16] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶39] Made a covenant between him - The high priest was, on this occasion, the representative of God; whom both the people and the king must have had in view, through the medium of his priest.

### Verse 17

[¶41] Mattan the priest - The Targum will not prostitute the term priest, but calls him כומרא cumera, priestling.

### Verse 21

[¶43] The city was quiet - There was no attempt at a counter-revolution. Concerning the coronation of Joash, there is a curious circumstance mentioned by the Targumist on [2Chr 23:11], it is as follows: - "And they brought forth the son of the king, and put on him the royal crown which David took from the head of the king of the children of Ammon. In it was inserted the precious attracting stone, in which was engraven and expressed the great and honorable Name [יהוה] which David had placed there by the Holy Spirit: and it was of the weight of a talent of gold; it was therefore a testimony to the house of David that no king who was not of the seed of David should be able to put it on his head, nor be able to bear its weight. When, therefore, the people saw it placed on the head of Joash, and that he was able to bear this crown, they believed him to be of the seed of David, and immediately constituted him king. Therefore Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, May the king be prosperous in his kingdom!"

[¶44] The Jews say that this was the crown of the king of the Ammonites; and that it was always worn afterwards by the kings of the house of Judah. See Jarchi on this place.

## 434. 2 Chronicles · 16 of 24

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### Introduction

[¶1] Joash begins to reign when seven years old, and reigns well all the days of Jehoiada the priest, [2Chr 24:1-3]. He purposes to repair the temple of God; and makes a proclamation that the people should bring in the money prescribed by Moses, [2Chr 24:4-9]. They all contribute liberally; and the different artificers soon perfect the work, [2Chr 24:10-13]. The rest of the money is employed to form utensils for the temple, [2Chr 24:14]. Jehoiada dies, [2Chr 24:15], [2Chr 24:16]. And the people after his death become idolaters, [2Chr 24:17], [2Chr 24:18]. Prophets are sent unto them, [2Chr 24:19]. And among the rest Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who testifies against them; and they stone him to death, [2Chr 24:20-22]. The Syrians come against Jerusalem, and spoil it, [2Chr 24:23], [2Chr 24:24]. Joash is murdered by his own servants, [2Chr 24:25], [2Chr 24:26]. His acts, [2Chr 24:27].

### Verse 1

[¶3] Joash was seven years old - As he was hidden six years in the temple, and was but seven when he came to the throne, he could have been but one year old when he was secreted by his aunt; see on [2Chr 22:10] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶5] To repair the house of the Lord - During the reigns of Joram and Athaliah, the temple of God had been pillaged to enrich that of Baal, and the whole structure permitted to fall into decay; see [2Chr 24:7].

### Verse 5

[¶7] Gather of all Israel money - As the temple was the property of the whole nation, and the services performed in it were for the salvation of the people at large, it was right that each should come forward on an occasion of this kind, and lend a helping hand. This is the first instance of such a general collection for building or repairing a house of God.

[¶8] From year to year - It must have been in a state of great dilapidation, when it required such annual exertions to bring it into a thorough state of repair.

### Verse 6

[¶10] The collection - of Moses - This was the poll-tax, fixed by Moses, of half a shekel, which was levied on every man from twenty years old and upward; and which was considered as a ransom for their souls, that there might be no plague among them. See [Exo 30:12-14].

### Verse 8

[¶12] They made a chest - See the notes on the parallel places, [2Kgs 12:4] (note), etc.

### Verse 16

[¶14] They buried him - among the kings - He had, in fact, been king in Judah; for Joash, who appears to have been a weak man, was always under his tutelage. Jehoiada governed the state in the name of the king; and his being buried among the kings is a proof of the high estimation in which he was held among the people.

### Verse 17

[¶16] The princes of Judah - made obeisance to the king - I believe the Targum has given the true sense of this verse: "After the death of Jehoiada, the great men of Judah came and adored King Joash, and seduced him; and then the king received from them their idols."

### Verse 20

[¶18] And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah - "When he saw the transgression of the king and of the people, burning incense to an idol in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord, on the day of expiation; and preventing the priests of the Lord from offering the burnt-offerings, sacrifices, daily oblations, and services, as written in the book of the law of Moses; he stood above the people, and said." - Targum.

### Verse 21

[¶20] Stoned him - at the commandment of the king - What a most wretched and contemptible man was this, who could imbrue his hands in the blood of a prophet of God, and the son of the man who had saved him from being murdered, and raised him to the throne! Alas, alas! Can even kings forget benefits? But when a man falls from God, the devil enters into him; and then he is capable of every species of cruelty.

### Verse 22

[¶22] The Lord look upon it, and require it - And so he did; for, at the end of that year, the Syrians came against Judah, destroyed all the princes of the people, sent their spoils to Damascus; and Joash, the murderer of the prophet, the son of his benefactor, was himself murdered by his own servants. Here was a most signal display of the Divine retribution.

[¶23] On the subject of the death of this prophet the reader is requested to refer to the note on [Mat 23:34], [Mat 23:35].

### Verse 26

[¶25] These are they that conspired against him - The two persons here mentioned were certainly not Jews; the mother of one was an Ammonitess, and the mother of the other was a Moabitess. Who their fathers were we know not; they were probably foreigners and aliens. Some suppose that these persons were of the king's chamber, and therefore could have the easiest access to him. It has been, and is still, the folly of kings to have foreigners for their valets and most confidential servants, and they have often been the causes of murders and treacheries of different kinds. Foreigners should be banished from the person of the sovereign by strong and efficient laws: even in this country they have often been the cause of much political wo.

### Verse 27

[¶27] The greatness of the burdens laid upon him - Meaning, probably, the heavy tribute laid upon him by the Syrians; though some think the vast sums amassed for the repairs of the temple are here intended.

[¶28] Written in the story - מדרש midrash, the commentary, of the book of Kings. We have met with this before; but these works are all lost, except the extracts found in Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra. These abridgments were the cause of the neglect, and finally of the destruction, of the originals. This has been often the case in works of great consequence. Trogus Pompeius wrote a general history of the world, which he brought down to the reign of Augustus, in forty-four volumes. Justin abridged them into one volume, and the original is lost.

### Introduction

[¶30] Amaziah succeeds his father Joash, and begins his reign well, [2Chr 25:1], [2Chr 25:2]. He slays his father's murderers but spares their children, [2Chr 25:3], [2Chr 25:4]. He reviews and remodels the army, [2Chr 25:5]; and hires a hundred thousand soldiers out of Israel, whom, on the expostulation of a prophet, he sends home again, without bringing them into active service; at which they are greatly offended, [2Chr 25:6-10]. He attacks the Syrians, kills ten thousand, and takes ten thousand prisoners, whom he precipitates from the top of a rock, so that they are dashed to pieces, [2Chr 25:11], [2Chr 25:12]. The Israelitish soldiers, sent back, ravage several of the cities of Judah, [2Chr 25:13]. Amaziah becomes an idolater, [2Chr 25:14]. Is reproved by a prophet, whom he threatens, and obliges to desist, [2Chr 25:15], [2Chr 25:16]. He challenges Joash, king of Israel, [2Chr 25:17]; who reproves him by a parable, [2Chr 25:18], [2Chr 25:19]. Not desisting, the armies meet, the Jews are overthrown, and Amaziah taken prisoner by Joash, who ravages the temple, and takes away all the treasures of the king, [2Chr 25:20-24]. The reign of Amaziah: a conspiracy is formed against him; he flees to Lachish, whither he is pursued and slain; is brought to Jerusalem, and buried with his fathers, [2Chr 25:25-28].

### Verse 2

[¶32] He did that which was right - He began his reign well, but soon became an idolater, [2Chr 25:14], [2Chr 25:15].

### Verse 5

[¶34] Gathered Judah together - He purposed to avenge himself of the Syrians, but wished to know his military strength before he came to a rupture.

### Verse 7

[¶36] The Lord is not with Israel - "The Word of the Lord is not the helper of the Israelites, nor of the kingdom of the tribe of Ephraim." - Targum.

### Verse 9

[¶38] The Lord is able to give thee much more than this - Better lose the money than keep the men, for they will be a curse unto thee.

### Verse 10

[¶40] They returned home in great anger - They thought they were insulted, and began to meditate revenge. See the notes on 2 Kings 14:1-20 (note), where almost every circumstance in this chapter is examined and explained.

### Verse 14

[¶42] The gods of the children of Seir - "The idols of the children of Gebal." - Targum.

### Verse 16

[¶44] Art thou made of the king's counsel? - How darest thou give advice to, or reprove, a king?

## 435. 2 Chronicles · 17 of 24

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### Verse 18

[¶1] The thistle that was in Lebanon - See the explanation of this [2Kgs 14:9] (note). After reciting this fable, the Targum adds, "Thus hast thou done in the time thou didst send unto me, and didst lead up from the house of Israel a hundred thousand strong warriors for a hundred talents of silver: and after they were sent, thou didst not permit them to go with thee to war, but didst send them back, greatly enraged, so that they spread themselves over the country; and having cut off three thousand, they brought back much spoil."

### Verse 24

[¶3] In the house of God with Obed-edom - From [1Chr 26:15] we learn that to Obed-edom and his descendants was allotted the keeping of the house of Asuppim or collections for the Divine treasury.

[¶4] And - the hostages - See on [2Kgs 14:14] (note).

### Verse 26

[¶6] The rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last - Says the Targum; "The first, when he walked in the fear of the Lord, the last, when he departed from the right way before the Lord; are they not written," etc.

### Verse 27

[¶8] Made a conspiracy - He no doubt became very unpopular after having lost the battle with the Israelites; the consequence of which was the dismantling of Jerusalem, and the seizure of the royal treasures, with several other evils. It is likely that the last fifteen years of his reign were greatly embittered: so that, finding the royal city to be no place of safety, he endeavored to secure himself at Lachish; but all in vain, for thither his murderers pursued him; and he who forsook the Lord was forsaken by every friend, perished in his gainsaying, and came to an untimely end.

### Introduction

[¶10] Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, succeeds; and begins his reign piously and prosperously, which continued during the life of Zechariah the prophet, [2Chr 26:1-5]. He fights successfully against the Philistines, and takes and dismantles some of their chief cities, [2Chr 26:6]; prevails over the Arabians and Mehunims, [2Chr 26:7]; and brings the Ammonites under tribute, [2Chr 26:8]. He fortifies Jerusalem, and builds towers in different parts of the country, and delights in husbandry, [2Chr 26:9], [2Chr 26:10]. An account of his military strength, warlike instruments, and machines, [2Chr 26:11-15]. He is elated with his prosperity, invades the priest's office, and is smitten with the leprosy, [2Chr 26:16-20]. He is obliged to abdicate the regal office, and dwell apart from this people, his son Jotham acting as regent, [2Chr 26:21]. His death and burial, [2Chr 26:22], [2Chr 26:23].

### Verse 1

[¶12] The people of Judah took Uzziah - They all agreed to place this son on his father's throne.

### Verse 2

[¶14] He built Eloth - See the notes on [2Kgs 14:21]. This king is called by several different names; see the note on [2Kgs 15:1].

### Verse 5

[¶16] In the days of Zechariah - Who this was we know not, but by the character that is given of him here. He was wise in the visions of God - in giving the true interpretation of Divine prophecies. He was probably the tutor of Uzziah.

### Verse 7

[¶18] And God helped him - "And the Word of the Lord helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who lived in Gerar, and the plains of Meun." - Targum. These are supposed to be the Arabs which are called the Meuneons, or Munites, or Meonites.

### Verse 8

[¶20] The Ammonites gave gifts - Paid an annual tribute.

### Verse 10

[¶22] Built towers in the desert - For the defense of his flocks, and his shepherds and husbandmen.

[¶23] And in Carmel - Calmet remarks that there were two Carmels in Judea: one in the tribe of Judah, where Nabal lived, and the other on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near to Kishon; and both fertile in vines.

[¶24] He loved husbandry - This is a perfection in a king: on husbandry every state depends. Let their trade or commerce be what they may, there can be no true national prosperity if agriculture do not prosper; for the king himself is served by the field. When, therefore, the king of a country encourages agriculture, an emulation is excited among his subjects; the science is cultivated; and the earth yields its proper increase; then, should trade and commerce fail, the people cannot be reduced to wretchedness, because there is plenty of bread.

### Verse 14

[¶26] Shields, and spears - He prepared a vast number of military weapons, that he might have them in readiness to put into the hands of his subjects on any exigency.

### Verse 15

[¶28] Engines - to shoot arrows and great stones - The Targum says, "He made in Jerusalem ingenious instruments, and little hollow towers, to stand upon the towers and upon the bastions, for the shooting of arrows, and projecting of great stones."

[¶29] This is the very first intimation on record of any warlike engines for the attack or defense of besieged places; and this account is long prior to any thing of the kind among either the Greeks or Romans. Previously to such inventions, the besieged could only be starved out, and hence sieges were very long and tedious. Shalmaneser consumed three years before such an inconsiderable place as Samaria, [2Kgs 17:5], [2Kgs 17:6]; Sardanapalus maintained himself in Nineveh for seven years, because the besiegers had no engines proper for the attack and destruction of walls, etc., and it is well known that Troy sustained a siege of ten years, the Greeks not possessing any machine of the kind here referred to. The Jews alone were the inventors of such engines; and the invention took place in the reign of Uzziah, about eight hundred years before the Christian era. It is no wonder that, in consequence of this, his name spread far abroad, and struck terror into his enemies.

### Verse 16

[¶31] He transgressed against the Lord - "He sinned against the Word of the Lord his God." - T.

[¶32] Went into the temple to burn incense - Thus assuming to himself the priest's office. See this whole transaction explained in the notes on [2Kgs 15:5] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶34] Because the Lord had smitten him - "Because the Word of the Lord had brought the plague upon him." - T.

### Verse 21

[¶36] And dwelt in a several house - He was separated, because of the infectious nature of his disorder, from all society, domestic, civil, and religious.

[¶37] Jotham - was over the king's house - He became regent of the land; his father being no longer able to perform the functions of the regal office.

### Verse 22

[¶39] The rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet - write - This work, however, is totally lost; for we have not any history of this king in the writings of Isaiah. He is barely mentioned, [Isa 1:1]; [Isa 6:1].

### Verse 23

[¶41] They buried him - in the field of the burial - As he was a leper, he was not permitted to be buried in the common burial-place of the kings; as it was supposed that even a place of sepulture must be defiled by the body of one who had died of this most afflictive and dangerous malady.

### Introduction

[¶43] Jotham succeeds his father Uzziah, and reigns well, [2Chr 27:1], [2Chr 27:2]. His buildings, [2Chr 27:3], [2Chr 27:4]. His successful wars, [2Chr 27:5], [2Chr 27:6]. General account of his acts, reign, and death, [2Chr 27:7-9].

### Verse 2

[¶45] He entered not into the temple - He copied his father's conduct as far as it was constitutional; and avoided his transgression. See the preceding chapter, 2 Chronicles 26 (note).

## 436. 2 Chronicles · 18 of 24

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### Verse 3

[¶1] On the wall of Ophel - The wall, says the Targum, of the interior palace. Ophel was some part of the wall of Jerusalem, that was most pregnable, and therefore Jotham fortified it in a particular manner.

### Verse 4

[¶3] Castles and towers - These he built for the protection of the country people against marauders.

### Verse 5

[¶5] He fought also with - the Ammonites - We find here that he brought them under a heavy tribute for three years; but whether this was the effect of his prevailing against them, is not so evident. Some think that they paid this tribute for three years, and then revolted; that, in consequence, he attacked them, and their utter subjection was the result.

### Verse 7

[¶7] The rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways - It was in his days, according to [2Kgs 15:37], that Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah king of Israel, began to cut Judah short. See the notes on [2Kgs 15:36], [2Kgs 15:37].

[¶8] Written in the book of the kings, etc. - There is not so much found in the books of Kings which we have now, as in this place of the Chronicles. In both places we have abridged accounts only: the larger histories have long been lost. The reign of Jotham was properly the last politically prosperous reign among the Jews. Hezekiah and Josiah did much to preserve the Divine worship; but Judah continued to be cut short, till at last it was wholly ruined.

### Introduction

[¶10] Ahaz succeeds his father Jotham, and reigns wickedly for sixteen years, [2Chr 28:1]. He restores idolatry in its grossest forms, [2Chr 28:2-4]; and is delivered Into the hands of the kings of Israel and Syria, [2Chr 28:5]. Pekah slays one hundred and twenty thousand Jews in one day, and carries away captive two hundred thousand of the people, whom, at the instance of Oded the prophet, they restore to liberty, and send home, clothed and fed, [2Chr 28:6-15]. Ahaz sends to the king of Assyria for help against the Edomites, Philistines, etc., from whom he receives no effectual succor, [2Chr 28:16-21]. He sins yet more, spoils and shuts up the temple of God, and propagates idolatry throughout the land, [2Chr 28:22-25]. A reference to has acts, his death, and burial, [2Chr 28:26], [2Chr 28:27].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Ahaz was twenty years old - For the difficulties in this chronology, see the notes on [2Kgs 16:2] (note).

### Verse 3

[¶14] Burnt his children in the fire - There is a most remarkable addition here in the Chaldee which I shall give at length: "Ahaz burnt his children in the fire; but the Word of the Lord snatched Hezekiah from among them; for it was manifest before the Lord that the three righteous men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were to proceed from him; who should deliver up their bodies that they might be cast into a burning fiery furnace, on account of the great and glorious Name, (יהוה) and from which they should escape. First, Abram escaped from the furnace of fire among the Chaldeans, into which he had been cast by Nimrod, because he would not worship their idols. Secondly, Tamar escaped burning in the house of judgment of Judah, who had said, Bring her out, that she may be burnt. Thirdly, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz escaped from the burning, when Ahaz his father cast him into the valley of the son of Hinnom, on the altars of Tophet. Fourthly, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, escaped from the burning fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Fifthly, Joshua, the son of Josedek the high priest, escaped, when the impious Nebuchadnezzar had cast him into a burning fiery furnace, with Achaab the son of Kolia, and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, the false prophet. They were consumed by fire; but Joshua the son of Josedek escaped because of his righteousness."

### Verse 5

[¶16] Delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria - For the better understanding of these passages, the reader is requested to refer to what has been advanced in the notes on the sixteenth chapter of [2Kgs 16:5], etc.

### Verse 6

[¶18] A hundred and twenty thousand - It is very probable that there is a mistake in this number. It is hardly possible that a hundred and twenty thousand men could have been slain in one day; yet all the versions and MSS. agree in this number. The whole people seem to have been given up into the hands of their enemies.

### Verse 9

[¶20] But a prophet of the Lord - whose name was Oded - To this beautiful speech nothing can be added by the best comment; it is simple, humane, pious, and overwhelmingly convincing: no wonder it produced the effect mentioned here. That there was much of humanity in the heads of the children of Ephraim who joined with the prophet on this occasion, the fifteenth verse sufficiently proves. They did not barely dismiss these most unfortunate captives, but they took that very spoil which their victorious army had brought away; and they clothed, fed, shod, and anointed, these distressed people, set the feeblest of them upon asses, and escorted them safely to Jericho. We can scarcely find a parallel to this in the universal history of the wars which savage man has carried on against his fellows, from the foundation of the world.

### Verse 16

[¶22] The kings of Assyria to help him - Instead of מלכי malchey; Kings; the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, one MS., and the parallel place, [2Kgs 16:7], have מלך melek, King, in the singular number. This king was Tiglath-pileser, as we learn from the second book of Kings.

### Verse 21

[¶24] But he helped him not - He did him no ultimate service. See the note on [2Kgs 16:9].

[¶25] After [2Kgs 16:15], the 23d, 24th, and 25th verses are introduced before the 16th, in the Syriac and Arabic, and the 22d verse is wholly wanting in both, though some of the expressions may be found in the twenty-first verse.

### Verse 23

[¶27] He sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him - "This passage," says Mr. Hallet, "greatly surprised me; for the sacred historian himself is here represented as saying, The gods of Damascus had smitten Ahaz. But it is impossible to suppose that an inspired author could say this; for the Scripture everywhere represents the heathen idols as nothing and vanity, and as incapable of doing either good or hurt. All difficulty is avoided if we follow the old Hebrew copies, from which the Greek translation was made, Και ειπεν ὁ βασιλεις Αχαζ, εκζητησω τους Θεους Δαμασκου τους τυπτοντας με, And King Ahaz said, I Will Seek to the Gods of Damascus Which Have Smitten Me; and then it follows, both in Hebrew and Greek, He said moreover, Because the gods of the king of Syria help them; therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. Both the Syriac and Arabic give it a similar turn; and say that Ahaz sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, and said, Ye are my gods and my lords; you will I worship, and to you will I sacrifice."

### Verse 24

[¶29] Shut up the doors - He caused the Divine worship to be totally suspended; and they continued shut till the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah, one of whose first acts was to reopen them, and thus to restore the Divine worship, [2Chr 29:3].

### Verse 27

[¶31] The kings of Israel - It is a common thing for the writer of this book to put Israel for Judah. He still considers them as one people, because proceeding from one stock. The versions and MSS. have the same reading with the Hebrew; the matter is of little importance, and with this interpretation none can mistake.

### Introduction

[¶33] Hezekiah's good reign, [2Chr 29:1], [2Chr 29:2]. He opens and repairs the doors of the temple, [2Chr 29:3]. He assembles and exhorts the priests and Levites, and proposes to renew the covenant with the Lord, [2Chr 29:4-11]. They all sanctify themselves and cleanse the temple, [2Chr 29:12-17]. They inform the king of their progress, [2Chr 29:18], [2Chr 29:19]. He collects the rulers of the people: and they offer abundance of sin-offerings, and burnt-offerings, and worship the Lord, [2Chr 29:20-30]. Every part of the Divine service is arranged, and Hezekiah and all the people rejoice, [2Chr 29:31-36].

### Verse 2

[¶35] He did that which was right - See the note on [2Kgs 18:3].

### Verse 8

[¶37] He hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment - He probably refers here chiefly to that dreadful defeat by the Israelites in which a hundred and twenty thousand were slain, and two hundred thousand taken prisoners; see the preceding chapter, [2Chr 28:6-8] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶39] To make a covenant - To renew the covenant under which the whole people were constantly considered, and of which circumcision was the sign; and the spirit of which was, I will be your God: Ye shall be my people.

### Verse 16

[¶41] And the priests went - The priests and Levites cleansed first the courts both of the priests and of the people. On this labor they spent eight days. Then they cleansed the interior of the temple; but as the Levites had no right to enter the temple, the priests carried all the dirt and rubbish to the porch, whence they were collected by the Levites, carried away, and cast into the brook Kidron; in this work eight days more were occupied, and thus the temple was purified in sixteen days.

### Verse 17

[¶43] On the first day - "They began on the first day of the first month Nisan." - Targum.

## 437. 2 Chronicles · 19 of 24

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### Verse 19

[¶1] All the vessels, which King Ahaz - The Targum says, "All the vessels which King Ahaz had polluted and rendered abominable by strange idols, when he reigned in his transgression against the Word of the Lord, we have collected and hidden; and others have we prepared to replace them; and they are now before the Lord."

### Verse 21

[¶3] They brought seven bullocks, etc. - This was more than the law required; see [Lev 4:13], etc. It ordered one calf or ox for the sins of the people, and one he-goat for the sins of the prince; but Hezekiah here offers many more. And the reason appears sufficiently evident: the law speaks only of sins of ignorance; but here were sins of every kind and every die - idolatry, apostasy from the Divine worship, profanation of the temple, etc., etc. The sin-offerings, we are informed, were offered, first for the Kingdom - for the transgressions of the king and his family; secondly, for the Sanctuary, which had been defiled and polluted, and for the priests who had been profane, negligent, and unholy; and, finally, for Judah - for the whole mass of the people, who had been led away into every kind of abomination by the above examples.

### Verse 23

[¶5] They laid their hands upon them - That is, they confessed their sin; and as they had by their transgression forfeited their lives, they now offer these animals to die as vicarious offerings, their life being taken for the life of their owners.

### Verse 25

[¶7] With cymbals, with psalteries - Moses had not appointed any musical instruments to be used in the divine worship; there was nothing of the kind under the first tabernacle. The trumpets or horns then used were not for song nor for praise, but as we use bells, i.e., to give notice to the congregation of what they were called to perform, etc. But David did certainly introduce many instruments of music into God's worship, for which we have already seen he was solemnly reproved by the prophet Amos, [Amo 6:1-6]. Here, however, the author of this book states he had the commandment of the prophet Nathan, and Gad the king's seer; and this is stated to have been the commandment of the Lord by his prophets: but the Syriac and Arabic give this a different turn - "Hezekiah appointed the Levites in the house of the Lord, with instruments of music, and the sound of harps, and with the Hymns of David, and the Hymns of Gad, the king's prophet, and of Nathan, the king's prophet: for David sang the praises of the Lord his God, as from the mouth of the prophets." It was by the hand or commandment of the Lord and his prophets that the Levites should praise the Lord; for so the Hebrew text may be understood: and it was by the order of David that so many instruments of music should be introduced into the Divine service. But were it even evident, which it is not, either from this or any other place in the sacred writings, that instruments of music were prescribed by Divine authority under the law, could this be adduced with any semblance of reason, that they ought to be used in Christian worship? No: the whole spirit, soul, and genius of the Christian religion are against this: and those who know the Church of God best, and what constitutes its genuine spiritual state, know that these things have been introduced as a substitute for the life and power of religion; and that where they prevail most, there is least of the power of Christianity. Away with such portentous baubles from the worship of that infinite Spirit who requires his followers to worship him in spirit and in truth, for to no such worship are those instruments friendly. See the use of the trumpets in the sanctuary, [Num 10:2] (note), etc., and the notes there.

### Verse 34

[¶9] They could not flay all the burnt-offerings - Peace-offerings, and such like, the Levites might flay and dress; but the whole burnt-offerings, that is, those which were entirely consumed on the altar, could be touched only by the priests, unless in a case of necessity, such as is mentioned here.

[¶10] The Levites were more upright in heart - The priests seem to have been very backward in this good work; the Levites were more ready to help forward this glorious reformation. Why the former should have been so backward is not easy to tell; but it appears to have been the fact. Indeed, it often happens that the higher orders of the priesthood are less concerned for the prosperity of true religion than the lower. Why is this? They are generally too busy about worldly things, or too much satisfied with secular emoluments. A rich priesthood is not favorable either to the spread or depth of religion. Earthly gratifications are often put in the place of Divine influences: it is almost a miracle to see a very rich man deeply interested in behalf either of his own soul, or the souls of others.

### Verse 36

[¶12] And Hezekiah rejoiced - Both he and the people rejoiced that God had prepared their hearts to bring about so great a reformation in so short a time; for, it is added, the thing was done suddenly. The king's example and influence were here, under God, the grand spring of all those mighty and effectual movements. What amazing power and influence has God lodged with kings! They can sway a whole empire nearly as they please; and when they declare themselves in behalf of religion, they have the people uniformly on their side. Kings, on this very ground, are no indifferent beings; they must be either a great curse or a great blessing to the people whom they govern.

### Introduction

[¶14] Hezekiah invites all Israel and Judah, and writes letters to Ephraim and Manasseh to come up to Jerusalem, and hold a passover to the Lord, [2Chr 30:1-4]. The posts go out with the king's proclamation from Dan to Beer-sheba, and pass from city to city through the coasts of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Zebulun, but are generally mocked in Israel, [2Chr 30:5-10]. Yet several of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun, humble themselves, and come to Jerusalem, [2Chr 30:11]. But in Judah they are all of one heart, [2Chr 30:12], [2Chr 30:13]. They take away the idolatrous altars, kill the passover, sprinkle the blood, and, as circumstances will permit, sanctify the people, [2Chr 30:14], [2Chr 30:15]. Many having eaten of the passover, who were not purified according to the law, Hezekiah prays for them; and the Lord accepts his prayer, and heals them, [2Chr 30:16-20]. Hezekiah exhorts them; and they hold the feast seven additional days, fourteen in all, and the people greatly rejoice, [2Chr 30:21-26]. The priests and the Levites bless the people, and God accepts their prayers and thanksgivings, [2Chr 30:27].

### Verse 1

[¶16] Hezekiah sent to all Israel - It is not easy to find out how this was permitted by the king of Israel; but it is generally allowed that Hoshea, who then reigned over Israel, was one of their best kings. And as the Jews allow that at this time both the golden calves had been carried away by the Assyrians, - that at Dan by Tiglath-pileser, and that at Bethel by Shalmaneser, - the people who chose to worship Jehovah at Jerusalem were freely permitted to do it, and Hezekiah had encouragement to make the proclamation in question.

### Verse 2

[¶18] In the second month - In Ijar, as they could not celebrate it in Nisan, the fourteenth of which month was the proper time. But as they could not complete the purgation of the temple, till the sixteenth of that month, therefore they were obliged to hold it now, or else adjourn it till the next year, which would have been fatal to that spirit of reformation which had now taken place. The law itself had given permission to those who were at a distance, and could not attend to the fourteenth of the first month, and to those who were accidentally defiled, and ought not to attend, to celebrate the passover on the fourteenth of the second month; see [Num 9:10], [Num 9:11]. Hezekiah therefore, and his counsellors, thought that they might extend that to the people at large, because of the delay necessarily occasioned by the cleansing of the temple, which was granted to individuals in such cases as the above, and the result showed that they had not mistaken the mind of the Lord upon the subject.

### Verse 6

[¶20] So the posts went - רצים ratsim, the runners or couriers; persons who were usually employed to carry messages; men who were light of foot, and confidential.

### Verse 9

[¶22] And will not turn away his face from you - Well expressed by the Targum: "For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not cause his majesty to ascend up from among you, if ye will return to his fear." The shechinah, of which the Targumist speaks, is the dwelling of the Divine Presence among men, and the visible symbol of that presence.

### Verse 18

[¶24] A multitude of the people - had not cleansed themselves - As there were men from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, they were excusable, because they came from countries that had been wholly devoted to idolatry.

[¶25] The good Lord pardon every one - "The Lord, who is good, have mercy on this people who err." - T.

### Verse 22

[¶27] Spake comfortably unto all the Levites - On such occasions the priests and Levites had great fatigue, and suffered many privations; and therefore had need of that encouragement which this prudent and pious king gave. It is a fine and expressive character given of these men, "They taught the good knowledge of God to the people." This is the great work, or should be so, of every Christian minister. They should convey that knowledge of God to the people by which they may be saved; that is, the good knowledge of the Lord.

### Verse 25

[¶29] The strangers that come out of the land of Israel - That is, the proselytes of the covenant who had embraced Judaism, and had submitted to the rite of circumcision, for none others could be permitted to eat of the passover.

### Verse 26

[¶31] Since the time of Solomon - there was not the like in Jerusalem - For from that time the ten tribes had been separated from the true worship of God, and now many of them for the first time, especially from Asher, Issachar, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Zebulun, joined to celebrate the passover.

### Verse 27

[¶33] And their voice was heard - God accepted the fruits of that pious disposition which himself had infused.

[¶34] And their prayer came up - As the smoke of their sacrifices ascended to the clouds, so did their prayers, supplications, and thanksgivings, ascend to the heavens. The Targum says: "Their prayer came up to the dwelling-place of his holy shechinah, which is in heaven." Israel now appeared to be in a fair way of regaining what they had lost; but alas, how soon were all these bright prospects beclouded for ever!

[¶35] It is not for the want of holy resolutions and heavenly influences that men are not saved but through their own unsteadiness; they do not persevere, they forget the necessity of continuing in prayer, and thus the Holy Spirit is grieved, departs from them, and leaves them to their own darkness and hardness of heart. When we consider the heavenly influences which many receive who draw back to perdition, and the good fruits which for a time they bore, it is blasphemy to say they had no genuine or saving grace; they had it, they showed it, they trifled with it, sinned against it, continued in their rebellions, and therefore are lost.

### Introduction

[¶37] The people destroy all traces of idolatry throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, [2Chr 31:1]. Hezekiah reforms the state of religion in general; and the tithes are brought in from all quarters, and proper officers set over them, [2Chr 31:2-13]. They bring to also the freewill-offerings, and regulate the priests and Levites and their families, according to their genealogies, [2Chr 31:14-19]. Hezekiah does every thing in sincerity and truth, and is prosperous, [2Chr 31:20], [2Chr 31:21].

### Verse 1

[¶39] Brake the images in pieces - This species of reformation was not only carried on through Judah, but they carried it into Israel; whether through a transport of religious zeal, or whether with the consent of Hoshea the Israelitish king, we cannot tell.

### Verse 2

[¶41] In the gates of the tents of the Lord - That is, in the temple; for this was the house, tabernacle, tent, and camp, of the Most High.

### Verse 3

[¶43] The king's portion of his substance for the burnt-offerings - It is conjectured that the Jewish kings, at least from the time of David, furnished the morning and evening sacrifice daily at their own expense, and several others also.

### Verse 5

[¶45] Brought - the first-fruits - These were principally for the maintenance of the priests and Levites; they brought tithes of all the produce of the field, whether commanded or not, as we see in the instance of honey, which was not to be offered to the Lord, [Lev 2:11], yet it appears it might be offered to the priests as first-fruits, or in the way of tithes.

## 438. 2 Chronicles · 20 of 24

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### Verse 7

[¶1] In the third month - "The month Sivan; the seventh, Tisri." - Targum.

[¶2] The heaps - The vast collections of grain which they had from the tithes over and above their own consumption; see [2Chr 31:10].

### Verse 11

[¶4] To prepare chambers - To make granaries to lay up this superabundance.

### Verse 12

[¶6] Shimei - was the next - He was assistant to Cononiah.

### Verse 15

[¶8] And Miniamin - Instead of מנימן, Miniamin, בנימן, Benjamin, is the reading of three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.; and this is the reading of the Vulgate, Syriac, Septuagint, and Arabic.

### Verse 17

[¶10] From twenty years old - Moses had ordered that the Levites should not begin their labor till they were thirty years of age; but David changed this order, and obliged them to begin at twenty.

### Verse 20

[¶12] Wrought - good and right and truth - Here is the proper character of a worthy king: he is Good, and he does good; he is Upright, and he acts justly and maintains justice; he is truly Religious, and he lives according to that truth which he receives as a revelation from God.

### Verse 21

[¶14] He did it with all his heart - In every respect he was a thoroughly excellent man, saw his duty to God and to his people, and performed it with becoming zeal and diligence. May God ever send such kings to the nations of the world; and may the people who are blessed with such be duly obedient to them, and thankful to the God who sends them!

### Introduction

[¶16] Sennacherib invades Judea, [2Chr 32:1]. Hezekiah takes proper measures for the defense of his kingdom, [2Chr 32:2-6]. His exhortation, [2Chr 32:7], [2Chr 32:8]. Sennacherib sends a blasphemous message to Hezekiah, and to the people, [2Chr 32:9-15]. His servants rail against God; and he and they blaspheme most grievously, [2Chr 32:16-19]. Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah cry to God; he answers, and the Assyrians are destroyed, and Sennacherib is slain by his own sons, [2Chr 32:20], [2Chr 32:21]. The Lord is magnified, [2Chr 32:22], [2Chr 32:23]. Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, [2Chr 32:24]. His ingratitude, [2Chr 32:25]. His humiliation, [2Chr 32:26]. His riches, [2Chr 32:27-30]. His error relative to the Babylonish ambassadors, [2Chr 32:31]. His acts and death, [2Chr 32:32], [2Chr 32:33].

### Verse 1

[¶18] After these things - God did not permit this pious prince to be disturbed till he had completed the reformation which he had begun.

### Verse 2

[¶20] When Hezekiah saw - This was in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah; and at first the Jewish king bought him off at the great price of three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold; and even emptied his own treasures, and spoiled the house of the Lord, to gratify the oppressive avarice of the Assyrian king. See the whole account, [2Kgs 18:13], etc.

### Verse 4

[¶22] Stopped all the fountains - This was prudently done, for without water how could an immense army subsist in an arid country? No doubt the Assyrian army suffered much through this, as a Christian army did eighteen hundred years after this. When the crusaders came, in a.d. 1099, to besiege Jerusalem, the people of the city stopped up the wells, so that the Christian army was reduced to the greatest necessities and distress.

### Verse 5

[¶24] Raised it up to the towers - He built the wall up to the height of the towers, or, having built the wall, he raised towers on it.

### Verse 6

[¶26] Set captains of war over the people - in the street of the gate of the city - That is, the open places at the gate of the city, whither the people came for judgment, etc.

### Verse 7

[¶28] There be more with us than with him - We have more power than they have. (These words he quotes from the prophet Elisha, [2Kgs 6:16]). This was soon proved to be true by the slaughter made by the angel of the Lord in the Assyrian camp.

### Verse 9

[¶30] After this did Sennacherib - Having received the silver and gold mentioned above, he withdrew his army, but shortly after he sent Rab-shakeh with a blasphemous message. This is the fact mentioned here.

### Verse 10

[¶32] Thus saith Sennacherib - See all these circumstances largely explained 2 Kings 18:17-36 (note).

### Verse 17

[¶34] Wrote also letters - See [2Kgs 19:9], [2Kgs 19:14].

### Verse 21

[¶36] The Lord sent an angel - See [2Kgs 19:36] (note), and the note there.

[¶37] House of his god - Nisroch.

[¶38] They that came forth of his own bowels - His sons Adrammelech and Sharezer.

### Verse 23

[¶40] Many brought gifts unto the Lord - They plainly saw that Jehovah was the protector of the land.

[¶41] And presents to Hezekiah - They saw that God was his friend, and would undertake for him; and they did not wish to have such a man for their enemy.

### Verse 24

[¶43] Hezekiah was sick - See [2Kgs 20:1] (note), etc., and the notes there.

## 439. 2 Chronicles · 21 of 24

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### Verse 25

[¶1] Hezekiah rendered not again - He got into a vain confidence, took pleasure in his riches, and vainly showed them to the messengers of the king of Babylon. See on [2Kgs 20:12] (note), etc.

### Verse 26

[¶3] Humbled himself - Awoke from his sleep, was sorry for his sin, deprecated the wrath of God, and the Divine displeasure was turned away from him.

### Verse 27

[¶5] Pleasant jewels - כלי חמדה keley chemdah, desirable vessels or utensils.

### Verse 30

[¶7] The upper watercourse - He made canals to bring the waters of Gihon from the west side of Jerusalem to the west side of the city of David.

### Verse 31

[¶9] Of the ambassadors - See [2Kgs 20:13] (note), and the observations at the end of that chapter.

### Verse 32

[¶11] The vision of Isaiah - See this prophet, 2 Chronicles 36-39.

### Verse 33

[¶13] Chiefest of the sepulchres - This respect they paid to him who, since David, had been the best of all their kings.

[¶14] I shall subjoin a few things from the Targum on this chapter. [2Chr 32:1]. "After these things which Hezekiah did, and their establishment, the Lord appointed by his Word to bring Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and his army, into the land of Israel, that he might destroy the Assyrians in the land of the house of Judah, and smite their troops on the mountains of Jerusalem, and deliver all their spoils into the hands of Hezekiah and his people: wherefore Sennacherib came with immense armies, which could not be numbered; and having pitched his camps in the land of the tribe of Judah, besieged their fortified cities with his armies, hoping to overthrow them." [2Chr 32:8]. Hezekiah said-"His help is the strength of the flesh; but our auxiliary is the Word of the Lord." [2Chr 32:16]. "His (Sennacherib's) servants spoke blasphemy against the Word of the Lord God." [2Chr 32:18]. In the Jews' speech - "In the language of the holy house." [2Chr 32:21]. "And the Word of the Lord sent Michael, and the angel Gabriel, and destroyed them on the night of the passover with a destructive fire; and burnt up their breath within their bodies, and consumed every soldier, captain, and prince, in the army of the king of Assyria; and he returned with shame of face into his own land."

[¶15] The destruction of God's enemies, and the support and salvation of the faithful, is in every instance in this Targum attributed to the Word of the Lord, personally understood. See the note on [2Chr 34:27]. [2Chr 32:24]. "In those days was Hezekiah sick near to death; but he prayed before the Lord who spoke to him by his Word to preserve him and to add to his life fifteen years." [2Chr 32:31]. "The king of Babylon sent, that they might inquire concerning the miracle that had been done in the land; that they might see the two tables of stone which were in the ark of the covenant of the Lord which Moses had placed there with the two tables which he had broken on account of the sin of the calf which they made in Horeb. The Word of the Lord permitted him to show them these; neither did he suffer for it; that he might try him, and see what was in his heart."

[¶16] Thus God speaks after the manner of men: he either brings, or permits them to be brought, into such circumstances as shall cause them to show their prevailing propensities; and then warns them against the evils to which they are inclined, after having shown them that they are capable of those evils. To know ourselves, and our own character, is of the utmost importance to our religious growth and perfection. He who does not know where his weakness lies, is not likely to know where his strength lies. Many, by not being fully acquainted with their own character, have been unwatchful and unguarded, and so become an easy prey to their enemies. Know thyself is a lesson which no man can learn but from the Spirit of God.

### Introduction

[¶18] Manasseh reigns fifty-five years, and restores idolatry, pollutes the temple, and practises all kinds of abominations, [2Chr 33:1-9]. He and the people are warned in vain, [2Chr 33:10]. He is delivered into the hands of the Assyrians, bound with fetters, and carried to Babylon, [2Chr 33:11]. He humbles himself, and is restored, [2Chr 33:12], [2Chr 33:13]. He destroys idolatry, and restores the worship of God, [2Chr 33:14-16]. The people keep the high places, but sacrifice to the Lord on them, [2Chr 33:17]. His acts, prayer, and death, [2Chr 33:18-20]. His son Amon succeeds him; and after a wicked idolatrous reign of two years, is slain by his own servants in his own house, [2Chr 33:21-24]. The people rise up, and slay his murderers, and make Josiah his son king in his stead, [2Chr 33:25].

### Verse 1

[¶20] Manasseh was twelve years old - We do not find that he had any godly director; his youth was therefore the more easily seduced. But surely he had a pious education; how then could the principles of it be so soon eradicated?

### Verse 3

[¶22] Altars for Baalim - The Sun and Moon. And made groves, אשרות Asheroth, Astarte, Venus; the host of heaven, all the Planets and Stars. These were the general objects of his devotion.

### Verse 5

[¶24] He built altars - See the principal facts in this chapter explained in the notes on 2 Kings 21:1-17 (note).

### Verse 7

[¶26] A carved image - "He set up an image, the likeness of himself, in the house of the sanctuary." The Targumist supposes he wished to procure himself Divine honors.

### Verse 12

[¶28] And when he was in affliction - Here is a very large addition in the Chaldee: "For the Chaldeans made a brazen mule, pierced full of small holes, and put him within it, and kindled fires all around it; and when he was in this misery, he sought help of all the idols which he had made, but obtained none, for their were of no use. He therefore repented, and prayed before the Lord his God, and was greatly humbled in the sight of the Lord God of his fathers."

### Verse 13

[¶30] And prayed unto him - "While he was thus praying, all the presiding angels went away to the gates of prayer in heaven; and shut all the gates of prayer, and all the windows and apertures in heaven, lest that his prayer should be heard. Immediately the compassions of the Creator of the world were moved, whose right hand is stretched out to receive sinners, who are converted to his fear, and break their hearts' concupiscence by repentance. He made therefore a window and opening in heaven, under the throne of his glory; and having heard his prayer, he favourably received his supplication. And when his Word had shaken the earth, the mule was burst and he escaped. Then the Spirit went out from between the wings of the cherubim; by which, being inspired through the decree of the Word of the Lord, he returned to his kingdom in Jerusalem. And then Manasseh knew that it was the Lord God who had done these miracles and signs; and he turned to the Lord with his whole heart, left all his idols, and never served them more." This long addition gives the Jewish account of those particulars which the sacred writer has passed by: it is curious, though in some sort trifling. The gates of prayer may be considered childish; but in most of those things the ancient rabbins purposely hid deep and important meanings.

### Verse 14

[¶32] He built a wall - This was probably a weak place that he fortified; or a part of the wall which the Assyrians had broken down, which he now rebuilt.

### Verse 15

[¶34] He took away the strange gods - He appears to have done every thing in his power to destroy the idolatry which he had set up, and to restore the pure worship of the true God. His repentance brought forth fruits meet for repentance. How long he was in captivity, and when or by whom he was delivered, we know not. The fact of his restoration is asserted; and we believe it on Divine testimony.

### Verse 17

[¶36] The people did sacrifice - "Nevertheless the people did sacrifice on the high places, but only to the name of the Word of the Lord their God." - Targum.

### Verse 18

[¶38] The words of the seers that spake to him - "Which were spoken to him in the name of the Word of the Lord God of Israel." - Targum.

### Verse 19

[¶40] His prayer also - What is called the Prayer of Manasseh, king of Judah, when he was holden captive in Babylon, being found among our apocryphal books, I have inserted it at the end of the chapter, without either asserting or thinking that it is the identical prayer which this penitent king used when a captive in Babylon. But, as I have observed in another place, there are many good sentiments in it; and some sinners may find it a proper echo of the distresses of their hearts; I therefore insert it.

[¶41] Written among the sayings of the seers - "They are written in the words of Chozai." - Targum. So says the Vulgate. The Syriac has Hunan the prophet; and the Arabic has Saphan the prophet.

### Verse 21

[¶43] Amon - reigned two years - See on [2Kgs 21:19] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶45] Sacrificed unto all the carved images - How astonishing is this! with his father's example before his eyes, he copies his father's vices, but not his repentance.

## 440. 2 Chronicles · 22 of 24

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### Verse 23

[¶1] Trespassed more and more - He appears to have exceeded his father, and would take no warning.

### Verse 24

[¶3] His servants conspired against him - On what account we cannot tell.

### Verse 25

[¶5] The people of the land slew all them - His murder was not a popular act, for the people slew the regicides. They were as prone to idolatry as their king was. We may rest satisfied that idolatry was accompanied with great licentiousness and sensual gratifications else it never, as a mere religious system, could have had any sway in the world.

[¶6] For an explanation of the term groves, [2Chr 23:3], see the observations at the end of [2Kgs 21:26] (note).

[¶7] I have referred to the prayer attributed to Manasseh, and found in what is called the Apocrypha, just before the first book of Maccabees. It was anciently used as a form of confession in the Christian Church, and is still as such received by the Greek Church. It is as follows: - "O Lord, Almighty God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed, who hast made heaven and earth, with all the ornament thereof; who hast bound the sea by the word of thy commandment; who hast shut up the deep, and sealed it by thy terrible and glorious name; whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power; for the majesty of thy glory cannot be borne, and thine angry threatening towards sinners is insupportable; but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; for thou art the most high Lord, of great compassion, long-suffering, very merciful, and repentest of the evils of men. Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness, hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee, and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved. Thou, therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, has not appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, which have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am a sinner: for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied; my transgressions are multiplied; and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of mine iniquities. I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up mine head, neither have any release; for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil before thee. I did not thy will, neither kept I thy commandments. I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offenses. Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities: wherefore I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not in mine iniquities. Be not angry with me for ever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me into the lower parts of the earth. For thou art the God, the God of them that repent; and in me thou wilt show all thy goodness: for thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to thy great mercy. Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the days of my life: for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever. - Amen."

[¶8] The above translation, which is that in our common Bibles, might be mended; but the piece is scarcely worth the pains.

### Introduction

[¶10] Josiah reigns thirty-one years; destroys idolatry in Judah, as also in Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and even to Naphtali, [2Chr 34:1-7]. He begins to repair the temple, and collects money for the purpose, and employs workmen, [2Chr 34:8-13]. Hilkiah the priest finds the book of the law in the temple, which is read by Shaphan before the king, [2Chr 34:14-19]. He is greatly troubled, and consults Huldah the prophetess, [2Chr 34:20-22]. Her exhortation, and message to the king, [2Chr 34:23-28]. He causes it to be read to the elders of Judah, and they make a covenant with God, [2Chr 34:29], [2Chr 34:32]. Josiah reforms every abomination, and the people serve God all his days, [2Chr 34:33].

### Verse 2

[¶12] He declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left - He never swerved from God and truth; he never omitted what he knew to be his duty to God and his kingdom; he carried on his reformation with a steady hand; timidity did not prevent him from going far enough; and zeal did not lead him beyond due bounds. He walked in the golden mean, and his moderation was known unto all men. He went neither to the right nor to the left, he looked inward, looked forward, and looked upward. Reader, let the conduct of this pious youth be thy exemplar through life.

### Verse 4

[¶14] The altars of Baalim - How often have these been broken down, and how soon set up again! We see that the religion of a land is as the religion of its king. If the king were idolatrous, up went the altars, on them were placed the statues, and the smoke of incense ascended in ceaseless clouds to the honor of that which is vanity, and nothing to the world; on the other hand, when the king was truly religious, down went the idolatrous altars, broken in pieces were the images, and the sacrificial smoke ascended only to the true God: in all these cases the people were as one man with the king.

### Verse 5

[¶16] He burnt the bones of the priests - כומריא kumeraiya, the kemarim, says the Targum. See this word explained, [2Kgs 23:5] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶18] The cities of Manasseh - Even those who were under the government of the Israelitish king permitted their idols and places of idolatry to be hewn down and destroyed: after the truth was declared and acknowledged, the spade and the axe were employed to complete the reformation.

### Verse 9

[¶20] And they returned to Jerusalem - Instead of וישבו vaiyashubu, "they returned," we should read יושבי yoshebey, "the inhabitants;" a reading which is supported by many MSS., printed editions, and all the versions, as well as by necessity and common sense. See the note on [2Chr 19:8], where a similar mistake is rectified.

### Verse 12

[¶22] All that could skill of instruments of music - Did the musicians play on their several instruments to encourage and enliven the workmen? Is not this a probable case from their mention here? If this were really the case, instrumental music was never better applied in any thing that refers to the worship of God. It is fabled of Orpheus, a most celebrated musician, that such was the enchanting harmony of his lyre, that he built the city of Thebes by it: the stones and timbers danced to his melody; and by the power of his harmony rose up, and took their respective places in the different parts of the wall that was to defend the city! This is fable; but as all fable is a representation of truth, where is the truth and fact to which this refers? How long has this question lain unanswered! But have we not the answer now? It is known in general, that the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were overwhelmed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, about the seventy-ninth year of the Christian era. It is also known that, in sinking for wells, the workmen of the king of Naples lighted on houses, etc., of those overwhelmed cities; that excavations have been carried on, and are now in the act of being carried on, which are bringing daily to view various utensils, pictures, and books, which have escaped the influence of the burning lava; and that some of those parchment volumes have been unrolled, and facsimiles of them engraved and published; and that our late Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., king of Great Britain, expended considerable sums of money annually in searching for, unrolling, and deciphering those rolls. This I record to his great credit as the lover of science and literature. Now, among the books that have been unrolled and published, is a Greek Treatise on Music, by Philodemus; and here we have the truth represented which lay hidden under the fables of Orpheus and Amphion. This latter was a skillful harper, who was frequently employed by the Theban workmen to play to them while engaged in their labor, and for which they rewarded him out of the proceeds of that labor. So powerful and pleasing was his music, that they went lightly and comfortably through their work; and time and labor passed on without tedium or fatigue; and the walls and towers were speedily raised. This, by a metaphor, was attributed to the dulcet sounds of his harp; and poetry seized on and embellished it, and mythology incorporated it with her fabulous system. Orpheus is the same. By his skill in music he drew stones and trees after him, i.e., he presided over and encouraged the workmen by his skill in music. Yet how simple and natural is the representation given by this ancient Greek writer of such matters! See Philodemus, Col. viii. and ix. Orpheus, and Amphion, by their music, moved the workmen to diligence and activity, and lessened and alleviated their toil. May we not suppose, then, that skillful musicians among the Levites did exercise their art among the workmen who were employed in the repairs of the house of the Lord? May I be allowed a gentle transition? Is it not the power and harmony of the grace of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, that convert, change, and purify the souls of men, and prepare them for and place them in that part of the house of God, the New Jerusalem? A most beautiful and chaste allusion to this fact and fable is made by an eminent poet, while praying for his own success as a Christian minister, who uses all his skill as a poet and musician for the glory of God: -

[¶23] Thy own musician, Lord, inspire,

[¶24] And may my consecrated lyre

[¶25] Repeat the psalmist's part!

[¶26] His Son and thine reveal in me,

[¶27] And fill with sacred melody

[¶28] The fibres of my heart.

[¶29] So shall I charm the listening throng,

[¶30] And draw the Living Stones along

[¶31] By Jesus' tuneful name.

[¶32] The living stones shall dance, shall rise,

[¶33] And Form a City in the skies,

[¶34] The New Jerusalem.

[¶35] Charles Wesley.

### Verse 14

[¶37] Found a book of the law - See on [2Kgs 22:8] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶39] Huldah the prophetess - See on [2Kgs 22:14] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶41] Because thine heart was tender - "Because thy heart was melted, and thou hast humbled thyself in the sight of the Word of the Lord, מימרא דיי meymera daya, when thou didst hear his words, ית פתגמוי yath pithgamoi, against this place," etc. Here the Targum most evidently distinguishes between מימרא meymera, the Personal Word, and פתגם pithgam, a word spoken or expressed.

### Verse 28

[¶43] Gathered to thy grave in peace - See particularly the note on [2Kgs 22:20] (note).

## 441. 2 Chronicles · 23 of 24

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### Verse 30

[¶1] The king went - See on [2Kgs 23:1] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶3] Made a covenant - See on [2Kgs 23:3] (note). And see the notes on that and the preceding chapter, 2 Chronicles 33 (note), for the circumstances detailed here.

### Verse 32

[¶5] To stand to it - It is likely that he caused them all to arise when he read the terms of the covenant, and thus testify their approbation of the covenant itself, and their resolution to observe it faithfully and perseveringly.

### Introduction

[¶7] Josiah celebrates a passover, [2Chr 35:1]; regulates the courses of the priests; assigns them, the Levites, and the people, their portions; and completes the greatest passover ever celebrated since the days of Solomon, vv. 2-19. Pharaoh Necho passes with his army through Judea, [2Chr 35:20]. Josiah meets and fights with him at Megiddo, and is mortally wounded, [2Chr 35:21-23]. He is carried to Jerusalem, where he dies, [2Chr 35:24]. Jeremiah laments for him, [2Chr 35:25]. Of his acts and deeds, and where recorded, [2Chr 35:26], [2Chr 35:27].

### Verse 3

[¶9] Put the holy ark in the house - It is likely that the priests had secured this when they found that the idolatrous kings were determined to destroy every thing that might lead the people to the worship of the true God. And now, as all appears to be well established, the ark is ordered to be put into its own place.

[¶10] For an ample account of this passover and the reformation that was then made, see on [2Kgs 23:1] (note), etc., and the places marked in the margin.

### Verse 11

[¶12] They killed the passover - The people themselves might slay their own paschal lambs, and then present the blood to the priests, that they might sprinkle it before the altar; and the Levites flayed them, and made them ready for dressing.

### Verse 18

[¶14] There was no passover like to that - "That which distinguished this passover from all the former was," says Calmet, "the great liberality of Josiah, who distributed to his people a greater number of victims than either David or Solomon had done."

### Verse 20

[¶16] Necho king of Egypt - Pharaoh the lame, says the Targum.

### Verse 21

[¶18] God commanded me to make haste - The Targum gives a curious turn to this and the following verse: "My idol commanded me to make haste; refrain therefore from me and my idol which is with me, that he betray thee not. When he heard him mention his idol, he would not go back; and he hearkened not unto the words of Necho, which he spake concerning his idol." Here is the rabbinical excuse for the conduct of Josiah.

### Verse 24

[¶20] The second chariot - Perhaps this means no more than that they took Josiah out of his own chariot and put him into another, either for secrecy, or because his own had been disabled. The chariot into which he was put might have been that of the officer or aid-de-camp who attended his master to the war. See the note on [2Kgs 22:20].

### Verse 25

[¶22] Behold, they are written in the lamentations - The Hebrews had poetical compositions for all great and important events, military songs, songs of triumph, epithalamia or marriage odes, funeral elegies, etc. Several of these are preserved in different parts of the historical books of Scripture, and these were generally made by prophets or inspired men. That composed on the tragical end of this good king by Jeremiah is now lost. The Targum says, "Jeremiah bewailed Josiah with a great lamentation; and all the chiefs and matrons sing these lamentations concerning Josiah to the present day, and it was a statute in Israel annually to bewail Josiah. Behold, these are written in the book of Lamentations, which Baruch wrote down from the mouth of Jeremiah.

### Verse 27

[¶24] And his deeds, first and last - "The former things which he did in his childhood, and the latter things which he did in his youth; and all the judgments which he pronounced from his eighth year, when he came to the kingdom, to his eighteenth, when he was grown up, and began to repair the sanctuary of the Lord; and all that he brought of his substance to the hand of judgment, purging both the house of Israel and Judah from all uncleanness; behold, they are written in the book of the Kings of the house of Israel, and of the house of Judah." - Targum. These general histories are lost; but in the books of Kings and Chronicles we have the leading facts.

### Introduction

[¶26] Jehoahaz made king on the death of his father Josiah, and reigns only three months, [2Chr 36:1], [2Chr 36:2]. He is dethroned by the king of Egypt, and Jehoiakim his brother made king in his stead, who reigns wickedly eleven years, and is dethroned and led captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, [2Chr 36:3-8]. Jehoiachin is made king in his stead, and reigns wickedly three months and ten days, and is also led captive to Babylon, [2Chr 36:9], [2Chr 36:10]. Zedekiah begins to reign, and reigns wickedly eleven years, [2Chr 36:11], [2Chr 36:12]. He rebels against Nebuchadnezzar, and he and his people cast all the fear of God behind their backs; the wrath of God comes upon them to the uttermost; their temple us destroyed; and the whole nation is subjugated, and led into captivity, [2Chr 36:13-21]. Cyrus, king of Persia, makes a proclamation to rebuild the temple of the Lord, [2Chr 36:22], [2Chr 36:23].

### Verse 1

[¶28] Took Jehoahaz - It seems that after Necho had discomfited Josiah, he proceeded immediately against Charchemish, and in the interim, Josiah dying of his wounds, the people made his son king.

### Verse 3

[¶30] The king of Egypt put him down - He now considered Judah to be conquered, and tributary to him and because the people had set up Jehoahaz without his consent, he dethroned him, and put his brother in his place, perhaps for no other reason but to show his supremacy. For other particulars, see the notes on [2Kgs 23:31-35] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶32] Came up Nebuchadnezzar - See the notes on [2Kgs 24:1].

[¶33] Archbishop Usher believes that Jehoiakim remained three years after this tributary to the Chaldeans, and that it is from this period that the seventy years' captivity, predicted by Jeremiah, is to be reckoned.

### Verse 9

[¶35] Jehoiachin was eight - See on [2Kgs 24:6-15] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶37] Made Zedekiah - king - His name was at first Mattaniah, but the king of Babylon changed it to Zedekiah. See [2Kgs 24:17] (note), and the notes there.

### Verse 12

[¶39] Did that which was evil - Was there ever such a set of weak, infatuated men as the Jewish kings in general? They had the fullest evidence that they were only deputies to God Almighty, and that they could not expect to retain the throne any longer than they were faithful to their Lord; and yet with all this conviction they lived wickedly, and endeavored to establish idolatry in the place of the worship of their Maker! After bearing with them long, the Divine mercy gave them up, as their case was utterly hopeless. They sinned till there was no remedy.

### Verse 19

[¶41] They burnt the house of God - Here was an end to the temple; the most superb and costly edifice ever erected by man.

[¶42] Brake down the wall of Jerusalem - So it ceased to be a fortified city.

[¶43] Burnt all the palaces - So it was no longer a dwelling-place for kings or great men.

[¶44] Destroyed all the goodly vessels - Beat up all the silver and gold into masses, keeping only a few of the finest in their own shape. See [2Chr 36:18].

## 442. 2 Chronicles · 24 of 24

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### Verse 21

[¶1] To fulfill the word of the Lord - See [Jer 25:9], [Jer 25:12]; [Jer 26:6], [Jer 26:7]; [Jer 29:12]. For the miserable death of Zedekiah, see [2Kgs 25:4], etc.

### Verse 22

[¶3] Now in the first year of Cyrus - This and the following verse are supposed to have been written by mistake from the book of Ezra, which begins in the same way. The book of the Chronicles, properly speaking, does close with the twenty-first verse, as then the Babylonish captivity commences, and these two verses speak of the transactions of a period seventy years after. This was in the first year of the reign of Cyrus over the empire of the East which is reckoned to be A.M. 3468. But he was king of Persia from the year 3444 or 3445. See Calmet and Usher.

### Verse 23

[¶5] The Lord his God be with him - "Let the Word of the Lord be his helper, and let him go up." - Targum. See the notes on the beginning of Ezra.

[¶6] Thus ends the history of a people the most fickle, the most ungrateful, and perhaps on the whole the most sinful, that ever existed on the face of the earth. But what a display does all this give of the power, justice, mercy, and long-suffering of the Lord! There was no people like this people, and no God like their God.

## 443. Ezra · 1 of 8

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### Introduction to the Book of Ezra

[¶1] At the conclusion of 2 Kings, and also of the preceding book, 2 Chronicles, we have seen the state of misery and desolation to which the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were reduced through their unparalleled ingratitude to God, and their innumerable backslidings and rebellions. These at last issued in their captivity; the inhabitants of the former country being carried away by the Assyrians, and those of the latter by the Chaldeans. The former never recovered their ancient territories, and were so disposed of by their enemies that they either became amalgamated with the heathen nations, so as to be utterly undistinguishable, or they were transported to some foreign and recluse place of settlement, that the place of their existence, though repeatedly guessed at, has for more than two thousand years been totally unknown.

[¶2] In mercy to the less polluted inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah, though delivered up into the hands of their enemies, God had promised by his prophet, that at the expiration of seventy years they should be enlarged, and restored to their own country. This prediction was most literally fulfilled; and the books of Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah, inform us how the Divine goodness accomplished this most gracious design, and the movers and agents he employed on the occasion. The writer of the following book was undoubtedly the chief agent under God; and his history, as found in the most authentic writings of the Jews, is too nearly connected with this book, and too important in every point of view, to be passed by. No man has written on this subject with such perspicuity as Dean Prideaux; and from his invaluable work, The Connected History of the Old and New Testaments, I shall freely borrow whatever may be best calculated to throw light upon the ensuing history. "In the beginning of the year 458 before the Christian era, Ezra obtained of King Artaxerxes and his seven counsellors a very ample commission for his return to Jerusalem, with all of his nation that were willing to accompany him thither; giving him full authority there to restore and settle the state, and reform the Church of the Jews, and to regulate and govern both according to their own laws. This extraordinary favor, not being likely to have been obtained but by some more than ordinary means, appears to have been granted by King Artaxerxes to the solicitations of Esther, who, though not at that time advanced to the dignity of his queen, was yet the best beloved of his concubines. "Ezra was of the descendants of Seraiah, the high priest who was slain by Nebuchadnezzar when he burnt the temple and city of Jerusalem. "As Ezra was a very holy, so also was he a very learned man, and especially skilled excellently in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures; and therefore he is said to have been a very ready scribe in the law of God, for which he was so eminent that Artaxerxes takes particular notice of it in his commission. He began his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, called Nisan, which might fall about the middle of our March; and having halted at the river of Ahava till the rest of his company was come up to him, he there, in a solemn fast, recommended himself and all that were with him to the Divine protection; and then, on the twelfth day, set forward for Jerusalem, they all having spent four months in their journey from Babylon thither. On his arrival he delivered up to the temple the offerings which had been made to it by the king and his nobles, and the rest of the people of Israel that stayed behind; which amounted to a hundred talents of gold, with twenty basons of gold of the value of a thousand darics, and six hundred and fifty talents of silver, with vessels of silver of the weight of a hundred talents more: and then, having communicated his commission to the king's lieutenants and governors throughout all Syria and Palestine, he betook himself to the executing of the contents of it, whereby he was fully empowered to settle both the Church and the state of the Jews, according to the law of Moses; and to appoint magistrates and judges to punish all such as should be refractory; and that, not only by imprisonment and confiscation of goods, but also with banishment and death, according as their crimes should be found to deserve. And all this power Ezra was invested with, and continued faithfully to execute, for the space of thirteen years, till Nehemiah arrived with a new commission from the Persian court for the same work. Ezra, having found in the second year of his government ([Ezr 9:1-15] and 10) that many of the people had taken strange wives, contrary to the law, and that several of the priests and Levites, as well as the chief men of Judah and Benjamin, had transgressed herein, after he had in fasting and prayer deprecated God's wrath for it, caused proclamation to be made for all the people of Israel that had returned from the captivity to gather themselves together at Jerusalem, under the penalty of excommunication, and forfeiture of all their goods. And when they were met, he made them sensible of their sins, and engaged them in promise and covenant before God, to depart from it by putting away their strange wives, and all such as were born of them, that the seed of Israel might not be polluted with such an undue commixture; and thereon commissioners were appointed to inquire into this matter, and cause every man to do according to the law. "And they sat down the first day of the tenth month to examine into this matter, and made an end by the first day of the first month; so that in three months' time, that is, in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth months of the Jewish years a thorough reformation was made of this transgression: which three months answer to January, February, and March of our year. "About this time ([Est 2:21]) Bigthan and Jeush, two eunuchs of the palace, entered into a conspiracy against the life of King Artaxerxes. Most likely they were of those who had attended Queen Vashti; and being now out of their offices by the degrading of their mistress, and the advancing of another in her place, took such a disgust at this as to resolve to revenge themselves on the king for it; of which Mordecai, having got the knowledge, made discovery to Queen Esther, and she in Mordecai's name to the king; whereon inquiry being made into the matter, and the whole treason laid open and discovered, the two traitors were both crucified for it, and the history of the whole matter was entered on the public registers and annals of the kingdom. "Ezra continued in the government of Judea till the end of the year 446; and by virtue of the commission he had from the king, and the powers granted him thereby, he reformed the whole state of the Jewish Church, according to the law of Moses, in which he was excellently learned, and settled it upon that bottom upon which it afterwards stood till the time of our Savior. The two chief things which he had to do, were to restore the observance of the Jewish law according to the ancient approved usages which had been in practice before the captivity, under the directions of the prophets; and to collect together and set forth a correct edition of the Holy Scriptures; in the performance of both which, the Jews inform us he had the assistance of what they call the Great Synagogue, which they tell us was a convention consisting of one hundred and twenty men, who lived all at the same time under the presidency of Ezra, and assisted him in both of these two works; and among these they name Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. "But the whole conduct of the work, and the glory of accomplishing it, is by the Jews chiefly attributed to him under whose presidency they tell us it was done; and therefore they look upon him as another Moses: for the law, they say, was given by Moses; but it was reviewed and restored by Ezra, after it had in a manner been extinguished and lost in the Babylonish captivity. And therefore they reckon him as the second founder of it: and it is a common opinion among them that he was Malachi the prophet; that he was called Ezra as his proper name, and Malachi, which signifies an angel or messenger, from his office, because he was sent as the angel and messenger of God to restore again the Jewish religion, and establish it in the same manner as it was before the captivity on the foundation of the law and the prophets. And indeed, by virtue of that ample commission which he had from King Artaxerxes, he had an opportunity of doing more herein than any other of his nation; and he executed all the powers thereof to the utmost he was able, for the resettling both of the ecclesiastical and political state of the Jews in the best posture they were then capable of: and from hence his name is in so high esteem and veneration among the Jews, that it is a common saying among their writers, 'that if the law had not been given by Moses, Ezra was worthy, by whom it should have been given.' As to the ancient and approved usages of the Jewish Church which had been in practice before the captivity, they had by Joshua and Zerubbabel, with the chief elders, then contemporaries, and by others that after succeeded them, been gathering together from their first return to Jerusalem, as they could be recovered from the memories of the ancients of their nation who had either seen them practiced themselves before the captivity, or who had been informed concerning them by their parents or others who had lived before them. "All these, and whatsoever else was pretended to be of the same nature, Ezra brought under review, and, after due examination, allowed such of them as were to be allowed, and settled them by his approbation and authority: they gave birth to what the Jews now call their oral law; for they own a twofold law - the first, the written law, which is recorded in the Holy Scriptures; and the second, the oral law, which they have only by the tradition of their elders. And both these, they say, were given them by Moses from Mount Sinai, of which the former only was committed to writing, and the other delivered down to them from generation to generation by the tradition of the elders; and therefore holding them both to be of the same authority, as having both of them the same Divine original, they think themselves to be bound as much by the latter as the former, or rather much more; for the written law is, they say, in many places, obscure, scanty, and defective, and could be no perfect rule to them without the oral law, which, containing according to them a full, complete, and perfect interpretation of all that is included in the other, supplies all the defects and solves all the difficulties of it; and therefore they observe the written law no otherwise than according as it is explained and expounded by their oral law. And hence it is a common saying among them, 'that the covenant was made with them, not upon the written law, but upon the oral law;' and therefore they do in a manner lay aside the former to make room for the latter, and resolve their whole Religion into their traditions, in the same manner as the Romanists do theirs, having no farther regard to the written word of God than as it agrees with their traditionary explications of it, but always preferring them thereto, though in many particulars they are quite contradictory to it, which is a corruption that had grown to a great height among them even in our Savior's time; for he charges them with it, and tells them that they make the word of God of none effect through their traditions; [Mar 7:13]. But they have done it much more since, professing a greater regard to the latter than the former; and hence it is that we find it so often said in their writings, 'that the words of the scribes are lovely above the words of the law; that the words of the law are weighty and light, but the words of the scribes are all weighty; that the words of the elders are weightier than the words of the prophets;' where, by the words of the scribes and the words of the elders, they mean their traditions, delivered to them by their scribes and elders. And in other places, 'that the written text is only as water; but the Mishnah and Talmud, in which are contained the traditions, are as wine and hippocras.' And again, 'that the written law is only as salt, but the Mishnah and Talmud as pepper and sweet spices.' And in many other sayings, very common among them, do they express the very high veneration which they bear towards the oral or traditionary law, and the little regard which they have to the written word of God in comparison of it, making nothing of the latter but as expounded by the former; as if the written word were no more than the dead letter, and the traditionary law alone the soul that gives it the whole life and essence. "And this being what they hold of their traditions, which they call their oral law, the account which they give of its original is as follows: they tell us that 'at the same time when God gave unto Moses the law in Mount Sinai, he gave unto him also the interpretation of it, commanding him to put the former into writing, but to deliver the other only by word of mouth, to be preserved in the memories of men, and to be transmitted down by them from generation to generation by tradition only; and from hence the former is called the written, and the other the oral, law.' And to this day all the determinations and dictates of the latter are termed by the Jews 'Constitutions of Moses from Mount Sinai,' because they do as firmly believe that he received them all from God in his forty days' converse with him in that mount, as that he then received the written text itself. That on his return from this converse he brought both of these laws with him, and delivered them unto the people of Israel in this manner: As soon as he was returned to his tent, he called Aaron thither unto him, and first delivered unto him the text, which was to be the written law, and after that the interpretation of it, which was the oral law, in the same order as he received both from God in the mount. Then Aaron arising and seating himself at the right hand of Moses, Eleazar and Ithamar his sons went next in, and both these being taught laws at the feet of the prophet in the same manner as Aaron had been, they also arose and seated themselves, the one on the left hand of Moses, the other on the right hand of Aaron; and then the seventy elders who constituted the Sanhedrin, or great senate of the nation, went in, and being taught by Moses both these laws in the same manner, they also seated themselves in the tent; and then entered all such of the people as were desirous of knowing the law of God, and were taught in the same manner. After this, Moses withdrawing, Aaron repeated the whole of the law as he had heard it from him, and also withdrew; and then Eleazar and Ithamar repeated the same, and on their withdrawing, the seventy elders made the same repetition to the people then present; so that each of them having heard both these laws repeated to them four times, they all had it thereby fixed in their memories; and that then they dispersed themselves among the whole congregation, and communicated to all the people of Israel what had been thus delivered to them by the prophet of God. That they did put the text into writing, but the interpretation of it they delivered down only by word of mouth to the succeeding generations; that the written text contained the six hundred and thirteen precepts into which they divide the law and the unwritten interpretations, all the manners, ways, and circumstances, that were to be observed in the keeping of them; that after this, towards the end of the fortieth year from their coming up out of the land of Egypt, in the beginning of the eleventh month, (which fell about the beginning of our June), Moses, calling all the people of Israel together, acquainted them of the approaching time of his death, and therefore ordered that if any of them had forgot aught of what he had delivered to them, they should repair to him, and he would repeat to them what had slipped their memories, and farther explain to them every difficulty and doubt which might arise in their minds concerning what he had taught them of the law of their God; and that hereon they applying to him, all the remaining term of his life, that is, from the said beginning of the eleventh month till the sixth day of the twelfth month, was employed in instructing them in the text, which they call the written law, and in the interpretation of it, which they call the oral law; and that on the said sixth day having delivered unto them thirteen copies of the written law, all copied out with his own hand, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy, one to each of the twelve tribes, to be kept by them throughout their generations, and the thirteenth to the Levites, to be laid up by them in the tabernacle before the Lord, and having moreover repeated the oral law to Joshua his successor, he went on the seventh day into Mount Nebo, and there died; that after his death Joshua delivered the same oral law to the elders who after succeeded him, and they delivered it to the prophets, and the prophets transmitted it down to each other till it came to Jeremiah, who delivered it to Baruch, and Baruch to Ezra, by whom it was delivered to the men of the great synagogue, the last of whom was Simon the Just; that by him it was delivered to Antigonus of Socho, and by him to Jose the son of Jochanan, and by him to Jose the son of Joeser, and by him to Nathan the Arbelite and Joshua the son of Berachiah, and by them to Judah the son of Jabhai, and, Simeon the son of Shatah, and by them to Shemaiah and Abitulion, and by them to Hillel and by Hillel to Simeon his son, who is supposed to have been the same who took our Savior into his arms when he was brought to the temple to be there presented to the Lord at the time of his mother's purification; and by Simeon it was delivered to Gamaliel his son, the same at whose feet Paul was brought up, and by him to Simeon his son, by him to Gamaliel his son, and by him to Simeon his son, and by him to Rabbah Judah Hakkadosh his son, who wrote it into the book called the Mishnah. But all this is mere fiction spun out of the fertile invention of the Talmudists, without the least foundation either in Scripture or in any authentic history for it. But since all this has made a part of the Jewish creed, they do as firmly believe their traditions thus to have come from God in the manner I have related, as they do the written word itself; and have now, as it were, wholly resolved their religion into these traditions. There is no understanding what their religion at present is without it, and it is for this reason I have here inserted it. "But the truth is this: After the death of Simon the Just there arose a sort of men whom they call The Jarmain, or the Mishnical doctors, who made it their business to study and descant upon those traditions which had been received and allowed by Ezra and the men of the great synagogue, and to draw inferences and consequences from them, all of which they ingrafted into the body of these ancient traditions, as if they had been as authentic as the others; which example being followed by those who after succeeded them in this profession, they continually added their own imaginations to what they had received from those who went before them, whereby the traditions, becoming as a snow-ball, the farther they rolled down from one generation to another the more they gathered, and the greater the bulk of them grew. And thus it went on till the middle of the second century after Christ, then Antoninus Pius governed the Roman empire, by which time they found it necessary to put an these traditions into writing; for they were then grown to so great a number, and enlarged to so huge a heap, as to exceed the possibility of being any longer preserved in the memory of men. And besides, in the second destruction which their country had undergone from the Romans a little before, in the reign of Adrian the preceding emperor, most of their learned men having been cut off, and the chiefest of their schools broken up and dissolved, and vast numbers of their people dissipated, and driven out of their land, the usual method of preserving their traditions had then in a great measure failed; and therefore, there being danger that under these disadvantages they might be all forgotten and lost, for the preservation of them it was resolved that they should be all collected together, and put into a book; and Rabbi Judah, the son of Simeon, who from the reputed sanctity of his life was called Hakkadosh, that is, The Holy, and was then rector of the school which they had at Tiberis in Galilee, and president of the Sanhedrin that there sat, undertook the work, and compiled it in six books, each consisting of several tracts, which altogether made up the number of sixty-three; in which, under their proper heads, he methodically digested all that had hitherto been delivered to them, of their law and their religion, by the tradition of their ancestors. And this is the book called The Mishnah, which book was forthwith received by the Jews with great veneration throughout all their dispersions, and has ever since been held in high estimation among them; for their opinion of it is, that all the particulars therein contained were dictated by God himself to Moses from Mount Sinai, as well as the written word itself, and consequently must be of the same Divine authority with it, and ought to be as sacredly observed. And therefore, as soon as it was published, it became the subject of the studies of all their learned men; and the chiefest of them, both in Judea and Babylonia, employed themselves to make comments on it; and these, with the Mishnah, make up both their Talmuds; that is, the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonish Talmud. These comments they call the Gemara, i.e., The Complement, because by them the Mishnah is fully explained, and the whole traditionary doctrines of their law and their religion completed. For the Mishnah is the text, and the Gemara the comment; and both together is what they call the Talmud. That made by the Jews of Judea is called the Jerusalem Talmud, that by the Jews of Babylonia is called the Babylonish Talmud. The former was completed about the year of our Lord 300, and is published in one large folio; the latter was published about two hundred years after, in the beginning of the sixth century, and has had several editions since the invention of printing. The last, published at Amsterdam, is in twelve folios; and in these two Talmuds, the law and the prophets being in a manner quite justled out of them, is contained the whole of the Jewish religion that is now professed among them; but the Babylonish Talmud is that which they chiefly follow; for the other, that is, the Jerusalem Talmud, being obscure, and hard to be understood, is not now much regarded by them. But this and the Mishnah, being the most ancient books which they have, except the Chaldee Paraphrases of Onkelos and Jonathan, and both written in the language and style of the Jews of Judea; our countryman, Dr. Lightfoot, has made very good use of them in explaining several places of the New Testament by parallel phrases and sayings out of them. For the one being composed about the one hundred and fiftieth year of our Lord, and the other about the three hundredth, the idioms, proverbial sayings, and phraseologies, used in our Savior's time, might very well be preserved in them. But the other Talmud being written in the language and style of Babylonia, and not compiled till about the five hundredth year of our Lord, or, as some will have it, much later, this cannot so well serve for this purpose. However, it is now the Alcoran of the Jews, into which they have resolved all their faith, and all their religion, although framed almost with the same imposture as that of Mohammed, out of the doctrines falsely pretended to be brought from heaven. And in this book all that now pretend to any learning among them place their studies; and no one can be a master in their schools, or a teacher in their synagogues, who is not well instructed and versed herein; that is, not only in the text, which is the Mishnah, but also in the comment thereon, which is the Gemara; and this comment they so highly esteem beyond the other, that the name of Gemara is wholly engrossed by it; the Gemara of the Babylonish Talmud being that only which they now usually understand by that word; for this with the Mishnah, to which it is added, they think truly completes and makes up the whole of their religion, as fully and perfectly containing all the doctrines, rules, and rites thereof; and therefore it is, in their opinion, the most deserving of that name, which signifies what completes, fills up, or perfects; for this is the meaning of the word in the Hebrew language. "They who professed this sort of learning, that is, taught and propagated this traditionary doctrine among them, have been distinguished by several different titles and appellations, according to the different ages in which they lived. From the time of the men of the great synagogue to the publishing of the Mishnah, they were called Jarmain; and they are the Mishnical doctors, out of whose doctrines and traditions the Mishnah was composed. And from the time of the publishing of the Mishnah to the publishing of the Babylonish Talmud, they were called Amoraim; and they are the Gemarical doctors, out of whose doctrines and traditions the Gemara was composed. And for about a hundred years after the publishing of the Talmud, they were called Seburaim, and after that Georim. And these were the several classes in which their learned men have been ranked, according to the several ages in which they lived. But for these later times, the general name of Rabbi is that only whereby their learned men are called, there being no other title whereby they have been distinguished for nearly seven hundred years past. "For about the year 1040 all their schools in Mesopotamia, where only they enjoyed these high titles, being destroyed, and all their learned men thence expelled and driven out by the Mohammedan princes, who governed in those parts; they have since that, with the greatest number of their people, flocked into the western parts, especially into Spain, France, and England; and from that time all these pompous titles which they affected in the East being dropped, they have retained none other for their learned men from that time but that of Rabbi; excepting only that those of them who minister in their synagogues are called Chacams, i.e., wise men. "But the great work of Ezra was, his collecting together and setting forth a correct edition of the Holy Scriptures, which he labored much in, and went a great way in the perfecting of it. Of this both Christians and Jews gave him the honor; and many of the ancient fathers attribute more to him in this particular than the Jews themselves; for they hold that all the Scriptures were lost and destroyed in the Babylonish captivity, and that Ezra restored them all again by Divine revelation. Thus says Irenaeus and thus say Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Basil, and others. But they had no other foundation for it than that fabulous relation which we have of it in the fourteenth chapter of the second Apocryphal book of Esdras, a book too absurd for the Romanists themselves to receive into their canon. "Indeed, in the time of Josiah, through the impiety of the two preceding reigns of Manasseh and Amon, the book of the law was so destroyed and lost. The copy of it which Hilkiah is said to have found, and the grief which Josiah expressed at the hearing of it read, do plainly show that neither of them had ever seen it before. "And if the king and the high priest, who were both men of eminent piety, were without this part of the Holy Scripture, it can scarcely be thought that any one else then had it. But so religious a prince as King Josiah could not leave this long unremedied. By his orders copies were written out from this original; and search being made for all the other parts of Holy Scripture, both in the colleges of the sons of the prophets, and all other places where they could be found, care was taken for transcripts to be made out of these also; and thenceforth copies of the whole became multiplied among the people; all those who were desirous of knowing the laws of their God, either writing them out themselves, or procuring others to do it for them; so that within a few years after the holy city and temple were destroyed, and the authentic copy of the law, which was laid up before the Lord, was burnt and consumed with them, yet by this time many copies, both of the law and the prophets, and all the other sacred writings, were got into private hands, who carried them with them into captivity. "That Daniel had a copy of the Holy Scriptures with him in Babylon is certain, for he quotes the law, and also makes mention of the prophecies of the prophet Jeremiah, which he could not do had he never seen them. And in the sixth chapter of Ezra it is said, that on the finishing of the temple, in the sixth year of Darius, the priests and the Levites were settled in their respective functions, according as it is written in the law of Moses. But how could they do this according to the written law, if they had not copies of the law then among them? And this was nearly sixty years before Ezra came to Jerusalem. "And farther, in Nehemiah, [Neh 8:1], the people called for the law of Moses, to have it read to them, which the Lord had commanded Israel, which plainly shows that the book was then well known to have been extant, and not to need such a miraculous expedient as that of the Divine revelation for its restoration; all that Ezra did in this manner was to get together as many copies of the sacred writings as he could, and out of them all to set forth a correct edition; in the performance of which he took care of the following particulars: First, He corrected all the errors that had crept into these copies, through the negligence or mistakes of transcribers; for, by comparing them one with the other, he found out the true reading, and set all at rights. Whether the keri cethib, or various readings, that are in our present Hebrew Bibles were of these corrections, I dare not say. The generality of the Jewish writers tell us that they were; and others among them hold them as much more ancient, referring them, with absurdity enough, as far back as the times of the first writers of the books in which they are found, as if they themselves had designedly made these various readings for the sake of some mysteries comprised under them. It is most probable that they had their original from the mistakes of the transcribers after the time of Ezra, and the observations and corrections of the Masorites made thereon. If any of them were of those ancient various readings which had been observed by Ezra himself in the comparing of those copies he collated on this occasion, and were by him annexed in the margin as corrections of those errors which he found in the text, it is certain those could not be of that number which are now in those sacred books that were written by himself, or taken into the canon after his time; for there are keri cethib in them as well as in the other books of the Hebrew Scriptures. Secondly, He collected together all the books of which the Holy Scriptures did then consist, and disposed them in their proper order; and settled the canon of Scripture for his time. These books he divided into three parts:

[¶3] 1. The Law.

[¶4] 2. The Prophets.

[¶5] 3. The Cethubim, or Hagiographa; i.e., the Holy Writings: which division our Savior himself takes notice of, [Luk 24:44], where he says: 'These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things might be fulfilled which are written in the law, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me.' For there, by the Psalms, he means the whole third part called the Hagiographa; for, that part beginning with the Psalms, the whole was for that reason then commonly called by that name; as usually with the Jews, the particular books are named from the words with which they begin. Thus with them Genesis is called Bereshith, Exodus Shemoth, Leviticus Vaijikra, etc., because they begin with these Hebrew words. "And Josephus makes mention of this same division; for he says, in his first book against Apion, 'We have only two and twenty books which are to be believed as of Divine authority, of which five are the books of Moses. From the death of Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, king of Persia, the prophets, who were the successors of Moses, have written in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and documents of life for the use of men:' in which division, according to him, the law contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The writings of the prophets, Joshua, Judges, with Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, with his Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, the twelve minor prophets, Job, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther; and the Hagiographa, i.e., the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, which altogether make two and twenty books. This division was made for the sake of reducing the books to the number of their alphabet, in which were twenty-two letters. But at present they reckon these books to be twenty-four, and dispose of them in this order: First, the Law, which contains Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Secondly, the Writings of the Prophets, which they divide into the former prophets and the latter prophets: the books of the former prophets are, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; the books of the latter prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; the twelve minor prophets; the Hagiographa, which are the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon, which they call the Song of Songs, Ruth, the Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, and the Chronicles. Under the name of Ezra they comprehend the book of Nehemiah; for the Hebrews, and also the Greeks, anciently reckoned Ezra and Nehemiah but as one book. But this order has not been always observed among the Jews; neither is it so now in all places, for there has been great variety as to this, and that not only among the Jews, but also among the Christians, as well as the Greeks and Latins: but no variation herein is of any moment, for in what order soever the books are placed, they are still the word of God; and no change as to this can make any change as to that Divine authority which is stamped upon them. But all these books were not received into the canon in Ezra's time, for Malachi it is supposed lived after him; and in Nehemiah mention is made of Jaddua as high priest, and of Darius Codomannus as king of Persia; who were at least a hundred years after his time. And in 1 Chronicles 3:1-24 of the first book of Chronicles the genealogy of the sons of Zerubbabel is carried down for so many generations as must necessarily make it reach to the time of Alexander the Great; and therefore the book could not be put into the canon till after his time. "It is most likely that the two books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, as well as Malachi, were afterwards added in the time of Simon the Just, and that it was not till then that the Jewish canon of the Holy Scriptures was fully completed: and indeed these last books seem very much to want the exactness and skill of Ezra in their publication, they falling far short of the correctness which is in the other parts of the Jewish Scriptures. The five books of the law are divided into fifty-four sections. This division many of the Jews hold to be one of the constitutions of Moses from Mount Sinai; but others, with more likelihood of truth, attribute it to Ezra. It was made for the use of their synagogues, and the better instructing of the people there in the law of God; for every Sabbath day one of these sections was read in their synagogues; and this, we are assured in the Acts of the Apostles, was done among them of old time, which may well be interpreted from the time of Ezra. They ended the last section with the last words of Deuteronomy on the Sabbath of the feast of tabernacles, and then recommenced with the first section from the beginning of Genesis the next Sabbath after; and so went on round in this circle every year. The number of the sections was fifty-four; because in their intercalated years (a month being added) there were fifty-four Sabbaths. "On other years they reduced them to the number of the Sabbaths which were in those years by joining two short ones several times into one; for they held themselves obliged to have the whole law thus read over to them in their synagogues every year. Until the time of the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes they read only the law; but, being then forbid to read it any more, in the room of the fifty-four sections of the law, they substituted fifty-four sections out of the prophets, the reading of which they ever after continued. So that when the reading of the law was again restored by the Maccabees, the section which was read every Sabbath out of the law served for their first lesson, and the section out of the prophets for the second lesson; and so it was practiced in the time of the apostles. And therefore, when Paul entered into the synagogue at Antioch, in Pisidia, it is said that 'he stood up to preach after the reading of the law and the prophets;' that is, after the reading of the first lesson out of the law, and the second lesson out of the prophets. And in that very sermon which he then preached, he tells them, 'That the prophets were read at Jerusalem every Sabbath day,' that is, in those lessons which were taken out of the prophets. "These sections were divided into verses, which the Jews call pesukim; they were marked out in the Hebrew Bibles by two great points at the end of them, called from hence soph-pasuk, i.e., the end of the verse. If Ezra himself was not the author of this division, (as most say), it was not long after him that it was introduced, for certainly it is very ancient. It is most likely that it was introduced for the sake of the Targumist or Chaldee interpreters; for after the Hebrew language had ceased to be the mother tongue of the Jews, and the Chaldee grew up into use among them instead of it, (as was the case after their return from the Babylonish captivity), their usage was that, in the public reading of the law to the people, it was read to them, first in the original Hebrew, and after that rendered by an interpreter into the Chaldee language, that so all might fully understand the same; and this was done period by period; and therefore, that these periods might be the better distinguished, and the reader more certainly know how much to read at every interval, and the interpreter know how much to interpret at every interval, there was a necessity that some marks should be invented for their direction herein. The rule given in the ancient books is, that in the law the reader was to read one verse, and then the interpreter was to render the same into Chaldee; but that in the prophets the reader was to read three verses together, and then the interpreter was to render the same three verses into Chaldee, in the same manner; which manifestly proves that the division of the Scriptures into verses must be as ancient as the way of interpreting them into the Chaldee language in their synagogues, which was from the very time that the synagogues were erected, and the Scriptures publicly read in them, after the Babylonish captivity. This was at first done only in the law; for till the time of the Maccabees, the law only was read in their synagogues: but afterwards, in imitation of this, the same was also done in the prophets, and in the Hagiographa especially. After that the prophets also began to be publicly read among them, as well as the law; and from hence the division of the Holy Scriptures into verses, it is most likely, was first made; but without any numerical figures annexed to them. "The manner whereby they are now distinguished in their common Hebrew Bibles is by the two great points called soph-pasuk above mentioned; but whether this is the ancient way is by some made a question. The objection against it is this: If the distinction of verses was introduced for the sake of the Chaldee interpreters in their synagogues, and must therefore be held as ancient as that way of interpreting the Scriptures in them, it must then have place in their sacred synagogical books; for none others were used, either by their readers or their interpreters, in their public assemblies. But it has been anciently held as a rule among them, that any points or accents written into these sacred books pollute and profane them; and therefore, no copy of either the law or the prophets now used in their synagogues has any points or accents written in it. To this I answer, Whatever be the practice of the modern Jews, this is no rule to let us know what was the ancient practice among them, since in many particulars they have varied from the ancient usages, as they now do from each other, according to the different parts of the world in which they dwell. For mention is made of them in the Mishnah; and that the reason for this division was for the direction of the readers, and the Chaldee interpreters, is also there implied; and therefore, supposing a division for this use, it must necessarily follow, that there must have been some marks to set it out; otherwise it would not have answered the end intended. "It is most likely that anciently the writing of those books was in long lines, from one side of the parchment to the other, and that the verses in them were distinguished in the same manner as the stichi afterwards were in the Greek Bibles; for the manner of their writing those stichi was, to allow a line to every stichus, and then to end the writing where they ended the stichus, leaving the rest of the line void, in the same manner as a line is left at a break: but this was losing too much of the parchment, and making the book too bulky; for the avoiding of both these inconveniences, the way afterwards was, to put a point at the end of every stichus, and so continue the writing without leaving any part of the line void as before. And in the same manner I conceive the pesukim, or verses of the Hebrew Bibles, were anciently written. At first they allowed a line to every verse, and a line drawn from one end of the parchment to the other, of the length as above mentioned, was sufficient to contain any verse that is now in the Hebrew Bible; but many verses falling short of this length, they found the same inconveniences that the Greeks after did in the first way of writing their stichi; and therefore came to the same remedy, that is, they did put the two points above mentioned (which they call soph-pasuk) at the place where the former verse ended, and continued the writing of the next verse in the same line, without leaving any void space at all in the line. And so their manner has continued ever since, excepting only that between their sections, as well the smaller as the larger, there is some void space left, to make the distinction between them; and I am the more inclined to think this to be the truth of the matter; that is, that anciently the verses of the Hebrew Bible were so many lines, because among the ancients of other nations, about the same time, the lines in the writings of prose authors, as well as the poets, were termed verses; and hence it is that we are told that Zoroaster's works contain two millions of verses, and Aristotle's, four hundred and forty-five thousand two hundred and seventy; though neither of them wrote any thing but in prose; and so also we find the writings of Tully, of Origen, of Lactantius, and others, who were all prose writers, reckoned by the number of verses, which could be no other than so many lines. And why then might not the Bible verses anciently have been of the same nature also? I mean when written in long lines as aforesaid. But the long lines often occasioning, that in reading to the end of one verse, they lost the beginning of the next, and so often did read wrong, either by skipping a line, or beginning the same again; for the avoiding of this they came to the way of writing in columns and in short lines, as above mentioned. But all this I mean of their sacred synagogical books. In their common Bibles they are not tied up to such rules, but write and print them so as they may serve for their instruction and convenience in common use. "But the division of the Holy Scriptures into chapters, as we now have them, is of a much later date. The Psalms, indeed, were always divided as at present; for St. Paul, in his sermon at Antioch, in Pisidia, quotes the second Psalm: but as to the rest of the Holy Scriptures, the division of them into such chapters as we find at present is a matter of which the ancients knew nothing. Some attribute it to Stephen Langton, who was archbishop of Canterbury in the reigns of King John and King Henry III. his son. But the true author of this invention was Hugo de Sancto Claro, who being from a Dominican monk advanced to the dignity of a cardinal, and the first of that order that was so, is commonly called Hugo Cardinalis. "The third thing that Ezra did about the Holy Scriptures in his edition of them was: - he added in several places, throughout the books of this edition, what appeared necessary for the illustrating, correcting, or completing of them, wherein he was assisted by the same Spirit by which they were at first written. Of this sort we may reckon the last chapter of Deuteronomy, which, giving an account of the death and burial of Moses, and of the succession of Joshua after him, could not be written by Moses himself, who undoubtedly was the penman of all the rest of that book. It seems most probable that it was added by Ezra at this time: and such also we may reckon the several interpolations which occur in many places of the Holy Scriptures. For that there are such interpolations is undeniable, there being many passages through the whole sacred writers which create difficulties which can never be solved without the allowing of them: as for instance, [Gen 12:6], it is remarked on Abraham's coming into the land of Canaan, that the 'Canaanites were then in the land;' which is not likely to have been said till after the time of Moses, when the Canaanites, being extirpated by Joshua, were then no longer in the land: and [Gen 22:14], we read, 'As it is said to this day, In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen.' But Mount Moriah, which is the mount there spoken of, was not called the Mount of the Lord till the temple was built on it many hundred years after; and this being here spoken of as a proverbial saying that obtained among the Israelites in after ages, the whole style of the text manifestly points at a time after Moses, when they were in the possession of the land in which this mountain stood; and, therefore, both these particulars prove the words cited to have been an interpolation. [Gen 36:3], it is written, 'And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the land of Israel,' which could not have been said till after there had been a king in Israel; and therefore they cannot be Moses's words, but must have been interpolated afterwards. [Exo 16:35], the words of the text are, 'And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, till they came to a land inhabited. They did eat manna till they came into the borders of the land of Canaan.' But Moses was dead before the manna ceased; and, therefore, these cannot be his words, but must have been inserted afterwards. [Deu 2:12], it is said, 'The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime, but the children of Esau succeeded them when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead, as Israel did unto the land of his possession which the Lord gave unto them.' Which could not have been written by Moses, Israel having not till after his death entered into the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them. [Deu 3:11], it is said, 'Only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon?' The whole style and strain of which text, especially that of the last clause of it, plainly speaks it to have been written a long while after that king was slain; and therefore it could not have been written by Moses, who died within five months after. In the same chapter, [Deu 3:14], it is said, 'Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair, unto this day.' Where the phrase unto this day speaks a much greater distance of time after the fact related than those few months in which Moses survived after the conquest; and therefore what is there written must have been inserted by some other hand than that of Moses, and long after his death. And in the book of Proverbs, which was certainly King Solomon's, in the beginning of the twenty-fifth chapter, it is written, 'These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.' Which must certainly have been added many ages after Solomon; for Hezekiah was the twelfth generation in descent from him. "Many more instances of such interpolated passages might be given; for throughout the whole Scriptures they have been frequently cast in by way of parentheses; where they have appeared necessary for the explaining, connecting, or illustrating the text, or supplying what was wanting in it: but those already mentioned are sufficient to prove the thing. Of which interpolations undoubtedly Ezra was the author, in all the books which passed his examination; and Simon the Just in all the rest which were added afterwards; for they all seem to refer to those latter times. "But these additions do not at all detract from the Divine authority of the whole, because they were all inserted by the direction of the same Holy Spirit which dictated all the rest. This, as to Ezra, is without dispute, he being himself one of the Divine persons of the Holy Scriptures: for he was most certainly the writer of that book in the Old Testament which bears his name; and he is, upon good grounds, supposed to be the author of two more, that is, of the two books of Chronicles, as perchance he was also of the book of Esther. And if the books written by him be of Divine authority, why may not every thing else be so which he has added to any of the rest, since there is reason for us to suppose that he was as much directed by the Holy Spirit of God in the one as in the other? The great importance of the work proves the thing, for as it was necessary for the Church of God that this work should be done; so also it was necessary for the work that the person called thereto should be thus assisted in the completing of it. "Fourthly, He changed the names of several places that were grown obsolete, putting instead of them the new names by which they were at that time called, that the people might the better understand what was written. Thus, [Gen 14:14], Abraham is said to have pursued the kings who carried Lot away captive as far as Dan, whereas the name of that place was Laish till the Danites, long after the death of Moses, possessed themselves of it, and called it, Dan after the name of their father; and, therefore, it could not be called Dan in the original copy of Moses, but that name must have been put in afterwards instead of that of Laish on this review. And so in several places in Genesis, and also in Numbers, we find mention made of Hebron, whereas the name of that city was Kiriath-arba, till Caleb, having the possession of it after the division of the land, called it Hebron after the name of Hebron, one of his sons: and, therefore, that name could not be had in the text, till placed there long after the time of Moses by way of exchange for that of Kiriath-arba, which it is not to be doubted was done at the time of this review. "And many other like examples of this may be given; whereby it appears that the study of those who governed the Church of God at those times was to render the Scriptures as plain and intelligible to the people as they could; and not to hide and conceal any of it from them. "Fifthly, He wrote out the whole in the Chaldee character: for that having now grown wholly into use among the people after the Babylonish captivity, he changed the old Hebrew character for it, which hath since that time been retained only by the Samaritans, among whom it is preserved even to this day. This was the old Phoenician character, from which the Greeks borrowed theirs; and the old Ionian alphabet bears some resemblance to it, as Scaliger shows in his notes upon Eusebius's Chronicon. In this Moses and the other prophets recorded the sacred oracles of God; and in this the finger of God himself wrote the ten commandments in the two tables of stone. Eusebius, in his Chronicon, tells us so, and St. Jerome doth the same; and so do also both the Talmuds; and the generality of learned men, as well among the Jews as Christians, hold this opinion. "Whether Ezra on this review did add the vowel points which are now in the Hebrew Bibles, is a hard question to be decided: it went without contradiction in the affirmative till Elias Levita, a German Jew, wrote against it about the beginning of the Reformation, Buxtorf, the father, endeavored to refute his argument; but Capellus, a Protestant divine of the French Church, and professor of Hebrew in their university at Saumur, hath, in a very elaborate discourse, made a thorough reply to all that can be said on this head, and very strenuously asserted the contrary. Buxtorf, the son, in vindication of his father's opinion, has written an answer to it, but not with that satisfaction to the learned world as to hinder the generality of them from going into the other opinion. "There is in the church of St. Dominic, in Bononia, a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures, kept with a great deal of care, which they pretend to be the original copy written by Ezra himself, and therefore it is there valued at so high a rate that great sums of money have been borrowed by the Bononians upon the pawn of it, and again repaid for its redemption. It is written in a very fair character upon a sort of leather, and made up in a roll, according to the ancient manner; but it having the vowel points annexed, and the writing being fresh and fair, without any decay, both these particulars prove the novelty of that copy. "But though Ezra's government over all Judah and Jerusalem expired in this year, 446; yet his labor to serve the Church of God did not end here; for he still went on as a preacher of righteousness, and a skillful scribe in the law of God, to perfect the reformation which he had begun, both in preparing for the people correct editions of the Scriptures, and also in bringing all things in Church and state to be conformed to Scripture rules. And this he continued to do so long as he lived, and in this he was thoroughly assisted and supported by the next governor, who, coming to Jerusalem with the sane intention, and the same zeal for promoting the honor of God, and the welfare of his people in Judah and Jerusalem, as Ezra did, struck in heartily with Ezra in the work, so that Ezra went on still to do the same things by the authority of the new governor, which he before did by his own; and, by their thus joining together in the same holy undertaking, and their mutually assisting each other, it exceedingly prospered in their hands, till at length, notwithstanding all opposition, both from within and without, it was brought to full perfection forty-nine years after it had been begun by Ezra. Whether Ezra lived so long is uncertain; but what he had not time to do was completed by the piety and zeal of his successor."

[¶6] See the Introduction to the book of Nehemiah; and see Prideaux's Connection, vol. i., edit. 1725.

[¶7] For all other matters relative to the text, see the notes as they occur.

[¶8] The proclamation of Cyrus for the rebuilding of the temple, [Ezr 1:1-4]. The people provide for their return, [Ezr 1:5], [Ezr 1:6]. Cyrus restores to Sheshbazzar the vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar out of the temple of Solomon, [Ezr 1:7-11].

[¶9] In the introduction to this book the reader will find the history of Ezra detailed at considerable length. It is only necessary to say here that he is generally allowed among the Jews to have been of the sacerdotal family, and therefore he is called ὁ ἱερευς, the priest by the Septuagint. Among the rabbins he passes for a most extraordinary critic, Divinely authorized to collect and arrange the different portions of the sacred writings, and digest them into a system. How far all they say on this subject is true, we cannot tell; he was, beyond all controversy, a very eminent man; and in all that he did, acted under the immediate direction and inspiration of the Almighty.

[¶10] This history contains the transactions of about eighty-two years; from the first year of Cyrus in Babylon, according to Archbishop Usher, A.M. 3468, to the nineteenth year of Ardsheer Diraz Dest, or Artaxerxes Longimanus, who sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem, about A.M. 3550. For all other particulars, see the introduction.

### Verse 1

[¶12] Now in the first year - This is word for word with the two last verses of the preceding book; which stand here in their proper place and connection, but there are entirely destitute of chronological connection and reference.

[¶13] Cyrus - This prince, so eminent in antiquity, is said to have been the son of Cambyses king of Persia, and Mandane, daughter of Astyages king of the Medes; and was born about six hundred years before Christ. Josephus accounts for his partiality to the Jews from this circumstance; that he was shown the places in Isaiah the prophet where he is mentioned by name, and his exploits and conquests foretold: see [Isa 44:28]; [Isa 45:1], etc. Finding himself thus distinguished by the God of the Jews, he was anxious to give him proofs of his gratitude in return; and so made the decree in favor of the Jews, restored their sacred vessels, gave them liberty to return to their own land, and encouraged them to rebuild the temple of Jehovah, etc.

[¶14] It is very probable that when Cyrus took Babylon he found Daniel there, who had been long famed as one of the wisest ministers of state in all the East; and it is most likely that it was this person who pointed out to him the prophecy of Isaiah, and gave him those farther intimations relative to the Divine will which were revealed to himself. Of his death there are contradictory accounts. Herodotus says, that having turned his arms against the Massagetes, and killed the son of Tomyris their queen, the mother, impatient to avenge the death of her son, sent him a defiance; promised to glut him with blood; and, having attacked him, pretended to be worsted and to fly; and thus she drew him and his army into an ambuscade, where he was routed and slain, and a considerable part of his army destroyed. The enraged queen having found his body, cut off his head, and threw it into a vessel full of human blood, with this most bitter sarcasm: - Ευ μεν, εμευ ζωσης τε και νικωσης ες μαχην, απωλεσας παιδα τον εμον, ἑλων δολῳ· σε δ' εγω, καταπερ ηπειλησα, αἱματος κορεσω. - Herod. Clio, c. 214. "Although living and victorious, thou hast destroyed me in slaying my son, whom thou hast overcome by deceit; but, as I have threatened, I will now slake thy thirst with blood."

[¶15] Cyrus, thy thirst was blood, now drink thy fill.

[¶16] By - Jeremiah - This prophet, [Jer 25:12]; [Jer 29:11], had foretold that the Babylonish captivity should last only seventy years: these were now ended; Cyrus had given the Jews permission and encouragement to return to Judea, and rebuild the temple of the Lord; and thus the prediction of Jeremiah was fulfilled.

### Verse 2

[¶18] The Lord God of heaven - It is not unworthy of remark, that in all the books written prior to the captivity, Jehovah is called The Lord of Hosts; but in all the books written after the captivity, as 2 Chronicles, Ezra Nehemiah, and Daniel, he is styled The God of Heaven. The words however have the same meaning.

[¶19] All the kingdoms of the earth. At this time the empire of the Medo-Persians was very extensive: according to ancient writers, Cyrus, at this time, reigned over the Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, Armenians, Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, Phrygians, Lydians Phoenicians, Babylonians, Bactrians, Indians, Saci, Cilicians, Paphlagonians, Moriandrians, and many others. His empire extended on the East, to the Red Sea; on the North, to the Euxine Sea; on the West, to the island of Cyprus and Egypt; and on the South, to Ethiopia.

### Verse 4

[¶21] Whosoever remaineth in any place - Every one was at liberty to go, but none was obliged to go. Thus their attachment to God was tried; he whose heart was right with God went; he who was comfortably settled in Babylon, might go if he chose. Those who did not go, were commanded to assist their brethren who went.

### Verse 6

[¶23] Vessels of silver - Articles of silver, gold, etc.

### Verse 7

[¶25] The king brought forth the vessels - See on [Ezr 1:9-11] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶27] Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah - This was probably the Chaldean name of him who was originally called Zerubbabel: the former signifies joy in affliction; the latter, a stranger in Babylon. The latter may be designed to refer to his captive state; the former, to the prospect of release. Some think this was quite a different person, a Persian or Chaldean, sent by Cyrus to superintend whatever officers or men Cyrus might have sent to assist the Jews on their return; and to procure them help in the Chaldean provinces, through which they might be obliged to travel.

### Verse 11

[¶29] All the vessels - were five thousand and four hundred - This place is without doubt corrupted; here it is said the sum of all the vessels, of every quality and kind, was five thousand four hundred; but the enumeration of the articles, as given in [Ezr 1:9], [Ezr 1:10], gives the sum of two thousand four hundred and ninety-nine only. But we can correct this account from 1 Esdras 2:13, 14.

[¶30] I shall set both accounts down, that they may be compared together. [Ezr 1:9], [Ezr 1:11] 1 Esdras 2:13, 14 Golden chargers 30 Golden cups 1000 Silver chargers 1000 Silver cups 1000 Knives 29 Silver censers 29 Golden basons 30 Golden vials 30 Silver basons, second sort 410 Silver vials 2410 Other vessels 1000 Other vessels 1000 Said to be 5400 - only 2499 Total 5469 Difference of the first account from itself: 2901 Difference of the second account from the first: 69

[¶31] According, therefore, to the sum total in Ezra, the sum total in Esdras is only 69 different. See the next chapter, Ezra 2 (note).

[¶32] It may be said that the vessels did actually amount to 5400, and that the chief of them only were intended to be specified; and these happen to amount to 2499; but that it was not the design of Ezra to insert the whole; and that the ninth verse should be considered as stating, And of the chief of them, that is, the gold and silver articles, this is the number. But the expression in [Ezr 1:10], other vessels, sets this conjecture aside: the place is most manifestly corrupted.

### Introduction

[¶34] An account of those who returned from Babylon, vv. 1-35. The children of the priests who returned, [Ezr 2:36-39]. Of the Levites, [Ezr 2:40]. Of the singers, [Ezr 2:41]. Of the porters, [Ezr 2:42]. Of the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants, vv. 43-58. Others who could not find out their registers, [Ezr 2:59-62]. The number of the whole congregation, [Ezr 2:63], [Ezr 2:64]. Of their servants, maids, and singers, [Ezr 2:65]. Their horses and mules, [Ezr 2:66]. Their camels and asses, [Ezr 2:67]. The offerings of the chief men when they came to Jerusalem, [Ezr 2:68], [Ezr 2:69]. The priests, Levites, singers, porters, and Nethinim, betake themselves to their respective cities, [Ezr 2:70].

### Verse 1

[¶36] These are the children of the province - That is, of Judea; once a kingdom, and a flourishing nation; now a province, subdued, tributary, and ruined! Behold the goodness and severity of God! Some think Babylon is meant by the province; and that the children of the province means those Jews who were born in Babylon. But the first is most likely to be the meaning, for thus we find Judea styled, [Ezr 5:8]. Besides, the province is contradistinguished from Babylon even in this first verse, The children of the province - that had been carried away unto Babylon.

### Verse 2

[¶38] Which came with Zerubbabel - There are many difficulties in this table of names; but as we have no less than three copies of it, that contained here from Ezra 2:1-67, a second in Nehemiah 7:6-69, and a third in 1 Esdras 5:7-43, on a careful examination they will be found to correct each other. The versions also, and the Variae Lectiones of Kennicott and De Rossi, do much toward harmonizing the names.

[¶39] Though the sum total at the end of each of these enumerations is equal, namely 42,360, yet the particulars reckoned up make in Ezra only 29,818, and in Nehemiah 31,089. We find that Nehemiah mentions 1765 persons which are not in Ezra, and Ezra has 494 not mentioned by Nehemiah. Mr. Alting thinks that this circumstance, which appears to render all hope of reconciling them impossible, is precisely the very point by which they can be reconciled; for if we add Ezra's surplus to the sum in Nehemiah, and the surplus of Nehemiah to the number in Ezra, the numbers will be equal.

[¶40] Thus: -

[¶41] The number in Ezra 29,818 Surplus in Nehemiah. 1,765 Sum total 31,583

[¶42] The number in Nehemiah 31,089 The surplus in Ezra 494 Sum total 31,583

[¶43] If we subtract this sum 31,583 from 42,360, we shall have a deficiency of 10,777 from the numbers as summed up in the text; and these are not named here, either because their registers were not found, or they were not of Judah and Benjamin, the tribes particularly concerned, but of the other Israelitish tribes; see [Ezr 2:36].

## 444. Ezra · 2 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/444/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/444/#p-N

### Verse 3

[¶1] The children of Parosh - Where the word children is found in this table, prefixed to the name of a man, it signifies the descendants of that person, as from Ezra 2:3-21. Where it is found prefixed to a place, town, etc., it signifies the inhabitants of that place, as from [Ezr 2:21-35].

### Verse 21

[¶3] The children of Beth-lehem - The inhabitants: see before.

### Verse 33

[¶5] The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono - These were cities in the tribe of Benjamin; see on [1Chr 8:12] (note).

### Verse 36

[¶7] The priests - The preceding list takes in the census of Judah and Benjamin.

### Verse 55

[¶9] The children of Solomon's servants - The Nethinim, and others appointed to do the meaner services of the holy house.

### Verse 63

[¶11] The Tirshatha - This is generally supposed to be Nehemiah, or the person who was the commandant; see [Neh 8:9]; [Neh 10:1], for the word appears to be the name of an office. The Vulgate and Septuagint write it Atershatha, the Syriac and Arabic render it the princes of Judah. Some suppose the word to be Persian, but nothing like it of the same import occurs in that language at present. If, as Castel supposed, it signifies austerity, or that fear which is unpressed by the authority of a governor, it may come from ters, Fear, or tersh, Acid, the former from tarsidan, to Fear or Dread.

[¶12] Should not eat of the most holy things - There was a high priest then, but no Urim and Thummim, these having been lost in the captivity.

### Verse 66

[¶14] Their horses - seven hundred, etc. - They went into captivity, stripped of every thing; they now return from it, abounding in the most substantial riches, viz., horses 736, or, according to Esdras, 7036; mules, 245; camels, 435; asses, 6720; besides gold, and silver, and rich stuffs. See below.

### Verse 69

[¶16] Threescore and one thousand drams of gold - דרכמונים darkemonim, drakmons or darics; a Persian coin, always of gold, and worth about 1. 5s., not less than 76,250 sterling in gold.

[¶17] Five thousand pounds of silver - מנים manim, manehs or minas. As a weight, the maneh was 100 shekels; as a coin, 60 shekels in value, or about 9.; 5000 of these manehs therefore will amount to 45,000, making in the whole a sum of about 120,000; and in this are not included the 100 garments for priests.

[¶18] Thus we find that God, in the midst of judgment, remembered mercy, and gave them favor in the land of their captivity.

### Verse 70

[¶20] Dwelt in their cities - They all went to those cities which belonged originally to their respective families.

### Introduction

[¶22] The altar of burnt-offerings is set up, [Ezr 3:1-3]. They keep the feast of tabernacles, [Ezr 3:4-6]. They make provision for rebuilding the temple; and lay its foundation in the second month of the second year, [Ezr 3:7], [Ezr 3:8]. Ceremonies observed in laying the foundation, [Ezr 3:9-11]. Some weep aloud, and others shout for joy, [Ezr 3:12-13].

### Verse 1

[¶24] When the seventh month was come - The month Tisri, which answers to the latter part of our September, and beginning of October. It seems that the Israelites had left Babylon about the spring of the year; that on their arrival at Jerusalem they constructed themselves huts and sheds to lodge in among the ruins, in which they must have spent some months. After this they rebuilt the altar of burnt-offerings, and kept the feast of tabernacles, which happened about this time, and continued to offer sacrifices regularly, as if the temple were standing.

### Verse 2

[¶26] Jeshua the son of Jozadak - He was grandson of Seraiah the high priest, who was put to death by Nebuchadnezzar, [2Kgs 25:18], [2Kgs 25:21]. This Jeshua or Joshua was the first high priest after the captivity.

### Verse 3

[¶28] They set the altar upon his bases - Rebuilt it on the same spot on which it had formerly stood. As it was necessary to keep up the Divine worship during the time they should be employed in re-edifying the temple, they first reared this altar of burnt-offerings; and all this they did, "though fear was upon them," because of the unfriendly disposition of their surrounding neighbors.

### Verse 4

[¶30] They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written - This began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; but they had begun the regular offerings from the first day of this month, [Ezr 3:6]. And these were religiously continued all the time they were building the temple.

### Verse 7

[¶32] They gave money also - They copied the conduct of Solomon while he was building his temple; see [1Kgs 5:11]. He employed the Tyrians, gave them meat and drink, etc.; and this permission they now had from Cyrus.

### Verse 8

[¶34] In the second year - The previous time had been employed in clearing the ground, felling timber, hewing stones, and transporting them to the place, and making other necessary preparations for the commencement of the building.

### Verse 10

[¶36] After the ordinance of David - With psalms which he composed, acting in the manner which he directed.

### Verse 12

[¶38] Wept with a loud voice - They saw that the glory had departed from Israel; in their circumstances it was impossible to build such a house as the first temple was; and had this been even possible, still it would have been greatly inferior, because it wanted the ark of the covenant, the heavenly fire, the mercy-seat, the heavenly manna, Aaron's rod that budded, the Divine shechinah, the spirit of prophecy, and most probably the Urim and Thummim.

[¶39] Many shouted for joy - Finding they were now restored to their own land, and to the worship of their God in his own peculiar city: these, in general, had not seen the original temple; and therefore could not feel affected in that way which the elderly people did.

[¶40] The sight must have been very affecting: a whole people, one part crying aloud with sorrow; the other shouting aloud for joy; and on the same occasion too, in which both sides felt an equal interest! The prophet Haggai comforted them on this occasion by assuring them that the glory of this latter house should exceed that of the former, because the Lord (Jesus Christ) was to come to this temple, and fill it with his glory. See Haggai, [Hag 2:1-9].

### Introduction

[¶42] The Samaritans endeavor to prevent the rebuilding of the temple, [Ezr 4:1-5]. They send letters to Artaxerxes, against the Jews, [Ezr 4:6-9]. A copy of the letter, [Ezr 4:10-16]. He commands the Jews to cease from building the temple, which they do; nor was any thing farther done in the work till the second year of Darius, [Ezr 4:17-24].

### Verse 1

[¶44] Now when the adversaries - These were the Samaritans, and the different nations with which the kings of Assyria had peopled Israel, when they had carried the original inhabitants away into captivity, see [Ezr 4:9], [Ezr 4:10].

## 445. Ezra · 3 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/445/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/445/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] Let us build with you - We acknowledge the same God, are solicitous for his glory, and will gladly assist you in this work. But that they came with no friendly intention, the context proves.

### Verse 3

[¶3] Ye have nothing to do with us - We cannot acknowledge you as worshippers of the true God, and cannot participate with you in anything that relates to his worship.

### Verse 4

[¶5] Weakened the hands - Discouraged and opposed them by every possible means.

### Verse 5

[¶7] Hired counsellors - They found means to corrupt some of the principal officers of the Persian court, so that the orders of Cyrus were not executed; or at least so slowly as to make them nearly ineffectual.

[¶8] Until the reign of Darius - This was probably Darius the son of Hystaspes.

### Verse 6

[¶10] In the reign of Ahasuerus - This is the person who is called Cambyses by the Greeks. He reigned seven years and five months; and during the whole of that time the building of the temple was interrupted.

### Verse 7

[¶12] In the days of Artaxerxes - After the death of Cambyses, one of the Magi named Oropaestus by Trogus Pompeius, Smerdis by Herodotus, Mardus by Aeschylus, and Sphendatates by Ctesias, usurped the empire, feigning himself to be Smerdis, the brother of Cambyses, who had been put to death. This is the person named Artaxerxes in the text: or, following the Hebrew, Artachshasta. It is generally believed, that from the time of Cyrus the great, Xerxes and Artaxerxes were names assumed by the Persian sovereigns, whatever their names had been before.

[¶13] Written in the Syrian tongue - That is, the Syrian or Chaldean character was used; not the Hebrew.

[¶14] Interpreted, in the Syrian tongue - That is, the language, as well as the character, was the Syriac or Chaldaic.

### Verse 8

[¶16] Rehum the chancellor - With this verse the Chaldee part of the chapter begins; and the same language continues to the end of [Ezr 6:18].

[¶17] These men wrote to Darius in their own language; and the king in the same dialect returns an answer, chap. 5. This circumstance adds authenticity to what is written: so scrupulous was the inspired penman, that he not only gave the words which each spoke and wrote, but he gave them also in the very language in which they were conceived and in the character peculiar to that language.

### Verse 10

[¶19] The great and noble Asnapper - Whether this was Shalmaneser, or Esar-haddon, or some other person, learned men and chronologists are not agreed. The Syriac terms him Asphid; but of this person we know no more than we do of Asnapper. He might have been the military officer who was appointed to escort this people to Judea.

### Verse 11

[¶21] And at such a time - The word וכענת ucheeneth has greatly perplexed all commentators and critics. The versions give us no light; and the Vulgate translates it et dicunt salutem, "and they wish prosperity." Some translate it and so forth; and our translators supposed that it referred to the date, which however is not specified, and might have been as easily entered as the words and at such a time.

[¶22] In our first translation of the Bible, that by Coverdale, in 1535, the passage stands thus: "And other on this syde the water, and in Canaan."

[¶23] In that by Becke, 1549, it is thus: "And other on this syde the water, and in Ceneeth:" and in the margin he enters "or peace," "or health." In Cardmarden's Bible, printed at Rouen, 1566, it stands thus: "And other that are nowe on thys syde the water." In that printed by Barker, 1615, we find the text thus: "And Other that are beyond the river, and Cheeneth;" on which is the following marginal note: "To wit, Euphrates: and he meaneth in respect of Babel, that they dwelt beyond it." And the note on Cheeneth is, "Which were a certain people that envied the Jews." All this is merely guessing, in the midst of obscurity; most of these having considered the original word כענת Ceeneth as the name of a people; and in this they follow the Syriac, which uses the word Acaneth.

[¶24] Calmet thinks we should read ובעת ubaeth, "and at this time;" as if they had said, "We wish thee to enjoy the same health and prosperity at all future times, which thou dost at present." This is not remote from the meaning of the Chaldee original.

### Verse 13

[¶26] Toll, tribute, and custom - The first term is supposed to imply the capitation tax; the second, an excise on commodities and merchandise; the third, a sort of land tax. Others suppose the first means a property tax; the second, a poll tax; and the third, what was paid on imports and exports. In a word, if you permit these people to rebuild and fortify their city, they will soon set you at naught, and pay you no kind of tribute.

### Verse 14

[¶28] Now because we have maintenance from the king's palace - More literally: Now because at all times we are salted with the salt of the palace; i.e., We live on the king's bounty, and must be faithful to our benefactor. Salt was used as the emblem of an incorruptible covenant; and those who ate bread and salt together were considered as having entered into a very solemn covenant. These hypocrites intimated that they felt their conscience bound by the league between them and the king; and therefore could not conscientiously see any thing going on that was likely to turn to the king's damage. They were probably also persons in the pay of the Persian king.

### Verse 15

[¶30] The book of the records of thy fathers - That is, the records of the Chaldeans, to whom the Persians succeeded.

### Verse 17

[¶32] Peace, and at such a time - The word וכעת ucheeth is like that which we have already considered on [Ezr 4:10], and probably has the same meaning.

### Verse 19

[¶34] Hath made insurrection against kings - How true is the proverb, "It is an easy thing to find a staff to beat a dog!" The struggles of the Israelites to preserve or regain their independency, which they had from God, are termed insurrection, rebellion, and sedition: because at last they fell under the power of their oppressors. Had they been successful in these struggles, such offensive words had never been used. In 1688 the people of England struggled to throw off an oppressive government, that was changing the times and the seasons, and overthrowing the religion of the country, and setting up in its place the spurious off-spring of popery and arbitrary government. They were successful; and it is called the Revolution: had they failed it would have been called rebellion; and the parties principally concerned would have been put to death.

### Verse 20

[¶36] Beyond the river - That is, the Euphrates. Both David and Solomon carried their conquests beyond this river. See [2Sam 8:3], etc., and [1Kgs 4:21], where it is said, Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river (Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines; and unto the borders of Egypt.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Until another commandment shall be given from me - The rebuilding was only provisionally suspended. The decree was, Let it cease for the present; nor let it proceed at any time without an order express from me.

### Verse 23

[¶40] Made them to cease by force and power - Commanded them on pain of the king's displeasure not to proceed, obliging all to remit their labors, and probably bringing an armed force to prevent them from going forward.

### Verse 24

[¶42] So it ceased unto the second year of - Darius - They had begun in the first year of Cyrus, b.c. 536, to go up to Jerusalem, and they were obliged to desist from the building b.c. 522; and thus they continued till the second year of Darius, b.c. 519. See the chronology in [Hag 1:1] (note) and [Zac 1:1] (note) and the following chapter, Ezra 5 (note).

### Introduction

[¶44] Haggai and Zechariah the prophets encourage Zerubbabel and Jeshua to proceed with the building of the temple, [Ezr 5:1], [Ezr 5:2]. Tatnai, the governor of the provinces on this side the Euphrates, and his companions, inquire by what authority they do this, [Ezr 5:3-5]. They write to Darius; a copy of the letter, [Ezr 5:6-16]. They request to know how they are to proceed, [Ezr 5:17].

## 446. Ezra · 4 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/446/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/446/#p-N

### Verse 1

[¶1] Haggai - and Zechariah - These are the same whose writings we have among the twelve minor prophets.

[¶2] The son of Iddo - That is, the grandson of Iddo; for Zechariah was the son of Barachiah, the son of Iddo. See his prophecy, [Zac 1:1] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶4] Then rose up Zerubbabel - Here we find three classes of men joining in the sacred work: Zerubbabel the civil governor; Jeshua the high priest or ecclesiastical governor; and Haggai and Zechariah the prophets. How glorious it is when we see the civil government joining with the sacerdotal and prophetic for the establishment and extension of true religion!

### Verse 3

[¶6] Tatnai, governor - He was governor of the provinces which belonged to the Persian empire on their side of the Euphrates, comprehending Syria, Arabia Deserta, Phoenicia, and Samaria. He seems to have been a mild and judicious man; and to have acted with great prudence and caution, and without any kind of prejudice. The manner in which he represented this to the king is a full proof of this disposition.

### Verse 4

[¶8] What are the names - It is most evident that this is the answer of the Jews to the inquiry of Tatnai, [Ezr 5:3], and the verse should be read thus: Then said we unto them after this manner: These are the names of the men who make this building.

### Verse 5

[¶10] The eye of their God was upon the elders - The watchful care of God was upon the elders. They were assured of his favor; and they found his especial providence working in their behalf.

### Verse 8

[¶12] With great stones - They are making a very strong and a very costly building.

### Verse 11

[¶14] We are the servants of the God of heaven - How simple, plain, and ingenuous is this confession! They were the servants of the God of heaven. How came they then into bondage! Why, they provoked the God of heaven - repeatedly sinned against him, and then he gave them into the hands of their enemies.

### Verse 16

[¶16] Sheshbazzar - Probably the military officer that conducted the people from Babylon, and had the oversight of the work; but some think that Ezra is meant.

### Verse 17

[¶18] The - treasure house - גנזיא ginzaiya. This is a Persian word, gunji, a treasury.

[¶19] There is a great deal of good sense and candour in this letter. Nothing of passion or prejudice appears in it. They laid before the king a fair statement without any attempt to prejudice his mind, and gave him those directions which were most likely to lead him to the truth, and to form a correct judgment on a business which, however it issued, must be of considerable importance to the state. God was in all this business; he was now giving an additional proof of his continued regard for a disobedient people, whom, though he had punished in his justice, he had spared in his mercy.

### Introduction

[¶21] Darius orders search to be made for the edict of Cyrus, [Ezr 6:1]. It is found at Achmetha, [Ezr 6:2]. A transcript of this edict, [Ezr 6:3-5]. Darius confirms it, [Ezr 6:6-12]. Tatnai encourages the Jews to proceed; and they finish the temple in the sixth year of Darius, [Ezr 6:13-15]. They dedicate the temple, [Ezr 6:16-18]; keep the Passover, [Ezr 6:19-21], and the feast of unleavened bread, [Ezr 6:22].

### Verse 1

[¶23] In the house of the rolls - בית ספריא beith siphraiya, the house of the books, the king's library. This is the first time we hear of a library.

### Verse 2

[¶25] At Achmetha - Ecbatana in India, whither it is probable all the records of Cyrus had been carried. This was a sort of summer residence for the kings of Persia.

### Verse 3

[¶27] The height thereof threescore cubits - This was much larger than the temple of Solomon. This was sixty cubits high, and sixty cubits broad; whereas Solomon's was only twenty cubits broad, and thirty cubits high.

### Verse 4

[¶29] Three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber - We have noticed this kind of building before, three courses of stones, and then a course of strong balk; and this continued to the square of the building.

[¶30] And let the expenses be given - Cyrus had ordered wood to be cut at Libanus, and conveyed to Joppa at his expense; but it does not appear that he furnished the other expenses of the building, for we have already seen that the Jews contributed for the defraying of all others. But it appears that he provided at his own expense the sacrifices and offerings for the temple. See [Ezr 6:9].

### Verse 6

[¶32] Be ye far from thence - Do not interrupt the Jews in their building; but, on the contrary further them all in your power.

### Verse 10

[¶34] And pray for the life of the king, and of his sons - Even heathens believed that offerings made in their behalf to the God of the Jews would be available. And this principle has had considerable influence in certain states where there was even a form of religion established by the law, to induce them to tolerate other forms, that the state might have the benefit of their prayers.

### Verse 11

[¶36] Let timber be pulled down - Whether this refers to the punishment of hanging and gibbeting of whipping at a post, or of empaling, is not quite clear. In China they tie culprits to posts; and the executioner cuts them open while alive, takes out their bowels, etc. Empaling, thrusting a sharp stake through the body till it comes out at the side of the neck, or hanging, seems to be intended here.

[¶37] Let his house be made a dunghill - Let it be reduced to ruins, and never more used, except for the most sordid and unclean purposes.

### Verse 14

[¶39] According to the commandment of the God of Israel - He first gave the order, and stirred up the hearts of the following Persian kings to second that order.

[¶40] Of Cyrus - This sovereign gave his orders for the rebuilding of the temple about A.M. 3468.

[¶41] And Darius - Darius Hystaspes confirmed the above orders, A. M. 3485.

[¶42] And Artaxerxes - Artaxerxes Longimanus sent Ezra to Judea with new privileges, A.M. 3547. With the permission of the same king, Nehemiah came to Judea in 3550. The writer recapitulates the different sovereigns who favored the Jews after the Babylonish captivity. See Calmet.

### Verse 15

[¶44] This house was finished - The sixth year of Darius mentioned here was about A.M. 3489, twenty years after the foundation had been laid by Zerubbabel, under the reign of Cyrus.

## 447. Ezra · 5 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/447/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/447/#p-N

### Verse 17

[¶1] Twelve he-goats - This was a sin-offering for every tribe.

### Verse 18

[¶3] And they set the priests - With this verse the Chaldee or Aramitic part of this chapter ends.

### Verse 20

[¶5] The Levites were purified together - They were all ready at one time to observe the proper rites and ceremonies, and had no need of having a second passover, which was appointed by the law for those who had been accidentally defiled, or were at a distance from the tabernacle. See [2Chr 30:3].

### Verse 21

[¶7] And all such as had separated themselves - These were the proselytes who had embraced the Jewish religion by having mingled with the Jews in their captivity. This proves that there the poor captives had so acted according to the principles of their religion, that the heathens saw it, and walked in the light of the Lord with them. A good example is very persuasive; and particularly so when founded on pure principles.

### Verse 22

[¶9] Turned the heart of the king of Assyria - I am of Calmet's mind, that king of Assyria is here put for king of Persia. Cyrus and his successors possessed all the rights and estates of the ancient kings of Assyria, and therefore the same monarch may be styled king of Assyria as well as king of Persia.

[¶10] Darius had a very high character, as a wise, just, and merciful prince. To strengthen his title to the crown, he married two of the daughters of Cyrus, and, no doubt, to show his affection to this family, he the more cheerfully confirmed the edict which Cyrus had made in favor of the Jews.

### Introduction

[¶12] In the seventh year of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra goes up to Jerusalem; and with him certain of the priests, Levites, porters, and Nethinim: his character, [Ezr 7:1-10]. The letter and decree of Artaxerxes in behalf of the Jews, vv. 11-26. Ezra's thanksgiving to God for these mercies, [Ezr 7:27], [Ezr 7:28].

### Verse 1

[¶14] In the reign of Artaxerxes - This was Artaxerxes Longimanus, the seventh of whose reign chronologers place A.M. 3547, sixty-eight years after Cyrus had sent back Zerubbabel. - Calmet. See the introduction.

[¶15] Son of Seraiah - Either this could not have been Seraiah the high priest, who had been put to death by Nebuchadnezzar one hundred and twenty-one years before this time, or the term son here must signify only his descendants, or one of his descendants. Were it otherwise, Ezra must now be at least one hundred and twenty-two years of age, supposing him to have been born in the year of his father's death; if, indeed Seraiah the high priest was his father; but this is evidently impossible. In this place there are only sixteen generations reckoned between Ezra and Aaron, but in [1Chr 6:3], [1Chr 6:4], etc., there are not less than twenty-two. We must therefore supply the deficient generations from the above place, between Amariah son of Meraioth, [1Chr 6:7], and Azariah the son of Johanan, [1Chr 6:10]. There are other discrepancies relative to genealogies in these historical books which it would be useless to investigate. On these differences much has been already said in different parts of this comment.

### Verse 6

[¶17] A ready scribe - סופר מחיר sopher machir does not merely signify a speedy writer or an excellent penman, but one who was eminently skillful in expounding the law. In this sense the word γραμματευς, scribe, is repeatedly used in the New Testament, and we find that both in the Old and New Testament it had the same signification. The Syriac gives the sense of the word by translating sophro chocimo, a wise scribe, or expounder.

### Verse 8

[¶19] He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month - From the following verse we learn that Ezra and his company set off from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and thus we find they were upwards of four months on their journey. They could not travel fast, as they were a great company, composed in part of the aged and infirm, besides multitudes of women and children. They appear also to have taken a circuitous route. See on [Ezr 8:24-32] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶21] Ezra had prepared his heart - Here is a fine character of a minister of God: He prepares, הכין hechin, he fixes, purposes, and determines, לבבו lebabo, with his heart - with all his powers and affections, to seek the law of God, and to do it himself, that he may be properly qualified to teach its statutes and judgments to Israel.

### Verse 12

[¶23] Artaxerxes, king of kings - This letter, from the beginning of this verse to the end of [Ezr 7:26], is in the Aramitic or Chaldee language.

[¶24] This title of the king would, in Persian, run thus: Ardsheer shahinshah, or padshah, "Ardsheer, king of kings;" "great or supreme king, or emperor."

### Verse 13

[¶26] Their own free-will - None shall be forced either to go or to stay. He who loves his God will avail himself of this favorable opportunity.

### Verse 14

[¶28] His seven counsellors - It is very likely that the privy counsel of the king consisted of seven persons simply. The names of these seven counsellors or chamberlains may be found in the book of Esther, [Est 1:10].

### Verse 16

[¶30] And all the silver and gold - The king and his counsellors had already made a present to the house of the God of Israel; and Ezra is now empowered to receive any contribution which any of the inhabitants of the province of Babylon may think proper to give.

### Verse 18

[¶32] After the will of your God - He gave them the fullest liberty to order every thing according to their own institutions, binding them to no form or mode of worship.

### Verse 22

[¶34] A hundred talents of silver - The talent of silver was 450.

[¶35] A hundred measures of wheat - A hundred cors; each cor was a little more than seventy-five gallons, one quart, and a pint, wine measure.

[¶36] A hundred baths of wine - Each bath was seven gallons and five pints.

### Verse 23

[¶38] Why should there be wrath - As he believed he was appointed by the Almighty to do this work, he therefore wished to do it heartily, knowing that if he did not, God would be displeased, and that the kingdom would be cut off from him or his posterity.

### Verse 24

[¶40] It shall not be lawful to impose toll - As these persons had no private revenues, it would have been unreasonable to have laid them under taxation.

### Verse 26

[¶42] Whether it be unto death - These include almost every species of punishment which should be inflicted on culprits in any civilized state.

[¶43] With this verse the Chaldee part of this chapter ends.

### Verse 28

[¶45] And I was strengthened - In what the king decreed he saw the hand of God; he therefore gave him the praise, and took courage. There is a most amiable spirit of piety in these reflections. Ezra simply states the case; shows what the king had determined, and tells what he said; and then points out the grand agent in the whole business - it was the Lord God of his fathers. Thus God had put it into the king's heart to beautify the house of Jehovah; and, as that house was built for the salvation of the souls of men, he gives God praise for putting it into the king's heart to repair it: he who loves God and man will rejoice in the establishment of the Divine worship, because this is the readiest way to promote the best interests of man.

## 448. Ezra · 6 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/448/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/448/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The genealogy of the chief persons who went with Ezra from Babylon, [Ezr 8:1-14]. He gathers them together at Ahava; and finding among them no Levites, he sends confidential persons to the river of Ahava, who return with many Levites and Nethinim, [Ezr 8:15-20]. He proclaims a fast at Ahava for Divine protection on their journey, [Ezr 8:21-23]. He delivers to the care of the priests etc., the silver, gold, and sacred vessels, that they might carry them to Jerusalem, and deliver them to the high priest, [Ezr 8:24-30]. They depart from Ahava, and come to Jerusalem, [Ezr 8:31], [Ezr 8:32]. The vessels are weighed and the weight registered, [Ezr 8:33], [Ezr 8:34]. They offer burnt-offerings to God, [Ezr 8:35]; deliver the king's commissions to his lieutenants, by whom they are furthered in their work, [Ezr 8:36].

### Verse 2

[¶3] Gershom - One of the descendants of Phinehas, son of Eliazar.

### Verse 3

[¶5] Of the sons of Shechaniah - There were three of this name; the second is mentioned [Ezr 8:6], and the third [Ezr 10:2]. They were all different persons, as may be seen from their fathers' houses.

### Verse 15

[¶7] The river that runneth to Ahava - Ahava was a river itself, which is supposed to be the same that is called Diava or Adiava, in the province of Adiabene; and perhaps the place whence the people of Ava came who were brought by the king of Assyria to Palestine, [2Kgs 17:24].

[¶8] None of the sons of Levi - None that were simply Levites. He found priests, and they were sons of Levi; but no Levites that were not priests.

### Verse 17

[¶10] At the place Casiphia - The most judicious commentators are agreed that by Casiphia, the Caspian mountains, between Media and Hyrcania, are intended; where, probably, the Nethinim were employed in working silver mines: כסף keseph, from which the word comes, signifies silver.

### Verse 22

[¶12] I was ashamed to require - a band - He had represented God, the object of his worship, as supremely powerful, and as having the strongest affection for his true followers: he could not, therefore, consistently with his declarations, ask a band of soldiers from the king to protect them on the way, when they were going expressly to rebuild the temple of Jehovah, and restore his worship. He therefore found it necessary to seek the Lord by fasting and prayer, that they might have from Him those succours without which they might become a prey to their enemies; and then the religion which they professed would be considered by the heathen as false and vain. Thus we see that this good man had more anxiety for the glory of God than for his own personal safety.

### Verse 26

[¶14] Silver vessels a hundred talents - That is, The weight of all the silver vessels amounted to one hundred talents; not that there were one hundred vessels of silver, each a talent in weight.

[¶15] Reckoning in round sums, 650 talents of silver at 450 the talent, amount to 292,500 sterling. Silver vessels, 100 talents, amount to 45,000; gold, 100 talents, at 7,000 per talent, amount to 700,000 independently of the 20 basons of gold, amounting to 1000 drachms. Now the golden drachm or daric was worth about 1. 2s., therefore these basons were worth 1100; the whole amounting to 1,038, 600 sterling. But these different weights and coins are variously computed; some making the silver talent only 353 11s. 10 1/2 d., and the talent of gold 5057 15s. 1 1/2 d., calculations which I have elsewhere introduced.

[¶16] Two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold - What these were we cannot tell. The Syriac translates nechoso corinthio toba, to be vessels of the best Corinthian brass; so called from the brass found after the burning of Corinth by Lucius Mummius, which was brass, copper, gold, and silver, all melted together, as is generally supposed. But it was probably some factitious metal made there, that took the polish and assumed the brightness of gold, and because of its hardness was more durable. There is still a certain factitious metal of this kind, made among the Asiatics. I have seen this metal often made; it is as bright and fine as gold, takes a most exquisite polish, and will scarcely tarnish. I have kept this exposed to every variation of the air, even among old iron, brass, copper, etc., for twenty years together, without being scarcely at all oxidized. It requires much art in the making, but the constituent materials are of small value. Vessels of this metal, because of their lustre and durability for ornamental and domestic uses, are in many respects more valuable than gold itself. The only difficulty is to get at first the true color, which depends on the degree of heat, and the time employed in fusion; but there are, however, proper rules to ascertain them. This metal is widely different from the or molu of France and England, is less expensive, and much more valuable.

### Verse 35

[¶18] Twelve bullocks for all Israel - Though of tribes there were only Judah and Benjamin, yet they offered a bullock for every tribe, as if present. There can be little doubt that there were individuals there from all the twelve tribes, possibly some families of each; but no complete tribe but those mentioned above.

### Verse 36

[¶20] The king's lieutenants - אחשדרפני achashdarpeney: this is generally understood to mean lieutenant or deputy, and is probably of Persian origin, though here greatly corrupted. The Vulgate renders it regis satrapis, to the satraps of the king, which is the Persian satrab. A viceroy in Persian is soubah-dar; viceroys, soubahdaran. Darafreen signifies a person in whom one has confidence; and achi is an epithet of a vizir. These two words conjoined will make nearly that of the text. But I do not give any of these etymologies with confidence. Other words might be proposed as candidates, but where there is so little certainty, conjecture is useless. Were it necessary a dissertation might be written on the Persian words, and Persian forms of speech, in this and the two following books; but probably after my toil few of my readers would thank me for my pains.

### Introduction

[¶22] The princes inform Ezra that many of the people now settled in the had married heathen wives; and several of the rulers were principal offenders in this thing, [Ezr 9:1], [Ezr 9:2]. He is greatly afflicted, [Ezr 9:3], [Ezr 9:4]. His prayer to God on thus account, [Ezr 9:5-15].

### Verse 1

[¶24] The people of Israel - These were they who had returned at first with Zerubbabel, and were settled in the land of Judea and whom Ezra found on his arrival to be little better than the Canaanitish nations from whom God had commanded them ever to keep separate.

### Verse 2

[¶26] Hath been chief in this trespass - They who are the first men have been the most capital offenders; so Virgil, Aen. ix. 783: -

[¶27] Unus homo, vestris, o cives, undique septus

[¶28] Aggeribus, tantas strages impune per urbem Ediderit?

[¶29] Juvenum primos tot miserit orco? "Shall one, and he enclosed within your walls,

[¶30] One rash imprisoned warrior, vanquish all?

[¶31] Calm you look on, and see the furious foe

[¶32] Plunge crowds of heroes to the shades below!"

[¶33] Pitt.

[¶34] The first of the Trojan youth were the chief, the most illustrious; so we say the first men of the kingdom for the nobles, etc.

### Verse 3

[¶36] I rent my garment and my mantle - The outer and inner garment, in sign of great grief. This significant act is frequently mentioned in the sacred writings, and was common among all ancient nations.

[¶37] Plucked off the hair - Shaving the head and beard were signs of excessive grief; much more so the plucking off the hair, which must produce exquisite pain. All this testified his abhorrence, not merely of the act of having taken strange wives, but their having also joined them in their idolatrous abominations.

### Verse 4

[¶39] Those that had been carried away - Those that had returned long before with Zerubbabel; see [Ezr 9:1].

[¶40] Until the evening sacrifice - The morning sacrifice was the first of all the offerings of the day, the evening sacrifice the last. As the latter was offered between the two evenings, i.e., between sunset and the end of twilight, so the former was offered between break of day and sunrise. Ezra sat astonied - confounded in his mind, distressed in his soul, and scarcely knowing what to do. He probably had withdrawn himself into some sequestered place, or into some secret part of the temple, spending the time in meditation and reflection.

### Verse 5

[¶42] Fell upon my knees - In token of the deepest humility. Spread out my hands, as if to lay hold on the mercy of God. We have already had occasion to explain these significant acts.

### Verse 6

[¶44] I am ashamed and blush - God had been so often provoked, and had so often pardoned them, and they had continued to transgress, that he was ashamed to go back again to the throne of grace to ask for mercy in their behalf. This is the genuine feeling of every reawakened backslider.

## 449. Ezra · 7 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/449/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/449/#p-N

### Verse 8

[¶1] And now for a little space - This interval in which they were returning from servitude to their own land.

[¶2] Grace hath been showed - God has disposed the hearts of the Persian kings to publish edicts in our favor.

[¶3] To leave us a remnant to escape - The ten tribes are gone irrecoverably into captivity; a great part even of Judah and Benjamin had continued beyond the Euphrates: so that Ezra might well say, there was but a remnant which had escaped.

[¶4] A nail in his holy place - Even so much ground as to fix our tent-poles in.

[¶5] May lighten our eyes - To give us a thorough knowledge of ourselves and of our highest interest, and to enable us to re-establish his worship, is the reason why God has brought us back to this place.

[¶6] A little reviving - We were perishing, and our hopes were almost dead; and, because of our sins, we were sentenced to death: but God in his great mercy has given us a new trial; and he begins with little, to see if we will make a wise and faithful use of it.

### Verse 10

[¶8] What shall we say after this? - Even in the midst of these beginnings of respite and mercy we have begun to provoke thee anew!

### Verse 11

[¶10] Have filled it from one end to another - The abominations have been like a sweeping mighty torrent, that has increased till it filled the whole land, and carried every thing before it.

### Verse 13

[¶12] Hast punished us less than our iniquities - Great, numerous, and oppressive as our calamities have been, yet merely as temporal punishments, they have been much less than our provocations have deserved.

### Verse 15

[¶14] Thou art righteous - Thou art merciful; this is one of the many meanings of the word צדק tsedek; and to this meaning St. Paul refers, when he says, God declares his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, [Rom 3:25] (note). See the note there.

[¶15] We remain yet escaped - Because of this righteousness or mercy.

[¶16] In our trespasses - We have no righteousness; we are clothed and covered with our trespasses.

[¶17] We cannot stand before thee because of this - The parallel place, as noted in the margin, is [Psa 130:3] : If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Every man must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ: but who shall stand there with joy? No man against whom the Lord marks iniquities. There is a reference here to the temple service: the priests and Levites stood and ministered before the Lord, but they were not permitted to do so unless pure from all legal pollution; so no man shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ who is not washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Reader, how dost thou expect to stand there?

### Introduction

[¶19] The people are greatly afflicted by Ezra's prayer, [Ezr 10:1]. Shechaniah proposes that all who have taken strange wives should put them away, and the children they had by them; and make a covenant to serve God, [Ezr 10:2-4]. Ezra is encouraged; and make a proclamation to collect the people, to find who had transgressed, [Ezr 10:5-8]. They come together on the twentieth day of the ninth month, [Ezr 10:9]. Ezra exhorts them to put away their strange wives, [Ezr 10:10]. The people agree to it, and require time, [Ezr 10:11-14]. This being granted, the business is completed by the first of the first month, [Ezr 10:15-17]. Some of the priests had taken strange wives; their names, and the names of all who were in the same trespass, vv. 18-44.

### Verse 1

[¶21] The people wept very sore - They were deeply affected at the thought of God's displeasure, which they justly feared was about to light upon them, because of their transgressions.

### Verse 2

[¶23] Shechaniah the son of Jehiel - He speaks here in the name of the people, not acknowledging himself culpable, for he is not in the following list. It is in the same form of speech with that in James, [Jam 3:9]. With the tongue curse we men. He seems to have been a chief man among the people; and Ezra, at present, stood in need of his influence and support.

[¶24] Yet now there is hope in Israel - מקוה mikveh, expectation, of pardon; for the people were convinced of the evil, and were deeply penitent: hence it is said, [Ezr 10:1], that they wept sore.

### Verse 3

[¶26] Let us make a covenant - נכרת ברית nichrath berith, let us cut or divide the covenant sacrifice. See the notes on [Gen 15:10].

### Verse 4

[¶28] Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee - By the decree of Artaxerxes, he was authorized to do everything that the law of God required: see [Ezr 7:23-28]. And all officers were commanded to be aiding and assisting; hence Shechaniah says, We are with you.

### Verse 5

[¶30] And they sware - The thing was evidently contrary to the law of God; and now he bound them by an oath to rectify the abuse.

### Verse 6

[¶32] Johanan the son of Eliashib - Eliashib was high priest, and was succeeded in that office by his son Joiada, [Neh 12:10]. Probably Johanan here is the same as Jonathan in Nehemiah, who was the son of Joiada, and grandson of Eliashib. Some suppose that Johanan and Joiada were two names for the same person.

### Verse 8

[¶34] All his substance should be forfeited - To the use of the temple.

[¶35] So the Septuagint understood the place: Αναθεματισθησεται πασα ἡ ὑπαρξις αυτου, "All his substance shall be devoted to a holy use."

[¶36] Himself separated - Excommunicated from the Church of God, and exiled from Israel.

### Verse 9

[¶38] Ninth month - Answering to a part of our December.

[¶39] Trembling because of - the great rain - Απο του χειμωνος, Because of the winter, Septuagint; it was now December, the coldest and most rainy part of the year in Palestine.

### Verse 11

[¶41] Make confession - Acknowledge your sins before God, with deep compunction of heart, and the fullest resolution to forsake them.

### Verse 12

[¶43] As thou hast said, so must we do - They all resolved to do what Ezra then commanded, they did put away their wives, even those by whom they had children; [Ezr 10:44] : this was a great hardship on the women and children. Though by the Jewish laws such marriages were null and void, yet as the women they had taken did not know these laws, their case was deplorable. However, we may take it for granted that each of them received a portion according to the circumstances of their husbands, and that they and their children were not turned away desolate, but had such a provision as their necessities required. Humanity must have dictated this, and no law of God is contrary to humanity. After all, there is some room to doubt whether they did put them finally away, for several years after Nehemiah found Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab; [Neh 13:23]. And if these were not the same women, we find that the same offense was continued.

## 450. Ezra · 8 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/450/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/450/#p-N

### Verse 17

[¶1] The first day of the first month - So they were three whole months in examining into this affair, and making those separations which the law required.

### Verse 19

[¶3] They gave their hands - They bound themselves in the most solemn manner to do as the rest of the delinquents had done; and they made all acknowledgment of their iniquity to God by offering each a ram for a trespass-offering.

### Verse 25

[¶5] Moreover of Israel - That is, as Calmet observes, simple Israelites, to distinguish them from the priests, Levites, and singers, mentioned in [Ezr 10:18], [Ezr 10:23], [Ezr 10:24].

### Verse 44

[¶7] Some of them had wives by whom they had children - This observation was probably intended to show that only a few of them had children; but it shows also how rigorously the law was put in execution.

[¶8] According to a passage in Justin Martyr's dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, Ezra offered a paschal lamb on this occasion, and addressed the people thus: "And Ezra said to the people, This passover is our Savior and our Refuge; and if ye will be persuaded of it, and let it enter into your hearts, that we are to humble ourselves to him in a sign, and afterwards shall believe in him, this place shall not be destroyed for ever, saith the Lord of Hosts: but if ye will not believe in him, nor hearken to his preaching, ye shall be a laughing-stock to the Gentiles." - Dial. cum Tryphone, sec. 72.

[¶9] This passage, Justin says, the Jews, through their enmity to Christ, blotted out of the book of Ezra. He charges them with cancelling several other places through the same spirit of enmity and opposition.

[¶10] In the Hebrew text this and the following book make but one, though sometimes Nehemiah is distinguished as the second book of Esdras. In the Masoretic enumeration of sections, etc., both books are conjoined. This may be seen at the end of Nehemiah. I can add nothing of importance to the character of Ezra, which has already been given so much in detail in the introduction to this book.

[¶11] Corrected, March, 1828. - A. Clarke.

## 451. Nehemiah · 1 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/451/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/451/#p-N

### Introduction to the Book of Nehemiah

[¶1] In the introduction to the book of Ezra, we have already seen those wonderful interferences of Divine Providence in which Nehemiah bore so large a share. Dr. Prideaux, with his usual perspicuity, has interwoven the whole of the transactions of the mission of Nehemiah with that part of the Persian history with which they are connected; which I shall give, as in the preceding book, in his own words. He connects this book, as it ought to be, with the book of Ezra. See before. "He who succeeded Ezra in the government of Judah and Jerusalem was Nehemiah, a very religious and most excellent man; one that was nothing behind his predecessor, saving his learning and great knowledge in the law of God. He came to Jerusalem in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, about four hundred and forty-five years before Christ; and by a commission from him, superseded that of Ezra, and succeeded him in the government of Judah and Jerusalem. He had in that commission, by an express clause therein inserted, full authority to repair the walls, and set up the gates of Jerusalem; and to fortify it again in that manner as it was before it was dismantled and destroyed by the Babylonians. He was a Jew, whose ancestors had formerly been citizens of Jerusalem; for there, he says, was the place of his fathers' sepulchres: but as to the tribe or family which he was of, no more is said but only that his father's name was Hachaliah, who seems to have been of those Jews who, having gotten good settlements in the land of their captivity, chose rather to abide in them than return into their own country, when leave was granted for it. It is most likely that Hachaliah was an inhabitant of the city of Shushan, and that it was his dwelling there that gave his son an opportunity of gaining an advancement in the king's palace; for he was one of the cup-bearers of King Artaxerxes, which was a place of great honor and advantage in the Persian court, because of the privilege it gave him of being daily in the king's presence, and the opportunity which he had thereby of gaining his favor for the obtaining of any petition which he should make to him; and that, especially, since the times of his attendance always were when the king was making his heart merry with the wine which he served up to him; for this is the best opportunity with all men for the obtaining any boon that shall be desired of them, because they are always then in the best humor for complying: it was at such a time that he asked the government of Judea, and obtained it. And by the like advantages of his place, no doubt it was that he gained those immense riches which enabled him for so many years, out of his own private purse only, to live in his government with that splendor and expense as will be hereafter related, without burdening the people at all for it; and no doubt it was by the favor of Queen Esther, as being of the same nation and people with her, that he attained so honorable and advantageous a preferment in that court. However, neither the honor nor advantage of this place, nor the long settlement of his family out of his country, could make him forget his love for it, or lay aside that zeal which he had for the religion of his forefathers, who had formerly dwelt in it. For though he had been born and bred in a strange land, yet he had a great love for Sion, and a heart thoroughly set for the advancing the prosperity of it, and was in all things a very religious observer of the law of his God; and therefore, when some came from Jerusalem, and told him of the ill state of that city, how the walls of it were still in many places broken down, and the gates of it in the same demolished state as when burnt with fire by the Babylonians, and that, by reason thereof, the remnant of the captivity that dwelt there lay open, not only to the incursions and insults of their enemies, but also to the reproach and contempt of their neighbors, as a mean and despicable people, and that they were in both these respects in great grief and affliction of heart; the good man, being suitably moved with this representation, applied himself in fasting and prayer unto the Lord his God, and earnestly supplicated him for his people Israel, and the place which he had chosen for his worship among them. And having thus implored the Divine mercy against this evil, he resolved next to make his application to the king for the redressing of it, trusting in God for the inclining of his heart thereto; and therefore, when his turn came next to wait in his office, the king, observing his countenance to be sad, which at other times used not to be so, and asking the cause thereof, he took this opportunity to lay before him the distressed state of his country; and, owning this to be the cause of great grief to him, prayed the king to send him there to remedy it. And by the favor of Queen Esther he had his petition granted unto him; for it being particularly marked in the sacred text that the queen was sitting with the king when Nehemiah obtained this grant, sufficiently indicates that her favor was assisting to him herein; (See my note on this passage. - A. C). and accordingly a royal decree was issued out for the rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem; and Nehemiah was sent thither with it, as governor of the province of Judea, to put it into execution; and to do him the more honor, the king sent a guard of horse with him, under the command of some of the captains of his army, to conduct him safely to his government. And he wrote letters to all the governors on this side the river Euphrates, to further him in the work on which he was sent; and also gave his orders to Asaph, the keeper of the forests in those parts, to allow him as much timber out of them as should be needed for the finishing of it. However, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Samaritans, and other neighboring nations round, did all they could to hinder him from proceeding therein; and to this they were excited, not only by the ancient and bitter enmity which those people bore to the whole Jewish nation, because of the different manners and different religions they professed; but most especially at this time because of their lands; for during the time that the Jews were in captivity, these nations, having seized their lands, were forced to restore them on their return; for which reason they did all they could to oppose their settlement, hoping that, if they could be kept low, they might find an opportunity, some time or other, of resuming the prey they had lost. But Nehemiah was not at all discouraged at this; for having, on his arrival at Jerusalem, made known to the people the commission with which he was sent, he took a view of the ruins of the old walls, and immediately set about the repairing of them, dividing the people into several companies, and assigning to each of them the quarter where they were to work, but reserving to himself the superintendence and direction of the whole, in which he labored so effectually that all was finished by the end of the month Elul, within the compass of thirty-two days, notwithstanding all manner of opposition that was made against him, both from within and without; for within several false prophets, and other treacherous persons, endeavored to create obstructions; and from without Sanballat the Horonite, Tobias the Ammonite, Geshem the Arabian, and several others, gave him all the disturbance they were able, not only by underhand dealings, and treacherous tricks and contrivances, but also by open force; so that while part of the people labored in carrying on the building, the other part stood to their arms, to defend themselves against those who had any designs upon them. And all had their arms at hand, even while they worked, to be ready at a signal given to draw together at any part where the enemy should be discovered to be coming upon them: and by this means they secured themselves against the attempts and designs of their enemies till the work was brought to a conclusion. And when they had thus far finished the walls and set up the gates, a public dedication of them was celebrated with great solemnity by the priests and Levites, and all the people. The burden which the people underwent in the carrying on of this work, and the incessant labor which they were forced to undergo to bring it to so speedy a conclusion being very great, and such as made them faint and groan under it; to revive their drooping spirits, and make them the more easy and ready to proceed in that which was farther to be done, care was taken to relieve them from a much greater burden, the oppression of usurers, which they at that time lay under, and had much greater reason to complain of; for the rich, taking advantage of the necessities of the poor, had exacted heavy usury of them, making them pay the centesimal for all moneys lent them; that is, one per cent. for every month, which amounted to twelve per cent. for the whole year: so that they were forced to mortgage their lands, and sell some of their children into servitude, to have wherewith to buy bread for the support of themselves and families; which being a manifest breach of the law of God, given by Moses, (for that forbids all the race of Israel to take usury of any of their brethren), Nehemiah, on his hearing of this, resolved forthwith to remove so great an iniquity; in order whereto he called a general assembly of all the people, where, having set forth unto them the nature of the offense, how great a breach it was of the Divine law, and how heavy an oppression upon their brethren, and how much it might provoke the wrath of God against them, he caused it to be enacted by the general suffrage of that whole assembly, that all should return to their brethren whatsoever had been exacted of them upon usury, and also release all the lands, vineyards, olive-yards, and houses, which had been taken of them upon mortgage on this account. "And thus Nehemiah, having executed the main of the end for which he obtained the favor of the king to be sent to Jerusalem, appointed Hanani and Hananiah to be governors of the city, and returned again unto him into Persia; for a time had been set him for his return again to court, when he first obtained to be sent from thence on this commission; which, as expressed in the text, plainly imports a short time, and not that of twelve years, after which he again went unto the king, as some interpret it. And his having appointed governors of the city as soon as the walls were built evidently implies that he then went from thence, and was absent for some time; for, had he still continued at Jerusalem, he would not have needed any deputies to govern the place. And farthermore, the building of the walls of Jerusalem being all for which he prayed his first commission; when this was performed, he seems to have needed a new authority before he could go on to other proceedings, which were necessary for the well settling of the affairs of that country. But on his return to the king, and having given him an account how all things stood in that province, and what farther was needful to be done for the well regulating of it, he soon obtained to be sent back again to take care thereof: and the shortness of his absence seems to have been the cause why there is no mention of it in the text, though the particulars I have mentioned seem sufficiently to imply it. "Nehemiah, being returned from the Persian court with a new commission, in the twenty-first year of Artaxerxes, [b.c. 444], forthwith set himself to carry on the reformation of the Church, and the state of the Jews, which Ezra had begun; and took along with him the advice and direction of that learned and holy scribe in all that he attempted in this work. "The first thing that he did was to provide for the security of the city, which he had now fortified, by settling rules for the opening and shutting of the gates, and keeping watch and ward on the towers and walls: but finding Jerusalem to be but thinly inhabited, and that to make this burden more easy there needed more inhabitants to bear their share with them in it, he projected the thorough repeopling of the place: in order to which he prevailed first with the rulers and great men of the nation to agree to build them houses there, and dwell in them; and then others following their example, offered themselves voluntarily to do the same; and of the rest of the people every tenth man was taken by lot, and obliged to come to Jerusalem, and there build them houses, and settle themselves and their families in them. And when the city was fortified, and all that had their dwellings in it were there well secured by walls and gates against the insults of their enemies, and the incursions of thieves and robbers, who before molested them, all willingly complied; by which means the houses, as well as the walls and gates, being again rebuilt, and fully replenished with inhabitants, it soon after this received its ancient lustre, and became again a city of great note in those parts. "Nehemiah, finding it necessary to have the genealogies of the people well investigated and clearly stated, next examined into that matter; and this he did, not only for the sake of their civil rights, that all knowing of what tribe and family they were, they might be directed where to take their possessions; but more especially for the sake of the sanctuary, that none might be admitted to officiate, even as Levites, who were not of the tribe of Levi; or as priests, that were not of the family of Aaron. And therefore, for the true settling of this matter, search was made for the old registers; and, having among them found a register of the genealogies of those who came up at first from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, he settled this matter according to it; adding such also as came up, and expunging others whose families were extinct. And this caused the difference that is between the accounts we have of these genealogies in Ezra and Nehemiah: for in the second chapter of Ezra we have the old register made by Zerubbabel; and in the seventh of Nehemiah, from the sixth verse to the end of the chapter, a copy of it as settled by Nehemiah with the alterations I have mentioned. Ezra, having completed his edition of the law of God, and written it out fairly and clearly in the Chaldean character, this year, on the feast of trumpets, publicly read it to the people of Jerusalem. This feast was celebrated on the first of Tisri, the seventh month of the Jews' ecclesiastical year, and the first of their civil year. Their coming out of Egypt having been in the month Nisan, from that time the beginning of the year, in all ecclesiastical matters, was reckoned among them from the beginning of that month, which happened about the time of the vernal equinox; but in all civil matters, such as contracts and bargains, they still continued to go by the old form, and began their year from the first of Tisri which happened about the time of the autumnal equinox, as all other nations of the East then did; and all instruments and writings relating to contracts and bargains, or other civil matters, were dated according to this year, and all their jubilees and Sabbatical years began with it; and, therefore, reckoning it their new-year's-day, they celebrated it with a festival; and this festival being solemnized by the sounding of trumpets, from the morning of that day to the end of it, to proclaim and give notice to all of the beginning of the new year, it was from thence called the feast of trumpets. To celebrate this feast, the people assembled from all parts of Jerusalem; and understanding that Ezra had finished his revisal of the law, and written out a fair copy of it, they called upon him to have it read to them; when a scaffold or large pulpit was erected in the largest street of the city, where most of the people might stand to hear it. Ezra ascended into it, with thirteen other principal elders; and having placed six on his right hand, and seven on his left, he stood up in the midst of them; and having blessed the Lord, the great God, he began to read the law out of the Hebrew text; and while he read it in this language, thirteen other of the Levites, whom he instructed for this purpose, rendered it period by period into Chaldee, which was then the vulgar language of the people, giving them the meaning of every particular part; thus making them understand it: thus the holy scribe, with these assistants, continued from morning till noon, reading and explaining the law of God unto the people in such a manner as suited their low capacities. But it being a festival day, and the dining hour approaching, Nehemiah, Ezra, and the rest that had been assisting, dismissed them to dinner, to eat and drink, and rejoice before the Lord The remainder of the day, because it was thus consecrated to be kept holy unto Him: but the next morning they assembled again, in the same place; and Ezra and his assistants went on farther to read and to explain the law of God in the same manner as they had done the day before; and when they came to the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, wherein is written the law of the feast of tabernacles, and had explained to them the obligation they were under to observe it, and that the fifteenth day of that month was the day appointed for the beginning of it, he excited an eager desire in all the people to fulfill the law of God in this particular; and proclamation was therefore made through all Judah, to give notice of the festival, and to warn them all to be present at Jerusalem on that day for the observing of it. Accordingly they went thither at the time prescribed; and, as they were instructed by the law of God, prepared booths, made of the branches of trees, and kept the festival in them, through the whole seven days of its continuance, in so solemn a manner as had not been observed before since the days of Joshua to this time. Ezra, taking the advantage of having the people assembled in so great a number, and so well disposed towards the law of God, went on with his assistants farther to read and explain in the same way as he had done on the two former days; and this he did from the first to the last day of the festival, till they had gone through the whole law; by which the people, perceiving in how many things they had transgressed the law of God through ignorance, (for till now the law of God had never been read since their return from Babylon), expressed much trouble of heart, being much grieved for their sins, and exceedingly terrified with the fear of God's wrath for the punishment of them. Nehemiah and Ezra, finding them so well disposed, applied themselves to make the best improvement they could of it for the honor of God, and the interests of religion; and, therefore, proclaimed a fast to be held the day but one after the festival was ended, to which having called all the people while the sense of these things was fresh in their minds, excited them to make a solemn confession of their sins before God, and also to enter into a solemn vow and covenant with God to avoid them for the future. The observances which they chiefly obliged themselves to in this covenant were:

[¶2] Firstly, Not to make intermarriages with the Gentiles, either by giving their daughters to them, or by taking any of their daughters to themselves.

[¶3] Secondly, To observe the Sabbaths and Sabbatical years.

[¶4] Thirdly, To pay their annual tribute to the temple for the repairing of it, and finding all the necessaries for the carrying on of the public service in it.

[¶5] And Fourthly, To pay the tithes and first-fruits to the priests and Levites.

[¶6] And these particulars being thus named in this covenant shows us that they were the laws of God which they had been neglectful of since their return from the captivity. It being their ignorance which led them into these transgressions, and this ignorance having been occasioned by their not having heard the law of God read to them; to prevent this for the future, they had from this time the most learned of the Levites and scribes that were skilled in the law, to read it to them in every city; which no doubt was at first done by gathering the people together in the most wide street, where all might the better hear it; but the inconvenience of this being soon felt, especially in the winter and stormy seasons of the year, they erected houses or tabernacles to meet in, and these were the original synagogues among them. That they had no synagogues before the Babylonish captivity is plain, not only from the silence of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, but also from several passages in them, which evidently prove that there were none in those days; for it is a common saying, among the Jews, that where there is no book kept of the law, there can be no synagogue; for the chief service of the synagogue being the reading of the law to the people, where there was no law, there certainly could be no synagogue. Many texts of Scripture tell us that the book of the law was very rare through all Judah before the Babylonish captivity. When Jehoshaphat sent teachers through all Judah to instruct the people in the law of God, they carried the law with them; which they need not have done if there had been copies of the law in those cities where they went, which there would have been had there been synagogues in them, it being the same absurdity to suppose a synagogue without a book of the law, as to suppose a parish church without a copy of the Bible in it; and therefore as this proves the want of the law through all Judah, so it proves the want of synagogues in them also. And when Hilkiah found the law in the temple, neither he nor the king Josiah would have been surprised at it, had books of the law been common in those times. Their behavior on that occasion sufficiently proves that they had never seen it before, which could not have been the case had there been any copies of it to be found among the people; and if there were no copies of the law at that time among them, there could then be most certainly no synagogues for them to resort to for the hearing of it read. From hence it plainly follows that there could be no synagogues among the Jews till after the Babylonish captivity; and it is most probable that Ezra's reading to them the law, and the necessity which they perceived there was of having it oftener read to them, was the occasion of their erecting them after their captivity in the manner I have related; and most learned men are of this opinion, and some of the Jews themselves say as much. "Nehemiah, after having held the government of Judah twelve years, returned to the Persian court, either recalled thither by the king, or else going thither to solicit a new commission after the expiration of the former, [32 Artax. b.c. 433]. During all the time that he had been in the government he managed it with great justice, and supported the dignity of his office, through these whole twelve years, with a very expensive and hospitable magnificence; for there sat at his table every day a hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, besides strangers who came to Jerusalem from among the heathen nations round about them; for when occasion brought them thither, if they were of any quality, they were always invited to the governor's house, and there hospitably and splendidly entertained; so that there were provided for Nehemiah's table every day one ox, six choice sheep, and fowls and kine, with all other things in proportion, which must have been a great expense; yet all this he bore through the whole twelve years, out of his own private purse, without burdening the province at all for it, or taking any part of that allowance which before was raised by other governors to support them in their station; which argues his great generosity, as well as his great love and tenderness to the people of his nation, in thus easing them of this burden; and also his vast wealth, in being able to do so. The office which he had been in at court gave him the opportunity of amassing great riches, and he thought he could no better expend them than in the service of his country, and by doing all he could to promote its true interest in Church and state; and God prospered him in the work, according to the great zeal with which he labored in it. "Nehemiah, on his return to the Persian court, in the thirty-seventh year of Artaxerxes, [b.c. 428], having tarried there about five years in the execution, as it may be supposed, of his former office, at length obtained permission from the king to be sent back to Jerusalem with a new commission. The generality of chronologers as well as commentators on this part of Scripture make his going back there to have been much sooner; but considering the many and great corruptions which he tells us in the thirteenth chapter the Jews had run into during his absence, it cannot be conceived how, in less than five years' time, they could have grown to such a height among them. He had been twelve years in reforming what was amiss among them, and Ezra had been thirteen years doing the same before him; and they had brought their reformation to such a state of stability, that a little time would not have been sufficient to have unhinged it. It is indeed expressed in our English version, that Nehemiah came back from the Persian court to Jerusalem, after certain days; but the Hebrew word ימין yamin, which is there rendered days, signifies also years; and is in a great many places of the Hebrew Scriptures so used. About this time lived Malachi the prophet: the greatest of the corruptions he charged the Jews with are the same as those they had run into in the time of Nehemiah's absence; and therefore it is most probable that in this time his prophecies were delivered. It is certain that the temple was all finished, and every thing restored in it, before this time, for there are passages in his prophecies which clearly suppose it; for he does not charge the Jews with not restoring the temple, but their neglect of what pertained to the true worship of God in it. But at what time after the restoration of the temple it was that he wrote his prophecies, is nowhere stated; and therefore we have only conjecture about it, and I know of no conjecture that can place it with more probability than in the time I have mentioned. "Many things having gone wrong among the Jews during the absence of Nehemiah, as soon as he was again settled in the government, he applied himself with his accustomed zeal to correct them. That which he first took notice of was a great profanation which had been introduced into the temple for the sake of Tobiah the Ammonite. This man, though he had made two alliances with the Jews, (for Johanan his son had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah, who was one of the chief managers in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, under the direction of the governor, who himself had married the daughter of Shecaniah the son of Arah, another great man among the Jews), yet being an Ammonite, he bore a national hatred to all who were of the race of Israel; and therefore, envying their prosperity, did the utmost he could to obstruct Nehemiah in all that he did for the good of that people, and confederated with Sanballat, their greatest enemy, to carry on this purpose. However, by reason of the alliances I have mentioned, he had many correspondents among the Jews, who were favourers of him, and acted insidiously with Nehemiah on this account; but he, being aware of their devices, withstood and baffled them all, so long as he continued in Jerusalem. But when he went from thence to the Persian court, Eliashib the high priest was prevailed upon, being one in the confederacy and alliance with Tobiah, to allow and provide for him lodging within the temple itself. In order for which he removed the meat-offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of corn, the new wine, and the oil, which had been commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the offerings of the priests, out of the chambers where they used to be laid; and to make out of them one large apartment for the reception of this heathen stranger. It is doubted by some whether this Eliashib were Eliashib the high priest, or only another priest of that name; for he is named in the text, where this is related of him, by the title only of priest, and is there said to have the oversight of the chambers in the house of God; from whence it is argued that he was only chamberlain of the temple, and not the high priest, who was above such an office. But the oversight of the chambers of the house of God may import the whole government of the temple, which belonged to the high priest only; and it is not easily to be conceived how any one less than the absolute governor of the whole temple could make such an innovation in it. Besides, Eliashib the high priest has no character in Scripture with which such a procedure can be said to be inconsistent. By what is said in the book of Ezra, [Ezr 10:18], it appears that the pontifical family was in his time grown very corrupt; and there is no act of his mentioned, either in Ezra or Nehemiah, except only his assisting in the repairing of the wall of Jerusalem. Had he done any thing else worthy of memory in the reforming of what was amiss, either in Church or state, in the times of Ezra or Nehemiah, it may be presumed mention would have been made of it in the books written by them. The silence of him in both these books, as to any good act done by him, is a sufficient proof that there was none to be recorded; for the high priest being head of the Jewish Church, had he borne any part with those two good men, when they labored so much to reform that Church, it is utterly impossible that it should have been passed over in their writings, where they give an account of what was done in that reformation. What Jeshua his grandfather did, in concurrence with Zerubbabel the governor, and Haggai and Zechariah the prophets, in the resettling of the Church and state of the Jews, after their return from the Babylonish captivity, is all recorded in Scripture; and had Eliashib done any such thing in concurrence with Ezra and Nehemiah, we may be certain it would have been recorded also. "Putting all this together, it appears most likely that it was Eliashib the high priest who was the author of this great profanation of the house of God. What was done, however, the text tells us, Nehemiah immediately withstood, as soon as he returned to Jerusalem; for, overruling what the high priest had ordered to be done by the authority which he had as governor, he commanded all the household stuff of Tobiah to be cast out, and the chambers to be cleansed and restored to their former use. "The reading of the law to the people having been settled by Nehemiah, so as to be constantly carried on at certain stated times ever since it was begun under his government by Ezra, (probably on every Sabbath day), when in the course of their lessons they came to chap. 23 of Deuteronomy, where it is commanded that a Moabite or an Ammonite should not come into the congregation of the Lord even to the tenth generation for ever; Nehemiah, taking advantage of it, separated all the mixed multitude from the rest of the people, that thereby it might be known with whom a true Israelite might lawfully marry; for neither this law, nor any other of the like nature, is to be understood as excluding any, of whatever nation, from entering into the congregation as a proselyte, and becoming a member of their Church. Neither did the Jews so interpret it; for they freely received into their religion all who would embrace it, and on their conversion admitted them to all its rights and privileges, and treated them in all respects as true Israelites, excepting only in the case of marriage; and therefore this phrase in the text, of not entering into the congregation even to the tenth generation, must be understood to imply no more than a prohibition not to be married with them till then; and thus all the Jewish doctors expound it. "Among other corruptions that grew up during the absence of Nehemiah, one especially to be noticed was, the neglect of not carrying on the daily service of the house of God in the manner it ought; for the tithes, which were to maintain the ministers of the temple in their offices and stations, either being embezzled by the high priest or other rulers under him, or else subtracted by the laity, and not paid at all; for want of them the Levites and singers were driven from the temple, every one to his own house, there to seek for a subsistence some other way. This abuse the governor, whose piety led him always to attend to the public worship, could not be long without taking notice of, and when he had thoroughly informed himself of the cause, he soon provided very effectually for its remedy; for he again made those dues to be brought into the temple treasuries, and forced every man faithfully and fully to pay them; thus a maintenance being again provided for those who attended the service of the house of God, all was there again restored to its pristine order. And he also took care that the Sabbath should be duly observed, and made many good orders for the preventing of the profanation of it, and caused them all to be put into effectual execution. But though all these things are mentioned in one chapter, they were not all done at one time; but this good man brought them about as opportunities best served for the success of effecting them. In the same year [b.c. 425] in which Nehemiah went again to his government of Judea, from the Persian court, i. e., in the fourth year of the eighty-seventh Olympiad, Plato, the famous Athenian philosopher, was born, who came the nearest to the truth in Divine matters of any of the heathens; for, having in his travels to the East, (whither he went for his improvement in knowledge), conversed with the Jews, and got some insight into the writings of Moses, and their other sacred books, he learned many things from them which the other philosophers could not attain unto, and therefore he is said by Numenius to be none other than Moses speaking Greek; and many of the ancient fathers speak of him to the same purpose." With this book the general historical books of the Old Testament end; and the succeeding accounts of the Jewish people must be sought partly in the Apocryphal books, and in Josephus; but nowhere with so much perspicuity as in the remaining volumes of the industrious and judicious author of The Connected History of the Old and New Testaments, from which the reader has already had such copious extracts.

[¶7] Account of Nehemiah, [Neh 1:1]. His inquiry about the Jews that had returned from their captivity, and concerning the state of Jerusalem, of which he receives the most discouraging information, [Neh 1:2], [Neh 1:3]. He is greatly affected; fasts and prays, [Neh 1:4]. His prayer and confession to God, [Neh 1:5-11].

### Verse 1

[¶9] The words of Nehemiah - That this book was compiled out of the journal or memoranda made by Nehemiah himself, there can be no doubt: but that he was not the compiler is evident from several passages in the work it. self. As it is written consecutively as one book with Ezra, many have supposed that this latter was the author: but whoever compares the style of each, in the Hebrew, will soon be convinced that this is not correct; the style is so very different, that they could not possibly be the work of the same person.

[¶10] It is doubtful even whether the Nehemiah who is mentioned [Ezr 2:2], who came to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, be the same with him who is the reputed author of this book. By the computation of the best chronologists, Zerubbabel came to Jerusalem in A. M. 3468; and Nehemiah, who is here mentioned, did not come before the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, which falls in with A. M. 3558, ninety years after: and as his account here is carried down to A. M. 3570, nearly twenty years later, he must at his death have been about a hundred and thirty, allowing him to have been only twenty years old at the time that Zerubbabel went up to Jerusalem. This is by no means likely, as this would make him the king's cupbearer when he was upwards of a hundred years of age! It seems, therefore, evident that the Nehemiah of Ezra cannot be the same with the reputed author of this book, and the cup-bearer of the Persian king.

[¶11] Son of Hachaliah - Of what tribe or lineage he was, we cannot tell: this is all we know of his parentage. Some suppose he was a priest, and of the house of Aaron, on the authority of 2 Maccabees 1:18, 21; but this is but slender evidence. It is likely he was of a very eminent family, if not of the blood royal of Judah, as only persons of eminence could be placed in the office which he sustained in the Persian court.

[¶12] The month Chisleu - Answering to a part of our November and December.

[¶13] Twentieth year - That is, of Artaxerxes, A. M. 3558, b.c. 446.

[¶14] Shushan the palace - The ancient city of Susa; called in Persian Shuster: the winter residence of the Persian kings.

### Verse 2

[¶16] I asked them concerning the Jews - Josephus gives a probable account of this business: "Nehemiah, being somewhere out of Susa, seeing some strangers, and hearing them converse in the Hebrew tongue, he went near; and finding they were Jews from Jerusalem, he asked them how matters went with their brethren in that city, and what was their state?" And the answer they gave him is, in substance, that recorded in the text; though with several aggravations in Josephus. - Joseph. Ant. lib. xi., c. 5.

### Verse 3

[¶18] The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down - This must refer to the walls, which had been rebuilt after the people returned from their captivity: for it could not refer to the walls which were broken down and levelled with the dust by Nebuchadnezzar; for to hear of this could be no news to Nehemiah.

### Verse 4

[¶20] And mourned certain days - From the month Chisleu to the month Nisan; about four months from the time he received the above information, till the time that Artaxerxes noticed his grief, [Neh 2:1]. All this time he probably spent in supplication to God; waiting for a favorable opening in the Divine providence. Every good work is not to be undertaken hastily; prayer and watchfulness are necessary to its completion. Many good works have been ruined by making haste.

### Verse 5

[¶22] Lord God of heaven - What was, before the captivity, Jehovah, God of hosts or armies.

[¶23] Great - Able to do mighty things.

[¶24] Terrible - able to inflict the heaviest judgments.

### Verse 6

[¶26] Let thine ear - Hear what we say and confess.

[¶27] Thine eyes open - see what we suffer.

### Verse 7

[¶29] Have not kept thy commandments - The moral precepts by which our lives should be regulated.

[¶30] Statutes - What refers to the rites and ceremonies of thy religion.

[¶31] Judgments - The precepts of justice relative to our conduct to each other.

### Verse 8

[¶33] Thy servant Moses - See the parallel places in [Lev 26:33] (note), [Deu 4:25-27] (note), [Deu 28:64] (note), and the notes there. Though in an enemy's country, and far from the ordinances of God, Nehemiah did not forget the law: he read his Bible well, and quotes correctly.

### Verse 11

[¶35] Mercy in the sight of this man - Favour before the king, Ahasuerus. He seems then to have been giving him the cup.

[¶36] For I was the king's cup-bearer - The king's butler, (the Persians call him saky), which gave him the opportunity of being frequently with the king; and to be in such a place of trust, he must be in the king's confidence. No Eastern potentate would have a cup-bearer with whom he could not trust his life, poison being frequently administered in this way. This verse seems to have been a mental prayer, which Nehemiah now put up as he was delivering the cup into the king's hand.

### Introduction

[¶38] Artaxerxes, observing the sorrow of Nehemiah, inquires into the cause, [Neh 2:1], [Neh 2:2]. Nehemiah shows him the cause, and requests permission to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, [Neh 2:3-6]. The king grants it, and gives him letters to the governors beyond the river, [Neh 2:7], [Neh 2:8]. He sets out on his journey, [Neh 2:9]. Sanballat and Tobiah are grieved to find he had got such a commission, [Neh 2:10]. He comes to Jerusalem; and, without informing any person of his business, examines by night the state of the city, [Neh 2:11-16]. He informs the priests, nobles, and rulers, of his design and commission, [Neh 2:17], [Neh 2:18]. The design is turned into contempt by Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, [Neh 2:19]. Nehemiah gives them a suitable answer, [Neh 2:20].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Month Nisan - Answering to a part of our March and April.

[¶41] I took up the wine - It is supposed that the kings of Persia had a different cup-bearer for each quarter of the year, and that it had just now come to Nehemiah's turn.

### Verse 2

[¶43] Then I was very sore afraid - Probably the king spoke as if he had some suspicion that Nehemiah harboured some bad design, and that his face indicated some conceived treachery or remorse.

## 452. Nehemiah · 2 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/452/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/452/#p-N

### Verse 3

[¶1] Let the king live for ever - Far from wishing ill to my master, I wish him on the contrary to live and prosper for ever. Aelian, Hist. Var. lib. i. c. 32, uses the same form of speech in reference to Artaxerxes Mnemon, one of the Persian kings, Βασιλευ Αρταξερξη, δι' αιωνος βασιλευοις, "O King Artaxerxes, may you reign for ever," when speaking of the custom of presenting them annually with an offering of earth and water; as if they had said, May you reign for ever over these!

### Verse 4

[¶3] So I prayed to the God of heaven - Before he dared to prefer his request to the king, he made his prayer to God, that his suit might be acceptable: and this he does by mental prayer. To the spirit of prayer every place is a praying place.

### Verse 5

[¶5] The city of my fathers' sepulchres - The tombs of the dead were sacred among the ancients, and nothing could appear to them more detestable than disturbing the ashes or remains of the dead. Nehemiah knew that in mentioning this circumstance he should strongly interest the feelings of the Persian king.

### Verse 6

[¶7] The queen also sitting by him - Who probably forwarded his suit. This was not Esther, as Dean Prideaux supposes, nor perhaps the same Artaxerxes who had taken her to be queen; nor does שגל shegal signify queen, but rather harlot or concubine, she who was chief favourite. The Septuagint translate it παλλακη, harlot; and properly too. See the introduction.

[¶8] I set him a time - How long this time was we are not told; it is by no means likely that it was long, probably no more than six months or a year; after which he either returned, or had his leave of absence lengthened; for in the same year we find he was made governor of the Jews, in which office he continued twelve years, viz., from the twentieth to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, [Neh 5:14]. He then returned to Susa; and after staying a short time, had leave to return to rectify some abuses that Tobiah the Ammonite had introduced into the temple, [Neh 13:6], [Neh 13:7], and several others of which the people themselves were guilty. After having performed this service, it is likely he returned to the Persian king, and died in his office of cup-bearer; but of this latter circumstance we have no mention in the text.

### Verse 8

[¶10] Asaph the keeper of the king's forest - הפרדס hapardes of the paradise of the king. This I believe is originally a Persian word; it frequently occurs in Arabic, ferdoos, and in Greek, παραδεισος, and in both signifies a pleasant garden, vineyard, pleasure garden, and what we call a paradise.

[¶11] Above the hall of audience, in the imperial palace at Dehli, the following Persian couplet is inscribed: - "If there be a paradise on the face of the earth, this is it, this is it, this is it."

[¶12] Thus we find that the word is applied to denote splendid apartments, as well as fine gardens; in a word, any place of pleasure and delight. The king's forest mentioned in the text might have been the same to Artaxerxes, as the New Forest was to William the Conqueror, or Windsor Forest to the late amiable sovereign of the British people, George the Third.

[¶13] And the king granted me, etc. - This noble spirited man attributes every thing to God. He might have said, I had been long a faithful servant to the king; and he was disposed, in reward of my fidelity, to grant my request; but he would not say so: "He granted my request, because the good hand of my God was upon me." God favored me, and influenced the king's heart to do what I desired.

### Verse 10

[¶15] Sanballat the Horonite - Probably a native of Horonaim, a Moabite by birth, and at this time governor of the Samaritans under the king of Persia.

[¶16] Tobiah the servant - He was an Ammonite; and here, under the Persian king, joint governor with Sanballat. Some suppose that the Sanballat here mentioned was the same who persuaded Alexander to build a temple on Mount Gerizim in favor of the Samaritans. Pelagius thinks there were two governors of this name.

### Verse 13

[¶18] The dragon well - Perhaps so called because of the representation of a dragon, out of whose mouth the stream issued that proceeded from the well.

[¶19] Dung port - This was the gate on the eastern side of the city, through which the filth of the city was carried into the valley of Hinnom.

### Verse 14

[¶21] The gate of the fountain - Of Siloah.

[¶22] The king's pool - Probably the aqueduct made by Hezekiah, to bring the waters of Gihon to the city of David. See [2Chr 32:30].

### Verse 15

[¶24] By the brook - Kidron.

[¶25] By the gate of the Valley - The valley through which the brook Kidron flowed. It was by this gate he went out; so he went all round the city, and entered by the same gate from which he had gone out.

### Verse 16

[¶27] The rulers knew not whither I went - He made no person privy to his design, that he might hide every thing as much as possible from their enemies till he had all things in readiness; lest they should take measures to defeat the work.

### Verse 18

[¶29] Then I told them - He opened to them his design and his commission.

### Verse 19

[¶31] Geshem the Arabian - Some chief of the Arabs contiguous to Samaria, who had joined with Sanballat and Tobiah to distress the Jews, and hinder their work.

[¶32] Will ye rebel against the king? - This they said in order to raise jealousies in the king's mind, and induce him to recall his ordinance.

### Verse 20

[¶34] Ye have no portion, nor right - To be a citizen of Jerusalem was a high honor; and they would not permit those who did not belong to the tribes of Israel to dwell there. Zerubbabel gave the same answer to the Samaritans, [Ezr 4:3].

### Introduction

[¶36] The names of those who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem; and the part assigned to each person, vv. 1-32.

### Verse 1

[¶38] Eliashib the high priest - It was right that the priests should be first in this holy work; and perhaps the sheep gate which is mentioned here is that by which the offerings or sacrifices were brought into the temple.

[¶39] They sanctified it - As they began with the sacred offering as soon as they got an altar built, it was proper that the gate by which these sacrifices entered should be consecrated for this purpose, i. e., set apart, so that it should be for this use only.

### Verse 3

[¶41] The fish gate - We really know scarcely any thing about these gates - what they were, why called by these names, or in what part of the wall situated. All plans of Jerusalem, its temple, walls, and gates, are mere works of conjecture; and yet how learnedly have some men written on all these subjects!

### Verse 7

[¶43] The throne of the governor - His house, and the place where he dispensed justice and judgment. Previously to the days of Nehemiah, Jerusalem was governed by a deputy from the Persian king; (see [Neh 5:15]); but after this time they were governed by governors and judges chosen from among themselves.

### Verse 8

[¶45] Goldsmiths - From the remotest period of the history of the Jews they had artists in all elegant and ornamental trades; and it is also evident that goldsmiths, apothecaries, and merchants were formed into companies in the time of Nehemiah.

## 453. Nehemiah · 3 of 14

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[¶0] Apothecaries - Rather such as dealt in drugs, aromatics, spices, etc., for embalming, or for furnishing the temple with the incense consumed there.

### Verse 9

[¶2] Ruler of the half part of Jerusalem - Probably the city was divided into two parts; one for Judah, and the other for Benjamin, each having its proper governor. Rephaiah mentioned here was one of these governors, and Shallum, mentioned [Neh 3:12], was the other. There were other rulers or governors of particular country or village districts.

### Verse 11

[¶4] Repaired the other piece - That which was left by Jedaiah after he had repaired the wall opposite to his own house. Probably some of the principal people were obliged to repair those parts of the wall opposite to their own dwellings. Perhaps this was the case generally.

### Verse 12

[¶6] The son of Halohesh - Or, the son of the Enchanter: conjectured to be thus named from having the art to charm serpents.

[¶7] The ruler of the half part - See on [Neh 3:9] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶9] The inhabitants of Zanoah - This was a town in the tribe of Judah. [Jos 15:34].

### Verse 14

[¶11] Beth-haccerem - A village or town in the tribe of Benjamin. See [Jer 6:1].

### Verse 15

[¶13] The pool of Siloah - This is probably the same as that mentioned by the evangelists.

[¶14] The stairs that go down from the city of David - Jerusalem being built on very uneven ground, and some hills being taken within the walls; there was a necessity that there should be in different places steps by which they could ascend and descend: probably similar to what we see in the city of Bristol.

### Verse 16

[¶16] The pool that was made - Calmet supposes that this was the reservoir made by Hezekiah, when besieged by Sennacherib, [2Chr 32:4].

[¶17] The house of the mighty - Probably a place where a band of soldiers was kept, or the city guard.

### Verse 19

[¶19] The going up to the armoury - This was either a tower that defended the angle where the two walls met; or the city arsenal, where shields, spears, etc., were kept to arm the people in time of danger.

### Verse 20

[¶21] Earnestly repaired - He distinguished himself by his zeal and activity.

### Verse 22

[¶23] The priests, the men of the plain - Some of the officers of the temple, particularly the singers, dwelt in the plain country round about Jerusalem, [Neh 12:28]; and it is likely that several of the priests dwelt in the same place.

### Verse 28

[¶25] The horse gate - The place through which the horses passed in order to be watered; It was near the temple. Some rabbins suppose that in order to go to the temple, a person might go on horseback to the place here referred to, but then was obliged to alight, as a horse could pass no farther. Horses were never very plentiful in Jerusalem.

### Verse 32

[¶27] The goldsmiths and the merchants - The word הצרפים hatstsorephim may signify smiths, or persons who worked in metals of any kind; but it is generally understood to mean those who worked in gold. I have already observed, that the mention of merchants and goldsmiths shows that these persons were formed into bodies corporate in those ancient times. But these terms are differently rendered in the versions. The Vulgate is the same as ours, which probably our translators copied: aurifices et negociatores. The Syriac is, goldsmiths and druggists. The Arabic, smelters of metal and porters. The Septuagint, in some copies, particularly in the Roman edition, and in the Complutensian, Antwerp, and Paris Polyglots, have οἱ χαλκεις και οἱ μεταβολι, smiths and merchants; but in other copies, particularly the London Polyglot, for μεταβολοι we find ῥωποπωλαι, seller of shields. And here the learned reader will find a double mistake in the London Polyglot, ῥοποπωλαι for ῥωποπωλαι, and in the Latin version scruta for scuta, neither of which conveys any sense.

### Introduction

[¶29] Sanballat and Tobiah mock the Jews, and endeavor to prevent the completing of the wall, [Neh 4:1-3]. Nehemiah prays against them, and the people complete one half of the wall, [Neh 4:4-6]. The Arabians, Ammonites, and Ashdodites, conspire together, and come to fight against the Jews, [Neh 4:7], [Neh 4:8]. The Jews commend themselves to God, and determine to fight for their lives and liberties; on hearing of which their enemies are disheartened, [Neh 4:9-16]. The Jews divide themselves into two bands; one half working, and the other standing ready armed to meet their enemies. Even the workmen are obliged to arm themselves, while employed in building, for fear of their enemies, [Neh 4:17], [Neh 4:18]. Nehemiah uses all precautions to prevent a surprise; and all labor with great fervor in the work, [Neh 4:19-22].

### Verse 2

[¶31] The army of Samaria - As he was governor, he had the command of the army, and he wished to excite the soldiers to second his views against Nehemiah and his men.

[¶32] What do these feeble Jews? - We may remark here, in general, that the enemies of God's work endeavor by all means to discredit and destroy it, and those who are employed in it.

[¶33] 1. They despise the workmen: What do these feeble Jews?

[¶34] 2. They endeavor to turn all into ridicule: Will they fortify themselves?

[¶35] 3. They have recourse to lying: If a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.

[¶36] 4. They sometimes use fair but deceitful speeches; see [Neh 6:2], etc.

### Verse 4

[¶38] Turn their reproach upon their own head - A prayer of this kind, understood literally, is not lawful for any Christian. Jesus, our great master, has said, "Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that despitefully use you." Such sayings as the above are excusable in the mouth of a Jew, under severe irritation. See the next verse, [Neh 4:5] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶40] Let not their sin be blotted out - These are the most terrible imprecations; but probably we should understand them as declaratory, for the same form of the verb, in the Hebrew, is used as precative and imperative. Turn their reproach - Their reproach shall be turned. Give them for a prey - They shall be given for a prey. Cover not their iniquity - Their iniquity shall not be covered. Let not their sin be blotted out - Their sin shall not be blotted out. All who know the genius of the Hebrew language, know that the future tense is used to express all these senses. Besides, we may rest assured that Nehemiah's curses, or declaration of God's judgments, had respect only to their bodies, and to their life: not to their souls and the world to come. And then they amount to no more than this: What a man soweth that he shall reap.

### Verse 6

[¶42] For the people had a mind to work - The original is very emphatic: ויהי לב לעם לעשות vayehi leb leam laasoth, "For the people had a heart to work." Their hearts were engaged in it; and where the heart is engaged, the work of God goes on well. The whole of this 6th verse is omitted by the Septuagint.

### Verse 7

[¶44] The walls of Jerusalem were made up - That is, they were made up to the half height of the wall; for the preceding verse seems to intimate that the whole wall was thus far built; not half of the wall completed, but the whole wall built to half its height.

## 454. Nehemiah · 4 of 14

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### Verse 9

[¶1] We made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch - The strongest confidence in the protection and favor of God does not preclude the use of all or any of the means of self-preservation and defense which his providence has put in our power. While God works in us to will and to do, we should proceed to willing, through the power he has given us to will; and we should proceed to action, through the power he has given us to act. We cannot will, but through God's power; we cannot act, but through God's strength. The power, and the use of it, are two distinct things. We may have the power to will, and not will; and we may have the power to do, and not act: therefore, says the apostle, seeing God has wrought in you these powers, see that You Work Out Your Own salvation, with fear and trembling.

### Verse 10

[¶3] The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed - They worked both day and night, scarcely ever putting off their clothes, except for the purpose of being washed, [Neh 4:21], [Neh 4:23].

[¶4] Much rubbish - The ruins they were obliged to clear away, before they could dig the foundation for a new wall: and in this labor they were nearly exhausted; see [Neh 5:15].

### Verse 12

[¶6] From all places whence ye shall return unto us - This verse is extremely difficult. Our translators have supplied the words, they will be upon you, which have nothing correspondent in the Hebrew. The Septuagint have given a good sense, Αναβαινουσιν εκ παντων των τοπων εφ' ἡμας, They come up from all places against us. The sense appears to be this: the Jews which dwelt among the Samaritans, etc., came often to Nehemiah from all quarters, where they sojourned, and told him the designs of his enemies against him: therefore, he set people with their swords, spears, and bows, to defend the walls. It is probable that instead of תשובו tashubu, "ye shall return," we should read חשבו chashebu, "they designed or meditated." This word is very similar to the other, and makes the sense very clear. "The Jews who dwelt among them told us frequently, from all places, what they designed against us." For this reading Houbigant, Michaelis and Dath contend. But this various reading is not found in any MS., and is not countenanced by any of the versions. See [Neh 4:15].

### Verse 14

[¶8] Be not ye afraid of them - Are they more terrible or stronger than God?

[¶9] Fight for your brethren - Your own countrymen, who worship the same God, and are come from the same stock; your sons, whom they wish to slay or lead into captivity; your daughters and wives, whom they wish to deflower and defile; and your houses, which they wish to seize and occupy as their own. They had every thing at stake; and therefore they must fight pro aris et focis, for their religion, their lives, and their property. A people thus interested, who once take up the sword, can never be conquered.

[¶10] There is an address made to the Greeks by their leader in Aeschylus, Pers. ver. 402, similar to this, to excite them against the Persians: - - Ω Παιδες Ἑλληνων, ιτε, Ελευθερουτε πατριδ,ελευθερουτε δε Παιδας, γυνιακας, θεων ρε πατρῳων ἑδη, Θηκας τε προγονων· νυν ὑπερ παντων αγων. " - Sons of the Greeks, go on!

[¶11] Free now your country, and your children free;

[¶12] Your wives, the temples of your fathers' gods,

[¶13] And dear abodes of farthest ancestors: -

[¶14] Now strike the blow for all!"

[¶15] J. B. B. C.

### Verse 15

[¶17] Their counsel to naught - The word counsel used here countenances the emendation in the 12th verse.

### Verse 16

[¶19] Half - wrought in the work - This is no unusual thing, even in the present day, in Palestine: people sowing their seed are often attended by an armed man, to prevent the Arabs from robbing them of their seed, which they will not fail to do if not protected.

[¶20] Habergeons - In the Franco-Gallic, hautbergon signifies a coat of mail; but as in Teutonic hais signifies the neck, and bergen, to cover or defend; it may be considered rather as signifying a breastplate, or armor for the breast.

### Verse 17

[¶22] With one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon - That is, he had his arms at hand, and was as fully prepared to fight as to work. So Ovid, Epist. xi., Canace Macario, ver. 1: -

[¶23] Si qua tamen caecis errabunt scripta lituris,

[¶24] Oblitus a dominae caede libellus erit:

[¶25] Dextra tenet calamum; strictum tenet altera ferrum:

[¶26] Et jacet in gremio charta soluta meo.

[¶27] If streaming blood my fatal letter stain,

[¶28] Imagine, ere you read, the writer slain.

[¶29] One hand the sword, and one the pen employs,

[¶30] And in my lap the ready paper lies.

[¶31] Dryden.

[¶32] By this mode of speech Canace does not intimate to her brother Macarius, that she actually held the sword in one hand while she held the pen in the other, but that she had it ready to slay herself as soon as she had written the epistle.

### Verse 20

[¶34] Ye hear the sound of the trumpet - As the walls were very extensive, and the workmen consequently much scattered, their enemies might easily attack and destroy them successively, he therefore ordered them all to work as near to each other as they could; and himself, who was everywhere surveying the work, kept a trumpeter always with him, who was to sound when the enemy approached; and all were instantly to run to the place where they heard the sound.

### Verse 22

[¶36] Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem - The country people were accustomed, after their day's labor, to return to their families; now being so formidably threatened, he obliged them all to sleep in Jerusalem, that they might be ready, in case of attack, to help their brethren. All this man's arrangements were wise and judicious.

### Verse 23

[¶38] None of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing - The Hebrew for all this is only אין אנחנו פשטים בגדינו איש שלחו המים ein anachnu poshetim begadeynu ish shilcho hammayim; which Montanus translates, Non nos exuentes vestes nostras, vir missile suum aquas; "We, not putting off our garments, a man his dart to the waters." Of this latter clause what sense can be made? Let us hear what the ancient versions say.

[¶39] The Vulgate, Unusquisque tantum nudabatur ad baptismum, "Every one stripped himself for the bath."

[¶40] The Septuagint omit the latter part of this clause, And there was none of us who put off his garments.

[¶41] The Syriac, "None of us put off his clothes for a month each in his turn.

[¶42] The Arabic, "Nor did we put off our clothes, but with our arms, at the end of a month."

[¶43] There is a remarkable reading in one of De Rossi's MSS. אין אנחנו פשטים בגדינו משלחהעל המים, We did not lay aside our garments, but in order to send them to the washing. This is most likely the sense of the place.

[¶44] It is curious to see how our old versions translate the place.

## 455. Nehemiah · 5 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/455/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/455/#p-N

[¶0] Coverdale: We put never of our clothes, so much as to wash ourselves. - 1535.

[¶1] Becke: We put never of our clothes, so muche as to washe ourselves. - 1549.

[¶2] Cardmarden: We put never of oure clothes no more than the other dyd theyr harnesse, save onely bycause of the water. - 1566.

[¶3] This shows how all interpreters have been puzzled with this vexatious clause.

[¶4] The reading from De Rossi's MS., given above, is the most likely to be the true one, because it gives a good sense, which cannot be found in the Hebrew text as it now stands. The general meaning is sufficiently evident; they worked nearly day and night, only had their hours by turns for repose; this did not permit them time sufficient to undress themselves in order to take regular sleep, therefore they only put off their clothes when they were obliged to get them washed.

### Introduction

[¶6] The people complain that they are oppressed and enthralled by their richer brethren, [Neh 5:1-3]. Nehemiah calls them to account; upbraids them for their cruelty; and obliges them to swear that they will forgive the debts, restore the mortgaged estates, and free their servants, [Neh 5:4-13]. Nehemiah's generosity and liberality, [Neh 5:14-17]. The daily provision for his table, [Neh 5:18], [Neh 5:19].

### Verse 2

[¶8] We, our sons, and our daughters, are many - Our families are larger than we can provide for; we are obliged to go in debt; and our richer brethren take advantage of our necessitous situation, and oppress us. The details which are given in the next verse are sufficiently plain.

### Verse 3

[¶10] Because of the dearth - About the time of Zerubbabel, God had sent a judicial dearth upon the land, as we learn from Haggai, [Hag 1:9], etc., for the people it seems were more intent on building houses for themselves than on rebuilding the house of the Lord: "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it is come to little; because of mine house that is waste; and ye run, every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brought forth; and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands." This dearth might have been continued, or its effects still felt; but it is more likely that there was a new dearth owing to the great number of people, for whose support the land that had been brought into cultivation was not sufficient.

### Verse 4

[¶12] We have borrowed money - This should be read, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute on our lands and vineyards. They had a tax to pay to the Persian king in token of their subjection to him, and though it is not likely it was heavy, yet they were not able to pay it.

### Verse 5

[¶14] We bring in to bondage our sons - The law permitted parents to sell their children in times of extreme necessity, [Exo 21:7].

### Verse 7

[¶16] Ye exact usury - This was expressly contrary to the law of God; and was doubly cruel at this time, when they were just returning out of the land of their captivity, and were suffering from the effects of a dearth. Some think that it was about the time of a Sabbatical year, when their land must have lain at rest without cultivation, and during which they were expressly commanded not to exact any debt. [Deu 15:2].

[¶17] I set a great assembly against them - Brought all these delinquents before the rulers of the people.

### Verse 9

[¶19] Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God - If ye wish to accredit that religion ye profess which comes from the God of justice and mercy; should you not, in the sight of the heathen, abstain from injustice and cruelty? Can they credit your profession, when they see such practices? The inconsistent conduct of some professors of religion does much harm in the Church of God.

### Verse 11

[¶21] Also the hundredth part of the money - Houbigant contends,

[¶22] 1. That the word מאת meath, which we and the Vulgate translate one hundredth part, never means so anywhere; and

[¶23] 2. That it would have answered no end to have remitted to people so distressed merely the one hundredth part of the money which had been taken from them by usury.

[¶24] He understands מאת meath as signifying the same as מן את min eth, contracted into מאת meeth, a preposition and demonstrative particle joined together, also a part From The money. Neither the Syriac, Septuagint, nor Arabic acknowledges this hundredth part. Some think that the hundredth part is that which they obliged the poor debtors to pay each month, which would amount to what we would call twelve per cent. interest for the money lent, or the debt contracted. See the introduction.

### Verse 13

[¶26] Also I shook my lap - This was a significant action frequent among the Hebrews; and something of the same nature was practiced among other nations. "When the Roman ambassadors entered the senate of Carthage, they had their toga gathered up in their bosom. They said, We carry here peace and war; you may have which you will. The senate answered, You may give which you please. They then shook their toga, and said, We bring you war. To which all the senate answered, We cheerfully accept it." See Livy. lib. xxi., cap. 18; and see Calmet.

### Verse 14

[¶28] I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor. - From what is related here, and in the following verse, we find that the table of the governor was always supplied by the people with bread and wine; and, besides, they had forty shekels per diem for their other expenses. The people were also greatly oppressed by the servants and officers of the governor; but, during the twelve years that Nehemiah had been with them, he took not this salary, and ate none of their bread. Nor were his servants permitted to take or exact any thing from them. Having such an example, it was scandalous for their chiefs, priests, and nobles, thus to oppress an afflicted and distressed people.

### Verse 16

[¶30] Neither bought we any land - Neither he nor his officers took any advantage of the necessities of the people, to buy their lands, etc. He even made his own servants to work at the wall.

### Verse 17

[¶32] A hundred and fifty of the Jews - He kept open house, entertained all comers; besides having one hundred and fifty Jews who had their food constantly at his table, and at his expense. To be able to bear all these expenses, no doubt Nehemiah had saved money while he was cup-bearer to the Persian king in Susa.

### Verse 18

[¶34] One ox, and six choice sheep - This was food sufficient for more than two hundred men.

[¶35] Once in ten days store of all sorts of wine - It is supposed that every tenth day they drank wine; at all other times they drank water; unless we suppose the meaning of the phrase to be, that his servants laid in a stock of wine every ten days. Though the Asiatics drank sparingly of wine, yet it is not very likely that, in a case such as that above, wine was tasted only thrice in each month.

[¶36] Bishop Pococke mentions the manner in which the bey of Tunis lived. He had daily twelve sheep, with fish, fowls, soups, oranges, eggs, onions, boiled rice, etc., etc., His nobles dined with him; after they had done, the servants sat down; and, when they had finished, the poor took what was left. Here is no mention of a fat ox; but there were six sheep at the bey's table more than were at the table of Nehemiah: so the twelve sheep were equal to six sheep and one ox. Probably the mode of living between these two was nearly alike.

### Verse 19

[¶38] Think upon me, my God, for good - Nehemiah wishes for no reward from man; and he only asks mercy at the hand of his God for what his providence enabled him to do; and which, according to the good hand of his God upon him, he had done faithfully. He does not offer his good deeds to God in extenuation of his sins, or as a compensation for the heaven he expected. Nothing of the kind: he simply says, what any good man might say, My God, as I have done good to them, so do good to me; or as the poet has sung: - "Teach me to feel another's wo,

[¶39] To hide the fault I see:

[¶40] The mercy I to others show,

[¶41] That mercy show to me!"

[¶42] Pope.

[¶43] This is according to the precept of Christ: "Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given unto you."

## 456. Nehemiah · 6 of 14

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### Introduction

[¶1] Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, insidiously desire a conference with Nehemiah, which he refuses, [Neh 6:1-4]. They then charge him with the design of rebelling, and causing himself to be made king, [Neh 6:5-7]; which he denies, and prays to God for support, [Neh 6:8], [Neh 6:9]. A false prophet is hired by Tobiah and Sanballat, to put him in fear; he discovers the imposture, and defeats their design, [Neh 6:10-13]. He prays to God against them, [Neh 6:14]. The wall is finished in fifty-two days, [Neh 6:15]. He discovers a secret and treasonable correspondence between Tobiah and some of the Jewish nobles, [Neh 6:16-19].

### Verse 2

[¶3] Come, let us meet together in - the plain of Ono - They wished to get him out of Jerusalem from among his friends, that they might either carry him off, or murder him. Ono is supposed to have been in the tribe of Benjamin, near Jordan.

### Verse 3

[¶5] I am doing a great work - Though he knew their design, he does not think it prudent to mention it. Had he done so, they would probably have gone to extremities, finding that they were discovered; and perhaps in a formidable body attacked Jerusalem, when ill provided to sustain such a shock. They wished to effect their purpose rather by treachery than by open violence. I know not any language which a man who is employed on important labors can use more suitably, as an answer to the thousand invitations and provocations he may have to remit his work, enter into useless or trivial conferences, or notice weak, wicked, and malicious attacks on his work and his motives: "I am doing a great work, so I cannot stoop to your nonsense, or notice your malevolence. Why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to such as you?"

### Verse 5

[¶7] With an open letter in his hand - This was an insult to a person of Nehemiah's quality: as letters sent to chiefs and governors in the East are always carefully folded up, and put in costly silken bags, and these carefully sealed. The circumstance is thus marked to show the contempt he (Sanballat) had for him.

### Verse 6

[¶9] And Gashmu saith it - You are accused of crimes against the state, and Geshem, the Arabian, is your accuser.

### Verse 7

[¶11] Thou hast also appointed prophets - Persons who pretend to be commissioned to preach to the people, and say, Nehemiah reigneth!

[¶12] Come now therefore, and let us take counsel - Come and justify yourself before me. This was a trick to get Nehemiah into his power.

### Verse 8

[¶14] There are no such things done - You well know that what you say is false: I shall not, therefore, trouble myself about a false charge.

### Verse 10

[¶16] Who was shut up - Lived in a sequestered, solitary state; pretending to sanctity, and to close intercourse with God.

[¶17] Let us meet together in the house of God - The meaning is, "Shut yourself up in the temple; appear to have taken sanctuary there, for in it alone can you find safety." This he said to discourage and disgrace him, and to ruin the people; for, had Nehemiah taken his advice, the people would have been without a leader, their enemies would have come upon them at once, and they would have been an easy prey. Besides, had Nehemiah done this, he would have been shut up in the temple, his government would have been declared at an end, and Sanballat would have assumed the reins.

### Verse 11

[¶19] Should such a man as I flee? - Shall I, who am governor of the people, appointed both by God and the king, shall I betray my trust, and leave the flock without a shepherd? Shall I be a traitor, and abandon the office to which I am appointed? - No! Who, in my situation, with such responsibility, and such prospects, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not: I will stand at my post, and be ready to receive my enemies whensoever they come; so let Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem look to themselves.

### Verse 14

[¶21] And on the prophetess Noadiah - Whether this was a prophet or prophetess, we cannot tell; the Hebrew text only makes her a prophetess; all the versions have Noadiah the prophet, except the Arabic which has Younadaa the prophet. I think the ה he at the end of נביאה nebiah is a mistake, and that we should read Noadiah the prophet.

### Verse 15

[¶23] The twenty and fifth - of - Elul - This Jewish month answers to a part of our August and September.

[¶24] Fifty and two days - I see no difficulty in supposing that several thousand workmen, each of whom was working as for God, should be able to complete this wall in fifty-two days. There is little doubt that several parts of the old wall were entire; in many places the foundations still remained; there were all the materials of the old wall still at hand; and though they had to clear and carry away much rubbish, yet they do not appear to have had any stones to quarry. The work mentioned here was little when compared to what Caesar did in Gaul and other places; and to what Titus did at Jerusalem, who built a wall round Jerusalem of five thousand paces in three days, besides, thirteen towers of ten stadia in circuit. And Quintus Curtius and Arrian inform us that Alexander the Great built the walls of Alexandria, on the Tanais, which were nearly eight miles in compass, in the space of between twenty and thirty days. Nehemiah therefore had time sufficient in fifty-two days to repair and restore the walls of Jerusalem. See Calmet on this place.

### Verse 16

[¶26] This work was wrought of our God - This is an additional reason why we should not wonder at the shortness of the time in which so great a work was done, for God helped them by an especial providence; and this was so very observable, that their carnal enemies could discover it.

### Verse 17

[¶28] The nobles of Judah sent many letters - The circumstances marked in this and the following verses show still more clearly the difficulties which Nehemiah had to encounter; he had enemies without and false friends within. A treacherous correspondence was carried on between the nobles of Judah and the Ammonites; and had almost any other man been at the head of the Jewish affairs, Jerusalem had never been re-established.

### Verse 18

[¶30] He was the son-in-law of Shechaniah - Previously to the coming of Nehemiah, the Jews seemed to be fast intermixing with the heathen, by intermarriages with Ashdodites, Ammonites, and Moabites; see [Neh 13:23]. Ezra had many evils of this kind to redress, ([Ezr 9:3], etc.), chiefly among the common people, though there were both chiefs and priests in that trespass. But here we find the heathen and Jewish nobles interlinked; and the latter were so far imbued with the spirit of idolatry, that they forgot God, his service, their brethren, and their own souls.

### Introduction

[¶32] Nehemiah makes use of proper precautions in guarding the city gates, [Neh 7:1-4]. He proposes to reckon the people according to their genealogies; and finds a register of those who came out of Babylon, with Zerubbabel, [Neh 7:5-7]. A transcript of the register, vv. 8-60. Account of those who came from other provinces; and of priests who, because they could not show their register, were put away from the priesthood as polluted, [Neh 7:61-65]. The sum total of the congregation: of their men-servants and maid-servants; singing men and women; horses, mules, camels, and asses, [Neh 7:66-69]. The sums given by different persons for the work, [Neh 7:70-72]. All betake themselves to their several cities, [Neh 7:73].

### Verse 2

[¶34] My brother Hanani - This was the person who gave Nehemiah the account of the desolate state of the Jews, [Neh 1:2]. He is now made ruler of Jerusalem, probably because Nehemiah was about to return to the Persian court. And he found this man to be one in whom he could trust:

[¶35] 1. Because he was a faithful man - one who had a proper belief in God, his government, and his protection; and being devoted to the interests of his people, would be faithful in the discharge of his office.

[¶36] 2. Because he feared God above many - was the most religious person in the congregation; would govern according to the laws; would take care of the interests of pure religion; would not oppress, take bribes, nor abuse his authority; but act in all things as one who had the fear of God continually before his eyes. These are the proper qualifications of a governor.

### Verse 3

[¶38] Until the sun be hot - The meaning of this is, the gates were not to be opened before sunrise, and always shut at sunset. This is the custom to the present day in many of the cities of the East if a traveler arrives after sunset, he finds the gates shut; and on no consideration will they open them till the next morning, so that those who come late are obliged to lodge in the plain, or under the walls.

[¶39] Every one - over against his house - Each was obliged to guard that part of the wall that was opposite to his own dwelling.

### Verse 4

[¶41] The houses were not builded - The city was not yet rebuilt, only a row of houses in the inside of the wall all round.

### Verse 5

[¶43] God put into mine heart - With this good man every good thing was of God. If he purposed any good, it was because God put it into his heart; if he did any good, it was because the good hand of his God was upon him; if he expected any good, it was because he earnestly prayed God to remember him for good. Thus, in all his ways he acknowledged God, and God directed all his steps.

### Verse 7

[¶45] Who came with Zerubbabel - The register which he found was that of the persons only who came long before Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Joshua the son of Josedek, which register could not answer in every respect to the state of the people then. Several persons and families were no doubt dead, and others had arrived since. Nehemiah probably altered it only in such parts, leaving the body of it as it was before; and this will account for the difference between it and the register that is found in Ezra, chap. 2.

## 457. Nehemiah · 7 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/457/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/457/#p-N

### Verse 8

[¶1] The children of Parosh - As this chapter is almost entirely the same with the second chapter of the book of Ezra, it is not necessary to add any thing to what is said there; and to that chapter, and the accompanying notes, the reader is requested to refer.

### Verse 19

[¶3] The children of Bigval, two thousand threescore and seven - Some MSS. read two thousand and sixty-six, as in [Ezr 2:14].

### Verse 33

[¶5] The men of the other Nebo - The word other is not in the parallel place, [Ezr 2:29], and is wanting in many of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. This Nebo is supposed to be the same as Nob or Nobah, in the tribe of Benjamin.

### Verse 34

[¶7] The other Elam - To distinguish him from the Elam mentioned [Neh 7:12].

### Verse 54

[¶9] The children of Mehida - Many of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., have Mehira.

### Verse 68

[¶11] Their horses, etc. - The whole of this verse is wanting in fifty of Kennicott's MSS., and in twenty-nine of those of De Rossi, in the edition of Rab. Chayim, 1525, in the Roman Edit. of the Septuagint; also in the Syriac and in the Arabic. It should however be observed, that the Arabic omits the whole list, having nothing of the chapter but the first five verses. The whole is found in the parallel place, [Ezr 2:66]. Calmet's note on this passage is incorrect.

### Verse 69

[¶13] Their camels, four hundred thirty and five - After this verse St.

[¶14] Jerome has inserted the following words in the Vulgate: -

[¶15] Hucusque refertur quid in commentario scriptum fuerit; exin Nehemiae historia texitur. "Thus far do the words extend which were written in the register; what follows belongs to the history of Nehemiah."

[¶16] But this addition is not found either in the Hebrew or any of the ancient versions. It is wanting also in the Complutum and Paris Polyglots, but is in the Editio Prima of the Vulgate.

### Verse 70

[¶18] The Tirshatha gave - The Septuagint, particularly the copy in the Codex Alexandrinus, intimates that this sum was given to the Tirshatha, or Nehemiah: Και τῳ Αθερσαθᾳ εδωκαν εις θησαυρον, And to the Athersatha they gave for the treasure, etc.

[¶19] For the meaning of the word Tirshatha, see on [Ezr 2:63] (note).

### Verse 71

[¶21] Two thousand and two hundred pounds - The Septuagint has two thousand Three hundred minae of silver.

### Verse 73

[¶23] All Israel, dwelt in their cities - It was in reference to this particularly that the public registers were examined; for by them they found the different families, and consequently the cities, villages, etc., which belonged to them, according to the ancient division of the lands. It seems that the examination of the registers occupied about a month; for as soon as the walls were finished, which was in the sixth month, (Elul), [Neh 6:15], Nehemiah instituted the examination mentioned in this chapter, [Neh 7:5]; and by the concluding verse we find that the different families had got into their paternal cities in the seventh month, Tisri, answering to a part of our September and October. Thus the register determined every thing: there was no room for complaint, and none to accuse the governor of partiality.

### Introduction

[¶25] Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites, read and interpret the laws to the people, [Neh 8:1-7]. The manner in which they do this important work, [Neh 8:8]. The effect produced on the people's minds by hearing it, [Neh 8:9]. The people are exhorted to be glad, and are told that the joy of the Lord is their strength, [Neh 8:10-12]. On the second day they assemble, and find that they should keep the feast of tabernacles; which they accordingly religiously solemnize for seven days; and Ezra reads to them from the book of the law, [Neh 8:13-18].

### Verse 1

[¶27] The street that was before the water gate - The gate which led from the temple to the brook Kidron.

### Verse 2

[¶29] All that could hear with understanding - Infants, idiots, and children not likely to receive instruction, were not permitted to attend this meeting; nor should any such, in any place, be ever brought to the house of God, if it can be avoided: yet, rather than a poor mother should be deprived of the ordinances of God, let her come with her child in her arms; and although it be inconvenient to the congregation, and to some ministers, to hear a child cry, it is cruel to exclude the mother on this account, who, having no person to take care of her child while absent, must bring it with her, or be totally deprived of the ordinances of the Christian Church.

[¶30] Upon the first day of the seventh month - This was the first day of what was called the civil year; and on it was the feast of trumpets, the year being ushered in by the sound of these instruments.

### Verse 4

[¶32] Stood upon a pulpit of wood - מגדל migdal, a tower, a platform, raised up for the purpose, to elevate him sufficiently for the people both to see and hear him; for it is said, [Neh 8:5], that he was above all the people. This is the first intimation we have of a pulpit, or structure of this kind. But we must not suppose that it was any thing similar to those tubs or barrels ridiculously set up in churches and chapels, in which a preacher is nearly as much confined, during the time of his preaching, as if he was in the stocks.

### Verse 5

[¶34] All the people stood up - This was out of respect to the sacred word: in imitation of this, when the gospel for the day is read in our churches, all the people stand up.

### Verse 6

[¶36] Ezra blessed the Lord - In imitation of this, we say, when the gospel for the day is commenced, Glory be to God for his holy Gospel! and conclude this thanksgiving with, Amen.

### Verse 8

[¶38] So they read in the book - For an explanation of this verse, see the observations at the end of the chapter, [Neh 8:17] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶40] Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha - This puts it out of doubt that, when the Tirshatha is mentioned, Nehemiah himself is intended, Tirshatha being the name of his office.

[¶41] Mourn not, nor weep - This is a holy day to God: a day appointed for general rejoicing in Him who has turned our captivity, restored to us his law, and again established among us his ordinances.

### Verse 10

[¶43] Eat the fat, and drink the sweet - Eat and drink the best that you have; and while ye are feeding yourselves in the fear of the Lord, remember those who cannot feast; and send portions to them, that the joy and the thanksgiving may be general. Let the poor have reason to rejoice as well as you.

[¶44] For the joy of the Lord is your strength - This is no gluttonous and drunken festival that enervates the body, and enfeebles the mind: from your religious feast your bodies will acquire strength and your minds power and fervor, so that you shall be able to Do His will, and to do it cheerfully. Religious joy, properly tempered with continual dependence on the help of God, meekness of mind, and self-diffidence, is a powerful means of strengthening the soul. In such a state every duty is practicable, and every duty delightful. In such a frame of mind no man an ever fell, and in such a state of mind the general health of the body is much improved; a cheerful heart is not only a continual feast, but also a continual medicine.

## 458. Nehemiah · 8 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/458/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/458/#p-N

### Verse 14

[¶1] In the feast of the seventh month - That is, the feast of tabernacles, which was held in commemoration of the sojourning of their fathers in the wilderness after they had been delivered from the Egyptian bondage. Now, having been delivered from the Babylonish captivity, and the proper time of the year occurring, it was their especial duty to keep the same feast.

### Verse 15

[¶3] Fetch olive branches - For every thing concerning this feast of tabernacles, see the notes on Leviticus 23 (note), and the other places there referred to.

### Verse 16

[¶5] Upon the roof of his house - It need scarcely be repeated, that the houses in the East are generally built with flat roofs. On these they reposed; on these they took the air in the heats of summer; and on these they oftentimes slept.

### Verse 17

[¶7] Since the days of Joshua - No feast of tabernacles since Joshua's time had been so heartily and so piously celebrated. The story of the sacred fire now discovered, which had been hidden by the order of Jeremiah in a dry well, and now, some of the mud from the bottom being brought upon the altar, was kindled afresh by the rays of the sun, which suddenly broke out, though before covered with clouds, etc., is worthy of no credit. Those who wish to see the detail may consult 2 Maccabees 1:18-36.

[¶8] On the subject in [Neh 8:8], I beg leave to make a few observations: - So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. The Israelites, having been lately brought out of the Babylonish captivity, in which they had continued seventy years, according to the prediction of Jeremiah, [Jer 25:11], were not only extremely corrupt, but it appears that they had in general lost the knowledge of the ancient Hebrew to such a degree, that when the book of the law was read, they did not understand it: but certain Levites stood by, and gave the sense, i. e., translated into the Chaldee dialect. This was not only the origin of the Chaldee Targums, or translation of the law and prophets into that tongue but was also, in all probability, the origin of preaching from a text; for it appears that the people were not only ignorant of their ancient language, but also of the rites and ceremonies of their religion, having been so long in Babylon, where they were not permitted to observe them. This being the case, not only the language must be interpreted, but the meaning of the rites and ceremonies must also be explained; for we find from [Neh 8:13], etc., of this chapter, that they had even forgotten the feast of tabernacles, and every thing relative to that ceremony.

[¶9] As we nowhere find that what is called preaching on or expounding a text was ever in use before that period, we are probably beholden to the Babylonish captivity for producing, in the hand of Divine Providence, a custom the most excellent and beneficial ever introduced among men.

[¶10] What the nature of preaching or expounding the word of God was, at this early period of its institution, we learn from the above cited text.

[¶11] I. They read in the book of the law of God. - The words of God, the doctrines of Divine revelation, are the proper matter of preaching; for they contain the wisdom of the Most High, and teach man the things which belong to his peace and happiness.

[¶12] II. They read distinctly - מפרש mephorash, from פרש parash, to expand; they analyzed, dilated, and expounded it at large, showing the import and genuine meaning of every word.

[¶13] III. They gave the sense - ושום שכל vesom sechel, they put weight to it; showed its value and utility, and how intimately concerned they were in all that was revealed: thus applying verbal criticism, and general exposition to their true and most important purposes.

[¶14] IV. They caused them to understand the reading - ויבינו במקרא vaiyabinu bammikra: and they understood - had a mental taste and perception of the things which were in the reading, i. e., in the letter and spirit of the text. Thus they knew the Divine will, and approved the things that were more excellent, being (thus) instructed out of the law, [Rom 2:18].

[¶15] This was the ancient method of expounding the word of God among the Jews; and this mode is still more necessary for Us: -

[¶16] 1. Because the sacred writings, as they came from God, are shut up in languages no longer vernacular; and no translation ever did or ever can reach the force of the original words, though perhaps our own in general, comes nearest to this of all versions, whether ancient or modern.

[¶17] 2. Ninety-nine out of a hundred know nothing of these languages; and consequently cannot, of themselves, reap all the requisite benefit from reading the Scriptures.

[¶18] 3. Sacred things are illustrated in the Bible by a reference to arts and sciences, of which the mass of the people are as ignorant as they are of the original tongues.

[¶19] 4. Provincial customs and fashions are mentioned in these writings, which must be understood, or the force and meaning of many texts cannot be comprehended.

[¶20] 5. There is a depth in the word of God which cannot be fathomed except either by Divine inspiration, or by deep study and research, for which the majority of the people have no time.

[¶21] 6. The people in general trust to the piety, learning and abilities of their ministers, and maintain them as persons capable of instructing them in all the deep things of God; and believing them to be holy men, they are confident they will not take their tithes, their food, and their raiment, under a pretense of doing a work for which they have not the ordinary qualifications. Where there is not such preaching as this, the people "sit in darkness, and in the valley of the shadow of death;" sinners are not converted unto God; neither are believers "built up on their most holy faith."

[¶22] Reader - Art thou a Christian minister? Dost thou feed the flock of God? Let thy conduct, thy conscience, and the fruits of thy ministry answer for thee.

### Introduction

[¶24] On the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month, the people hold a solemn fast unto the Lord, and confess their sins, [Neh 9:1-3]. The Levites give a general account of God's kindness and forbearance to them and to their fathers; and acknowledge God's mercies and judgments, vv. 4-37. They make a covenant with the Lord, [Neh 9:38].

### Verse 1

[¶26] Now in the twenty and fourth day - The feast of trumpets was on the first day of this month; on the fourteenth began the feast of tabernacles, which, lasting seven days, finished on the twenty-second; on the twenty-third they separated themselves from their illegitimate wives and children; and, on the twenty-fourth, they held a solemn day of fasting and confession of sin, and reading the law, which they closed by renewing their covenants.

### Verse 2

[¶28] The seed of Israel separated themselves - A reformation of this kind was begun by Ezra, [Ezr 10:3]; but it appears that either more were found out who had taken strange wives, or else those who had separated from them had taken them again.

[¶29] And stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. - They acknowledged that they had been sinners against God throughout all their generations; that their fathers had sinned and were punished; and that they, with this example before their eyes, had copied their fathers' offenses.

### Verse 3

[¶31] One fourth part of the day - As they did no manner of work on this day of fasting and humiliation, so they spent the whole of it in religious duties. They began, says Calmet, on the first hour, and continued these exercises to the third hour; from the third they recommenced, and continued till the sixth hour; from the sixth to the ninth; and from the ninth, to the twelfth or last hour.

[¶32] 1. They heard the law read, standing;

[¶33] 2. They prostrated themselves, and confessed their sins;

[¶34] 3. They arose to praise God for having spared and dealt thus mercifully with them.

### Verse 5

[¶36] Stand up and bless the Lord your God - It is the shameless custom of many congregations of people to sit still while they profess to bless and praise God, by singing the Psalms of David or hymns made on the plan of the Gospel! I ask such persons, Did they ever feel the spirit of devotion while thus employed? If they do, it must be owned that, by the prevalence of habit, they have counteracted the influence of an attitude most friendly to such acts of devotion.

### Verse 6

[¶38] Thou preservest them all - ואתה מחיה את כלם vettah mechaiyeh eth cullam, and thou givest life to them all: and the host of the heavens, לך משתחוים lecha mishtachavim, prostrate themselves unto thee. How near is this to the opinion of Kepler, that all the heavenly host are instinct with life, and navigate the great expanse on pinions adjusted to their situation in their respective orbits! But to preserve in life, or in being, is a very good meaning in the original, which does not necessarily imply vitality. We say a tree is alive when flourishing, a plant is dead when it withers, etc.

### Verse 7

[¶40] Who didst choose Abram - See the notes on [Exo 13:21] (note).

[¶41] The name of Abraham - For the explanation of this name, See the notes on [Gen 17:5].

### Verse 12

[¶43] By a cloudy pillar - See the notes on the parallel passages, both here and in the other verses.

## 459. Nehemiah · 9 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/459/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/459/#p-N

### Verse 14

[¶1] Madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath - They appear to have forgotten this first of all the commandments of God, during their sojourning in Egypt.

### Verse 17

[¶3] And in their rebellion appointed a captain - This clause, read according to its order in the Hebrew text, is thus: And appointed a captain to return to their bondage in their rebellion. But it is probable that במרים bemiryam, in their rebellion, is a mistake for במצרים bemitsrayim, in Egypt. This is the reading of seven of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., the Neapolitan edition of the Hagiographa, and the Septuagint. It is also the reading in [Num 14:4]. The clause should undoubtedly be read, They appointed a captain to return to their bondage in Egypt.

### Verse 19

[¶5] The pillar of the cloud departed not from them - מעליהם mealeyhem, "from over them." I have already had occasion to observe that this miraculous cloud, the symbol of the Divine presence, assumed three different positions while accompanying the Israelitish camp:

[¶6] 1. As a cloud in the form of a pillar, it went before them when they journey, to point out their way in the wilderness.

[¶7] 2. As a pillar of fire, it continued with them during the night, to give them light, and be a rallying point for the whole camp in the night season.

[¶8] 3. As an extended cloud, it hovered over them in their encampments, to refresh them with its dews, and to keep them from the ardours of the sun.

### Verse 21

[¶10] Their clothes waxed not old - See the note on [Deu 8:4].

### Verse 22

[¶12] The land of Og king of Bashan - It is most evident that Sihon was king of Heshbon. How then can it be said that they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon? The words the land of the king of Heshbon are wanting in two of De Rossi's MSS. In another MS. the words and the land of are wanting; so that the clause is read, They possessed the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon. The Septuagint has the same reading; the Arabic nearly the same, viz., the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon. The Syriac has, They possessed the land of Sihon, the land of the Kings of Heshbon. The reading of the text is undoubtedly wrong; that supported by the MSS. and by the Septuagint is most likely to be the true one. Those of the Arabic and Syriac contain at least no contradictory sense. The and in the Hebrew and our version, distinguishes two lands and two kings; the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon: when it is most certain that only one land and one king can be meant: but the ו vau may be translated here as it often is, even: Even the land of the king of Heshbon.

### Verse 25

[¶14] Became fat, and delighted themselves - They became effeminate, fell under the power of luxury, got totally corrupted in their manners, sinned against all the mercies of God, and then were destroyed by his judgments. We have an old nervous saying, "War begets poverty, poverty begets peace, peace begets affluence, affluence begets luxury and corruption of manners; and hence civil broils, foreign wars, and desolations." A sensible Roman historian has said the same: "Imperium facile iis artibus retinetur, quibus initio partum est: verum ubi pro Labore, Desidia; pro continentia et aequitate, Libido atque Superbia invasere: fortuna simul cum moribus Immutatur."

### Verse 27

[¶16] Thou gavest them saviors - The whole book of Judges is a history of God's mercies, and their rebellions.

### Verse 30

[¶18] Many years didst thou forbear - It is supposed that Nehemiah refers here principally to the ten tribes. And many years did God bear with them; not less than two hundred and fifty-four years from their separation from the house of David, till their captivity and utter dispersion under Shalmaneser; during the whole of which time God invariably warned them by his prophets; or, as it is here said, by thy Spirit in thy prophets, which gives us the true notion of Divine inspiration. God's Spirit was given to the prophets; and they testified to the people, according as they were taught and influenced by this Spirit.

### Verse 32

[¶20] On our kings, on our princes - I believe Nehemiah in this place mentions the whole of civil society in its officers as they stand related to each other in dignity: -

[¶21] 1. Kings, as supreme.

[¶22] 2. Princes.

[¶23] 3. Priests.

[¶24] 4. Prophets.

[¶25] 5. The Fathers, heads or chiefs of tribes and families.

[¶26] 6. The Common People.

[¶27] Those who disturb this natural order (for it subsists even in Britain) are enemies to the peace of the whole, whatever they may pretend to the contrary.

### Verse 34

[¶29] Neither have our kings - In this verse he acknowledges that the kings, princes, priests, and fathers, had broken the law: but the prophets are left out; for they continued faithful to God, testifying by his Spirit against the crimes of all; and this even at the risk of their lives.

### Verse 35

[¶31] For they have not served thee in their kingdom - Instead of במלכותם bemalcutham, "in Their kingdom," במלכותך bemalcuthecha, in Thy kingdom," is the reading of two of Kennicott's MSS.; as also of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. This is most likely to be the true reading.

### Verse 36

[¶33] Behold, we are servants - They had no king of their own: and were under the government of the kings of Persia, to whom they paid a regular tribute.

### Verse 37

[¶35] It yieldeth much increase unto the kings - Good and fruitful as the land is, yet it profits us little; as the chief profits on all things go to the kings of Persia.

[¶36] Over our bodies - Exacting personal and feudal services from us, and from our cattle; and this not by any fixed rate, or rule, of so much rent, so much labor, or boons; but at their pleasure; so that we can neither call our persons, our time, our land, nor our cattle, our own: therefore we are in great distress. Miserable are the people that live under such a government.

[¶37] Think of this, ye Britons! think of your liberties and rights. Compare them with any other nation under heaven, and see what a balance is in your favor. Almost all the nations of the earth acknowledge Britons the most happy of all men. May I not say,

[¶38] O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint! "How exceedingly happy would you be, could you but consider your many advantages!"

### Verse 38

[¶40] Our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it - Persuaded that we have brought all the miseries upon ourselves by our transgressions, feeling much and fearing more, we make a covenant with thee to devote ourselves to thy service; to do with us as thou pleasest. From this sealing we learn that at this time the government of the Jews was a mixed aristocracy; composed of the nobles for the civil department, and the priests and Levites for the ecclesiastical.

[¶41] This was not mixing the Church with the state, or the state with the Church: both were separate, yet both mutually supported each other. The state never attempted to model the Church according to its own mind; because the Church had been founded and regulated by God, and neither its creed nor its ordinances could be changed. The Church did not meddle with the state, to give it new laws, new ordinances, or new officers. Therefore the one could not be jealous of the other. Where this state of things prevails, every public blessing may be expected. In every state God says to the governors and the governed: "Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's."

### Introduction

[¶43] The names of those who sealed the covenant, vv. 1-27. All solemnly promise not to have affinity with the people of the land, [Neh 10:28-30]; to observe the Sabbaths, [Neh 10:31]; to provide for the sanctuary according to the law, [Neh 10:32-36]; and to pay the regular tithes for the support of the priests, Levites, and other officers of the temple, [Neh 10:37-39].

### Verse 1

[¶45] Now those that sealed - Four classes here seal. Nehemiah first, as their governor. And after him, secondly, The priests, [Neh 10:2-8]. Thirdly, The Levites, [Neh 10:9-13]. Fourthly, The chiefs of the people, [Neh 10:14-27].

## 460. Nehemiah · 10 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/460/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/460/#p-N

[¶0] It is strange that, among all these, we hear nothing of Ezra, nor of the high priest Eliashib. Nor are any of the prophets mentioned, though there must have been some of them at Jerusalem at this time.

[¶1] The whole of this chapter, the two first verses excepted, is wanting in the Arabic; the word Pashur of the third verse is retained; and the rest of the chapter is summed up in these words, and the rest of their assembly.

### Verse 28

[¶3] And the rest of the people - All had, in one or other of the classes which sealed, their representatives; and by their sealing they considered themselves bound.

### Verse 29

[¶5] They clave to their brethren - Though they did not sign this instrument, yet they bound themselves under a solemn oath that they would fulfill the conditions of the covenant, and walk according to the law of Moses.

### Verse 30

[¶7] Not give our daughters - Make no affinity with the people of the land.

### Verse 31

[¶9] Bring ware - We will most solemnly keep the Sabbath. Leave the seventh year - We will let the land have its Sabbath, and rest every seventh year. See on [Exo 23:10-11] (note).

### Verse 32

[¶11] Charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel - According to the law, every one above twenty years of age was to give half a shekel to the sanctuary, which was called a ransom for their souls. See [Exo 30:11-16]. But why is one third of a shekel now promised instead of the half shekel, which the law required? To this question no better answer can be given than this: the general poverty of the people, occasioned by their wars, overthrows, heavy tributes, etc., in the land of their captivity: and now on their return, having little property, it was impossible for them to give more; and we know, from the terms of the law in this case, that the poor and the rich were obliged to give alike, because it was a ransom for their souls; and the souls of the poor and the rich were of like value, and stood equally in need of redemption; for all were equally fallen, and all had come equally short of the glory of God.

[¶12] Though only a third part of a shekel was given at this time, and probably for the reason above assigned, yet when the people got into a state of greater prosperity, the half shekel was resumed: for it is clear that this sum was paid in the time of our Lord, though not to the temple, but to the Roman government. Hence when those who collected this as a tribute came to our Lord, it was for the διδραχμα, didrachma, which was half a shekel; and the coin with which our Lord paid for himself and Peter was a stater, which contained exactly two half shekels. See [Mat 17:24-27].

### Verse 34

[¶14] Cast the lots - for the wood-offering - There does not appear to have been any wood-offering under the law. It was the business of the Nethinim to procure this; and hence they were called hewers of wood and drawers of water to the congregation. But it is very likely that after the captivity few Nethinim were found; for as such, who were the descendants of the Gibeonites, were considered only as slaves among the Israelites, they would doubtless find it as much, if not more, their interest to abide in the land of their captivity, than to return with their former masters. As there was not enough of such persons to provide wood for the fires of the temple, the people now cast lots, not who should furnish the wood, but what class or district should furnish it at a particular time of the year, so that there might be a constant supply. One district furnished it for one whole year, or for the first month or year; another, for the second month or year; and so on. Now the lot was to determine which district should bring the supply on the first month or year; which on the second; and so on. When the wood was brought, it was delivered to the Levites: they cut, prepared, and stacked it; and when wanted, delivered it to the priests, whose business it was to lay it upon the altar. Perhaps this providing of the wood was done only once a year by one district, the next year by another district, and so on: and this bringing the wood to the temple at last became a great day; and was constituted into a feast, called by Josephus Ξυλοφορια, the carrying of the wood. - See De Bell. Jud. lib. ii., cap. xvii., sec. 6, p. 194. This feast is not mentioned in the sacred writings: then there was no need for such an institution, as the Nethinim were sufficiently numerous.

### Verse 36

[¶16] Also the first-born - See this law, and the reasons of it, [Exo 13:1-13]. As by this law the Lord had a right to all the firstborn, instead of these he was pleased to take the tribe of Levi for the whole; and thus the Levites served at the tabernacle and temple, instead of the first-born of all the tribes.

### Verse 38

[¶18] Tithe of the tithes - The tithes of all the produce of the fields were brought to the Levites; out of these a tenth part was given to the priests. This is what is called the tithe of the tithes. The law for this is found, [Num 18:26].

### Verse 39

[¶20] We will not forsake the house of our God - Here was a glorious resolution; and had they been faithful to it, they had been a great and good people to the present day. But what is implied in, We will not forsake the house of our God? I answer: -

[¶21] I. The Church of God is the house of God; there he has his constant dwelling-place.

[¶22] II. True believers are his family in this house; and this family consists of,

[¶23] 1. Fathers and mothers;

[¶24] 2. Young persons;

[¶25] 3. Little children; And

[¶26] 4. Servants.

[¶27] III. The ministers of the word of God are the officers and overseers of this house and family.

[¶28] IV. The worship of God is the grand employment of this family.

[¶29] V. The ordinances of God are the food of the members of this family; or the means of their spiritual support.

[¶30] VI. Those who do not forsake the house of their God are those,

[¶31] 1. Who continue in the faith;

[¶32] 2. Who grow in grace;

[¶33] 3. Who labor in the vineyard;

[¶34] 4. Who bring forth fruit;

[¶35] 5. Who conscientiously attend all the ordinances; and

[¶36] 6. Who take care that the offerings of the house of God shall be duly made, providing for those who labor in the word and doctrine.

[¶37] Reader,

[¶38] 1. Art thou of this house?

[¶39] 2. Art thou in this house?

[¶40] 3. To what part of the family dost thou belong?

[¶41] 4. Art thou still an infant in this house?

[¶42] 5. Dost thou attend the ordinances of this house?

[¶43] 6. Hast thou forsaken this house?

[¶44] These questions are of great importance; answer them as in the sight of God.

## 461. Nehemiah · 11 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/461/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/461/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] Lots are cast that a tenth of the people may constantly dwell at Jerusalem, and the other nine parts in the other cities and villages, [Neh 11:1]. Some willingly offer themselves to dwell in Jerusalem, and the people bless them, [Neh 11:2]. An enumeration of the families that dwell in Jerusalem, of Judah, and Benjamin, [Neh 11:3-9]; of those of the priests, [Neh 11:10-12]; of the chiefs of the fathers, [Neh 11:13]; of the mighty men, [Neh 11:14]; of the Levites, [Neh 11:15-18]; of the porters, [Neh 11:19]; of the residue of Israel and the officers, [Neh 11:20-24]. The villages at which they dwelt, [Neh 11:25-35]. Certain divisions of the Levites were in Judah and Benjamin, [Neh 11:36].

### Verse 1

[¶3] To bring one of ten - Jerusalem certainly had many inhabitants at this time; but not sufficient to preserve the city, which was now encompassed with a wall, and the rebuilding of which was going on fast. Nehemiah therefore obliged one tenth of the country people to come and dwell in it, that the population might be sufficient for the preservation and defense of the city. Ten were set apart, and the lot cast among them to see which one of the ten should take up his residence in the city.

### Verse 2

[¶5] All the men that willingly offered - Some volunteered their services, which was considered a sacrifice to patriotism at that time, as Jerusalem afforded very few advantages, and was a place of considerable danger; hence the people spoke well of them, and no doubt prayed for God's blessing upon them.

### Verse 3

[¶7] Now these are the chief - A good deal of difference will be found between the enumeration here and that in [1Chr 9:2], etc. There, those only who came with Zerubbabel appear to be numbered; here, those, and the persons who came with Ezra and Nehemiah, enter into the account.

### Verse 9

[¶9] And Joel - was their overseer - Joel was chief or magistrate over those, and Judah was his second or deputy. Perhaps each had a different office, but that of Joel was the chief.

### Verse 11

[¶11] Ruler of the house of God - He had the command over all secular matters, as the high priest had over those which were spiritual.

### Verse 14

[¶13] Mighty men of valor - Noted for strength of body, and military courage.

### Verse 16

[¶15] And Shabbethai - This verse, with [Neh 11:20], [Neh 11:21], [Neh 11:28], [Neh 11:29], [Neh 11:32], [Neh 11:33], [Neh 11:34], and [Neh 11:35], are all wanting in the Septuagint and the whole chapter is wanting in the Arabic, the translator not being concerned in Jewish genealogies.

[¶16] The outward business - Calmet supposes that he provided the victuals for the priests, victims for the sacrifices, the sacerdotal vestments, the sacred vessels, and other necessaries for the service of the temple.

### Verse 17

[¶18] The principal to begin the thanksgiving - The precentor, pitcher of the tune, or master-singer.

### Verse 22

[¶20] The overseer also of the Levites - פקיד pekid, the visitant, the inspector; translated επισκοπος, bishop, both by the Septuagint and Vulgate.

### Verse 23

[¶22] It was the king's commandment - By the king some understand David, and others Artaxerxes. It is most probable that it was the latter; who wished that a provision should be made for these, a part of whose office was to offer up prayers also, as well as praises. For we know that Darius made an ample provision for the priests, that they might offer sacrifices of sweet savor unto the God of heaven; and pray for the life of the king and of his sons, [Ezr 6:10]. Some have thought that they had been Jewish singers employed in the service of the Persian king, to whom he had given a salary, and to whom he wished still to continue the same.

### Verse 24

[¶24] Pethahiah - was at the king's hand - He was the governor appointed by the Persian king over the Jewish nation in those matters in which the civil government interfered with Jewish concerns. He no doubt fixed, levied, and received the tribute.

### Verse 26

[¶26] And at Jeshua - This city is nowhere else mentioned.

### Verse 28

[¶28] Mekonah - This city is also unknown.

### Verse 31

[¶30] Geba - Probably the same as Gibeah of Saul.

### Verse 32

[¶32] Ananiah - No city of this name is known.

### Verse 33

[¶34] Hadid - This place is also unknown.

[¶35] Neballat - Also unknown.

### Verse 35

[¶37] Lod, and Ono - These towns were built by the sons of Elpaal, [1Chr 8:12].

[¶38] The valley of craftsmen - See [1Chr 4:14]. Probably this latter town was built in this valley.

### Verse 36

[¶40] And of the Levites were divisions - The Levites had their dwellings in the divisions of Judah and Benjamin. This is probably the meaning: the Syriac says, They had the half of Judah and Benjamin; which is not likely.

[¶41] That the people whose hearts were now turned towards the Lord, would make the best provision for the support of God's work, and all those engaged in it, we may naturally suppose; but this could not be very great, as the complete service was not yet established, and the Levites themselves were few in number.

### Introduction

[¶43] Account of the priests and Levites that come up with Zerubbabel, [Neh 12:1-7]. Of the Levites, [Neh 12:8-21]. The Levites in the days of Eliashib, [Neh 12:22-26]. Of the dedication of the wall, and its ceremonies, vv. 27-43. Different officers appointed, [Neh 12:44-47].

## 462. Nehemiah · 12 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/462/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/462/#p-N

### Verse 1

[¶1] Now these are the priests - Not the whole, but the chief of them, as we are informed, [Neh 12:7], [Neh 12:22], [Neh 12:23], and [Neh 12:24]. The Septuagint omit [Neh 12:3], except the word Shechaniah; as also [Neh 12:4], [Neh 12:5],[Neh 12:6], [Neh 12:9],[Neh 12:37], [Neh 12:38], [Neh 12:39], [Neh 12:40], and [Neh 12:41]. The Arabic omits the first twenty-six verses, and [Neh 12:29]. Mention is made of Ezra in this verse; and he is generally allowed to be that Ezra whose book the reader has already passed over, and who came to Jerusalem in the time of Cyrus, with Zerubbabel. If this were the same, he must have been at this time upward of a hundred years of age: and this case is not improbable, as an especial providence might preserve such a very useful man beyond the ordinary age of men. See what has been said on the case of Nehemiah, [Neh 1:1] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶3] The chief of the priests - They were twenty-four orders or courses in number, all subordinate to each other; as established by David, [1Chr 24:18]. And these orders or courses were continued till the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. See Calmet.

### Verse 8

[¶5] Over the thanksgiving - The principal singers: See on [Neh 11:17] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶7] Jaddua - This was probably the high priest who went in his pontifical robes, accompanied by his brethren, to meet Alexander the Great, when he was advancing towards Jerusalem, with the purpose to destroy it, after having conquered Tyre and Gaza. Alexander was so struck with the appearance of the priest, that he forbore all hostilities against Jerusalem, prostrated himself before Jaddua, worshipped the Lord at the temple, and granted many privileges to the Jews. See Josephus, Ant. lib. xi., c. 3, and Prideaux's Connections, lib. 7, p. 695.

[¶8] To the reign of Darius the Persian - Calmet maintains that this must have been Darius Codomanus, who was defeated by Alexander the Great: but Archbishop Usher understands it of Darius Nothus, in whose reign he thinks Jaddua was born, who was high priest under Darius Codomanus.

### Verse 23

[¶10] The book of the chronicles - This is not the book of Chronicles which we have now, no such list being found in it; but some other book or register, which is lost.

### Verse 25

[¶12] The thresholds of the gates - Some understand this of a sort of porticoes at the gates, and are puzzled about it, because they find no mention of porticoes elsewhere: but why may we not suppose these to resemble our watch-boxes or some temporary moveable shelters for those who took care of the gates? That there must have been some such conveniences, common sense dictates.

### Verse 27

[¶14] At the dedication of the wall - They sent for the Levites from all quarters, that this dedication might be as solemn and majestic as possible; and it is likely that this was done as soon as convenient after the walls were finished. The dedication seems to have consisted in processions of the most eminent persons around the walls, and thanksgivings to God, who had enabled them to bring the work to so happy a conclusion: and no doubt to all this were added a particular consecration of the city to God, and the most earnest invocation that he would take it under his guardian care, and defend it and its inhabitants against all their enemies.

[¶15] The ancients consecrated their cities to the gods, and the very walls were considered as sacred. Ovid gives us an account of the ceremonies used in laying the foundations of the walls of the city of Rome, by Romulus. After having consulted together who should give name to the city, and have the direction of the wall by which it was necessary to surround it, they agreed to let the case be decided by the flight of birds. One brother went to the top of the Mons Palatinus, the other to that of Mount Aventine. Romulus saw twelve birds, Remus saw but six; the former, therefore, according to agreement, took the command. The poet thus describes the ceremonies used on the occasion: -

[¶16] Apta dies legitur, qua moenia signet aratro;

[¶17] Sacra Palis suberant; inde movetur opus.

[¶18] Fossa fit ad solidum: fruges jaciuntur in ima.

[¶19] Et de vicino terra petita solo

[¶20] Fossa repletur humo, plenaeque imponitur ara;

[¶21] Et novus accenso finditur igne focus.

[¶22] Inde, premens stivam, designat moenia sulco;

[¶23] Alba jugum niveo cum bove vacca tulit.

[¶24] Vox tuit haec regis; Condenti Jupiter urbem,

[¶25] Et genitor Mavors, Vestaque mater ades:

[¶26] Quosque pium est adhibere deos, advertite cuncti:

[¶27] Auspicibus vobis hoc mihi surgat opus.

[¶28] Longa sit huic aetas, dominaeque potentia terrae:

[¶29] Sitque sub hac oriens occiduusque dies! Ille precabatur.

[¶30] Ovid, Fast. lib. iv., ver. 819. "A proper day is chosen in which he may mark out the walls with the plough: the festival of Pales was at hand when the work was begun. A ditch is dug down to the solid clay, into which they cast the fruits of the season; and bring earth from the neighboring ground, with which they fill up the trench; and on it build an altar, by whose flames the newly made hearth is cleft asunder. Then Romulus, seizing the plough, which a white heifer yoked with a snowy bull drew along, marked out the walls with a furrow. And thus spoke the king: 'O Jupiter, and Father Mars, with Matron Vesta, prosper me in founding this city! And all ye gods, approach, whomsoever it is right to invoke! Under your auspices may the work arise; may it endure for countless ages, and be the mistress of the world; and may the East and the West be under its control!' Thus he prayed."

[¶31] The above is a literal version, and the account is not a little curious.

### Verse 29

[¶33] From the house of Gilgal, and out of the fields of Geba and Azmaveth - Or, from Beth-Gilgal; a village erected in the place where the Israelites encamped after they had, under the direction of Joshua, passed over Jordan.

### Verse 30

[¶35] The priests and the Levites purified themselves - This consisted in washings, abstinence from wine, and other matters, which, on all other occasions, were lawful. And as to the purifying of the gates and the walls, nothing was requisite but to remove all filth from the former, and all rubbish that might have been laid against the latter.

### Verse 31

[¶37] Then I brought up the princes - Perhaps this verse should be read thus: "Then I caused the princes of Judah to go upon the wall, and appointed two great choirs, [to sing praises], and two processions, one on the right hand, etc.

[¶38] The following seems to have been the order of the procession: he divided the priests, the Levites, the magistrates, and the people into two companies; each company to go round one half of the wall. They began at the dung gate, one party going to the right and the other to the left, till they met at the great space opposite to the temple, where they all offered many sacrifices to God, and rejoiced with exceeding great joy; shouting so that the noise was heard a great way off.

### Verse 38

[¶40] The broad wall - What part this was, we know not: it might have been a place designed for a public promenade, or a parade for assembling the troops or guard of the temple.

### Verse 47

[¶42] All Israel - gave the portions of the singers - The singers and the porters were supported by the people at large; and each of these had their portions served out to them daily.

[¶43] And they sanctified - unto the Levites - The things which were provided for sacred uses were delivered by the people to the Levites, and the Levites presented them to the priests.

[¶44] The children of Aaron - This may refer principally to the tithes which the people brought to the Levites; the tithe or tenth of which the Levites gave to the priests. The presenting these tithes is termed sanctifying them; that is, dedicating them to those sacred or ecclesiastical uses for which they were designed: this is a very general meaning of the word sanctify in Scripture.

## 463. Nehemiah · 13 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/463/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/463/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The law is read, which commands that the Ammonite and Moabite should be separated from the congregation, on which they separate all the mixed multitude, [Neh 13:1-3]. Eliashib the high priest having not only joined opinion with Sanballat, but being also allied to Tobiah the Ammonite, and having given him some of the chambers in the court of the house of God, [Neh 13:4], [Neh 13:5]; Nehemiah casts out the goods of Tobiah, and purifies the chambers, [Neh 13:6-9]. He rectifies several evils; and the people bring the tithes of all things to the treasuries, [Neh 13:10-12]. He appoints treasurers, [Neh 13:13], [Neh 13:14]; finds that the Sabbaths had been greatly profaned by buying and selling, and rectifies this abuse, [Neh 13:15-22]; finds Jews that had married strange wives; against whom he testifies, and expels one of the priests who had married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, [Neh 13:23-29]. He cleanses them from all strangers, makes a final regulation, and prays for God's mercy to himself, [Neh 13:30], [Neh 13:31].

### Verse 1

[¶3] On that day - I am quite of Calmet's mind that the transaction detailed in this chapter did not immediately succeed the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem. It is most likely that, when this dedication was ended, Nehemiah returned to Babylon, as himself particularly marks, [Neh 13:6], for he did return in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes; and then, after certain days, supposed to be about the term of one year, he got leave to return to Jerusalem to see how matters were conducted: and there he found the evils which he mentions in this chapter, and which he redressed in the manner himself describes. See the introduction to this book.

[¶4] Should not come into the congregation - That is, Ye shall not form any kind of matrimonial alliance with them. This, and this alone, is the meaning of the law.

### Verse 3

[¶6] They separated from Israel all the mixed multitude - They excluded all strange women, and all persons, young and old, who had been born of these illegal connections.

### Verse 4

[¶8] Eliashib the priest - Perhaps this was a different person from Eliashib the high priest; but there is no indubitable evidence that he was not the same. If he was high priest, he was very unfaithful to the high charge which he had received; and a reproach to the priesthood. He had married his grandson to Sanballat's daughter: this produced a connection with Tobiah, the fast friend of Sanballat; in whose favor he polluted the house of God, giving him one of the chambers for his ordinary residence, which were appointed for the reception of the tithes, oblations, etc., that came to the house of God.

### Verse 6

[¶10] Was not I at Jerusalem - Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, and remained there till the thirty-second year, twelve years: then returned to Babylon, and staid one year; got leave to revisit his brethren; and found matters as stated in this chapter.

### Verse 8

[¶12] I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah - He acted as Jesus Christ did when he found the courts of the Lord's house profaned: He overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of those who sold doves.

### Verse 10

[¶14] The portions of the Levites had not been given - Hence we find they were obliged to abandon the sacred service, and betake themselves to cultivate the land for their support. This was the fault of the rulers, who permitted all these abuses.

### Verse 11

[¶16] Why is the house of God forsaken? - They had all solemnly promised, [Neh 10:39], that they would never forsake the house of their God; but, alas, how soon is this forgotten! Nehemiah used their own words here by way of reproof.

### Verse 13

[¶18] They were counted faithful - They were reported to me as persons in whom I could confide; they had been steady in God's ways and work, while others had been careless and relaxed.

### Verse 14

[¶20] Wipe not out my good deeds - If thou wert strict to mark what is done amiss, even my good deeds must be wiped out; but, Lord, remember me in thy mercy, and let my upright conduct be acceptable to thee!

### Verse 15

[¶22] Treading wine-presses - The Sabbath appears to have been totally disregarded.

### Verse 17

[¶24] I contended with the nobles - These evils took place through their negligence; and this I proved before them.

### Verse 19

[¶26] When the gates - began to be dark - After sunset on Friday evening he caused the gates to be shut, and kept them shut all the Sabbath; and, as he could not trust the ordinary officers, he set some of his own servants to watch the gates, that no person might enter for the purpose of traffic.

### Verse 20

[¶28] So the merchants - lodged without Jerusalem - They exposed their wares for sale on the outside of the walls.

### Verse 21

[¶30] I will lay hands on you - I will imprison every man of you. This had the desired effect; they came no more.

### Verse 22

[¶32] Spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy - By some Nehemiah has been thought to deal with God too much on the principle of merit. That he wished God to remember him for good, is sufficiently evident; and who does not wish the same? But that he expected heaven because of his good deeds, does not appear. Indeed, the concluding clause of this verse proves the contrary, and shows that he expected nothing from God but through the greatness of his mercy. Shame on those who, with this evidence before them, brand this good man with the epithet of workmonger! a man who, in inward holiness, outward usefulness, and genuine love to God and man, was worth ten score of such self-called believers.

### Verse 24

[¶34] Half in the speech of Ashdod - There were children in the same family by Jewish and Philistine mothers. As the Jewish mother would always speak to her children in Hebrew or Chaldee, so they learnt to speak these languages; and as the Ashdod mother would always speak to her children in the Ashdod language, so they learnt that tongue. Thus there were, in the same family, children who could not understand each other; half, or one part, speaking one language, and the other part another. Children of different wives did not ordinarily mingle together; and the wives had separate apartments. This is a better explanation than that which intimates that the same child spoke a jargon, half Ashdod and half Hebrew.

### Verse 25

[¶36] I contended with them - Proved the fact against these iniquitous fathers, in a legal assembly.

[¶37] And cursed them - Denounced the judgments of God and the sentence of the law upon them.

[¶38] Smote certain of them - Had them punished by whipping.

[¶39] And plucked off their hair - Had them shaven, as a mark of the greatest ignominy.

[¶40] And made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give - Caused them to bind themselves by an oath, that they would make no intermarriages with those who were not of the seed of Israel.

### Verse 26

[¶42] Did not Solomon - Have you not had an awful example before you? What a heavy curse did Solomon's conduct bring upon himself and upon the people, for a conduct such as yours?

### Verse 27

[¶44] Shall we then hearken unto you - If God spared not Solomon, who was so much beloved of Him, shall we spare you, who by your conduct are bringing down God's judgments upon Israel?

## 464. Nehemiah · 14 of 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/464/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/464/#p-N

### Verse 28

[¶1] One of the sons of Joiada - This was Manasseh, brother of Jaddua, son of Joiada, and grandson of Eliashib the high priest.

[¶2] I chased him from me - Struck him off the list of the priests, and deemed him utterly unworthy of all connection and intercourse with truly religious people.

### Verse 29

[¶4] Because they have defiled the priesthood - God, therefore, will remember their iniquities against them, and punish them for their transgressions. These words of Nehemiah are to be understood declaratively.

### Verse 31

[¶6] For the wood-offering - This was a most necessary regulation: without it the temple service could not have gone forward; and therefore Nehemiah mentions this as one of the most important services he had rendered to his nation. See [Neh 10:34].

[¶7] Remember me, O my God, for good - This has precisely the same meaning with, O my God, have mercy upon me! and thus alone it should be understood.

[¶8] Of Nehemiah the Jews speak as one of the greatest men of their nation. His concern for his country, manifested by such unequivocal marks, entitles him to the character of the first patriot that ever lived. In the course of the Divine providence, he was a captive in Babylon; but there his excellences were so apparent, that he was chosen by the Persian king to fill an office the most respectable and the most confidential in the whole court. Here he lived in ease and affluence; he lacked no manner of thing that was good; and here he might have continued to live, in the same affluence and in the same confidence: but he could enjoy neither, so long as his people were distressed, the sepulchres of his fathers trodden under foot, the altars of his God overturned, and his worship either totally neglected or corrupted. He sought the peace of Jerusalem; he prayed to God for it; and was willing to sacrifice wealth, ease, and safety, and even life itself, if he might be the instrument of restoring the desolations of Israel. And God, who saw the desire of his heart, and knew the excellences with which he had endowed him, granted his request, and gave him the high honor of restoring the desolated city of his ancestors, and the pure worship of their God. On this account he has been considered by several as an expressive type of Jesus Christ, and many parallels have been shown in their lives and conduct.

[¶9] I have already, in several notes, vindicated him from all mercenary and interested views, as well as from all false notions of religion, grounded on human merit. For disinterestedness, philanthropy, patriotism, prudence, courage, zeal, humanity, and every virtue that constitutes a great mind, and proves a soul in deep communion with God, Nehemiah will ever stand conspicuous among the greatest men of the Jewish nation, and an exemplar worthy to be copied by the first patriots in every nation under heaven.

[¶10] It has already been observed that, in the Jewish canon, Ezra and Nehemiah make but one book; and that both have been attributed, but without reason, to the same author: hence the Syriac version ends with this colophon - The end of the book of Ezra, the scribe, in which are contained two thousand three hundred and sixty-one verses.

## 465. Esther · 1 of 9

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### Introduction to the Book of Esther

[¶1] The son and successor of the famous Persian king Xerxes was Artaxerxes, surnamed Longimanus, or, in Persian, Ardsheer Diraz dest, the long-handed Ardshur. This prince, on coming to the throne, had powerful opponents and competitors in the children of Artabanus, uncle to Xerxes, and in his own brother Hystaspes. The former, and their adherents, he overthrew in a bloody battle; and in the following year obtained a complete victory over his brother, and totally subdued the Bactrians, who had espoused his cause: and thus rendered himself the undisputed possessor of the Persian empire. About his third year, which was 462 before Christ, the history of Esther begins, which, in its connection with the Persian history, is thus ably introduced by Dr. Prideaux: - "After Artaxerxes had obtained these successes, and thereby firmly settled himself in the peaceable possession of the whole Persian empire, (Esther 1), he appointed a solemn rejoicing on this account: and caused it to be celebrated in the city of Shushan, or Susa, in feastings and shows, for the term of a hundred and eighty days; on the conclusion of which he gave a great feast for all the princes and people that were then in Shushan, for seven days; and Vashti, the queen, at the same time, made a like feast in her apartment for the women. On the seventh day, the king's heart being merry with wine, he commanded the seven chamberlains to bring Queen Vashti before him, with the crown royal on her head, that he might show to the princes and people her beauty. But for her thus to show herself in such an assembly being contrary to the usage of the Persians, and appearing to her, as indeed it was, very indecent, and much unbecoming the modesty of a lady, as well as the dignity of her station, she refused to comply, and would not come; whereon the king, being very much incensed, called his seven counsellors to take advice with them about it, who, fearing this might be a bad example through the whole empire, in encouraging women to contemn and disobey their husbands, advised that the king should put Vashti away for ever from him, and give her royal state to another, that should be better than her; and by his royal edict, give command throughout the whole empire that all wives should pay honor and obedience to their husbands, and that every man should rule absolutely in his own house. Which advice pleasing the king, he commanded it accordingly to be put in execution; and Vashti never more after that came again into the king's presence: for the decree whereby she was removed from him was registered among the laws of the Medes and Persians, and therefore it could never again be altered. After this, orders were given out through the whole empire for the gathering together at the palace at Shushan all the fair virgins in every province, that out of them one might be chosen whom the king should best like to be made queen in her place. At the time when this collection of virgins was made, (Esther 2), there lived in Shushan a certain Jew named Mordecai, who was of the descendants of those who had been carried captive to Babylon with Jeconiah king of Judah, and, by his attendance at the king's gate, seems to have been one of the porters of the royal palace. He, having no children, did bring up Hadassah, his uncle's daughter, and adopted her as his own. This young woman, being very beautiful and fair, was made choice of among other virgins on this occasion; and was carried to the king's palace, and there committed to the care of Hege, the king's chamberlain, who was appointed to have the custody of these virgins; whom she pleased so well by her good carriage, that he showed her favor before all the other virgins under his care; and therefore he assigned her the best apartment of the house, and provided her first with those things that were requisite for her purification: for the custom was, that every virgin thus taken into the palace for thee king's use was to go through a course of purification, by sweet oils and perfumes, for a whole year; and therefore Hadassah, having been, by the favor of the chamberlain, of the earliest provided with these things, was one of the first that was prepared and made ready for the king's bed, and therefore was one of the soonest that was called to it. The term, therefore, of her purification being accomplished, her turn came to go in unto the king; who was so much pleased with her that he often called her by name, which he used not to do but to those only of his women whom he was much delighted with. Esther growing still farther in the king's favor, and gaining his affections beyond all the rest of the women, (Esther 2), he advanced her to higher honor; and on the tenth day of the tenth month, which falls about the end of our year, did put the royal diadem upon her head, and declared her queen in the place of Vashti; and in consequence thereof, made a solemn feast for his princes and servants, which was called Esther's feast; and, in honor of her, at the same time made a release of taxes to the provinces, and gave donatives and presents to all that attended him, according to the grandeur and dignity of his royal estate. Haman, an Amalekite, of the posterity of Agag, who was king of Amalek, in the time of Saul, growing to be the chief favourite of King Artaxerxes, all the king's servants were commanded to pay reverence unto him, and bow before him; and all of them obeyed the king's order but Mordecai the Jew, who, sitting in the king's gate, according to his office, paid not any reverence to Haman at such times as he passed by into the palace, neither bowed he at all to him; at which, being told, he was exceedingly displeased: but scorning to lay hands on one man only, and being informed that he was a Jew, he resolved, in revenge of this affront, to destroy, not only him, but also his whole nation with him; and to this act he was not a little excited by the ancient enmity which was between them and the people of whom he was descended; and therefore, for the accomplishing of this design, on the first day of the first month, that is, in the month Nisan, he called together his diviners, to find out what day would be the most fortunate for the putting this plan into execution: and they having, according to the manner of divination then in use among those Eastern people, cast lots first upon each month, did thereby determine for the thirteenth day of the twelfth month following, called Adar, as the day which they judged would be the most lucky for the accomplishing of what he purposed: whereon he forthwith went in unto the king; and having insinuated to him that there was a certain people dispersed all over his empire who did not keep the king's laws, but followed laws of their own, diverse from the laws of all other people, to the disturbance of the good order of his kingdom, and the breach of that uniformity whereby it ought to be governed; and that, therefore, it was not for the king's profit that they should any longer be suffered; he proposed, and gave counsel that they should be all destroyed and extirpated out of the whole empire of Persia; and urged it as that which was necessary for the establishing of the peace and good order of his government: to which having gained the king's consent, and an order that on the thirteenth day of Adar following, according as was determined by the divination of the lots, it should be put in execution, he called the king's scribes together to write the decree; and it being drawn as he proposed, on the thirteenth day of the same month of Nisan copies thereof were written out, and sent into all the provinces of the empire, commanding the king's lieutenants, governors, and all other his officers in every one of them, to destroy, kill, and cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of Adar following; and to take the spoil of them for a prey: which day was full eleven months after the date of the decree. The lot which seems to have pointed out that day appears to have been directed by the special providence of God, that so long a space intervening, there might be time enough to take such measures as should be proper to prevent the mischief intended. It is hard to find a reason for Mordecai's refusing to pay his respect to Haman, which may be sufficient to excuse him for thus exposing himself and all his nation to that destruction which it had like to have drawn upon them. That which is commonly said is, that it was the same adoration which was made to the king of Persia; and that, consisting in the bowing of the knee, and the prostration of the whole body to the ground, it was avoided by Mordecai, upon a notion which he had of its being idolatrous: but this being the common compliment paid to the kings of Persia, by all that were admitted into their presence, it was no doubt paid to this very king by Ezra and Nehemiah, when they had access to him, and after also by Mordecai himself; for otherwise he could not have obtained that admission into his presence, and that advancement in his palace, which was afterwards there granted unto him; and if it were not idolatrous to pay this adoration to the king, neither was it idolatrous to pay it to Haman. The Greeks would not pay this respect to the kings of Persia out of pride; and excepting Themistocles, and two or three others, none of them could ever be brought to it. I will not say that this was the case with Mordecai in respect to Haman: it seems most probable that it was from a cause that was personal in Haman only. Perhaps it was because Haman, being of the race of the Amalekites, he looked upon him as under the curse which God had denounced against that nation; and therefore thought himself obliged not to give that honor to him. And if all the rest of the Jews thought the same, this might seem reason enough to him to extend his wrath against the whole nation, and to meditate the destruction of them all in revenge. But whatever was the cause that induced Mordecai to refuse the payment of this respect to the king's favourite, this provoked that favourite to procure the decree above mentioned, for the utter extirpation of the whole Jewish nation in revenge for it. When Mordecai heard of this decree, he made great lamentation, as did also all the Jews of Shushan with him; and therefore, putting on sackcloth, he sat in this mournful garb without the king's gate, (for he would not be allowed to enter within it in that dress), which being told Esther, she sent to him to know what the matter was. Whereon Mordecai acquainted her with the whole state of the case; and sent her a copy of the decree, that she might fully see the mischief that was intended her people; to absolutely destroy them, and root them out from the face of the earth: and therefore commanded her forthwith to go in unto the king and make supplication for them. At first she excused herself, because of the law, whereby it was ordained that whosoever, whether man or woman, should come in unto the king in the inner court who was not called for, should be put to death, excepting such only to whom the king should hold out the golden scepter in his hand that he might live; and she was afraid of hazarding her life in this cause. Whereon Mordecai, sending to her, again told her, that the decree extended universally to all of her nation, without any exception, and that, if it came to execution, she must not expect to escape more than any other of her people; that Providence seemed to have advanced her on purpose for this work; but if she refused to act her part in it, then deliverance should come some other way, and she and her father's house should perish; for he was fully persuaded that God would not suffer his people to be thus totally destroyed. "Whereon Esther, resolving to put her life on the hazard for the safety of her people, desired Mordecai that he and all the Jews then in Shushan should fast three days for her, and offer up prayer and humble supplication that God would prosper her in the undertaking: which being accordingly done, on the third day Esther put on her royal apparel and went in unto the king, while he was sitting upon his throne in the inner part of his palace. And as soon as he saw her standing in the court he showed favor unto her, and held out his golden scepter; and Esther, going near and touching the top of it, had thereby her life secured unto her: and when the king asked her what her petition was, at first she only desired that he and Haman would come to a banquet which she had prepared for him. "And when Haman was called, and the king and he were at the banquet, he asked her again of her petition, promising it should be granted her to the half of his kingdom: but then she desired only that the king and Haman should come again to the like banquet on the next day, intimating that she would then make known her request unto him. Her intention in claiming thus to entertain the king twice at her banquet before she made known her petition unto him was, that thereby she might the more endear herself unto him, and dispose him the better to grant the request which she had to make unto him. "Haman, being proud of the honor of being thus admitted alone with the king to the queen's banquet, went home to his house much puffed up: but on his return thither, seeing Mordecai sitting at the gate of the palace, and still refusing to bow unto him; this moved his indignation to such a degree, that on his coming to his house, and calling his friends about him to relate to them the great honor that was done to him by the king and queen, and the high advancement which he had obtained in the kingdom, he could not forbear complaining of the disrespect and affront that was offered him by Mordecai. Whereon they advised him to cause a gallows to be built of fifty cubits in height, and next morning to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged thereon: and accordingly he ordered the gallows immediately to be made; and went early the next morning to the palace, for the obtaining of the grant from the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. But that morning the king awaking sooner than ordinary, and not being able to compose himself again to sleep, he called for the book of the records and chronicles of the kingdom, and caused them to be read unto him; wherein finding an account of the conspiracy of Bigthan and Teresh, and that it was discovered by Mordecai the Jew, the king inquired what honor had been done to him for the same. And being told that nothing had been done for him, he inquired who was in the court; and being told that Haman was standing there, he ordered him to be called in, and asked of him what should be done to the man whom the king delighted to honor: whereon Haman, thinking this honor was intended for himself, gave advice that the royal apparel should be brought which the king used to wear, and the horse which he kept for his own riding, and the crown which used to be set upon his head; and that this apparel and horse should be delivered into the hands of one of the king's most noble princes, that he might array therewith the man whom the king delighted to honor, and bring him on horseback through the whole city, and proclaim before him 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor.' Whereon the king commanded him forthwith to take the apparel and horse, and do this to Mordecai the Jew, who sat in the king's gate, in reward for his discovery of the treason of the two eunuchs: all which Haman having been forced to do in obedience to the king's command, he returned with great sorrow to his house, lamenting the disappointment and great mortification he had met with in being thus forced to pay such signal honor to his enemy, whom he had intended to have hanged on the gallows which he had provided for him. And on his relating this to his friends, they all told him, that if this Mordecai were of the seed of the Jews, this bad omen foreboded that he should not prevail against them, but should surely fall before him. While they were thus talking, one of the queen's chamberlains came to Haman's house to hasten him to the banquet: and seeing the gallows which had been set up the night before, fully informed himself of the intent for which it was prepared. On the king's and Haman's sitting down to the banquet, the king asked again of Esther what was her petition, with like promise that it should be granted to her to the half of his kingdom: whereon she humbly prayed the king that her life might be given her on her petition, and her people at her request; for that a design was laid for the destruction of her and all her kindred and nation. At which the king asking, with much anger, who it was that durst do this thing, she told him that Haman then present was the author of the wicked plot; and laid the whole of it open to the king. Whereon the king rose up with much wrath from the banquet, and walked out into the garden adjoining; which Haman perceiving, he fell down before the queen upon the bed on which she was sitting, to supplicate for his life; in which posture the king having found him upon his return, spoke out in great passion, What, will he force the queen before me in the house? At which words the servants present immediately covered his face, as was then the usage to condemned persons; and the chamberlain, who had that day called Haman to the banquet, acquainting the king with the gallows he saw in his house there prepared for Mordecai, who had saved the king's life in detecting the treason of the two eunuchs, the king ordered that he should be forthwith hanged thereon, which was accordingly done; and all his house, goods, and riches, were given to Queen Esther; and she appointed Mordecai to be her steward to manage the same. On the same day the queen made the king acquainted with the relation which Mordecai had unto her; whereon the king took him into his favor, and advanced him to great power, riches, and dignity in the empire; and made him the keeper of his signet, in the same manner as Haman had been before. But still the decree for the destruction of the Jews remaining in its full force, the queen petitioned the king a second time to put away this mischief from them; but, according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, nothing being to be reversed which had been decreed and written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's seal, and the decree procured by Haman against the Jews having been thus written and sealed, it could not be recalled. All therefore that the king could do, in compliance with her request, was, to give the Jews, by a new decrees such a power to defend themselves against such as should assault them, as might render the former decree ineffectual: and for that end he bid Esther and Mordecai draw such a decree in words as strong as could be devised, that so the former might be hindered from being executed, though it could not be annulled. And therefore the king's scribes being again called on the twenty-third day of the third month, a new decree was drawn just two months and ten days after the former; wherein the king granted to the Jews, which were in every city of the Persian empire, full license to gather themselves together and stand for their lives; and to destroy, slay, and cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that should assault them, with their little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. And this decree being written in the king's hand, and sealed with his seal, copies thereof were drawn out, and especial messengers were despatched with them into all the provinces of the empire. "The thirteenth day of Adar drawing near, when the decree obtained by Haman for the destruction of the Jews was to be put into execution, their adversaries everywhere prepared to act against them, according to the contents of it: and the Jews, on the other hand, by virtue of the second decree which was obtained in their favor, by Esther and Mordecai, gathered themselves together in every city where they dwelt, throughout all the provinces of King Artaxerxes, to provide for their safety: so that on the said thirteenth of Adar, through the means of these two different and discordant decrees, a war was commenced between the Jews and their enemies throughout the whole Persian empire. But the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, the deputies, and the other officers of the king, knowing with what power Esther and Mordecai were then invested, through fear of them so favored the Jews, that they prevailed everywhere against those that rose against them; and on that day, throughout the whole empire, slew of their enemies seven thousand five hundred persons; and in the city of Shushan, on that day and the next, eight hundred more; among whom were the ten sons of Haman, whom by a special order from the king they caused all to be hanged; perhaps upon the same gallows on which Haman, their father, had been hanged before. These transactions took place in the thirteenth year of Artaxerxes, about four hundred and fifty-two years before Christ." The reader is requested to refer to the notes on all these passages. "The Jews, being delivered thus from this dangerous design which threatened them with nothing less than total extirpation, made great rejoicings for it on the two days following, that is, on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the said month Adar: and by the order of Esther and Mordecai these two days, with the thirteenth that preceded them, were set apart, and consecrated to be annually observed for ever after in commemoration thereof; the thirteenth as a fast, because of the destruction on that day intended to have been brought upon them, and the other two as a feast because of their deliverance from it; and both this fast and feast they constantly observe every year on those days, even to this time. The fast they call the fast of Esther; and the feast, the feast of Purim, from the Persian word Purim, which signifies lots; because it was by the casting of lots that Haman did set out this time for their destruction. This feast is the Bacchanals of the Jews, which they celebrate with all manner of rejoicing, mirth, and jollity; and therein indulge themselves in all manner of luxurious excesses, especially in drinking wine, even to drunkenness; which they think part of the duty of the solemnity, because it was by means of the wine banquet, they say, that Esther made the king's heart merry, and brought him into that good humor which inclined him to grant the request which she made unto him for their deliverance; and therefore they think they ought to make their hearts merry also, when they celebrate the commemoration of it. During this festival the book of Esther is solemnly read in all their synagogues from the beginning to the end; at which they are all to be present, men, women, children, and servants, because all these had their part in this deliverance which Esther obtained for them. And as often as the name of Haman occurs in the reading of this book, the usage is for them all to clap with their hands, and stamp with their feet, and cry out: Let his memory perish. "This is the last feast of the year among them, for the next that follows is the Passover, which always falls in the middle of the month, which begins the Jewish year."

[¶2] Ahasuerus makes royal feasts for his nobles and people, [Est 1:1-9]. Vashti is sent for by the king, but refuses to come, [Est 1:10-12]. Vashti is disgraced; and a law made for the subjection of women, [Est 1:13-22].

[¶3] The whole history of this book in its connected order, with the occurrences in the Persian empire at that time, will be found in the introduction: to which the reader is referred.

[¶4] Concerning the author of this book there are several opinions: some attribute the work to Ezra; some to one Joachim, a high priest; others, to the men of the Great Synagogue; and others to Mordecai. This latter is the most likely opinion: nor is that to be disregarded which gives to Mordecai for co-partner Ezra himself; though it is likely that the conclusion, from [Est 9:23] to the end of the book, was inserted by another hand, and at a later time. Though some Christians have hesitated to receive the book of Esther into the sacred canon; yet it has always been received by the Jews, not only as perfectly authentic, but also as one of the most excellent of their sacred books. They call it מגילה megillah, The Volume, by way of eminence; and hold it in the highest estimation. That it records the history of a real fact, the observation of the feast of Purim, to the present day, is a sufficient evidence. Indeed, this is one of the strongest evidences that any fact can have, viz., that, to commemorate it, a certain rite, procession, feast, or the like, should have been instituted at the time, which, without intermission, has been continued annually through every generation of that people, and in whatsoever place they or parties of them may have sojourned, to the present day. This is the fact concerning the feast of Purim here mentioned; which the Jews, in all places of their dispersion, have uninterruptedly celebrated, and do still continue to celebrate, from the time of their deliverance from the massacre intended by Haman to the present time. Copies of this book, widely differing from each other, exist in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Greek, and Latin. All these differ much from the Hebrew text, particularly the Greek and the Chaldee: the former has many additional paragraphs; and the latter, as it exists in the London Polyglot, contains five times more than the Hebrew text. To notice all the various readings, additions, and paraphrases, in the above copies, would require a volume of no inconsiderable magnitude. The reader who is curious may consult the above Polyglot. This book does not appear to be extant in Arabic, or in any other of the Oriental languages, besides the Hebrew and Syriac.

[¶5] The question may naturally arise, What was the original of this book? or, In what language was it written? Though learned men in general decide in favor of a Hebrew original, yet there are many reasons which might be urged in favor of the Persian. Several of the proper names are evidently of a Persian origin; and no doubt all the others are so; but they are so transformed by passing through the Hebrew, that they are no longer discernible. The Hebrew has even retained some of the Persian words, having done little else than alter the character, e.g., Esther, Mehuman, Mishak, Melzar, Vashti, Shushan, Pur, Darius, Paradise, etc., several of which will be noted in their proper places. The Targum in the London Polyglot is widely different from that in the Complutum, Antwerp, and Paris editions. The principal additions in the Greek are carefully marked in the London Polyglot, but are too long and too numerous to be inserted here. It is a singular circumstance that the name of God does not once occur in the whole of this book as it stands in Hebrew.

### Verse 1

[¶7] Now it came to pass - The Ahasuerus of the Romans, the Artaxerxes of the Greeks and Ardsheer of the Persians, are the same. Some think that this Ahasuerus was Darius, the son of Hystaspes; but Prideaux and others maintain that he was Artaxerxes Longimanus.

[¶8] Reigned from India even unto Ethiopia - This is nearly the same account that is given by Xenophon. How great and glorious the kingdom of Cyrus was beyond all the kingdoms of Asia, was evident from this: Ὡρισθῃ μεν πρως ἑῳ τῃ Ερυθρᾳ θαλαττῃ· προς αρκτον δε τῳ Ευξεινῳ ποντῳ· προς ἑσπεραν δε Κυπρῳ και Αιγυπτῳ· προς μεσημβριαν δε Αιθιοπιᾳ. "It was bounded on the east by the Red Sea; on the north by the Euxine Sea; on the west by Cyprus and Egypt; and on the south by Ethiopia." - Cyrop. lib. viii., p. 241, edit. Steph. 1581.

### Verse 2

[¶10] Sat on the throne of his kingdom - Having subdued all his enemies, and brought universal peace to his empire. See the commencement of the introduction.

[¶11] Shushan the palace - The ancient city of Susa, now called Shuster by the Persians. This, with Ecbatana and Babylon, was a residence of the Persian kings. The word הבירה habbirah, which we render the palace, should be rendered the city, εν Σουσοις τῃ πολει, as in the Septuagint.

### Verse 4

[¶13] The riches of his glorious kingdom - Luxury was the characteristic of the Eastern monarchs, and particularly of the Persians. In their feasts, which were superb and of long continuance, they made a general exhibition of their wealth, grandeur, etc., and received the highest encomiums from their poets and flatterers. Their ostentation on such occasions passed into a proverb: hence Horace: -

[¶14] Persicos odi, puer, apparatus:

[¶15] Displicent nexae philyra coronae;

[¶16] Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum

[¶17] Sera moretur.

[¶18] I tell thee, boy, that I detest

[¶19] The grandeur of a Persian feast;

[¶20] Nor for me the linden's rind

[¶21] Shall the flowery chaplet bind.

[¶22] Then search not where the curious rose

[¶23] Beyond his season loitering grows.

[¶24] Francis.

### Verse 5

[¶26] A feast unto all the people - The first was a feast for the nobles in general; this, for the people of the city at large.

[¶27] In the court of the garden - As the company was very numerous that was to be received, no apartments in the palace could be capable of containing them; therefore the court of the garden was chosen.

### Verse 6

[¶29] White, green, and blue hangings - It was customary, on such occasions, not only to hang the place about with elegant curtains of the above colors, as Dr. Shaw and others have remarked, but also to have a canopy of rich stuffs suspended on cords from side to side of the place in which they feasted. And such courts were ordinarily paved with different coloured marbles, or with tiles painted, as above specified. And this was the origin of the Musive or Mosaic work, well known among the Asiatics, and borrowed from them by the Greeks and the Romans.

[¶30] The beds of gold and silver mentioned here were the couches covered with gold and silver cloth, on which the guests reclined.

### Verse 7

[¶32] Vessels being diverse - They had different services of plate.

### Verse 8

[¶34] None did compel: for so the king had appointed - Every person drank what he pleased; he was not obliged to take more than he had reason to think would do him good.

[¶35] Among the Greeks, each guest was obliged to keep the round, or leave the company: hence the proverb Η πιθι, η απιθι; Drink or begone. To this Horace refers, but gives more license: -

[¶36] Pasco libatis dapibus; prout cuique libido est.

[¶37] Siccat inaequales calices conviva, solutus

[¶38] Legibus insanis: seu quis capit acria fortis

[¶39] Pocula; seu modicis humescit aetius.

[¶40] Horat. Sat. lib. ii., s. vi., ver. 67.

[¶41] There, every guest may drink and fill

[¶42] As much or little as he will;

[¶43] Exempted from the Bedlam rules

[¶44] Of roaring prodigals and fools.

## 466. Esther · 2 of 9

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[¶0] Whether, in merry mood or whim,

[¶1] He fills his goblet to the brim;

[¶2] Or, better pleased to let it pass,

[¶3] Is cheerful with a moderate glass.

[¶4] Francis.

[¶5] At the Roman feasts there was a person chosen by the cast of dice, who was the Arbiter bibendi, and prescribed rules to the company, which all were obliged to observe. References to this custom may be seen in the same poet. Odar. lib. i., Od. iv., ver. 18: -

[¶6] Non regna vini sortiere talis.

[¶7] And in lib. ii., Od. vii., ver. 25: - - Quem Venus arbitrum Dicet bibendi?

[¶8] Mr. Herbert, in his excellent poem, The Church Porch, has five verses on this vile custom and its rule: -

[¶9] Drink not the third glass, which thou canst not tame

[¶10] When once it is within thee, but before

[¶11] Mayst rule it as thou list; and pour the shame,

[¶12] Which it would pour on thee, upon the floor.

[¶13] It is most just to throw that on the ground,

[¶14] Which would throw me there if I keep the round.

[¶15] He that is drunken may his mother kill,

[¶16] Big with his sister; he hath lost the reins;

[¶17] Is outlawed by himself. All kinds of ill

[¶18] Did with his liquor slide into his veins.

[¶19] The drunkard forfeits man; and doth divest

[¶20] All worldly right, save what he hath by beast.

[¶21] Nothing too severe can be said on this destructive practice.

### Verse 9

[¶23] Also Vashti the queen - Vashti is a mere Persian word; and signifies a beautiful or excellent woman.

[¶24] Made a feast for the women - The king, having subdued all his enemies, left no competitor for the kingdom; and being thus quietly and firmly seated on the throne, made this a time of general festivity. As the women of the East never mingle with the men in public, Vashti made a feast for the Persian ladies by themselves; and while the men were in the court of the garden, the women were in the royal house.

### Verse 10

[¶26] He commanded Mehuman - All these are doubtless Persian names; but so disguised by passing through a Hebrew medium, that some of them can scarcely be known. Mehuman signifies a stranger or guest.

[¶27] We shall find other names and words in this book, the Persian etymology of which may be easily traced.

### Verse 11

[¶29] To bring Vashti the queen - The Targum adds naked.

[¶30] For she was fair to look on - Hence she had her name Vashti, which signifies beautiful. See [Est 1:9].

### Verse 12

[¶32] Vashti refused to come - And much should she be commended for it. What woman, possessing even a common share of prudence and modesty, could consent to expose herself to the view of such a group of drunken Bacchanalians? Her courage was equal to her modesty: she would resist the royal mandate, rather than violate the rules of chaste decorum.

[¶33] Her contempt of worldly grandeur, when brought in competition with what every modest woman holds dear and sacred, is worthy of observation. She well knew that this act of disobedience would cost her her crown, if not her life also: but she was regardless of both, as she conceived her virtue and honor were at stake.

[¶34] Her humility was greatly evidenced in this refusal. She was beautiful; and might have shown herself to great advantage, and have had a fine opportunity of gratifying her vanity, if she had any: but she refused to come.

[¶35] Hail, noble woman! be thou a pattern to all thy sex on every similar occasion! Surely, every thing considered, we have few women like Vashti; for some of the highest of the land will dress and deck themselves with the utmost splendor, even to the selvedge of their fortunes, to exhibit themselves at balls, plays, galas, operas, and public assemblies of all kinds, (nearly half naked), that they may be seen and admired of men, and even, to the endless reproach and broad suspicion of their honor and chastity, figure away in masquerades! Vashti must be considered at the top of her sex: -

[¶36] Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno.

[¶37] A black swan is not half so rare a bird.

### Verse 13

[¶39] To the wise men - Probably the lawyers.

### Verse 14

[¶41] And the next unto him - the seven princes - Probably, the privy counsellors of the king. Which saw the king's face - were at all times admitted to the royal presence.

### Verse 16

[¶43] Vashti - hath not done wrong to the king only - This reasoning or arguing was inconsequent and false. Vashti had not generally disobeyed the king, therefore she could be no precedent for the general conduct of the Persian women. She disobeyed only in one particular; and this, to serve a purpose, Memucan draws into a general consequence; and the rest came to the conclusion which he drew, being either too drunk to be able to discern right from wrong, or too intent on reducing the women to a state of vassalage, to neglect the present favorable opportunity.

## 467. Esther · 3 of 9

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### Verse 18

[¶1] The ladies of Persia - שרות saroth, the princesses; but the meaning is very well expressed by our term ladies.

### Verse 19

[¶3] That it be not altered - Let it be inserted among the permanent laws, and made a part of the constitution of the empire. Perhaps the Persians affected such a degree of wisdom in the construction of their laws, that they never could be amended, and should never be repeated. And this we may understand to be the ground of the saying, The laws of the Medes and Persians, that change not.

### Verse 22

[¶5] That every man should bear rule in his own house - Both God's law and common sense taught this from the foundation of the world. And is it possible that this did not obtain in the Persian empire, previously to this edict? The twentieth verse has another clause, That all wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small. This also was universally understood. This law did nothing. I suppose the parade of enactment was only made to deprive honest Vashti of her crown. The Targum adds, "That each woman should speak the language of her husband." If she were even a foreigner, she should be obliged to learn and speak the language of the king. Perhaps there might be some common sense in this, as it would oblige the foreigner to devote much time to study and improvement; and, consequently, to make her a better woman, and a better wife. But there is no proof that this was a part of the decree. But there are so many additions to this book in the principal versions, that we know not what might have made a part of it originally.

### Introduction

[¶7] The counsellors advise that a selection of virgins should be made throughout the empire, out of whom the king should choose one to be queen in place of Vashti, [Est 2:1-4]. Account of Mordecai and his cousin Esther, [Est 2:5-7]. She is chosen among the young women, and is placed under the care of Hegai, the king's chamberlain, to go through a year's purification, [Est 2:8-11]. The manner in which these young women were introduced to the king, and how those were disposed of who were not called again to the king's bed, [Est 2:12-14]. Esther pleases the king, and is set above all the women; and he makes her queen in the place of Vashti, and does her great honor, [Est 2:15-20]. Mordecai, sitting at the king's gate, discovers a conspiracy formed against the king's life by two of his chamberlains; he informs the king, the matter is investigated, they are found guilty and hanged, and the transaction is recorded, [Est 2:21-23].

### Verse 2

[¶9] Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king - This was the usual way in which the harem or seraglio was furnished: the finest women in the land, whether of high or low birth, were sought out, and brought to the harem. They all became the king's concubines: but one was raised, as chief wife or sultana, to the throne; and her issue was specially entitled to inherit.

### Verse 3

[¶11] Hege the king's chamberlain - הגא סריס המלך Hege seris hammelech, "Hege, the king's eunuch;" so the Septuagint, Vulgate, Targum, and Syriac. In the Eastern countries the women are intrusted to the care of the eunuchs only.

[¶12] Let their things for purification be given them - תמרקיהן tamrukeyhen, their cosmetics. What these were we are told in [Est 2:12]; oil of myrrh, and sweet odours. The myrrh was employed for six months, and the odours for six months more, after which the person was brought to the king. This space was sufficient to show whether the young woman had been chaste; whether she were with child or not, that the king might not be imposed on, and be obliged to father a spurious offspring, which might have been the case had not this precaution been used.

[¶13] Instead of the oil or myrrh, the Targum says it was the oil of unripe olives which caused the hair to fall off, and rendered the skin delicate.

### Verse 5

[¶15] Whose name was Mordecai - The Targum says, "He was the son of Jair, the son of Shimea, the son of Gera, the son of Kish." And "this was the same Shimea that cursed David; and whom David forbade Joab to slay because he saw, in the spirit of prophecy, that he was to be the predecessor of Esther and Mordecai; but when he became old, and incapable of having children, David ordered Solomon to put him to death.

### Verse 7

[¶17] He brought up Hadassah - הדשה hadassah signifies a myrtle in Chaldee: this was probably her first or Babylonish name. When she came to the Persian court, she was called Esther, aster, or sitara, which signifies a star in Persian: the name is undoubtedly Persian. Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, and therefore must have been Mordecai's cousin, though the Vulgate and Josephus make her Mordecai's niece: but it is safest here to follow the Hebrew.

### Verse 9

[¶19] The maiden pleased him - He conceived a partiality for her above the rest, probably because of the propriety of her deportment, and her engaging though unassuming manners.

[¶20] Seven maidens - These were to attend her to the bath, to anoint and adorn her, and be her servants in general.

### Verse 10

[¶22] Esther had not showed her people - This might have prejudiced her with the king; for it was certainly no credit at the Persian court to be a Jew; and we shall find from the sequel that those who were in the Persian dominions were far from being reputable, or in a safe state. Besides, had her lineage been known, envy might have prevented her from ever having access to the king.

### Verse 12

[¶24] Six months with oil of myrrh - See on [Est 2:3] (note). The reason of this purification seems not to be apprehended by any writer I have seen. The most beautiful of all the young virgins of all the provinces of Babylon were to be selected; and these were taken out of all classes of the people, indiscriminately; consequently there must have been many who were brought up in low life. Now we know that those who feed on coarse strong food, which is not easily digested, have generally a copious perspiration, which is strongly odorous; and in many, though in every respect amiable, and even beautiful, this odour is far from being pleasant. Pure, wholesome, easily digested, and nourishing aliment, with the frequent use of the hot bath, continued for twelve months, the body frequently rubbed with olive oil, will in almost every case remove all that is disagreeable of this kind. This treatment will give a healthy action to all the subcutaneous vessels, and in every respect promote health and comfort.

### Verse 13

[¶26] Whatsoever she desired - When any of the young women were called to go to the king, it appears that it was an ordinance that whatever kind of dress stuff, color, jewels, etc., they thought best to set off their persons, and render them more engaging, should be given them.

### Verse 14

[¶28] She returned into the second house - This was the place where the king's concubines were kept. They went out no more, and were never given in marriage to any man, and saw the king's face no more unless specially called.

[¶29] Custody of Shaashgaz - This is probably another Persian name; sheshkhunj, beardless, a proper epithet of a eunuch; or sestgunj, weak loins, for the same reason. Names of this kind at once show the reason of their imposition, by describing the state of the person.

### Verse 15

[¶31] She required nothing - She left this entirely to her friend Hege, who seems to have been intent on her success. She therefore left her decorations to his judgment alone, and went in that dress and in those ornaments which he deemed most suitable.

### Verse 16

[¶33] The tenth month - Tebeth - Answering to part of our December and January.

### Verse 17

[¶35] Set the royal crown upon her head - Made her what is now called in the East the Sultana, the queen. She was the mistress of all the rest of the wives, all of whom were obliged to pay her the most profound respect.

### Verse 18

[¶37] Made a release to the provinces - Remitted some kind of tribute or impost, in honor of Esther, at her coronation, as our kings generally do when they are crowned, ordering a discharge from prison of many who are confined for minor offenses. As it was the custom of the Persian kings to give their queens something like what is called with us the aurum reginae, "queen gold," which was a tenth of all fines, etc., above what was given to the king; (for they gave them such a city to buy them clothes, another for their hair, a third for their necklaces, a fourth for their pearls, etc.); it is probable that, on this occasion, Esther so wishing, he relieved those cities and provinces which had before paid this queen gold from all these expenses; and this would tend greatly to make the queen popular.

### Verse 21

[¶39] Mordecai sat in the kings gate - Mordecai might have been one of the officers of the king, as the gate was the place where such usually attended to await the king's call. It is not likely that he was the porter; had he been only such, Haman could have removed him at once.

[¶40] Two of the king's chamberlains - Eunuchs. Why they conspired against the life of the king, we are not informed. The Targum says that they found out that Esther had intended to use her influence with the king to get them removed from their office, and Mordecai put in their place; therefore they determined to poison Esther, and slay the king in his bedchamber. It is very likely that they were creatures of Haman, who probably affected the kingdom, and perhaps were employed by him to remove the king, and so make his way open to the throne.

### Verse 22

[¶42] Was known to Mordecai - Josephus says that a Jew, named Barnabasus, overheard the plot, told it to Mordecai, Mordecai to Esther, and Esther to the king, in Mordecai's name; and he was registered as the discoverer.

### Verse 23

[¶44] It was found out - It was proved against them, in consequence of which they were hanged. Perhaps the words ויתלו על עץ vaiyittalu al ets, they were hung upon wood or a tree, may refer to their being impaled. A pointed stake is set upright in the ground, and the culprit is taken, placed on the sharp point, and then pulled down by his legs till the stake that went in at the fundament passes up through the body and comes out by the side of the neck. A most dreadful species of punishment, in which revenge and cruelty may glut the utmost of their malice. The culprit lives a considerable time in excruciating agonies.

[¶45] It has been observed that the name of God does not once occur in this book. This is true of the Hebrew text, and all translations from it; but in the Septuagint we find the following words, in [Est 2:20], after, Esther had not showed her kindred: Οὑτως γαρ ενετειλατο αυτῃ Μαρδοχαιος, φοβεισθαι τον Θεον, και ποιειν τα προσταγματα αυτου, καθως ην μετ' αυτου; "For so Mordecai had charged her to fear God, and to keep his commandments, as she did when with him." This, as far as the Septuagint is concerned, takes away the strange reproach from this book. It must be owned that it was not because there were not many fair opportunities that the sacred name has not been introduced.

## 468. Esther · 4 of 9

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### Introduction

[¶1] Ahasuerus exalts Haman the Agagite, and commands all his officers to do him reverence, which Mordecai refuses, [Est 3:1-3]. Haman, informed of Mordecai's refusal, plots his destruction, and that of the Jews, [Est 3:4-6]. Lots are cast to find out the proper time, [Est 3:7]. Haman accuses the Jews to Ahasuerus, counsels him to destroy them, and offers ten thousand talents of silver for the damage which the revenue might sustain by their destruction, [Est 3:8], [Est 3:9]. The king refuses the money, but gives Haman full authority to destroy them, [Est 3:10], [Est 3:11]. Letters are written to this effect, and sent to the king's lieutenants throughout the empire, and the thirteenth day of the month Adar is appointed for the massacre, [Est 3:12-15].

### Verse 1

[¶3] Haman - the Agagite - Perhaps he was some descendant of that Agag, king of the Amalekites, spared by Saul, but destroyed by Samuel; and on this ground might have an antipathy to the Jews.

[¶4] Set his seat above all the princes - Made him his prime minister, and put all the officers of state under his direction.

### Verse 2

[¶6] The king's servants, that were in the king's gate - By servants here, certainly a higher class of officers are intended than porters; and Mordecai was one of those officers, and came to the gate with the others who were usually there in attendance to receive the commands of the king.

[¶7] Mordecai bowed not - לאיכרע lo yichra. "He did not bow down;" nor did him reverence, ולא ישתחוה velo yishtachaveh, "nor did he prostrate himself." I think it most evident, from these two words, that it was not civil reverence merely that Haman expected and Mordecai refused; this sort of respect is found in the word כרע cara, to bow. This sort of reverence Mordecai could not refuse without being guilty of the most inexcusable obstinacy, nor did any part of the Jewish law forbid it. But Haman expected, what the Persian kings frequently received, a species of Divine adoration; and this is implied in the word שחה shachah, which signifies that kind of prostration which implies the highest degree of reverence that can be paid to God or man, lying down flat on the earth, with the hands and feet extended, and the mouth in the dust.

[¶8] The Targum, says that Haman set up a statue for himself, to which every one was obliged to bow, and to adore Haman himself. The Jews all think that Mordecai refused this prostration because it implied idolatrous adoration. Hence, in the Apocryphal additions to this book, Mordecai is represented praying thus: "Thou knowest that if I have not adored Haman, it was not through pride, nor contempt, nor secret desire of glory; for I felt disposed to kiss the footsteps of his feet (gladly) for the salvation of Israel: but I feared to give to a man that honor which I know belongs only to my God."

### Verse 7

[¶10] The first month - That is, of the civil year of the Jews.

[¶11] The month Nisan - Answering to a part of our March and April.

[¶12] The twelfth year of king Ahasuerus - According to the chronology in our Bibles, about five hundred and ten years before Christ.

[¶13] They cast Pur, that is, the lot - This appears to be the Hebrew corruption of the pure Persian word pari, which signifies any thing that happens fortuitously. There is an addition here in the Greek text that was probably in the original, and which makes this place very plain. I shall set down the whole verse, and give the Greek in a parenthesis, that it may be read consecutively with what is in the Hebrew: "In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman, from day to day, and from month to month." (ὡστε απολεσαι εν μιᾳ ἡμερᾳ το γενος Μαρδοχαιου, και επεσεν ὁ κληρος εις την τεσερακαιδεκατην του μηνος ὁς εστιν Αδαρ "that they might destroy in one day the people of Mordecai; and the lot fell on the fourteenth day of the month Adar.")

[¶14] We see plainly intimated by the Hebrew text that they cast lots, or used a species of divination, to find which of the twelve months would be the most favorable for the execution of Haman's design; and, having found the desired month, then they cast lots, or used divination, to find out which day of the said month would be the lucky day for the accomplishment of the enterprise. But the Hebrew text does not tell us the result of this divination; we are left to guess it out; but the Greek supplies this deficiency, and makes all clear. From it we find that, when they cast for the month, the month Adar was taken; and when they cast for the day, the fourteenth (Heb. thirteenth) of that month was taken.

[¶15] Some have questioned whether Pur may not have signified also some game of chance, which they played before or with Haman, from day to day, to divert him from his melancholy, till the lucky time came in which he was to have the gratification of slaying all the people who were objects of his enmity; or they cast lots, or played, who should get the property of such and such opulent families. Holinshed, one of our ancient historians, informs us that, previously to the battle of Agincourt, the English army, under Henry V., were so thinned and weakened by disease, and the French army so numerous, that "Frenchmen, in the mean while, as though they had been sure of victory, made great triumphe, for the captaines had determined before how to divide the spoil; and the souldiers, the night before, had plaied the Englishmen at dice." To this the chorus of Shakspeare alludes: - "Proud of their numbers, and secure of soul,

[¶16] The confident and over-lusty French

[¶17] Do the low-rated English play at dice. - The poor condemned English,

[¶18] Like sacrifices by their watchful fires,

[¶19] Sit patiently and inly ruminate

[¶20] The morning's danger; and their gestures sad,

[¶21] Investing lank-lean cheeks, and war-worn coats,

[¶22] Presenteth them unto the gazing moon

[¶23] So many horrid ghosts.

[¶24] Hen. V.

[¶25] Monstrelet, who is an impartial writer, does not mention this.

[¶26] Did Haman and his flatterers intend to divide the spoils of the designed-to-be-massacred Jews in some such manner as this?

### Verse 8

[¶28] Their laws are diverse from all people - Such they certainly were; for they worshipped the true God according to his own laws; and this was not done by any other people then on the face of the earth.

### Verse 9

[¶30] Let it be written that they may be destroyed - Let it be enacted that they may all be put to death. By this he would throw all the odium off himself, and put it on the king and his counsellors; for he wished the thing to pass into a law, in which he could have but a small share of the blame.

[¶31] I will pay ten thousand talents of silver - He had said before that it was not for the king's profit to suffer them; but here he is obliged to acknowledge that there will be a loss to the revenue, but that loss he is willing to make up out of his own property.

[¶32] Ten thousand talents of silver is an immense sum indeed; which, counted by the Babylonish talent, amounts to two millions one hundred and nineteen thousand pounds sterling; but, reckoned by the Jewish talent, it makes more than double that sum.

[¶33] Those who cavil at the Scriptures would doubtless call this one of the many absurdities which, they say, are so plenteously found in them, supposing it almost impossible for an individual to possess so much wealth. But though they do not believe the Bible, they do not scruple to credit Herodotus, who, lib. vii., says that when Xerxes went into Greece, Pythius the Lydian had two thousand talents of silver, and four millions of gold darics, which sums united make near five millions and a half sterling.

[¶34] Plutarch tells us, in his life of Crassus, that after this Roman general had dedicated the tenth of all he had to Hercules, he entertained the Roman people at ten thousand tables, and distributed to every citizen as much corn as was sufficient for three months; and after all these expenses, he had seven thousand one hundred Roman talents remaining, which is more than a million and a half of English money.

[¶35] In those days silver and gold were more plentiful than at present, as we may see in the yearly revenue of Solomon, who had of gold from Ophir, at one voyage, four hundred and fifty talents, which make three millions two hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling; and his annual income was six hundred and sixty-six talents of silver, which make four millions seven hundred and ninety-five thousand two hundred pounds English money.

[¶36] In addition to the above I cannot help subjoining the following particulars: -

[¶37] Crassus, who was mentioned before, had a landed estate valued at one million six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence.

[¶38] C. Coecilius Ridorus, after having lost much in the civil war, left by will effects amounting to one million forty-seven thousand one hundred and sixty pounds.

[¶39] Lentullus, the augur, is said to have possessed no less than three millions three hundred and thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds six shillings and eight pence.

[¶40] Apicius was worth more than nine hundred and sixteen thousand six hundred and seventy-one pounds thirteen shillings and four pence; who, after having spent in his kitchen eight hundred and thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds six shillings and eight pence, and finding that he had no more left than eighty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds six shillings and eight pence, considered it so little for his support, that he judged it best to put an end to his life by poison!

[¶41] The superfluous furniture of M. Scaurus, which was burnt at Tusculum, was valued at no less than eight hundred and thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-two pounds thirteen shillings and four pence.

[¶42] Anthony owed, at the ides or March, the sum of three hundred and thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds six shillings and six pence, which he paid before the calends of April.

[¶43] None of these men were in trade, to account for the circulation of such immense sums through their hands. See Dickson's Husband. of the Anc.

## 469. Esther · 5 of 9

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### Verse 10

[¶1] The king took his ring - In this ring was no doubt included his privy seal, and he gave this to Haman, that when he had formed such a decree as he thought fit, he might seal it with this ring, which would give it its due force and influence among the rulers of the provinces. The privy seal of many of our sovereigns appears to have been inserted in their rings; and the seals of Eastern potentates were worn in rings upon their fingers. One such seal, once the property of the late Tippoo Sultan, lies before me; the inscription is deeply cut in silver, which is set in a massy carriage of gold. This, as fitted to the finger, he probably kept always on his hand, to be ready to seal despatches, etc., or it might be carried by a confidential officer for the same purpose, as it seems to refer to one of the chief cutcheries, or military officers.

### Verse 12

[¶3] Unto the king's lieutenants - אחשדרפני achashdarpeney. This is in all probability another Persian word, for there is nothing like it in the Hebrew language, nor can it be fairly deduced from any roots in that tongue. The Vulgate translates ad omnes satrapas regis, to all the satraps of the king. It is very likely that this is the true sense of the word, and that the אחשדרפני achsadrapani, as it may be pronounced, is the Chaldee or Hebrew corruption of the Persian word satraban, the plural of satrab, a Persian peer, though the word is now nearly obsolete in the Persian language; for since the conquest of Persia by Mohammedanism, the names of officers are materially changed, as something of Islamism is generally connected with the titles of officers both civil and military, as well as religious.

### Verse 13

[¶5] To destroy, so kill, and to cause to perish - To put the whole of them to death in any manner, or by every way and means.

[¶6] Take the spoil of them for a prey - Thus, whoever killed a Jew had his property for his trouble! And thus the hand of every man was armed against this miserable people. Both in the Greek version and in the Latin the copy of this order is introduced at length, expressing "the king's desire to have all his dominions in quiet and prosperity; but that he is informed that this cannot be expected, while a certain detestable people are disseminated through all his provinces, who not only are not subject to the laws, but endeavor to change them; and that nothing less than their utter extermination will secure the peace and prosperity of the empire; and therefore he orders that they be all destroyed, both male and female, young and old," etc.

### Verse 15

[¶8] The posts - Literally, the couriers, the hircarrahs, those who carried the public despatches; a species of public functionaries, who have been in use in all nations of the world from the remotest antiquity.

[¶9] The decree was given at Shushan - It was dated from the royal Susa, where the king then was.

[¶10] The city Shushan was perplexed - They saw that in a short time, by this wicked measure the whole city would be thrown into confusion; for, although the Jews were the only objects of this decree, yet, as it armed the populace against them, even the Persians could not hope to escape without being spoiled, when a desperate mob had begun to taste of human blood, and enrich themselves with the property of the murdered. Besides, many Persian families had, no doubt, become united by intermarriages with Jewish families, and in such a massacre they would necessarily share the same fate with the Jews. A more impolitic, disgraceful, and cruel measure was never formed by any government; and one would suppose that the king who ordered it must have been an idiot, and the counsellors who advised it must have been madmen. But a despotic government is ever capable of extravagance and cruelty; for as it is the bane of popular freedom and happiness, so is it the disgrace of political wisdom and of all civil institutions. Despotism and tyranny in the state are the most direct curses which insulted justice can well inflict upon a sinful nation.

### Introduction

[¶12] On hearing the king's decree to exterminate the Jews, Mordecai mourns, and clothes himself in sackcloth, [Est 4:1], [Est 4:2]. The Jews are filled with consternation, [Est 4:3]. Esther, perceiving Mordecai in distress at the palace gate, sends her servant Hatach to inquire the reason, [Est 4:4-6]. Hatach returns with the information, and also the express desire of Mordecai that she should go instantly to the king, and make supplication in behalf of her people, [Est 4:7-9]. Esther excuses herself on the ground that she had not been called by the king for thirty days past; and that the law was such that any one approaching his presence, without express invitation, should be put to death, unless the king should, in peculiar clemency, stretch out to such persons the golden scepter, [Est 4:10-12]. Mordecai returns an answer, insisting on her compliance, [Est 4:13], [Est 4:14]. She then orders Mordecai to gather all the Jews of Shushan, and fast for her success three days, night and day, and resolves to make the attempt, though at the risk of her life, [Est 4:15-17].

### Verse 1

[¶14] Mordecai rent his clothes - He gave every demonstration of the most poignant and oppressive grief. Nor did he hide this from the city; and the Greek says that he uttered these words aloud: Αιρεται εθνος μηδεν ηδικηκος, A people are going to be destroyed, who have done no evil!

### Verse 2

[¶16] Before the king's gate - He could not enter into the gate, of the place where the officers waited, because he was in the habit of a mourner; for this would have been contrary to law.

### Verse 3

[¶18] Fasting, and weeping, and wailing - How astonishing, that in all this there is not the slightest intimation given of praying to God!

### Verse 4

[¶20] Sent raiment - She supposed that he must have been spoiled of his raiment by some means; and therefore sent him clothing.

### Verse 5

[¶22] Then called Esther for Hatach - This eunuch the king had appointed to wait upon her, partly, as is still the case in the East, to serve her, and partly, to observe her conduct; for no despot is ever exempt from a twofold torture, jealousy and suspicion.

### Verse 8

[¶24] That she should go in unto the king - The Greek adds, "Remember the time of your low estate, and in what manner you have been nourished, and carried in my arms; and that Haman, who is next to the king, has got a decree for our destruction. Pray, therefore, to the Lord, and plead with the king, that we may be delivered from death." But there is not a word of this either in the Hebrew, Syriac, or Vulgate.

### Verse 11

[¶26] Into the inner court - We have already seen that the Persian sovereigns affected the highest degree of majesty, even to the assuming of Divine honors. No man nor woman dared to appear unveiled before them, without hazarding their lives; into the inner chamber of the harem no person ever entered but the king, and the woman he had chosen to call thither. None even of his courtiers or ministers dared to appear there; nor the most beloved of his concubines, except led thither by himself, or ordered to come to him. Here was Esther's difficulty; and that difficulty was now increased by the circumstance of her not having been sent for to the king's bed for thirty days. In the last verse of the preceding chapter we find that the king and Haman sat down to drink. It is very likely that this wicked man had endeavored to draw the king's attention from the queen, that his affection might be lessened, as he must have known something of the relationship between her and Mordecai; and consequently viewed her as a person who, in all probability, might stand much in the way of the accomplishment of his designs. I cannot but think that he had been the cause why Esther had not seen the king for thirty days.

### Verse 13

[¶28] Think not - that thou shalt escape - This confirms the suspicion that Haman knew something of the relationship between Mordecai and Esther; and therefore he gives her to understand that, although in the king's palace, she should no more escape than the Jews.

### Verse 14

[¶30] Then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise - He had a confidence that deliverance would come by some means; and he thought that Esther would be the most likely; and that, if she did not use the influence which her providential station gave her, she would be highly culpable.

[¶31] And who knoweth whether thou art come - As if he had said, "Is it likely that Divine providence would have so distinguished thee, and raised thee from a state of abject obscurity, merely for thy own sake? Must it not have been on some public account! Did not he see what was coming? and has he not put thee in the place where thou mayest counteract one of the most ruinous purposes ever formed?" Is there a human being who has not some particular station by an especial providence, at some particular time, in which he can be of some essential service to his neighbor, in averting evil or procuring good, if he be but faithful to the grace and opportunity afforded by this station? Who dares give a negative to these questions? We lose much, both in reference to ourselves and others, by not adverting to our providental situation and circumstances. While on this subject, I will give the reader two important sayings, from two eminent men, both keen observers of human nature, and deeply attentive in all such cases to the operations of Divine providence: - "To every thing there is a season; and a time to every purpose under heaven. Therefore withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thy hand to do it."

[¶32] Solomon.

[¶33] There is a tide in the affairs of men,

[¶34] Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

[¶35] Omitted, all the voyage of their life

[¶36] Is bound in shallows, and in miseries.

[¶37] Shakespeare.

[¶38] Has there not been a case, within time of memory, when evil was designed against a whole people, through the Hamans who had poisoned the ears of well-intentioned men; in which one poor man, in consequence of a situation into which he was brought by an astonishing providence, used the influence which his situation gave him; and, by the mercy of his God, turned the whole evil aside? By the association of ideas the following passage will present itself to the reader's memory, who may have any acquaintance with the circumstance: - "There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man!" "Then said, I, Ah, Lord God! They say of me, Doth He Not Speak Parables?" Rem acu tetigi.

### Verse 16

[¶40] Fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days - What a strange thing, that still we hear nothing of prayer, nor of God! What is the ground on which we can account for this total silence? I know it not. She could not suppose there was any charm in fasting, sackcloth garments, and lying on the ground. If these were not done to turn away the displeasure of God, which seemed now to have unchained their enemies against them, what were they done for?

[¶41] If I perish, I perish - If I lose my life in this attempt to save my people, I shall lose it cheerfully. I see it is my duty to make the attempt; and, come what will, I am resolved to do it. She must, however, have depended much on the efficacy of the humiliations she prescribed.

### Introduction

[¶43] Esther presents herself before the king, and finds favor in his sight, [Est 5:1], [Est 5:2]. He asks what her request is, and promises to grant it, [Est 5:3]. She invites him and Haman to a banquet, which they accept, [Est 5:4], [Est 5:5]. He then desires to know her request; and she promises to make it known on the morrow, if they will again come to her banquet, [Est 5:6-8]. Haman, though overjoyed at the manner in which he was received by the queen, is indignant at the indifference with which he is treated by Mordecai, [Est 5:9]. He goes home, and complains of this conduct to his friends, and his wife Zeresh, [Est 5:10-13]. They counsel him to make a gallows of fifty cubits high, and to request the king that Mordecai may be hanged on it, which they take for granted the king will not refuse; and the gallows is made accordingly, [Est 5:14].

### Verse 1

[¶45] On the third day - Most probably the third day of the fast which she has prescribed to Mordecai and the Jews.

## 470. Esther · 6 of 9

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/470/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/470/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] She obtained favor in his sight - The Septuagint represents "the king as being at first greatly enraged when he saw Esther, because she had dared to appear before him unveiled, and she, perceiving this, was so terrified that she fainted away; on which the king, touched with tenderness, sprung from his throne, took her up in his arms, laid the golden scepter on her neck, and spoke to her in the most endearing manner." This is more circumstantial than the Hebrew, but is not contrary to it.

[¶2] The golden scepter that was in his hand - That the kings of Persia did wear a golden scepter, we have the following proof in Xenophon: Ὁτι ου τοδε το χρυσουν σκηπτρον το την βασιλειαν διασωξον εστιν, αλλ' πιστοι φιλοι σκηπτρον βασιλευσιν αληθεστατον και ασφαλεστατον. See Cyrop., lib. viii., p. 139, edit. Steph. 1581. It is not, said Cyrus to his son Cambyses, the Golden Sceptre that saves the kingdom; faithful friends are the truest and safest scepter of the empire.

### Verse 4

[¶4] Let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet - It was necessary to invite Haman to prevent his suspicion, and that he might not take any hasty step which might have prevented the execution of the great design.

### Verse 6

[¶6] The banquet of wine - At that part of the banquet when the wine was introduced.

### Verse 8

[¶8] I will do to-morrow - She saw she was gaining on the king's affections; but she was not yet sufficiently confident; and therefore wished another interview, that she might ingratiate herself more fully in the king's favor, and thus secure the success of her design. But Providence disposed of things thus, to give time for the important event mentioned in the succeeding chapter.

### Verse 9

[¶10] That he stood not up, nor moved for him - This was certainly carrying his integrity or inflexibility to the highest pitch. But still we are left to conjecture that some reverence was required, which Mordecai could not conscientiously pay.

### Verse 11

[¶12] The multitude of his children - The Asiatic sovereigns delight in the number of their children; and this is one cause why they take so many wives and concubines.

### Verse 13

[¶14] Yet all this availeth me nothing - Pride will ever render its possessor unhappy. He has such a high opinion of his own worth, that he conceives himself defrauded by every one who does not pay him all the respect and homage which he conceives to be his due.

[¶15] The soul was made for God, and nothing but God can fill it and make it happy. Angels could not be happy in glory, when they had cast off their allegiance to their Maker. As soon as his heart had departed from God, Adam would needs go to the forbidden fruit, to satisfy a desire which was only an indication of his having been unfaithful to his God. Solomon, in all his glory, possessing every thing heart could wish, found all to be vanity and vexation of spirit; because his soul had not God for its portion. Ahab, on the throne of Israel, takes to his bed, and refuses to eat bread, not merely because he cannot get the vineyard of Naboth, but because he had not God in his heart, who could alone satisfy its desires. Haman, on the same ground, though the prime favourite of the king, is wretched because he cannot have a bow from that man whom his heart even despised. O, how distressing are the inquietudes of vanity. And how wretched is the man who has not the God of Jacob for his help, and in whose heart Christ dwells not by faith!

### Verse 14

[¶17] Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high - The word עץ ets, which we translate gallows, signifies simply wood, a tree, or pole; and this was to be seventy-five feet high, that he might suffer the greater ignominy, and be a more public spectacle. I believe impaling is here also meant. See the note, [Est 2:23] (note).

[¶18] In former times the Jews were accustomed to burn Haman in effigy; and with him a wooden cross, which they pretended to be in memory of that which he had erected for the suspension of Mordecai; but which was, in fact, to deride the Christian religion. The emperors, Justinian and Theodosius, abolished it by their edicts; and the practice has ceased from that time, though the principle from which it sprang still exists, with the same virulence against Christianity and its glorious Author.

### Introduction

[¶20] That night the king, not being able to sleep, orders the chronicles of the kingdom to be read to him; and finds there the record concerning the discovery of the treason of the two eunuchs, made by Mordecai, [Est 6:1], [Est 6:2]. He inquires whether Mordecai had been rewarded, and was answered in the negative, [Est 6:3]. At this time Haman arrives, in order to request the king's permission to hang Mordecai; and being suddenly asked what should be done to the man whom the king delighted to honor, supposing that himself must be meant, presented the ceremonial, [Est 6:4-9]. The king orders him to give Mordecai those honors; which he performs, to his extreme mortification, [Est 6:10], [Est 6:11]. He informs his wife Zeresh of these transactions, who predicts his downfall, [Est 6:12-13]. He is hurried by the eunuchs to the queen's banquet, [Est 6:14].

### Verse 1

[¶22] On that night could not the king sleep - The Targum says the king had a dream, which was as follows: - "And the king saw one in the similitude of a man who spoke these words to him: Haman desireth to slay thee, and to make himself king in thy stead. Behold, he will come unto thee early in the morning, to ask from thee the man who rescued thee from death, that he may slay him: but say thou unto Haman, What shall be done for the man whose honor the king studieth? And thou wilt find that he will ask nothing less from thee than the royal vestments, the regal crown, and the horse on which the king is wont to ride."

[¶23] The records of the chronicles - It may be well asked, Why should the king, in such a perturbed state of mind, wish such a dry detail, as chronicles afford, to be read to him? But the truth is, as chronicles were composed among the Persians, he could not have brought before him any work more instructive, and more entertaining; because they were all written in verse, and were generally the work of the most eminent poets in the empire. They are written in this way to the present time; and the famous epic poem of the finest Persian poet, Ferdusi, the Homer of India, is nothing else than a collection of chronicles brought down from the creation to the reign of Mohammed Ghezny, in the beginning of the tenth century. After thirty years' labor, he finished this poem, which contained one hundred and twenty thousand lines, and presented it to the Sultan Mahmoud, who had promised to give him a dinar (eight shillings and sixpence) for every line. The poem was finished a.d. 984; and was formed out of compositions of a similar nature made by former poets. This chronological poem is written in all the harmony, strength, and elegance of the most beautiful and harmonious language in the universe; and what adds greatly to its worth is, that it has few Arabic words, with which the beautiful Persian tongue was loaded, and in my opinion corrupted, after the conquest of the major part of Asia by the Mohammedans. The pedants of Hindoostan, whether they speak or write, in prose or in verse, affect this commixture of Arabic words; which, though they subjugate them to Persian rules, are producing a ruggedness in a language, which in Ferdusi, flows deep and strong like a river of oil over every kind of channel. Such, I suppose, was the chronicle that was read to Ahasuerus, when his distractions prevented his sleep, and his troubled mind required that soothing repose which the gentle though powerful hand of poetry is alone, in such circumstances, capable of affording. Even our rough English ancestors had their poetic chronicles; and, among many, the chronicle of Robert of Gloucester is proof in point. I need not add, that all that is real in Ossian is of the same complexion.

### Verse 3

[¶25] What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai - It is certain he found nothing in the record; and had any thing been done, that was the most likely place to find it.

### Verse 4

[¶27] Who is in the court? - This accords with the dream mentioned by the Targum; and given above.

[¶28] Now Haman was come - This must have been very early in the morning. Haman's pride and revenge were both on the tenters to be gratified.

### Verse 6

[¶30] The king said unto him - He did not give him time to make his request; and put a question to him which, at the first view, promised him all that his heart could wish.

### Verse 8

[¶32] Let the royal apparel be brought - Pride and folly ever go hand in hand. What he asked would have been in any ordinary case against his own life: but he wished to reach the pinnacle of honor: never reflecting that the higher he rose, the more terrible would be his fall. The royal apparel was never worn but by the king: even when the king had lain them aside, it was death to put them on. The Targum has purple robes.

[¶33] And the horse - and the crown royal - Interpreters are greatly divided whether what is called here the crown royal be not rather an ornament worn on the head of the horse, than what may be called the royal crown. The original may be understood both ways; and our version seems to favor the former opinion; but I think it more likely that the royal crown is meant; for why mention the ordinary trappings of the royal steed?

### Verse 9

[¶35] One of the king's most noble princes - Alas, Poor Haman! Never was the fable of the dog and shadow more literally fulfilled. Thou didst gape at the shadow, and didst lose the substance.

### Verse 10

[¶37] Make haste, and take the apparel - and do even so to Mordecai - O mortifying reverse of human fortune! How could Haman bear this? The Targumist might speak according to nature when he said that "Haman besought the king to kill him rather than degrade him so." How astonishing is the conduct of Divine providence in all this business! From it we plainly see that there is neither counsel nor wisdom against the Lord; and that he who digs a pit for his neighbor, is sure to fall into it himself.

### Verse 12

[¶39] Mordecai came again to the king's gate - He resumed his former humble state; while Haman, ashamed to look up, covered his face, and ran home to hide himself in his own house. Covering the head and face was a sign of shame and confusion, as well as of grief, among most people of the earth.

### Verse 13

[¶41] But shalt surely fall before him - The Septuagint adds, ὁτι ὁ Θεος ὁ ζων μετ' αυτου, for the living God is with him. But this is a sentiment that could scarcely be expected to proceed from the mouth of heathens, such as these were.

### Verse 14

[¶43] Hasted to bring Haman - There was a dreadful banquet before him, of which he knew nothing: and he could have little appetite to enjoy that which he knew was prepared at the palace of Esther.

[¶44] One grand design of this history is, to show that he who lays a snare for the life of his neighbor, is most likely to fall into it himself: for, in the course of the Divine providence, men generally meet with those evils in life which they have been the means of inflicting on others: and this is exactly agreeable to the saying of our Lord: "With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you withal."

## 471. Esther · 7 of 9

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/471/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/471/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The king at the banquet urges Esther to prefer her petition, with the positive assurance that it shall be granted, [Est 7:1], [Est 7:2]. She petitions for her own life, and the life of her people, who were sold to be destroyed, [Est 7:3], [Est 7:4]. The king inquires the author of this project, and Haman is accused by the queen, [Est 7:5], [Est 7:6]. The king is enraged: Haman supplicates for his life; but the king orders him to be hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, [Est 7:7-10].

### Verse 2

[¶3] At the banquet of wine - Postquam vino incaluerat, after he had been heated with wine, says the Vulgate. In such a state the king was more likely to come into the measures of the queen.

### Verse 3

[¶5] Let my life be given me - This was very artfully, as well as very honestly, managed; and was highly calculated to work on the feelings of the king. What! is the life of the queen, whom I most tenderly love, in any kind of danger?

### Verse 4

[¶7] To be destroyed, to be slain - She here repeats the words which Haman put into the decree. See [Est 3:13].

[¶8] Could not countervail the king's damage - Even the ten thousand talents of silver could not be considered as a compensation to the state for the loss of a whole nation of people throughout all their generations.

### Verse 5

[¶10] Who is he, and where is he - There is a wonderful abruptness and confusion in the original words, highly expressive of the state of mind in which the king then was: מי הוא זה ואי זה הוא אשר מלאו לבו לעשות כן mi hu zeh veey zeh hu asher melao libbo laasoth ken. "Who? He? This one? And where? This one? He? Who hath filled his heart to do thus?" He was at once struck with the horrible nature of a conspiracy so cruel and diabolic.

### Verse 7

[¶12] Haman stood up - He rose from the table to make request for his life, as soon as the king had gone out; and then he fell on his knees before the queen, she still sitting upon her couch.

### Verse 8

[¶14] Will he force the queen - On the king's return he found him at the queen's knees; and, professing to think that he intended to do violence to her honor, used the above expressions; though he must have known that, in such circumstances, the thought of perpetrating an act of this kind could not possibly exist.

[¶15] They covered Haman's face - This was a sign of his being devoted to death: for the attendants saw that the king was determined on his destruction. When a criminal was condemned by a Roman judge, he was delivered into the hands of the serjeant with these words: I, lictor; caput obnubito, arbori infelici suspendito. "Go, serjeant; cover his head, and hang him on the accursed tree."

### Verse 9

[¶17] Behold also, the gallows - As if he had said, Besides all he has determined to do to the Jews, he has erected a very high gallows, on which he had determined, this very day, to hang Mordecai, who has saved the king's life.

[¶18] Hang him thereon - Let him be instantly impaled on the same post. "Harm watch, harm catch," says the proverb. Perillus was the first person burnt alive in the brazen bull which he had made for the punishment of others; hence the poet said: - - Nec lex est justior ulla, Quam necis artifices arte perire sua. "Nor can there be a juster law than that the artificers of death should perish by their own invention."

### Introduction

[¶20] Ahasuerus invests Mordecai with the offices and dignities possessed by Haman, [Est 8:1], [Est 8:2]. Esther begs that the decree of destruction gone out against the Jews may be reversed, [Est 8:3-6]. He informs her that the acts that had once passed the kings seal cannot be reversed; but he instructs her and Mordecai to write other letters in his name, and seal them with his seal, and send them to all the provinces in the empire, giving the Jews full liberty to defend themselves; which is accordingly done; and the letters are sent off with the utmost speed to all the provinces: in consequence, the Jews prepare for their own defense, [Est 8:8-14]. Mordecai appears publicly in the dress of his high office, [Est 8:15]. The Jews rejoice in every place; and many of the people become Jews, because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them, [Est 8:16], [Est 8:17].

### Verse 1

[¶22] The king - give the house of Haman - As Haman was found guilty of treasonable practices against the peace and prosperity of the king and his empire, his life was forfeited and his goods confiscated. And as Mordecai had been the means of preserving the king's life, and was the principal object of Haman's malice, it was but just to confer his property upon him, as well as his dignity and office, as Mordecai was found deserving of the former, and fit to discharge the duties of the latter.

### Verse 2

[¶24] The king took off his ring - In the ring was the seal of the king. Giving the ring to Mordecai was tantamount to giving him the seal of the kingdom, and constituting him the same as lord chancellor among us.

### Verse 6

[¶26] To see the destruction of my kindred? - She had now informed the king that she was cousin to Mordecai, and consequently a Jewess; and though her own life and that of Mordecai were no longer in danger, Haman being dead, yet the decree that had gone forth was in full force against the Jews; and if not repealed, their destruction would be inevitable.

### Verse 8

[¶28] May no man reverse - Whatever had passed the royal signet could never be revoked; no succeeding edict could destroy or repeal a preceding one: but one of a similar nature to the Jews against the Persians, as that to the Persians was against the Jews, might be enacted, and thus the Jews be enabled legitimately to defend themselves; and, consequently, placed on an equal footing with their enemies.

### Verse 9

[¶30] The month Sivan - This answers to a part of our May and June.

### Verse 10

[¶32] On mules, camels, and young dromedaries - What these beasts were is difficult to say. The word רכש rechesh, which we translate mules, signifies a swift chariot horse.

[¶33] The strange word אחשתרנים achashteranim is probably a Persian word, but perhaps incurably corrupted. The most likely derivation is that of Bochart, from the Persian akhash, huge, large, rough, and aster, a mule; large mules.

[¶34] The words בני הרמכים beney harammachim, the sons of mares, which we translate dromedaries, are supposed to signify mules, produced between the he ass and the mare, to distinguish them from those produced between the stallion and the ass, But there is really so much confusion about these matters, and so little consent among learned men as to the signification of these words, and even the true knowledge of them is of such little importance, that we may well rest contented with such names as our modern translations have given us. They were, no doubt, the swiftest and hardiest beasts that the city or country could produce.

### Verse 11

[¶36] To destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish - The same words as in Haman's decree: therefore the Jews had as much authority to slay their enemies, as their enemies had to slay them.

[¶37] Little ones and women - This was the ordinary custom, to destroy the whole family of those convicted of great crimes; and whether this was right or wrong, it was the custom of the people, and according to the laws. Besides, as this edict was to give the Jews the same power against their enemies as they had by the former decree against them, and the women and children were there included; consequently they must be included here.

### Verse 14

[¶39] The decree was given at Shushan - The contrary effect which it was to produce considered, this decree was in every respect like the former. See [Est 3:8-15].

### Verse 15

[¶41] Blue and white - Probably stripe interchanged with stripe; or blue faced and bordered with white fur.

[¶42] A great crown of gold - A large turban, ornamented with gold, jewels, etc.

[¶43] Fine linen and purple - See on [Gen 41:42] (note). The בץ buts, here mentioned, is most probably the same with the byssus of the ancients; supposed to be the beautiful tuft or beard, growing out of the side of the pinna longa, a very large species of muscle, found on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, of which there are a pair of gloves in the British Museum. This byssus I have described elsewhere.

[¶44] Shushan - was glad - Haman was too proud to be popular; few lamented his fall.

## 472. Esther · 8 of 9

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### Verse 17

[¶1] Many - became Jews; for - fear - These were a species of converts not likely to bring much honor to true religion: but the sacred historian states the simple fact. They did profess Judaism for fear of the Jews, whether they continued steady in that faith or not.

[¶2] It is only the Gospel which will not admit of coercion for the propagation and establishment of its doctrines. It is a spiritual system, and can be propagated only by spiritual influence. As it proclaims holiness of heart and life, which nothing but the Spirit of God can produce, so it is the Spirit of God alone that can persuade the understanding and change the heart. If the kingdom of Christ were of this world, then would his servants fight. But it is not from hence.

### Introduction

[¶4] On the thirteenth of the month Adar the Jews destroy their enemies, and the governors of the provinces assist them, [Est 9:1-5]. They slay five hundred in Shushan, and kill the ten sons of Haman, but take no spoil, [Est 9:6-10]. The king is informed of the slaughter in Shushan, [Est 9:11]. He desires to know what Esther requests farther; who begs that the Jews may be permitted to act on the following day as they had done on the preceding, and that Haman's sons may be hanged upon the gallows; which is granted; and they slay three hundred more in Shushan, and in the other provinces seventy-five thousand, [Est 9:12-16]. A recapitulation of what was done; and of the appointment of the feast of Purim to be observed through all their generations every year, [Est 9:17-28]. Esther writes to confirm this appointment, [Est 9:29-32].

### Verse 1

[¶6] Now in the twelfth month - What a number of providences, and none of them apparently of an extraordinary nature, concurred to preserve a people so signally, and to all human appearance so inevitably, doomed to destruction! None are ever too low for God to lift up, or too high for God to cast down. Must not these heathens have observed that the uncontrollable hand of an Almighty Being had worked in behalf of the Jews? And must not this have had a powerful tendency to discredit the idolatry of the country?

### Verse 3

[¶8] And all the rulers of the provinces - Mordecai being raised to the highest confidence of the king, and to have authority over the whole realm, these officers assisted the Jews, no doubt, with the troops under their command, to overthrow those who availed themselves of the former decree to molest the Jews. For it does not appear that the Jews slew any person who did not rise up to destroy them. See [Est 9:5].

### Verse 6

[¶10] And in Shushan - It is strange that in this city, where the king's mind must have been so well known, there should be found five hundred persons to rise up in hostility against those whom they knew the king befriended!

### Verse 10

[¶12] The ten sons of Haman - Their names are given above. And it is remarked here, and in [Est 9:16], where the account is given of the number slain in the provinces, that the Jews laid no hands on the spoil. They stood for their lives, and gave full proof that they sought their own personal safety, and not the property of their enemies, though the decree in their favor gave them authority to take the property of all those who were their adversaries, [Est 8:11].

### Verse 13

[¶14] Let Haman's ten sons be hanged - They had been slain the preceding day, and now she requests that they may be exposed on posts or gibbets, as a terror to those who sought the destruction of the Jews.

### Verse 15

[¶16] And slew three hundred men - Esther had probably been informed by Mordecai that there were still many enemies of the Jews who sought their destruction, who had escaped the preceding day; and, therefore, begs that this second day be added to the former permission. This being accordingly granted, they found three hundred more, in all eight hundred. And thus Susa was purged of all their enemies.

### Verse 18

[¶18] The Jews - assembled - on the thirteenth - and on the fourteenth - These two days they were employed in slaying their enemies; and they rested on the fifteenth.

### Verse 19

[¶20] The Jews of the villages - They joined that to the preceding day, and made it a day of festivity, and of sending portions to each other; that is, the rich sent portions of the sacrifices slain on this occasion to the poor, that they also might be enabled to make the day a day of festivity; that as the sorrow was general, so also might the joy be.

[¶21] It is worthy of remark that the ancient Itala or Ante-hieronymian version of this book omits the whole of these nineteen verses. Query, Were they originally in this book?

### Verse 20

[¶23] Mordecai wrote these things - It has been supposed that thus far that part of the book of Esther, which was written by Mordecai extends: what follows to the end, was probably added either by Ezra, or the men of the Great Synagogue; though what is said here may refer only to the letters sent by Mordecai to the Jews of the provinces. From this to the end of the chapter is nothing else than a recapitulation of the chief heads of the preceding history, and an account of the appointment of an annual feast, called the feast of Purim, in commemoration of their providential deliverance from the malice of Haman.

### Verse 23

[¶25] The Jews undertook to do as they had begun - They had already kept the fifteenth day, and some of them in the country the fourteenth also, as a day of rejoicing: Mordecai wrote to them to bind themselves and their successors, and all their proselytes, to celebrate this as an annual feast throughout all their generations; and this they undertook to do. And it has been observed among them, in all places of their dispersion, from that day to the present time, without any interruption.

### Verse 26

[¶27] They called these days Purim - That is from pari, the lot; because, as we have seen, Haman cast lots to find what month, and what day of the month, would be the most favorable for the accomplishment of his bloody designs against the Jews. See on [Est 3:7] (note).

[¶28] And of that which they had seen - The first letter to which this second refers, must be that sent by Mordecai himself. See [Est 9:20].

### Verse 29

[¶30] Esther - wrote with all authority - Esther and Mordecai had the king's license so to do: and their own authority was great and extensive.

### Verse 31

[¶32] As they had decreed for themselves and for their seed - There is no mention of their receiving the approbation of any high priest, nor of any authority beyond that of Mordecai and Esther; the king could not join in such a business, as he had nothing to do with the Jewish religion, that not being the religion of the country.

### Verse 32

[¶34] The decree of Esther confirmed these matters - It was received by the Jews universally with all respect, and they bound themselves to abide by it.

[¶35] The Vulgate gives a strange turn to this verse: Et omnia quae libri hujus, qui vocatur Esther, historia continentur; "And all things which are contained in the history of this book, which is called Esther."

[¶36] The Targum says, And by the word of Esther all these things relative to Purim were confirmed; and the roll was transcribed in this book. The Syriac is the same as the Hebrew, and the Septuagint in this place not very different.

### Introduction

[¶38] Ahasuerus lays a tribute on his dominions, [Est 10:1]. Mordecai's advancement under him, [Est 10:2]. His character, [Est 10:3].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Laid a tribute upon the land - On the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of which we have already heard.

[¶41] The isles of the sea - Probably the isles of the Aegean sea, which were conquered by Darius Hystaspes. Calmet supposes that this Hystaspes is the Ahasuerus of Esther.

### Verse 2

[¶43] The book of the chronicles of Media and Persia? - The Persians have ever been remarkable for keeping exact chronicles of all public events. Their Tareekhs, which are compositions of this kind, are still very numerous, and indeed very important.

## 473. Esther · 9 of 9

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### Verse 3

[¶1] Was next unto king Ahasuerus - He was his prime minister; and, under him, was the governor of the whole empire.

[¶2] The Targum is extravagant in its encomiums upon Mordecai: "All the kings of the earth feared and trembled before him: he was as resplendent as the evening star among the stars; and was as bright as Aurora beaming forth in the morning; and he was chief of the kings."

[¶3] Seeking the wealth of his people - Studying to promote the Jewish interest to the utmost of his power.

[¶4] Speaking peace to all his seed - Endeavoring to settle their prosperity upon such a basis, that it might be for ever permanent. Here the Hebrew text ends; but in the ancient Vulgate, and in the Greek, ten verses are added to this chapter, and six whole chapters besides, so that the number of chapters in Esther amounts to sixteen. A translation of these may be found in the Apocrypha, bound up with the sacred text, in most of our larger English Bibles. On any part of this work it is not my province to add any comment.

[¶5] This is the last of the historical books of the Old Testament, for from this time to the birth of Christ they had no inspired writers; and the interval of their history must be sought among the apocryphal writers and other historians who have written on Jewish affairs. The most complete supplement to this history will be found in that most excellent work of Dean Prideaux, entitled The Old and New Testaments connected, in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations, from the Declension of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the time of Christ, 4 vols. 8vo. 1725. The editions prior to this date are not so complete.

[¶6] We have already seen what the Feast of Purim means, and why it was instituted; if the reader is desirous of farther information on this subject, he may find it in the works of Buxtorf, Leusden, Stehlin, and Calmet's Dictionary, article Pur.

## 474. Job · 1 of 73

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### Preface to the Book of Job

[¶1] This is the most singular book in the whole of the Sacred Code: though written by the same inspiration, and in reference to the same end, the salvation of men, it is so different from every other book of the Bible, that it seems to possess nothing in common with them, for even the language, in its construction, is dissimilar from that in the Law, the Prophets, and the historical books. But on all hands it is accounted a work that contains "the purest morality, the sublimest philosophy, the simplest ritual, and the most majestic creed." Except the two first chapters and the ten last verses, which are merely prose, all the rest of the book is poetic; and is every where reducible to the hemistich form, in which all the other poetic books of the Bible are written: it is therefore properly called a Poem; but whether it belongs to the dramatic or epic species has not been decided by learned men. To try it by those rules which have been derived from Aristotle, and are still applied to ascertain compositions in these departments of poetry, is, in my opinion, as absurd as it is ridiculous. Who ever made a poem on these rules? And is there a poem in the universe worth reading that is strictly conformable to these rules? Not one. The rules, it is true, were deduced from compositions of this description: - and although they may be very useful, in assisting poets to methodize their compositions, and to keep the different parts distinct; yet they have often acted as a species of critical trammels, and have cramped genius. Genuine poetry is like a mountain flood: it pours down, resistless, bursts all bounds, scoops out its own channel, carries woods and rocks before it, and spreads itself abroad, both deep and wide, over all the plain. Such, indeed, is the poetry which the reader will meet with in this singular and astonishing book. As to Aristotle himself, although he was a keen-eyed plodder of nature, and a prodigy for his time; yet if we may judge from his poetics, he had a soul as incapable of feeling the true genie createur, as Racine terms the spirit of poetry, as he was, by his physics, metaphysics, and analogies, of discovering the true system of the universe.

[¶2] As to the book of Job, it is most evidently a poem, and a poem of the highest order; dealing in subjects the most grand and sublime; using imagery the most chaste and appropriate; described by language the most happy and energetic; conveying instruction, both in Divine and human things, the most ennobling and useful; abounding in precepts the most pure and exalted, which are enforced by arguments the most strong and conclusive, and illustrated by examples the most natural and striking.

[¶3] All these points will appear in the strongest light to every attentive reader of the book; and to such its great end will be answered: they will learn from it, that God has way every where: that the wicked, though bearing rule for a time, can never be ultimately prosperous and happy; and that the righteous, though oppressed with sufferings and calamities, can never be forgotten by Him in whose hands are his saints, and with whom their lives are precious; that in this world neither are the wicked ultimately punished, nor the righteous ultimately rewarded; that God's judgments are a great deep, and his ways past finding out; but the issues of all are to the glory of his wisdom and grace, and to the eternal happiness of those who trust in him. This is the grand design of the book, and this design will be strikingly evident to the simplest and most unlettered reader, whose heart is right with God, and who is seeking instruction, in order that he may glorify his Maker, by receiving and by doing good.

[¶4] Notwithstanding all this, there is not a book in Scripture on the subject of which more difficulties have been started. None, says Calmet, has furnished more subjects of doubt and embarrassment; and none has afforded less information for the solution of those doubts. On this subject the great questions which have been agitated refer, principally,

[¶5] 1. To the person of Job.

[¶6] 2. To his existence.

[¶7] 3. To the time in which he lived.

[¶8] 4. To his country.

[¶9] 5. To his stock or kindred.

[¶10] 6. To his religion.

[¶11] 7. To the author of the book.

[¶12] 8. To its truth.

[¶13] 9. To its authenticity; and,

[¶14] 10. To the time and occasion on which it was written.

[¶15] With respect to the first and second, several writers of eminent note have denied the personality of Job; according to them, no such person ever existed; he is merely fabulous, and is like the Il penseroso, or sorrowful man of Milton; sorrow, distress, affliction, and persecution personified, as the name imports. According to them, he is a mere ideal being, created by the genius of the poet; clothed with such attributes, and placed in such circumstances, as gave the poet scope and materials for his work.

[¶16] Thirdly, as to the time in which those place him who receive this as a true history, there is great variety. According to some, he flourished in the patriarchal age; some make him contemporary with Moses; that he was in the captivity in Egypt, and that he lived at the time of the exodus. Some place him in the time of the Israelitish judges; others in the days of David; others, in those of Solomon; and others, in the time of the Babylonish captivity, having been teacher of a school at Tiberias in Palestine, and, with the rest of his countrymen, carried away into Babylon; and that he lived under Ahasuerus and Esther. Fourthly, as to his country: some make him an Arab; others, an Egyptian; others, a Syrian; some an Israelite; and some, an Idumean. Fifthly, as to his origin: some derive him from Nachor, and others from Esau, and make him the fifth in descent from Abraham. Sixthly, as to his religion: some suppose it to have been Sabaeism; others, that it was patriarchal; and others, that he was bred up in the Jewish faith. Seventhly, as to the author of the work, learned men are greatly divided: some suppose the author to have been Elihu; others, Job; others, Job and his friends; others, Moses; some, Solomon; others, Isaiah; and others, Ezra, or some unknown Jew, posterior to the captivity. Eighthly, as to the book: some maintain that it is a history of fact, given by one best qualified to record it; and others, that it is an instructive fiction-facts, persons, dialogues and all, being supposititious; given, however, by the inspiration of God, in a sort of parabolic form, like those employed in the Gospel; and similar to that of the rich man and Lazarus. Ninthly, as to its authenticity: while some, and those not well qualified to judge, have asserted it to be a mere human production, of no Divine authority; others have clearly shown that the book itself, whatever questions may arise concerning the person, author, time, place, etc., was ever received by the Jewish Church and people as authentic, genuine, and divinely inspired; and incorporated, with the highest propriety, among the most instructive, sublime, and excellent portions of Divine revelation. Tenthly, as to the occasion on which it was written, there are considerable differences of opinion: some will have it to be written for the consolation of the Hebrews in their peregrinations through the wilderness; and others, for the comfort and encouragement of the Israelites in the Babylonish captivity: these state that Job represents Nehemiah, and that his three professed friends, but real enemies, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, represent Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian! and that the whole book should be understood and interpreted on this ground; and that, with a little allowance for poetic colouring, all its parts perfectly harmonize, thus understood; showing, in a word, that into whatsoever troubles or persecutions God may permit his people to be brought, yet he will sustain them in the fire, bring them safely through it, and discomfit all their enemies: and that whatsoever is true on this great scale, is true also on that which is more contracted; as he will equally support, defend, and finally render conqueror, every individual that trusts in him.

[¶17] I shall not trouble my readers with the arguments which have been used by learned men, pro and con, relative to the particulars already mentioned: were I to do this, I must transcribe a vast mass of matter, which, though it might display great learning in the authors, would most certainly afford little edification to the great bulk of my readers. My own opinion on those points they may naturally wish to know; and to that opinion they have a right: it is such as I dare avow, and such as I feel no disposition to conceal. I believe Job to have been a real person, and his history to be a statement of facts.

[¶18] As the preface to this book (I mean the first chapter) states him to have lived in the land of Uz, or Uts, I believe, with Mr. Good and several other learned men, this place to have been "situated in Arabia Petraea, on the south-western coast of the lake Asphaltites, in a line between Egypt and Philistia, surrounded with Kedar, Teman, and Midian; all of which were districts of Arabia Petraea; situated in Idumea, the land of Edom or Esau; and comprising so large a part of it, that Idumea and Ausitis, or the land of Uz, and the land of Edom, were convertible terms, and equally employed to import the same region: thus, [Lam 4:21] : 'Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz."' See Mr. Good's Introductory Dissertation; who proceeds to observe: "Nothing is clearer than that all the persons introduced into this poem were Idumeans, dwelling in Idumea; or, in other words, Edomite Arabs. These characters are, Job himself, dwelling in the land of Uz; Eliphaz of Teman, a district of as much repute as Uz, and (upon the joint testimony of [Jer 49:7], [Jer 49:20]; [Eze 25:13]; [Amo 1:11], [Amo 1:12], and [Oba 1:8], [Oba 1:9]) a part, and a principal part, of Idumea; Bildad of Shuah, always mentioned in conjunction with Sheba and Dedan, all of them being uniformly placed in the vicinity of Idumea; Zophar of Naamah, a city whose name imports pleasantness, which is also stated, in [Jos 15:21], [Jos 15:41], to have been situated in Idumea, and to have lain in a southern direction towards its coast, or the shores of the Red Sea; and Elihu of Buz, which as the name of a place occurs but once in sacred writ, but is there ([Jer 25:22], [Jer 25:23]) mentioned in conjunction with Teman and Dedan; and hence necessarily, like themselves, a border city upon Ausitis, Uz, or Idumea. It had a number of names: it was at first called Horitis, from the Horim or Horites, who appear to have first settled there. Among the descendants of these, the most distinguished was Seir; and from him the land was known by the name of the Land of Seir. This chief had a numerous family, and among the most signalized of his grandsons was Uz, or Uts; and from him, and not from Uz the son of Nahor, it seems to have been called Ausitis, or the Land of Uz. The family of Hor, Seir, or Uz, were at length dispossessed of the entire region by Esau, or Edom; who strengthened himself by his marriage with one of the daughters of Ishmael; and the conquered territory was denominated Idumea, or the land of Edom." I think this is conclusive as to the country of Job and his friends. See Mr. Good as above.

[¶19] The man and his country being thus ascertained, the time in which he lived is the point next to be considered.

[¶20] I feel all the difficulties of the various chronologies of learned men: all that has been offered on the subject is only opinion or probable conjecture; and, while I differ from many respectable authors, I dare not say that I have more to strengthen my opinion than they have to support theirs.

[¶21] I do not believe that he lived under the patriarchal dispensation; nor in any time previous to the giving of the Law, or to the death of Moses. I have examined the opposite arguments, and they have brought no conviction to my mind. That he lived after the giving of the Law appears to me very probable, from what I consider frequent references to the Mosaic institutions occurring in the book, and which I shall notice in their respective places. I know it has been asserted there are no such references; and I am astonished at the assertion: the reader will judge whether a plain case is made out where the supposed references occur. An obstinate adherence to a preconceived system is like prejudice; it has neither eyes nor ears.

[¶22] With this question, that relative to the author of the book is nearly connected. Were we to suppose that Job himself, or Elihu, or Job and his friends, wrote the work, the question would at once be answered that regards the time; but all positive evidence on this point is wanting: and while other suppositions have certain arguments to support them, the above claimants who are supported only by critical conjecture, must stand where they are for want of evidence. The opinions that appear the most probable, and have plausible arguments to support them, are the following:

[¶23] 1. Moses was the author of this book, as many portions of it harmonize with his acknowledged writings.

[¶24] 2. Solomon is the most likely author, as many of the sentiments contained in it are precisely the same with those in the Proverbs; and they are delivered often in nearly the same words.

[¶25] 3. The book was written by some Jew, in or soon after the time of the Babylonish captivity.

[¶26] 1. That Moses was the author has been the opinion of most learned men; and none has set the arguments in support of this opinion in so strong a light as Mr. Mason Good, in his Introductory Dissertation to his translation and notes on this book. Mr. G. is a gentleman of great knowledge, great learning, and correct thinking; and whatever he says or writes is entitled to respect. If he have data, his deductions are most generally consecutive and solid. He contends, "that the writer of this poem must in his style have been equally master of the simple and of the sublime; that he must have been minutely and elaborately acquainted with Astronomy, Natural History, and the general science of his age; that he must have been a Hebrew by birth and native language, and an Arabian by long residence and local study; and, finally, that he must have flourished and composed the work before the exodus." And he thinks that "every one of these features is consummated in Moses, and in Moses alone; and that the whole of them give us his complete lineaments and portraiture. Instructed in all the learning of Egypt, it appears little doubtful that he composed it during some part of his forty years' residence with the hospitable Jethro, in that district of Idumea which was named Midian." In addition to these external proofs of identity, Mr. Good thinks, "a little attention will disclose to us an internal proof, of peculiar force, in the close and striking similarity of diction and idiom which exists between the book of Job and those pieces of poetry which Moses is usually admitted to have composed. This point he proceeds to examine; and thinks that the following examples may make some progress toward settling the question, by exhibiting a very singular proof of general parallelism. "The order of creation, as detailed in the first chapter of Genesis, is precisely similar to that described in Job 38:1-20, the general arrangement that occupied the first day; - the formation of the clouds, which employed the second; - the separation of the sea, which took up a part of the third; - and the establishment of the luminaries in the skies, which characterized the fourth. "In this general description, as given in Genesis, the vapor in the clouds, and the fluid in the sea, are equally denominated waters: thus, [Gen 1:5-7], 'And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.' "Let us compare this passage with [Job 26:8-10] : -

[¶27] He driveth together the waters into His thick clouds;

[¶28] And the cloud is not rent under them -

[¶29] He setteth a bow on the face of the waters,

[¶30] Till the consummation of light and of darkness. "These are, perhaps, the only instances in the Bible in which the cloudy vapors are denominated waters, before they become concentrated into rain; and they offer an identity of thought, which strongly suggests an identity of person. The following is another very striking peculiarity of the same kind, occurring in the same description, and is perhaps still more in point. The combined simplicity and sublimity of [Gen 1:3], 'And God said, Be light! and light was,' has been felt and praised by critics of every age, Pagan and Mohammedan, as well as Jewish and Christian; and has by all of them been regarded as a characteristic feature in the Mosaic style. In the poem before us we have the following proof of identity of manner, [Job 37:6] : -

[¶31] Behold! He saith to the snow, Be!

[¶32] On earth then falleth it.

[¶33] To the rain - and it falleth; -

[¶34] The rains of his might. "This can hardly be regarded as an allusion, but as an instance of identity of manner. In the psalmist we have an allusion: and it occurs thus, [Psa 33:9], הוא אמר ויהי hu amar vaiyehi, 'He spake, and it existed;' and I copy it that the reader may see the difference. The eulogy of Longinus upon the passage in Genesis is a eulogy also upon that in Job; and the Koran, in verbally copying the psalmist, has bestowed an equal panegyric upon all of them: -

[¶35] Dixit, 'Esto;' et fuit. - He said, Be Thou; and it Was. "With reference to the description of the creation, in the book of Genesis, I shall only farther observe, that the same simplicity of style, adapted to so lofty a subject, characteristically distinguishes the writer of the book of Job, who commonly employs a diction peculiarly magnificent, as though trusting to the subject to support itself, without the feeble aid of rhetorical ornaments. Of this the description of the tribunal of the Almighty, given in the first and second chapters of the ensuing poem, is a striking example, as indeed I have already remarked; and that of the midnight apparition in the fourth chapter is no less so. "The following instances are of a more general nature, and lead, upon a broader principle, to the same conclusion: -

[¶36] Job Exodus [Job 13:24] [Job 4:9] [Job 15:24] [Job 20:26] Wherefore accountest thou me thine enemy?

[¶37] Wouldst thou hunt down the parched stubble?

[¶38] By the blast of God they perish;

[¶39] And by the breath of His nostrils they are consumed.

[¶40] Distress and anguish dismay him;

[¶41] They overwhelm him as a king ready for battle.

[¶42] Terrors shall be upon him -

[¶43] Every horror treasured up in reserve for him.

[¶44] A fire unblown shall consume him. [Exo 15:7] [Exo 15:8] [Exo 15:10] [Exo 15:16] Thou sentest forth thy wrath,

## 475. Job · 2 of 73

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[¶0] Consuming them as stubble.

[¶1] And with the blast of thy nostrils

[¶2] The waters were gathered together.

[¶3] Thou didst blow with thy wind:

[¶4] The sea covered them.

[¶5] Terror and dread shall fall upon them:

[¶6] By the might of thine arm they shall be still as a stone. Job Deuteronomy [Job 20:27] [Job 18:15] [Job 18:16] [Job 18:17] 18:24 7:25 [Job 8:17] [Job 8:18] [Job 8:19] The heavens shall disclose his iniquity,

[¶7] And the earth shall rise up against him.

[¶8] Brimstone shall be rained down upon his dwelling.

[¶9] Below shall his root be burnt up,

[¶10] And above shall his branch be cut off.

[¶11] Counsellors he leadeth captive,

[¶12] And judges he maketh distracted.

[¶13] He bewildereth the judgment of the leaders of the people of the land,

[¶14] And causeth them to wander in a pathless dessert:

[¶15] They grope about in darkness, even without a gl

### Verse 3

[¶17] His substance also was seven thousand sheep - A thousand, says the Chaldee, for each of his sons. Three thousand camels: a thousand for each of his daughters. Five hundred yoke of oxen for himself. And five hundred she-asses for his wife. Thus the Targum divides the substance of this eminent man.

[¶18] A very great household - עבדה רבה מאד abuddah rabbah meod, "a very great estate." The word עבדה abuddah refers chiefly to husbandry, including all manner of labor in the field, with cattle, and every description of servants.

[¶19] The greatest of all the men of the East - He was more eminent than any other person in that region in wisdom, wealth, and piety. He was the chief emir of that district.

### Verse 4

[¶21] Feasted in their houses, every one his day - It is likely that a birthday festival is here intended. When the birthday of one arrived, he invited his brothers and sisters to feast with him; and each observed the same custom.

### Verse 5

[¶23] When the days of their feasting were gone about - At the conclusion of the year, when the birthday of each had been celebrated, the pious father appears to have gathered them all together, that the whole family might hold a feast to the Lord, offering burnt-offerings in order to make an atonement for sins of all kinds, whether presumptuous or committed through ignorance. This we may consider as a general custom among the godly in those ancient times.

[¶24] And cursed God in their hearts - וברכו אלהים uberechu Elohim. In this book, according to most interpreters, the verb ברך barach signifies both to bless and to curse; and the noun אלהים Elohim signifies the true God, false gods, and great or mighty. The reason why Job offered the burnt-offerings appears to have been this: in a country where idolatry flourished, he thought it possible that his children might, in their festivity, have given way to idolatrous thoughts, or done something prescribed by idolatrous rites; and therefore the words may be rendered thus: It may be that my children have blessed the gods in their hearts. Others think that the word ברך barach should be understood as implying farewell, bidding adieu - lest my children have bidden adieu to God, that is, renounced him, and cast off his fear. To me this is very unlikely. Mr. Mason Good contends that the word should be understood in its regular and general sense, to bless; and that the conjunction ו vau should be translated nor. "Peradventure my sons may have sinned, nor blessed God in their hearts." This version he supports with great learning. I think the sense given above is more plain, and less embarrassed. They might have been guilty of some species of idolatry. This is possible even among those called Christians, in their banquets; witness their songs to Bacchus, Venus, etc., which are countless in number, and often sung by persons who would think themselves injured, not to be reputed Christians. Coverdale, in his translation, (1535), renders the passage thus: Peradventure my sonnes have done some offense, and have been unthankful to God in their hertes.

[¶25] Thus did Job continually - At the end of every year, when all the birthday festivals had gone round.

### Verse 6

[¶27] There was a day when the sons of God - All the versions, and indeed all the critics, are puzzled with the phrase sons of God; בני האלהים beney haelohim, literally, sons of the God, or sons of the gods. The Vulgate has simply filii dei, sons of God. The Septuagint, οἱ αγγελοι του θεου, the angels of God. The Chaldee, כתי מלאכיא kittey malachaiya, troops of angels. The Syriac retains the Hebrew words and letters, only leaving out the demonstrative ה he in the word האלהים haelohim, thus, (Syriac) baney Elohim. The Arabic nearly copies the Hebrew also, (Arabic) banoa Iloheem; to which, if we give not the literal translation of the Hebrew, we may give what translation we please. Coverdale (1535) translates it, servauntes of God. The Targum supposes that this assembly took place on the day of the great atonement, which occurred once each year. And there was a day of judgment in the beginning of the year; and the troops of angels came, that they might stand in judgment before the Lord. But what are we to make of this whole account? Expositions are endless. That of Mr. Peters appears to me to be at once the most simple and the most judicious: "The Scripture speaks of God after the manner of men, for there is a necessity of condescending to our capacities, and of suiting the revelation to our apprehension. As kings, therefore, transact their most important affairs in a solemn council or assembly, so God is pleased to represent himself as having his council likewise; and as passing the decrees of his providence in an assembly of his holy angels. We have here, in the case of Job, the same grand assembly held, as was before in that of Ahab, 1 Kings 22:6-23; the same host of heaven, called here the sons of God, presenting themselves before Jehovah, as in the vision of Micaiah they are said to stand on his right hand and on his left. A wicked spirit appearing among them, here called Satan or the adversary, and there a lying spirit; both bent on mischief, and ready to do all the hurt they were permitted to do; for both were under the control of his power. The imagery is just the same; and the only difference is in the manner of the relation. That mentioned above, Micaiah, as a prophet, and in the actual exercise of his prophetic office, delivers, as he received it, in a vision. "I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the Host of Heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left, and there came forth a Lying Spirit, and stood Before the Lord, and said," [1Kgs 22:19-22]. The other, as a historian, interweaves it with his history; and tells us, in his plain narrative style, "There was a day when the sons of God came to Present themselves Before the Lord, and Satan came also among them." And this he delivers in the same manner as he does, There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. "The things delivered to us by these two inspired writers are the same in substance, equally high, and above the reach of human sight and knowledge; but the manner of delivering them is different, each as suited best to his particular purpose. This, then is the prophetical way of representing things, as to the manner of doing them, which, whether done exactly in the same manner, concerns us not to know; but which are really done: and God would have them described as done in this manner, to make the more lively and lasting impression on us. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that representations of this kind are founded in a well-known and established truth, viz., the doctrine of good and bad angels, a point revealed from the beginning, and without a previous knowledge of which, the visions of the prophets could scarcely be intelligible." See [Gen 28:10-15].

[¶28] And Satan came also - This word also is emphatic in the original, השטן hassatan, the Satan, or the adversary; translated by the Septuagint ὁ Διαβολος. The original word is preserved by the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic; indeed, in each of them the word signifies an adversary. St. Peter, [1Pet 5:8], plainly refers to this place; and fully proves that השטן hassatan, which he literally translates ὁ αντιδικος, the Adversary, is no other than ὁ Διαβολος, the Devil, or chief of bad demons, which he adds to others by way of explanation. There are many διαμονες, demons, mentioned in Scripture, but the word Satan or devil is never found in the originals of the Old and New Testaments in the plural number. Hence we reasonably infer, that all evil spirits are under the government of One chief, the Devil, who is more powerful and more wicked than the rest. From the Greek Διαβολος comes the Latin Diabolus, the Spanish Diablo, the French Diable, the Italian Diavolo, the German Teuffel, the Dutch Duivel, the Anglo-Saxon and the English Devil, which some would derive from the compound The - Evil; ὁ πονηρος, the evil one, or wicked one.

[¶29] It is now fashionable to deny the existence of this evil spirit; and this is one of what St. John ([Rev 2:24]) calls τα βαθη του σατανα, the depths of Satan; as he well knows that they who deny his being will not be afraid of his power and influence; will not watch against his wiles and devices; will not pray to God for deliverance from the evil one; will not expect him to be trampled down under their feet, who has no existence; and, consequently, they will become an easy and unopposing prey to the enemy of their souls. By leading men to disbelieve and deny his existence, he throws them off their guard; and is then their complete master, and they are led captive by him at his will. It is well known that, among all those who make any profession of religion, those who deny the existence of the devil are they who pray little or none at all; and are, apparently, as careless about the existence of God as they are about the being of a devil. Piety to God is with them out of the question; for those who do not pray, especially in private, (and I never met with a devil-denier who did), have no religion of any kind, whatsoever pretensions they may choose to make.

### Verse 7

[¶31] From going to and fro in the earth - The translation of the Septuagint is curious: Περιελθων την γην και εμπεριπατησας την ὑπ' ουρανον, παρειμι; "Having gone round the earth, and walked over all that is under heaven, I am come hither." The Chaldee says, "I am come from going round the earth to examine the works of the children of men; and from walking through it." Coverdale, who generally hits the sense, translates thus: I have gone aboute the londe ond walked thorow it. Mr. Good has it, from roaming round the earth, and walking about it.

[¶32] St. Peter, as has been already stated, [1Pet 5:8], refers to this: "Be sober, be vigilant; for your Adversary the Devil Goeth About, as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." I rather think, with Coverdale, that ארץ arets here signifies rather that land, than the habitable globe. The words are exceedingly emphatic; and the latter verb התהלך hithhallech being in the hithpael conjugation shows how earnest and determined the devil is in his work: he sets himself to walk; he is busily employed in it; he is seeking the destruction of men; and while they sleep, he wakes - while they are careless, he is alert. The spirit of this saying is often expressed by the simple inhabitants of the country: when they perceive a man plotting mischief, and frequent in transgression, they say, The devil is Busy with him.

### Verse 8

[¶34] Hast thou considered my servant Job - Literally, Hast thou placed thy heart on my servant Job? Hast thou viewed his conduct with attention, whilst thou wert roaming about, seeking whom thou mightest devour? viz., the careless, prayerless, and profligate in general.

### Verse 9

[¶36] Doth Job fear God for naught? - Thou hast made it his interest to be exemplary in his conduct: for this assertion Satan gives his reasons in what immediately follows.

### Verse 10

[¶38] Hast not thou made a hedge about him - Thou hast fortified him with spikes and spears. Thou hast defended him as by an unapproachable hedge. He is an object of thy peculiar care; and is not exposed to the common trials of life.

### Verse 11

[¶40] But put forth thine hand - Shoot the dart of poverty and affliction against him.

[¶41] And he will curse thee to thy face - אם לא על פניך יברכך im lo al paneycha yebarechecca, "If he will not bless thee to thy appearances." He will bless thee only in proportion to the temporal good thou bestowest upon him; to the providential and gracious appearances or displays of thy power in his behalf. If thou wilt be gracious, he will be pious. The exact maxim of a great statesman, Sir Robert Walpole: Every man has his price. "But you have not bought such a one?" "No, because I would not go up to his price. He valued himself at more than I thought him worth; and I could get others cheaper, who, in the general muster, would do as well." No doubt Sir R. met with many such; and the devil many more. But still God has multitudes that will neither sell their souls, their consciences, nor their country, for any price; who, though God should slay them, will nevertheless trust in him; and be honest men, howsoever tempted by the devil and his vicegerents. So did Job; so have done thousands; so will all do, in whose hearts Christ dwells by faith.

### Verse 12

[¶43] All that he hath is in thy power - Satan cannot deprive a man even of an ass, a sheep, or a pig, but by especial permission of God. His power and malice are ever bounded, and under control.

[¶44] So Satan went forth - The Targum adds, with authority from the presence of the Lord.

## 476. Job · 3 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/476/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/476/#p-N

### Verse 13

[¶1] There was a day - The first day of the week, says the Targum. It no doubt refers to one of those birthday festivals mentioned before.

### Verse 14

[¶3] The asses feeding beside them - אתנות athonoth, the she-asses, which appear to have been more domesticated, as of more worth and use than the others, both for their milk and their work.

### Verse 15

[¶5] And the Sabeans fell - The Vulgate alone understands this of a people. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, understand it as implying a marauding party. The Chaldee says, "Lilith, queen of Zamargad, rushed suddenly upon them, and carried them away." The Sabeans mentioned here are supposed to have been the same with those who were the descendants of Abraham by Keturah, whose son Jokshan begat Sheba. The sons of Keturah were sent by Abraham into the east, [Gen 25:6], and inhabited Arabia Deserta, on the east of the land of Uz. Hordes of predatory banditti were frequent in those countries and continue so to the present day. They made sudden incursions, and carried off men, women, children, cattle, and goods of every description; and immediately retired to the desert, whither it was in vain to pursue them.

### Verse 16

[¶7] The fire of God is fallen - Though the fire of God may mean a great, a tremendous fire, yet it is most natural to suppose lightning is meant; for as thunder was considered to be the voice of God, so lightning was the fire of God. And as the prince of the power of the air was permitted now to arm himself with this dreadful artillery of heaven, he might easily direct the zigzag lightning to every part of the fields where the sheep were feeding, and so destroy the whole in a moment.

### Verse 17

[¶9] The Chaldeans made out three bands - The Chaldeans inhabited each side of the Euphrates near to Babylon, which was their capital. They were also mixed with the wandering Arabs, and lived like them on rapine. They were the descendants of Chesed, son of Nahor and brother of Huz, from whom they had their name Casdim, which we translate Chaldeans. They divided themselves into three bands, in order the more speedily and effectually to encompass, collect, and drive off the three thousand camels: probably they mounted the camels and rode off.

### Verse 19

[¶11] A great wind from the wilderness - Here was another proof of the influence of the prince of the power of the air. What mischief might he not do with this tremendous agent, were he not constantly under the control of the Almighty! He seems to have directed four different currents, which, blowing against the four corners or sides of the house, crushed it together, and involved all within in one common ruin.

### Verse 20

[¶13] Rent his mantle - Tearing the garments, shaving or pulling off the hair of the head, throwing dust or ashes on the head, and fitting on the ground, were acts by which immoderate grief was expressed. Job must have felt the bitterness of anguish when he was told that, in addition to the loss of all his property, he was deprived of his ten children by a violent death. Had he not felt this most poignantly, he would have been unworthy of the name of man.

[¶14] Worshipped - Prostrated himself; lay all along upon the ground, with his face in the dust.

### Verse 21

[¶16] Naked came I out of my mother's womb - I had no earthly possessions when I came into the world; I cannot have less going out of it. What I have the Lord gave: as it was his free gift, he has a right to resume it when he pleases; and I owe him gratitude for the time he has permitted me to enjoy this gift.

[¶17] Naked shall I return thither - Whither? Not to his mother's womb surely; nor does he call the earth his mother in this place. In the first clause of the verse he speaks without a metaphor, and in the latter he speaks in reference to the ground on which he was about to fall. As I came out of my mother's womb destitute of the earthly possessions, so shall I return שמה shammah, There; i.e., to the earth on which he was now falling. That mother earth was a common expression in different nations, I allow; but I believe no such metaphor was now in the mind of Job.

[¶18] The Lord gave - The Chaldee has, "The Word of the Lord, מימרא דיי meymera dayai, gave; and the Word of the Lord and the house of his judgment, have taken away!" Word is used here personally, as in many other places of all the Targums.

[¶19] Blessed be the name of the Lord - The following is a fine paraphrase on the sentiment in this verse: - "Good when he gives, supremely good;Nor less when he denies;

[¶20] Afflictions from his sovereign hand,Are blessings in disguise."

[¶21] Seeing I have lost my temporal goods, and all my domestic comforts, may God alone be all my portion! The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Coverdale, add, The Lord hath done as he pleased.

### Verse 22

[¶23] In all this Job sinned not - He did not give way to any action, passion, or expression, offensive to his Maker. He did not charge God with acting unkindly towards him, but felt as perfectly satisfied with the privation which the hand of God had occasioned, as he was with the affluence and health which that hand had bestowed. This is the transaction that gave the strong and vivid colouring to the character of Job; in this, and in this alone, he was a pattern of patience and resignation. In this Satan was utterly disappointed; he found a man who loved his God more than his earthly portion. This was a rare case, even in the experience of the devil. He had seen multitudes who bartered their God for money, and their hopes of blessedness in the world to come for secular possessions in the present. He had been so often successful in this kind of temptation, that he made no doubt he should succeed again. He saw many who, when riches increased, set their hearts on them, and forgot God. He saw many also who, when deprived of earthly comforts, blasphemed their Maker. He therefore inferred that Job, in similar circumstances, would act like the others; he was disappointed. Reader, has he, by riches or poverty, succeeded with thee? Art thou pious when affluent, and patient and contented when in poverty?

[¶24] That Job lived after the giving of the law, seems to me clear from many references to the rites and ceremonies instituted by Moses. In [Job 1:5], we are informed that he sanctified his children, and offered burnt-offerings daily to the morning for each of them. This was a general ordinance of the law, as we may see, [Lev 9:7] : "Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin-offering and thy burnt-offering, and make an atonement for thyself and for the people." [Lev 9:22] : "And Aaron lifted up his hands towards the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering the burnt-offering."

[¶25] This sort of offering, we are told above, Job offered continually; and this also was according to the law, [Exo 29:42] : "This shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations." See also [Num 28:3], [Num 28:6], [Num 28:10], [Num 28:15], [Num 28:24], [Num 28:31].

[¶26] This custom was observed after the captivity, [Ezr 3:5] : "They offered the continual burnt-offering: and of every one that offered a freewill-offering." See also [Neh 10:33]. Ezekiel, who prophesied during the captivity, enjoins this positively, [Eze 46:13-15] : "Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt-offering unto the Lord; thou shalt prepare it every morning."

[¶27] Job appears to have thought that his children might have sinned through ignorance, or sinned privately; and it was consequently necessary to make the due sacrifices to God in order to prevent his wrath and their punishment; he therefore offered the burnt-offering, which was prescribed by the law in cases of sins committed through ignorance. See the ordinances Leviticus 4:1-35; [Lev 5:15-19], and particularly [Num 15:24-29]. I think it may be fairly presumed that the offerings which Job made for his children were in reference to these laws.

[¶28] The worship of the sun, moon, and stars, as being the most prevalent and most seductive idolatry, was very expressly forbidden by the law, [Deu 4:19] : "Take heed, lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven; and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them." Job purges himself from this species of idolatry, [Job 31:26-28] : "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above."

[¶29] He clears himself also from adultery in reference to the law enacted against that sin, [Job 31:9-12] : "If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor's door; then let my wife grind to another: for this is a heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges." See the law against this sin, [Exo 20:14], [Exo 20:17] : "Thou shalt not commit adultery: thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." [Lev 20:10] : "The man that committeth adultery with another man's wife shall surely be put to death;" see [Deu 22:22]. And for the judge's office in such cases, see [Deu 17:9-12] : "Thou shalt come unto the priests and Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment." [1Sam 2:25] : "If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him."

[¶30] The following will, I think, be considered an evident allusion to the passage of the Red Sea, and the destruction of the proud Egyptian king: [Job 26:11], [Job 26:12] : "The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power; and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud." These, with several others that might be adduced, are presumptive proofs that the writer of this book lived after the giving and establishment of the law, if not much later, let Job himself live when he might. See other proofs in the notes.

### Introduction

[¶32] The sons of God once more present themselves before him; and Satan comes also, accusing Job as a person whose steadfastness would be soon shaken, provided his body were to be subjected to sore afflictions, [Job 2:1-5]. He receives permission to afflict Job, and smites him with sore boils, [Job 2:6-8]. His wife reviles him, [Job 2:9]. His pious reproof, [Job 2:10]. His three friends come to visit and mourn with him, [Job 2:11-13].

### Verse 1

[¶34] Again there was a day - How long this was after the former trial, we know not: probably one whole year, when, as the Targum intimates, it was the time of the annual atonement; which, if so, must have been at least one whole year after the former; and during which period the patience and resignation of Job had sufficient scope to show themselves. This appearance of the sons of God and Satan is to be understood metaphorically - there could be nothing real in it - but it is intended to instruct us in the doctrine of the existence of good and evil spirits; that Satan pursues man with implacable enmity, and that he can do no man hurt, either in his person or property, but by the especial permission of God; and that God gives him permission only when he purposes to overrule it for the greater manifestation of his own glory, and the greater good of his tempted followers.

### Verse 3

[¶36] To destroy him without cause - Thou wishedst me to permit thee to destroy a man whose sins have not called for so heavy a judgment. This seems to be the meaning of this saying. The original word, לבלעו leballeo, signifies to swallow down or devour; and this word St. Peter had no doubt in view in the place quoted on [Job 2:7] of the preceding chapter: "Your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may Devour; ζητων, τινα καταπιῃ, seeking whom he may Swallow or Gulp Down. See the note on [1Pet 5:8].

### Verse 4

[¶38] Skin for skin - That is, A man will part with all he has in the world to save his life; and he will part with all by piecemeal, till he has nothing left on earth, and even be thankful, provided his life be spared. Thou hast only destroyed his property; thou hast left him his life and his health. Thou hast not touched his flesh nor his bone; therefore he is patient and resigned. Man, through the love of life, will go much farther: he will give up one member to save the rest; yea, limb after limb as long as there is hope that, by such sacrifices, life may be spared or prolonged. This is the meaning given to the passage by the Targum; and, I believe, the true one; hence, [Job 2:6], the Lord says, Save his life.

### Verse 5

[¶40] He will curse thee to thy face - Literally, If he will not bless thee to thy face or appearances. His piety to thee will be always regulated by thy bounty to him. See the note on [Job 1:11].

### Verse 6

[¶42] But save his life - His body thou shalt have permission to afflict, but against his life thou shalt have no power; therefore take care of his life. The original, נפשו שמר naphsho shemor, may be translated, keep his soul; but the word also signifies life; yet in the hands of the destroyer the life of this holy man is placed! How astonishing is the economy of salvation! It is so managed, by the unlimited power and skill of God, that the grand adversary of souls becomes himself, by the order of God, the preserver of that which the evil of his nature incessantly prompts him to destroy!

### Verse 7

[¶44] Sore boils - בשחין רע bischin ra, "with an evil inflammation." What this diabolical disorder was, interpreters are not agreed. Some think it was the leprosy, and this is the reason why he dwelt by himself, and had his habitation in an unclean place, without the city, (Septuagint, εξω της πωλεως), or in the open air: and the reason why his friends beheld him afar off, [Job 2:12], was because they knew that the disorder was infectious.

## 477. Job · 4 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/477/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/477/#p-N

[¶0] His scraping himself with a potsherd indicates a disease accompanied with intolerable itching, one of the characteristics of the smallpox. Query, Was it not this disorder? And in order to save his life (for that he had in especial command) did not Satan himself direct him to the cool regimen, without which, humanly speaking, the disease must have proved fatal? In the elephantiasis and leprosy there is, properly speaking, no boil or detached inflammation, or swelling, but one uniform disordered state of the whole surface, so that the whole body is covered with loathsome scales, and the skin appears like that of the elephant, thick and wrinkled, from which appearance the disorder has its name. In the smallpox it is different; each pock or pustule is a separate inflammation, tending to suppuration; and during this process, the fever is in general very high, and the anguish and distress of the patient intolerable. When the suppuration is pretty far advanced, the itching is extreme; and the hands are often obliged to be confined to prevent the patient from literally tearing his own flesh.

### Verse 9

[¶2] Then said his wife - To this verse the Septuagint adds the following words: "Much time having elapsed, his wife said unto him, How long dost thou stand steadfast, saying, 'Behold, I wait yet a little longer looking for the hope of my Salvation?' Behold thy memorial is already blotted out from the earth, together with thy sons and thy daughters, the fruits of my pains and labors, for whom with anxiety I have labored in vain. Thyself also sittest in the rottenness of worms night and day, while I am a wanderer from place to place, and from house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, that I may rest from my labors, and from the griefs which oppress me. Speak therefore some word against God, and die." We translate ברך אלהים ומת barech Elohim vamuth, Curse God, and die. The verb ברך barach is supposed to include in it the ideas of cursing and blessing; but it is not clear that it has the former meaning in any part of the sacred writings, though we sometimes translate it so. Here it seems to be a strong irony. Job was exceedingly afflicted, and apparently dying through sore disease; yet his soul was filled with gratitude to God. His wife, destitute of the salvation which her husband possessed, gave him this ironical reproof. Bless God, and die - What! bless him for his goodness, while he is destroying all that thou hast! bless him for his support, while he is casting thee down and destroying thee! Bless on, and die. The Targum says that Job's wife's name was Dinah, and that the words which she spake to him on this occasion were בריך מימרא דיי ומית berich meymera dayai umith. Bless the word of the Lord, and die. \\

[¶3] Ovid has such an irony as I suppose this to have been: -

[¶4] Quid vos sacra juvant? quid nunc Aegyptia prosuntSistra? -

[¶5] Cum rapiant mala fata bonos, ignoscite fasso,Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos.

[¶6] Vive plus, moriere pius; cole sacra, colentemMors gravis a templis in cava busta trahet.

[¶7] Amor. lib. iii., Eleg. ix. ver. 33. "In vain to gods (if gods there are) we pray,

[¶8] And needless victims prodigally pay;

[¶9] Worship their sleeping deities: yet death

[¶10] Scorns votaries, and stops the praying breath.

[¶11] To hallow'd shrines intruding fate will come,

[¶12] And drag you from the altar to the tomb."

[¶13] Stepney.

### Verse 10

[¶15] Thou speakest as one of the foolish - Thou speakest like an infidel; like one who has no knowledge of God, of religion, or of a future state. The Targum, who calls this woman Dinah, translates thus: "Thou speakest like one of those women who have wrought folly in the house of their father." This is in reference to an ancient rabbinical opinion, that Job lived in the days of the patriarch Jacob, whose daughter Dinah he had married.

[¶16] Shall we receive good - This we have received in great abundance for many years:

[¶17] And shall we not receive evil? - Shall we murmur when He afflicts us for a day, who has given us health for so many years? Shall we blaspheme his name for momentary privations, who has given us such a long succession or enjoyments? His blessings are his own: he never gave them to us; they were only lent. We have had the long, the free, the unmerited use of them; and shall we be offended at the Owner, when he comes to reclaim his own property? This would be foolish, ungrateful, and wicked. So may every one reason who is suffering from adversity. But who, besides Job, reasons thus? Man is naturally discontented and ungrateful.

[¶18] In all this did not Job sin with his lips - The Chaldee adds, But in his heart he thought words. He had surmisings of heart, though he let nothing escape from his lips.

### Verse 11

[¶20] Job's three friends - The first was Eliphaz the Temanite; or, as the Septuagint has it, Ελιφαζ ὁ Θαιμανων βασιλευς, Eliphaz the king on the Thaimanites. Eliphaz was one of the sons of Esau; and Teman, of Eliphaz, [Gen 36:10], [Gen 36:11]. Teman was a city of Edom, [Jer 49:7-20]; [Eze 25:13]; [Amo 1:11], [Amo 1:12].

[¶21] Bildad the Shuhite - Or, as the Septuagint, Βαλδαδ ὁ Συχεων τυραννος, Baldad, tyrant of the Suchites. Shuah was the son of Abraham by Keturah: and his posterity is reckoned among the Easterns. It is supposed he should be placed with his brother Midian, and his brother's sons Sheba and Dedan. See [Gen 25:2], [Gen 25:3]. Dedan was a city of Edom, see [Jer 49:8], and seems to have been situated in its southern boundary, as Teman was in its western. [Eze 25:13].

[¶22] Zophar the Naamathite - Or, according to the Septuagint, Σωφαρ Μιναιων Βασιλευς, Sophar king of the Minaites. He most probably came from that Naamah, which was bordering upon the Edomites to the south and fell by lot to the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:21-41. These circumstances, which have already been mentioned in the introduction, prove that Job must have dwelt in the land of Edom, and that all his friends dwelt in Arabia Petraea, or in the countries immediately adjacent. That some of those Eastern people were highly cultivated, we have at least indirect proof in the case of the Temanites, [Jer 49:7] : Concerning Edom thus saith the Lord of hosts, Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished? They are celebrated also in Baruch 3:22, 23. Speaking of wisdom he says: It hath not been heard of in Chanaan; neither hath it been seen in Theman. The Agarenes that seek wisdom upon earth, the merchants of Meran and of Theman, the expounders of fables, and searchers out of understanding, none of these have known the way of wisdom. It is evident enough from these quotations that the inhabitants of those districts were celebrated for their knowledge; and the sayings of Job's three friends are proofs that their reputation for wisdom stood on a very solid foundation.

### Verse 12

[¶24] They rent every one his mantle - I have already had frequent occasions to point out and illustrate, by quotations from the ancients, the actions that were used in order to express profound grief; such as wrapping themselves in sackcloth, covering the face, strewing dust or ashes upon the head, sitting upon the bare ground, etc., etc.; significant actions which were in use among all nations.

### Verse 13

[¶26] They sat down with him upon the ground seven days - They were astonished at the unprecedented change which had taken place in the circumstances of this most eminent man; they could not reconcile his present situation with any thing they had met with in the history of Divine providence. The seven days mentioned here were the period appointed for mourning. The Israelites mourned for Jacob seven days, [Gen 50:10]. And the men of Jabesh mourned so long for the death of Saul, [1Sam 31:13]; [1Chr 10:12]. And Ezekiel sat on the ground with the captives at Chebar, and mourned with and for them seven days. [Eze 3:15]. The wise son of Sirach says, "Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead;" Sirach 22:12. So calamitous was the state of Job, that they considered him as a dead man: and went through the prescribed period of mourning for him.

[¶27] They saw that his grief was very great - This is the reason why they did not speak to him: they believed him to be suffering for heavy crimes, and, seeing him suffer so much, they were not willing to add to his distresses by invectives or reproach. Job himself first broke silence.

### Introduction

[¶29] Job curses the day of his birth, and regrets that he ever saw the light, [Job 3:1-12]. Describes the empire of death and its inhabitants, [Job 3:13-19]. Regrets that he is appointed to live in the midst of sorrows, for the calamities which he feared had overtaken him, vv.20-26.

### Verse 1

[¶31] After this opened Job his mouth - After the seven days' mourning was over, there being no prospect of relief, Job is represented as thus cursing the day of his birth. Here the poetic part of the book begins; for most certainly there is nothing in the preceding chapters either in the form or spirit of Hebrew poetry. It is easy indeed to break the sentences into hemistichs; but this does not constitute them poetry: for, although Hebrew poetry is in general in hemistichs, yet it does not follow that the division of narrative into hemistichs must necessarily constitute it poetry.

[¶32] In many cases the Asiatic poets introduce their compositions with prose narrative; and having in this way prepared the reader for what he is to expect, begin their deevans, cassidehs, gazels, etc. This appears to be the plan followed by the author of this book. Those who still think, after examining the structure of those chapters, and comparing them with the undoubted poetic parts of the book, that they also, and the ten concluding verses, are poetry, have my consent, while I take the liberty to believe most decidedly the opposite.

[¶33] Cursed his day - That is, the day of his birth; and thus he gave vent to the agonies of his soul, and the distractions of his mind. His execrations have something in them awfully solemn, tremendously deep, and strikingly sublime. But let us not excuse all the things which he said in his haste, and in the bitterness of his soul, because of his former well established character of patience. He bore all his privations with becoming resignation to the Divine will and providence: but now, feeling himself the subject of continual sufferings, being in heaviness through manifold temptation, and probably having the light of God withdrawn from his mind, as his consolations most undoubtedly were, he regrets that ever he was born; and in a very high strain of impassioned poetry curses his day. We find a similar execration to this in Jeremiah, [Jer 20:14-18], and in other places; which, by the way, are no proofs that the one borrowed from the other; but that this was the common mode of Asiatic thinking, speaking, and feeling, on such occasions.

### Verse 3

[¶35] There is a man-child conceived - The word הרה harah signifies to conceive; yet here, it seems, it should be taken in the sense of being born, as it is perfectly unlikely that the night of conception should be either distinctly known or published.

### Verse 4

[¶37] Let that day be darkness - The meaning is exactly the same with our expression, "Let it be blotted out of the calendar." However distinguished it may have been, as the birthday of a man once celebrated for his possessions, liberality, and piety, let it no longer be thus noted; as he who was thus celebrated is now the sport of adversity, the most impoverished, most afflicted, and most wretched of human beings.

[¶38] Let not God regard it from above - אל ידרשהו al yidreshehu, "Let Him not require it" - let Him not consider it essential to the completion of the days of the year; and therefore he adds, neither let the light shine upon it. If it must be a part of duration, let it not be distinguished by the light of the sun.

### Verse 5

[¶40] Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it - יגאלהו yigaluhu, "pollute or avenge it," from גאל gaal, to vindicate, avenge, etc.; hence גאל goel, the nearest of kin, whose right it was to redeem an inheritance, and avenge the death of his relative by slaying the murderer. Let this day be pursued, overtaken, and destroyed. Let natural darkness, the total privation of the solar light, rendered still more intense by death's shadow projected over it, seize on and destroy this day, εκλαβοι αυτην, Septuagint; alluding, perhaps, says Mr. Parkhurst, to the avenger of blood seizing the offender.

[¶41] Let a cloud dwell upon it - Let the dymme cloude fall upon it - Coverdale. Let the thickest clouds have there their dwelling-place - let that be the period of time on which they shall constantly rest, and never be dispersed. This seems to be the import of the original, תשכן עליו אננה tishcan alaiv ananah. Let it be the place in which clouds shall be continually gathered together, so as to be the storehouse of the densest vapors, still in the act of being increasingly condensed.

[¶42] Let the blackness of the day terrify it - And let it be lapped in with sorrowe. - Coverdale. This is very expressive: lap signifies to fold up, or envelope any particular thing with fold upon fold, so as to cover it everywhere and secure it in all points. Leaving out the semicolon, we had better translate the whole clause thus: "Let the thickest cloud have its dwelling-place upon it, and let the bitterness of a day fill it with terror." A day similar to that, says the Targum, in which Jeremiah was distressed for the destruction of the house of the sanctuary; or like that in which Jonah was cast into the sea of Tarsis; such a day as that on which some great or national misfortune has happened: probably in allusion to that in which the darkness that might be felt enveloped the whole land of Egypt, and the night in which the destroying angel slew all the first-born in the land.

### Verse 6

[¶44] As for that night, let darkness seize upon it - I think the Targum has hit the sense of this whole verse: "Let darkness seize upon that night; let it not be reckoned among the annual festivals; in the number of the months of the calendar let it not be computed." Some understand the word אפל ophel as signifying a dark storm; hence the Vulgate, tenebrosus turbo, "a dark whirlwind." And hence Coverdale, Let the darck storme overcome that night, let it not be reckoned amonge the dayes off the yeare, nor counted in the monethes. Every thing is here personified; day, night, darkness, shadow of death, cloud, etc.; and the same idea of the total extinction of that portion of time, or its being rendered ominous and portentous, is pursued through all these verses, from the third to the ninth, inclusive. The imagery is diversified, the expressions varied, but the idea is the same.

## 478. Job · 5 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/478/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/478/#p-N

### Verse 7

[¶1] Lo, let that night be solitary - The word הנה hinneh, behold, or lo, is wanting in one of De Rossi's MSS., nor is it expressed in the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, or Arabic. The word גלמוד galmud, which we translate solitary, is properly Arabic. From ghalama or jalama, signifying to cut off, make bare, amputate, comes jalmud, a rock, a great stone; and jalameedet, weight, a burden, trouble, from which we may gather Job's meaning: "Let that night be grievous, oppressive, as destitute of good as a bare rock is of verdure." The Targum gives the sense, In that night let there be tribulation.

[¶2] Let no joyful voice come therein - Let there be no choirs of singers; no pleasant music heard; no dancing or merriment. The word רננה renanah signifies any brisk movement, such as the vibration of the rays of light, or the brisk modulation of the voice in a cheerful ditty. The Targum has, Let not the crowing of the rural or wild cock resound in it. Let all work be intermitted; let there be no sportive exercises, and let all animals be totally silent.

### Verse 8

[¶4] Let them curse it that curse the day - This translation is scarcely intelligible. I have waded through a multitude of interpretations, without being able to collect from them such a notion of the verse as could appear to me probable. Schultens, Rosenmller, and after them Mr. Good, have labored much to make it plain. They think the custom of sorcerers who had execrations for peoples, places, things, days, etc., is here referred to; such as Balaam, Elymas, and many others were: but I cannot think that a man who knew the Divine Being and his sole government of the world so well as Job did, would make such an allusion, who must have known that such persons and their pretensions were impostors and execrable vanities. I shall give as near a translation as I can of the words, and subjoin a short paraphrase: יקבהו אררי יום העתידימערר לויתן yikkebuhu orerey yom haathidim orer livyathan; "Let them curse it who detest the day; them who are ready to raise up the leviathan." That is, Let them curse my birthday who hate daylight, such as adulterers, murderers, thieves, and banditti, for whose practices the night is more convenient; and let them curse it who, being like me weary of life, are desperate enough to provoke the leviathan, the crocodile, to tear them to pieces. This version is nearly the same as that given by Coverdale. Let them that curse the daye give it their curse also, then those that be ready to rayse up leviathan. By leviathan some understand the greatest and most imminent dangers; and others, the devil, whom the enchanters are desperate enough to attempt to raise by their incantations. Calmet understands the whole to be spoken of the Atlantes, a people of Ethiopia, who curse the sun because it parches their fields and their bodies; and who fearlessly attack, kill, and eat the crocodile. This seems a good sense.

### Verse 9

[¶6] Let the stars of the twilight thereof - The stars of the twilight may here refer to the planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury, as well as to the brighter fixed stars.

[¶7] Let it look for light - Here the prosopopoeia or personification is still carried on. The darkness is represented as waiting for the lustre of the evening star, but is disappointed; and these for the aurora or dawn, but equally in vain. He had prayed that its light, the sun, should not shine upon it, [Job 3:4]; and here he prays that its evening star may be totally obscured, and that it might never see the dawning of the day. Thus his execration comprehends every thing that might irradiate or enliven it.

### Verse 10

[¶9] Because it shut not up the doors - Here is the reason why he curses the day and the night in which he was conceived and born; because, had he never been brought into existence, he would never have seen trouble. It seems, however, very harsh that he should have wished the destruction of his mother, in order that his birth might have been prevented; and I rather think Job's execration did not extend thus far. The Targum understands the passage as speaking of the umbilical cord, by which the fetus is nourished in its mother's womb: had this been shut up, there must have been a miscarriage, or he must have been dead born; and thus sorrow would have been hidden from his eyes. This seeming gloss is much nearer the letter and spirit of the Hebrew than is generally imagined. I shall quote the words: כי לא סגר דלתי בטני ki lo sagar dalthey bitni, because it did not shut up the doors of my belly. This is much more consistent with the feelings of humanity, than to wish his mother's womb to have been his grave.

### Verse 11

[¶11] Why died I not from the womb - As the other circumstance did not take place, why was I not still-born, without the possibility of reviviscence? or, as this did not occur, why did I not die as soon as born? These three things appear to me to be clearly intended here: -

[¶12] 1. Dying in the womb, or never coming to maturity, as in the case of an abortion.

[¶13] 2. Being still-born, without ever being able to breathe.

[¶14] 3. Or, if born alive, dying within a short time after. And to these states he seems to refer in the following verses.

### Verse 12

[¶16] Why did the knees prevent me? - Why was I dandled on the knees? Why was I nourished by the breasts? In either of the above cases I had neither been received into a mother's lap, nor hung upon a mother's breasts.

### Verse 13

[¶18] For now should I have lain still - In that case I had been insensible; quiet - without these overwhelming agitations; slept - unconscious of evil; been at rest - been out of the reach of calamity and sorrow.

### Verse 14

[¶20] With kings and counsellors of the earth - I believe this translation to be perfectly correct. The counsellors, יעצי yoatsey, I suppose to mean the privy council, or advisers of kings; those without whose advice kings seldom undertake wars, expeditions, etc. These mighty agitators of the world are at rest in their graves, after the lives of commotion which they have led among men: most of whom indeed have been the troublers of the peace of the globe.

[¶21] Which built desolate places - Who erect mausoleums, funeral monuments, sepulchral pyramids, etc., to keep their names from perishing, while their bodies are turned to corruption. I cannot think, with some learned men, that Job is here referring to those patriotic princes who employed themselves in repairing the ruins and desolations which others had occasioned. His simple idea is, that, had he died from the womb, he would have been equally at rest, neither troubling nor troubled, as those defunct kings and planners of wars and great designs are, who have nothing to keep even their names from perishing, but the monuments which they have raised to contain their corrupting flesh, moldering bones, and dust.

### Verse 15

[¶23] Or with princes that had gold - Chief or mighty men, lords of the soil, or fortunate adventurers in merchandise, who got gold in abundance, filled their houses with silver, left all behind, and had nothing reserved for themselves but the empty places which they had made for their last dwelling, and where their dust now sleeps, devoid of care, painful journeys, and anxious expectations. He alludes here to the case of the covetous, whom nothing can satisfy, as an Asiatic writer has observed, but the dust that fills his mouth when laid in the grave - Saady.

### Verse 16

[¶25] Or as a hidden untimely birth - An early miscarriage, which was scarcely perceptible by the parent herself; and in this case he had not been - he had never had the distinguishable form of a human being, whether male or female.

[¶26] As infants - Little ones; those farther advanced in maturity, but miscarried long before the time of birth.

### Verse 17

[¶28] There the wicked cease - In the grave the oppressors of men cease from irritating, harassing, and distressing their fellow creatures and dependents.

[¶29] And there the weary be at rest - Those who were worn out with the cruelties and tyrannies of the above. The troubles and the troubled, the restless and the submissive, the toils of the great and the labors of the slave, are here put in opposition.

### Verse 18

[¶31] The prisoners rest together - Those who were slaves, feeling all the troubles, and scarcely tasting any of the pleasures of life, are quiet in the grave together; and the voice of the oppressor, the hard, unrelenting task-master, which was more terrible than death, is heard no more. They are free from his exactions, and his mouth is silent in the dust. This may be a reference to the Egyptian bondage. The children of Israel cried by reason of their oppressors or task-masters.

### Verse 19

[¶33] The small and great are there - All sorts and conditions of men are equally blended in the grave, and ultimately reduced to one common dust; and between the bond and free there is no difference. The grave is "The appointed place of rendezvous, where all These travelers meet."

[¶34] Equality is absolute among the sons of men in their entrance into and exit from the world: all the intermediate state is disparity. All men begin and end life alike; and there is no difference between the king and the cottager.

[¶35] A contemplation of this should equally humble the great and the small.

[¶36] The saying is trite, but it is true: -

[¶37] Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,

[¶38] Regumque turres.

[¶39] Hor. Odar. lib. i., Od. iv., ver. 13. "With equal pace impartial Fate

[¶40] Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate."

[¶41] Death is that state,"Where they an equal honor shareWho buried or unburied are.Where Agamemnon knows no moreThan Irus he contemn'd before.Where fair Achilles and Thersites lie,Equally naked, poor, and dry."

[¶42] And why do not the living lay these things to heart?

[¶43] There is a fine saying in Seneca ad Marciam, cap. 20, on this subject, which may serve as a comment on this place: Mors-servitutem invito domino remittit; haec captivorum catenas levat; haec e carcere eduxit, quos exire imperium impotens vetuerat. Haec est in quo nemo humilitatem suam sensit; haec quae nulli paruit; haec quae nihil quicquam alieno fecit arbitrio. Haec, ubi res communes fortuna male divisit, et aequo jure genitos alium alii donavit, exaequat omnia. - "Death, in spite of the master, manumits the slave. It loosens the chains of the prisoners. It brings out of the dungeon those whom impotent authority had forbidden to go at large. This is the state in which none is sensible of his humiliation. Death obeys no man. It does nothing according to the will of another. It reduces, by a just law, to a state of equality, all who in their families and circumstances had unequal lots in life."

## 479. Job · 6 of 73

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### Verse 20

[¶1] Wherefore is light given - Why is life granted to him who is incapable of enjoying it, or of performing its functions?

### Verse 21

[¶3] Which long for death - They look to it as the end of all their miseries; and long more for a separation from life, than those who love gold do for a rich mine.

### Verse 22

[¶5] Which rejoice exceedingly - Literally, They rejoice with joy, and exult when they find the grave. There is a various reading here in one of Kennicott's MSS., which gives a different sense. Instead of who rejoice, אלי גיל eley gil, with Joy, it has אלי גל eley gal, who rejoice at the Tomb, and exult when they find the grave.

### Verse 23

[¶7] To a man whose way is hid - Who knows not what is before him in either world, but is full of fears and trembling concerning both.

[¶8] God hath hedged in? - Leaving him no way to escape; and not permitting him to see one step before him. There is an exact parallel to this passage in [Lam 3:7], [Lam 3:9] : He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone. Mr. Good translates the verse thus: To the man whose path is broken up, and whose futurity God hath overwhelmed. But I cannot see any necessity for departing from the common text, which gives both an easy and a natural sense.

### Verse 24

[¶10] For my sighing cometh - Some think that this refers to the ulcerated state of Job's body, mouth, hands, etc. He longed for food, but was not able to lift it to his mouth with his hands, nor masticate it when brought thither. This is the sense in which Origen has taken the words. But perhaps it is most natural to suppose that he means his sighing took away all appetite, and served him in place of meat. There is the same thought in [Psa 42:3] : My tears have been my meat day and night; which place is not an imitation of Job, but more likely Job an imitation of it, or, rather, both an imitation of nature.

[¶11] My roarings are poured out - My lamentations are like the noise of the murmuring stream, or the dashings of the overswollen torrent.

### Verse 25

[¶13] For the thing which I greatly reared - Literally, the fear that I feared; or, I feared a fear, as in the margin. While I was in prosperity I thought adversity might come, and I had a dread of it. I feared the loss of my family and my property; and both have occurred. I was not lifted up: I knew that what I possessed I had from Divine Providence, and that he who gave might take away. I am not stripped of my all as a punishment for my self-confidence.

### Verse 26

[¶15] I was not in safety - If this verse be read interrogatively, it will give a good and easy sense: Was I not in safety? Had I not rest? Was I not in comfort? Yet trouble came. It is well known that, previously to this attack of Satan, Job was in great prosperity and peace. Mr. Good translates, I had no peace; yea, I had no rest. Yea, I had no respite, as the trouble came on; and refers the whole to the quick succession of the series of heavy evils by which he was tried. There is a similar thought in the Psalmist: Deep crieth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me; [Psa 42:7]. One evil treads on the heels of another.

[¶16] In this chapter Job's conflict begins. Now, and not before, Satan appears to have access to his mind. When he deprived him of his property, and, what was still dearer, of his sons and his daughters, the hope of his family, he bore all with the most exemplary patience, and the deepest resignation to the Divine will. When his adversary was permitted to touch his body, and afflict it in the most grievous and distressing manner, rendered still more intolerable by his being previously deprived of all the comforts and necessaries of life; still he held fast his integrity; no complaint, no murmur was heard. From the Lord's hand he received his temporal good; and from that hand he received his temporal evil, the privation of that good. Satan was, therefore, baffled in all his attempts; Job continued to be a perfect and upright man, fearing God, and avoiding evil. This was Job's triumph, or rather the triumph of Divine grace; and Satan's defeat and confusion.

[¶17] It is indeed very seldom that God permits Satan to waste the substance or afflict the body of any man; but at all times this malevolent spirit may have access to the mind of any man, and inject doubts, fears, diffidence, perplexities, and even unbelief. And here is the spiritual conflict. Now, their wrestling is not with flesh and blood - with men like themselves, nor about secular affairs; but they have to contend with angels, principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places. In such cases Satan is often permitted to diffuse darkness into the understanding, and envelope the heavens with clouds. Hence are engendered false views of God and his providence, of men, of the spiritual world, and particularly of the person's own state and circumstances. Every thing is distorted, and all seen through a false medium. Indescribable distractions and uneasiness are hereby induced; the mind is like a troubled sea, tossed by a tempest that seems to confound both heaven and earth. Strong temptations to things which the soul contemplates with abhorrence are injected; and which are followed by immediate accusations, as if the injections were the offspring of the heart itself; and the trouble and dismay produced are represented as the sense of guilt, from a consciousness of having, in heart, committed these evils. Thus Satan tempts, accuses, and upbraids, in order to perplex the soul, induce skepticism, and destroy the empire of faith. Behold here the permission of God, and behold also his sovereign control: all this time the grand tempter is not permitted to touch the heart, the seat of the affections, nor offer even the slightest violence to the will. The soul is cast down, but not destroyed; perplexed, but not in despair. It is on all sides harassed; without are fightings, within are fears: but the will is inflexible on the side of God and truth, and the heart, with all its train of affections and passions, follows it. The man does not wickedly depart from his God; the outworks are violently assailed, but not taken; the city is still safe, and the citadel impregnable. Heaviness may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. Jesus is soon seen walking upon the waters. He speaks peace to the winds and the sea: immediately there is a calm. Satan is bruised down under the feet of the sufferer, the clouds are dispersed, the heavens re-appear, and the soul, to its surprise, finds that the storm, instead of hindering, has driven it nearer to the haven whither it would be.

[¶18] The reader who closely examines the subject will find that this was the case of Job. The following chapters show the conflict of the soul; the end of the book, God's victory and his exaltation. Satan sifted Job as wheat, but his faith failed not.

### Introduction

[¶20] Eliphaz answers; and accuses Job of impatience, and of despondence in the time of adversity, [Job 4:1-6]; asserts that no innocent man ever perished, and that the wicked are afflicted for their sins, [Job 4:7-11]; relates a vision that he had, [Job 4:12-16], and what was said to him on the occasion, [Job 4:17-21].

### Verse 1

[¶22] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered - For seven days this person and his two friends had observed a profound silence, being awed and confounded at the sight of Job's unprecedented affliction. Having now sufficiently contemplated his afflicted state, and heard his bitter complaint, forgetting that he came as a comforter, and not as a reprover, he loses the feeling of the friend in the haughtiness of the censor, endeavoring to strip him of his only consolation, - the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he had his conversation among men, - by insinuating that if his ways had been upright, he would not have been abandoned to such distress and affliction; and if his heart possessed that righteousness of which he boasted, he would not have been so suddenly cast down by adversity.

### Verse 2

[¶24] If we assay to commune with thee - As if he had said, Should I and my friends endeavor to reason with thee ever so mildly, because we shall have many things to say by way of reprehension, thou wilt be grieved and faint; and this we may reasonably infer from the manner in which thou bearest thy present afflictions. Yet as thou hast uttered words which are injurious to thy Maker, who can forbear speaking? It is our duty to rise up on the part of God, though thereby we shall grieve him who is our friend. This was a plausible beginning, and certainly was far from being insincere.

### Verse 3

[¶26] Thou hast instructed many - Thou hast seen many in affliction and distress, and thou hast given them such advice as was suitable to their state, and effectual to their relief; and by this means thou hast strengthened the weak hands, and the feeble knees - the desponding have been encouraged, and the irresolute confirmed and excited to prompt and proper actions, by thy counsel and example.

### Verse 5

[¶28] But now it is come upon thee - Now it is thy turn to suffer, and give an example of the efficacy of thy own principles; but instead of this, behold, thou faintest. Either, therefore, thou didst pretend to what thou hadst not; or thou art not making a proper use of the principles which thou didst recommend to others.

### Verse 6

[¶30] Is not this thy fear - I think Coverdale hits the true meaning: Where is now thy feare of God, thy stedfastnesse, thy pacience, and the perfectnesse of thy life? If these be genuine, surely there is no cause for all this complaint, vexation, and despair. That this is the meaning, the next words show.

### Verse 7

[¶32] Remember, I pray thee - Recollect, if thou canst, a single instance where God abandoned an innocent man, or suffered him to perish. Didst thou ever hear of a case in which God abandoned a righteous man to destruction? Wert thou a righteous man, and innocent of all hidden crimes, would God abandon thee thus to the malice of Satan? or let loose the plagues of affliction and adversity against thee?

### Verse 8

[¶34] They that plough iniquity - A proverbial form of speech drawn from nature. Whatever seed a man sows in the ground, he reaps the same kind; for every seed produces its like. Thus Solomon, [Pro 22:8] : "He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity." And St. Paul, [Gal 6:7], [Gal 6:8] : "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he who soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." And of the same nature is that other saying of the apostle, He that soweth sparingly, shall reap sparingly, [2Cor 9:6]. The same figure is employed by the Prophet Hosea [Hos 8:7] : They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; and [Hos 10:12], [Hos 10:13] : Sow to yourselves in righteousness; reap in mercy. Ye have ploughed wickedness; ye have reaped iniquity. The last sentence contains, not only the same image, but almost the same words as those used by Eliphaz. Our Lord expresses the same thing, in the following words: [Mat 7:16-18] : Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. So the Greeks: - Ατης αρουρα θανατον εκκαρπιζεται.

[¶35] Aesch. Ἑπτα επι Θηβαις, ver. 607. "The field of iniquity produces the fruit of death." Ὑβρις γαρ εξανθους εκαρπωσε σταχυν Ατης, ὁθεν παγκλαυτον εξαμᾳ θερος.

[¶36] IB. Περσαι, ver. 823. "For oppression, when it springs,

[¶37] Puts forth the blade of vengeance; and its fruit

[¶38] Yields a ripe harvest of repentant wo." - Potter.

[¶39] The image is common every where because it is a universal law of nature.

### Verse 9

[¶41] By the blast of God they perish - As the noxious and parching east wind blasts and destroys vegetation, so the wicked perish under the indignation of the Almighty.

### Verse 10

[¶43] The roaring of the lion - By the roaring lion, fierce lion, old lion, stout lion, and lion's whelps, tyrannous rulers of all kinds are intended. The design of Eliphaz in using these figures is to show that even those who are possessed of the greatest authority and power - the kings, rulers, and princes of the earth - when they become wicked and oppressive to their subjects are cast down, broken to pieces, and destroyed, by the incensed justice of the Lord; and their whelps - their children and intended successors, scattered without possessions over the face of the earth.

### Verse 11

[¶45] The old lion perisheth - In this and the preceding verse the word lion occurs five times; and in the original the words are all different: -

## 480. Job · 7 of 73

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[¶0] 1. אריה aryeh, from ארה arah, to tear off.

[¶1] 2. שחל shachal, which as it appears to signify black or dark, may mean the black lion, which is said to be found in Ethiopia and India.

[¶2] 3. כפיר kephir, a young lion, from כפר caphar, to cover, because he is said to hide himself in order to surprise his prey, which the old one does not.

[¶3] 4. ליש lavish, from לש lash, to knead, trample upon; because of his method of seizing his prey.

[¶4] 5. לביא labi, from לבא laba, to suckle with the first milk; a lioness giving suck; at which time they are peculiarly fierce.

[¶5] All these words may point out some quality of the lion; and this was probably the cause why they were originally given: but it is likely that, in process of time, they served only to designate the beast, without any particular reference to any of his properties. We have one and the same idea when we say the lion, the king of beasts, the monarch of the forest, the most noble of quadrupeds, etc.

### Verse 12

[¶7] Now a thing was secretly brought to me - To give himself the more authority, he professes to have received a vision from God, by which he was taught the secret of the Divine dispensations in providence; and a confirmation of the doctrine which he was now stating to Job; and which he applied in a different way to what was designed in the Divine communication.

[¶8] Mine ear received a little thereof - Mr. Good translates, "And mine ear received a whisper along with it." The apparition was the general subject; and the words related [Job 4:17], etc., were the whispers which he heard when the apparition stood still.

### Verse 13

[¶10] From the visions of the night - "It is in vain," says Mr. Good, "to search through ancient or modern poetry for a description that has any pretensions to rival that upon which we are now entering. Midnight-solitude - the deep sleep of all around - the dreadful chill and horripilation or erection of the hair over the whole body - the shivering, not of the muscles only, but of the bones themselves - the gliding approach of the spectre - the abruptness of his pause - his undefined and indescribable form - are all powerful and original characters, which have never been given with equal effect by any other writer."

[¶11] Mr. Hervey's illustration is also striking and natural. "'Twas in the dead of night; all nature lay shrouded in darkness; every creature was buried in sleep. The most profound silence reigned through the universe. In these solemn moments Eliphaz, alone, all wakeful and solitary, was musing on sublime subjects. When, lo! an awful being burst into his apartment. A spirit passed before his face. Astonishment seized the beholder. His bones shivered within him; his flesh trembled all over him; and the hair of his head stood erect with horror. Sudden and unexpected was its appearance; not such its departure. It stood still, to present itself more fully to his view. It made a solemn pause, to prepare his mind for some momentous message. After which a voice was heard. A voice, for the importance of its meaning, worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance. It spoke, and these were its words:"

### Verse 17

[¶13] Shall mortal man - אנוש enosh; Greek βροτος poor, weak, dying man.

[¶14] Be more just than God? - Or, האנוש מאלוה יצדק haenosh meeloah yitsdak; shall poor, weak, sinful man be justified before God?

[¶15] Shall a man - גבר gaber, shall even the strong and mighty man, be pure before his Maker? Is any man, considered merely in and of himself, either holy in his conduct, or pure in his heart? No. He must be justified by the mercy of God, through an atoning sacrifice; he must be sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God, and thus made a partaker of the Divine nature. Then he is justified before God, and pure in the sight of his Maker: and this is a work which God himself alone can do; so the work is not man's work, but God's. It is false to infer, from the words of this spectre, (whether it came from heaven or hell, we know not, for its communication shows and rankles a wound, without providing a cure), that no man can be justified, and that no man can be purified, when God both justifies the ungodly, and sanctifies the unholy. The meaning can be no more than this: no man can make an atonement for his own sins, nor purify his own heart. Hence all boasting is for ever excluded. Of this Eliphaz believed Job to be guilty, as he appeared to talk of his righteousness and purity, as if they had been his own acquisition.

### Verse 18

[¶17] Behold, he put no trust in his servants - This verse is generally understood to refer to the fall of angels; for there were some of those heavenly beings who kept not their first estate: they did not persevere to the end of their probation, and therefore fell into condemnation, and are reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day; [Jde 1:6]. It is said he put no trust in them - he knew that nothing could be absolutely immutable but himself; and that no intelligent beings could subsist in a state of purity, unless continually dependent on himself, and deriving constant supplies of grace, power, and light, from him who gave them their being.

[¶18] And his angels he charged with folly - Not chargeth, as many quote the passage. He charged those with folly who kept not their first estate. It does not appear that he is charging the others in the same way, who continue steadfast.

[¶19] The several translations of this verse, both ancient and modern, are different from each other. Here are the chief: -

[¶20] In angelis suis reperit pravitatem, "In his angels he found perverseness," Vulgate. The Septuagint is nearly the same. II met la lumiere dans ses anges, "He puts light into his angels," French Bible. Even those pure intelligences have continual need of being irradiated by the Almighty; wa-bemalakui neshim temcho, "And he hath put amazement in his angels," Syriac. The Arabic is the same. In angelis suis ponet gloriationem, "In his angels he will put exultation," Montanus. The Hebrew is תהלה toholah, irradiation, from הלה halah, to irradiate, glister, or shine. In this place we may consider angels (מלאכים malachim) as heavenly or earthly messengers or angels of the Lord; and the glory, influence, and honor of their office as being put in them by the Most High. They are as planets which shine with a borrowed light. They have nothing but what they have received. Coverdale translates the whole verse thus: Beholde he hath founde unfaythfulnesse amonge his owne servaunts and proude disobedience amonge his angels. The sense is among all these interpreters; and if the fallen angels are meant, the passage is plain enough.

### Verse 19

[¶22] How much less - Rather, with the Vulgate, How much more? If angels may be unstable, how can man arrogate stability to himself who dwells in an earthly tabernacle, and who must shortly return to dust? Crushed before the moth? The slightest accident oftentimes destroys. "A fly, a grape-stone, or a hair can kill." Great men have fallen by all these. This is the general idea in the text, and it is useless to sift for meanings.

### Verse 20

[¶24] They are destroyed from morning to evening - In almost every moment of time some human being comes into the world, and some one departs from it. Thus are they "destroyed from morning to evening."

[¶25] They perish for ever - יאבדו yobedu; peribunt, they pass by; they go out of sight; they moulder with the dust, and are soon forgotten. Who regards the past generation now among the dead? Isaiah has a similar thought, [Isa 57:1] : "The righteous perisheth, and No Man Layeth It to Heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." Some think that Isaiah borrowed from Job; this will appear possible when it has been proved, which has never yet been done, that the writer of this book flourished before Isaiah. If, however, he borrowed the above thought, it must be allowed that it has been wondrously improved by coming through his hands.

### Verse 21

[¶27] Doth not their excellency - go away! - Personal beauty, corporeal strength, powerful eloquence, and various mental endowments, pass away, or are plucked up by the roots; they are no more seen or heard among men, and their memory soon perisheth.

[¶28] They die, even without wisdom - If wisdom means the pursuit of the best end, by the most legitimate and appropriate means, the great mass of mankind appear to perish without it. But, if we consider the subject more closely, we shall find that all men die in a state of comparative ignorance. With all our boasted science and arts, how little do we know! Do we know any thing to perfection that belongs either to the material or spiritual world? Do we understand even what matter is? What is its essence? Do we understand what spirit is? Then, what is its essence? Almost all the phenomena of nature, its grandest operations, and the laws of the heavenly bodies, have been explained on the principle of gravitation or attraction; but in what does this consist? Who can answer? We can traverse every part of the huge and trackless ocean by means of the compass; but who understands the nature of magnetism on which all this depends? We eat and drink in order to maintain life; but what is nutrition, and how is it effected? This has never been explained. Life depends on respiration for its continuance; but by what kind of action is it, that in a moment the lungs separate the oxygen, which is friendly to life, from the nitrogen, which would destroy it; suddenly absorbing the one, and expelling the other? Who, among the generation of hypothesis-framers, has guessed this out? Life is continued by the circulation of the blood; but by what power and law does it circulate? Have the systole and diastole of the heart, on which this circulation depends, ever been satisfactorily explained? Most certainly not. Alas, we die without wisdom; and must die, to know these, and ten thousand other matters equally unknown, and equally important. To be safe, in reference to eternity, we must know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent; whom to know is life eternal. This knowledge, obtained and retained, will entitle us to all the rest in the eternal world.

### Introduction

[¶30] Eliphaz proceeds to show that the wicked are always punished by the justice of God, though they may appear to flourish for a time, [Job 5:1-8]; extols the providence of God, by which the counsels of the wicked are brought to naught, and the poor fed and supported, [Job 5:9-16]; shows the blessedness of being corrected by God, in the excellent fruits that result from it; and exhorts Job to patience and submission, with the promise of all secular prosperity, and a happy death in a mature and comfortable old age, [Job 5:17-27].

### Verse 1

[¶32] Call now, if there be any - This appears to be a strong irony. From whom among those whose foundations are in the dust, and who are crushed before the moth, canst thou expect succor?

[¶33] To which of the saints wilt thou turn? - To whom among the holy ones, (קדשים kedoshim), or among those who are equally dependent on Divine support with thyself, and can do no good but as influenced and directed by God, canst thou turn for help? Neither angel nor saint can help any man unless sent especially from God; and all prayers to them must be foolish and absurd, not to say impious. Can the channel afford me water, if the fountain cease to emit it?

### Verse 2

[¶35] For wrath killeth the foolish man - Foolish, silly, and simple, are epithets given by Solomon to sinners and transgressors of all kinds. Such parallelisms have afforded a presumptive argument that Solomon was the author of this book. See the preface. The words of Eliphaz may be considered as a sort of maxim, which the wisdom and experience of ages had served to establish; viz., The wrath of God is manifested only against the wicked and impious; and if thou wert not such, God would not thus contend with thee.

### Verse 3

[¶37] I have seen the foolish taking root - I have seen wicked men for a time in prosperity, and becoming established in the earth; but I well knew, from God's manner of dealing with men, that they must soon be blasted. I even ventured to pronounce their doom; for I knew that, in the order of God's providence, that was inevitable. I cursed his habitation.

### Verse 4

[¶39] His children are far from safety - His posterity shall not continue in prosperity. Ill gotten, ill spent; whatever is got by wrong must have God's curse on it.

[¶40] They are crushed in the gate - The Targum says, They shall be bruised in the gate of hell, in the day of the great judgment. There is reference here to a custom which I have often had occasion to notice: viz., that in the Eastern countries the court-house, or tribunal of justice, was at the Gate of the city; here the magistrates attended, and hither the plaintiff and defendant came for justice.

### Verse 5

[¶42] Whose harvest - Their possessions, because acquired by unjust means, shall not be under the protection of God's providence; he shall abandon them to be pillaged and destroyed by the wandering half-starved hordes of the desert banditti. They shall carry it suddenly off; even the thorns - grain, weeds, thistles, and all, shall they carry off in their rapacious hurry.

[¶43] The robber swalloweth us - Or, more properly, the thirsty, צמים tsammim, as is plain from their swallowing up or gulping down; opposed to the hungry or half-starved, mentioned in the preceding clause. The hungry shall eat up their grain, and the thirsty shall drink down their wine and oil, here termed חילם cheylam, their strength or power, for the most obvious reasons.

[¶44] There seem to be two allusions in this verse: 1. To the hordes of wandering predatory banditti, or half-starved Arabs of the desert, who have their scanty maintenance by the plunder of others. These descendants of Ishmael have ever had their hands against all men, and live to this day in the same predatory manner in which they have lived for several thousands of years. M. Volney's account of them is striking: "These men are smaller, leaner, and blacker, than any of the Bedouins yet discovered. Their wasted legs had only tendons without calves. Their belly was shrunk to their back. They are in general small, lean, and swarthy, and more so in the bosom of the desert than on the borders of the more cultivated country. They are ordinarily about five feet or five feet two inches high; they seldom have more than about six ounces of food for the whole day. Six or seven dates, soaked in melted butter, a little milk, or curd, serve a man for twenty-four hours; and he seems happy when he can add a small portion of coarse flour, or a little ball of rice. Their camels also, which are their only support, are remarkably meagre, living on the meanest and most scanty provision. Nature has given it a small head without ears, at the end of a long neck without flesh. She has taken from its legs and thighs every muscle not immediately requisite for motion; and in short has bestowed on its withered body only the vessels and tendons necessary to connect its frame together. She has furnished it with a strong jaw, that it may grind the hardest aliments; and, lest it should consume too much, she has straitened its stomach, and obliged it to chew the cud." Such is the description given of the Bedouin and his camel, by M. Volney, who, while he denies the true God, finds out a deity which he calls Nature, whose works evince the highest providence, wisdom, and design! And where does this most wonderful and intelligent goddess dwell? Nowhere but in the creed of the infidel; while the genuine believer knows that nature is only the agent created and employed by the great and wise God to accomplish, under his direction, the greatest and most stupendous beneficial effects. The second allusion in the verse I suppose to be to the loss Job had sustained of his cattle by the predatory Sabeans; and all this Eliphaz introduces for the support of his grand argument, to convict Job of hidden crimes, on which account his enemies were permitted to destroy his property; that property, because of this wickedness, being placed out of the protection of God's providence.

## 481. Job · 8 of 73

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Affliction cometh not forth of the dust - If there were not an adequate cause, thou couldst not be so grievously afflicted.

[¶2] Spring out of the ground - It is not from mere natural causes that affliction and trouble come; God's justice inflicts them upon offending man.

### Verse 7

[¶4] Yet man is born unto trouble - לעמל leamal, to labor. He must toil and be careful; and if in the course of his labor he meet with trials and difficulties, he should rise superior to them, and not sink as thou dost.

[¶5] As the sparks By upward - ובני רשף יגביהי עוף ubeney resheph yagbihu uph; And the sons of the coal lift up their flight, or dart upwards. And who are the sons of the coal? Are they not bold, intrepid, ardent, fearless men, who rise superior to all their trials; combat what are termed chance and occurrence; succumb under no difficulties; and rise superior to time, tide, fate, and fortune? I prefer this to all the various meanings of the place with which I have met. Coverdale translates, It is man that is borne unto mysery, like as the byrde for to fle. Most of the ancient versions give a similar sense.

### Verse 8

[¶7] I would seek unto God - Were I in your place, instead of wasting my time, and irritating my soul with useless complaints, I would apply to my Maker, and, if conscious of my innocence, would confidently commit my cause to him.

### Verse 9

[¶9] Which doeth great things - No work, however complicated, is too deep for his counsel to plan; none, however stupendous, is too great for his power to execute. He who is upright is always safe in referring his cause to God, and trusting in him.

### Verse 10

[¶11] Who giveth rain upon the earth - The Chaldee gives this verse a fine turn: "Who gives rain on the face of the land of Israel, and sends waters on the face of the provinces of the people." Similar to our Lord's saying, which is expressed in the half of the compass: Your Father which is in heaven - Sendeth Rain on the Just and on the Unjust; [Mat 5:45].

[¶12] Sendeth waters upon the fields - The term חצות chutsoth, which we translate fields, and generally signifies streets, may here mean those plantations which are laid out in ridges or plats, in an orderly, regular manner. God does not only send rain upon the earth in a general manner, but, by an especial providence, waters the cultivated ground, so that not one ridge is destitute of its due proportion of fructifying moisture.

### Verse 11

[¶14] To set up on high those that be low - He so distributes his providential blessings without partiality, that the land of the poor man is as well sunned and watered as that of the rich; so that he is thus set upon a level with the lords of the soil.

### Verse 12

[¶16] He disappointeth the devices of the crafty - All these sayings refer to God's particular providence, by which he is ever working for the good, and counterworking the plots of the wicked. And as various as are the contingent, capricious, and malevolent acts of men, so varied are his providential interferences; disappointing the devices, snares, and plots of the crafty, so that their plans being confounded, and their machinery broken in pieces, their hands cannot perform their enterprises.

### Verse 13

[¶18] He taketh the wise in their own craftiness - So counterworks them as to cause their feet to be taken in their own snares, and their evil dealings to fall on their own pate. Such frequent proofs has God given of his especial interference in behalf of the innocent, who have been the objects of the plots and evil designs of the wicked, by turning those evil devices against their framers, that he who digs a pit for his neighbor shall fall into it himself has become a universal adage, and has passed, either in so many words or in sense, into all the languages of all the people of the earth. Lucretius expresses it strongly:

[¶19] Circumretit enim vis atque injuria quemque,

[¶20] Atque, unde exorta est, ad eum plerumque revortit.

[¶21] Lucret. lib. v., ver. 1151. "For force and wrong entangle the man that uses them;

[¶22] And, for the most part, recoil on the head of the contriver."

### Verse 14

[¶24] They meet with darkness in the daytime - God confounds them and their measures; and, with all their cunning and dexterity, they are outwitted, and often act on their own projects, planned with care and skill, as if they had been the crudest conceptions of the most disordered minds. They act in noonday as if the sun were extinct, and their eyes put out. Thus does God "abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices."

### Verse 15

[¶26] He saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth - This is rather a harsh construction. To avoid this, some have proposed to render מחרב mechereb, which we translate from the sword, the persecuted, but, I am afraid, on very slender authority. Instead of מחרב מפיהם mechereb mippihem, "from the sword, from their mouth," eleven of Kennicott and De Rossi's MSS. read מחרב פיהם mechereb pihem, from the sword of their mouth; and with these MSS. the Chaldee, Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic agree. The verse, therefore, may be translated thus: -

[¶27] He saveth from the sword of their mouth;

[¶28] The poor from the hand of the mighty.

[¶29] Or thus: -

[¶30] He saveth from the sword of their mouth;

[¶31] And with a strong hand the impoverished.

### Verse 16

[¶33] So the poor - דל dal, he who is made thin, who is wasted, extenuated; hath hope - he sees what God is accustomed to do, and he expects a repetition of gracious dealings in his own behalf; and because God deals thus with those who trust in him, therefore the mouth of impiety is stopped. Religion is kept alive in the earth, because of God's signal interventions in behalf of the bodies and souls of his followers.

### Verse 17

[¶35] Behold, happy is the man - הנח hinneh, behold, is wanting in five of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and also in the Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic. We have had fathers of our flesh, who corrected us for their pleasure, or according to their caprices, and we were subject to them: how much more should we be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? for he corrects that we may be partakers of his holiness, in order that we may be rendered fit for his glory. See [Heb 12:5]; [Jam 1:12]; and [Pro 3:12].

### Verse 18

[¶37] For he maketh sore, and bindeth up - Thus nervously rendered by Coverdale, For though he make a wounde, he giveth a medicyne agayne; though he smyte, his honde maketh whole agayne.

### Verse 19

[¶39] He shall deliver thee in six troubles - The numbers six and seven are put here for many. Though a number of troubles should come upon thee all at once, and there should be no hope, humanly speaking, yet God would rid thee out of them all; for he saves as well from many as from few. We may also understand the words, He who hath been thy deliverer in past troubles, will not deny his help in those which are to come.

### Verse 20

[¶41] In famine he shall redeem thee - The Chaldee, which understands this chapter as speaking of the troubles and deliverances of the Israelites in Egypt and the wilderness, renders this verse as follows: "In the famine of Egypt he redeemed thee from death; and in the war of Amalek, from the slaying of the sword."

### Verse 21

[¶43] Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue - The Targum refers this to the incantations of Balaam: "From injury by the tongue of Balaam thou shalt be hidden in the clouds; and thou shalt not fear from the blasting of the Midianites, when it shall come." Perhaps no evil is more dreadful than the scourge of the tongue: evil-speaking, detraction, backbiting, calumny, slander, tale-bearing, whispering, and scandalizing, are some of the terms which we use when endeavoring to express the baleful influence and effects of that member, which is a world of fire, kindled from the nethermost hell. The Scripture abounds with invectives and execrations against it. See [Psa 31:20]; [Psa 52:2-4]; [Pro 12:18]; [Pro 14:3]; [Jam 3:1-8].

[¶44] Neither shalt thou be afraid - "Thou shouldst have such strong confidence in God, that even in the presence of destruction thou shouldst not fear death," the God of life and power being with thee.

## 482. Job · 9 of 73

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### Verse 22

[¶1] At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh - This most forcibly expresses the strongest security, and confidence in that security. "In the desolation of Sihon, and in the famine of the desert, thou shalt laugh; and of the camps of Og, who is compared to a wild beast of the earth, thou shalt not be afraid." - Targum.

### Verse 23

[¶3] Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field - Instead of אבני abney, stones, Mr. Good reads בני beney, sons, or produce; but this reading is not supported by any ancient version, nor, as far as I know, by any MS. yet collated. We must, therefore, take up the text as we find it, and make the best we can of the present reading. The Chaldee gives a plausible sense: Thou needest not to fear, "because thy covenant is on tables of stone, which are publicly erected in the field; and the Canaanites, which are compared to the beasts of the field, have made peace with thee." Perhaps the reference is to those rocks or strong holds, where banditti secured themselves and their prey, or where the emirs or neighboring chiefs had their ordinary residence. Eliphaz may be understood as saying: Instead, then, of taking advantage of thee, as the Sabeans have done, the circumjacent chieftains will be confederate with thee; and the very beasts of the field will not be permitted to harm thy flocks.

[¶4] Coverdale seems to have had an idea of this kind, as we find he translates the verse thus: -

[¶5] But the castels in the londe shall be confederate with the,

[¶6] And the beastes of the felde shall give the peace.

[¶7] I believe the above to be the meaning of the place. See the next verse, [Job 5:24] (note).

### Verse 24

[¶9] Thou shalt know - Thou shalt be so fully satisfied of the friendly disposition of all thy neighbors, that thou shalt rest secure in thy bed, and not be afraid of any danger, though sleeping in thy tent in the field; and when thou returnest from thy country excursions, thou shalt find that thy habitation has been preserved in peace and prosperity, and that thou hast made no mistake in thy trust, in thy confidence, or in thy confederates. The word אהלך oholecha, "thy tabernacle," means simply a tent, or moveable dwelling, composed of poles, pins, and cloth, or skin, to be pitched any where in a few moments, and struck again with the same ease. The word נוך navecha, which we properly translate thy habitation, signifies a solid, permanent dwelling-place. See [Jos 22:4], [Jos 22:6-8]; [2Sam 18:17]; [2Sam 19:8]; [1Kgs 12:16]; [Psa 52:7]; [Psa 91:10]; [Psa 132:3]; [Lam 2:4]; [Mal 2:12]; and with these passages compare the place in the text. As to תחטא techeta, which we translate thou shalt not Sin, it comes from חטא chata, to err, to mistake, to miss the mark: hence to sin, transgress God's laws, seeking for happiness in forbidden and unlawful things, and therefore missing the mark, because in them happiness is not to be found: and it is very likely, from the connection above, that to mistake or err is its meaning in this place. I need not add, that the Arab chiefs, who had their castles or strong holds, frequently in their country excursions lodged in tents in the open fields; and that on such occasions a hostile neighbor sometimes took advantage of their absence, attacked and pillaged their houses, and carried off their families and household. See at the end of this chapter, [Job 5:27] (note).

### Verse 25

[¶11] Thine offspring as the grass - Thou shalt have a numerous and permanent issue.

### Verse 26

[¶13] Thou shalt come to thy grave - Thou shalt not die before thy time; thou shalt depart from life like a full-fed guest; happy in what thou hast known, and in what thou hast enjoyed.

[¶14] Like as a shock of corn - Thou shalt completely run through the round of the spring, summer, autumn, and winter of life; and thou shalt be buried like a wholesome seed in the earth; from which thou shalt again rise up into an eternal spring!

### Verse 27

[¶16] Lo this, we have searched it - What I have told thee is the sum of our wisdom and experience on these important points. These are established maxims, which universal experience supports.

[¶17] Know - understand, and reduce them to practice for thy good. Thus ends Eliphaz, the Temanite, "full of wise saws and ancient instances;" but he miserably perverted them in his application of them to Job's case and character. They contain, however, many wholesome truths, of which the wise in heart may make a very advantageous practical use.

[¶18] The predatory excursions referred to in [Job 5:23] were not unfrequent among our own barbarous ancestors. An affecting picture of this kind is drawn by Shakespeare, from Holinshed's Chronicles, of the case of Macduff, whose castle was attacked in his absence by Macbeth and his wife and all his children murdered. A similar incident was the ground of the old heroic ballad of Hardicanute. When the veteran heard that a host of Norwegians had landed to pillage the country, he armed, and posted to the field to meet the invading foe. He slew the chief in battle, and routed his pillaging banditti. While this was taking place, another party took the advantage of his absence, attacked his castle, and carried off or murdered his lovely wife and family; which, being perceived on his return by the war and age-worn chief, is thus affectingly described by the unknown poet: -

[¶19] Loud and chill blew the westlin wind,Sair beat the heavy shower,

[¶20] Mirk grew the nicht eir HardyknuteWan neir his stately tower:

[¶21] His tower that us'd with torches bleiseTo shine sae far at night,

[¶22] Seim'd now as black as mourning weid,Nae marvel, sair he sich'd. "Thair's nae light in my lady's bowir,Thair's nae light in my hall;

[¶23] Nae blink shynes round my Fairly fair,Nor ward stands on my wall. "What bodes it, Thomas! Robert! say?"Nae answer - speaks their dreid; "Stand back, my sons, I'll be your gyde;"But bye they pass'd with speid. "As fast I haif sped owr Scotland's foes"There ceis'd his brag of weir.

[¶24] Sair schamt to mind ocht but his dame,And maiden Fairly fair.

[¶25] Black feir he felt; but what to feirHe wist not yet with dreid;

[¶26] Sair schook his body, sair his limbs,And all the warrior fled.

[¶27] The ending of this poem is lost; but we here see that the castle of Hardicanute was surprised, and his family destroyed, or carried off, while he and his sons had been employed in defeating the invading Norwegians. Thank God! civilization, the offspring of the spread of Christianity, has put an end to these barbarous practices among us; but in the East, where Christianity is not, they flourish still. Britons! send out your Bible and your missionaries to tame these barbarians; for whom heathenism has done nothing, and the Koran next to nothing. Civilization itself, without the Bible, will do as little; for the civilized Greeks and Romans were barbarians, fell and murderous; living in envy and malice, hateful, hating one another, and offering hundreds at a time of human victims to their ruthless deities. Nothing but Christianity ever did, or even can, cure these evils.

### Introduction

[¶29] Job answers, and vindicates himself; and shows that the great affliction which he suffered was the cause of his complaining, by which life was rendered burdensome to him, [Job 6:1-13]. He complains that, whereas he expected consolation from his friends, he had received nothing but the bitterest reproaches, on the assumed ground that he must be a wicked man, else God would not so grievously afflict him, [Job 6:14-20]. He shows them that they knew nothing of his case, and that they had no compassion, [Job 6:21-23]. And then entreats them, if they can, to show him in what he has offended, as he is ready to acknowledge and correct every trespass, [Job 6:24-30].

### Verse 2

[¶31] O that my grief were thoroughly weighed - Job wished to be dealt with according to justice; as he was willing that his sins, if they could be proved, should be weighed against his sufferings; and if this could not be done, he wished that his sufferings and his complainings might be weighed together; and it would then be seen that, bitter as his complaint had been, it was little when compared with the distress which occasioned it.

### Verse 3

[¶33] Heavier than the sand of the sea - This includes two ideas: their number was too great to be counted; their weight was too great to be estimated.

### Verse 4

[¶35] The arrows of the Almighty - There is an evident reference here to wounds inflicted by poisoned arrows; and to the burning fever occasioned by such wounds, producing such an intense parching thirst as to dry up all the moisture in the system, stop all the salivary ducts, thicken and inflame the blood, induce putrescency, and terminate in raging mania, producing the most terrifying images, from which the patient is relieved only by death. This is strongly expressed in the fine figure: The Poison Drinketh Up my Spirit; the Terrors of God Set Themselves in Array against me. That calamities are represented among the Eastern writers as the arrows of the Almighty, we have abundant proofs. In reference to this, I shall adduce that fine saying attributed to Aaly, the son-in-law of Mohammed in the Toozuki Teemour; which I have spoken of elsewhere. "It was once demanded of the fourth califf (Aaly), 'If the canopy of heaven were a bow; and if the earth were the cord thereof; and if calamities were the arrows; if mankind were the mark for those arrows; and if Almighty God, the tremendous and glorious, were the unerring Archer; to whom could the sons of Adam flee for protection?' The califf answered, 'The sons of Adam must flee unto the Lord.'" This fine image Job keeps in view in the eighth and ninth verses, wishing that the unerring marksman may let fly these arrows, let loose his hand, to destroy and cut him off.

### Verse 5

[¶37] Doth the wild ass - פרא pere, translated onager, by the Vulgate, from the ονος αγριος of the Septuagint, which we properly enough, translate wild ass. It is the same with the tame ass; only in a wild state it grows to a larger size, is stronger, and more fleet. The meaning of Job appears to be this: You condemn me for complaining; do I complain without a cause? The wild ass will not bray, and the ox will not low, unless in want. If they have plenty of provender, they are silent. Were I at rest, at ease, and happy, I would not complain.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Can that which is unsavoury - Mr. Good renders this verse as follows: Doth insipid food without a mixture of salt, yea, doth the white of the egg give forth pungency? Which he thus illustrates: "Doth that which hath nothing of seasoning, nothing of a pungent or irritable power within it, produce pungency or irritation? I too should be quiet and complain not, if I had nothing provocative or acrimonious, but, alas! the food I am doomed to partake of is the very calamity which is most acute to my soul - that which I most loathe, and which is most grievous or trying to my palate." Some render the original, Is there any dependence on the drivel of dreams? There have been a great variety of interpretations given of this verse. I could add another; but that of Mr. Good is as likely to be correct as that of any other critic.

### Verse 8

[¶41] O that I might have - As Job had no hope that he should ever be redeemed from his present helpless state, he earnestly begs God to shorten it by taking away his life.

### Verse 9

[¶43] Let loose his hand - A metaphor taken from an archer drawing his arrow to the head, and then loosing his hold, that the arrow may fly to the mark. See on [Job 6:4] (note).

## 483. Job · 10 of 73

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### Verse 10

[¶1] Then should I yet have comfort - Instead of עוד od, Yet, three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have זאת zoth, This. And This should be my comfort. The expectation that he will speedily make an end of me would cause me to rejoice with great joy. This reading is supported by the Vulgate and the Chaldee.

[¶2] I would harden myself in sorrow - To know that I should shortly have an end put to my miseries would cause me to endure the present with determinate resolution. Let him not spare - let him use whatever means he chooses, for I will not resist his decree; he is holy, and his decrees must be just.

### Verse 11

[¶4] What is my strength - I can never suppose that my strength will be restored; and, were that possible, have I any comfortable prospect of a happy termination of my life? Had I any prospect of future happiness, I might well bear my present ills; but the state of my body and the state of my circumstances preclude all hope.

### Verse 12

[¶6] Is my strength the strength of stones? - I am neither a rock, nor is my flesh brass, that I can endure all these calamities. This is a proverbial saying, and exists in all countries. Cicero says, Non enim est e saxo sculptus, aut e Robore dolatus Homo; habet corpus, habet animum; movetur mente, movetur sensibus. "For man is not chiselled out of the rock, nor hewn out of the oak; he has a body, and he has a soul; the one is actuated by intellect, the other by the senses." Quaest. Acad. iv. 31. So Homer, where he represents Apollo urging the Trojans to attack the Greeks: - Νεμεσησε δ' Απολλων, Περγαμου εκκατιδων· Τρωεσσι δε κεκλετ' αυσας· Ορνυσθ', ἱπποδαμοι Τρωες, μηδ' εικετε χαρμης Αργειοις· επει ου σφιλιθος χρως, ουδε σιδηρος, Χαλκον ανασχεσθαι ταμεσιχροα βαλλομενοισιν.

[¶7] Illiad, lib. iv., ver. 507.

[¶8] But Phoebus now from Ilion's towering height

[¶9] Shines forth reveal'd, and animates the fight.

[¶10] Trojans, be bold, and force to force oppose;

[¶11] Your foaming steeds urge headlong on the foes!

[¶12] Nor are their bodies rocks, nor ribb'd with steel;

[¶13] Your weapons enter, and your strokes they feel.

[¶14] Pope.

[¶15] These are almost the same expressions as those in Job.

### Verse 13

[¶17] Is not my help in me? - My help is all in myself; and, alas! that is perfect weakness: and my subsistence, תושיה tushiyah, all that is real, stable, and permanent, is driven quite from me. My friends have forsaken me, and I am abandoned to myself; my property is all taken away, and I have no resources left. I believe Job neither said, nor intended to say, as some interpreters have it, Reason is utterly driven from me. Surely there is no mark in this chapter of his being deranged, or at all impaired in his intellect.

### Verse 14

[¶19] To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty - The Vulgate gives a better sense, Qui tollit ab amico suo misericordiam, timorem Domini dereliquit, "He who takes away mercy from his friend, hath cast off the fear of the Lord." The word למס lammas, which we render to him who is Afflicted, from מסה masah, to dissolve, or waste away, is in thirty-two of Dr. Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. למאס lemoes, "to him that despiseth his friend;" and hence the passage may be read: To him who despiseth his friend, it is a reproach; and he will forsake the fear of the Almighty: or, as Mr. Good translates, "Shame to the man who despiseth his friend!

[¶20] He indeed hath departed from the fear of the Almighty."

[¶21] Eliphaz had, in effect, despised Job; and on this ground had acted any thing but the part of a friend towards him; and he well deserved the severe stroke which he here receives. A heathen said, Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur; the full sense of which we have in our common adage: -

[¶22] A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed.

[¶23] Job's friends, so called, supported each other in their attempts to blacken the character of this worthy man; and their hand became the heavier, because they supposed the hand of God was upon him. To each of them, individually, might be applied the words of another heathen: - - Absentem qui rodit amicum,

[¶24] Qui non defendit alio culpante; solutos

[¶25] Qui captat risus hominum, famamque dicacis,

[¶26] Fingere qui non visa potest; commissa tacere

[¶27] Qui nequit; hic niger est; hunc tu, Romane, caveto.

[¶28] Hor. Satyr. lib. i., s. iv., ver. 81.

[¶29] He who, malignant, tears an absent friend;

[¶30] Or, when attack'd by others, don't defend;

[¶31] Who trivial bursts of laughter strives to raise,

[¶32] And courts, of prating petulance, the praise;

[¶33] Of things he never saw who tells his tale,

[¶34] And friendship's secrets knows not to conceal; -

[¶35] This man is vile; here, Roman, fix your mark;

[¶36] His soul's as black as his complexion's dark.

[¶37] Francis.

### Verse 15

[¶39] Have dealt deceitfully as a brook - There is probably an allusion here to those land torrents which make a sudden appearance, and as suddenly vanish; being produced by the rains that fall upon the mountains during the rainy season, and are soon absorbed by the thirsty sands over which they run. At first they seem to promise a permanent stream, and are noticed with delight by the people, who fill their tanks or reservoirs from their waters; but sometimes they are so large and rapid as to carry every thing before them: and then suddenly fail, so that there is no time to fill the tanks. The approach of Job's friends promised much of sympathy and compassion; his expectations were raised: but their conduct soon convinced him that they were physicians of no value; therefore he compares them to the deceitful torrents that soon pass away.

### Verse 16

[¶41] Blackish by reason of the ice - He represents the waters as being sometimes suddenly frozen, their foam being turned into the semblance of snow or hoar-frost: when the heat comes, they are speedily liquefied; and the evaporation is so strong from the heat, and the absorption so powerful from the sand, that they soon disappear.

### Verse 18

[¶43] The paths of their way - They sometimes forsake their ancient channels, which is a frequent case with the river Ganges; and growing smaller and smaller from being divided into numerous streams, they go to nothing and perish - are at last utterly lost in the sands.

### Verse 19

[¶45] The troops of Tema looked - The caravans coming from Tema are represented as arriving at those places where it was well known torrents did descend from the mountains, and they were full of expectation that here they could not only slake their thirst, but fill their girbas or water-skins; but when they arrive, they find the waters totally dissipated and lost. In vain did the caravans of Sheba wait for them; they did not reappear: and they were confounded, because they had hoped to find here refreshment and rest.

## 484. Job · 11 of 73

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### Verse 21

[¶1] For now ye are nothing - Ye are just to me as those deceitful torrents to the caravans of Tema and Sheba; they were nothing to them; ye are nothing to me. Ye see my casting down - Ye see that I have been hurried from my eminence into want and misery, as the flood from the top of the mountains, which is divided, evaporated, and lost in the desert.

[¶2] And are afraid - Ye are terrified at the calamity that has come upon me; and instead of drawing near to comfort me, ye start back at my appearance.

### Verse 22

[¶4] Did I say, Bring unto me? - Why do you stand aloof? Have I asked you to bring me any presents? or to supply my wants out of your stores?

### Verse 23

[¶6] Or, Deliver me - Did I send to you to come and avenge me of the destroyers of my property, or to rescue my substance out of the hands of my enemies?

### Verse 24

[¶8] Teach me - Show me where I am mistaken. Bring proper arguments to convince me of my errors; and you will soon find that I shall gladly receive your counsels, and abandon the errors of which I may be convicted.

### Verse 25

[¶10] How forcible are right words - A well-constructed argument, that has truth for its basis, is irresistible.

[¶11] But what doth your arguing reprove? - Your reasoning is defective, because your premises are false; and your conclusions prove nothing, because of the falsity of the premises whence they are drawn. The last clause, literally rendered, is, What reproof, in a reproof from you? As you have proved no fault you have consequently reproved no vice. Instead of מה נמרצו mah nimretsu, "how forcible," מה נמלצו mah nimletsu, "how savoury or pleasant," is the reading of two MSS., the Chaldee, and some of the rabbins. Both senses are good, but the common reading is to be preferred.

### Verse 26

[¶13] Do ye imagine to reprove words - Is it some expressions which in my hurry, and under the pressure of unprecedented affliction, I have uttered, that ye catch at? You can find no flaw in my conduct; would ye make me an Offender for a Word? Why endeavor to take such advantage of a man who complains in the bitterness of his heart, through despair of life and happiness?

### Verse 27

[¶15] Ye overwhelm the fatherless - Ye see that I am as destitute as the most miserable orphan; would ye overwhelm such a one? and would you dig a pit for your friend - do ye lay wait for me, and endeavor to entangle me in my talk? I believe this to be the spirit of Job's words.

### Verse 28

[¶17] Look upon me - View me; consider my circumstances; compare my words; and you must be convinced that I have spoken nothing but truth.

### Verse 29

[¶19] Return, I pray you - Reconsider the whole subject. Do not be offended. Yea, reconsider the subject; my righteousness is in it - my argumentation is a sufficient proof of my innocence.

### Verse 30

[¶21] Is there iniquity in my tongue? - Am I not an honest man? and if in my haste my tongue had uttered falsity, would not my conscience discern it? and do you think that such a man as your friend is would defend what he knew to be wrong?

[¶22] I Have done what I could to make this chapter plain, to preserve the connection, and show the dependence of the several parts on each other; without which many of the sayings would have been very obscure. The whole chapter is an inimitable apology for what he had uttered, and a defense of his conduct. This might have ended the controversy, had not his friends been determined to bring him in guilty. They had prejudged his cause, and assumed a certain position, from which they were determined not to be driven.

### Introduction

[¶24] Job continues to deplore his helpless and afflicted state, [Job 7:1-6]. He expostulates with God concerning his afflictions, [Job 7:7-12]; describes the disturbed state of his mind by visions in the night season; abhors life, [Job 7:13-16]; and, showing that he is unworthy of the notice of God, begs pardon and respite, [Job 7:17-21].

### Verse 1

[¶26] Is there not an appointed time to man - The Hebrew, with its literal rendering, is as follows: הלא צבא לאנוש עלי ארץ halo tsaba leenosh aley arets, "Is there not a warfare to miserable man upon the earth?" And thus most of the versions have understood the words. The Septuagint: Ποτερον ουχι πειρατηριον εστι ὁ βιος ανθρωπου επι της γης; "Is not the life of man a place of trial upon earth?" The Vulgate: Militia est vita hominis super terram, "The life of man is a warfare upon earth?" The Chaldee is the same. N'y a-t-il pas comme un train de guerre ordonne aux mortels sur la terre? "Is there not a continual campaign ordained for mortals upon the earth?" French Bible. The German and Dutch the same. Coverdale: Is not the life off man upon earth a very batayle? Carmarden, Rouen, 1566: Hath man any certayne tyme upon earth? Syriac and Arabic: "Now, man has time upon the earth." Non e egli il tempo determinato a l'huomo sopra la terra?" "Is there not a determined time to man upon the earth?" Bib. Ital., 1562. All these are nearer to the true sense than ours; and of a bad translation, worse use has been made by many theologians. I believe the simple sentiment which the writer wished to convey is this: Human life is a state of probation; and every day and place is a time and place of exercise, to train us up for eternal life. Here is the exercise, and here the warfare: we are enlisted in the bands of the Church militant, and must accomplish our time of service, and be honorably dismissed from the warfare, having conquered through the blood of the Lamb; and then receive the reward of the heavenly inheritance.

### Verse 2

[¶28] Earnestly desireth the shadow - As a man who labors hard in the heat of the day earnestly desires to get under a shade, or wishes for the long evening shadows, that he may rest from his labor, get his day's wages, retire to his food, and then go to rest. Night is probably what is meant by the shadow; as in Virgil, Aen. iv., ver. 7:

[¶29] Humentemque Aurora polo dimoverat Umbram. "The morning had removed the humid shadow, i.e., night, from the world."

[¶30] Where Servius justly observes:

[¶31] Nihil interest, utrum Umbram an Noctem dicat: Nox enim Umbra terrae est, "It makes no difference whether he says shadow or night; for night is the shadow of the earth."

### Verse 3

[¶33] So am I made to possess - But night is no relief to me, it is only a continuance of my anxiety and labor. I am like the hireling, I have my appointed labor for the day. I am like the soldier harassed by the enemy: I am obliged to be continually on the watch, always on the look out, with scarcely any rest.

### Verse 4

[¶35] When I lie down - I have so little rest, that when I do lie down I long for the return of the light, that I may rise. Nothing can better depict the state of a man under continual afflictions, which afford him no respite, his days and his nights being spent in constant anguish, utterly unable to be in any one posture, so that he is continually changing his position in his bed, finding ease nowhere: thus, as himself expresses it, he is full of tossings.

### Verse 5

[¶37] My flesh is clothed with worms - This is perhaps no figure, but is literally true: the miserably ulcerated state of his body, exposed to the open air, and in a state of great destitution, was favorable to those insects that sought such places in which to deposit their ova, which might have produced the animals in question. But the figure is too horrid to be farther illustrated.

[¶38] Clods of dust - I believe all the commentators have here missed the sense. I suppose Job to allude to those incrustations of indurated or dried pus, which are formed on the tops of pustules in a state of decay: such as the scales which fall from the pustules of the smallpox, when the patient becomes convalescent. Or, if Job's disease was the elephantiasis, it may refer to the furfuraceous scales which are continually falling off the body in that disorder. It is well known, that in this disease the skin becomes very rigid, so as to crack across, especially at the different joints, out of which fissures a loathsome ichor is continually exuding. To something like this the words may refer, My Skin is Broken, and become Loathsome.

### Verse 6

[¶40] Swifter than a weaver's shuttle - The word ארג areg signifies rather the weaver than his shuttle. And it has been doubted whether any such instrument were in use in the days of Job. Dr. Russell, in his account of Aleppo, shows that though they wove many kinds of curious cloth, yet no shuttle was used, as they conducted every thread of the woof by their fingers. That some such instrument as the shuttle was in use from time immemorial, there can be no doubt: and it is certain that such an instrument must have been in the view of Job, without which the figure would lose its expression and force. In almost every nation the whole of human existence has been compared to a web; and the principle of life, through the continual succession of moments, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, to a thread woven through that web. Hence arose the fable of the Parcae or Fates, called also the Destinies or Fatal Sisters. They were the daughters of Erebus and Nox, darkness and night; and were three in number, and named Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Clotho held the distaff; Lachesis spun off the thread; and Atropos cut it off with her scissors, when it was determined that life should end. Job represents the thread of his life as being spun out with great rapidity and tenuity, and about to be cut off.

[¶41] And are spent without hope - Expectation of future good was at an end; hope of the alleviation of his miseries no longer existed. The hope of future good is the balm of life: where that is not, there is despair; where despair is, there is hell. The fable above mentioned is referred to by Virgil, Ecl. iv., ver. 46, but is there applied to time: -

[¶42] Talia Secla, suis dixerunt, currite, fusis

[¶43] Concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae. "The Fates, when they this happy thread have spun

[¶44] Shall bless the sacred clue, and bid it smoothly run."

## 485. Job · 12 of 73

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[¶0] Dryden.

[¶1] Isaiah uses the same figure, [Isa 38:12] : -

[¶2] My life is cut off, as by the weaver:

[¶3] He will sever me from the loom.

[¶4] In the course of the day thou wilt finish my web.

[¶5] Lowth.

[¶6] Coverdale translates thus: My dayes passe over more spedely then a weaver can weave out his webbe and are gone or I am awarre.

[¶7] A fine example of this figure is found in the Teemour Nameh, which I shall give in Mr. Good's translation: - "Praise be to God, who hath woven the web of human affairs in the loom of his will and of his wisdom, and hath made waves of times and of seasons to flow from the fountain of his providence into the ocean of his power." The simile is fine, and elegantly expressed.

### Verse 7

[¶9] My life is wind - Mr. Good translates, "O remember that, if my life pass away, mine eye shall turn no more to scenes of goodness;" which he paraphrases thus: "O remember that, if my life pass away, never more shall I witness those scenes of Divine favor, never more adore thee for those proofs of unmerited mercy, which till now have been so perpetually bestowed on me." I think the common translation gives a very good sense.

### Verse 8

[¶11] Shall see me no more - If I die in my present state, with all this load of undeserved odium which is cast upon me by my friends, I shall never have an opportunity of vindicating my character, and regaining the good opinion of mankind.

[¶12] Thine eyes are upon one, and I am not - Thou canst look me into nothing. Or, Let thine eye be upon me as judged to death, and I shall immediately cease to live among men.

### Verse 9

[¶14] As the cloud is consumed - As the cloud is dissipated, so is the breath of those that go down to the grave. As that cloud shall never return, so shall it be with the dead; they return no more to sojourn with the living. See on the following verses.

### Verse 10

[¶16] He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more - He does not mean that he shall be annihilated but that he shall never more become an inhabitant of the earth. The word שאול, which we properly enough translate grave, here signifies also the state of the dead, hades, and sometimes any deep pit, or even hell itself.

### Verse 11

[¶18] Therefore I will not refrain - All is hopeless; I will therefore indulge myself in complaining.

### Verse 12

[¶20] Am I a sea, or a whale - "Am I condemned as the Egyptians were who were drowned in the Red Sea? or am I as Pharaoh, who was drowned in it in his sins, that thou settest a keeper over me?" Targum. Am I as dangerous as the sea, that I should be encompassed about with barriers, lest I should hurt mankind? Am I like an ungovernable wild beast or dragon, that I must be put under locks and bars? I think our own version less exceptionable than any other hitherto given of this verse. The meaning is sufficiently plain. Job was hedged about and shut in with insuperable difficulties of various kinds; he was entangled as a wild beast in a net; the more he struggled, the more he lost his strength, and the less probability there was of his being extricated from his present situation. The sea is shut in with barriers, over which it cannot pass; for God has "placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it," [Jer 5:22]. "For thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth;" [Psa 104:9]. "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors; and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed;" [Job 38:8]. Here then is Job's allusion: the bounds, doors, garment, swaddling bands, decreed place, and bars, are the watchers or keepers which God has set to prevent the sea from overflowing the earth; so Job's afflictions and distresses were the bounds and bars which God had apparently set to prevent him from injuring his fellow creatures. At least Job, in his complaint, so takes it. Am I like the sea, which thou hast imprisoned within bounds, ready to overwhelm and destroy the country? or am I like a dragon, which must be cooped up in the same way, that it may not have the power to kill and destroy? Surely in my prosperity I gave no evidence of such a disposition; therefore should not be treated as a man dangerous to society. In this Job shows that he will not refrain his mouth.

### Verse 14

[¶22] Thou sparest me with dreams - There is no doubt that Satan was permitted to haunt his imagination with dreadful dreams and terrific appearances; so that, as soon as he fell asleep, he was suddenly roused and alarmed by those appalling images. He needed rest by sleep, but was afraid to close his eyes because of the horrid images which were presented to his imagination. Could there be a state more deplorable than this?

### Verse 15

[¶24] Chooseth strangling - It is very likely that he felt, in those interrupted and dismal slumbers, an oppression and difficulty of breathing something like the incubus or nightmare; and, distressing as this was, he would prefer death by this means to any longer life in such miseries.

### Verse 16

[¶26] I loathe it; I would not live alway - Life, in such circumstances, is hateful to me; and though I wish for long life, yet if length of days were offered to me with the sufferings which I now undergo, I would despise the offer and spurn the boon. Mr. Good is not satisfied with our common version, and has adopted the following, which in his notes he endeavors to illustrate and defend: [Job 7:15] So that my soul coveteth suffocation,And death in comparison with my suffering. [Job 7:16] No longer would I live! O, release me!How are my days vanity!

### Verse 17

[¶28] What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? - Two different ideas have been drawn from these words: -

[¶29] 1. Man is not worth thy notice; why therefore dost thou contend with him?

[¶30] 2. How astonishing is thy kindness that thou shouldest fix thy heart - thy strongest affections, on such a poor, base, vile, impotent creature as man, (אנוש enosh), that thou shouldest so highly exalt him beyond all other creatures, and mark him with the most particular notice of thy providence and grace!

[¶31] The paraphrase of Calmet is as follows: "Does man, such as he at present is, merit thy attention! What is man that God should make it his business to examine, try, prove, and afflict him? Is it not doing him too much honor to think thus seriously about him? O Lord! I am not worthy that thou shouldest concern thyself about me!"

### Verse 19

[¶33] Till I swallow down my spittle? - This is a proverbial expression, and exists among the Arabs to the present day; the very language being nearly the same. It signifies the same as, Let me draw my breath; give me a moment's space; let me have even the twinkling of an eye. I am urged by my sufferings to continue my complaint; but my strength is exhausted, my mouth dry with speaking. Suspend my sufferings even for so short a space as is necessary to swallow my spittle, that my parched tongue may be moistened, so that I may renew my complaint.

### Verse 20

[¶35] I have sinned; what shall I do - Dr. Kennicott contends that these words are spoken to Eliphaz, and not to God, and would paraphrase them thus: "You say I must have been a sinner. What then? I have not sinned against thee, O thou spy upon mankind! Why hast thou set up me as a butt or mark to shoot at? Why am I become a burden unto thee? Why not rather overlook my transgression, and pass by mine iniquity? I am now sinking to the dust! To-morrow, perhaps, I shall be sought in vain!" See his vindication of Job at the end of these notes on this book. Others consider the address as made to God. Taken in this light, the sense is plain enough. Those who suppose that the address is made to God, translate the [Job 7:20] thus: "Be it that I have sinned, what injury can I do unto thee, O thou Observer of man? Why hast thou set me up as a mark for thee, and why am I made a burden to thee?" The Septuagint is thus: Ει εγω ἡμαρτον, τι δυνησομαι πραξαι, ὁ επισταμενος τον νουν των ανθρωπων; If I have sinned, what can I do, O thou who knowest the mind of men? Thou knowest that it is impossible for me to make any restitution. I cannot blot out my offenses; but whether I have sinned so as to bring all these calamities upon me, thou knowest, who searchest the hearts of men.

### Verse 21

[¶37] And why dost thou not pardon - These words are spoken after the manner of men. If thou have any design to save me, if I have sinned, why dost thou not pardon my transgression, as thou seest that I am a dying man; and to-morrow morning thou mayest seek me to do me good, but in all probability I shall then be no more, and all thy kind thoughts towards me shall be unavailing? If I have sinned, then why should not I have a part in that mercy that flows so freely to all mankind? That Job does not criminate himself here, as our text intimates, is evident enough from his own repeated assertions of his innocence. And it is most certain that Bildad, who immediately answers, did not consider him as criminating but as justifying himself; and this is the very ground on which he takes up the subject. Were we to admit the contrary, we should find strange inconsistencies, if not contradictions, in Job's speeches: on such a ground the controversy must have immediately terminated, as he would then have acknowledged that of which his friends accused him; and here the book of Job would have ended.

### Introduction

[¶39] Bildad answers, and reproves Job for his justifying himself, [Job 8:1], [Job 8:2]. Shows that God is just, and never punishes but for iniquity; and intimates that it was on account of their sins that his children were cut off, [Job 8:3], [Job 8:4]. States that, if Job would humble himself to the Almighty, provided he were innocent, his captivity would soon be turned, and his latter end be abundantly prosperous, [Job 8:5-7]. Appeals to the ancients for the truth of what he says; and draws examples from the vegetable world, to show how soon the wicked may be cut off, and the hope of the hypocrite perish, [Job 8:8-19]. Asserts that God never did cast off a perfect man nor help the wicked; and that, if Job be innocent, his end shall be crowned with prosperity, [Job 8:20-22].

### Verse 1

[¶41] Bildad the Shuhite - Supposed to be a descendant of Shuah, one of the sons of Abraham, by Keturah, who dwelt in Arabia Deserta, called in Scripture the east country. See [Gen 25:1], [Gen 25:2], [Gen 25:6].

### Verse 2

[¶43] How long wilt thou speak these things? - Wilt thou still go on to charge God foolishly? Thy heavy affliction proves that thou art under his wrath; and his wrath, thus manifested, proves that it is for thy sins that he punisheth thee.

[¶44] Be like a strong wind? - The Arabic, with which the Syriac agrees, is (Syriac) rucholazomati, the spirit of pride. Wilt thou continue to breathe forth a tempest of words? This is more literal.

## 486. Job · 13 of 73

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### Verse 3

[¶1] Doth God pervert judgment! - God afflicts thee; can he afflict thee for naught? As he is just, his judgment is just; and he could not inflict punishment unless there be a cause.

### Verse 4

[¶3] If thy children have sinned - I know thy children have been cut off by a terrible judgment; but was it not because by transgression they had filled up the measure of their iniquity?

[¶4] And he have cast them away - Has sent them off, says the Targum, to the place of their transgression - to that punishment due to their sins.

### Verse 5

[¶6] If thou wouldest seek unto God - Though God has so severely afflicted thee, and removed thy children by a terrible judgment; yet if thou wilt now humble thyself before him, and implore his mercy, thou shalt be saved. He cut them off in their sins, but he spares thee; and this is a proof that he waits to be gracious to thee.

### Verse 6

[¶8] If thou wert pure and upright - Concerning thy guilt there can be no doubt; for if thou hadst been a holy man, and these calamities had occurred through accident, or merely by the malice of thy enemies, would not God, long ere this, have manifested his power and justice in thy behalf, punished thy enemies, and restored thee to affluence?

[¶9] The habitation of thy righteousness - Strongly ironical. If thy house had been as a temple of God, in which his worship had been performed, and his commandments obeyed, would it now be in a state of ruin and desolation?

### Verse 7

[¶11] Though thy beginning was small - Thy former state, compared to that into which God would have brought thee, would be small; for to show his respect for thy piety, because thou hadst, through thy faithful attachment to him, suffered the loss of all things, he would have greatly multiplied thy former prosperity, so that thou shouldest now have vastly more than thou didst ever before possess.

### Verse 8

[¶13] Inquire - of the former age - לדור רישון ledor rishon, of the first age; of the patriarchs; the first generation of men that dwelt upon the earth: not of the age that was just past, as Mr. Peters and several others have imagined, in order to keep up the presumption of Job's high antiquity. Bildad most evidently refers to an antiquity exceedingly remote.

### Verse 9

[¶15] For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing - It is evident that Bildad refers to those times in which human life was protracted to a much longer date than that in which Job lived; when men, from the long period of eight or nine hundred years, had the opportunity of making many observations, and treasuring up a vast fund of knowledge and experience. In comparison with them, he considers that age as nothing, and that generation as being only of yesterday, not having had opportunity of laying up knowledge: nor could they expect it, as their days upon earth would be but a shadow, compared with that substantial time in which the fathers had lived. Perhaps there may be an allusion here to the shadow projected by the gnomon of a dial, during the time the sun is above the horizon. As is a single solar day, so is our life. The following beautiful motto I have seen on a sundial: Umbrae Sumus! "We are shadows!" referring to the different shadows by which the gnomon marked the hours, during the course of the day; and all intended to convey this moral lesson to the passengers: Your life is composed of time, marked out by such shadows as these. Such as time is, such are you; as fleeting, as transitory, as unsubstantial. These shadows lost, time is lost; time lost, soul lost! Reader take heed! The writer of this book probably had before his eyes these words of David, in his last prayer, [1Chr 29:15] : "For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as all our fathers were; our days upon earth are as a Shadow, and there is no expectation. There is no reason to hope that they shall be prolonged; for our lives are limited down to threescore years and ten, as the average of the life even of old men.

### Verse 10

[¶17] Shall not they teach thee - Wilt thou not treat their maxims with the utmost deference and respect? They utter words from their heart - what they say is the fruit of long and careful experience.

### Verse 11

[¶19] Can the rush grow - The word גמא gome, which we translate rush, is, without doubt, the Egyptian flag papyrus, on which the ancients wrote, and from which our paper derives its name. The Septuagint, who made their Greek translation in Egypt, (if this book made a part of it), and knew well the import of each word in both languages, render גמא gome by παπυρος papyrus, thus: Μη θαλλει παπυρος ανευ ὑδατος; Can the Papyrus flourish without water? Their translation leaves no doubt concerning the meaning of the original. They were probably writing on the very substance in question, while making their translation. The technical language of no science is so thoroughly barbarous as that of botany: the description of this plant by Linnaeus, shall be a proof. The plant he calls "Cyperus Papyrus; Class Triandria; Order Monogynia; Culm three-sided, naked; umbel longer than the involucres; involucels three-leaved, setaceous, longer; spikelets in threes - Egypt, etc. Involucre eight-leaved; general umbel copious, the rays sheathing at the base; partial on very short peduncles; spikelets alternate, sessile; culm leafy at the base; leaves hollow, ensiform." Hear our plain countryman John Gerarde, who describes the same plant: "Papyrus Nilotica, Paper Reed, hath many large flaggie leaves, somewhat triangular and smooth, not much unlike those of cats-taile, rising immediately from a tuft of roots, compact of many strings; amongst the which it shooteth up two or three naked stalkes, square, and rising some six or seven cubits high above the water; at the top whereof there stands a tuft or bundle off chaffie threds, set in comely order, resembling a tuft of floures, but barren and void of seed;" Gerarde's Herbal, p. 40. Which of the two descriptions is easiest to be understood by common sense, either with or without a knowledge of the Latin language? This plant grows in the muddy banks of the Nile, as it requires an abundance of water for its nourishment.

[¶20] Can the flag grow without water? - Parkhurst supposes that the word אחו achu, which we render flag, is the same with that species of reed which Mr. Hasselquist found growing near the river Nile. He describes it (p. 97) as "having scarcely any branches, but numerous leaves, which are narrow, smooth, channelled on the upper surface; and the plant about eleven feet high. The Egyptians make ropes of the leaves. They lay the plant in water, like hemp, and then make good and strong cables of them." As אח ach signifies to join, connect, associate, hence אחי achi, a brother, אחו achu may come from the same root, and have its name from its usefulness in making ropes, cables, etc., which are composed of associated threads, and serve to tie, bind together, etc.

### Verse 12

[¶22] Whilst it is yet in his greenness - We do not know enough of the natural history of this plant to be able to discern the strength of this allusion; but we learn from it that, although this plant be very succulent, and grow to a great size, yet it is short-lived, and speedily withers; and this we may suppose to be in the dry season, or on the retreat of the waters of the Nile. However, Soon Ripe, soon Rotten, is a maxim in horticulture.

### Verse 13

[¶24] So are the paths - The papyrus and the rush flourish while they have a plentiful supply of ooze and water; but take these away, and their prosperity is speedily at an end; so it is with the wicked and profane; their prosperity is of short duration, however great it may appear to be in the beginning. Thou also, O thou enemy of God, hast flourished for a time; but the blast of God is come upon thee, and now thou art dried up from the very roots.

[¶25] The hypocrite's hope shall perish - A hypocrite, or rather profligate, has no inward religion, for his heart is not right with God; he has only hope, and that perishes when he gives up the ghost. This is the first place in which the word hypocrite occurs, or the noun חנף chaneph, which rather conveys the idea of pollution and defilement than of hypocrisy. A hypocrite is one who only carries the mask of godliness, to serve secular purposes; who wishes to be taken for a religionist, though he is conscious he has no religion. Such a person cannot have hope of any good, because he knows he is insincere: but the person in the text has hope; therefore hypocrite cannot be the meaning of the original word. But all the vile, the polluted, and the profligate have hope; they hope to end their iniquities before they end life; and they hope to get at last to the kingdom of heaven. Hypocrite is a very improper translation of the Hebrew.

### Verse 14

[¶27] Whose hope shall be cut off - Such persons, subdued by the strong habits of sin, hope on fruitlessly, till the last thread of the web of life is cut off from the beam; and then they find no more strength in their hope than is in the threads of the spider's web. Mr. Good renders, Thus shall their support rot away. The foundation on which they trust is rotten, and by and by the whole superstructure of their confidence shall tumble into ruin.

### Verse 15

[¶29] He shall lean upon his house - This is all allusion to the spider. When he suspects his web, here called his house, to be frail or unsure, he leans upon it in different parts, propping himself on his hinder legs, and pulling with his fore claws, to see if all be safe. If he find any part of it injured, he immediately adds new cordage to that part, and attaches it strongly to the wall. When he finds all safe and strong, he retires into his hole at one corner, supposing himself to be in a state of complete security, when in a moment the brush or the besom sweeps away both himself, his house, and his confidence. This I have several times observed; and it is in this that the strength and point of the comparison consist. The wicked, whose hope is in his temporal possessions strengthens and keeps his house in repair; and thus leans on his earthly supports; in a moment, as in the case of the spider, his house is overwhelmed by the blast of God's judgments, and himself probably buried in its ruins. This is a very fine and expressive metaphor, which not one of the commentators that I have seen has ever discovered.

### Verse 16

[¶31] He is green before the sun - This is another metaphor. The wicked is represented as a luxuriant plant, in a good soil, with all the advantages of a good situation; well exposed to the sun; the roots intervolving themselves with stones, so as to render the tree more stable; but suddenly a blast comes, and the tree begins to die. The sudden fading of its leaves, etc., shows that its root is become as rottenness, and its vegetable life destroyed. I have often observed sound and healthy trees, which were flourishing in all the pride of vegetative health, suddenly struck by some unknown and incomprehensible blast, begin to die away, and perish from the roots. I have seen also the prosperous wicked, in the inscrutable dispensations of the Divine providence, blasted, stripped, made bare, and despoiled, in the same way.

### Verse 18

[¶33] If he destroy him from his place - Is not this a plain reference to the alienation of his inheritance? God destroys him from it; it becomes the property of another; and on his revisiting it, the place, by a striking prosopopoeia, says, "I know thee not; I have never seen thee." This also have I witnessed; I looked on it, felt regret, received instruction, and hasted away.

### Verse 19

[¶35] Behold this is the joy of his way - A strong irony. Here is the issue of all his mirth, of his sports, games, and pastimes! See the unfeeling, domineering, polluting and polluted scape-grace, levelled with those whom he had despised, a servant of servants, or unable to work through his debaucheries, cringing for a morsel of bread, or ingloriously ending his days in that bane of any well-ordered and civilized state, a parish workhouse. This also I have most literally witnessed.

[¶36] Out of the earth shall others gross - As in the preceding case, when one plant or tree is blasted or cut down, another may be planted in the same place; so, when a spendthrift has run through his property, another possesses his inheritance, and grows up from that soil in which he himself might have continued to flourish, had it not been for his extravagance and folly. This verse Mr. Good applies to God himself, with no advantage to the argument, nor elucidation of the sense, that I can see. I shall give his translation, and refer to his learned notes for his vindication of the version he has given: - "Behold the Eternal (הוא) exulting in his course;

[¶37] Even over his dust shall raise up another."

[¶38] In this way none of the ancient versions have understood the passage. I believe it to be a strong irony, similar to that which some think flowed from the pen of the same writer: Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes. But know thou, that for all these God will bring thee into judgment; [Ecc 11:9]. These two places illustrate each other.

### Verse 20

[¶40] Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man - This is another of the maxims of the ancients, which Bildad produces: "As sure as he will punish and root out the wicked, so surely will he defend and save the righteous."

### Verse 21

[¶42] Till he fill thy mouth with laughing - Perhaps it may be well to translate after Mr. Good "Even yet may he fill thy mouth with laughter!" The two verses may be read as a prayer; and probably they were thus expressed by Bildad, who speaks with less virulence than his predecessor, though with equal positiveness in respect to the grand charge, viz., If thou wert not a sinner of no mean magnitude, God would not have inflicted such unprecedented calamities upon thee. This most exceptionable position, which is so contrary to matter of fact, was founded upon maxims which they derived from the ancients. Surely observation must have, in numberless instances, corrected this mistake. They must have seen many worthless men in high prosperity, and many of the excellent of the earth in deep adversity and affliction; but the opposite was an article of their creed, and all appearances and facts must take its colouring. Job's friends must have been acquainted, at least, with the history of the ancient patriarchs; and most certainly they contained facts of an opposite nature. Righteous Abel was persecuted and murdered by his wicked brother, Cain. Abram was obliged to leave his own country on account of worshipping the true God; so all tradition has said. Jacob was persecuted by his brother Esau; Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers; Moses was obliged to flee from Egypt, and was variously tried and afflicted, even by his own brethren. Not to mention David, and almost all the prophets. All these were proofs that the best of men were frequently exposed to sore afflictions and heavy calamities; and it is not by the prosperity or adversity of men in this world, that we are to judge of the approbation or disapprobation of God towards them. In every case our Lord's rule is infallible: By their fruits ye shall know them.

### Introduction

[¶44] Job acknowledges God's justice and man's sinfulness, [Job 9:1-3]. Celebrates his almighty power as manifested in the earth and in the heavens, [Job 9:4-10]. Maintains that God afflicts the innocent as well as the wicked, without any respect to their works: and hath delivered the earth into the hands of the wicked, [Job 9:11-24]. Complains of his lot, and maintains his innocence, [Job 9:25-35].

## 487. Job · 14 of 73

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### Verse 2

[¶1] I know it is so of a truth - I acknowledge the general truth of the maxims you have advanced. God will not ultimately punish a righteous person, nor shall the wicked finally triumph; and though righteous before man, and truly sincere in my piety, yet I know, when compared with the immaculate holiness of God, all my righteousness is nothing.

### Verse 3

[¶3] If he will contend with him - God is so holy, and his law so strict, that if he will enter into judgment with his creatures, the most upright of them cannot be justified in his sight.

[¶4] One of a thousand - Of a thousand offenses of which he may be accused he cannot vindicate himself even in one. How little that any man does, even in the way of righteousness, truth, and mercy, can stand the penetrating eye of a just and holy God, when all motives, feelings, and objects, come to be scrutinized in his sight, on this ground, no man living can be justified. O, how necessary to fallen, weak, miserable, imperfect and sinful man, is the doctrine of justification by faith, and sanctification through the Divine Spirit, by the sacrificial death and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

### Verse 4

[¶6] He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength - By his infinite knowledge he searches out and sees all things, and by his almighty power he can punish all delinquencies. He that rebels against him must be destroyed.

### Verse 5

[¶8] Removeth the mountains, and they know not - This seems to refer to earthquakes. By those strong convulsions, mountains, valleys, hills, even whole islands, are removed in an instant; and to this latter circumstance the words, they know not, most probably refer. The work is done in the twinkling of an eye; no warning is given; the mountain, that seemed to be as firm as the earth on which it rested, was in the same moment both visible and invisible; so suddenly was it swallowed up.

### Verse 6

[¶10] The pillars thereof tremble - This also refers to an earthquake, and to that tremulous motion which sometimes gives warning of the approaching catastrophe, and from which this violent convulsion of nature has received its name. Earthquakes, in Scripture language, signify also violent commotions and disturbances in states; mountains often signify rulers; sun, empires; stars, petty states. But it is most likely that the expressions here are to be understood literally.

### Verse 7

[¶12] Which commandeth the sun - Obscures it either with clouds, with thick darkness, or with an eclipse.

[¶13] Sealeth up the stars - Like the contents of a letter, wrapped up and sealed, so that it cannot be read. Sometimes the heavens become as black as ebony, and no star, figure, or character, in this great book of God can be read.

### Verse 8

[¶15] And treadeth upon the waves - This is a very majestic image. God not only walks upon the waters, but when the sea runs mountains high, he steps from billow to billow in his almighty and essential majesty. There is a similar sentiment in David, [Psa 29:10] : "The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever." But both are far outdone by the Psalmist, [Psa 18:9-15], and especially in these words, [Psa 18:10], He did fly on the wings of the wind. Job is great, but in every respect David is greater.

### Verse 9

[¶17] Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south - For this translation the original words are עשה עש כסיל וכימה והדרי תמן oseh ash, kesil, vechimah vehadrey theman, which are thus rendered by the Septuagint: Ὁ ποιων Πλειαδα, και Ἑσπερον, και Αρκτουρον, και ταμεια νοτου; "Who makes the Pleiades, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and Orion, and the chambers of the south."

[¶18] The Vulgate, Qui facit Arcturum, et Oriona, et Hyadas, et interiora Austri; "Who maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and the Hyades, and the innermost chambers of the south."

[¶19] The Targum follows the Hebrew, but paraphrases the latter clause thus: "and the chambers or houses of the planetary domination in the southern hemisphere."

[¶20] The Syrian and Arabic, "Who maketh the Pleiades, and Arcturus, and the giant, (Orion or Hercules), and the boundaries of the south."

[¶21] Coverdale has, He maketh the waynes of heaven, the Orions, the vii starres and the secrete places of the south. And on the vii starres he has this marginal note: some call these seven starres, the clock henne with hir chickens. See below.

[¶22] Edmund Becke, in his edition, 1549, follows Coverdale, but puts Vaynes of heaven for waynes, which Carmarden, in his Bible, Rouen, 1566, mistaking, changes into Waves of heaven.

[¶23] Barker's Bible, 1615, reads, "He maketh the starres Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the climates of the south." On which he has this note, "These are the names of certain starres, whereby he meaneth that all starres, both knowen and unknowen, are at His appointment."

[¶24] Our early translators seem to agree much with the German and Dutch: Er machet, den wagen am himmel, und Orion, und die Gluken, und die Sterne gegen mittag; "He maketh the wagon of heaven, (Charles's wain), and Orion, and the clucking hen, (the Pleiades), and the stars of the mid-day region." See above, under Coverdale.

[¶25] The Dutch version is not much unlike the German, from which it is taken: Die den wagen maecht, den Orion, ende het sevengesternte, end de binnenkameren ban't Zuyden.

[¶26] The European versions, in general, copy one or other of the above, or make a compound translation from the whole; but all are derived ultimately from the Septuagint and Vulgate.

[¶27] As to the Hebrew words, they might as well have been applied to any of the other constellations of heaven: indeed, it does not appear that constellations are at all meant. Parkhurst and Bate have given, perhaps, the best interpretation of the words, which is as follows: - "כימה kimah, from כמה camah, to be hot or warm, denotes genial heat or warmth, as opposed to עש ash, a parching, biting air, on the one side; and כסיל kesil, the rigid, contracting cold, on the other; and the chambers (thick clouds) of the south." See more in Parkhurst, under כמה.

[¶28] I need scarcely add that these words have been variously translated by critics and commentators. Dr. Hales translates kimah and kesil by Taurus and Scorpio; and, if this translation were indubitably correct, we might follow him to his conclusions, viz., that Job lived 2337 years before Christ! See at the end of this chapter, [Job 9:35] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶30] Great things past finding out - Great things without end; wonders without number - Targum.

### Verse 11

[¶32] Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not - He is incomprehensible in all his ways, and in all his works; and he must be so it he be God, and work as God; for his own nature and his operations are past finding out.

### Verse 12

[¶34] He taketh away - He never gives, but he is ever lending: and while the gift is useful or is improved, he permits it to remain; but when it becomes useless or is misused, he recalls it.

[¶35] Who can hinder him? - Literally, Who can cause him to restore it?

[¶36] What doest thou? - He is supreme, and will give account of none of his matters. He is infinitely wise, and cannot mistake. He is infinitely kind, and can do nothing cruel. He is infinitely good, and can do nothing wrong. No one, therefore, should question either his motives or his operations.

### Verse 13

[¶38] If God will not withdraw his anger - It is of no use to contend with God; he cannot be successfully resisted; all his opposers must perish.

### Verse 14

[¶40] How much less shall I answer - I cannot contend with my Maker. He is the Lawgiver and the Judge. How shall I stand in judgment before him?

### Verse 15

[¶42] Though I were righteous - Though clear of all the crimes, public and secret, of which you accuse me, yet I would not dare to stand before his immaculate holiness. Man's holiness may profit man, but in the sight of the infinite purity of God it is nothing. Thus sung an eminent poet: - "I loathe myself when God I see,And into nothing fall;

[¶43] Content that thou exalted be,And Christ be all in all."

[¶44] I would make supplication to my Judge - Though not conscious of any sin, I should not think myself thereby justified; but would, from a conviction of the exceeding breadth of the commandment, and the limited nature of my own perfection, cry out, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults!"

## 488. Job · 15 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/488/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/488/#p-N

### Verse 16

[¶1] If I had called, and he had answered - I could scarcely suppose, such is his majesty and such his holiness, that he could condescend to notice a being so mean, and in every respect so infinitely beneath his notice. These sentiments sufficiently confuted that slander of his friends, who said he was presumptuous, had not becoming notions of the majesty of God, and used blasphemous expressions against his sovereign authority.

### Verse 17

[¶3] He breaketh me with a tempest - The Targum, Syriac, and Arabic have this sense: He powerfully smites even every hair of my head and multiplies my wounds without cause. That is, There is no reason known to myself, or to any man, why I should be thus most oppressively afflicted. It is, therefore, cruel, and inconsequent to assert that I suffer for my crimes.

### Verse 18

[¶5] He will not suffer me to take my breath - I have no respite in my afflictions; I suffer continually in my body, and my mind is incessantly harassed.

### Verse 19

[¶7] If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong - Human wisdom, power, and influence avail nothing before him.

[¶8] Who shall set me a time - מי יועידני mi yoideni, "Who would be a witness for me?" or, Who would dare to appear in my behalf? Almost all the terms in this part of the speech of Job, [Job 9:11-24], are forensic or juridical, and are taken from legal processes and pleadings in their gates or courts of justice.

### Verse 20

[¶10] If I justify myself - God must have some reason for his conduct towards me; I therefore do not pretend to justify myself; the attempt to do it would be an insult to his majesty and justice. Though I am conscious of none of the crimes of which you accuse me; and know not why he contends with me; yet he must have some reason, and that reason he does not choose to explain.

### Verse 21

[¶12] Though I were perfect - Had I the fullest conviction that, in every thought, word, and deed, I were blameless before him, yet I would not plead this; nor would I think it any security for a life of ease and prosperity, or any proof that my days should be prolonged.

### Verse 22

[¶14] This is one thing - My own observation shows, that in the course of providence the righteous and the wicked have an equal lot; for when any sudden calamity comes, the innocent and the guilty fall alike. There may be a few exceptions, but they are very extraordinary, and very rare.

### Verse 24

[¶16] The earth is given into the hand of the wicked - Is it not most evident that the worst men possess most of this world's goods, and that the righteous are scarcely ever in power or affluence? This was the case in Job's time; it is the case still. Therefore prosperity and adversity in this life are no marks either of God's approbation or disapprobation.

[¶17] He covereth the faces of the judges thereon - Or, The faces of its decisions he shall cover. God is often stated in Scripture as doing a thing which he only permits to be done. So he permits the eyes of judgment to be blinded; and hence false decisions. Mr. Good translates the verse thus: - "The earth is given over to the hand of Injustice;

[¶18] She hoodwinketh the faces of its judges.

[¶19] Where every one liveth is it not so?"

[¶20] And vindicates the translation in his learned notes: but I think the Hebrew will not bear this rendering; especially that in the third line.

[¶21] Where, and who is he? - If this be not the case, who is he that acts in this way, and where is he to be found? If God does not permit these things, who is it that orders them? Coverdale translates, As for the worlde, he geveth it over into the power of the wicked, such as the rulers be wherof all londes are full. Is it not so? Where is there eny, but he is soch one? This sense is clear enough, if the original will bear it. The last clause is thus rendered by the Syriac and Arabic, Who can bear his indignation?

### Verse 25

[¶23] Swifter than a post - מני רץ minni rats, than a runner. The light-footed messenger or courier who carries messages from place to place. They flee away - The Chaldee says, My days are swifter than the shadow of a flying bird. So swiftly do they flee away that I cannot discern them; and when past they cannot be recalled. There is a sentiment like this in Virgil, Geor. lib. iii., ver. 284: -

[¶24] Sed Fugit interea, Cubit Irreparabile tempus! - "But in the meanwhile time flies! irreparable time flies away!"

### Verse 26

[¶26] As the swift ships - אניות אבה oniyoth ebeh. Ships of desire, or ships of Ebeh, says our margin; perhaps more correctly, inflated ships, the sails bellying out with a fair brisk wind, tide favorable, and the vessels themselves lightly freighted. The Vulgate has, Like ships freighted with apples. Ships laden with the best fruits - Targum. Ships well adapted for sailing - Arabic. Shipes that be good under sale - Coverdale. Probably this relates to the light fast-sailing ships on the Nile, which were made of reeds or papyrus. Perhaps the idea to be seized is not so much the swiftness of the passage, as their leaving no trace or track behind them. But instead of אבה ebeh, איבה eybah, hostile ships or the ships of enemies, is the reading of forty-seven of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and of the Syriac version. If this be the true reading what is its sense? My days are gone off like the light vessels of the pirates, having stripped me of my property, and carried all irrecoverably away, under the strongest press of sail, that they may effect their escape, and secure their booty. The next words, As the eagle that hasteth to the prey, seem at least to countenance, if not confirm, the above reading: the idea of robbery and spoil, prompt attack and sudden retreat, is preserved in both images.

### Verse 27

[¶28] I will forget my complaint - I will forsake or forego my complaining. I will leave off my heaviness. Vulgate, I will change my countenance - force myself to smile, and endeavor to assume the appearance of comfort.

### Verse 28

[¶30] I am afraid of all my sorrows - Coverdale translates, after the Vulgate, Then am I afrayed of all my workes. Even were I to cease from complaining, I fear lest not one of my works, however well intentioned, would stand thy scrutiny, or meet with thy approbation.

[¶31] Thou wilt not hold me innocent - Coverdale, after the Vulgate, For I knowe thou favourest not an evil doer; but this is not the sense of the original: Thou wilt not acquit me so as to take away my afflictions from me.

### Verse 29

[¶33] If I be wicked - If I am the sinner you suppose me to be, in vain should I labor to counterfeit joy, and cease to complain of my sufferings.

### Verse 30

[¶35] If I wash myself with snow water - Supposed to have a more detergent quality than common water; and it was certainly preferred to common water by the ancients. Of this we find an example in an elegant but licentious author: Tandem ergo discubuimus, pueris Alexandrinis Aquam in manus Nivatam infundentibus, aliisque insequentibus ad pedes - Petr. Satyr., cap. xxxi. "At length we sat down, and had snow water poured on our hands by lads of Alexandria," etc. Mr. Good supposes that there is an allusion here to the ancient rite of washing the hands in token of innocence. See [Psa 26:6] : I will Wash my hands in Innocency; and [Psa 73:13] : Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and Washed my Hands in Innocency. And by this ceremony Pilate declared himself innocent of the blood of Christ, [Mat 27:24].

### Verse 31

[¶37] And mine own clothes shall abhor me - Such is thine infinite purity, when put in opposition to the purity of man, that it will bear no comparison. Searched and tried by the eye of God, I should be found as a leper, so that my own clothes would dread to touch me, for fear of being infected by my corruption. This is a strong and bold figure; and is derived from the corrupted state of his body, which his clothes dreaded to touch, because of the contagious nature of his disorder.

### Verse 32

[¶39] For he is not a man as I am - I cannot contend with him as with one of my fellows in a court of justice.

### Verse 33

[¶41] Neither is there any day's-man - בינינו מוכיח beyneynu mochiach, a reprover, arguer, or umpire between us. Day's - Man, in our law, means an arbitrator, or umpire between party and party; as it were bestowing a day, or certain time on a certain day, to decree, judge, or decide a matter - Minshieu. Day is used in law for the day of appearance in court, either originally or upon assignation, for hearing a matter for trial - Idem. But arbitrator is the proper meaning of the term here: one who is, by the consent of both parties, to judge between them, and settle their differences. Instead of לא יש lo yesh, there is not, fifteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, read לו יש lu vesh, I wish there were: or, O that there were! Ειθε ην ὁ μεσιτης ἡμων, και ελεγχων και διακουων αναμεσον αμφοτερων; O that we had a mediator, an advocate, and judge between us both! - Sept. Poor Job! He did not yet know the Mediator between God and man: the only means by which God and man can be brought together and reconciled. Had St. Paul this in his eye when he wrote [1Tim 2:5], [1Tim 2:6]? For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all. Without this Mediator, and the ransom price which he has laid down, God and man can never be united: and that this union might be made possible, Jesus took the human into conjunction with his Divine nature; and thus God was manifest in the flesh.

### Verse 34

[¶43] Let him take his rod away - In the Masoretic Bibles, the word שבטו shibto, his rod, is written with a large ט teth, as above; and as the letter in numerals stands for 9, the Masora says the word was thus written to show the nine calamities under which Job had suffered, and which he wished God to remove. As שבט shebet signifies, not only rod, but also scepter or the ensign of royalty, Job might here refer to God sitting in his majesty upon the judgment-seat; and this sight so appalled him, that, filled with terror, he was unable to speak. When a sinful soul sees God in his majesty, terror seizes upon it, and prayer is impossible. We have a beautiful illustration of this, [Isa 6:1-5] : "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Then said I, Wo is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

## 489. Job · 16 of 73

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### Verse 35

[¶1] But it is not so with me - I am not in such circumstances as to plead with my Judge. I believe the sense of these words is nearly as Coverdale has expressed it: - For as longe as I am in soch fearfulnesse, I can make no answere. A natural picture of the state of a penitent soul, which needs no additional coloring.

[¶2] On the names of the constellations mentioned [Job 9:9], and again [Job 38:31], etc., much has been written, and to little effect. I have already, in the notes, expressed my doubts whether any constellation be intended. Dr. Hales, however, finds in these names, as he thinks, astronomical data, by which he ascertains the time of Job. I shall give his words: - "The cardinal constellations of spring and autumn, in Job's time, were Chimah, and Chesil or Taurus, and Scorpio; noticed [Job 9:9], and again, [Job 38:31], [Job 38:32]; of which the principal stars are, Aldebaran, the bull's eye, and Antares, the scorpion's heart. Knowing, therefore, the longitudes of these stars, at present, the interval of time from thence to the assumed date of Job's trial will give the difference of the longitudes; and ascertain their positions then, with respect to the vernal and autumnal points of intersection of the equinoctial and ecliptic; according to the usual rate of the precession of the equinoxes, one degree in 71 years. See that article, vol. i. p. 185. "The following calculations I owe to the kindness and skill of the respectable Dr. Brinkley, Andrew's Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin. "In a.d. 1800 Aldebaran was in 2 signs, 7 degrees, east longitude. But since the date of Job's trial, b.c. 2338, i.e., 4138 years, the precession of the equinoxes amounted to 1 sign, 27 degrees, 53 minutes; which, being subtracted from the former quantity, left Aldebaran in only 9 degrees, 7 minutes longitude, or distance from the vernal intersection; which, falling within the constellation Taurus, consequently rendered it the cardinal constellation of spring, as Pisces is at present. "In a.d. 1800 Antares was in 8 signs, 6 degrees, 58 minutes, east longitude; or 2 signs, 6 degrees, 58 minutes, east of the autumnal intersection: from which subtracting as before the amount of the precession, Antares was left only 9 degrees, 5 minutes east. Since then, the autumnal equinox was found within Scorpio, this was the cardinal constellation of autumn, as Virgo is at present. "Such a combination and coincidence of various rays of evidence, derived from widely different sources, history, sacred and profane, chronology, and astronomy, and all converging to the same focus, tend strongly to establish the time of Job's trial, as rightly assigned to the year b.c. 2337, or 818 years after the deluge, 184 years before the birth of Abram; 474 years before the settlement of Jacob's family in Egypt; and 689 years before their exode or departure from thence." New Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii., p. 57.

[¶3] Now all this is specious; and, were the foundation sound, we might rely on the permanence of the building, though the rains should descend, the floods come, and the winds blow and beat on that house. But all these deductions and conclusions are founded on the assumption that Chimah and Chesil mean Taurus and Scorpio: but this is the very point that is to be proved; for proof of this is not offered, nor, indeed, can be offered; and such assumptions are palpably nugatory. That עש ash has been generally understood to signify the Great Bear; כסיל Kesil, Orion; and כימה Kimah, the Pleiades; may be seen everywhere: but that they do signify these constellations is perfectly uncertain. We have only conjectures concerning their meaning; and on such conjectures no system can be built. Genuine data, in Dr. Hales's hands, are sure to be conducted to legitimate conclusions: but neither he nor any one else can construct an astronomical fabric in the limbus of conjecture. When Job lived is perfectly uncertain: but that this book was written 818 years after the deluge; 184 years before the birth of Abram, and 689 years before the exodus; and that all this is demonstrable from Chimah and Chesil signifying Taurus and Scorpio, whence the positions of the equinoxes at the time of Job's trial can be ascertained; can never be proved, and should never be credited. In what many learned men have written on this subject, I find as much solidity and satisfaction as from what is piously and gravely stated in the Glossa Ordinaria: -

[¶4] Qui facit Arcturum. Diversae sunt constellationes, varios status ecclesiae signantes. Per Arcturum, qui semper super orizontem nostrum apparet, significatur status apostolorum qui in episcopis remanet. Per Oriona, qui est tempestatis signum, significatur status martyrum. Per Hyadas, quae significant pluvios, status doctorum doctrinae pluvium effundentium. Per interiora austri, quae sunt nobis occulta, status Anachoretarum, hominum aspectus declinantium. "These different constellations signify various states of the Church. By Arcturus, which always appears above our horizon, is signified the apostolic state, which still remains in episcopacy. By Orion, which is a tempestuous sign, is signified the state of the martyrs. By the Hyades, (kids), which indicate rain, the state of the doctors, pouring out the rain of doctrine, is signified. And by the inner chambers of the south, which are hidden from us, the state of the Anchorets (hermits) is signified, who always shun the sight of men."

[¶5] Much more of the same allegorical matter may be found in the same place, the Glossa Ordinaria of Strabus of Fulda, on the ninth chapter of Job. But how unreal and empty are all these things! What an uncertain sound do such trumpets give!

### Introduction

[¶7] Job is weary of life, and expostulates with God, [Job 10:1-6]. He appeals to God for his innocence; and pleads on the weakness of his frame, and the manner of his formation, [Job 10:7-13]. Complains of his sufferings, and prays for respite, [Job 10:14-20]. Describes the state of the dead, [Job 10:21], [Job 10:22].

### Verse 1

[¶9] My soul is weary of my life - Here is a proof that נפש nephesh does not signify the animal life, but the soul or immortal mind, as distinguished from חי chai, that animal life; and is a strong proof that Job believed in the distinction between these two principles; was no materialist; but, on the contrary, credited the proper immortality of the soul. This is worthy of observation. See [Job 12:10].

[¶10] I will leave my complaint - I still charge myself with the cause of my own calamities; and shall not charge my Maker foolishly: but I must deplore my wretched and forlorn state.

### Verse 2

[¶12] Do not condemn me - Let me not be afflicted in thy wrath.

[¶13] Show me wherefore thou contendest - If I am afflicted because of my sins, show me what that sin is. God never afflicts but for past sin, or to try his followers; or for the greater manifestation of his grace in their support and deliverance.

### Verse 3

[¶15] Is it good unto thee - Surely it can be no gratification to thee to distress the children of men, as if thou didst despise the work of thy own hands.

[¶16] And shine upon the counsel - For by my afflictions the harsh judgments of the wicked will appear to be confirmed: viz., that God regards not his most fervent worshippers; and it is no benefit to lead a religious life.

### Verse 4

[¶18] Hast thou eyes of flesh! - Dost thou judge as man judges?

[¶19] Illustrated by the next clause, Seest thou as man seeth?

### Verse 5

[¶21] Are thy days as the days of man - אנוש enosh, wretched, miserable man. Thy years as man's days; גבר gaber, the strong man. Thou art not short-lived, like man in his present imperfect state; nor can the years of the long-lived patriarchs be compared with thine. The difference of the phraseology in the original justifies this view of the subject. Man in his low estate cannot be likened unto thee; nor can he in his greatest excellence, though made in thy own image and likeness, be compared to thee.

### Verse 6

[¶23] That thou inquirest - Is it becoming thy infinite dignity to concern thyself so much with the affairs or transgressions of a despicable mortal? A word spoken in the heart of most sinners.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Thou knowest that I am not wicked - While thou hast this knowledge of me and my conduct, why appear to be sifting me as if in order to find out sin; and though none can be found, treating me as though I were a transgressor?

### Verse 8

[¶27] Thine hands have made me - Thou art well acquainted with human nature, for thou art its author.

[¶28] And fashioned me together round about - All my powers and faculties have been planned and executed by thyself. It is thou who hast refined the materials out of which I have been formed, and modified them into that excellent symmetry and order in which they are now found; so that the union and harmony of the different parts, (יחד yachad), and their arrangement and completion, (סביב sabib), proclaim equally thy wisdom, skill, power, and goodness.

[¶29] Yet thou dost destroy me - ותבלעני vatteballeeni, "and thou wilt swallow me up." Men generally care for and prize those works on which they have spent most time, skill, and pains: but, although thou hast formed me with such incredible skill and labor, yet thou art about to destroy me! How dreadful an evil must sin be, when, on its account, God has pronounced the sentence of death on all mankind; and that body, so curiously and skilfully formed, must be decomposed, and reduced to dust!

### Verse 9

[¶31] Thou hast made me as the clay - Thou hast fashioned me, according to thy own mind, out of a mass of clay: after so much skill and pains expended, men might naturally suppose they were to have a permanent being; but thou hast decreed to turn them into dust!

### Verse 10

[¶33] Hast thou not poured me out as milk - After all that some learned men have said on this subject, in order to confine the images here to simple nutrition, I am satisfied that generation is the true notion. Respicit ad fetus in matris utero primam formationem, quum in embryonem ex utriusque parentis semine coalescit - Ex semine liquido, lac quodammodo referente, me formasti - In interpretando, inquit Hieronymus, omnino his accedo qui de genitali semine accipiunt, quod ipsa tanquam natura emulget, ac dein concrescere in utero ad coalescere jubet. I make no apology for leaving this untranslated. The different expressions in this and the following verse are very appropriate: the pouring out like milk-coagulating, clothing with skin and flesh, fencing with bones and sinews, are well imagined, and delicately, and at the same time forcibly, expressed. If I believed that Job referred to nutrition, which I do not, I might speak of the chyle, the chylopoietic organs, the lacteal vessels, and the generation of all the solids and fluids from this substance, which itself is derived from the food taken into the stomach. But this process, properly speaking, does not take place till the human being is brought into the world, it being previously nourished by the mother by means of the funis umbilicus, without that action of the stomach by which the chyle is prepared.

### Verse 12

[¶35] Thou hast granted me life and favorer - Thou hast brought me from my mother's womb; given me an actual existence among men; by thy favor or mercy thou hast provided me with the means of life; and thy visitation - thy continual providential care, has preserved me in life - has given me the air I breathe, and furnished me with those powers which enable me to respire it as an agent and preserver of life. It is by God's continued visitation or influence that the life of any man is preserved; in him we live, move, and have our being.

### Verse 13

[¶37] And these things hast thou hid in thine heart - Thou hast had many gracious purposes concerning me which thou hast not made known; but thy visitations and mercy are sufficient proofs of kindness towards me; though for purposes unknown to me thou hast sorely afflicted me, and continuest to treat me as an enemy.

### Verse 14

[¶39] If I sin - From thee nothing can be hidden; if I sin, thou takest account of the transgression, and canst not hold me for innocent when thou knowest I am guilty.

### Verse 15

[¶41] If I be wicked - I must meet with that punishment that is due to the workers of iniquity.

[¶42] If I be righteous - I am only in the state which my duty to my Creator requires me to be in; and I cannot therefore suppose that on this account I can deserve any thing by way of favor from the justice of my Maker.

[¶43] I am full of confusion - I am confounded at my state and circumstances. I know that thou art merciful, and dost not afflict willingly the children of men; I know I have not wickedly departed from thee; and yet I am treated by thee as if I were an apostate from every good. I am therefore full of confusion. See thou to my affliction; and bring me out of it in such a way as shall at once prove my innocence, the righteousness of thy ways, and the mercy of thy nature.

### Verse 16

[¶45] For it increaseth - Probably this refers to the affliction mentioned above, which is increased in proportion to its duration. Every day made his escape from such a load of evils less and less probable.

## 490. Job · 17 of 73

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[¶0] Thou huntest me as a fierce lion - As the hunters attack the king of beasts in the forest, so my friends attack me. They assail me on every side.

[¶1] Thou showest thyself marvelous - Thy designs, thy ways, thy works, are all incomprehensible to me; thou dost both confound and overpower me. Mr. Good translates thus: - "For uprousing as a ravenous lion dost thou spring upon me.

[¶2] And again thou showest over me thy vast power."

### Verse 17

[¶4] Thou renewest thy witnesses - In this speech of Job he is ever referring to trials in courts of judicature, and almost all his terms are forensic. Thou bringest witnesses in continual succession to confound and convict me.

[¶5] Changes and war - I am as if attacked by successive troops; one company being wearied, another succeeds to the attack, so that I am harassed by continual warfare.

### Verse 18

[¶7] Wherefore then - Why didst thou give me a being, when thou didst foresee I should be exposed to such incredible hardships? See on [Job 3:10] (note), etc.

### Verse 19

[¶9] I should have been as though - Had I given up the ghost as soon as born, as I could not then have been conscious of existence, it would have been, as it respects myself, as though I had never been; being immediately transported from my mother's womb to the grave.

### Verse 20

[¶11] Are not my days few? - My life cannot be long; let me have a little respite before I die.

### Verse 21

[¶13] I shall not return - I shall not return again from the dust to have a dwelling among men.

[¶14] To the land of darkness - See the notes on [Job 3:5]. There are here a crowd of obscure and dislocated terms, admirably expressive of the obscurity and uncertainty of the subject. What do we know of the state of separate spirits? What do we know of the spiritual world? How do souls exist separate from their respective bodies? Of what are they capable and what is their employment? Who can answer these questions? Perhaps nothing can be said much better of the state than is here said, a land of obscurity, like darkness. The shadow of death - A place where death rules, over which he projects his shadow, intercepting every light of every kind of life. Without any order, ולא סדרים velo sedarim, having no arrangements, no distinctions of inhabitants; the poor and the rich are there, the master and his slave, the king and the beggar, their bodies in equal corruption and disgrace, their souls distinguished only by their moral character. Stripped of their flesh, they stand in their naked simplicity before God in that place.

### Verse 22

[¶16] Where the light is as darkness - A palpable obscure: it is space and place, and has only such light or capability of distinction as renders "darkness visible." The following words of Sophocles convey the same idea: Ιω σκοτος εμοι φαος; "Thou darkness be my light." It is, as the Vulgate expresses it, Terra tenebrosa, et operta mortis caligine: Terra miseriae et tenebrarum, ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat: "A murky land, covered with the thick darkness of death: a land of wretchedness and obscurities, where is the shadow of death, and no order, but sempiternal horror dwells everywhere." Or, as Coverdale expresses this last clause, Wheras is no ordre but terrible feare as in the darknesse. A duration not characterized or measured by any of the attributes of time; where there is no order of darkness and light, night and day, heat and cold, summer and winter. It is the state of the dead! The place of separate spirits! It is out of time, out of probation, beyond change or mutability. It is on the confines of eternity! But what is This? and where? Eternity! how can I form any conception of thee? In thee there is no order, no bounds, no substance, no progression, no change, no past, no present, no future! Thou art an indescribable something, to which there is no analogy in the compass of creation. Thou art infinity and incomprehensibility to all finite beings. Thou art what, living, I know not, and what I must die to know; and even then I shall apprehend no more of thee than merely that thou art E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y!

### Introduction

[¶18] Zophar answers Job, and reproves him severely for his attempts to justify himself; charges him with secret iniquity, and contends that God inflicts less punishment on him than his iniquities deserve, [Job 11:1-6]. Shows the knowledge and perfections of God to be unsearchable, and that none can resist his power, [Job 11:7-11]. Warns him against vanity of mind, and exhorts him to repentance on the ground that his acceptance with God is still a possible case, and that his latter days may yet become happy and prosperous, [Job 11:12-20].

### Verse 1

[¶20] Zophar the Naamathite - Of this man and his friends, see [Job 2:11]. He is the most inveterate of Job's accusers, and generally speaks without feeling or pity. In sour godliness he excelled all the rest. This chapter and the twentieth comprehends all that he said. He was too crooked to speak much in measured verse.

### Verse 2

[¶22] Should not the multitude of words be answered? - Some translate, "To multiply words profiteth nothing."

[¶23] And should a man full of talk be justified - איש שפתים ish sephathayim, "a man of lips," a proper appellation for a great talker: he is "a man of lips," i.e., his lips are the only active parts of his system.

### Verse 3

[¶25] Should thy lies make men hold their peace? - This is a very severe reproof, and not justified by the occasion.

[¶26] And when thou mockest - As thou despisest others, shall no man put thee to scorn? Zophar could never think that the solemn and awful manner in which Job spoke could be called bubbling, as some would translate the term לעג laag. He might consider Job's speech as sarcastic and severe, but he could not consider it as nonsense.

### Verse 4

[¶28] My doctrine is pure - לקחי likchi, "my assumptions." What I assume or take as right, and just, and true, are so; the precepts which I have formed, and the practice which I have founded on them, are all correct and perfect. Job had not exactly said, My doctrine and way of life are pure, and I am clean in thine eyes; but he had vindicated himself from their charges of secret sins and hypocrisy, and appealed to God for his general uprightness and sincerity: but Zophar here begs the question, in order that he may have something to say, and room to give vent to his invective.

### Verse 5

[¶30] But O that God would speak - How little feeling, humanity, and charity is there in this prayer!

### Verse 6

[¶32] The secrets of wisdom - All the depths of his own counsels; the heights, lengths, and breadths, of holiness. That they are double to that which is, תושיה tushiyah, which we translate that which is, is a word frequent in Job and in the Book of Proverbs, and is one of the evidences brought in favor of Solomon as the author of this book. It signifies substance or essence, and is translated by a great variety of terms; enterprise, completeness, substance, the whole constitution, wisdom, law, sound wisdom, solid complete happiness, solidity of reason and truth, the complete total sum, etc., etc. See Taylor's Hebrew and English Concord., under ישה. In this place the versions are various. Coverdale, following the Vulgate, translates: That he might shewe the (out of his secrite wissdome) how manyfolde his lawe is. The Septuagint, ὁτι διπλους εσται των κατα σε, that it is double to what it is with thee. Mr. Good translates, "For they are intricacies to Iniquity." This is a meaning never before given to תושיה tushiyah, and a meaning which even his own learned note will not make generally prevalent. Perhaps Zophar is here, in mind, comparing the wisdom which has been revealed with the wisdom not revealed. The perfection and excellence of the Divine nature and the purity of his law, are, in substance and essence, double or manifold to the revelation already made.

[¶33] Less than thine iniquity deserveth - Mr. Good translates, And the knowledge hath withdrawn from thee because of thy sins; and represents Zophar as praying that God would reveal to him the secrets of wisdom, and the knowledge which he had withdrawn from him because of his transgressions. That Zophar intends to insinuate that God afflicted Job because of his iniquities, is evident; and that he thought that God had inflicted less chastisement upon him than his sins deserved, is not less so; and that, therefore, Job's complaining of harsh treatment was not at all well founded.

### Verse 7

[¶35] Canst thou by searching find out God? - What is God? A Being self-existent, eternal, infinite, immense, without bounds, incomprehensible either by mind, or time, or space. Who then can find this Being out? Who can fathom his depths, ascend to his heights, extend to his breadths, and comprehend the infinitude of his perfections?

### Verse 8

[¶37] It is as high as heaven - High as the heavens, what canst thou work? Deep below sheol, (the invisible world), what canst thou know? Long beyond the earth, and broad beyond the sea, is its measure. These are instances in the immensity of created things, and all out of the reach of human power and knowledge; and if these things are so, how incomprehensible must he be, who designed, created, preserves, and governs the whole!

[¶38] We find the same thought in Milton: - "These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!

[¶39] Almighty! Thine this universal frame:

[¶40] How wondrous fair! Thyself how wondrous then!"

### Verse 10

[¶42] If he cut off - As he is unlimited and almighty, he cannot be controlled. He will do whatsoever he pleases; and he is pleased with nothing but what is right. Who then will dare to find fault? Perhaps Zophar may refer to Job's former state, his losses and afflictions. If he cut off, as he has done, thy children; if he shut up, as he has done, thyself by this sore disease; or gather together hostile bands to invade thy territories and carry away thy property; who can hinder him? He is sovereign, and has a right to dispose of his own property as he pleases.

### Verse 11

[¶44] He knoweth vain men - מתי שוא methey shau, "men of falsehood."

## 491. Job · 18 of 73

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[¶0] He seeth wickedness - He sees as well what is in man, as what man does; and of his actions and propensities he cannot be an indifferent spectator.

### Verse 12

[¶2] For vain man would be wise - The original is difficult and uncertain, ואיש נבוב ילבב veish nabub yillabeb, "And shall the hollow man assume courage," or "pride himself?" Or, as Mr. Good rather paraphrases it, Will he then accept the hollow-hearted person? The Chaldee gives two renderings: An eloquent man shall become wiser in his heart, and the colt of the wild ass is born as the son of man. Or, The wise man shall ponder it; and the refractory youth, who at last becomes prudent, shall make a great man. Coverdale - A vayne body exalteth him self; and the son of man is like a wylde asse's foale. Houbigant translates thus: - A man who hath understanding will become prudent; but he who is as the wild ass hath no heart, i.e., sense. According to this critic, the meaning is this: - A man of sense, should he at any time transgress, will learn wisdom from it; but a man of a brutish mind, uncultivated and unreflecting, will plunge yet deeper into iniquity.

[¶3] Though man be born like a wild ass's colt - Is translated by Mr. Good, Or shall the wild ass colt assume the man? This is making a sense, but such as I fear the original will never allow. There is no end to the translations of this verse, and conjectures relative to its meaning. I shall conclude with the Vulgate - Vir vanus in superbiam erigitur, et tanquam pullum onagri se liberum natum putat, "Vain man is puffed up with pride; and he supposes himself to be born free like the wild ass's colt." Man is full of self-conceit; and imagines himself born to act as he pleases, to roam at large, to be under no control, and to be accountable to none for his actions.

### Verse 13

[¶5] If thou prepare thine heart - Make use of the powers which God has given thee, and be determined to seek him with all thy soul.

[¶6] And stretch out thine hands toward him - Making fervent prayer and supplication, putting away iniquity out of thy hand, and not permitting wickedness to dwell in thy tabernacle; then thou shalt lift up thy face without a blush, thou wilt become established, and have nothing to fear, [Job 11:14], [Job 11:15].

[¶7] There is a sentiment in [Pro 16:1], very similar to that in the [Job 11:13], which we translate very improperly: - לאדם מערכי לב leadam maarchey leb.

[¶8] To man are the preparations of the heart: ומהוה מענה לשון umeyehovah maaneh lashon.

[¶9] But from Jehovah is the answer to the tongue.

[¶10] It is man's duty to pray; it is God's prerogative to answer. Zophar, like all the rest, is true to his principle. Job must be a wicked man, else he had not been afflicted. There must be some iniquity in his hand, and some wickedness tolerated in his family. So they all supposed.

### Verse 16

[¶12] Because thou shalt forget thy misery - Thou shalt have such long and complete rest, that thou shalt scarcely remember thy labor.

[¶13] As waters that pass away - Like as the mountain floods, which sweep every thing before them, houses, tents, cattle, and the produce of the field, and are speedily absorbed by the sandy plains over which they run, so shalt thou remember thy sufferings: they were wasting and ruinous for the time, but were soon over and gone.

### Verse 17

[¶15] Thine age shall be clearer than the noonday - The rest of thy life shall be unclouded prosperity.

[¶16] Thou shalt shine forth - Thou shalt be in this unclouded state, as the sun in the firmament of heaven, giving light and heat to all around thee.

[¶17] Thou shalt be as the morning - Thus the sun of thy prosperity shall arise, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. This is the image which the sacred writer employs, and it is correct and elegant.

### Verse 18

[¶19] And thou shalt be secure - Thou shalt not fear any farther evils to disturb thy prosperity, for thou shalt have a well-grounded hope and confidence that thou shalt no more be visited by adversity.

[¶20] Yea, thou shalt dig - I believe this neither refers to digging his grave, nor to curiously investigating surrounding circumstances; but to the custom of digging for water in the places where they pitched their tents. It was a matter of high importance in Asiatic countries to find good wells of wholesome water; and they were frequently causes of contention among neighboring chiefs, who sometimes stopped them up, and at other times seized them as their own. Through envy of Isaac's prosperity the Philistines stopped up all the wells which Abraham had digged, [Gen 26:12-16]. And we find the herdsmen of Gerar contending with Isaac's servants about the wells which the latter had digged; so that they were obliged to abandon two of the chief of them, and remove to a distance in order to dig and find quiet possession. See [Gen 31:17-22]. Zophar, in reference to all these sorts of contentions and petty wars about wells and springs, tells Job that in the state of prosperity to which he shall be brought by the good providence of God, he shall dig - find wells of living water; none shall contend with him; and he shall rest in safety, all the neighboring chieftains cultivating friendship with him; see on [Job 5:23] (note), [Job 5:24] (note); and that this is the meaning of the passage the following verse shows: Thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee. Thou shalt be in perfect security; no enemy shall molest thee, and many shall seek thy friendship.

### Verse 20

[¶22] The eyes of the wicked shall fail - They shall be continually looking out for help and deliverance; but their expectation shall be cut off.

[¶23] And they shall not escape - They shall receive the punishment due to their deserts; for God has his eye continually upon them. מנהם ומנוס אבד umanos abad minnehem, literally, "And escape perishes from them." Flight from impending destruction is impossible.

[¶24] And their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost - ותקותם מפח נפש vethikratham mappach naphesh, "And their hope an exhalation of breath," or a mere wish of the mind. They retain their hope to the last; and the last breath they breathe is the final and eternal termination of their hope. They give up their hope and their ghost together; for a vain hope cannot enter into that place where shadow and representation exist not; all being substance and reality. And thus endeth Zophar the Naamathite; whose premises were in general good, his conclusions legitimate, but his application of them to Job's case totally erroneous; because he still proceeded on the ground that Job was a wicked man, if not ostensibly, yet secretly; and that the sufferings he was undergoing were the means by which God was unmasking him to the view of men. But, allowing that Job had been a bad man, the exhortations of Zophar were well calculated to enforce repentance and excite confidence in the Divine mercy. Zophar seems to have had a full conviction of the all-governing providence of God; and that those who served him with an honest and upright heart would be ever distinguished in the distribution of temporal good. He seems however to think that rewards and punishments were distributed in this life, and does not refer, at least very evidently, to a future state. Probably his information on subjects of divinity did not extend much beyond the grave; and we have much cause to thank God for a clearer dispensation. Deus nobis haec otia fecit. God grant that we may make a good use of it!

### Introduction

[¶26] Job reproves the boasting of his friends, and shows their uncharitableness towards himself, [Job 12:1-5]; asserts that even the tabernacles of robbers prosper; and that, notwithstanding, God is the Governor of the world; a truth which is proclaimed by all parts of the creation whether animate or inanimate, and by the revolutions which take place in states, vv. 6-25.

### Verse 2

[¶28] No doubt but ye are the people - Doubtless ye are the wisest men in the world; all wisdom is concentrated in you; and when ye die, there will no more be found on the face of the earth! This is a strong irony.

### Verse 3

[¶30] I am not inferior to you - I do not fall short of any of you in understanding, wisdom, learning, and experience.

[¶31] Who knoweth not such things as these? - All your boasted wisdom consists only in strings of proverbs which are in every person's mouth, and are no proof of wisdom and experience in them that use them.

### Verse 4

[¶33] I am as one mocked of his neighbor - Though I am invoking God for help and salvation, yet my friends mock me in this most solemn and sacred work. But God answereth me.

[¶34] The just upright man is laughed to scorn - This is a very difficult verse, on which no two critics seem to be agreed. Mr. Good translates the fourth and fifth verses thus: - "Thus brother is become a laughing-stock to his companions,

[¶35] While calling upon God that he would succor him.

[¶36] The just, the perfect man, is a laughing-stock to the proud,

[¶37] A derision amidst the sunshine of the prosperous,

[¶38] While ready to slip with his foot.

[¶39] For a vindication of this version, I must refer to his notes. Coverdale gives at least a good sense. Thus he that calleth upon God, and whom God heareth, is mocked of his neighboure: the godly and innocent man is laughed to scorne. Godlynesse is a light despysed in the hertes of the rich; and is set for them to stomble upon. The fifth verse is thus rendered by Mr. Parkhurst: "A torch of contempt, or contemptible link, (see [Isa 7:4]; [Isa 40:2], [Isa 40:3]), לעשתות leashtoth, to the splendours of the prosperous (is he who is) ready (נכון nachon, [Job 15:23]; [Job 18:12]; [Psa 38:17]) to slip with his foot." The general sense is tolerably plain; but to emendations and conjectures there is no end.

### Verse 6

[¶41] The tabernacles of robbers prosper - Those who live by the plunder of their neighbors are often found in great secular prosperity; and they that provoke God by impiety and blasphemy live in a state of security and affluence. These are administrations of Providence which cannot be accounted for; yet the Judge of all the earth does right. Therefore prosperity and adversity are no evidences of a man's spiritual state, nor of the place he holds in the approbation or disapprobation of God.

### Verse 7

[¶43] But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee - Mr. Good's paraphrase here is very just: "Why tell ye me that the Almighty hath brought this calamity upon me? Every thing in nature, the beasts of the field, the fowls of the heaven, every inhabitant of earth and sea, and every thing that befalls them, are the work of his hands; and every thing feels and acknowledges him to be the universal Creator and Controller. It is the common doctrine of all nature; but to apply it as ye would apply it to me, and to assert that I am suffering from being guilty of hypocrisy, is equally impertinent. He ordains every thing in wisdom as well as in power; but why events happen as they happen, why good and evil are promiscuously scattered throughout nature or human life, ye are as ignorant of as myself."

## 492. Job · 19 of 73

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### Verse 10

[¶1] In whose hand is the soul of every living thing - נפש כל חי nephesh col chai, "the soul of all life."

[¶2] And the breath of all mankind - ורוח כל בשר veruach col besar, "and the spirit or breath of all flesh." Does not the first refer to the immortal soul, the principle of all intellectual life; and the latter to the breath, respiration, the grand means by which animal existence is continued? See [Job 10:1].

### Verse 11

[¶4] Doth not the ear try words? - All these are common-place sayings. Ye have advanced nothing new; ye have cast no light upon the dispensations of Providence.

### Verse 12

[¶6] With the ancient is wisdom - Men who have lived in those primitive times, when the great facts of nature were recent, such as the creation, fall, flood, confusion of tongues, migration of families, and consequent settlement of nations, had much knowledge from those facts; and their length of days - the many hundreds of years to which they lived, gave them such an opportunity of accumulating wisdom by experience, that they are deservedly considered as oracles.

### Verse 13

[¶8] With him is wisdom and strength - But all these things come from God; he is the Fountain of wisdom and the Source of power. He alone can give us unerring counsel, and understanding to comprehend and act profitably by it. See on [Job 12:16] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶10] He breaketh down - He alone can create, and he alone can destroy. Nothing can be annihilated but by the same Power that created it. This is a most remarkable fact. No power, skill, or cunning of man can annihilate the smallest particle of matter. Man, by chemical agency, may change its form; but to reduce it to nothing belongs to God alone. In the course of his providence God breaks down, so that it cannot be built up again. See proofs of this in the total political destruction of Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Tyre, and other cities, which have broken down never to be rebuilt; as well as the Assyrian, Babylonian, Grecian, and Roman empires, which have been dismembered and almost annihilated, never more to be regenerated.

[¶11] He shutteth up a man - He often frustrates the best laid purposes, so that they can never be brought to good effect.

### Verse 15

[¶13] He withholdeth the waters - This is, I think, an allusion to the third day's work of the creation, [Gen 1:9] : And God said, Let the waters be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. Thus the earth was drained, and the waters collected into seas, and bound to their particular places.

[¶14] Also he sendeth them out - Here is also an allusion to the flood, for when he broke up the fountains of the great deep, then the earth was overturned.

### Verse 16

[¶16] With him is strength and wisdom - עז ותושיה oz vethushiyah, strength and sufficiency. Strength or power, springing from an exhaustless and infinite source of potency. In the thirteenth verse it is said, With him is wisdom and strength; but the expressions are not the same, חכמה וגבורה chochmah ugeburah, intelligence and fortitude, or strength in action, the wisdom ever guiding the exertions of power; but here is strength or power in essence, and an eternal potentiality. With him is every excellence, in potentia and in esse. He borrows nothing, he derives nothing. As he is self-existent, so is he self-sufficient. We have had the word tushiyah before. See the note on [Job 11:6].

[¶17] The deceived and the deceiver are his - Some think this refers to the fall; even Satan the deceiver or beguiler, and Adam and Eve, the deceived or beguiled, are his. Satan, as this book shows, cannot act without especial permission; and man, whom the seducer thought to make his own property for ever, is claimed as the peculium or especial property of God, for the seed of the woman was then appointed to bruise the head of the serpent; and Jesus Christ has assumed the nature of man, and thus brought human nature into a state of fellowship with himself. Thus he who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren; [Heb 2:11].

### Verse 17

[¶19] He leadeth counsellors away spoiled - The events of war are also in his hand. It is he who gives victory; through him even the counsellors - the great men and chief men, are often led into captivity, and found among the spoils.

[¶20] And maketh the judges fools - He infatuates the judges. Does this refer to the foolish conduct of some of the Israelitish judges, such as Samson?

### Verse 18

[¶22] He looseth the bond of kings - He takes away their splendid robes, and clothes them with sackcloth; or, he dissolves their authority, permits their subjects to rebel and overthrow the state, to bind them as captives, and despoil them of all power, authority, and liberty. Many proofs of this occur in the Israelitish history and in the history of the principal nations of the earth, and not a few in the history of Britain.

### Verse 19

[¶24] He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty - What multitudes of proofs of this does the history of the world present! Even the late disastrous war with the French republic and empire, which began in 1793, and continued without intermission till 1814, was afterwards renewed, and had a catastrophe that went nearly to ruin Europe. How many princes, or rather priests, כהנים cohanim, have been spoiled of their power, influence, and authority; and how many mighty men - captains, generals, admirals, etc., have been overthrown! But supposing that the writer of the Book of Job lived, as some think, after the captivity, how many priests were led away spoiled, both from Israel and Judah; and how many kings and mighty men were overthrown in the disastrous wars between the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Jews!

### Verse 20

[¶26] He removeth away the speech of the trusty - The faithful counsellor and the eloquent orator avail nothing: Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat; "God infatuates those whom he is determined to destroy." The writer might have had his eyes on [Isa 3:1-3], which the reader will do well to consult.

[¶27] The understanding of the aged - זקנים zekenim signifies the same here as our word elders or elder-men; which includes in itself the two ideas of seniority, or considerably advanced age, and official authority. These can do no more to save a state which God designs to destroy, notwithstanding their great political wisdom and knowledge, than the child who can neither reason nor speak.

### Verse 21

[¶29] He poureth contempt upon princes - נדיבים nedibim, "those of royal extraction;" widely different from the כהנים cohanim mentioned [Job 12:19].

[¶30] Weakeneth the strength of the mighty - אפיקים aphikim, the compact; the well-strung together; the nervous and sinewy. Perhaps there is a reference here to the crocodile, as the same term is applied, [Job 40:13], to the compactness of his bones: and as רפה מזיח rippah meziach, which we translate weakeneth the strength, signifies more properly looseth the girdle, as the margin has properly rendered it, the reference seems still more pointed; for it is known that "the crocodile, from the shoulders to the extremity of the tail, is covered with large square scales, disposed like parallel girdles, fifty-two in number. In the middle of each girdle are four protuberances, which become higher as they approach the end of the tail, and compose four rows." See the quotation in Parkhurst, under the word אפק drow eh aphak. What is human strength against this? We may say as the Lord said, [Job 40:19] : He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. He alone can loose the girdles of this mighty one.

### Verse 22

[¶32] He discovereth deep things out of darkness - This may refer either to God's works in the great deep, or to the plots and stratagems of wicked men, conspiracies that were deeply laid, well digested, and about to be produced into existence, when death, whose shadow had hitherto concealed them, is to glut himself with carnage.

### Verse 23

[¶34] He increaseth the nations - Mr. Good translates, He letteth the nations grow licentious. Pride, fullness of bread, with extensive trade and commerce, produce luxury; and this is ever accompanied with profligacy of manners. When, then, the cup of this iniquity is full, God destroys the nation, by bringing or permitting to come against it a nation less pampered, more necessitous, and inured to toil.

[¶35] He enlargeth the nations - Often permits a nation to acquire an accession of territory, and afterwards shuts them up within their ancient boundaries, and often contracts even those. All these things seem to occur as natural events, and the consequences of state intrigues, and such like causes; but when Divine inspiration comes to pronounce upon them, they are shown to be the consequence of God's acting in his judgment and mercy; for it is by him that kings reign; it is he who putteth down one and raiseth up another.

### Verse 24

[¶37] He taketh away the heart of the chief - Suddenly deprives the leaders of great counsels, or mighty armies of courage; so that, panic-struck, they flee when none pursueth, or are confounded when about to enter on the accomplishment of important designs.

[¶38] And causeth them to wander in a wilderness - A plain allusion to the journeyings of the Israelites in the deserts of Arabia, on their way to the promised land. Their chief, Aaron, had his courage all taken away by the clamors of the people; and so made them a molten calf to be the object of their worship, which defection from God was the cause of their wandering nearly forty years in the trackless wilderness. The reference is so marked, that it scarcely admits of a doubt; yet Houbigant and some others have called it in question, and suppose that those chiefs or heads of families which led out colonies into distant parts are principally intended. It answers too well to the case of the Israelites in the wilderness to admit of any other interpretation.

### Verse 25

[¶40] They grope in the dark - The writer seems to have had his eye on those words of Moses, [Deu 28:28], [Deu 28:29] : The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; and thou shalt Grope At Noonday, as the Blind Gropeth In Darkness. And this also may refer to the unaccountable errors, transgressions, and judicial blindness of the Israelites in their journeying to the promised land: but it will apply also to the state of wicked nations under judicial blindness. The writer is principally indebted for his imagery, and indeed for the chief expressions used here, to [Psa 107:27] : They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. [Psa 107:39], [Psa 107:40] : Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. He Poureth Contempt Upon Princes, and Causeth Them To Wonder In The Wilderness, where there is No Way. Mr. Good has some judicious reflections on this chapter, particularly on [Job 12:13-22] : "It should be observed," says he, "that the entire passage has a reference to the machinery of a regular and political government; and that its general drift is to imprint on the mind of the hearer the important doctrine that the whole of the constituent principles of such a government, its officers and institutions; its monarchs and princes; its privy-counselors, judges, and ministers of state; its chieftains, public orators, and assembly of elders; its nobles, or men of hereditary rank; and its stout robust peasantry, as we should express it in the present day; nay, the deep designing villains that plot in secret its destruction; - that the nations themselves, and the heads or sovereigns of the nations, are all and equally in the hands of the Almighty: that with him human pomp is poverty; human excellence, turpitude; human judgment, error; human wisdom, folly; human dignity, contempt; human strength, weakness."

### Introduction

[¶42] Job defends himself against the accusations of his friends, and accuses them of endeavoring to pervert truth, [Job 13:1-8]. Threatens them with God's judgments, [Job 13:9-12]. Begs some respite, and expresses strong confidence in God, [Job 13:13-19]. He pleads with God, and deplores his severe trials and sufferings, [Job 13:20-28].

### Verse 1

[¶44] Lo, mine eye hath seen all this - Ye have brought nothing new to me; I know those maxims as well as you: nor have you any knowledge of which I am not possessed.

## 493. Job · 20 of 73

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### Verse 3

[¶1] Surely I would speak to the Almighty - אולם ulam, O that: - I wish I could speak to the Almighty!

[¶2] I desire to reason with God - He speaks here to reference to the proceedings in a court of justice. Ye pretend to be advocates for God, but ye are forgers of lies: O that God himself would appear! Before him I could soon prove my innocence of the evils with which ye charge me.

### Verse 4

[¶4] Ye are forgers of lies - Ye frame deceitful arguments: ye reason sophistically, and pervert truth and justice, in order to support your cause.

[¶5] Physicians of no value - Ye are as feeble in your reasonings as ye are inefficient in your skill. Ye can neither heal the wound of my mind, nor the disease of my body. In ancient times every wise man professed skill in the healing art, and probably Job's friends had tried their skill on his body as well as on his mind. He therefore had, in his argument against their teaching, a double advantage: Your skill in divinity and physic is equal: in the former ye are forgers of lies; in the latter, ye are good-for-nothing physicians. I can see no reason to depart from the general meaning of the original to which the ancient versions adhere. The Chaldee says: "Ye are idle physicians; and, like the mortified flesh which is cut off with the knife, so are the whole of you." The imagery in the former clause is chirurpical, and refers to the sewing together, or connecting the divided sides of wounds; for טפלי topheley, which we translate forgers, comes from טפל taphal, to fasten, tie, connect, sew together. And I question whether טפלי topheley here may not as well express Surgeons, as רפאי ropheey, in the latter clause, Physicians. Ye are Chirurgeons of falsity, and worthless Physicians.

### Verse 5

[¶7] Hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom - In [Pro 17:28] we have the following apophtheym: "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips, a man of understanding." There is no reason to say that Solomon quotes from Job: I have already expressed my opinion that the high antiquity attributed to this book is perfectly unfounded, and that there is much more evidence that Solomon was its author, than there is that it was the composition of Moses. But, whenever Job lived, whether before Abraham or after Moses, the book was not written till the time of Solomon, if not later. But as to the saying in question, it is a general apophthegm, and may be found among the wise sayings of all nations. I may observe here, that a silent man is not likely to be a fool; for a fool will be always prating, or, according to another adage, a fool's bolt is soon shot. The Latins have the same proverb: Vir sapit, qui pauca loquitur, "A wise man speaks little."

### Verse 6

[¶9] Hear now my reasoning - The speeches in this book are conceived as it delivered in a court of justice, different counselors pleading against each other. Hence most of the terms are forensic.

### Verse 7

[¶11] Will ye speak wickedly for God? - In order to support your own cause, in contradiction to the evidence which the whole of my life bears to the uprightness of my heart, will ye continue to assert that God could not thus afflict me, unless flagrant iniquity were found in my ways; for it is on this ground alone that ye pretend to vindicate the providence of God. Thus ye tell lies for God's sake, and thus ye wickedly contend for your Maker.

### Verse 8

[¶13] Will ye accept his person? - Do you think to act by him as you would by a mortal; and, by telling lies in his favor, attempt to conciliate his esteem?

### Verse 9

[¶15] Is it good that he should search you out? - Would it be to your credit if God should try your hearts, and uncover the motives of your conduct? Were you tried as I am, how would you appear?

[¶16] Do ye so mock him? - Do ye think that you can deceive him; and by flattering speeches bring him to your terms, as you would bring an undiscerning, empty mortal, like yourselves?

### Verse 10

[¶18] He will surely reprove you - You may expect, not only his disapprobation, but his hot displeasure.

### Verse 11

[¶20] His dread fall upon you? - The very apprehension of his wrath is sufficient to crush you to nothing.

### Verse 12

[¶22] Your remembrances are like unto ashes - Your memorable sayings are proverbs of dust. This is properly the meaning of the original: זכרניכם משלי אפר zichroneycem mishley epher. This he speaks in reference to the ancient and reputedly wise sayings which they had so copiously quoted against him.

[¶23] Your bodies to bodies of clay - This clause is variously translated: Your swelling heaps are swelling heaps of mire. That is, Your high-flown speeches are dark, involved, and incoherent; they are all sound, no sense; great swelling words, either of difficult or no meaning, or of no point as applicable to my case.

### Verse 13

[¶25] Hold your peace - You have perverted righteousness and truth, and your pleadings are totally irrelevant to the case; you have traveled out of the road; you have left law and justice behind you; it is high time that you should have done.

[¶26] Let come on me what will - I will now defend myself against you, and leave the cause to its issue.

### Verse 14

[¶28] Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth - A proverbial expression. I risk every thing on the justice of my cause. I put my life in my hand, [1Sam 28:21]. I run all hazards; I am fearless of the consequences.

### Verse 15

[¶30] Though he slay me - I have no dependence but God; I trust in him alone. Should he even destroy my life by this affliction, yet will I hope that when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. In the common printed Hebrew text we have לא איחל lo ayachel, I will Not hope; but the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee have read לו lo, Him, instead of לא lo Not; with twenty-nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and the Complutensian and Antwerp Polyglots. Our translators have followed the best reading. Coverdale renders the verse thus: Lo, there is nether comforte ner hope for me, yf he wil slaye me.

[¶31] But I will maintain mine own ways - I am so conscious of my innocence, that I fear not to defend myself from your aspersions, even in the presence of my Maker.

### Verse 16

[¶33] He also shall be my salvation - He will save me, because I trust in him.

[¶34] A hypocrite - A wicked man shall never be able to stand before him. I am conscious of this, and were I, as you suppose, a secret sinner, I should not dare to make this appeal.

### Verse 18

[¶36] Behold now, I have ordered - I am now ready to come into court, and care not how many I have to contend with, provided they speak truth.

### Verse 19

[¶38] Who is he that will plead with me? - Let my accuser, the plaintiff, come forward; I will defend my cause against him.

[¶39] I shall give up the ghost - I shall cease to breathe. Defending myself will be as respiration unto me; or, While he is stating his case, I will be so silent as scarcely to appear to breathe.

### Verse 20

[¶41] Only do not two things unto me - These two things are the following:

[¶42] 1. Withdraw thine hand far from me - remove the heavy affliction which thy hand has inflicted.

[¶43] 2. Let not thy dread make me afraid - terrify me not with dreadful displays of thy majesty. The reasons of this request are sufficiently evident:

[¶44] 1. How can a man stand in a court of justice and plead for his life, when under grievous bodily affliction? Withdraw thy hand far from me.

[¶45] 2. Is it to be expected that a man can be sufficiently recollected, and in self-possession, to plead for his life, when he is overwhelmed with the awful appearance of the judge, the splendor of the court, and the various ensigns of justice? Let not thy dread make me afraid.

## 494. Job · 21 of 73

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### Verse 22

[¶1] Then call thou - Begin thou first to plead, and I will answer for myself; or, I will first state and defend my own case, and then answer thou me.

### Verse 23

[¶3] How many are mine iniquities - Job being permitted to begin first, enters immediately upon the subject; and as it was a fact that he was grievously afflicted, and this his friends asserted was in consequence of grievous iniquities, he first desires to have them specified. What are the specific charges in this indictment? To say I must be a sinner to be thus afflicted, is saying nothing; tell me what are the sins, and show me the proofs.

### Verse 24

[¶5] Wherefore hidest thou thy face - Why is it that I no longer enjoy thy approbation?

[¶6] Holdest me for thine enemy? - Treatest me as if I were the vilest of sinners?

### Verse 25

[¶8] Wilt thou break a leaf - Is it becoming thy dignity to concern thyself with a creature so contemptible?

### Verse 26

[¶10] Thou writest bitter things against me - The indictment is filled with bitter or grievous charges, which, if proved, would bring me to bitter punishment.

[¶11] The iniquities of my youth - The Levities and indiscretions of my youth I acknowledge; but is this a ground on which to form charges against a man the integrity of whose life is unimpeachable?

### Verse 27

[¶13] Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks - בסד bassad, "in a clog," such as was tied to the feet of slaves, to prevent them from running away. This is still used in the West Indies, among slave-dealers; and is there called the pudding, being a large collar of iron, locked round the ankle of the unfortunate man. Some have had them twenty pounds' weight; and, having been condemned to carry them for several years, when released could not walk without them! A case of this kind I knew: The slave had learned to walk well with his pudding, but when taken off, if he attempted to walk, he fell down, and was obliged to resume it occasionally, till practice had taught him the proper center of gravity, which had been so materially altered by wearing so large a weight; the badge at once of his oppression, and of the cruelty of his task-masters!

[¶14] And lookest narrowly - Thou hast seen all my goings out and comings in; and there is no step I have taken in life with which thou art unacquainted.

[¶15] Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet - Some understand this as the mark left on the foot by the clog; or the owner's mark indented on this clog; or, Thou hast pursued me as a hound does his game, by the scent.

### Verse 28

[¶17] And he, as a rotten thing - I am like a vessel made of skin; rotten, because of old age, or like a garment corroded by the moth. So the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic understood it. The word he may refer to himself.

### Introduction

[¶19] The shortness, misery, and sinfulness of man's life, [Job 14:1-4]. The unavoidable necessity of death; and the hope of a general resurrection, [Job 14:5-15]. Job deplores his own state, and the general wretchedness of man, [Job 14:16-22].

### Verse 1

[¶21] Man - born of a woman - There is a delicacy in the original, not often observed: אדם ילוד אשה Adam yelud ishah, "Adam born of a woman, few of days, and full of tremor." Adam, who did not spring from woman, but was immediately formed by God, had many days, for he lived nine hundred and thirty years; during which time neither sin nor death had multiplied in the earth, as they were found in the days of Job. But the Adam who springs now from woman, in the way of ordinary generation, has very few years. Seventy, on an average, being the highest term, may be well said to be few in days; and all matter of fact shows that they are full of fears and apprehensions, רגז rogez, cares, anxieties, and tremors. He seems born, not indeed to live, but to die; and, by living, he forfeits the title to life.

### Verse 2

[¶23] He cometh forth like a flower - This is a frequent image both in the Old and New Testament writers; I need not quote the places here, as the readers will find them all in the margin.

[¶24] He fleeth also as a shadow - Himself, as he appears among men, is only the shadow of his real, substantial, and eternal being. He is here compared to a vegetable; he springs up, bears his flower is often nipped by disease, blasted by afflictions and at last cut down by death. The bloom of youth, even in the most prosperous state, is only the forerunner of hoary hairs, enfeebled muscles, impaired senses, general debility, anility, and dissolution. All these images are finely embodied, and happily expressed, in the beautiful lines of a very nervous and correct poet, too little known, but whose compositions deserve the first place among what may be called the minor poets of Britain. See at the end of the chapter, [Job 14:22] (note).

### Verse 3

[¶26] Dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one - The whole of this chapter is directed to God alone; in no part of it does he take any notice of his friends.

### Verse 4

[¶28] Who can bring a clean thing - This verse is thus rendered by the Chaldee: "Who will produce a clean thing from man, who is polluted with sins, except God, who is one?" By Coverdale thus: Who can make it cleane, that commeth of an uncleane thinge? No body. The text refers to man's original and corrupt nature. Every man that is born into the world comes into it in a corrupt or sinful state. This is called original sin; and is derived from fallen Adam, who is the stock, to the utmost ramifications of the human family. Not one human spirit is born into the world without this corruption of nature. All are impure and unholy; and from this principle of depravity all transgression is produced; and from this corruption of nature God alone can save. The Septuagint, in the Codex Alexandrinus, reads the verse thus: Τις γαρ εσται καθαρο· απο ῥυπου; ουδε εἱς, εαν και μιας ἡμερας γενηται ὁ βιος αυτου επι της γης; "Who is pure from corruption? Not one, although he had lived but one day upon the earth."

### Verse 5

[¶30] Seeing his days are determined - The general term of human life is fixed by God himself; in vain are all attempts to prolong it beyond this term. Several attempts have been made in all nations to find an elixir that would expel all the seeds of disease, and keep men in continual health; but all these attempts have failed. Basil, Valentine, Norton, Dastin, Ripley, Sandivogius, Artephius, Geber, Van Helmont, Paracelsus, Philalethes, and several others, both in Europe and Asia, have written copiously on the subject, and have endeavored to prove that a tincture might be produced, by which all imperfect metals may be transmuted into perfect; and an elixir by which the human body may be kept in a state of endless repair and health. And these profess to teach the method by which this tincture and this elixir may be made! Yet all these are dead; and dead, for aught we know, comparatively young! Artephius is, indeed, said to have lived ninety years, which is probable; but some of his foolish disciples, to give credit to their thriftless craft, added another cipher, and made his age nine hundred! Man may endeavor to pass the bound; and God may, here and there, produce a Thomas Parr, who died in 1635, aged one hundred and fifty-two; and a Henry Jenkins, who died in 1670, aged one hundred and sixty-nine; but these are rare instances, and do not affect the general term. Nor can death be avoided. Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, is the law, and that will ever render nugatory all such pretended tinctures and elixirs. But, although man cannot pass his appointed bounds, yet he may so live as never to reach them; for folly and wickedness abridge the term of human life; and therefore the psalmist says, Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out Half their days, [Psa 55:23], for by indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions, the life of man is shortened in cases innumerable. We are not to understand the bounds as applying to individuals, but to the race in general. Perhaps there is no case in which God has determined absolutely that man's age shall be so long, and shall neither be more nor less. The contrary supposition involves innumerable absurdities.

### Verse 6

[¶32] Turn from him, that he may rest - Cease to try him by afflictions and distresses, that he may enjoy some of the comforts of life, before he be removed from it: and thus, like a hireling, who is permitted by his master to take a little repose in the heat of the day, from severe labor, I shall also have a breathing time from affliction, before I come to that bound over which I cannot pass. See [Job 10:20] (note), where there is a similar request.

### Verse 7

[¶34] For there is hope of a tree - We must not, says Calmet, understand this of an old tree, the stem and roots of which are dried up and rotted: but there are some trees which grow from cuttings, and some which, though pulled out of the earth, and having had their roots dried and withered by long exposure to the sun and wind, will, on being replanted, take root and resume their verdure. There are also certain trees, the fibres of which are so solid, that if after several years they be steeped in water, they resume their vigor, the tubes dilate, and the blossoms or flowers which were attached to them expand; as I have often witnessed in what is called the rose of Jericho. There are few trees which will not send forth new shoots, when the stock is cut down level with the earth.

### Verse 9

[¶36] Through the scent of water it will bud - A fine metaphor: the water acts upon the decaying and perishing tree, as strong and powerful odors from musk, otto of roses, ammonia, etc., act on a fainting or swooning person.

### Verse 10

[¶38] But man dieth - No human being ever can spring from the dead body of man; that wasteth away, corrupts, and is dissolved; for the man dies; and when he breathes out his last breath, and his body is reduced to dust, then, where is he? There is a beautiful verse in the Persian poet Khosroo, that is not unlike this saying of Job: - "I went towards the burying ground, and wept

[¶39] To think of the departure of friends which were captives to death;

[¶40] I said, Where are they! and Fate

[¶41] Gave back this answer by Echo, Where are they?

[¶42] Thus paraphrased by a learned friend: -

[¶43] Beneath the cypress' solemn shade,

[¶44] As on surrounding tombs I gazed,

## 495. Job · 22 of 73

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[¶0] I wept, and thought of friends there laid,

[¶1] Whose hearts with warmest love had blazed.

[¶2] Where are those friends my heart doth lack,

[¶3] Whose words, in grief, gave peace? Ah, where?

[¶4] And Fate, by Echo, gave me back

[¶5] This short but just reply, Ah, where?

### Verse 11

[¶7] The waters fail from the sea - I believe this refers to evaporation, and nothing else. As the waters are evaporated from the sea, and the river in passing over the sandy desert is partly exsiccated, and partly absorbed; and yet the waters of the sea are not exhausted, as these vapors, being condensed, fall down in rain, and by means of rivers return again into the sea: so man is imperceptibly removed from his fellows by death and dissolution; yet the human race is still continued, the population of the earth being kept up by perpetual generations.

### Verse 12

[¶9] So man lieth down - He falls asleep in his bed of earth.

[¶10] And riseth not - Men shall not, like cut down trees and plants, reproduce their like; nor shall they arise till the heavens are no more, till the earth and all its works are burnt up, and the general resurrection of human beings shall take place. Surely it would be difficult to twist this passage to the denial of the resurrection of the body. Neither can these expressions be fairly understood as implying Job's belief in the materiality of the soul, and that the whole man sleeps from the day of his death to the morning of the resurrection. We have already seen that Job makes a distinction between the animal life and rational soul in man; and it is most certain that the doctrine of the materiality of the soul, and its sleep till the resurrection, has no place in the sacred records. There is a most beautiful passage to the same purpose, and with the same imagery, in Moschus's epitaph on the death of Bion: - Αι, αι ται μαλαχαι μεν επαν κατα καπον ολωνται, Η τα χλωρα σελινα, το τ' ευθαλες ουλον ανηθον, Ὑστερον αυ ζωοντι, και εις ετος αλλο φυοντι· Αμμες δ', οἱ μεγαλοι, και καρτεροι, η σοφοι ανδρες, Ὁπποτε πρωτα θανωμες, ανακοοι εν χθονι κοιλα Εὑδομες ευ μαλα μακρον, ατερμονα, νηγρετον ὑπνον.

[¶11] Idyll. iii., ver. 100.

[¶12] Alas! alas! the mallows, when they die,

[¶13] Or garden herbs, and sweet Anethum's pride,

[¶14] Blooming in vigor, wake again to life,

[¶15] And flourish beauteous through another year:

[¶16] But we, the great, the mighty, and the wise,

[¶17] When once we die, unknown in earth's dark womb

[¶18] Sleep long and drear, the endless sleep of death.

[¶19] J. B. B. C.

[¶20] A more cold and comfortless philosophy was never invented. The next verse shows that Job did not entertain this view of the subject.

### Verse 13

[¶22] O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave - Dreadful as death is to others, I shall esteem it a high privilege; it will be to me a covert from the wind and from the tempest of this affliction and distress.

[¶23] Keep me secret - Hide my soul with thyself, where my enemies cannot invade my repose; or, as the poet expresses it: - "My spirit hide with saints above,

[¶24] My body in the tomb."

[¶25] Job does not appear to have the same thing in view when he entreats God to hide him in the grave; and to keep him secret, until his wrath be past. The former relates to the body; the latter to the spirit.

[¶26] That thou wouldest appoint me a set time - As he had spoken of the death of his body before, and the secreting of his spirit in the invisible world, he must refer here to the resurrection; for what else can be said to be an object of desire to one whose body is mingled with the dust?

[¶27] And remember me! - When my body has paid that debt of death which it owes to thy Divine justice, and the morning of the resurrection is come, when it may be said thy wrath, אפך appecha, "thy displeasure," against the body is past, it having suffered the sentence denounced by thyself: Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die; then remember me - raise my body, unite my spirit to it, and receive both into thy glory for ever.

### Verse 14

[¶29] If a man die, shall he live again? - The Chaldee translates, If a wicked man die, can he ever live again? or, he can never live again. The Syriac and Arabic thus: "If a man die, shall he revive? Yea, all the days of his youth he awaits till his old age come." The Septuagint: "If a man die, shall he live, having accomplished the days of his life? I will endure till I live again." Here is no doubt, but a strong persuasion, of the certainty of the general resurrection.

[¶30] All the days of my appointed time - צבאי tsebai, "of my warfare;" see on [Job 7:1] (note). Will I await till חליפתי chaliphathi, my renovation, come. This word is used to denote the springing again of grass, [Psa 90:5], [Psa 90:6], after it had once withered, which is in itself a very expressive emblem of the resurrection.

### Verse 15

[¶32] Thou shalt call - Thou shalt say There shall be time no longer: Awake, ye dead! and come to judgment!

[¶33] And I will answer thee - My dissolved frame shall be united at thy call; and body and soul shall be rejoined.

[¶34] Thou wilt have a desire - תכסף tichsoph, "Thou wilt pant with desire;" or, "Thou wilt yearn over the work of thy hands." God has subjected the creature to vanity, in hope; having determined the resurrection. Man is one of the noblest works of God. He has exhibited him as a master-piece of his creative skill, power, and goodness. Nothing less than the strongest call upon justice could have induced him thus to destroy the work of his hands. No wonder that he has an earnest desire towards it; and that although man dies, and is as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again; yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. Even God is represented as earnestly longing for the ultimate reviviscence of the sleeping dust. He cannot, he will not, forget the work of his hands.

### Verse 16

[¶36] For now thou numberest my steps - כי עתה ki attah, Although thou, etc. Though thou, by thy conduct towards me, seemest bent on my utter destruction, yet thou delightest in mercy, and I shall be saved.

### Verse 17

[¶38] My transgression is sealed up in a bag - An allusion to the custom of collecting evidence of state transgressions, sealing them up in a bag, and presenting them to the judges and officers of state to be examined, in order to trial and judgment. Just at this time (July, 1820) charges of state transgressions, sealed up in a Green Bag, and presented to the two houses of parliament, for the examination of a secret committee, are making a considerable noise in the land. Some suppose the allusion is to money sealed up in bags; which is common in the East. This includes two ideas:

[¶39] 1. Job's transgressions were all numbered; not one was passed by.

[¶40] 2. They were sealed up; so that none of them could be lost. These bags were indifferently sewed or sealed, the two words in the text.

### Verse 18

[¶42] The mountain falling cometh to naught - Every thing in nature is exposed to mutability and decay: - even mountains themselves may fall from their bases, and be dashed to pieces; or be suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake; and, by the same means, the strongest and most massive rocks may be removed.

### Verse 19

[¶44] The waters wear the stones - Even the common stones are affected in the same way. Were even earthquakes and violent concussions of nature wanting, the action of water, either running over them as a stream, or even falling upon them in drops, will wear these stones. Hence the proverb: -

## 496. Job · 23 of 73

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[¶0] Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo. "Constant droppings will make a hole in a flint." Εκ θαμινης ραθαμιγγος, ὁκως λογος, αιες ιοισας, Χ' ἁ λιθος ες ρωχμον κοιλαινεται. "From frequent dropping, as the proverb says, perpetually falling, even a stone is hollowed into a hole."

[¶1] Thou washest away the things - Alluding to sudden falls of rain occasioning floods, by which the fruits of the earth are swept away; and thus the hope of man - the grain for his household, and provender for his cattle, is destroyed.

### Verse 20

[¶3] Thou prevailest for ever against him - It is impossible for him to withstand thee: every stroke of thine brings him down.

[¶4] Thou changest his countenance - Probably an allusion to the custom of covering the face, when the person was condemned, and sending him away to execution. See the case of Haman, in the note on Esther, [Est 7:8] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶6] His sons come to honor - When dead, he is equally indifferent and unconscious whether his children have met with a splendid or oppressive lot in life; for as to this world, when man dies, in that day all his thoughts perish.

### Verse 22

[¶8] But his flesh upon him shall have pain - The sum of the life of man is this, pain of body and distress of soul; and he is seldom without the one or the other, and often oppressed by both. Thus ends Job's discourse on the miserable state and condition of man. The last verse of the preceding chapter has been differently translated and explained. Mr.

[¶9] Good's version is the following, which he vindicates in a learned note: -

[¶10] For his flesh shall drop away from him;

[¶11] And his soul shall become a waste from him.

[¶12] The Chaldee thus: "Nevertheless his flesh, on account of the worms, shall grieve over him; and his soul, in the house of judgment, shall wail over him." In another copy of this version it is thus: "Nevertheless his flesh, before the window is closed over him, shall grieve; and his soul, for seven days of mourning, shall bewail him in the house of his burial." I shall give the Hebrew: - אך בשרו עליו יכאב

[¶13] Ach besaro alaiv yichab, ונפשו עליו תאבל

[¶14] Venaphsho alaiv teebal.

[¶15] Which Mr. Stock translates thus, both to the spirit and letter: -

[¶16] But over him his flesh shall grieve;

[¶17] And over him his breath shall mourn. "In the daring spirit of oriental poetry," says he, "the flesh, or body, and the breath, are made conscious beings; the former lamenting its putrefaction in the grave, the latter mourning over the mouldering clay which it once enlivened."

[¶18] This version is, in my opinion, the most natural yet offered. The Syriac and Arabic present nearly the same sense: "But his body shall grieve over him; and his soul be astonished over him."

[¶19] Coverdale follows the Vulgate: Whyle he lyveth his flesh must have travayle; and whyle the soul is in him, he must be in sorowe.

[¶20] On [Job 14:2]. I have referred to the following beautiful lines, which illustrate these finely figurative texts: -

[¶21] He cometh forth as a Flower, and is Cut Down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

[¶22] All flesh is Grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the Flower of the field.

[¶23] The Grass withereth, the Flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

[¶24] The morning flowers display their sweets,And gay their silken leaves unfold;

[¶25] As careless of the noonday heats,As fearless of the evening cold.

[¶26] Nipp'd by the wind's untimely blast,Parch'd by the sun's directer ray,

[¶27] The momentary glories waste,The short-lived beauties die away.

[¶28] So blooms the human face divine,When youth its pride of beauty shows;

[¶29] Fairer than spring the colors shine,And sweeter than the virgin rose.

[¶30] Or worn by slowly-rolling years,Or broke by sickness in a day,

[¶31] The fading glory disappears,The short-lived beauties die away.

[¶32] Yet these, new rising from the tomb,With lustre brighter far shall shine;

[¶33] Revive with ever-during bloom,Safe from diseases and decline.

[¶34] Let sickness blast, let death devour,If heaven must recompense our pains:

[¶35] Perish the grass and fade the flower,If firm the word of God remains.

[¶36] See a Collection of Poems on Sundry Occasions, by the Rev. Samuel Wesley, Master of Blundell's School, Tiverton.

### Introduction

[¶38] Eliphaz charges Job with impiety in attempting to justify himself, [Job 15:1-13]; asserts the utter corruption and abominable state of man, [Job 15:14-16]; and, from his own knowledge and the observations of the ancients, shows the desolation to which the wicked are exposed, and insinuates that Job has such calamities to dread, vv. 17-35.

### Verse 2

[¶40] Should a wise man utter vain knowledge - Or rather, Should a wise man utter the science of wind? A science without solidity or certainty.

[¶41] And fill his belly with the east wind? - בטן beten, which we translate belly, is used to signify any part of the cavity of the body, whether the region of the thorax or abdomen; here it evidently refers to the lungs, and may include the cheeks and fauces. The east wind, קדים kadim, is a very stormy wind in the Levant, or the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, supposed to be the same with that called by the Greeks ευροκλυδων, euroclydon, the east storm, mentioned [Act 27:14]. Eliphaz, by these words, seems to intimate that Job's speech was a perfect storm or tempest of words.

### Verse 3

[¶43] Should he reason with unprofitable talk? - Should a man talk disrespectfully of his Maker, or speak to him without reverence? and should he suppose that he has proved any thing, when he has uttered words of little meaning, and used sound instead of sense?

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Thou castest off fear - Thou hast no reverence for God.

[¶2] And restrainest prayer - Instead of humbling thyself, and making supplication to thy Judge, thou spendest thy time in arraigning his providence and justifying thyself. When a man has any doubts whether he has grieved God's Spirit, and his mind feels troubled, it is much better for him to go immediately to God, and ask forgiveness, than spend any time in finding excuses for his conduct, or laboring to divest it of its seeming obliquity. Restraining or suppressing prayer, in order to find excuses or palliations for infirmities, indiscretions, or improprieties of any kind, which appear to trench on the sacred limits of morality and godliness, may be to a man the worst of evils: humiliation and prayer for mercy and pardon can never be out of their place to any soul of man who, surrounded with evils, is ever liable to offend.

### Verse 5

[¶4] For thy mouth uttereth - In attempting to justify thyself, thou hast added iniquity to sin, and hast endeavored to impute blame to thy Maker.

[¶5] The tongue of the crafty - Thou hast varnished thy own conduct, and used sophistical arguments to defend thyself. Thou resemblest those cunning persons, ערומים arumim, who derive their skill and dexterity from the old serpent, "the nachash, who was ערום arum, subtle, or crafty, beyond all the beasts of the field;" [Gen 3:1]. Thy wisdom is not from above, but from beneath.

### Verse 7

[¶7] Art thou the first man that was born? - Literally, "Wert thou born before Adam?" Art thou in the pristine state of purity and innocence? Or art thou like Adam in his first state? It does not become the fallen descendant of a fallen parent to talk as thou dost.

[¶8] Made before the hills? - Did God create thee the beginning of his ways? or wert thou the first intelligent creature which his hands have formed?

### Verse 8

[¶10] Hast thou heard the secret of God? - "Hast thou hearkened in God's council?" Wert thou one of the celestial cabinet, when God said, Let Us make man in Our image, and in Our likeness?

[¶11] Dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? - Dost thou wish us to understand that God's counsels were revealed to none but thyself? And dost thou desire that we should give implicit credence to whatsoever thou art pleased to speak? These are all strong sarcastic questions, and apparently uttered with great contempt.

### Verse 9

[¶13] What knowest thou - Is it likely that thy intellect is greater than ours; and that thou hast cultivated it better than we have done ours?

[¶14] What understandest thou - Or, Dost thou understand any thing, and it is not with us? Show us any point of knowledge possessed by thyself, of which we are ignorant.

### Verse 10

[¶16] With us are both the gray-headed - One copy of the Chaldee Targum paraphrases the verse thus: "Truly Eliphaz the hoary-headed, and Bildad the long-lived, are among us; and Zophar, who in age surpasseth thy father." It is very likely that Eliphaz refers to himself and his friends in this verse, and not either to the old men of their tribes, or to the masters by whom they themselves were instructed. Eliphaz seems to have been the eldest of these sages; and, therefore, he takes the lead in each part of this dramatic poem.

### Verse 11

[¶18] Are the consolations of God small with thee? - Various are the renderings of this verse. Mr. Good translates the verse thus: "Are then the mercies of God of no account with thee?" or, "the addresses of kindness before thee?"

[¶19] The Vulgate thus: - "Can it be a difficult thing for God to comfort thee? But thou hinderest this by thy intemperate speeches."

[¶20] The Syriac and Arabic thus: - "Remove from thee the threatenings (Arabic, reproaches) of God, and speak tranquilly with thy own spirit."

[¶21] The Septuagint thus: - "Thou hast been scourged lightly for the sins which thou hast committed; and thou hast spoken greatly beyond measure; or, with excessive insolence."

[¶22] Houbigant thus: - "Dost thou not regard the threatenings of God; or, has there been any thing darkly revealed to thee."

[¶23] Coverdale: - Dost thou no more regarde the comforte of God? But thy wicked wordes wil not suffre the.

[¶24] Scarcely any two translators or interpreters agree in the translation, or even meaning of this verse. The sense, as expressed in the Vulgate, or in our own version, or that of Coverdale, is plain enough: - "Hast thou been so unfaithful to God, that he has withdrawn his consolations from thy heart? And is there any secret thing, any bosom sin, which thou wilt not give up, that has thus provoked thy Maker?" This is the sense of our version: and I believe it to be as near the original as any yet offered. I may just add the Chaldee - "Are the consolations of God few to thee? And has a word in secret been spoken unto thee?" And I shall close all these with the Hebrew text, and the literal version of Arius Montanus: - המעט ממך ינחומות אל hameat mimmecha tanchumoth el. ודבר לאט עמך vedabar laat immak.

[¶25] Nonne parum a te consolationes Dei? Et verbum latet tecum? "Are not the consolations of God small to thee? And does a word (or thing) lie hidden with thee?"

[¶26] Now, let the reader choose for himself.

### Verse 12

[¶28] Why doth thine heart carry thee away? - Why is it that thou dost conceive and entertain such high sentiments of thyself?

[¶29] And what do thy eyes wink at - With what splendid opinion of thyself is thine eye dazzled? Perhaps there is an allusion here to that sparkling in the eye which is excited by sensations of joy and pleasing objects of sight, or to that furious rolling of the eyes observed in deranged persons. Rosenmuller translates thus: -

[¶30] Quo te tuus animus rapit?

[¶31] Quid occuli tui vibrantes? "Whither does thy soul hurry thee?

[¶32] What mean thy rolling eyes?"

[¶33] Thou seemest transported beyond thyself; thou art actuated by a furious spirit. Thou art beside thyself; thy words and thy eyes show it. None but a madman could speak and act as thou dost; for thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth, [Job 15:13]. This latter sense seems to agree best with the words of the text, and with the context.

### Verse 13

[¶35] That thou turnest thy spirit against God - The ideas here seem to be taken from an archer, who turns his eye and his spirit - his desire - against the object which he wishes to hit; and then lets loose his arrow that it may attain the mark.

### Verse 14

[¶37] What is man, that he should be clean? - מה אנוש mah enosh; what is weak, sickly, dying, miserable man, that he should be clean? This is the import of the original word enosh.

[¶38] And - born of a woman, that he should be righteous? - It appears, from many passages in the sacred writings, that natural birth was supposed to be a defilement; and that every man born into the world was in a state of moral pollution. Perhaps the word יצדק yitsdak should be translated, that he should justify himself, and not that he should be righteous.

### Verse 15

[¶40] Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight - The Vulgate has, "Behold, among his saints, none is immutable; and the heavens are not clean in his sight."

[¶41] Coverdale - Beholde, he hath found unfaithfulnesse amonge his owne sanctes, yea the very heavens are unclene in his sight.

[¶42] Eliphaz uses the same mode of speech, [Job 4:17-18] (note); where see the notes. Nothing is immutable but God: saints may fall; angels may fall; all their goodness is derived and dependent. The heavens themselves have no purity compared with his.

### Verse 16

[¶44] How much more abominable and filthy is man - As in the preceding verse it is said, he putteth no trust in his saints, it has appeared both to translators and commentators that the original words, אף כי aph ki, should be rendered how much Less, not how much More: How much less would he put confidence in man, who is filthy and abominable in his natures and profligate in his practice, as he drinks down iniquity like water? A man who is under the power of sinful propensities commits sin as greedily as the thirsty man or camel drinks down water. He thinks he can never have enough. This is a finished character of a Bad man; he hungers and thirsts after Sin: on the contrary, the Good man hungers and thirsts after Righteousness.

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### Verse 17

[¶1] I will show thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare - Eliphaz is now about to quote a whole collection of wise sayings from the ancients; all good enough in themselves, but sinfully misapplied to the case of Job.

### Verse 19

[¶3] Unto whom alone the earth was given - He very likely refers to the Israelites, who got possession of the promised land from God himself; no stranger being permitted to dwell in it, as the old inhabitants were to be exterminated. Some think that Noah and his sons may be intended; as it is certain that the whole earth was given to them, when there were no strangers - no other family of mankind - in being. But, system apart, the words seem to apply more clearly to the Israelites.

### Verse 20

[¶5] The wicked man travaileth with pain - This is a most forcible truth: a life of sin is a life of misery; and he that Will sin Must suffer. One of the Targums gives it a strange turn: - "All the days of the ungodly Esau, he was expected to repent, but he did not repent; and the number of years was hidden from the sturdy Ishmael." The sense of the original, מתחולל mithcholel, is he torments himself: he is a true heautontimoreumenos, or self-tormentor; and he alone is author of his own sufferings, and of his own ruin.

### Verse 21

[¶7] A dreadful sound is in his ears - If he be an oppressor or tyrant, he can have no rest: he is full of suspicions that the cruelties he has exercised on others shall be one day exercised on himself; for even in his prosperity he may expect the destroyer to rush upon him.

### Verse 22

[¶9] That he shall return out of darkness - If he take but a few steps in the dark, he expects the dagger of the assassin. This appears to be the only meaning of the place. Some think the passage should be understood to signify that he has no hope of a resurrection; he can never escape from the tomb. This I doubt: in the days of the writer of this book, the doctrine of a future judgment was understood in every part of the East where the knowledge of the true God was diffused.

### Verse 23

[¶11] He wandereth abroad for bread - He is reduced to a state of the utmost indigence, he who was once in affluence requires a morsel of bread, and can scarcely by begging procure enough to sustain life.

[¶12] Is ready at his hand - Is בידו beyado, in his hand - in his possession. As he cannot get bread, he must soon meet death.

### Verse 24

[¶14] Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid - He shall be in continual fear of death; being now brought down by adversity, and stripped of all the goods which he had got by oppression, his life is a mark for the meanest assassin.

[¶15] As a king ready to the battle - The acts of his wickedness and oppression are as numerous as the troops he commands; and when he comes to meet his enemy in the field, he is not only deserted but slain by his troops. How true are the words of the poet: -

[¶16] Ad generum Cereris sine caede et vulnere pauci

[¶17] Descendunt reges, et sicca morte tyranni.

[¶18] Juv. Sat., ver. 112. "For few usurpers to the shades descend

[¶19] By a dry death, or with a quiet end."

### Verse 25

[¶21] He stretcheth out his hand against God - While in power he thought himself supreme. He not only did not acknowledge God, by whom kings reign, but stretched out his hand - used his power, not to protect, but to oppress those over whom he had supreme rule; and thus strengthened himself against the Almighty.

### Verse 26

[¶23] He runneth upon him - Calmet has properly observed that this refers to God, who, like a mighty conquering hero, marches against the ungodly, rushes upon him, seizes him by the throat, which the mail by which it is encompassed cannot protect; neither his shield nor spear can save him when the Lord of hosts comes against him.

### Verse 27

[¶25] Because he covereth his face - He has lived in luxury and excess; and like a man overloaded with flesh, he cannot defend himself against the strong gripe of his adversary. The Arabic, for maketh collops of fat on his flanks, has (Arabic) He lays the Pleiades upon the Hyades, or, He places Surreea upon aiyuk, a proverbial expression for, His ambition is boundless; He aspires as high as heaven; His head touches the stars; or, is like the giants of old, who were fabled to have attempted to scale heaven by placing one high mountain upon another: -

[¶26] Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam

[¶27] Scilicet, atque Ossae frondosum involvere Olympum

[¶28] Ter Pater extructos disjecit fulmine montes.

[¶29] Virg. Geor. i., ver. 281. "With mountains piled on mountains, thrice they strove

[¶30] To scale the steepy battlements of Jove;

[¶31] And thrice his lightning and red thunder play'd,

[¶32] And their demolished works in ruins laid."

[¶33] Dryden.

[¶34] To the lust of power and the schemes of ambition there are no bounds; but see the end of such persons: the haughty spirit precedes a fall; their palaces become desolate; and their heaven is reduced to a chaos.

### Verse 28

[¶36] He dwelleth in desolate cities - It is sometimes the fate of a tyrant to be obliged to take up his habitation in some of those cities which have been ruined by his wars, and in a house so ruinous as to be ready to fall into heaps. Ancient and modern history afford abundance of examples to illustrate this.

### Verse 29

[¶38] He shall not be rich - The whole of what follows, to the end of the chapter, seems to be directed against Job himself, whom Eliphaz indirectly accuses of having been a tyrant and oppressor. The threatened evils are,

[¶39] 1. He shall not be rich, though he labors greatly to acquire riches.

[¶40] 2. His substance shall not continue - God will blast it, and deprive him of power to preserve it.

[¶41] 3. Neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof - all his works shall perish, for God will blot out his remembrance from under heaven.

### Verse 30

[¶43] He shall not depart out of darkness -

[¶44] 4. He shall be in continual afflictions and distress.

[¶45] 5. The flame shall dry up his branches - his children shall be cut off by sudden judgments.

## 499. Job · 26 of 73

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[¶0] 6. He shall pass away by the breath of his mouth; for by the breath of his mouth doth God slay the wicked.

### Verse 31

[¶2] Let not him that is deceived -

[¶3] 7. He has many vain imaginations of obtaining wealth, power, pleasure, and happiness; but he is deceived; and he finds that he has trusted בשוא bashshav, in a lie; and this lie is his recompense.

### Verse 32

[¶5] It shall be accomplished before his time - I believe the Vulgate gives the true sense: Antequam dies ejus impleantur, peribit; "He shall perish before his time; before his days are completed."

[¶6] 8. He shall be removed by a violent death, and not live out half his days.

[¶7] 9. And his branch shall not be green - there shall be no scion from his roots; all his posterity shall fail.

### Verse 33

[¶9] He shall shake off his unripe grape -

[¶10] 10. Whatever children he may have, they shall never survive him, nor come to mature age. They shall be like wind-fall grapes and blasted olive blossoms. As the vine and olive, which are among the most useful trees, affording wine and oil, so necessary for the worship of God and the comfort of man, are mentioned here, they may be intended to refer to the hopeful progeny of the oppressor; but who fell, like the untimely grape or the blasted olive flower, without having the opportunity of realizing the public expectation.

### Verse 34

[¶12] The congregation of hypocrites -

[¶13] 11. Job is here classed with hypocrites, or rather the impious of all kinds. The congregation, or עדת adath, society, of such, shall be desolate, or a barren rock, גלמוד galmud. See this Arabic word explained in the note on [Job 3:7] (note).

[¶14] Fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery -

[¶15] 12. Another insinuation against Job, that he had perverted justice and judgment, and had taken bribes.

### Verse 35

[¶17] They conceive mischief - The figure here is both elegant and impressive. The wicked conceive mischief, from the seed which Satan sows in their hearts; in producing which they travail with many pangs, (for sin is a sore labor), and at last their womb produces fraud or deception. This is an accursed birth, from an iniquitous conception. St. James gives the figure at full length, most beautifully touched in all its parts: When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death; [Jam 1:15] (note), where see the note. Poor Job! what a fight of affliction had he to contend with! His body wasted and tortured with sore disease; his mind harassed by Satan; and his heart wrung with the unkindness, and false accusations of his friends. No wonder he was greatly agitated, often distracted, and sometimes even thrown off his guard. However, all his enemies were chained; and beyond that chain they could not go. God was his unseen Protector, and did not suffer his faithful servant to be greatly moved.

### Introduction

[¶19] Job replies to Eliphaz, and through him to all his friends, who, instead of comforting him, had added to his misfortunes; and shows that, had they been in his circumstances, he would have treated them in a different manner, [Job 16:1-5]. Enters into an affecting detail of his suffering, [Job 16:6-16]. Consoles himself with the consciousness of his own innocence, of which he takes God to witness, and patiently expects a termination of all his sufferings by death, [Job 16:17-22].

### Verse 2

[¶21] I have heard many such things - These sayings of the ancients are not strange to me; but they do not apply to my case: ye see me in affliction; ye should endeavor to console me. This ye do not; and yet ye pretend to do it! Miserable comforters are ye all.

### Verse 3

[¶23] Vain words - Literally, words of air.

[¶24] What emboldeneth thee - Thou art totally ignorant of the business; what then can induce thee to take part in this discussion?

### Verse 4

[¶26] I also could speak - It is probably better to render some of these permissives or potential verbs literally in the future tense, as in the Hebrew: I also Will speak. Mr. Good has adopted this mode.

[¶27] If your soul were in my soul's stead - If you were in my place, I also could quote many wise sayings that might tend to show that you were hypocrites and wicked men; but would this be fair? Even when I might not choose to go farther in assertion, I might shake my head by way of insinuation that there was much more behind, of which I did not choose to speak; but would this be right? That such sayings are in memory, is no proof that they were either made for me, or apply to my case.

### Verse 5

[¶29] I would strengthen you with my mouth - Mr. Good translates thus: - "With my own mouth will I overpower you,

[¶30] Till the quivering of my lips shall fail;" for which rendering he contends in his learned notes. This translation is countenanced by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions.

### Verse 6

[¶32] Though I speak - But it will be of no avail thus to speak; for reprehensions of your conduct will not serve to mitigate my sufferings.

### Verse 7

[¶34] But now he hath made me weary - The Vulgate translates thus: - Nunc autem oppressit me dolor meus; et in nihilum redacti sunt omnes artus mei; "But now my grief oppresses me, and all my joints are reduced to nothing." Perhaps Job alluded here to his own afflictions, and the desolation of his family. Thou hast made me weary with continual affliction; my strength is quite exhausted; and thou hast made desolate all my company, not leaving me a single child to continue my name, or to comfort me in sickness or old age. Mr. Good translates: - "Here, indeed, hath he distracted me;

[¶35] Thou hast struck apart all my witnesses."

### Verse 8

[¶37] Thou hast filled me with wrinkles - If Job's disease were the elephantiasis, in which the whole skin is wrinkled as the skin of the elephant, from which this species of leprosy has taken its name, these words would apply most forcibly to it; but the whole passage, through its obscurity, has been variously rendered. Calmet unites it with the preceding, and Houbigant is not very different. He translates thus: - "For my trouble hath now weakened all my frame, and brought wrinkles over me: he is present as a witness, and ariseth against me, who telleth lies concerning me; he openly contradicts me to my face." Mr. Good translates nearly in the same way; others still differently.

### Verse 9

[¶39] He teareth me in his wrath - Who the person is that is spoken of in this verse, and onward to the end of the fourteenth, has been a question on which commentators have greatly differed. Some think God, others Eliphaz, is intended: I think neither. Probably God permitted Satan to show himself to Job, and the horrible form which he and his demons assumed increased the misery under which Job had already suffered so much. All the expressions, from this to the end of the fourteenth verse, may be easily understood on this principle; e.g., [Job 16:9] : "He (Satan) gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me." [Job 16:10] : "They (demons) have gaped on me with their mouth; - they have gathered themselves together against me." [Job 16:11] : "God hath delivered me to the ungodly, (עויל avil, to the Evil One), and turned me over into the hands of the wicked." He hath abandoned me to be tortured by the tempter and his host. If we consider all these expressions as referring to Job's three friends, we must, in that case, acknowledge that the figures are all strained to an insufferable height, so as not to be justified by any figure of speech.

### Verse 13

[¶41] His archers compass me - רביו rabbaiv "his great ones." The Vulgate and Septuagint translate this his spears; the Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, his arrows. On this and the following verse Mr. Heath observes: "The metaphor is here taken from huntsmen: first, they surround the beast; then he is shot dead; his entrails are next taken out; and then his body is broken up limb by limb."

### Verse 15

[¶43] I have sewed sackcloth - שק sak, a word that has passed into almost all languages, as I have already had occasion to notice in other parts of this work.

[¶44] Defiled my horn in the dust - The horn was an emblem of power; and the metaphor was originally taken from beasts, such as the urus, wild ox, buffalo, or perhaps the rhinoceros, who were perceived to have so much power in their horns. Hence a horn was frequently worn on crowns and helmets, as is evident on ancient coins; and to this day it is an appendage to the diadem of the kings and chiefs of Abyssinia. In the second edition of Mr. Bruce's Travels in Abyssinia, vol. viii., plates 2 and 3, we have engravings of two chiefs, Kefla Yasous, and Woodage Ashahel, who are represented with this emblem of power on their forehead. Mr. Bruce thus describes it: "One thing remarkable in this cavalcade, which I observed, was the head dress of the governors of provinces. A large broad fillet was bound upon their forehead, and tied behind their head. In the middle of this was a horn, or a conical piece of silver, gilt, about four inches in length, much in the shape of our common candle extinguishers. This is called kirn, or horn; and is only worn in reviews, or parades after victory. This, I apprehend, like all others of their usages is taken from the Hebrews; and the several allusions made in Scripture to it arise from this practice. 'I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly; and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn.' 'Lift not up your horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck; for promotion cometh not,' etc. 'But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn.' 'And the horn of the righteous shall be exalted with honor.' And so in many other places throughout the Psalms." In a note on the same page we have the following observation: "The crooked manner in which they hold their neck when this ornament is on their forehead, for fear it should fall forward, perfectly shows the meaning of 'Speak not with a stiff neck when you hold the horn on high (or erect) like the horn of the unicorn."' - Bruce's Travels, vol. iv., p. 407. Defiling or rolling the horn in the dust, signifies the disgrace or destruction of power, authority, and eminence. Mr. Good translates, I have rolled my turban in the dust, which he endeavors to justify in a long note. But in this, I think, this very learned man is mistaken. The Hebrew קרן keren is the same as the Ethiopic kirn, and both mean exactly, in such connection, what Mr. Bruce has noticed above. The horn on the diadem is the emblem of power, authority, and eminence.

## 500. Job · 27 of 73

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### Verse 16

[¶1] On my eyelids is the shadow of death - Death is now fast approaching me; already his shadow is projected over me.

### Verse 17

[¶3] Not for any injustice - I must assert, even with my last breath, that the charges of my friends against me are groundless. I am afflicted unto death, but not on account of my iniquities.

[¶4] Also my prayer is pure - I am no hypocrite, God knoweth.

### Verse 18

[¶6] O earth, cover not thou my blood - This is evidently an allusion to the murder of Abel, and the verse has been understood in two different ways:

[¶7] 1. Job here calls for justice against his destroyers. His blood is his life, which he considers as taken away by violence, and therefore calls for vengeance. Let my blood cry against my murderers, as the blood of Abel cried against Cain. My innocent life is taken away by violence, as his innocent life was; as therefore the earth was not permitted to cover his blood, so that his murderer should be concealed, let my death be avenged in the same way.

[¶8] 2. It has been supposed that the passage means that Job considered himself accused of shedding innocent blood; and, conscious of his own perfect innocence, he prays that the earth may not cover any blood shed by him. Thus Mr. Scott: - "O earth, the blood accusing me reveal;

[¶9] Its piercing voice in no recess conceal."

[¶10] And this notion is followed by Mr. Good. But, with all deference to these learned men, I do not see that this meaning can be supported by the Hebrew text; nor was the passage so understood by any of the ancient versions. I therefore prefer the first sense, which is sufficiently natural, and quite in the manner of Job in his impassioned querulousness.

### Verse 19

[¶12] My witness is in heaven - I appeal to God for my innocence.

### Verse 20

[¶14] My friends scorn me - They deride and insult me, but my eye is towards God; I look to him to vindicate my cause.

### Verse 21

[¶16] O that one might plead - Let me only have liberty to plead with God, as a man hath with his fellow.

### Verse 22

[¶18] When a few years are come - I prefer Mr. Good's version: - "But the years numbered to me are come.

[¶19] And I must go the way whence I shall not return."

[¶20] Job could not, in his present circumstances, expect a few years of longer life; from his own conviction he was expecting death every hour. The next verse, the first of the following chapter, should come in here:

[¶21] My breath is corrupt, etc. - He felt himself as in the arms of death: he saw the grave as already digged which was to receive his dead body. This verse shows that our translation of the twenty-second verse is improper, and vindicates Mr. Good's version.

[¶22] I Have said on [Job 16:9] that a part of Job's sufferings probably arose from appalling representations made to his eye or to his imagination by Satan and his agents. I think this neither irrational nor improbable. That he and his demons have power to make themselves manifest on especial occasions, has been credited in all ages of the world; not by the weak, credulous, and superstitious only, but also by the wisest, the most learned, and the best of men. I am persuaded that many passages in the Book of Job refer to this, and admit of an easy interpretation on this ground.

### Introduction

[¶24] Job complains of the injustice of his friends, and compares his present state of want and wo with his former honor and affluence, [Job 17:1-6]. God's dealings with him will ever astonish upright men; yet the righteous shall not be discouraged, but hold on his way, [Job 17:7-9]. Asserts that there is not a wise man among his friends, and that he has no expectation but of a speedy death, [Job 17:10-16].

### Verse 1

[¶26] My breath is corrupt - Rather, My spirit is oppressed, רוחי חבלה ruchi chubbalah: My days are extinct, and the sepulchral cells are ready for me - Parkhurst. There is probably a reference here to cemeteries, where were several niches, in Each of which a corpse was deposited. See on [Job 17:16] (note). For חבלה chubbalah, corrupted or oppressed, some MSS. have חלה chalah, is made weak; and one has גבלה is worn down, consumed: this is agreeable to the Vulgate, Spiritus meus attenuebatur; "My spirit is exhausted."

### Verse 2

[¶28] Are there not mockers with me? - This has been variously translated. The Vulgate: "I have not sinned, and yet my eye dwells upon afflictions." Septuagint: "I conjure you, laboring under afflictions, what evil have I done? Yet strangers have robbed me of my substance." Mr. Good: "But are not revilers before me? Alas, mine eye penetrateth their rebukes." Calmet thinks the Hebrew might be translated thus: "If I have not been united in friendship with the wicked, why are my eyes in bitterness?" Coverdale translates both verses thus: My breth fayleth, my dayes are shortened, I am harde at deathes dore. I have disceaved no man, yet must myne eye continue in hevynesse. Mr. Heath "Were it not so, I have sarcasms enow in store; and I could spend the whole night unmoved at their aggravations." The general meaning is sufficiently plain, and the reader has got translations enough.

### Verse 3

[¶30] Lay down now - Deposit a pledge; stake your conduct against mine, and your life and soul on the issue; let the cause come before God, let him try it; and see whether any of you shall be justified by him, while I am condemned.

### Verse 4

[¶32] For thou hast hid their heart - This address is to God; and here he is represented as doing that which in the course of his providence he only permits to be done.

[¶33] Shalt thou not exalt them - This was exactly fulfilled: not one of Job's friends was exalted; on the contrary, God condemned the whole; and they were not received into the Divine favor till Job sacrificed, and made intercession for them.

### Verse 5

[¶35] He that speaketh flattery - There is a great variety of meaning given to the terms in this verse. The general sense is, The man who expects much from his friends will be disappointed: while depending on them his children's eyes may fail in looking for bread.

### Verse 6

[¶37] He hath made me also a by-word - My afflictions and calamities have become a subject of general conversation, so that my poverty and affliction are proverbial. As poor as Job, As afflicted as Job, are proverbs that have even reached our times and are still in use.

[¶38] Aforetime I was as a tabret - This is not the translation of the Hebrew ותפת לפנים אהיה vethopheth lephanim eheyeh. Instead of לפנים lephanim, I would read לפניהם liphneghem, and then the clause might be translated thus: I shall be as a furnace, or consuming fire (Topheth) before them. They shall have little reason to mock when they see the end of the Lord's dealings with me; my example will be a consuming fire to them, and my false friends will be confounded. Coverdale translates thus: He hath made me as it were a byworde of the comon people. I am his gestinge stocke amonge them.

### Verse 7

[¶40] Mine eye also is dim - Continual weeping impairs the sight; and indeed any affliction that debilitates the frame generally weakens the sight in the same proportion.

[¶41] All my members are as a shadow - Nothing is left but skin and bone. I am but the shadow of my former self.

### Verse 8

[¶43] Upright men shall be astonied - In several of these verses Job is supposed to speak prophetically of his future restoration, and of the good which religious society should derive from the history of his original affluence, consequent poverty and affliction, and final restoration to health, peace, and prosperity. The upright will receive the account with astonishment, and wonder at the dispensations of the Almighty; while hypocrites, false professors and the sour-headed, godly, shall be unmasked, and innocent men, whether in affliction or affluence, shall be known to be favourites of the Almighty.

## 501. Job · 28 of 73

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### Verse 9

[¶1] The righteous also shall hold on his way - There shall be no doubt concerning the dispensations of the Divine providence. My case shall illustrate all seemingly intricate displays of God's government. None shall be stumbled at seeing a godly man under oppression, knowing that God never permits any thing of the kind but for the good of the subject, and the manifestation of his own mercy, wisdom, and love. Therefore whatever occurs to the righteous man, he will take it for granted that all is well and justly managed, and that the end will be glorious.

[¶2] Shall be stronger and stronger - He shall take encouragement from my case, stay himself on the Lord, and thus gain strength by every blast of adversity. This is one grand use of the book of Job. It casts much light on seemingly partial displays of Divine providence: and has ever been the great text-book of godly men in a state of persecution and affliction. This is what Job seems prophetically to declare.

### Verse 10

[¶4] But as for you all - Ye are too proud, and too full of self-importance, to profit by what ye see. Return - enter into yourselves, consider your ways, go again to school, get back to your own houses, and endeavor to acquire humility and knowledge; for there is not one wise man among you.

### Verse 11

[¶6] My days are past - Job seems to relapse here into his former state of gloom. These transitions are very frequent in this poem; and they strongly mark the struggle of piety and resignation with continued affliction, violent temptation, and gloomy providences.

[¶7] The thoughts of my heart - All my purposes are interrupted; and all my schemes and plans, in relation to myself and family, are torn asunder, destroyed, and dissipated.

### Verse 12

[¶9] They change the night into day - These purposes and thoughts are so very gloomy, that they change day into night.

[¶10] The light is short because of darkness - אור קרוב מפני חשך or karob mippeney choshek, "The light is near from the face of darkness." I have scarcely any light: what is called light is so near akin to darkness, that it is scarcely severed from it. There is either no light, or merely such as is sufficient to render darkness visible. A fine picture of the state of his mind - he was generally in darkness; but had occasional gleams of hope.

### Verse 13

[¶12] The grave is mine house - Let my life be long or short, the grave at last will be my home. I expect soon to lie down in darkness - there is my end: I cannot reasonably hope for any thing else.

### Verse 14

[¶14] I have said to corruption - I came from a corrupted stock, and I must go to corruption again. The Hebrew might be thus rendered: To the ditch I have called, Thou art my father. To the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. I am in the nearest state of affinity to dissolution and corruption: I may well call them my nearest relations, as I shall soon be blended with them.

### Verse 15

[¶16] And where is now my hope? - In the circumstances in which I am found, of what use can hope be? Were I to form the expectation of future good, who could ever see it realized? Is it then any wonder that I should complain and bemoan my wretched lot?

### Verse 16

[¶18] They shall go down to the bars of the pit - All that I have must descend into the depths of the grave. Thither are we all going; and there alone can I rest. בדי baddey, which we translate bars, signifies also branches, distended limbs, or claws, and may here refer either to a personification of the grave, a monster who seizes on human bodies, and keeps them fast in his deadly gripe; or to the different branching-off-alleys in subterranean cemeteries, or catacombs, in which niches are made for the reception of different bodies.

[¶19] When our rest together is in the dust - That is, according to some critics, My hope and myself shall descend together into the grave. It shall never be realized, for the time of my departure is at hand.

[¶20] In those times what deep shades hung on the state of man after death, and on every thing pertaining to the eternal world! Perplexity and uncertainty were the consequences; and a corresponding gloom often dwelt on the minds of even the best of the Old Testament believers. Job's friends, though learned in all the wisdom of the Arabians, connected with the advantages derivable from the Mosaic writings, and perhaps those of the earlier prophets, had little clear or distinct in their minds relative to all subjects post mortem, or of the invisible world. Job himself, though sometimes strongly confident, is often harassed with doubts and fears upon the subject, insomuch that his sayings and experience often appear contradictory. Perhaps it could not be otherwise; the true light was not then come: Jesus alone brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel.

### Introduction

[¶22] Bildad, in a speech of passionate invective, accuses Job of impatience and impiety, [Job 18:1-4]; shows the fearful end of the wicked and their posterity; and apparently applies the whole to Job, whom he threatens with the most ruinous end, vv. 5-21.

### Verse 1

[¶24] Then answered Bildad - The following analysis of this speech, by Mr. Heath, is judicious: "Bildad, irritated to the last degree that Job should treat their advice with so much contempt, is no longer able to keep his passions within the bounds of decency. He proceeds to downright abuse; and finding little attention given by Job to his arguments, he tries to terrify him into a compliance. To that end he draws a yet more terrible picture of the final end of wicked men than any yet preceding, throwing in all the circumstances of Job's calamities, that he might plainly perceive the resemblance, and at the same time insinuating that he had much worse still to expect, unless he prevented it by a speedy change of behavior. That it was the highest arrogance in him to suppose that he was of consequence enough to be the cause of altering the general rules of Providence, [Job 18:4]. And that it was much more expedient for the good of the whole, that he, by his example, should deter others from treading in the same path of wickedness and folly;" [Job 18:5-7].

### Verse 2

[¶26] How long will it be ere ye make an end - It is difficult to say to whom this address is made: being in the plural number, it can hardly be supposed to mean Job only. It probably means all present; as if he had said, It is vain to talk with this man, and follow him through all his quibbles: take notice of this, and then let us all deliver our sentiments fully to him, without paying any regard to his self-vindications. It must be owned that this is the plan which Bildad followed; and he amply unburdens a mind that was laboring under the spirit of rancour and abuse. Instead of How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Mr. Good translates: "How long will ye plant thorns (irritating, lacerating, wounding invectives) among words?" translating the unusual term קנצי kintsey, thorns, instead of bounds or limits. The word קנצי kintsey may be the Chaldee form for קצי kitsey, the נ nun being inserted by the Chaldeans for the sake of euphony, as is frequently done; and it may be considered as the contracted plural from קץ kats, a thorn, from קץ kats, to lacerate, rather than קץ kets, an end, from קצה katsah, to cut off. Schultens and others have contended that קנץ kanats, is an Arabic word, used also in Hebrew; that (Arabic) kanasa, signifies to hunt, to lay snares; and hence (Arabic) maknas, a snare: and that the words should be translated, "How long will you put captious snares in words?" But I prefer קנצי kintsey, as being the Chaldee form for קצי kitsey, whether it be considered as expressing limits or thorns; as the whole instance is formed after the Chaldee model, as is evident, not only in the word in question, but also in למלין lemillin, to words, the Chaldee plural instead of למלים lemillim, the Hebrew plural.

### Verse 3

[¶28] Counted as beasts - Thou treatest us as if we had neither reason nor understanding.

### Verse 4

[¶30] He teareth himself in his anger - Literally, Rending his own soul in his anger; as if he had said, Thou art a madman: thy fury has such a sway over thee that thou eatest thy own flesh. While thou treatest us as beasts, we see thee to be a furious maniac, destroying thy own life.

[¶31] Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? - To say the least, afflictions are the common lot of men. Must God work a miracle in providence, in order to exempt thee from the operation of natural causes? Dost thou wish to engross all the attention and care of providence to thyself alone? What pride and insolence!

### Verse 5

[¶33] The light of the wicked shall be put out - Some think it would be better to translate the original, "Let the light of the wicked be extinguished!" Thou art a bad man, and thou hast perverted the understanding which God hath given thee. Let that understanding, that abused gift, be taken away. From this verse to the end of the chapter is a continual invective against Job.

### Verse 6

[¶35] The light shall be dark in his tabernacle - His property shall be destroyed, his house pillaged, and himself and his family come to an untimely end.

[¶36] His candle shall be put out - He shall have no posterity.

### Verse 7

[¶38] The steps of his strength - Even in his greatest prosperity he shall be in straits and difficulties.

[¶39] His own counsel - He shall be the dupe and the victim of his own airy, ambitious, and impious schemes.

### Verse 8

[¶41] For he is cast into a net - His own conduct will infallibly bring him to ruin. He shall be like a wild beast taken in a net; the more he flounces in order to extricate himself, the more he shall be entangled.

[¶42] He walketh upon a snare - He is continually walking on the meshes of a net, by which he must soon be entangled and overthrown.

### Verse 9

[¶44] The gin shall take him - Houbigant reads the tenth before the ninth verse, thus: "The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way. The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him." From the beginning of the seventh verse to the end of the thirteenth there is an allusion to the various arts and methods practiced in hunting. 1. A number of persons extend themselves in a forest, and drive the game before them, still straitening the space from a broad base to a narrow point in form of a triangle, so that the farther they go the less room have they on the right and left, the hunters lining each side, while the drovers with their dogs are coming up behind. "The steps of his strength shall be straitened," [Job 18:7]. 2. Nets, gins, and pitfalls, are laid or formed in different places, so that many are taken before they come to the point where the two lines close. "He is cast into a net, he walketh upon a snare - the trap is laid for him in the way - the snare in the ground," [Job 18:8-10]. 3. The howling of the dogs, with the shouts of the huntsmen, fill him with dismay, and cause him to run himself beyond his strength and out of breath. "Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet," [Job 18:11]. 4. While spent with hunger and fatigue, he is entangled in the spread nets; and the huntsman either pierces him with an arrow or spear, or cuts the sinews of his legs, so that he is easily captured and destroyed. "The robbers shall prevail against him," [Job 18:9]. "His strength is hunger-bitten, and destruction is ready at his side," [Job 18:12]. This latter verse is thus paraphrased by the Chaldee: "Let his first-born son be famished; and affliction be prepared for his wife."

## 502. Job · 29 of 73

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### Verse 13

[¶1] It shall devour the strength of his skin - This may refer to the elephant, or to the rhinoceros, whose skin scarcely any dart can pierce: but in the case referred to above, the animal is taken in a pitfall, and then the first-born of death - a sudden and overwhelming stroke - deprives him of life. See the account of hunting the elephant in the East at the end of the chapter, [Job 18:21] (note). The Chaldee has: "The strength of his skin shall devour his flesh; and the angel of death shall consume his children."

### Verse 14

[¶3] His confidence shall be rooted out - His dwelling-place, how well soever fortified, shah now he deemed utterly insecure.

[¶4] And it shall bring him to the king of terrors - Or, as Mr. Good translates, "And dissolution shall invade him as a monarch." He shall be completely and finally overpowered. The phrase king of terrors has been generally thought to mean death; but it is not used in any such way in the text. For למלך בלהות lemelech ballahoth, to the king of destructions, one of De Rossi's MSS. has כמלך kemelech, "as a king;" and one, instead of בלהות ballahoth, with ו vau holem, to indicate the plural, terrors or destructions, has בלהות ballahuth, with ו vau shurek, which is singular, and signifies terror, destruction. So the Vulgate seems to have read, as it translates, Et calcet super eum, quasi rex, interitis; "And shall tread upon him as a king or destroyer. Or as a king who is determined utterly to destroy him." On this verse the bishop of Killala, Dr. Stock, says, "I am sorry to part with a beautiful phrase in our common version, the king of terrors, as descriptive of death; but there is no authority for it in the Hebrew text." It may however be stated that death has been denominated by similar epithets both among the Greeks and Romans.

[¶5] So Virgil, Aen. vi., ver. 100. -

[¶6] Quando hic inferni janua regi Dicitur. "The gates of the king of hell are reported to be here."

[¶7] And Ovid, Metam. lib. v., ver. 356, 359.

[¶8] Inde tremit tellus: et rex pavit ipse silentum.

[¶9] Hanc metuens cladem, tenebrosa sede tyrannus Exierat. "Earth's inmost bowels quake, and nature groans;

[¶10] His terrors reach the direful King of Hell.

[¶11] Fearing this destruction, the tyrant left hisgloomy court."

[¶12] And in Sophocles, (Oedip. Colon., ver. 1628, edit. Johnson). Εννυχιων αναξ, Αιδωνευ. "O Pluto, king of shades."

[¶13] That is, the invisible demon, who dwells in darkness impenetrable. Old Coverdale translates: Very fearfulnesse shall bringe him to the kynge.

### Verse 15

[¶15] It shall dwell in his tabernacle - Desolation is here personified, and it is said that it shall be the inhabitant, its former owner being destroyed. Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation, so that, like Sodom and Gomorrah, it may be an everlasting monument of the Divine displeasure. In the Persian poet Saady, we find a couplet which contains a similar sentiment: -

[¶16] Purdeh daree meekund dar keesri Keesar ankeboot

[¶17] Boomee Noobat meezund ber kumbed Afraseeab. "The spider holds the veil in the palace of Caesar;

[¶18] The owl stands sentinel on the watchtower of Afrasiab."

[¶19] The palaces of those mighty kings are so desolate that the spider is the only chamberlain, and the owl the only sentinel. The web of the former is all that remains as a substitute for the costly veil furnished by the chamberlain in the palace of the Roman monarch; and the hooting of the latter is the only remaining substitute for the sound of drums and trumpets by which the guards were accustomed to be relieved at the watchtower of the Persian king. The word (Persic) Keesur, the same as kaisar or Caesar, is the term which the Asiatics always use when they designate the Roman emperor. Afrasiab was an ancient king who invaded and conquered Persia about seven hundred years before the Christian era. After having reigned twelve years, he was defeated and slain by Zalzer and his son, the famous Rustem. The present reigning family of Constantinople claim descent from this ancient monarch.

[¶20] Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation - This may either refer to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as has already been intimated, or to an ancient custom of fumigating houses with brimstone, in order to purify them from defilement. Pliny says, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxv., c. 15, speaking of the uses of sulphur, Habet et in religionibus locum ad expiandas suffitu domos; which Dr. Holland paraphrases thus: "Moreover brimstone is employed ceremoniously in hallowing of houses; for many are of opinion that the perfume and burning thereof will keep out all enchantments; yea, and drive away foul fiends and evil sprites that do haunt a place."

[¶21] Ovid refers to the same, De Arte. Am., lib. ii. ver. 329.

[¶22] Et veniat, quae lustret anus lectumque locumque:

[¶23] Praeferat et tremula sulphur et ova manu.

[¶24] This alludes to the ceremony of purifying the bed or place in which a sick person was confined; an old woman or nurse was the operator, and eggs and sulphur were the instruments of purification. On this and other methods of purgation see an excellent note in Servius on these words of Virgil, Aen. vi., ver. 740. -

[¶25] Aliae panduntur inanes

[¶26] Suspensae ad ventos: aliis sub gurgite vasto

[¶27] Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni. "For this are various penances subjoin'd;

[¶28] And some are hung to bleach upon the wind;

[¶29] Some plunged in waters, others, plunged in fires."

[¶30] Unde etiam, says Servius, in sacris Liberi omnibus tres sunt istae purgationes: nam aut taeda purgantur et sulphure, aut aqua abluuntur, aut aere ventilantur. "These three kinds of purgation are used in the rites of Bacchus: they are purged by flame and sulphur, or washed in water, or ventilated by the winds."

[¶31] But it is most likely that Bildad, in his usual uncharitable manner, alludes to the destruction of Job's property and family by winds and fire: for the Fire of God fell from heaven and burnt up the sheep and the servants, and Consumed them; and a great wind, probably the sulphureous suffocating simoom, smote the four corners of the house, where Job's children were feasting, and killed them; see [Job 1:16], [Job 1:19].

### Verse 16

[¶33] His roots shall be dried up - his branch be cut off - He shall be as utterly destroyed, both in himself, his posterity, and his property, as a tree is whose branches are all lopped off, and whose every root is cut away.

### Verse 17

[¶35] His remembrance shall perish - He shall have none to survive him, to continue his name among men.

[¶36] No name in the street - He shall never be a man of reputation; after his demise, none shall talk of his fame.

### Verse 18

[¶38] He shall be driven from light - He shall be taken off by a violent death.

[¶39] And chased out of the world - The wicked is Driven Away in his iniquity. This shows his reluctance to depart from life.

### Verse 19

[¶41] He shall neither have son nor nephew - Coverdale, following the Vulgate, translates thus: He shal neither have children ner kynss folk among his people, no ner eny posterite in his countrie: yonge and olde shal be astonyshed at his death.

### Verse 20

[¶43] They that come after him - The young shall be struck with astonishment when they hear the relation of the judgments of God upon this wicked man. As they that went before. The aged who were his contemporaries, and who saw the judgments that fell on him, were affrighted, אחזו שער achazu saar, seized with horror - were horrified; or, as Mr. Good has well expressed it, were panic-struck.

### Verse 21

[¶45] Such are the dwellings - This is the common lot of the wicked; and it shall be particularly the case with him who knoweth not God, that is Job, for it is evident he alludes to him. Poor Job! hard was thy lot, severe were thy sufferings. On the elephant hunt to which I have referred, [Job 18:13], I shall borrow the following account extracted from Mr. Cordiner's History of Ceylon, by Mr. Good: - "We have a curious description of the elephant hunt, which is pursued in a manner not essentially different from the preceding, except that the snares are pallisadoed with the strongest possible stakes, instead of being netted, and still farther fortified by interlacings. They are numerous, but connected together; every snare or inclosure growing gradually narrower, and opening into each other by a gate or two that will only admit the entrance of a single animal at a time. "The wood in which elephants are known to abound is first surrounded, excepting at the end where the foremost and widest inclosure is situated, with fires placed on moveable pedestals, which in every direction are drawn closer and closer, and, aided by loud and perpetual shouts, drive the animals forward till they enter into the outer snare. After which the same process is continued, and they are driven by fear into a second, into a third, and into a fourth; till at length the elephants become so much sub-divided, that by the aid of cordage fastened carefully round their limbs, and the management of decoy elephants, they are easily capable of being led away one by one, and tamed. A single hunt thus conducted will sometimes occupy not less than two months of unremitting labor; and the entrance of the elephants into the snares is regarded as an amusement or sport of the highest character, and as such is attended by all the principal families of the country." Account of Ceylon, p. 218-226.

## 503. Job · 30 of 73

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### Introduction

[¶1] Job complains of the cruelty of his friends, [Job 19:1-5]. Pathetically laments his sufferings, [Job 19:6-12]. Complains of his being forsaken by all his domestics, friends, relatives, and even his wife, [Job 19:13-19]. Details his sufferings in an affecting manner, calls upon his friends to pity him, and earnestly wishes that his speeches may be recorded, [Job 19:20-24]. Expresses his hope in a future resurrection, [Job 19:25-27]. And warns his persecutors to desist, lest they fall under God's judgments, [Job 19:28], [Job 19:29].

### Verse 2

[¶3] How long will ye vex my soul - Every thing that was irritating, vexatious, and opprobrious, his friends had recourse to, in order to support their own system, and overwhelm him. Not one of them seems to have been touched with a feeling of tenderness towards him, nor does a kind expression drop at any time from their lips! They were called friends; but this term, in reference to them, must be taken in the sense of cold-blooded acquaintances. However, there are many in the world that go under the sacred name of friends, who, in times of difficulty, act a similar part. Job's friends have been, by the general consent of posterity, consigned to endless infamy. May all those who follow their steps be equally enrolled in the annals of bad fame!

### Verse 3

[¶5] These ten times - The exact arithmetical number is not to be regarded; ten times being put for many times, as we have already seen. See particularly the note on [Gen 31:7] (note).

[¶6] Ye make yourselves strange to me - When I was in affluence and prosperity, ye were my intimates, and appeared to rejoice in my happiness; but now ye scarcely know me, or ye profess to consider me a wicked man because I am in adversity. Of this you had no suspicion when I was in prosperity! Circumstances change men's minds.

### Verse 4

[¶8] And be it indeed that I have erred - Suppose indeed that I have been mistaken in any thing, that in the simplicity of my heart I have gone astray, and that this matter remains with myself, (for most certainly there is no public stain on my life), you must grant that this error, whatsoever it is, has hurt no person except myself. Why then do ye treat me as a person whose life has been a general blot, and whose example must be a public curse?

### Verse 6

[¶10] Know now that God hath overthrown me - The matter is between him and me, and he has not commissioned you to add reproaches to his chastisements.

[¶11] And hath compassed me with his net - There may be an allusion here to the different modes of hunting which have been already referred to in the preceding chapter. But if we take the whole verse together, and read the latter clause before the former, thus, "Know, therefore, that God hath encompassed me with his net, and overthrown me;" the allusion may be to an ancient mode of combat practiced among the ancient Persians, ancient Goths, and among the Romans. The custom among the Romans was this: "One of the combatants was armed with a sword and shield, the other with a trident and net. The net he endeavored to cast over the head of his adversary, in which, when he succeeded, the entangled person was soon pulled down by a noose that fastened round the neck, and then despatched. The person who carried the net and trident was called Retiarius, and the other who carried the sword and shield was termed Secutor, or the pursuer, because, when the Retiarius missed his throw, he was obliged to run about the ground till he got his net in order for a second throw, while the Secutor followed hard to prevent and despatch him." The Persians in old times used what was called (Persic) kumund, the noose. It was not a net, but a sort of running loop, which horsemen endeavored to cast over the heads of their enemies that they might pull them off their horses. That the Goths used a hoop net fastened to a pole, which they endeavored to throw over the heads of their foes, is attested by Olaus Magnus, Hist. de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Rom. 1555, lib. xi., cap. 13, De diversis Modis praeliandi Finnorum. His words are, Quidam restibus instar retium ferinorum ductilibus sublimi jactatione utuntur: ubi enim cum hoste congressi sunt, injiciunt eos restes quasi laqueos in caput resistentis, ut equum aut hominem ad se trahant. "Some use elastic ropes, formed like hunting nets, which they throw aloft; and when they come in contact with the enemy, they throw these ropes over the head of their opponent, and by this means they can then drag either man or horse to themselves." At the head of the page he gives a wood-cut representing the net, and the manner of throwing it over the head of the enemy. To such a device Job might allude, God hath encompassed me with his Net, and overthrown me.

### Verse 7

[¶13] I cry out of wrong - I complain of violence and of injustice; but no one comes to my help.

### Verse 8

[¶15] He hath fenced up my way - This may allude to the mode of hunting the elephant, described at the conclusion of the preceding chapter; or to the operations of an invading army. See under [Job 19:11] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶17] He hath stripped me of my glory - I am reduced to such circumstances, that I have lost all my honor and respect.

### Verse 10

[¶19] Mine hope hath he removed like a tree - There is no more hope of my restoration to affluence, authority, and respect, than there is that a tree shall grow and flourish, whose roots are extracted from the earth. I am pulled up by the roots, withered, and gone.

### Verse 11

[¶21] And he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies - From the seventh to the thirteenth verse there seems to be an allusion to a hostile invasion, battles, sieges, etc.

[¶22] 1. A neighboring chief, without provocation, invades his neighbor's territories, and none of his friends will come to his help. "I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard," [Job 19:7].

[¶23] 2. The foe has seized on all the passes, and he is hemmed up. "He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass," [Job 19:8].

[¶24] 3. He has surprised and carried by assault the regal city, seized and possessed the treasures. "He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head," [Job 19:9].

[¶25] 4. All his armies are routed in the field, and his strong places carried. "He hath destroyed me on every side," [Job 19:10].

[¶26] 5. The enemy proceeds to the greatest length of outrage, wasting every thing with fire and sword. "He hath kindled his wrath against me, and treateth me like one of his adversaries, [Job 19:11].

[¶27] 6. He is cooped up in a small camp with the wrecks of his army; and in this he is closely besieged by all the power of his foes, who encompass the place, and raise forts against it. "His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle."

[¶28] 7. Not receiving any assistance from friends or neighbors, he abandons all hope of being able to keep the field, escapes with the utmost difficulty, and is despised and neglected by his friends and domestics because he has been unfortunate. "I am escaped with the skin of my teeth," [Job 19:20]. "My kinsfolk have failed-all my intimate friends abhorred me," [Job 19:14-19].

### Verse 14

[¶30] My kinsfolk have failed - Literally, departed: they have all left my house, now there is no more hope of gain.

### Verse 15

[¶32] They that dwell in mine house - In this and the following verses the disregard and contempt usually shown to men who have fallen from affluence and authority into poverty and dependence, are very forcibly described: formerly reverenced by all, now esteemed by none. Pity to those who have fallen into adversity is rarely shown; the rich have many friends, and to him who appears to be gaining worldly substance much court is paid; for many worship the rising sun, who think little of that which is gone down. Some are even reproached with that eminence which they have lost, though not culpable for the loss. A bishop, perhaps Bale, of Ossory, being obliged to leave his country and fly for his life, in the days of bloody Queen Mary, and who never regained his bishopric, was met one morning by one like those whom Job describes, who, intending to be witty at the expense of the venerable prelate, accosted him thus: "Good morrow, Bishop quondam." To which the bishop smartly replied, "Adieu, Knave semper."

### Verse 17

[¶34] Though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body - This may imply no more than adjuring her by the tenderest ties, by their affectionate intercourse, and consequently by the children which had been the seals of their mutual affection, though these children were no more. But the mention of his children in this place may intimate that he had still some remaining; that there might have been young ones, who, not being of a proper age to attend the festival of their elder brothers and sisters, escaped that sad catastrophe. The Septuagint have, Προσεκαλουμην δε κολακευων υἰους παλλακιδων μου, "I affectionately entreated the children of my concubines." But there is no ground in the Hebrew text for such a strange exceptionable rendering. Coverdale has, I am fayne to speake fayre to the children of myne own body.

### Verse 19

[¶36] My inward friends - Those who were my greatest intimates.

### Verse 20

[¶38] My bone cleaveth to my skin - My flesh is entirely wasted away, and nothing but skin and bone left.

[¶39] I am escaped with the skin of my teeth - I have had the most narrow escape. If I still live, it is a thing to be wondered at, my sufferings and privations have been so great. To escape with the skin of the teeth seems to have been a proverbial expression, signifying great difficulty. I had as narrow an escape from death, as the thickness of the enamel on the teeth. I was within a hair's breadth of destruction; see on [Job 19:11] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶41] Have pity upon me - The iteration here strongly indicates the depth of his distress, and that his spirit was worn down with the length and severity of his suffering.

### Verse 22

[¶43] Why do ye persecute me as God - Are not the afflictions which God sends enough? Do ye not see that I have as much as I can bear? When the papists were burning Dr. Taylor at Oxford, while wrapped in the flames, one of the true sons of the Church took a stick out of the faggots, and threw it at his head, and split open his face. To whom he calmly said, Man, why this wrong? Do not I suffer enough?

[¶44] And are not satisfied with my flesh? - Will ye persecute my soul, while God is persecuting my body? Is it not enough that my body is destroyed? Why then labor to torment my mind?

## 504. Job · 31 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/504/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/504/#p-N

### Verse 23

[¶1] O that my words were now written! - Job introduces the important subject which follows in a manner unusually solemn; and he certainly considers the words which he was about to utter of great moment, and therefore wishes them to be recorded in every possible way. All the modes of writing then in use he appears to refer to. As to printing, that should be out of the question, as no such art was then discovered, nor for nearly two thousand years after. Our translators have made a strange mistake by rendering the verb יחקו yuchaku, printed, when they should have used described, traced out. O that my words were fairly traced out in a book! It is necessary to make this remark, because superficial readers have imagined that the art of printing existed in Job's time, and that it was not a discovery of the fifteenth century of the Christian era: whereas there is no proof that it ever existed in the world before a.d. 1440, or thereabouts, for the first printed book with a date is a psalter printed by John Fust, in 1457, and the first Bible with a date is that by the same artist in 1460. Three kinds of writing Job alludes to, as being practiced in his time:

[¶2] 1. Writing in a book, formed either of the leaves of the papyrus, already described, (see on [Job 8:11] (note)), or on a sort of linen cloth. A roll of this kind, with unknown characters, I have seen taken out of the envelopments of an Egyptian mummy. Denon, in his travels in Egypt, gives an account of a book of this kind, with an engraved facsimile, taken also out of an Egyptian mummy.

[¶3] 2. Cutting with an iron stile on plates of lead.

[¶4] 3. Engraving on large stones or rocks, many of which are still found in different parts of Arabia.

[¶5] To the present day the leaves of the palm tree are used in the East instead of paper, and a stile of brass, silver, iron, etc., with a steel point, serves for a pen. By this instrument the letters are cut or engraved on the substance of the leaf, and afterwards some black colouring matter is rubbed in, in order to make the letters apparent. This was probably the oldest mode of writing, and it continues among the Cingalese to the present day. It is worthy of remark that Pliny (Hist. Nat., lib. xiii., c. 11) mentions most of these methods of writing, and states that the leaves of the palm tree were used before other substances were invented. After showing that paper was not used before the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, he proceeds: In palmarum foliis primo scriptitatum; deinde quarundam arborum libris: postea publica monumenta plumbeis voluminibus, mox et privata linteis confici caepta, aut ceris. "At first men wrote on palm tree leaves, and afterwards on the bark or rind of other trees. In process of time, public monuments were written on rolls of lead, and those of a private nature on linen books, or tables covered with wax." Pausanias, lib. xii., c. 31, giving an account of the Boeotians, who dwelt near fount Helicon, states the following fact: - Και μοι μολιβδον εδεικνυσαν, ενθα ἡ πηγη, τα πολλα ὑπο του χρονου λελυμασμενον, εγγεγραπται γαρ αυτῳ τα εργα; "They showed me a leaden table near to the fountain, all which his works (Hesiod's) were written; but a great part had perished by the injuries of time."

### Verse 24

[¶7] Iron pen and lead - Some suppose that the meaning of this place is this: the iron pen is the chisel by which the letters were to be deeply cut in the stone or rock; and the lead was melted into those cavities in order to preserve the engraving distinct. But this is not so natural a supposition as what is stated above; that Job refers to the different kinds of writing or perpetuating public events, used in his time: and the quotations from Pliny and Pausanias confirm the opinion already expressed.

### Verse 25

[¶9] For I know that my Redeemer liveth - Any attempt to establish the true meaning of this passage is almost hopeless. By learned men and eminent critics the words have been understood very differently; some vehemently contending that they refer to the resurrection of the body, and the redemption of the human race by Jesus Christ; while others, with equal vehemence and show of argument, have contended that they refer only to Job's restoration to health, family comforts, and general prosperity, after the present trial should be ended. In defense of these two opinions larger treatises have been written than the whole book of Job would amount to, if written even in capitals. To discuss the arguments on either side the nature of this work forbids; but my own view of the subject will be reasonably expected by the reader. I shall therefore lay down one principle, without which no mode of interpretation hitherto offered can have any weight. The principle is this: Job was now under the especial inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and spoke prophetically. Now, whether we allow that the passage refers to the general resurrection and the redemption by Christ, or to Job's restoration to health, happiness, and prosperity, this principle is equally necessary.

[¶10] 1. In those times no man could speak so clearly concerning the general resurrection and the redemption by Jesus Christ as Job, by one class of interpreters, is supposed here to do, unless especially inspired for this very purpose.

[¶11] 2. Job's restoration to health and happiness, which, though it did take place, was so totally improbable to himself all the way through, so wholly unexpected, and, in every sense, impossible, except to the almighty power of God, that it could not be inferred from any thing that had already taken place, and must be foreshown by direct inspiration.

[¶12] Now, that it was equally easy to predict either of these events, will be at once evident, because both were in futurity, and both were previously determined. Nothing contingent could exist in either; with them man had nothing to do; and they were equally within the knowledge of Him to whose ubiquity there can be neither past nor future time; in whose presence absolute and contingent events subsist in their own distinctive characters, and are never resolved into each other. But another question may arise, Which was most likely to be the subject of this oracular declaration, the general resurrection and redemption by Christ; or the restoration of Job to health and affluence? If we look only to the general importance of these things, this question may be soon decided; for the doctrine of human redemption, and the general resurrection to an eternal life, are of infinitely greater importance than any thing that could affect the personal welfare of Job. We may therefore say, of two things which only the power of God can effect, and one of which only shall be done it is natural to conclude he will do that which is of most importance; and that is of most importance by which a greater measure of glory is secured to himself, and a greater sum of good produced to mankind. As, therefore, a revelation by which the whole human race, in all its successive generations, to the end of time, may be most essentially benefited, is superior in its worth and importance to that by which one man only can be benefited, it is natural to conclude here, that the revelation relative to the general resurrection, etc., is that which most likely the text includes. But to this it may be answered, God does not do always in the first instance that which is most necessary and important in itself, as every thing is done in that order and in that time which seems best to his godly wisdom; therefore, a thing of less importance may be done now, and a thing of greater importance left to a future time. So, God made the earth before he made man, produced light before he formed the celestial luminaries, and instituted the Mosaic economy before the Christian dispensation. This is all true, for every thing is done in that season in which it may best fulfill the designs of providence and grace. But the question still recurs, Which of the predictions was most congruous to the circumstances of Job, and those of his companions; and which of them was most likely to do most good on that occasion, and to be most useful through the subsequent ages of the world? The subject is now considerably narrowed; and, if this question could be satisfactorily answered, the true meaning of the passage would be at once found out.

[¶13] 1. For the sake of righteousness, justice, and truth, and to vindicate the ways of God with man, it was necessary that Job's innocence should be cleared; that the false judgments of his friends should be corrected; and that, as Job was now reduced to a state of the lowest distress, it was worthy the kindness of God to give him some direct intimation that his sufferings should have a happy termination. That such an event ought to take place, there can be no question: and that it did take place, is asserted in the book; and that Job's friends saw it, were reproved, corrected, and admitted into his favor of whom they did not speak that which was right, and who had, in consequence, God's wrath kindled against them, are also attested facts. But surely there was no need of so solemn a revelation to inform them of what was shortly to take place, when they lived to see it; nor can it be judged essentially necessary to the support of Job, when the ordinary consolations of God's Spirit, and the excitement of a good hope through grace, might have as completely answered the end.

[¶14] 2. On the other hand, to give men, who were the chiefs of their respective tribes, proper notice of a doctrine of which they appear to have had no adequate conception, and which was so necessary to the peace of society, the good government of men, and the control of unruly and wayward passions, which the doctrine of the general resurrection and consequent judgment is well calculated to produce; and to stay and support the suffering godly under the afflictions and calamities of life; were objects worthy the highest regards of infinite philanthropy and justice, and of the most pointed and solemn revelation which could be given on such an occasion. In short, they are the grounds on which all revelation is given to the sons of men: and the prophecy in question, viewed in this light, was, in that dark age and country, a light shining in a dark place; for the doctrine of the general resurrection and of future rewards and punishments, existed among the Arabs from time immemorial, and was a part of the public creed of the different tribes when Mohammed endeavored to establish his own views of that resurrection and of future rewards and punishments, by the edge of the sword. I have thus endeavored dispassionately to view this subject; and having instituted the preceding mode of reasoning, without foreseeing where it would tend, being only desirous to find out truth, I arrive at the conclusion, that the prophecy in question was not designed to point out the future prosperity of Job; but rather the future redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ, and the general resurrection of the human race. After what has been stated above, a short paraphrase on the words of the text will be all that is necessary to be added. I know, ידעתי yadati, I have a firm and full persuasion, that my Redeemer, גאלי goali, my Kinsman, he whose right it was among the ancient Hebrews to redeem the forfeited heritages belonging to the family, to vindicate its honor, and to avenge the death of any of his relatives by slaying the murderer; ([Lev 25:25]; [Num 35:12]; [Rut 3:13]); but here it must refer to Christ, who has truly the right of redemption, being of the same kindred, who was born of woman, flesh of flesh and bone of our bone. Liveth, חי chai, is the living One, who has the keys of hell and death: the Creator and Lord of the spirits of all flesh, and the principle and support of all life. And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. The latter day, אחרון acharon, the latter day, or time, when God comes to judgment; or finally, or at last, or in the last time, or latter days, as the Gospel is termed, he shall be manifested in the flesh. He shall stand, יקום yakum, he shall arise, or stand up, i.e., to give sentence in judgment: or he himself shall arise from the dust, as the passage has been understood by some to refer to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Upon the earth, על עפר al aphar, over the dead, or those who are reduced to dust. This is the meaning of עפר aphar in [Psa 30:9] : What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the Dust (i.e., the dead) praise thee? He shall arise over the dust - over them who sleep in the dust, whom he shall also raise up.

### Verse 26

[¶16] And though after my skin worms destroy this body - My skin, which is now almost all that remains of my former self, except the bones; see [Job 19:20]. They destroy this - not body. נקפו זאת nikkephu zoth, they - diseases and affliction, destroy This wretched composition of misery and corruption.

[¶17] Yet in my flesh shall I see God - Either, I shall arise from the dead, have a renewed body and see him with eyes of flesh and blood, though what I have now shall shortly moulder into dust, or, I shall see him in the flesh; my Kinsman, who shall partake of my flesh and blood, in order that he may ransom the lost inheritance.

### Verse 27

[¶19] Whom I shall see for myself - Have a personal interest in the resurrection, as I shall have in the Redeemer.

[¶20] And mine eyes shall behold - That very person who shall be the resurrection, as he is the life.

[¶21] And not another - ולא זר velo zar, and not a stranger, one who has no relation to human nature; but גאלי goali, my redeeming Kinsman.

[¶22] Though my reins be consumed within me - Though I am now apparently on the brink of death, the thread of life being spun out to extreme tenuity. This, on the mode of interpretation which I have assumed, appears to be the meaning of this passage. The words may have a somewhat different colouring put on them; but the basis of the interpretation will be the same. I shall conclude with the version of Coverdale: -

[¶23] For I am sure that my Redeemer liveth;

[¶24] And that I shal ryse out of the earth in the latter daye;

[¶25] That I shal be clothed againe with this skynne

[¶26] And se God in my flesh.

[¶27] Yee, I myself shal beholde him,

[¶28] Not with other, but with these same eyes.

[¶29] My reins are consumed within me, when ye saye,

[¶30] Why do not we persecute him?

[¶31] We have founde an occasion against him.

### Verse 28

[¶33] But ye should say - Or, Then ye shall say.

[¶34] Why persecute we him - Or, as Mr. Good, How did we persecute him! Alas! we are now convinced that we did wrong.

[¶35] Seeing the root of the matter - A pure practice, and a sound hope, resting on the solid ground of sound faith, received from God himself. Instead of בי bi, in Me, בי bo, in Him, is the reading of more than one hundred of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and in several of the versions. Seeing the root of the matter is found in Him.

### Verse 29

[¶37] Be ye afraid of the sword - Of God's judgments.

[¶38] For wrath bringeth - Such anger as ye have displayed against me, God will certainly resent and punish.

[¶39] That ye may know there is a judgment - That ye may know that God will judge the world; and that the unequal distribution of riches and poverty, afflictions and health, in the present life, is a proof that there must be a future judgment, where evil shall be punished and virtue rewarded.

[¶40] It would not be fair, after all the discussion of the preceding verses in reference to the two grand opinions and modes of interpretation instituted by learned men, not to inform the reader that a third method of solving all difficulties has been proposed, viz., that Job refers to a Divine conviction which he had just then received, that God would appear in the most evident manner to vindicate his innocence, and give the fullest proofs to his friends and to the world that his afflictions had not been sent as a scourge for his iniquities. Dr. Kennicott was the proposer of this third mode of solving these difficulties, and I shall give his method in his own words. "These five verses, though they contain but twelve lines, have occasioned controversies without number, as to the general meaning of Job in this place, whether he here expressed his firm belief of a resurrection to happiness after death, or of a restoration to prosperity during the remainder of his life. "Each of these positions has found powerful as well as numerous advocates; and the short issue of the whole seems to be, that each party has confuted the opposite opinion, yet without establishing its own. For how could Job here express his conviction of a reverse of things in this world, and of a restoration to temporal prosperity, at the very time when he strongly asserts that his miseries would soon be terminated by death? See [Job 6:11]; [Job 7:21]; [Job 17:11-15]; [Job 19:10], and particularly in [Job 7:7] : O remember that my life is wind; mine eye shall no more see good. "Still less could Job here express a hope full of immortality, which sense cannot be extorted from the words without every violence. And as the possession of such belief is not to be reconciled with Job's so bitterly cursing the day of his birth in [Job 3:1-3], so the declaration of such belief would have solved at once the whole difficulty in dispute. "But if neither of the preceding and opposite opinions can be admitted, if the words are not meant to express Job's belief either of a restoration or of a resurrection, what then are we to do? It does not appear to me that any other interpretation has yet been proposed by the learned; yet I will now venture to offer a third interpretation, different from both the former, and which, whilst it is free from the preceding difficulties, does not seem liable to equal objections. "The conviction, then, which I suppose Job to express here, is this: That though his dissolution was hastening on amidst the unjust accusations of his pretended friends, and the cruel insults of his hostile relations; and though, whilst he was thus singularly oppressed with anguish of mind, he was also tortured with pains of body, torn by sores and ulcers from head to foot, and sitting upon dust and ashes; yet still, out of that miserable body, in his flesh thus stripped of skin, and nearly dropping into the grave, He Should See God, who would appear in his favor, and vindicate The Integrity of his character. This opinion may perhaps be fairly and fully supported by the sense of the words themselves, by the context, and by the following remarks. "We read in [Job 2:7], that Job was smitten with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown; and [Job 2:8], 'He sat down among the ashes.' In [Job 7:5], Job says, 'My flesh is clothed with worms, and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.' In [Job 16:19] : 'Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.' Then come the words of Job, [Job 19:25-29]. And then, in opposition to what Job had just said, that God would soon appear to vindicate him, and that even his accusing friends would acquit him, Zophar says, [Job 20:27], that 'the heaven would reveal his iniquity, and the earth would rise up against him.' Lastly, this opinion concerning Job's words, as to God's vindication of him, is confirmed strongly at the end of the book, which records the conclusion of Job's history. His firm hope is here supposed to be that, before his death, he should, with his bodily eyes, see God appearing and vindicating his character. And from the conclusion we learn that God did thus appear: Now, says Job, mine eye seeth thee. And then did God most effectually and for ever brighten the glory of Job's fame, by four times calling him His Servant; and, as his anger was kindled against Job's friends, by speaking to them in the following words: 'Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Go to my servant Job, - and my servant Job shall pray for you, - in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job,' [Job 40:7], [Job 40:8]." Dr. K. then gives the common version, and proposes the following as a new version: - [Job 19:25] For I know that my Vindicator liveth,And he at last shall arise over this dust. [Job 19:26] And after that mine adversaries have mangled me thus,Even in my flesh shall I see God. [Job 19:27] Whom I shall see on my side;And mine eyes shall behold, but not estranged from me:All this have I made up in mine bosom. [Job 19:28] Verily ye shall say, Why have we persecuted him;Seeing the truth of the matter is found with him? [Job 19:29] Tremble for yourselves at the face of the sword;For the sword waxeth hot against iniquities:Therefore be assured that judgment will take place.

[¶41] Kennicott's Remarks on Select Passages of Scripture, p. 165.

[¶42] There is something very plausible in this plan of Dr. Kennicott; and in the conflicting opinions relative to the meaning of this celebrated and much controverted passage, no doubt some will be found who will adopt it as a middle course. The theory, however, is better than some of the arguments by which it is supported. Yet had I not been led, by the evidence mentioned before, to the conclusion there drawn, I should probably have adopted Dr. K.'s opinion with some modification: but as to his new version, it is what I am persuaded the Hebrew text can never bear. It is even too loose a paraphrase of the original, as indeed are most of the new versions of this passage. Dr. Kennicott says, that such a confidence as those cause Job to express, who make him speak concerning the future resurrection, ill comports with his cursing so bitterly the day of his birth, etc. But this objection has little if any strength, when we consider that it is not at all probable that Job had this confidence any time before the moment in which he uttered it: it was then a direct revelation, nothing of which he ever had before, else he had never dropped those words of impatience and irritation which we find in several of his speeches. And this may be safely inferred from the consideration, that after this time no such words escaped his lips: he bears the rest of his sufferings with great patience and fortitude; and seems to look forward with steady hope to that day in which all tears shall be wiped away from off all faces, and it be fully proved that the Judge of all the earth has done right.

### Introduction

[¶44] Zophar answers Job, and largely details the wretchedness of the wicked and the hypocrite; shows that the rejoicing of such is short and transitory, [Job 20:1-9]. That he is punished in his family and in his person, [Job 20:10-14]. That he shall be stripped of his ill-gotten wealth, and shall be in misery, though in the midst of affluence, [Job 20:15-23]. He shall at last die a violent death, and his family and property be finally destroyed, [Job 20:24-29].

## 505. Job · 32 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/505/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/505/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] Therefore do my thoughts - It has already been observed that Zophar was the most inveterate of all Job's enemies, for we really must cease to call them friends. He sets no bounds to his invective, and outrages every rule of charity. A man of such a bitter spirit must have been, in general, very unhappy. With him Job is, by insinuation, every thing that is base, vile, and hypocritical. Mr. Good translates this verse thus: "Whither would my tumult transport me? And how far my agitation within me?" This is all the modesty that appears in Zophar's discourse. He acknowledges that he is pressed by the impetuosity of his spirit to reply to Job's self-vindication. The original is variously translated, but the sense is as above.

[¶2] For this I make haste - ובעבור חושי בי ubaabur chushi bi, there is sensibility in me, and my feelings provoke me to reply.

### Verse 3

[¶4] I have heard the check of my reproach - Some suppose that Zophar quotes the words of Job, and that some words should be supplied to indicate this meaning; e.g., "I have heard (sayest thou) the check or charge of my reproach?" Or it may refer to what Job says of Zophar and his companions, [Job 19:2], [Job 19:3] : How long will ye vex may soul - these ten times have ye reproached me. Zophar therefore assumes his old ground, and retracts nothing of what he had said. Like many of his own complexion in the present day, he was determined to believe that his judgment was infallible, and that he could not err.

### Verse 4

[¶6] Knowest thou not this of old - This is a maxim as ancient as the world; it began with the first man: A wicked man shall triumph but a short time; God will destroy the proud doer.

[¶7] Since man was placed upon earth - Literally, since Adam was placed on the earth; that is, since the fall, wickedness and hypocrisy have existed; but they have never triumphed long. Thou hast lately been expressing confidence in reference to a general judgment; but such is thy character, that thou hast little reason to anticipate with any joy the decisions of that day.

### Verse 6

[¶9] Though his excellency mount up to the heavens - Probably referring to the original state of Adam, of whose fall he appears to have spoken, [Job 20:4]. He was created in the image of God; but by his sin against his Maker he fell into wretchedness, misery, death, and destruction.

### Verse 7

[¶11] He shall perish for ever - He is dust, and shall return to the dust from which he was taken. Zophar here hints his disbelief in that doctrine, the resurrection of the body, which Job had so solemnly asserted in the preceding chapter. Or he might have been like some in the present day, who believe that the wicked shall be annihilated, and the bodies of the righteous only be raised from the dead; but I know of no scripture by which such a doctrine is confirmed.

[¶12] Like his own dung - His reputation shall be abominable, and his putrid carcass shall resemble his own excrement. A speech that partakes as much of the malevolence as of the asperity of Zophar's spirit.

### Verse 8

[¶14] He shall fly away as a dream - Instead of rising again from corruption, as thou hast asserted, ([Job 19:26]), with a new body, his flesh shall rot in the earth, and his spirit be dissipated like a vapor; and, like a vision of the night, nothing shall remain but the bare impression that such a creature had once existed, but shall appear no more for ever.

### Verse 10

[¶16] His children shall seek to please the poor - They shall be reduced to the lowest degree of poverty and want, so as to be obliged to become servants to the poor. Cursed be Ham, a servant of servants shall he be. There are cases where the poor actually serve the poor; and this is the lowest or most abject state of poverty.

[¶17] His hands shall restore their goods - He shall be obliged to restore the goods that he has taken by violence. Mr. Good translates: His branches shall be involved in his iniquity; i.e., his children shall suffer on his account. "His own hands shall render to himself the evil that he has done to others." - Calmet. The clause is variously translated.

### Verse 11

[¶19] His bones are full of the sin of his youth - Our translators have followed the Vulgate, Ossa ejus implebuntur vitiis adolescentiae ejus; "his bones shall be filled with the sins of his youth." The Syriac and Arabic have, his bones are full of marrow; and the Targum is to the same sense. At first view it might appear that Zophar refers to those infirmities in old age, which are the consequences of youthful vices and irregularities. עלומו alumau, which we translate his youth, may be rendered his hidden things; as if he had said, his secret vices bring down his strength to the dust. For this rendering Rosenmuller contends, and several other German critics. Mr. Good contends for the same.

### Verse 12

[¶21] Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth - This seems to refer to the secret sins mentioned above.

[¶22] Hide it under his tongue - This and the four following verses contain an allegory; and the reference is to a man who, instead of taking wholesome food, takes what is poisonous, and is so delighted with it because it is sweet, that he rolls it under his tongue, and will scarcely let it down into his stomach, he is so delighted with the taste; "he spares it, and forsakes it not, but keeps it still within his mouth," [Job 20:13]. "But when he swallows it, it is turned to the gall of asps within him," [Job 20:14], which shall corrode and torture his bowels.

### Verse 15

[¶24] He shall vomit them up again - This is also an allusion to an effect of most ordinary poisons; they occasion a nausea, and often excruciating vomiting; nature striving to eject what it knows, if retained, will be its bane.

### Verse 16

[¶26] He shall suck the poison of asps - That delicious morsel, that secret, easily-besetting sin, so palatable, and so pleasurable, shall act on the life of his soul, as the poison of asps would do on the life of his body. The poison is called the gall of asps, it being anciently supposed that the poison of serpents consists in their gall, which is thought to be copiously exuded when those animals are enraged; as it has been often seen that their bite is not poisonous when they are not angry. Pliny, in speaking of the various parts of animals, Hist. Nat. lib. xi., c. 37, states, from this circumstance, that in the gall, the poison of serpents consists; ne quis miretur id (fel) venenum esse serpentum. And in lib. xxviii., c. 9, he ranks the gall of horses among the poisons: Damnatur (fel) equinum tantum inter venena. We see, therefore, that the gall was considered to be the source whence the poison of serpents was generated, not only in Arabia, but also in Italy.

### Verse 17

[¶28] He shall not see the rivers - Mr. Good has the following judicious note on this passage: "Honey and butter are the common results of a rich, well-watered pasturage, offering a perpetual banquet of grass to kine, and of nectar to bees; and thus loading the possessor with the most luscious luxuries of pastoral life, peculiarly so before the discovery of the means of obtaining sugar. The expression appears to have been proverbial; and is certainly used here to denote a very high degree of temporal prosperity." See also [Job 29:6]. To the Hebrews such expressions were quite familiar. See [Exo 3:8]; [Exo 13:5]; [Exo 33:3]; [2Kgs 18:32]; [Deu 31:20], and elsewhere. The Greek and Roman writers abound in such images. Milk and honey were such delicacies with the ancients, that Pindar compares his song to them for its smoothness and sweetness: - Χαιρε Φιλος. Εγω τοδε τοι Πεμπω μεμιγμενον μελι λευκῳ Συν γαλακτι· κιρναμενα δ' εερς' αμφεπει πομ' αοιδιμον, Αιολισιν εν πνοαισιν αυλων.

[¶29] Pind. Nem. iii., ver. 133. "Hail, friend! to thee I tune my song;

[¶30] For thee its mingled sweets prepare;

[¶31] Mellifluous accents pour along;

[¶32] Verse, pure as milk, to thee I bear;

[¶33] On all thy actions falls the dew of praise;

[¶34] Pierian draughts thy thirst of fame assuage,

[¶35] And breathing flutes thy songs of triumph raise."

[¶36] J. B. C.

[¶37] Qui te, Pollio, amat, veniat, quo te quoque gaudet;

[¶38] Mella fluant illi, ferat et rubus asper amomum.

[¶39] Virg. Ecl. iii., ver. 88. "Who Pollio loves, and who his muse admires;

[¶40] Let Pollio's fortune crown his full desires

[¶41] Let myrrh, instead of thorn, his fences fill;

[¶42] And showers of honey from his oaks distil!"

[¶43] Dryden.

[¶44] Ovid, describing the golden age, employs the same image: -

## 506. Job · 33 of 73

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[¶0] Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant;

[¶1] Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.

[¶2] Metam. lib. i., ver. 3. "Floods were with milk, and floods with nectar, fill'd;

[¶3] And honey from the sweating oak distill'd."

[¶4] Dryden.

[¶5] Horace employs a similar image in nearly the same words: -

[¶6] Mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis;

[¶7] Levis crepante lympha desilit pede.

[¶8] Epod. xvi., ver. 46. "From hollow oaks, where honey'd streams distil,

[¶9] And bounds with noisy foot the pebbled rill."

[¶10] Francis.

[¶11] Job employs the same metaphor, [Job 29:6] : -

[¶12] When I washed my steps with butter,

[¶13] And the rock poured out to me rivers of oil.

[¶14] Isaiah, also, [Isa 7:22], uses the same when describing the produce of a heifer and two ewes: -

[¶15] From the plenty of milk that they shall produce,

[¶16] He shall eat butter: butter and honey shall he eat,

[¶17] Whosoever is left in the midst of the land.

[¶18] And Joel, [Joe 3:18] : -

[¶19] And it shall come to pass in that day,

[¶20] The mountains shall drop down new wine,

[¶21] And the hills shall flow with milk;

[¶22] And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters.

[¶23] These expressions denote fertility and abundance; and are often employed to point out the excellence of the promised land, which is frequently denominated a land flowing with milk and honey: and even the superior blessings of the Gospel are thus characterized, [Isa 51:1].

### Verse 18

[¶25] That which he laboureth for shall he restore - I prefer here the reading of the Arabic, which is also supported by the Syriac, and is much nearer to the Hebrew text than the common version. He shall return to labor, but he shall not eat; he shall toil, and not be permitted to enjoy the fruit of his labor. The whole of this verse Mr. Good thus translates: - "To labor shall he return, but he shall not eat.

[¶26] A dearth his recompense: yea, nothing shall he taste."

[¶27] It may be inquired how Mr. Good arrives at this meaning. It is by considering the word יעלס yaalos, which we translate he shall rejoice, as the Arabic (Arabic) alasa, "he ate, drank, tasted;" and the word כהיל kehil, which we make a compound word, keeheyl, "according to substance," to be the pure Arabic word (Arabic) kahala, "it was fruitless," applied to a year of dearth: hence kahlan, "a barren year." Conceiving these two to be pure Arabic words, for which he seems to have sufficient authority, he renders תמורתו temuratho, his recompense, as in [Job 15:31], and not restitution, as here. The general meaning is, He shall labor and toil, but shall not reap, for God shall send on his land blasting and mildew. Houbigant translates the verse thus: Reddet labore partum; neque id absumet; copiosae fuerunt mercaturae ejus, sed illis non fruetur. "He shall restore what he gained by labor, nor shall he consume it; his merchandises were abundant, but he shall not enjoy them." O, how doctors disagree! Old Coverdale gives a good sense, which is no unfrequent thing with this venerable translator: -

[¶28] But laboure shal he, and yet have nothinge to eate; great travayle shal he make for riches, but he shal not enjoye them.

### Verse 19

[¶30] He hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor - Literally, He hath broken in pieces the forsaken of the poor; כי רצץ עזב דלים ki ritstsats azab dallim. The poor have fled from famine, and left their children behind them; and this hard-hearted wretch, meaning Job all the while, has suffered them to perish, when he might have saved them alive.

[¶31] He hath violently taken away a house which he builded not - Or rather, He hath thrown down a house, and hath not rebuilt it. By neglecting or destroying the forsaken orphans of the poor, mentioned above, he has destroyed a house, (a family), while he might, by helping the wretched, have preserved the family from becoming extinct.

### Verse 20

[¶33] Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly - I have already remarked that the word בטן beten, which we translate belly, often means in the sacred Scriptures the whole of the human trunk; the regions of the thorax and abdomen, with their contents; the heart, lungs, liver, etc., and consequently all the thoughts, purposes, and inclinations of the mind, of which those viscera were supposed to be the functionaries. The meaning seems to be, "He shall never be satisfied; he shall have an endless desire after secular good, and shall never be able to obtain what he covets."

### Verse 21

[¶35] There shall none of his meat be left - Coverdale translates thus: He devoured so gredily, that he left nothinge behynde, therefore his goodes shal not prospere. He shall be stripped of every thing.

### Verse 22

[¶37] In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits - This is a fine saying, and few of the menders of Job's text have been able to improve the version. It is literally true of every great, rich, wicked man; he has no God, and anxieties and perplexities torment him, notwithstanding he has his portion in this life.

[¶38] Every hand of the wicked shall come upon him - All kinds of misery shall be his portion. Coverdale translates: Though he had plenteousnesse of every thinge, yet was he poore; and, therefore, he is but a wretch on every syde.

### Verse 23

[¶40] When he is about to fill his belly - Here seems a plain allusion to the lustings of the children of Israel in the desert. God showered down quails upon them, and showered down his wrath while the flesh was in their mouth. The allusion is too plain to be mistaken; and this gives some countenance to the bishop of Killala's version of [Job 20:20] - "Because he acknowledged not the quail in his stomach,

[¶41] In the midst of his delight he shall not escape."

[¶42] That שלו, which we translate quietness, means a quail, also the history of the Hebrews' lustings, [Exo 16:2-11], and [Num 11:31-35], sufficiently proves. Let the reader mark all the expressions here, [Job 20:20-23], and compare them with [Num 11:31-35], and he will probably be of opinion that Zophar has that history immediately in view, which speaks of the Hebrews' murmurings for bread and flesh, and the miraculous showers of manna and quails, and the judgments that fell on them for their murmurings. Let us compare a few passages: - [Job 20:20]. He shall not feel quietness - שלו selav, the quail. "He shall not save of that which he desired." [Job 20:21] : "There shall none of his meat be left." [Exo 16:19] : "Let no man leave of it till the morning." [Job 20:22]. In the fullness of his sufficiency, he shall be in straits - [Exo 16:20] : "But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank." [Job 20:23]. When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating - [Num 11:33] : "And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague." [Psa 78:26-30] : "He rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: so they did eat and were filled-but, while the meat was in their mouth, the wrath of God came upon them," etc. These show to what Zophar refers.

### Verse 24

[¶44] He shall flee from the iron weapon - Or, "Though he should flee from the iron armor, the brazen bow should strike him through." So that yf he fle the yron weapens, he shal be shott with the stele bow - Coverdale. That is, he shall most certainly perish: all kinds of deaths await him.

## 507. Job · 34 of 73

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### Verse 25

[¶1] It is drawn, and cometh out - This refers to archery: The arrow is drawn out of the sheaf or quiver, and discharged from the bow against its mark, and pierces the vitals, and passes through the body. So Coverdale - The arowe shal be taken forth, and go out at his backe.

### Verse 26

[¶3] A fire not blown shall consume him - As Zophar is here showing that the wicked cannot escape from the Divine judgments; so he points out the different instruments which God employs for their destruction. The wrath of God - any secret or supernatural curse. The iron weapon - the spear or such like. The bow, and its swift-flying arrow.

[¶4] Darkness - deep horror and perplexity. A fire not blown - a supernatural fire; lightning: such as fell on Korah, and his company, to whose destruction there is probably here an allusion: hence the words, It shall go ill with him who is left in his tabernacle. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. Get ye up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Depart from the tents of these wicked men. There came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense;" [Num 16:20], etc.

### Verse 27

[¶6] The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him - Another allusion, if I mistake not, to the destruction of Korah and his company. The heaven revealed their iniquity; God declared out of heaven his judgment of their rebellion. "And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation;" [Num 16:20], etc. And then the earth rose up against them. "The ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up; and they went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them;" [Num 16:31-33].

### Verse 28

[¶8] The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath - A farther allusion to the punishment of the rebellious company of Korah, who not only perished themselves, but their houses also, and their goods. [Num 16:32]. These examples were all in point, on the ground assumed by Zophar; and such well-attested facts would not be passed over by him, had he known the record of them; and that he did know it, alludes to it, and quotes the very circumstances, is more than probable.

### Verse 29

[¶10] This is the portion - As God has dealt with the murmuring Israelites, and with the rebellious sons of Korah, so will he deal with those who murmur against the dispensations of his providence, and rebel against his authority. Instead of an earthly portion, and an ecclesiastical heritage, such as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram sought; they shall have fire from God to scorch them, and the earth to swallow them up. Dr. Stock, bishop of Killala, who has noticed the allusion to the quails, and for which he has been most unmeritedly ridiculed, gives us the following note on the passage: - "Here I apprehend is a fresh example of the known usage of Hebrew poets, in adorning their compositions by allusions to facts in the history of their own people. It has escaped all the interpreters; and it is the more important, because it fixes the date of this poem, so far as to prove its having been composed subsequently to the transgression of Israel, at Kibroth Hattaavah, recorded in [Num 11:33], [Num 11:34]. Because the wicked acknowledges not the quail, that is, the meat with which God has filled his stomach; but, like the ungrateful Israelites, crammed, and blasphemed his feeder, as Milton finely expresses it, he shall experience the same punishment with them, and be cut off in the midst of his enjoyment, as Moses tells us the people were who lusted." If I mistake not, I have added considerable strength to the prelate's reasoning, by showing that there is a reference also to the history of the manna, and to that which details the rebellion of Korah and his company; and if so, (and they may dispute who please), it is a proof that the Book of Job is not so old as, much less older than, the Pentateuch, as some have endeavored to prove, but with no evidence of success, at least to my mind: a point which never has been, and I am certain never can be, proved; which has multitudes of presumptions against it, and not one clear incontestable fact for it. Mr. Good has done more in this case than any of his predecessors, and yet Mr. Good has failed; no wonder then that others, unmerciful criticisers of the bishop of Killala, have failed also, who had not a tenth part of Mr. Good's learning, nor one-hundredth part of his critical acumen. It is, however, strange that men cannot suffer others to differ from them on a subject of confessed difficulty and comparatively little importance, without raising up the cry of heresy against them, and treating them with superciliousness and contempt! These should know, if they are clergymen, whether dignified or not, that such conduct ill becomes the sacerdotal character; and that ante barbam docet senes cannot be always spoken to the teacher's advantage. As a good story is not the worse for being twice told, the following lines from a clergyman, who, for his humility and piety, was as much an honor to his vocation as he was to human nature, may not be amiss, in point of advice to all Warburtonian spirits: - "Be calm in arguing, for fierceness makes Error a fault, and truth discourtesy. Why should I feel another man's mistakes More than his sickness or his poverty?

[¶11] In love I should: but anger is not love

[¶12] Nor wisdom neither; therefore, gently move. Calmness is great advantage: he that lets Another chafe, may warm him at his fire, Mark all his wanderings, and enjoy his frets; As cunning fencers suffer heat to tire.

[¶13] Truth dwells not in the clouds: the bow that's there

[¶14] Doth often aim at, never hit, the sphere."

[¶15] Hebert.

[¶16] Dr. Stock's work on the Book of Job will stand honourably on the same shelf with the best on this difficult subject.

### Introduction

[¶18] Job expresses himself as puzzled by the dispensations of Divine Providence, because of the unequal distribution of temporal goods; he shows that wicked men often live long, prosper in their families, in their flocks, and in all their substance, and yet live in defiance of God and sacred things, vv. 1-16. At other times their prosperity is suddenly blasted, and they and their families come to ruin, [Job 21:17-21]. God, however, is too wise to err; and he deals out various lots to all according to his wisdom: some come sooner, others later, to the grave: the strong and the weak, the prince and the peasant, come to a similar end in this life; but the wicked are reserved for a day of wrath, [Job 21:22-33]. He charges his friends with falsehood in their pretended attempts to comfort him, [Job 21:34].

### Verse 2

[¶20] Let this be your consolations - ותהי זאת תנחומתיכם uthehi zoth tanchumotheychem may be translated, "And let this be your retractations." Let what I am about to say induce you to retract what you have said, and to recall your false judgments. נחם nacham signifies, not only to comfort, but to change one's mind, to repent; hence the Vulgate translates et agite paenitentiam, "and repent," which Coverdale follows in his version, and amende yourselves. Some suppose the verse to be understood ironically: I am now about to give you consolations for those you have given me. When I have done, then turn them into mockery if you please.

### Verse 4

[¶22] As for me - האנכי heanochi, "Alas for me!" Is it not with a man that I speak? And, if this be the case, why should not my spirit be troubled? I do not reply against my Maker: I suffer much from God and man; why then may I not have the privilege of complaining to creatures like myself?

### Verse 5

[¶24] Mark me, and be astonished - Consider and compare the state in which I was once, with that in which I am now; and be astonished at the judgments and dispensations of God. You will then be confounded; you will put your hands upon your mouths, and keep silent. Putting the hand on the mouth, or the finger on the lips, was the token of silence. The Egyptian god Harpocrates, who was the god of silence, is represented with his finger compressing his upper lip.

### Verse 6

[¶26] I am afraid - I am about to speak of the mysterious workings of Providence; and I tremble at the thought of entering into a detail on such a subject; my very flesh trembles.

### Verse 7

[¶28] Wherefore do the wicked live - You have frequently asserted that the wicked are invariably punished in this life; and that the righteous are ever distinguished by the strongest marks of God's providential kindness; how then does it come that many wicked men live long and prosperously, and at last die in peace, without any evidence whatever of God's displeasure? This is a fact that is occurring daily; none can deny it; how then will you reconcile it with your maxims?

### Verse 8

[¶30] Their seed is established - They see their own children grow up, and become settled in the land; and behold their children's children also; so that their generations are not cut off. Even the posterity of the wicked continue.

### Verse 9

[¶32] Neither is the rod of God upon them - They are not afflicted as other men.

### Verse 10

[¶34] Their bull gendereth - עבר ibbar, passes over, i.e., on the cow, referring to the actions of the bull when coupling with the female. Their flocks multiply greatly, they bring forth in time, and none of them is barren.

### Verse 11

[¶36] They send forth their little ones - It is not very clear whether this refers to the young of the flocks or to their children. The first clause may mean the former, the next clause the latter; while the young of their cattle are in flocks, their numerous children are healthy and vigorous, and dance for joy.

### Verse 12

[¶38] They take the timbrel and harp - ישאו yisu, they rise up or lift themselves up, probably alluding to the rural exercise of dancing. תף toph, which we translate timbrel, means a sort of drum, such as the tom-tom of the Asiatics. כנור kinnor may mean something of the harp kind. עוגב ugab, organ, means nothing like the instrument now called the organ, though thus translated both by the Septuagint and Vulgate; it probably means the syrinx, composed of several unequal pipes, close at the bottom, which when blown into at the top, gives a very shrill and lively sound. To these instruments the youth are represented as dancing joyfully. Mr. Good translates: "They trip merrily to the sound of the pipe." And illustrates his translation with the following verse: - "Now pursuing, now retreating,Now in circling troops they meet;

[¶39] To brisk notes in cadence beating,Glance their many twinkling feet."

[¶40] The original is intended to convey the true notion of the gambols of the rustic nymphs and swains on festival occasions, and let it be observed that this is spoken of the children of those who say unto God, "Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?" [Job 21:14], [Job 21:15]. Is it any wonder that the children of such parents should be living to the flesh, and serving the lusts of the flesh? for neither they nor their parents know God, nor pray unto him.

### Verse 13

[¶42] They spend their days in wealth - There is a various reading here of some importance. In the text we have יבלו yeballu, they grow old, or wear out as with old age, terent vetustate; and in the margin, יכלו yechallu, they consume; and the Masora states that this is one of the eleven words which are written with ב beth and must be read with כ caph. Several editions have the former word in the text, and the latter in the margin; the former being what is called the kethib, the latter keri. יבלו yeballu, they grow old, or wear out, is the reading of the Antwerp, Paris, and London Polyglots; יכלו yechallu, they accomplish or spend, is the reading of the Complutensian Polyglot, thirteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., the Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The Vulgate has ducunt, "they lead or spend," from which our translation is borrowed. I incline to the former, as Job's argument derives considerable strength from this circumstance; they not only spend their days in faring sumptuously every day; but they even wear out so as to grow old in it; they are not cut off by any sudden judgment of God. This is fact; therefore your doctrine, that the wicked are cut off suddenly and have but a short time, is far from the truth.

[¶43] In a moment go down to the grave - They wear out their years in pleasure; grow old in their gay and giddy life; and die, as in a moment, without previous sickness; or, as Mr. Good has it, They quietly descend into the grave.

## 508. Job · 35 of 73

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### Verse 14

[¶1] They say unto God - This is the language of their conduct, though not directly of their lips.

[¶2] Depart from us - Let us alone; we do not trouble thee. Thy ways are painful; we do not like cross-bearing. Thy ways are spiritual; we wish to live after the flesh. We have learned to do our own will; we do not wish to study thine.

### Verse 15

[¶4] What is the Almighty - What allegiance do we owe to him? We feel no obligation to obey him; and what profit can we derive from prayer? We are as happy as flesh and blood can make us: our kingdom is of this world; we wish for no other portion than that which we have. Those who have never prayed as they ought know nothing of the benefits of prayer.

### Verse 16

[¶6] Their good is not in their hand - With all their boasting and self-dependence, God only lends them his bounty; and though it appears to be their own, yet it is at his disposal. Some of the wicked he permits to live and die in affluence, provided it be acquired in the ordinary way of his providence, by trade, commerce, etc. Others he permits to possess it for a while only, and then strips them of their illegally procured property.

[¶7] The counsel of the wicked is far from me - Some understand the words thus: "Far be it from me to advocate the cause of the wicked." I have nothing in common with them, and am not their apologist. I state a fact: they are often found in continual prosperity. I state another fact: they are often found in wretchedness and misery.

### Verse 17

[¶9] How oft is the candle of the wicked put out? - The candle or lamp is often used, both as the emblem of prosperity and of posterity. Oftentimes the rejoicing of the wicked is short; and, not unfrequently, his seed is cut off from the earth. The root is dried up, and the branch is withered.

[¶10] God distributeth sorrows in his anger - He must be incensed against those who refuse to know, serve, and pray unto him. In his anger, therefore, he portions out to each his due share of misery, vexation, and wo.

### Verse 18

[¶12] They are as stubble before the wind - "His fan is in his hand; he will thoroughly cleanse his floor, and the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, but shall be like the chaff which the wind driveth away." Were not this a common thought, I should have supposed that the author of this book borrowed it from [Psa 1:4]. The original signifies that they shall be carried away by a furious storm; and borne off as booty is by the swift-riding robbers of the desert, who make a sudden irruption, and then set off at full speed with their prey.

### Verse 19

[¶14] God layeth up his iniquity for his children - This is according to the declaration of God, [Exo 20:5] : "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." This always supposes that the children, who are thus visited, have copied their parents' example; or that ill-gotten property is found in their hands, which has descended to them from their wicked fathers; and of this God, in his judgments, strips them. It is, however, very natural to suppose that children brought up without the fear of God will walk in the sight of their own eyes, and according to the imaginations of their own hearts.

[¶15] He rewardeth him, and he shall know it - He shall so visit his transgressions upon him, that he shall at last discern that it is God who hath done it. And thus they will find that there would have been profit in serving him, and safety in praying unto him. But this they have neglected, and now it is too late.

### Verse 20

[¶17] His eyes shall see his destruction - He shall perceive its approach, and have the double punishment of fearing and feeling; feeling a Thousand deaths in fearing One.

[¶18] He shall drink of the wrath - The cup of God's wrath, the cup of trembling, etc., is frequently expressed or referred to in the sacred writings, [Deu 32:33]; [Isa 51:17-22]; [Jer 25:15]; [Rev 14:8]. It appears to be a metaphor taken from those cups of poison which certain criminals were obliged to drink. A cup of the juice of hemlock was the wrath or punishment assigned by the Athenian magistrates to the philosopher Socrates.

### Verse 21

[¶20] For what pleasure hath he in his house after him - What may happen to his posterity he neither knows nor cares for, as he is now numbered with the dead, and numbered with them before he had lived out half his years. Some have translated the verse thus: "Behold how speedily God destroys the house of the wicked after him! How he shortens the number of his months!"

### Verse 22

[¶22] Shall any teach God knowledge? - Who among the sons of men can pretend to teach God how to govern the world, who himself teaches those that are high - the heavenly inhabitants, that excel us infinitely both in knowledge and wisdom? Neither angels nor men can comprehend the reasons of the Divine providence. It is a depth known only to God.

### Verse 23

[¶24] One dieth in his full strength - In this and the three following verses Job shows that the inequality of fortune, goods, health, strength, etc., decides nothing either for or against persons in reference to the approbation or disapprobation of God, as these various lots are no indications of their wickedness or innocence. One has a sudden, another a lingering death; but by none of these can their eternal states be determined.

### Verse 24

[¶26] His breasts are full of milk - The word עטיניו atinaiv, which occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, is most likely an Arabic term, but probably so provincial as to be now lost. (Arabic) atana signifies to macerate hides so as to take off the hair: hence Mr. Good thinks it means here, that sleekness of skin which is the effect of fatness both in man and beast. But as the radical idea signifies to stink, as leather does which is thus macerated, I cannot see how this meaning can apply here. Under the root עטן atan, Mr. Parkhurst gives the following definitions:" עטן occurs, not as a verb, but as a noun masculine plural, in construction, עטיני atiney, the bowels, intestines; once [Job 21:24], עטיניו atinaiv, his bowels or intestines, are full of, or abound with, חלב chalab, fat. So the lxx.: Τα δε εγκατα αυτου πληρη στεατος. The Vulgate: Viscera, ejus plena sent adipe, 'his intestines are full of fat.' May not עטינים atinim be a noun masculine plural from עטה atah, to involve, formed as גליונים gailyonim, mirrors, from גלה galah, to reveal? And may nor the intestines, including those fatty parts, the mesentery and omentum, be so called on account of their wonderful involutions?" I think this conjecture to be as likely as any that has yet been formed.

### Verse 26

[¶28] They shall lie down alike in the dust - Death levels all distinctions, and the grave makes all equal. There may be a difference in the grave itself; but the human corpse is the same in all. Splendid monuments enshrine corruption; but the sod must lie close and heavy upon the putrefying carcass, to prevent it from becoming the bane of the living.

### Verse 27

[¶30] I know your thoughts - Ye still think that, because I am grievously afflicted, I must therefore be a felonious transgressor.

### Verse 28

[¶32] For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? - In order to prove your point, ye ask, Where is the house of the tyrant and oppressor?

[¶33] Are they not overthrown and destroyed? And is not this a proof that God does not permit the wicked to enjoy prosperity?

### Verse 29

[¶35] Have ye not asked them that go by the way? - This appears to be Job's answer. Consult travelers who have gone through different countries; and they will tell you that they have seen both examples - the wicked in great prosperity in some instances, while suddenly destroyed in others. See at the end of the chapter, [Job 21:34] (note).

[¶36] Do ye not know their tokens - Mr. Good translates the whole verse thus: "Surely thou canst never have inquired of men of travel; or thou couldst not have been ignorant of their tokens. Hadst thou made proper inquiries, thou wouldst have heard of their awful end in a thousand instances. And also of their prosperity." See at the end of this chapter, [Job 21:34] (note).

### Verse 30

[¶38] That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? - Though every one can tell that he has seen the wicked in prosperity, and even spend a long life in it; yet this is no proof that God loves him, or that he shall enjoy a prosperous lot in the next world. There, he shall meet with the day of wrath. There, the wicked shall be punished, and the just rewarded.

### Verse 31

[¶40] Who shall declare his way to his face? - But while the wicked is in power, who shall dare to tell him to his face what his true character is? or, who shall dare to repay him the evil he has done? As such a person cannot have his punishment in this life, he must have it in another; and for this the day of wrath - the day of judgment, is prepared.

### Verse 32

[¶42] Yet shall he be brought to the grave - He shall die like other men; and the corruption of the grave shall prey upon him. Mr. Carlyle, in his specimens of Arabic poetry, Translations, p. 16, quotes this verse, which he translates and paraphrases, והוא לקברות יובל "He shall be brought to the grave," ועל גדוש ישקוד And shall watch upon the high-raised heap." It was the opinion of the pagan Arabs, that upon the death of any person, a bird, by them called Manah, issued from the brain, and haunted the sepulcher of the deceased, uttering a lamentable scream.

[¶43] This notion, he adds, is evidently alluded to in [Job 21:32]. Thus Abusahel, on the death of his mistress: - "If her ghost's funereal screech

[¶44] Through the earth my grave should reach,

[¶45] On that voice I loved so well

## 509. Job · 36 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/509/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/509/#p-N

[¶0] My transported ghost would dwell."

### Verse 33

[¶2] The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him - Perhaps there is an allusion here to the Asiatic mode of interment for princes, saints, and nobles: a well-watered valley was chosen for the tomb, where a perpetual spring might be secured. This was intended to be the emblem of a resurrection, or of a future life; and to conceal as much as possible the disgrace of the rotting carcass.

[¶3] Every man shall draw after him - There seem to be two allusions intended here:

[¶4] 1. To death, the common lot of all. Millions have gone before him to the tomb; and כל אדם col adam, all men, shall follow him: all past generations have died, all succeeding generations shall die also.

[¶5] 2. To pompous funeral processions; multitudes preceding, and multitudes following, the corpse.

### Verse 34

[¶7] How then comfort ye me in vain - Mr. Good translates: "How vainly then would ye make me retract!" See the note on [Job 21:2]. I cannot retract any thing I have said, as I have proved by fact and testimony that your positions are false and unfounded. Your pretensions to comfort me are as hollow as the arguments you bring in support of your exceptionable doctrines.

[¶8] This chapter may be called Job's triumph over the insinuated calumnies, and specious but false doctrines, of his opponents. The irritability of his temper no longer appears: from the time he got that glorious discovery of his Redeemer, and the Joyous hope of an eternal inheritance, [Job 19:25], etc., we find no more murmurings, nor unsanctified complainings. He is now full master of himself; and reasons conclusively, because he reasons coolly. Impassioned transports no longer carry him away: his mind is serene; his heart, fixed; his hope, steady; and his faith, strong. Zophar the Naamathite is now, in his presence, as an infant in the gripe of a mighty giant. Another of these pretended friends but real enemies comes forward to renew the attack with virulent invective, malevolent insinuation, and unsupported assertion. Him, Job meets, and vanquishes by pious resignation and fervent prayer. Though, at different times after this, Job had his buffetings from his grand adversary, and some seasons of comparative darkness, yet his faith is unshaken, and he stands as a beaten anvil to the stroke. He effectually exculpates himself, and vindicates the dispensations of his Maker.

[¶9] There appears to be something in the [Job 21:29] which requires to be farther examined: Have ye not asked them that go by the way? And do ye not know their tokens? It is probable that this verse may allude to the custom of burying the dead by the way-side, and raising up specious and descriptive monuments over them. Job argues that the lot of outward prosperity fell alike to the just and to the unjust, and that the sepulchral monuments by the wayside were proofs of his assertion; for his friends, as well as himself and others, had noted them, and asked the history of such and such persons, from the nearest inhabitants of the place; and the answers, in a great variety of cases, had been: "That monument points out the place where a wicked man lies, who was all his lifetime in prosperity and affluence, yet oppressed the poor, and shut up the bowels of his compassion against the destitute; and this belongs to a man who lived only to serve his God, and to do good to man according to his power, yet had not a day of health, nor an hour of prosperity; God having given to the former his portion in this life, and reserved the recompense of the latter to a future state."

[¶10] The Septuagint render the verse thus: - Ερωτησατε παραπορευμενους ὁδον, και τα σημεια αυτων ουκ απαλλοτριωσατε, "Inquire of those who pass by the way, and their signs [monuments] ye will not alienate." That is, When ye hear the history of these persons, ye will not then assert that the man who lived in prosperity was a genuine worshipper of the true God, and therefore was blessed with temporal good, and that he who lived in adversity was an enemy to God and was consequently cursed with the want of secular blessings. Of the former ye will hear a different account from those who dare now speak the truth, because the prosperous oppressor is no more; And of the latter ye shall learn that, though afflicted, destitute, and distressed, he was one of those who acknowledged God in all his ways, and never performed an act of religious service to him in hope of secular gain; sought his approbation only, and met death cheerfully, in the hope of being eternally with the Lord.

[¶11] Neither good nor evil can be known by the occurrences of this life. Every thing argues the certainty of a future state, and the necessity of a day of judgment. They who are in the habit of marking casualties, especially if those whom they love not are the subjects of them, as tokens of Divine displeasure, only show an ignorance of God's dispensations, and a malevolence of mind that would fain arm itself with the celestial thunders, in order to transfix those whom they deem their enemies.

### Introduction

[¶13] Eliphaz reproves Job for his attempts to clear his character and establish his innocence, [Job 22:1-4]. Charges him with innumerable transgressions; with oppressions towards his brethren, cruelty to the poor, hard-heartedness to the needy, and uncharitableness towards the widow and the orphan; and says it is on these accounts that snares and desolations are come upon him, [Job 22:5-11]. Speaks of the majesty and justice of God: how he cut off the ante-diluvians, the inhabitants of Sodom and the cities of the plain, [Job 22:12-20]. Exhorts him to repent and acknowledge his sins, and promises him great riches and prosperity, [Job 22:21-30].

### Verse 2

[¶15] Can a man be profitable unto God - God does not afflict thee because thou hast deprived him of any excellency. A man may be profitable to a man, but no man can profit his Maker. He has no interest in thy conduct; he does not punish thee because thou hast offended and deprived him of some good. Thy iniquities are against justice, and justice requires thy punishment.

### Verse 3

[¶17] Is it any pleasure to the Almighty - Infinite in his perfections, he can neither gain nor lose by the wickedness or righteousness of men.

### Verse 4

[¶19] For fear of thee? - Is it because he is afraid that thou wilt do him some injury, that he has stripped thee of thy power and wealth?

### Verse 5

[¶21] Is not thy wickedness great? - Thy sins are not only many, but they are great; and of thy continuance in them there is no end, אין קץ ein kets.

### Verse 6

[¶23] Thou hast taken a pledge - Thou hast been vexatious in all thy doings, and hast exacted where nothing was due, so that through thee the poor have been unable to procure their necessary clothing.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Thou hast not given water - It was esteemed a great virtue in the East to furnish thirsty travelers with water; especially in the deserts, where scarcely a stream was to be found, and where wells were very rare. Some of the Indian devotees are accustomed to stand with a girbah or skin full of water, on the public roads, to give drink to weary travelers who are parched with thirst.

### Verse 8

[¶27] But as for the mighty man, he had the earth - איש זרוע ish zeroa, the man of arm. Finger, hand, and arm, are all emblems of strength and power. The man of arm is not only the strong man, but the man of power and influence, the man of rapine and plunder.

[¶28] The honorable man - Literally, the man whose face is accepted, the respectable man, the man of wealth. Thou wert an enemy to the poor and needy, but thou didst favor and flatter the rich and great.

### Verse 9

[¶30] The arms of the fatherless - Whatever strength or power or property they had, of that thou hast deprived them. Thou hast been hard-hearted and cruel, and hast enriched thyself with the spoils of the poor and the defenceless.

### Verse 10

[¶32] Therefore snares - As thou hast dealt with others, so has God, in his retributive providence, dealt with thee. As thou hast spoiled, so art thou spoiled. Thou art taken in a net from which thou canst not escape. There is an allusion here to the hunting of the elephant: he is driven into an inclosure in the woods, passing from strait to strait, till brought into a narrow point, from which he cannot escape; and then his consternation is great, and his roaring terrible. God hath hunted thee down, as men hunt down those wild and dangerous beasts. See on [Job 18:21] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶34] Or darkness, that thou canst not see - The sense of this passage, in the connection that the particle or gives it with the preceding verse, is not easy to be ascertained. To me it seems very probable that a letter has been lost from the first word; and that או o which we translate Or, was originally אור or Light. The copy used by the Septuagint had certainly this reading; and therefore they translate the verse thus: Το φως σοι εις σκοτος απεβη; Thy Light is changed into darkness; that is, Thy prosperity is turned into adversity.

[¶35] Houbigant corrects the text thus: instead of או חשך לא תראה o chosech lo tireh, or darkness thou canst not see, he reads חשך לא אור תראה chosech lo or tireh, darkness, not light, shalt thou behold; that is, Thou shalt dwell in thick darkness. Mr. Good translates: "Or darkness which thou canst not penetrate, and a flood of waters shall cover thee." Thou shalt either be enveloped in deep darkness, or overwhelmed with a flood.

[¶36] The versions all translate differently; and neither they nor the MSS. give any light, except what is afforded by the Septuagint. Coverdale is singular: Shuldest thou then send darcknesse? Shulde not the water floude runne over the? Perhaps the meaning is: "Thou art so encompassed with darkness, that thou canst not see thy way; and therefore fallest into the snares and traps that are laid for thee."

### Verse 12

[¶38] Is not God in the height of heaven? - It appears, from this and the following verses, that Eliphaz was attributing infidel and blasphemous speeches or sentiments to Job. As if he had said: "Thou allowest that there is a God, but thou sayest that he is infinitely exalted above the heavens and the stars, and that there is so much dense ether and thick cloud between his throne and the earth, that he can neither see it nor its inhabitants." These were sentiments which Job never held, and never uttered; but if a man be dressed in a bear's skin, he may be hunted and worried by his own dogs. Job's friends attribute falsities to him, and then dilate upon them, and draw inferences from them injurious to his character. Polemic writers, both in theology and politics, often act in this way.

### Verse 14

[¶40] He walketh in the circuit of heaven - He confines himself to those infinitely exalted regions and cares nothing for the inhabitants of the earth.

### Verse 15

[¶42] Hast thou marked the old way - This is supposed to be another accusation; as i! he had said, "Thou hollowest the same way that the wicked of old have walked in." Here is an evident allusion to the Flood, as is particularly noted in the next verse.

### Verse 16

[¶44] Whose foundation was overflown with a flood - The unrighteous in the days of Noah, who appear to have had an abundance of all temporal good, ([Job 22:18]), and who surpassed the deeds of all the former wicked, said in effect to God, Depart from us. And when Noah preached unto them the terrors of the Lord, and the necessity of repentance, they rejected his preaching with, What can the Almighty do for us? Let him do his worst; we care not for him, [Job 22:17]. For למו lamo, to Them, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic have evidently read לנו lanu, to Us. This reading quotes their own saying; the former reading narrates it in the third person. The meaning, however, is the same.

## 510. Job · 37 of 73

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### Verse 18

[¶1] But the counsel of the wicked is far from me - Sarcastically quoting Job's words, [Job 21:14], [Job 21:16]. Job, having in the preceding chapter described the wicked, who said unto the Almighty, "Depart from us," etc., adds, But the counsel of the wicked is far from me. Eliphaz here, having described the impious, among whom he evidently ranks Job, makes use of the same expression, as if he had said, "Thank God, I have no connection with you nor your companions, nor is my mind contaminated by your creed."

### Verse 19

[¶3] The righteous see it, and are glad - They see God's judgments on the incorrigibly wicked, and know that the Judge of all the earth does right; hence they rejoice in all the dispensations of his providence.

### Verse 20

[¶5] Whereas our substance is not cut down - We, who fear the Lord, still continue in health and peace; whereas they who have departed from him are destroyed even to their very remnant. Mr. Good thinks that קימנו kimanu, which we translate our substance, is the same as the Arabic (Arabic) our people or tribe; and hence he translates the clause thus: "For our tribe is not cut off; while even the remnant of these a conflagration consumed." The reference here is supposed to be to the destruction of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. A judgment by a flood took off the world of the ungodly in the days of Noah. Their remnant, those who lived in the same ungodly way, were taken off by a judgment of fire, in the days of Lot. Eliphaz introduces these two examples in order to terrify Job into a compliance with the exhortation which immediately follows.

### Verse 21

[¶7] Acquaint now thyself with him - Perhaps the verb הסכן hasken should be translated here, treasure up, or lay up. Lay up or procure an interest now with him, and be at peace. Get the Divine favor, and then thou wilt be at peace with God, and have happiness in thy own soul.

[¶8] Thereby good shalt come unto thee - בהם bahem, "in them," shall good come unto thee. That is, in getting an interest in the Divine favor, and in having thy soul brought into a state of peace with him; thereby, in them, that is, these two things, good will come unto thee. First, thou wilt have an interest in his favor, from which thou mayest expect all blessings; and, secondly, from his peace in thy conscience thou wilt feel unutterable happiness. Get these blessings now, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Reader, hast thou these blessings?

### Verse 22

[¶10] Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth - Some, who wish to place Job before the law given by Moses, say that this means the Noahic precepts; others, that the law of nature is intended! Stuff and vanity! The allusion is plainly to the law given by God to the children of Israel, called here by way of emphasis, תורה torah, the Law, which contained אמריו amaraiv, his Words, the words or sayings of God himself; consequently, it is not the Noahic precepts, nor the law of nature, neither of which were ever written or registered as the words of God's mouth.

### Verse 23

[¶12] Thou shalt be built up - God will restore thee to thy wonted state of prosperity; and thou shalt again have a household, not only of servants, but of children also. So much may be Implied in the words, Thou shalt be Built Up. See my sermon on [Job 22:21-23].

### Verse 24

[¶14] Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust - The original is not fairly rendered in this translation, ושית על עפר בצר veshith al aphar batser, which Montanus renders: Et pone super pulverem munitionem, "And fix a tower upon the dust;" ובצור נחלים אופיר ubetsur nechalim Ophir, et in petra torrentes Ophir, "and in the rock, the torrents of Ophir." The Vulgate is widely different: Dabit pro terra silicem, et pro silice torrentes aureos, "He will give thee flint for earth: and torrents of gold for flint;" which Calmet thus paraphrases: "Instead of brick thou shalt build with solid stone; and for ornaments, instead of stone as formerly, thou shalt have massive gold!" All the versions are different. Mr. Good translates: "Then count thou treasure as dust: then shall he make fountains to gush forth amidst the rocks."

[¶15] Coverdale is different from all: We shal give the an harvest which, in plenty and abundance, shal exceade the dust of the earthe, and the golde of Ophir like ryver stones.

### Verse 25

[¶17] Thou shalt have plenty of silver - Here again the versions and critics vary. The critics may disagree; but the doctrine of Eliphaz is sufficiently plain: "To those whom God loves best he gives the most earthly good. The rich and the great are his high favorites: the poor and the distressed he holds for his enemies." In the above verses there seems to be a reference to the mode of obtaining the precious metals:

[¶18] 1. Gold in dust;

[¶19] 2. Gold in streams from the hills and mountains;

[¶20] 3. Silver in mines; כסף תועפות keseph toaphoth, "silver of giddiness," of mines so deep as to make one giddy by looking into them. See Mr. Good.

### Verse 26

[¶22] For then shalt thou have thy delight - Thou shalt know, from thy temporal prosperity, that God favors thee; and for his bounty thou shalt be grateful. How different is this doctrine from that of St. Paul and St. John! "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus." "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father!" "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God." "We glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." "We love him because he first loved us." Tribulation itself was often a mark of God's favor.

### Verse 27

[¶24] Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him - תעתיר tatir, thou shalt open or unbosom thyself. And when the heart prays, God hears; and the person, being blessed, vows fidelity, prays on, is supported, and enabled to pay his vows.

### Verse 28

[¶26] Thou shalt also decree a thing - Whatsoever thou purposest in his strength, thou shalt be enabled to accomplish.

### Verse 29

[¶28] When men are cast down - There is a great difficulty in this verse; the sense, however, is tolerably evident, and the following is nearly a literal version: When they shall humble themselves, thou shalt say, Be exalted, or, there is exaltation: for the down-cast of eye he will save. The same sentiment as that of our Lord, "He that exalteth himself shall be abased; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

### Verse 30

[¶30] He shall deliver the island of the innocent - The word אי ai, which we translate island, is most probably the Arabic particle (Arabic) whosoever, whatsoever, any, whosoever he may be, as (Arabic) ai rajuli, whatsoever man he may be. And it is most probable that both words are Arabic, (Arabic) or (Arabic) any innocent, chaste, pure, or holy person; for the word has the same meaning both in Hebrew and Arabic. The text may therefore be translated, He shall deliver every innocent person: He, the innocent person, shall be delivered by the pureness of thy hands; i.e., as thou lovest justice, so thou wilt do justice. Instead of כפיך cappeyca, thy hands, the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic have read כפיו cappaiv, his or their hands. Mr. Good thinks that אי ai signifies house, as (Arabic) and (Arabic) in Arabic signify to reside, to have a home, etc.; and therefore translates the passage thus: "The house of the innocent shall be delivered; and delivered by the pureness of thy hands." The reader may adopt which he pleases; but the word island must be given up, as it cannot make any consistent sense.

[¶31] Thus ends Eliphaz the Temanite, who began with a tissue of the bitterest charges, continued with the most cruel insinuations, and ended with common-place exhortations to repentance, and promises of secular blessings in consequence: and from his whole speech scarcely can one new or important maxim be derived. Blessed be God for Moses and the prophets! for Jesus, the evangelists and the apostles! Their trumpet gives no uncertain sound: but by that of Job's friends who can prepare himself for the battle?

### Introduction

[¶33] Job answers; apologizes for his complaining; wishes to plead his cause in the presence of his Maker, from whom he knows he should receive justice; but regrets that he cannot find him, [Job 23:1-9]. He, however, gives himself and his cause up to God, with the conviction of his own innocence, and God's justice and goodness, [Job 23:10-14]. He is, nevertheless, afraid when he considers the majesty of his Maker, [Job 23:15-17].

### Verse 2

[¶35] Even to-day is my complaint bitter - Job goes on to maintain his own innocence, and shows that he has derived neither conviction nor consolation from the discourses of his friends. He grants that his complaint is bitter; but states that, loud as it may be, the affliction which he endures is heavier than his complaints are loud. Mr. Good translates: "And still is my complaint rebellion?" Do ye construe my lamentations over my unparalleled sufferings as rebellion against God? This, in fact, they had done from the beginning: and the original will justify the version of Mr. Good; for מרי meri, which we translate bitter, may be derived from מרה marah, "he rebelled."

### Verse 3

[¶37] O that I knew where I might find him! - This and the following verse may be read thus: "Who will give me the knowledge of God, that I may find him out? I would come to his establishment; (the place or way in which he has promised to communicate himself); I would exhibit, in detail, my judgment (the cause I wish to be tried) before his face; and my mouth would I fill with convincing or decisive arguments;" arguments drawn from his common method of saving sinners, which I should prove applied fully to my case. Hence the confidence with which he speaks, [Job 23:6].

### Verse 5

[¶39] I would know the words which he would answer me - He would speak nothing but what was true, decree nothing that was not righteous, nor utter any thing that I could not comprehend.

### Verse 6

[¶41] Will he plead against me - He would not exhibit his majesty and his sovereign authority to strike me dumb, or so overawe me that I could not speak in my own vindication.

[¶42] No; but he would put strength in me - On the contrary, he would treat me with tenderness, he would rectify my mistakes, he would show me what was in my favor, and would temper the rigid demands of justice by the mild interpretations of equity; and where law could not clear me, mercy would conduct all to the most favorable issue.

### Verse 7

[¶44] There the righteous might dispute with him - נוכח nochach, might argue or plead. To dispute with God sounds very harsh.

## 511. Job · 38 of 73

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[¶0] So should I be delivered for ever - Mr. Good translates: "And triumphantly should I escape from my condemnation." The Hebrew word לנצח lanetsach may as well be translated to victory as for ever: and in this sense the Vulgate understood the words: Proponat aequitatem contra me; et perveniat ad victoriam judicium meum. "He would set up equity against me; and would lead on my cause to victory." Coverdale renders thus: - But let hym give me like power to go to lawe, then am I sure to wynne my matter. Nothing less than the fullest conviction of his own innocence could have led Job to express himself thus to the Judge of quick and dead!

### Verse 8

[¶2] Behold, I go forward - These two verses paint in vivid colors the distress and anxiety of a soul in search of the favor of God. No means are left untried, no place unexplored, in order to find the object of his research. This is a true description of the conduct of a genuine penitent.

### Verse 9

[¶4] On the left hand, where he doth work - In these two verses Job mentions the four cardinal points of the heavens: the East, by the word קדם kedem, which signifies before; the West, by אחור achor, which signifies after, or the back part; the North, by שמאל semol, which signifies the left; and the South, by ימין yamin, which signifies the right. Such is the situation of the world to a man who faces the east; see [Gen 13:9], [Gen 13:11]; [Gen 28:14]. And from this it appears that the Hebrews, Idumeans, and Arabs had the same ideas of these points of the heavens. It is worthy of remark that Job says, He hideth himself on the right hand, (the south), that I cannot see him: for in fact, the southern point of heaven is not visible in Idumea, where Job was. Hence it comes that when he spake before, [Job 9:9], of the constellations of the antarctic pole, he terms them the hidden chambers of the south; i.e., those compartments of the celestial concave that never appeared above the horizon in that place - See Calmet.

[¶5] Mr. Good translates these verses as follows: -

[¶6] Behold! I go forward, and he is not there;

[¶7] And backward, but I cannot perceive him.

[¶8] On the left hand I feel for him, but trace him not:

[¶9] He enshroudeth the right hand, and I cannot see him.

[¶10] The simple rendering of Coverdale is nervous and correct: -

[¶11] For though I go before, I fynde hym not:

[¶12] Yf I come behynde, I can get no knowledge of him:

[¶13] Yf I go on the left syde to pondre his workes,

[¶14] I cannot atteyne unto them:

[¶15] Agayne, yf I go on the right syde, he hydeth himself,

[¶16] That I cannot se him.

### Verse 10

[¶18] But he knoweth the way that I take - He approves of my conduct; my ways please him. He tries me: but, like gold, I shall lose nothing in the fire; I shall come forth more pure and luminous. If that which is reputed to be gold is exposed to the action of a strong fire, if it be genuine, it will lose nothing of its quality, nor of its weight. If it went into the fire gold, it will come out gold; the strongest fire will neither alter nor destroy it. So Job: he went into this furnace of affliction an innocent, righteous man; he came out the same. His character lost nothing of its value, nothing of its lustre.

### Verse 11

[¶20] My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept - I have carefully marked his providential dealings; and in his way - his pure and undefiled religion - have I walked. I have not only been generally but particularly religious: I have attended carefully to the weightier matters of the law, and have not forgotten its slightest injunctions.

[¶21] Coverdale is curious: - Nevertheles my fete kepe his path, his hye strete have I holden, and not gone out of it. The hye strete is highway, the causeway, or raised road; formed, as they anciently were, by stones in the manner of pavement. It has its name from the Latin strata, paved, via being understood: via lapidibus strata, "a way paved with stones:" hence street, a raised road or pavement either in town or country. And hence the four grand Roman or British roads which intersected this kingdom: viz. Watling street, Icknild or Ricknild street, Ermin street, and Fosse street. Some say these streets or roads were made by Bellinus, a British king. Fosse street began in Cornwall, passed through Devonshire, Somersetshire, and along by Titbury upon Toteswould, beside Coventry, unto Leicester; and thence by the wide plains to Newark and to Lincoln, where it ends. Watling street begins at Dover, passes through the middle of Kent, over the Thames by London, running near Westminster, and thence to St. Alban's, Dunstable, Stratford, Towcester, Weden, Lilbourn, Atherston, Wreaken by Severn, Worcester, Stratton, through Wales unto Cardigan, and on to the Irish sea. Ermin, or Erminage street, running from St. David's in Wales, to Southampton. Ricknild, or Icknild street, running by Worcester, Wycomb, Birmingham, Lichfield, Derby, Chesterfield, and by York, into Tynemouth. See Camden, Holinshed, and Minshieu.

### Verse 12

[¶23] The commandment of his lips - The written law that proceeded from his own mouth.

[¶24] I have esteemed the words of his mouth - Mr. Good has given a better version of the original: In my bosom have I stored up the words of his mouth. The Asiatics carry every thing precious or valuable in their bosom, their handkerchiefs, jewels, purses, etc. Job, therefore, intimates that the words of God's mouth were to him a most precious treasure.

### Verse 13

[¶26] But he is in one mind - The original is והוא באחד vehu beechad, and is literally, But he is in one: properly rendered by the Vulgate, Ipse enim solus est. But he is alone. And not badly rendered by Coverdale - It is he himself alone. He has no partner; his designs are his own, they are formed in his infinite wisdom, and none can turn his determinations aside. It is vain, therefore, for man to contend with his Maker. He designs my happiness, and you cannot prevent its accomplishment.

### Verse 14

[¶28] For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me - Coverdale translates: - He rewardeth me into my bosome, and many other thinges mo doth he, as he maye by his power. חקי chukki may as well be translated bosom here as in [Job 23:12]; but probably it may mean a portion, lot, sufficiency: For he hath appointed me my lot; and like these there are multitudes with him. He diversifies human affairs: scarcely any two men have the same lot; nor has the same person the same portion at all times. He has multitudes of resources, expedients, means, etc., which he employs in governing human affairs.

### Verse 15

[¶30] Therefore am I troubled - I do not as yet see an end to my afflictions: he has not exhausted his means of trial; therefore, when I consider this, I am afraid of him.

### Verse 16

[¶32] For God maketh my heart soft - Prostrates my strength, deprives me of courage, so that I sink beneath my burden, and I am troubled at the thought of the Almighty, the self-sufficient and eternal Being.

### Verse 17

[¶34] Because I was not cut off - "O, why can I not draw darkness over my face? Why may not thick darkness cover my face?" Mr. Good. This verse should be read in connection with the preceding; and then we shall have the following sense. [Job 23:16] : "The Lord hath beaten down my strength, and my soul has been terrified by his fear." [Job 23:17] : "For it is not this deep night in which I am enveloped, nor the evils which I suffer, that have overwhelmed me; I sink only through the fear which the presence of his Majesty inspires. This is my greatest affliction; sufferings, diseases, yea, death itself, are nothing in comparison of the terror which my soul feels in the presence of his tremendous holiness and justice."

[¶35] Nothing can humble a pious mind so much as Scriptural apprehensions of the majesty of God. It is easy to contemplate his goodness, loving-kindness, and mercy; in all these we have an interest, and from them we expect the greatest good: but to consider his holiness and justice, the infinite righteousness of his nature, under the conviction that we have sinned, and broken the laws prescribed by his sovereign Majesty, and to feel ourselves brought as into the presence of his judgment-seat, - who can bear the thought? If cherubim and seraphim veil their faces before his throne, and the holiest soul exclaims,

[¶36] I loathe myself when God I see,

[¶37] And into nothing fall; what must a sinner feel, whose conscience is not yet purged from dead works and who feels the wrath of God abiding on him? And how without such a mediator and sacrifice as Jesus Christ is, can any human spirit come into the presence of its Judge? Those who can approach him without terror, know little of his justice and nothing of their sin. When we approach him in prayer, or in any ordinance, should we not feel more reverence than we generally do?

### Introduction

[¶39] Job asserts that there are various transgressors whose wickedness is not visited on them in this life; and particularizes the adjust and oppressive, [Job 24:1-6]; those who are cruel to the poor, [Job 24:7-13]; the murderer, [Job 24:14]; the adulterer, [Job 24:15]; thieves and plunderers, [Job 24:16], [Job 24:17]. Nevertheless they have an accursed portion, and shall die, and their memory perish, [Job 24:18-20]. He speaks of the abuse of power, and of the punishment of oppressors, [Job 24:21-24]; and asserts that what he has said on these subjects cannot be contradicted, [Job 24:25].

### Verse 1

[¶41] Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty - Mr. Good translates: "Wherefore are not doomsdays kept by the Almighty, so that his offenders may eye their periods?" Doomsdays are here used in the same sense as term times; and the wish is, that God would appoint such times that the falsely accused might look forward to them with comfort; knowing that, on their arrival, they should have a fair hearing, and their innocence be publicly declared; and their detractors, and the unjust in general, meet with their deserts. But God reserves the knowledge of these things to himself. "The holy patriarch," says Mr. Good, "has uniformly admitted that in the aggregate scale of Providence the just are rewarded and the wicked punished for their respective deeds, in some period or other of their lives. But he has contended in various places, and especially in [Job 21:7-13], that the exceptions to this general rule are numerous: so numerous, as to be sufficient to render the whole scheme of providential interposition perfectly mysterious and incomprehensible, [Job 23:8-12]; so in the passage before us: if the retribution ye speak of be universal, and which I am ready to admit to a certain extent to be true and unquestionable, I not only ask, Why do the just ever suffer in the midst of their righteousness? but, Why do not the wicked see such retribution displayed before their eyes by stated judgments, so that they may at one and the same time know and tremble?"

### Verse 2

[¶43] Some remove the landmarks - Stones or posts were originally set up to ascertain the bounds of particular estates: and this was necessary in open countries, before hedges and fences were formed. Wicked and covetous men often removed the landmarks or termini, and set them in on their neighbors' ground, that, by contracting their boundaries, they might enlarge their own. The law of Moses denounces curses on those who remove their neighbors' landmarks. See [Deu 19:14]; [Deu 27:17], and the note on the former place, where the subject is considered at large.

[¶44] They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof - Mr. Good translates ירעו yiru, they destroy, deriving the word, not from רעה raah, to feed, but from רע ra, to rend, to destroy. The Septuagint had read רעה roch, a shepherd; and therefore have translated ποιμνιον συν ποιμενι ἁρπασαντες, "violently carrying off both the flock and the shepherd."

## 512. Job · 39 of 73

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### Verse 4

[¶1] They turn the needy out of the way - They will not permit them to go by the accustomed paths; they oblige them to take circuitous routes. When the Marquis of H. was made ranger of Richmond Park, he thought it his duty to shut up a pathway which had existed for a long time; and those who presumed, after this shutting up, to break the fence, and take that path as formerly, were prosecuted. A cobbler near the place entered an action against the marquis: the cause was tried, the marquis cast, and the path ordered to be opened, on the ground that it had, time out of mind, been a public undisputed path. When one asked the cobbler, "How he could have the boldness to go to law with the Marquis of H.?" he answered, "Because I did not like to leave the world worse than I found it." All tolerated oppression and voluntary forfeiture of ancient rights, are injurious to society at large, and they who wink at them leave the world worse than they found it.

### Verse 5

[¶3] Rising betimes for a prey - The general sense here seems plain enough. There are some who live a lawless roaming life: make a predatory life their employment; for this purpose, frequent the wilderness, where they seize on and appropriate whatsoever they find, and by this method they and their families are supported. Mr. Good says: "The sense has never yet been understood by any commentator;" and hence he proposes a different division of the words, placing ערבה arabah, the desert or wilderness, in the first hemistich, thus: - "Rising early for the pillage of the wilderness;

[¶4] The bread of themselves and of their children."

[¶5] Others think that the words are spoken solely of the poor under the hand of oppression, who are driven away from their homes, and obliged to seek such support as the wilderness can afford. Such was originally the state of the Bedouins, and of the wandering Arab hordes in general: the oppression of the tyrannous governors obliged them to seek refuge in the deserts, where they still live in a roaming predatory life.

### Verse 6

[¶7] They reap every one his corn in the field - This is perfectly characteristic. These wandering hordes often make sudden irruptions, and carry off the harvest of grain, olives, vines, etc., and plunge with it into the wilderness, where none can follow them. The Chaldee gives the same sense: "They reap in a field that is not their own, and cut off the vineyard of the wicked."

### Verse 7

[¶9] They cause the naked to lodge without clothing - Or rather, They spend the night naked, without clothing; and without a covering from the cold: another characteristic of the wandering Arabs. They are ill-fed, ill-clothed. and often miserable off, even for tents. They can have little household stuff: as they are plunderers, they are often obliged to fly for their lives, and cannot encumber themselves with what is not absolutely needful.

### Verse 8

[¶11] They are wet with the showers of the mountains - Mr. Good thinks that torrents, not showers, is the proper translation of the original זרם zerem; but I think showers of the mountain strictly proper. I have seen many of these in mountainous countries, where the tails of water-spouts have been intercepted and broken, and the outpouring of them would be incredible to those who have never witnessed similar phenomena. The rain fell in torrents, and produced torrents on the land, carrying away earth and stones and every thing before them, scooping out great gullies in the sides of the mountains. Mountain torrents are not produced but by such extraordinary outpourings of rain, formed either by water-spouts, or by vast masses of clouds intercepted and broken to pieces by the mountain tops.

[¶12] And embrace the rock for want of a shelter - In such cases as that related above, the firm rock is the only shelter which can be found, or safely trusted.

### Verse 9

[¶14] They pluck the fatherless from the breast - They forcibly take young children in order that they may bring them up in a state of slavery. This verse is the commencement of a new paragraph, and points out the arbitrary dealings of oppressors, under despotic governors.

[¶15] Take a pledge of the poor - Oppressive landlords who let out their grounds at an exorbitant rent, which the poor laborers, though using the utmost diligence, are unable at all times to pay; and then the unfeeling wretch sells then up, as the phrase here is, or takes their cow, their horse, their cart, or their bed, in pledge, that the money shall be paid in such a time. This is one of the crying sins of some countries of Europe.

### Verse 10

[¶17] They cause him to go naked - These cruel, hard-hearted oppressors seize the cloth made for the family wear, or the wool and flax out of which such clothes should be made.

[¶18] And they take away the sheaf - Seize the grain as soon as it is reaped, that they may pay themselves the exorbitant rent at which they have leased out their land: and thus the sheaf - the thraves and ricks, by which they should have been supported, are taken away from the hungry.

### Verse 11

[¶20] Make oil within their walls - Thus stripped of all that on which they depended for clothing and food, they are obliged to become vassals to their lord, labor in the fields on scanty fare, or tread their wine-presses, from the produce of which they are not permitted to quench their thirst.

### Verse 12

[¶22] Men groan from out of the city - This is a new paragraph. After having shown the oppressions carried on in the country, he takes a view of those carried on in the town. Here the miseries are too numerous to be detailed. The poor in such places are often in the most wretched state; they are not only badly fed, and miserably clothed, but also most unwholesomely lodged. I was once appointed with a benevolent gentleman, J. S., Esq., to visit a district in St. Giles's London, to know the real state of the poor. We took the district in House Row, and found each dwelling full of people, dirt, and wretchedness. Neither old nor young had the appearance of health: some were sick, and others lying dead, in the same place! Several beds, if they might be called such, on the floor in the same apartment; and, in one single house, sixty souls! These were groaning under various evils; and the soul of the wounded, wounded in spirit, and afflicted in body, cried out to God and man for help! It would have required no subtle investigation to have traced all these miseries to the doors, the hands, the lips, and the hearts, of ruthless landlords; or to oppressive systems of public expenditure in the support of ruinous wars, and the stagnation of trade and destruction of commerce occasioned by them: to which must be added the enormous taxation to meet this expenditure.

[¶23] Yet God layeth not folly to them - He does not impute their calamities to their own folly. Or, according to the Vulgate, Et Deus inultum abire non patitur; "And God will not leave (these disorders) unpunished." But the Hebrew may be translated And God doth not attend to their prayers. Job's object was to show, in opposition to the mistaken doctrine of his friends, that God did not hastily punish every evil work, nor reward every good one. That vice often went long unpunished, and virtue unrewarded; and that we must not judge of a man's state either by his prosperity or adversity. Therefore, there might be cases in which the innocent oppressed poor were crying to God for a redress of their grievances, and were not immediately heard; and in which their oppressors were faring sumptuously every day, without any apparent mark of the Divine displeasure. These sentiments occur frequently.

### Verse 13

[¶25] They - rebel against the light - Speaking of wicked men. They rebel against the light of God in their consciences, and his light in his word. They are tyrants in grain, and care neither for God nor the poor. They know not the ways thereof - they will not learn their duty to God or man. Nor abide in the paths thereof - if brought at any time to a better mind, they speedily relapse; and are steady only in cruelty and mischief. This is the character of the oppressors of suffering humanity, and of sinners audacious and hardened. This whole verse Mr. Good translates in the following manner: -

[¶26] They are indignant of the light;

[¶27] They respect not its progress;

[¶28] And will not return to its paths.

[¶29] They hate good; they regard not its operation; they go out of the way of righteousness, and refuse to return.

### Verse 14

[¶31] The murderer rising with the light - Perhaps the words should be read as Mr. Good has done: -

[¶32] With the daylight ariseth the murderer;

[¶33] Poor and needy, he sheddeth blood.

[¶34] This description is suitable to a highwayman; one who robs in daylight, and who has been impelled by poverty and distress to use this most unlawful and perilous mode to get bread; and for fear of being discovered or taken, commits murder, and thus adds crime to crime.

[¶35] In the night is as a thief - Having been a highwayman in the daytime, he turns footpad or housebreaker by night; and thus goes on from sin to sin. There have been several instances like the case above, where poverty and distress have induced a man to go to the highway and rob, to repair the ruin of himself and family. I shall introduce an authentic story of this kind, which the reader may find at the end of this chapter.

### Verse 15

[¶37] The eye also of the adulterer - This is another sin particularly of the city. The adulterer has made his assignation; he has marked the house of her into whose good graces he has insinuated himself, called digging through the house; he waits impatiently for the dusk; and then goes forth, having muffled or disguised his face, and spends a criminal night with the faithless wife of another man. The morning dawns: but it is to him as the shadow of death, lest he should be detected before he can reach his own home. And if one know him - if he happen to be recognized in coming out of the forbidden house; the terrors of death seize upon him, being afraid that the thing shall be brought to light, or that he shall be called to account, a sanguinary account, by the injured husband. This seems to be the general sense of the very natural picture which Job draws in the [Job 24:15], [Job 24:16], and [Job 24:17].

### Verse 16

[¶39] In the dark they dig through houses - Thieves in Bengal very frequently dig through the mud wall and under the clay floors of houses, and, entering unperceived, plunder them while the inhabitants are asleep. Mr. Good's version of this paragraph I shall lay before the reader: - [Job 24:15] For the dark too watcheth the eye of the adulterer;Exclaiming, No eye shall behold me.Then putteth he the muffler on his face; [Job 24:16] He wormeth into houses amidst the darkness.In the daytime they seal themselves up,They know not the light: [Job 24:17] For, the dawn they reckon to themselves as the death-shade;The horrors of the death-shade as it returneth.

### Verse 18

[¶41] He is swift as the waters - Literally, Light is he on the face of the waters: and cursed shall be their portion on the earth, which Mr. Good translates: -

[¶42] Miserable is this man on the waters:

[¶43] Deeply miserable the lot of those on dry land.

[¶44] He beholdeth not the way of the vineyards - These no longer flourish or bring forth fruit. The labor of the vintage fails.

## 513. Job · 40 of 73

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### Verse 19

[¶1] Drought and heat consume the snow-waters - The public cisterns or large tanks which had been filled with water by the melting of the snow on the mountains, and which water was stored for the irrigation of their lands, had been entirely exhausted by the intensity of the heat, and the long continuance of drought.

[¶2] So doth the grave those which have sinned - For this whole paragraph we have only two words in the original; viz., שאול חטאו sheol chatau, "the pit, they have sinned;" which Mr. Good translates: - "They fall to their lowest depth." I believe the meaning to be, - even the deepest tanks, which held most water, and retained it longest, had become exhausted; so that expectation and succor were cut off from this as well as from every other quarter. I have elsewhere shown that שאול sheol signifies, not only hell and the grave, but any deep pit; and, also, that חטא chata signifies to miss the mark. Mr. Good, properly aware of these acceptations of the original words, has translated as above; and it is the only ground on which any consistent meaning can be given to the original.

### Verse 20

[¶4] The womb shall forget him - The mother that bare him shall have no affection for him, nor be afflicted at his death. But the word רחם rechem signifies compassion, mercy. Mercy shall be unmindful of him. How dreadful such a state! When mercy itself forgets the sinner, his perdition slumbereth not. The worm shall feed sweetly on him - The Chaldee has, "The cruel, who have neglected to commiserate the poor, shall be sweet to the worms." He shall be brought into a state of the greatest degradation, and shall be no more remembered.

[¶5] And wickedness shall be broken as a tree - He shall be as a rotten or decayed tree, easily broken to pieces. If it were clear that עולה avlah, here rendered wickedness, has the same sense as עלה aleh, a leaf, sucker, or shoot, then we might translate according to the ingenious version of Mr. Good; viz., But the shoot shall be broken off as a tree; which might, in this case, be supposed to refer to illicit commerce, the fruit of the womb becoming abortive.

### Verse 21

[¶7] He evil entreateth the barren - I believe the original word ולה should be translated he feedeth, and so the Vulgate understood the word: Pavit enim sterilem. He has been kind to the barren woman; but he has done no good to the widow. He has shown no mercy to large families; he has been an enemy to the procreation of children. Though he may, for particular reasons, have provided for a barren woman; yet the widow he has not comforted, she being old or infirm, or such as might not suit his purpose.

### Verse 22

[¶9] He draweth also the mighty - Calmet gives the following version of the original: "He draws with him guards for his defense; he raises himself up, and does not feel assured of his life." In the midst even of his guards he is afraid; and dares not put confidence in any person. This is an admirable delineation of the inquietudes and terrors of a tyrant.

### Verse 23

[¶11] Though it be given him to be in safety - The Vulgate gives this verse a singular turn: Dedit ei Deus locum paenitentiae, et ille abutitur eo in superbiam, "God gave him space for repentance, but he has abused it through pride." This is by no means conformable to the original. I think the words should be translated thus: "He gives them (i.e., the guards) to him for security, and he leans upon them; yet his eyes are upon their ways." Though he have taken the guards, mentioned in the preceding verse, for his personal defense, and for this purpose he uses them; yet he is full of diffidence, and he is continually watching them lest they should be plotting his destruction. The true picture of an Eastern tyrant. Without are fightings; within are fears.

### Verse 24

[¶13] They are exalted for a little while - Such tyrants are exalted for a time, for God putteth down one and raiseth up another; but he turns his hand against them, and they are gone. They are removed by his justice as all of the same character have been and shall be; time and judgment shall mow them down as the grass, and crop them off as the ears of ripe corn. They may flourish for a time, and continue their oppressions; but they shall at last come to an untimely end. Few tyrants ever visit the eternal world sicca morte, but by a violent death. All Eastern history is full of this great fact.

### Verse 25

[¶15] And if it be not so now - Job has proved by examples that the righteous are often oppressed; that the wicked often triumph over the just, that the impious are always wretched even in the midst of their greatest prosperity; and he defies his friends to show one flaw in his argument, or an error in his illustration of it; and that existing facts are farther proofs of what he has advanced.

[¶16] In the preceding chapters we find Job's friends having continual recourse to this assertion, which it is the grand object of all their discourses to prove, viz., The righteous are so distinguished in the approbation of God, that they live always in prosperity, and die in peace. On the other hand, Job contends that the dispensations of Providence are by no means thus equal in this life; that experience shows that the righteous are often in adversity, and the wicked in power and prosperity. Job's friends had also endeavored to prove that if a reported good man fell into adversity, it was a proof that his character had been mistaken, that he was an internal sinner and hypocrite; and that God, by these manifest proofs of his disapprobation, unmasked him. Hence they charged Job with hypocrisy and secret sins, because he was now suffering adversity, and that his sins must be of the most heinous nature, because his afflictions were uncommonly great. This Job repels by appeals to numerous facts where there was nothing equivocal in the character; where the bad was demonstrably bad, and yet in prosperity; and the good demonstrably good, and yet in adversity. It is strange that none of these could hit on a middle way: viz., The wicked may be in prosperity, but he is ever miserable in his soul: the righteous may be in adversity, but he is ever happy in his God. In these respects, God's ways are always equal. On [Job 24:14], I have referred to the case of unfortunate men who, falling into adversity, madly have recourse to plunder to restore their ruined circumstances. The following anecdote is told of the justly celebrated Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York, the grandfather of that highly benevolent, useful, learned, and eminent man, Granville Sharp, Esq., with whom I had for several years the honor of a personal acquaintance. "Never was any man, as well by the tenderness of his nature as by the impulse of religion, better disposed to succor the distressed, and relieve the necessities of the poor; to which merciful offices he had so strong an inclination that no reasonable solicitations were ever in danger of meeting with a repulse. Nay, he was more prone to seek out proper objects of his bounty, than to reject them when recommended; and so far was his charity from any suspicion of being extorted by importunity, that it appeared rather a delight than uneasiness to him to extend his liberality upon all proper occasions." For the same reason, a singular anecdote of the archbishop, related in the London Chronicle of Aug. 13, 1785, and always credited by his family, may be thought worth preserving. "It was his lordship's custom to have a saddle-horse attend his carriage, that in case of fatigue from sitting, he might take the refreshment of a ride. As he was thus going to his episcopal residence, and was got a mile or two before his carriage, a decent, well-looking young man came up with him; and, with a trembling hand and a faltering tongue presented a pistol to his lordship's breast, and demanded his money. The archbishop, with great composure, turned about; and, looking steadfastly at him, desired he would remove that dangerous weapon, and tell him fairly his condition. 'Sir! sir!' with great agitation, cried the youth; 'no words, 'tis not a time; your money instantly.' 'Hear me, young man,' said the archbishop; 'you see I am an old man, and my life is of very little consequence: yours seems far otherwise. I am named Sharp, and am archbishop of York; my carriage and servants are behind. Tell me what money you want, and who you are, and I will not injure you, but prove a friend. Here, take this; and now ingenuously tell me how much you want to make you independent of so destructive a business as you are now engaged in.' 'O sir,' replied the man, 'I detest the business as much as you. I am-but-but-at home there are creditors who will not stay - fifty pounds, my lord, indeed would do what no tongue besides my own can tell.' 'Well, sir, I take it on your word; and, upon my honor, if you will, in a day or two, call on me at - , what I have now given you shall be made up that sum.' The highwayman looked at him, was silent, and went off; and, at the time appointed, actually waited on the archbishop, and assured his lordship his words had left impressions which nothing could ever destroy. "Nothing more transpired for a year and a half or more; when one morning a person knocked at his grace's gate, and with peculiar earnestness desired to see him. The archbishop ordered the stranger to be brought in. He entered the room where his lordship was, but had scarce advanced a few steps before his countenance changed, his knees tottered, and he sank almost breathless on the floor. On recovering, he requested an audience in private. The apartment being cleared, 'My lord,' said he, 'you cannot have forgotten the circumstances at such a time and place; gratitude will never suffer them to be obliterated from my mind. In me, my lord, you now behold that once most wretched of mankind; but now, by your inexpressible humanity, rendered equal, perhaps superior, in happiness to millions. O, my lord!' tears for a while preventing his utterance, ''tis you, 'tis you that have saved me, body and soul; 'tis you that have saved a dear and much-loved wife, and a little brood of children, whom I tendered dearer than my life. Here are the fifty pounds; but never shall I find language to testify what I feel. Your God is your witness; your deed itself is your glory; and may heaven and all its blessings be your present and everlasting reward! I was the younger son of a wealthy man; your lordship knows him; his name was - My marriage alienated his affection; and my brother withdrew his love, and left me to sorrow and penury. A month since my brother died a bachelor and intestate. What was his, is become mine; and by your astonishing goodness, I am now at once the most penitent, the most grateful, and happiest of my species.'" See Prince Hoar's life of Granville Sharp, Esq., page 13. I have no doubt there have been several cases of a similar kind, when the first step in delinquency was urged by necessity; but few of such wretched adventurers have met with an Archhishop Sharp. An early and pious education is the only means under God to prevent such dangerous steps, which generally lead to the most fearful catastrophe. Teach a child, that whom God loveth he chasteneth. Teach him, that God suffers men to hunger, and be in want, that he may try them if they will be faithful, and do them good in their latter end. Teach him, that he who patiently and meekly bears providential afflictions, shall be relieved and exalted in due time. Teach him, that it is no sin to die in the most abject poverty and affliction, brought on in the course of Divine providence, but that any attempts to alter his condition by robbery, knavery, cozening, and fraud, will be distinguished with heavy curses from the Almighty, and necessarily end in perdition and ruin. A child thus educated is not likely to abandon himself to unlawful courses.

### Introduction

[¶18] Bildad, the Shuhite, in an irregular speech, shows that God's dominion is supreme, his armies innumerable, and his providence extended over all, [Job 25:1-3]; that man cannot be justified before God; that even the heavenly bodies cannot be reputed pure in his sight; much less man, who is naturally weak and sinful, [Job 25:4-6].

### Verse 1

[¶20] Bildad the Shuhite - This is the last attack on Job; the others felt themselves foiled, though they had not humility enough to acknowledge it, but would not again return to the attack. Bildad has little to say, and that little is very little to the point. He makes a few assertions, particularly in reference to what Job had said in the commencement of the preceding chapter, of his desire to appear before God, and have his case tried by him, as he had the utmost confidence that his innocence should be fully proved. For this Bildad reprehends Job with arguments which had been brought forth often in this controversy, and as repeatedly confuted, [Job 4:18]; [Job 15:14-16].

### Verse 2

[¶22] Dominion and fear are with him - God is an absolute sovereign; his fear is on all the hosts of heaven; and by his sovereignty he establishes and preserves order in the heavens, and among all the inhabitants of the eternal world: how canst thou, therefore, dare to appeal to him, or desire to appear before him?

### Verse 3

[¶24] Is there any number of his armies? - He has troops innumerable; he can serve himself of all his creatures; every thing may be a means of help or destruction, according to his Divine will. When he purposes to save, none can destroy; and when he is determined to destroy, none can save. It is vain to trust in his creatures against himself.

[¶25] Upon whom doth not his light arise? - That is, his providence rules over all; he is universal Lord; he causes his sun to arise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and unjust.

### Verse 4

[¶27] How then can man be justified? - Or, ונה umah, With what, shall a man be justified with God? Though this is no conclusion from Bildad's premises, yet the question is of the highest importance to man. Neither Bildad nor any of his fellows could answer it; the doctrine of redemption through the blood of the cross was then known only through types and shadows. We who live in the Gospel dispensation, can readily answer the question, With what shall miserable man (אנוש enosh) be justified with God? - Ans. By bringing forward, by faith, to the throne of the Divine justice, the sacrificial offering of the Lord Jesus Christ; and confiding absolutely in it, as being a full, sufficient, and complete atonement and sacrifice for his sins, and for the salvation of a lost world. How, or with what (ומה umah) shall he be clean that is born of a woman? - Ans. By receiving that grace or heavenly influence communicated by the power and energy of the eternal Spirit applying to the heart the efficacy of that blood which cleanses from all unrighteousness. This, and this only, is the way in which a sinner, when truly penitent, can be justified before God: and in which a believer, convinced of indwelling sin, can be sanctified and cleansed from all unrighteousness. This is the only means of justification and sanctification, without which there can be no glorification. And these two great works, which constitute the whole of salvation, have been procured for a lost world by the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered for our offenses, and rose again for our justification; to whom be glory and dominion now and for evermore, Amen!

### Verse 5

[¶29] Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not - It is continually changing its appearance. It never appears twice in its whole revolution with the same face: it is ever waxing or waning; and its face is variegated with opaque spots. Its changeableness can never be compared with the unchangeable nature of God.

[¶30] Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight - Whatever their excellence may be as stars, it is nothing in comparison with him from whom they have derived their being and splendor. See the notes on [Job 4:18]; [Job 15:14-16]. The Targum reads: "Behold, the moon is as yet spotted in her eastern part; the sun shines not; and the stars are not pure in his sight." Some think that by stars are meant those angels who kept not their first estate: this may be so, but I cannot see it in the text. It may, however, mean the heavenly host, as it is supposed to do, [Job 28:7]; but I still must hesitate on the propriety of such applications. It is probable this speech of Bildad was delivered in the night-season, when clouds interrupted the bright shining of the moon. The third verse seems to refer immediately to the stars, which to the naked eye are innumerable. The sun is not mentioned, because of his absence. This speech of Bildad is both confused and inconclusive. His reasoning is absurd, and he draws false conclusions from his premises. In the third verse, he says, "Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom does not his light arise?" But how absurd is the conclusion which he draws from his questions: - "How then can a man be justified with God, or he be clean who is born of a woman?" This has no relation to the premises; still to us the question is not difficult, and has already been answered in the notes: "A man can be justified with God," through the blood of Christ; and "he can be clean who is born of a woman." through the sanctification of the Spirit.

### Verse 6

[¶32] How much less man, that is a worm? - Or as the Targum - "How much more man, who in his life is a reptile; and the son of man, who in his death is a worm." Almost all the versions read, "Truly man is corruption, and the son of man a worm." The original is degradingly expressive: "Even because אנוש enosh, miserable man, is רמה rimmah, a crawling worm; and the son of Adam, who is תולעה toleah, a worm, or rather maggot, from its eating into and dividing certain substances." - Parkhurst. Thus endeth Bildad the Shuhite, who endeavored to speak on a subject which he did not understand; and, having got on bad ground, was soon confounded in his own mind, spoke incoherently, argued inconclusively, and came abruptly and suddenly to an end. Thus, his three friends being confounded, Job was left to pursue his own way; they trouble him no more; and he proceeds in triumph to the end of the thirty-first chapter.

### Introduction

[¶34] Job, perceiving that his friends could no longer support their arguments on the ground they had assumed, sharply reproves them for their want both of wisdom and feeling, [Job 26:1-4]; shows that the power and wisdom of God are manifest in the works of creation and providence; gives several proofs; and then adds that these are a small specimen of his infinite skill and unlimited power, [Job 26:5-14].

### Verse 2

[¶36] How hast thou helped him - This seems a species of irony. How wonderfully hast thou counselled the unskilful and strengthened the weak! Alas for you! ye could not give what ye did not possess! In this way the Chaldee understood these verses: "Why hast thou pretended to give succor, when thou art without strength? And save, while thy arm is weak? Why hast thou given counsel, when thou art without understanding? And supposest that thou hast shown the very essence of wisdom?"

### Verse 4

[¶38] Whose spirit came from thee? - Mr. Good renders the verse thus: From whom hast thou pillaged speeches? And whose spirit hath issued forth from thee? The retort is peculiarly severe; and refers immediately to the proverbial sayings which in several of the preceding answers have been adduced against the irritated sufferer; for which see [Job 8:11-19]; 15:20-35, some of which he has already complained of, as in [Job 12:3], and following. I concur most fully therefore with Dr. Stock in regarding the remainder of this chapter as a sample, ironically exhibited by Job, of the harangues on the power and greatness of God which he supposes his friends to have taken out of the mouths of other men, to deck their speeches with borrowed lustre. Only, in descanting on the same subject, he shows how much he himself can go beyond them in eloquence and sublimity.

[¶39] Job intimates that, whatever spirit they had, it was not the Spirit of God, because in their answers falsehood was found.

### Verse 5

[¶41] Dead things are formed from under the waters - This verse, as it stands in our version, seems to convey no meaning; and the Hebrew is obscure; הרפאים, harephaim, "the Rephaim," certainly means not dead things; nor can there be any propriety in saying that dead things, or things without life, are formed under the waters, for such things are formed everywhere in the earth, and under the earth, as well as under the waters.

[¶42] The Vulgate translates: Ecce gigantes gemunt sub aquis, et qui habitant cum eis. "Behold the giants, and those who dwell with them, groan from under the waters."

[¶43] The Septuagint: Μη γιγαντες μαιωθησονται ὑποκατωθεν ὑδατος, και των γειτονων αυτου; "Are not the giants formed from under the waters, and their neighbors?"

[¶44] The Chaldee: אפשר דגבריא דמתמזמזין יתברין ואנון מלרע למיא ומשריתהון eposhar degibraiya demithmazmezin yithbareyan veinnun millera lemaiya umashreiyatehon, "Can the trembling giants be regenerated, when they and their hosts are under the water?"

## 514. Job · 41 of 73

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[¶0] The Syriac and Arabic: "Behold, the giants are slain, and are drawn out of the water." None of these appear to give any sense by which the true meaning can be determined.

[¶1] There is probably here an allusion to the destruction of the earth by the general deluge. Moses, speaking concerning the state of the earth before the flood, says, [Gen 6:4], "There were giants נפלים nephilim, in the earth in those days." Now it is likely that Job means the same by רפאים rephaim as Moses does by the nephilim; and that both refer to the antediluvians, who were all, for their exceeding great iniquities, overwhelmed by the waters of the deluge. Can those mighty men and their neighbors, all the sinners who have been gathered to them since, be rejected from under the waters, by which they were judicially overwhelmed?

[¶2] Mr. Good thinks the shades of the heroes of former times, the gigantic spectres, the mighty or enormous dead, are meant.

[¶3] I greatly question whether sea-monsters be not intended, such as porpoises, sharks, narwals, grampuses, and whales. We know, however that an opinion anciently prevailed, that the Titans, a race of men of enormous stature, rebelled against the gods, and endeavored to scale heaven by placing one mountain on the top of another; and that they and their structure were cast down by the thunder of the deities, and buried under the earth and sea; and that their struggles to arise produce the earthquakes which occur in certain countries. Now although this opinion is supported by the most respectable antiquity among the heathens, it is not to be supposed that in the word of God there can be any countenance given to an opinion at once as absurd as it is monstrous. (But still the poet may use the language of the common people). I must therefore either refer the passage here to the antediluvians, or to the vast sea-monsters mentioned above.

### Verse 6

[¶5] Hell is naked before him - Sheol, the place of the dead, or of separate spirits, is always in his view. And there is no covering to Abaddon - the place of the destroyer, where destruction reigns, and where those dwell who are eternally separated from God. The ancients thought that hell or Tartarus was a vast space in the center, or at the very bottom of the earth. So Virgil, Aen. lib. vi., ver. 577: - - Tum Tartarus ipse

[¶6] Bis patet in praeceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras,

[¶7] Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum

[¶8] Hic genus antiquum terrae, Titania pubes,

[¶9] Fulmine dejecti, fundo volvuntur in imo. "Full twice as deep the dungeon of the fiends,

[¶10] The huge Tartarean gloomy gulf, descends

[¶11] Below these regions, as these regions lie

[¶12] From the bright realms of yon ethereal sky.

[¶13] Here roar the Titan race, th' enormous birth;

[¶14] The ancient offspring of the teeming earth.

[¶15] Pierced by the burning bolts of old they fell,

[¶16] And still roll bellowing in the depths of hell."

[¶17] Pitt.

[¶18] And some have supposed that there is an allusion to this opinion in the above passage, as well as in several others in the Old Testament; but it is not likely that the sacred writers would countenance an opinion that certainly has nothing in fact or philosophy to support it. Yet still a poet may avail himself of popular opinions.

### Verse 7

[¶20] He stretcheth out the north over the empty place - על תהו al tohu, to the hollow waste. The same word as is used, [Gen 1:2], The earth was without form, תהו tohu. The north must here mean the north pole, or northern hemisphere; and perhaps what is here stated may refer to the opinion that the earth was a vast extended plain, and the heavens poised upon it, resting on this plain all round the horizon. Of the south the inhabitants of Idumea knew nothing; nor could they have any notion of inhabitants in that hemisphere.

[¶21] Hangeth the earth upon nothing - The Chaldee says: "He lays the earth upon the waters, nothing sustaining it."

### Verse 8

[¶23] He bindeth up the waters - Drives the aqueous particles together, which were raised by evaporation, so that, being condensed, they form clouds which float in the atmosphere, till, meeting with strong currents of wind, or by the agency of the electric fluid, they are farther condensed; and then, becoming too heavy to be sustained in the air, fall down in the form of rain, when, in this poetic language, the cloud is rent under them.

### Verse 9

[¶25] He holdeth back the face of his throne - Though all these are most elegant effects of an omniscient and almighty power, yet the great Agent is not personally discoverable; he dwelleth in light unapproachable, and in mercy hides himself from the view of his creatures. The words, however may refer to those obscurations of the face of heaven, and the hiding of the body of the sun, when the atmosphere is laden with dense vapours, and the rain begins to be poured down on the earth.

### Verse 10

[¶27] He hath compassed the waters with bounds - Perhaps this refers merely to the circle of the horizon, the line that terminates light and commences darkness, called here עד תכלית אור עם חשך ad tachlith or im chosech, "until the completion of light with darkness." Or, if we take תכלית tachlith here to be the same with תכלת techeleth, [Exo 25:4], and elsewhere, which we translate blue, it may mean that sombre sky-blue appearance of the horizon at the time of twilight, i.e., between light and darkness; the line where the one is terminating and the other commencing. Or, He so circumscribes the waters, retaining them in their own place, that they shall not be able to overflow the earth until day and night, that is, time itself, come to an end.

### Verse 11

[¶29] The pillars of heaven tremble - This is probably a poetical description either of thunder, or of an earthquake: - "He shakes creation with his nod;

[¶30] Earth, sea, and heaven, confess him God."

[¶31] But there may be an allusion to the high mountains, which were anciently esteemed by the common people as the pillars on which the heavens rested; and when these were shaken with earthquakes, it might be said the pillars of heaven tremble. Mount Atlas was supposed to be one of those pillars, and this gave rise to the fable of Atlas being a man who bore the heavens on his shoulders. The Greek and Roman poets frequently use this image. Thus Silius Italicus, lib. i., ver. 202: -

[¶32] Atlas subducto tracturus vertice coelum:

[¶33] Sidera nubiferum fulcit caput, aethereasque

[¶34] Erigit aeternum compages ardua cervix:

[¶35] Canet barba gelu, frontemque immanibus umbris

[¶36] Pinea silva premit; vastant cava tempora venti

[¶37] Nimbosoque ruunt spumantia flumina rictu. "Atlas' broad shoulders prop th' incumbent skies:

[¶38] Around his cloud-girt head the stars arise.

[¶39] His towering neck supports th' ethereal way;

[¶40] And o'er his brow black woods their gloom display.

[¶41] Hoar is his beard; winds round his temples roar;

[¶42] And from his jaws the rushing torrents pour."

[¶43] J. B. C.

## 515. Job · 42 of 73

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### Verse 12

[¶1] He divideth the sea with his power - Here is a manifest allusion to the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, according to the opinion of the most eminent critics.

[¶2] He smiteth through the proud - רהב Rahab, the very name by which Egypt is called [Isa 51:9], and elsewhere. Calmet remarks: "This appears to refer only to the passage of the Red Sea, and the destruction of Pharaoh. Were we not prepossessed with the opinion that Job died before Moses, every person at the first view of the subject must consider it in this light." I am not thus prepossessed. Let Job live when he might, I am satisfied the Book of Job was written long after the death of Moses, and not earlier than the days of Solomon, if not later. The farther I go in the work, the more this conviction is deepened; and the opposite sentiment appears to be perfectly gratuitous.

### Verse 13

[¶4] By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens - See the observations below.

### Verse 14

[¶6] Lo, these are parts of his ways - קצות ketsoth, the ends or extremities, the outlines, an indistinct sketch, of his eternal power and Godhead.

[¶7] How little a portion is heard - שמץ shemets, a mere whisper; admirably opposed, as Mr. Good has well observed, to רעם raam, the thunder, mentioned in the next clause. As the thunder is to a whisper, so are the tremendous and infinitely varied works of God to the faint outlines exhibited in the above discourse. Every reader will relish the dignity, propriety, and sense of these expressions. They force themselves on the observation of even the most heedless. By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens - Numerous are the opinions relative to the true meaning of this verse. Some think it refers to the clearing of the sky after a storm, such as appears to be described [Job 26:11], [Job 26:12]; and suppose his Spirit means the wind, which he directs to sweep and cleanse the face of the sky, by which the splendor of the day or the lustre of the night is restored: and by the crooked, flying, or aerial serpent, as it is variously rendered, the ecliptic is supposed to be meant, as the sun's apparent course in it appears to be serpentine, in his approach to and recession from each of the tropics. This tortuous line may be seen on any terrestrial globe. Many will object to this notion as too refined for the time of Job; but this I could easily admit, as astronomy had a very early existence among the Arabians, if not its origin. But with me the chief objection lies against the obscurity of the allusion, if it be one; for it must require no small ingenuity, and almost the spirit of divination, to find out the sun's oblique path in the zodiac in the words His hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Others have imagined that the allusion is to the lightning in that zigzag form which it assumes when discharged from one cloud into another during a thunder storm. This is at once a natural and very apparent sense. To conduct and manage the lightning is most certainly a work which requires the skill and omnipotence of God, as much as garnishing the heavens by his Spirit, dividing the sea by his power, or causing the pillars of heaven to tremble by his reproof. Others think that the act of the creation of the solar system is intended to be expressed, which is in several parts of the sacred writings attributed to the Spirit of God; ([Gen 1:2]; [Psa 33:6]); and that the crooked serpent means either Satan, who deceived our first parents, or huge aquatic animals; for in [Isa 27:1], we find the leviathan and dragon of the sea called נחש ברח nachash bariach, the very terms that are used by Job in this place: "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan, the piercing serpent, (נחש ברח nachash bariach), even leviathan, that crooked serpent, (נחש עקלתון nachash akallathon), and he shall slay the dragon (התנין hattannin) that is in the sea." And we know that in [Gen 1:21] התנינם הגדלים hattanninim haggedolim, which we translate great whales, includes all sea-monsters or vast aquatic animals. Calmet, who without hesitation adopts this sentiment, says: "I see no necessity to have recourse to allegory here. After having exhibited the effects of the sovereign power of God in the heavens, in the clouds, in the vast collection of waters in the sea, it was natural enough for Job to speak of the production of fishes." The intelligent Dr. Sherlock gives another interpretation. After strongly expressing his disapprobation of the opinion that Job should descend, after speaking of the creation of the heavens and their host, to the formation of snakes and adders, he supposes "that Job here intended to oppose that grand religious system of sabaeism which prevailed in his time, and to which, in other parts of this book, he alludes; a system which acknowledged two opposite independent principles by which the universe was governed, and paid Divine adoration to the celestial luminaries. Suppose, therefore, Job to be acquainted with the fall of man, and the part ascribed to the serpent of the introduction of evil, see how aptly the parts cohere. In opposition to the idolatrous practice of the time, he asserts God to be the maker of all the host of heaven: By his Spirit he garnished the heavens. In opposition to the false notion of two independent principles, he asserts God to be the maker of him who was the author of evil: His hand hath formed the crooked serpent. You see how properly the garnishing of the heavens and the forming of the serpent are joined together. That this is the ancient traditionary explication of this place, we have undeniable evidence from the translation of the Septuagint, who render the latter part of this verse, which relates to the serpent, in this manner: Προσταγματι δε εθανατωσε δρακοντα αποστατην, By a decree he destroyed the apostate dragon. The Syriac and Arabic versions are to the same effect: And his hand slew the flying serpent. "These translators apply the place to the punishment inflicted on the serpent; and it comes to the same thing, for the punishing the serpent is as clear an evidence of God's power over the author of evil as the creating him. We need not wonder to see so much concern in this book to maintain the supremacy of God, and to guard it against every false notion; for this was the theme, the business of the author." - Bp. Sherlock on Prophecy, Diss. ii.

[¶8] From the contradictory opinions on this passage, the reader will no doubt feel cautious what mode of interpretation he adopts, and the absolute necessity of admitting no texts of doubtful interpretation as vouchers for the essential doctrines of Christianity. Neither metaphors, allegories, similes, nor figurative expressions of any kind, should ever be adduced or appealed to as proofs of any article in the Christian faith. We have reason to be thankful that this is at present the general opinion of the most rational divines of all sects and parties, and that the allegory and metaphor men are everywhere vanishing from the meridian and sinking under the horizon of the Church. Scriptural Christianity is prevailing with a strong hand, and going forward with a firm and steady step.

### Introduction

[¶10] Job strongly asserts his innocence; determines to maintain it, and to avoid every evil way, [Job 27:1-7]. Shows his abhorrence of the hypocrite by describing his infamous character, accumulated miseries, and wretched end, vv. 8-23.

### Verse 1

[¶12] Continued his parable - After having delivered the preceding discourse, Job appears to have paused to see if any of his friends chose to make any reply; but finding them all silent, he resumed his discourse, which is here called משלו meshalo, his parable, his authoritative weighty discourse; from משל mashal, to exercise rule, authority, dominion, or power - Parkhurst. And it must be granted that in this speech he assumes great boldness, exhibits his own unsullied character, and treats his friends with little ceremony.

### Verse 2

[¶14] Who hath taken away my judgment - Who has turned aside my cause, and has not permitted it to come to a hearing, where I might have justice done to me, but has abandoned me to the harsh and uncharitable judgment of my enemies? There appears to be a great want of reverence in these words of Job; he speaks with a degree of irritation, if not bitterness, which cannot be justified. No man should speak thus of his Maker.

### Verse 3

[¶16] All the while my breath is in me - As Job appears to allude to the creation of Adam, whom God made out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living soul, the whole of Job's assertion may be no more than a periphrasis for As long as I live and have my understanding. Indeed נשמתי nishmathi may be rendered my mind or understanding, and רוח אלוה ruach Eloah, the breath of God, the principle of animal life, the same that he breathed into Adam; for it is there said, [Gen 2:7], He breathed into his nostrils, נשמת חיים nismath chaiyim, the breath of lives, or that principle from which animal and spiritual life proceeds; in consequence of which he became לנפש חיה lenephesh chaiyah, an intelligent or rational animal.

### Verse 4

[¶18] My lips shall not speak wickedness - As I have hitherto lived in all good conscience before God, as he knoweth, so will I continue to live.

### Verse 5

[¶20] God forbid - חלילה לי - di chalilah lli, far be it from me, that I should justify you - that I should now, by any kind of acknowledgment of wickedness or hypocrisy justify your harsh judgment. You say that God afflicts me for my crimes; I say, and God knows it is truth, that I have not sinned so as to draw down any such judgment upon me. Your judgment, therefore, is pronounced at your own risk.

### Verse 6

[¶22] My righteousness I hold fast - I stand firmly on this ground; I have endeavored to live an upright life, and my afflictions are not the consequence of my sins.

[¶23] My heart shall not reproach me - I shall take care so to live that I shall have a conscience void of offense before God and man. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God;" [1Jn 3:21]. This seems to be Job's meaning.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Let mine enemy be as the wicked - Let my accuser be proved a lying and perjured man, because he has laid to my charge things which he cannot prove, and which are utterly false.

### Verse 8

[¶27] What is the hope of the hypocrite - The word חנף chaneph, which we translate, most improperly, hypocrite, means a wicked fellow, a defiled, polluted wretch, a rascal, a knave, a man who sticks at nothing in order to gain his ends. In this verse it means a dishonest man, a rogue, who by overreaching, cheating, etc., has amassed a fortune.

[¶28] When God taketh away his soul? - Could he have had any well grounded hope of eternal blessedness when he was acquiring earthly property by guilt and deceit? And of what avail will this property be when his soul is summoned before the judgment-seat? A righteous man yields up his soul to God; the wicked does not, because he is afraid of God, of death, and of eternity. God therefore takes the soul away - forces it out of the body. Mr. Blair gives us an affecting picture of the death of a wicked man. Though well known, I shall insert it as a striking comment on this passage: - "How shocking must thy summons be, O death!

[¶29] To him that is at ease in his possessions;

[¶30] Who, counting on long years of pleasures here;

[¶31] Is quite unfurnished for that world to come!

[¶32] In that dread moment how the frantic soul

[¶33] Raves round the walls of her clay tenement;

[¶34] Runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help,

[¶35] But shrieks in vain! How wishfully she looks

[¶36] On all she's leaving, now no longer hers!

[¶37] A little longer, yet a little longer,

[¶38] O, might she stay, to wash away her stains,

[¶39] And fit her for her passage! Mournful sight!

[¶40] Her very eyes weep blood; and every groan

[¶41] She heaves is big with horror. But the foe,

[¶42] Like a stanch murderer, steady to his purpose,

[¶43] Pursues her close, through every lane of life,

[¶44] Nor misses once the track, but presses on;

[¶45] Till, forced at last to the tremendous verge,

## 516. Job · 43 of 73

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[¶0] At once she sinks to everlasting ruin."

[¶1] The Grave.

[¶2] The Chaldee has, What can the detractor expect who has gathered together (ממון דשקר mamon dishkar, the mammon of unrighteousness) when God plucks out his soul? The Septuagint: Τις γαρ εστιν ετι ελπις ασεβει, ὁτι επεχει; Μη πεποιθως επι Κυριον ει αρα σωθησεται; "For what is the hope of the ungodly that he should wait for? shall he, by hoping in the Lord, be therefore saved?" Mr. Good translates differently from all the versions: - "Yet what is the hope of the wicked that he should prosper,

[¶3] That God should keep his soul in quiet?"

[¶4] I believe our version gives as true a sense as any; and the words appear to have been in the eye of our Lord, when he said, "For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" [Mat 16:26].

### Verse 11

[¶6] I will teach you by the hand of God - Relying on Divine assistance, and not speaking out of my own head, or quoting what others have said I will teach you what the mind of the Almighty is, and I will conceal nothing. Job felt that the good hand of his God was upon him, and that therefore he should make no mistake in his doctrines. In this way the Chaldee understood the words, ביד אל beyad El, by the hand of God, which it translates בנבואת אלהא binbuath Elaha, by the prophecy of God. Those who reject the literal meaning, which conveys a very good sense, may adopt the translation of Mr. Good, which has much to recommend it: "I will teach you concerning the dealings of God."

### Verse 12

[¶8] Ye yourselves have seen it - Your own experience and observation have shown you that the righteous are frequently in affliction, and the wicked in affluence.

[¶9] Why then are ye thus altogether vain? - The original is very emphatical: הבל תהבלו hebel tehbalu, and well expressed by Mr. Good: "Why then should ye thus babble babblings!" It our language would allow it, we might say vanitize vanity.

### Verse 13

[¶11] This is the portion of a wicked man - Job now commences his promised teaching; and what follows is a description of the lot or portion of the wicked man and of tyrants. And this remuneration shall they have with God in general, though the hand of man be not laid upon them. Though he does not at all times show his displeasure against the wicked, by reducing them to a state of poverty and affliction, yet he often does it so that men may see it; and at other times he seems to pass them by, reserving their judgment for another world, that men may not forget that there is a day of judgment and perdition for ungodly men, and a future recompense for the righteous.

### Verse 14

[¶13] If his children be multiplied - As numerous families were supposed to be a proof of the benediction of the Almighty, Job shows that this is not always the case; for the offspring of the wicked shall be partly cut off by violent deaths, and partly reduced to great poverty.

### Verse 15

[¶15] Those that remain of him - שרידיו seridaiv, his remains, whether meaning himself personally, or his family.

[¶16] Shall be buried in death - Shall come to utter and remediless destruction. Death shall have his full conquest over them, and the grave its complete victory. These are no common dead. All the sting, all the wound, and all the poison of sin, remains: and so evident are God's judgments in his and their removal, that even widows shall not weep for them; the public shall not bewail them; for when the wicked perish there is shouting. Mr. Good, following the Chaldee, translates: Entombed in corruption, or in the pestilence. But I see no reason why we should desert the literal reading. Entombed in corruption gives no nervous sense in my judgment; for in corruption are the high and the low, the wicked and the good, entombed: but buried in death is at once nervous and expressive. Death itself is the place where he shall lie; he shall have no redemption, no resurrection to life; death shall ever have dominion over him. The expression is very similar to that in [Luk 16:22] (note), as found in several versions and MSS.: The rich man died, and was buried in hell; and, lifting up his eyes, being in torment, he saw, etc. See my note there.

### Verse 16

[¶18] Though he heap up silver - Though he amass riches in the greatest abundance, he shall not enjoy them. Unsanctified wealth is a curse to its possessor. Money, of all earthly possessions, is the most dangerous, as it is the readiest agent to do good or evil. He that perverts it is doubly cursed, because it affords him the most immediate means of sinful gratification; and he can sin more in an hour through this, than he can in a day or week by any other kind of property. On the other hand, they who use it aright have it in their power to do the most prompt and immediate good. Almost every kind of want may be speedily relieved by it. Hence, he who uses it as he ought is doubly blessed; while he who abuses it is doubly cursed.

### Verse 17

[¶20] The just shall put it on - Money is God's property. "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord;" and though it may be abused for a time by unrighteous hands, God, in the course of his providence, brings it back to its proper use; and often the righteous possess the inheritance of the wicked.

### Verse 18

[¶22] He buildeth his house as a moth - With great skill, great pains, and great industry; but the structure, however skillful, shall be dissolved; and the materials, however costly, shall be brought to corruption. To its owner it shall be only a temporary habitation, like that which the moth makes in its larve or caterpillar state, during its change from a chrysalis to a winged insect.

[¶23] As a booth that the keeper maketh - A shed which the watchman or keeper of a vineyard erects to cover him from the scorching sun, while watching the ripening grapes, that they may be preserved from depredation. Travellers in the East have observed that such booths or sheds are made of the lightest and most worthless materials; and after the harvest or vintage is in, they are quite neglected, and by the winter rains, etc., are soon dissolved and destroyed.

### Verse 19

[¶25] The rich man shall lie down - In the grave. But he shall not be gathered - Neither have a respectable burial among men, nor be gathered with the righteous in the kingdom of God. It may be that Job alludes here to an opinion relative to the state of certain persons after death, prevalent in all nations in ancient times, viz., that those whose funeral rites had not been duly performed, wander about as ghosts, and find no rest.

[¶26] He openeth his eyes - In the morning of the resurrection.

[¶27] And he is not - He is utterly lost and undone for ever. This seems to be the plain sense of the passage; and so all the versions appear to have understood it; but Reiske and some others, by making יאסף yeaseph an Arabic word, signifying, not the idea of gathering, but care, anxiety, etc., have quite altered this sense of the passage; and Mr. Good, who copies them, translates thus: Let the rich man lie down, and care not. I see no manner of occasion to resort to this interpretation, which, in my judgment, gives a sense inferior to that given above, or to the following: The rich man shall lie down - go to his rest, fully persuaded that his property is in perfect safety; but he shall not be gathered, or he shall not gather - make any farther addition to his stores: he openeth his eyes in the morning, when he is not - marauders in the night have stripped him of all his property, as in the case of Job himself; a case quite probable, and not unfrequent in Arabia, when a hostile tribe makes a sudden incursion, and carries off an immense booty. But I prefer the first meaning, as it is obtained without crucifying the text. Coverdale translates: When the rich man dyeth, he carieth nothinge with him: he is gone in the twincklinge of an eye.

### Verse 20

[¶29] Terrors take hold on him as waters - They come upon him as an irresistible flood; and he is overwhelmed as by a tempest in the night, when darkness partly hides his danger, and deprives him of discerning the way to escape.

### Verse 21

[¶31] The east wind carrieth him away - Such as is called by Mr. Good, a levanter, the euroclydon, the eastern storm of [Act 27:14].

### Verse 22

[¶33] God shall cast upon him - Or, rather, the storm mentioned above shall incessantly pelt him, and give him no respite; nor can he by any means escape from its fury.

### Verse 23

[¶35] Men shall clap their hands at him - These two verses refer to the storm, which is to sweep away the ungodly; therefore the word God, in [Job 27:22], and men in this verse, should be omitted. [Job 27:22] : "For it shall fall upon him, and not spare: flying from its power he shall continue to fly. [Job 27:23]. It shall clap its hands against him, and hiss, וישרק veyishrok, shriek, him out of his place."

[¶36] Here the storm is personified and the wicked actor is hissed and driven by it from off the stage. It seems it was an ancient method to clap the hands against and hiss a man from any public office, who had acted improperly in it. The populace, in European countries, express their disapprobation of public characters who have not pleased them in the same manner to the present day, by hisses, groans, and the like.

### Introduction

[¶38] Job, in showing the vanity of human pursuits in reference to genuine wisdom, mentions mining for and refining gold and silver, [Job 28:1]; iron and other minerals, [Job 28:2]; the difficulties of mining, [Job 28:3], [Job 28:4]; produce of grain for bread from the earth, and stones of fire from under it, [Job 28:5]. He speaks of precious stones and gold dust, [Job 28:6]; of the instinct of fowls and wild beasts in finding their way, [Job 28:7], [Job 28:8]; and of the industry and successful attempts of men in mining and other operations, [Job 28:9-11] : but shows that with all their industry, skill, and perseverance, they cannot find out true wisdom, [Job 28:12]; of which he gives the most exalted character, [Job 28:13-22]; and shows that God alone, the fountain of wisdom, knows and can teach it, [Job 28:24-27]; and in what this true wisdom consists, [Job 28:28].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Surely there is a vein for the silver - This chapter is the oldest and finest piece of natural history in the world, and gives us very important information on several curious subjects; and could we ascertain the precise meaning of all the original words, we might, most probably, find out allusions to several useful arts which we are apt to think are of modern, or comparatively modern, invention. The word מוצא motsa, which we here translate vein, signifies literally, a going out; i.e., a mine, or place dug in the earth, whence the silver ore is extracted. And this ore lies generally in veins or loads, running in certain directions.

[¶41] A place for gold where they fine it - This should rather be translated, A place for gold which they refine. Gold ore has also its peculiar mine, and requires to be refined from earthy impurities.

### Verse 2

[¶43] Iron is taken out of the earth - This most useful metal is hidden under the earth, and men have found out the method of separating it from its ore.

[¶44] Brass is molten out of the stone - As brass is a factitious metal, copper must be the meaning of the Hebrew word נחושה nechusah: literally, the stone is poured out for brass. If we retain the common translation, perhaps the process of making brass may be that to which Job refers; for this metal is formed from copper melted with the stone calamine; and thus the stone is poured out to make brass.

## 517. Job · 44 of 73

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### Verse 3

[¶1] He setteth an end to darkness - As it is likely Job still refers to mining, the words above may be understood as pointing out the persevering industry of man in penetrating into the bowels of the earth, in order to seek for metals and precious stones. Even the stones that lay hidden in the bowels of the earth he has digged for and brought to light, and has penetrated in directions in which the solar light could not be transmitted; so that he appears to have gone to the regions of the shadow of death. Mr. Good translates: "Man delveth into the region of darkness; and examineth, to the uttermost limit, the stones of darkness and death-shade."

### Verse 4

[¶3] The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant - This passage is very difficult. Some think it refers to mining; others to navigation. If it refer to the former, it may be intended to point out the waters that spring up when the miners have sunk down to a considerable depth, so that the mine is drowned, and they are obliged to give it up. Previously to the invention of the steam-engine this was generally the case: hence ancient mines may be reopened and worked to great advantage, because we have the means now to take off the water which the ancient workers had not. When, therefore, floods break out in those shafts, they are abandoned; and thus they are,

[¶4] Forgotten of the foot - No man treads there any more. The waters increase דלו dallu, they are elevated, they rise up to a level with the spring, or till they meet with some fissure by which they can escape; and thence מאנוש נעו meenosh nau, they are moved or carried away from men; the stream is lost in the bowels of the earth.

[¶5] Mr. Peters thinks that both this verse, and [Job 9:26], refer to navigation, then in a state of infancy; for the sea is not so much as mentioned; but נחל nachal, a torrent or flood, some river or arm of the sea perhaps of a few leagues over, which, dividing the several nations, must interrupt their hospitality and commerce with each other, unless by the help of navigation. According to this opinion the verse may be translated and paraphrased thus: The flood-rivers and arms of the sea - separateth from the stranger, מעם ג meim gar, divides different nations and peoples: they are forgotten of the foot - they cannot walk over these waters, they must embark in vessels; then they dwindle away, דלו dallu, from the size of men, that is, in proportion to their departure from the land they lessen on the sight; נעו nau, they are tossed up and down, namely, by the action of the waves. This receives some countenance from the psalmist's fine description, [Psa 107:26], [Psa 107:27], of a ship in a rough sea: They mount up to heaven; they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, ינועו yanuu, (the same word as above), they stagger like a drunken man. Mr. Good's translation is singular: -

[¶6] He breaketh up the veins from the matrice,

[¶7] Which, though thought nothing of under the foot,

[¶8] Are drawn forth, are brandished among mankind.

[¶9] This learned man thinks that it applies solely to mining, of which I cannot doubt; and therefore I adopt the first interpretation: but as to agreement among translators, it will be sought in vain. I shall just add Coverdale: With the ryver of water parteth he a sunder the straunge people, that knoweth no good neighbourheade; such as are rude, unmannerly, and boysterous.

### Verse 5

[¶11] The earth, out of it cometh bread - Or the earth, ממנה mimmennah, from itself, by its own vegetative power, it sends out bread, or the corn of which bread is made.

[¶12] And under it is turned up as it were fire - It seems as if this referred to some combustible fossil, similar to our stone coal, which was dug up out of the earth in some places of Arabia. The Chaldee gives a translation, conformable to a very ancient opinion, which supposed the center of the earth to be a vast fire, and the place called hell. "The earth from which food proceeds, and under which is gehenna, whose cold snow is converted into the likeness of fire; and the garden of Eden, which is the place whose stones are sapphires," etc. The Vulgate has, "The land from which bread has been produced has been destroyed by fire." If this be the meaning of the original, there is probably an allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and the seventh and eighth verses may be supposed to refer to that catastrophe, there being no place left tangible or visible where those cities once stood: neither fowl nor beast could discern a path there, the whole land being covered with the lake Asphaltites.

### Verse 6

[¶14] The stones - the place of sapphires - In the language of mineralogists, the gangue, matrix, or bed in which the sapphire is found. For a description of this stone, see on [Job 28:16] (note).

[¶15] Dust of gold - Or rather, gold dust.

### Verse 7

[¶17] There is a path which no fowl knoweth - The instinct of birds is most surprising. They traverse vast forests, etc., in search of food, at a great distance from the place which they have chosen for their general residence; and return in all weathers, never missing their track: they also find their own nest without ever mistaking another of the same kind for it. Birds of passage, also, after tarrying in a foreign clime for six or seven months, return to their original abode over kingdoms and oceans, without missing their way, or deviating in the least from the proper direction; not having a single object of sight to direct their peregrinations. In such cases even the keen scent of the vulture, and the quick, piercing sight of the eagle, would be of no use. It is possible that Job may here refer to undiscovered mines and minerals; that notwithstanding man had already discovered much, yet much remained undiscovered, especially in the internal structure and contents of the earth. Since his time innumerable discoveries have been made; and yet how little do we know! Our various conflicting and contradictory theories of the earth are full proofs of our ignorance, and strong evidences of our folly. The present dogmatical systems of geology itself are almost the ne plus ultra of brain-sick visionaries, and system-mad mortals. They talk as confidently of the structure of the globe, and the manner and time in which all was formed, as if they had examined every part from the center to the circumference; though not a soul of man has ever penetrated two miles in perpendicular depth into the bowels of the earth. And with this scanty, defective knowledge, they pretend to build systems of the universe, and blaspheme the revelation of God! Poor souls! All these things are to them a path which no fowl knoweth, which the vulture's eye hath not seen, on which the lion's whelps have not trodden, and by which the fierce lion have not passed. The wisdom necessary to such investigations is out of their reach; and they have not simplicity of heart to seek it where it may be found. One of the Chaldee Targums gives a strange turn to this verse: - "The path of the tree of life Sammael, (Satan), though flying like a bird, hath not known; nor hath the eye of Eve beheld it. The children of men have not walked in it; nor hath the serpent turned towards it."

### Verse 9

[¶19] He putteth forth his hand upon the rock, - Still there appears to be a reference to mining. Man puts his hand upon the rock, he breaks that to pieces, in order to extract the metals which it contains.

[¶20] He overturneth the mountains - He excavates, undermines, or digs them away, when in search of the metals contained in them: this is not only poetically, but literally, the case in many instances.

### Verse 10

[¶22] He cutteth out rivers among the rocks - He cuts canals, adits, etc., in the rocks, and drives levels under ground, in order to discover loads or veins of ore. These are often continued a great way under ground; and may be poetically compared to rivers, channels, or canals.

[¶23] His eye seeth every precious thing - He sinks those shafts, and drives those levels, in order to discover where the precious minerals lie, of which he is in pursuit.

### Verse 11

[¶25] He bindeth the floods - Prevents the risings of springs from drowning the mines; and conducts rivers and streams from their wonted course, in order to bring forth to light what was hidden under their beds. The binding or restraining the water, which, at different depths, annoys the miner, is both difficult and expensive: in some cases it may be drawn off by pipes or canals into neighboring water courses; in others, it is conducted to one receptacle or reservoir, and thence drawn off. In Europe it is generally done by means of steam-engines. What method the ancients had in mining countries, we cannot tell; but they dug deep in order to find out the riches of the earth. Pliny says, nervously, Imus in viscera terrae; et in sede manium opes quaerimus. "We descend into the bowels of the earth; and seek for wealth even in the abodes of departed spirits." The manes or ghosts of the dead, or spirits presiding over the dead, were supposed to have their habitation in the center of the earth; or in the deepest pits and caves. Ovid, speaking of the degeneracy of men in the iron age, Met. lib. i., ver. 137, says: -

[¶26] Nec tantum segetes alimentaque debita dives

[¶27] Poscebatur humus; sed itum est in viscera terrae:

[¶28] Quasque recondiderat, Stygiisque admoverat umbris,

[¶29] Effodiuntur opes, irritaenenta malorum.

[¶30] Jamque nocens ferrum, ferroque nocentius aurum

[¶31] Prodierat: prodit bellum, quod pugnat utroque;

[¶32] Sanguineaque manu crepitantia concutit arma. "Nor was the ground alone required to bear

[¶33] Her annual income to the crooked share:

[¶34] But greedy mortals, rummaging her store,

[¶35] Digg'd from her entrails first the precious ore;

[¶36] And that alluring ill to sight display'd,

[¶37] Which, next to hell, the prudent gods had laid.

[¶38] Thus cursed steel, and more accursed gold,

[¶39] Gave mischief birth, and made that mischief bold;

[¶40] And double death did wretched man invade,

[¶41] By steel assaulted, and by gold betray'd."

[¶42] Dryden.

[¶43] By binding the floods from overflowing, some have supposed that there is an allusion to the flux and reflux of the sea. In its flowing it is so bound, has its bounds assigned by the Most High, that it does not drown the adjacent country; and in its ebbing the parts which are ordinarily covered with the water are brought to view.

## 518. Job · 45 of 73

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### Verse 12

[¶1] But where shall wisdom be found? - It is most evident that the terms wisdom and understanding are used here in a widely different sense from all those arts and sciences which have their relation to man in his animal and social state, and from all that reason and intellect by which man is distinguished from all other animals. Now as these terms חכמה chochmah, wisdom, and בינה binah, understanding or discernment, are often applied in the sacred writings in their common acceptations, we must have recourse to what Job says of them, to know their meaning in this place. In [Job 28:28], he says, The fear of the Lord is Wisdom, and to depart from evil is Understanding. We know that the fear of the Lord is often taken for the whole of that religious reverence and holy obedience which God prescribes to man in his word, and which man owes to his Maker. Hence the Septuagint render חכמה chochmah, wisdom, by θεοσεβια, Divine worship; and as to a departure from evil, that is necessarily implied in a religious life, but it is here properly distinguished, that no man might suppose that a right faith, and a proper performance of the rites of religious worship, is the whole of religion. No. They must not only worship God in the letter, but also in the spirit; they must not only have the form, but also the power of godliness: and this will lead them to worship God in spirit and truth, to walk in his testimonies, and abstain from every appearance of evil; hence they will be truly happy: so that wisdom is another word for happiness. Now these are things which man by study and searching could never find out; they are not of an earthly origin. The spirit of a man, human understanding, may know the things of a man - those which concern him in his animal and social state: but the Spirit of God alone knows the things of God; and therefore Wisdom - all true religion - must come by Divine revelation, which is the mode of its attainment. Wisdom finds out the thing, and understanding uses and applies the means; and then the great end is obtained.

### Verse 13

[¶3] Man knoweth not the price thereof - It is of infinite value; and is the only science which concerns both worlds. Without it, the wisest man is but a beast; with it, the simplest man is next to an angel.

[¶4] Neither is it found in the land of the living - The world by wisdom, its wisdom, never knew God. True religion came by Divine revelation: that alone gives the true notion of God, his attributes, ways, designs, judgments, providences, etc., whence man came, what is his duty, his nature, and his end. Literature, science, arts, etc., etc., can only avail man for the present life, nor can they contribute to his true happiness, unless tempered and directed by genuine religion.

### Verse 14

[¶6] The depth saith, It is not in me - Men may dig into the bowels of the earth, and there find gold, silver, and precious stones; but these will not give them true happiness.

[¶7] The sea saith, It is not with me - Men may explore foreign countries, and by navigation connect as it were the most distant parts of the earth, and multiply the comforts and luxuries of life; but every voyage and every enjoyment proclaim, True happiness is not here.

### Verse 15

[¶9] It cannot be gotten for gold - Genuine religion and true happiness are not to be acquired by earthly property. Solomon made gold and silver as plentiful as the stones in Jerusalem, and had all the delights of the sons of men, and yet he was not happy; yea, he had wisdom, was the wisest of men, but he had not the wisdom of which Job speaks here, and therefore, to him, all was vanity and vexation of spirit. If Solomon, as some suppose, was the author of this book, the sentiments expressed here are such as we might expect from this deeply experienced and wise man.

### Verse 16

[¶11] The gold of Ophir - Gold is five times mentioned in this and [Job 28:17] and [Job 28:19], and four of the times in different words. I shall consider them all at once.

[¶12] 1. סגור Segor, from סגר sagar, to shut up. Gold. in the mine, or shut up in the ore; native gold washed by the streams out of the mountains, etc.; unwrought gold. [Job 28:16]

[¶13] 2. כתם Kethem, from כתם catham, to sign or stamp: gold made current by being coined, or stamped with its weight or value; what we would call standard or sterling gold. [Job 28:17]

[¶14] 3. זהב Zahab, from זהב zahab, to be Lear, bright, or resplendent: the untarnishing metal; the only metal that always keeps its lustre. But probably here it means gold chased, or that in which precious stones are set; burnished gold.

[¶15] 4. פז Paz, from פז paz, to consolidate, joined here with כלי keley, vessels, ornaments, instruments, etc.: hammered or wrought gold; gold in the finest forms, and most elegant utensils. This metal is at once the brightest, most solid, and most precious, of all the metals yet discovered, of which we have no less than forty in our catalogues. In these verses there are also seven kinds of precious stones, etc., mentioned: onyx, sapphire, crystal, coral, pearls, rubies, and topaz.

[¶16] These I shall also consider in the order of their occurrence. [Job 28:16]

[¶17] 1. שהם shoham, the Onyx, from ονυξ, a man's nail, hoof of a horse, because in color it resembles both. This stone is a species of chalcedony; and consists of alternate layers of white and brown chalcedony, under which it generally ranges. In the Vulgate it is called sardonyx, compounded of sard and onyx. Sard is also a variety of chalcedony, of a deep reddish-brown color, of which, and alternate layers of milk-white chalcedony, the sardonyx consists. A most beautiful block of this mineral sardonyx, from Iceland, now lies before me.

[¶18] 2. ספיר sappir, the Sapphire stone, From ספר saphar, to count, number; probably from the number of golden spots with which it is said the sapphire of the ancients abounded. Pliny says, Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvii., cap. 8: Sapphirus aureis punctis collucet: coeruleae et sapphiri, raraque cum purpura: optimae apud Medos, nusquam tame perlucidae. "The sapphire glitters with golden spots. Sapphires are sometimes of an azure, never of a purple color. Those of Media are the best, but there are none transparent." This may mean the blood stones; but see below. What we call the sapphire is a variety of the perfect corundum; it is in hardness inferior only to the diamond. It is of several colors, and from them it has obtained several names.

[¶19] 1. The transparent or translucent is called the white sapphire.

[¶20] 2. The blue is called the oriental sapphire.

[¶21] 3. The violet blue, the oriental amethyst.

[¶22] 4. The yellow, the oriental topaz.

[¶23] 5. The green, the oriental emerald.

[¶24] 6. That with pearly reflections, the opalescent sapphire.

[¶25] 7. When transparent, with a pale, reddish, or bluish reflection, it is called the girasol sapphire.

[¶26] 8. A variety which, when polished, shows a silvered star of six rays in a direction perpendicular to the axis, is called asteria.

[¶27] When the meaning of the Hebrew word is collated with the description given by Pliny, it must be evident that a spotted opaque stone is meant, and consequently not what is now known by the name sapphire. I conjecture, therefore, that lapis lazuli, which is of a blue color, with golden-like spots, formed by pyrites of iron, must be intended.

[¶28] The lapis lazuli is that from which the beautiful and unfading color called ultramarine is obtained. [Job 28:17]

[¶29] 3. זכוכית zechuchith, Crystal, or glass, from זכה zachah, to be pure, clear, transparent. Crystal or crystal of quartz is a six-sided prism, terminated by six-sided pyramids. It belongs to the siliceous class of minerals: it is exceedingly clear and brilliant, insomuch that this property of it has become proverbial, as clear as crystal. [Job 28:18]

[¶30] 4. ראמות ramoth, Coral, from ראם raam, to be exalted or elevated; probably from this remarkable property of coral, "it always grows from the tops of marine rocky caverns with the head downwards." Red coral is found in the Mediterranean, about the isles of Majorca and Minorca, on the African coast, and in the Ethiopic ocean.

[¶31] 5. גביש gabish, Pearls, from גבש gabash, in Arabic, to be smooth, to shave off the hair; and hence גביש gabish, the pearl, the smooth round substance; and also hail or hailstones, because of their resemblance to pearls. The pearl is the production of a shell-fish of the oyster kind, found chiefly in the East Indies, and called berberi; but pearls are occasionally found in the common oyster, as I have myself observed, and in the muscle also. They are of a brilliant sparkling white, perfectly round in general, and formed of coats in the manner of an onion. Out of one oyster I once took six pearls. When large, fine, and without spots, they are valuable. I have seen one that formed the whole body of a Hindoo idol, Creeshna, more than an inch in length, and valued at 300 guineas.

[¶32] 6. פנינים peninim, Rubies, from פנה panah, he turned, looked, beheld. The oriental ruby is blood-red, rose-red, or with a tinge of violet. It has occasionally a mixture of blue, and is generally in the form of six-sided prisms. It is a species of the sapphire, and is sometimes chatoyant in its appearance, i.e., has a curious kind of reflection, similar to the cat's eye: and as this is particularly striking, and changes as you turn the stone, hence probably the name peninim, which you derive from פנה panah, to turn, look, behold, etc. But some learned men are of opinion that the magnet or loadstone is meant, and it is thus called because of the remarkable property it has of turning north and south. And this notion is rendered the more likely, because it agrees with another word in this verse, expressive of a different property of the magnet, viz., its attractive influence: for the Hebrew words משך חכמה מפנינים meshech chochmah mippeninim, which we render, The price of wisdom is above rubies, is literally, The Attraction of wisdom is beyond the peninim, the loadstone; for all the gold, silver, and precious stones, have strong influence on the human heart, attracting all its passions strongly; yet the attraction of wisdom - that which insures a man's happiness in both worlds - is more powerful and influential, when understood, than all of these, and even than the loadstone, for that can only attract iron; but, through desire of the other, a man, having separated himself from all those earthly entanglements, seeketh and intermeddleth with All Wisdom. The attractive property of the loadstone must have been observed from its first discovery; and there is every reason to believe that the magnet and its virtues were known in the East long before they were discovered in Europe.

[¶33] 7. פטדה pitdah, the Topaz. This word occurs only in [Exo 28:17]; [Exo 39:10]; [Eze 28:13], and in the present place; in all of which, except that of Ezekiel, where the Septuagint is all confusion, the Septuagint and Vulgate render the word always τοπαζιον, topazius, the Topaz. This stone is generally found in a prismatic form, sometimes limpid and nearly transparent, or of various shades of yellow, green, blue, lilac, and red. I have thus given the best account I can of the stones here mentioned, allowing that they answer to the names by which we translate them. But on this point there is great uncertainty, as I have already had occasion to observe in other parts of this work. Beasts, birds, plants, metals, precious stones, unguents, different kinds of grain, etc., are certainly mentioned in the sacred writings; but whether we know what the different Hebrew terms signify, is more than we can certainly affirm. Of some there is little room to doubt; of others conjecture must in the present state of our knowledge, supply the place of certainty. See Philip's Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy; an accurate work, which I feel pleasure in recommending to all students in the science.

### Verse 19

[¶35] The topaz of Ethiopia - The country called Cush, which we call Ethiopia, is supposed to be that which extends from the eastern coast of the Red Sea, and stretches towards Lower Egypt. Diodorus Siculus says that the topaz was found in great abundance, as his description intimates, in an island in the Red Sea called Ophiodes, or the isle of serpents, Hist. lib. iii., p. 121. His account is curious, but I greatly doubt its correctness; it seems too much in the form of a legend: yet the reader may consult the place. See also Clarke on [Job 28:16] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶37] Whence then cometh wisdom? - Nearly the same words as in [Job 28:12] (note), where see the note.

### Verse 22

[¶39] Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof - אבדון ומות Abaddon vamaveth, the destroyer, and his offspring death. This is the very name that is given to the devil in Greek letters Αβαδδων, [Rev 9:11], and is rendered by the Greek word Απολλυων, Apollyon, a word exactly of the same meaning. No wonder death and the devil are brought in here as saying they had heard the fame of wisdom, seeing [Job 28:28] defines it to be the fear of the Lord, and a departure from evil; things point blank contrary to the interests of Satan, and the extension of the empire of death.

### Verse 23

[¶41] God understandeth the way thereof - It can only be taught by a revelation from himself. Instead of הבין hebin, understandeth, six MSS. have הכין hechin, disposed or established. This reading is also supported by the Septuagint; Ὁ Θεος ευ συνεστησεν αυτης ὁδον, "God hath well established her way:" falsely rendered bene cognovit, hath well known, in the Latin version of the Septuagint in the London Polyglot; but bene constituit, hath well established, in the Complutensian, Antwerp, and Paris Polyglots.

### Verse 24

[¶43] For he looketh to the ends of the earth - His knowledge is unlimited, and his power infinite.

### Verse 25

[¶45] To make the weight for the winds - God has given an atmosphere to the earth, which, possessing a certain degree of gravity perfectly suited to the necessities of all animals, plants, vegetables, and fluids, is the cause in his hand of preserving animal and vegetative life through the creation; for by it the blood circulates in the veins of animals, and the juices in the tubes of vegetables. Without this pressure of the atmosphere, there could be no respiration; and the elasticity of the particles of air included in animal and vegetable bodies, without this superincumbent pressure, would rupture the vessels in which they are contained, and destroy both kinds of life. So exactly is this weight of the winds or atmospheric air proportioned to the necessities of the globe, that we find it in the mean neither too light to prevent the undue expansion of animal and vegetable tubes, nor too heavy to compress them so as to prevent due circulation. See at the end of the chapter, [Job 28:28] (note).

## 519. Job · 46 of 73

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[¶0] And he weigheth the waters by measure - He has exactly proportioned the aqueous surface of the earth to the terrene parts, so that there shall be an adequate surface to produce, by evaporation, moisture sufficient to be treasured up in the atmosphere for the irrigation of the earth, so that it may produce grass for cattle, and corn for the service of man. It has been found, by a pretty exact calculation, that the aqueous surface of the globe is to the terrene parts as three to one; or, that three-fourths of the surface of the globe is water, and about one-fourth earth. And other experiments on evaporation, or the quantity of vapours which arise from a given space in a given time, show that it requires such a proportion of aqueous surface to afford moisture sufficient for the other proportion of dry land. Thus God has given the waters by measure, as he has given the due proportion of weight to the winds.

### Verse 26

[¶2] When he made a decree for the rain - When he determined how that should be generated, viz., By the heat of the sun evaporation is produced: the particles of vapor being lighter than the air on the surface, ascend into the atmosphere, till they come to a region where the air is of their own density; there they are formed into thin clouds, and become suspended. When, by the sudden passages of lightning, or by winds strongly agitating these clouds, the particles are driven together and condensed so as to be weightier than the air in which they float, then they fall down in the form of rain; the drops being greater or less according to the force or momentum, or suddenness, of the agitation by which they are driven together as well as to the degree of rarity in the lower regions of the atmosphere through which they fall.

[¶3] A way for the lightning of the thunder - ודרך לחזיז קולות vederech lachaziz koloth. קול kol signifies voice of any kind; and koloth is the plural and is taken for the frequent claps or rattlings of thunder. חז chaz signifies to notch, indentate, or serrate, as in the edges of the leaves of trees; חזיז chaziz must refer to the zigzag form which lightning assumes in passing from one cloud into another. We are informed that "this is a frequent occurrence in hot countries." Undoubtedly it is; for it is frequent in cold countries also. I have seen this phenomenon in England in the most distinct manner for hours together, with a few seconds of interval between each flash. Nothing can better express this appearance than the original word.

### Verse 27

[¶5] Then did he see it, and declare it - When he had finished all his creative operations, and tried and proved his work, חקרה chakarah, investigated and found it to be very good; then he gave the needful revelation to man; for,

### Verse 28

[¶7] Unto man he said - לאדם laadam, unto man, he said: This probably refers to the revelation of his will which God gave to Adam after his fall. He had before sought for wisdom in a forbidden way. When he and Eve saw that the tree was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, they took and did eat, [Gen 3:6]. Thus they lost all the wisdom that they had, by not setting the fear of the Lord before their eyes; and became foolish, wicked, and miserable. Hear, then, what God prescribes as a proper remedy for this dire disease: The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; it is thy only wisdom now to set God always before thy eyes, that thou mayest not again transgress.

[¶8] Depart from evil is understanding - Depart from the evil within thee, and the evil without thee; for thy own evil, and the evil that is now, through thee, brought into the world, will conspire together to sink thee into ruin and destruction. Therefore, let it be thy constant employment to shun and avoid that evil which is everywhere diffused through the whole moral world by thy offense; and labor to be reconciled to him by the righteousness and true holiness, that thou mayest escape the bitter pains of an eternal death. See the note on [Job 28:12]. From what has been observed on [Job 28:25], [Job 28:26], and from the doctrine of the atmosphere in general, I can safely draw the following conclusions: -

[¶9] 1. From the gravity and elasticity of the air, we learn that it closely invests the earth, and all bodies upon it, and binds them down with a force equal to 2160 pounds on every square foot. Hence it may properly be termed the belt or girdle of the globe.

[¶10] 2. It prevents the arterial system of animals and plants from being too much distended by the impetus of the circulating juices, or by the elastic power of the air so plenteously contained in the blood, and in the different vessels both of plants and animals.

[¶11] 3. By its gravity it prevents the blood and juices from oozing through the pores of the vessels in which they are contained; which, were it not for this circumstance, would infallibly take place. Persons who ascend high mountains, through want of a sufficiency of pressure in the atmosphere, become relaxed, and spit blood. Animals, under an exhausted receiver, swell, vomit, and discharge their faeces.

[¶12] 4. It promotes the mixture of contiguous fluids; for when the air is extracted from certain mixtures, a separation takes place, by which their properties, when in combination, are essentially changed.

[¶13] 5. To this principle we owe winds in general, so essential to navigation, and so necessary to the purification of the atmosphere. The air is put into motion by any alteration of its equilibrium.

[¶14] 6. Vegetation depends entirely gravity and elasticity of the air. Various experiments amply prove that plants in vacuo never grow.

[¶15] 7. Without air there could be no evaporation from the sea and rivers; and, consequently, no rain; nor could the clouds be suspended, so necessary to accumulate and preserve, and afterwards to distil, these vapours, in the form of dew, rain, snow, and hail, upon the earth.

[¶16] 8. Without air, all the charms of vocal and instrumental sounds would become extinct; and even language itself would cease.

[¶17] 9. Without it heat could not be evolved, nor could fire exist; hence a universal rigour would invest the whole compass of created nature.

[¶18] 10. Without air, animal life could never have had a being; hence God created the firmament or atmosphere before any animal was produced. And without its continual influence animal life cannot be preserved; for it would require only a few moments of a total privation of the benefits of the atmosphere to destroy every living creature under the whole heaven.

[¶19] 11. It has been found, by repeated experiments, that a column or rod of quicksilver, about twenty-nine inches and a half high, and one inch in diameter, weighs about fifteen pounds; and such a column is suspended in an exhausted tube by the weight of the atmosphere; hence it necessarily follows, that a column of air, one square inch in diameter, and as high as the atmosphere, weighs about fifteen pounds at a medium. Thus it is evident that the atmosphere presses with the weight of fifteen pounds on every square inch; and, as a square foot contains one hundred and forty-four square inches, every such foot must sustain a weight of incumbent atmospheric air equal to two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds, as has been before stated. And from this it will follow, that a middle-sized man, whose surface is about fifteen square feet, constantly sustains a load of air equal to thirty-two thousand four hundred pounds! But this is so completely counterbalanced by the air pressing equally in all directions, and by the elasticity of the air included in the various cavities of the body, that no person in a pure and healthy state of the atmosphere feels any inconvenience from it; so accurately has God fitted the weight to the winds. It has been suggested that my computation of 15 square feet for the surface of a middle-sized man, is too much; I will, therefore, take it at 14 square feet. From this computation, which is within the measure, it is evident that every such person sustains a weight of air equal, at a medium, to about 30,240 lbs. troy, or 24,882 1/2 lbs. avoirdupois, which make 1,777 stone, 4 lbs. equal to eleven Tons, two Hundred and eighteen pounds and a half.

[¶20] 12. Though it may appear more curious than useful, yet from the simple fact which I have completely demonstrated myself by experiment, that the atmosphere presses with the weight or fifteen pounds on every square inch, we can tell the quantum of pressure on the whole globe, and weigh the whole atmosphere to a pound! The polar and equatorial circumference of the earth is well known. Without, therefore, entering too much into detail, I may state that the surface of the terraqueous globe is known to contain about five thousand, five hundred, and seventy-five Billions of square Feet; hence, allowing fifteen pounds to each square inch, and two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds to each square foot, the whole surface must sustain a pressure from the atmosphere equal to twelve Trillions and forty-two thousand billions of Pounds! or six thousand and twenty-one Billions of Tons! And this weight is the weight of the whole atmosphere from its contact with every part of the earth's surface to its utmost highest extent! Experiments also prove that the air presses equally in all directions, whether upwards, downwards, or laterally; hence the earth is not incommoded with this enormous weight, because its zenith and nadir, north and south pressure, being perfectly equal, counterbalance each other! This is also the case with respect to the human body, and to all bodies on the earth's surface. To make the foregoing calculations more satisfactory, it may be necessary to add the following observations: - A bulk of atmospheric air, equal to one quart, when taken near the level of the sea, at a temperature of 50 Fahrenheit, weighs about 16 grains, and the same bulk of rain water, taken at the same temperature, weighs about 14,621 grains: hence rain water is about 914 times specifically heavier than air. I have already shown that the pressure of the atmosphere is equal to about 15 lbs. troy on every square inch; and that this pressure is the same in all directions; and thence shown that on this datum the whole weight of the atmosphere may be computed. I shall re-state this from a computation of the earth's surface in square miles, which is recommended to me as peculiarly accurate. A square mile contains 27,878,400 square feet. The earth's surface, in round numbers, is 200,000,000, or two hundred millions, of square miles. Now, as from the preceding data it appears that there is a pressure of 19,440 lbs. troy on every square yard, the pressure or weight of the whole atmosphere, circumfused round the whole surface of the earth, amounts to 12,043,468,800,000,000,000, or, twelve Trillions forty-three thousand four hundred and sixty-eight Billions, eight hundred thousand Millions of pounds. Though we cannot tell to what height the atmosphere extends, the air growing more and more rare as we ascend in it; yet we can ascertain, as above, the quantum of weight in the whole of this atmosphere, which the terraqueous globe sustains equally diffused over its surface, as well as over the surfaces of all bodies existing on it. At first view, however, it is difficult for minds not exercised in matters of philosophy to conceive how such an immense pressure can be borne by animal beings. Though this has been already explained, let the reader farther consider that, as fishes are surrounded by water, and live and move in it, which is a much denser medium than our atmosphere; so all human beings and all other animals are surrounded by air, and live and move in it. A fish taken out of the water will die in a very short time: a human being, or any other animal, taken out of the air, or put in a place whence the air is extracted, will die in a much shorter time. Water gravitates towards the center of the earth, and so does air. Hence, as a fish is pressed on every side by that fluid, so are all animals on the earth's surface by atmospheric air. And the pressure in both cases, on a given surface, is as has been stated above; the air contained in the vessels and cells of animal bodies being a sufficient counterpoise to the air without. Having said thus much on the pressure of the atmosphere, as intimated by Job, the reader will permit me to make the following general reflections on the subject, of which he may make what use he may judge best. It is generally supposed that former times were full of barbaric ignorance; and that the system of philosophy which is at present in repute, and is established by experiments, is quite a modern discovery. But nothing can be more false than this; as the Bible plainly discovers to an attentive reader that the doctrine of statics, the circulation of the blood, the rotundity of the earth, the motions of the celestial bodies, the process of generation, etc., were all known long before Pythagoras, Archimedes, Copernicus, or Newton were born. It is very reasonable to suppose that God implanted the first principles of every science in the mind of his first creature; that Adam taught them to his posterity, and that tradition continued them for many generations with their proper improvements. But many of them were lost in consequence of wars, captivities, etc. Latter ages have re-discovered many of them, principally by the direct or indirect aid of the Holy Scriptures; and others of them continue hidden, notwithstanding the accurate and persevering researches of the moderns.

### Introduction

[¶22] Job laments his present condition, and gives an affecting account of his former prosperity, having property in abundance, being surrounded by a numerous family, and enjoying every mark of the approbation of God, [Job 29:1-6]. Speaks of the respect he had from the young, [Job 29:7], [Job 29:8]; and from the nobles, [Job 29:9], [Job 29:10]. Details his conduct as a magistrate and judge in supporting the poor, and repressing the wicked, [Job 29:11-17]; his confidence, general prosperity, and respect, [Job 29:18-25].

### Verse 2

[¶24] O that I were as in months past - Job seems here to make an apology for his complaints, by taking a view of his former prosperity, which was very great, but was now entirely at an end. He shows that it was not removed because of any bad use he had made of it; and describes how he behaved himself before God and man, and how much, for justice, benevolence, and mercy, he was esteemed and honored by the wise and good.

[¶25] Preserved me - Kept, guarded, and watched over me.

### Verse 3

[¶27] When his candle shined upon my head - Alluding most probably to the custom of illuminating festival or assembly rooms by lamps pendant from the ceiling. These shone literally on the heads of the guests.

[¶28] By his light I walked through darkness - His light - prosperity and peace - continued to illuminate my way. If adversity came, I had always the light of God to direct me. Almost all the nations of the world have represented their great men as having a nimbus or Divine glory about their heads, which not only signified the honor they had, but was also an emblem of the inspiration of the Almighty.

### Verse 4

[¶30] The days of my youth - The original word rather means in the days of my winter, חרפי charpi, from חרף charaph, "to strip or make bare." Mr. Harmer supposes the rainy season is intended, when the fields, etc., parched up by long drought, are revived by the plentiful showers. Mr. Good thinks the word as found in the Arabic, which means top or summit, and which he translates perfection, is that which should be preferred. Others think the autumnal state is meant, when he was loaded with prosperity, as the trees are with ripe fruit.

[¶31] The secret of God was upon my tabernacle - בסוד אלוה besod Eloah, "the secret assembly of God," meaning probably the same thing that is spoken of in the beginning of this book, the sons of God, the devout people, presenting themselves before God. It is not unlikely that such a secret assembly of God Job had in his own house; where he tells us, in the next verse, "The Almighty was with him, and his children were about him." Mr. Good translates differently: When God fortified my tent over me; supposing that the Hebrew סוד sod is the Arabic sud, "a barrier or fortification." Either will make a good sense.

### Verse 6

[¶33] Washed my steps with butter - See the note on [Job 20:17].

### Verse 7

[¶35] When I went out to the gate - Courts of justice were held at the gates or entrances of the cities of the East; and Job, being an emir, was supreme magistrate: and here he speaks of his going to the gate to administer justice.

[¶36] I prepared my seat in the street - I administered judgment openly, in the most public manner, and none could say that I, in any case, perverted justice. Mr. Good translates: - "As I went forth the city rejoiced at me, as I took my seat abroad."

### Verse 8

[¶38] The young men saw me, and hid themselves - From all classes of persons I had the most marked respect. The Young, through modesty and bashfulness, shrunk back, and were afraid to meet the eye of their prince; and the Aged rose from their seats when I entered the place of judgment. These were the elders of the people, who also sat with the judge, and assisted in all legal cases.

### Verse 9

[¶40] The princes refrained talking - They never ventured an opinion in opposition to mine; so fully were they persuaded of the justice and integrity of my decision.

### Verse 10

[¶42] The nobles held their peace - Princes שרים sarim, and Nobles, נגידים negidim, must have been two different classes of the great men of Idumea. שר sar, Prince, director, or ruler, was probably the head of a township, or what we would call a magistrate of a particular district. נגיד nagid, a Noble, or one of those who had the privilege of standing before, or in the presence of, the chief ruler. The participle נגד neged is frequently used to signify before, in the presence of, publicly, openly. And on this account, it is most likely that the noun means one of those nobles or counsellors who were always admitted to the royal presence. Mr. Good thinks that renowned speakers or eminent orators are meant: and others have embraced the same opinion. Job here intimates that his judgment was so sound, his decisions so accredited, and his reasoning power so great, that every person paid him the utmost deference.

### Verse 11

[¶44] When the ear heard me - This and the six following verses present us with a fine exhibition of a man full of benevolence and charity, acting up to the highest dictates of those principles, and rendering the miserable of all descriptions happy, by the constant exercise of his unconfined philanthropy.

## 520. Job · 47 of 73

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Because I delivered the poor that cried - This appears to be intended as a refutation of the charges produced by Eliphaz, [Job 22:5-10], to confute which Job appeals to facts, and to public testimony.

### Verse 15

[¶3] I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame - Alluding probably to the difficulty of travelling in the Arabian deserts. I was eyes to the blind - those who did not know the way, I furnished with guides. I was feet to the lame - those who were worn out, and incapable of walking, I set forward on my camels, etc.

### Verse 16

[¶5] The cause which I knew not I searched out - When any thing difficult occurred, I did not give it a slight consideration; I examined it to the bottom, whatever pain, time, and trouble it cost me, that I might not pronounce a hasty judgment.

### Verse 17

[¶7] I brake the jaws of the wicked - A metaphor taken from hunting. A beast of prey had entered into the fold, and carried off a sheep. "The huntsman comes, assails the wicked beast, breaks his jaws, and delivers the spoil out of his teeth. See the case [1Sam 17:34-37] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶9] I shall die in my nest - As I endeavored to live soberly and temperately, fearing God, and departing from evil, endeavoring to promote the welfare of all around me, it was natural for me to conclude that I should live long, be very prosperous, and see my posterity multiply as the sands on the seashore.

### Verse 19

[¶11] My root was spread out by the waters - A metaphor taken from a healthy tree growing beside a rivulet where there is plenty of water; which in consequence flourishes in all seasons; its leaf does not wither, nor its fruit fall off. See [Psa 1:3]; [Jer 17:8].

### Verse 20

[¶13] My glory was fresh in me - My vegetative power was great; my glory - my splendid blossom, large and mellow fruit, was always in season, and in every season.

[¶14] My bow was renewed - I was never without means to accomplish all my wishes. I had prosperity everywhere.

### Verse 21

[¶16] Unto me men gave ear - The same idea as in [Job 29:9-11].

### Verse 22

[¶18] My speech dropped upon them - It descended as refreshing dew; they were encouraged, comforted, and strengthened by it.

### Verse 23

[¶20] They waited for me as for the rain - The idea continued. They longed as much to hear me speak, to receive my counsel and my decisions, as the thirsty land does for refreshing waters.

[¶21] They opened their mouth wide - A metaphor taken from ground chapped with long drought.

[¶22] The latter rain - The rain that falls a little before harvest, in order to fill and perfect the grain. The former rain is that which falls about seed-time, or in spring, in order to impregnate and swell the seed, and moisten the earth to produce its nourishment.

### Verse 24

[¶24] I laughed on them, they believed it not - Similar to that expression in the Gospel, [Luk 24:41] : And while they believed not for joy, and wondered, he said - . Our version is sufficiently perspicuous, and gives the true sense of the original, only it should be read in the indicative and not in the subjunctive mood: I laughed on them - they believed it not. We have a similar phrase: The news was too good to be true.

[¶25] The light of my countenance - This evidence of my benevolence and regard. A smile is, metaphorically, the light of the countenance.

[¶26] They cast not down - They gave me no occasion to change my sentiments or feelings towards them. I could still smile upon them, and they were then worthy of my approbation. Their change he refers to in the beginning of the next chapter.

### Verse 25

[¶28] I chose out their way, and sat chief - as a king in the army - I cannot see, with some learned men, that our version of the original is wrong. I have not seen it mended, and I am sure I cannot improve it. The whole verse seems to me to point out Job in his civil, military, and domestic life. As supreme magistrate he chose out their way, adjusted their differences, and sat chief, presiding in all their civil assemblies. As captain general he dwelt as a king in the midst of his troops, preserving order and discipline, and seeing that his fellow soldiers were provided with requisites for their warfare, and the necessaries of life. As a man he did not think himself superior to the meanest offices in domestic life, to relieve or support his fellow creatures; he went about comforting the mourners - visiting the sick and afflicted, and ministering to their wants, and seeing that the wounded were properly attended. Noble Job! Look at him, ye nobles of the earth, ye lieutenants of counties, ye generals of armies, and ye lords of provinces. Look at Job! Imitate his active benevolence, and be healthy and happy. Be as guardian angels in your particular districts, blessing all by your example and your bounty. Send your hunting horses to the plough, your game cocks to the dunghill; and at last live like men and Christians.

### Introduction

[¶30] Job proceeds to lament the change of his former condition, and the contempt into which his adversity had brought him, [Job 30:1-15]. Pathetically describes the afflictions of his body and mind, vv. 16-31.

### Verse 1

[¶32] But now they that are younger than I have me in derision - Compare this with [Job 29:8], where he speaks of the respect he had from the youth while in the days of his prosperity. Now he is no longer affluent, and they are no longer respectful.

[¶33] Dogs of my flock - Persons who were not deemed sufficiently respectable to be trusted with the care of those dogs which were the guardians of my flocks. Not confidential enough to be made shepherds, ass-keepers, or camel-drivers; nor even to have the care of the dogs by which the flocks were guarded. This saying is what we call an expression of sovereign contempt.

### Verse 2

[¶35] The strength of their hands profit me - He is speaking here of the fathers of these young men. What was the strength of their hands to me? Their old age also has perished. The sense of which I believe to be this: I have never esteemed their strength even in their most vigorous youth, nor their conduct, nor their counsel even in old age. They were never good for any thing, either young or old. As their youth was without profit, so their old age was without honor. See Calmet. Mr. Good contends that the words are Arabic, and should be translated according to the meaning in that language, and the first clause of the third verse joined to the latter clause of the second, without which no good meaning can be elicited so as to keep properly close to the letter. I shall give the Hebrew text, Mr. Good's Arabic, and its translation: -

[¶36] The Hebrew text is this: - עלימו אבד כלח aleymo abad calach בחסר ובכפן גלמוד becheser ubechaphan galmud.

[¶37] The Arabic version which he translates thus: - "With whom crabbed looks are perpetual,

[¶38] From hunger and flinty famine."

[¶39] This translation is very little distant from the import of the present Hebrew text, if it may be called Hebrew, when the principal words are pure Arabic, and the others constructively so.

### Verse 3

[¶41] Fleeing into the wilderness - Seeking something to sustain life even in the barren desert. This shows the extreme of want, when the desert is supposed to be the only place where any thing to sustain life can possibly be found.

### Verse 4

[¶43] Who cut up mallows by the bushes - מלוח malluach, which we translate mallows, comes from מלח melach, salt; some herb or shrub of a salt nature, sea-purslane, or the salsaria, salsola, or saltwort. Bochart says it is the ἁλιμος of the Greeks, and the halimus of the Romans. Some translate it nettles. The Syriac and Arabic omit the whole verse. The halimus, or atriplex halimus, grows near the sea in different countries, and is found in Spain, America, England, and Barbary. The salsaria, salsola, or saltwort, is an extensive genus of plants, several common to Asia, and not a few indigenous to a dry and sandy soil.

[¶44] And juniper roots for their meat - רתמים rethamim. This is variously translated juniper, broom, furze, gorse, or whin. It is supposed to derive its name from the toughness of its twigs, as רתם ratham signifies to bind; and this answers well enough to the broom. Genista quoque vinculi usum praestat, "The broom serves for bands," says Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xxiv., c. 9. But how can it be said that the roots of this shrub were eaten? I do not find any evidence from Asiatic writers that the roots of the juniper tree were an article of food; and some have supposed, because of this want of evidence, that the word לחמם lachmam, for their bread, should be understood thus, to bake their bread, because it is well known that the wood of the juniper gives an intense heat, and the coals of it endure a long time; and therefore we find coals of juniper, גחלי רחמים gachaley rethamim, used [Psa 120:4] to express severe and enduring punishment. But that the roots of the juniper were used for food in the northern countries, among the Goths, we have a positive testimony from Olaus Magnus, himself a Goth, and archbishop of Upsal, in lib. vii., c. 4, of his Hist. de Gentibus Septentrionalibus. Speaking of the great number of different trees in their woods, he says: "There is a great plenty of beech trees in all the northern parts, the virtue whereof is this: that, being cut between the bark and the wood, they send forth a juice that is good for drink. The fruit of them in famine serves for bread, and their bark for clothing. Likewise also the berries of the juniper, yea, even the roots of this tree are eaten for bread, as holy Job testifies, though it is difficult to come at them by reason of their prickles: in these prickles, or thorns, live coals will last a whole year. If the inhabitants do not quench them, when winds arise they set the woods on fire, and destroy all the circumjacent fields." In this account both the properties of the juniper tree, referred to by Job and David, are mentioned by the Gothic prelate. They use its berries and roots for food, and its wood for fire.

## 521. Job · 48 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/521/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/521/#p-N

### Verse 5

[¶1] They were driven forth - They were persons whom no one would employ; they were driven away from the city; and if any of them appeared, the hue and cry was immediately raised up against them. The last clause Mr. Good translates, "They slunk away from them like a thief," instead of "They cried after them," etc.

### Verse 6

[¶3] To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys - They were obliged to take shelter in the most dangerous, out-of-the-way, and unfrequented places. This is the meaning.

### Verse 7

[¶5] Among the bushes they brayed - They cried out among the bushes, seeking for food, as the wild ass when he is in want of provender. Two MSS. read ינאקו yinaku, they groaned, instead of ינהקו yinhaku, they brayed.

[¶6] Under the nettles - חרול charul, the briers or brambles, under the brushwood in the thickest parts of the underwood; they huddled together like wild beasts.

### Verse 8

[¶8] Children of fools - Children of nabal; children without a name; persons of no consideration, and descendants of such.

[¶9] Viler than the earth - Rather, driven out of the land; persons not fit for civil society.

### Verse 9

[¶11] Now am I their song - I am the subject of their mirth, and serve as a proverb or by-word. They use me with every species of indignity.

### Verse 10

[¶13] They abhor me - What a state must civil society be in when such indignities were permitted to be offered to the aged and afflicted!

### Verse 11

[¶15] Because he hath loosed my cord - Instead of יתרי yithri, my cord, which is the keri or marginal reading, יתרו yithro, his cord, is the reading of the text in many copies; and this reading directs us to a metaphor taken from an archer, who, observing his butt, sets his arrow on the string, draws it to a proper degree of tension, levels, and then loosing his hold, the arrow flies at the mark. He hath let loose his arrow against me; it has hit me; and I am wounded. The Vulgate understood it in this way: Pharetram enim suam aperuit. So also the Septuagint: Ανοιξας γαρ φαρετραν αυτου; "He hath opened his quiver."

[¶16] They have also let loose the bridle - When they perceived that God had afflicted me, they then threw off all restraints; like headstrong horses, swallowed the bit, got the reins on their own neck, and ran off at full speed.

### Verse 12

[¶18] Upon my right hand rise the youth - The word פרחח pirchach, which we translate youth, signifies properly buds, or the buttons of trees. Mr. Good has younglings. Younkers would be better, were it not too colloquial.

[¶19] They push away my feet - They trip up my heels, or they in effect trample me under their feet. They rush upon and overwhelm me. They are violently incensed against me. They roll themselves upon me, התגלגלו hithgalgalu, velut unda impellit undam, as waves of the sea which wash the sand from under the feet, and then swamp the man to the bottom; see [Job 30:14].

### Verse 13

[¶21] They mar my path - They destroy the way-marks, so that there is no safety in travelling through the deserts, the guide-posts and way-marks being gone. These may be an allusion here to a besieged city: the besiegers strive by every means and way to distress the besieged; stopping up the fountains, breaking up the road, raising up towers to project arrows and stones into the city, called here raising up against it the ways of destruction, [Job 30:12]; preventing all succor and support.

[¶22] They have no helper - "There is not an adviser among them." - Mr. Good. There is none to give them better instruction.

### Verse 14

[¶24] They came upon me as a wide breaking in - They storm me on every side.

[¶25] In the desolation they rolled themselves - When they had made the breach, they rolled in upon me as an irresistible torrent. There still appears to be an allusion to a besieged city: the sap, the breach, the storm, the flight, the pursuit, and the slaughter. See the following verse, [Job 30:15] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶27] Terrors are turned upon me - Defence is no longer useful; they have beat down my walls.

[¶28] They pursue my soul as the wind - I seek safety in flight, my strong holds being no longer tenable; but they pursue me so swiftly, that it is impossible for me to escape. They follow me like a whirlwind; and as fast as that drives away the clouds before it, so is my prosperity destroyed. The word נדבתי nedibathi, which we translate my soul, signifies properly my nobility, my excellence: they endeavor to destroy both my reputation and my property.

### Verse 18

[¶30] Is my garment changed - There seem to be here plain allusions to the effect of his cruel disease; the whole body being enveloped with a kind of elephantine hide, formed by innumerable incrustations from the ulcerated surface.

[¶31] It bindeth me about - There is now a new kind of covering to my body, formed by the effects of this disease; and it is not a garment which I can cast off; it is as closely attached to me as the collar of my coat. Or, my disease seizes me as a strong armed man; it has throttled me, and cast me in the mud. This is probably an allusion to two persons struggling: the stronger seizes the other by the throat, brings him down, and treads him in the dirt.

### Verse 20

[¶33] I cry unto thee - I am persecuted by man, afflicted with sore disease, and apparently forsaken of God.

[¶34] I stand up - Or, as some translate, "I persevere, and thou lookest upon me." Thou seest my desolate, afflicted state; but thine eye doth not affect thy heart. Thou leavest me unsupported to struggle with my adversities.

### Verse 21

[¶36] Thou art become cruel to me - Thou appearest to treat me with cruelty. I cry for mercy, trust in thy goodness, and am still permitted to remain under my afflictions.

[¶37] Thou opposest thyself - Instead of helping, thou opposest me; thou appearest as my enemy.

### Verse 22

[¶39] Thou liftest me up to the wind - Thou hast so completely stripped me of all my substance, that I am like chaff lifted up by the wind; or as a straw, the sport of every breeze; and at last carried totally away, being dissipated into particles by the continued agitation.

### Verse 23

[¶41] Thou wilt bring me to death - This must be the issue of my present affliction: to God alone it is possible that I should survive it.

[¶42] To the house appointed for all living - Or to the house, מועד moed, the rendezvous, the place of general assembly of human beings: the great devourer in whose jaws all that have lived, now live, and shall live, must necessarily meet. " - O great man-eater!

[¶43] Whose every day is carnival; not sated yet!

[¶44] Unheard of epicure! without a fellow!

## 522. Job · 49 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/522/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/522/#p-N

[¶0] The veriest gluttons do not always cram!

[¶1] Some intervals of abstinence are sought

[¶2] To edge the appetite: thou seekest none.

[¶3] Methinks the countless swarms thou hast devour'd,

[¶4] And thousands that each hour thou gobblest up,

[¶5] This, less than this, might gorge thee to the full.

[¶6] But O! rapacious still, thou gap'st for more,

[¶7] Like one, whole days defrauded of his meals,

[¶8] On whom lank hunger lays her skinny hand,

[¶9] And whets to keenest eagerness his cravings;

[¶10] As if diseases, massacres, and poisons,

[¶11] Famine, and war, were not thy caterers."

[¶12] The Grave.

### Verse 24

[¶14] He will not stretch out his hand to the grave - After all that has been said relative to the just translation and true meaning of this verse, is it not evident that it is in the mouth of Job a consolatory reflection? As if he said, Though I suffer here, I shall not suffer hereafter. Though he add stroke to stroke, so as to destroy my life, yet his displeasure shall not proceed beyond the grave.

[¶15] Though they cry in his destruction - Mr. Good translates: Surely there, in its ruin, is freedom. In the sepulcher there is freedom from calamity, and rest for the weary.

### Verse 25

[¶17] Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? - Mr. Good translates much nearer the sense of the original, לקשה יום liksheh yom. "Should I not then weep for the ruthless day?" May I not lament that my sufferings are only to terminate with my life? Or, Did I not mourn for those who suffered by times of calamity? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? Did I not relieve the distressed according to my power; and did I not sympathize with the sufferer?

### Verse 27

[¶19] My bowels boiled - This alludes to the strong commotion in the bowels which every humane person feels at the sight of one in misery.

### Verse 28

[¶21] I went mourning without the sun - חמה chammah, which we here translate the sun, comes from a root of the same letters, which signifies to hide, protect, etc., and may be translated, I went mourning without a protector or guardian; or, the word may be derived from חם cham, to be hot, and here it may signify fury, rage, anger; and thus it was understood by the Vulgate: Maerens incedebam, sine furore, I went mourning without anger; or, as Calmet translates, Je marchois tout triste, mais sans me laisser aller a l'emportement; "I walked in deep sadness, but did not give way to an angry spirit." The Syriac and Arabic understood it in the same way.

### Verse 29

[¶23] I am a brother to dragons - By my mournful and continual cry I resemble תנים tannim, the jackals or hyenas.

[¶24] And a companion to owls - בנות יענה benoth yaanah, to the daughters of howling: generally understood to be the ostrich; for both the jackal and the female ostrich are remarkable for their mournful cry, and for their attachment to desolate places - Dodd.

### Verse 30

[¶26] My skin is black - By continual exposure to the open air, and parching influence of the sun.

[¶27] My bones are burned with heat - A strong expression, to point out the raging fever that was continually preying upon his vitals.

### Verse 31

[¶29] My harp also is turned to mourning - Instead of the harp, my only music is my own plaintive cries.

[¶30] And my organ - What the עגב uggab was, we know not; it was most probably some sort of pipe or wind instrument. His harp, כנור kinnor, and his pipe, עגב uggab, were equally mute, or only used for mournful ditties.

[¶31] This chapter is full of the most painful and pathetic sorrow; but nevertheless tempered with a calmness and humiliation of spirit, which did not appear in Job's lamentations previously to the time in which he had that remarkable revelation mentioned in the nineteenth chapter. ([Job 19:25]) After he was assured that his Redeemer was the living God, he submitted to his dispensations, kissed the rod, and mourned not without hope, though in deep distress, occasioned by his unremitting sufferings. If the groaning of Job was great, his stroke was certainly heavy.

### Introduction

[¶33] Job makes a solemn protestation of his chastity and integrity, [Job 31:1-12]; of his humanity, [Job 31:13-16]; of his charity and mercy, [Job 31:17-23]; of his abhorrence of covetousness and idolatry, [Job 31:24-32]; and of his readiness to acknowledge his errors, [Job 31:33], [Job 31:34]; and wishes for a full investigation of his case, being confident that this would issue in the full manifestation of his innocence, [Job 31:36-40].

### Verse 1

[¶35] I made a covenant with mine eyes - ברית כרתי לעיני berith carati leeynai: "I have cut" or divided "the covenant sacrifice with my eyes." My conscience and my eyes are the contracting parties; God is the Judge; and I am therefore bound not to look upon any thing with a delighted or covetous eye, by which my conscience may be defiled, or my God dishonored.

[¶36] Why then should I think upon a maid? - ומה אתבונן על בתולה umah ethbonen al bethulah. And why should I set myself to contemplate, or think upon, Bethulah? That Bethulah may here signify an idol, is very likely. Sanchoniatho observes, that Ouranos first introduced Baithulia when he erected animated stones, or rather, as Bochart observes, Anointed stones, which became representatives of some deity. I suppose that Job purges himself here from this species of idolatry. Probably the Baithulia were at first emblems only of the tabernacle; בית אלוה beith Eloah, "the house of God;" or of that pillar set up by Jacob, [Gen 28:18], which he called בית אלהים beith Elohim, or Bethalim; for idolatry always supposes a pure and holy worship, of which it is the counterfeit. For more on the subject of the Baithulia, see the notes on [Gen 28:19].

### Verse 2

[¶38] For what portion of God is there from above? - Though I have not, in this or in any other respect, wickedly departed from God, yet what reward have I received?

### Verse 3

[¶40] Is not destruction to the wicked - If I had been guilty of such secret hypocritical proceedings, professing faith in the true God while in eye and heart an idolater, would not such a worker of iniquity be distinguished by a strange and unheard-of punishment?

### Verse 4

[¶42] Doth not he see my ways - Can I suppose that I could screen myself from the eye of God while guilty of such iniquities?

### Verse 5

[¶44] If I have walked with vanity - If I have been guilty of idolatry, or the worshipping of a false god: for thus שאו shau, which we here translate vanity, is used [Jer 18:15]; (compare with [Psa 31:6]; [Hos 12:11]; and [Jon 2:9]), and it seems evident that the whole of Job's discourse here is a vindication of himself from all idolatrous dispositions and practices.

## 523. Job · 50 of 73

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Mine integrity - תמתי tummathi, my perfection; the totality of my unblameable life.

### Verse 7

[¶3] If my step hath turned out of the way - I am willing to be sifted to the uttermost - for every step of my foot, for every thought of my heart, for every look of mine eye, and for every act of my hands.

### Verse 8

[¶5] Let me sow, and let another eat - Let me be plagued both in my circumstances and in my family.

[¶6] My offspring be rooted out - It has already appeared probable that all Job's children were not destroyed in the fall of the house mentioned [Job 1:18], [Job 1:19].

### Verse 9

[¶8] If mine heart have been deceived by a woman - The Septuagint add, ανδρος ἑτερου, another man's wife.

### Verse 10

[¶10] Let my wife grind unto another - Let her work at the handmill, grinding corn; which was the severe work of the meanest slave. In this sense the passage is understood both by the Syriac and Arabic. See [Exo 11:5] (note), and [Isa 47:2] (note); and see at the end of the chapter, [Isa 31:8] (note).

[¶11] And let others bow down upon her - Let her be in such a state as to have no command of her own person; her owner disposing of her person as he pleases. In Asiatic countries slaves were considered so absolutely the property of their owners, that they not only served themselves of them in the way of scortation and concubinage, but they were accustomed to accommodate their guests with them! Job is so conscious of his own innocence, that he is willing it should be put to the utmost proof; and if found guilty, that he may be exposed to the most distressing and humiliating punishment; even to that of being deprived of his goods, bereaved of his children, his wife made a slave, and subjected to all indignities in that state.

### Verse 11

[¶13] For this is a heinous crime - Mr. Good translates, "For this would be a premeditated crime,

[¶14] And a profligacy of the understanding."

[¶15] See also [Job 31:28]. That is, It would not only be a sin against the individuals more particularly concerned, but a sin of the first magnitude against society; and one of which the civil magistrate should take particular cognizance, and punish as justice requires.

### Verse 12

[¶17] For it is a fire - Nothing is so destructive of domestic peace. Where jealousy exists, unmixed misery dwells; and the adulterer and fornicator waste their substance on the unlawful objects of their impure affections.

### Verse 13

[¶19] The cause of my man-servant - In ancient times slaves had no action at law against their owners; they might dispose of them as they did of their cattle, or any other property. The slave might complain; and the owner might hear him if he pleased, but he was not compelled to do so. Job states that he had admitted them to all civil rights; and, far from preventing their case from being heard, he was ready to permit them to complain even against himself, if they had a cause of complaint, and to give them all the benefit of the law.

### Verse 15

[¶21] Did not he that made me - make him? - I know that God is the Judge of all; that all shall appear before him in that state where the king and his subject, the master and his slave, shall be on an equal footing, all civil distinctions being abolished for ever. If, then I had treated my slaves with injustice, how could I stand before the judgment-seat of God? I have treated others as I wish to be treated.

### Verse 17

[¶23] Or have eaten my morsel myself alone - Hospitality was a very prominent virtue among the ancients in almost all nations: friends and strangers were equally welcome to the board of the affluent. The supper was their grand meal: it was then that they saw their friends; the business and fatigues of the day being over, they could then enjoy themselves comfortably together. The supper was called coena on this account; or, as Plutarch says, Το μεν γαρ δειπνον φασι κοινα δια την κοινωνιαν καλεισθαι· καθ' ἑαυτους γαρ ηριστων επιεικως οἱ παλαι ρωμαιοι, συνδειπνουντες τοις φιλοις. "The ancient Romans named supper Coena, (κοινα), which signifies communion (κοινωνια) or fellowship; for although they dined alone, they supped with their friends." - Plut. Symp. lib. viii., prob. 6, p. 687. But Job speaks here of dividing his bread with the hungry: Or have eaten my morsel myself alone. And he is a poor despicable caitiff who would eat it alone, while there was another at hand, full as hungry as himself.

### Verse 18

[¶25] This is a very difficult verse, and is variously translated. Take the following instances: - For from his youth he (the male orphan) was brought up with me as a father. Yea, I have guided her (the female orphan) from her mother's womb - Heath.

[¶26] Nam a pueris educavit me commiseratio; jam inde ab utero matris meae illa me deduxit - Houbigant. "For commiseration educated me from my childhood;

[¶27] And she brought me up even from my mother's womb."

[¶28] This is agreeable to the Vulgate. "Behold, from my youth calamity hath quickened me;

[¶29] Even from my mother's womb have I distributed it."

[¶30] This is Mr. Goods version, and is widely different from the above.

[¶31] For mercy grewe up with me fro my youth,

[¶32] And compassion fro my mother's wombe.

[¶33] Coverdale. Ὁτι εκ νεοτητος μου εξετρεφον ὡς πατηρ, και εκ γαστρος μητρος μου ὡδηγησα - Septuagint. "For from my youth I nourished them as a father; and I was their guide from my mother's womb."

[¶34] The Syriac. - "For from my childhood he educated me in distresses, and from the womb of my mother in groans." The Arabic is nearly the same.

[¶35] The general meaning may be gathered from the above; but who can reconcile such discordant translations?

### Verse 20

[¶37] If his loins have not blessed me - This is a very delicate touch: the part that was cold and shivering is now covered with warm woollen. It feels the comfort; and by a fine prosopopoeia, is represented as blessing him who furnished the clothing.

### Verse 21

[¶39] If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless - I have at no time opposed the orphan, nor given, in behalf of the rich and powerful, a decision against the poor, when I saw my help in the gate - when I was sitting chief on the throne of judgment, and could have done it without being called to account. There are sentiments very like these in the poem of Lebeid, one of the authors of the Moallakhat. I shall quote several verses from the elegant translation of Sir William Jones, in which the character of a charitable and bountiful chief is well described: - "Oft have I invited a numerous company to the death of a camel bought for slaughter, to be divided with arrows of equal dimensions." "I invite them to draw lots for a camel without a foal, and for a camel with her young one, whose flesh I distribute to all the neighbors." "The guest and the stranger admitted to my board seem to have alighted in the sweet vale of Tebaala, luxuriant with vernal blossoms." "The cords of my tent approaches every needy matron, worn with fatigue, like a camel doomed to die at her master's tomb, whose venture is both scanty and ragged." "There they crown with meat (while the wintry winds contend with fierce blasts) a dish flowing like a rivulet, into which the famished orphans eagerly plunge." "He distributes equal shares, he dispenses justice to the tribes, he is indignant when their right is diminished; and, to establish their right, often relinquishes his own." "He acts with greatness of mind, and nobleness of heart: he sheds the dew of his liberality on those who need his assistance; he scatters around his own gains and precious spoils, the prizes of his valor." - Ver. 73-80.

### Verse 22

[¶41] Let mine arm fall - Mr. Good, as a medical man, is at home in the translation of this verse: - "May my shoulder-bone be shivered at the blade,

[¶42] And mine arm be broken off at the socket."

[¶43] Let judgment fall particularly on those parts which have either done wrong, or refused to do right when in their power.

## 524. Job · 51 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/524/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/524/#p-N

### Verse 23

[¶1] Destruction from God was a terror - I have ever been preserved from outward sin, through the fear of God's judgments; I knew his eye was constantly upon me, and I could "Never in my Judge's eye my Judge's anger dare."

### Verse 24

[¶3] Gold my hope - For the meaning of זהב zahab, polished gold, and כתם kethem, stamped gold, see on [Job 28:15-17] (note).

### Verse 26

[¶5] If I beheld the sun when it shined - In this verse Job clears himself of that idolatrous worship which was the most ancient and most consistent with reason of any species of idolatry; viz., Sabaeism, the worship of the heavenly bodies; particularly the sun and moon, Jupiter and Venus, the two latter being the morning and evening stars, and the most resplendent of all the heavenly bodies, the sun and moon excepted. "Job," says Calmet, "points out three things here:

[¶6] 1. The worship of the sun and moon; much used in his time, and very anciently used in every part of the East; and in all probability that from which idolatry took its rise.

[¶7] 2. The custom of adoring the sun at its rising, and the moon at her change; a superstition which is mentioned in [Eze 8:16], and in every part of profane antiquity.

[¶8] 3. The custom of kissing the hand; the form of adoration, and token of sovereign respect."Adoration, or the religious act of kissing the hand, comes to us from the Latin; ad, to, and os, oris, the mouth. The hand lifted to the mouth, and there saluted by the lips.

### Verse 28

[¶10] For I should have denied the God that is above - Had I paid Divine adoration to them, I should have thereby denied the God that made them.

### Verse 29

[¶12] If I rejoiced - I did not avenge myself on my enemy; and I neither bore malice nor hatred to him.

### Verse 30

[¶14] Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin - I have neither spoken evil of him, nor wished evil to him. How few of those called Christians can speak thus concerning their enemies; or those who have done them any mischief!

### Verse 31

[¶16] If the men of my tabernacle said - I believe the Targum gives the best sense here: - "If the men of my tabernacle have not said, Who hath commanded that we should not be satisfied with his flesh?" My domestics have had all kindness shown them; they have lived like my own children, and have been served with the same viands as my family. They have never seen flesh come to my table, when they have been obliged to live on pulse. Mr. Good's translation is nearly to the same sense: - "If the men of my tabernacle do not exclaim,

[¶17] Who hath longed for his meat without fullness?" "Where is the man that has not been satisfied with his flesh?" i.e., fed to the full with the provisions from his table. See [Pro 23:20]; [Isa 23:13], and [Dan 10:3].

### Verse 32

[¶19] The stranger did not lodge in the street - My kindness did not extend merely to my family, domestics, and friends; the stranger - he who was to me perfectly unknown, and the traveler - he who was on his journey to some other district, found my doors ever open to receive them, and were refreshed with my bed and my board.

### Verse 33

[¶21] If I covered my transgressions as Adam - Here is a most evident allusion to the fall. Adam transgressed the commandment of his Maker, and he endeavored to conceal it; first, by hiding himself among the trees of the garden: "I heard thy voice, and went and Hid myself;" secondly, by laying the blame on his wife: "The woman gave me, and I did eat;" and thirdly, by charging the whole directly on God himself: "The woman which Thou Gavest Me to be with me, She gave me of the tree, and I did eat." And it is very likely that Job refers immediately to the Mosaic account in the Book of Genesis. The spirit of this saying is this: When I have departed at any time from the path of rectitude, I have been ready to acknowledge my error, and have not sought excuses or palliatives for my sin.

### Verse 34

[¶23] Did I fear a great multitude - Was I ever prevented by the voice of the many from decreeing and executing what was right? When many families or tribes espoused a particular cause, which I found, on examination, to be wrong, did they put me in fear, so as to prevent me from doing justice to the weak and friendless? Or, in any of these cases, was I ever, through fear, self-seeking, or favor, prevented from declaring my mind, or constrained to keep my house, lest I should be obliged to give judgment against my conscience? Mr. Good thinks it an imprecation upon himself, if he had done any of the evils which he mentions in the preceding verse. He translates thus: - "Then let me be confounded before the assembled multitude,

[¶24] And let the reproach of its families quash me!

[¶25] Yea, let me be struck dumb! let me never appear abroad!"

[¶26] I am satisfied that [Job 31:38-40], should come in either here, or immediately after [Job 31:25]; and that Job's words should end with [Job 31:37], which, if the others were inserted in their proper places, would be [Job 31:40]. See the reasons at the end of the chapter, [Job 31:40] (note).

### Verse 35

[¶28] O that one would hear me! - I wish to have a fair and full hearing: I am grievously accused; and have no proper opportunity of clearing myself, and establishing my own innocence.

[¶29] Behold, my desire is - Or, הן תוי hen tavi, "There is my pledge." I bind myself, on a great penalty, to come into court, and abide the issue.

[¶30] That the Almighty would answer me - That he would call this case immediately before himself; and oblige my adversary to come into court, to put his accusations into a legal form, that I might have the opportunity of vindicating myself in the presence of a judge who would hear dispassionately my pleadings, and bring the cause to a righteous issue.

[¶31] And that mine adversary had written a book - That he would not indulge himself in vague accusations, but would draw up a proper bill of indictment, that I might know to what I had to plead, and find the accusation in a tangible form.

### Verse 36

[¶33] Surely I would take it upon my shoulder - I would be contented to stand before the bar as a criminal, bearing upon my shoulder the board to which the accusation is affixed. In a book of Chinese punishments now before me, containing drawings representing various criminals brought to trial, in trial, and after trial, charged with different offenses; in almost all of them a board appears, on which the accusation or crime of which they are accused, or for which they suffer, is fairly written. Where the punishment is capital, this board appears fastened to the instrument, or stuck near the place of punishment. In one case a large, heavy plank, through which there is a hole to pass the head, - or rather a hole fitting the neck, like that in the pillory, - with the crime written upon it, rests on the criminal's shoulders; and this he is obliged to carry about for the weeks or months during which the punishment lasts. It is probable that Job alludes to something of this kind, which he intimates he would bear about with him during the interim between accusation and the issue in judgment; and, far from considering this a disgrace, would clasp it as dearly as he would adjust a crown or diadem to his head; being fully assured, from his innocence, and the evidence of it, which would infallibly appear on the trial, that he would have the most honorable acquittal. There may also be an allusion to the manner of receiving a favor from a superior: it is immediately placed on the head, as a mark of respect; and if a piece of cloth be given at the temple, the receiver not only puts it on his head, but binds it there.

### Verse 37

[¶35] I would declare unto him the number of my steps - I would show this adversary the different stations I had been in, and the offices which I had filled in life, that he might trace me through the whole of my civil, military, and domestic life, in order to get evidence against me.

[¶36] As a prince would I go near - Though carrying my own accusation, I would go into the presence of my judge as the נגיד nagid, chief, or sovereign commander and judge, of the people and country, and would not shrink from having my conduct investigated by even the meanest of my subjects. In these three verses we may observe the following particulars: -

[¶37] 1. Job wishes to be brought to trial, that he might have the opportunity of vindicating himself: O that I might have a hearing!

[¶38] 2. That his adversary, Eliphaz and his companions, whom he considers as one party, and joined together in one, would reduce their vague charges to writing, that they might come before the court in a legal form: O that my adversary would write down the charge!

[¶39] 3. That the Almighty, שדי Shaddai, the all-sufficient God, and not man, should be the judge, who would not permit his adversaries to attempt, by false evidence, to establish what was false, nor suffer himself to cloak with a hypocritical covering what was iniquitous in his conduct: O that the Almighty might answer for me - take notice of or be judge in the cause!

[¶40] 4. To him he purposes cheerfully to confess all his ways, who could at once judge if he prevaricated, or concealed the truth.

[¶41] 5. This would give him the strongest encouragement: he would go boldly before him, with the highest persuasion of an honorable acquittal.

### Verse 38

[¶43] If my land cry - The most careless reader may see that the introduction of this and the two following verses here, disturbs the connection, and that they are most evidently out of their place. Job seems here to refer to that law, [Lev 25:1-7], by which the Israelites were obliged to give the land rest every seventh year, that the soil might not be too much exhausted by perpetual cultivation, especially in a country which afforded so few advantages to improve the arable ground by manure. He, conscious that he had acted according to this law, states that his land could not cry out against him, nor its furrows complain. He had not broken the law, nor exhausted the soil.

### Verse 39

[¶45] If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money - I have never been that narrow-minded man who, through a principle of covetousness, exhausts his land, putting himself to no charges, by labor and manure, to strengthen it; or defrauds those of their wages who were employed under him. If I have eaten the fruits of it, I have cultivated it well to produce those fruits; and this has not been without money, for I have gone to expenses on the soil, and remunerated the laborers.

## 525. Job · 52 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/525/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/525/#p-N

[¶0] Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life - Coverdale translates, Yee yf I have greved eny of the plowmen. They have not panted in labor without due recompense.

### Verse 40

[¶2] Let thistles grow instead of wheat - What the word חוח choach means, which we translate thistles, we cannot tell: but as חח chach seems to mean to hold, catch as a hook, to hitch, it must signify some kind of hooked thorn, like the brier; and this is possibly its meaning.

[¶3] And cockle - באשה bashah, some fetid plant, from באש baash, to stink. In [Isa 5:2], [Isa 5:4], we translate it wild grapes; and Bishop Lowth, poisonous berries: but Hasselquist, a pupil of the famous Linnaeus, in his Voyages, p. 289, is inclined to believe that the solanum incanum, or hoary nightshade is meant, as this is common in Egypt, Palestine, and the East. Others are of opinion that it means the aconite, which (Arabic) beesh, in Arabic, denotes: this is a poisonous herb, and grows luxuriantly on the sunny hills among the vineyards, according to Celsus in Hieroboticon. (Arabic) beesh is not only the name of an Indian poisonous herb, called the napellus moysis, but (Arabic) beesh moosh, or (Arabic) farut al beesh, is the name of an animal, resembling a mouse, which lives among the roots of this very plant. "May I have a crop of this instead of barley, if I have acted improperly either by my land or my laborers!"

[¶4] The words of Job are ended - That is, his defense of himself against the accusations of his friends, as they are called. He spoke afterwards, but never to them; he only addresses God, who came to determine the whole controversy. These words seem very much like an addition by a later hand. They are wanting in many of the MSS. of the Vulgate, two in my own possession; and in the Editio Princeps of this version. I suppose that at first they were inserted in rubric, by some scribe, and afterwards taken into the text. In a MS. of my own, of the twelfth or thirteenth century, these words stand in rubric, actually detached from the text; while in another MS., of the fourteenth century, they form a part of the text. In the Hebrew text they are also detached: the hemistichs are complete without them; nor indeed can they be incorporated with them. They appear to me an addition of no authority. In the first edition of our Bible, that by Coverdale, 1535, there is a white line between these words and the conclusion of the chapter; and they stand, forming no part of the text, thus:

[¶5] Here ende the wordes of Job.

[¶6] Just as we say, in reading the Scriptures "Here ends such a chapter;" or, "Here ends the first lesson," etc. Or the subject of the transposition, mentioned above, I have referred to the reasons at the end of the chapter. Dr. Kennicott, on this subject, observes: "Chapters 29, 30, and 31, contain Job's animated self-defense, which was made necessary by the reiterated accusation of his friends. This defense now concludes with six lines (in the Hebrew text) which declare, that if he had enjoyed his estates covetously, or procured them unjustly, he wished them to prove barren and unprofitable. This part, therefore seems naturally to follow [Job 31:25], where he speaks of his gold, and how much his hand had gotten. The remainder of the chapter will then consist of these four regular parts, viz.,

[¶7] 1. His piety to God, in his freedom from idolatry, [Job 31:26-28].

[¶8] 2. His benevolence to men, in his charity both of temper and behavior, [Job 31:29-32].

[¶9] 3. His solemn assurance that he did not conceal his guilt, from fearing either the violence of the poor, or the contempt of the rich, [Job 31:33], [Job 31:34].

[¶10] 4. (Which must have been the last article, because conclusive of the work) he infers that, being thus secured by his integrity, he may appeal safely to God himself. This appeal he therefore makes boldly, and in such words as, when rightly translated, form an image which perhaps has no parallel. For where is there an image so magnificent or so splendid as this?

[¶11] Job, thus conscious of innocence, wishing even God himself to draw up his indictment, [rather his adversary Eliphaz and companions to draw up this indictment, the Almighty to be judge,] that very indictment he would bind round his head; and with that indictment as his crown of glory, he would, with the dignity of a prince, advance to his trial! Of this wonderful passage I add a version more just and more intelligible than the present: - "

### Verse 35

[¶13] O that one would grant me a hearing!

[¶14] Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me;

[¶15] And, as plaintiff against me, draw up the indictment.

[¶16] With what earnestness would I take it on my shoulders!

[¶17] I would bind it upon me as a diadem.

[¶18] The number of my steps would I set forth unto Him;

[¶19] Even as a prince would I approach before Him!"

[¶20] I have already shown that Eliphaz and his companions, not God, are the adversary or plaintiff of whom Job speaks. This view makes the whole clear and consistent, and saves Job from the charge of presumptuous rashness. See also Kennicott's Remarks, p. 163. It would not be right to say that no other interpretation has been given of the first clause of [Job 31:10] than that given above. The manner in which Coverdale has translated the [Job 31:9] and [Job 31:10] is the way in which they are generally understood: Yf my hert hath lusted after my neghbour's wife, or yf I have layed wayte at his dore; O then let my wife be another man's harlot, and let other lye with her.

[¶21] In this sense the word grind is not unfrequently used by the ancients. Horace represents the divine Cato commending the young men whom he saw frequenting the stews, because they left other men's wives undefiled!

[¶22] Virtute esto, inquit sententia dia Catonis,

[¶23] Nam simul ac venas inflavit tetra libido,

[¶24] Hue juvenes aequum est descendere, non alienas

[¶25] Permolere uxores.

[¶26] Sat. lib. i., s. 2, ver. 32. "When awful Cato saw a noted spark

[¶27] From a night cellar stealing in the dark: 'Well done, my friend, if lust thy heart inflame,

[¶28] Indulge it here, and spare the married dame.'"

[¶29] Francis.

[¶30] Such were the morals of the holiest state of heathen Rome; and even of Cato, the purest and severest censor of the public manners! O tempora! O mores! I may add from a scholiast: - Molere vetus verbum est pro adulterare, subagitare, quo verbo in deponenti significatione utitur alibi Ausonius, inquiens, Epigr. vii., ver. 6, de crispa impudica et detestabili: -

[¶31] Deglubit, fellat, molitur, per utramque cavernam.

[¶32] Qui enim coit, quasi molere et terere videtur.

[¶33] Hinc etiam molitores dicti sunt, subactores, ut apud eundem, Epigr. xc., ver. 3.

[¶34] Cum dabit uxori molitor tuus, et tibi adulter.

[¶35] Thus the rabbins understand what is spoken of Samson grinding in the prison-house: quod ad ipsum Palaestini certatim suas uxores adduxerunt, suscipiendae ex eo prolis causa, ob ipsius robur. In this sense St. Jerome understands [Lam 5:13] : They took the young men to Grind. Adolescentibus ad impudicitiam sunt abusi, ad concubitum scilicet nefandum. Concerning grinding of corn, by portable millstones, or querns, and that this was the work of females alone, and they the meanest slaves; see the note on [Exo 11:5], and on [Jdg 16:21]. The Greeks use μυλλας to signify a harlot; and μυλλω, to grind, and also coeo, ineo, in the same sense in which Horace, as quoted above, alienas Permolere uxores. So Theocritus, Idyll. iv., ver. 58. Ειπ' αγε μοι Κορυδων, το γεροντιον η ῥ' ετι μυλλει Τηναν ταν κυανοφρυν ερωτιδα, τας ποτ' εκνισθη·

[¶36] Dic age mihi, Corydon, senecio ille num adhuc molit,

[¶37] Illud nigro supercilio scortillum, quod olim deperibat?

[¶38] Hence the Greek paronomasia, μυλλαδα μυλλειν, scortam molere. I need make no apology for leaving the principal part of this note in a foreign tongue. To those for whom it is designed it will be sufficiently plain. If the above were Job's meaning, how dreadful is the wish or imprecation in verse the tenth!

### Introduction

[¶40] Elihu comes forward, and empresses his disapprobation both of Job and his three friends - with the one for justifying himself; and with the others for taking up the subject in a wrong point of view, and not answering satisfactorily - and makes a becoming apology for himself, vv. 1-22.

### Verse 1

[¶42] These three men ceased to answer Job - They supposed that it was of no use to attempt to reason any longer with a man who justified himself before God. The truth is, they failed to convince Job of any point, because they argued from false principles; and, as we have seen, Job had the continual advantage of them. There were points on which he might have been successfully assailed; but they did not know them. Elihu, better acquainted both with human nature and the nature of the Divine law, and of God's moral government of the world, steps in, and makes the proper discriminations; acquits Job on the ground of their accusations, but condemns him for his too great self-confidence, and his trusting too much in his external righteousness; and, without duly considering his frailty and imperfections, his incautiously arraigning the providence of God of unkindness in its dealings with him. This was the point on which Job was particularly vulnerable, and which Elihu very properly clears up.

[¶43] Because he was righteous tn his own eyes - The Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, all read, "Because he was righteous in Their eyes;" intimating, that they were now convinced that he was a holy man, and that they had charged him foolishly. The reading of these ancient versions is supported by a MS. of the thirteenth century, in Dr. Kennicott's collections; which, instead of בעיניו beeinaiv, in His eyes, has בעיניהם beeineyhem, in Their eyes. This is a reading of considerable importance, but it is not noticed by De Rossi. Symmachus translates nearly in the same way: Δια τον αυτον δικαιον φαινεσθαι επ' αυτων; Because he appeared more righteous than themselves.

## 526. Job · 53 of 73

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### Verse 2

[¶1] Then was kindled the wrath - This means no more than that Elihu was greatly excited, and felt a strong and zealous desire to vindicate the justice and providence of God, against the aspersions of Job and his friends.

[¶2] Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite - Buz was the second son of Nahor, the brother of Abram, [Gen 22:21].

[¶3] Of the kindred of Ram - Kemuel was the third son of Nahor; and is called in Genesis (see above) the father of Aram, which is the same as Ram. A city of the name of Buz is found in [Jer 25:23], which probably had its name from this family; and, as it is mentioned with Dedan and Tema, we know it must have been a city in Idumea, as the others were in that district. Instead of the kindred of Ram, the Chaldee has of the kindred of Abraham. But still the question has been asked, Who was Elihu? I answer, He was "the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram:" this is all we know of him. But this Scriptural answer will not satisfy those who are determined to find out mysteries where there are none. Some make him a descendant of Judah; St. Jerome, Bede, Lyranus, and some of the rabbins, make him Balaam the son of Beor, the magician; Bishop Warburton makes him Ezra the scribe; and Dr. Hodges makes him the second person in the glorious Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, and supposes that the chief scope of this part of the book was to convict Job of self-righteousness, and to show the necessity of the doctrine of justification by faith! When these points are proved, they should be credited.

[¶4] Because he justified himself rather than God - Literally, he justified his soul, נפשו naphhso, before God. He defended, not only the whole of his conduct, but also his motives, thoughts, etc.

### Verse 3

[¶6] They had found no answer - They had condemned Job; and yet could not answer his arguments on the general subject, and in vindication of himself.

### Verse 6

[¶8] I am young - How young he was, or how old they were, we cannot tell; but there was no doubt a great disparity in their ages; and among the Asiatics the youth never spoke in the presence of the elders, especially on any subject of controversy.

### Verse 7

[¶10] Days should speak - That is, men are to be reputed wise and experienced in proportion to the time they have lived. The Easterns were remarkable for treasuring up wise sayings: indeed, the principal part of their boasted wisdom consisted in proverbs and maxims on different subjects.

### Verse 8

[¶12] But there is a spirit in man - Mr. Good translates: - "But surely there is an afflation in mankind,

[¶13] And the inspiration of the Almighty actuateth them."

[¶14] Coverdale, thus: -

[¶15] Every man (no doute) hath a mynde; but it is the inspyracion of the Almightie that geveth understondinge.

[¶16] I will now offer my own opinion, but first give the original text: רוח היא באנוש ונשמת שדי תבינם ruach hi beenosh venishmath shaddai tebinem. "The spirit itself is in miserable man, and the breath of the Almighty causeth them to understand," How true is it that in God we live, move, and have our being! The spirit itself is in man as the spring or fountain of his animal existence, and by the afflatus of this spirit he becomes capable of understanding and reason, and consequently of discerning Divine truth. The animal and intellectual lives are here stated to be from God; and this appears to be an allusion to man's creation, [Gen 2:7] : "And God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives," נשמת חיים nishmath chaiyim, i.e., animal and intellectual, and thus he became a living soul, נפש חיה nephesh chaiyah, a rational animal. When man fell from God, the Spirit of God was grieved, and departed from him; but was restored, as the enlightener and corrector, in virtue of the purposed incarnation and atonement of our Lord Jesus; hence, he is "the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world," [Joh 1:9]. That afflatus is therefore still continued to אנוש enosh, man, in his wretched, fallen state; and it is by that Spirit, the רוח אלהים Ruach Elohim, "the Spirit of the merciful or covenant God," that we have any conscience, knowledge of good and evil, judgment in Divine things, and, in a word, capability of being saved. And when, through the light of that Spirit, convincing of sin, righteousness, and judgment, the sinner turns to God through Christ, and finds redemption in his blood, the remission of sins; then it is the office of that same Spirit to give him understanding of the great work that has been done in and for him; "for the Spirit itself (αυτο το Πνευμα, [Rom 8:16], the same words in Greek as the Hebrew רוח היא ruach hi of Elihu) beareth witness with his spirit that he is a child of God." It is the same Spirit which sanctifies, the same Spirit that seals, and the same Spirit that lives and works in the believer, guiding him by his counsel till it leads him into glory. In this one saying, independently of the above paraphrase, Elihu spoke more sense and sound doctrine than all Job's friends did in the whole of the controversy.

### Verse 9

[¶18] Great men are not always wise - This is a true saying, which the experience of every age and every country increasingly verifies. And it is most certain that, in the case before us, the aged did not understand judgment; they had a great many wise and good sayings, which they had collected, but showed neither wisdom nor discretion in applying them.

### Verse 11

[¶20] I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons - Instead of תבונותיכם tebunotheychem, your reasons, תכונותיכם techunotheychem, your arguments, is the reading of nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The sense, however, is nearly the same.

[¶21] Whilst ye searched out what to say - עד תחקרון מלין ad tachkerun millin; "Whilst ye were searching up and down for words." A fine irony, which they must have felt.

### Verse 12

[¶23] Yea, I attended unto you - Instead of ועדיכם veadeychem, and unto you, one MS. reads the above letters with points that cause it to signify and your testimonies; which is the reading of the Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint.

[¶24] Behold, there was none of you that convinced Job - Confuted Job. They spoke multitudes of words, but were unable to overthrow his arguments.

### Verse 13

[¶26] We have found out wisdom - We by dint of our own wisdom and understanding, have found out the true system of God's providence; and have been able to account for all the sufferings and tribulations of Job. Had they been able to confute Job, they would have triumphed over him in their own self-sufficiency.

[¶27] God thrusteth him down, not man - This is no accidental thing that has happened to him: he is suffering under the just judgments of God, and therefore he must be the wicked man which we supposed him to be.

### Verse 14

[¶29] He hath not directed - I am no party in this controversy; I have no party feeling in it: he has not spoken a word against me, therefore I have no cause of irritation. I shall speak for truth; not for conquest or revenge. Neither will I answer him with your speeches; your passions have been inflamed by contradiction, and you have spoken foolishly with your lips.

### Verse 15

[¶31] They were amazed - Mr. Good translates: "They (the speeches) are dissipated; they no longer produce effect; the words have flirted away from them." Your words, being without proper reference and point, are scattered into thin air: there is nothing but sound in them; they are quite destitute of sense. But I prefer the words as spoken of Job's friends. They took their several parts in the controversy as long as they could hope to maintain their ground: for a considerable time they had been able to bring nothing new; at last, weary of their own repetitions, they gave up the contest.

### Verse 16

[¶33] When I had waited - I waited to hear if they had any thing to reply to Job; and when I found them in effect speechless, then I ventured to come forward.

### Verse 17

[¶35] I will answer also my part - אענה חלקי aaneh chelki, "I will recite my portion." We have already seen that the book of Job is a sort of drama, in which several persons have their different parts to recite. Probably the book was used in this way, in ancient times, for the sake of public instruction. Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad, had recited their parts, and Job had responded to each: nothing was brought to issue. Elihu, a bystander, perceiving this, comes forward and takes a part, when all the rest had expended their materials: yet Elihu, though he spoke well, was incapable of closing the controversy; and God himself appears, and decides the case.

### Verse 18

[¶37] I am full of matter - מלים millim, "I am full of Words," or sayings; i.e., wise sentences, and ancient opinions.

[¶38] The spirit within me constraineth me - How similar to the words of St. Paul! The love of Christ constraineth us. Elihu considered himself under the influence of that Spirit of God which gives understanding, and felt anxiously concerned for the welfare both of Job and his friends.

### Verse 19

[¶40] My belly is as wine which hath no vent - New wine in a state of effervescence.

[¶41] Like new bottles - Bottles, or rather bags, made of goat-skins. The head and shanks being cut off, the animal is cased out of the skin. The skin is then properly dressed; the anus and four shank holes properly tied up; and an aperture left at the neck or in some other place for the liquor to be poured in, and drawn out. One of these now lies before me, well tanned, and beautifully ornamented, and capable of holding many gallons. They are used, not only to carry wine and water, but for butter, and also for various dry goods. I have mentioned this in another place. When the wine is in a state of fermentation, and the skin has no vent, these bottles or bags are ready to burst; and if they be old, the new wine destroys them, breaks the old stitching, or rends the old skin. Our Lord makes use of the same figure, [Mat 9:17] (note); where see the note.

### Verse 20

[¶43] I will open my lips and answer - In the preceding verse Elihu compares himself to a skin-bottle, in which the wine was in a state of fermentation, and the bottle ready to burst for want of vent. He carries on the metaphor in this verse: the bottle must be opened to save it from bursting; I will Open my mouth.

### Verse 21

[¶45] Let me not - accept any man's person - I will speak the truth without fear or favor.

## 527. Job · 54 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/527/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/527/#p-N

[¶0] Neither let me give flattering titles - I will not give epithets to any man that are not descriptive of his true state. I will not beguile him by telling him he is what he is not. אכנה acanneh, from כנה canah, is generally supposed to signify to surname, to put a name to or upon a name, as the French word surnom implies. It means to give proud titles to persons who are worthless. It is well known that the Arabs make court to their superiors by carefully avoiding to address them by their proper names, instead of which they salute them with some title or epithet expressive of respect - Scott See below. Titles expressive of office, ecclesiastical, civil, or military, are always proper, and never forbidden, because they serve for distinction; but the Asiatic titles are in general bombastically and sinfully complimentary. The reader will find several specimens at the end of this chapter.

### Verse 22

[¶2] My Maker would soon take me away - Were I to copy this conduct while under the influence which I now feel, God might justly consume me as in a moment. He is my Maker; he made me to know truth, to tell truth, and to live according to truth; for he is the God of truth: I shall, therefore through his help, speak the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth.

[¶3] We find from the above that vain titles of ceremony, expressive of the most eminent qualities, were given to worthless men, from time immemorial; and no wonder, for hypocrisy entered into man at the same time that sin entered into the world.

[¶4] Of the flattering titles used in the East, I shall give a few specimens from the (Arabic) Kooayid us Sultanet Shah Jehan, or, "The Rules observed during the Reign of the Mogul Emperor Shah Jehan."

[¶5] Speaking of the emperor, he is entitled, "The Sun which illuminates the firmament in the universe of royalty and dominion; the Moon, which irradiates the sky of monarchy and felicity; the King who in pomp resembles Gem-sheed. His hand is boundless as the ocean in bestowing bounties, being the key of the gates of kindness and liberality!" Again: - "The Sun of the heaven of prosperity and empire, the Shadow of God, the Asylum of the Universe, the splendor of whose instructive front causes light and gladness to the world and to mankind." "The just and vigilant Monarch; the Asylum of Truth, the Refuge of the World; the Diffuser of Light, the Solver of all human difficulties." "The Lord of the Age, who is endowed with such perfect excellence, both in internal and external qualifications, that on all occasions he holds fast the thread of good counsel, prudence, and purity of morals." "The faculty of apprehension is possessed by him in such a degree, that before the matter ha s scarcely obtained utterance he comprehends the purport, and gives answers with the tongue of inspiration."

[¶6] Addresses to Persons of Distinction "Let them convey to the presence of glorious empire, the Sultan, in pomp like Solomon, the center of the universe, powerful as heaven!" "Let them who kiss the carpet of the palace, in pomp like heaven, convey this letter to his majesty, whose sight is as creative as alchymy, king of kings, the asylum of the world!" "To the exalted presence, which gratifies the desires of all people, the most beneficent of the age, the vizier, protector of the universe, may the Almighty perpetuate his fortune!" "May this letter be dignified in the presence of Naweeb Saheb, diffuser of benefits, of exalted pomp, the respectable, the discriminator of ranks! May his power increase!" "Let them convey this to the perusal of his excellency, conversant in realities and mysteries, the support of excellencies, the cream of his contemporaries, and the cherisher of the poor!"

[¶7] These are a specimen of the flattering titles given in the East to persons in eminent stations. Their kings they clothe in all the attributes of the Deity, when both in their public and private character they are corrupt and unholy, rascals in grain, and the ruthless oppressors of suffering humanity.

### Introduction

[¶9] Elihu offers himself in God's stead to reason with Job in meekness and sincerity, [Job 33:1-7]. Charges Job with irreverent expressions, [Job 33:8-12]. Vindicates the providence of God, and shows the various methods which he uses to bring sinners to himself: - By dreams and visions, [Job 33:13-15]; by secret inspirations, [Job 33:16-18]; by afflictions, [Job 33:19-22]; by messengers of righteousness, [Job 33:23]; and by the great atonement, [Job 33:24]. How and from what God redeems men, and the blessings which he communicates, [Job 33:25-30]. Job is exhorted to listen attentively to Elihu's teaching, [Job 33:31-33].

### Verse 3

[¶11] My words shall be of the uprightness - As God has given me his Spirit, from that Spirit alone will I speak; therefore all my words shall be of uprightness, knowledge, and truth.

[¶12] Knowledge clearly - דעת ברור daath barur, pure science. I shall lay down no false positions, and I shall have no false consequences.

### Verse 4

[¶14] The Spirit of God hath made me - Another plain allusion to the account of the creation of man, [Gen 2:7], as the words נשמת nishmath, the breath or breathing of God, and תחיני techaiyeni, hath given me life, prove: "He breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and he became a living soul."

### Verse 6

[¶16] I am according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay - Mr. Good, and before him none other that I have seen, has most probably hit the true meaning: - "Behold, I am thy fellow.

[¶17] I too was formed by God out of the clay."

[¶18] The word כפיך kephicha, which we translate according to thy wish, and which, if Hebrew, would mean like to thy mouth; he considers as pure Arabic, with a Hebrew postfix, (Arabic) kefoo, signifying fellow, equal, like. Taken in this way, the passage is very plain, only לאל lael, by or through God, must be added to the last clause of the verse instead of the first, as Mr. Good has properly done.

### Verse 7

[¶20] My terror shall not make thee afraid - This is an allusion to what Job had said, [Job 9:34] : "Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me." Being thy equal, no fear can impose upon thee so far as to overawe thee; so that thou shouldst not be able to conduct thy own defense. We are on equal terms; now prepare to defend thyself.

### Verse 8

[¶22] Surely thou hast spoken - What Elihu speaks here, and in the three following verses, contains, in general, simple quotations from Job's own words, or the obvious sense of them, as the reader may see by referring to [Job 13:27] (note); [Job 14:16] (note), and [Job 31:4] (note), and also to the notes on those passages.

### Verse 11

[¶24] He putteth my feet in the stocks - See the note on [Job 13:27].

### Verse 12

[¶26] In this thou art not just - Thou hast laid charges against God's dealings, but thou hast not been able to justify those charges; and were there nothing else against thee, these irreverent speeches are so many proofs that thou art not clear in the sight of God.

### Verse 13

[¶28] Why dost thou strive against him? - Is it not useless to contend with God? Can he do any thing that is not right? As to his giving thee any account of the reasons why he deals thus and thus with thee, or any one else, thou needest not expect it; he is sovereign, and is not to be called to the bar of his creatures. It is sufficient for thee to know that "he is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind."

### Verse 14

[¶30] For God speaketh once - Though he will not be summoned to the bar of his creatures, nor condescend to detail the reasons of his conduct, which they could not comprehend, yet he so acts, in the main, that the operation of his hand and the designs of his counsel may sufficiently appear, provided men had their eyes open upon his ways, and their hearts open to receive his influence. Elihu, having made the general statement that God would not come to the bar of his creatures to give account of his conduct, shows the general means which he uses to bring men to an acquaintance with themselves and with him: he states these in the six following particulars, which may be collected from [Job 33:15-24].

### Verse 15

[¶32] I. In a Dream

[¶33] In a Dream - when deep sleep falleth upon men - Many, by such means, have had the most salutary warnings; and to decry all such, because there are many vain dreams, would be nearly as much wisdom as to deny the Bible, because there are many foolish books, the authors of which supposed they were under a Divine influence while composing them.

[¶34] II. In a Vision

[¶35] In a Vision of the night - in slumberings upon the bed - Visions or images presented in the imagination during slumber, when men are betwixt sleeping and waking, or when, awake and in bed, they are wrapt up in deep contemplation, the darkness of the night having shut out all objects from their sight, so that the mind is not diverted by images of earthly things impressed on the senses. Many warnings in this way have come from God; and the impression they made, and the good effect they produced, were the proofs of their Divine origin. To deny this would be to call into doubt the testimony of the best, wisest, and holiest men in all ages of the Church. Of one of these visions we have a remarkable account in this book, [Job 4:12-21]. And this vision seems to have taken place in the night season, when Eliphaz awoke from a deep sleep. There is this difference between the accidents of the dream and the vision: the former takes place when deep sleep falleth upon men; the latter, in the night, in or after slumberings upon the bed.

### Verse 16

[¶37] III. By secret Inspirations

[¶38] Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth, etc. - A dream or a vision simply considered is likely to do no good; it is the opening of the understanding, and the pouring in of the light, that make men wise to salvation. Serious alarms, holy purposes, penitential pangs for past sins, apprehension of death and judgment, discoveries of God's justice, of Christ's love, of the world's vanity, of heaven's excellence, etc., etc., etc., are often used by the Divine Spirit to withdraw men from their evil purpose, and to hide pride from man, [Job 33:17]; and of all these openings of the ear of the heart, and sealing instructions upon the conscience, we have numerous examples in the history of the Church, in the experience of good men, and even in the civil and providential history of all nations.

### Verse 18

[¶40] He keepeth back his soul from the pit - By the above means, how many have been snatched from an untimely death! By taking the warning thus given, some have been prevented from perishing by the pit - some sudden accident; and others from the sword of the assassin or nocturnal murderer. It would be easy to give examples, in all these kinds; but the knowledge of the reader may save this trouble to the commentator.

### Verse 19

[¶42] IV. By Afflictions

[¶43] He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, etc. - Afflictions are a fourth means which God makes use of to awaken and convert sinners. In the hand of God these were the cause of the salvation of David, as himself testifies: Before I was afflicted, I went astray, [Psa 119:67], [Psa 119:71], [Psa 119:75].

[¶44] The multitude of his bones - By such diseases, especially those of a rheumatic kind, when to the patient's apprehension every bone is diseased, broken, or out of joint.

## 528. Job · 55 of 73

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[¶0] Some render the passage, When the multitude of his bones is yet strong; meaning those sudden afflictions which fall upon men when in a state of great firmness and vigor. The original, ורוב עצמיו אתן verob atsamaiv ethan, may be translated, And the strong multitude of his bones. Even the strong multitude of his bones is chastened with pain upon his bed; the place of rest and ease affording him no peace, quiet, or comfort.

[¶1] The bones may be well termed multitudinous, as there are no less than 10 in the cranium, or skull; upper jaw, 13; lower jaw, 1; teeth, 32; tongue, 1; vertebrae, or back-bone, 24; ribs, 24; sternum, or breast-bone, 3; os innominatum, 1; scapula, or shoulder-blades, 2; arms, 6; hands, 54; thigh-bones, 2; knee-bones, 2; legs, 4; feet, 54: in all, not less than 233 bones, without reckoning the ossa sethamoides; because, though often numerous, they are found only in hard laborers, or elderly persons.

### Verse 20

[¶3] His life abhorreth bread - These expressions strongly and naturally point out that general nausea, or loathing which sick persons feel in almost every species of disorder.

### Verse 21

[¶5] His flesh is consumed away - As in atrophy, marasmus, and consumptive complaints in general.

### Verse 22

[¶7] His soul draweth near unto the grave - נפש nephesh, soul, is here taken for the immortal spirit, as it is distinguished from חיה chaiyah, the animal life. The former draws near to the pit, שחת shachath, corruption; perhaps he meant dissipation, considering it merely as the breath. The latter draws near לממתים lamemithim, to the dead; i.e., to those who are already buried. Mr. Good translates it the Destinies; and supposes the same is meant among the Hebrews by the Memithim, as among the Greeks by their Μοιραι; the Latins, by their Parcae; the Goths, by their Fatal Sisters; the Scandinavians, by their goddess Hela; and the Arabians, by Azrael, or the angel of death. I think, however, the signification given above is more natural.

### Verse 23

[¶9] V. The Messengers

[¶10] If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, etc. - The Messengers of righteousness; this is a Fifth method, אם יש עליו מלאך מליץ im yesh alaiv malach melits, "If there be over him an interpreting or mediatorial angel or messenger." One among a thousand, אחד מני אלף echad minni aleph. "One from the Chief, Head, or Teacher."

[¶11] To show unto man his uprightness - להגיד לאדם ישרו lehaggid leadam yoshro, "to manifest or cause to be declared to man his righteousness:" to show unto Adam - men in general, the descendants of the first man - his purity and holiness; to convince him of sin, righteousness, and judgment, that he may be prepared for the discovery of what is next to be exhibited.

### Verse 24

[¶13] Then he is gracious unto him - He exercises mercy towards fallen man, and gives command for his respite and pardon. Deliver him from going down to the pit - Let him who is thus instructed, penitent, and afflicted, and comes to me, find a pardon; for: -

[¶14] VI. By an Atonement

[¶15] I have found a ransom - כפר copher, an atonement. Pay a ransom for him, פדעהו pedaehu, that he may not go down to the pit - to corruption or destruction, for I have found out an atonement. It is this that gives efficacy to all the preceding means; without which they would be useless, and the salvation of man impossible. I must think that the redemption of a lost world, by Jesus Christ, is not obscurely signified in [Job 33:23], [Job 33:24]. While the whole world lay in the wicked one, and were all hastening to the bottomless pit, God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus Christ, the great sacrifice, and head of the Church, commissions his messengers - apostles and their successors - to show men the righteousness of God, and his displeasure at sin, and at the same time his infinite love, which commands them to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and that they who believe on him shall not perish, shall not go down to the pit of destruction, for he has found out an atonement; and that whoever comes to him, through Christ, shall have everlasting life, in virtue of that atonement or ransom price. Should it be objected against my interpretation of אלף aleph, that it cannot be translated chief or head, because it is without the vau shurek, אלוף alluph, which gives it this signification; I would answer, that this form of the word is not essential to the signification given above, as it occurs in several places without the vau shurek, where it most certainly signifies a chief, a leader, captain, etc., e.g., [Zac 9:7]; [Jer 13:21], and [Gen 36:30]; in the first of which we translate it governor; in the second, captain; and in the third, duke. And although we translate אלוף alluph an ox or beeve, (and it most certainly has this meaning in several places), yet in this signification it is written without the vau shurek in [Pro 14:4]; [Psa 8:7]; [Isa 30:24]; and in [Deu 7:13]; [Deu 28:4], [Deu 28:18], [Deu 28:51]; which all show that this letter is not absolutely necessary to the above signification.

### Verse 25

[¶17] His flesh shall be fresher than a child's - He shall be born a new creature.

[¶18] He shall return to the days of his youth - He shall be born again, and become a child of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.

### Verse 26

[¶20] He shall pray unto God - Being now adopted into the heavenly family, and become a new creature, he shall have the spirit of prayer, which is indeed the very breath and language of the new or spiritual life.

[¶21] He will be favorable unto him - He shall manifest his good will to him; he shall live under the influences of Divine grace.

[¶22] He shall see his face with joy - He shall know that God is reconciled to him; and this shall fill him with joy, בתרועה bithruah, with exultation: for, "being justified by faith, he has peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom he has received the atonement; and Rejoices in the hope of the glory of God."

[¶23] He will render unto man his righteousness - So good and gracious is the Lord, that by his grace he will enable this convert to live to his glory, to bring forth all the fruits of the Spirit, and then reward him for the work, as if it were done by his own might.

### Verse 27

[¶25] He looketh upon men - אנשים anashim, wretched, fallen men. He shines into them, to convince them of sin; and if any, under this convincing light of God, say, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and perverted the right - abused the powers, faculties, mercies, and advantages, which thou didst give me, by seeking rest and happiness in the creature, and it profited me not - it was all vanity and vexation of spirit; ולא שוה לי velo shavah li, "and it was not equal to me," did not come up to my expectation, nor supply my wants: -

### Verse 28

[¶27] He will deliver his soul - He will do that to every individual penitent sinner which he has promised in his word to do for a lost world - he will deliver his soul from going down to the pit of hell.

[¶28] And his life shall see the light - He shall walk in the light, as Christ is in the light; always enjoying a clear sense of his acceptance through the blood of the Lamb. See another mode of paraphrasing these verses at the end of the chapter.

### Verse 29

[¶30] Lo, all these things worketh God - God frequently uses one, or another, or all of these means, to bring men, גבר gaber, stout-hearted men, who are far from righteousness, to holiness and heaven.

[¶31] Oftentimes - פעמים שלש paamayim shalosh, "three times over;" or as פעמים paamayim is by the points in the dual number, then it signifies twice three times, that is, again and again; very frequently. Blessed be God!

### Verse 30

[¶33] To bring back his soul from the pit - Nearly a repetition of the promise in [Job 33:28].

[¶34] To be enlightened with the light of the living - An echo of [Psa 56:13] : "Thou hast delivered my soul from death, that I may walk before God in the light of the living;" and probably quoted from it.

### Verse 31

[¶36] Mark well, O Job - Pay the deepest attention to what I have said, and to what I shall say.

### Verse 32

[¶38] If thou hast any thing to say - If thou hast any objection to make against what I have already stated, now answer, now speak freely; for it is my desire that thou shouldst stand clear of all charges.

### Verse 33

[¶40] If not - Then I will proceed: listen carefully, keep silence, and I will teach thee what true wisdom is. Job was silent; none of his friends chose to intermeddle farther; and in the next chapter Elihu addresses both Job and them.

[¶41] There are some various readings in the MSS. and versions on certain words in the concluding verses of this chapter, which it will be necessary to mention, as they, if adopted, will lead to a somewhat different paraphrase to that given, especially of [Job 33:26-28]. [Job 33:26] For צדקתו tsidkatho, His righteousness, one MS. and the Chaldee have כצדקתו ketsidkatho, According to his righteousness. [Job 33:28] For נפשו naphsho, His soul, which is the keri reading, and that which our translation has followed, נפשי My soul is the reading of many MSS., early editions, the Complutensian, Antwerp, and London Polyglots, the Jerusalem Targum, the Chaldee, the Vulgate, and Coverdale.

[¶42] For חיתו chaiyatho, His life, many MSS., early editions, the Complutensian, Antwerp, and London Polyglots, the Jerusalem Targum, Chaldee, Vulgate, and Coverdale, read חיתי chaiyathi, My life. Both of these are properly the kethib or textual readings in the best editions, but are directed by the Masora to be changed for the keri readings, or those inserted in the margin.

[¶43] For באור תראה baor tireh, Shall See the light, six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have תהיה tihyeh, and twenty-one have כאור caor, thus כאור תהיה caor tihiyeh, Shall Be As the light. The whole verse, by these various readings, will stand thus: - "He will deliver My soul from going into the pit, and My life Shall Be As the light." But if, with the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, we read פדה padah, in the imperative mood, then the verse will read thus: - "Deliver Thou My Soul from going down to the pit, and My life Shall Be As the light."

[¶44] On the [Job 33:26], [Job 33:27], [Job 33:28], and [Job 33:29] verses, the following paraphrase has been recommended. [Job 33:26] He (Jesus Christ, the head and ransom price) shall pray unto God, (shall make intercession for the transgressors, for he is the Mediator between God and man). And he (God the Father) will be favorable, (ירצהו yirtsehu, will manifest his good will towards him). And he shall see his face (פניו panaiv, his faces, God the Father, Son, and Spirit) with joy, (בתרועה bithruah, with exultation or triumph), for he will render unto man his righteousness, (ושב לאנוש צדקתי yasheb leenosh tsidkatho, "He will restore to wretched man his righteousness;" i.e., he will create the soul anew, and restore to the fallen spirit that righteousness and true holiness which it has lost, and bring it again to its original state of perfection, through the grand atonement mentioned [Job 33:24]).

## 529. Job · 56 of 73

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[¶0] But when is it that wretched miserable man shall be brought to this state of salvation? This is answered in [Job 33:27] When God, looking upon men, seeth any of them saying, I have sinned and perverted that which is right, and it hath profited me nothing - has afforded nothing equal to my wishes, and the tribulation which I sustained in seeking happiness in forbidden things. Redeem my soul from going down to destruction, and my life shall see the light, or shall be as the light. This is the prayer of the penitent, which God has promised to hear.

[¶1] This is one of the best, the deepest, the most spiritual, and most important chapters which the reader has yet met with in the Book of Job. It is every way important, and full of useful information. It is a grand exhibition of the Way of salvation as revealed to patriarchs and prophets.

### Introduction

[¶3] Elihu begins with an exhortation to Job's friends, [Job 34:1-4]; charges Job with accusing God of acting unrighteously, which he shows is impossible, [Job 34:5-12]; points out the power and judgments of the Almighty, vv. 13-30; shows how men should address God, and how irreverently Job has acted, [Job 34:31-37].

### Verse 3

[¶5] The ear trieth words - I do not think, with Calmet, that the inward ear, or judgment, is meant simply. The Asiatics valued themselves on the nice and harmonious collection of words, both in speaking and in writing; and perhaps it will be found here that Elihu labors as much for harmonious versification as for pious and weighty sentiments. To connect sense with sound was an object of general pursuit among the Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian poets; and so fond are the latter of euphony, that they often sacrifice both sense and sentiment to it; and some of the Greek poets are not exempt from this fault.

### Verse 4

[¶7] Let us choose to us judgment - Let us not seek the applause of men, nor contend for victory. Let our aim be to obtain correct views and notions of all things; and let us labor to find out what is good.

### Verse 5

[¶9] Job hath said, I am righteous - Job had certainly said the words attributed to him by Elihu, particularly in [Job 27:2], etc., but it was in vindication of his aspersed character that he had asserted his own righteousness, and in a different sense to that in which Elihu appears to take it up. He asserted that he was righteous quoad the charges his friends had brought against him. And he never intimated that he had at all times a pure heart, and had never transgressed the laws of his Maker. It is true also that he said, God hath taken away my judgment; but he most obviously does not mean to charge God with injustice, but to show that he had dealt with him in a way wholly mysterious, and not according to the ordinary dispensations of his providence; and that he did not interpose in his behalf, while his friends were overwhelming him with obloquy and reproach.

### Verse 6

[¶11] Should I lie against my right? - Should I acknowledge myself the sinner which they paint me, and thus lie against my right to assert and maintain my innocence?

[¶12] My wound is incurable without transgression - If this translation is correct, the meaning of the place is sufficiently evident. In the tribulation which I endure, I am treated as if I were the worst of culprits; and I labor under incurable maladies and privations, though without any cause on my part for such treatment. This was all most perfectly true; it is the testimony which God himself gives of Job, that "he was a perfect and upright man, fearing God and eschewing evil;" and that "Satan had moved the Lord against him, to destroy him, Without a Cause. See [Job 1:1]; [Job 2:3].

[¶13] The Chaldee translates thus: - "On account of my judgment, I will make the son of man a liar, who sends forth arrows without sin."

[¶14] Mr. Good thus: - "Concerning my cause I am slandered;

[¶15] He hath reversed my lot without a trespass."

[¶16] The latter clause is the most deficient, אנוש חצי בלי פשע; Miss Smith's translation of which is the best I have met with: "A man cut off, without transgression." The word חצי chitstsi, which we translate my wound, signifies more literally, my arrow; and if we take it as a contracted noun, חצי chitstsey for חצים chitstsim, it means calamities. אנוש anush, which we translate incurable, may be the noun enosh, wicked, miserable man; and then the whole may be read thus: "A man of calamities without transgression." I suffer the punishment of an enemy to God, while free from transgression of this kind.

### Verse 7

[¶18] Drinketh up scorning like water? - This is a repetition of the charge made against Job by Eliphaz, [Job 15:16]. It is a proverbial expression, and seems to be formed, as a metaphor, from a camel drinking, who takes in a large draught of water, even the most turbid, on its setting out on a journey in a caravan, that it may serve it for a long time. Job deals largely in scorning; he fills his heart with it.

### Verse 8

[¶20] Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity - This is an allusion to a caravan: all kinds of persons are found there; but yet a holy and respectable man might be found in that part of the company where profligates assembled. But surely this assertion of Elihu was not strictly true; and the words literally translated, will bear a less evil meaning: "Job makes a track ארח arach, to join fellowship, לחברה lechebrah, with the workers of iniquity;" i.e., Job's present mode of reasoning, when he says, "I am righteous, yet God hath taken away my judgment," is according to the assertion of sinners, who say, "There is no profit in serving God; for, if a man be righteous, he is not benefited by it, for God does not vindicate a just man's cause against his oppressors." By adopting so much of their creed, he intimates that Job is taking the steps that lead to fellowship with them. See [Job 34:9].

### Verse 10

[¶22] Far be it from God - Rather, Wickedness, far be that from God; and from iniquity, the Almighty. The sense is sufficiently evident without the paraphrase in our version.

### Verse 11

[¶24] For the work of a man shall he render - God ever will do justice; the righteous shall never be forsaken, nor shall the wicked ultimately prosper.

### Verse 13

[¶26] Who hath given him a charge - Who is it that governs the world? Is it not God? Who disposes of all things in it? Is it not the Almighty, by his just and merciful providence? The government of the world shows the care, the justice, and the mercy of God.

### Verse 14

[¶28] If he set his heart upon man - I think this and the following verse should be read thus: - "If he set his heart upon man, he will gather his soul and breath to himself; for all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." On whomsoever God sets his heart, that is, his love, though his body shall perish and turn to dust, like the rest of men, yet his soul will God gather to himself.

### Verse 17

[¶30] Shall - he that hateth right govern? - Or, Shall he who hateth judgment, lie under obligation? It is preposterous to suppose that he who lives by no rule, should impose rules upon others. God, who is the fountain of all justice and righteousness, binds man by his laws; and wilt thou, therefore, pretend to condemn him who is the sum of righteousness?

### Verse 18

[¶32] Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? - The sentence is very short, and is thus translated by the Vulgate: Qui dicit regi, Apostata? Qui vocat duces impios? "Who says to a king, Apostate? Who calls leaders impious?" Literally, Who calls a king Belial? Who calls princes wicked? Civil governors should be treated with respect; no man should speak evil of the ruler of the people. This should never be permitted. Even where the man cannot be respected, because his moral conduct is improper, even there the office is sacred, and should be reverenced. He who permits himself to talk against the man, would destroy the office and authority, if he could.

### Verse 19

[¶34] That accepteth not - If it be utterly improper to speak against a king or civil governor, how much more so to speak disrespectfully of God, who is not influenced by human caprices or considerations, and who regards the rich and the poor alike, being equally his creatures, and equally dependent on his providence and mercy for their support and salvation.

### Verse 20

[¶36] In a moment shall they die - Both are equally dependent on the Almighty for their breath and being; the mighty as well as the poor. If the great men of the earth have abused their power, he sometimes cuts them off by the most sudden and unexpected death; and even at midnight, when in security, and least capable of defense, they are cut off by the people whom they have oppressed, or by the invisible hand of the angel of death. This appears to be spoken in reference to Eastern tyrants, who seldom die a natural death.

### Verse 22

[¶38] There is no darkness - In this life; and no shadow of death in the other world - no annihilation in which the workers of iniquity may hide themselves, or take refuge.

### Verse 23

[¶40] For he will not lay upon man - The meaning appears to be this: He will not call man a second time into judgment; he does not try a cause twice; his decisions are just, and his sentence without appeal. Mr. Good translates: - "Behold, not to man hath he intrusted the time

[¶41] Of coming into judgment with God."

[¶42] Man's time is not in his own hand; nor is his lot cast or ruled by his own wisdom and power. When God thinks best, he will judge for him; and, if oppressed or calumniated, he will bring forth his righteousness as the light, and do him justice on his adversaries.

### Verse 24

[¶44] He shall break in pieces - In multitudes of cases God depresses the proud, and raises up the humble and meek. Neither their strength nor number can afford them security.

## 530. Job · 57 of 73

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### Verse 25

[¶1] He knoweth their works - He knows what they have done, and what they are plotting to do.

[¶2] He overturneth them in the night - In the revolution of a single night the plenitude of power on which the day closed is annihilated. See the cases of Belshazzar and Babylon.

### Verse 26

[¶4] He striketh them as wicked men - At other times he executes his judgments more openly; and they are suddenly destroyed in the sight of the people.

### Verse 27

[¶6] Because they turned back - This is the reason why he has dealt with them in judgment. They had departed from him in their hearts, their moral conduct, and their civil government. He is speaking of corrupt and tyrannical rulers. And they did not, would not, understand any of his ways.

### Verse 28

[¶8] So that they cause the cry of the poor - They were cruel and oppressive: the poor cried through their distresses, and against their oppressors; and God heard the cry of the poor. Nothing so dreadful appears in the court of heaven against an unfeeling, hardhearted, and cruel man of power, as the prayers, tears, and groans of the poor. In times of little liberality, when some men thought they did God service by persecuting those who did not exactly receive their creed, nor worship God in their way, a certain great man in Scotland grievously persecuted his tenants, because they had religious meetings in private houses out of the order of the establishment; though he never molested them when they spent their time and their money in the alehouse. A holy, simple woman, one of those people, went one morning to the house of the great persecutor, and desired to speak with him. The servant desired to know her message, and he would deliver it; for she could not be admitted. She told him she could deliver her message to none but his master; said it was a matter of great importance, and concerned himself intimately, and alone. The servant having delivered this message, and stated that the woman appeared to have something particular on her mind, his worship condescended to see her. "What is your business with me?" said he, in a haughty, overbearing tone. To which she answered, "Sir, we are a hantle o' puir folk at - , who are strivin' to sairve God accordin' to our ain conscience, and to get our sauls sav'd: yee persecute us; and I am come to beg yee to let us alane, and in ye dinna, we'll pray yee dead." This rhetoric was irresistible. His lordship did not know what influence such people might have in heaven; he did not like to put such prayers to the proof; wisely took the old woman's advice, and e'en let them alane. He was safe; they were satisfied; and God had the glory. When the poor refer their cause to God, he is a terrible avenger. Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth; but wo to the man that contendeth with his Maker.

### Verse 29

[¶10] When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? - How beautiful is this sentiment, and how true! He ever acts as a sovereign, but his actions are all wise and just. If he give quietness, who dares to give trouble? And if he give to every human being the right to worship himself according to their conscience, for the director of which he gives both his word and his Spirit, who shall dare to say to another, "Thou shalt worship God in my way, or not at all;" or, through a pretended liberality, say, "Thou shalt be tolerated to worship him so and so;" and even that toleration be shackled and limited? Reader, thou hast as much right to tolerate another's mode of worship as he has to tolerate thine: or, in other words, neither of you have any such right at all; the pretension is as absurd as it is wicked. If, however, there be any thing in the religious practice of any particular people that is inimical, by fair construction, to the peace of the country, then the civil power may interfere, as they ought to do in all cases of insurrection; but let no such inference be drawn when not most obviously flowing from the practice of the people, and the principles they profess; and when solemnly disclaimed by the persons in question. Whatever converts sinners from the error of their ways must be good to society and profitable to the state.

[¶11] Whether it be done against a nation - He defends and supports nations or individuals howsoever weak, against their enemies, howsoever numerous and powerful. He destroys nations or individuals who have filled up the measure of their political or moral iniquity, though all other nations and individuals stand up in their support.

### Verse 30

[¶13] That the hypocrite reign not - The Vulgate translates, Who causes a wicked man to reign because of the sins of the people. This was precisely the defense which Hegiage, the oppressive ruler of the Babylonian Irak, under the caliph Abdul Malec, made when he found the people in a state of insurrection. See at the end of the chapter, [Job 34:37] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶15] Surely it is meet to be said unto God - This is Elihu's exhortation to Job: Humble thyself before God, and say, "I have suffered - I will not offend."

### Verse 32

[¶17] That which I see not - "What I do not know, teach thou me; wherein I have done iniquity, I will do so no more."

### Verse 33

[¶19] According to thy mind? he will recompense it - Mr. Good renders the whole passage thus: - "Then in the presence of thy tribes

[¶20] According as thou art bruised shall he make it whole.

[¶21] But it is thine to choose, and not mine;

[¶22] So, what thou determinest, say."

[¶23] This may at least be considered a paraphrase on the very obscure original. If thou wilt not thus come unto him, he will act according to justice, whether that be for or against thee. Choose what part thou wilt take, to humble thyself under the mighty hand of God, or still persist in thy supposed integrity. Speak, therefore; the matter concerns thee, not me; but let me know what thou art determined to do.

### Verse 34

[¶25] Let men of understanding tell me - I wish to converse with wise men; and by men of wisdom I wish what I have said to be judged.

### Verse 35

[¶27] Job hath spoken without knowledge - There is no good in arguing with a self-willed, self-conceited man. Job has spoken like a man destitute of wisdom and discretion.

### Verse 36

[¶29] My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end - אבי יבחן איוב abi yibbachen Aiyob, "My father, let Job be tried." So the Vulgate, Pater mi, probetur Job. But it may be as in the common translation, I wish Job to be tried; or, as Mr. Good renders it, Verily, let Job be pursued to conquest for replying like wicked men. This is a very harsh wish: but the whole chapter is in the same spirit; nearly destitute of mildness and compassion. Who could suppose that such arguings could come out of the mouth of the loving Savior of mankind? The reader will recollect that a very pious divine has supposed Elihu to be Jesus Christ!

### Verse 37

[¶31] He addeth rebellion unto his sin - An ill-natured, cruel, and unfounded assertion, borne out by nothing which Job had ever said or intended; and indeed, more severe than the most inveterate of his friends (so called) had ever spoken. Mr. Good makes this virulent conclusion still more virulent and uncharitable, by translating thus: - "For he would add to his transgressions apostasy;

[¶32] He would clap his hands in the midst of us:

[¶33] Yea, he would tempest his words up to God."

[¶34] There was no need of adding a caustic here; the words in the tamest translation are tart enough. Though Elihu began well and tolerantly, he soon got into the spirit, and under the mistake, of those who had preceded him in this "tempest of words."

[¶35] On [Job 34:30] I have referred to the case of Hegiage, governor of the Babylonian Irak, under the caliph Abdul Malec. When Hegiage was informed that the people were in a state of mutiny because of his oppressive government, before they broke out into open acts of hostility, he mounted on an eminence, and thus harangued them: - "God has given me dominion over you; if I exercise it with severity, think not that by putting me to death your condition will be mended. From the manner in which you live you must be always ill-treated, for God has many executors of his justice; and when I am dead he will send you another, who will probably execute his orders against you with more rigour. Do you wish your prince to be moderate and merciful? Then exercise righteousness, and be obedient to the laws. Consider that your own conduct is the cause of the good or evil treatment which you receive from him. A prince may be compared to a mirror; all that you see in him is the reflection of the objects which you present before him." The people immediately dropped their weapons, and quietly returned to their respective avocations. This man was one of the most valiant, eloquent, and cruel rulers of his time; he lived towards the close of the 7th century of the Christian era. He is said to have put to death 120,000 people; and to have had 50,000 in his prisons at the time of his decease. Yet this man was capable of generous actions. The following anecdote is given by the celebrated Persian poet Jami, in his Baharistan: - Hegiage, having been separated from his attendants one day in the chase, came to a place where he found an Arab feeding his camels. The camels starting at his sudden approach, the Arab lifted up his head, and seeing a man splendidly arrayed, became incensed, and said, Who is this who with his fine clothes comes into the desert to frighten my camels? The curse of Good light upon him! The governor, approaching the Arab, saluted him very civilly, with the salaam, Peace be unto thee! The Arab, far from returning the salutation, said, I wish thee neither peace, nor any other blessing of God. Hegiage, without seeming to heed what he had said, asked him very civilly "to give him a little water to drink." The Arab in a surly tone, answered, If thou desirest to drink, take the pains to alight, and draw for thyself; for I am neither thy companion nor thy slave. The governor accordingly alighted, and having drank, asked the Arab, "Whom dost thou think the greatest and most excellent of men?" The prophet sent by God, said the Arab, and thou mayest burst with spleen. "And what thinkest thou of Aaly?" returned Hegiage. No tongue can declare his excellence, said the Arab. "What," asked Hegiage, "is thy opinion of the caliph Abdul Malec?" I believe him to be a very bad prince, replied the Arab. "For what reason?" said Hegiage. Because, said the Arab, he hath sent us for governor the most execrable wretch under heaven. Hegiage, finding himself thus characterized, was silent; but his attendants coming up, he rejoined them, and ordered them to bring the Arab with them. The next day Hegiage ordered him to be set at table with himself, and bade him "eat freely." The Arab, ere he tasted, said his usual grace, "God grant that the end of this repast may be no worse than the beginning!" While at meat the governor asked him, "Dost thou recollect the discourse we had together yesterday?" The Arab replied, God prosper thee in all things! but as to the secret of yesterday, take heed that thou disclose it not to-day. "I will not," said Hegiage; "but thou must choose one of these two things; either acknowledge me for thy master, and I will retain thee about my person; or else I will send thee to Abdul Malec, and tell him what thou hast said of him." There is a third course, replied the Arab, preferable to those two. "Well, what is that?" said the governor. Why, send me back to the desert, and pray God that we may never see each other's face again. Cruel and vindictive as Hegiage was, he could not help being pleased with the frankness and courage of the man; and not only forgave him the preceding insults but ordered him 10,000 pieces of silver, and sent him back to the desert, according to his wish.

### Introduction

[¶37] Elihu accuses Job of impious speeches, [Job 35:1-4]. No man can affect God by his iniquity, nor profit him by his righteousness, [Job 35:5-8]. Many are afflicted and oppressed, but few cry to God for help; and, for want of faith, they continue in affliction, [Job 35:9-16].

### Verse 2

[¶39] My righteousness is more than God's? - This would indeed be a blasphemous saying; but Job never said so, neither directly nor constructively: it would be much better to translate the words צדקי מאל tsidki meel, I am righteous Before God. And Job's meaning most certainly was, "Whatever I am in your sight, I know that in the sight of God I am a righteous man;" and he had a right to assume this character, because God himself had given it to him.

### Verse 3

[¶41] What advantage will it be unto thee? - As if he had said to God, "My righteousness cannot profit thee, nor do I find that it is of any benefit to myself." Or perhaps Elihu makes here a general assertion, which he afterwards endeavors to exemplify: Thou hast been reasoning how it may profit thee, and thou hast said, "What profit shall I have in righteousness more than in sin?"

### Verse 4

[¶43] I will answer thee - I will show thee the evil of a sinful way, and the benefit of righteousness; and supply what thy friends have omitted in their discourses with thee.

## 531. Job · 58 of 73

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Look unto the heavens - These heavens, and their host, God has created: the bare sight of them is sufficient to show thee that God is infinitely beyond thee in wisdom and excellence.

[¶2] Behold the clouds - שחקים shechakim, the ethers, (Vulgate, aethera), from שחק shachak, to contend, fight together: the agitated or conflicting air and light; the strong agitation of these producing both light and heat. Look upon these, consider them deeply, and see and acknowledge the perfections of the Maker.

### Verse 6

[¶4] If thou sinnest - God is not benefited by thy righteousness, nor injured by thy iniquity, howsoever multiplied it may be.

### Verse 8

[¶6] Thy wickedness may hurt - It is better to translate this literally:

[¶7] To a man like thyself is thy wickedness:

[¶8] And to the son of man, thy righteousness:

[¶9] That is: -

[¶10] Thou mayest injure thyself and others by thy wickedness,

[¶11] And thou mayest benefit both by thy righteousness;

[¶12] But God thou canst neither hurt nor profit.

### Verse 9

[¶14] By reason of the multitude - Or rather, "From among the multitude" the oppressed clamor, יזעיקו yaziku: they shout, ישועו yeshavveu, because of the mighty. The wicked rich oppress the wicked poor; these cry aloud because of their oppressors; but they have no relief, because they call not upon God.

### Verse 10

[¶16] Where is God my Maker - They have no just apprehension of his being; they do not consider themselves his creatures, or that he who created them still preserves them, and would make them happy if they would pray unto him.

[¶17] Who giveth songs in the night - This is variously translated. "Before whom the high angels give praise in the night." - Chaldee. "Who sets the night-watches." - Septuagint. "Gives meditations in the night." - Syriac and Arabic. "And that shyneth upon us that we might prayse him in the night." - Coverdale.

[¶18] A holy soul has continual communion with God: night and day its happiness is great; and God, from whom it comes, is the continual subject of its songs of praise.

### Verse 11

[¶20] Who teacheth us more than the beasts - "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know me, my people do not consider;" [Isa 1:3]. Beasts, bards, fowls, and in many cases pond-fishes, know and seem thankful to the hand that feeds them; while man, made much more noble than they, gifted with the greatest powers, privileged with the most important benefits, considers not the Lord, nor discerns the operation of his hand. Quadrupeds, reptiles, and fowls, have more gratitude to their masters than man has to his God.

### Verse 12

[¶22] There they cry - They bewail their calamities, but sorrow not for the cause of them; they cry against their oppressors, but they call not upon God.

[¶23] Because of the pride of evil men - Or מפני mippeney, from the face, presence, or influence, of the pride of wicked men. They cry for deliverance from the pride of wicked men; but they are not heard, because they cry not to God.

### Verse 13

[¶25] Surely God will not hear vanity - He will not attend to such vain cries; they cry from their oppressions, but they cry not to God.

### Verse 14

[¶27] Thou sayest thou shalt not see Him - Several MSS. have "Thou shalt not see me," and the Septuagint, and one other, "Thou shalt not see us," but without the points, תשורנו, the original may be read see Him or see Us, the third person singular, or the first person plural.

[¶28] Yet judgment is before him - Rest assured that God has not forgotten either to punish or to save; therefore trust in him; choose to be a monument of his mercy, rather than of his justice.

### Verse 15

[¶30] But - because it is not so - Rather, "But now, because he visiteth not in his anger." This is more literal than the versions generally proposed; and the sense of the place appears to be this: Because vengeance is not speedily executed on an evil work, therefore are the hearts of the children of men set in them to do iniquity. This is, in effect, the charge which Elihu brings against Job.

### Verse 16

[¶32] Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain - God will execute vengeance when it may best serve the ends of his justice, providence, and mercy. The delay of judgment is not proof that it shall not be executed; nor is the deferring of mercy any proof that God has forgotten to be gracious.

[¶33] He multiplieth words without knowledge - However this may apply to Job, it most certainly applies very strongly and generally to the words, not only of Job's three friends, but to those also of Elihu himself. The contest is frequently a strife of words.

### Introduction

[¶35] Elihu vindicates God's justice, and his providential and gracious dealings with men, [Job 36:1-9]. Promises of God to the obedient, and threatenings to the disobedient; also promises to the poor and afflicted, [Job 36:10-16]. Sundry proofs of God's merely, with suitable exhortations and cautions, vv. 17-33.

### Verse 1

[¶37] Elihu also proceeded - Mr. Heath gives a good summary of this chapter. Elihu goes on to lay before Job the impropriety of his behavior towards God, and desires him to consider how vain it will prove. That God Almighty will never yield the point; that he will administer impartial justice to all men, [Job 36:2-6]. That the general course of his providence is to favor the righteous: and that though he may sometimes correct them in love, yet if they submit patiently to his fatherly corrections, they shall enjoy all manner of prosperity; but if they be stubborn, and will not submit, they will only draw down greater proofs of his displeasure, [Job 36:7-16]. He tells him that, had he followed the former course, he had probably, before now, been restored to his former condition; whereas, by persisting in the latter course, he was in a fair way of becoming a signal example of Divine justice, [Job 36:17], [Job 36:18]. He therefore warns him to use the present opportunity, lest God should cut him off while he was in a state of rebellion against him; for with God neither wealth, power, nor any other argument that he could use, would be of any avail, [Job 36:18-26]. That God was infinitely powerful; there was no resisting him: and infinitely wise, as sufficiently appeared by his works; there was, therefore, no escaping out of his hands. That his purity was so great that the sun, in his presence, was more dim than the smallest ray of light when compared to that grand luminary; that his holiness was manifest by his aversion to iniquity; and his goodness, in supplying the wants of his creatures.

### Verse 2

[¶39] That I have yet to speak on God's behalf - I have other proofs to allege in behalf of God's justice and providence.

### Verse 3

[¶41] I will fetch my knowledge from afar - למרחוק lemerachok, "from the distant place," meaning probably both remote antiquity and heaven; see below. I will show thee that all antiquity and experience are on my side. I can bring proofs from the remotest ages and from the most distant countries to demonstrate that God is infinitely Wise, and can do nothing foolish or erroneous; that he is infinitely Powerful, and can bring all the purposes of his wisdom to effect; that he is infinitely Good, and can will nothing, and can do nothing that is not good in itself, and well calculated to do good to his creatures. And I shall show that his operations in the heavens and on the earth prove and demonstrate the whole.

[¶42] And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker - By proving the above points, the righteous conduct of God, and his gracious government of the world, will be fully established. That Elihu brings his knowledge from afar - from every part of the creation, as well as from the Divine nature - is evident from the end of the chapter.

[¶43] 1. The omnipotence of God; - God is great.

[¶44] 2. The eternity of God - We know him not, the number of his years cannot be found out, [Job 36:26].

[¶45] 3. From the economy of God in the atmosphere, in dews, rain, vapor, and the irrigation of the earth; - He maketh small the drops, etc., [Job 36:27], [Job 36:28].

## 532. Job · 59 of 73

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[¶0] 4. In the thunder and lightning, by which he performs such wonders in the atmosphere, and executes such judgments in the world; - Also who can understand the noise of his tabernacle? He spreadeth his light upon it. He judgeth the people, etc., [Job 36:29-33].

### Verse 4

[¶2] My words shall not be false - My words shall be truth without falsity.

[¶3] He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee - "The perfection of knowledge is with thee." Thou art a sensible, well-informed man, and will be able to judge of what I say.

### Verse 5

[¶5] God is mighty and despiseth not any - He reproaches no man for his want of knowledge. If any man lack wisdom, he may come to God, who giveth liberally, and upbraideth not. I prefer this to the passive sense, will not be despised.

[¶6] He is mighty - Literally, "He is mighty in strength of heart;" he can never be terrified nor alarmed.

### Verse 6

[¶8] He preserveth not the life - He will not give life to the wicked; all such forfeit life by their transgressions.

[¶9] But giveth right - Justice will he give to the afflicted or humble, עניים aniyim.

### Verse 7

[¶11] He withdraweth not his eyes - Exactly similar to those words of David, [Psa 34:15] : "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous."

[¶12] But with kings are they on the throne - I think the words should be read thus: - "But with kings upon the throne shall he place them; and they shall be exalted for ever." The word וישיבם vaiyeshibem, he will establish or place them, should be added to the first clause, as I have done; and then the sense becomes much clearer. Instead of לנצח fo da lanetsach, forever, perhaps to victory would be a better sense: "But with kings upon the throne will he place them; and they shall be exalted or triumph to victory." This is precisely the same idea, and conveyed in nearly the same words, as that of our Lord: - "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne;" [Rev 3:21]. "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory," etc.; [Rev 1:5], [Rev 1:6].

### Verse 8

[¶14] And if they be bound in fetters - These are means which God uses, not of punishment, but of correction.

### Verse 9

[¶16] He showeth them their work - He shows them the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

[¶17] That they have exceeded - יתגברו yithgabbaru, "that they have strengthened themselves," and did not trust in the living God; and therefore they would not help themselves when trouble came.

### Verse 10

[¶19] He openeth also their ear - He gives them to understand the reason why they are thus corrected, and commands them to return from those iniquities which have induced him to visit them with afflictions and distresses.

### Verse 11

[¶21] If they obey and serve him - There may appear in the course of Providence to be some exceptions to this general rule; but it is most true, that this is literally or spiritually fulfilled to all the genuine followers of God. Every man is happy, in whatsoever circumstances, whose heart is unreservedly dedicated to his Maker.

### Verse 12

[¶23] But if they obey not - This also is a general rule, from which, in the course of Providence, there are only few, and those only apparent, deviations. Instead of they shall perish by the sword, the meaning of the Hebrew בשלח יעברו beshelach yaaboru, is, "By a dart they shall pass by." They shall be in continual dangers, and often fall before they have lived out half their days. Mr. Good translates: They pass by as an arrow. The Vulgate: Transibunt per gladium. "They shall pass away by the sword."

### Verse 13

[¶25] But the hypocrites in heart - חנפי chanphey, the profligates, the impious, those who have neither the form nor the power of godliness. The hypocrite is he who has the form but not the power, though he wishes to be thought as inwardly righteous as he is outwardly correct; and he takes up the profession of religion only to serve secular ends. This is not the meaning of the word in the book of Job, where it frequently occurs.

[¶26] They cry not - "Though he binds them, yet they cry not." They are too obstinate to humble themselves even under the mighty hand of God.

### Verse 14

[¶28] They die in youth - Exactly what the psalmist says, "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days," [Psa 55:23]. Literally, the words of Elihu are, "They shall die in the youth of their soul."

[¶29] Their life is among the unclean - בקדשים bakedeshim, among the whores, harlots, prostitutes, and sodomites. In this sense the word is used, though it also signifies consecrated persons; but we know that in idolatry characters of this kind were consecrated to Baal and Ashtaroth, Venus, Priapus, etc. Mr. Good translates the rabble. The Septuagint: Their life shalt be wounded by the angels.

### Verse 15

[¶31] And openeth their ears in oppression - He will let them know for what end they are afflicted, and why he permits them to be oppressed. The word יגל yigel might be translated he shall make them exult, or sing with joy, in oppression; like the three Hebrews in the burning fiery furnace.

### Verse 16

[¶33] Even so would he have removed thee - If thou hadst turned to, obeyed, and served him, thy present state would have been widely different from what it is.

### Verse 17

[¶35] But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked - As thou art acting like the wicked, so God deals with thee as he deals with them. Elihu is not a whit behind Job's other friends. None of them seems to have known any thing of the permission given by God to Satan to afflict and torment an innocent man.

### Verse 18

[¶37] Because there is wrath - This is a time in which God is punishing the wicked; take heed lest thou be cut off in a moment. Redeem the time; the days are evil.

[¶38] Then a great ransom - When he determines to destroy, who can save?

### Verse 20

[¶40] Desire not the night - Thou hast wished for death; (here called night); desire it not; leave that with God. If he hear thee, and send death, thou mayest be cut off in a way at which thy soul would shudder.

### Verse 21

[¶42] Regard not iniquity - It is sinful to entertain such wishes; it is an insult to the providence of God. He sends affliction; he knows this to be best for thee: but thou hast preferred death to affliction, thereby setting thy wisdom against the wisdom of God. Many in affliction, long for death; and yet they are not prepared to appear before God! What madness is this! If he takes them at their wish, they are ruined for ever. Affliction may be the means of their salvation; the wished-for death, of their eternal destruction.

### Verse 22

[¶44] God exalteth by his power - He has brought thee low, but he can raise thee up. Thou art not yet out of the reach of his mercy. Thy affliction is a proof that he acts towards thee as a merciful Parent. He knows what is best to be done; he teaches thee how thou shouldst suffer and improve. Why sin against his kindness? Who can teach like him?

## 533. Job · 60 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/533/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/533/#p-N

### Verse 23

[¶1] Who hath enjoined him his way - Has God taken instructions from any man how he shall govern the world?

[¶2] Thou hast wrought iniquity? - Who can prove, in the whole compass of the creation, that there is one thing imperfect, superabundant, or out of its place? Who can show that there is, in the course of the Divine providence, one unrighteous, cruel, or unwise act? All the cunning and wickedness of man have never been able to find out the smallest flaw in the work of God.

### Verse 24

[¶4] Remember that thou magnify his work - Take this into consideration; instead of fretting against the dispensations of Divine providence, and quarrelling with thy Maker, attentively survey his works; consider the operation of his hands; and see the proofs of his wisdom in the plan of all, of his power in the production and support of all, and of his goodness in the end for which all have been made, and to which every operation in nature most obviously tends; and then magnify his work. Speak of him as thou shalt find; let the visible works of thy Maker prove to thee his eternal power and Godhead, and let nature lead thee to the Creator.

### Verse 25

[¶6] Every man may see it - He who says he can examine the earth with a philosophic eye, and the heavens with the eye of an astronomer, and yet says he cannot see in them a system of infinite skill and contrivance, must be ignorant of science, or lie against his conscience, and be utterly unworthy of confidence or respect.

### Verse 26

[¶8] God is great - He is omnipotent.

[¶9] We know him not - He is unsearchable.

[¶10] Neither can the number of his years be searched out - He is eternal.

[¶11] These three propositions are an ample foundation for endless disquisition. As to paraphrase and comment, they need none in this place; they are too profound, comprehensive, and sublime.

### Verse 27

[¶13] He maketh small the drops of water - This appears simply to refer to evaporation, and perhaps it would be better to translate יגרע yegara, "he exhales;" detaches the smallest particles of the aqueous mass from the surface in order to form clouds, as reservoirs for the purpose of furnishing rain for the watering of the earth. God is seen in little things, as well as great things; and the inconceivably little, as well as the stupendously great, are equally the work of Omnipotence.

[¶14] They pour down rain - These exceedingly minute drops or vapor become collected in clouds; and then, when agitated by winds, etc. many particles being united, they become too heavy to be sustained by the air in which they before were suspended, and so fall down in rain, which is either a mist, a drizzle, a shower, a storm, or a waterspout, according to the influence of different winds, or the presence and quantum of the electric fluid. And all this is proportioned, לאדו le-edo, "to its vapor," to the quantity of the fluid evaporated and condensed into clouds.

### Verse 28

[¶16] Which the clouds do drop - In proportion to the evaporation will be the clouds or masses of volatilized and suspended vapor; and in proportion to this will be the quantum of rain which in different forms will fall upon the earth. There is a remarkable addition to this verse in the Septuagint. I shall insert the whole verse: Ῥυησονται παλαιωματα, εσκιασε δε νεφη επι αμυθητῳ βροτῳ· ὡραν εθετο κτηνεσιν, οιδασι δε κοιτης ταξιν· επι τουτοις πασιν ουκ εξισταται σου ἡ διανοια, ουδε διαλλασσεται σου ἡ καρδια απο σωματος; "The rains descend, and the clouds cover with their shadows multitudes of men: he hath appointed to animals to know the order of their dwellings. At the contemplation of these things is not thy mind transported, and thy heart ready to part from thy body?"

### Verse 29

[¶18] Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds - Though the vapor appear to be fortuitously raised, and subject, when suspended in the atmosphere, to innumerable accidents, to different winds and currents which might drive it all to the sandy deserts, or direct its course so that it should fall again into the great deep from which it has been exhaled, without watering and refreshing the earth; yet so does the good and wise providence of God manage this matter, that every part of the arable terrene surface receives an ample supply; and in every place, where requisite, it may be truly said that "The rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and water the earth, and cause it to bring forth and bud, that it may minister seed to the sower, and bread to the eater." In Egypt, where there is little or no rain, the earth is watered by the annual inundation of the Nile; there, because this system of evaporation is not necessary, it does not exist. Who can account for this economy? How are these clouds so judiciously and effectually spread through the atmosphere, so as to supply the wants of the earth, of men, and of cattle? I ask, with Elihu, "Who can understand the spreadings of these clouds?" And I should like to see that volunteer in the solution of paradoxes who would step forward and say, I am the man.

[¶19] The noise of his tabernacle? - By the tabernacle we may understand the whole firmament or atmospheric expansion; the place where the Almighty seems more particularly to dwell; whence he sends forth the rain of his strength, and the thunder of his power. The noise must refer to the blowing of winds and tempests. or to the claps, peals, and rattling of thunder, by means of the electric fluid.

### Verse 30

[¶21] He spreadeth his light upon it - Or, as Mr. Good translates, "He throweth forth from it his flash." These two verses may both have an allusion to the sudden rarefaction of that part of the atmosphere whence the thunder proceeds, by the agency of the electric fluid; the rushing in of the air on each side to restore the equilibrium, which the passage of the fire had before destroyed. The noise produced by this sudden rushing in of the air, as well as that occasioned by the ignition of the hydrogen gas, which is one of the constituents of water, is the thunder of his tabernacle, viz., the atmosphere, where God appears, in such cases, to be manifesting his presence and his power. Elihu says that God spreadeth his light upon it. This is spoken in reference to the flashes and coruscations of lightning in the time of thunder storms, when, even in a dark night, a sudden flash illuminates for a moment the surface of the earth under that place.

[¶22] And covereth the bottom of the sea - He doth whatsoever it pleaseth him in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, in the sea, and in all deep places. Yea, the depths of the sea are as much under his control and influence as the atmosphere, and its whole collection of vapours, meteors, and galvanic and electric fluids.

### Verse 31

[¶24] By them judgeth he the people - He makes storms, tempests, winds, hurricanes, tornadoes, thunder and lightning, drought and inundation, the instruments of his justice, to punish rebellious nations.

[¶25] He giveth meat in abundance - Though by these he punishes offenders, yet through the same, as instruments, he provides for the wants of men and animals in general. Storms, tempests, and hurricanes, agitate the lower regions of the atmosphere, disperse noxious vapours, and thus render it fit for respiration; and without these it would soon become a stagnant, putrid, and deadly mass, in which neither animals could live, nor vegetables thrive. And by dews, rains, snows, frosts, winds, cold, and heat, he fructifies the earth, and causes it to bring forth abundantly, so that every thing living is filled with plenteousness. Some critics translate this latter clause thus: - He passeth sentence amain. I cannot see this meaning in the original words. Not one of the versions has so understood them; nor does this translation, supposing even that the Hebrew would bear it, give so fine and so elegant an idea as that of the common version. I always feel reluctant to give a sense in any case that is not supported in some of its parts by any of the ancient versions, and more especially when it is contrary to the whole of them; and still more particularly when opposed to the Arabic, which in the Book of Job, containing so many Arabisms, I consider to be of very great importance.

### Verse 32

[¶27] With clouds he covereth the light - This is all extraordinary saying, על כפים כמה אור al cappayim kissah or, which Mr. Good translates, "He brandisheth the blaze athwart the concave." The Vulgate, with which all the other versions less or more agree, has, In manibus abscondit lucem, "In his hands he hideth the light;" or, more literally, "By the hollow of his hands (כפים cappayim) he concealeth the light, (אור or,") the fountain of light, i.e., the Sun.

[¶28] And commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt - I am afraid this is no translation of the original. Old Coverdale is better: - And at his commandement it commeth agayne; which is a near copy of the Vulgate. Here again Mr. Good departs from all the versions, both ancient and modern, by translating thus: - "And launcheth his penetrating bolt." Dr. Stock, in my opinion, comes nearer the original and the versions in his translation: - "And giveth charge as to what it shall meet."

[¶29] The mending of the text by conjecture, to which we should only recur in desperate necessity, has furnished Mr. Good and Reiske with the above translation. For my own part, I must acknowledge an extreme difficulty both here and in the concluding verse, on which I am unwilling to lay a correcting hand. I think something of the doctrine of eclipses is here referred to; the defect of the solar light, by the interposition of the moon. So in the time of an eclipse God is represented as covering the body of the sun with the hollow of his hand, and thus obscuring the solar light, and then removing his hand so as to permit it to re-illuminate the earth.

[¶30] Mr. Good gets his translation by dividing the words in a different manner from the present text. I shall give both: -

[¶31] Hebrew: ויצו עליה במפגיע

[¶32] Vayetsav aleyha bemaphgia

[¶33] Mr. Good: ויצוע ליהב מפגיע

[¶34] Veyezvo liahbe mapegio.

[¶35] Of which he learnedly contends, "And launcheth his penetrating bolt," is the literal sense. The change here made, to produce the above meaning, is not a violent one; and I must leave the reader to judge of its importance.

### Verse 33

[¶37] The noise thereof showeth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapor - I think this translation very unhappy. I shall give each hemistich in the original: - יגיד עליו רעו

[¶38] Yaggid alaiv reo מקנה אף על עולה

[¶39] Mikneh aph al oleh.

[¶40] I think this may be translated without any violence to any word in the text: -

[¶41] Its loud noise (or his thunder) shall proclaim concerning him;

[¶42] A magazine of wrath against iniquity.

[¶43] This is literal, and gives, in my opinion, a proper meaning of the passage, and one in strict connection with the context. And it is worthy of remark that every wicked man trembles at the noise of thunder and the flash of lightning, and considers this a treasury of Divine wrath, emphatically called among us the artillery of the skies; and whenever the noise is heard, it is considered the voice of God. Thus the thunder declares concerning him. The next chapter, which is a continuation of the subject here, confirms and illustrates this meaning. For יגיד yaggid, Houbigant reads יניד yanid; and for מקנה mikneh, מקנאת mikkinath; and translates thus: "He agitates with himself his thunder, from the indignation of his wrath against iniquity."

## 534. Job · 61 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/534/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/534/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] Elihu continues to set forth the wisdom and omnipotence of God, as manifested in the thunder and lightning, [Job 37:1-5]; in the snows and frosts, [Job 37:6-8]; in various meteors; and shows the end for which they are sent, [Job 37:9-13]. Job is exhorted to consider the wondrous works of God in the light, in the clouds, in the winds, in heat and cold, in the formation of the heavens, and in the changes of the atmosphere, [Job 37:14-22]. The perfections of God, and how he should be reverenced by his creatures, [Job 37:23], [Job 37:24].

### Verse 1

[¶3] My heart trembleth - This is what the Septuagint has anticipated; see under [Job 36:28] (note). A proper consideration of God's majesty in the thunder and lightning is enough to appall the stoutest heart, confound the wisest mind, and fill all with humility and devotion. This, to the middle of [Job 37:5], should be added to the preceding chapter, as it is a continuation of the account of the thunder and lightning given at the conclusion of that chapter. Our present division is as absurd as it is unfortunate.

### Verse 2

[¶5] Hear attentively - "Hear with hearing." The words seem to intimate that there was actually at that time a violent storm of thunder and lightning, and that the successive peals were now breaking over the house, and the lightning flashing before their eyes. The storm continued till Elihu had finished, and out of that storm the Almighty spoke. See the beginning of the succeeding chapter, Job 38 (note).

[¶6] The noise of his voice - The sudden clap.

[¶7] And the sound that goeth out - The peal or continued rattling, pounding, and thumping, to the end of the peal. The whole is represented as the voice of God himself, and the thunder is immediately issuing from his mouth.

### Verse 3

[¶9] He directeth it under the whole heaven - He directeth it (the lightning) under the whole heaven, in the twinkling of an eye from east to west; and its light - the reflection of the flash, not the lightning, unto the ends of the earth, so that a whole hemisphere seems to see it at the same instant.

### Verse 4

[¶11] After it a voice roareth - After the flash has been seen, the peal is heard; and this will be more or fewer seconds after the peal, in proportion to the distance of the thunder cloud from the ear. Lightning traverses any space without any perceivable succession of time; nothing seems to be any obstacle to its progress. A multitude of persons taking hands, the first and the last connected with the electric machine, all feel the shock in the same instant; and were there a chain as conductor to go round the globe, the last would feel the shock in the same moment as the first. But as sound depends on the undulations of the air for its propagation, and is known to travel at the rate of only 1142 feet in a second; consequently, if the flash were only 1142 feet from the spectator, it would be seen in one second, or one swing of the pendulum, before the sound could reach the ear, though the clap and the flash take place in the same instant, and if twice this distance, two seconds, and so on. It is of some consequence to know that lightning, at a considerable distance, suppose six or eight seconds of time, is never known to burn, kill or do injury. When the flash and the clap immediately succeed each other, then there is strong ground for apprehension, as the thunder cloud is near. If the thunder cloud be a mile and a half distant, it is, I believe, never known to kill man or beast, or to do any damage to buildings, either by throwing them down or burning them. Now its distance may be easily known by means of a pendulum clock, or watch that has seconds. When the flash is seen, count the seconds till the clap is heard. Then compute: If only one second is counted, then the thunder cloud is within 1142 feet, or about 380 yards; if two seconds, then its distance is 2284 feet, or 761 yards; if three seconds, then 3426 feet, or 1142 yards; if four seconds, then the cloud is distant 4568 feet, or 1522 yards; if five seconds, then the distance is 5710 feet, or 1903 yards; if six seconds, then the distance is 6852 feet, or 2284 yards, one mile and nearly one-third; if seven seconds, then the distance of the cloud is 7994 feet, or 2665 yards, or one mile and a half, and 25 yards. Beyond this distance lightning has not been known to do any damage, the fluid being too much diffused, and partially absorbed, in its passage over electric bodies, i.e., those which are not fully impregnated by the electric matter, and which receive their full charge when they come within the electric attraction of the lightning. For more on the rain produced by thunder storms, see on [Job 38:25] (note). This scale may be carried on at pleasure, by adding to the last sum for every second 1142 feet, and reducing to yards and miles as above, allowing 1760 yards to one mile.

[¶12] He thundereth with the voice of his excellency - גאונו geono, of his majesty: nor is there a sound in nature more descriptive of, or more becoming, the majesty of God, than that of Thunder. We hear the breeze in its rustling, the rain in its pattering, the hail in its rattling, the wind in its hollow howlings, the cataract in its dash, the bull in his bellowing, the lion in his roar; but we hear God, the Almighty, the Omnipresent, in the continuous peal of Thunder! This sound, and this sound only, becomes the majesty of Jehovah.

[¶13] And he will not stay them - ולא יעקבם velo yeahkebem, and he hath not limited or circumscribed them. His lightnings light the world; literally, the whole world. The electric fluid is diffused through all nature, and everywhere art can exhibit it to view. To his thunder and lightning, therefore, he has assigned no limits. And when his voice soundeth, when the lightning goes forth, who shall assign its limits, and who can stop its progress? It is, like God, Irresistible.

### Verse 5

[¶15] God thundereth marvellously with his voice - This is the conclusion of Elihu's description of the lightning and thunder: and here only should chapter 36 have ended. He began, [Job 36:29], with the noise of God's tabernacle; and he ends here with the marvellous thundering of Jehovah. Probably the writer of the book of Job had seen the description of a similar thunder storm as given by the psalmist, [Psa 77:16-19] : - [Psa 77:16] The waters saw thee, O God!The waters saw thee, and were afraid.Yea, the deeps were affrighted! [Psa 77:17] The clouds poured out water;The ethers sent forth a sound;Yea, thine arrows went abroad. [Psa 77:18] The voice of thy thunder was through the expanse:The lightnings illumined the globe;The earth trembled and shook! [Psa 77:19] Thy way is in the sea,And thy paths on many waters;But thy footsteps are not known.

[¶16] Great things doeth he - This is the beginning of a new paragraph; and relates particularly to the phenomena which are afterwards mentioned. All of them wondrous things; and, in many respects, to us incomprehensible.

### Verse 6

[¶18] For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth - Snow is generally defined, "A well-known meteor, formed by the freezing of the vapours in the atmosphere." We may consider the formation of snow thus: - A cloud of vapours being condensed into drops, these drops, becoming too heavy to be suspended in the atmosphere, descend; and, meeting with a cold region of the air, they are frozen, each drop shooting into several points. These still continuing their descent, and meeting with some intermitting gales of a warmer air, are a little thawed, blunted, and again, by falling into colder air, frozen into clusters, or so entangled with each other as to fall down in what we call flakes.

[¶19] Snow differs from hail and hoar-frost in being crystallized: this appears on examining a flake of snow with a magnifying glass; when the whole of it will appear to be composed of fine spicula or points diverging like rays from a center. I have often observed the particles of snow to be of a regular figure, for the most part beautiful stars of six points as clear and transparent as ice. On each of these points are other collateral points, set at the same angles as the main points themselves, though some are irregular, the points broken, and some are formed of the fragments of other regular stars. I have observed snow to fall sometimes entirely in the form of separate regular six-pointed stars, without either clusters or flakes, and each so large as to be the eighth of an inch in diameter.

[¶20] The lightness of snow is owing to the excess of its surface, when compared with the matter contained under it.

[¶21] Its whiteness is owing to the small particles into which it is divided: for take ice, opaque almost to blackness, and pound it fine, and it becomes as white as snow.

[¶22] The immediate cause of the formation of snow is not well understood: it has been attributed to electricity; and hail is supposed to owe its more compact form to a more intense electricity, which unites the particles of hail more closely than the moderate electricity does those of snow. But rain, snow, hail, frost, ice, etc., have all one common origin; they are formed out of the vapours which have been exhaled by heat from the surface of the waters.

[¶23] Snow, in northern countries, is an especial blessing of Providence; for, by covering the earth, it prevents corn and other vegetables from being destroyed by the intense cold of the air in the winter months; and especially preserves them from cold piercing winds. It is not a fact that it possesses in itself any fertilizing quality, such as nitrous salts, according to vulgar opinion: its whole use is covering the vegetables from intense cold, and thus preventing the natural heat of the earth from escaping, so that the intense cold cannot freeze the juices in the tender tubes of vegetables, which would rupture those tubes, and so destroy the plant.

[¶24] Mr. Good alters the punctuation of this verse, and translates thus: -

[¶25] Behold, he saith to the snow, Be!

[¶26] On earth then falleth it.

[¶27] To the rain, - and it falleth:

[¶28] The rains of his might.

[¶29] By the small rain, we may understand drizzling showers: by the rain of his strength, sudden thunder storms, when the rain descends in torrents: or violent rain from dissipating water-spouts.

### Verse 7

[¶31] He sealeth up the hand of every man - After all that has been said, and much of it most learnedly, on this verse, I think that the act of freezing is probably intended; that when the earth is bound up by intense frost, the hand, יד yad, labor, of every man is sealed up; he can do no more labor in the field, till the south wind blow, by which a thaw takes place. While the earth is in this state of rigidity, the beasts go into their dens, and remain in their places, [Job 37:8], some of them sleeping out the winter in a state of torpor, and others of them feeding on the stores which they had collected in autumn. However, the passage may mean no more than by the severity of the rains beasts are drawn to their covers; and man is obliged to intermit all his labors. The mighty rains are past. Who would have thought that on this verse, as its Scriptural foundation, the doctrine of chiromancy is built! God has so marked the hand of every man by the lines thereon exhibited, that they tell all the good or bad fortune they shall have during life; and he has done this that all men, by a judicious examination of their hands, may know his work! On this John Taisnier, a famous mathematician, lawyer, musician, and poet laureate of Cologne, has written a large folio volume, with more hands in it than fell to the lot of Briareus: - printed at Cologne, 1683.

### Verse 9

[¶33] Out of the south cometh the whirlwind - See the note on [Job 9:9]. What is rendered south here, is there rendered chambers. Mr. Good translates here, the utmost zone. The Chaldee: - "From the supreme chamber the commotion shall come; and from the cataracts of Arcturus the cold." What the whirlwind, סופה suphah, is, we know not. It might have been a wind peculiar to that district; and it is very possible that it was a scorching wind, something like the simoom.

### Verse 10

[¶35] By the breath of God frost is given - The freezing of water, though it is generally allowed to be the effect of cold, and has been carefully examined by the most eminent philosophers, is still involved in much mystery; and is a very proper subject to be produced among the great things which God doeth, and which we cannot comprehend, [Job 37:5]. Water, when frozen, becomes solid, and increases considerably in bulk. The expansive power in freezing is so great, that, if water be confined in a gun-barrel, it will split the solid metal throughout its whole length. Bombshells have been filled with water, and plugged tight, and exposed to cold air, when they have been rent, though the shell has been nearly two inches thick! Attempts have been made to account for this; but they have not, as yet, been generally successful. The breath of God freezes the waters; and that breath thaws them. It is the work of Omnipotence, and there, for the present, we must leave it.

[¶36] The breadth of the waters is straitened - This has been variously translated; מוצק mutsak, which we here render straitened, we translate [Job 37:18] melted. Mr. Good thinks that the idea of a mirror is implied, or something molten; and on this ground it may be descriptive of the state of water formed into ice. He therefore translates: -

[¶37] By the blast of God the frost congealeth,

[¶38] And the expanse of the waters into a mirror.

[¶39] I have only to observe, that in the act of freezing wind or air is necessary; for it has been observed that water which lay low in ponds did not freeze till some slight current of air fell on and ruffled the surface, when it instantly shot into ice.

### Verse 11

[¶41] By watering he wearieth the thick cloud - Perhaps it would be better to say, The brightness ברי beri, dissipates the cloud; or, if we follow our version, By watering the earth he wearieth, wearieth out or emptieth, the thick cloud - causes it to pour down all its contents upon the earth, that they may cause it to bring forth and bud. The Vulgate understood it differently: Frumentum desiderat nubes, et nubes spargunt lumen suum. "The grain desireth the clouds; and the clouds scatter abroad their light."

### Verse 12

[¶43] And it is turned round about by his counsels - The original is difficult: והוא מסבות מתהפך בתחבולתו vehu mesibboth mithhappech bethachbulothav; which has been thus paraphrased: And he - the sun, makes revolutions - causes the heavenly bodies to revolve round him, turning round himself - turning round his own axis, by his attachments - his attractive and repulsive influences, by which the heavenly bodies revolve round him, and by which, as if strongly tied to their center, בחבל bechebel, with a cable or rope, they are projected to their proper distances, and prevented from coming too near, or flying off too far.

[¶44] That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them - That men may perform his will, availing themselves of the influences of the sun, moon, times, seasons, etc., to cultivate the earth for the sustenance of themselves and their cattle.

[¶45] Upon the face of the world in the earth - אל פני תבל ארצה al peney thebel aretsah, over the surface of the habitable world. Perhaps the above exposition may appear to be too far-fetched; and possibly the passage refers only to the revolutions of the seasons, and the operations connected with them.

## 535. Job · 62 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/535/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/535/#p-N

### Verse 13

[¶1] He causeth it to come - The Vulgate translates the text thus: Sive in una tribu, sine in terra sua, sive in quocunque loco misericordiae suae eas jusserit inveniri. "Whether in one tribe, or whether in his own land, or in whatsoever place of his mercy he has commanded them to come." In the preceding verse it is said that God conducts the clouds according to the orders of his counsels, whithersoever he pleases: and here it is added that, when he designs to heap favors upon any land, he commands the clouds to go thither, and pour out on it their fertilizing showers. See Calmet. The Vulgate certainly gives a good sense, and our common version is also clear and intelligble; but there are doubts whether the Hebrew will bear this meaning. Here it is stated that God sends the rain either for correction, לשבט leshebet, which signifies rod, staff, tribe, and is here taken as the symbol of correction, he sends rain sometimes as a judgment, inundating certain lands, and sweeping away their produce by irresistible floods: or for his land, לארצו leartso, his own land, Palestine, the place of his favored people: or for mercy, לחסד lechesed; when a particular district has been devoured by locusts, or cursed with drought, God, in his mercy, sends fertilizing rains to such places to restore the ears which the caterpillars have eaten, and to make the desert blossom like the garden of the Lord. Some think that Job refers to the curse brought upon the old world by the waters of the deluge. Now although God has promised that there shall no more be a flood of waters to destroy the whole earth; yet we know he can, very consistently with his promise, inundate any particular district; or, by a superabundance of rain, render the toil of the husbandman in any place vain. Therefore, still his rain may come for judgment, for mercy, or for the especial help of his people or Church.

### Verse 14

[¶3] Hearken unto this - Hear what I say on the part of God. Stand still - Enter into deep contemplation on the subject.

[¶4] And consider - Weigh every thing; examine separately and collectively; and draw right conclusions from the whole.

[¶5] The wondrous works of God - Endless in their variety; stupendous in their structure; complicated in their parts; indescribable in their relations and connections; and incomprehensible in the mode of their formation, in the cohesion of their parts, and in the ends of their creation.

### Verse 15

[¶7] Dost thou know when God disposed them - Dost thou know the laws by which they are governed; and the causes which produce such and such phenomena?

[¶8] And caused the light of his cloud to shine? - Almost every critic of note understands this of the rainbow, which God gave as a sign that the earth should no more be destroyed by water. See [Gen 9:13] (note), and the note there.

### Verse 16

[¶10] Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds - How are the clouds suspended in the atmosphere? Art thou so well acquainted with the nature of evaporation, and the gravity of the air at different heights, to support different weights of aqueous vapor, so as to keep them floating for a certain portion of time, and then let them down to water the earth; dost thou know these things so as to determine the laws by which they are regulated?

[¶11] Wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge - This is a paraphrase. Mr. Good's translation is much better: - "Wonders, perfections of wisdom!"

### Verse 17

[¶13] How thy garments are warm - What are warmth and cold? How difficult this question! Is heat incontestably a substance, and is cold none? I am afraid we are in the dark on both these subjects. The existence of caloric, as a substance, is supposed to be demonstrated. Much, satisfactorily, has been said on this subject; but is it yet beyond doubt? I fear not. But supposing this question to be set at rest, is it demonstrated that cold is only a quality, the mere absence of heat? If it be demonstrated that there is such a substance as caloric, is it equally certain that there is no such substance as frigoric? But how do our garments keep us warm? By preventing the too great dissipation of the natural heat. And why is it that certain substances, worked into clothing, keep us warmer than others? Because they are bad conductors of caloric. Some substances conduct off the caloric or natural heat from the body; others do not conduct it at all, or imperfectly; hence those keep us warmest which, being bad conductors of caloric, do not permit the natural heat to be thrown off. In these things we know but little, after endless cares, anxieties, and experiments!

[¶14] But is the question yet satisfactorily answered, why the north wind brings cold, and the south wind heat? If it be so to my readers, it is not so to me; yet I know the reasons which are alleged.

### Verse 18

[¶16] Hast thou with him spread out the sky - Wert thou with him when he made the expanse; fitted the weight to the winds; proportioned the aqueous to the terrene surface of the globe; the solar attraction to the quantum of vapours necessary; to be stored up in the clouds, in order to be occasionally deposited in fertilizing showers upon the earth? and then dost thou know how gravity and elasticity should be such essential properties of atmospheric air, that without them and their due proportions, we should neither have animal nor vegetable life?

[¶17] Strong - as a molten looking-glass? - Like a molten mirror. The whole concave of heaven, in a clear day or brilliant night, being like a mass of polished metal, reflecting or transmitting innumerable images.

### Verse 19

[¶19] Teach us what we shall say unto him? - Thou pretendest to be so very wise, and to know every thing about God, pray make us as wise as thyself, that we may be able to approach with thy boldness the Sovereign of the world; and maintain our cause with thy confidence before him. As for our parts, we are ignorant; and, on all these subjects, are enveloped with darkness. Mr. Good translates: - "Teach us how we may address him,

[¶20] When arrayed in robes of darkness."

[¶21] It is a strong and biting irony, however we take it.

### Verse 20

[¶23] Shall it be told him that I speak? - Shall I dare to whisper even before God? And suppose any one were to accuse me before him for what I have spoken of him, though that has been well intended, how should I be able to stand in his presence? I should be swallowed up in consternation, and consumed with the splendor of his majesty. But in what state art thou? What hast thou been doing? Thou hast arraigned God for his government of the world; thou hast found fault with the dispensations of his providence; thou hast even charged him with cruelty! What will become of Thee?

### Verse 21

[¶25] And now men see not the bright light - Mr. Good gives the sense clearer: - "Even now we cannot look at the light

[¶26] When it is resplendent in the heavens.

[¶27] And a wind from the north hath passed along and cleared them."

[¶28] Elihu seems to refer to the insufferable brightness of the sun. Can any man look at the sun shining in his strength, when a clear and strong wind has purged the sky from clouds and vapours? Much less can any gaze on the majesty of God. Every creature must sink before him. What execrably dangerous folly in man to attempt to arraign His conduct!

### Verse 22

[¶30] Fair weather cometh out of the north - Is this any version of the original מצפון זהב יאתה mitstsaphon zahab yeetheh? which is rendered by almost every version, ancient and modern, thus, or to this effect: "From the north cometh gold." Calmet justly remarks, that in the time of Moses, Job, and Solomon, and for a long time after, gold was obtained from Colchis, Armenia, Phasis, and the land of Ophir, which were all north of Judea and Idumea; and are in the Scriptures ordinarily termed the north country. "But what relation can there be between, Gold cometh out of the north, and, With God is terrible majesty?" Answer: Each thing has its properties, and proper characteristics, which distinguish it; and each country has its advantages. Gold, for instance, comes from the northern countries; so praises offered to the Supreme God should be accompanied with fear and trembling: and as this metal is from the north, and northern countries are the places whence it must be procured; so terrible majesty belongs to God, and in him alone such majesty is eternally resident. As זהב zahob, which we translate gold, (see [Job 28:16]), comes from a root that signifies to be clear, bright, resplendent, etc.; Mr. Good avails himself of the radical idea, and translates it splendor: - "Splendor itself is with God;

[¶31] Insufferable majesty."

[¶32] But he alters the text a little to get this meaning, particularly in the word יאתה yeetheh, which we translate cometh, and which he contends is the pronoun אתה itself; the י yod, as a performative, here being, as he thinks, an interpolation. This makes a very good sense; but none of the ancient versions understood the place thus, and none of the MSS. countenance this very learned critic's emendation.

### Verse 23

[¶34] Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out - This is a very abrupt exclamation, and highly descriptive of the state of mind in which Elihu was at this time; full of solemnity, wonder, and astonishment, at his own contemplation of this "great First Cause, least understood." The Almighty! we cannot find him out.

[¶35] Excellent in power and in judgment - We must not pretend to comprehend his being, the mode of his existence, the wisdom of his counsels, nor the mysteries of his conduct.

[¶36] He will not afflict - לא יענה la yeanneh, he will not Answer. He will give account of none of his matters to us. We cannot comprehend his motives, nor the ends he has in view.

### Verse 24

[¶38] Men do therefore - Therefore men, אנשים anashim, wretched, miserable, ignorant, sinful men, should fear him.

[¶39] He respecteth not any - No man is valuable in his sight on account of his wisdom; for what is his wisdom when compared with that of the Omniscient? Whatever good is in man, God alone is the author of it. Let him, therefore, that glorieth, glory in the Lord.

[¶40] Thus ends the speech of Elihu; a speech of a widely different description, on the whole, from that of the three friends of Job who had spoken so largely before him. In the speeches of Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad, there is little besides a tissue of borrowed wise sayings, and ancient proverbs and maxims, relative to the nature of God, and his moral government of the world. In the speech of Elihu every thing appears to be original; he speaks from a deep and comprehensive mind, that had profoundly studied the subjects on which he discoursed. His descriptions of the Divine attributes, and of the wonderful works of God, are correct, splendid, impressive, and inimitable. Elihu, having now come nearly to a close, and knowing that the Almighty would appear and speak for himself, judiciously prepares for and announces his coming by the thunder and lightning of which he has given so terrific and majestic a description in this and the preceding chapter. The evidences of the Divine presence throng on his eyes and mind; the incomprehensible glory and excellency of God confound all his powers of reasoning and description; he cannot arrange his words by reason of darkness; and he concludes with stating, that to poor weak man God must for ever be incomprehensible, and to him a subject of deep religious fear and reverence. Just then the terrible majesty of the Lord appears! Elihu is silent! The rushing mighty wind, for which the description of the thunder and lightning had prepared poor, confounded, astonished Job, proclaims the presence of Jehovah: and out of this whirlwind God answers for and proclaims himself! Reader, canst thou not conceive something of what these men felt? Art thou not astonished, perplexed, confounded, in reading over these descriptions of the thunder of God's power? Prepare, then, to hear the voice of God himself out of this whirlwind.

### Introduction

[¶42] The Lord answers Job out of a whirlwind, and challenges him to answer, [Job 38:1-3]. He convinces him of ignorance and weakness, by an enumeration of some of his mighty works; particularly of the creation of the earth, [Job 38:4-7]. The sea and the deeps, [Job 38:8-18]. The light, [Job 38:19-21]. Snow, hail, thunder, lightning, rain, dew, ice, and hoar-frost, [Job 38:22-30]. Different constellations, and the ordinances of heaven influencing the earth, [Job 38:31-33]. Shows his own power and wisdom in the atmosphere, particularly in the thunder, lightnings, and rain, [Job 38:34-38]. His providence in reference to the brute creation, [Job 38:39-41].

### Verse 1

[¶44] The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind - It is not סופה suphah, as in the preceding chapter, [Job 37:9]; but סורה searah, which signifies something turbulent, tumultuous, or violently agitated; and here may signify what we call a tempest, and was intended to fill Job's mind with solemnity, and an awful sense of the majesty of God. The Chaldee has, a whirlwind of grief, making the whole rather allegorical than real; impressing the scene on Job's imagination.

## 536. Job · 63 of 73

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### Verse 2

[¶1] Who is this that darkeneth counsel - As if he had said, Who art thou who pretendest to speak on the deep things of God, and the administration of his justice and providence, which thou canst not comprehend; and leavest my counsels and designs the darker for thy explanation?

### Verse 3

[¶3] Gird up now thy loins - I will not confound thee with my terrors; dismiss all fearful apprehensions from thy mind; now act like a man, כגבר kegeber, like a hero: stand and vindicate thyself. For I will demand of thee - I will ask thee a series of questions more easy of solution than those which thou hast affected to discuss already; and then thou shalt have the opportunity of answering for thyself. The most impressive and convincing manner of arguing is allowed to be that by interrogation, which the Almighty here adopts. The best orations delivered by the ancients were formed after this manner. That celebrated oration of Cicero against Catiline, which is allowed to be his masterpiece, begins with a multitude of short questions, closely pressed upon each other. See the end of the chapter, [Job 38:40] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶5] Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? - Thou hast a limited and derived being; thou art only of yesterday; what canst thou know? Didst thou see me create the world?

### Verse 5

[¶7] Who hath laid the measures thereof - Who hath adjusted its polar and equatorial distances from the center?

[¶8] Who hath stretched the line - Who hath formed its zones and its great circles, and adjusted the whole of its magnitude and gravity to the orbit in which it was to move, as well as its distance from that great center about which it was to revolve? These questions show the difficulty of the subject; and that there was an unfathomable depth of counsel and design in the formation of the earth.

### Verse 6

[¶10] Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? - How does it continue to revolve in the immensity of space? What supports it? Has it foundations like a building, and is it fastened with a key-stone, to keep the mighty fabric in union?

### Verse 7

[¶12] When the morning stars sang together - This must refer to some intelligent beings who existed before the creation of the visible heavens and earth: and it is supposed that this and the following clause refer to the same beings; that by the sons of God, and the morning stars, the angelic host is meant; as they are supposed to be first, though perhaps not chief, in the order of creation. For the latter clause the Chaldee has, "All the troops of angels." Perhaps their creation may be included in the term heavens, [Gen 1:1] : "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." These witnessed the progress of the creation; and, when God had finished his work, celebrated his wisdom and power in the highest strains.

### Verse 8

[¶14] Who shut up the sea with doors - Who gathered the waters together into one place, and fixed the sea its limits, so that it cannot overpass them to inundate the earth?

[¶15] When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? - This is a very fine metaphor. The sea is represented as a newly born infant issuing from the womb of the void and formless chaos; and the delicate circumstance of the liquor amnii, which bursts out previously to the birth of the foetus, alluded to. The allusion to the birth of a child is carried on in the next verse.

### Verse 9

[¶17] When I make the cloud the garment - Alluding to the cloth in which the new-born infant is first received. The cloud was the same to the newly raised vapor, as the above recipient to the new-born child.

[¶18] And thick darkness a swaddlingband for it - Here is also an allusion to the first dressings of the new-born child: it is swathed in order to support the body, too tender to bear even careful handling without some medium between the hand of the nurse and the flesh of the child. "The image," says Mr. Good, "is exquisitely maintained: the new-born ocean is represented as issuing from the womb of chaos; and its dress is that of the new-born infant." There is here an allusion also to the creation, as described in [Gen 1:1], [Gen 1:2]. Darkness is there said to be on the face of the Deep. Here it is said, the thick darkness was a swaddlingband for the new-born Sea.

### Verse 10

[¶20] And brake up for it my decreed place - This refers to the decree, [Gen 1:9] : "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place."

[¶21] And set bars and doors - And let the dry land appear. This formed the bars and doors of the sea; the land being everywhere a barrier against the encroachments and inundations of the sea; and great rivers, bays, creeks, etc., the doors by which it passes into the interior of continents, etc.

### Verse 11

[¶23] Hitherto shalt thou come - Thus far shall thy flux and reflux extend. The tides are marvellously limited and regulated, not only by the lunar and solar attractions, but by the quantum of time also which is required to remove any part of the earth's surface from under the immediate attractive influence of the sun and moon. And this regulation takes place by means of the rotation of the earth round its own axis, which causes one thousand and forty-two miles of its equator to pass from under any given point in the heavens in one hour; and about five hundred and eighty miles in the latitude of London: so that the attracted fluid parts are every moment passing from under the direct attractive influence, and thus the tides cannot generally be raised to any extraordinary height. The attraction of the sun and moon, and the gravitation of its own parts to its own center, which prevent too great a flux on the one hand, and too great a reflux on the other; or, in other words, too high a tide, and too deep an ebb, are also some of those bars and doors by which its proud waves are stayed, and prevented from coming farther; all being regulated by these laws of attraction by the sun and moon, the gravitation of its own parts from the sun and moon, and the diurnal motion round its own axis, by which the fluid parts, easily yielding to the above attraction, are continually moving from under the direct attractive influence. Here a world of wisdom and management was necessary, in order to proportion all these things to each other, so as to procure the great benefits which result from the flux and reflux of the sea, and prevent the evils that must take place, at least occasionally, were not those bars and doors provided. It is well known that the spring-tides happen at the change and full of the moon, at which time she is in conjunction with and opposition to the sun. As these retire from their conjunction, the tides neap till about three days after the first quadrature, when the tides begin again to be more and more elevated, and arrive at their maximum about the third day after the opposition. From this time the tides neap as before till the third day after the last quadrature; and afterwards their daily elevations are continually increased till about the third day after the conjunction, when they recommence their neaping; the principal phenomena of the tides always taking place at or near the some points of every lunar synodic revolution.

### Verse 12

[¶25] Hast thou commanded the morning - This refers to dawn or morning twilight, occasioned by the refraction of the solar rays by means of the atmosphere; so that we receive the light by degrees, which would otherwise burst at once upon our eyes, and injure, if not destroy, our sight; and by which even the body of the sun himself becomes evident several minutes before he rises above the horizon.

[¶26] Caused the dayspring to know his place - This seems to refer to the different points in which daybreak appears during the course of the earth's revolution in its orbit; and which variety of points of appearing depends on this annual revolution. For, as the earth goes round the sun every year in the ecliptic, one half of which is on the north side of the equinoctial, and the other half on its south side, the sun appears to change his place every day. These are matters which the wisdom of God alone could plan, and which his power alone could execute. It may be just necessary to observe that the dawn does not appear, nor the sun rise exactly in the same point of the horizon, two successive days in the whole year, as he declines forty-three degrees north, and forty-three degrees south, of east; beginning on the 21st of March, and ending on the 22d of December; which variations not only produce the places of rising and setting, but also the length of day and night. And by this declination north and south, or approach to and recession from the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the solar light takes hold of the ends of the earth, [Job 38:13], enlightens the arctic and antarctic circles in such a way as it would not do were it always on the equinoctial line; these tropics taking the sun twenty-three and a half degrees north, and as many south, of this line.

### Verse 13

[¶28] That the wicked might be shaken out of it? - The meaning appears to be this: as soon as the light begins to dawn upon the earth, thieves, assassins, murderers, and adulterers, who all hate and shun the light, fly like ferocious beasts to their several dens and hiding places; for such do not dare to come to the light, lest their works be manifest, which are not wrought in God. To this verse the fifteenth appears to belong, as it connects immediately with it, which connection the introduction of the fourteenth verse disturbs. "And from the wicked," such as are mentioned above "their light is withholden;" they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil; and as they prowl after their prey in the night-season, they are obliged to sleep in the day, and thus its "light is withholden" from them. "And the high arm shall be broken;" or, as Mr. Good translates, "The roving of wickedness is broken off." They can no longer pursue their predatory and injurious excursions.

### Verse 14

[¶30] It is turned as clay to the seal - The earth, like soft clay, is capable of modifying itself in endless ways, and assuming infinite forms. As a proof of this, see the astonishing variety of plants, flowers, and fruits, and the infinitely diversified hues, odours, tastes, consistency, and properties, of its vegetable productions. There seems to be an allusion here to the sealing of clay, which I believe has been, and is now, frequent in the East. Six of those Eastern seals for sealing clay, made of brass, the figures and characters all in relief, the interstices being entirely perforated and cut out, so that the upper side of the seal is the same as the lower, now lie before me. They seem to have been used for stamping pottery, as some of the fine clay still appears in the interstices.

[¶31] And they stand as a garment - The earth receiving these impressions from the solar light and heat, plants and flowers spring up, and decorate its surface as the most beautiful stamped garment does the person of the most sumptuously dressed female. Mr. Good translates the whole verse thus: - "Canst thou cause them to bend round as clay to the mould, so that they are made to sit like a garment?" He supposes that reference is here made to the rays of light; but take his own words: "The image, as it appears to me, is taken directly from the art of pottery, an image of very frequent recurrence in Scripture; and in the present instance admirably forcible in painting the ductility with which the new light of the morning bends round like clay to the mould, and accompanies the earth in every part of its shape so as to fit it, as we are expressly told in the ensuing metaphor, like a garment, as the clay fits the mould itself." Mr. Good supposes that a mould in which the pottery is formed, not a seal by which it is impressed, is referred to here. In this sense I do not see the metaphor consistent, nor the allusion happy. It is well known that the rays of light never bend. They may be reflected at particular angles, but they never go out of a straight course. A gun might as well be expected to shoot round a corner, as a ray of light to go out of a straight line, or to follow the sinuous or angular windings of a tube, canal, or adit. But if we take in the sun as he advances in his diurnal voyage, or rather the earth, as it turns round its axis from west to east, the metaphor of Mr. Good will be correct enough; but we must leave out bending and ductility, as every part of the earth's surface will be at least successively invested with the light.

### Verse 16

[¶33] Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? - Of these springs, inlets, or outlets of the sea, we know just as much as Job. There was prevalent among philosophers an opinion, that through a porous bottom fresh matter was constantly oozing by which the sea was supplied with new materials. But through such pores these materials might as well ooze out as ooze in.

[¶34] Walked in the search of the depth? - Hast thou walked from the shallow beach through the great ocean's bed, till thou hast arrived at its profoundest depths? In other words, Dost thou know the depths of the sea? Job, we may presume, did not. No man since him has found them out. In multitudes of places they are unfathomed by any means hitherto used by man.

### Verse 17

[¶36] Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? - Dost thou know in what the article of death consists? This is as inexplicable as the question, What is animal life?

[¶37] The doors of the shallow of death? - צלמות tsalmaveth, the intermediate state, the openings into the place of separate spirits. Here two places are distinguished: מות maveth, death, and צלמות tsalmaveth, the shadow of death. It will not do to say, death is the privation of life, for what then would be the shadow of that privation?

### Verse 18

[¶39] The breadth of the earth? - At that time the circumference of the globe was not known, because the earth itself was supposed to be a vast extended plain, bordered all round with the ocean and the sky.

### Verse 19

[¶41] Where light dwelleth - What is the source of light? Yea, what is light itself? It is not in the sun, for light was before the sun; but what is light? It is no doubt a substance; but of what kind? and of what are its particles? As to darkness, what is It? Is it philosophical to say, it is the mere privation of light? I shall think philosophy has made some advances to general accuracy and perfection when it proves to us what cold is, and what darkness is, leaving mere privations out of the question.

### Verse 20

[¶43] Shouldest take it to the bound thereof? - Or, as Mr. Good, translates, "That thou shouldest lay hold of it in its boundary." That thou shouldest go to the very spot where light commences, and where darkness ends; and see the house where each dwells. Here darkness and light are personified, each as a real intelligent being, having a separate existence and local dwelling. But poetry animates everything. It is the region of fictitious existence. I believe this verse should be translated thus: - "For thou canst take Us to its boundary; for thou knowest the paths to its house." This is a strong irony, and there are several others in this Divine speech. Job had valued himself too much on his knowledge; and a chief object of this august speech is to humble his "knowing pride," and to cause him to seek true wisdom and humility where they are to be found.

## 537. Job · 64 of 73

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### Verse 21

[¶1] Knowest thou - This is another strong and biting irony, and the literal translation proves it: "Thou knowest, because thou was then born; and the number of thy days is great," or multitudinous, רבים rabbim, multitudes.

### Verse 22

[¶3] The treasures of the snow - The places where snow is formed, and the cause of that formation. See on [Job 37:6] (note).

[¶4] Treasures of the hail - It is more easy to account for the formation of snow than of hail. Hail, however, is generally supposed to be drops of rain frozen in their passage through cold regions of the air; and the hail is always in proportion to the size of the raindrop from which it was formed. But this meteor does not appear to be formed from a single drop of water, as it is found to be composed of many small spherules frozen together, the center sometimes soft like snow, and at other times formed of a hard nucleus, which in some cases has been of a brown color, capable of ignition and explosion. In the description given of snow, [Job 37:6], it has been stated that both snow and hail owe their formation to electricity; the hail being formed in the higher regions of the air, where the cold is intense, and the electric matter abundant. By this agency it is supposed that a great number of aqueous particles are brought together and frozen, and in their descent collect other particles, so that the density of the substance of the hailstone grows less and less from the center, this being formed first in the higher regions, and the surface being collected in the lower. This theory is not in all cases supported by fact, as in some instances the center has been found soft and snow-like, when the surface has been hard. Hail is the only meteor of this kind, from which no apparent good is derived. Rain and dew invigorate and give life to the whole vegetable world; frost, by expanding the water contained in the earth, pulverizes and renders the soil fertile; snow covers and defends vegetables from being destroyed by too severe a frost; but hail does none of these. It not only does no good, but often much harm - always some. It has a chilling, blasting effect in spring and summer, and cuts the tender plants so as to injure or totally destroy them. In short, the treasures of hail are not well known; and its use in the creation has not yet been ascertained. But frost is God's universal plough, by which he cultivates the whole earth.

### Verse 23

[¶6] Reserved against the time of trouble - לעת צר leeth tsar, "to the season of strictness," i.e., the season when the earth is constringed or bound by the frost.

[¶7] Against the day of battle and war? - Hailstones being often employed as instruments of God's displeasure against his enemies, and the enemies of his people. There is probably an allusion here to the plague of hail sent on the Egyptians. See [Exo 9:23] (note), and the notes there, for more particulars concerning hailstones, remarkable showers of them, etc. There may be also a reference to [Jos 10:10-11] (note), where a destructive shower of what are called hailstones fell upon the Canaanitish kings who fought against Israel. See the note there also.

### Verse 24

[¶9] By what way is the light parted - Who can accurately describe the cause and operation of a thunder cloud, the cause, nature, and mode of operation of the lightning itself? Is it a simple element or compound substance? What is its velocity? and why not conductible by every kind of substance, as it is known to exist in all, and, indeed, to be diffused through every portion of nature? How is it parted? How does it take its zigzag form? this is the curious, indescribable, and unknown parting. Are all the causes of positive and negative electricity found out? What are its particles, and how do they cohere, and in what order are they propagated? Much has been said on all these points, and how little of that much satisfactorily!

[¶10] Scattereth the east wind upon the earth? - קדים kadim, the eastern storm, euroclydon, or levanter.

### Verse 25

[¶12] Divided a water-course - The original תעלה tealah, from עלה alah, to ascend, may signify rather a cloud, or clouds in general, where the waters are stored up. I cannot see how the overflowings or torrents of water can be said to ascend any other way than by evaporation; and it is by this Divine contrivance that the earth is not only irrigated, but even dried; and by this means too much moisture is not permitted to lie upon the ground, which would not only be injurious to vegetation, but even destroy it. But query, may not a waterspout be intended?

[¶13] A way for the lightning of thunder - "A path for the bolt of thunder." God is represented as directing the course even of the lightning; he launches the bolt, and makes the path in which it is to run. To grasp, manage, and dart the thunderbolt or lightning, was a work which heathenism gave to Jupiter, its supreme god. None of the inferior deities were capable of this. But who can thunder with a voice like the Almighty? He is The Thunderer.

### Verse 26

[¶15] To cause it to rain on the earth - It is well known that rain falls copiously in thunder-storms. The flash is first seen, the clap is next heard, and last the rain descends. The lightning travels all lengths in no perceivable succession of time. Sound is propagated at the rate of 1142 feet in a second. Rain travels still more slowly, and will be seen sooner or later according to the weight of the drops, and the distance of the cloud from the place of the spectator. Now the flash, the clap, and the rain, take place all in the same moment, but are discernible by us in the succession already mentioned, and for the reasons given above; and more at large in the note on [Job 36:29], etc. But how are these things formed? The lightning is represented as coming immediately from the hand of God. The clap is the effect of the lightning, which causes a vacuum in that part of the atmosphere through which it passes; the air rushing in to restore the equilibrium may cause much of the noise that is heard in the clap. An easy experiment on the airpump illustrates this: Take a glass receiver open at both ends, over one end tie a piece of sheep's bladder wet, and let it stand till thoroughly dry. Then place the open end on the plate of the airpump, and exhaust the air slowly from under it. The bladder soon becomes concave, owing to the pressure of the atmospheric air on it, the supporting air in the receiver being partly thrown out. Carry on the exhaustion, and the air presses at the rate of fifteen pounds on every square inch; see on [Job 28:28] (note). The fibres of the bladder, being no longer capable of bearing the pressure of the atmospheric column upon the receiver, are torn to pieces, with a noise equal to the report of a musket, which is occasioned by the air rushing in to restore the equilibrium. Imagine a rapid succession of such experiments, and you have the peal of thunder, the rupture of the first bladder being the clap. But the explosion of the gases (oxygen and hydrogen) of which water is composed will also account for the noise. See below. But how does the thunder cause rain? By the most accurate and incontestable experiments it is proved that water is a composition of two elastic airs or gases as they are called, oxygen and hydrogen. In 100 parts of water there are 88 1/4 of oxygen, and 11 3/4 of hydrogen. Pass a succession of electric sparks through water by means of a proper apparatus, and the two gases are produced in the proportions mentioned above. To decompose water by galvanism: - Take a narrow glass tube three or four inches long; fit each end with a cork penetrated by a piece of slender iron wire, and fill the tube with water. Let the ends of the two wires within the tube be distant from each other about three quarters of an inch, and let one be made to communicate with the top, the other with the bottom of a galvanic pile in action. On making this communication, bubbles of air will be formed, and ascend to the top of the tube, the water decreasing as it is decomposed. The oxygen and hydrogen formed by this experiment may be recomposed into the same weight of water. Take any quantity of the oxygen and hydrogen gases in the proportions already mentioned; ignite them by the electric spark, and they produce a quantity of water equal in weight to the gases employed. Thus, then, we can convert water into air, and reconvert this air into water; and the proportions hold as above. I have repeatedly seen this done, and assisted in doing it, but cannot, in this place, describe every thing in detail. Now to the purpose of this note: the rain descending after the flash and the peal. The electric spark or matter of lightning, passing through the atmosphere, ignites and decomposes the oxygen and hydrogen, which explode, and the water which was formed of these two falls down in the form of rain. The explosion of the gases, as well as the rushing in of the circumambient air to restore the equilibrium, will account for the clap and peal: as the decomposition and ignition of them will account for the water or rain which is the attendant of a thunder storm. Thus by the lightning of thunder God causes it to rain on the earth. How marvellous and instructive are his ways!

### Verse 27

[¶17] To satisfy the desolate and waste - The thunder cloud not only explodes over inhabited countries, that the air may be purified and the rain sent down to fertilize the earth, but it is conducted over deserts where there is no human inhabitant; and this to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth: for there are beasts, fowls, and insects, that inhabit the desert and the wilderness, and must be nourished by the productions of the ground. Every tribe of animals was made by the hand of God, and even the lowest of them is supported by his kind providence.

### Verse 28

[¶19] Hath the rain a father? - Or, Who is the father of the rain? We have seen above one part of the apparatus by which God produces it; other causes have been mentioned on [Job 36:27], etc.

[¶20] The drops of dew? - אגלי egley, the sphericles, the small round drops or globules. Dew is a dense moist vapor, found on the earth in spring and summer mornings, in the form of a mizzling rain. Dr. Hutton defines it, "a thin, light, insensible mist or rain, descending with a slow motion, and falling while the sun is below the horizon. It appears to differ from rain as less from more. Its origin and matter are doubtless from the vapours and exhalations that rise from the earth and water." Various experiments have been instituted to ascertain whether dew arises from the earth, or descends from the atmosphere; and those pro and con have alternately preponderated. The question is not yet decided; and we cannot yet tell any more than Job which hath begotten the drops of dew, the atmosphere or the earth. Is it water deposited from the atmosphere, when the surface of the ground is colder than the air?

### Verse 29

[¶22] Out of whose womb came the ice? - Ice is a solid, transparent, and brittle body, formed of water by means of cold. Some philosophers suppose that ice is only the re-establishment of water in its natural state; that the mere absence of fire is sufficient to account for this re-establishment; and that the fluidity of water is a real fusion, like that of metals exposed to the action of fire; and differing only in this, that a greater portion of fire is necessary to one than the other. Ice, therefore, is supposed to be the natural state of water; so that in its natural state water is solid, and becomes fluid only by the action of fire, as solid metallic bodies are brought into a state of fusion by the same means. Ice is lighter than water, its specific gravity being to that of water as eight to nine. This rarefaction of ice is supposed to be owing to the air-bubbles produced in water by freezing, and which, being considerably larger in proportion to the water frozen, render the body so much specifically lighter; hence ice always floats on water. The air-bubbles, during their production, acquire a great expansive power, so as to burst the containing vessels, be they ever so strong. See examples in the note on [Job 37:10] (note).

[¶23] The hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? - Hoar-frost is the congelation of dew, in frosty mornings, on the grass. It consists of an assemblage of little crystals of ice, which are of various figures, according to the different disposition of the vapours when met and condensed by the cold. Its production is owing to some laws with which we are not yet acquainted. Of this subject, after the lapse and experience of between two and three thousand years, we know about as much as Job did. And the question, What hath engendered the hoar-frost of heaven! is, to this hour, nearly as inexplicable to us as it was to him! Is it enough to say that hoar-frost is water deposited from the atmosphere at a low temperature, so as to produce congelation?

### Verse 30

[¶25] The waters are hid as with a stone - Here is a reference to freezing in the winter, as we may learn from some of the constellations mentioned below, which arise above our horizon, in the winter months. The word יתחבאו yithchabbau is understood by the versions in general as implying hardening or congelation; and we know in some intense frosts the ice becomes as hard as a stone; and even the face of the deep - the very seas themselves, not only in the polar circles, but even in northern countries, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and parts of Germany, are really frozen, and locked up from all the purposes of navigation for several months in winter.

### Verse 31

[¶27] Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades - The Pleiades are a constellation in the sign Taurus. They consist of six stars visible to the naked eye; to a good eye, in a clear night, seven are discernible; but with a telescope ten times the number may be readily counted. They make their appearance in the spring. Orion may be seen in the morning, towards the end of October, and is visible through November, December, and January; and hence, says Mr. Good, it becomes a correct and elegant synecdoche for the winter at large. The Pleiades are elegantly opposed to Orion, as the vernal renovation of nature is opposed to its wintry destruction; the mild and open benignity of spring, to the severe and icy inactivity of winter. I have already expressed my mind on these supposed constellations, and must refer to my notes on [Job 9:9], etc., and to the learned notes of Doctor Hales and Mr. Mason Good on these texts. They appear certain, where I am obliged to doubt; and, from their view of the subject, make very useful and important deductions. I find reluctance in departing from the ancient versions. In this case, these learned men follow them; I cannot, because I do not see the evidence of the groundwork; and I dare not draw conclusions from premises which seem to me precarious, or which I do not understand. I wish, therefore, the reader to examine and judge for himself.

[¶28] Coverdale renders the [Job 38:31] and [Job 38:32] verses thus:

[¶29] Hast thou brought the VII starres together? Or, Art thou able to breake the circle of heaven? Canst thou bringe forth the morynge starre, or the evenynge starre, at convenient tyme, and conveye them home agayne?

### Verse 32

[¶31] Mazzaroth in his season? - This is generally understood to mean the signs of the zodiac. מזרות Mazzaroth, according to Parkhurst, comes from מזר mazar, to corrupt; and he supposes it to mean that pestilential wind in Arabia, called simoom, the season of which is the summer heats.

### Verse 33

[¶33] Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? - Art thou a thorough astronomer? Art thou acquainted with all the laws of the planetary system? Canst thou account for the difference of their motions, and the influence by which they are retained and revolve in their orbits? And canst thou tell what influence or dominion they exercise on the earth? Sir Isaac Newton has given us much light on many of these things; but to his system, which is most probably the true one, gravity is essential; and yet what this gravity is he could neither explain nor comprehend; and his followers are not one whit wiser than he. No man has ever yet fully found out the ordinances of heaven, and the dominion thereof on the earth.

### Verse 34

[¶35] Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds - Canst thou produce lightning and thunder, that water may be formed, and poured down upon the earth? Thunder is called קלות koloth, voices; for it is considered the voice of God: here then Job's voice, קולך kolecha, is opposed to the voice of Jehovah!

### Verse 35

[¶37] Canst thou send lightnings - We have already seen that the lightning is supposed to be immediately in the hand and under the management of God. The great god of the heathen, Jupiter Brontes, is represented with the forked lightnings and thunderbolt in his hand. He seems so to grasp the bickering flame that, though it struggles for liberty, it cannot escape from his hold. Lightnings - How much like the sound of thunder is the original word: ברכים Berakim! Here are both sense and sound.

[¶38] Here we are? - Will the winged lightnings be thy messengers, as they are mine?

### Verse 36

[¶40] Who hath put wisdom in the in ward parts? - Who has given לשכוי lasechvi, to the contemplative person, understanding? Even the most sedulous attention to a subject, and the deepest contemplation, are not sufficient to investigate truth, without the inspiration of the Almighty, which alone can give understanding. But who has given man the power to conceive and understand? A power which he knows he has, but which he cannot comprehend. Man knows nothing of his own mind, nor of the mode of its operations. This mind we possess, these operations we perform; - and of either do we know any thing? If we know not our own spirit, how can we comprehend that Spirit which is infinite and eternal? Mr. Good thinks that this verse is a continuation of the subject above, relative to the lightnings, and therefore translates thus: -

[¶41] Who putteth understanding into the vollies?

[¶42] And who giveth to the shafts discernment?

[¶43] All the versions, except the Septuagint, which trifles here, understand the place as we do. Either makes a good sense. The Septuagint has, "Who hath given the knowledge of weaving to women; or the science of embroidery?" Instead of understanding to the heart, the Vulgate has, understanding to the cock; that it might be able to distinguish and proclaim the watches of the night.

### Verse 37

[¶45] Who can number the clouds - Perhaps the word ספר saphar, which is commonly rendered to number, may here mean, as in Arabic, to irradiate, as Mr. Good contends; and may refer to those celestial and inimitable tinges which we sometimes behold in the sky.

## 538. Job · 65 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/538/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/538/#p-N

[¶0] Bottles of heaven - The clouds: it is an allusion to the girbahs, or bottles made of skin, in which they are accustomed to carry their water from wells and tanks.

### Verse 38

[¶2] When the dust groweth into hardness - That is, Who knows how the dust - the elementary particles of matter, were concreted; and how the clods - the several parts of the earth, continue to cohere? What is the principle of cohesion among the different particles of matter, in all metals and minerals? Even water, in a solid form, constitutes a part of several gems, called thence water of crystallization. Who can solve this question? How is it that 90 parts of alumine, 7 of silex, and 1.2 of oxide of iron, constitute the oriental ruby? and that 90 parts of silex and 19 of water, form the precious opal? And how can 46 parts of silex, 14 of alumine, 28 of carbonate of lime, 6.5 of sulphate of lime, 3 of oxide of iron, and 2 of water, enter into the constitution, and form the substance, of the lapis lazuli? How do these solids and fluids of such differing natures grow into hardness, and form this curious mineral? Take another example from that beautiful precious stone, the emerald. Its analysis shows it to be composed of glucine 13, silex 64.5, alumine 16, lime 1.6, and oxide of chrome 3.25. Now how can these dusts, utterly worthless in themselves, grow into hardness, combine, and form one of the most beautiful, and, next to the diamond, the most precious, of all the gems? The almighty and infinitely wise God has done this in a way only known to and comprehensible by himself.

### Verse 39

[¶4] Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? - Rather the lioness, or strong lion. Hast thou his instinct? Dost thou know the habits and haunts of such animals as he seeks for his food? Thou hast neither his strength, his instinct nor his cunning. In the best Hebrew Bibles, the thirty-ninth chapter begins with this verse, and begins properly, as a new subject now commences, relating to the natural history of the earth, or the animal kingdom; as the preceding chapter does to astronomy and meteorology.

### Verse 40

[¶6] When they couch in their dens - Before they are capable of trusting themselves abroad.

[¶7] Abide in the covert - Before they are able to hunt down the prey by running. It is a fact that the young lions, before they have acquired sufficient strength and swiftness, lie under cover, in order to surprise those animals which they have not fleetness enough to overtake in the forest; and from this circumstance the כפירים kephirim, "young lions, or lions' whelps," have their name: the root is כפר caphar, to cover or hide. See the note on [Job 4:11], where six different names are given to the lion, all expressing some distinct quality or state.

### Verse 41

[¶9] Who provideth for the raven - This bird is chosen, perhaps, for his voracious appetite, and general hunger for prey, beyond most other fowls. He makes a continual cry, and the cry is that of hunger. He dares not frequent the habitations of men, as he is considered a bird of ill omen, and hated by all. This verse is finely paraphrased by Dr. Young: - "Fond man! the vision of a moment made!

[¶10] Dream of a dream, and shadow of a shade!

[¶11] What worlds hast thou produced, what creatures framed,

[¶12] What insects cherish'd, that thy God is blamed?

[¶13] When pain'd with hunger, the wild raven's brood

[¶14] Calls upon God, importunate for food,

[¶15] Who hears their cry? Who grants their hoarse request,

[¶16] And stills the glamours of the craving nest?"

[¶17] On which he has this note: - "The reason given why the raven is particularly mentioned as the care of Providence is, because by her clamorous and importunate voice she particularly seems always calling upon it; thence κορασσω, α κοραξ, is to ask earnestly - Aelian. lib. ii., c. 48. And since there were ravens on the banks of the Nile, more clamorous than the rest of that species, those probably are meant in this place."

[¶18] The commencement of Cicero's oration against Catiline, to which I have referred on [Job 38:3], is the following: -

[¶19] Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quamdiu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata jactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium palatii-nihil urbis vigiliae, - nihil timor popuii, - nihii concursus bonorum omnium, - nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus-nihil horum ora, vultusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia nan sentis? Constrictam jam omnium horum conscientia teneri conjurationem tuam non vides? Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris, - ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, - quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris? O tempora! O mores! Senatus haec intelligit, - consul videt; hic tamen vivit! Vivit? immo vero eitam in senatum venit; fit publici consilii particeps; notat et designat oculis ad caedem unumquemque nostrum! Nos autem, viri fortes, satisfacere reipublicae videmur, si istius furorem ac tela vitemus! "How long wilt thou, O Catiline, abuse our patience? How long shall thy madness out-brave our justice? To what extremities art thou resolved to push thy unbridled insolence of guilt? Canst thou behold the nocturnal arms that watch the palatium, - the guards of the city, - the consternation of the citizens, - all the wise and worthy clustering into consultation, - the impregnable situation of the seat of the senate, - and the reproachful looks of the fathers of Rome? Canst thou behold all this, and yet remain undaunted and unabashed? Art thou insensible that thy measures are detected? Art thou insensible that this senate, now thoroughly informed, comprehend the whole extent of thy guilt? Show me the senator ignorant of thy practices during the last and preceding night, of the place where you met, the company you summoned, and the crime you concerted. The senate is conscious, - the consul is witness to all this; yet, O how mean and degenerate! the traitor lives! Lives? he mixes with the senate; he shares in our counsels; with a steady eye he surveys us; he anticipates his guilt; he enjoys the murderous thought, and coolly marks us to bleed! Yet we, boldly passive in our country's cause, think we act like Romans, if we can escape his frantic rage!"

[¶20] The reader will perceive how finely Cicero rushes into this invective, as if the danger had been too immediate to give him leisure for the formality of address and introduction. See Guthrie's Orations of Cicero. Here is eloquence! Here is nature! And in thus speaking her language, the true orator pierces with his lightnings the deepest recesses of the heart. The success of this species of oratory is infallible in the pulpit, when the preacher understands how to manage it.

### Introduction

[¶22] Several animals described: the wild goats and hinds, [Job 39:1-4]. The wild ass, [Job 39:5-8]. The unicorn, [Job 39:9-12]. The peacock and ostrich, [Job 39:13-18]. The war-horse, [Job 39:19-25]. The hawk, [Job 39:26]. And the eagle and her brood, [Job 39:27-30].

### Verse 1

[¶24] Knowest thou the time - To know time, etc., only, was easy, and has nothing extraordinary in it; but the meaning of these questions is, to know the circumstances, which have something peculiarly expressive of God's providence, and make the questions proper in this place. Pliny observes, that the hind with young is by instinct directed to a certain herb, named seselis, which facilitates the birth. Thunder, also, which looks like the more immediate hand of Providence, has the same effect. [Psa 29:9] : "The Voice of the Lord maketh the Hinds to Calve." See Dr. Young. What is called the wild goat, יעל yael, from עלה alah, to ascend, go or mount up, is generally understood to be the ibex or mountain goat, called yael, from the wonderful manner in which it mounts to the tops of the highest rocks. It is certain, says Johnston, there is no crag of the mountains so high, prominent or steep, but this animal will mount it in a number of leaps, provided only it be rough, and have protuberances large enough to receive its hoofs in leaping. This animal is indigenous to Arabia, is of amazing strength and agility, and considerably larger than the common goat. Its horns are very long, and often bend back over the whole body of the animal; and it is said to throw itself from the tops of rocks or towers, and light upon its horns, without receiving any damage. It goes five months with young.

[¶25] When the hinds do calve? - The hind is the female of the stag, or cervus elaphus, and goes eight months with young. They live to thirty-five or forty years. Incredible longevity has been attributed to some stags. One was taken by Charles VI., in the forest of Senlis, about whose neck was a collar with this inscription, Caesar hoc mihi donavit, which led some to believe that this animal had lived from the days of some one of the twelve Caesars, emperors of Rome. I have seen the following form of this inscription: -

[¶26] Tempore quo Caesar Roma dominatus in alta

[¶27] Aureolo jussit collum signare monili;

[¶28] Nehemiah depascentem quisquis me gramina laedat.

[¶29] Caesaris heu! caussa periturae parcere vitae!

[¶30] Which has been long public in the old English ballad strain, thus: - "When Julius Caesar reigned king,

[¶31] About my neck he put this ring;

[¶32] That whosoever should me take

[¶33] Would save my life for Caesar's sake."

[¶34] Aristotle mentions the longevity of the stag, but thinks it fabulous.

### Verse 3

[¶36] They bow themselves - In order to bring forth their young ones.

[¶37] They cast out their sorrows - חבליהם chebleyhem; the placenta, afterbirth, or umbilical cord. So this word has been understood.

### Verse 4

[¶39] In good liking - After the fawns have sucked for some time, the dam leads them to the pastures, where they feed on different kinds of herbage; but not on corn, for they are not born before harvest-time in Arabia and Palestine, and the stag does not feed on corn, but on grass, moss, and the shoots of the fir, beech, and other trees: therefore the word בר bar, here translated corn, should be translated the open field or country. See Parkhurst. Their nurslings bound away - Mr. Good. In a short time they become independent of the mother, leave her, and return no more. The spirit of the questions in these verses appears to be the following: - Understandest thou the cause of breeding of the mountain goats, etc.? Art thou acquainted with the course and progress of the parturition, and the manner in which the bones grow, and acquire solidity in the womb? See Mr. Good's observations. Houbigant's version appears very correct: (Knowest thou) "how their young ones grow up, increase in the fields, and once departing, return to them no more?"

### Verse 5

[¶41] Who hath sent out the wild ass free? - פרא pere, which we translate wild ass, is the same as the ονος αγριος of the Greeks, and the onager of the Latins; which must not, says Buffon, be confounded with the zebra, for this is an animal of a different species from the ass. The wild ass is not striped like the zebra, nor so elegantly shaped. There are many of those animals in the deserts of Libya and Numidia: they are of a gray color; and run so swiftly that no horse but the Arab barbs can overtake them. Wild asses are found in considerable numbers in East and South Tartary, in Persia, Syria, the islands of the Archipelago, and throughout Mauritania. They differ from tame asses only in their independence and liberty, and in their being stronger and more nimble: but in their shape they are the same. See on [Job 6:5] (note).

[¶42] The bands of the wild ass? - ערוד arod, the brayer, the same animal, but called thus because of the frequent and peculiar noise he makes. But Mr. Good supposes this to be a different animal from the wild ass, (the jichta or equus hemionus), which is distinguished by having solid hoofs, a uniform color, no cross on the back, and the tail hairy only at the tip. The ears and tail resemble those of the zebra; the hoofs and body, those of the ass; and the limbs, those of the horse. It inhabits Arabia, China, Siberia, and Tartary, in glassy saline plains or salt wastes, as mentioned in the following verse.

### Verse 6

[¶44] Whose house - Habitation, or place of resort.

## 539. Job · 66 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/539/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/539/#p-N

[¶0] The barren land - מלחה melechah, the salt land, or salt places, as in the margin. See above.

### Verse 7

[¶2] He scorneth the multitude - He is so swift that he cannot be run or hunted down. See the description in [Job 39:5] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶4] The range of the mountains - The mountains and desert places are his peculiar places of pasture; and he lives on any thing that is green, or any kind of vegetable production.

### Verse 9

[¶6] Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee? - The "fine elegant animal like a horse, with one long rich curled horn growing out of his forehead," commonly called the unicorn, must be given up as fabulous. The heralds must claim him as their own; place him in their armorial bearings as they please, to indicate the unreal actions, fictitious virtues, and unfought martial exploits of mispraised men. It is not to the honor of the royal arms of Great Britain that this fabulous animal should be one of their supporters. The animal in question, called רים reim, is undoubtedly the rhinoceros, who has the latter name from the horn that grows on his nose. The rhinoceros is known by the name of reim in Arabia to the present day. He is allowed to be a savage animal, showing nothing of the intellect of the elephant. His horn enables him to combat the latter with great success; for, by putting his nose under the elephant's belly, he can rip him up. His skin is like armor, and so very hard as to resist sabres, javelins, lances, and even musket-balls; the only penetrable parts being the belly, the eyes, and about the ears.

[¶7] Or abide by thy crib? - These and several of the following expressions are intended to point out his savage, untameable nature.

### Verse 10

[¶9] Canst thou bind the unicorn - in the furrow? - He will not plough, nor draw in the yoke with another? nor canst thou use him singly, to harrow the ground.

### Verse 12

[¶11] That he will bring home thy seed - Thou canst make no domestic nor agricultural use of him.

### Verse 13

[¶13] The goodly wings unto the peacocks? - I believe peacocks are not intended here; and the Hebrew word רננים renanim should be translated ostriches; and the term חסידה chasidah, which we translate ostrich, should be, as it is elsewhere translated, stork; and perhaps the word נצה notsah, rendered here feathers, should be translated hawk, or pelican. The Vulgate has, Penna struthionis similis est pennis herodii et accipitris; "the feather of the ostrich is like to that of the stork and the hawk." The Chaldee has, "The wing of the wild cock, who crows and claps his wings, is like to the wing of the stork and the hawk." The Septuagint, not knowing what to make of these different terms, have left them all untranslated, so as to make a sentence without sense. Mr. Good has come nearest both to the original and to the meaning, by translating thus: - "The wing of the ostrich tribe is for flapping;

[¶14] But of the stork and falcon for flight."

[¶15] Though the wings of the ostrich, says he, cannot raise it from the ground, yet by the motion here alluded to, by a perpetual vibration, or flapping - by perpetually catching or drinking in the wind, (as the term נעלסה neelasah implies, which we render goodly), they give it a rapidity of running beyond that possessed by any other animal in the world. Adanson informs us, that when he was at the factory in Padore, he was in possession of two tame ostriches; and to try their strength, says he, "I made a full-grown negro mount the smallest, and two others the largest. This burden did not seem at all disproportioned to their strength. At first they went a pretty high trot; and, when they were heated a little, they expanded their wings, as if it were to catch the wind, and they moved with such fleetness as to seem to be off the ground. And I am satisfied that those ostriches would have distanced the fleetest race-horses that were ever bred in England."

[¶16] As to נצה notsah, here translated falcon, Mr. Good observes, that the term naz is used generally by the Arabian writers to signify both falcon and hawk; and there can be little doubt that such is the real meaning of the Hebrew word; and that it imports various species of the falcon family, as jer-falcon, gos-hawk, and sparrow-hawk. "The argument drawn from natural history advances from quadrupeds to birds; and of birds, those only are selected for description which are most common to the country in which the scene lies, and at the same time are most singular in their properties. Thus the ostrich is admirably contrasted with the stork and the eagle, as affording us an instance of a winged animal totally incapable of flight, but endued with an unrivalled rapidity of running, compared with birds whose flight is proverbially fleet, powerful, and persevering. Let man, in the pride of his wisdom, explain or arraign this difference of construction. "Again, the ostrich is peculiarly opposed to the stork and to some species of the eagle in another sense, and a sense adverted to in the verses immediately ensuing; for the ostrich is well known to take little or no care of its eggs, or of its young, while the stork ever has been, and ever deserves to be, held in proverbial repute for its parental tenderness. The Hebrew word חסידה chasidah, imports kindness or affection; and our own term stork, if derived from the Greek στοργη, storge, as some pretend, has the same original meaning." - Good's Job.

### Verse 14

[¶18] Which leaveth her eggs in the earth - This want of parental affection in the ostrich is almost universally acknowledged. Mr. Jackson, in his Account of Morocco, observes: "The ostrich, having laid her eggs, goes away, forgetting or forsaking them: and if some other ostrich discover them, she hatches them as if they were her own, forgetting probably whether they are or are not; so deficient is the recollection of this bird." This illustrates [Job 39:15] : "And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them." The poet seems well acquainted with every part of the subject on which he writes; and facts incontestable confirm all he says. For farther illustration, see the account from Dr. Shaw at the end of the chapter, [Job 39:30] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶20] She is hardened against her young - See before, and the extracts from Dr. Shaw at the end of the chapter, [Job 39:30] (note). She neglects her little ones, which are often found half starved, straggling, and moaning about, like so many deserted orphans, for their mother.

### Verse 17

[¶22] God hath deprived her of wisdom - Of this foolishness we have an account from the ancients; and here follow two instances:

[¶23] 1. It covers its head in the reeds, and thinks itself all out of sight because itself cannot see. So Claudian: - - 'Stat lumine clauso

[¶24] Ridendum revoluta caput: creditque latere

[¶25] Quad non ipsa videt.'

[¶26] 2. They who hunt them draw the skin of an ostrich's neck on one hand, which proves a sufficient lure to take them with the other. They have so little brain that Heliogabalus had six hundred heads for his supper. Here we may observe, that our judicious as well as sublime author just touches the great points of distinction in each creature, and then hastens to another. A description is exact when you cannot add but what is common to another thing; nor withdraw, but something peculiarly belonging to the thing described. A likeness is lost in too much description, as a meaning is often in too much illustration." - Dr. Young.

### Verse 18

[¶28] She lifteth up herself - When she raiseth up herself to run away. Proofs of the fleetness of this bird have already been given. It neither flies nor runs distinctly, but has a motion composed of both; and, using its wings as sails, makes great speed. So Claudian: -

[¶29] Vasta velut Libyae venantum vocibus ales

[¶30] Cum premitur, calidas cursu transmittit arenas,

[¶31] Inque modum veli sinuatis flamine pennis

[¶32] Pulverulenta volat. "Xenophon says, Cyrus had horses that could overtake the goat and the wild ass; but none that could reach this creature. A thousand golden ducats, or a hundred camels, was the stated price of a horse that could equal their speed." - Dr. Young.

### Verse 19

[¶34] Hast thou given the horse strength? - Before I proceed to any observations, I shall give Mr. Good's version of this, perhaps inimitable, description: - [Job 39:19] Hast thou bestowed on the horse mettle?Hast thou clothed his neck with the thunder flash? [Job 39:20] Hast thou given him to launch forth as an arrow?Terrible is the pomp of his nostrils. [Job 39:21] He paweth in the valley, and exulteth.Boldly he advanceth against the clashing host: [Job 39:22] He mocketh at fear, and trembleth not:Nor turneth he back from the sword. [Job 39:23] Against him rattleth the quiver,The glittering spear, and the shield: [Job 39:24] With rage and fury he devoureth the ground;And is impatient when the trumpet soundeth. [Job 39:25] He exclaimeth among the trumpets, Aha!And scenteth the battle afar off,The thunder of the chieftains, and the shouting.

[¶35] In the year 1713, a letter was sent to the Guardian, which makes No. 86 of that work, containing a critique on this description, compared with similar descriptions of Homer and Virgil. I shall give the substance of it here: -

[¶36] The great Creator, who accommodated himself to those to whom he vouchsafed to speak, hath put into the mouths of his prophets such sublime sentiments and exalted language as must abash the pride and wisdom of man. In the book of Job, the most ancient poem in the world, we have such paintings and descriptions as I have spoken of in great variety. I shall at present make some remarks on the celebrated description of the horse, in that holy book; and compare it with those drawn by Homer and Virgil.

[¶37] Homer hath the following similitude of a horse twice over in the Iliad, which Virgil hath copied from him; at least he hath deviated less from Homer than Mr. Dryden hath from him: - Ὡς δ' ὁτε τις στατος ἱππος, ακοστησας επι φατνη, Δεσμον απορῥηξας θειει πεδιοιο κροαινων, Ειωθως λουεσθαι εΰρῥειος ποταμοιο, Κυδιοων· ὑψου δε καρη εχει, αμοι δε χαιται Ωμοις αΐσσονται· ὁ δ' αγλαΐῃφι πεποιθως Ῥιμφα ἑ γουνα φερει μετα τ' ηθεα και νομον ἱππων.

[¶38] Hom. Il. lib. vi., ver. 506; and lib. xv., ver. 263.

[¶39] Freed from his keepers, thus with broken reins

[¶40] The wanton courser prances o'er the plains,

[¶41] Or in the pride of youth o'erleaps the mound,

[¶42] And snuffs the female in forbidden ground;

[¶43] Or seeks his watering in the well-known flood,

[¶44] To quench his thirst, and cool his fiery blood;

## 540. Job · 67 of 73

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[¶0] He swims luxuriant in the liquid plain,

[¶1] And o'er his shoulders flows his waving mane;

[¶2] He neighs, he snorts, he bears his head on high;

[¶3] Before his ample chest the frothy waters fly.

[¶4] Virgil's description is much fuller than the foregoing, which, as I said, is only a simile; whereas Virgil professes to treat of the nature of the horse: - - Tum, si qua sonum procul arma dedere,

[¶5] Stare loco nescit: micat auribus, et tremit artus

[¶6] Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem:

[¶7] Densa juba, et dextro jactata recumbit in armo.

[¶8] At duplex agitur per lumbos spina, cavatque

[¶9] Tellurem, et solido graviter sonat ungula cornu.

[¶10] Virg. Georg. lib. iii., ver. 83.

[¶11] Which is thus admirably translated: -

[¶12] The fiery courser, when he hears from far

[¶13] The sprightly trumpets, and the shouts of war,

[¶14] Pricks up his ears; and, trembling with delight,

[¶15] Shifts pace, and paws, and hopes the promised fight.

[¶16] On his right shoulder his thick mane reclined,

[¶17] Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind.

[¶18] His horny hoofs are jetty black and round;

[¶19] His chin is double: starting with a bound,

[¶20] He turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground.

[¶21] Fire from his eyes, clouds from his nostrils flow;

[¶22] He bears his rider headlong on the foe.

[¶23] Now follows that in the Book of Job, which, under all the disadvantages of having been written in a language little understood, of being expressed in phrases peculiar to a part of the world whose manner of thinking and speaking seems to us very uncouth; and, above all, of appearing in a prose translation; is nevertheless so transcendently above the heathen descriptions, that hereby we may perceive how faint and languid the images are which are formed by human authors, when compared with those which are figured, as it were, just as they appear in the eye of the Creator. God, speaking to Job, asks him: - [To do our translators as much justice as possible, and to help the critic, I shall throw it in the hemistich form, in which it appears in the Hebrew, and in which all Hebrew poetry is written.] [Job 39:19] Hast thou given to the Horse strength?Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? [Job 39:20] Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?The glory of his nostrils is terrible! [Job 39:21] He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in strength:He goeth on to meet the armed men. [Job 39:22] He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted:Neither turneth he back from the sword. [Job 39:23] Against him rattleth the quiver,The glittering spear and the shield. [Job 39:24] He swalloweth the ground with rage and fierceness:Nor doth he believe that it is the sound of the trumpet. [Job 39:25] He saith among the trumpets, Heach!And from afar he scenteth the battle,The thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

[¶24] Here are all the great and sprightly images that thought can form of this generous beast, expressed in such force and vigor of style as would have given the great wits of antiquity new laws for the sublime, had they been acquainted with these writings. I cannot but particularly observe that whereas the classical poets chiefly endeavor to paint the outward figure, lineaments, and motions, the sacred poet makes all the beauties to flow from an inward principle in the creature he describes; and thereby gives great spirit and vivacity to his description. The following phrases and circumstances are singularly remarkable: - [Job 39:19] Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

[¶25] Homer and Virgil mention nothing about the neck of the horse but his mane. The sacred author, by the bold figure of thunder, not only expresses the shaking of that remarkable beauty in the horse, and the flakes of hair, which naturally suggest the idea of lightning; but likewise the violent agitation and force of the neck, which in the oriental tongues had been flatly expressed by a metaphor less bold than this. [Job 39:20] Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? - There is a twofold beauty in this expression, which not only marks the courage of this beast, by asking if he can be scared; but likewise raises a noble image of his swiftness, by insinuating that, if he could be frightened, he would bound away with the nimbleness of a grasshopper.

[¶26] The glory of his nostrils is terrible - This is more strong and concise than that of Virgil, which yet is the noblest line that was ever written without inspiration: -

[¶27] Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem.

[¶28] And in his nostrils rolls collected fire.

[¶29] Geor. iii., ver. 85. [Job 39:21] He rejoiceth in his strength. [Job 39:22] He mocketh at fear. [Job 39:24] Neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. [Job 39:25] He saith among the trumpets, Ha! ha!

[¶30] These are signs of courage, as I said before, flowing from an inward principle. There is a peculiar beauty in his not believing it is the sound of the trumpet: that is, he cannot believe it for joy; but when he is sure of it, and is among the trumpets, he saith, Ha! ha! He neighs, he rejoices. His docility is elegantly painted in his being unmoved at the rattling quiver, the glittering spear, and the shield, [Job 39:23], and is well imitated by Oppian, - who undoubtedly read Job, as Virgil did, - in his Poem on Hunting: - Πως μεν γαρ τε μαχαισιν αρηΐος εκλυεν ἱππος Ηχον εγερσιμοθον δολιχων πολεμηΐον αυλων; Η πως αντα δεδορκεν ασκαρδαμυκτοισιν οπωπαις Αιζηοισι λοχον πεπυκασμενον ὁπλιτησι; Και χαλκον σελαγευντα, και αστραπτοντα σιδηρον; Και μαθεν ευτε μενειν χρειω, ποτε δ' αυτις αρουειν.

[¶31] Oppian Cyneget, lib. i., ver. 206.

[¶32] Now firm the managed war-horse keeps his ground,

[¶33] Nor breaks his order though the trumpet sound!

[¶34] With fearless eye the glittering host surveys,

[¶35] And glares directly at the helmet's blaze.

[¶36] The master's word, the laws of war, he knows;

[¶37] And when to stop, and when to charge the foes.

[¶38] He swalloweth the ground, [Job 39:24], is an expression for prodigious swiftness in use among the Arabians, Job's countrymen, to the present day. The Latins have something like it: -

[¶39] Latumque fuga consumere campum.

[¶40] Nemesian.

[¶41] In flight the extended champaign to consume.

[¶42] Carpere prata fuga.

[¶43] Virg. Georg. III., Ver. 142.

[¶44] In flight to crop the meads. - Campumque volatu

## 541. Job · 68 of 73

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[¶0] Cum rapuere, pedum vestigia quaeras.

[¶1] When, in their fight, the champaign they have snatch'd,

[¶2] No track is left behind.

[¶3] It is indeed the boldest and noblest of images for swiftness; nor have I met with any thing that comes so near it as Mr. Pope's, in Windsor Forest: -

[¶4] Th' impatient courser pants in every vein,=

[¶5] And pawing, seems to beat the distant plain;

[¶6] Hills, vales, and floods, appear already cross'd;

[¶7] And ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost.

[¶8] He smelleth the battle afar off, and what follows about the shouting, is a circumstance expressed with great spirit by Lucan: -

[¶9] So when the ring with joyful shouts resounds,

[¶10] With rage and pride th' imprison'd courser bounds;

[¶11] He frets, he foams, he rends his idle rein,

[¶12] Springs o'er the fence, and headlong seeks the plain.

[¶13] This judicious and excellent critique has left me little to say on this sublime description of the horse: I shall add some cursory notes only. In [Job 39:19] we have the singular image, clothed his neck with thunder. How thunder and the horse's neck can be well assimilated to each other, I confess I cannot see. The author of the preceding critique seems to think that the principal part of the allusion belongs to the shaking of this remarkable beauty (the mane) in a horse; and the flakes of hair, which naturally suggest the idea of lightning. I am satisfied that the floating mane is here meant. The original is רעמה ramah, which Bochart and other learned men translate as above. How much the mane of a horse shaking and waving in the wind adds to his beauty and stateliness, every one is sensible; and the Greek and Latin poets, in their description of the horse, take notice of it. Thus Homer: - - Αμφι δε χαιται Ωμοις αΐσσονται.

[¶14] Iliad vi., ver. 509. "His mane dishevell'd o'er his shoulders flies."

[¶15] And Virgil: -

[¶16] Luduntque per colla, per armos.

[¶17] Aen. xi., ver. 497.

[¶18] The verb רעם raam signifies to toss, to agitate; and may very properly be applied to the mane, for reasons obvious to all. Virgil has seized this characteristic in his fine line, Georg. iii. ver. 86: -

[¶19] Densa juba, et dextro jactata recumbit in armo. "His toss'd thick mane on his right shoulder falls."

[¶20] Naturally, the horse is one of the most timid of animals; and this may be at once accounted for from his small quantity of brain. Perhaps there is no animal of his size that has so little. He acquires courage only from discipline; for naturally he starts with terror and affright at any sudden noise. It requires much discipline to bring him to hear the noise of drums and trumpets, and especially to bear a pair of kettle drums placed on each side his neck, and beaten there, with the most alarming variety of sounds. Query, Does the sacred text allude to any thing of this kind? I have been led to form this thought from the following circumstance. In some ancient MSS. of the Shah Nameh, a most eminent heroic poem, by the poet Ferdoosy, the Homer of India, in my own collection, adorned with paintings, representing regal interviews, animals, battles, etc., there appear in some places representations of elephants, horses, and camels, with a pair of drums, something like our kettle drums, hanging on each side of the animal's neck, and beaten, by a person on the saddle, with two plectrums or drumsticks; the neck itself being literally clothed with the drums and the housings on which they are fixed. Who is it then that has framed the disposition of such a timid animal, that by proper discipline it can bear those thundering sounds, which at first would have scared it to the uttermost of distraction? The capacity to receive discipline and instruction is as great a display of the wisdom of God as the formation of the bodies of the largest, smallest, or most complex animals is of his power. I leave this observation without laying any stress upon it. On such difficult subjects conjecture has a lawful range.

### Verse 21

[¶22] He paweth in the valley - יחפרו yachperu, "they dig in the valley," i.e., in his violent galloping, in every pitch of his body, he scoops up sods out of the earth. Virgil has seized this idea also, in his cavat tellurem; "he scoops out the ground." See before.

### Verse 25

[¶24] He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha - The original is peculiarly emphatical: האח Heach! a strong, partly nasal, partly guttural sound, exactly resembling the first note which the horse emits in neighing. The strong, guttural sounds in this hemistich are exceedingly expressive: האח ומרחוק יריח מלחמה Heach! umerachok yariach milchamah; "Heach, for from afar he scenteth the battle."

[¶25] The reader will perceive that Mr. Good has given a very different meaning to [Job 39:20] from that in the present text, Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? by translating the Hebrew thus: - "Hast thou given him to launch forth as an arrow?"

[¶26] The word ארבה arbeh, which we translate locust or grasshopper, and which he derives from רבה rabah, the א aleph being merely formative, he says, "may as well mean an arrow as it does in [Job 16:13], רביו rabbaiv, 'His arrows fly around me.'" The verb רעש raash in the word התועישנו hatharishennu, "Canst thou make him afraid?' he contends, "signifies to tremble, quiver, rush, launch, dart forth; and, taken in this sense, it seems to unite the two ideas of rapidity and coruscation." This is the principal alteration which this learned man has made in the text.

[¶27] I shall conclude on this subject by giving Coverdale's translation: Hast thou geven the horse his strength, or lerned him how to bow down his neck with feare; that he letteth himself be dryven forth like a greshopper, where as the stout neyenge that he maketh is fearfull? He breaketh the grounde with the hoffes of his fete chearfully in his strength, and runneth to mete the harnest men. He layeth aside all feare, his stomach is not abated, neither starteth he aback for eny swerde. Though the qyvers rattle upon him, though the speare and shilde glistre: yet russheth he in fearsley, and beateth upon the grounde. He feareth not the noise of the trompettes, but as soone as he heareth the shawmes blowe, Tush (sayeth he) for he smelleth the batell afarre of, the noyse, the captaynes, and the shoutinge. This is wonderfully nervous, and at the same time accurate.

### Verse 26

[¶29] Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom - The hawk is called נץ nets, from its swiftness in darting down upon its prey; hence its Latin name, nisus, which is almost the same as the Hebrew. It may very probably mean the falcon, observes Dr. Shaw. The flight of a strong falcon is wonderfully swift. A falcon belonging to the Duke of Cleves flew out of Westphalia into Prussia in one day; and in the county of Norfolk, a hawk has made a flight at a woodcock of near thirty miles in an hour. Thuanus says, "A hawk flew from London to Paris in one night." It was owing to its swiftness that the Egyptians in their hieroglyphics made it the emblem of the wind.

[¶30] Stretch her wings toward the south? - Most of the falcon tribe pass their spring and summer in cold climates; and wing their way toward warmer regions on the approach of winter. This is what is here meant by stretching her wings toward the south. Is it through thy teaching that this or any other bird of passage knows the precise time for taking flight, and the direction in which she is to go in order to come to a warmer climate? There is much of the wisdom and providence of God to be seen in the migration of birds of passage. This has been remarked before. There is a beautiful passage in Jeremiah, [Jer 8:7], on the same subject: "The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming: but my people know not the judgment of the Lord."

### Verse 27

[¶32] Doth the eagle mount up - The eagle is said to be of so acute a sight, that when she is so high in the air that men cannot see her, she can discern a small fish in the water! See on [Job 39:29] (note).

### Verse 28

[¶34] Upon the crag of the rock - שן סלע shen sela, the tooth of the rock, i.e., some projecting part, whither adventurous man himself dares not follow her.

[¶35] And the strong place - ומצודה umetsudah. Mr. Good translates this word ravine, and joins it to [Job 39:29], thus: "And thence espieth the ravine: her eyes trace the prey afar off."

### Verse 29

[¶37] Her eyes behold afar off - The eagle was proverbial for her strong and clear sight. So Horace, lib. i., sat. iii., ver. 25: -

[¶38] Cum tua pervideas oculis mala lippus inunctis,

[¶39] Cur in amicorum vitas tam cernis acutum,

[¶40] Quam aut aquila, aut serpens Epidaurius? "For wherefore while you carelessly pass by

[¶41] Your own worst vices with unheeding eye,

[¶42] Why so sharp-sighted in another's fame,

[¶43] Strong as an eagle's ken, or dragon's beam?"

[¶44] Francis.

## 542. Job · 69 of 73

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[¶0] So Aelian, lib. i., cap. 42. And Homer, Iliad xvii., calls the eagle οξυτατον ὑπουρανιων πετεηνων, "The most quick-sighted of all fowls under heaven."

### Verse 30

[¶2] Her young ones also suck up blood - The eagle does not feed her young with carrion, but with prey newly slain, so that they may suck up blood.

[¶3] Where the slain are, there is she - These words are quoted by our Lord. "Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together," [Mat 24:28] (note). It is likely, however, that this was a proverbial mode of expression; and our Lord adapts it to the circumstances of the Jewish people, who were about to fall a prey to the Romans. See the notes there.

[¶4] In the preceding notes I have referred to Dr. Shaw's account of the ostrich as the most accurate and authentic yet published. With the following description I am sure every intelligent reader will be pleased. "In commenting therefore upon these texts it may be observed, that when the ostrich is full grown, the neck, particularly of the male, which before was almost naked, is now very beautifully covered with red feathers. The plumage likewise upon the shoulders, the back, and some parts of the wings, from being hitherto of a dark grayish color, becomes now as black as jet, whilst the rest of the feathers retain an exquisite whiteness. They are, as described [Job 39:13], the very feathers and plumage of the stork, i.e., they consist of such black and white feathers as the stork, called from thence hdysx chasidah, is known to have. But the belly, the thighs, and the breast, do not partake of this covering, being usually naked, and when touched are of the same warmth as the flesh of quadrupeds. "Under the joint of the great pinion, and sometimes under the less, there is a strong pointed excrescence like a cock's spur, with which it is said to prick and stimulate itself, and thereby acquire fresh strength and vigor whenever it is pursued. But nature seems rather to have intended that, in order to prevent the suffocating effects of too great a plethora, a loss of blood should be consequent thereupon, especially as the ostrich appears to be of a hot constitution, with lungs always confined, and consequently liable to be preter-naturally inflamed upon these occasions. "When these birds are surprised by coming suddenly upon them whilst they are feeding in some valley, or behind some rocky or sandy eminence in the deserts, they will not stay to be curiously viewed and examined. Neither are the Arabs ever dexterous enough to overtake them, even when they are mounted upon their jinse, or horses, as they are called, of family. They, when they raise themselves up for flight, ([Job 39:18]), laugh at the horse and his rider. They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary agility and the stateliness of their motions, the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was of ascribing to them ([Job 30:13]) an expanded quivering wing. Nothing, certainly, can be more beautiful and entertaining than such a sight! The wings, by their repeated though unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; whilst their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, are in no degree sensible of fatigue. "By the repeated accounts which I often had from my conductors, as well as from Arabs of different places, I have been informed that the ostrich lays from thirty to fifty eggs. Aelian mentions more than eighty, but I never heard of so large a number. The first egg is deposited in the center; the rest are placed as conveniently as possible round about it. In this manner it is said to lay-deposit or thrust ([Job 39:14]) - her eggs in The Earth, and to warm them in the sand, and forgetteth, as they are not placed, like those of some other birds, upon trees or in the clefts of rocks, etc., that the foot of the traveler may crush them, or that the wild beasts may break them. "Yet notwithstanding the ample provision which is hereby made for a numerous offspring, scarce one quarter of these eggs are ever supposed to be hatched; and of those that are, no small share of the young ones may perish with hunger, from being left too early by their dams to shift for themselves. For in these the most barren and desolate recesses of the Sahara, where the ostrich chooses to make her nest, it would not be enough to lay eggs and hatch them, unless some proper food was near at hand, and already prepared for their nourishment. And accordingly we are not to consider this large collection of eggs as if they were all intended for a brood; they are, the greatest part of them, reserved for food, which the dam breaks and disposes of according to the number and the cravings of her young ones. "But yet, for all this, a very little share of that στοργη, or natural affection, which so strongly exerts itself in most other creatures, is observable in the ostrich. For, upon the least distant noise or trivial occasion, she forsakes her eggs, or her young ones, to which perhaps she never returns, or if she do, it may be too late either to restore life to the one, or to preserve the lives of the other. Agreeably to this account, the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed; some of which are sweet and good, others are addle and corrupted, others again have their young ones of different growths, according to the time it may be presumed they have been forsaken by the dam. They oftener meet a few of the little ones, no bigger than well-grown pullets, half starved, straggling, and moaning about, like so many distressed orphans, for their mother. And in this manner the ostrich may be said ([Job 39:16]) to be hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers; her labor in hatching and attending them so far being vain without fear, or the least concern of what becomes of them afterwards. This want of affection is also recorded, [Lam 4:3] : The daughter of my people, says the prophet, is cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. "Neither is this the only reproach that may be due to the ostrich; she is likewise inconsiderate and foolish in her private capacity; particularly in the choice of food, which is frequently highly detrimental and pernicious to her; for she swallows every thing greedily and indiscriminately, whether it be pieces of rags, leather, wood, stone, or iron. When I was at Oram, I saw one off these birds swallow, without any seeming uneasiness or inconvenience, several leaden bullets, as they were thrown upon the floor, scorching hot from the mould, the inner coats of the aesophapus and stomach being probably better stocked with glands and juices than in other animals with shorter necks. They are particularly fond of their own excrement, which they greedily eat up as soon as it is voided. No less fond are they of the dung of hens and other poultry. It seems as if their optic as well as olfactory nerves were less adequate and conducive to their safety and preservation than in other creatures. The Divine providence in this, no less than in other respects, ([Job 39:17]), having deprived them of wisdom, neither hath it imparted to them understanding. "Those parts of the Sahara which these birds chiefly frequent are destitute of all manner of food and herbage, except it be some few tufts of coarse grass, or else a few other solitary plants of the laureola, apocynum, and some other kinds; each of which is equally destitute of nourishment; and, in the psalmist's phrase, ([Psa 129:6]), even withereth afore it groweth up. Yet these herbs, notwithstanding their dryness, and want of moisture in their temperature, will sometimes have both their leaves and their stalks studded all over with a great variety of land snails, which may afford them some little refreshment. It is very probable, likewise, that they may sometimes seize upon lizards, serpents, together with insects and reptiles of various kinds. Yet still, considering the great voracity and size of this camel-bird, it is wonderful, not only how the little ones, after they are weaned from the provisions I have mentioned, should be brought up and nourished, but even how those of fuller growth and much better qualified to look out for themselves, are able to subsist. "Their organs of digestion, and particularly the gizzards, which, by their strong friction, will wear away iron itself, show them indeed to be granivorous; but yet they have scarce ever an opportunity to exercise them in this way, unless when they chance to stray, which is very seldom, towards those parts of the country which are sown and cultivated, For these, as they are much frequented by the Arabs at the several seasons of grazing, ploughing, and gathering in the harvest; so they are little visited by as indeed they would be an improper abode for this shy, timorous bird; φιλερημος, a lover of the deserts. This last circumstance in the behavior of the ostrich is frequently alluded to in the Holy Scriptures; particularly [Isa 13:21]; [Isa 34:13]; [Isa 43:20]; [Jer 50:39]; where the word, יענה yaanah, instead of being rendered the ostrich, as it is rightly put in the margin, is called the owl; a word used likewise instead of yaanah or the ostrich, [Lev 11:16], and [Deu 14:15]. "Whilst I was abroad, I had several opportunities of amusing myself with the actions and behavior of the ostrich. It was very diverting to observe with what dexterity and equipoise of body it would play and frisk about on all occasions. In the heat of the day, particularly it would strut along the sunny side of the house with great majesty. It would be perpetually fanning and priding itself with its quivering expanded wings; and seem at every turn to admire and be in love with its shadow. Even at other times whether walking about or resting itself upon the ground, the wings would continue these fanning vibrating motions, as if they were designed to mitigate and assuage that extraordinary heat wherewith their bodies seem to be naturally affected. "Notwithstanding these birds appear tame and tractable to such persons of the family as were more known and familiar to them, yet they were often very rude and fierce to strangers, especially the poorer sort, whom they would not only endeavor to push down by running furiously upon them; but would not cease to peck at them violently with their bills, and to strike them with their feet; whereby they were frequently very mischievous. For the inward claw, or hoof rather as we may call it, of this avis bisulca, being exceedingly strong pointed and angular, I once saw an unfortunate person who had his belly ripped open by one of these strokes. Whilst they are engaged in these combats and assaults, they sometimes make a fierce, angry, and hissing noise with their throats inflated, and their mouths open; at other times, when less resistance is made they have a chuckling or cackling voice, as in the poultry kind; and thereby seem to rejoice and laugh as it were at the timorousness of their adversary. But during the lonesome part of the night, as if their organs of voice had then attained a quite different tone, they often made a very doleful and hideous noise; which would be sometimes like the roaring of a lion; at other times it would bear a near resemblance to the hoarser voices of other quadrupeds, particularly of the bull and the ox. I have often heard them groan, as if they were in the greatest agonies; an action beautifully alluded to by the Prophet Micah, [Mic 1:8], where it is said, I will make a mourning like the yaanah or ostrich. Yaanah, therefore, and רננים renanim, the names by which the ostrich is known in the Holy Scriptures, may very properly be deduced from ענה anah, and רנן ranan, words which the lexicographi explain by exclamare or clamare fortiter; for the noise made by the ostrich being loud and sonorous, exclamare or clamare fortiter may, with propriety enough, be attributed to it, especially as those words do not seem to denote any certain or determined mode of voice or sound peculiar to any one particular species of animals, but such as may be applicable to them all, to birds as well as to quadrupeds and other creatures."

[¶5] Shaw's Travels, p. 541, edit. 4th. 1757.

[¶6] The subjects in this chapter have been so various and important, that I have been obliged to extend the notes and observations to an unusual length; and yet much is left unnoticed which I wished to have inserted. I have made the best selection I could, and must request those readers who wish for more information to consult zoological writers.

### Introduction

[¶8] Job humbles himself before the Lord, [Job 40:1-5]. And God again challenges him by a display of his power and judgments, [Job 40:6-14]. A description of behemoth, [Job 40:15-24].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Moreover the Lord answered - That is, the Lord continued his discourse with Job. Answered does not refer to any thing said by Job, or any question asked. I think it very likely that this whole piece, from the beginning of this first verse to the end of the fourteenth, was originally the ending of the poem. Mr. Heath has noticed this, and I shall lay his words before the reader: "The former part of this chapter is evidently the conclusion of the poem; the latter part whereof seems to be in great disorder; whether it has happened from the carelessness of the transcriber, or, which appears most probable, from the skins of parchment composing the roll having by some accident changed their places. It is plain from the seventh verse of the forty-second chapter ([Job 42:7]) that Jehovah is the last speaker in the poem. If, then, immediately after the end of the thirty-ninth chapter, we subjoin the fifteenth verse of the forty-second chapter, and place the fourteen first verses of the fortieth chapter immediately after the sixth verse of the forty-second chapter, and by that means make them the conclusion of the poem, all will be right; and this seventh verse of the forty-second chapter will be in its natural order. The action will be complete by the judgment of the Almighty; and the catastrophe of the poem will be grand and solemn." To these reasons of Mr. Heath, Dr. Kennicott has added others, which the reader may find at the end of the chapter. ([Job 40:24]) Without taking any farther notice of the transposition in this place, I will continue the notes in the present order of the verses.

### Verse 2

[¶12] He that reproveth God, let him answer it - Let the man who has made so free with God and his government, answer to what he has now heard.

### Verse 4

[¶14] Behold, I am vile - I acknowledge my inward defilement. I cannot answer thee.

[¶15] I will lay mine hand upon my mouth - I cannot excuse myself, and I must be dumb before thee.

### Verse 5

[¶17] Once have I spoken - See on [Job 42:3] (note), etc.

[¶18] I will proceed no farther - I shall attempt to justify myself no longer; I have spoken repeatedly; and am confounded at my want of respect for my Maker, and at the high thoughts which I have entertained of my own righteousness. All is impurity in the presence of thy Majesty.

### Verse 7

[¶20] Gird up thy loins - See [Job 38:1-3]. Some think that this and the preceding verse have been repeated here from [Job 38:1-3], and that several of the words there, here, and [Job 42:3], have been repeated, in after times, to connect some false gatherings of the sheets of parchment, on which the end of this poem was originally written. See on [Job 40:1] (note), and at the end of the chapter.

### Verse 8

[¶22] Wilt thou condemn me - Rather than submit to be thought in the wrong, wilt thou condemn My conduct, in order to justify thyself? Some men will never acknowledge themselves in the wrong. "God may err, but we cannot," seems to be their impious maxim. Unwillingness to acknowledge a fault frequently leads men, directly or indirectly, to this sort of blasphemy. There are three words most difficult to be pronounced in all languages, - I Am Wrong.

### Verse 9

[¶24] Hast thou an arm like God? - Every word, from this to the end of [Job 40:14], has a wonderful tendency to humble the soul; and it is no wonder that at the conclusion of these sayings Job fell in the dust confounded, and ascribed righteousness to his Maker.

### Verse 10

[¶26] Deck thyself now with majesty - Act like God, seeing thou hast been assuming to thyself perfections that belong to him alone.

### Verse 13

[¶28] Hide them in the dust together - Blend the high and the low, the rich and the poor, in one common ruin. Show them that thou art supreme, and canst do whatsoever thou pleasest.

[¶29] Bind their faces in secret - This seems to refer to the custom of preserving mummies: the whole body is wrapped round with strong swathings of linen or cotton cloth. Not only the limbs, but the very head, face, and all, are rolled round with strong filleting, so that not one feature can be seen, not even the protuberance of the nose. On the outside of these involutions a human face is ordinarily painted; but as to the real face itself, it is emphatically bound in secret, for those rollers are never intended to be removed.

### Verse 14

[¶31] Thine own right hand can save thee - It is the prerogative of God alone to save the human soul. Nothing less than unlimited power, exerted under the direction and impulse of unbounded mercy, can save a sinner. This is most clearly asserted in this speech of Jehovah: When thou canst extend an arm like God, i.e., an uncontrollable power - when thou canst arm thyself with the lightning of heaven, and thunder with a voice like God - when thou canst deck thyself with the ineffable glory, beauty, and splendor of the supreme majesty of Jehovah - when thou canst dispense thy judgments over all the earth, to abase the proud, and tread down the wicked - when thou canst as having the keys of hell and death, blend the high and the low in the dust together; then I will acknowledge to thee that thy own right hand can save thee. In other words: Salvation belongeth unto the Lord; no man can save his own soul by works of righteousness which he has done, is doing, or can possibly do, to all eternity. Without Jesus every human spirit must have perished everlastingly. Glory be to God for his unspeakable gift!

### Verse 15

[¶33] Behold now behemoth - The word בהמות behemoth is the plural of בהמה behemah, which signifies cattle in general, or graminivorous animals, as distinguished from חיתו chayetho, all wild or carnivorous animals. See [Gen 1:24]. The former seems to mean kine, horses, asses, sheep, etc., and all employed in domestic or agricultural matters; the latter, all wild and savage beasts, such as lions, bears, tigers, etc.: but the words are not always taken in these senses.

[¶34] In this place it has been supposed to mean some animal of the beeve kind. The Vulgate retains the Hebrew name; so do the Syriac and Arabic. The Chaldee is indefinite, translating creature or animal. And the Septuagint is not more explicit, translating by θηρια, beasts or wild beasts; and old Coverdale, the cruell beaste, perhaps as near to the truth as any of them. From the name, therefore, or the understanding had of it by the ancient versions, we can derive no assistance relative to the individuality of the animal in question; and can only hope to find what it is by the characteristics it bears in the description here given of it.

[¶35] These, having been carefully considered and deeply investigated both by critics and naturalists, have led to the conclusion that either the elephant, or the hippopotamus or river-horse, is the animal in question; and on comparing the characteristics between these two, the balance is considerably in favor of the hippopotamus. But even here there are still some difficulties, as there are some parts of the description which do not well suit even the hippopotamus; and therefore I have my doubts whether either of the animals above is that in question, or whether any animal now in existence be that described by the Almighty.

[¶36] Mr. Good supposes, and I am of the same opinion, that the animal here described is now extinct. The skeletons of three lost genera have actually been found out: these have been termed palaeotherium, anoplotherium, and mastodon or mammoth. From an actual examination of a part of the skeleton of what is termed the mammoth, I have described it in my note on [Gen 1:24].

[¶37] As I do not believe that either the elephant or the river-horse is intended here, I shall not take up the reader's time with any detailed description. The elephant is well known; and, though not an inhabitant of these countries, has been so often imported in a tame state, and so frequently occurs in exhibitions of wild beasts, that multitudes, even of the common people, have seen this tremendous, docile, and sagacious animal. Of the hippopotamus or river-horse, little is generally known but by description, as the habits of this animal will not permit him to be tamed. His amphibious nature prevents his becoming a constant resident on dry land.

[¶38] The hippopotamus inhabits the rivers of Africa and the lakes of Ethiopia: feeds generally by night; wanders only a few miles from water; feeds on vegetables and roots of trees, but never on fish; lays waste whole plantations of the sugar-cane, rice, and other grain. When irritated or wounded, it will attack boats and men with much fury. It moves slowly and heavily: swims dexterously; walks deliberately and leisurely over head into the water; and pursues his way, even on all fours, on the bottom; but cannot remain long under the water without rising to take in air. It sleeps in reedy places; has a tremendous voice, between the lowing of an ox and the roaring of the elephant. Its head is large; its mouth, very wide; its skin, thick and almost devoid of hair; and its tail, naked and about a foot long. It is nearly as large as the elephant, and some have been found seventeen feet long. Mr. Good observes: "Both the elephant and hippopotamus are naturally quiet animals; and never interfere with the grazing of others of different kinds unless they be irritated. The behemoth, on the contrary, is represented as a quadruped of a ferocious nature, and formed for tyranny, if not rapacity; equally lord of the floods and of the mountains; rushing with rapidity of foot, instead of slowness or stateliness; and possessing a rigid and enormous tail, like a cedar tree, instead of a short naked tail of about a foot long, as the hippopotamus; or a weak, slender, hog-shaped tail, as the elephant."

[¶39] The mammoth, for size, will answer the description in this place, especially [Job 40:19] : He is the chief of the ways of God. That to which the part of a skeleton belonged which I examined, must have been, by computation, not less than twenty-five feet high, and sixty feet in length! The bones of one toe I measured, and found them three feet in length! One of the very smallest grinders of an animal of this extinct species, full of processes on the surface more than an inch in depth, which shows that the animal had lived on flesh, I have just now weighed, and found it, in its very dry state, four pounds eight ounces, avoirdupois: the same grinder of an elephant I have weighed also, and found it just two pounds. The mammoth, therefore, from this proportion, must have been as large as two elephants and a quarter. We may judge by this of its size: elephants are frequently ten and eleven feet high; this will make the mammoth at least twenty-five or twenty-six feet high; and as it appears to have been a many-toed animal, the springs which such a creature could make must have been almost incredible: nothing by swiftness could have escaped its pursuit. God seems to have made it as the proof of his power; and had it been prolific, and not become extinct, it would have depopulated the earth. Creatures of this kind must have been living in the days of Job; the behemoth is referred to here, as if perfectly and commonly known.

[¶40] He eateth grass as an ox - This seems to be mentioned as something remarkable in this animal: that though from the form of his teeth he must have been carnivorous, yet he ate grass as an ox; he lived both on animal and vegetable food.

### Verse 16

[¶42] His strength is in his loins - This refers to his great agility, notwithstanding his bulk; by the strength of his loins he was able to take vast springs, and make astonishing bounds.

### Verse 17

[¶44] He moveth his tail like a cedar - Therefore it was neither the elephant, who has a tail like that of the hog, nor the hippopotamus, whose tail is only about a foot long.

## 543. Job · 70 of 73

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/543/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/543/#p-N

[¶0] The sinews of his stones - I translate with Mr. Good, and for the same reasons, the sinews of his haunches, which is still more characteristic; as the animal must have excelled in leaping.

### Verse 18

[¶2] His bones are as strong pieces of brass-bars of iron - The tusk I have mentioned above is uncommonly hard, solid, and weighty for its size.

### Verse 19

[¶4] He is the chief of the ways of God - The largest, strongest, and swiftest quadruped that God has formed.

[¶5] He that made him - No power of man or beast can overcome him. God alone can overcome him, and God alone could make his sword (of extinction) approach to him.

### Verse 20

[¶7] The mountains bring him forth food - It cannot therefore be the hippopotamus, as he is seldom found far from the rivers where he has his chief residence.

[¶8] Where all the beasts of the field play - He frequents those places where he can have most prey. He makes a mock of all the beasts of the field. They can neither resist his power, nor escape from his agility. All this answers to what we know of the mammoth, but not at all to the hippopotamus.

### Verse 21

[¶10] He lieth under the shady trees - This and the following verses refer to certain habits of the behemoth, with which we are and must be unacquainted,

### Verse 22

[¶12] The willows of the brook compass him - This would agree well enough with the hippopotamus.

### Verse 23

[¶14] Behold, he drinketh up a river - A similar mode of expression, and of precisely the same meaning, as that in [Job 39:24] : "He swalloweth the ground with fierceness." No river can stop his course: he wades through all; stems every tide and torrent; and hurries not as though he were in danger.

[¶15] He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan - Even when the river overflows its banks, it is no stoppage to him: though the whole impetuosity of its stream rush against his mouth, he is not afraid. Mr. Good has seized the true idea in his translation of this verse: - "If the stream rage, he revileth not:

[¶16] He is unmoved, though Jordan rush against his mouth."

[¶17] From this mention of Jordan it is probable that the behemoth was once an inhabitant of the mountains, marshes, and woods, of the land of Palestine.

### Verse 24

[¶19] He taketh it with his eyes - He looks at the sweeping tide, and defies it.

[¶20] His nose pierceth through snares - If fences of strong stakes be made in order to restrain him, or prevent him from passing certain boundaries, he tears them in pieces with his teeth; or, by pressing his nose against them, breaks them off. If other parts of the description would answer, this might well apply to the elephant, the nose here meaning the proboscis, with which he can split trees, or even tear them up from the roots! Thus ends the description of the behemoth; what I suppose to be the mastodon or mammoth, or some creature of this kind, that God made as the chief of his works, exhibited in various countries for a time, cut them off from the earth, but by his providence preserved many of their skeletons, that succeeding ages might behold the mighty power which produced this chief of the ways of God, and admire the providence that rendered that race extinct which would otherwise, in all probability, have extinguished every other race of animals! I am not unapprized of the strong arguments produced by learned men to prove, on the one hand, that behemoth is the elephant; and, on the other, that he is the hippopotamus or river-horse, and I have carefully read all that Bochart, that chief of learned men, has said on the subject. But I am convinced that an animal now extinct, probably of the kind already mentioned, is the creature pointed out and described by the inspiration of God in this chapter.

[¶21] On [Job 40:1] of this chapter we have seen, from Mr. Heath's remarks, that the fourteen first verses were probably transposed. In the following observations Dr. Kennicott appears to prove the point. "It will be here objected, that the poem could not possibly end with this question from Job; and, among other reasons, for this in particular; because we read in the very next verse, That after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, etc. If, therefore, the last speaker was not Job, but the Lord, Job could not originally have concluded this poem, as he does at present. "This objection I hold to be exceedingly important; and, indeed, to prove decisively that the poem must have ended at first with some speech from God. "And this remark leads directly to a very interesting inquiry: What was at first the conclusion of this poem? This may, I presume, be pointed out and determined, not by the alteration of any one word, but only by allowing a dislocation of the fourteen verses which now begin the fortieth chapter. Chapters 38, 39, 40, and 41, contain a magnificent display of the Divine power and wisdom in the works of the Creator; specifying the lion, raven, wild goat, wild ass, unicorn, peacock, ostrich, horse, hawk, eagle, behemoth, and leviathan. "Now, it must have surprised most readers to find that the description of these creatures is strangely interrupted at [Job 40:1], and as strangely resumed afterwards at [Job 40:15]; and therefore, if these fourteen verses will connect with and regularly follow what now ends the poem, we cannot much doubt that these fourteen verses have again found their true station, and should be restored to it. "The greatness of the supposed transposition is no objection: because so many verses as would fill one piece of vellum in an ancient roll, might be easily sewed in before or after its proper place. In the case before us, the twenty-five lines in the first fourteen verses of chapter xl. seem to have been sewed in improperly after [Job 39:30], instead of after [Job 42:6]. That such large parts have been transposed in rolls to make which the parts are sewed together is absolutely certain; and that this has been the case here, is still more probable for the following reason: - "The lines here supposed to be out of place are twenty-five, and contain ninety-two words; which might be written on one piece or page of vellum. But the MS. in which these twenty-five lines made one page, must be supposed to have the same, or nearly the same, number of lines in each of the pages adjoining. And it would greatly strengthen this presumption if these twenty-five lines would fall in regularly at the end of any other set of lines, nearly of the same number; if they would fall in after the next set of twenty-five, or the second set, or the third, or the fourth, etc. Now, this is actually the case here; for the lines after these twenty-five, being one hundred or one hundred and one, make just four times twenty-five. And, therefore, if we consider these one hundred and twenty-five lines as written on five equal pieces of vellum, it follows that the fifth piece might be carelessly sewed up before the other four. "Let us also observe that present disorder of the speeches, which is this. In chapters 38 and 39, God first speaks to Job. The end of chapter 39 is followed by, 'And the Lord answered Job and said,' whilst yet Job had not replied. At [Job 40:3-5], Job answers; but he says, he had then spoken Twice, and he would add no more; whereas, this was his first reply, and he speaks afterwards. From Job 40:15-41:34 are now the descriptions of behemoth and leviathan, which would regularly follow the descriptions of the horse, hawk, and eagle. And from [Job 42:1-6] is now Job's speech, after which we read in [Job 42:7], 'After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job!' "Now, all these confusions are removed at once if we only allow that a piece of vellum containing the twenty-five lines, ([Job 40:1-14]), originally followed [Job 42:6]. For then, after God's first speech, ending with leviathan, Job replies: then God, to whom Job replies the second time, when he added no more; and then God addresses him the third, when Job is silent, and the poem concludes: upon which the narrative opens regularly, with saying, 'After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job,' etc. [Job 42:7]." - Kennicott's Remarks, p. 161. The reader will find much more satisfaction if he read the places as above directed. Having ended chapter 29, proceed immediately to [Job 40:15]; go on regularly to the end of [Job 42:6], and immediately after that add [Job 40:1-14]. We shall find then that the poem has a consistent and proper ending, and that the concluding speech was spoken by Jehovah.

### Introduction

[¶23] God's great power in the leviathan, of which creature he gives a very circumstantial description, vv. 1-34.

### Verse 1

[¶25] Canst thou draw out leviathan - We come now to a subject not less perplexing than that over which we have passed, and a subject on which learned men are less agreed than on the preceding. What is leviathan? The Hebrew word לויתן livyathan is retained by the Vulgate and the Chaldee. The Septuagint have, Αξεις δε δρακοντα; "Canst thou draw out the Dragon?" The Syriac and Arabic have the same. A species of whale has been supposed to be the creature in question; but the description suits no animal but the crocodile or alligator; and it is not necessary to seek elsewhere. The crocodile is a natural inhabitant of the Nile, and other Asiatic and African rivers. It is a creature of enormous voracity and strength, as well as fleetness in swimming. He will attack the largest animals, and even men, with the most daring impetuosity. In proportion to his size he has the largest mouth of all monsters. The upper jaw is armed with forty sharp strong teeth, and the under jaw with thirty-eight. He is clothed with such a coat of mail as cannot be pierced, and can in every direction resist a musket-ball. The Hebrew לוי levi תן ten signifies the coupled dragon; but what this is we know not, unless the crocodile be meant.

[¶26] With a hook - That crocodiles were caught with a baited hook, at least one species of crocodile, we have the testimony of Herodotus, lib. ii., c. 70: Επεαν νωτον συος δελεασῃ περι αγκιστρον, μετιει ες μεσον τον ποταμον, κ. τ. λ. "They take the back or chine of a swine, and bait a hook with it, and throw it into the midst of the river; and the fisherman stands at some distance on the shore holding a young pig, which he irritates, in order to make it squeak. When the crocodile hears this he immediately makes towards the sound; and, finding the baited hook in his way, swallows it, and is then drawn to land, when they dash mud into his eyes, and blind him; after which he is soon despatched."

[¶27] In this way it seems leviathan was drawn out by a hook: but it was undoubtedly both a difficult and dangerous work, and but barely practicable In the way in which Herodotus relates the matter.

[¶28] Or his tongue with a cord - It is probable that, when the animal was taken, they had some method of casting a noose round his tongue, when opening his mouth; or piercing it with some barbed instrument. Thevenot says that in order to take the crocodile they dig holes on the banks of the river, and cover them with sticks. The crocodiles fall into these, and cannot get out. They leave them there for several days without food, and then let down nooses which they pitch on their jaws, and thus draw them out. This is probably what is meant here.

### Verse 2

[¶30] Canst thou put a hook onto his nose? - Canst thou put a ring in his nose, and lead him about as thou dost thine ox? In the East they frequently lead thy oxen and buffaloes with a ring in their noses. So they do bulls and oxen in this country.

[¶31] Bore his jaw through with a thorn? - Some have thought that this means, Canst thou deal with him as with one of those little fish which thou stringest on a rush by means of the thorn at its end? Or perhaps it may refer to those ornaments with which they sometimes adorned their horses, mules, camels, etc.

### Verse 3

[¶33] Will he make many supplications - There are several allusions in these verses to matters of which we know nothing.

### Verse 4

[¶35] Will he make a covenant - Canst thou hire him as thou wouldst a servant, who is to be so attached to thy family as to have his ear bored, that he may abide in thy house for ever? Is not this an allusion to the law, [Exo 21:1-6]?

### Verse 5

[¶37] Wilt thou play with him - Is he such a creature as thou canst tame; and of which thou canst make a pet, and give as a plaything to thy little girls? נערותיך naarotheycha; probably alluding to the custom of catching birds, tying a string to their legs, and giving them to children to play with; a custom execrable as ancient, and disgraceful as modern.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Shall thy companions make a banquet - Canst thou and thy friends feast on him as ye were wont to do on a camel sacrificed for this purpose? Or, canst thou dispose of his flesh to the merchants - to buyers, as thou wouldst do that of a camel or an ox? It is certain, according to Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 70, that they killed and ate crocodiles at Apollonople and Elephantis, in Egypt.

### Verse 7

[¶41] Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? - This refers to some kind of harpoon work, similar to that employed in taking whales, and which they might use for some other kinds of animals; for the skin of the crocodile could not be pierced. Herrera says that he saw a crocodile defend itself against thirty men; and that they fired six balls at it without being able to wound it. It can only be wounded under his belly.

### Verse 8

[¶43] Lay thine hand upon him? - Mr. Heath translates, "Be sure thou strike home. Mind thy blow: rely not upon a second stroke." Mr. Good translates: - "Make ready thy hand against him.

[¶44] Dare the contest: be firm."

## 544. Job · 71 of 73

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[¶0] He is a dangerous animal; when thou attackest him, be sure of thy advantage; if thou miss, thou art ruined. Depend not on other advantages, if thou miss the first. Kill him at once, or he will kill thee.

### Verse 9

[¶2] Behold, the hope - If thou miss thy first advantage, there is no hope afterwards: the very sight of this terrible monster would dissipate thy spirit, if thou hadst not a positive advantage against his life, or a place of sure retreat to save thine own.

### Verse 10

[¶4] None is so fierce that dare stir him up - The most courageous of men dare not provoke the crocodile to fight, or even attempt to rouse him, when, sated with fish, he takes his repose among the reeds. The strongest of men cannot match him.

[¶5] Who then is able - If thou canst not stand against the crocodile, one of the creatures of my hand, how canst thou resist me, who am his Maker? This is the use which God makes of the formidable description which he has thus far given of this terrible animal.

### Verse 11

[¶7] Who hath prevented me - Who is it that hath laid me under obligation to him? Do I need my creatures? All under the heavens is my property.

### Verse 12

[¶9] I will not conceal his parts - This is most certainly no just translation of the original. The Vulgate is to this effect: I will not spare him: nor yield to his powerful words, framed for the purpose of entreaty.

[¶10] Mr. Good applies it to leviathan: - "I cannot be confounded at his limbs and violence;

[¶11] The strength and structure of his frame."

[¶12] The Creator cannot be intimidated at the most formidable of his own works: man may and should tremble; God cannot.

### Verse 13

[¶14] Who can discover the face of his garment? - Who can rip up the hide of this terrible monster? Who can take away his covering, in order to pierce his vitals?

### Verse 14

[¶16] The doors of his face? - His jaws which are most tremendous.

### Verse 15

[¶18] His scales are his pride - They are impenetrable, as we have already seen.

### Verse 16

[¶20] One is so near to another - It has already been stated, that a musket-ball fired at him in any direction cannot make a passage through his scales.

### Verse 18

[¶22] By his neesings a light doth shine - It is very likely that this may be taken literally. When he spurts up the water out of his nostrils, the drops form a sort of iris or rainbow. We have seen this effect produced when, in certain situations and state of the atmosphere, water was thrown up forcibly, so as to be broken into small drops, which has occasioned an appearance like the rainbow.

[¶23] The eyelids of the morning - It is said that, under the water, the eyes of the crocodile are exceedingly dull; but when he lifts his head above water they sparkle with the greatest vivacity. Hence the Egyptians, in their hieroglyphics, made the eyes of the crocodile the emblem of the morning. Ανατολην λεγοντες δυο οφθαλμους κροκοδειλου ζωογραφουσι. - Horapp. Egypt. Ieroglyph., lib. i., c. 65. This is a most remarkable circumstance, casts light on ancient history, and shows the rigid correctness of the picture drawn above. The same figure is employed by the Greek poets. Χρυσεας ἡμερας βλεφαρον. "The eyelid of the golden day."

[¶24] Soph. Antig. ver. 103. Νυκτος αφεγγες βλεφαρον. "The darksome eyelid of the night."

[¶25] Eurip. Phaeniss. ver. 553.

### Verse 19

[¶27] Out of his mouth go burning lamps - Dr. Young, in his paraphrase, has a sensible note on this passage: - "This is nearer the truth than at first view may be imagined. The crocodile, according to naturalists, lying long under water, and being there forced to hold its breath, when it emerges, the breath long repressed is hot, and bursts out so violently, that it resembles fire and smoke. The horse does not repress his breath by any means so long, neither is he so fierce and animated; yet the most correct of poets ventures to use the same metaphor concerning him, volvit sub naribus ignem. By this I would caution against a false opinion of the boldness of Eastern metaphors, from passages ill understood."

### Verse 22

[¶29] In his neck remaineth strength - Literally, "strength has its dwelling in his neck." The neck is the seat of strength of most animals; but the head and shoulders must be here meant, as the crocodile has no neck, being shaped nearly like a lizard.

[¶30] And sorrow is turned into joy before him - ולפניו תדוץ דאבה ulephanaiv taduts deabah; "And destruction exulteth before him." This is as fine an image as can well be conceived. It is in the true spirit of poetry, the legitimate offspring of the genie createur. Our translation is simply insignificant.

### Verse 23

[¶32] The flakes of his flesh - His muscles are strongly and firmly compacted.

### Verse 24

[¶34] Hard as a piece of the nether millstone - Which is required to be harder than that which runs above.

### Verse 25

[¶36] By reason of breakings they purify themselves - No version, either ancient or modern, appears to have understood this verse; nor is its true sense known. The Septuagint have, "When he turns himself, he terrifies all the quadrupeds on the earth." The original is short and obscure: משברים יתחטאו mishshebarim yithchattau. Mr. Good takes the plural termination ים im, from the first word, of which he makes the noun ים yam, the sea, and thus translates it, "They are confounded at the tumult of the sea." In this I can find no more light than in our own. Mr. Heath has, "For very terror they fall to the ground." The translations of it are as unsatisfactory as they are various. I shall give both the verses from Coverdale: -

[¶37] His herte is as harde as a stone; and as fast as the stythye (anvil) that the hammer man smyteth upon: when he goeth the mightiest off all are afrayed, and the waives hevy. The dull swell in the waters proclaims his advance; and when this is perceived, the stout-hearted tremble.

### Verse 26

[¶39] Habergeon - The hauberk, the Norman armor for the head, neck, and breast, formed of rings. See on [Neh 4:16] (note).

### Verse 29

[¶41] Darts are counted as stubble - All these verses state that he cannot be wounded by any kind of weapon, and that he cannot be resisted by any human strength. A young crocodile, seen by M. Maillet, twelve feet long, and which had not eaten a morsel for thirty-five days, its mouth having been tied all that time, was nevertheless so strong, that with a blow of its tail it overturned a bale of coffee, and five or six men, with the utmost imaginable ease! What power then must lodge in one twenty feet long, well fed, and in health!

### Verse 30

[¶43] Sharp stones are under him - So hard and impenetrable are his scales, that splinters of flint are the same to him as the softest reeds.

## 545. Job · 72 of 73

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### Verse 31

[¶1] He maketh the deep to boil like a pot - This is occasioned by strongly agitating the waters at or near the bottom; and the froth which arises to the top from this agitation may have the appearance of ointment. But several travelers say that the crocodile has a very strong scent of musk, and that he even imparts this smell to the water through which he passes, and therefore the text may be taken literally. This property of the crocodile has been noticed by several writers.

### Verse 32

[¶3] He maketh a path to shine after him - In certain states of the weather a rapid motion through the water disengages many sparks of phosphoric fire. I have seen this at sea; once particularly, on a fine clear night, with a good breeze, in a fast-sailing vessel, I leaned over the stern, and watched this phenomenon for hours. The wake of the vessel was like a stream of fire; millions of particles of fire were disengaged by the ship's swift motion through the water, nearly in the same way as by the electric cushion and cylinder; and all continued to be absorbed at a short distance from the vessel. Whether this phenomenon takes place in fresh water or in the Nile, I have had no opportunity of observing.

[¶4] The deep to be hoary - By the frost and foam raised by the rapid passage of the animal through the water.

### Verse 33

[¶6] Upon earth there is not his like - There is no creature among terrestrial animals so thoroughly dangerous, so exceedingly strong, and so difficult to be wounded or slain.

[¶7] Who is made without fear - Perhaps there is no creature who is at all acquainted with man, so totally destitute of fear as the crocodile.

### Verse 34

[¶9] He is a king over all the children of pride - There is no animal in the waters that does not fear and fly from him. Hence the Chaldee renders it, all the offspring of Fishes. Calmet says, that by the children of pride the Egyptians are meant; that the crocodile is called their king, because he was one of their principal divinities; that the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh, which signifies a crocodile; and that the Egyptians were proverbial for their pride, as may be seen in [Eze 32:12]. And it is very natural to say that Job, wishing to point out a cruel animal, adored by the Egyptians, and considered by them as their chief divinity, should describe him under the name of king of all the children of pride. Houbigant considers the לויתן livyathan, the coupled dragon, to be emblematical of Satan: "He lifts his proud look to God, and aspires to the high heavens; and is king over all the sons of pride." He is, in effect, the governor of every proud, haughty, impious man. What a king! What laws! What subjects! Others think that Men are intended by the sons of pride; and that it is with the design to abate their pride, and confound them in the high notions they have of their own importance, that God produces and describes an animal of whom they are all afraid, and whom none of them can conquer.

[¶10] After all, what is leviathan? I have strong doubts whether either whale or crocodile be meant. I think even the crocodile overrated by this description. He is too great, too powerful, too important, in this representation. No beast, terrestrial or aquatic, deserves the high character here given, though that character only considers him as unconquerably strong, ferociously cruel, and wonderfully made. Perhaps leviathan was some extinct mammoth of the waters, as behemoth was of the land. However, I have followed the general opinion by treating him as the crocodile throughout these notes; but could not finish without stating my doubts on the subject, though I have nothing better to offer in the place of the animal in behalf of which almost all learned men and critics argue, and concerning which they generally agree. As to its being an emblem either of Pharaoh or the devil, I can say little more than, I doubt. The description is extremely dignified; and were we sure of the animal, I have no doubt we should find it in every instance correct. But after all that has been said, we have yet to learn what leviathan is!

### Introduction

[¶12] Job humbles himself before God, [Job 42:1-6]. God accepts him; censures his three friends; and commands Job to offer sacrifices for them, that he might pardon and accept them, as they had not spoken what was right concerning their Maker, [Job 42:7-9]. The Lord turns Job's captivity; and his friends visit him, and bring him presents, [Job 42:10], [Job 42:11]. Job's affluence becomes double to what it was before, [Job 42:12]. His family is also increased, [Job 42:13-15]. Having lived one hundred and forty years after his calamities, he dies, [Job 42:16], [Job 42:17].

### Verse 2

[¶14] I know that thou canst do every thing - Thy power is unlimited; thy wisdom infinite.

### Verse 3

[¶16] Who is he that hideth counsel - These are the words of Job, and they are a repetition of what Jehovah said, [Job 38:2] : "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" Job now having heard the Almighty's speech, and having received his reproof, echoes back his words: "Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge Alas, I am the man; I have uttered what I understood not; things too wonderful for me, that I knew not. God had said, [Job 38:3] : "Gird up now thy loins like a man; I will demand of thee, and answer thou me." In allusion to this, Job exclaims to his Maker, [Job 42:4] : "Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will ask of Thee, and declare Thou unto Me." I acknowledge my ignorance; I confess my foolishness and presumption; I am ashamed of my conduct; I lament my imperfections; I implore thy mercy; and beg thee to show me thy will, that I may ever think, speak, and do, what is pleasing in thy sight.

[¶17] Things too wonderful - I have spoken of thy judgments, which I did not comprehend.

### Verse 5

[¶19] I have heard of thee - I have now such a discovery of thee as I have never had before. I have only heard of thee by tradition, or from imperfect information; now the eye of my mind clearly perceives thee, and in seeing thee, I see myself; for the light that discovers thy glory and excellence, discovers my meanness and vileness.

### Verse 6

[¶21] I abhor myself - Compared with thine, my strength is weakness; my wisdom, folly; and my righteousness, impurity. "I loathe myself when thee I see;

[¶22] And into nothing fall."

[¶23] Repent - I am deeply distressed on account of the imaginations of my heart, the words of my tongue, and the acts of my life. I roll myself in the dust, and sprinkle ashes upon my head. Job is now sufficiently humbled at the feet of Jehovah; and having earnestly and piously prayed for instruction, the Lord, in a finishing speech, which appears to be contained in [Job 40:1-14], perfects his teaching on the subject of the late controversy, which is concluded with, "When thou canst act like the Almighty," which is, in effect, what the questions and commands amount to in the preceding verses of that chapter, "then will I also confess unto thee, that thy own right hand can save thee." In the fifth verse of the fortieth chapter, Job says, "Once have I spoken." This must refer to the declaration above, in the beginning of this chapter, (42). And he goes on to state, [Job 40:5] : "Yea, Twice; but I will proceed no farther." This second time is that in which he uses these words: after which he spoke no more; and the Lord concluded with the remaining part of these fourteen verses, viz., from [Job 40:7-14], inclusive. Then the thread of the story, in the form of a narration is resumed at [Job 42:7].

### Verse 7

[¶25] After the Lord had spoken these words - Those recorded at [Job 40:7-14]; he said to Eliphaz, who was the eldest of the three friends, and chief speaker: Ye have not spoken of me - right. Mr. Peters observes, "It will be difficult to find any thing in the speeches of Eliphaz and his companions which should make the difference here supposed, if we set aside the doctrine of a future state; for in this view the others would speak more worthily of God than Job, by endeavoring to vindicate his providence in the exact distribution of good and evil in this life: whereas Job's assertion, [Job 9:22], 'This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked,' which is the argument on which he all along insists, would, upon this supposition, be directly charging God that he made no distinction between the good and the bad. But now, take the other life into the account, and the thing will appear in quite a contrary light; and we shall easily see the reason why God approves of the sentiments of Job, and condemns those of his friends. For supposing the friends of Job to argue that the righteous are never afflicted without remedy here, nor the wicked prosperous on the whole in this life, which is a wrong representation of God's providence; and Job to argue, on the other hand, that the righteous are sometimes afflicted here, and that without remedy, but shall be rewarded in the life to come; and that the wicked prosper here, but shall be punished hereafter, which is the true representation of the Divine proceedings; and here is a very apparent difference in the drift of the one's discourse, and of the others'. For Job, in this view, speaks worthily of God, and the rest unworthily. The best moral argument that mankind have ever had to believe in a life to come, is that which Job insists on - that good and evil are, for the most part, dealt out here promiscuously. On the contrary, the topic urged by his friends, and which they push a great deal too far, that God rewards and punishes in this world, tends, in its consequences, like that other opinion which was held by the stoics in after times, that virtue is its own reward, to sap the very foundation of that proof we have, from reason, of another life. No wonder, therefore, that the sentiments of the one are approved, and those of the other condemned."

### Verse 8

[¶27] Take - seven bullocks and seven rams - From this it appears that Job was considered a priest, not only in his own family but also for others. For his children he offered burnt-offerings, [Job 1:5]; and now he is to make the same kind of offerings, accompanied with intercession, in behalf of his three friends. This is a full proof of the innocence and integrity of Job: a more decided one could not be given, that the accusations of his friends, and their bitter speeches, were as untrue as they were malevolent. God thus clears his character, and confounds their devices.

### Verse 10

[¶29] The Lord turned the captivity of Job - The Vulgate has: Dominus quoque conversus est ad poenitentiam Job; "And the Lord turned Job to repentance." The Chaldee: "The Word of the Lord (מימרא דיי meymera dayai) turned the captivity of Job." There is a remark which these words suggest, which has been rarely, if at all, noticed. It is said that the Lord turned the captivity of Job When He Prayed for His Friends. He had suffered much through the unkindness of these friends; they had criticised his conduct without feeling or mercy; and he had just cause to be irritated against them: and that he had such a feeling towards them, several parts of his discourses sufficiently prove. God was now about to show Job his mercy; but mercy can be shown only to the merciful; Job must forgive his unfeeling friends, if he would be forgiven by the Lord; he directs him, therefore, to pray for them, [Job 42:8]. He who can pray for another cannot entertain enmity against him: Job did so, and when he prayed for his friends, God turned the captivity of Job. "Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." Some suppose that Job, being miraculously restored, armed his servants and remaining friends, and fell upon those who had spoiled him; and not only recovered his own property, but also spoiled the spoilers, and thus his substance became double what it was before. Of this I do not see any intimation in the sacred text.

### Verse 11

[¶31] Then came there unto him all his brethren - "Job being restored to his former health and fortunes, the author," says Mr. Heath, "presents us with a striking view of human friendship. His brethren, who, in the time of his affliction, kept at a distance from him; his kinsfolk, who ceased to know him; his familiar friends, who had forgotten him; and his acquaintance, who had made themselves perfect strangers to him; those to whom he had showed kindness, and who yet had ungratefully neglected him, on the return of his prosperity now come and condole with him, desirous of renewing former familiarity; and, according to the custom of the Eastern countries, where there is no approaching a great man without a present, each brings him a kesitah, each a jewel of gold." See [Job 42:12].

[¶32] A piece of money - קשיטה kesitah signifies a lamb; and it is supposed that this piece of money had a lamb stamped on it, as that quantity of gold was generally the current value for a lamb. See my note on [Gen 33:19] (note), where the subject is largely considered. The Vulgate, Chaldee, Septuagint, Arabic, and Syriac, have one lamb or sheep; so it appears that they did not understand the kesitah as implying a piece of money of any kind, but a sheep or a lamb.

[¶33] Earring of gold - Literally, a nose-jewel. The Septuagint translate, τετραδραχμον χρυσου, a tetra-drachm of gold, or golden daric; but by adding και ασημου, unstamped, they intimate that it was four drachms of uncoined gold.

### Verse 12

[¶35] The Lord blessed the latter end of Job - Was it not in consequence of his friends bringing him a lamb, sheep, or other kind of cattle, and the quantity of gold mentioned, that his stock of sheep was increased so speedily to 14,000, his camels to 6000, his oxen to 2000, and his she-asses to 1000? Mr. Heath takes the story of the conduct of Job's friends by the worst handle; see [Job 42:11]. Is it not likely that they themselves were the cause of his sudden accumulation of property? and that they did not visit him, nor seek his familiarity because he was now prosperous; but because they saw that God had turned his captivity, and miraculously healed him? This gave them full proof of his innocence, and they no longer considered him an anathema, or devoted person, whom they should avoid and detest, but one who had been suffering under a strange dispensation of Divine Providence, and who was now no longer a suspicious character, but a favourite of heaven, to whom they should show every possible kindness. They therefore joined hands with God to make the poor man live and their presents were the cause, under God of his restoration to affluence. This takes the subject by the other handle; and I think, as far as the text is concerned, by the right one.

[¶36] He had fourteen thousand sheep - The reader, by referring to [Job 1:3], will perceive that the whole of Job's property was exactly doubled.

### Verse 13

[¶38] Seven sons and three daughters - This was the same number as before; and so the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic read: but the Chaldee doubles the sons, "And he had fourteen sons, and three daughters."

### Verse 14

[¶40] The name of the first Jemima - ימימה yemimah, days upon days. Kezia - קציעה ketsiah, cassia, a well-known aromatic plant.

[¶41] And, Keren-happuch - קרן הפוך keren happuch, the inverted or flowing horn, cornucopiae, the horn of plenty. The Chaldee will not permit these names to pass without a comment, to show the reason of their imposition: "He called the first Jemimah, because she was as fair as the day; the second Ketsiah, because she was as precious as cassia; the third Keren-happuch, because her face was as splendid as the emerald." Cardmarden's Bible, 1566, has the Hebrew names. The Vulgate has, "He called the name of one Day, of the second Cassia, and of the third The Horn of Antimony." The versions in general preserve these names, only the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic translate Jemimah, Day; and the former for Keren-happuch has Αμαλθαιας κερας, the horn of Amalthea. This refers to an ancient fable. Amalthea was the nurse of Jupiter, and fed him with goat's milk when he was young. The goat having by accident her horn struck off, Jupiter translated the animal to the heavens, and gave her a place among the constellations, which she still holds; and made the horn the emblem of plenty: hence it is always pictured or described as filled with fruits, flowers, and the necessaries and luxuries of life. It is very strange how this fable got into the Septuagint.

[¶42] Coverdale is singular: The first he called Daye, the seconde Poverte, the thirde, All plenteousnes.

### Verse 15

[¶44] Gave them inheritance among their brethren - This seems to refer to the history of the daughters of Zelophehad, given [Num 28:1-8], who appear to have been the first who were allowed an inheritance among their brethren.

## 546. Job · 73 of 73

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### Verse 16

[¶1] After this lived Job a hundred and forty years - How long he had lived before his afflictions, we cannot tell. If we could rely on the Septuagint, all would be plain, who add here, Τα δε παντα ετη εζησεν, διακοσια τεσσαρακοντα; "And all the years that Job lived were two hundred and forty." This makes him one hundred years of age when his trial commenced. Coverdale has, After this lyved Job forty yeares, omitting the hundred. So also in Becke's Bible, 1549. From the age, as marked down in the Hebrew text, we can infer nothing relative to the time when Job lived. See the subscription at the end of the Arabic.

### Verse 17

[¶3] Job died, being old and full of days - He had seen life in all its varieties; he had risen higher than all the men of the East, and sunk lower in affliction, poverty, and distress, than any other human being that had existed before, or has lived since. He died when he was satisfied with this life; this the word שבע seba implies. He knew the worst and the best of human life; and in himself the whole history of Providence was exemplified and illustrated, and many of its mysteries unfolded.

[¶4] We have now seen the end of the life of Job, and the end or design which God had in view by his afflictions and trials, in which he has shown us that he is very pitiful, and of tender mercy, [Jam 5:11]; and to discern this end of the Lord should be the object of every person who reads or studies it. Laus in excelsis Deo!

[¶5] Both in the Arabic and Septuagint there is a considerable and important addition at the end of the seventeenth verse, which extends to many lines; of this, with its variations, I have given a translation in the Preface.

[¶6] At the end of the Syriac version we have the following subscription: - "The Book of the righteous and renowned Job is finished, and contains 2553 verses."

[¶7] At the end of the Arabic is the following: - "It is completed by the assistance of the Most High God. The author of this copy would record that this book has been translated into Arabic from the Syriac language." "Glory be to God, the giver of understanding!" "The Book of Job is completed; and his age was two hundred and forty years." "Praise be to God for ever!"

[¶8] So closely does the Arabic translator copy the Syriac, that in the Polyglots one Latin version serves for both, with the exception of a few marginal readings at the bottom of the column to show where the Syriac varies.

## 547. Psalms · 1 of 159

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### Introduction to the Book of Psalms

[¶1] Section I - On the Names Given to this Book

[¶2] This book is termed in Hebrew ספר תהלים Sepher Tehillim, which some learned men derive from הל hal or הלל halal, to move briskly, irradiate, shine; and translate, The Book of the Shinings forth, Irradiations, Manifestations, or Displays, namely, of Divine wisdom and love exhibited in God's dealing with his chosen people, or with particular. persons, as figures, for the time being, of what should be accomplished either in the person of Christ, or in his mystical body the Church. But as halal signifies also to praise, and praise arises from a sense of gratitude, is the expression of inward joy, and was often exhibited by brisk notes, sprightly music, etc., it may be well denominated The Book of Praises, as the major part of the Psalms have for their subject the praises of the Lord.

[¶3] That the Psalms were sung in the Jewish service, and frequently accompanied by musical instruments, there is no doubt, for the fact is repeatedly mentioned; and hence the most ancient translation we have of the Psalms, viz., the Septuagint, as it stands in what is called the Codex Alexandrinus, is called Ψαλτηριον, The Psaltery, which is a species of musical instrument resembling the harp, according to the accounts given of it by some of the ancients. From this term came the Psalterium of the Vulgate, and our word Psalter, all of which are deduced from the verb ψαλλω, to sing, as the voice no doubt always accompanied this instrument, and by it the key was preserved and the voice sustained.

[¶4] A Psalm is called in Hebrew מזמור mizmor, from זמר zamar, to cut off, because in singing each word was separated into its component syllables, each syllable answering to a note in the music.

[¶5] General Division of the Book

[¶6] The Hebrews divide the Psalms into five books, and this division is noticed by several of the primitive fathers. The origin of this division is not easily ascertained; but as it was considered a book of great excellence, and compared for its importance to the Pentateuch itself, it was probably divided into five books, as the law was contained in so many volumes. But where the divisions should take place the ancients are not agreed; and some of them divide into three fifties rather than into five parts; and for all these divisions they assign certain allegorical reasons which merit little attention.

[¶7] The division of the Hebrews is as follows: -

[¶8] Book I. From [Psa 1:1-6] to [Psa 41:1-13] inclusive.

[¶9] Book II. From [Psa 42:1-11] to Psalm 72 inclusive.

[¶10] Book III. From Psalm 73 to Psalm 89 inclusive.

[¶11] Book IV. From Psalm 90 to Psalm 106 inclusive.

[¶12] Book V. From Psalm 107 to [Psa 150:1-6] inclusive.

[¶13] The First, Second, and Third Books end with Amen and Amen; the Fourth, with Amen and Hallelujah, the Fifth, with Hallelujah.

[¶14] But the Psalms themselves are differently divided in all the Versions, and in many MSS. This is often very embarrassing to the reader, not only in consulting the Polyglots, but also in referring to theological works, whether of the Greek or Latin Church, where the Psalms are quoted; the Greek ecclesiastical writers following the Septuagint; and those of the Latin Church, the Vulgate. I shall lay a proper table of these variations before the reader, remarking first, that though they differ so much in the division of the Psalms, they all agree in the number one hundred and fifty.

[¶15] A Table of the Differences in Dividing the Psalms Between the Hebrew Text and the Ancient Versions, Syriac, Septuagint, Chaldee, Arabic, Aethiopic, and Vulgate

[¶16] In the above versions Psalm 9 and 10 make only Psalm 9. Hence there is one Psalm less in the reckoning as you proceed to [Psa 114:1-8], 115, which make [Psa 113:1-9] in all those versions. Hence two Psalms are lost in the reckoning.

[¶17] Psalm 116 is divided at [Psa 116:9], the versions beginning Psalm 115 at [Psa 115:10]. Hence one Psalm is gained on the above reckoning.

[¶18] Psalm 119 makes Psalm 118 in all the versions.

[¶19] Psalm 147 they divide at [Psa 147:11], and begin Psalm 147 with [Psa 147:12]. Here then the reckoning becomes equal, and all end alike with [Psa 150:1-6]. '

[¶20] In the Syriac, Septuagint, Aethiopic, and Arabic, there is what they call an extra-numeral Psalm, said to have been composed by David after his victory over Goliath. A translation of this will be found at the close of these notes.

[¶21] The Hebrew MSS. agree often with the versions in uniting Psalms which the common Hebrew text has separated, and thus often support the ancient versions. These things shall be considered in the course of the notes.

[¶22] On the Compilation of the Book, and the Authors to whom the Psalms Have Been Attributed

[¶23] After having said so much on the name and ancient divisions of this important book, it may be necessary to say something in answer to the question, "Who was the author of the Book of Psalms?" If we were to follow the popular opinion, we should rather be surprised at the question, and immediately answer, David, king of Israel! That many of them were composed by him, there is no doubt; that several were written long after his time, there is internal evidence to prove; and that many of them were written even by his contemporaries, there is much reason to believe.

[¶24] That the collection, as it now stands, was made long after David's death, is a general opinion among learned men; and that Ezra was the collector and compiler is commonly believed. Indeed all antiquity is nearly unanimous in giving Ezra the honour of collecting the different writings of Moses and the prophets, and reducing them into that form in which they are now found in the Holy Bible, and consequently the Psalms among the rest. See this subject treated at large in the preface to Ezra, etc.

[¶25] In making this collection it does not appear that the compiler paid any attention to chronological arrangement. As he was an inspired man, he could judge of the pieces which came by Divine inspiration, and were proper for the general edification of the Church of God.

[¶26] The writer of the Synopsis, attributed to St. Athanasius, says that the friends of King Hezekiah chose one hundred and fifty Psalms out of the number of three thousand which David had composed, and that they suppressed the rest: he says farther, that this is written in the Chronicles; but it is not found in the Chronicles which we now have, though it might have been in other Chronicles which that author had seen.

[¶27] That some Scriptural collections were made under the influence and by the order of Hezekiah, we learn from [Pro 25:1] : 'These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out." But whether these were employed on the writings of the father, as they were on those of the son, we cannot tell. The above authority is too slender to support any building of magnitude.

[¶28] The only method we have of judging is from the internal evidence afforded by several the Psalms themselves, and from the inscriptions which many of them bear. As far as time and facts are concerned, many of them can be traced to the days of David, and the transactions which then occurred, and in which he bore so eminent a part. But there are others in which we find no note of time, and no reference to the transactions of David's reign.

[¶29] As to the inscriptions, they are of slender authority; several of them do not agree with the subject of the Psalm to which they are prefixed, and not a few of them appear to be out of their places.

[¶30] In one of the prologues attributed to St. Jerome, but probably of Eusebius, at the end of Vol. II. of St. Jerome's Works by Martinay, we find a table in which the whole Book of Psalms is dissected, showing those which have inscriptions, those which have none, and those to which the name of a particular person, as author, is prefixed. I shall give these in gross, and then in detail: Psalms without any name prefixed, 17; Psalms with an inscription, 133; in all 150.

[¶31] These are afterwards divided into those which bear different kinds of titles, without names; and those which have names prefixed. I shall give these from the Quintuplex Psalterium, fol. Paris, 1513, as being more correct than in the edition of Jerome, by Martinay.

[¶32] No Inscription 1, 2, 32, 42, 70, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 103, 115, 136, 147 18 David's 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 68, 69, 85, 100, 102, 107, 109, 133, 137, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144 70 Solomon's 71, 124 2 Sons of Korah 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 83, 84, 86 10 Asaph 49, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 12 Heman 87 1 Ethan 88 1 Moses 89 1 No Name SpecifiedA Song or PsalmA Song or PsalmA Psalm or SongA Prayer of the Afflicted 656691101 4 Hallelujah 104, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 134, 135, 145, 146, 148, 149, 150 18 Psalms of Degrees 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132 13 Grand Total 150 Supping that the persons already mentioned are the authors of those Psalms to which their names are prefixed, there are still fifty-three, which, as bearing no proper name, must be attributed to uncertain authors, though ii is very probable that several of them were made by David.

[¶33] The reader will observe that as the preceding enumeration is taken from the Vulgate, consequently it is not exactly the same with ours: but the rules already given at page 200, will enable him to accommodate this division to that in our common Bibles, which is the same with that in the Hebrew text.

[¶34] In order to make the preceding table as correct as possible, I have carefully collated that in the Benedictine edition of St. Jerome's Works, with professedly the same table in the Quintuplex Psalter, in both of which there are several errors. In the Works, though all the numbers are given at large, as primus, decimus, centesimus, &c, yet the sum total, under each head, rarely agrees with the items above it. This was so notoriously the table in Jerome's Works, that I thought best to follow that in the Psalter above mentioned, which had been carefully corrected by Henry Stephens.

[¶35] After all, this table gives but small satisfaction, when we come to collate it with the Psalms in the Hebrew text, or as they stand in our common English Bible. That nothing might be wanting, I have made an analysis of the whole from our present text, collating this with the Hebrew where I was in doubt; and by this the reader will see how greatly these tables differ from each other; and that many Psalms must now come under different arrangement, because of their different titles, from that which they had in St. Jerome's time. For instance, in St. Jerome's time there were seventy, or, as in some copies, seventy-two Psalms that had the name of David in the inscriptions; at present there are seventy-three thus inscribed in the Hebrew text.

[¶36] The blessedness of the righteous shown, in his avoiding every appearance of evil, [Psa 1:1]. In his godly use of the law of the Lord, [Psa 1:2] This farther pointed out under the metaphor of a good tree planted in a good well-watered soil, [Psa 1:3]. The opposite state of the ungodly pointed out, under the metaphor of chaff driven away by the wind, [Psa 1:4]. The miserableness of sinners, and the final happiness of the godly, [Psa 1:5], [Psa 1:6].

### Verse 1

[¶38] Blessed is the man - This Psalm has no title, and has been generally considered, but without especial reason, as a preface or introduction to the whole book.

[¶39] The word אשרי ashrey, which we translate blessed, is properly in the plural form, blessednesses, or may be considered as an exclamation produced by contemplating the state of the man who has taken God for his portion; O the blessedness of the man! And the word האיש haish, is emphatic: That man; that one among a thousand who lives for the accomplishment of the end for which God created him.

[¶40] 1. God made man for happiness.

[¶41] 2. Every man feels a desire to be happy.

[¶42] 3. All human beings abhor misery.

[¶43] 4. Happiness is the grand object of pursuit among all men.

[¶44] 5. But so perverted is the human heart, that it seeks happiness where it cannot be found; and in things which are naturally and morally unfit to communicate it.

## 548. Psalms · 2 of 159

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[¶0] 6. The true way of obtaining it is here laid down.

[¶1] That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly - There is a double Climax in this verse, which it will be proper to note: -

[¶2] There are here three characters, each exceeding the other in sinfulness.

[¶3] 1. The Ungodly, רשעים reshaim from רשע rasha, to be unjust; rendering to none his due; withholding from God, society, and himself, what belongs to each. Ungodly - he who has not God in him; who is without God in the world.

[¶4] 2. Sinners, חטאים chattaim, from חטא chata, "to miss the mark," "to pass over the prohibited limits," "to transgress." This man not only does no good, but he does evil. The former was without God, but not desperately wicked. The latter adds outward transgression to the sinfulness of his heart.

[¶5] 3. Scornful, לצים letsim, from לצה latsah, "to mock, deride." He who has no religion; lives in the open breach of God's laws, and turns revelation, the immortality of the soul, and the existence of an invisible world into ridicule. He is at least a deist, and endeavours to dissolve, as Much as he can, the bonds of moral obligation in civil society. As the sinner exceeds the ungodly, so the scornful exceeds both.

[¶6] The second climax is found in the words,

[¶7] 1. Walk

[¶8] 2. Stand

[¶9] 3. Sit

[¶10] Which mark three different degrees of evil in the conduct of those persons.

[¶11] Observe,

[¶12] 1. The ungodly man - one uninfluenced by God.

[¶13] 2. The sinner - he who adds to ungodliness transgression

[¶14] 3. The scornful - the deist, atheist, etc., who make a mock of every thing sacred.

[¶15] The Ungodly man walks, the Sinner stands, and the Scornful man sits down in the way of iniquity.

[¶16] Mark certain circumstances of their differing characters and conduct.

[¶17] 1. The ungodly man has his counsel;

[¶18] 2. The sinner has his way; and,

[¶19] 3. The scorner has his seat.

[¶20] The ungodly man is unconcerned about religion; he is neither zealous for his own salvation, nor for that of others: and he counsels and advises those with whom he converses to adopt his plan, and not trouble themselves about praying, reading, repenting, etc., etc. there is no need for such things; live an honest life, make no fuss about religion, and you will fare well enough at last. Now, "blessed is the man who walks not in this man's counsel;" who does not come into his measures, nor act according to his plan.

[¶21] The sinner has his particular way of transgressing; one is a drunkard, another dishonest, another unclean. Few are given to every species of vice. There are many covetous men who abhor drunkenness; many drunkards who abhor covetousness; and so of others. Each has his easily besetting sin; therefore, says the prophet, let the wicked forsake His Way. Now, blessed is he who stands not in such a man's Way.

[¶22] The scorner has brought, in reference to himself, all religion and moral feeling to an end. He has sat down - is utterly confirmed in impiety, and makes a mock at sin. His conscience is seared; and he is a believer in all unbelief. Now, blessed is the man who sits not down in his Seat.

[¶23] See the correspondent relations in this account.

[¶24] 1. He who walks according to the counsel of the ungodly will soon,

[¶25] 2. Stand to look on the wag of sinners; and thus, being off his guard, he will soon be a partaker in their evil deeds.

[¶26] 3. He who has abandoned himself to transgression will, in all probability, soon become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin; and sit down with the scorner, and endeavor to turn religion into ridicule.

[¶27] The last correspondency we find is: -

[¶28] 1. The seat answers to the sitting of the scornful.

[¶29] 2. The way answers to the standing of the sinner; and

[¶30] 3. The counsel answers to the walking of the ungodly.

[¶31] The great lesson to be learned from the whole is, sin is progressive; one evil propensity or act leads to another. He who acts by bad counsel may soon do evil deeds; and he who abandons himself to evil doings may end his life in total apostasy from God. "When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and when sin is finished, it brings forth death." Solomon the son of David, adds a profitable advice to those words of his father: "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men; avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away;" [Pro 4:14], [Pro 4:15].

[¶32] As the blessedness of the man is great who avoids the ways and the workers of iniquity, so his wretchedness is great who acts on the contrary: to him we must reverse the words of David: "Cursed is the man who walketh in the counsel of the ungodly; who standeth in the way of sinners; and who sitteth in the seat of the scornful." Let him that readeth understand.

### Verse 2

[¶34] But his delight is in the law of the Lord - חפצו chephtso, his will, desire, affection, every motive in his heart, and every moving principle in his soul, are on the side of God and his truth. He takes up the law of the Lord as the rule of his life; he brings all his actions and affections to this holy standard. He looketh into the perfect law of liberty; and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word; and is therefore blessed in his deed. He not only reads to gain knowledge from the Divine oracles, but he meditates on what he has read, feeds on it; and thus receiving the sincere milk of the word, he grows thereby unto eternal life. This is not an occasional study to him; it is his work day and night. As his heart is in it, the employment must be frequent, and the disposition to it perpetual.

### Verse 3

[¶36] Like a tree planted - Not like one growing wild, however strong or luxuriant it may appear; but one that has been carefully cultivated, and for the proper growth of which all the advantages of soil and situation have been chosen. If a child be brought up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, we have both reason and revelation to encourage us to expect a godly and useful life. Where religious education is neglected, alas! what fruits of righteousness can be expected? An uncultivated soul is like an uncultivated field, all overgrown with briers, thorns, and thistles.

[¶37] By the rivers of water - פלגי מים palgey mayim, the streams or divisions of the waters. Alluding to the custom of irrigation in the eastern countries, where streams are conducted from a canal or river to different parts of the ground, and turned off or on at pleasure; the person having no more to do than by his foot to turn a sod from the side of one stream, to cause it to share its waters with the other parts to which he wishes to direct his course. This is called "watering the land with the foot," [Deu 11:10] (note), where see the note.

[¶38] His fruit in his season - In such a case expectation is never disappointed. Fruit is expected, fruit is borne; and it comes also in the time in which it should come. A godly education, under the influences of the Divine Spirit, which can never be withheld where they are earnestly sought, is sure to produce the fruits of righteousness; and he who reads, prays, and meditates, will ever see the work which God has given him to do; the power by which he is to perform it; and the times, places and opporttmities for doing those things by which God can obtain most glory, his own soul most good, and his neighbor most edification.

[¶39] His leaf also shall not wither - His profession of true religion shall always be regular and unsullied; and his faith be ever shown by his works. As the leaves and the fruit are the evidences of the vegetative perfection of the tree; so a zealous religious profession, accompanied with good works, are the evidences of the soundness of faith in the Christian man. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi gives a curious turn to this expression: he considers the leaves as expressing those matters of the law that seem to be of no real use, to be quite unimportant, and that apparently neither add nor diminish. But even these things are parts of the Divine revelation, and all have their use, so even the apparently indifferent actions or sayings of a truly holy man have their use; and from the manner and spirit in which they are done or said, have the tendency to bear the observer to something great and good.

[¶40] Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper - It is always healthy; it is extending its roots, increasing its woody fibres, circulating its nutritive juices, putting forth fruitbuds, blossoms, leaves, or fruit; and all these operations go on in a healthy tree, in their proper seasons. So the godly man; he is ever taking deeper root growing stronger in the grace he has already received, increasing in heavenly desires, and under the continual influence of the Divine Spirit, forming those purposes from which much fruit to the glory and praise of God shall be produced.

### Verse 4

[¶42] The ungodly are not so - The Vulgate and Septuagint, and the versions made from them, such as the Ethiopic and Arabic, double the last negation, and add a clause to the end of the verse, "Not so the ungodly, not so; they shall be like the dust which the wind scatters away from the face of the earth." There is nothing solid in the men; there is nothing good in their ways. They are not of God's planting; they are not good grain; they are only chaff, and a chaff that shall be separated from the good grain when the fan or shovel of God's power throws them up to the wind of his judgments. The manner of winnowing in the eastern countries is nearly the same with that practiced in various parts of these kingdoms before the invention of winnowing machines. They either throw it up in a place out of doors by a large wooden shovel against the wind; or with their weights or winnowing fans shake it down leisurely in the wind. The grain falls down nearly perpendicularly; and the chaff, through its lightness, is blown away to a distance from the grain.

[¶43] An ungodly man is never steady; his purposes are abortive; his conversation light, trifling, and foolish; his professions, friendships, etc., frothy, hollow, and insincere; and both he and his works are carried away to destruction by the wind of God's judgments.

## 549. Psalms · 3 of 159

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Therefore the ungodly shall not stand - This refers to the winnowing mentioned in the preceding verse. Some of the versions have, The ungodly shall not arise in the judgment - they shall have no resurrection, except to shame and everlasting contempt. But probably the meaning is, When they come to be judged, they shall be condemned. They shall have nothing to plead in their behalf. That the impious were never to have any resurrection, but be annihilated, was the opinion of several among the Jews, and of some among Christians. The former believe that only the true Israelites shall be raised again; and that the souls of all others, the Christians not excepted, die with their bodies. Such unfounded opinions are unworthy of refutation.

### Verse 6

[¶3] The Lord knoweth - יודע yodea approveth the way, "aloweth the way", Coverdale, of the righteous, צדיקים tsaddikim, from צדק tsadak, to give even weight; the men who give to all their due; opposed to רשעים reshaim, [Psa 1:1], they who withhold right from all; see above. Such holy men are under the continual eye of God's providence; he knows the way that they take; approves of their motives, purposes, and works, because they are all wrought through himself. He provides for them in all exigencies, and defends them both in body and soul.

[¶4] The way of the ungodly shall perish - Their projects, designs and operations, shall perish; God's curse shall be on all that they have, do, and are. And in the day of judgment they shall be condemned to everlasting fire in the perdition of ungodly men. The wicked shall perish at the presence of the Lord. Reader take warning!

### Analysis of the First Psalm

[¶6] The τοκρινομενον in this Psalm is, Who is the happy man? or, What may make a man happy?

[¶7] I. This question the prophet resolves in the first two verses: 1. Negatively. It is he, 1. "That walks not in the counsel of the ungodly." 2. "That stands not in the way of sinners." 3. "That sits not in the seat of the scornful." 2. Positively. It is he. 1. "Whose delight is in the law of the Lord." 2. "Who doth meditate in the law day and night."

[¶8] II. This happiness of the good man is illustrated two ways: 1. By a similitude. 2. By comparing him with a wicked man.

[¶9] 1. The similitude he makes choice of is that of a tree; not every tree neither, but that which hath these eminences: 1. It is "planted; " it grows not of itself, neither is wild. 2. "Planted by the rivers of water," it wants not moisture to fructify. 3. It doth fructify; "it brings forth fruit;" it is no barren tree. 4. The fruit it brings is seasonable; "it brings forth fruit in its season." 5. It is always green, winter and summer; "the leaves wither not." Clearly, without any trope, Whatsoever this good man doth, or takes in hand, "it shall prosper."

[¶10] 2. He shows this good man's happiness by comparing him with a wicked man, in whom you shall find all the contrary.

[¶11] 1. In general. Not so. As for the ungodly, it is not so with them: not so in the plantation; in the place; in the seasonable fruit; in the greenness; in the prosperity. So far from being like a tree, that they are like, 1. Chaff, a light and empty thing. 2. Chaff which the wind whiffles up and down. 3. Chaff which the wind scatters or driveth away. 4. And never leaves scattering, till it has driven it from the face of the earth. So the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic.

[¶12] 2. And that no man may think that their punishment shall extend only to this life; in plain terms he threatens to them, 1. Damnation at the great day: "They shall not stand in judgment;" though some refer this clause to this life. When he is judged by men, causa cadet, he shall be condemned. 2. Exclusion from the company of the just: "Sinners shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous."

[¶13] III. In the close he shows the cause why the godly is happy, the wicked unhappy: 1. Because "the way of the righteous is known to God;" approved by him, and defended. 2. But the way, studies, plots, "counsels of the wicked, shall perish."-DAVID'S HARP STRUNG AND TUNED. See the introduction.

### Introduction

[¶15] This Psalm treats of the opposition raised, both by Jew and Gentile, against the kingdom of Christ, [Psa 2:1-3]. Christ's victory, and the confusion of his enemies, [Psa 2:4-6]. The promulgation of the Gospel after his resurrection, [Psa 2:7-9]. A call to all the potentates and judges of the earth to accept it, because of the destruction that shall fall on those who reject it, [Psa 2:10-12].

### Verse 1

[¶17] Why do the heathen rage - It has been supposed that David composed this Psalm after he had taken Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and made it the head of the kingdom; [2Sam 5:7-9]. The Philistines, hearing this, encamped in the valley of Rephaim, nigh to Jerusalem, and Josephus, Antiq. lib. 7: c. 4, says that all Syria, Phoenicia, and the other circumjacent warlike people, united their armies to those of the Philistines, in order to destroy David before he had strengthened himself in the kingdom. David, having consulted the Lord, [2Sam 5:17-19], gave them battle, and totally overthrew the whole of his enemies. In the first place, therefore, we may suppose that this Psalm was written to celebrate the taking of Jerusalem, and the overthrow of all the kings and chiefs of the neighboring nations. In the second place we find from the use made of this Psalm by the apostles, [Act 4:27], that David typified Jesus Christ; and that the Psalm celebrates the victories of the Gospel over the Philistine Jews, and all the confederate power of the heathen governors of the Roman empire.

[¶18] The heathen, גוים goyim, the nations; those who are commonly called the Gentiles.

[¶19] Rage, רגשו rageshu, the gnashing of teeth, and tumultuously rushing together, of those indignant and cruel people, are well expressed by the sound as well as the meaning of the original word. A vain thing. Vain indeed to prevent the spread of the Gospel in the world. To prevent Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, from having the empire of his own earth. So vain were their endeavors that every effort only tended to open and enlarge the way for the all-conquering sway of the scepter of righteousness.

### Verse 2

[¶21] Against his anointed - על משיחיה al Meshichiah, "Against his Messiah." - Chaldee. But as this signifies the anointed person, it may refer first to David, as it does secondly to Christ.

### Verse 3

[¶23] Let us break their bands - These are the words of the confederate heathen powers; and here, as Bishop Horne well remarks, "we may see the ground of opposition; namely, the unwillingness of rebellious nature to submit to the obligations of Divine laws, which cross the interests, and lay a restraint on the desires of men. Corrupt affections are the most inveterate enemies of Christ, and their language is, We will not have this man to reign over us. Doctrines would be readily believed if they involved in them no precepts; and the Church may be tolerated in the world if she will only give up her discipline."

### Verse 4

[¶25] He that sitteth in the heavens - Whose kingdom ruleth over all, and is above all might and power, human and diabolical. Shall laugh. Words spoken after the manner of men; shall utterly contemn their puny efforts; shall beat down their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices.

### Verse 5

[¶27] Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath - He did so to the Jews who rejected the Gospel, and vexed and ruined them by the Roman armies; he did so with the opposing Roman emperors, destroying all the contending factions, till he brought the empire under the dominion of one, and him he converted to Christianity viz., Constantine the Great.

### Verse 6

[¶29] I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion - Here the Gospel shall be first preached; here the kingdom of Christ shall be founded; and from hence shall the doctrine of the Lord go out into all the earth.

### Verse 7

[¶31] I will declare the decree - These words are supposed to have been spoken by the Messiah. I will declare to the world the decree, the purpose of God to redeem them by my blood, and to sanctify them by my Spirit. My death shall prove that the required atonement has been made; my resurrection shall prove that this atonement has been accepted.

[¶32] Thou art my Son - Made man, born of a woman by the creative energy of the Holy Ghost, that thou mightest feel and suffer for man, and be the first-born of many brethren.

[¶33] This day have I begotten thee - By thy resurrection thou art declared to be the Son of God, εν δυναμει, by miraculous power, being raised from the dead. Thus by thy wondrous and supernatural nativity, most extraordinary death, and miraculous resurrection, thou art declared to be the Son of God. And as in that Son dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, all the sufferings and the death of that human nature were stamped with an infinitely meritorious efficacy. We have St. Paul's authority for applying to the resurrection of our Lord these words, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee;" - see [Act 13:33]; see also [Heb 5:6]; - and the man must indeed be a bold interpreter of the Scriptures who would give a different gloss to that of the apostle. It is well known that the words, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee," have been produced by many as a proof of the eternal generation of the Son of God. On the subject itself I have already given my opinion in my note on [Luk 1:35], from which I recede not one hair's breadth. Still however it is necessary to spend a few moments on the clause before us. The word היום haiyom, Today, Is in no part of the sacred writings used to express eternity, or any thing in reference to it; nor can it have any such signification. To-day is an absolute designation of the present, and equally excludes time past and time future; and never can, by any figure, or allowable latitude of construction, be applied to express eternity. But why then does the Divine Spirit use the word begotten in reference to the declaration of the inauguration of the Messiah to his kingdom, and his being seated at the right hand of God? Plainly to show both to Jews and Gentiles that this Man of sorrows, this Outcast from society, this Person who was prosecuted as a blasphemer of God, and crucified as an enemy to the public peace and a traitor to the government, is no less than that eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God, who was God, and in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily: that this rejected Person was he for whom in the fullness of time a body was prepared, begotten by the exclusive power of the Most High in the womb of an unspotted virgin, which body he gave unto death as a sin-offering for the redemption of the world; and having raised it from death, declared it to be that miraculously-begotten Son of God, and now gave farther proof of this by raising the God-man to his right hand.

[¶34] The word ילדתי yalidti, "I have begotten," is here taken in the sense of manifesting, exhibiting, or declaring; and to this sense of it St. Paul ([Rom 1:3], [Rom 1:4]) evidently alludes when speaking of "Jesus Christ, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, του ὁρισθεντος Υἱου Θεου εν δυναμει, κατα Πνευμα αγιωσυνης, εξ αναστασεως νεκρων; and declared (exhibited or determined) to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness." This very rejected Person, I this day, by raising him from the dead, and placing him at my right hand, giving to him all power in heaven and earth, declare to be my Son, the beloved one in whom I am well pleased. Therefore hear him, believe on him, and obey him; for there is no redemption but through his blood; no salvation but in his name; no resurrection unto eternal life but through his resurrection, ascension, and powerful intercession at my right hand. Thou art my Son; this day have I declared and manifested thee to be such. It was absolutely necessary to the salvation of men, and the credibility of the Gospel, that the supernatural origin of the humanity of Jesus Christ should be manifested and demonstrated. Hence we find the inspired writers taking pains to show that he was born of a woman, and of that woman by the sovereign power of the everlasting God. This vindicated the character of the blessed virgin, showed the human nature of Christ to be immaculate, and that, even in respect to this nature, he was every way qualified to be a proper atoning sacrifice and Mediator between God and man. I need not tell the learned reader that the Hebrew verb ילד yalad, to beget, is frequently used in reference to inanimate things, to signify their production, or the exhibition of the things produced. In [Gen 2:4] : These are the generations, תולדות toledoth, of the heavens and the earth; this is the order in which God produced and exhibited them. See Hebrews and Eng. Concord., Venema, etc.

### Verse 8

[¶36] Ask of me, and I shall give thee - Here a second branch of Christ's office as Savior of the world is referred to; viz., his mediatorial office. Having died as an atoning sacrifice, and risen again from the dead, he was now to make intercession for mankind; and in virtue and on account of what he had done and suffered, he was, at his request, to have the nations for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. He was to become supreme Lord in the mediatorial kingdom; in consequence of which he sent his apostles throughout the habitable globe to preach the Gospel to every man.

### Verse 9

[¶38] Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron - This may refer to the Jewish nation, whose final rejection of the Gospel was foreseen, and in whose place the Gentiles or heathen were brought into the Church of Christ. They were dispossessed of their land, their city was razed to its foundations, their temple was burnt with fire, and upwards of a million of themselves were slaughtered by the Romans! So heavily did the iron rod of God's judgments fall upon them for their obstinate unbelief.

### Verse 10

[¶40] Be wise - O ye kings - An exhortation of the Gospel to the rulers of all kingdoms, nations, and states, to whom it may be sent. All these should listen to its maxims, be governed by its precepts, and rule their subjects according to its dictates.

[¶41] Be instructed, ye judges - Rather, Be ye reformed - cast away all your idolatrous maxims; and receive the Gospel as the law, or the basis of the law, of the land.

### Verse 11

[¶43] Serve the Lord with fear - A general direction to all men. Fear God with that reverence which is due to his supreme majesty. Serve him as subjects should their sovereign, and as servants should their master.

[¶44] Rejoice with trembling - If ye serve God aright, ye cannot but be happy; but let a continual filial fear moderate all your joys. Ye must all stand at last before the judgment-seat of God; watch, pray, believe, work, and keep humble.

## 550. Psalms · 4 of 159

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Kiss the Son, lest he be angry - It is remarkable that the word son (בר bar, a Chaldee word) is not found in any of the versions except the Syriac, nor indeed any thing equivalent to it.

[¶2] The Chaldee, Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, and Ethiopic, have a term which signifies doctrine or discipline: "Embrace discipline, lest the Lord be angry with you," etc. This is a remarkable case, and especially that in so pure a piece of Hebrew as this poem is, a Chaldee word should have been found; rb bar, instead of b ben, which adds nothing to the strength of the expression or the elegance of the poetry. I know it is supposed that rb bar is also pure Hebrew, as well as Chaldee; but as it is taken in the former language in the sense of purifying, the versions probably understood it so here. Embrace that which is pure; namely, the doctrine of God.

[¶3] As all judgment is committed to the Son, the Jews and others are exhorted to submit to him, to be reconciled to him, that they might be received into his family, and be acknowledged as his adopted children. Kissing was the token of subjection and friendship.

[¶4] Is kindled but a little - The slightest stroke of the iron rod of Christ's justice is sufficient to break in pieces a whole rebel world. Every sinner, not yet reconciled to God through Christ, should receive this as a most solemn warning.

[¶5] Blessed: are all they - He is only the inexorable Judge to them who harden their hearts in their iniquity, and still not come unto him that they may have life. But all they who trust in him - who repose all their trust and confidence in him as their atonement and as their Lord, shall be blessed with innumerable blessings, For as the word is the same here as in [Psa 1:1], אשרי ashrey, it may be translated the same. "O the blessedness of all them who trust in him!"

[¶6] This Psalm is remarkable, not only for its subject - the future kingdom of the Messiah, its rise, opposition, and gradual extent, but also for the elegant change of person. In the first verse the prophet speaks; in the third, the adversaries; in the fourth and fifth, the prophet answers, in the sixth, Jehovah speaks; in the seventh, the Messiah; in the eighth and ninth, Jehovah answers, and in the tenth to the twelfth, the prophet exhorts the opponents to submission and obedience - Dr. A. Bayly.

### Analysis of the Second Psalm

[¶8] The prime subject of this Psalm is CHRIST; the type, DAVID. The persons we are chiefly to reflect on are three, and which make three parts of the Psalm: I. The enemies of Christ; II. Christ the Lord; III. The princes and judges of the earth.

[¶9] I. The enemies of Christ are great men, who are described here, partly from their wickedness, and partly from their weakness.

[¶10] First, Their wickedness is apparent. 1. They furiously rage. 2. They tumultuously assemble. 3. They set themselves-stand up, and take counsel, against the Lord and against his anointed. 4. They encourage themselves in mischief, saying, "Come, and let us cast away their cords from us." All which is sharpened by the interrogatory Why!

[¶11] Secondly, Their weakness; in that they shall never be able to bring their plots and conspiracies against Christ and his kingdom to pass; for, 1. What they imagine is but a vain thing. 2. "He that sits in heaven shall laugh, and have them in derision." 3. "He shall speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." 4. For, maugre all their plots, "God hath set up his king upon his holy hill of Zion."

[¶12] II. At Ps 2:6 begins the exaltation of Christ to his kingdom, which is the SECOND PART of the Psalm; in which the prophet, by a προσωποποιια, or personification, brings in God the Father speaking, and the Son answering.

[¶13] First, The words of the Father are, "I have set my king;" where we have the inauguration of Christ, or his vocation to the crown.

[¶14] Secondly, The answer of the Son, "I will preach the law;" which sets forth his willing obedience to publish and proclaim the laws of the kingdom; of which the chief is, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."

[¶15] Thirdly, The reply of the Father, containing the reward that Christ was to have upon the publication of the Gospel; which was, 1. An addition to his empire by the conversion and accession of the Gentiles: "Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance," &c. 2. And the confusion of his enemies: "Thou shalt break them," who would not have thee reign, that did rage and stand up against thee, "with a rod of iron; and break them in pieces as a potter's vessel."

[¶16] III. In the third part the prophet descends to his exhortation and admonition, and that very aptly; for, Is Christ a King? Is he a King anointed by God? Is he a great King, a powerful King? So great that the nations are his subjects? So powerful that he will break and batter to pieces his enemies? Besides, Is he the only begotten Son of God? Be wise, therefore, O ye kings. In this we find,

[¶17] First, The persons to whom this caveat is given: kings and judges.

[¶18] Secondly, What they are taught. 1. To know their duty. "Be wise; be learned." 2. To do their duty: "Serve the Lord with fear; rejoice with trembling; kiss the Son."

[¶19] Thirdly, The time when this is to be done; even now. The reason double: 1. Drawn from his wrath, and the consequent punishment: "Lest he be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." 2. From the happy condition of those who learn to know, and fear, and serve, and adore him: "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." There must be no delay; this is the time of wrath, and the day of salvation.

### Introduction

[¶21] David complains, in great distress, of the number of his enemies, and the reproaches they cast on him, as one forsaken of God, [Psa 3:1], [Psa 3:2]; is confident, notwithstanding, that God will be his protector, [Psa 3:3]; mentions his prayers and supplications, and how God heard him, [Psa 3:4], [Psa 3:5]; derides the impotent malice of has adversaries, and foretells their destruction, [Psa 3:6], [Psa 3:7]; and ascribes salvation to God, [Psa 3:8].

[¶22] This is said to be A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son - See the account, [2Sam 15:1] (note), etc. And David is supposed to have composed it when obliged to leave Jerusalem, passing by the mount of Olives, weeping, with his clothes rent, and with dust upon his head. This Psalm is suitable enough to these circumstances; and they mutually cast light on each other. If the inscription be correct, this Psalm is a proof that the Psalms are not placed in any chronological order.

[¶23] The word Psalm, מזמור mizmor, comes from זמר zamar, to cut, whether that means to cut into syllables, for the purpose of its being adapted to musical tones, or whether its being cut on wood, etc., for the direction of the singers; what we would call a Psalm in score. This last opinion, however, seems too technical.

### Verse 1

[¶25] Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? - We are told that the hearts of all Israel went after Absalom, [2Sam 15:13]; and David is astonished to find such a sudden and general revolt. Not only the common people, but his counsellors also, and many of his chief captains. How publicly does God take vengeance for the sins which David committed so privately! In the horrible rebellion of Absalom we see the adultery of Bath-sheba, and the murder of Uriah. Now the words of Nathan begin to be fulfilled: "The sword shall not depart from thy house."

### Verse 2

[¶27] No help for him in God - These were some of the reproaches of his enemies, Shimei and others: "He is now down, and he shall never be able to rise. God alone can save him from these his enemies; but God has visibly east him off." These reproaches deeply affected his heart; and he mentions them with that note which so frequently occurs in the Psalms, and which occurs here for the first time, סלה selah. Much has been said on the meaning of this word; and we have nothing but conjecture to guide us. The Septuagint always translate it by Διαψαλμα diapsalma, "a pause in the Psalm." The Chaldee sometimes translates it by לעלמין lealmin, "for ever." The rest of the versions leave it unnoticed. It either comes from סל sal, to raise or elevate, and may denote a particular elevation in the voices of the performers, which is very observable in the Jewish singing to the present day; or it may come from סלה salah, to strew or spread out, intimating that the subject to which the word is attached should be spread out, meditated on, and attentively considered by the reader. Fenwick, Parkhurst, and Dodd, contend for this meaning; and think "it confirmed by [Psa 9:16], where the word higgaion is put before selah at the end of the verse." Now higgaion certainly signifies meditation, or a fit subject for meditation; and so shows selah to be really a nota bene, attend to or mind this.

### Verse 3

[¶29] Thou, O Lord art a shield - As a shield covers and defends the body from the strokes of an adversary, so wilt thou cover and defend me from them that rise up against me.

[¶30] The lifter up of mine head - Thou wilt restore me to the state from which my enemies have cast me down. This is the meaning of the phrase; and this he speaks prophetically. He was satisfied that the deliverance would take place, hence his confidence in prayer; so that we find him, with comparative unconcern, laying himself down in his bed, expecting the sure protection of the Almighty.

### Verse 4

[¶32] I cried unto the Lord with my voice - He was exposed to much danger, and therefore he had need of fervor.

[¶33] He heard me - Notwithstanding my enemies said, and my friends feared, that there was no help for me in my God; yet he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah: mark this, and take encouragement from it. God never forsakes those who trust in him. He never shuts out the prayer of the distressed.

### Verse 5

[¶35] I laid me down and slept - He who knows that he has God for his Protector may go quietly and confidently to his bed, not fearing the violence of the fire, the edge of the sword, the designs of wicked men, nor the influence of malevolent spirits.

[¶36] I awaked - Though humanly speaking there was reason to fear I should have been murdered in my bed, as my most confidential servants had been corrupted by my rebellious son; yet God, my shield, protected me. I both slept and awaked; and my life is still whole in me.

### Verse 6

[¶38] I Will not be afraid of ten thousands - Strength and numbers are nothing against the omnipotence of God. He who has made God his refuge certainly has no cause to fear.

### Verse 7

[¶40] Arise, O Lord - Though he knew that God had undertaken his defense, yet he knew that his continued protection depended on his continual prayer and faith. God never ceases to help as long as we pray. When our hands hang down, and we restrain prayer before him, we may then justly fear that our enemies will prevail.

[¶41] Those blast smitten - That is, Thou wilt smite. He speaks in full confidence of God's interference; and knows as surely that he shall have the victory, as if he had it already. Breaking the jaws and the teeth are expressions which imply, confounding and destroying an adversary; treating him with extreme contempt; using him like a dog, etc.

### Verse 8

[¶43] Salvation belongeth unto the Lord - It is God alone who saves. He is the fountain whence help and salvation come; and to him alone the praise of all saved souls is due. His blessing is upon his people. Those who are saved from the power and the guilt of sin are his people. His mercy saved them; and it is by his blessing being continually upon them, that they continue to be saved. David adds his selah here also: mark this!

[¶44] 1. Salvation comes from God.

[¶45] 2. Salvation is continued by God.

## 551. Psalms · 5 of 159

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[¶0] These are great truths; mark them!

### Analysis of the Third Psalm

[¶2] The occasion of this Psalm was Absalom's rebellion. David being deserted by his subjects, railed on by Shimei, pursued for his crown and life by his ungracious son, and not finding to whom to make his moan, betakes himself to his God; and before him he expostulates his wrong, confesses his faith, and makes his prayer.

[¶3] There are three strains of this accurate Psalm: I. His complaint. II. The confession of his confidence. III. His petition.

[¶4] I. He begins with a sad and bitter complaint, amplified,

[¶5] 1. By the number and multitude of his enemies. They were many, very many; they were multiplied and increased: "All Israel was gathered together from Dan to Beer-sheba, as the sand of the sea for multitude;" [2Sa 17:11].

[¶6] 2. From their malice they came together to do him mischief. They rose up, not for him, but against him; not to honour, but to trouble him; not to defend him as they ought, but to take away his crown and life; [2Sa 17:2].

[¶7] 3. From their insults and sarcasm. It was not Shimei only, but many, that said it: "Many-say there is no help for him in his God."

[¶8] II. The second part of the Psalm sets forth David's confidence:-

[¶9] 1. To their multitude, he opposeth ONE GOD. But THOU, O LORD!

[¶10] 2. To their malicious insurrection, Jehovah; who, he believed, 1. Would be a buckler to receive all the arrows shot against him. 2. His glory, to honour, though they went about to dishonour, him. 3. The lifter up of his head, which they wished to lay low enough.

[¶11] 3. To their vain boast of desertion, There is no help for him in his God, he opposeth his own experience, "I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me."

[¶12] 4. By whose protection being sustained and secured, he deposes all care and fear, all anxiety and distraction. 1. He sleeps with a quiet mind: "I laid me down and slept, I awoke." 2. He sings a requiem: "I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people, that have set themselves against me round about."

[¶13] III. In the close, or third part, he petitions and prays, notwithstanding his security: "Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God!" To move God to grant his request, he thankfully reminds him of what he had done before:-

[¶14] 1. "Arise and save me, for thou hast smitten all mine enemies." Thou art the same God: do then the same work; be as good to thy servant as ever thou hast been.

[¶15] 2. He inserts an excellent maxim: Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. As if he had said, It is thy property and prerogative to save. If thou save not, I expect it from none other.

[¶16] 3. Lastly, as a good king should, in his prayers he remembers his subjects. He prayed for those who were using him despitefully: Thy blessing be upon thy people! To the same sense, Coverdale, in his translation.

### Introduction

[¶18] David prays to be heard, [Psa 4:1]; expostulates with the ungodly, [Psa 4:2]; exhorts them to turn to God, and make their peace with him, [Psa 4:3-5]; shows the vain pursuits of men in search of happiness, which he asserts exists only in the approbation of God, [Psa 4:6], [Psa 4:7]; commends himself to the Lord, and then quietly takes his repose, [Psa 4:8].

[¶19] This Psalm seems to have been composed on the same occasion with the preceding, viz., Absalom's rebellion. It appears to have been an evening hymn, sung by David and his company previously to their going to rest. It is inscribed to the chief Musician upon Neginoth, למנצח בנגינות lamnatstseach binginoth. Probably the first word comes from נצח natsach, to be over, or preside; and may refer to the precentor in the choir. Some suppose that it refers to the Lord Jesus, who is the Supreme Governor, or victorious Person; the Giver of victory. Neginoth seems to come from נגן nagan, to strike; and probably may signify some such instruments as the cymbal, drum, etc., and stringed instruments in general. But there is no certainty in these things. What they mean, or what they were, is known to no man.

### Verse 1

[¶21] Hear me when I call - No man has a right to expect God to hear him if he do not call. Indeed, how shall he be heard if he speak not? There are multitudes who expect the blessings of God as confidently as if they had prayed for them most fervently; and yet such people pray not at all!

[¶22] God of my righteousness - Whatever pardon, peace, holiness, or truth I possess, has come entirely from thyself. Thou art the God of my salvation, as thou art the God of my life.

[¶23] Thou hast enlarged me - I was in prison; and thou hast brought me forth abroad. Have mercy on me - continue to act in the same way. I shall always need thy help; I shall never deserve to have it; let me have it in the way of mere mercy, as thou hast hitherto done.

### Verse 2

[¶25] O ye sons of men - בני איש beney ish, ye powerful men - ye who are now at the head of affairs, or who are leaders of the multitude.

[¶26] Love vanity - The poor, empty, shallow-brained, pretty-faced Absalom; whose prospects are all vain, and whose promises are all empty!

[¶27] Seek after leasing? - This is a Saxon word, from falsehood, from to lie. Cardmarden has adopted this word in his translation, Rouen, 1566. It is in none of the Bibles previously to that time, nor in any after, as far as my own collection affords me evidence; and appears to have been borrowed by King James's translators from the above.

[¶28] Selah - Mark this! See what the end will be!

### Verse 3

[¶30] The Lord hath set apart him that is godly - חסיד chasid, the pious, benevolent man. He has marked such, and put them aside as his own property. "This merciful man, this feeling, tender-hearted man, is my own property; touch not a hair of his head!"

### Verse 4

[¶32] Stand in awe, and sin not - The Septuagint, which is copied by St. Paul, [Eph 4:26], translate this clause, Οργιζεσθε, και μη ἁμαρτανετε; Be ye angry, and sin not. The Vulgate, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic, give the same reading; and thus the original רגזו rigzu might be translated: If ye be angry, and if ye think ye have cause to be angry; do not let your disaffection carry you to acts of rebellion against both God and your king. Consider the subject deeply before you attempt to act. Do nothing rashly; do not justify one evil act by another: sleep on the business; converse with your oten heart upon your bed; consult your pillow.

[¶33] And be still - ודמו vedommu, "and be dumb." Hold your peace; fear lest ye be found fighting against God. Selah. Mark this!

### Verse 5

[¶35] Offer the sacrifices of righteousness - Do not attempt to offer a sacrifice to God for prosperity in your present rebellious conduct. Such a sacrifice would be a sin. Turn to God from whom you have revolted; and offer to him a righteous sacrifice, such as the law prescribes, and such as he can receive. Let all hear and consider this saying. No sacrifice - no performance of religious duty, will avail any man, if his heart be not right with God. And let all know, that under the Gospel dispensation no sacrifice of any kind will be received but through the all-atoning sacrifice made by Christ.

[¶36] Because of sin, justice has stopped every man's mouth; so that none can have access to God, but through the Mediator. By him only can the mouth of a sinner be opened to plead with God. Hear this, ye who trust in yourselves, and hope for heaven without either faith or dependence on the vicarious sacrifice of Christ.

### Verse 6

[¶38] Who will show us any good? - This is not a fair translation. The word any is not in the text, nor any thing equivalent to it; and not a few have quoted it, and preached upon the text, placing the principal emphasis on this illegitimate word.

[¶39] The place is sufficiently emphatic without this. There are multitudes who say, Who will show us good? Man wants good; he hates evil as evil, because he has pain, suffering, and death through it; and he wishes to find that supreme good which will content his heart, and save him from evil. But men mistake this good. They look for a good that is to gratify their passions; they have no notion of any happiness that does not come to them through the medium of their senses. Therefore they reject spiritual good, and they reject the Supreme God, by whom alone all the powers of the soul of man can be gratified.

[¶40] Lift thou up the light of thy countenance - This alone, the light of thy countenance - thy peace and approbation, constitute the supreme good. This is what we want, wish, and pray for. The first is the wish of the worldling, the latter the wish of the godly.

### Verse 7

[¶42] Thou hast put gladness in my heart - Thou hast given my soul what it wanted and wished for. I find now a happiness which earthly things could not produce. I have peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost; such inward happiness as they cannot boast who have got the highest increase of corn and wine; those Two Things in the abundance of which many suppose happiness to be found.

[¶43] To corn and wine all the versions, except the Chaldee, add oil; for corn, wine, and oil, were considered the highest blessings of a temporal kind that man could possess.

## 552. Psalms · 6 of 159

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### Verse 8

[¶1] I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep - Most men lie down, and most sleep, daily, for without rest and steep life could not be preserved; but alas! how few lie down in peace! peace with their own consciences, and peace with God! David had then two great blessings, rest by sleep, and peace in his soul. He had a happy soul; and when he lay down on his bed, his body soon enjoyed its repose, as the conscience was in peace. And he had a third blessing, a confidence that he should sleep in safety. And it was so. No fearful dreams disturbed his repose, for he had a mind tranquillized by the peace of God. As to his body, that enjoyed its due rest, for he had not overloaded nature either with dainties or superfluities. Reader, are not many of thy sleepless hours to be attributed to thy disordered soul - to a sense of guilt on thy conscience, or to a fear of death and hell?

[¶2] Pray incessantly till thou get the light of God's countenance, till his Spirit bear witness with thine that thou art a child of God. Then thy repose will do thee good: and even in thy sleep thy happy soul will be getting forward to heaven.

### Analysis of the Fourth Psalm

[¶4] There are THREE parts in this Psalm:-

[¶5] I. An entrance, or petition for audience, Ps 4:1. II. An apostrophe to his enemies, which is, 1. Reprehensive, Ps 4:2, 3. 2. Admonitory, Ps 4:4, 5. III. A petition for himself and God's people, [Ps 4:6-8].

[¶6] I. He proposes his request and suit for audience. "Hear me when I call;" and this he founds on four arguments: 1. God has promised to hear me when I call: "Call upon me in trouble, and I will hear thee." I call; hear me, therefore, when I call. 2. His own innocence: "Hear me, O God of my righteousness." 3. He requests no more than what God had done for him at other times: Thou hast enlarged me in trouble, and why not now? 4. It was mercy and favour to answer him then; it will be the same to do it again: "Have mercy on me, and hear."

[¶7] II. His petition being thus proposed and ended, he proceeds to the doctrinal part; and, turning himself to his enemies, 1. He sharply reproves them; 2. Then warns them, and gives them good counsel.

[¶8] 1. He turns his speech from God to men; the chief but the worst of men. beney ish, "ye eminent men." Not plebeians, but nobles. The charge he lays to them, 1. They "turned his glory into shame." They endeavoured to dishonour him whom God had called and anointed to the kingdom. 2. "They loved vanity." A vain attempt they were in love with. 3. "They sought after falsity." They pursued that which would deceive them; they would find at last that treachery and iniquity lied to itself. 4. That this charge might have the more weight, he figures it with a stinging interrogation, How long? Their sin had malice and pertinacity in it; and he asks them how long they intended to act thus.

[¶9] And that they might, if possible, be drawn from their attempts, he sends them a noverint, know ye, which has two clauses: 1. Let them know that God hath set apart him that is godly for himself. 2. That God will hear, when either he or any good man calls upon him.

[¶10] 2. The reproof being ended, he gives them good counsel:-

[¶11] 1. That though they be angry, they ought not to let the sun go down upon their wrath.

[¶12] 2. That they commune with their own hearts-their conscience. That they do this on their beds, when secluded from all company, when passion and self-interest did not rule; and then they would be the better able to judge whether they were not in an error, whether their anger were not causeless, and their persecution unjust?

[¶13] 3. That they offer the sacrifice of righteousness-that they serve and worship God with an honest, sincere, and contrite heart.

[¶14] 4. That they put their trust in the Lord; trusting no more to their lies, nor loving their vanities, but relying on God's promises.

[¶15] III. The third part begins with this question, Who will show us any good? 1. Who will show us that good which will make us happy? To which David, in effect, returns this answer, that it is not bona animi, intellectual gifts; nor bona fortunae, earthly blessings; nor bona corporis, corporeal endowments: but the light of God's countenance. 2. Therefore he prefers his petition: "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." God's countenance is his grace, his favour, his love, and the light of his countenance, the exhibition and expression of this grace, favour, and love; in which alone lies all the happiness of man. Of this David expresses two effects, gladness and security:-

[¶16] 1. Gladness and joy far beyond that which may be had from any temporal blessings: "Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn, and wine, and oil increased; gladness beyond the joy in harvest; and this joy is from the light of God's countenance. Thou puttest. THOU, by way of eminence.

[¶17] 2. Security, expressed under the metaphor of sleep: "I will lay me down in peace, and sleep;" just as in a time of peace, as if there were no war nor preparation for battle.

[¶18] 3. To which he adds the reason: "For thou Lord, alone makest me to dwell in safety." I am safe, because I enjoy the light of thy countenance.

### Introduction

[¶20] David continues instant in prayers [Psa 5:1], [Psa 5:2]; makes early application to God, [Psa 5:3]; and shows the hatred which God bears to the workers of iniquity, [Psa 5:4-6]. His determination to worship God, and to implore direction and support, [Psa 5:7], [Psa 5:8]. He points out the wickedness of his enemies, [Psa 5:9], and the destruction they may expect, [Psa 5:10]; and then shows the happiness of those who trust in the Lord, [Psa 5:11], [Psa 5:12].

[¶21] This Psalm is inscribed to the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David. As neginoth may signify all kinds of instruments struck with a plectrum, stringed instruments, those like the drum, cymbals, etc.; so nechiloth, from חל chal, to be hollow, to bore through, may signify any kind of wind instruments, such as the horn, trumpet, flute, etc. See on [Psa 4:1-8] (note). The Septuagint have, Εις το τελος, ὑπερ της κληρονομουσης, "In favor of her who obtains the inheritance." The Vulgate and Arabic have a similar reading. The word נחילות nechiloth they have derived from נחל nachal, to inherit. This may either refer to the Israelites who obtained the inheritance of the promised land, or to the Church of Christ which obtains through him, by faith and prayer, the inheritance among the saints in light. This Psalm is, especially, for the whole Church of God.

### Verse 1

[¶23] Give ear to my words - This is properly a morning hymn, as the preceding was an evening hymn. We have seen from the conclusion of the last Psalm that David was very happy, and lay down and slept in the peace and love of his God. When he opens his eyes on the following morning, he not only remembers but feels the happiness of which he spoke; and with his first recollections he meditates on the goodness and mercy of God, and the glorious state of salvation into which he had been brought. He calls on God to give ear to his words; probably words of God's promises which he had been pleading.

### Verse 2

[¶25] Hearken unto the voice of my cry - We may easily find the process through which David's mind was now passing:

[¶26] 1. We have seen from the preceding Psalm that he lay down in a very happy frame of mind, and that he had enjoyed profound repose.

[¶27] 2. As soon as he awakes in the morning, his heart, having a right direction, resumes its work.

[¶28] 3. He meditates on God's goodness; and on his own happy state, though pursued by enemies, and only safe as long as God preserved him by an almighty hand and especial providence.

[¶29] 4. This shows him the need he has of the continual protection of the Most High; and therefore he begins to form his meditation and the desires of his heart into words, to which he entreats the Lord to give ear.

[¶30] 5. As he was accustomed to have answers to his prayers, he feels the necessity of being importunate! and therefore lifts up his voice.

[¶31] 6. Seeing the workers of iniquity, liars, and blood-thirsty men strong to accomplish their own purposes in the destruction of the godly, he becomes greatly in earnest, and cries unto the Lord: "Hearken unto the voice of my cry."

[¶32] 7. He knows that, in order to have a right answer, he must have a proper disposition of mind. He feels his subjection to the supreme authority of the Most High, and is ready to do his will and obey his laws; therefore he prays to God as his lying: "Hearken, my King and my God." I have not only taken thee for my God, to save, defend, and make me happy; but I have taken thee for my King, to govern, direct, and rule over me.

[¶33] 8. Knowing the necessity and success of prayer, he purposes to continue in the spirit and practice of it: "Unto thee will I pray." R. S. Jarchi gives this a pretty and pious turn: "When I have power to pray, and to ask for the things I need, then, O Lord, give ear to my words; but when I have no power to plead with thee, and fear seizes on my heart, then, O Lord, consider my meditation!"

### Verse 3

[¶35] My voice shalt thou hear in the morning - We find from this that he had not prayed in vain. He had received a blessed answer; God had lifted upon him the light of his countenance, and he therefore determines to be an early applicant at the throne of grace: "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning." He finds it good to begin the day with God; to let Divine things occupy the first place in his waking thoughts; as that which first occupies the mind on awaking is most likely to keep possession of the heart all the day through.

[¶36] In the morning will I direct my prayer - Here seems to be a metaphor taken from an archer. He sees his mark; puts his arrow in his bow; directs his shaft to the mark, i.e., takes his aim; lets fly, and then looks up, to see if he have hit his mark. Prayers that have a right aim, will have a prompt answer; and he who sends up his petitions to God through Christ, from a warm, affectionate heart, may confidently look up for an answer, for it will come. If an immediate answer be not given, let not the upright heart suppose that the prayer is not heard. It has found its way to the throne; and there it is registered.

### Verse 4

[¶38] Neither shall evil dwell with thee - As thou art holy, so thou hast pleasure only in holiness; and as to evil men, they shall never enter into thy glory; לא יגרך רע lo yegurecha ra, "the evil man shall not even sojourn with thee."

### Verse 5

[¶40] The foolish shall not stand - He is a fool and a madman who is running himself out of breath for no prize, who is fighting against the Almighty; this every wicked man does; therefore is every wicked man a fool and a madman.

[¶41] Thou hatest all workers of iniquity - Some sin now and then, others generally; some constantly, and some labor in it with all their might. These are the Workers of iniquity. Such even the God of infinite love and mercy hates. Alas! what a portion have the workers of iniquity! the hatred of God Almighty!

### Verse 6

[¶43] That speak leasing - Falsity, from the Anglo-Saxon leasunge, a lie, falsity, deceit; from leas, lie, which is from the verb leasian to lie. See on [Psa 4:2] (note).

[¶44] The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man - איש דמים ish damim, the man of bloods; for he who has the spirit of a murderer, will rarely end with one bloodshedding. So the Jews, who clamored for the blood of our Lord, added to that, as far and as long as they could, the blood of his disciples.

## 553. Psalms · 7 of 159

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### Verse 7

[¶1] In the multitude of thy mercy - David considered it an inexpressible privilege to be permitted to attend public worship; and he knew that it was only through the multitude of God's mercy that he, or any man else, could enjoy such a privilege. He knew farther that, from the multitude of this mercy, he might receive innumerable blessings in his house. In this spirit, and with this dependence, he went to the house of the Lord. He who takes David's views of this subject will never, willingly, be absent from the means of grace.

[¶2] In thy fear - Duly considering the infinite holiness of thy majesty, will I worship, אשתחוה eshtachaveh, will I bow and prostrate myself in the deepest self-abasement and humility.

[¶3] Toward thy holy temple - If David was the author of this Psalm, as is generally agreed, the temple was not built at this time: only the tabernacle then existed; and in the preceding clause he speaks of coming into the house, by which he must mean the tabernacle. But temple here may signify the holy of holies, before which David might prostrate himself while in the house, i.e., the court of the tabernacle. Even in the house of God, there is the temple of God; the place where the Divine Shechinah dwells. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In all ages and dispensations, Jesus was ever the temple where the Supreme Deity was met with and worshipped. The human nature of Jesus was the real temple of the Deity. Nowhere else can God be found.

### Verse 8

[¶5] Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness - When entered into the house, and prostrated before the temple, he knew that, unless God continued to lead and direct, he was not likely to profit even by such great advantages. We need God not only to bring us to his house, but to keep our feet while we are there.

[¶6] Because of mine enemies - His conduct was marked; his enemies looked upon and watched him with an evil eye. They would have been glad of his halting, that they might have brought a reproach on the good cause which he had espoused. O how cautiously should those walk who make a profession of living to God, of knowing themselves to be in his favor, and of being delivered from all sin in this life!

[¶7] Make thy way straight - Show me that I must go right on; and let thy light always shine on my path, that I may see how to proceed.

### Verse 9

[¶9] No faithfulness in their mouth - They make professions of friendship; but all is hollow and deceitful: "They flatter with their tongue."

[¶10] Very wickedness - Their heart is full of all kinds of depravity.

[¶11] Their throat is an open sepulcher - It is continually gaping for the dead; and sends forth effluvia destructive to the living. I fear that this is too true a picture of the whole human race, totally corrupt within, and abominable without. The heart is the center and spring of this corruption; and the words and actions of men, which proceed from this source, will send out incessant streams of various impurity; and thus they continue till the grace of God changes and purifies the heart.

### Verse 10

[¶13] Destroy thou them, O God - All these apparently imprecatory declarations should be translated in the future tense, to which they belong; and which shows them to be prophetic. Thou Wilt destroy them; thou Wilt cast them out, etc.

### Verse 11

[¶15] Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice - Such expressions as these should be translated in the same way, declaratively and prophetically: "All those who put their trust in thee Shall rejoice, - Shall ever shout for joy."

### Verse 12

[¶17] For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous - A righteous soul is a peculiar object of God's affectionate regards; and therefore will be a subject of continual blessing.

[¶18] With favor - Literally, Like a shield, thy favor will crown him. God loves such; and this love is their defense. In all places, times and circumstances, it will preserve them. "Keep yourselves," says the apostle, "in the love of God." He who abides in this love need not fear the face of any adversary. Thus ended the morning's devotion of this excellent man: a model by which every Christian may frame his own.

### Introduction

[¶20] This Psalm contains a deprecation of eternal vengeance, [Psa 6:1]; a petition to God for mercy, [Psa 6:2]. This is enforced from a consideration of the psalmist's sufferings, [Psa 6:3]; from that of the Divine mercy, [Psa 6:4]; from that of the praise and glory which God would fail to receive if man were destroyed, [Psa 6:5]; from that of his humiliation and contrition, [Psa 6:6], [Psa 6:7]. Being successful in his supplication, he exults in God, [Psa 6:8], [Psa 6:9]; and predicts the downfall of all his enemies, [Psa 6:10].

[¶21] This Psalm has the following inscription: To the chief Musician on Neginoth, upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David; which the Chaldee translates, "To be sung on neginoth, a harp of eight strings." The various interpretations given to this inscription, both by ancients and moderns, show us that nothing is known concerning it. We have already seen that neginoth probably signifies all instruments which emitted sounds by strokes, or stringed instruments in general. This Psalm was to be accompanied with such instruments; but one of a particular kind is specified, viz., sheminith; so called from its having eight strings. The chief musician is directed to accompany the recital of this Psalm with the above instrument.

### Verse 1

[¶23] O Lord, rebuke me not - This Psalm, Which is one of the seven Penitential Psalms, is supposed to have been written during some grievous disease with which David was afflicted after his transgression with Bath-sheba. It argues a deep consciousness of sin, and apprehension of the just displeasure of God. It is the very language of a true penitent who is looking around for help, and who sees, as Bishop Horne well expresses it, "above, an angry God, ready to take vengeance; beneath, the fiery gulf, ready to receive him; without, a world in flames; within, the gnawing worm." Of all these, none so dreadful as an angry God; his wrath he particularly deprecates. God rebukes and chastens him, and he submits; but he prays not to be rebuked in anger, nor chastened in hot displeasure. because he knows that these must bring him down to total and final destruction.

### Verse 2

[¶25] Have mercy - I have no merit. I deserve all I feel and all I fear.

[¶26] O Lord, heal me - No earthly physician can cure my malady. Body and soul are both diseased, and only God can help me.

[¶27] I am weak - אמלל umlal. I am exceedingly weak; I cannot take nourishment, and my strength is exhausted.

[¶28] My bones are vexed - The disease hath entered into my bones.

### Verse 3

[¶30] How long? - How long shall I continue under this malady? How long will it be before thou speak peace to my troubled heart?

### Verse 4

[¶32] Return, O Lord - Once I had the light of thy countenance, by sin I have forfeited this; I have provoked thee to depart: O Lord, return! It is an awful thing to be obliged to say, Return, O Lord, for this supposes backsliding; and yet what a mercy it is that a backslider may Return to God, with the expectation that God will return to him!

### Verse 5

[¶34] In death there is no remembrance of thee - Man is to glorify thee on earth. The end for which he was born cannot be accomplished in the grave; heal my body, and heal my soul, that I may be rendered capable of loving and serving thee here below. A dead body in the grave can do no good to men, nor bring any glory to thy name!

### Verse 7

[¶36] Mine eye is consumed - עששה asheshah, is blasted, withered, sunk in my head.

### Verse 8

[¶38] Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity - It seems that while he was suffering grievously through the disease, his enemies had insulted and mocked him; - upbraided him with his transgressions, not to increase his penitence, but to cast him into despair.

[¶39] The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping - The Lord pitifully beheld the sorrows of his heart, and mercifully forgave his sins.

### Verse 10

[¶41] Ashamed and sore vexed - May they as deeply deplore their transgressions as I have done mine! May they return; may they be suddenly converted! The original will bear this meaning, and it is the most congenial to Christian principles.

### Introduction

[¶43] The psalmist prays against the malice of his enemies, [Psa 7:1], [Psa 7:2]; protests his own innocence, [Psa 7:3-5]; prays to God that he would vindicate him, for the edification of his people, [Psa 7:6-8]; prays against the wickedness of his enemies, [Psa 7:9]; expresses strong confidence in God, [Psa 7:10]; threatens transgressors with God's judgments, [Psa 7:11-13]; shows the conduct and end of the ungodly, [Psa 7:14-16]; and exults in the mercy and lovingkindness of his Maker, [Psa 7:17].

[¶44] This Psalm is entitled, Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the Lord, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite. The word שגיון shiggayon comes from שגה shagah, to wander, a wandering song; i.e., a Psalm composed by David in his wanderings, when he was obliged to hide himself from the fury of Saul.

[¶45] Bishop Horsley thinks it may have its name, a wandering ode, from its being in different parts, taking up different subjects, in different styles of composition. But he has sometimes thought that shiggaion might be an unpremeditated song; an improviso.

## 554. Psalms · 8 of 159

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[¶0] As to Cush the Benjamite, he is a person unknown in the Jewish history; the name is probably a name of disguise; and by it he may covertly mean Saul himself, the son of Kish, who was of the tribe of Benjamin. The subject of the Psalm will better answer to Saul's unjust persecution and David's innocence, than to any other subject in the history of David.

### Verse 1

[¶2] O Lord my God - יהוה אלהי Yehovah Elohai, words expressive of the strongest confidence the soul can have in the Supreme Being. Thou self-existent, incomprehensible, almighty, and eternal Being, who neither needest nor hatest any thing that thou hast made; thou art my God: God in covenant with thy creature man; and my God and portion particularly. Therefore, in thee do I put thy trust - I repose all my confidence in thee, and expect all my good from thee.

[¶3] Save me - Shield me from my persecutors; abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices!

[¶4] Deliver me - From the counsels which they have devised, and from the snares and gins they have laid in my path.

### Verse 2

[¶6] Lest he tear my soul like a lion - These words seem to answer well to Saul. As the lion is king in the forest; so was Saul king over the land. As the lion, in his fierceness, seizes at once, and tears his prey in pieces; so David expected to be seized and suddenly destroyed by Saul. He had already, in his rage, thrown his javelin at him, intending to have pierced him to the wall with it. As from the power of the lion no beast in the forest could deliver any thing; so David knew that Saul's power was irresistible, and that none of his friends or well-wishers could save or deliver him out of such hands. "Lest he tear my soul (my life) like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver." All this answers to Saul, and to none else.

### Verse 3

[¶8] If I have done this - David was accused by Saul of affecting the kingdom; and of waiting for an opportunity to take away the life of his king, his patron, and his friend. In his application to God he refers to these charges; meets them with indignation; and clears himself of them by a strong appeal to his Judge; and an imprecation that, if he had meditated or designed any such thing, he might meet with nothing but curse and calamity either from God or man.

### Verse 4

[¶10] Yea, I have delivered him - When, in the course of thy providence, thou didst put his life in my hand in the cave, I contented myself with cutting off his skirt, merely to show him the danger he had been in, and the spirit of the man whom he accused of designs against his life; and yet even for this my heart smote me, because it appeared to be an indignity offered to him who was the Lord 's anointed. This fact, and my venturing my life frequently for his good and the safety of the state, sufficiently show the falsity of such accusations, and the innocence of my life.

### Verse 5

[¶12] Let the enemy persecute my soul - If I have been guilty of the things laid to my charge, let the worst evils fall upon me.

### Verse 6

[¶14] Arise, O Lord, in thine anger - To thee I commit my cause; arise, and sit on the throne of thy judgment in my behalf.

### Verse 7

[¶16] For their sakes therefore return thou on high - Thy own people who compass thy altar, the faithful of the land, are full of gloomy apprehensions. They hear the charges against me; and see how I am persecuted. Their minds are divided; they know not what to think. For their sakes, return thou on high - ascend the judgment-seat; and let them see, by the dispensations of thy providence, who is innocent and who is guilty. David feared not to make this appeal to God; for the consciousness of his innocence showed him at once how the discrimination would be made.

### Verse 8

[¶18] The Lord shall judge the people - He will execute justice and maintain truth among them. They shall not be as sheep without a shepherd.

[¶19] Judge me, O Lord - Let my innocence be brought to the light, and my just dealing made clear as the noonday.

### Verse 9

[¶21] The wickedness of the wicked - The iniquity of Saul's conduct.

[¶22] But establish the just - Show the people my uprightness.

### Verse 10

[¶24] My defense is of God - I now leave my cause in the hands of my Judge. I have no uneasy or fearful apprehensions, because I know God will save the upright in heart.

### Verse 11

[¶26] God is angry with the wicked every day - The Hebrew for this sentence is the following: ועל זעם בכל יום veel zoem becol yom; which, according to the points, is, And God is angry every day. Our translation seems to have been borrowed from the Chaldee, where the whole verse is as follows: אלהא דינא זכאה ובתקוף רגיז אל רשיעי כל יומא elaha daiyana zaccaah ubithkoph rageiz al reshiey col yoma: "God is a righteous Judge; and in strength he is angry against the wicked every day."

[¶27] The Vulgate: Deus Judex justus, fortis, et patiens; numquid irascitur per sinpulos dies? "God is a Judge righteous, strong, and patient; will he be angry every day?"

[¶28] The Septuagint: Ὁ Θεος Κριτης δικαιος, και ισχυρος, και μακροθυμος, μη οργην επαγων καθ' ἑκαστην ἡμεραν; "God is a righteous Judge, strong and longsuffering; not bringing forth his anger every day."

[¶29] Syriac: "God is the Judge of righteousness; he is not angry every day."

[¶30] The Arabic is the same as the Septuagint.

[¶31] The Aethiopic: "God is a just Judge, and strong and longsuffering; he will not bring forth tribulation daily."

[¶32] Coverdale: God is a righteous judge, and Gob is ever threateninge.

[¶33] King Edward's Bible by Becke 1549, follows this reading.

[¶34] Cardmarden: God is a righteous judge, [strong and patient] and God is provoked every day. Cardmarden has borrowed strong and patient from the Vulgate or Septuagint, but as he found nothing in the Hebrew to express them, he put the words in a smaller letter, and included them in brackets. This is followed by the prose version in our Prayer Book.

[¶35] The Genevan version, printed by Barker, the king's printer, 1615, translates thus: "God judgeth the righteous, and him that contemneth God every day." On which there is this marginal note: "He doth continually call the wicked to repentance, by some signs of his judgments." My ancient Scotico - English MS. Psalter only begins with the conclusion of this Psalm.

[¶36] I have judged it of consequence to trace this verse through all the ancient versions in order to be able to ascertain what is the true reading, where the evidence on one side amounts to a positive affirmation, "God is angry every day;" and, on the other side, to as positive a negation, "He is Not angry every day." The mass of evidence supports the latter reading. The Chaldee first corrupted the text by making the addition, with the wicked, which our translators have followed, though they have put the words into italics, as not being in the Hebrew text. In the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi there is no various reading on this text.

[¶37] The true sense may be restored thus: - אל el, with the vowel point tsere, signifies God: אל al, the same letters, with the point pathach, signifies not. Several of the versions have read it in this way: "God judgeth the righteous, and is Not angry every day." He is not always chiding, nor is he daily punishing, notwithstanding the continual wickedness of men: hence, the ideas of patience and longsufferiny which several of the versions introduce. Were I to take any of the translations in preference to the above, I should feel most inclined to adopt that of Coverdale.

### Verse 12

[¶39] If he turn not - This clause the Syriac adds to the preceding verse. Most of the versions read, "If ye return not." Some contend, and not without a great show of probability, that the two verses should be read in connection, thus: "God is a just Judge; a God who is provoked every day. If (the sinner) turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready." This, no doubt, gives the sense of both.

### Verse 13

[¶41] He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death - This appears to be all a prophecy of the tragical death of Saul. He was wounded by the arrows of the Philistines; and his own keen sword, on which he fell, terminated his woful days!

### Verse 14

[¶43] He travaileth with iniquity - All these terms show the pitch of envy, wrath, and malevolence, to which Saul had carried his opposition against David. He conceived mischief; he travailed with iniquity; he brought forth falsehood - all his expectations were blasted.

## 555. Psalms · 9 of 159

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### Verse 15

[¶1] He made a pit - He determined the destruction of David. He laid his plans with much artifice; he executed them with zeal and diligence; and when he had, as he supposed, the grave of David digged, he fell into it himself! The metaphor is taken from pits dug in the earth, and slightly covered over with reeds &c. so as not to be discerned from the solid ground; but the animal steps on them, the surface breaks, and he falls into the pit and is taken. "All the world agrees to acknowledge the equity of that sentence, which inflicts upon the guilty the punishment intended by them for the innocent." - Horne.

### Verse 16

[¶3] Shall come down upon his own pate - Upon his scalp, קדקד kodkod, the top of the head. It may refer to knocking the criminal on the head, in order to deprive him of life. Had scalping been known in those days, I should have thought the reference might be to that barbarous custom.

### Verse 17

[¶5] I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness - I shall celebrate both his justice and his mercy. I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. The name of God is often put for his perfections. So here, שם יהוה עלין shem Yehovah Elyon; "The perfections of Jehovah, who is above all." My old Scotico - English MS., mentioned at the conclusion of the introduction, begins at this verse, where are the following words by way of paraphrase: Sang falles til ioy; and he that synges well that name, his ioy es mare than i kan tell. Those who are happy may sing; and he who can duly celebrate the name of God, who knows it to be a strong tower into which he can run and find safety, has inexpressible happiness. That is the sense of the above.

### Introduction

[¶7] The glory and excellence of God manifested by his works, [Psa 8:1], [Psa 8:2]; particularly in the starry heavens, [Psa 8:3]; in man, [Psa 8:4]; in his formation, [Psa 8:5]; and in the dominion which God has given him over the earth, the air, the sea, and their inhabitants, [Psa 8:6], [Psa 8:7], [Psa 8:8] : in consequence of which God's name is celebrated over all the earth, [Psa 8:9].

[¶8] The inscription to this Psalm is the following: To the chief Musictan upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. This has been metaphrased, "To the conqueror, concerning the wine-presses;" and has been supposed to be a Psalm intended for the time of vintage: and as that happened about the time of the year in which it is supposed the world was created, hence there is a general celebration of those works, and of the creation, and the high privileges of man. The Chaldee gives it a different turn: "A Psalm of David, to be sung upon the harp, which he brought out of Gath." That the Psalm has respect to our Lord and the time of the Gospel, is evident from the reference made to [Psa 8:2], in [Mat 11:25], the express quotation of it in [Mat 21:16], and another reference to it in [1Cor 1:27]. The fourth and sixth verses are quoted [Heb 2:6-9]. See also [1Cor 15:27], and [Eph 1:22]. The first and second Adam are both referred to, and the first and second creation also; and the glory which God has received, and is to receive, through both. It relates simply to Christ and redemption.

### Verse 1

[¶10] O Lord our Lord - יהוה אדנינו Yehovah Adoneynu; O Jehovah our Prop, our Stay, or Support. אדני Adonai is frequently used: sometimes, indeed often, for the word יהוה Yehovah itself. The root דן dan signifies to direct, rule, judge, support. So Adonai is the Director, Ruler, Judge, Supporter of men. It is well joined with Jehovah; this showing what God is in himself; that, what God is to man; and may here very properly refer to our Lord Jesus.

[¶11] How excellent is thy name in all the earth! - How illustrious is the name of Jesus throughout the world! His incarnation, birth, humble and obscure life, preaching, miracles, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, are celebrated through the whole world. His religion, the gifts and graces of his Spirit, his people - Christians - his Gospel and the preachers of it are everywhere spoken of. No name is so universal, no power and influence so generally felt, as those of the Savior of mankind. Amen.

[¶12] Thy glory above the heavens - The heavens are glorious, the most glorious of all the works of God which the eye of man can reach; but the glory of God is infinitely above even these. The words also seem to intimate that no power, earthly or diabolical, can lessen or injure that glory. The glory and honor which God has by the Gospel shall last through time, and through eternity; and of that glory none shall be able to rob him, to whom majesty and dominion are eternally due. This has been applied by some to the resurrection of our Lord. He rose from the dead, and ascended above all heavens; and by these his glory was sealed, his mission accomplished, and the last proof given to his preceding miracles.

### Verse 2

[¶14] Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings - We have seen how our Lord applied this passage to the Jewish children, who, seeing his miracles, cried out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" [Mat 21:16]. And we have seen how the enemy and the avenger - the chief priests and the scribes - were offended because of these things; and as the Psalm wholly concerns Jesus Christ, it is most probable that in this act of the Jewish children the prophecy had its primary fulfillment; and was left to the Jews as a witness and a sign of the Messiah, which they should have acknowledged when our Lord directed their attention to it.

[¶15] There is also a very obvious sense in which the mouths of babes and sucklings show forth the praises of God; viz., the means by which they derive their first nourishment. In order to extract the milk from the breasts of their mothers, they are obliged to empty their own mouths entirely of air, that the eternal air, pressing on the breast, may force the milk through its proper canals into the mouth of the child, where there is no resistance, the child having extracted all air from its own mouth which in this case resembles a perfectly exhausted receiver on the plate of an airpump; and the action of sucking is performed on the same principle that the receiver is exhausted by the working of the airpump. Of this curious pneumatic action the child is capable the moment it breathes; and, its strength considered, performs it as perfectly the first hour as it does in any other period of its childhood or infancy. What does all this argue? Why instinct. And pray what is instinct? You cannot tell. But here is an operation by which the pure Boylean vacuum is made; and this by an infant without any previous teaching! Do you suppose that this is an easy operation, and that it requires little skill? You are mistaken. You have done this yourself while an infant under the sole guidance of God. Can you do it now? You are startled! Shall I tell you what appears to you a secret? There is not one in ten thousand adults, who have had their first nourishment from the breasts of their mothers who can perform the same operation again! And those who have had occasion to practice it have found great difficulty to learn that art which, in the first moment of their birth, they performed to perfection! Here is the finger of God; and here, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, he has ordained such a strength of evidence and argument in favor of his being his providence, and his goodness, as is sufficient to still and confound every infidel and atheist in the universe, all the enemies of righteousness, and all the vindicators of desperate and hopeless causes and systems.

[¶16] The words may also be applied to the apostles and primitive preachers of the Gospel; to the simple and comparatively unlearned followers of Christ, who, through his teaching, were able to confound the wise among the Jews, and the mighty among the heathens: and in this sense our Lord uses the term babes, [Mat 11:25] : "I thank thee, O Father - because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes."

[¶17] We may also witness, in the experience of multitudes of simple people who have been, by the preaching of the Gospel, converted from the error of their ways, such a strength of testimony in favor of the work of God in the heart and his effectual teaching in the mind, as is calculated to still, or reduce to silence, every thing but bigotry and prejudice, neither of which has either eyes or ears. This teaching, and these changing or converting influences, come from God. They are not acquired by human learning; and those who put this in the place of the Divine teaching never grow wise to salvation. To enter into the kingdom of heaven, a Man must become as a little child.

### Verse 3

[¶19] When I Consider thy heavens - כי אראה ki ereh; Because I will see. He had often seen the heavens with astonishment, and he purposes to make them frequent subjects of contemplation; and he could not behold them without being affected with the skill, contrivance, and power, manifested in their formation.

[¶20] The work of thy fingers - What a view does this give of the majesty of God! The earth is nearly eight thousand English miles in diameter: but to form an adequate conception of its magnitude, we must consider it in its superficial and solid contents. Upon the supposition that the earth's polar diameter is seven thousand nine hundred and forty miles, and its equatorial, seven thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven, (estimates considered to very near approximations to the truth), the whole superficies of the terraqueous globe will amount to about one hundred and ninety-eight millions, nine hundred and eighty thousand, seven hundred square miles; and its solid contents, in cubic miles will be expressed by the following figures: 264,544,857,944, i.e., two hundred and sixty-four thousand five hundred and forty-four millions, eight hundred and fifty-seven thousand, nine hundred and forty-four. Great as we have shown the bulk of the earth to be, from the most accurate estimates of its diameter it is but small when compared with the bulks of some of the other bodies in the solar system. The planet Herschel, or Georgium Sidus, known on the continent of Europe by the name of Uranus, is eighty times and a half greater than the earth; Saturn, nine hundred and ninety-five times greater; Jupiter, one thousand two hundred and eighty-one times greater; and the sun, the most prodigious body in the system, one million three hundred and eightyfour thousand, four hundred and sixty-two times greater. The circumference of the sun contains not fewer than two millions seven hundred and seventy-seven thousand English miles; and a degree of latitude, which on the earth amounts only to sixty-nine miles and a half, will on the sun (the circle being supposed in both instances to be divided into three hundred and sixty degrees) contain not less than about seven thousand seven hundred and forty miles, a quantity almost equal to the terrestrial axis. But the immense volume (in cubic miles) which the solar surface includes amounts to the following most inconceivable quantity: 366,252,303,118,866,128, i.e., three hundred and sixty six thousand two hundred and fifty-two billions, three hundred and three thousand one hundred and eighteen millions, eight hundred and sixty-six thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight. Notwithstanding the amazing magnitude of the sun, we have abundant reason to believe that some of the fixed stars are much larger; and yet we are told they are the work of God's Fingers! What a hand, to move, form, and launch these globes! This expression is much more sublime than even that of the prophet: "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure; and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance!" [Isa 40:12]. This is grand; but the heavens being the work Of God's Fingers is yet more sublime.

[¶21] The moon and the stars - The sun is not mentioned, because the heavens - the moon, planets, and stars - could not have appeared, had he been present. Those he wished to introduce because of their immense variety, and astonishing splendor; and, therefore, he skilfully leaves out the sun, which would have afforded him but one object, and one idea. To have mentioned him with the others would have been as ridiculous in astronomy, as the exhibition of the top and bottom of a vessel would be in perspective. Various critics have endeavored to restore the Sun to this place: and even Bishop Horsley says, "It is certainly strange that the sun should be omitted, when the moon and the stars are so particularly mentioned." But with great deference to him, and to Dr. Kennicott, who both show how the text may be mended I say, it would be most strange had the psalmist introduced the sun, for the reasons already assigned. The Spirit of God is always right; our head is sometimes, our hearts seldom so.

[¶22] Which thou hast ordained - כוננתה conantah, which thou hast prepared and established. Made their respective spheres, and fitted them for their places. Space to matter, and matter to space; all adjusted in number, weight, and measure.

### Verse 4

[¶24] What is man - מה אנוש mah enosh, what is wretched, miserable man; man in his fallen state, full of infirmity, ignorance, and sin?

[¶25] That thou art mindful of him? - That thou settest thy heart upon him, keepest him continually in thy merciful view.

[¶26] And the son of man - ובן אדם uben Adam, and the son of Adam, the first great rebel; the fallen child of a fallen parent. See the note on [Job 7:17]. Some think eminent men are here intended. What is man in common; what the most eminent men; that thou shouldst be mindful of them, or deign to visit them?

[¶27] That thou visitest him? - By sending thy Holy Spirit to convince him of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is by these visits that man is preserved in a salvable state. Were God to withhold them, there would be nothing in the soul of man but sin, darkness, hardness, corruption, and death.

### Verse 5

[¶29] Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels - The original is certainly very emphatic: ותחסרחו מעט מאלהים vattechasserchu meat meelohim, Thou hast lessened him for a little time from God. Or, Thou hast made him less than God for a little time. See these passages explained at large in the notes on [Heb 2:6] (note), etc., which I need not repeat here.

### Verse 6

[¶31] Thou madest him to have dominion - Jesus Christ, who, being in the form of God, and equal with God, for a time emptied himself, and made himself of no reputation; was afterwards highly exalted, and had a name above every name. See the notes referred to above, and those on [Phi 2:6-9] (note).

[¶32] Thou hast put all things under his feet - Though the whole of the brute creation was made subject to Adam in his state of innocence; yet it could never be literally said of him, that God had put all things under his feet, or that he had dominion over the work of God's hands; but all this is most literally true of our Lord Jesus; and to him the apostle, [Heb 2:6], etc., applies all these passages.

### Verse 7

[¶34] All sheep and oxen - All domestic animals, and those to be employed in agriculture.

[¶35] Beasts of the field - All wild beasts, and inhabitants of the forest.

### Verse 8

[¶37] The fowl of the air - All these were given to man in the beginning; and he has still a general dominion over them; for thus saith the Lord: "The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every Beast of the Earth, and upon every Fowl of the Air, and upon all that Moveth upon the Earth, and upon all the Fishes of the Sea; into your hand are they delivered;" [Gen 9:2]. To this passage the psalmist most obviously refers.

### Verse 9

[¶39] O Lord our Lord - The psalmist concludes as he began. Jehovah, our prop and support! his name is excellent in all the earth. The name of Jesus is celebrated in almost every part of the habitable globe; for his Gospel has been preached, or is in the progress of being preached, through the whole world. Bibles and missionaries are now carrying his name, and proclaiming his fame, to the utmost nations of the earth.

[¶40] The whole of this Psalm, and the seventh and eighth verses in particular, have been the subject of much spiritualization in ancient and modern times. I shall give two examples: one from the pious Bishop Horne; the other from the ancient Latino - Scotico - English Psalter, mentioned before.

[¶41] That of Bisnop Horne, on the [Psa 8:7] and [Psa 8:8], is as follows: "Adam, upon his creation, was invested with sovereign dominion over the creatures, in words of the same import with these, [Gen 1:28], which are therefore here used, and the creatures particularized, to inform us that what the first Adam lost by transgression, the second Adam gained by obedience. That glory which was set above the heavens could not but be over all things on the earth; and accordingly we hear our Lord saying, after his resurrection, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and earth,'[Mat 28:18]. Nor is it a speculation unpleasing or unprofitable to consider that he who rules over the material world is Lord also of the intellectual or spiritual creation represented thereby. "The souls of the faithful, lowly, and harmless, are the sheep of his pasture; those who like oxen, are strong to labor in the Church, and who by expounding the word of life tread out the corn for the nourishment of the people, own him for their kind and beneficent Master. Nay, tempers fierce and untractable as the wild beasts of the desert, are yet subject to his will. Spirits of the angelic kind, that, like the birds of the air, traverse freely the superior region, move at his command; and these evil ones, whose habitation is in the deep abyss, even to the great leviathan himself, all, all are put under the feet of the King Messiah; who, because he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, was therefore highly exalted, and had a name given him above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, whether of things in heaven, or things on earth, or things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father; [Phi 2:8], etc." Thus far the pious bishop.

[¶42] I shall now give, as a singular curiosity, the whole Psalm, with its translation and paraphrase, from the ancient MS. already mentioned; inserting first the Latin text; next, the translation; and, thirdly, the paraphrase. The Latin text seems to be the old Itala, or Antehieronymian; at least it has readings which have been thought peculiar to that version. [Psa 8:1-9] [Psa 8:1]

[¶43] Domine Deus noster, quoniam admirabile est nomen tuum in universa terra.

[¶44] Trans. Lord our Lord, qwat thi name es wonderfull in al the Erde.

[¶45] Par. The prophete in louing, bygynnes and says: Lord of al, thow ert specialy our Lord that dredes the, loves the. "Thi name" that es the ioy and the fame of thi name Ihesu: for the creaturs that thu hes made and bought qwat it es wonderful. Als so say withouten end: for nane suffis for to knaw al creaturs: in qwilk wonder of the, and that in al the Erd, nought in a party anely.

## 556. Psalms · 10 of 159

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/556/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/556/#p-N

[¶0] Quoniam elevata est magnificencia tua super Celos.

[¶1] Trans. For lyfted es thi worchyp aboven hevens.

[¶2] Par. That es at say, thu ert mare worthy to be loued and wirchepyd than any Aungel or haly Saule may thynk. [Psa 8:2]

[¶3] Ex ore infancium et lactencium perfecisti laudem, propter inimicos tuos, ut destruas inimicum et ultorem.

[¶4] Trans. Of the mouth of nought spekand, and sowkand, thou has made louying, for thin enmys, that tbou destroye the enmy and the venger.

[¶5] Par. Nought anely thow ert loued of perfite men, bot of the mouthe of barnes that spekes nought: Zit there er tha that kan nought speke the wisdom of this werld: and of soukand, the qwilk gladdely resayves the lare of haly Kyrk theare moder. Thow has made thi luf thug perfyte for thin enmys: fals cristen men, to schame and to schende for thai er wer than er haythen men. That thu destruy the enmy; that es, he that es wyse in his awen eghen; and wil nought be underloute til thi wil: "and the venger": that es he that defends his Syn; and sais that he synnes nought; or that his syn es les than other mennes. [Psa 8:3]

[¶6] Quoniam videbo celos tuos, et opera digitorum tuorum, lunam et stellas quas tu fundasti.

[¶7] Trans. For I sal se thi hevens werkes of thi fyngers the mone and the Sternys the quilk thow groundid.

[¶8] Par. Thow destrues al that es contrariand til the; bot i in al thying confourom me to do thi wil, for thi i sal se in lyf withouten end. "Thi hevens", that es Aungels and Apostels the qwilk er werkes of thi fingers: that es, that er mode perfyte thurgh the Haly Gost, of qwam es seven gyftes. Of he be bot a Spirit, als mani fyngers er in a hand. And i sal see the "Mone", that es haly Kyrk: and the sternes that es ilk a ryghtwise man by hym selfe, the qwilk thu groundid in charite. [Psa 8:4]

[¶9] Quid est homo quod memor es ejus; aut filius hominis, quoniam visitas eum?

[¶10] Trans. What es man that thu ert menand of hym: or son of man for thou visites hym?

[¶11] Par. Als it war with despyte, he sais "man", erdely and synful, qwat es he, that thu has mynd of hym. Als fer sett fra the; at the lest gyfand hym hele and ese of body. Or "son of man": that es, he that es gastely, and beres the ymage of heven. Qwat es he, for thou visits hym. Als present the qwilk es nere the for clennes of lyf. Or "son of man" he calles Crist, thrugh qwam he visits mannes kynd. [Psa 8:5]

[¶12] Minuisti eum paullo minus ab angelis: gloria et honore coronasti eum; et constituisti eum super opera manuum tuarum.

[¶13] Trans. Thow lessed hym a littil fra aungels; with ioy and honor thu coround hym: and thu sett him aboven the werkes of thi hend.

[¶14] Par. Crist was lessed fra aungels, for he was dedely, and mught suffer pyne; but a littel; for in other thyng, es he abouen aungels, thair Kyng and Sychthu thou coround hym with ioy, that es with brighthede of body, na mare sufferand pyne; and honor, for he es honorable til al: and thou sett hym abouen aungels and al creatures. [Psa 8:6], [Psa 8:7]

[¶15] Omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ejus: oves et boves insuper et pecora campi.

[¶16] Trans. Al thynges thu underkest undyr his fete: schepe and oxen al over that, and the bestes of the feld.

[¶17] Par. That undyr hys Lordschyp and hys myght, in has cestyn al thyng: tha er "schepe" that er innocentes, als well aungels als men. "And oxen", tha er, traveland men gastely, in haly Kyrk, "over that"; and the "bestes of the feld"; thai er lufers of this werld, wonnand, in the feld of fleschly lusts; noght in hillis of vertus; and so be the brode way thai ga til hell. [Psa 8:8]

[¶18] Volucres celi et pisces maris qui perambulant semitas maris.

[¶19] Trans. Fowls of heven and fysche of the see, that gas the wayes of the see.

[¶20] Par. "Fowls of heven", er prowde men that wald hee thair setil abouen al other. "Fysches of the see", er covaytus men, the qwilk in the ground of the werld, sekes erthdly gudes, that all stretes in the see, sone wither oway. Al thir sal be underlout til Crist onther herts in grace, or thare in pine. [Psa 8:9]

[¶21] Domine Deus noster, quam admirabile est nomen tuum in universa terra.

[¶22] Trans. Lard our Lard qwat thi name is wonderful in al the erth.

[¶23] Par. Als he bigan swa he endes, schewand that bygyning and endyng of al gode, is of Gode; and til his louing agh i for to be done.

[¶24] The reader will no doubt be struck with the remarkable agreement between the pious bishop of Norwich and this ancient translator and paraphrast, particularly on the [Psa 8:7] and [Psa 8:8]. The language also is in several respects singular. The participle of the present tense, which we terminate with "ing", is here almost always terminated with "and." So "Spekand, sowkand, gyfand, sufferand, traveland", for speaking, sucking, giving, suffering, travelling, etc.

[¶25] As the participle signifies the continuance of the action, the termination and seems much more proper than ing; speak - and, i.e., continuing to speak; give - and, continuing to give; suffer - and, suffer more; travel - and, travel on, etc. There are some words in this ancient MS. which I have met nowhere else.

### Introduction

[¶27] David praises God for the benefits which he has granted to Israel in general, and to himself in particular, [Psa 9:1-6]. He encourages himself in the Lord, knowing that he will ever judge righteously, and be a refuge for the distressed, [Psa 9:7-10]. He exhorts the people to praise God for his judgments, [Psa 9:11], [Psa 9:12]; prays for mercy and support; and thanks God for his judgments executed upon the heathen, [Psa 9:13-16]. He foretells the destruction of the ungodly, [Psa 9:17]; prays for the poor and needy, and against their oppressors, [Psa 9:18-20].

[¶28] The inscription to this Psalm in the Hebrew text is, To the chief Musician upon Muth-lab-ben, A Psalm of David. The Chaldee has, "A Song of David, to be sung concerning the Death of the Strong Man, (or champion, דגברא degabra), who went out between the Camps," that is, Goliath, on account of whose defeat this Psalm has been supposed by many to have been composed. The date in the margin is several years posterior to the death of Goliath. See the introduction.

[¶29] The Vulgate: A Psalm of David, for the end; concerning the secrets of the Son."

[¶30] The Septuagint and Aethiopic are the same with the Vulgate.

[¶31] The Syriac: "A Psalm of David concerning Christ's receiving the throne and the kingdom, and defeating his enemies.

[¶32] The Arabic: "Concerning the mysteries of the Son, as to the glory of Christ, his resurrection, and kingdom, and the destruction of all the disobedient."

[¶33] Houbigant causes the Hebrew title to agree with the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Ethiopic, by uniting על מות al muth, "concerning the death," into the word עלמות alamoth, which signifies secret, or hidden things. "To the chief musician, or conqueror; secrets concerning the Son: A Psalm of David.

[¶34] About a hundred MSS. and printed editions unite the words as above. Some translate עלמות alamoth, "concerning the youth or infancy; the infancy of the Son." Several of the fathers have on this ground interpreted it, "concerning the incarnation of our Lord." Indeed the title and the Psalm have been so variously understood, that it would be as painful as it would be useless to follow the different commentators, both ancient and modern, through all their conjectures.

### Verse 1

[¶36] I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart - And it is only when the whole heart is employed in the work that God can look upon it with acceptance.

[¶37] I will show forth - אספרה asapperah, "I will number out, or reckon up;" a very difficult task, נפלאותיך niphleotheycha, "thy miracles;" supernatural interventions of thy power and goodness. He whose eye is attentive to the operation of God's hand will find many of these. In the Vulgate this Psalm begins with Confitebor tibi, Domine, "I will confess unto thee, O Lord," which my old MS. above quoted translates thus: I sal schrife Lard, til the, in al my hert, I sal tel al twi wonders. On which we find the following curious paraphrase: "Here the prophete spekes agaynes that grucches with ese of il men: and the travel and anguis of gude men. I sal schrife til the Lard, that is, I sal lufe the in al my hert, hally gederant it til thi luf: and gyfand na party tharof tyl errour, na to covatyse: ne til fleschly luf. A vile errour it is that some men says, that God dose unrightwisly in mani thinges in erthe: for tham thynk that tay sold noght be done. Als I hard say noght lang sythem, of a man of religyon, and of grete fame, that qwen he was in tlle see, in poynte to peryshe, he said tyl Gode: Lard thu dos unryghtwysly if thou sofyr us to perysch here. God myght haf answered and said, My rightwysnes reches to sofer a beter man than thou ert to perisse here: for I hope, had he ben a ryghtwyse man, he had noght sayd swa: for al ar unryghtwyse, that hopes that any unrightwysnes may be in Godes wylle. Bot I sal luf the in al thi workes; and tel al thy wonders; that is, bathe that er sene, and that ar noght sene; visibels and invisibels."

### Verse 2

[¶39] I will be glad and rejoice in thee - I am glad that thou hast heard my prayer, and showed me mercy; and I will rejoice in thee, in having thee as my portion, dwelling and working in my heart.

### Verse 3

[¶41] When mine enemies are turned back - It is a sure sign of a nearly approaching complete conquest over sin, when, by resistance to its influences, it begins to lose its power. That is the time to follow on to know the Lord.

### Verse 5

[¶43] Thou hast rebuked the heathen - We know not what this particularly refers to, but it is most probably to the Canaanitish nations, which God destroyed from off the face of the earth; hence it is said, Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever, לעולם ועד leolam vaed, endlessly. Here עולם olam has its proper signification, without end. He who contends it means only a limited time, let him tell us where the Hivites, Perizzites, Jebusites, etc., now dwell; and when it is likely they are to be restored to Canaan.

## 557. Psalms · 11 of 159

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/557/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/557/#p-N

### Verse 6

[¶1] Destructions are come to a perpetual end - Rather, "The enemy is desolated for ever; for thou hast destroyed their cities, and their memory is perished with them." Multitudes of the cities of the Canaanites have perished so utterly that neither name nor vestige remains of them.

### Verse 7

[¶3] But the Lord shall endure - All things shall have an end but God and holy spirits.

### Verse 8

[¶5] He shall judpe the world in righteousness - All the dispensations of God's providence are founded in righteousness and truth.

### Verse 9

[¶7] A refuge - משגב misgab, a high place, where their enemies can neither reach nor see them. He who has God for his portion has all safety in him.

### Verse 10

[¶9] They that know thy name - Who have an experimental acquaintance with thy mercy, will put their trust in thee, from the conviction that thou never hast forsaken, and never wilt forsake, them that trust in thee.

### Verse 11

[¶11] Declare among the people his doings - It is the duty of all those who have received the salvation of God, to recommend him and his salvation to the whole circle of their acquaintance, Christians, so called, when they meet, seldom speak about God! Why is this? Because they have nothing to say.

### Verse 12

[¶13] When he maketh inquisition for blood - This not only applies to the Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, who shed the blood of God's people unjustly, but to all the nations of the earth who, to enlarge their territory, increase their wealth, or extend their commerce, have made destructive wars. For the blood which such nations have shed, their blood shall be shed. If man should make no inquisition for this iniquitously spilt blood, God will do it, for he remembers them; and the cry of the humbled, distressed people, driven to distraction and ruin by such wars, is not forgotten before him.

### Verse 13

[¶15] Have mercy upon me, O Lord - David, having laid down the preceding maxims, now claims his part in their truth. I also am in trouble through the unjust dealings of my enemies; I am brought to the gates of death; have mercy on me, and lift me up, that, being saved from the gates of death, I may show forth thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. The gates of death - an open grave, leading to a yawning hell. The gates of the daughter of Zion - all the ordinances of God, by which the soul is helped forward to heaven.

### Verse 15

[¶17] The heathen are sank down to the pit - See on [Psa 7:15] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶19] The Lord is known by the judgment - It is not every casualty that can properly be called a judgment of God. Judgment is his strange work; but when he executes it, his mind is plainly to be seen. There are no natural causes to which such calamities can be legally attributed.

[¶20] The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands - There is nothing that a wicked man does that is not against his own interest. He is continually doing himself harm, and takes more pains to destroy his soul than the righteous man does to get his saved unto eternal life. This is a weighty truth; and the psalmist adds: Higgaion, Selah. Meditate on this; mark it well. See on [Psa 3:3] (note). Some think that it is a direction to the musicians, something like our Presto, Largo, Vivace, Allegro, "Play briskly and boldly; beat away; and let sense and sound accompany each other."

### Verse 17

[¶22] The wicked shall be turned into hell - לשאולה lisholah, headlong into hell, down into hell. The original is very emphatic.

[¶23] All the nations that forget God - They will not live in his fear. There are both nations and individuals who, though they know God, forget him, that is, are unmindful of of him, do not acknowledge him in their designs, ways and works. These are all to be thrust down into hell. Reader, art thou forgetful of thy Maker, and of Him who died for thee?

### Verse 18

[¶25] The needy shall not alway be forgotten - The needy, and the poor, whose expectation is from the Lord, are never forgotten, though sometimes their deliverance is delayed for the greater confusion of their enemies, the greater manifestation of God's mercy, and the greater benefit to themselves.

### Verse 19

[¶27] Arise, O Lord - Let this be the time in which thou wilt deliver thy poor people under oppression and persecution.

### Verse 20

[¶29] Put them in fear - שיתה יהוה מורה להם shithah Yehovah morah lahem, "O Lord, place a teacher among them," that they may know they also are accountable creatures, grow wise unto salvation, and be prepared for a state of blessedness. Several MSS. read מורא morre, fear; but teacher or legislator is the reading of all the versions except the Chaldee. Coverdale has hit the sense, translating thus: O Lorde, set a Scholemaster over them; and the old Psalter, Sett Lorb a brynger of Law abouen tham.

[¶30] That the nations may know themselves to be but men - אנוש enosh; Let the Gentiles be taught by the preaching of thy Gospel that they are weak and helpless, and stand in need of the salvation which Christ has provided for them. This may be the spirit of the petition. And this is marked by the extraordinary note Selah; Mark well, take notice. So the term may be understood. "This whole Psalm," says Dr. Horsley, "seems naturally to divide into three parts. The first ten verses make the First part; the six following, the Second; and the remaining four the Third. "The First part is prophetic of the utter extermination of the irreligious persecuting faction. The prophecy is delivered in the form of an Επινικιον, or song of victory, occasioned by the promise given in the fifteenth verse of the tenth Psalm; and through the whole of this song the psalmist, in the height of a prophetic enthusiasm, speaks of the threatened vengeance as accomplished. "The Second part opens with an exhortation to the people of God to praise him as the Avenger of their wrongs, and the watchful Guardian of the helpless, and, as if the flame of the prophetic joy which the oracular voice had lighted in the psalmist's mind was beginning to die away, the strain is gradually lowered, and the notes of triumph are mixed with supplication and complaint, as if the mind of the psalmist were fluttering between things present and to come, and made itself alternately present to his actual condition and his future hope. "In the Third part the psalmist seems quite returned from the prophetic enthusiasm to his natural state, and closes the whole song with explicit but cool assertions of the future destruction of the wicked, and the deliverance of the persecuted saints, praying for the event."

### Introduction

[¶32] The psalmist complains to God of the oppressions which the poor suffer from the wicked man, whom he describes as the hater of the poor, [Psa 10:1], [Psa 10:2]; proud, [Psa 10:3]; one who will not seek God, [Psa 10:4]; and is regardless of his judgments, [Psa 10:5]; self-confident, [Psa 10:6]; blasphemous and deceitful, [Psa 10:7]; strives by subtlety and treachery to destroy the poor, [Psa 10:8-10]; and supposes that God is regardless of his conduct, [Psa 10:11]. The psalmist calls earnestly on God to preserve the poor and humble, and cast down the oppressor, [Psa 10:12-15]. He foresees that his prayer is heard; that judgment will be executed, and the poor delivered, [Psa 10:16-18].

### Verse 1

[¶34] Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? - This Psalm makes a part of the preceding in the Vulgate and Septuagint; and in four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. It seems to belong to the time of the captivity, or the return of the captives. It was probably made in reference to Sanballat, and the other enemies or the Jews. There is a great similarity between this and [Psa 13:1-6], [Psa 14:1-7], 35, and [Psa 53:1-6] : In these, as Calmet remarks, we find the same complaints, the same sentiments, and almost the same expressions.

[¶35] God is represented here as standing at some distance, beholding the oppression of his people, and yet apparently disregarding it.

### Verse 2

[¶37] The wicked in his pride - On no principle of nature or reason can we account for a wicked man persecuting a humble follower of God because of his religion. The devil hates godliness; and the wicked man hates it also because the devil is in his heart.

### Verse 3

[¶39] Boasteth of his heart's desire - Boasts among his fellows how often he has gratified such and such passions, in such and such circumstances. This shows the excess of a depraved and imbruted spirit. He who can boast of his iniquity, is in the broad road to perdition. Should such a one repent and turn to God, it would be equal to any miracle.

[¶40] Blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth - Or, he blesseth the covetous, he abhorreth the Lord. Those who are like himself he commends, and with them he associates; and they abhor the Lord - they have a mortal hatred against every thing that is holy; and they are under the full influence of that carnal mind which is enmity to the Lord.

### Verse 4

[¶42] Will not seek after God - He is too proud to bend his knee before his Judge; he is too haughty to put on sackcloth, and lay himself in the dust, though without deep repentance and humiliation he must without doubt perish everlastingly.

### Verse 5

[¶44] His ways are always grievous - Or, He is travailing in pain to bring forth iniquity at all times. He is full of lust, or irregular and unholy desires; he conceives and brings forth sin; and sin being finished, time, place, and opportunity concurring, death is soon brought forth.

[¶45] Thy judgments are far above out of his sight - He is so blinded with sin, that he cannot see the operations of God's hand.

## 558. Psalms · 12 of 159

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[¶0] He puffeth at them - He whistles at them; insults God, and despises men. He overthrows them with his breath; he has only to give orders, and they are destroyed. "Bring me the head of Giaffer," said an Asiatic despot. The head was immediately brought! No trial, no judge, no jury; but the despot's will and caprice.

### Verse 6

[¶2] I shall not be moved - I have whatever I covet. I hold whatsoever I have gotten. I have money and goods to procure me every gratification.

### Verse 7

[¶4] His mouth is full of cursing, and deceit, and fraud - What a finished character! A blasphemer, a deceitful man, and a knave!

### Verse 8

[¶6] He sitteth in the lurking places - In this and the following verse there appears to be an allusion to espionage, or setting of spies on a man's conduct; or to the conduct of an assassin or private murderer. He sitteth in lurking places - in secret places; his eyes - spies - are privily set; he lieth in wait secretly: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. He is like a hunter that lays his traps and gins, digs his pits, sets his nets; and when the prey falls into them, he destroys its life.

### Verse 10

[¶8] He croucheth - Of the scoffing, mocking, insulting, and insidious conduct of Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, the fourth and sixth chapters of Nehemiah give abundant proof; and possibly the allusion is to them. The lion squats down and gathers himself together, that he may make the greater spring.

### Verse 11

[¶10] God hath forgotten - He hath cast off this people, and he will never more re-establish them. So Sanballat thought.

### Verse 12

[¶12] Arise, O Lord - Hear their reproaches see their guile, consider thy oppressed people. "Lift up thine hand," threaten them, that they may desist and repent. If they repent not let them be punished.

### Verse 13

[¶14] Wherefore doth the tacked contemn God? - How is it that the Lord permits such persons to triumph in their iniquity? The longsuffering of God leadeth them to repentance.

### Verse 14

[¶16] Thou hast seen it - Nothing can escape thy notice. Thou hast not forgotten thy justice, though judgment is not speedily executed on an evil work. But thou wilt requite it with thy hand. By thy power thou wilt cast down and destroy the wicked.

[¶17] The poor committeth himself unto thee - To thee he has given up his body, his soul, and his cause; with the full conviction that thou who art the helper of fatherless, will not forget him.

### Verse 15

[¶19] Break thou the arm - Destroy his power, deprive him of his influence, that he may be no longer able to oppress.

[¶20] Seek out his wickedness till thou find none - All his public haunts and private ways shall be investigated; thou wilt bring all his villanies to light, and continue to inflict punishment, while there is a crime to punish. Or, "Continue to judge and punish transgressors, till not one is to be found." This agrees with the following verse.

### Verse 16

[¶22] The Lord is king for ever - He has, and ever will have, the supreme power.

[¶23] The heathen are perished out of his land - They are all either cut off or converted. This may refer to the Canaanites. What a mercy that we can say this of our own country! Once it was entirely heathen; now not one heathen family in the whole land.

### Verse 17

[¶25] Lord, thou hast heard - Thou hast not permitted thy tempted and afflicted followers to pray in vain.

[¶26] Thou wilt prepare their heart - See the economy of the grace of God:

[¶27] 1. God prepares the heart;

[¶28] 2. Suggests the prayer;

[¶29] 3. Hears what is prayed;

[¶30] 4. Answers the petition.

[¶31] He who has got a cry in his heart after God, may rest assured that that cry proceeded from a Divine preparation, and that an answer will soon arrive. No man ever had a cry in his heart after salvation, but from God. He who continues to cry shall infallibly be heard.

### Verse 18

[¶33] That the man of the earth may no more oppress - I believe the Hebrew will be better translated thus: "That he may not add any more to drive away the wretched man from the land." Destroy the influence of the tyrant; and let him not have it again in his power to add even one additional act of oppression to those which he has already committed.

[¶34] How many for the sake of their religion, and because they would serve God with a pure conscience, have, by wicked lords, proud and arrogant land owners, been driven off their farms, turned out of their houses, deprived of their employments, and exposed to wretchedness! While they served the devil, and were regardless of their souls, they had quiet and peaceable possession; but when they turned to the Lord, and became sober and industrious, attended the means of grace, read their Bible, and were frequent in prayer, then the vile man of the earth drove them from their dwellings! In the sight of such Philistines, piety towards God is the highest of crimes. What a dreadful account must these give to the Judge of the Fatherless and the oppressed!

### Introduction

[¶36] David's friends advise him to flee to the wilderness from Saul's fury, [Psa 11:1-3]. He answers that, having put his trust in God, knowing that he forsakes not those who confide in him, and that he will punish the ungodly, he is perfectly satisfied that he shall be in safety, [Psa 11:4-7].

[¶37] The inscription is, To the chief Musician, A psalm of David. By the chief musician we may understand the master-singer; the leader of the band; the person who directed the choir: but we know that the word has been translated, To the Conqueror; and some deep and mystical senses have been attributed to it, with which I believe the text has nothing to do.

### Verse 1

[¶39] In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye - Some of David's friends seem to have given him this advice when they saw Saul bent on his destruction: "Flee as a bird to your mountain;" you have not a moment to lose; your ruin is determined; escape for your life; get off as swiftly as possible to the hill-country, to some of those inaccessible fortresses best known to yourself; and hide yourself there from the cruelty of Saul. To which advice he answers, "In the Lord put I my trust," shall I act as if I were conscious of evil, and that my wicked deeds were likely to be discovered? Or shall I act as one who believes he is forsaken of the protection of the Almighty? No: I put my trust in him, and I am sure I shall never be confounded.

### Verse 2

[¶41] For, lo, the wicked bend their bow - Perhaps these are more of the words of his advisers: Every thing is ready for thy destruction: the arrow that is to pierce thy heart is already set on the bow-string; and the person who hopes to despatch thee is concealed in ambush.

### Verse 3

[¶43] If the foundations be destroyed - If Saul, who is the vicegerent of God, has cast aside his fear, and now regards neither truth nor justice, a righteous man has no security for his life. This is at present thy case; therefore flee! They have utterly destroyed the foundations; (of truth and equity); what can righteousness now effect? Kimchi supposes this refers to the priests who were murdered by Doeg, at the command of Saul. The priests are destroyed, the preservers of knowledge and truth; the Divine worship is overthrown; and what can the righteous man work? These I think to be also the words of David's advisers. To all of which he answers: -

## 559. Psalms · 13 of 159

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### Verse 4

[¶1] The Lord is in his holy temple - He is still to be sought and found in the place vhere he has registered his name. Though the priests be destroyed, the God in whose worship they were employed still lives, and is to be found in his temple by his upright worshippers. And he tries the heart and the reins of both sinners and saints. Nothing can pass without his notice. I may expect his presence in the temple; he has not promised to meet me in the mountain.

### Verse 5

[¶3] The Lord trieth the righteous - He does not abandon them; he tries them to show their faithfulness, and he afflicts them for their good.

[¶4] His soul hateth - The wicked man must ever be abhorred of the Lord; and the violent man - the destroyer and murderer - his soul hateth; an expression of uncommon strength and energy: all the perfections of the Divine nature have such in abomination.

### Verse 6

[¶6] Upon the wicked he shall rain - This is a manifest allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[¶7] Snares - Judgments shall fall upon them suddenly and unawares.

[¶8] Fire - Such as shall come immediately from God, and be inextinguishable.

[¶9] Brimstone - Melted by the fire, for their drink! This shall be the portion of their cup.

[¶10] A horrible tempest - רוח זלעפות roach zilaphoth, "the spirit of terrors." Suffering much, and being threatened with more, they shall be filled with confusion and dismay. My old MS. has "gost of stormis." See at the end, [Psa 11:7] (note). Or, the blast of destructions. This may refer to the horribly suffocating Arabian wind, called Smum.

[¶11] Mohammed, in describing his hell, says, "The wicked shall drink nothing there but hot stinking water; breathe nothing but burning winds; and eat nothing but the fruit of the tree zakon, which shall be in their bellies like burning pitch." Hell enough!

[¶12] The portion of their cup - Cup is sometimes put for plenty, for abundance; but here it seems to be used to express the quantum of sorrow and misery which the wicked shall have on the earth. See [Psa 75:8]; [Isa 51:17], [Isa 51:21-23]; [Jer 25:15]; [Jer 49:12]; [Lam 4:21], [Lam 4:22]. It is also used in reference to the afflictions of the righteous, [Mat 20:22]; [Mat 26:39], [Mat 26:42]; [Joh 18:11].

[¶13] We find a similar metaphor among the heathens. The following, from Homer, Il. xxiv., ver. 525, is in point: - Ὡς γαρ επεκλωσαντο θεοι δειλοισι βροτοισι, Ζωειν αχνυμενους· αυτοι δε τ' ακηδεες εισι, Δοιοι γαρ τε πιθοι κατακειαται εν Διος ουδει Δωρων, οια διδωσι, κακων· ἑτερος δε εαων· Ὡ μεν καμμιξας δῳη Ζευς τερπικεραυνος, αλλοτε μεν τε κακῳ ὁγε κυρεται, Αλλοτε δ' εσθλῳ.

[¶14] Such is, alas! the god's severe decree,

[¶15] They, only they are bless'd, and only free.

[¶16] Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood,

[¶17] The source of evil one, and one of good.

[¶18] From thence the Cup of mortal man he fills:

[¶19] Blessings to these; to those distributes ills.

[¶20] To most he mingles both: the wretch decreed

[¶21] To taste the bad unmixed, is curs'd indeed. - Pope.

### Verse 7

[¶23] The righteous Lord loveth righteousness - He loves that which resembles himself. His countenance - his face - is ever open and unclouded to the upright. They always enjoy his salvation, and know that he is pleased with them.

[¶24] The preceding verse my old MS. translates and paraphrases thus: -

[¶25] He sal rayne on synful, snares, fyre, brimstane, and gost of stormis.

[¶26] Par - He Sal rayne on synful in this werld, snares, that es wiked Lare: fyre is covatyse: brunstane, that es stynk of il werkes: and post of stormis, that es a stormy though that es withoutyn rest in Ihesu Crist, and ay es traveld with the wynd of the devel. Or the past of stormys, es the last depertyng of synful fra ryghtwis men, and there fyre, brunston, storm, er part of the chalyie of thaim: that es, thai ar thair part in pyne. He cals thair pyne a "Cop", for ilk dampned man sal drynk of the sorow of Hel, eftir the mesure of hys Syn. Behald the pynes of wikid men: fyrst, God raynes upon thaim snares, that es qwen he suffers fals prophetes that comes in clathing of mekenes; and withinnen er wers than wolves, to desayf thaim thurgh errour. Sythen the fyre of lychery, and covatys wastes al the gude that thai haf done: eftirward for stynk of il werkes that er castyn fra Crist, and al his Halows, and then er in sentence of dome; as in a grete storme, dryven in til a pitte of Hel, to bryn in fyre withoutyn ende. This es the entent of this wers.

[¶27] For ryghtwis es Lord; and he lufes ryghtwisnes; evennes saw the face of hym - Yf ge ask qwy oure lorde yelded pyne to synful? lo here an answere; for he es rightwis. Als so if ge wil witt qwy he gifes ioy til gude men? Lo here an answere; for he lufed ryghtwisnes: that es, ryghtwis men, in the qwilk er many ryghtwisneses: thof ane be the ryghtwisnes of God, in the qwilk al ryghtwise men or parcenel. Evenes saw his face: that es, evenes es sene in his knawyng inence, both the partys of gud and il. This es ogayne wryches at sais, If God saf me noght, I dar say he es unryghtwis: bot thof thai say it now, qwen he suffris wryched men errour in thought, and worde and dede; thai sal noght be so hardy to speke a worde qwen he comes to dampne thaire errour. Bot who so lufes here and haldes that na unevenes may be in hym, qwam so he dampnes, or qwam so he saves, he sal have thaire myght to stand and to speke gude space. Now er swilk in a wonderful wodenes, that wenes for grete wordes to get ought of God.

[¶28] The former part of this Psalm, Flee as a bird, etc., this ancient author considers as the voice of heresy inviting the true Church to go away into error; and intimates that those who were separating from haly kyrk were very pure, and unblameable in all their conduct; and that mountain or hill, as he translates it, signifies eminent virtues, of which they had an apparently good stock. So it appears that those called heretics lived then a holier life than those called halows or saints.

### Introduction

[¶30] The psalmist, destitute of human comfort, craves help from God, [Psa 12:1]; gives the character of those who surrounded him, and denounces God's judgments against them, [Psa 12:2-5]; confides in the promises of God, and in his protection of him and all good men, [Psa 12:6-8].

[¶31] The inscription to this Psalm is: To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. See on the title of [Psa 6:1-10] (note): The Arabic has "Concerning the end (of the world which shall happen) on the eighth day. A prophecy relative to the Advent of the Messiah." Some think that this Psalm was made when Doeg and the Ziphites betrayed David to Saul, see 1 Samuel 22 and 23; but it is most likely that was written during the Babylonish captivity.

### Verse 1

[¶33] Help, Lord - Save me, O Lord; for merciful men fail, and faithful men have passed away from the sons of Adam. Make safe me, Lord; for haly failed, for lessed es sothfastnes fra sons of men. Old MS.

### Verse 2

[¶35] They speak vanity every one with his neighbor - They are false and hollow; they say one thing while they mean another; there is no trusting to what they say.

[¶36] Flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak - בלב ולב beleb valeb, "With a heart and a heart." They seem to have two hearts; one to speak fair words, and the other to invent mischief. The old MS. both translates and paraphrases curiously.

[¶37] Trans. Dayn spak ilkan til his neghbur: swykil lippis in hert, and thurgh hert thai spak.

[¶38] Par - Sothfastnes es lessed, and falsed waxes: and al sa vayn spak ilkone to bygyle his neghbur: and many spendes thair tyme in vayne speche withoutyn profyte and gastely frute. And that er swyku lippis; that er jangelers berkand ogaynes sothfastnes. And swykel, for thai speke in hert and thurgh hert; that es in dubil hert, qwen a fals man thynkes ane, and sais another, to desaif hym that he spekes with.

[¶39] This homely comment cannot be mended.

### Verse 3

[¶41] Proud things - גדלות gedoloth, great things; great swelling words, both in their promises and in their commendations.

### Verse 4

[¶43] Our lips are our own - Many think, because they have the faculty of speaking, that therefore they may speak what they please.

[¶44] Old MS - The qwilk sayd, our toung we sal wyrchip, our lippes er of us, qwas our Lorde? Tha Ypocrites worchepes thair toung; for that hee tham self janglyng and settes in thaire pouste to do mykil thyng and grete: and thai rose tham that thair lippes that es thair facund and thair wyls er of tham self, nought of God, ne of haly menes lare; for thi that say qua es our Lord? that es, qwat es he to qwas rewle and conversacioun we sal be undir lout? and confourme us til? Als so to say, That es none.

## 560. Psalms · 14 of 159

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### Verse 5

[¶1] For the oppression of the poor - This seems to refer best to the tribulations which the poor Israelites suffered while captives in Babylon. The Lord represents himself as looking on and seeing their affliction; and, hearing their cry, he determines to come forward to their help.

[¶2] Now will I arise - I alone delivered them into the hands of their enemies, because of their transgressions; I alone can and will deliver them from the hands of their enemies; and the manner of their deliverance shall show the power and influence of their God.

[¶3] From him that puffeth at him - Here is much interpolation to make out a sense. Several of the versions read, "I will give him an open salvation." My work shall be manifest.

### Verse 6

[¶5] The words of the Lord are pure words - None of his promises shall fall to the ground; the salvation which he has promised shall be communicated.

[¶6] Silver tried in a furnace of earth - A refer ence to the purification of silver by the cupel. This is a sort of instrument used in the purification of silver. It may be formed out of a strong iron ring or hoop, adjusted in width and depth to the quantum of silver to be purified, and rammed full of well pulverized calcined bone. The metal to be purified must be mingled with lead, and laid on the cupel, and exposed to a strong heat in an air furnace. The impurities of the metal will be partly absorbed, and partly thrown off in fume. The metal will continue in a state of agitation till all the impurities are thrown off; it will then become perfectly still, no more motion appearing, which is the token that the process is completed, or, according to the words of the text, is seven times, that is, perfectly purified.

### Verse 7

[¶8] Thou shalt keep them - thou shalt preserve them - Instead of the pronoun them in these clauses, several MSS., with the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the Arabic, have us. The sense is equally good in both readings. God did bring forth the Israelites from Babylon, according to his word; he separated them from that generation. and reinstated them in their own land, according to his word; and most certainly he has preserved them from generation to generation to the present day, in a most remarkable manner.

### Verse 8

[¶10] The wicked walk on every side - The land is full of them. When the vilest men are exalted; rather, As villany gains ground among the sons of Adam. See the Hebrew. The Vulgate has, "In circuito impii ambulant; secundum altitudinem tuam multiplicasti filios hominum;" which is thus translated and paraphrased in my old MS.: -

[¶11] Trans. In umgang wiked gos: eftir thy heenes thu has multiplied the sons of man.

[¶12] Par - Us thy kepes; bot wiked gas in umgang; that es, in covatyng of erdley gudes, that turned with the whele of seven daies: in the qwilk covatys, thai ryn ay aboute; for that sett nane endyng of thaire syn: and tharfor settes God na terme of thair pyne, but sons of men that lyfs skilwisly and in ryghtwisnes, thu has multiplied, aftir thi heghnes in vertus; aftir the heghnes of thi consayll, thou hast multiplied men bath il and gude; for na man may perfitely witt in erd, qwy God makes so many men, the qwilk he wote well sal be dampned: bot it es the privete of his counsayle, so ryghtwis, that no thyng may be ryghtwiser.

[¶13] In this we find a number of singular exrpressions, which, while they elucidate the text, will not be uninteresting to the antiquary. Here, for instance, we see the true etymology of the words righteous and righteousness, i.e., right wise and right wiseness. For we have it above as a noun, "rightwisnes": as an adjective, "rightwis"; and as an adjective in the comparative degree, "rightwiser": and we should have had it as an adverb, ryghtwisely, had not the word "skilwisly" occurred to the author.

[¶14] Righteousness is right wiseness, or that which is according to true wisdom. A righteous man is one who is right wise; properly instructed in Divine wisdom, and acts according to its dictates; and among them who act rightwisely, there are some who act rightwiser than others; and nothing can be rightwiser than ever to think and act according to the principles of that wisdom which comes from above.

[¶15] Right, rectus, straight, is opposed to wrong, from injury, and that from to twist. As rehtan signifies to direct, so wrangen signifies to twist, or turn out of a straight or direct line. Right is straight, and wrong, crooked. Hence the righteous man is one who goes straight forward, acts and walks by line and rule; and the unrighteous is he who walks in crooked paths, does what is wrong, and is never guided by true wisdom. Such a person is sometimes termed wicked, from the Anglo-Saxon to act by witch-craft, (hence wicca, a witch), that is to renounce God and righteousness, and to give one's self to the devil, which is the true character of a wicked man. Let him that readeth understand.

[¶16] The vilest men are exalted - Were we to take this in its obvious sense, it would signify that at that time wickedness was the way to preferment, and that good men were the objects of persecution.

### Introduction

[¶18] This Psalm contains the sentiments of an afflicted soul that earnestly desires succor from the Lord. The psalmist complains of delay, [Psa 13:1-3]; prays for light and comfort, because he finds himself on the brink of death, [Psa 13:3]; dreads the revilings of his enemies, [Psa 13:4]; anticipates a favorable answer, and promises thanksgiving, [Psa 13:5], [Psa 13:6].

[¶19] There is nothing particular in the inscription. The Psalm is supposed to have been written during the captivity, and to contain the prayers and supplications of the distressed Israelites, worn out with their long and oppressive bondage.

### Verse 1

[¶21] How long wilt thou forget me - The words עד אנה ad anah, to what length, to what time, translated here how long? are four times repeated in the two first verses, and point out at once great dejection and extreme earnestness of soul.

[¶22] Hide thy face from me? - How long shall I be destitute of a clear sense of thy approbation?

### Verse 2

[¶24] Take counsel in my soul - I am continually framing ways and means of deliverance; but they all come to naught, because thou comest not to my deliverance. When a soul feels the burden and guilt of sin, it tries innumerable schemes of self-recovery; but they are all useless. None but God can speak peace to a guilty conscience.

[¶25] Mine enemy be exalted - Satan appears to triumph while the soul lies under the curse of a broken law.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Consider and hear me - Rather, answer me. I have prayed; I am seeking thy face I am lost without thee; I am in darkness; my life draws nigh to destruction; if I die unforgiven, I die eternally. O Lord my God, consider this; hear and answer, for thy name's sake.

### Verse 4

[¶29] Let mine enemy say - Satan's ordinary method in temptation is to excite strongly to sin, to blind the understanding and inflame the passions; and when he succeeds, he triumphs by insults and reproaches. None so ready then to tell the poor soul how deeply, disgracefully, and ungratefully it has sinned! Reader, take heed.

[¶30] When I am moved - When moved from my steadfastness and overcome by sin. O what desolation is made by the fall of a righteous soul! Itself covered with darkness and desolation, infidels filled with scoffing, the Church clad in mourning, the Spirit of God grieved, and Jesus crucified afresh, and put to an open shame! O God, save the pious reader from such wreck and ruin!

### Verse 5

[¶32] But I have trusted in thy mercy - Thou wilt not suffer me to fall; or if I have fallen, wilt thou not, for his sake who died for sinners, once more lift up the light of thy countenance upon me? Wilt thou not cover my sin?

[¶33] My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation - There is no true joy but of the heart; and the heart cannot rejoice till all guilt is taken away from the conscience.

### Verse 6

[¶35] I will sing unto the Lord - That heart is turned to God's praise which has a clear sense of God's favor.

[¶36] Because he hath dealt bountifully with me - כי גמל עלי ki gamel alai, because he hath recompensed me. My sorrows were deep, long continued, and oppressive, but in thy favor is life. A moment of this spiritual joy is worth a year of sorrow! O, to what blessedness has this godly sorrow led! He has given me the oil of joy for the spirit of heaviness, and the garments of praise for mourning.

[¶37] The old MS. Psalter, which I have so frequen,tly mentioned and quoted, was written at least four hundred years ago, and written probably in Scotland, as it is in the Scottish dialect. That the writer was not merely a commentator, but a truly religious man, who was well acquainted with the travail of the soul, and that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which brings peace to the troubled heart, is manifested from various portions of his comment. To prove this I shall, I think I may say, favor the reader with another extract from this Psalm on the words, "How long wilt thou forget me," etc., [Psa 13:1]. I have only to observe that with this commentator a true penitent, one who is deeply in earnest for his salvation, is called a "perfyte man"; i.e., one wholly given up to God.

[¶38] How lang lord for getes thu me in the endyng? How lang o way turnes thou thi face fro me? The voice of haly men that covaytes and yernes the comyng of Iehu Crist, that thai might lyf with hym in ioy; and pleynaund tham of delaying. And sais, Lord how lang for getes the me in the endyng? That I covayte to haf and hald. That es how lang delayes thu me fra the syght of Iehu Crist, that es ryght endyng of myn entent. And how lang turnes thu thi face fra me? that es, qwen wil thu gif me perfyte Knawing of the? This wordes may nane say sothly, bot a perfyte man or woman, that has gedyrd to gydir al the desyres of thair Saule, and with the nayle of luf fested tham in Iehu Crist. Sa tham thynk one hour of the day war our lang to dwel fra hym; for tham langes ay til hym; bot tha that lufs noght so, has no langyng that he come: for thair conscience sais thaim, that thai haf noght lufed hym als that suld have done."

[¶39] The language of true Christian experience has been the same in all times and nations. "But he that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love;" and to such this is strange language.

### Introduction

[¶41] The sentiments of atheists and deists, who deny the doctrine of a Divine providence. Their character: they are corrupt, foolish, abominable, and cruel, [Psa 14:1-4]. God fills them with terror, [Psa 14:5]; reproaches them for their oppression of the poor, [Psa 14:6]. The psalmist prays for the restoration of Israel, [Psa 14:7].

[¶42] There is nothing particular in the title; only it is probable that the word לדוד ledavid, of David, is improperly prefixed, as it is sufficiently evident, from the construction of the Psalm, that it speaks of the Babylonish captivity. The author, whoever he was, (some say Haggai, others Daniel, etc)., probably lived beyond the Euphrates. He describes here, in fervid colors, the iniquity of the Chaldeans. He predicts their terror and destruction; he consoles himself with the prospect of a speedy return from his exile; and hopes soon to witness the reunion of the tribes of Israel and Judah. It may be applied to unbelievers in general.

### Verse 1

[¶44] The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God - נבל nabal, which we render fool, signifies an empty fellow, a contemptible person, a villain. One who has a muddy head and an unclean heart; and, in his darkness and folly, says in his heart, "There is no God." "And none," says one, "but a fool would say so." The word is not to be taken in the strict sense in which we use the term atheist, that is, one who denies the being of a God, or confounds him with matter. 1. There have been some, not many, who have denied the existence of God. 2. There are others who, without absolutely denying the Divine existence, deny his providence; that is, they acknowledge a Being of infinite power, etc., but give him nothing to do, and no world to govern. 3. There are others, and they are very numerous, who, while they profess to acknowledge both, deny them in their heart, and live as if they were persuaded there was no God either to punish or reward.

[¶45] They are corrupt - They are in a state of putrescence and they have done abominable works - the corruption of their hearts extends itself through all the actions of their lives. They are a plague of the most deadly kind; propagate nothing but destruction; and, like their father the devil, spread far and wide the contagion of sin and death. Not one of them does good. He cannot, for he has no Divine influence, and he denies that such can be received.

## 561. Psalms · 15 of 159

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### Verse 2

[¶1] The Lord looked down from heaven - Words spoken after the manner of men. From this glorious eminence God is represented as looking down upon the habitable globe, to see if there were any that did understand that there was a Supreme Being, the governor and judge of men; and, in consequence, seek God for his mercy, support, and defense.

### Verse 3

[¶3] They are all gone aside - They will not walk in the straight path. They seek crooked ways; and they have departed from truth, and the God of truth.

[¶4] They are all together become filthy - נאלחו neelachu. They are become sour and rancid; a metaphor taken from milk that has fermented and turned sour, rancid, and worthless.

[¶5] There is none that doeth good, no, not one - This is not only the state of heathen Babylon! but the state of the whole inhabitants of the earth, till the grace of God changes their heart. By nature, and from nature, by practice, every man is sinful and corrupt. He feels no good; he is disposed to no good; he does no good. And even God himself, who cannot be deceived, cannot find a single exception to this! Lord, what is man?

[¶6] The Vulgate, the Roman copy of the Septuagint, the Athtopic, and the Arabic, add those six verses here which are quoted by St. Paul, [Rom 3:13-18] (note). See the observations at the end of this Psalm.

### Verse 4

[¶8] Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? - Is there not one of them who takes this dreadful subject into consideration? To their deeply fallen state they add cruelty; they oppress and destroy the poor, without either interest or reason.

[¶9] Who eat up my people as they eat bread - Ye make them an easy and unresisting prey. They have no power to oppose you, and therefore you destroy them. That this is the meaning of the expression, is plain from the speech of Joshua and Caleb relative to the Canaanites. [Num 14:9] : "Neither fear ye the people or the land; for they are bread for us."

[¶10] And call not upon the Lord - They have no defense, for they invoke not the Lord. They are all either atheists or idolaters.

### Verse 5

[¶12] There were they in great fear - This is a manifest allusion to the history of the Canaanitish nations; they were struck with terror at the sight of the Israelites, and by this allusion the psalmist shows that a destruction similar to that which fell upon them, should fall on the Babylonians. Several of the versions add, from [Psa 53:5], "Where no fear was." They were struck with terror, where no real cause of terror existed. Their fears had magnified their danger.

[¶13] For God is in the generation - They feared the Israelites, because they knew that the Almighty God was among them.

### Verse 6

[¶15] Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor - Instead of תבישו tabishu, "Ye have shamed," Bishop Horsley proposes to read תבישם tabishem, and translates the clause thus: "The counsel of the helpless man shall put them to shame." But this is not authorized by MS. or version. There is no need for any change: the psalmist refers to the confidence which the afflicted people professed to have in God for their deliverance, which confidence the Babylonians turned into ridicule. The poor people took counsel together to expect help from God and to wait patiently for it; and this counsel ye derided, because ye did not know - did not consider, that God was in the congregation of the righteous.

### Verse 7

[¶17] O that the salvation - Or, more literally, Who will give from Zion salvation to Israel? From Zion the deliverance must come; for God alone can deliver them; but whom will he make his instruments?

[¶18] When the Lord bringeth back - For it is Jehovah alone who can do it. Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. That is, according to Calmet, the remains of the kingdom of Israel and those of Judah, shall be rejoined, to their mutual satisfaction, and become one people, worshipping the same God; and he has endeavoured to prove, in a dissertation on the subject, that this actually took place after the return from the Babylonish captivity.

[¶19] Many of the fathers have understood this verse as referring to the salvation of mankind by Jesus Christ; and so it is understood by my old MS. Psalter, as the following paraphrase will show: Qwa sal gyf of Syon hele til Israel? qwen Lord has turned a way the captyfte of his folk, glad sal Jacob, and fayne be Israel. Qwa bot Crist that ge despyse, qwen ge wit nout do his counsaile of Syon fra heven, sal gyf hele til Israel? that es, sal saf al trew cristen men, noght als ge er that lufs noght God. And qwen our Lord has turned o way the captyfte of his folk: that es, qwen he has dampned the devel, and al his Servaundes, the qwilk tourmentes gude men, and makes tham captyfs in pyne. Then glade sal Jacob; that es, al that wirstils o gayns vices and actyf: and fayne sal be Israel: that es, al that with the clene egh of thair hert, sees God in contemplatyf lyf. For Jacob es als mikil at say als, Wrestler, or suplanter of Syn. Israel es, man seand God.

[¶20] Of the two chief opinions relative to the design of this Psalm:

[¶21] 1. That it refers to Absalom's rebellion.

[¶22] 2. That it is a complaint of the captives in Babylon; I incline to the latter, as by far the most probable.

[¶23] I have referred, in the note on [Psa 14:3], to that remarkable addition of no less than six verses, which is found here in the Vulgate, the Vatican copy of the Septuagint, the Ethiopic, and the Arabic, and also in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, [Rom 3:13-18], which he is supposed to have quoted from this Psalm as it then stood in the Hebrew text; or in the version of the Seventy, from which it has been generally thought he borrowed them. That they are not interpolations in the New Testament is evident from this, that they are not wanting in any MS. yet discovered; and they exist in all the ancient versions, the Vulgate, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic. Yet it has been contended, particularly by St. Jerome, that St. Paul did not quote them from this Psalm; but, being intent on showing the corruption and misery of man, he collected from different parts several passages that bore upon the subject, and united them here, with his quotation from [Psa 14:3], as if they had all belonged to that place: and that succeeding copyists, finding them in Romans, as quoted from that Psalm, inserted them into the Septuagint, from which it was presumed they had been lost. It does not appear that they made a part of this Psalm in Origen's Hexapla. In the portions that still exist of this Psalm there is not a word of these additional verses referred to in that collection, neither here nor in the parallel [Psa 53:1-6].

[¶24] The places from which Jerome and others say St. Paul borrowed them are the following: - [Rom 3:13] : "Their mouth is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit." Borrowed from [Psa 5:10]. "The poison of asps is under their lips." From [Psa 140:3]. [Rom 3:14] : "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." From [Psa 10:7]. [Rom 3:15] : "Their feet are swift to shed blood." From [Pro 1:16], or [Isa 59:7]. [Rom 3:16-18] : "Destruction and misery are in their ways, the way of peace they have not known, and there is no fear of God before their eyes." From [Isa 59:7], [Isa 59:8].

[¶25] When the reader has collated all these passages in the original, he will probably feel little satisfaction relative to the probability of the hypothesis they are summoned to support.

[¶26] These verses are not found in the best copies of the Vulgate, though it appears they were in the old Itala or Antehieronymain version. They are not in the Codex Alexandrinus of the Septuagint; nor are they in either the Greek or Latin text of the Complutenstan Polyglot. They are wanting also in the Antwerp and Parisian Polyglots. They are neither in the Chaldee nor Syriac versions. They are not acknowledged as a part of this Psalm by Theodoret, Chrysostom, Euthymius, Arnobius, Apollinaris, the Greek Catena, Eusebius, of Caesarea, nor Jerome. The latter, however, acknowledges that they were in his time read in the churches. I have seen no Latin MS. without them; and they are quoted by Justin Martyr and Augustine. They are also in the Editio Princeps of the Vulgate, and in all the ancient Psalters known. They are in that Psalter which I have frequently quoted, both in the Latino - Scotico - English version and paraphrase.

[¶27] Of this version the following is a faithful copy, beginning with the third verse of the fourteenth Psalm: -

[¶28] Al tha helddid togyher; thai er made unprofytable:

[¶29] Thar es none that dos gude; thar es none til one.

[¶30] A grave opynnand, es the throte of tham.

[¶31] With thaire tunges trycherusly thai wroght

[¶32] Venym of snakes undir the lippis of tham.

[¶33] Qwhas mouth es ful of werying and bitternes:

[¶34] Swyft thaire fete to spil blode.

[¶35] Brekyng and wikednes in thair waies:

[¶36] And the way of pees thai knew noght:

[¶37] The drede of God es noght byfore the eghen of thaim.

[¶38] There is a good deal of difference between this, and that version attributed to Wiclif, as it stands in my large MS. Bible, quoted in different parts of the New Testament, particularly in [1Cor 13:1], etc. I shall give it here line for line with the above.

[¶39] Alle boweden aweye to gydre: thei ben maad unprofitable:

[¶40] There is not that doith good thing, ther is not to oon.

[¶41] A Sepulcre opnyng is the throote of hem:

[¶42] With her tungis thei diden gylinly; or trecherously:

[¶43] The venym of eddris, that is clepid Aspis, under her lippis:

[¶44] The mouth of whom is ful of cursing, or worrying and bittrenesse:

## 562. Psalms · 16 of 159

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[¶0] The feet of hem ben swift to schede out blood:

[¶1] Contricion or defouling to God, and infelicite or cursidnesse, the wayes of hem;

[¶2] And thei knewen not the weyes of pees;

[¶3] The dreed of God is not bifore her ygen.

[¶4] The words underlined in the above are added by the translator as explanatory of the preceding terms. It is worthy of remark that Coverdale inserts the whole of the addition in this Psalm, and Cardmarden has inserted it in his Bible, but in a letter different from the text.

[¶5] It is now time to state what has been deemed of considerable importance to the authenticity of these verses; viz., that they are found in a Hebrew MS., numbered by Kennicott in his catalogue 649. It is in the public library at Leyden; contains the Psalms with a Latin version and Scholia; and appears to have been written about the end of the fourteenth century and probably by some Christian. I shall give the text with a literal translation, as it stands in this MS., line for line with the preceding: - קבר פתוח גרונם

[¶6] An open sepulcher is their throat; לשונם יחליקיו

[¶7] With their tongues they flatter; חמת עכשוב תחת לשונם

[¶8] The venom of the asp is under their tongue; אשר פיהם אלה ומרמה מלא

[¶9] Whose mouth of cursing and bitterness is full; קלו רגליהם לשפוך דם

[¶10] Swift are their feet to shed blood; מזל רע ופגע רע בדרכיהם

[¶11] An evil aspect, and an evil event, in their ways: ודרך שלום לא ידעו

[¶12] And the way of peace they know not. אי פחד אלהים לנגר עיניהם

[¶13] No fear of God before their eyes.

[¶14] It would be easy to criticise upon the Hebrew In this long quotation. I shall content myself with what Calmet, who received his information from others that had inspected the Leyden MS., says of this addition: "Les seavans, qui ont examine ce manuscrit, y ont remarque un Hebreu barbare en cet endroit; et des facons de parler, qui ne sentent point les siecles ou la langue Hebraique etoit en usage." "Learned men, who have examined this MS., have remarked a barbarous Hebraism in this place, and modes of speech which savor not of those ages in which the Hebrew language was in use."

[¶15] If this be an interpolation in the Psalm, it is very ancient; as we have the testimony of Jerome, who was prejudiced against it, that it was read in all the churches in his time, and how long before we cannot tell. And that these verses are a valuable portion of Divine revelation, as they stand in [Rom 3:13-18], none can successfully deny. See Rosenmuller, Kennicott, and De Rossi.

### Introduction

[¶17] The important question answered, Who is a proper member of the Church militant? and who shall finally join the Church triumphant? Verse [Psa 15:1] contains the question; [Psa 15:2-5], the answer.

[¶18] The title, מזמור לדוד mizmor ledavid, a Psalm of David, has nothing in it particularly worthy of notice. If it were a Psalm composed during the captivity, relating to their return and settlement in their own land, with the restoration of their temple service and all the ordinances of God, and a description of the persons who should then be considered Israelites indeed, the name of David is improperly prefixed. But the subject is of the most general utility, and demands the most solemn and serious attention of all men who profess to believe in the immortality of the soul.

### Verse 1

[¶20] Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? - The literal translation of this verse is, "Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in the mountain of thy holiness?" Fwor the proper understanding of this question we must note the following particulars: -

[¶21] 1. The tabernacle, which was a kind of moveable temple, was a type of the Church militant, or the state of the people of God in this world.

[¶22] 2. Mount Zion, the holy mount, where the temple was built, was the type of the kingdom of heaven. There the ark became stationary, and was no longer carried about from place to place; and the whole was typical of the rest that remains for the people of God.

[¶23] 3. The Tabernacle was a temporary and frequently-removed building, carried about from place to place, and not long in any one place. Concerning this it is said: מי יגור mi yagur, "Who shall lodge, or sojourn," there? It is not a residence, or dwelling-place, but a place to lodge in for a time.

[¶24] 4. The Temple was a fixed and permanent building; and here it is inquired, מי ישכן mi yiscon, "Who shall dwell, abide," or have his permanent residence, there?

[¶25] 5. The tabernacle being a migratory temple, carried about on the shoulders of the priests and Levites, there was no dwelling there for any; they could but lodge or sojourn.

[¶26] 6. The temple being fined, the priests, Levites, etc., became permanent occupiers. There was no lodging or sojourning, but permanent residence for all connected with it.

[¶27] 7. The tabernacle is, therefore, a proper type of the Church militant, wandering up and down, tossed by various storms and tempests; the followers of God, having here no continuing city; sojourning only on earth to get a preparation for eternal glory.

[¶28] 8. The temple is also a proper type or emblem of the Church triumphant in heaven. "Here the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." It is the dwelling-place the eternal residence, of all who are faithfui unto death, who are made pillars in that temple of God, to go no more out for ever.

[¶29] The questions therefore are,

[¶30] 1. Who can be considered a fit member of the Church of Christ here below? and,

[¶31] 2. Who shall be made partakers of an endless glory? In answer to these questions, the character of what we may term a true Israelite, or a good Christian, is given in the following particulars: -

### Verse 2

[¶33] He that walketh uprightly - הולך תמים holech tamim,

[¶34] 1. He walks perfectly. Who sets God before his eyes, takes his word for the rule of his conduct, considers himself a sojourner on earth, and is continually walking to the kingdom of God. He acts according to the perfections of God's law; he has respect to all its parts, and feels the weight and importance of all its injunctions.

[¶35] And worketh righteousness -

[¶36] 2. He is not satisfied with a contemplative life; he has duties to perform. The law of righteousness has placed him in certain relations, and each of these relations has its peculiar duties. פעל צדק poel tsedek, the words here used, signify to give just weight, to render to all their dues.

[¶37] 1. As he is the creature of God, he has duties to perform to him. He owes God his heart: May son, give me thy heart; and should love him with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is giving God his due.

[¶38] 2. As a member of civil society, he has various duties to perform to his fellows, as they have to him. He is to love them as himself, and do unto all men as he would they should do unto him.

[¶39] 3. There are duties which he owes to himself. That his body may be in health, vigor, and activity, he should avoid every thing by which it might be injured, particularly all excesses in eating, drinking, sleeping, etc. That his soul may be saved, he should avoid all sin; all irregular and disorderly passions. He owes it to his soul to apply to God for that grace which produces repentance, faith, and holiness; and in order to get all these blessings, he should read, watch, pray, hear the word preached, and diligently use all the ordinances of God. He who acts not thus, defrauds both his body and soul: but the person in the text works righteousness - gives to all their due; and thus keeps a conscience void of oifence, both towards God and man.

[¶40] And speaketh the truth in his heart -

[¶41] 3. He is a true man; in him there is no false way. He is no man of pretenses; speaking one thing, and meaning another. He professes nothing but what he feels and intends; with him there are no hollow friendships, vain compliments, nor empty professions of esteem, love, regard, or friendship. His mouth speaks nothing but what his heart dictates. His heart, his tongue, and his hand, are all in unison. Hypocrisy, guile, and deceit, have no place in his soul.

### Verse 3

[¶43] He that backbiteth not with his tongue - לא רגל על לשנו lo ragal al leshono, "he foots not upon his tongue."

[¶44] 4. He is one who treats his neighbor with respect. He says nothing that might injure him in his character, person, or property; he forgets no calumny, he is author of no slander, he insinuates nothing by which his neighbor may be injured. The tongue, because of its slanderous conversation, is represented in the nervous original as kicking about the character of an absent person; a very common vice, and as destructive as it is common: but the man who expects to see God abhors it, and backbites not with his tongue. The words backbite and backbiter come from the Anglo-Saxon bac, the back, and to bite. How it came to be used in the sense it has in our language, seems at first view unaccountable; but it was intended to convey the treble sense of knavishness, cowardice, and brutality. He is a knave, who would rob you of your good name; he is a coward, that would speak of you in your absence what he dared not to do in your presence; and only an ill-conditioned dog would fly at and bite your back when your face was turned. All these three ideas are included in the term; and they all meet in the detractor and calumniator. His tongue is the tongue of a knave, a coward, and a dog. Such a person, of course, has no right to the privileges of the Church militant, and none of his disposition can ever see God.

## 563. Psalms · 17 of 159

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[¶0] Nor doeth evil to his neighbor -

[¶1] 5. He not only avoids evil speaking, but he avoids also evil acting towards his neighbor. He speaks no evil of him; he does no evil to him; he does him no harm; he occasions him no wrong. On the contrary, he gives him his due. See under the second particular.

[¶2] Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour -

[¶3] 6. The word חרפה cherpah, which we here translate a reproach, comes from חרף charaph, to strip, or make bare, to deprive one of his garments; hence חרף choreph, the winter, because it strips the fields of their clothing, and the trees of their foliage. By this, nature appears to be dishonored and disgraced. The application is easy: a man, for instance, of a good character is reported to have done something wrong: the tale is spread, and the slanderers and backbiters carry it about; and thus the man is stripped of his fair character, of his clothing of righteousness, truth, and honesty. All may be false; or the man, in an hour of the power of darkness, may have been tempted and overcoxne; may have been wounded in the cloudy and dark day, and deeply mourns his fall before God. Who that has not the heart of a devil would not strive rather to cover than make bare the fault? Those who feed, as the proverb says, like the flies, passing over all a man's whole parts to light upon his wounds, will take up the tale, and carry it about. Such, in the course of their diabolic work, carry the story of scandal to the righteous man; to him who loves his God and his neighbor. But what reception has the tale-bearer? The good man taketh it not up; לא נשא lo nasa, he will not bear it; it shall not be propagated from him. He cannot prevent the detractor from laying it down; but it is in his power not to take it up: and thus the progress of the slander may be arrested. He taketh not up a reproach against his neighbour; and the tale-bearer is probably discouraged from carrying it to another door. Reader, drive the slanderer of your neighbor far away from you: ever remembering that in the law of God, as well as in the law of the land, "the receiver is as bad as the thief."

### Verse 4

[¶5] In whose eves a vile person is contemned -

[¶6] 7. This man judges of others by their conduct; he tries no man's heart. He knows men only by the fruits they bear; and thus he gains knowledge of the principle from which they proceed. A vile person, נמאס nimas, the reprobate, one abandoned to sin; is despised, נבזה nibzeh, is loathsome, as if he were covered with the elephantiasis or leprosy, for so the word implies. He may be rich, he may be learned, he may be a great man and honorable with his master, in high offices in the state; but if he be a spiritual leper, an infidel, a profligate, the righteous man must despise him, and hold him, because he is an enemy to God and to man, in sovereign contempt. If he be in power, he will not treat him as if worthy of his dignity; while he respects the office he will detest the man. And this is quite right; for the popular odium should ever be pointed against vice.

[¶7] Aben Ezra gives a curious turn to this clause, which he translates thus: "He is mean and contemptible in his own eyes;" and it is certain that the original, נבזה בעיניו נמאס nibzeh beeynaiv nimas, will bear this translation. His paraphrase on it is beautiful: "A pious man, whatever good he may have done, and however concordant to the Divine law he may have walked, considers all this of no worth, compared with what it was his duty to do for the glory of his Creator." A sentiment very like that of our Lord, [Luk 17:10] : "So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do."

[¶8] Taken in this sense, the words intimate, that the man who is truly pious, who is a proper member of the Church militant, and is going straight to the Church triumphant, is truly humble; he knows he has nothing but what he has received, he has no merit, he trusts not in himself, but in the living God. He renounces his own righteousness, and trusts in the eternal mercy of God through the infinitely meritorious atonement made by Jesus Christ. The language of his heart is: - "I loathe myself when God I see,And into nothing fall;

[¶9] Content that thou exalted be,And Christ be all in all."

[¶10] He honoureth them that fear the Lord -

[¶11] 8. This cause is a proof, however just the sentiment, that Aben Ezra has mistaken the meaning of the preceding clause. The truly pious man, while he has in contempt the honorable and right honorable profligate, yet honors them that fear the Lord, though found in the most abject poverty; though, with Job, on the dunghill, or, with Lazarus, covered with sores at the rich man's gate. Character is the object of his attention; persons and circumstances are of minor importance.

[¶12] The fear of the Lord is often taken for the whole of religion; and sometimes for that reverence which a man feels for the ma jesty and holiness of God, that induces him to hate and depart from evil. Here it may signify the lowest degree of religion, repentance whereby we forsake sin.

[¶13] Sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not -

[¶14] 9. If at any time he have bound himself by a solemn engagement to do so and so, and he finds afterwards that to keep his oath will be greatly to his damage; yet such reverence has he for God and for truth that he will not change, be the consequences what they may. He is faithful also to his promises; his bare word will bind him equally with an oath. He that will not be honest without an oath will not be honest with one.

[¶15] The Hebrew might be thus translated: "He sweareth to afflict himself, and does not change;" and thus the Chaldee has rendered this clause. He has promised to the Lord to keep his body under, and bring it into subjection; to deny himself that he may not pamper the flesh, and have the more to give to the poor.

### Verse 5

[¶17] Putteth not out his money to usury -

[¶18] 10. As usury signifies unlawful interest, or that which is got by taking advantage of the necessity of a distressed neighbor, no man that fears God can be guilty of it. The word נשך neshech, which we translate usury, comes from nashach, to bite as a serpent; and here must signify that biting or devouring usury, which ruins the man who has it to pay. "The increase of usury is called נשך neshech, because it resembles the biting of a serpent. For as this is so small at first, as scarcely to be perceptible, but the venom soon spreads and diffuses itself till it reaches the vitals; so the increase of usury, which at first is not perceived nor felt, at length grows so much as by degrees to devour another's substance." Middoch's edition of Leigh's Critica Sacra, sub voce נשך.

[¶19] The Jews ever were, and are still, remarkable for usury and usurious contracts; and a Jew that is saved from it is in the fair way, charity would suppose, to the kingdom of heaven. The Roman laws condemned the usurer to the forfeiture of four times the sum. Cato de Rust., lib. i.

[¶20] Nor taketh reward against the innocent -

[¶21] 11. He neither gives nor receives a bribe in order to pervert justice or injure an innocent man in his cause. The lawyer, who sees a poor man opposed by a rich man, who, though he is convinced in his conscience that the poor man has justice and right on his side, yet takes the larger fee from the rich man to plead against the poor man, has in fact taken a bribe against the innocent, and without the most signal interposition of the mercy of God, is as sure of hell as if he were already there.

[¶22] He that doeth these things - He in whose character all these excellences meet, though still much more is necessary under the Christian dispensation, shall never be moved - he shall stand fast for ever. He is an upright, honest man, and God will ever be his support.

[¶23] Now we have the important question answered, Who shall go to heaven? The man who to faith in Christ Jesus adds those eleven moral excellences which have been already enumerated. And only such a character is fit for a place in the Church of Christ.

[¶24] On this verse there is a singular reading in my old MS. Psalter, which I must notice. The clause, Qui pecuniam suam non dedit ad usuram, "who putteth not out his money to usury," is thus translated: He that gat nout his catel til oker. Now this intimates that the author had either read pecudem, Cattle, for pecuniam, Money; or that catel was the only money current in his time and country. And indeed it has long been the case, that the Scottish peasantry paid their rents in kind; so many cows or sheep given to the laird for the usufruct of the ground. That this is no mistake in the translation is evident enough from the paraphrase, where he repeats the words, with his gloss upon them: He that gaf nout his Catel till oker bodyly als covaytus men dos gastly: that he seke naght for his gude dede, na mede of this werld, bot anely of heven.

[¶25] The very unusual word oker signifies produce of any kind, whether of cattle, land, money, or even the human offspring. It is found in the Anglo-Saxon, the Gothic, the German, and the Danish; in all which languages it signifies produce, fruit, offspring, usury, and the like. Dr. Jameson does not show the word in any of its forms, though it is evident that it existed in the ancient Scotttsh language.

[¶26] The word catel may be used here for chattels, substance of any kind, moveable or immoveable; but this word itself was originally derived from cattle, which were from the beginning the principal substance or riches of the inhabitants of the country. Indeed the word pecunia, money, was derived from pecus, cattle, which were no longer used as a medium of commerce when silver and gold came into use. There is a passage in Chaucer where cattel catching seems to be used for getting money.

[¶27] Speaking of the wicked priests of his time, he says: -

[¶28] Some on her churches dwell

[¶29] Apparailled poorely proud of porte;

[¶30] The seven Sacramentes thei doen sell,

[¶31] In Cattel catching is her comfort.

[¶32] Of each matter thei wollen mell;

[¶33] And doen hem wrong is her disport.

[¶34] To affraie the people thei been fell

[¶35] And hold hem lower than doeth the Lorde.

[¶36] Plowmanne's Tale, 3d part.

### Introduction

[¶38] The contents of this Psalm are usually given in the following manner: David, sojourning among idolaters, and being obliged to leave his own country through Saul's persecution, cries to God for help; expresses his abhorrence of idolatry, and his desire to be again united to God's people, [Psa 16:1-4]; and dedares his strong confidence in God, who had dealt bountifully with him, [Psa 16:5-7]. Then follows a remarkable prophecy of the resurrection of Christ, [Psa 16:8-11].

[¶39] The title of this Psalm in the Hebrew is מכתם לדוד michtam ledavid, which the Chaldee translates, "A straight sculpture of David." The Septuagint, Στηλογραφια τῳ Δαυιδ, "The inscription on a pillar to David;" as if the Psalm had been inscribed on a pillar, to keep it in remembrance. As כתם catham signifies to engrave or stamp, this has given rise to the above inscription. מכתם michtam also means pure or stamped gold; and hence it has been supposed that this title was given to it on account of its excellence: a golden Psalm, or a Psalm worthy to be written on letters of gold; as some of the verses of Pythagoras were called the golden verses, because of their excellence. Gold being the most excellent and precious of all metals, it has been used to express metaphorically excellence and perfection of every kind. Thus a golden tongue or mouth, the most excellent eloquence; so Chrysostom means, this eminent man having had his name from his eloquence; - a golden book, one of the choicest and most valuable of its kind, etc. But I have already sufficiently expressed my doubts concerning the meanings given to these titles. See the note on the title of [Psa 60:1-12] (note).

[¶40] That David was the author there can be no doubt. It is most pointedly attributed to him by St. Peter, [Act 2:25-31]. That its principal parts might have some relation to his circumstances is also probable; but that Jesus Christ is its main scope, not only appears from quotations made by the apostle as above, but from the circumstance that some parts of it never did and never could apply to David. From the most serious and attentive consideration of the whole Psalm, I am convinced that every verse of it belongs to Jesus Christ, and none other: and this, on reference, I find to be the view taken of it by my ancient Psalter. But as he is referred to here as the Redeemer of the world, consequently, as God manifested in the flesh, there are several portions of the Psalm, as well as in the New Testament, where the Divine and human natures are spoken of separrately: and if this distinction be properly regarded, we shall find, not only no inconsistency, but a beautiful harmony through the whole.

### Verse 1

[¶42] Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust - On the mode of interpretation which I have hinted at above, I consider this a prayer of the man Christ Jesus on his entering on his great atoning work, particularly his passion in the garden of Gethsemane. In that passion, Jesus Christ most evidently speaks as man; and with the strictest propriety, as it was the manhood, not the Godhead, that was engaged in the suffering. שמרני shomreni, keep me - preserve, sustain, this feeble humanity, now about to bear the load of that punishment due to the whole of the human race. For in thee, חסיתי chasithi, have I hoped. No human fortitude, or animal courage, can avail in my circumstances. These are no common sufferings; they are not of a natural kind; they are not proportioned to the strength of a human body, or the energy of a human spirit; and my immaculate humanity, which is subjected to these sufferings, must be dissolved by them, if not upheld by thee, the strong God. It is worthy of remark, that our Lord here uses the term, אל El, which signifies the strong God, an expression remarkably suited to the frailty of that human nature, which was now entering upon its vicarious sufferings. It will be seen with what admirable propriety the Messiah varies the appellations of the Divine Being in this address; a circumstance which no translation without paraphrase can express.

### Verse 2

[¶44] Thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord - Thou hast said ליהוה layhovah to Jehovah, the supreme, self-existing, and eternal Being; Thou art my Lord, אדני אתה adonai attah, Thou art my prop, stay, or support. As the Messiah, or Son of God, Jesus derived his being and support from Jehovah; and the man Christ was supported by the eternal Divinity that dwelt within him, without which he could not have sustained the sufferings which he passed through, nor have made an atonement for the sin of the world; it is the suffering Messiah, or the Messiah in prospect of his sufferings, who here speaks.

## 564. Psalms · 18 of 159

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[¶0] My goodness extendeth not to thee - There are almost endless explanations of this clause; no man can read them without being confounded by them. The Septuagint read ὁτι των αγαθων μου ου χρειαν εχεις; Because thou dost not need my goods. The Vulgate follows the Septuagint. The Chaldee: My good is given only by thyself.

[¶1] So the Syriac: My good is from thee. The Arabic: Thou dost not need my good works. And in this sense, with shades of difference, it has been understood by most commentators and critics.

[¶2] Bishop Horsley translates, Thou art my good - not besides thee. Dr. Kennicott, My goodness is not without thee.

[¶3] I think the words should be understood of what the Messiah was doing for men. My goodness, טובתי tobathi, "my bounty," is not to thee. What I am doing can add nothing to thy divinity; thou art not providing this astonishing sacrifice because thou canst derive any excellence from it: but this bounty extends to the saints - to all the spirits of just men made perfect, whose bodies are still in the earth; and to the excellent, אדירי addirey, "the noble or supereminent ones," those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The saints and illustrious ones not only taste of my goodness, but enjoy my salvation. Perhaps angels themselves may be intended; they are not uninterested in the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord. They desire to look into these things; and the victories of the cross in the conversion of sinners cause joy among the angels of God.

[¶4] The קדושים kedoshim, "saints," or consecrated persons, may refer to the first planters of Christianity, evangelists, apostles, etc., who were separated from all others, and consecrated to the great important work of preaching among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. With these was all the desire, חפץ chephets, the good will and delight of Christ. In all their ministrations he was both with them and in them.

[¶5] The passage, taken as referring to David, intimates that he abhorred the company of the profane and worthless, and delighted to associate with them that excelled in virtue.

[¶6] On these two verses the translation and paraphrase of my old Psalter must not be forgotten: - [Psa 16:1] Conserva me, Domine, etc.

[¶7] Trans. Kepe me Lord, for I hoped in the; I said til Lord, my God thou ert; for, of my gudes thu has na nede.

[¶8] Par - The voice of Crist in his manhede; prayand til the fader, and sayand: Lord, fader, kepe me imang peplis, for I hoped in the, noght in me. I said til the, my God, thu ert in that, that I am man; for thu has no nede of my godes; bot I haf of the, al that I haf; here is the wil pride of men confounded; that evenes that thai haf ought of tham self bot syn. [Psa 16:2] Sanctis qui sunt in terra, etc.

[¶9] Trans. Til halowes the qwilk er his land, he selcouthed all my willes in tham.

[¶10] Par - Noght til wiked, bot til halows clene in saule, and depertid fra erdly bysynes, the qwilk er in his land: that es, that haf fested thair hope in the land of heven; and rotyd in luf: the qwilk hope es als anker in stremys of this werld. He selcouthed al my willes, that of wonderful, he made my willes, of dying and rysing, sett and fulfilled in tham: that es, in thair profete, qware in that feled qwat it profeted tham my mekenes that wild dye, and my myght to rise.

### Verse 4

[¶12] Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god - The Chaldee has: "They multiply their idols, and afterwards hasten that they may offer their gifts." In the Hebrew text there is no word for God, and therefore Messiah or Savior might be as well substituted; and then the whole will refer to the unbelieving Jews. They would not have the true Christ; they have sought, and are seeking, another Messiah; and how amply fulfilled has the prophetic declaration been in them! Their sorrows have been multiplied for more than 1800 years.

[¶13] The Vulgate and Septuagint, and after them the Ethiopic and Arabic, have given this clause a widely different turn: "their afflictions have been multiplied, and afterwards they have run swiftly;" referring to the suffering saints: the more they were afflicted and persecuted, the more fervent and prosperous they became.

[¶14] Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer - נסך nesech is a libation, whether of wine or water, poured out on the sacrifice. A drink-offering of blood is not a correct form of expression; it is rather the libation on the blood of the sacrifice already made. Coverdale translates the same; but Mathewes, who reformed his text in a few places, has Their brente offeringes of bloude, without much mending the text; though by this the exceptionable idea of a drink-offering of blood is avoided. As applicable to our Lord, here is an intimation that their libations and sacrifices should cease. None of these should exist under the Christian dispensation; Jesus Christ's offering upon the cross being the accomplishment and termination of all such sacrifices.

[¶15] Nor take up their names into my lips - None of those sacrifices shall be mentioned with any kind of respect after the end of their institution shall have been accomplished; for sacrifice, offering, burnt-offering, and sacrifice for sin, such as are offered according to the law, God would no longer receive; therefore Jesus said; "Lo, I come to do thy will; a body hast thou prepared me." Since that time all these sacrifices have ceased. The old Psalter is curious: - [Psa 16:4] Multiplicate sunt infirmitates eorum; postea acceleraverunt.

[¶16] Trans. Manyfaldend er thair sekenes: and sythen thai hasted thaim.

[¶17] Par - That es at say; thai knew that thai war ful seke in body and saule, and sythen thai hasted tham til the Leche; for he that feles him seke, he sekes remedy. Il men wenes that thai er noght seke for thi that dye in thair syn.

[¶18] Non congregabo conventicula eroum de sanguinibus, etc.

[¶19] Trans. I sal noght gadyr the coventes of tha of blodes; ne I sal be menand of their names thurgh my lippis.

[¶20] Par - That est at say, by the coventes of haly men, my servaundes sal nout fleschely, but gastly: for "blode" bytakyns syn and unclenes that that er in, that folous thair flesche, and the vanites of thair blode; that er comen of grete kyn. Ne I sal by menand of thair names; for thai er chaunged fra syn till ryghtwisnes on domesday, qwen I sal speke thrugh my lippes til thaim that haldes the name of wykednes: sa ye weryed til fyer with outen end.

### Verse 5

[¶22] The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance - The Messiah speaks. Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance; I seek no earthly good; I desire to do the will of God, and that only. It is God who has given me this lot - to redeem mankind - to have them for mine inheritance. From him I have received the cup of suffering, which I shall drink for their sake, through which I shall impart to them the cup of consolation. He, by the grace of God, has tasted death for every man; and he has instituted the cup of blessing to commemorate his passion and death.

### Verse 6

[¶24] The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places - Here is an allusion to the ancient division of the land by lot among the Israelites, the breadth and length being ascertained by lines which were used in measuring. I have got a rich inheritance of immortal spirits; and I myself, as man, shall have a name above every name, and be raised to thy throne, on which I shall sit, and be admired in my saints to all eternity.

[¶25] I have a goodly heritage - A Church, an innumerable multitude of saints, partakers of the Divine nature, and filled with all the fullness of God. And these shall dwell with me in the heaven of heavens to all eternity. The old Psalter: - [Psa 16:5] Dominus pars hereditatis mee et calicis mei, etc.

[¶26] Trans. Lord es part of myn herytage and of my chalyce; thow ert that sal restore myn herytage til me.

[¶27] Par - Lord the fader es part, that es, he es porcioun and mede of myn herytage; that es of haly men, qwam I weld in herytage. Other men cheses tham what tham lyst: my part es God, and he es part of my chalyce: that es, he es my copp of al my delyte and boor. Wereldys men drynkes the venemus lustes, and the drubly delytes of lychery and covatys: I in my halows sal drynk God; for thu ert fadyr that sal restore till me, that es, til my men, myn herytage, that thai lost in Adam: that es thu restores til tham the knawyng of my bryghthede. [Psa 16:6] Punes ceciderunt michi in preclaris, etc.

[¶28] Trans. Strynges fel to me in ful bryght: for qwy, myn herytage is ful bryght til me.

[¶29] Par - Strynges, that er merkes of my possessioun, in thi bryghtnes, fel als with cutte; als the possessioun of prestes and dekens in the alde law, was God; for qwy myn herytage, that es haly men es bryght til me of that seme layth and aute castyng til some of the werld, til me thai er fairer and bryght.

### Verse 7

[¶31] Who hath given me counsel - Jesus, as man, received all his knowledge and wisdom from God; [Luk 2:40-52]. And in him were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

[¶32] My reins also instruct me - כליותי kilyothai, reins or kidneys, which from their retired situation in the body, says Parkhurst, and being hidden in fat, are often used in Scripture for the most secret workings and affections of the heart.

[¶33] The kidneys and their fat were always to be burnt in sacrifice, to indicate that the most secret purposes and affections of the soul are to be devoted to God.

[¶34] In the night seasons - That is, in the time of my passion, my secret purposes and determinations concerning the redemption of man support me. "For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame;" [Heb 12:2].

### Verse 8

[¶36] I have set the Lord always before me - This verse, and all to the end of [Psa 16:11], are applied by St. Peter to the death and resurreetion of Christ. [Act 2:25], etc.

[¶37] In all that our Lord did, said, or suffered, he kept the glory of the Father and the accomplishment of his purpose constantly in view. He tells us that he did not come down from heaven to do his own will, but the will of the Father who had sent him. See [Joh 17:4].

[¶38] He is at my right hand - That is, I have his constant presence, approbation, and support. All this is spoken by Christ as man.

[¶39] I shall not be moved - Nothing can swerve me from my purpose; nothing can prevent me from fulfilling the Divine counsel, in reference to the salvation of men.

### Verse 9

[¶41] Therefore my heart is glad - Unutterably happy in God; always full of the Divine presence; because whatsoever I do pleaseth him. The man Christ Jesus must be constantly in communion with God, because he was without spot and blemish.

[¶42] My glory rejoiceth - My tongue, so called by the Hebrews, (see [Psa 57:8]; [Psa 30:12]), because it was bestowed on us to glorify God, and because it is our glory, being the instrument of expressing our thoughts by words. See Dodd. But soul bids as fair to be the meaning. See the notes on [Act 2:25], etc.

[¶43] My flesh also shall rest in hope - There is no sense in which these and the following words can be spoken of David. Jesus, even on the cross, and breathing out his soul with his life, saw that his rest in the grave would be very short: just a sufficiency of time to prove the reality of his death, but not long enough to produce corruption; and this is well argued by St. Peter, [Act 2:31].

## 565. Psalms · 19 of 159

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### Verse 10

[¶1] Thine Holy One - This is in the plural number, חסידיך chasideycha, thy Holy Ones; but none of the versions translate it in the plural; and as it is in the singular number, חסידך chasidecha, in several ancient editions, among which is the Complutensian Polyglot, and no less than two hundred and sixty-four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and in the quotation by St. Peter, in [Act 2:27]; [Act 13:35], we may take it for granted that the present reading is a corruption; or that חסידיך is an emphatic singular.

[¶2] As to leaving the soul In hell, it can only mean permitting the life of the Messiah to continue under the power of death; for שאול sheol signifies a pit, a ditch, the grave, or state of the dead. See the notes on the parallel places, [Act 2:25] (note), etc.

[¶3] See corruption - All human beings see corruption, because born in sin, and liable to the curse. The human body of Jesus Christ, as being without sin, saw no corruption.

### Verse 11

[¶5] Thou wilt show me the path of life - I first shall find the way out of the regions of death, to die no more. Thus Christ was the first fruits of them that slept. Several had before risen from the dead, but they died again. Jesus rose from the dead, and is alive for evermore. Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead was the first entrance out of the grave to eternal life or lives, חיים chaiyim, for the word is in the plural, and with great propriety too, as this resurrection implies the life of the body, and the life of the rational soul also.

[¶6] In thy presence - פניך paneycha, thy faces. Every holy soul has, throughout eternity, the beatific vision, i.e., "it sees God as he is," because it is like him; [1Jn 3:2]. It drinks in beatification from the presence of the Eternal Trinity.

[¶7] Thy right hand - The place of honor and dignity; repeatedly used in this sense in the Scriptures.

[¶8] Pleasures for evermore - נצח netzach, onwardly; perpetually, continually, well expressed by our translation, ever and more; an eternal progression. Think of duration in the most extended and unlimited manner, and there is still more; more to be suffered in hell, and more to be enjoyed in heaven. Great God! grant that my readers may have this beatific sight; this eternal progression in unadulterated, unchangeable, and unlimited happiness! Hear this prayer for His sake, who found out the path of life, and who by his blood purchased an entrance into the holiest! Amen and Amen.

[¶9] For the application of the whole Psalm to David, see the analysis at the end, which is a little altered from David's Harp Strung and Tuned.

[¶10] The remains of this Psalm in the old Psalter are worthy to be inserted: - [1Jn 3:7] Benedicam Dominum qui tribuit michi intellectum, etc.

[¶11] Trans. I sal blis the Lord that gaf til me undirstandyng; and over that til the nyght, suyled me my neres.

[¶12] Par - That es I sal luf the fader that hafs gyfen undyrstandyng til my servauntes, thurgh the qwilk the herytage of heven may be sene and welded; and aver that undyrstandyng, in the qwilk I saw, sais Crist, al sothefast thynges and haly. Of that I sal lof him that my nerys that es the Jewis of qwas kynd I toke flesch, that es my kyn snybbed me in wranges and temptaciounis, and passiouns, til the nyght, that es al the dede thai missaid hym, als so oure nerys; that es our fleschely delytes makes us worthy snybbyng til our dede; for perfytely may we noght be with outen syn, qwyles we lyf. [1Jn 3:8] Providebam Dominum in conspectu meo, etc.

[¶13] Trans. I pervaide God ay in my syght; for he es at the ryght hand til me, that I be nout styrred.

[¶14] Par - And in al thys anguys I for gatt nout God: bot I pervayde hym ay in my syght; that es, I comande o mang passand thynges: I toke nout my nee fra hym that ay es; bot I fested it in hym, so that he was ay in my sight, and he es nout fyled in synnes that assyduely with the ee of his thoght, byhaldes God, for he es at the ryght hand of me: that I be noght styred; that es, he helps me in desyre of endless gudes, that I last stabil in hym, and for thi nane il thyng may haf mayster of me. [1Jn 3:9] Propter hoc, elatum, est cor meum, et exultavit lingua mea, etc.

[¶15] Trans. Thar fore gladded es my hert, and my toung joyed over that, and my flesch sal rest in hope.

[¶16] Par - This es ful joy that in hert es resayved, and with toung schewed, and over that joy in hert and mouth, my flesch sal rest in hope of rysyng. [1Jn 3:10] Quoniam non derelinques in Inferno animam meam, etc.

[¶17] Trans. For thow sal noght lefe my Saule in hell, ne thu sal noght gyf thi Halow to se corrupcion.

[¶18] Par - That es at say, the Saule that I haf als veray man, sal noght be left in hell; and my body that thu haloued, sal noght rote. Here men may knaw that this es goddes word; for other mens bodis rotes. [1Jn 3:11] Notas michi fecisti vias vite, etc.

[¶19] Trans. Knawen thu maked til me, the wayes of lyf: thou sal fil me of joy with thi face, delytynges in thi ryghth and in til the end.

[¶20] Par - Knawen thu maked thurgh me till myne, the wayes of lyf, that es the wayes of mekenes and charite, that men came til heven thurgh mekenes, fra qwethyn thai fel thurgh Pryde: and thow sal ful fil me; that es, my servaundes, of joy with thi face; that es, in the syght of the, apertly; so that thai desyre nothing over, qwen thai af sene the, face til face, and ay til than delytynges til tham in way of this lyf. In thi ryght hand; that es thi favoure, and thi mercy the qwilk delytyngs ledys tham intil the ende, that es, in til perfectioun of endeles Blisfulhede.

[¶21] I have given the whole of the translation and comment of this Psalm from this ancient Psalter, as a curious specimen of the doctrine and language of our northern neighbors in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

### Introduction

[¶23] David implores the succor of God against his enemies; and professes his integrity and determination to live to God's glory, [Psa 17:1]. He prays for support, and expresses strong confidence in God, [Psa 17:5-9]; describes the malice and cruelty of his enemies, and prays against them, [Psa 17:10-14]; receives a strong persuasion of support and final victory, [Psa 17:15].

[¶24] The title is, A prayer of David; in which there is nothing that requires explanation. David was most probably the author of this Psalm; and it appears to have been written about the time in which Saul had carried his persecution against him to the highest pitch. See [1Sam 27:1-12] : The Arabic calls it "A prayer of a perfect man, of Christ himself, or of any one redeemed by him." Dr. Delaney, in his life of David, supposes that this poem was written just after parting with Jonathan, when David went into exile.

### Verse 1

[¶26] Hear the right - Attend to the justice of my cause, יהוה צדק Yehovah tsedek, righteous Jehovah. "O righteous Jehovah, attend unto my cry."

[¶27] Goeth not out of feigned lips - My supplication is sincere: and the desire of my heart accompanies the words of my lips.

### Verse 2

[¶29] My sentence come forth from thy presence - Thou knowest my heart, and my ways; judge me as thou shalt find; let me not fall under the judgment of man.

[¶30] Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal - Thou knowest whether I render to all their due, and whether others act justly by me. Thou canst not be deceived: do justice between me and my adversaries.

### Verse 3

[¶32] Thou hast proved mine heart - Thou well knowest whether there be any evil way in me. Thou hast given me to see many and sore trials; and yet, through thy mercy, I have preserved my integrity both to thee and to my king. Thou hast seen me in my most secret retirements, and knowest whether I have plotted mischief against him who now wishes to take away my life.

[¶33] Thou hast tried me - צרפתני tseraphtani; Thou hast put me to the test, as they do metals in order to detect their alloy, and to purify them: well expressed by the Vulgate, Igne me examinasti, "Thou hast tried me by fire;" and well paraphrased in my old Psalter, - The examynd me the lykkenyng of the fournas, that purges metal, and imang al this, wykednes es nout funden in me: that es, I am funden clene of syn, and so ryghtwis. - He who is saved from his sin is right wise; he has found the true wisdom.

[¶34] My mouth shall not transgress - This clause is added to the following verse by the Vulgate and Septuagint: "That my mouth may not speak according to the works of men, I have observed difficult ways because of the words of thy lips." That is, So far from doing any improper action, I have even refrained from all words that might be counted inflammatory or seditious by my adversaries; for I took thy word for the regulation of my conduct, and prescribed to myself the most painful duties, in order that I might, in every respect, avoid what would give offense either to thee or to man. Among the genuine followers of God, plots and civil broils are never found.

### Verse 4

[¶36] The paths of the destroyer - Some render, hard or difficult paths, the sense of which is given above. But the passage is exceedingly obscure. My old Psalter translates and paraphrases as follows: -

[¶37] Trans. That my mouthe speke noght the werkes of men, for the wordes of thi lippes I haf keped hard wayse.

[¶38] Par - That es, that nothing passe of my mouthe bot at falles to the louyng of the; noght til werkes of men, that dos o gaynes thy wil; als to say, I spak noght bot gude; and for the wordes of thi lippes, that es, to ful fil the wordes that thi prophetes saide; I kepe hard waies of verteus and of tribulacioun, the qwilk men thynk hard; and for thi thai leve the hard way til heven, and takes the soft way til hel; but it es ful hard at the end.

### Verse 5

[¶40] Hold up my goings in thy paths - David walked in God's ways; but, without Divine assistance, he could not walk steadily, even in them. The words of God's lips had shown him the steps he was to take, and he implores the strength of God's grace to enable him to walk in those steps. He had been kept from the paths of the destroyer; but this was not sufficient; he must walk in God's paths - must spend his life in obedience to the Divine will. Negative holiness ean save no man. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

### Verse 6

[¶42] Incline thine ear unto me - David prayed from a conviction that God would hear: but he could not be satisfied unless he received an answer. In a believer's mind the petition and the answer should not be separated.

### Verse 7

[¶44] Show thy marvellous lovingkindness - David was now exposed to imminent danger; common interpositions of Providence could not save him; if God did not work miracles for him, he must fall by the hand of Saul. Yet he lays no claim to such miraculous interpositions; he expects all from God's lovingkindness.

[¶45] The common reading here is הפלה חסדיך haphleh chasadeycha, "distinguish thy holy ones;" but הפלא haple, "do wonders," is the reading of about seventy MSS., some ancient editions, with the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The marginal reading of this verse is nearer the original than that of the text.

## 566. Psalms · 20 of 159

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Keep me as the apple of the eye - Or, as the black of the daughter of eye. Take as much care to preserve me now by Divine influence, as thou hast to preserve my eye by thy good providence. Thou hast entrenched it deeply in the skull; hast ramparted it with the forehead and cheek-bones; defended it by the eyebrow, eyelids, and eyelashes; and placed it in that situation where the hands can best protect it.

[¶2] Hide me under the shadow of thy wings - This is a metaphor taken from the hen and her chickens. See it explained at large in the note on [Mat 23:37] (note). The Lord says of his followers, [Zac 2:8] : "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye." How dear are our eyes to us! how dear must his followers be to God!

### Verse 9

[¶4] From my deadly enemies, who compass me about - This is a metaphor taken from huntsmen, who spread themselves around a large track of forest, driving in the deer from every part of the circumference, till they are forced into the nets or traps which they have set for them in some particular narrow passage. The metaphor is carried on in the following verses.

### Verse 10

[¶6] They are enclosed in their own fat - Dr. Kennicott, Bishop Horsley, Houbigant, and others, read the passage thus: עלי חבלמו סגרו alai chablamo sageru, "They have closed their net upon me." This continues the metaphor which was introduced in the preceding verse, and which is continued in the two following: and requires only that עלי ali, "upon me," should began this verse instead of end the preceding; and that חלב cheleb, which signifies fat, should be read חבל chebel, which signifies rope, cable, or net. This important reading requires only the interchange of two letters. The Syriac translates it, shut their mouth: but the above emendation is most likely to be true.

[¶7] They speak proudly - Having compassed the mountain on which I had taken refuge, they now exult, being assured that they will soon be in possession of their prey.

### Verse 11

[¶9] They have now compassed us in our steps - Instead of אשרנו ashshurenu, "our steps," Dr. Kennicott and others recommend אשרינו ashreynu, "O lucky we, at last we have compassed him." He cannot now escape; he is sure to fall into our hands.

[¶10] They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth - All the commentators and critics have missed the very expressive and elegant metaphor contained in this clause. Kennicott says, They drove the hart into toils, and then shot him. Bishop Horsley says, on the clause, They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth: "This is the attitude of huntsmen, taking aim at an animal upon the ground." No, it is the attitude of the huntsmen looking for the slot, or track of the hart's, hind's, or antelope's foot on the ground. See at the conclusion of the Psalm.

### Verse 12

[¶12] Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey - I believe the word lion is here used to express Saul in his strength, kingly power and fierce rapacity. See the observations at the end of the Psalm.

### Verse 13

[¶14] Arise, O Lord, disappoint him - When he arises to spring upon and tear me to pieces, arise thou, O Lord; disappoint him of his prey; seize him, and cast him down.

[¶15] Deliver my soul - Save my life.

[¶16] From the wicked, which is thy sword - Saul is still meant, and we may understand the words as either implying the sword, the civil power, with which God had intrusted him, and which he was now grievously abusing; or, it may mean, deliver me by Thy sword - cut him off who wishes to cut me off. On this ground the next verse should be read from men, By thy hand. So the margin. The hand of God not only meaning his power, but his providence.

### Verse 14

[¶18] From men of the world, which have - ממתים מחלד mimethim mecheled, from mortal men of time; temporizers; men who shift with the times, who have no fixed principle but one, that of securing their own secular interest: and this agrees with what follows - which have their portion in this life; who never seek after any thing spiritual; who have bartered heaven for earth, and have got the portion they desired; for thou fillest their belly with thy hid treasure. Their belly - their sensual appetites - is their god; and, when their animal desires are satisfied, they take their rest without consideration, like the beasts that perish.

[¶19] Their portion in this life - בחיים bachaiyim, in lives, probably meaning heritable lands and estates; for they leave them to their children, they descend to posterity, and every one has his life portion in them. They are lands of lives.

[¶20] They are full of children - Have a numerous offspring, whom they educate in the same principles, and to whom they leave a large earthly patrimony, and who spend it as their fathers have done, and perhaps even more dissolutely. Often covetous fathers lay up riches, which profligate sons scatter to all the winds of heaven. I have seen many instances of this.

### Verse 15

[¶22] As for me - I cannot be satisfied with such a portion.

[¶23] I will behold thy face - Nothing but an evidence of thy approbation can content my soul.

[¶24] In righteousness - I cannot have thy approbation unless I am conformed to thy will. I must be righteous in order that my heart and life may please thee.

[¶25] I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness - Nothing but God can satisfy the wishes of an immortal spirit. He made it with infinite capacities and desires; and he alone, the infinite Good, can meet and gratify these desires, and fill this all-capacious mind. No soul was ever satisfied but by God; and he satisfies the soul only by restoring it to his image, which, by the fall, it has lost.

[¶26] I think there is an allusion here to the creation of Adam. When God breathed into him the breath of lives, and he became a living soul, he would appear as one suddenly awaked from sleep. The first object that met his eyes was his glorious Creator, and being made in his image and in his likeness, he could converse with him face to face - was capable of the most intimate union with him, because he was filled with holiness and moral perfection. Thus was he satisfied, the God of infinite perfection and purity filling all the powers and faculties of his soul. David sees this in the light of the Divine Spirit, and knows that his happiness depends on being restored to this image and likeness; and he longs for the time when he shall completely arise out of the sleep and death of sin, and be created anew after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness. I do not think that he refers to the resurrection of the body, but to the resurrection of the soul in this life; to the regaining the image which Adam lost.

[¶27] The paraphrase in my old Psalter understands the whole of this Psalm as referring to the persecution, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ; and so did several of the primitive fathers, particularly St. Jerome and St. Augustine. I shall give a specimen from [Psa 17:11] : -

[¶28] Projicientes me, nunc circumdederunt me: oculos suos statuerunt declinare in terram.

[¶29] Trans. Forth castand me now, thai haf umgyfen me: thair egheu thai sette to heelde in the erde.

[¶30] Par - Forth kasten me out of the cite, als the stede had bene fyled of me: now thai haf umgyfen me in the cros hyngand, als folk that gedyrs til a somer gamen: for thai sett thair eghen, that es the entent of thaire hert to heeld in the erde; that es, in erdly thynges to covayte tham, and haf tham. And thai wende qwen thai slew Crist that he had suffird al the ill, and thai nane.

[¶31] Perhaps some of my readers may think that this needs translating, so far does our present differ fronn our ancient tongue.

[¶32] Text - They have now cast me forth; they have surrounded me: their eyes they set down to the earth.

[¶33] Par - They have cast me out of the city, as if the state were to be defiled by me: now they have surrounded me hanging on the cross, as people gathered together at summer games. For they set their eyes, that is, the intent of their heart, down to the earth; that is, earthly things, to covet them and to have them: and they thought, when they slew Christ, that he had suffered all the ill, and they none.

[¶34] By the slot or track of the hart on the ground, referred to in [Psa 17:11], experienced huntsmen can discern whether there have been a hart there, whether he has been there lately, whether the slot they see be the track of a hart or a hind, and whether the animal be young or old. All these can be discerned by the slot. And if the reader have that scarce book at hand, Tuberville on Hunting, 4th, 1575 or 1611, he mill find all this information in chapter 22, p. 63, entitled, The Judgment and Knowledge by the Slot of a Hart; and on the same page; a wood-cut, representing a huntsman with his eyes set, bowing down to the earth, examining three slots which he had just found. The cut is a fine illustration of this clause. Saul and his men were hunting David, and curiously searching every place to find out any track, mark, or footstep, by which they might learn whether he had been in such a place, and whether he had been there lately. Nothing can more fully display the accuracy and intensity of this search than the metaphor contained in the above clause. He who has been his late Majesty's huntsmen looking for the slot in Windsor Forest will see the strength and propriety of the figure used by the psalmist.

### Verse 12

[¶36] Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey - This is the picture of Saul. While his huntsmen were beating every bush, prying into every cave and crevice, and examining every foot of ground to find out a track, Saul is ready, whenever the game is started, to spring upon, seize, and destroy it. The metaphors are well connected, well sustained, and strongly expressive of the whole process of this persecution.

[¶37] In the ninth verse the huntsmen beat the forest to raise and drive in the game. In the tenth they set their nets, and speak confidently of the expected success. In the eleventh, they felicitate themselves on having found the slot, the certain indication of the prey being at hand. And in the twelfth, the king of the sport is represented as just ready to spring upon the prey; or, as having his bow bent, and his arrow on the string, ready to let fly the moment the prey appears. It is worthy of remark, that kings and queens were frequently present, and were the chiefs of the sport; and it was they who, when he had been killed, broke up the deer: 1. Slitting down the brisket with their knife or sword; and, 2. Cutting off the head. And, as Tuberville published the first edition of his book in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, he gives a large wood-cut, p. 133, representing this princess just alighted from her horse - the stag stretched upon the ground - the huntsman kneeling, holding the fore foot of the animal with his left hand, and with his right presenting a knife to the queen for the purpose of the breaking up. As the second edition was published in the reign of James the First, the image of the queen is taken out and a whole length of James introduced in the place.

[¶38] The same appears in Tuberville's Book of Falconrie, connected with the above. In p. 81, edition 1575, where the flight of the hawk at the heron is represented, the queen is seated on her charger: but in the edition of 1611 King James is placed on the same charger, the queen being removed.

[¶39] The lion is the monarch of the forest; and is used successfully here to represent Saul, king of Israel, endeavoring to hunt down David; hernoming him in on every side; searching for his footsteps; and ready to spring upon him, shoot him with his bow, or pierce him with his javelin, as soon as he should be obliged to flee from his last cover. The whole is finely imagined, and beautifully described.

### Introduction

[¶41] David's address of thanks to Jehovah, [Psa 18:1-3]. A relation of sufferings undergone, and prayers made for assistance, [Psa 18:4-6]. A magnificent description of Divine interposition in behalf of the sufferer, [Psa 18:7-15]; and of the deliverance wrought for him, [Psa 18:16-19]. That this deliverance was in consideration of his righteousness, [Psa 18:20-24]; and according to the tenor of God's equitable proceedings, [Psa 18:25-28]. To Jehovah is ascribed the glory of the victory, [Psa 18:29-36]; which ts represented as complete by the destruction of all his opponents, [Psa 18:37-42]. On these events the heathen submit, [Psa 18:43-45]. And for all these things God is glorified, [Psa 18:46-50].

[¶42] The title: "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul."

[¶43] Except the first clause, this title is taken from [2Sam 22:1]. The reader is requested to turn to the notes on [2Sam 22:1], for some curious information on this Psalm, particularly what is extracted from Dr. Kennicott. This learned writer supposes the whole to be a song of the Messiah, and divides it into five parts, which he thus introduces: - "The Messiah's sublime thanksgivings, composed by David when his wars were at an end, towards the conclusion of his life. And in this sacred song the goodness of God is celebrated,

[¶44] 1. For Messiah's resurrection from the dead, with the wonders attending that awful event, and soon following it.

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[¶0] 2. For the punishment inflicted on the Jews; particularly by the destruction of Jerusalem. And,

[¶1] 3. For the obedience of the Gentile nations. See [Rom 15:9]; [Heb 2:13]; and [Mat 28:2-4]; with [Mat 24:7], [Mat 24:29]."

[¶2] And that the title now prefixed to this hymn here and in [2Sam 22:1], describes only the time of its composition, seems evident; for who can ascribe to David himself as the subject, [2Sam 22:5], [2Sam 22:6], [2Sam 22:8-17], [2Sam 22:21-26], [2Sam 22:30], [2Sam 22:42], [2Sam 22:44], etc.?

[¶3] In Dr. Kennicott's remarks there is a new translation of the whole Psalm, p. 178, etc.

[¶4] The strong current of commentators and critics apply this Psalm to Christ; and to oppose a whole host of both ancients and moderns would argue great self-confidence. In the main I am of the same mind; and on this principle chiefly I shall proceed to its illustration; still however considering that there are many things in it which concern David, and him only. Drs. Chandler and Delaney have been very successful in their illustration of various passages in it; all the best critics have brought their strongest powers to bear on it; and most of the commentators have labored it with great success; and Bishop Horne has applied the whole of it to Christ. My old Psalter speaks highly in its praise: "This Psalme contenes the sacrement of al chosyn men, the qwilk doand the law of God thurgh the seven fald grace of the Haly Gast fra al temptaciouns, and the pouste of dede and of the devel lesid: this sang thai syng til God; and thankes him and says, I sal luf the Lord, noght a day or twa, bot ever mare: my strength, thurgh quam I am stalworth in thoght."

### Verse 1

[¶6] I will love thee - Love always subsists on motive and reason. The verb רחם racham signifies to love with all the tender feelinys of nature. "From my inmost bowels will I love thee, O Lord!" Why should he love Jehovah? Not merely because he was infinitely great and good, possessed of all possible perfections, but because he was good to him: and he here enumerates some of the many blessings he received from him.

[¶7] My strength -

[¶8] 1. Thou who hast given me power over my adversaries, and hast enabled me to avoid evil and do good.

### Verse 2

[¶10] The Lord is my rock -

[¶11] 2. I stand on him as my foundation, and derive every good from him who is the source of good. The word סלע sela signifies those craggy precipices which afford shelter to men and wild animals; where the bees often made their nests, and whence honey was collected in great abundance. "He made him to suck honey out of the rock," [Deu 32:13].

[¶12] 3. He was his fortress; a place of strength and safety, fortified by nature and art, where he could be safe from his enemies. He refers to those inaccessible heights in the rocky, mountainous country of Judea, where he had often found refuge from the pursuit of Saul. What these have been to my body, such has the Lord been to my soul.

[¶13] Deliverer -

[¶14] 4. מפלתי mephalleti, he who causes me to escape. This refers to his preservation in straits and difficulties. He was often almost surrounded and taken, but still the Lord made a way for his escape - made a way out as his enemies got in; so that, while they got in at one side of his strong hold, he got out of the other, and so escaped with his life. These escapes were so narrow and so unlikely that he plainly saw the hand of the Lord was in them.

[¶15] 5. My God, אלי ,doG Eli, my strong God, not only the object of my adoration, but he who puts strength in my soul.

[¶16] 6. My strength, צורי tsuri. This is a different word from that in the first verse.

[¶17] Rabbi Maimon has observed that צור tsur, when applied to God, signifies fountain, source, origin, etc. God is not only the source whence my being was derived, but he is the fountain whence I derive all my good; in whom, says David, I will trust. And why? Because he knew him to be an eternal and inexhaustible fountain of goodness. This fine idea is lost in our translation; for we render two Hebrew words of widely different meaning, by the same term in English, strength.

[¶18] 7. My buckler, מגני maginni, my shield, my defender, he who covers my head and my heart, so that I am neither slain nor wounded by the darts of my adversaries.

[¶19] 8. Horn of my salvation. Horn was the emblem of power, and power in exercise. This has been already explained; see on [1Sam 2:1] (note). The horn of salvation means a powerful, an efficient salvation.

[¶20] 9. My high tourer; not only a place of defense, but one from which I can discern the country round about, and always be able to discover danger before it approaches me.

### Verse 3

[¶22] I will call upon the Lord - When he was conscious that the object of his worship was such as he has pointed out in the above nine particulars, it is no wonder that he resolves to call upon him; and no wonder that he expects, in consequence, to be saved from his enemies; for who can destroy him whom such a God undertakes to save?

### Verse 4

[¶24] The sorrows of death compassed me - חבלי מות chebley maveth, the cables or cords of death. He was almost taken in those nets or stratagems by which, if he had been entangled, he would have lost his life. The stratagems to which he refers were those that were intended for his destruction; hence called the cables or cords of death.

[¶25] The floods of ungodly men - Troops of wicked men were rushing upon him like an irresistible torrent; or like the waves of the sea, one impelling another forward in successive ranks; so that, thinking he must be overwhelmed by them, he was for the moment affrighted; but God turned the torrent aside, and he escaped.

### Verse 5

[¶27] The sorrows of hell - חבלי שאול chebley sheol, the cables or cords of the grave. Is not this a reference to the cords or ropes with which they lowered the corpse into the grave? or the bandages by which the dead were swathed? He was as good as dead.

[¶28] The snares of death prevented me - I was just on the point of dropping into the pit which they had digged for me. In short, I was all but a dead man; and nothing less than the immediate interference of God could have saved my life.

### Verse 6

[¶30] In my distress I called - His enemies had no hope of his destruction unless God should abandon him. They hoped that this was the case, and that therefore they should prevail. But God heard his cry and came down to his help; and this interference is most majestically described in the [Psa 18:7] and following verses. Dr. Dodd has collected some excellent observations on these verses from Chandler, Delaney, and others, which I shall transcribe, as I know not that any thing better can be offered on the subject.

### Verse 7

[¶32] Then the earth shook and trembled - "In this and the following verses David describes, by the sublimest expressions and grandest terms, the majesty of God, and the awful manner in which he came to his assistance. The representation of the storm in these verses must be allowed by all skillful and impartial judges to be truly sublime and noble, and in the genuine spirit of poetry. The majesty of God, and the manner in which he is represented as coming to the aid of his favourite king, surrounded with all the powers of nature as his attendants and ministers, and arming (as it were) heaven and earth to fight his battles, and execute his vengeance, is described in the loftiest and most striking terms. The shaking of the earth; the trembling of the mountains and pillars of heaven; the smoke that drove out of his nostrils; the flames of devouring fire that flashed from his mouth; the heavens bending down to convey him to the battle; his riding upon a cherub, and rapidly flying on the wings of a whirlwind; his concealing his majesty in the thick clouds of heaven; the bursting of the lightnings from the horrid darkness; the uttering of his voice in peals of thunder; the storm of fiery hail; the melting of the heavens, and their dissolving into floods of tempestuous rain; the cleaving of the earth, and disclosing of the bottom of the hills, and the subterraneous channels or torrents of water, by the very breath of the nostrils of the Almighty; are all of them circumstances which create admiration, excite a kind of horror, and exceed every thing of this nature that is to be found in any of the remains of heathen antiquity. See Longinus on the Sublime, sec. 9, and Hesiod's description of Jupiter fighting against the Titans, which is one of the grandest things in all pagan antiquity; though upon comparison it will be found infinitely short of this description of the psalmist's; throughout the whole of which God is represented as a mighty warrior going forth to fight the battles of David, and highly incensed at the opposition his enemies made to his power and authority. "When he descended to the engagement the very heavens bowed down to render his descent more awful, his military tent was substantial darkness; the voice of his thunder was the warlike alarm which sounded to the battle; the chariot in which he rode was the thick clouds of heaven, conducted by cherubs, and carried on by the irresistible force and rapid wings of an impetuous tempest; and the darts and weapons he employed were thunderbolts, lightnings, fiery hail, deluging rains, and stormy winds! "No wonder that when God thus arose, all his enemies should be scattered, and those who hated him should flee before him. "It does not appear from any part of David's history that there was any such storm as is here described, which proved destructive to his enemies, and salutary to himself. There might, indeed, have been such a one, though there is no particular mention of it: unless it may be thought that something of this nature is intimated in the account given of David's second battle with the Philistines, [2Sam 5:23], [2Sam 5:24]. It is undoubted, however, that the storm is represented as real; though David, in describing it, has heightened and embellished it with all the ornaments of poetry. See Chandler, Delaney, and Lowth's ninth Prelection.

### Verse 8

[¶34] There went up a smoke out of his nostrils - Or, 'There ascended into his nostrils a smoke,' as the words, literally rendered, signify. The ancients placed the seat of anger in the nose, or nostrils; because when the passions are warm and violent, it discovers itself by the heated vehement breath which proceeds from them. Hence the physiognomists considered open wide nostrils as a sign of an angry, fiery disposition. "This description of a smoke arising into and a fire breaking forth from the nostrils of God, denotes, by a poetical figure, the greatness of his anger and indignation. "Fire out of his mouth devoured - means that consuming fire issued out of his mouth. Coals were kind led by it, thus we render the next clause; but the words do not mean that fire proceeding from God kindled coals, but that burning coals issued from his mouth; and it should be rendered 'living coals from his mouth burned, and consumed around him.' - Chandler.

### Verse 9

[¶36] He bowed the heavens also, and came down - He made the heavens bend under him when he descended to take vengeance on his enemies. The psalmist seems here to express the appearance of the Divine majesty in a glorious cloud, descending from heaven, which underneath was substantially dark, but above, bright, and shining with exceeding lustre; and which, by its gradual approach to the earth, would appear as though the heavens themselves were bending down and approaching towards us.

### Verse 10

[¶38] He rode upon a cherub, and did fly - That is, as it is immediately explained, Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. God was in the storm, and by the ministry of angels guided the course of it, and drove it on with such an impetuous force as nothing could withstand. He 'rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.' Angels are in a peculiar sense the attendants and messengers of the Almighty, whom he employs as his ministers in effecting many of those great events which take place in the administration of his providence; and particularly such as manifest his immediate interposition in the extraordinary judgments which he inflicts for the punishment of sinful nations. See [Psa 103:20]; [Psa 104:4]. The cherub is particularly mentioned as an emblem of the Divine presence, and especially as employed in supporting and conveying the chariot of the Almighty, when he is represented as riding in his majesty through the firmament of heaven: - - Forth rush'd with whirlwind sound

[¶39] The chariot of paternal Deity;

[¶40] Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn,

[¶41] Itself instinct with spirit, but convey'd

[¶42] By four cherubic shapes.

[¶43] Par. Lost, lib. vi.

[¶44] This seems to be the image intended to be conveyed in the place before us. "He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; he flew on the wings of the wind," i.e., the cherub supported and led on the tempest, in which the Almighty rode as in his chariot. This is agreeable to the office elsewhere ascribed to the cherubim. Thus they supported the mercy-seat, which was peculiarly the throne of God under the Jewish economy. God is expressly said to "make the clouds his chariot," [Psa 104:3]; and to "ride upon a swift cloud," [Isa 19:1] : so that "riding upon a cherub," and "riding upon a swift cloud," is riding in the cloud as his chariot, supported and guided by the ministry of the cherubim. The next clause in the parallel place of Samuel is, "He was seen on the wings of the wind;" ירא yera, he was seen, being used for ידא yede, he flew, ד daleth being changed into ר resh. Either of them may be the true reading, for the MSS. are greatly divided on these places; but on the whole וירא vaiyera appears to be the better reading: "And he was seen on the wings of the wind."

## 568. Psalms · 22 of 159

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[¶0] As the original has been supposed by adequate judges to exhibit a fine specimen of that poetry which, in the choice of its terms, conveys both sense and sound, I will again lay it before the reader, as I have done in the parallel place, [2Sam 22:2]. The words in italic to be read from right to left. ויעף כרוב על וירכב vaiyaoph kerub al vayirkab And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly! רוח כנפי על וידא ruach canphey al waiyede Yea, he flew on the wings of the wind! The word רוח ruach, in the last line, should be pronounced, not ruak, which is no Hebrew word: but as a Scottish man would pronounce it, were it written ruagh. With this observation, how astonishingly is the rushing of the wind heard in the last word of each hemistich! Sternhold and Hopkins have succeeded in their version of this place, not only beyond all they ever did, but beyond every ancient and modern poet on a similar subject: - "On cherub and on cherubinFull royally he rode;

[¶1] And on the wings of mighty windsCame flying all abroad."

[¶2] Even the old Anglo-Scottish Psalter has not done amiss: -

[¶3] And he steygh aboven cherubyn and he flow;

[¶4] He flow aboven the fethers of wyndes.

### Verse 11

[¶6] He made darkness his secret place - God is represented as dwelling in the thick darkness, [Deu 4:11]; [Psa 97:2]. This representation in the place before us is peculiarly proper; as thick heavy clouds deeply charged, and with lowering aspects, are always the forerunners and attendants of a tempest, and greatly heighten the horrors of the appearance: and the representation of them, spread about the Almighty as a tent, is truly grand and poetic.

[¶7] Dark waters - The vapors strongly condensed into clouds; which, by the stroke of the lightning, are about to be precipitated in torrents of rain. See the next verse.

### Verse 12

[¶9] At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed - The word נגה nogah signifies the lightning. This goes before him: the flash is seen before the thunder is heard, and before the rain descends; and then the thick cloud passes. Its contents are precipitated on the earth, and the cloud is entirely dissipated.

[¶10] Hail-stones and coals of fire - This was the storm that followed the flash and the peal; for it is immediately added: -

### Verse 13

[¶12] The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice - And then followed the hail and coals of fire. The former verse mentioned the lightning, with its effects; this gives us the report of the thunder, and the increasing storm of hail and fire that attended it. Some think the words hail-stones and coals of fire are entered here by some careless transcribers from the preceding verse; and it is true that they are wanting in the Septuagint and the Arabic, in the parallel place in 2 Samuel, and in five of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. I should rather, with Bishop Horsley, suppose them to be an interpolation in the preceding verse: or in that to have been borrowed from this; for this most certainly is their true place.

### Verse 14

[¶14] Be sent out his arrows - he shot out lightning - I believe the latter clause to be an illustration of the former. He sent out his arrows - that is, he shot out lightning; for lightnings are the arrows of the Lord, and there is something very like the arrowhead apparent in the zigzag lightning. Sense and sound are wonderfully combined in the Hebrew of this last clause: וברכים רב ויהמם uberakim rab vaihummem, "and thunderings he multiplied and confounded them." Who does not hear the bursting, brattling, and pounding of thunder in these words? See Delaney?

### Verse 15

[¶16] The channels of water were seen - This must refer to an earthquake; for in such cases, the ground being rent, water frequently gushes out at the fissures, and often rises to a tremendous height. Whole rivers were poured out of the chasms made by the earthquake in Jamaica, A. D. 1694; and new lakes of water were formed, covering a thousand acres of land!

### Verse 16

[¶18] He drew me out of many waters - Here the allusion is still carried on. The waters thus poured out were sweeping the people away; but God, by a miraculous interference, sent and drew David out. Sometimes waters are used to denote multitudes of people; and here the word may have that reference; multitudes were gathered together against David, but God delivered him from them all. This seems to be countenanced by the following verse.

### Verse 17

[¶20] He delivered me from my strong enemy - Does not this refer to his conflict with Ishbi-benob? "And Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of the giant - thought to have slain David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel;" [2Sam 21:16], [2Sam 21:17]. It appears that at this time he was in the most imminent danger of his life, and that he must have fallen by the hands of the giant, if God had not sent Abishai to his assistance. They were too strong for me. He was nearly overpowered by the Philistines; and his escape was such as evidently to show it to be supernatural.

### Verse 18

[¶22] They prevented me in the day of my calamity - They took advantage of the time in which I was least able to make head against them, and their attack was sudden and powerful. I should have been overthrown, but the Lord was my stay. He had been nearly exhausted by the fatigue of the day, when the giant availed himself of this advantage.

### Verse 19

[¶24] He brought me forth also into a large place - He enabled me to clear the country of my foes, who had before cooped me up in holes and corners. This appears to be the allusion.

### Verse 20

[¶26] The Lord rewarded me - David proceeds to give the reasons why God had so marvellously interposed in his behalf.

[¶27] According to my righteousness - Instead of being an enemy to Saul, I was his friend. I dealt righteously with him while he dealt unrighteously with me.

### Verse 21

[¶29] I have kept the ways of the Lord - I was neither an infidel nor a profligate; I trusted in God, and carefully observed all the ordinances of his religion.

### Verse 22

[¶31] All his judgments were before me - I kept his law before my eyes, that I might see my duty and know how to walk and please God.

### Verse 23

[¶33] I was also upright - The times in which David was most afflicted were the times of his greatest uprightness. Adversity was always to him a time of spiritual prosperity.

[¶34] Mine iniquity - Probably meaning what is generally termed the easily-besetting sin; the sin of his constitution, or that to which the temperament of his body most powerfully disposed him. What this was, is a subject of useless conjecture.

### Verse 25

[¶36] With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful - Thou wilt deal with men as they deal with each other. This is the general tenor of God's providential conduct towards mankind; well expressed by Mr. Pope in his universal prayer: - "Teach me to feel another's wo;To hide the fault I see:

[¶37] The mercy I to others show,That mercy show to me."

[¶38] It is in reference to this that our Lord teaches us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." If we act feelingly and mercifully towards our fellow creatures, God will act tenderly and compassionately towards us. The merciful, the upright, and the pure, will ever have the God of mercy, uprightness, and purity, to defend and support them.

### Verse 26

[¶40] With the froward - עקש ikkesh, the perverse man; he that is crooked in his tempers and ways.

[¶41] Thou wilt show thyself froward - תתפתל tithpattal, thou wilt set thyself to twist, twine, and wrestle. If he contend, thou wilt contend with him. Thou wilt follow him through all his windings; thou wilt trace him through all his crooked ways; untwist him in all his cunning wiles; and defeat all his schemes of stubbornness, fraud, overreaching, and deceit.

[¶42] My old Psalter has, With the wiked thow sal be wike. Here the term wicked is taken in its true original sense, crooked, or perverse. With the wiked, the perverse, thou wilt show thyself wike, i.e., perverse; from to draw back, to slide. As he draws back from thee, thou wilt draw back from him. It may, as before intimated, come from to seek for enchantments; leaving God, and going to devils; to act like a witch: but here it must mean as above. The plain import is, "If thou perversely oppose thy Maker, he will oppose thee: no work or project shall prosper that is not begun in his name, and conducted in his fear."

### Verse 27

[¶44] For thou wilt save the afflicted - The afflicted are the humble; and those thou hast ever befriended.

## 569. Psalms · 23 of 159

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### Verse 28

[¶1] For thou wilt light my candle - Thou wilt restore me to prosperity, and give me a happy issue out of all my afflictions. By the lamp of David the Messiah may be meant: thou wilt not suffer my family to become extinct, nor the kingdom which thou hast promised me utterly to fail.

### Verse 29

[¶3] I have run through a troop - This may relate to some remarkable victory, and the taking of some fortified place, possibly Zion, from the Jebusites. See the account [2Sam 5:6-8] (note).

### Verse 30

[¶5] God, his way is perfect - His conduct is like his nature, absolutely pure.

[¶6] The word of the Lord is tried - Literally tried in the fire. It has stood all tests; and has never failed those who pleaded it before its author.

[¶7] He is a buckler - A sure protection to every simple believing soul. We cannot believe his word too implicity; nor trust too confidently in him.

### Verse 31

[¶9] For who is God save the Lord? - "For who is Eloah, except Jehovah?" None is worthy of adoration but the self-existent, eternal, infinitely perfect, and all-merciful Being.

[¶10] Or who is a rock - A fountain emitting continual supplies of grace and goodness.

### Verse 32

[¶12] God - girdeth me with strength - The girdle was a necessary part of the Eastern dress; it strengthened and supported the loins; served to confine the garments close to the body; and in it they tucked them up when journeying. The strength of God was to his soul what the girdle was to the body. I need not add, that the girdle was also an ornamental part of the dress, and from it the sword was suspended.

[¶13] And maketh my way perfect - He directs me so that I do not go astray; he blesses me in my undertakings; and by him the issue of my labors is crowned with prosperity.

### Verse 33

[¶15] My feet like hinds' feet - Swiftness, or speed of foot, was a necessary qualification of an ancient hero. This was of great advantage in pursuing, combating, or escaping from a fallen foe. Ποδας ωκυς Αχιλλευς, "the swiftfooted Achilles," is frequently given by Homer as a most honorable qualification of his hero.

[¶16] Upon my high places - In allusion to the hinds, antelopes, mountain goats, etc., which frequented such places, and in which they found both food and safety. God frequently preserved the life of David by means of these.

### Verse 34

[¶18] He teacheth my hands to war - The success which I have had in my military exercises I owe to the Divine help. How few of the conquerors of mankind can say so! And how few among those who call themselves Christian warriors dare to say so! War is as contrary to the spirit of Christianity as murder. Nothing can justify Christian nations in shedding each other's blood! All men should live in peace; all men might live in peace; and the nation that is first to break it is under a heavy curse.

[¶19] A bow of steel is broken by mine arms - All the versions render this: "Thou hast made my arm like a brazen bow." A bow of steel is out of the question. In the days of David it is not likely that the method of making steel was known. The method of making brass out of copper was known at a very early period of the world; and the ancients had the art of hardening it, so as to work it into the most efficient swords. From his own account David was swift, courageous, and strong.

### Verse 35

[¶21] The shield of thy salvation - In all battles and dangers God defended him. He was constantly safe because he possessed the salvation of God. Everywhere God protected him. Thy gentleness, ענותך anvathecha, thy meekness or humility. Thou hast enabled me to bear and forbear; to behave with courage in adversity, and with humility in prosperity; and thus I am become great. By these means thou hast multiplied me. The Vulgate reads, Disciplina tua ipsa me docebit; "And thy discipline itself shall teach me." In this sense it was understood by most of the versions. The old Psalter paraphrases thus: Thi chastying suffers me noght to erre fra the end to com.

### Verse 36

[¶23] Enlarged my steps - See on [Psa 18:19] (note). From the hand of God he had continual prosperity; and while he walked with God no enemy was able to prevail against him. He details his successes in the following verses.

### Verse 40

[¶25] The necks of mine enemies - Thou hast made me a complete conqueror. Treading on the neck of an enemy was the triumph of the conqueror, and the utmost disgrace of the vanquished.

### Verse 41

[¶27] They cited - The Philistines called upon their gods, but there was none to save them.

[¶28] Even unto the Lord - Such as Saul, Ishbosheth, Absalom, etc., who, professing to worship the true God, called on him while in their opposition to David; but God no more heard them than their idols heard the Philistines.

### Verse 42

[¶30] Then did I beat them - God was with him, and they had only an arm of flesh. No wonder then that his enemies were destroyed.

[¶31] Small as the dust before the wind - This well expresses the manner in which he treated the Moabites, Ammonites, and the people of Rabbah: "He put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron; and made them pass through the brick-kiln," etc. See [2Sam 12:31] (note), and the notes there.

### Verse 43

[¶33] The strivings of the people - Disaffections and insurrections among my own subjects, as in the revolt of Absalom, the civil war of Abner in favor of Ish-bosheth, etc.

[¶34] The head of the heathen - ראש גוים rosh goyim, "the chief," or "governor, of the nations;" all the circumjacent heathen people; all these were subdued by David, and brought under tribute.

[¶35] A people whom I have not known - The people whom he knew were those of the twelve tribes; those whom he did not know were the Syrians, Philistines, Idumeans, etc. All these served him, that is, paid him tribute.

### Verse 44

[¶37] As soon as they hear of me - His victories were so rapid and splendid over powerful enemies, that they struck a general terror among the people, and several submitted without a contest.

[¶38] Strangers shall submit themselves unto me - Some translate this: "The children of the foreign woman have lied unto me." This has been understood two ways: My own people, who have sworn fealty to me, have broken their obligation, and followed my rebellious son. Or, The heathens, who have been brought under my yoke, have promised the most cordial obedience, and flattered me with their tongues, while their hearts felt enmity against me and my government. Nevertheless, even in this unwilling subjection I was secure, my police being so efficient, and my kingdom so strong.

### Verse 45

[¶40] The strangers shall fade away - בני נכר beney nechar, the same persons mentioned above. They shall not be able to effect any thing against me; יבלו yibbolu, "they shall fall as the leaves fall off the trees in winter."

[¶41] And be afraid out of their close places - Those who have formed themselves into banditti, and have taken possession of rocks and fortified places, shall be so afraid when they hear of my successes, that they shall surrender at discretion, without standing a siege. Perhaps all these verbs should be understood in the perfect tense, for David is here evidently speaking of a kingdom at rest, all enemies having been subdued; or, as the title is, when the Lord Had delivered him from all his enemies.

### Verse 46

[¶43] The Lord liveth - By him alone I have gained all my victories; and he continueth, and will be my Rock, the Source whence I may at all times derive help and salvation. May his name be blessed! May his kingdom be exalted!

## 570. Psalms · 24 of 159

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### Verse 47

[¶1] God that avengeth me - The way that I took was after his own heart; therefore he sustained me in it, and did me justice over my enemies.

[¶2] Subdueth the people under me - He keeps down the spirits of the disaffected, and weakens their hands. They are subdued, and they continue under me; and this is the Lord's doing.

### Verse 48

[¶4] He delivereth me - That is, he hath delivered me, and continues to deliver me, from all that rise up against me.

[¶5] The violent man - Saul; this applies particularly to him.

### Verse 49

[¶7] WilI I give thanks unto thee - among the heathen - Quoted by St. Paul, [Rom 15:9], to prove that the calling of the Gentiles was predicted, and that what then took place was the fulfillment of that prediction.

[¶8] But there is a sense in which it applies particularly to David, well observed by Theodoret: "We see," says he, "evidently the fulfillment of this prophecy; for even to the present day David praises the Lord among the Gentiles by the mouth of true believers; seeing there is not a town, village, hamlet, country, nor even a desert, where Christians dwell, in which God is not praised by their singing the Psalms of David."

### Verse 50

[¶10] Great deliverance giveth he to his king - David was a king of God's appointment, and was peculiarly favored by him. Literally, He is magnifying the salvations of his king. He not only delivers, but follows up those deliverances with innumerable blessings.

[¶11] Showeth mercy - to David - I have no claim upon his bounty. I deserve nothing from him, but he continues to show mercy.

[¶12] To his seed - His posterity. So the words זרע zera and σπερμα, in the Old and New Testament, should be universally translated. The common translation is totally improper, and now more so than formerly, when anatomy was less understood.

[¶13] For evermore - עד עולם ad olam, for ever; through all duration of created worlds. And more - the eternity that is beyond time. This shows that another David is meant, with another kind of posterity, and another sort of kingdom. From the family of David came the man Christ Jesus; his posterity are the genuine Christians; his kingdom, in which they are subjects, is spiritual. This government shall last through all time, for Christianity will continue to prevail till the end of the world: and it will be extended through eternity; for that is the kingdom of glory in which Jesus reigns on the throne of his Father, and in which his followers shall reign with him for ever and ever.

[¶14] It has already been remarked that this whole Psalm has been understood as relating to the passion and victories of Christ, and the success of the Gospel in the earth. In this way Bishop Horne has understood and paraphrased it; and in the same way it is considered by the ancient Psalter, so often mentioned. Many of the primitive fathers and modern interpreters have taken the same view of it. Those passages which I judged to have this meaning I have pointed out, and have only to add that, as David was a type of Christ, many things spoken of him primarily, refer to our Lord ultimately; but much judgment and caution are required in their application. To apply the whole Psalm in this way appears to me very injudicious, and often derogatory from the majesty of Christ. Let this be my excuse for not following the same track in which many of my predecessors have gone.

### Introduction

[¶16] The heavens and their host proclaim the majesty of God, [Psa 19:1-6]; the excellence and perfection of the Divine law, [Psa 19:7-10]; its usefulness, [Psa 19:11]. The psalmist prays for pardon and preservation from sin, [Psa 19:12], [Psa 19:13]; and thy his Words and thoughts may be holy, [Psa 19:14].

[¶17] The title of this Psalm has nothing particular in it; but it is not very clear that it was written by David, to whom it is attributed; though some think that he composed it in the wilderness, while persecuted by Saul. For this opinion, however, there is no solid ground. There is no note in the Psalm itself to lead us to know when, where, or by whom it was written. It is a highly finished and beautiful ode.

### Verse 1

[¶19] The heavens declare the glory of God - Literally, The heavens number out the glory of the strong God. A first view of the starry heavens strikes every beholder with astonishment at the power by which they were made, and by which they are supported. To find out the wisdom and skill displayed in their contrivance requires a measure of science: but when the vast magnitude of the celestial bodies is considered, we feel increasing astonishment at these works of the strong God.

[¶20] The firmament - The whole visible expanse; not only containing the celestial bodies above referred to, but also the atr, light, rains, dews, etc., etc. And when the composition of these principles is examined, and their great utility to the earth and its inhabitants properly understood, they afford matter of astonishment to the wisest mind, and of adoration and gratitude even to the most unfeeling heart.

### Verse 2

[¶22] Day unto day uttereth speech - Each day is represented as teaching another relative to some new excellence discovered in these manifold works of God. The nights also, by the same figure, are represented as giving information to each other of the increase of knowledge already gained. "The labors of these our instructers know no intermission; but they continue incessantly to lecture us in the science of Divine wisdom. There is one glory of the sun, which shines forth by day; and there are other glories of the moon and of the stars, which become visible by night. And because day and night interchangeably divide the world between them, they are therefore represented as transmitting, in succession, each to other, the task enjoined them, like the two parts of a choir, chanting forth alternately the praises ot God." - Bisbop Horne.

### Verse 3

[¶24] There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard - Leave out the expletives here, which pervert the sense; and what remains is a tolerable translation of the original: - אין אמר ואין דברים בלי נשמע קולם

[¶25] Ein omer veein debarim, beli nishma kolam. "No speech, and no words; their voice without hearing." בכל הארץ יצא קום ובקצה תבל מליהם

[¶26] Bechol haarets yatsa kavvam: Ubiktsey thebel milleyhem. "Into all the earth hath gone out their sound; and to the extremity of the habitable world, their eloquence."

[¶27] The word קו kau, which we translate line, is rendered sonus, by the Vulgate, and φθαγγος, sound, by the Septuagint; and St. Paul, [Rom 10:18], uses the same term. Perhaps the idea here is taken from a stretched cord, that emits a sound on being struck; and hence both ideas may be included in the same word; and קום kavvam may be either their line, or cord, or their sound. But I rather think that the Hebrew word originally meant sound or noise; for in Arabic the verb kavaha signifies he called out, cried, clamavit. The sense of the whole is this, as Bishop Horne has well expressed it: - "Although the heavens are thus appointed to teach, yet it is not by articulate sounds that they do it. They are not endowed, like man, with the faculty of speech; but they address themselves to the mind of the intelligent beholder in another way, and that, when understood, a no less forcible way, the way of picture or representation. The instruction which the heavens spread abroad is as universal as their substance, which extends itself in lines, or rays. By this means their words, or rather their significant actions or operations, מליהם, are everywhere present; and thereby they preach to all the nations the power and wisdom, the mercy and lovingkindness, of the Lord."

[¶28] St. Paul applies this as a prophecy relative to the universal spread of the Gospel of Christ, [Rom 10:18]; for God designed that the light of the Gospel should be diffused wheresoever the light of the celestial luminaries shone; and be as useful and beneficent, in a moral point of view, as that is in a natural. All the inhabitants of the earth shall benefit by the Gospel of Christ, as they all benefit by the solar, lunar, and stellar light. And, indeed, all have thus benefited, even where the words are not yet come. "Jesus is the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." His light, and the voice of his Spirit, have already gone through the earth; and his words, and the words of his apostles, are by means of the Bible and missionaries going out to all the extremities of the habitable globe.

[¶29] On these words I shall conclude with the translation of my old Psalter: - [Rom 10:1] Hevens telles the joy of God; and the werkes of his handes schwis the firmament. [Rom 10:2] Day til day riftes word; and nyght til nyght schewes conying. [Rom 10:3] Na speches er, ne na wordes, of the qwilk the voyces of thaim be noght herd. [Rom 10:4] In al the land yede the soune of tham; and in endes of the wereld thair wordes. [Rom 10:5] In the Soun he sett his tabernacle; and he as a spouse comand forth of his chaumber: he joyed als geaunt at ryn the way. [Rom 10:6] Fra heest heven the gangyng of hym: and his gayne rase til the heest of hym: nane es that hym may hyde fra his hete.

[¶30] All the versions, except the Chaldee, render the last clause of the fourth verse thus: "In the sun he hath placed his tabernacle;" as the old Psalter likewise does. They supposed that if the Supreme Being had a local dwelling, this must be it; as it was to all human appearances the fittest place. But the Hebrew is, "Among them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun." He is the center of the universe; all the other heavenly bodies appear to serve him. He is like a general in his pavilion, surrounded by his troops, to whom he gives his orders, and by whom he is obeyed. So, the solar influence gives motion, activity, light, and heat to all the planets. To none of the other heavenly bodies does the psalmist assign a tabernacle, none is said to have a fixed dwelling, but the sun.

### Verse 5

[¶32] Which is as a bridegroom, etc. - This is a reference to the rising of the sun, as the following verse is to the setting. He makes his appearance above the horizon with splendor and majesty; every creature seems to rejoice at his approach; and during the whole of his course, through his whole circuit, his apparent revolution from east to west, and from one tropic to the same again, no part of the earth is deprived of its proper proportion of light and heat. The sun is compared to a bridegroom in his ornaments, because of the glory and splendour of his rays; and to a giant or strong man running a race, because of the power of his light and heat. The apparent motion of the sun, in his diurnal and annual progress, are here both referred to. Yet both of these have been demonstrated to be mere appearances. The sun's diurnal motion arises from the earth's rotation on its axis from west to east in twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes, and four seconds, the mean or equal time which elapses between the two consecutive meridian-transits of the same fixed star. But on account of the sun's apparent ecliptic motion in the same direction, the earth must make about the three hundred and sixty-fifth part of a second revolution on its axis before any given point of the earth's surface can be again brought into the same direction with the sun as before: so that the length of a natural day is twenty-four hours at a mean rate. The apparent revolution of the sun through the twelve constellations of the zodiac in a sidereal year, is caused by the earth's making one complete revolution in its orbit in the same time. And as the earth's axis makes an angle with the axis of the ecliptic of about twenty-three degrees and twenty eight minutes, and always maintains its parallelism, i.e., is always directed to the same point of the starry firmament; from these circumstances are produced the regular change of the seasons, and continually differing lengths of the days and nights in all parts of the terraqueous globe, except at the poles and on the equator. When we say that the earth's axis is always directed to the same point of the heavens, we mean to be understood only in a general sense; for, owing to a very slow deviation of the terrestrial axis from its parallelism, named the precession of the equinoctial points, which becomes sensible in the lapse of some years, and which did not escape the observation of the ancient astronomers, who clearly perceived that it was occasioned by a slow revolution of the celestial poles around the poles of the ecliptic, the complete revolution of the earth in its orbit is longer than the natural year, or the earth's tropical revolution, by a little more than twenty minutes; so that in twenty-five thousand seven hundred and sixtythree entire terrestrial revolutions round the sun, the seasons will be renewed twenty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty-four times. And in half this period of twelve thousand eight hundred and eighty-two natural years, the points which are now the north and south poles of the heavens, around which the whole starry firmament appears to revolve, will describe circles about the then north and south poles of the heavens, the semi-diameters of which will be upwards of forty-seven degrees.

[¶33] Coming out of his chamber - מחפתו mechuppatho, from under his veil. It was a sort of canopy erected on four poles, which four Jews held over the bridegroom's head.

### Verse 7

[¶35] The law of the Lord - And here are two books of Divine Revelation:

[¶36] 1. The visible Heavens, and the works of creation in general.

[¶37] 2. The Bible, or Divinely inspired writings contained in the Old and New Testaments.

[¶38] These may all be called the Law of the Lord; תורה torah, from ירה yarah, to instruct, direct, put straight, guide. It is God's system of instruction, by which men are taught the knowledge of God and themselves, directed how to walk so as to please God, redeemed from crooked paths, and guided in the way everlasting. Some think that תורה torah means the preceptive part of Revelation. Some of the primitive fathers have mentioned three Laws given by God to man:

[¶39] 1. The law of nature, which teaches the knowledge of God, as to his eternal power and Deity, by the visible creation.

[¶40] 2. The law given to Moses and the prophets, which teaches more perfectly the knowledge of God, his nature, his will and our duty.

[¶41] 3. The law of grace given by Christ Jesus, which shows the doctrine of the atonement, of purification, and of the resurrection of the body.

[¶42] The first is written in hieroglyphics in the heavens and the earth. The second was written on tables of stone, and in many rites and ceremonies. The third is to be written on the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost.

[¶43] Is perfect - תמימה temimah, it is perfection, it is perfect in itself as a law, and requires perfection in the hearts and lives of men. This is Its character.

[¶44] Converting the soul - Turning it back to God. Restoring it to right reason, or to a sound mind; teaching it its own interest in reference to both worlds. This is Its use.

[¶45] The testimony of the Lord - עדות eduth, from עד ad, beyond, forward. The various types and appointments of the law, which refer to something beyond themselves, and point forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Some understand, the doctrinal parts of the law.

## 571. Psalms · 25 of 159

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[¶0] Is sure - נאמנה neemanah, are faithful; they point out the things beyond them fairly, truly, and fully, and make no vain or false report. They all bear testimony to the great atonement. This is Their character.

[¶1] Making wise the simple - The simple is he who has but one end in view: who is concerned about his soul, and earnestly inquires, "What shall I do to be saved?" These testimonies point to the atonement, and thus the simple-hearted is made wise unto salvation. This is Their use.

### Verse 8

[¶3] The statutes of the Lord - פקודים pikkudim, from פקד pakad, he visited, cared, took notice of, appointed to a charge. The appointments, or charge delivered by God to man for his regard and observance.

[¶4] Are right - ישרים yesharim, from ישר yashar, to make straight, smooth, right, upright, opposed to crookedness in mind or conduct; showing what the man should be, both within and without. This is Their character.

[¶5] Rejoicing the heart - As they show a man what he is to observe and keep in charge, and how he is to please God, and the Divine help he is to receive from the visitations of God, they contribute greatly to the happiness of the upright - they rejoice the heart. This is Their use.

[¶6] The commandment - מצוה mitsvah, from צוה tsavah, to command, give orders, ordain. What God has ordered man to do, or not to do. What he has commanded, and what he has prohibited.

[¶7] Is pure - From ברה barah, to clear, cleanse, purify. All God's commandments lead to purity, enjoin purity, and point out that sacrificial offering by which cleansing and purification are acquired. This is Its character.

[¶8] Enlightening the eyes - Showing men what they should do. and what they should avoid. It is by God's commandments that we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the necessity of redemption, so that we may love the Lord with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. For this is the end of the commandment, and thus to enlighten the eyes is Its use.

### Verse 9

[¶10] The fear of the Lord - יראה yirah, from ירא yara, to fear, to venerate; often put for the whole of Divine worship. The reverence we owe to the Supreme Being.

[¶11] Is clean - טהורה tehorah, from טהר tahar, to be pure, clean; not differing much from ברה barah, (see above), to be clean and bright as the heavens; as purified Silver. Its object is to purge away all defilement, to make a spotless character.

[¶12] Enduring for ever - עומדת לעד omedeth laad, standing up to Perpetuity. The fear that prevents us from offending God, that causes us to reverence him, and is the beginning as it is the safeguard of wisdom, must be carried all through life. No soul is safe for a moment without it. It prevents departure from God, and keeps that clean which God has purified. This is Its use.

[¶13] The judgments of the Lord - משפטים mishpatim, from שפת shaphat, he judged, regulated, disposed, All God's regulations, all his decisions; what he has pronounced to be right and proper.

[¶14] Are true - אמת emeth, truth, from אם am, to support, confirm, make stable, and certain. This is the character of God's judgments. They shall all stand. All dispensations in providence and grace confirm them; they are certain, and have a fixed character.

[¶15] And righteous altogether - They are not only according to truth; but they are righteous, צדקו tsadeku, they give to all their due. They show what belongs to God, to man, and to ourselves. And hence the word altogether, יחדו yachdav, equally, is added; or truth and righteousness united.

### Verse 10

[¶17] More to be desired are they than gold - This is strictly true; but who believes it? By most men gold is preferred both to God and his judgments; and they will barter every heavenly portion for gold and silver!

[¶18] Sweeter also than honey - To those whose mental taste is rectified, who have a spiritual discernment.

[¶19] Honey-comb - Honey is sweet; but honey just out of the comb has a sweetness, richness and flavour, far beyond what it has after it becomes exposed to the air. Only those who have eaten of honey from the comb can feel the force of the psalmist's comparison: it is better than gold, yea, than fine gold in the greatest quantity; it is sweeter than honey, yea, than honey from the comb.

### Verse 11

[¶21] By them is thy servant warned - נזהר nizhar, from זהר zahar, to be clear, pellucid. By these laws, testimonies, etc., thy servant is fully instructed; he sees all clearly; and he discerns that in keeping of them there is great reward: every man is wise, holy, and happy, who observes them. All Christian experience confirms this truth. Reader, what says thine?

### Verse 12

[¶23] Who can understand his errors? - It is not possible, without much of the Divine light, to understand all our deviations from, not only the letter, but the spirituality, of the Divine law. Frequent self-examination, and walking in the light, are essentially necessary to the requisite degree of spiritual perfection.

[¶24] Cleanse thou me from secret faults - From those which I have committed, and have forgotten; from those for which I have not repented; from those which have been committed in my heart, but have not been brought to act in my life; from those which I have committed without knowing that they were sins, sins of ignorance; and from those which I have committed in private, for which I should blush and be confounded were they to be made public.

### Verse 13

[¶26] From presumptuous sins - Sins committed not through frailty or surprise, but those which are the offspring of thought, purpose, and deliberation. Sins against judgment, light, and conscience. The words might be translated, Preserve thy servant also from the proud; from tyrannical governors, i.e., from evil spirits - Bishop Horsley. So most of the versions understand the place.

[¶27] Let them not have dominion over me - Let me never be brought into a habit of sinning. He who sins presumptuously will soon be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

[¶28] Then shall I be upright - Let me be preserved from all the evil that the craft and malice of the devil or man work against me, then shall I continue to walk uprightly, and shall be innocent from the great transgression - from habitual sinning, from apostasy, from my easily-besetting sin. He who would be innocent from the great transgression, must take care that he indulge not himself in any. See Bishop Horne. Most men have committed some particular sin which they ought to deplore as long as they breathe, and on account of the enormity of which they should for ever be humbled.

### Verse 14

[¶30] Let the words of my mouth - He has prayed against practical sin, the sins of the body; now, against the sins of the mouth and of the heart. Let my mouth speak nothing but what is true, kind, and profitable; and my heart meditate nothing but what is holy, pure, and chaste.

[¶31] Acceptable in thy sight - Like a sacrifice without spot or blemish, offered up with a perfect heart to God.

[¶32] O Lord, my strength - צורי tsuri, "my fountain, my origin."

[¶33] My redeemer - גאלי goali, my kinsman, he whose right it is to redeem the forfeited inheritance; for so was the word used under the old law. This prayer is properly concluded! he was weak, he felt the need of God's strength. He had sinned and lost all title to the heavenly inheritance, and therefore needed the interference of the Divine kinsman; of Him who, because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, also partook of the same. No prayer can be acceptable before God which is not offered up in his strength; through Him who took our nature upon him, that he might redeem us unto God, and restore the long-lost inheritance. Lord my helpar and my byer. - Old Psalter. He who is my only help, and he that bought me with his blood. This prayer is often, with great propriety, uttered by pious people when they enter a place of worship.

### Introduction

[¶35] A prayer for the king in his enterprises, that his prayers may be heard, his offerings accepted, and his wishes fulfilled, [Psa 20:1-4]. Confidence of victory expressed, [Psa 20:5], [Psa 20:6]. Vain hopes exposed; and supplication made for the king, [Psa 20:7-9].

[¶36] It is most likely that this Psalm was penned on the occasion of David's going to war, and most probably with the Ammonites and Syrians, who came with great numbers of horses and chariots to fight with him. See [2Sam 10:6-8]; [1Chr 19:7]. It is one of the Dialogue Psalms, and appears to be thus divided: Previously to his undertaking the war, David comes to the tabernacle to offer sacrifice. This being done, the people, in the king's behalf, offer up their prayers; these are included in the three first verses: the fourth was probably spoken by the high priest; the fifth, by David and his attendants; the last clause, by the high priest; the sixth, by the high priest, after the victim was consumed; the seventh and eighth, by David and his men; and the ninth, as a chorus by all the congregation.

### Verse 1

[¶38] The Lord hear thee - David had already offered the sacrifice and prayed. The people implore God to succor him in the day of trouble; of both personal and national danger.

[¶39] The name of the God of Jacob - This refers to Jacob's wrestling with the Angel; [Gen 32:24] (note), etc. And who was this Angel? Evidently none other than the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus, in whom was the name of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was the God of Jacob, who blessed Jacob, and gave him a new name and a new nature. See the notes on the above place in Genesis.

### Verse 2

[¶41] Send thee help from the sanctuary - This was the place where God recorded his name; the place where he was to be sought, and the place where he manifested himself. He dwelt between the cherubim over the mercyseat. He is now in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. This is the true sanctuary where God must be sought.

[¶42] Strengthen thee out of Zion - The temple or tabernacle where his prayers and sacrifices were to be offered.

### Verse 3

[¶44] Remember all thy offerings - The minchah, which is here mentioned, was a gratitude-offering. It is rarely used to signify a bloody sacrifice.

## 572. Psalms · 26 of 159

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[¶0] Burnt sacrifice - The olah here mentioned was a bloody sacrifice. The blood of the victim was spilt at the altar, and the flesh consumed. One of these offerings implied a consciousness of sin in the offerer; and this sacrifice he brought as an atonement: the other implied a sense of mercies already received, and was offered in the way of gratitude.

[¶1] David presents himself before the Lord with offerings of both kinds.

[¶2] This prayer of the people is concluded with Selah, which we have taken up in the general sense of so be it. Hear and answer. It will and must be so, etc.

### Verse 4

[¶4] Grant thee according to thine own heart - May God give thee whatsoever thou art setting thy heart upon, and accomplish all thy desires! This was probably the prayer of the high priest.

### Verse 5

[¶6] We will rejoice in thy salvation - We expect help from thee alone; it is in thy cause we engage; and to thee, as our war is a just one, we consecrate our banners, inscribed with thy name. It is said that the Maccabees had their name from the inscription on their banners; which was taken from [Exo 15:11], מי כמכה באלם יהוה mi camochah baelim Yehovah, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?" The word being formed from the initial letters מ M, כ C, ב B, י I, מכבי Ma Ca B I, whence Maccabeus and Maccabees.

[¶7] The words of this verse were spoken by David and his officers; immediately after which I suppose the high priest to have added, The Lord fulfill all thy petitions!

### Verse 6

[¶9] Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed - These are probably the words of the priest after the victim had been consumed; and those signs had accompanied the offering, which were proofs of God's acceptance of the sacrifice; and, consequently, that the campaign would have a successful issue. David is God's anointed; therefore, he is under his especial care. He will hear him. David must continue to pray, and to depend on God; else he cannot expect continual salvation. David has vast multitudes of enemies against him; he, therefore, requires supernatural help. Because of this, God will hear him with the saving strength of his right hand.

[¶10] The Hand of God is his power, the Right hand, his almighty power; the Strength of his right hand, his almighty power in action; the Saving strength of his right hand, the miraculous effects wrought by his almighty power brought into action. This is what David was to expect; and it was the prospect of this that caused him and his officers to exult as they do in the following verse.

### Verse 7

[¶12] Some trust in chariots - The words of the original are short and emphatic: These in chariots; and these in horses; but we will record in the name of Jehovah our God. Or, as the Septuagint, μεγαλυνθησομεθα, "we shall be magnified." Or, as the Vulgate, invocabimus, "we shall invoke the name of the Lord." This and the following verse I suppose to be the words of David and his officers. And the mention of chariots and horses makes it likely that the war with the Ammonites and Syrians is that to which reference is made here; for they came against him with vast multitudes of horsemen and chariots. See [2Sam 10:6-8]. According to the law, David could neither have chariots nor horses; and those who came against him with cavalry must have a very great advantage; but he saw that Jehovah his God was more than a match for all his foes, and in him he trusts with implicit confidence.

### Verse 8

[¶14] They are brought down and fallen - They were so confident of victory that they looked upon it as already gained. They who trusted in their horses and chariots are bowed down, and prostrated on the earth: they are all overthrown.

[¶15] But we are risen - We who have trusted in the name of Jehovah are raised up from all despondency; and we stand upright - we shall conquer, and go on to conquer.

### Verse 9

[¶17] Save, Lord - This verse was spoken by all the congregation, and was the chorus and conclusion of the piece.

[¶18] The verse may be read, Lord, save the king! He will hear as in the day of our calling. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, Anglo-Saxon, read the verse thus: Lord, save the king! and hear us whensoever we shall call upon thee. The Syriac reads differently: The Lord will save us: and our king will hear us in the day in which we shall call upon him. This refers all to God: while the others refer the latter clause to David. Lord, save David; and David will save us. "If thou preservest him, he will be thy minister for good to us." This appears to be the easiest sense of the place, and harmonizes with all the rest.

### Introduction

[¶20] The psalmist returns thanks to God for giving him the victory over his enemies; which victory he had earnestly requested, [Psa 21:1], [Psa 21:2]. He enters into a detail of the blessings that in consequent of the victory he had obtained, [Psa 21:3-7]. He predicts the destruction of all those who may hereafter rise up against him, [Psa 21:8-12]; and concludes with praising the power of Jehovah, [Psa 21:13].

[¶21] In the title of this Psalm there is nothing particularly worthy of remark. The occasion of it is variously understood. Some think it was composed to celebrate the victory obtained over Sennacherib; others, that it was made on the recovery of Hezekiah, and the grant of fifteen years of longer life; see [Psa 21:4]. Others and they with most appearance of propriety consider it a song of rejoicing composed by David for his victory over the Ammonites which ended in the capture of the royal city of Rabbah, the crown of whose king David put on his own head, see [Psa 21:3], and to procure which victory David offered the prayers and sacrifices mentioned in the preceding Psalm. Lastly, many think that it is to be wholly referred to the victories of the Messiah; and it must be owned that there are several expressions in it which apply better to our Lord than to David, or to any other person; and to him the Targum applies it, as does likewise my old Anglo-Scottish Psalter in paraphrasing the text.

### Verse 1

[¶23] The king shall joy - מלך משיחא melech Meshicha, "the King Messiah." - Targum. What a difference between ancient and modern heroes! The former acknowledged all to be of God, because they took care to have their quarrel rightly founded; the latter sing a Te Deum, pro forma, because they well know that their battle is not of the Lord. Their own vicious conduct sufficiently proves that they looked no higher than the arm of human strength. God suffers such for a time, but in the end he confounds and brings them to naught.

### Verse 2

[¶25] Thou hast given him his heart's desire - This seems to refer to the prayers offered in the preceding Psalm; see especially [Psa 21:1-4].

### Verse 3

[¶27] Thou preventest him - To prevent, from prcevenio, literally signifies to go before. Hence that prayer in the communion service of our public Liturgy, "Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favor!" That is, "Go before us in thy mercy, make our way plain, and enable us to perform what is right in thy sight!" And this sense of prevent is a literal version of the original word תקדמנו tekademennu. "For thou shalt go before him with the blessings of goodness."

[¶28] Our ancestors used God before in this sense. So in Henry V.'s speech to the French herald previously to the battle of Agincourt: - "Go therefore; tell thy master, here I am.

[¶29] My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk;

[¶30] My army, but a weak and sickly guard:

[¶31] Yet, God before, tell him we will come on,

[¶32] Though France himself, and such another neighbor,

[¶33] Stand in our way."

[¶34] A crown of pure gold - Probably alluding to the crown of the king of Rabbah, which, on the taking of the city, David took and put on his own head. See the history, [2Sam 12:26-30] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶36] He asked life of thee - This verse has caused some interpreters to understand the Psalm of Hezekiah's sickness, recovery, and the promised addition to his life of fifteen years; but it may be more literally understood of the Messiah, of whom David was the type, and in several respects the representative.

### Verse 5

[¶38] His glory is great - But great as his glory was, it had its greatness from God's salvation. There is no true nobility but of the soul, and the soul has none but what it receives from the grace and salvation of God.

### Verse 6

[¶40] Thou hast made him most blessed for ever - Literally, "Thou hast set him for blessings for ever." Thou hast made the Messiah the Source whence all blessings for time and for eternity shall be derived. He is the Mediator between God and man.

[¶41] Thou hast made him exceeding glad - Jesus, as Messiah, for the joy that was set before him, of redeeming a lost world by his death, endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is for ever set down on the right hand of God.

### Verse 7

[¶43] The king trusteth in the Lord - It was not by my skill or valor that I have gained this victory, but by faith in the strong protecting, and conquering arm of Jehovah.

[¶44] He shall not be moved - Perhaps this may be best understood of him who was David's prototype. His throne, kingdom, and government, shall remain for ever.

## 573. Psalms · 27 of 159

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Thine hand shall find out - Thy uncontrollable power shall find out all thine enemies, wheresoever hidden or howsoever secret. God knows the secret sinner, and where the workers of iniquity hide themselves.

### Verse 9

[¶3] Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven - By thy wrath they shall be burnt up, and they shall be the means of consuming others. One class of sinners shall, in God's judgments, be the means of destroying another class; and at last themselves shall be destroyed.

### Verse 10

[¶5] Their fruit shalt thou destroy - Even their posterity shall be cut off, and thus their memorial shall perish.

### Verse 11

[¶7] For they intended evil - Sinners shall not be permitted to do all that is in their power against the godly; much less shall they be able to perform all that they wish.

### Verse 12

[¶9] Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back - God can in a moment strike the most powerful and numerous army, even in the moment of victory, with panic; and then even the lame, the army which they had nearly routed, shall take the prey, and divide the spoil.

[¶10] Against the face of them - Thou shalt cause them to turn their backs and fly, as if a volley of arrows had been discharged in their faces. This seems to be the sense of this difficult verse.

### Verse 13

[¶12] Be thou exalted - Exalt thyself. O Lord - thy creatures cannot exalt thee. Lift thyself up, and discomfit thy foes by thine own strength! Thou canst give a victory to thy people over the most formidable enemies, though they strike not one blow in their own defense. God's right hand has often given the victory to his followers, while they stood still to see the salvation of God. How little can the strength of man avail when the Lord raiseth up himself to the battle! His children, therefore, may safely trust in him, for the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous flee into it, and are safe.

[¶13] Praise thy power - God is to receive praise in reference to that attribute which he has exhibited most in the defense or salvation of his followers. Sometimes he manifests his power, his mercy, his wisdom, his longsuffering, his fatherly care, his good providence, his holiness, his justice, his truth, etc. Whatever attribute or perfection he exhibits most, that should be the chief subject of his children's praise. One wants teaching, prays for it, and is deeply instructed: he will naturally celebrate the wisdom of God. Another feels himself beset with the most powerful adversaries, with the weakest of whom he is not able to cope: he cries to the Almighty God for strength; he is heard, and strengthened with strength in his soul. He therefore will naturally magnify the all-conquering power of the Lord. Another feels himself lost, condemned, on the brink of hell; he calls for mercy, is heard and saved: mercy, therefore, will be the chief subject of his praise, and the burden of his song.

[¶14] The old Anglo-Scottish Psalter says, We sal make knowen thi wordes in gude wil and gude werk, for he synges well that wirkes well. For thi, sais he twise, we sal syng; ane tyme for the luf of hert; another, for the schewyng of ryghtwisness, til ensampil.

### Introduction

[¶16] Under great affliction and distress, the psalmist prays unto God, [Psa 22:1-3]; appeals to God's wonted kinkiness in behalf of his people, [Psa 22:4], [Psa 22:5]; relates the insults that he received, [Psa 22:6-8]; mentions the goodness of God to him in his youth, as a reason why he should expect help now, [Psa 22:9-11]; details his sufferings, and the indignities offered to him, [Psa 22:12-18], prays with the confidence of being heard and delivered, [Psa 22:19-24]; praises God. and foretells the conversion of the nations to the true religion, [Psa 22:25-31].

[¶17] The title of this Psalm, To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David, has given rise to many conjectures. The words אילת השחר aiyeleth hashshachar are translated in the margin, "the hind of the morning;" but what was this? Was it the name of a musical instrument? or of a tune? or of a band of music? Calmet argues for the last, and translates "A Psalm of David, addressed to the Musicmaster who presides over the Band called the Morning Hind." This is more likely than any of the other conjectures I have seen. But aiyeleth hashshachar may be the name of the Psalm itself, for it was customary among the Asiatics to give names to their poetic compositions which often bore no relation to the subject itself. Mr. Harmer and others have collected a few instances from D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale. I could add many more from MSS. in my own collection: - thus Saady calls a famous miscellaneous work of his Gulisstan, "The Country of Roses," or, "Tbe Rose Garden:" and yet there is nothing relative to such a country, nor concerning roses nor rose gardens, in the book. Another is called Negeristan, "The Gallery of Pietures;" yet no picture gallery is mentioned. Another Beharistan, "The Spring Season;" Bostan, "The Garden;" Anvar Soheely, "The Light of Canopus;" Bahar Danush, "The Garden of Knowledge;" Tuhfit Almumeneen, "The Gift of the Faithful," a treatise on medicine; Kemeea lsadut, "The Alchymy of Life;" Mukhzeen al Asrar, "The Magazine of Secrets;" Sulselet al Zahab, "The Golden Chain;" Zuhfit al Abrar, "The Rosary of the Pious:" Merat al Asrar, "The Mirror of Secrets;" Durj al Durar, "The most precious Jewels" Deru Majlis, "The Jewel of the Assembly;" Al Bordah, "The Variegated Garment;" a poem written by Al Basiree, in praise of the Mohammedan religion, in gratitude for a cure which he believed he received from the prophet who appeared to him in a dream. The poem is written in one hundred and sixty-two couplets, each of which ends with mim, the first letter in the name of Mohammed.

[¶18] Scarcely one of the above titles, and their number might be easily trebled, bears any relation to the subject of the work to which it is prefixed, no more than Aijeleth Shahar bears to the matter contained in the twenty-second Psalm. Such titles are of very little importance in themselves; and of no farther use to us than as they serve to distinguish the different books, poems, or Psalms, to which they are prefixed. To me, many seem to have spent their time uselessly in the investigation of such subjects. See my note on [2Sam 1:18] (note).

[¶19] On the subject of the Psalm itself, there is considerable diversity of opinion:

[¶20] 1. Some referring it all to David;

[¶21] 2. Others referring it all to Christ; and,

[¶22] 3. Some, because of the application of several verses of it to our Lord in his sufferings, take a middle way, and apply it primarily to David, and in a secondary or accommodated sense, to Christ.

[¶23] Of this opinion was Theodore of Mopsuestia. who gave a very rational account of his own plan of interpretation; for which he was condemned by the second council of Constantinople or fifth Ecumenic council. Grotius and others have nearly copied his plan; and I think, with a little correction, it is the only safe one. That several parts of it relate to David, primarily, there is very little reason to doubt; that several passages may be applied by way of accommodation to our Lord, though originally belonging to and expressing the state of David, may be piously believed; and that it contains portions which are direct prophecies of our Lord's passion, death, and victory, appears too evident to be safely denied. On this plan I propose to treat it in the following paraphrase; keeping it as near to the Gospel standard as I can. Dr. Delaney supposes the Psalm to have been written by David when he was at Mahaniam, the very place where God appeared to Jacob in his distress. See Genesis 22: And on this supposition the third, fourth, and fifth verses may be easily and strikingly illustrated: Our fathers trusted in thee; why may not I? Thou didst deliver Them; why may not I expect deliverance also? They cried unto thee, trusted in thee, and were not confounded; I cry until thee, trust in thee; and why should I be confounded? For thou art the same God, thou changest not; and with thee there is no respect of persons. Thus David encouraged himself in the Lord; and these considerations helped to sustain him in his painful exercises and heavy distresses.

### Verse 1

[¶25] My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? - Show me the cause why thou hast abandoned me to my enemies; and why thou seemest to disregard my prayers and cries? For a full illustration of this passage, I beg the reader to refer to my note on [Mat 27:46].

[¶26] The words of my roaring? - שאגתי shaagathi, The Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic, with the Anglo-Saxon, make use of terms which may be thus translated: "My sins (or foolishness) are the cause why deliverance is so far from me." It appears that these versions have read שגגתי shegagathi, "my sin of ignorance," instead of שאגתי shaagathi, "my roaring:" but no MS. extant supports this reading.

### Verse 2

[¶28] I cry in the day-time, and in the night-season - This seems to be David's own experience; and the words seem to refer to his own case alone. Though I am not heard, and thou appearest to forget or abandon me; yet I continue to cry both day and night after thy salvation.

### Verse 3

[¶30] But thou art holy - Though I be not heard, even while I cry earnestly, yet I cannot impute any fault or unkindness to my Maker; for thou art holy. and canst do nothing but what is right. This is the language of profound resignation, in trials the most difficult to be borne.

[¶31] Inhabitest the praises of Israel - Thou dwellest in the sanctuary where the praises, thanksgivings, and sacrifices of thy people are continually offered.

### Verse 4

[¶33] Our fathers trusted in thee - David is supposed to have been, at the time of composing this Psalm, at Mahanaim, where Jacob was once in such great distress; where he wrestled with the angel, and was so signally blessed. David might well allude to this circumstance in order to strengthen his faith in God. I am now in the place where God so signally blessed the head and father of our tribes. I wrestle with God, as he did; may I not expect similar success?

### Verse 5

[¶35] They cried unto thee - So do I: They were delivered; so may I: They trusted in thee; I also trust in thee. And were not confounded; and is it likely that I shall be put to confusion?

### Verse 6

[¶37] But I am a worm, and no man - I can see no sense in which our Lord could use these terms. David might well use them to express his vileness and worthlessness. The old Psalter gives this a remarkable turn: I am a worme, that es, I am borne of the mayden with outen manseede; and nout man anely, bot god als so: and nevir the latter, I am reprove of men. In spitting, buffetyng, and punging with the thornes and outkasting of folk; for thai chesed Barraban the thefe, and nought me.

### Verse 7

[¶39] Laugh me to scorn - They utterly despised me; set me at naught; treated me with the utmost contempt. Laugh to scorn is so completely antiquated that it should be no longer used; derided, despised, treated with contempt, are much more expressive and are still in common use.

[¶40] They shoot out the lip, they shake the head - This is applied by St. Matthew, to the conduct of the Jews towards our Lord, when he hung upon the cross; as is also the following verse. But both are primarily true of the insults which David suffered from Shimei and others during the rebellion of Absalom; and, as the cases were so similar, the evangelist thought proper to express a similar conduct to Jesus Christ by the same expressions. These insults our Lord literally received, no doubt David received the same.

### Verse 9

[¶42] But thou art he that took me out of the womb - Thou hast made me; and hast guided and defended me from my earliest infancy.

### Verse 11

[¶44] Be not far from me; for trouble is near - A present God is a present blessing. We always need the Divine help; but more especially when troubles and trials are at hand.

## 574. Psalms · 28 of 159

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Many bulls have compassed me - The bull is the emblem of brutal strength, that gores and tramples down all before it. Such was Absalom, Ahithophel, and others, who rose up in rebellion against David; and such were the Jewish rulers who conspired against Christ.

[¶2] Strong bulls of Bashan - Bashan was a district beyond Jordan, very fertile, where they were accustomed to fatten cattle, which became, in consequence of the excellent pasture, the largest, as well as the fattest, in the country. See Calmet. All in whose hands were the chief power and influence became David's enemies; for Absalom had stolen away the hearts of all Israel. Against Christ, the chiefs both of Jews and Gentiles were united.

### Verse 13

[¶4] They gaped upon me - They were fiercely and madly beat on my destruction.

### Verse 14

[¶6] I am poured out like water - That is, as the old Psalter: Thai rought na mare to sla me than to spil water.

[¶7] The images in this verse are strongly descriptivr of a person in the deepest distress; whose strength, courage, hope, and expectation of succor and relief, had entirely failed.

[¶8] Our Lord's sufferings were extreme; but I cannot think there is any sound theologic sense in which these things can be spoken of Christ, either in his agony in the garden, or his death upon the cross.

### Verse 15

[¶10] My strength is dried up - All these expressions mark a most distressed and hopeless case.

[¶11] Into the dust of death - This means only that he was apparently brought nigh to the grave, and consequent corruption, this latter David saw; but Jesus Christ never saw corruption.

### Verse 16

[¶13] For dogs have compassed me - This may refer to the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers, and others by whom our Lord was surrounded in his trial, and at his cross.

[¶14] They pierced my hands and my feet - The other sufferings David, as a type of our Lord, might pass through; but the piercing of the hands and feet was peculiar to our Lord; therefore, this verse may pass for a direct revelavion. Our Lord's hands and feet were pierced when he was nailed to the cross, David's never were pierced.

[¶15] But there is a various reading here which is of great importance. Instead of כארו caaru, they pierced, which is what is called the kethib, or marginal reading, and which our translators have followed; the keri or textual reading is כארי caari, as a lion. In support of each reading there are both MSS. and eminent critics. The Chaldee has, "Biting as a lion my hands and my feet;" but the Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic read, "they pierced or digged;" and in the Anglo-Saxon the words translate: "They dalve (digged) hands mine, and feet mine."

[¶16] The Complutensian Polyglot has כארו caaru, they digged or pierced, in the text; for which it gives כרה carah, to cut, dig, or penetrate, in the margin, as the root whence כארו is derived. But the Polyglots of Potken, Antwerp, Paris. and London, have כארי caari in the text; and כארו caaru is referred to in the margin; and this is the case with the most correct Hebrew Bibles. The whole difference here lies between י yod and ו vau. which might easily be mistaken for each other; the former making like a lion; the latter, they pierced. The latter is to me most evidently the true reading.

### Verse 17

[¶18] I may tell all my bones - This may refer to the violent extension of his body when the whole of its weight hung upon the nails which attached his hands to the transverse beam of the cross. The body being thus extended, the principal bones became prominent, and easily discernible.

### Verse 18

[¶20] They part my garments - This could be true in no sense of David. The fact took place at the crucifixion of our Lord. The soldiers divided his upper garment into four parts, each soldier taking a part; but his tunic or inward vestment being without seam, woven in one entire piece, they agreed not to divide, but to cast lots whose the whole should be. Of this scripture the Roman soldiers knew nothing; but they fulfilled it to the letter. This was foreseen by the Spirit of God; and this is a direct revelation concerning Jesus Christ, which impresses the whole account with the broad seal of eternal truth.

### Verse 19

[¶22] Be not thou far from me - In the first verse he asks, Why hast thou forsaken me? Or, as if astonished at their wickedness, Into what hands hast thou permitted me to fall? Now he prays, Be not far from me. St. Jerome observes here, that it is the humanity of our blessed Lord which speaks to his divinity. Jesus was perfect man; and as man he suffered and died. But this perfect and sinless man could not have sustained those sufferings so as to make them expiatory had he not been supported by the Divine nature. All the expressions in this Psalm that indicate any weakness as far as it relates to Christ, (and indeed it relates principally to him), are to be understood of the human nature; for, that in him God and man were united, but not confounded, the whole New Testament to me bears evidence, the manhood being a perfect man, the Godhead dwelling bodily in that manhood. Jesus, as Mans, was conceived, born, grew up, increased in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man; hungered, thirsted, suffered, and died. Jesus, as God, knew all things, was from the beginning with God, healed the diseased, cleansed the lepers, and raised the dead; calmed the raging of the sea, and laid the tempest by a word; quickened the human nature, raised it from the dead, took it up into heaven, where as the Lamb newly slain, it ever appears in the presence of God for us. These are all Scripture facts. The man Christ Jesus could not work those miracles; the God in that man could not have suffered those sufferings. Yet one person appears to do and suffer all; here then is God manifested in the Flesh.

[¶23] O my strength - The divinity being the poxver by which the humanity was sustained in this dreadful conflict.

### Verse 20

[¶25] Deliver my soul from the sword - Deliver נפשי naphshi, my life; save me alive, or raise me again.

[¶26] My darling - יחידתי yechidathi, my only one. The only human being that was ever produced since the creation, even by the power of God himself, without the agency of man. Adam the first was created out of the dust of the earth; that was his mother; God was the framer. Adam the second was produced in the womb of the virgin; that was his mother. But that which was conceived in her was by the power of the Holy Ghost; hence the man Christ Jesus is the Only Son of God; God is his Father, and he is his Only One.

### Verse 21

[¶28] Save me from the lion's mouth - Probably our Lord here includes his Church with himself. The lion may then mean the Jews; the unicorns, רמים remim (probably the rhinoceros), the Gentiles. For the unicorn, see the note on [Num 23:22]. There is no quadruped or land animal with one horn only, except the rhinoceros; but there is a marine animal, the narwhal or monodon, a species of whale, that has a very fine curled ivory horn, which projects from its snout. One in my own museum measures seven feet four inches and is very beautiful. Some of these animals have struck their horn through the side of a ship and with it they easily transfix the whale, or any such animal. The old Psalter says, "The unicorn es ane of the prudest best that es, so that he wil dye for dedeyn if he be haldyn ogayn his wil."

### Verse 22

[¶30] I will declare the name unto my brethren - I will make a complete revelation concerning the God of justice and love, to my disciples; and I will announce to the Jewish people thy merciful design in sending me to be the Savior of the world.

### Verse 23

[¶32] Ye that fear the Lord - This is an exhortation to the Jews particularly, to profit by the preaching of the Gospel. Perhaps, by them that fear him, the Gentiles, and particularly the proselytes, may be intended. The Jews are mentioned by name: Glorify him, all ye seed of Jacob; fear him, all ye seed of Israel.

### Verse 24

[¶34] For he hath not despised - It is his property to help and save the poor and the humble; and he rejects not the sighings of a contrite heart. Perhaps it may mean, Though ye have despised me in my humiliation, yet God has graciously received me in the character of a sufferer on account of sin; as by that humiliation unto death the great atonement was made for the sin of the world.

### Verse 25

[¶36] The great congregation - In [Psa 22:22] he declares that he will praise God in the midst of the congregation. Here the Jews seem to be intended. In this verse he says he will praise him in the Great Congregation. Here the Gentiles are probably meant. The Jewish nation was but a small number in comparison of the Gentile world. And those of the former who received the Gospel were very few when compared with those among the Gentiles who received the Divine testimony. The one was (for there is scarcely a converted Jew now) קהל kahal, an assembly; the other was, is, and will be increasingly, קהל רב kahal rab, a Great Assembly. Salvation was of the Jews, it is now of the Gentiles.

### Verse 26

[¶38] The meek shall eat - ענוים anavim. the Poor, shall eat. In the true only Sacrifice there shall be such a provision for all believers that they shall have a fullness of joy. Those who offered the sacrifice, fed on what they offered. Jesus, the true Sacrifice, is the bread that came down from heaven; they who eat of this bread shall never die.

### Verse 27

[¶40] All the ends of the world - The Gospel shall be preached to every nation under heaven; and all the kindred of nations, משפחות mishpechoth, the families of the nations: not only the nations of the world shall receive the Gospel as a revelation from God, but each family shall embrace it for their own salvation. They shall worship before Jesus the Savior, and through him shall all their praises be offered unto God.

### Verse 28

[¶42] The kingdom is the Lord's - That universal sway of the Gospel which in the New Testament is called the kingdom of God; in which all men shall be God's subjects; and righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, be universally diffused.

### Verse 29

[¶44] All they that be fat upon earth - The rich, the great, the mighty, even princes, governors, and kings, shall embrace the Gospel. They shall count it their greatest honor to be called Christian; to join in the assemblies of his people, to commemorate his sacrificial death, to dispense the word of life, to discourage vice, and to encourage the profession and practice of pure and undefiled religion.

## 575. Psalms · 29 of 159

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[¶0] That go down to the dust - Every dying man shall put his trust in Christ, and shall expect glory only through the great Savior of mankind.

[¶1] None can keep alive his own soul. The Vulgate has: Et anima mea illi vivet, et semen meum serviet ipsi; "and my soul shall live to him, and my seed shall serve him." And with this agree the Syriac, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. The old Psalter follows them closely: And my saule sal lyf til him; and my sede hym sal serve. I believe this to be the true reading. Instead of נפשו naphsho, His soul, some MSS., in accordance with the above ancient versions, have נפשי naphshi, My soul. And instead of לא lo, not, two MSS., with the versions, have לו lo, to Him. And for חיה chiyah, shall vivify, some have יחיה yichyeh, shall live. The text, therefore, should be read, My soul (נפשי napshi) shall live (לו lo) to him: my seed (זרעי zari) shall serve him. These may be the words of David himself: "I will live to this Savior while I live; and my spiritual posterity shall serve him through all generations."

### Verse 30

[¶3] Shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation - They shall be called Christians after the name of Christ.

### Verse 31

[¶5] Unto a people that shall be born - That is, one generation shall continue to announce unto another the true religion of the Lord Jesus; so that it shall be for ever propagated in the earth. Of his kingdom there shall be no end.

### Introduction

[¶7] The Lord is the Pastor of his people; therefore it may be inferred that they shall not want, [Psa 23:1]. How he guides, feeds, and protects them, [Psa 23:2], [Psa 23:3]. Even in the greatest dangers they may be confident of his support, [Psa 23:4]. His abundant provision for them, [Psa 23:5]. The confidence they may have of his continual mercy, and their eternal happiness, [Psa 23:6].

[¶8] There is nothing particular in the title; it is simply attributed to David; but as it appears to be a thanksgiving of the Israelites for their redemption from the Bablylonish captivity, it cannot with propriety be attributed to David. Some think it was written by David in his exile, which is not likely; others, that he penned it when he was finally delivered from the persecution of Saul. I rather incline to the opinion that it was written after the captivity. The Chaldee seems to suppose that it was written to celebrate the goodness of God to the Israelites in the desert. It is a truly beautiful Psalm. Supposing it to have been written after the captivity, we see,

[¶9] 1. The redeemed captives giving thanks to God for their liberty.

[¶10] 2. Acknowledging that God had brought back their lives from the grave.

[¶11] 3. They represent themselves in Judea as a flock in an excellent pasture.

[¶12] 4. They declare that from the dangers they have passed through, and from which God had delivered them, they can have no fear of any enemy.

[¶13] 5. They conclude, from what God has done for them, that his goodness and mercy shall follow them all their days.

[¶14] 6. That they shall no more be deprived of God's worship, but shall all their days have access to his temple.

### Verse 1

[¶16] The Lord is my shepherd - There are two allegories in this Psalm which are admirably well adapted to the purpose for which they are produced, and supported both with art and elegance. The first is that of a shepherd; the second, that of a great feast, set out by a host the most kind and the most liberal. As a flock, they have the most excellent pasture; as guests, they have the most nutritive and abundant fare. God condescends to call himself the Shepherd of his people, and his followers are considered as a flock under his guidance and direction.

[¶17] 1. He leads them out and in, so that they find pasture and safety.

[¶18] 2. He knows where to feed them, and in the course of his grace and providence leads them in the way in which they should go.

[¶19] 3. He watches over them and keeps them from being destroyed by ravenous beasts.

[¶20] 4. If any have strayed, he brings them back.

[¶21] 5. He brings them to the shade in times of scorching heat; in times of persecution and affliction, he finds out an asylum for them.

[¶22] 6. He takes care that they shall lack no manner of thing that is good.

[¶23] But who are his flock? All real penitents, all true believers; all who obediently follow his example, abstaining from every appearance of evil, and in a holy life and conversation showing forth the virtues of Him who called them from darkness into his marvellous light. "My sheep hear my voice, and follow me."

[¶24] But who are not his flock! Neither the backslider in heart, nor the vile Antinomian, who thinks the more he sins, the more the grace of God shall be magnified in saving him; nor those who fondly suppose they are covered with the righteousness of Christ while living in sin; nor the crowd of the indifferent and the careless, nor the immense herd of Laodicean loiterers; nor the fiery bigots who would exclude all from heaven but themselves, and the party who believe as they do. These the Scripture resembles to swine, dogs, wandering stars, foxes, lions, wells without water, etc., etc. Let not any of these come forward to feed on this pasture, or take of the children's bread. Jesus Christ is the good Shepherd; the Shepherd who, to save his flock, laid down his own life.

[¶25] I shall not want - How can they? He who is their Shepherd has all power in heaven and earth; therefore he can protect them. The silver and gold are his, and the cattle on a thousand hills; and therefore he can sustain them. He has all that they need, and his heart is full of love to mankind; and therefore he will withhold from them no manner of thing that is good. The old Psalter both translates and paraphrases this clause well: Lord governs me, and nathing sal want to me. In stede of pastour thare he me sett. "The voice of a rightwis man: Lord Crist es my kyng, and for thi (therefore) nathyng sal me want: that es, in hym I sal be siker, and suffisand, for I hope in hymn gastly gude and endles. And he ledes me in stede of pastoure,that es, understandyng of his worde, and delyte in his luf. Qwar I am siker to be fild, thar in that stede (place) he sett me, to be nurysht til perfectioun." Who can say more, who need say less, than this?

### Verse 2

[¶27] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures - בנאות דשא binoth deshe, not green pastures, but cottages of turf or sods, such as the shepherds had in open champaign countries; places in which themselves could repose safely; and pens thus constructed where the flock might be safe all the night. They were enclosures, and enclosures where they had grass or provender to eat.

[¶28] Beside the still waters - Deep waters, that the strongest heat could not exhale; not by a rippling current, which argues a shallow stream. Or perhaps he may here refer to the waters of Siloam, or Shiloah, that go sof tly, [Isa 8:6], compared with the strong current of the Euphrates. Thou hast brought us from the land of our captivity, from beyond this mighty and turbulent river, to our own country streams, wells, and fountains, where we enjoy peace, tranquillity, and rest.

[¶29] The old Psalter gives this a beautiful turn: On the water of rehetyng forth he me broght. On the water of grace er we broght forth, that makes to recover our strengthe that we lost in syn. And reheteis (strengthens) us to do gude workes. My saule he turned, that es, of a synful wreche, he made it ryghtwis, and waxyng of luf in mekeness. First he turnes our sautes til hym; and then he ledes and fedes it. Ten graces he telles in this psalme, the qwilk God gyfs til his lufers, (i.e., them that love him).

### Verse 3

[¶31] He restoreth my soul - Brings back my life from destruction; and converts my soul from sin, that it may not eternally perish. Or, after it has backslidden from him, heals its backslidings, and restores it to his favor. See the old paraphrase on this clause in the preceding note.

[¶32] In the paths of righteousness - במעגלי צדק bemageley tsedek, "in the circuits" or "orbits of righteousness." In many places of Scripture man appears to be represented under the notion of a secondary planet moving round its primary; or as a planet revolving round the sun, from whom it receives its power of revolving, with all its light and heat. Thus man stands in reference to the Sun of righteousness; by his power alone is he enabled to walk uprightly; by his light he is enlightened; and by his heat he is vivified, and enabled to bring forth good fruit. When he keeps in his proper orbit, having the light of the glory of God reflected from the face of Jesus Christ, he is enabled to enlighten and strengthen others. He that is enlightened may enlighten; he that is fed may feed.

[¶33] For his name's sake - To display the glory of his grace, and not on account of any merit in me. God's motives of conduct towards the children of men are derived from the perfections and goodness of his own nature.

### Verse 4

[¶35] Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death - The reference is still to the shepherd. Though I, as one of the flock, should walk through the most dismal valley, in the dead of the night, exposed to pitfalls, precipices, devouring beasts, etc., I should fear no evil under the guidance and protection of such a Shepherd. He knows all the passes, dangerous defiles, hidden pits, and abrupt precipices in the way; and he will guide me around, about, and through them. See the phrase shadow of death explained on [Mat 4:16] (note). "Thof I ward well and imang tha, that nouther has knowyng of God, ne luf or in myddis of this lyf, that es schadow of ded; for it es blak for myrkenes of syn; and it ledes til dede and il men, imang qwam gude men wones: - I sal nout drede il, pryve nor apert; for thu ert with me in my hert, qwar I fele thu so, that eftir the schadow of dede, I be with the in thi vera lyf." - Old Psalter.

[¶36] For thou art with me - He who has his God for a companion need fear no danger; for he can neither mistake his way, nor be injured.

[¶37] Thy rod and thy staff - שבטך shibtecha, thy scepter, rod, ensign of a tribe, staff of office; for so שבט shebet signifies in Scripture. And thy staff, ומשענתך umishantecha, thy prop or support. The former may signify the shepherd's crook; the latter, some sort of rest or support, similar to our camp stool, which the shepherds might carry with them as an occasional seat, when the earth was too wet to be sat on with safety. With the rod or crook the shepherd could defend his sheep, and with it lay hold of their horns or legs to pull them out of thickets, boys, pits, or waters. We are not to suppose that by the rod correction is meant: there is no idea of this kind either in the text, or in the original word; nor has it this meaning in any part of Scripture. Besides, correction and chastisement do not comfort; they are not, at least for the present, joyous, but grievous; nor can any person look forward to them with comfort. They abuse the text who paraphrase rod correction, etc. The other term שען shaan signifies support, something to rest on, as a staff, crutch, stave, or the like. The Chaldee translates thus: "Even though I should walk in captivity, in the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil. Seeing thy Word (מימרך meymerach, thy personal Word) is my Assistant or Support; thy right word and thy law console me." Here we find that the Word, מימר meymar, is distinguished from any thing spoken, and even from the law itself. I cannot withhold the paraphrase of the old Psalter though it considers the rod as signifying correction: "Sothly I sal drede na nylle; for thy wande, that es thi lyght disciplyne, that chasties me as thi son: and thi staf, that es thi stalworth help, that I lene me til, and haldes me uppe; thai have comforthed me; lerand (learning, teaching) me qwat I suld do; and haldand my thaught in the, that es my comforth."

### Verse 5

[¶39] Thou preparest a table before me - Here the second allegory begins. A magnificent banquet is provided by a most liberal and benevolent host; who has not only the bounty to feed me, but power to protect me; and, though surrounded by enemies, I sit down to this table with confidence, knowing that I shall feast in perfect security. This may refer to the favor God gave the poor captive Israelites in the sight of the Chaldeans who had grievously treated them for seventy years; and whose king, Cyrus, had not only permitted them now to return to their own land, but had also furnished them with every thing requisite for their passage, and for repairing the walls of Jerusalem, and rebuilding the temple of the Lord, where the sacrifices were offered as usual, and the people of God feasted on them.

[¶40] Thou anointest my head with oil - Perfumed oil was poured on the heads of distinguished guests, when at the feasts of great personages. The woman in the Gospel, who poured the box of ointment of spikenard on the head of our Lord (see [Mat 26:6], [Mat 26:7]; [Mar 14:8]; [Luk 7:46]), only acted according to the custom of her own country, which the host, who invited our Lord, had shamefully neglected.

[¶41] My cup runneth over - Thou hast not only given me abundance of food, but hast filled my cup with the best wine.

### Verse 6

[¶43] Goodness and mercy shall follow me - As I pass on through the vale of life, thy goodness and mercy shall follow my every step; as I proceed, so shall they. There seems to be an allusion here to the waters of the rock smitten by the rod of Moses, which followed the Israelites all the way through the wilderness, till they came to the Promised Land. God never leaves his true followers providential mercies gracious influences, and miraculous interferences, shall never be wanting when they are necessary. I will dwell in the house, ושבתי veshabti, "and I shall Return to the house of the Lord," for ever, לארך ימים leorech yamim, "for length of days." During the rest of my life, I shall not be separated from God's house, nor from God's ordinances; and shall at last dwell with him in glory. These two last verses seem to be the language of a priest returned from captivity to live in the temple, and to serve God the rest of his life.

## 576. Psalms · 30 of 159

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### Introduction

[¶1] The Lord is Sovereign Ruler of the universe, [Psa 24:1], [Psa 24:2]. The great question, Who is fit to minister to the Lord in his own temple? [Psa 24:3-6]. The glory of God in his entrance into his temple, [Psa 24:7-10].

[¶2] It is probable that this Psalm was composed on occasion of bringing the ark from the house of Obed-edom to Mount Sion, and the questions may respect the fitness of the persons who were to minister before this ark: the last verses may refer to the opening of the city gates in order to admit it. As many of the expressions here are nearly the same with those in [Psa 15:1-5], I must refer to that place for their particular illustration; though it is most likely that the two Psalms were composed on very different occasions. The first contains a general question relative to who shall be saved? This is more particular; and refers to the temple and tabernacle service, and who is fit to minister there.

### Verse 1

[¶4] The earth is the Lord's - He is the Creator and Governor of it; it is his own property. Men may claim districts and kingdoms of it as their property, but God is Lord of the soil.

[¶5] The fullness thereof - "All its creatures." - Targum. Every tree, plant, and shrub; the silver and the gold, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

[¶6] They that dwell therein - All human beings.

### Verse 2

[¶8] He hath founded it upon the seas - He not only created the vast mass, but separated the land from the waters, so that the mountains, etc., being elevated above the waters, appear to be founded on them, and notwithstanding all the tossings and ragings of the ocean, these waters cannot prevail. It is established upon the floods, and cannot be shaken.

### Verse 3

[¶10] Who shall ascend - Who is sufficiently holy to wait in his temple? Who is fit to minister in the holy place?

### Verse 4

[¶12] He that hath clean hands - He whose conscience is irreproachable; whose heart is without deceit and uninfluenced by unholy passions.

[¶13] Who hath not lifted up his soul - Who has no idolatrous inclination; whose faith is pure, and who conscientiously fulfils his promises and engagements.

### Verse 5

[¶15] He shall receive the blessing - Perhaps alluding to Obed-edom, at whose house the ark had been lodged, and on whom God had poured out especial blessings.

[¶16] And righteousness - Mercy: every kind of necessary good. It is the mercy of God that crowns the obedience and fidelity of good men. For what made them good and faithful? God's mercy. What crowns their fidelity? God's mercy.

### Verse 6

[¶18] This is the generation - This is the description of people who are such as God can approve of, and delight in.

[¶19] That seek thy face, O Jacob - It is most certain that אלהי Elohey, O God, has been lost out of the Hebrew text in most MSS., but it is preserved in two of Kennicott's MSS., and also in the Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. "Who seek thy face, O God of Jacob."

[¶20] Selah - That is, It is confirmed; it is true. The persons who abstain from every appearance of evil, and seek the approbation of God, are those in whom God will delight.

### Verse 7

[¶22] Lift up your heads, O ye gates - The address of those who preceded the ark, the gates being addressed instead of the keepers of the gates. Allusion is here made to the triumphal entry of a victorious general into the imperial city.

[¶23] In the hymn of Callimachus to Apollo, there are two lines very much like those in the text; they convey the very same sentiments. The poet represents the god coming into his temple, and calls upon the priests to open the doors, etc. Αυτοι νυν κατοχηες ανακλινεσθε πυλαως, Αυται δε κληιδες· ὁ γαρ Θεος ουκ ετι μακραν; "Fall back, ye bolts; ye pond'rous doors, give way

[¶24] For not far distant is the god of day."

[¶25] Callim. Hymn in Apol., ver. 6, 7.

[¶26] The whole of this hymn contains excellent sentiments even on the subject of the Psalms.

[¶27] Everlasting doors - There seems to be a reference here to something like our portcullis, which hangs by pullies above the gate, and can be let down at any time so as to prevent the gate from being forced. In the case to which the psalmist refers, the portcullis is let down, and the persons preceding the ark order it to be raised. When it is lifted up, and appears above the head or top of the gate, then the folding doors are addressed: "Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;" let there be no obstruction; and the mighty Conqueror, the King of glory, whose presence is with the ark, and in which the symbol of his glory appears, shall enter. Make due preparations to admit so august and glorious a Personage.

### Verse 8

[¶29] Who is this King of glory? - This is the answer of those who are within. Who is this glorious King, for whom ye demand entrance? To which they reply: -

[¶30] The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle - It is Jehovah, who is come to set up his abode in his imperial city: He who has conquered his enemies, and brought salvation to Israel. To make the matter still more solemn, and give those without an opportunity of describing more particularly this glorious Personage, those within hesitate to obey the first summons: and then it is repeated, [Psa 24:9].

[¶31] Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in - To which a more particular question is proposed: - Who is He, This King of glory? To which an answer is given that admitted of no reply. The Lord of hosts - he who is coming with innumernble armies, He is this King of glory. On which, we may suppose, the portcullis was lifted up, the gates thrown open, and the whole cavalcade admitted. This verse seems to have been spoken before the ark appeared: Who is this (זה zeh) King of glory? when its coming was merely announced. In the tenth verse the form is a little altered, because the ark, the symbol of the Divine Presence, had then arrived. Who is He, (מי הוא mi hu), this King of glory? Here He is, to answer for himself. "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."

[¶32] Though this Psalm has all the appearance of being an unfinished piece, yet there is a vast deal of dignity and majesty in it; and the demands from without, the questions from those within, and the answers to those questions, partake of the true sublime; where nature, dignity, and simplicity, are very judiciously mingled together. The whole procedure is natural, the language dignified, and the questions and answers full of simplicity and elevated sentiments.

[¶33] Several, both among ancients and moderns, have thought this Psalm speaks of the resurrection of our Lord, and is thus to be understood. It is easy to apply it in this way: Jesus has conquered sin, Satan, and death, by dying. He now rises from the dead; and, as a mighty Conqueror, claims an entrance into the realms of glory, the kingdom which he has purchased by his blood; there to appear ever in the presence of God for us, to which he purposes to raise finally the innumerable hosts of his followers; for in reference to these, He is the Lord of hosts; and, in reference to his victory, He is the Lord mighty in battle.

### Introduction

[¶35] The psalmist, in great distress, calls upon God frequently, [Psa 25:1-5]; prays for pardon with the strong confidence of being heard, [Psa 25:6-11]; shows the blessedness of the righteous, [Psa 25:12-14]; again earnestly implores the Divine mercy; and prays for the restoration of Israel, [Psa 25:15-22].

[¶36] This Psalm seems to refer to the case of the captives in Babylon, who complain of oppression from their enemies, and earnestly beg the help and mercy of God.

[¶37] It is the first of those called acrostic Psalms, i.e., Psalms each line of which begins with a several letter of the Hebrew alphabet in their common order. Of acrostic Psalms there are seven, viz., 25, 34, 37, [Psa 111:1-10], [Psa 112:1-10], 119, and 145. It is fashionable to be violent in encomiums on the Jews for the very faithful manner in which they have preserved the Hebrew Scriptures; but these encomiums are, in general, ill placed. Even this Psalm is a proof with what carelessness they have watched over the sacred deposit committed to their trust. The letter ו vau is wanting in the fifth verse, and ק koph in the eighteenth; the letter ר resh being twice inserted, once instead of ק koph, and a whole line added at the end, entirely out of the alphabetical series.

### Verse 1

[¶39] Do I lift up my soul - His soul was cast down, and by prayer and faith he endeavours to lift it up to God.

### Verse 2

[¶41] I trust in thee - I depend upon thy infinite goodness and mercy for my support and salvation.

[¶42] Let me not be ashamed - Hide my iniquity, and forgive my guilt.

### Verse 3

[¶44] Let none that wait on thee be ashamed - Though he had burden enough of his own, he felt for others in similar circumstances, and became an intercessor in their behalf.

[¶45] Transgress without cause - Perhaps בוגדים bogedim may here mean idolatrous persons. "Let not them that wait upon and worship thee be ashamed: but they shall be ashamed who vainly worship, or trust in false gods." See [Mal 2:11-16]. The Chaldeans have evil entreated us, and oppressed us: they trust in their idols, let them see the vanity of their idolatry.

## 577. Psalms · 31 of 159

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Show me thy ways - The psalmist wishes to know God's way, to be taught his path, and to be led into his truth. He cannot discern this way unless God show it; he cannot learn the path unless God teach it; and he cannot walk in God's truth unless God lead him: and even then, unless God continue to teach, he shall never fully learn the lessons of his salvation; therefore he adds, "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me;" [Psa 25:5].

[¶2] That he may get this showing, teaching, and leading, he comes to God, as the "God of his salvation;" and that he may not lose his labor, he "waits on him all the day." Many lose the benefit of their earnest prayers, because they do not persevere in them. They pray for a time; get remiss or discouraged; restrain prayer; and thus lose all that was already wrought for and in them.

### Verse 5

[¶4] On thee do I wait - This is the line in which ו vau, the sixth letter in the order of the alphabet, is lost; for the line begins with א aleph, אותך othecha, "on thee." But four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have ואותך veothecha, "And upon thee." This restores the lost ו vau, which signifies "and." The Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Anglo-Saxon, preserve it.

### Verse 6

[¶6] Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies, and thy loving-kindness - The word רחמים rachamim, means the commiseration that a man feels in his bowels at the sight of distress. The second word, חסדים chasadim, signifies those kindnesses which are the offspring of a profusion of benevolence.

[¶7] They have been ever of old - Thou wert ever wont to display thyself as a ceaseless fountain of good to all thy creatures.

### Verse 7

[¶9] Remember not the sins of my youth - Those which I have committed through inconsiderateness, and heat of passion.

[¶10] According to thy mercy - As it is worthy of thy mercy to act according to the measure, the greatness, and general practice of thy mercy; so give me an abundant pardon, a plentiful salvation.

[¶11] For thy goodness' sake - Goodness is the nature of God; mercy flows from that goodness.

### Verse 8

[¶13] Good and upright is the Lord - He is good in his nature, and righteous in his conduct.

[¶14] Therefore will he teach sinners - Because he is good, he will teach sinners, though they deserve nothing but destruction: and because he is right, he will teach them the true way.

### Verse 9

[¶16] The meek will he guide - ענוים anavim, the poor, the distressed; he will lead in judgment - he will direct them in their cause, and bring it to a happy issue, for he will show them the way in which they should go.

### Verse 10

[¶18] All the paths of the Lord - ארחות orchoth signifies the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of wagons by often passing over the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does he show them mercy, and so frequently does he fulfill his truth that his paths are earnestly discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! Wherever we go, we see that God's mercy and truth have been there by the deep tracks they have left behind them. But he is more abundantly merciful to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies; i.e. those who are conformed, not only to the letter, but to the spirit of his pure religion.

### Verse 11

[¶20] For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon - I have sinned; I need mercy; there is no reason why thou shouldst show it, but what thou drawest from the goodness of thy own nature.

### Verse 12

[¶22] That feareth the Lord - Who has a proper apprehension of his holiness, justice, and truth; and who, at the same time, sees himself a fallen spirit, and a transgressor of God's holy law, and consequently under the curse. That is the person that truly and reverently fears God.

[¶23] Him shall he teach - Such a person has a teachable spirit.

[¶24] The way that he shall choose - The way that in the course of Providence he has chosen, as the way in which he is to gain things honest in the sight of all men; God will bless him in it, and give him as much earthly prosperity as may be useful to his soul in his secular vocation.

### Verse 13

[¶26] His soul shall dwell at ease - בטוב תלין betob talin, "shall lodge in goodness;" this is the marginal reading in our version; and is preferable to that in the text.

[¶27] His seed shall inherit - His posterity shall be blessed. For them many prayers have been sent up to God by their pious fathers; and God has registered these prayers in their behalf.

### Verse 14

[¶29] The secret of the Lord is with them - טוד sod, the secret assembly of the Lord is with them that fear him; many of them have a Church in their own house.

[¶30] He will show them his covenant - He will let them see how great blessings he has provided for them that love him. Some refer this to the covenant of redemption by Christ Jesus.

### Verse 15

[¶32] Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord - All my expectation is from him alone. If I get at any time entangled, he will pluck my feet out of the net.

### Verse 16

[¶34] Turn thee unto me - Probably the prayer of the poor captives in Bablyon, which is continued through this and the remaining verses.

### Verse 17

[¶36] The troubles of may heart are enlarged - The evils of our captive state, instead of lessening, seem to multiply, and each to be extended.

### Verse 18

[¶38] Look upon mine affliction - See my distressed condition, and thy eye will affect thy heart.

[¶39] Forgive all my sins - My sins are the cause of all my sufferings; forgive these.

[¶40] This is the verse which should begin with the letter ק koph; but, instead of it, we have ר resh both here, where it should not be, and in the next verse where it should be. Dr. Kennicott reads קומה kumah, "arise," and Houbigant, קצר ketsar, "cut short." The word which began with ק koph has been long lost out of the verse, as every version seems to have read that which now stands in the Hebrew text.

### Verse 19

[¶42] Consider mine enemies - Look upon them, and thou wilt see how impossible it is that I should be able to resist and overcome them. They are many, they hate me, and their hatred drives them to acts of cruelty against me.

### Verse 20

[¶44] O keep my soul - Save me from sin, and keep me alive.

## 578. Psalms · 32 of 159

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[¶0] Let me not be ashamed - He ends as he began; see [Psa 25:2] : "Let me not be confounded, for I put my trust in thee."

### Verse 21

[¶2] Let integrity and uprightness - I wish to have a perfect heart, and an upright life. This seems to be the meaning of these two words.

### Verse 22

[¶4] Redeems Israel, O God - The people are prayed for in the preceding verses as if one person; now he includes the whole, lest his own personal necessities should narrow his heart. and cause him to forget his fellow sufferers.

[¶5] This verse stands out of the order of the Psalm; and does not appear to have formed a part of the alphabetical arrangement. It is a general prayer for the redemption of Israel from captivity; and may well be applied to those of the true Israel who are seeking for complete redemption from the power, the guilt, and the pollution of sin; and from all the troubles that spring from it. And let it be ever known, that God alone can redeem Israel.

### Introduction

[¶7] The psalmist appeals to God for his integrity, and desires to be brought to the Divine test in order to have his innocence proved, [Psa 26:1-3]; shows that he had avoided all fellowship with the wicked, and associated unth the upright, [Psa 26:4-8]; prays that he may not have his final lot with the workers of iniquity, [Psa 26:9], [Psa 26:10]; purposes to walk uprightly before God, [Psa 26:11], [Psa 26:12].

[¶8] This Psalm, and the two following, are supposed by Calmet to be all parts of one ode, and to relate to the time of the captivity, containing the prayers, supplications, complaints, and resolutions of the Israelites in Babylon. This is probable; but we have not evidence enough to authorize us to be nice on such points. See on [Psa 26:1] (note).

### Verse 1

[¶10] Judge me, O Lord - There are so many strong assertions in this Psalm concerning the innocence and uprightness of its author that many suppose he wrote it to vindicate himself from some severe reflections on his conduct or accusations relative to plots, conspiracies, etc. This seems to render the opinion probable that attributes it to David during his exile, when all manner of false accusations were brought against him at the court of Saul.

[¶11] I have walked in mine integrity - I have never plotted against the life nor property of any man; I have neither coveted nor endeavored to possess myself of Saul's crown.

[¶12] I have trusted - Had I acted otherwise, I could not have been prosperous, for thou wouldst not have worked miracles for the preservation of a wicked man.

[¶13] I shall not slide - I shall be preserved from swerving from the paths of righteousness and truth.

### Verse 2

[¶15] Examine me, O Lord - To thee I appeal; and feel no hesitation in wishing to have all the motives of my heart dissected and exposed to thy view, and to that of the world.

### Verse 3

[¶17] For thy loving-kindness - A sense of thy favor and approbation was more to my heart than thrones and sceptres; and in order to retain this blessing, I have walked in thy truth.

### Verse 4

[¶19] I have not sat with vain persons - מתי שוא methey shav, men of lies, dissemblers, backbiters, etc.

[¶20] Neither will I go in with dissemblers - נעלמים naalamim, the hidden ones, the dark designers, the secret plotters and conspirators in the state.

### Verse 5

[¶22] I have hated the congregation of evil doers - I have never made one in the crowds of discontented persons; persons who, under pretense of rectifying what was wrong in the state, strove to subvert it, to breed general confusion, to overturn the laws, seize on private property, and enrich themselves by the spoils of the country.

### Verse 6

[¶24] I will wash mine hands in innocency - Washing the hands was frequent among the Jews, and was sometimes an action by which a man declared his innocence of any base or wicked transaction. This Pilate did, to protest his innocence of the mal-treatment and death of Christ. I will maintain that innocence of life in which I have hitherto walked; and take care that nothing shall be found in my heart or life that would prevent me from using the most holy ordinance, or worshipping thee in spirit and truth.

[¶25] So wilt I compass thine altar - It is a mark of respect among the Hindoos to walk several times round a superior, and round a temple.

### Verse 7

[¶27] That I may publish - I have endeavoured to act so as always to keep a conscience void of offense towards thee and towards man. I have made a profession of faith in thee, and salvation from thee, and my practice gives no lie to my profession.

### Verse 8

[¶29] Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house - I have carefully used thine ordinances, that I might obtain more grace to help me to persevere. And I have not been attentive to those duties, merely because they were incumbent on me; but I have loved the place where thine honor dwelleth; and my delight in thy ordinances has made my attendance as pleasant as it was profitable. This verse would be better translated, Jehovah, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place of the tabernacle of thy glory. The habitation must mean the holy of holies, where the Divine Presence was manifest; and the place of the tabernacle must refer to the mercy-seat, or the place where the glory of the Lord appeared between the cherubim, upon the lid or cover of the ark of the covenant. From his dwelling there, משכן mishcan, the place and the appearance were called שכינה shechinah; the dwelling of Jehovah, or that glorious appearance which was the symbol of the Divine Presence.

### Verse 9

[¶31] Gather not my soul with sinners - As I have never loved their company, nor followed their practice, let not my eternal lot be cast with them! I neither love them nor their ways; may I never be doomed to spend an eternity with them!

### Verse 10

[¶33] Their right hand is full of bribes - He speaks of persons in office, who took bribes to pervert judgment and justice.

### Verse 11

[¶35] But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity - Whatever I may have to do with public affairs, shall be done with the strictest attention to truth, justice, and mercy.

[¶36] Redeem me - From all snares and plots laid against my life and my soul.

[¶37] And be merciful unto me - I deserve no good, but thou art merciful; deal with me ever in thy mercy.

### Verse 12

[¶39] My foot standeth in an even place - On the above principles I have taken my stand: to abhor evil; to cleave to that which is good; to avoid the company of wicked men; to frequent the ordinances of God; to be true and just in all my dealings with men; and to depend for my support and final salvation on the mere mercy of God. He who acts in this way, his feet stand in an even place.

[¶40] I will bless the Lord - In all my transactions with men, and in all my assemblings with holy people, I will speak good of the name of the Lord, having nothing but good to speak of that name.

### Introduction

[¶42] The righteous man's confidence in God, [Psa 27:1-3]; his ardent desire to have the spiritual privilege of worshipping God in his temple, because of the spiritual blessings which he expects to enjoy there, [Psa 27:4-6]; his prayer to God for continual light and salvation, [Psa 27:7-9]; has confidence that, though even has ohm parents might forsake him, yet God would not, [Psa 27:10]. Therefore he begs to be taught the right way to be delivered from all his enemies, and to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, [Psa 27:11-13]; he exhorts others to trust in God; to be of good courage; and to expect strength for their hearts, [Psa 27:14].

[¶43] In the Hebrew and Chaldee this Psalm has no other title than simply לדוד ledavid: To or For David. In the Syriac: "For David; on account of an infirmity which fell upon him." In the Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, and Ethiopic, it has this title: "A Psalm of David, before he was anointed." The Anglo-Saxon omits all the titles. For this title there is no authority in fact. However, it may be just necessary to state that David appears to have received the royal unction three times:

[¶44] 1. In Bethlehem from the hand of Samuel, in the house of his father Jesse; [1Sam 16:13].

## 579. Psalms · 33 of 159

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[¶0] 2. At Hebron after the death of Saul, by the men of Judah, [2Sam 2:4].

[¶1] 3. By the elders of Israel, at Hebron, after the death of Ishbosheth, when he was acknowledged king over all the tribes; [2Sam 5:3].

[¶2] At which of these anointings the Psalm was written, or whether before any of them, we know not; nor is the question to be decided. Some commentators say that it is a Psalm belonging to the captivity, and upon that system it may be well interpreted. And lastly, it has been contended that it was written by David after he had been in danger of losing his life by the hand of a gigantic Philistine, and must have perished had he not been succoured by Abishai; see the account [2Sam 21:17] (note); and was counselled by his subjects not to go out to battle any more, lest he should extinguish the light of Israel. To these advisers he is supposed to make the following reply: -

### Verse 1

[¶4] The Lord is my light and my salvation - This light can never be extinguished by man; the Lord is my salvation, my safeguard, my shield, and my defense; of whom then should I be afraid?

### Verse 2

[¶6] When the wicked - came upon me - Near as I appeared to you to be in danger of losing my life, I was safe enough in the hands of the Lord; and those who thought to have eaten me up, stumbled, failed of their purpose and fell; the Philistine lost his own life.

### Verse 3

[¶8] Though a host should encamp against me - I am so confident of the Almighty's protection, that were I alone, and encompassed by a host, I would not fear. I am in the hand of God; and while in that hand, I am safe.

### Verse 4

[¶10] One thing have I desired - If I am grown too old, and from that circumstance unable to serve my country, I shall then prefer a retirement to the tabernacle, there to serve God the rest of my days. There I shall behold his glory, and there I may inquire and get important answers respecting Israel.

[¶11] But though these words may be thus interpreted, on the above supposition, that David penned the Psalm on the occasion of his escape from the Philistine, and the desire expressed by his subjects that he should go no more out to war; yet it appears that they more naturally belong to the captivity, and that this verse especially shows the earnest longing of the captives to return to their own land, that they might enjoy the benefit of Divine worship.

### Verse 5

[¶13] He shall hide me in his pavilion - בסכה besuccoh, in his tabernacle. I would make his temple my residence; I would dwell with God, and be in continual safety. Pavilion comes from papilio and παπιλιων, a butterfly. It signifies a tent made of cloth stretched out on poles, which in form resembles in some measure the insect above named.

[¶14] In the secret of his tabernacle - Were there no other place, he would put me in the holy of holies, so that an enemy would not dare to approach me.

[¶15] He shall set me upon a rock - He shall so strengthen and establish me, that my enemies shall not be able to prevail against me. He shall hide me where they cannot find me, or put me out of the reach of the fiery darts of the wicked. He who lives nearest to God suffers least from temptation. "Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to thee: resist the devil and he will flee from thee."

### Verse 6

[¶17] Now shall mine head be lifted up - We shall most assuredly be redeemed from this captivity, and restored to our own land, and to the worship of our God in his own temple. There shall we offer sacrifices of joy; we will sing praises unto the Lord, and acknowledge that it is by his might and mercy alone that we have been delivered.

### Verse 7

[¶19] Hear, O Lord, when I cry - This is the utmost that any man of common sense can expect - to be heard when he cries. But there are multitudes who suppose God will bless them whether they cry or not; and there are others and not a few, who although they listlessly pray and cry not, yet imagine God must and will hear them! God will answer them that pray and cry; those who do not are most likely to be without the blessings which they so much need.

### Verse 8

[¶21] When thou saidst, Seek ye my face - How much labor and skill have been employed to make sense of this verse as it stands in our translation! The original words are the following, from which our Version has been forcibly extracted: - לך אמר לבי בקשו פני את פניך יהוה אבקש lecha amar libbi bakkeshu panai; eth paneycha, Yehovah, abakkesh; of which I believe the true rendering to be as follows: "Unto thee, my heart, he hath said, Seek ye my face. Thy face, O Jehovah, I will seek. O my heart, God hath commanded thee to seek his face." Then, his face I will seek. Which may be paraphrased thus: Unto thee, his Church, God hath said Seek ye, all who compose it, my face. To which I, his Church, have answered, Thy face, O Jehovah, I will seek. On referring to Archbishop Secker, I find that he, and indeed Bishop Horsley, are of the same mind.

[¶22] I had formerly proposed another method of reading this difficult verse. Suspecting that some error had got into the text, for בקשו פני bakkeshu panay, "seek ye my face," I had substituted אבקש פניך abakkesh paneycha, "I will seek thy face;" or with the Vulgate and Septuagint, בקשתי פניך bakkesti paneycha, "I have sought thy face," exquisivit te facies mea, Εξεζητησα το προσωπον σου. And this small alteration seemed to make a good sense: "My heart said unto thee, I have sought thy face, (or, I will seek thy face), and thy face, O Lord, I will seek." I have not only done what it was my duty and interest to do, but I will continue to do it. Some have proposed to mend the text thus: לך לך אמר לבי lech lecha, amar libbi, "Go to, saith my heart," נבקש פני יהוה nebakkesh peney Jehovah, "Let us seek the face of Jehovah." This is rather a violent emendation, and is supported by neither MSS. nor Versions. The whole verse is wanting in one of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. On the whole I prefer what is first proposed, and which requires no alteration in the text; next, that of the Vulgate and Septuagint.

[¶23] The old Psalter paraphrases thus: Til yhe saide my hert, the my face soght: thy face, lord, I sal seke. "The gernyng of my hert that spekes til god, and he anely heres: saide til the my face, that es my presence soght the and na nother thyng. And fra now I sal seke thy face lastandly, til my dede; and that I fynd my sekyng:" i.e., To thee, said my heart; thee my face sought: thy face, O Lord, I shall seek. The gerning of my hert, that spekes til God, and he anely heres, "til the my face"; that es, my presence soght the and no nother thyng: and fra now I sal seke thy face lastandly, til my dede, and that I fynd my sekyng:" i.e., The yearning strong desire of my heart, which speaks to God, and he alone hears; my face is to thee; that is, myself sought thee, and none other thing, and from now I shall seek thee lastingly till my death, and till that I find what I seek.

### Verse 9

[¶25] Hide not thy face - from me - As my face is towards thee wheresoever I am, so let thy face be turned towards me. In a Persian MS. poem entitled Shah we Gudda, "The King and the Beggar," I have found a remarkable couplet, most strangely and artificially involved, which expresses exactly the same sentiment one meaning of which is: -

[¶26] Our face is towards Thee in all our ways;

[¶27] Thy face is towards us in all our intentions.

[¶28] Something similar, though not the same sentiment is in Hafiz, lib. i., gaz. v., cap. 2: -

[¶29] How can we with the disciples turn our face towards the kaaba,

[¶30] When our spiritual instructer turns his face to wards the wine-cellar?

[¶31] I shall subjoin a higher authority than either: - Ὁτι οφθαλμοι Κυριου επι δικαιους, Και ωτα αυτου εις δεησις αυτων· Προσωπον δε Κυριου επι ποιουντας κακα. [1Pet 3:12].

[¶32] For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous; And his ears to their supplication: And the face of the Lord is upon the workers of evil.

### Verse 10

[¶34] When my father and my mother forsake me - Or, more literally, "For my father and my mother have forsaken me; but the Lord hath gathered me up." My parents were my protectors for a time; but the Lord has been my Protector always. There is no time in which I do not fall under his merciful regards.

### Verse 11

[¶36] Teach me thy way - Let me know the gracious designs of thy providence towards me, that my heart may submit to thy will.

[¶37] And lead me in a plain path - In the path of righteousness, because of mine enemies, who watch for my halting.

### Verse 12

[¶39] Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies - To their soul בנפש benephesh; their whole soul thirsts for my destruction. Let them not be gratified. They have suborned witnesses against me, but they are false witnesses: unmask their wickedness, and confound their counsels.

### Verse 13

[¶41] I had fainted, unless I had believed - The words in italics are supplied by our translators; but, far from being necessary, they injure the sense. Throw out the words I had fainted, and leave a break after the verse, and the elegant figure of the psalmist will be preserved: "Unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" - What! what, alas! should have become of me!

[¶42] Dr. Hammond has observed that there is a remarkable elegance in the original, which, by the use of the beautiful figure aposiopesis, makes an abrupt breaking off in the midst of a speech. He compares it to the speech of Neptune to the winds that had raised the tempest to drown the fleet of Aeneas - Aeneid. lib. i., ver. 131.

[¶43] Eurum ad se zephyrumque vocat: dehinc talia fatur;

[¶44] Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri?

## 580. Psalms · 34 of 159

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[¶0] Jam coelum terramque, meo sine numine, venti,

[¶1] Miscere, et tantas audetis tollere moles?

[¶2] Quos ego-sed motos praestat componere fluctus.

[¶3] To Eurus and the western blast he cried,

[¶4] Does your high birth inspire this boundless pride?

[¶5] Audacious winds! without a power from me,

[¶6] To raise at will such mountains on the sea?

[¶7] Thus to confound heaven, earth, the air, and main;

[¶8] Whom I - but, first, I'll calm the waves again.

[¶9] Pitts.

### Verse 14

[¶11] Wait on the Lord - All ye who are in distress, wait on the Lord. Take me for an example. I waited on him, and he strengthened my heart; wait ye on him, and he will strengthen your heart. You cannot be unsuccessful; fear not. Wait, I say, on the Lord; wait for his succor in doing his will. Age viriliter, says the Vulgate; act like a man, hope, believe, work, and fear not.

### Introduction

[¶13] A righteous man in affliction makes supplication to God, and complains of the malice of his enemies, [Psa 28:1-4]; whom he describes as impious, and whose destruction he predicts, [Psa 28:5]. He blesses God for hearing his prayers, and for filling him with consolation, [Psa 28:6], [Psa 28:7]; then prays for God's people, [Psa 28:8], [Psa 28:9].

[¶14] This Psalm is of the same complexion with the two preceding; and belongs most probably to the times of the captivity, though some have referred it to David in his persecutions. In the five first verses the author prays for support against his enemies, who appear to have acted treacherously against him. In the sixth and seventh he is supposed to have gained the victory, and returns with songs of triumph. The eighth is a chorus of the people sung to their conquering king. The ninth is the prayer of the king for his people.

### Verse 1

[¶16] O Lord my rock - צורי tsuri not only means my rock, but my fountain, and the origin of all the good I possess.

[¶17] If thou be silent - If thou do not answer in such a way as to leave no doubt that thou hast heard me, I shall be as a dead man. It is a modern refinement in theology which teaches that no man can know when God hears and answers his prayers, but by an induction of particulars, and by an inference from his promises. And, on this ground, how can any man fairly presume that he is heard or answered at all? May not his inductions be no other than the common occurrences of providence? And may not providence be no more than the necessary occurrence of events? And is it not possible, on this skeptic ground, that there is no God to hear or answer? True religion knows nothing of these abominations; it teaches its votaries to pray to God, to expect an answer from him, and to look for the Holy Spirit to bear witness with their spirits that they are the sons and daughters of God.

### Verse 2

[¶19] Toward thy holy oracle - דביר קדשך debir kodshecha; debir properly means that place in the holy of holies from which God gave oracular answers to the high priest. This is a presumptive proof that there was a temple now standing; and the custom of stretching out the hands in prayer towards the temple, when the Jews were at a distance from it, is here referred to.

### Verse 3

[¶21] Draw file not away - Let me not be involved in the punishment of the wicked.

### Verse 4

[¶23] Give them - Is the same as thou wilt give them; a prophetic declaration of what their lot will be.

### Verse 5

[¶25] They regard not the works of the Lord - They have no knowledge of the true God, either as to his nature, or as to his works.

[¶26] He shall destroy them, and not build them up - This is a remarkable prophecy, and was literally fulfilled: the Babylonian empire was destroyed by Cyrus, and never built up again; for he founded the Persian empire on its ruins. haven the place where Babylon stood is now no longer known.

### Verse 7

[¶28] The Lord is my strength - I have the fullest persuasion that he hears, will answer, and will save me.

### Verse 8

[¶30] The Lord is their strength - Instead of למו lamo, to them, eight MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi have לעמו leammo to his people; and this reading is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. This makes the passage more precise and intelligible; and of the truth of the reading there can be no reasonable doubt. "The Lord is the strength of his People, and the saving strength of his anointed." Both king and people are protected, upheld, and saved by him.

### Verse 9

[¶32] Save thy people - Continue to preserve them from all their enemies; from idolatry, and from sin of every kind.

[¶33] Bless thine inheritance - They have taken thee for their God; thou hast taken them for thy people.

[¶34] Feed them - רעה raah signifies both to feed and to govern. Feed them, as a shepherd does his flock; rule them, as a father does his children.

[¶35] Lift them up for ever - Maintain thy true Church; let no enemy prevail against it. Preserve and magnify them for ever. Lift them up: as hell is the bottomless pit in which damned spirits sink down for ever; or, as Chaucer says downe all downe; so heaven is an endless height of glory, in which there is an eternal rising or exaltation. Down, all down; up, all up; for ever and ever.

### Introduction

[¶37] The psalmist calls upon the great and mighty to give thanks unto God, and to worship him in the beauty of holiness, on account of a tempest that had taken place, [Psa 29:1], [Psa 29:2]. He shouts the wonders produced by a thunderstorm, which he calls the voice of God, [Psa 29:3-9]. Speaks of the majesty of God, [Psa 29:10]; and points out the good he will do to his people, [Psa 29:11].

[¶38] In the Hebrew, this is called A Psalm for David. The Vulgate says, "A Psalm of David, when the tabernacle was completed." The Septuagint says: "A Psalm of David, at the going out or exodus of the tabernacle." The Arabic states it to be "A prophecy concerning the incarnation; and concerning the ark and the tent." [Num 5:12]. The Syriac, "A Psalm of David, concerning oblation." The Psalm was probably written to commemorate the abundant rain which fell in the days of David, after the heavens had been shut up for three years; [2Sam 21:1-10].

### Verse 1

[¶40] O ye mighty - בני אלים beney elim, "sons of the strong ones," or "sons of rams." The Chaldee has, "Ye hosts of angels, sons of God." The Vulgate has, "Offer to the Lord, ye sons of God; offer to the Lord the sons of rams;" in this rendering agree the Septuagint, Ethiopic Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. The old Psalter has, Bringes til Lord ye goddes sonnes; brynges til Lord sonnes of wether: which it paraphrases thus: that es, yourself, sonnes of apostles, that war leders of goddes folk; qwam ye study to folow.

[¶41] Glory and strength - Ascribe all excellence and might to him.

[¶42] The whole Psalm is employed in describing the effects produced by a thunder-storm which had lately taken place.

### Verse 2

[¶44] The glory due unto his name - Rather, the glory of his name. His name is Mercy; his nature is love. Ascribe mercy, love, power, and wisdom to him. All these are implied in the name Jehovah.

## 581. Psalms · 35 of 159

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[¶0] In the beauty of holiness - בהדרת קדש behadrath kodesh, "the beautiful garments of holiness." Let the priests and Levites put on their best and cleanest apparel; and let the whole service be conducted in such a way as to be no dishonor to the Divine Majesty. The Vulgate and others read, In the palace of his holiness. Let all go to the temple, and return thanks to God for their preservation during this dreadful storm. See on [Psa 29:9] (note).

### Verse 3

[¶2] The voice of the Lord - Thunder, so called, [Exo 9:23], [Exo 9:28], [Exo 9:29]; [Job 37:4]; [Psa 18:13]; [Isa 30:30]. On this subject see the note on [Job 37:4], where there is a particular description of the nature and generation of thunder; and of the lightning, clap, rain, and other phenomena which accompany it.

[¶3] Upon many waters - The clouds, which Moses calls the waters which are above the firmament.

### Verse 4

[¶5] Is powerful - There is no agent in universal nature so powerful as the electric fluid. It destroys life, tears castles and towers to pieces, rends the strongest oaks, and cleaves the most solid rocks: universal animate nature is awed and terrified by it. To several of these effects the psalmist here refers; and for the illustration of the whole I must refer to the above notes on Job.

[¶6] Full of majesty - No sound in nature is so tremendous and majestic as that of thunder; it is the most fit to represent the voice of God.

### Verse 5

[¶8] Breaketh the cedars - Very tall trees attract the lightning from the clouds, by which they are often torn to pieces. Woods and forests give dreadful proof of this after a thunderstorm.

### Verse 7

[¶10] Divideth the flames of fire - The forked zigzag lightning is the cause of thunder; and in a thunder-storm these liahtnings are variously dispersed, smiting houses, towers, trees, men, and cattle, in different places.

### Verse 8

[¶12] The wilderness of Kadesh - This was on the frontiers of Idumea and Paran. There may be a reference to some terrible thunder-storm and earthquake which had occurred in that place.

### Verse 9

[¶14] Maketh the hinds to calve - Strikes terror through all the tribes of animals; which sometimes occasions those which are pregnant to cast their young. This, I believe, to be the whole that is meant by the text. I meddle not with the fables which have been published on this subject both by ancients and moderns.

[¶15] Discovereth the forests - Makes them sometimes evident in the darliest night, by the sudden flash; and often by setting them on fire.

[¶16] And in his temple - Does this refer to the effect which a dreadful thunder-storm often produces? Multitudes run to places of worship as asylums in order to find safety, and pray to God. See on [Psa 29:2] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶18] The Lord sitteth upon the flood - יהוה למבול ישב Jehovah lammabbul yasheb, "Jehovah sat upon the deluge." It was Jehovah that commanded those waters to be upon the earth. He directed the storm; and is here represented, after all the confusion and tempest, as sitting on the floods, appeasing the fury of the jarring elements; and reducing all things, by his governing influence, to regularity and order.

[¶19] Sitteth king for ever - He governs universal nature; whatsoever he wills he does, in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, and in all deep places. Every phenomenon is under his government and control. There is something very like this in Virgil's description of Neptune appeasing the storm raised by Juno for the destruction of the fleet of Aeneas. See at the end of this Psalm.

### Verse 11

[¶21] The Lord will give strength - Prosperity in our secular affairs; success in our enterprises; and his blessing upon our fields and cattle.

[¶22] The Lord will bless his people with peace - Give them victory over their enemies, and cause the nations to be at peace with them; so that they shall enjoy uninterrupted prosperity. The plentiful rain which God has now sent is a foretaste of his future blessings and abundant mercies.

[¶23] In the note on [Psa 29:10] I have referred to the following description taken from Virgil. Did he borrow some of the chief ideas in it from the 29th Psalm? The reader will observe several coincidences.

[¶24] Interea magno misceri murmure pontum,

[¶25] Emissamque hyemem sensit Neptunus, et imis

[¶26] Stagna refusa vadis: graviter commotus, et alto

[¶27] Prospiciens, summa placidum caput extulit unda.

[¶28] Disjectam Aeneae toto videt aequore classem,

[¶29] Fluctibus oppressos Troas, coelique ruina.

[¶30] Eurum ad se zephyrumque vocat: dehinc talia fatur

[¶31] Sic ait: et dicto citius tumida aequora placat,

[¶32] Collectasque fugat nubes, solemque reducit.

[¶33] Cymothoe simul, et Triton adnixus acuto

[¶34] Detrudunt naves scopulo; levat ipse tridenti;

[¶35] Et vastas aperit syrtes, et temperat aequor,

[¶36] Atque rotis summas levibus perlabitur undas.

[¶37] Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam

[¶38] Prospiciens genitor, caeloque invectus aperto,

[¶39] Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo.

[¶40] Aen. lib. i., ver. 124. "Mean time, imperial Neptune heard the sound

[¶41] Of raging billows breaking on the ground.

[¶42] Displeased, and fearing for his watery reign,

[¶43] He rears his awful head above the main,

[¶44] Serene in majesty; then rolled his eyes

## 582. Psalms · 36 of 159

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[¶0] Around the space of earth, of seas, and skies.

[¶1] He saw the Trojan fleet dispersed, distressed,

[¶2] By stormy winds and wintry heaven oppressed.

[¶3] He summoned Eurus and the Western Blast,

[¶4] And first an angry glance on both he cast;

[¶5] Then thus rebuked.

[¶6] He spoke; and while he spoke, he soothed the sea,

[¶7] Dispelled the darkness, and restored the day.

[¶8] Cymothoe, Triton, and the sea-green train

[¶9] Of beauteous nymphs, and daughters of the main,

[¶10] Clear from the rocks the vessels with their hands;

[¶11] The god himself with ready trident stands,

[¶12] And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands;

[¶13] Then heaves them off the shoals: where'er he guides

[¶14] His finny coursers, and in triumph rides,

[¶15] The waves unruffle, and the sea subsides.

[¶16] So when the father of the flood appears,

[¶17] And o'er the seas his sovereign trident rears,

[¶18] Their fury fails: he skims the liquid plains

[¶19] High on his chariot; and with loosened reins,

[¶20] Majestic moves along, and awful peace maintains.

[¶21] Dryden.

[¶22] Our God, Jehovah, sitteth upon the flood: yea, Jehovah sitteth King for ever.

[¶23] The heathen god is drawn by his sea-horse, and assisted in his work by subaltern deities: Jehovah sits on the flood an everlasting Governor, ruling all things by his will, maintaining order, and dispensing strength and peace to his people. The description of the Roman poet is fine; that of the Hebrew poet, majestic and sublime.

### Introduction

[¶25] The psalmist returns thanks to God for deliverance from great danger, [Psa 30:1-3]. He calls upon the saints to give thanks to God at the remembrance of his holiness, because of his readiness to save, [Psa 30:4], [Psa 30:5]. He relates how his mind stood affected before this great trial and how soon an unexpected change took place, [Psa 30:6], [Psa 30:7]; mentions how, and in what terms, he prayed for mercy, [Psa 30:8-10]; shows how God heard and delivered him and the effect it had upon his mind, [Psa 30:11], [Psa 30:12].

[¶26] This Psalm or song is said to have been made or used at the dedication of the house of David, or rather the dedication of a house or temple; for the word David refers not to הבית habbayith, the house, but to מזמור mizmor, a Psalm. But what temple or house could this be? Some say, the temple built by Solomon; others refer it to the dedication of the second temple under Zerubbabel, and some think it intended for the dedication of a third temple, which is to be built in the days of the Messiah. There are others who confine it to the dedication of the house which David built for himself on Mount Sion, after he had taken Jerusalem from the Jebusites; or to the purgation and re-dedication of his own house, that had been defiled by the wicked conduct of his own son Absalom. Calmet supposes it to have been made by David on the dedication of the place which he built on the threshing floor of Araunah, after the grievous plague which had so nearly desolated the kingdom, [2Sam 24:25]; [1Chr 21:26]. All the parts of the Psalm agree to this: and they agree to this so well, and to no other hypothesis, that I feel myself justified in modelling the comment on this principle alone.

### Verse 1

[¶28] I will extol thee - for thou hast lifted me up - I will lift thee up, for thou hast lifted me up. Thou hast made me blessed, and I will make thee glorious. Thou hast magnified me in thy mercy; and I will show forth thy praise, and speak good of thy name.

[¶29] I have made some remarks on this Psalm in the Introduction.

[¶30] In this Psalm we find seven different states of mind distinctly marked: -

[¶31] 1. It is implied, in the first verse, that David had been in great distress, and nearly overwhelmed by his enemies.

[¶32] 2. He extols God for having lifted him up, and having preserved him from the cruelty of his adversaries, [Psa 30:1-3].

[¶33] 3. He is brought into great prosperity, trusts in what he had received, and forgets to depend wholly on the Lord, [Psa 30:4-6].

[¶34] 4. The Lord hides his face from him, and he is brought into great distress, [Psa 30:7].

[¶35] 5. He feels his loss, and makes earnest prayer and supplication, [Psa 30:8-10].

[¶36] 6. He is restored to the Divine favor, and filled with joy, [Psa 30:11].

[¶37] 7. He purposes to glory in God alone, and to trust in him for ever, [Psa 30:12].

[¶38] As it is impossible for any man to have passed through all these states at the same time; it is supposed that the Psalm, like many others of the same complexion, has been formed out of the memoranda of a diary. See this point illustrated in the Introduction.

[¶39] Thou hast lifted me up - Out of the pit into which I had fallen: the vain curiosity, and want of trust in God, that induced me to number the people. Bishop Horsley translates, Because thou hast depressed me. I thank God for my humiliation and afflictions, because they have been the means of teaching me lessons of great profit and importance.

### Verse 2

[¶41] Thou hast healed me - Thou hast removed the plague from my people by which they were perishing in thousands before my eyes.

### Verse 3

[¶43] Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave - I and my people were both about to be cut off, but thou hast spared us in mercy, and given us a most glorious respite.

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his - Ye priests, who wait upon him in his sanctuary, and whose business it is to offer prayers and sacrifices for the people, magnify him for the mercy he has now showed in staying this most destructive plague.

[¶2] Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness - "Be ye holy," saith the Lord, "for I am holy." He who can give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness, is one who loves holiness; who hates sin; who longs to be saved from it; and takes encouragement at the recollection of God's holiness, as he sees in this the holy nature which he is to share, and the perfection which he is here to attain. But most who call themselves Christians hate the doctrine of holiness; never hear it inculcated without pain; and the principal part of their studies, and those of their pastors, is to find out with how little holiness they can rationally expect to enter into the kingdom of God. O fatal and soul-destroying delusion! How long will a holy God suffer such abominable doctrines to pollute his Church, and destroy the souls of men?

### Verse 5

[¶4] For his anger endureth but a moment - There is an elegant abruptness in these words in the Hebrew text. This is the literal translation: "For a moment in his anger. Lives in his favor. In the evening weeping may lodge: but in the morning exultation." So good is God, that he cannot delight in either the depression or ruin of his creatures. When he afflicts, it is for our advantage, that we may be partakers of his holiness, and be not condemned with the world. If he be angry with us, it is but for a moment; but when we have recourse to him, and seek his face, his favor is soon obtained, and there are lives in that favor - the life that now is, and the life that is to come. When weeping comes, it is only to lodge for the evening; but singing will surely come in the morning. This description of God's slowness to anger, and readiness to save, is given by a man long and deeply acquainted with God as his Judge and as his Father.

### Verse 6

[¶6] In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved - Peace and prosperity had seduced the heart of David, and led him to suppose that his mountain - his dominion, stood so strong, that adversity could never affect him. He wished to know the physical and political strength of his kingdom; and, forgetting to depend upon God, he desired Joab to make a census of the people; which God punished in the manner related in 2 Samuel 24, and which he in this place appears to acknowledge.

### Verse 7

[¶8] Thou didst hide thy face - Thou didst show thyself displeased with me for my pride and forgetfulness of thee: and then I found how vainly I had trusted in an arm of flesh.

### Verse 8

[¶10] I cried to thee, O Lord - I found no help but in him against whom I had sinned. See his confession and prayer, [2Sam 24:17] (note).

[¶11] Made supplication - Continued to urge my suit; was instant in prayer.

### Verse 9

[¶13] What profit is there in my blood - My being cut off will not magnify thy mercy. Let not the sword, therefore, come against me. If spared and pardoned, I will declare thy truth; I will tell to all men what a merciful and gracious Lord I have found. Hear, therefore, O Lord; [Psa 30:10].

### Verse 11

[¶15] Thou hast turned - my mourning into dancing - Rather into piping. I have not prayed in vain. Though I deserved to be cut off from the land of the living, yet thou hast spared me, and the remnant of my people. Thou hast taken away my sackcloth, the emblem of my distress and misery, and girded me with gladness, when thou didst say to the destroying angel, when he stood over Jerusalem ready to destroy it: "It is enough, stay now thy hand;" [2Sam 24:16].

### Verse 12

[¶17] To the end that my glory may sing - The word כבוד cabod, which we here translate glory, is sometimes taken to signify the liver. Here it is supposed to mean the tongue; why not the heart? But does not David mean, by his glory, the state of exaltation and honor to which God had raised him, and in which he had before too much trusted; forgetting that he held it in a state of dependence on God? Now he was disciplined into a better sentiment. My glory before had sung praise to myself; in it I had rested; on it I had presumed; and intoxicated with my success, I sent Joab to number the people. Now my glory shall be employed for another purpose; it shall give thanks to God, and never be silent. I shall confess to all the world that all the good, the greatness, the honor, the wealth, prosperity, and excellence I possess, came from God alone, and that I hold them on his mere good pleasure. It is so; therefore, "O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever."

[¶18] The old Psalter translates and paraphrases the last verse thus: - That my joy syng til the, and I be noght stanged: Lord my God withouten ende I sal schryf til the. The dede and the sorrow of oure syn God turnes in til joy of remission; and scheres oway oure sekk-(drives away our distress) and umgyfs (surrounds) qwen we dye, with gladness. That oure joy syng til hym, that has gyfen us that joy; for we be "no more stanged" (stung) with conscience of syn: na drede of dede or of dome; bot withouten ende we sal loue (praise) him. Na tunge may telle na herte may thynk the mykelnes of joy that es in louing (praising) of hym in gast, and in sothfastnes," i.e., spirit and truth.

### Introduction

[¶20] The psalmist, with strong confidence in God, in a time of distress prays earnestly for deliverance, [Psa 31:1-5]. He expresses his abhorrence of evil, [Psa 31:6]; gratefully mentions former interpositions of God, [Psa 31:7], [Psa 31:8]; continues to detail the miseries of his case, [Psa 31:9-18]; points out the privileges of them that fear God, [Psa 31:19], [Psa 31:20]; shows that God had heard his prayers, notwithstanding he had given himself over for lost, [Psa 31:21], [Psa 31:22]; calls on the saints to love God, and to have confidence in him, because he preserves the faithful, and plentifully rewards the proud doer, [Psa 31:23], [Psa 31:24].

[¶21] This Psalm contains no notes of time or place, to help us to ascertain when, where, or on what account it was written. Nor have we any certain evidence relative to the author: it might have been written by David during his persecution by Saul. Some think Jeremiah to have been the author: the thirteenth verse begins exactly with the same words as [Jer 20:10]. There are several other apparent references to passages in the book of Jeremiah, which shall be produced in the notes.

### Verse 1

[¶23] In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust - I confide in thee for every good I need: let me not be confounded by not receiving the end of my faith, the supply of my wants, and the salvation of my soul.

### Verse 2

[¶25] Bow down thine ear - Listen to my complaint. Put thy ear to my lips, that thou mayest hear all that my feebleness is capable of uttering. We generally put our ear near to the lips of the sick and dying, that we may hear what they say. To this the text appears to allude.

[¶26] Strong rock - Rocks, rocky places, or caves in the rocks, were often strong places in the land of Judea. To such natural fortifications allusions are repeatedly made by the Hebrew poetic writers.

### Verse 4

[¶28] Pull me out of the net - They have hemmed me in on every side, and I cannot escape but by miracle.

### Verse 5

[¶30] Into thine hand I commit my spirit - These words, as they stand in the Vulgate, were in the highest credit among our ancestors; by whom they were used in all dangers, difficulties, and in the article of death. In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum, was used by the sick when about to expire, if they were sensible; and if not, the priest said it in their behalf. In forms of prayer for sick and dying persons, these words were frequently inserted in Latin, though all the rest of the prayer was English; for it was supposed there was something sovereign in the language itself. But let not the abuse of such words hinder their usefullness. For an ejaculation nothing can be better; and when the pious or the tempted with confidence use them, nothing can exceed their effect. "Into thy hands I commend my spirit; for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." I give my soul to thee, for it is thine: thou hast redeemed it by thy blood; it is safe nowhere but in thy hand. Thou hast promised to save them that trust in thee; thou art the God of truth, and canst not deny thyself. But these words are particularly sanctified, or set apart for this purpose, by the use made of them by our blessed Lord just before he expired on the cross. "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Πατερ, εις χειρας σου παρατιθεμαι το πνευμα μου· 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,'" [Luk 23:46]. The rest of the verse was not suitable to the Savior of the world, and therefore he omits it; but it is suitable to us who have been redeemed by that sacrificial death. St. Stephen uses nearly the same words, and they were the last that he uttered. [Act 7:59].

### Verse 6

[¶32] I have hated them - That is, I have abominated their ways. Idolaters are the persons of whom David speaks.

[¶33] I trust in the Lord - While they trust in vanities vain things; (for an idol is nothing in the worid); and in lying vanities; (for much is promised and nothing given); I trust in Jehovah, who is God all-sufficient, and is my Shepherd, and therefore I shall lack no good thing.

### Verse 7

[¶35] Thou hast known my soul in adversities - When all forsook me; when none could help me; when I could not save my own life; when my enemies were sure that I could not escape; then I found thee to be my Friend and Supporter. When friend, so called, finds it convenient not to know his friend in affliction and poverty, then thou didst acknowledge me as thine own, all worthless as I was. Human friendships may fail; but the Friend of sinners never fails. Cicero defines a real friend, Amicus certus in re incerta cernitor: "A friend in need is a friend indeed." Reader, such a Friend is the Lord.

### Verse 8

[¶37] Thou hast set my foot in a large room - Many hair-breadth escapes David had for his life; at that time especially when, playing before Saul, the furious king took a spear and endeavored to pierce him through the body, but he escaped and got to the deserts. Here God, who had saved his life, set his feet in a large room. The seventh and eighth verses speak of what God had done previously for him.

### Verse 9

[¶39] Mine eye is consumed - He now returns, and speaks of his present situation. Grief had brought many tears from his eyes, many agonies into his soul, and many distressful feelings into his whole frame.

[¶40] My soul and my belly - The belly is often taken for the whole body. But the term belly or bowels, in such as case as this, may be the most proper; for in distress and misery, the bowels being the most tender part, and in fact the very seat of compassion, they are often most affected. In Greek the word σπλαγχνον signifies a bowel, and σπλαγχνιζομαι signifies to be moved with compassion; to feel misery in the bowels at the sight of a person in pain and distress.

### Verse 10

[¶42] My life is spent with grief - My life is a life of suffering and distress, and by grief my days are shortened. Grief disturbs the functions of life, prevents the due concoction of food, injures the digestive organs, destroys appetite, impairs the nervous system, relaxes the muscles, induces morbid action in the animal economy, and hastens death. These effects are well expressed in the verse itself.

[¶43] My years with sighing - אנחה anachah. This is a mere natural expression of grief; the very sounds which proceed from a distressed mind; an-ach-ah! common, with little variation, to all nations, and nearly the same in all languages. The och-och-on of the Irish is precisely the same sound, and the same sense. Thousands of beauties or this kind are to be found in the sacred language.

### Verse 11

[¶45] I was a reproach - When proscribed at the court of Saul, my enemies triumphed, and loaded me with execrations; my neighbors considered me as a dangerous man, now deservedlJr driven from society; my acquaintance, who knew me best, were afraid to hold any communication with me; and they who saw me in my exile avoided me as if affected with a contagious disorder,

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### Verse 12

[¶1] I am forgotten as a dead man - I am considered as a person adjudged to death. I am like a broken vessel-like a thing totally useless.

### Verse 13

[¶3] I have heard the slander of many - To this and the two foregoing verses the reader may find several parallels; [Jer 18:18] to the end of [Jer 19:1-15]., and ten first verses of chapter 20: This has caused several to suppose that Jeremiah was the author of this Psalm.

### Verse 14

[¶5] But I trusted in thee - Hitherto thou hast been my Helper, and thou art my God; I have taken thee for my eternal portion.

### Verse 15

[¶7] My times are in thy hand - The events of my life are under thy control. No danger can happen to me without thy foresight; thou seest what is prepared for or meditated against me; thou canst therefore deliver me from mine enemies.

### Verse 16

[¶9] Make thy face to shine upon thy servant - Only let me know that thou art reconciled to and pleased with me, and then, come what will, all must be well.

[¶10] Save me for thy mercies' sake - Literally, Save me in thy mercy.

### Verse 17

[¶12] Let the wicked be ashamed - Those who traduce my character and lay snares for my life; let them be confounded.

### Verse 18

[¶14] Let the lying lips be put to silence - As to my enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices. See [Jer 18:18].

### Verse 19

[¶16] O how great is thy goodness - God's goodness is infinite; there is enough for all. enough for each, enough for evermore. It is laid up where neither devils nor men can reach it, and it is laid up for them that fear the Lord; therefore every one who trembles at his word, may expect all he needs from this Fountain that can never be dried ufp.

[¶17] Which thou hast wrought - Thou hast already prepared it; it is the work of thy own hands; thou hast provided it and proportioned it to the necessities of men, and all who trust in thee shall have it. And for them especially it is prepared who trust in thee before men - who boldly confess thee amidst a crooked and perverse generation.

### Verse 20

[¶19] Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence - בסתר פניך besether paneycha, "With the covering of thy countenance." Their life shall be so hidden with Christ in God, that their enemies shall not be able to find them out. To such a hiding-place Satan himself dare not approach. There the pride of man cannot come.

[¶20] Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion - Thou shalt put them in the innermost part of thy tent. This implies that they shall have much communion and union with God; that they shall be transformed into his likeness, and have his highest approbation.

### Verse 21

[¶22] In a strong city - If this Psalm was written by David, this must refer to his taking refuge with achish, king of Gath, who gave him Ziklag, a fortified city, to secure himself and followers in. See [1Sam 27:6]. This is more likely than that it was Keilah, where he only had intimation of the traitorous design of the inhabitants to deliver him up to Saul; so that the place was no refuge to him, howsoever fortified. Perhaps the passage may mean that, under the protection of God, he was as safe as if he had been in a fortified city.

### Verse 22

[¶24] I said in my haste - Not duly adverting to the promise of God, I was led to conclude that my enemies were so strong, so numerous, and had so many advantages against me, that I must necessarily fall into and by their hands; however, I continued to pray, and thou didst hear the voice of my supplication.

### Verse 23

[¶26] O love the Lord, all ye his saints - It is only the saints that can love God, as they only are made partakers of the Divine nature. Holy spirits can love God, who is the fountain of their holiness; and the saints should love him.

[¶27] Preserveth the faithful - Those who, being filled with the love of God, bring forth the fruits of that love - universal obedience to the will of God; for to such persons his commands are not grievous, their duty is their delight; while a man is faithful to the grace he has received, that is, uses and improves the talents with which God has intrusted him, God's service is perfect freedom.

[¶28] The proud doer - The man of the proud heart, haughty and supercilious carriage, and insulting and outrageous conduct. A proud man is peculiarly odious in the sight of God; and in the sight of reason how absurd! A sinner, a fallen spirit, an heir of wretchedness and corruption-proud!

[¶29] Proud of what? Of an indwelling devil! Well; such persons shall be plentifully rewarded. They shall get their due, their whole due, and nothing but their due.

### Verse 24

[¶31] Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart - In [1Cor 16:13], St. Paul says, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith; quit you like men; be strong:" Γρηγορειτε, στηκετε εν τῃ πιστει, ανδριζεσθε, κραταιουσθε. The latter words he seems to have borrowed from the Septuagint, who translate, "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart," by Ανδριζεσθε και κραταιουσθω ἡ καρδια ὑμων "Act like men, and your hearts shall be strengthened." They that hope in God, and are endeavoring to walk carefully before him, may take courage at all times, and expect the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace.

### Introduction

[¶33] True blessedness consists in remission of sin, and purification of the heart, [Psa 32:1], [Psa 32:2]. What the psalmist felt in seeking these blessings, [Psa 32:3-5]. How they should be sought, [Psa 32:6], [Psa 32:7]. The necessity of humility and teachableness, [Psa 32:8], [Psa 32:9]. The misery of the wicked, [Psa 32:10]. The blessedness of the righteous, [Psa 32:11].

[¶34] The title of this Psalm is significant, לדוד משכיל ledavid maskil, A Psalm of David, giving instruction, an instructive Psalm; so called by way of eminence, because it is calculated to give the highest instruction relative to the guilt of sin, and the blessedness of pardon and holiness or justification and sanctification. It is supposed to have been composed after David's transgression with Bath-sheba, and subsequently to his obtaining pardon. The Syriac entitles it, "A Psalm of David concerning the sin of Adam, who dared and transgressed; and a prophecy concerning Christ, because through him we are to be delivered from hell." The Arabic says, "David spoke this Psalm prophetically concerning the redemption." The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Ethiopic, are the same in meaning as the Hebrew.

### Verse 1

[¶36] Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven - In this and the following verse four evils are mentioned:

[¶37] 1. Transgression, פשע peshwa.

[¶38] 2. Sin, חטאה chataah.

[¶39] 3. Iniquity, עון avon.

[¶40] 4. Guile, רמיה remiyah.

[¶41] The first signifies the passing over a boundary, doing what is prohibited. The second signifies the missing of a mark, not doing what was commanded; but is often taken to express sinfulness, or sin in the future, producing transgression in the life. The third signifies what is turned out of its proper course or situation; any thing morally distorted or perverted. Iniquity, what is contrary to equity or justice. The fourth signifies fraud, deceit, guile, etc. To remove these evils, three acts are mentioned: forgiving, covering, and not imputing.

[¶42] 1. Transgression, פשע pesha, must be forgiven, נשוי nesui, borne away, i.e., by a vicarious sacrifice; for bearing sin, or bearing away sin, always implies this.

[¶43] 2. Sin, חטאה chataah, must be covered, כסוי kesui, hidden from the sight. It is odious and abominable, and must be put out of sight.

[¶44] 3. Iniquity, עון anon, which is perverse or distorted, must not be imputed, לא יחשב lo yachshob, must not be reckoned to his account.

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[¶0] 4. Guile, רמיה remiyah, must be annihilated from the soul: In whose spirit there is no Guile. The man whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is hidden, God having cast it as a millstone into the depths of the sea; whose iniquity and perversion is not reckoned to his account; and whose guile, the deceitful and desperately wicked heart, is annihilated, being emptied of sin and filled with righteousness, is necessarily a happy man.

[¶1] The old Psalter translates these two verses thus: Blissid qwas wikednes es for gyven, and qwas synnes is hyled (covered). Blisful man til qwam Lord retted (reckoneth) noght Syn: ne na treson es in his gast (spirit). In vain does any man look for or expect happiness while the power of sin remains, its guilt unpardoned, and its impurity not purged away. To the person who has got such blessings, we may say as the psalmist said, אשרי ashrey, O the blessedness of that man, whose transgression is forgiven! etc.

[¶2] St. Paul quotes this passage, [Rom 4:6-7] (note), to illustrate the doctrine of justification by faith; where see the notes.

### Verse 3

[¶4] When I kept silence - Before I humbled myself, and confessed my sin, my soul was under the deepest horror. "I roared all the day long;" and felt the hand of God heavy upon my soul.

### Verse 5

[¶6] I acknowledged my sin - When this confession was made thoroughly and sincerely, and I ceased to cover and extenuate my offense, then thou didst forgive the iniquity of my sin. I felt the hardness of heart: I felt the deep distress of soul; I felt power to confess and abhor my sin; I felt confidence in the mercy of the Lord; and I felt the forgiveness of the iniquity of my sin.

[¶7] Selah - This is all true; I know it; I felt it; I feel it.

### Verse 6

[¶9] For this shall every one that is godly - Because thou art merciful; because thou hast shown mercy to all who have truly turned to thee, and believed in thee; every one who fears thee, and hears of this, shall pray unto thee in an acceptable time, when thou mayest be found; in the time of finding. When the heart is softened and the conscience alarmed, that is a time of finding. God is ever ready; men are not so. Who can pray with a hard heart and a dark mind? While you feel relentings, pray.

[¶10] Surely in the floods - In violent trials, afflictions, and temptations; when the rains descend, the winds blow, and the floods beat against that godly man who prays and trusts in God; "they shall not come nigh him," so as to weaken his confidence or destroy his soul. His house is founded on a rock.

### Verse 7

[¶12] Thou art my hiding place - An allusion, probably, to the city of refuge: "Thou shalt preserve me from trouble." The avenger of blood shall not be able to overtake me. And being encompassed with an impregnable wall, I shall feel myself encompassed with songs of deliverance - I shall know that I am safe.

### Verse 8

[¶14] I will instruct thee - These are probably the Lord's words to David. Seeing thou art now sensible of the mercy thou hast received from me, and art purposing to live to my glory, I will give thee all the assistance requisite. I will become thy Instructor, "and will teach thee," in all occurrences, "the way thou shouldst go." I will keep mine eyes upon thee, and thou shalt keep thine upon me: as I go, thou must follow me; and I will continually watch for thy good.

### Verse 9

[¶16] Be ye not as the horse or as the mule - They will only act by force and constraint; be not like them; give a willing service to your Maker. "They have no understanding;" you have a rational soul, made to be guided and influenced by reason. The service of your God is a reasonable service; act, therefore, as a rational being. The horse and the mule are turned with difficulty; they must be constrained with bit and bridle. Do not be like them; do not oblige your Maker to have continual recourse to afflictions, trials, and severe dispensations of providence, to keep you in the way, or to recover you after you have gone out of it.

### Verse 10

[¶18] Many sorrows shall be to the wicked - Every wicked man is a miserable man. God has wedded sin and misery as strongly as he has holiness and happiness. God hath joined them together; none can put them asunder.

[¶19] But he that trusteth in the Lord - Such a person is both safe and happy.

### Verse 11

[¶21] Be glad - and rejoice - Let every righteous soul rejoice and glory, but let it be in the Lord. Man was made for happiness, but his happiness must be founded on holiness: and holiness, as it comes from God, must be retained by continual union with him. Probably this verse belongs to the next Psalm, and was originally its first verse.

### Introduction

[¶23] The Lord is praised for his works of creation, [Psa 33:1-9]; and for the stability of his own counsels, [Psa 33:10], [Psa 33:11]. The blessedness of the people who have the knowledge of the true God, his grace, and providence, [Psa 33:12-15]. The vanity of all earthly dependence, [Psa 33:16], [Psa 33:17]. The happiness of them that fear God, and trust in his mercy, [Psa 33:18-22].

[¶24] This Psalm has no title in the Hebrew and it was probably written on no particular occasion, but was intended as a hymn of praise in order to celebrate the power, wisdom, and mercy of God. Creation and providence are its principal subjects; and these lead the psalmist to glance at different parts of the ancient Jewish history. In eight of Kennicott's MSS., this Psalm is written as a part of the preceding.

### Verse 1

[¶26] Rejoice in the Lord - It is very likely that the last verse of the preceding Psalm was formerly the first verse of this. As this Psalm has no title, the verse was the more easily separated. In the preceding Psalm we have an account of the happiness of the justified man: in this, such are taught how to glorify God, and to praise him for the great things he had done for them.

[¶27] Praise is comely for the upright - It is right they should give thanks to Him, who is the fountain whence they have received all the good they possess and thankfulness becomes the lips of the upright.

### Verse 2

[¶29] Praise the Lord with harp - כנור kinnor; probably something like our harp: but Calmet thinks it the ancient testudo, or lyre with three strings.

[¶30] The psalter - נבל nebel. Our translation seems to make a third instrument in this place, by rendering עשור asor, an instrument of ten strings; whereas they should both be joined together, for נבל עשור nebel-asor signifies the nebal, or nabla, with ten strings, or holes. Calmet supposes this to have resembled our harp. In one of Kennicott's MSS., this Psalm begins with the second verse.

### Verse 3

[¶32] Sing unto him a new song - Do not wear out the old forms: fresh mercies call for new songs of praise and gratitude.

[¶33] Play skilfully with a loud noise - Let sense and sound accompany each other; let the style of the music be suited to the words. This skill is possessed by few singers. They can make a loud noise, but they cannot adapt sound to sense.

### Verse 4

[¶35] The word of the Lord is right - He is infinitely wise, and can make no mistakes; and all his works are done in truth. All the words, laws, promises, and threatenings of God are perfectly true and just. The dispensations of his providence and mercy are equally so. When he rewards or punishes, it is according to truth and justice.

### Verse 5

[¶37] He loveth righteousness - What he delights in himself, he loves to see in his followers.

[¶38] The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord - To hear its worthless inhabitants complain, one would think that God dispensed evil, not good. To examine the operation of his hand, every thing is marked with mercy and there is no place where his goodness does not appear. The overflowing kindness of God fills the earth. Even the iniquities of men are rarely a bar to his goodness: he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain upon the just and the unjust.

### Verse 6

[¶40] By the word of the Lord were the heavens made - This is illustrated in the [Psa 33:9] verse: "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." This evidently refers to the account of the creation, as it stands in the first chapter of Genesis.

### Verse 7

[¶42] He gathereth the waters of the sea together - He separated the water from the earth and, while the latter was collected into continents, islands, mountains, hills, and valleys, the former was collected into one place, and called seas; and by his all-controlling power and providence the waters have been retained in their place, so that they have not returned to drown the earth: and he has so adapted the solar and sonar influence exerted on the waters, that the tides are only raised to certain heights, so that they cannot overflow the shores, nor become dissipated in the atmospheric regions. In this one economy there is a whole circle of science. The quantity of matter in the sun, moon, and in the earth, are all adjusted to each other in this astonishing provision: the course of the moon, and the diurnal and annual revolutions of the earth, are all concerned here; and so concerned, that it requires some of the nicest of the Newtonian calculations to ascertain the laws by which the whole is affected.

### Verse 8

[¶44] Let all the earth fear the Lord - He who has thus bound, can unloose; he who has created, can destroy. He has promised life and prosperity only to the godly; let the ungodly stand in awe of him.

## 586. Psalms · 40 of 159

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/586/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/586/#p-N

### Verse 10

[¶1] The counsel of the heathen to naught - This appears to be similar to what is mentioned in the second Psalm; the useless attempts of the Gentiles to prevent the extension of the kingdom of Christ in the earth: and it may refer to similar attempts of ungodly nations or men to prevent the promulgation of the Gospel, and the universal dissemination of truth in the world.

### Verse 11

[¶3] The counsel of the Lord - What he has determined shall be done. He determined to make a world, and he made it; to create man, and he created him. He determined that at a certain period God should be manifested in the flesh, and it was so; that he should taste death for every man, and he did so; that his Gospel should be preached in all the world; and behold it has already nearly overrun the whole earth. All his other counsels and thoughts, which refer to the future, shall be accomplished in their times.

### Verse 12

[¶5] Blessed is the nation - O how happy is that nation which has יהוה Jehovah for its אלהים Elohim; the self-existent and eternal Lord for its covenant God; one who should unite himself to it by connections and ties the most powerful and endearing! The word אלהים Elohim, which we translate God, refers to that economy in which God is manifested in the flesh.

[¶6] The people whom he hath chosen - The Jews, who were elected to be his heritage, whom he preserved as such for two thousand years, and whom he has reprobated because of their unbelief and rebellion, and elected the Gentiles in their place.

### Verse 13

[¶8] The Lord looketh from heaven - This and the following verse seem to refer to God's providence. He sees all that is done in the earth, and his eye is on all the children of men.

### Verse 15

[¶10] He fashioneth their hearts alike - He forms their hearts in unity; he has formed them alike; they are all the works of his hands: and he has formed them with the same powers, faculties, passions, etc.; body and spirit having the same essential properties in every human being.

### Verse 16

[¶12] There is no king saved by the multitude of a host - Even in the midst of the most powerful and numerous army, no king is in safety unless he have God's protection. A king is but a man, and may as easily lose his life as one of his common soldiers.

[¶13] A mighty man is not delivered by much strength - There are times in which his might can be of no avail to him: and unless the mighty, the wise, the honorable, etc., have the protection of God, there is no time in which their might may not be turned into weakness, their wisdom into folly, and their dignity into disgrace.

### Verse 17

[¶15] A horse is a vain thing for safety - Even the horse, with all his fleetness, is no sure means of escape from danger: the lion or the tiger can overtake him or he may stumble, fall, and destroy his rider.

### Verse 18

[¶17] Behold, the eye of the Lord - Though all the above are unavailing, yet here is one thing that can never fail; "the eye of the Lord" - the watchful providence of the Most High, "is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy."

### Verse 19

[¶19] To deliver their soul from death - To watch over and protect them in all sudden dangers and emergencies, so that they shall not lose their Lives by any accident.

[¶20] And to keep them alive in famine - Not only prevent sudden death by an instantaneous interposition of my power, but keep them from a lingering death, by extraordinary supplies granted them in an extraordinary manner; because I am all in all, and all everywhere.

### Verse 20

[¶22] Our soul waiteth - Our whole life is employed in this blessed work; we trust in nothing but him; neither in multitudes of armed men, nor in natural strength, nor in the fleetest animals, nor in any thing human: we trust in Him alone "who is our help and our shield."

### Verse 21

[¶24] For our heart shall rejoice in him - Here is the fruit of our confidence: our souls are always happy, because we have taken God for our portion.

### Verse 22

[¶26] Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us - We cannot abide in this state unless upheld by thee; and, as we disclaim all merit, we seek for a continuance of thy mercy, and this we cannot expect but in a continual dependence on thee. "Let thy mercy, O Lord be upon us, according as we hope in thee."

### Introduction

[¶28] David praises God, and exhorts others to do the same, [Psa 34:1-3]; shows how he sought the Lord, and how he was found of him, [Psa 34:4-6]. All are exhorted to taste and see the goodness of God; with the assurance of support and comfort, [Psa 34:7-10]. He shows the way to attain happiness and long life, [Psa 34:11-16]; the privileges of the righteous, and of all who sincerely seek God, [Psa 34:17-22].

[¶29] The title states that this is "A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed." The history of this transaction may be found in [1Sam 21:1-15] (note), on which chapter see the notes. But Abimelech is not the person there mentioned; it was Achish, king of Gath, called here Abimelech, because that was a common name of the Philistine kings. Neither MS. nor version reads Achish in this place; and all the versions agree in the title as it stands in our version, except the Syriac, which states it to be "A Psalm of David, when he went to the house of the Lord, that he might give the first-fruits to the priests."

[¶30] Of the occasion of this Psalm, as stated here, I have given my opinion in the notes on [1Sam 21:1-15], to which I have nothing to add. On the whole I prefer the view taken of it by the Septuagint, which intimates that "David fell into an epileptic fit; that he frothed at the mouth, fell against the doorposts, and gave such unequivocal evidences of being subject to epileptic fits, and during the time his intellect became so much impaired, that Achish Abimelech dismissed him from his court." This saves the character of David; and if it cannot be vindicated in this way, then let it fall under reproach as to this thing; for hypocrisy, deceit, and falsehood, can never be right in the sight of God, whatever men may ingeniously say to excuse them.

[¶31] This is the second of the acrostic or alphabetical Psalms, each verse beginning with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But in this Psalm some derangement has taken place. The verse which begins with ו vau, and which should come in between the fifth and sixth, is totally wanting; and the twenty-second verse is entirely out of the series; it is, however, my opinion that this verse (the twenty-second) which now begins with פ phe, פודה podeh, redeemeth, was originally written ופודה vepodeh or with פדה padah, as more than a hundred of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. read it, thus making ופדה vepodah, "and will redeem" and this reads admirably in the above connection. I shall here place the verses at one view, and the reader shall judge for himself: [Psa 34:5] "They looked unto him, and were enlightened: and their faces were not ashamed." [Psa 34:22] "And the Lord will redeem the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate." [Psa 34:6] "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." [Psa 34:7] "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Thus we find the connection complete, with the above emendation.

### Verse 1

[¶33] I will bless the Lord at all times - He has laid me under endless obligation to him, and I will praise him while I have a being.

### Verse 2

[¶35] My soul shall make her boast - Shall set itself to praise the Lord - shall consider this its chief work.

[¶36] The humble - ענוים anavim, the afflicted, such as David had been.

### Verse 3

[¶38] Magnify the Lord with me - גדלו ליהוה gaddelu lavhovah, "make greatness to Jehovah;" show his greatness; and let "us exalt his name," let us show how high and glorious it is.

### Verse 4

[¶40] I sought the Lord - This is the reason and cause of his gratitude. I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me out of all my fears. This answers to the history; for when David heard what the servants of Achish said concerning him, "he laid up the words in his heart, and was greatly afraid," [1Sam 21:13]. To save him, God caused the epileptic fit to seize him; and, in consequence, he was dismissed by Achish, as one whose defection from his master, and union with the Philistines, could be of no use, and thus David's life and honor were preserved. The reader will see that I proceed on the ground laid down by the Septuagint. See before, [Psa 34:1] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶42] They looked unto him - Instead of הביטו hibbitu, they looked, several of Dr. Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have הביטו habbitu, with the point pathach, "Look ye."

[¶43] And their faces were not ashamed - Some MSS., and the Complutensian Polyglot, make this clause the beginning of a new verse and as it begins with a vau, ופניהם upheneyhem, "and their faces," they make it supply the place of the verse which appears to be lost; but see what is said in the introduction before the first verse.

## 587. Psalms · 41 of 159

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### Verse 6

[¶1] This poor man cried - זה עני zeh ani, "This afflicted man," David.

### Verse 7

[¶3] The angel of the Lord encampeth round - I should rather consider this angel in the light of a watchman going round his circuit, and having for the objects of his especial care such as fear the Lord.

### Verse 8

[¶5] O taste and see that the Lord is good - Apply to him by faith and prayer; plead his promises, he will fulfill them; and you shall know in consequence, that the Lord is good. God has put it in the power of every man to know whether the religion of the Bible be true or false. The promises relative to enjoyments in this life are the grand tests of Divine revelation. These must be fulfilled to all them who with deep repentance and true faith turn unto the Lord, if the revelation which contains them be of God. Let any man in this spirit approach his Maker, and plead the promises that are suited to his case, and he will soon know whether the doctrine be of God. He shall taste, and then see, that the Lord is good, and that the man is blessed who trusts in him. This is what is called experimental religion; the living, operative knowledge that a true believer has that he is passed from death unto life; that his sins are forgiven him for Christ's sake, the Spirit himself bearing witness with his spirit that he is a child of God. And, as long as he is faithful, he carries about with him the testimony of the Holy Ghost; and he knows that he is of God, by the Spirit which God has given him.

### Verse 9

[¶7] There is no want to them that fear him - He who truly fears God loves him; and he who loves God obeys him, and to him who fears, loves, and obeys God, there can be no want of things essential to his happiness, whether spiritual or temporal, for this life or for that which is to come. This verse is wanting in the Syriac.

### Verse 10

[¶9] The young lions do lack - Instead of כפירים kephirim, the young lions, one of Kennicott's MSS. has כבירים cabbirim, "powerful men." The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Syriac, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon have the same reading. Houbigant approves of this; and indeed the sense and connection seem to require it. My old Psalter reads: - The Ryche had nede; and thai hungerd: but sekand Lard sal noght be lessed of alle gode. That es, says the paraphrase, with outen lessyng thai sal have God; that es alle gode; for in God is al gode.

### Verse 11

[¶11] Come, ye children - All ye that are of an humble, teachable spirit.

[¶12] I will teach you the fear of the Lord - I shall introduce the translation and paraphrase from my old Psalter; and the rather because I believe there is a reference to that very improper and unholy method of teaching youth the system of heathen mythology before they are taught one sound lesson of true divinity, till at last their minds are imbued with heathenism, and the vicious conduct of gods, goddesses, and heroes, here very properly called tyrants, becomes the model of their own; and they are as heathenish without as they are heathenish within.

[¶13] Trans. Cummes sones heres me: bred of Lard I sal gou lere.

[¶14] Par - Cummes with trauth and luf: sones, qwam I gette in haly lere: heres me. With eres of hert. I sal lere you, noght the fabyls of poetes; na the storys of tyrauntz; bot the dred of oure Larde, that wyl bryng thou til the felaghschippe of aungels; and thar in is lyfe." I need not paraphrase this paraphrase, as it is plain enough.

### Verse 12

[¶16] What man is he that desireth life - He who wishes to live long and to live happily, let him act according to the following directions. For a comment upon this and the four ensuing verses, see the notes on [1Pet 3:10-12] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶18] The righteous cry - There is no word in the present Hebrew text for righteous; but all the versions preserve it. I suppose it was lost through its similitude to the word צעקו tsaaku, they cry צעקו צדיקים tsaaku tsaddikim, the righteous cry.

### Verse 18

[¶20] A broken heart - נשברי לב nishberey Web, the heart broken to shivers.

[¶21] A contrite spirit - דכאי רוח dakkeey ruach, "the beaten-out spirit." In both words the hammer is necessarily implied; in breaking to pieces the ore first, and then plating out the metal when it has been separated from the ore. This will call to the reader's remembrance [Jer 23:29] : "Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord? And like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" The breaking to shivers, and beating out, are metaphorical expressions: so are the hammer and the rock. What the large hammer struck on a rock by a powerful hand would do, so does the word of the Lord when struck on the sinner's heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. The broken heart, and the contrite spirit, are two essential characteristics of true repentance.

### Verse 19

[¶23] Many are the afflictions of the righteous - No commander would do justice to a brave and skillful soldier, by refusing him opporbunities to put his skill and bravery to proof by combating with the adversary; or by preventing him from taking the post of danger when necessity required it. The righteous are God's soldiers. He suffers them to be tried, and sometimes to enter into the hottest of the battle and in their victory the power and influence of the grace of God is shown, as well as their faithfulness.

[¶24] Delivereth him out of them all - He may well combat heartily, who knows that if he fight in the Lord, he shall necessarily be the conqueror.

### Verse 20

[¶26] He keepeth all his bones - He takes care of his life; and if he have scars, they are honorable ones.

### Verse 21

[¶28] Evil shall slay the wicked - The very thing in which they delight shall become their bane and their ruin.

[¶29] They that hate the righteous - All persecutors of God's people shall be followed by the chilling blast of God's displeasure in this world; and if they repent not, shall perish everlastingly.

### Verse 22

[¶31] The Lord redeemeth - Both the life and soul of God's followers are ever in danger but God is continually redeeming both.

[¶32] Shall be desolate - Literally, shall be guilty. They shall be preserved from sin, and neither forfeit life nor soul. This verse probably should come in after the fifth. See the introduction to this Psalm.

### Introduction

[¶34] The psalmist, in great straits, prays for his personal safety, [Psa 35:1-3]; and for the confusion of his enemies, [Psa 35:4-8]; expresses has confidence in God, [Psa 35:9], [Psa 35:10]; mentions his kindness to those who had rewarded him evil for his good, [Psa 35:11-16]; appeals to God against them, [Psa 35:17-26]; prays for those who befriended him; and praises God for his goodness, [Psa 35:27], [Psa 35:28].

[¶35] There is nothing in the title worthy of remark. The Psalm is simply attributed to David, and was most probably of his composing; and refers to the time of his persecution by Saui and his courtiers. The Syriac says it was composed when the Idumeans attacked David. The Arabic says it is a prophecy concerning the incarnation, and concerning the things practiced against Jeremiah by the people. Some think that our Lord's sufferings are particularly pointed out here; and Bishop Horsley thinks that [Psa 35:11-16] apply more literally and exactly to Christ than to any other whomsoever.

### Verse 1

[¶37] Plead my cause, O Lord - Literally, Contend, Lord, with then that contend with me. The word is often used in a forensic or law sense.

### Verse 2

[¶39] Take hold of shield and buckler - Let them be discomfited in battle who are striving to destroy my life. It is by the shield and buckler of others, not any of his own that God overthrows the enemies of his people. This is spoken merely after the manner of men.

### Verse 3

[¶41] Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation - Give me an assurance that thou wilt defend both body and soul against my adversaries.

### Verse 4

[¶43] Let then be confounded - Let none of their projects or devices against me succeed. Blast all their designs.

[¶44] The imprecations in these verses against enemies are all legitimate. They are not against the souls or eternal welfare of those sinners, but against their schemes and plans for destroying the life of an innocent man; and the holiest Christian may offer up such prayers against his adversaries. If a man aim a blow at another with a design to take away his life, and the blow would infallibly be mortal if it took place, and the person about to be slain see that by breaking the arm of his adversary he may prevent his own death, and thus save his enemy from actual murder; it is his duty to prevent this double evil by breaking the arm of the blood-thirsty man. It is on this principle that David prays against his adversaries in the first eight verses of this Psalm.

## 588. Psalms · 42 of 159

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Let the angel of the Lord chase them - By angel we may either understand one of those spirits, whether good or bad, commonly thus denominated, or any thing used by God himself as the instrument of their confusion.

### Verse 6

[¶3] Let their way be dark - Let them lose their way, be entangled in morasses and thickets, and be confounded in all their attempts to injure me. All these phrases are military; and relate to ambushes, hidden snares, forced marches in order to surprise, and stratagems of different kinds.

### Verse 7

[¶5] For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit - The word שחת shachath, a pit, belongs to the second member of this verse, and the whole should be read thus: For without a cause they have hidden for me their net, without a cause they have digged a pit for my life. They have used every degree and species of cunning and deceit to ruin me.

### Verse 8

[¶7] Let his net that he hath hid - See the notes on [Psa 7:15], [Psa 7:16].

### Verse 9

[¶9] My soul - My life, thus saved: -

[¶10] Shall be joyful in the Lord - I am so circumstanced at present as to be in the utmost danger of being destroyed by my foes; if I escape, it must be by the strong arm of the Lord; and to him shall the glory be given.

### Verse 10

[¶12] All my bones shall say - My life being preserved, all the members of my body shall magnify thy saving mercy.

[¶13] Deliverest the poor - This is a general maxim: God is peculiarly mindful of the poor. Where secular advantages are withheld, there is the more need for spiritual help. God considers this, and his kind providence works accordingly.

### Verse 11

[¶15] False witnesses did rise up - There is no doubt that several of this kind were found to depose against the life of David; and we know that the wicked Jews employed such against the life of Christ. See [Mat 26:59], [Mat 26:60].

[¶16] They laid to my charge things that I knew not - They produced the most unfounded charges; things of which I had never before heard.

### Verse 12

[¶18] To the spoiling of my soul - To destroy my life; so נפש nephesh should be translated in a multitude of places, where our translators have used the word soul.

### Verse 13

[¶20] When they were sick - This might refer to the case of Absalom, who was much beloved of his father, and for whose life and prosperity he no doubt often prayed, wept, and fasted.

[¶21] My prayer returned into mine own bosom - Though from the wayward and profligate life they led, they did not profit by my prayers, yet God did not permit me to pray in vain. They were like alms given to the miserable for God's sake, who takes care to return to the merciful man tenfold into his bosom. The bosom is not only the place where the Asiatics carry their purses, but also where they carry any thing that is given to them.

### Verse 14

[¶23] Mourneth for his mother - כאבל אם caabel em, as a mourning mother. How expressive is this word!

### Verse 15

[¶25] But in mine adversity they reioiced - How David was mocked and insulted in the case of Absalom's rebellion by Shimei and others, is well known.

[¶26] The abjects - נכים nechim, the smiters, probably hired assassins. They were everywhere lying in wait, to take away my life.

### Verse 16

[¶28] With hypocritical mockers in feasts - These verses seem to be prophetic of the treatment of Christ. They did tear me, and I knew it not. They blindfolded and buffeted him; they placed him in such circumstances as not to be able to discern who insulted him, except by a supernatural knowledge. With hypocritical mockers in feasts may also relate prophetically to our Lord's sufferings. Herod clothed him in a purple robe, put a reed in his hand for a scepter, bowed the knee before him, and set him at naught. Here their hypocritical conduct (pretending one thing while they meant another) was manifest, and possibly; this occurred at one of Herod's feasts.

### Verse 17

[¶30] My darling - יחידתי yechidathi, my only one, [Psa 22:20]. My united one, or He that is alone. Perhaps this may relate to Christ. See the note on [Psa 22:20].

### Verse 18

[¶32] I will give thee thanks in the great congregation - I hope to be able to attend at the tabernacle with thy followers, and there publicly express my gratitude for the deliverance thou hast given me.

### Verse 19

[¶34] That are mine enemies - Saul and his courtiers.

### Verse 21

[¶36] They opened their mouth wide - Gaped upon me to express their contempt.

[¶37] And said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it - They said, האח האח heach, heach, the last syllable in each word being a protracted strongly guttural sound, marking insult and triumph at the same time. It is the word which we translate Ah, [Psa 35:25].

### Verse 22

[¶39] This thou hast seen - I have no need to adduce evidences of these wrongs; thou, to whom I appeal, hast seen them. Therefore,

### Verse 23

[¶41] Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment - I have delivered my cause into thy hand, and appeal to thee as my Judge; and by thy decision I am most willing to abide.

### Verse 24

[¶43] Judge me, O Lord my God - The manner of his appeal shows the strong confidence he had in his own innocence.

### Verse 25

[¶45] Swallowed him up - בלענוהו billaanuhu, we have gulped him down.

## 589. Psalms · 43 of 159

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### Verse 26

[¶1] Let them be ashamed - This may be a prophetic declaration against Saul and his courtiers. They were ashamed, confounded, clothed with shame, and dishonored. All these took place in Saul's last battle with the Philistines, where he lost his crown and his life, and came to a most dishonorable end.

### Verse 27

[¶3] Let them shout for joy and be glad - While my enemies are confounded, let my friends exult in the Lord; and let them all praise him for his marvellous kindness to me.

### Verse 28

[¶5] And my tongue shall speak - I, who am chiefly concerned, and who have received most, am under the greatest obligation; and it will require the constant gratitude and obedience of my whole life to discharge the mighty debt I owe.

### Introduction

[¶7] The miserable state of the wicked, [Psa 36:1-4]. The excellence of God's mercy in itself, and to his followers, [Psa 36:5-9]. He prays for the upright, [Psa 36:10]; for himself that he may be saved from pride and violence, [Psa 36:11]; and shows the end of the workers of iniquity, [Psa 36:12].

[¶8] The title in the Hebrew is, To the conqueror to the servant of Jehovah, to David. The Syriac and Arabic suppose it to have been composed on occasion of Saul's persecution of David. Calmet supposes, on good grounds, that it was written during the Babylonish captivity. It is one of the finest Psalms in the whole collection.

### Verse 1

[¶10] The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart - It is difficult to make any sense of this line as it now stands. How can the transgression of the wicked speak with in my heart? But instead of לבי libbi, My heart, four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have לבו libbo, His heart. "The speech of transgression to the wicked is in the midst of his heart." "There is no fear of God before his eyes." It is not by example that such a person sins; the fountain that sends forth the impure streams is in his own heart. There the spirit of transgression lives and reigns; and, as he has no knowledge of God, so he has no fear of God; therefore, there is no check to his wicked propensities: all come to full effect. Lust is conceived, sin is brought forth vigorously, and transgression is multiplied. The reading above proposed, and which should be adopted, is supported by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. This latter reads the sentence thus: which I shall give as nearly as possible in the order of the original. "Quoth the unrightwise, that he do guilt in himself: is not fear God's at fore eyes his." That is, The unrighteous man saith in himself that he will sin: God's fear is not before his eyes. The old Psalter, in language as well as meaning, comes very near to the Anglo-Saxon: The unrightwis saide that he trespas in hym self: the drede of God es noght before his een. And thus it paraphrases the passage: The unryghtwis, that es the kynde [the whole generation] of wyked men; said in hym self, qwar man sees noght; that he trespas, that es, he synne at his wil, als [as if] God roght noght [did not care] qwat he did; and so it es sene, that the drede of God es noght by forehis een; for if he dred God, he durst noght so say."

[¶11] I believe these versions give the true sense of the passage. The psalmist here paints the true state of the Babylonians: they were idolaters of the grossest kind, and worked iniquity with greediness. The account we have in the book of Daniel of this people, exhibits them in the worst light; and profane history confirms the account. Bishop Horsley thinks that the word פשע pesha, which we render transgression, signifies the apostate or devil. The devil says to the wicked, within his heart, There is no fear; i.e., no cause of fear: "God is not before his eyes." Placing the colon after fear takes away all ambiguity in connection with the reading His heart, already contended for. The principle of transgression, sin in the heart, says, or suggests to every sinner, there is no cause for fear: go on, do not fear, for there is no danger. He obeys this suggestion, goes on, and acts wickedly, as "God is not before his eyes."

### Verse 2

[¶13] For he flattereth himself - He is ruled by the suggestion already mentioned; endeavours to persuade himself that he may safely follow the propensities of his own heart, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. He sins so boldly, that at last he becomes detestable. Some think the words should be thus understood: "He smootheth over in his own eyes with respect to the finding out of his iniquity, to hate it. That is, he sets such a false gloss in his own eyes upon his worst actions, that he never finds out the blackness of his iniquity; which were it perceived by him, would be hateful even to himself." - Bishop Horsley.

### Verse 3

[¶15] The words of his mouth are iniquity - In the principle; and deceit calculated to pervert others, and lead them astray.

[¶16] He hath left off to be wise, and to do good - His heart is become foolish, and his actions wicked. He has cut off the connection between himself and all righteousness.

### Verse 4

[¶18] He deviseth mischief upon his bed - He seeks the silent and undisturbed watches of the night, in order to fix his plans of wickedness.

[¶19] He setteth himself - Having laid his plans he fixes his purpose to do what is bad; and he does it without any checks of conscience or abhorrence of evil. He is bent only on mischief, and lost to all sense of God and goodness. A finished character of a perfect sinner.

### Verse 5

[¶21] Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens - That is, thou art abundant, infinite in thy mercy; else such transgressors must be immediately cut off; but thy long-suffering is intended to lead them to repentance.

[¶22] Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds - עד שחקים ad shechakim, to the eternal regions; above all visible space. God's faithfulness binds him to fulfill the promises and covenants made by his mercy. Blessings from the heavens, from the clouds, from the earth, are promised by God to his followers; and his faithfullness is in all those places, to distribute to his followers the mercies he has promised.

### Verse 6

[¶24] Thy righteousness is like the great mountains - כהררי אל keharerey El, like the mountains of God; exceeding high mountains; what, in the present language of geology, would be called primitive mountains, those that were formed at the beginning; and are not the effects of earthquakes or inundations, as secondary and alluvial mountains are supposed to be.

[¶25] Thy judgments are a great deep - תהום רבה tehom rabbah, the great abyss; as incomprehensible as the great chaos, or first matter of all things which God created in the beginning, and which is mentioned [Gen 1:2], and darkness was on the face, תהום tehom, of the deep, the vast profound, or what is below all conjecturable profundity. How astonishing are the thoughts in these two verses! What an idea do they give us of the mercy, truth, righteousness, and judgments of God!

[¶26] The old Psalter, in paraphrasing mountains of God, says, Thi ryghtwisnes, that es, ryghtwis men, er gastly hilles of God; for that er hee in contemplacioun, and soner resayves the lyght of Crist. Here is a metaphor taken from the tops of mountains and high hills first catching the rays of the rising sun. "Righteous men are spiritual hills of God; for they are high in contemplation, and sooner receive the light of Christ." It is really a very fine thought; and much beyond the rudeness of the times in which this Psalter was written.

[¶27] Man and beast - Doth God take care of cattle? Yes, he appoints the lions their food, and hears the cry of the young ravens; and will he not provide for the poor, especially the poor of his people? He will. So infinitely and intensely good is the nature of God, that it is his delight to make all his creatures happy. He preserves the man, and he preserves the beast; and it is his providence which supplies the man, when his propensities and actions level him with the beasts that perish.

### Verse 7

[¶29] How excellent is thy loving-kindness - He asks the question in the way of admiration; but expects no answer from angels or men. It is indescribably excellent, abundant, and free; and, "therefore, the children of Adam put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." They trust in thy good providence for the supply of their bodies; they trust in thy mercy for the salvation of their souls. These, speaking after the figure, are the two wings of the Divine goodness, under which the children of men take refuge. The allusion may be to the wings of the cherubim, above the mercy-seat.

### Verse 8

[¶31] They shall be abundantly satisfied - ירוין yirveyun, they shall be saturated, as a thirsty field is by showers from heaven. Inebriaduntur, they shall be inebriated - Vulgate. That sal be drunken of the plenteuoste of thi house. - Old Psalter. This refers to the joyous expectation they had of being restored to their own land, and to the ordinances of the temple.

[¶32] Of the river of thy pleasures - נחל אדניך nachal adaneycha, (or עדנך edencha, as in four MSS)., the river of thy Eden. They shall be restored to their paradisaical estate; for here is a reference to the river that ran through the garden of Eden, and watered it; [Gen 2:10]. Or the temple, and under it the Christian Church, may be compared to this Eden; and the gracious influences of God to be had in his ordinances, to the streams by which that garden was watered, and its fertility promoted.

### Verse 9

[¶34] For with thee is the fountain of life - This, in Scripture phrase, may signify a spring of water; for such was called among the Jews living water, to distinguish it from ponds, tanks, and reservoirs, that were supplied by water either received from the clouds, or conducted into them by pipes and streams from other quarters. But there seems to be a higher allusion in the sacred text. כי עמך מקור חיים ki immecha mekor chaiyim, "For with thee is the vein of lives." Does not this allude to the great aorta, which, receiving the blood from the heart, distributes it by the arteries to every part of the human body, whence it is conducted back to the heart by means of the veins. As the heart, by means of the great aorta, distributes the blood to the remotest parts of the body; so, God, by Christ Jesus, conveys the life-giving streams of his providential goodness to all the worlds and beings he has created, and the influences of his grace and mercy to every soul that has sinned. All spiritual and temporal good comes from Him, the Father, through Him, the Son, to every part of the creation of God.

[¶35] In thy light shall we see light - No man can illuminate his own soul; all understanding must come from above. Here the metaphor is changed, and God is compared to the sun in the firmament of heaven, that gives light to all the planets and their inhabitants. "God said, Let there be light; and there was light; "by that light the eye of man was enabled to behold the various works of God, and the beauties of creation: so, when God speaks light into the dark heart of man, he not only beholds his own deformity and need of the salvation of God, but he beholds the "light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;" "God, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." "In thy light shall we see light." This is literally true, both in a spiritual and philosophical sense.

### Verse 10

[¶37] O continue thy loving-kindness - Literally, "Draw out thy mercy." The allusion to the spring is still kept up.

[¶38] Unto them that know thee - To them who acknowledge thee in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

[¶39] And thy righteousness - That grace which justifies the ungodly, and sanctifies the unholy.

[¶40] To the upriabt in heart - לישרי לב levishrey leb, to the straight of heart; to those who have but one end in view, and one aim to that end.

[¶41] This is true of every genuine penitent, and of every true believer.

### Verse 11

[¶43] Let not the foot of pride come against me - Let me not be trampled under foot by proud and haughty men.

[¶44] Let not the hand of the wicked remove me - תנדני tenideni, shake me, or cause me to wander. Both these verses may have immediate respect to the captives in Babylon. The Jews were, when compared with the Babylonians, the people that knew God; for in Jewry was God known, [Psa 76:1]; and the psalmist prays against the treatment which the Jews had received from the proud and insolent Babylonians during the seventy years of their captivity: "Restore us to our own land; and let not the proud foot or the violent hand ever remove us from our country and its blessings; the temple, and its ordinances."

## 590. Psalms · 44 of 159

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### Verse 12

[¶1] There are the workers of iniquity fallen - There, in Babylon, are the workers of iniquity fallen, and so cast down that they shall not be able to rise. A prophecy of the destruction of the Babylonish empire by Cyrus. That it was destroyed, is an historical fact; that they were never able to recover their liberty, is also a fact; and that Babylon itself is now blotted out of the map of the universe, so that the site of it is no longer known, is confirmed by every traveler who has passed over those regions.

[¶2] The word שם sham, There, has been applied by many of the fathers to the pride spoken of in the preceding verse. There, in or by pride, says Augustine, do all sinners perish. There, in heaven, have the evil angels fallen through pride, says St. Jerome. There, in paradise, have our first parents fallen, through pride and disobedience. There, in hell, have the proud and disobedient angels been precipitated - Eusebius, etc. There, by pride, have the persecutors brought God's judgments upon themselves. See Calmet. But the first interpretation is the best.

### Introduction

[¶4] Godly directions for those who are in adversity not to envy the prosperity of the wicked, because it is superficial, and of short duration, vv. 1-22; to put their confidence in God, and live to his glory, as this is the sure way to be happy in this life, and in that which is to come, vv. 23-40.

[¶5] In the title this Psalm is attributed to David by the Hebrew, and by most of the Versions: but it is more likely it was intended as an instructive and consoling ode for the captives in Babylon, who might feel themselves severely tempted when they saw those idolaters in prosperity; and themselves, who worshipped the true God, in affliction and slavery. They are comforted with the prospect of speedy deliverance; and their return to their own land is predicted in not less than ten different places in this Psalm.

[¶6] This Psalm is one of the acrostic or alphabetical kind: but it differs from those we have already seen, in having two verses under each letter; the first only exhibiting the alphabetical letter consecutively. There are a few anomalies in the Psalm. The hemistich, which should begin with the letter ע ain, has now a ל lamed prefixed to the word with which it begins, לעולם leolam; and the hemistich which should begin with ת tau ([Psa 37:39]) has now a ו vau prefixed, ותשועת utheshuath. It appears also that the letters ד daleth, כ caph, and ק koph, have each lost a hemistich; and ע ain, half a one. The manner ill which this Psalm is printed in Dr. Kennicott's Hebrew Bible gives a full view of all these particulars. To the English reader some slighter differences may appear; but it should be observed, that the verses in our English Bibles are not always divided as those in the Hebrew. In all the Psalms that have a title, the title forms the first verse in the Hebrew; but our translation does not acknowledge any of those titles as a part of the Psalm, and very properly leaves them out of the enumeration of the verses.

### Verse 1

[¶8] Fret not thyself because of evil doers - It is as foolish as it is wicked to repine or be envious at the prosperity of others. Whether they are godly or ungodly, it is God who is the dispenser of the bounty they enjoy; and, most assuredly, he has a right to do what he will with his own. To be envious in such a case, is to arraign the providence of God. And it is no small condescension in the Almighty to reason with such persons as he does in this Psalm.

### Verse 2

[¶10] For they shall soon be cut down - They have their portion in this life; and their enjoyment of it cannot be long, for their breath is but a vapor that speedily vanishes away. They fall before death, as the greensward does before the scythe of the mower.

### Verse 3

[¶12] Dwell in the land - Do not flee to foreign climes to escape from that providence which, for thy own good, denies thee affluence in thy own country.

[¶13] And verily thou shalt be fed - God will provide for thee the necessaries of life: its conveniences might damp thy intellect in its inventions, and lead thee into idleness; and its superfluities would induce thee to pamper thy passions till the concerns of thy soul would be absorbed in those of the flesh and, after having lived an animal life, thou mightest die without God, and perish everlastingly.

[¶14] The original, ורעה אמונה ureeh emunah, might be translated, "and feed by faith." The Septuagint has και ποιμανθησῃ επι τῳ πλουτῳ αυτης, and thou shalt feed upon its riches. The Vulgate Ethiopic, and Arabic, are the same. The Syriac, seek faith. The Chaldee, be strong in the faith. The Anglo-Saxon, and feeded thou shalt be in its welfare. Old Psalter, and thu sal be fed in ryches of it. But it is probable that אמונה emunah here signifies security. And thou shalt be fed in security.

[¶15] Dr. Delaney supposed that the Psalm might have been written by David in the behalf of Mephibosheth, who, being falsely aecused by his servant Ziba, had formed the resolution to leave a land where he had met with such bad treatment. David, being convinced of his innocence, entreats him to dwell in the land, with the assurance of plenty and protection. It is more likely that it is addressed to the captives in Babylon; and contains the promise that they shall return to their own land, and again enjoy peace and plenty.

### Verse 4

[¶17] Delight thyself also in the Lord - Expect all thy happiness from him, and seek it in him.

[¶18] The desires of thine heart - משאלות mishaloth, the petitions. The godly man never indulges a desire which he cannot form into a prayer to God.

### Verse 5

[¶20] Commit thy way unto the Lord - גול על יהוה gol al Yehovah, Roll thy way upon the Lord: probably, a metaphor taken from the camel, who lies down till his load be rolled upon him.

[¶21] He shall bring it to pass - יעשה yaaseh, "He will work." Trust God, and he will work for thee.

### Verse 6

[¶23] Thy righteousness as the light - As God said in the beginning, "Let there be light, and there was light;" so he shall say, Let thy innocence appear, and it will appear as suddenly and as evident as the light was at the beginning.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Rest in the Lord - דום dom, "be silent, be dumb." Do not find fault with thy Maker; he does all things well for others, he will do all things well for thee.

[¶26] And wait patiently for him - והתחולל לו vehithcholel lo, and set thyself to expect him; and be determined to expect, or wait for him. Such is the import of a verb in the hithpoel conjugation.

[¶27] A heathen gives good advice on a similar subject: -

[¶28] Nil ergo optabunt homines? Si consilium vis,

[¶29] Permittes ipsis expendere Numinibus, quid

[¶30] Conveniat nobis, rebusque sit utile nostris.

[¶31] Nam pro jucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt Di.

[¶32] Carior est illis homo, quam sibi.

[¶33] Juv. Sat. 10:346. "What then remains? Are we deprived of will?

[¶34] Must we not wish, for fear of wishing ill?

[¶35] Receive my counsel, and securely move;

[¶36] Intrust thy pastime to the powers above.

[¶37] Leave them to manage for thee, and to grant

[¶38] What their unerring wisdom sees thee want.

[¶39] In goodness, as in greatness, they excel:

[¶40] Ah, that we loved ourselves but half so well!"

[¶41] Dryden.

### Verse 9

[¶43] They shall inherit the earth - The word ארץ arets, throughout this Psalm, should be translated land, not earth; for it is most probable that it refers to the land of Judea; and in this verse there is a promise of their return thither.

## 591. Psalms · 45 of 159

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### Verse 10

[¶1] For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be - A prediction of the destruction of Babylon. This empire was now in its splendor; and the captives lived to see it totally overturned by Cyrus, so that even the shadow of its power did not remain.

[¶2] Thou shalt diligently consider his place - ואיננו veeynennu, and he is not. The ruler is killed; the city is taken; and the whole empire is overthrown, in one night! And now even the place where Babylon stood cannot be ascertained.

### Verse 11

[¶4] But the meek - ענוים anavim, the afflicted, the poor Jewish captives.

[¶5] Shall inherit the earth - ארץ arets, the land of Judea given by God himself as an inheritance to their fathers, and to their posterity for ever. See [Psa 37:9].

### Verse 13

[¶7] He seeth that his day is coming - The utter desolation of your oppressors is at hand. All this may be said of every wicked man.

### Verse 14

[¶9] The wicked have drawn out the sword - There is an irreconcilable enmity in the souls of sinners against the godly; and there is much evidence that the idolatrous Babylonians whetted their tongue like a sword, and shot out their arrows, even bitter words, to malign the poor captives, and to insult them in every possible way.

### Verse 15

[¶11] Their sword shall enter into their own heart - All their execrations and maledictions shall fall upon themselves, and their power to do mischief shall be broken.

### Verse 16

[¶13] A little that a righteous man hath - This is a solid maxim.

[¶14] Whatever a good man has, has God's blessing in it; even the blessings of the wicked are cursed.

### Verse 17

[¶16] The arms of the wicked - Their power to do evil. Of this they are often deprived. Talents lent and abused shall be resumed, and the misuser called to a severe account by the Lord of the talents.

### Verse 18

[¶18] The Lord knoweth the days of the upright - He is acquainted with all his circumstances, severings, and ability to bear them; and he will either shorten his trials or increase his power. The Lord also approves of the man and his concerns; and his inheritance shall be for ever. He shall have God for his portion, here and hereafter. This is probably another indirect promise to the captives that they shall be restored to their own land. See [Psa 37:11].

### Verse 19

[¶20] They shall not be ashamed - They have expressed strong confidence in the Lord; and he shall so work in their behalf that their enemies shall never be able to say, "Ye have trusted in your God, and yet your enemies have prevailed over you." No; for even in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

### Verse 20

[¶22] The enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs - This verse has given the critics some trouble. Several of the Versions read thus: "But the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they are exalted to honor, shall vanish; like smoke they vanish." If we follow the Hebreto, it intimates that they shall consume as the fat of lambs. That is, as the fat is wholly consumed in sacrifices by the fire on the altar, so shall they consume away in the fire of God's wrath.

### Verse 21

[¶24] The wicked borroweth - Is often reduced to penury, and is obliged to become debtor to those whom he before despised.

[¶25] And payeth not again - May refuse to do it, because he is a wicked man; or be unable to do it, because he is reduced to beggary.

[¶26] But the righteous showeth mercy - Because he has received mercy from God, therefore he shows mercy to men. And even to his enemies he showeth mercy, and giveth; his heart being disposed to it by the influence of Divine grace and his hand being enabled to do it by the blessing of God's providence.

### Verse 22

[¶28] Shall inherit the earth - ארץ arets the land, as before. See [Psa 37:11].

[¶29] Shall be cut off - A wicked Jew shall meet with the same fate as a wicked Babylonian; and a wicked Christian shall fare no better.

### Verse 23

[¶31] The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord - There is nothing for good in the text. גבר geber is the original word, and it properly signifies a strong man, a conqueror or hero; and it appears to be used here to show, that even the most powerful must be supported by the Lord, otherwise their strength and courage will be of little avail.

[¶32] And he delighteth in his way - When his steps are ordered by the Lord, he delighteth in his way, because it is that into which his own good Spirit has directed him. Or, the man delights in God's way - in the law and testimonies of his Maker.

### Verse 24

[¶34] Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down - The original is short and emphatic כי יפל לא יוטל ki yippol, lo yutal, which the Chaldee translates, "Though he should fall into sickness, he shall not die;" for which the reason is given, because the Lord sustains by his hand. Though he may for a time fall under the power of his adversaries, as the Jews have done under the Babylonish captivity, he shall not be forsaken. The right hand of God shall sustain him in his afflictions and distresses; and at last God will give him a happy issue out of them all. Neither the tent nor any of the Versions intimate that a falling into sin is meant; but a falling into trouble, difficulty, etc.

### Verse 25

[¶36] I have been young, and now am old - I believe this to be literally true in all cases. I am now grey-headed myself; I have traveled in different countries, and have had many opportunities of seeing and conversing with religious people in all situations in life; and I have not, to my knowledge, seen one instance to the contrary. I have seen no righteous man forsaken, nor any children of the righteous begging their bread. God puts this honor upon all that fear him; and thus careful is he of them, and of their posterity.

### Verse 26

[¶38] He is ever merciful and lendeth - כל היום חונן kol haiyom chonen, "all the day he is compassionate." He is confirmed in the habit of godliness: he feels for the distresses of men, and is ready to divide and distribute to all that are in necessity.

[¶39] And his seed is blessed - The preceding words were not spoken casually; his seed, his posterity, is blessed; therefore they are not abandoned to beg their bread.

### Verse 27

[¶41] Depart from evil, and do good - Seeing the above is so, depart from all evil - avoid all sin; and let not this be sufficient, do good. The grace of God ever gives this two-fold power to all who receive it; strength to overcome evil, and strength to do that which is right.

[¶42] Dwell for evermore - Be for ever an inhabitant of God's house. This may be also a promise of return to their own land, and of permanent residence there. See [Psa 37:9], [Psa 37:11], etc.

### Verse 28

[¶44] Forsaketh not his saints - את חטידיו eth chasidaiv, his merciful or compassionate ones; those who, through love to him and all mankind, are ever ready to give of their substance to the poor.

[¶45] But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off - The children who follow the wicked steps of wicked parents shall, like their parents, be cut off. God's judgments descend to posterity, as well as his mercies.

## 592. Psalms · 46 of 159

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### Verse 29

[¶1] The righteous shall inherit the land - If this be not another promise of return to their own land, from that of their captivity, it must be spiritually understood, and refer to their eternal dwelling with God in glory.

### Verse 30

[¶3] The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom - Foolish and corrupt conversation cannot come out of their mouth. They are taught of God, and they speak according to the wisdom that is from above.

### Verse 31

[¶5] The law of his God is in his heart - The Lord promised that a time should come in which he would make a new covenant with the house of Israel; he would put his laws in their minds, and in their hearts he would write them. This is fulfilled in the case above.

[¶6] None of his steps shall slide - His holy heart always dictates to his eyes, his mouth, his hands, and his feet. The precepts which direct his conduct are not only written in his Bible, but also in his heart.

### Verse 32

[¶8] The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him - Similar to what is said [Psa 37:8] : "The wicked plotteth against the righteous." But it is added, [Psa 37:33] : "The Lord will not leave him in his hands;" he will confound his devices, and save his own servants.

### Verse 34

[¶10] Wait on the Lord, and keep his way - This is the true mode of waiting on God which the Scripture recommends; keeping God's way - using all his ordinances, and living in the spirit of obedience. He who waits thus is sure to have the farther blessings of which he is in pursuit. קוה kavah, to wait, implies the extension of a right line from one point to another. The first point is the human heart; the line is its intense desire; and the last point is God, to whom this heart extends this straight line of earnest desire to be filled with the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace.

[¶11] And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land - If ye keep his way, and be faithful to him in your exile, he will exalt you, lift you up from your present abject state, to inherit the land of your fathers. See before, [Psa 37:9], [Psa 37:11], etc.

[¶12] When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it - They did see the destruction of the Babylonish king, Belshazzar, and his empire; and it was in consequence of that destruction that they were enlarged.

### Verse 35

[¶14] I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree - Does not this refer to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and to the vision he had of the great tree which was in the midst of the earth, the head of which reached up to heaven? See [Dan 4:10], etc.

### Verse 36

[¶16] Yet he passed away - Both Nebuchadnezzar and his wicked successor, Belshazzar; and on the destruction of the latter, when God had weighed him in the balance, and found him wanting, numbered his days, and consigned him to death, his kingdom was delivered to the Medes and Persians; and thus the Babylonian empire was destroyed.

### Verse 37

[¶18] Mark the perfect man - Him who is described above. Take notice of him: he is perfect in his soul, God having saved him from all sin, and filled him with his own love and image. And he is upright in his conduct; and his end, die when he may or where he may, is peace, quietness, and assurance for ever.

[¶19] Almost all the Versions translate the Hebrew after this manner: Preserve innocence, and keep equity in view; for the man of peace shall leave a numerous posterity.

[¶20] Bishop Horsley thus translates: "Keep (thy) loyalty, and look well to (thy) integrity; for a posterity is (appointed) for the perfect man." He comes nearer to the original in his note on this verse: "Keep innocency, and regard uprightness; for the perfect man hath a posterity:" "but the rebellious shall be destroyed together; the posterity of the wicked shall be cut off," [Psa 37:38].

[¶21] Dr. Kennicott's note is," אחרית acharith, which we render latter end, is posterity, [Psa 109:13]. The wicked and all his race to be destroyed, the pious man to have a numerous progeny, see his sons' sons to the third and fourth generation. See [Job 8:19]; [Job 18:13-20]."

[¶22] I think the original cannot possibly bear our translation. I shall produce it here, with the literal version of Montanus: - pax viro novissimum quia; rectum vide et, integrum cutodi שלום לאיש אחרית כי ישר וראה תם שמר The nearest translation to this is that of the Septuagint and Vulgate: Φυλασσε ακακιαν, και ιδε ευθυτητα, ὁτι εστιν εγκαταλειμμα ανθρωπῳ ειρηνικῳ· Custodi innocentiam, et vide aequitatem; quoniam, sunt reliquiae homini pacifico. "Preserve innocence, and behold equity; seeing there is a posterity to the pacific man." The Syriac says, "Observe simplicity, and choose rectitude; seeing there is a good end to the man of peace." The reader may choose. Our common version, in my opinion, cannot be sustained. The [Psa 37:38] seems to confirm the translation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, which are precisely the same in meaning; therefore I have given one translation for both.

[¶23] The old Psalter deserves a place also: Kepe unnoyandnes, and se evenhede; for tha celykes er til a pesful man.

### Verse 39

[¶25] The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord - It is the Lord who made them righteous, by blotting out their sins, and infusing his Holy Spirit into their hearts; and it is by his grace they are continually sustained, and finally brought to the kingdom of glory: "He is their strength in the time of trouble."

### Verse 40

[¶27] The Lord - shall deliver them - For they are always exposed to trials, and liable to fall.

[¶28] Because they trust in him - They keep faith, prayer, love, and obedience in continual exercise. They continue to believe in, love, and obey God; and he continues to save them.

### Introduction

[¶30] David prays God to have mercy upon him, and gives a most affecting account of his miserable state, [Psa 38:1-10]; complains of his being forsaken by his friends, and cruelly persecuted by his enemies, [Psa 38:11-16]; confesses his sin; and earnestly implores help, [Psa 38:17-22].

[¶31] The title in the Hebrew states this to be A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. The Chaldee; "A Psalm of David for a good memorial to Israel." The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Aethiopic: "A Psalm of David, for a commemoration concerning the Sabbath." The Arabic: "A Psalm in which mention is made of the Sabbath; besides, it is a thanksgiving and a prophecy." Never was a title more misplaced or less expressive of the contents. There is no mention of the Sabbath in it; there is no thanksgiving in it, for it is deeply penitential; and I do not see that it contains any prophecy. The Syriac: "A psalm of David, when they said to the Philistine king, Achish, This is David, who killed Goliath; we will not have him to go with us against Saul. Besides, it is a form of confession for us." It does not appear that, out of all the titles, we can gather the true intent of the Psalm.

[¶32] Several conjectures have been made relative to the occasion on which this Psalm was composed; and the most likely is, that it was in reference to some severe affliction which David had after his illicit commerce with Bath-sheba; but of what nature we are left to conjecture from the third, fifth, and seventh verses. Whatever it was, he deeply repents for it, asks pardon, and earnestly entreats support from God.

### Verse 1

[¶34] O Lord, rebuke me not - He was sensible that he was suffering under the displeasure of God; and he prays that the chastisement may be in mercy, and not in judgment.

### Verse 2

[¶36] Thine arrows stick fast in me - This no doubt, refers to the acute pains which he endured; each appearing to his feeling as if an arrow were shot into his body.

### Verse 3

[¶38] No soundness in my flesh - This seems to refer to some disorder which so affected the muscles as to produce sores and ulcers; and so affected his bones as to leave him no peace nor rest. In short, he was completely and thoroughtly diseased; and all this he attributes to his sin, either as being its natural consequence, or as being inflicted by the Lord as a punishment on its account.

### Verse 4

[¶40] Mine iniquities are gone over mine head - He represents himself as one sinking in deep waters, or as one oppressed by a burden to which his strength was unequal.

### Verse 5

[¶42] My wounds stink and are corrupt - Taking this in connection with the rest of the Psalm, I do not see that we can understand the word in any figurative or metaphorical way. I believe they refer to some disease with which he was at this time afflicted; but whether the leprosy, the small pox, or some other disorder that had attacked the whole system, and showed its virulence on different parts of the outer surface, cannot be absolutely determined.

[¶43] Because of my foolishness - This may either signify sin as the cause of his present affliction, or it may import an affliction which was the consequence of that foolish levity which prefers the momentary gratification of an irregular passion to health of body and peace of mind.

## 593. Psalms · 47 of 159

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### Verse 6

[¶1] I am troubled - In mind. I am bowed down in body. I am altogether afflicted, and full of distress.

### Verse 7

[¶3] For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease - Or rather, a burning; נקלה nikleh, from קלה kalah, to fry, scorch, etc., hence נקלה nikleh, a burning, or strongly feverish disease.

[¶4] There is no soundness in my flesh - All without and all within bears evidence that the whole of my solids and fluids are corrupt.

### Verse 8

[¶6] I am feeble and sore broken - I am so exhausted with my disease that I feel as if on the brink of the grave, and unfit to appear before God; therefore "have I roared for the disquietness of my heart."

[¶7] That David describes a natural disease here cannot reasonably be doubted; but what that disease was, who shall attempt to say? However, this is evident, that whatever it was, he most deeply deplored the cause of it; and as he worthily lamented it, so he found mercy at the hand of God. It would be easy to show a disease of which what he here enumerates are the very general symptoms; but I forbear, because in this I might attribute to one what, perhaps, in Judea would be more especially descriptive of another.

### Verse 9

[¶9] Lord, all my desire is before thee - I long for nothing so much as thy favor; and for this my heart is continually going out after thee. Instead of אדני Adonai, Lord, several of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. have יהוה Yehovah.

### Verse 10

[¶11] My heart panteth - סחרחר secharchar, flutters, palpitates, through fear and alarm.

[¶12] My strength faileth - Not being able to take nourishment.

[¶13] The light of mine eyes - is gone - I can scarcely discern any thing through the general decay of my health and vigor, particularly affecting my sight.

### Verse 11

[¶15] My lovers - Those who professed much affection for me; my friends, רעי reai, my companions, who never before left my company, stand aloof.

[¶16] My kinsmen - קרובי kerobai, my neighbors, stand afar off. I am deserted by all, and they stand off because of נגעי nigi, my plague. They considered me as suffering under a Divine judgment; and, thinking me an accursed being, they avoided me lest they should be infected by my disease.

### Verse 12

[¶18] They also that seek after my life - They act towards me as huntsmen after their prey; they lay snares to take away my life. Perhaps this means only that they wished for his death, and would have been glad to have had it in their power to end his days. Others spoke all manner of evil of him, and told falsities against him all the day long.

### Verse 13

[¶20] But I, as a deaf man - I was conscious of my guilt, I could not vindicate myself; and I was obliged in silence to bear their insults.

### Verse 14

[¶22] No reproofs - תוכחות tochachoth, arguments or vindications; a forensic term. I was as a man accused in open court, and I could make no defense.

### Verse 15

[¶24] In thee, O Lord, do I hope - I have no helper but thee.

[¶25] Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God - Thou art eternal in thy compassions, and wilt hear the prayer of a penitent soul. In the printed copies of the Hebrew text we have אדני אלהי Adonai Elohai, Lord my God; but, instead of אדני Adonai, one hundred and two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. read יהוה Yehovah. As this word is never pronounced by the Jews, and they consider it dreadfully sacred, in reading, wherever it occurs, they pronounce אדני Adonai; and we may well suppose that Jewish scribes, in writing out copies of the sacred Scriptures, would as naturally write Adonai for Yehovah, as they would in reading supply the former for the latter.

### Verse 16

[¶27] When my foot slippeth - They watched for my halting; and when my foot slipped, they rejoiced that I had fallen into sin!

### Verse 17

[¶29] For I am ready to halt - Literally, I am prepared to halt. So completely infirm is my soul, that it is impossible for me to take one right step in the way of righteousness, unless strengthened by thee.

### Verse 18

[¶31] I will declare mine iniquity - I will confess it with the deepest humiliation and self-abasement.

### Verse 19

[¶33] But mine enemies are lively - Instead of חיים chaiyim, lively, I would read חינם chinam, without cause; a change made by the half of one letter, נ nun for a י yod. See the parallel places, [Psa 35:19] (note); [Psa 79:5] (note). See also the Preliminary Dissertation to Dr. Lowth's Isaiah, p. 40: "But without cause my enemies have strengthened themselves; and they who wrongfully hate me are multiplied." Here the one member of the verse answers to the other.

### Verse 20

[¶35] Because I follow the thing that good is - The translation is as bad as the sentence is awkward. תחת רדפי טוב tachath rodpi tob, because I follow goodness. There is a remarkable addition to this verse in the Arabic: "They have rejected me, the beloved one, as an abominable dead carcass; they have pierced my body with nails." I suppose the Arabic translator meant to refer this to Christ.

[¶36] None of the other Versions have any thing like this addition; only the Ethiopic adds, "They rejected their brethren as an unclean carcass." St. Ambrose says this reading was found in some Greek and Latin copies in his time; and Theodoret has nearly the same reading with the Arabic: Και απερῥιψαν με τον αγαπητον, ῳς νεκρον εβδελυγμενον· "And they cast me, the beloved, out, as an abominable dead carcass." Whence this reading came I cannot conjecture.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Forsake me not, O Lord - Though all have forsaken me, do not thou.

[¶39] Be not far from me - Though my friends keep aloof, be thou near to help me.

### Verse 22

[¶41] Make haste to help me - I am dying; save, Lord, or I perish. Whoever carefuIly reads over this Psalm will see what a grievous and bitter thing it is to sin against the Lord, and especially to sin after having known his mercy, and after having escaped from the corruption that is in the world. Reader, be on thy guard; a life of righteousness may be lost by giving way to a moment's temptation, and a fair character sullied for ever! Let him that most assuredly standeth take heed lest he fall. 'Tis but a grain of sweet that one can sow,

[¶42] To reap a harvest of wide-wasting wo.

### Introduction

[¶44] The psalmist's care and watchfulness over his thoughts, tongue, and actions, [Psa 39:1-3]. He considers the brevity and uncertainty of human life, [Psa 39:4-7]; prays for deliverance from sin, [Psa 39:8-11]; and that he may be protected and spared till he is fitted for another world, [Psa 39:12], [Psa 39:13].

[¶45] The title says, To the chief Musician, Jeduthun himself, A Psalm of David. It is supposed that this Jeduthun is the same with Ethan, [1Chr 6:44], compared with [1Chr 16:41]; and is there numbered among the sons of Merari. And he is supposed to have been one of the four masters of music, or leaders of bands, belonging to the temple. And it is thought that David, having composed this Psalm, gave it to Jeduthun and his company to sing. But several have supposed that Jeduthun himself was the author. It is very likely that this Psalm was written on the same occasion with the preceding. It relates to a grievous malady by which David was afflicted after his transgression with Bath-sheba. See what has been said on the foregoing Psalm.

## 594. Psalms · 48 of 159

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### Verse 1

[¶1] I said, I will take heed to my ways - I must be cautious because of my enemies; I must be patient because of my afflictions; I must be watchful over my tongue, lest I offend my God, or give my adversaries any cause to speak evil of me.

### Verse 2

[¶3] I held any peace, even from good - "I ceased from the words of the law," says the Chaldee. I spoke nothing, either good or bad. I did not even defend myself.

[¶4] My sorrow was stirred - My afflictions increased, and I had an exacerbation of pain. It is a hard thing to be denied the benefit of complaint in sufferings, as it has a tendency to relieve the mind, and indeed, in some sort, to call off the attention from the place of actual suffering: and yet undue and extravagant complaining enervates the mind, so that it becomes a double prey to its sufferings. On both sides there are extremes: David seems to have steered clear of them on the right hand and on the left.

### Verse 3

[¶6] My heart was hot within me - A natural feeling of repressed grief.

[¶7] While I was musing - What was at first a simple sensation of heat produced a flame; the fire broke out that had long been smothered. It is a metaphor taken from vegetables, which, being heaped together, begin to heat and ferment, if not scattered and exposed to the air; and will soon produce a flame, and consume themselves and every thing within their reach.

### Verse 4

[¶9] Lord, make me to know mine end - I am weary of life; I wish to know the measure of my days, that I may see how long I have to suffer, and how frail I am. I wish to know what is wanting to make up the number of the days I have to live.

### Verse 5

[¶11] My days as a handbreadth - My life is but a span; σπιθαμη του βιου.

[¶12] And mine age is as nothing - כאין keein, as if at were not before thee. All time is swallowed up in thy eternity.

[¶13] Verily every man at his best state - כל אדם נצב col adam nitstab, "every man that exists, is vanity." All his projects, plans, schemes, etc., soon come to nothing. His body also moulders with the dust, and shortly passes both from the sight and remembrance of men.

### Verse 6

[¶15] Walketh in a vain show - בצלם betselem, in a shadow. He is but the semblance of being: he appears for a while, and then vanisheth away. Some of the fathers read, "Although every man walketh in the image of God, yet they are disquieted in vain."

[¶16] He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them - He raketh together. This is a metaphor taken from agriculture: the husbandman rakes the corn, etc., together in the field, and yet, so uncertain is life, that he knows not who shall gather them into the granary!

### Verse 7

[¶18] And now, Lord, what wait I for? - Have I any object of pursuit in life, but to regain thy favor and thine image.

### Verse 8

[¶20] Deliver one from all may transgressions - I seek the pardon of my sins; I expect it from thy mercy. Grant it, "that I be not the reproach of the foolish," (the godless and the profane), who deride my expectation, and say no such blessings can be had. Let them know, by thy saving me, that there is a God who heareth prayer, and giveth his Holy Spirit to all them that ask him.

### Verse 10

[¶22] Remove thy stroke away from me - This seems to be a figure taken from gladiators, or persons contending in single combat. One is wounded so as to be able to maintain the fight no longer: he therefore gives in, and prays his adversary to spare his life. I am conquered; I can hold the contest no longer: thou art too powerful for me. He cries what our ancestors used to term craven; the word spoken by him who was conquered in the battle ordeal, or trial by combat.

### Verse 11

[¶24] When thou with rebukes dost correct man - תוכחות tochachoth signifies a vindication of proceedings in a court of law, a legal defense. When God comes to maintain the credit and authority of his law against a sinner, he "causes his beauty to consume away:" a metaphor taken from the case of a culprit, who, by the arguments of counsel, and the unimpeachable evidence of witnesses, has the facts all proved against him, grows pale, looks terrified; his fortitude forsakes him, and he faints in court.

[¶25] Surely every man is vanity - He is incapable of resistance; he falls before his Maker; and none can deliver him but his Sovereign and Judge, against whom he has offended.

[¶26] Selah - This is a true saying, an everlasting truth.

### Verse 12

[¶28] Hear my prayer - Therefore, O Lord, show that mercy upon me which I so much need, and without which I must perish everlastingly.

[¶29] I am a stranger with thee - I have not made this earth my home; I have not trusted in any arm but thine. Though I have sinned, I have never denied thee, and never cast thy words behind my back. I knew that here I had no continuing city. Like my fathers, I looked for a city that has permanent foundations, in a better state of being.

### Verse 13

[¶31] O spare me - Take me not from this state of probation till I have a thorough preparation for a state of blessedness. This he terms recovering his strength - being restored to the favor and image of God, from which he had fallen. This should be the daily cry of every human spirit: Restore me to thine image, guide me by thy counsel, and then reeeive me to thy glory!

### Introduction

[¶33] The benefit of confidence in God, [Psa 40:1-3]. The blessedness of those who trust in God, [Psa 40:4], [Psa 40:5]. The termination of the Jewish sacrifices in that of Christ, [Psa 40:6-8]. The psalmist's resolution to publish God's goodness, [Psa 40:9], [Psa 40:10] : he prays to be delivered from evils, [Psa 40:11-13]; against his enemies, [Psa 40:14], [Psa 40:15]; and in behalf of those who are destitute, [Psa 40:16], [Psa 40:17].

[¶34] The Title, "To the chief Musician," we have already seen, and it contains nothing worthy of particular remark. Concerning the occasion and author of this Psalm there has been a strange and numerous diversity of opinions. I shall not trouble the reader with sentiments which I believe to be ill founded; as I am satisfied the Psalm was composed by David and about the same time and on the same occasion as the two preceding; with this difference, that here he magnifies God for having bestowed the mercy which he sought there. It is, therefore, a thanksgiving for his recovery from the sore disease by which he was afflicted in his body, and for his restoration to the Divine favor. The sixth, seventh, and eighth verses contain a remarkable prophecy of the incarnation and sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ. From the eleventh to the end contains a new subject and appears to have belonged to another Psalm. It is the same as the seventieth Psalm; only it wants the two first verses.

### Verse 1

[¶36] I waited patiently for the Lord - The two preceding Psalms are proofs of the patience and resignation with which David waited for the mercy of God. The reader is requested to consult the notes on them.

[¶37] And heard my cry - The two preceding Psalms show how he prayed and waited; this shows how he succeeded.

### Verse 2

[¶39] A horrible pit - Literally, the sounding pit; where nothing was heard except the howlings of wild beasts, or the hollow sounds of winds reverberated and broken from the craggy sides and roof.

[¶40] The miry clay - Where the longer I stayed the deeper I sank, and was utterly unable to save myself. The Syriac and Arabic translate "The pit of perdition, and the mud of corruption." These are figurative expressions to point out the dreary, dismal, ruinous state of sin and guilt, and the utter inability of a condemned sinner to save himself either from the guilt of his conscience, or the corruption of his heart.

[¶41] Set my feet upon a rock - Thou hast changed my state from guilt to pardon; from corruption to holiness; in consequence of which my goings are established. I have now power over all sin, and can walk steadily in the way that leads to God's kingdom.

### Verse 3

[¶43] A new song - Cheerfulness and joy had long been strangers to him. He seemed to live to utter the most doleful complaints, and be a prey to suffering and wretchedness. Praise for a sense of God's favor was a new song to him. The word is often used to signify excellence: I will sing a most excellent and eminent song.

[¶44] Many shalt see it - I will publish it abroad and fear-to sin against the Lord, knowing by my example what a grievous and bitter thing it is.

## 595. Psalms · 49 of 159

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[¶0] And shall trust in the Lord - Even the worst of sinners shall not despair of mercy, being penitent, when they see that I have found favor in his sight.

### Verse 4

[¶2] Blessed is that man - The man must be blessed and happy who casts his soul with all its burden of sin and wretchedness, at the footstool of God's mercy; for he will save all who come to him through the Son of his love.

### Verse 5

[¶4] Many - are thy wonderful works - The psalmist seems here astonished and confounded at the counsels, loving-kindnesses, and marvellous works of the Lord, not in nature, but in grace; for it was the mercy of God towards himself that he had now particularly in view.

### Verse 6

[¶6] Sacrifice and offering - The apostle, [Heb 10:5], etc., quoting this and the two following verses, says, When he (the Messiah) cometh into the world - was about to be incarnated, He saith - to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not - it was never thy will and design that the sacrifices under thy own law should be considered as making atonement for sin; they were only designed to point out my incarnation and consequent sacrificial death: and therefore a body hast thou prepared me, by a miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin; according to thy word, The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.

[¶7] A body hast thou prepared me - The quotation of this and the two following verses by the apostle, [Heb 10:5], etc., is taken from the Septuagint, with scarcely any variety of reading: but, although the general meaning is the same, they are widely different in verbal expression in the Hebrew. David's words are אזנים כרית לי oznayim caritha lli, which we translate, My ears hast thou opened; but they might be more properly rendered, My ears hast thou bored; that is, Thou hast made me thy servant for ever, to dwell in thine own house: for the allusion is evidently to the custom mentioned [Exo 21:2], etc.: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free: but if the servant shall positively say, I love my master, etc., I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him to the doorpost, and shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever."

[¶8] But how is it possible that the Septuagint and the apostle should take a meaning so totally different from the sense of the Hebrew? Dr. Kennicott has a very ingenious conjecture here: he supposes that the Septuagint and apostle express the meaning of the words as they stood in the copy from which the Greek translation was made; and that the present Hebrew text is corrupted in the word אזנים oznayim, ears, which has been written through carelessness for אז גוה az gevah, Then, a Body The first syllable, אז az, Then, is the same in both; and the latter, Myn, which, joined to אז makes אזנים oznayim, might have been easily mistaken for גוה gevah, Body; נ nun being very like ג gimel; י yod like ו vau; and h he like final ם mem; especially if the line on which the letters were written in the MS. happened to be blacker than ordinary, which has often been a cause of mistake, it might then have been easily taken for the under-stroke of the mem, and thus give rise to a corrupt reading; add to this, the root כרה carah signifies as well to prepare, as to open, bore, etc. On this supposition the ancient copy translated by the Septuagint, and followed by the apostle, must have read the text thus: אז גוה כרית לי az gevah charitha lli; Σωμα δε κατηρτισω μοι· Then a body thou hast prepared me: thus the Hebrew text, the version of the Septuagint, and the apostle, will agree in what is known to be an indisputable fact in Christianity; namely, that Christ was incarnated for the sin of the world.

[¶9] The Ethiopic has nearly the same reading: the Arabic has both, "A body hast thou prepared me, and mine ears thou hast opened." But the Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate, agree with the present Hebrew text; and none of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi have any various reading on the disputed words.

[¶10] It is remarkable, that all the offerings and sacrifices which were considered to be of an atoning or cleansing nature, offered under the law, are here enumerated by the psalmist and the apostle, to show that none of them, nor all of them, could take away sin; and that the grand sacrifice of Christ was that alone which could do it.

[¶11] Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and the apostle: viz. Sacrifice, זבח zebach, θυσια; Offering, מנחה minchah, προσφορα; Burnt-Offering, עולה olah, ὁλοκαυτωμα; Sin-Offering, חטאה chataah, περι ἁμαρτιας. Of all these we may say, with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, etc. should take away sin.

[¶12] Thou hast had no pleasure - Thou couldst never be pleased with the victims under the law; thou couldst never consider them as atonements for sin, as they could never satisfy thy justice, nor make thy law honorable.

### Verse 7

[¶14] In the volume of the book - במגלת ספר bimegillath sepher, "in the roll of the book." Anciently, books were written on skins, and rolled up. Among the Romans, these were called volumina, from volvo, I roll; and the Pentateuch in the Jewish synagogues is still written in this way. There are two wooden rollers; on one they roll on, on the other they roll off, as they proceed in reading. One now lying before me, written on vellum, is two feet two inches in breadth and one hundred and two feet long. To roll and unroll such a MS. was no easy task, and to be managed must lie flat on a table. This contains the Pentateuch only, and is without points, or any other Masoretic distinction. The book mentioned here must be the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; for, in David's time no other part of Divine revelation had been committed to writing. This whole book speaks about Christ, and his accomplishing the will of God, not only in "the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent," and "in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;" but in all the sacrifices and sacrificial rites mentioned in the law.

### Verse 8

[¶16] To do thy will - God willed not the sacrifices under the law, but he willed that a human victim of infinite merit should be offered for the redemption of mankind. That there might be such a victim, a body was prepared for the eternal Logos, and in that body he came to do the will of God; that is, to suffer and die for the sins of the world.

[¶17] 1. Hence we see that the sovereign Will of God is that Jesus should be incarnated; that he should suffer and die; or, in the apostle's words, taste death for every man; that all should believe on him, and be saved from their sins; for this is the Will of God, our sanctification.

[¶18] 2. And as the apostle grounds this on the words of the Psalm, we see that it is the Will of God that that system shall end; for as the essence of it is contained in its sacrifices, and God says he will not have these, and has appointed the Messiah to do his will, i.e., to die for men, hence it necessarily follows, from the psalmist himself, that the introduction of the Messiah into the world is the abolition of the law; and that his sacrifice is that which shall last for ever.

### Verse 9

[¶20] I have preached righteousness - I think it best to refer these words to Christ and his apostles. In consequence of his having become a sacrifice for sin, the Jewish sacrificial system being ended, the middle wall of partition was broken down, and the door of faith, the doctrine of justification by faith, opened to the Gentiles. Hence the Gospel was preached in all the world, and the mercy of God made known to the Gentiles; and thus righteousness - justification by faith, was preached in the great congregation - to Jews and Gentiles, throughout the Roman empire.

[¶21] The great congregation, both in this and the following verse, I think, means the Gentiles, contradistinguished from the Jews.

[¶22] The word righteousness means the plan or method of salvation by Jesus Christ - God's method of justifying sinners by faith, without the deeds of the law. See [Rom 3:25-26] (note), and the notes there.

### Verse 10

[¶24] Thy faithfulness - This means the exact fulfillment of the promises made by the prophets relative to the incarnation of Christ, and the opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles.

[¶25] Loving-kindness - Shows the gift itself of Jesus Christ, the highest proof that God could give to a lost world of his mercy, kindness, and loving-kindness.

### Verse 11

[¶27] Thy tender mercies - רחמיך rachameycha, such propensities and feelings as a mother bears to her child; or animals in general to their young.

[¶28] Let thy loving-kindness - חסדך chasdecha, thy overflowing and superabundant mercy.

[¶29] And thy truth - What is revealed in thy word: continually preserve me. Mercy to help me, truth to direct me; and, by the operation of both, I shall be continually preserved from sin and evil.

### Verse 12

[¶31] Innumerable evils have compassed me about - This part does not comport with the preceding; and either argues a former experience, or must be considered a part of another Psalm, written at a different time, and on another occasion, and, were we to prefix the two first verses of the seventieth Psalm to it we should find it to be a Psalm as complete in itself as that is.

[¶32] They are more than the hairs of mine head - This could not be said by any person who was exulting in the pardoning mercy of God, as David was at the time he penned the commencement of this Psalm.

### Verse 15

[¶34] That say unto me, Aha, aha - האח האח. See on [Psa 35:21] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶36] Let all those that seek thee - be glad - In making prayer and supplication to thee, let them ever find thee, that they may magnify thee for the blessings they receive.

[¶37] Love thy salvation - Who earnestly desire to be saved from sin: saved in thy own way, and on thy own terms.

[¶38] The Lord be magnified - Let God be praised continually for the continual blessings he pours down.

### Verse 17

[¶40] But I am poor - עני ani, afflicted, greatly depressed.

[¶41] And needy - אביון ebyon, a beggar. One utterly destitute, and seeking help.

[¶42] The Lord thinketh upon me - The words are very emphatic; אדני Adonai, my prop, my support, thinketh, יחשב yachshab, meditateth, upon me. On which he concludes: "Thou art my help and deliverer." Seeing that my miserable state occupies thy heart, it will soon employ thy hand. Thou, who meditatest upon me, wilt deliver me.

[¶43] Make no tarrying - Seeing thou art disposed to help, and I am in such great necessity, delay not, but come speedily to my assistance. The old Psalter speaks to this effect: "Let us not be so long under distress and misery that we lose our patience, or our love to thee."

## 596. Psalms · 50 of 159

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### Introduction

[¶1] The blessedness of the man who is merciful to the poor, [Psa 41:1-3]. The psalmist complains of his enemies, and prays for support, [Psa 41:4-10]; and blesses God for having heard his prayer, and preserved him from his adversaries, [Psa 41:11], [Psa 41:12]. A fine doxology closes the Psalm, [Psa 41:13].

[¶2] The title as before. The Syriac says it was "A Psalm of David, when he appointed overseers to take care of the poor." The Arabic says, "It is a prophecy concerning the incarnation; and also of the salutation of Judas." It appears to me to have been written on the same occasion as the three former, and to relate to David's malady and cure, and the evil treatment he had from his enemies during his affliction. Our Lord, by accommodation, applies the ninth verse to the treachery of Judas, [Joh 13:18]; but as to any other direct reference to Christ, or his history, I believe the Psalm has none.

### Verse 1

[¶4] Blessed is he that considereth - God is merciful; he will have man to resemble him: as far as he is merciful, feels a compassionate heart, and uses a benevolent hand, he resembles his Maker; and the mercy he shows to others God will show to him. But it is not a sudden impression at the sight of a person in distress, which obliges a man to give something for the relief of the sufferer, that constitutes the merciful character. It is he who considers the poor; who endeavors to find them out; who looks into their circumstances; who is in the habit of doing so; and actually, according to his power and means, goes about to do good; that is the merciful man, of whom God speaks with such high approbation, and to whom he promises a rich reward.

### Verse 2

[¶6] The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive - It is worthy of remark, that benevolent persons, who consider the poor, and especially the sick poor; who search cellars, garrets, back lanes, and such abodes of misery, to find them out, (even in the places where contagion keeps its seat), very seldom fall a prey to their own benevolence. The Lord, in an especial manner, keeps them alive, and preserves them; while many, who endeavor to keep far from the contagion, are assailed by it, and fall victims to it. God loves the merciful man.

### Verse 3

[¶8] The Lord will strengthen him - Good, benevolent, and merciful as he is, he must also die: but he shall not die as other men; he shall have peculiar consolations, refreshment, and support, while passing through the valley of the shadow of death.

[¶9] Thou wilt make all his bed - הפכת haphachta, thou hast turned up, tossed, and shaken it; and thou wilt do so to all his bed - thou wilt not leave one uneasy place in it - not one lump, or any unevenness, to prevent him from sleeping. Thou wilt do every thing, consistently with the accomplishment of the great decree, "Unto dust thou shalt return," to give him ease, refreshment, and rest. We may sum up the privileges of the merciful man:

[¶10] 1. He is generally blessed, [Psa 41:1].

[¶11] 2. He will be delivered in the time of trouble, [Psa 41:1].

[¶12] 3. He will be preserved by a particular providence, [Psa 41:2].

[¶13] 4. He shall be kept alive amidst infection and danger, [Psa 41:2].

[¶14] 5. He shall be blessed on the earth in his temporal concerns, [Psa 41:2].

[¶15] 6. His enemies shall not be able to spoil or destroy him, [Psa 41:2].

[¶16] 7. He shall be strengthened on a bed of languishing, to enable him to bear his afflictions, [Psa 41:3].

[¶17] 8. He shall have ease, comfort, and support in his last hours, [Psa 41:3].

### Verse 4

[¶19] I said, Lord, be merciful unto me - I need thy mercy especially, because I have sinned against thee, and my sin is a deadly wound to my soul; therefore heal my soul, for it has sinned against thee.

### Verse 5

[¶21] Mine enemies speak evil - It is often a good man's lot to be evil spoken of; to have his motives, and even his most benevolent acts, misconstrued.

### Verse 6

[¶23] And if he come to see me - This may relate to Ahithophel; but it is more likely that it was to some other person who was his secret enemy, who pretended to come and inquire after his health, but with the secret design to see whether death was despatching his work.

[¶24] When he goeth abroad, he telleth it - He makes several observations on my dying state; intimates that I am suffering deep remorse for secret crimes; that God is showing his displeasure against me, and that I am full of sorrow at the approach of death.

### Verse 7

[¶26] All that hate me whisper together against me - This is in consequence of the information given by the hypocritical friend, who came to him with the lying tongue, and whose heart gathereth iniquity to itself, which, when he went abroad, he told to others as illminded as himself, and they also drew their wicked inferences.

### Verse 8

[¶28] An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him - דבר בליעל יצוק בו debar beliyaal yatsuk bo, a thing, word, or pestilence of Belial, is poured out upon him. His disease is of no common sort; it is a diabolical malady.

[¶29] He shall rise up no more - His disease is incurable without a miracle; and he is too much hated of God to have one wrought for him. Some apply this to the death and resurrection of Christ; he lieth - he is dead and buried; he shall never rise again from the dead.

### Verse 9

[¶31] Mine own familiar friend - This is either a direct prophecy of the treachery of Judas, or it is a fact in David's distresses which our Lord found so similar to the falsity of his treacherous disciple, that he applies it to him, [Joh 13:18]. What we translate mine own familiar friend, איש שלומי ish shelomi, is the man of my peace. The man who, with the שלום לך shalom lecha, peace be to thee! kissed me; and thus gave the agreed-on signal to my murderers that I was the person whom they should seize, hold fast, and carry away.

[¶32] Did eat of my bread - Was an inmate in my house. Applied by our Lord to Judas, when eating with him out of the same dish. See [Joh 13:18], [Joh 13:26]. Possibly it may refer to Ahithophel, his counsellor, the man of his peace, his prime minister; who, we know, was the strength of Absalom's conspiracy.

### Verse 10

[¶34] Raise me up - Restore me from this sickness, that I may requite them. This has also been applied to our Lord; who, knowing that he must die, prays that he may rise again, and thus disappoint the malice of his enemies.

### Verse 11

[¶36] By this I know that thou favorest me - If thou hadst not been on my side, I had perished by this disease; and then my enemies would have had cause to triumph.

[¶37] This also has been applied to our Lord; and Calmet says it is the greatest proof we have of the divinity of Christ, that he did not permit the malice of the Jews, nor the rage of the devil, to prevail against him. They might persecute, blaspheme, mock, insult, crucify, and slay him; but his resurrection confounded them; and by it he gained the victory over sin, death, and hell.

### Verse 12

[¶39] Thou upholdest me - I am still enabled to show that my heart was upright before God.

[¶40] Settest me before thy face for ever - Thou showest that thou dost approve of me: that I stand in thy presence, under the smiles of thy approbation.

[¶41] This also has been applied to our Lord, and considered as pointing out his mediatorial office at the right hand of God.

### Verse 13

[¶43] Blessed be the Lord God of Israel - By all these circumstances and events glory shall redound to the name of God for ever; for the record of these things shall never perish, but be published from one generation to another; and it has been so.

[¶44] From everlasting, and to everlasting - מהעולם ועד העולם mehaolam vead haolam; From the hidden time to the hidden time; from that which had no beginning to that which has no end.

[¶45] To which he subscribes, Amen and Amen. Fiat, fiat - Vulgate. Γενοιτο, γενοιτο - Septuagint. The Chaldee says, "And let the righteous say, Amen, and Amen." "Be blessed, Lord God of Israel, from world, and in world. Be it! So be it!" - Anglo-Saxon. To which the Old Psalter approaches very nearly: Blyssed Lord God of Isrel, fra werld, and in werld: Be it done! be it done. Thus illustrated by the same, Fra werld in werld; that es, fra the bygynnyng of this wereld, in til wereld that lastes ay. Be it done, be it done. This dubblying schews that it es at do of al men. In Latyn, it es, fiat, fiat! in Ebru, Amen Amen es writyn: tharfore that Aquila translated vere, vel fideliter, that es, sothfastly or trew.

## 597. Psalms · 51 of 159

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[¶0] Thus ends what the Hebrews call the first book of Psalms; for the reader will recollect that this book is divided by the Jews into five books, the first of which ends with this Psalm.

[¶1] This doxology, Dr. Kennicott supposes, may have been added by the collector of this book; and he thinks that the division into books is not arbitrary, and that the Psalms were collected at different times by different persons. See the Introduction. There is certainly a considerable variety in the style of the several books; in the examination of which the Hebrew critic will not lose his labor.

### Introduction

[¶3] The psalmist earnestly longs for the ordinances of the Lord's house, [Psa 42:1-4]; describes his deep distress, [Psa 42:5-7]; endeavors to take comfort from the consideration that the Lord would appear in his behalf, [Psa 42:8], [Psa 42:9]; speaks of the insults of his enemies, [Psa 42:10]; and again takes encouragement, [Psa 42:11].

[¶4] The title, To the chief Musician giving instruction to the sons of Korah. This is the first of the Psalms that has this title prefixed, and it is probable that such Psalms were composed by the descendants of Korah during the Babylonish captivity, or by some eminent person among those descendants, and that they were used by the Israelites during their long captivity, as means of consolation: and, indeed, most of the Psalms which bear this inscription are of the consoling kind and the sentiments appear to belong to that period of the Jewish history, and to none other. The word משכיל maskil, from שכל sakal, signifies to make wise, to direct wisely, to give instruction; and here is so understood by our translators, who have left this signification in the margin; and so the Versions in general.

[¶5] The Syriac says, "It is a Psalm which David sung when he was an exile, and desired to return to Jerusalem." The Arabic says: "A Psalm for the backsliding Jews."

### Verse 1

[¶7] As the hart panteth after the water brooks - The hart is not only fond of feeding near some water for the benefit of drinking, "but when he is hard hunted, and nearly spent, he will take to some river or brook, in which," says Tuberville, "he will keep as long as his breath will suffer him. Understand that when a hart is spent and sore run, his last refuge is to the water; and he will commonly descend down the streame and swimme in the very middest thereof; for he will take as good heede as he can to touch no boughes or twygges that grow upon the sides of the river, for feare lest the hounds should there take sent of him. And sometimes the hart will lye under the water, all but his very nose; and I have seene divers lye so until the hounds have been upon them, before they would rise; for they are constrayned to take the water as their last refuge." - Tuberville's Art of Venerie, chapter 40: Lond. 4th., 1611.

[¶8] The above extracts will give a fine illustration of this passage. The hart feels himself almost entirely spent; he is nearly hunted down; the dogs are in full pursuit; he is parched with thirst; and in a burning heat pants after the water, and when he comes to the river, plunges in as his last refuge. Thus pursued, spent, and nearly ready to give up the ghost, the psalmist pants for God, for the living God! for him who can give life, and save from death.

### Verse 2

[¶10] When shall I come - When, when shall I have the privilege of appearing in his courts before God? In the mouth of a Christian these words would import: "When shall I see my heavenly country? When shall I come to God, the Judge of all, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant?" He who is a stranger and a pilgrim here below, and feels a heart full of piety to God, may use these words in this sense; but he who feels himself here at home, whose soul is not spiritual, wishes the earth to be eternal, and himself eternal on it - feels no panting after the living God.

### Verse 3

[¶12] My tears have been my meat day and night - My longing has been so intense after spiritual blessings, that I have forgotten to take my necessary food; and my sorrow has been so great, that I have had no appetite for any. I feel more for the honor of my God and his truth than for myself, when the idolaters, who have thy people in captivity, insultingly cry, Where is thy God?

### Verse 4

[¶14] When I remember these things - Or, these things I shall remember. They often occur to me, and sharpen my distressful feelings. My soul is dissolved, becomes weak as water, when I reflect on what I have had, and on what I have lost. Or, I pour out my soul to myself in deep regrets and complaints, when reflecting on these things. I once enjoyed all the ordinances of God, and now I have none. I once had the joyous communion of saints in God's ordinances; but that communion no longer exists, for there are no ordinances to support it. There was a multitude to worship God in public; with these I often went: but alas, this is no more; now there are found only a few solitary individuals who sigh for the desolations of Zion. There we had our holy days, our appointed feasts, to commemorate the wonderful works of the Lord; now there are no processions, no festivals, no joyous assemblies; all is desolation in Zion, and all is mourning in our captivity. I have endeavored to give a general sense to this verse, but there are several difficulties in it; and different commentators and critics have given it a great variety of translations, and as many different meanings. My plan will not permit me to follow them. Much may be seen in Dr. Horsley's work on this verse.

### Verse 5

[¶16] Why art thou cast down, O my soul? - Bad as the times are, desolate as Jerusalem is, insulting as are our enemies, hopeless as in the sight of man our condition may be, yet there is no room for despair. All things are possible to God. We have a promise of restoration; he is as good as he is powerful; hope therefore in him.

[¶17] I shall yet praise him - For my restoration from this captivity. He is the health of my soul. I shall have the light and help of his countenance, his approbation, and a glorious deliverance wrought by his right hand.

### Verse 6

[¶19] O my God, my soul is cast down - It is impossible for me to lighten this load; I am full of discouragements, notwithstanding I labor to hope in thee.

[¶20] Therefore untill I remember thee from the land of Jordan - That is, from Judea, this being the chief river of that country.

[¶21] And of the Hermonites - הרמונים the Hermons, used in the plural because Hermon has a double ridge joining in an angle, and rising in many summits. The river Jordan, and the mountains of Hermon, were the most striking features of the holy land.

[¶22] From the hill Mizar - מהר מצער mehar mitsar, from the little hill, as in the margin. The little hill probably means Sion, which was little in comparison of the Hermons - Bishop Horsley. No such hill as Mizar is known in India.

### Verse 7

[¶24] Deep calleth unto deep - One wave of sorrow rolls on me, impelled by another. There is something dismal in the sound of the original; תהום אל תהום קורא tehom el tehom kore; something like "And hollow howlings hung in air." Thompson's Ellenore. Or like Horner's well known verse: - Βη δ' ακεων παρα θινα πολυφοισβοιο θαλασσης. "He went silently along the shore of the vastly-sounding sea."

[¶25] Il. i., ver. 34.

[¶26] The rolling up of the waves into a swell, and the break of the top of the swell, and its dash upon the shore, are surprisingly represented in the sound of the two last words.

[¶27] The psalmist seems to represent himself as cast away at sea; and by wave impelling wave, is carried to a rock, around which the surges dash in all directions, forming hollow sounds in the creeks and caverns. At last, several waves breaking over him, tear him away from that rock to which he clung, and where he had a little before found a resting-place, and, apparently, an escape from danger. "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me;" he is then whelmed in the deep, and God alone can save him.

[¶28] Waterspouts - A large tube formed of clouds by means of the electric fluid, the base being uppermost, and the point of the tube let down perpendicularly from the clouds. This tube has a particular kind of circular motion at the point; and being hollow within, attracts vast quantities of water, which it pours down in torrents upon the earth. These spouts are frequent on the coast of Syria; and Dr. Shaw has often seen them at Mount Carmel. No doubt the psalmist had often seen them also, and the ravages made by them. I have seen vast gullies cut out of the sides of mountains by the fall of waterspouts, and have seen many of them in their fullest activity.

### Verse 8

[¶30] The Lord will command - Every day the Lord will give an especial commission to his loving-kindness to visit me. During the night I shall sing of his mercy and goodness; and alternately mingle my singing with prayer for a continuance of his mercy, and for power to make the best use of these visitations.

### Verse 9

[¶32] I will say unto God my rock - God, my Fortress and Support.

[¶33] Why hast thou forgotten me? - This and the following verse is badly pointed in our Bibles: "Why go I mourning as with a sword in my bones because of the oppression of the enemy? Mine enemies reproach me daily, while they say unto me, Where is thy God?" See on [Psa 42:3] (note). Their reproaches are to my soul as cutting and severe as a sword thrust into my body, and separating between my bones; because these reproaches are intended to fall on thee, my God, as if thou hadst not power to save us from the hands of our oppressors.

### Verse 11

[¶35] Why art thou cast down - There is no reason why thou shouldst despair. God will appear and release thee and thy brother captives and soon thy sighing and sorrowing shall flee away.

[¶36] Who is the health of my countenance - As a healthy state of the constitution shows itself in the appearance of the face; God will so rejoice thy heart, heal all thy spiritual maladies, that thy face shall testify the happiness that is within thee.

[¶37] There is a curious gloss on the first verse of this Psalm in my old Psalter, which I cannot withhold from the reader. The author translates and paraphrases the verse thus: -

[¶38] Trans. Als the Hert yernes til the welles of waters; so my saule yernes til the God.

[¶39] Par - This Psalm es al of perfite men, that er brinnand in the flamme of Goddes luf, and passes in til the contemplatyf lif: and tharfore it es sungen in the office of the dede men: for than haf that, that thai yearned; that es, the syght of God. Far thi, sais he, als the Hert that has eten the nedder, gretely yernes to com til the welles of waters for to drynk and wax yong opayne: so destroyed in me vices and unclennes, my saule desyres with brinnand yernyng, to come til the God.

[¶40] Aelian, Appian, Anstotle, Nicander, and Pliny, all inform us that one cause why the hart thirsts for the waters is, that they eat serpents, and that the poison of them diffused through their entrails produces a burning heat and fever, to ease and cure themselves of which they have recourse to water. Many of the fathers tell the same tale, and from them the paraphrast in the old Psalter has borrowed what is inserted above: "Like as the hart, which has eaten the adder, greatly longs to come to the fountains of water to drink, that he may grow young again." The hart is undoubtedly a cunning animal; but it would be as difficult to believe that he eats serpents as it would be to believe that he seeks for and eats the fresh water crab or cray fish, in order to cure and make him grow young again, as Eusebius, Didymus, Theodoret, Jerome, Epiphanies, Gregory Nyssen, and others of the primitive fathers gravely inform us.

### Introduction

[¶42] The psalmist begs God to take his part against his enemies, [Psa 43:1], [Psa 43:2]; to send his light and truth to guide him to the tabernacle, [Psa 43:3]; promises, if brought thither, to be faithful in the Divine service, [Psa 43:4]; chides himself for despondency, and takes courage, [Psa 43:5].

[¶43] There is no title to this Psalm in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee. The Syriac says it was composed "by David when Jonathan told him that Saul intended to slay him." The Arabic says of this, as of the preceding, that it is a prayer for the backsliding Jews. It is most evidently on the same subject with the forty-second Psalm, had the same author or authors, and contains the remaining part of the complaint of the captive Jews in Babylon. It is written as a part of the forty-second Psalm in forty-six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.

## 598. Psalms · 52 of 159

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Judge me, O God, and plead my cause - ריבה ריבי ribah ribi, a forensic term, properly enough translated, plead my cause, be my counsellor and advocate.

[¶2] Ungodly nation - The Babylonians; the impious, perfidious, wicked, and deceitful Babylonians.

[¶3] The deceitful and unjust man - Nebuchadnezzar.

### Verse 2

[¶5] For those art the God of my strength - The psalmist speaks here, as in other places in the person of the whole Israelitish people then captive in Babylon. We still acknowledge thee for our God. Why are we cast off? Now that we are humbled and penitent, why are we not enlarged? Why are we not saved from this oppression of the Babylonians?

### Verse 3

[¶7] O send out thy light and thy truth - We are in darkness and distress, O send light and prosperity; we look for the fulfillment of thy promises, O send forth thy truth. Let thy fight guide me to thy holy hill, to the country of my fathers; let thy truth lead me to thy tabernacles, there to worship thee in spirit and in truth.

### Verse 4

[¶9] Then will I go unto the altar - When thy light - a favorable turn on our affairs, leads us to the land of our fathers, and thy truth - the fulfillment of thy gracious promises, has placed us again at the door of thy tabernacles, then will we go to thy altar and joyfully offer those sacrifices and offerings which thy law requires, and rejoice in thee with exceeding great joy.

### Verse 5

[¶11] Why art thou cast down - Though our deliverance be delayed, God has not forgotten to be gracious. The vision, the prophetic declaration relative to our captivity, was for an appointed time. Though it appear to tarry, we must wait for it. In the end it will come, and will not tarry; why then should we be discouraged? Let us still continue to trust in God, for we shall yet praise him for the fullest proofs of his approbation in a great outpouring of his benedictions.

### Introduction

[¶13] The psalmist recounts the mercies of God; shows to his people how God in ancient times gave them the victory over all their enemies, [Psa 44:1-8]; points out their present miserable state, [Psa 44:9-16]; asserts that thy have not apostatized, and appeals to God for the truth of his assertion, [Psa 44:17-22]; and calls upon the Lord for deliverance from their enemies, [Psa 44:23-26].

[¶14] The title here is the same as that in [Psa 42:1-11] (note); which see. The Syriac says it was "A Psalm of the sons of Korah, which the people and Moses sung at Horeb." Such titles are fancies to which no credit should be attached. Like the preceding, it appears to belong to the time of the captivity.

### Verse 1

[¶16] We have heard with our ears - The psalmist begins with recounting the marvellous interpositions of God in behalf of the Jewish people, that he might the better strengthen his confidence, and form a ground on which to build his expectation of additional help.

### Verse 2

[¶18] Thou didst drove out the heathen - The Canaanites were as a bad tree planted in a good soil, and bringing forth bad fruit with great luxuriance. God plucked up this bad tree from the roots, and in its place planted the Hebrews as a good tree, a good vine, and caused them to take root, and fill the land.

### Verse 3

[¶20] For they got not the land - Neither by their valor, nor cunning, nor for their merit; yet, they were obliged to fight. But how did they conquer? By the right hand of the Lord, and by his arm; by his strength alone, and the light of his countenance - his favor most manifestly shown unto them.

### Verse 4

[¶22] Thou art my king - What thou wert to them, be to us. We believe in thee as they did; we have sinned and are in captivity, but we repent and turn unto thee; command, therefore, deliverances to Jacob, for we are the descendants of him in whose behalf thou hast wrought such wonders.

### Verse 5

[¶24] Through thee will we push down - Through thy Word, במימרא bemeimra, "Thy substantial Word." - Chaldee. If thou be with us, who can be successfully against us? Literally "We will toss them in the air with our horn;" a metaphor taken from an ox or bull tossing the dogs into the air which attack him.

[¶25] Through thy name - Jehovah; the infinite, the omnipotent, the eternal Being; whose power none is able to resist.

### Verse 6

[¶27] I will not trust in my bow - As he is speaking of what God had already done for his forefathers, these words should be read in the past tense: "We have not trusted," etc.

### Verse 8

[¶29] In God we boast - We have told the heathen how great and powerful our God is. If thou do not deliver us by thy mighty power, they will not believe our report, but consider that we are held in bondage by the superior strength of their gods.

### Verse 9

[¶31] But thou hast cast off - Our enemies have dominion over us.

[¶32] And goest not forth with our armies - Were we to attempt to muster our several tribes, and form a host, like our fathers when they came out of Egypt, thou wouldst not accompany us as thou didst them: the horses and chariots of the Babylonians would soon overtake and destroy us.

### Verse 10

[¶34] Thou makest us to turn back - This thou didst: and our enemies, profiting by the occasion, finding our strength was departed from us, made us an easy prey, captivated our persons, and spoiled us of our property.

### Verse 11

[¶36] And hast scattered us among the heathen - This most evidently alludes to the captivity. From the successful wars of the kings of Assyria and Chaldea against the kings of Israel and Judah, and the dispersion of the tribes under Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, and Nebuchadnezzar, Jews have been found in every province of the east; there they settled, and there their successors may be found to the present day.

### Verse 12

[¶38] Thou sellest thy people for nought - An allusion to the mode of disposing of slaves by their proprietors or sovereigns. Instead of seeking profit, thou hast made us a present to our enemies.

### Verse 14

[¶40] Thou makest us a byword - We are evidently abandoned by thee, and are become so very miserable in consequence, that we are a proverb among the people: "See the Hebrews! see their misery and wretchedness! see how low the wrath of God has brought down an offending people!" And the worst curse that can be imprecated against a wicked nation is: "Mayest thou become as wretched as the Jews;" or as the old Psalter: Thou has seet us reprove til our neghburs: scornyng and hethyng til tha that er in our umgang. That es, gref, tourment that es of our neghburs, and that hethyng es noght sone gave or passand, that we suffer of tha, that er al aboute us. When men sais so byfal ye, als byfel him."

### Verse 17

[¶42] Yet have we not forgotten thee - These are bold words; but they must be understood in a qualified sense. We have not apostatized from thee, we have not fallen into idolatry. And this was strictly true: the charge of idolatry could never be brought against the Jewish nation from the time of the captivity, with sufficient evidence to support it.

### Verse 19

[¶44] Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons - Thou hast delivered us into the hands of a fierce, cruel, and murderous people. We, as a people, are in a similar state to one who has strayed into a wilderness, where there are no human inhabitants; who hears nothing round about him but the hissing of serpents, the howling of beasts of prey, and the terrible roaring of the lion; and who expects every moment to be devoured.

## 599. Psalms · 53 of 159

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### Verse 20

[¶1] If we have forgotten the name of our God - That name, יהוה Jehovah, by which the true God was particularly distinguished, and which implied the exclusion of all other objects of adoration.

[¶2] Or stretched out our hands - Made supplication; offered prayer or adoration to any strange god - a god that we had not known, nor had been acknowledged by our fathers. It has already been remarked, that from the time of the Babylonish captivity the Jews never relapsed into idolatry. It was customary among the ancients, while praying, to stretch out their hands towards the heavens, or the image they were worshipping, as if they expected to receive the favor they were asking.

### Verse 21

[¶4] Shall not God search this out? - We confidently appeal to the true Good, the searcher of hearts, for the truth of this statement.

### Verse 22

[¶6] For thy sake are we killed all the day long - Because of our attachment to thee and to thy religion, we are exposed to continual death; and some of us fail a daily sacrifice to the persecuting spirit of our enemies, and we all carry our lives continually in our hands. In the same state were the primitive Christians; and St. Paul applies these words to their case, [Rom 8:36].

### Verse 23

[¶8] A wake, why steepest thou, O Lord? - That is, Why dost thou appear as one asleep, who is regardless of the safety of his friends. This is a freedom of speech which can only be allowed to inspired men; and in their mouths it is always to be figuratively understood.

### Verse 24

[¶10] Wherefore hidest thou thy face - Show us the cause why thou withdrawest from us the testimony of thy approbation.

### Verse 25

[¶12] Our soul is bowed down - Our life is drawing near to the grave. If thou delay to help us, we shall become extinct.

### Verse 26

[¶14] Arise for our help - Show forth thy power in delivering us from the hands of our enemies.

[¶15] Redeem us - Ransom us from our thraldom.

[¶16] For thy mercies' sake - למען חסדך lemaan chasdecha, On account of thy mercy. That we may have that proper view of thy mercy which we should have, and that we may magnify it as we ought to do, redeem us. The Vulgate has, Redime nos, propter nomen tuum, "Redeem us on account of thy name;" which the old Psalter thus paraphrases: "Help us in ryghtwysness, and by us (buy), that es, delyver us, that we be withouten drede; and al this for thi name Jehsu; noght for oure merite."

### Introduction

[¶18] The contents of this Psalm are generally summed up thus: The majesty and grace of Christ's kingdom; or an epithalamium of Jesus Christ and the Christian Church; the duty of this Church, and its privileges. The Psalm contains a magnificent description of the beauty, ornaments, valor, justice, and truth of the Divine Bridegroom; the beauty, magnificence, and riches of the bride, who was to become mother of a numerous and powerful posterity. The preamble is found in the title and [Psa 45:1]. The description and character of the Bridegroom, [Psa 45:2-9]. The address to the bride by her companions, [Psa 45:10-15]. A prediction of her numerous and glorious descendants, [Psa 45:16], [Psa 45:17].

[¶19] The title is nearly the same with that of Psalm 69: and 80: "To the chief musician, or master of the band of those who played on the six-stringed instruments, giving instruction for the sons of Korah; a song of loves, or amatory ode; or a song of the beloved maids." The Vulgate and Septuagint have, For those who shall be changed, or brought into another state, which some have interpreted as relating to the resurrection of the just, but if I could persuade myself that the title came by Divine inspiration, I would say it more properly belonged to the calling and conversion of the Gentiles, and bringing them over from idolatry to the worship of the true God. By some the word ששנים shoshannim, is translated lilies; and a world of labor has been spent to prove that these lilies mean the saints, Jesus Christ himself, and the Divine light which is a banner to them that fear him. I cannot believe that any such meaning is intended, and, consequently, I cannot attempt to interpret the Psalm after this model. I believe it to be an epithalamium, or nuptial song, which primarily respected Solomon's marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh; and that it probably has a prophetic reference to the conversion of the Gentiles, and the final aggrandizement of the Christian Church.

### Verse 1

[¶21] My heart is inditing a good matter - רחש rachash, boileth or bubbleth up, as in the margin. It is a metaphor taken from a fountain that sends up its waters from the earth in this way. The Vulgate has eructavit, which is most literally translated by the old Psalter: Mi hert ryfted gude word. My heart belcheth - Anglo-Saxon.

[¶22] I speak of the things which I have made touching the king - אמר אני מעשי למלך, literally, "I dedicate my work unto the king." Or, as the Psalter, I say my werkes til the kyng. This was the general custom of the Asiatic poets. They repeated their works before princes and honorable men; and especially those parts in which there was either a direct or constructive compliment to the great man. Virgil is reported to have a part of his Aeneid before Augustus, who was so pleased with it that he ordered ten sestertia to be given him for every line. And the famous Persian poet Ferdusi read a part of his Shah Nameh before Sultan Mahmoud, who promised him thirty thousand denars for the poem.

[¶23] My tongue is the pen of a ready writer - I shall compose and speak as fluently the Divine matter which is now in my heart, as the most expert scribe can write from my recitation. My tung of maister swiftly wrytand. "That es, my tung is pen of the Haly Gast; and nout but als his instrument, wham he ledis als he wil. For I speke noght bot that he settis on my tung; als the pen dos noght withouten the writer. Swyftly wrytand, for the vertu of goddes inspiracioun is noght for to thynk with mons study, that he schewes til other of the purete of heven; that es some for to com that he wrytes." - Old Psalter.

### Verse 2

[¶25] Thou art fairer than the children of men - By whom are these words spoken? As this is a regular epithalamium, we are to consider that the bride and bridegroom have compliments paid them by those called the friends of the bridegroom, and the companions or maids of the bride. But it seems that the whole Psalm, except the first verse, was spoken by those who are called in the title ידידת yedidoth, the beloved maids, or female companions, who begin with his perfections, and then describe hers. And afterwards there is a prophetical declaration concerning his issue. We may, therefore, consider that what is spoken here is spoken by companions of the bride, or what are called yedidoth in the title. It would be unauthenticated to say Solomon was the most beautiful man in the universe; but to the perfections of the Lord Jesus they may be safely applied.

[¶26] Grace is poured into thy lips - This probably refers to his speech, or the gracious words which he spoke. Solomon was renowned for wisdom, and especially the wisdom of his conversation. The queen of Sheba came from the uttermost parts of the land to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and so far did she find him exceeding all his fame, that she said one half had not been told her: but behold, a greater than Solomon is here. No man ever spoke like this man, his enemies themselves being judges.

[¶27] God hath blessed thee for ever - This, I am afraid, could in no sense be ever spoken of Solomon; but of the man Christ Jesus it is strictly true.

### Verse 3

[¶29] Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty - This clause should be translated, O hero, gird thy sword upon thy thigh! This, I think, cannot be spoken of Solomon. He was not a warlike prince: he never did any feats of arms. It has been said he would have been a warrior, if he had had enemies; it might have been so: but the words more properly apply to Christ, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords; whose sword with two edges, proceeding from his mouth, cuts all his adversaries to pieces.

[¶30] With thy glory and thy majesty - Be as war-like as thou art glorious and majestic. Solomon's court was splendid, and his person was majestic. These words may be well said of him. But the majesty and glory of Christ are above all: he is higher than all the kings of the earth; and has a name above every name; and at it every knee shall bend, and every tongue confess.

### Verse 4

[¶32] In thy majesty ride prosperously - These words cannot be spoken of Solomon; they are true only of Christ. His riding is the prosperous progress of his Gospel over the earth. He uses no sword but the sword of the Spirit; and what religion, system of truth, pretended or real, ever made such progress as the religion of Christ has done, without one sword being ever drawn to propagate it from the first introduction of Christianity to the present time? His Gospel is Truth, proclaiming Humility, ענוה anvah, and Righteousness. This, indeed, is the sum of the Gospel; and an epitome of its operations in the hearts of men.

[¶33] 1. The Gospel is a revelation of eternal Truth, in opposition to all false systems of religion, and to all flgurative and ceremonial representations of the true religion. It is truth concerning God, his Nature, and his Works. It is truth concerning Man, his Origin, his Intents, his Duties, and his End. It is truth in what it says concerning the natural, the moral, and the invisible world.

[¶34] 2. It teaches the doctrine of meekness or Humility; opposes pride and vain glory; strips man of his assumed merits; proclaims and enforces the necessity of humiliation or repentance because of sin, humiliation under the providential hand of God, and humility in imitation of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout life.

[¶35] 3. The Gospel teaches Righteousness: shows the nature of sin, wrong, injustice, transgression, etc.; works righteousness in the heart; and directs and influences to the practice of it in all the actions of life. The Gospel leads him who is under its influences to give to all their due; to God, to his neighbor, to himself. And it is by the propagation of truth, humility, and righteousness, that the earth has become so far blessed, and the kingdom of Christ become extended among men.

[¶36] And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things - The Chaldee is different: "And the Lord will teach thee to perform terrible things by thy right hand." The Arabic: "And with admiration shall thy right hand direct thee." The Septuagint: "And thy right hand shall lead thee wonderfully." To the same purpose are the Vulgate, Anglo-Saxon, and the old Psalter. The meaning is, Nothing shall be able to resist thee, and the judgments which thou shalt inflict on thine enemies shall be terrible.

### Verse 5

[¶38] Thine arrows are sharp - The arrows here may mean the convictions produced in the hearts of men by the preaching of the Gospel. The King is God himself; his enemies are sinners of all sorts. The people, the Jews, thousands of whom were pricked in their hearts under the preaching of Peter and others. All fall before Christ; those who received the word rose again by repentance and faith; those who did not, fell down-all down!

### Verse 6

[¶40] Thy throne, O God, is for ever - כסאך אלהים עולם ועד kisacha Elohim olam vaed. "O God, thy throne is for ever, and eternal!" The word Elohim here is the very first term or name by which the Supreme God has made himself known to the children of men. See [Gen 1:1]; and this very verse the apostle, [Heb 1:8], has applied to Jesus Christ. On this I shall make a very short remark, but it shall be conclusive: If the apostle did not believe Jesus Christ to be the true and eternal God, he has utterly misapplied this Scripture.

[¶41] The translation in the old Psalter, and the paraphrase will, on this controverted text, be considered of some importance: Thi settil God in werld of werlde: wande of ryghtyng wande of thi kyngedome. Here he loues [celebrates] God Crist - of dome. Thi settil of demyng and of kynges pouste. God es werld of werld for al that he demes es noght chaunged and that byfalles the, for the wande that es ceptre and the governyng of thi kyngdom es wande of ryghtyng, that ryghtes croked men this es the wand of goddes evenes that ay es ryght and never croked that reules ryghtwis men ard smytes wiked men. The reader will observe a blank space between the word Crist and of dome: it is the same in the original. A word has been so carefully erased with the scalpel in the above place, that not a vestige of a letter is left. From the following words I should suspect it to have been kynge or lard. Here he praises God, Christ, king of judgment. However this may be, it is evident that this ancient commentator understood the word God to be applied to Christ. I have given the sentence as it is pointed in the original.

### Verse 7

[¶43] Oil of gladness - As an evidence that all causes of mourning, sorrow, and death, were at an end; as in the state of mourning the ancients did not anoint themselves.

[¶44] I have mentioned above that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, [Heb 1:8], [Heb 1:9], quotes [Psa 45:6], [Psa 45:7], of this Psalm. I shall subjoin the substance of what I have written on these verses in that place: - [Heb 1:8]

[¶45] Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever - If this be said of the Son of God, i.e., Jesus Christ, then Jesus Christ must be God; and indeed the design of the apostle is to prove this. The words here quoted are taken from [Psa 45:6], [Psa 45:7], which the ancient Chaldee paraphrast, and the most intelligent rabbins, refer to the Messiah. On the third verse of this Psalm, 'Thou art fairer than the children of men,' the Targum says: 'Thy beauty, מלכא משיחא malca Meshicha, O King Messiah, is greater than the children of men.' Aben Ezra says: 'This Psalm speaks of David, or rather of his Son the Messiah, for this is his name, [Eze 34:24] : And David my servant shall be a prince over them for ever.' Other rabbins confirm this opinion. "This verse is very properly considered a proof, and indeed a strong one, of the divinity of Christ; but some late versions of the New Testament have endeavored to avoid the evidence of this proof by translating the word thus: 'God is thy throne for ever and ever;' and if this version be correct, it is certain that the text can be no proof of the doctrine. Mr. Wakefield vindicates this translation at large in his History of Opinions; and ὁ Θεος being the nominative case is supposed to be sufficient justification of this version. In answer to this it may be stated that the nominative case is often used for the vocative, particularly by the Attics, and the whole scope of the place requires it should be so used here; and with due deference to all of a contrary opinion, the original Hebrew cannot be consistently translated any other way; כסאך אלהים עולם ועד kisacha Elohim olam vaed, 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and to eternity.' It is in both worlds, and extends over all time, and will exist through all endless duration. To this our Lord seems to refer, [Mat 28:18] : 'All power is given unto me, both in Heaven and Earth.' My throne, i.e., my dominion, extends from the creation to the consummation of all things. These I have made, and these I uphold; and from the end of the world, throughout eternity, I shall have the same glory - sovereign unlimited power and authority, which I had with the Father before the world began; [Joh 17:5]. I may add that none of the ancient Versions has understood it in the way contended for by those who deny the Godhead of Christ, either in the Psalm from which it is taken, or in this place where it is quoted. Aquila translates אלהים Elohim, by Θεε, O God, in the vocative case; and the Arabic adds the sign of the vocative ya, reading the place thus: korsee yallaho ila abadilabada, the same as in our Version. And even allowing that ὁ Θεος here is to be used as the nominative case, it will not make the sense contended for without adding εστι to it, a reading which is not countenanced by any Version, nor by any MS. yet discovered. Wiclif, Coverdale, and others, understood it as the nominative, and translated it so; and yet it is evident that this nominative has the power of the vocative: Forsothe to the sone God thi troone into the world of worlde: a gerde of equite the gerde of thi reume. I give this, pointing and all, as it stands in my old MS. Bible. Wiclif is nearly the same, but is evidently of a more modern cast: But to the sone he seith, God thy trone is unto the world of world, a gherd of equyte is the gherd of thi rewme. Coverdale translates it thus: 'But unto the sonne he sayeth: God, thi seate endureth for ever and ever: the cepter of thy kyngdome is a right cepter.' Tindal and others follow in the same way, all reading it in the nominative case, with the force of the vocative; for none of them has inserted the word εστι is, because not authorized by the original; a word which the opposers of the Divinity of our Lord are obliged to beg, in order to support their interpretation.

## 600. Psalms · 54 of 159

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[¶0] A scepter of righteousness - The scepter, which was a sort of staff or instrument of various forms, was the ensign of government, and is here used for government itself. This the ancient Jewish writers understand also of the Messiah. [Heb 1:9]

[¶1] Thou hast loved righteousness - This is the characteristic of a just governor; he abhors and suppresses iniquity; he countenances and supports righteousness and truth.

[¶2] Therefore God, even thy God - The original, δια τουτου εχρισε δε, ὁ Θεος, ὁ Θεος σου, may be thus translated: 'Therefore, O God, thy God hath anointed thee.' The form of speech is nearly the same with that in the preceding verse; but the sense is sufficiently clear if we read: 'Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee,' etc.

[¶3] With the oil of gladness - We have often had occasion to remark that anciently kings, priests, and prophets, were consecrated to their several offices by anointing, and that this signified the gifts and influences of the Divine Spirit. Christ, ὁ χριστος, signifies The anointed One, the same as the Hebrew Messiah; and he is here said to be 'anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.' None was ever constituted prophet, priest, and king, but himself: some were kings only, prophets only, and priests only; others were kings and priests, or priests and prophets, or kings and prophets; but none had ever the three offices in his own person but Jesus Christ; and none but himself can be a King over the universe, a Prophet to all intelligent beings, and a Priest to the whole human race. Thus he is infinitely exalted beyond his fellows - all that had ever borne the regal, prophetic, or sacerdotal offices. "Some think that the word μετοχους, fellows, refers to believers who are made partakers of the same Spirit, but cannot have its infinite plenitude. The first sense seems the best. Gladness is used to express the festivities which took place on the inauguration of kings," etc.

### Verse 8

[¶5] All thy garments smell of myrrh - The Asiatics are very partial to perfumes; every thing with them is perfumed, and especially their garments. And the ivory palaces mentioned are the wardrobes inlaid with ivory, in which their numerous changes of raiment were deposited. Myrrh and aloes are well known; cassia is probably the bark or wood of the cinnamon tree. These with frankincense, galbanum and other odoriferous drugs, were and are frequently used in the perfumes of the Asiatic nations.

[¶6] Whereby they have made thee glad - Referring to the effect of strong perfumes refreshing and exhilarating the spirits.

### Verse 9

[¶8] Kings' daughters were among - Applied to Solomon, these words have no difficulty. We know he had seven hundred wives, princesses; and the mention of those here may be intended only to show how highly respected he was among the neighboring sovereigns, when they cheerfully gave him their daughters to constitute his harem. If we apply it to Solomon's marriage with the daughter of the king of Egypt, it may signify no more than the princesses and ladies of honor who accompanied her to the Israelitish court. Applied to Christ, it may signify that the Gospel, though preached particularly to the poor, became also the means of salvation to many of the kings, queens, and nobles, of the earth. The Chaldee interprets the queen standing at his right hand, by the law; and the honorable women, by the different regions and countries coming to receive that law from his right hand. Perhaps by kings' daughters may be meant different regions and countries, which are represented as constituting the families of potentates. Whole nations shall be converted to the Christian faith; and the queen - the Christian Church, shall be most elegantly adorned with all the graces and good works which at once constitute and adorn the Christian character.

### Verse 10

[¶10] Hearken. O daughter, and consider - This is the beginning of the address by the companions of the bride to their mistress; after having, in the preceding verses, addressed the bridegroom; or, rather, given a description of his person, qualities, and magnificence. Suppose the daughter of Pharaoh to be intended, the words import: Thou art now become the spouse of the most magnificent monarch in the universe. To thee he must be all in all. Forget therefore thy own people - the Egyptians, and take the Israelites in their place. Forget also thy father's house; thou art now united to a new family. So shall the king - Solomon, greatly desire thy beauty - thou wilt be, in all respects, pleasing to him. And it is right thou shouldst act so; for he is now become thy lord - thy supreme governor. And worship thou him - submit thyself reverently and affectionately to all his commands.

[¶11] Taken in reference to Christ and the Gospel, this is an address to the Gentiles to forsake their idolatrous customs and connexions, to embrace Christ and his Gospel in the spirit of reverence and obedience, with the promise that, if beautified with the graces of his Spirit, Christ will delight in them, and take them for his peculiar people; which has been done.

### Verse 12

[¶13] The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift - The Tyrians shall pay tribute to thy spouse, and assist him in all his grand and magnificent operations.

[¶14] As, at this time, Tyre was the greatest maritime and commercial city in the world, it may be here taken as representing those places which lay on the coasts of the sea, and carried on much traffic such as parts of Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, France, the British Isles, etc., which first received the Gospel of Christ and were the instruments of sending it to all the other nations of the earth.

[¶15] Rich among the people - The most powerful and opulent empires, kingdoms, and states, shall embrace Christianity, and entreat the favor of its Author.

### Verse 13

[¶17] The king's daughter is all glorious within - This, in some sense, may be spoken of Solomon's bride, the daughter of the king of Egypt; and then the expression may refer either to the cultivation of her mind, or the ornaments and splendor of her palace. The Asiatic queens, sultanas, and begums, scarcely ever appear in public. They abide in the harem in the greatest luxury and splendor; and to this, as its literal meaning, the text may possibly refer.

[¶18] Her clothing is of wrought gold - Of the most costly embroidery: her palace, and her person, are decorated in the very highest state of elegance and magnificence.

[¶19] Spiritually the king's daughter may mean the Christian Church filled with the mind that was in Christ, and adorned with the graces of the Holy Spirit; while the whole of its outward conduct is pure and holy, ornamented with the works of faith and love, and always bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit.

### Verse 14

[¶21] She shall be brought unto the king - When an Asiatic princess is brought to her spouse, she is inclosed in a palakee, and no part of her person is visible. She is attended by her principal friends and companions, who follow the palakee, and the ceremony is accompanied with great rejoicing; and thus they enter into the palace of the king.

[¶22] This part of this parabolical Psalm may refer to the glories of a future state. The Christian Church shall be brought to the King eternal in the great day, adorned with the graces of the Divine Spirit; and thus shall all the redeemed of the Lord enter Into the king's palace - into the everlasting joy of their Lord.

### Verse 16

[¶24] Instead of thy fathers shalt be thy children - This is the third part, or prophetic declaration relative to the numerous and powerful issue of this marriage. Instead of the kindred, which thou hast left behind in Egypt, thou shalt have numerous children. This cannot refer either to Solomon, or to the daughter of Pharaoh; for there is no evidence that he ever had a child by Pharaoh's daughter; and it is very certain that Rehoboam, Solomon's successor, was not son to the daughter of Pharaoh; nor did any princes of that line ever occupy a foreign throne; nor by successive generations ever continue the remembrance of Solomon and his Egyptian queen. The children mentioned here are generally supposed to mean the apostles and their successors in the Christian ministry; founding Churches all over the world, by whom the Christian name becomes a memorial through all the earth.

### Verse 17

[¶26] Therefore shall the people praise thee - They shall magnify the heavenly Bridegroom, and sing the wonderful displays of his love to the

[¶27] Church, his spouse. And the constant use of this Psalm in the Christian Church is a literal fulfillment of the prophecy.

### Introduction

[¶29] The confidence of believers in God, [Psa 46:1-3]. The privileges of the Church, [Psa 46:4], [Psa 46:5]; her enemies, and her helper, [Psa 46:6], [Psa 46:7]. God's judgments tn the earth, [Psa 46:8], [Psa 46:9]. He will be exalted among the heathen, and throughout the earth, [Psa 46:10], [Psa 46:11].

[¶30] The title in the Hebrew is, "To the chief musician for the sons of Korah; an ode upon Alamoth, or concerning the virgins:" possibly meaning a choir of singing girls. Some translate the word secrets or mysteries; and explain it accordingly. Calmet thinks it was composed by the descendants of Korah, on their return from the Babylonian captivity, when they had once more got peaceably settled in Jerusalem; and that the disturbances to which it refers were those which took place in the Persian empire after the death of Cambyses, when the Magi usurped the government. Many other interpretations and conjectures are given of the occasion of this fine ode. Houbigant thinks it was made on occasion of an earthquake, which he supposes took place on the night that all Sennacherib's army was destroyed, Dr. Kennicott thinks that alamoth means a musical instrument. All I can pretend to say about it is, that it is a very sublime ode; contains much consolation for the Church of God; and was given by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit.

### Verse 1

[¶32] God is our refuge - It begins abruptly, but nobly; ye may trust in whom and in what ye please: but God (Elohim) is our refuge and strength.

[¶33] A very present help - A help found to be very powerful and effectual in straits and difficulties. The words are very emphatic: עזרה בצרות נמצא מאד ezerah betsaroth nimtsa meod, "He is found an exceeding, or superlative help in difficulties." Such we have found him, and therefore celebrate his praise.

### Verse 2

[¶35] Therefore will not we fear - Let what commotions will take place in the earth, we will trust in the all-powerful arm of God. Probably the earthquake referred to, here means political commotions, such as those mentioned under the title; and by mountains, kings or secular states may be intended.

### Verse 3

[¶37] Though the waters thereof roar - Waters, in prophetic language, signify people; and, generally, people in a state of political commotion, here signified by the term roar. And by these strong agitations of the people, the mountains - the secular rulers, shake with the swelling thereof - tremble, for fear that these popular tumults should terminate in the subversion of the state. This very people had seen all Asia in a state of war. The Persians had overturned Asia Minor, and destroyed the Babylonian empire: they had seen Babylon itself sacked and entered by the Persians; and Cyrus, its conqueror, had behaved to them as a father and deliverer. While their oppressors were destroyed, themselves were preserved, and permitted to return to their own land.

### Verse 4

[¶39] There is a river, the streams whereof - The Chaldee understands the river, and its streams or divisions, as pointing out various peoples who should be converted to the faith and thus make glad the city of God, Jerusalem by their flowing together to the worship of the true God.

[¶40] But the river may refer to the vast Medo-Persian army and its divisions: those branches which took Babylon; and, instead of ruining and destroying the poor Jews, preserved them alive, and gave them their liberty; and thus the city of God, and the tabernacle of the Most High, were gladdened.

### Verse 5

[¶42] God is in the midst of her - God will not abandon them that trust in him; he will maintain his own cause; and, if his Church should at any time be attacked, he will help her and that right early - with the utmost speed. As soon as the onset is made, God is there to resist. As by the day-break the shadows and darkness are dissipated; so by the bright rising of Jehovah, the darkness of adversity shall be scattered.

### Verse 6

[¶44] The heathen raged - There had been terrible wars on all hands, and mighty states were crushed, when the poor Jews were, by the especial favor of God, kept in peace and safety. Kingdoms were moved while they were preserved.

## 601. Psalms · 55 of 159

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[¶0] He uttered his voice - These words seem to refer to thunder, lightning, and earthquake. The expressions, however, may be figurative, and refer to the wars and desolations already mentioned. God gave the command; and one empire was cast down, and another was raised up.

### Verse 7

[¶2] The Lord of hosts is with us - We, feeble Jesvs, were but a handful of men; but the Lord of hosts - the God of armies, was on our side. Him none could attack with hope of success, and his legions could not be over-thrown.

[¶3] The God of Jacob - The God who appeared to Jacob in his distress, and saved him out of all his troubles, appeared also for us his descendants, and has amply proved to us that he has not forgotten his covenant.

### Verse 8

[¶5] Come, behold the works of the Lord - See empires destroyed and regenerated; and in such a way as to show that a supernatural agency has been at work. By the hand of God alone could these great changes be effected.

### Verse 9

[¶7] He maketh wars to cease - By the death of Cambyses, and setting Darius, son of Hystaspes, upon the Persian throne, he has tranquillized the whole empire. That same God who for our unfaithfulness has delivered us into the hands of our enemies, and subjected us to a long and grievous captivity and affliction, has now turned our captivity, and raised us up the most powerful friends and protectors in the very place in which we have been enduring so great a fight of afflictions.

[¶8] He breaketh the bow - He has rendered useless all the implements of war; and so profound and secure is the general tranquillity, that the bow may be safely broken, the spear snapped asunder, and the chariot burnt in the fire.

### Verse 10

[¶10] Be still, and know that I am God - הרפו harpu, Cease from your provocations of the Divine justice; cease from murmuring against the dispensations of his providence; cease from your labor for a season, that ye may deeply reflect on the severity and goodness of God - severity to those who are brought down and destroyed; goodness to you who are raised up and exalted: - cease from sin and rebellion against your God; let that disgrace you no more, that we may no more be brought into distress and desolation.

[¶11] Know that I am God - Understand that I am the Fountain of power, wisdom, justice, goodness, and truth.

[¶12] I will be exalted among the heathen - By the dispensation of punishments, the heathen shall know me to be the God of justice; by the publication of my Gospel among them, they shall know me to be the God of goodness.

[¶13] I will be exalted in the earth - I will have my salvation proclaimed in every nation, among every people, and in every tongue.

### Verse 11

[¶15] The Lord of hosts is with us - Having heard these declarations of God, the people cry out with joy and exultation, The Lord of hosts, the God of armies, is with us; we will not fear what man can do unto us.

[¶16] The God of Jacob is our refuge - He who saved our fathers will save us, and will never abandon his people in distress.

[¶17] Selah - This is a firm, lasting, unshaken, well-tried truth.

### Introduction

[¶19] The Gentiles are invited to celebrate the praises of God as the Sovereign of the world, [Psa 47:1], [Psa 47:2]. The Jews exalt in his kindness to them, [Psa 47:3], [Psa 47:4]. All then join to celebrate his Majesty, as reigniny over the heathen, and gathering the dispersed Jews and Gentiles together into one Church, [Psa 47:5-9].

[¶20] The title, "A Psalm for the sons of Korah," has nothing remarkable in it. The Psalm was probably written about the same time with the preceding, and relates to the happy state of the Jews when returned to their own land. They renewed their praises and promises of obedienee, and celebrate him for the deliverance they had received. See the introduction to [Psa 46:1-11] (note). In a spiritual sense, it appears to relate to the calling of the Gentiles to be made partakers of the blessings of the Gospel with the converted Jews.

### Verse 1

[¶22] O clap your hands, all ye people - Let both Jews and Gentiles magnify the Lord: the Jews, for being delivered from the Babylonish captivity; the Gentiles, for being called to enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

### Verse 2

[¶24] For the Lord most high is terrible - He has insufferable majesty, and is a great King - the mightiest of all emperors, for he is Sovereign over the whole earth.

### Verse 3

[¶26] He shall subdue the people under us - He shall do again for us what he had done for our forefathers - give us dominion over our enemies, and establish us in our own land. I would rather read this in the past tense, relative to what God did for their fathers in destroying the Canaanites, and giving them the promised land for their possession, and taking the people for his own inheritance. This is also applied to the conversion of the Gentiles who, on the rejection of the Jews, have become his inheritance; and whom he has chosen to inherit all those spiritual blessings typified by the sacrifices and other significant rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Church.

### Verse 5

[¶28] God is gone up with a shout - Primarily, this may refer to the rejoicing and sounding of trumpets, when the ark was lifted up to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites. But it is generally understood as a prophetic declaration of the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the shout may refer to the exultation of the evangelists and apostles in preaching Christ crucified, buried, risen from the dead, and ascended to heaven, ever to appear in the presence of God for us. This was the triumph of the apostles; and the conversion of multitudes of souls by this preaching was the triumph of the cross of Christ.

### Verse 6

[¶30] Sing praises - זמרו zammeru: this word is four times repeated in this short verse, and shows at once the earnestness and happiness of the people. They are the words of exultation and triumph. Feel your obligation to God; express it in thanksgiving: be thankful, be eternally thankful, to God your King.

### Verse 7

[¶32] For God is the King of all the earth - He is not your King only, but the King of the universe. He has no limited power, no confined dominion.

[¶33] Sing ye praises with understanding - זמרו משכיל zammeru maskil, sing an instructive song. Let sense and sound go together. Let your hearts and heads go with your voices. Understand what you sing; and feel what you understand; and let the song be what will give instruction in righteousness to them that hear it. Sing wisely - Anglo-Saxon. Multitudes sing foolishly.

### Verse 8

[¶35] God reigneth over the heathen - Though this is literally true in God's universal dominion, yet more is here meant. God reigns over the heathen when, by the preaching of the Gospel, they are brought into the Church of Christ.

[¶36] God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness - He is a holy God; he proclaims holiness. His laws are holy, he requires holiness, and his genuine people are all holy. The throne of his holiness is the heaven of heavens; also the temple at Jerusalem; and, lastly, the hearts of the faithful.

### Verse 9

[¶38] The princes of the people are gathered together - נדיבי עמים nedibey ammim. The voluntary people - the princely, noble, or free-willed people; those who gladly receive the word of life; those who, like the Bereans, were of a noble or liberal disposition; and, when they heard the Gospel, searched the Scriptures to see whether these things were so. It is a similar word which is used [Psa 100:3]; and I believe both texts speak of the same people - the Gentiles who gladly come unto his light, and present themselves a free-will offering to the Lord.

[¶39] The people or the God of Abraham - Who were Abraham's people? Not the Jews; the covenant was made with him while yet in urcircumcision. Properly speaking, the Gentiles are those whom he represented; for the covenant was made with him while yet a Gentile; and in his seed all the nations - the Gentiles, of the earth were to be blessed. The people of the God of Abraham are the Gentiles who, receiving the Gospel, are made partakers of the faith of Abraham, and are his spiritual children. The God of Abraham has Abraham's spiritual posterity, the believing Gentiles, for his own people.

[¶40] The shields of the earth belong unto God - The Septuagint translate this οἱ κραταιοι, the strong ones of the earth. The Vulgate reads, Quoniam dii fortes terrae vehementer elevati sunt; "Because the strong gods of the earth are exceedingly exalted." These are supposed to mean kings and rulers of provinces which were present at the dedication of the temple; (for some suppose the Psalm to have been composed for this solemnity); and that they are said here to be greatly exalted, because they exercised a very high degree of power over their respective districts. The words refer to something by which the inhabitants of the earth are defended; God's providence, guardian angels, etc., etc.

[¶41] He is greatly exalted - Great as secular rulers are, God is greater, and is above all; King of kings and Lord of lords; and the hearts of kings and governors are in his hand; and he turns them whithersoever he pleases.

### Introduction

[¶43] The ornaments and the privileges of the Church, [Psa 48:1-8]. The duty of God's people, [Psa 48:9-14].

[¶44] The title: A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. To which the Vulgate, Septuagint, Aethiopia, and Arabic add, for the second day of the week; for which I believe it would be difficult to find a meaning. It is evidently of the same complexion with the two preceding, and refers to the Jews returned from captivity; and perhaps was sung at the dedication of the second temple, in order to return thanks to the Lord for the restoration of their political state, and the reestablishment of their worship.

## 602. Psalms · 56 of 159

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Great is the Lord - This verse should be joined to the last verse of the preceding Psalm, as it is a continuation of the same subject; and indeed in some of Kennicott's MSS. it is written as a part of the foregoing. That concluded with He is greatly exalted; this begins with Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; i.e., He should be praised according to his greatness; no common praise is suited to the nature and dignity of the Supreme God.

[¶2] In the city of our God - That is, in the temple; or in Jerusalem, where the temple was situated.

[¶3] The mountain of his holiness - Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built. The ancient city of Jerusalem, which David took from the Jebusites, was on the south of Mount Zion, on which the temple was built, though it might be said to be more properly on Mount Moriah, which is one of the hills of which Mount Zion is composed. The temple therefore was to the north of the city, as the psalmist here states, [Psa 48:2] : "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." But some think that it is the city that is said to be on the north, and Reland contends that the temple was on the south of the city.

### Verse 2

[¶5] The joy of the whole earth - Commentators have been greatly puzzled to show in what sense Zion, or the temple, could be said to be the joy of the whole earth. If we take the earth here for the habitable globe, there is no sense in which it ever was the joy of the whole earth; but If we take כל הארץ col haarets, as signifying the whole of this land, (and it has no other meaning), the assertion is plain and easy to be understood, for the temple was considered the ornament and glory of the whole land of Judea.

### Verse 3

[¶7] God is known in her palaces for a refuge - All those who worship there in spirit and truth, find God for their refuge. But the words may be understood: God is known for the defense of her palaces; and with this view of the subject agree the three following verses.

### Verse 4

[¶9] For, lo, the kings were assembled - Many of the neighboring potentates, at different times, envied the prosperity of the Jewish nation, and coveted the riches of the temple; but they had no power against it till the cup of Jewish transgression was full. In vain did they assemble - confederate, and invade the land. Saw it - reconnoitered the place; marvelled at its excellence and strength, for they were troubled - struck with fear; hasted away for fear of destruction, for fear took hold on them as pains seize on a woman to travail. Those who came to destroy were glad to make their own escape.

### Verse 7

[¶11] Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish - Calmet thinks this may refer to the discomfiture of Cambyses, who came to destroy the land of Judea. "This is apparently," says he, "the same tempest which struck dismay into the land-forces of Cambyses, and wrecked his fleet which was on the coasts of the Mediterranean sea, opposite to his army near the port of Acco, or the Ptolemais; for Cambyses had his quarters at Ecbatana, at the foot of Mount Carmel; and his army was encamped in the valley of Jezreel." Ships of Tarshish he conjectures to have been large stout vessels, capable of making the voyage of Tarsus, in Cilicia.

### Verse 8

[¶13] As we have heard, so have we seen - Our fathers have declared what mighty works thou didst in their time; and we have seen the same. God has often interposed and afforded us a most miraculous defense. So it was when they were invaded by the Assyrians, Syrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians and the Greeks under Alexander.

[¶14] The city of the Lord of hosts - His hosts defended the city, and it was known to be the City of the great King.

[¶15] God will establish it for ever - This must refer to the true temple, the Christian Church, of which the Jewish Church was a type. The type perished, but the antitype remained, and will remain till time shall be no more.

[¶16] Selah - So be it; and so it will be for evermore.

### Verse 9

[¶18] We have thought of thy loving-kindness - We went to thy temple to worship thee; we meditated on thy goodness; we waited for a display of it; and the panic that in the first instance struck us, was transferred to our enemies; and fear took hold upon them, they marvelled, were troubled, and hasted away.

### Verse 10

[¶20] According to thy name - As far as thou art known, so far art thou praised; and where thou art known, thou wilt have praise to the end of the earth. And why? "Thy right hand is full of righteousness." Thou art continually dispensing thy blessings to the children of men.

### Verse 11

[¶22] Let Mount Zion rejoice - The temple is restored in majesty, which was threatened with total destruction; it is again repaired.

[¶23] Let the daughters of Judah be glad - That thou hast turned her captivity, and poured out thy judgments upon her oppressors.

### Verse 12

[¶25] Walk about Zion - Consider the beauty and magnificence of the temple, count the towers by which it is fortified.

### Verse 13

[¶27] Mark ye well her bulwarks - See the redoubts by which she is defended.

[¶28] Consider her palaces - See her courts, chambers, altars, etc., etc.; make an exact register of the whole, that ye may have to tell to your children how Jerusalem was built in troublesome times; how God restored you; and how he put it into the hearts of the heathen to assist to build, beautify, and adorn the temple of our God.

### Verse 14

[¶30] For this God - Who did all these wonderful things: -

[¶31] Is our God - He is our portion, and he has taken us for his people.

[¶32] He will be our guide - Through all the snares and difficulties of life: -

[¶33] Even unto death - He will never leave us; and we, by his grace, will never abandon him. He is just such a God as we need; infinite in mercy, goodness, and truth. He is our Father, and we are the sons and daughters of God Almighty. Even unto and in death, he will be our portion.

### Introduction

[¶35] All men are invited to attend to lessons of wisdom relative to the insufficiency of earthly good to save or prolong life; to secure the resurrection from the dead, [Psa 49:1-9]. Death is inevitable, [Psa 49:10]. The vain expectations of rich men, [Psa 49:11-13]. Death renders all alike, [Psa 49:14]. The psalmist encourages and fortifies himself against envying the apparently prosperous state of the wicked, who are brutish, and die like beasts, [Psa 49:15-20].

[¶36] The title, To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah, has nothing particular in it; and the Versions say little about it. One of the descendants of the children of Korah might have been the author of it; but when or on what occasion it was made, cannot now be discovered. The author aimed to be obscure, and has succeeded; for it is very difficult to make out his meaning. It is so much in the style of the Book of Job, that one might believe they had the same author; and that this Psalm might have made originally a part of that book. "It seems," says Dr. Dodd, "to be a meditation on the vanity of riches, and the usual haughtiness of those who possess them. As a remedy for this, he sets before them the near prospect of death, from which no riches can save, in which no riches can avail. The author considers the subject he is treating as a kind of wisdom concealed from the world; a mystery, an occult science with respect to the generality of mankind." Dr. Kennicott has given an excellent translation of this Psalm which is very literal, simple, and elegant; and by it the reader will be convinced that a good translation of a difficult passage is often better than a comment.

### Verse 1

[¶38] Hear this, all ye people - The four first verses contain the author's exordium or introduction, delivered in a very pompous style and promising the deepest lessons of wisdom and instruction. But what was rare then is common-place now.

### Verse 4

[¶40] I will incline mine ear to a parable - This was the general method of conveying instruction among the Asiatics. They used much figure and metaphor to induce the reader to study deeply in order to find out the meaning. This had its use; it obliged men to think and reflect deeply; and thus in some measure taught them the use, government, and management of their minds.

[¶41] My dark saying upon the harp - Music was sometimes used to soothe the animal spirits, and thus prepare the mind for the prophetic influx.

### Verse 5

[¶43] The iniquity of my heels - Perhaps עקבי akebai, which we translate my heels, should be considered the contracted plural of עקבים akebim, supplanters. The verse would then read thus: "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, though the iniquity of my supplanters should compass me about." The Syriac and Arabic have taken a similar view of the passage: "Why should I fear in the evil day, when the iniquity of my enemies compasses me about." And so Dr. Kennicott translates it.

## 603. Psalms · 57 of 159

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### Verse 7

[¶1] Sone of them can by any means redeem his brother - Wealth cannot save from death; brother, however rich, cannot save his brother; nor will God accept riches as a ransom for the life or soul of any transgressor. To procure health of body, peace of mind, redemption from death, and eternal glory, riches are sought for and applied in vain.

### Verse 8

[¶3] For the redemption of their soul is precious - It is of too high a price to be redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver or gold, and has required the sacrificial death of Christ.

[¶4] And it ceaseth for ever - This is very obscure, and may apply to the ransom which riches could produce. That ransom must be for ever unavailable, because of the value of the soul. Or this clause should be added to the following verse, and read thus: "And though he cease to be, (וחדל vechadal), during the hidden time, (לעולם leolam); yet he shall live on through eternity, (ויחי עוד לנצח vichi od lanetsach), and not see corruption." This is probably the dark saying which it was the design of the author to utter in a parable, and leave it to the ingenuity of posterity to find it out. The verb חדל chadal signifies a cessation of being or action, and עולם olam often signifies hidden time, that which is not defined, and the end of which is not ascertained, though it is frequently used to express endless duration. This translation requires no alteration of the original text, and conveys a precise and consistent meaning.

### Verse 10

[¶6] For he seeth that wise men die - Though they may be rich, and their wisdom teach them the best method of managing their riches so as to derive all the good from them they can possibly produce, yet they die as well as the fool and the poor ignorant man; and their wealth is left to others who will be equally disappointed in their expectation from it.

### Verse 11

[¶8] Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever - Thus, by interpolation, we have endeavored to patch up a sense to this clause. Instead of קרבם kirbam, their inward part, the Septuagint appear to have used a copy in which the second and third letters have been transposed קברם kibram, their sepulchres; for they translate: Και οἱ ταφοι αυτων οικιαι αυτων εις τον αιωνα· "For their graves are their dwellings for ever." So six or seven feet long, and two or three wide, is sufficient to hold the greatest conqueror in the universe! What a small house for the quondam possessor of numerous palaces and potent kingdoms!

[¶9] They call their lands after their own names - There would have been no evil in this if it had not been done on an infidel principle. They expected no state but the present; and if they could not continue themselves, yet they took as much pains as possible to perpetuate their memorial.

### Verse 12

[¶11] Man being in honor abideth not - However rich, wise, or honorable, they must die; and if they die not with a sure hope of eternal life, they die like beasts. See on [Psa 49:20] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶13] Their posterity approve their sayinys - Go the same way; adopt their maxims.

### Verse 14

[¶15] Like sheep they are laid in the grave - לשאול lishol, into sheol, the place of separate spirits.

[¶16] Death shall feed on them מות ירעם maveth yirem, "Death shall feed them!" What an astonishing change! All the good things of life were once their portion, and they lived only to eat and drink; and now they live in sheol, and Death himself feeds them? and with what? Damnation. Houbigant reads the verse thus: "Like sheep they shall be laid in the place of the dead; death shall feed on them; their morning shepherds rule over them; and their flesh is to be consumed. Destruction is to them in their folds."

### Verse 15

[¶18] But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave - מיד שאול miyad sheol, "from the hand of sheol." That is, by the plainest construction, I shall have a resurrection from the dead, and an entrance into his glory; and death shall have no dominion over me.

### Verse 16

[¶20] Be not thou afraid when one is made rich - Do not be envious; do not grieve: it will do you no harm; it will do him no good. All he gets will be left behind; he can carry nothing with him. Even his glory must stay behind; he shall mingle with the common earth.

### Verse 18

[¶22] He blessed his soul - He did all he could to procure himself animal gratifications, and he was applauded for it; for it is the custom of the world to praise them who pay most attention to their secular interest; and he who attends most to the concerns of his soul is deemed weak and foolish, and is often persecuted by an ungodly world.

### Verse 19

[¶24] They shall never see light - Rise again they shall; but they shall never see the light of glory, for there is prepared for them the blackness of darkness for ever.

### Verse 20

[¶26] Man that is in honor - The rich and honorable man who has no spiritual understanding, is a beast in the sight of God. The spirit of this maxim is, A man who is in a dignified official situation, but destitute of learning and sound sense, is like a beast. The important place which he occupies reflects no honor upon him, but is disgraced by him. Who has not read the fable of the beautifully carved head? It was every thing that it should be, but had no brains.

[¶27] This verse has been often quoted as a proof of the fall of man; and from ילין yalin, (in [Psa 49:12]), which signifies to lodge for a night, it has been inferred that Adam fell on the same day on which he was created, and that he did not spend a single night in the terrestrial paradise. Adam, who was in a state of glory, did not remain in it one night, but became stupid and ignorant as the beasts which perish. But we may rest assured this is no meaning of the text.

### Introduction

[¶29] God, the Sovereign Judge, cites before his throne all his people, and the priests and the judges, [Psa 50:1-6]; and reproaches them for their vain confidence in the sacrifices they had offered, [Psa 50:7-13]; and shows them the worship he requires, [Psa 50:14], [Psa 50:15]; and then enters into a particular detail of their hypocrisy, injustice, and union with scandalous transgressors; all of whom he threatens with heavy judwments, [Psa 50:16-22]. The blessedrusss of him who worships God aright, and walks unblamably, [Psa 50:23].

[¶30] In the title this is said to be A Psalm of Asaph. There are twelve that go under his name; and most probably he was author of each, for he was of high repute in the days of David, and is mentioned second to him as a composer of psalms: Moreover Hezekiah the king, and the princes, commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord, with the WordS of David, and of Asaph the Seer. His band, sons or companions, were also eminent in the days of David, as we learn from 1 Chronicles 25, etc. Asaph himself was one of the musicians who sounded with cymbals of brass, [1Chr 15:19]. And he is mentioned with great respect, [Neh 12:46] : And in the days of David and Asaph of old there were Chief of the Singers, and Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving unto God. He was certainly a prophetic man: he is called a seer - one on whom the Spirit of God rested; and seems from this, his education, and natural talent to be well qualified to compose hymns or psaims in the honor of God. Persons capable of judging, on a comparison of those Psalms attributed to Asaph with those known to be of David, have found a remarkable difference in the style. The style of David is more polished, flowing, correct, and majestic, than that of Asaph, which is more stiff and obscure. He has been compared to Persius and to Horace; he is keen, full of reprehensions, and his subjects are generally of the doleful kind; which was probably caused by his living in times in which there was great corruption of manners, and much of the displeasure of God either theatened or manifested. It is not known on what particular occasion this Psalm was written; but at most times it was suitable to the state of the Jewish Church.

### Verse 1

[¶32] The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken - Here the essential names of God are used: אל אלהים יהוה El, Elohim, Yehovah, hath spoken. The six first verses of this Psalm seem to contain a description of the great judgment: to any minor consideration or fact it seems impossible, with any propriety, to restrain them. In this light I shall consider this part of the Psalm, and show: -

[¶33] First, The preparatives to the coming of the great Judge. El Elohim Jehovah hath spoken, and called the earth - all the children of men from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, (מכלל יפי michlal yophi, the beauty where all perfection is comprised), God hath shined, [Psa 50:1], [Psa 50:2].

[¶34] 1. He has sent his Spirit to convince men of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

[¶35] 2. He has sent his Word; has made a revelation of himself; and has declared both his law and his Gospel to mankind: "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined," [Psa 50:2]. For out of Zion the law was to go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. [Isa 2:3].

[¶36] Secondly, The accompaniments.

[¶37] 1. His approach is proclaimed, [Psa 50:3] : "Our God shall come."

[¶38] 2. The trumpet proclaims his approach: "He shall not keep silence."

[¶39] 3. Universal nature shall be shaken, and the earth and its works be burnt up: "A fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him," [Psa 50:3].

[¶40] Thirdly, The witnesses are summoned and collected, and collected from all quarters; some from heaven, and some from earth.

[¶41] 1. Guardian angels.

[¶42] 2. Human associates: "He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people," [Psa 50:4].

[¶43] Fourthly, The procedure. As far as it respects the righteous, orders are issued: "Gather my saints," those who are saved from their sins and made holy, "together unto me." And that the word saints might not be misunderstood it is explained by "those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice;" those who have entered into union with God, through the sacrificial offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the rest are passed over in silence. We are told who they are that shall enter into the joy of their Lord, viz., only the saints, those who have made a covenant with God by sacrifice. All, therefore, who do not answer this description are excluded from glory.

[¶44] Fifthly, The final issue: all the angelic hosts and all the redeemed of the Lord, join in applauding acclamation at the decision of the Supreme Judge. The heavens (for the earth is no more, it is burnt up) shall declare his righteousness, the exact justice of the whole procedure, where justice alone has been done without partiality, and without severity, nor could it be otherwise, for God is Judge himself. Thus the assembly is dissolved; the righteous are received into everlasting glory, and the wicked turned into hell, with all those who forget God. Some think that the sentence against the wicked is that which is contained, [Psa 50:16-22]. See the analysis at the end, and particularly on the six first verses, in which a somewhat different view of the subject is taken.

## 604. Psalms · 58 of 159

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### Verse 7

[¶1] Hear, O my people - As they were now amply informed concerning the nature and certainty of the general judgment, and were still in a state of probation, Asaph proceeds to show them the danger to which they were exposed, and the necessity of repentance and amendment, that when that great day should arrive, they might be found among those who had made a covenant with God by sacrifice. And he shows them that the sacrifice with which God would be well pleased was quite different from the bullocks, he-goats, etc., which they were in the habit of offering. In short, he shows here that God has intended to abrogate those sacrifices, as being no longer of any service: for when the people began to trust in them, without looking to the thing signified, it was time to put them away. When the people began to pay Divine honors to the brazen serpent, though it was originally an ordinance of God's appointment for the healing of the Israelites, it was ordered to be taken away; called nehushtan, a bit of brass; and broken to pieces. The sacrifices under the Jewish law were of God's appointment; but now that the people began to put their trust in them, God despised them.

### Verse 8

[¶3] I will not reprove thee - I do not mean to find fault with you for not offering sacrifices; you have offered them, they have been continually before me: but you have not offered them in the proper way.

### Verse 10

[¶5] Every beast of the forest is mine - Can ye suppose that ye are laying me under obligation to you, when ye present me with a part of my own property?

### Verse 12

[¶7] The world is mine, and the fullness thereof - Ye cannot, therefore, give me any thing that is not my own.

### Verse 13

[¶9] Will I eat the flesh of bulls - Can ye be so simple as to suppose that I appointed such sacrifices for my own gratification? All these were significative of a spiritual worship, and of the sacrifice of that Lamb of God which, in the fullness of time, was to take away, in an atoning manner, the sin of the world.

### Verse 14

[¶11] Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High - זבח zebach, "sacrifice unto God, אלהים Elohim, the תודה todah, thank-offering," which was the same as the sin-offering, viz. a bullock, or a ram, without blemish; only there were, in addition, "unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil; and cakes of fine flour mingled with oil and fried," [Lev 7:12].

[¶12] And pay thy vows - נדריך nedareycha, "thy vow-offering, to the Most High." The neder or vow-offering was a male without blemish, taken from among the beeves, the sheep, or the goats. Compare [Lev 22:19] with [Psa 50:22]. Now these were offerings, in their spiritual and proper meaning, which God required of the people: and as the sacrificial system was established for an especial end - to show the sinfulness of sin, and the purity of Jehovah, and to show how sin could be atoned for, forgiven, and removed; this system was now to end in the thing that it signified, - the grand sacrifice of Christ, which was to make atonement, feed, nourish, and save the souls of believers unto eternal life; to excite their praise and thanksgiving; bind them to God Almighty by the most solemn vows to live to him in the spirit of gratitude and obedience all the days of their life. And, in order that they might be able to hold fast faith and a good conscience, they were to make continual prayer to God, who promised to hear and deliver them, that they might glorify him, [Psa 50:15].

[¶13] From the [Psa 50:16] to the [Psa 50:22] Asaph appears to refer to the final rejection of the Jews from having any part in the true covenant sacrifice.

### Verse 16

[¶15] But unto the wicked - The bloodthirsty priests, proud Pharisees, and ignorant scribes of the Jewish people.

### Verse 17

[¶17] Seeing thou hatest instruction - All these rejected the counsel of God against themselves; and refused to receive the instructions of Christ.

### Verse 18

[¶19] When thou sawest a thief - Rapine, adulteries, and adulterous divines, were common among the Jews in our Lord's time. The Gospels give full proof of this.

### Verse 21

[¶21] These things hast thou done - My eye has been continually upon you, though my judgments have not been poured out: and because I was silent, thou didst suppose I was such as thyself; but I will reprove thee, etc. I will visit for these things.

### Verse 22

[¶23] Now consider this - Ye have forgotten your God, and sinned against him. He has marked down all your iniquities, and has them in order to exhibit against you. Beware, therefore, lest he tear you to pieces, when there is none to deliver; for none can deliver you but the Christ you reject. And how can ye escape, if ye neglect so great a salvation?

### Verse 23

[¶25] Whoso offereth praise - These are the very same words as those in [Psa 50:14], זבח תודה; and should be read the same way independently of the points, zebach todah, "sacrifice the thank-offering." Jesus is the great eucharistic sacrifice; offer him up to God in your faith and prayers. By this sacrifice is God glorified, for in him is God well pleased; and it was by the grace or good pleasure of God that he tasted death for every man.

[¶26] Ordereth his conversation - שם דרך sam derech, Disposeth his way. - Margin. Has his way There, שם דרך sham derech, as many MSS. and old editions have it; or makes that his custom.

[¶27] Will I show the salvation of God - אראנו arennu, I will cause him to see בישע beyesha, into the salvation of God; into God's method of saving sinners by Christ. He shall witness my saving power even to the uttermost; such a salvation as it became a God to bestow, and as a fallen soul needs to receive; the salvation from all sin, which Christ has purchased by his death. I sall scheu til him, the hele of God; that es Jeshu, that he se him in the fairehed of his majeste - Old Psalter.

### Introduction

[¶29] The psalmist, with a deeply penitent heart, prays for remission of sins, [Psa 51:1-4]; which he confesses, and deeply deplores, [Psa 51:5-14]; states his willingness to offer sacrifice, but is convinced that God prefers a broken heart to all kinds of oblations, [Psa 51:15-17]; prays for the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem, and promises that then the Lord's sacrifice shall be properly performed, [Psa 51:18], [Psa 51:19].

[¶30] The title is long: "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba." The propriety of this title has been greatly suspected, says Bishop Horsley: "That this Psalm was not written on the occasion to which the title refers, is evident from the [Psa 51:4] and [Psa 51:18]. The [Psa 51:4] ill suits the case of David, who laid a successful plot against Uriah's life, after he had defiled his bed: and the [Psa 51:18] refers the Psalm to the time of the captivity, when Jerusalem lay in ruins." Dr. Kennicott is of the same mind. He says: "The title is misplaced; that it was written during the captivity, and the cessation of the temple worship; the author under great depression of mind, arising from the guilt of some crime, probably some compliance with heathen idolatry, not murder nor adultery; is plain from the [Psa 51:4], "Against Thee Only have I sinned."

[¶31] The crime mentioned in the title was not only against God, but against the whole order of civil society; against the life of the noble and valiant captain whose wife Bath-sheba was, and against every thing sacred in friendship and hospitality. It was a congeries of sins against God and society. Were it not for the [Psa 51:4], [Psa 51:18], and [Psa 51:19], the rest of the Psalm would accord well enough with the title, and the deep penitence it expresses would be suitable enough to David's state. But see on [Psa 51:4] (note), [Psa 51:18-19] (note).

### Verse 1

[¶33] Have mercy upon me, O God - Without mercy I am totally, finally ruined and undone.

[¶34] According to thy loving-kindness - Mark the gradation in the sense of these three words, Have Mercy on me, חנני chonneni; thy Loving-Kindness, חסדך chasdecha; - thy Tender Mercies, רחמיך rachameycha, here used to express the Divine compassion. The propriety of the order in which they are placed deserves particular observation.

[¶35] The first, rendered have mercy or pity, denotes that kind of affection which is expressed by moaning over an object we love and pity; that natural affection and tenderness which even the brute creation show to their young by the several noises they respectively make over them.

[¶36] The second, rendered loving-kindness, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal disposition, to goodness and compassion, powerfully prompting to all instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely as waters from a perpetual fountain. This denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former.

[¶37] The third, rendered tender mercies, denotes what the Greeks called splagcnizesqai, that most tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels, which argues the highest degree of compassion of which nature is susceptible. See Chandler.

[¶38] Blot out my transgressions - מחה mecheh, wipe out. There is a reference here to an indictment: the psalmist knows what it contains; he pleads guilty, but begs that the writing may be defaced; that a proper fluid may be applied to the parchment, to discharge the ink, that no record of it may ever appear against him: and this only the mercy, loving-kindness, and tender compassions of the Lord can do.

### Verse 2

[¶40] Wash me throughly - הרבה כבסני harbeh cabbeseni, "Wash me again and again, - cause my washings to be multiplied." My stain is deep; ordinary purgation will not be sufficient.

### Verse 3

[¶42] For I acknowledge my transgressions - I know, I feel, I confess that I have sinned.

[¶43] My sin is ever before me - A true, deep, and unsophisticated mark of a genuine penitent. Wherever he turns his face, he sees his sin, and through it the eye of an angry God.

### Verse 4

[¶45] Against thee, thee only, have I sinned - This verse is supposed to show the impropriety of affixing the above title to this Psalm. It could not have been composed on account of the matter with Bath-sheba and the murder of Uriah; for, surely, these sins could not be said to have been committed against God Only, if we take the words of this verse in their common acceptation. That was a public sin, grievous, and against society at large, as well as against the peace, honor, comfort, and life of an innocent, brave, and patriotic man. This is readily granted: but see below.

## 605. Psalms · 59 of 159

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[¶0] That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest - Perhaps, to save the propriety of the title, we might understand the verse thus: David, being king, was not liable to be called to account by any of his subjects; nor was there any authority in the land by which he could be judged and punished. In this respect, God Alone was greater than the king; and to him Alone, as king, he was responsible. Nam quando rex deliquit, Soli Deo reus est; guia hominem non habet qui ejus facta dijudicet, says Cassiodorus. "For when a king transgresses, he is accountable to God Only; for there is no person who has authority to take cognizance of his conduct." On this very maxim, which is a maxim in all countries, David might say, Against thee only have I sinned. "I cannot be called to the bar of my subjects; but I arraign myself before thy bar. They can neither judge nor condemn me; but thou canst: and such are my crimes that thou wilt be justified in the eyes of all men, and cleared of all severity, shouldst thou inflict upon me the heaviest punishment." This view,of the subject will reconcile the Psalm to the title. As to the eighteenth and nineteenth verses, we shall consider them in their own place; and probably find that the objection taken from them has not much weight.

### Verse 5

[¶2] Behold, I was shapen in iniquity - A genuine penitent will hide nothing of his state; he sees and bewails, not only the acts of sin which he has committed, but the disposition that led to those acts. He deplores, not only the transgression, but the carnal mind which is enmity against God. The light that shines into his soul shows him the very source whence transgression proceeds; he sees his fallen nature, as well as his sinful life; he asks pardon for his transgressions, and he asks washing and cleansing for his inward defilement. Notwithstanding all that Grotius and others have said to the contrary, I believe David to speak here of what is commonly called original sin; the propensity to evil which every man brings into the world with him, and which is the fruitful source whence all transgression proceeds. The word חוללתי cholalti, which we translate shaped, means more properly, I was brought forth from the womb; and יחמתני yechemathni rather signifies made me warm, alluding to the whole process of the formation of the fetus in utero, the formative heat which is necessary to develope the parts of all embryo animals; to incubate the ova in the female, after having been impregnated by the male; and to bring the whole into such a state of maturity and perfection as to render it capable of subsisting and growing up by aliment received from without. "As my parts were developed in the womb, the sinful principle diffused itself through the whole, so that body and mind grew up in a state of corruption and moral imperfection."

### Verse 6

[¶4] Behold, thou desirest truth - I am the very reverse of what I should be. Those desirest truth in the heart, but in me there is nothing but sin and falsity.

[¶5] Thou shalt make one to know wisdom - Thou wilt teach me to restrain every inordinate propensity, and to act according to the dictates of sound wisdom, the rest of my life.

### Verse 7

[¶7] Purge me with hyssop - תחטאני techatteeni, "thou shalt make a sin-offering for me;" probably alluding to the cleansing of the leper: [Lev 14:1], etc. The priest took two clean birds, cedar-wood, scarlet, and hyssop; one of the birds was killed; and the living bird, with the scarlet, cedar, and hyssop, dipped in the blood of the bird that had been killed, and then sprinkled over the person who had been infected. But it is worthy of remark that this ceremony was not performed till the plague of the leprosy had been healed in the leper; ([Lev 14:3]); and the ceremony above mentioned was for the purpose of declaring to the people that the man was healed, that he might be restored to his place in society, having been healed of a disease that the finger of God alone could remove. This David seems to have full in view; hence he requests the Lord to make the sin-offering for him, and to show to the people that he had accepted him, and cleansed him from his sin.

### Verse 8

[¶9] Make me to hear joy - Let me have a full testimony of my reconciliation to thee; that the soul, which is so deeply distressed by a sense of thy displeasure, may be healed by a sense of thy pardoning mercy.

### Verse 9

[¶11] Hide thy face from my sins - The sentiment here is nearly the same as that in [Psa 51:3] : His sin was ever before his own face; and he knew that the eye of God was constantly upon him, and that his purity and justice must be highly incensed on the account. He therefore, with a just horror of his transgressions, begs God to turn away his face from them, and to blot them out, so that they may never more be seen. See the note on [Psa 51:1] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶13] Create in me a clean heart - Mending will not avail; my heart is altogether corrupted; it must be new made, made as it was in the beginning. This is exactly the sentiment of St. Paul: Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation; and the salvation given under the Gospel dispensation is called a being created anew in Christ Jesus.

[¶14] A right spirit within me - רוח נכון ruach nachon, a constant, steady, determined spirit; called [Psa 51:12], רוח נדיבה ruach nedibah, a noble spirit. a free, generous, princely spirit; cheerfully giving up itself to thee; no longer bound and degraded by the sinfulness of sin.

### Verse 11

[¶16] Cast me not away from thy presence - Banish me not from thy house and ordinances.

[¶17] Take not thy Holy Spirit from me - I know I have sufficiently grieved it to justify its departure for ever, in consequence of which I should be consigned to the blackness of darkness, - either to utter despair, or to a hard heart and seared conscience; and so work iniquity with greediness, till I fell into the pit of perdition. While the Spirit stays, painfully convincing of sin, righteousness, and judgment, there is hope of salvation; when it departs, then the hope of redemption is gone. But while there his any godly sorrow, any feeling of regret for having sinned against God, any desire to seek mercy, then the case is not hopeless; for these things prove that the light of the Spirit is not withdrawn.

### Verse 12

[¶19] Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation - This is an awful prayer. And why? Because it shows he once Had the joy of God's salvation; and had Lost it by sin!

[¶20] Uphold me with thy free spirit - Prop me up; support me with a princely spirit, one that will not stoop to a mean or base act. See on [Psa 51:10] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶22] Then will I teach transgressors - I will show myself to be grateful; I will testify of thy loving-kindness; I will call on transgressors to consider the error of their ways; and shall set before them so forcibly thy justice and mercy, that sinners shall be converted unto thee. With a little change I can adopt the language of Dr. Delaney on this place: "Who can confide in his own strength, when he sees David fall? Who can despair of Divine mercy when he sees him forgiven? Sad triumph of sin over all that is great or excellent in man! Glorious triumph of grace over all that is shameful and dreadful in sin!"

### Verse 14

[¶24] Deliver me from blood-guiltiness - This is one of the expressions that gives most color to the propriety of the title affixed to this Psalm. Here he may have in view the death of Uriah, and consider that his blood cries for vengeance against him; and nothing but the mere mercy of God can wipe this blood from his conscience. The prayer here is earnest and energetic: O God! thou God of my salvation! deliver me! The Chaldee reads, "Deliver me (מדין קטול middin ketol) from the judgment of slaughter."

[¶25] My tongue shall sing aloud - My tongue shall praise thy righteousness. I shall testify to all that thou hast the highest displeasure against sin, and wilt excuse it in no person; and that so merciful art thou, that if a sinner turn to thee with a deeply penitent and broken heart, thou wilt forgive his iniquities. None, from my case, can ever presume; none, from my case, need ever despair.

### Verse 15

[¶27] O Lord, open thou my lips - My heart is believing unto righteousness; give me thy peace, that my tongue may make confession unto salvation. He could not praise God for pardon till he felt that God had pardoned him; then his lips would be opened, and his tongue would show forth the praise of his Redeemer.

### Verse 16

[¶29] For thou desirest not sacrifice - This is the same sentiment which he delivers in [Psa 40:6] (note), etc., where see the notes. There may be here, however, a farther meaning: Crimes, like mine, are not to be expiated by any sacrifices that the law requires; nor hast thou appointed in the law any sacrifices to atone for deliberate murder and adultery: if thou hadst, I would cheerfully have given them to thee. The matter is before thee as Judge.

### Verse 17

[¶31] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit - As my crimes are such as admit of no legal atonement, so thou hast reserved them to be punished by exemplary acts of justice, or to be pardoned by a sovereign act of mercy: but in order to find this mercy, thou requirest that the heart and soul should deeply feel the transgression, and turn to thee with the fullest compunction and remorse. This thou hast enabled me to do. I have the broken spirit, רוח נשברה ruach nishbarah; and the broken and contrite heart, לב נשבר ונדכה leb nishbar venidkeh. These words are very expressive. שבר shabar signifies exactly the same as our word shiver, to break into pieces, to reduce into splinters; and דכה dakah, signifies to beat out thin, - to beat out masses of metal, etc., into laminae or thin plates. The spirit broken all to pieces, and the heart broken all to pieces, stamped and beaten out, are the sacrifices which, in such cases, thou requirest; and these "thou wilt not despise." We may now suppose that God had shone upon his soul, healed his broken spirit, and renewed and removed his broken and distracted heart; and that he had now received the answer to the preceding prayers. And here the Psalm properly ends; as, in the two following verses, there is nothing similar to what we find in the rest of this very nervous and most important composition.

### Verse 18

[¶33] Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion - This and the following verse most evidently refer to the time of the captivity, when the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and the temple service entirely discontinued; and, consequently, are long posterior to the times of David. Hence it has been concluded that the Psalm was not composed by David, nor in his time and that the title must be that of some other Psalm inadvertently affixed to this. The fourth verse has also been considered as decisive against this title: but the note on that verse has considerably weakened, if not destroyed, that objection. I have been long of opinion that, whether the title be properly or improperly affixed to this Psalm, these two verses make no part of it: the subject is totally dissimilar; and there is no rule of analogy by which it can be interpreted as belonging to the Psalm, to the subject, or to the person. I think they originally made a Psalm of themselves, a kind of ejaculatory prayer for the redemption of the captives from Babylon, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the restoration of the temple worship. And, taken in this light, they are very proper and very expressive.

[¶34] The [Psa 117:1-2] contains only two verses; and is an ejaculation of praise from the captives who had just then returned from Babylon. And it is a fact that this Psalm is written as a part of the cxvith in no less than thirty-two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.; and in some early editions. Again, because of its smallness, it has been absorbed by the cxviiith, of which it makes the commencement, in twenty-eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. In a similar way I suppose the two last verses of this Psalm to have been absorbed by the preceding, which originally made a complete Psalm of themselves; and this absorption was the more easy, because, like the cxviith it has no title. I cannot allege a similar evidence relative to these two verses, as ever having made a distinct Psalm; but of the fact I can have no doubt, for the reasons assigned above. And I still think that Psalm is too dignified, too energetic, and too elegant, to have been the composition of any but David. It was not Asaph; it was not any of the sons of Korah; it was not Heman or Jeduthun: the hand and mind of a greater master are here.

### Introduction

[¶36] The psalmist points out the malevolence of a powerful enemy, and predicts his destruction, [Psa 52:1-5]. At which destruction the righteous should rejoice, [Psa 52:6], [Psa 52:7]. The psalmist's confidence on God, [Psa 52:8], [Psa 52:9].

[¶37] The title is, "To the chief Musician, an instructive Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul, and said to him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech." The history to which this alludes is the following: David, having learned that Saul was determined to destroy him, went to take refuge with Achish, king of Gath: in his journey he passed by Nob, where the tabernacle then was, and took thence the sword of Goliath; and, being spent with hunger, took some of the shewbread. Doeg, an Edomite, one of the domestics of Saul, being there, went to Saul, and informed him of these transactions. Saul immediately ordered Ahimelech into his presence, upbraided him for being a partisan of David, and ordered Doeg to slay him and all the priests. Doeg did so, and there fell by his hand eighty-five persons. And Saul sent and destroyed Nob and all its inhabitants, old and young, with all their property; none escaping but Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, who immediately joined himself to David. The account may be found [1Sam 21:1-7]; [1Sam 22:9-23]. All the Versions agree in this title except the Syriac, which speaks of it as a Psalm directed against vice in general, with a prediction of the destruction of evil.

[¶38] Though the Psalm be evidently an invective against some great, wicked, and tyrannical man, yet I think it too mild in its composition for a transaction the most barbarous on record, and the most flagrant vice in the whole character of Saul.

### Verse 1

[¶40] Why boastest thou thyself - It is thought that Doeg boasted of his loyalty to Saul in making the above discovery; but the information was aggravated by circumstances of falsehood that tended greatly to inflame and irritate the mind of Saul. Exaggeration and lying are common to all informers.

[¶41] O mighty man? - This character scarcely comports with Doeg, who was only chief of the herdsmen of Saul, [1Sam 21:7]; but I grant this is not decisive evidence that the Psalm may not have Doeg in view, for the chief herdsman may have been a man of credit and authority.

### Verse 2

[¶43] Deviseth mischiefs - Lies and slanders proceeding from the tongue argue the desperate wickedness of the heart.

[¶44] Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully - Which instead of taking off the beard, cuts and wounds the flesh; or as the operator who, when pretending to trim the beard, cuts the throat.

## 606. Psalms · 60 of 159

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### Verse 3

[¶1] Thou lovest evil - This was a finished character. Let us note the particulars:

[¶2] 1. He boasted in the power to do evil.

[¶3] 2. His tongue devised, studied, planned, and spoke mischiefs.

[¶4] 3. He was a deceitful worker.

[¶5] 4. He loved evil and not good.

[¶6] 5. He loved lying; his delight was in falsity.

[¶7] 6. Every word that tended to the destruction of others he loved.

[¶8] 7. His tongue was deceitful; he pretended friendship while his heart was full of enmity, [Psa 52:1-4]. Now behold the punishment: -

### Verse 5

[¶10] God shall likewise destroy thee -

[¶11] 1. God shall set himself to destroy thee; יתצך yittotscha, "he will pull down thy building;" he shall unroof it, dilapidate, and dig up thy foundation.

[¶12] 2. He shall bruise or break thee to pieces for ever; thou shalt have neither strength, consistence, nor support.

[¶13] 3. He will mow thee down, and sweep thee away like dust or chaff, or light hay in a whirlwind, so that thou shalt be scattered to all the winds of heaven. Thou shalt have no residence, no tabernacle: that shall be entirely destroyed. Thou shalt be rooted out for ever from the land of the living. The bad fruit which it has borne shall bring God's curse upon the tree; it shall not merely wither, or die, but it shall be plucked up from the roots, intimating that such a sinner shall die a violent death. Selah. So it shall be, and so it ought to be.

### Verse 6

[¶15] The righteous also shall see, and fear - The thing shall be done in the sight of the saints; they shall see God's judgments on the workers of iniquity; and they shall fear a God so holy and just, and feel the necessity of being doubly on their guard lest they fall into the same condemnation. But instead of וייראו veyirau, "and they shall fear," three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with the Syriac, have וישמחו veyismachu, "and shall rejoice;" and, from the following words, "and shall laugh at him," this appears to be the true reading, for laughing may be either the consequence or accompaniment of rejoicing.

### Verse 7

[¶17] Made not God his strength - Did not make God his portion.

[¶18] In the abundance of his riches - Literally, in the multiplication of his riches. He had got much, he hoped to get more, and expected that his happiness would multiply as his riches multiplied. And this is the case with most rich men.

[¶19] Strengthened himself in his wickedness - Loved money instead of God; and thus his depravity, being increased, was strengthened.

[¶20] Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia crescit. "In proportion to the increase of wealth, so is the love of it."

[¶21] Where is the religious man, in whose hands money has multiplied, who has not lost the spirit of piety in the same ratio? To prevent this, and the perdition to which it leads, there is no way but opening both hands to the poor.

### Verse 8

[¶23] But I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God - I shall be in the house of God, full of spiritual vigor, bringing forth evergreen leaves and annual fruit, as the olive does when planted in a proper soil and good situation. It does not mean that there were olive-trees planted in God's house; but he was in God's house, as the olive was in its proper place and soil.

[¶24] I trust in the mercy of God - The wicked man trusts in his riches: I trust in my God. He, like a bad tree, bringing forth poisonous fruit, shall be cursed, and pulled up from the roots; I, like a healthy olive in a good soil, shall, under the influence of God's mercy, bring forth fruit to his glory. As the olive is ever green, so shall I flourish in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

### Verse 9

[¶26] I will praise thee for ever - Because I know that all my good comes from thee; therefore, will I ever praise thee for that good.

[¶27] I will wait on thy name - I will expect all my blessings from the all-sufficient Jehovah, who is eternal and unchangeable.

[¶28] It is good before thy saints - It is right that I should expect a continuation of thy blessings by uniting with thy saints in using thy ordinances. Thus I shall wait.

### Introduction

[¶30] The sentiments of atheists and deists, who deny Divine Providence; their character: they are corrupt, foolish, abominable, and cruel, [Psa 53:1-4]; God fills them with terror, [Psa 53:5]; reproaches these for their oppression of the poor, [Psa 53:5]. The psalmist prays for the restoration of Israel, [Psa 53:6].

[¶31] The title, To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, an instructive Psalm of David. The word מחלת machalath, some translate the president; others, the master or leader of the dance; others, hollow instruments; others, the chorus. A flute pipe, or wind instrument with holes, appears to be what is intended. "To the chief player on the flute;" or, "To the master of the band of pipers."

### Verse 1

[¶33] The fool hath said in his heart - The whole of this Psalm, except a few inconsiderable differences, is the same as the fourteenth; and, therefore, the same notes and analysis may be applied to it; or, by referring to the fourteenth, the reader will find the subject of it amply explained. I shall add a few short notes.

[¶34] Have done abominable iniquity - Instead of עול avel, evil or iniquity, eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have עלילה alilah, work, which is nearly the same as in Psa xiv.

### Verse 4

[¶36] Have the workers of iniquity - For פעלי, poaley, workers seventy-two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with several ancient editions, the Chaldee, though not noticed in the Latin translation in the London Polyglot, the Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and the Arabic, with the Anglo-Saxon, add the word כל col, all, - All the workers of iniquity; which is the reading in the parallel place in [Psa 14:1-7] : It may be necessary to observe, that the Chaldee, in the Antwerp and Paris Polyglots, and in that of Justinianus, has not the word כל col, All.

[¶37] Have not Called upon God - אלהים Elohim; but many MSS. have יהוה Jehovah, Lord.

### Verse 5

[¶39] For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them - The reader will see, on comparing this with the fifth and sixth verses of [Psa 14:1-7], that the words above are mostly added here to what is said there; and appear to be levelled against the Babylonians, who sacked and ruined Jerusalem, and who were now sacked and ruined in their turn. The sixth verse of [Psa 14:1-7], "Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge," is added here by more than twenty of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.

### Verse 6

[¶41] O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! - I have already shown that the proper translation is, "Who shall give from Zion salvation to Israel?" The word salvation is in the plural here, deliverances: but many MSS., with the Septuagint, Vulgate, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon, have it in the singular.

[¶42] When God brinyeth back - When Jehovah bringeth back, is the reading of more than twenty of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee, and Justinianus' Polyglot Psalter.

[¶43] For larger notes and an analysis, the reader is requested to refer to [Psa 14:1-7]; and for a comparison of the two Psalms he may consult Dr. Kennicott's Hebrew Bible, where, under [Psa 14:1-7], in the lower margin, the variations are exhibited at one view.

## 607. Psalms · 61 of 159

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### Introduction

[¶1] The psalmist complains that strangers were risen up against him to take away his life, [Psa 54:1-3]; expresses his confidence in God that he will uphold him, and punish his enemies, [Psa 54:4], [Psa 54:5]; on which he promises to sacrifice to God, [Psa 54:6]; he speaks of his deliverance, [Psa 54:7].

[¶2] The title is, "To the chief Musician upon Neginoth, an instructive Psalm of David, when the Ziphites came to Saul, and said, Doth not David conceal himself among us?"

[¶3] Ziph was a village in the southern part of Palestine. David having taken refuge in the mountains of that country, the Ziphites went to Saul, and informed him of the fact. Saul, with his army, immediately went thither, and was on one side of a mountain while David was on the other. Just when he was about to fall into the hands of his merciless pursuer, an express came to Saul that the Philistines had invaded Israel, on which he gave up the pursuit, and returned to save his country, and David escaped to En-gedi. See the account in [1Sam 23:19-29]. It is supposed to have been after this deliverance that he composed this Psalm. Neginoth, from נגן nagan to strike or play on some kind of instrument, probably signifies stringed instruments, such as were played on with a plectrum.

### Verse 1

[¶5] Save me, O God, by thy name - Save me by thyself alone; so name here may be understood. The name of God is often God himself. David was now in such imminent danger of being taken and destroyed, that no human means were left for his escape; if God therefore had not Interfered, he must have been destroyed. See the introduction, [Psa 54:1-7] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶7] Hear my prayer - In his straits he had recourse to God; for from him alone, for the reasons alleged above, his deliverance must proceed.

### Verse 3

[¶9] Strangers are risen up against me - The Ziphites.

[¶10] And oppressors - Saul, his courtiers, and his army.

[¶11] They have not set God before them - It is on no religious account, nor is it to accomplish any end, on which they can ask the blessing of God.

[¶12] Selah - This is true.

### Verse 4

[¶14] Behold, God is mine helper - This would naturally occur to him when he saw that Saul was obliged to leave the pursuit, and go to defend his territories, when he was on the very point of seizing him. God, whose providence is ever watchful, had foreseen this danger and stirred up the Philistines to make this inroad just at the time in which Saul and his army were about to lay hands on David. Well might he then say, "Behold, God is mine helper."

[¶15] Is with them, that uphold my soul - נפשי naphshi, my life. This may even refer to the Philistines, who had at this time made an inroad on Israel. God was even with his own enemies, by making them instruments to save the life of his servant.

### Verse 5

[¶17] He shall reward evil - Saul and his courtiers, instead of having God's approbation, shall have his curse.

[¶18] Cut them off in thy truth - Thou hast promised to save me; these have purposed to destroy me. Thy truth is engaged in my defence; they will destroy me if permitted to live: to save thy truth, and to accomplish its promises, thou must cut them off.

### Verse 6

[¶20] I will freely sacrifice unto thee - Or, I will sacrifice nobly unto thee. Not only with a willing mind, but with a liberal hand will I bring sacrifice unto thee.

[¶21] For it is good - Thy name is good; it is descriptive of thy nature; full of goodness and mercy to man. And it is good to be employed in such a work: whoever worships thee in sincerity is sure to be a gainer. To him who orders his conversation aright, thou dost show thy salvation.

### Verse 7

[¶23] For he hath delivered me - Saul had now decamped; and was returned to save his territories; and David in the meanwhile escaped to En-gedi. God was most evidently the author of this deliverance.

[¶24] Mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies - It is not likely that this Psalm was written after the death of Saul; and therefore David could not say that he had seen his desire. But there is nothing in the text for his desire; and the words might be translated, My eye hath seen my enemies - they have been so near that I could plainly discover them. Thus almost all the Versions have understood the text. I have seen them, and yet they were not permitted to approach me. God has been my Deliverer.

### Introduction

[¶26] David, in great danger and distress from the implacable malice of his enemies, calls on God for mercy, [Psa 55:1-5]; wishes he had the wings of a dove, that he might flee away, and be at rest, [Psa 55:6-8]; prays against his enemies, and describes their wickedness, [Psa 55:9-11]; speaks of a false friend, who had been the principal cause of all his distresses, [Psa 55:12-14]; again prays against his enemies, [Psa 55:15]; expresses his confidence in God, [Psa 55:16-18]; gives a farther description of the deceitful friend, [Psa 55:19-21]; encourages himself in the Lord, and foretells the destruction of his foes, [Psa 55:22], [Psa 55:23].

[¶27] The title, "To the chief Musician upon Neginoth, A Psalm of David, giving instruction." This is the same as the preceding, [Psa 54:1-7] (note), which see.

### Verse 1

[¶29] Give ear to my prayer - The frequency of such petitions shows the great earnestness of David's soul. If God did not hear and help, he knew he could not succeed elsewhere; therefore he continues to knock at the gate of God's mercy.

### Verse 2

[¶31] I mourn in my complaint - בשיחי besichi, in my sighing; a strong guttural sound, expressive of the natural accents of sorrow.

[¶32] And make a noise - I am in a tumult - I am strongly agitated.

### Verse 3

[¶34] They cast iniquity upon me - To give a colourable pretense to their rebellion, they charge me with horrible crimes; as if they had said: Down with such a wretch; he is not fit to reign. Clamour against the person of the sovereign is always the watch-word of insurrection, in reference to rebellion.

### Verse 4

[¶36] The terrors of death are fallen upon me - I am in hourly expectation of being massacred.

### Verse 5

[¶38] Fearfulness - How natural is this description! He is in distress; - he mourns; - makes a noise; - sobs and sighs; - his heart is wounded - he expects nothing but death; - this produces fear; - this produces tremor, which terminates in that deep apprehension of approaching and inevitable ruin that overwhelms him with horror. No man ever described a wounded heart like David.

### Verse 6

[¶40] O that I had wings like a dove! - He was so surrounded, so hemmed in on every side by his adversaries, that he could see no way for his escape unless he had wings, and could take flight. The dove is a bird of very rapid wing; and some oil them passing before his eyes at the time, might have suggested the idea expressed here.

[¶41] And be at rest - Get a habitation.

### Verse 7

[¶43] Would I wander far off - He did escape; and yet his enemies were so near, as to throw stones at him: but he escaped beyond Jordan. [2Sam 17:22], [2Sam 17:23].

[¶44] A passage in the Octavia of Seneca has been referred to as being parallel to this of David. It is in the answer of Octavia to the Chorus, Acts v., ver. 914-923.

[¶45] Quis mea digne deflere potest Mala?

## 608. Psalms · 62 of 159

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[¶0] Quae lacrymis nostris quaestus

[¶1] Reddet Aedon? cujus pennas

[¶2] Utinam miserae mihi fata darent!

[¶3] Fugerem luctus ablata meos

[¶4] Penna volucri, procul et coetus

[¶5] Hominum tristes sedemque feram.

[¶6] Sola in vacuo nemore, et tenui

[¶7] Ramo pendens, querulo possem

[¶8] Gutture moestum fundere murmur.

[¶9] My woes who enough can bewail?

[¶10] O what notes can my sorrows express?

[¶11] Sweet Philomel's self e'en would fail

[¶12] To respond with her plaintive distress.

[¶13] O had I her wings I would fly

[¶14] To where sorrows I ne'er should feel more,

[¶15] Upborne on her plumes through the sky,

[¶16] Regions far from mankind would explore.

[¶17] In a grove where sad silence should reign,

[¶18] On a spray would I seat me alone;

[¶19] In shrill lamentations complain,

[¶20] And in wailings would pour forth my moan.

[¶21] J. B. Clarke.

### Verse 8

[¶23] The windy storm - From the sweeping wind and tempest - Absalom and his party and the mutinous people in general.

### Verse 9

[¶25] Destroy, O lord - Swallow them up - confound them.

[¶26] Divide their tongues - Let his counsellors give opposite advice. Let them never agree, and let their devices be confounded. And the prayer was heard. Hushai and Ahithophel gave opposite counsel. Absalom followed that of Hushai; and Ahithophel, knowing that the steps advised by Hushai would bring Absalom's affairs to ruin, went and hanged himself. See 2 Samuel 15, 16, and 17.

[¶27] Violence and strife in the city - They have been concerting violent measures; and thus are full of contention.

### Verse 10

[¶29] Day and night they go about - This and the following verse show the state of Jerusalem at this time. Indeed, they exhibit a fair view of the state of any city in the beginning of an insurrection. The leaders are plotting continually; going about to strengthen their party, and to sow new dissensions by misrepresentation, hypocrisy, calumny, and lies.

### Verse 12

[¶31] It was not an enemy - It is likely that in all these three verses Ahithophel is meant, who, it appears, had been at the bottom of the conspiracy from the beginning; and probably was the first mover of the vain mind of Absalom to do what he did.

### Verse 14

[¶33] Walked unto the house of God in company - Or with haste; for the rabbins teach that we should walk hastily To the temple, but slowly From it.

### Verse 15

[¶35] Let death seize upon them - This is a prediction of the sudden destruction which should fall on the ringleaders in this rebellion. And it was so. Ahithophel, seeing his counsel rejected, hanged himself. Absalom was defeated; and, fleeing away, he was suspended by the hair in a tree, under which his mule had passed; and being found thus by Joab, he was despatched with three darts; and the people who espoused his interests were almost all cut off. They fell by the sword, or perished in the woods. See [2Sam 18:8].

[¶36] Let then go down quick into hell - Let them go down alive into the pit. Let the earth swallow them up! And something of this kind actually took place. Absalom and his army were defeated; twenty thousand of the rebels were slain on the field; and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured, [2Sam 18:7], [2Sam 18:8]. The words might be rendered, "Death shall exact upon them; they shall descend alive into sheol." And death did exact his debt upon them, as we have seen above.

### Verse 16

[¶38] I will call upon God - He foresaw his deliverance, and the defeat of his enemies and therefore speaks confidently, "The Lord shall save me;" or, as the Targum, "The Word of the Lord shall redeem me."

### Verse 17

[¶40] Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray - This was the custom of the pious Hebrews. See [Dan 6:10]. The Hebrews began their day in the evening, and hence David mentions the evening first. The rabbins say, Men should pray three times each day, because the day changes three times. This was observed in the primitive Church; but the times, in different places, were various. The old Psalter gives this a curious turn: "At even I sall tel his louing (praise) what tim Crist was on the Crosse: and at morn I sall schew his louing, what tim he ros fra dede. And sua he sall here my voyce at mid day, that is sitand at the right hand of his fader, wheder he stegh (ascended) at mid day."

### Verse 18

[¶42] He hath delivered my soul - My life he has preserved in perfect safety from the sword; for there were many with me: "for in many afflictions his Word was my support." - Targum. Or David may refer to the supernatural assistance which was afforded him when his enemies were so completely discomfited.

### Verse 19

[¶44] Because they have no changes - At first Absalom, Ahithophel, and their party, carried all before them. There seemed to be a very general defection of the people; and as in their first attempts they suffered no reverses, therefore they feared not God. Most of those who have few or no afflictions and trials in life, have but little religion. They become sufficient to themselves, and call not upon God.

## 609. Psalms · 63 of 159

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### Verse 20

[¶1] He hath put forth his hands - A farther description of Ahithophel. He betrayed his friends, and he broke his covenant with his king. He had agreed to serve David for his own emolument, and a stipulation was made accordingly; but while receiving the king's pay, he was endeavoring to subvert the kingdom, and destroy the life of his sovereign.

### Verse 21

[¶3] Were smoother than butter - He was a complete courtier, and a deep, designing hypocrite besides. His words were as soft as butter, and as smooth as oil, while he meditated war; and the fair words which were intended to deceive, were intended also to destroy: they were drawn swords. This is a literal description of the words and conduct of Absalom, as we learn from the inspired historian, [2Sam 15:2], etc. He was accustomed to wait at the gate; question the persons who came for justice and judgment; throw out broad hints that the king was negligent of the affairs of his kingdom, and had not provided an effective magistracy to administer justice among the people, and added that if he were appointed judge in the land, justice should be done to all. He bowed also to the people, and kissed them; and thus he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. See the passages referred to above.

### Verse 22

[¶5] Cast thy burden upon the Lord - Whatever cares, afflictions, trials, etc., they may be with which thou art oppressed, lay them upon him.

[¶6] And he shall sustain thee - He shall bear both thee and thy burden. What a glorious promise to a tempted and afflicted soul! God will carry both thee and thy load. Then cast thyself and it upon him.

[¶7] He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved - While a man is righteous, trusts in and depends upon God, he will never suffer him to be shaken. While he trusts in God, and works righteousness, he is as safe as if he were in heaven.

### Verse 23

[¶9] But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction - The Chaldee is emphatic: "And thou, O Lord, by thy Word (במימרך bemeymerach) shalt thrust them into the deep gehenna, the bottomless pit, whence they shall never come out; the pit of destruction, where all is amazement, horror, anguish, dismay, ruin, endless loss, and endless suffering."

[¶10] Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days - So we find, if there be an appointed time to man upon earth, beyond which he cannot pass; yet he may so live as to provoke the justice of God to cut him off before he arrives at that period; yea, before he has reached half way to that limit. According to the decree of God, he might have lived the other half; but he has not done it.

[¶11] But I will trust in thee - Therefore I shall not be moved, and shall live out all the days of my appointed time.

[¶12] The fathers in general apply the principal passages of this Psalm to our Lord's sufferings, the treason of Judas, and the wickedness of the Jews; but these things do not appear to me fairly deducible from the text. It seems to refer plainly enough to the rebellion of Absalom. "The consternation and distress expressed in [Psa 55:4-8], describe the king's state of mind when he fled from Jerusalem, and marched up the mount of Olives, weeping. The iniquity cast upon the psalmist answers to the complaints artfully laid against the king by his son of a negligent administration of justice: and to the reproach of cruelty cast upon him by Shimei, [2Sam 15:2], [2Sam 15:4]; [2Sam 16:7], [2Sam 16:8]. The equal, the guide, and the familiar friend, we find in Ahithophel, the confidential counsellor, first of David, afterwards of his son Absalom. The buttery mouth and oily words describe the insidious character of Absalom, as it is delineated, [2Sam 15:5-9]. Still the believer, accustomed to the double edge of the prophetic style, in reading this Psalm, notwithstanding its agreement with the occurrences of David's life, will be led to think of David's great descendant, who endured a bitter agony, and was the victim of a baser treachery, in the same spot where David is supposed to have uttered these complaints." - Bishop Horsley.

### Introduction

[¶14] David prays for support against his enemies, whose wickedness he describes, [Psa 56:1-6]; and foretells their destruction, [Psa 56:7]; expresses his confidence in God's mercy, expects deliverance, and promises thanksgiving and obedience, [Psa 56:8-13].

[¶15] The title of this Psalm is very long: "To the conqueror, concerning the dumb dove in foreign places: golden Psalm of David." The Vulgate translates the original thus: "to the end. For the people who were afar off from holy things." "This inscription David placed here for a title when the Philistines - took him in Gath;" so the Septuagint and Ethiopic. The Chaldee is profuse: "To praise, for the congregation of Israel, which are compared to the silence of a dove, when they were afar off from their cities but being returned, they praise the Lord of the world, like David, contrite and upright, when the Philistines kept him in Gath." The Syriac: "A thanksgiving of the righteous man, because he was delivered from his enemy, and from the hand of Saul. Also concerning the Jews and Christ." Bochart translates, "To the tune of the dove in the remote woods."

[¶16] If the title be at all authentic, David may mean himself and his companions by it, when he escaped from the hands of the Philistines; particularly from the hands of Achish, king of Gath. אלם elem signifies to compress or bind together; also, a small band or body of men: and יונת yonath, from ינה yanah, to oppress or afflict, is properly applied to the dove, because of its being so defenseless, and often becoming the prey of ravenous birds. It is possible, therefore, that the title may imply no more than - "A prayer to God in behalf of himself and the oppressed band that followed him, and shared his misfortunes in distant places." Others will have it to mean a simple direction "To the master of the band, to be sung to the time of a well-known ode, called 'The dumb dove, in distant places.'" There is no end to conjectures, and all the titles in the whole book are not worth one hour's labor. Perhaps there is not one of them authentic. They may have been notices that such a Psalm was to be sung to such and such a tune; giving the catch-words of some well-known song or ode: a custom that prevails much among us in songs and hymns, and is to be found even among the Asiatics.

### Verse 1

[¶18] Be merciful unto me - I am assailed both at home and abroad. I can go nowhere without meeting with enemies: unless thou who art the Fountain of mercy and the Most High, stand up in my behalf, my enemies will most undoubtedly prevail against me. They fight against me continually, and I am in the utmost danger of being swallowed up by them.

### Verse 2

[¶20] O thou Most High - מרום marom. I do not think that this word expresses any attribute of God, or indeed is at all addressed to him. It signifies, literally, from on high, or froen a high or elevated place: "For the multitudes fight against me from the high or elevated place;" the place of authority - the court and cabinet of Saul.

[¶21] Most of the Versions begin the next verse with this word: "From the light of the day, though I fear, yet will I trust in thee." From the time that persecution waxes hot against me, though I often am seized with fear, yet I am enabled to maintain my trust in thee. Dr. Kennicott thinks there is a corruption here, and proposes to read: "I look upwards all the day long."

### Verse 4

[¶23] In God I will praise his word - באלהים belohim may mean here, through God, or by the help of God, I will praise his word. And, that he should have cause to do it, he says, "In God I have put my trust," and therefore he says, "I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." Man is but Flesh, weak and perishing; God is an infinite Spirit, almighty and eternal. He repeats this sentiment in the tenth and eleventh verses.

### Verse 5

[¶25] Every day they wrest my words - They have been spies on my conduct continually; they collected all my sayings, and wrested my words out of their proper sense and meaning, to make them, by inuendos, speak treason against Saul. They are full of evil purposes against me.

### Verse 6

[¶27] They gather themselves together - They form cabals; have secret meetings and consultations how they may most effectually destroy me, under the pretense of justice and safety to the state.

[¶28] They hide themselves - They do all secretly.

[¶29] They mark my steps - They are constantly at my heels.

[¶30] They wait for my soul - They lie in wait for my life. Our translators have missed the meaning of נפש nephesh and ψυχε, - which generally signify the animal life, not the immortal spirit, - more than any other words in the Old or New Testament.

### Verse 7

[¶32] Shall they escape by iniquity? - Shall such conduct go unpunished? Shall their address, their dexterity in working iniquity, be the means of their escape? No. "In anger, O God, wilt thou cast down the people."

### Verse 8

[¶34] Thou tellest my wanderings - Thou seest how often I am obliged to shift the place of my retreat. I am hunted every where; but thou numberest all my hiding-places, and seest how often I am in danger of losing my life.

[¶35] Put thou my tears into thy bottle - Here is an allusion to a very ancient custom, which we know long obtained among the Greeks and Romans, of putting the tears which were shed for the death of any person into small phials, called lacrymatories or urns lacrymales and offering them on the tomb of the deceased. Some of these were of glass, some of pottery, and some of agate, sardonyx, etc. A small one in my own collection is of hard baked clay.

[¶36] Are they not in thy book? - Thou hast taken an exact account of all the tears I have shed in relation to this business; and thou wilt call my enemies to account for every tear.

### Verse 9

[¶38] When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back - As soon as they know that I call upon thee, then, knowing that thou wilt hear and save, my enemies will immediately take flight. The cry of faith and prayer to God is more dreadful to our spiritual foes than the war-whoop of the Indian is to his surprised brother savages.

[¶39] This I know - I have often had experience of the Divine interposition; and I know it will be so now, for God is with me. He who has God With him need not fear the face of any adversary.

[¶40] Verse 10 , [Psa 56:11]

[¶41] See on [Psa 56:4] (note), where the same words occur.

### Verse 12

[¶43] Thy vows are upon me - I have promised in the most solemn manner to be thy servant; to give my whole life to thee; and to offer for my preservation sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.

[¶44] Reader, what hast thou vowed to God? To renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful desires of the flesh; to keep God's holy word and commandment, and to walk before him all the days of thy life. These things hast thou vowed; and these vows are upon thee. Wilt thou pay them?

## 610. Psalms · 64 of 159

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### Verse 13

[¶1] Thou hast delivered my soul from death - My life from the grave, and my soul from endless perdition.

[¶2] My feet from falling - Thou hast preserved me from taking any false way, and keepest me steady in my godly course; and so supportest me that I may continue to walk before thee in the light of the living, ever avoiding that which is evil, and moving towards that which is good; letting my light shine before men, that they may see my good works, and glorify my Father which is in heaven. To walk before God is to please him; the light of the living signifies the whole course of human life, with all its comforts and advantages.

### Introduction

[¶4] David cries to God for mercy, with the strongest confidence of being heard, [Psa 57:1-3]; he describes his enemies as lions, [Psa 57:4]; thanks God for his deliverance, [Psa 57:5]; and purposes to publish the praises of the Lord among his people, [Psa 57:6-11].

[¶5] The title is, To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, (destroy not), a golden Psalms of David, (or one to be engraven), where he fed from Saul in the cave. It is very likely that this Psalm was made to commemorate his escape from Saul in the cave of En-gedi, where Saul had entered without knowing that David was there, and David cut off the skirt of his garment. And it is not improbable that, when he found that Saul was providentially delivered into his hand, he might have formed the hasty resolution to take away his life, as his companions counselled him to do; and in that moment the Divine monition came, אל תשצת al tascheth! Destroy not! lift not up thy hand against the Lord's anointed! Instead, therefore, of taking away his life, he contented himself with taking away his skirt, to show him that he had been in his power. When, afterwards, he composed the Psalm, he gave it for title the words which he received as a Divine warning. See the history 1 Samuel 24 (note): See also my note upon the fourth verse of that chapter, [1Sam 24:4] (note).

### Verse 1

[¶7] Be merciful unto me - To show David's deep earnestness, he repeats this twice; he was in great danger, surrounded by implacable enemies, and he knew that God alone could deliver him.

[¶8] My soul trusteth in thee - I put my life into thy hand; and my immortal spirit knows no other portion than thyself.

[¶9] In the shadow of thy wings - A metaphor taken from the brood of a hen taking shelter under her wings when they see a bird of prey; and there they continue to hide themselves till their evemy disappears. In a storm, or tempest of rain, the mother covers them with her wings to afford them shelter and defense. This the psalmist has particularly in view, as the following words show: "Until these calamities be overpast."

### Verse 2

[¶11] I will cry unto God most high - He is the Most High; and therefore far above all my enemies, though the prince of the power of the air be at their head.

[¶12] Unto God, לאל lael, unto the strong Good, one against whom no human or diabolic might can prevail. David felt his own weakness, and he knew the strength of his adversaries; and therefore he views God under those attributes and characters which were suited to his state. This is a great secret in the Christian life; few pray to God wisely; though they may do it fervently.

[¶13] That performeth all things for me - Who works for me; גמר gomer, he who completes for me, and will bring all to a happy issue.

### Verse 3

[¶15] He shall send from heaven, and save me - Were there no human agents or earthly means that he could employ, he would send his angels from heaven to rescue me from my enemies. Or, He will give his command from heaven that this may be done on earth.

[¶16] Selah - I think this word should be at the end of the verse.

[¶17] God shall send forth his mercy and his truth - Here mercy and truth are personified. They are the messengers that God will send from heaven to save me. His mercy ever inclines him to help and save the distressed. This he has promised to do; and his truth binds him to fulfll the promises or engagements his mercy has made, both to saints and sinners.

### Verse 4

[¶19] My soul is among lions - בתוך לבאם bethoch lebaim. I agree with Dr. Kennicott that this should be translated, "My soul dwells in parched places," from לאב laab, he thirsted. And thus the Chaldee seems to have understood the place, though it be not explicit.

[¶20] I lie even among them that are set on fire - I seem to be among coals. It is no ordinary rage and malice by which I am pursued: each of my enemies seems determined to have my life.

### Verse 5

[¶22] Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens - Let the glory of thy mercy and truth be seen in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath. Several of the fathers apply what is said above to the passion of our Lord, and what is said here to his resurrection.

### Verse 6

[¶24] They have prepared a net for my steps - A gin or springe, such as huntsmen put in the places which they know the prey they seek frequents: such, also, as they place in passages in hedges, etc., through which the game creeps.

[¶25] They have digged a pit - Another method of catching game and wild beasts. They dig a pit, cover it over with weak sticks and turf. The beasts, not suspecting danger where none appears, in attempting to walk over it, fall tbrough, and are taken. Saul digged a pit, laid snares for the life of David; and fell into one of them himself, particularly at the cave of En-gedi; for he entered into the very pit or cave where David and his men were hidden, and his life lay at the generosity of the very man whose life he was seeking! The rabbins tell a curious and instructive tale concerning this: "God sent a spider to weave her web at the mouth of the cave in which David and his men lay hid. When Saul saw the spider's web over the cave's mouth, he very naturally conjectured that it could neither be the haunt of men nor wild beasts; and therefore went in with confidence to repose." The spider here, a vile and contemptible animal, became the instrument in the hand of God of saving David's life and of confounding Saul in his policy and malice. This may be a fable; but it shows by what apparently insignificant means God, the universal ruler, can accomplish the greatest and most beneficent ends. Saul continued to dig pits to entrap David; and at last fell a prey to his own obstinacy. We have a proverb to the same effect: Harm watch, harm catch. The Greeks have one also: Ἡ τε κακη βουλη τῳ βουλευσαντι κακιστη, "An evil advice often becomes most ruinous to the adviser." The Romans have one to the same effect: -

[¶26] Neque enim lex justior ulla est

[¶27] Quam necis artificem arte perire sua. "There is no law more just than that which condemns a man to suffer death by the instrument which he has invented to take away the life of others."

### Verse 7

[¶29] My heart is fixed - My heart is prepared to do and suffer thy will. It is fixed - it has made the firmest purpose through his strength by which I can do all things.

### Verse 8

[¶31] Awake up, my glory - Instead of כבודי kebodi, "my glory," one MS., and the Syriac, have כנורי kinnori, "my harp." Dr. Kennicott reads כבורי kebori, which he supposes to be some instrument of music; and adds that the instrument used in church-music by the Ethiopians is now called כבר kaber. I think the Syriac likely to be the true reading: "Awake up, my harp; awake, psaltery and harp: I will awake early." Such repetitions are frequent in the Hebrew poets. If we read my glory, it may refer either to his tongue; or, which is more likely, to his skill in composition, and in playing on differentt instruments. The five last verses of this Psalm are nearly the same with the [Psa 108:1-5] of [Psa 108:1-13]. The reason of this may be, the notes or memoranda from the psalmist's diary were probably, through mistake, twice copied. The insertion at the beginning of the 108th Psalm seems to bear no relation to the rest of that ode.

[¶32] Rabbi Solomon Jarchi tells us that David had a harp at his bed's head, which played of itself when the north wind blew on it; and then David arose to give praise to God. This account has been treated as a ridiculous fable by grave Christian writers. I would however hesitate, and ask one question: Does not the account itself point out an instrument then well known, similar to the comparatively lately discovered Aeolian harp? Was not this the instrument hung at David's bed's head, which, when the night breeze (which probably blew at a certain time) began to act upon the cords, sent forth those dulcet, those heavenly sounds, for which the Aeolian harp is remarkable? "Awake, my harp, at the due time: I will not wait for thee now, I have the strongest cause for gratitude; I will awake earlier than usual to sing the praises of my God."

### Verse 9

[¶34] Among the people - The Israelites.

[¶35] Among the nations - The Gentiles at large. A prophecy either relating to the Gospel times, Christ being considered as the Speaker: or a prediction that these Divine compositions should be sung, both in synagogues and in Christian churches, in all the nations of the earth. And it is so: wherever the name of Christ is known, there is David's known also.

### Verse 10

[¶37] Thy mercy is great unto the heavens - It is as far above all human description and comprehension as the heavens are above the earth. See the notes on [Psa 36:5], [Psa 36:6], where nearly the same words occur.

### Verse 11

[¶39] Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens - The same sentiments and words which occur in [Psa 57:5] (note). See the note there.

[¶40] David was not only in a happy state of mind when he wrote this Psalm, but in what is called a state of triumph. His confidence in God was unbounded; though encompassed by the most ferocious enemies, and having all things against him except God and his innocence. David will seldom be found in a more blessed state than he here describes. Similar faith in God will bring the same blessings to every true Christian in similar circumstances.

### Introduction

[¶42] David reproves wicked counsellors and judges, who pervert justice, and stir up the strong against the weak and innocent, [Psa 58:1-5]. He foretells their destruction, and describes the nature of it, [Psa 58:6-9]. The righteous, seeing this, will magnify God's justice and providence, [Psa 58:10], [Psa 58:11].

[¶43] The title seems to have no reference to the subject of the Psalm. See the introduction to [Psa 57:1-11] (note). Saul having attempted the life of David, the latter was obliged to flee from the court, and take refuge in the deserts of Judea. Saul, missing him, is supposed by Bishop Patrick to have called a council, when they, to ingratiate themselves with the monarch, adjudged David to be guilty of treason in aspiring to the throne of Israel. This being made known to David was the cause of this Psalm. It is a good lesson to all kings, judges, and civil magistrates; and from it they obtain maxims to regulate their conduct and influence their decisions; and at the same time they may discern the awful account they must give to God, and the dreadful punishment they shall incur who prostitute justice to serve sinister ends.

## 611. Psalms · 65 of 159

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Do ye indeed speak righteousness - Or, O cabinet seeing ye profess to act according to the principles of justice, why do ye not give righteous counsels and just decisions, ye sons of men? Or, it may be an irony: What excellent judges you are! well do ye judge according to law and justice, when ye give decisions not founded on any law, nor supported by any principle of justice! To please your master, ye pervert judgment; and take part against the innocent, in order to retain your places and their emoluments. Saul's counsellors appear to have done so, though in their consciences they must have been satisfied of David's innocence.

### Verse 2

[¶3] Yea, in heart ye work wickedness - With their tongues they had spoken maliciously, and given evil counsel. In their hearts they meditated nothing but wickedness. And though in their hands they held the scales of justice, yet in their use of them they were balances of injustice and violence. This is the fact to which the psalmist alludes, and the figure which he uses is that of justice with her scales or balances, which, though it might be the emblem of the court, yet it did not prevail in the practice of these magistrates and counsellors.

### Verse 3

[¶5] The wicked are estranged from the womb - "This," says Dr. Kennicott, "and the next two verses, I take to be the answer of Jehovah to the question in the two first verses, as the [Psa 58:6], [Psa 58:7], and [Psa 58:8], are the answer of the psalmist, and the remainder contains the decree of Jehovah." He calls these wicked men, men who had been always wicked, originally and naturally bad, and brought up in falsehood, flattery, and lying. The part they acted now was quite in character.

### Verse 4

[¶7] Their poison is like the poison of a serpent - When they bite, they convey poison into the wound, as the serpent does. They not only injure you by outward acts, but by their malevolence they poison your reputation. They do you as much evil as they can, and propagate the worst reports that others may have you in abhorrence, treat you as a bad and dangerous man; and thus, as the poison from the bite of the serpent is conveyed into the whole mass of blood, and circulates with it through all the system, carrying death every where; so they injurious speeches and vile insinuations circulate through society, and poison and blast your reputation in every place. Such is the slanderer, and such his influence in society. From such no reputation is safe; with such no character is sacred; and against such there is no defense. God alone can shield the innocent from the envenomed tongue and lying lips of such inward monsters in the shape of men.

[¶8] Like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear - It is a fact that cannot be disputed with any show of reason, that in ancient times there were persons that charmed, lulled to inactivity, or professed to charm, serpents, so as to prevent them from biting. See [Ecc 10:11]; [Jer 8:17]. The prince of Roman poets states the fact, Virg. Ecl. viii., ver. 71.

[¶9] Frigidus in prati cantando rumpitur anguis. "In the meadows the cold snake is burst by incantation."

[¶10] The same author, Aen. vii., ver. 750, gives us the following account of the skill of Umbro, a priest of the Marrubians: -

[¶11] Quin et Marru bia venit de gente sacerdos,

[¶12] Fronde super galeam, et felici comptus oliva,

[¶13] Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Umbro;

[¶14] Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris,

[¶15] Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat,

[¶16] Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat. "Umbro, the brave Marubian priest, was there,

[¶17] Sent by the Marsian monarch to the war.

[¶18] The smiling olive with her verdant boughs

[¶19] Shades his bright helmet, and adorns his brows.

[¶20] His charms in peace the furious serpent keep,

[¶21] And lull the envenomed viper's race to sleep:

[¶22] His healing hand allayed the raging pain;

[¶23] And at his touch the poisons fled again."

[¶24] Pitt.

[¶25] There is a particular sect of the Hindoos who profess to bring serpents into subjection, and deprive them of their poison, by incantation. See at the end of this Psalm.

### Verse 5

[¶27] Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers - The old Psalter translates and paraphrases these two verses curiously: -

[¶28] Vulg. Furor illis secundum similitudinem serpentis; sicut aspidis surdae et obturantis aures suas: Quae non exaudiet vocem incantantium et venefici in cantantis sapienter.

[¶29] Trans. Wodes (madness) til thaim aftir the liking of the neddir, as of the snake doumb and stoppand her eres.

[¶30] Paraph. Right calles he tham wod, (mad), for that hafe na witte to se whider that ga: for that louke thair eghen, and rennys till the are thaire wodness til clumsthed that wil noght be turned as of the snake that festis (fastens) the ta ere til the erth, and the tother ere stoppis with hir taile: Sua do thai that thai here not Godis word; that stope thair eris with luf of erthli thing that thai delite thaim in; and with thair taile, that es with all synnes, that that will noght amend.

[¶31] Trans. The whith salle noght here the voyce of charmand, and of the venim in akare of charmand wisli.

[¶32] Paraph. This snake stopis hir eres that she be noght broth to light; for if she herd it, she come forth sone, he charmes swa wysli in his craft. Swa the wikkid men wit noght here the voyce of Crist and his lufers that are wys charmes; for thi wild (would) bring them till light of heven. Wyt ye well (know) that he (i.e., Christ) lufes noght charmars and venim makers but be (by) vices of bestes, he takes lickening of vices of men.

[¶33] It seems as if there were a species of snake or adder that is nearly deaf; and as their instinct informs them that if they listen to the sounds which charmers use they shall become a prey; therefore they stop their ears to prevent the little hearing they have from being the means of their destruction. To this the Old Psalter refers. We have also an account of a species of snake, which, if it cast its eye on the charmer, feels itself obliged to come out of its hole; it therefore keeps close, and takes care neither to see nor be seen. To this also the Old Psalter alludes; and of this fact, if it be one, he makes a good use.

### Verse 6

[¶35] Break their teeth - He still compares Saul, his captains, and his courtiers, to lions; and as a lion's power of doing mischief is greatly lessened if all his teeth be broken, so he prays that God may take away their power and means of pursuing their bloody purpose. But he may probably have the serpents in view of which he speaks in the preceding verse; break their teeth - destroy the fangs of these serpents, in which their poison is contained. This will amount to the same meaning as above. Save me from the adders - the sly and poisonous slanderers: save me also from the lions - the tyrannical and blood-thirsty men.

### Verse 7

[¶37] Let them melt away as waters - Let them be minished away like the waters which sometimes run in the desert, but are soon evaporated by the sun, or absorbed by the sand.

[¶38] When he bendeth his bow - When my adversaries aim their envenomed shafts against me, let their arrows not only fall short of the mark, but he broken to pieces in the flight. Some apply this to God. When he bends his bow against them, they shall all be exterminated.

### Verse 8

[¶40] As a snail which melteth - The Chaldee reads the verse thus: "They shall melt away in their sins as water flows off; as the creeping snail that smears its track; as the untimely birth and the blind mole, which do not see the sun."

[¶41] The original word שבלול shablul, a snail, is either from שביל shebil, a path, because it leaves a shining path after it by emitting a portion of slime, and thus glaring the ground; and therefore might be emphatically called the pathmaker; or from ישב yashab to dwell, ב be, in, לול lul, a winding or spiral shell, which is well known to be its house, and which it always inhabits; for when it is not coiled up within this shell, it carries it with it wheresoever it goes. See Bochart. These figures need no farther explanation.

### Verse 9

[¶43] Before your pots can feel the thorns - Ye shall be destroyed with a sudden destruction. From the time that the fire of God's wrath is kindled about you, it will be but as a moment before ye be entirely consumed by it: so very short will be the time, that it may be likened to the heat of the first blaze of dry thorns under a pot, that has not as yet been able to penetrate the metal, and warm what is contained in it.

[¶44] A whirlwind - Or the suffocating simoon that destroys life in an instant, without previous warning: so, without pining sickness - while ye are living - lively and active, the whirlwind of God's wrath shall sweep you away.

## 612. Psalms · 66 of 159

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### Verse 10

[¶1] The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance - He shall have a strong proof of the Divine providence, of God's hatred against sinners, and his continual care of his followers.

[¶2] He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked - This can only mean that the slaughter would be so great, and at the same time so very nigh to the dwelling of the righteous, that he could not go out without dipping his feet in the blood of the wicked. The Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon, read hands instead of feet. Every thing that is vindictive in the Psalms must be considered as totally alien from the spirit of the Gospel, and not at all, under our dispensation, to be imitated. If the passage above be really vindictive, and it certainly will admit of the interpretation given above, it is to be considered as not belonging to that state in which the Son of man is come, not to destroy men's lives, but to save.

### Verse 11

[¶4] So that a man shall say - That is, people, seeing these just judgments of God, shall say, There is a reward (פרי peri, fruit) to the righteous man. He has not sown his seed in vain; he has not planted and watered in vain: he has the fruit of his labors, he eats the fruit of his doings. But wo to the wicked, it is ill with him; for the reward of his hands has been given him.

[¶5] He is a God that judgeth in the earth - There is a God who does not entirely defer judgment till the judgment-day; but executes judgment now, even in this earth; and thus continues to give such a proof of his hatred to sin and love to his followers that every considerate mind is convinced of it. And hence arise the indisputable maxims: "There is, even here, a reward for the righteous;" "There is a God who, even now, judgeth in the earth."

[¶6] I have seen Indian priests who professed to charm, not only serpents, but the most ferocious wild beasts; even the enraged elephant, and the royal tiger! Two priests of Budhoo, educated under my own care, repeated the Sanscrit incantations to me, and solemnly asserted that they had seen the power of them repeatedly and successfully put to the test. I have mislaid these incantations, else I should insert them as a curiosity; for to charms of the same nature the psalmist most undoubtedly alludes.

[¶7] The term חובר chober, which we translate charmer, comes from חבד to join, or put together; i.e., certain unintelligible words or sentences, which formed the spell.

[¶8] I once met with a man who professed to remove diseases by pronouncing an unintelligible jingling jargon of words oddly tacked together. I met with him one morning proceeding to the cure of a horse affected with the farcin. With a very grave countenance he stood before the diseased animal, and, taking off his hat, devoutly muttered the following words; which, as a matter of peculiar favor, he afterwards taught me, well knowing that I could never use them successfully, because not taught me by a woman; "for," said he, "to use them with success, a man must be taught them by a woman, and a woman by a man." What the genuine orthography may be I cannot pretend to say, as I am entirely ignorant of the language, if the words belong to any language: but the following words exactly express his sounds: -

[¶9] Murry fin a liff cree

[¶10] Murry fin a liss cree

[¶11] Ard fin deriv dhoo

[¶12] Murry fin firey fu

[¶13] Murry fin elph yew

[¶14] When he had repeated these words nine times, he put on his hat and walked off, but he was to return the next morning, and so on for nine mornings successively, always before he had broken his fast. The mother of the above person, a very old woman, and by many reputed a witch, professed to do miracles by pronouncing, or rather muttering, certain words or sounds, and by measuring with a cord the diseased parts of the sick person. I saw her practice twice: 1st, on a person afflicted with a violent headache, or rather the effects of a coup de soleil; and, 2ndly, on one who had got a dangerous mote or splinter in his eye. In the first case she began to measure the head, round the temples, marking the length; then from the vertex, under the chin, and so up to the vertex again, marking that length. Then, by observing the dimensions, passed judgment on the want of proportion in the two admeasurements, and said the brain was compressed by the sinking down of the skull. She then began her incantations, muttering under her breath a supplication to certain divine and angelic beings, to come and lift up the bones, that they might no longer compress the brain. She then repeated her admeasurements, and showed how much was gained towards a restoration of the proportions from the spell already muttered. The spell was again muttered, the measurements repeated, and at each time a comparison of the first measurement was made with the succeeding, till at last she said she had the due proportions; that the disease, or rather the cause of it, was removed; and that the operations were no longer necessary.

[¶15] In the case of the diseased eye, her manner was different. She took a cup of clean pure water, and washed her mouth well. Having done so, she filled her mouth with the same water, and walked to and fro in the apartment (the patient sitting in the midst of the floor) muttering her spell, of which nothing could be heard but a grumbling noise. She then emptied her mouth into a clean white bason, and showed the motes which had been conveyed out of the patient's eye into the water in her mouth, while engaged in muttering the incantation! She proffered to teach me her wonder-working words; but the sounds were so very uncouth, if not barbarous, that I know no combination of letters by which I could convey the pronunciation.

[¶16] Ridiculous as all this may appear, it shows that this incantation work is conducted in the present day, both in Asia and Europe, where it is professed, in precisely the same manner in which it was conducted formerly, by pronouncing, or rather muttering certain words or sounds, to which they attach supernatural power and efficiency. And from this came the term spell: Anglo-Saxon a word, a charm, composed of such supposed powerful words; and wyrkan spell signified among our ancestors to use enchantments.

### Introduction

[¶18] The psalmist prays for deliverance from his enemies, whose desperate wickedness he describes, [Psa 59:1-7]; professes strong confidence in God, [Psa 59:8-10]; speaks of the destruction of his enemies, [Psa 59:11-15]; praises God for benefits already received; and determines to trust in him, [Psa 59:16], [Psa 59:17].

[¶19] The title, "To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David," has already occurred: and perhaps means no more than that the present Psalm is to be sung as [Psa 57:1-11], the first which bears this title. But there is here added the supposed occasion on which David made this Psalm: it was, "when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him." When the reader considers the whole of this Psalm carefully, he will be convinced that the title does not correspond to the contents. There is scarcely any thing in it that can apply to the circumstances of Saul's sending his guards by night to keep the avenues to the house of David, that when the morning came they might seize and slay him; and of his being saved through the information given him by his wife Michal, in consequence of which he was let down through a window, and so escaped. See [1Sam 19:10], [1Sam 19:11]. There is not in the whole Psalm any positive allusion to this history; and there are many things in it which show it to be utterly inconsistent with the facts of that history. The Psalm most evidently agrees to the time of Nehemiah, when he was endeavoring to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, when the enterprise was first mocked; then opposed by Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, who watched day and night that they might cause the work to cease; and laid ambuscades for the life of Nehemiah himself. Every part of the Psalm agrees to this: and I am therefore of Calmet's opinion, that the Psalm was composed in that time, and probably by Nehemiah, or by Esdras.

### Verse 1

[¶21] Deliver me from mine enernies, O my God - A very proper prayer in the mouth of Nehemiah, when resisted in his attempts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem by Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, who opposed the work, and endeavored to take away the life of the person whom God had raised up to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. I conceive the Psalm to have been made on this occasion; and on this hypothesis alone I think it capable of consistent explanation.

### Verse 2

[¶23] The workers of iniquity - Principally Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian; who were the chief enemies of the poor returned captives.

[¶24] Bloody men - The above, who sought the destruction of the Israelites; and particularly, that of Nehemiah, whom four several times they endeavored to bring into an ambush, that they might take away his life. See [Neh 6:1-4].

### Verse 3

[¶26] For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul - For my life. See the passages referred to above.

### Verse 4

[¶28] They run and prepare themselves - They leave no stone unturned that they may effect my destruction and prevent the building.

### Verse 5

[¶30] O Lord God of hosts - This was a proper view to take of God. when Israel, a handful of poor distressed captives were surrounded and oppressed by the heathen chiefs above mentioned, and their several tribes. But Jehovah God of hosts, was the God of Israel; and hence Israel had little to fear.

[¶31] Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors - Do not favor the cause of these wicked men. They are בגדי און bogedey aven, "changers of iniquity:" they go through the whole round of evil; find out and exercise themselves in all the varieties of transgression. How exactly does this apply to Nehemiah's foes! They sought, by open attack, wiles, flattery, foul speeches, fair speeches, threats, and ambuscades, to take away his life. Do not show them favor, that they may not succeed in their wicked designs. The prayer here is exactly the same in sentiment with that of Nehemiah, [Neh 4:4], [Neh 4:5]. Hear, our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach upon their own heads; - cover not their iniquity, "and let not their sin be blotted out."

### Verse 6

[¶33] They return at evening - When the beasts of prey leave their dens, and go prowling about the cities and villages to get offal, and entrap domestic animals, these come about the city to see if they may get an entrance, destroy the work, and those engaged in it.

### Verse 7

[¶35] They belch out with their mouth - They use the lowest insult, the basest abuse. They deal in sarcasm, ridicule, slander, and lies.

### Verse 8

[¶37] Thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them - They have mocked us; God will turn them and their schemes into ridicule and contempt: "Thou shalt have all these heathenish nations in derision."

### Verse 9

[¶39] Because of his strength will I wait upon thee - With this reading, I can make no sense of the passage. But instead of עזו uzzo, "his strength," עזי uzzi, "my strength," is the reading of fourteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., of the Vulgate, Septuagint, Chaldee, and, in effect, of the Aethiopia, Syriac, and Arabic; and also of the Anglo-Saxon. To thee I commit all my strength; all I have I derive from thee, and all the good I possess I attribute to thee. The old Psalter translates, My strenght I shall kepe till the, for myn uptaker thou art. See on [Psa 59:17] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶41] The God of my mercy shall prevent me - The mercy of God shall go before me, and thus help me in all my doings.

[¶42] God shall let me see my desire - The sentence is short. God will let me see concerning my enemies, i.e., how he will treat them.

### Verse 11

[¶44] Slay them not, lest my people forget - I believe the Chaldee gives the true sense of this verse: "Do not slay them suddenly, lest my people should forget. Drive them from their habitations by thy power, and reduce them to poverty by the loss of their property." Preserve them long in a state of chastisement that Israel may see thou hast undertaken for them: that thy hand is on the wicked for evil and on them for good. The Canaanites were not suddenly destroyed; they were left to be pricks in the eyes and thorns in the sides of the Israelites. It is in a sense somewhat similar that the words are used here.

## 613. Psalms · 67 of 159

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### Verse 12

[¶1] For the sin of their mouth - This verse has puzzled all the commentators. If we take חטאת chattath for sin-offering instead of sin, we shall get a better sense. Some of Nehemiah's enemies made a profession of the Jewish religion. Tobiah and his son were allied by marriage to the Jews; for Eliashib the priest had married his grandson to the daughter of Sanballat; and this produced a connection with Tobiah, the fast friend of Sanballat. Besides this very priest had given Tobiah one of the great chambers in the house of the Lord, where formerly the meat-offerings, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithe of the corn and wine and oil were kept; [Neh 13:4], [Neh 13:5], [Neh 13:7-9]. And there were children of Tobiah (probably the same family) who professed to be of the Levites, Nethinim, or children of Solomon's servants; but as they could not show their father's house and their seed, whether they were of Israel; these, and others which were children of the priests, were put out of the priesthood, and out of the sacred service, as polluted; as having sprung from intermarriages with heathens. See [Ezr 2:59-62]. Tobiah was expelled from the house of the Lord by Nehemiah, and all his household stuff thrown out of doors: [Neh 13:7], [Neh 13:8]. And this was doubtless one ground of the enmity of Tobiah to Nehemiah; and in this verse of the Psalm he may allude particularly to his occupancy of the chamber of offerings, which offerings, instead of being given to the Levites, were consumed by Tobiah and his household. This may be fairly gathered from [Neh 13:6], [Neh 13:10], [Neh 13:11]. Here then we have the sin of their mouth; their eating the offerings that belonged to the Levites; so that the temple service was deserted, the Levites being obliged to go and till the ground in order to obtain the means of life. And if we take חטאת chattath for sin-offering, it may refer to promises of sacrifice and offering which Tobiah and his family made, but never performed. They ate instead of offering them; and here was the sin of their mouth, in connection with the words of their lips, and their cursing and lying which they spake, for which the psalmist calls upon the Lord to consume them, that they may not be, [Psa 59:13].

### Verse 14

[¶3] At evening let them return - He had mentioned before, [Psa 59:6] that these persons came like beasts of prey round the city striving to get in, that they might take possession. Now, being fully assured of God's protection and that they shall soon be made a public example, he says, Let them return and make a noise like a dog, etc., like dogs, jackals, and other famished creatures, who come howling about the city-walls for something to eat, and wander up and down for meat, grumbling because they are not satisfied, [Psa 59:15]. Nehemiah had made up all the breaches; and had the city guarded so well day and night, by watches who continually relieved each other, that there was no longer any fear of being taken by surprise: and now they must feel like the hungry beasts who were disappointed of their prey.

### Verse 16

[¶5] I will sing of thy power - For it was because thy hand was upon me for good, that I have thus succeeded in my enterprises.

[¶6] Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy - I shall publish abroad what thou hast done; and done not for my worthiness, nor for the worthiness of the people; but for thy own mercy's sake.

[¶7] In the day of my trouble - When I came with small means and feeble help, and had the force and fraud of many enemies to contend with, besides the corruption and unfaithfulness of my own people; thou wast then my defense; and in all attacks, whether open or covered, my sure refuge. I will, therefore, sing of thy mercy in the morning - I will hasten to acquit myself of a duty I owe to thee for such singular interpositions of mercy and power.

### Verse 17

[¶9] Unto thee, O my strength - A similar sentiment to that expressed, [Psa 59:9]. But the words are very emphatic: God is my strength; God is my elevation. My God is my mercy. I have nothing good but what I have from God. And all springs from his dwelling in me. God, therefore, shall have all the glory, both now and for ever.

[¶10] As many persons may still think that the inscription to this Psalm is correct, the following analysis may be applied in that way; or considered as containing a general resolution of the Psalm, without referring it to any particular occasion.

### Introduction

[¶12] The psalmist complains of the desolation which had fallen on the land; prays for deliverance, [Psa 60:1-5]; and promises himself victory over Shechem, Succoth, Gilead, Ephraim, Moab, Idumea, and the Philistines, by the special help and assistance of God, [Psa 60:6-12].

[¶13] The title, "To the chief Musician upon the hexachord, or lily of the testimony, a golden Psalm of David, for instruction; when he strove with Aram Naharaim, Syria of the two rivers (Mesopotamia) and Aram-Zobah, Syria of the watchmen, (Coelosyria), when Joab returned, and smote twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt." I have only to remark here that there is nothing in the contents of this Psalm that bears any relation to this title. According to the title it should be a song of victory and triumph; instead of which the first part of it is a tissue of complaints of disaster and defeat, caused by the Divine desertion. Besides, it was not Joab that slew twelve thousand men in the Valley of Salt; it was Abishai, the brother of Joab; and the number twelve thousand here is not correct; for there were eighteen thousand slain in that battle, as we learn from [1Chr 18:12]. The valley of salt or salt pits is in Idumea. To reconcile the difference between the numbers, various expedients nave been hit on; but still the insuperable objection remains; the contents of this Psalm and this title are in opposition to each other. That the Psalm deplores a defeat, is evident from the three first and two last verses. And the Targumist seems to have viewed it in this light, perhaps the proper one, by expressing the title thus: "To give praise for the ancient testimony, (סהדותא sahadutha), of the sons of Jacob and Laban, (see [Gen 31:47]), an exemplar by the hand of David, to give instruction when he gathered together the people, and passed by the heap of testimony, (איגר סהדותא ayegar sahadutha), and set the battle in array against Aram, which is by the Euphrates; and against Aram, which is by Izobah. And after this Joab returned and smote the Idumeans in the Valley of Salt; and of the armies of David and Joab there fell twelve thousand men." The Psalm, therefore, seems to deplore this disastrous event; for although they had the victory at last, twelve thousand of the troops of Israel were justly considered too great a sacrifice for such a conquest, and a proof that God had not afforded them that succor which they had long been in the habit of receiving. The latter part of the Psalm seems to be intended to put God in remembrance of his ancient promise of putting Israel in possession of the whole land by driving out the ancient iniquitous inhabitants. Others consider the Psalm as descriptive of the distracted state of the land after the fatal battle of Gilboa, till David was anointed king of the whole at Hebron.

[¶14] This is the last of the six Psalms to which מכתם michtam is prefixed; the others are [Psa 16:1-11], [Psa 56:1-13], [Psa 57:1-11], [Psa 58:1-11], and 59: I have said something relative to this word in the introduction to Psalm xvi., but some observations of Mr. Harmer lead me to consider the subject more at large. It is well known that there were seven most eminent Arabic poets who flourished before and at the commencement of the career of Mohammed: their names were Amriolkais, Amru, Hareth, Tharafah, Zohair, Lebeid, and Antarah. These poets produced each a poem, which because of its excellence was deemed worthy to be suspended on the walls of the temple of Mecca; and hence the collection of the seven poems was termed Al Moallakat, The Suspended; and Al Modhahebat, The Gilded or Golden, because they were written in letters of gold upon the Egyptian papyrus. The six michtams of David might have this title for the same reason; they might have been written in letters of gold, or on gilded vellum, or the Egyptian papyrus; for the word מכתם michtam is generally supposed to signify golden, and כתם kethem is used to signify gold, probably stamped or engraqven with figures or letters. That the Moallakat were written in this way, there can be no question; and that the works of men of great eminence in Asiatic countries are still thus written, my own library affords ample evidence. Copies of the following works are written on paper all powdered with gold, with gold borders, and highly illuminated anwans or titles: The Misnavi of Jelaluddeen Raumy; The Deevan of Zuheer Faryabi; The Hadikatusani, or Garden of Praise; The Suhbet Al Abrar; The Deevan of Hafiz; Gulistan of Saady; Deevan of Shahy, with many more, all works of eminent authors, written in the finest manner, ruled with gold borders, etc.

[¶15] Copies of the Koran are often done in the same manner: one in 12 mo., so thickly powdered over with gold that the ground on which the text is written appears to be almost totally gilded; another large octavo, all powdered with gold, and golden flowers down every margin; another small octavo, that might be almost called the Codex Aureus, with rich golden borders on every page. And, lastly, one in large folio, which besides superbly illuminated anwans, has three gold lines to every page; one at the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom. To the above may be added a small folio, that opens out about eleven feet, every page of which is like a plate of solid gold, with the characters engraven on it. It is a collection of elegant extracts. Another of the same kind, large folio, opens out sixty-two feet, on which every page is finished in the same manner, with a vast variety of borders, sprigs, and flowers. And to close the whole, a copy of the Borda, supposed to be the most elegant MS. in Europe, entirely covered with gold flowers and lines, the writing the most perfect I ever saw; so that of this MS. it might be truly said, splendid as it is, materiam superabit opus.

[¶16] As Mr. Harmer has alluded to accounts which he has collected from other writers in order to illustrate the michtams of David, I have above produced a number of evidences to bear witness to the fact that such is and such was the custom in the east, to write the works of the most eminent authors in letters of gold, or on a page highly ornamented with the utmost profusion of golden lines, figures, flowers, etc. In this way these Psalms might have been written, and from this circumstance they may have derived their name. I may just add, that I think these titles were made long after the Psalms were composed.

### Verse 1

[¶18] O God, thou hast cast us off - Instead of being our general in the battle, thou hast left us to ourselves; and then there was only the arm of flesh against the arm of flesh, numbers and physical power were left to decide the contest. We have been scattered, our ranks have been broken before the enemy, and thou hast caused the whole land to tremble at our bad success; the people are become divided and seditious. "Thou hast made the land to tremble, even the breaches of it, for it shaketh, it is all in commotion," [Psa 60:2].

### Verse 3

[¶20] Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment - We reel as drunken men; we are giddy, like those who have drank too much wine; but our giddiness has been occasioned by the astonishment and dismay that have taken place in consequence of the prevalence of our enemies, and the unsettled state of the land. It has been remarked that the three first verses of this Psalm do not agree with the rest, and it also appears that the three first verses of [Psa 85:1-13] : do not agree with the rest of that Psalm. But let them change places, and the three first verses of this be set instead of the three first verses of Psa lxxxv., and let those be placed here instead of these and then the whole of each Psalm will be consistent. This was first suggested by Bishop Hare, and the supposition seems to be well founded. Some imagine that the whole of the Psalm refers to the distracted state of the land after the death of Saul till the time that David was anointed king over all Israel, at Hebron; others, to the disastrous war with the Syrians. See before.

### Verse 4

[¶22] Thou hast given a banner - נס nes, a sign, something that was capable of being fixed on a pole.

[¶23] That it may be displayed - להתנוסס lehithnoses, that it may be unfurled.

[¶24] Because of the truth - מפני קשט mippeney koshet, from the face of truth; which has been thus paraphrased: If we have displayed the ensign of Israel, and gone forth against these our enemies, who have now made such a terrible breach among us, ([Psa 60:1-3]), it was because of thy truth - the promises of victory which we supposed would attend us at all times.

[¶25] Mr. Mudge, thus: "Thou givest to them that fear thee a signal to be displayed before the truth. That thy favored ones may be delivered, clothe thy right arm with victory, and answer us. God speaketh in his sanctuary, I will exult; I shall portion out Shechem, and measure the valley of Succoth." The fourth verse seems to mean that God had appointed for the consolation of his people a certain signal of favor, with which therefore he prays him to answer them. This, accordingly, he does. God speaketh in his sanctuary, called rybd debir or oracle for that very reason. What he desires then, as he stands imploring the mercy of God before the oracle, is, that he may see the usual signal of favor proceed from it; a voice, perhaps joined with some luminous emanations, whence the phrase of the light of God's countenance. The expression in the sixth verse seems to be proverbial, and means, "I shall divide the spoils of my enemies with as much ease as the sons of Jacob portioned out Shechem, and measured out for their tents the valley of Succoth." Mr. Harmer gives a very ingenious illustration of the giving the banner. "Albertus Aquensis informs us that when Jerusalem was taken in 1099 by the crusaders, about three hundred Saracens got on the roof of a very high building, and earnestly begged for quarter; but could not be induced by any promises of safety to come down, till they had received the banner of Tanered, one of the crusade generals, as a pledge of life. The event showed the faithlessness of these zealots, they put the whole to the sword. But the Saracens surrendering themselves upon the delivering of a standard to them, proves in how strong a light they looked upon the giving a banner, since it induced them to trust it, when they would not trust any promises. Perhaps the delivery of a banner was anciently esteemed in like manner an obligation to protect; and the psalmist might here consider it in this light when he says, Thou hast shown thy people hard things; but thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. Though thou didst for a time give up thy Israel into the hands of their enemies, thou hast now given them an assurance of thy having received them under thy protection. Thus God gave them a banner or standard that it might be displayed, or lifted up; or rather, that they may lift up a banner to themselves, or encourage themselves with the confident persuasion that they are under the protection of God: because of the truth - the word of promise, which is an assurance of protection - like the giving me and my people a banner, the surest of pledges." - Harmer's Observations. See at the end of the chapter.

### Verse 6

[¶27] God hath spoken - Judah shall not only be re-established in Jerusalem, but shall possess Samaria, where Shechem is, and the country beyond Jordan, in which is situated the valley of Succoth. Dividing and meting out signify possession.

### Verse 7

[¶29] Gilead is mine - This country was also beyond Jordan, and Manasseh and Ephraim are put for the tribes that formed the kingdom of Israel. All these, after the return from the captivity, formed but one people, the Jews and Israelites being united.

[¶30] The strength of mine head - It shall be the principal support of the new-found kingdom, when all distinctions shall be buried.

[¶31] Judah is my lawgiver - This tribe was chief of all those who returned from the captivity; and Zerubbabel, who was their leader, was chief of that tribe, and of the family of David. As this part of the Psalm appears to relate to the return of the captives from Babylon, and their repossession of their own land, the psalmist may refer, not only to the promises of their restoration, but also to the principal person under whose superintendence they returned.

### Verse 8

[¶33] Moab is my washpot - The Moabites shall be reduced to the meanest slavery.

[¶34] Over Edom will I cast out my shoe - I will make a complete conquest of Idumea, and subject the Edomites to the meanest offices, as well as the Moabites.

[¶35] Philistia, triumph thou because of me - John Hyrcanus subdued the Idumeans, and caused them to receive circumcision, and profess the Jewish religion. The words here seem to predict their entire subjugation.

[¶36] In an essay for a new translation of the Bible, there is what appears to me a correct paraphrase of the seventh and eighth verses: "Gilead and Manasseh have submitted unto me; Ephraim furnishes me with valiant men, and Judah with men of prudence and wisdom. I will reduce the Moabites to servitude; I will triumph over the Edomites, and make them my slaves; and the Philistines shall add to my triumph."

### Verse 9

[¶38] Who will bring me into the strong city? - If this part of the Psalm, from the sixth to the twelfth verse, refer to the return of the captives from Babylon, as I think probable; then the strong city may mean either Petra, the capital of Idumea; Bozra, in Arabia, near the mountains of Gilead; Rabba, the capital of the Ammonites; or Tyre, according to the Chaldee, the capital of Phoenicia; or Jerusalem itself, which, although dismantled, had long been one of the strongest cities of the east. Or it may imply, Who shall give me the dominion over the countries already mentioned? who will lead me into Edom? who will give me the dominion over that people?

### Verse 10

[¶40] Wilt not thou, O God - It is God alone from whom we can expect our enlargement. He who has cast us off, and has abandoned us in battle; it is that very God alone from whom we expect complete enlargement, the repossession of our own land, and the subduction of the surrounding nations; and we expect this, because he has graciously promised these mercies.

### Verse 11

[¶42] Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man - We have done all we can do, and have trusted too much in ourselves; now, Lord, undertake for us.

### Verse 12

[¶44] Through God we shall do valiantly - Through thee alone shall we do valiantly; thou alone canst tread down our enemies; and to thee alone we look for conquest.

[¶45] The author to whom Harmer refers in the note on the fourth verse, is one of the writers in a work entitled Gesta dei per Francos, fol. Hanoviae, 1611, 2 vols. And the places quoted by Harmer may be found in vol. i., p. 282; and as the passage is singular, and a good use has been made of it for the illustration of a difficult passage, I shall lay the words of the original before the reader: "Proxima ab hinc die sabbati clarescente, quidam Sarracenorum spe vitae in summitatem tecti domus praecelsae Solomonis ab armis elapsi, circiter trecenti, confugerant. Qui multa prece pro vita flagitantes, in mortis articulo positi, nullius fiducia aut promissione audebant descendere, quousque vexillum Tankradi in signum protectionis vivendi susceperunt. Sed minime misellis profuit. Nam plurimis super hoc indignantibus, et Christianis furore commotis, ne unus quidem illorum evasit."

## 614. Psalms · 68 of 159

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[¶0] It is very properly added by Albertus, that the noble spirit of Tancred was filled with indignation at this most horrible breach of faith; and he was about to take a summary revenge on the instigators and perpetrators of this unprincipled butchery, when the chiefs interposed, and not only maintained the expediency of the massacre that had already been committed, but the necessity of putting all the inhabitants to the sword. On this the savage fiends, called Christians, flew to arms, and made a universal slaughter of all that remained of the inhabitants. They drew out the prisoners, chopped off their heads, stabbed all they met with in the streets, and-but I can translate no farther; it is too horrible. I shall give my author's words, who was an ecclesiastic, and wrote down the account from eye-witnesses: "Concilio hoc accepto, (the determination of the chiefs to put all to the sword), tertio die post victoriam egressa est sententia a majoribus: et ecce universi arma rapiunt, et miserabili caede in omne vulgus Gentilium, quod adhuc erat residuum, exsurgunt, alios producentes e vinculis et decollantes: alios per vicos et plateas civitatis inventos trucidantes, quibus antea causa pecuniae, aut humana pietate pepercerunt. Puellas vero, mulieres, matronas nobiles, et faetas cum puellis tenellis detruncabant, aut lapidibus obruebant, in nullis aliquam considerantes aetatem. E contra, puellae, mulieres, matronae, metu momentaneae mortis angustiatae et horrore gravissimae necis concussae Christianos in jugulum utriusque sexus debacchantes ac saevientes, medios pro liberanda vita amplexabantur, quaedam pedibus eorum advolvebantur, de vita et salute sua illos nimium miserando fletu et ejulatu solicitantes. Pueri vero quinquennes aut triennes matrum patrumque crudelem casum intuentes, una miserum clamorem et fletum multiplicabant. Sed frustra haec pietatis et misericordiae signa fiebant: nam Christiani sic neci totum laxaverunt animum, ut non lugens masculus aut faemina, nedum infans unius anni vivens, manum percussoris evaderet. Unde plateae totius civitatis Jerusalem corporibus extinctis virorum et mulierum, lacerisque membris infantium, adeo stratae et opertae fuisse referuntur, ut non solum in vicis, soliis et palatiis, sed etiam in locis desertae solitudinis copia occisorum reperiretur innumerabilis.'GestA Dei Vol. I., p. 283.

[¶1] This is one specimen of the spirit of the crusaders, and is it any wonder that God did not shine on such villanous measures! No wonder that the Mohammedans have so long hated the name of Christian, when they had no other specimen of Christianity than what the conduct of these ferocious brutes exhibited; and these were called Gesta Dei, the transactions of God!

[¶2] There are many difficulties in this Psalm; whether they are in general removed by the preceding notes, the reader must judge. The following analysis is constructed on the supposition that the Psalm speaks of the distracted state of the kingdom from the fatal battle of Gilboa, in which Saul fell, to the death of Ishbosheth, when the whole kingdom was united under David.

### Introduction

[¶4] The psalmist's prayer for those who mere banished from their own land, and from the ordinances of God, [Psa 61:1], [Psa 61:2]. He praises God for his past mercies, [Psa 61:3]; purposes to devote himself entirely to his service, [Psa 61:4], [Psa 61:5]. He prays for the king, [Psa 61:6], [Psa 61:7]; and promises to perform his vow to the Lord daily, [Psa 61:8].

[¶5] The title, To the chief Musician upon Neginath, נגינת. The verb נגן nagan signifies to strike or play on a musical instrument, especially one of the stringed kind; but the נגינות neginoth, as it is written in about thirty MSS., may signify either the players on the instruments or the instruments themselves. The Psalm appears to have been written about the close of the captivity, and the most judicious interpreters refer it to that period. On this supposition the notes are formed.

### Verse 1

[¶7] Hear my cry, O God - In the midst of a long and painful captivity, oppressed with suffering, encompassed with cruel enemies and isolent masters, I address my humble prayer to Thee, O my God.

### Verse 2

[¶9] From the end of the earth - ארץ arets should be here translated land, not earth, and so it should be in numerous places besides. But here it seems to mean the country beyond the Euphrates; as it is thought to do, [Psa 65:5], [Psa 65:8], called there also the ends of the earth or land. It may be remarked that the Jews were always more pious and devoted to God in their afflictions and captivities, than when in their own land, in ease and affluence. But who can bear prosperity? How many hearts filled with heavenly ardor in affliction and persecution have grown cold under the beams of the sun of prosperity!

[¶10] Lead me to the rock that is higher than I - Direct me to a place of refuge and safety. It is a metaphorical expression; and Calmet interprets it of the liberty granted to the Jews by Cyrus to return to their own land. This was a privilege far higher than any thing they could expect. The fathers think Jesus Christ is meant by this high rock.

### Verse 3

[¶12] Those hast been a shelter for me - During the whole duration of the captivity God marvellously dealt with the poor Jews; so that, although they were cast down, they were not utterly forsaken.

### Verse 4

[¶14] I will abide in thy tabernacle - The greater portion of those Psalms which were composed during and after the captivity, says Calmet, had Levites and priests for their authors. Hence we find the ardent desire so frequently expressed of seeing the temple; of praising God there; of spending their lives in that place, performing the functions of their sacred office. There I shall sojourn; - there I shall dwell, - be at rest, - be in safety, - be covered with thy wings, as a bird in its nest is covered with the wings of its mother. These simple comparisons, drawn from rural affairs and ordinary occurrences, are more pleasing and consolatory in the circumstances in question, than allegories derived from subjects the most noble and sublime.

### Verse 5

[¶16] Hast heard my vows - Often have I purposed to be wholly thine, - to serve thee alone, - to give up my whole life to thy service: and thou hast heard me, and taken me at my word; and given me that heritage, the privilege of enjoying thee in thy ordinances, which is the lot of them that fear thy name. The Psalm seems to have been composed either after the captivity, or at the time that Cyrus published his decree in their favor, as has been remarked before.

### Verse 6

[¶18] Thou wilt prolong the king's life - The words are very emphatic, and can refer to no ordinary person. Literally, "Days upon days thou wilt add to the king; and his years shall be like the generations of this world, and the generations of the world to come." This is precisely the paraphrase I had given to this text before I had looked into the Chaldee Version; and to which I need add nothing, as I am persuaded no earthly king is intended: and it is Christ, as Mediator, that "shall abide before God for ever," [Psa 61:7]. Neither to David, nor to any earthly sovereign, can these words be applied.

### Verse 7

[¶20] He shall abide before God for ever - Literally, "He shall sit for ever before the faces of God." He shall ever appear in the presence of God for us. And he ever sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high; for he undertook this office after having, by his sacrificial offering, made atonement for our sins.

[¶21] Prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him - As Mediator, his attendants will ever be mercy and truth. He will dispense the mercy of God, and thus fulfill the truth of the various promises and predictions which had preceded his incarnation. There is an obscurity in this clause, חסד ואמת מן ינצרהו chesed veemeth man yintseruhu, owing to the particle מן man, which some translate who or what; and others, number thou, from מנה manah, to count. Houbigant, and he is followed by Bishop Lowth, would read מיהוה miyehovah, Mercy and truth from Jehovah shall preserve him. The AngloSaxon has, Mildheartedness, and soothfastness his, who seeketh? which is nearly the rendering of the old Psalter: Mercy and sothfastnes of him, wha sall seke? Dr. Kennicott says, מן man is a Syriasm; and should be translated quaesoutinam, I beseech thee, - I wish, - O that! On this very ground Coverdale appears to have translated, O let thy lovynge mercy and faithfulnes preserve him! The sense I have given above I conceive to be the true one.

### Verse 8

[¶23] So will I sing praise unto thy name for evher - For the benefits which I have received, and hope to receive endlessly from thee, I will to all perpetuity praise thee.

[¶24] That I may daily perform my vows - While I live, I shall יום יום yom, yom, "day by day," each day as it succeeds, render to thee my vows - act according to what I have often purposed, and as often promised. The Chaldee ends remarkably: "Thus I will praise thy name for ever, when I shall perform my vows in the day of the rederaption of Israel; and in the day in which the King Messiah shall be anointed, that he may reign."

[¶25] The ancient Jews were full of the expectation of the Messiah; the Jews of the present day have given up their hope.

### Introduction

[¶27] David, in imminent danger, flees to God for help and safety, [Psa 62:1], [Psa 62:2]; points out the designs of his adversaries, [Psa 62:3], [Psa 62:4]; encourages his soul to wait on God, [Psa 62:5-8]; shows the vanity of trusting in man, and of trusting in riches, [Psa 62:9], [Psa 62:10]; and concludes with asserting that power and mercy belong to God, and that he will give to every man according to his works, [Psa 62:11], [Psa 62:12].

[¶28] The title, "To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun," may mean that the Psalm was sent to him who was the chief or leader of the band of the family of Jeduthun. It appears that Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman, were chief singers in the time of David; that they, with their families, presided over different departments of the vocal and instrumental worship in the tabernacle, [1Chr 25:1], etc.; that they were holy men, full of the Divine Spirit, (a thing very rare among singers and performers in these latter days), and that they prophesied with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals; that Jeduthun had six sons thus employed; that himself prophesied with a harp to give thanks and praise to God, [1Chr 25:3]; and that the sons of Jeduthun were appointed by lot to the different courses. The eighth course fell to his son Jeshaiah, [1Chr 25:15]; the twelfth, to Hashabiah, [1Chr 25:19]; and the fourteenth, to Mattithiah, [1Chr 25:21].

[¶29] Will our modern performers on instruments of music in churches and chapels, pretend to the prophetic influence? If they do not, and cannot, how dare they quote such passages in vindication of their practice, which can be no better than a dulcet noise without its original meaning, and alien from its primary use? Do they indeed prophesy with harps, and psalteries, and cymbals? or with their play-house aggregate of fiddles and flutes, bass-viols and bassoons, clarionets and kettle-drums? Away with with such trumpery and pollution from the worship and Church of Christ!

[¶30] Though it is not very clear from the Psalm itself on what occasion it was composed, yet it is most likely it was during the rebellion of Absalom; and perhaps at the particular time when David was obliged to flee from Jerusalem.

### Verse 1

[¶32] Truly my soul waiteth upon God - I do not think that the original will warrant this translation, אך אל אלהים דומיה נפשי ak el Elohim dumiyah naphshi, "Surely to God only is my soul dumb." I am subject to God Almighty. He has a right to lay on me what he pleases; and what he lays on me is much less than I deserve: therefore am I dumb before God. The Vulgate, and almost all the Versions, have understood it in this sense: Nonne Deo subjecta erit anima mea? Shall not my soul be subject to God? In other words, God alone has a right to dispose of my life as he pleases.

### Verse 2

[¶34] I shall not be greatly moved - Having God for my rock - strong fortified place, for my salvation - continual safety, and my defense - my elevated tower, which places me out of the reach of my enemies; I shall not be greatly moved - I may be shaken, but cannot be cast down.

### Verse 3

[¶36] How long will ye imagine mischief - The original word, תהותתו tehothethu, has been translated variously; rush upon, rage against, stir yourselves up, thrust against: the root is התת hathath or התה hathah, to rush violently upon, to assault. It points out the disorderly riotous manner in which this rebellion was conducted.

[¶37] As a bowing wall - a tottering fence - Ye are just ready to fall upon others, and destroy them; and in that fall yourselves shall be destroyed: "Ye shall be slain the whole of you."

### Verse 4

[¶39] To cast him down from his excellency - They are consulting to dethrone me, and use treachery and falsehood in order to bring it about: "They delight in lies."

[¶40] They bless with their mouth - Probably alluding to Absalom's blandishments of the people. He flattered them in order to get the sovereign rule. Or it may refer to the people of Jerusalem, whose perfidy he saw, while they were full of professions of loyalty, etc.; but he could not trust them, and therefore retired from Jerusalem.

### Verse 5

[¶42] Wait thou only upon God - There is none but him in whom thou canst safely trust; and to get his help, resign thyself into his hands; be subject to him, and be silent before him; thou hast what thou hast deserved. See on [Psa 62:1] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶44] In God is my salvation - עי אלהים al Elohim, "Upon God is my salvation;" he has taken it upon himself. And my glory - the preservation of my state, and the safety of my kingdom.

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Trust in him - ye people - All ye who are faithful to your king, continue to trust in God. The usurper will soon be cast down, and your rightful sovereign restored to his government. Fear not the threatenings of my enemies, for God will be a refuge for us.

### Verse 9

[¶3] Men of low degree are vanity - בני אדם beney Adam, which we here translate men of low degree, literally, sons of Adam, are put in opposition to בני איש beney ish, men of high degree, literally, the sons of substance, or children of substantial men. Adam was the name of the first man when formed out of the earth; Ish was his name when united to his wife, and they became one flesh. Before, he was the incomplete man; after, he was the complete man; for it seems, in the sight of God, it requires the male and female to make one complete human being. אנוש enosh is another name given to man, but this concerns him in his low, fallen, wretched estate: it properly signifies weak, poor, addicted, wretched man.

[¶4] Common men can give no help. They are vanity, and it is folly to trust in them; for although they may be willing, yet they have no ability to help you: "Rich men are a lie." They promise much, but perform nothing; they cause you to hope, but mock your expectation.

[¶5] To be laid to the balance - במאזנים לעלות bemozenayim laaloth, In the balances they ascend: exactly answerable to our phrase, they kick the beam.

[¶6] They are altogether lighter than vanity - Literally, Both of them united are vanity, המה מהבל יחד hemmah mehebel yachad. Put both together in one scale, and truth in the opposite, and both will kick the beam. They weigh nothing, they avail nothing.

### Verse 10

[¶8] Trust not in oppression - Do not suppose that my unnatural son and his partisans can succeed.

[¶9] Become not vain in robbery - If ye have laid your hands on the spoils of my house, do not imagine that these ill-gotten riches will prosper. God will soon scatter them to all the winds of heaven. All oppressors come to an untimely end; and all property acquired by injustice has God's curse on it.

### Verse 11

[¶11] God hath spoken once - God has once addressed his people in giving the law on Mount Sinai. The Chaldee translates the whole passage thus: "God hath spoken one law, and twice have we heard this from the mouth of Moses the great scribe, that strength is before God: and it becomes thee, O God, to show mercy to the righteous; for thou renderest to man according to his works."

[¶12] Twice have I heard this - Except some of the ancient Versions, almost every version, translation, and commentary has missed the sense and meaning of this verse. I shall set down the text: אחת דבר אלהים שתים זו שמעתי achath dibber Elohim; shetayim zu shamati; of which the true version is this: Once hath God spoken; these two things have I heard. Now what are the two things he had heard?

[¶13] 1. כי וז לאלהים ki oz lelohim, "That strength is the Lord's;" that is, He is the Origin of pourer.

[¶14] 2. ולך אדני חסד ulecha Adonai, chased; "and to thee, Lord, is mercy;" that is, He is the Fountain of mercy.

[¶15] These, then, are the two grand truths that the law, yea, the whole revelation of God, declares through every page. He is the Almighty; he is the most merciful; and hence the inference: The powerful, just, and holy God, the most merciful and compassionate Lord, will by and by judge the world, and will render to man according to his works. How this beautiful meaning should have been unseen by almost every interpreter, is hard to say: these verses contain one of the most instructive truths in the Bible.

### Introduction

[¶17] David's soul thirsts after God, while absent from the sanctuary, and longs to be restored to the Divine ordinances, [Psa 63:1], [Psa 63:2]. He expresses strong confidence in the Most High, and praises him for his goodness, [Psa 63:3-8]; shows the misery of those who do not seek God, [Psa 63:9], [Psa 63:10]; and his own safety as king of the people, [Psa 63:11].

[¶18] The title of this Psalm is, A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judea; but instead of Judea, the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, several of the ancient Latin Psalters, and several of the Latin fathers, read Idumea, or Edom; still there is no evidence that David had ever taken refuge in the deserts of Idumea. The Hebrew text is that which should be preferred; and all the MSS. are in its favor. The Syriac has, "Of David, when he said to the king of Moab, My father and mother fled to thee from the face of Saul; and I also take refuge with thee." It is most probable that the Psalm was written when David took refuge in the forest of Hareth, in the wilderness of Ziph, when he fled from the court of Achish. But Calmet understands it as a prayer by the captives in Babylon.

### Verse 1

[¶20] O God, thou art my God - He who can say so, and feels what he says, need not fear the face of any adversary. He has God, and all sufficiency in him.

[¶21] Early will I seek thee - From the dawn of day. De luce, from the light, Vulgate; as soon as day breaks; and often before this, for his eyes prevented the night-watches; and he longed and watched for God more than they who watched for the morning. The old Psalter says, God my God, til the fram light I wake; and paraphrases thus: God of all, thurgh myght; thu is my God, thurgh lufe and devocion; speciali till the I wak. Fra light, that is, fra thy tym that the light of thi grace be in me, that excites fra night of sine. And makes me wak till the in delite of luf, and swetnes in saul. Thai wak till God, that setes all thar thoght on God, and for getns the werld. Thai slep till God, that settis thair hert on ani creatur - I wak till the, and that gars me thirst in saule and body.

[¶22] What first lays hold of the heart in the morning is likely to occupy the place all the day. First impressions are the most durable, because there is not a multitude of ideas to drive them out, or prevent them from being deeply fixed in the moral feeling.

[¶23] In a dry and thirsty land - בארץ beerets, In a land: but several MSS. have כארץ keerets, As a dry and thirsty land, etc.

### Verse 2

[¶25] To see thy power and thy glory - in the sanctuary - In his public ordinances God had often showed his power in the judgments he executed, in the terror he impressed, and in awakening the sinful; and his glory in delivering the tempted, succouring the distressed, and diffusing peace and pardon through the hearts of his followers. God shows his power and glory in his ordinances; therefore public worship should never be neglected. We must see God, says the old Psalter, that he may see us. In his temple he dispenses his choicest blessings.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Thy loving-kindness is better than life - This is the language of every regenerate soul. But O how few prefer the approbation of God to the blessings of life, or even to life itself in any circumstances! But the psalmist says, Thy loving-kindness, חסדך chasdecha, thy effusive mercy, is better מחיים mechaiyim, than Lives: it is better than, or good beyond, countless ages of human existence.

[¶28] My lips shall praise thee - Men praise, or speak well, of power, glory, honor, riches, worldly prospects and pleasures; but the truly religious speak well of God, in whom they find infinitely more satisfaction and happiness than worldly men can find in the possession of all earthly good.

### Verse 4

[¶30] I will lift up my hands in thy name - I will take God for my portion. I will dedicate myself to him, and will take him to witness that I am upright in what I profess and do. Pious Jews, in every place of their dispersion, in all their prayers, praises, contracts, etc., stretched out their hands towards Jerusalem, where the true God had his temple, and where he manifested his presence.

### Verse 5

[¶32] My soul shall be satisfied - I shall have, in the true worshipping of thee, as complete a sensation of spiritual sufficiency and happiness, so that no desire shall be left unsatisfied, as any man can have who enjoys health of body, and a fullness of all the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of life.

### Verse 6

[¶34] When I remember thee upon my bed - I will lie down in thy fear and love; that I may sleep soundly under thy protection, and awake with a sense of thy presence and approbation; and when I awake in the night watches, or be awakened by them, I will spend the waking moments in meditation upon thee.

### Verse 7

[¶36] Therefore in the shadow of thy wings - I will get into the very secret of thy presence, into the holy of holies, to the mercy-seat, over which the cherubs extend their wings. If the psalmist does not allude to the overshadowing of the mercy-seat by the extended wings of the cherubim, he may have in view, as a metaphor, the young of fowls, seeking shelter, protection, and warmth under the wings of their mothers. See the same metaphor, [Psa 61:4] (note). When a bird of prey appears, the chickens will, by natural instinct, run under the wings of their mothers for protection.

[¶37] The old Psalter translates, And in hiling of thi wenges I sall joy. The paraphrase is curious. "Thou art my helper, in perels; and I can joy in gode dedes in thi hiling, (covering), for I am thi bride, (bird), and if thou hil (cover) me noght, the glede (kite) will rawis me, (carry me away.")

### Verse 8

[¶39] My soul followeth hard after thee - דבקה נפשי אחריך dabekah naphshi achareycha, "My soul cleaves (or) is glued after thee." This phrase not only shows the diligence of the pursuit, and the nearness of the attainment, but also the fast hold he had got of the mercy of his God.

### Verse 9

[¶41] Lower parts of the earth - They are appointed, in the just judgment of God, to destruction; they shall be slain and buried in the earth, and shall be seen no more. Some understand the passage as referring to the punishment of hell; which many supposed to be in the center of the earth.

[¶42] So the old Psalter, - Thai sall entir in till lagher pine of hell. Lahher or laigher, lower, undermost.

### Verse 10

[¶44] They shall fall by the sword - They shall be poured out by the hand of the sword, Hebrews That is, their life's blood shall be shed either in war, or by the hand of justice.

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[¶0] They shall be a portion for foxes - They shall be left unburied, and the jackals shall feed upon their dead bodies. Or, being all cut off by utter destruction, their Inheritance shall be left for the wild beasts. That which was their portion shall shortly be the portion of the wild beasts of the forest. If he here refers to the destruction of the Babylonians, the prediction has been literally fulfilled. Where ancient Babylon stood, as far as it can be ascertained, is now the hold of dangerous reptiles and ferocious beasts. The jackal, or chokal, is a very ravenous beast, and fond of human flesh. It devours dead bodies, steals infants out of the lap of their mothers, devours alive the sick who are left by the side of the Ganges, and even in the streets of Calcutta has been known to eat persons who were in a state of intoxication. Ward's Customs.

### Verse 11

[¶2] But the king shall rejoice - David shall come to the kingdom according to the promise of God. Or, if it refer to the captivity, the blood royal shall be preserved in and by Zerubbabel till the Messiah come, who shall be David's spiritual successor in the kingdom for ever.

[¶3] That sweareth by him - It was customary to swear by the life of the king. The Egyptians swore by the life of Pharaoh; and Joseph conforms to this custom, as may be seen in the book of Genesis, [Gen 42:15], [Gen 42:16]. See also [1Sam 1:26] : [1Sam 17:55], and Judith 11:7. But here it may refer to God. He is The King, and swearing by his name signifies binding themselves by his authority, acknowledging his supremacy, and devoting themselves to his glory and service alone.

[¶4] The Chaldee has: "And the King shall rejoice במימר אלהא bemeymar Eloha, in the Word of God;" or, in the Word God; Meymar, Word, being taken here substantially, as in many other places, by the Targumist.

[¶5] The mouth of them that speak lies - The mouth of those who acknowledge lying vanities, that worship false gods, shall be stopped. All false religions shall be destroyed by the prevalence of the truth. For he, Christ, shall reign till all his enemies are put under his feet. "Thy kingdom come, and hell's o'erpower: and to thy scepter all subdue." Amen and Amen.

### Introduction

[¶7] The psalmist prays for preservation from the wicked, [Psa 64:1], [Psa 64:2]; whom he describes, [Psa 64:3-6]; shows their punishment, [Psa 64:7], [Psa 64:8]; and the effect that this should have on the godly, [Psa 64:9], [Psa 64:10].

[¶8] The title, To the chief Musician, or conqueror, A Psalm of David. The Syriac says, "composed by David when warned by Gad the prophet, who said, Stay not in Masrob, because Saul seeks thy life." Some think it was composed by David when he was persecuted by Saul; or during the rebellion of Absalom. But Calmet thinks it is a complaint of the captives in Babylon.

### Verse 1

[¶10] Hear my voice - The psalmist feared for his life, and the lives of his fellow-captives; and he sought help of God. He prayed, and he lifted up his voice; and thus showed his earnestness.

### Verse 2

[¶12] Hide me from the secret counsel - They plotted his destruction, and then formed insurrections in order to accomplish it.

[¶13] Workers of iniquity - Those who made sin their labor, their daily employment; it was their occupation and trade. It is supposed that by this title the Babylonians are intended. See [Psa 6:3]; [Psa 14:4]; [Psa 36:12]; [Psa 53:4]; [Psa 59:2].

### Verse 3

[¶15] Who whet their tongue like a sword - They devise the evil they shall speak, and meditate on the most provoking, injurious, and defamatory words; as the soldier whets his sword that he may thereby the better cut down his enemies.

[¶16] Their arrows - bitter words - Their defamatory sayings are here represented as deadly as poisoned arrows; for to such is the allusion here made.

### Verse 4

[¶18] That they may shoot in secret - They lurk, that they may take their aim the more surely, and not miss their mark.

[¶19] Suddenly - When there is no fear apprehended, because none is seen.

### Verse 5

[¶21] They commune of laying snares - They lay snares to entrap those whom they cannot slay by open attack or private ambush.

### Verse 6

[¶23] They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search - The word חפש chaphash, which is used three times, as a noun and a verb, in this sentence, signifies to strip off the clothes. "They investigate iniquities; they perfectly investigate an investigation." Most energetically translated by the old Psalter: Thai ransaked wickednesses: thai failled ransakand in ransaking. To ransack signifies to search every corner, to examine things part by part, to turn over every leaf, to leave no hole or cranny unexplored. But the word investigate fully expresses the meaning of the term, as it comes either from in, taken privately, and vestire, to clothe, stripping the man bare, that he may be exposed to all shame, and be the more easily wounded; or from the word investigo, which may be derived from in, intensive, and vestigium, the footstep or track of man or beast. A metaphor from hunting the stag; as the slot, or mark of his foot, is diligently sought out, in order to find whither he is gone, and whether he is old or young, for huntsmen can determine the age by the slot. Tuberville, in his Treatise on Hunting, gives rules to form this judgment, To this the next verse seems to refer.

### Verse 7

[¶25] But God shall shoot at them with an arrow - They endeavor to trace me out, that they may shoot me; but God will shoot at them. This, if the Psalm refer to the times of David, seems to be prophetic of Saul's death. The archers pressed upon him, and sorely wounded him with their arrows. [1Sam 31:3].

### Verse 8

[¶27] Their own tongue to fall upon them-selves - All the plottings, counsels, and curses, they have formed against me, shall come upon themselves.

### Verse 9

[¶29] And all men shall fear - They endeavored to hide their mischief; but God shall so punish them that all shall see it, and shall acknowledge in their chastisement the just judgment of God. The wicked, in consequence, shall fear, and,

### Verse 10

[¶31] The righteous shall be glad - They shall see that God does not abandon his followers to the malice of bad men. The rod of the wicked may come into the herttage of the just; but there it shall not rest. Calmet thinks that this is a prediction of the destruction of the Chaldeans, in consequence of which the Jewish people became highly respected by all the surrounding nations. But it may be applied more generally to the enmity of the wicked against the righteous, and how God counterworks their devices, and vindicates and supports his own followers.

### Introduction

[¶33] God is praised for the fullilment of his promises, and for his mercy in forgiving sins, [Psa 65:1-3]. He is praised for the wonders that he works in nature, which all mankind must acknowledge, [Psa 65:4-8]; for the fertilizing showers which he sends upon the earth, and the abundance thereby produced both for men and cattle, [Psa 65:9-13].

[¶34] The title, "To the chief Musician or conqueror, a Psalm and Song of David." So the Hebrew; and, in effect, the Chaldee, Ethiopic, and best copies of the Septuagint. The Arabic has, "A Psalm of David concerning the transmigration of the people."

[¶35] The Vulgate is singular: "A Psalm of David. A hymn of Jeremiah and Ezekiel for the people of the transmigration, when they began to go out," from Babylon, understood. This title is of no authority; it neither accords with the subject of the Psalm, nor with the truth of history. Calmet has very properly remarked that Jeremiah and Ezekiel were never found together, to compose this Psalm, neither before at, nor after the captivity. It should therefore be utterly rejected. In the Complutensian edition Haggai is added to Jeremiah and Ezekiel, all with equal propriety.

[¶36] It is supposed to have been written after a great drought, when God had sent a plentiful rain on the land. I rather think that there was no direct drought or rain in the prophet's view, but a celebration of the praises of God for his giving rain and fruitful seasons, and filling men's mouths with food, and their hearts with gladness. There is a particular providence manifested in the quantity of rain that falls upon the earth, which can neither be too much admired nor praised.

### Verse 1

[¶38] Praise waiteth for thee - Praise is silent or dumb for thee. Thou alone art worthy of praise; all other perfections are lost in thine; and he who considers thee aright can have no other subject of adoration.

[¶39] Unto thee shall the vow be performed - All offerings and sacrifices should be made to thee. All human spirits are under obligation to live to and serve thee. All Jews and Christians, by circumcision and baptism, belong to thee; and they are all bound to pay the vow of their respective covenants to thee alone; and the spirit of this vow is, to love thee with all their powers and to serve thee with a perfect heart and willing mind, all the days of their life.

### Verse 2

[¶41] Unto thee shall all flesh come - All human beings should pray to God; and from him alone the sufficient portion of human spirits is to be derived. It is supposed to be a prediction of the calling of the Gentiles to the faith of the Gospel of Christ. A minister, immensely corpulent, began his address to God in the pulpit with these words: "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come!" and most unluckily laid a strong emphasis on All Flesh. The coincidence was ominous; and I need not say, the people were not edified, for the effect was ludicrous. I mention this fact, which fell under my own notice, to warn those who minister in righteousness to avoid expressions which may be capable, from a similar circumstance, of a ludicrous application. I have known many good men who, to their no small grief, have been encumbered with a preternatural load of muscles; an evil to be deprecated and deplored.

### Verse 3

[¶43] Iniquities prevail against me - This is no just rendering of the original, דברי עונת גברו מני dibrey avonoth gaberu menni; "iniguitous words have prevailed against me," or, "The words of iniquity are strong against me." All kinds of calumnies, lies, and slanders have been propagated, to shake my confidence, and ruin my credit.

[¶44] Our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away - Whatsoever offenses we have committed against thee, thou wilt pardon; תכפרם tecapperem, thou wilt make atonement for them, when with hearty repentance and true faith we turn unto thee. This verse has been abused to favor Antinomian licentiousness. The true and correct translation of the former clause will prevent this.

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[¶0] The old Scottish Version of this verse, in their singing Psalms, is most execrable: - "Iniquities, I must confess,

[¶1] Prevail against me do:

[¶2] And as for our trans-gres-sions

[¶3] Them purge away wilt thou."

[¶4] O David, if thou art capable of hearing such abominable doggerel substituted for the nervous words thou didst compose by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, what must thou feel, if chagrin can affect the inhabitants of heaven!

### Verse 4

[¶6] Blessed is the man whom thou choosest - This is spoken in reference to the priests who were chosen of God to minister at the tabernacle; and who were permitted to approach, draw nigh, to the Divine Majesty by the various offerings and sacrifices which they presented.

[¶7] We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house - Though we are not priests, and have not the great felicity to minister before thee in holy things; yet we can worship at thy temple, feel the outpouring of thy Spirit, and be made happy with the blessings which thou dispensest there to thy true worshippers.

### Verse 5

[¶9] By terrible things in righteousness - The Vulgate joins this clause to the preceding verse: "Thy holy temple is wonderful in right eousness: thou wilt hear us, O God of our salvation." But the psalmist may refer to those wonderful displays of God's providence in the change of seasons, and fertilization of the earth; and, consequently, in the sustenance of all animal beings.

[¶10] The confidence of all the ends of the earth - Thou art the hope of thy people scattered through different parts of the world, and through the isles of the sea. This passage is also understood of the vocation of the Gentiles.

### Verse 6

[¶12] Setteth fast the mountains - It is by thy strength they have been raised, and by thy power they are girded about or preserved. He represents the mountains as being formed and pitched into their proper places by the mighty hand of God; and shows that they are preserved from splitting, falling down, or mouldering away, as it were, by a girdle by which they are surrounded. The image is very fine. They were hooped about by the Divine power.

### Verse 7

[¶14] Stilleth the noise of the seas - Thou art Sovereign over all the operation of sea and land. Earthquakes are under thy control: so are the flux and reflux of the sea; and all storms and tempests by which the great deep is agitated. Even the headstrong multitude is under thy control; for thou stillest the madness of the people.

### Verse 8

[¶16] Are afraid at thy tokens - Thunder and lightning, storms and tempests, eclipses and meteors, tornadoes and earthquakes, are proofs to all who dwell even in the remotest parts of the earth, that there is a Supreme Being who is wonderful and terrible in his acts. By these things an eternal power and Godhead become manifest even to the most barbarous. From this verse to the end of the Psalm there is a series of the finest poetic imagery in the world.

[¶17] The outgoings of the morning, etc. - The rising and setting sun, the morning and evening twilight, the invariable succession of day and night, are all ordained by thee, and contribute to the happiness and continuance of man and beast. Or, All that fear thee praise thee in the morning, when they go to their work, and in the evening, when they return home, for thy great goodness manifested in the continuance of their strength, and the success of their labor.

### Verse 9

[¶19] Thou visitest the earth - God is represented as going through the whole globe, and examining the wants of every part, and directing the clouds how and where to deposit their fertilizing showers, and the rivers where to direct their beneficial courses.

[¶20] The river of God - Some think the Jordan is meant; and the visiting and watering refer to rain after a long drought. But the clouds may be thus denominated, which properly are the origin of rivers.

[¶21] Thou preparest them corn - Or, Thou wilt prepare them corn, because "thou hast provided for it." Thou hast made all necessary provision for the fertilization of the earth. Thou hast endued the ground with a vegetative power. Rains, dews, and the genial heat of the sun enable it to put forth that power in providing grass for cattle, and corn for the service of man.

### Verse 10

[¶23] Thou waterest the ridges - In seedtime thou sendest that measure of rain that is necessary, in order to prepare the earth for the plough; and then, when the ridges are thrown into furrows, thou makest them soft with showers, so as to prepare them for the expansion of the seed, and the vegetation and developement of the embryo plant.

[¶24] Thou blessest the springing thereof - Literally, Thou wilt bless its germinations - its springing buds. Thou watchest over the young sprouts; and it is by thy tender, wise, and provident care that the ear is formed; and by thy bountiful goodness that mature grains fill the ear; and that one produces thirty, sixty, or a hundred or a thousand fold.

### Verse 11

[¶26] Thou crownest the year - A full and plentiful harvest is the crown of the year; and this springs from the unmerited goodness of God. This is the diadem of the earth; עטרת ittarta, Thou encirclest, as with a diadem. A most elegant expression, to show the progress of the sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac, producing the seasons, and giving a sufficiency of light and heat alternately to all places on the surface of the globe, by its north and south declination (amounting to 23 28' at the solstices) on each side of the equator. A more beautiful image could not have been chosen; and the very appearance of the space termed the zodiac on a celestial globe, shows with what propriety the idea of a circle or diadem was conceived by this inimitable poet.

[¶27] Thy paths drop fatness - מעגליך magaleycha, "thy orbits." The various planets, which all have their revolutions within the zodiacal space, are represented as contributing their part to the general fructification of the year. Or perhaps the solar revolution through the twelve signs, dividing the year into twelve parts or months, may be here intended; the rains of November and February, the frosts and snows of December and January, being as necessary for the fructification of the soil, as the gentle showers of spring, the warmth of summer, and the heat and drought of autumn. The earth's diurnal rotation on its axis, its annual revolution in its orbit, and the moon's course in aecompanying the earth, are all wheels or orbits of God, which drop fatness, or produce fertility in the earth.

### Verse 12

[¶29] The pastures of the wilderness - Even the places which are not cultivated have their suffiency of moisture, so as to render them proper places of pasturage for cattle. The terms wilderness and desert, in the Sacred Writings, mean, in general, places not inhabited and uncultivated, though abounding with timber, bushes, and herbage.

[¶30] The little hills rejoice - Literally, The hills gird themselves with exultation. The metaphor appears to be taken from the frisking of lambs, bounding of kids, and dancing of shepherds and shepherdesses, in the joy-inspiring summer season.

### Verse 13

[¶32] The pastures are clothed with flocks - Cattle are seen in every plain, avenue, and vista, feeding abundantly; and the valleys are clothed, and wave with the richest harvests; and transports of joy are heard every where in the cheerful songs of the peasantry, the singing of the birds, the neighing of the horse, the lowing of the ox, and the bleating of the sheep. Claudian uses the same image: -

[¶33] Viridis amictus montium. "The green vesture of the mountains."

[¶34] Shout for joy, they also sing - They are not loud and unmeaning sounds, they are both music and harmony in their different notes; all together form one great concert, and the bounty of God is the subject which they all celebrate. What an inimitable description! And yet the nervous Hebrew is not half expressed, even by the amended translation and paraphrase above.

### Introduction

[¶36] The psalmist exhorts all to praise God for the wonders he has wrought, [Psa 66:1-4]; calls on Israel to consider his mighty acts in behalf of their fathers, [Psa 66:5-7]; his goodness in their own behalf [Psa 66:8-12]; he resolves to pay his vows to God, and offer his promised sacrifices, [Psa 66:13-15]; calls on all to hear what God had done for his soul, [Psa 66:15-20].

[¶37] There is nothing particular in the title of the Psalm. It is not attributed to David either by the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Septuagint, Vulgate, or Ethiopic. The Arabic alone prefixes the name of David. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, call it a psalm of the resurrection: but for this there is no authority. By many of the ancients it is supposed to be a celebration of the restoration from the Babylonish captivity. Others think it commemorates the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, their introduction into the Promised Land, and the establishment of the worship of God in Jerusalem.

### Verse 1

[¶39] Make a joyfull noise - Sing aloud to God, all ye lands - all ye people who, from different parts of the Babylonish empire, are now on return to your own land.

### Verse 2

[¶41] The honor of his name - Let his glorious and merciful acts be the subject of your songs.

### Verse 3

[¶43] How terrible art thou - Consider the plagues with which he afflicted Egypt before he brought your fathers from their captivity, which obliged all his enemies to submit.

[¶44] Thine enemies submit themselves - Literally, lie unto thee. This was remarkably the case with Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They promised again and again to let the people go, when the hand of the Lord was upon them: and they as frequently falsified their word.

## 618. Psalms · 72 of 159

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### Verse 4

[¶1] All the earth - The whole land shall worship thee. There shall no more an idol be found among the tribes of Israel. This was iterally true. After the Babylonish captivity the Israelites never relapsed into idolatry.

[¶2] Selah - Remark it: this is a well attested truth.

### Verse 5

[¶4] Come and see the works of God - Let every man lay God's wonderful dealings with us to heart; and compare our deliverance from Babylon to that of our fathers from Egypt.

### Verse 6

[¶6] He turned the sea into dry land - This was a plain miracle: no human art or contrivance could do this. Even in the bed of the waters They did rejoice in him. We have not less cause to praise and be thankful.

### Verse 7

[¶8] Be ruleth by his power - His omnipotence is employed to support his followers, and cast down his enemies.

[¶9] His eyes behold the nations - He sees what they purpose, what they intend to do; and what they will do, if he restrain them not.

[¶10] Let not the rebellious exalt themselves - They shall not succeed in their designs: they have their own aggrandizement in view, but thou wilt disappoint and cast them down.

[¶11] Selah - Mark this. It is true.

### Verse 8

[¶13] O bless our God - Who have so much cause as you to sing praises to the Lord? Hear what he has done for you:

### Verse 9

[¶15] Which holdeth our soul in life - Literally, "he who placeth our soul בחיים bachaiyim, in lives." We are preserved alive, have health of body, and feel the life of God in our hearts.

[¶16] And suffereth not her feet to be moved - Keeps us steadfast in his testimonies. We have our life, our liberty, and our religion. O, what hath the Lord wrought for us! "Make, therefore, the voice of his praise to be heard." Let God and man know you are thankful.

### Verse 10

[¶18] For thou, O God, hast proved us - This is a metaphor taken from melting and refining metals; afflictions and trials of various kinds are represented as a furnace where ore is melted, and a crucible where it is refined. And this metaphor is used especially to represent cases where there is doubt concerning the purity of the metal, the quantity of alloy, or even the nature or kind of metal subjected to the trial. So God is said to try the Israelites that he might know what was in them; and whether they would keep his testimonies: and then, according to the issue, his conduct towards them would appear to be founded on reason and justice.

### Verse 11

[¶20] Thou broughtest us into the net - This refers well to the case of the Israelites, when, in their departure from Egypt, pursued by the Egyptians, having the Red Sea before them, and no method of escape, Pharaoh said, "The wilderness hath shut them in, - they are entangled;" comparing their state to that of a wild beast in a net.

[¶21] Affliction upon our loins - Perhaps this alludes to that sharp pain in the back and loins which is generally felt on the apprehension of sudden and destructive danger.

### Verse 12

[¶23] Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads - Thou hast permitted us to fall under the dominion of our enemies; who have treated us as broken infantry are when the cavalry dashes among their disordered ranks, treading all under the horses' feet.

[¶24] We went through fire and through water - Through afflictions of the most torturing and overwhelming nature. To represent such, the metaphors of fire and water are often used in Scripture. The old Psalter considers these trials as a proof of the uprightness of those who were tried - We passid thrugh fire and watir: that is, thurgh wa and wele, as a man that leves noght his waye for hete na for kald, for dry na for wette; and thou out lede us fra tribulacyon intill koling (cooling) that is, in till endles riste, that we hope to hafe after this travell.

[¶25] Wealthy place - Well watered place, to wit, the land of Judea.

### Verse 13

[¶27] I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings - Now that thou hast restored us to our own land, and established us in it, we will establish thy worship, and offer all the various kinds of sacrifices required by thy law.

[¶28] I will pay thee my vows - We often vowed, if thou wouldst deliver us from our bondage, to worship and serve thee alone: now thou hast heard our prayers, and hast delivered us; therefore will we fulfill our engagements to thee. The old Psalter gives this a pious turn: - I sall yelde till the my woues, that is, the vowes of louying (praising) the; whilk vowes my lipes divisid sayand, that I am noght, and thou arte all: and I hafe nede of the, noght thou of me. This is a right distinction - It is certainly a good distinction, and it is strictly true. The allsufficient God needs not his creatures.

### Verse 14

[¶30] When I was in trouble - This is generally the time when good resolutions are formed, and vows made; but how often are these forgotten when affliction and calamity are removed!

### Verse 15

[¶32] I will offer, etc. - Thou shalt have the best of the herd and of the fold; the lame and the blind shall never be given to thee for sacrifice.

[¶33] The incense of rams - The fine effluvia arising from the burning of the pure fat.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Come and hear, all ye that fear God - While in captivity, the psalmist had sought the Lord with frequent prayer for his own personal salvation, and for the deliverance of the people; and God blessed him, heard his prayer, and turned the captivity. Now that he is returned in safety, he is determined to perform his vows to the Lord; and calls on all them that fear their Maker, who have any religious reverence for him, to attend to his account of the Lord's gracious dealings with him. He proposes to tell them his spiritual experience, what he needed, what he earnestly prayed for, and what God has done for him. Thus he intended to teach them by example, more powerful always than precept, however weighty in itself, and impressively delivered.

### Verse 17

[¶37] I cried unto him with my mouth - My prayer was fervent; he heard and answered; and my tongue celebrated his mercies; and he as graciously received my thanksgiving, as he compassionately heard my prayer.

### Verse 18

[¶39] If I regard iniquity in my heart - "If I have seen (ראיתי raithi) iniquity in my heart," if I have known it was there, and encouraged it; if I pretended to be what I was not; if I loved iniquity, while I professed to pray and be sorry for my sin; the Lord, אדני Adonai, my Prop, Stay, and Supporter, would not have heard, and I should have been left without help or support.

### Verse 19

[¶41] Verily God hath heard me - A sure proof that my prayer was upright, and my heart honest, before him.

### Verse 20

[¶43] Blessed be God - I therefore praise God, who has not turned aside my prayer, and who has not withheld his mercy from me. Thus he told them what God had done for his soul.

## 619. Psalms · 73 of 159

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### Introduction

[¶1] The psalmist prays for the enlargement of God's kingdom, [Psa 67:1], [Psa 67:2]; calls upon all nations to serve him, because he judges and governs righteously, [Psa 67:3-5]; promises prosperity to the faithful and obedient, [Psa 67:6], [Psa 67:7].

[¶2] The title here is the same with that of [Psa 4:1-8] (note), where see the notes. It is supposed to have been written at the return from the Babylonish captivity, and to foretell the conversion of the Gentiles to the Christian religion. The prayer for their salvation is very energetic.

### Verse 1

[¶4] God be merciful unto us - Show the Jewish people thy mercy, bless them in their bodies and souls and give a full evidence of thy approbation. This is nearly the same form of blessing as that used [Num 6:25] (note), where see the notes.

### Verse 2

[¶6] That thy way may be known - That thy will, thy gracious designs towards the children of men, thy way of reconciling them to thyself, of justifying the ungodly, and sanctifying the unholy, may be known to all the nations upon the earth! God's way is God's religion; what he walks in before men; and in which men must walk before him. A man's religion is his way of worshipping God, and going to heaven. The whole Gospel is called this way, [Act 19:9].

[¶7] Thy saving health - ישועתך yeshuathecha, "thy salvation." The great work which is performed in God's way, in destroying the power, pardoning the guilt, cleansing from the infection, of all sin; and filling the soul with holiness, with the mind that was in Christ. Let all nations - the whole Gentile world, know that way, and this salvation!

### Verse 3

[¶9] Let the people praise thee - When this is done, the people - the Gentiles, will praise thee; all will give thanks to God for his unspeakable gift.

### Verse 4

[¶11] Glad and sing for joy - They shall be made happy in thy salvation. Even their political state shall be greatly meliorated; for God will be acknowledged the supreme Judge; their laws shall be founded on his word; and the nations of the earth shall be governed according to judgment, justice, and equity.

[¶12] Selah - This is true. There are innumerable facts to confirm it. All the nations who have received the Gospel of Christ have been benefited politically, as well as spiritually, by it.

### Verse 5

[¶14] Let the people praise thee - Seeing the abundance of the blessings which the Gentiles were to receive, he calls again and again upon them to magnify God for such mercies.

### Verse 6

[¶16] The earth yield her increase - As the ground was cursed for the sin of man, and the curse was to be removed by Jesus Christ, the fertility of the ground should be influenced by the preaching of the Gospel; for as the people's minds would become enlightened by the truth, they would, in consequence, become capable of making the most beneficial discoveries in arts and sciences, and there should be an especial blessing on the toil of the pious husbandman. Whenever true religion prevails, every thing partakes of its beneficent influence.

### Verse 7

[¶18] God shall bless us - He shall ever be speaking good to us, and ever showering down good things upon us.

[¶19] The last clause of the sixth verse should be joined to the seventh, as it is in several of the Versions, and should be in all. Many of the fathers, and several commentators, have thought that there is a reference to the Holy Trinity in the triple repetition of the word God: "God, our God, shall bless us; God shall bless us;" thus paraphrased in the old Psalter: "Blis us God the Fader: and our God the sone: and blis us and multipli us God the Hali Gast; that swa drede him God, all the endis of erth; for he wil comme to deme rightwysly that unrightwysly was demed. He that kan drede him, he eesses noght to lufe him."

[¶20] When or by whom this Psalm was written cannot be ascertained. It seems to be simply a prophecy concerning the calling of the Gentiles, the preaching of the apostles, and the diffusion and influence of Christianity in the world. It is a fine piece of devotion; and it would be nearly impossible to read or repeat it with a cold and unaffected heart.

### Introduction

[¶22] The psalmist calls upon God to arise, bless his people, and scatter his enemies, [Psa 68:1-3]; exhorts them to praise him for has greatness, tenderness, compassion, and judgments, [Psa 68:4-6]; describes the grandeur of his march when he went forth in the redemption of his people, [Psa 68:7], [Psa 68:8]; how he dispensed his blessings, [Psa 68:9], [Psa 68:10]; what he will still continue to do in their behalf, [Psa 68:11-13]; the ejects produced by the manifestation of God's majesty, [Psa 68:14-18]; he is praised for has goodness, [Psa 68:19], [Psa 68:20]; for his judgments, [Psa 68:21-23]; he tells in what manner the Divine worship was conducted, [Psa 68:24-27]; how God is to be honored, [Psa 68:28-31]; all are invited to sing his praises, and extol his greatness, [Psa 68:32-35].

[¶23] In the title of this Psalm there is nothing particular to be remarked. It is probable that this Psalm, or a part of it at least, might have been composed by Moses, to be recited when the Israelites journeyed. See [Num 10:35]; and that David, on the same model, constructed this Psalm. It might have been sung also in the ceremony of transporting the ark from Kirjath-jearim, to Jerusalem; or from the house of Obed-edom to the tabernacle erected at Sion.

[¶24] I know not how to undertake a comment on this Psalm: it is the most difficult in the whole Psalter; and I cannot help adopting the opinion of Simon De Muis: In hoc Psalmo tot ferme scopuli, tot labyrinthi, quot versus, quot verba. Non immerito crux ingeniorum, et interpretum opprobrium dici potest. "In this Psalm there are as many precipices and labyrinths as there are verses or words. It may not be improperly termed, the torture of critics, and the reproach of commentators." To attempt any thing new on it would be dangerous; and to say what has been so often said would be unsatisfactory. I am truly afraid to fall over one of those precipices, or be endlessly entangled and lost in one of these labyrinths. There are customs here referred to which I do not fully understand; there are words whose meaning I cannot, to my own satisfaction, ascertain; and allusions which are to me inexplicable. Yet of the composition itself I have the highest opinion: it is sublime beyond all comparison; it is constructed with an art truly admirable; it possesses all the dignity of the sacred language; none but David could have composed it; and, at this lapse of time, it would require no small influence of the Spirit that was upon him, to give its true interpretation. I shall subjoin a few notes, chiefly philological; and beg leave to refer the reader to those who have written profusely and laboriously on this sublime Psalm, particularly Venema, Calmet, Dr. Chandler, and the writers in the Critici Sacri.

### Verse 1

[¶26] Let God arise - This was sung when the Levites took up the ark upon their shoulders; see [Num 10:35-36] (note), and the notes there.

### Verse 4

[¶28] Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name Jah - "Extol him who sitteth on the throne of glory, in the ninth heaven; Yah is his name; and rejoice before him." - Targum. בערבות baaraboth, which we render in the high heavens, is here of doubtful signification. As it comes from the root ערב arab, to mingle, (hence ereb the evening or twilight, because it appears to be formed of an equal mixture of light and darkness; the Septuagint translate it dusmwn, the west, or setting of the sun; so does the Vulgate and others); probably it may mean the gloomy desert, through which God, in the chariot of his glory, led the Israelites. If this interpretation do not please, then let it be referred to the darkness in which God is said to dwell, through which the rays of his power and love, in the various dispensations of his power and mercy, shine forth for the comfort and instruction of mankind.

[¶29] By his name Jah - יה Yah, probably a contraction of the word יהוה Yehovah; at least so the ancient Versions understood it. It is used but in a few places in the sacred writings. It might be translated The Self existent.

### Verse 6

[¶31] The solitary in families - יחדים yechidim, the single persons.

[¶32] Is not the meaning, God is the Author of marriage; and children, the legal fruit of it, are an inheritance from him?

### Verse 7

[¶34] O God, when thou wentest forth - This and the following verse most manifestly refer to the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness.

### Verse 9

[¶36] Didst send a plentiful rain - גשם נדבות geshem nedaboth, a shower of liberality. I believe this to refer to the manna by which God refreshed and preserved alive the weary and hungry Israelites.

### Verse 10

[¶38] Thy congregation hath dwelt therein - חיתך chaiyathecha, thy living creature; τα ζωα, Septuagint; animalia, Vulgate; so all the Versions. Does not this refer to the quails that were brought to the camp of the Israelites, and dwelt, as it were, round about it? And was not this, with the manna and the refreshing rock, that goodness which God had provided for the poor - the needy Israelites?

### Verse 11

[¶40] Great was the company of those that published it - המבשרות צבא רב hammebasseroth tsaba rab; "Of the female preachers there was a great host." Such is the literal translation of this passage; the reader may make of it what he pleases. Some think it refers to the women who, with music, songs, and dances, celebrated the victories of the Israelites over their enemies. But the publication of good news, or of any joyful event, belonged to the women. It was they who announced it to the people at large; and to this universal custom, which prevails to the present day, the psalmist alludes. See this established in the note on [Isa 40:9] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶42] Kings of armies did flee - Rabin and the kings of the Canaanites, who united their forces to overwhelm the Israelites.

[¶43] And she - Deborah the prophetess, a woman accustomed to tarry at home, and take care of the family; she divided the spoils, and vanquished their kings.

### Verse 13

[¶45] Though ye have lien among the pots - The prophet is supposed here to address the tribes of Reuben and Gad, who remained in their inheritances, occupied with agricultural, maritime, and domestic affairs, when the other tribes were obliged to go against Jabin, and the other Canaanitish kings. Ye have been thus occupied, while your brethren sustained a desperate campaign; but while you are inglorious, they obtained the most splendid victory, and dwell under those rich tents which they have taken from the enemy; coverings of the most beautiful colors, adorned with gold and silver. The words בירקרק חרוץ birakrak charuts, native gold, so exceedingly and splendidly yellow as to approach to greenness - from ירק yarak, to be green; and the doubling of the last syllable denotes an exeess in the denomination - excessively green - blistering green. The Targum gives us a curious paraphrase of this and the following verse: "If ye, O ye kings, slept among your halls, the congregation of Israel, which is like a dove covered with the clouds of glory, divided the prey of the Egyptians, purified silver, and coffers full of the finest gold. And when it stretched out its hands in prayer over the sea, the Almighty cast down kingdoms; and for its sake cooled hell like snow, and snatched it from the shadow of death." Perhaps the Romanists got some idea of purgatory here. For the sake of the righteous, the flames of hell are extinguished!

## 620. Psalms · 74 of 159

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### Verse 15

[¶1] The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan - This and the following verse should be read thus: "Is Mount Bashan the craggy mount, Mount Bashan, the mount of God? Why envy ye, ye craggy mounts? This is the mount of God in which he has desired to dwell." The Targum countenances this translation: Mount Moriah, the place where our fathers of old worshipped God, is chosen to build on it the house of the sanctuary, and Mount Sinai for the giving of the law. Mount Bashan, Mount Tabor, and Carmel are rejected; they are made as Mount Bashan."

### Verse 16

[¶3] Why leap ye, ye high hills? - "God said, Why leap ye, ye high hills? It is not pleasing to me to give my law upon high and towering hills. Behold, Mount Sinai is low; and the Word of the Lord has desired to place on it the Divine majesty. Moreover, the Lord dwells for ever in the heaven of heavens." - Targum.

[¶4] The psalmist is speaking particularly of the mountains of Judea, and those of Gilead; the former were occupied by the Canaanites, and the others by Og, king of Bashan, and Sihon, king of the Amorites, whom Moses defeated.

### Verse 17

[¶6] The chariots of God are twenty thousand - רבתים אלפי שנאן ribbothayim alpey shinan, "two myriads of thousands doubled." Does not this mean simply forty thousand? A myriad is 10,000; two myriads, 20,000; these doubled, 40,000. Or thus: 10,000 + 10,000 + 20,000 = 40,000. The Targum says, "The chariots of God are two myriads; two thousand angels draw them; the majesty of God rests upon them in holiness on Mount Sinai." But what does this mean? We must die to know.

### Verse 18

[¶8] Thou hast ascended on high - When the ark had reached the top of Sion, and was deposited in the place assigned for it, the singers joined in the following chorus. This seems to be an allusion to a military triumph. The conqueror was placed on a very elevated chariot.

[¶9] Led captivity captive - The conquered kings and generals were usually tied behind the chariot of the conqueror - bound to it, bound together, and walked after it, to grace the triumph of the victor.

[¶10] Thou hast received gifts for men - "And gave gifts unto men;" [Eph 4:8]. At such times the conqueror threw money among the crowd. Thou hast received gifts among men, באדם baadam, In Man, in human nature; and God manifest in the flesh dwells among mortals! Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift! By establishing his abode among the rebellious the prophet may refer to the conquest of the land of Canaan, and the country beyond Jordan.

[¶11] Yea, for the rebellious also - Even to the rebellious. Those who were his enemies, who traduced his character and operations, and those who fought against him now submit to him, and share his munificence; for it is the property of a hero to be generous.

[¶12] That the Lord God might dwell among them - יה אלהים yah Elohim, the self-existing God; see on [Psa 68:4] (note). The conqueror now coming to fix his abode among the conquered people to organize them under his laws, to govern and dispense justice among them. The whole of this is very properly applied by St. Paul, [Eph 4:5], to the resurrection and glory of Christ; where the reader is requested to consult the note.

### Verse 19

[¶14] Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us - With benefits is not in the text. Perhaps it would be better to translate the clause thus: "Blessed be Adonai, our Prop day by day, who supports us." Or, "Blessed be the Lord, who supports us day by day." Or as the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic: "Blessed be the Lord daily, our God who makes our journey prosperous; even the God of our salvation." The Syriac, "Blessed be the Lord daily, who hath chosen our inheritance." The word עמס amas, which we translate to load, signifies to lift, bear up, support, or to bear a burden for another. Hence it would not be going far from the ideal meaning to translate: "Blessed be the Lord day by day, who bears our burdens for us." But loadeth us with benefits is neither a translation nor meaning.

### Verse 20

[¶16] The issues from death - The going out or exodus from death - from the land of Egypt and house of bondage. Or the expression may mean, Life and death are in the hand of God. "He can create, and he destroy."

### Verse 21

[¶18] The hairy scalp - קדקד שער kodkod sear. Does this mean any thing like the Indian scalping? Or does it refer to a crest on a helmet or headcap? I suppose the latter.

### Verse 22

[¶20] From the depths of the sea - All this seems to speak of the defeat of the Egypttians, and the miraculous passage of the Red Sea.

### Verse 23

[¶22] That thy foot may be dipped in the blood - God will make such a slaughter among his enemies, the Amorites, that thou shalt walk over their dead bodies; and beasts of prey shall feed upon them.

### Verse 24

[¶24] They have seen thy goings - These kings of the Amorites have seen thy terrible majesty in their discomfiture, and the slaughter of their subjects.

### Verse 25

[¶26] The singers went before - This verse appears to be a description of the procession.

### Verse 26

[¶28] Bless ye God - This is what they sung.

### Verse 27

[¶30] There is little Benjamin - This is a description of another part of the procession.

### Verse 28

[¶32] Thy God hath commanded - This and the following verses is what they sung.

### Verse 30

[¶34] Rebuke the company of spearmen - חית קנה chaiyath kaneh, the wild beast of the reed - the crocodile or hippopotamus, the emblem of Pharaoh and the Egyptians; thus all the Versions. Our translators have mistaken the meaning; but they have put the true sense in the margin.

### Verse 31

[¶36] Aethiopta shall soon stretch out her hands unto God - This verse had its literal fulfillment under Solomon, when Egypt formed an alliance with that king by his marriage with Pharaoh's daughter; and when the queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But as this may be a prophetic declaration of the spread of Christianity, it was literally fulfilled after the resurrection of our Lord. There were Egyptians at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, who, St. Hilary tells us, on their return to their own country proclaimed what they had seen, and became in that country the ambassadors of Christ. The Ethiopian eunuch was one of the first among the Gentiles who received the Gospel. Thus princes or chief men came out of Egypt, and Ethiopia stretched out her hands to God. The words themselves refer to the sending ambassadors, and making alliances. The Hebrew is very emphatic: כוש תריץ ידיו לאלהים cush tarits yadiav lelohim; Cush will cause her hands to run out to God. She will, with great alacrity and delight, surrender her power and influence unto God. The Chaldee paraphrases well: "The sons of Cush will run, that they may spread out their hands in prayer before God."

### Verse 32

[¶38] Sing unto God - All the inhabitants of the earth are invited to sing unto God, to acknowledge him as their God, and give him the praise due to his name.

### Verse 33

[¶40] Rideth upon the heavens - He who manages the heavens, directing their course and influence, he formed every orb, ascertained its motion, proportioned its solid contents to the orbit in which it was to revolve, and the other bodies which belong to the same system. As an able and skillful rider manages his horse, so does God the sun, moon, planets, and all the hosts of heaven.

[¶41] He doth send out his voice - At his word of command they run, shed, or reflect their light; and without the smallest deviations obey his will.

[¶42] Mighty voice - He thunders in the heavens, and men tremble before him.

### Verse 34

[¶44] His strength is in the clouds - This refers to the bursting, rattling, and pounding of thunder and lightning; for all nations have observed that this is an irresistible agent; and even the most enlightened have looked on it as an especial manifestation of the power and sovereignty of God.

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### Verse 35

[¶1] O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places - The sanctuary and heaven. Out of the former he had often shone forth with consuming splendor; see the case of Korah and his company: out of the latter he had often appeared in terrible majesty in storms, thunder, lightning, etc.

[¶2] He that giveth strength and power unto his people - Therefore that people must be invincible who have this strong and irresistible God for their support.

[¶3] Blessed be God - He alone is worthy to be worshipped. Without him nothing is wise, nothing holy, nothing strong; and from him, as the inexhaustible Fountain, all good must be derived. His mercy over his creatures is equal to his majesty in the universe, and as he has all good in his possession, so is he willing to deal it out, to supply the utmost necessities of his creatures. Blessed be God! The Arabic adds, Alleluiah!

[¶4] The best analysis I find of this Psalm is that by Bishop Nicholson. I shall give it at large, begging the reader to refer particularly to those passages on which the preceding notes are written, as in some of them the analysis gives a different view of the subject. The old Psalter gives the whole Psalm a spiritual and mystical interpretation. And this is commonly the ease in the commentaries of the fathers.

### Introduction

[¶6] The psalmist describes his afflicted state, and the wickedness of his adversaries, vv. 1-21; he declares the miseries that should come upon his enemies, [Psa 69:22-28]; enlarges on has afflicted state, and expresses his confidence in God, [Psa 69:29-34]; prophesies the restoration of the Jews to their own land and temple, [Psa 69:35], [Psa 69:36].

[¶7] The title is: "To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David." See this title explained on Psalm 45 (note).

[¶8] The Psalm is supposed to have been written during the captivity, and to have been the work of some Levite Divinely inspired. It is a very fine composition, equal to most in the Psalter. Several portions of it seem to have a reference to our Lord; to his advent passion, resurrection, the vocation of the Gentiles, the establishment of the Christian Church, and the reprobation of the Jews. The ninth verse is quoted by St. John, [Joh 2:17]. The twenty-first verse is quoted by St. Matthew, [Mat 27:34], [Mat 27:48]; by St. Mark, [Mar 15:23]; by St. John, [Joh 19:29]; and applied to the sufferings of our Lord, in the treatment he received from the Jews. St. Paul quotes the twenty-second as a prophecy of the wickedness of the Jews, and the punishment they were to receive. He quotes the twenty-third verse in the same way. See [Isa 6:9-10] (note); [Joh 12:39-40] (note); [Rom 11:10] (note); [2Cor 3:14] (note). Those portions which the writers of the New Testament apply to our Lord, we may apply also; of others we should be careful.

### Verse 1

[¶10] The waters are come in unto my soul - I am in the deepest distress. The waters have broken their dikes, and are just ready to sweep me away! Save me, Lord! In such circumstances I can have no other help.

[¶11] In the first, second, third, fourteenth, and fifteenth verses, the psalmist, speaking in the person of the captives in Babylon, compares their captivity to an abyss of waters, breaking all bounds, and ready to swallow them up; to a deep mire, in which there was no solid bottom, and no standing; and to a pot. in which they were about to be inclosed for ever. This is strongly figurative, and very expressive.

### Verse 3

[¶13] I am weary of my crying - A pathetic description of the state of the poor captives for about seventy years.

### Verse 4

[¶15] Then I restored that which I took not away - I think, with Calmet, that this is a sort of proverbial expression, like such as these, "Those who suffered the wrong, pay the costs." Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi. "Kings sin, and the people are punished." "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Our fathers have grievously sinned against the Lord, and we their posterity suffer for it. See on [Psa 69:12] (note). Some have applied it to our Lord. I restored, by my suffering and death, that image of God and the Divine favor, which I took not away. That is, In my human nature I expiated the crime that human beings had committed against God. But such applications are very gratuitous.

### Verse 5

[¶17] Thou knowest my foolishness - Though we have been brought into captivity in consequence of the crimes of our fathers, yet we have guilt enough of our own to merit a continuation of our miseries. How can such words as are in this verse be attributed to our blessed Lord, however they may be twisted or turned?

### Verse 6

[¶19] Be ashamed for my sake - The sins of the Jews were a great stumbling-block in the way of the conversion of the Gentiles. They had been the peculiar people of the Lord. "How," say the Gentiles, "can a pure and holy Being love such people?" They were now punished for their crimes. "How," say the Gentiles, "can God deal so hardly with those whom he professes to love?" The pious among the captives felt keenly, because this reproach seemed to fall upon their gracious and merciful God.

### Verse 7

[¶21] For thy sake I have borne reproach - The Gentiles have said, "Why such an obstinate attachment to the worship of a Being who treats you so rigorously, and who interests not himself in your comfort and deliverance?" And in these cutting reproaches some of the ungodly Jews took a part: "I am an alien to my mother's children."

### Verse 9

[¶23] The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up - The strong desire to promote thy glory has absorbed all others. All the desires of my body and soul are wrapped up in this. This verse is very properly applied to our Lord, [Joh 2:17], who went about doing good; and gave up his life, not only for the redemption of man, but to "magnify the law, and make it honorable."

### Verse 12

[¶25] They that sit in the gate - At the gates were the courts for public justice; there were complaints lodged, and causes heard. No doubt many vexatious complaints were made against the poor captives; and false accusations, through which they grievously suffered; so that, literally, they were often "obliged to restore that which they had not taken away." See [Psa 69:4].

[¶26] The song of the drunkards - These poor miserable people were exposed to all sorts of indignities. Though the conduct is base, the exultation over a fallen enemy is frequent. How miserable was this lot! Forsaken by friends, scorned by enemies, insulted by inferiors; the scoff of libertines, and the song of drunkards; besides hard travail of body, miserably lodged and fed; with the burning crown of all, a deep load of guilt upon the conscience. To such a life any death was preferable.

### Verse 13

[¶28] My prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time - This seems to refer to the end of the captivity, which Jeremiah had said should last seventy years, [Jer 25:11], [Jer 25:12] : "The whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon," etc. The conclusion of this period was the accepted tome of which the psalmist speaks. Now, they incessantly pray for the fulfillment of the promise made by Jeremiah: and to hear them, would be the truth of God's salvation; it would show the promise to be true, because the salvation - the deliverance, was granted.

### Verse 16

[¶30] Thy loving-kindness is good - The word חסד chesed signifies exuberance of kindness, and the word רחמים rachamim, which we translate tender mercies, signifies such affection as mothers bear to their young: and in God, there is רב rob, a multitude, of such tender mercies towards the children of men!

### Verse 18

[¶32] Deliver me because of mine enemies - Probably they now began to think that the redemption of these captives was not an impossible thing; that it was not far off; and therefore they had great rage, because they found their time was but short.

### Verse 19

[¶34] Thou hast known my reproach - This is one of the most forcible appeals to mercy and compassion that was ever made. The language of these two verses is inimitable; and the sentiment cannot be mended. I can devise no comment that would not lessen their effect.

### Verse 21

[¶36] They gave me also gall for my meat - Even the food, necessary to preserve us in their slavery, was frequently mingled with what rendered it unpleasant and disgusting, though not absolutely unwholesome. And vinegar, sour small wines, was given us for our beverage. This is applied to our Lord, [Mat 27:34], where the reader is requested to consult the notes.

### Verse 22

[¶38] Let their table become a snare - The execrations here and in the following verses should be read in the future tense, because they are predictive; and not in the imperative mood, as if they were the offspring of the psalmist's resentment: "Their table Shall become a snare; - their eyes Shall be darkened; - thou Wilt pour out thine indignation upon them; - thy wrathful anger Shall take hold of them; - their habitation Shall be desolate, - and none Shall dwell in their tents."

[¶39] The psalmist prophesies that the evils which they had inflicted on the Israelites should be visited on themselves; that as they had made them eat, drink, labor, and suffer, so God should in his judgment treat them.

### Verse 27

[¶41] Add iniquity unto their iniquity - תנה עון על עונם tenah avon al avonam; give iniquity, that is, the reward of it, upon or for their iniquity. Or, as the original signifies perverseness, treat their perverseness with perverseness: act, in thy judgments, as crookedly towards them as they dealt crookedly towards thee. They shall get, in the way of punishment, what they have dealt out in the way of oppression.

### Verse 28

[¶43] Let them be blotted out - They shall be blotted out from the land of the living. They shall be cut off from life, which they have forfeited by their cruelty and oppression. The psalmist is speaking of retributive justice; and in this sense all these passages are to be understood.

[¶44] And not be written with the righteous - They shall have no title to that long life which God has promised to his followers.

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### Verse 29

[¶1] I am poor and sorrowful - Literally, I an laid low, and full of pain or grief. Hence the prayer, "Let thy salvation, O God set me on high!" My oppression has laid me low; thy salvation shall make me high!

### Verse 31

[¶3] An ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs - Oxen offered in sacrifice had their horns and hoofs gilded; and the psalmist might mention these parts of the victim more particularly, because they were more conspicuous. Others think that full-grown animals are intended, those that had perfect horns, in opposition to calves or steers. I think the first the preferable sense; for the horns, etc., of consecrated animals are thus ornamented in the east to the present day.

### Verse 32

[¶5] The humble shall see this, and be glad - Those who are low, pressed down by misfortune or cruelty, shall see this and take courage; expecting that thou wilt lift them up also; and thus the heart of those who seek the Lord shall be revived.

### Verse 33

[¶7] For the Lord heareth the poor - אביונים ebyonim, of the beggars. He perhaps refers here to the case of the captives, many of whom were reduced to the most abject state, so as to be obliged to beg bread from their heathen oppressors.

[¶8] His prisoners - The captives, shut up by his judgments in Chaldea, without any civil liberty, like culprits in a prison.

### Verse 34

[¶10] Let the heaven and earth praise him - The psalmist has the fullest confidence that God will turn their captivity, and therefore calls upon all creatures to magnify him for his mercy.

### Verse 35

[¶12] God will save Zion - This fixes the Psalm to the time of the captivity. There was no Zion belonging to the Jews in the time of Saul, when those suppose the Psalm to be written who make David the author; for David after he came to the throne, won the stronghold of Zion from the Jebusites. [2Sam 5:7]; [1Chr 11:5].

[¶13] Will build the cities of Judah - This refers to the return from the captivity, when all the destroyed cities should be rebuilt, and the Jews repossess their forfeited heritages. Some apply this to the redemption of the human race; and suppose that Zion is the type of the Christian Church into which the Gentiles were to be called. What evangelists and apostles apply to our Lord, we safely may. What others see so clearly in this Psalm relative to Gospel matters, I cannot discern.

### Introduction

[¶15] The psalmist prays for speedy deliverance, [Psa 70:1]; prays against those who sought his life, [Psa 70:2], [Psa 70:3]; and for the blessedness of those who sought God, [Psa 70:4]; urges his speedy deliverance, [Psa 70:5].

[¶16] The title in the Hebrew is, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembranee. There seems little sense in this title. It seems to intimate that the Psalm was written as a memorial that David had been in sore affliction, and that God had delivered him. So the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic. It is almost word for word the same with the five last verses of Psalm 40, to the notes on which the reader is referred.

### Verse 1

[¶18] Make haste to help me - I am in extreme distress, and the most imminent danger. Haste to help me, or I am lost.

### Verse 2

[¶20] Let them be turned backward - They are coming in a body against me. Lord, stop their progress!

### Verse 3

[¶22] That say, Aha, aha - האה האה Heach! heach! a note of supreme contempt. See on [Psa 40:15] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶24] Let God be magnified - Let his glory, mercy, and kindness, continually appear in the increase of his own work in the souls of his followers!

### Verse 5

[¶26] But I am poor and needy - עני ואביון ani veebyon, I am a poor man, and a beggar - an afflicted beggar; a sense of my poverty causes me to beg.

[¶27] Thou art my help - I know thou hast enough, and to spare; and therefore I come to thee.

[¶28] Make no tarrying - My wants are many, my danger great, my time short. O God, delay not!

### Introduction

[¶30] The prophet, in confidence, prays for God's favor, [Psa 71:1-5]; recounts God's kindness to him from youth to old age, [Psa 71:6-9]; shows what his adversaries plot against him, and prays for their confusion, [Psa 71:10-13]; promises fidelity, and determines to be a diligent preacher of righteousness even in old age, [Psa 71:14-19]; takes encouragement in God's mercy, and foresees the confusion of all his adversaries, [Psa 71:20-24].

[¶31] There is no title to this Psalm either in the Hebrew or Chaldee; and the reason is, it was written as a part of the preceding Psalm, as appears by about twenty-seven of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, have, "A Psalm of David for the sons of Jonadab, and the first of those who were led captives." For the first, second, and third verses, see the notes on their parallels, [Psa 31:1-3] (note).

### Verse 3

[¶33] Be thou my strong habitation - Instead of מען maon, habitation, many of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. read מעז maoz, munition or defense. Be thou my rock of defense.

[¶34] Thou hast given commandment to save me - Thou hast determined my escape, and hast ordered thy angels to guard me. See [Psa 91:11], [Psa 91:12].

### Verse 4

[¶36] Out of the hand of the wicked - Probably his unnatural son Absalom, called here רשע rasha, the Wicked, because he had violated all laws, human and Divine.

[¶37] The unrighteous and cruel man - Probably Ahithophel who was the iniquitous counsellor of a wicked and rebellious son.

### Verse 5

[¶39] My trust from my youth - When I was born into the world, thou didst receive me, and thou tookest me under thy especial care. "My praise shall be continually of thee." Rather, I have always made thee my boast.

### Verse 7

[¶41] I am as a wonder unto many - I am כמופת kemopheth "as a portent," or "type:" I am a typical person; and many of the things that happen to me are to be considered in reference to him of whom I am a type. But he may mean I am a continual prodigy. My low estate, my slaying the lion and the bear, conquering the Philistine, escaping the fury of Saul, and being raised to the throne of Israel, are all so many wonders of thy providence, and effects of thy power and grace.

### Verse 9

[¶43] Cast me not off in the time of old age - The original might be translated and paraphrased thus: "Thou wilt not cast me off till the time of old age; and according to the failure of my flesh, thou wilt not forsake me." My expectation of rest and happiness will not be deferred till the time that I shall be an aged man, Thou wilt not withdraw thy presence from me as my flesh decays, and as my natural strength abates; but, on the contrary, as my outward man decays, my inward man shall be renewed day by day. It was in David's old age that the rebellion of Absalom took place.

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### Verse 10

[¶1] Lay wait for my soul - They seek to destroy my life.

### Verse 11

[¶3] God hath forsaken him - "God, who has been his special help all through life, and who has guarded him so that no hand could be raised successfully against him, has now cast him off; therefore we shall easily prevail against him. His present adversity shows that God is no longer his friend." Thus men judge. "Secular prosperity is a proof of God's favor: adversity is a proof of his displeasure." But this is not God's way, except in especial judgments, etc. He never manifests his pleasure or displeasure by secular good or ill.

### Verse 13

[¶5] Let them be confounded - They shall be confounded: these are prophetic denunciations.

### Verse 14

[¶7] I will hope continually - I shall expect deliverance after deliverance, and blessing after blessing; and, in consequence, I will praise thee more and more. As thy blessings abound, so shall my praises.

### Verse 15

[¶9] I know not the numbers - I must be continually in the spirit of gratitude, praise, and obedience, for thy blessings to me are innumerable.

### Verse 16

[¶11] I will go - אבוא abo, I will enter, i.e., into the tabernacle, in the strength or mightinesses of Adonai Jehovah, the supreme God, who is my Prop, Stay, and Support.

[¶12] I will make mention of thy righteousness - I will continually record and celebrate the acts of thy mercy and goodness. They are without number, ([Psa 71:15]), and of these alone will I speak.

### Verse 17

[¶14] Thou hast taught me from my youth - I have had thee for my continual instructor: and thou didst begin to teach me thy fear and love from my tenderest infancy. Those are well taught whom God instructs; and when he teaches, there is no delay in learning.

### Verse 18

[¶16] Old and grey-headed - In the ninth verse he mentioned the circumstance of old age; here he repeats it, with the addition of hoary-headedness, which, humanly speaking, was calculated to make a deeper impression in his favor. Though all these things are well known to God, and he needs not our information, yet he is pleased to say, "Come now, and let us reason together." And when his children plead and reason with him, they are acting precisely as he has commanded.

### Verse 19

[¶18] Thy righteousness - is very high - עד מרום ad marom - is up to the exalted place, reaches up to heaven. The mercy of God fills all space and place. It crowns in the heavens what it governed upon earth.

[¶19] Who hast done great things - גדלות gedoloth. Thou hast worked miracles, and displayed the greatest acts of power.

[¶20] Who is like unto thee! - מי כמוך mi camocha. God is alone, - who can resemble him? He is eternal. He can have none before, and there can be none after; for in the infinite unity of his trinity he is that eternal, unlimited, impartible, incomprehensible, and uncompounded ineffable Being, whose essence is hidden from all created intelligences, and whose counsels cannot be fathomed by any creature that even his own hand can form. Who is Like Unto Thee! will excite the wonder, amazement, praise, and adoration of angels and men to all eternity.

### Verse 20

[¶22] Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles - Multiplied straits and difficulties. And thou hast only showed them.

[¶23] Hadst thou permitted them to have fallen upon me with all their own energy and natural consequences, they would have destroyed me. As it was, I was nearly buried under them.

[¶24] Shalt quicken me again - Shalt revive me - put new life in me. This has been applied to the passion of our Lord, and his resurrection; for it is added, Thou: -

[¶25] Shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth - Death shall not prey upon my body; thy Holy One can see no corruption. As applicable to David, it might mean his being almost overwhelmed with afflictions; and his deliverance was like a life from the dead.

### Verse 21

[¶27] Thou shalt increase my greatness - Thou wilt restore me to my throne and kingdom; and it shall be done in such a way that all shall see it was the hand of God; and I shall have the more honor on the account.

[¶28] Comfort me on every side - I shall have friends in all quarters; and the tribes on all sides will support me.

### Verse 22

[¶30] I will also praise thee with the psaltery - בכלי נבל bichli nebel, with the instrument nebel. Unto thee will I sing with the harp; בכנור bechinnor, with the kinnor. Both were stringed instruments, and the principal used in the Jewish worship; and with which, or any thing like them, in Divine worship, we, as Christians, have nothing to do.

### Verse 23

[¶32] My lips shall greatly rejoice and my soul - My lips shall use words expressive of my soul's happiness and gratitude. Thou hast redeemed me; and thou shalt have the eternal praise.

### Verse 24

[¶34] Talk of thy righteousness - The righteousness of God is frequently used in this Psalm, and in other places, to signify his justice, judgments, faithfulness, truth, mercy, etc. There are few words of more general import in the Bible.

[¶35] They are confounded - The counsel of Ahithophel is confounded, and turned to foolishness, and he was so ashamed that he went and hanged himself. As to the vain and wicked Absalom, he met with the fate that he had meditated against his father. Though not yet done, David sees all these things as actually accomplished; for he had got a Divine assurance that God would bring them to pass.

### Introduction

[¶37] David prays to God for Solomon, [Psa 72:1]; prescribes Solomon's work, [Psa 72:2]; the effects of his administration, [Psa 72:3-7]; the extent of his dominion, [Psa 72:8-11]; his mercy and kindness to the poor, and the perpetuity of his praise, [Psa 72:12-17]. God is blessed for his power and goodness; and the psalmist prays that the whole earth may be filled with his glory, [Psa 72:18-20].

[¶38] The title לשלמה lishelomoh, we translate, A Psalm for Solomon. The Chaldee says, "By the hand of Solomon, spoken prophetically." The Syriac, "A Psalm of David, when he had constituted Solomon king." All the other Versions attribute it to Solomon himself. But in the conclusion of the Psalm it appears to be attributed to David. "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." It is most probably a Psalm of David, composed in his last days, when he had set this beloved son on the throne of the kingdom. "Then," says Calmet, "transported with joy and gratitude, he addressed this Psalm to God, in which he prays him to pour out his blessings on the young king, and upon the people. He then, wrapped up in a Divine enthusiasm, ascends to a higher subject; and sings the glory of the Messiah, and the magnificence of his reign. Hence it is that we may see in this Psalm a great number of expressions which cannot relate to Solomon, unless in a hyperbolical and figurative sense; but, applied to Christ, they are literally and rigorously exact."

### Verse 1

[¶40] Give the king thy judgments - Let Solomon receive thy law, as the civil and ecclesiastical code by which he is to govern the kingdom.

[¶41] And thy righteousness unto the king's son - Righteousness may signify equity. Let him not only rule according to the strict letter of thy law, that being the base on which all his decisions shall be founded; but let him rule also according to equity, that rigorous justice may never become oppressive. Solomon is called here the king, because now set upon the Jewish throne; and he is called the king's son, to signify his right to that throne on which he now sat.

### Verse 2

[¶43] He shall judge thy people with righteousness - With justice and mercy mixed, or according to equity.

[¶44] And thy poor with judgment - Every one according to the law which thou hast appointed; but with especial tenderness to the poor and afflicted.

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### Verse 3

[¶1] The mountains shall bring peace - Perhaps mountains and hills are here taken in their figurative sense, to signify princes and petty governors; and it is a prediction that all governors of provinces and magistrates should administer equal justice in their several departments and jurisdictions; so that universal peace should be preserved, and the people be every where prosperous; for שלום shalom signifies both peace and prosperity, for without the former the latter never existed.

[¶2] But what is the meaning of "the little hills by righteousness?" Why, it has no meaning: and it has none, because it is a false division of the verse. The word בצדקה bitsedakah, in righteousness, at the end of [Psa 72:3], should begin [Psa 72:4], and then the sense will be plain. [Psa 72:3] : "The mountains and the hills shall bring prosperity to the people." [Psa 72:4] : "In righteousness he shall judge the poor of the people: he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor."

[¶3] The effects, mentioned in the fourth verse, show that King Solomon should act according to the law of his God; and that all officers, magistrates, and governors, should minister equal rights through every part of the land. The Septuagint has the true division: Αναλαβετω τα ορη ειρηνην τῳ λαῳ σου, και οἱ βουνοι· Εν δικαιοσυνῃ κρινει τους πτωχους του λαου, κ. τ. λ. "The mountains shall bring peace to thy people, and the hills: In righteousness shall he judge the poor of thy people," etc.

### Verse 5

[¶5] They shall fear thee - There is no sense in which this can be spoken of Solomon, nor indeed of any other man: it belongs to Jesus Christ, and to him alone. He is the Prance of peace, who shall be feared and reverenced "through all generations, and as long as the sun and moon endure."

### Verse 6

[¶7] He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass - The word גז gez, which we translate mown grass, more properly means pastured grass or pastured land; for the dew of the night is intended to restore the grass which has been eaten in the course of the day. This very idea the Chaldee has seized, and renders the place thus: "He shall descend gently, like rain upon the grass which has been eaten by the locust." But there seems to be a reference to the thick night dews which in summer fall on the pasturages, and become the means of restoring the grass consumed in the day-time by the cattle. This is finely expressed by the most accomplished of all poets and agriculturists: -

[¶8] Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus,

[¶9] Exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet.

[¶10] Virg. Geor. ii., ver. 201. "For what the day devours, the nightly dew

[¶11] Shall to the morn by pearly drops renew."

[¶12] Dryden.

[¶13] Or to leave poetry, which always says too much or too little, the plain prose is: - "And as much as the flocks crop in the long days,

[¶14] So much shall the cold dew restore in one short night."

[¶15] As showers that water the earth - The influence of the doctrine and Spirit of Christ on the soul of man shall be as grateful, as refreshing, and as fructifying, as the nightly dews on the cropped fields, and the vernal showers on the cultivated lands. Without his influence all tillage is vain; without him there can neither be seed nor fruit.

### Verse 7

[¶17] In his days shall the righteous flourish - There was nothing but peace and prosperity all the days of Solomon: for, "In his days Judah and Israel dwelt safely; every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba;" [1Kgs 4:25].

[¶18] So long as the moon endureth - עד בלי ירח ad beli yareach, "Till there be no more moon."

### Verse 8

[¶20] He shall have dominion also from sea to sea - The best comment on this, as it refers to Solomon, may be found in [1Kgs 4:21], [1Kgs 4:24] : "And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms, from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt; for he had dominion over all on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river; and he had peace on all sides round about him."

[¶21] Solomon, it appears, reigned over all the provinces from the river Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to the frontiers of Egypt. The Euphrates was on the east of Solomon's dominions; the Philistines were westward, on the Mediterranean sea; and Egypt was on the south. Solomon had therefore, as tributaries, the kingdoms of Syria, Damascus, Moab, and Ammon, which lay between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. Thus he appears to have possessed all the land which God covenanted with Abraham to give to his posterity.

[¶22] Unto the ends of the earth - Or land, must mean the tract of country along the Mediterranean sea, which was the boundary of the land on that side: but, as the words may refer to Christ, every thing may be taken in its utmost latitude and extent.

### Verse 9

[¶24] They that dwell in the wilderness - The ציים tsiyim, termed Ethiopians by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic. The Syriac terms them the islands. But it is likely that those who dwell by the sea-coasts, and support themselves by navigation and fishing, are here intended.

[¶25] His enemies shall lick the dust - Shall be so completely subdued, that they shall be reduced to the most abject state of vassalage, till they shall become proselytes to the Jewish faith.

### Verse 10

[¶27] The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shalt bring presents - Though Solomon did not reign over Cilicia, of which Tarsus was the capital, yet he might receive gifts, not in the sense of tribute; for מנחה minchah, the word here used, signifies a gratitude or friendly offering.

[¶28] The kings of Sheba and Seba - Both countries of Arabia. From the former came the queen of Sheba, to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And she brought exceeding great presents or gifts, but not in the way of tribute, for Solomon had no jurisdiction in her country. And certainly many sovereigns, to obtain his friendship, sent him various presents of the choicest produce of their respective countries; and no doubt he did with them as with the queen of Sheba, gave them gifts in return. Hence the word אשכר eshcar is used, which signifies "a compensative present, made on account of benefits received."

### Verse 11

[¶30] All kings shall fall down before - They shall reverence him on account of his great wisdom, riches, etc.

[¶31] All nations shalt serve him - All the surrounding nations. This and the preceding verses are fully explained by [1Kgs 10:23-25] : "King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. And all the earth sought unto Solomon to hear his wisdom. And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments and armor, and spices, horses and mules a rate year by year." If we take these expressions to mean literally all the habitable globe, then they cannot be applied to Solomon; but if we take them as they are most evidently used by the sacred writer, then they are literally true. When all the earth shall be brought to receive the Gospel of Christ, then they may be applied to him.

### Verse 12

[¶33] He shall deliver the needy when he crieth - The poor and the rich shall, in the administration of justice, be equally respected; and the strong shall not be permitted to oppress the weak.

### Verse 14

[¶35] From deceit and violence - Because they are poor and uneducated, they are liable to be deceived; and because they are helpless, they are liable to oppression; but his equal justice shall duly consider these cases; and no man shall suffer because he is deceived, though the letter of the law may be against him.

[¶36] And precious shall their blood be - If the blood or life of such a person shall have been spilt by the hand of violence, he shall seek it out, and visit it on the murderer, though he were the chief in the land. He shall not be screened, though he were of the blood royal, if he have willfully taken away the life of a man.

### Verse 15

[¶38] To him shall be given of the gold of Sheba - The Arabians shall pay him tribute.

[¶39] Prayer also shall be made for him continually - In all conquered countries two things marked the subjection of the people:

[¶40] 1. Their money was stamped with the name of the conqueror.

[¶41] 2. They were obliged to pray for him in their acts of public worship.

[¶42] Daily shall he be praised - He shall not act by the conquered like conquerors in general: he shall treat them with benignity; and shall give them the same laws and privileges as his natural subjects, and therefore "he shall be daily praised." All shall speak well of him.

### Verse 16

[¶44] There shall be a handful of corn - The earth shall be exceedingly fruitful. Even a handful of corn sown on the top of a mountain shall grow up strong and vigorous; and it shall be, in reference to crops in other times as the cedars of Lebanon are to common trees or shrubs: and as the earth will bring forth in handfuls, so the people shall be multiplied who are to consume this great produce.

[¶45] And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth - There have been many puzzling criticisms concerning this verse. What I have given I believe to be the sense.

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### Verse 17

[¶1] His name shall endure for ever - Hitherto this has been literally fulfilled. Solomon is celebrated in the east and in the west, in the north and in the south; his writings still remain, and are received, both by Jews and by Gentiles, as a revelation from God; and it is not likely that the name of the author shall ever perish out of the records of the world.

[¶2] All nations shall call him blessed - Because of the extraordinary manner in which he was favored by the Most High. I well know that all these things are thought to belong properly to Jesus Christ; and, in reference to him, they are all true, and ten thousand times more than these. But I believe they are all properly applicable to Solomon: and it is the business of the commentator to find out the literal sense, and historical fact, and not seek for allegories and mysteries where there is no certain evidence of their presence. Where the sacred writers of the New Testament quote passages from the Old, and apply them to our Lord, we not only may but should follow them. And I am ready to grant there may be many other passages equally applicable to him with those they have quoted, which are not thus applied. Indeed, He is the sum and substance of the whole Scripture. His spoke by his Spirit in the prophets; and himself was the subject of their declarations. See our Lord's saying, [Luk 24:44].

### Verse 18

[¶4] Blessed be the Lord God - David foresaw all Solomon's grandeur; his justice equity, and the happiness of the subjects under his government; and his soul has, in consequence, sensations of pleasure and gratitude to God, which even his own wondrous pen cannot describe. But it is worthy of remark, that God did not reveal to him the apostasy of this beloved son. He did not foresee that this once holy, happy, wise, and prosperous man would be the means of debasing the Divine worship, and establishing the grossest idolatry in Israel. God hid this from his eyes, that his heart might not be grieved, and that he might die in peace. Besides, there was still much contingency in the business. God would not predict a thing as absolutely certain, which was still poised between a possibility of being and not being; the scale of which he had left, as he does all contingencies, to the free-will of his creature to turn.

[¶5] Who only doeth wondrous things - God alone works miracles: wherever there is a miracle there is God. No creature can invert or suspend the course and laws of nature; this is properly the work of God. Jesus Christ, most incontrovertibly, wrought such miracles; therefore, most demonstrably, Jesus Christ is God.

### Verse 19

[¶7] Let the whole earth be filled with his glory - Let the Gospel - the light, the Spirit, and power of Christ, fill the world.

[¶8] Amen - So let it be.

[¶9] And Amen - So it shall be. Hallelujah!

### Verse 20

[¶11] The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended - This was most probably the last Psalm he ever wrote. There may be several in the after part of this book which were written by him; but they were probably composed in a former period of his life, for this was the end of the poetic prayers of David the son of Jesse. Those that were found afterwards have got out of their proper connection.

### Introduction

[¶13] The psalmist speaks of God's goodness to his people, [Psa 73:1]; shows how much he was stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked, and describes their state, [Psa 73:2-12]; details the process of the temptation, and the pain he suffered in consequence, [Psa 73:13-16]; shows how he was delivered, and the dismal reverse of the state of the once prosperous ungodly man, by which his own false views were corrected, [Psa 73:17-22]; his great confidence in God, and the good consequences of it, [Psa 73:23-28].

[¶14] This is the commencement of the Third Book of the Psalter; and the Psalm before us has for title, A Psalm of Asaph; or, as the margin has it, A Psalm for Asaph. The title in the Hebrew is מזמור לאסף mizmor leasaph; "A Psalm of Asaph:" and it is likely that this Asaph was the composer of it; that he lived under the Babylonish captivity; and that he published this Psalm to console the Israelites under bondage, who were greatly tried to find themselves in such outward distress and misery, while a people much more wicked and corrupt than they, were in great prosperity, and held them in bondage.

### Verse 1

[¶16] Truly God is good to Israel - Captives as they were, they still had many blessings from God; and they had promises of deliverance, which must be fulfilled in due time.

[¶17] Such as are of a clean heart - Those who have a clean heart must have inward happiness: and, because they resemble God, they can never be forsaken by him.

### Verse 2

[¶19] My feet were almost gone - I had nearly given up my confidence. I was ready to find fault with the dispensations of providence; and thought the Judge of all the earth did not do right.

### Verse 3

[¶21] I was envious at the foolish - I saw persons who worshipped not the true God, and others who were abandoned to all vices, in possession of every temporal comfort, while the godly were in straits, difficulties, and affliction. I began then to doubt whether there was a wise providence; and my mind became irritated. It seems to have been a maxim among the ancient heathens, Θεου ονειδος τους κακους ευδαιμονειν, "The prosperity of the wicked is a reproach to the gods." But they had no just conception of a state of future rewards and punishments. Besides, man could not bear prosperity. If men had uninterrupted comforts here, perhaps not one soul would ever seek a preparation for heaven. Human trials and afflictions, the general warfare of human life, are the highest proof of a providence as benevolent as it is wise. Were the state of human affairs different from what it is, hell would be more thickly peopled; and there would be fewer inhabitants in glory. There is reason to doubt whether there would be any religion upon earth had we nothing but temporal prosperity. Indeed, all the following verses are proofs of it.

### Verse 4

[¶23] No bands in their death - Many of the godly have sore conflicts at their death. Their enemy then thrusts sore at them that they may fall; or that their confidence in their God may be shaken. But of this the ungodly know nothing. Satan will not molest them; he is sure of his prey; they are entangled, and cannot now break their nets; their consciences are seared, they have no sense of guilt. If they think at all of another world, they presume on that mercy which they never sought, and of which they have no distinct notion. Perhaps, "they die without a sigh or a groan; and thus go off as quiet as a lamb" - to the slaughter.

### Verse 6

[¶25] Pride compasseth them about as a chain - Perhaps there is an allusion here to the office which some of them bore. Chains of gold, and golden rings, were ensigns of magistracy and civil power. As these chains encompassed their necks, or the rings their wrists and fingers, as the signs of the offices in virtue of which they acted; so חמס chamas, violence, oppressive conduct, encompassed them. They made no other use of their great power, than to oppress the poor and the needy; and to drive things to extremities. The Chaldee, instead of a chain, represents this as a crown or diadem, which they had formed out of the plunder of the poor and defenseless.

### Verse 7

[¶27] Their eyes stand out with fatness - "Their countenance is changed because of fatness." - Chaldee. By fatness, or corpulency, the natural lines of the face are changed, or rather obliterated. The characteristic distinctions are gone; and we see little remaining besides the human hog.

[¶28] They have more than heart could wish - I doubt this translation. Whose heart ever said, I have enough, which had not its portion with God? It would be more literal to say, "They surpass the thoughts of their heart." They have more than they expected, though not more than they wish.

### Verse 8

[¶30] They are corrupt - ימיקו yamiku, they mock, act dissolutely.

[¶31] And speak wickedly concerning oppression - They vindicate excessive acts of government: they push justice to its rigour. They neither show equity, lenity, nor mercy; they are cruel, and they vindicate their proceedings.

### Verse 9

[¶33] Set their mouth against the heavens - They blaspheme God, ridicule religion, mock at Providence, and laugh at a future state.

[¶34] Their tongue walketh through the earth - They find fault with every thing; they traduce the memory of the just in heaven, and ridicule the saints that are upon earth. They criticize every dispensation of God.

### Verse 10

[¶36] Therefore his people return hither - There are very few verses in the Bible that have been more variously translated than this; and, like the man in the fable, they have blown the hot to cool it, and the cold to warm it. It has been translated, "Therefore God's people fall off to them; and thence they reap no small advantage." And, "Therefore let his people come before them; and waters in full measure would be wrung out from them." That is, "Should God's people come before them, they would squeeze them to the utmost; they would wring out all the juice in their bodies." The Chaldee has, "Therefore, are they turned against the people of the Lord, that they may bruise and beat them with mallets; that they may pour out to them abundance of tears." The Vulgate, "Therefore shall my people return here, and days of abundance shall be found by them." The Septuagint is the same. The Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac, nearly the same. The Hebrew text is, לכן ישוב עמו הלם ומי מלא ימצו למו lachen yashub ammo (עמי ammi) halom; umey male yimmatsu lamo; "Therefore shall my people be converted, where they shall find abundance of waters." That is, The people, seeing the iniquity of the Babylonians, and feeling their oppressive hand, shall be converted to me; and I shall bring them to their own land, where they shall find an abundance of all the necessaries of life. I believe this to be the meaning; and thus we find their afflictions were sanctified to them; for they obliged them to return to God, and then God caused them to return to their own land. The Vulgate translates ומי מלא umey male, "abundance of waters," by et dies pleni, "and days of plenty;" for it has read ימי yemey, days, for ומי umey, and waters. Almost all the Versions support this reading; but it is not acknowledged by any MS. The old Psalter is here mutilated.

### Verse 11

[¶38] They say, How doth God know? - My people are so stumbled with the prosperity of the wicked, that they are ready in their temptation to say, "Surely, God cannot know these things, or he would never dispense his favors thus." Others consider these words as the saying of the wicked: "We may oppress these people as we please, and live as we list; God knows nothing about it."

### Verse 12

[¶40] These are the ungodly - The people still speak. It is the ungodly that prosper, the irreligious and profane.

### Verse 13

[¶42] I have cleansed my heart in vain - It is no advantage to us to worship the true God, to walk according to the law of righteousness, and keep the ordinances of the Most High.

### Verse 14

[¶44] For all the day long have I been plagued - Far from enjoying worldly prosperity, we are not only poor, but we are afflicted also; and every succeeding day brings with it some new trouble.

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### Verse 15

[¶1] If I say, I will speak thus - I have at last discovered that I have reasoned incorrectly; and that I have the uniform testimony of all thy children against me. From generation to generation they have testified that the Judge of all the earth does right; they have trusted in thee, and were never confounded. They also met with afflictions and sore trials, but thou didst bring them safely through all, didst sustain them in the worst, and sanctifiedst the whole to their eternal good.

### Verse 16

[¶3] When I thought to know this - When I reviewed the history of our fathers, I saw that, though thou hadst from time to time hidden thy face because of their sins, yet thou hadst never utterly abandoned them to their adversaries; and it was not reasonable to conclude that thou wouldst do now what thou hadst never done before; and yet the continuance of our captivity, the oppressive hardships which we suffer, and the small prospect there is of release, puzzle me again. These things have been very painful to me.

### Verse 17

[¶5] Until I went into the sanctuary - Until, in the use of thy ordinances, I entered into a deep consideration of thy secret counsels, and considered the future state of the righteous and the wicked; that the unequal distribution of temporal good and evil argued a future judgment; that the present is a state of trial; and that God exercises his followers according to his godly wisdom and tender mercy. Then light sprang up in my mind, and I was assured that all these exercises were for our benefit, and that the prosperity of the wicked here was a prelude to their destruction. And this I saw to be their end.

[¶6] That this Psalm was written during the captivity, there is little room to doubt. How then can the psalmist speak of the sanctuary? There was none at Babylon; and at Jerusalem it had been long since destroyed? There is no way to solve this difficulty but by considering that מקדשי mikdeshey may be taken in the sense of holy places - places set apart for prayer and meditation. And that the captives had such places in them captivity, there can be no doubt; and the place that is set apart to meet God in, for prayer, supplication, confession of sin, and meditation, is holy unto the Lord; and is, therefore, his sanctuary, whether a house or the open field. Calmet thinks by holy meditations a view of the Divine secrets, to which he refers, [Psa 73:24], is here meant.

### Verse 18

[¶8] Thou didst set them on slippery places - Affluence is a slippery path; few have ever walked in it without falling. It is possible to be faithful in the unrighteous mammon, but it is very difficult. No man should desire riches; for they bring with them so many cares and temptations as to be almost unmanageabe. Rich men, even when pious, are seldom happy; they do not enjoy the consolations of religion. A good man, possessed of very extensive estates, unblamable in his whole deportment, once said to me: "There must be some strange malignity in riches thus to keep me in continual bondage, and deprive me of the consolations of the Gospel." Perhaps to a person to whom his estates are a snare, the words of our Lord may be literally applicable: "Sell what thou hast, and give to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up thy cross, and follow me." But he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions! May we not then say with the psalmist, Surely thou digest set them in slippery places, etc.?

### Verse 19

[¶10] Are they brought into desolation - This is often a literal fact. I have known several cases where persons, very rich, have by sudden losses been brought into desolation as in a moment; in consequence of which they were utterly consumed in terrors.

### Verse 20

[¶12] As a dream when one awaketh - So their goods fled away. Their possession was a dream - their privation, real.

[¶13] Thou shalt despise their image - While destitute of true religion, whatever appearance they had of greatness, nobility, honor, and happiness; yet in the sight of God they had no more than the ghost or shade of excellence which God is said here to despise. Who would be rich at such risk and dishonor?

### Verse 21

[¶15] Thus may heart was grieved - The different views which I got of this subject quite confounded me; I was equally astonished at their sudden overthrow and my own ignorance. I felt as if I were a beast in stupidity. I permitted my mind to be wholly occupied with sensible things, like the beasts that perish and did not look into a future state; nor did I consider, nor submit to, the wise designs of an unerring Providence.

### Verse 23

[¶17] I am continually with thee - I now see that myself and my people are under thy guardian care; that we are continually upheld by thee; and while in thy right hand, we shall not be utterly cast down.

### Verse 24

[¶19] Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel - After we have suffered awhile, receiving directions and consolations from thy good Spirit, by means of thy prophets, who are in the same captivity with ourselves; thou wilt grant us deliverance, restore us to our own land, and crown us with honor and happiness. Any sincere follower of God may use these words in reference to this and the coming world. Thy counsel - thy Word and Spirit, shall guide me through life; and when I have done and suffered thy righteous will, thou wilt receive me into thy eternal glory.

### Verse 25

[¶21] Whom have I in heaven but thee? - The original is more emphatic: מי לי בשמים ועמך לא חפצתי בארץ mi li bashshamayim; veimmecha lo chaphatsti baarets. "Who is there to me in the heavens? And with thee I have desired nothing in the earth." No man can say this who has not taken God for his portion in reference to both worlds.

### Verse 26

[¶23] My flesh - faileth - I shall soon die: and my heart - even my natural courage, will fail; and no support but what is supernatural will then be available. Therefore, he adds:

[¶24] God is the strength of my heart - Literally, the rock of my heart.

[¶25] And my portion - Allusion is here made to the division of the promised land. I ask no inheritance below; I look for one above. I do not look for this in the possession of any place; it is God alone that can content the desires and wishes of an immortal spirit. And even this would not satisfy, had I not the prospect of its being for ever, לעולם leolum, "to eternity!'

### Verse 27

[¶27] They that are far from thee shall perish - The term perish is generally used to signify a coming to nothing, being annihilated; and by some it is thus applied to the finally impenitent, they shall all be annihilated. But where is this to be found in the Scriptures? In no part, properly understood. In the new heavens and the new earth none of the wicked shall be found; for therein dwells righteousness - nothing but God and righteous spirits; but at the same time the wicked shall be in their own place. And to suppose that they shall be annihilated, is as great a heresy, though scarcely so absurd, as to believe that the pains of damnation are emendatory, and that hellfire shall burn out. There is presumptive evidence from Scripture to lead us to the conclusion, that if there be not eternal punishment, glory will not be eternal; as the same terms are used to express the duration of both. No human spirit that is not united to God can be saved. Those who are Far from Thee shall perish - they shall be lost, undone, ruined, and that without remedy. Being separated from God by sin, they shall never be rejoined; the great gulf must be between them and their Maker eternally.

[¶28] All them that go a whoring from thee - That is, all that worship false gods; all idolaters. This is the only meaning of the word in such a connection. I have explained this elsewhere.

### Verse 28

[¶30] It is good for me to draw near - We have already seen that those who are far off shall perish; therefore, it is ill for them. Those who draw near - who come in the true spirit of sacrifice, and with the only available offering, the Lord Jesus, shall be finally saved; therefore, it is good for them.

[¶31] I have put my trust in the Lord God - I confide in Jehovah, my Prop and Stay. I have taken him for my portion.

[¶32] That I may declare all thy works - That I may testify to all how good it is to draw nigh to God; and what a sufficient portion he is to the soul of man.

[¶33] The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, add, in the gates of the daughter of Sion. These words appear to make a better finish; but they are not acknowledged by any Hebrew MS.

### Introduction

[¶35] The psalmtst complains of the desolations of the sanctuary, and pleads with God, [Psa 74:1-3]; shows the insolence and wickedness of their enemies [Psa 74:4-8]; prays to God to act for them as he had done for their fathers, whom, by his miraculous power, he had saved, [Psa 74:9-17]; begs God to arise, and vindicate his own honor against his enemies, and the enemies of his people, [Psa 74:18-23].

[¶36] The title is, Maschil of Asaph, or, "A Psalm of Asaph, to give instruction." That this Psalm was written at a time when the temple was ruined, Jerusalem burnt, and the prophets scattered or destroyed, is evident. But it is not so clear whether the desolations here refer to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, or to the desolation that took place under the Romans about the seventieth year of the Christian era. Calmet inclines to the former opinion; and supposes the Psalm to be a lamentation over the temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

### Verse 1

[¶38] O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? - Hast thou determined that we shall never more be thy people? Are we never to see an end to our calamities?

### Verse 2

[¶40] Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old - We are the descendants of that people whom thou didst take unto thyself; the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Wilt thou never more be reconciled to us?

### Verse 3

[¶42] Lift up thy feet - Arise, and return to us, our desolations still continue. Thy sanctuary is profaned by thine and our enemies.

### Verse 4

[¶44] Thine enemies roar - Thy people, who were formerly a distinct and separate people, and who would not even touch a Gentile, are now obliged to mingle with the most profane. Their boisterous mirth, their cruel mockings, their insulting commands, are heard every where in all our assemblies.

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[¶0] They set up their ensigns for signs - שמו אותתם אתות samu othotham othoth, they set up their standards in the place of ours. All the ensigns and trophies were those of our enemies; our own were no longer to be seen.

[¶1] The fifth, sixth, and seventh verses give a correct historical account of the ravages committed by the Babylonians, as we may see from [2Kgs 25:4], [2Kgs 25:7-9], and [Jer 52:7], [Jer 52:18], [Jer 52:19] : "And the city was broken up, and all the men fled by night by the way of the gate. They took Zedekiah, and slew his sons before his eyes; and put out his eyes, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon. And on the second day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, came unto Jerusalem; and he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and every great man's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem burnt he with fire. And they broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about. And the pillars of brass and the bases, and the brazen sea, they broke in pieces, and carried the brass to Babylon. And the pots, shovels, snuffers and spoons, and the fire pans and bowls, and such things as were of gold and silver, they took away." Thus they broke down, and carried away, and destroyed this beautiful house; and in the true barbarian spirit, neither sanctity, beauty, symmetry, nor elegance of workmanship, was any thing in their eyes. What hammers and axes could ruin, was ruined; Jerusalem was totally destroyed, and its walls laid level with the ground. Well might the psalmist sigh over such a desolation.

### Verse 8

[¶3] Let us destroy them - Their object was totally to annihilate the political existence of the Jewish people.

[¶4] They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land - It is supposed that there were no synagogues in the land till after the Babylonish captivity. How then could the Chaldeans burn up any in Judea? The word מועדי moadey, which we translate synagogues, may be taken in a more general sense, and mean any places where religious assemblies were held: and that such places and assemblies did exist long before the Babylonish captivity, is pretty evident from different parts of Scripture. It appears that Elisha kept such at his house on the sabbaths and new moons. See [2Kgs 4:23]. And perhaps to such St. James may refer, [Act 15:23], a species of synagogues, where the law was read of old, in every city of the land. And it appears that such religious meetings were held at the house of the Prophet Ezekiel, [Eze 33:31]. And perhaps every prophet's house was such. This is the only place in the Old Testament where we have the word synagogue. Indeed, wherever there was a place in which God met with patriarch or prophet, and any memorial of it was preserved, there was a מועד moed, or place of religious meeting; and all such places the Chaldeans would destroy, pursuant to their design to extinguish the Jewish religion, and blot out all its memorials from the earth. And this was certainly the most likely means to effect their purpose. How soon would Christianity be destroyed in England if all the churches, chapels, and places of worship were destroyed, and only the poor of the people left in the land; who, from their circumstances, could not build a place for the worship of God! After such desolation, what a miracle was the restoration of the Jews!

### Verse 9

[¶6] We see not our signs - "They have taken away all our trophies, and have left us no memorial that God has been among us. Even thou thyself hast left us destitute of all those supernatural evidences that have so often convinced us that thou wert among us of a truth." But we may say that they were not totally destitute even of these. The preservation of Daniel in the lion's den, and of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace; the metamorphosis of Nebuchadnezzar; the handwriting that appeared to Belshazzar; were all so many prodigies and evidences that God had not left them without proofs of his being and his regard.

[¶7] There is no more any prophet - There was not one among them in that place that could tell them how long that captivity was yet to endure. But there were prophets in the captivity. Daniel was one; but his prophecies were confined to one place. Ezekiel was another, but he was among those captives who were by the river Chebar. They had not, as usual, prophets who went to and fro through the land, preaching repentance and remission of sins.

### Verse 11

[¶9] Why withdrawest thou thy hand - It has been remarked, that as the outward habit of the easterns had no sleeves, the hands and arms were frequently covered with the folds of the robe; and in order to do any thing, the hand must be disentangled and drawn out. The literal version of the Hebrew is: "To what time wilt thou draw back thy hand; yea, thy right hand, from within thy bosom?" Consomme; that is, manifest thy power, and destroy thy adversaries. I have, in the introduction to the book of Psalms, spoken of the old metrical version by Sternhold and Hopkins, and have stated that it was formed from the original text. A proof of this may be seen by the learned reader in this and the preceding verse; where, though their version is harsh, and some of their expressions quaint almost to ridicule, yet they have hit the true mean ing which our prose translators have missed: - [Psa 74:10] When wilt thou once, Lord, end this shame,And cease thine en'mies strong?Shall they always blaspheme thy name,And rail on thee so long? [Psa 74:11] Why dost thou draw thy hand aback,And hide it in thy lap?O pluck it out, and be not slackTo give thy foes a rap!

### Verse 12

[¶11] For God is my King of old - We have always acknowledged thee as our sovereign; and thou hast reigned as a king in the midst of our land, dispensing salvation and deliverance from the center to every part of the circumference.

### Verse 13

[¶13] Thou didst divide the sea - When our fathers came from Egypt.

[¶14] Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters - Pharaoh, his captains, and all his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, when attempting to pursue them.

### Verse 14

[¶16] The heads of leviathan - Leviathan might be intended here as a personification of the Egypttan government; and its heads, Pharaoh and his chief captains.

[¶17] To the people inhabiting the wilderness - Probably meaning the birds and beasts of prey. These were the people of the wilderness, which fed on the dead bodies of the Egyptians, which the tides had cast ashore. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic read, "Thou hast given him for meat to the Ethiopians," or Abyssinians.

### Verse 15

[¶19] Thou didst cleave the fountain - Thou didst cleave the rock in the wilderness, of which all the congregation drank.

[¶20] Thou driedst up mighty rivers - Does not this refer to the cutting off the waters of the Jordan, so that the people passed over dryshod?

### Verse 16

[¶22] The day is thine, the night also is thine - Thou art the Author of light, and of the sun, which is the means of dispensing it.

### Verse 17

[¶24] Thou hast set all the borders of the earth - Thou alone art the Author of all its grand geographical divisions.

[¶25] Thou hast made summer and winter - Thou hast appointed that peculiarity in the poise and rotation of the earth, by which the seasons are produced.

### Verse 18

[¶27] Remember this - The heathen not only deny these things, but give the honor of them to their false gods, and thus blaspheme thy name.

### Verse 19

[¶29] Deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove - Thy people Israel are helpless, defenceless, miserable, and afflicted: O deliver them no longer into the power of their brutal adversaries.

### Verse 20

[¶31] Have respect unto the covenant - הבט לברית habbet labberith. Pay attention to the covenant sacrifice; to that offered by Abraham, [Gen 15:9], etc., when the contracting parties, God and Abram, passed through between the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice. An indisputable type of Jesus Christ; and of God and man meeting in his sacrificed humanity.

[¶32] The dark places of the earth - The caves, dens, woods, etc., of the land are full of robbers, cut-throats, and murderers, who are continually destroying thy people, so that the holy seed seems as if it would be entirely cut off and the covenant promise thus be rendered void.

[¶33] The words may either apply to Chaldea or Judea. Judea was at this time little else than a den of robbers, its own natural inhabitants being removed. Chaldea was infested with hordes of banditti also.

### Verse 21

[¶35] Let not the oppressed return ashamed - Do not permit thy people to be so diminished, that when, according to thy promise, they are restored to their own land, they may appear to be but a handful of men.

### Verse 22

[¶37] Plead thine own cause - Thy honor is concerned, as well as our safety and salvation. The fool - the idolater, reproacheth thee daily - he boasts of the superiority of his idols, by whose power, he asserts, we are brought under their domination.

### Verse 23

[¶39] Forget not the voice - While we pray to thee for our own salvation, we call upon thee to vindicate thy injured honor: and let all the nations see that thou lovest thy followers, and hatest those who are thy enemies. Let not man prevail against thee or thine.

### Introduction

[¶41] The psalmist praises God for present mercies, [Psa 75:1]; the Lord answers, and promises to judge the people righteously, [Psa 75:2], [Psa 75:3]; rebukes the proud and haughty, [Psa 75:4], [Psa 75:5]; shows that all authority comes from himself, [Psa 75:4-7]; that he will punish the wicked, [Psa 75:8]; the psalmist resolves to praise God, [Psa 75:9]; and the Most High promises to cast down the wicked, and raise up the righteous, [Psa 75:9], [Psa 75:10].

[¶42] The title is, "To the chief Musician, or conqueror, Al-taschith, destroy not, A Psalm or Song of Asaph." See this title Al-taschith explained [Psa 57:1-11] : The Chaldee supposes that this Psalm was composed at the time of the pestilence, when David prayed the Lord not to destroy the people. Some of the Jews suppose that Al-taschith is the beginning of a Psalm, to the air of which this Psalm was to be set and sung. The Psalm seems to have been composed during the captivity; and appears to be a continuation of the subject in the preceding.

### Verse 1

[¶44] Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks - Thou canst not forget thy people. The numerous manifestations of thy providence and mercy show that thou art not far off, but near: this

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[¶0] Thy wondrous works declare - These words would make a proper conclusion to the preceding Psalm, which seems to end very abruptly. The second verse is the commencement of the Divine answer to the prayer of Asaph.

### Verse 2

[¶2] When I shall receive the congregation - When the proper time is come that the congregation, my people of Israel, should be brought out of captivity, and received back into favor, I shall not only enlarge them, but punish their enemies. They shall be cut off and cast out, and become a more miserable people than those whom they now insult. I will destroy them as a nation, so that they shall never more be numbered among the empires of the earth.

### Verse 3

[¶4] The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved - They all depend on me; and whenever I withdraw the power by which they exist and live, they are immediately dissolved.

[¶5] I bear up the pillars of it - By the word of my power all things are upheld, and without me nothing can subsist. Those who consider this Psalm to have been written by David before he was anointed king over All Israel, understand the words thus: "All is at present in a state of confusion; violence and injustice reign: but when 'I shall receive the whole congregation,' when all the tribes shall acknowledge me as king, I will reorganize the whole constitution. It is true that the land and all its inhabitants are dissolved - unsettled and unconnected by the bands of civil interest. The whole system is disorganized: 'I bear up the pillars of it;' the expectation of the chief people is placed upon me; and it is the hope they have of my coming speedily to the throne of all Israel that prevents them from breaking out into actual rebellion."

### Verse 4

[¶7] I said unto the fools - I have given the idolatrous Chaldeans sufficient warning to abandon their idols, and worship the true God; but they would not. I have also charged the wicked, to whom for a season I have delivered you because of your transgressions, not to lift up their horn - not to use their power to oppress and destroy. They have, notwithstanding, abused their power in the persecutions with which they have afflicted you. For all these things they shall shortly be brought to an awful account. On the term horn, see the note on [Luk 1:69].

### Verse 5

[¶9] Speak not with a stiff neck - Mr. Bruce has observed that the Abyssinian kings have a horn on their diadem; and that the keeping it erect, or in a projecting form, makes them appear as if they had a stiff neck; and refers to this passage for the antiquity of the usage, and the appearance also.

### Verse 6

[¶11] For promotion cometh neither from the east, etc. - As if the Lord had said, speaking to the Babylonians, None of all the surrounding powers shall be able to help you; none shall pluck you out of my hand. I am the Judge: I will pull you down, and set my afflicted people up, [Psa 75:7].

[¶12] Calmet has observed that the Babylonians had Media, Armenia, and Mesopotamia on the East; and thence came Darius the Mede: that it had Arabia, Phoenicia, and Egypt on the West; thence came Cyrus, who overthrew the empire of the Chaldeans. And by the mountains of the desert, מדבר הרים midbar harim, which we translate South, Persia, may be meant; which government was established on the ruins of the Babylonish empire. No help came from any of those powers to the sinful Babylonians; they were obliged to drink the cup of the red wine of God's judgment, even to the very dregs. They were to receive no other punishment; this one was to annihilate them as a people for ever.

### Verse 8

[¶14] It is full of mixture - Alluding to that mingled potion of stupefying drugs given to criminals to drink previously to their execution. See a parallel passage to this, [Jer 25:15-26].

### Verse 9

[¶16] I will sing praises to the God of Jacob - These are the words of the psalmist, who magnifies the Lord for the promise of deliverance from their enemies.

### Verse 10

[¶18] All the horns of the wicked - All their power and influence, will I cut off; and will exalt and extend the power of the righteous. The psalmist is said to do these things, because he is as the mouth of God to denounce them. All was punctually fulfilled: the wicked - the Babylonians, were all cut off; the righteous - the Jews, called so from the holy covenant, which required righteousness, were delivered and exalted.

### Introduction

[¶20] The true God known in Judah, Israel, Salem, and Zion, [Psa 76:1], [Psa 76:2]. A description of his defeat of the enemies of his people, [Psa 76:3-6]. How God us to be worshipped, [Psa 76:7-9]. He should be considered as the chief Ruler: all the potentates of the earth are subject to him, [Psa 76:10-12].

[¶21] The title, "To the chief Musician on Neginoth, a Psalm or Song of Asaph." Sae the titles to [Psa 4:1-8] : and 6: The Vulgate, Septuagint, and others have, "A Psalm for the Assyrians;" and it is supposed to be a thanksgiving for the defeat of the Assyrians. The Syriac says it is a thanksgiving for the taking of Rabbah, belonging to the children of Ammon. It is considered by some of the best commentators to have been composed after the defeat of Sennacherib. That it was composed after the death of David, and after the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah were separated, is evident from the first verse. If Asaph was its author, it could not be the Asaph that flourished in the days of David but some other gifted and Divinely inspired man of the same name, by whom several others of the Psalms appear to have been composed during the captivity.

### Verse 1

[¶23] In Judah is God known - The true God revealed himself to the Jews. The Israelites, after the separation of the tribes, had the same knowledge, but they greatly corrupted the Divine worship; though still God was great, even in Israel.

### Verse 2

[¶25] In Salem also is his tabernacle - Salem was the ancient name of Zebus, afterward called Jerusalem. Here was the tabernacle set up; but afterwards, when the temple was built on Mount Zion, there was his habitation. The Psalm was evidently composed after the building of Solomon's temple.

### Verse 3

[¶27] There brake he the arrows of the bow - רשפי rishphey, the fiery arrows. Arrows, round the heads of which inflammable matter was rolled, and then ignited, were used by the ancients, and shot into towns to set them on fire; and were discharged among the towers and wooden works of besiegers. The Romans called them phalaricae; and we find them mentioned by Virgil, Aen. lib. ix., ver. 705: -

[¶28] Sed magnum stridens contorta phalarica venit,

[¶29] Fulminis acta modo.

[¶30] On this passage Servius describes the phalarica as a dart or spear with a spherical leaden head to which fire was attached. Thrown by a strong hand, it killed those whom it hit, and set fire to buildings, etc. It was called phalarica from the towers called phalae from which it was generally projected. In allusion to these St. Paul speaks of the fiery darts of the devil, [Eph 6:16], to the note on which the reader is requested to refer.

[¶31] The shield and the sword - If this refers to the destruction of Sennacherib's army, it may be truly said that God rendered useless all their warlike instruments, his angel having destroyed 185,000 of them in one night.

### Verse 4

[¶33] Than the mountains of prey - This is an address to Mount Zion. Thou art more illustrious and excellent than all the mountains of prey, i.e., where wild beasts wander, and prey on those that are more helpless than themselves. Zion was the place where God dwelt; the other mountains were the abode of wild beasts.

### Verse 5

[¶35] The stout-hearted are spoiled - The boasting blasphemers, such as Rab-shakeh, and his master Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

[¶36] They have slept their sleep - They were asleep in their tent when the destroying angel, the suffocating wind, destroyed the whole; they over whom it passed never more awoke.

[¶37] None of the men of might - Is not this a strong irony? Where are your mighty men? their boasted armor, etc.?

### Verse 6

[¶39] At thy rebuke - It was not by any human means that this immense army was overthrown; it was by the power of God alone. Not only infantry was destroyed, but the cavalry also.

[¶40] The chariot and horse - That is, the chariot horses, as well as the men, were

[¶41] Cast into a dead sleep - Were all suffocated in the same night. On the destruction of this mighty host, the reader is requested to refer to the notes on 2 Kings 19.

### Verse 7

[¶43] Thou, even thou, art to be feared - The Hebrew is simple, but very emphatic: אתה נורא אתה attah nora attah, "Thou art terrible; thou art." The repetition of the pronoun deepens the sense.

[¶44] When once thou art angry? - Literally, From the time thou art angry. In the moment thy wrath is kindled, in that moment judgment is executed. How awful is this consideration! If one hundred and eighty-five thousand men were in one moment destroyed by the wrath of God, canst thou, thou poor, miserable, feeble sinner, resist his will, and turn aside his thunder!

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Thou didst cause judgment to be heard - When God declared by his prophet that the enemy should not prevail, but on the contrary be destroyed, the earth the land, and by metonymy the inhabitants of the land, were struck with astonishment and terror, so as not to be able to move. The great boaster Sennacherib, who carried terror, dismay and desolation every where, was now struck with dumb amazement; and the angel of the Almighty, in a moment, stopped the breath of those hosts in which he confided.

### Verse 9

[¶3] The meek of the earth - The humbled or oppressed people of the land. The poor Jews, now utterly helpless, and calling upon the Lord for succor.

### Verse 10

[¶5] Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee - The rage of Sennacherib shall only serve to manifest thy glory. The stronger he is, and the more he threatens, and the weaker thy people, the more shall thy majesty and mercy appear in his destruction and their support.

[¶6] The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain - The Hebrew gives rather a different sense: "Thou shalt gird thyself with the remainder of wrath." Even after thou hast sent this signal destruction upon Sennacherib and his army, thou wilt continue to pursue the remnant of the persecutors of thy people; their wrath shall be the cause of the excitement of thy justice to destroy them. As a man girds himself with his girdle, that he may the better perform his work, so thou wilt gird thyself with wrath, that thou mayest destroy thy enemies. A good maxim has been taken from this verse: "God often so counterworks the evil designs of men against his cause and followers, that it turns out to their advantage and his glory; nor does he permit them to go to the extent of what they have purposed, and of what they are able to perform. He suffers them to do some mischief, but not all they would or can do." But how different is the reading of the Vulgate! Quoniam cogitatio hominis confitebitur tibi: et reliquiae cogitationis diem festum agent tibi: "The thought of man shall praise thee; and the remains of thought shall celebrate a feast day to thee." The Septuagint and the Ethiopic have understood the text in the same way. Some translate thus: "Certainly, the ferocity of the man (Sennacherib) shall praise thee: and thou shalt gird thyself with the spoils of the furious." The spoils of this great army shall be a booty for thy people. Probably this is the true notion of the place. The old Psalter renders it thus: For thoght of man sal schrife (confess) to the, and levyngs (remains) of thoght a feste day till the sal wirk. The paraphrase is curious, of which this is the substance: "When man forsakes perfitly his synne, and sithen (afterwards) rightwisness werks; it is a feste day; whenne the conscience is clered, and makes feste with the swetnes of goddes lufe, restand fra besynes of any creatur in erth: Than is God at hame with his spouse dwelland."

### Verse 11

[¶8] Vow, and pay unto the Lord - Bind yourselves to him, and forget not your obligations.

[¶9] Let all that be round about him - All the neighboring nations, who shall see God's judgments against his enemies, should

[¶10] Bring presents unto him - Give him that homage which is due unto him.

[¶11] That ought to be feared - למורא lammora, "to the terrible One;" lest they be consumed as the Assyrians have been.

### Verse 12

[¶13] He shall cut off the spirit of princes - Even in the midst of their conquests, he can fill them with terror and dismay, or cut them off in their career of victory.

[¶14] He is terrible to the icings of the earth - "He is the only Ruler of princes;" to him they must account. And a terrible account most of them will have to give to the great God; especially those who, instigated by the desire of dominion, have, in the lust of conquest which it generates, laid countries waste by fire and sword, making widows and orphans without number, and extending the empire of desolation and death.

[¶15] Thus all are under his dominion, and are accountable to him. Even those whom man cannot bring to justice, God will; and to judge them is one grand use of a final judgment day.

### Introduction

[¶17] The psalmist's ardent prayer to God in the tine of distress, [Psa 77:1-4]. The means he used to excite his confidence, [Psa 77:5-12]. God's wonderful works in behalf of his people, [Psa 77:13-20].

[¶18] The title, "To the chief Musician, (or conqueror), to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph." On this title we may observe that both Asaph and Jeduthun were celebrated singers in the time of David, and no doubt were masters or leaders of bands which long after their times were called by their names. Hence Psalms composed during and after the captivity have these names prefixed to them. But there is reason to believe also, that there was a person of the name of Asaph in the captivity at Babylon. The author must be considered as speaking in the persons of the captive Israelites, It may however be adapted to the case of any individual in spiritual distress through strong temptation, or from a sense of the Divine displeasure in consequence of backsliding.

### Verse 1

[¶20] I cried unto God - The repetition here marks the earnestness of the psalmist's soul; and the word voice shows that the Psalm was not the issue of private meditation, but of deep mental trouble, which forced him to speak his griefs aloud.

### Verse 2

[¶22] My sore ran in the night, and ceased not - This is a most unaccountable translation; the literal meaning of ידי נגרה yadi niggerah, which we translate my sore ran, is, my hand was stretched out, i.e., in prayer. He continued during the whole night with his voice and hands lifted up to God, and ceased not, even in the midst of great discouragements.

### Verse 3

[¶24] My spirit was overwhelmed - As the verb is in the hithpaeI conjugation, the word must mean my spirit was overpowered in itself. It purposed to involve itself in this calamity. I felt exquisitely for my poor suffering countrymen. "The generous mind is not confined at home;

[¶25] It spreads itself abroad through all the public,

[¶26] And feels for every member of the land."

### Verse 4

[¶28] Thou holdest mine eyes waking - Literally, thou keepest the watches of mine eyes - my grief is so great that I cannot sleep.

[¶29] I am so troubled that I cannot speak - This shows an increase of sorrow and anguish. At first he felt his misery, and called aloud. He receives more light, sees and feels his deep wretchedness, and then his words are swallowed by excessive distress. His woes are too big for utterance. "Small troubles are loquacious; the great are dumb." Curae leves loquuntur; ingentes stupent.

### Verse 5

[¶31] I have considered the days of old - חשבתי chishshabti, I have counted up; I have reckoned up the various dispensations of thy mercy in behalf of the distressed, marked down in the history of our fathers.

### Verse 6

[¶33] I call to remembrance my song in the night - I do not think that נגינתי neginathi means my song. We know that נגינת neginath signifies some stringed musical instrument that was struck with a plectrum, but here it possibly might be applied to the Psalm that was played on it. But it appears to me rather that the psalmist here speaks of the circumstances of composing the short ode contained in the seventh, eighth, and ninth verses; which it is probable he sung to his harp as a kind of dirge, if indeed he had a harp in that distressful captivity.

[¶34] My spirit made diligent search - The verb חפש chaphas signifies such an investigation as a man makes who is obliged to strip himself in order to do it; or, to lift up coverings, to search fold by fold, or in our phrase, to leave no stone unturned. The Vulgate translates: "Et scopebam spiritum meum." As scopebam is no pure Latin word, it may probably be taken from the Greek σκοπεω scopeo, "to look about, to consider attentively." It is however used by no author but St. Jerome; and by him only here and in [Isa 14:23] : And I will sweep it with the besom of destruction; scopabo eam in scopa terens. Hence we see that he has formed a verb from a noun scope, a sweeping brush or besom; and this sense my old Psalter follows in this place, translating the passage thus: And I sweped my gast: which is thus paraphrased: "And swa I sweped my gaste, (I swept my soul), that is, I purged it of all fylth."

### Verse 7

[¶36] Will the Lord cast off for ever? - Will there be no end to this captivity? Has he not said, "Turn, ye backsliders; for I am married unto you: I will heal your backsliding, and love you freely." Will he then be favorable no more? Thus the psalmist pleads and reasons with his Maker.

### Verse 8

[¶38] For evermore? - לדר ודר ledor vador, "to generation and generation." From race to race. Shall no mercy be shown even to the remotest generation of the children of the offenders?

### Verse 9

[¶40] Hath God - in anger shut up his tender mercies? - The tender mercies of God are the source whence all his kindness to the children of men flows. The metaphor here is taken from a spring, the mouth of which is closed, so that its waters can no longer run in the same channel; but, being confined, break out, and take some other course. Wilt thou take thy mercy from the Israelites, and give it to some other people? This he most certainly did. He took it from the Jews, and gave it to the Gentiles.

### Verse 10

[¶42] And I said, This is my infirmity - The Hebrew is very obscure, and has been differently translated: ואמר חלותי היא שנות ימימן עליון vaomar challothi hi shenoth yemin elyon; "And I said, Is this my weakness? Years the right hand of the Most High." If חלותי challothi comes from חלה chalah, and signifies to pray, as De Dieu has thought, then his translation may be proper: Precari hoc meum est; mutare dextram Altissimi. "To pray, this my business; to change the right hand of the Most High." I can do nothing else than pray; God is the Ruler of events. Mr. N. M. Berlin translates, "Dolere meum hoc est; mutare est dextra Altissimi." To grieve is my portion; to change (my condition) belongs to the right hand of the Most High. Here שנות shenoth, which we translate years, is derived from שנה shanah, to change. This latter appears to me the better translation; the sum of the meaning is, "I am in deep distress; the Most High alone can change my condition." The old Psalter, following the Vulgate, - Et dixi, Nunc coepi: haec mutatio dexterae Excelsi, - translates: And I said, Now I began this chaunchyng of ryght hand of hihegh (highest) Alswa say, God sal noght kast al man kynde fra his sigt with outen ende: for nowe I began to understand the syker; (the truth); that man sal be brogt to endles; and thar fore, now I said, that this chaunchyng fra wreth to mercy, is thrugh Ihu Criste that chaunges me fra ill to gude, fra noy to gladnes.

[¶43] Once more, Coverdale, who is followed by Matthews and Becke, takes the passage by storm: "At last I came to this poynte, that I thought; O why art thou so foolish? The right hande of the Most Hyest can chaunge all."

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### Verse 11

[¶1] I will remember the works of the Lord - I endeavor to recollect what thou hast done in behalf of our fathers in past times; in no case hast thou cast them off, when, with humbled hearts, they sought thy mercy.

### Verse 13

[¶3] Thy way - is in the sanctuary - See [Psa 73:17]. I must go to the sanctuary now to get comfort, as I went before to get instruction. What a mercy to have the privilege of drawing near to God in his ordinances! How many doubts have been solved, fears dissipated, hearts comforted, darknesses dispelled, and snares broken, while waiting on God in the means of grace!

[¶4] Some understand the words, Thy way is in holiness - all thy dispensations, words, and works are holy, just and true. And as is thy majesty, so is thy mercy! O, who is so great a God as our God?

### Verse 14

[¶6] Thou - doest wonders - Every act of God, whether in nature or grace, in creation or providence, is wondrous; surpasses all power but his own; and can be comprehended only by his own wisdom. To the general observer, his strength is most apparent; to the investigator of nature, his wisdom; and to the genuine Christian, his mercy and love.

### Verse 15

[¶8] The son. of Jacob and Joseph - "The sons which Jacob begat and Joseph nourished." says the Chaldee. The Israelites are properly called the sons of Joseph as well as of Jacob, seeing Ephraim and Manasseh, his sons, were taken into the number of the tribes. All the latter part of this Psalm refers to the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt; and the psalmist uses this as an argument to excite the expectation of the captives. As God delivered our fathers from Egypt, so we may expect him to deliver us from Chaldea. It required his arm to do the former, and that arm is not shortened that it cannot save.

### Verse 16

[¶10] The waters saw thee - What a fine image! He represents God approaching the Red Sea; and the waters, seeing him, took fright, and ran off before him, dividing to the right and left to let him pass. I have not found any thing more majestic than this.

[¶11] The depths also were troubled - Every thing appears here to have life and perception. The waters see the Almighty, do not wait his coming, but in terror flee away! The deeps, uncovered, are astonished at the circumstance; and as they cannot fly, they are filled with trouble and dismay. Under the hand of such a poet, inanimate nature springs into life; all thinks, speaks, acts; all is in motion, and the dismay is general.

### Verse 17

[¶13] The clouds poured out water - It appears from this that there was a violent tempest at the time of the passage of the Red Sea. There was a violent storm of thunder, lightning, and rain. These three things are distinctly marked here.

[¶14] 1. "The skies sent out a sound:" the Thunder.

[¶15] 2. "Thine arrows went abroad:" the Lightning.

[¶16] 3. "The clouds poured out water:" the Rain. In the next verse we have,

[¶17] 4. An Earthquake: "The earth trembled and shook," [Psa 77:18].

### Verse 19

[¶19] Thy way is in the sea - Thou didst walk through the sea, thy path was through a multitude of waters.

[¶20] Thy footsteps are not known - It was evident from the effects that God was there: but his track could not be discovered; still he is the Infinite Spirit, without parts, limits, or passions. No object of sense.

### Verse 20

[¶22] Thou leddest thy people like a flock - This may refer to the pillar of cloud and fire. It went before them, and they followed it. So, in the eastern countries, the shepherd does not drape, but leads, his flock. He goes before them to find them pasture, and they regularly follow him.

[¶23] By the hand of Moses and Aaron - They were God's agents; and acted, in civil and sacred things, just as directed by the Most High.

### Introduction

[¶25] An enumeration of the principal effects of the goodness of God to his people, vv. 1-16; of their rebellions and punishment, vv. 17-33; their feigned repentance, [Psa 78:34-37]; God's compassion towards them, [Psa 78:38], [Psa 78:39]; their backsliding, and forgetfulness of his mercy, [Psa 78:40-42]; the plagues which he brought upon the Egyptians, [Psa 78:43-51]; the deliverance of his own people, and their repeated ingratitude and disobedience, [Psa 78:52-58]; their punishment, [Psa 78:59-64]; God's wrath against their adversaries, [Psa 78:65], [Psa 78:66]; his rejection of the tribes of Israel abut his choice of the tribe of Judah, and of David to be king over his people, [Psa 78:67-72].

[¶26] The title, Maschil of Asaph; or, according to the margin, A Psalm for Asaph to give instruction; contains nothing particular. The Arabic has, "A sermon from Asaph to the people." The Psalm was probably not written by David, but after the separation of the ten tribes of Israel, and after the days of Rehoboam, and before the Babylonish captivity, for the temple was still standing, [Psa 78:69]. Calmet supposes that it was written in the days of Asa, who had gained, by the aid of the Syrians, a great victory over the Israelites; and brought back to the pure worship of God many out of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. See 2 Chronicles 15 and [2Chr 16:1-14].

### Verse 1

[¶28] Give ear, O my people - This is the exordium of this very pathetic and instructive discourse.

### Verse 2

[¶30] In a parable - Or, I will give you instruction by numerous examples; see [Psa 49:1-4] (note), which bears a great similarity to this; and see the notes there. The term parable, in its various acceptations, has already been sufficiently explained; but משל mashal may here mean example, as opposed to תורה torah, law or precept, [Psa 49:1].

### Verse 3

[¶32] Which we have heard and known - We have heard the law, and known the facts.

### Verse 4

[¶34] We will not hide them - In those ancient times there was very little reading, because books were exceedingly scarce; tradition was therefore the only, or nearly the only, means of preserving the memory of past events. They were handed down from father to son by parables or pithy sayings and by chronological poems. This very Psalm is of this kind, and must have been very useful to the Israelites, as giving instructions concerning their ancient history, and recounting the wonderful deeds of the Almighty in their behalf.

### Verse 6

[¶36] A testimony in Jocob - This may signify the various ordinances, rites, and ceremonies prescribed by the law; and the word law may mean the moral law, or system of religious instruction, teaching them their duty to God, to their neighbor, and to themselves. These were commanded to the fathers - the patriarchs and primitive Hebrews, that they should make them known to their children, who should make them known to the generation that was to come, whose children should also be instructed that they might declare them to their children; to the end that their hope might be in God, that they might not forget his works, and might keep his commandments: that they might not be as their fathers, but have their heart right and their spirit steadfast with God, [Psa 78:6-8]. Five generations appear to be mentioned above: 1. Fathers; 2. Their children; 3. The generation to come; 4. And their children; 5. And their children. They were never to lose sight of their history throughout all their generations. Some think the testimony here may mean the tabernacle.

### Verse 9

[¶38] The children of Ephraim - turned back - This refers to some defeat of the Ephraimites; and some think to that by the men of Gath, mentioned [1Chr 7:21]. R. D. Kimchi says this defeat of the Ephraimites was in the desert; and although the story be not mentioned in the law, yet it is written in the Books of the Chronicles, where we read, on the occasion of "Zabad the Ephraimite, and Shuthelah, etc., whom the men of Gath, who were born in the land, slew; and Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him," [1Chr 7:20-22] : but to what defeat of the Ephraimites this refers is not certainly known; probably the Israelites after the division of the two kingdoms are intended.

### Verse 10

[¶40] They kept not the covenant; of God - They abandoned his worship, both moral and ritual. Thev acted like the Ephraimites in the above case, who threw down their bows and arrows, and ran away.

### Verse 12

[¶42] The field of Zoan - "In campo Taneos," Vugate. Tanis was the capital of Pharaoh, where Moses wrought so many miracles. It was situated in the Delta, on one of the most easterly branches of the Nile. It was afterwards called Thanis; and from it the district was called the Thanitic Canton. See Calmet. Dr. Shaw thinks Zoan was intended to signify Egypt in general.

### Verse 13

[¶44] He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through - The reader is requested to consult the notes on the parallel passages marked in the margin on this verse and [Psa 78:14-17], etc., where all these miracles are largely explained.

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### Verse 18

[¶1] By asking meat for their lust - לנפשם lenaphsham, "for their souls," i.e., for their lives; for they said in their hearts that the light bread, the manna, was not sufficient to sustain their natural force, and preserve their lives. It seems, however, from the expression, that they were wholly carnal; that they had no spirituality of mind; they were earthly, animal, and devilish.

### Verse 22

[¶3] They believed not in God - After all the miracles they had seen, they were not convinced that there was a Supreme Being! and, consequently, they did not trust in his salvation - did not expect the glorious rest which he had promised them. Their descendants in the present day are precisely in this state. Multitudes of them disbelieve the Divine origin of their law, and have given up all hopes of a Messiah.

### Verse 24

[¶5] The corn of heaven - The manna. It fell about their camp in the form of seeds; and as it appeared to come down from the clouds, it was not improperly termed heavenly corn, or heavenly grain, דגן שמים degan shamayim. The word shamayim is frequently taken to express the atmosphere.

### Verse 25

[¶7] Man did eat angels' food - לחם אבירים אכל איש lechem abbirim achal ish, "Man did eat the bread of the mighty ones;" or, each person ate, etc. They ate such bread as could only be expected at the tables of the rich and great, the best, the most delicate food. How little did this gross people know of the sublime excellence of that which they called light bread, and which they said their soul loathed; [Num 21:5]! It was a type of Jesus Christ for so says St. Paul: "They all ate the same spiritual meat, and drank the same spiritual drink," etc., [1Cor 10:3], [1Cor 10:4]. And our Lord calls himself "the bread that came down from heaven, that giveth life unto the world," [Joh 6:31-35] : but a Jew sees nothing but with the eyes of flesh. It is true their doctors or rabbins are full of allegories, mysteries, and conceits; but they are, in general, such as would disgrace the Cabinet des Fees, and would not be tolerated in the nursery. O, how thick a veil hangs over their gross and hardened hearts.

### Verse 26

[¶9] He caused an east wind to blow - See the note on [Num 11:31].

### Verse 32

[¶11] For all this they sinned still - How astonishing is this! They were neither drawn by mercies, nor awed by judgments! But we shall cease to wonder at this, if we have a thorough acquaintance with our own hearts.

### Verse 33

[¶13] Their days did he consume in vanity - By causing them to wander forty years in the wilderness, vainly expecting an end to their labor, and the enjoyment of the promised rest, which, by their rebellions, they had forfeited.

### Verse 34

[¶15] When he slew them - While his judgments were upon them, then they began to humble themselves, and deprecate his wrath. When they saw some fall, the rest began to tremble.

### Verse 35

[¶17] That God was their rock - They recollected in their affliction that Jehovah was their Creator, and their Father; the Rock, the Source, not only of their being, but of all their blessings; or, that he was their sole Protector.

[¶18] And the high God their Redeemer - ואל עליון גאלם veel elyon goalam, "And the strong God the Most High, their kinsman." That one who possessed the right of redemption; the nearest akin to him who had forfeited his inheritance; so the word originally means, and hence it is often used for a redeemer. The Hebrew word גאל goel answers to the Greek σωτηρ, a savior; and is given to the Lord Jesus Christ, the strong God, the Most High, the Redeemer of a lost world. After this verse there is the following Masoretic note: חצי הספר chatsi hassepher, "The middle of the book." And thus the reader has arrived at the middle of the Psalter, a book for excellence unparalleled.

### Verse 36

[¶20] Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth - What idea could such people have of God, whom they supposed they could thus deceive? They promised well, they called him their God, and their fathers' God; and told him how good, and kind, and merciful he had been to them. Thus, their mouth flattered him. And they said that, whatever the Lord their God commanded them to do, they would perform.

[¶21] And they lied unto him - I think the Vulgate gives the true sense of the Hebrew: Dilexerunt eum in ore suo; et lingua sua mentiti Bunt ei, - "They loved him with their mouth; and they lied unto him with their tongue." "That is," says the old Psalter, "thai sayde thai lufed God, bot thai lighed, als thair dedes schewes; for thai do noght als thai hight; for when God ceses to make men rad; than cese thai to do wele."

### Verse 37

[¶23] Their heart was not right - When the heart is wrong, the life is wrong; and because their heart was not right with God, therefore they were not faithful in his covenant.

### Verse 38

[¶25] But he, being full of compassion - Feeling for them as a father for his children.

[¶26] Forgave their iniquity - יחפר yechapper, made an atonement for their iniquity.

[¶27] And did not stir up all his wrath - Though they often grieved his Spirit, and rebelled against him, yet he seldom punished them; and when he did chastise them, it was as a tender and merciful Father. He did not stir up all his wrath - the punishment was much less than the iniquity deserved.

### Verse 39

[¶29] He remembered that they were but flesh - Weak mortals. He took their feeble perishing state always into consideration, and knew how much they needed the whole of their state of probation; and therefore he bore with them to the uttermost. How merciful is God!

[¶30] A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again - I believe this to be a bad translation and may be productive of error; as if when a man dies his being were ended, and death were an eternal sleep. The original is, רוח הולך ולא ישוב ruach holech velo yashub: and the translation should be, "The spirit goeth away, and it doth not return." The present life is the state of probation; when therefore the flesh - the body, fails, the spirit goeth away into the eternal world, and returneth not hither again. Now God, being full of compassion, spared them, that their salvation might be accomplished before they went into that state where there is no change; where the pure are pure still, and the defiled are defiled still. All the Versions are right; but the polyglot translator of the Syriac, rocho, has falsely put ventus, wind, instead of spiritus, soul or spirit. The Arabic takes away all ambiguity: "He remembered that they were flesh; and a spirit which, when it departs, does not again return." The human being is composed of flesh and spirit, or body and soul; these are easily separated, and, when separated, the body turns to dust, and the spirit returns no more to animate it in a state of probation. Homer has a saying very like that of the psalmist: - Ανδρος δε ψυχη παλιν ελθειν ουτε ληἱστη, Ουθ' ἑλετη, επει αρ κεν αμειψεται ἑρκος οδοντων.

[¶31] IL. ix., ver., 408. "But the soul of man returns no more; nor can it be acquired nor caught after it has passed over the barrier of the teeth."

[¶32] Pope has scarcely given the passage its genuine meaning: - "But from our lips the vital spirit fled

[¶33] Returns no more to wake the silent dead."

[¶34] And the Ossian-like version of Macpherson is but little better: "But the life of man returns no more; nor acquired nor regained is the soul which once takes its flight on the wind." What has the wind to do with the ἑρκος οδοντων of the Greek poet?

[¶35] Several similar sayings may be found among the Greek poets; but they all suppose the materiality of the soul.

### Verse 41

[¶37] Limited the Holy One of Israel - The Chaldee translates, "And the Holy One of Israel they signed with a sign." The Hebrew word התוו hithvu is supposed to come from the root תוה tavah, which signifies to mark; and hence the letter ת tau, which in the ancient Hebrew character had the form of a cross X, had its name probably because it was used as a mark. Mr. Bate observes that in hithpael it signifies to challenge or accuse; as one who gives his quark or pledge upon a trial, and causes his adversary to do the same. Here it most obviously means an insult offered to God.

### Verse 44

[¶39] Turned their rivers into blood - See on [Exo 7:20] (note).

### Verse 45

[¶41] He sent - flies - and frogs - See on [Exo 8:6] (note), and [Exo 8:24] (note).

### Verse 46

[¶43] The caterpillar and - the locust - See on [Exo 10:13] (note).

### Verse 47

[¶45] He destroyed their vines with hail - Though the vine was never plentiful in Egypt, yet they have some; and the wine made in that country is among the most delicious. The leaf of the vine is often used by the Egyptians of the present day for wrapping up their mince-meat, which they lay leaf upon leaf, season it after their fashion, and so cook it, making it a most exquisite sort of food, according to Mr. Maillet.

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[¶0] And their sycamore-trees - This tree was very useful to the ancient Egyptians, as all their coffins are made of this wood; and to the modern, as their barques are made of it. Besides, it produces a kind of fig, on which the common people in general live; and Mr. Norden observes that "they think themselves well regaled when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher of water from the Nile." The loss therefore of their vines and sycamore-trees must have been very distressing to the Egyptians.

### Verse 48

[¶2] He gave up their cattle - See on [Exo 9:23] (note).

### Verse 49

[¶4] By sending evil angels - This is the first mention we have of evil angels. There is no mention of them in the account we have of the plagues of Egypt in the Book of Exodus, and what they were we cannot tell: but by what the psalmist says here of their operations, they were the sorest plague that God had sent; they were marks or the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble. Some think the destroying angel that slew all the first-born is what is here intended; but this is distinctly mentioned in [Psa 78:61]. An angel or messenger may be either animate or inanimate; a disembodied spirit or human being; any thing or being that is an instrument sent of God for the punishment or support of mankind.

### Verse 54

[¶6] The border of his sanctuary - קדשו kodsho, "of his holy place," that is, the land of Canaan, called afterwards the mountain which his right hand had purchased; because it was a mountainous country, widely differing from Egypt, which was a long, continued, and almost perfect level.

### Verse 57

[¶8] They were turned aside like a deceitful bow - The eastern bow, which when at rest is in the form of a [curved figure], must be recurved, or turned the contrary way, in order to be what is called bent and strung. If a person who is unskilful or weak attempt to recurve and string one of these bows, if he take not great heed it will spring back and regain its quiescent position, and perhaps break his arm. And sometimes I have known it, when bent, to start aside, and regain its quiescent position, to my no small danger, and in one or two cases to my injury. This image is frequently used in the sacred writings; but no person has understood it, not being acquainted with the eastern bow [curved figure], which must be recurved, or bent the contrary way, [figure] in order to be proper for use. If not well made, they will fly back in discharging the arrow. It is said of the bow of Jonathan, it turned not back, [2Sam 1:22], לא נשוג אחור lo nasog achor, "did not twist itself backward." It was a good bow, one on which he could depend. Hosea, [Hos 7:16], compares the unfaithful Israelites to a deceitful bow; one that, when bent, would suddenly start aside and recover its former position. We may find the same passage in [Jer 9:3]. And this is precisely the kind of bow mentioned by Homer, Odyss. xxi., which none of Penelope's suitors could bend, called καμπυλα τοξα and αγκυλα τοξα, the crooked bow in the state of rest; but τοξον παλιντονον, the recurred bow when prepared for use. And of this trial of strength and skill in the bending of the bow of Ulysses, none of the critics and commentators have been able to make any thing, because they knew not the instrument in question. On the τοξου θησις of Homer, I have written a dissertation elsewhere. The image is very correct; these Israelites, when brought out of their natural bent, soon recoiled, and relapsed into their former state.

### Verse 60

[¶10] He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh - The Lord, offended with the people, and principally with the priests, who had profaned his holy worship, gave up his ark into the hands of the Philistines. And so true it is that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, that he never returned to it again. See [1Sam 6:1]; 2 Samuel 6; [1Kgs 8:1]; where the several removals of the ark are spoken of, and which explain the remaining part of this Psalm. Because God suffered the Philistines to take the ark, it is said, [Psa 78:61] : "He delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand;" and [Psa 78:67], that "he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim;" for Shiloh was in the tribe of Ephraim the son of Joseph; and God did not suffer his ark to return thither, but to go to Kirjath-jearim, which was in the tribe of Benjamin, from thence to the house of Obed-edom: and so to Zion in the tribe of Judah, as it follows, [Psa 78:68].

[¶11] The tabernacle which Moses had constructed in the wilderness remained at Shiloh even after the ark was taken by the Philistines and afterwards sent to Kirjath-jearim. From Shiloh it was transported to Nob; afterwards to Gibeon, apparently under the reign of Saul; and it was there at the commencement of Solomon's reign, for this prince went thither to offer sacrifices, [1Kgs 3:4]. From the time in which the temple was built, we know not what became of the tabernacle of Moses: it was probably laid up in some of the chambers of the temple. See Calmet.

### Verse 63

[¶13] Their maidens were not given to marriage - הוללו hullalu, were not celebrated with marriage songs. It is considered a calamity in the east if a maiden arrives at the age of twelve years without being sought or given in marriage.

### Verse 64

[¶15] Their priests fell by the sword - Hophni and Phinehas, who were slain in that unfortunate battle against the Philistines in which the ark of the Lord was taken, [1Sam 4:11].

[¶16] A Chaldee Targum on this passage says, "In the time in which the ark of the Lord was taken by the Philistines, Hophni and Phinehas, the two priests, fell by the sword at Shiloh; and when the news was brought, their wives made no lamentation, for they both died the same day."

### Verse 65

[¶18] Then the Lord awaked - He seemed as if he had totally disregarded what was done to his people, and the reproach that seemed to fall on himself and his worship by the capture of the ark.

[¶19] Like a mighty man - כגבור kegibbor, like a hero that shouteth by reason of wine. One who, going forth to meet his enemy, having taken a sufficiency of wine to refresh himself, and become a proper stimulus to his animal spirits shouts - gives the war-signal for the onset; impatient to meet the foe, and sure of victory. The idea is not taken from the case of a drunken man. A person in such a state would be very unfit to meet his enemy, and could have little prospect of conquest.

### Verse 66

[¶21] He smote his enemies in the hinder part - This refers to the hemorrhoids with which he afflicted the Philistines. See the note on [1Sam 5:6-10] (note).

### Verse 67

[¶23] He refused the tabernacle of Joseph - See the note on [Psa 78:60] (note).

### Verse 69

[¶25] He built his sanctuary like high palaces - כמו רמים kemo ramim, which several of the Versions understand of the monoceros or rhinoceros. The temple of God at Jerusalem was the only one in the land, and stood as prominent on Mount Zion as the horn of the unicorn or rhinoceros does upon his snout. And there he established his ark, to go no more out as long as the temple should last. Before this time it was frequently in a migratory state, not only in the wilderness, but afterwards in the promised land. See the notes on [Psa 78:60] (note).

### Verse 70

[¶27] He chose David - See the account [1Sam 16:11] (note), etc.

### Verse 71

[¶29] From following the ewes - Instances of this kind are not unfrequent in the ancient Greek and Roman history. Croesus said that Gypes, who was the first of his race, was a slave, and rose to sovereignty, succeeding his predecessor, of whose sheep he had been the pastor.

### Verse 72

[¶31] So he fed them - Here David is mentioned as having terminated his reign. He had fed the people, according to the integrity of his heart, for that was ever disposed to do the will of God in the administration of the kingdom: and his hand being skillful in war, he always led them out to victory against their enemies.

### Introduction

[¶33] The psalmist complains of the cruelty of his enemies and the desolations of Jerusalem, and prays against them, [Psa 79:1-7]. He prays for the pardon and restoration of his people, and promises gratitude and obedience, [Psa 79:8-13].

[¶34] The title, A Psalm of Asaph, must be understood as either applying to a person of the name of Asaph who lived under the captivity; or else to the family of Asaph; or to a band of singers still bearing the name of that Asaph who flourished in the days of David; for most undoubtedly the Psalm was composed during the Babylonish captivity, when the city of Jerusalem lay in heaps, the temple was defiled, and the people were in a state of captivity. David could not be its author. Some think it was composed by Jeremiah; and it is certain that the sixth and sevenths verses are exactly the same with [Jer 10:25] : "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him; and have made his habitation desolate."

### Verse 1

[¶36] The heathen are come into thine inheritance - Thou didst cast them out, and take thy people in; they have cast us out, and now taken possession of the land that belongs to thee. They have defiled the temple, and reduced Jerusalem to a heap of ruins; and made a general slaughter of thy people.

### Verse 2

[¶38] The dead bodies of thy servants - It appears that in the destruction of Jerusalem the Chaldeans did not bury the bodies of the slain, but left them to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey. This was the grossest inhumanity.

### Verse 3

[¶40] There was none to bury them - The Chaldeans would not; and the Jews who were not slain were carried into captivity.

### Verse 4

[¶42] We are become a reproach to our neighbors - The Idumeans, Philistines, Phoenicians, Ammonites, and Moabites, all gloried in the subjugation of this people; and their insults to them were mixed with blasphemies against God.

### Verse 5

[¶44] How long, Lord? - Wilt thou continue thine anger against us, and suffer us to be insulted, and thyself blasphemed?

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Pour out thy wrath - Bad as we are, we are yet less wicked than they. We, it is true, have been unfaithful; but they never knew thy name, and are totally abandoned to idolatry.

### Verse 7

[¶3] Laid waste his dwelling-place - The Chaldee understands this of the temple. This, by way of eminence, was Jacob's place. I have already remarked that these two verses are almost similar to [Jer 10:25], which has led many to believe that Jeremiah was the author of this Psalm.

### Verse 8

[¶5] Remember not against us former iniquities - Visit us not for the sins of our forefathers.

[¶6] Speedily prevent us - Let them go before us, and turn us out of the path of destruction; for there is no help for us but in thee.

[¶7] We are brought very low - Literally, "We are greatly thinned." Few of us remain.

### Verse 9

[¶9] Purge away our sins - כפר capper, be propitiated, or receive an atonement (על חטאתינו al chattotheynu) on account of our sins.

### Verse 10

[¶11] Where is their God? - Show where thou art by rising up for our redemption, and the infliction of deserved punishment upon our enemies.

### Verse 11

[¶13] The sighing of the prisoner - The poor captive Israelites in Babylon, who sigh and cry because of their bondage.

[¶14] Those that are appointed to die - בני תמותה beney themuthah, "sons of death." Either those who were condemned to death because of their crimes, or condemned to be destroyed by their oppressors. Both these senses apply to the Israelites: they were sons of death, i.e., worthy of death because of their sins against God; they were condemned to death or utter destruction, by their Babylonish enemies.

### Verse 12

[¶16] Sevenfold into their bosom - That is, Let them get in this world what they deserve for the cruelties they have inflicted on us. Let them suffer in captivity, who now have us in bondage. Probably this is a prediction.

### Verse 13

[¶18] We thy people - Whom thou hast chosen from among all the people of the earth.

[¶19] And sheep of thy pasture - Of whom thou thyself art the Shepherd. Let us not be destroyed by those who are thy enemies; and we, in all our generations, will give thanks unto thee for ever.

### Introduction

[¶21] A prayer for the captives, [Psa 80:1-3]. A description of their miseries, [Psa 80:4-7]. Israel compared to a vineyard, [Psa 80:8-14]. Its desolate state, and a prayer for its restoration, [Psa 80:15-19].

[¶22] The title: see Psalm 45, [Psa 60:1-12], and 69, where every thing material is explained. This Psalm seems to have been written on the same occasion with the former. One ancient MS. in the public library in Cambridge writes the eightieth and the seventy-ninth all as one Psalm; the subject-matter is precisely the same - was made on the same occasion, and probably by the same author.

### Verse 1

[¶24] O Shepherd of Israel - The subject continued from the last verse of the preceding Psalm.

[¶25] Leadest Joseph - Israel and Joseph mean here the whole of the Jewish tribes; all were at this time in captivity; all had been the people of the Lord; all, no doubt, made supplication unto him now that his chastening hand was upon them; and for all the psalmist makes supplication.

[¶26] That dwellest between the cherubims - It was between the cherubim, over the cover of the ark, called the propitiatory or mercy-seat, that the glory of the Lord, or symbol of the Divine Presence, appeared. It is on this account that the Lord is so often said to dwell between the cherubim. Of these symbolical beings there is a long and painful account, or system of conjectures, in Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon, of about twenty quarto pages, under the word כרב carab.

[¶27] Shine forth - Restore thy worship; and give us such evidences of thy presence now, as our fathers had under the first tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple built by Solomon.

### Verse 2

[¶29] Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh - It is supposed that these three tribes represent the whole, Benjamin being incorporated with Judah, Manasseh comprehending the country beyond Jordan, and Ephraim all the rest - Dodd.

### Verse 3

[¶31] Turn us again - השיבנו hashibenu, convert or restore us. There are four parts in this Psalm, three of which end with the above words; see the third, seventh, and nineteenth verses; and one with words similar, [Psa 80:14].

### Verse 5

[¶33] Thou feedest them with the bread of tears - They have no peace, no comfort, nothing but continual sorrow.

[¶34] In great measure - שליש shalish, threefold. Some think it was a certain measure used by the Chaldeans, the real capacity of which is not known. others think it signifies abundance or abundantly.

### Verse 6

[¶36] Thou makest us a strife - The neighboring districts have a controversy about us; we are a subject of contention to them. A people so wonderfully preserved, and so wonderfully punished, is a mystery to them. They see in us both the goodness and severity of God. Or, all the neighboring nations join together to malign and execrate us. We are hated by all; derided and cursed by all.

### Verse 8

[¶38] Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt - This is a most elegant metaphor, and every where well supported. The same similitude is used by Isaiah, [Isa 5:1], etc.; by Jeremiah, [Jer 2:21]; by Ezekiel, [Eze 17:5], [Eze 17:6]; by Hosea, [Hos 10:1]; by Joel, [Joe 1:7]; by Moses, [Deu 32:32], [Deu 32:33]; and often by our Lord himself, [Mat 20:1], etc.; [Mat 21:33], etc.; [Mar 12:1], etc. And this was the ordinary figure to represent the Jewish Church. We may remark several analogies here: -

[¶39] 1. This vine was brought out of Egypt that it might be planted in a better and more favorable soil. The Israelites were brought out of their Egyptian bondage that they might be established in the land of Canaan, where they might grow and flourish, and worship the true God.

[¶40] 2. When the husbandman has marked out a proper place for his vineyard, he hews down and roots up all other trees; gathers out the stones, brambles, etc., that might choke the young vines, and prevent them from being fruitful, So God cast out the heathen nations from the land of Canaan, that his pure worship might be established, and that there might not remain there any incitements to idolatry.

### Verse 9

[¶42] Thou preparedst - before it -

[¶43] 3. When the ground is properly cleared, then it is well digged and manured, and the vines are placed in the ground at proper distances, etc. So when God had cast out the heathen, he caused the land to be divided by lot to the different tribes, and then to the several families of which these tribes were composed.

[¶44] And didst cause it to take deep root -

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[¶0] 4. By sheltering, propping up, and loosening the ground about the tender plants, they are caused to take a deep and firm rooting in the ground. Thus did God, by especial manifestations of his kind providence, support and protect the Israelites in Canaan; and by various religious ordinances, and civil institutions, he established them in the land; and, by the ministry of priests and prophets, did every thing necessary to make them morally fruitful.

[¶1] It filled the land -

[¶2] 5. To multiply vines, the gardener cuts off a shoot from the old tree, leaving a joint or knob both at top and bottom; then plants it in proper soil; the lower knob furnishes the roots, and the upper the shoot, which should be carefully trained as it grows, in order to form another vine. By these means one tree will soon form a complete vineyard, and multiply itself to any given quantity. Thus God so carefully, tenderly, and abundantly blessed the Israelites, that they increased and multiplied; and, in process of time, filled the whole land of Canaan. Vines are propagated, not only by cuttings, but by layers, seed, grafting, and inoculation.

### Verse 10

[¶4] The hills were covered -

[¶5] 6. The vine, carefully cultivated in a suitable soil, may be spread to any extent. In the land of Judea it formed shades under which the people not only sheltered and refreshed themselves in times of sultry heats; but it is said they even ate, drank, and dwelt under the shelter of their vines. See [1Kgs 4:25]; [Mic 4:4]; 1 Maccabees 14:12. God so blessed the Jews, particularly in the days of David and Solomon, that all the neighboring nations were subdued - the Syrians, Idumeans, Philistines, Moabites, and Ammonites.

### Verse 11

[¶7] She sent out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river - The Israelitish empire extended from the River Euphrates on the east to the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and from the same Euphrates on the north of the promised land to its farthest extent on the south; Syria bounding the north, and Arabia and Egypt the south. And this was according to the promises which God had made to the fathers, [Exo 23:31]; [Deu 11:24].

### Verse 12

[¶9] Why hast thou broken down -

[¶10] 7. When a vineyard is planted, it is properly fenced to preserve it from being trodden down, or otherwise injured by beasts, and to protect the fruit from being taken by the unprincipled passenger. So God protected Jerusalem and his temple by his own almighty arm; and none of their enemies could molest them as long as they had that protection. As it was now spoiled, it was a proof that that protection had been withdrawn; therefore the psalmist addresses the Lord with, "Why hast thou broken down her hedges?" Had God continued his protection, Jerusalem would not have been destroyed.

### Verse 13

[¶12] The boar out of the wood - Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who was a fierce and cruel sovereign. The allusion is plain. The wild hops and buffaloes make sad havoc in the fields of the Hindoos, and in their orchards: to keep them out, men are placed at night on covered stages in the fields.

### Verse 14

[¶14] Return - O God of hosts - Thou hast abandoned us, and therefore our enemies have us in captivity. Come back to us, and we shall again be restored.

[¶15] Behold, and visit this vine - Consider the state of thy own people, thy own worship, thy own temple. Look down! Let thine eye affect thy heart.

### Verse 15

[¶17] The vineyard which thy right hand hath planted - Thy holy and pure worship which thy Almighty power had established in this city.

[¶18] And the branch - thou madest strong for thy self - The original ועל בן veal ben, "and upon the Son whom thou hast strengthened for thyself." Many have thought that the Lord Jesus is meant. And so the Chaldee understood it, as it translates the passage thus: ועל מלכא משיחא veal Malca Meshicha, And upon the King Messiah, whom thou hast strengthened for thyself." The Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, have, "the Son of man,' as in the seventeenth verse. Eighteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have בן אדם ben Adam, "Son of man," and as the Versions have all the same reading, it was probably that of the original copies. As Christ seems here to be intended, this is the first place in the Old Testament where the title Son of man is applied to him. The old Psalter understands this of setting Christ at the right hand of God.

### Verse 17

[¶20] The man of thy right hand - The only person who can be said to be at the right hand of God as intercessor, is Jesus the Messiah. Let him become our Deliverer: appoint him for this purpose, and let his strength be manifested In our weakness! By whom are the Jews to be restored, if indeed they ever be restored to their own land, but by Jesus Christ? By Him alone can they find mercy; through Him alone can they ever be reconciled to God.

### Verse 18

[¶22] So wilt not we go back from thee - We shall no more become idolaters: and it is allowed on all hands that the Jews were never guilty of idolatry after their return from the Babylonish captivity.

[¶23] Quicken us - Make us alive, for we are nearly as good as dead.

[¶24] We will call upon they name - We will invoke thee. Thou shalt be for ever the object of our adoration, and the center of all our hopes.

### Verse 19

[¶26] Turn as again - Redeem us from this captivity.

[¶27] O Lord God of hosts - Thou who hast all power in heaven and earth, the innumerable hosts of both worlds being at thy command.

[¶28] Cause thy face to shine - Let us know that thou art reconciled to us. Let us once more enjoy thy approbation. Smile upon thy poor rebels, weary of their sins, and prostrate at thy feet, imploring mercy.

[¶29] And we shall be saved - From the power and oppression of the Chaldeans, from the guilt and condemnation of our sins, and from thy wrath and everlasting displeasure. Thus, O God, save Us!

### Introduction

[¶31] An exhortation to the people to praise God for his benefits, [Psa 81:1-7]; and to attend to what he had prescribed, [Psa 81:8-10]; their disobedience lamented, [Psa 81:11]; the miseries brought on themselves by their transgressions, [Psa 81:12-16].

[¶32] The title is the same as to [Psa 8:1-9] (note), which see. There are various opinions concerning the occasion and time of this Psalm: but it is pretty generally agreed that it was either written for or used at the celebration of the Feast of Trumpets, (see on [Lev 23:24] (note)), which was held on the first day of the month Tisrl, which was the beginning of the Jewish year; and on that day it is still used in the Jewish worship. According to Jewish tradition, credited by many learned Christians, the world was created in Tisri, which answers to our September. The Psalm may have been used in celebrating the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of Tisri, the Feast of Tabernacles on the fifteenth of the same month, the creation of the world, the Feasts of the New Moons, and the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt; to all which circumstances it appears to refer.

### Verse 1

[¶34] Sing aloud unto God our strength - There is much meaning here: as God is our strength, let that strength be devoted to his service; therefore, sing aloud! This is principally addressed to the priests and Levites.

### Verse 2

[¶36] Take a psalm - זמרה zimrah. I rather think that this was the name of a musical instrument.

[¶37] Bring hither the timbrel - תף toph; some kind of drum or tom tom.

[¶38] The pleasant harp - כנור kinnor. Probably a sistrum, or something like it. A Stringed instrument.

[¶39] With the psaltery - נבל nebel, the nabla. The cithara, Septuagint.

### Verse 3

[¶41] Blow up the trumpet - שופר shophar, a species of horn. Certainly a wind instrument, as the two last were stringed instruments. Perhaps some chanted a psalm in recitativo, while all these instruments vere used as accompaniments. In a representative system of religion, such as the Jewish, there must have been much outside work, all emblematical of better things: no proof that such things should be continued under the Gospel dispensation, where outsides have disappeared, shadows flown away, and the substance alone is presented to the hearts of mankind. He must be ill off for proofs in iavour of instrumental music in the Church of Christ, who has recourse to practices under the Jewish ritual.

[¶42] The feast of the new moon was always proclaimed by sound of trumpet. Of the ceremonies on this occasion I have given a full account in my Discourse on the Eucharist. For want of astronomical knowledge, the poor Jews were put to sad shifts to know the real time of the new moon. They generally sent persons to the top of some hill or mountain about the time which, according to their supputations, the new moon should appear. The first who saw it was to give immediate notice to the Sanhedrin; they closely examined the reporter as to his credibility, and whether his information agreed with their calculations. If all was found satisfactory, the president proclaimed the new moon by shouting out מקדש mikkodesh! "It is consecrated." This word was repeated twice aloud by the people; and was then proclaimed every where by blowing of horns, or what is called the sound of trumpets. Among the Hindoos some feasts are announced by the sound of the conch or sacred shell.

### Verse 4

[¶44] This was a statute for Israel - See the statute, [Num 10:10] (note), and [Lev 23:24] (note).

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### Verse 5

[¶1] I heard a language I understood not - This passage is difficult. Who heard? And what was heard? All the Versions, except the Chaldee, read the pronoun in the third person, instead of the first. "He heard a language that he understood not." And to the Versions Kennicott reforms the text, שפת לא ידעה ישמע sephath lo yadah yisma; "a language which he did not understand he heard." But what was that language? Some say the Egyptian; others, who take Joseph to signify the children of Israel in general, say it was the declaration of God by Moses, that Jehovah was the true God, that he would deliver their shoulder from their burdens, and their hands from the pots - the moulds and furnaces in which they formed and baked their brick.

### Verse 7

[¶3] Thou calledst in trouble - They had cried by reason of their burdens, and the cruelty of their task-masters; and God heard that cry, and delivered them. See [Exo 3:7], etc.

[¶4] In the secret place of thunder - On Mount Sinai; where God was heard, but not seen. They heard a voice, but they saw no shape.

[¶5] At the waters of Meribah - See this transaction, [Exo 17:1] (note), etc.

### Verse 8

[¶7] Hear, O my people - These are nearly the same words with those spoken at the giving of the law, [Exo 20:2].

### Verse 10

[¶9] Open thy mouth wide - Let thy desires be ever so extensive, I will gratify them if thou wilt be faithful to me. Thou shalt lack no manner of thing that is good.

### Verse 11

[¶11] Israel would none of me - לא אבה לי lo abah li, They willed me not, they would not have me for their God.

### Verse 12

[¶13] Unto their own hearts' lust - To the obstinate wickedness of their heart.

[¶14] In their own counsels - God withdrew his restraining grace, which they had abused; and then they fulfilled the inventions of their wicked hearts.

### Verse 13

[¶16] O that my people had hearkened unto me, - Israel had walked in my ways - Nothing can be more plaintive than the original; sense and sound are surprisingly united. I scruple not to say to him who understands the Hebrew, however learned, he has never found in any poet, Greek or Latin, a finer example of deep-seated grief, unable to express itself in appropriate words without frequent interruptions of sighs and sobs, terminated with a mournful cry. yl (m# ym( wl ישראי בדרכי יהלכו Lo ammi shomea li Yishrael bidrachi yehallechu! He who can give the proper guttural pronunciation to the letter ע ain; and gives the ו vau, and the י yod, their full Asiatic sound, not pinching them to death by a compressed and worthless European enunciation; will at once be convinced of the propriety of this remark.

### Verse 14

[¶18] I should soon have subdued - If God's promise appeared to fail in behalf of his people, it was because they rejected his counsel, and walked in their own. While they were faithful, they prospered; and not one jot or tittle of God's word failed to them.

### Verse 15

[¶20] Their time should have endured for ever - That is, Their prosperity should have known no end.

### Verse 16

[¶22] With the finest of the wheat - מחלב חטה mecheleb chittah; literally, with the fat of wheat, as in the margin.

[¶23] Honey out of the rock - And he fed thaim of the grese of whete: And of the hony stane he thaim filled. Old Psalter. Thus paraphrased: "He fed thaim with the body of Criste and gastely understandyng; and of hony that ran of the stane, that is, of the wisedome that is swete to the hert." Several of the fathers understand this place of Christ.

### Introduction

[¶25] A warning to corrupt judges, [Psa 82:1], [Psa 82:2]; an exhortation to them to dispense justice without respect of person, [Psa 82:3-5]; they are threatened with the judgments of the Lord, [Psa 82:6-8].

[¶26] This Psalm, which, in the title, is attributed to Asaph, was probably composed in the time when Jehoshaphat reformed the courts of justice throughout his states; see [2Chr 19:6], [2Chr 19:7], where he uses nearly the same words as in the beginning of this Psalm.

### Verse 1

[¶28] God standeth in the congregation of the mighty - The Hebrew should be translated, "God standeth in the assembly of God." God is among his people; and he presides especially in those courts of justice which himself has established. The Court of King's Bench is properly the place where the king presides, and where he is supposed to be always present. But the kings of England seldom make their appearance there. King James I sometimes attended: at such times it might be said, "The king is in the king's court." I believe the case above to be similar. Judges! beware what you do! God is in his court, and in the midst (of the assembly) God will judge. See Parkhurst under אלה.

### Verse 2

[¶30] Accept the persons of the wicked? - "Lift up their faces," encourage them in their oppressions.

[¶31] Selah - "Mark this:" ye do it, and sorely sLall ye suffer for it.

### Verse 3

[¶33] Defend the poor - You are their natural protectors under God. They are oppressed: punish their oppressors, however rich or powerful: and deliver them.

### Verse 5

[¶35] They know not - The judges are not acquainted with the law of God, on which all their decisions should be founded.

[¶36] Neither will they understand - They are ignorant and do not wish to be instructed. They will not learn; they cannot teach. Happy England! How different from Judea, even in the days of Jehoshaphat! All thy judges are learned, righteous, and impartial. Never did greater men in their profession dignify any land or country - (1822).

[¶37] All the foundations of the earth - "All the civil institutions of the land totter." Justice is at the head of all the institutions in a well regulated state: when that gets poisoned or perverted, every evil, political and domestic, must prevail; even religion itself ceases to have any influence.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Ye are gods - Or, with the prefix of כ ke, the particle of similitude, כאלהים keelohim, "like God." Ye are my representatives, and are clothed with my power and authority to dispense judgment and justice, therefore all of them are said to be children of the Most High.

### Verse 7

[¶41] But ye shall die like men - כאדם keadam, "ye shall die like Adam," who fell from his high perfection and dignity as ye have done. Your high office cannot secure you an immortality.

[¶42] And fall like one of the princes - Justice shall pursue you, and judgment shall overtake you; and you shall be executed like public state criminals. You shall not, in the course of nature, fall into the grave; but your life shall be brought to an end by a legal sentence, or a particular judgment of God.

### Verse 8

[¶44] Arise, O God, judge the earth - Justice is perverted in the land: take the scepter, and rule thyself.

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[¶0] For thou shalt inherit all nations - Does not this last verse contain a prophecy of our Lord, the calling of the Gentiles, and the prevalence of Christianity over the earth? Thus several of the fathers have understood the passage. It is only by the universal spread of Christianity over the world, that the reign of righteousness and justice is to be established: and of whom can it be said that he shall inherit all nations, but of Jesus Christ?

### Introduction

[¶2] The psalmist calls upon God for immediate help against a multitude of confederate enemies who had risen up against Judah, [Psa 83:1-5]. He mentions them by name, [Psa 83:6-8]; shows how they were to be punished, [Psa 83:9-17]; and that this was to be done for the glory of God, [Psa 83:18].

[¶3] The title, A Song or Psalms of Asaph, contains nothing particular. Among a multitude of conjectures relative to the title and occasion of this Psalm, that which refers it to the confederacy against Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, mentioned 2 Chronicles 20, is the most likely. The following reasons make it probable: 1. The children of Ammon, that is, the Ammonites and Moabites, were the principal movers in the war. 2. The Idumeans came to their assistance, [2Chr 20:22]; with certain Ammonites or Meonians, referred to here in [Psa 83:8], and in [2Chr 20:1]. 3. There were also in this confederacy many strangers of Syria, and from beyond the sea, most likely the Dead Sea, which seems to indicate the Assyrians, Hagaranes, and Ishmaelites, designed expressly here, [Psa 83:7], [Psa 83:8]. 4. In that transaction there was a prophet of the race of Asaph, named Jahaziel, who foretold to Jehoshaphat their total overthrow, [2Chr 20:14], etc., and probably this Jahaziel is the same with Asaph, the author of this Psalm. In the course of the notes we shall see other circumstances relative to the war of the Moabites and Ammonites against Jehoshaphat, which illustrates several particulars in this Psalm. See Calmet.

### Verse 1

[¶5] Keep not thou silence - A strong appeal to God just as the confederacy was discovered. Do not be inactive, do not be neuter. Thy honor and our existence are both at stake.

### Verse 2

[¶7] Thine enemies make a tumult - They are not merely the enemies of thy people, but they are the enemies of thyself, thy worship, ordinances, and laws: "They make a tumult," they throng together.

[¶8] They - have lifted up the head - They have made an irruption into the land of Judea, and encamped at En-gedi, by the Dead Sea, [2Chr 20:1], [2Chr 20:2].

### Verse 3

[¶10] Consulted against thy hidden ones - צפוניך tsephuneycha, Thy hidden things; places; persons. "The hidden things in thy treasures." - Chaldee. "Thy holy ones." - Syriac. "Thy saints." - Vulgate and Septuagint; and so the Ethiopic and Arabic. The people of Israel are probably meant. Or perhaps the temple, the ark, and the treasures of the temple, are intended.

### Verse 4

[¶12] Let us cut them off - Let us exterminate the whole race, that there may not be a record of them on the face of the earth. And their scheme was well laid: eight or ten different nations united themselves in a firm bond to do this; and they had kept their purpose so secret that the king of Judah does not appear to have heard of it till his territories were actually invaded, and the different bodies of this coalition had assembled at En-gedi. Never was Judah before in greater danger.

### Verse 5

[¶14] They have consulted together with one consent - With a united heart, לב יחדו leb yachdav, Their heart and soul are in the work.

[¶15] They are confederate against thee - "They have made a covenant," ברית יכריתו berith yachrithu, "they have cut the covenant sacrifice." They have slain an animal, divided him in twain, and passed between the pieces of the victim; and have thus bound themselves to accomplish their purpose.

### Verse 6

[¶17] The tabernacles of Edom - The tents of these different people are seen in the grand encampment. Tents are probably mentioned because it seas the custom of some of these people, particularly the lshmaelites, to live a migratory or wandering life; having no fixed habitation, but always abiding in tents. Their posterity remain to the present day, and act and live in the same manner.

[¶18] Hagarenes - These people dwelt on the east of Gilead; and were nearly destroyed in the days of Saul, being totally expelled from their country, [1Chr 5:10], but afterwards recovered some strength and consequence; but where they dwelt after their expulsion by the Israelites is not known.

### Verse 7

[¶20] Gebal - The Giblites, who were probably the persons here designed, were a tribe of the ancient inhabitants of the land of Canaan, and are mentioned as unconquered at the death of Joshua, [Jos 13:5]. They are called stone-squarers or Giblites, [1Kgs 5:18], and were of considerable assistance to Hiram king of Tyre, in preparing timber and stones for the building of the temple. They appear to have been eminent in the days of Ezekiel, who terms them the "ancients of Gebal, and the wise men - thereof," who were ship-builders, [Eze 27:3]. What is now called Gibyle, a place on the Mediterranean Sea, between Tripoli and Sidon, is supposed to be the remains of the city of the Giblites.

[¶21] Ammon and Moab were then descendants of the children of Lot. Their bad origin is sufficiently known. See [Gen 19:30], etc. Calmet supposes that Ammon is put here for Men or Maon, the Meonians, a people who lived in the neighborhood of the Amalekites and Idumeans. See the notes on [2Chr 20:1]; [2Chr 26:7].

[¶22] Amalek - The Amalekites are well known as the ancient and inveterate enemies of the Israelites. They were neighbors to the Idumeans.

[¶23] The Philistines - These were tributaries to Jehoshaphat, [2Chr 17:11]; but it seems they took advantage of the present times, to join in the great confederacy against him.

[¶24] The inhabitants of Tyre - These probably joined the confederacy in hopes of making conquests, and extending their territory on the main land.

### Verse 8

[¶26] Asser also is joined - The Ammonites might have got those auxiliaries from beyond the Euphrates, against Jehosphaphat, as formerly they were brought against David. See [2Sam 10:16].

[¶27] They have holpen the children of Lot - The Ammonites, who appear to have been the chief instigators in this war.

### Verse 9

[¶29] Do unto them as unto the Midianites - Who were utterly defeated by Gideon, [Jdg 7:21], [Jdg 7:22].

[¶30] As to Sisera - Captain of the army of Jabin, king of Canaan, who was totally defeated by Deborah and Barak, near Mount Tabor, by the river Kishon; and himself, after having fled from the battle, slain by Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite. See [Jdg 4:15], etc.

### Verse 10

[¶32] Perished at En-dor - This refers to the defeat of the Midianites by Gideon, who were encamped in the valley of Jezreel, at the foot of Mount Gilboa, and near to Tabor, [Jdg 6:33]; [Jdg 7:1], and consequently in the environs of En-dor. There Gideon attacked and defeated them; and, in various places during their flight, they were destroyed, and left to rot upon the earth. [Jdg 7:22-25].

### Verse 11

[¶34] Lake their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb - They were two of the chiefs, or generals, of the Midianites; and were slain in the pursuit of the Midianites, by the men of Ephraim; and their heads brought to Gideon on the other side of JorDaniel [Jdg 7:24], [Jdg 7:25].

[¶35] Yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna - These were kings of Midian, who were encamped at Karkor with fifteen thoussand men, whom Gideon attacked there, and defeated, and took the kings prisoners; and finding that they had killed his own brothers slew them both. See [Jdg 8:10-21]. Of the Midianites there fell at this time one hundred and twenty thousand men.

### Verse 12

[¶37] Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession - Nearly the words spoken by the confederates when they came to attack Jehoshaphat. They come (says the king in address to God) to cast us out of thy possession which thou hast given us to inherit. See [2Chr 20:11].

### Verse 13

[¶39] O may God, make them like a wheel - Alluding to the manner of threshing corn in the east. A large broad wheel was rolled over the grain on a threshing-floor, which was generally in the open air; and the grain being thrown up by a shovel against the wind the chaff was thus separated from it, in the place where it was threshed.

### Verse 14

[¶41] The flame setteth the mountains on fire - This may refer to the burning of the straw and chaff, after the grain was threshed and winnowed. And as their threshing-floors were situated often on the hills or mountains, to take the advantage of the wind, the setting the mountains on fire may refer to the burning of the chaff, etc., in those places. Let them be like stubble driven away by the wind, and burnt by the fire.

### Verse 15

[¶43] So persecute them - In this and the two following verses we find several awful execrations; and all this seems to be done in reference to that ancient custom, "pouring execrations on an enemy previously to battle." Of this I have already given specimens in this work; and the reader is particularly requested to refer to the case of Balaam being hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel previously to his intended attack: see the note on [Num 22:6], where the subject is treated at large.

[¶44] This custom prevailed much among the Romans, and the ancient Druids of Britain. In all cases the priests were employed to utter the execrations, as they were supposed to have the greatest influence with the gods, in whose name the curses were uttered.

## 637. Psalms · 91 of 159

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### Verse 16

[¶1] That they may seek thy name - Let them be confounded in all their attempts on Israel; and see, so manifestly, that thou hast done it, that they may invoke thy name, and be converted to thee.

### Verse 17

[¶3] Let them - perish - That is, in their present attempts. Some have objected to the execrations in this Psalm, without due consideration. None of these execrations refer either to their souls or to their eternal state; but merely to their discomfiture on their present attempts. Suppose the continental powers should join together to subjugate Britain, and destroy the Protestant religion; is there a Christian in the land that would not be justified in meeting them with the same or similar execrations? On the knees of my soul would I offer every one of them to God against such invaders. Selah - A. C.

### Verse 18

[¶5] That men may know - That they may acknowledge, and be converted to thee. Here is no malice; all is self-defense.

### Introduction

[¶7] The psalmist longs for communion with God in the sanctuary, [Psa 84:1-3]. The blessedness of those who enjoy God's ordinances, [Psa 84:4-7]. With confidence in God, he prays for restoration to his house and worship, [Psa 84:8-12].

[¶8] The title here is the same as that of Psalm 81, only that was for Asaph, this for the sons of Torah. This person was one of the chief rebels against Moses and Aaron; there were three, Torah, Dathan, and Abiram, who made an insurrection; and the earth opened, and swallowed them and their partisans up, Numbers 16: The children of Dathan and Abiram perished with their fathers; but by a particular dispensation of Providence, the children of Korah were spared. See [Num 26:11] (note), and the note there. The family of Torah was continued in Israel; and it appears from 1 Chronicles 26:1-19 that they were still employed about the temple, and were porters or keepers of the doors. They were also singers in the temple; see [2Chr 20:19]. This Psalm might have been sent to them to be sung, or one of themselves might have been its author.

### Verse 1

[¶10] How amiable are thy tabernacles - In this plural noun he appears to include all the places in or near the temple where acts of Divine worship were performed. The holy of holies, the holy place, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt-offering, etc., etc.; all called here God's tabernacles or dwelling-places; for wherever God was worshipped, there he was supposed to dwell.

### Verse 2

[¶12] My soul longeth - It is a Levite that speaks, who ardently longs to regain his place in the temple, and his part in the sacred services.

[¶13] My heart and my flesh - All the desires of my soul and body; every appetite and wish, both animal and spiritual, long for thy service.

### Verse 3

[¶15] Yea, the sparrow hath found a house - It is very unlikely that sparrows and swallows, or birds of any kind, should be permitted to build their nests, and hatch their young, in or about altars which were kept in a state of the greatest purity; and where perpetual fires were kept up for the purpose of sacrifice, burning incense, etc. Without altering the text, if the clause be read in a parenthesis, the absurdity will be avoided, and the sense be good. "My heart crieth out for the living God, (even the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow דרור deror, the ring-dove, a nest for herself, where she may lay; her young), for thine altars. O Lord of hosts!" Or, read the parenthesis last: "My heart crieth out for the living God; for thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Even the sparrow hath found out a house, and the swallow (ring-dove) a nest for herself, where she may lay her young;" but I have no place, either of rest or worship, understood. The Chaldee translates thus: "Even the pigeon hath found a house, and the turtle-dove hath a nest because their young may be offered lawfully upon thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God." Or, as a comparison seems to be here intended the following may best express the meaning; "Even as the sparrow finds out (seeks) a house, and the swallow her nest in which she may hatch her young; so I, thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God."

### Verse 4

[¶17] Blessed are they that dwell in thy house - They who have such a constant habitation in thy temple as the sparrow or the swallow has in the house wherein it has built its nest.

[¶18] They will be still praising thee - They will find it good to draw nigh unto God, as he always pours out his Spirit on his sincere worshippers.

### Verse 5

[¶20] The man whose strength is in thee - "Who life and strength from thee derives;

[¶21] And by thee moves and in thee lives."

[¶22] In whose heart are the ways of them - This is no sense. The original, however, is obscure: מסלות בלבבם mesilloth bilebabam, "the high ways are in their hearts;" that is, the roads winding to thy temple. Perhaps there is a reference here to the high roads leading to the cities of refuge. We wish to escape from the hands and dominion of these murderers, and the roads that lead to Jerusalem and the temple we think on with delight; our hearts are with them, we long to be traveiling on them.

### Verse 6

[¶24] Passing through the valley of Baca make it a well - Instead of בכא bacha, a mulberry-tree, seven MSS. have בכה becheh, mourning. I believe Baca to be the same here as Bochim, [Jdg 2:1-6], called The Valley of Weeping. Though they pass through this barren and desert place, they would not fear evil, knowing that thou wouldst supply all their wants; and even in the sandy desert cause them to find pools of water, in consequence of which they shall advance with renewed strength, and shall meet with the God of Israel in Zion.

[¶25] The rain also filleth the pools - The Hebrew may be translated differently, and has been differently understood by all the Versions. גם ברכות יעטה מורה gam berachoth yaateh moreh; "Yea, the instructor is covered or clothed with blessings." While the followers of God are passing through the wilderness of this world, God opens for them fountains in the wilderness, and springs in the dry places. They drink of the well-spring of salvation; they are not destitute of their pastors. God takes care to give his followers teachers after his own heart, that shall feed them with knowledge; and while they are watering the people they are watered themselves; for God loads them with his benefits, and the people cover them with their blessings.

### Verse 7

[¶27] They go from strength to strength - They proceed from one degree of grace to another, gaining Divine virtue through all the steps of their probation.

[¶28] Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God - This is a paraphrase, and a bad one, but no translation. They shall proceed from strength to strength, יראה אל אלהים בציון yeraeh el Elohim betsiyon, "The God of gods shall be seen in Zion." God shall appear in their behalf, as often as they shall seek him; in consequence of which they shall increase in spiritual strength.

[¶29] Some think there is a reference here to companies of people going up to Jerusalem from different parts of the land, bending together as they go on, so that the crowd is continually increasing. This meaning our translators have put in the margin.

### Verse 8

[¶31] Hear my prayer - Let us be restored to thy sanctuary, and to thy worship.

### Verse 9

[¶33] Behold, O God, our shield - We have no Protector but thee. Thou seest the deadly blows that are aimed at us; cover our souls; protect our lives!

[¶34] Look upon the face of thine anointed - Consider the supplications sent up by him whom thou hast appointed to be Mediator between thee and man - thy Christ. But some apply this to David, to Zerubbabel, to the people of Israel; and each has his reasons.

### Verse 10

[¶36] A day in thy courts is better than a thousand - Not only better than one thousand in captivity, as the Chaldee states, but any where else. For in God's courts we meet with God the King, and are sure to have what petitions we offer unto him through his Christ.

[¶37] I had rather be a doorkeeper - O what a strong desire does this express for the ordinances of God! Who now prefers the worship of God to genteel, gay, honorable, and noble company, to mirthful feasts, public entertainments, the stage, the oratorio, or the ball! Reader, wouldst thou rather be in thy closet, wrestling in prayer, or reading the Scriptures on thy knees, than be at any of the above places? How often hast thou sacrificed thy amusement, and carnal delight, and pleasures, for the benefit of a pious heart-searching sermon? Let conscience speak, and it will tell thee.

### Verse 11

[¶39] For the Lord God is a sun and shield - To illuminate, invigorate, and warm; to protect and defend all such as prefer him and his worship to every thing the earth can produce.

[¶40] It is remarkable that not one of the Versions understand the שמש shemesh, as signifying sun, as we do. They generally concur in the following translation: "For the Lord loveth mercy and truth, and he will give grace and glory." The Chaldee says, "The Lord is as a high wall and a strong shield; grace and glory will the Lord give, and will not deprive those of blessedness who walk in perfection." Critics in general take the word as signifying a defense or a guard. Instead of שמש shemesh, sun, Houbigant reads שמר shemer, a keeper or guardian, and says that to represent God as the sun is without example in the sacred writings. But is not [Mal 4:2], a parallel passage to this place? "Unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." No MS. countenances the alteration of Houbigant.

[¶41] The Lord will give grace - To pardon, purify, and save the soul from sin: and then he will give glory to the sanctified in his eternal kingdom; and even here he withholds no good thing from them that walk uprightly. Well, therefore, might the psalmist say, [Psa 84:12], "O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee."

### Introduction

[¶43] Thanksgiving to God for restoration to the Divine favor, [Psa 85:1-3]; prayer for farther mercies, [Psa 85:4-7]; the psalmist waits for a gracious answer in full confidence of receiving it, [Psa 85:8]. He receives the assurance of the greatest blessings, and exults in the prospect, [Psa 85:9-13].

[¶44] The title of this Psalm we have seen before, [Psa 42:1-11] : As to the time, it seems to have been written during, or even after, the return from the Babylonish captivity. In the three first verses the psalmist acknowledges the goodness of God in bringing the people back to their own land; he next prays to God to restore them to their ancient prosperity. In the spirit of prophecy, he waits on God, and hears him promise to do it; and then exults in the prospect of so great a good. The whole Psalm seems also to have a reference to the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ.

## 638. Psalms · 92 of 159

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Lord, thou hast been favorable - Literally, Thou hast been well pleased with thy land.

[¶2] Thou hast brought back the captivity - This seems to fix the time of the Psalm to be after the return of the Jews from Babylon.

### Verse 2

[¶4] Thou hast forgiven the iniquity - נשאת עון nasatha avon, Thou hast borne, or carried away, the iniquity. An allusion to the ceremony of the scapegoat.

[¶5] Thou hast covered all their sin - As thou hast freely forgiven it, its offensiveness and abominable nature no longer appear. The whole is put out of sight; and, as we are restored from our captivity, the consequences no longer appear.

[¶6] Selah - This is true. Our return to our own land is the full proof.

### Verse 3

[¶8] Thou hast taken away - אספת asaphta, "Thou hast gathered up all thy wrath." This carries on the metaphor in the second verse: "Thou hast collected all thy wrath, and carried it away with all our iniquities."

### Verse 4

[¶10] Turn us, O God of our salvation - Thou hast turned our captivity; now convert our souls. And they find a reason for their prayer in an attribute of their God; the God of their salvation. And as his work was to save, they beg that his anger towards them might cease. The Israelites were not restored from their captivity all at once. A few returned with Zerubbabel; some more with Ezra and Nehemiah; but a great number still remained in Babylonia, Media, Assyria, Egypt, and other parts. The request of the psalmist is, to have a complete restoration of all the Israelites from all places of their dispersion.

### Verse 5

[¶12] Wilt thou draw out thine anger - We have already suffered much and long; our fathers have suffered, and we have succeeded to their distresses. Draw not out thy anger against us from generation to generation.

### Verse 6

[¶14] Wilt thou not revive us - We have long had the sentence of death in ourselves; and have feared an utter extinction. Shall not our nation yet live before thee? Shall we not become once more numerous, pious, and powerful, that

[¶15] Thy people may rejoice in thee? - As the Source of all our mercies; and give thee the glory due to thy name?

### Verse 7

[¶17] Show us thy mercy - Blot out all our sins.

[¶18] And grant us thy salvation - Give us such a complete deliverance as is worthy of thy majesty and mercy to bestow!

### Verse 8

[¶20] I will hear what God the Lord will speak - The psalmist goes as a prophet to consult the Lord; and, having made his request, waits an answer from the spirit of prophecy. He is satisfied that the answer will be gracious; and having received it he relates it to the people.

[¶21] He will speak peace - He will give prosperity to the people in general; and to his saints - his followers, in particular.

[¶22] But let them not turn again to folly - Let them not abuse the mercy of their God, by sinning any more against him.

### Verse 9

[¶24] Surely his salvation is nigh - To him who fears God, and trembles at his word, his salvation is nigh at hand.

[¶25] That glory may dwell in our land - That thy worship may be restored, the temple rebuilt, and the Divine shechinah, or symbol of the presence of God, resume its place. The pure and undefiled religion of God preached, professed, and experienced in a nation, is the glory of that land. The Prophet Haggai had said that the glory of the latter house - the temple built after their return from Babylon, should be greater than the glory of the former, viz., of that built by Solomon: but, as a building, it was far inferior to the former; yet it had a superior glory in being visited by Jesus Christ. This was the glory that excelled.

### Verse 10

[¶27] Mercy and truth are met together - It would be more simple to translate the original: - חסד ואמת נפגשו צדק ושלום נשקו

[¶28] Chesed veemeth niphgashu;

[¶29] Tsedek veshalom nashaku, - "

[¶30] Mercy and truth have met on the way

[¶31] Righteousness and peace have embraced."

[¶32] This is a remarkable text, and much has been said on it: but there is a beauty in it which, I think, has not been noticed.

[¶33] Mercy and peace are on one side; truth and righteousness on the other. Truth requires righteousness; mercy calls for peace.

[¶34] They meet together on the way; one going to make inquisition for sin, the other to plead for reconciliation. Having met, their differences on certain considerations, not here particularly mentioned are adjusted; and their mutual claims are blended together in one common interest; on which peace and righteousness immediately embrace. Thus, righteousness is given to truth, and peace is given to mercy.

[¶35] Now, Where did these meet? In Christ Jesus.

[¶36] When were they reconciled? When he poured out his life on Calvary.

### Verse 11

[¶38] Truth shall spring out of the earth - In consequence of this wonderful reconciliation, the truth of God shall prevail among men. The seeds of it shall be so plentifully sown by the preaching of Christ and his apostles that true religion shall be diffused over the world.

[¶39] And righteousness shall look down from heaven - And be delighted with the reformation of the sons of Adam; and shall be so satisfled with the glorious work which is carried forward, that,

### Verse 12

[¶41] The Lord shall give - good - הטוב hattob, The Good thing - what is the supreme good, the summum bonum, for which man has searched in vain through all his generations. Those who are reconciled to him through the Son of his love shall enjoy the favor of their God; to have which is the supreme happiness of man.

[¶42] Our land shall yield her increase - There shall be neither dearth nor barrenness; for truth, that springs out of the earth, shall yield an abundant harvest, in the conversion of all nations to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

### Verse 13

[¶44] Righteousness shall go before him - Perhaps this verse may receive its best solution from [Rom 3:25] : "Whom God hath set for a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past." This term the apostle uses to point out God's method of justifying or saving mankind. And this, in the preaching of the pure Gospel, is ever going before to point out the Lord Jesus, and the redemption that is in his blood. And thus going before him, the sinner, who feels his need of salvation, is Set - in the way of his steps; as Bartimeus sat by the way-side begging, by which way Jesus walked; and when he came where he was, heard his prayer, and restored him his sight. Or, righteousness - the pure and holy law of God, must be proclaimed as broken by sinners, and calling aloud for vengeance, before they can see and feel their need of Christ crucified. By the preaching of the law they are prepared to receive the grace of the Gospel.

## 639. Psalms · 93 of 159

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### Introduction

[¶1] The psalmist prays to God for support, from a conviction that he is merciful, good, ready to forgive, and that there is none like him, [Psa 86:1-8]; all nations shall bow before him because of his wondrous works, [Psa 86:9], [Psa 86:10]; he prays to be instructed, and promises to praise God for his great mercy, [Psa 86:11-13]; describes his enemies, and appeals to God, [Psa 86:14-16]; begs a token for God, that his enemies may be confounded, [Psa 86:17].

[¶2] The title attributes this Psalm to David; and in this all the versions agree: but in its structure it is the same with those attributed to the sons of Korah; and was probably made during the captivity. It is a very suitable prayer for a person laboring under affliction from persecution or calumny.

### Verse 1

[¶4] Bow down thine ear - Spoken after the manner of men: I am so low, and so weak, that, unless thou stoop to me, my voice cannot reach thee.

[¶5] Poor and needy - I am afflicted, and destitute of the necessaries of life.

### Verse 2

[¶7] Preserve my soul - Keep it as in a strong place.

[¶8] For I am holy - כי חשיד אני ki chasid ani, for I am merciful. The spirit of this prayer is, "The mercy I to others show,

[¶9] That mercy show to me!"

[¶10] Save thy servant - I have long taken thee as my Master and Lord; I receive the word from thy mouth, and obey thee.

### Verse 3

[¶12] Be merciful unto me - I have no merit; I plead none, but trust in thee alone.

[¶13] I cry unto thee daily - My state deeply affects me; and I incessantly cry for thy salvation.

### Verse 4

[¶15] Rejoice the soul of thy servant - I want spiritual blessings; I want such consolations as thou dost impart to them that love thee; I present that soul to thee which I wish thee to console.

### Verse 5

[¶17] For thou, Lord, art good - I found my expectations of help on thy own goodness through which thou art always ready to forgive. And I found it also on thy well-known character, to which all thy followers bear testimony, viz., that "thou art plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee."

### Verse 6

[¶19] Give ear, O Lord - Attend to me. Millions call upon thee for help and mercy; but who has more need than myself? That the psalmist was deeply in earnest, his conduct shows.

[¶20] 1. He prayed.

[¶21] 2. His prayer was vehement; he lifted up his voice.

[¶22] 3. He continued in prayer; he abounded in supplications.

### Verse 7

[¶24] Thou wilt answer me - Because thou art good, merciful, and ready to forgive; and I call upon thee fervently, and seek thee in thy own way.

### Verse 8

[¶26] Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord - None that trusted in an idol ever had help in time of need; none that prayed to any of them ever had an answer to his petitions. Thou savest; they cannot; thou upholdest; they must be upheld by their foolish worshippers. Thou art my Director, אדני Adonai; but they cannot direct nor teach; they have mouths, but they speak not.

### Verse 9

[¶28] All nations - Thy word shall be proclaimed among all the Gentiles: they shall receive thy testimony, and worship thee as the only true and living God.

### Verse 10

[¶30] For thou art great - Almighty, infinite, eternal.

[¶31] And doest wondrous things - ועשה נפלאות veoseh niphlaoth; thou art the Worker of miracres. This thou hast done in numerous instances, and thereby showed thy infinite power and wisdom.

[¶32] This appears to be a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ, and the evidence to be given to his Divine mission by the miracles which he should work.

[¶33] Thou art God alone - Συ ει ὁ Θεος μονος ὁ μεγας - Sept. Thou art the only, The Great God. In this the Ethiopic and Arabic agree.

### Verse 11

[¶35] Teach me thy way - Instruct me in the steps I should take; for without thy teaching I must go astray.

[¶36] Unite my heart - יחד לבבי yached lebabi, join all the purposes, resolutions, and affections of my heart together, to fear and to glorify thy name. This is a most important prayer. A divided heart is a great curse; scattered affections are a miserable plague. When the heart is not at unity with itself, the work of religion cannot go on. Indecision of mind and division of affections mar any work. The heart must be one, that the work may be one. If this be wanting, all is wrong. This is a prayer which becomes the mouth of every Christian.

### Verse 12

[¶38] I will praise thee - with all my heart - When my heart is united to fear thy name, then shall I praise thee with my whole heart.

### Verse 13

[¶40] Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell - This must mean more than the grave; a hell below hell - a place of perdition for the soul, as the grave is a place of corruption for the body.

### Verse 14

[¶42] The assemblies of violent men - עדת עריצים adath aritsim, the congregation of the terrible ones. Men of violent passions, violent counsels, and violent acts; and, because they have power, terrible to all.

[¶43] Have not set thee before them - Who sins that sets God before his eyes? Who does not sin that has no consciousness of the Divine presence?

## 640. Psalms · 94 of 159

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### Verse 15

[¶1] But thou, O Lord - What a wonderful character of God is given in this verse! אדני Adonai, the Director, Judge, and Support; - but instead of אדני Adonai, thirty-four of Kennicott's MSS. have יהוה Jehovah, the self-existent and eternal Being; - אל El, the strong God; רחום rachum, tenderly compassionate; חנון channun, the Dispenser of grace or favor; ארך אפים erech appayim, suffering long, not easily provoked; רב חמד rab chesed, abundant in blessings; and אמת emeth, faithful and true. Such is the God who has made himself more particularly known to us in Christ. The scanty language of our ancestors was not adequate to a full rendering of the original words: "And thu driht God gemildsiend, and mildheort, gethyldig and mucel mildheortnysse and sothfaest - And thou, Lord God, art mild, and mildhearted, patient, and of much mildheartedness, and soothfast," - steady in truth.

[¶2] In the old Psalter the language is but little improved: And thou Lorde God mercier, and mercyful, sufferand, and of mykel mercy, and sothefast.

[¶3] The word mercier is interpreted, do and dede of mercy.

### Verse 16

[¶5] O turn unto me - He represents himself as following after God; but he cannot overtake him; and then he plays that he would turn and meet him through pity; or give him strength that he might be able to hold on his race.

[¶6] Give thy strength unto thy servant - The Vulgate renders, Daniel imperium tuum puero tuo, "Give thy empire to thy child." The old Psalter. Gyf empyre to thi barne, and make safe the son of thi hand mayden. Thi barne - thy tender child. Anglo-Saxon; thy knave; signifying either a serving man or a male child. As many servants were found to be purloiners of their masters' property, hence the word knave, became the title of an unprincipled servant. The term fur, which signifies a thief in Latin, for the same reason became the appellative of a dishonest servant.

[¶7] Quid domini facient, audent cum talia Fures?

[¶8] When servants (thieves) do such things, what may not be expected from the masters?

[¶9] Virg. Ecl. 3:16.

[¶10] So Plautus, speaking of a servant, Aulul. 2:46, says: Homo es trium literarum, "Thou art a man of three letters," i.e., Fur, a thief. The word knave is still in use, but is always taken in a bad sense. The paraphrase in the old Psalter states the handmaid to be the kirk, and the son of this handmaid to be a true believer.

### Verse 17

[¶12] Show me a token for good - עשה עמי אוה aseh immi oth "Make with me a sign." Fix the honourabie mark of thy name upon me, that I may be known to be thy servant. There seems to be an allusion here to the marking of a slave, to ascertain whose property he was. The Anglo-Saxon, "do with me a token in good.' Old Psalter: Do with me signe in gude. From tacn we have our word token, which signifies a sign, mark, or remembrancer of something beyond itself; a pledge that something, then specified, shall be done or given. Give me, from the influence of thy Spirit in my heart, a pledge that the blessings which I now ask shall be given in due time. But he wished for such a sign as his enemies might see; that they might know God to be his helper, and be confounded when they sought his destruction.

### Introduction

[¶14] The nature and glorious privileges of Zion and Jerusalem, [Psa 87:1-3]. No other city to be compared to this, [Psa 87:4]. The privilege of being born in it, [Psa 87:5], [Psa 87:6]. Its praises celebrated, [Psa 87:7].

[¶15] The title, A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah, gives us no light into the author or meaning of this Psalm. It begins and ends so abruptly that many have thought it to be only a fragment of a larger Psalm. This opinion is very likely. Those who suppose it to have been made when Jerusalem was rebuilt and fortified, imagine it to have been an exclamation of the author on beholding its beauty, and contemplating its privileges. If this opinion be allowed, it will account for the apparent abruptness in the beginning and end. As to its general design it seems to have been written in praise of Jerusalem; and those who are for mystic meanings think that it refers to the Christian Church; and, on this supposition it is interpreted by several writers, both ancient and modern. To pretend to have found out the true meaning would be very absurd. I have done the best I could to give its literal sense.

### Verse 1

[¶17] His foundation is in the holy mountains - Jerusalem was founded on the mountains or hills of Zion and Moriah. The after increase of the population obliged the inhabitants to inclose all the contiguous hills; but Zion and Moriah were the principal. We know that ancient Rome was built on seven hills.

### Verse 2

[¶19] The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob - That is, he preferred Zion for his habitation, to be the place of his temple and sanctuary, before any other place in the promised land. Mystically, the Lord prefers the Christian Church to the Jewish: the latter was only a type of the former; and had no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth. To this position no exception can be made.

### Verse 3

[¶21] Glorious things are spoken of thee - Or, there are glorious words or doctrines in thee. Does this refer to the glorious doctrines of the Christian Church? These are glorious sayings indeed.

### Verse 4

[¶23] I will make mention of Rahab - The meaning seems to be, Rahab, i.e., Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, Philistia, and Ethiopia are not so honorable as Jerusalem. To be born in any of them is no privilege when compared with being a native of Jerusalem: their cities are but heads of villages; Jerusalem alone is a City. I have met with a very similar sentiment in a Persian work, of which I know not the author:

[¶24] Tche Mesr, o tche Sham, o tche Birr o Buhr.

[¶25] Heme rustaee and, we Sheerazee Shuhr.

[¶26] What celebrity can Egypt or Syria, or any thingon earth or on the sea, pretend to? "When compared to Sheeraz, those are but villages, but this alone is a City."

[¶27] The meaning seems to be the same in both the Hebrew and Persian poet.

### Verse 5

[¶29] This and that man was born in her - It will be an honor to any person to have been born in Zion. But how great is the honor to be born from above, and be a citizen of the Jerusalem that is from above! To be children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus! The Targum has, "David the king, and Solomon his son, were brought up here."

[¶30] The Highest himself shall establish her - The Christian Church is built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles; Jesus Christ himself being the Cornerstone.

### Verse 6

[¶32] The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people - בכתוב עמים bichthob ammim, in the register of the people. When he takes account of those who dwell in Jerusalem, he will particularly note those who were born in Zion.

[¶33] This has an easy spiritual meaning. When God takes an account of all professing Christians, he will set apart those for inhabitants of the New Jerusalem who were born in Zion, who were born again, received a new nature, and were fitted for heaven.

### Verse 7

[¶35] As well the singers, etc. - Perhaps, this may mean no more than, The burden of the songs of all the singers and choristers shall be, "All my fountains (ancestors and posterity) are in thee;" and consequently, entitled to all thy privileges and immunities. Instead of שרים sharim, "singers," many MSS. and early printed editions have, sarim, "princes." Some for מעיני mayenai, "my fountains," would read with several of the Versions, מעוני meoney, "habitations;" but no MS. yet discovered supports this reading.

[¶36] It would be a very natural cause of exultation, when considering the great privileges of this royal city, to know that all his friends, family, and children, were citizens of this city, were entered in God's register, and were entitled to his protection and favor. Applied to the Christian Church, the privileges are still higher: born of God, enrolled among the living in Jerusalem, having their hearts purified by faith, and being washed and made clean through the blood of the covenant, and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, such have a right to the inheritance among the saints in light. I need not add that springs, wells, fountains, and cisterns, and waters are used metaphorically in the sacred writings for children, posterity, fruitful women, people, etc.; see among others [Pro 5:15], [Pro 5:16]; [Psa 68:26]; [Isa 48:1]; and [Rev 17:15]. The old Psalter understands the whole as relating to Gospel times; and interprets it accordingly. Bishop Horne takes it in the same sense. The whole Psalm is obscure and difficult. I will venture a literal version of the whole, with a few explanatory interpolations, instead of notes, in order to cast a little more light upon it.

[¶37] 1. A Psalm to be sung by the posterity of Korah. A prophetic song.

[¶38] 2. "Jehovah loves his foundation, the city built by him on holy mountains. He loves the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob."

[¶39] 3. "Honorable things are declared of thee, O city of God. Selah."

[¶40] 4. "I will number Egypt and Babylon among my worshippers; behold Philistia and Tyre! They shall be born in the same place." They shall be considered as born in the city of God.

[¶41] 5. "But of Zion it shall be said, This one, and that one," persons of different nations, "was born in it, and the Most High shall establish it."

[¶42] 6. "Jehovah shall reckon in the registers of the people, This one was born there."

[¶43] 7. "The people shall sing, as in leading up a choir, All my fountains," the springs of my happiness, "are in thee."

[¶44] I have nearly followed here the version of Mr. N. M. Berlin, who wonders that there should be any doubt concerning this translation of the last verse, when Symmachus and Aguila, who must have well known the sense of the Masoretic text, have translated: Και ᾳδοντης ῳς χοροι πασαι πηγαι εν σοι· "And they shall sing, as in leading up a dance, All my fountains are in thee." The translation cannot be far from the meaning.

## 641. Psalms · 95 of 159

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### Introduction

[¶1] The earnest prayer of a person in deep distress, abandoned by his friends and neighbors, and apparently forsaken of God, vv. 1-18.

[¶2] Perhaps the title of this Psalm, which is difficult enough, might be thus translated: "A Poem to be sung to the conqueror, by the sons of Korah, responsively, in behalf of a distressed person; to give instruction to Heman the Ezrahite." Kennicott says this Psalm has three titles, but the last only belongs to it; and supposes it to be the prayer of a person shut up in a separate house, because of the leprosy, who seems to have been in the last stages of that distemper; this disease, under the Mosaic dispensation, being supposed to come from the immediate stroke of God. Calmet supposes it to refer to the captivity; the Israelitish nation being represented here under the figure of a person greatly afflicted through the whole course of his life. By some Heman is supposed to have been the author; but who he was is not easy to be determined. Heman and Ethan whose names are separately prefixed to this and the following Psalm, are mentioned as the grandsons of Judah by his daughter-in-law Tamar, [1Chr 2:6], for they were the sons of Zerah, his immediate son by the above. "And Tamar, his daughter-in-law, bare him Pharez and Zerah," [1Chr 2:4]. "And the sons of Zerah Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara, (or Darda)," [1Chr 2:6]. If these were the same persons mentioned [1Kgs 4:31], they were eminent in wisdom; for it is there said that Solomon's wisdom "excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol," [1Kgs 4:30], [1Kgs 4:31]. Probably Zerah was also called Mahol. If the Psalms in question were written by these men, they are the oldest poetical compositions extant; and the most ancient part of Divine revelation, as these persons lived at least one hundred and seventy years before Moses. This may be true of the seventy-eighth Psalm; but certainly not of the following, as it speaks of transactions that took place long afterwards, at least as late as the days of David, who is particularly mentioned in it. Were we sure of Heman as the author, there would be no difficulty in applying the whole of the Psalm to the state of the Hebrews in Egypt, persecuted and oppressed by Pharaoh. But to seek or labor to reconcile matters contained in the titles to the Psalms, is treating them with too much respect, as many of them are wrongly placed, and none of them Divinely inspired.

### Verse 1

[¶4] O Lord God of my salvation - This is only the continuation of prayers and supplications already often sent up to the throne of grace.

### Verse 2

[¶6] Let my prayer come before thee - It is weak and helpless, though fervent and sincere: take all hinderances out of its way, and let it have a free passage to thy throne. One of the finest thoughts in the Iliad of Homer concerns prayer; I shall transcribe a principal part of this incomparable passage - incomparable when we consider its origin: - Και γαρ τε Λιται εισι Διος κουραι μεγαλοιο, Χωλαι τε, ῥυσσαι τε, παραβλωπες τ' οφθαλμω· Αἱ ῥα τε και μετοπισθ' Ατης αλεγουσι κιουσαι· Ἡ δ' Ατη σθεναρη τε και αρτιπος· οὑνεκα πασας Πολλον ὑπεκπροθεει, φθανει δε τε πασαν επ' αιαν, Βλαπτους' ανθρωπους· αἱ δ' εξακεονται ποισσω· Ὁς μεν τ' αιδεσεται κουρας Διος, ασσον ιουσας, Τονδε μεγ' ωνησαν, και τ' εκλυον ευξαμενοιο. Ὁς δε κ' ανῃνηται, και τε στερεως αποειπῃ, Λισσονται δ' αρα ταιγε Δια Κρονιωνα κιουσαι, Τῳ Ατην ἁμ' ἑπεσθαι, ἱνα βλαφθεις αποτιση. Αλλ', Αχιλευ, πορε και συ Διος κουρησιν ἑπεσθαι Τιμην, ῃτ' αλλων περ επιγναμπτει φρενας εσθλων.

[¶7] Iliad., 9:498-510.

[¶8] Prayers are Jove's daughters; wrinkled, lame, slant-eyed,

[¶9] Which, though far distant, yet with constant pace

[¶10] Follow offense. Offence, robust of limb,

[¶11] And treading firm the ground, outstrips them all,

[¶12] And over all the earth, before them runs

[¶13] Hurtful to man: they, following, heal the hurt.

[¶14] Received respectfully when they approach,

[¶15] They yield us aid, and listen when we pray.

[¶16] But if we slight, and with obdurate heart

[¶17] Resist them, to Saturnian Jove they cry.

[¶18] Against, us supplicating, that offense

[¶19] May cleave to us for vengeance of the wrong.

[¶20] Thou, therefore, O Achilles! honor yield

[¶21] To Jove's own daughters, vanquished as the brave

[¶22] Have ofttimes been, by honor paid to thee.

[¶23] Cowper.

[¶24] On this allegory the translator makes the following remarks: "Wrinkled, because the countenance of a man, driven to prayer by a consciousness of guilt, is sorrowful and dejected. Lame, because it is a remedy to which men recur late, and with reluctance. Slant-eyed, either because in that state of humiliation they fear to lift up their eyes to heaven, or are employed in taking a retrospect of their past misconduct. The whole allegory, considering when and where it was composed, forms a very striking passage." Prayer to God for mercy must have the qualifications marked above.

[¶25] Prayer comes from God. He desires to save us: this desire is impressed on our hearts by his Spirit, and reflected back to himself. Thus says the allegory, "Prayers are the daughters of Jupiter." But they are lame, as reflected light is much less intense and vivid than light direct. The desire of the heart is afraid to go into the presence of God, because the man knows, feels, that he has sinned against goodness and mercy. They are wrinkled - dried up and withered, with incessant longing: even the tears that refresh the soul are dried up and exhausted. They are slant-eyed; look aside through shame and confusion; dare not look God in the face. But transgression is strong, bold, impudent, and destructive: it treads with a firm step over the earth, bringing down curses on mankind. Prayer and repentance follow, but generally at a distance. The heart, being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin does not speedily relent. They, however, follow: and when, with humility and contrition, they approach the throne of grace, they are respectfully received. God acknowledges them as his offspring, and heals the wounds made by transgression. If the heart remain obdurate, and the man will not humble himself before his God, then his transgression cleaves to him, and the heartless, lifeless prayers which he may offer in that state, presuming on God's mercy, will turn against him; and to such a one the sacrificial death and mediation of Christ are in vain. And this will be the case especially with the person who, having received an offense from another, refuses to forgive. This latter circumstance is that to which the poet particularly refers. See the whole passage, with its context.

### Verse 4

[¶27] I am counted with them, etc. - I am as good as dead; nearly destitute of life and hope.

### Verse 5

[¶29] Free among the dead - במתים צפשי bammethim chophshi, I rather think, means stripped among the dead. Both the fourth and fifth verses seem to allude to a field of battle: the slain and the wounded, are found scattered over the plain; the spoilers come among them, and strip, not only the dead, but those also who appear to be mortally wounded, and cannot recover, and are so feeble as not to be able to resist. Hence the psalmist says, "I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength," [Psa 88:4]. And I am stripped among the dead, like the mortally wounded (חללים chalalim) that lie in the grave. "Free among the dead," inter mortuos liber, has been applied by the fathers to our Lord's voluntary death: all others were obliged to die, he alone gave up his life, and could take it again, [Joh 10:18]. He went into the grave, and came out when he chose. The dead are bound in the grave; he was free, and not obliged to continue in that state as they were.

[¶30] They are cut off from thy hand - An allusion to the roll in which the general has the names of all that compose his army under their respective officers. And when one is killed, he is erased from this register, and remembered no more, as belonging to the army; but his name is entered among those who are dead, in a separate book. This latter is termed the black book, or the book of death; the other is called the book of life, or the book where the living are enrolled. From this circumstance, expressed in different parts of the sacred writings, the doctrine of unconditional reprobation and election has been derived. How wonderful!

### Verse 7

[¶32] Thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves - The figures in this verse seem to be taken from a tempest at sea. The storm is fierce, and the waves cover the ship.

### Verse 8

[¶34] Thou hast made me an abonmination - This verse has been supposed to express the state of a leper, who, because of the infectious nature of his disease, is separated from his family - is abominable to all, and at last shut up in a separate house, whence he does not come out to mingle with society.

### Verse 10

[¶36] Wilt thou show wonders to the dead! - מתים methim, dead men.

[¶37] Shall the dead - רפאים rephaim, "the manes or departed spirits."

[¶38] Arise and praise thee? - Any more in this life? The interrogations in this and the two following verses imply the strongest negations.

### Verse 11

[¶40] Or thy faithfulness in destruction? - Faithfulness in God refers as well to his fulfilling his threatenings as to his keeping his promises. The wicked are threatened with such punishments as their crimes have deserved; but annihilation is no punishment. God therefore does not intend to annihilate the wicked; their destruction cannot declare the faithfulness of God.

### Verse 12

[¶42] The land of forgetfulness? - The place of separate spirits, or the invisible world. The heathens had some notion of this state. They feigned a river in the invisible world, called Lethe, Ληθη, which signifies oblivion, and that those who drank of it remembered no more any thing relative to their former state. - Animae, quibus altera fato

[¶43] Corpora debentur, lethaei ad fluminis undam

[¶44] Securos latices et longa oblivia potant.

[¶45] Virg. Aen. 6: 713.

## 642. Psalms · 96 of 159

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[¶0] To all those souls who round the river wait

[¶1] New mortal bodies are decreed by fate;

[¶2] To yon dark stream the gliding ghosts repair,

[¶3] And quaff deep draughts of long oblivion there.

### Verse 13

[¶5] Shall my prayer prevent thee - It shall get before thee; I will not wait till the accustomed time to offer my morning sacrifice, I shall call on thee long before others come to offer their devotions.

### Verse 14

[¶7] Why castest thou off my soul? - Instead of my soul, several of the ancient Versions have my prayer. Why dost thou refuse to hear me, and thus abandon me to death?

### Verse 15

[¶9] From my youth up - I have always been a child of sorrow, afflicted in my body, and distressed in my mind. There are still found in the Church of God persons in similar circumstances; persons who are continually mourning for themselves and for the desolations of Zion. A disposition of this kind is sure to produce an unhealthy body; and indeed a weak constitution may often produce an enfeebled mind; but where the terrors of the Lord prevail, there is neither health of body nor peace of mind.

### Verse 16

[¶11] Thy fierce wrath goeth over me - It is a mighty flood by which I am overwhelmed.

### Verse 17

[¶13] They came round about me daily like water - Besides his spiritual conflicts, he had many enemies to grapple with. The waves of God's displeasure broke over him, and his enemies came around him like water, increasing more and more, rising higher and higher, till he was at last on the point of being submerged in the flood.

### Verse 18

[¶15] Lover and friend - I have no comfort, and neither friend nor neiphbour to sympathize with me.

[¶16] Mine acquaintance into darkness - All have forsaken me; or מידעי מחשך meyuddai machsach, "Darkness is my companion." Perhaps he may refer to the death of his acquaintances; all were gone; there was none left to console him! That man has a dismal lot who has outlived all his old friends and acquaintances; well may such complain. In the removal of their friends they see little else than the triumphs of death. Khosroo, an eminent Persian poet, handles this painful subject with great delicacy and beauty in the following lines: -

[¶17] Ruftem sauee khuteereh bekerestem bezar

[¶18] Az Hijereh Doostan ke aseer fana shudend:

[¶19] Guftem Eeshah Kuja shudend? ve Khatyr

[¶20] Dad az sada jouab Eeshan Kuja! "Weeping, I passed the place where lay my friends

[¶21] Captured by death; in accents wild I cried,

[¶22] Where are they? And stern Fate, by Echoes voice,

[¶23] Returned in solemn sound the sad Where are they?"

[¶24] J. B. C.

### Introduction

[¶26] The psalmist shows God's great mercy to the house of David, and the promises which he had given to it of support and perpetuity, vv. 1-37; complains that, notwithstanding these promises, the kingdom of Judah is overthrown, and the royal family nearly ruined, [Psa 89:38-45]; and earnestly prays for their restoration, [Psa 89:46-52].

[¶27] It is most probable that this Psalm was composed during the captivity. Of Ethan and Heman we have already seen something in the introduction to the preceding Psalm; see also the parallel places in the margin. The title should probably be translated, - To give instruction to Ethan the Ezrahite. The Chaldee has, "A good instruction, delivered by Abraham, who came from the east country." The Septuagint and Ethiopic have Nathan the Israelite; the Arabic has Nathan the Israelite.

[¶28] The Psalm divides itself into two grand parts; the first extends, verses 1-37, in which the psalmist shows God's mercy to the house of David, and the promises which he has given to it of support and perpetuity. The second part begins with [Psa 89:38], and ends with the Psalm; and in it the author complains that notwithstanding these promises, the kingdom of Judah is overthrown and the royal family ruined; and he entreats the Lord to remember his covenant made with that family, and restore them from their captivity.

### Verse 1

[¶30] I will sing of the mercies of the Lord - I will celebrate the mercy of God to the house of Jacob; the mercy that has been shown to our fathers from time immemorial.

[¶31] To all generations - What I say concerning thy mercy and goodness, being inspired by thy Spirit, is not only true, but shall be preserved by the Divine providence for ever.

### Verse 2

[¶33] Mercy shall be built up for ever - God's goodness is the foundation on which his mercy rests; and from that source, and on that foundation, acts of mercy shall flow and be built up for ever and ever.

[¶34] Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish - What thou hast promised to do to the children of men on earth, thou dost register in heaven, and thy promise shall never fail.

### Verse 3

[¶36] I have made a covenant with my chosen - I have made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and renewed it with Moses and Joshua in reference to the Israelites in general: but I have made one with David in especial relation to himself and posterity, of whom, according to the flesh, the Christ is to come. And this is the covenant with David: -

### Verse 4

[¶38] Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations - And this covenant had most incontestably Jesus Christ in view. This is the seed, or posterity, that should sit on the throne, and reign for ever and ever. David and his family are long since become extinct; none of his race has sat on the Jewish throne for more than two thousand years: but the Christ has reigned invariably since that time, and will reign till all his enemies are put under his feet; and to this the psalmist says Selah. It will be so, it is so; and it cannot be otherwise; for the Lord hath sworn that he shall have an euerlasting kingdom, as he has an everlasting priesthood.

### Verse 5

[¶40] The heavens shall praise thy wonders - The works that shall be wrought by this descendant of David shall be so plainly miraculous as shall prove their origin to be Divine: and both saints and angels shall join to celebrate his praises.

[¶41] Thy faithfulness also - All thy promises shall be fulfilled; and particularly and supereminently those which respect the congregation of the saints - the assemblies of Christian believers.

### Verse 6

[¶43] For who in the heaven - שחק shachak signifies the ethereal regions, all visible or unbounded space; the universe. Who is like Jesus? given in his human nature none of the sons of the mighty can be compared with him. He atones for the sin of the world, and saves to the uttermost all who come unto God through him.

[¶44] This may also be considered a reproof to idolaters. Is there any among the heavenly hosts like to God? Even the most glorious of them were made by his hands. Can the stars, or the more distant planets, or the moon, or the sun, be likened unto God most high?

## 643. Psalms · 97 of 159

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[¶0] Who among the sons of the mighty - Instead of אלים elim, mighty ones, four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have איל eil, strength: - sons of strength, strong persons. Several of the Versions seem to have read אלהים Elohim, God, instead of אלים elim, strong ones. So my old Psalter, following the Vulgate - For wha in the clowdes sal be evened to Lorde; like sal be to God in sons of God! which it paraphrases thus: "Emang al haly men nane may be evened to Ihu Crist: and nane may be like to hym in God's sons: for he is God's son be kynde, and thai thrugh grace."

### Verse 7

[¶2] God is greatly to be feared - In all religious assemblies the deepest reverence for God should rest upon the people. Where this does not prevail, there is no true worship. While some come with a proper Scriptural boldness to the throne of grace, there are others who come into the presence of God with a reprehensible, if not sinful, boldness.

### Verse 8

[¶4] O Lord God of hosts - Thou who hast all armies at thy command, and canst serve thyself by every part of thy creation, whether animate or inanimate.

[¶5] Who is a strong Lord - See [Psa 89:6].

[¶6] Thy faithfulness round about thee? - Or, more properly, thy faithfulness is round about thee. Thou still keepest thy promises in view. God's truth leads him to fulfill his promises: they stand round his throne as the faithful servants of an eastern monarch stand round their master, waiting for the moment of their dismission to perform his will.

### Verse 9

[¶8] Thou rulest the raging of the sea - Whoever has seen the sea in a storm, when its waves run what is called mountain high, must acknowledge that nothing but omnipotent power could rule its raging.

[¶9] When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them - Thou governest both its flux and reflux. Thou art the Author of storms and calms. There may be a reference here to the passage of the Red Sea, and the strong wind that agitated its waves at that time; as the next verse seems to indicate.

### Verse 10

[¶11] Thou hast broken Rahab - Thou hast destroyed the power of Egypt, having overthrown the king and its people when they endeavored to prevent thy people from regaining their liberty.

[¶12] As one that is slain - The whole clause in the original is, אתה דכאת כחלל רהב attah dikkitha kechalal Rahab, "Thou, like a hero, hast broken down Egypt." Dr. Kennicott has largely proved that חלל chalal, which we render wounded, slain, etc., means a soldier, warrior, hero; and it is certain that this sense agrees better with it than the other in a great number of places. Mr. Berlin translates, Tu contrivisti ut cadaver Aegyptum; "Thou hast bruised down Egypt like a dead carcass." The whole strength of Egypt could avail nothing against thee. Thou didst trample them down as easily as if they had all been dead carcasses.

### Verse 11

[¶14] The heavens are thine - Thou art the Governor of all things, and the Disposer of all events.

[¶15] The world - The terraqueous globe.

[¶16] And the fullness - All the generations of men. Thou hast founded them - thou hast made them, and dost sustain them.

[¶17] After this verse, the Editio Princeps of the Hebrew Bible, printed at Soncini, 1488, adds: - לילה לך אף יום לך lailah lecha aph yom lecha ושמש מאור הכינות אתה vashamesh maor hachinotha attah To thee is the day; also to thee is the night:

[¶18] Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

[¶19] But these same words are found in [Psa 74:16].

### Verse 12

[¶21] The north and the south - It is generally supposed that by these four terms all the four quarters of the globe are intended. Tabor, a mountain of Galilee, was on the west of Mount Hermon, which was beyond Jordan, to the east of the source of that river.

### Verse 14

[¶23] Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne - The throne - the government, of God, is founded in righteousness and judgment. He knows what is right; he sees what is right; he does what is right; and his judgments are ever according to righteousness. His decisions are all oracles, no one of them is ever reversed.

[¶24] Mercy and truth shall go before thy face - These shall be the heralds that shall announce the coming of the Judge. His truth binds him to fulfill all his declarations; and his mercy shall be shown to all those who have fled for refuge to the hope that is set before them in the Gospel. See the notes on [Psa 85:10], [Psa 85:11].

### Verse 15

[¶26] Blessed is the people - "O the blessednesses of that people (אשרי העם( elp ashrey haam) that know the joyful sound;" that are spared to hear the sound of the trumpet on the morning of the jubilee, which proclaims deliverance to the captives, and the restoration of all their forfeited estates. "They shall walk vigorously (יהלכון yehallechun) in the light of thy countenance" (באור פניך beor paneycha) - the full persuasion of the approbation of God their Father, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

### Verse 16

[¶28] In thy name shall they rejoice - Or, "greatly exult," יגילון yegilun; "all that day," היום haiyom, the jubilee, referred to above.

[¶29] And in thy righteousness - In the declaration of thy righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, [Rom 3:25], [Rom 3:26].

[¶30] Shall they be exalted - They shall be justified freely from all things, be purified from all unrighteousness, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ here below, and at last be exalted to his right hand to reign with him for ever. The jubilee was a type of the Gospel, and under that type the psalmist here speaks of the glorious advent of the Lord Jesus, and the great happiness of believers in him. Let it be observed that the letters in the above Hebrew words called paragogic, as nun in יהלכון yehallechun, and יגילון yegilun, always increase and deepen the meaning of the words to which they are attached.

### Verse 17

[¶32] For thou art the glory of their strength - They are strong in faith, and give glory to thee, because they know that their strength cometh from the Lord of hosts.

[¶33] And in thy favor our horn shall be exalted - Instead of תרום tarum, "shall be exalted," תרים tarim, "thou shalt exalt," is the reading of several MSS.: but תרום tarum, "shall be exalted," is supported by forty-four of Kennicott's MSS., and sixty of De Rossi's, as well as by several ancient editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic Versions. In the enjoyment of the Divine favor they shall grow more wise, more holy, more powerful, and, consequently, more happy.

### Verse 19

[¶35] Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one - Instead of חסידך chasidecha, "thy holy one," חסידיך chasideycha, "thy holy ones," is the reading of sisty-three of Kennicott's and seventy-one of De Rossi's MSS., and a great number of editions besides.

[¶36] If we take it in the singular, it most probably means Samuel, and refers to the revelation God gave to him relative to his appointment of David to be king in the stead of Saul. If we take it in the plural, it may mean not only Samuel, but also Nathan and Gad.

[¶37] For what God revealed to Samuel relative to David, see [2Sam 7:5], etc.; [1Chr 11:2], [1Chr 11:3]; and for what he said to Nathan on the same subject, see [1Chr 17:3], [1Chr 17:7-15]. All the Versions have the word in the plural.

### Verse 20

[¶39] I have found David my servant - This is the sum of what God had said in prophetic visions to his saints or holy persons, Samuel, Nathan, and Gad; see [1Sam 16:1], [1Sam 16:12]. Here the psalmist begins to reason with God relative to David, his posterity, and the perpetuity of his kingdom; which promises appear now to have utterly failed, as the throne had been overturned, and all the people carried into captivity. But all these things may have reference to Christ and his kingdom; for we are assured that David was a type of the Messiah.

### Verse 22

[¶41] The enemy shall not exact upon him - None of his enemies shall be able to prevail against him. It is worthy of remark that David was never overthrown; he finally conquered every foe that rose up against him. Saul's persecution, Absalom's revolt, Sheba's conspiracy, and the struggle made by the partisans of the house of Saul after his death, only tended to call forth David's skill, courage, and prowess, and to seat him more firmly on his throne. The Philistines, the Ammonites, the Syrians, etc., united all their forces to crush him, but in vain: "God beat down all his foes before his face," and variously plagued those who opposed him, [Psa 89:23].

### Verse 25

[¶43] I will set his hand also in the sea - This was literally fulfilled in David. Hand signifies power or authority; he set his hand on the sea in conquering the Philistines, and extending his empire along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, from Tyre to Pelusium. All the coasts of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabic Ocean, might be said to have been under his government, for they all paid tribute to him or his son Solomon.

[¶44] His right hand in the rivers - First, the Euphrates: he subjected all Syria, and even a part of Mesopotamia; [2Sam 8:3]; [1Chr 18:3]. He also took Damascus, and consequently had his hand or authority over the river Chrysorrhoes, or Baraddi; and in his conquest of all Syria his hand must have been on the Orontes and other rivers in that region. But if this be considered as referring to the typical David, we see that He was never conquered; he never lost a battle; the hosts of hell pursued him in vain. Satan was discomfited, and all his enemies bruised under his feet. Even over death he triumphed; and as to his dominion, it has spread and is spreading over all the isles of the sea, and the continents of the world.

## 644. Psalms · 98 of 159

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### Verse 27

[¶1] I will make him my first-born - I will deal with him as a father by his first-born son, to whom a double portion of possessions and honors belong. First-born. is not always to be understood literally in Scripture. It often signifies simply a well-beloved, or best-beloved son; one preferred to all the rest, and distinguished by some eminent prerogative. Thus God calls Israel his son, his first-born, [Exo 4:22]. See also Sirach 36:12. And even Ephraim is called God's first-born, [Jer 31:9]. In the same sense it is sometimes applied even to Jesus Christ himself, to signify his supereminent dignity; not the eternal Sonship of his Divine nature, as inveterate prejudice and superficial thinking have supposed.

### Verse 29

[¶3] His seed also will I make to endure for ever - This ean apply only to the spiritual David. The posterity of David are long since extinct, or so blended with the remaining Jews as to be utterly indiscernible; but Jesus ever liveth, and his seed (Christians) are spread, and are spreading over all nations; and his throne is eternal. As to his manhood, he is of the house and lineage of David; the government is upon his shoulders, and of its increase there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and on his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and justice, from henceforth even for ever. [Isa 9:7].

### Verse 30

[¶5] If his children forsake my law - See the notes on [2Sam 7:13], where this and some of the following verses are explained.

### Verse 34

[¶7] My covenant will I not break - My determination to establish a spiritual kingdom, the head of which shall be Jesus, the son of David, shall never fail. My prophets have declared this, and I will not alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth.

### Verse 35

[¶9] Once have I sworn - I have made one determination on this head, and have bound myself by my holiness; it is impossible that I should change, and there needs no second oath, the one already made is of endless obligation.

### Verse 36

[¶11] His throne as the son - Splendid and glorious! dispensing light, heat, life, and salvation to all mankind.

### Verse 37

[¶13] As the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven - That is, as long as the sun and moon shall endure, as long as time shall last, his kingdom shall last among men. The moon appears to be termed a faithful witness here, because by her particularly time is measured. Her decrease and increase are especially observed by every nation, and by these time is generally estimated, especially among the eastern nations. So many moons is a man old; so many moons since such an event happened; and even their years are reckoned by lunations. This is the case with the Mohammedans to the present day. Or the rainbow may be intended; that sign which God has established in the cloud; that faithful witness of his that the earth shall no more be destroyed by water. As long therefore as the sun, the moon, and the rainbow appear in the heavens, so long shall the spiritual David reign, and his seed prosper and increase.

[¶14] Selah - It is confirmed; it shall not fail.

### Verse 38

[¶16] But thou hast cast off - Hitherto the psalmist has spoken of the covenant of God with David and his family, which led them to expect all manner of prosperity, and a perpetuity of the Jewish throne; now he shews what appears to him a failure of the promise, and what he calls in the next verse the making void the covenant of his servant. God cannot lie to David; how is it then that his crown is profaned, that it is cast down to the ground; the land being possessed by strangers, and the twelve tribes in the most disgraceful and oppressive captivity?

### Verse 40

[¶18] Thou hast broken down all his hedges - Thou hart permitted the land to be stripped of all defense; there is not even one strong place in the hands of thy people.

### Verse 41

[¶20] All that pass bay the way spoil him - The land is in the condition of a vineyard, the hedge of which is broken down, so that they who pass by may pull the grapes, and dismantle or tear down the vines. The Chaldeans and the Assyrians began the ravage; the Samaritans on the one hand, and the Idumeans on the other, have completed it.

### Verse 42

[¶22] Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries - Thou hast given them that strength which thou didst formerly give to thy own people; therefore these are depressed, those exalted.

### Verse 43

[¶24] Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword - The arms and military prowess of thy people are no longer of any use to them; Thou art against them, and therefore they are fallen. In what a perilous and hopeless situation must that soldier be who, while defending his life against his mortal foe, has his sword broken, or its edge turned; or, in modern warfare, whose gun misses fire! The Gauls, when invaded by the Romans, had no method of hardening iron; at every blow their swords bended, so that they were obliged, before they could strike again, to put them under their foot or over their knee, to straighten them; and in most cases, before this could be done, their better armed foe had taken away their life! The edge of their sword was turned, so that they could not stand in battle; and hence the Gauls were conquered by the Romans.

### Verse 44

[¶26] Thou hast made his glory to cease - The kingly dignity is destroyed, and there is neither king nor throne remaining.

### Verse 45

[¶28] The days of his youth hast thou shortened - Our kings have not reigned half their days, nor lived out half their lives. The four last kings of Judea reigned but a short time, and either died by the sword or in captivity.

[¶29] Jehoahaz reigned only three months, and was led captive to Egypt, where he died. Jehoiakim reigned only eleven years, and was tributary to the Chaldeans, who pat him to death, and cast his body into the common sewer. Jehoiachin reigned three months and ten days, and was led captive to Babylon, where he continued in prison to the time of Evilmerodach, who, though he loosed him from prison, never invested him with any power. Zedekiah, the last of all, had reigned only eleven years when he was taken, his eyes put out, was loaded with chains, and thus carried to Babylon. Most of these kings died a violent and premature death. Thus the days of their youth - of their power, dignity, and iife, were shortened, and they themselves covered with shame. Selah; so it most incontestably is.

### Verse 46

[¶31] How long, Lord? - The promise cannot utterly fail. When then, O Lord, wilt thou restore the kingdom to Israel?

### Verse 47

[¶33] How short my time is - If thou deliver not speedily, none of the present generations shall see thy salvation. Are all the remnants of our tribes created in vain? shall they never see happiness?

### Verse 48

[¶35] What man is he that liveth - All men are mortal, and death is uncertain and no man, by wisdom, might, or riches, can deliver his life from the hand - the power, of death and the grave.

### Verse 49

[¶37] Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses - Wilt thou not deal with us as thou didst with our fathers? Didst thou not swear unto David that thou wouldst distinguish him as thou didst them?

### Verse 50

[¶39] I do bear in my bosom - Our enemies, knowing our confidence, having often heard our boast in thee, and now seeing our low and hopeless estate, mock us for our confidence, and blaspheme thee. This wounds my soul; I cannot bear to hear thy name blasphemed among the heathen. All these mighty people blaspheme the God of Jacob.

### Verse 51

[¶41] They have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed - They search into the whole history of thy people; they trace it up to the earliest times; and they find we have been disobedient and rebellious; and on this account we suffer much, alas, deserved reproach. The Chaldee gives this clause a singular turn: "Thy enemies have reproached the slowness of the footsteps of the feet of thy Messiah, O Lord. We have trusted in him as our great Deliverer, and have been daily in expectation of his coming: but there is no deliverer, and our enemies mock our confidence." This expectation seems now wholly abandoned by the Jews: they have rejected the true Messiah, and the ground of their expectation of another is now cut off. When will they turn unto the Lord? When shall the veil be taken away from their hearts? "Bend by thy grace, O bend or break

[¶42] The iron sinew in their neck!"

### Verse 52

[¶44] Blessed be the Lord for evermore - Let him treat us as he will, his name deserves eternal praises: our affliction, though great, is less than we have deserved.

## 645. Psalms · 99 of 159

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[¶0] This verse concludes the Third Book of the Psalter; and, I think, has been added by a later hand, in order to make this distinction, as every Masoretic Bible has something of this kind at the end of each book. The verse is wanting in one of Kennicott's and one of De Rossi's MSS.; in another it is written without points, to show that it does not belong to the text, and in three others it is written separately from the text. It is found, however, in all the ancient Versions. The Chaldee finishes thus: "Blessed be the name of the Lord in this world. Amen and Amen. Blessed be the name of the Lord in the world to come. Amen and Amen." And the reader will find no difficulty to subscribe his Amen, so be it.

### Introduction

[¶2] The eternity of God, [Psa 90:1], [Psa 90:2]; the frailty of the state of man, [Psa 90:3-9]; the general limits of human life, [Psa 90:10]; the danger of displeasing God, [Psa 90:11]; the necessity of considering the shortness of life, and of regaining the favor of the Almighty, [Psa 90:12]; earnest prayer for the restoration of Israel, [Psa 90:13-17].

[¶3] The title of this Psalm is, A Prayer of Moses the man of God. The Chaldee has, "A prayer which Moses the prophet of the Lord prayed when the people of Israel had sinned in the wilderness." All the Versions ascribe it to Moses; but that it could not be of Moses the lawgiver is evident from this consideration, that the age of man was not then seventy or eighty years, which is here stated to be its almost universal limit, for Joshua lived one hundred and ten years, and Moses himself one hundred and twenty; Miriam his sister, one hundred and thirty; Aaron his brother, one hundred and twenty-three; Caleb, four-score and five years; and their contemporaries lived in the same proportion. See the note on [Psa 90:4] (note). Therefore the Psalm cannot at all refer to such ancient times. If the title be at all authentic, it must refer to some other person of that name; and indeed איש אלהים ish Elohim, a man of God, a divinely inspired man, agrees to the times of the prophets, who were thus denominated. The Psalm was doubtless composed during or after the captivity; and most probably on their return, when they were engaged in rebuilding the temple; and this, as Dr. Kennicott conjectures, may be the work of their hands, which they pray God to bless and prosper.

### Verse 1

[¶5] Lord, thou hast been our dwellingplace - מעון maon; but instead of this several MSS. have מעוז maoz, "place of defense," or "refuge," which is the reading of the Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. Ever since thy covenant with Abraham thou hast been the Resting-place, Refuge, and Defence of thy people Israel. Thy mercy has been lengthened out from generation to generation.

### Verse 2

[¶7] Before the mountains were brought forth - The mountains and hills appear to have been everlasting; but as they were brought forth out of the womb of eternity, there was a time when they were not: but Thou hast been ab aeternitate a parte ante, ad aeternitatem a parte post; fram the eternity that is past, before time began; to the eternity that is after, when time shall have an end. This is the highest description of the eternity of God to which human language can reach.

### Verse 3

[¶9] Thou turnest man to destruction - Literally, Thou shalt turn dying man, אנוש enosh, to the small dust, דכא dacca but thou wilt say, Return, ye children of Adam. This appears to be a clear and strong promise of the resurrection of the human body, after it has long slept, mingled with the dust of the earth.

### Verse 4

[¶11] For a thousand years in thy sight - As if he had said, Though the resurrection of the body may be a thousand (or any indefinite number of) years distant; yet, when these are past, they are but as yesterday, or a single thatch of the night. They pass through the mind in a moment, and appear no longer in their duration than the time required by the mind to reflect them by thought. But, short as they appear to the eye of the mind, they are nothing when compared with the eternity of God! The author probably has in view also that economy of Divine justice and providence by which the life of man has been shortened from one thousand years to threescore years and ten, or fourscore.

### Verse 5

[¶13] Thou carriest them away as with a flood - Life is compared to a stream, ever gliding away; but sometimes it is as a mighty torrent, when by reason of plague, famine, or war, thousands are swept away daily. In particular cases it is a rapid stream, when the young are suddenly carried off by consumptions, fevers, etc.; this is the flower that flourisheth in the morning, and in the evening is cut down and withered. The whole of life is like a sleep or as a dream. The eternal world is real; all here is either shadowy or representative. On the whole, life is represented as a stream; youth, as morning; decline of life, or old age, as evening, death, as sleep; and the resurrection as the return of the flowers in spring. All these images appear in these curious and striking verses, [Psa 90:3-6].

### Verse 7

[¶15] We are consumed by thine anger - Death had not entered into the world, if men had not fallen from God.

[¶16] By thy wrath are we troubled - Pain, disease, and sickness are so many proofs of our defection from original rectitude. The anger and wrath of God are moved against all sinners. Even in protracted life we consume away, and only seem to live in order to die. "Our wasting lives grow shorter still,As days and months increase;

[¶17] And every beating pulse we tellLeaves but the number less."

### Verse 8

[¶19] Thou hast set our iniquities before thee - Every one of our transgressions is set before thee; noted and minuted down in thy awful register!

[¶20] Our secret sins - Those committed in darkness and privacy are easily discovered by thee, being shown by the splendours of thy face shining upon them. Thus we light a candle, and bring it into a dark place to discover its contents. O, what can be hidden from the allseeing eye of God? Darkness is no darkness to him; wherever he comes there is a profusion of light - for God is light!

### Verse 9

[¶22] We spend our years as a tale - The Vulgate has: Anni nostri sicut aranea meditabuntur; "Our years pass away like those of the spider." Our plans and operations are like the spider's web; life is as frail, and the thread of it as brittle, as one of those that constitute the well-wrought and curious, but fragile, habitation of that insect. All the Versions have the word spider; but it neither appears in the Hebrew, nor in any of its MSS. which have been collated.

[¶23] My old Psalter has a curious paraphrase here: "Als the iran (spider) makes vayne webs for to take flese (flies) with gile, swa our yeres ere ockupide in ydel and swikel castes about erthly thynges; and passes with outen frute of gude werks, and waste in ydel thynkyns." This is too true a picture of most lives.

[¶24] But the Hebrew is different from all the Versions. "We consume our years (כמו הגה kemo hegeh) like a groan." We live a dying, whining, complaining life, and at last a groan is its termination! How amazingly expressive!

### Verse 10

[¶26] Threescore years and ten - See the note on the title of this Psalm 90 (note). This Psalm could not have been written by Moses, because the term of human life was much more extended when he flourished than eighty years at the most. Even in David's time many lived one hundred years, and the author of Ecclesiasticus, who lived after the captivity, fixed this term at one hundred years at the most (Sirach 18:9); but this was merely a general average, for even in our country we have many who exceed a hundred years.

[¶27] Yet is their strength labor and sorrow - This refers to the infirmities of old age, which, to those well advanced in life, produce labor and sorrow.

[¶28] It is soon cut of - It - the body, is soon cut off.

[¶29] And we fly away - The immortal spirit wings its way into the eternal world.

### Verse 11

[¶31] Who knoweth the power of thine angers - The afflictions of this life are not to be compared to the miseries which await them who live and die without being reconciled to God, and saved from their sins.

### Verse 12

[¶33] So teach us to number our days - Let us deeply consider our own frailty, and the shortness and uncertainty of life, that we may live for eternity, acquaint ourselves with thee and be at peace; that we may die in thy favor and live and reign with thee eternally.

### Verse 13

[¶35] Return, O Lord, how long? - Wilt thou continue angry with us for ever?

[¶36] Let it repent thee - הנחם hinnachem, be comforted, rejoice over them to do them good. Be glorified rather in our salvation than in our destruction.

### Verse 14

[¶38] O satisfy us early - Let us have thy mercy soon, (literally, in the morning). Let it now shine upon us, and it shall seem as the morning of our days, and we shall exult in thee all the days of our life.

### Verse 15

[¶40] Make us glad according to the days - Let thy people have as many years of prosperity as they have had of adversity. We have now suffered seventy years of a most distressful captivity.

### Verse 16

[¶42] Let thy work appear unto thy servants - That thou art working for us we know; but O, let thy work appear! Let us now see, in our deliverance, that thy thoughts towards us were mercy and love.

[¶43] And thy Glory - Thy pure worship be established among our children for ever.

## 646. Psalms · 100 of 159

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### Verse 17

[¶1] And let the beauty of the Lord - Let us have thy presence, blessing, and approbation, as our fathers had.

[¶2] Establish thou the work of our hands - This is supposed, we have already seen, to relate to their rebuilding the temple, which the surrounding heathens and Samaritans wished to hinder. We have begun, do not let them demolish our work; let the top-stone be brought on with shouting, Grace, grace unto it.

[¶3] Yea, the work of our hands - This repetition is wanting in three of Kennicott's MSS., in the Targum, in the Septuagint, and in the Ethiopic. If the repetition be genuine, it may be considered as marking great earnestness; and this earnestness was to get the temple of God rebuilt, and his pure worship restored. The pious Jews had this more at heart than their own restoration; it was their highest grief that the temple was destroyed and God's ordinances suspended; that his enemies insulted them, and blasphemed the worthy name by which they were called. Every truly pious man feels more for God's glory than his own temporal felicity, and rejoices more in the prosperity of God's work than in the increase of his own worldly goods.

### Introduction

[¶5] The safety of the godly man, and his confidence, [Psa 91:1], [Psa 91:2]. How he is defended and preserved, [Psa 91:3-10]. The angels of God are his servants, [Psa 91:11], [Psa 91:12]; and he shall tread on the necks of his adversaries, [Psa 91:13]. What God says of, and promises to, such a person, [Psa 91:14-16].

[¶6] This Psalm has no title in the Hebrew; nor can it be determined on what occasion or by whom it was composed. It is most likely by the author of the preceding; and is written as a part of it, by fifteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., commencing before the repetition of the four last words of the ninetieth. It is allowed to be one of the finest Psalms in the whole collection. Of it Simon de Muis has said: "It is one of the most excellent works of this kind which has ever appeared. It is impossible to imagine any thing more solid, more beautiful, more profound, or more ornamented. Could the Latin or any modern languages express thoroughly all the beauties and elegancies as well of the words as of the sentences, it would not be difficult to persuade the reader that we have no poem, either in Greek or Latin, comparable to this Hebrew ode."

### Verse 1

[¶8] He that dwelleth in the secret place - The Targum intimates that this is a dialogue between David, Solomon, and Jehovah. Suppose we admit this, - then

[¶9] David asserts: "He who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," [Psa 91:1].

[¶10] Solomon answers: "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in him will I trust," [Psa 91:2].

[¶11] David replies, and tells him what blessings he shall receive from God if he abide faithful, [Psa 91:3-13].

[¶12] Then the Supreme Being is introduced, and confirms all that David had spoken concerning Solomon, [Psa 91:14-16] : and thus this sacred and instructive dialogue ends.

[¶13] In the secret place of the Most High - Spoken probably in reference to the Holy of holies. He who enters legitimately there shall be covered with the cloud of God's glory - the protection of the all-sufflcient God. This was the privilege of the high priest only, under the law: but under the new covenant all believers in Christ have boldness to enter tnto the holiest by the blood of Jesus; and those who thus enter are safe from every evil.

### Verse 2

[¶15] I will say of the Lord - This is my experience: "He is my fortress, and in him will I continually trust."

### Verse 3

[¶17] Surely he shall deliver thee - If thou wilt act thus, then the God in whom thou trustest will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, from all the devices of Satan, and from all dangerous maladies. As the original word, דבר dabar, signifies a word spoken, and deber, the same letters, signifies pestilence; so some translate one way, and some another: he shall deliver thee from the evil and slanderous word; he shall deliver thee from the noisome pestilence - all blasting and injurious winds, effluvia, etc.

### Verse 4

[¶19] He shall cover thee with his feathers - He shall act towards thee as the hen does to her brood, - take thee under his wings when birds of prey appear, and also shelter thee from chilling blasts. This is a frequent metaphor in the sacred writings; see [Psa 17:8] (note), [Psa 57:1] (note), [Psa 61:4] (note), and the notes on them. The Septuagint has Εν τοις μεταφρενοις αυτου επισκιασει σοι· He will overshadow thee between his shoulders; alluding to the custom of parents carrying their weak or sick children on their backs, and having them covered even there with a mantle. Thus the Lord is represented carrying the Israelites in the wilderness. See [Deu 32:11-12] (note), where the metaphor is taken from the eagle.

[¶20] His truth shall be thy shield and buckler - His revelation; his Bible. That truth contains promises for all times and circumstances; and these will be invariably fulfilled to him that trusts in the Lord. The fulfillment of a promise relative to defense and support is to the soul what the best shield is to the body.

### Verse 5

[¶22] The terror by night - Night is a time of terrors, because it is a time of treasons, plunder, robbery, and murder. The godly man lies down in peace, and sleeps quietly, for he trusts his body, soul, and substance, in the hand of God; and he knows that he who keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. It may also mean all spiritual foes, - the rulers of the darkness of this world. I have heard the following petition in an evening family prayer: "Blessed Lord, take us into thy protection this night; and preserve us from disease, from sudden death, from the violence of fire, from the edge of the sword, from the designs of wicked men, and from the influence of malicious spirits!"

[¶23] Nor for the arrow - The Chaldee translates this verse, "Thou shalt not fear the demons that walk by night; nor the arrow of the angel of death which is shot in the day time." Thou needest not to fear a sudden and unprovided-for death.

### Verse 6

[¶25] Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday - The rabbins supposed that the empire of death was under two demons, one of which ruled by day, the other by night. The Vulgate and Septuagint have - the noonday devil. The ancients thought that there were some demons who had the power to injure particularly at noonday. To this Theocritus refers, Id. 1: ver. 15: - Ου θεμις, ω ποιμαν, το μεσαμβρινον, ου θεμις αμμιν Συρισδεν· τον Πανα δεδοικαμες· η γαρ απ' αγρας Τανικα κεκμακως αμπαυεται, εντι γε πικρος, Και οἱ αει δριμεια χολα ποτι ῥινι καθηται. "It is not lawful, it is not lawful, O shepherd, to play on the flute at noonday: we fear Pan, who at that hour goes to sleep in order to rest himself after the fatigues of the chase; then he is dangerous, and his wrath easily kindled."

[¶26] Lucan, in the horrible account he gives us of a grove sacred to some barbarous power, worshipped with the most horrid rites, refers to the same superstition: -

[¶27] Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab aevo,

[¶28] Non illum cultu populi propiore frequentant,

[¶29] Sed cessere deis: medio cum Phoebus in axe est.

[¶30] Aut coelum nox atra tenet, pavet ipse sacerdos

[¶31] Accessus, dominumque timet deprendere luci.

[¶32] Lucan, lib. iii., ver. 399. "Not far away, for ages past, had stood

[¶33] An old inviolated sacred wood:

[¶34] The pious worshippers approach not near,

[¶35] But shun their gods, and kneel with distant fear:

[¶36] The priest himself, when, or the day or night

[¶37] Rolling have reached their full meridian height,

[¶38] Refrains the gloomy paths with wary feet,

[¶39] Dreading the demon of the grove to meet;

[¶40] Who, terrible to sight, at that fixed hour

[¶41] Still treads the round about this dreary bower."

[¶42] Rowe.

[¶43] It has been stated among the heathens that the gods should be worshipped at all times, but the demons should be worshipped at midday: probably because these demons, having been employed during the night, required rest at noonday and that was the most proper time to appease them. See Calmet on this place. Both the Vulgate and Septuagint seem to have reference to this superstition.

[¶44] The Syriac understands the passage of a pestilential wind, that blows at noonday. Aquila translates, of the bite of the noonday demon.

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### Verse 7

[¶1] A thousand shall fall at thy side - Calmet thinks this place should be translated thus: "A thousand enemies may fall upon thee on one side, and ten thousand may fall upon thee on thy right hand: but they shall not come nigh thee to take away thy life." It is a promise of perfect protection, and the utmost safety.

### Verse 8

[¶3] The reward of the wicked - Thou shalt not only be safe thyself, but thou shalt see all thy enemies discomfited and cast down.

### Verse 9

[¶5] Because thou hast made the Lord - Seeing thou hast taken Jehovah, the Most High, for thy portion and thy refuge, no evil shall come nigh thy dwelling; thou shalt be safe in thy soul, body, household, and property, [Psa 91:10]. Every pious man may expect such protection from his God and Father.

### Verse 11

[¶7] He shall give his angels charge over thee - Evil spirits may attempt to injure thee; but they shall not be able. The angels of God shall have an especial charge to accompany, defend, and preserve thee; and against their power, the influence of evil spirits cannot prevail. These will, when necessary, turn thy steps out of the wag of danger; ward it off when it comes in thy ordinary path; suggest to thy mind prudent counsels, profitable designs, and pious purposes; and thus minister to thee as a child of God, and an heir of salvation.

[¶8] To keep thee in all thy ways - The path of duty is the way of safety.

[¶9] Thou canst not reasonably expect protection if thou walk not in the way of obedience. Thy ways are the paths of duty, which God's word and providence have marked out for thee. The way of sin is not thy way - thy duty, thy interest. Keep in thy own ways, not in those of sin, Satan, the world, and the flesh; and God will take care of thee.

### Verse 12

[¶11] They shall bear thee up in their hands - Take the same care of thee as a nurse does of a weak and tender child; lead thee, - teach thee to walk, - lift thee up out of the way of danger, "lest thou shouldst dash thy foot against a stone," receive any kind of injury, or be prevented from pursuing thy path with safety and comfort.

[¶12] Let us remember that it is God, whose these angels are; He gives them charge from Him they receive their commission, - to Him they are responsible for their charge. From God thou art to expect them; and for their help he alone is to receive the praise. It is expressly said, He shall give his angels charge; to show that they are not to be prayed to nor praised but God alone, whose servants they are. See the note on [Mat 4:6].

### Verse 13

[¶14] Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder - Even the king of the forest shall not be able to injure thee; should one of these attack thee, the angels whom God sends will give thee an easy victory over him. And even the asp, (פתן pethen), one of the most venomous of serpents, shall not be able to injure thee.

[¶15] The asp is a very small serpent, and peculiar to Egypt and Libya. Its poison kills without the possibility of a remedy. Those who are bitten by it die in about from three to eight hours; and it is said they die by sleep, without any kind of pain. Lord Bacon says the asp is less painful than all the other instruments of death. He supposes it to have an affinity to opium, but to be less disagreeable in its operation. It was probably an this account that Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, chose to die by the asp, as she was determined to prevent the designs of Augustus, who intended to have carried her captive to Rome to grace his triumph.

[¶16] The dragon shalt thou trample - The תנין tannin, which we translate dragon, means often any large aquatic animal; and perhaps here the crocodile or alligator.

### Verse 14

[¶18] Because he hath set his love upon me - Here the Most High is introduced as confirming the word of his servant. He has fixed his love - his heart and soul, on me.

[¶19] Therefore will I deliver him - I will save him in all troubles, temptations, and evils of every kind.

[¶20] I will set him on high - I will place him out of the reach of all his enemies. I will honor and ennoble him, because he hath known my name - because he has loved, honored, and served me, and rendered me that worship which is my due. He has known me to be the God of infinite mercy and love.

### Verse 15

[¶22] He shall call upon me - He must continue to pray; all his blessings must come in this way, when he calls, I will answer him - I will give him whatever is best for him.

[¶23] I will be with him in trouble - Literally, I am with him. עמו אנכי immo anochi; as soon as the trouble comes, I are there.

[¶24] I will deliver him - For his good I may permit him to be exercised for a time, but delivered he shall be.

[¶25] And honor him - אכבדהו acabbedehu, "I will glorify him." I will load him with honor; that honor that comes from God. I will even show to men how highly I prize such.

### Verse 16

[¶27] With long life - Literally, With length of days will I fill him up.

[¶28] He shall neither live a useless life, nor die before his time. He shall live happy and die happy.

[¶29] And show him my salvation - ואראהו בשועתי vearehu bishuathi, "I will make him see (or contemplate) in my salvation." He shall discover infinite lengths, breadths, depths, and heights, in my salvation. He shall feel boundless desires, and shall discover that I have provided boundless gratifications for them. He shall dwell in my glory, and throughout eternity increase in his resemblance to and enjoyment of me. Thus shall it be done to the man whom the Lord delighteth to honor; and he delights to honor that man who places his love on him. In a word, he shall have a long life in this world, and an eternity of blessedness in the world to come.

### Introduction

[¶31] The psalmist shows the duty and advantage of praising God, [Psa 92:1-3]; speaks of the grandeur of God's works, [Psa 92:4-6]; the fall of the wicked, [Psa 92:7-9]; the happiness of the righteous, [Psa 92:10-14]; and all this founded on the perfections of God.

[¶32] The title, A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath, gives no information concerning the time, oecasion, or author. The Chaldee, has "Praise, and a song which the first man spoke concerning the Sabbath:" but this is an idle conceit; and, though entertained by some rabbins, has been followed by none of the Versions. Calmet supposes the Psalm to have been composed by some of the Levites during or near the close of the Babylonish captivity, acknowledging the mercy of God, and foreseeing the desolation of their enemies, and their own return to Jerusalem, and their temple service.

### Verse 1

[¶34] It is a good thing to give thanks - This Psalm begins very abruptly. Good to confess unto the Lord. He had been acknowledging God's goodness, and praising him for his mercy; and now he breaks out and tells how good he felt this employment to be.

### Verse 2

[¶36] To show forth thy loving-kindness - חסדך chasdecha, thy abundant mercy, in the morning - that has preserved me throughout the night, and brought me to the beginning of a new day: and thy faithfulness in the night, that has so amply fulfilled the promise of preservation during the course of the day. This verse contains a general plan for morning and evening prayer.

### Verse 3

[¶38] Upon an instrument of ten strings - Eusebius, in his comment on this Psalm, says: Ψαλτηριον δε δεκαχορδον, ἡ του Ἁγιου Πνευματος δια των αισθητηριων πεντε μεν του σωματος, ισαριθμων δε της ψυχης δυναμεων, επιτελουμενη λατρεια· "The Psaltery of ten strings is the worship of the Holy Spirit, performed by means of the five senses of the body, and by the five powers of the soul." And, to confirm this interpretation, he quotes the apostle, [1Cor 14:15] : "I will pray with the spirit, and with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and with the understanding also." "As the mind has its influence by which it moves the body, so the spirit has its own influence by which it moves the soul." Whatever may be thought of this gloss, one thing is pretty evident from it, that instrumental music was not in use in the Church of Christ in the time of Eusebius. which was near the middle of the fourth century. Had any such thing then existed in the Christian Church, he would have doubtless alluded to or spiritualized it; or, as he quoted the words of the apostle above, would have shown that carnal usages were substituted for spiritual exercises. I believe the whole verse should be translated thus: Upon the asur, upon the nebel, upon the higgayon, with the kinnor. Thus it stands in the Hebrew.

### Verse 4

[¶40] For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work - I am delighted with thy conduct towards me; with the work of thy providence, the works of thy grace, and thy works of creation.

### Verse 5

[¶42] Hour great are thy works! - They are multitudinous, stupendous, and splendid: and thy thoughts - thy designs and counsels, from which, by which, and in reference to which, they have been formed; are very deep - so profound as not to be fathomed by the comprehension of man.

### Verse 6

[¶44] A brutish man knoweth not - איש בער ish baar, the human hog - the stupid bear - the boor; the man who is all flesh; in whom spirit or intellect neither seems to work nor exist. The brutish man, who never attempts to see God in his works.

[¶45] Neither doth a fool understand this - כסיל kesil, the fool, is different from בער baar, the brutish man; the latter has mind, but it is buried in flesh; the former has no mind, and his stupidity is unavoidable.

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### Verse 7

[¶1] When the wicked spring as the grass - This is a lesson which is frequently inculcated in the sacred writings. The favor of God towards man is not to be known by outward prosperity; nor is his disapprobation to be known by the adverse circumstances in which any person may be found. When, however, we see the wicked flourish, we may take for granted that their abuse of God's mercies will cause him to cut them off as cumberers of the ground; and, dying in their sins, they are destroyed for ever.

### Verse 8

[¶3] High for evermore - They are brought down and destroyed; but the Lord is exalted eternally, both for his judgments and his mercies.

### Verse 10

[¶5] Like the horn of a unicorn - ראים reeym, perhaps here, the oryx or buffalo. But the rhinoceros seems to be the real monoceros of the Scriptures.

[¶6] I shall be anointed unth fresh oil - Perhaps the allusion is here not to any sacramental anointing, but to such anointings as were frequent among the Asiatics, especially after bathing, for the purpose of health and activity.

### Verse 11

[¶8] Mine eye also shall see, - and mine ears shall hear - Even in my own times my enemies shall be destroyed; and of this destruction I shall either be an eye-witness or have authentic information.

### Verse 12

[¶10] The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree - Very different from the wicked, [Psa 92:7], who are likened to grass. These shall have a short duration; but those shall have a long and useful life. They are compared also to the cedar of Lebanon, an incorruptible wood, and extremely long-lived. Mr. Maundrell, who visited those trees in 1697, describes them thus: "These noble trees grow among the snow, near the highest part of Lebanon. Some are very old, and of prodigious bulk. I measured one of the largest, and found it twelve yards six inches in girt, and yet sound; and thirty-seven yards in the spread of its boughs. At about five or six yards from the ground, it was divided into live limbs, each of which was equal to a large tree." Some of these trees are supposed to have lived upwards of one thousand years! The figure of the palm-tree gives us the idea of grandeur and usefulness. The fruit of the palm-tree makes a great part of the diet of the people of Arabia, part of Persia, and Upper Egypt. The stones are ground down for the camels; the leaves are made into baskets; the hard boughs, or rather strong leaves, some being six or eight feet in length, make fences; the juice makes arrack, the threads of the web-like integument between the leaves make ropes, and the rigging of small vessels; and the wood serves for slighter buildings and fire-wood. In short, the palm or date tree, and the olive, are two of the most excellent and useful productions of the forest or the field.

[¶11] The cedar gives us the idea of majesty, stability. durableness, and incorruptibility. To these two trees, for the most obvious reasons, are the righteous compared. William Lithgow, who traveled through the holy land about a.d. 1600, describes the cedars of Mount Lebanon as "being in number twenty-four, growing after the manner of oaks, but a great deal taller straighter, and thicker, and the branches growing so straight, and interlocking, as though they were kept by art: and yet from the root to the top they bear no boughs, but grow straight and upwards like to a palm-tree. Their circle-spread tops do kiss or embrace the lower clouds, making their grandeur overlook the highest bodies of all other aspiring trees. The nature of this tree is, that it is always green, yielding an odoriferous smell, and an excellent kind of fruit, like unto apples, but of a sweeter taste, and more wholesome. The roots of some of these cedars are almost destroyed by the shepherds, who have made fires thereat, and holes where they sleep; yet nevertheless they flourish green above, in the tops and branches." - Lithgow's 17 years' Travels, 4th., London, 1640.

### Verse 13

[¶13] Those that be planted in the house of the Lord - I believe the Chaldee has the true meaning here: "His children shall be planted in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord, and shall flourish in the courts of our God." As these trees flourish in their respective soils and climates, so shall the righteous in the ordinances of God. I do not think there is any allusion to either palm-trees or cedars, planted near the tabernacle or temple.

### Verse 14

[¶15] They shall still bring forth fruit in old age - They shall continue to grow in grace, and be fruitful to the end of their lives. It is a rare case to find a man in old age full of faith, love, and spiritual activity.

### Verse 15

[¶17] To show that the Lord is upright - Such persons show how faithful God is to his promises, how true to his word, how kind to them who trust in him. He is the Rock, the Fountain, whence all good comes.

[¶18] There is no unrighteousness in him - He does nothing evil, nothing unwise, nothing unkind. He is both just and merciful.

### Introduction

[¶20] The universal government of God, [Psa 93:1], [Psa 93:2]; the opposition to that government, [Psa 93:3], [Psa 93:4]; the truth of God's testimonies, [Psa 93:5].

[¶21] This Psalm has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, state it to be "A song of praise of David for the day preceding the Sabbath, when the earth was founded;" but in such a title there is no information on which any man can rely. This Psalm is written as a part of the preceding in twelve of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. It was probably written at the close of the captivity by the Levites, descendants of Moses.

### Verse 1

[¶23] The Lord reigneth - He continues to govern every thing he has created; and he is every way qualified to govern all things, for he is clothed with majesty and with strength - dominion is his, and he has supreme power to exercise it; and he has so established the world that nothing can be driven out of order; all is ruled by him. Nature is his agent: or rather, nature is the sum of the laws of his government; the operations carried on by the Divine energy, and the effects resulting from those operations.

[¶24] He hath girded himself - The girding with strength refers to the girding in order to strengthen the loins, arms, knees, etc. When a Hindoo is about to set off on a journey, to lift a burden, or to do something that requires exertion, he binds firmly his loose upper garment round his loins - Ward.

### Verse 2

[¶26] Thy throne is established of old - There never was a time in which God did not reign, in which he was not a supreme and absolute Monarch; for he is from everlasting. There never was a time in which he was not; there never can be a period in which he shall cease to exist.

### Verse 3

[¶28] The floods have lifted up - Multitudes of people have confederated against thy people; and troop succeeds troop as the waves of the sea succeed each other.

### Verse 4

[¶30] The Lord - is mightier than the noise of many waters - Greater in strength than all the peoples and nations that can rise up against him.

[¶31] Mighty waves of the sea - Even the most powerful empires can prevail nothing against him; therefore those who trust in him have nothing to fear.

### Verse 5

[¶33] Thy testimonies are very sure - Thou wilt as surely fulfill thy word as thou wilt keep possession of thy throne.

[¶34] Holiness becometh thine house - Thy nature is holy, all thy works are holy, and thy word is holy; therefore, thy house - thy Church should be holy. The building itself should be sanctified - should be so consecrated to thy worship alone, that it shall never be employed in any other service. The ministers of this Church should be holy, the members holy, the ordinances holy; its faith, its discipline, and its practice holy. And this at all times, and in all circumstances; for holiness becometh thine house-for ever," לארך ימים le-orech yamim, for length of days. During the whole lapse of time; till the sun and moon shall be no more. The old Psalter says the house of God is man's saule; and of this house holiness is נאוה naavah, "the ornament;" it produces that meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. No decoration of person nor simplicity of dress can supply the place of this heavenly clothing.

### Introduction

[¶36] An appeal to God against oppressors, [Psa 94:1-7]. Expostulations with the workers of iniquity, [Psa 94:8-11]. God's merciful dealings with his followers, [Psa 94:12-15]; and their confidence in him, [Psa 94:16-19]. The punishment of the wicked foretold, [Psa 94:20-23].

[¶37] This Psalm has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, have "A Psalm of David, for the fourth day of the week;" but this gives us no information on which we can rely. In three of Kennicott's MSS. it is written as a part of the preceding. It is probably a prayer of the captives in Babylon for deliverance; and was written by the descendants of Moses, to whom some of the preceding Psalms have been attributed. It contains a description of an iniquitous and oppressive government, such as that under which the Israelites lived in Babylon.

### Verse 1

[¶39] O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth - God is the author of retributive justice, as well as of mercy. This retributive justice is what we often term vengeance, but perhaps improperly; for vengeance with us signifies an excitement of angry passions, in order to gratify a vindictive spirit, which supposes itself to have received some real injury; whereas what is here referred to is that simple act of justice which gives to all their due.

### Verse 2

[¶41] Lift up thyself - Exert thy power.

[¶42] Render a reward to the proud - To the Babylonians, who oppress and insult us.

### Verse 3

[¶44] How long shall the wicked triumph? - The wicked are often in prosperity; and this only shows us of how little worth riches are in the sight of God, when he bestows them on the most contemptible of mortals. But their time and prosperity have their bounds.

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### Verse 4

[¶1] They utter and speak - יביאו yabbiu, their hearts get full of pride and insolence; and then, from the abundance of such vile hearts, the mouth speaks; and the speech is of hard things, threatening which they are determined to execute, boastings of their power, authority, etc.

### Verse 5

[¶3] They break in pieces thy people - This was true af the Babylonians. Nehuchadnezzar slew many; carried the rest into captivity; ruined Jerusalem; overturned the temple; sacked, pillaged, and destroyed all the country.

### Verse 6

[¶5] They slay the widow - Nebuchadnezzar carried on his wars with great cruelty. He carried fire and sword every where; spared neither age, sex, nor condition. The widow, the orphan, and the stranger, persons in the most desolate condition of life, were not distinguished from others by his ruthless sword.

### Verse 7

[¶7] The Lord shall not see - This was either the language of infidelity or insult. Indeed, what could the Babylonians know of the true God? They might consider him as the God of a district or province, who knew nothing and did nothing out of his own territories.

### Verse 8

[¶9] Understand, ye brutish - These are the same expressions as in [Psa 92:6] (note), on which see the note.

### Verse 9

[¶11] He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? - This is allowed to be an unanswerable mode of argumentation. Whatever is found of excellence in the creature, must be derived from the Creator, and exist in him in the plenitude of infinite excellence. God, says St. Jerome, is all eye, because he sees all; he is all hand, because he does all things; he is all foot, for he is every where present. The psalmist does not say, He that planted the ear, hath he not an ear? He that formed the eye, hath he not eyes? No; but, Shall he not hear? Shall he not see! And why does he say so? To prevent the error of humanizing God, of attributing members or corporeal parts to the infinite Spirit. See Calmet.

### Verse 10

[¶13] He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? - You, who are heathens, and heathens of the most abandoned kind.

[¶14] He that teacheth man knowledge - We here supply shall not he know? But this is not acknowledged by the original, nor by any of the Versions.

[¶15] Indeed it is not necessary; for either the words contain a simple proposition, "It is he who teacheth man knowledge," or this clause should be read in connection with [Psa 94:11] : "Jehovah, who teacheth man knowledge, knoweth the devices of man, that they are vanity." As he teaches knowledge to man, must he not know all the reasonings and devices of the human heart?

### Verse 12

[¶17] Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest - תיסרנו teyasserennu, whom thou instructest; and teachest him out of thy law. Two points here are worthy of our most serious regard:

[¶18] 1. God gives knowledge to man: gives him understanding and reason.

[¶19] 2. He gives him a revelation of himself; he places before that reason and understanding his Divine law.

[¶20] This is God's system of teaching; and the human intellect is his gift, which enables man to understand this teaching. We perhaps may add a third thing here; that as by sin the understanding is darkened, he gives the Holy Spirit to dispel this darkness from the intellect, in order that his word may be properly apprehended and understood. But he gives no new faculty; he removes the impediments from the old, and invigorates it by his Divine energy.

### Verse 13

[¶22] That thou mayest give him rest - He whom God instructs is made wise unto salvation; and he who is thus taught has rest in his soul, and peace and confidence in adversity.

### Verse 14

[¶24] The Lord will not cast off his people - Though they are now suffering under a grievous and oppressive captivity, yet the Lord hath not utterly cast them off. They are his inheritance, and he will again restore them to their own land.

### Verse 15

[¶26] But judgment shall return unto righteousness - If we read יושב yosheb, shalt sit, for ישוב yashub, shall return, which is only placing the ו vau before the ש shin instead of after it, we have the following sense: Until the just one shall sit in judgment, and after him all the upright in heart. Cyrus has the epithet צדק tsedek, the just one, in different places in the Prophet Isaiah. See [Isa 41:2], [Isa 41:10]; [Isa 45:8]; [Isa 51:5]. It was Cyrus who gave liberty to the Jews, who appeared as their deliverer and conductor to their own land, and they are all represented as following in his train.

### Verse 16

[¶28] Who will rise up for me - Who is he that shall be the deliverer of thy people? Who will come to our assistance against these wicked Babylonians?

### Verse 17

[¶30] Unless the Lord had been my help - Had not God in a strange manner supported us while under his chastising hand, we had been utterly cut off.

[¶31] My soul had almost dwelt in silence - The Vulgate has in inferno, in hell or the infernal world; the Septuagint, τῳ ᾁδῃ, in the invisible world.

### Verse 18

[¶33] When I said, My foot slippeth - When I found myself so weak and my enemy so strong, that I got first off my guard, and then off my center of gravity, and my fall appeared inevitable: -

[¶34] Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up - יסעדני yisadeni, propped me. It is a metaphor taken from any thing falling, that is propped, shored up, or buttressed. How often does the mercy of God thus prevent the ruin of weak believers, and of those who have been unfaithful!

### Verse 19

[¶36] In the multitude of my thoughts - Of my griefs, (dolorum, Vulgate); my sorrows, (οδυνων, Septuagint). According to the multitude of my trials and distresses, have been the consolations which thou hast afforded me. Or, While I have been deeply meditating on thy wondrous grace and mercy, Divine light has broken in upon my soul, and I have been filled with delight.

### Verse 20

[¶38] Shall the throne of iniquity - No wicked king, judge, or magistrate shall ever stand in thy presence. No countenance shall such have from thy grace or providence.

[¶39] Which frameth mischief - Devise, plan, and execute, as if they acted by a positive law, and were strictly enjoined to do what they so much delighted in.

### Verse 21

[¶41] They gather themselves together - In every thing that is evil, they are in unity. The devil, his angels, and his children, all join and draw together when they have for their object the destruction of the works of the Lord. But this was particularly the case with respect to the poor Jews among the Babylonians: they were objects of their continual hatred, and they labored for their destruction.

[¶42] This and the following verses have been applied to our Lord, and the treatment he met with both from his own countrymen and from the Romans. They pretended to "judge him according to the law, and framed mischief against him;" they "assembled together against the life of the righteous one," and "condemned innocent blood;" but God evidently interposed, and "brought upon them their own iniquity," according to their horrible imprecation: "His blood be upon us and upon our children!" God "cut them off in their own iniquity." All this had, in reference to him, a most literal fulfillment.

### Verse 22

[¶44] The rock of my refuge - Alluding to those natural fortifications among rocks, which are frequent in the land of Judea.

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### Verse 23

[¶1] Shall cut them off - This is repeated, to show that the destruction of the Babylonians was fixed and indubitable: and in reference to the Jews, the persecutors and murderers of our Lord and his apostles, it was not less so. Babylon is totally destroyed; not even a vestige of it remains. The Jews are no longer a nation; they are scattered throughout the world, and have no certain place of abode. They do not possess even one village on the face of the earth.

[¶2] The last verse is thus translated and paraphrased in the old Psalter: -

[¶3] Trans. And he sal yelde to thaim thair wickednes, and in thair malice he sall skater thaim: skater thaim sal Lorde oure God.

[¶4] Par - Alswa say efter thair il entent, that thai wil do gude men harme; he sall yelde thaim pyne, and in thair malice thai sal be sundred fra the hali courte of hevene, and skatred emang the wiked fendes of hell.

[¶5] For different views of several parts of this Psalm, see the Analysis.

### Introduction

[¶7] An invitation to praise God, [Psa 95:1], [Psa 95:2]. The reason on which this is founded, the majesty and dominion of God, [Psa 95:3-5]. An invitation to pray to God, [Psa 95:6]. And the reasons on which that is founded, [Psa 95:7]. Exhortation not to act as their fathers had done, who rebelled against God, and were cast out of his favor, [Psa 95:8-11].

[¶8] This Psalm is also without a title, both in the Hebrew and Chaldee: but is attributed to David by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac; and by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, [Heb 4:3-7]. Calmet and other eminent critics believe that it was composed during the time of the captivity, and that the apostle only followed the common opinion in quoting it as the production of David, because in general the Psalter was attributed to him.

[¶9] The Psalm is a solemn invitation to the people, when assembled for public worship, to praise God from a sense of his great goodness; and to be attentive to the instructions they were about to receive from the reading and expounding of the law; and or these accounts it has been long used in the Christian Church, at the commencement of public service, to prepare the people's minds to worship God in spirit and in truth.

[¶10] Houbigant, and other learned divines, consider this Psalm as composed of three parts.

[¶11] 1. The part of the people, [Psa 95:1] to the middle of [Psa 95:7].

[¶12] 2. The part of the priest or prophet from the middle of [Psa 95:7] to the end of [Psa 95:8].

[¶13] 3. The part of Jehovah, [Psa 95:9-11]. It is written as a part of the preceding Psalm by nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.; but certainly it must have been originally an ode by itself, as the subject is widely different from that in the foregoing.

### Verse 1

[¶15] O come, let us sing - Let us praise God, not only with the most joyful accents which can be uttered by the voice; but let us also praise him with hearts tuned to gratitude, from a full sense of the manifold benefits we have already received.

[¶16] The rock of our salvation - The strong Fortress in which we have always found safety, and the Source whence we have always derived help for our souls. In both these senses the word rock, as applied to God, is used in the Scriptures.

### Verse 2

[¶18] Let us come before his presence - פניו panaiv, his faces, with thanksgiving, בתודה bethodah, with confession, or with the confession-offering. Praise him for what he has all ready done, and confess your unworthiness of any of his blessings. The confession-offering, the great atoning sacrifice, can alone render your acknowledgment of sin and thanksgiving acceptable to a holy and just God.

### Verse 3

[¶20] For the Lord is a great God - Or, "A great God is Jehovah, and a great King above all gods;" or, "God is a great King over all." The Supreme Being has three names here: אל El, יהוה Jehovah, אלהים Elohim, and we should apply none of them to false gods. The first implies his strength; the second his being and essence; the third, his covenant relation to mankind. In public worship these are the views we should entertain of the Divine Being.

### Verse 4

[¶22] In his hand are the deep places of the earth - The greatest deeps are fathomed by him.

[¶23] The strength of the hills is his also - And to him the greatest heights are accessible,

### Verse 5

[¶25] The sea is his - The sea and the dry land are equally his, for he has formed them both, and they are his property. He governs and disposes of them as he sees good. He is the absolute Master of universal nature. Therefore there is no other object of worship nor of confidence.

### Verse 6

[¶27] O come, let us worship - Three distinct words are used here to express three different acts of adoration:

[¶28] 1. Let us worship, נשתחוה nishtachaveh, let us prostrate ourselves; the highest act of adoration by which the supremacy of God is acknowledged.

[¶29] 2. Let us bow down, נכרעה nichraah, let us crouch or cower down, bending the legs under, as a dog in the presence of his master, which solicitously waits to receive his commands.

[¶30] 3. Let us kneel, נברכה nibrachah, let us put our knees to the ground, and thus put ourselves in the posture of those who supplicate.

[¶31] And let us consider that all this should be done in the presence of Him who is Jehovah our Creator.

### Verse 7

[¶33] For he is our God - Here is the reason for this service. He has condescended to enter into a covenant with us, and he has taken us for his own; therefore: -

[¶34] We are the people of his pasture - Or, rather, as the Chaldee, Syriac, Vulgate, and Ethiopic read, "We are his people, and the sheep of the pasture of his hand." We are his own; he feeds and governs us, and his powerful hand protects us.

[¶35] To-day if ye will hear his voice - To-day-you have no time to lose; to-morrow may be too late. God calls to-day; to-morrow he may be silent. This should commence the eighth verse, as it begins what is supposed to be the part of the priest or prophet who now exhorts the people; as if he had said: Seeing you are in so good a spirit, do not forget your own resolutions, and harden not your hearts, "as your fathers did in Meribah and Massah, in the wilderness;" the same fact and the same names as are mentioned [Exo 17:7]; when the people murmured at Rephidim, because they had no water; hence it was called Meribah, contention or provocation, and Massah, temptation.

### Verse 9

[¶37] When your fathers tempted me - Tried me, by their insolence, unbelief, and blasphemy. They proved me - they had full proof of my power to save and to destroy. There they saw my works - they saw that nothing was too hard for God.

### Verse 10

[¶39] Forty years long - They did nothing but murmur, disbelieve, and rebel, from the time they began their journey at the Red Sea till they passed over Jordan, a period of forty years. During all this time God was grieved by that generation; yet he seldom showed forth that judgment which they most righteously had deserved.

[¶40] It is a people that do err in their heart - Or, according to the Chaldee, These are a people whose idols are in their hearts. At any rate they had not God there.

[¶41] They have not known my ways - The verb ידע yada, to know, is used here, as in many other parts of Scripture, to express approbation. They knew God's ways well enough; but they did not like them; and would not walk in them. "These wretched men," says the old Psalter, "were gifnen to the lufe of this lyfe: knewe noght my ways of mekenes, and charlte: for thi in my wreth I sware to thaim; that es, I sett stabely that if that sall entre in till my rest;" that is, they shall not enter into my rest.

[¶42] This ungrateful people did not approve of God's ways - they did not enter into his designs - they did not conform to his commands - they paid no attention to his miracles - and did not acknowledge the benefits which they received from his hands; therefore God determined that they should not enter into the rest which he had promised to them on condition that, if they were obedient, they should inherit the promised land. So none of those who came out of Egypt, except Joshua and Caleb, entered into Canaan; all the rest died in the wilderness, wherein, because of their disobedience, God caused them to wander forty years.

[¶43] It is well known that the land of Canaan was a type of heaven, where, after all his toils, the good and faithful servant is to enter into the joy of his Lord. And as those Israelites in the wilderness were not permitted to enter into the land of Canaan because of their unbelief, their distrust of God's providence, and consequent disobedience, St. Paul hence takes occasion to exhort the Jews, [Heb 4:2-11], to accept readily the terms offered to them by the Gospel. He shows that the words of the present Psalm are applicable to the state of Christianity; and intimates to them that, if they persisted in obstinate refusal of those gracious offers, they likewise would fall according to the same example of unbelief - Dodd.

## 651. Psalms · 105 of 159

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### Introduction

[¶1] All the inhabitants of the earth are invited to praise the Lord, [Psa 96:1-3]. His supreme majesty, [Psa 96:3-6]. The tribes of Israel are invited to glorify him, [Psa 96:7-9]; and to proclaim him among the heathen, [Psa 96:10]. The heavens and the earth are commamded to rejoice in him, [Psa 96:11-13].

[¶2] This Psalm has no title, either in the Hebrew or Chaldee. The Syriac: "Of David. A prophecy of the advent of Christ and the calling of the Gentiles to believe in him." The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic have, "A Song of David, when the House was built after the Captivity." We have seen in [1Chr 16:23-33] (note) a Psalm nearly like this, composed by David, on bringing the ark to Sion, from the house of Obed-edom. See the notes on the above place. But the Psalm, as it stands in the Chronicles, has thirty verses; and this is only a section of it, from the twenty-third to the thirty-third. It is very likely that this part was taken from the Psalm above mentioned, to be used at the dedication of the second temple. The one hundred and fifth Psalm is almost the same as that in Chronicles, but much more extensive. Where they are in the main the same, there are differences for which it is not easy to account.

### Verse 1

[¶4] Sing unto the Lord a new song - A song of peculiar excellence, for in this sense the term new is repeatedly taken in the Scriptures. He has done extraordinary things for us, and we should excel in praise and thanksgiving.

### Verse 2

[¶6] Show forth his salvation from day to day - The original is very emphatic, בשרו מיום ליום ישועתו basseru miyom leyom yeshuatho "Preach the Gospel of his salvation from day to day." To the same effect the Septuagint, Ευαγγελιζεσθε ἡμεραν εξ ἡμερας το σωτηριον αυτου, "Evangelize his salvation from day to day."

### Verse 3

[¶8] Declare his glory among the heathen - The heathen do not know the true God: as his being and attributes are at the foundation of all religion, these are the first subjects of instruction for the Gentile world. Declare, ספרו sapperu, detail, number out his glory, כבודו kebodo, his splendor and excellence.

[¶9] His wonders among all people - Declare also to the Jews his wonders, נפלאותיו niphleothaiv, his miracles. Dwell on the works which he shall perform in Judea. The miracles which Christ wrought among the Jews were full proof that he was not only the Messiah, but the mighty power of God.

### Verse 4

[¶11] He is to be feared above all gods - I think the two clauses of this verse should be read thus: -

[¶12] Jehovah is great, and greatly to be praised.

[¶13] Elohim is to be feared above all.

[¶14] I doubt whether the word אלהים Elohim is ever, by fair construction, applied to false gods or idols. The contracted form in the following verse appears to have this meaning.

### Verse 5

[¶16] All the gods of the nations are idols - אלהי elohey. All those reputed or worshipped as gods among the heathens are אלילים elilim, vanities, emptinesses, things of nought. Instead of being Elohim, they are elilim; they are not only not God, but they are nothing." "Jehovah made the heavens." He who is the creator is alone worthy of adoration.

### Verse 6

[¶18] Honour and majesty are before him - Does this refer to the cloud of his glory that preceded the ark in their journeying through the wilderness? The words strength and beauty, and glory and strength, [Psa 96:7], are those by which the ark is described, [Psa 78:61].

### Verse 7

[¶20] Ye kindreds of the people - Ye families, all the tribes of Israel in your respective divisions.

### Verse 8

[¶22] Come into his courts - Probably referring to the second temple. The reference must be either to the tabernacle or temple.

### Verse 9

[¶24] Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness - I think בהדרת קדש behadrath kodesh, signifies holy ornaments, such as the high priest wore in his ministrations. These were given him for glory and beauty; and the psalmist calls on him to put on his sacerdotal garments, to bring his offering, מנחה minchah, and come into the courts of the Lord, and perform his functions, and make intercession for the people.

### Verse 10

[¶26] Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth - Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, quotes this passage thus: Ειπατε εν τοις εθνεσι, ὁ Κυριος εβασιλευσε απο του ξυλου, "Say among the nations, the Lord ruleth by the wood," meaning the cross; and accuses the Jews of having blotted this word out of their Bibles, because of the evidence it gave of the truth of Christianity. It appears that this reading did exist anciently in the Septuagint, or at least in some ancient copies of that work, for the reading has been quoted by Tertullian, Lactantius, Arnobius, Augustine, Cassiodorus, Pope Leo, Gregory of Tours, and others. The reading is still extant in the ancient Roman Psalter, Dominus regnavit a ligno, and in some others. In an ancient MS. copy of the Psalter before me, while the text exhibits the commonly received reading, the margin has the following gloss: Regnavit a ligno crucis, "The Lord reigns by the wood of the cross." My old Scotico - Latin Psalter has not a ligno in the text, but seems to refer to it in the paraphrase: For Criste regned efter the dede on the crosse. It is necessary, however, to add, that no such words exist in any copy of the Hebrew text now extant, nor in any MS. yet collated, nor in any of the ancient Versions. Neither Eusebius nor Jerome even refer to it, who wrote comments on the Psalms; nor is it mentioned by any Greek writer except Justin Martyr.

[¶27] The world also shall be established - The word תבל tebel signifies the habitable globe, and may be a metonymy here, the container put for the contained. And many think that by it the Church is intended; as the Lord, who is announced to the heathen as reigning, is understood to be Jesus Christ; and his judging among the people, his establishing the holy Gospel among them, and governing the nations by its laws.

### Verse 11

[¶29] Let the heavens rejoice - The publication of the Gospel is here represented as a universal blessing; the heavens the earth, the sea, and its inhabitants, the field, the grass, and the trees of the wood, are all called to rejoice at this glorious event. This verse is well and harmoniously translated in the old Psalter: -

[¶30] Fayne be hevenes - and the erth glad;

[¶31] Styrde be the see, - and the fulnes of it;

[¶32] Joy sal feldes, - and al that ere in thaim.

[¶33] And the paraphrase is at least curious: -

[¶34] Hevens, haly men. Erthe, meke men that receyves lare (learning). Feldes, that is even men, mylde and softe: they shall joy in Criste. And all that is in thaim, that es, strengh, wyttes &skill."

[¶35] I shall give the remaining part of this ancient paraphrase, which is an echo of the opinion of most of the Latin fathers. [Psa 96:12] Thou sal glad al the trese of woddes - Thou, that is in another Iyfe. Trese of woddes. - Synful men that were fyrst withouten frut, and sithen taken into God's temple. [Psa 96:13]. For he coms, he coms. He coms, fyrste to be man - Sythen he comes to deme the erth.

[¶36] He sal deme in ebenes the erth: - and folk in his sothfastnes. Nothing is evener, or sothfaster, than that he geder with hym perfyte men; to deme and to deperte to the rig hande (thaim) that did mercy: - pase to the lefte hande (thaim) that did it nogt.

[¶37] The psalmist here in the true spirit of poetry, gives life and intelligence to universal nature, producing them all as exulting in the reign of the Messiah, and the happiness which should take place in the earth when the Gospel should be universally preached. These predictions seem to be on the eve of complete fulfillment. Lord, hasten the time! For a fuller explanation see the following analysis.

### Introduction

[¶39] The reign of Jehovah, its nature and blessedness, [Psa 97:1], [Psa 97:2]. He is fearful to the wicked, [Psa 97:3-6]. Idolaters shall be destroyed, [Psa 97:7]. The blessedness of the righteous, [Psa 97:8-12].

[¶40] This Psalm has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee; and in fourteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. it is written as a part of the preceding. In the Vulgate it is thus entitled, Psalmus David, quando terra ejus restituta est. "A Psalm of David when his land was restored;" the meaning of which I suppose to be, after he had obtained possession of the kingdom of Israel and Judah, and became king over all the tribes; or perhaps, after he had gained possession of all those countries which were originally granted to the Israelites in the Divine promise. See [1Chr 18:1], [1Chr 18:2]. The Septuagint is nearly to the same purpose, ὁτι ἡ γη αυτου καθισταται, "when his land was established:" so the Ethiopic and Arabic. The Syriac has, "A Psalm of David, in which he predicts the advent of Christ, (i.e., in the flesh), and through it his last appearing, (i.e., to judgment.") The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews [1Chr 1:6], quotes a part of the seventh verse of this Psalm, and applies it to Christ. Who the author was is uncertain: it is much in the spirit of David's finest compositions; and yet many learned men suppose it was written to celebrate the Lord's power and goodness in the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity.

### Verse 1

[¶42] The Lord reigneth - Here is a simple proposition, which is a self-evident axiom, and requires no proof: Jehovah is infinite and eternal; is possessed of unlimited power and unerring wisdom; as he is the Maker, so he must be the Governor, of all things. His authority is absolute, and his government therefore universal. In all places, on all occasions, and in all times, Jehovah reigns.

[¶43] But this supreme King is not only called hwhy Yehovah, which signifies his infinite and eternal being, unlimited power, and unerring wisdom; and, as Creator, his universal government; but he is also ynd) Adonai, the Director and Judge. He directs human actions by his word, Spirit, and Providence. Hence are his laws and revelation in general; for the governed should know their governor, and should be acquainted with his laws, and the reasons on which obedience is founded. As Adonai or Director, he shows them the difference between good and evil; and their duty to their God, their neighbors, and themselves: and he finally becomes the Judge of their actions. But as his law is holy, and his commandment holy, just, and good, and man is in a fallen, sinful state; hence he reveals himself as; אלהים Elohim, God, entering into a gracious covenant with mankind, to enlighten his darkness, and help his infirmities; that he may see what is just, and be able to do it. But as this will not cancel the sins already committed, hence the necessity of a Savior, an atonement; and hence the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. This is the provision made by the great God for the more effectual administration of his kingdom upon earth. Jehovah, Adonai, Elohim reigneth; et his animadversis, and these points considered, it is no wonder that the psalmist should add,

[¶44] Let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad - The earth, the terraqueous globe; especially, here, the vast continents, over every part of which God's dominion extends. But it is not confined to them; it takes in the islands of the sea; all the multitude of those islands, even to the smallest inhabited rock; which are as much the objects of his care, the number of their inhabitants considered, as the vastest continents on which are founded the mightiest empires. All this government springs from his holiness, righteousness, and benignity; and is exercised in what we call providence, from pro, for, before, and video, to see, which word is well defined and applied by Cicero: Providentia est, per quam futurism aliquid videtur, antequam factum sit. "Providence is that by which any thing future is seen before it takes place." De Invent. c. 53. And, in reference to a Divine providence, he took up the general opinion, viz., Esse deos, et eorum providentia mundum administrari. De Divinat. c. 51, ad finem. "There are gods; and by their providence the affairs of the world are administered."

[¶45] This providence is not only general, taking in the earth and its inhabitants, en masse; giving and establishing laws by which all things shall be governed; but it is also particular; it takes in the multitudes of the isles, as well as the vast continents; the different species as well as the genera; the individual, as well as the family. As every whole is composed of its parts, without the smallest of which it could not be a whole; so all generals are composed of particulars. And by the particular providence of God, the general providence is formed; he takes care of each individual; and, consequently, he takes care of the whole. Therefore, on the particular providence of God, the general providence is built; and the general providence could not exist without the particular, any more than a whole could subsist independently of its parts. It is by this particular providence that God governs the multitude of the isles, notices the fall of a sparrow, bottles; the tears of the mourner, and numbers the hairs of his followers. Now, as God is an infinitely wise and good Being, and governs the world in wisdom and goodness, the earth may well rejoice and the multitude of the isles be glad.

## 652. Psalms · 106 of 159

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### Verse 2

[¶1] Clouds and darkness are round about him - It is granted that this is a subject which cannot be comprehended. And why? Because God is infinite; he acts from his own counsels, which are infinite; in reference to ends which are also infinite: therefore, the reasons of his government cannot be comprehended by the feeble, limited powers of man. There must be clouds and darkness - an impenetrable obscurity, round about him; and we can no more comprehend him in what is called aeternitas a parte ante - the eternity that passed before time commenced, than we can in the aeternitas a parte post - the eternity that is to come, when time shall be no more. Yet such a Being cannot but see all things clearly, and do all things well; therefore the psalmist properly asserts: -

[¶2] Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne - Righteousness, צדק tsedek, the principle that acts according to justice and equity; that gives to all their due, and ever holds in all things an even balance. And judgment, משפט mishpat, the principle that discerns, orders, directs, and determines every thing according to truth and justice: these form the habitation of his throne; that is, his government and management of the world are according to these; and though we cannot see the springs, the secret counsels, and the times, which this omniscient and almighty

[¶3] Father must ever have in his own power, yet we may rest assured that all his administration is wise, just, holy, good, and kind. For, although his counsels be inscrutable, and the dispensations of his providence be sometimes apparently unequal, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.

[¶4] In this most sublime description,the psalmist, by the figure termed prosopopoeia, or personification, gives vitality and thought to all the subjects he employs; here, the very throne of God is animated; righteousness and judgment are two intellectual beings who support it. The fire, the lightnings, the earth, the heavens themselves, are all intellectual beings, which either accompany, go before him, or proclaim his majesty.

### Verse 3

[¶6] A fire goeth before him - Literally, this and the following verse may refer to the electric fluid, or to manifestations of the Divine displeasure, in which, by means of ethereal fire, God consumed his enemies. But fire is generally represented as an accompaniment of the appearances of the Supreme Being. He appeared on Mount Sinai in the midst of fire, thunder, and lightninys, [Exo 19:16-18]. Daniel, [Dan 7:9], [Dan 7:10], represents the Sovereign Judge as being on a throne which was a fiery flame, and the wheels of his chariot like burning fire; and a fiery streamer issuing from it, and coming forth from before him. St. Paul tells us ([2Thes 1:8]) that the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in faming fire; and St. Peter, ([2Pet 3:7], [2Pet 3:10], [2Pet 3:11]), that when the Lord shall come to judgment the heavens and the earth shall be destroyed by fire. the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements melt with fervent heat, and the earth and its works be burnt up. Here then, will appear: - "Our God in grandeur, and our world on fire."

[¶7] Burneth up his enemies round about - The fire is his pioneer which destroys all the hinderances in his way, and makes him a plain passage.

### Verse 4

[¶9] His lightnings enlightened the world - Though this be no more than a majestic description of the coming of the Lord, to confound his enemies and succor his followers, yet some spiritualize the passage, and say, the lightnings signify the apostles, who enlightened the world by their heavenly doctrine.

[¶10] The earth saw, and trembled - The earth is represented as a sentient being. It saw the terrible majesty of God; and trembled through terror, fearing it should be destroyed on account of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

### Verse 5

[¶12] The hills melted like wax - The fire of God seized on and liquefied them, so that they no longer opposed his march; and the mountains before him became a plain.

[¶13] The Lord of the whole earth - אדון כל הארץ adon col haarets, the Director, Stay, and Support of the whole earth. The universal Governor, whose jurisdiction is not confined to any one place; but who, having created all, governs all that he has made.

### Verse 6

[¶15] The heavens declare his righteousness - They also, in this poetic description, become intelligent beings, and proclaim the majesty and the mercy of the Most High. Metaphorically, they may be said to declare his glory. Their magnitude, number, revolutions, order, influence, and harmony, proclaim the wondrous skill, matchless wisdom, and unlimited power of the Sovereign of the universe. See the notes on [Psa 19:1-14] (note).

[¶16] And all the people see his glory - Whatsoever God has made proclaims his eternal power and Godhead; and who, from a contemplation of the work of his hands, can be ignorant of his being and providence?

### Verse 7

[¶18] Confounded be fell they - Rather, They shall be confounded that boast themselves in idols. There is a remarkable play on the letters here, המתהללים hammithhalelim, who move like madmen; referring to the violent gestures practiced in idolatrous rites.

[¶19] Of idols - באלילים baelilim, in vanities, emptinesses; who "make much ado about nothing," and take a mad and painful pleasure in ridiculous and unprofitable ceremonies of religion.

[¶20] Worship him - Who? Jesus: so says the apostle, [Heb 1:6]. Who will dare to dispute his authority?

[¶21] All ye gods - Οἱ αγγελοι αυτου, his angels: so the Septuagint and the apostle: "Let all the angels of God worship him:" and the words are most certainly applied to the Savior of the world by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews; see the note there. The Chaldee says: "All nations who worship idols shall adore him."

### Verse 8

[¶23] Zion heard, and was glad - All the land of Israel, long desolated, heard of the judgments which God had shown among the enemies of his people.

[¶24] And the daughters of Judah - All the villages of the land - Zion as the mother, and all the villages in the country as her daughters, rejoice in the deliverance of God's people.

### Verse 9

[¶26] For thou, Lord, art high - Thou art infinitely exalted above men and angels.

### Verse 10

[¶28] Ye that love the Lord hate evil - Because it is inconsistent with his love to you, as well as your love to him.

[¶29] He preserveth the souls of his saints - The saints, חסידיו chasidaiv, his merciful people: their souls - lives, are precious in his sight. He preserves them; keeps them from every evil, and every enemy.

[¶30] Out of the hand of the wicked - From his power and influence.

### Verse 11

[¶32] Light is sown for the righteous - The Divine light in the soul of man is a seed which takes root, and springs up and increases thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold. Gladness is also a seed: it is sown, and, if carefully improved and cultivated, will also multiply itself into thousands. Every grace of God is a seed which he intends should produce a thousand fold in the hearts of genuine believers. We do not so much require more grace from God, as the cultivation of what we have received. God will not give more, unless we improve what we have got. Remember the parable of the talents. Let the light and gladness be faithfully cultivated, and they will multiply themselves till the whole body shall be full of light, and the whole soul full of happiness. But it is the righteous only for whom the light is sown; and the upright in heart alone for whom the gladness is sown.

[¶33] The words may also signify that, however distressed or persecuted the righteous and the upright may be, it shall not be always so. As surely as the grain that is sown in the earth shall vegetate, and bring forth its proper fruit in its season, so surely shall light - prosperity, and gladness - comfort and peace, be communicated to them. They also will spring up in due time.

### Verse 12

[¶35] Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous - It is your privilege to be happy. Exult in him through whom ye have received the atonement. Rejoice; but let it be in the Lord. All other joy is the mirth of fools, which is as the crackling of thorns under a pot - it is a luminous blaze for a moment, and leaves nothing but smoke and ashes behind.

[¶36] At the remembrance of his holiness - But why should you give thanks at the remembrance that God is holy? Because he has said, Be ye holy; for I am holy: and in holiness alone true happiness is to be found. As he, therefore, who hath called you is holy; so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. False Christians hate the doctrine of Christian holiness; they are willing to be holy in another, but not holy in themselves. There is too much cross-bearing and self-denial in the doctrine of holiness for them. A perfect heart they neither expect nor wish.

[¶37] The analysis considers the whole Psalm as relating to Jesus Christ and the last judgment: so it was understood by several of the ancient fathers. The reader may take it in either sense.

### Introduction

[¶39] God is celebrated for his wondrous works, [Psa 98:1], [Psa 98:2]; for the exact fulfillment of his gracious promises, [Psa 98:3]. The manner in which he is to be praised, [Psa 98:4-6]. Inanimate creation called to bear a part in this concert, [Psa 98:7], [Psa 98:8]. The justice of his judgments, [Psa 98:9].

[¶40] In the Hebrew this is simply termed מזמור mizmor, a Psalm. In the Chaldee, A prophetic Psalm. In the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, A Psalm of David. In the Syriac it is attributed to David, and stated to be composed concerning the "Restoration of the Israelites from Egypt; but is to be understood spiritually of the advent of the Messiah, and the vocation of the Gentiles to the Christian faith."

[¶41] The Psalm in its subject is very like the ninety-sixth. It was probably written to celebrate the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity; but is to be understood prophetically of the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ.

### Verse 1

[¶43] A new song - A song of excellence. Give him the highest praise. See on [Psa 96:1] (note).

[¶44] Hath done marvellous things - נפלאות niphlaoth, "miracles," the same word as in [Psa 96:3], where we translate it wonders.

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[¶0] His holy arm - His Almighty power: -

[¶1] Hath gotten him the victory - הושיעה לו hoshiah llo, "hath made salvation to himself."

### Verse 2

[¶3] Made known his salvation - He has delivered his people in such a way as to show that it was supernatural, and that their confidence in the unseen God was not in vain.

### Verse 3

[¶5] He hath remembered his mercy - His gracious promises to their forefathers.

[¶6] And his truth - Faithfully accomplishing what he had promised. All this was fulfilled under the Gospel.

### Verse 5

[¶8] With - the voice of a Psalm - I think זמרה zimrah, which we translate Psalm, means either a musical instrument, or a species of ode modulated by different voices.

### Verse 6

[¶10] With trumpets - חצצרות chatsotseroth. Some kind of tubular instruments, of the form and management of which we know nothing.

[¶11] And sound of cornet - שופר shophar, the word commonly used for what we call trumpet.

### Verse 7

[¶13] Let the sea roar - These are either fine poetic images; or, if we take them as referring to the promulgation of the Gospel, by the sea all maritime countries and commercial nations may be intended.

### Verse 8

[¶15] Let the floods clap their hands - נהרות neharoth, properly the rivers - possibly meaning immense continents, where only large rivers are found; thus including inland people, as well as maritime stations, and those on the sea-coasts generally; as in those early times little more than the coasts of the sea were known. The Gospel shall be preached in the most secluded nations of the world.

[¶16] Let the hills be joyful - All the inhabitants of rocky and mountainous countries.

### Verse 9

[¶18] For he cometh to judge the earth - He comes to make known his salvation, and show his merciful designs to all the children of men.

[¶19] With righteousness shall he judge the world - His word shall not be confined; all shall know him, from the least to the greatest: he shall show that he is loving to every man, and hateth nothing that he hath made. See the notes on [Psa 96:1-13] (note). There is a very great similarity between this Psalm and the Song or Magnificat of the Blessed Virgin. I shall note some of the parallels, chiefly from Bishop Nicholson.

[¶20] This Psalm is an evident prophecy of Christ's coming to save the world; and what is here foretold by David is, in the Blessed Virgin's song, chanted forth as being accomplished. David is the Voice, and Mary is the Echo.

[¶21] 1. David "O sing unto the Lord a new song." (The Voice). Mary "My soul doth magnify the Lord." (The Echo).

[¶22] 2. David "He hath done marvellous things." (The Voice). Mary "He that is mighty hath done great things." (The Echo).

[¶23] 3. David "With his own right hand and holy arm hath he gotten himself the victory." (The Voice). Mary "He hath showed strength with his arm and scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts." (The Echo).

[¶24] 4. David "The Lord hath made known his salvation; his righteousness hath he openly showed," etc. (The Voice). Mary "His mercy is on them that fear him, from generation to generation." (The Echo).

[¶25] 5. David "He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel." (The Voice). Mary "He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy." (The Echo).

[¶26] These parallels are very striking; and it seems as if Mary had this Psalm in her eye when she composed her song of triumph. And this is a farther argument that the whole Psalm, whether it record the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, or the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, is yet to be ultimately understood of the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ, and the proclamation of his Gospel through all the nations of the earth: and taken in this view, no language can be too strong, nor poetic imagery too high, to point out the unsearchable riches of Christ.

### Introduction

[¶28] The empire of God in the world and the Church, [Psa 99:1], [Psa 99:2]. He ought to be praised, [Psa 99:3]. Justice and judgment are his chief glory, [Psa 99:4]. He should be worshipped as among the saints of old, whom he graciously answered and saved, [Psa 99:5-8]. Exalt him because he is holy, [Psa 99:9].

[¶29] The Hebrew and Chaldee have no title; all the versions but the Chaldee attribute it to David. The Syriac says it concerns "the slaughter of the Midianites which Moses and the children of Israel had taken captive; and is a prophecy concerning the glory of the kingdom of Christ." But the mention of Samuel shows that it cannot be referred to the time of Moses. Calmet thinks that it was sung at the dedication of the city, or of the second temple, after the return from the Babylonish captivity. Eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. join it to the preceding psalm.

### Verse 1

[¶31] The Lord reigneth - See the note on [Psa 97:1].

[¶32] Let the people tremble - He will establish his kingdom in spite of his enemies; let those who oppose him tremble for the consequences.

[¶33] He sitteth between the cherubims - This is in reference to the ark, at each end of which was a cherub of glory; and the shechinah, or symbol of the Divine Presence, appeared on the lid of the ark, called also the mercy-seat, between the cherubim. Sitting between the cherubim implies God's graciousness and mercy. While then, in his reign, he was terrible to sinners, he is on the throne of grace to all who fear love, and obey him. Though this symbol were not in the second temple, yet the Divine Being might very well be thus denominated, because it had become one of his titles, he having thus appeared under the tabernacle and first temple.

### Verse 2

[¶35] The Lord is great in Zion - It is among his own worshippers that he has manifested his power and glory in an especial manner. There he is known, and there he is worthily magnified.

### Verse 3

[¶37] Let them praise thy great and terrible name - Let them confess thee to be great and terrible: let them tremble before thee.

[¶38] For it is holy - קדוש הוא kadosh hu. As this not only ends this verse but the fifth also, and in effect the ninth, it seems to be a species of chorus which was sung in a very solemn manner at the conclusion of each of these parts. His holiness - the immaculate purity of his nature, was the reason why he should be exalted, praised, and worshipped.

### Verse 4

[¶40] The king's strength - If this Psalm were written by David, he must mean by it that he was God's vicegerent or deputy, and that, even as king, God was his strength, and the pattern according to which equity, judgment, and righteousness should be executed in Jacob.

### Verse 5

[¶42] Worship at his footstool - Probably meaning the ark on which the Divine glory was manifested. Sometimes the earth is called God's footstool, [Mat 5:35]; [Isa 66:1]; sometimes Jerusalem; sometimes the temple, [Lam 2:1]; sometimes the tabernacle, [Psa 32:7]; and sometimes the ark, [1Chr 28:2]. The Israelites, when they worshipped, turned their faces toward the ark, because that was the place where was the symbol of the Divine Presence.

[¶43] For he is holy - The burden chanted by the chorus.

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Moses and Aaron - As Moses and Aaron among the priests, and as Samuel among the prophets, worshipped God in humility, gratitude, and the spirit of obedience, and received the strongest tokens of the Divine favor; so worship ye the Lord, that he may bless, support, and save you. Moses was properly the priest of the Hebrews before Aaron and his family were appointed to that office.

### Verse 7

[¶3] He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar - That is, he directed all their operations, marchings, and encampments by this cloudy pillar. See [Exo 33:9].

[¶4] They kept his testimonies - Do ye the same, and God will be your portion as he was theirs.

### Verse 8

[¶6] Thou - forgavest them - When the people had sinned, and wrath was about to descend on them, Moses and Aaron interceded for them, and they were not destroyed.

[¶7] Tookest vengeance of their inventions - God spared them, but showed his displeasure at their misdoings. He chastised, but did not consume them. This is amply proved in the history of this people.

### Verse 9

[¶9] Worship at his holy hill - Worship him publicly in the temple.

[¶10] For the Lord our God is holy - The words of the chorus; as in the third and fifth verses.

### Introduction

[¶12] All nations are exhorted to praise the Lord, [Psa 100:1], [Psa 100:2]; to acknowledge him to be the Sovereign God and their Creator and that they are his people and the flock of his pasture, [Psa 100:3]; to worship him publicly, and be grateful for his mercies, [Psa 100:4]. The reasons on which this is founded; his own goodness, his everlasting mercy, and his ever-during truth, [Psa 100:5].

[¶13] This Psalm is entitled in the Hebrew מזמור לתודה mizmor lethodah, not "A Psalm of Praise," as we have it, but "A Psalm for the confession, or for the confession-offering," very properly translated by the Chaldee: שבחא על קורבן תודתא shibcha al kurban todetha, "Praise for the sacrifice (or offering) of confession." The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Ethiopic have followed this sense. The Arabic attributes it to David. The Syriac has the following prefixed: "Without a name. Concerning Joshua the son of Nun, when he had ended the war with the Ammonites: but in the new covenant it relates to the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith." It is likely that it was composed after the captivity, as a form of thanksgiving to God for that great deliverance, as well as an inducement to the people to consecrate themselves to him, and to be exact in the performance of the acts of public worship.

### Verse 1

[¶15] Make a joyful noise - הריעו hariu, exult, triumph, leap for joy.

[¶16] All ye lands - Not only Jews, but Gentiles, for the Lord bestows his benefits on all with a liberal hand.

### Verse 2

[¶18] Serve the Lord with gladness - It is your privilege and duty to be happy in your religious worship. The religion of the true God is intended to remove human misery, and to make mankind happy. He whom the religion of Christ has not made happy does not understand that religion, or does not make a proper use of it.

### Verse 3

[¶20] Know ye that the Lord he is God - Acknowledge in every possible way, both in public and private, that Jehovah, the uncreated self-existent, and eternal Being, is Elohim, the God who is in covenant with man, to instruct, redeem, love, and make him finally happy.

[¶21] It is he that hath made us - He is our Creator and has consequently the only right in and over us.

[¶22] And not we ourselves - ולא אנחנו velo anachnu. I can never think that this is the true reading, though found in the present Hebrew text, in the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Syriac. Was there ever a people on earth, however grossly heathenish, that did believe, or could believe, that they had made themselves? In twenty-six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. we have ולו אנחנו velo anachnu, "and His we are;" לו lo, the pronoun, being put for לא lo, the negative particle. This is the reading of the Targum, or Chaldee paraphrase ודיליה אנחנא vedileyh anachna, "and his we are," and is the reading of the text in the Complutensian Polyglot, of both the Psalters which were printed in 1477, and is the keri, or marginal reading in most Masoretic Bibles. Every person must see, from the nature of the subject that it is the genuine reading. The position is founded on the maxim that what a man invents, constructs out of his own matterials, without assistance in genius, materials or execution from any other person, is His Own and to it, its use, and produce, he has the only right. God made us, therefore we are His: we are his people, and should acknowledge him for our God; we are the sheep of his pasture, and should devote the lives to him constantly which he continually supports.

### Verse 4

[¶24] Enter into his gates with thanksgiving - Publicly worship God; and when ye come to the house of prayer, be thankful that you have such a privilege; and when you enter his courts, praise him for the permission.

[¶25] The word בתודה bethodah, which we render with thanksgiving, is properly with the confession-offering or sacrifice. See on [Psa 100:1-5] (note).

[¶26] Bless his name - Bless Jehovah, that he is your Elohim; see [Psa 100:3]. In our liturgic service we say, "Speak good of his name;" we cannot do otherwise; we have nothing but good to speak of our God.

### Verse 5

[¶28] For the Lord is good - Goodness the perfect, eternal opposition to all badness and evil, is essential to God. Mercy and compassion are modifications of his goodness; and as his nature is eternal, so his mercy, springing from his goodness, must be everlasting. And as Truth is an essential characteristic of an infinitely intelligent and perfect nature; therefore God's truth must endure from generation to generation. Whatsoever he has promised must be fulfilled, through all the successive generations of men, as long as sun and moon shall last.

[¶29] As this is a very important Psalm, and has long made a part of our public worship, I shall lay it before the reader in the oldest vernacular Versions I have hitherto met with, - the Anglo-Saxon and the Anglo-Scottish, with a literal interlineary translation of the former.

[¶30] The Anglo-Saxon Hundredth Psalm

[¶31] Rhyme ye the Lord all earth, serve the Lord in bliss;

[¶32] Infare in sight his in blithness;

[¶33] Wit ye, for that Lord he is God, he did us ¬ self we;

[¶34] Folk his &sheep leeseway his; fare into gates his in confession, into courts is in hymns confess him.

[¶35] Praise name his, for that winsom is; Lord thro' eternity mildheartedness his, &unto on kindred &kindred sothfastnes his

[¶36] The reader will see that, in order to make this translation as literal as possible, I have preserved some old English words which we had from the Anglo-Saxon, and which have nearly become obsolete: e.g., Infare, "to go in;" blithness, "joy, exultation;" twit ye, "know ye;" did, the preterite of to do, "made, created," the literal translation of the Hebrew, עשה asah, he made; leeseway, "pasturage on a common;" winsom, "cheerful, merry;" mildheartedness, "tenderness of heart, compassion;" sothfastness, "steady to the sooth or truth, fast to truth." I might have noticed some various readings in Anglo-Saxon MSS.; e.g., [Psa 100:1] for idrymeth, "rhyme ye;" winsumiath, "be winsom, be joyful." And [Psa 100:5], for winsom, "cheerful;" swete, "sweet."

[¶37] Anglo-Scottish Version of the Hundredth Psalm

[¶38] 1. Joyes to God al the erth; serves to Lord in gladnes.

[¶39] 2. Enters in his sight with joying.

[¶40] 3. Wittes for Lorde he is God; he made us and noght we;

[¶41] 4. Folke of hym, and schepe of his pasture; enters the gates of hym in schrift; hys Halles in ympnys; schryves to hym.

[¶42] 5. Loues his name, for soft is Lorde; withouten end in his mercy; and in generation and generation the sothfastnes of hym.

[¶43] Thus our forefathers said and sung in heart and mouth and with their tongues made confession to salvation. There are but few words here which require explanation: [Psa 100:3], Wittes, "wot ye, know ye." [Psa 100:4], Schrift, "confession;" schryves, "confess ye." Verse 6, Loues, "praise ye, laud ye." Sothfastness, as above, steadfastness in the truth.

### Introduction

[¶45] The subject proposed, mercy and judgment, [Psa 101:1]. The psalmist's resolution in respect to his private conduct, [Psa 101:2]. He will put away evil, inward and outward, [Psa 101:3]. No evil person shall stand in his presence, [Psa 101:4]; nor any slanderer of his neighbor, [Psa 101:4], [Psa 101:5]. He will encourage the faithful and upright, [Psa 101:6]; but the deceitful, the liars, and the profligate, he will cast out of the city of God, [Psa 101:7], [Psa 101:8].

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[¶0] The Hebrew and all the Versions attribute this Psalm to David. It shows us the resolutions he formed when he came to the throne; and it is a perfect model according to which a wise prince should regulate his conduct and his government.

### Verse 1

[¶2] I will sing of mercy and judgment - David might say, Adverse and prosperous providences have been of the utmost use to my soul; therefore, I will thank God for both. Or, as he was probably now called to the government of all the tribes, he might make a resolution that he would show חסד chesed, incessant benevolence, to the upright; and משפט mishpat, the execution of judgment, to the wicked; and would make the conduct of God the model of his own.

### Verse 2

[¶4] I will behave myself wisely - God's law prescribes a perfect way of life; in this perfect way I have professed to walk, and I must act wisely in order to walk in it.

[¶5] When wilt thou come unto me? - I can neither walk in this way, nor grow wise unto salvation, unless thou come unto me by thy grace and Spirit; for without thee I can do nothing.

[¶6] I will walk within my house - It is easier for most men to walk with a perfect heart in the Church, or even in the world, than in their own families. How many are as meek as lambs among others, when at home they are wasps or tigers! The man who, in the midst of family provocations, maintains a Christian character, being meek, gentle, and long-suffering to his wife, his children, and his servants, has got a perfect heart, and adorns the doctrine of God his Savior in all things.

[¶7] The original is very emphatic; אתהלך ethhallech, "I will set myself to walk," I will make it a determined point thus to walk. I will bear and forbear with children, servants, etc., not speaking rashly, nor giving way to bad tempers. Through various motives a man will behave with propriety and decorum among others; but none of these motives operate in his own house where he feels himself master, and consequently under no restraint.

### Verse 3

[¶9] I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes - I will undertake no unjust wars; will enter into no sinful alliances; will not oppress my subjects by excessive taxation, to support extravagance in my court. I will not look favourably on things or words of Belial. What is good for nothing or evil in its operation, what is wicked in its principle, and what would lead me away from righteousness and truth, I will never set before my eyes.

[¶10] Them that turn aside - I shall particularly abominate the conduct of those who apostatize from the true religion, and those who deny its Divine authority, and who live without having their conduct governed by its influence, such shall never he put in a place of political trust or confidence by me.

### Verse 4

[¶12] A froward heart - Rash and headstrong men shall not be employed by me.

[¶13] I will not know a wicked person - I will give no countenance to sinners of any kind; and whatever is evil shall be an object of my abhorrence.

### Verse 5

[¶15] Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor - All flatterers and time-servers, and those who by insinuations and false accusations endeavor to supplant the upright, that they may obtain their offices for themselves or their dependants, will I consider as enemies to the state, I will abominate, and expel them from my court.

[¶16] The Chaldee gives a remarkable meaning to the Hebrew, מלשני בסתר רעהו melasheni bassether reehu, which we translate, Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, and which it renders thus, דמשתעי לישן תליתי על חבריה demishtaey lishan telitai al chabreyah: "He who speaks with the triple tongue against his neighbor." That is, the tongue by which he slays three persons, viz.,

[¶17] 1. The man whom he slanders;

[¶18] 2. Him to whom he communicates the slander; and,

[¶19] 3. Himself, the slanderer.

[¶20] Every slanderer has his triple tongue, and by every slander inflicts those three deadly wounds. Such a person deserves to be cut off. On this subject St. Jerome speaks nearly in the same way: Ille qui detrahit, et se, et illum qui audit, demergit; "He who slanders ruins both himself and him who hears him;" he might have added, and him who is slandered, for this is often the case; the innocent are ruined by detraction.

[¶21] A high look and a proud heart - One who is seeking preferment; who sticks at nothing to gain it; and one who behaves himself haughtily and insolently in his office.

[¶22] Will not I suffer - לא אוכל lo uchal, I cannot away with. These persons especially will I drive from my presence, and from all state employments.

### Verse 6

[¶24] Mine eyes - My approbation.

[¶25] Upon the faithful - The humble, upright followers of God.

[¶26] That they may dwell with me - Be my confidants and privy counsellors. No irreligious or wicked man, whatever his abilities may be, shall be countenanced or supported by me. I will purify my court from the base, the irreligious, the avaricious, the venal, the profligate, and the wicked.

[¶27] He that walketh in a perfect way - He that is truly religious.

[¶28] He shalt serve me - Shall be my prime minister, and the chief officer in my army, and over my finances.

### Verse 7

[¶30] He that worketh deceit - that tenets lies - I will expel from my court all sycophants and flatterers. Tiberius encouraged flatterers; Titus burned some, banished several others, and sold many for slaves.

### Verse 8

[¶32] I will early destroy - I will take the first opportunity of destroying all the wicked of the land. I will purify my court, purge Jerusalem, and cleanse the whole land of every abomination and abominable person; so that the city of my God, where holiness alone should dwell, shall indeed become the Holy City; that the state may be made prosperous, and the people happy. Such an administration must have been a good one, where such pious caution was used in choosing all the officers of the state.

### Introduction

[¶34] The complaint and miserable state of the poor captives, [Psa 102:1-11]; the expectation of deliverance, [Psa 102:12-14]; the conversion of the heathen, [Psa 102:15-18]; the termination of the captivity, [Psa 102:19-22]; the great frailty of man, [Psa 102:23], [Psa 102:24]; the unchangeableness of God, [Psa 102:25-27]; the permanence of the Church, [Psa 102:28].

[¶35] The Hebrew, and nearly all the Versions, give the following title to this Psalm: A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his sighing before the Lord. There seems to be little doubt that this is the prayer of the captives in Babylon, when, towards the end of the captivity, they were almost worn out with oppression, cruelty, and distress. The Psalm has been attributed to Daniel, to Jeremiah, to Nehemiah, or to some of the other prophets who flourished during the time of the captivity. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has applied the twenty-fifth, twenty sixth, and twenty seventh verses to our Lord, and the perpetuity of his kingdom.

### Verse 1

[¶37] Hear my prayer - The chief parts of the Psalm answer well to the title: it is the language of the deepest distress, and well directed to Him from whom alone help can come.

### Verse 3

[¶39] My days are consumed like smoke - He represents himself (for the psalmist speaks in the name of the people) under the notion of a pile of combustible matter, placed upon a fire, which soon consumes it; part flying away in smoke, and the residue lying on the hearth in the form of charred coal and ashes. The Chaldeans were the fire, and the captive Jews the fuel, thus converted into smoke and ashes.

### Verse 4

[¶41] My heart is smitten, and withered like grass - The metaphor here is taken from grass cut down in the meadow. It is first smitten with the scythe, and then withered by the sun. Thus the Jews were smitten with the judgments of God; and they are now withered under the fire of the Chaldeans.

### Verse 6

[¶43] I am like a pelican of the wilderness - It may be the pelican or the bittern. The original, קאת kaath, is mentioned [Lev 11:18] (note), and is there described. See the note.

[¶44] Owl of the desert - כוש cos, some species of owl; probably the night raven. See the notes referred to above.

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### Verse 7

[¶1] As a sparrow alone - צפור tsippor, seems to be often used for any small bird, such as the swallow, sparrow, or the like. Bochart supposes the screech owl is intended.

### Verse 8

[¶3] They that are mad against me are sworn against me - The Chaldeans are determined to destroy us; and they have bound themselves by oath to do it. See a similar case related [Act 23:12-14], where a number of Jews had bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had slain Paul.

### Verse 9

[¶5] I have eaten ashes like bread - Fearful of what they might do, we all humbled ourselves before thee, and sought thy protection; well knowing that, unless we were supernaturally assisted, we must all have perished; our enemies having sworn our destruction.

### Verse 10

[¶7] For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down - Thou hast lifted me on high, that thou mightest dash me down with the greater force.

[¶8] We were exalted in thy favor beyond any people, and now thou hast made us the lowest and most abject of the children of men.

### Verse 11

[¶10] My days are like a shadow that declineth - Or rather, My days decline like the shadow. I have passed my meridian, and the sun of my prosperity is about to set for ever. There may be here an allusion to the declination of the sun towards the south, which, by shortening their days, would greatly lengthen their nights. Similar to the exclamation of a contemporary prophet, [Jer 8:20] : "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." There is now scarcely any human hope of our deliverance.

### Verse 12

[¶12] But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever - Our life is a shadow; we can scarcely be called beings when compared with thee, for thou art eternal. Have mercy upon us, creatures of a day, and thy kindness shall be a memorial in all our generations.

### Verse 13

[¶14] Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion - While he is humbled at the footstool of mercy, and earnestly praying for mercy, an answer of peace is given; he is assured, not only that they shall be delivered, but that the time of deliverance is at hand. The set time - the seventy years predicted by Jeremiah, was ended; and God gave him to see that he was ever mindful of his promises.

### Verse 14

[¶16] Thy servants take pleasure in her stones - Though Jerusalem was at this time in a heap of ruins, yet even her rubbish was sacred in the eyes of the pious; for this had been the city of the great King.

### Verse 15

[¶18] So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord - It is granted that after the edict of Cyrus to restore and rebuild Jerusalem which was about four hundred and ninety years before Christ, the name of the true God was more generally known among the heathen; and the translating the Sacred Writings into Greek, by the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, about two hundred and eighty-five years before the Christian era, spread a measure of the light of God in the Gentile world which they had not before seen. Add to this the disperson of the Jews into different parts of the Roman empire, after Judea became a Roman province, which took place about sixty years before the advent of our Lord; and we may consider these as so many preparatory steps to the conversion of the heathen by the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to this last general illumination of the Gentile world the psalmist must allude here, when he speaks of "the heathen fearing God's name, and all the kings of the earth his glory."

### Verse 16

[¶20] When the Lord shall build up Zion - It is such a difficult thing, so wholly improbable, so far out of the reach of human power, that when God does it, he must manifest his power and glory in a most extraordinary manner.

### Verse 17

[¶22] The prayer of the destitute - הערער haarar of him who is laid in utter ruin, who is entirely wasted.

### Verse 18

[¶24] The people which shall be created - "The Gentiles, who shall be brought to the knowledge of salvation by Christ," as the Syriac states in its inscription to this Psalm: how often the conversion of the soul to God is represented as a new creation, no reader of the New Testament need be told. See [Eph 2:10]; [Eph 4:24]; [2Cor 5:17]; [Gal 6:15]. Even the publication of the Gospel, and its influence among men, is represented under the notion of "creating a new heaven and a new earth," [Isa 65:17], [Isa 65:18].

### Verse 19

[¶26] For he hath looked down - This, with the three following verses, seems to me to contain a glorious prophecy of the incarnation of Christ, and the gathering in of the Jews and the Gentiles to him. The Lord looks down from heaven, and sees the whole earth groaning and travailing in pain; his eye affects his heart, and he purposes their salvation.

### Verse 20

[¶28] To hear the groaning - By sin, all the inhabitants of the earth are miserable. They have broken the Divine laws, are under the arrest of judgment, and all cast into prison, They have been tried, found guilty, and appointed to die; they groan under their chains, are alarmed at the prospect of death, and implore mercy.

### Verse 21

[¶30] To declare the name of the Lord - To publish that Messenger of the Covenant in whom the name of the Lord is, that Messiah in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt; and to commence at Jerusalem, that the first offers of mercy might be made to the Jews, from whom the word of reconciliation was to go out to all the ends of the earth.

### Verse 22

[¶32] When the people are gathered together - When all the Gentiles are enlightened, and the kings of the earth brought to pay homage to the King of kings.

### Verse 23

[¶34] He weakened my strength in the way - We are brought so low in our captivity by oppression, by every species of hard usage, and by death, that there is now no hope of our restoration by any efforts of our own.

### Verse 24

[¶36] I said, O my God - This and the following verses seem to be the form of prayer which the captives used previously to their deliverance.

[¶37] Thy years are throughout all generations - This was a frequent argument used to induce God to hear prayer. We are frail and perishing; thou art everlasting: deliver us, and we will glorify thee.

### Verse 25

[¶39] Of old hast thou laid the foundation - None taught of God ever imagined the world to have been eternal. Of old, לפנים lephanim, before there were any faces or appearances, thou didst lay the foundations of the earth. It was created by thee; it did not grow by accretion or aggregation from a pre-existent nucleus. There was nothing; and thou didst produce being - substance or matter. Out of that created matter thou didst make the earth and the heavens.

### Verse 26

[¶41] They shall perish - Nothing can be eternal a parte ante, or a parte post, but thyself. Even that which thou hast created, because not necessarily eternal, must be perishable; necessary duration belongs to God only; and it is by his will and energy alone that universal nature is preserved in existence, and preserved from running into speedy disorder, decay, and ruin.

[¶42] Yea, all of them shall wax old - Every thing must deteriorate, unless preserved by thy renewing and invigorating energy. Even the heavens and the earth are subject to this law; for that which is not, from the infinite perfection of its own nature, Eternal, must be perishable; therefore the heavens and the earth must necessarily come to an end. They contain the seeds of their own dissolution. It is true that in sublunary things, the vicissitudes of seasons is a sort of check to the principle of dissolution; but it only partially corrects this tendency. Even the productions of the earth wear out or deteriorate. Plant the same seed or grain for several years consecutively, and it degenerates so as at last not to be worth the labor of tillage, however expensively the soil may be manured in which it is planted. I may instance in wheat and in the potatoe, the two grand supporters of life in European countries. All other seeds and plants, as far as they have fallen under my observation, are subject to the same law.

### Verse 27

[¶44] But thou art the same - ואתה הוא veattah Hu, but thou art He, that is, The Eternal; and, consequently, he who only has immortality.

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[¶0] Thy years shall have no end - לא יתמו lo yittammu, "they shall not be completed." Every thing has its revolution - its conception, growth, perfection, decay, dissolution, and death, or corruption. It may be said that regeneration restores all these substances; and so it does in a measure, but not without deterioration. The breed of animals, as well as vegetables, wears out; but God's eternal round has no completion. I repeat it, - what is necessarily eternal is unchangeable and imperishable; all created beings are perishable and mutable, because not eternal. God alone is eternal; therefore God alone is imperishable and immutable.

### Verse 28

[¶2] The children of thy servants shall continue - Thy Church shall be permanent, because founded on thee, it shall live throughout all the revolutions of time. And as thy followers are made partakers of the Divine nature they shall live in union with God in the other world, deriving eternal duration from the inexhaustible Fountain of being. Nothing can be permanent but by God's supporting and renewing influence.

### Introduction

[¶4] God is praised for his benefits to his people, [Psa 103:1], [Psa 103:2]; he forgives their iniquities, and heals their diseases, [Psa 103:3]; redeems their lives, crowns them with loving-kindness, [Psa 103:4]; satisfies them with good things, renews their youth, [Psa 103:5]; he helps the oppressed, makes his ways known, is merciful and gracious, and keeps not his anger for ever, [Psa 103:6-9]; his forbearance, and pardoning mercy, [Psa 103:10-12]; he is a tender and considerate Father, [Psa 103:13], [Psa 103:14]; the frail state of man, [Psa 103:15], [Psa 103:16]; God's everlasting mercy, and universal dominion, [Psa 103:17-19]; all his angels, his hosts, and his works, are invited to praise him, [Psa 103:20-22].

[¶5] The inscription in the Hebrew, and in all the Versions, gives this Psalm to David; and yet many of the ancients believed it to refer to the times of the captivity, or rather to its conclusion, in which the redeemed Jews give thanks to God for their restoration. It is a Psalm of inimitable sweetness and excellence; contains the most affectionate sentiments of gratitude to God for his mercies; and the most consoling motives to continue to trust in God, and be obedient to him.

### Verse 1

[¶7] Bless the Lord - He calls on his soul, and all its faculties and powers, to magnify God for his mercies. Under such a weight of obligation the lips can do little; the soul and all its powers must be engaged.

### Verse 2

[¶9] Forget not all his benefits - Call them into recollection; particularize the chief of them; and here record them for an everlasting memorial.

### Verse 3

[¶11] Who forgiveth - The benefits are the following,

[¶12] 1. Forgiveness of sin.

[¶13] 2. Restoration of health: "Who healeth all thy diseases."

### Verse 4

[¶15] Who redeemeth -

[¶16] 3. Preservation from destruction. הגואל haggoel, properly, redemption of life by the kinsman; possibly looking forward, in the spirit of prophecy, to him who became partaker of our flesh and blood, that he might have the right to redeem our souls from death by dying in our stead.

[¶17] 4. Changing and ennobling his state; weaving a crown for him out of loving-kindness and tender mercies.

### Verse 5

[¶19] Who satisfieth thy mouth -

[¶20] 5. For continual communications of spiritual and temporal good; so that the vigor of his mind was constantly supported and increased.

[¶21] Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's - There is such a vast variety of the eagle, or genus Falco, that it is not easy to determine which is meant here.

[¶22] The Hebrew נשר neser is a general name for such as were known in the land of Judea; which were probably such as belong to the genus Aquila, comprehending forty-one species and seven varieties.

[¶23] There are as many legends of the eagle among the ancient writers, as there are of some saints in the calendar; and all equally true. Even among modern divines, Bible Dictionary men, and such like, the most ridiculous tales concerning this bird continue to be propagated; and no small portion of them have been crowded into comments on this very verse. One specimen my old Psalter affords, which, for its curiosity, I shall lay before the reader: -

[¶24] Trans. Newed sal be als of aeren thi youthed.

[¶25] Par - The arne when he is greved with grete elde, his neb waxis so gretely, that he may nogt open his mouth and take mete: bot then he smytes his neb to the stane, and has away the solgh, and than he gaes til mete, and be commes yong a gayne. Swa Criste duse a way fra us oure elde of syn and mortalite, that settes us to ete oure brede in hevene, and newes us in hym.

[¶26] The plain English of all this is: - "When the arne [eagle, from the Anglo-Saxon a word which Dr. Jamieson has not entered in his dictionary] is oppressed with old age, his bill grows so much that he cannot open his mouth in order to take meat. He then smites his bill against a stone, and breaks off the slough - the excrescence that prevented him from eating; and then he goes to his ordinary food, and becomes young again. So Christ takes away from us our old age of sin and death, and gives us to eat of that bread which comes down from heaven: and thus gives us a new life in himself."

[¶27] I believe the meaning of the psalmist is much more simple: he refers to the moulting of birds, which, in most, takes place annually, in which they cast their old feathers and get a new plumage. To express this, he might as well have chosen any bird, as this is common to all the feathered race; but he chose the king of the birds, because of his bulk, his strength, and vivacity.

[¶28] The long life of the eagle might have induced the psalmist to give it the preference. An eagle was nine years in the possession of Owen Holland, Esq., of Conway, in Wales, and had lived thirty-two years in the possession of the gentleman who made it a present to him: but of its previous age, for it came from Ireland, we are not informed. Keysler relates that an eagle died at Vienna, after a confinement of one hundred and four years!

[¶29] The eagle can subsist a long time without food. That first mentioned above, through the neglect of a servant, was twenty-one days without food, and yet survived this long fast.

[¶30] The meaning and moral of the psalmist are not difficult of comprehension. The Israelites, when redeemed from their captivity, should be so blessed by their God that they should reacquire their political strength and vigor; and should be so quickened by the Divine Spirit, that old things should be passed away, and all things become new.

### Verse 6

[¶32] The Lord executeth - This shall be done because the Lord will avenge his elect who have cried unto him day and night for his deliverance: "He is slow to anger;" but he will punish. "He is plenteous in mercy," and he will save. The persevering sinner shall be destroyed; the humble penitent shall be saved.

### Verse 7

[¶34] He made known his ways unto Moses - From the earliest part of our history he has been our protector and defense. His wonderful acts in behalf of the children of Israel are so many proofs of his mercy, power, and goodness; and so many reasons why we should now trust in him.

### Verse 8

[¶36] The Lord is merciful - See the note on [Psa 86:15].

### Verse 9

[¶38] He will not always chide - He will not contend with us continually. He has often reproved, often punished us; but his mercy ever rejoiced over judgment.

### Verse 10

[¶40] He has not dealt with us after our sins - He has never apportioned our punishment to our sins, nor has he regulated the exercise of his mercy by our merits.

### Verse 11

[¶42] For as the heaven is high above the earth - Great and provoking as our crimes may have been, yet his mercies have, in their magnitude and number, surpassed these, as far as the heavens are elevated beyond the earth.

### Verse 12

[¶44] As far as the east is from the west - As the east and the west can never meet in one point, but be for ever at the same distance from each other, so our sins and their decreed punishment are removed to an eternal distance by his mercy.

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### Verse 13

[¶1] Like as a father pitieth his children - This is a very emphatic verse, and may be thus translated: "As the tender compassions of a father towards his children; so the tender compassicns of Jehovah towards them that fear him." Nothing can place the tenderness and concern of God for his creatures in a stronger light than this. What yearnings of bowels does a father feel toward the disobedient child, who, sensible of his ingratitude and disobedience, falls at his parent's feet, covered with confusion and melted into tears, with, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am not worthy to be called thy son!" The same in kind, but infinitely more exquisite, does God feel when the penitent falls at his feet, and implores his mercy through Christ crucified.

### Verse 14

[¶3] For he knoweth our frame - יצרנו yitsrenu, "our formation;" the manner in which we are constructed, and the materials of which we are made. He knows we cannot contend with him, and if he uses his power against us, we must be crushed to destruction. In all his conduct towards us he considers the frailty of our nature, the untowardness of our circumstances, the strength and subtlety of temptation, and the sure party (till the heart is renewed) that the tempter has within us. Though all these things are against us, yet it must ever be said, whatever use we make of it, "the grace of God is sufficient for us." But alas! alas! who makes use of that sufficient grace? Here, then, is cause for condemnation. But, O amazing mercy! if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are but dust. The man who can say, in the face of these Scriptures, Let us sin that grace may abound, is a brute and demon, who has neither lot nor part in this thing.

### Verse 15

[¶5] His days are as grass - See the note on [Psa 90:5].

### Verse 16

[¶7] The wind passeth over it - Referring perhaps to some blasting pestilential wind.

### Verse 17

[¶9] The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting - חסד chesed signifies more particularly the exuberant goodness of God. This is an attribute of his nature, and must be from everlasting to everlasting; and hence, his righteousness (צדקת tsidketh) - his merciful mode of justifying the ungodly, is extended from one generation to another.

[¶10] Unto children's children - It is still in force, and the doctrine of reconciliation through Christ shall continue to be preached till the conclusion of time.

### Verse 18

[¶12] To such as keep his convenant - The spirit of which was, I will be your God; We will be thy People. From the covenant came the commandments, and their obligation to remember and do them; and on such keepers of the covenant, and doers of the commandments, God promises to pour out his mercy through all generations.

### Verse 19

[¶14] The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens - There he is Sovereign, but his dominion extends equally over all the earth; for his kingdom - regal government, influence, and sway, ruleth over all.

### Verse 20

[¶16] Bless the Lord, ye his angels - Every person who has a sense of God's goodness to his soul feels his own powers inadequate to the praise which he ought to offer; and therefore naturally calls upon the holiest of men, and the supreme angels, to assist him in this work.

[¶17] That excel in strength - Some take גברי כה gibborey coach the mighty in strength, for another class of the hierarchy, - they that do his commandments, hearkening to his words; and consider them to be that order of beings who are particularly employed in operations among and for the children of men; probably such as are called powers in the New Testament.

### Verse 21

[¶19] All ye his hosts; ye ministers of his - We know almost nothing of the economy of the heavenly host; and, therefore, cannot tell what is the difference between angels, mighty powers, hosts, and ministers who do his pleasure. All owe their being and all its blessings to God; all depend upon his bounty; and without him they can do nothing; therefore, all should praise him.

### Verse 22

[¶21] Bless the Lord, all his works - Let every thing he has done be so considered as to show forth his praise.

[¶22] Bless the Lord, O my soul - Let me never forget my obligation to his mercy; for with tender mercies and loving-kindness has he crowned me. I will therefore be thankful unto him, and speak good of his name.

### Introduction

[¶24] The majesty and power of God manifested in the creation of the heavens and the atmosphere, [Psa 104:1-3]; of the earth and sea, [Psa 104:4-9]; of the springs, fountains, and rivers, [Psa 104:10-13]; of vegetables and trees, [Psa 104:14-18]; of the sun and moon, [Psa 104:19]; of day and night, and their uses, [Psa 104:20-23]; of the riches of the earth, [Psa 104:24]; of the sea, its inhabitants, and its uses, [Psa 104:25], [Psa 104:26]; of God's general providence in providing food for all kinds of animals, [Psa 104:27-31]; of earthquakes and volcanoes, [Psa 104:32]. God is praised for his majesty, and the instruction which his works afford, [Psa 104:33], [Psa 104:34]. Sinners shall be destroyed, [Psa 104:35].

[¶25] This Psalm has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee; but it is attributed to David by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac. It has the following title in the Septuagint, as it stands in the Complutensian Polyglot: Ψαλμος τῳ Δαυιδ ὑπερ της του κοσμου συστασεως "A Psalm of David concerning the formation of the world." The Syriac says it is "A Psalm of David when he went with the priests to adore the Lord before the ark." It seems a continuation of the preceding Psalm; and it is written as a part of it in nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. It is properly a poem on the works of God in the creation and government of the world; and some have considered it a sort of epitome of the history of the creation, as given in the book of Genesis.

### Verse 1

[¶27] O Lord my God, thou art very great - The works of God, which are the subject of this Psalm, particularly show the grandeur and majesty of God. The strongest proofs of the being of God, for common understandings, are derived from the works of creation, their magnitude, variety, number, economy, and use. And a proper consideration of those works presents a greater number of the attributes of the Divine nature than we can learn from any other source. Revelation alone is superior.

### Verse 2

[¶29] Who coverest thyself with light - Light, insufferable splendor, is the robe of the Divine Majesty. Light and fire are generally the accompaniments of the Supreme Being, when he manifests his presence to his creatures. He appeared thus to Abraham when he made a covenant with him, [Gen 15:17]; and to Moses when he appointed him to bring the people out of Egypt, [Exo 3:2]; and when he gave him his law on Sinai, [Exo 19:18]. Moses calls God a consuming fire, [Deu 4:24]. When Christ was transfigured on the mount, his face shone like the sun, and his garment was white as the light, [Mat 17:2]. And when the Lord manifests himself to the prophets, he is always surrounded with fire, and the most brilliant light.

[¶30] Bishop Lowth has some fine remarks on the imagery and metaphors of this Psalm. The exordium, says he, is peculiarly magnificent, wherein the majesty of God is described, so far as we can investigate and comprehend it, from the admirable construction of nature; in which passage, as it was for the most part necessary to use translatitious images, the sacred poet has principally applied those which would be esteemed by the Hebrews the most elevated, and worthy such an argument; for they all, as it seems to me, are taken from the tabernacle. We will give these passages verbally, with a short illustration: - הוד והדר לבשת hod vehadar labashta. "Thou hast put on honor and majesty."

[¶31] The original, לבשת, is frequently used when speaking of the clothing or dress of the priests. [Psa 104:2] עטה אור כשלמה oteh or cassalmah. "Covering thyself with light as with a garment."

[¶32] A manifest symbol of the Divine Presence; the light conspicuous in the holiest is pointed out under the same idea; and from this single example a simile is educed to express the ineffable glory of God generally and universally. נוטה שמים כיריעה noteh shamayim kayeriah. "Stretching out the heavens like a curtain."

[¶33] The word יריעה, rendered here curtain, is that which denotes the curtains or uncovering of the whole tabernacle. This may also be an allusion to those curtains or awnings, stretched over an area, under which companies sit at weddings, feasts, religious festivals, curiously painted under, to give them the appearance of the visible heavens in the night-season.

[¶34] Verse 3 המקרה במים עליותיו hamekareh bammayim aliyothaiv. "Laying the beams of his chambers in the waters."

[¶35] The sacred writer expresses the wonderful nature of the air aptly, and regularly constructed, from various and flux elements, into one continued and stable series, by a metaphor drawn from the singular formation of the tabernacle, which, consisting of many and different parts, and easily reparable when there was need, was kept together by a perpetual juncture and contignation of them all together. The poet goes on: - השם עבים רכובו hassem abim rechubo, המהלך על כנפי רוה hamehallech al canphey ruach. "Making the clouds his chariot,

[¶36] Walking upon the wings of the wind."

[¶37] He had first expressed an image of the Divine Majesty, such as it resided in the holy of holies, discernible by a certain investiture of the most splendid light; he now denotes the same from that light of itself which the Divine Majesty exhibited, when it moved together with the ark, sitting on a circumambient cloud, and carried on high through the air. That seat of the Divine Presence is even called by the sacred historians, as its proper name, המרכבה hammercabah, The Chariot.

[¶38] Verse 4 עשה מלאכיו רחות oseh rnalachaiv ruchoth, משרתיו אש להט mesharethaiv esh lohet.

[¶39] The elements are described as prompt and expedite to perform the Divine commands, like angels or ministers serving in the tabernacle; the Hebrew word משרתיו mesharethaiv being a word most common in the sacred ministrations.

[¶40] Verse 5 יסד ארץ על מכוניה yasad erets al mechonepha, בל תמוט עולם ועד bal tammot olam vaed. "Laying the earth upon its foundations,

[¶41] That it should not be shaken for evermore."

[¶42] This image Bishop Lowth thinks evidently taken from the tabernacle, which was so laid upon its foundations that nothing could move it, and the dispensation to which it was attached, till the end purposed by the secret counsel of God was accomplished: and thus the earth is established, till the end of its creation shall be fully answered; and then it and its works shall be burnt up. On the above ground, the stability of the sanctuary and the stability of the earth are sometimes mentioned in the same words.

### Verse 6

[¶44] Thou coveredst it with the deep - This seems to be spoken in allusion to the creation of the earth, when it was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the waters invested the whole, till God separated the dry land from them; thus forming the seas and the terraqueous globe.

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[¶0] The poet Ovid has nearly the same idea: -

[¶1] Densior his tellus, elementaque grandia traxit,

[¶2] Et pressa est gravitate sua; circumfluus humor

[¶3] Ultima possedit, solidumque coercuit orbem.

[¶4] Met. lib. i., ver. 29.

[¶5] Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng

[¶6] Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy seeds along:

[¶7] About her coasts unruly waters roar;

[¶8] And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore.

[¶9] Dryden.

### Verse 7

[¶11] At thy rebuke they fled - When God separated the waters which were above the firmament from those below, and caused the dry land to appear. He commanded the separation to take place; and the waters, as if instinct with life, hastened to obey.

[¶12] At the voice of thy thunder - It is very likely God employed the electric fluid as an agent in this separation.

### Verse 8

[¶14] They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys - Taking the words as they stand here, springs seem to be what are intended. But it is difficult to conceive how the water could ascend, through the fissures of mountains, to their tops, and then come down their sides so as to form rivulets to water the valleys. Most probably all the springs in mountains and hills are formed from waters which fall on their tops in the form of rain, or from clouds that, passing over them, are arrested, and precipitate their contents, which, sinking down, are stopped by some solid strata, till, forcing their way at some aperture at their sides, they form springs and fountains. Possibly, however, vapours and exhalations are understood; these by evaporation ascend to the tops of mountains, where they are condensed and precipitated. Thus the vapours ascend, and then come down to the valleys, forming fountains and rivulets in those places which the providence of God has allotted them; that is, continuous valleys, with such a degree of inclination as determines their waters to run in that direction till they reach another river, or fall into the ocean.

[¶15] Some have thought there is a reference to the breaking up on the fountains of the great deep, at the time of the flood; while the protrusion of the waters would raise the circumambient crust, so as to form mountains, the other parts, falling in to fill up the vacuum occasioned by the waters which were thrown up from the central abyss, would constitute valleys.

[¶16] Ovid seems to paraphrase this verse: -

[¶17] Jussit et extendi campos, subsidere valles,

[¶18] Fronde tegi sylvas, lapidosos surgere montes.

[¶19] Met. lib. i., ver. 43. "He shades the woods, the valleys he restrains

[¶20] With rocky mountains, and extends the plains."

[¶21] Dryden.

### Verse 9

[¶23] Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass - And what is this bound? The flux and reflux of the sea, occasioned by the solar and lunar attraction, the rotation of the earth on its own axis, and the gravitation of the waters to the center of the earth. And what is the cause of all these? The will and energy of God. Thus the sea is prevented from drowning the earth equally where there are flat shores as where the sea seems hemmed in by huge mounds of land and mountains. The above, not these, are the bounds which it cannot pass, so that they cannot turn again to cover the earth.

### Verse 10

[¶25] He sendeth the springs into the valleys - Evaporation is guided and regulated by Divine Providence. The sun has a certain power to raise a certain portion of vapours from a given space. God has apportioned the aqueous to the terrene surface, and the solar attraction to both. There is just as much aqueous surface as affords a sufficiency of vapours to be raised by the solar attraction to water the earthy surface. Experiments have been instituted which prove that it requires a given space of aqueous surface to provide vapours for a given space of terrene surface; and the proportion appears ordinarily to be seventeen of water to three of earth; and this is the proportion that the aqueous bears to the terrene surface of the globe. See Ray's three Physico-theological Discourses.

### Verse 11

[¶27] The wild asses quench their thirst - The פרא pere, onager or wild ass, differs in nothing from the tame ass, only it has not a broken spirit, and is consequently more lively and active. It is so very swift that no horse except the Arab barb can overtake it. It is a gregarious animal, and they go in troops to feed and to drink. It is very timid, or rather jealous of its liberty, and therefore retires deep into the desert; yet even there the providence of God regards it; springs are provided, and it has the instinct to find them out.

### Verse 12

[¶29] By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation - All fowls love verdure, and have their residence where they can find wood and water.

### Verse 13

[¶31] From his chambers - The clouds, as in [Psa 104:3].

[¶32] The earth is satisfied - The inhabitants of it.

### Verse 14

[¶34] He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle - Doth God care for oxen? Yes, and there is not a beast of the field that does not share his merciful regards.

[¶35] And herb for the serviee of man - Plants, esculent herbs, and nutritive grain in general; and thus he brings forth food (לחם lechem, bread) out of the earth. In the germination and growth of a grain of wheat there is a profusion of miracles. God takes care of man, and of all those animals which are so necessary to the convenience and comfort of man.

### Verse 15

[¶37] And wine - Wine, in moderate quantity, has a wondrous tendency to revive and invigorate the human being. Ardent spirits exhilarate, but they exhaust the strength; and every dose leaves man the worse. Unadulterated wine, on the contrary, exhilarates and invigorates: it makes him cheerful, and provides for the continuance of that cheerfulness by strengthening the muscles, and bracing the nerves. This is its use. Those who continue drinking till wine inflames them, abase this mercy of God.

[¶38] Oil to make his face to shine - That is, to anoint the body; and particularly those parts most exposed to the sun and weather. This is of high importance in all arid lands and sultry climates. By it the pores are kept open, and perspiration maintained.

[¶39] Bread which strengtheneth man's heart - In hunger not only the strength is prostrated, but the natural courage is also abated. Hunger has no enterprise, emulation, nor courage. But when, in such circumstances, a little bread is received into the stomach, even before concoction can have time to prepare it for nutriment, the strength is restored, and the spirits revived. This is a surprising effect; and it has not yet been satisfactorily accounted for.

[¶40] Three of the choicest and most important articles of life are here mentioned: Wine, for the support of the vital and intellectual spirits; Bread, for the support of the nervous and muscular system; and Oil, as a seasoner of food, and for those unctions so necessary for the maintenance of health. Where wine, oil, and bread can be had in sufficient quantities, there animal food, ardent spirits, and all high-seasoned aliments, may be well dispensed with. Heavy taxes on these necessaries of life are taxes on life, itself; and infallibly lead to adulteration of the articles themselves; especially wine and oil, which, in countries where they are highly taxed, are no longer to be found pure.

### Verse 16

[¶42] The trees of the Lord are full of sap - ישבעו yisbeu, "are saturated."

[¶43] The cedars of Lebanon - God's providence not only extends to then and cattle, but also to the trees of the field and forest. Many of these are not only sustained, but planted by his providence. Who ever planted the seeds of the cedars of Lebanon, or of the thousands of woods and forests on the globe? God himself sowed those seeds, and they have sprung up and flourished without the care of man.

## 660. Psalms · 114 of 159

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### Verse 17

[¶1] Where the birds make their nests - צפרים tsipporim signifies swallows, sparrows, and small birds in general; here opposed to the חסידה chasidah or stork. Perhaps the heron may be understood, which is said to be the first of all birds to build her nest, and she builds it on the very highest trees. The general meaning is, that God has provided shelter and support for the greatest and smallest birds; they are all objects of his providential regard.

### Verse 18

[¶3] The high hills are a refuge - The barren tops of the highest hills, and the craggy abrupt precipices of the most stupendous rocks, are not without their uses: they afford protection, refuge, and food, for creatures whose dispositions and habits are suited to such places; and thus no part of the creation is useless. The creatures who are their inhabitants are necessary links in the great chain of animated beings, and show the wisdom and providence of God.

[¶4] For a description of the covey, see [Lev 11:5]. The יעל yael, translated here the wild goat, is no doubt a creature of the stag or deer kind; the ibex, chamois, antelope, etc.

### Verse 19

[¶6] He appointed the moon for seasons - The heathens thought that the sun and moon were gods, and worshipped them as such. The psalmist shows, 1. That they are creatures dependent on God for their being and continuance; and, 2. That they were made for the use of man. See what has been said on these luminaries in the notes on [Gen 1:14-16] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶8] Thou makest darkness - It is not the design of God that there should be either constant darkness or constant light. That man may labor, he gives him, by means of the sun, the light of the day; and that he may rest from his labor, and get his strength recruited, he gives him night, and comparative darkness. And as it would not be convenient for man and the wild beasts of the forest to collect their food at the same time, he has given the night to them as the proper time to procure their prey, and the day to rest in. When Man labors, They rest; when Man rests, They labor.

### Verse 21

[¶10] The young lions roar after their prey - It is said of the lion, that his roaring is so terrible as to astonish and quite unnerve the beast which he pursues; so that, though fleeter than himself, it falls down and becomes an easy prey.

### Verse 22

[¶12] The sun ariseth - The dawn of day is the warning for man to arise and betake himself to his work; and is the warning to them to retire to their dens.

### Verse 24

[¶14] O Lord, how manifold are thy works - In this verse there are three propositions:

[¶15] 1. The works of the Lord are multitudinous and varied.

[¶16] 2. They are so constructed as to show the most consummate wisdom in their design, and in the end for which they are formed.

[¶17] 3. They are all God's property, and should be used only in reference to the end for which they were created.

[¶18] All abuse and waste of God's creatures are spoil and robbery on the property of the Creator. On this verse Mr. Ray has published an excellent work, entitled, "The Wisdom of God in the Creation," which the reader will do well, not only to consult, but carefully to read over and study.

### Verse 25

[¶20] This great and wide sea - The original is very emphatic: זה הים גדול ורחב ידים zeh haiyam gadol urechab yadayim, "This very sea, great and extensive of hands." Its waters, like arms, encompassing all the terrene parts of the globe. I suppose the psalmist was within sight of the Mediterranean when he wrote these words.

### Verse 26

[¶22] There go the ships - By means of navigation, countries the most remote are connected, and all the inhabitants of the earth become known to each other. He appears at this time to have seen the ships under sail.

[¶23] That leviathan - This may mean the whale, or any of the large marine animals. The Septuagint and Vulgate call it dragon. Sometimes the crocodile is intended by the original word.

[¶24] To play therein - Dreadful and tempestuous as the sea may appear, and uncontrollable in its billows and surges, it is only the field of sport, the play-ground, the bowling-green to those huge marine monsters.

### Verse 27

[¶26] These wait all upon thee - The innumerable fry of the smaller aquatic animals, as well as whales, dolphins, porpoises, and sharks, all have their meat from God. He has in his gracious providence furnished that sort of food which is suitable to all. And this provision is various; not only for every kind of fish does God provide food, but a different kind of aliment for each in its different periods of growth. Here are displayed the goodness and infinitely varied providence of God: "He giveth them their meat in due season."

### Verse 28

[¶28] That thou givest them they gather - All creatures are formed with such and such digestive organs, and the food proper for them is provided. Infinitely varied as are living creatures in their habits and internal economy, so are the aliments which God has caused the air, the earth, and the waters to produce.

[¶29] Thou openest thine hand - An allusion to the act of scattering grain among fowls.

### Verse 29

[¶31] Thou hidest thy face - If thou bring dearth or famine on the land, contagion in the air, or any destruction on the provision made by the waters, then beasts, fowl, and fish die, and are dissolved.

### Verse 30

[¶33] Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created - יבראון yibbareun, "They are created again."

[¶34] And thou renewest the face of the earth - Do not these words plainly imply a resurrection of the bodies which have died, been dissolved, or turned to dust? And is not the brute creation principally intended here? Is it not on this account it is said, [Psa 104:31], "the glory of the Lord shall endure for ever, (לעולם leolam)," to be manifest in those times which are secret, when Jehovah himself shall rejoice in his works; when the brute creation shall be delivered from the bondage of its corruption? See the notes on [Rom 8:19-23] (note).

### Verse 32

[¶36] He looketh on the earth - Even the look of God terrifies all created nature!

[¶37] He toucheth the hills - So easy is it for God to burn up the earth and the worlds thereof, that even his touch kindles the mountains into flames! See Etna, Vesuvius, Stromboli, etc.; these are ignited by the touch of God. How majestic are these figures!

[¶38] The renewal of the earth, and re-creation of deceased animals, shall take place when he shall shake terribly the heavens and the earth; when they shall be wrapped together as a scroll, and the earth and its works be dissolved, that is, after the general convulsion and conflagration of the world.

### Verse 33

[¶40] I will sing unto the Lord - The psalmist exulting in the glorious prospect of the renovation of all things, breaks out in triumphant anticipation of the great event, and says, I will sing unto the Lord בחיי bechaiyai, with my lives, the life that I now have, and the life that I shall have hereafter.

[¶41] I will sing praise to my God - בעודי beodi, "in my eternity;" my going on, my endless progression. What astonishing ideas! But then, how shall this great work be brought about? and how shall the new earth be inhabited with righteous spirits only? The answer is,

### Verse 35

[¶43] Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more - Or, He shall consume the wicked and ungodly, till no more of them be found. Then the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God. No wonder, with these prospects before his eyes, he cries out, "Bless Jehovah, O my soul! Hallelujah!" And ye that hear of these things, bless the Lord also.

### Introduction

[¶45] An exhortation to praise God for his wondrous works, [Psa 105:1-5]; his goodness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, [Psa 105:6-16]; to Joseph in Egypt, [Psa 105:17-22]; to Israel in Egypt, [Psa 105:23-25]; to Moses in the same land, [Psa 105:26]; the plagues sent on the Egyptians, [Psa 105:27-36]; the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt, [Psa 105:37], [Psa 105:38]; how he supported them in the wilderness, [Psa 105:39-43]; and brought them into Canaan, [Psa 105:44], [Psa 105:45].

## 661. Psalms · 115 of 159

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[¶0] We find several verses of this Psalm in 1 Chronicles 16, from which it is evident that David was the author of the principal part of it: but it was probably enlarged and sung at the restoration of the people from the Babylonish captivity. The hallelujah which terminates the preceding Psalm, is made the title of this by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic: but it has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee. The Syriac considers it a paraphrase on the words, "Fear not, Jacob, to go down into Egypt; and teach us spiritually not to fear when we are obliged to contend with devils; for God is our shield, and will fight for us." The Psalm is a history of God's dealings with Abraham and his posterity, till their settlement in the promised land.

### Verse 1

[¶2] O give thanks - He had been meditating on God's gracious dealings with their fathers; and he calls upon himself and all others to magnify God for his mercies.

### Verse 2

[¶4] Talk ye of all his wondrous works - נפלאתיו niphleothaiv, "of his miracles." Who have so many of these to boast of as Christians! Christianity is a tissue of miracles; and every part of the work of grace on the soul is a miracle. Genuine Christian converts may talk of miracles from morning to night; and they should talk of them, and recommend to others their miracle-working God and Savior.

### Verse 3

[¶6] Glory ye in his holy name - Show the name Jesus: exult in it - praise it. His name was called Jesus; because he came to save his people from their sins.

[¶7] Let the heart of them rejoice - That is, the heart of those shall rejoice who seek the Lord: therefore it is added: -

### Verse 4

[¶9] Seek the Lord - Worship the one only Supreme Being, as the only and all-sufficient good for the soul of man.

[¶10] And his strength - Man is weak; and needs connection with the strong God that he may be enabled to avoid evil and do good.

[¶11] Seek his face - Reconciliation to him. Live not without a sense of his favor.

[¶12] Evermore - Let this be thy chief business. In and above all thy seeking, seek this.

### Verse 5

[¶14] Remember his marvellous works - Keep up communion with thy Maker, that thou mayest neither forget him nor his works.

[¶15] The judgments of his mouth - Whatsoever he has spoken concerning good or evil. His commands, promises, threatenings; and particularly what he has foretold, and what he has done.

### Verse 6

[¶17] O ye seed of Abraham - Ye Jews especially, who have been the peculiar objects of the Divine favor.

### Verse 7

[¶19] He is the Lord our God - He is Jehovah, the self-existent and eternal God. He is our God, he is our portion; has taken us for his people, and makes us happy in his love.

[¶20] The following abstract of the history of the Israelites presents but few difficulties. See the notes on Psalm 78 (note).

### Verse 12

[¶22] But a few men - When all appearances were against them, and nothing but the arm of God could have brought them through their difficulties, and given them a settlement in the promised land.

### Verse 13

[¶24] When they went from one nation to another - From several circumstances in the history of the travels of the ancient Hebrews, we find that the wilderness through which they then passed was well peopled.

### Verse 15

[¶26] Touch not mine anointed - It is supposed that the patriarchs are here intended; but the whole people of Israel may be meant. They were a kingdom of priests and kings unto God; and prophets, priests, and kings were always anointed.

### Verse 19

[¶28] Until the time that his word came - This appears to refer to the completion of Joseph's interpretation of the dreams of the chief butler and baker.

[¶29] The Word of the Lord tried him - This seems to refer to the interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams, called אמרת יהוה imrath Yehovah, "the oracle of the Lord," because sent by him to Pharaoh. See [Gen 41:26], and Kennicott in loco.

### Verse 25

[¶31] He turned their heart - "Their heart was turned." So the Syriac and Arabic. After befriending the Hebrews on Joseph's account, to whom they were so deeply indebted, finding them to multiply greatly in the land, and at last to become more powerful than the Egyptians themselves, they turned their attention to the adoption of measures, in order to prevent the Hebrews from possessing themselves of the government of the whole land; they curtailed them of their privileges, and endeavored to depress them by all possible means, and by a variety of legal enactments. This appears to be the sole meaning of the phrase, "He turned their heart;" or, "their heart was turned."

### Verse 27

[¶33] They showed his signs - Here is a reference to the plagues with which God afflicted the Egyptians. See Exodus 7-12 (note), [Psa 78:43] (note), and the notes on them.

### Verse 28

[¶35] They rebelled not against his word - Instead of ולא מרו velo maru, "they rebelled," some think that a ש shin has been lost from before the word, and that it should be read ולא שמרו velo shamru, "they did not observe or keep his word." Or the words may be spoken of Moses and Aaron; they received the commandment of God, and they did not rebel against it. They believed what he had spoken, and acted according to his orders. It could not be spoken of the Egyptians; for they rebelled against his words through the whole course of the transactions.

### Verse 33

[¶37] He smote their vines also, and their fig trees - This is not mentioned in Exodus; but we have had it before, [Psa 78:47].

### Verse 41

[¶39] He opened the rock, and the waters rushed out - See the note on [Exo 17:6], to which I can now add, that a piece of this rock, broken off by the hand of my nephew, E. S. A. Clarke, in the course of the present year [1822,] now lies before me. It is fine granite; and so well distinguished as a granite, that the feldt-spar, the mica, and the quartz, of which granite is composed, appear very distinctly. It is worthy of remark, that, as granite is supposed, in the most accredited systems of geology, to be the very basis of the earth, the original rock, and all other substances to be superimpositions upon it, and as the decompositions of the feldt-spar produce pure vegetable earth, this rock should be used for this purpose, and should be an emblem of Jesus Christ, the Creator and Redeemer of the human race; and that it should signify him who is the basis of all things; who upholds all by the word of his power; without whom nothing is stable, nothing fruitful; from whom alone the water of life proceeds; and in whose name only is salvation. And that rock (in the wilderness) was Christ! and it is the only remaining emblem of him in creation.

### Verse 45

[¶41] That they might observe his statutes - That they might be properly instructed, and properly disciplined. This is the end proposed by Divine revelation: men are to be made wise unto salvation, and then to be brought under the yoke of obedience. He who is not conformed to God's word shall not enter into Christ's kingdom.

### Introduction

[¶43] God is praised for his manifold mercies, [Psa 106:1-3]. The prophet prays for himself, [Psa 106:4], [Psa 106:5]. A recapitulation of the history of the Hebrew people: of God's mercies toward them, and their rebellions, vv. 6-39. The judgments and affictions which their transgressions brought upon them, [Psa 106:40-42]. God's mercy to them notwithstanding their transgressions, [Psa 106:43-46]. He prays for their restoration, [Psa 106:47], [Psa 106:48].

[¶44] As a part of the preceding Psalm is found in 1 Chronicles 16, so the first and two last verses of this are found in the same place, ([1Chr 16:34-36]), and yet it is supposed by eminent commentators to be a prayer of the captives in Babylon, who acknowledge the mercies of God, confess their own sins, and those of their forefathers, and implore the Lord to gather them from among the heathen, and restore them to their own country. In none of the Versions except the Syriac has it any title, except Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord, the word with which the original commences. The Syriac gives us a sort of table of its contents; or rather shows us the subjects to which it may be applied, and the uses we should make of it. After stating that it has no title, it says, "It calls upon men to observe the Divine precepts, and teaches us that the more the Jews transgressed, the more we should fear. That we should not talk together in the church, nor ever contend with our brethren on any account; and especially when we assist in the celebration of the Divine mysteries and in prayer: and that when we sin we should repent." All this is very good: but it would be difficult to find these subjects in the Psalm, or any thing on which they could be rationally founded. But it shows us that the Scriptures were very easily accommodated to particular uses, not originally intended: and hence arose much of the practice of spiritualizing and allegorizing; which, to say the least of it, has been of no use to the Church of Christ.

## 662. Psalms · 116 of 159

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Praise ye the Lord - This, which is a sort of title, is wanting in several MSS., and in the Syriac Version.

[¶2] O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good - Ye who live by his bounty should praise his mercy. God is the good Being, and of all kinds of good he is the Author and Dispenser. That the term God among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, expressed both the Supreme Being and good or goodness, is evident from the Anglo-Saxon version of this clause: "Confess Lord for that God, (or good), for that on world mildheartness his." Which the old Psalter thus translates and paraphrases: -

[¶3] Trans. Schifes to Lorde for he is gude; for in worlde the mercy of him.

[¶4] Par - Schryfes synes, and louyngs to God. for he is gude of kynde, that nane do bot aske his mercy; for it lastes to the worlds ende in wriches whame it comfortes and delyvers: and the blysfulhede that is gyfen thrugh mercy is endles. That is: -

[¶5] Confess your sins, and give praise to God, for he is good in his nature to all that ask his mercy; for it lasts to the world's end in comforting and delivering the wretched: and the blessedness that is given through mercy is endless.

### Verse 2

[¶7] Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? - His acts are all acts of might; and particularly those in behalf of his followers.

### Verse 3

[¶9] Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times - How near do the Anglo-Saxon, the ancient Scottish Version, and the present translation, approach to each other!

[¶10] Anglo-Saxon. "Blessed they that holdeth doom, and doth righteousness in ilkere tide."

[¶11] Anglo-Scottish.

[¶12] Blisful tha that kepes dome, and duse rightwisnes in ilk tyme.

[¶13] Those are truly blessed, or happy, whose hearts are devoted to God, and who live in the habit of obedience. Those, the general tenor of whose life is not conformed to the will of God, have no true happiness.

### Verse 4

[¶15] Remember me - This and the following clauses are read in the plural by several MSS.: Remember Us - that We may rejoice, - that We may glory, etc.: and thus all the Versions except the Chaldee; and this is more agreeable to the context.

### Verse 5

[¶17] That I may see the good of thy chosen - That I may enjoy the good, for so the word see is understood among the Hebrews. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," - they shall enjoy him, possess his favor, and be made like unto him.

### Verse 6

[¶19] We have sinned - Here the confession begins; what preceded was only the introduction to what follows: Our forefathers sinned, and suffered; we, like them, have sinned, and do suffer.

### Verse 7

[¶21] Our fathers understood not - They did not regard the operation of God's hands; and therefore they understood neither his designs nor their own interest.

[¶22] At the sea, even at the Red Sea - Some of the rabbins suppose that the repetition of the words point out two faults of the Israelites at the Red Sea.

[¶23] 1. They murmured against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt, when they saw the sea before them, and Pharaoh behind them.

[¶24] 2. When the waters were divided, they were afraid to enter in, lest they should stick in the mud which appeared at the bottom.

[¶25] The word seems to be added by way of explanation, and perhaps may refer to the above: they provoked על ים al yam, "At the sea;" בים סוף beyam suph, "In the sea Suph," or Red Sea. They provoked him at it and in it.

### Verse 8

[¶27] He saved them for his name's sake - למען שמו lemaan shemo, "on account of his name;" to manifest his own power, goodness, and perfections. There was nothing which he could draw from them as a reason why he should save them; therefore he drew the reason from himself. There is a singular gloss in the old Psalter on this verse: "Whan thai cam oute of Egypt to the rede Se, whare thai were closed on a syde with a hylle that na man mygt passe: on another side was the rede See: behynde tham was men of Egypt foluand; and for this thai began to gruch, forgetand Gods mygt: bot than he safed tham, depertand the Se in twelfe, to ilk kynde of Isrel a passage." It seems as if this author thought there were twelve passages made through the Red Sea, that each tribe should have a passage to itself.

### Verse 9

[¶29] He rebuked the Red Sea - In the descriptions of the psalmist every thing has life. The sea is an animated being, behaves itself proudly, is rebuked, and retires in confusion.

### Verse 10

[¶31] The hand of him that hated them - Pharaoh.

### Verse 12

[¶33] Then believed they - Just while the miracle was before their eyes.

### Verse 13

[¶35] They soon forgat his works - Three days afterwards, at the waters of Marah, [Exo 15:24].

[¶36] They waited not for his counsel - They were impatient, and would not wait till God should in his own way fulfll his own designs.

### Verse 15

[¶38] Sent leanness - They despised the manna, and called it light, that is, innutritive, bread. God gave flesh as they desired, but gave no blessing with it; and in consequence they did not fatten, but grew lean upon it. Their souls also suffered want.

### Verse 16

[¶40] They envied Moses - A reference to the case of Korah and his company.

[¶41] Aaron the saint - The anointed, the high priest of the Lord.

### Verse 20

[¶43] Thus they changed their glory - That is, their God, who was their glory; and they worshipped an ox in his stead. See the use St Paul makes of this, [Rom 1:23] (note); see also the note there. The incorruptible God was thus served by all the heathen world.

## 663. Psalms · 117 of 159

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### Verse 22

[¶1] Wondrous works in the land of Ham - The plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. Egypt is called the Land of Ham or Cham, because it was peopled by Misraim the son of Cham.

### Verse 23

[¶3] Moses his chosen - Or elect; (Vulgate, electus ejus; Septuagint, ὁ εκλεκτος αυτου); the person that he had appointed for this work. It would be very difficult to show that this word in any part of the Old Testament refers to the eternal state of any man, much less to the doctrine of unconditional election and reprobation.

### Verse 28

[¶5] They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor - The Vulgate, Septuagint, and others, have Belphegor; the Syriac and Arabic, the idol Phegor, or Phaaur; the ע ain in the word being pronounced as gh.

[¶6] Ate the sacrifices or the dead - מתים methim, of dead men. Most of the heathen idols were seen, who had been deified after their death; many of whom had been execrated during their life.

### Verse 33

[¶8] They provoked his spirit - המרו himru, from מרה marah, to rebel: they brought it into a rebellious state; he was soured and irritated, and was off his guard.

[¶9] So that he spake unadvisedly with his lips - For this sentence we have only these two words in the Hebrew, ויבטא בשפתיו vayebatte bisephathaiv, he stuttered or stammered with his lips, indicating that he was transported with anger. See the notes on [Num 20:10-12] (note).

### Verse 36

[¶11] They served their idols - עצביהם atsabbeyhem, their labors or griefs - idols, so called because of the pains taken in forming them, the labor in worshipping them, and the grief occasioned by the Divine judgments against the people for their idolatry.

### Verse 37

[¶13] They sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils - See [2Kgs 16:3]; [Isa 57:5]; [Eze 16:20]; ezekiel [Eze 20:26]. That causing their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch did not always mean they burnt them to death in the flames, is very probable. But all the heathen had human sacrifices; of this their history is full. Unto devils, לשדים lashshedim, to demons. Devil is never in Scripture used in the plural; there is but One devil, though there are Many demons.

### Verse 39

[¶15] And went a whoring - By fornication, whoredom, and idolatry, the Scripture often expresses idolatry and idolatrous acts. I have given the reason of this in other places. Besides being false to the true God, to whom they are represented as betrothed and married, (and their acts of idolatry were breaches of this solemn engagement), the worship of idols was frequently accompanied with various acts of impurity.

[¶16] The translation in the Anglo-Saxon is very remarkable: and they fornicated. In Anglo-Saxon, signifies to fire, to ignite; to commit adultery. So is a prostitute, a whore; and is to go a whoring, to fornicate; probably from, or to fire, and to lie, or a glutton, - one who lies with fire, who is ignited by it, who is greedily intent upon the act by which he is inflamed. And do not the words themselves show that in former times whoredom was punished, as it is now, by a disease which produces the sensation of burning in the unhappy prostitutes, whether male or female? And to this meaning the following seems particularly to be applicable.

### Verse 40

[¶18] Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled - God kindled a fire in his judgments for those who by their flagitious conduct had inflamed themselves with their idols, and the impure rites with which they were worshipped.

### Verse 43

[¶20] Many times did he deliver them - See the Book of Judges; it is a history of the rebellions and deliverances of the Israelites.

### Verse 46

[¶22] He made them also to be pitied - This was particularly true as to the Babylonish captivity; for Cyrus gave them their liberty; Darius favored them, and granted them several privileges; and Artaxerxes sent back Nehemiah, and helped him to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. See the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and see Calmet.

### Verse 47

[¶24] Save us, O Lord - and gather us - These words, says Calmet, are found in the hymn that was sung at the ceremony of bringing the ark to Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 16; but it is supposed they were added by Ezra or some other prophet: here they are in their natural place. The author of the Psalm begs the Lord to gather the Israelites who were dispersed through different countries; for at the dedication of the second temple, under Nehemiah, (where it is probable this Psalm, with the 105th and the 107th, was sung), there were very few Jews who had as yet returned from their captivity.

### Verse 48

[¶26] Blessed be the Lord God of Israel - Here both gratitude and confidence are expressed; gratitude for what God had already wrought, and confidence that he would finish the great work of their restoration.

[¶27] From everlasting to everlasting - מן האולם ועד האולם min haolam vead haolam, "from the hidden term to the hidden term," from the beginning of time to the end of time, from eternity and on to eternity. Fra worlde and into worlde, old Psalter; which it paraphrases thus: Fra with outen beginning, &withouten endyng.

[¶28] And let all the people say, Amen - Let the people join in the prayer and in the thanksgiving, that God may hear and answer. Anglo-Saxon: "And, quoth all folk, be it, be it." Hallelujah - Praise ye Jehovah! Let his name be eternally magnified! Amen.

[¶29] This is the end of the fourth book of the Psalms.

### Introduction

[¶31] A thanksgiving of the people for deliverance from difficulties and dangers; their state compared to a journey through a frightful wilderness, [Psa 107:1-9]; to confinement in a dreary dungeon, [Psa 107:10-16]; to a dangerous malady, [Psa 107:17-22]; to a tempest at sea, [Psa 107:23-32]. The psalmist calls on men to praise God for the merciful dispensations of his providence, in giving rain and fruitful seasons, after affliction by drought and famine, [Psa 107:33-38]; for supporting the poor in affliction, and bringing down the oppressors, [Psa 107:39-41]. The use which the righteous should make of these providences, [Psa 107:42]; and the advantage to be derived from a due consideration of God's merciful providence, [Psa 107:43].

[¶32] This Psalm has no title, either in the Hebrew, or any of the Versions; the word "Hallelujah," which is prefixed to some of the latter, is no title, but was most probably borrowed from the conclusion of the preceding Psalm. The author is unknown; but it was probably like Psalms 105 and 106, made and sung at the dedication of the second temple. The three Psalms seem to be on the same subject. In them the author has comprised the marvellous acts of the Lord towards his people; the transgressions of this people against God; the captivities and miseries they endured in consequence; and finally God's merciful kindness to them in their restoration from captivity, and re-establishment in their own land.

[¶33] This Psalm seems to have been sung in parts: the [Psa 107:8], [Psa 107:15], [Psa 107:21], and [Psa 107:31], with the [Psa 107:6], [Psa 107:13], [Psa 107:19], and [Psa 107:28], forming what may be called the burden of the song. In singing of which the whole chorus joined.

[¶34] We may easily perceive that the Psalm must have been sung in alternate parts, having a double burden, or intercalary verse often recurring, and another immediately following, giving a reason for the former. See the [Psa 107:8] and [Psa 107:9], the [Psa 107:15] and [Psa 107:16], the [Psa 107:21] and [Psa 107:22], the [Psa 107:31] and [Psa 107:32], and the [Psa 107:42] and [Psa 107:43], which may be reckoned under the same denomination. Dr. Lowth, in his 29th prelection, has made some excellent remarks on this Psalm. "It is observable," says he, "that after each of the intercalary verses one is added, expressive of deliverance or praise. I would farther observe, that if the Psalm be supposed to be made with a view to the alternate response of one side of the choir to the other, then it may be considered as if it were written exactly after the method of the ancient pastorals, where, be the subject of their verse what it will, each swain endeavors to excel the other; and one may perceive their thoughts and expressions gradually to arise upon each other; and hence a manifest beauty may be discovered in this Divine pastoral. We will suppose, then, that the author composed it for the use of his brethren the Jews, when, in the joy of their hearts, they were assembled after their return from captivity. At such a time, what theme could be so proper for the subject of his poem, as the manifest goodness of Almighty God? The first performers, therefore, invite the whole nation to praise God for this; a great instance of it being their late return from captivity. At [Psa 107:10], the other side take the subject, and rightly observe that the return of their great men, who were actually in chains, was a more remarkable instance of God's mercy to them, than the return of the people in general, who were only dispersed, we may suppose, up and down the open country. Then the first performers beautitully compare this unexpected deliverance to that which God sometimes vouchsafes to the languishing dying man, when he recalls, as it were, the sentence of death, and restores him to his former vigor. The others again compare it, with still greater strength and expression, to God's delivering the affrighted mariner from all the dreadful horrors of the ungovernable and arbitrary ocean. But the first, still resolved to outdo the rest, recur to that series of wonderful works which God had vouchsafed to their nation, [Psa 107:32], and of which they had so lately such a convincing proof. Wherefore at last, as in a common chorus, they all conclude with exhorting each other to a serious consideration of these things, and to make a proper return to Almighty God for them. "No doubt the composition of this Psalm is admirable throughout; and the descriptive part of it adds at least its share of beauty to the whole; but what is most to be admired is its conciseness, and withal the expressiveness of the diction, which strikes the imagination with inimitable elegance. The weary and bewildered traveler, the miserable captive in the hideous dungeon, the sick and dying man, the seaman foundering in a storm, are described in so affecting a manner, that they far exceed any thing of the kind, though never so much labored." I may add that had such an Idyl appeared in Theocritus or Virgil, or had it been found as a scene in any of the Greek tragedians, even in Aeschylus himself, it would have been praised up to the heavens, and probably been produced as their master-piece.

### Verse 1

[¶36] O give thanks - Here is a duty prescribed; and the reasons of it are immediately laid down.

[¶37] 1. He is good. This is his nature.

[¶38] 2. His mercy endureth for ever.

[¶39] This is the stream that flows from the fountain of his goodness.

### Verse 2

[¶41] Let the redeemed of the Lord say so - For they have had the fullest proof of this goodness, in being saved by the continuing stream of his mercy.

### Verse 3

[¶43] And gathered them out of the lands - Though many Jews returned into Jerusalem from various parts of the world, under the reigns of Darius Hystaspes, Artaxerxes, and Alexander the Great; yet this prophecy has its completion only under the Gospel, when all the ends of the earth hear the salvation of God.

### Verse 4

[¶45] They wandered in the wilderness - Here begins the Finest comparison: the Israelites in captivity are compared to a traveler in a dreary, uninhabited, and barren desert, spent with hunger and thirst, as well as by the fatigues of the journey, [Psa 107:5].

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Then they cried unto the Lord - When the Israelites began to pray heartily, and the eyes of all the tribes were as the eyes of one man turned unto the Lord, then he delivered them out of their distresses.

### Verse 7

[¶3] That they might go to a city of habitation - God stirred up the heart of Cyrus to give them liberty to return to their own land: and Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, at different times, brought many of them back to Judea.

### Verse 8

[¶5] O that men would praise the Lord - This is what is called the intercalary verse, or burden of each part of this responsive song: see the introduction. God should be praised because he is good. We naturally speak highly of those who are eminent. God is infinitely excellent, and should be celebrated for his perfections. But he does wonders for the children of men; and, therefore, men should praise the Lord. And he is the more to be praised, because these wonders, נפלאות niphlaoth, miracles of mercy and grace, are done for the undeserving. They are done לבני אדם libney adam, for the children of Adam, the corrupt descendants of a rebel father.

### Verse 9

[¶7] For he satisfieth the longing soul - This is the reason which the psalmist gives for the duty of thankfulness which he prescribes. The longing soul, נפש שוקקה nephesh shokekah, the soul that pushes forward in eager desire after salvation.

### Verse 10

[¶9] Such as sit in darkness - Here begins the Second similitude, which he uses to illustrate the state of the captives in Babylon viz., that of a prisoner in a dreary dungeon.

[¶10] 1. They sit in or inhabit darkness. They have no light, no peace, no prosperity.

[¶11] 2. "In the shadow of death." The place where death reigns, over which he has projected his shadow; those against whom the sentence of death has been pronounced.

[¶12] 3. They are bound in this darkness, have no liberty to revisit the light, and cannot escape from their executioners.

[¶13] 4. They are afflicted, not only by want and privation in general, but they are tortured in the prison, עני oni, afflicted, humbled, distressed.

[¶14] 5. Their fetters are such as they cannot break; they are iron. The reason of their being in this wretched state is given.

### Verse 11

[¶16] Because they rebelled against the words of God -

[¶17] 1. God showed them their duty and their interest, and commanded them to obey his word; but they cast off all subjection to his authority, acted as if they were independent of heaven and earth, and broke out into open rebellion against him.

[¶18] 2. He counsealed and exhorted them to return to him: but they contemned his advice, and turned his counsel into ridicule.

[¶19] 3. As lenient means were ineffectual, he visited them in judgment: hence it is added,

### Verse 12

[¶21] He brought down their heart with labor - He delivered them into the hands of their enemies. and, as they would not be under subjection to God, he delivered them into slavery to wicked men: "So they fell down, and there was none to help;" God had forsaken them because they had forsaken him.

### Verse 13

[¶23] Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble - This was the salutary effect which their afflictions produced: they began to cry to God for mercy and help; and God mercifully heard their prayer, and reversed their state; for,

### Verse 14

[¶25] He brought then out of darkness -

[¶26] 1. Gave them again peace and prosperity.

[¶27] 2. Repealed the sentence of death.

[¶28] 3. "Unbound the poor prisoners."

[¶29] 4. Broke their iron bonds in sunder.

### Verse 15

[¶31] O that men, etc. - This is the intercalary verse, or burden, of the second part, as it was of the first. See [Psa 107:8].

### Verse 16

[¶33] For he hath broken - This is the reason given for thanks to God for his deliverance of the captives. It was not a simple deliverance; it was done so as to manifest the irresistible power of God. He tore the prison in pieces, and cut the bars of iron asunder.

### Verse 17

[¶35] Fools because of their transgression - This is the Third comparison; the captivity being compared to a person in a dangerous malady. Our Version does not express this clause well: Fools מדרך פשעם midderech pisham, because of the way of their transgressions, are afflicted. Most human maladies are the fruits of sin; misery and sin are married together in bonds that can never be broken.

### Verse 18

[¶37] Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat - A natural description of a sick man: appetite is gone, and all desire for food fails; nutriment is no longer necessary, for death has seized upon the whole frame. See a similar image, [Job 33:20] (note).

### Verse 19

[¶39] Then they cry - The effect produced by affliction as before.

### Verse 20

[¶41] He sent his word, and healed them - He spoke: "Be thou clean, be thou whole;" and immediately the disease departed; and thus they were delivered from the destructions that awaited them.

### Verse 21

[¶43] O that men, etc. - The intercalary verse, or burden, as before.

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### Verse 22

[¶1] And let them sacrifice - For their healing they should bring a sacrifice; and they should offer the life of the innocent animal unto God, as he has spared their lives; and let them thus confess that God has spared then when they deserved to die; and let them declare also "his works with rejoicing;" for who will not rejoice when he is delivered from death?

### Verse 23

[¶3] They that go down to the sea in ships - This is the Fourth comparison. Their captivity was as dangerous and alarming as a dreadful tempest at sea to a weather-beaten mariner.

### Verse 24

[¶5] These see the works of the Lord - Splendid, Divinely impressive, and glorious in fine weather.

[¶6] His wonders in the deep - Awfully terrible in a tempest.

### Verse 25

[¶8] For he commandeth - And what less than the command of God can raise up such winds as seem to heave old Ocean from his bed?

### Verse 26

[¶10] They mount up to the heaven - This is a most natural and striking description of the state of a ship at sea in a storm: when the sea appears to run mountains high, and the vessel seems for a moment to stand on the sharp ridge of one most stupendous, with a valley of a frightful depth between it and a similar mountain, which appears to be flying in the midst of heaven, that it may submerge the hapless bark, when she descends into the valley of death below. This is a sight the most terrific that can be imagined: nor can any man conceive or form an adequate idea of it, who has not himself been at sea in such a storm.

[¶11] Their soul is melted because of trouble - This is not less expressive than it is descriptive. The action of raising the vessel to the clouds, and precipitating her into the abyss, seems to dissolve the very soul: the whole mind seems to melt away, so that neither feeling, reflection, nor impression remains, nothing but the apprehension of inevitable destruction! When the ship is buffeted between conflicting waves, which threaten either to tear her asunder or crush her together; when she reels to and fro, and staggers like a drunken man, not being able to hold any certain course; when sails and masts are an incumbrance, and the helm of no use; when all hope of safety is taken away; and when the experienced captain, the skillful pilot, and the hardy sailors, cry out, with a voice more terrible than the cry of fire at midnight, We are All lost! we are all Lost! then, indeed, are they at their wit's end; or, as the inimitable original expresses it, וחל חכמתם תתבלע vechol chochmatham tithballa, "and all their skill is swallowed up," - seems to be gulped down by the frightful abyss into which the ship is about to be precipitated. Then, indeed, can the hand of God alone "bring them out of their distresses." Then, a cry to the Almighty (and in such circumstances it is few that can lift up such a cry) is the only means that can be used to save the perishing wreck! Reader, dost thou ask why I paint thus, and from whose authority I describe? I answer: Not from any books describing storms, tempests, and shipwrecks; not from the relations of shipwrecked marines; not from viewing from the shore a tempest at sea, and seeing a vessel beat to pieces, and all its crew, one excepted, perish. Descriptions of this kind I have read, with the shipwrecked mariner I have conversed, the last scene mentioned above I have witnessed: but none of these could give the fearful impressions, the tremendous and soul-melting apprehensions, described above. "Where then have you had them?" I answer, From the great deep. I have been at sea in the storm, and in the circumstances I describe; and, having cried to the Lord in my trouble, I am spared to describe the storm, and recount the tale of his mercy. None but either a man inspired by God, who, in describing, will show things as they are, or one who has been actually in these circumstances, can tell you with what propriety the psalmist speaks, or utter the thousandth part of the dangers and fearful apprehensions of those concerned in a tempest at sea, where all the winds of heaven seem collected to urge an already crazy vessel among the most tremendous rocks upon a lee shore! God save the reader from such circumstances!

[¶12] When, in the visitation of the winds, He takes the ruffian billows by the top, Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them, With deafening clamours,on the slippery clouds, That with the hurly death itself awakes! Henry IV.

[¶13] A storm at sea - the lifting the vessel to the clouds - her sinking into the vast marine valleys - the melting of the soul - and being at their wit's end, are well touched by several of the ancient poets. See particularly Virgil's description of the storm that dispersed the fleet of Aeneas, who was himself not unacquainted with the dangers of the sea: -

[¶14] Tollimur in coelum curvato gurgite, et idem

[¶15] Subducta ad manes imos descendimus unda.

[¶16] Aen. iii., 364.

[¶17] Now on a towering arch of waves we rise,

[¶18] Heaved on the bounding billows to the skies.

[¶19] Then, as the roaring surge retreating fell,

[¶20] We shoot down headlong to the gates of hell.

[¶21] Pitt.

[¶22] Rector in incerto est, nec quid fugiatve, petatve,

[¶23] Invenit: ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis. "The pilot himself is in doubt what danger to shun; or whither to steer for safety he knows not: his skill is nonplussed by the choice of the difficulties before him."

[¶24] See more in the analysis.

### Verse 29

[¶26] He maketh the storm a calm - He causes the storm to stand dumb, and hushes the waves. See the original, where sense and sound emphatically meet: - גליהם ויחשו לדממה סארה יקם galleyhem vaiyecheshu lidemamah searah yakem He shall cause the whirlwind to stand dumb, and he shall hush their billows.

### Verse 30

[¶28] Then are they glad because they be quiet - The turbulence of the sea being hushed, and the waves still, they rejoice to see an end to the tempest; and thus, having fine weather, a smooth sea, and fair wind, they are speedily brought to the desired haven.

### Verse 31

[¶30] O that men - The intercalary verse, or burden, as before. See [Psa 107:8].

### Verse 32

[¶32] Let them exalt him also in the congregation - Their deliverance from such imminent danger, and in a way which clearly showed the Divine interposition, demands, not only gratitude of heart and the song of praise at the end of the storm, but when they come to shore that they publicly acknowledge it in the congregation of God's people. I have been often pleased, when in sea-port towns, to see and hear notes sent to the minister from pious sailors, returning thanks to the Almighty for preservation from shipwreck, and, in general, from the dangers of the sea; and for bringing them back in safety to their own port. Thus "they exalt the Lord in the congregation, and praise him in the assembly of the elders." And is it not something of this kind that the psalmist requires?

### Verse 33

[¶34] He turneth rivers into a wilderness - After having, as above, illustrated the state of the Jews in their captivity, and the deliverance which God wrought for them, he now turns to the general conduct of God in reference to the poor and needy; and his gracious Interpositions in their behalf, the providential supply of their wants, and his opposition to their oppressors. On account of the wickedness of men, he sometimes changes a fruitful land into a desert. See the general state of Egypt in the present time: once a fertile land; now an arid, sandy wilderness. Again, by his blessing on honest industry, he has changed deserts into highly fertile ground. And, as for the wickedness of their inhabitants, many lands are cursed and rendered barren; so, when a people acknowledge him in all their ways, he blesses their toil, gives them rain and fruitful seasons, and fills their hearts with joy and gladness.

### Verse 36

[¶36] And there he maketh the hungry to dwell - All this seems to apply admirably to the first colonists of any place. They flee from a land of want, an ingrata terra that did not repay their toil, and they seek the wilderness where the land wants only cultivation to make it produce all the necessaries of life. He, by his providence, so guides their steps as to lead them to rivers which they can navigate, and from which they can procure plenty of fish, and shows them wells or springs which they have not digged. The hungry dwell there; and jointly agree, for convenience and defense, to build them a city for habitation. They sow the fields which they have cleared; and plant vineyards, and orchards which yield them in creasing fruits, [Psa 107:37], and he multiplies their cattle greatly, and does not suffer them to decrease, [Psa 107:38]. What a fine picture is this of the first peopling and planting of America, and of the multiplication and extension of that people; of the Divine blessing on their industry, and the general and astonishing prosperity of their country! May they never again know what is spoken in the following verse:

### Verse 39

[¶38] Again, they are minished - Sometimes by war, or pestilence, or famine. How minished and brought low was the country already spoken of, by the long and destructive war which began in 1775, and was not ended till 1783! And what desolations, minishings, and ruin have been brought on the fertile empires of Europe by the war which commenced in 1792, and did not end till 1814! And how many millions of lives have been sacrificed in it, and souls sent unprepared into the eternal world! When God makes inquisition for blood, on whose heads will he find the blood of these slaughtered millions? Alas! O, alas!

### Verse 40

[¶40] He poureth contempt upon princes - How many have lately been raised from nothing, and set upon thrones! And how many have been cast down from thrones, and reduced to nothing! And where are now those mighty troublers of the earth? On both sides they are in general gone to give an account of themselves to God. And what an account!

[¶41] Where there is no way - Who can consider the fate of the late emperor of the French, Napoleon, without seeing the hand of God in his downfall! All the powers of Europe were leagued against him in vain, they were as stubble to his bow. "He came, He saw, and He conquered" almost every where, till God, by a Russian Frost, destroyed his tens of thousands of veteran troops. And afterwards his armies of raw conscripts would have over-matched the world had not a particular providence intervened at Waterloo, when all the skill and valor of his opponents had been nearly reduced to nothing. How terrible art thou, O Lord, in thy judgments! Thou art fearful in praises, doing wonders.

[¶42] The dreary rock of St. Helena, where there was no way, saw a period to the mighty conqueror, who had strode over all the countries of Europe!

### Verse 41

[¶44] Yet setteth he the poor on high - This probably refers to the case of the Israelites and their restoration from captivity. But these are incidents which frequently occur, and mark the superintendence of a benign Providence, and the hand of a just God; and are applicable to a multitude of cases.

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### Verse 42

[¶1] The righteous shall see it - The wicked are as inconsiderate as they are obstinate and headstrong.

[¶2] And rejoice - To have such ample proofs that God ruleth in the earth, and that none that trust in him shall be desolate.

[¶3] All iniquity shall stop her mouth - God's judgments and mercies are so evident, and so distinctly marked, that atheism, infidelity, and irreligion are confounded, and the cause of error and falsehood has become hopeless. It was only the mouth that could do any thing; and that only by lies, calumnies, and blasphemies: but God closes this mouth, pours contempt upon the head and judgment upon the heart. This may also be applied to the case of the Israelttes and the Babylonians. The former, when they turned to God, became righteous; the latter were a personification of all iniquity.

### Verse 43

[¶5] Whoso is wise - That is, He that is wise, he that fears God, and regards the operation of his hand will observe - lay up and keep, these things. He will hide them in his heart, that he sin not against Jehovah. He will encourage himself in the Lord, because he finds that he is a never-failing spring of goodness to the righteous.

[¶6] They shall understand the lovinq-kindness of the Lord - חסדי יהוה chasdey Yehovah, the exuberant goodness of Jehovah. This is his peculiar and most prominent characteristic among men; for "judgment is his strange work." What a wonderful discourse on Divine Providence, and God's management of the world, does this inimitable Psalm contain! The ignorant cannot read it without profit; and by the study of it, the wise man will become yet wiser.

### Introduction

[¶8] The psalmist encourages himself to praise the Lord for mercies he had received, [Psa 108:1-5]. He prays for the Divine succor, [Psa 108:6]; and encourages the people to expect their restoration, and the enjoyment of all their former privileges and possessions, [Psa 108:7-13].

[¶9] This Psalm is compounded of two Psalms which we have had already under review. The [Psa 108:1], [Psa 108:2], [Psa 108:3], [Psa 108:4], and [Psa 108:5], are the same with the [Psa 57:7], [Psa 57:8], [Psa 57:9], [Psa 57:10], and [Psa 57:11] of [Psa 57:1-11] : And the [Psa 108:6], [Psa 108:7], [Psa 108:8], [Psa 108:9], [Psa 108:10], [Psa 108:11], [Psa 108:12], and [Psa 108:13], are the same with the [Psa 60:5], [Psa 60:6], [Psa 60:7], [Psa 60:8], [Psa 60:9], [Psa 60:10], [Psa 60:11], and [Psa 60:12] of [Psa 60:1-12] : The variations are few, and of little moment, and the explanation may be seen in the notes on the preceding Psalms, which need not be repeated here. That the Pssalms referred to were made by David, and were applicable to the then state of his affairs, has been the opinion of many; and it is probable that the captives in Babylon composed this out of two above, and applied it to the state of their affairs. Their captivity being now ended, or nearly at an end they look and pray for their restoration to their own land, as amply as it was possessed in the most prosperous days of David. The Syriac considers it as a prophecy of the vocation of the Gentiles. The Hebrew and all the Versions attribute it to David.

### Verse 1

[¶11] Even with my glory - My greatest glory shall be in publishing thy praise. Some make the glory here to mean the Lord himself; some, the Ark of the covenant; some, the Soul of the psalmist; others, his Tongue; some, the Gift of Prophecy; and some, the psalmist's Spirit or Vein of poetry. See the notes on [Psa 57:8].

### Verse 3

[¶13] Among the people - The Jews.

[¶14] Among the nations - The Gentiles. Wherever this Psalm is sung or read, either among Jews or Gentiles, David may be said to sing praise to God.

### Verse 7

[¶16] God hath spoken in his holiness - בקדשו bekodsho; some think this means in his Holy One, referring to the Prophet Jeremiah, who predicted the captivity, its duration of seventy years, and the deliverance from it.

### Verse 10

[¶18] The strong city - The possession of the metropolis is a sure proof of the subjugation of the country.

### Verse 13

[¶20] Through God we shall do valiantly - From him we derive our courage, from him our strength, and by him our success. [For the Analysis, see the [Psa 57:1-11] (note) and [Psa 60:1-12] (note). Also see introduction to [Psa 108:1-13] (note)]

### Introduction

[¶22] The psalmist speaks against his inveterate enemies, [Psa 109:1-5]. He prays against them, and denounces God's judgments, [Psa 109:6-15]. The reason on which this is grounded, [Psa 109:16-20]. He prays for his own safety and salvation, using many arguments to induce God to have mercy upon him, [Psa 109:21-31].

[¶23] The title of this Psalm, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, has already often occurred, and on it the Versions offer nothing new. The Syriac says it is "a Psalm of David, when the people, without his knowledge, made Absalom king; on which account he was slain: but to us (Christians) he details the passion of Christ." That it contains a prophecy against Judas and the enemies of our Lord, is evident from [Act 1:20]. Probably, in its primary meaning, (for such a meaning it certainly has), it may refer to Ahithophel. The execrations in it should be rendered in the future tense, as they are mere prophetic denunciations of God's displeasure against sinners. Taken in this light, it cannot be a stumbling-block to any person. God has a right to denounce those judgments which he will inflict on the workers of iniquity. But perhaps the whole may be the execrations of David's enemies against himself. See on [Psa 109:20] (note). Ahithophel, who gave evil counsel against David, and being frustrated hanged himself, was no mean prototype of Judas the traitor; it was probably on this account that St. Peter, [Act 1:20], applied it to the case of Judas, as a prophetic declaration concerning him, or at least a subject that might be accommodated to his case.

### Verse 1

[¶25] Hold not thy peace - Be not silent; arise and defend my cause.

### Verse 2

[¶27] The mouth of the wicked and - the deceitful are opened against me - Many persons are continually uttering calumnies against me. Thou knowest my heart and its innocence; vindicate my uprightness against these calumniators.

### Verse 4

[¶29] For my love they are my adversaries - In their behalf I have performed many acts of kindness, and they are my adversaries notwithstanding; this shows principles the most vicious, and hearts the most corrupt. Many of the fathers and commentators have understood the principal part of the things spoken here as referring to our Lord, and the treatment he received from the Jews; and whatever the original intention was, they may safely be applied to this case, as the [Psa 109:2], [Psa 109:3], [Psa 109:4], and [Psa 109:5] are as highly illustrative of the conduct of the Jewish rulers towards our Lord as the following verses are of the conduct of Judas; but allowing these passages to be prophetic, it is the Jewish state rather than an individual, against which these awful denunciations are made, as it seems to be represented here under the person and character of an extremely hardened and wicked man; unless we consider the curses to be those of David's enemies. See the note on [Psa 109:20] (note).

[¶30] But I give myself unto prayer - ואני תפלה vaani thephillah; "And I prayer." The Chaldee: ואנא אצלי vaana atsalley, "but I pray." This gives a good sense, which is followed by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. The Syriac, "I will pray for them." This, not so correctly; as dreadful imprecations, not prayers, follow. But probably the whole ought to be interpreted according to the mode laid down, [Psa 109:20]. The translation and paraphrase in the old Psalter are very simple: -

[¶31] Trans. For that thyng that thai sulde hafe lufed me, thai bakbited me; bot I prayed.

[¶32] Par - That is, that sulde haf lufed me for I was godson, and thai bakbited me sayande, in Belzebub he castes oute fendes; bot I prayed for thaim.

### Verse 6

[¶34] Let Satan stand at his right hand - As the word שטן satan means an adversary simply, though sometimes it is used to express the evil spirit Satan, I think it best to preserve here its grammatical meaning: "Let an adversary stand at his right hand:" i.e., Let him be opposed and thwarted in all his purposes.

[¶35] All the Versions have devil, or some equivocal word. The Arabic has eblees, the chief of the apostate spirits; but the name is probably corrupted from the Greek διαβολος diabolos; from which the Latin diabolus. the Italian diavolo, the Spanish diablo, the French diable, the Irish or Celtic diabal, the Dutch duivel, the German teufel, the Anglo-Saxon deofal, and the English devil, are all derived. The original, διαβολος, comes from δια βαλλειν to shoot or pierce through.

### Verse 7

[¶37] Let him be condemned - יצא רשע yetse rasha. "Let him come out a wicked man;" that is let his wickedness be made manifest.

[¶38] Let his prayer become sin - Thus paraphrased by Calmet: "Let him be accused, convicted, and condemned, and let the defense which he brings for his justification only serve to deepen his guilt, and hasten his condemnation." I once more apprise the reader, that if these are not the words of David's enemies against himself, (see on [Psa 109:20] (note)), they are prophetic denunciations against a rebellious and apostate person or people, hardened in crime, and refusing to return to God.

### Verse 8

[¶40] Let another take his office - The original is פקדתו pekuddatho, which the margin translates charge, and which literally means superintendence, oversight, inspection from actual visitations. The translation in our common Version is too technical. His bishopric, following the Septuagint, επισκοπην, and Vulgate, episcopatum and has given cause to some light people to be witty, who have said, "The first bishop we read of was bishop Judas." But it would be easy to convict this witticism of blasphemy, as the word is used in many parts of the sacred writings, from Genesis downward, to signify offices and officers, appointed either by God immediately, or in the course of his providence, for the accomplishment of the most important purposes. It is applied to the patriarch Joseph, [Gen 39:4], ויפקדהו vaiyaphkidehu, he made him bishop, alias overseer; therefore it might be as wisely said, and much more correctly, "The first bishop we read of was bishop Joseph;" and many such bishops there were of God's making long before Judas was born. After all, Judas was no traitor when he was appointed to what is called his bishopric, office, or charge in the apostolate. Such witticisms as these amount to no argument, and serve no cause that is worthy of defense.

[¶41] Our common Version, however, was not the first to use the word: it stands in the Anglo-Saxon "and his episcopacy let take other." The old Psalter is nearly the same; I shall give the whole verse: Fa be made his days, and his bysshopryk another take. "For Mathai was sett in stede of Judas; and his days was fa that hynged himself."

### Verse 9

[¶43] Let his children be fatherless, etc. - It is said that Judas was a married man, against whom this verse, as well as the preceding is supposed to be spoken; and that it was to support them that he stole from the bag in which the property of the apostles was put, and of which he was the treasurer.

### Verse 10

[¶45] Set his children - beg - The father having lost his office, the children must necessarily be destitute; and this is the hardest lot to which any can become subject, after having been born to the expectation of an ample fortune.

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### Verse 11

[¶1] Let the strangers spoil his labor - Many of these execrations were literally fulfilled in the case of the miserable Jews, after the death of our Lord. They were not only expelled from their own country, after the destruction of Jerusalem, but they were prohibited from returning; and so taxed by the Roman government, that they were reduced to the lowest degree of poverty. Domitian expelled them from Rome; and they were obliged to take up their habitation without the gate Capena, in a wood contiguous to the city, for which they were obliged to pay a rent, and where the whole of their property was only a basket and a little hay. See Juvenal, Sat. ver. 11: -

[¶2] Substitit ad veteres arcus, madidamque Capenam:

[¶3] Hic ubi nocturne Numa constituebat amicae,

[¶4] Nunc sacri fontis nemus, et delubra locantur

[¶5] Judaes: quorum cophinus, foenumque supellex:

[¶6] Omnis enim populo mercedem pendere jussa est

[¶7] Arbor, et ejectis mendicat silva Camoenis.

[¶8] He stopped a little at the conduit gate,

[¶9] Where Numa modelled once the Roman state;

[¶10] In nightly councils with his nymph retired:

[¶11] Though now the sacred shades and founts are hired

[¶12] By banished Jews, who their whole wealth can lay

[¶13] In a small basket, on a wisp of hay.

[¶14] Yet such our avarice is, that every tree

[¶15] Pays for his head; nor sleep itself is free;

[¶16] Nor place nor persons now are sacred held,

[¶17] From their own grove the Muses are expelled.

[¶18] Dryden.

[¶19] The same poet refers again to this wretched state of the Jews, Sat. vi., ver. 541; and shows to what vile extremities they were reduced in order to get a morsel of bread: -

[¶20] Cum dedit ille locum, cophino foenoque relicto,

[¶21] Arcanam Judaea tremens mendicat in aurem,

[¶22] Interpres legum Solymarum, et magna sacerdos

[¶23] Arboris, ac summi fida internuncia coeli.

[¶24] Implet et illa manum, sed parcius, aere minuto.

[¶25] Qualia cunque voles Judaei somnia vendunt.

[¶26] Here a Jewess is represented as coming from the wood mentioned above, to gain a few oboli by fortune-telling; and, trembling lest she should be discovered, she leaves her basket and hay, and whispers lowly in the ear of some female, from whom she hopes employment in her line. She is here called by the poet the interpretess of the laws of Solymae, or Jerusalem, and the priestess of a tree, because obliged, with the rest of her nation, to lodge in a wood; so that she and her countrymen might be said to seek their bread out of desolate places, the stranger having spoiled their labor. Perhaps the whole of the Psalm relates to their infidelities, rebellions, and the miseries inflicted on them from the crucifixion of our Lord till the present time. I should prefer this sense, if what is said on [Psa 109:20] be not considered a better mode of interpretation.

### Verse 13

[¶28] Let his posterity be cut off - It is a fact that the distinction among the Jewish tribes in entirely lost. Not a Jew in the world knows from what tribe he is sprung; and as to the royal family, it remains nowhere but in the person of Jesus the Messiah. He alone is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Except as it exists in him, the name is blotted out.

### Verse 16

[¶30] Persecuted the poor and needy man - In the case of Jesus Christ all the dictates of justice and mercy were destroyed, and they persecuted this poor man unto death. They acted from a diabolical malice. On common principles, their opposition to Christ cannot be accounted for.

### Verse 17

[¶32] As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him - The Jews said, when crucifying our Lord, His blood be upon us and our children! Never was an imprecation more dreadfully fulfilled.

### Verse 18

[¶34] Let it come into his bowels like water - Houbigant thinks this is an allusion to the waters of jealousy; and he is probably right, - the bitter waters that produce the curse. See [Num 5:18].

### Verse 19

[¶36] And for a girdle - Let the curse cleave to him throughout life: as the girdle binds all the clothes to the body, let the curse of God bind all mischiefs and maladies to his body and soul.

[¶37] The Hindoos, Budhists, and others often wear a gold or silver chain about their waist. One of those chains, once the ornament of a Moudeliar in the island of Ceylon, lies now before me: it is silver, and curiously wrought.

### Verse 20

[¶39] Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil apainst my soul - Following the mode of interpretation already adopted, this may mean: All these maledictions shall be fulfilled on my enemies; they shall have them for their reward. So all the opposition made by the Jews against our Lord, and the obloquies and execrations wherewith they have loaded him and his religion, have fallen upon themselves; and they are awful examples of the wrath of God abiding on them that believe not.

[¶40] But is not this verse a key to all that preceded it? The original, fairly interpreted, will lead us to a somewhat different meaning: זאת פעלת שטני מאת יהוה והדברים רע על נפשי zoth peullath soteney meeth Yehovah, vehaddoberim ra al naphshi. "This is the work of my adversaries before the Lord, and of those who speak evil against my soul," or life. That is, all that is said from the sixth to the twentieth verse consists of the evil words and imprecations of my enemies against my soul, laboring to set the Lord, by imprecations, against me, that their curses may take effect. This, which is a reasonable interpretation, frees the whole Psalm from every difficulty. Surely, the curses contained in it are more like those which proceed from the mouth of the wicked, than from one inspired by tne Spirit of the living God. Taking the words in this sense, which I am persuaded is the best, and which the original will well bear and several of the Versions countenance, then our translation may stand just as it is, only let the reader remember that at the sixth verse David begins to tell how his enemies cursed Him, while he prayed for Them.

### Verse 21

[¶42] But do thou for me - While they use horrible imprecations against me, and load me with their curses, act thou for me, and deliver me from their maledictions. While they curse, do thou bless. This verse is a farther proof of the correctness of the interpretation given above.

### Verse 22

[¶44] I am poor and needy - I am allicted and impoverished; and my heart is wounded - my very life is sinking through distress.

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### Verse 23

[¶1] I am gone like the shadow - "I have walked like the declining shadow," - I have passed my meridian of health and life; and as the sun is going below the horizon, so am I about to go under the earth.

[¶2] I am tossed up and down as the locust - When swarms of locusts take wing, and infest the countries in the east, if the wind happen to blow briskly, the swarms are agitated and driven upon each other, so as to appear to be heaved to and fro, or tossed up and down. Dr. Shaw, who has seen this, says it gives a lively idea of the comparisons of the psalmist.

### Verse 24

[¶4] My knees are weak through fasting - That hunger is as soon felt in weakening the knees, as in producing an uneasy sensation in the stomach, is known by all who have ever felt it. Writers in all countries have referred to this effect of hunger. Thus Tryphioderus Il. Excid. ver 155: Τειρομενου βαρυθειεν ατερπεΐ γουνατα λιμῳ. "Their knees might fail, by hunger's force subdued;

[¶5] And sink, unable to sustain their load."

[¶6] Merrick.

[¶7] So Plautus, Curcul, act. ii., scen. 3: -

[¶8] Tenebrae oboriuntur, genua inedia succidunt. "My eyes grow dim; my knees are weak with hunger."

[¶9] And Lucretius, lib. 4: ver. 950: -

[¶10] Brachia, palpebraeque cadunt, poplitesque procumbunt. "The arms, the eyelids fall; the knees give way."

[¶11] Both the knees and the sight are particularly affected by hunger.

### Verse 25

[¶13] When they looked upon me they soaked their heads - Thus was David treated by Shimei, [2Sam 16:5], [2Sam 16:6], and our blessed Lord by the Jews, [Mat 27:39].

### Verse 27

[¶15] That they may know that this is thy hand - Let thy help be so manifest in my behalf, that they may see it is thy hand, and that thou hast undertaken for me. Or, if the words refer to the passion of our Lord, Let them see that I suffer not on my own account; "for the transgression of my people am I smitten."

### Verse 28

[¶17] Let them curse, but bless thou - See on [Psa 109:20] (note): Of the mode of interpretation recommended there, this verse gives additional proof.

### Verse 29

[¶19] Let them cover themselves - He here retorts their own curse, [Psa 109:18].

### Verse 30

[¶21] I will greatly praise the Lord - I have the fullest prospect of deliverance, and a plenary vindication of my innocence.

### Verse 31

[¶23] He shall stand at the right hand of the poor - Even if Satan himself be the accuser, God will vindicate the innocence of his servant. Pilate and the Jews condemned our Lord to death as a malefactor; God showed his immaculate innocence by his resurrection from the dead.

[¶24] The whole of this Psalm is understood by many as referring solely to Christ, the traitor Judas, and the wicked Jews. This is the view taken of it in the analysis.

### Introduction

[¶26] The Messiah sits in his kingdom at the right hand of God, his enemies being subdued under him, [Psa 110:1], [Psa 110:2]. The nature and extent of his government, [Psa 110:3]. His everlasting priesthood, [Psa 110:4]. His execution of justice and judgment, [Psa 110:5], [Psa 110:6]. The reason on which all this is founded, his passion and exaltation, [Psa 110:7].

[¶27] The Hebrew, and all the Versions, except the Arabic, attribute this Psalm to David: nor can this be doubted, as it is thus attributed in the New Testament. We have in it the celebration of some great potentates accession to the crown; but the subject is so grand, the expressions so noble, and the object raised so far above what can be called human, that no history has ever mentioned a prince to whom a literal application of this Psalm can be made. To Jesus Christ alone, to his everlasting priesthood and government, as King of kings and Lord of lords, can it be applied.

[¶28] The Jews, aware of the advantage which the Christian religion must derive from this Psalm, have labored hard and in vain to give it a contrary sense. Some have attributed it to Eliezer, the servant or steward of Abraham; and state that he composed it on the occasion of his master's victory over the four kings at the valley of Shaveh, Genesis 14: Others say it was done by David, in commemoration of his victory over the Philistines. Others make Solomon the author. Some refer it to Hezekiah, and others to Zerubbabel, etc.: but the bare reading of the Psalm will show the vanity of these pretensions. A King is described here who is David's Lord, and sits at the right hand of God; a conqueror, reigning at Jerusalem, King from all eternity - having an everlasting priesthood, Judge of all nations, triumphing over all potentates, indefatigable in all his operations, and successful in all his enterprises. Where has there ever appeared a prince in whom all these characters met? There never was one, nor is it possible that there ever can be one such, the Person excepted to whom the Psalm is applied by the authority of the Holy Spirit himself. That the Jews who lived in the time of our Lord believed this Psalm to have been written by David, and that it spoke of the Messiah alone, is evident from this, that when our Lord quoted it, and drew arguments from it in favor of his mission, [Mat 22:42], they did not attempt to gainsay it. St. Peter, [Act 2:34], and St. Paul, [1Cor 15:25]; [Heb 1:13]; [Heb 5:6], [Heb 5:10]; [Heb 7:17]; [Heb 10:12], [Heb 10:13], apply it to show that Jesus is the Messiah. Nor was there any attempt to contradict them; not even an intimation that they had misapplied it, or mistaken its meaning. Many of the later Jews also have granted that it applied to the Messiah, though they dispute its application to Jesus of Nazareth. All the critics and commentators whom I have consulted apply it to our Lord; nor does it appear to me to be capable of interpretation on any other ground. Before I proceed to take a general view of it, I shall set down the chief of the various readings found in the MSS. on this Psalm. [Psa 110:1] Said unto my Lord. Instead of לאדני ladoni, "my Lord," one MS. seems to have read ליהוה layhovah, "Jehovah said unto Jehovah, 'Sit thou on my right hand,'" etc. See De Rossi.

[¶29] Thy footstool. הדם לרגליך hadom leragleycha, "the footstool to thy feet." But eight MSS. drop the prefix ל le; and read the word in the genitive case, with the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Arabic. Many also read the word in the singular number. [Psa 110:3] Instead of בהדרי קדש behadrey kodesh, "in the beauties of holiness," בהררי קדש beharerey kodesh, "in the mountains of holiness," is the reading of thirty our of Kennicott's MSS., and fifty-three of those of De Rossi, and also of several printed editions.

[¶30] Instead of ילדתך yaldutheca, "of thy youth," ילדתיך yaladticha, "I have begotten thee," is the reading, as to the consonants, of sixty-two of Kennicott's and twenty-three of De Rossi's MSS., and of some ancient editions, with the Septuagint, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. [Psa 110:4] After the order, על דברתי al dibrathi, דברתו dibratho, "His order," is the reading of twelve of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. [Psa 110:5] The Lord, אדני adonai: but יהוה Yehovah is the reading of a great number of the MSS. in the above collections. [Psa 110:6] Instead of בגוים baggoyim, "among the heathens" or nations, גוים goyim, "he shall judge the heathen," is the reading of one ancient MS.

[¶31] Instead of ראש rosh, "the head," ראשי rashey, "the heads," is the reading of one MS., with the Chaldee, Septuagint, Vulgate, and Anglo-Saxon. [Psa 110:7] For ירים yarim, "he shall lift up," ירום yarom, "shall be lifted up," is tthe reading of six MSS. and the Syriac.

[¶32] Instead of ראש rosh, "The head," ראשו rosho, "His head," is the reading of two MSS. and the Syriac.

[¶33] A few add הללו יה halelu Yah, "Praise ye Jehovah;" but this was probably taken from the beginning of the following Psalm.

[¶34] The learned Venema has taken great pains to expound this Psalm: he considers it a Divine oracle, partly relating to David's Lord, and partly to David himself.

[¶35] 1. David's Lord is here inducted to the highest honor, regal and sacerdotal, with the promise of a most flourishing kingdom, founded in Zion, but extending every where, till every enemy should be subdued.

[¶36] 2. David is here promised God's protection; that his enemies shall never prevail against him; but he must go through many sufferings in order to reach a state of glory.

[¶37] 3. The time in which this oracle or prophecy was delivered was probably a little after the time when David had brought home the ark, and before he had his wars with the neighboring idolatrous nations. The kingdom was confirmed in his hand; but it was not yet extended over the neighboring nations.

### Verse 1

[¶39] The Lord said unto my Lord - Jehovah said unto my Adoni. That David's Lord is the Messiah, is confirmed by our Lord himself and by the apostles Peter and Paul, as we have already seen.

[¶40] Sit thou at my right hand - This implies the possession of the utmost confidence, power, and preeminence.

[¶41] Until I make thine enemies - Jesus shall reign till all his enemies are subdued under him. Jesus Christ, as God, ever dwelt in the fullness of the Godhead; but it was as God-man that, after his resurrection, he was raised to the right hand of the Majesty on high, ever to appear in the presence of God for us.

### Verse 2

[¶43] The rod of thy strength - The Gospel - the doctrine of Christ crucified; which is the powerful scepter of the Lord that bought us, is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword; and is the power of God to salvation to all them that believe.

[¶44] The kingdom of our Lord was to be founded in Zion, and thence, by gradual conquests, to be extended over the whole earth. It was in Zion the preaching of the Gospel first began; and it is by the Gospel that Christ rules, even in the midst of his enemies; for the Gospel extends a moralizing influence over multitudes who do not receive it to their salvation.

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### Verse 3

[¶1] Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power - This verse has been wofully perverted. It has been supposed to point out the irresistible operation of the grace of God on the souls of the elect, thereby making them willing to receive Christ as their Savior. Now, whether this doctrine be true or false it is not in this text, nor can it receive the smallest countenance from it. There has been much spoken against the doctrine of what is called free will by persons who seem not to have understood the term. Will is a free principle. Free will is as absurd as bound will, it is not will if it be not free; and if it be bound it is no will. Volition is essential to the being of the soul, and to all rational and intellectual beings. This is the most essential discrimination between matter and spirit. Matter can have no choice; Spirit has. Ratiocination is essential to intellect; and from these volition is inseparable. God uniformly treats man as a free agent; and on this principle the whole of Divine revelation is constructed, as is also the doctrine of future rewards and punishments. If man be forced to believe, he believes not at all; it is the forcing power that believes, not the machine forced. If he be forced to obey, it is the forcing power that obeys; and he, as a machine, shows only the effect of this irresistible force. If man be incapable of willing good, and nilling evil, he is incapable of being saved as a rational being; and if he acts only under an overwhelming compulsion, he is as incapable of being damned. In short, this doctrine reduces him either to a punctum stans, which by the vis inertiae is incapable of being moved but as acted upon by foreign influence; or, as an intellectual being, to nonentity. "But if the text supports the doctrine laid upon it, vain are all these reasonings." Granted. Let us examine the text. The Hebrew words are the following: עמך נדבת ביום חילך ammecha nedaboth beyom cheylecha, which literally translated are, Thy princely people, or free people, in the day of thy power; and are thus paraphrased by the Chaldee: "Thy people, O house of Israel, who willingly labor in the law, thou shalt be helped by them in the day that thou goest to battle."

[¶2] The Syriac has: "This praiseworthy people in the day of thy power."

[¶3] The Vulgate: "With thee is the principle or origin (principium) in the day of thy power." And this is referred, by its interpreters, to the Godhead of Christ; and they illustrate it by [Joh 1:1] : In principio erat Verbum, "In the beginning was the Word."

[¶4] The Septuagint is the same; and they use the word as St. John has it in the Greek text: Μετα σου ἡ αρχη εν ἡμερᾳ της δυναμεως σου· "With thee is the Arche, or principle, in the day of thy power."

[¶5] The Ethiopic is the same; and the Arabic nearly so, but rather more express: "The government, riasat, exists with thee in the day of thy power."

[¶6] The Anglo-Saxon, "With thee the principle in day of thy greatness."

[¶7] The old Psalter, With the begynnyngs in day of thi vertu. Which it thus paraphrases: "I, the fader begynnyng with the, begynnyng I and thou, an begynnyng of al thyng in day of thi vertu."

[¶8] Coverdale thus: "In the day of thy power shal my people offre the free-will offeringes with a holy worship." So Tindal, Cardmarden, Beck, and the Liturgic Version.

[¶9] The Bible printed by Barker, the king's printer, 4th. Lond. 1615, renders the whole verse thus: "Thy people shall come willingly at the time of assembling thine army in the holy beauty; the youth of thy womb shall be as the morning dew."

[¶10] By the authors of the Universal History, vol. iii., p. 223, the whole passage is thus explained: "The Lord shall send the rod, or scepter, of thy power out of Sion," i.e., out of the tribe of Judah: compare [Gen 49:20], and [Psa 78:68]. "Rule thou over thy free-will people;" for none, but such are fit to be Christ's subjects: see [Mat 11:29]. "In the midst of thine enemies," Jews and heathens; or, in a spiritual sense, the world, the flesh, and the devil. "In the day of thy power," i.e., when all power shall be given him, both in heaven and earth; [Mat 28:18]. "In the beauties of holiness," which is the peculiar characteristic of Christ's reign, and of his religion.

[¶11] None of the ancient Versions, nor of our modern translations, give any sense to the words that countenances the doctrine above referred to; it merely expresses the character of the people who shall constitute the kingdom of Christ. נדב nadab signifies to be free, liberal, willing, noble; and especially liberality in bringing offerings to the Lord, [Exo 25:2]; [Exo 35:21], [Exo 35:29]. And נדיב nadib signifies a nobleman, a prince, [Job 21:8]; and also liberality. נדבה nedabah signifies a free-will offering - an offering made by superabundant gratitude; one not commanded: see [Exo 36:3]; [Lev 7:16], and elsewhere. Now the עם נדבות am nedaboth is the people of liberality - the princely, noble, and generous people; Christ's real subjects; his own children, who form his Church, and are the salt of the world; the bountiful people, who live only to get good from God that they may do good to man. Is there, has there ever been, any religion under heaven that has produced the liberality, the kindness, the charity, that characterize Christianity? Well may the followers of Christ be termed the am nedaboth - the cheerfully beneficent people. They hear his call, come freely, stay willingly, act nobly, live purely, and obey cheerfully.

[¶12] The day of Christ's power is the time of the Gospel, the reign of the Holy Spirit in the souls of his people. Whenever and wherever the Gospel is preached in sincerity and purity, then and there is the day or time of Christ's power. It is the time of his exaltation. The days of his flesh were the days of his weakness; the time of his exaltation is the day of his power.

[¶13] In the beauties of holiness - בהדרי קדש behadrey kodesh, "In the splendid garments of holiness." An allusion to the beautiful garments of the high priest. Whatever is intended or expressed by superb garments, they possess, in holiness of heart and life, indicative of their Divine birth, noble dispositions, courage, etc. Their garb is such as becomes the children of so great a King. Or, They shall appear on the mountains of holiness, bringing glad tidings to Zion.

[¶14] From the womb of the morning - As the dew flows from the womb of the morning, so shall all the godly from thee. They are the dew of thy youth; they are the offspring of thy own nativity. As the human nature of our Lord was begotten by the creative energy of God in the womb of the Virgin; so the followers of God are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but by the Divine Spirit.

[¶15] Youth may be put here, not only for young men, but for soldiers; - so the Trojana juventus "the Trojan troops," or soldiers, in Virgil, Aen. 1: ver. 467; - and for persons, courageous, heroic, strong, active, and vigorous. Such were the apostles, and first preachers of the Gospel; and, indeed, all genuine Christians. They may be fully compared to dew, for the following reasons: -

[¶16] 1. Like dew, they had their origin from heaven.

[¶17] 2. Like dew, they fructified the earth.

[¶18] 3. Like dew, they were innumerable.

[¶19] 4. Like dew, they were diffused over the earth.

[¶20] 5. Like dew, they came from the morning; the dawn, the beginning of the Gospel day of salvation.

[¶21] 1. As the morning arises in the East, and the sun, which produces it, proceeds to the West; so was the coming of the Son of man, and of his disciples and apostles.

[¶22] 2. They began in the East - Asia Proper and Asia Minor; and shone unto the West - Europe, America, etc. Scarcely any part of the world has been hidden from the bright and enlivening power of the Sun of Righteousness; and now this glorious sun is walking in the greatness of its strength.

[¶23] Saw ye not the cloud arise,

[¶24] Little as a human hand?

[¶25] Now it spreads along the skies,

[¶26] Hangs o'er all the thirsty land.

[¶27] Lo, the promise of a shower

[¶28] Drops already from above;

[¶29] But the Lord will shortly pour

[¶30] All the spirit of his love.

[¶31] The heavenly dew is dropping every where from the womb of the morning; and all the ends of the earth are about to see the salvation of God.

### Verse 4

[¶33] The Lord hath sworn - Has most firmly purposed, and will most certainly perform it, feeling himself bound by his purpose, as an honest man would by his oath.

[¶34] And will not repent - Will never change this purpose; it is perfectly without condition, and without contingency. Nothing is left here to the will of man or angel. Christ shall be incarnated, and the Gospel of his salvation shall be preached over the whole earth. This is an irresistible decree of that God who loves mankind.

[¶35] Thou art a priest for ever - The word כהן cohen signifies, not only a priest, but also a prince; as, in the patriarchal times, most heads of families had and exercised both political and sacerdotal authority over all their descendants. Every priest had a threefold office:

[¶36] 1. He was an instructor of the family or tribe over which he presided.

[¶37] 2. He offered sacrifices for the sins of the people, to reconcile them to God, and give them access to his presence.

[¶38] 3. He was their mediator, and interceded for them. So is Christ, the grand, the universal Instructor, by his word and Spirit; the Lamb of God, who, by his sacrificial offering of himself, takes away the sin of the world, and still continues to exhibit himself before the throne in his sacrificial character; and also the great Mediator between God and man: and in these characters he is a Priest for ever. He will instruct, apply the sacrificial offering, and intercede for man, till time shall be no more.

[¶39] After the order of Melchizedek - For the elucidation of this point, the reader is requested to refer to the notes on [Gen 14:18], [Gen 14:19], and to the observations at the end of that chapter, where the subject, relative to the person, name, and office of this ancient king, is fully discussed; and it will be necessary to read that note, etc., as if appended to this place.

[¶40] Melchizedek was king of Salem, that is, king of Jerusalem; for Salem was its ancient name: but שלם salem signifies peace, and צדק tsedek, righteousness. Christ is styled the Prince of peace; and he is the king that rules in the empire of righteousness; and all peace and righteousness proceed from him, [Heb 7:2].

[¶41] He is priest after the order of Melchizedek - after his pattern; in the same kind or manner of way in which this ancient king was priest.

[¶42] Calmet properly observes that there were three orders of priesthood.

[¶43] 1. That of royalty. All ancient kings being, in virture of their office, priests also. This seems to have been considered as the natural right of royalty, as it obtained in almost every nation of the earth, from the beginning of the world down to the end of the Roman empire.

[¶44] 2. That of the first-born. This right appertained naturally to Reuben, as the first-born in the family of Jacob.

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[¶0] 3. That of the Levites, instituted by God himself, and taken from Reuben, because of his transgression. The Levitical priesthood ended with the Jewish polity; and that also of the first-born, which had been absorbed in it.

[¶1] This order, therefore, was not perpetual; it was intended to last only for a time. But that of royalty is perpetual, though not now in general use, because founded in what is called natural right. It is, therefore, according to this most ancient order, that Christ is a Priest for ever. The kings of England as heads of the Church appointing all bishops, continue to assume, in a certain way, this original right.

[¶2] Melchizedek is said to be "without father without mother, without beginning of days, or end of life." We have no account of his parents; nothing of his birth; nothing of his death. Christ, as to his Divine nature, is without father or mother, and without beginning of days; nor can he have any end. Other priests could not continue by reason of death; but he is the Eternal, he cannot die, and therefore can have no successor: "He is a priest For Ever." Therefore, as Melchizedek was a priest and a king, and had no successor, so shall Christ be: of the increase and government of his kingdom there shall be no end.

[¶3] Melchizedek was priest of the Most High God; and consequently not of one people or nation, but of the universe. Aaron was priest of one people, and for a time only; Jesus is priest of all mankind, and for ever. He tasted death for every man; he is the King eternal; he has the keys of hell and of death. As God is the King and Governor of all human beings, Christ, being the priest of the Most High God, must also be the priest for and over all whom this most high God made and governs; and therefore he is the priest, the atoning sacrifice, of the whole human race. In this the main similitude consists between the order of Melchizedek and that of Christ.

### Verse 5

[¶5] The Lord at thy right hand - Here Venema thinks the Psalm speaks of David. As Jesus is at the right hand of God, so he will be at thy hand, giving thee all the support and comfort requisite.

[¶6] Shall strike through kings - As he did in the case of Abraham, Genesis 14:1-16, (for to this there seems to be an allusion), where he smote four kings, and filled the pits with the dead bodies of their troops. That the allusion is to the above transaction seems the most probable because in the same chapter, where the defeat of the four kings is mentioned, we have the account of Melehizedek coming to meet Abraham, and receiving the tenth of the spoils.

### Verse 6

[¶8] He shall judge among the heathen - David shall greatly extend his dominion, and rule over the Idumeans, Moabites, Philistines, etc.

[¶9] He shall fill - with the dead bodies - He shall fill pits - make heaps of slain; there shall be an immense slaughter among his enemies.

[¶10] He shall wound the heads - He shall so bring down the power of all the neighboring kings, as to cause them to acknowledge him as their lord, and pay him tribute.

### Verse 7

[¶12] He shall drink of the brook in the way - He shall have sore travail, and but little ease and refreshment: but he shall still go on from conquering to conquer.

[¶13] Therefore shall he lift up the head - Or his head. He shall succeed in all his enterprises, and at last be peaceably settled in his ample dominions.

[¶14] But these verses, as well as the former, may be applied to our Lord. The fifth verse may be an address to Jehovah: Adonai at thy right hand, O Jehovah, shall smite kings - bring down all powers hostile to his empire, in the day of his wrath - when, after having borne long, he arises and shakes terribly the rulers of the earth. [Psa 110:6] He shall judge, give laws, among the heathen - send his Gospel to the whole Gentile world. He shall fill the field of battle with the dead bodies of the slain, who had resisted his empire, and would not have him to reign over them.

[¶15] He shall wound the heads over many countries - This must be spoken against some person possessing a very extensive sway. Perhaps Antichrist is meant; he who has so many countries under his spiritual domination. Christ shall destroy every person, and every thing, which opposes the universal spread of his own empire. He will be a King, as well as a Priest for ever. [Psa 110:7] He shall drink of the brook - he shall suffer sorely, and even die in the struggle: but in that death his enemies shall all perish; and he shall lift up the head - he shall rise again from the dead, possessing all power in heaven and earth, ascend to the throne of glory, and reign till time shall be no more. He must suffer and die, in order to have the triumphs already mentioned.

[¶16] While all have acknowledged that this Psalm is of the utmost importance, and that it speaks of Christ's priesthood and victories, it is amazing how various the interpretations are which are given of different passages. I have endeavored to give the general sense in the preceding notes, and to explain all the particular expressions that have been thought most difficult: and by giving the various readings from the MSS., have left it to the learned reader to make farther improvements.

[¶17] It has, however, long appeared to me that there is a key by which all the difficulties in the Psalm may be unlocked. As this has not been suggested by any other, as far as I know, I shall without apology lay it before the reader: -

[¶18] The hundred and tenth Psalm is a War Song, and every phrase and term in it is Military.

[¶19] 1. In the first place may be considered here the proclamation of the Divine purpose relative to the sacerdotal, prophetic, and regal offices of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My Right Hand."

[¶20] 2. A grievous battle, and consequent victory over the enemy, foretold: I Will Make Thine Enemies the Footstool to Thy Feet, [Psa 110:1].

[¶21] 3. The ensign displayed: "The Lord Shall Send Forth the Rod of Thy Strength; the pole on which the banner shall be displayed, at the head of his strength - his numerous and powerful forces.

[¶22] 4. The inscription, device, or motto on this ensign: "Rule Thou in the Midst of Thine Enemies," [Psa 110:2].

[¶23] 5. The muster of the troops. A host of bold spirited volunteers; not mercenaries, neither kidnapped nor impressed; but עם נדבות am nedaboth, a volunteer people; high-born, loyal subjects; veteran soldiers; every man bringing gifts to his General and King.

[¶24] 6. The regimentals or uniform in which they shall appear: "The Beauties of Holiness; הדרי קדש hadrey kodesh, the splendid garments of holiness. The apparel showing the richness of the King, and the worth and order of the soldiers; every man being determined to do his duty, and feeling assured of conquest. The Lacedaemonian soldiers were clothed in scarlet; and never went to battle without crowns and garlands upon their heads, being always sure of victory. Potter's Ant., vol. ii., p. 55.

[¶25] 7. The number of the troops: They Shall Be As the Drops of Dew at Break of Day: - innumerable; and this shall be in consequence ילדתך yalduthecha, of thy nativity-the manifestation of Jesus. Thou shalt be born unto men; They shall be born of thy Spirit, [Psa 110:3].

[¶26] 8. The title of the commander: "Thou Art a Priest," כהן cohen, a Priest and a Prince. So was Agamemnon in Homer, and Aeneas in Virgil. Both were princes; both were priests and both were heroes.

[¶27] 9. The perpetuity of this office: "For Ever;" לעולם Ieolam, for futurity - for all time - till the earth and the heavens are no more.

[¶28] 10. The resolution of setting up such a Priest and lying, and levying such an army: According to the Order of Melchizedek. The Commander, muster, and establishment of the corps shall be according to the plan of that ancient king and priest; or, translating the words literally, על דברתי מלכי צדק al dabarti malki tsedek, all shall be executed as I have spoken to my righteous king; I have sworn, and will not change my purpose. All my purposes shall be fulfilled. This speaking may refer to the purpose, [Psa 110:1], confirmed by an oath, [Psa 110:4].

[¶29] 11. Victory gained: Adonai at Thy Right Hand Hath Transfixed (מחץ machats) Kings in the Day of His Wrath, i.e., of battle and victory. Jesus, the Almighty King and Conqueror, fights and gains his battles, while sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [Psa 110:5].

[¶30] 12. Judgment instituted and executed: "He Shall Judge Among the Heathen," בגים baggoyim, among the nations. He shall bring forth, judge, and condemn his enemies; and he shall fill pits with the bodies of executed criminals, [Psa 110:6].

[¶31] 13. False religion, supporting itself by the secular arm under the name of true religion, shall be destroyed. מחץ ראש על ארץ רבה machats rosh al erets rabbah; "He smites the head that is over an extensive land" or country. The priesthood that is not according to the order of Melchizedek shall be destroyed; and all government that is not according to him who is the eternal King and Priest, shall be brought down and annihilated. Who is this great Head? this usurping power? this antichristian authority? Let the Italian archbishop answer, [Psa 110:6].

[¶32] 14. Refreshment and rest, the fruits of the victories which have been gained: "He Shall Drink of the Brook in the Way; Therefore, Shall He Lift Up the Head." He and his victorious army, having defeated and pursued his enemies, and being spent with fatigue and thirst, are refreshed by drinking from a rivulet providentially met with in the way. But the rout being now complete and final,

[¶33] 15. The emperor is proclaimed and triumphs: God lifts up the Head, - ראש rosh, the Chief, the Captain; as the word often means. Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, has a complete triumph; eternal peace and tranquillity are established. The Messiah is all in all - the last enemy, Death, is destroyed. Jesus, having overcome, has sat down with the Father upon his throne; and his soldiers, having also overcome through the blood of the Lamb, seated with him on the same throne, are for ever with the Lord. They see him as he is; and eternally contemplate and enjoy his glory: - "Far from a world of grief and sin,

[¶34] With God eternally shut in."

[¶35] Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Amen, Amen.

### Introduction

[¶37] The psalmist praises the Lord, and extols his works as great, honorable, glorious, and magnificent, [Psa 111:1-4]; his providence and kindness to his followers, [Psa 111:5-8]; the redemption he has granted to his people, [Psa 111:9]. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, [Psa 111:10].

[¶38] This is one of the alphabetical or acrostic Psalms: but it is rather different from those we have already seen, as the first eight verses contain each two members; and each member commences with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But the two last verses are composed of three members each, characterized the same way, making twenty-two members or hemistichs in the whole, to each of which a consecutive letter of the alphabet is prefixed. But this division is not proper: it should follow the arrangement in the Hebrew poetry, where every hemistich stands by itself, and each contains a complete sense. The Psalm has no title in the Hebrew, unless the word Hallelujah be considered as such; and the thanksgivings which it contains were probably composed for the benefit of the Jews after their return from captivity.

### Verse 1

[¶40] I will praise the Lord with my whole heart - If we profess to "sing to the praise and glory of God," the heart, and the whole heart, without division and distraction, must be employed in the work.

[¶41] In the assembly - בסוד besod, in the secret assembly - the private religious meetings for the communion of saints. And in the congregation, עדה edah, the general assembly - the public congregation. There were such meetings as the former ever since God had a Church on the earth; and to convey general information, there must be public assemblies.

### Verse 2

[¶43] The works of the Lord are great - גדלים gedolim, vast in magnitude; as רבים rabbim signifies their multitude and variety.

[¶44] Sought out - Investigated, carefully examined.

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[¶0] Of all them that have pleasure therein - By all that delight in them: by every genuine philosopher; every lover of nature; he who traces out the great First Cause by means of his works. And the man that does so will be astonished at the perfections of the Creator, and admire all the operations of his hands.

### Verse 3

[¶2] His work is honorable, etc. - He has done nothing in nature or grace that does not redound to his own honor and glory; and because all is done in righteousness, it endureth for ever.

### Verse 4

[¶4] He hath made his wonderful works - He who seeks them out will never forget them; and every thing of God's framing is done in such a way, as to strike the imagination, interest the senses, and charm and edify the intellect. But the psalmist may here intend principally the works of God in behalf of the Jewish people; and particularly in their deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, which this Psalm is supposed to celebrate.

### Verse 5

[¶6] He hath given meat - טרף tereph, Prey. This may allude to the quails in the wilderness. The word signifies what is taken in hunting - wild beasts, venison, or fowls of any kind; particularly such as were proper for food. It also signifies spoil taken from enemies. And he may also refer to the wondrous manner in which they were fed and supported during their captivity; and by his support he proved that he was mindful of his covenant. He had promised such blessings; he was faithful to his promises.

### Verse 6

[¶8] The power of his works - They have seen that these things did not arrive in the common course of nature, it was not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts they were done. And it required a display of the power of God to give them the heritage of the heathen.

### Verse 7

[¶10] Verity and judgment - His works are verity or truth, because they were wrought for the fulfillment of the promises he made to their fathers. And they were just; for their punishment was in consequence of their infidelities: and the punishment of the Babylonians was only in consequence of their gross iniquities; and in both respects he had proved his work to be according to justice and judgment.

### Verse 8

[¶12] They stand fast for ever - סמוכים semuchim, they are propped up, buttressed, for ever. They can never fail; for God's power supports his works, and his providence preserves the record of what he has done.

### Verse 9

[¶14] He sent redemption - He sent Moses to redeem them out of Egypt; various judges to deliver them out of the hands of their oppressors; Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel, to deliver them from Babylon; and the Lord Jesus to redeem a whole lost world from sin, misery, and death.

[¶15] Holy and reverend is his name - The word reverend comes to us from the Latins, reverendus, and is compounded of re, intensive, and vereor, to be feared; and most or right reverend, reverendissimus, signifies to be greatly feared. These terms are now only titles of ecclesiastical respect, especially in the Protestant ministry; but there was a time in which these were no empty titles. Such was the power of the clergy, that, when they walked not in the fear of the Lord, they caused the people to fear, and they themselves were to be feared; but, when the secular power was added to the spiritual, they were then truly reverendi and reverendissimi, to be feared and greatly to be feared. But reverend is not applied to God in this way; nor does the word נורא nora bear this signification; it rather means terrible: Holy and terrible, or holy and tremendous, is his name. This title belongs not to man; nor does any minister, in assuming the title reverend, assume this. Indeed, the word reverend, as now used, gives us a very imperfect conception of the original term. Holy and tremendous is God's name. He is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, both in the way of judgment and in the way of mercy.

### Verse 10

[¶17] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom - The original stands thus: ראשית חכמה יראת יהוה reshith chokmah, yirath Yehovah, The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jehovah. Wisdom itself begins with this fear; true wisdom has this for its commencement. It is the first ingredient in it, and is an essential part of it. In vain does any man pretend to be wise who does not fear the Lord; and he who fears the Lord departs from evil: he who lives in sin neither fears God, nor is wise.

[¶18] A good understanding have all they that do his commandments - These last words we add as necessary to make up the sense; but there is no need of this expedient, as the words of the original literally read thus: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jehovah; good discernment to the doers." That is, They who act according to the dictates of wisdom, the commencement of which is the fear of Jehovah, have a sound understanding, discern their duty and their interest, and live to secure their own peace, their neighbour's good, and God's glory.

### Introduction

[¶20] The blessedness of the man that fears the Lord, both as it regards himself and his family, [Psa 112:1-3]; his conduct to his family, his neighbors, and the poor, [Psa 112:4-9]; the envy of the wicked at his prosperity, [Psa 112:10].

[¶21] This is another of the acrostic or alphabetical Psalms, under the title Hallelujah. It is formed exactly as the preceding in the division of its verses. It has ten verses in the whole: the first eight contain each two hemistichs, beginning with a consecutive letter of the alphabet; the ninth and tenth verses, three each, making twenty-two in the whole. It is understood to have been written after the captivity, and probably by Zechariah and Haggai: to them it is ascribed by the Vulgate.

### Verse 1

[¶23] Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord - This seems to be the continuation of the preceding Psalm: there it was asserted that the beginning of wisdom was the fear of the Lord; and here the blessedness of the man who thus fears is stated.

[¶24] That delighteth greatly - It is not enough to fear God, we must also love him: fear will deter us from evil; love will lead us to obedience. And the more a man fears and loves God, the more obedient will he be; till at last he will delight greatly in the commandments of his Maker.

### Verse 2

[¶26] His seed shall be mighty - זרעו zaro, his posterity. So the word should always be understood in this connection.

### Verse 3

[¶28] Wealth and riches shall be in his house - This is often the case: a godly man must save both time and money. Before he was converted he lost much time, and squandered his money. All this he now saves, and therefore wealth and riches must be in his house; and if he do not distribute to the necessities of the poor, they will continue to accumulate till they be his curse; or God will, by his providence, sweep them away. Both צדקה tsedakah and δικαιοσυνη are often used to signify, not only justice and righteousness, but also beneficence and almsgiving; and this is most probably the meaning here. See [Psa 112:9].

### Verse 4

[¶30] There ariseth light in the darkness - The upright are always happy; and when tribulations come, God lifts up the light of his countenance upon him, and causes all occurences to work together for his good.

[¶31] He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous - He enjoys the favor of God; that grace makes him compassionate; and in the general tenor of his conduct he is righteous. From these principles he shows favor ([Psa 112:5]) to him that needs it; that is, to the real poor he gives of his substance; and others he obliges by lending, they not being utterly in want, but standing in need only of a little present help. But he takes heed to whom he gives and to whom he lends; that in the first case his bounty may be well applied, and in the second he may not oblige the person who only seeks, under the notion of a loan, to appropriate the money borrowed. To prevent evils of this kind he acts prudently, and guides his affairs with discretion, [Psa 112:5].

### Verse 7

[¶33] He shall not be afraid of evil tidings - He knows that God governs the world, therefore he fears not for futurity. And as to the calumnies of men, he fears them not, because his heart is fixed - determined to walk in the path of duty, whatever persecutions he may suffer, for he trusts in the Lord.

### Verse 8

[¶35] His heart is established - סמוך לבו samuch libbo, "his heart is propped up;" he is buttressed up by the strength of his Maker.

### Verse 9

[¶37] He hath dispersed - He has scattered abroad his munificence; he has given particularly to the poor; his righteousness - his almsgiving, his charity, remaineth for ever. See on [Psa 112:3] (note).

[¶38] His horn - His power and authority shall be exalted with honor. He shall rise to influence only through his own worth, and not by extortion or flattery.

### Verse 10

[¶40] The wicked shall see it - רשע rasha, the wicked one. Some think Satan is meant. It is distinguished from רשעים reshaim, wicked men, in the conclusion of the verse.

[¶41] Shall gnash with his teeth - Through spite and ill will.

[¶42] And melt away - Through envy and hopeless expectation of similar good; for his desire in reference to himself and in reference to him who is the object of his envy, shall perish - shall come to nothing.

### Introduction

[¶44] An exhortation to bless God for his own excellencies, [Psa 113:1-6]; and for his great mercy to the poor and necessitous, [Psa 113:7-9]. [Psa 113:1-9], [Psa 114:1-8], 115, 116, [Psa 117:1-2], and 118, form the great Hallel, and were sung by the Jews on their most solemn festivals, and particularly at the passover. To these reference is made by the evangelists, [Mat 26:30], and [Mar 14:26], there called the hymn which Jesus and his disciples sung at the passover, for the whole of the Psalms were considered as one grand hymn or thanksgiving. It was probably composed after the return from the captivity. It has no title but Hallelujah in the Hebrew and ancient Versions.

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Praise, O ye servants - Probably an address to the Levites. The Anglo-Saxon has praise the Lord, ye knaves. Knapa or knave signified among our ancestors a servant; sometimes a male, a young man.

### Verse 3

[¶3] From the rising of the sun - From morning to evening be always employed in the work. Or it may be a call on all mankind to praise God for his innumerable mercies to the human race. Praise him from one end of the world unto the other. And therefore the psalmist adds,

### Verse 4

[¶5] The Lord is high above all nations - He governs all, he provides for all; therefore let all give him praise.

### Verse 5

[¶7] Who is like unto the Lord - Those who are highly exalted are generally unapproachable; they are proud and overbearing; or so surrounded with magnificence and flatterers, that to them the poor have no access; but God, though infinitely exalted, humbleth himself to behold even heaven itself, and much more does he humble himself when he condescends to behold earth and her inhabitants; ([Psa 113:6]). But so does he love his creatures that he rejoices over even the meanest of them to do them good.

### Verse 7

[¶9] He raiseth up the poor - The poorest man, in the meanest and most abject circumstances, is an object of his merciful regards. He may here allude to the wretched state of the captives in Babylon, whom God raised up out of that dust and dunghill. Others apply it to the resurreetion of the dead.

### Verse 8

[¶11] With the princes - נדיבים nedebim, very properly translated by the Anglo-Saxon, the aldermen, the most respectable of his people.

### Verse 9

[¶13] He maketh the barren woman to keep house - This is a figure to point out the desolate, decreasing state of the captives in Babylon, and the happy change which took place on their return to their own land. These are nearly the words of Hannah, [1Sam 2:5].

### Introduction

[¶15] Miracles wrought at the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, at the Red Sea, and at Jordan, [Psa 114:1-6]; and at the rock of Horeb, [Psa 114:7], [Psa 114:8].

[¶16] This Psalm has no title. The word Hallelujah is prefixed in all the Versions except the Chaldee and Syriac. It seems like a fragment, or a part of another Psalm. In many MSS. it is only the beginning of the following; both making but one Psalm in all the Versions, except the Chaldee. It is elegantly and energetically composed; but begins and ends very abruptly, if we separate it from the following. As to the author of this Psalm, there have been various opinions; some have given the honor of it to Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego; others to Esther; and others, to Mordecai.

### Verse 1

[¶18] A people of strange language - This may mean no more than a barbarous people; a people whom they did not know, and who did not worship their God. But it is a fact that the language of the Egyptians in the time of Joseph was so different from that of the Hebrews that they could not understand each other. See [Psa 81:5]; [Gen 42:23].

[¶19] The Chaldee has here מעמי ברבראי meammey barbarey, which gives reason to believe that the word is Chaldee, or more properly Phoenician. See this word fully explained in the note on [Act 28:2] (note). My old Psalter understood the word as referring to the religious state of the Egyptians: In gangyng of Isrel oute of Egipt, of the house of Jocob fra hethen folke.

### Verse 2

[¶21] Judah was his sanctuary - He set up his true worship among the Jews, and took them for his peculiar people.

[¶22] And Israel his dominion - These words are a proof, were there none other, that this Psalm was composed after the days of David, and after the division of the tribes, for then the distinction of Israel and Judah took place.

### Verse 3

[¶24] The sea saw it, and fled - Mr. Addison has properly observed (see Spect. No. 461) that the author of this Psalm designedly works for effect, in pointing out the miraculous driving back the Red Sea and the river Jordan, and the commotion of the hills and mountains, without mentioning any agent. At last, when the reader sees the sea rapidly retiring from the shore, Jordan retreating to its source, and the mountains and hills running away like a flock of affrighted sheep, that the passage of the Israelites might be every where uninterrupted; then the cause of all is suddenly introduced, and the presence of God in his grandeur solves every difficulty.

### Verse 5

[¶26] What ailed thee, O thou sea - The original is very abrupt; and the prosopopoeia, or personification very fine and expressive: -

[¶27] What to thee, O sea, that thou fleddest away!

[¶28] O Jordan, that thou didst roll back!

[¶29] Ye mountains, that ye leaped like rams!

[¶30] And ye hills, like the young of the fold!

[¶31] After these very sublime interrogations, God appears; and the psalmist proceeds as if answering his own questions: -

[¶32] At the appearance of the Lord, O earth, thou didst tremble;

[¶33] At the appearance of the strong God of Jacob.

[¶34] Converting the rock into a pool of waters;

[¶35] The granite into water springs.

[¶36] I know the present Hebrew text reads חולי chuli, "tremble thou," in the imperative; but almost all the Versions understood the word in past tense, and read as if the psalmist was answering his own questions, as stated in the translation above. "Tremble thou, O earth." As if he had said, Thou mayest well tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.

### Verse 8

[¶38] The flint - I have translated חלמיש challamish, Granite; for such is the rock of Horeb, a piece of which now lies before me.

[¶39] This short and apparently imperfect Psalm, for elegance and sublimity, yields to few in the whole book.

[¶40] It is so well translated in the old Psalter, that I think I shall gratify the reader by laying it before him. [Psa 114:1] In gangyng of Isrel oute of Egipt,Of the house of Jacob fra hethen folke. [Psa 114:2] Made is Jude his halawyngIsrel might of hym. [Psa 114:3] The se sawe and fled,Jurdan turned is agayne; [Psa 114:4] Hawes gladed als wethers,And hilles als lambes of schepe. [Psa 114:5] What is to the se, that thou fled?And thou Jordane that thou ert turned agayne? [Psa 114:6] Hawes gladded als wethers?And hils als lambs of schepe. [Psa 114:7] Fra the face of Lorde styrde is the erth,Fra the face of God of Jabob; [Psa 114:8] That turnes the stane in stank of waters,And roche in wels of waters.

[¶41] And, as a still more ancient specimen of our language, I shall insert the Anglo-Saxon, with a literal reading, line for line, as near to the Saxon as possible, merely to show the affinity of the languages. [Psa 114:1] On outgang Israel of Egypt,House Jacob of folk foreigners; [Psa 114:2] Made is Jacob holyness his;Israel andweald (government) his. [Psa 114:3] Sea saw, and flew!Jordan turned underback! [Psa 114:4] Mounts they fain (rejoiced) so (as) rams,And burghs (hillocks) so (as) lamb - sheep. [Psa 114:5] What is the sea, that thou flew?And thou river for that thou turned is underback? [Psa 114:6] Mounts ye fained (rejoiced) so so rams;And hills so so lambs - sheep. [Psa 114:7] From sight Lord's stirred is earth;From sight God of Jacob. [Psa 114:8] Who turned stone in mere waters;And cliffs in wells waters.

[¶42] I have retained some words above in nearly their Saxon form, because they still exist in our old writers; or, with little variation, in those of the present day: - [Psa 114:2] Andweald, government. Hence weal and wealth, commonweal or wealth; the general government, that which produces the welfare of the country. [Psa 114:4] Faegnodon, fained - desired fervently, felt delight in expectation. [Psa 114:4] Burgh, a hill - a mound or heap of earth, such as was raised up over the dead. Hence a barrow; and hence the word bury, to inhume the dead. [Psa 114:8] Mere, or meer, a large pool of water, a lake, a lough, still in use in the north of England. Gentlemen's ponds, or large sheets of water so called; and hence Winander-mere, a large lake in Westmoreland. Mere also signifies limit or boundary; hence the Mersey, the river which divides Lancashire from Cheshire, and serves as a boundary to both counties. The mere that spreads itself out to the sea.

[¶43] Instead of cludas, which signifies rocks, one MS. has clyf, which signifies a craggy mountain or broken rock.

[¶44] The reader will see from this specimen how much of our ancient language still remains in the present; and perhaps also how much, in his opinion, we have amplified and improved our mother tongue.

## 673. Psalms · 127 of 159

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### Introduction

[¶1] God alone is to be glorified, [Psa 115:1-3]. The vanity of idols, [Psa 115:4-8]. Israel, the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, are exhorted to trust it the Lord, [Psa 115:9-11]. The Lord's goodness to his people, and his gracious promises, [Psa 115:12-16]. As the dead cannot praise him, the living should, [Psa 115:17], [Psa 115:18].

[¶2] This Psalm is written as a part of the preceding by eighteen of Kennicott's and fifty-three of De Rossi's MSS.; by some ancient editions the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Vulgate, the Ethiopic, the Arabic, and the Anglo-Saxon. The old Anglo-Scottish Psalter reads it consecutively with the foregoing. Who the author of both was, we know not, nor on what occasion it was written. It seems to be an epinikion or triumphal song, in which the victory gained is entirely ascribed to Jehovah.

### Verse 1

[¶4] Not unto us, O Lord - We take no merit to ourselves; as thine is the kingdom, and the power in that kingdom, so is thy glory.

[¶5] For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake - Thy mercy gave thy promise, thy truth fulfilled it.

### Verse 2

[¶7] Wherefore should the heathen say - This appears to refer to a time in which the Israelites had suffered some sad reverses, so as to be brought very low, and to be marked by the heathen.

### Verse 3

[¶9] He hath done whatsover he hath pleased - There was too much cause for his abandoning us to our enemies; yet he still lives and rules in heaven and in earth.

### Verse 4

[¶11] Their idols are silver, etc. - They are metal, stone, and wood. They are generally made in the form of man, but can neither see, hear, smell, feel, walk, nor speak. How brutish to trust in such! And next to these, in stupidity and inanity, must they be who form them, with the expectation of deriving any good from them. So obviously vain was the whole system of idolatry, that the more serious heathens ridiculed it, and it was a butt for the jests of their freethinkers and buffoons. How keen are those words of Juvenal! - - Audis Jupiter, haec? nec labra moves, cum mittere vocem.

[¶12] Debueras, vel marmoreus vel aheneus? aut cur

[¶13] In carbone tuo charta pia thura soluta

[¶14] Ponimus, et sectum vituli jecur, albaque porci

[¶15] Omenta? ut video, nullum discrimen habendum est.

[¶16] Effigies inter vestras, statuamque Bathylli.

[¶17] Sat. xiii., ver. 113.

[¶18] Dost thou hear, O Jupiter, these things? nor move thy lips when thou oughtest to speak out, whether thou art of marble or of bronze? Or, why do we put the sacred incense on thy altar from the opened paper, and the extracted liver of a calf, and the white caul of a hog? As far as I can discern there is no difference between thy statue and that of Bathyllus."

[¶19] This irony will appear the keener, when it is known that Bathyllus was a fiddler and player, whose image by the order of Polycrates, was erected in the temple of Juno at Samos. See [Isa 41:1], etc.; [Isa 46:7]; [Jer 10:4], [Jer 10:5], etc.; and [Psa 135:15], [Psa 135:16].

### Verse 9

[¶21] O Israel - The body of the Jewish people.

### Verse 10

[¶23] O house of Aaron - All the different classes of the priesthood.

### Verse 11

[¶25] Ye that fear the Lord - All real penitents, and sincere believers, trust to the Lord, in the almighty, omniscient, and infinitely good Jehovah.

[¶26] He is their help and shield - He is the succor, support, guardian, and defense of all who put their confidence in him.

### Verse 12

[¶28] The Lord hath been mindful - He has never yet wholly abandoned us to our enemies.

[¶29] He will bless the house of Israel - He will bless the people as a nation; he will bless the priesthood and Levites; he will bless all of them who fear him, great and small, in whatsoever station or circumstances found. There is a great deal of emphasis in this verse: several words are redoubled to make the subject the more affecting. I give a literal translation: - [Psa 115:12] "The Lord has been mindful of us he will bless the house of Israel; she will bless the house of Aaron. [Psa 115:13] He will bless them that fear Jehovah, the small with the great. [Psa 115:14] Jehovah will add upon you, upon you and upon all your children. [Psa 115:15] Blessed are ye of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. [Psa 115:16] The heavens of heavens are the Lord's: but the earth he hath given to the sons of Adam."

[¶30] Jehovah is absolute Master of the universe. He has made the heavens of heavens, and also the earth; and this he gives to the children of Adam. When he exiled him from paradise, he turned him out into the earth, and gave it to him and his sons for ever, that they might dress, till, and eat of its produce all their days.

### Verse 17

[¶32] The dead praise not the Lord - המתים hammethim, those dead men who worshipped as gods dumb idols, dying in their sins, worship not Jehovah; nor can any of those who go down into silence praise thee: earth is the place in which to praise the Lord for his mercies, and get a preparation for his glory.

### Verse 18

[¶34] But we will bless the Lord - Our fathers, who received so much from thy bounty, are dead, their tongues are silent in the grave; we are in their place, and wish to magnify thy name, for thou hast dealt bountifully with us. But grant us those farther blessings before we die which we so much need; and we will praise thee as living monuments of thy mercy, and the praise we begin now shall continue for ever and ever.

[¶35] The Targum, for "neither any that go down into silence," has "nor any that descend into the house of earthly sepulture," that is, the tomb. The Anglo-Saxon: neither all they that go down into hell. Nogh the dede sal loue the Lorde, ne al that lyghtes in hell. Old Psalter. The word hell among our ancestors meant originally the covered, or hidden obscure place, from helan, to cover or conceal: it now expresses only the place of endless torment.

### Introduction

[¶37] The psalmist praises God for his deliverance from thraldom, which he compares to death and the grave, [Psa 116:1-9]. The exercises through which he had passed, [Psa 116:10], [Psa 116:11]. His gratitude for these mercies, and resolution to live to God's glory, [Psa 116:12-19].

[¶38] This Psalm is also without a title, and its author is unknown. It appears to have been written after the captivity, and to be a thanksgiving to God for that glorious event. The psalmist compares this captivity to death and the grave; and shows the happy return to the promised land, called here The land of the living. The people recollect the vows of God which were upon them, and purpose to fulfill them. They exhult at being enabled to worship God in the temple at Jerusalem.

[¶39] The Syriac, which abounds in conjectural prefaces, supposes this Psalm to have been written on the occasion of Saul coming to the mouth of the cave in which David lay hidden; but spiritually taken, it relates to the bringing of a new people, the Gentiles, to the Christian faith. In a few MSS. this Psalm is joined to the preceding. Many think it relates wholly to the passion, death, and triumph of Christ. Most of the fathers were of this opinion.

### Verse 1

[¶41] I love the Lord because he hath heard - How vain and foolish is the talk, "To love God for his benefits to us is mercenary, and cannot be pure love!" Whether pure or impure, there is no other love that can flow from the heart of the creature to its Creator. We love him, said the holiest of Christ's disciples, because he first loved us; and the increase of our love and filial obedience is in proportion to the increased sense we have of our obligation to him. We love him for the benefits bestowed on us. Love begets love.

### Verse 2

[¶43] Because he hath inclined his ear - The psalmist represents himself to be so sick and weak, that he could scarcely speak. The Lord, in condescension to this weakness, is here considered as bowing down his ear to the mouth of the feeble suppliant, that he may receive every word of his prayer.

[¶44] Therefore will I call upon him - I have had such blessed success in my application to him, that I purpose to invoke him as long as I shall live. He that prays much will be emboldened to pray more, because none can supplicate the throne of grace in vain.

## 674. Psalms · 128 of 159

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### Verse 3

[¶1] The sorrows of death - חבלי מות chebley maveth, the cables or cords of death; alluding to their bonds and fetters during their captivity; or to the cords by which a criminal is bound who is about to be led out to execution; or to the bandages in which the dead were enveloped, when head, arms, body, and limbs were all laced down together.

[¶2] The pains of hell - מצרי שאול metsarey sheol the straitnesses of the grave. So little expectation was there of life, that he speaks as if he were condemned, executed, and closed up in the tomb. Or, he may refer here to the small niches in cemeteries, where the coffins of the dead were placed.

[¶3] Because this Psalm has been used in the thanksgiving of women after safe delivery, it has been supposed that the pain suffered in the act of parturition was equal for the time to the torments of the damned. But this supposition is shockingly absurd; the utmost power of human nature could not, for a moment, endure the wrath of God, the deathless worm, and the unquenchable fire. The body must die, be decomposed, and be built up on indestructible principles, before this punishment can be borne.

### Verse 5

[¶5] Gracious is the Lord - In his own nature.

[¶6] And righteous - In all his dealings with men.

[¶7] Our God is merciful - Of tender compassion to all penitents.

### Verse 6

[¶9] The Lord preserved the simple - פתאים pethaim, which all the Versions render little ones. Those who are meek and lowly of heart, who feel the spirit of little children, these he preserves, as he does little children; and he mentions this circumstance, because the Lord has a peculiar regard for these young ones, and gives his angels charge concerning them. Were it otherwise, children are exposed to so many dangers and deaths, that most of them would fall victims to accidents in their infancy.

### Verse 7

[¶11] Return unto thy rest, O my soul - God is the center to which all immortal spirits tend, and in connection with which alone they can find rest. Every thing separated from its center is in a state of violence; and, if intelligent, cannot be happy. All human souls, while separated from God by sin, are in a state of violence, agitation, and misery. From God all spirits come; to him all must return, in order to be finally happy. This is true in the general case; though, probably, the rest spoken of here means the promised land, into which they were now returning.

[¶12] A proof of the late origin of this Psalm is exhibited in this verse, in the words למנוחיכי limenuchaichi, "to thy rest," and עליכי alaichi, "to thee," which are both Chaldaisms.

### Verse 8

[¶14] Thou hast delivered my soul from death - Thou hast rescued my life from the destruction to which it was exposed.

[¶15] Mine eyes from tears - Thou hast turned my sorrow into joy.

[¶16] My feet from falling - Thou hast taken me out of the land of snares and pitfalls, and brought me into a plain path. How very near does our ancient mother tongue come to this: For thou he nerode sawle mine of deathe, eapan mine of tearum; fet mine of slide. And this language is but a little improved in the old Psalter: -

[¶17] For he toke my saule fra dede; my eghen fra teres; my fete fra slippyng.

### Verse 9

[¶19] I will walk before the Lord - אתהלך ethhallech, I will set myself to walk. I am determined to walk; my eyes are now bright ened, so that I can see; my feet are strengthened, so that I can walk; and my soul is alive, so that I can walk with the living.

[¶20] The Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Ethiopic, the Arabic, and the Anglo-Saxon end this Psalm here, which is numbered the cxivth; and begin with the tenth verse another Psalm, which they number cxvth; but this division is not acknowledged by the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac.

### Verse 10

[¶22] I believed, therefere have I spoken - Distressed and afflicted as I was, I ever believed thy promises to be true; but I had great struggles to maintain my confidence; for my afflictions were great, oppressive, and of long standing.

[¶23] It is scarcely worth observing that the letters called heemantic by the Hebrew grammarians, and which are used in forming the derivatives from the roots, are taken from the first word in this verse, האמנתי heemanti, "I have believed;" as the prefixes in that language are found in the technical words משה וכלב Mosheh vecaleb, "Moses and Caleb;" and the formatives of the future are found in the word איתן eythan, "strength."

### Verse 11

[¶25] I said in my haste - This is variously translated: I said in my Light, Chaldee. In my excess, or ecstasy, Vulgate. In my ecstasy, εκστασει, Septuagint. fi tahayury, in my giddiness, Arabic. In my fear or tremor, Syriac. I quoth in outgoing mine, when I was beside myself, Anglo-Saxon. In myn oute passyng, old Psalter. When passion got the better of my reason, when I looked not at God, but at my afflictions, and the impossibility of human relief.

[¶26] All men are liars - כל האדם כזב col haadam cozeb, "the whole of man is a lie." Falsity is diffused through his nature; deception proceeds from his tongue; his actions are often counterfeit. He is imposed on by others, and imposes in his turn; and on none is there any dependence till God converts their heart. "O what a thing were man, if his attires

[¶27] Should alter with his mind,

[¶28] And, like a dolphin's skin,

[¶29] His clothes combine with his desires!

[¶30] Surely if each one saw another's heart,

[¶31] There would be no commerce;

[¶32] All would disperse, And live apart."

[¶33] Hebert.

[¶34] To the same purpose I shall give the following Italian proverb: -

[¶35] Con arte e con inganno,

[¶36] Si vive mezzo l'anno.

[¶37] Con inganno e con arte

[¶38] Si vive l' altro parti. "Men live half the year by deceit and by art;

[¶39] By art and deceit men live the other part."

[¶40] Who gives this bad character of mankind? Man.

### Verse 12

[¶42] What shall I render - מה אשיב mah ashib, "What shall I return?"

[¶43] For his benefits - תגמולוהי tagmulohi, "His retributions," the returns he had made to my prayers and faith.

## 675. Psalms · 129 of 159

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### Verse 13

[¶1] I will take the cup of salvation - Literally, The cup of salvation, or deliverance, will I lift up. Alluding to the action in taking the cup of blessing among the Jews, which, when the person or master of the family lifted up, he said these words, "Blessed be the Lord, the Maker of the world, who has created the fruit of the vine!"

[¶2] But it may probably allude to the libation-offering, [Num 28:7]; for the three last verses seem to intimate that the psalmist was now at the temple, offering the meat-offering, drink-offering, and sacrifices to the Lord. Cup is often used by the Hebrews to denote plenty or abundance. So, the cup of trembling, an abundance of misery; the cup of salvation, an abundance of happiness.

[¶3] And call upon the name of the Lord - I will invoke his name, that I may get more of the same blessings; for the only return that God requires is, that we ask for more. Who is like God? One reason why we should never more come to a fellow-mortal for a favor is, we have received so many already. A strong reason why we should claim the utmost salvation of God is, because we are already so much in debt to his mercy. Now this is the only way we have of discharging our debts to God; and yet, strange to tell, every such attempt to discharge the debt only serves to increase it! Yet, notwithstanding, the debtor and creditor are represented as both pleased, both profited, and both happy in each other! Reader, pray to him, invoke his name; receive the cup - accept the abundance of salvation which he has provided thee, that thou mayest love and serve him with a perfect heart.

### Verse 14

[¶5] I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people - He was probably now bringing his offering to the temple. These words are repeated, [Psa 116:18].

### Verse 15

[¶7] Precious in the sight of the Lord - Many have understood this verse as meaning, "the saints are too precious in the Lord's sight, lightly to give them over to death:" and this, Calmet contends, is the true sense of the text. Though they have many enemies, their lives are precious in his sight, and their foes shall not prevail against them.

### Verse 16

[¶9] I am thy servant - Thou hast preserved me alive. I live with, for, and to Thee. I am thy willing domestic, the son of thine handmaid - like one born in thy house of a woman already thy property. I am a servant, son of thy servant, made free by thy kindness; but, refusing to go out, I have had my ear bored to thy door-post, and am to continue by free choice in thy house for ever. He alludes here to the case of the servant who, in the year of jubilee being entitled to his liberty, refused to leave his master's house; and suffered his ear to be bored to the door-post, as a proof that by his own consent he agreed to continue in his master's house for ever.

### Verse 17

[¶11] I will offer to thee - As it is most probable that this Psalm celebrates the deliverance from Babylon, it is no wonder that we find the psalmist so intent on performing the rites of his religion in the temple at Jerusalem, which had been burnt with fire, and was now reviving out of its ruins, the temple service having been wholly interrupted for nearly four-score years.

### Verse 19

[¶13] In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem - He speaks as if present in the city, offering his vowed sacrifices in the temple to the Lord.

[¶14] Most of this Psalm has been applied to our Lord and his Church; and in this way it has been considered as prophetic; and, taken thus, it is innocently accommodated, and is very edifying. This is the interpretation given of the whole by the old Psalter.

### Introduction

[¶16] The psalmist calls upon the nations of the world to praise the Lord for his mercy and kindness, and for the fulfillment of his promises, [Psa 117:1], [Psa 117:2].

[¶17] This is the shortest Psalm in the whole collection; it is written as a part of the preceding in thirty-two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and is found thus printed in some ancient editions. The whole Psalm is omitted in one of Kennicott's and in two of De Rossi's MSS. It celebrates the redemption from the Babylonish captivity, the grand type of the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus.

[¶18] The Syriac says: "It was spoken concerning Ananias and his followers when they came out of the furnace; but it also foretells the vocation of the Gentiles by the preaching of the Gospel." In this way St. Paul applies it, [Rom 15:11].

### Verse 1

[¶20] O praise the Lord, all ye nations - Let all the Gentiles praise him, for he provides for their eternal salvation.

[¶21] Praise him, all ye people - All ye Jews, praise him; for ye have long been his peculiar people. And while he sends his Son to be a light to the Gentiles, he sends him also to be the glory of his people Israel.

### Verse 2

[¶23] For his merciful kindness is great - גבר gabar, is strong: it is not only great in bulk or number, but it is powerful; it prevails over sin, Satan, death, and hell.

[¶24] And the truth of the Lord endureth for ever - Whatsoever he has promised, that he will most infallibly fulfill. He has promised to send his Son into the world, and thus he has done. He his promised that he should die for transgressors, and this he did. He has promised to receive all who come unto him through Christ Jesus, and this he invariably does. He has promised that his Gospel shall be preached in every nation, and this he is doing; the truth of the Lord remaineth for ever. Therefore, Praise ye the Lord!

### Introduction

[¶26] A general exhortation to praise God for his mercy, [Psa 118:1-4]. The psalmist, by his own experience, encourages the people to trust in God, and shows them the advantage of it, [Psa 118:5-9]; then describes his enemies, and shows how God enabled him to destroy them, [Psa 118:10-13]. The people rejoice on the account, [Psa 118:15], [Psa 118:16]. He speaks again of the help he received from the Lord; and desires admission into the temple, that he may enter and praise the Lord, [Psa 118:17-19]. The gate is opened, [Psa 118:20]. He offers praise, 21. The priests, etc., acknowledge the hand of the Lord in the deliverance wrought, [Psa 118:22-24]. The psalmist prays for prosperity, [Psa 118:25]. The priest performs his office, blesses the people, and all join in praise, [Psa 118:26], [Psa 118:27]. The psalmist expresses his confidence, [Psa 118:28]. The general doxology, or chorus, [Psa 118:29].

[¶27] Most probably David was the author of this Psalm, though many think it was written after the captivity. It partakes of David's spirit, and every where shows the hand of a master. The style is grand and noble; the subject, majestic.

[¶28] Dr. Kennicott, who joins this and the hundred and seventeenth Psalm together, considers the whole as a dialogue, and divides it accordingly. The whole of the hundred and seventeenth he gives to the psalmist as part the first, with the first four verses of the hundred and eighteenth. The second part, which is from the fifth verse to the twenty-first inclusive, he gives to the Messiah. The third part, from the twenty-second verse to the twenty-seventh, he gives to the chorus. And the fourth part, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses, he gives to the psalmist. Of the whole he has given an improved version.

[¶29] Bishop Horsley is still different. He considers the hundred and seventeenth Psalm as only the exordium of this. The whole poem, he states, is a triumphant processional song. The scene passes at the front gate of the temple. A conqueror with his train appears before it; he demands admittance to return thanks for his deliverance and final success, in an expedition of great difficulty and danger. The conqueror and his train sing the hundred and seventeenth Psalm, and the first four verses of the hundred and eighteenth, as they advance to the gate of the temple, in this manner - The hundred and seventeenth Psalm, Chorus of the whole procession. The first verse of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm, A single voice. The second, Another single voice. The third, A third single voice. The fourth, Chorus of the whole procession. Arrived at the temple gate, the conqueror alone sings the fifth, sixth, and seventh verses. The eighth and ninth are sung by his train in chorus. The conqueror, again alone, sings the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth verses. His train, in chorus, sing the fifteenth and sixteenth. The conqueror alone sings the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth verses. The twentieth is sung by the priests and Levites within, in chorus. The twenty-fifth by the conqueror alone within the gates. The twenty-sixth, by the priests and Levites in chorus. The twenty-seventh, by the conqueror's train in chorus. The twenty-eighth, by the conqueror alone. The twenty-ninth, by the united chorus of priests and Levites, and the conqueror's train, all within the gates. "Now," the learned bishop adds, "the Jewish temple was a type of heaven; the priests within represent the angelic host attending round the throne of God in heaven; the Conqueror is Messiah; and his train, the redeemed." On this distribution the bishop has given a new version. The simple distribution into parts, which I have given in the contents, is, in my opinion, the best. Ingenious as Dr. Kennicott and Bishop Horsley are, they seem to me too mechanical. This is the last of those Psalms which form the great hallel, which the Jews sung at the end of the passover.

### Verse 2

[¶31] Let Israel now say - Seeing the hand of the Lord so visibly, and the deliverance gained, that God's mercy endureth for ever.

### Verse 3

[¶33] The house of Aaron - The priesthood is still preserved, and the temple worship restored.

### Verse 4

[¶35] That fear the Lord - All sincere penitents and genuine believers. See the notes on [Psa 115:9-11] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶37] I called upon the Lord - I am a standing proof and living witness of God's mercy. Take encouragement from me.

### Verse 7

[¶39] The Lord taketh my part with them that help me - Literally, The Lord is to me among my helpers. Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. Literally, And I shall look among them that hate me. As God is on my side, I fear not to look the whole of them in the face. I shall see them defeated.

### Verse 8

[¶41] Better to trust in the Lord - Man is feeble, ignorant, fickle, and capricious; it is better to trust in Jehovah than in such.

### Verse 9

[¶43] In princes - Men of high estate are generally proud, vainglorious, self-confident, and rash: it is better to trust in God than in them. Often they cannot deliver, and often they will not when they can. However, in the concerns of our salvation, and in matters which belong to Providence, they can do nothing.

### Verse 10

[¶45] All nations compassed me about - This is by some supposed to relate to David, at the commencement of his reign, when all the neighboring Philistine nations endeavored to prevent him from establishing himself in the kingdom. Others suppose it may refer to the Samaritans, Idumeans, Ammonites, and others, who endeavored to prevent the Jews from rebuilding their city and their temple after their return from captivity in Babylon.

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[¶0] But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them - Dr. Kennicott renders אמילם amilam, "I shall disappoint them;" Bishop Horsley, "I cut them to pieces;" Mr. N. Berlin, repuli eas, "I have repelled them." "I will cut them off;" Chaldee. Ultus sum in eos, "I am avenged on them;" Vulgate. So the Septuagint.

### Verse 12

[¶2] They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns - I shall refer to Dr. Delaney's note on this passage. The reader has here in miniature two of the finest images in Homer; which, if his curiosity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and enlarged, Iliad ii., ver. 86. - Επεσσευοντο δε λαοι. Ηΰτε εθνεα εισι μελισσαων αδιναων, Πετρης εκ γλαφυρης αιει νεον ερχομεναων, Βοτρυδον δε πετονται επ' ανθεσιν ειαρινοισιν, Αἱ μεν τ' ενθα ἁλις πεποτηαται, αἱ δε τε ανθα Ὡς των εθνεα πολλα νεων απο και κλισιαων Ηΐονος προπαροιθε βαθειης εστιχοωντο Ιλαδον εις αγορην. - The following host,

[¶3] Poured forth by thousands, darkens all the coast.

[¶4] As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees,

[¶5] Clustering in heaps on heaps, the driving bees,

[¶6] Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms,

[¶7] With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms:

[¶8] Dusky they spread a close embodied crowd,

[¶9] And o'er the vale descends the living cloud;

[¶10] So from the tents and ships a lengthening train

[¶11] Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain;

[¶12] Along the region runs a deafening sound;

[¶13] Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.

[¶14] Pope

[¶15] The other image, the fire consuming the thorns, we find in the same book, ver. 455: - Ηΰτε πυρ αΐδηλον επιφλεγει ασπετον ὑλην, Ουρεος εν κορυφης· ἑκαθεν δε τε φαινεται αυγη· Ὡς των ερχομενων, απο χαλκου θεσπεσιοιο Αιγλη παμφανοωσα δι' αιθερος ουρανον ἱκεν.

[¶16] As on some mountain, through the lofty grove,

[¶17] The crackling flames ascend and blaze above;

[¶18] The fires expanding, as the winds arise,

[¶19] Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies;

[¶20] So, from the polished arms, and brazen shields,

[¶21] A gleamy splendor flashed along the fields.

[¶22] Pope.

[¶23] The arms resembling a gleaming fire is common both to the psalmist and Homer; but the idea of that fire being quenched when the army was conquered, is peculiar to the psalmist.

### Verse 13

[¶25] Thou hast thrust sore at me - In pushing thou hast pushed me that I might fall.

[¶26] But the Lord helped me - Though he possessed skill, courage, and strength, yet these could not have prevailed had not God been his helper; and to him he gives the glory of the victory.

### Verse 15

[¶28] The voice of rejoicing - Formerly there was nothing but wailings; but now there is universal joy because of the salvation - the deliverance, which God has wrought for us.

### Verse 16

[¶30] The right hand of the Lord is exalted - Jehovah lifted up his right hand, and with it performed prodigies of power.

### Verse 17

[¶32] I shall not die - I was nigh unto death; but I am preserved, - preserved to publish the wondrous works of the Lord.

### Verse 19

[¶34] Open to me the gates - Throw open the doors of the temple, that I may enter and perform my vows unto the Lord.

### Verse 20

[¶36] This gate of the Lord - Supposed to be the answer of the Levites to the request of the king.

### Verse 21

[¶38] I will praise thee - He is now got within the gates, and breaks out into thanksgivings for the mercies he had received. He is become my salvation - he himself hath saved me from all mine enemies.

[¶39] Verse 22 , [Psa 118:23]

[¶40] The stone which the builders refused - See a full elucidation of these two verses in the notes on [Mat 21:42] (note).

### Verse 24

[¶42] This is the day which the Lord hath made - As the Lord hath called me to triumph, this is the day which he hath appointed for that purpose. This is a gracious opportunity; I will improve it to his glory.

### Verse 25

[¶44] Save now, I beseech thee - These words were sung by the Jews on the feast of tabernacles, when carrying green branches in their hands; and from the הושיעה נא hoshiah nna, we have the word hosanna. This was sung by the Jewish children when Christ made his public entry into Jerusalem. See [Mat 21:9] (note), and see the note there, in which the word and the circumstance are both explained.

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### Verse 26

[¶1] We have blessed you - The answer of the Levities to the king.

### Verse 27

[¶3] God is the Lord - Rather אל יהוה El Yehovah, the strong God Jehovah.

[¶4] Which hath showed us light - ויאר לנו vaiyaer lanu, "And he will illuminate us." Perhaps at this time a Divine splendor shone upon the whole procession; a proof of God's approbation.

[¶5] Bind the sacrifice with cords - The Chaldee paraphrases this verse thus: "Samuel the prophet said, Bind the little one with chains for a solemn sacrifice, until ye have sacrificed him and sprinkled his blood on the horns of the altar." It is supposed that the words refer to the feast of tabernacles, and חג chag here means the festival victim. Several translate the original "keep the festival with thick boughs of the horns of the altar." In this sense the Vulgate and Septuagint understood the passage. David in this entry into the temple was a type of our blessed Lord, who made a similar entry, as related [Mat 21:8-10].

### Verse 29

[¶7] O give thanks unto the Lord - This is the general doxology or chorus. All join in thanksgiving, and they end as they began: "His mercy endureth for ever." It began at the creation of man; it will continue till the earth is burnt up.

### Introduction

[¶9] The various excellencies and important uses of the law or revelation of God.

[¶10] This is another of the alphabetical or acrostic Psalms. It is divided into twenty-two parts, answering to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Every part is divided into eight verses; and each verse begins with that letter of the alphabet which forms the title of the part, e.g.: The eight first verses have א aleph prefixed, the second eight ב beth, each of the eight verses beginning with that letter; and so of the rest. All connection, as might be naturally expected, is sacrificed to this artificial and methodical arrangement.

[¶11] It is not easy to give any general Analysis of this Psalm; it is enough to say that it treats in general on the privileges and happiness of those who observe the law of the Lord. That law is exhibited by various names and epithets tending to show its various excellences. Earnest prayers are offered to God for wisdom to understand it, and for grace to observe it faithfully. These particulars may be collected from the whole composition, and appear less or more in every part.

[¶12] The words which express that revelation which God had then given to men, or some particular characteristic of it, are generally reckoned to be the ten following:

[¶13] 1. Testimonies;

[¶14] 2. Commandments,

[¶15] 3. Precepts;

[¶16] 4. Word;

[¶17] 5. Law;

[¶18] 6. Ways;

[¶19] 7. Truth;

[¶20] 8. Judgments;

[¶21] 9. Righteousness;

[¶22] 10. Statutes.

[¶23] To these some add the following:

[¶24] 1. Faithfulness,

[¶25] 2. Judgment;

[¶26] 3. Name; but these are not used in the sense of the other ten words.

[¶27] I believe it is almost universally asserted that in every verse of this Psalm one or other of those ten words is used, except in [Psa 119:122]; but on a closer inspection we shall find that none of them is used in the above sense in [Psa 119:84] (note), [Psa 119:90] (note), [Psa 119:121] (note), [Psa 119:122] (note), [Psa 119:132] (note).

[¶28] To save myself unnecessary repetition, and the reader time and trouble, I shall here, once for all, explain the above words, which the reader will do well to keep in remembrance.

[¶29] I. The Law, תורה Torah, from ירה yarah, to direct, guide, teach, make straight, or even, point forward; because it gutdes, directs, and instructs in the way of righteousness; makes our path straight, shows what is even and right, and points us onward to peace, truth, and happiness. It is even our school master to bring us to Christ, that we may be justified through faith; and by it is the knowledge of sin.

[¶30] II. Statutes, חקים Chukkim, from חק chak, to mark, trace out, describe, and ordain; because they mark out our way describe the line of conduct we are to pursue and order or ordain what we are to observe.

[¶31] III. Precepts, פקודים Pikkudim, from פקד pakad, to take notice or care of a thing, to attend, have respect to, to appoint, to visit; because they take notice of our way, have respect to the whole of our life and conversation, superintend, overlook, and visit us in all the concerns and duties of life.

[¶32] IV. Commandments, מצות Mitsvoth, from צוה tassah to command, order, ordain; because they show us what we should do, and what we should leave undone, and exact our obedience.

[¶33] V. Testimonies, עדות Edoth, from עד ad, denoting beyond, farther, all along, to bear witness, or testimony. The rites and ceremonies of the law; because they point out matters beyond themselves, being types and representations of the good things that were to come.

[¶34] VI. Judgments, משפטים Mishpatim, from שפט shaphat, to judge, determine, regulate, order, and discern, because they judge concerning our words and works; show the roses by which they should be regulated; and cause us to discern what is right and wrong, and decide accordingly.

[¶35] VII. Truth, אמונה Emunah, from אמן aman, to make steady, constant, to settle, trust, believe. The law that is established steady, confirmed, and ordered in all things, and sure; which should be believed on the authority of God, and trusted to as an infallible testimony from Him who cannot lie nor deceive.

[¶36] VIII. Word, דבר dabar, from the same root, to discourse, utter one's sentiments, speak consecutively and intelligibly; in which it appears to differ from מלל malal, to utter articulate sounds. Any prophecy or immediate communication from heaven, as well as the whole body of Divine revelation, is emphatically called דבר יהוה debar Yehovah, the word of Jehovah. On the same ground we call the whole Old and New Testament The Word of the Lord, as we term the volume in which they are contained The Bible-The Book. In his revelation God speaks to man; shows him, in a clear, concise, intelligible, and rational way, his interest, his duty, his privileges; and, in a word, the reasonable service that he requires of him.

[¶37] IX. Way, דרך Debech, from the same root, to proceed, go on, walk, tread. The way in which God goes in order to instruct and save man; the way in which man must tread in order to be safe, holy, and happy. God's manner of acting or proceeding in providence and grace; and the way that man should take in order to answer the end of his creation and redemption.

[¶38] X. Righteousness, צדקה Tsedakah from צדק tsadak, to do justice, to give full weight. That which teaches a man to give to all their due; to give God his due, Man his due, and Himself his due; for every man has duties to God, his neighbor, and himself, to perform. This word is applied to God's judgments, testimonies, and commandments; they are all righteous, give to all their due, and require what is due from every one.

[¶39] The three words, which some add here, are,

[¶40] The first is Faithfulness, אמונה Emunah: but see this under No. VII., nor does it appear in [Psa 119:90], where it occurs, to be used as a characteristic of God's law, but rather his exact fulfillment of his promises to man.

[¶41] The second is Judgment, משפט mishpat. See this under No. VI.: it occurs in [Psa 119:84] and [Psa 119:121] : "When wilt thou execute judgment," etc.; but is not used in those places as one of the ten words.

[¶42] The third is Name, שם shem, see [Psa 119:132] : but this is no characteristic of God's law; it refers here simply to himself. Those that love thy Name is the same as those that love Thee. Bishop Nicholson inserts promises among the ten words: but this occurs no where in the Psalm.

[¶43] We might, and with much more propriety, add a fourth, אמרה Imrah, from אמר amar, to branch out, spread, or diffuse itself, as the branches of a tree, and which is often used for a word spoken, a speech. This often occurs in the Psalm: and we regularly translate it word, and put no difference or distinction between it and דבר dabar, No. VIII.: but it is not exactly the sane; דבר dabar may apply more properly to history, relation, description and such like; while, אמרתך imrathecha, thy word, may mean an immediate oracle, delivered solemnly from God to his prophet for the instruction of men. But the two words appear often indifferently used; and it would not be easy to ascertain the different shades of meaning between these two roots.

[¶44] Having thus far introduced the Psalm to the reader's attention, I should probably speak at large of the elegance of its composition, and the importance and utility of its matter. Like all other portions of Divine revelation, it is elegant, important, and useful; and while I admire the fecundity of the psalmist's genius, the unabating flow of his poetic vein, his numerous synonyms, and his copia verborum, by which he is enabled to expand, diversify, and illustrate the same idea; presenting it to his reader in all possible points of view, so as to render it pleasing, instructive, and impressive; I cannot rob the rest of the book of its just praise by setting this, as many have done, above all the pieces it contains. It is by far the largest, the most artificial, and most diversified; yet, in proportion to its length, it contains the fewest ideas of any Psalm in the Book.

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[¶0] Several of the ancients, particularly the Greek fathers, have considered it as an abridgement of David's life; in which he expresses all the states through which he had passed; the trials, persecutions, succours, and encouragements he had received. The Latin fathers perceive in it all the morality of the Gospel, and rules for a man's conduct in every situation of life. Cassiodorus asserts that it contains the sentiments of the prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all the saints. In the introduction to the Book of Psalms I have conjectured that many of them were composed from notes taken at different times, and in widely different circumstances; hence the different states described in the same Psalm, which could not have been at one and the same time the experience of the same person. It is most likely that this Psalm was composed in this way, and this, as well as its acrostical arrangement, will account for its general want of connection.

[¶1] Though the most judicious interpreters assign it to the times of the Babylonish captivity; yet there are so many things in it descriptive of David's state, experience, and affairs, that I am led to think it might have come from his pen; or if composed at or under the captivity, was formed out of his notes and memoranda.

[¶2] I shall now make short remarks on the principal subjects in each part; and, at the end of each, endeavor by the Analysts to show the connection which the eight verses of each have among themselves, and the use which the reader should make of them. In all the Versions except the Chaldee this Psalm is numbered 118.

### Verse 1

[¶4] Blessed are the undefiled in the way - אשרי תמימי דרך ashrey temimey darech, "O the blessedness of the perfect ones in the way." This Psalm begins something like the first, where see the notes [Psa 1:1-6] (note). By the perfect, which is the proper meaning of the original word, we are to undertsand those who sincerely believe what God has spoken, religiously observe all the rules and ceremonies of his religion, and have their lives and hearts regulated by the spirit of love, fear, and obedience. This is farther stated in the second verse.

### Verse 3

[¶6] They also do no iniquity - They avoid all idolatry, injustice, and wrong; and they walk in God's ways, not in those ways to which an evil heart might entice them, nor those in which the thoughtless and the profligate tread.

### Verse 4

[¶8] Thy precepts diligently - מאד meod, "superlatively, to the uttermost." God has never given a commandment, the observance of which he knew to be impossible. And to whatsoever he has commanded he requires obedience; and his grace is sufficient for us. We must not trifle with God.

### Verse 5

[¶10] O that my ways were directed - "I wish that my way may be confirmed to keep thy statutes." Without thee I can do nothing; my soul is unstable and fickle; and it will continue weak and uncertain till thou strengthen and establish it.

### Verse 6

[¶12] Then shall I not be ashamed - Every act of transgression in the wicked man tends to harden his heart; and render it callous. If a man who fears God is so unhappy as to fall into sin, his conscience reproaches him, and he is ashamed before God and man. This is a full proof that God's Spirit has not utterly departed from him, and that he may repent, believe and be healed.

[¶13] Unto all thy commandments - God requires universal obedience, and all things are possible to him whom Christ strengthens; and all things are possible to him that believes. Allow that any of God's commandments may be transgressed, and we shall soon have the whole decalogue set aside.

### Verse 8

[¶15] O forsake me not utterly - עד מאד ad meod, "to utter dereliction;" never leave me to my own strength, nor to my own heart!

### Verse 9

[¶17] A young man cleanse his way - ארח orach, which we translate way here, signifies a track, a rut, such as is made by the wheel of a cart or chariot. A young sinner has no broad beaten path; he has his private ways of offense, his secret pollutions: and how shall he be cleansed from these? how can he be saved from what will destroy mind, body, and soul? Let him hear what follows; the description is from God.

[¶18] 1. He is to consider that his way is impure; and how abominable this must make him appear in the sight of God.

[¶19] 2. He must examine it according to God's word, and carefully hear what God has said concerning him and it.

[¶20] 3. He must take heed to it, לשמר lishmor, to keep guard, and preserve his way - his general course of life, from all defilement.

### Verse 10

[¶22] With my whole heart have I sought thee -

[¶23] 4. He must seek God, make earnest prayer and supplication to him for Divine light, for a tender conscience, and for strength to walk uprightly.

[¶24] 5. His whole heart; all his affections must be engaged here, or he cannot succeed. If he keep any affection for the idol or abomination; if his heart do not give it before the Lord, he may make many prayers, but God will answer none of them.

[¶25] 6. He must take care to keep in the path of duty, of abstinence and self-denial; not permitting either his eye, his hand, or his heart to wander from the commandments of his Maker.

### Verse 11

[¶27] Thy word have I hid in my heart -

[¶28] 7. He must treasure up those portions of God's word in his mind and heart which speak against uncleanness of every kind; and that recommend purity, chastity, and holiness. The word of Christ should dwell richly in him. If God's word be only in his Bible, and not also in his heart, he may soon and easily be surprised into his besetting sin.

### Verse 12

[¶30] Blessed art thou -

[¶31] 8. He must acknowledge the mercy of God, in so far preserving him from all the consequences of his sin.

[¶32] 9. He should beg of him to become his teacher that his heart and conscience might be instructed in the spirituality of his statutes.

### Verse 13

[¶34] With my lips have I declared -

[¶35] 10. He should declare to his own heart, and to all his companions in iniquity, God's judgments against himself and them; that if his longsuffering merely have not made a proper impression on their hearts, they may tremble at his approaching judgments.

### Verse 14

[¶37] I have rejoiced -

[¶38] 11. He must consider it his chief happiness to be found in the path of obedience, giving his whole heart and strength to God; and when enabled to do it, he should rejoice more in it than if he had gained thousands of gold and silver. O how great is the treasure of a tender and approving conscience!

### Verse 15

[¶40] I will meditate -

[¶41] 12. He should encourage self-examination and reflection; and meditate frequently on God's words, works, and ways - and especially on his gracious dealings towards him.

[¶42] 13. He should keep his eye upon God's steps; setting the example of his Savior before his eyes, going where he would go, and nowhere else; doing what he would do, and nothing else; keeping the company that he would keep, and none else; and doing every thing in reference to the final judgment.

### Verse 16

[¶44] I will delight myself - The word is very emphatical: אשתעשע eshtaasha, I will skip about and jump for joy.

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[¶0] 14. He must exult in God's word as his treasure, live in the spirit of obedience as his work, and ever glory in God, who has called him to such a state of salvation.

[¶1] 15. He must never forget what God has done for him, done in him, and promised farther to do; and he must not forget the promises he had made, and the vows of the Lord that are upon him. Any young man who attends to these fifteen particulars will get his impure way cleansed; victory over his sin; and, if he abide faithful to the Lord that bought him, an eternal heaven at last among them that are sanctified.

### Verse 17

[¶3] Deal bountifully - גמל gemol, reward thy servant. Let him have the return of his faith and prayers, that the Divine life may be preserved in his soul! Then he will keep thy word. From גמל gamal, to reward, etc., comes the name of ג gimel, the third letter in the Hebrew alphabet, which is prefixed to every verse in this part, and commences it with its own name. This is a stroke of the psalmist's art and ingenuity.

### Verse 18

[¶5] Open thou mine eyes - גל עיני gal eynai, reveal my eyes, illuminate my understanding, take away the veil that is on my heart, and then shall I see wonders in thy law. The Holy Scriptures are plain enough; but the heart of man is darkened by sin. The Bible does not so much need a comment, as the soul does the light of the Holy Spirit. Were it not for the darkness of the human intellect, the things relative to salvation would be easily apprehended.

### Verse 19

[¶7] I am a stranger in the earth - In the land. Being obliged to wander about from place to place, I am like a stranger even in my own country. If it refer to the captives in Babylon, it may mean that they felt themselves there as in a state of exile; for, although they had been seventy years in it, they still felt it as a strange land, because they considered Palestine their home.

### Verse 20

[¶9] My soul breaketh - We have a similar expression: It broke my heart, That is heart-breaking, She died of a broken heart. It expresses excessive longing, grievous disappointment, hopeless love, accumulated sorrow. By this we may see the hungering and thirsting which the psalmist had after righteousness, often mingled with much despondency.

### Verse 21

[¶11] Thou hast rebuked the proud - This was done often in the case of David; and was true also in reference to the Babylonians, who held the Israelites in subjection, and whose kings were among the proudest of human beings. Instead of זדים zedim, the proud, some MSS. read זרים zarim, strangers, and one reads גוים goyim, the heathen; and so the Syriac.

### Verse 22

[¶13] Remove from me reproach and contempt - Of these the captives in Babylon had a more than ordinary load.

### Verse 23

[¶15] Princes also did sit - It is very likely that the nobles of Babylon did often, by wicked misrepresentations, render the minds of the kings of the empire evil affected towards the Jews.

### Verse 24

[¶17] Thy testimonies also are - my counsellors - אנשי עצתי anshey atsathi, "the men of my counsel." I sit with them; and I consider every testimony thou hast given as a particular counsellor; one whose advice I especially need.

[¶18] The Analysis will farther explain the particular uses of this part.

### Verse 25

[¶20] My soul cleaveth unto the dust - It would be best to translate נפשי naphshi, my life; and then cleaving to the dust may imply an apprehension of approaching death; and this agrees best with the petition.

[¶21] Quicken thou me - חיני chaiyeni, "make me alive." Keep me from going down into the dust.

### Verse 26

[¶23] I have declared my ways - ספרתי sipparti, "I have numbered my ways," I have searched them out; I have investigated them. And that he had earnestly prayed for pardon of what was wrong in them, is evident; for he adds, "Thou heardest me."

### Verse 28

[¶25] My soul melteth - דלף dalaph sigifies to distil, to drop as tears from the eye. As my distresses cause the tears to distil from my eyes, so the overwhelming load of my afflictions causes my life to ebb and leak out.

### Verse 29

[¶27] The way of lying - The propensity to falsity and prevarication, whatsoever is contrary to truth. Remove me from its solicitations, and remove it from me. "Grant me thy law graciously;" give it to me as a rule of moral conduct; but give it to me graciously through the gospel, and then it will not be the letter that killeth, but will be sanctified to me, so as to become to me holy, just, and Good.

### Verse 30

[¶29] I have chosen the way of truth - And that I may continue in its "remove from me the way of lying." See above.

### Verse 31

[¶31] I have stuck - דבקתי dabakti, I have cleaved to, been glued to, them: the same word as in [Psa 119:25]. My soul cleaves as much to thy testimonies, as my life has cleaved to the dust.

[¶32] O Lord, put me not to shame - Let my sins and follies be blotted out by thy mercy; and so hide and cover them that they shall never appear, either in this or the coming world, to my shame and confusion! How many need to be importunate with God in this prayer!

### Verse 32

[¶34] I will run - The particle כי elci, which we translate when, should be translated because: Because thou shalt enlarge, or dilate, my heart; make plain my path by cleansing me from my impurity, and taking the hinderances out of my way. I will then run without dread of stumbling, and every day make sensible progress.

### Verse 33

[¶36] Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes - To understand the spiritual reference of all the statutes, etc, under the law, required a teaching which could only come from God.

[¶37] I shall keep it unto the end - Here is a good thing asked for a good end. He wishes for heavenly teaching; not to make a parade of it, but to enable him to discern his duty, that he might act accordingly.

### Verse 34

[¶39] With my whole heart - I will not trifle with my God, I will not divide my affections with the world; God shall have all.

### Verse 36

[¶41] Not to covetousness - Let me have no inordinate love for gain of any kind, nor for any thing that may grieve thy Spirit, or induce me to seek my happiness here below.

### Verse 37

[¶43] From beholding vanity - An idol, worldly pleasure, beauty, finery; any thing that is vain, empty, or transitory. Let me not behold it; let me not dwell upon it. Let me remember Achan: he saw, - he coveted, - he took, - he hid his theft, and was slain for his sin.

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### Verse 38

[¶1] Stablish thy word - Fulfil the promises thou hast made to me.

### Verse 39

[¶3] Turn away my reproach, which I fear - This may be understood of the reproach which a man may meet with in consequence of living a godly life, for such a life was never fashionable in any time or country. But I have found the following note on the passage: "I have done a secret evil; my soul is sorry for it: if it become public, it will be a heavy reproach to me. O God, turn it away, and let it never meet the eye of man!" - Anon.

### Verse 40

[¶5] Behold, I have longed - Thou searchest the heart; thou knowest that I have long desired thy salvation; thou seest that this desire still remains. Behold it! it is thy work; and through thy mercy I breathe after thy mercy.

[¶6] Quicken me - I am dying; O give me the spirit of life in Christ Jesus!

### Verse 41

[¶8] Let thy mercies come - Let me speedily see the accomplishment of all my prayers! Let me have thy salvation - such a deliverance as it becomes thy greatness and goodness to impart. Let it be according to thy word - thy exceeding great and precious promises.

### Verse 42

[¶10] So shall I have wherewith to answer - Many say, "My hope in thy mercy is vain;" but when thou fulfillest thy promises to me, then shall I answer to the confusion of their infidelity.

### Verse 43

[¶12] Take not the word of truth - Grant that the assurances which thy prophets have given to the people of approaching deliverance may not fall to the ground; let it appear that they have spoken thy mind, and that thou hast fulfilled their word.

### Verse 45

[¶14] I will walk at liberty - When freed from the present bondage, we shall rejoice in obedience to thy testimonies; we shall delight to keep all thy ordinances.

### Verse 46

[¶16] I will speak - before kings - Dr. Delaney supposes that this is spoken in reference to Achish, king of Gath, whom David had instructed in the Jewish religion; but we have already seen that it is most likely that the Psalm was compiled under the Babylonish captivity. But the words may with more propriety be referred to the case of Daniel, and other bold and faithful Israelites, who spoke courageously before Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. See the books of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

### Verse 47

[¶18] Thy commandments, which I have loved - O shame to Christians who feel so little affection to the Gospel of Christ, when we see such cordial, conscientious, and inviolate attachment in a Jew to the laws and ordinances of Moses, that did not afford a thousandth part of the privileges!

### Verse 48

[¶20] My hands also will I lift up - I will present every victim and sacrifice which the law requires. I will make prayer and supplication before thee, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

### Verse 49

[¶22] Remember the word - Thou hast promised to redeem us from our captivity; on that word we have built our hope. Remember that thou hast thus promised, and see that we thus hope.

### Verse 50

[¶24] This is my comfort - While enduring our harsh captivity, we anticipated our enlargement; and thy word of promise was the means of keeping our souls alive.

### Verse 51

[¶26] The proud have had me - We have been treated, not only with oppressive cruelty, but also with contempt, because we still professed to trust in thee, the living God, who because of our transgressions hadst been greatly displeased with us; jet we have not declined from thy law.

### Verse 52

[¶28] I remembered thy judgments of old - The word judgments is here taken for providential dealing; and indeed kind treatment; that which God showed to the Hebrews in bearing with and blessing them. And it was the recollection of these judgments that caused him to comfort himself.

### Verse 53

[¶30] Horror hath taken hold upon me - The word זלעפה zilaphah, which we render horror, is thought to signify the pestilential burning wind called by the Arabs simoom. Here it strongly marks the idea that the psalmist had of the destructive nature of sin; it is pestilential; it is corrupting, mortal.

### Verse 54

[¶32] Thy statutes have been my songs - During our captivity all our consolation was derived from singing thy praises, and chanting among our fellow-captives portions of thy law, and the precepts it contains.

### Verse 55

[¶34] I have remembered thy name - Thou art Jehovah; and as our God thou hast made thyself known unto us. In the deepest night of our affliction this has consoled me.

### Verse 56

[¶36] This I had, because I kept thy precepts - Though thou didst leave us under the power of our enemies, yet thou hast not left us without the consolations of thy Spirit.

### Verse 57

[¶38] Thou art my portion, O Lord - From the fifty-seventh to the sixtieth verse may be seen the progress of the work of grace on the human heart, from the first dawn of heavenly light till the soul is filled with the fullness of God. But as I consider this Psalm as notes selected from diaries of past experience, formed at different times; and that the author has been obliged, for the support of his acrostic plan, to interchange circumstances, putting that sometimes behind which in the order of grace comes before; because, to put it in its right place, the letters would not accord with the alphabetical arrangement; I shall therefore follow what I conceive to be its order in the connection of grace, and not in the order in which the words are here laid down.

### Verse 59

[¶40] First. I thought on my ways - חשבתי chashabti, I deeply pondered them; I turned them upside down; I viewed my conduct on all sides. The word, as used here, is a metaphor taken from embroidering, where the figure must appear the same on the one side as it does on the other; therefore, the cloth must be turned on each side every time the needle is set in, to see that the stitch be fairly set. Thus narrowly and scrupulously did the psalmist examine his conduct; and the result was, a deep conviction that he had departed from the way of God and truth.

[¶41] Secondly. And turned my feet unto thy testimonies - Having made the above discovery, and finding himself under the displeasure of God, he abandoned every evil way, took God's word for his directory, and set out fairly in the way of life and salvation.

### Verse 60

[¶43] Thirdly. I made haste, and delayed not - He did this with the utmost speed; and did not trifle with his convictions, nor seek to drown the voice of conscience.

[¶44] The original word, which we translate delayed not, is amazingly emphatical. ולא התמהמהתי velo hithmahmahti, I did not stand what-what-whating; or, as we used to express the same sentiment, shilly-shallying with myself: I was determined, and so set out. The Hebrew word, as well as the English, strongly marks indecision of mind, positive action being suspended, because the mind is so unfixed as not to be able to make a choice.

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### Verse 58

[¶1] Fourthly. Being determined in his heart, he tells us, I entreated thy favor with my whole heart. He found he had sinned; that he needed mercy; that he had no time to lose; that he must be importunate; and therefore he sought that mercy with all his soul.

[¶2] Fifthly. Feeling that he deserved nothing but wrath, that he had no right to any good, he cries for mercy in the way that God had promised to convey it: "Be merciful unto me!" And to this he is encouraged only by the promise of God; and therefore prays, "Be merciful unto me According to thy Word."

### Verse 57

[¶4] Sixthly. To keep himself firm in his present resolutions, he binds himself unto the Lord. "I have said that I would keep thy words." Thy vows are upon me, and I must not add to my guilt by breaking them.

[¶5] Seventhly. He did not seek in vain; God reveals himself in the fullness of blessedness to him, so that he is enabled to exclaim, Thou art my portion, O Lord! My whole soul trusts in thee, my spirit rests supremely satisfied with thee. I have no other inheritance, nor do I desire any. Here then is the way to seek, the way to find, and the way to be happy. Other effects of this conversion may be seen below.

### Verse 61

[¶7] The bands of the wicked have robbed me - חבלי chebley, the cables, cords, or snares of the wicked. They have hunted us like wild beasts; many they have taken for prey, and many they have destroyed.

### Verse 62

[¶9] At midnight I will rise - We are so overpowered with a sense of thy goodness, that in season and out of season we will return thee thanks.

### Verse 63

[¶11] I am a companion - This was the natural consequence of his own conversion; he abandoned the workers of iniquity, and associated with them that feared the Lord.

### Verse 64

[¶13] The earth is full of thy mercy - What an astonishing operation has the grace of God! In the midst of want, poverty, affliction, and bondage, it makes those who possess it happy! When Christ dwells in the heart by faith, we have nothing but goodness around us. Others may complain; but to us even the earth appears full of the mercy of the Lord.

### Verse 65

[¶15] Thou hast dealt well with thy servant - Whatsoever thy word has promised, thou hast fulfilled. Every servant of God can testify that God has done him nothing but good, and therefore he can speak good of his name.

### Verse 66

[¶17] Teach me good judgment and knowledge - טוב טעם ודעי למדני tob taam vedaath lammnedeni. Teach me (to have) a good taste and discernment. Let me see and know the importance of Divine things, and give me a relish for them.

### Verse 67

[¶19] Before I was afflicted I went astray - Many have been humbled under affliction, and taught to know themselves and humble themselves before God, that probably without this could never have been saved; after this, they have been serious and faithful. Affliction sanctified is a great blessing; unsanctified, it is an additional curse.

### Verse 68

[¶21] Thou art good - And because thou art good, thou doest good; and because thou delightest to do good, teach me thy statutes.

### Verse 69

[¶23] The proud have forged a lie - The poor captives in Babylon had their conduct and motives continually misrepresented, and themselves belied and calumniated.

### Verse 70

[¶25] Their heart is as fat as grease - They are egregiously stupid, they have fed themselves without fear; they are become flesh-brutalized, and given over to vile affections, and have no kind of spiritual relish: but I delight in thy law - I have, through thy goodness, a spiritual feeling and a spiritual appetite.

### Verse 71

[¶27] It is good for me that I have been afflicted - See on [Psa 119:67] (note).

### Verse 72

[¶29] The law of thy mouth is better - Who can say this? Who prefers the law of his God, the Christ that bought him, and the heaven to which he hopes to go, when he can live no longer upon earth, to thousands of gold and silver? Yea, how many are there who, like Judas, sell their Savior even for thirty pieces of silver? Hear this, ye lovers of the world and of money!

[¶30] As the letter ט teth begins but few words, not forty, in the Hebrew language, there is less variety under this division than under any of the preceding.

### Verse 73

[¶32] Thy hands have made me - Thou hast formed the mass out of which I was made; and fashioned me - thou hast given me that particular form that distinguishes me from all thy other creatures.

[¶33] Give me understanding - As thou hast raised me above the beasts that perish in my form and mode of life, teach me that I may live for a higher and nobler end, in loving, serving, and enjoying thee for ever. Show me that I was made for heaven, not for earth.

### Verse 74

[¶35] They that fear thee - They who are truly religious will be glad - will rejoice, at this farther proof of the saving power of God.

### Verse 75

[¶37] I know - that thy judgments are right - All the dispensations of thy providence are laid in wisdom, and executed in mercy: let me see that it is through this wisdom and mercy that I have been afflicted.

### Verse 76

[¶39] Thy merciful kindness - Let me derive my comfort and happiness from a diffusion of thy love and mercy, חסדך chasdecha, thy exuberant goodness, through my soul.

### Verse 77

[¶41] Let thy tender mercies - רחמיך rachameycha, thy fatherly and affectionate feelings.

### Verse 78

[¶43] Let the proud be ashamed - To reduce a proud man to shame, is to humble him indeed. Let them be confounded. Without cause - without any colourable pretext, have they persecuted me.

### Verse 79

[¶45] Let those that fear thee - The truly pious.

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[¶0] Turn unto me - Seeing thy work upon me, they shall acknowledge me as a brand plucked from the burning.

### Verse 80

[¶2] Let my heart be sound in thy statutes - Let it be perfect - all given up to thee, and all possessed by thee.

### Verse 81

[¶4] My soul fainteth for thy salvation - I have longed so incessantly after thy salvation - the complete purification and restoration of my soul, that my very spirits are exhausted. "My heartstrings groan with deep complaint;My soul lies panting, Lord, for thee;

[¶5] And every limb and every jointStretches for perfect purity."

### Verse 82

[¶7] Mine eyes fail - With looking up for the fulfillment of thy promise, as my heart fails in longing after thy presence.

### Verse 83

[¶9] Like a bottle in the smoke - In the eastern countries their bottles are made of skins; one of these hung in the smoke must soon be parched and shrivelled up. This represents the exhausted state of his body and mind by long bodily affliction and mental distress.

### Verse 84

[¶11] How many are the days of thy servants - Dost thou not know that I have few to live, and they are full of trouble?

[¶12] When wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? - Shall not the pride of the Chaldeans be brought down, the arm of their strength broken, and thy people delivered? In this verse there is none of the ten words used in reference to God's law.

### Verse 85

[¶14] The proud have digged pits - The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, translate this verse thus: "They have recited to me unholy fables, which are not according to thy law." They wish us to receive their system of idolatry, and the tales concerning their gods; but these are not according to thy law. The Anglo-Saxon is the same: They quothed me the unrightwise spells; but no so so law thine.

### Verse 87

[¶16] They had almost consumed me - Had it not been for thy mercy, we had all been destroyed under this oppressive captivity.

### Verse 88

[¶18] Quicken me - Make and keep me alive.

[¶19] So shall I keep - Without the spiritual life there is no obedience; we must therefore rise from the dead, and be quickened by the Spirit of Christ.

### Verse 89

[¶21] For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven - Thy purposes are all settled above, and they shall all be fulfilled below.

### Verse 90

[¶23] Thy faithfulness - That which binds thee to accomplish the promise made. And this shall be, not for an age merely, but from generation to generation; for thy promises refer to the whole duration of time.

[¶24] Thou hast established the earth - Thou hast given it its appointed place in the system, and there it abideth.

### Verse 91

[¶26] They continue this day - This verse should be thus read: All are thy servants; therefore, they continue this day according to thy ordinances. "All the celestial bodies are governed by thy power. Thou hast given an ordinance or appointment to each, and each fulfils thy will in the place thou hast assigned it."

### Verse 92

[¶28] Unless thy law had been my delights - Had we not had the consolations of religion, we should long ago have died of a broken heart.

### Verse 93

[¶30] I will never forget thy precepts - How can I? It is by them I live.

### Verse 94

[¶32] I am thine, save me - He who can say this need fear no evil. In all trials, temptations, dangers, afflictions, persecutions, I am thine. Thy enemies wish to destroy me! Lord, look to thy servant; thy servant looks to thee. O how sovereign is such a word against all the evils of life! I am Thine! therefore save thine Own!

### Verse 96

[¶34] I have seen an end of all perfection - Literally, "Of all consummations I have seen the end:" as if one should say, Every thing of human origin has its limits and end, howsoever extensive, noble, and excellent. All arts and sciences, languages, inventions, have their respective principles, have their limits and ends; as they came from man and relate to man, they shall end with man: but thy law, thy revelation, which is a picture of thy own mind, an external manifestation of thy own perfections, conceived in thy infinite ideas, in reference to eternal objects, is exceeding broad; transcends the limits of creation; and extends illimitably into eternity! This has been explained as if it meant: All the real or pretended perfection that men can arrive at in this life is nothing when compared with what the law of God requires. This saying is false in itself, and is no meaning of the text. Whatever God requires of man he can, by his grace, work in man.

### Verse 97

[¶36] O how love I thy law - This is one of the strongest marks of a gracious and pious heart, cast in the mould of obedience. Such love the precepts of Christ: in his commandments they delight; and this delight is shown by their making them frequent subjects of their meditation.

### Verse 98

[¶38] Wiser than mine enemies - Some have thought that this Psalm was composed by Daniel, and that he speaks of himself in these verses. Being instructed by God, he was found to have more knowledge than any of the Chaldeans, magicians, soothsayers, etc., etc.; and his wisdom soon appeared to the whole nation vastly superior to theirs.

### Verse 99

[¶40] I have more understanding than all my teachers - As he had entered into the spiritual nature of the law of God, and saw into the exceeding breadth of the commandment, he soon became wiser than any of the priests or even prophets who instructed him.

### Verse 100

[¶42] I understand more than the ancients - God had revealed to him more of that hidden wisdom which was in his law than he had done to any of his predecessors. And this was most literally true of David, who spoke more fully about Christ than any who had gone before him; or, indeed, followed after him. His compositions are, I had almost said, a sublime Gospel.

### Verse 101

[¶44] I have refrained my feet - By avoiding all sin, the spirit of wisdom still continues to rest upon me.

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### Verse 103

[¶1] Sweeter than honey to my mouth! - What deep communion must this man have had with his Maker! These expressions show a soul filled with God. O Christians, how vastly superior are our privileges! and alas! how vastly inferior in general, are our consolations, our communion with God, and our heavenly-mindedness!

### Verse 104

[¶3] Through thy precepts I get understanding - Spiritual knowledge increases while we tread in the path of obedience. Obedience is the grand means of growth and instruction. Obedience trades with the talent of grace, and thus grace becomes multiplied.

### Verse 105

[¶5] Thy word is a lamp - This is illustrated thus by Solomon, [Pro 6:23] : "The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life." God's word is a candle which may be held in the hand to give us light in every dark place and chamber; and it is a general light shining upon all his works, and upon all our ways.

### Verse 106

[¶7] I have sworn - Perhaps this means no more than that he had renewed his covenant with God; he had bound himself to love and serve him only.

### Verse 107

[¶9] I am afflicted very much - עד מאד ad meod, "to extremity, excessively." We are in the most oppressive captivity.

[¶10] Quicken me - Deliver us from our bondage.

### Verse 108

[¶12] The freewill-offerings of my mouth - נדבות פי nidboth pi, the voluntary offerings which I have promised. Or, As we are in captivity, and cannot sacrifice to thee, but would if we could; accept the praises of our mouth, and the purposes of our hearts, instead of the sacrifices and offerings which we would bring to thy altar, but cannot.

### Verse 109

[¶14] My soul is continually in my hand - נפשי naphshi, my life; that is, it is in constant danger, every hour I am on the confines of death.

[¶15] The expression signifies to be in continual danger. So Xenarchus in Athenaeus, lib. xiii., c. 4: Εν τῃ χειρι την ψυχην εχοντα, "having the life in the hand;" which signifies continual danger and jeopardy. There is some thing like this in the speech of Achilles to Ulysses, Hom. Il. ix., ver. 322: - Αιει εμην ψυχην παραβαλλομενος πολεμιζειν· "Always presenting my life to the dangers of the fight."

[¶16] My soul is in thy hand, is the reading of the Syriac, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic; but this is a conjectural and useless emendation.

### Verse 110

[¶18] The wicked have laid a snare - Thus their lives were continually exposed to danger.

### Verse 111

[¶20] As a heritage - In [Psa 119:57] he says, God is my portion, חלקי chelki. In this he says, Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage, נחל nachal. To these he was heir; he had inherited them from his fathers, and he was determined to leave them to his family for ever. If a man can leave nothing to his child but a Bible, in that he bequeaths him the greatest treasure in the universe.

### Verse 112

[¶22] I have inclined mine heart - I used the power God gave me, and turned to his testimonies with all mine heart. When we work with God, we can do all things.

### Verse 113

[¶24] I hate vain thoughts - I have hated סעפים seaphim, "tumultuous, violent men." I abominate all mobs and insurrections, and troublers of the public peace.

### Verse 114

[¶26] Mv hiding place - My asylum.

[¶27] And my shield - There is a time in which I may be called to suffer in secret; then thou hidest me. There may be a time in which thou callest me to fight; then thou art my Shield and Protector.

### Verse 116

[¶29] Depart from me - Odi profanum vulgus, etarceo, I abominate the profane, and will have no communion with them. I drive them away from my presence.

[¶30] Uphold me - סמכני sammecheni, prop me up; give me thyself to lean upon.

### Verse 117

[¶32] Hold thou me up - I shall grow weary and faint in the way, if not strengthened and supported by thee.

[¶33] And I shall be safe - No soul can be safe, unless upheld by thee.

### Verse 118

[¶35] Thou hast trodden down - All thy enemies will be finally trodden down under thy feet.

[¶36] Their deceit is falsehood - Their elevation is a lie. The wicked often become rich and great, and affect to be happy, but it is all false; they have neither a clean nor approving conscience. Nor can they have thy approbation; and, consequently, no true blessedness.

### Verse 119

[¶38] Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross - There is no true metal in them: when they are tried by the refining fire, they are burnt up; they fly off in fumes, and come to no amount. There is probably an allusion here to the scum or scorias at the surface of melting metals, which is swept oft previously to casting the metal into the mould.

[¶39] Therefore I love thy testimonies - Thy testimonies will stand; and thy people will stand; because thou who didst give the one, and who upholdest the other, art pure, immovable, and eternal.

### Verse 120

[¶41] My flesh trembleth for fear of thee - I know thou art a just and holy God: I know thou requirest truth in the inner parts. I know that thou art a Spirit, and that they who worship thee must worship thee in spirit and in truth; and I am often alarmed lest I fall short. It is only an assurance of my interest in thy mercy that can save me from distressing fears and harassing doubts. It is our privilege to know we are in God's favor; and it is not less so to maintain a continual filial fear of offending him. A true conception of God's justice and mercy begets reverence.

### Verse 121

[¶43] I have done judgment and justice - I have given the best decision possible on every case that came before me; and I have endeavored to render to all their due.

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### Verse 122

[¶1] Be surety for thy servant - ערב arob, give a pledge or token that thou wilt help me in times of necessity. Or, Be bail for thy servant. What a word is this! Pledge thyself for me, that thou wilt produce me safely at the judgment of the great day. Then sustain and keep me blameless till the coming of Christ. Neither of these two verses has any of the ten words in reference to God's law or attributes. The judgment and the justice refer to the psalmist's own conduct in [Psa 119:121]. The hundred and twenty-second has no word of the kind.

### Verse 123

[¶3] Mine eyes fail - See on [Psa 119:82] (note).

### Verse 125

[¶5] I am thy servant - See on [Psa 119:94] (note).

### Verse 126

[¶7] It is time for thee, Lord, to work - The time is fulfilled in which thou hast promised deliverance to thy people. They - the Babylonians,

[¶8] Have made void thy law - They have filled up the measure of their iniquities.

### Verse 127

[¶10] Therefore I love thy commandments - I see thou wilt do all things well. I will trust in thee.

[¶11] Above gold - מזהב mizzahab, more than resplendent gold; gold without any stain or rust.

[¶12] Yea, above fine gold - ומפז umippaz, above solid gold; gold separated from the dross, perfectly refined.

### Verse 128

[¶14] All thy precepts concerning all things to be right - There are too many supplied words here to leave the text unsuspected. All the ancient versions, except the Chaldee, seem to have omitted the second כל col, All and read the text thus: "Therefore I have walked straight in all thy precepts." I go straight on in all thy precepts, hating every false way. I neither turn to the right hand nor to the left; the false ways are crooked; thy way is straight. I am going to heaven, and that way lies straight before me. To walk in the way of falsity I cannot, because I hate it; and I hate such ways because God hates them.

### Verse 129

[¶16] Thy testimonies are wonderful - There is a height, length, depth, and breadth in thy word and testimonies that are truly astonishing; and on this account my soul loves them, and I deeply study them. The more I study, the more light and salvation I obtain.

### Verse 130

[¶18] The entrance of thy words giveth light - פתח pethach, the opening of it: when I open my Bible to read, light springs up in my mind. Every sermon, every prayer, every act of faith, is an opening by which light is let into the seeking soul.

### Verse 131

[¶20] I opened my mouth, and panted - A metaphor taken from an animal exhausted in the chase. He runs, open-mouthed, to take in the cooling air; the heart beating high, and the muscular force nearly expended through fatigue. The psalmist sought for salvation, as he would run from a ferocious beast for his life. Nothing can show his earnestness in a stronger point of view.

### Verse 132

[¶22] As thou usest to do - Treat me as thy mercy has induced thee to treat others in my circumstances. Deal with me as thou dealest with thy friends.

### Verse 133

[¶24] Order my steps - הכן hachen, make them firm; let me not walk with a halting or unsteady step.

[¶25] Have dominion over me - בי bi, In me. Let me have no governor but God, let the throne of my heart be filled by him, and none other.

### Verse 135

[¶27] Make thy face to shine - Give me a sense of thy approbation. Let me know, by the testimony of thy Spirit in my conscience, that thou art reconciled to me. The godly in all ages derived their happiness from a consciousness of the Divine favor. The witness of God's spirit in the souls of believers was an essential principle in religion from the foundation of the world.

### Verse 136

[¶29] Rivers of waters run down mine eyes - How much had this blessed man the honor of God and the salvation of souls at heart! O for more of that spirit which mourns for the transgressions of the land! But we are not properly convinced of the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

### Verse 137

[¶31] Righteous art thou - Thou art infinitely holy in thy nature; and therefore thou art upright in thy judgments - all thy dispensations to men.

### Verse 138

[¶33] Thy testimonies - Every thing that proceeds from thee partakes of the perfections of thy nature.

### Verse 139

[¶35] My zeal hath consumed me - My earnest desire to promote thy glory, and the pain I feel at seeing transgressions multiplied, have worn down both my flesh and spirits.

### Verse 140

[¶37] Thy word is very pure - צרופה tseruphah, it is purification. It is not a purified thing, but a thing that purifies. "Now ye are clean," said Christ, "by the word I have spoken unto you." God's word is a fire to purify as well as a hammer to break.

### Verse 141

[¶39] I am small and despised - And on these accounts have every thing to fear. Being small, I cannot resist; being despised, I am in danger; but even all this does not induce me to start aside, or through the fear of man to be unfaithful to thee.

### Verse 142

[¶41] Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness - The word צדק tsedek is a word of very extensive meaning in the Bible. It signifies, not only God's inherent righteousness and perfection of nature, but also his method of treating others; his plan of redemption; his method of saving others. And the word δικαιοσυνη, which answers to it, in the Septuagint and in the New Testament, is used with the same latitude of meaning, and in the same sense; particularly in that remarkable passage, [Rom 3:25-26] (note), where see the notes. Thy merciful method of dealing with sinners and justifying the ungodly will last as long as the earth lasts; and thy law that witnesses this, in all its pages, is the truth.

### Verse 143

[¶43] Trouble and anguish - I am exercised with various trials from men and devils.

[¶44] Have taken hold on me - But still I cleave to my God, and am delighted with his law.

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### Verse 144

[¶1] The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting - Thy moral law was not made for one people, or for one particular time; it is as imperishable as thy nature, and of endless obligation. It is that law by which all the children of Adam shall be Judged.

[¶2] Give me understanding - To know and practice it.

[¶3] And I shall live - Shall glorify thee, and live eternally; not for the merit of having done it, but because thou didst fulfill the work of the law in my heart, having saved me from condemnation by it.

### Verse 145

[¶5] I cried with my whole heart - The whole soul of the psalmist was engaged in this good work. He whose whole heart cries to God will never rise from the throne of grace without a blessing.

### Verse 147

[¶7] I prevented the dawning - קדמתי kiddamti, "I went before the dawn or twilight."

### Verse 148

[¶9] Mine eyes prevent - קדמו kiddemu, "go before the watches." Before the watchman proclaims the hour, I am awake, meditating on thy words. The Jews divided the night into three watches, which began at what we call six o'clock in the evening, and consisted each of four hours. The Romans taught them afterwards to divide it into four watches of three hours each; and to divide the day and night into twelve hours each; wherein different guards of soldiers were appointed to watch. At the proclaiming of each watch the psalmist appears to have risen and performed some act of devotion. For a remarkable custom of our Saxon ancestors, see the note on [Psa 119:164] (note).

### Verse 150

[¶11] They draw nigh - They are just at hand who seek to destroy me.

[¶12] They are far from thy law - They are near to all evil, but far from thee.

### Verse 151

[¶14] Thou art near - As they are near to destroy, so art thou near to save. When the enemy comes in as a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him.

### Verse 152

[¶16] Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old - קדם ידעתי kedem yedati, "Long ago I have known concerning thy testimonies." Thou hast designed that thy testimonies should bear reference to, and evidence of, those glorious things which thou hast provided for the salvation of men; and that this should be an everlasting testimony. They continue, and Christ is come.

### Verse 153

[¶18] Consider mine affliction - See mine addiction or humiliation: but the eye of the Lord affects his heart; and therefore he never sees the distresses of his followers without considering their situation, and affording them help.

### Verse 154

[¶20] Plead my cause - ריבה ריבי ribah ribi. "Be my Advocate in my suit." Contend for us against the Babylonians, and bring us out of our bondage.

[¶21] According to thy word - Spoken by thy prophets for our comfort and encouragement.

### Verse 155

[¶23] Salvation is far from the wicked - There is no hope of their conversion.

[¶24] For they seek not thy statutes - And they who do not seek, shall not find.

### Verse 156

[¶26] Great are thy tender mercies - They are רבים rabbim, multitudes. They extend to all the wretchednesses of all men.

### Verse 158

[¶28] I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved - Literally, I was affected with anguish.

### Verse 160

[¶30] Thy word is true from the beginning - ראש rosh, the head or beginning of thy word, is true. Does he refer to the first word in the Book of Genesis, בראשית bereshith, "in the beginning?" The learned reader knows that ראש rash, or raash, is the root in that word. Every word thou hast spoken from the first in Bereshith (Genesis) to the end of the law and prophets, and all thou wilt yet speak, as flowing from the fountain of truth, must be true; and all shall have in due time, their fulfllment. And all these, thy words endure for ever. They are true, and ever will be true.

### Verse 161

[¶32] Princes have persecuted me - This may refer to what was done by prime ministers, and the rulers of provinces, to sour the king against the unfortunate Jews, in order still to detain them in bondage. In reference to David, the plotting against him in Saul's court, and the dangers he ran in consequence of the jealousies of the Philistine lords while he sojourned among them, are well known.

[¶33] My heart standeth in awe - They had probably offers made them of enlargement or melioration of condition, providing they submitted to some idolatrous conditions; but they knew they had to do with a jealous God; their hearts stood in awe, and they were thereby kept from sin.

### Verse 162

[¶35] As one that findeth great spoil - שלל רב shalal rab. This appears to refer to such spoil as is acquired by stripping the dead in a field of battle, taking the rich garments of the slain chiefs; or it may refer to plunder in general. As God opened his eyes he beheld wonders in his law; and each discovery of this kind was like finding a prize.

### Verse 163

[¶37] I - abhor lying - Perhaps they might have made the confessions which the Chaldeans required, and by mental reservation have kept an inward firm adherence to their creed; but this, in the sight of the God of truth, must have been lying; and at such a sacrifice they would not purchase their enlargement, even from their captivity.

### Verse 164

[¶39] Seven times a day do I praise thee - We have often seen that seven was a number expressing perfection, completion, etc., among the Hebrews; and that it is often used to signify many, or an indefinite number, see [Pro 24:16]; [Lev 26:28]. And here it may mean no more than that his soul was filled with the spirit of gratitude and praise, and that he very frequently expressed his joyous and grateful feelings in this way. But Rabbi Solomon says this is to be understood literally, for they praised God twice in the morning before reading the decalogue, and once after; twice in the evening before the same reading, and twice after; making in the whole seven times. The Roman Church has prescribed a similar service.

[¶40] In a manuscript Saxon Homily, Domin. 3, in Quadrag, a.d. 971, I find the following singular directions: -

[¶41] Every Christian man is commanded that he always his body seven times bless with the sign of Christ's cross.

[¶42] 1. First, at day-break.

[¶43] 2. Second time at undern tide, (nine o'clock in the morning).

[¶44] 3. The third time at midday.

[¶45] 4. The fourth time at noon-tide. (3 o'clock P.M.)

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[¶0] 5. The fifth time in the evening.

[¶1] 6. The sixth time at night ere he go to rest.

[¶2] 7. The seventh time at midnight. A good man would do so if he awoke.

[¶3] It seems that the sign of the cross was thought sufficient, even without prayer.

### Verse 165

[¶5] Great peace have they - They have peace in their conscience, and joy in the Holy Spirit; and

[¶6] Nothing shall offend - Stumble, or put them out of the way.

### Verse 166

[¶8] Lord, I have hoped - Thou hast promised deliverance, and I have expected it on the ground of that promise.

### Verse 167

[¶10] My soul hath kept - I have not attended to the latter merely, but my spirit has entered into the spirit and design of thy testimonies.

### Verse 168

[¶12] For all my ways are before thee - Thou knowest that I do not lie; thy eye has been upon my heart and my conduct, and thou knowest that I have endeavored to walk before thee with a perfect heart.

### Verse 169

[¶14] Let my cry come near before thee - This is really a fine image; it is of frequent occurrence, and is little heeded. Here the psalmists cry for deliverance is personified; made an intelligent being, and sent up to the throne of grace to negotiate in his behalf. He pursues this prosopopoeia in the next verse and sends his supplication in the same way. I have already had occasion to refer to a similar figure in Homer, where prayers are represented as the daughters of Jupiter. See on [Psa 88:2] (note).

### Verse 171

[¶16] My lips shall utter praise - תהלה tehillah, a song of praise.

### Verse 172

[¶18] My tongue shall speak of thy word - There is a curious distinction here. In the preceding verse he says, "My lips shall utter;" here no reference is made to articulate sounds, except as affixed to musical notes. In this verse he says, "My tongue shall speak;" here articulate and intelligible words are intended. He first utters sounds connected with words expressive of his grateful feelings; in the second he speaks words, principally those which God himself had spoken, containing promises of support, purposes relative to the redemption of his people, and denunciations against their enemies.

### Verse 173

[¶20] Let thine hand help me - Exert thy power in my defense.

### Verse 175

[¶22] Let my soul live - Let my life be preserved, and my soul quickened!

### Verse 176

[¶24] I have gone astray like a lost sheep - A sheep, when it has once lost the flock, strays in such a manner as to render the prospect of its own return utterly hopeless. I have seen them bleating when they have lost the flock, and when answered by the others, instead of turning to the sound, have gone on in the same direction in which they were straying, their bleatings answered by the rest of the flock, till they were out of hearing! This fact shows the propriety of the next clause.

[¶25] Seek thy servant - I shall never find thee; come to the wilderness, take me up, and carry me to the flock. See the notes on the parable of the lost sheep, [Luk 15:4] (note), etc. The psalmist began with "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord;" and he concludes with "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant." And thus, conscious of the blessedness of those who are in the way or righteousness, he desires to be brought into it, that he may walk in newness of life. [Psa 119:1] : "It is a good way, and they are blessed that walk in it." Verse the last, "Bring me into this way, that I may be blessed." And thus the Psalm, in sentiment, returns into itself; and the latter verse is so connected with the former, as to make the whole a perfect circle, like the serpent biting its own tail.

[¶26] There is one extraordinary perfection in this Psalm: begin where you will, you seem to be at the commencement of the piece; end where you will, you seem to close with a complete sense. And yet it is not like the Book of Proverbs, a tissue of detached sentences; it is a whole composed of many parts, and all apparently as necessary to the perfection of the Psalm, as the different alphabetical letters under which it is arranged are to the formation of a complete alphabet. Though there be a continual recurrence of the same words, which would of itself prevent it from having a pleasing effect upon the ear, yet these words are so connected with a vast variety of others, which show their force and meaning in still new and impressive points of light, that attention is still excited, and devotion kept alive, during the whole reading. It is constructed with admirable art, and every where breathes the justest and highest encomiums on the revelation of God; shows the glories of the God who gave it, the necessities and dependence of his intelligent creatures, the bounty of the Creator, and the praise and obedience which are his due. It is elegant throughout; it is full of beauties, and I have endeavored in the preceding notes to mark some of them; but the number might have been greatly multiplied. To no Psalm can its own words be better applied, [Psa 119:18] : "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."

### Introduction

[¶28] The psalmist, in great distress, calls on the Lord for deliverance from calumny and defamation, [Psa 120:1], [Psa 120:2]; shows the punishment that awaits his persecutor, [Psa 120:3], [Psa 120:4]; deplores the necessity of his residence with the ungodly, [Psa 120:5-7].

[¶29] This Psalm, and all the rest that follow it, to the end of [Psa 134:1-3], fifteen in number, are called Psalms of Degrees; for thus the Hebrew title המעלות hammaaloth is generally translated, as coming from the root עלה alah, to ascend or mount upwards. Hence מעלות maaloth, steps or stairs for ascending, [1Kgs 10:19], [1Kgs 10:20]; [2Kgs 9:13]. But as the word may be applied to elevation in general, hence some have thought that it may here signify the elevation of voice; "these Psalms being sung with the highest elevations of voice and music." Others have thought the word expresses rather the matter of these Psalms, as being of peculiar excellence: and hence Junius and Tremellius prefix to each Canticum excellentissimum, "A most excellent ode."

[¶30] R. D. Kimchi says, "There were fifteen steps by which the priests ascended into the temple, on each of which they sang one of these fifteen Psalms." This opinion I find referred to in the Apocryphal Gospel of the birth of Mary: "Her parents brought her to the temple, and set her upon one of the steps. Now there are fifteen steps about the temple, by which they go up to it, according to the fifteen Psalms of Degrees." But the existence of such steps and practices cannot be proved.

[¶31] Aben Ezra supposes that the word means some kind of tune sung to these Psalms. It is more likely, if the title be really ancient, that it was affixed to them on account of their being sung on the return from the Babylonish captivity, as the people were going up to Jerusalem; for though some of them are attributed to David, yet it is very probable that they were all made long after his time, and probably during the captivity, or about the end of it. The author of these fifteen Psalms is not known; and most probably they were not the work of one person. They have been attributed to David, to Solomon, to Ezra, to Haggai, to Zechariah, and to Malachi, without any positive evidence. They are, however, excellent in their kind, and written with much elegance; containing strong and nervous sentiments of the most exalted piety, expressed with great felicity of language in a few words.

### Verse 1

[¶33] In my distress - Through the causes afterwards mentioned.

[¶34] I cried unto the Lord - Made strong supplication for help.

[¶35] And he heard one - Answered my prayer by comforting my soul.

[¶36] It appears to be a prayer of the captives in Babylon for complete liberty; or perhaps he recites the prayer the Israelites had made previously to their restoration.

### Verse 2

[¶38] Lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue - From a people without faith, without truth, without religion; who sought by lies and calumnies to destroy them.

### Verse 3

[¶40] What shall be given unto thee? - Thou art worthy of the heaviest punishments.

### Verse 4

[¶42] Sharp arrows - The Chaldee has, "The strong, sharp arrows are like lightning from above, with coals of juniper kindled in hell beneath." On the juniper, see the note on [Job 30:4], where this passage is explained. Fiery arrows, or arrows wrapped about with inflamed combustibles, were formerly used in sieges to set the places on fire. See my notes on [Eph 6:16] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶44] That I sojourn in Mesech - The Chaldee has it, "Wo is me that I am a stranger with the Asiatics, (אוסאי useey), and that I dwell in the tents of the Arabs." Calmet, who understands the Psalm as speaking of the state of the captives in Babylon and its provinces, says, "Meshec was apparently the father of the Mosquians, who dwelt in the mountains that separate Iberia from Armenia, and both from Colchis. These provinces were subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar; and it is evident from [2Kgs 17:23], [2Kgs 17:24]; [2Kgs 18:11]; [2Kgs 19:12], [2Kgs 19:13], that many of the Jews were held in captivity in those countries. As to Kedar, it extended into Arabia Petraea, and towards the Euphrates; and is the country afterwards known as the country of the Saracens."

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### Verse 6

[¶1] My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace - A restless, barbarous, warlike, and marauding people.

### Verse 7

[¶3] I am for peace - We love to be quiet and peaceable; but they are continually engaged in excursions of rapine and plunder. It is evident that the psalmist refers to a people like the Scenitae or wandering Arabs, who live constantly in tents, and subsist by robbery; plundering and carrying away all that they can seize. The poor captives wished them to cultivate the arts of peace, and live quietly; but they would hear of nothing but their old manner of life.

### Introduction

[¶5] The resolution of a godly man, [Psa 121:1], [Psa 121:2]. The safety and prosperity of such, as they and theirs shall be under the continual protection of God, [Psa 121:3-8].

[¶6] This appears to be a prayer of the Jews in their captivity, who are solicitous for their restoration. It is in the form of a dialogue. [Psa 121:1], [Psa 121:2]. The person who worships God speaks the two first verses, "I will lift up mine eyes-my help cometh," - [Psa 121:1], [Psa 121:2]. [Psa 121:3]. The ministering priest answers him, "He will not suffer thy foot to be moved." "He that keepeth thee will not slumber," [Psa 121:3].

[¶7] To which the worshipper answers, that he knows that "he who keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep," [Psa 121:4]; but he seems to express a doubt whether he shall be an object of the Divine attention. [Psa 121:5] etc. The priest resumes; and, to the conclusion of the Psalm, gives him the most positive assurances of God's favor and protection.

### Verse 1

[¶9] Unto the hills - Jerusalem was built upon a mountain; and Judea was a mountainous country; and the Jews, in their several dispersions, turned towards Jerusalem when they offered up their prayers to God.

### Verse 2

[¶11] My help cometh from the Lord - There is no help for me but in my God; and I expect it from no other quarter.

### Verse 3

[¶13] He will not suffer thy foot to be moved - The foundation, God's infinite power and goodness, on which thou standest, cannot be moved; and whilst thou standest on this basis, thy foot cannot be moved.

### Verse 4

[¶15] He that keepeth Israel - The Divine Being represents himself as a watchman, who takes care of the city and its inhabitants during the night-watches; and who is never overtaken with slumbering or sleepiness. There is a thought in the Antigone of Sophocles, that seems the counterpart of this of the psalmist, Ταν σαν, Ζευ, δυναμιν τις ανδρων Ὑπερβασια κατασχοι, Ταν ουθ' ὑπνος αἱ - ρει ποθ' ὁ παντογηρως, Ακαματοι τε θεων Μηνες;

[¶16] Antig. ver. 613, Edit. Johnson.

[¶17] Shall men below control great Jove above,Whose eyes by all-subduing sleep

[¶18] Are never closed, as feeble mortals' are;But still their watchful vigil keep

[¶19] Through the long circle of th' eternal year?

[¶20] Franklin.

### Verse 6

[¶22] The sun shall not smite thee by day - Thus expressed by the Chaldee: "The morning spectres shall not smite thee by day, during the government of the sun; nor the nocturnal spectres by night, during the government of the moon." I believe the psalmist simply means, they shall not be injured by heat nor cold; by a sun-stroke by day, nor a frost-bite by night.

### Verse 7

[¶24] The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil - Spiritual and corporeal, natural and moral.

[¶25] He shall preserve thy soul - Take care of thy life, and take care of thy soul.

### Verse 8

[¶27] Thy going out and thy coming in - Night and day - in all thy business and undertakings; and this through the whole course of thy life: for evermore.

### Introduction

[¶29] The satisfaction of a gracious soul in the use of God's ordinances, [Psa 122:1], [Psa 122:2]. Description of the internal governmentof Jerusalem, [Psa 122:3-5]. Prayers for its peace and prosperity, [Psa 122:6-9].

[¶30] In the preceding Psalms we find the poor captives crying to God for deliverance; here they are returning thanks that they find they are permitted to return to their own land and to the ordinances of their God.

### Verse 1

[¶32] I was glad when they said - When Cyrus published an edict for their return, the very first object of their thanksgiving was the kindness of God in permitting them to return to his ordinances.

### Verse 2

[¶34] Our feet shad stand - For seventy years we have been exiled from our own land; our heart was in Jerusalem, but our feet were in Chaldea. Now God has turned our captivity, and our feet shall shortly stand within the gates of Jerusalem. What a transition from misery to happiness! and what a subject for rejoicing!

### Verse 3

[¶36] Jerusalem - compact together - It is now well rebuilt, every part contributing to the strength of the whole. It is also a state of great political and spiritual union. It is the center of union to all the tribes, for each tribe has an equal interest in that God who is worshipped there.

### Verse 4

[¶38] The testimony of Israel - There is the ark, where the presence of God is manifested; there is the holy of holies; and there all the tribes assembled to worship Jehovah. He no doubt alludes to the assembling of the tribes annually at each of the three grand national festivals.

### Verse 5

[¶40] There are set thrones of judgment - There were the public courts, and thither the people went to obtain justice; and while the thrones of the house of David were there, they had justice.

### Verse 6

[¶42] Pray for the peace of Jerusalem - שלום shalom signifies both peace and prosperity. Let her unanimity never be disturbed; let her prosperity ever be on the increase!

[¶43] They shall prosper that love thee - In the peace and prosperity of the city, they shall find their peace and their prosperity; and even on this ground they should love the city, and labor to promote its best interests. There is a remarkable alliteration in this verse, the letter ש shin frequently recurring. שאלו שלום ירושלם ישליו אהביך

[¶44] Shaalu shelom yerushalam yishlayu ohabeycha. "Ask ye the prosperity of Jerusalem; they shall be quiet that love thee."

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[¶0] There are remarkable specimens of similar alliteration to be found in all poets, ancient and modern. This formed the chief feature of our ancient poetry. Thus in Peter the plouphman: - "In a somers seysoun whan sete was the sonne

[¶1] I schoop me in a shrowde as I a sheep were."

[¶2] And the same manner often appears, even in Milton himself. See the II Penseroso: - "Oft, on a plat of rising ground,

[¶3] I hear the far-off curfew sound

[¶4] Over some wide-watered shore,

[¶5] Swinging slow with sullen roar."

### Verse 7

[¶7] Peace be within thy walls - This is the form of prayer that they are to use: "May prosperity ever reside within thy walls, on all the people that dwell there; and tranquillity within thy palaces or high places, among the rulers and governors of the people."

### Verse 8

[¶9] For any brethren and companions' sakes - Because this city is the abode of my kinsfolk and countrymen, I will wish it prosperity. I will promote its peace and tranquillity by all means in my power. I will affectionately say, May peace be within thee!

### Verse 9

[¶11] Because of the house of the Lord our God - Particularly will I wish thee well, because thou art the seat of religion, the place where our merciful God has condescended to dwell.

[¶12] To the captives in Babylon the Prophet Jeremiah had given this charge, [Jer 29:7] : "And seek שלום shalom, the prosperity of the city, whither I have caused you to be carried captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the prosperity thereof ye shall have prosperity."

[¶13] Was this a duty for the captives? Yes. And is it the duty of every man for his own country! God, nature, common sense, and self-interest say, Yes! And what must we think of the wretches who not only do not thus pray, but labor to destroy the public peace, to subvert the government of their country, to raise seditions, and to destroy all its civil and religious institutions? Think of them! Why, that hemp would be disgraced by hanging them.

[¶14] There is a fine picture given us here of the state of Jerusalem after the restoration of the Jews. The walls were finished, the city rebuilt, beautiful, strong, and regular, the temple and its worship were restored, the courts of justice were re-established, the constituted authorities in Church and state were doing their duty; and God was pouring out his blessing upon all. Who could see this without praying, May God increase thy peace, and establish thy prosperity for ever!

### Introduction

[¶16] The prayer and faith of the godly, [Psa 123:1], [Psa 123:2]. They desire to be delivered from contempt, [Psa 123:3], [Psa 123:4].

[¶17] This Psalm is probably a complaint of the captives in Babylon relative to the contempt and cruel usage they received. The author is uncertain.

### Verse 1

[¶19] Unto thee lift I up mine eyes - We have no hope but in thee; our eyes look upward; we have expectation from thy mercy alone.

### Verse 2

[¶21] As the eyes of servants - We now wait for thy commands, feeling the utmost readiness to obey them when made known to us. The words may be understood as the language of dependence also. As slaves expect their support from their masters and mistresses, so do we ours from thee, O Lord! Or, As servants look to their masters and mistresses, to see how they do their work, that they may do it in the same way; so do we, O Lord, that we may learn of thee, and do thy work in thy own Spirit, and after thy own method. Some think that there is a reference here to the chastisement of slaves by their masters, who, during the time they are receiving it, keep their eyes fixed on the hand that is inflicting punishment upon them, professing deep sorrow, and entreating for mercy. And this sense seems to be countenanced by the following words: -

### Verse 3

[¶23] Have mercy upon us, O Lord - Chastise us no more; we will no more revolt against thee.

[¶24] We are exceedingly filled with contempt - We not only suffer grievously from our captivity, but are treated in the most contemptuous maner by our masters.

### Verse 4

[¶26] Those that are at ease - The Babylonians, who, having subdued all the people of the neighboring nations, lived at ease, had none to contend with them, and now became luxurious, indolent, and insolent: they were contemptuous and proud.

### Introduction

[¶28] A thanksgiving of the godly for extraordinary deliverances, [Psa 124:1-4]. The great danger they were in, [Psa 124:7]. Their confidence in God, [Psa 124:8].

[¶29] In our present Hebrew copies this Psalm is attributed to David, לדוד ledavid; but this inscription is wanting in three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., as also in the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Ethiopic, and Arabic; and in most of the ancient fathers, Greek and Latin, who found no other inscription in their copies of the text than A Psalm of degrees. It was composed long after David's days; and appears to be either a thanksgiving for their deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, or for a remarkable deliverance from some potent and insidious enemy after their return to Judea. Or, what appears to be more likely, it is a thanksgiving of the Jews for their escape from the general massacre intended by Haman, prime minister of Ahasuerus, king of Persia. See the whole Book of Esther.

### Verse 1

[¶31] If it had not been the Lord - If God had not, in a very especial manner, supported and defended us, we had all been swallowed up alive, and destroyed by a sudden destruction, so that not one would have been left. This might refer to the plot against the whole nation of the Jews by Haman, in the days of Mordecai and Esther; when by his treacherous schemes the Jews, wheresoever dispersed in the provinces of Babylon, were all to have been put to death in one day. This may here be represented under the figure of an earthquake, when a chasm is formed, and a whole city and its inhabitants are in a moment swallowed up alive.

### Verse 5

[¶33] Then the proud waters - The proud Haman had nearly brought the flood of desolation over our lives.

### Verse 7

[¶35] Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare - This is a fine image; and at once shows the weakness of the Jews, and the cunning of their adversaries. Haman had laid the snare completely for them; humanly speaking there was no prospect of their escape: but the Lord was on their side; and the providence that induced Ahasuerus to call for the book of the records of the kingdom to be read to him, as well indeed as the once very improbable advancement of Esther to the throne of Persia, was the means used by the Lord for the preservation of the whole Jewish people from extermination. God thus broke the snare, and the bird escaped; while the poacher was caught in his own trap, and executed. See the Book of Esther, which is probably the best comment on this Psalm.

### Verse 8

[¶37] Our help is in the name of the Lord - בשום מימרא דיי beshum meywra depai, Chaldee, "In the name of the Word of the Lord." So in the second verse, "Unless the Word of the Lord had been our Helper:" the substantial Word; not a word spoken, or a prophecy delivered, but the person who was afterwards termed Ὁ Λογος του Θεου, the Word of God. This deliverance of the Jews appears to me the most natural interpretation of this Psalm: and probably Mordecai was the author.

### Introduction

[¶39] The safety of those who trust in God, [Psa 125:1], [Psa 125:2]. God's protecting providence in behalf of his followers, [Psa 125:3]. A prayer for the godly, [Psa 125:4]. The evil lot of the wicked, [Psa 125:5].

[¶40] This Psalm is without a title: it belongs most probably to the times after the captivity; and has been applied, with apparent propriety, to the opposition which Sanballat the Horonite, Geshem the Arabian, and Tobiah the Ammonite, gave to the Jews while employed in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and restoring the temple.

### Verse 1

[¶42] They that trust in the Lord - Every faithful Jew who confides in Jehovah shall stand, in those open and secret attacks of the enemies of God and truth, as unshaken as Mount Zion; and shall not be moved by the power of any adversary.

### Verse 2

[¶44] As the mountains are round about Jerusalem - Jerusalem, according to Sandys, was situated on a rocky mountain every way to be ascended, except a little on the north, with steep ascents and deep valleys, naturally fortified. It is surrounded with other mountains, at no great distance, as if placed in the midst of an amphitheatre; for on the east is Mount Olivet, separated from the city by the valley of Jehoshaphat, which also encompasses a part of the north; on the south, the mountain of Offiner interposed with the valley of Gehinnom; and on the west it was formerly fenced with the valley of Gihon, and the mountains adjoining. The situation was such as to be easily rendered impregnable.

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[¶0] The Lord is round about his people - He is above, beneath, around them; and while they keep within it, their fortress is impregnable, and they can suffer no evil.

### Verse 3

[¶2] For the rod of the worked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous - Rod, here. may be taken for persecution, or for rule; and then it may be thus interpreted: "The wicked shall not be permitted to persecute always, nor to have a permanent rule." In our liturgic version this clause is thus rendered: "The rod of the ungodly cometh not into the lot of the righteous." "This," said one of our forefathers, "is neither truth nor scripture. First, it is not truth; for the rod of the wicked doth come into the inheritance of the righteous, and that often. Secondly, it is not scripture, for the text saith, 'The rod of the wicked shall not rest there.' It may come, and stay for a time; but it shall not be permitted to abide." This is only one, and not the worst, of the many sad blemishes which deform the Version in our national Prayer-book. In short, the Version of the Psalms in that book is wholly unworthy of regard; and should be thrown aside, and that in the authorized Version in the Bible substituted for it. The people of God are misled by it; and they are confounded with the great and glaring differences they find between it and what they findd in their Bibles, where they have a version of a much better character, delivered to them by the authority of Church and state. Why do not our present excellent and learned prelates lay this to heart, and take away this sore stumbling-block out of the way of the people? I have referred to this subject in the introduction to the Book of Psalms.

[¶3] Lest the righteous put forth - Were the wicked to bear rule in the Lord's vineyard, religion would soon become extinct; for the great mass of the people would conform to their rulers. Fear not your enemies, while ye fear God. Neither Sanballat, nor Tobiah, nor Geshem, nor any of God's foes, shall be able to set up their rod, their power and authority, here. While you are faithful, the Lord will laugh them to scorn.

### Verse 4

[¶5] Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good - Let the upright ever find thee his sure defense! Increase the goodness which thou hast already bestowed upon them; and let all who are upright in heart find thee to be their stay and their support!

### Verse 5

[¶7] As for such as turn aside - Who are not faithful; who give way to sin; who backslide, and walk in a crooked way, widely different from the straight way of the upright, ישרים yesharim, the straight in heart; they shall be led forth to punishment with the common workers of iniquity. Thus thy Church will be purified, and thy peace rest upon thy true Israel. Let him that readeth understand.

### Introduction

[¶9] The joy of the Israelites on their return from captivity, and the effect their deliverance had upon the heathen, [Psa 126:1-3]. The prayer which they had offered up, [Psa 126:4]. The inference they draw from the whole, [Psa 126:5], [Psa 126:6].

[¶10] This Psalm is not of David, has no title in the Hebrew or any of the Versions, and certainly belongs to the close of the captivity. It might have been composed by Haggai and Zechariah, as the Syriac supposes; or by Ezra, according to others. It is beautiful, and highly descriptive of the circumstances which it represents.

### Verse 1

[¶12] When the Lord turned again the captivity - When Cyrus published his decree in favor of the Jews, giving them liberty to return to their own land, and rebuild their city and temple.

[¶13] We were like them that dream - The news was so unexpected that we doubted for a time the truth of it. We believed it was too good news to be true, and thought ourselves in a dream or illusion. When the Romans had vanquished Philip, king of Macedon, they restored liberty to the Grecian cities by proclamation. It was done at the time of the Isthmian games, and by the crier, who went into the circus to proclaim them; none but the Roman general T. Quintius knowing what was to be done. Multitudes from all Greece were there assembled; and the tidings produced nearly the same effect upon them, according to Livy, that the publication of the decree of Cyrus did on the Jews, according to what is here related by the psalmist. I shall give the substance of this account from the Roman historian. When the Romans had sat down to behold the games, the herald with his trumpet went into the arena according to custom, to proclaim the several games. Silence being obtained, he solemnly pronounced the following words: -

[¶14] Senatus romanus et t. Quincius imperator, philippo rege macedonibusque devictis; liberos, immunes, suis legibus esse jubet corinthios, phocenses, locrensesque omnes, et insulam euboeam, et magnetas, thessalos, perrhaebos, achaeos, phthiotas. "The Roman Senate, and T. Quintius the general, having vanquished king Philip and the Macedonians, do ordain that the Corinthians, Phocensians, all the Locrensians, the island of EubOea, the Magnesians, Thessalians, Perrhaebians, Acheans, and Phthiotians, shall be free, be delivered from all taxes, and live according to their own laws."

[¶15] The effect that this produced on the astonished Grecians who were present, is related by this able historian in a very natural and affecting manner; and some parts of it nearly in the words of the psalmist.

[¶16] Audita voce praeconis, majus gaudium fuit, quam quod universum homines caperent. Vix satis se credere se quisque audisse: alii alios intueri mirabundi velut somnii vanam speciem: guod ad guemque pertineret, suarum aurium fidei minimum credentes, proximos interrogabant. Revocatur praeco, cum unusquisque non audire, sed videre libertatis suae nuncium averit, iterum pronunciaret eadem. Tum ab certo jam gaudio tantus cum clamore plausus est ortus, totiesque repetitus, ut facile appareret, nihil omnium bonorum multitudini gratius quam Libertatem esse.

[¶17] T. 54: Hist., lib. xxiii., c. 32.

[¶18] This proclamation of the herald being heard, there was such joy, that the people in general could not comprehend it. Scarcely could any person believe what he had heard. They gazed on each other, wondering as if it had been some illusion, similar to a dream; and although all were interested in what was spoken, none could trust his own ears, but inquired each from him who stood next to him what it was that was proclaimed. The herald was again called, as each expressed the strongest desire not only to hear, but see the messenger of his own liberty: the herald, therefore, repeated the proclamation. When by this repetition the glad tidings were confirmed, there arose such a shout, accompanied with repeated clapping of hands, as plainly showed that of all good things none is so dear to the multitude as Liberty.

[¶19] O that God may raise up some other deliverer to save these same cities with their inhabitants, from a worse yoke than ever was imposed upon them by the king of Macedon; and from a servitude which has now lasted three hundred years longer than the captivity of the Israelites in the empire of Babylon!

[¶20] Constantinople was taken by the Turks in 1453; and since that time till the present, (October, 1822), three hundred and sixty-nine years have elapsed. Why do the Christian powers of Europe stand by, and see the ark of their God in captivity; the holy name by which they are called despised and execrated; the vilest indignities offered to those who are called Christians, by barbarians the most cruel, ferocious, and abominable that ever disgraced the name of man? Great God, vindicate the cause of the distressed Greeks as summarily, as effectually, as permanently, as thou once didst that of thy oppressed people the Jews! Let the crescent never more fill its horns with a victory, nor with the spoils of any who are called by the sacred name of Jesus: but let it wane back into total darkness; and know no change for the better, till illuminated by the orient splendor of the Sun of righteousness! Amen! Amen!

[¶21] How signally has this prayer been thus far answered! Three great Christian powers, the British, the French, and the Russian, have taken up the cause of the oppressed Greeks. The Turkish fleet has been attacked in the Bay of Navarino by the combined fleets of the above powers in October, 1827, under the command of the British Admiral, Sir Edward Codrington, and totally annihilated. After which, the Mohammedan troops were driven out of Greece and the Morea; so that the whole of Greece is cleared of its oppressors, and is now under its own government, protected by the above powers - March, 1829.

### Verse 2

[¶23] Then upas our mouth filled with laughter - The same effect as was produced on the poor liberated Grecians mentioned above.

[¶24] Then said they among the heathen - The liberty now granted was brought about in so extraordinary a way, that the very heathens saw that the hand of the great Jehovah must have been in it.

### Verse 3

[¶26] The Lord hath done great things for us - We acknowledge the hand of our God. Deus nobis haec otia fecit, "God alone has given us this enlargement."

[¶27] We are glad - This is a mere burst of ecstatic joy. O how happy are we!

### Verse 4

[¶29] Turn again our captivity - This is either a recital of the prayer they had used before their deliverance; or it is a prayer for those who still remained in the provinces beyond the Euphrates. The Jewish captives did not all return at once; they came back at different times, and under different leaders, Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, etc.

[¶30] As the streams in the south - Probably the Nile is meant. It is now pretty well known that the Nile has its origin in the kingdom of Damot; and runs from south to north through different countries, till, passing through Egypt, it empties itself into the Mediterranean Sea. It it possible, however, that they might have had in view some rapid rivers that either rose in the south, or had a southern direction; and they desired that their return might be as rapid and as abundant as the waters of those rivers. But we know that the Nile proceeds from the south, divides itself into several streams as it passes through Egypt, and falls by seven mouths into the Mediterranean.

### Verse 5

[¶32] They that sow in tears shall reap in joy - This is either a maxim which they gather from their own history, or it is a fact which they are now witnessing. We see the benefit of humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God; we have now a sweet return for our bitter tears. Or, We have sown in tears; now we reap in joy. We are restored after a long and afflicting captivity to our own country, to peace, and to happiness.

### Verse 6

[¶34] He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed - The metaphor seems to be this: A poor farmer has had a very bad harvest: a very scanty portion of grain and food has been gathered from the earth. The seed time is now come, and is very unpromising. Out of the famine a little seed has been saved to be sown, in hopes of another crop; but the badness of the present season almost precludes the entertainment of hope. But he must sow, or else despair and perish. He carries his all, his precious seed, with him in his seed basket; and with a sorrowful heart commits it to the furrow, watering it in effect with his tears, and earnestly imploring the blessing of God upon it. God hears; the season becomes mild; he beholds successively the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear. The appointed weeks of harvest come, and the grain is very productive. He fills his arms, his carriages, with the sheaves and shocks; and returns to his large expecting family in triumph, praising God for the wonders he has wrought. So shall it be with this handful of returning Israelites. They also are to be sown - scattered all over the land; the blessing of God shall be upon them, and their faith and numbers shall be abundantly increased. The return here referred to, Isaiah describes in very natural language: "And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord," [Isa 66:20].

### Introduction

[¶36] The necessity of God's blessing on every undertaking, without which no prosperity can be expected, [Psa 127:1], [Psa 127:2]. Children are a heritage from the Lord, [Psa 127:3], [Psa 127:4]. A fruitful wife is a blessing to her husband, [Psa 127:5].

[¶37] The Hebrew, Chaldee, and Vulgate attribute this Psalm to Solomon. The Syriac says it is "A Psalm of David concerning Solomon; and that it was spoken also concerning Haggai and Zechariah, who forwarded the building of the temple." The Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon have no title, but simply "A Psalm of Degrees." It was most likely composed for the building of the second temple, under Nehemiah, and by some prophet of that time.

### Verse 1

[¶39] Except the Lord build the house - To build a house is taken in three different senses in the sacred writings.

[¶40] 1. To build the temple of the Lord, which was called הבית habbeith, the house, by way of eminence.

[¶41] 2. To build any ordinary house, or place of dwelling.

[¶42] 3. To have a numerous offspring.

[¶43] In this sense it is supposed to be spoken concerning the Egyptian midwives; that because they feared the Lord, therefore he built them houses. See the note on [Exo 1:21]. But, however, the above passage may be interpreted, it is a fact that b ben, a son, and tb bath, a daughter, and tyb beith, a house, come from the same root hnb banah, to build; because sons and daughters build up a household, or constitute a family, as much and as really as stones and timber constitute a building. Now it is true that unless the good hand of God be upon us we cannot prosperously build a place of worship for his name. Unless we have his blessing, a dwelling-house cannot be comfortably erected. And if his blessing be not on our children, the house (the family) may be built up, but instead of its being the house of God, it will be the synagogue of Satan. All marriages that are not under God's blessing will be a private and public curse. This we see every day.

[¶44] Except the Lord keep the city - When the returned Jews began to restore the walls of Jerusalem, and rebuild the city, Sanballat, Tobiah, and others formed plots to prevent it. Nehemiah, being informed of this, set up proper watches and guards. The enemy, finding this, gathered themselves together, and determined to fall upon them at once, and cut them all off. Nehemiah, having gained intelligence of this also, armed his people, and placed them behind the wall. Sanballat and his company, finding that the Jews were prepared for resistance, abandoned their project; and Nehemiah, to prevent surprises of this kind, kept one-half of the people always under arms, while the other half was employed in the work. To this the psalmist alludes; and in effect says, Though you should watch constantly, guard every place, and keep on your armor ready to repel every attack, yet remember the success of all depends upon the presence and blessing of God. While, therefore, ye are not slothful in business, be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; for there is no success either in spiritual or secular undertakings but in consequence of the benediction of the Almighty.

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### Verse 2

[¶1] It is vain for you to rise up early - There seems to be here an allusion to the daily and nightly watches which Nehemiah instituted. The people are worn out with constant labor and watching; he therefore divided them in such a manner, that they who had worked in the day should rest by night, and that they who worked by night should rest in the day; and thus his beloved, a title of the Jews, the beloved of God, got sleep, due refreshment, and rest. As for Nehemiah and his servants, they never put off their clothes day or night but for washing.

### Verse 3

[¶3] Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord - That is, To many God gives children in place of temporal good. To many others he gives houses, lands, and thousands of gold and silver, and with them the womb that beareth not; and these are their inheritance. The poor man has from God a number of children, without lands or money; these are his inheritance; and God shows himself their father, feeding and supporting them by a chain of miraculous providences. Where is the poor man who would give up his six children, with the prospect of having more, for the thousands or millions of him who is the center of his own existence, and has neither root nor branch but his forlorn solitary self upon the face of the earth? Let the fruitful family, however poor, lay this to heart; "Children are a heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward." And he who gave them will feed them; for it is a fact, and the maxim formed on it has never failed, "Wherever God sends mouths, he sends meat." "Murmur not," said an Arab to his friend, "because thy family is large; know that it is for their sakes that God feeds thee."

### Verse 4

[¶5] As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man - Each child will, in the process of time, be a defense and support to the family, as arrows in the quiver of a skillful and strong archer; the more he has, the more enemies he may slay, and consequently the more redoubted shall he be.

[¶6] Children of the youth - The children of young people are always more strong and vigorous, more healthy, and generally longer lived than those of elderly, or comparatively elderly persons. Youth is the time for marriage; I do not mean infancy or a comparative childhood, in which several fools join in marriage who are scarcely fit to leave the nursery or school. Such couples generally disagree; they cannot bear the boyish and girlish petulancies and caprices of each other; their own growth is hindered, and their offspring, (if any), have never much better than an embryo existence. On the other hand age produces only a dwarfish or rickety offspring, that seldom live to procreate; and when they do, it is only to perpetuate deformity and disease. It would be easy to assign reasons for all this; but the interpretation of Scripture will seldom admit of physiological details. It is enough that God has said, Children of the youth are strong and active, like arrows in the hands of the mighty.

### Verse 5

[¶8] Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them - This is generally supposed to mean his house full of children, as his quiver if full of arrows; but I submit whether it be not more congenial to the metaphors in the text to consider it as applying to the wife: "Happy is the man who has a breeding or fruitful wife;" this is the gravida sagittis pharetra "the quiver pregnant with arrows." But it may be thought the metaphor is not natural. I think otherwise: and I know it to be in the Jewish style, and the style of the times of the captivity, when this Psalm was written, and we find the pudendum muliebre, or human matrix, thus denominated, Ecclus. 26:12: Κατεναντι παντος πασσαλου καθησεται, και εναντι βελους ανοιξει φαρετραν. The reader may consult the place in the Apocrypha, where he will find the verse well enough translated.

[¶9] With the enemies in the gate - "When he shall contend with his adversaries in the gate of the house of judgment." - Targum. The reference is either to courts of justice, which were held at the gates of cities, or to robbers who endeavor to force their way into a house to spoil the inhabitants of their goods. In the first case a man falsely accused, who has a numerous family, has as many witnesses in his behalf as he has children. And in the second case he is not afraid of marauders, because his house is well defended by his active and vigorous sons. It is, I believe, to this last that the psalmist refers.

[¶10] This Psalm may be entitled, "The Soliloquy of the happy Householder: - The poor man with a large loving family, and in annual expectation of an increase, because his wife, under the Divine blessing, is fruitful." All are blessed of the Lord, and his hand is invariably upon them for good.

### Introduction

[¶12] The blessedness of the man that fears the Lord, [Psa 128:1]. He is blessed in his labor, [Psa 128:2]; in his wife and children, [Psa 128:3], [Psa 128:4]; in the ordinances of God, [Psa 128:5]; and in a long life and numerous posterity, [Psa 128:6].

[¶13] This Psalm has no title, either in the Hebrew or any of the Versions; though the Syriac supposes it to have been spoken of Zerubbabel, prince of Judah, who was earnestly engaged in building the temple of the Lord. It seems to be a continuation of the preceding Psalm, or rather the second part of it. The man who is stated to have a numerous offspring, in the preceding Psalm, is here represented as sitting at table with his large family. A person in the mean while coming in, sees his happy state, speaks of his comforts, and predicts to him and his all possible future good. And why? Because the man and his family "fear God, and walk in his ways."

### Verse 2

[¶15] Those shalt eat the labor of thine hands - Thou shalt not be exempted from labor. Thou shalt work: But God will bless and prosper that work, and thou and thy family shall eat of it. Ye shall all live on the produce of your own labor, and the hand of violence shall not be permitted to deprive you of it. Thus,

[¶16] Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee - Thou shalt have prosperity.

### Verse 3

[¶18] Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine - Thy children, in every corner and apartment of thy house, shall be the evidences of the fruitfulness of thy wife, as bunches of grapes on every bough of the vine are the proofs of its being in a healthy thriving state. Being about the house sides, or apartments, is spoken of the wife, not the vine; being around the table is spoken of the children, not of the olive-plants. It does not appear that there were any vines planted against the walls of the houses in Jerusalem, nor any olive-trees in pots or tubs in the inside of their houses; as may be found in different parts of Europe.

### Verse 4

[¶20] Thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord - A great price for a small consideration. Fear God, and thou shalt have as much domestic good as may be useful to thee.

### Verse 5

[¶22] The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion - In all thy approaches to him in his house by prayer, by sacrifice, and by offering, thou shalt have his especial blessing. Thou shalt thrive every where, and in all things.

[¶23] And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem - Thou shalt see the cause of God flourish in thy lifetime, and his Church in great prosperity.

### Verse 6

[¶25] Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children - Thou shall not die till thou have seen thy family all settled in the world, and those of them who may be married blessed with children.

[¶26] And peace upon Israel - This is the same conclusion as in [Psa 125:1-5]; and should be translated, Peace be upon Israel! May God favor his own cause, and bless all his people!

### Introduction

[¶28] The Jews give an account of the afflicions which they have passed through, [Psa 129:1-3]. And thank God for their deliverance, [Psa 129:4]. The judgments that shall fall on the workers of iniquity, [Psa 129:5-8].

[¶29] This Psalm was written after the captivity; and contains a reference to the many tribulations which the Jews passed through from their youth, i.e., the earliest part of their history, their bondage in Egypt. It has no title in any of the Versions, nor in the Hebrew text, except the general one of A Psalm of Degrees. The author is uncertain.

### Verse 1

[¶31] Many a time have they afflicted me - The Israelites had been generally in affliction or captivity from the earliest part of their history, here called their youth. So [Hos 2:15] : "She shall sing as in the days of her youth, when she came up out of the land of Egypt." See [Jer 2:2], and [Eze 16:4], etc.

### Verse 2

[¶33] Yet they have not prevailed - They endeavored to annihilate us as a people; but God still preserves us as his own nation.

### Verse 3

[¶35] The plowers plowed upon my back - It is possible that this mode of expression may signify that the people, during their captivity, were cruelly used by scourging, etc.; or it may be a sort of proverbial mode of expression for the most cruel usage. There really appears here to be a reference to a yoke, as if they had actually been yoked to the plouph, or to some kind of carriages, and been obliged to draw like beasts of burden. In this way St. Jerome understood the passage; and this has the more likelihood, as in the next verse God is represented as cutting them off from these draughts.

### Verse 4

[¶37] The Lord - hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked - The words have been applied to the sufferings of Christ; but I know not on what authority. No such scourging could take place in his case, as would justify the expression: - "The ploughers made long furrows there,

[¶38] Till all his body was one wound."

[¶39] It is not likely that he received more than thirty-nine stripes. The last line is an unwarranted assertion.

### Verse 5

[¶41] Let them all be confounded - They shall be confounded. They who hate Zion, the Church of God, hate God himself; and all such must be dealt with as enemies, and be utterly confounded.

### Verse 6

[¶43] As the grass upon the housetops - As in the east the roofs of the houses were flat, seeds of various kinds falling upon them would naturally vegetate, though in an imperfect way; and, because of the want of proper nourishment, would necessarily dry and wither away. If grass, the mower cannot make hay of it; if corn, the reaper cannot make a sheaf of it. Let the Babylonians be like such herbage - good for nothing, and come to nothing.

[¶44] Withereth afore it groweth up - Before שלק shalak, it is unsheathed; i.e., before it ears, or comes to seed.

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Neither do they which go by say - There is a reference here to the salutations which were given and returned by the reapers in the time of the harvest. We find that it was customary, when the master came to them into the field, to say unto the reapers, The Lord be with you! and for them to answer, The Lord bless thee! [Rut 2:4]. Let their land become desolate, so that no harvest shall ever more appear in it. No interchange of benedictions between owners and reapers. This has literally taken place: Babylon is utterly destroyed; no harvests grow near the place where it stood.

### Introduction

[¶3] The prayer of a penitent to God, with confession of sin, [Psa 130:1-3]. Confidence in God's mercy, and waiting upon him, [Psa 130:4-6]. Israel is encouraged to hope in the Lord, because of his willingness to save, [Psa 130:7], [Psa 130:8].

[¶4] This Psalm has no title nor author's name, either in the Hebrew, or in any of the Versions; though the Syriac says it was spoken of Nehemiah the priest. It was most probably composed during the captivity; and contains the complaint of the afflicted Jews, with their hopes of the remission of those sins which were the cause of their sufferings, and their restoration from captivity to their own land. This is one of those called penitential Psalms.

### Verse 1

[¶6] Out of the depths - The captives in Babylon represent their condition like those who are in a prison - an abyss or deep ditch, ready to be swallowed up.

### Verse 2

[¶8] Lord, hear my voice - They could have no helper but God, and to him they earnestly seek for relief.

### Verse 3

[¶10] If thou - shouldest mark iniquities - If thou shouldst set down every deviation in thought, word, and deed from thy holy law; and if thou shouldst call us into judgment for all our infidelities, both of heart and life; O Lord, who could stand? Who could stand such a trial, and who could stand acquitted in the judgment? This is a most solemn saying; and if we had not the doctrine that is in the next verse, who could be saved?

### Verse 4

[¶12] But there is forgiveness with thee - Thou canst forgive; mercy belongs to thee, as well as judgment. The doctrine here is the doctrine of St. John: "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken!" Jesus has died for our sins; therefore God can be just, and yet the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.

### Verse 5

[¶14] I wait for the Lord - The word קוה kavah, which we translate to wait, properly signifies the extension of a cord from one point to another. This is a fine metaphor: God is one point, the human heart is the other; and the extended cord between both is the earnest believing desire of the soul. This desire, strongly extended from the heart to God, in every mean of grace, and when there is none, is the active, energetic waiting which God requires, and which will be successful.

### Verse 6

[¶16] More than they that watch for the morning - I believe the original should be read differently from what it is here. The Chaldee has, "More than they who observe the morning watches, that they may offer the morning oblation." This gives a good sense, and is, perhaps, the true meaning. Most of the Versions have "From the morning to the night watches." Or the passage may be rendered, "My soul waiteth for the Lord from the morning watches to the morning watches." That is, "I wait both day and night."

### Verse 7

[¶18] Let Israel hope in the Lord - This, to hope for salvation, is their duty and their interest. But what reason is there for this hope? A twofold reason: -

[¶19] 1. With the Lord there is mercy - החסד hachesed, That mercy, the fund, the essence of mercy.

[¶20] 2. And with him is plenteous redemption - והרבה עמו פדות veharabbah immo peduth; and that abundant redemption, that to which there is none like, the Fountain of redemption, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. The article ה, both in הרבה harabbah and החסד hachesed, is very emphatic.

### Verse 8

[¶22] He shall redeem Israel - Και αυτος υτρωσει, "He will make a ransom for Israel," He will provide a great price for Israel, and by it will take away all his iniquities. I would not restrict this to Israel in Babylon. Every believer may take it to himself. God perfectly justifies and perfectly sanctifies all that come unto him through the Son of his love.

### Introduction

[¶24] The psalmist professes his humility, and the peaceableness of his disposition and conduct, [Psa 131:1], [Psa 131:2]. Exhorts Israel to hope in God, [Psa 131:3].

[¶25] Some think that David composed this Psalm as a vindication of himself, when accused by Saul's courtiers that he affected the crown, and was laying schemes and plots to possess himself of it. Others think the Psalm was made during the captivity, and that it contains a fair account of the manner in which the captives behaved themselves, under the domination of their oppressors.

### Verse 1

[¶27] Lord, my heart is not haughty - The principle of pride has no place in my heart; and consequently the high, lofty, and supercilious look does not appear in my eyes. I neither look up, with desire to obtain, to the state of others, nor look down with contempt to the meanness or poverty of those below me. And the whole of my conduct proves this; for I have not exercised myself - walked, in high matters, nor associated myself with the higher ranks of the community, nor in great matters, נפלאות niphlaoth, wonderful or sublime things; too high for me, ממני mimmeni, alien from me, and that do not belong to a person in my sphere and situation in life.

### Verse 2

[¶29] I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child - On the contrary, I have been under the rod of others, and when chastised have not complained; and my silence under my affliction was the fullest proof that I neither murmured nor repined, but received all as coming from the hands of a just God.

[¶30] My soul is even as a weaned child - I felt I must forego many conveniences and comforts which I once enjoyed; and these I gave up without repining or demurring.

### Verse 3

[¶32] Let Israel hope in the Lord - Act all as I have done; trust in him who is the God of justice and compassion; and, after you have suffered awhile, he will make bare his arm and deliver you. Short as it is, this is a most instructive Psalm. He who acts as the psalmist did, is never likely to come to mischief, or do any to others.

### Introduction

[¶34] The psalmist prays that God would remember his promises to David, [Psa 132:1]. His purpose to bring the ark of the Lord into a place of rest, [Psa 132:2-5]. Where it was found, and the prayer in removing it, [Psa 132:6-9]. The promises made to David and his posterity, [Psa 132:10-12]. God's choice of Zion for a habitation, and his promises to the people, [Psa 132:13-17]. All their enemies shall be confounded, [Psa 132:18].

[¶35] Some attribute this Psalm to David, but without sufficient ground; others, to Solomon, with more likelihood; and others, to some inspired author at the conclusion of the captivity, which is, perhaps, the most probable. It refers to the building of the second temple, and placing the ark of the covenant in it.

### Verse 1

[¶37] Lord, remember David - Consider the promises thou hast made to this thy eminent servant, that had respect, not only to him and to his family, but to all the Israelitish people.

### Verse 2

[¶39] How he sware unto the Lord - It is only in this place that we are informed of David's vow to the Lord, relative to the building of the temple; but we find he had fully purposed the thing.

### Verse 3

[¶41] Surely I will not come - This must refer to the situation of the temple; or, as we would express it, he would not pass another day till he had found out the ground on which to build the temple, and projected the plan, and devised ways and means to execute it. And we find that he would have acted in all things according to his oath and vow, had God permitted him. But even after the Lord told him that Solomon, not he, should build the house he still continued to show his good will by collecting treasure and materials for the building, all the rest of his life.

### Verse 5

[¶43] The mighty God of Jacob - עביר יעקב abir yaacob, the Mighty One of Jacob. We have this epithet of God for the first time, [Gen 49:24]. Hence, perhaps, the abirim of the heathen, the stout ones, the strong beings.

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Lo, we have heard of it at Ephratah - This may be considered as a continuation of David's vow, as if he had said: As I had determined to build a temple for the ark, and heard that it was at Ephratah, I went and found it in the fields of Jaar, יער; - not the wood, but Kirjath Jaar or Jearim, where the ark was then lodged; - and having found it, he entered the tabernacle, [Psa 132:7]; and then, adoring that God whose presence was in it, he invited him to arise and come to the place which he had prepared for him.

### Verse 8

[¶3] Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou and the ark of thy strength - Using the same expressions which Solomon used when he dedicated the temple, [2Chr 6:41], [2Chr 6:42]. There are several difficulties in these passages. Ephratah may mean the tribe of Ephraim; and then we may understand the place thus: "I have learned that the ark had been in the tribe of Ephraim, and I have seen it at Kirjath-jearim, or Field of the woods, but this is not a proper place for it, for the Lord hath chosen Jerusalem." It is true that the ark did remain in that tribe from the days of Joshua to Samuel, during three hundred and twenty-eight years; and thence it was brought to Kirjath-jearim, where it continued seventy years, till the commencement of the reign of David over all Israel.

[¶4] But if we take [Psa 132:6-8], not as the continuation of David's vow, but as the words of the captives in Babylon, the explanation will be more plain and easy: "We have heard, O Lord, from our fathers, that thy tabernacle was formerly a long time at Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim. And our history informs us that it has been also at Kirjath-jearim, the fields of the wood; and afterwards it was brought to Jerusalem, and there established: but Jerusalem is now ruined, the temple destroyed, and thy people in captivity. Arise, O Lord, and reestablish thy dwelling-place in thy holy city!" See Calmet and others on this place.

### Verse 9

[¶6] Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness - Let them be as remarkable for inward holiness as they are for the splendor of their holy vestments.

### Verse 10

[¶8] The face of thine anointed - David. Remember thy promises to him, that he may be restored to thee and to thy worship.

### Verse 11

[¶10] The Lord hath sworn - As David sware to the Lord, so the Lord swears to David that he will establish his throne, and place his posterity on it: and that he had respect to David's Antitype, we learn from St. Peter, [Act 2:30] (note), where see the note. This verse with the following refers to the spiritual David, and the Christian Church.

### Verse 12

[¶12] If thy children will keep my covenant - This was conditional with respect to the posterity of David. They have been driven from the throne, because they did not keep the Lord's covenant, but the true David is on the throne, and his posterity forms the genuine Israelites.

### Verse 13

[¶14] The Lord hath chosen Zion - Therefore neither Shiloh nor Kirjath-jearim is the place of his rest.

### Verse 14

[¶16] This is my rest for ever - Here the Christian Church is most indubitably meant. This is God's place for ever. After this there never will be another dispensation; Christianity closes and completes all communications from heaven to earth. God has nothing greater to give to mankind on this side heaven; nor does man need any thing better; nor is his nature capable of any thing more excellent.

### Verse 15

[¶18] I will abundantly bless her provision - There shall be an abundant provision of salvation made for mankind in the Christian Church. Our Lord's multiplication of the loaves was a type and proof of it.

### Verse 16

[¶20] I will also clothe her priests - All Christian ministers, with salvation; this shall appear in all their conduct. Salvation - redemption from all sin through the blood of the Lamb shall be their great and universal message.

### Verse 17

[¶22] There will I make the horn of David to bud - There, in the Christian Church, the power and authority of the spiritual David shall appear.

[¶23] I have ordained a lamp - I have taken care to secure a posterity, to which the promises shall be expressly fulfilled.

### Verse 18

[¶25] His enemies will I clothe with shame - Every opponent of the Christian cause shall be confounded.

[¶26] But upon himself shall his crown flourish - There shall be no end of the government of Christ's kingdom. From [Psa 132:11-18], the spiritual David and his posterity are the subjects of which the Psalm treats.

### Introduction

[¶28] The comfort and benefit of the communion of saints, [Psa 133:1-3].

[¶29] There are different opinions concerning this Psalm; the most probable is, that it represents the priests and Levites returned from captivity, and united in the service of God in the sanctuary. This, the preceding, and the following, appear to make one subject. In the one hundred and thirty-second, the Lord is entreated to enter his temple, and pour out his benediction; in the one hundred and thirty-third, the beautiful order and harmony of the temple service is pointed out, and in the one hundred and thirty-fourth, all are exhorted to diligence and watchfulness in the performance of their duty. It is attributed to David by the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the Vulgate; but no name is prefixed in the Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon.

### Verse 1

[¶31] Behold, how good and how pleasant - Unity is, according to this scripture, a good thing and a pleasant; and especially among brethren - members of the same family, of the same Christian community, and of the same nation. And why not among the great family of mankind? On the other hand, disunion is bad and hateful. The former is from heaven; the latter, from hell.

### Verse 2

[¶33] Like the precious ointment - The composition of this holy anointing oil may be seen, [Exo 30:23]; sweet cinnamon, sweet calamus, cassia lignea, and olive oil. The odour of this must have been very agreeable, and serves here as a metaphor to point out the exquisite excellence of brotherly love.

[¶34] Ran down upon the beard - The oil was poured upon the head of Aaron so profusely as to run down upon his garments. It is customary in the east to pour out the oil on the head so profusely as to reach every limb.

### Verse 3

[¶36] As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion - This was not Mount Zion, ציון tsiyon, in Jerusalem, but Sion, שיאן which is a part of Hermon, see [Deu 4:48] : "Mount Sion, which is Hermon." On this mountain the dew is very copious. Mr. Maundrell says that "with this dew, even in dry weather, their tents were as wet as if it had rained the whole night." This seems to show the strength of the comparison.

[¶37] For there - Where this unity is.

[¶38] The Lord commanded the blessing - That is, an everlasting life. There he pours out his blessings, and gives a long and happy life.

[¶39] For other particulars, see the commentators passim, and the following analysis.

### Introduction

[¶41] An exhortation to praise God in his sanctuary, [Psa 134:1-3].

[¶42] This is the last of the fifteen Psalms called Psalms of degrees. Who was the author is uncertain; it is attributed to David only by the Syriac; it is intimately connected with the two preceding Psalms, and is an exhortation to the priests and Levites who kept nightly watch in the temple, to the assiduous in praising the Lord. It seems to consist of two parts: 1. An exhortation, probably from the high priest, to those priests and Levites who kept watch in the temple by night, to spend their time profitably, and duly celebrate the praises of God, [Psa 134:1], [Psa 134:2]. The second part, which is contained in the [Psa 134:3], is the prayer of the priests and Levites for the high priest, who seems now to be going to his rest.

### Verse 1

[¶44] Behold, bless ye the Lord - I believe הנה hinneh should be taken here in the sense of take heed! Be upon your guard; you serve a jealous God; provoke him not.

[¶45] Which by night stand - Who minister during the night.

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### Verse 2

[¶1] Lift up your hands in the sanctuary - קדש kodesh, "in holiness:" or, as the Syriac, lekoudishe, "to holiness;" in sancta, Vulgate; and εις τα ἁγια, Septuagint; "in holy things; or, as the Aethiopic, in the house of the sanctuary." The expression seems very similar to that of St. Paul, [1Tim 2:8] : "Lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."

[¶2] Bless the Lord - That is, speak good of his name: tell the wonders he has wrought, and show that his name is exalted.

### Verse 3

[¶4] The Lord that made heaven and earth - Who governs and possesses all things; and who can give you every spiritual and earthly blessing.

[¶5] Bless thee out of Zion - As if they had said, "We will attend to your orders; go in peace, and may God shower down his blessings upon you!" The blessing pronounced by the priests was the following: "The Lord bless thee and keep thee! The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and he gracious unto thee! The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace!" [Num 6:24-26].

### Introduction

[¶7] An exhortation to praise God for his goodness and greatness, [Psa 135:1-5]; for his wonders in nature, [Psa 135:6], [Psa 135:7]; his wonders done in Egypt, [Psa 135:8], [Psa 135:9]; in the wilderness, [Psa 135:10-12]; for his goodness to his people, [Psa 135:13], [Psa 135:14]. The vanity of idols, [Psa 135:15-18]. Israel, with its priests and Levites, exhorted to praise the Lord, [Psa 135:19-21].

[¶8] This Psalm is intimately connected with the preceding. It is an exhortation addressed to the priests and Levites, and to all Israel, to publish the praises of the Lord. The conclusion of this Psalm is nearly the same with Psalm 115; and what is said about idols, and the effects of the power of God, seems to be taken from it and the tenth chapter of Jeremiah; and from these and other circumstances it appears the Psalm was written after the captivity; and might as Calmet conjectures, have been used at the dedication of the second temple.

### Verse 1

[¶10] Praise ye the Lord - This may be considered as the title, for it has none other.

[¶11] Praise ye the name of the Lord - Perhaps the original הללו את שם יהוה haleu eth shem Yehovah, should be translated, Praise ye the name Jehovah; that is, Praise God in his infinite essence of being, holiness, goodness, and truth.

### Verse 2

[¶13] Ye that stand - Priests and Levites. For which he gives several reasons.

### Verse 3

[¶15] The Lord is good - Here is the first reason why he should be praised; and a second is subjoined:

[¶16] For it is pleasant - It is becoming to acknowledge this infinite Being, and our dependence on him; and it is truly comfortable to an upright mind to be thus employed.

### Verse 4

[¶18] For the Lord hath chosen Jacob - This is a third reason. He has taken the Israelites for his peculiar people, סגלתו segullatho, his peculiar treasure; and now has brought them home to himself from their captivity and wanderings.

### Verse 5

[¶20] The Lord is great - Unlimited in his power: another reason.

[¶21] Is above all gods - Every class of being, whether idolized or not; because he is the Fountain of existence. This is a fifth reason.

### Verse 6

[¶23] Whatsoever the Lord pleased - All that he has done is right, and therefore it is pleasing in his sight. He is the author of all existence. Angels, men, spirits, the heavens, the earth, and all their contents, were made by him, and are under his control.

### Verse 7

[¶25] He causeth the vapours to ascend - Dr. Shaw thinks that the account here refers to the autumnal rains in the east. Of them he speaks as follows: "Seldom a night passes without much lightning in the north-west quarter, but not attended with thunder; and when this lightning appears in the west or south-west points, it is a sure sign of the approaching rain, which is often followed by thunder. A squall of wind and clouds of dust are the sure forerunners of the first rain." This account induces Mr. Harmer to believe that the word נשאים nesiim, should be translated clouds, not vapours. It shows that God: -

[¶26] Maketh lightnings for the rain - The squalls of wind bring on these refreshing showers, and are therefore precious things of the treasuries of God, and when he thunders, it is the noise of waters in the heavens. See [Jer 10:13], which contains almost the same words as those in this verse: "When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries."

### Verse 8

[¶28] Who smote the first-born of Egypt - See the parallel passages.

### Verse 14

[¶30] The Lord will judge his people - He will do them justice against their enemies.

### Verse 15

[¶32] The idols of the heathen - This verse and the following, to the end of the 18th, are almost word for word the same as [Psa 115:4-8] (note), where see the notes.

### Verse 17

[¶34] To this verse one of Kennicott's MSS. adds the [Psa 115:6] and [Psa 115:7] of Psalm 115.

### Verse 19

[¶36] Bless the Lord. O house, etc. - See similar verses, [Psa 115:9-13] (note), and the notes there.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Blessed be the Lord out of Zion - Who has once more restored our temple and city, and now condescends to dwell with us in Jerusalem.

### Introduction

[¶40] An exhortation to give thanks to God for various mercies granted to all men, [Psa 136:1-9]; particularly to the Israelites in Egypt, [Psa 136:10-12]; at the Red Sea, [Psa 136:13-15]; in the wilderness, [Psa 136:16-20]; and in the promised land, [Psa 136:21], [Psa 136:22]; for the redemption of the captives from Babylon [Psa 136:23], [Psa 136:24]; and for his providential mercies to all, [Psa 136:25], [Psa 136:26].

[¶41] This Psalm is little else than a repetition of the preceding, with the burden, כי לעולם חסדו ki leolam chasdo, "because his mercy endureth for ever," at the end of every verse. See below. It seems to have been a responsive song: the first part of the verse sung by the Levites, the burden by the people. It has no title in the Hebrew, nor in any of the Versions. It was doubtless written after the captivity. The author is unknown.

### Verse 1

[¶43] O give thanks unto the Lord: for he is good - This sentiment often occurs: the goodness of the Divine nature, both as a ground of confidence and of thanksgiving.

[¶44] For his mercy endureth for ever - These words, which are the burden of every verse, כי לעולם חסדו ki leolam chasdo, might be translated: "For his tender mercy is to the coming age:" meaning, probably, if the Psalm be prophetic, that peculiar display of his compassion, the redemption of the world by the Lord Jesus. These very words were prescribed by David as an acknowledgment, to be used continually in the Divine worship, see [1Chr 16:41] : also by Solomon, [2Chr 7:3], [2Chr 7:6], and observed by Jehoshaphat, [2Chr 20:21]; all acknowledging that, however rich in mercy God was to them, the most extensive displays of his goodness were reserved for the age to come; see [1Pet 1:10-12] : "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired, and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, - unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that preached the Gospel unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," etc.

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### Verse 2

[¶1] The God of gods - לאדני האדנים ladonai haadonim. As adonai signifies director, etc., it may apply here, not to idols, for God is not their god; but to the priests and spiritual rulers; as Lord of lords may apply to kings and magistrates, etc. He is God and ruler over all the rulers of the earth, whether in things sacred or civil.

### Verse 4

[¶3] Who alone doeth great wonders - Miracles. No power but that which is almighty can work miracles, נפלאות niphlaoth, the inversion, or suspension, or destruction of the laws of nature.

### Verse 5

[¶5] By wisdom made the heavens - In the contrivance of the celestial bodies, in their relations, connexions, influences on each other, revolutions, etc., the wisdom of God particularly appears.

### Verse 6

[¶7] Stretched out the earth above the waters - Or, upon the waters. This seems to refer to a central abyss of waters, the existence of which has not been yet disproved.

### Verse 7

[¶9] Great lights - See the notes on the parallel passages in [Gen 1:1], etc.

### Verse 10

[¶11] Smote Egypt in their first-born - This was one of the heaviest of strokes: a great part of the rising generation was cut off; few but old persons and children left remaining.

### Verse 13

[¶13] Divided the Red Sea into parts - Some of the Jews have imagined that God made twelve paths through the Red Sea, that each tribe might have a distinct passage. Many of the fathers were of the same opinion; but is this very likely?

### Verse 16

[¶15] Which led his people through the wilderness - It was an astonishing miracle of God to support so many hundreds of thousands of people in a wilderness totally deprived of all necessaries for the life of man, and that for the space of forty years.

### Verse 23

[¶17] Who remembered us in our low estate - He has done much for our forefathers; and he has done much for us, in delivering us, when we had no helper, from our long captivity in Babylon.

### Verse 25

[¶19] Giveth food to all flesh - By whose universal providence every intellectual and animal being is supported and preserved. The appointing every living thing food, and that sort of food which is suited to its nature, (and the nature and habits of animals are endlessly diversified), is an overwhelming proof of the wondrous providence, wisdom, and goodness of God.

[¶20] The Vulgate, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon, add a twenty-seventh verse, by repeating here [Psa 136:3] very unnecessarily.

### Introduction

[¶22] The desolate and afflicted state of the captives in Babylon, [Psa 137:1], [Psa 137:2]. How they were insulted by their enemies, [Psa 137:3], [Psa 137:4]. Their attachment to their country, [Psa 137:5], [Psa 137:6]. Judgments denounced against their enemies, [Psa 137:7-9].

[¶23] The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, say, ridiculously enough, a Psalm of David for Jeremiah. Anachronisms with those who wrote the titles to the Psalms were matters of no importance. Jeremiah never was at Babylon; and therefore could have no part in a Psalm that was sung on the banks of its rivers by the Israelitish captives. Neither the Hebrew nor Chaldee has any title; the Syriac attributes it to David. Some think it was sung when they returned from Babylon; others, while they were there. It is a matter of little importance. It was evidently composed during or at the close of the captivity.

### Verse 1

[¶25] By the rivers of Babylon - These might have been the Tigris and Euphrates, or their branches, or streams that flowed into them. In their captivity and dispersion, it was customary for the Jews to hold their religious meetings on the banks of rivers. Mention is made of this [Act 16:13], where we find the Jews of Philippi resorting to a river side, where prayer was wont to be made. And sometimes they built their synagogues here, when they were expelled from the cities.

### Verse 2

[¶27] We hanged our harps upon the willows - The ערבים arabim or willows were very plentiful in Babylon. The great quantity of them that were on the banks of the Euphrates caused Isaiah, [Isa 15:7], to call it the brook or river of willows. This is a most affecting picture. Perhaps resting themselves after toil, and wishing to spend their time religiously, they took their harps, and were about to sing one of the songs of Zion; but, reflecting on their own country, they became so filled with distress, that they unstrung their harps with one consent, and hung them on the willow bushes, and gave a general loose to their grief. Some of the Babylonians, who probably attended such meetings for the sake of the music, being present at the time here specified, desired them to sing one of Zion's songs: this is affectingly told.

### Verse 3

[¶29] They that carried us away captive required of us a song - This was as unreasonable as it was insulting. How could they who had reduced us to slavery, and dragged us in chains from our own beautiful land and privileges, expect us to sing a sacred ode to please them, who were enemies both to us and to our God? And how could those who wasted us expect mirth from people in captivity, deprived of all their possessions, and in the most abject state of poverty and oppression?

### Verse 4

[¶31] How shall we sing the Lord's song - איך נשיר eich! nashir; O, we sing! Who does not hear the deep sigh in the strongly guttural sound of the original איך eich! wrung, as it were, from the bottom of the heart? Can We, in this state of slavery, - We, exiles, from our country, We, stripped of all our property, - We, reduced to contempt by our strong enemy, - We, deprived of our religious privileges, - We, insulted by our oppressors, - We, in the land of heathens, - We sing, or be mirthful in these circumstances? No: God does not expect it; man should not wish it; and it is base in our enemies to require it.

### Verse 5

[¶33] If I forget thee, O Jerusalem - Such conduct would be, in effect, a renunciation of our land a tacit acknowledgment that we were reconciled to our bondage; a concession that we were pleased with our captivity, and could profane holy ordinances by using them as means of sport or pastime to the heathen. No: Jerusalem! we remember thee and thy Divine ordinances: and especially thy King and our God, whose indignation we must bear, because we have sinned against him.

[¶34] Let my right hand forget - Let me forget the use of my right hand. Let me forget that which is dearest and most profitable to me; and let me lose my skill in the management of my harp, if I ever prostitute it to please the ungodly multitude or the enemies of my Creator!

### Verse 6

[¶36] Let my tongue cleave - Let me lose my voice, and all its powers of melody; my tongue, and all its faculty of speech; my ear, and its discernment of sounds; if I do not prefer my country, my people, and the ordinances of my God, beyond all these, and whatever may constitute the chiefest joy I can possess in aught else beside. This is truly patriotic, truly noble and dignified. Such sentiments can only be found in the hearts and mouths of those slaves whom the grace of God has made free.

### Verse 7

[¶38] Remember - the children of Edom - It appears from [Jer 12:6]; [Jer 25:14]; [Lam 4:21], [Lam 4:22]; [Eze 25:12]; [Oba 1:11-14]; that the Idumeans joined the army of Nebuchadnezzar against their brethren the Jews; and that they were main instruments in rasing the walls of Jerusalem even to the ground.

### Verse 8

[¶40] O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed - Or, O thou daughter of Babylon the destroyer, or, who art to be ruined. In being reduced under the empire of the Persians, Babylon was already greatly humbled and brought low from what it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar; but it was afterwards so totally ruined that not a vestige of it remains. After its capture by Cyrus, A.M. 3468, it could never be considered a capital city; but it appeared to follow the fortunes of its various conquerors till it was, as a city, finally destroyed.

[¶41] Rewardeth thee as thou hast served us - This was Cyrus, who was chosen of God to do this work, and is therefore called happy, as being God's agent in its destruction. Greater desolations were afterwards brought upon it by Darius Hystaspes, who took this city after it had revolted, and slaughtered the inhabitants, men and women, in a barbarous manner. Herod. lib. iii.

### Verse 9

[¶43] Happy - that taketh and dasheth thy little ones - That is, So oppressive hast thou been to all under thy domination, as to become universally hated and detested; so that those who may have the last hand in thy destruction, and the total extermination of thy inhabitants, shall be reputed happy - shall be celebrated and extolled as those who have rid the world of a curse so grievous. These prophetic declarations contain no excitement to any person or persons to commit acts of cruelty and barbarity; but are simply declarative of what would take place in the order of the retributive providence and justice of God, and the general opinion that should in consequence be expressed on the subject; therefore praying for the destruction of our enemies is totally out of the question. It should not be omitted that the Chaldee considers this Psalm a dialogue, which it thus divides: - The three first verses are supposed to have been spoken by the psalmist, By the rivers, etc. The Levites answer from the porch of the temple, in [Psa 137:4], How shall we sing, etc. The voice of the Holy Spirit responds in [Psa 137:5], [Psa 137:6], If I forget thee, etc. Michael, the prince of Jerusalem, answers in [Psa 137:7], Remember, O Lord, etc. Gabriel, the prince of Zion, then addresses the destroyer of the Babylonish nation, in [Psa 137:8], [Psa 137:9], Happy shall be he that rewardeth thee, etc. To slay all when a city was sacked, both male and female, old and young, was a common practice in ancient times. Homer describes this in words almost similar to those of the psalmist: - Υἱας τ' ολλυμενους, ἑλκυσθεισας τε θυγατρας, Και θαλαμους κεραΐζομενους, και νηπια τεκνα Βαλλομενα προτι γαιῃ εν αινῃ δηΐοτητι, Ἑλκομενας τε νυους ολοης ὑπο χερσιν Αχαιων.

[¶44] Il. lib. xxii., ver. 62.

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[¶0] My heroes slain, my bridal bed o'erturned;

[¶1] My daughters ravished, and my city burned:

[¶2] My bleeding infants dashed against the floor;

[¶3] These I have yet to see; perhaps yet more.

[¶4] Pope.

[¶5] These excesses were common in all barbarous nations, and are only prophetically declared here. He shall be reputed happy, prosperous, and highly commendable, who shall destroy Babylon.

### Introduction

[¶7] The psalmist praises the Lord for his mercies to himself, [Psa 138:1-3]. He foretells that the kings of the earth shall worship him, [Psa 138:4], [Psa 138:5]. God's condescension to the humble, [Psa 138:6]. The psalmist's confidence, [Psa 138:7], [Psa 138:8].

[¶8] The Hebrew and all the Versions attribute this Psalm to David, and it is supposed to have been made by him when, delivered from all his enemies, he was firmly seated on the throne of Israel. As the Septuagint and Arabic prefix also the names of Haggai and Zechariah, it is probable that it was used by the Jews as a form of thanksgiving for their deliverance from all their enemies, and their ultimate settlement in their own land, after Ahasuerus, supposed by Calmet to be Darius Hystaspes, had married Esther, before which time they were not peaceably settled in their own country.

### Verse 1

[¶10] I will praise thee with my whole heart - I have received the highest favors from thee, and my whole soul should acknowledge my obligation to thy mercy. The Versions and several MSS. add יהוה Yehovah, "I will praise thee, O Lord," etc.

[¶11] Before the gods will I sing - נגד אלהים neged Elohim, "in the presence of Elohim;" most probably meaning before the ark, where were the sacred symbols of the Supreme Being. The Chaldee has, before the judges. The Vulgate, before the angels. So the Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. The Syriac, Before kings will I sing unto thee. This place has been alleged by the Roman Catholics as a proof that the holy angels, who are present in the assemblies of God's people, take their prayers and praises, and present them before God. There is nothing like this in the text; for supposing, which is not granted, that the word elohim here signifies angels, the praises are not presented to them, nor are they requested to present them before God; it is simply said, Before elohim will I sing praise unto Thee. Nor could there be need of any intermediate agents, when it was well known that God himself was present in the sanctuary, sitting between the cherubim. Therefore this opinion is wholly without support from this place.

### Verse 2

[¶13] For thy loving-kindness - Thy tender mercy shown to me; and for the fulfillment of thy truth - the promises thou hast made.

[¶14] Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name - All the Versions read this sentence thus: "For thou hast magnified above all the name of thy holiness," or, "thy holy name." Thou hast proved that thou hast all power in heaven and in earth, and that thou art true in all thy words. And by giving the word of prophecy, and fulfilling those words, thou hast magnified thy holy name above all things - thou hast proved thyself to be ineffably great. The original is the following: כי הגדלת על כל שמך אמרתך ki higdalta al col shimcha, imrathecha, which I think might be thus translated: "For thou hast magnified thy name and thy word over all," or, "on every occasion." Kennicott reads, "He preferred faithfulness to his promise to the attribute of his power." I believe my own translation to be nearest the truth. There may be some corruption in this clause.

### Verse 3

[¶16] With strength in my soul - Thou hast endued my soul with many graces, blessings, and heavenly qualities.

### Verse 4

[¶18] All the kings of the earth - Of the land: all the neighboring nations, seeing what is done for us, and looking in vain to find that any human agency was employed in the work, will immediately see that it was thy hand; and consequently, by confessing that it was thou, will give praise to thy name.

### Verse 5

[¶20] They shall sing in the ways of the Lord - They shall admire thy conduct, and the wondrous workings of thy providence, if they should not even unite with thy people.

### Verse 6

[¶22] Though the Lord be high - Infinitely great as God is, he regards even the lowest and most inconsiderable part of his creation; but the humble and afflicted man attracts his notice particularly.

[¶23] But the proud he knoweth afar off - He beholds them at a distance, and has them in utter derision.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Though I walk in the midst of trouble - I have had such experience of thy mercy, that let me fall into whatsoever trouble I may, yet I will trust in thee. Thou wilt quicken me, though I were ready to die; and thou wilt deliver me from the wrath of my enemies.

### Verse 8

[¶27] The Lord will perfect - Whatever is farther necessary to be done, he will do it.

[¶28] Forsake not the works of thine own hands - My body - my soul; thy work begun in my soul; thy work in behalf of Israel; thy work in the evangelization of the world; thy work in the salvation of mankind. Thou wilt not forsake these.

### Introduction

[¶30] A fine account of the omniscience of God, [Psa 139:1-6]; of his omnipresence, [Psa 139:7-12]; of his power and providence [Psa 139:13-16]. The excellence of his purposes, [Psa 139:17], [Psa 139:18]. His opposition to the wicked, [Psa 139:19], [Psa 139:20]; with whom the godly can have no fellowship, [Psa 139:21], [Psa 139:22].

[¶31] The title of this Psalm in the Hebrew is, To the chief Musician, or, To the Conqueror, A Psalm of David. The Versions in general follow the Hebrew. And yet, notwithstanding these testimonies, there appears internal evidence that the Psalm was not written by David, but during or after the time of the captivity, as there are several Chaldaisms in it. See [Psa 139:2], [Psa 139:3], [Psa 139:7], [Psa 139:9], [Psa 139:19], [Psa 139:20], collated with [Dan 2:29], [Dan 2:30]; [Dan 4:16]; [Dan 7:28]; some of these shall be noticed in their proper places.

[¶32] As to the author, he is unknown; for it does not appear to have been the work of David. The composition is worthy of him, but the language appears to be lower than his time.

[¶33] Concerning the occasion, there are many conjectures which I need not repeat, because I believe them unfounded. It is most probable that it was written on no particular occasion, but is a moral lesson on the wisdom, presence, providence, and justice of God, without any reference to any circumstance in the life of David, or in the history of the Jews.

[¶34] The Psalm is very sublime; the sentiments are grand, the style in general highly elevated, and the images various and impressive. The first part especially, that contains so fine a description of the wisdom and knowledge of God, is inimitable.

[¶35] Bishop Horsley's account of this Psalm is as follows: - "In the first twelve verses of this Psalm the author celebrates God's perfect knowledge of man's thoughts and actions; and the reason of this wonderful knowledge, viz., that God is the Maker of man. Hence the psalmist proceeds, in the four following verses, [Psa 139:13-16], to magnify God as ordaining and superintending the formation of his body in the womb. In the 17th and 18th ([Psa 139:17], [Psa 139:18]) he acknowledges God's providential care of him in every moment of his life; and in the remainder of the Psalm implores God's aid against impious and cruel enemies, professing his own attachment to God's service, that is, to the true religion, and appealing to the Searcher of hearts himself for the truth of his professions."

[¶36] The composition, for the purity and justness of religious sentiment, and for the force and beauty of the images, is certainly in the very first and best style. And yet the frequent Chaldaisms of the diction argue no very high antiquity.

### Verse 1

[¶38] O Lord, thou hast searched me - חקרתני chakartani; thou hast investigated me; thou hast thoroughly acquainted thyself with my whole soul and conduct.

### Verse 2

[¶40] My downsitting and mine uprising - Even these inconsiderable and casual things are under thy continual notice. I cannot so much as take a seat, or leave it, without being marked by thee.

[¶41] Thou understandest my thought - לרעי lerei, "my cogitation." This word is Chaldee, see [Dan 2:29], [Dan 2:30].

[¶42] Afar off - While the figment is forming that shall produce them.

### Verse 3

[¶44] Thou compassest my path - זרית zeritha thou dost winnow, ventilate, or sift my path; and my lying down, רבעי ribi, my lair, my bed.

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[¶0] And art acquainted - Thou treasurest up. This is the import of סכן sachan. Thou hast the whole number of my ways, and the steps I took in them.

### Verse 4

[¶2] There is not a word in my tongue - Although (כי ki) there be not a word in my tongue, behold O Jehovah, thou knowest the whole of it, that is, thou knowest all my words before they are uttered as thou knowest all my thoughts while as yet they are unformed.

### Verse 5

[¶4] Thou hast beset me behind and before - אחור וקדם צרתני achor vekodam tsartani, "The hereafter and the past, thou hast formed me." I think Bishop Horsley's emendation here is just, uniting the two verses together. "Behold thou, O Jehovah, knowest the whole, the hereafter and the past. Thou hast formed me, and laid thy hand upon me."

### Verse 6

[¶6] Such knowledge is too wonderful - I think, with Kennicott, that פלאיה דעת pelaiah daath should be read פלאי הדעת peli haddaath, "This knowledge," ממני mimmenni, "is beyond or above me." This change is made by taking the ה he from the end of פלאיה pelaiah, which is really no word, and joining it with דעת daath; which, by giving it an article, makes it demonstrative, הדעת haddaath, "This knowledge." This kind of knowledye, God's knowledge, that takes in all things, and their reasons, essences, tendencies, and issues, is far beyond me.

### Verse 7

[¶8] Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? - Surely רוח ruach in this sense must be taken personally, it certainly cannot mean either breath or wind; to render it so would make the passage ridiculous.

[¶9] From thy presence? - מפניך mippaneycha, "from thy faces." Why do we meet with this word so frequently in the plural number, when applied to God? And why have we his Spirit, and his appearances or faces, both here? A Trinitarian would at once say, "The plurality of persons in the Godhead is intended;" and who can prove that he is mistaken?

### Verse 8

[¶11] If I ascend - Thou art in heaven, in thy glory; in hell, in thy vindictive justice; and in all parts or earth, water, space, place, or vacuity, by thy omnipresence. Wherever I am, there art thou; and where I cannot be, thou art there. Thou fillest the heavens and the earth.

### Verse 11

[¶13] Surely the darkness shall cover me - Should I suppose that this would serve to screen me, immediately this darkness is turned into light.

### Verse 12

[¶15] Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee - Darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge, are things that stand in relation to us; God sees equally in darkness as in light; and knows as perfectly, however man is enveloped in ignorance, as if all were intellectual brightness. What is to us hidden by darkness, or unknown through ignorance, is perfectly seen and known by God; because he is all sight, all hearing, all feeling, all soul, all spirit - all in All, and infinite in himself. He lends to every thing; receives nothing from any thing. Though his essence be unimpartible, yet his influence is diffusible through time and through eternity. Thus God makes himself known, seen, heard, felt; yet, in the infinity of his essence, neither angel, nor spirit, nor man can see him; nor can any creature comprehend him, or form any idea of the mode of his existence. And yet vain man would be wise, and ascertain his foreknowledge, eternal purposes, infinite decrees, with all operations of infinite love and infinite hatred, and their objects specifically and nominally, from all eternity, as if himself had possessed a being and powers co-extensive with the Deity! O ye wise fools! Jehovah, the fountain of eternal perfection and love, is as unlike your creeds as he is unlike yourselves, forgers of doctrines to prove that Ithe source of infinite benevolence is a streamlet of capricious love to thousands, while he is an overflowing, eternal, and irresistible tide of hatred to millions of millions both of angels and men! The antiproof of such doctrines is this: he bears with such blasphemies, and does not consume their abettors. "But nobody holds these doctrines." Then I have written against nobody; and have only to add the prayer, May no such doctrines ever disgrace the page of history; or farther dishonor, as they have done, the annals of the Church!

### Verse 13

[¶17] Thou hast possessed my reins - As the Hebrews believed that the reins were the first part of the human fetus that is formed, it may here mean, thou hast laid the foundation of my being.

### Verse 14

[¶19] I am fearfully and wonderfully made - The texture of the human body is the most complicated and curious that can be conceived. It is, indeed, wonderfully made; and it is withal so exquisitely nice and delicate, that the slightest accident may impair or destroy in a moment some of those parts essentially necessary to the continuance of life; therefore, we are fearfully made. And God has done so to show us our frailty, that we should walk with death, keeping life in view; and feel the necessity of depending on the all-wise and continual superintending care and providence of God.

### Verse 15

[¶21] My substance was not hid from thee - עצמי atsmi, my bones or skeleton.

[¶22] Curiously wrought - רקמתי rukkamti, embroidered, made of needlework. These two words, says Bishop Horsley, describe the two principal parts of which the human body is composed; the bony skeleton, the foundation of the whole; and the external covering of muscular flesh, tendons, veins, arteries, nerves, and skin; a curious web of fibres. On this passage Bishop Lowth has some excellent observations: "In that most perfect hymn, where the immensity of the omnipresent Deity, and the admirable wisdom of the Divine Artificer in framing the human body, are celebrated, the poet uses a remarkable metaphor, drawn from the nicest tapestry work: -

[¶23] When I was formed in secret;

[¶24] When I was wrought, as with a needle, in the lowest parts of the earth. "He who remarks this, (but the man who consults Versions only will hardly remark it), and at the same time reflects upon the wonderful composition of the human body, the various implication of veins, arteries, fibres, membranes, and the 'inexplicable texture' of the whole frame; will immediately understand the beauty and elegance of this most apt translation. But he will not attain the whole force and dignity, unless he also considers that the most artful embroidery with the needle was dedicated by the Hebrews to the service of the sanctuary; and that the proper and singular use of their work was, by the immediate prescript of the Divine law, applied in a certain part of the high priest's dress, and in the curtains of the tabernacle, [Exo 28:39]; [Exo 26:36]; [Exo 27:16]; and compare [Eze 16:10]; [Eze 13:18]. So that the psalmist may well be supposed to have compared the wisdom of the Divine Artificer particularly with that specimen of human art, whose dignity was through religion the highest, and whose elegance ([Exo 35:30-35]) was so exquisite, that the sacred writer seems to attribute it to a Divine inspiration."

[¶25] In the lowest parts of the earth - The womb of the mother, thus expressed by way of delicacy.

### Verse 16

[¶27] Thine eyes did see my substance - גלמי golmi, my embryo state - my yet indistinct mass, when all was wrapped up together, before it was gradually unfolded into the lineaments of man. "Some think," says Dr. Dodd, "that the allusion to embroidery is still carried on. As the embroiderer has still his work, pattern, or carton, before him, to which he always recurs; so, by a method as exact, revere all my members in continuance fashioned, i.e., from the rude embryo or mass they daily received some degree of figuration; as from the rude skeins of variously coloured silk or worsted, under the artificer's hands, there at length arises an unexpected beauty, and an accurate harmony of colcurs and proportions."

[¶28] And in thy book all my members were written - "All those members lay open before God's eyes; they were discerned by him as clearly as if the plan of them had been drawn in a book, even to the least figuration of the body of the child in the womb."

### Verse 17

[¶30] How precious also are thy thoughts - רעיך reeycha, thy cogitations; a Chaldaism, as before.

[¶31] How great is the sum of them! - מה עצמו ראשיהם mah atsemu rasheyhem; How strongly rational are the heads or principal subjects of them! But the word may apply to the bones, עצמות atsamoth, the structure and uses of which are most curious and important.

### Verse 18

[¶33] If I should count them - I should be glad to enumerate so many interesting particulars: but they are beyond calculation.

[¶34] When I awake - Thou art my Governor and Protector night and day.

[¶35] I am still with thee - All my steps in life are ordered by thee: I cannot go out of thy presence; I am ever under the influence of thy Spirit.

[¶36] The subject, from the [Psa 139:14] to the [Psa 139:16] inclusive, might have been much more particularly illustrated, but we are taught, by the peculiar delicacy of expression in the Sacred Writings, to avoid, as in this case, the entering too minutely into anatomical details. I would, however, make an additional observation on the subject in the [Psa 139:15] and [Psa 139:16]. I have already remarked the elegant allusion to embroidery, in the word רקמתי rukkamti, in the astonishing texture of the human body; all of which is said to be done in secret, בסתר bassether, in the secret place, viz., the womb of the mother, which, in the conclusion of the verse, is by a delicate choice of expression termed the lower parts of the earth.

[¶37] The embryo state, גלם golem, has a more forcible meaning than our word substance amounts to. גלם galam signifies to roll or wrap up together; and expresses the state of the fetus before the constituent members were developed. The best system of modern philosophy allows that to semine masculino all the members of the future animal are contained; and that these become slowly developed or unfolded, in the case of fowls, by incubation; and in the case of the more perfect animals, by gestation in the maternal matrix. It is no wonder that, in considering these, the psalmist should cry out, How precious, or extraordinary, are thy thoughts! how great is the sum-heads or outlines, of them! The particulars are, indeed, beyond comprehension; even the heads - the general contents, of thy works; while I endeavor to form any tolerable notion of them, prevail over me - they confound my understanding, and are vastly too multitudinous for my comprehension.

### Verse 19

[¶39] Surely thou wilt slay the wicked - The remaining part of this Psalm has no visible connection with the preceding. I rather think it a fragment, or a part of some other Psalm.

[¶40] Ye bloody men - אנשי דמים anshey damim, men of blood, men guilty of death.

### Verse 20

[¶42] Thine enemies take thy name in vain - Bishop Horsley translates the whole verse thus: - "They have deserted me who are disobedient to thee; "They who are sworn to a rash purpose - thy refractory adversaries."

[¶43] The original is obscure: but I cannot see these things in it. Some translate the Hebrew thus: "Those who oppose thee iniquitously seize unjustly upon thy cities;" and so almost all the Versions. The words, thus translated, may apply to Sanballat, Tobiah, and the other enemies of the returned Jews, who endeavored to drive them from the land, that they might possess the cities of Judea.

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### Verse 21

[¶1] Do not I hate them - I hold their conduct in abomination.

### Verse 22

[¶3] With perfect hatred - Their conduct, their motives, their opposition to thee, their perfidy and idolatrous purposes, I perfectly abhor. With them I have neither part, interest, nor affection.

### Verse 23

[¶5] Search me, O God - Investigate my conduct, examine my heart, put me to the test, and entwine my thoughts.

### Verse 24

[¶7] If there be any wicked way - דרך עצב derech otseb: a way of idolatry or of error. Any thing false in religious principle; any thing contrary to piety to thyself, and love and benevolence to man. And he needed to offer such prayer as this, while filled with indignation against the ways of the workers of iniquities; for he who hates, utterly hates, the practices of any man, is not far from hating the man himself. It is very difficult "To hate the sin with all the heart,

[¶8] And yet the sinner love."

[¶9] Lead me in the way everlasting - בדרך עולם bederech olam, in the old way - the way in which our fathers walked, who worshipped thee, the infinitely pure Spirit, in spirit and in truth. Lead me, guide me, as thou didst them. We have ארח עולם orach olam, the old path, [Job 22:15]. "The two words דרך derech and ארח orach, differ," says Bishop Horsley, "in their figurative senses: derech is the right way, in which a man ought to go; orach is the way, right or wrong, in which a man actually goes by habit." The way that is right in a man's own eyes is seldom the way to God.

### Introduction

[¶11] The psalmist prays against his enemies, [Psa 140:1-6]; returns thanks for help, [Psa 140:7]; describes his enemies, and prays farther against them, [Psa 140:8-11]. His confidence in God, [Psa 140:12], [Psa 140:13].

[¶12] The Hebrew, and all the Versions, attribute this Psalm to David; and it is supposed to contain his complaint when persecuted by Saul. The Syriac determines it to the time when Saul endeavored to transfix David with his spear.

### Verse 1

[¶14] From the evil man - Saul, who was full of envy, jealousy, and cruelty against David, to whom both himself and his kingdom were under the highest obligations, endeavored by every means to destroy him.

### Verse 2

[¶16] They gathered together - He and his courtiers form plots and cabals against my life.

### Verse 3

[¶18] They have sharpened their tongues - They employ their time in forging lies and calumnies against me; and those of the most virulent nature.

### Verse 4

[¶20] Preserve me from the violent man - Saul again; who was as headstrong and violent in all his measures, as he was cruel, and inflexibly bent on the destruction of David.

### Verse 5

[¶22] Have hid a snare for me - They hunted David as they would a dangerous wild beast: one while striving to pierce him with the spear; another to entangle him in their snares, so as to take and sacrifice him before the people, on pretense of his being an enemy to the state.

[¶23] Selah - This is the truth.

### Verse 7

[¶25] Thou hast covered my head - Not only when I fought with the proud blaspheming Philistine; but in the various attempts made against my life by my sworn enemies.

### Verse 8

[¶27] Further not his wicked device - He knew his enemies still desired his death, and were plotting to accomplish it; and here he prays that God may disappoint and confound them. The Chaldee understands this of Doeg.

### Verse 10

[¶29] Let burning coals - The Chaldee considers this as spoken against Ahithophel, who was head of a conspiracy against David; and translates this verse thus: "Let coals from heaven fall upon them, precipitate them into the fire of hell, and into miry pits, from which they shall not have a resurrection to eternal life." This is a proof that the Jews did believe in a resurrection of the body, and an eternal life for that body, in the case of the righteous.

### Verse 11

[¶31] Let not an evil speaker be established - איש לשון ish lashon, "a man of tongue." There is much force in the rendering of this clause in the Chaldee גבר דמשתעי לישן תליתי gebar demishtai lishan telithai, "The man of detraction, or inflammation, with the three-forked tongue." He whose tongue is set on fire from hell; the tale-bearer, slanderer, and dealer in scandal: with the three-forked tongue; wounding three at once: his neiphbour whom he slanders; the person who receives the slander; and himself who deals in it. What a just description of a character which God, angels, and good men must detest! Let not such a one be established in the land; let him be unmasked; let no person trust him; and let all join together to hoot him out of society. "He shall be hunted by the angel of death, and thrust into hell." - Chaldee.

### Verse 12

[¶33] The cause of the afflicted - Every person who is persecuted for righteousness' sake has God for his peculiar help and refuge; and the persecutor has the same God for his especial enemy.

### Verse 13

[¶35] The righteous shall give thanks - For thou wilt support and deliver him.

[¶36] The upright shall dwell in thy presence - Shall be admitted to the most intimate intercourse with God.

[¶37] The persecuted have ever been dear to God Almighty; and the martyrs were, in an especial manner, his delight; and in proportion as he loved those, so must he hate and detest these.

### Introduction

[¶39] The psalmist prays that his devotions may be accepted, [Psa 141:1], [Psa 141:2]. That he may be enabled so to watch that he do not offend with his tongue; and that he may be preserved from wickedness, [Psa 141:3], [Psa 141:4]. His willingness to receive reproof, [Psa 141:5]. He complains of disasters, [Psa 141:6], [Psa 141:7]. His trust in God, and prayer against his enemies, [Psa 141:8-10].

[¶40] This Psalm is generally attributed to David, and considered to have been composed during his persecution by Saul. Some suppose that he made it at the time that he formed the resolution to go to Achish, king of Gath; see 1 Samuel 26: It is generally thought to be an evening prayer, and has long been used as such in the service of the Greek Church. It is in several places very obscure.

### Verse 1

[¶42] Lord, I cry unto thee - Many of David's Psalms begin with complaints; but they are not those of habitual plaint and peevishness. He was in frequent troubles and difficulties, and he always sought help in God. He ever appears in earnest; at no time is there any evidence that the devotion of David was formal. He prayed, meditated, supplicated, groaned, cried, and even roared, as he tells us, for the disquietude of his soul. He had speedy answers; for he had much faith, and was always in earnest.

### Verse 2

[¶44] As incense - Incense was offered every morning and evening before the Lord, on the golden altar, before the veil of the sanctuary. [Exo 29:39], and [Num 28:4].

[¶45] As the evening sacrifice - This was a burnt-offering, accompanied with flour and salt. But it does not appear that David refers to any sacrifice, for he uses not זבח zebach, which is almost universally used for a slaughtered animal; but מנחה minchah, which is generally taken for a gratitude-offering or unbloody sacrifice. The literal translation of the passage is, "Let my prayer be established for incense before thy faces; and the lifting up of my hands for the evening oblation." The psalmist appears to have been at this time at a distance from the sanctuary, and therefore could not perform the Divine worship in the way prescribed by the law. What could he do? Why, as he could not worship according to the letter of the law, he will worship God according to the spirit; then prayer is accepted in the place of incense; and the lifting up of his hands, in gratitude and self-dedication to God, is accepted in the place of the evening minchah or oblation. Who can deplore the necessity that obliged the psalmist to worship God in this way?

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### Verse 3

[¶1] Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth - While there are so many spies on my actions and words, I have need to be doubly guarded, that my enemies may have no advantage against me. Some think the prayer is against impatience; but if he were now going to Gath, it is more natural to suppose that he was praying to be preserved from dishonoring the truth, and from making sinful concessions in a heathen land; and at a court where, from his circumstances, it was natural to suppose he might be tempted to apostasy by the heathen party. The following verse seems to support this opinion.

### Verse 4

[¶3] Let me eat not of their dainties - This may refer either to eating things forbidden by the law; or to the partaking in banquets or feasts in honor of idols.

### Verse 5

[¶5] Let the righteous smite me - This verse is extremely difficult in the original. The following translation, in which the Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic nearly agree, appears to me to be the best: "Let the righteous chastise me in mercy, and instruct me: but let not the oil of the wicked anoint my head. It shall not adorn (יני yani, from נוה navah) my head; for still my prayer shall be against their wicked works."

[¶6] The oil of the wicked may here mean his smooth flattering speeches; and the psalmist intimates that he would rather suffer the cutting reproof of the righteous than the oily talk of the flatterer. If this were the case, how few are there now-a-days of his mind! On referring to Bishop Horsley, I find his translation is something similar to my own: -

[¶7] Let the just one smite me, let the pious remove me.

[¶8] Let not the ointment of the impious anoint my head.

[¶9] But still I will intrude in their calamities.

### Verse 6

[¶11] When their judges are overthrown in stony places - בידי סלע biyedey sela, "In the hands of the rock." Does this rock signify a strong or fortified place; and its hands the garrison which have occupied it, by whom these judges were overthrown? If we knew the occasion on which this Psalm was made, we might be the better able to understand the allusions in the text.

[¶12] They shall hear my words; for they are sweet - Some think there is here an allusion to David's generous treatment of Saul in the cave of En-gedi, and afterwards at the hill of Hachilah, in this verse, which might be translated: "Their judges have been dismissed in the rocky places; and have heard my words, that they were sweet." Or perhaps there may be a reference to the death of Saul and his sons, and the very disastrous defeat of the Israelites at Gilboa. If so, the seventh verse will lose its chief difficulty, Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth; but if we take them as referring to the slaughter of the priests at Nob, then, in stead of translating לפי שאול lephi sheol, at the grave's mouth, we may translate at the command of Saul; and then the verse will point out the manner in which those servants of the Lord were massacred; Doeg cut them in pieces; hewed them down as one cleaveth wood. Some understand all this of the cruel usage of the captives in Babylon. I could add other conjectures, and contend for my own; but they are all too vague to form a just ground for decided opinion.

### Verse 8

[¶14] But mine eyes are unto thee - In all times, in all places, on all occasions, I will cleave unto the Lord, and put my whole confidence in him.

### Verse 10

[¶16] Let the wicked fall into their own nets - This is generally the case; those who lay snares for others fall into them themselves. Harm watch, harm catch, says the old adage. How many cases have occurred where the spring guns that have been set for thieves have shot some of the family! I have known some dismal cases of this kind, where some of the most amiable lives have been sacrificed to this accursed machine.

[¶17] Whilst - I withal escape - They alone are guilty; they alone spread the nets and gins; I am innocent, and God will cause me to escape.

### Introduction

[¶19] The psalmist, in great distress and difficulty, calls upon God, [Psa 142:1-7].

[¶20] The title says, "An Instruction of David," or a Psalm of David giving instruction; "A Prayer when he was in the cave."

[¶21] David was twice in great peril in caves.

[¶22] 1. At the cave of Adullam, when he fled from Achish, king of Gath, 1 Samuel 22.

[¶23] 2. When he was in the cave of En-gedi, where he had taken refuge from the pursuit of Saul; and the latter, without knowing that David was in it, had gone into it on some necessary occasion, 1 Samuel 24.

[¶24] If the inscription can be depended on, the cave of En-gedi is the most likely of the two, for the scene laid here. But were there doubts concerning the legitimacy of the title, I should refer the Psalm to the state of the captives in Babylon, to which a great part of the Psalms refer. Bishop Horsley calls it "A Prayer of the Messiah taken and deserted." It may be so: but where is the evidence, except in the conjectural system of Origen.

### Verse 1

[¶26] I cried unto the Lord - See on [Psa 141:1] (note).

### Verse 3

[¶28] Then thou knewest my path - When Saul and his army were about the cave in which I was hidden, thou knewest my path - that I had then no way of escape but by miracle: but thou didst not permit them to know that I was wholly in their power.

### Verse 4

[¶30] There was no man, that would know me - This has been applied to the time in which our Lord was deserted by his disciples. As to the case of David in the cave of En-gedi, he had no refuge: for what were the handful of men that were with him to Saul and his army?

### Verse 5

[¶32] Thou art my refuge - Even in these most disastrous circumstances, I will put my trust in thee.

### Verse 6

[¶34] I am brought very low - Never was I so near total ruin before.

[¶35] Deliver me from my persecutors - They are now in full possession of the only means of my escape.

[¶36] They are stronger than I - What am I and my men against this well-appointed armed multitude, with their king at their head.

### Verse 7

[¶38] Bring my soul out of prison - Bring נפשי naphshi, my life, out of this cave in which it is now imprisoned; Saul and his men being in possession of the entrance.

[¶39] The righteous shall compass me about - יכתרו yachtiru, they shall crown me; perhaps meaning that the pious Jews, on the death of Saul, would cheerfully join together to make him king, being convinced that God, by his bountiful dealings with him, intended that it should be so. The old Psalter, which is imperfect from the twenty-frst verse of Psalm 119 to the end of [Psa 141:1-10], concludes this Psalm thus: "Lede my saule oute of corruption of my body; that corrupcion is bodely pyne, in whilk my saule is anguyst; after that in Godes house, Sal al be louyng (praising) of the."

### Introduction

[¶41] The psalmist prays for mercy, and deprecates judgment, [Psa 143:1], [Psa 143:2]. His persecutions, [Psa 143:3]. His earnest prayer for deliverance, [Psa 143:4-9]. Prays for God's quickening Spirit, [Psa 143:10], [Psa 143:11]. And for the total discomfiture of his adversaries, [Psa 143:12]

[¶42] The Hebrew and all the Versions attribute this Psalm to David; and the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic and Arabic state that it was composed on the rebellion of his son Absalom: nor is there any thing in the Psalm that positively disagrees with this inscription. This is the last of the seven Psalms styled penitential.

### Verse 1

[¶44] In thy faithfulness answer me - Thou hast promised to support me in my difficulties, and, though my children should forsake me, never to withdraw thy loving-kindness from me. See the present unnatural rebellion of my son. Lord, undertake for me!

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### Verse 2

[¶1] Enter not into judgment - אל תבוא al tabo. Do not come into court, either as a Witness against me, or as a Judge, else I am ruined; for thou hast seen all my ways that they are evil, and thy justice requires thee to punish me. Nor can any soul that has ever lived be justified in the sight of thy justice and righteousness. Had I my desert from thee, I should have worse than even my unnatural son intends me. O what a relief is Jesus crucified to a soul in such circumstances!

### Verse 3

[¶3] He hath made me to dwell in darkness - Literally, in dark places. This may be understood of David's taking refuge in caves and dens of the earth, to escape from his persecuting son; yea, even to take refuge in the tombs, or repositories of the dead.

### Verse 4

[¶5] Therefore is my spirit - I am deeply depressed in spirit, and greatly afflicted in body.

[¶6] My heart within me is desolate - It has no companion of its sorrows, no sympathetic friend. I am utterly destitute of comfort.

### Verse 5

[¶8] I remember the days of old - Thou hast often helped me, often delivered me. I will therefore trust in thee, for thy mercy is not clean gone from me.

### Verse 6

[¶10] I stretch forth my hands - This is a natural action. All in distress, or under the influence of eager desire, naturally extend their hands and arms, as if to catch at help and obtain succor.

[¶11] As a thirsty land - Parched and burned by the sun, longs for rain, so does my thirsty soul for the living God.

### Verse 7

[¶13] Hear me speedily - מהר maher, make haste to answer me. A few hours, and my state may be irretrievable. In a short time my unnatural son may put an end to my life.

### Verse 8

[¶15] Cause me to hear thy Loving-kindness in the morning - This petition was probably offered in the night-season. David had despatched his messengers in all directions; and prays to God that he might by the morning get some good news.

[¶16] Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk - Absalom and his partisans are in possession of all the country. I know not in what direction to go, that I may not fall in with them: point out by thy especial providence the path I should take.

### Verse 9

[¶18] I flee unto thee to hide me - That I may not be found by my enemies, who seek my life to destroy it.

### Verse 10

[¶20] Teach me to do thy will - רצונך retsonecha, thy pleasure. To be found doing the will of God is the only safe state for man.

[¶21] Thy Spirit is good - The Author of every good desire and holy purpose.

[¶22] Lead me - Let it lead me by its continued inspirations and counsels.

[¶23] Into the land of uprightness - "Into a right land," Chaldee. Into the place where I shall be safe. The old Psalter has, Thi goste gude sal lede me into rygt lande.

### Verse 11

[¶25] Quicken me - I am as a dead man, and my hopes are almost dead within me.

### Verse 12

[¶27] And of thy mercy - To me and the kingdom.

[¶28] Cut off mine enemies - Who, if they succeed, will destroy the very form of godliness. The steps he has already taken show that even morality shall have no countenance, if Absalom reign.

[¶29] I am thy servant - Whoever is disloyal to me, I will love and serve thee.

[¶30] For a full explanation of this Psalm, as applied to penitents, see the analysis.

### Introduction

[¶32] The psalmist praises God for his goodness, [Psa 144:1], [Psa 144:2]. Exclamations relative to the vanity of human life, [Psa 144:3], [Psa 144:4]. He prays against his enemies, [Psa 144:5-8]; and extols God's mercy for the temporal blessings enjoyed by his people, [Psa 144:9-15].

[¶33] The Hebrew, and all the Versions, attribute this Psalm to David. The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, term it, A Psalm of David against Goliath. The Syriac says, "A Psalm of David when he slew Asaph, the brother of Goliath." Calmet thinks, and with much probability, that it was composed by David after the death of Absalom, and the restoration of the kingdom to peace and tranquillity. From a collation of this with Psalm 18, of which it appears to be an abridgment, preserving the same ideas, and the same forms of expression, there can be no doubt of both having proceeded from the same pen, and that David was the author. There is scarcely an expression here of peculiar importance that is not found in the prototype; and for explanation I must refer generally to the above Psalm.

### Verse 1

[¶35] Teacheth my hands to war - To use sword, battle-axe, or spear.

[¶36] And my fingers to fight - To use the bow and arrows, and the sling.

### Verse 2

[¶38] Who subdueth my people - Who has once more reduced the nation to a state of loyal obedience. This may refer to the peace after the rebellion of Absalom.

### Verse 3

[¶40] Lord, what is man - See the notes on [Psa 8:4], [Psa 8:5]. What is Adam, that thou approvest of him? Can he do any thing worthy of thy notice? Or the son of feeble perishing man, that thou shouldest hold him in repute? What care, love, and attention, dost thou lavish upon him!

### Verse 4

[¶42] Man is like to vanity - אדם להבל דמה Adam lahebel damah, literally, Adam is like to Abel, exposed to the same miseries, accidents, and murderers; for in millions of cases the hands of brothers are lifted up to shed the blood of brothers. What are wars but fratricide in the great human family?

[¶43] His days are as a shadow - The life of Abel was promissory of much blessedness; but it afforded merely the shadow of happiness. He was pure and holy, beloved of his parents, and beloved of God; but, becoming the object of his brother's envy, his life became a sacrifice to his piety.

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Bow thy heavens - See the note on [Psa 18:9].

### Verse 6

[¶3] Cast forth lightning - See the note [Psa 18:13-14] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶5] Deliver me out of great waters - See the note [Psa 18:16].

### Verse 9

[¶7] I will sing a new song - A song of peculiar excellence. I will pour forth all my gratitude, and all my skill, on its composition. See on [Psa 33:2] (note), and [Psa 33:3] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶9] He that giveth salvation unto kings - Monarchy, in the principle, is from God: it is that form of government which, in the course of the Divine providence, has principally prevailed; and that which, on the whole, has been most beneficial to mankind. God, therefore, has it under his peculiar protection. It is by him that kings reign; and by his special providence they are protected.

### Verse 12

[¶11] That our sons may be as plants - God had promised to his people, being faithful, Three descriptions of Blessings, [Deu 28:4].

[¶12] 1. The fruit of the body - sons and daughters.

[¶13] 2. The fruits of the ground - grass and corn in sufficient plenty.

[¶14] 3. Fruit of the cattle-"the increase of kine, and flocks of sheep."

[¶15] These are the blessings to wnich the psalmist refers here, as those in which he might at present exult and triumph: blessings actually enjoyed by his people at large; proofs of his mild and paternal government, and of the especial blessing of the Almighty. The people who there in such a state, and revolted, had no excuse: they were doubly guilty, as ungrateful both to God and man.

### Verse 13

[¶17] That our garners, etc. - Our garners are full. These are not prayers put up by David for such blessings: but assertions, that such blessings were actually in possession. All these expressions should be understood in the present tense.

[¶18] Ten thousands in our streets - בחצתינו bechutsotheynu should be translated in our pens or sheep-walks; for sheep bringing forth in the streets of cities or towns is absurd.

### Verse 14

[¶20] Our oxen may be strong to labor - We have not only an abundance of cattle; but they are of the most strong and vigorous breed.

[¶21] No breaking in - So well ordered is the police of the kingdom, that there are no depredations, no robbers, house-breakers, or marauding parties, in the land; no sudden incursions of neighboring tribes or banditti breaking into fields or houses, carrying away property, and taking with them the people to sell them into captivity: there is no such breaking in, and no such going out, in the nation. My enemies are either become friends, and are united with me in political interests; or are, through fear, obliged to stand aloof.

### Verse 15

[¶23] Happy is that people - "O how happy are the people!" Such were his people; and they had not only all this secular happiness, but they had Jehovah for their God; and in him had a ceaseless fountain of strength, protection, earthly blessings, and eternal mercies! A people in such a case to rebel, must have the curse of God and man.

### Introduction

[¶25] God is praised for his unsearchable greatness, [Psa 145:1], [Psa 145:2]; for his majesty and terrible acts, [Psa 145:3], [Psa 145:6]; for his goodness and tender mercies to all, [Psa 145:7-9]; for his power and kingdom, [Psa 145:10-13]; for his kindness to the distressed, [Psa 145:14]; for his providence, [Psa 145:15-17]. He hears and answers prayer, [Psa 145:18-20]. All should praise him, [Psa 145:21].

[¶26] This Psalm is attributed to David by the Hebrew and all the Versions. It is the last of the acrostic Psalms; and should contain twenty-two verses, as answering to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet; but the verse between the thirteenth and fourteenth, beginning with the letter נ nun, is lost out of the present Hebrew copies; but a translation of it is found in the Syriac, Septuagint, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. See below. It is an incomparable Psalm of praise; and the rabbins have it in such high estimation, that they assert, if a man with sincerity of heart repeat it three times a-day, he shall infallibly enjoy the blessings of the world to come. It does not appear on what particular occasion it was composed; or, indeed, whether there was any occasion but gratitude to God for his ineffable favors to mankind.

### Verse 1

[¶28] I will extol thee - I will raise thee on high, I will lift thee up.

[¶29] I will bless thy name - לעולם ועד leolam vaed, for ever and onward, in this and the coming world. This sort of expressions, which are very difficult to be translated, are on the whole well expressed by those words, in a hymn of Mr. Addison: -

[¶30] Through all eternity to theeA joyful song I'll raise

[¶31] But O, eternity's too shortTo utter all thy praise!

[¶32] This contains a strong hyperbole; but allowable in such cases.

### Verse 3

[¶34] His greatness is unsearchable - Literally, To his mightinesses there is no investigation. All in God is unlimited and eternal.

### Verse 4

[¶36] One generation - Thy creating and redeeming acts are recorded in thy word; but thy wondrous providential dealings with mankind must be handed down by tradition, from generation to generation; for they are in continual occurrence, and consequently innumerable.

### Verse 8

[¶38] The Lord is gracious - His holy nature is ever disposed to show favor.

[¶39] Full of compassion - Wherever he sees misery, his eye affects his heart.

[¶40] Slow to anger - When there is even the greatest provocation.

[¶41] Of great mercy - Great in his abundant mercy. These four things give us a wonderful display of the goodness of the Divine nature.

### Verse 9

[¶43] The Lord is good to all - There is not a soul out of hell that is not continually under his most merciful regards; so far is he from willing or decreeing before their creation the damnation of any man.

[¶44] His tender mercies - His bowels of compassion are over all his works; he feels for his intelligent offspring, as the most affectionate mother does for the child of her own bosom. And through this matchless mercy, these bowels of compassion, his son Jesus tasted death for every man. How far is all that is here spoken of the nature of God opposed to the Molochian doctrine of the eternal decree of reprobation! "His grace for every soul is free:

[¶45] For his, who forged the dire decree;

## 701. Psalms · 155 of 159

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[¶0] For every reprobate and me."

### Verse 10

[¶2] All thy works shall praise thee - The God who is good to all.

[¶3] Thy saints - חסידיך chasideycha, thy compassionate ones; those who are partakers of thy great mercy, [Psa 145:8]. These shall bless thee, because they know, they feel, that thou willest the salvation of all. The dark, the gloomy, the hard-hearted, the narrow-minded bigots, who never have had thy love shed abroad in their hearts, can unfeelingly deal in the damnation of their fellows.

### Verse 12

[¶5] To make known - They delight to recommend their God and Father to others.

### Verse 13

[¶7] Thy dominion endureth - There is neither age nor people in and over which God does not manifest his benignly ruling power. As the above verse begins with the letter מ mem, the next in the order of the alphabet shouid begin with נ nun: but that verse is totally wanting. To say it never was in, is false, because the alphabet is not complete without it; and it is an unanswerable argument to prove the careless manner in which the Jews have preserved the Divine records. Though the Syriac, Septuagint, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon, have a verse, not in the Hebrew text, that answers to the נ nun, which is found in no printed copy of the Hebrew Bible; yet one MS., now in Trinity College, Dublin, has it thus, I suppose by correction, in the bottom of the page: - נאמן יהוה בכל דבריו וחסיד בכל מעשיו

[¶8] Neeman Yehovah bechol debaraiv; vechasid bechol maasaiv. "The Lord is faithful in all his words; and merciful in all his works." Πιστος Κυριος εν τοις λογοις αυτου· και ὁσιος εν πασι τιος εργοις αυτου. - Septuagint.

[¶9] Fidelis Dominus in omnibus verbis suis: et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis - Vulgate.

[¶10] These two Versions, the Septuagint and Vulgate, are the same with the Hebrew given above. The Anglo-Saxon is the same: - "True Lord in all words his, and holy in all works his."

[¶11] The Latin text in my old Psalter is the same with the present printed Vulgate: "Fidelis Dominus in omnibus verbis suis, et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis."

[¶12] Thus translated in the same MSS.: Lorde true in all his words: and holy in al his workes.

[¶13] It is remarkable that the whole verse is wanting in the Vulgate, as published in the Complutenstan Polyglot, as also the Antwerp and Paris Polyglots, which were taken from it. It is wanting also in the Polyglot Psalter of Porus, because he did not find it in the Hebrew text.

### Verse 14

[¶15] The Lord upholdeth all that fall - נפלים nophelim, the falling, or those who are not able to keep their feet; the weak. He shores them up; he is their prop. No man falls through his own weakness merely; if he rely on God, the strongest foe cannot shake him.

### Verse 15

[¶17] The eyes of all wait upon thee - What a fine figure! The young of all animals look up to their parents for food. God is here represented as the universal Father, providing food for every living creature.

[¶18] In due season - The kind of food that is suited to every animal, and to all the stages of life in each animal. This is a wonderful mystery. It is a fact that all are thus provided for; but how is it done? All expect it from God, and not one is dsappointed! For,

### Verse 16

[¶20] Thou openest thine hand - What a hand is this that holds in it all the food that meets the desires and necessities of the universe of creatures! A very large volume might be written upon this: The proper kinds of food for the various classes of animals.

### Verse 17

[¶22] The Lord is righteous - It was the similarity of this to the omitted verse, which should have been the fourteenth, that caused it to be omitted.

### Verse 18

[¶24] The Lord is nigh - Whoever calls upon God in truth, with a sincere and upright heart, one that truly desires his salvation, to that person God is nigh. The following verse shows he is not only near to praying people, but

[¶25] 1. He will hear their cry.

[¶26] 2. Fulfil their desires.

[¶27] 3. Save them. Reader, lift up thy soul in prayer to this merciful God.

### Verse 20

[¶29] The Lord preserveth - He is the keeper of all them that love him.

[¶30] But all the wicked will he destroy - They call not upon him; they fight against him, and he will confound and destroy them. There is something curious in the שומר shomer, the keeper or guardian of the pious; he is שמיד shamid, the destroyer of the wicked. The first word implies he is continually keeping them; the second, that he causes the others to be destroyed.

### Verse 21

[¶32] Let all flesh bless his holy name - He is good to all, wants to save all, actually feeds and preserves all. And as near as שמר shamar is to שמד shamad, so near is he a Savior to those who stand on the brink of destruction, if they will look to him.

[¶33] For the application of all this Psalm to the Church of Christ, see the analysis.

### Introduction

[¶35] The psalmist, full of gratitude, purposes to praise God for ever, [Psa 146:1], [Psa 146:2]; and exhorts not to trust in man, not even the most powerful; for which he gives his reasons, [Psa 146:3], [Psa 146:4]. The great advantage of trusting in God, [Psa 146:5]. The mercies which they who trust in God may expect, [Psa 146:6-9]. The Divine government is everlasting, [Psa 146:10].

[¶36] This is the first of the Psalms called Hallelujah Psalms, of which there are five, and which conclude the book. No author's name is prefixed to this, either in the Hebrew or Chaldee. But the Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, attribute it to Haggai and Zechariah. It was probably written after the captivity, and may refer to the time when Cyrus, prejudiced by the enemies of the Jews, withdrew his order for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, to which revocation of the royal edict the third verse may refer: Put not your trust in princes etc.

### Verse 2

[¶38] While I live will I praise - The true feeling of a heart overpowered with a sense of God's goodness.

[¶39] While I have any being - בעודי beodi, in my continuance, in my progression, my eternal existence. This is very expressive.

### Verse 3

[¶41] Put not your trust in princes - This may refer, as has been stated above, to Cyrus, who had revoked his edict for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Perhaps they had begun to suppose that they were about to owe their deliverance to the Persian king. God permitted this change in the disposition of the king, to teach them the vanity of confidence in men, and the necessity of trusting in himself.

### Verse 4

[¶43] His breath goeth forth - His existence depends merely, under God, on the air he breathes. When he ceases to respire he ceases to live; his body from that moment begins to claim its affinity to the earth; and all his thoughts, purposes, and projects, whether good or evil, come to nought and perish. He, then, who has no other dependence, must necessarily be miserable.

## 702. Psalms · 156 of 159

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help - While he that trusts in man is miserable, he that trusts in God is happy. In the son of man, בן אדם ben Adam, there is no help, תשועה teshuah, no saving principle. Every son of Adam naturally comes into the world without this, and must continue so till the Lord open the eyes of the blind, [Psa 146:8]; but a measure of light is given from that true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This son of Adam returns to his earth, לאדמתו leadmatho, to the ground, from which he was taken; this refers directly to [Gen 2:7]; [Gen 3:19]. But he that has the God for his help who helped Jacob in his distress, and was with him, and sustained him in and through all adversities, can never be destitute; for this God changes not; he lives for ever, and his projects cannot perish. He has purposed that Israel shall be delivered from this captivity. Cyrus may change, but God will not; trust therefore in Him. He has all power; he made heaven and earth; he has them under his government and at his disposal; and should earth itself fail, heaven endures. And he keeps his truth for ever; and therefore his promises must be fulfilled to them that trust in him. Fear not.

### Verse 7

[¶3] Which ewecuteth judgment for the oppressed - For those who suffer by violence or calumny. This may refer to the Israelites, who suffered much by oppression from the Babylonians, and by calumny from the Samaritans, etc., who had prejudiced the king of Persia against them.

[¶4] Giving food to the hungry - No doubt he fed the poor captives by many displays of his peculiar providence.

[¶5] The Lord looseth the prisoners - And as he has sustained you so long under your captivity, so will he bring you out of it.

### Verse 8

[¶7] Openeth the eyes of the blind - He brings us out of our prison-house, from the shadow of death, and opens our eyes that we may behold the free light of the day. And it is the Lord only that can open the eyes of any son of Adam, and give him to see his wretchedness, and where help and salvation may be found.

[¶8] Raiseth them that are bowed down - Through a sense of their guilt and sinfulness.

[¶9] The Lord loveth the righteous - These he makes partakers of a Divine nature; and he loves those who bear his own image.

### Verse 9

[¶11] Preserveth the strangers - He has preserved you strangers in a strange land, where you have been in captivity for seventy years; and though in an enemy's country, he has provided for the widows and orphans as amply as if he had been in the promised land.

[¶12] The way of the wicked he turneth upside down - He subverts, turns aside. They shall not do all the wickedness they wish; they shall not do all that is in their power. In their career he will either stop them, turn them aside, or overturn them.

### Verse 10

[¶14] The Lord shall reign for ever - Therefore he can never fail; and he is thy God, O Zion. Hitherto he has helped you and your fathers; and has extended that help from generation to generation. Therefore trust in him and bless the Lord.

### Introduction

[¶16] The psalmist praises God for his goodness to Jerusalem, [Psa 147:1-3]; shows his great mercy to them that trust in him, [Psa 147:4-6]; he extols him for his mercies, and providential kindness, [Psa 147:7-11]; for his defense of Jerusalem, [Psa 147:12-15]; For his wonders in the seasons, [Psa 147:16-18]; and his word unto Jacob, [Psa 147:19], [Psa 147:20].

[¶17] This Psalm, which is without title in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Vulgate, is attributed by the other Versions to Haggai and Zechariah. It was probably penned after the captivity, when the Jews were busily employed in rebuilding Jerusalem, as may be gathered from the second and thirteenth verses. It may be necessary to remark that all the Versions, except the Chaldee, divide this Psalm at the end of the eleventh verse, and begin a new Psalm at the twelfth. By this division the numbers of the Psalms agree in the Versions with the Hebrew; the former having been, till now, one behind.

### Verse 1

[¶19] Praise is comely - It is decent, befitting, and proper that every intelligent creature should acknowledge the Supreme Being: and as he does nothing but good to the children of men, so they should speak good of his name.

### Verse 2

[¶21] The Lord doth build up - The psalmist appears to see the walls rising under his eye, because the outcasts of Israel, those who had been in captivity, are now gathered together to do the work.

### Verse 3

[¶23] He healeth the broken in heart - שבורי, the shivered in heart. From the root שבר shabar, to break in pieces, we have our word shiver, to break into splinters, into shivers. The heart broken in pieces by a sense of God's displeasure.

### Verse 4

[¶25] He telleth the number of the stars - He whose knowledge is so exact as to tell every star in heaven, can be under no difficulty to find out and collect all the scattered exiles of Israel.

### Verse 5

[¶27] His understanding is infinite - To his intelligence there is no number: though he numbers the stars, his understanding is without number. It is infinite; therefore, he can know, as he can do, all things.

### Verse 6

[¶29] The Lord lifteth up the meek - The humbled, the afflicted.

### Verse 7

[¶31] Sing unto the Lord - ענו enu, sing a responsive song, sing in parts, answer one another.

### Verse 8

[¶33] Who covereth the heaven with clouds - Collects the vapours together, in order to cause it to rain upon the earth. Even the direction of the winds, the collection of the clouds, and the descent of the rain, are under the especial management of God. These things form a part of his providential management of the world.

[¶34] Maketh grass to grow upon the mountains - After this clause the Vulgate, the Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon, add, and herb for the service of man. It appears that a hemistich, or half-line, has been lost from the Hebrew text; which, according to the above Versions, must have stood thus: ועשב לעבדת האדם veeseb laabodath haadam, as in [Psa 104:14] : "And herbage for the service of mankind."

### Verse 10

[¶36] He delighteth not - The horse, among all animals, is most delighted in by man for beauty, strength, and fleetness. And a man's legs, if well proportioned, are more admired than even the finest features of his face. Though God has made these, yet they are not his peculiar delight.

### Verse 11

[¶38] The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him - That are truly religious.

[¶39] In those that hope is his mercy - Who are just beginning to seek the salvation of their souls. Even the cry of the penitent is pleasing in the ear of the Lord. With this verse the hundred and forty-sixth Psalm ends in all the Versions, except the Chaldee. And the hundred and forty-seventh commences with the [Psa 147:12]. I believe these to be two distinct Psalms. The subjects of them are not exactly the same, though something similar; and they plainly refer to different periods.

### Verse 13

[¶41] He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates - He has enabled thee to complete the walls of Jerusalem. From the former part of the Psalm it appears the walls were then to progress; from this part, they appear to be completed, and provisions to be brought into the city, to support its inhabitants. The gates were set up and well secured by bars, so that the grain, etc., was in safety.

### Verse 14

[¶43] He maketh peace - They were now no longer troubled with the Samaritans, Moabites, etc.

### Verse 15

[¶45] He sendeth forth has commandment - His substantial word. It is here personified, מימרא meymra, Chaldee; and appears to be a very active agent running every where, and performing the purposes of his will.

## 703. Psalms · 157 of 159

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### Verse 16

[¶1] He giveth snow like wool - Falling down in large flakes; and in this state nothing in nature has a nearer resemblance to fine white wool.

[¶2] Scattereth the hoar frost like ashes - Spreading it over the whole face of nature.

### Verse 17

[¶4] He casteth forth his ice - קרחו korcho, (probably hailstones), like crumbs.

[¶5] Who can stand before his cold? - At particular times the cold in the east is so very intense as to kill man and beast. Jacobus de Vitriaco, one of the writers in the Gesta Dei per Francos, says, that in an expedition in which he was engaged against Mount Tabor, on the 24th of December, the cold was so intense that many of the poor people, and the beasts of burden, died by it. And Albertus Aquensis, another of these writers, speaking of the cold in Judea, says, that thirty of the people who attended Baldwin 1: in the mountainous districts near the Dead Sea, were killed by it; and that in that expedition they had to contend with horrible hail and ice, with unheard-of snow and rain. From thls we find that the winters are often very severe in Judea; and in such cases as the above, we may well call out, "Who can stand against his cold!"

### Verse 18

[¶7] He sendeth out his word - He gives a command: the south wind blows; the thaw takes place; and the ice and snow being liquefied, the waters flow, where before they were bound up by the ice.

### Verse 19

[¶9] He showeth his word unto Jacob - To no nation of the world beside had God given a revelation of his will.

### Verse 20

[¶11] And as for his judgments - The wondrous ordinances of his law, no nation had known them; and consequently, did not know the glorious things in futurity to which they referred.

### Introduction

[¶13] The psalmist calls on all the creation to praise the Lord. The angels and visible heavens, [Psa 148:1-6]; the earth and the sea, [Psa 148:7]; the meteors, [Psa 148:8]; mountains, hills, and trees, [Psa 148:9]; beasts, reptiles, and fowls, [Psa 148:10]; kings, princes, and mighty men, [Psa 148:11]; men, women, and children, [Psa 148:12], [Psa 148:13]; and especially all the people of Israel, [Psa 148:14].

[¶14] This Psalm has no title: but by the Syriac it is attributed to Happai and Zechariah, and the Septuagint and the Ethiopic follow it. As a hymn of praise, this is the most sublime in the whole book.

### Verse 1

[¶16] Praise ye the Lord from the heavens - The Chaldee translates, "Praise the Lord, ye holy creatures from the heavens. Praise him, ye armies of supreme angels. Praise him, all ye angels who minister before him." מן השמים min hashshamayim signifies whatever belongs to the heavens, all their inhabitants; as מן הארץ min haarets, [Psa 148:7], signifies all that belongs to the earth, all its inhabitants and productions.

### Verse 3

[¶18] Praise ye him, sun and moon - The meaning of this address and all others to inanimate nature, is this: Every work of God's hand partakes so much of his perfections, that it requires only to be studied and known, in order to show forth the manifold wisdom power, and goodness of the Creator.

[¶19] Stars of light - The brightest and most luminous stars: probably the planets may be especially intended.

### Verse 4

[¶21] Heavens of heavens - Heavens exceeding heavens. Systems of systems extending as far beyond the solar system, as it does beyond the lowest deeps. The endless systematic concatenation of worlds.

[¶22] Ye waters that be above the heavens - This refers to [Gen 1:7] (note), where see the notes. Clouds, vapours, air, exhalations, rain, Snow, and meteors of every kind.

### Verse 5

[¶24] He commanded, and they were created - He spake the word expressive of the idea in his infinite mind; and they sprang into being according to that idea.

### Verse 6

[¶26] He hath also stablished them - He has determined their respective revolutions and the times in which they are performed, so exactly to show his all-comprehensive wisdom and skill, that they have never passed the line marked out by his decree, nor intercepted each other in the vortex of space, through revolutions continued for nearly 6000 years.

### Verse 7

[¶28] Praise the Lord from the earth - As in the first address, he calls upon the heavens and all that belong to them; so here, in this second part, he calls upon the earth, and all that belong to it.

[¶29] Ye dragons - תנינים tanninim, whales, porpoises, sharks, and sea-monsters of all kinds.

[¶30] And all deeps - Whatsoever is contained in the sea, whirlpools, eddies, ground tides, with the astonishing flux and reflux of the ocean.

[¶31] Every thing, in its place and nature, shows forth the perfections of its Creator.

### Verse 8

[¶33] Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours - All kinds of meteors, water, and fire, in all their forms and combinations. And air, whether in the gentle breeze, the gale, the whirlwind, the tempest, or the tornado; each accomplishing an especial purpose, and fulfilling a particular will of the Most High.

### Verse 9

[¶35] Mountains, and all hills - Whether primitive, secondary, or alluvial; of ancient or recent formation, with all their contents, quarries, mines, and minerals. But what a profusion of wisdom and skill is lavished on these! To instance only in the different metals, earths, and minerals; especially the precious stones.

[¶36] Fruitful trees - עץ פרי ets peri, fruit trees of all kinds.

[¶37] And all cedars - Every kind of forest tree. The formation of the fruits, their infinitely varied hues and savours, proclaim the unsearchable wisdom and goodness of God: not less so, the growth, structure, and various qualities and uses of the forest trees.

### Verse 10

[¶39] Beasts - החיה hachaiyah, wild beasts of every kind.

[¶40] All cattle - בהמה behemah, all domestic animals; those used for the service of the house, and those for agricultural purposes.

[¶41] Creeping things - All the class of reptiles, from the boa constrictor, that can combat, kill, and swallow whole the royal tiger, to the cobra de manille, a poisonous reptile as small as a fine needle; with those still smaller animals that are found in water, and require the power of the microscope to bring them to view. In the production, preservation, habits, and properties of all these, there is a profusion of wisdom and economy that would require ages to exhibit.

[¶42] Flying fowl - The structure of fowls is astonishing; and the exact mathematical manner in which flying fowls swim the air, and steer their course wheresoever they will; the feathers, and their construction, with the muscles which give them motion; strike the observer of nature with astonishment and delight.

### Verse 11

[¶44] Kings of the earth - As being representatives of the Most High; and all people - the nations governed by them. Princes, as governors of provinces, and all judges executing those laws that bind man to man, and regulate and preserve civil society, praise God, from whom ye have derived your power and influence: for by him kings reign. And let the people magnify God for civil and social institutions and for the laws by which, under him, their lives and properties are preserved.

## 704. Psalms · 158 of 159

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Both young men, and maidens - Who are in the bloom of youth, and in the height of health and vigor; know that God is your Father; and let the morning and energy of your days be devoted to him.

[¶2] Old men, and children - Very appropriately united here, as the beginning and conclusion of life present nearly the same passions, appetites, caprices, and infirmities: yet in both the beneficence, all-sustaining power, and goodness of God are seen.

### Verse 13

[¶4] Let them - All already specified, praise the name of Jehovah, because he excels all beings: and his glory, as seen in creating, preserving, and governing all things, is על al, upon or over, the earth and heaven. All space and place, as well as the beings found in them, show forth the manifold wisdom and goodness of God.

### Verse 14

[¶6] Be also exalteth the horn - Raises to power and authority his people.

[¶7] The praise - Jehovah is the subject of the praise of all his saints.

[¶8] A people near unto him - The only people who know him, and make their approaches unto him with the sacrifices and offerings which he has himself prescribed. Praise ye the Lord!

[¶9] O what a hymn of praise is here! It is a universal chorus! All created nature have a share, and all perform their respective parts.

[¶10] All intelligent beings are especially called to praise him who made them in his love, and sustains them by his beneficence. Man particularly, in all the stages of his being - infancy, youth, manhood, and old age: all human beings have their peculiar interest in the great Father of the spirits of all flesh.

[¶11] He loves man, wheresoever found, of whatsoever color, in whatever circumstances, and in all the stages of his pilgrimage from his cradle to his grave.

[¶12] Let the lisp of the infant, the shout of the adult, and the sigh of the aged, ascend to the universal parent, as a gratitude-offering. He guards those who hang upon the breast; controls and directs the headstrong and giddy, and sustains old age in its infirmities; and sanctifies to it the sufferings that bring on the termination of life.

[¶13] Reader, this is thy God! How great, how good, holy merciful, how compassionate! Breathe thy soul up to him; breathe it into him; and let it be preserved in his bosom till mortality be swallowed up of life, and all that is imperfect be done away.

[¶14] Jesus is thy sacrificial offering; Jesus is thy Mediator. He has taken thy humanity, and placed it on the throne! He creates all things new; and faith in his blood will bring thee to his glory! Amen! hallelujah!

[¶15] The beautiful morning hymn of Adam and Eve, (Paradise Lost, book v., line 153, etc).,: - "These are thy glorious works, Parent of good;

[¶16] Almighty, thine this universal frame," etc. has been universally admired. How many have spoken loud in its praises, who have never attempted to express their feelings in a stanza of the hundred and forty-eighth Psalm! But to the rapturous adorers of Milton's poetry what is the song of David, or this grand music of the spheres! Know this, O forgetful man, that Milton's morning hymn is a paraphrase of this Psalm, and is indebted to it for every excellency it possesses. It is little else that the psalmist speaking in English instead of Hebrew verse.

### Introduction

[¶18] All the congregation are invited to praise God for his mercies, [Psa 149:1-3]. Their great privileges, [Psa 149:4], [Psa 149:5]. Their victories, [Psa 149:6-9].

[¶19] This seems to be an epinikion, or song of triumph, after some glorious victory; probably in the time of the Maccabees. It has been also understood as predicting the success of the Gospel in the nations of the earth. According to the Syriac, it concerns the new temple, by which the Christian Church is meant. It has no title in the Hebrew, nor in any of the Versions, and no author's name.

### Verse 1

[¶21] Sing unto the Lord a new song - That is, as we have often had occasion to remark, an excellent song, the best we can possibly pronounce. So the word חדש chadash is often understood; and so the word novus, "new," was often used among the Latin writers: -

[¶22] Pollio amat nostram, quamvis sit rustica, musam.

[¶23] Pollio et ipse facit.

[¶24] Nova Carmina Virg. Ecl. iii., ver. 84.

[¶25] Pollio loves my lines, although rude:

[¶26] Pollio himself makes excellent odes.

[¶27] Tamely and inexpressively translated by Dryden: - "Pollio my rural verse vouchsafes to read.

[¶28] My Pollio writes himself."

[¶29] O what a falling off is here!

[¶30] Servius, in his comment on nova, says, magna, Miranda. Nova means great, admirable.

[¶31] So on novum nectar, Ecl. v., ver. 71, he says, id est, magna dulcedo; "nectar of Excellent flavor."

[¶32] Congregation of saints - The Israelites, who were, by profession and by injunction, a holy people.

### Verse 2

[¶34] In him that made him - Let them remember in their exultations to give all glory to the Lord; for he is the Author of their being and their blessings. And let them know that he is their King also; that they should submit to his authority, and be guided and regulated in their hearts and conduct by his laws.

### Verse 3

[¶36] Let them praise his name in the dance - במחול bemachol, with the pipe, or some kind of wind music, classed here with תף toph, the tabor or drum, and כנור kinnor, the harp." מחול machol," says Parkhurst, "some fistular wind-instrument of music, with holes, as a flute, pipe, or fife, from חל chal, to make a hole or opening." I know no place in the Bible where מחול machol and מחלת machalath mean dance of any kind; they constantly signify some kind of pipe.

### Verse 4

[¶38] The Lord taketh pleasure in his people - The pleasure or good will of God is in his people: he loves them ardently, and will load them with his benefits, while they are humble and thankful; for,

[¶39] He will beautify - יפאר yephaer, he will make fair, the meek, ענוים anavim, the lowly, the humble with salvation, בישועה bishuah; which St. Jerome thus translates, Et exaltabit mansuetos in Jesu, "And he will exalt the meek in Jesus." Whether this rendering be correct or not, there is no other way by which the humble soul can be exalted, but by Jesus, as the redeeming Savior.

### Verse 5

[¶41] Let the saints be joyful in glory - Let them be gloriously joyful: seeing themselves so honored and so successful, let them be joyful. God has put glory or honor upon them; let them give him the thanks due to his name.

[¶42] Sing aloud upon their beds - While they are reclining on their couches. At their festal banquets, let them shout the praises of the Lord. In imitation of this we often have at our public entertainments the following words sung, taken from the Vulgate of [Psa 115:1] : Non Nobis Domine Non Nobis; sed Nomini Tuo da Gloriam! super Misericordia Tua et Veritate Tua. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake." Let them mingle their feasting with Divine songs. This reclining on couches, while they take their food, is still practiced in Asiatic countries.

### Verse 6

[¶44] Let the high praises of God - Let them sing songs the most sublime, with the loudest noise consistent with harmony.

## 705. Psalms · 159 of 159

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[¶0] And a two-edged sword in their hand - Perhaps there is an allusion here to the manner in which the Jews were obliged to labor in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem: "Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon," [Neh 4:17].

[¶1] The two-edged sword, in Hebrew, is פיפיות pipiyoth, "mouth mouths."

### Verse 7

[¶3] To execute vengeance upon the heathen - This may refer simply to their purpose of defending themselves to the uttermost, should their enemies attack them while building their wall: and they had every reason to believe that God would be with them; and that, if their enemies did attack them, they should be able to inflict the severest punishment upon them.

[¶4] Punishments upon the people - The unfaithful and treacherous Jews; for we find that some, even of their nobles, had joined with Sanballat and Tobiah; (see [Neh 6:17-19]): and it appears also that many of them had formed alliances with those heathens, which were contrary to the law; see [Neh 13:15-29].

### Verse 8

[¶6] To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron - That is, if these kings, governors of provinces, and chiefs among the people, had attacked them, God would have enabled them to defeat them, take their generals prisoners, and lead them in triumph to Jerusalem. It is certain also that in the times of the Maccabees the Jews had many signal victories over the Samaritans, Philistines, and Moabites; and over Antiochus, king of Syria. See the Books of the Maccabees. To these the psalmist may here refer in a hyperbolical way, not unusual in poetry and in songs of triumph.

### Verse 9

[¶8] To execute upon them the judgment written - In [Deu 7:1], etc., God promises his people complete victory over all their enemies, and over the heathen. God repeatedly promises such victories to his faithful people; and this is, properly speaking, the judgment written, i.e., foretold.

[¶9] This honor have all his saints - They shall all be supported, defended, and saved by the Lord. Israel had this honor, and such victories over their enemies, while they continued faithful to their God. When they relapsed into iniquity, their enemies prevailed against them; they were defeated, their city taken, their temple burnt to the ground, more than a million of themselves slaughtered, and the rest led into captivity; and, scattered through the, world, they continue without king, or temple, or true worship, to the present day. "But do not these last verses contain a promise that all the nations of the earth shall be brought under the dominion of the Church of Christ; that all heathen and ungodly kings shall be put down, and pious men put in their places?" I do not think so. I believe God never intended that his Church should have the civil government of the world. His Church like its Founder and Head, will never be a ruler and divider among men. The men who under pretense of superior sanctity, affect this, are not of God; the truth of God is not in them; they are puffed up with pride, and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Wo unto the inhabitants of the earth, when the Church takes the civil government of the world into its hand! Were it possible that God should trust religious people with civil government, anarchy would soon ensue; for every professed believer in Christ would consider himself on a par with any other and every other believer, the right to rule and the necessity to obey would be immediately lost, and every man would do what was right in his own eyes; for, where the grace of God makes all equal, who can presume to say, I have Divine authority to govern my fellow? The Church of Rome has claimed this right; and the pope, in consequence, became a secular prince; but the nations of the world have seen the vanity and iniquity of the claim, and refused allegiance. Those whom it did govern, with force and with cruelty did it rule them; and the odious yoke is now universally cast off. Certain enthusiasts and hypocrites, not of that Church, have also attempted to set up a fifth monarchy, a civil government by the Saints! and diabolic saints they were. To such pretenders God gives neither countenance nor support. The secular and spiritual government God will ever keep distinct; and the Church shall have no power but that of doing good; and this only in proportion to its holiness, heavenly-mindedness, and piety to God. That the verses above may be understood in a spiritual sense, as applicable to the influence of the word of God preached, may be seen in the following analysis.

### Introduction

[¶11] A general exhortation to praise God, [Psa 150:1], [Psa 150:2]. With the trumpet, psaltery, and harp, [Psa 150:3]. With the timbrel and dance, stringed instruments and organs, [Psa 150:4]. With the cymbals, [Psa 150:5]. All living creatures are called upon to join in the exercise, [Psa 150:6].

[¶12] This Psalm is without title and author in the Hebrew, and in all the ancient versions. It is properly the full chorus of all voices and instruments in the temple, at the conclusion of the grand Hallelujah, to which the five concluding Psalms belong.

### Verse 1

[¶14] Praise God in his sanctuary - In many places we have the compound word יה-הללו halelu-yah, praise ye Jehovah; but this is the first place in which we find אל-הללו halelu-el, praise God, or the strong God. Praise him who is Jehovah, the infinite and self-existent Being; and praise him who is God, El or Elohim, the great God in covenant with mankind, to bless and save them unto eternal life.

[¶15] In his sanctuary - in the temple; in whatever place is dedicated to his service. Or, in his holiness - through his own holy influence in your hearts.

[¶16] The firmament of his power - Through the whole expanse, to the utmost limits of his power. As רקיע rakia is the firmament of vast expanse that surrounds the globe, and probably that in which all the celestial bodies of the solar system are included, it may have that meaning here. Praise him whose power and goodness extend through all worlds; and let the inhabitants of all those worlds share in the grand chorus, that it may be universal.

### Verse 2

[¶18] For his mighty acts - Whether manifested in creation, government, mercy or justice.

[¶19] His excellent greatness - כרב גדלו kerob gudlo, according to the multitude of his magnitude, or of his majesty. After the manyfoldness of his mickleness - Anglo-Saxon. After the mykelnes of his greathede - Old Psalter. Let the praise be such as is becoming so great, so holy, and so glorious a Being.

### Verse 3

[¶21] The sound of the trumpet - שופר sophar, from its noble, cheering, and majestic sound; for the original has this ideal meaning.

[¶22] With the psaltery - נבל nebel; the nabla, a hollow stringed instrument; perhaps like the guitar, or the old symphony.

[¶23] And harp - כנור kinnor, another stringed instrument, played on with the hands or fingers.

### Verse 4

[¶25] Praise him with the timbrel - תף toph, drum, tabret, or tomtom, or tympanum of the ancients; a skin stretched over a broad hoop; perhaps something like the tambarine. Anglo-Saxon; the glad pipe. Taburne; Old Psalter.

[¶26] And dance - מחול machol, the pipe. The croude or crowthe: Old Psalter; a species of violin. It never means dance; see the note on [Psa 149:3]. Crwth signifies a fiddle in Welsh.

[¶27] Stringed instruments - מנים minnim. This literally signifies strings put in order; perhaps a triangular kind of hollow instrument on which the strings were regularly placed, growing shorter and shorter till they came to a point. This would give a variety of sounds, from a deep bass to a high treble. In an ancient MS. Psalter before me, David is represented in two places, playing on such an instrument. It may be the sambuck, or psaltery, or some such instrument.

[¶28] Organs - עוגב ugab. Very likely the syrinx or mouth organ; Pan's pope; both of the ancients and moderns. The fistula, septem, disparibus nodis conjuncta, made of seven pieces of cane or thick straw, of unequal lengths, applied to the lips, each blown into, according to the note intended to be expressed. This instrument is often met with in the ancient bucolic or pastoral writers.

### Verse 5

[¶30] Loud cymbals - צלצלים tseltselim. Two hollow plates of brass, which, being struck together, produced a sharp clanging sound. This instrument is still in use. What the high-sounding cymbals meant I know not; unless those of a larger make, struck above the head, and consequently emitting a louder sound.

### Verse 6

[¶32] Let every thing that hath breath - Either to make a vocal noise, or a sound by blowing into pipes, fifes, flutes, trumpets, etc. Let all join together, and put forth all your strength and all your skill in sounding the praises of Jehovah; and then let a universal burst with Hallelujah! close the grand ceremony. It is evident that this Psalm has no other meaning than merely the summoning up all the voices, and all the instruments, to complete the service in Full Chorus.

[¶33] Of such peculiar importance did the Book of Psalms appear to our blessed Lord and his apostles, that they have quoted nearly fifty of them several times in the New Testament. There is scarcely a state in human life that is not distinctly marked in them; together with all the variety of experience which is found, not merely among pious Jews, but among Christians, the most deeply acquainted with the things of Christ.

[¶34] The minister of God's word, who wishes to preach experimentally, should have frequent recourse to this sacred book; and by considering the various parts that refer to Jesus Christ and the Christian Church, he will be able to build up the people of God on their most holy faith; himself will grow in grace, and in the knowledge of God; and he will ever have an abundance of the most profitable matter for the edification of the Church of Christ.

## 706. Proverbs · 1 of 46

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### Introduction to the Proverbs of Solomon The Son of David, King of Israel

[¶1] There has scarcely been any dispute concerning either the author or Divine authority of this book, either in the Jewish or Christian Church: all allow that it was written by Solomon; and the general belief is, that he wrote the book by Divine inspiration.

[¶2] It has, indeed, been supposed that Solomon collected the major part of these proverbs from those who had preceded him, whether Hebrews or heathens; but the latter opinion has been controverted, as derogating from the authority of the book. But this supposition has very little weight; for, whatever of truth is found in or among men, came originally from God; and if he employed an inspired man to collect those rays of light, and embody them for the use of his Church, he had a right so to do, and to claim his own wheresoever found, and, by giving it a new authentication, to render it more useful in reference to the end for which it was originally communicated. God is the Father of lights, and from him came all true wisdom, not only in its discursive teachings but in all its detached maxims for the government and regulation of life. I think it very likely that Solomon did not compose them all; but he collected every thing of this kind within his reach, and what was according to the Spirit of truth, by which he was inspired, he condensed in this book; and as the Divine Spirit gave it, so the providence of God has preserved it, for the use of his Church.

[¶3] That true Light, which lightens every man that cometh into the world, first taught men to acknowledge himself as the Fountain and Giver of all good; and then by short maxims, conveyed in terse, energetic words, taught them to regulate their conduct in life, in respect to the dispensations of his providence, and in reference to each other in domestic, social, and civil life; and this was done by such proverbs as we find collected in this book. The different changes that take place in society; the new relations which in process of time men would bear to each other; the invention of arts and sciences; and the experience of those who had particularly considered the ways of the Lord, and marked the operations of his hands; would give rise to many maxims, differing from the original stock only in their application to those new relations and varying circumstances.

[¶4] The heathen who had any connection with the first worshippers of the Almighty would observe the maxims by which they regulated the affairs of life, and would naturally borrow from them; and hence those original teachings became diffused throughout the world; and we find there is not an ancient nation on earth that is without its code of proverbs or proverbial maxims. The ancient Sanscrit is full of them; and they abound in the Persian and Arabic languages, and in all the dialects formed from these, in all the countries of the East. The Heetopadesa of Vishnoo Sarma, the Anvari Soheili, the Bahar Danush, Kalia we Durnna, and all the other forms of that original work; the fables of Lockman, Aesop, Phaedrus, Avienus, etc., are collections of proverbs, illustrated by their application to the most important purposes of domestic, social, and civil life.

[¶5] Those nations with which we are best acquainted have their collections of proverbs; and perhaps those with which we are unacquainted have theirs also. Messrs. Visdelou and Galand formed a collection of Asiatic proverbs, and published it in their supplement to the Bibliotheque Orientate of D'Herbelot. This is a collection of very great worth, curiosity, and importance. Mr. J. Ray, F.R.S., formed a collection of this kind, particularly of such as are or have been in use in Great Britain: this is as curious as it is entertaining and useful.

[¶6] The term Proverb, proverbium, compounded of pro, for, and verb, a word, speech, or saying, leads us to an original meaning of the thing itself. It was an allegorical saying, where "more was meant than met the eye" - a short saying that stood for a whole discourse, the words of which are metaphorical; e.g., this of the rabbins: "I have given thee my lamp: give me thy lamp. If thou keep my lamp, I will keep thy lamp; but if thou quench my lamp, I will quench thy lamp." Here the word lamp is a metaphor:

[¶7] 1. For Divine revelation

[¶8] 2. For the human soul

[¶9] I have given thee my word and Spirit; give me thy soul and heart. If thou observe my word, and follow the dictates of my Spirit, I will regulate thy heart, and keep thy soul from every evil; but if thou disobey my word, and quench my Spirit, I will withdraw my Spirit, leave thee to the hardness and darkness of thy own heart, and send thee at last into outer darkness. Such as this is properly the proverb; the word which stands for a discourse.

[¶10] But the Hebrew משלים meshalim, from משל mashal, to rule or govern, signifies a set or collection of weighty, wise, and therefore authoritative, sayings, whereby a man's whole conduct, civil and religious, is to be governed; sayings containing rules for the government of life. Or, as the Divine author himself expresses it in the beginning of the first chapter, the design is to lead men "to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding; to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; to give subtilty to the simple, and to the young man knowledge and discretion," [Pro 1:2], [Pro 1:3]. This was the design of proverbs; and perhaps it would be impossible to find out a better definition of the design and object of those of Solomon, than is contained in the two preceding verses. See my Dissertation on Parabolical Writing, at the end of the notes on Matthew 13 (note).

[¶11] Of the three thousand proverbs which Solomon spoke, we have only those contained in this book and in Ecclesiastes; and of the one thousand and five songs which he made, only the Song of Solomon has been preserved: or, in other words, of all his numerous works in divinity, philosophy, morality, and natural history, only the three above mentioned, bearing his name, have been admitted into the sacred canon. His natural history of trees and plants, of beasts, fowls, and fishes, (for on all these he wrote), is totally lost. Curiosity, which never says, It is enough, would give up the three we have for those on the animal and vegetable kingdom, which are lost. What God judged of importance to the eternal interests of mankind, is preserved; and perhaps we know the vegetable and animal kingdoms now as well through Linnaeus and Buffon, and their followers, as we should have known them, had Solomon's books on natural history come down to our time. Others would investigate nature, and to them those researches were left. Solomon spoke by inspiration; and therefore to him Divine doctrines were communicated, that he might teach them to man. Every man in his order.

[¶12] The book of Proverbs has been divided into five parts:

[¶13] I. A master is represented as instructing his scholar, giving him admonitions, directions, cautions, and excitements to the study of wisdom, chapters 1-9.

[¶14] II. This part is supposed to contain the Proverbs of Solomon, properly so called; delivered in distinct, independent, general sentences. From chapter 9-22:17.

[¶15] III. In this part the tutor again addresses himself to his pupil, and gives him fresh admonitions to the study of wisdom; which is followed by a set of instructions, delivered imperatively to the pupil, who is supposed all the while to be standing before him. From [Pro 22:17] to chapter 25.

[¶16] IV. This part is distinguished by being a selection of Solomon's Proverbs, made by the men of Hezekiah, conjectured to be Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah, who all flourished under that reign. This part, like the second, is composed of distinct, unconnected sentences, and extends from chapter 25-30.

[¶17] V. The fifth part contains a set of wise expostulations and instructions, which Agur, the son of Jakeh, delivered to his pupils, Ithiel and Ucal, chapter 30. And the thirty-first chapter contains the instructions which a mother, who is not named, gave to Lemuel her son, being earnestly desirous to guard him against vice, to establish him in the principles of justice, and to have him married to a wife of the best qualities. These two last chapters may be considered a kind of Appendix to the book of Proverbs: see Dr. Taylor; but others suppose that the thirty-first chapter contains Bathsheba's words to Solomon, and his commendation of his mother.

[¶18] There are many repetitions and some transpositions in the book of Proverbs, from which it is very probable that they were not all made at the same time; that they are the work of different authors, and have been collected by various hands: but still the sum total is delivered to us by Divine inspiration; and whoever might have been the original authors of distinct parts, the Divine Spirit has made them all its own by handing them to us in this form. Some attribute the collection, i.e., the formation of this collection, to Isaiah; others, to Hilkiah, and Shebna the scribe; and others, to Ezra.

[¶19] That Solomon could have borrowed little from his predecessors is evident from this consideration, that all uninspired ethic writers, who are famous in history, lived after his times. Solomon began to reign A.M. 2989, which was 239 years before the first Olympiad; 479 before Cyrus, in whose time flourished the seven wise men of Greece; 679 before Alexander the Great, under whose reign flourished Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; and 1011 before the birth of Christ. Therefore to the Gentiles he could be but little, if at all, indebted.

[¶20] It is impossible for any description of persons to read the book of Proverbs without profit. Kings and courtiers, as well as those engaged in trade, commerce, agriculture, and the humblest walks of life, may here read lessons of instruction for the regulation of their conduct in their respective circumstances. Fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, masters, and servants, may here also learn their respective duties; and the most excellent rules are laid down, not only in reference to morality, but to civil policy and economy. Many motives are employed by the wise man to accomplish the end at which he aims; motives derived from honor, interest, love, fear, natural affection, and piety towards God. The principal object he has in view is, to inspire a deep reverence for God, fear of his judgments and an ardent love for wisdom and virtue. He exhibits injustice, impiety, profligacy, idleness, imprudence, drunkenness, and almost every vice, in such lively colors as to render every man ashamed of them who has any true respect for his interest, honor, character, or health. And as there is nothing so directly calculated to ruin young men, as bad company, debauch, and irregular connections, he labors to fortify his disciples with the most convincing reasons against all these vices, and especially against indolence, dissipation, and the company of lewd women.

[¶21] Maxims to regulate life in all the conditions already mentioned, and to prevent the evils already described, are laid down so copiously, clearly, impressively, and in such variety, that every man who wishes to be instructed may take what he chooses, and, among multitudes, those which he likes best.

[¶22] Besides the original Hebrew, the book of Proverbs exists in the following ancient versions: the Chaldee, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic. But the Septuagint takes greater liberty with the sacred text than any of the rest: it often transposes, changes, and adds; and all these to a very considerable extent. This is the version which is quoted in the New Testament. Several of these additions, as well as the most important changes, the reader will find noticed in the following notes; but to mark them all would require a translation of almost the whole Greek text. How our forefathers understood several passages will be seen by quotations from an ancient MS. in my possession, which begins with this book, and extends to the conclusion of the New Testament. It is well written upon strong vellum, in very large folio, and highly illuminated in the beginning of each book, and first letter of each chapter. The language is more antiquated than in the translation commonly attributed to Wiclif. It was once the property of Thomas a Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III., and brother of John of Gaunt and the Black Prince. I have often quoted this MS in my notes on the New Testament.

[¶23] A. Clarke.

[¶24] The design of the proverbs, [Pro 1:1-6]. An exhortation to fear God, and believe his word, because of the benefit to be derived from it, [Pro 1:7-9]; to avoid the company of wicked men, who involve themselves in wretchedness and ruin, [Pro 1:10-19]. Wisdom, personified, cries in the streets, and complains of the contempt with which she is treated, [Pro 1:20-23]. The dreadful punishment that awaits all those who refuse her counsels, [Pro 1:24-33].

### Verse 1

[¶26] The proverbs of Solomon - For the meaning of the word proverb, see the introduction; and the dissertation upon parabolical writing at the end of the notes on Matthew 13: Solomon is the first of the sacred writers whose name stands at the head of his works.

### Verse 2

[¶28] To know wisdom - That is, this is the design of parabolical writing in general; and the particular aim of the present work.

[¶29] This and the two following verses contain the interpretation of the term parable, and the author's design in the whole book. The first verse is the title, and the next three verses are an explanation of the nature and design of this very important tract.

[¶30] Wisdom - חכמה chochmah may mean here, and in every other part of this book, not only that Divine science by which we are enabled to discover the best end, and pursue it by the most proper means; but also the whole of that heavenly teaching that shows us both ourselves and God, directs us into all truth, and forms the whole of true religion.

[¶31] And instruction - מוסר musar, the teaching that discovers all its parts, to understand, to comprehend the words or doctrines which should be comprehended, in order that we may become wise to salvation.

### Verse 3

[¶33] To receive the instruction - השכל haskel, the deliberately weighing of the points contained in the teaching, so as to find out their importance.

[¶34] Equity - משרים mesharim, rectitude. The pupil is to receive wisdom and instruction, the words of wisdom and understanding, justice and judgment, so perfectly as to excel in all. Wisdom itself, personified, is his teacher; and when God's wisdom teaches, there is no delay in learning.

### Verse 4

[¶36] To give subtilty to the simple - The word simple, from simplex, compounded of sine, without, and plica, a fold, properly signifies plain and honest, one that has no by-ends in view, who is what he appears to be; and is opposed to complex, from complico, to fold together, to make one rope or cord out of many strands; but because honesty and plaindealing are so rare in the world, and none but the truly religious man will practice them, farther than the fear of the law obliges him, hence simple has sunk into a state of progressive deterioration. At first, it signified, as above, without fold, unmixed, uncompounded: this was its radical meaning. Then, as applied to men, it signified innocent, harmless, without disguise; but, as such persons were rather an unfashionable sort of people, it sunk in its meaning to homely, homespun, mean, ordinary. And, as worldly men, who were seeking their portion in this life, and had little to do with religion, supposed that wisdom, wit, and understanding, were given to men that they might make the best of them in reference to the things of this life, the word sunk still lower in its meaning, and signified silly, foolish; and there, to the dishonor of our language and morals, it stands! I have taken those acceptations which I have marked in Italics out of the first dictionary that came to hand - Martin's; but if I had gone to Johnson, I might have added to Silly, not wise, not cunning. Simplicity, that meant at first, as Martin defines it, openness, plaindealing, downright honesty, is now degraded to weakness, silliness, foolishness. And these terms will continue thus degraded, till downright honesty and plaindealing get again into vogue. There are two Hebrew words generally supposed to come from the same root, which in our common version are rendered the simple, פתאים pethaim, and פתים or פתיים pethayim; the former comes from פתא patha, to be rash, hasty; the latter, from פתה pathah, to draw aside, seduce, entice. It is the first of these words which is used here, and may be applied to youth; the inconsiderate, the unwary, who, for want of knowledge and experience, act precipitately. Hence the Vulgate renders it parvulis, little ones, young children, or little children, as my old MS.; or very babes, as Coverdale. The Septuagint renders it ακακοις, those that are without evil; and the versions in general understand it of those who are young, giddy, and inexperienced.

[¶37] To the young man - נער naar is frequently used to signify such as are in the state of adolescence, grown up boys, very well translated in my old MS. yunge fulwaxen; what we would now call the grown up lads. These, as being giddy and inexperienced, stand in especial need of lessons of wisdom and discretion. The Hebrew for discretion, מזמה mezimmah, is taken both in a good and bad sense, as זם zam, its root, signifies to devise or imagine; for the device may be either mischief, or the contrivance of some good purpose.

### Verse 5

[¶39] A wise man wilt hear - I shall not only give such instructions as may be suitable to the youthful and inexperienced, but also to those who have much knowledge and understanding. So said St. Paul: We speak wisdom among them that are perfect. This and the following verse are connected in the old MS. and in Coverdale: "By hearyinge the wyse man shall come by more wysdome; and by experience he shall be more apte to understonde a parable and the interpretation thereof; the wordes of the wyse and the darke speaches of the same."

### Verse 6

[¶41] Dark sayings - חידת chidoth, enigmas or riddles, in which the Asiatics abounded. I believe parables, such as those delivered by our Lord, nearly express the meaning of the original.

### Verse 7

[¶43] The fear of the Lord - In the preceding verses Solomon shows the advantage of acting according to the dictates of wisdom; in the following verses he shows the danger of acting contrary to them. The fear of the Lord signifies that religious reverence which every intelligent being owes to his Creator; and is often used to express the whole of religion, as we have frequently had occasion to remark in different places. But what is religion? The love of God, and the love of man; the former producing all obedience to the Divine will; the latter, every act of benevolence to one's fellows. The love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit produces the deepest religious reverence, genuine piety, and cheerful obedience. To love one's neighbor as himself is the second great commandment; and as love worketh no ill to one's neighbor, therefore it is said to be the fulfilling of the law. Without love, there is no obedience; without reverence, there is neither caution, consistent conduct, nor perseverance in righteousness.

[¶44] This fear or religious reverence is said to be the beginning of knowledge; ראשית reshith, the principle, the first moving influence, begotten in a tender conscience by the Spirit of God. No man can ever become truly wise, who does not begin with God, the fountain of knowledge; and he whose mind is influenced by the fear and love of God will learn more in a month than others will in a year.

## 707. Proverbs · 2 of 46

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[¶0] Fools despise - אוילים evilim, evil men. Men of bad hearts, bad heads, and bad ways.

### Verse 8

[¶2] My son, hear - Father was the title of preceptor, and son, that of disciple or scholar, among the Jews. But here the reference appears to be to the children of a family; the father and the mother have the principal charge, in the first instance, of their children's instruction. It is supposed that these parents have, themselves, the fear of the Lord, and that they are capable of giving the best counsel to their children, and that they set before them a strict example of all godly living. In vain do parents give good advice if their own conduct be not consistent. The father occasionally gives instruction; but he is not always in the family, many of those occupations which are necessary for the family support being carried on abroad. The mother - she is constantly within doors, and to her the regulation of the family belongs; therefore she has and gives laws. The wise man says in effect to every child, "Be obedient to thy mother within, and carefully attend to the instructions of thy father, that thou mayest the better see the reasons of obedience; and learn from him how thou art to get thy bread honestly in the world."

### Verse 9

[¶4] An ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains - That is, filial respect and obedience will be as ornamental to thee as crowns, diadems, and golden chains and pearls are to others.

[¶5] Political dignity has been distinguished in many nations by a chain of gold about the neck. Solomon seems here to intimate, if we follow the metaphor, that the surest way of coming to distinguished eminence, in civil matters, is to act according to the principles of true wislom, proceeding from the fear of God.

### Verse 10

[¶7] If sinners entice thee, consent thou not - אל תבא al tobe, Will-not. They can do thee no harm unless thy will join in with them. God's eternal purpose with respect to man is that his will shall be free; or, rather, that the will, which is essentially Free, shall never be forced nor be forceable by any power. Not even the devil himself can lead a man into sin till he consents. Were it not so, how could God judge the world?

### Verse 11

[¶9] If they say, Come with us - From all accounts, this is precisely the way in which the workers of iniquity form their partisans, and constitute their marauding societies to the present day.

[¶10] Let us lay wait for blood - Let us rob and murder.

[¶11] Let us lurk privily - Let us lie in ambush for our prey.

### Verse 12

[¶13] Let us swallow them up alive - Give them as hasty a death as if the earth were suddenly to swallow them up. This seems to refer to the destruction of a whole village. Let us destroy man, woman, and child; and then we may seize on and carry away the whole of their property, and the booty will be great.

### Verse 14

[¶15] Cast in thy lot - Be a frater conjuratus, a sworn brother, and thou shalt have an equal share of all the spoil.

[¶16] Common sense must teach us that the words here used are such as must be spoken when a gang of cutthroats, pickpockets, etc., are associated together.

### Verse 16

[¶18] For their feet run to evil - The whole of this verse is wanting in the Septuagint, and in the Arabic.

### Verse 17

[¶20] Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird - This is a proverb of which the wise man here makes a particular use; and the meaning does not seem as difficult as some imagine. The wicked are represented as lurking privily for the innocent. It is in this way alone that they can hope to destroy them and take their substance; for if their designs were known, proper precautions would be taken against them; for it would be vain to spread the net in the sight of those birds which men wish to ensnare. Attend therefore to my counsels, and they shall never be able to ensnare thee.

### Verse 18

[¶22] They lay wait for their own blood - I believe it is the innocent who are spoken of here, for whose blood and lives these lay wait and lurk privily; certainly not their own, by any mode of construction.

### Verse 19

[¶24] Which taketh away the life - A covetous man is in effect, and in the sight of God, a murderer; he wishes to get all the gain that can accrue to any or all who are in the same business that he follows - no matter to him how many families starve in consequence. This is the very case with him who sets up shop after shop in different parts of the same town or neighborhood, in which he carries on the same business, and endeavors to undersell others in the same trade, that he may get all into his own hand.

### Verse 20

[¶26] Wisdom crieth - Here wisdom is again personified, as it is frequently, throughout this book; where nothing is meant but the teachings given to man, either by Divine revelation or the voice of the Holy Spirit in the heart. And this voice of wisdom is opposed to the seducing language of the wicked mentioned above. This voice is everywhere heard, in public, in private, in the streets, and in the house. Common sense, universal experience, and the law of justice written on the heart, as well as the law of God, testify against rapine and wrong of every kind.

### Verse 22

[¶28] Ye simple ones - פתים pethayim, ye who have been seduced and deceived. See on [Pro 1:4] (note).

### Verse 23

[¶30] Turn you at my reproof - לתוכחתי lethochachti, at my convincing mode of arguing; attend to my demonstrations. This is properly the meaning of the original word.

[¶31] I will pour out my spirit unto you - "I wil expresse my mynde unto you;" Coverdale. Loo I shall bryngen to you my Spirit; Old MS. Bible. If you will hear, ye shall have ample instruction.

### Verse 24

[¶33] Because I have called - These and the following words appear to be spoken of the persons who are described, [Pro 1:11-19], who have refused to return from their evil ways till arrested by the hand of justice; and here the wise man points out their deplorable state.

[¶34] They are now about to suffer according to the demands of the law, for their depredations. They now wish they had been guided by wisdom, and had chosen the fear of the Lord; but it is too late: die they must, for their crimes are proved against them, and justice knows nothing of mercy.

[¶35] This, or something like this, must be the wise man's meaning; nor can any thing spoken here be considered as applying or applicable to the eternal state of the persons in question, much less to the case of any man convinced of sin, who is crying to God for mercy. Such persons as the above, condemned to die, may call upon justice for pardon, and they may do this early, earnestly; but they will call in vain. But no poor penitent sinner on this side of eternity can call upon God early, or seek him through Christ Jesus earnestly for the pardon of his sins, without being heard. Life is the time of probation, and while it lasts the vilest of the vile is within the reach of mercy. It is only in eternity that the state is irreversibly fixed, and where that which was guilty must be guilty still. But let none harden his heart because of this longsuffering of God, for if he die in his sin, where God is he shall never come. And when once shut up in the unquenchable fire, he will not pray for mercy, as he shall clearly see and feel that the hope of his redemption is entirely cut off.

### Verse 27

[¶37] Your destruction cometh as a whirlwind - כסופה kesuphah, as the all-prostrating blast. Sense and sound are here well expressed. Suphah here is the gust of wind.

### Verse 29

[¶39] They hated knowledge - This argues the deepest degree of intellectual and moral depravity.

### Verse 32

[¶41] For the turning away of the simple - This difficult place seems to refer to such a case as we term turning king's evidence; where an accomplice saves his own life by impeaching the rest of his gang. This is called his turning or repentance, משובה meshubah; and he was the most likely to turn, because he was of the פתים pethayim, seduced or deceived persons. And this evidence was given against them when they were in their prosperity, שלוה shalvah, their security, enjoying the fruits of their depredations; and being thus in a state of fancied security, they were the more easily taken and brought to justice.

### Verse 33

[¶43] But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely - The man who hears the voice of wisdom in preference to the enticements of the wicked. He shall dwell in safety, ישכן בטח yishcan betach, he shall inhabit safety itself; he shall be completely safe and secure; and shall be quiet from the fear of evil, having a full consciousness of his own innocence and God's protection. Coverdale translates, "And have ynough without eney feare of evell." What the just man has he got honestly; and he has the blessing of God upon it. It is the reverse with the thief, the knave, the cheat, and the extortioner: Male parta pejus dilabuntur; "Ill gotten, worse spent."

## 708. Proverbs · 3 of 46

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### Introduction

[¶1] The teacher promises his pupil the highest advantages, if he will follow the dictates of wisdom, [Pro 2:1-9]. He shall be happy in its enjoyment, [Pro 2:10], [Pro 2:11]; shall be saved from wicked men, [Pro 2:12-15]; and from the snares of bad women, [Pro 2:16-19]; be a companion of the good and upright; and be in safety in the land, when the wicked shall be rooted out of it, [Pro 2:20-22].

### Verse 1

[¶3] My son - Here the tutor still continues to instruct his disciple.

[¶4] Hide my commandments with theel Treasure them up in thy heart, and then act from them through the medium of thy affections. He who has the rule of his duty only in his Bible and in his head, is not likely to be a steady, consistent character; his heart is not engaged, and his obedience, in any case, can be only forced, or done from a sense of duty: it is not the obedience of a loving, dutiful child, to an affectionate father. But he who has the word of God in his heart, works from his heart; his heart goes with him in all things, and he delights to do the will of his heavenly Father, because his law is in his heart. See [Pro 3:3].

### Verse 4

[¶6] If thou seekest her as silver - How do men seek money? What will they not do to get rich? Reader, seek the salvation of thy soul as earnestly as the covetous man seeks wealth; and be ashamed of thyself, if thou be less in earnest after the true riches than he is after perishing wealth.

[¶7] Hid treasures - The original word signifies property of any kind concealed in the earth, in caves or such like; and may also mean treasures, such as the precious metals or precious stones, which are presumptively known to exist in such and such mines. And how are these sought? Learn from the following circumstance: In the Brazils slaves are employed to scrape up the soil from the bed of the Rio Janeiro, and wash it carefully, in order to find particles of gold and diamonds; and it is a law of the state, that he who finds a diamond of so many carats shall have his freedom. This causes the greatest ardor and diligence in searching, washing out the soil, picking, etc., in order to find such diamonds, and the greatest anxiety for success; so precious is liberty to the human heart. This method of searching for gold and precious stones is alluded to in [Pro 3:13-15]. In this way Solomon wishes men to seek for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding; and he who succeeds finds the liberty of the children of God, and is saved from the slavery of sin and the empire of death.

### Verse 7

[¶9] He layeth up sound wisdom - תושיה tushiyah. We have met with this word in Job; see [Job 5:12]; [Job 6:13]; [Job 11:6]; [Job 12:16]. See especially the note on [Job 11:6] (note), where the different acceptations of the word are given.

[¶10] Coverdale translates, "He preserveth the welfare of the righteous." It is difficult to find, in any language, a term proper to express the original meaning of the word; its seems to mean generally the essence or substance of a thing, The thing itself - that which is chief of its kind. He layeth up What Is Essential for the righteous.

### Verse 9

[¶12] Then shalt thou understand - He who is taught of God understands the whole law of justice, mercy, righteousness, and truth; God has written this on his heart. He who understands these things by books only is never likely to practice or profit by them.

### Verse 11

[¶14] Discretion shall preserve thee - מזמה mezimmah. See on [Pro 1:4] (note). Here the word is taken in a good sense, a good device. The man invents purposes of good; and all his schemes, plans, and devices, have for their object God's glory and the good of man: he deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand. Coverdale translates, "Then shall Counsel preserve thee." A very good translation, much better than the present.

### Verse 12

[¶16] The man that speaketh froward things - תהפכות tahpuchoth, things of subverston; from תפך taphach, to turn or change the course of a thing. Men who wish to subvert the state of things, whether civil or religious; who are seditious themselves, and wish to make others so. These speak much of liberty and oppression, deal greatly in broad assertions, and endeavor especially to corrupt the minds of youth.

### Verse 16

[¶18] The stranger which flattereth with her words - החליקה hechelikah, she that smooths with her words. The original intimates the glib, oily speeches of a prostitute. The English lick is supposed to be derived from the original word.

### Verse 17

[¶20] Which forsaketh the guide of her youth - Leaves her father's house and instructions, and abandons herself to the public.

[¶21] The covenant of her God - Renounces the true religion, and mixes with idolaters; for among them prostitution was enormous. Or by the covenant may be meant the matrimonial contract, which is a covenant made in the presence of God between the contracting parties, in which they bind themselves to be faithful to each other.

### Verse 18

[¶23] For her house inclineth unto death - It is generally in by and secret places that such women establish themselves. They go out of the high road to get a residence; and every step that is taken towards their house is a step towards death. The path of sin is the path of ruin: the path of duty is the way of safety. For her paths incline unto the dead, רפאים repheim, the inhabitants of the invisible world. The woman who abandons herself to prostitution soon contracts, and generally communicates, that disease, which, above all others, signs the speediest and most effectual passport to the invisible world. Therefore it is said,

### Verse 19

[¶25] None that go unto her return again - There are very few instances of prostitutes ever returning to the paths of sobriety and truth; perhaps not one of such as become prostitutes through a natural propensity to debauchery. Among those who have been deceived, debauched, and abandoned, many have been reclaimed; and to such alone penitentiaries may be useful; to the others they may only be incentives to farther sinning. Rakes and debauchees are sometimes converted: but most of them never lay hold on the path of life; they have had their health destroyed, and never recover it. The original, חיים chaiyim, means lives; not only the health of the body is destroyed, but the soul is ruined. Thus the unhappy man may be said to be doubly slain.

### Verse 20

[¶27] That thou mayest mark - Therefore thou shalt walk.

### Verse 22

[¶29] Transgressors - בוגדים bogedim. The garment men, the hypocrites; those who act borrowed characters, who go under a eloak; dissemblers. All such shall be rooted out of the land; they shall not be blessed with posterity. In general it is so: and were it not so, one evil offspring succeeding another, adding their own to their predecessors' vices, the earth would become so exceedingly corrupt that a second flood, or a fire, would be necessary to purge it.

### Introduction

[¶31] An exhortation to obedience, [Pro 3:1-4]; trust in God's providence, [Pro 3:5], [Pro 3:6]; to humility, [Pro 3:7], [Pro 3:8]; to charity, [Pro 3:9], [Pro 3:10]; to submission to God's chastening, [Pro 3:11], [Pro 3:12]. The profitableness of wisdom in all the concerns of life, [Pro 3:13-26]. No act of duty should be deferred beyond the time in which it should be done, [Pro 3:27], [Pro 3:28]. Brotherly love and forbearance should he exercised, [Pro 3:29], [Pro 3:30]. We should not envy the wicked, [Pro 3:31], [Pro 3:32]. The curse of God is in the house of the wicked; but the humble and wise shall prosper, [Pro 3:33-35].

### Verse 2

[¶33] For length of days - Three eminent blessings are promised here:

[¶34] 1. ארך ימים orech yamim, long days;

[¶35] 2. שנות חיים shenoth chaiyim, years of lives;

[¶36] 3. שלום shalom, prosperity; i.e. health, long life, and abundance.

### Verse 3

[¶38] Let not mercy and truth forsake thee - Let these be thy constant companions through life.

[¶39] Bind them about thy neck - Keep them constantly in view. Write them upon the table of thine heart - let them be thy moving principles; feel them as well as see them.

### Verse 4

[¶41] So shalt thou find favor - Thou shalt be acceptable to God, and thou shalt enjoy a sense of his approbation.

[¶42] And good understanding - Men shall weigh thy character and conduct; and by this appreciate thy motives, and give thee credit for sincerity and uprightness. Though religion is frequently persecuted, and religious people suffer at first where they are not fully known; yet a truly religious and benevolent character will in general be prized wherever it is well known. The envy of men is a proof of the excellence of that which they envy.

### Verse 5

[¶44] Trust in the Lord with all thine heart - This is a most important precept:

[¶45] 1. God is the Fountain of all good.

## 709. Proverbs · 4 of 46

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[¶0] 2. He has made his intelligent creatures dependent upon himself.

[¶1] 3. He requires them to be conscious of that dependence.

[¶2] 4. He has promised to communicate what they need.

[¶3] 5. He commands them to believe his promise, and look for its fulfillment.

[¶4] 6. And to do this without doubt, fear, or distrust; "with their whole heart."

[¶5] Lean not unto thine own understanding - אל תשען al tishshaen, do not prop thyself. It is on God, not on thyself, that thou art commanded to depend. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool.

### Verse 6

[¶7] In all thy ways acknowledge him - Begin, continue, and end every work, purpose, and device, with God. Earnestly pray for his direction at the commencement; look for his continual support in the progress; and so begin and continue that all may terminate in his glory: and then it will certainly be to thy good; for we never honor God, without serving ourselves. This passage is well rendered in my old MS. Bible: Have trost in the Lord of all thin herte and ne lene thou to thi prudence: in all thi weys think hym, and he shal right rulen thi goyuges; ne be thou wiis anentis thiself. Self-suf ficiency and self-dependence have been the ruin of mankind ever since the fall of Adam. The grand sin of the human race is their continual endeavor to live independently of God, i.e., to be without God in the world. True religion consists in considering God the fountain of all good, and expecting all good from him.

### Verse 8

[¶9] It shall be health to thy navel - We need not puzzle ourselves to find out what we may suppose to be a more delicate meaning for the original word שר shor than navel; for I am satisfied a more proper cannot be found. It is well known that it is by the umbilical cord that the fetus receives its nourishment all the time it is in the womb of the mother. It receives nothing by the mouth, nor by any other means: by this alone all nourishment is received, and the circulation of the blood kept up. When, therefore, the wise man says, that "trusting in the Lord with the whole heart, and acknowledging him in all a man's ways, etc., shall be health to the navel, and marrow to the bones;" he in effect says, that this is as essential to the life of God in the soul of man, and to the continual growth in grace, as the umbilical cord is to the life and growth of the fetus in the womb. Without the latter, no human being could ever exist or be born; without the former, no true religion can ever be found. Trust or faith in God is as necessary to derive grace from him to nourish the soul, and cause it to grow up unto eternal life, as the navel string or umbilical cord is to the human being in the first stage of its existence. I need not push this illustration farther: the good sense of the reader will supply what he knows. I might add much on the subject.

[¶10] And marrow to thy bones - This metaphor is not less proper than the preceding. All the larger bones of the body have either a large cavity, or they are spongious, and full of little cells: in both the one and the other the oleaginous substance, called marrow, is contained in proper vesicles, like the fat. In the larger bones, the fine oil, by the gentle heat of the body, is exhaled through the pores of its small vesicles, and enters some narrow passages which lead to certain fine canals excavated in the substance of the bone, that the marrow may supply the fibres of the bones, and render them less liable to break. Blood-vessels also penetrate the bones to supply this marrow and this blood; and consequently the marrow is supplied in the infant by means of the umbilical cord. From the marrow diffused, as mentioned above, through the bones, they derive their solidity and strength. A simple experiment will cast considerable light on the use of the marrow to the bones: - Calcine a bone, so as to destroy all the marrow from the cells, you will find it exceedingly brittle. Immerse the same bone in oil so that the cells may be all replenished, which will be done in a few minutes; and the bone reacquires a considerable measure of its solidity and strength; and would acquire the whole, if the marrow could be extracted without otherwise injuring the texture of the bone. After the calcination, the bone may be reduced to powder by the hand; after the impregnation with the oil, it becomes hard, compact, and strong. What the marrow is to the support and strength of the bones, and the bones to the support and strength of the body; that, faith in God, is to the support, strength, energy, and salvation of the soul. Behold, then, the force and elegance of the wise man's metaphor. Some have rendered the last clause, a lotion for the bones. What is this? How are the bones washed? What a pitiful destruction of a most beautiful metaphor!

### Verse 9

[¶12] Honor the Lord with thy substance - The מנחה Minchah or gratitude-offering to God, commanded under the law, is of endless obligation. It would be well to give a portion of the produce of every article by which we get our support to God, or to the poor, the representatives of Christ. This might be done either in kind, or by the worth in money. Whatever God sends us in the way of secular prosperity, there is a portion of it always for the poor, and for God's cause. When that portion is thus disposed of, the rest is sanctified; when it is withheld, God's curse is upon the whole. Give to the poor, and God will give to thee.

### Verse 11

[¶14] Despise not the chastening of the Lord - The word מוסר musar signifies correction, discipline, and instruction. Teaching is essentially necessary to show the man the way in which he is to go; discipline is necessary to render that teaching effectual; and, often, correction is requisite in order to bring the mind into submission, without which it cannot acquire knowledge. Do not therefore reject this procedure of God; humble thyself under his mighty hand, and open thy eyes to thy own interest; and then thou wilt learn specially and effectually. It is of no use to rebel; if thou do, thou kickest against the pricks, and every act of rebellion against him is a wound to thine own soul. God will either end thee or mend thee; wilt thou then kick on?

### Verse 12

[¶16] Whom the Lord loveth - To encourage thee to bear correction, know that it is a proof of God's love to thee; and thereby he shows that he treats thee as a father does his son, even that one to whom he bears the fondest affection.

[¶17] The last clause the Septuagint translate μαστιγοι δε παντα υἱον ὁν παραδεχεται, "and chasteneth every son whom he receiveth;" and the apostle, [Heb 12:6], quotes this literatim. Both clauses certainly amount to the same sense. Every son whom he receiveth, and the son in whom he delighteth, have very little difference of meaning.

### Verse 13

[¶19] Happy is the man that findeth wisdom - This refers to the advice given in [Pro 2:4] (note); where see the note.

### Verse 14

[¶21] For the merchandise - סחר sachar, the traffic, the trade that is carried on by going through countries and provinces with such articles as they could carry on the backs of camels, etc.; from סחר sachar, to go about, traverse. Chaffarynge; Old MS. Bible.

[¶22] And the gain thereof - תבואתה tebuathah, its produce; what is gained by the articles after all expenses are paid. The slaves, as we have already seen, got their liberty if they were so lucky as to find a diamond of so many carats' weight; he who finds wisdom - the knowledge and salvation of God - gets a greater prize; for he obtains the liberty of the Gospel, is adopted into the family of God, and made an heir according to the hope of an eternal life.

### Verse 15

[¶24] She is more precious than rubies - מפנינים mippeninim. The word principally means pearls, but may be taken for precious stones in general. The root is פנה panah, he looked, beheld; and as it gives the idea of the eye always being turned towards the observer, Mr. Parkhurst thinks that it means the loadstone; see the note on [Job 28:18] (note), where this subject is considered at large. If the oriental ruby, or any other precious stone, be intended here, the word may refer to their being cut and polished, so that they present different faces, and reflect the light to you in whatever direction you may look at them.

[¶25] All the things thou canst desire - Superior to every thing that can be an object of desire here below. But who believes this?

### Verse 16

[¶27] Length of days is in her right hand - A wicked man shortens his days by excesses; a righteous man prolongs his by temperance.

[¶28] In her left hand riches and honor - That is, her hands are full of the choicest benefits. There is nothing to be understood here by the right hand in preference to the left.

### Verse 17

[¶30] Her ways are ways of pleasantness - These blessings of true religion require little comment. They are well expressed by the poet in the following elegant verses: - "Wisdom Divine! Who tells the price

[¶31] Of Wisdom's costly merchandise?

[¶32] Wisdom to silver we prefer,

[¶33] And gold is dross compared to her.

[¶34] Her hands are fill'd with length of days,

[¶35] True riches, and immortal praise;

[¶36] Riches of Christ, on all bestow'd,

[¶37] And honor that descends from God.

[¶38] To purest joys she all invites,

[¶39] Chaste, holy, spiritual delights;

[¶40] Her ways are ways of pleasantness,

[¶41] And all her flowery paths are peace.

[¶42] Happy the man that finds the grace,

[¶43] The blessing of God's chosen race;

[¶44] The wisdom coming from above,

## 710. Proverbs · 5 of 46

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[¶0] The faith that sweetly works by love!"

[¶1] Wesley.

### Verse 18

[¶3] She is a tree of life - עץ חיים ets chaiyim, "the tree of lives," alluding most manifestly to the tree so called which God in the beginning planted in the garden of Paradise, by eating the fruit of which all the wastes of nature might have been continually repaired, so as to prevent death for ever. This is an opinion which appears probable enough. The blessings which wisdom - true religion - gives to men, preserve them in life, comfort them through life, cause them to triumph in death, and ensure them a glorious immortality.

### Verse 19

[¶5] The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth - Here wisdom is taken in its proper acceptation, for that infinite knowledge and skill which God has manifested in the creation and composition of the earth, and in the structure and economy of the heavens. He has established the order as well as the essence of all things; so that though they vary in their positions, etc., yet they never change either their places, or their properties. Composition and analysis are not essential changes; the original particles, their forms and properties, remain the same.

### Verse 20

[¶7] By his knowledge the depths are broken up - He determined in his wisdom how to break up the fountains of the great deep, so as to bring a flood of waters upon the earth; and by his knowledge those fissures in the earth through which springs of water arise have been appointed and determined; and it is by his skill and influence that vapours are exhaled, suspended in the atmosphere, and afterwards precipitated on the earth in rain, dews, etc. Thus the wisest of men attributes those effects which we suppose to spring from natural causes to the Supreme Being himself.

### Verse 21

[¶9] Let not them depart from thine eyes - Never forget that God, who is the author of nature, directs and governs it in all things; for it is no self-determining agent.

[¶10] Keep sound wisdom and discretion - תושיה ומזמה tushiyah umezimmah. We have met with both these words before. Tushiyah is the essence or substance of a thing; mezimmah is the resolution or purpose formed in reference to something good or excellent. To acknowledge God as the author of all good, is the tushiyah, the essence, of a godly man's creed; to resolve to act according to the directions of his wisdom, is the mezimmah, the religious purpose, that will bring good to ourselves and glory to God. These bring life to the soul, and are ornamental to the man who acts in this way, [Pro 3:22].

### Verse 24

[¶12] When thou liest down - In these verses ([Pro 3:23-26]) the wise man describes the confidence, security, and safety, which proceed from a consciousness of innocence. Most people are afraid of sleep, lest they should never awake, because they feel they are not prepared to appear before God. They are neither innocent nor pardoned. True believers know that God is their keeper night and day; they have strong confidence in him that he will be their director and not suffer them to take any false step in life, [Pro 3:23]. They go to rest in perfect confidence that God will watch over them; hence their sleep, being undisturbed with foreboding and evil dreams, is sweet and refreshing, [Pro 3:24]. They are not apprehensive of any sudden destruction, because they know that all things are under the control of God; and they are satisfied that if sudden destruction should fall upon their wicked neighbor, yet God knows well how to preserve them, [Pro 3:25]. And all this naturally flows from the Lord being their confidence, [Pro 3:26].

### Verse 27

[¶14] Withhold not good from them to whom it is due - מבעליו mibbealaiv, from the lords of it. But who are they? The poor. And what art thou, O rich man? Why, thou art a steward, to whom God has given substance that thou mayest divide with the poor. They are the right owners of every farthing thou hast to spare from thy own support, and that of thy family; and God has given the surplus for their sakes. Dost thou, by hoarding up this treasure, deprive the right owners of their property? If this were a civil case, the law would take thee by the throat, and lay thee up in prison; but it is a case in which God alone judges. And what will he do to thee? Hear! "He shall have judgment without mercy, who hath showed no mercy;" [Jam 2:13]. Read, feel, tremble, and act justly.

### Verse 28

[¶16] Say not unto thy neighbor - Do not refuse a kindness when it is in thy power to perform it. If thou have the means by thee, and thy neighbor's necessities be pressing, do not put him off till the morrow. Death may take either him or thee before that time.

### Verse 30

[¶18] Strive not with a man - Do not be of a litigious, quarrelsome spirit. Be not under the influence of too nice a sense of honor. If thou must appeal to judicial authority to bring him that wrongs thee to reason, avoid all enmity, and do nothing in a spirit of revenge. But, if he have done thee no harm, why contend with him? May not others in the same way contend with and injure thee!

### Verse 31

[¶20] Envy thou not the oppressor - O how bewitching is power! Every man desires it; and yet all hate tyrants. But query, if all had power, would not the major part be tyrants?

### Verse 32

[¶22] But his secret - סודו sodo, his secret assembly; godly people meet there, and God dwells there.

### Verse 33

[¶24] The curse of the Lord - No godly people meet in such a house; nor is God ever an inmate there.

[¶25] But he blesseth the habitation of the just - He considers it as his own temple. There he is worshipped in spirit and in truth; and hence God makes it his dwelling-place.

### Verse 34

[¶27] Surely he scorneth the scorners; but he giveth grace unto the lowly - The Septuagint has Κυριος ὑπερηφανοις αντιτασσεται, ταπεινοις δε διδωσι χαριν. The Lord resisteth the proud; but giveth grace to the humble. These words are quoted by St. Peter, [1Pet 5:5], and by St. James, [Jam 4:6], just as they stand in the Septuagint, with the change of ὁ Θεος, God, for Κυριος, the Lord.

### Verse 35

[¶29] The wise - The person who follows the dictates of wisdom, as mentioned above, shall inherit glory; because, being one of the heavenly family, a child of God, he has thereby heaven for his inheritance; but fools, such as those mentioned chapters 1 and 2, shall have ignominy for their exaltation. Many such fools as Solomon speaks of are exalted to the gibbet and gallows. The way to prevent this and the like evils, is to attend to the voice of wisdom.

### Verse 1

[¶31] My son - The preceptor continues to deliver his lessons.

[¶32] Forget not my law - Remember what thou hast heard, and practice what thou dost remember; and let all obedience be from the heart: "Let thy heart keep my commandments."

### Introduction

[¶34] The preceptor calls his pupils, and tells them how himself was educated, [Pro 4:1-4]; specifies the teachings he received, [Pro 4:5-19]; and exhorts his pupil to persevere in well-doing, and to avoid evil, [Pro 4:20-27].

### Verse 1

[¶36] Hear, ye children - Come, my pupils, and hear how a father instructed his child. Such as I received from my father I give to you, and they were the teachings of a wise and affectionate parent to his only son, a peculiar object of his regards, and also those of a fond mother.

[¶37] He introduces the subject thus, to show that the teaching he received, and which he was about to give them, was the most excellent of its kind. By this he ensured their attention, and made his way to their heart. Teaching by precept is good; teaching by example is better; but teaching both by precept and example is best of all.

### Verse 4

[¶39] He taught me also, and said - Open thy heart to receive my instructions - receive them with affection; when heard, retain and practice them; and thou shalt live - the great purpose of thy being brought into the world shall be accomplished in thee.

### Verse 5

[¶41] Get wisdom - True religion is essential to thy happiness; never forget its teachings, nor go aside from the path it prescribes.

### Verse 6

[¶43] Forsake her not - Wisdom personified is here represented as a guardian and companion, who, if not forsaken, will continue faithful; if loved, will continue a protector.

## 711. Proverbs · 6 of 46

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### Verse 7

[¶1] Wisdom is the principal thing - ראשית חכמה reshith chochmah, "wisdom is the principle." It is the punctum saliens in all religion to know the true God, and what he requires of man, and for what he has made man; and to this must be added, under the Christian dispensation, to know Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, and for what end He was sent, the necessity of his being sent, and the nature of that salvation which he has bought by his own blood.

[¶2] Get wisdom - Consider this as thy chief gain; that in reference to which all thy wisdom, knowledge, and endeavors should be directed.

[¶3] And with all thy getting - Let this be thy chief property. While thou art passing through things temporal, do not lose those things which are eternal; and, while diligent in business, be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

[¶4] Get understanding - Do not be contented with the lessons of wisdom merely; do not be satisfied with having a sound religious creed; devils believe and tremble; but see that thou properly comprehend all that thou hast learnt; and see that thou rightly apply all that thou hast been taught.

[¶5] Wisdom prescribes the best end, and the means best calculated for its attainment. Understanding directs to the ways, times, places, and opportunities of practicing the lessons of wisdom. Wisdom points out the thing requisite; understanding sees to the accomplishment and attainment. Wisdom sees; but understanding feels. One discovers, the other possesses.

[¶6] Coverdale translates this whole verse in a very remarkable manner: "The chefe poynte of wyssdome is, that thou be wyllynge to opteyne wyssdome; and before all thy goodes to get the understandynge." This is paraphrase, not translation. In this version paraphrase abounds.

[¶7] The translation in my old MS. Bible is very simple: Begynnynge of wisdam, welle thou wisdom; in al thi wisdam, and in al thi possioun, purchas prudence. He is already wise who seeks wisdom; and he is wise who knows its value, seeks to possess it. The whole of this verse is wanting in the Arabic, and in the best copies of the Septuagint.

[¶8] Instead of קנה חכמה keneh chochmah, get wisdom, the Complutensian Polyglot has קנה בינה keneh binah, get understanding; so that in it the verse stands, "Wisdom is the principle, get understanding; and in all this getting, get understanding." This is not an error either of the scribe, or of the press, for it is supported by seven of the MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi.

[¶9] The Complutensian, Antwerp, and Paris Polyglots have the seventh verse in the Greek text; but the two latter, in general, copy the former.

### Verse 8

[¶11] She shall bring thee to honor - There is nothing, a strict life of piety and benevolence excepted, that has such a direct tendency to reflect honor upon a man, as the careful cultivation of his mind. One of Bacon's aphorisms was, Knowledge is power; and it is truly astonishing to see what influence true learning has. Nothing is so universally respected, provided the learned man be a consistent moral character, and be not proud and overbearing; which is a disgrace to genuine literature.

### Verse 9

[¶13] A crown of glory - A tiara, diadem, or crown, shall not be more honorable to the princely wearer, than sound wisdom - true religion - coupled with deep learning, shall be to the Christian and the scholar.

### Verse 10

[¶15] The years of thy life shall be many - Vice and intemperance impair the health and shorten the days of the wicked; while true religion, sobriety, and temperance, prolong them. The principal part of our diseases springs from "indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions." Religion excites to industry, promotes sober habits, and destroys evil passions, and harmonizes the soul; and thus, by preventing many diseases, necessarily prolongs life.

### Verse 12

[¶17] Thy steps shall not be straitened - True wisdom will teach thee to keep out of embarrassments. A man under the influence of true religion ponders his paths, and carefully poises occurring circumstances; and as the fear of God will ever lead him to act an upright and honest part, so his way in business and life is both clear and large. He has no by-ends to serve; he speculates not; he uses neither trick nor cunning to effect any purpose. Such a man can never be embarrassed. His steps are not straitened; he sees his way always plain; and when a favorable tide of Providence shows him the necessity of increased exertion, he runs, and is in no danger of stumbling.

### Verse 13

[¶19] Take fast hold - החזק hachazek, seize it strongly, and keep the hold; and do this as for life. Learn all thou canst, retain what thou hast learnt, and keep the reason continually in view - it is for thy life.

### Verse 14

[¶21] Enter not into the path of the wicked - Never associate with those whose life is irregular and sinful; never accompany them in any of their acts of transgression.

### Verse 15

[¶23] Avoid it - Let it be the serious purpose of thy soul to shun every appearance of evil.

[¶24] Pass not by it - Never, for the sake of worldly gain, or through complaisance to others, approach the way that thou wouldst not wish to be found in when God calls thee into the eternal world.

[¶25] Turn from it - If, through unwatchfulness or unfaithfulness, thou at any time get near or into the way of sin, turn from it with the utmost speed, and humble thyself before thy Maker.

[¶26] And pass away - Speed from it, run for thy life, and get to the utmost distance; eternally diverging so as never to come near it whilst thou hast a being.

### Verse 16

[¶28] Except they have done mischief - The night is their time for spoil and depredation. And they must gain some booty, before they go to rest. This I believe to be the meaning of the passage. I grant, also, that there may be some of so malevolent a disposition that they cannot be easy unless they can injure others, and are put to excessive pain when they perceive any man in prosperity, or receiving a kindness. The address in Virgil, to an illnatured shepherd is well known: -

[¶29] Et cum vidisti puero donata, dolebas:

[¶30] Et si non aliqua nocuisses, mortuus esses.

[¶31] Eclog. 3: 14. "When thou sawest the gifts given to the lad, thou wast distressed; and hadst thou not found some means of doing him a mischief, thou hadst died."

### Verse 17

[¶33] For they eat the bread of wickedness - By privately stealing.

[¶34] And drink the wine of violence - By highway robbery.

### Verse 18

[¶36] But the path of the just - The path of the wicked is gloomy, dark, and dangerous; that of the righteous is open, luminous, and instructive. This verse contains a fine metaphor; it refers to the sun rising above the horizon, and the increasing twilight, till his beams shine full upon the earth. The original, הולך ואור עד נכון היום holech vaor ad nechon haiyom, may be translated, "going and illuminating unto the prepared day." This seems plainly to refer to the progress of the rising sun while below the horizon; and the gradual increase of the light occasioned by the reflection of his rays by means of the atmosphere, till at last he is completely elevated above the horizon, and then the prepared day has fully taken place, the sun having risen at the determined time. So, the truly wise man is but in his twilight here below; but he is in a state of glorious preparation for the realms of everlasting light; till at last, emerging from darkness and the shadows of death, he is ushered into the full blaze of endless felicity. Yet previously to his enjoyment of this glory, which is prepared for him, he is going - walking in the commandments of his God blameless; and illuminating - reflecting the light of the salvation which he has received on all those who form the circle of his acquaintance.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Keep them in the midst of thine heart - Let them be wrapped up in the very center of thy affections; that they may give spring and energy to every desire, word, and wish.

### Verse 23

[¶40] Keep thy heart with all diligence - "Above all keeping," guard thy heart. He who knows any thing of himself, knows how apt his affections are to go astray.

[¶41] For out of it are the issues of life - תוצאות חיים totseoth chaiyim, "the goings out of lives." Is not this a plain allusion to the arteries which carry the blood from the heart through the whole body, and to the utmost extremities? As long as the heart is capable of receiving and propelling the blood, so long life is continued. Now as the heart is the fountain whence all the streams of life proceed, care must be taken that the fountain be not stopped up nor injured. A double watch for its safety must be kept up. So in spiritual things: the heart is the seat of the Lord of life and glory; and the streams of spiritual life proceed from him to all the powers and faculties of the soul. Watch with all diligence, that this fountain be not sealed up, nor these streams of life be cut off. Therefore "put away from thee a froward mouth and perverse lips - and let thy eyes look straight on." Or, in other words, look inwardlook onward - look upward.

[¶42] I know that the twenty-third verse is understood as principally referring to the evils which proceed from the heart, and which must be guarded against; and the good purposes that must be formed in it, from which life takes its colouring. The former should be opposed; the latter should be encouraged and strengthened. If the heart be pure and holy, all its purposes will be just and good. If it be impure and defiled, nothing will proceed from it but abomination. But though all this be true, I have preferred following what I believe to be the metaphor in the text.

### Verse 24

[¶44] A froward mouth - Beware of hastiness, anger, and rash speeches.

[¶45] And perverse lips - Do not delight in nor acquire the habit of contradicting and gainsaying; and beware of calumniating and backbiting your neighbor.

## 712. Proverbs · 7 of 46

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### Verse 26

[¶1] Ponder the path of thy feet - Weigh well the part thou shouldst act in life. See that thou contract no bad habits.

### Verse 27

[¶3] Turn not to the right hand nor to the left - Avoid all crooked ways. Be an upright, downright, and straight-forward man. Avoid tricks, wiles, and deceptions of this kind.

[¶4] To this the Septuagint and Vulgate add the following verse: Αυτος δε ορθας ποιησει τας τροχιας σου, τας δε πορειας σου εν ειρηνη προαξει. Ipse autem rectos faciet cursus tuos; itinera autem tua in pace producet. "For himself will make thy paths straight and thy journeyings will he conduct in prosperity." The Arabic has also a clause to the same effect. But nothing like this is found in the Hebrew, Chaldee, or Syriac; nor in the Vulgate, as printed in the Complutensian Polyglot; nor in that of Antwerp or of Paris; but it is in the Greek text of those editions, in the editio princeps of the Vulgate, in five of my own MSS., and in the old MS. Bible. De Lyra rejects the clause as a gloss that stands on no authority. If an addition, it is certainly very ancient; and the promise it contains is true whether the clause be authentic or not.

### Introduction

[¶6] Farther exhortations to acquire wisdom, [Pro 5:1], [Pro 5:2]. The character of a loose woman, and the ruinous consequences of attachment to such, [Pro 5:3-14]. Exhortations to chastity and moderation, [Pro 5:15-21]. The miserable end of the wicked, [Pro 5:22], [Pro 5:23].

### Verse 1

[¶8] Attend unto my wisdom - Take the following lessons from my own experience.

### Verse 3

[¶10] The lips of a strange woman - One that is not thy own, whether Jewess or heathen.

[¶11] Drop as a honey-comb - She uses the most deceitful, flattering, and alluring speeches: as the droppings of the honey out of the comb are the sweetest of all.

### Verse 4

[¶13] Bitter as wormwood - כלענה Kelanah, like the detestable herb wormwood, or something analogous to it: something as excessive in its bitterness, as honey is in its sweetness.

### Verse 5

[¶15] Her feet go down to death - She first, like a serpent, infuses her poison, by which the whole constitution of her paramour is infected, which soon or late brings on death.

[¶16] Her steps take hold on hell - First, the death of the body; and then the damnation of the soul. These are the tendencies of connections with such women.

### Verse 6

[¶18] Lest thou shouldest ponder - To prevent thee from reflecting on thy present conduct, and its consequences, her ways are moveable - she continually varies her allurements.

[¶19] Thou canst not know them - It is impossible to conceive all her tricks and wiles: to learn these in all their varieties, is a part of the science first taught in that infernal trade.

### Verse 7

[¶21] Hear me - O ye children - בנים banim, sons, young men in general: for these are the most likely to be deceived and led astray.

### Verse 8

[¶23] Come not nigh the door of her house - Where there are generally such exhibitions as have a natural tendency to excite impure thoughts, and irregular passions.

### Verse 9

[¶25] Lest thou give thine honor - The character of a debauchee is universally detested: by this, even those of noble blood lose their honor and respect.

[¶26] Thy years unto the cruel - Though all the blandishments of love dwell on the tongue, and the excess of fondness appear in the whole demeanor of the harlot and the prostitute; yet cruelty has its throne in their hearts; and they will rob and murder (when it appears to answer their ends) those who give their strength, their wealth, and their years to them. The unfaithful wife has often murdered her own husband for the sake of her paramour, and has given him over to justice in order to save herself. Murders have often taken place in brothels, as well as robberies; for the vice of prostitution is one of the parents of cruelty.

### Verse 11

[¶28] When thy flesh and thy body are consumed - The word שאר shear, which we render body, signifies properly the remains, residue, or remnant of a thing: and is applied here to denote the breathing carcass, putrid with the concomitant disease of debauchery: a public reproach which the justice of God entails on this species of iniquity. The mourning here spoken of is of the most excessive kind: the word נהם naham is often applied to the growling of a lion, and the hoarse incessant murmuring of the sea. In the line of my duty, I have been often called to attend the death-bed of such persons, where groans and shrieks were incessant through the jaculating pains in their bones and flesh. Whoever has witnessed a closing scene like this will at once perceive with what force and propriety the wise man speaks. And How have I hated instruction, and despised the voice of my teachers! is the unavailing cry in that terrific time. Reader, whosoever thou art, lay these things to heart. Do not enter into their sin: once entered, thy return is nearly hopeless.

### Verse 14

[¶30] I was almost in all evil - This vice, like a whirlpool, sweeps all others into its vortex.

[¶31] In the midst of the congregation and assembly - In the mydel of the Curche and of the Synagoge - Old MS. Bible. Such persons, however sacred the place, carry about with them eyes full of adultery, which cannot cease from sin.

### Verse 15

[¶33] Drink waters out of thine own cistern - Be satisfied with thy own wife; and let the wife see that she reverence her husband; and not tempt him by inattention or unkindness to seek elsewhere what he has a right to expect, but cannot find, at home.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad - Let thy children lawfully begotten be numerous.

### Verse 17

[¶37] Let them be only thine own - The off-spring of a legitimate connection; a bastard brood, however numerous, is no credit to any man.

### Verse 18

[¶39] Let thy fountain be blessed - יהי מקורך ברוך yehi mekorecha baruch. Sit vena tua benedicta. Thy vein; that which carries off streams from the fountain of animal life, in order to disperse them abroad, and through the streets. How delicate and correct is the allusion here! But anatomical allusions must not be pressed into detail in a commentary on Scripture.

### Verse 19

[¶41] The loving hind and pleasant roe - By אילת aiyeleth, the deer; by יעלה yaalah, the ibex or mountain goat, may be meant.

[¶42] Let her breasts satisfy thee - As the infant is satisfied with the breasts of its mother; so shouldst thou be with the wife of thy youth.

### Verse 21

[¶44] For the ways of a man - Whether they are public or private, God sees all the steps thou takest in life.

## 713. Proverbs · 8 of 46

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### Verse 22

[¶1] He shall be holden with the cords of his sins - Most people who follow unlawful pleasures, think they can give them up whenever they please; but sin repeated becomes customary; custom soon engenders habit; and habit in the end assumes the form of necessity; the man becomes bound with his own cords, and so is led captive by the devil at his will.

### Verse 23

[¶3] He shall die without instruction - This is most likely, and it is a general case; but even these may repent and live.

### Introduction

[¶5] Exhortations against becoming surety for others, [Pro 6:1-5]; against idleness, from the example of the ant, [Pro 6:6-11]; description of a worthless person, [Pro 6:12-15]; seven things hateful to God, [Pro 6:16-19]; the benefits of instruction, [Pro 6:20-23]; farther exhortations against bad women, and especially against adultery, [Pro 6:24-33]; what may be expected from jealousy, [Pro 6:34], [Pro 6:35].

### Verse 1

[¶7] If thou be surety for thy friend - לרעך lereacha, for thy neighbor; i.e., any person. If thou pledge thyself in behalf of another, thou takest the burden off him, and placest it on thine own shoulders; and when he knows he has got one to stand between him and the demands of law and justice, he will feel little responsibility; his spirit of exertion will become crippled, and listlessness as to the event will be the consequence. His own character will suffer little; his property nothing, for his friend bears all the burden: and perhaps the very person for whom he bore this burden treats him with neglect; and, lest the restoration of the pledge should be required, will avoid both the sight and presence of his friend. Give what thou canst; but, except in extreme cases, be surety for no man. Striking or shaking hands when the mouth had once made the promise, was considered as the ratification of the engagement; and thus the man became ensnared with the words of his mouth.

### Verse 3

[¶9] Do this - deliver thyself - Continue to press him for whom thou art become surety, to pay his creditor; give him no rest till he do it, else thou mayest fully expect to be left to pay the debt.

### Verse 5

[¶11] Deliver thyself as a roe - צבי tsebi, the antelope. If thou art got into the snare, get out if thou possibly canst; make every struggle and excertion, as the antelope taken in the net, and the bird taken in the snare would, in order to get free from thy captivity.

### Verse 6

[¶13] Go to the ant, thou sluggard - נמלה nemalah, the ant, is a remarkable creature for foresight, industry, and economy. At the proper seasons they collect their food - not in the summer to lay up for the winter; for they sleep during the winter, and eat not; and therefore such hoards would be to them useless; but when the food necessary for them is most plentiful, then they collect it for their consumption in the proper seasons. No insect is more laborious, not even the bee itself; and none is more fondly attached to or more careful of its young, than the ant. When the young are in their aurelia state, in which they appear like a small grain of rice, they will bring them out of their nests, and lay them near their holes, for the benefit of the sun; and on the approach of rain, carefully remove them, and deposit them in the nest, the hole or entrance to which they will cover with a piece of thin stone or tile, to prevent the wet from getting in. It is a fact that they do not lay up any meat for winter; nor does Solomon, either here or in [Pro 30:25], assert it. He simply says that they provide their food in summer, and gather it in harvest; these are the most proper times for a stock to be laid in for their consumption; not in winter; for no such thing appears in any of their nests, nor do they need it, as they sleep during that season; but for autumn, during which they wake and work. Spring, summer, and autumn, they are incessant in their labor; and their conduct affords a bright example to men.

### Verse 10

[¶15] Yet a little sleep, a little slumber - This, if not the language, is the feeling of the sluggard. The ant gathers its food in summer and in harvest, and sleeps in winter when it has no work to do. If the sluggard would work in the day, and sleep at night, it would be all proper. The ant yields him a lesson of reproach.

### Verse 11

[¶17] So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth - That is, with slow, but surely approaching steps.

[¶18] Thy want as an armed man - That is, with irresistible fury; and thou art not prepared to oppose it. The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic add the following clause to this verse: - "But if thou wilt be diligent, thy harvest shall be as a fountain; and poverty shall flee far away from thee."

[¶19] It is also thus in the Old MS. Bible: If forsothe unslow thou shul ben; shul comen as a welle thi rip; and nede fer shal fleen fro thee.

### Verse 12

[¶21] A naughty person - אדם בליעל adam beliyal, "Adam good for nothing." When he lost his innocence. A man apostata; Old MS. Bible.

[¶22] A wicked man - איש און ish aven. He soon became a general transgressor after having departed from his God. All his posterity, unless restored by Divine grace, are men of Belial, and sinners by trade; and most of them, in one form or other, answer the character here given. They yield their members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.

### Verse 13

[¶24] He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers - These things seem to be spoken of debauchees, and the following quotation from Ovid, Amor. Iib. i., El. iv., ver. 15, shoots the whole process of the villany spoken of by Solomon:

[¶25] Cum premit ille torum, vultu comes ipsa modestoIbis, ut accumbas: clam mihi tange pedem.

[¶26] Me specta, nutusque meos, vultum que loquacemExcipe furtivas, et refer ipsa, notas.

[¶27] Verba superciliis sine voce loquentia dicamVerba leges digitis, verba notata mero.

[¶28] Cum tibi succurrit Veneris lascivia nostrae,Purpureas tenero pollice tange genas, etc., etc.

[¶29] The whole elegy is in the same strain: it is translated in Garth's Ovid, but cannot be introduced here.

### Verse 14

[¶31] He deviseth mischief - He plots schemes and plans to bring it to pass.

[¶32] He soweth discord - Between men and their wives, by seducing the latter from their fidelity. See the preceding quotation.

### Verse 15

[¶34] Suddenly shall he be broken - Probably alluding to some punishment of the adulterer, such as being stoned to death. A multitude shall join together, and so overwhelm him with stones, that he shall have his flesh and bones broken to pieces, and there shall be no remedy - none to deliver or pity him.

### Verse 16

[¶36] These six - doth the Lord hate -

[¶37] 1. A proud look - exalted eyes; those who will not condescend to look on the rest of mankind.

[¶38] 2. A lying tongue - he who neither loves nor tells truth.

[¶39] 3. Hands that shed innocent blood, whether by murder or by battery.

[¶40] 4. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations - the heart that fabricates such, lays the foundation, builds upon it, and completes the superstructure of iniquity.

[¶41] 5. Feet that be swift in running to mischief - he who works iniquity with greediness.

[¶42] 6. A false witness that speaketh lies - one who, even on his oath before a court of justice, tells any thing but the truth.

[¶43] Seven are an abomination unto him - נפשו naphsho, "to his soul." The seventh is, he that soweth discord among brethren - he who troubles the peace of a family, of a village, of the state; all who, by lies and misrepresentations, strive to make men's minds evil-affected towards their brethren.

## 714. Proverbs · 9 of 46

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### Verse 20

[¶1] Keep thy father's commandment - See on [Pro 1:8] (note).

### Verse 21

[¶3] Bind them continually upon thine heart - See on [Pro 3:3] (note). And see a similar command, to which this is an allusion, [Deu 6:6-8] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶5] When thou goest, it shall lead thee - Here the law is personified; and is represented as a nurse, teacher, and guardian, by night and day. An upright man never goes but as directed by God's word and led by God's Spirit.

[¶6] When thou sleepest - He commends his body and soul to the protection of his Maker when he lies down and sleeps in peace. And when he awakes in the morning, the promises and mercies of God are the first things that present themselves to his recollection.

### Verse 23

[¶8] For the commandment is a lamp - It illuminates our path. It shows us how we should walk and praise God.

[¶9] And the law is light - A general light, showing the nature and will of God, and the interest and duty of Man.

[¶10] And reproofs of instruction - Or, that instruction which reproves us for our sins and errors leads us into the way of life.

### Verse 24

[¶12] To keep thee from the evil woman - Solomon had suffered sorely from this quarter; and hence his repeated cautions and warnings to others. The strange woman always means one that is not a man's own; and sometimes it may also imply a foreign harlot, one who is also a stranger to the God of Israel.

### Verse 25

[¶14] Neither let her take thee with her eye-lids - It is a very general custom in the East to paint the eye-lids. I have many Asiatic drawings in which this is expressed. They have a method of polishing the eyes with a preparation of antimony, so that they appear with an indescribable lustre; or, as one who mentions the fact from observation, "Their eyes appear to be swimming in bliss."

### Verse 26

[¶16] By means of a whorish woman - In following lewd women, a man is soon reduced to poverty and disease. The Septuagint gives this a strange turn: timh gar pornhv, osh kai enov artou. "For the price or hire of a whore is about one loaf." So many were they in the land, that they hired themselves out for a bare subsistence. The Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, give the same sense. The old MS. Bible has it thus: The price forsothe of a strumpet is unneth oon lof: the woman forsothe taketh the precious liif of a mam. The sense of which is, and probably the sense of the Hebrew too, While the man hires the whore for a single loaf of bread; the woman thus hired taketh his precious life. She extracts his energy, and poisons his constitution. In the first clause אשה זונה ishshah zonah is plainly a prostitute; but should we render אשת esheth, in the second clause, an adulteress? I think not. The versions in general join אשת איש esheth ish, together, which, thus connected, signify no more than the wife of a man; and out of this we have made adulteress, and Coverdale a married woman. I do not think that the Old MS. Bible gives a good sense; and it requires a good deal of paraphrase to extract the common meaning from the text. Though the following verses seem to countenance the common interpretation, yet they may contain a complete sense of themselves; but, taken in either way, the sense is good, though the construction is a little violent.

### Verse 27

[¶18] Can a man take fire - These were proverbial expressions, the meaning of which was plain to every capacity.

### Verse 29

[¶20] So he that goeth In to his neighbor's wife - As sure as he who takes fire into his bosom, or who walks upon live coals, is burnt thereby; so sure he that seduces his neighbour's wife shall be guilty. That is, he shall be punished.

### Verse 30

[¶22] Men do not despise a thief if he steal - Every man pities the poor culprit who was perishing for lack of food, and stole to satisfy his hunger; yet no law clears him: he is bound to make restitution; in some cases double, in others quadruple and quintuple; and if he have not property enough to make restitution, to be sold for a bondsman; [Exo 22:1-4]; [Lev 25:39].

### Verse 32

[¶24] But whoso committeth adultery - The case understood is that of a married man: he has a wife; and therefore is not in the circumstances of the poor thief, who stole to appease his hunger, having nothing to eat. In this alone the opposition between the two cases is found: the thief had no food, and he stole some; the married man had a wife, and yet went in to the wife of his neighbor.

[¶25] Destroyeth his own soul - Sins against his life, for, under the law of Moses, adultery was punished with death; [Lev 20:10]; [Deu 22:22].

### Verse 33

[¶27] A wound and dishonor shall he get - Among the Romans, when a man was caught in the fact, the injured husband took the law into his own hand; and a large radish was thrust up into the anus of the transgressor, which not only overwhelmed him with infamy and disgrace, but generally caused his death.

### Verse 34

[¶29] Jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare - He will not, when he has detected the adulterer in the fact, wait for the slow progress of the law: it is then to him the day of vengeance; and in general, he avenges himself on the spot, as we see above.

### Verse 35

[¶31] He will not regard any ransom - This is an injury that admits of no compensation. No gifts can satisfy a man for the injury his honor has sustained; and to take a bribe or a ransom, would be setting up chastity at a price.

### Introduction

[¶33] A farther exhortation to acquire wisdom, in order to be preserved from impure connections, [Pro 7:1-5]. The character of a harlot, and her conduct towards a youth who fell into her snare, vv. 6-23. Solemn exhortations to avoid this evil, [Pro 7:24-27].

### Verse 1

[¶35] My son, keep my words - See [Pro 2:1].

### Verse 2

[¶37] As the apple of thine eye - As the pupil of the eye, which is of such essential necessity to sight, and so easily injured.

### Verse 3

[¶39] Bind them upon thy fingers - See on [Pro 3:3] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶41] Thou art my sister - Thou art my dearest friend, and I will treat thee as such.

### Verse 5

[¶43] The strange woman - The prostitute, the adulteress.

### Verse 6

[¶45] I looked through my casement - The casement is a small aperture in a large window, or a window opening on hinges. Here it means the lattice, for they had no glass windows in the East. And the latticed windows produced a double advantage

## 715. Proverbs · 10 of 46

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[¶0] 1. Making the apartments sufficiently private; and

[¶1] 2. Admitting fresh air to keep them cool.

### Verse 7

[¶3] Among the simple ones - The inexperienced, inconsiderate young men.

[¶4] A young man void of understanding - בעל ראשאהץ חסר לב, "destitute of a heart." He had not wisdom to discern the evil intended; nor courage to resist the flatteries of the seducer.

### Verse 8

[¶6] He went the way to her house - She appears to have had a corner house sufficiently remarkable; and a way from the main street to it.

### Verse 9

[¶8] In the twilight, in the evening - Some time after sun-setting; before it was quite dark.

[¶9] In the black and dark night - When there were neither lamps nor moon-shine.

### Verse 10

[¶11] A woman with the attire of a harlot - It appears that sitting in some open place, and covering the face, or having a veil of a peculiar kind on, was the evidence of a harlot, [Gen 38:14], [Gen 38:15-19]. No doubt, in Solomon's time, they had other distinctions. In all other countries, and in all times. the show of their countenance did testify against them; they declared their sin as Sodom; they hid it not. However, this does not seem to have been a mere prostitute; for she was, according to her own declaration, a married woman, and kept house, [Pro 7:19], if her assertions relative to this were not falsehoods, and calculated the better to render him secure, and prevent the suspicion of endangering himself by cohabiting with a common woman; which I am rather inclined to think was the case, for she was subtle of heart.

### Verse 11

[¶13] She is loud and stubborn - המיה homiyah, she is never at rest, always agitated; busily employed to gain her end, and this is to go into the path of error: סררת sorereth, "turning aside;" preferring any way to the right way. And, therefore, it is added, her feet abide not in her house, she gads abroad; and this disposition probably first led her to this vice.

### Verse 12

[¶15] Now is she without - She is continually exposing herself, and showing by her gait and gestures what she is, and what she wants. These two verses are a parenthesis, intended to show the character of the woman.

### Verse 13

[¶17] So she caught him - Laid fast hold on him, and kissed him, to show that she was affectionately attached to him.

[¶18] And with an impudent face - העזה פניה heezzah paneyha, "she strengthened her countenance," assumed the most confident look she could; endeavored to appear friendly and sincere.

### Verse 14

[¶20] I have peace-offerings with me - More literally, "the sacrifices of the peace-offerings are with me." Peace-offerings Mymlv shelamim, were offerings the spiritual design of which was to make peace between God and man, to make up the breach between them which sin had occasioned; see the notes on Leviticus 7 (note), where every kind of sacrifice offered under the law is explained. When the blood of these was poured out at the altar, and the fat burnt there, the breast and right shoulder were the priest's portion; but the rest of the carcass belonged to the sacrificer, who might carry it home, and make a feast to his friends. See [Lev 3:1-11]. Much light is cast on this place by the fact that the gods in many parts of the East are actually worshipped in brothels, and fragments of the offerings are divided among the wretches who fall into the snare of the prostitutes - Ward's Customs.

[¶21] Have I payed my vows - She seems to insinuate that she had made a vow for the health and safety of this young man; and having done so, and prepared the sacrificial banquet, came actually out to seek him, that he might partake of it with her, [Pro 7:15]. But, as she intended to proceed farther than mere friendship, she was obliged to avail herself of the night season, and the absence of her husband.

### Verse 16

[¶23] I have decked my bed - ערשי arsi, "my couch or sofa;" distinguished from משכבי mishcabi, "my bed," [Pro 7:17], the place to sleep on, as the other was the place to recline on at meals. The tapestry, מרבדים marbaddim, mentioned here seems to refer to the covering of the sofa; exquisitely woven and figured cloth. חטבות אטון chatuboth etun, the Targum translates painted carpets, such as were manufactured in Egypt; some kind of embroidered or embossed stuff is apparently meant.

### Verse 17

[¶25] I have perfumed any bed with Myrrh - מר mor, "aloes," אהלים ahalim, and "cinnamon," קנמון kinnamon. We have taken our names from the original words; but probably the ahalim may not mean aloes, which is no perfume; but sandal wood, which is very much used in the East. She had used every means to excite the passions she wished to bring into action.

### Verse 18

[¶27] Come, let us take our fill of love - נרוה דדים nirveh dodim, "Let us revel in the breasts;" and then it is added, "Let us solace ourselves with loves," נתעלסה באהבים nithallesah boohabim; "let us gratify each other with loves, with the utmost delights." This does not half express the original; but I forbear. The speech shows the brazen face of this woman, well translated by the Vulgate, "Veni, inebriemur uberibus; et fruamur cupidinis amplexibus." And the Septuagint has expressed the spirit of it: Ελθε, και απολαυσωμεν φιλιας - δευρο, και εγκυλισθωμεν ερωτι. "Veni, et fruamur amicitia - Veni, et colluctemur cupidine." Though varied in the words, all the versions have expressed the same thing. In the old MS. Bible, the speech of this woman is as follows: I have arrayed with cordis my litil bed, and spred with peyntid tapetis of Egipt: I have springid my ligginge place with mirre and aloes and calelcum, and be we inwardly drunken with Tetis, and use we the coveytied clippingis to the tyme that the dai wax light. The original itself is too gross to be literally translated; but quite in character as coming from the mouth of an abandoned woman.

### Verse 19

[¶29] For the good man - Literally, "For the man is not in his house."

### Verse 20

[¶31] He hath taken - Literally, "The money bag he hath taken in his hand." He is gone a journey of itinerant merchandising. This seems to be what is intended.

[¶32] And will come home at the day appointed - ליום הכסא leyom hakkase, the time fixed for a return from such a journey. The Vulgate says, "at the full moon." The Targum, "the day of the assembly." In other words, He will return by the approaching festival.

### Verse 21

[¶34] With her much fair speech - With her blandishments and lascivious talk, she overcame all his scruples, and constrained him to yield.

### Verse 22

[¶36] As an ox goeth to the slaughter - The original of this and the following verse has been variously translated. Dr. Grey corrects and translates thus: "He goeth after her straightway, as an Ox goeth to the Slaughter; as a Dog to the Chain; and as a Deer till the Dart strike through his liver; as a Bird hasteneth to the Snare, and knoweth not that it is for its life." Very slight alterations in the Hebrew text produce these differences; but it is not necessary to pursue them; all serve to mark the stupidity and folly of the man who is led away by enticing women or who lives a life of intemperance.

### Verse 24

[¶38] Hearken unto me now, therefore, O ye children - Ye that are young and inexperienced, seriously consider the example set before your eyes, and take warning at another's expense.

### Verse 26

[¶40] For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her - That is, such like women have been the ruin of many. חללים chalalim, which we render wounded, also signifies solsliers or men of war; and עצמים atsumim, which we render strong men, may be translated heroes. Many of those who have distinguished themselves in the field and in the cabinet have been overcome and destroyed by their mistresses. History is full of such examples.

### Verse 27

[¶42] Her house is the way to hell - שאול sheol, the pit, the grave, the place of the dead, the eternal and infernal world. And they who, through such, fall into the grave, descend lower, into the chambers of death; the place where pleasure is at an end, and illusion mocks no more.

### Introduction

[¶44] The fame and excellence of wisdom, and its manner of teaching, [Pro 8:1-4]; the matter of its exhortations, [Pro 8:5-12]; its influence among men, [Pro 8:13-21]; its antiquity, [Pro 8:22-31]; the blessedness of attending to its counsels, [Pro 8:32-35]; the misery of those who do not, [Pro 8:36].

## 716. Proverbs · 11 of 46

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Doth not wisdom cry? - Here wisdom is again personified; but the prosopopoeia is carried on to a greater length than before, and with much more variety. It is represented in this chapter in a twofold point of view:

[¶2] 1. Wisdom, the power of judging rightly, implying the knowledge of Divine and human things.

[¶3] 2. As an attribute of God, particularly displayed in the various and astonishing works of creation.

[¶4] Nor has it any other meaning in this whole chapter, whatever some of the fathers may have dreamed, who find allegorical meanings every where. The wise man seems as if suddenly awakened from the distressful contemplation which he had before him, - of the ruin of young persons in both worlds by means of debauchery, - by the voice of wisdom, who has lifted up her voice in the most public places, where was the greatest concourse of the people, to warn the yet unsnared, that they might avoid the way of seduction and sin; and cause those who love her to inherit substance, and to have their treasuries filled with durable riches.

### Verse 2

[¶6] In the places of the paths - בית נתיבת נצבה beith nethiboth nitstsabah, "The constituted house of the paths." Does not this mean the house of public worship? the tabernacle or temple, which stands a center to the surrounding villages, the paths from all the parts leading to and terminating at it? In such a place, where the holy word of God is read or preached, there in a particular manner does wisdom cry, and understanding lift up her voice. There are the warnings, the precepts, and the promises of eternal truth; there the bread of God is broken to his children, and thither they that will may come and take the water of life freely.

### Verse 3

[¶8] She crieth at the gates - This might be well applied to the preaching of Jesus Christ and his apostles, and their faithful successors in the Christian ministry. He went to the temple, and proclaimed the righteousness of the Most High: he did the same in the synagogues, on the mountains, by the sea-side, in the villages, in the streets of the cities, and in private houses. His disciples followed his track: in the same way, and in the same spirit, they proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ. God's wisdom in the hearts of his true ministers directs them to go and to seek sinners. There are, it is true, temples, synagogues, churches, chapels, etc.; but hundreds of thousands never frequent them, and therefore do not hear the voice of truth: wisdom, therefore, must go to them, if she wishes them to receive her instructions. Hence the zealous ministers of Christ go still to the highways and hedges, to the mountains and plains, to the ships and the cottages, to persuade sinners to turn from the error of their ways, and accept that redemption which was procured by the sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ.

### Verse 4

[¶10] Unto you, O men - אישים ishim, men of wealth and power, will I call; and not to you alone, for my voice is אל בני אדם al beney Adam, "to all the descendants of Adam;" to the whole human race. As Jesus Christ tasted death for every man, so the Gospel proclaims salvation to all: to You - to every individual, my voice is addressed. Thou hast sinned; and thou must perish, if not saved by grace.

### Verse 5

[¶12] O ye simple - פתאים pethaim, ye that are deceived, and with flattering words and fair speeches deluded and drawn away.

[¶13] Ye fools - כסילים kesilim, ye stupid, stiffnecked, senseless people. That preaching is never likely to do much good, that is not pointed; specifying and describing vices, and charging them home on the consciences of transgressors. Where this is not done, the congregation is unconcerned; no man supposes he has any thing to do in the business, especially if the preacher takes care to tell them, "These were the crimes of Jews, Romans, Greeks, of the people at Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, Laodicea, and of heathens in general; but I hope better things of you, who have been born in a Christian land, and baptized in the Christian faith." Thus he arms their consciences in double brass against the good effects of his own teaching.

### Verse 6

[¶15] Hear; for I will speak of excellent things - נגידים negidim, things which are preeminent, and manifestly superior to all others. The teaching is not trifling, though addressed to triflers.

[¶16] The opening of my lips shall be right things - מישרים meysharim, things which are calculated to correct your false notions, and set straight your crooked ways. Hence she declares,

### Verse 7

[¶18] My mouth shall speak truth - Truth, without falsity, or any mixture of error, shall be the whole matter of my discourse.

### Verse 8

[¶20] All the words - are in righteousness - בצדק betsedek, in justice and equity, testifying what man owes to his God, to his neighbor, and to himself; giving to each his due. This is the true import of צדק tsadak.

[¶21] There is nothing froward - נפתל niphtal, tortuous, involved, or difficult.

[¶22] Or perverse - עקש ikkesh, distorted, leading to obstinacy. On the contrary,

### Verse 9

[¶24] They are all plain - נכחים nechochim, straight forward, over against every man, level to every capacity. This is true of all that concerns the salvation of the soul.

[¶25] To them that find knowledge - When a man gets the knowledge of himself, then he sees all the threatenings of God to be right. When he obtains the knowledge of God in Christ, then he finds that all the promises of God are right - yea and amen.

### Verse 10

[¶27] Receive my instruction, and not silver - A Hebrew idiom; receive my instruction in preference to silver.

### Verse 11

[¶29] Wisdom is better than rubies - See on [Pro 3:15] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶31] I wisdom dwell with prudence - Prudence is defined, wisdom applied to practice; so wherever true wisdom is, it will lead to action, and its activity will be always in reference to the accomplishment of the best ends by the use of the most appropriate means. Hence comes what is here called knowledge of witty inventions, דעת מזמות אמצא daath mezimmoth emtsa, "I have found out knowledge and contrivance." The farther wisdom proceeds in man, the more practical knowledge it gains; and finding out the nature and properties of things, and the general course of providence, it can contrive by new combinations to produce new results.

### Verse 13

[¶33] The fear of the Lord is to hate evil - As it is impossible to hate evil without loving good; and as hatred to evil will lead a man to abandon the evil way; and love to goodness will lead him to do what is right in the sight of God, under the influence of that Spirit which has given the hatred to evil, and inspired the love of goodness: hence this implies the sum and substance of true religion, which is here termed the fear of the Lord.

### Verse 14

[¶35] Counsel is mine - Direction how to act in all circumstances and on all occasions must come from wisdom: the foolish man can give no counsel, cannot show another how he is to act in the various changes and chances of life. The wise man alone can give this counsel; and he can give it only as continually receiving instruction from God: for this Divine wisdom can say, תושיה Tushiyah, substance, reality, essence, all belong to me: I am the Fountain whence all are derived. Man may be wise, and good, and prudent, and ingenious; but these he derives from me, and they are dependently in him. But in me all these are independently and essentially inherent.

[¶36] And sound wisdom - See above. This is a totally false translation: תושיה tushiyah means essence, substance, reality; the source and substance of good. How ridiculous the support derived by certain authors from this translation in behalf of their system! See the writers on and quoters of Proverbs 8 (note).

[¶37] I have strength - Speaking still of wisdom as communicating rays of its light to man, it enables him to bring every thing to his aid; to construct machines by which one man can do the work of hundreds. From it comes all mathematical learning, all mechanical knowledge; from it originally came the inclined plane, the wedge, the screw, the pulley, in all its multiplications; and the lever, in all its combinations and varieties, came from this wisdom. And as all these can produce prodigies of power, far surpassing all kinds of animal energy, and all the effects of the utmost efforts of muscular force; hence the maxim of Lord Bacon, "Knowledge is power," built on the maxim of the tushiyah itself; לי גבורה li geburah, Mine Is Strength.

### Verse 15

[¶39] By me kings reign - Every wise and prudent king is such through the influence of Divine wisdom. And just laws and their righteous administration come from this source. In this and the following verse five degrees of civil power and authority are mentioned.

[¶40] 1. מלכים melachim, Kings.

[¶41] 2. רזנים rozenim, Consuls.

[¶42] 3. שרים sarim, Princes, Chiefs of the people.

[¶43] 4. נדיבים nedibim, Nobles. And

[¶44] 5. שפטים shophetim, Judges or Civil Magistrates\\

## 717. Proverbs · 12 of 46

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[¶0] All orders of government are from God. Instead of שפטי ארץ shophetey arets,"judges of the earth," שפטי צרק shophetey tsedek, "righteous judges," or "judges of righteousness," is the reading of one hundred and sixty-two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., both in the text and in the margin, and of several ancient editions. And this is the reading of the Vulgate, the Chaldee, and the Syriac, and should undoubtedly supersede the other.

### Verse 17

[¶2] I love them that love me - Wisdom shows itself; teaches man the knowledge of himself; shows him also the will of God concerning him; manifests the snares and dangers of life, the allurements and unsatisfactory nature of all sensual and sinful pleasures, the blessedness of true religion, and the solid happiness which an upright soul derives from the peace and approbation of its Maker. If, then, the heart embraces this wisdom, follows this Divine teaching, and gives itself to God, his love will be shed abroad in it by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Thus we love God because he hath first loved us and the more we love him, the more we shall feel of his love, which will enable us to love him yet more and more; and thus we may go on increasing to eternity. Blessed be God!

[¶3] And those that seek me early shall find me - Not merely betimes in the morning, though he who does so shall find it greatly to his advantage; (see on [Psa 4:1-8] (note)); but early in life - in youth, and as near as possible to the first dawn of reason. To the young this gracious promise is particularly made: if they seek, they shall find. Others, who are old, may seek and find; but never to such advantage as they would have done, had they sought early. Youth is the time of advantage in every respect: it is the time of learning, the time of discipline; the time of improvement, the time of acquiring useful, solid, and gracious habits. As the first-fruits always belong to God, it is God's time; the time in which he is peculiarly gracious; and in which, to sincere youthful seekers, he pours out his benefits with great profusion. "They that seek me early shall find me."

[¶4] Hear, ye young, and ye little ones! God offers himself now to you, with all his treasures of grace and glory. Thank him for his ineffable mercy, and embrace it without delay.

### Verse 18

[¶6] Riches and honor are with me - Often the wise, prudent, and discreet man arrives literally to riches and honor; but this is not always the case. But there are other riches of which he never fails; and these seem to be what Solomon has particularly in view, durable riches and righteousness; the treasure deposited by God in earthen vessels.

### Verse 20

[¶8] I lead in the way of righteousness - Nothing but the teaching that comes from God by his word and Spirit can do this.

### Verse 22

[¶10] The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way - Wisdom is not acquired by the Divine Being; man, and even angels, learn it by slow and progressive degrees; but in God it is as eternally inherent as any other essential attribute of his nature. The Targum makes this wisdom a creature, by thus translating the passage: אלהא בראני בריש בריתיה Elaha barani bereish biriteiah, "God created me in the beginning of his creatures." The Syriac is the same. This is as absurd and heretical as some modern glosses on the same passage.

### Verse 23

[¶12] I was set up from everlasting - נסכתי nissachti, "I was diffused or poured out," from נסך nasach, "to diffuse, pour abroad, as a spirit or disposition," [Isa 29:10]. See Parkhurst. Or from סך sach, "to cover, overspread, smear over, as with oil;" to be anointed king. Hence some have translated it, principatum habui, I had the principality, or was a ruler, governor, and director, from eternity. All the schemes, plans, and circumstances, relative to creation, government, providence, and to all being, material, animal, and intellectual, were conceived in the Divine mind, by the Divine wisdom, from eternity, or ever the earth was. There was no fortuitous creation, no jumbling concourse of original atoms, that entered into the composition of created beings; all was the effect of the plans before conceived, laid down, and at last acted upon by God's eternal wisdom.

### Verse 24

[¶14] When there were no depths - תהמות tehomoth, before the original chaotic mass was formed. See [Gen 1:2].

[¶15] I was brought forth - חוללתי cholalti, "I was produced as by laboring throes." Mr. Parkhurst thinks that the heathen poets derived their idea of Minerva's (wisdom's) being born of Jupiter's brain, from some such high poetic personification as that in the text.

### Verse 26

[¶17] The highest part of the dust of the world - ראש עפרות תבל rosh aphroth tebel, "the first particle of matter." The prima materia, the primitive atom. All these verses (verses 3-29) are a periphrasis for I existed before creation, consequently before time was. I dwelt in God as a principle which might be communicated in its influences to intellectual beings when formed.

### Verse 27

[¶19] When he prepared the heavens, I was there - For there is no part of the creation of God in which wisdom, skill, contrivance, are more manifest, than in the construction of the visible heavens.

[¶20] When he set a compass upon the face of the depth - Does not this refer to the establishment of the law of gravitation? by which all the particles of matter, tending to a common center, would produce in all bodies the orbicular form, which we see them have; so that even the waters are not only retained within their boundaries, but are subjected to the circular form, in their great aggregate of seas, as other parts of matter are. This is called here making a compass, בחקו חוג bechukko chug, sweeping a circle; and even this on the face of the deep, to bring the chaotic mass into form, regularity, and order.

### Verse 28

[¶22] The clouds above - שחקים shechakim, "the ethereal regions," taking in the whole of the atmosphere, with all its meteors, clouds, vapours, etc.

### Verse 29

[¶24] When he gave to the sea his decree - When he assigned its limits, adjusted its saltness, and proportioned the extent of the surface to the quantity of vapors to be raised from it, for the irrigation of the terrene surface.

[¶25] The foundations of the earth - Those irreversible laws by which all its motions are governed; its annual and diurnal rotation, and particularly its centrifugal and centripetal forces; by the former of which it has its annual motion round the sun like all other planets; and by the latter all its particles are prevented from flying off, notwithstanding the great velocity of its motion round its own axis, which causes one thousand and forty-two miles of its equator to pass under any given point in the heavens in the course of a single hour! These are, properly speaking, the foundations of the earth; the principles on which it is constructed, and the laws by which it is governed.

### Verse 30

[¶27] Then I was with him, as one brought up - אמון amon, a nursling, a darling child. Wisdom continues its parable, says Calmet; and represents itself as a new-born child which is ever near its parent, and takes pleasure to see him act, and to sport in his presence. This is poetical and highly figurative; and they who think they find the deity of Jesus Christ in these metaphors should be very cautious how they apply such terms as these; so that while they are endeavoring to defend the truth, they may do nothing against the truth, in which most of them unhappily fail.

[¶28] Rejoicing always before him - All the images in this verse are borrowed from the state and circumstances of a darling, affectionate, playful child; as any one will be convinced who examines the Hebrew text.

### Verse 31

[¶30] Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth - There God displays especially his wisdom in ordering and directing human beings, and in providing for their wants. The wisdom of God is in an especial manner manifested in his providence.

[¶31] My delights were with the sons of men - This Divine wisdom, as it delighted in the creation of man, so it continues to delight in his instruction. Hence it is represented as offering its lessons of instruction continually, and using every means and opportunity to call men from folly and vice to sound knowledge, holiness, and happiness. It is to man that God especially gives wisdom; and he has it in the form of reason beyond all other creatures; therefore it is said, "My delights are with the sons of men;" to them I open my choicest treasures. They alone are capable of sapience, intelligence, and discursive reason.

### Verse 32

[¶33] Now therefore - Since I delight so much in conveying instruction; since I have the happiness of the children of Adam so much at heart, hearken unto me; and this is for your own interest, for blessed are they who keep my ways.

### Verse 34

[¶35] Watching daily at my gates - Wisdom is represented as having a school for the instruction of men; and seems to point out some of the most forward of her scholars coming, through their intense desire to learn, even before the gates were opened, and waiting there for admission, that they might hear every word that was uttered, and not lose one accent of the heavenly teaching. Blessed are such.

### Verse 35

[¶37] Whoso findeth me - The wisdom that comes from God, teaching to avoid evil and cleave to that which is good; findeth life - gets that knowledge which qualifies him to answer the purposes for which he was made; for he is quickened with Christ, and made a partaker of the Divine life. Christ dwells in his heart by faith; he lives a new life, for Christ liveth in him; the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes him free from the law of sin and death. And shall obtain favor of the Lord. The more he walks after the Divine counsel, the more he obtains of the Divine image; and the more he resembles his Maker, the more he partakes of the Divine favor.

### Verse 36

[¶39] Wrongeth his own soul - It is not Satan, it is not sin, properly speaking, that hurts him; it is himself. If he received the teaching of God, sin would have no dominion over him; if he resisted the devil, the devil would flee from him.

[¶40] Love death - They do it in effect, if not in fact, for as they love sin, that leads to death, so they may be justly said to love death, the wages of sin. He that works in this case, works for wages; and he must love the wages, seeing he labors so hard in the work.

[¶41] I Have gone through this fine chapter, and given the best exposition of it in my power. I have also, as well as others, weighed every word, and closely examined their radical import, their connection among themselves, and the connection of the subject of the chapter with what has gone before, and with what follows after; and I cannot come, conscientiously, to any other interpretation than that which I have given. I am thoroughly satisfied that it speaks not one word either about the Divine or human nature of Christ, much less of any eternal filiation of his Divinity. And I am fully persuaded, had there not been a preconceived creed, no soul of man, by fair criticism, would have ever found out that fond opinion of the eternal sonship of the Divine nature, which so many commentators persuade us they find here. That it has been thus applied in early apes, as well as in modern times, I am sufficiently aware; and that many other portions of the Divine records have been appealed to, in order to support a particular opinion, and many that were false in themselves, must be known to those who are acquainted with the fathers. But many quote them who know nothing of them. As to the fathers in general, they were not all agreed on this subject, some supposing Christ, others the Holy Spirit, was meant in this chapter. But of these we may safely state, that there is not a truth in the most orthodox creed, that cannot be proved by their authority, nor a heresy that has disgraced the Romish Church, that may not challenge them as its abettors. In points of doctrine, their authority is, with me, nothing. The Word of God alone contains my creed. On a number of points I can go to the Greek and Latin fathers of the Church, to know what they believed, and what the people of their respective communions believed; but after all this I must return to God's word, to know what he would have Me to believe. No part of a Protestant creed stands on the decision of fathers and councils. By appealing to the Bible alone, as the only rule for the faith and practice of Christians, they confounded and defeated their papistical adversaries, who could not prove their doctrines but by fathers and councils. Hence their peculiar doctrines stand in their ultimate proof upon These; and those of Protestantism on the Bible. Some late writers upon this subject, whose names I spare, have presumed much on what they have said on this subject; but before any man, who seeks for sober truth, will receive any of their conclusions, he will naturally look whether their premises be sound, or whether from sound principles they have drawn legitimate conclusions. They say this chapter is a sufficient foundation to build their doctrine on. I say it is no foundation at all; that it never has been proved, and never can be proved, that it speaks at all of the doctrine in question. It has nothing to do with it. On this conviction of mine, their proofs drawn from this chapter must go with me for nothing. I have been even shocked with reading over some things that have been lately written on the subject. I have said in my heart, They have taken away my Eternal Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. I cannot believe their doctrine; I never did; I hope I never shall. I believe in the holy Trinity; in three persons in the Godhead, of which none is before or after another. I believe Jehovah, Jesus, the Holy Ghost to be one infinite, eternal Godhead, subsisting ineffably in three persons. I believe Jesus the Christ to be, as to his Divine nature, as unoriginated and eternal as Jehovah himself; and with the Holy Ghost to be one infinite Godhead, neither person being created, begotten, nor proceeding, more than another: as to its essence, but one Trinity, in an infinite, eternal and inseparable Unity. And this Triune God is the object of my faith, my adoration, and my confidence. But I believe not in an eternal sonship or generation of the Divine nature of Jesus Christ. Here I have long stood, here I now stand, and here I trust to stand in the hour of death, in the day of judgment, and to all eternity. Taking the Scriptures in general, I find a plurality in the Divine nature; taking the grand part mentioned, [Mat 3:16], [Mat 3:17], I find that plurality restrained to a trinity, in the most unequivocal and evident manner: Jesus, who was baptized in Jordan; the Holy Ghost, who descended upon him who was baptized; and the Father, manifested by the Voice from heaven that said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And how that person called Jesus the Christ, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, could be called the Son of God, I have shown in my note on [Luk 1:35].

[¶42] Some writers, in their defense of the doctrine above, which I venture to say I do not believe, have made reflections, in real or pretended pity, on the belief of their Trinitarian brethren, which have very little to do with candor: viz., "How the supporters of this hypothesis can avoid either the error of Tritheism on the one hand, or Sabellianism on the other, is difficult to conceive." Now, the supporters of the doctrine of the underived and unbegotten eternity of Christ's Divine nature might as well say of them: How the supporters of the eternal sonship of Christ can avoid the error of Arianism on the one hand, and Arianism on the other, it is difficult to conceive. But I would not say so; for though I know Arians who hold that doctrine, and express their belief nearly in the same words; yet I know many most conscientious Trinitarians who hold the doctrine of the eternal sonship, and yet believe in the proper deity, or eternal godhead, of Jesus Christ. After all, as a very wise and excellent man lately said: "While we have every reason to be satisfied of the soundness of each other's faith, we must allow each to explain his own sentiments in his own words: here, in the words used in explanation, a little latitude may be safely allowed." To this correct sentiment I only add: -

[¶43] Scimus; et hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim. - Horace. "I grant it; and the license give and take."

[¶44] I have passed the waters of strife, and do not wish to recross them: the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. I will have nothing to do with ill-tempered, abusive men; I wish them more light and better manners.

## 718. Proverbs · 13 of 46

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[¶0] And while I am on this subject, let me add one thing, which I am sure will not please all the generation of his people; and it is this: that Jesus Christ, having taken upon him human nature, which was afterwards crucified, and expired upon the cross, did by those acts make a full, perfect, and sufficient offering, sacrifice, and atonement for the sin of the whole world. That he died, paid down the redemption price, for every soul of man, that was ever born into the world, and shall ever be born into it. That all who lay hold on the hope set before them shall be saved; (and all may thus lay hold); and none shall perish but those who would not come to Christ that they might have life. And that men perish, not because they were not redeemed, but because they would not accept of the redemption.

[¶1] To conclude on this subject, it will be necessary to refer the reader to the remarkable opposition that subsists between this and the preceding chapter. There, the prostitute is represented as going out into the streets to seek her prey; and the alluring words of carnal wisdom to excite the animal appetite to sinful gratification, which she uses: here, heavenly wisdom is represented as going out into the streets, to the high places, the gates of the city, to counteract her designs, and lead back the simple to God and truth.

[¶2] These personifications were frequent among the Jews. In the Book of Ecclesiasticus we find a similar personification, and expressed in almost similar terms; and surely none will suppose that the writer of that Apocryphal book had either the Christian doctrine of the Trinity or the sonship of Christ in view.

[¶3] I will give a few passages: - "Wisdom shall glory in the midst of her people; in the congregation of the Most High shall she open her mouth, and triumph before his power. I came out of the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth as a cloud. I dwelt in the high places; I alone compassed the circuit of the heaven, and walked in the bottom of the deep, in the waves of the sea, and in all the earth. He created me from the beginning, before the world; and I shall never fail. I am the mother of fair love, and fear, and knowledge, and holy hope. I therefore, being eternal, am given to all my children which are named of him. Come unto me, and fill yourselves with my fruits. I also came out as a brook from a river, and a conduit into a garden," etc., etc., Ecclesiasticus 24:1, etc. This kind of personification of wisdom we have had in the preceding chapters; and in the following chapter we shall find the figure still kept up.

### Introduction

[¶5] Wisdom builds her house, makes her provision for a great feast, calls her guests, and exhorts them to partake of her entertainment, [Pro 9:1-6]. Different admonitions relative to the acquisition of wisdom, [Pro 9:7-12]. The character and conduct of a bad woman, [Pro 9:13-18].

[¶6] The same Wisdom speaks here who spoke in the preceding chapter. There she represented herself as manifest in all the works of God in the natural world; all being constructed according to counsels proceeding from an infinite understanding. Here, she represents herself as the great potentate, who was to rule all that she had constructed, and having an immense family to provide for, had made an abundant provision, and calls all to partake of it. This, says Calmet, is the continuation of the parable begun in the preceding chapter, where wisdom is represented as a venerable lady, whose real beauties and solid promises are opposed to the false allurements of Pleasure, who was represented in the seventh chapter under the idea of a debauched and impudent woman. This one, to draw young people into her snares, describes the perfumes, the bed, and the festival which she has prepared. Wisdom acts in the same way: but, instead of the debauchery, the false pleasures, and the criminal connections which pleasure had promised, offers her guests a strong, well-built, magnificent palace, chaste and solid pleasures, salutary instructions, and a life crowned with blessedness. This is the sum and the substance of the parable; but as in the preceding part, so in this, men have produced strange creatures of their own brain by way of explanation. One specimen of this mode of interpretation may suffice.

[¶7] The house built by wisdom is the holy humanity of Jesus Christ; the seven pillars are the seven sacraments, or the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, or the whole of the apostles, preachers, and ministers of the Church; the slain beasts are the sacrifice of Christ's body upon the cross; and the bread and mingled wine are the bread and wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper! - Fathers and Doctors.

[¶8] If we have recourse to any other particulars than those given above in the summary of the chapter, let us follow the first part of the parable, where wisdom is represented as laying the plan of the creation; and then perhaps we may say with safety, that wisdom, having produced the grand ichnopraph or ground plot of the whole, with all the requisite elevations and specifications of materials, comes to show us, in this part, that the whole has been constructed on this plan; and specifies the end for which this august building has been raised.

### Verse 1

[¶10] Wisdom hath builded her house - The eternal counsel of God has framed the universe.

[¶11] She hath hewn out her seven pillars - Every thing has been so constructed as to exhibit a scene of grandeur, stability, and durableness.

### Verse 2

[¶13] She hath killed her beasts - God has made the most ample provision for the innumerable tribes of animal and intellectual beings, which people the whole vortex of created nature.

### Verse 3

[¶15] She hath sent forth her maidens - The wisdom of God has made use of the most proper means to communicate Divine knowledge to the inhabitants of the earth; as a good and gracious Creator wills to teach them whence they came, how they are supported, whither they are going, and for what end they were formed. It is a custom to the present day, in Asiatic countries, to send their invitations to guests by a company of females, preceded by eunuchs: they go to the doors of the invited, and deliver their message.

### Verse 4

[¶17] Whoso is simple - Let the young, heedless, and giddy attend to my teaching.

[¶18] Him that wanteth understanding - Literally, he that wanteth a heart; who is without couraye, is feeble and fickle, and easily drawn aside from the holy commandment.

### Verse 5

[¶20] Come, eat of my bread - Not only receive my instructions, but act according to my directions.

[¶21] Drink of the wine - I have mingled - Enter into my counsels; be not contented with superficial knowledge on any subject, where any thing deeper may be attained. Go by the streams to the fountain head. Look into the principles on which they were formed; investigate their nature, examine their properties, acquaint thyself with their relations, connections, influences, and various uses. See the skill power, and goodness of God in their creation. And when thou hast learned all within thy reach, know that thou knowest but little of the manifold wisdom of God. Let what thou hast learned humble thee, by showing thee how very little thou dost know. Thou hast drunk of the provided wine; but that wine was mingled with water, for God will hide pride from man. He dwells only on the surface of religious and philosophical learning, who does not perceive and feel that he is yet but a child in knowledge; that he see through a glass darkly; that he perceives men like trees walking; and that there are lengths, breadths, depths, and heights, in the works and ways of God, which it will require an eternity to fathom. Here below the pure wine is mingled with water: but this is God's work. Yet there is enough; do not therefore be contented with a little. To this subject the words of the poet may be well applied: -

[¶22] A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

[¶23] For scanty draughts intoxicate the brain,

[¶24] But drinking largely sobers us again.

[¶25] Pope

[¶26] Among the ancient Jews, Greek, and Romans, wine was rarely drank without being mingled with water; and among ancient writers we find several ordinances for this. Some direct three parts of water to one of wine; some five parts; and Pliny mentions some wines that required twenty waters: but the most common proportions appear to have been three parts of water to two of wine. But probably the יין מסך yayin masach, mingled wine, was wine mingled, not with water, to make it weaker; but with spices and other ingredients to make it stronger. The ingredients were honey, myrrh, mandragora, opium, and such like, which gave it not only an intoxicating but stupifying quality also. Perhaps the mixed wine here may mean wine of the strongest and best quality, that which was good to cheer and refresh the heart of man.

[¶27] If we consider the mixed wine as meaning this strong wine, then the import of the metaphor will be, a thorough investigation of the works of God will invigorate the soul, strengthen all the mental powers, enlarge their capacity, and enable the mind to take the most exalted views of the wonders of God's skill manifested in the operations of his hand.

### Verse 6

[¶29] Forsake the foolish - For the companion of fools must be a fool.

[¶30] And live - Answer the end for which thou wert born.

### Verse 7

[¶32] He that reproveth a scorner - לץ lets, the person who mocks at sacred things; the libertine, the infidel; who turns the most serious things into ridicule, and, by his wit, often succeeds in rendering the person who reproves him ridiculous. Wisdom seems here to intimate that it is vain to attempt by reproof to amend such: and yet we must not suffer sin upon our neighbor; at all hazards, we must deliver our own soul. But no reproof should be given to any, but in the spirit of love and deep concern; and when they contradict and blaspheme, leave them to God.

### Verse 9

[¶34] Give instruction to a wise man - Literally give to the wise, and he will be wise. Whatever you give to such, they reap profit from it. They are like the bee, they extract honey from every flower.

### Verse 10

[¶36] The fear of the Lord - See on [Pro 1:7] (note). The knowledge of the holy; קדשים kedoshim, of the holy ones: Sanctorum, of the saints - Vulgate. boulh agiwn, the counsel of the holy persons.

### Verse 11

[¶38] For by me thy days shall be multiplied - Vice shortens human life, by a necessity of consequence: and by the same, righteousness lengthens it. There is a long addition here in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate: "He who trusts in falsity feeds on the winds; and is like him who chases the fowls of heaven. He forsakes the way of his own vineyard, and errs from the paths of his own inheritance. He enters also into lonely and desert places, and into a land abandoned to thirst; and his hands collect that which yieldeth no fruit."

### Verse 12

[¶40] If thou be wise - It is thy own interest to be religious. Though thy example may be very useful to thy neighbors and friends, yet the chief benefit is to thyself. But if thou scorn - refuse to receive - the doctrines of wisdom, and die in thy sins, thou alone shalt suffer the vengeance of an offended God.

### Verse 13

[¶42] A foolish woman is clamorous - Vain, empty women, are those that make most noise. And she that is full of clamor, has generally little or no sense. We have had this character already, see [Pro 7:11]. The translation of the Septuagint is very remarkable: Γυνη αφρων και θρασεια, ενδεης ψωμου γινεται, "A lewd and foolish woman shall be in need of a morsel of bread."

### Verse 14

[¶44] For she sitteth at the door of her house - Her conduct here marks at once her folly, impudence, and poverty. See above on [Pro 7:6] (note), etc., where the reader will find a similar character.

## 719. Proverbs · 14 of 46

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### Verse 16

[¶1] Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither - Folly or pleasure here personified, uses the very same expressions as employed by Wisdom, [Pro 9:4]. Wisdom says, "Let the simple turn in to me." No, says Folly, "Let the simple turn in to me." If he turn in to Wisdom, his folly shall be taken away and he shall become wise; if he turn in to Foliy, his darkness will be thickened, and his folly will remain.

[¶2] Wisdom sets up her school to instruct the ignorant:

[¶3] Folly sets her school up next door, to defeat the designs of Wisdom.

[¶4] Thus the saying of the satirist appears to be verified: - "Wherever God erects a house of prayer,

[¶5] The devil surely builds a chapel there.

[¶6] And it is found upon examination,

[¶7] The latter has the larger congregation."

[¶8] De Foe.

### Verse 17

[¶10] Stolen waters are sweet - I suppose this to be a proverbial mode of expression, importing that illicit pleasures are sweeter than those which are legal The meaning is easy to be discerned; and the conduct of multitudes shows that they are ruled by this adage. On it are built all the adulterous intercourses in the land.

### Verse 18

[¶12] But he knoweth not that the dead are there - See on [Pro 2:18] (note). He does not know that it was in this way the first apostates from God and truth walked. רפאים rephaim; gigantev, the Giants - Septuagint. The sons of men, the earth-born, to distinguish them from the sons of God, those who were born from above. See the notes on [Gen 6:1], etc.

[¶13] Her guests are in the depths of hell - Those who have been drawn out of the way of understanding by profligacy have in general lost their lives, if not their souls, by their folly. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic make a long addition to this verse: "But draw thou back, that thou mayest not die in this place; neither fix thy eyes upon her; so shalt thou pass by those strange waters. But abstain thou from strange waters, and drink not of another's fountain, that thou mayest live a long time, and that years may be added to thy life." Of this addition there is nothing in the Hebrew, the Chaldee, or the Vulgate, as now printed: but in the editio princeps are the following words: Qui enim applicabitur illi descendet ad inferos; nam qui abscesserit ab ea salvabitur. These words were in the copy from which my old MS. Bible has been made, as the following version proves: Who forsoth schal ben joyned to hir, schal falle doun on to hell: for whi he that goth awai fro hir, schal be saved. Three of my own MSS. have the same reading.

### Introduction

[¶15] It is impossible to give summaries of such chapters as these, where almost every verse contains a separate subject. Our common version not being able to exhibit the contents as usual, simply says, "From this chapter to the five and twentieth are sundry observations upon moral virtues, and their opposite vices." In general the wise man states in this chapter the difference between the wise and the foolish, the righteous and the wicked, the diligent and the idle. He speaks also of love and hatred, of the good and the evil tongue, or of the slanderer and the peace-maker.

### Verse 1

[¶17] The proverbs of Solomon - Some ancient MSS. of the Vulgate have Proverbiorum liber secundus, "The second book of the Proverbs." The preceding nine chapters can only be considered as an introduction, if indeed they may be said to make even a part, of the proverbs of Solomon, which appear to commence only at the tenth chapter.

[¶18] A wise son maketh a glad father - The parallels in this and several of the succeeding chapters are those which Bishop Lowth calls the antithetic; when two lines correspond with each other by an opposition of terms and sentiments; when the second is contrasted with the first; sometimes in expression, sometimes in sense only. Accordingly the degrees of antithesis are various; from an exact contraposition of word to word, through a whole sentence, down to a general disparity, with something of a contrariety in the two propositions, as: -

[¶19] A wise son rejoiceth in his father.

[¶20] But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.

[¶21] Where every word has its opposite; for the terms father and mother are, as the logicians say, relatively opposite.

### Verse 2

[¶23] Treasures of wickedness - Property gained by wicked means.

[¶24] Delivered from death - Treasures gained by robbery often bring their possessors to an untimely death; but those gained by righteous dealing bring with them no such consequences.

### Verse 3

[¶26] But he casteth away the substance of the wicked - But instead of רשעים reshaim, the wicked, בוגדים bogedim, hypocrites, or perfidious persons, is the reading of twelve or fourteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and some editions; but it is not acknowledged by any of the ancient versions.

[¶27] The righteous have God for their feeder; and because of his infinite bounty, they can never famish for want of the bread of life. On the contrary, the wicked are often, in the course of his providence, deprived of the property of which they make a bad use.

### Verse 4

[¶29] He becometh poor - God has ordered, in the course of his providence, that he who will not work shall not eat. And he always blesses the work of the industrious man.

### Verse 5

[¶31] He that gathereth in summer - All the work of the field should be done in the season suitable to it. If summer and harvest be neglected, in vain does a man expect the fruits of autumn.

### Verse 6

[¶33] Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked - As blessings shall be on the head of the just, so the violence of the wicked shall cover their face with shame and confusion. Their own violent dealings shall be visited upon them. The mouth forsoth of unpitious men wickidnesse covereth. - Old MS. Bible. "The forehead of the ungodly is past shame, and presumptuous." - Coverdale.

### Verse 7

[¶35] The memory of the just is blessed - Or, is a blessing.

[¶36] But the name of the wicked shall rot - This is another antithesis; but there are only two antithetic terms, for memory and name are synonymous - Lowth. The very name of the wicked is as offensive as putrid carrion.

### Verse 8

[¶38] A prating fool shall fall - This clause is repeated in the tenth verse. The wise man will receive the commandment: but the shallow blabbing fool shall be cast down. See [Pro 10:10].

### Verse 9

[¶40] He that walketh uprightly - The upright man is always safe; he has not two characters to support; he goes straight forward, and is never afraid of detection, because he has never been influenced by hypocrisy or deceit.

### Verse 10

[¶42] He that winketh with the eye - Instead of the latter clause, on which see [Pro 10:8], the Septuagint has, ὁ δε ελεγχων μετα παῥρησιας ειρηνοποιει· "but he that reproveth with freedom, maketh peace." This is also the reading of the Syriac and Arabic. A faithful open reproving of sin is more likely to promote the peace of society than the passing it by slightly, or taking no notice of it; for if the wicked turn to God at the reproof, the law of peace will soon be established in his heart, and the law of kindness will flow from his tongue.

### Verse 11

[¶44] The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life - מקור חיים mekor chaiyim, is the vein of lives; an allusion to the great aorta, which conveys the blood from the heart to every art of the body. The latter clause of this verse is the same with that of [Pro 10:6].

## 720. Proverbs · 15 of 46

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Hatred stirreth up strifes - It seeks for occasions to provoke enmity. It delights in broils. On the contrary, love conciliates; removes aggravations; puts the best construction on every thing; and pours water, not oil, upon the flame.

### Verse 13

[¶3] A rod is for the back of him - He that can learn, and will not learn, should be made to learn. The rod is a most powerful instrument of knowledge. Judiciously applied, there is a lesson of profound wisdom in every twig.

### Verse 14

[¶5] Wise men lay up knowledge - They keep secret every thing that has a tendency to disturb domestic or public peace; but the foolish man blabs all out, and produces much mischief. Think much, speak little, and always think before you speak. This will promote your own peace and that of your neighbor.

### Verse 15

[¶7] The rich man's wealth is his strong city - Behold a mystery in providence; there is not a rich man on earth but becomes such by means of the poor! Property comes from the labor of the poor, and the king himself is served of the field. How unjust, diabolically so, is it to despise or oppress those by whose labor all property is acquired!

[¶8] The destruction of the poor is their poverty - A man in abject poverty never arises out of this pit. They have no nucleus about which property may aggregate. The poet spoke well: -

[¶9] Haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat

[¶10] Res angusta domi. "They rarely emerge from poverty, whose exertions are cramped by want at home."

### Verse 16

[¶12] The labor of the righteous - The good man labors that he may be able to support life; this is his first object: and then to have something to divide with the poor; this is his next object.

[¶13] The fruit of the wicked to sin - This man lives to eat and drink, and his property he spends in riot and excess. God's blessings are cursed to him.

### Verse 17

[¶15] He is in the way of life - The truly religious man accumulates knowledge that he may the better know how to live to God, and do most good among men.

### Verse 18

[¶17] He that hideth - This is a common case. How many, when full of resentment, and deadly hatred, meditating revenge and cruelty, and sometimes even murder, have pretended that they thought nothing of the injury they had sustained; had passed by the insult, etc.! Thus lying lips covered the malevolence of a wicked heart.

### Verse 19

[¶19] In the multitude of words - It is impossible to speak much, and yet speak nothing but truth; and injure no man's character in the mean while.

### Verse 20

[¶21] The heart of the wicked is little worth - כמעט kimat, is like little or nothing; or is like dross, while the tongue of the just is like silver. A sinner's heart is worth nothing, and is good for nothing; and yet because it is his most hidden part, he vaunts of its honesty, goodness, etc.! Yes, yes; it is very honest and good, only the devil is in it! that is all.

### Verse 22

[¶23] The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich - Whatever we receive in the way of providence, has God's blessing in it, and will do us good. Cares, troubles, and difficulties come with all property not acquired in this way; but God's blessing gives simple enjoyment, and levies no tax upon the comfort.

### Verse 23

[¶25] It is a sport to a fool to do mischief - What a millstone weight of iniquity hangs about the necks of most of the jesters. facetious and witty people! "How many lies do they tell in jest, to go to the devil in earnest!"

### Verse 24

[¶27] The fear of the wicked - The wicked is full of fears and alarms; and all that he has dreaded and more than he has dreaded, shall come upon him. The righteous is always desiring more of the salvation of God, and God will exceed even his utmost desires.

### Verse 25

[¶29] As the whirlwind passeth - As tornadoes that sweep every thing away before them; so shall the wrath of God sweep away the wicked; it shall leave him neither branch nor root. But the righteous, being built on the eternal foundation, יסוד עולם yesod olam, shall never be shaken.

### Verse 26

[¶31] As vinegar to the teeth - The acid softening and dissolving the alkali of the bone, so as to impair their texture, and render them incapable of masticating; and as smoke affects the eyes, irritating their tender vessels, so as to give pain and prevent distinct vision; so the sluggard, the lounging, thriftless messenger, who never returns in time with the desired answer.

### Verse 28

[¶33] The expectation of the wicked shall perish - A wicked man is always imposing on himself by the hope of God's mercy and final happiness; and he continues hoping, till he dies without receiving that mercy which alone would entitle him to that glory.

### Verse 29

[¶35] The way of the Lord is strength - In the path of obedience the upright man ever finds his strength renewed; the more he labors the stronger he grows. The same sentiment as that in [Isa 40:31].

### Verse 30

[¶37] The righteous shall never be removed - Because he is built on the eternal foundation. See on [Pro 10:25] (note).

### Verse 31

[¶39] The froward tongue shall be cut out - This probably alludes to the punishment of cutting out the tongue for blasphemy, treasonable speeches, profane swearing, or such like. The tunge of schrewis schal perishen. - Old MS. Bible. Were the tongue of every shrew or scold to be extracted, we should soon have much less noise in the world.

### Verse 32

[¶41] The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable - And what they believe to be most pleasing and most profitable, that they speak, but the wicked man knows as well what is perverse, and that he speaketh forth. As the love of God is not in his heart, so the law of kindness is not on his lips.

### Introduction

[¶43] A parallel of the advantages of the righteous and wise, opposed to the miseries of the wicked and the foolish. True and false riches.

## 721. Proverbs · 16 of 46

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### Verse 1

[¶1] A false balance is abomination - This refers to the balance itself deceitfully constructed, so that it is sooner turned at one end than at the other. This is occasioned by one end of the beam being longer than the other.

[¶2] But a just weight - אבן שלמה eben shelemah, the perfect stone probably because weights were first made of stone; see the law, [Deu 25:13-16] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶4] When pride cometh - The proud man thinks much more of himself than any other can do; and, expecting to be treated according to his own supposed worth, which treatment he seldom meets with, he is repeatedly mortified, ashamed, confounded, and rendered indignant.

[¶5] With the lowly - צנועים tsenuim, ταπεινων, the humble, the modest, as opposed to the proud, referred to in the first clause. The humble man looks for nothing but justice; has the meanest opinion of himself; expects nothing in the way of commendation or praise; and can never be disappointed but in receiving praise, which he neither expects nor desires.

### Verse 4

[¶7] Riches profit not in the day of wrath - Among men they can do all things; but they cannot purchase the remission of sins, nor turn aside the wrath of God when that is poured out upon the opulent transgressor.

### Verse 7

[¶9] When a wicked man dieth - Hope is a great blessing to man in his present state of trial and suffering; because it leads him to expect a favorable termination of his ills. But hope was not made for the wicked; and yet they are the very persons that most abound in it! They hope to be saved, and get at last to the kingdom of God; though they have their face towards perdition, and refuse to turn. But their hope goes no farther than the grave. There the wicked man's expectation is cut off, and his hope perishes. But to the saint, the penitent, and the cross-bearers in general, what a treasure is hope! What a balm through life!

### Verse 8

[¶11] The wicked cometh in his stead - Often God makes this distinction; in public calamities and in sudden accidents he rescues the righteous, and leaves the wicked, who has filled up the measure of his iniquities, to be seized by the hand of death. Justice, then, does its own work; for mercy has been rejected.

### Verse 9

[¶13] A hypocrite with his mouth - חנף chaneph might be better translated infidel than hypocrite. The latter is one that pretends to religion; that uses it for secular purposes. The former is one who disbelieves Divine revelation, and accordingly is polluted, and lives in pollution. This is properly the force of the original word. Such persons deal in calumny and lies, and often thus destroy the character of their neighbor. Besides, they are very zealous in propagating their own infidel notions; and thus, by this means, destroy their neighbor; but the experimental knowledge which the just have of God and his salvation prevents them from being ensnared.

### Verse 10

[¶15] When it goeth well - An upright, pious, sensible man is a great blessing to the neighborhood where he resides, by his example, his advice, and his prayers. The considerate prize him on these accounts, and rejoice in his prosperity. But when the wicked perish, who has been a general curse by the contagion of his example and conversation, there is not only no regret expressed for his decease, but a general joy because God has removed him.

### Verse 12

[¶17] He that is void of wisdom - A foolish man is generally abundant in his censures; he dwells on the defects of his neighbor, and is sure to bring them into the most prominent view. But a man of understanding - a prudent, sensible man, hides those defects wherever he can, and puts the most charitable construction on those which he cannot conceal.

### Verse 13

[¶19] A talebearer - הולך רכיל holech rachil, the walking busybody, the trader in scandal.

[¶20] Revealeth secrets - Whatever was confided to him he is sure to publish abroad. The word means a hawker, or travelling chapman. Such are always great newsmongers; and will tell even their own secrets, rather than have nothing to say.

### Verse 15

[¶22] He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it - He shall find evil upon evil in it. See on [Pro 6:1] (note).

### Verse 16

[¶24] A gracious woman retaineth honor - Instead of this clause, the Septuagint have, Γυνη ευχαριστος εγειρει ανδρι δοζαν, "A gracious woman raiseth up honor to the man;" Θρονος δε ατιμιας γυνη μισουσα δικαια, "But she that hateth righteous things is a throne of dishonor." A good wife is an honor to her husband; and a bad wife is her husband's reproach: if this be so, how careful should a man be whom he marries!

### Verse 17

[¶26] The merciful man doeth good to his own soul - Every gracious disposition is increased while a man is exercised in showing mercy. No man can show an act of disinterested mercy without benefiting his own soul, by improving his moral feeling.

[¶27] But he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh - We seldom see a peevish, fretful, vindictive man either in good health, or good plight of body. I have often heard it observed of such, "He frets his flesh off his bones."

### Verse 18

[¶29] Worketh a deceitful work - An unstable work; nothing is durable that he does, except his crimes.

### Verse 19

[¶31] Righteousness tendeth to life - True godliness promotes health, and is the best means of lengthening out life; but wicked men live not out half their days.

### Verse 21

[¶33] Though hand join in hand - Let them confederate as they please, to support each other, justice will take care that they escape not punishment. The Hindoos sometimes ratify an engagement by one person laying his right hand on the hand of another - Ward.

### Verse 22

[¶35] A jewel of gold in a swine's snout - That is, beauty in a woman destitute of good breeding and modest carriage, is as becoming as a gold ring on the snout of a swine. Coverdale translates thus: "A fayre woman without discrete maners, is like a ringe of golde in a swyne's snoute." In Asiatic countries the nose jewel is very common: to this the text alludes.

### Verse 24

[¶37] There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth - The bountiful man, who gives to the poor, never turning away his face from any one in distress, the Lord blesses his property and the bread is multiplied in his hand. To the same purpose the following verse.

### Verse 25

[¶39] The liberal soul shall be made fat - He who gives to the distressed, in the true spirit of charity, shall get a hundred fold from God's mercy. How wonderful is the Lord! He gives the property, gives the heart to use it aright, and recompenses the man for the deed though all the fruit was found from himself!

[¶40] He that watereth - A man who distributes in the right spirit gets more good himself than the poor man does who receives the bounty. Thus it is more blessed to give than to receive.

### Verse 26

[¶42] He that withholdeth corn - Who refuses to sell because he hopes for a dearth, and then he can make his own price.

[¶43] The people shall curse him - Yes, and God shall curse him also; and if he do not return and repent, he will get God's curse, and the curse of the poor, which will be a canker in his money during time, and in his soul throughout eternity.

### Verse 29

[¶45] Shalt inherit the wind - He who dissipates his property by riotous living, shall be as unsatisfied as he who attempts to feed upon air.

## 722. Proverbs · 17 of 46

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### Verse 30

[¶1] The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life - עץ חיים ets chaiyim, "the tree of lives." It is like that tree which grew in the paradise of God; increasing the bodily and mental vigor of those who ate of it.

[¶2] He that winneth souls is wise - Wisdom seeks to reclaim the wanderers; and he who is influenced by wisdom will do the same.

### Verse 31

[¶4] Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth, etc. - The Septuagint, Syrian, and Arabic read this verse as follows: "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" And this St, Peter quotes literatim, [1Pet 4:18] (note), where see the note.

### Introduction

[¶6] Of the benefit of instruction, and the cultivation of piety. The virtuous woman. The different lot of the just and unjust. The humane man. The industrious man. The fool and the wise man. The uncharitable. The excellence of the righteous. The slothful is in want. Righteousness leads to life, etc.

### Verse 1

[¶8] Whoso loveth instruction - מוסר musar, discipline or correction, loves knowledge; for correction is the way to knowledge.

[¶9] But he that hateth reproof is brutish - בער baar, he is a bear; and expects no more benefit from correction than the ox does from the goad.

### Verse 2

[¶11] A good man obtaineth favor - First, it is God who makes him good; for every child of Adam is bad till the grace of God changes his heart. Secondly, while he walks in the path of obedience he increases in goodness, and consequently in the favor of the Lord.

### Verse 3

[¶13] A man shall not be established by wickedness - Evil is always variable: it has no fixed principle, except the root that is in the human heart; and even that is ever assuming new forms. Nothing is permanent but goodness; and that is unchangeable, because it comes from God. The produce of goodness is permanent, because it has God's blessing in it: the fruit of wickedness, or the property procured by wickedness, is transitory, because it has God's curse in it. The righteous has his root in God; and therefore he shall not be moved.

### Verse 4

[¶15] A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband - אשת חיל esheth chayil, a strong woman. Our word virtue (virtus) is derived from vir, a man; and as man is the noblest of God's creatures, virtue expresses what is becoming to man; what is noble, courageous, and dignified: and as vir, a man, comes from vis, power or strength; so it implies what is strong and vigorous in principle: and as in uncivilized life strength and courage were considered the very highest, because apparently the most necessary, of all virtues; hence the term itself might have become the denomination of all excellent moral qualities; and is now applied to whatever constitutes the system of morality and moral duties. In some parts of the world, however, where arts and sciences have made little progress, strength is one of the first qualifications of a wife, where the labors of the field are appointed to them. It is not an uncommon sight in different parts of Africa, to see the wives (queens) of the kings and chiefs going out in the morning to the plantations, with their mattock in their hand, and their youngest child on their back; and when arrived at the ground, lay the young prince or princess upon the earth, which when weary of lying on one side, will roll itself on the other, and thus continue during the course of the day, without uttering a single whimper, except at the intervals in which its mother gives it suck; she being employed all the while in such labor as we in Europe generally assign to our horses. In these cases, the strong wife is the highest acquisition; and is a crown to her husband, though he be king of Bonny or Calabar. It is certain that in ancient times the women in Judea did some of the severest work in the fields, such as drawing water from the wells, and watering the flocks, etc. On this account, I think, the words may be taken literally; and especially when we add another consideration, that a woman healthy, and of good muscular powers, is the most likely to produce and properly rear up a healthy offspring; and children of this kind are a crown to their parents.

[¶16] Is as rottenness in his bones - Does not this refer to a woman irregular in her manners, who by her incontinence not only maketh her husband ashamed, but contracts and communicates such diseases as bring rottenness into the bones? I think so. And I think this was the view taken of the text by Coverdale, who translates thus: "A stedfast woman is a crowne unto her hussbonde: but she that behaveth herself unhonestly is a corruption in his bones."

### Verse 7

[¶18] The wicked are overthrown - Seldom does God give such a long life or numerous offspring.

[¶19] But the house of the righteous shall stand - God blesses their progeny, and their families continue long in the earth; whereas the wicked seldom have many generations in a direct line. This is God's mercy, that the entail of iniquity may be in some sort cut off, so that the same vices may not be strengthened by successive generations. For generally the bad root produces not only a bad plant, but one worse than itself.

### Verse 9

[¶21] He that is despised, and hath a servant - I believe the Vulgate gives the true sense of this verse: Melior est pauper, et sufficiens sibi; quam gloriosus, et indigens pane. "Better is the poor man who provides for himself, than the proud who is destitute of bread." The versions in general agree in this sense. This needs no comment. There are some who, through pride of birth, etc., would rather starve, than put their hands to menial labor. Though they may be lords, how much to be preferred is the simple peasant, who supports himself and family by the drudgery of life!

### Verse 10

[¶23] A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast - One principal characteristic of a holy man is mercy: cruelty is unknown to him; and his benevolence extends to the meanest of the brute creation. Pity rules the heart of a pious man; he can do nothing that is cruel. He considers what is best for the comfort, ease health, and life of the beast that serves him, and he knows that God himself careth for oxen: and one of the ten commandments provides a seventh part of time to be allotted for the rest of laboring beasts as well as for man.

[¶24] I once in my travels met with the Hebrew of this clause on the sign board of a public inn: יודע צדיק נפש בהמתו yodea tsaddik nephesh behemto. "A righteous man considereth the life of his beast;" which, being very appropriate, reminded me that I should feed my horse.

[¶25] The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel - אחזרי achzari, are violent, without mercy, ruthless. The wicked, influenced by Satan, can show no other disposition than what is in their master. If they appear at any time merciful, it is a cloak which they use to cover purposes of cruelty. To accomplish its end, iniquity will assume any garb, speak mercifully, extol benevolence, sometimes even give to the poor! But, timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes. The cry of fire at midnight, provided it be in another's dwelling, is more congenial to their souls than the; cry of mercy. Look at the human fiends, "out-heroding Herod," in horse races, bruising matches, and cock fights, and in wars for the extension of territory, and the purposes of ambition. The hell is yet undescribed, that is suited to such monsters in cruelty.

### Verse 11

[¶27] He that tilleth his land - God's blessing will be in the labor of the honest agriculturist.

[¶28] But he that followeth vain persons - He who, while he should be cultivating his ground, preparing for a future crop, or reaping his harvest, associates with fowlers, coursers of hares, hunters of foxes, or those engaged in any champaign amusements, is void of understanding; and I have known several such come to beggary.

[¶29] To this verse the Septuagint add the following clause: 'ov estin en oinwn diatribaiv, en toiv eautou ocurwmasi kataleiqei atimian. "He who is a boon companion in banquets, shall leave dishonor in his own fortresses." This has been copied by the Vulgate and the Arabic. That is The man who frequents the ale-house enriches that, while he impoverishes his own habitation.

### Verse 12

[¶31] The wicked desireth the net of evil men - They applaud their ways, and are careful to imitate them in their wiles.

### Verse 13

[¶33] The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips - A man who deals in lies and false oaths will sooner or later be found out to his own ruin. There is another proverb as true as this: A liar had need of a good memory; for as the truth is not in him, he says and unsays, and often contradicts himself.

### Verse 16

[¶35] A fool's wrath is presently known - We have a proverb very like this, and it will serve for illustration: -

[¶36] A fool's bolt is soon shot.

[¶37] A weak-minded man has no self-government; he is easily angered, and generally speaks whatever comes first to his mind.

### Verse 18

[¶39] There is that speaketh - Instead of בוטה boteh, blabbing out, blustering, several MSS. have בוטח boteach, Trusting: and instead of כמדקרות kemadkeroth, As the piercings, seven MSS., with the Complutensian Polyglot, have במדקרות bemadkeroth, In the piercings. "There is that trusteth in the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health." But I suppose the former to be the true reading.

### Verse 19

[¶41] A lying tongue is but for a moment - Truth stands for ever; because its foundation is indestructible: but falsehood may soon be detected; and, though it gain credit for a while, it had that credit because it was supposed to be truth.

### Verse 21

[¶43] There shall no evil happen to the just - No, for all things work together for good to them that love God. Whatever occurs to a righteous man God turns to his advantage. But, on the other hand, the wicked are filled with mischief: they are hurt, grieved, and wounded, by every occurrence; and nothing turns to their profit.

## 723. Proverbs · 18 of 46

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### Verse 23

[¶1] A prudent man concealeth knowledge - "If a fool hold his peace he may pass for a wise man." I have known men of some learning, so intent on immediately informing a company how well cultivated their minds were, that they have passed either for insignificant pedants or stupid asses.

### Verse 24

[¶3] The hand of the diligent shall bear rule - And why? because by his own industry he is independent; and every such person is respected wherever found.

### Verse 25

[¶5] Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop - Sorrow of heart, hopeless love, or a sense of God's displeasure - these prostrate the man, and he becomes a child before them.

[¶6] But a good word maketh it glad - A single good or favorable word will remove despondency; and that word, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee," will instantly remove despair.

### Verse 26

[¶8] The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor - That is, if the neighbor be a wicked man. The spirit of the proverb lies here: The Poor righteous man is more excellent than his sinful neighbor, though affluent and noble. The Syriac has it, "The righteous deviseth good to his neighbor." A late commentator has translated it, "The righteous explore their pastures." How מרעהו can be translated Their pastures I know not; but none of the versions understood it in this way. The Vulgate is rather singular: Qui negligit damnum propter amicum, justus est. "He who neglects or sustains a loss for the sake of his friend, is a just man." The Septuagint is insufferable: "The well-instructed righteous man shall be his own friend." One would hope these translators meant not exclusively; he should love his neighbor as himself.

### Verse 27

[¶10] The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting - Because he is a slothful man, he does not hunt for prey; therefore gets none, and cannot roast, that he may eat. There is some obscurity in the original on which the versions cast little light. Coverdale translates the whole verse thus: "A discreatfull man schal fynde no vauntage: but he that is content with what he hath, is more worth than golde." My old MS. Bible: The gylful man schal not fynd wynnynge: and the substance of a man schal ben the pris of gold.

[¶11] By translating hymr remiyah the deceitful, instead of the slothful man, which appears to be the genuine meaning of the word, we may obtain a good sense, as the Vulgate has done: "The deceitful man shall not find gain; but the substance of a (just) man shall be the price of gold." But our common version, allowing hymr remiyah to be translated fraudulent, which is its proper meaning, gives the best sense: "The fraudulent man roasteth not that which he took in hunting," the justice of God snatching from his mouth what he had acquired unrighteously.

[¶12] But the substance of a diligent man - One who by honest industry acquires all his property - is precious, because it has the blessing of God in it.

### Verse 28

[¶14] In the way of righteousness is life - חיים chaiyim, lives; life temporal, and life eternal.

[¶15] And in the pathway thereof there is no death - Not only do the general precepts and promises of God lead to life eternal, and promote life temporal; but every duty, every act of faith, patience of hope, and labor of love, though requiring much self-abasement, self-denial, and often an extension of corporal strength, all lead to life. For in every case, in every particular, "the path of duty is the way of safety." The latter clause is only a repetition of the sense of the former.

### Introduction

[¶17] Various moral sentences; the wise child; continence of speech; of the poor rich man and the rich poor man; ill-gotten wealth; delay of what is hoped for; the bad consequences of refusing instruction; providing for one's children; the necessity of correcting them, etc.

### Verse 1

[¶19] A wise son heareth his father's instruction - The child that has had a proper nurturing, will profit by his father's counsels; but the child that is permitted to fulfill its own will and have its own way, will jest at the reproofs of its parents.

### Verse 3

[¶21] He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life - How often have the foolish, headstrong, and wicked, forfeited their lives by the treasonable or blasphemous words they have spoken! The government of the tongue is a rare but useful talent.

[¶22] But he that openeth wide his lips - He that puts no bounds to his loquacity, speaks on every subject, and gives his judgment and opinion on every matter. It has often been remarked that God has, given us two Eyes, that we may See much; two Ears, that we may Hear much; but has given us but One tongue, and that fenced in with teeth, to indicate that though we hear and see much, we should speak but little.

### Verse 4

[¶24] The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing - We often hear many religious people expressing a desire to have more of the Divine life, and yet never get forward in it. How is this? The reason is, they desire, but do not stir themselves up to lay hold upon the Lord. They are always learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They seek to enter in at the strait gate, but are not able, because they do not strive.

### Verse 7

[¶26] There is that maketh himself rich - That labors hard to acquire money, yet hath nothing; his excessive covetousness not being satisfied with what he possesses, nor permitting him to enjoy with comfort what he has acquired. The fable of the dog in the manger will illustrate this.

[¶27] There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches - "As poor," said St. Paul, "yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things." The former is the rich poor man; the latter is the poor rich man.

[¶28] As the words are here in the hithpael conjugation, which implies reflex action, or the action performed on one's self, and often signifies feigning or pretending to be what one is not, or not to be what one is; the words may be understood of persons who feign or pretend to be either richer or poorer than they really are, to accomplish some particular purpose. "There is that feigneth himself to be rich, yet hath nothing; there is that feigneth himself to be poor, yet hath great riches." Both these characters frequently occur in life.

### Verse 8

[¶30] The ransom of a man's life - Those who have riches have often much trouble with them; as they had much trouble to get them, so they have much trouble to keep them. In despotic countries, a rich man is often accused of some capital crime, and to save his life, though he may be quite innocent, is obliged to give up his riches; but the poor, in such countries, are put to no trouble.

### Verse 9

[¶32] The light of the righteous rejoiceth - They shall have that measure of prosperity which shall be best for them; but the wicked, howsoever prosperous for a time, shall be brought into desolation. Light and lamp in both cases may signify posterity. The righteous shall have a joyous posterity; but that of the wicked shall be cut off. So [1Kgs 11:36] : "And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light (נר ner, a lamp) always before me." [1Kgs 15:4] : "Nevertheless for David's sake did the Lord give them a lamp, to set up his son after him." See also [Psa 132:17], and several other places.

### Verse 10

[¶34] By pride cometh contention - Perhaps there is not a quarrel among individuals in private life, nor a war among nations, that does not proceed from pride and ambition. Neither man nor nation will be content to be less than another; and to acquire the wished-for superiority all is thrown into general confusion, both in public and private life. It was to destroy this spirit of pride, that Jesus was manifested in the extreme of humility and humiliation among men. The salvation of Christ is a deliverance from pride, and a being clothed with humility. As far as we are humble, so far we are saved.

### Verse 11

[¶36] Wealth gotten by vanity - Wealth that is not the result of honest industry and hard labor is seldom permanent. All fortunes acquired by speculation, lucky hits, and ministering to the pride or luxury of others, etc., soon become dissipated. They are not gotten in the way of Providence, and have not God's blessing, and therefore are not permanent.

### Verse 12

[¶38] Hope deferred maketh the heart sick - When once a good is discovered, want of it felt, strong desire for the possession excited, and the promise of attainment made on grounds unsuspected, so that the reality of the thing and the certainity of the promise are manifest, hope posts forward to realize the blessing. Delay in the gratification pains the mind; the increase of the delay prostrates and sickens the heart; and if delay sickens the heart, ultimate disappointment kills it. But when the thing desired, hoped for, and expected comes, it is a tree of life, עץ חיים ets chaiyim, "the tree of lives;" it comforts and invigorates both body and soul. To the tree of lives, in the midst of the gardens of paradise, how frequent are the allusions in the writings of Solomon, and in other parts of the Holy Scriptures! What deep, and perhaps yet unknown, mysteries were in this tree!

### Verse 13

[¶40] Whoso despiseth the word - The revelation which God has in his mercy given to man - shall be destroyed; for there is no other way of salvation but that which it points out.

[¶41] But he that feareth the commandment - That respects it so as to obey it, walking as this revelation directs - shall be rewarded; shall find it to be his highest interest, and shall be in peace or safety, as the Hebrew word ישלם may be translated.

### Verse 14

[¶43] The law of the wise is a fountain of life - Perhaps it would be better to translate, "The law is to the wise man a fountain of life." It is the same to him as the "vein of lives," מקור חיים mekor chaiyim, the great aorta which transmits the blood from the heart to every part of the body. There seems to be here an allusion to the garden of paradise, to the tree of lives, to the tempter, to the baleful issue of that temptation, and to the death entailed on man by his unwisely breaking the law of his God.

### Verse 16

[¶45] The way of transgressors is hard - Never was a truer saying; most sinners have more pain and difficulty to get their souls damned, than the righteous have, with all their cross-bearings, to get to the kingdom of heaven.

## 724. Proverbs · 19 of 46

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### Verse 17

[¶1] A wicked messenger - The Septuagint: basileuv yrasuev, a bold king; instead of מלאך malach, a messenger, they had read מלך melech, a king: but they are singular in this rendering; none of the other versions have it so. He that betrays the counsels of his government, or the interests of his country, will sooner or later fall into mischief; but he that faithfully and loyally fulfils his mission, shall produce honor and safety to the commonwealth.

### Verse 19

[¶3] The desire accomplished - See on [Pro 13:12] (note).

### Verse 20

[¶5] He that walketh with wise men shall be wise - To walk with a person implies love and attachment; and it is impossible not to imitate those we love. So we say, "Show me his company, and I'll tell you the man." Let me know the company he keeps, and I shall easily guess his moral character.

### Verse 22

[¶7] A good man leaveth an inheritance - He files many a prayer in heaven in their behalf, and his good example and advices are remembered and quoted from generation to generation. Besides, whatever property he left was honestly acquired, and well-gotten goods are permanent. The general experience of men shows this to be a common case; and that property ill-gotten seldom reaches to the third generation. This even the heathens observed. Hence:

[¶8] De male quaesitis non gaudet tertius haeres. "The third generation shall not possess the goods that have been unjustly acquired."

### Verse 23

[¶10] That is destroyed for want of judgment - O, how much of the poverty of the poor arises from their own want of management! They have little or no economy, and no foresight. When they get any thing, they speedily spend it; and a feast and a famine make the chief varieties of their life.

### Verse 24

[¶12] He that spareth his rod hateth his son - That is, if he hated him, he could not do him a greater disservice than not to correct him when his obstinacy or disobedience requires it. We have met with this subject already, and it is a favourite with Solomon. See [Psa 34:10] (note) and [Psa 37:3] (note).

[¶13] The Rev. Mr. Holden makes some sensible observations on this passage: "By the neglect of early correction the desires (passions) obtain ascendancy; the temper becomes irascible, peevish, querulous. Pride is nourished, humility destroyed, and by the habit of indulgence the mind is incapacitated to bear with firmness and equanimity the cares and sorrows, the checks and disappointments, which flesh is heir to."

### Verse 25

[¶15] To the satisfying of his soul - His desires are all moderate; he is contented with his circumstances, and is pleased with the lot which God is pleased to send. The wicked, though he use all shifts and expedients to acquire earthly good, not sticking even at rapine and wrong, is frequently in real want, and always dissatisfied with his portion. A contented mind is a continual feast. At such feasts he eats not.

### Introduction

[¶17] Various moral sentiments. The antithesis between wisdom and folly, and the different effects of each.

### Verse 1

[¶19] Every wise woman buildeth her house - By her prudent and industrious management she increases property in the family, furniture in the house, and food and raiment for her household. This is the true building of a house. The thriftless wife acts differently, and the opposite is the result. Household furniture, far from being increased, is dilapidated; and her household are ill-fed, ill-clothed, and worse educated.

### Verse 3

[¶21] The mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride - The reproofs of such a person are ill-judged and ill-timed, and generally are conveyed in such language as renders them not only ineffectual, but displeasing, and even irritating.

### Verse 4

[¶23] But much increase is by the strength of the ox - The ox is the most profitable of all the beasts used in husbandry. Except merely for speed, he is almost in every respect superior to the horse.

[¶24] 1. He is longer lived.

[¶25] 2. Scarcely liable to any diseases.

[¶26] 3. He is steady, and always pulls fair in his gears.

[¶27] 4. He lives, fattens, and maintains his strength on what a horse will not eat, and therefore is supported on one third the cost.

[¶28] 5. His manure is more profitable.

[¶29] 6. When he is worn out in his labor his flesh is good for the nourishment of man, his horns of great utility, and his hide almost invaluable.

[¶30] It might be added, he is little or no expense in shoeing, and his gears are much more simple, and much less expensive, than those of the horse. In all large farms oxen are greatly to be preferred to horses. Have but patience with this most patient animal, and you will soon find that there is much increase by the strength and labor of the ox.

### Verse 6

[¶32] A scorner seeketh wisdom - I believe the scorner means, in this book, the man that despises the counsel of God; the infidel. Such may seek wisdom; but he never can find it, because he does not seek it where it is to be found; neither in the teaching of God's Spirit, nor in the revelation of his will.

### Verse 7

[¶34] When thou perceivest not - the lips of knowledge - Instead of דעת daath, knowledge, several MSS. have שקר sheker, a lie. How this reading came I cannot conjecture. The meaning of the adage is plain: Never associate with a vain, empty fellow, when thou perceivest he can neither convey nor receive instruction.

### Verse 8

[¶36] Is to understand his way - Instead of הבין habin, to understand, הכין hachin, to Direct his way, is found in one MS. It makes a very good sense.

### Verse 9

[¶38] Fools make a mock at sin - And only fools would do so. But he that makes a sport of sinning, will find it no sport to suffer the vengeance of an eternal fire. Some learned men by their criticisms have brought this verse into embarrassments, out of which they were not able to extricate it. I believe we shall not come much nearer the sense than our present version does.

### Verse 10

[¶40] The heart knoweth his own bitterness - מרת נפשו morrath naphsho, "The bitterness of its soul." Under spiritual sorrow, the heart feels, the soul feels; all the animal nature feels and suffers. But when the peace of God is spoken to the troubled soul, the joy is indescribable; the whole man partakes of it. And a stranger to these religious feelings, to the travail of the soul, and to the witness of the Spirit, does not intermeddle with them; he does not understand them: indeed they may be even foolishness to him, because they are spiritually discerned.

### Verse 12

[¶42] There is a way which seemeth right unto a man - This may be his easily besetting sin, the sin of his constitution, the sin of his trade. Or it may be his own false views of religion: he may have an imperfect repentance, a false faith, a very false creed; and he may persuade himself that he is in the direct way to heaven. Many of the papists, when they were burning the saints of God in the flames at Smithfield, thought they were doing God service! And in the late Irish massacre, the more of the Protestants they piked to death, shot, or burnt, the more they believed they deserved of God's favor and their Church's gratitude. But cruelty and murder are the short road, the near way, to eternal perdition.

### Verse 13

[¶44] Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful - Many a time is a smile forced upon the face, when the heart is in deep distress. And it is a hard task to put on the face of mirth, when a man has a heavy heart.

## 725. Proverbs · 20 of 46

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### Verse 14

[¶1] The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways -

[¶2] 1. Who is the backslider? סוג sug.

[¶3] 1. The man who once walked in the ways of religion, but has withdrawn from them.

[¶4] 2. The man who once fought manfully against the world, the devil, and the flesh; but has retreated from the battle, or joined the enemy.

[¶5] 3. The man who once belonged to the congregation of the saints, but is now removed from them, and is set down in the synagogue of Satan.

[¶6] 2. But who is the backslider in Heart?

[¶7] 1. Not he who was surprised and overcome by the power of temptation, and the weakness of his own heart.

[¶8] 2. But he who drinks down iniquity with greediness.

[¶9] 3. Who gives cheerful way to the bent of his own nature, and now delights in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind.

[¶10] 4. Who loves sin as before he loved godliness.

[¶11] 3. What are his own ways? Folly, sin, disappointment, and death; with the apprehension of the wrath of God, and the sharp twingings of a guilty conscience.

[¶12] 4. What is implied in being filled with his own ways? Having his soul saturated with folly, sin, and disappointment. At last ending here below in death, and then commencing an eternal existence where the fire is not quenched, and under the influence of that worm that never dieth. Alas, alas! who may abide when God doeth this?

[¶13] And a good man shall be satisfied from himself -

[¶14] 1. Who is the good man? (איש טוב ish tob).

[¶15] 1. The man whose heart is right with God, whose tongue corresponds to his heart, and whose actions correspond to both.

[¶16] 2. The man who is every thing that the sinner and backslider are not.

[¶17] 2. He shall be satisfied from himself - he shall have the testimony of his own conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he has his conversation among men.

[¶18] 3. He shall have God's Spirit to testify with his spirit that he is a child of God. He hath the witness in himself that he is born from above. The Spirit of God in his conscience, and the testimony of God in his Bible, show him that he belongs to the heavenly family. It is not from creeds or confessions of faith that he derives his satisfaction: he gets it from heaven, and it is sealed upon his heart.

### Verse 16

[¶20] A wise man feareth - He can never trust in himself, though he be satisfied from himself. He knows that his suffiency is of God; and he has that fear that causes him to depart from evil, which is a guardian to the love he feels. Love renders him cautious; the other makes him confident. His caution leads him from sin; his confidence leads him to God.

### Verse 17

[¶22] He that is soon angry - קצר אפים ketsar appayim, "short of nostrils:" because, when a man is angry, his nose is contracted, and drawn up towards his eyes.

[¶23] Dealeth foolishly - He has no time for reflection; he is hurried on by his passions, speaks like a fool, and acts like a madman.

### Verse 19

[¶25] The evil bow before the good - They are almost constrained to show them respect; and the wicked, who have wasted their substance with riotous living, bow before the gates of the righteous - of benevolent men - begging a morsel of bread.

### Verse 20

[¶27] But the rich hath many friends - Many who speak to him the language of friendship; but if they profess friendship because he is rich, there is not one real friend among them. There is a fine saying of Cicero on this subject: Ut hirundines festivo tempore praesto sunt, frigore pulsae recedunt: ita falsi amici sereno tempore praesto sunt: simul atque fortunae hiemem viderint, evolant omnes - Lib. iv., ad Herenn. "They are like swallows, who fly off during the winter, and quit our cold climates; and do not return till the warm season: but as soon as the winter sets in, they are all off again." So Horace: -

[¶28] Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos:Nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes. "As long as thou art prosperous, thou shalt have many friends: but who of them will regard thee when thou hast lost thy wealth?"

### Verse 21

[¶30] He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth - To despise a man because he has some natural blemish is unjust, cruel, and wicked. He is not the author of his own imperfections; they did not occur through his fault or folly; and if he could, he would not retain them. It is, therefore, unjust and wicked to despise him for what is not his fault, but his misfortune.

[¶31] But he that hath mercy on the poor - Who reproaches no man for his poverty or scanty intellect, but divides his bread with the hungry - happy is he; the blessing of God, and of them that were ready to perish, shall come upon him.

### Verse 23

[¶33] In all labor there is profit - If a man work at his trade, he gains by it; if he cultivate the earth, it will yield an increase; and in proportion as he labors, so will be his profit: but he who talks much labors little. And a man words is seldom a man of deeds. Less talk and more work, is one of our own ancient advices.

### Verse 24

[¶35] But the foolishness of fools is folly - The Targum reads, The honor of fools is folly. The fool, from his foolishness, produces acts of folly. This appears to be the meaning.

### Verse 26

[¶37] In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence - From this, and from genuine Christian experience, we find that the fear of God is highly consistent with the strongest confidence in his mercy and goodness.

### Verse 27

[¶39] The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life - מקור חיים mekor chaiyim, the vein of lives. Another allusion to the great aorta which carries the blood from the heart to all the extremities of the body. Of this phrase, and the tree of lives, Solomon is particularly fond. See on [Pro 4:23] (note); [Pro 10:12] (note).

### Verse 28

[¶41] In the multitude of people - It is the interest of every state to promote marriage by every means that is just and prudent; and to discourage, disgrace, and debase celibacy; to render bachelors incapable, after a given age, of all public employments: and to banish nunneries and monasteries from all parts of their dominions; - they have ever, from their invention, contributed more to vice than virtue; and are positively point blank against the law of God.

### Verse 29

[¶43] That is hasty of spirit - קצר רוח ketsar ruach, "the short of spirit;" one that is easily irritated; and, being in a passion, he is agitated so as to be literally short of breath. Here put in opposition to ארך אפים erech appayim, long of nostrils; see on [Pro 14:17] (note); and of the same import with St. Paul's μακροθυμια, longsuffering, longmindedness. See on [Eph 4:2] (note).

## 726. Proverbs · 21 of 46

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### Verse 30

[¶1] A sound heart is the life of the flesh - A healthy state of the blood, and a proper circulation of that stream of life, is the grand cause, in the hand of God, of health and longevity. If the heart be diseased, life cannot be long continued.

### Verse 31

[¶3] He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker - Because the poor, or comparatively poor, are, in the order of God, a part of the inhabitants of the earth; and every man who loves God will show mercy to the poor, for with this God is peculiarly delighted. The poor have we ever with us, for the excitement and exercise of those benevolent, compassionate, and merciful feelings, without which men had been but little better than brutes.

### Verse 32

[¶5] The wicked is driven away in his wickedness - He does not leave life cheerfully. Poor soul! Thou hast no hope in the other world, and thou leavest the present with the utmost regret! Thou wilt not go off; but God will drive thee.

[¶6] But the righteous hath hope in his death - He rejoiceth to depart and be with Christ: to him death is gain; he is not reluctant to go - he flies at the call of God.

### Verse 34

[¶8] But sin is a reproach to any people - I am satisfied this is not the sense of the original, וחסד לאמים חטאת vechesed leummim chattath; which would be better rendered, And mercy is a sin-offering for the people. The Vulgate has, Miseros autem facit populos peccatum, "sin makes the people wretched." Ελασσονουσι δε φυλας ἁμαρτιαι; "But sins lessen the tribes." - Septuagint. So also the Syriac and Arabic. The plain meaning of the original seems to be, A national disposition to mercy appears in the sight of God as a continual sin-offering. Not that it atones for the sin of the people; but, as a sin-offering is pleasing in the sight of the God of mercy, so is a merciful disposition in a nation. This view of the verse is consistent with the purest doctrines of free grace. And what is the true sense of the words, we should take at all hazards and consequences: we shall never trench upon a sound creed by a literal interpretation of God's words. No nation has more of this spirit than the British nation. It is true, we have too many sanguinary laws; but the spirit of the people is widely different.

[¶9] If any one will contend for the common version, he has my consent; and I readily agree in the saying, Sin is the reproach of any people. It is the curse and scandal of man. Though I think what I have given is the true meaning of the text.

### Verse 35

[¶11] The king's favor is toward a wise servant - The king should have an intelligent man for his minister; a man of deep sense, sound judgment, and of a feeling, merciful disposition. He who has not the former will plunge the nation into difficulties; and he who has not the latter will embark her in disastrous wars. Most wars are occasioned by bad ministers, men of blood, who cannot be happy but in endeavoring to unchain the spirit of discord. Let every humane heart pray, Lord, scatter thou the people who delight in war! Amen - so be it. Selah!

### Introduction

[¶13] The soft answer. Useful correction. Stability of the righteous. The contented mind. The slothful man. The fool. The covetous. The impious. The wicked opposed to the righteous; to the diligent; and to the man who fears the Lord.

### Verse 1

[¶15] A soft answer - Gentleness will often disarm the most furious, where positive derangement has not taken place; one angry word will always beget another, for the disposition of one spirit always begets its own likeness in another: thus kindness produces kindness, and rage produces rage. Universal experience confirms this proverb.

### Verse 2

[¶17] Useth knowledge aright - This is very difficult to know: - when to speak, and when to be silent; what to speak, and what to leave unspoken; the manner that is best and most suitable to the occasion, the subject, the circumstances, and the persons. All these are difficulties, often even to the wisest men. Even wise counsel may be foolishly given.

### Verse 3

[¶19] The eyes of the Lord are in every place - He not only sees all things, by his omnipresence, but his providence is everywhere. And if the consideration that his eye is in every place, have a tendency to appal those whose hearts are not right before him, and who seek for privacy, that they may commit iniquity; yet the other consideration, that his providence is everywhere, has a great tendency to encourage the upright, and all who may be in perilous or distressing circumstances.

### Verse 4

[¶21] A wholesome tongue is a tree of life - Here again is an allusion to the paradisiacal tree, עץ חיים ets chaiyim, "the tree of lives."

### Verse 8

[¶23] The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination - Even the most sedulous attendance on the ordinances of God, and pert ormance of the ceremonies of religion, is an abomination to the Lord, if the heart be not right with him, and the observance do not flow from a principle of pure devotion. No religious acts will do in place of holiness to the Lord.

[¶24] The prayer of the upright is his delight - What a motive to be upright; and what a motive to the upright to pray! But who is the upright? The man who is weary of sin, and sincerely desires the salvation of God; as well as he who has already received a measure of that salvation. Hence it is said in the next verse, "He loveth him that followeth after righteousness."

### Verse 11

[¶26] Hell and destruction - שאול ואבדון sheol vaabaddon. Hades, the invisible world, the place of separate spirits till the resurrection: and Abaddon, the place of torment; are ever under the eye and control of the Lord.

### Verse 13

[¶28] By sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken - Every kind of sorrow worketh death, but that which is the offspring of true repentance. This alone is healthful to the soul. The indulgence of a disposition to sighing tends to destroy life. Every deep sigh throws off a portion of the vital energy.

### Verse 16

[¶30] Better is little with the fear of the Lord - Because where the fear of God is, there are moderation and contentment of spirit.

### Verse 17

[¶32] Better is a dinner of herbs - Great numbers of indigent Hindoos subsist wholly on herbs, fried in oil, and mixed with their rice.

### Verse 19

[¶34] The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns - Because he is slothful, he imagines ten thousand difficulties in the way which cannot be surmounted; but they are all the creatures of his own imagination, and that imagination is formed by his sloth.

### Verse 22

[¶36] But in the multitude of counsellors - See note on [Pro 11:13] (note). But רב יועצים rob yoatsim might be translated, chief or master of the council, the prime minister.

### Verse 24

[¶38] The way of life is above to the wise - There is a treble antithesis here:

[¶39] 1. The way of the wise, and that of the fool.

[¶40] 2. The one is above, the other below.

[¶41] 3. The one is of life, the other is of death.

### Verse 25

[¶43] The house of the proud - Families of this description are seldom continued long. The Lord hates pride; and those that will not be humble he will destroy.

### Verse 27

[¶45] He that is greedy of gain - He who will be rich; troubleth his own house - he is a torment to himself and his family by his avariciousness and penury, and a curse to those with whom he deals.

## 727. Proverbs · 22 of 46

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[¶0] But he that hateth gifts - Whatever is given to pervert judgment.

### Verse 28

[¶2] The heart of the righteous studieth to answer - His tongue never runs before his wit, he never speaks rashly, and never unadvisedly; because he studies - ponders, his thoughts and his words.

### Verse 29

[¶4] The Lord is far from the wicked - He is neither near to hear, nor near to help.

### Verse 30

[¶6] The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart - Nature and art are continually placing before our view a multitude of the most resplendent images, each of which is calculated to give pleasure. The man who has a correct judgment, and an accurate eye, may not only amuse, but instruct himself endlessly, by the beauties of nature and art.

### Verse 31

[¶8] The ear that heareth the reproof - That receives it gratefully and obeys it. "Advice is for them that will take it," so says one of our own old proverbs; and the meaning here is nearly the same.

### Verse 32

[¶10] Despiseth his own soul - That is constructively; for if the instruction lead to the preservation of life and soul, he that neglects or despises it throws all as much in the way of danger as if he actually hated himself.

### Verse 33

[¶12] The fear of the Lord - See note on [Pro 1:7]. Much is spoken concerning this fear;

[¶13] 1. It is the beginning of wisdom.

[¶14] 2. It is also the beginning of knowledge.

[¶15] 3. It is the instruction of wisdom. Wisdom derives its most important lessons from the fear of God. He who fears God much, is well taught.

[¶16] And before honor is humility - That is, few persons ever arrive at honor who are not humble; and those who from low life have risen to places of trust and confidence, have been remarkable for humility. We may rest assured that the providence of God will never elevate a proud man; such God beholds afar off. He may get into places of trust and profit, but God will oust him, and the people will curse him, and curse his memory. So will it ever be with bad ministers and advisers of the crown.

### Introduction

[¶18] Man prepares, but God governs. God has made all things for himself; he hates pride. The judgments of God. The administration of kings; their justice, anger, and clemency. God has made all in weight, measure, and due proportion. Necessity produces industry. The patient man. The lot is under the direction of the Lord.

### Verse 1

[¶20] The preparations of the heart in man - The Hebrew is לאדם מערכי לב leadam maarchey leb, which is, literally, "To man are the dispositions of the heart; but from the Lord is the answer of the tongue." Man proposes his wishes; but God answers as he thinks proper. The former is the free offspring of the heart of man; the latter, the free volition of God. Man may think as he pleases, and ask as he lists; but God will give, or not give, as he thinks proper. This I believe to be the meaning of this shamefully tortured passage, so often vexed by critics, their doubts, and indecisions. God help them! for they seldom have the faculty of making any subject plainer! The text does not say that the "preparations," rather dispositions or arrangements, מערכי maarchey "of the heart," as well as "the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord;" though it is generally understood so; but it states that the dispositions or schemes of the heart (are) man's; but the answer of the tongue (is) the Lord's. And so the principal versions have understood it.

[¶21] Hominis est animam preparare; et Domini gubernare linguam - Vulgate. "It is the part of man to prepare his soul: it is the prerogative of the Lord to govern the tongue." מן בר נש תרעיתא דלבא ומן יי ממללא דלישנא min bar nash taritha delibba; umin yeya mamlala delishana - Chaldee. "From the son of man is the counsel of the heart; and from the Lord is the word of the tongue."

[¶22] The Syriac is the same. καρδια ανδρος λογζεσθω δικαια, Ἱνα ὑπο του θεου διορθωθῃ τα διαβηματα αυτῃ - Septuagint. "The heart of man deviseth righteous things, that its goings may be directed by God."

[¶23] The Arabic takes great latitude: "All the works of an humble man are clean before the Lord; and the wicked shall perish in an evil day." Of a man fit to maken redy the inwitt: and of the Lorde to governe the tunge. - Old MS. Bible. "A man maye well purpose a thinge in his harte: but the answere of the tonge cometh of the Lorde. - Coverdale.

[¶24] Matthew's Bible, 1549, and Becke's Bible of the same date, and Cardmarden's of 1566, follow Coverdale. The Bible printed by R. Barker, at Cambridge, 4th., 1615, commonly called the Breeches Bible, reads the text thus: - "The preparations of the hart are in man; but the answere of the tongue is of the Lord." So that it appears that our first, and all our ancient versions, understood the text in the same way; and this, independently of critical torture, is the genuine meaning of the Hebrew text. That very valuable version published in Italian, at Geneva, fol. 1562, translates thus: Le dispositioni del cuore sono de l'huomo, ma la risposta del la lingua e dal Signore. "The dispositions of the heart are of man; but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord."

[¶25] The modern European versions, as far as I have seen, are the same. And when the word dispositions, arrangements, schemes, is understood to be the proper meaning of the Hebrew term, as shown above, the sense is perfectly sound; for there may be a thousand schemes and arrangements made in the heart of man which he may earnestly wish God to bring to full effect, that are neither for his good nor God's glory; and therefore it is his interest that God has the answer in his own power. At the same time, there is no intimation here that man can prepare his own heart to wait upon, or pray unto the Lord; or that from the human heart any thing good can come, without Divine influence; but simply that he may have many schemes and projects which he may beg God to accomplish, that are not of God, but from himself. Hence our own proverb: "Man proposes, but God disposes." I have entered the more particularly into the consideration of this text, because some are very strenuous in the support of our vicious reading, from a supposition that the other defends the heterodox opinion of man's sufficiency to think any thing as of himself. But while they deserve due credit for their orthodox caution, they will see that no such imputation can fairly lie against the plain grammatical translation of the Hebrew text.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Commit thy works unto the Lord - See that what thou doest is commanded; and then begin, continue, and end all in his name. And thy thoughts shall be established - these schemes or arrangements, though formed in the heart, are agreeable to the Divine will, and therefore shall be established. His thoughts - his meditations - are right; and he begins and ends his work in the Lord; and therefore all issues well.

### Verse 4

[¶29] The Lord hath made all things for himself - He has so framed and executed every part of his creation, that it manifests his wisdom, power, goodness, and truth.

[¶30] Even the wicked for the day of evil - וגם רשע ליום רעה vegam rasha leyom raah. The whole verse is translated by the Chaldee thus: "All the works of the Lord are for those who obey him; and the wicked is reserved for the evil day." As רעה raah literally signifies to feed, it has been conjectured that the clause might be read, yea, even the wicked he feeds by the day, or daily.

[¶31] If we take the words as they stand in our present version, they mean no more than what is expressed by the Chaldee and Spriac: and as far as we can learn from their present confused state, by the Septuagint and Arabic, that "the wicked are reserved for the day of punishment." Coverdale has given, as he generally does, a good sense: "The Lorde dotll all thinges for his owne sake; yea, and when he kepeth the ungodly for the daye of wrath." He does not make the wicked or ungodly man; but when man has made himself such, even then God bears with him. But if he repent not, when the measure of his iniquity is filled up, he shall fall under the wrath of God his Maker.

### Verse 5

[¶33] Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished - The day of wrath shall come on the wicked, whatever means he may take to avoid it. See [Pro 11:21].

### Verse 6

[¶35] By mercy and truth iniquity is purged - This may be misunderstood, as if a man, by showing mercy and acting according to truth, could atone for his own iniquity. The Hebrew text is not ambiguous: בחסד ואמת יכפר עון bechesed veemeth yechapper avon; "By mercy and truth he shall atone for iniquity." He - God, by his mercy, in sending his son Jesus into the world, - "shall make an atonement for iniquity" according to his truth - the word which he declared by his holy prophets since the world began. Or, if we retain the present version, and follow the points in יכפר yecuppar, reading "iniquity is purged" or "atoned for," the sense is unexceptionable, as we refer the mercy and the truth to God. But what an awful comment is that of Don Calmet, in which he expresses, not only his own opinion, but the staple doctrine of his own Church, the Romish! The reader shall have his own words: "'L'iniquite se rachete par la misericorde et la verite.' On expie ses pechez par des oeuvres de misericorde envers le prochein; par la clemence, par la douceur, par compassion, par les aumones: et par la verite-par la fidelity, la bonne foi, la droiture, requite dans le commerce. Voyez [Pro 3:3], [Pro 14:22], [Pro 20:28]." "'Iniquity is redeemed by mercy and truth.' We expiate our sins by works of mercy towards our neighbor; by clemency, by kindness, by compassion, and by alms: and by truth - by fidelity, by trustworthiness, by uprightness, by equity in commerce." If this be so, why was Jesus incarnated? Why his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and passion, his death and burial, his resurrection and ascension? Was it only to supply a sufficient portion of merit for those who had neglected to make a fund for themselves? Is the guilt of sin so small in the sight of Divine justice, that a man can atone for it by manifesting good dispositions towards his neighbors, by giving some alms, and not doing those things for which he might be hanged? Why then did God make such a mighty matter of the redemption of the world? Why send his Son at all? An angel would have been more than sufficient; yea, even a sinner who had been converted by his own compassion, alms-deeds, etc., would have been sufficient. And is not this the very doctrine of this most awfully fallen and corrupt Church? Has she not provided a fund of merit in her saints, of what was more than requisite for themselves that it might be given, or sold out, to those who had not enough of their own? Now such is the doctrine of the Romish Church - grossly absurd, and destructively iniquitous! And because men cannot believe this, cannot believe these monstrosities, that Church will burn them to ashes. Ruthless Church! degenerated, fallen, corrupt, and corrupting! once a praise now a curse, in the earth. Thank the blessed God, whose blood alone can expiate sin, that he has a Church upon the earth; and that the Romish is not the Catholic Church; and that it has not that political power by which it would subdue all things to itself.

### Verse 7

[¶37] When a man's ways please the Lord - God is the guardian and defense of all that fear and love him; and it is truly astonishing to see how wondrously God works in their behalf, raising them up friends, and turning their enemies into friends.

### Verse 9

[¶39] A man's heart deviseth his way - This is precisely the same sentiment as that contained in the first verse, on the true meaning of which so much has been already said.

### Verse 10

[¶41] A divine sentence - קסם kesem, "divination," as the margin has it. Is the meaning as follows? Though divination were applied to a righteous king's lips, to induce him to punish the innocent and spare the guilty, yet would not his lips transgress in judgment; so firmly attached is he to God, and so much is he under the Divine care and influence. Whatever judgment such a one pronounces, it may be considered as a decision from God.

### Verse 11

[¶43] All the weights of the bag are his - Alluding, probably, to the standard weights laid up in a bag in the sanctuary, and to which all weights in common use in the land were to be referred, in order to ascertain whether they were just: but some think the allusion is to the weights carried about by merchants in their girdles, by which they weigh the money, silver and gold, that they take in exchange for their merchandise. As the Chinese take no coin but gold and silver by weight, they carry about with them a sort of small steelyard, by which they weigh those metals taken in exchange.

## 728. Proverbs · 23 of 46

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### Verse 12

[¶1] It is an abomination to kings, etc. - In all these verses the wise man refers to monarchical government rightly administered. And the proverbs on this subject are all plain.

### Verse 16

[¶3] How much better - to get wisdom than gold? - Who believes this, though spoken by the wisest of men, under Divine inspiration?

### Verse 17

[¶5] The highway of the upright - The upright man is ever departing from evil; this is his common road: and by keeping on in this way, his soul is preserved.

### Verse 18

[¶7] Pride goeth before destruction - Here pride is personified: it walks along, and has destruction in its train.

[¶8] And a haughty spirit before a fall - Another personification. A haughty spirit marches on, and ruin comes after.

[¶9] In this verse we find the following Masoretic note in most Hebrew Bibles. חצי הספר chatsi hassepher: "the middle of the book." This verse is the middle verse; and the first clause makes the middle of the words of the book of Proverbs.

### Verse 22

[¶11] Understanding is a well-spring of life - מקור חיים mekor chaiyim; another allusion to the artery that carries the blood from the heart to distribute it to all the extremities of the body.

### Verse 23

[¶13] The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth - He has a wise heart; he speaks as it dictates; and therefore his speeches are all speeches of wisdom.

### Verse 24

[¶15] Pleasant words are as a honey-comb - The honey of which is sweeter than that which has been expressed from it, and has a much finer flavour before it has come in contact with the atmospheric air.

### Verse 25

[¶17] There is a way that seemeth right - This whole verse is precisely the same as that [Pro 14:12].

### Verse 26

[¶19] He that laboureth - No thanks to a man for his labor and industry; if he do not work he must starve.

### Verse 27

[¶21] An ungodly man diggeth up evil - How will the following suit?

[¶22] Effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum "Wealth, the incitement to all evil, is digged up out the earth."

[¶23] A wicked man labors as much to bring about an evil purpose, as the quarryman does to dig up stones.

[¶24] In his lips - a burning fire - His words are as inflammable, in producing strife and contention among his neighbors, as fire is in igniting dry stubble.

### Verse 30

[¶26] He shutteth his eyes to devise, etc. - He meditates deeply upon ways and means to commit sin. He shuts his eyes that he may shut out all other ideas, that his whole soul may be in this.

### Verse 31

[¶28] The hoary head is a crown of glory - The latter part of the verse is very well added, for many a sinner has a hoary head.

### Verse 32

[¶30] He that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city - It is much easier to subdue an enemy without than one within. There have been many kings who had conquered nations, and yet were slaves to their own passions. Alexander, who conquered the world, was a slave to intemperate anger, and in a fit of it slew Clytus, the best and most intimate of all his friends, and one whom he loved beyond all others.

[¶31] The spirit of this maxim is so self-evident, that most nations have formed similar proverbs. The classical reader will remember the following in Hor., Odar. lib. ii., Od. 2: -

[¶32] Latius regnes, avidum domando

[¶33] Spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis

[¶34] Gadibus jungas, et uterque Poenus

[¶35] Serviat uni. "By virtue's precepts to control

[¶36] The furious passions of the soul,

[¶37] Is over wider realms to reign,

[¶38] Unenvied monarch, than if Spain\\

[¶39] You could to distant Libya join,

[¶40] And both the Carthages were thine."

[¶41] Francis.

[¶42] And the following from Ovid is not less striking: -

[¶43] Fortior est qui se, quam qui fortissima vincit

[¶44] Moenia, nec virtus altius ire potest. "He is more of a hero who has conquered himself, than he who has taken the best fortfied city."

[¶45] Beyond this self-conquest the highest courage can not extend; nor did their philosophy teach any thing more sublime.

## 729. Proverbs · 24 of 46

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### Verse 33

[¶1] The lot is cast into the lap - On the lot, see the note on [Num 26:55]. How far it may be proper now to put difficult matters to the lot, after earnest prayer and supplication, I cannot say. Formerly, it was both lawful and efficient; for after it was solemnly cast, the decision was taken as coming immediately from the Lord. It is still practiced, and its use is allowed even by writers on civil law. But those who need most to have recourse to the lot are those who have not piety to pray nor faith to trust to God for a positive decision. The lot should never be resorted to in indifferent matters; they should be those of the greatest importance, in which it appears impossible for human prudence or foresight to determine. In such cases the lot is an appeal to God, and he disposes of it according to his goodness, mercy, and truth. The result, therefore, cannot be fortuitous.

### Introduction

[¶3] Contentment. The wise servant. The Lord tries the heart. Children a crown to their parents. We should hide our neighbour's faults. The poor should not be despised. Litigations and quarrels to be avoided. Wealth is useless to a fool. The good friend. A fool may pass for a wise man when he holds his peace.

### Verse 1

[¶5] Better is a dry morsel - Peace and contentment, and especially domestic peace, are beyond all other blessings.

[¶6] A house full of sacrifices - A Hindoo priest, who officiates at a festival, sometimes receives so many offeringss that his house is filled with them, so that many of them are damaged before they can be used - Ward.

### Verse 3

[¶8] The fining pot is for silver - When silver is mixed, or suspected to be mixed, with base metal, it must be subjected to such a test as the cupel to purify it. And gold also must be purified by the action of the fire. So God tries hearts. He sends afflictions which penetrate the soul, and give a man to see his state, so that he may apply to the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, to destroy what cannot stand the fire, to separate and burn up all the dross.

### Verse 4

[¶10] A wicked doer giveth heed - An evil heart is disposed and ever ready to receive evil; and liars delight in lies.

### Verse 5

[¶12] He that is glad at calamity - He who is pleased to hear of the misfortune of another will, in the course of God's just government, have his own multiplied.

### Verse 7

[¶14] Excellent speech becometh not a fool - This proverb is suitable to those who affect, in public speaking, fine language, which neither comports with their ordinary conversation, nor with their education. Often fine words are injudiciously brought in, and are as unbecoming and irrelevant as a cart wheel among clockwork.

### Verse 8

[¶16] A gift is as a precious stone - It both enriches and ornaments. In the latter clause there is an evident allusion to cut stones. Whithersoever you turn them, they reflect the light, are brilliant and beautiful.

### Verse 10

[¶18] A reproof entereth more - Though the rod, judiciously applied, is a great instrument of knowledge, yet it is of no use where incurable dulness or want of intellect, prevails. Besides, there are generous dispositions on which counsel will work more than stripes.

### Verse 12

[¶20] Let a bear robbed of her whelps - At which times such animals are peculiarly fierce. See the note on [2Sam 17:8].

### Verse 13

[¶22] Whoso rewardeth evil for good - Here is a most awful warning. As many persons are guilty of the sin of ingratitude, and of paying kindness with unkindness, and good with evil, it is no wonder we find so much wretchedness among men; for God's word cannot fail; evil shall not depart from the houses and families of such persons.

### Verse 14

[¶24] The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water - As soon as the smallest breach is made in the dike or dam, the water begins to press from all parts towards the breach; the resistance becomes too great to be successfully opposed, so that dikes and all are speedily swept away. Such is the beginning of contentions, quarrels, lawsuits, etc.

[¶25] Leave off contention, before it be meddled with - As you see what an altercation must lead to, therefore do not begin it. Before it be mingled together, התגלע hithgalla, before the spirits of the contending parties come into conflict - are joined together in battle, and begin to deal out mutual reflections and reproaches. When you see that the dispute is likely to take this turn, leave it off immediately.

### Verse 17

[¶27] A friend loveth at all times - Equally in adversity as in prosperity. And a brother, according to the ties and interests of consanguinity, is born to support and comfort a brother in distress.

### Verse 18

[¶29] Striketh hands - Striking each other's hands, or shaking hands, was anciently the form in concluding a contract. See notes on [Pro 6:1].

### Verse 19

[¶31] He that exalteth his gate - In different parts of Palestine they are obliged to have the doors of their courts and houses very low, not more than three feet high, to prevent the Arabs, who scarcely ever leave the backs of their horses, from riding into the courts and houses, and spoiling their goods. He, then, who, through pride and ostentation, made a high gate, exposed himself to destruction; and is said here to seek it, because he must know that this would be a necessary consequence of exalting his gate. But although the above is a fact, yet possibly gate is here taken for the mouth; and the exalting of the gate may mean proud boasting and arrogant speaking, such as has a tendency to kindle and maintain strife. And this interpretation seems to agree better with the scope of the context than the above.

### Verse 22

[¶33] A merry heart doeth good like a medicine - Instead of גהה gehah, a medicine, it appears that the Chaldee and Syriac had read in their copies גוה gevah, the body, as they translate in this way. This makes the apposition here more complete: "A merry heart doeth good to the body; but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Nothing has such a direct tendency to ruin health and waste out life as grief, anxiety, fretfulness, bad tempers, etc. All these work death.

### Verse 23

[¶35] A gift out of the bosom - Out of his purse; as in their bosoms, above their girdles, the Asiatics carry their purses. I have often observed this.

### Verse 24

[¶37] Are in the ends of the earth - Wisdom is within the sight and reach at every man: but he whose desires are scattered abroad, who is always aiming at impossible things, or is of an unsteady disposition, is not likely to find it.

### Verse 26

[¶39] Nor to strike princes for equity - To fall out with the ruler of the people, and to take off his head under pretense of his not being a just or equitable governor, is unjust. To kill a king on the ground of justice is a most dreadful omen to any land. Where was it ever done, that it promoted the public prosperity? No experiment of this kind has ever yet succeeded, howsoever worthless the king might be.

### Verse 28

[¶41] Even a fool - He is counted wise as to that particular. He may know that he cannot speak well, and he has sense enough to keep from speaking. He is, as to that particular, a wise fool.

[¶42] A man may be golden-mouthed and silver-tongued in eloquence; but to know when and where to speak and to be silent, is better than diamonds. But who that thinks he can speak well can refrain from speaking? His tongue has no rest.

### Introduction

[¶44] The man who separates himself and seeks wisdom. The fool and the wicked man. Deep wisdom. Contention of fools. The talebearer and the slothful. The name of the Lord. Pride and presumption because of riches. Hastiness of spirit. The wounded spirit. The influence of gifts. The lot. The offended brother. The influence of the tongue. A wife a good from God. The true friend.

## 730. Proverbs · 25 of 46

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### Verse 1

[¶1] Through desire a man, having separated himself - The original is difficult and obscure. The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic, read as follows: "He who wishes to break with his friend, and seeks occasions or pretenses shall at all times be worthy of blame."

[¶2] My old MS. Bible translates, Occasioun seeketh that wil go awei fro a freend: at al tyme he schal ben wariable.

[¶3] Coverdale thus: "Who so hath pleasure to sowe discorde, piketh a quarrel in every thinge."

[¶4] Bible by Barker, 1615: "Fro the desire thereof he will separate himself to seeke it, and occupie himself in all wisdome." Which has in the margin the following note: "He that loveth wisdom will separate himself from all impediments, and give himself wholly to seek it."

[¶5] The Hebrew: לתאוה יבקש נפרד בכל תושיה יתגלע lethaavah yebakkesh niphrad, bechol tushiyah yithgalla. The nearest translation to the words is perhaps the following: "He who is separated shall seek the desired thing, (i.e., the object of his desire), and shall intermeddle (mingle himself) with all realities or all essential knowledge." He finds that he can make little progress in the investigation of Divine and natural things, if he have much to do with secular or trifliing matters: he therefore separates himself as well from unprofitable pursuits as from frivolous company, and then enters into the spirit of his pursuit; is not satisfied with superficial observances, but examines the substance and essence, as far as possible, of those things which have been the objects of his desire. This appears to me the best meaning: the reader may judge for himself.

### Verse 2

[¶7] But that his heart may discover itself - It is a fact that most vain and foolish people are never satisfied in company, but in showing their own nonsense and emptiness. But this verse may be understood as confirming the view already given of the preceding, and may be translated thus: "But a fool doth not delight in understanding, though it should even manifest itself:" so I understand כי אם בהתגלות ki im behithgalloth. The separated person seeks understanding in every hidden thing, and feels his toil well repaid when he finds it, even after the most painful and expensive search: the other regards it not, though its secret springs should be laid open to him without toil or expense.

### Verse 3

[¶9] When the wicked cometh, etc. - would it not be better to read this verse thus? "When the wicked cometh contempt cometh; and with ignominy cometh reproach." A wicked man is despised even by the wicked. He who falls under ignominy falls under reproach.

### Verse 4

[¶11] The words of a man's mouth - That is, the wise sayings of a wise man are like deep waters; howsoever much you pump or draw off, you do not appear to lessen them.

[¶12] The well-spring of wisdom - Where there is a sound understanding, and a deep, well-informed mind, its wisdom and its counsels are an incessant stream, מקור חכמה mekor chochmah, "the vein of wisdom," ever throwing out its healthy streams: but מקור חיים mekor chaiyim, "the vein of Lives," is the reading of eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and is countenanced by the Septuagint, πηγη ζωης, "the fountain of life." And so the Arabic. This is the more likely to be the true reading, because the figure of the heart propelling the blood through the great aorta, to send it to all parts of the animal system, is a favourite with Solomon, as it was with his father, David. See the note on [Psa 36:9]; [Pro 10:11], etc.

### Verse 5

[¶14] To accept the person of the wicked - We must not, in judicial cases, pay any attention to a man's riches, influence, friends, offices, etc., but judge the case according to its own merits. But when the wicked rich man opposes and oppresses the poor righteous, then all those things should be utterly forgotten.

### Verse 8

[¶16] The words of a tale-bearer - דברי נרגן dibrey nirgan, "the words of the whisperer," the busy-body, the busy, meddling croaker. Verba bilinguis, "the words of the double-tongued." - Vulgate. The wordes of the twisel tunge - Old MS. Bible. "The words of a slanderer." - Coverdale.

[¶17] The words of a deceiver, the fair-spoken, deeply-malicious man, though they appear soft and gracious, are wounds deeply injurious.

[¶18] The original word is כמתלהמים kemithlahamim; they are as soft or simple, or undesigning. But Schultens gives another meaning. He observes that lahamah in Arabic signifies to "swallow down quickly or greedily." Such words are like dainties, eagerly swallowed, because inviting to the taste; like gingerbread, apparently gilded over, though with Dutch leaf, which is a preparation of copper; or sweetmeats powdered over with red candied seeds, which are thus formed by red lead; both deeply ruinous to the tender bowels of the poor little innocents, but, because of their sweetness and inviting color, greedily swallowed down. This makes a good reading, and agrees with the latter clause of the verse, "they go down into the innermost parts of the belly."

### Verse 9

[¶20] He also that is slothful - A slothful man neglects his work, and the materials go to ruin: the master, he destroys the materials. They are both destroyers.

### Verse 10

[¶22] The name of the Lord is a strong tower - The name of the Lord may be taken for the Lord himself; he is a strong tower, a refuge, and place of complete safety, to all that trust in him. What a strong fortress is to the besieged, the like is God to his persecuted, tempted, afflicted followers.

### Verse 11

[¶24] The rich man's wealth - See [Pro 10:15].

### Verse 12

[¶26] Before destruction - See on [Pro 11:2] (note); [Pro 16:18] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶28] He that answereth a matter - This is a common case; before a man can tell out his story, another will begin his. Before a man has made his response, the other wishes to confute piecemeal, though he has had his own speech already. This is foolishness to them. They are ill-bred. There are many also that give judgment before they hear the whole of the cause, and express an opinion before they hear the state of the case. How absurd, stupid, and foolish!

### Verse 14

[¶30] The spirit of a man will sustain - A man sustains the ills of his body, and the trials of life, by the strength and energy of his mind. But if the mind be scoundrel, if this be cast down, if slow-consuming care and grief have shot the dagger into the soul, what can then sustain the man? Nothing but the unseen God. Therefore, let the afflicted pray. A man's own spirit has, in general, sufficient fortitude to bear up under the unavoidable trials of life; but when the conscience is wounded by sin, and the soul is dying by iniquity, who can lift him up? God alone; for salvation is of the Lord.

### Verse 16

[¶32] A man's gift maketh room for him - It is, and ever has been, a base and degrading practice in Asiatic countries, to bring a gift or present to the great man into whose presence you come. Without this there is no audience, no favor, no justice. This arose from the circumstance that men must not approach the altar of God without an offering.

[¶33] Potentates, wishing to be considered as petty gods, demanded a similar homage: -

[¶34] Munera, crede mihi, capiunt hominesquedeosque;

[¶35] Placatur donis Jupiter ipse suis.

[¶36] Ovid "Believe me, gifts prevail much with both gods and men: even Jupiter himself is pleased with his own offerings."

### Verse 17

[¶38] He that is first in his own cause - Any man may, in the first instance, make out a fair tale, because he has the choice of circumstances and arguments. But when the neighbor cometh and searcheth him, he examines all, dissects all, swears and cross-questions every witness, and brings out truth and fact.

### Verse 18

[¶40] The lot causeth contentions to cease - See note on [Pro 16:33].

### Verse 19

[¶42] A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city - Almost all the versions agree in the following reading: "A brother assisted by a brother, is like a fortified city; and their decisions are like the bars of a city." Coverdale is both plain and terse: "The unitie of brethren is stronger then a castell, and they that holde together are like the barre of a palace." The fable of the dying father, his sons, and the bundle of faggots, illustrates this proverb. Unity among brethren makes them invincible; small things grow great by concord. If we take the words according to the common version, we see them express what, alas! we know to be too generally true: that when brothers fall out, it is with extreme difficulty that they can be reconciled. And fraternal enmities are generally strong and inveterate.

### Verse 20

[¶44] With the fruit of his mouth - Our own words frequently shape our good or evil fortune in life.

## 731. Proverbs · 26 of 46

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### Verse 21

[¶1] Death and life are in the power of the tongue - This may apply to all men. Many have lost their lives by their tongue, and some have saved their lives by it: but it applies most forcibly to public pleaders; on many of their tongues hangs life or death.

### Verse 22

[¶3] Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing - Marriage, with all its troubles and embarrassments, is a blessing from God; and there are few cases where a wife of any sort is not better than none, because celibacy is an evil; for God himself hath said, "It is not good for man to be alone." None of the versions, except the Chaldee, are pleased with the naked simplicity of the Hebrew text, hence they all add good: "He that findeth a Good wife findeth a good thing;" and most people, who have not deeply considered the subject, think the assertion, without this qualification, is absurd. Some copies of the Targum, and apparently one of Kennicott's MSS., have the addition טובה tobah, good; but this would be an authority too slender to justify changing the Hebrew text; yet Houbigant, Kennicott, and other able critics argue for it. The Septuagint is not satisfied without an addition: "But he who puts away a good wife, puts away a good thing: and he that retains an adulteress, is a fool and wicked." In this addition the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, agree with the Septuagint. The Hebrew text as it stands, teaches a general doctrine by a simple but general proposition: "He that findeth a wife findeth a good thing." So St. Paul: "Marriage is honorable in all." Had the world been left, in this respect, to the unbridled propensities of man, in what a horrible state would society have been - if indeed society could have existed, or civilization have taken place - if marriage had not obtained among men! As to good wives and bad wives, they are relatively so, in general; and most of them that have been bad afterwards, have been good at first; and we well know the best things may deteriorate, and the world generally allows that where there are matrimonial contentions, there are faults on both sides.

### Verse 24

[¶5] A man that hath friends must show himself friendly - Love begets love; and love requires love as its recompense. If a man do not maintain a friendly carriage, he cannot expect to retain his friends. Friendship is a good plant; but it requires cultivation to make it grow.

[¶6] There is a kind of factitious friendship in the world, that, to show one's self friendly in it, is very expensive, and in every way utterly unprofitable: it is maintained by expensive parties. feasts, etc., where the table groans with dainties, and where the conversation is either jejune and insipid, or calumnious; backbiting, talebearing, and scandal, being the general topics of the different squads in company.

[¶7] There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother - In many cases the genuine friend has shown more attachment, and rendered greater benefits, than the natural brother. Some apply this to God; others to Christ; but the text has no such meaning.

[¶8] But critics and commentators are not agreed on the translation of this verse. The original is condensed and obscure. אוש רעים להתרועע ish reim lehithroea, or lehithroeang, as some would read, who translate: A man of friends may ring again; i.e., he may boast and mightily exult: but there is a friend, אהב oheb, a lover, that sticketh closer, דבק dabek, is glued or cemented, מאח meach, beyond, or more than, a brother. The former will continue during prosperity, but the latter continues closely united to his friend, even in the most disastrous circumstances.

[¶9] Hence that maxim of Cicero, so often repeated, and so well known: -

[¶10] Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur. "In doubtful times the genuine friend is known."

[¶11] A late commentator has translated the verse thus: -

[¶12] The man that hath many friends is ready to be ruined:

[¶13] But there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

[¶14] Holden. "A frende that delyteth in love, doth a man more frendship, and sticketh faster unto him, than a brother." Coverdale. "A man that hath friends ought to show himself friendly for a friend is nearer than a brother." Barker's Bible, 1615. "A man amyable to felowschip, more a freend schal ben thanne a brother." - Old MS. Bible. The two last verses in this chapter, and the two first of the next, are wanting in the Septuagint and Arabic.

[¶15] These are the principal varieties; out of them the reader may choose. I have already given my opinion.

### Introduction

[¶17] The worth of a poor upright man. Riches preserve friends. False witnesses. False friends. A king's wrath. The foolish son. The prudent wife. Slothfulness. Pity for the poor. The fear of the Lord. The spendthrift son. Obedience to parents.

### Verse 1

[¶19] Better is the poor - The upright poor man is always to be preferred to the rich or self-sufficient fool.

### Verse 2

[¶21] Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good - Would it not be plainer, as it is more literal, to say, "Also, to be without knowledge, is not good for the soul?" The soul was made for God; and to be without his knowledge, to be unacquainted with him, is not only not good, but the greatest evil the soul can suffer, for it involves all other evils. The Chaldee and Syriac have: "He who knows not his own soul, it is not good to him." "Where no discretion is, there the soul is not well." - Coverdale.

[¶22] And he that hasteth with his feet sinneth - And this will be the case with him who is not Divinely instructed. A child does nothing cautiously, because it is uninstructed; a savage is also rash and precipitate, till experience instructs him. A man who has not the knowledge of God is incautious, rash, headstrong, and precipitate: and hence he sinneth - he is continually missing the mark, and wounding his own soul.

### Verse 3

[¶24] The foolishness of man - Most men complain of cross providences, because they get into straits and difficulties through the perverseness of their ways; and thus they fret against God; whereas, in every instance, they are the causes of their own calamities. O how inconsistent is man!

### Verse 4

[¶26] The poor is separated from his neighbor - Because he has the "disease of all-shunned poverty."

### Verse 7

[¶28] Do hate him - They shun him as they do the person they hate. They neither hate him positively, nor love him: they disregard him; they will have nothing to do with him. שנא sana signifies not only to hate, but to show a less degree of love to one than another. So Jacob loved Rachel, but hated Leah - showed her less affection than he did to Rachel.

### Verse 10

[¶30] Delight is not seemly for a fool - תענוג taanug, splendid or luxurious living, rank, equipage, etc. These sit ill on a fool, though he be by birth a lord.

[¶31] For a servant to have rule over princes - I pity the king who delivers himself into the hands of his own ministers. Such a one loses his character, and cannnot be respected by his subjects, or rather their subjects. But it is still worse when a person of mean extraction is raised to the throne, or to any place of power; he is generally cruel and tyrannical.

### Verse 11

[¶33] It is his glory to pass over a transgression - "No," says what is termed a man of honor; "he must meet me as a gentleman; I must have his blood, let God say what he will." O poor, dastardly coward! thou canst not bear the reproach of poor, flimsy, paltry fellows who ridicule thee, because thou hast refused to commit murder. Such laws should be put down by law; and the man that gives a challenge should be hanged, because he intends to commit murder.

### Verse 12

[¶35] The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion - There is nothing more dreadful than the roaring of this tyrant of the forest. At the sound of it all other animals tremble, flee away, and hide themselves. The king who is above law, and rules without law, and whose will is his own law, is like the lion. This is strongly descriptive of the character of Asiatic sovereigns.

### Verse 13

[¶37] The contentions of a wife are a continual dropping - The man who has got such a wife is like a tenant who has got a cottage with a bad roof through every part of which the rain either drops or pours. He can neither sit, stand work, nor sleep, without being exposed to these droppings. God help the man who is in such a case, with house or wife!

### Verse 14

[¶39] A prudent wife is from the Lord - One who has a good understanding, אשה משכלת ishshah mascaleth; who avoids complaining, though she may often have cause for it.

### Verse 15

[¶41] Into a deep sleep - תרדמה tardemah, the same into which Adam was thrown, before Eve was taken from his side. Sloth renders a man utterly unconscious of all his interests. Though he has frequently felt hunger, yet he is regardless that his continual slothfulness must necessarily plunge him into more sufferings.

### Verse 17

[¶43] Lendeth unto the Lord - O what a word is this! God makes himself debtor for every thing that is given to the poor! Who would not advance much upon such credit? God will pay it again. And in no case has he ever forfeited his word.

## 732. Proverbs · 27 of 46

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### Verse 18

[¶1] Let not thy soul spare for his crying - This is a hard precept for a parent. Nothing affects the heart of a parent so much as a child's cries and tears. But it is better that the child may be caused to cry, when the correction may be healthful to his soul, than that the parent should cry afterwards, when the child is grown to man's estate, and his evil habits are sealed for life.

### Verse 19

[¶3] A man of great wrath - He who is of an irritable, fiery disposition, will necessarily get himself into many broils; and he that is surety for him once is likely to be called on again and again for the same friendly office.

### Verse 21

[¶5] There are many devices, etc. - The same sentiment as in [Pro 16:1] (note), where see the note.

### Verse 24

[¶7] A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom - Is too lazy to feed himself, If he dip his hand once in the dish, he is too lazy to put it in a second time. It is a strange case that a man, through his excessive slothfulness, would rather starve than put himself to the trouble to eat.

### Verse 26

[¶9] He that wasteth his father - Destroys his substance by riotous or extravagant living, so as to embitter his latter end by poverty and affliction; and adds to this wickedness the expulsion of his aged widowed mother from the paternal house; is a son of shame - a most shameful man; and a son of reproach - one whose conduct cannot be sufficiently execrated. Who tormentith the fader, and fleeth the modir, schenful schal ben, and unblisful - Old MS. Bible. The common reading of the Vulgate is, et fugat matrem, and expels his mother; but the Old Bible was taken from a copy that had fugit matrem, shuns his mother, flees away from her, leaves her to affliction and penury. It is prostitution of the term to call such, man.

### Verse 27

[¶11] Cease, my son - Hear nothing that would lead thee away from God and his truth.

### Verse 29

[¶13] Stripes for the back of fools - Profane and wicked men expose themselves to the punishments denounced against such by just laws. Avoid, therefore, both their company and their end.

### Introduction

[¶15] Against wine and strong drink. We should avoid contentions. The sluggard. The righteous man. Weights and measures. Tale-bearers. The wicked son. The wise king. The glory of young men. The beauty of old men. The benefit of correction.

### Verse 1

[¶17] Wine is a mocker - It deceives by its fragrance, intoxicates by its strength, and renders the intoxicated ridiculous.

[¶18] Strong drink - שכר shechar, any strong fermented liquor, whether of the vine, date, or palm species.

### Verse 2

[¶20] The fear of a king - Almost the same with [Pro 19:12] (note), which see.

### Verse 3

[¶22] It is an honoer for a man - The same sentiment as [Pro 19:11].

### Verse 4

[¶24] The sluggard will not plough - For other parts of this character, see the preceding chapter, Proverbs 19 (note). It is seldom that there is a season of very cold weather in Palestine; very cold days sometimes occur, with wind, rain, and sleet. They begin their ploughing in the latter end of September, and sow their early wheat by the middle of October. And this is often the case in England itself. The meaning of the proverb is: the slothful man, under the pretense of unfavorable weather, neglects cultivating his land till the proper time is elapsed.

### Verse 5

[¶26] Counsel in the heart of man - Men of the deepest and most comprehensive minds are rarely apt, unsolicited, to join in any discourse, in which they might appear even to the greatest advantage; but a man of understanding will elicit this, by questions framed for the purpose, and thus pump up the salubrious waters from the deep and capacious well. The metaphor is fine and expressive.

### Verse 6

[¶28] Most men will proclaim - Many men merciful ben clepid: a feithful man forsoth, who schal finde? Old MS. Bible.

### Verse 8

[¶30] A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment - Kings should see to the administration of the laws, as well as of the state transactions, of their kingdom. In the British constitution there is a court for the king, called the King's Bench, where he should sit, and where he is always supposed to be sitting. The eyes - the presence, of the monarch in such a place, scatter evil - he sees into the case himself, and gives right judgment, for he can have no self-interest. Corrupt judges, and falsifying counsellors, cannot stand before him; and the villain is too deeply struck with the majesty and state of the monarch, to face out iniquity before him.

### Verse 9

[¶32] Who can say, I have made any heart clean - No man. But thousands can testify that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed them from all unrighteousness. And he is pure from his sin, who is justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus.

### Verse 10

[¶34] Divers weights and divers measures - A peise and a peise; - Old MS. Bible: from the French pois, weight. Hebrew: "A stone and a stone; an ephah and an ephah." One the standard, the other below it; one to buy with, the other to sell by.

### Verse 11

[¶36] Even a child is known by his doings - That is, in general terms, the effect shows the nature of the cause. "A childe is known by his conversation," says Coverdale. A child is easily detected when he has done evil; he immediately begins to excuse and vindicate himself, and profess his innocence, almost before accusation takes place. Some think the words should be understood, every child will dissemble; this amounts nearly to the meaning given above, But probably the principal this intended by the wise man is, that we may easily learn from the child what the man will be. In general, they give indications of those trades and callings for which they are adapted by nature. And, on the whole, we cannot go by a surer guide in preparing our children for future life, than by observing their early propensities. The future engineer is seen in the little handicraftsman of two years old. Many children are crossed in these early propensities to a particular calling, to their great prejudice, and the loss of their parents, as they seldom settle at, or succeed in, the business to which they are tied, and to which nature has given them no tendency. These infantine predilections to particular callings, we should consider as indications of Divine Providence, and its calling of them to that work for which they are peculiarly fitted.

### Verse 12

[¶38] The hearing ear and the seeing eye - Every good we possess comes from God; and we should neither use our eyes, nor our ears, nor any thing we possess, but in strict subserviency to his will.

### Verse 13

[¶40] Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty - Sleep, indescribable in its nature, is an indescribable blessing; but how often is it turned into a curse! It is like food; a certain measure of it restores and invigorates exhausted nature; more than that oppresses and destroys life. A lover of sleep is a paltry, insignificant character.

### Verse 14

[¶42] It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer - How apt are men to decry the goods they wish to purchase, in order that they may get them at a cheaper rate; and, when they have made their bargain and carried it off, boast to others at how much less than its value they have obtained it! Are such honest men? Is such knavery actionable? Can such be punished only in another world? St. Augustine tells us a pleasant story on this subject: A certain mountebank published, in the full theater, that at the next entertainment he would show to every man present what was in his heart. The time came, and the concourse was immense; all waited, with deathlike silence, to hear what he would say to eaeh. He stood up, and in a single sentence redeemed his pledge: -

[¶43] Vili vultis Emere, et Caro Vendere.

[¶44] You all wish to Buy Cheap, and Sell Dear."

[¶45] He was applauded; for every one felt it to be a description of his own heart, and was satisfied that all others were similar. "In quo dicto levissimi scenici omnes tamen conscientias invenerunt suas.' - De Trinitate, lib. xiii., c. 3; Oper. vol. vii., col. 930.

## 733. Proverbs · 28 of 46

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### Verse 15

[¶1] There is gold - Gold is valuable, silver is valuable, and so are jewels; but the teachings of sound knowledge are more valuable than all.

### Verse 16

[¶3] Take his garment that is surety for a stranger - I suppose the meaning to be, If a stranger or unknown person become surety in a case, greater caution should be used, and such security taken from this stranger as would prevent him from running away from his engagements.

### Verse 17

[¶5] Bread of deceit is sweet - Property acquired by falsehood, speculation, etc., without labor, is pleasant to the unprincipled, slothful man; but there is a curse in it, and the issue will prove it.

### Verse 18

[¶7] With good advice make war, - Perhaps there is not a precept in this whole book so little regarded as this. Most of the wars that are undertaken are wars of injustice, ambition, aggrandizement, and caprice, which can have had no previous good counsel. A minister, who is perhaps neither a good nor a great man, counsels his king to make war; the cabinet must be brought into it, and a sufficient number out of the states of the kingdom gained over to support it. By and by, what was begun through caprice must be maintained through necessity. Places must be created, and offices must be filled with needy dependents, whose interest it may be to protract the war, till they get enough to pay their debts, and secure independence for life. And for these most important ends the blood of the country is spilled, and the treasures of the people exhausted! I have met with a fact precisely of this kind under the reign of Louis XIV.

### Verse 20

[¶9] Whoso curseth his father - Such persons were put to death under the law; see [Exo 21:17]; [Lev 20:9], and here it is said, Their lamp shall be put out - they shall have no posterity; God shall cut them off both root and branch.

### Verse 21

[¶11] An inheritance - gotten hastily - Gotten by speculation; by lucky hits; not in the fair progressive way of traffic, in which money has its natural increase. All such inheritances are short-lived; God's blessing is not in them, because they are not the produce of industry; and they lead to idleness, pride, fraud and knavery. A speculation in trade is a pubiic nuisance and curse. How many honest men have been ruined by such!

### Verse 22

[¶13] I will recompense evil - Wait on the Lord; judgment is his, and his judgments are sure. In the mean time pray for the conversion of your enemy.

### Verse 24

[¶15] Man's goings are of the Lord - He, by his providence, governs all the great concerns of the world. Man often traverses these operations; but he does it to his own damage. An old writer quaintly says: "They who will carve for themselves shall cut their fingers."

### Verse 25

[¶17] Who devoureth that which is holy - It is a sin to take that which belongs to God, his worship, or his work, and devote it to one's own use.

[¶18] And after vows to make inquiry - That is, if a man be inwardly making a rash vow, the fitness or unfitness, the necessity, expediency, and propriety of the thing should be first carefully considered. But how foolish to make the vow first, and afterwards to inquire whether it was right in the sight of God to do it! This equally condemns all rash and inconsiderate conduct. My old MS. Bible translates, Falling is of men often to vowen to seyntis, and after, the vouw is agen brawen. Is it possible that Wiclif could have translated this verse thus? as it strongly countenances vows to and invocations of saints.

### Verse 26

[¶20] Bringeth the wheel over them - He threshes them in his anger, as the wheel does the grain on the threshing-floor. Every one knows that grain was separated from its husks, in Palestine, by the feet of the oxen trampling among the sheaves, or bringing a rough-shod wheel over them. Asiatic kings often threshed their people, to bring out their property; but this is not what is intended here.

### Verse 27

[¶22] The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord - God has given to every man a mind, which he so enlightens by his own Spirit, that the man knows how to distinguish good from evil; and conscience, which springs from this, searches the inmost recesses of the soul.

### Verse 28

[¶24] Mercy and truth preserve the king - These are the brightest jewels in the royal crown; and those kings who are most governed by them have the stablest government.

### Verse 29

[¶26] The glory of young men is their strength - Scarcely any young man affects to be wise, learned, etc.; but all delight to show their strength and to be reputed strong. Agility, one evidence of strength, their particularly affect; and hence their various trials of strength and fleetness in public exercises.

[¶27] And the beauty of old men is the gray head - They no longer affect strength and agility, but they affect wisdom, experience, prudent counsels, etc., and are fond of being reputed wise, and of having respect paid to their understanding and experience.

### Verse 30

[¶29] The blueness of a wound - חברות chabburoth, from חבר chabar, to unite, to join together. Does it not refer to the cicatrice of a wound when, in its healing, the two lips are brought topether? By this union the wound is healed; and by the previous discharge the lace-rated ends of fibres and blood-vessels are purged away. So stripes, though they hurt for the time, become the means of correcting and discharging the moral evil of the inmost soul, the vice of the heart, the easily-besetting sin.

[¶30] In this chapter, verses fourteen to nineteen, inclusive, are wanting in the Septuagint and Arabic; and the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, come in after the twenty-second. It is difficult to account for these variations, unless they were occasioned by the change of leaves in MSS.

### Introduction

[¶32] The king's heart is in the hand of God. We should practice mercy and justice. The lying tongue. The quarrelsome woman. The punishment of the wicked. The uncharitable. The private gift. The happiness of the righteous. The wicked a ransom for the righteous. The treasures of the wise. He who guards his tongue. Desire of the sluggard. The false witness. Salvation is of the Lord.

### Verse 1

[¶34] The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord - The Lord is the only ruler of princes. He alone can govern and direct their counsels. But there is an allusion here to the Eastern method of watering their lands. Several canals are dug from one stream; and by opening a particular sluice, the husbandman can direct a stream to whatever part he please: so the king's heart, wherever it turns; i.e., to whomsoever he is disposed to show favor. As the land is enriched with the streams employed in irrigation; so is the favourite of the king, by the royal bounty: and God can induce the king to give that bounty to whomsoever he will. See Harmer.

### Verse 2

[¶36] The Lord pondereth the hearts - Every man feels strongly attached to his own opinions, modes of acting, etc.; and though he will not easily give up any thing to the judgment of a neighbor, whom he will naturally consider at least as fallible as himself, yet he should consider that the unerring eye of God is upon him; and he should endeavor to see that what he does is acceptable in the eye of his Maker and Judge.

### Verse 3

[¶38] To do justice and judgment - The words of Samuel to Saul. See note on [1Sam 15:23].

### Verse 4

[¶40] A high look - The evidence of pride, self-conceit, and vanity. A proud heart, from which the high look, etc., come.

[¶41] And the ploughing - נר ner, lucerna, the lamp, the prosperity and posterity of the wicked; is sin - it is evil in the seed, and evil in the root evil in the branch, and evil in the fruit. They are full of sin themselves, and what they do is sinful.

### Verse 6

[¶43] Of them that seek death - Instead of מבקשי mebakshey, "them that seek," several MSS., some ancient editions, with Symmachus, the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Arabic, have מקשי mokeshey, the snares. He who gets treasures by a lying tongue, pursues vanity into the snares of death. Our common translation may be as good. But he who, by the snares of his tongue, endeavors to buy and sell to the best advantage, is pursuing what is empty in itself; and he is ensnared by death, while he is attempting to ensnare others.

## 734. Proverbs · 29 of 46

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### Verse 7

[¶1] The robbery of the wicked - The wicked shall be terrified and ruined by the means they use to aggrandize themselves. And as they refuse to do judgment, they shall have judgment without mercy.

### Verse 9

[¶3] In a corner of the housetop - A shed raised on the flat roof - a wide house; בית חבר beith chaber, "a house of fellowship;" what we should call a lodging-house, or a house occupied by several families. This was usual in the East, as well as in the West. Some think a house of festivity is meant: hence my old MS. Bible has, the hous and feste.

### Verse 11

[¶5] When the scorner is punished - When those who mock at religion, blaspheme against its Author, and endeavor to poison society, and disturb the peace of the community by their false doctrine, meet with that degree of punishment which their crimes, as far as they affect the public peace, deserve; then the simple, who were either led away, or in danger of being led away, by their pernicious doctrines, are made wise. And when those thus made wise are instructed in the important truths which have been decried by those unprincipled men, then they receive knowledge; and one such public example is made a blessing to thousands. But only blasphemy against God and the Bible should be thus punished. Private opinion the state should not meddle with.

### Verse 12

[¶7] The righteous man wisely considereth - This verse is understood as implying the pious concern of a righteous man, for a wicked family, whom he endeavors by his instructions to bring into the way of knowledge and peace.

### Verse 13

[¶9] Whoso stoppeth his ears - See the conduct of the priest and Levite to the man who fell among thieves; and let every man learn from this, that he who shuts his ear against the cry of the poor, shall have the ear of God shut against his cry. The words are quite plain; there is no difficulty here.

### Verse 16

[¶11] The man once enlightened, that wandereth out of the way of understanding, in which he had walked, shall remain - have a permanent residence - in the congregation of the dead; רפאים rephaim, the lost; either separate spirits in general, or rather the assembly of separate spirits, which had fallen from primitive rectitude; and shall not be restored to the Divine favor; particularly those sinners who were destroyed by the deluge. This passage intimates that those called rephaim are in a state of conscious existence. It is difficult to assign the true meaning of the word in several places where it occurs: but it seems to mean the state of separate spirits, i.e., of those separated from their bodies, and awaiting the judgment of the great day: but the congregation may also include the fallen angels. My old MS. Bible translates, The man that errith fro the wei of doctrine, in the felowschip of geantis schal wonnen.

### Verse 17

[¶13] He that loveth pleasure - That follows gaming, fowling, hunting, coursing, etc., when he should be attending to the culture of the fields, shall be a poor man; and, I may safely add, shall be so deservedly poor, as to have none to pity him.

### Verse 18

[¶15] The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous - God often in his judgments cuts off the wicked, in order to prevent them from destroying the righteous. And in general, we find that the wicked fall into the traps and pits they have digged for the righteous.

### Verse 22

[¶17] A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty - Wisdom is in many respects preferable to strength, even in the case of defense. See what skill does in the fortification and reduction of strong places.

### Verse 25

[¶19] The desire of the slothful killeth him - He desires to eat, drink, and be clothed: but as he does not labor, hence he dies with this desire in his heart, envying those who possess plenty through their labor and industry. Hence he is said to covet greedily all the day long, [Pro 21:26], while the righteous, who has been laborious and diligent, has enough to eat, and some to spare.

### Verse 27

[¶21] When he bringeth it with a wicked mind? - If such a person even bring the sacrifices and offerings which God requires, they are an abomination to him, because the man is wicked; and if such offerings be imperfect in themselves, or of goods ill-gotten, or offered by constraint of custom, etc., they are doubly abominable.

### Verse 29

[¶23] He directeth his way - Instead of יכין yachin, he directeth, upwards of fifty of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., several ancient editions with some of the versions, read יבין yabin, he understands; and because he understands his way, he is able to direct himself in walking in it.

### Verse 31

[¶25] The horse is prepared against the day of battle - Horses were not used among the Jews before the time of Solomon. There was a Divine command against them, [Deu 17:16]; but Solomon transgressed it; see [1Kgs 10:29]. But he here allows that a horse is a vain thing for safety; and that however strong and well appointed cavalry may be, still safety, escape, and victory, are of the Lord. Among the ancient Asiatics, the horse was used only for war; oxen labored in the plough and cart, the ass and the camel carried backloads; and mules and asses served for riding. We often give the credit of a victory to man, when they who consider the circumstances see that it came from God.

### Introduction

[¶27] A good reputation. The rich and the poor. The idle. Good habits formed in infancy. Injustice and its effects. The providence of God. The lewd woman. The necessity of timely correction. Exhortation to wisdom. Rob not the poor. Be not the companion of the frowward. Avoid suretyship. Be honest. The industrious shall be favored.

### Verse 1

[¶29] A good name - שם shem, a name, put for reputation, credit, fame. Used nearly in the same way that we use it: "He has got a name;" "his name stands high;" for "He is a man of credit and reputation." טבא toba, καλον, hamood, and bonum, are added by the Chaldee, Septuagint, Arabiac, and Vulgate, all signifying good or excellent.

[¶30] Is rather to be chosen than great riches - Because character will support a man in many circumstances; and there are many rich men that have no name: but the word of the man of character will go farther than all their riches.

### Verse 2

[¶32] The rich and poor meet together - עשיר ashir the opulent, whether in money, land, or property; רש rash, the man that is destitute of these, and lives by his labor, whether a handicraftsman, or one that tills the ground. In the order of God, the rich and the poor live together, and are mutually helpful to each other. Without the poor, the rich could not be supplied with the articles which they consume; for the poor include all the laboring classes of society: and without the rich, the poor could get no vent for the produce of their laborer, nor, in many cases, labor itself. The poor have more time to labor than the mere necessaries of life require; their extra time is employed in providing a multitude of things which are called the superfluities of life, and which the rich especially consume. All the poor man's time is thus employed; and he is paid for his extra labor by the rich. The rich should not despise the poor, without whom he can neither have his comforts, nor maintain his state. The poor should not envy the rich, without whom he could neither get employment, nor the necessaries of life.

[¶33] The Lord is the Maker of them all - Both the states are in the order of God's providence and both are equally important in his sight. Merely considered as men, God loves the simple artificer or laborer as much as he does the king; though the office of the latter, because of its entering into the plan of his government of the world, is of infinitely greatly consequence than the trade of the poor artificer. Neither should despise the other; neither should envy the other. Both are useful; both important; both absolutely necessary to each other's welfare and support; and both are accountable to God for the manner in which they acquit themselves in those duties of life which God has respectively assigned them. The abject poor - those who are destitute of health and the means of life - God in effect lays at the rich man's door, that by his superfluities they may be supported. How wise is that ordinance which has made the rich and the poor! Pity it were not better understood!

### Verse 3

[¶35] A prudent man foreseeth the evil - God in mercy has denied man the knowledge of futurity; but in its place he has given him hope and prudence. By hope he is continually expecting and anticipating good; by prudence he derives and employs means to secure it. His experience shows him that there are many natural evils in a current state, the course of which he can neither stem nor divert: prudence shows him beforehand the means he may use to step out of their way, and hide himself. The simple - the inexperienced, headstrong, giddy, and foolish - rush on in the career of hope, without prudence to regulate, chastise, and guide it; thus they commit many faults, make many miscarriages, and suffer often in consequence; and the commission of crimes leads to punishment.

### Verse 5

[¶37] Thorns and snares - Various difficulties, trials, and sufferings.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Train up a child in the way he should go - The Hebrew of this clause is curious: חנך לנער על פי דרכו chanoch lannaar al pi darco, "Initiate the child at the opening (the mouth) of his path." When he comes to the opening of the way of life, being able to walk alone, and to choose; stop at this entrance, and begin a series of instructions, how he is to conduct himself in every step he takes. Show him the duties, the dangers, and the blessings of the path; give him directions how to perform the duties, how to escape the dangers, and how to secure the blessings, which all lie before him. Fix these on his mind by daily inculcation, till their impression is become indelible; then lead him to practice by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, till each indelible impression becomes a strongly radicated habit. Beg incessantly the blessing of God on all this teaching and discipline; and then you have obeyed the injunction of the wisest of men. Nor is there any likelihood that such impressions shall ever be effaced, or that such habits shall ever be destroyed. חנך chanac, which we translate train up or initiate, signifies also dedicate; and is often used for the consecrating any thing, house, or person, to the service of God. Dedicate, therefore, in the first instance, your child to God; and nurse, teach, and discipline him as God's child, whom he has intrusted to your care. These things observed, and illustrated by your own conduct, the child (you have God's word for it) will never depart from the path of life. Coverdale translates the passage thus: "Yf thou teachest a childe what waye he shoulde go, he shall not leave it when he is olde." Coverdale's Bible, for generally giving the true sense of a passage, and in elegant language for the time, has no equal in any of the translations which have followed since. Horace's maxim is nearly like that of Solomon: -

[¶40] Fingit equum tenera docilem cervice magister

[¶41] Ire viam, quam monstrat eques; venaticus, ex quo

[¶42] Tempore cervinam pellem latravit in aula,

[¶43] Militat in sylvis catulus. Nunc adbibe puro

[¶44] Pectore verba, puer; nunc te melioribus ofter.

[¶45] Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem

## 735. Proverbs · 30 of 46

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[¶0] Testa diu.

[¶1] Hor. Ep. lib. i., ep. 2, ver. 64. "The docile colt is form'd with gentle skill

[¶2] To move obedient to his rider's will.

[¶3] In the loud hall the hound is taught to bay

[¶4] The buckskin trail'd, then challenges his prey

[¶5] Through the wild woods. Thus, in your hour of youth

[¶6] From pure instruction quaff the words of truth:

[¶7] The odours of the wine that first shall stain

[¶8] The virgin vessel, it shall long retain."

[¶9] Francis.

### Verse 7

[¶11] The rich ruieth over the poor - So it is in the order of God, and may be a blessing to both.

### Verse 8

[¶13] He that soweth iniquity - The crop must be according to the seed. If a man sow thistle seed, is it likely he shall reap wheat? If he sow to the flesh, shall he not of the flesh reap destruction?

### Verse 9

[¶15] A bountiful eye - One that disposes him to help all that he sees to be in want; the bountiful eye means the bountiful heart; for the heart looks through the eye. The merciful heart, even when the hand has little or nothing to give, shall be blessed of the Lord.

### Verse 11

[¶17] He that loveth pureness of heart - Who aims to be what God would have him to be - the King of kings shall be his Friend. There is no class of men that value uprightness more than kings; as none stand so much in need of it in their servants.

### Verse 12

[¶19] The eyes of the Lord - (the Divine providence) preserve knowledge - This providence has been wonderfully manifested in preserving the sacred oracles, and in preserving many ancient authors, which have been of great use to the civil interests of man.

### Verse 13

[¶21] The slothful man saith, There is a lion without - But why does he say so? Because he is a slothful man. Remove his slothfulness, and these imaginary difficulties and dangers will be no more. He will not go abroad to work in the fields, because he thinks there is a lion in the way, he will not go out into the town for employment, as he fears to be assassinated in the streets! From both these circumstances he seeks total cessation from activity.

### Verse 14

[¶23] The mouth of strange women is a deep pit - In [Pro 23:27], he says, A whore is a Deep Ditch:, oud a strange woman is a Narrow Pit.

[¶24] The allusions in these three places are too plain to be misunderstood.

[¶25] Virgil's hell has been adduced in illustration: - - Sate sanguine Divum,

[¶26] Tros Anchisiade, facilis decensus Averni;

[¶27] Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis:

[¶28] Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras,

[¶29] Hoc Opus, hic Labor est.

[¶30] Pauci quos aequus amavit

[¶31] Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus,

[¶32] Dis geniti potuere.

[¶33] Virg. Aen, lib. vi., ver. 125. "O glorious prince of brave Anchises' line!

[¶34] Great godlike hero! sprung from seed divine,

[¶35] Smooth lies the road to Pluto's gloomy shade;

[¶36] And hell's black gates for ever stand display'd:

[¶37] But 'tis a long unconquerable pain,

[¶38] To climb to these ethereal realms again.

[¶39] The choice-selected few, whom favoring Jove,

[¶40] Or their own virtue, rais'd to heaven above,

[¶41] From these dark realms emerged again to day;

[¶42] The mighty sons of gods, and only they.

[¶43] Pitt.

## 736. Proverbs · 31 of 46

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### Verse 16

[¶1] He that oppresseth the poor - He who, in order to obtain the favor of the rich and great, either robs or cheats the poor, to make those men presents; or gives in presents to them, for the sake of honor and reputation, what he should have given to the poor, shall surely come to want.

### Verse 17

[¶3] Bow down thine ear - From this to the end of [Pro 22:21] are contained, not proverbs, but directions how to profit by that which wisdom has already delivered; the nature of the instruction, and the end for which it was given.

[¶4] I shall give a paraphrase of this very important passage: -

[¶5] I. Solomon addresses his pupils on the use of his past teachings. See on [Pro 22:6] (note).

[¶6] 1. The wise man speaks; and all his words, not merely his sentiments, are to be carefully heard.

[¶7] 2. He speaks knowledge - gives doctrines true in themselves, and confirmed by observation and experience.

[¶8] 3. These are to be heard with humility and deep attention: "Bow down thine ear."

[¶9] 4. They must not only be heard, but meditated and pondered: "Apply thine heart to my knowledge."

### Verse 18

[¶11] For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee -

[¶12] II. The pleasure and profit which may be derived from an attentive hearing.

[¶13] 1. They should be laid up in the heart-stored, treasured up within thee.

[¶14] 2. This will yield high satisfaction and happiness to the soul: "For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee."

[¶15] 3. The man who thus attends to the teachings of wisdom shall gain an experimental knowledge of them, so as to be able to speak of them suitably, pertinently and persuasively. "They shall withal be fitted in thy lips."

### Verse 19

[¶17] That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known, etc. -

[¶18] III. The End for which the wise man gives these instructions: -

[¶19] 1. "That thy trust may be in the Lord." That thou mayest acknowledge Him as the Fountain of all good; and refer every thing to him.

[¶20] 2. That this end may be accomplished, the instructions are specific and particular: "I have made known to thee, even to thee."

[¶21] 3. And this has not only been done in times past, "I have made known:" but even in the present, "I have made known this day!"

[¶22] IV. An appeal is made to the person himself relative to the matter and importance of the teaching.

[¶23] 1. "Have I not written to thee excellent things;" שלשים shalishim, literally threefold, thrice, in three different ways; which some think refers to his three books: -

[¶24] 1. Song of Solomon.

[¶25] 2. Koheleth, or Ecclesiastes.

[¶26] 3. Proverbs.

[¶27] Others, understanding it of the voice of Divine wisdom, suppose the three grand divisions of the sacred oracles are intended; viz.,

[¶28] 1. The Law;

[¶29] 2. The Prophets;

[¶30] 3. The Hagiographa.

[¶31] And others interpret it of the three grand intellectual sciences: -

[¶32] 1. Morality, or Ethics.

[¶33] 2. Natural Philosophy, or Physics.

[¶34] 3. Theology, or the science of Divine things as reported in the Scriptures. But Solomon's books of Natural Philosophy are lost.

[¶35] And lastly, some of the rabbins and some Christians find in these shalishim the three senses of Scripture:

[¶36] 1. Literal;

[¶37] 2. Figurative;

[¶38] 3. Allegorical.

[¶39] After all, as we know the term thrice was used as the term seven, a certain number for an uncertain, (see [Amo 1:11]; [2Cor 12:8]), it may mean no more here than, I have written to thee often. But perhaps it is safer to apply it to the Scriptures, and the excellent doctrines they contain: for שלשים shalishim signifies also excellent, princely things; things which become a king to speak. Indeed, it would not be difficult to prove that there is not one important art or science which is not alluded to in the Holy Scriptures, and used to illustrate and inculcate heavenly truths.

[¶40] 2. These excellent, princely, or threefold teachings, consist of two grand parts:

[¶41] 1. Counsels, מעצות moetsoth, from יוץ yaats, to give advice, counsel, or information. These (1) show thee what thou shouldst know; and (2) advise thee what thou shouldst do.

[¶42] 2. Knowledge, דעת daath, from ידע yada, to perceive, or feel by means of the senses and internal perception; viz., what should be felt, experienced, known to be true by mental perception, and by their influence on the heart and affections.

[¶43] V. All this is done to give the pupil the fullest satisfaction, and most plenary evidence concerning the truths of God.

### Verse 21

[¶45] That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth -

## 737. Proverbs · 32 of 46

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[¶0] 1. These are words or doctrines of truth:

[¶1] 1. They are true in themselves.

[¶2] 2. Come from the God of truth.

[¶3] 3. Are truly fulfilled to all that believe.

[¶4] 2. These words of truth are certain, קשט koshet, they are not of dubious or difficult interpretation; they point directly to the great end for which God gave them; they promise, and they are fulfilled. He who pleads them by faith, receives their accomplishment in the spirit and power of Divine love. The Scriptures, as far as they concern the salvation of the soul, are to be experimentally understood; and, by this experimental knowledge, every believer has the witness in himself, and knows the certainty of the words of truth.

[¶5] VI. What we know ourselves to be true, and of infinite importance to the welfare of men in general, we should carefully proclaim and witness, that they also may believe.

[¶6] That thou mightest answer the words of truth -

[¶7] 1. When the doctrine of salvation is preached, there will be many inquirers. What is this doctrine? Have any persons received these blessings - the remission of sins, witness of the Holy Spirit, purification of the heart, etc., etc.? Who are they? What are the collateral arguments that prove these things, and show us that you have not misapprehended the meaning of these Scriptures?

[¶8] 2. Inquiries of this kind should meet with the speediest and most distinct answers; and the doctrines of truth should be supported and illustrated with the words of truth. "That thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee."

### Verse 22

[¶10] Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate - In judgment let the poor have a fair hearing; and let him not be borne down because he is poor. The reader has often seen that courts of justice were held at the gates of cities in the East.

### Verse 23

[¶12] For the Lord will plead their cause - Wo therefore to them that oppress them, for they will have God, not the poor, to deal with.

### Verse 24

[¶14] Make no friendship with an angry man - Spirit has a wonderful and unaccountable influence upon spirit. From those with whom we associate we acquire habits, and learn their ways, imbibe their spirit, show their tempers and walk in their steps. We cannot be too choice of our company, for we may soon learn ways that will be a snare to our soul.

### Verse 26

[¶16] That strike hands - See on [Pro 6:1] (note); [Pro 11:15] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶18] If thou hast nothing to pay - Should any man give security for more than he is worth? If he does, is it not a fraud on the very face of the transaction?

[¶19] Why should he take away thy bed from under thee? - The creditor will not pursue the debtor whom he knows to be worth nothing; but he will sue the bail or bondsman. And why shouldst thou put thyself in such circumstances as to expose thyself to the loss even of thy bed?

### Verse 28

[¶21] Remove not the ancient landmark - Do not take the advantage, in ploughing or breaking up a field contiguous to that of thy neighbor, to set the dividing stones farther into his field that thou mayest enlarge thy own. Take not what is not thy own in any case. Let all ancient divisions, and the usages connected with them, be held sacred. Bring in no new dogmas, nor rites, nor ceremonies, into religion, or the worship of God, that are not clearly laid down in the sacred writings. "Stand in the way; and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way, and walk therein; and ye shall find rest for your souls;" [Jer 6:16]. But if any Church have lost sight of the genuine doctrines of the Gospel, calling them back to these is not removing the ancient landmarks, as some have falsely asserted. God gave a law against removing the ancient landmarks, by which the inheritances of tribes and families were distinguished. See [Deu 19:14], from which these words of Solomon appear to be taken.

[¶22] Even among the heathens the landmark was sacred; so sacred that they made a deity of it. Terminus signifies the stone or post that served as a landmark. And Terminus was reputed a god, and had offerings made to him. Hence Ovid: -

[¶23] Tu quoque sacrorum, Termine, finis eras.

[¶24] Fast. lib. i., ver. 50.

[¶25] Nox ubi transierit, solito celebratur honore,Separat indicio qui Deus arva suo.

[¶26] Termine, sive lapis, sive es defossus in agroStipes, ab antiquis sic quoque Numen habes.

[¶27] Te duo diversa domini pro parte coronant;Binaque serta tibi, binaque liba ferunt -

[¶28] Conveniunt, celebrantque dapes vicinia simplex;Et cantant laudes, Termine sancte, tuas.

[¶29] Tu populos, urbesque, et regna ingentia finis:Omnis erit, sine te, litigiosus ager.

[¶30] Fast. lib. ii., ver. 639.

[¶31] Here we find the owners of both fields bringing each his garland and libation to the honor of this god. They sung its praises, put on its top a chaplet of flowers, poured out the libation before it; and the inhabitants of the country held a festival in its honor. It was, in short, celebrated as the preserver of the bounds and territorial rights of tribes, cities, and whole kingdoms; and without its testimony and evidence, every field would have been a subject of litigation.

### Verse 29

[¶33] He shalt not stand before mean men - חשכים chashukkim, dark or obscure persons; men of no repute. Na he schal ben before un-noble men - Old MS. Bible. "Not amonge the symple people." - Coverdale.

[¶34] The general meaning of the proverb is, "Every diligent, active man, shall be at once independent and respectable."

### Introduction

[¶36] Sobriety in eating and drinking, especially at the tables of the great. Have no fellowship with the covetous. Remove not the ancient landmark. Children should receive due correction. Avoid the company of wine-bibbers. Obedience to parents. Avoid lewd connections. The effect of an unfeeling conscience.

### Verse 1

[¶38] When thou sittest to eat with a ruler - When invited to the table of thy betters, eat moderately. Do not appear as if half starved at home. Eat not of delicacies to which thou art not accustomed; they are deceitful meat; they please, but they do not profit. They are pleasant to the sight, the taste, and the smell; but they are injurious to health. These are prudential cautions; and should be carefully observed by all who would avoid the conduct of a clown, and desire to pass for a well-bred man.

### Verse 2

[¶40] Put a knife to thy throat - Repress thy appetite, and do not be incontinent of speech. Eat, drink, and converse, under a check.

### Verse 4

[¶42] Labour not to be rich - Let not this be thy object. Labour to provide things honest in the sight of God and all men; and if thou get wealth, do not forget the poor, else God's curse will be a canker even in thy gold.

[¶43] Cease from thine own wisdom - בינתך binathecha, thy own understanding or prudence. The world says, "Get rich if thou canst, and how thou canst." Rem, si possis, recte; si non, quocunque modo rem; "Get a fortune honestly if thou canst; but if not, get one at all events." This is the devil's counsel, and well it is followed; but Solomon says, and God says, "Cease from thine own counsel." Thou hast an immortal soul, and shalt shortly appear before God. Lay up treasure for heaven, and be rich towards God.

## 738. Proverbs · 33 of 46

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Of him that hath an evil eye - Never eat with a covetous or stingy man; if he entertains you at his own expense, he grudges every morsel you put in your mouth. This is well marked by the wise man in the next verse: "Eat and drink, saith he: but his heart is not with thee."

### Verse 8

[¶3] The morsel which thou hast eaten - On reflection thou wilt even blame thyself for having accepted his invitation.

### Verse 10

[¶5] Remove not the old landmark - See [Pro 22:28] (note).

[¶6] Enter not into the fields of the fatherless - Take nothing that belongs to an orphan. The heaviest curse of God will fall upon them that do so.

### Verse 11

[¶8] For their redeemer is mighty - גאלם goalam, their kinsman. The word means the person who has a right, being next in blood, to redeem a field or estate, alienated from the family, to avenge the blood of a murdered relative, by slaying the murderer; and to take to wife a brother's widow, who had died childless, in order to preserve the family. The strength here mentioned refers to the justness of his claim, the extent of his influence, and the powerful abettors of such a cause. But in reference to the orphans here mentioned, they having no kinsman, God takes up, vindicates, and avenges their cause.

### Verse 14

[¶10] Thou shalt beat him with the rod - A proper correction of children was a favourite point of discipline with Solomon. We have already seen how forcibly he speaks on this subject. See the notes on the places referred to in [1Cor 5:5] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶12] Surely there is an end - יש אחרית yesh acharith, there is another life; "and thy expectation" of the enjoyment of a blessed immortality "shall not be cut off." The Old MS. Bible reads thus: For thou schalt hab hop in the last: and thin abiiding schal not ben taken awei. "For the ende is not yet come; and thy patient abydinge shal not be in vayne." - Coverdale.

### Verse 20

[¶14] Be not among winebibbers - There is much of this chapter spent in giving directions concerning eating, drinking, and entertainments in general.

[¶15] 1. he pupil is directed relative to the manner in which he is to conduct himself in his visits to the tables of the rich and great.

[¶16] 2. Relative to the covetous and his intercourse with them. And

[¶17] 3. To public entertainnlents, where there were generally riot and debauch.

[¶18] The reasons, says Calmet, which induced the wise man to give these directions were,

[¶19] 1. The useless expense.

[¶20] 2. The loss of time.

[¶21] 3. The danger from bad company. And

[¶22] 4. The danger of contracting irregular habits, and of being induced to lead a voluptuous and effeminate life.

### Verse 22

[¶24] Despise not thy mother when she is old - A very necessary caution, as very old women are generally helpless, useless, and burdensome: yet these circumstances do not at all lessen the child's duty. And this duty is strengthened by the Divine command here given.

### Verse 23

[¶26] Buy the truth - Acquire the knowledge of God at all events; and in order to do this, too much pains, industry, and labor cannot be expended.

[¶27] And sell it not - When once acquired, let no consideration deprive thee of it. Cleave to and guard it, even at the risk of thy life. Coverdale translates: "Labour for to get the treuth; sell not awaye wissdome."

### Verse 26

[¶29] My son, give me thine heart - This is the speech of God to every human soul; give thy affections to God, so as to love him with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.

[¶30] And let thine eyes observe my ways - Be obedient to me in all things. My son, thou believest that I Am, and that I Am the Fountain of all good. Give me thy heart; it is I alone who can make thee happy. Observe my ways - follow me; do what is right in my sight. This exhortation contains three words: Believe, Love, Obey! This is the sum of God's counsels to every child of man.

### Verse 27

[¶32] For a whore is a deep ditch - See on [Pro 22:14] (note).

### Verse 28

[¶34] Increaseth the transgressors among men - More iniquity springs from this one source of evil, than from any other cause in the whole system of sin. Women and strong drink cause many millions to transgress.

### Verse 29

[¶36] Who hath wo? - I believe Solomon refers here to the natural effects of drunkenness. And perhaps אוי oi, which we translate wo, and אבוי aboi, which we translate sorrow, are mere natural sounds or vociferations that take place among drunken men, either from illness, or the nauseating effects of too much liquor. As to contentions among such, babblings on a variety of subjects, which they neither understand nor are fit to discuss; wounds, got by falling out about nothing; and red eyes, bloodshotten with excess of drink, or black and blue eyes with fighting; - these are such common and general effects of these compotations, as naturally to follow from them. So that they who tarry long at wine, and use mixed wine to make it more inebriating, (see [Pro 9:2]), are the very persons who are most distinguished by the circumstances enumerated above. I need scarcely add, that by wine and mixed wine all inebriating liquors are to be understood.

### Verse 31

[¶38] Look not thou upon the wine - Let neither the color, the odour, the sparkling, etc., of the wine, when poured out, induce thee to drink of it. However good and pure it may be, it will to thee be a snare, because thou art addicted to it, and hast no self-command.

### Verse 33

[¶40] Thine eyes shall behold strange women - Evil concupiscence is inseparable from drunkenness. Mr. Herbert shows these effects well: -

[¶41] He that is drunken may his mother kill,Big with his sister: he hath lost the reins;

[¶42] Is outlawed by himself. All kinds of illDid, with his liquor, slide into his veins.

[¶43] The drunkard forfeits man; and doth divestAll worldly right, save what he hath by beast.

[¶44] Herbert's Poems - The Church Porch.

## 739. Proverbs · 34 of 46

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### Verse 34

[¶1] Lieth down in the midst of the sea - He is utterly regardless of life; which is expressed very forcibly by one in a state of intoxication ascending the shrouds, clasping the mast-head, and there falling asleep; whence, in a few moments, he must either fall down upon the deck and be dashed to pieces, or fall into the sea and be drowned. Reader, if thou be a man given to this appetite, put a knife to thy throat.

### Verse 35

[¶3] They have stricken me - Though beat and abused, full of pain, and exhibiting a frightful figure; yet so drunk was he, as to be insensible who had struck him: still, after all this abuse and disgrace, he purposes to embrace the next opportunity of repeating his excesses! Sin makes a man contemptible in life, miserable in death, and wretched to all eternity. Is it not strange, then, that men should Love it?

### Introduction

[¶5] Do not be envious. Of the house wisely built. Counsel necessary in war. Save life when thou canst. Of honey and the honey-comb. Of the just that falleth seven times. We should not rejoice at the misfortune of others. Ruin of the wicked. Fear God and the king. Prepare thy work. The field of the sluggard, and the vineyard of the foolish, described.

### Verse 3

[¶7] Through wisdom is a house blinded - That is, a family; household affairs. See the notes on [Pro 9:1] (note), etc.

### Verse 5

[¶9] A wise man is strong - His wisdom enables him to construct a great variety of machines, by which, under his own influence, he can do the labor of a hundred or even a thousand men. But in all cases wisdom gives power and influence; and he who is wise to salvation can overcome even Satan himself. The Septuagint has: "The wise is better than the strong; and the man who has prudence, than a stout husbandman."

### Verse 6

[¶11] By wise counsel thou shalt make thy war - See note on [Pro 20:18].

### Verse 7

[¶13] A fool - openeth not his mouth in the gate - Is not put into public offices of trust and responsibility.

### Verse 9

[¶15] The thought of foolishness is sin - זמת אולת חטאת zimmath ivveleth chattath. "The device of folly is transgression;" or, "an evil purpose is sinful;" or, perhaps more literally, "the device of the foolish is sin." It has been variously understood by the versions. "The cunning: of the fool is sin." - Targum. "The imprudent man (or fool, αφρων) shall die in sins." - Septuagint.

[¶16] So the Arabic.

[¶17] The thinkynge of the fool is synne - Old MS. Bible.

[¶18] Fool is here taken for a wicked man, who is not only evil in his actions, but every thought of his heart is evil, and that continually. A simple thought about foolishness, or about sin itself, is not sinful; it is the purpose or device, the harbouring evil thoughts, and devising how to sin, that is criminal.

### Verse 10

[¶20] If thou faint - If thou give way to discouragement and despair in the day of adversity - time of trial or temptation.

[¶21] Thy strength is small - צר כחכה tsar cochachah, thy strength is contracted. So the old MS. Bible excellently: Gif sliden thou dispeire, in the dai of anguyfs, schal be made litil thy strengthe. In times of trial we should endeavor to be doubly courageous; when a man loses his courage, his strength avails him nothing.

### Verse 11

[¶23] If thou forbear to deliver - If thou seest the innocent taken by the hand of lawless power or superstitious zeal, and they are about to be put to death, thou shouldst rise up in their behalf, boldly plead for them, testify to their innocence when thou knowest it; and thus thou wilt not be guilty of blood; which thou wouldst be, if, through any pretense, thou shouldst neglect to save the life of a man unjustly condemned.

### Verse 13

[¶25] And the honey-comb - I have often had occasion to remark how much finer the flavour of honey is in the honey-comb than it is after it has been expressed from it, and exposed to the action of the air. But it has been asserted that the honey-comb is never eaten; it must be by those who have no acquaintance with the apiary. I have seen the comb with its contained honey eaten frequently, and of it I have repeatedly partaken. And that our Lord ate it, is evident from [Luk 24:42]. Nor can any man who has not eaten it in this way feel the full force of the allusions to the honey-comb and its sweetness in several parts of the sacred writings. See [1Sam 14:27]; [Psa 19:10]; [Pro 5:3]; [Pro 16:24]; [Pro 27:7]; [Sol 4:11]; [Sol 5:1]; and the place before us.

### Verse 14

[¶27] So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul - True religion, experimental godliness, shall be to thy soul as the honey-comb is to thy mouth.

[¶28] Then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off - This is precisely the same with that in [Pro 23:18] (note), where see the note. The word אחרית acharith, we translate in the former place an end, and here we translate it a reward; but there is no place I believe in the sacred writings in which it has any such acceptation; nor can such a meaning be deduced from the root אחר achar, which always refers to behind, after, extremity, latter part, time, etc., but never carries the idea of recompense, compensation, or such like; nor has one of the versions understood it so. There is another state or life, and thy expectation of happiness in a future world shall not be cut off. In this sense the versions all understood it. I will take them as they lie before me. "Which (wisdom) when thou shalt have found, thou shalt have hope in thy last days; and thy hope shall not perish." - Vulgate. "And if thou find it, thou shalt have a good death; and hope shall not forsake thee." - Septuagint. "Which, if thou have found, thy latter days shall be better than the former; and thy hope shall not be consumed." - Chaldee. "There shall be an end, and thy hope shall not be cut off." - Syriac. "For, if thou shalt find her, (wisdom), thy death shall be glorious, and thy hope will not fail thee." - Arabic.

[¶29] Whiche whan thou fyndist schalt han in the last thingis, hope: and thin hope schal not perischen - Old MS. Bible. "And there is Good Hope; yee that hope shal not be in vayne." - Coverdale.

[¶30] This rendering is indefinite, which is not the usual custom of the translator.

### Verse 15

[¶32] The dwelling of the righteous - צדיק tsaddik, the man who is walking unblameably in all the testimonies of God; who is rendering to every man his due.

### Verse 16

[¶34] For a just man - צדיק tsaddik, the righteous, the same person mentioned above.

[¶35] Falleth seven times - Gets very often into distresses through his resting place being spoiled by the wicked man, the robber, the spoiler of the desert, lying in wait for this purpose, [Pro 24:15].

[¶36] And riseth up again - Though God permit the hand of violence sometimes to spoil his tent, temptations to assail his mind, and afflictions to press down his body, he constantly emerges; and every time he passes through the furnace, he comes out brighter and more refined.

[¶37] But the wicked shall fall into mischief - And there they shall lie; having no strong arm to uphold them. Yet,

### Verse 17

[¶39] Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, (into this mischief), and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth - When he meets with any thing that injures him; for God will not have thee to avenge thyself, or feel any disposition contrary to love; for if thou do, the Lord will be angry, and may turn away his wrath from him, and pour it out on thee.

[¶40] This I believe to be the true sense of these verses: but we must return to the sixteenth, as that has been most sinfully misrepresented.

[¶41] For a just man falleth seven times - That is, say many, "the most righteous man in the world sins seven times a day on an average." Solomon does not say so: -

[¶42] 1. There is not a word about sin in the text.

[¶43] 2. The word day is not in the Hebrew text, nor in any of the versions.

[¶44] 3. The word יפול yippol, from נפל naphal, to fall, is never applied to sin.

[¶45] 4. When set in opposition to the words riseth up, it merely applies to affliction or calamity. See [Mic 7:8]; [Amo 8:4]; [Jer 25:27]; and [Psa 34:19], [Psa 34:20]. "The righteous falls into trouble." See above.

## 740. Proverbs · 35 of 46

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[¶0] Mr. Holden has a very judicious note on this passage: "Injure not a righteous man; for, though he frequently falls into distress, yet, by the superintending care of Providence, 'he riseth up again,' is delivered from his distress, while the wicked are overwhelmed with their misfortunes. That this is the meaning is plain from the preceding and following verses: yet some expound it by the just man often relapsing into sin, and recovering from it; nay, it has even been adduced to prove the doctrine of the final perseverance of the elect. But נפל is never used for falling into sin, but into distress and affliction - as [Pro 11:5], [Pro 11:14]; [Pro 13:17]; [Pro 17:20]; [Pro 26:27]; [Pro 28:10], [Pro 28:14], [Pro 28:18]."

### Verse 18

[¶2] And he turn away his wrath from him - Wrath is here taken for the effect of wrath, punishment; and the meaning must be as paraphrased above - lest he take the punishment from him, and inflict it upon thee. And in this way Coverdale understood it: "Lest the Lorde be angry, and turn his wrath from him unto thee." Or we may understand it thus: Lest the Lord inflict on thee a similar punishment; for if thou get into his spirit, rejoicing in the calamities of another, thou deservest punishment.

### Verse 20

[¶4] For there shall be no reboard to the evil man - אחרית acharith. There shall not be the future state of blessedness to the wicked. See the note on [Pro 24:14] (note). His candle shall be put out; his prosperity shall finally cease, or he shall have no posterity. Some have thought that this text intimates the annihilation of sinners; but it refers not to being, but to the state or condition of that being. The wicked shall be; but they shall not be Happy.

### Verse 21

[¶6] My son, fear thou the Lord and the king - Pay to each the homage due: to the Lord, Divine honor and adoration; to the king, civil respect, civil honor, and political obedience.

[¶7] Meddle not with them that are given to change - עם שונים אל תתערב im shonim al titharab: "And with the changelings mingle not thyself." The innovators; those who are always for making experiments on modes of government, forms of religion, etc. The most dangerous spirit that can infect the human mind.

### Verse 22

[¶9] The ruin of them both? - Of them who do not fear the Lord; and of them that do not reverence the King.

### Verse 23

[¶11] These things also belong to the wise - גם אלה לחכמים gam elleh lachachamim, "These also to wise." This appears to be a new section; and perhaps, what follows belongs to another collection. Probably fragments of sayings collected by wise men from the Proverbs of Solomon.

[¶12] It is not good to have respect - Judgment and justice should never be perverted.

### Verse 26

[¶14] Kiss his lips - Shall treat him with affection and respect.

### Verse 27

[¶16] Prepare thy work without - Do nothing without a plan. In winter prepare seed, implements, tackle, geers, etc., for seed-time and harvest.

### Verse 28

[¶18] Be not a witness - Do not be forward to offer thyself to bear testimony against a neighbor, in a matter which may prejudice him, where the essential claims of justice do not require such interference; and especially do not do this in a spirit of revenge, because he has injured thee before.

### Verse 30

[¶20] I went by the field of the slothful - This is a most instructive parable; is exemplified every day in a variety of forms; and is powerfully descriptive of the state of many a blackslider and trifler in religion. Calmet has an excellent note on this passage. I shall give the substance of it.

[¶21] Solomon often recommends diligence and economy to his disciples. In those primitive times when agriculture was honorable, no man was respected who neglected to cultivate his grounds, who sunk into poverty, contracted debt, or engaged in ruinous securities. With great propriety, a principal part of wisdom was considered by them as consisting in the knowledge of properly conducting one's domestic affairs, and duly cultivating the inheritances derived from their ancestors. Moses had made a law to prevent the rich from utterly depressing the poor, by obliging them to return their farms to them on the Sabbatic year, and to remit all debts at the year of jubilee.

[¶22] In the civil state of the Hebrews, we never see those enormous and suddenly raised fortunes, which never subsist but in the ruin of numberless families. One of the principal solicitudes of this legislator was to produce, as far as possible in a monarchical state, an equality of property and condition. The ancient Romans held agriculture in the same estimation, and highly respected those who had applied themselves to it with success. When they spoke in praise of a man, they considered themselves as giving no mean commendation when they called him a good husbandman, an excellent laborer. From such men they formed their most valiant generals and intrepid soldiers. Cato De Re Rustica, cap. 1. The property which is acquired by these means is most innocent, most solid, and exposes its possessor less to envy than property acquired in any other way. See Cicero De Officiis, lib. 1. In Britain the merchant is all in all; and yet the waves of the sea are not more uncertain, nor more tumultuous, than the property acquired in this way, or than the agitated life of the speculative merchant.

[¶23] But let us look more particularly into this very instructive parable: -

[¶24] I. The owner is described.

[¶25] 1. He was איש עצל ish atsel, the loitering, sluggish, slothful man.

[¶26] 2. He was אדם חסר לב adam chasar leb, a man that wanted heart; destitute of courage, alacrity, and decision of mind.

[¶27] II. His circumstances. This man had,

[¶28] 1. שדה sadeh, a sowed field, arable ground. This was the character of his estate. It was meadow and corn land.

[¶29] 2. He had כרם kerem, a vineyard, what we would call perhaps garden and orchard, where he might employ his skill to great advantage in raising various kinds of fruits and culinary herbs for the support of his family.

[¶30] III. The state of this heritage:

[¶31] 1. "It was grown over with thorns." It had been long neglected, so that even brambles were permitted to grow in the fields:

[¶32] 2. "Nettles had covered the face thereof." It was not weeded, and all kinds of rubbish had been suffered to multiply:

[¶33] 3. "The stone wall was broken down." This belonged to the vineyard: it was neither pruned nor digged; and the fence, for want of timely repairs, had all fallen into ruins, [Pro 24:31].

[¶34] IV. The effect all this had on the attentive observer.

[¶35] 1. I saw it, אחזה אנכי echezeh anochi, I fixed my attention on it. I found it was no mere report. It is a fact. I myself was an eyewitness of it.

[¶36] 2. I considered it well, אשית לבי ashith libbi, I put my heart on it. All my feelings were interested.

[¶37] 3. I looked upon it, רעיתי raithi, I took an intellectual view of it. And

[¶38] 4. Thus I received instruction, לקחתי מוסר lakachti musar, I received a very important lesson from it: but the owner paid no attention to it. He alone was uninstructed; for he "slumbered, slept, and kept his hands in his bosom." [Pro 24:33]. "Hugged himself in his sloth and carelessness."

[¶39] V. The consequences of this conduct.

[¶40] 1. Poverty described as coming like a traveler, making sure steps every hour coming nearer and nearer to the door.

[¶41] 2. Want, מחסר machsor, total destitution; want of all the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of life; and this is described as coming like an armed man כאיש מגן keish magen, as a man with a shield, who comes to destroy this unprofitable servant: or it may refer to a man coming with what we call an execution into the house, armed with the law, to take even his bed from the slumberer.

[¶42] From this literal solution any minister of God may make a profitable discourse.

### Introduction

[¶44] A new series of Solomon's proverbs. God's glory in mysteries. Observations concerning kings. Avoid contentions. Opportune speech. The faithful ambassador. Delicacies to be sparingly used. Avoid familiarity. Amusements not grateful to a distressed mind. Do good to your enemies. The misery of dwelling with a scold. The necessity of moderation and self-government.

## 741. Proverbs · 36 of 46

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### Verse 1

[¶1] These are also proverbs of Solomon - In my old MS. Bible, this verse concludes the preceding chapter. It seems that the remaining part of this book contains proverbs which had been collected by the order of King Hezekiah, and were added to the preceding book as a sort of supplement, having been collected from traditionary sayings of Solomon. And as the men of Hezekiah may mean Isaiah, Shebna, and other insptred men, who lived in that time, we may consider them as of equal authority with the rest, else such men could not have united them to the sacred book. The chronological notes in the margin of this and the five following chapters denote the time when the proverbs contained in them were collected together in the reign of Hezekiah, about two hundred and seventy years after the death of Solomon.

### Verse 2

[¶3] It is the glory of God to conceal a thing - This has been understood as referring to the revelation of God's will in his word, where there are many things concealed in parables, allegories, metaphors, similitudes, etc. And it is becoming the majesty of God so to publish his will, that it must be seriously studied to be understood, in order that the truth may be more prized when it is discovered. And if it be God's glory thus partially to conceal his purposes, it is the glory of a king to search and examine this word, that he may understand how by Him kings reign and princes decree judgment. Prophecies are partially concealed; and we cannot fully know their meaning till their accomplishment; and then the glory of God's wisdom and providence will be more particularly evident, when we see the event correspond so particularly and exactly with the prediction. I know not, however, that there are not matters in the Book of God that will not be fully opened till mortality is swallowed up of life. For here we see through a glass darkly; but there, face to face: here we know in part; but there we shall know as we also are known.

[¶4] On this subject I cannot withhold an extract of a letter sent to myself, by a royal and learned personage. (His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex.) "As far as I have presumed to dive into and occupy myself with the sacred volumes, I feel satisfied of their Divine origin and truth. And I am satisfied, likewise, that they contain more matter than any one, and myself in particular, can ever aspire fully to understand. This belief, however, ought in nowise to slacken our diligence, or damp our ardor, in attempting a constant pursuit after the attainment of knowledge and truth; as we may flatter ourselves, although unable to reach the gate, we are still approaching nearer to its portals, which of itself is a great blessing."

[¶5] This sentiment will be approved by every pious and enlightened mind.

### Verse 3

[¶7] The heaven for height - The simple meaning of this is, the reasons of state, in reference to many acts of the executive government, can no more be fathomed by the common people, than the height of the heavens and the depth of the earth.

### Verse 4

[¶9] Take away the dross from the silver - You cannot have a pure silver vessel till you have purified the silver; and no nation can have a king a public blessing till the wicked - all bad counsellors, wicked and interested ministers, and sycophants - are banished from the court and cabinet. When the wise and good only are the king's ministers and advisers, then the throne will be established in righteousness, and his administration be a universal blessing.

### Verse 7

[¶11] Come up hither - Our Lord refers to this, see [Luk 14:8] (note), and the notes there. Be humble; affect not high things; let those who are desperate climb dangerous precipices; keep thyself quiet, and thou shalt live at ease, and in peace. Hear the speech of a wise heathen on this subject: -

[¶12] Quid fuit, ut tutas agitaret Daedalus alas;Icarus immensas nomine signet aquas?

[¶13] Nempe quod hic alte, dimissus ille volabat.Nam pennas ambo nonne habuere suas?

[¶14] Crede mihi; bene qui latuit, bene vixit; et infraFortunam debet quisque manere suam.

[¶15] Vive sine invidia; mollesque inglorius annosExige: amicitias et tibi junge pares.

[¶16] Ovid, Trist. lib. iii., El. 4, ver. 21. "Why was it that Daedalus winged his way safely, while Icarus his son fell, and gave name to the Icarian sea? Was it not because the son flew aloft, and the father skimmed the ground? For both were furnished with the same kind of wings. Take my word for it, that he who lives privately lives safely; and every one should live within his own income. Envy no man; pray for a quiet life, though it should not be dignified. Seek a friend, and associate with thy equals."

### Verse 8

[¶18] Go not forth hastily to strive - לרב lerib, to enter into a lawsuit. Keep from this pit or the bottomless deep, unless urged by the direst necessity.

### Verse 9

[¶20] Debate thy cause with thy neighbor - Take the advice of friends. Let both sides attend to their counsels; but do not tell the secret of thy business to any. After squandering your money away upon lawyers, both they and the judge will at last leave it to be settled by twelve of your fellow citizens! O the folly of going to law! O the blindness of men, and the rapacity of unprincipled lawyers!

[¶21] On this subject I cannot but give the following extract from Sir John Hawkins's Life of Dr. Johnson, which he quotes from Mr. Selwin, of London: "A man who deliberates about going to law should have,

[¶22] 1. A good cause;

[¶23] 2. A good purse;

[¶24] 3. A good skillful attorney;

[¶25] 4. Good evidence;

[¶26] 5. Good able counsel;

[¶27] 6. A good upright judge;

[¶28] 7. A good intelligent jury; and with all these on his side, if he have not,

[¶29] 8. Good luck, it is odds but he miscarries in his suit." O the glorious uncertainty of the law!

### Verse 11

[¶31] A word fitly spoken - על אפניו al ophannaiv, upon its wheels. An observation, caution, reproof, or advice, that comes in naturally, runs smoothly along, is not forced nor dragged in, that appears to be without design, to rise out of the conversation, and though particularly relative to one point, will appear to the company to suit all.

[¶32] Is like apples of gold in pictures of silver - - Is like the refreshing orange or beautiful citron, served up in open work or filigree baskets, made of silver. The Asiatics excel in filigree silver work. I have seen much of it, and it is exquisitely beautiful. The silver wire by which it is done they form into the appearance of numerous flowers; and though these wires are soldered everywhere at their junctions with each other, yet this is done with such delicacy and skill as to be scarcely perceptible. I have seen animals formed on this filigree work, with all their limbs, and every joint in its natural play. Fruit-baskets are made also in this way, and are exquisitely fine. The wise man seems to have this kind of work particularly in view; and the contrast of the golden yellow fruit in the exquisitely wrought silver basket, which may be all termed picture work, has a fine and pleasing effect upon the eye, as the contained fruit has upon the palate at an entertainment in a sultry climate. So the word spoken judiciously and opportunely is as much in its place, as the golden apples in the silver baskets.

### Verse 12

[¶34] As an ear-ring of gold - I believe נזם nezem to mean the nose-ring with its pendants; the left nostril is pierced, and a ring put through it, as in the ear. This is very common in almost every part of the East, among women of condition. This is a farther illustration of the above metaphor.

### Verse 13

[¶36] As the cold of snow - That snow was frequent in Judea, is well known; and that in the East they have snow-houses - places dug under ground, where they lay up snow for summer use - is also a fact. By means of the mass of snow desposited in them the icy temperature is kept up, so that the snow is easily preserved. The common method of cooling their wine, which is as easy as it is effectual, is by dipping a cloth in water, wrapping it round the bottle, and then hanging the bottle in the heat of the sun. The strong evaporation carries off the caloric from the wine, and the repetition of the wet cloth in the same exposure, makes the wine almost as cold as ice.

[¶37] How agreeable this must be in a burning climate, may be easily conceived. Perhaps it is this to which the wise man refers; for it is a fact that they could have no snow in harvest unless such as had been preserved as mentioned above; but this could be only in a few places, and within the reach of a very few persons. But cooling their liquors by the simple mode of evaporation already explained, was within the reach even of the laborers in the harvest field. I think the text favors this supposition; for כצנת שלג ketsinnerth sheleg, need not be referred to snow itself procuring cold, but to a coldness like that of snow, procured by evaporation. If this interpretation be allowed, all difficulty will be removed.

### Verse 14

[¶39] A false gift - מתת שקר mattath shaker, a lying gift, one promised, but never bestowed. "Whoso maketh greate boastes, and giveth nothing;" Coverdale. So the Vulgate: "Vir gloriosus, et promissa non complens;" "A bragging man, who does not fulfill his promises," is like clouds which appear to be laden with vapor, and like the wind which, though it blow from a rainy quarter, brings no moistness with it. So the vain boaster; he is big with promise, but performs nothing.

### Verse 15

[¶41] A soft tongue breaketh the bone - This is similar to another proverb on the same subject: "A soft answer turneth away wrath." An angry word does nothing but mischief.

### Verse 16

[¶43] Hast thou found honey? - Make a moderate use of all thy enjoyments. "Let thy moderation be known unto all, and appear in all things."

## 742. Proverbs · 37 of 46

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### Verse 17

[¶1] Withdraw thy foot - Another proverb will illustrate this: "Too much familiarity breeds contempt."

### Verse 20

[¶3] As vinegar upon nitre - The original word נתר nather is what is known among chemists as the natron of the ancients and of the Scriptures, and carbonate of soda. It is found native in Syria and India, and occurs as an efflorescence on the soil. In Tripoli it is found in crystalline incrustations of from one third to half an inch thiek. It is found also in solution in the water of some lakes in Egypt and Hungary. The borders of these lakes are covered with crystalline masses, of a grayish white or light brown color; and in some specimens the natron is nearly pure carbonate of soda, and the carbonate is easily discovered by effervescing with an acid. It appears to have its Hebrew name from נתר nathar, to dissolve or loosen: because a solution of it in water is abstersive, taking out spots, etc. It is used in the East for the purposes of washing. If vinegar be poured on it, Dr. Shaw says a strong fermentation immediately takes place, which illustrates what Solomon says here: "The singing of songs to a heavy heart is like vinegar upon natron:" that is, "there is no affinity between them; and opposition, colluctation, and strife, are occasioned by any attempt to unite them." And poureth vyneper upon chalke - Coverdale. This also will occasion an effervescence. See [Jer 2:22].

### Verse 21

[¶5] If thine enemy be hungry - See this and the next verse explained, [Rom 12:20] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶7] Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head - Not to consume, but to melt him into kindness; a metaphor taken from smelting metallic ores: -

[¶8] So artists melt the sullen ore of lead,

[¶9] By heaping coals of fire upon its head:

[¶10] In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow,

[¶11] And pure from dross the silver runs below.

[¶12] S. Wesley.

### Verse 23

[¶14] The north wind driveth away rain - The margin has, "The north wind bringeth forth rain." It is said that the "north wind brings forth rain at Jerusalem, because it brings with it the vapours arising from the sea that lies north of it." The marginal is the true reading; and is supported by the Chaldee, Syriac, and Septuagint; but the Arabic reads south wind.

[¶15] A backbiting tongue - A hidden tongue.

### Verse 24

[¶17] It is better to dwell in a corner - See the note on [Pro 21:9] (note).

### Verse 27

[¶19] It is not good to eat much honey - Coverdale translates the whole passage thus: "Like as it is not good to eat to muche hony; even so, he that wyll search out hye thinges, it shal be to hevy for him." As he that etith myche honye, and it is not to him goode; so, that is a sercher of mageste, schal ben oppressid of glorie - Old MS. Bible. He that searches too much into mysteries, is likely to be confounded by them. I really think this is the meaning of the place; and shall not puzzle either myself or my reader with the discordant explanations which have been brought forward with the hope of illustrating this passage.

### Introduction

[¶21] Honor is not seemly in a fool. The correction and treatment suitable to such. Of the slothful man. Of him who interferes with matters which do not concern him. Contentions to be avoided. Of the dissembler and the lying tongue.

### Verse 1

[¶23] As snow in summer - None of these is suitable to the time; and at this unsuitable time, both are unwelcome: so a fool to be in honor is unbecoming.

### Verse 2

[¶25] As the bird - צפור tsippor is taken often for the sparrow; but means generally any small bird. As the sparrow flies about the house, and the swallow emigrates to strange countries; so an undeserved malediction may flutter about the neighborhood for a season: but in a short time it will disappear as the bird of passage; and never take effect on the innocent person against whom it was pronounced.

### Verse 3

[¶27] A whip for the horse - Correction is as suitable to a fool, as a whip is for a horse, or a bridle for an ass.

### Verse 4

[¶29] Answer not a fool - On this and the following verse Bishop Warburton, who has written well on many things, and very indifferently on the doctrine of grace, has written with force and perspicuity: "Had this advice been given simply, and without circumstance, to answer the fool, and not to answer him, one who had reverence for the text would satisfy himself in supposing that the different directions referred to the doing a thing in and out of season;

[¶30] 1. The reasons given why a fool should not be answered according to his folly, is, "lest he (the answerer) should be like unto him."

[¶31] 2. The reason given why the fool should be answered according to his folly, is, "lest he (the fool) should be wise in his own conceit."

[¶32] 1. "The cause assigned for forbidding to answer, therefore, plainly insinuates that the defender of religion should not imitate the insulter of it in his modes of disputation, which may be comprised in sophistry, buffoonery, and scurrility.

[¶33] 2. "The cause assigned for directing to answer, as plainly intimates that the sage should address himself to confute the fool upon his own false principles, by showing that they lead to conclusions very wide from, very opposite to, those impieties he would deduce from them. If any thing can allay the fool's vanity, and prevent his being wise in his own conceit, it must be the dishonor of having his own principles turned against himself, and shown to be destructive of his own conclusions." - Treatise on Grace. Preface.

### Verse 6

[¶35] Cutteth off the feet - Sending by such a person is utterly useless. My old MS. Bible translates well: Halt in feet and drinking wickednesse that sendith wordis bi a foole messager. Nothing but lameness in himself can vindicate his sending it by such hands; and, after all, the expedient will be worse than the total omission, for he is likely to drink wickedness, i.e., the mischief occasioned by the fool's misconduct. Coverdale nearly hits the sense as usual: "He is lame of his fete, yee dronken is he in vanite, that committeth eny thinge to a foole."

### Verse 8

[¶37] As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honor to a fool - It is entirely thrown away. This, however, is a difficult proverb; and the versions give but little light on the subject. The Hebrew may be translated, "As a piece of precious stone among a heap of stones, so is he that giveth honor to a fool." Or, As he that putteth a precious stone in a heap of stones. See Parkhurst: but on this interpretation the meaning would rather be, "It is as useless to throw a jewel among a heap of stones to increase its bulk, as to give honor to a fool."

[¶38] As he that sendith a stoon into a hepe of monee; so he that geveth to an unwiisman wirschip - Old MS. Bible. "He that setteth a foole in hye dignite, that is even as yf a man dyd caste a precious stone upon the galous." - Coverdale. This translator refers to the custom of throwing a stone to the heap under which a criminal lay buried. The Vulgate gives some countenance to this translation: "He who gives honor to a fool is like one who throws a stone to Mercury's heap." Mercury was considered the deity who presided over the highways; and stones were erected in different places to guide the traveler. Hence those lines of Dr. Young: - "Death stands like Mercuries in every way;

[¶39] And kindly points us to our journey's end."

### Verse 10

[¶41] The great God that formed all things - Or, A great man grieveth all, and he hireth the fool, he hireth also transgressors, where this verse is very differently translated. I shall add that of Coverdale: "A man of experience discerneth all thinges well: but whoso hyreth a foole, hyreth soch one as wyl take no hede." The רב rab may mean either the great God, or a great man: hence the two renderings, in the text and in the margin.

### Verse 11

[¶43] As a dog returneth to his vomit - See note on [2Pet 2:22].

### Verse 13

[¶45] The slothful man saith - See the note on [Pro 22:13] (note).

## 743. Proverbs · 38 of 46

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### Verse 16

[¶1] Than seven men that can render a reason - Seven here only means perfection, abundance, or multitude. He is wiser in his own eyes than a multitude of the wisest men. "Than seven men that sytt and teach." - Coverdale; i.e., than seven doctors of the law, or heads of the schools of the prophets, who always sat while they taught.

### Verse 17

[¶3] He that passeth by - This proverb stands true ninety-nine times out of a hundred, where people meddle with domestic broils, or differences between men and their wives.

### Verse 19

[¶5] Am not I in sport? - How many hearts have been made sad, and how many reputations have been slain, by this kind of sport! "I designed no harm by what I said;" "It was only in jest," etc. Sportive as such persons may think their conduct to be, it is as ruinous as that of the mad man who shoots arrows, throws firebrands, and projects in all directions instruments of death, so that some are wounded, some burnt, and some slain.

### Verse 20

[¶7] Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out - The tale-receiver and the tale-bearer are the agents of discord. If none received the slander in the first instance, it could not be propagated. Hence our proverb, "The receiver is as bad as the thief." And our laws treat them equally; for the receiver of stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, is hanged, as well as he who stole them.

### Verse 22

[¶9] The words of a tale-bearer - The same with [Pro 18:8] (note), where see the note.

### Verse 23

[¶11] Burning lips and a wicked heart - Splendid, shining, smooth lips; that is, lips which make great professions of friendship are like a vessel plated over with base metal to make it resemble silver; but it is only a vile pot, and even the outside is not pure.

### Verse 25

[¶13] When he speaketh fair - For there are such hypocrites and false friends in the world.

[¶14] Believe him not - Let all his professions go for nothing.

[¶15] For there are seven abominations in his heart - That is, he is full of abominations.

### Verse 27

[¶17] Whoso diggeth a pit - See note on [Psa 7:15]. There is a Latin proverb like this: Malum consilium consultori pessimum, "A bad counsel, but worst to the giver." Harm watch; harm catch.

### Verse 28

[¶19] A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it - He that injures another hates him in proportion to the injury he has done him; and, strange to tell, in proportion to the innocence of the oppressed. The debtor cannot bear the sight of his creditor; nor the knave, of him whom he has injured.

### Introduction

[¶21] To-morrow is uncertain. Self-praise forbidden. Anger and envy. Reproof from a friend. Want makes us feel the value of a supply. A good neighbor. Beware of suretyship. Suspicious praise. The quarrelsome woman. One friend helps another. Man insatiable. The incorrigible fool. Domestic cares. The profit of flocks for food and raiment.

### Verse 1

[¶23] Boast not thyself of to-morrow - See note on [Jam 4:13], etc. Do not depend on any future moment for spiritual good which at present thou needest, and God is willing to give, and without which, should death surprise thee, thou must be eternally lost; such as repentance, faith in Christ, the pardon of sin, the witness of the Holy Spirit, and complete renovation of soul. Be incessant in thy application to God for these blessings.

[¶24] My old MS. Bible translates thus: Ne glorie thou into the morewenning. Here we see the derivation of our word morning; morewenning, from more, and wen or won, to dwelt, i.e., a continuance of time to live or dwell in your present habitation. Every man wishes to live longer, and therefore wishes for to-morrow; and when to-morrow comes, then to-morrow, and so on.

### Verse 2

[¶26] Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth - We have a similar proverb, which illustrates this: "Self-praise is no commendation."

### Verse 4

[¶28] Who is able to stand before envy? - The rabbins have a curious story on this subject, and it has been formed by the moderns into a fable. There were two persons, one covetous and the other envious, to whom a certain person promised to grant whatever they should ask; but double to him who should ask last. The covetous man would not ask first, because he wished to get the double portion, and the envious man would not make the first request because he could not bear the thoughts of thus benefiting his neighbor. However, at last he requested that one of his eyes should be taken out, in order that his neighbor might lose both.

### Verse 5

[¶30] Open rebuke is better than secret love - Plutarch gives an account of a man who, aiming a blow at his enemy's life, cut open an imposthume, which by a salutary discharge saved his life, that was sinking under a disease for which a remedy could not be found. Partial friendship covers faults; envy, malice, and revenge, will exhibit, heighten, and even multiply them. The former conceals us from ourselves; the latter shows us the worst part of our character. Thus we are taught the necessity of amendment and correction. In this sense open rebuke is better than secret love. Yet it is a rough medicine, and none can desire it. But the genuine open-hearted friend may be intended, who tells you your faults freely but conceals them from all others; hence the sixth verse: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend."

### Verse 8

[¶32] Is a bird that wandereth from her nest - Leaving her own brood, places of retreat, and feeding-ground behind, and going into strange countries, where she is exposed to every kind of danger. So is the man who leaves his family connections and country, and goes into strange parts to find employment, better his circumstances, make a fortune, etc. I have seen multitudes of such wanderers from their place come to great misery and wretchedness. God's general advice is, "Do good, and dwell in the land; and verily thou shalt be fed."

### Verse 9

[¶34] Ointment and perfume - Anointing the head and various parts of the body with aromatic oil is frequent in the East, and fumigating the beards of the guests at the conclusion of an entertainment is almost universal; as is also sprinkling rose-water, and water highly ordoriferous. Two of the curious vessels which are used for this purpose are now before me; they hold some quarts each, and are beautifully inlaid with silver in the form of sprigs, leaves, etc.

### Verse 10

[¶36] Thine own friend - A well and long tried friend is invaluable. Him that has been a friend to thy family never forget, and never neglect. And, in the time of adversity, rather apply to such a one, than go to thy nearest relative, who keeps himself at a distance.

### Verse 12

[¶38] A prudent man foreseeth the evil - The very same as [Pro 22:3].

### Verse 13

[¶40] Take his garment - The same as [Pro 20:16].

### Verse 14

[¶42] He that blesseth his friend - He who makes loud and public protestations of acknowledgments to his friend for favors received, subjects his sincerity to suspicion; and remember the Italian proverb elsewhere quoted: - "He who praises you more than he was wont to do, has either deceived you, or is about to do it." Extravagant public professions are little to be regarded.

### Verse 15

[¶44] A continual dropping - See [Pro 19:13].

## 744. Proverbs · 39 of 46

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### Verse 16

[¶1] Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind - You may as well attempt to repress the blowing of the wind, as the tongue of a scold; and to conceal this unfortunate propensity of a wife is as impossible as to hush the storm, and prevent its sound from being heard.

[¶2] The ointment of his right hand - You can no more conceal such a woman's conduct, than you can the smell of the aromatic oil with which your hand has been anointed. The Hebrew is very obscure, and is variously translated. Coverdale thus: "He that refrayneth her, refrayneth the wynde; and holdith oyle fast in his honde." That is, he attempts to do what is impossible to be done.

### Verse 17

[¶4] Iron sharpeneth iron - As hard iron, viz., steel, will bring a knife to a better edge when it is properly whetted against it: so one friend may be the means of exciting another to reflect, dive deeply into, and illustrate a subject, without which whetting or excitement, this had never taken place. Had Horace seen this proverb in the Septuagint translation when he wrote to the Pisos?

[¶5] Ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum

[¶6] Reddere quae ferrum valet, exors ipsa secandi.

[¶7] Hor. Ars. Poet., ver. 304. "But let me sharpen others, as the hone

[¶8] Gives edge to razors, though itself have none."

[¶9] Francis.

### Verse 19

[¶11] As in water face answereth to face - All men's hearts are pretty nearly alike; water is not more like to water, than one heart is to another. Or, as a man sees his face perfectly reflected by the water, when looking into it; so the wise and penetrating man sees generally what is in the heart of another by considering the general tenor of his words and actions. "Surely, if each man saw another's heart

[¶12] There would be no commerce;All would disperse,And live apart."

[¶13] Hebert.

### Verse 20

[¶15] Hell and destruction are never full - How hideous must the soul of a covetous man be, when God compares it to hell and perdition!

[¶16] The eyes of man are never satisfied - As the grave can never be filled up with bodies, nor perdition with souls; so the restless desire, the lust of power, riches, and splendor, is never satisfied. Out of this ever unsatisfied desire spring all the changing fashions, the varied amusements, and the endless modes of getting money, prevalent in every age, and in every country.

### Verse 21

[¶18] As the fining pot for silver - As silver and gold are tried by the art of the refiner, so is a man's heart by the praise he receives. If he feel it not, he deserves it; if he be puffed up by it, he is worthless.

### Verse 22

[¶20] Though thou shouldest bray a fool - Leaving all other conjectures, of which commentators are full, I would propose, that this is a metaphor taken from pounding metallic ores in very large mortars, such as are still common in the East, in order that, when subjected to the action of the fire, the metal may be the more easily separated from the ore. However you may try, by precept or example, or both, to instruct a stupid man, your labor is lost; his foolishness cannot be separated from him. You may purge metals of all their dross; but you cannot purge the fool of his folly.

### Verse 23

[¶22] The state of thy flocks - The directions to the end of the chapter refer chiefly to pastoral and agricultural affairs. Do not trust thy flocks to the shepherd merely; number them thyself; look into their condition; see how they are tended; and when, and with what, and in what proportion, they are fed.

### Verse 24

[¶24] For riches are not for ever - All other kinds of property are very transitory. Money and the highest civil honors are but for a short season. Flocks and herds, properly attended to, may be multiplied and continued from generation to generation. The crown itself is not naturally so permanent.

### Verse 25

[¶26] The hay appeareth - Take care that this be timeously mown, carefully dried and safely ricked or housed. And when the tender grass and the proper herbs appear in the mountains in the spring, then send forth the lambs, the young of the flock, that they may get suitable pasturage, without too much impoverishing the home fields; for by the sale of the lambs and goats, the price of the field is paid - all the landlord's demands are discharged. Either a certain number of lambs, goats, and other cattle, was given to the landlord; or so much money as so many lambs, etc., were then worth.

### Verse 26

[¶28] The lambs are for thy clothing - So many fleeces are given in some places as rent to the landlord.

### Verse 27

[¶30] Goats' milk enough for thy food - ללחמך lelachmecha, "to thy bread;" for they ate the bread and supped the milk to assist mastication, and help deglutition. And it seems that bread, with goats' milk, was the general article of food for the master and his family; and for the servant maids who assisted in the household work, and performed the operations required in the dairy.

[¶31] The reader who wishes to see these maxims detailed and illustrated at large, may consult the writers De Re Rustica, where he will find much curious information.

### Introduction

[¶33] The timidity of the wicked. Quick succession in the government of a country is a punishment to the land. Of the poor who oppress the poor. The upright poor man is preferable to the wicked rich man. The unprofitable conduct of the usurer. The prosperity of the righteous a cause of rejoicing. He is blessed who fears always. A wicked ruler a curse. The murderer generally execrated. The faithful man. The corrupt judge. The foolishness of trusting in one's own heart. The charitable man. When the wicked are elevated, it is a public evil.

### Verse 1

[¶35] The wicked flee - Every wicked man, however bold he may appear, is full of dreary apprehensions relative to both worlds. But the righteous has true courage, being conscious of his own innocence, and the approbation of his God. The unpitious fleeith - Old MS. Bible. This word is often used for impious, wicked, ungodly; hence it appears that our word pity anciently meant piety or godliness.

### Verse 2

[¶37] Many are the princes - Nations, as nations, cannot be judged in a future world; therefore, God judges them here. And where the people are very wicked, and the constitution very bad, the succession of princes is frequent - they are generally taken off by an untimely death. Where the people know that the constitution is in their favor, they seldom disturb the prince, as they consider him the guardian of their privileges.

[¶38] But by a man of understanding - Whether he be a king, or the king's prime minister, the prosperity of the state is advanced by his counsels.

### Verse 3

[¶40] A poor man that oppresseth the poor - Our Lord illustrates this proverb most beautifully, by the parable of the two debtors, [Mat 18:23]. One owed ten thousand talents, was insolvent, begged for time, was forgiven. A fellow servant owed this one a hundred pence: he was insolvent; but prayed his fellow servant to give him a little time, and he would pay it all. He would not, took him by the throat, and cast him into prison till he should pay that debt. Here the poor oppressed the poor; and what was the consequence? The oppressing poor was delivered to the tormentors; and the forgiven debt charged to his amount, because he showed no mercy. The comparatively poor are often shockingly uncharitable and unfeeling towards the real poor.

[¶41] Like a sweeping rain - These are frequent in the East; and sometimes carry flocks, crops, and houses, away with them.

### Verse 4

[¶43] They that forsake the law - He that transgresses says, in fact, that it is right to transgress; and thus other wicked persons are encouraged.

## 745. Proverbs · 40 of 46

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### Verse 5

[¶1] They that seek the Lord understand all things - They are wise unto salvation; they "have the unction from the Holy One, and they know all things," [1Jn 2:20], every thing that is essentially needful for them to know, in reference to both worlds.

### Verse 8

[¶3] He that by usury - increaseth his substance - By taking unlawful interest for his money; lending to a man in great distress, money, for the use of which he requires an exorbitant sum. O that the names of all those unfeeling, hard-hearted, consummate villains in the nation, who thus take advantage of their neighbour's necessities to enrich themselves, were published at every market cross; and then the delinquents all sent to their brother savages in New Zealand. It would be a happy riddance to the country.

### Verse 9

[¶5] He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law - Many suppose, if they do not know their duty, they shall not be accountable for their transgressions; and therefore avoid every thing that is calculated to enlighten them. They will not read the Bible, lest they should know the will of Good; and they will not attend Divine ordinances for the same reason. But this pretense will avail them nothing; as he that might have known his master's will, but would not, shall be treated as he shall be who did know it, and disobeyed it. Even the prayers of such a person as this are reputed sin before God.

### Verse 10

[¶7] Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray - He who strives to pervert one really converted to God, in order that he may pour contempt on religion, shall fall into that hell to which he has endeavored to lead the other.

### Verse 12

[¶9] When righteous men do rejoice - When true religion is no longer persecuted, and the word of God duly esteemed, there is great glory; for the word of the Lord has then free course, runs, and is glorified: but when the wicked rise - when they are elevated to places of trust, and put at the head of civil affairs, then the righteous man is obliged to hide himself; the word of the Lord becomes scarce, and there is no open vision. The first was the case in this country, in the days of Edward VI.; the second in the days of his successor, Mary I: Popery, cruelty, and knavery, under her, nearly destroyed the Church and the State in these islands.

### Verse 13

[¶11] He that covereth his sins - Here is a general direction relative to conversion.

[¶12] 1. If the sinner do not acknowledge his sins; if he cover and excuse them, and refuse to come to the light of God's word and Spirit, lest his deeds should be reproved, he shall find no salvation. God will never admit a sinful, unhumbled soul, into his kingdom.

[¶13] 2. But if he confess his sin, with a penitent and broken heart, and, by forsaking every evil way, give this proof that he feels his own sore, and the plague of his heart, then he shall have mercy. Here is a doctrine of vital importance to the salvation of the soul, which the weakest may understand.

### Verse 14

[¶15] Happy is the man that feareth alway - That ever carries about with him that reverential and filial fear of God, which will lead him to avoid sin, and labor to do that which is lawful and right in the sight of God his Savior.

### Verse 16

[¶17] The prince that wanteth understanding - A weak prince will generally have wicked ministers, for his weakness prevents him from making a proper choice; and he is apt to prefer them who flatter him, and minister most to his pleasures. The quantum of the king's intellect may be always appreciated by the mildness or oppressiveness of his government. He who plunges his people into expensive wars, to support which they are burdened with taxes, is a prince without understanding. He does not know his own interest, and does not regard that of his people. But these things, though general truths, apply more particularly to those despotic governments which prevail in Asiatic countries.

### Verse 17

[¶19] That doeth violence to the blood - He who either slays the innocent, or procures his destruction, may flee to hide himself: but let none give him protection. The law demands his life, because he is a murderer; and let none deprive justice of its claim. Murder is the most horrid crime in the sight of God and man; it scarcely ever goes unpunished, and is universally execrated.

### Verse 18

[¶21] Shall fall at once - Shall fall without resource, altogether.

### Verse 19

[¶23] He that tilleth his land - See [Pro 12:11].

### Verse 20

[¶25] He that maketh haste to be rich - See [Pro 13:11]; [Pro 20:21].

### Verse 24

[¶27] Whoso robbeth his father - The father's property is as much his own, in reference to the child, as that of the merest stronger. He who robs his parents is worse than a common robber; to the act of dishonesty and rapine he adds ingratitude, cruelty, and disobedience. Such a person is the compatriot of a destroyer; he may be considered as a murderer.

### Verse 25

[¶29] Shall be made fat - Shall be prosperous.

### Verse 26

[¶31] He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool - For his heart, which is deceitful and desperately wicked, will infallibly deceive him.

### Verse 27

[¶33] Be that giveth unto the poor - See the notes on [Deu 15:7] (note), Detueronomy [Deu 19:17] (note), [Deu 22:9] (note).

### Introduction

[¶35] We must not despise correction. The prudent king. The flatterer. The just judge. Contend not with a fool. The prince who opens his ears to reports. The poor and the deceitful. The pious king. The insolent servant. The humiliation of the proud. Of the partner of a thief. The fear of man. The Lord the righteous Judge.

### Verse 1

[¶37] Hardeneth his neck - Becomes stubborn and obstinate.

### Verse 3

[¶39] But he that keepeth company - רעה roeh, he that feedeth harlots, יאבד yeabed, shall utterly destroy his substance. Has there ever been a single case to the contrary?

### Verse 4

[¶41] He that receiveth gifts - This was notoriously the case in this kingdom, before the passing of the Magna Charta, or great charter of liberties. Hence that article in it, Nulli vendemus justitiam; "We will not sell justice to any." I have met with cases in our ancient records where, in order to get his right, a man was obliged almost to ruin himself in presents to the king, queen, and their favourites, to get the case decided in his favor.

### Verse 5

[¶43] Spreadeth a net for his feet - Beware of a flatterer; he does not flatter merely to please you, but to deceive you and profit himself.

### Verse 9

[¶45] Whether he rage or laugh - Coverdale translates, "Yf a wyse man go to lawe with a foole, whether he deale with him frendly or roughly he geteth no rest."

## 746. Proverbs · 41 of 46

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### Verse 11

[¶1] A fool uttereth all his mind - A man should be careful to keep his own secret, and never tell his whole mind upon any subject, while there are other opinions yet to be delivered; else, if he speak again, he must go over his old ground; and as he brings out nothing new, he injures his former argument.

### Verse 12

[¶3] If a ruler hearken to lies - Wherever the system of espionage is permitted to prevail, there the system of falsity is established; for he who is capable of being a spy and informer, is not only capable of telling and swearing lies, but also of cutting his king's or even his father's throat. I have seen cases, where the same spy received pay from both parties, and deceived both.

### Verse 13

[¶5] The poor and the deceitful man - It is difficult to fix the meaning of תככים techachim, which we here render the deceitful man. The Targum has, "The poor and the man of Little Wealth." The Septuagint, "The usurer and the Debtor." The Vulgate, "The poor and Creditor." Coverdale, "The poor and the Lender." Others, "The poor and the Rich;" "The poor and the Oppressors." I suppose the meaning may be the same as in [Pro 22:2] (note): "The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all." Where see the note.

### Verse 16

[¶7] When the wicked are multiplied - That, in the multiplication of the wicked transgression is increased, requires no proof; but an important doctrine attaches to this. On this account wicked nations and wicked families are cut off and rooted out. Were it not so righteousness would in process of time be banished from the earth. This will account for many of the numerous instances in which whole families fail.

### Verse 18

[¶9] Where there is no vision - My old MS. Bible, following the Vulgate, translates: Whan prophecye schal failen, the peple schal ben to scatered. Where Divine revelation, and the faithful preaching of the sacred testimonies, are neither reverenced nor attended, the ruin of that land is at no great distance.

[¶10] But he that keepeth the law, happy is he - Go how it may with others, he shall be safe. So our Lord: "Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it."

### Verse 21

[¶12] He that delicately bringeth up his servant - Such persons are generally forgetful of their obligations, assume the rights and privileges of children, and are seldom good for any thing.

### Verse 22

[¶14] An angry man stirreth up strife - His spirit begets its like wherever he goes.

[¶15] And a furious man aboundeth in transgression - His furious spirit is always carrying him into extremes, and each of these is a transgression.

### Verse 23

[¶17] A man's pride shall bring him low - A proud man is universally despised, and such are often exposed to great mortifications.

### Verse 24

[¶19] Hateth his own soul - נפשו naphsho, his life, as the outraged law may at any time seize on and put him to death.

[¶20] He heareth cursing - אלה alah, the execration or adjuration, (for all culprits were charged, as before God, to tell the truth), ולא יגד velo yagpid, but He will not tell It. He has no fear of God, nor reverence for an oath, because his heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

### Verse 25

[¶22] The fear of man bringeth a snare - How often has this led weak men, though sincere in their general character, to deny their God, and abjure his people! See the case of Peter; and learn from this, O reader, that where the mighty have been slain, thou wilt fall, unless thou call on the Strong for strength, and for courage to use it. Be not ashamed of Jesus nor of his people, nor of his cross. Glory in this, that thou knowest him, art joined to them, and art counted worthy to bear it.

### Verse 26

[¶24] Many seek the ruler's favor - To be screened from the punishment determined by the law; but should he grant the favor sought, and pardon the criminal, this takes not away his guilt in the sight of God, from whom all just judgment proceeds.

### Verse 27

[¶26] And he that is upright in the way - "But as for those that be in the right waye, the wicked hate them." - Coverdale.

[¶27] To this verse the Vulgate adds the following: Verbum custodiens filius extra perditionem erit; "The son that keeps the word shall not fall into perdition." This is not in all copies of the Vulgate: but it was in that from which my old MS. Bible was made, where it is thus translated: The sone keping the worde schal ben out of perdicyon. I believe verbum here is intended for the Divine word; the revelation from God.

### Introduction

[¶29] Agur's confession of faith, [Pro 30:1-6]. His prayer, [Pro 30:7-9]. Of wicked generations, [Pro 30:10-14]. Things that are never satisfied, [Pro 30:15], [Pro 30:16]. Of him who despises his parents, [Pro 30:17]. Three wonderful things, [Pro 30:18-20]. Three things that disquiet the land, [Pro 30:21-23]. Four little but very intelligent animals, [Pro 30:24-28]. Four things that go well, [Pro 30:29-31]. A man should cease from doing foolishly, and from strife, [Pro 30:32], [Pro 30:33].

### Verse 1

[¶31] The words of Agur the son of Jakeh - The words Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ucal, have been considered by some as proper names: by others, as descriptive characters. With some, Agur is Solomon; and Jakeh, David; and Ithiel and Ural are epithets of Christ.

[¶32] The Vulgate translates, Verba congregantis filii vomentis: visio, quam locutus est sir, cum quo est Deus, et qui Deo secum morante confortatus, ait. "The words of the collector, the son of the vomiter: the vision of the man who has God with him, and who is fortified by God dwelling with him, saith."

[¶33] Coverdale makes the following words a title to the chapter: "The wordes of Agur the sonne of Jake. "The prophecie of a true faithfull man, whom God hath helped; whom God hath comforted and nourished."

[¶34] The whole might be thus translated, keeping near to the letter: - "The words of the epistle of the obedient son." Or, "The words of the collector, the son of Jakeh. The parable which הגבר haggeber, the strong man, the hero, spake unto him who is God with me; to him who is God with me, even the strong God."

[¶35] The visioun that a man spake with whiche is God, and that God with him, wonyng confortid. - Old MS. Bible.

[¶36] From this introduction, from the names here used, and from the style of the book, it appears evident that Solomon was not the author of this chapter; and that it was designed to be distinguished from his work by this very preface, which specifically distinguishes it from the preceding work. Nor can the words in [Pro 30:2], [Pro 30:3], [Pro 30:8], [Pro 30:9], be at all applied to Solomon: they suit no part of Solomon's life, nor of his circumstances. We must, therefore, consider it an appendix or supplement to the preceding collection; something in the manner of that part which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, had collected. As to mysteries here, many have been found by them who sought for nothing else; but they are all, in my view of the subject, hazarded and precarious. I believe Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ural, to be the names of persons who did exist, but of whom we know nothing but what is here mentioned. Agur seems to have been a public teacher, and Ithiel and Ucal to have been his scholars; and what he delivers to them was done by prophesy. It was what the prophets generally term משא massa, an Oracle, something immediately delivered by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of man.

### Verse 2

[¶38] Surely I am more brutish - These words can in no sense, nor by any mode of speech, be true of Solomon: for while he was the wisest of men, he could not have said that he was more brutish than any man, and had not the understanding of a man. It is saying nothing to the purpose, to say he was so independently of the Divine teaching. Had he put this in, even by innuendo, it might be legitimate: but he does not; nor is it by fair implication to be understood. Solomon is not supposed to have written the Proverbs after he fell from God. Then indeed he might have said he had been more brutish than any man. But Agur might have used these words with strict propriety, for aught we know; for it is very probable that he was a rustic, without education, and without any human help, as was the prophet Amos; and that all that he knew now was by the inspiration of the Almighty, independently of which he was rustic and uneducated.

### Verse 3

[¶40] I neither learned wisdom - I have never been a scholar in any of those schools of the wise men, nor have the knowledge of the holy, קדשים kedoshim, of the saints or holy persons.

[¶41] The Septuagint give this a different turn: yeov dedidace me sofian, kai gnwsin agiwn egnwka; "God hath taught me wisdom, and the knowledge of the saints I have known."

[¶42] This may refer to the patriarchs, prophets, or holy men, that lived before the days of Solomon. That is, the translators might have had these in view.

### Verse 4

[¶44] Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? - Calmet paraphrases this passage thus: "Who hath descended, etc. In order to show the truth of what he was about to say, he observes: I have not the science of the saints; for how could I have acquired it? Who is he who could attain to that? Who has ascended to heaven to learn that science, and who has descended in order to publish it? Is the science of salvation one of those things that can be apprehended only by study? Is it not a pure gift of the goodness of God? Moses, after having shown to the people the will of God, said to them: 'This commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee; neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?' [Deu 30:11], [Deu 30:12]. The person whose words we are here examining speaks a knowledge more sublime than that contained in the simple laws of the Lord, common to all the people of Israel. He speaks of the sublime science of the designs of God, of his ways, and of his secrets; and in this sense he affirms he has no knowledge."

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[¶0] Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? - It is as difficult for a mortal man to acquire this Divine science by his own reason and strength, as to collect the winds in his fists. And who can command the spirit of prophecy, so that he can have it whensoever he pleases?

[¶1] What is his name? - Show me the nature of this Supreme Being. Point out his eternity, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence; comprehend and describe him, if thou canst.

[¶2] What is his son's name - Some copies of the Septuagint have η τι ονομα τοις τικνοιο αυτου; "Or the name of his sons;" meaning, I suppose, the holy angels, called his saints or holy ones, [Pro 30:3].

[¶3] The Arabic has, What is his name? and what is the name of his father? him who begat him. But the Chaldee, the Syriac, and the Vulgate, read as the Hebrew.

[¶4] Many are of opinion that Agur refers here to the first and second persons of the everblessed Trinity. It may be so; but who would venture to rest the proof of that most glorious doctrine upon such a text, to say nothing of the obscure author? The doctrine is true, sublimely true; but many doctrines have suffered in controversy, by improper texts being urged in their favor. Every lover of God and truth should be very choice in his selections, when he comes forward in behalf of the more mysterious doctrines of the Bible. Quote nothing that is not clear: advance nothing that does not tell. When we are obliged to spend a world of critical labor, in order to establish the sense of a text which we intend to allege in favor of the doctrine we wish to support, we may rest assured that we are going the wrong way to work. Those who indiscriminately amass every text of Scripture they think bears upon the subject they defend, give their adversaries great advantage against them. I see many a sacred doctrine suffering through the bad judgment of its friends every day. The Godhead of Christ, salvation by faith, the great atoning sacrifice, and other essential doctrines of this class, are all suffering in this way. My heart says, with deep concern,

[¶5] Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis,

[¶6] Tempus eget.

[¶7] When truth is assailed by all kinds of weapons, handled by the most powerful foes, injudicious defenders may be ranked among its enemies. To such we may innocently say, "Keep your cabins; you do assist the storm."

### Verse 5

[¶9] Every word of God is pure - כל אמרת אלוה צרופה col imrath eloah tseruphah, "Every oracle of God is purified." A metaphor taken from the purifying of metals. Every thing that God has pronounced, every inspiration which the prophets have received, is pure, without mixture of error, without dross. Whatever trials it may be exposed to, it is always like gold: it bears the fire, and comes out with the same lustre, the same purity, and the same weight.

[¶10] He is a shield unto them - And this oracle among the rest. "He is the defense of all them that put their trust in him." לכל lechol, to all, is added here by nineteen of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.; for instead of לחסים lachosim, to the trusters, they read לכל החוסים lechol hachosim, "to Every One of them that trust." Where the preposition and adjective are not only added, but the noun is written more full, and more emphatic: but a translation cannot well express it without paraphrase.

### Verse 6

[¶12] Add not thou unto his words - You can no more increase their value by any addition, than you can that of gold by adding any other metal to it. Take care that you do not any thing that this word forbids, nor leave undone any thing that it commands: for this is adding and diminishing in Scripture phrase.

[¶13] Lest he reprove thee - Lest he try thy word by fire, as his has been tried; and it appear that, far from abiding the test, the fire shows thine to be reprobate silver; and so thou be found a falsifier of God's word, and a liar.

[¶14] How amply has this been fulfilled in the case of the Romish Church! It has added all the gross stuff in the Apocrypha, besides innumerable legends and traditions, to the word of God! They have been tried by the refiner's fire. And this Church has been reproved, and found to be a liar, in attempting to filiate on the most holy God spurious writings discreditable to his nature.

### Verse 7

[¶16] Two things have I required of thee - These two petitions are mentioned in the next verse; and he wishes to have them answered before he should die. That is, he wishes the answer now, that he may live the rest of his life in the state he describes.

### Verse 8

[¶18] Remove far from me vanity and lies -

[¶19] 1. שוא shav, all false shows, all false appearances of happiness, every vain expectation. Let me not set my heart on any thing that is not solid, true, durable, and eternal.

[¶20] 2. Lies, דבר כזב debar cazab, all words of deception, empty pretensions, false promises, uncertain dependences, and words that Fail; promises which, when they become due, are like bad bills; they are dishonored because they are found to be forged, or the drawer insolvent.

[¶21] From the import of the original, I am satisfied that Agur prays against idolatry, false religion, and false worship of every kind. שוא shau is used for an idol, a false god. [Jer 18:15] : "My people have forsaken me; they have burnt incense to Vanity;" לשוא lashshav, "to an Idol." [Psa 31:6] : "I have hated them that regard lying Vanities;" הבלי שוא habley shave, "vain Idols." See also [Hos 12:11]; [Jon 2:8]. And כזב cazab, a thing that fails or deceives, may well apply to the vain pretensions, false promises, and deceptive religious rites of idolatry. So [Jer 15:18] : "Wilt thou be unto me as a liar," כמו אכזב kemo achzob, like the false, failing promises of the false gods; "and as waters that fail;" לא נאמנו lo neemanu, that are not faithful; not like the true God, whose promises never fail. According to this view of the subject, Agur prays,

[¶22] 1. That he may be preserved from idolatry.

[¶23] 2. That he may put no confidence in any words but those pure words of God that never fail them that trust in him.

[¶24] Give me neither poverty nor riches - Here are three requests:

[¶25] 1. Give me not poverty. The reason is added: Lest, being poor, I shall get into a covetous spirit, and, impelled by want, distrust my Maker, and take my neighbour's property; and, in order to excuse, hide, or vindicate my conduct, I take the name of my God in vain; תפשתי taphasti, "I catch at the name of God." Or, by swearing falsely, endeavor to make myself pass for innocent. Forswere the name of my God - Old MS. Bible. Coverdale, "deny or apostatize from him."

[¶26] 2. Give me not riches. For which petition he gives a reason also: Lest I be full, and addict myself to luxurious living, pamper the flesh and starve the soul, and so deny thee, the Fountain of goodness; and, if called on to resort to first principles, I say, Who is Jehovah! Why should I acknowledge, why should I serve him? And thus cast aside all religion, and all moral obligation.

[¶27] 3. The third request is, Feed me with food convenient for me, הטריפני לחם חקי hatripheni leechem chukki; the meaning of which is, "give me as prey my statute allowance of bread," i.e., my daily bread, a sufficient portion for each day. There is an allusion made to hunting: "Direct so by thy good providence, that I may each day find sufficient portion to subsist on, as a hunter in the forest prays that he may have good speed." It is the province of a preacher to show the importance and utility of such a prayer, and dilate the circumstances, and expand the reasons, after the commentator has shown the literal sense.

### Verse 10

[¶29] Accuse not a servant - Do not bring a false accusation against a servant, lest thou be found guilty of the falsehood, and he curse thee for having traduced his character, and in his turn traduce thine. In general, do not meddle with other people's servants.

### Verse 11

[¶31] There is a generation - There are such persons in the world. In this and the three following verses the wise man points out four grand evils that prevailed in his time.

[¶32] The first, Those who not only did not honor, but who evil-treated, their parents.

### Verse 12

[¶34] The second, Those who were self-righteous, supposing themselves pure, and were not so.

### Verse 13

[¶36] The third, Those who were full of vanity, pride, and insolence.

### Verse 14

[¶38] The fourth, The greedy, cruel, and oppressive, and, especially, oppressive to the poor.

### Verse 15

[¶40] The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give - "This horseleech," says Calmet, "is Covetousness, and her two daughters are Avarice and Ambition. They never say, It is enough; they are never satisfied; they are never contented."

[¶41] Many explanations have been given of this verse; but as all the versions agree in render ing עלוקה alukah the horseleech or blood-sucker, the general meaning collected has been, "There are persons so excessively covetous and greedy, that they will scarcely let any live but themselves; and when they lay hold of any thing by which they may profit, they never let go their hold till they have extracted the last portion of good from it." Horace has well expressed this disposition, and by the same emblem, applied to a poor poet, who seizes on and extracts all he can from an author of repute, and obliges all to hear him read his wretched verses.

[¶42] Quem vero arripuit, tenet, occiditque legendo,

[¶43] Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris,

[¶44] Hirudo. De arte poet., ver. 475. "But if he seize you, then the torture dread;

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[¶0] He fastens on you till he reads you dead;

[¶1] And like a leech, voracious of his food,

[¶2] Quits not his cruel hold till gorged with blood."

[¶3] Francis.

[¶4] The word אלוקה alukah, which we here translate horseleech, is read in no other part of the Bible. May it not, like Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ucal, be a proper name, belonging to some well-known woman of his acquaintance, and well known to the public, who had two daughters notorious for their covetousness and lechery? And at first view the following verse may be thought to confirm this supposition: "There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough." The grave, the barren womb the earth, the fire. What an astonishing simiiarity there is between this and the following institute, taken from the Code of Hindoo Laws, chapter 20, sec. i., p. 203. "A woman is never satisfied with the copulation of man, no more than a fire is satisfied with burning fuel; or the main ocean is with receiving the rivers; or death, with the dying of men and animals." You can no more satisfy these two daughters of Alukah than you can the grave, etc.

[¶5] Some of the rabbins have thought that alukah signifies destiny, or the necessity of dying, which they say has two daughters, Eden and Gehenna, paradise and hell. The former has never enough of righteous souls; the latter, of the wicked. Similar to them is the opinion of Bochart, who thinks alukah means destiny, and the two daughters, the grave and hell; into the first of which the body descends after death, and into the second, the soul.

[¶6] The Septuagint gives it a curious turn, by connecting the fifteenth with the sixteenth verse: Τῃ Βδελλῃ θυγατερες ησαν αγαπησει αγαπωμεναι, και αἱ τρεις αὑται ουκ ενεπιμπλασαν αυτην, και ἡ τεταρτη ουκ ηρκεσθη ειπειν· Ἱκανον; "The horseleech had three well-beloved daughters; and these three were not able to satisfy her desire: and the fourth was not satisfied, so as to say, It is enough."

[¶7] After all, I think my own conjecture the most probable. Alukah is a proper name, and the two daughters were of the description I have mentioned.

### Verse 17

[¶9] The eye that mocketh at his father - This seems to be spoken against those who curse their father, and do not bless their mother, [Pro 30:11].

[¶10] The ravens of the valley - Those which frequent the places where dead carcasses and offal are most likely to be found. The raven, the crow, the rook, the daw, the carrion crow, and the Cornish chough, appear to be all of the same genus. Some of them live on pulse and insects; others, the raven in particular, live on carrion.

[¶11] The young eagles shall eat it - The mother eagle shall scoop out such an eye, and carry it to the nest to feed her young. Many of the disobedient to parents have come to an untimely end, and, in the field of battle, where many a profligate has fallen, and upon gibbets, have actually become the prey of ravenous birds.

### Verse 19

[¶13] The way of an eagle - I borrow, with thanks, the very sensible note of the Rev. Mr. Holden on this passage. "The particle כן ken plainly shows that [Pro 30:19] and [Pro 30:20] are to be taken in connection; consequently, it is a comparison between the way of an adulterous woman, and the way of the things here described. "The adulterous woman goes about in search of her deluded victim, like as the eagle takes its flight into the air to spy out its prey. She uses every species of blandishment and insinuation to allure and beguile, as the serpent employs its windings and sinuous motions to pass along the rocks; she pursues a course surrounded with danger, as a ship in the midst of the sea is continually exposed to the fury of the tempest, and the hazard of shipwreck; and she tries every means, and exercises all her sagacity, to prevent the discovery of her illicit enjoyments, as a man attempts to conceal his clandestine intercourse with a maid. Such is the conduct of a lewd woman, marked by specious dissimulation and traitorous blandishment; she eateth and wipeth her mouth-she indulges her adulterous lust, yet artfully endeavors to conceal it, and with unblushing countenance asserts her innocence, exclaiming, I have done no wickedness."

[¶14] Chaucer's January and May is an excellent comment on such wiles and protestations.

[¶15] The way of a man with a maid - בעלמה bealmah with or in a maid; but one of De Rossi's MSS. has בעלמיו bealmaiv, in his youth; and with this the Septuagint, ev neothti, the Vulgate, in adolescentia, the Syriac and the Arabic agree; and so also my own MS. Bible: - The weie of a man in his waxing youthe. Dr. Kennicott, in a sermon preached at Onsford, 1765, p. 46, has defended the reading of the versions, corroborating it by two MSS., one in the Harleian, and the other in the Bodleian library, besides that mentioned by De Rossi. See De Rossi's Var. Lect. Certainly the way of a man in his youth contains too many intricacies for human wisdom to explore. He only who searches the heart knows fully its various corrupt principles, and their productions. The common reading may refer to the formation of a child in the womb. But some have understood it of the immaculate conception. See my note on [Mat 1:23] (note), where the subject is largely considered.

[¶16] If we take the four things which Agur says were too wonderful for him, in their obvious sense, there is little difficulty in them.

[¶17] 1. The passage which a bird makes through the air;

[¶18] 2. That which is made by a serpent on a rock; and,

[¶19] 3. That made by a ship through the sea, are such as cannot be ascertained: for who can possibly show the track in which either of them has passed?

[¶20] And as to the fourth, if it refer to the suspected incontinence of one reputed a virgin, the signs are so equivocal, as to be absolutely unascertainable. The existence of the hymen has been denied by the ablest anatomists; and the signs of continence or incontinence, except in the most recent cases, are such as neither man nor woman can swear to, even to the present day; and they were certainly not less difficult to Agur and his contemporaries. I shall carry this matter no farther.

### Verse 21

[¶22] For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear - This is another enigma. Four things insupportable to men. 1. A slave, when he becomes ruler. 2. An overfed fool. 3. An ill-tempered woman, when mistress of a family. And, 4. A servant maid, when the rule of the house is committed to her.

[¶23] 1. A slave, when he comes to bear rule, is an unprincipled tyrant. It has been often observed both in America and in the West Indies, when it was judged necessary to arm some of the most confidential slaves, that no regiments were used so cruelly in the drill, etc., as those black regiments that had black officers.

[¶24] 2. The overfed fool. The intellectually weak man, who has every thing at his command, has generally manners which none can bear; and, if a favourite with his master, he is insupportable to all others.

[¶25] 3. An ill-tempered woman, when she gets embarrassed with domestic cares, is beyond bearing.

[¶26] 4. A servant maid, when, either through the death of the mistress, or the sin of the husband, she is in fact exalted to be head over the family, is so insolent and impudent, as to be hateful to every one, and execrated by all.

### Verse 24

[¶28] There be four things - Of which it is said, they are very little but very wise. 1. The ants. 2. The rabbits. 3. The locusts. 4. The spider.

[¶29] 1. The ants show their wisdom by preparing their meat in the summer, seeking for it and storing it when it may be had; not for winter consumption, for they sleep all that time; but for autumn and spring. See the note on [Pro 6:6] (note). The ants are a people; they have their houses, towns, cities, public roads, etc. I have seen several of these, both of the brown and large black ant.

[¶30] 2. The rabbits act curiously enough in the construction of their burrows; but the word שפן shaphan probably does not here mean the animal we call coney or rabbit. It is most likely that this is what Dr. Shaw calls the Daman - Israel; a creature very like a rabbit, but never burrowing in the ground, but dwelling in clefts and holes of rocks.

[¶31] 3. The locusts. These surprising animals we have already met with and described. Though they have no leader, yet they go forth by troops, some miles in circumference, when they take wing.

[¶32] 4. The spider. This is a singularly curious animal, both in the manner of constructing her house, her nets, and taking her prey. But the habits, etc., of these and such like must be sought in works on natural history.

### Verse 29

[¶34] There be three things which go well - Here is another set of emblems; four things which walk beautifully and with majesty. 1. The lion. 2. The greyhound. 3. The he-goat. And, 4. A king.

[¶35] 1. Nothing can be more majestic than the walk of the lion. It is deliberate, equal, firm, and in every respect becoming the king of the forest.

[¶36] 2. The greyhound. זרזיר מתנים zarzir mothnayim, the girt in the loins; but what this beast is we do not distinctly know. It is most likely that this was the greyhound, which in the East are remarkably fine, and very fleet. Scarcely any thing can be conceived to go with greater fleetness, in full chase, than a greyhound with its prey in view: it seems to swim over the earth.

[¶37] 3. The goat, תיש tayish. This is generally allowed to be the he-goat; and how he walks, and what state he assumes, in the presence of his part of the flock, every one knows, who has at all noticed this animal. The ram also, which some suppose to be intended, is both fierce and majestic at the head of the sheep.

[¶38] 4. And a king, against whom there is no risi,nv up. That is, a king whose court, counsels, and troops, are so firmly united to him, as to render all hopes of successful conspiracy against him utterly vain. He walks boldly and majestically about, being safe in the affections of his people. But the Hebrew is singular; it makes but two words; and these are they, ומלך אלקום umelech Alkum, "and King Alkum." It is a doubt whether this may not be a proper name, as Agur abounds in them; see Ithiel, Ucal, and probably Alukah, [Pro 30:15]. But it is said, "We know nothing of a king named Alkum." True; nor do we know any thing of Agur, Ithiel, Ucal, to say nothing of Alukah. And this might have been some remarkable chieftain, who carried his victories wherever he went, and was remarkably fortunate. If, however, we separate the word into אל al, "not," and קום kum, "he arose," we may make the interpretation above given.

### Verse 32

[¶40] If thou hast done foolishly - And who has not, at one time or other of his life?

[¶41] Lay thine hand upon thy mouth - Like the leper; and cry to God, Unclean! unclean! and keep silence to all besides. God will blot out thy offense, and neither the world nor the Church ever know it, for he is merciful; and man is rarely able to pass by a sin committed by his fellows, especially if it be one to which himself is by nature not liable or inclined.

### Verse 33

[¶43] And the wringing - Who hugeli snytith drawith out blood. - Old MS. Bible. This is well expressed in homely phrase. The Septuagint have, "draw the milk, and you may have butter; if you press the nostrils you may bring out blood; and if you draw out your discourse to a great length, you may have strife and contention." Avoid, therefore, all strong excitements and irritations. Coverdale's translation of this verse is very simple: "Whoso chyrneth mylck maketh butter; he that rubbeth his nose maketh it blede; and he that causeth wrath bryngeth forth strife."

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### Introduction

[¶1] The words and prophecy of King Lemuel, and what his mother taught him, [Pro 31:1], [Pro 31:2]. Debauchery and much wine to be avoided, [Pro 31:3-7]. How kings should administer justice, [Pro 31:8], [Pro 31:9]. The praise of a virtuous woman and good housewife, in her economy, prudence, watchfulness, and assiduity in labor, vv. 10-29. Frailty of beauty, [Pro 31:30], [Pro 31:31].

### Verse 1

[¶3] The words of King Lemuel - דברי למואל מכך dibrey lemuel melech, "The words to Muel the king." So the Syriac; and so I think it should be read, the ל lamed being the article or preposition.

[¶4] But who is Muel or Lemuel? Solomon, according to general opinion; and the mother here mentioned, Bath-sheba. I cannot receive these sayings; for

[¶5] 1. Whoever this was, he appears to have been the first-born of his mother: called here emphatically בר בטני bar bitni, the son of my womb; which is not likely to be true of Solomon, as his mother had been the wife of Uriah, and possibly had borne that rough and faithful soldier some children.

[¶6] 2. It is intimated here that this son had come by a lawful marriage: hence בר נדרי bar nedarai, the son of my vow, her matrimonial covenant; for so it is most natural to understand the words. But is there any proper sense in which we can say that this was correct in reference to David, Bath-sheba and Solomon? For although the son born in adultery died, it is by no means likely that Bath-sheba made any particular vows relative to Solomon; for of her piety, so much vaunted of by some writers, we yet want the proofs.

[¶7] But, however this may be, there is no evidence whatever that Muel or Lemuel means Solomon; the chapter seems, to be much later than his time, and the several Chaldaisms which occur in the very opening of it are no mean proof of this. If Agur was not the author of it, it may be considered as another supplement to the book of Proverbs. Most certainly Solomon did not write it.

[¶8] The prophecy that his mother taught him - משא massa may here signify the oracle; the subject that came by Divine inspiration; see on [Pro 30:1] (note). From this and some other circumstances it is probable that both these chapters were written by the same author. Houbigant thinks that Massa here is the name of a place; and, therefore, translates, "The words of Lemuel, king of Massa, with which his mother instructed him."

### Verse 2

[¶10] What, my son? - The Chaldee בר bar is used twice in this verse, instead of the Hebrew בן ben, son. This verse is very elliptical; and commentators, according to their different tastes, have inserted words, indeed some of them a whole sentence, to make up the sense. Perhaps Coverdale has hit the sense as nearly as any other: "These are the wordes of Kynge Lemuel; and the lesson that his mother taughte him. My sonne, thou son of my body, O my deare beloved sonne!"

[¶11] The son of my vows? - A child born after vows made for offsprings is called the child of a person's vows.

### Verse 3

[¶13] Give not thy strength - Do not waste thy substance on women.

[¶14] In such intercourse the strength of body, soul and substance is destroyed.

[¶15] Such connections are those which destroy kings, מלכין melachin, the Chaldee termination instead of the Hebrew.

### Verse 4

[¶17] It is not for kings - to drink wine - An intemperate man is ill fit to hold the reins of government.

### Verse 5

[¶19] Lest they drink, and forget the law - When they should be administering justice, they are found incapable of it; or, if they go into the judgment-seat, may pervert justice.

### Verse 6

[¶21] Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish - We have already seen, that inebriating drinks were mercifully given to condemned criminals, to render them less sensible of the torture they endured in dying. This is what was offered to our Lord; but he refused it. See note on [Psa 104:15].

### Verse 8

[¶23] Open thy mouth for the dumb - For such accused persons as have no counsellors, and cannot plead for themselves.

[¶24] Are appointed to destruction - בני חלוף beney chaloph, variously translated, children of passage - indigent travelers; children of desolation - those who have no possessions, or orphans. I believe it either signifies those who are strangers, and are travelling from place to place, or those who are ready to perish in consequence of want or oppression.

### Verse 10

[¶26] Who can find a virtuous woman? - This and the following verses are acrostic, each beginning with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet: [Pro 31:10], א aleph; [Pro 31:11], ב beth; [Pro 31:12], ג gimel; and so on to the end of the chapter, the last verse of which has the letter ת tau. From this to the end of the chapter we have the character of a woman of genuine worth laid down; first, in general, [Pro 31:10-12]; secondly, in its particular or component parts, verses 13-29; and, thirdly, the summing up of the character, [Pro 31:30], [Pro 31:31].

[¶27] I. Her general character.

[¶28] 1. She is a virtuous wo man - a woman of power and strength. אשת חיל esheth chayil, a strong or virtuous wife, full of mental energy.

[¶29] 2. She is invaluable; her price is far above rubies - no quantity of precious stones can be equal to her worth.

### Verse 11

[¶31] The heart of her husband -

[¶32] 3. She is an unspotted wife. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her - he knows she will take care that a proper provision is made for his household, and will not waste any thing. He has no need for spoil - he is not obliged to go out on predatory excursions, to provide for his family, at the expense of the neighboring tribes.

### Verse 12

[¶34] She will do him good -

[¶35] 4. She has her husband's happiness in view constantly. She recompenses all his kindness to her in beneficent acts. For kind words she returns kind deeds.

[¶36] 1. Her good is unmixed; she will do him good. and not evil. 2 Her good is not capricious; it is constant and permanent, while she and her husband live. His heart safely trusts in her, for she will do him good all the days of her life. This is her general character.

### Verse 13

[¶38] She seeketh wood and flax, and worketh willingly, etc. -

[¶39] II. This is the second part of her character, giving the particulars of which it is composed.

[¶40] 1. She did not buy ready woven cloth: she procured the raw material, if wool, most probably from her own flocks; if flax, most probably from her own fields.

[¶41] 2. Here she manufactured; for she worketh willingly with her hands. And all her labor is a cheerful service; her will, her heart, is in it.

[¶42] It needs no arguments to prove that women, even of the highest ranks, among the Greeks, Romans, and Israelites, worked with their hands at every kind of occupation necessary for the support of the family. This kind of employment was not peculiar to the virtuous woman in the text.

### Verse 14

[¶44] She is like the merchants' ships -

[¶45] 3. She acts like merchants. If she buy any thing for her household, she sells sufficient of her own manufactures to pay for it; if she imports, she exports: and she sends articles of her own manufacturing or produce to distant countries; she traffics with the neighboring tribes.

## 750. Proverbs · 45 of 46

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### Verse 15

[¶1] She riseth also while it is yet night -

[¶2] 4. She is an economist of time; and when the nights are long, and the days short, her family not only spend a part of the evening after sunset in domestic labor, but they all arise before daylight, and prepare the day's food, that they may not have their labor interrupted. To those who are going to the fields, and to the flocks, she gives the food necessary for the day: טרף teref, prey, a term taken from hunting, the object of which was, the supplying their natural wants: hence applied to daily food. See notes on [Pro 30:8]. And to the women who are to be employed within she gives חק chok, the task - the kind of work they are to do, the materials out of which they are to form it, and the quantity she expects from each. Thus all the servants are settled: their food, work, and tasks appointed. Every thing is done orderly.

### Verse 16

[¶4] She considereth a field and buyeth it -

[¶5] 5. She provides for the growing wants of her family. More land will shortly be needed, for the family is growing up; and having seen a field contiguous to her own, which was on sale, she estimates its worth, and purchases it a good bargain; and she pays for it by the fruit of her own industry.

[¶6] 6. She does not restrict herself to the bare necessaries of life; she is able to procure some of its comforts. She plants a vineyard, that she may have wine for a beverage, for medicine, and for sacrifice. This also is procured of her own labor. Whatever goes out brings its worth in; and barter, not buying, is her chief mode of traffic.

### Verse 17

[¶8] She girdeth her loins with strength -

[¶9] 7. She takes care of her own health and strength, not only by means of useful labor, but by healthy exercise. She avoids what might enervate her body, or soften her mind - she is ever active, and girt ready for every necessary exercise. Her loins are firm, and her arms strong.

### Verse 18

[¶11] She perceiveth that her merchandise is good -

[¶12] 8. She takes care to manufacture the best articles of the kind, and to lay on a reasonable price that she may secure a ready sale. Her goods are in high repute, and she knows she can sell as much as she can make. And she finds that while she pleases her customers, she increases her own profits.

[¶13] 9. She is watchful and careful. Her candle - her lamp, burns all night, which is of great advantage in case of sudden alarms; and in the times and places where there were so many banditti, this was a very necessary family regulation. Perhaps some works were carried on during the night, those employed sleeping in the daytime. Thus labor never stood still; whilst some slept, others worked. This was no unusual thing in ancient times; and it prevails now; but alas! little children are often thus employed to help to support their indigent parents, and to fill the coffers of their unfeeling taskmasters.

### Verse 19

[¶15] She layeth her hands to the spindle -

[¶16] 10. She gives an example of skill and industry to her household. She takes the distaff, that on which the wool or flax was rolled; and the spindle, that by twisting of which she twisted the thread with the right hand, while she held the distaff in the guard of the left arm, and drew down the thread with the fingers of the left hand. Allowing that spindle and distaff are proper translations of כישור kishor, and פלך pelech, this was their use, and the way in which they were used. The spindle and distaff are the most ancient of all the instruments used for spinning, or making thread. The spinning-wheel superseded them in these countries; but still they were in considerable use till spinning machinery superseded both them and the spinning-wheels in general.

### Verse 20

[¶18] She stretcheth out her hand to the poor -

[¶19] 11. She is truly charitable. She knows that in every portion of a man's gain God requires a lot for the poor; and if this is not given, God's blessing is not in the rest. And she is not contented to give common alms. While with one hand (יד yad) she relieves the general poor, with both hands (ידיה yadeyha) she gives to the needy, לעני leaney, to the afflicted poor.

### Verse 21

[¶21] She is not afraid of the snow -

[¶22] 12. She is not anxious relative to the health and comfort of her family in the winter season, having provided clothes sufficient for each in the cold weather, in addition to those which they wore in the warm season.

[¶23] For all her household are clothed with scarlet - Not scarlet, for the color can avail nothing in keeping off the cold; nor would it be a proper color for the bogs and dirt of winter. But שנים shanim, from שנה shanah, to iterate, to double, signifies not only scarlet, so called from being twice or doubly dyed, but also double garments, not only the ordinary coat but the surtout or great-coat also, or a cloak to cover all. But most probably double garments, or twofold to what they were accustomed to wear, are here intended. If the general clothing be intended, scarlet cannot be the meaning, nor did our translators entirely rely on it; and therefore put double garments, the true meaning, in the margin, from which it cannot be too speedily transferred to the text. The Vulgate has "duplicibus." And my old MS. very properly, Alle forsoth hir hoomli men, ben clothid with double. And Coverdale, with equal propriety, "For all hir householde folkes are duble clothed." But if her husband and children alone are referred to, scarlet, which in the general meaning of the term, may be proper enough; as even in these countries of ours, scarlet, as being a lively bright color, is used in the winter dresses.

### Verse 22

[¶25] She maketh herself coverings of tapestry -

[¶26] 13. She is not regardless either of her own person, or of the decent, proper appearance of her presses and wardrobe. She has coverings or carpeting for her guests to sit upon; she has also tapestry, מרבדים marbaddim, either tapestry, carpeting, or quilted work for her beds; and her own clothing is שש shesh, fine flax, or linen cloth, and purple; probably for a cloak or mantle. The fine linen or cotton cloth of Egypt is probably intended. I have often seen it wrapping the bodies of mummies; it is something like our coarse calico. The purple was supposed to have been dyed by a precious liquor obtained from the pinna magna, a large shellfish, of the muscle kind, found on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. I have seen some of them nearly two feet in length. But it is a doubt whether any such liquor was ever obtained from this or any other fish; and the story itself is invented merely to hide the secret, the proper method of dying purple; which was kept so well that it certainly died with the ancients.

### Verse 23

[¶28] Her husband is known in the gates -

[¶29] 14. She is a loving wife, and feels for the respectability and honor of her husband. He is an elder among his people, and he sits as a magistrate in the gate. He is respected not only on account of the neatness and cleanliness of his person and dress, but because he is the husband of a woman who is justly held in universal esteem. And her complete management of household affairs gives him full leisure to devote himself to the civil interests of the community.

### Verse 24

[¶31] She maketh fine linen, and selleth it -

[¶32] 15. She is here remarkable for carrying on a traffic of splendid and ornamental dresses, or habits, as she is, [Pro 31:13], for "a coarser manufacture," The סדון sidon is supposed to come from the Arabic; and to signify a kind of loose inner garment, shirt, chemise, or fine muslin covering. Some of these are so exceedingly fine, like the abrooam, that when spread on the grass, they are scarcely discernible. Some such garments as these are still worn by ladies in India and in China, and are so thin and transparent, that every part of the body may be seen through them. I have many representations of persons clothed in this way before me both of the Chinese, the Hindoo, and the Malabar ladies. Probably this eminent Jewish matron had such articles manufactured in her own house. She dealt also in girdles. These are still a very general and very expensive article of dress. I have seen them made of silk, and highly ornamented with gold and silver thread, worked into flowers and various curious devices. The loose Eastern robe is confined by these; and the word may also take in the shawl of the turban, which is often superb and costly. It is properly the girdle for the head. As these were generally woven, the consumption was great; and an able artist must have had a good trade.

[¶33] The Arabic gives a remarkable translation of this verse: "She maketh towels, (or tablecloths), and sells them to the inhabitants of Basra, (a city in Mesopotamia), and fine linens, and sells them to the Canaanites." My old MS. Bible has, Sandel sche made and sold, and a litil girdil sche toke to Chanane. Perhaps לכנעני lakkenaani, for the merchant, may stand here for לכנענים lakkenaanim, the Canaanites.

### Verse 26

[¶35] Strength and honor are her clothing -

[¶36] 16. All the articles manufactured by herself or under her care have a double perfection:

[¶37] 1. They are strong.

[¶38] 2. They are elegant;

[¶39] Strength and honor are her clothing; and on account of this she shall rejoice in time to come; she shall never have occasion to blush for any thing she has made, for any thing she or hers have worn, or for any thing she has sold. Besides, she has so conducted herself that she has reason to expect that the hand of the Lord shall be still with her, and shall keep her from evil that it may not grieve her.

[¶40] She openeth her mouth with wisdom -

[¶41] 17. He comes now to the moral management of her family.

[¶42] 1. She is wise and intelligent; she has not neglected the cultivation of her mind.

[¶43] 2. She is amiable in her carriage, full of good nature, well tempered, and conciliating in her manners and address.

[¶44] In her tongue is the law of kindness - This is the most distinguishing excellence of this woman. There are very few of those who are called managing women who are not lords over their husbands, tyrants over their servants, and insolent among their neighbors. But this woman, with all her eminence and excellence, was of a meek and quiet spirit. Blessed woman!

## 751. Proverbs · 46 of 46

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### Verse 27

[¶1] She looketh well to the ways of her household -

[¶2] 18. She is a moral manager: she takes care that all shall behave themselves well; that none of them shall keep bad company or contract vicious habits. A religious industry, or an industrious religion, is the law of her house. She can instruct them in religion, as well as she can teach them in their labor. In her house, diligence in business, and fervency of spirit, serving the Lord, go hand in hand.

[¶3] And eateth not the bread of idleness -

[¶4] 19. She knows that idleness leads to vice; and therefore every one has his work, and every one has his proper food. That they may work well, they are fed well; and every one, at least, earns the bread that he eats - eateth not the bread of idleness.

### Verse 28

[¶6] Her children arise up, and call her blessed -

[¶7] 20. She considers a good education next to Divine influence; and she knows also that if she train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it.

[¶8] 1. Her children are well bred; they rise up and pay due respect.

[¶9] 2. They are taught the fear of the lord, and obedience to his testimonies; therefore they call her blessed. So they are of a decent, orderly, respectable, religious behavior.

[¶10] 3. Her husband is so satisfied with her conduct towards himself, his household, his business, and their children, that he praiseth her. He shows himself sensible of her excellence, and encourages her, in her work, by the commendations he bestows.

### Verse 29

[¶12] Many daughters have done virtuously - This is undoubtedly the speech of the husband, giving testimony to the excellence of his wife: "Her husband also, and he praiseth her, saying, 'many daughters,' women, 'have done virtuously,' with due propriety as wives, mistresses, and mothers; 'but Thou,' my incomparable wife, 'excellent them all;' ואת עלית על כלנה veath alith al cullanah, but Thou hast ascended above the whole of them - thou hast carried every duty, every virtue, and every qualification and excellency, to a higher perfection, than any of whom we have ever read or heard." And let the reader seriously consider the above particulars, as specified under the different heads and subdivisions; and he will be probably of the same mind. But high as the character of this Jewish matron stands in the preceding description, I can say that I have met at least her equal, in a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Annesly, the wife of Samuel Wesley, sen., rector of Epworth in Lincolnshire, and mother of the late extraordinary brothers, John and Charles Wesley. I am constrained to add this testimony, after having traced her from her birth to her death, through all the relations that a woman can bear upon earth. Her Christianity gave to her virtues and excellences a heightening, which the Jewish matron could not possess. Besides, she was a woman of great learning and information, and of a depth of mind, and reach of thought, seldom to be found among the daughters of Eve, and not often among the sons of Adam.

### Verse 30

[¶14] Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain, etc. -

[¶15] III. Here is the summing up of the character.

[¶16] 1. Favour, חן chen, grace of manner may be deceitful, many a fair appearance of this kind is put on, assumed for certain secular or more unworthy purposes; it is learned by painful drilling in polished seminaries, and, being the effect of mere physical discipline, it continues while the restraint lasts; but it is שקר sheker, a lie, a mere semblance, an outward varnish. It is not the effect of internal moral regulation; it is an outside, at which the inside murmurs; and which, because not ingenuous, is a burden to itself.

[¶17] 2. Beauty, היפי haiyophi, elegance of shape, symmetry of features, dignity of mien, and beauty of countenance, are all הבל hebel, vanity; sickness impairs them, suffering deranges them, and death destroys them.

[¶18] 3. "But a woman that feareth the Lord," that possesses true religion, has that grace that harmonizes the soul, that purifies and refines all the tempers and passions, and that ornament of beauty, a meek and quiet mind, which in the sight of God is of great price: -

[¶19] She shall be praised - This is the lasting grace, the unfading beauty.

### Verse 31

[¶21] Give her of the fruit of her hands - This may be a prayer. May she long enjoy the fruit of her labors! May she see her children's children, and peace upon Israel!

[¶22] And let her own works praise her in the gates - Let what she has done be spoken of for a memorial of her; let her bright example be held forth in the most public places. Let it be set before the eyes of every female, particularly of every wife, and especially of every mother; and let them learn from this exemplar, what men have a right to expect in their wives, the mistresses of their families, and the mothers of their children. Amen.

## 752. Ecclesiastes · 1 of 19

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### Introduction to the Book of Ecclesiastes

[¶1] The book, entitled Koheleth, or Ecclesiastes, has ever been received, both by the Jewish and Christian Church, as written under the inspiration of the Almighty; and was held to be properly a part of the sacred canon. But while this has been almost universally granted, there has been but little unanimity among learned men and critics as to its author. To Solomon it has been most generally attributed, both in ancient and modern times.

[¶2] Grotius, however, conjectured that it was written a long time after Solomon; and he says, at the close of his notes on it, that it was revised in the days of Zerubbabel by some learned man, who in the twelfth verse of the last chapter addresses his son Abihud: "And farther, by these, my son, be admonished." But such a conjecture appears to have little foundation. This great man was more successful in his criticism on the language of the book; showing that there are many words in it which do not savor of the purity of the Hebrew tongue; and are found in the times of the captivity and afterwards, and such as appear principally in the books of Ezra and Daniel.

[¶3] Calovius has on the other hand, not with so much success as he imagined, argued against Grotius for the purity of the language.

[¶4] Mr. G. Zirkel of Wurtzburgh published an examination of this book in 1792, in which he endeavors to prove: -

[¶5] 1. That the style of Ecclesiastes is that of the later Hebrew writers, as appears by the Chaldaisms, Syriasms, and Hellenisms that occur in it.

[¶6] 2. That it may have been written between the years 380 and 130 before Jesus Christ, if not later.

[¶7] The Jena reviewers seem to have thought it to be a translation from the Greek, and to have been written by a Jew of Alexandria, while the famous library was founding by Ptolemy Philadelphus king of Egypt, about the year 240 before Christ. And that it is to this circumstance that [Ecc 12:12] alludes, "Of making many books there is no end;" which could not have entered into the head of a Palestine Jew; and such a person might speak with propriety of an Israel in Jerusalem, [Ecc 1:12], being acquainted with an Israel in Alexandria.

[¶8] The Jews in general, and St. Jerome, hold the book to be the composition of Solomon, and the fruit of his repentance when restored from his idolatry, into which he had fallen through means of the strange or heathenish women whom he had taken for wives and concubines.

[¶9] Others, of no mean note, who consider Solomon as the author, believe that he wrote it before his fall; there being no evidence that he wrote it afterwards; nor, indeed, that he ever recovered from his fall. Besides, it was in his old age that his wives turned away his heart from God; and the book bears too many evidences of mental energy to allow the supposition that in his declining age, after so deep a fall from God, he was capable of writing such a treatise. This opinion goes far towards destroying the Divine inspiration of the book; for if he did recover and repent, there is no evidence that God gave him back that Divine inspiration which he before possessed; for we hear of the Lord appearing to him twice before his fall, but of a third appearance there is no intimation. And lastly, Of the restoration of Solomon to the favor of God there is no proof in the sacred history; for in the very place where we are told that "in his old age his wives turned away his heart from the Lord," we are told of his death, without the slightest intimation of his repentance. See my character of Solomon at the end of 1 Kings 11 (note).

[¶10] Nothing, however, of this uncertainty can affect either the character, importance, or utility of the book in question. It is a production of singular worth; and the finest monument we have of the wisdom of the ancients, except the book of Job.

[¶11] But the chief difficulty attending this book is the principle on which it should be interpreted. Some have supposed it to be a dialogue between a true believer and an infidel, which makes it to the unwary reader appear abounding with contradiction, and, in some instances, false doctrine; and that the parts must be attributed to their respective speakers, before interpretation can be successfully attempted. I am not convinced that the book has any such structure; though in some places the opinions and sayings of infidels may be quoted; e.g., [Ecc 7:16], and in some of the following chapters.

[¶12] In the year 1763, M. Desvoeux, a learned foreigner then resident in England, and who was in the British service, wrote and published a Philosophical and Poetical Essay on this book, in which he endeavors to prove, that the design of the author was to demonstrate the immortality of the soul; and that it is on this principle alone that the book can be understood and explained.

[¶13] As a late commentator on the Bible has adopted this plan, and interwoven the major part of this dissertation with his notes on the book, I shall introduce the whole of M. Desvoeux's analysis of its contents, the propositions, arguments, proofs, illustrations, corollaries, etc., on the ground of which he attempts its illustration: -

[¶14] The whole of the discourse (he says) may be reduced to the three following propositions, each of which is attended with its apparatus of proofs and especial observations.

[¶15] The three propositions, with their proofs and illustrations, are contained in the following analysis:

[¶16] Proposition 1 No labor of man in this world can render him contented, or give him true satisfaction of soul. [Ecc 1:2], [Ecc 1:3] No labor of man, etc. [Ecc 1:4-11] First proof - The course of nature. [Ecc 1:12], etc. Second proof - Men's occultations. [Ecc 1:15-18] First head - Wisdom or philosophy. [Ecc 2:1], [Ecc 2:2] Second head - Pleasure. [Ecc 2:3-10] Both jointly. [Ecc 2:11] General conclusion of the second proof.

[¶17] A review of the second proof with special conclusions, relating to every particular therein mentioned, viz., [Ecc 2:12-17] 1. Wisdom. [Ecc 2:18-23] 2. Riches. [Ecc 2:24-26] 3. Pleasure. [Ecc 3:1], etc. Third proof - Inconstancy of men's wills. [Ecc 3:9] Conclusion of the third proof. A review of the second and third proofs, considered jointly, with special observations and corollaries. [Ecc 3:10], [Ecc 3:11] First observation - God is inculpable. [Ecc 3:12], [Ecc 3:15] Second observation - God is the author of whatever befalls us in this world. [Ecc 3:16], [Ecc 3:17] First corollary - God shall redress all grievances. [Ecc 3:18-21] Second corollary - God must be exalted, and man humbled. [Ecc 3:22] Third corollary - God allows men to enjoy the present life. [Ecc 4:1] Fourth proof - Men's neglect of proper opportunities, evidenced in several instances, viz., [Ecc 4:1-3] 1. Oppression. [Ecc 4:4] 2. Envy. [Ecc 4:5], [Ecc 4:6] 3. Idleness. [Ecc 4:7-12] 4. Avarice. [Ecc 4:13]-[Ecc 5:1-9] 5. Misapplication of esteem and regard.

[¶18] N. B. [Ecc 5:1-9] is a digression containing several admonitions, in order to prevent any misconstruction of the fore-going remarks. [Ecc 5:10-12] 6. Expensive living. Proposition 2 - [Ecc 5:13] Earthly goods and possessions are so far from making us happy, that they may be even viewed as real obstacles to our ease, quiet, and tranquillity of mind. [Ecc 5:14-17] First proof. Instability of riches. [Ecc 5:18] Second proof. Insufficiency of riches to make men happy. [Ecc 6:3-6] Corollary. The fate of an abortive is, on the whole, preferable to that of him who lives without enjoying life. [Ecc 6:7-9] Third proof. Men's insatiableness. [Ecc 6:10], [Ecc 6:11] General conclusion from the first and second propositions. Proposition 3 - [Ecc 6:12] Men known not what is or is not truly advantageous to them; because they are either ignorant or unmindful of that which must come to pass after their death. [Ecc 7:1], etc. First proof. Wrong estimation of things.

[¶19] A digression, intended, like that [Ecc 7:1-9], to prevent any misconstruction of the preceding observations; and containing several advices, together with a strong commendation of him who gives them, in order to enforce the observation of the rules he lays down. [Ecc 7:9-12] First advice. Do not blame Providence. [Ecc 7:13] Second advice. Do not judge of Providence. [Ecc 7:14], [Ecc 7:15] Third advice. Submit to Providence. [Ecc 7:16-20] Fourth advice. Avoid excesses. [Ecc 7:21], [Ecc 7:22] Fifth advice. Do not heed idle reports. [Ecc 7:23-25] Commendation of the foregoing advices from the author's application of every thing; and especially, [Ecc 7:26-29] 1. Wickedness and ignorance. [Ecc 8:1-8] 2. Wisdom.

[¶20] Second proof. Anticipated judgments. [Ecc 8:9-14] 1. That sin shall go unpunished, because it is so in this world. [Ecc 9:1-6] 2. That life is preferable to death. [Ecc 9:7-9] First corollary. Earthly enjoyments are not criminal. [Ecc 9:10] Second corollary. We must make a proper use of our faculties. [Ecc 9:11-15] Third proof. Judgments that are seemingly right, but entirely false. [Ecc 9:16], etc. Fourth proof. Little regard paid to wisdom. [Ecc 9:16] 1. Past services are forgotten.

[¶21] 2. The least fault is noticed. [Ecc 10:5-19] 3. Favor gets what is due to merit. [Ecc 10:20] A caution to prevent the abuse of the preceding remarks. Practical Inferences [Ecc 11:1-4] 1. From the first Proposition, - We must give to earthly goods that stability of which they are capable. [Ecc 11:5], [Ecc 11:6] 2. From the first and second Propositions, - We must, in all our conduct, conform to the design of Providence, and leave the success to God. [Ecc 12:7], [Ecc 12:8] 3. From the three Propositions, but especially from the third, we must seek for happiness beyond the grave. [Ecc 12:9-12] Commendation of the work, from several considerations. [Ecc 12:13], [Ecc 12:14] Conclusion of the whole. This is the whole of M. Desvoeux's Analysis; and I place it here, that the reader who approves of the plan may keep it in view while he is passing through the book. For my own part, I doubt whether the author made any such technical arrangement.

[¶22] The three propositions which M. Desvoeux lays down, and which are so essential to the interpretation he gives of the book, would have been expressly propounded by the inspired writer had he intended such; but they appear nowhere in it, and M. D. is obliged to assume or gather them from the general scope of the work. However, on his plan, he has certainly made a number of judicious observations on different passages, though his translations are generally too bold, and seldom well supported by the original text.

[¶23] In 1768 was published "Choheleth, or the Royal Preacher, a Poetical Paraphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Most humbly inscribed to the King." 4th. There is no name to this work. The late Rev. John Wesley gives the following account of the work and its author in his Journals: - "Monday, Feb. 8, 1768. I met with a surprising poem, entitled, Choheleth, or the Preacher: it is a paraphrase in tolerable verse on the book of Ecclesiastes. I really think the author of it (a Turkey merchant) understands both the difficult expressions, and the connection of the whole, better than any other either ancient or modern writer whom I have seen. He was at Lisbon during the great earthquake, just then sitting in his nightgown and slippers. Before he could dress himself, part of the house he was in fell, and blocked him up. By this means his life was saved; for all who had run out were dashed to pieces by the falling houses."

[¶24] Mr. W. seems to have known the author well, but did not like to tell his name. About the year 1789 that eminent man recommended the work to me, and told me several particulars relative to it, which have escaped my memory. I procured the book the first opportunity, and read it with great satisfaction; and from it derived no small portion of information. Having now examined it anew, I can most cordially subscribe to Mr. Wesley's opinion. I really believe that the author understood both the difficult expressions, and the connection of the whole, better than any other writer, whether ancient or modern, at least known to me. Had it comported with my plan, I should have thought a reprint of his work, with the text, which he does not insert, and a few philological notes, would have been quite sufficient to have given my readers a safe and general view of the whole work and its design; though I can by no means adopt the author's hypothesis, that the book was written by Solomon after he was restored from his grievous apostasy. This is an assumption that never was proved and never can be.

[¶25] From the preface to this work I have selected some general observations, which I consider to be important, and subjoin to this introduction; and what I borrow from the work itself I mark with a C, not knowing the author's name. Of the authenticity of the book of Ecclesiastes I have no doubt; but I must say, the language and style puzzle me not a little. Chaldaisms and Syriasms are certainly frequent in it, and not a few Chaldee words and terminations; and the style is such as may be seen in those writers who lived at or after the captivity. If these can be reconciled with the age of Solomon, I have no objection; but the attempts that have been made to deny this, and overthrow the evidence, are in my view often trifling, and generally ineffectual. That Solomon, son of David, might have been the author of the whole matter of this, and a subsequent writer put it in his own language, is a possible case; and were this to be allowed, it would solve all difficulties. Let us place the supposition thus: Solomon said all these things, and they are highly worthy of his wisdom; and a Divine writer, after his time, who does not mention his name, gives us a faithful version of the whole in his own language.

[¶26] On other subjects relative to this book, the author of Choheleth shall speak for me. "I. Not to perplex our readers with the various expositions of the word Choheleth, the title of the book in the original, (for in truth we can find none better or more significant than that commonly received, viz., Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher), let us now come to the book itself. Nothing can be more interesting than the subject it treats of, to wit, the chief or sovereign good which man, as a rational and accountable being, should here propose to himself. Every human creature, it is certain, naturally aims at happiness; but though all apply themselves with equal ardor to this desirable end, yet such is the violence of passion, and want of reflection in the generality of mankind, that the means they use for obtaining it, instead of conducting them to the safe and direct road, only serve to mislead and bewilder them in dark and intricate labyrinths, where it is impossible to find what they seek for. Now as it was absolutely necessary to convince such men of the vanity of their pursuits, in order to induce them to turn back in the right way, Solomon shows, in the first place, what is not happiness, and then what really is. Like a skillful physician, he searches deeply into the latent cause of the malady, and then prescribes a radical cure. "II. In the former disquisition he enumerates all those particulars which mankind are most apt to fix their hearts upon, and shows, from his own dear-bought experience, and the transient and unsatisfactory nature of the things themselves, that no such thing as solid felicity is to be found in any of them. What he asserts on this head carries with it the greater weight, as no man upon earth was ever better qualified to speak decisively on such a subject, considering the opportunities he had of enjoying to the utmost all that this world affords. After having thus cleared away the obstacles to happiness, he enters on the main point, which is to direct us how and where it may be found. This he affirms, at the conclusion of the book, where he recapitulates the sum and substance of the sermon, as some not improperly have styled it, consists in a religious and virtuous life, with which, as he frequently intimates, a man in the lowest circumstances may be happy, and without which one in the highest must be miserable. As the whole book tends to this single point, so, in discussing thereof, many excellent observations are interpersed relating to the various duties of life, from the highest to the lowest station; the advantages resulting even from poverty, the genuine use of riches, and extreme folly of abusing them; the unequal dispensations of Divine Providence; the immortality of the human soul; and great day of final retribution. All these noble and important subjects are treated of in such a style and manner as nothing among the ancients can parallel. "We have here given the genuine character of this inestimable piece; yet such has been the ignorance, inattention, or depravity of some persons, that it would be hard to find an instance of any thing written on so serious and interesting a subject, which has been so grossly misrepresented. How often has a handle been taken from certain passages, ill understood, and worse applied, to patronize libertinism, by such as pretend to judge of the whole from a single sentence, independent of the rest, without paying the least regard to the general scope or design! According to which rule the most pious discourse that ever was written may be perverted to atheism. Some fanatics have fallen into the contrary extreme; for, on reading that all here below was vanity, they have been so wrong-headed, as to condemn every thing as evil in itself. This world, according to them, cannot be too bitterly inveighed against; and man has nothing else to do with it, but to spend his days in sighing and mourning. But it is evident that nothing could be farther from the preacher's intention: for notwithstanding he speaks so feelingly of the instability and unsatisfactory nature of all sublunary things, and the vanity of human cares, schemes, and contrivances; yet, lest any one should mistake his meaning, he advises every man, at the same time, to reap the fruit of his honest labors, and take the comfort of what he possesses with a sober freedom and cheerful spirit. Not to harass and disturb his mind with anxious cares and restless solicitudes about future events; but to pass the short space which Heaven has allotted him here, as pleasantly as his station will admit, with a quiet conscience. He does not condemn the things themselves, such as science, prudence, mirth, riches, honors, etc.; but only their abuse, that is, the useless studies, unreasonable pursuits, and immoderate desires, of those who pervert God's blessings to their own destruction. "On this head Solomon gives his sentiments, not only as a divine and philosopher, but like one thoroughly acquainted with the foibles of the human heart. It was not his design to drive people out of the world, or to make them live wretchedly in it; but only that they should think and act like rational creatures; or, in other words, be induced to consult their own happiness. "There is nothing in the whole body of pagan philosophy so elevated and magnificent, as what some have written on the important subject of this poem: but we find their opinions so various and contradictory, and the most plausible so blended with errors, even those of the divine Plato not excepted, that their sublimest sentiments on the sovereign good or ultimate happiness of man, when compared with those of the royal preacher, not only appear cold and languid, but always leave the mind unsatisfied and restless. We are lost in a pompous flow of words; and dazzled, but not illuminated. One sect, by confining happiness to sensual pleasures, so greatly slackened the cord as to render it wholly useless: another, by their too austere and rigid maxims, stretched it so tight that it snapped asunder; though the experience of all ages has evinced that these latter imposed both on themselves and the world, when they taught that virtue, however afflicted here, was its own reward, and sufficient of itself to render a man completely happy. Even in the brazen bull of Perillus, truth will cry out from the rack against such fallacious teachers, and prove them liars. The extravagant figments, therefore, of the stoical apathy, no less than those of the voluptuous epicurean, both equally vanish at the splendor of the Divine truth delivered by Solomon. He alone decides the great question in such a manner that the soul is instantly convinced; it need seek no farther. "III. To prevent all misapprehensions, which a slight and cursory reading of this book is apt to raise in many persons, it will be requisite to observe two cautions: First, that Solomon, who tells us that he applied his heart not only to the search of wisdom and knowledge, but also of folly and madness, frequently speaks, not according to his own sentiments, though he proposes the thing in a naked and simple manner, designedly making use of such terms as might set the picture in a fuller and clearer light, so that we often meet with certain expressions which, unless we search into their true design, seem to have a quite different force and meaning from what the author really intended. We must therefore take particular care to distinguish the doubts and objections of others from Solomon's answers; the want of attending to which has made this book much more obscure than otherwise it would appear. Secondly, we should not judge of the entire discourse from some parts of it; since many things are pertinently said, according to the present subject, which, in themselves, and strictly taken, are far from true. In order to come at the genuine sense, we should form our opinion from the different circumstances of the matter treated of, comparing the antecedent with the consequent passages, and always considering the preacher's real scope and design. By carefully attending to these two cautions, this book will be seen in a very different light from what it now appears in to the generality of readers. "IV. This book, besides the figurative and proverbial expressions to be found in no other part of the Scripture, is undoubtedly metrical; and, consequently, the grammatization, in many places, not a little perplexed, from the frequent ellipses, abbreviations, transposition of words, and other poetical licenses, allowed in all languages; to say nothing of the carelessness or ignorance of transcribers, as appears from the variety of readings. Yet, notwithstanding we are so little acquainted with the nature of the Hebrew metre, and the propriety of certain phrases which, at this vast distance of time, in a language that has been dead upwards of two thousand years, must unavoidably occasion the same difficulties and obscurities as occur in works of far less antiquity, and in languages more generally studied and better understood; notwithstanding this, I say, a diligent and attentive observer will always find enough to recompense his trouble; and, if he has any taste, cannot avoid being struck with the exquisite beauty and regularity of the plan. "V. The most judicious commentators have remarked on this book, that we have here a conspicuous example of that form of disputing, which was so justly admired in the soundest of the pagan philosophers; particularly in Socrates, who, whilst others were taken up with abstruse speculations about the nature of things, and investigating the number, motions, distance, and magnitude of the stars, brought down philosophy from the upper regions, and fixed its abode on earth; that is, by teaching such precepts as served for the regulation of life and manners, by far the most useful of all sciences, as being most conducive to the welfare of society, and the general benefit of mankind. Of this we have a noble specimen in the memoirs of that ancient moralist, collected by Xenophon. It is, I think, beyond all contradiction, that no one ever made deeper researches into nature, or had made so great a progress in every branch of science, both speculative and experimental. But what, after all, was the result of his inquiries? A thorough conviction of the inutility of such studies, and how little they conduce towards the obtaining that peace and tranquillity of mind wherein true happiness consists. He applied himself, therefore, to that study which might produce a real and lasting advantage, namely, to render men wise to some purpose; that is, truly virtuous. The manner of his treating this important subject bears some resemblance to that of the celebrated Greek moralist. He does not give us a long roll of dry formal precepts, with which the mind is soon tired; but, to confirm the truth of every thing he says, appeals, not only to his own experience, but to the general sense of unbiassed reason. At the same time he sets before us, in the liveliest colors, the sad effects of vice and folly; and makes use of every incentive to engage the heart to be enamored with virtue, and pursue its own interest. Whatever he intends to inculcate is first barely proposed, and then more accurately explained and illustrated, though by gentle and almost imperceptible transitions; with this peculiarity, that there is always much more implied than expressed; insomuch that the reader, from a slight hint given him, is left to draw such inferences as his own reflection must naturally suggest. Every thing, in short, is drawn, in this admirable composition, with equal simplicity and elegance; and hath as distinguished a superiority to whatever the best pagan philosophers have given us on the same subject, as the borrowed light of the moon is surpassed by that of the sun in his full meridian lustre; or, to use a still stronger comparison, as Solomon's knowledge of the one true God excelled the idle notion of their fictitious deities."

[¶27] Some have supposed that the book of Ecclesiastes is a poem. That some poetic lines may be found in it, there is no doubt; but it has nothing in common with poetic books, nor does it exist in the hemistich form in any printed edition or MS. yet discovered. It is plain prose, and is not susceptible of that form in which the Hebrew poetic books appear.

[¶28] The author already quoted thinks that the book of Ecclesiastes is metrical. I cannot see this: but it has what is essential to poetry, a truly dignified style; there are no mean, creeping words in it, whether pure Hebrew, or borrowed from any of its dialects. They are all well chosen, nervous, and highly expressive. They are, in short, such as become the subject, and are worthy of that inspiration by which the author was guided.

[¶29] The prophet shows that all human courses are vain, [Ecc 1:1-4]. The creatures are continually changing, [Ecc 1:5-8]. There is nothing new under the sun, [Ecc 1:9-11]. Who the prophet was, his estate and his studies, [Ecc 1:12-18].

### Verse 1

[¶31] The words of the Preacher - Literally, "The words of Choheleth, son of David, king of Jerusalem." But the Targum explains it thus: "The words of the prophecy, which Choheleth prophesied; the same is Solomon, son of David the king, who was in Jerusalem. For when Solomon, king of Israel, saw by the spirit of prophecy that the kingdom of Rehoboam his son was about to be divided with Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; and the house of the sanctuary was about to be destroyed, and the people of Israel sent into captivity; he said in his word - Vanity of vanities is all that I have labored, and David my father; they are altogether vanity." The word קהלת Koheleth is a feminine noun, from the root קהל kahal, to collect, gather together, assemble; and means, she who assembles or collects a congregation; translated by the Septuagint, ekklhsiasthv, a public speaker, a speaker in an assembly; and hence translated by us a preacher. In my old MS. Bible it is explained thus: a talker to the peple; or togyder cleping.

### Verse 2

[¶33] Vanity of vanities - As the words are an exclamation, it would be better to translate, O vanity of vanities! Emptiness of emptinesses.

[¶34] True, substantial good is not to be found in any thing liable to change and corruption.

[¶35] The author referred to in the introduction begins his paraphrase thus: - "O vain deluding world! whose largest gifts

[¶36] Thine emptiness betray, like painted clouds,

[¶37] Or watery bubbles: as the vapor flies,

[¶38] Dispersed by lightest blast, so fleet thy joys,

[¶39] And leave no trace behind. This serious truth

[¶40] The royal preacher loud proclaims, convinced

[¶41] By sad experience; with a sigh repeats

[¶42] The mournful theme, that nothing here below

[¶43] Can solid comfort yield: 'tis all a scene.

[¶44] Of vanity, beyond the power of words

## 753. Ecclesiastes · 2 of 19

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[¶0] To express, or thought conceive. Let every man

[¶1] Survey himself, then ask, what fruit remains

[¶2] Of all his fond pursuits? What has he gain'd,

[¶3] By toiling thus for more than nature's wants

[¶4] Require? Why thus with endlness projects rack'd

[¶5] His heated brain, and to the laboring mind,

[¶6] Repose denied? Why such expense of time,

[¶7] That steals away so fast, and ne'er looks back?Could man his wish obtain, how short the space

[¶8] For his enjoyment! No less transient here

[¶9] The time of his duration, than the things

[¶10] Thus anxiously pursued. For, as the mind,

[¶11] In search of bliss, fix'd on no solid point,

[¶12] For ever fluctuates; so our little frames,

[¶13] In which we glory, haste to their decline,

[¶14] Nor permanence can find. The human race

[¶15] Drop like autumnal leaves, by spring revived:

[¶16] One generation from the stage of life

[¶17] Withdraws, another comes, and thus makes room

[¶18] For that which follows. Mightiest realms decay,

[¶19] Sink by degrees; and lo! new form'd estates

[¶20] Rise from their ruins. Even the earth itself,

[¶21] Sole object of our hopes and fears,

[¶22] Shall have its period, though to man unknown."

### Verse 3

[¶24] What profit hath a man - What is the sum of the real good he has gained by all his toils in life? They, in themselves, have neither made him contented nor happy.

### Verse 4

[¶26] One generation passeth away - Men succeed each other in unceasing generations: but the earth is still the same; it undergoes no change that leads to melioration, or greater perfection. And it will continue the same לעולם leolam, during the whole course of time; till the end of all things arrives.

[¶27] Verse 5 , [Ecc 1:6]

[¶28] These verses are confused by being falsely divided. The first clause of the sixth should be joined to the fifth verse. "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he ariseth; going to the south, and circulating to the north."

[¶29] Verse 6 "The wind is continually whirling about, and the wind returneth upon its whirlings."

[¶30] It is plain, from the clause which I have restored to the fifth verse, that the author refers to the approximations of the sun to the northern and southern tropics, viz., of Cancer and Capricorn.

[¶31] All the versions agree in applying the first clause of the sixth verse to the sun, and not to the wind. Our version alone has mistaken the meaning. My old MS. Bible is quite correct:

[¶32] The sunne riisith up, and goth doun, and to his place turnith agein; and there agein riising, goth about bi the south, and then agein to the north.

[¶33] The author points out two things here:

[¶34] 1. Day and night, marked by the appearance of the sun above the horizon; proceeding apparently from east to west; where he sinks under the horizon, and appears to be lost during the night.

[¶35] 2. His annual course through the twelve signs of the zodiac, when, from the equinoctial, he proceeds southward to the tropic of Capricorn; and thence turneth about towards the north, till he reaches the tropic of Cancer; and so on.

### Verse 7

[¶37] All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full - The reason is, nothing goes into it either by the; rivers or by rain, that does not come from it: and to the place whence the rivers come, whether from the sea originally by evaporation, or immediately by rain, thither they return again; for the water exhaled from the sea by evaporation is collected in the clouds, and in rain, etc., falls upon the tops of the mountains; and, filtered through their fissures, produce streams, several of which uniting, make rivers, which flow into the sea. The water is again evaporated by the sun; the vapors collected are precipitated; and, being filtered through the earth, become streams, etc., as before.

### Verse 8

[¶39] All things are full of labor - It is; impossible to calculate how much anxiety, pain, labor, and fatigue are necessary in order to carry on the common operations of life. But an endless desire of gain, and an endless curiosity to unfitness a variety of results, cause men to, labor on. The eye sees much, but wishes to, see more. The ear hears of many things; but is curious to have the actual knowledge of them. So desire and curiosity carry men, under the Divine providence, through all the labors and pains of life.

### Verse 9

[¶41] The thing that hath been - Every thing in the whole economy of nature has its revolutions; summer and winter, heat and cold, rain and drought, seedtime and autumn, with the whole system of corruption and generation, alternately succeed each other, so that whatever has been shall be again. There is really, physically, and philosophically, nothing absolutely new under the sun, in the course of sublunary things. The same is the case in all the revolutions of the heavens.

### Verse 10

[¶43] Is there any thing, etc. - The original is beautiful. "Is there any thing which will say, See this! it is new?" Men may say this of their discoveries, etc.; but universal nature says, It is not new. It has been, and it will be.

## 754. Ecclesiastes · 3 of 19

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### Verse 11

[¶1] There is no remembrance - I believe the general meaning to be this: Multitudes of ancient transactions have been lost, because they were not recorded; and of many that have been recorded, the records are lost. And this will be the case with many others which are yet to occur. How many persons, not much acquainted with books, have supposed that certain things were their own discoveries, which have been written or printed even long before they were born! Dutens, in his Origin of the Discoveries attributed to the Moderns, has made a very clear case.

### Verse 12

[¶3] I the Preacher was king - This is a strange verse, and does not admit of an easy solution. It is literally, "I, Choheleth, have been king over Israel, in Jerusalem." This book, as we have already seen, has been conjectured by some to have been written about the time that Ptolemy Philadelphus formed his great library at Alexandria, about two hundred and eighty-five years before our Lard; and from the multitude of Jews that dwelt there, and resorted to that city for the sake of commerce, it was said there was an Israel in Alexandria. See the introduction.

[¶4] It has also been conjectured from this, that if the book were written by Solomon, it was intended to be a posthumous publication. "I that was king, still continue to preach and instruct you." Those who suppose the book to have been written after Solomon's fall, think that he speaks thus through humility. "I was once worthy of the name of king: but I fell into all evil; and, though recovered, I am no longer worthy of the name." I am afraid this is not solid.

### Verse 13

[¶6] And I gave my heart to seek and search - While Solomon was faithful to his God he diligently cultivated his mind. His giving himself to the study of natural history, philosophy, poetry, etc., are sufficient proofs of it. He had not intuitive knowledge from God; but he had a capacity to obtain every kind of knowledge useful to man.

[¶7] This sore travail - This is the way in which knowledge is to be acquired; and in order to investigate the operations of nature, the most laborious discussions and perplexing experiments must be instituted, and conducted to their proper results. It is God's determination that knowledge shall be acquired in no other way.

### Verse 14

[¶9] Behold, all is vanity - After all these discussions and experiments, when even the results have been the most successful, I have found only rational satisfaction; but not that supreme good by which alone the soul can be made happy.

[¶10] O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane! "How anxious are our cares, and yet how vain

[¶11] The bent of our desires!"

[¶12] Pers. Sat. i., 5: 1.

### Verse 15

[¶14] That which is crooked cannot be made straight - There are many apparent irregularities and anomalies in nature for which we cannot account; and there are many defects that cannot be supplied. This is the impression from a general view of nature; but the more we study and investigate its operations, the more we shall be convinced that all is a consecutive and well-ordered whole; and that in the chain of nature not one link is broken, deficient, or lost.

### Verse 16

[¶16] I communed with mine own heart - Literally, "I spoke, I, with my heart, saying." When successful in my researches, but not happy in my soul, though easy in my circumstances, I entered into my own heart, and there inquired the cause of my discontent. He found that, though -

[¶17] 1. He had gotten wisdom beyond all men;

[¶18] 2. Wealth and honors more than any other;

[¶19] 3. Practical wisdom more than all his predecessors;

[¶20] 4. Had tried pleasure and animal gratification, even to their extremes; yet after all this he had nothing but vexation of spirit.

[¶21] None of these four things, nor the whole of them conjoined, could afford him such a happiness as satisfies the soul. Why was all this? Because the soul was made for God, and in the possession of him alone can it find happiness.

### Verse 17

[¶23] To know madness and folly - הוללות ושכלות holloth vesichluth. Παραβολας και επιστημην, "Parables and science." - Septuagint. So the Syriac; nearly so the Arabic. "What were error and foolishness." - Coverdale. Perhaps gayety and sobriety may be the better meaning for these two difficult words. I can scarcely think they are taken in that bad sense in which our translation exhibits them. "I tried pleasure in all its forms; and sobriety and self-abnegation to their utmost extent." Choheleth paraphrases, "Even fools and madmen taught me rules."

### Verse 18

[¶25] For in much wisdom is much grief - The more we know of ourselves the less satisfied shall we be with our own hearts; and the more we know of mankind the less willing shall we be to trust them, and the less shall we admire them.

[¶26] Be that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow - And why so? Because, independently of God, the principal objects of knowledge are natural and moral evils.

[¶27] The Targum gives a curious paraphrase here: "The man who multiplies wisdom, when he sins and is not converted to repentance, multiplies the indignation of God against himself; and the man who adds science, and yet dies in his childhood, adds grief of heart to his relatives." A man in science; a foolish child in conduct. How pained must they be who had the expense of his education! But there are many men-children of this sort in every age and country.

### Introduction

[¶29] The vanity of human courses in the works of pleasure, planting, building, equipage, amassing wealth, etc., [Ecc 2:1-11]. Wisdom preferable to folly, [Ecc 2:12-14]; yet little difference between the wise and the foolish in the events of life, [Ecc 2:15-17]. The vanity of amassing wealth for heirs, when whether they will be foolish or wise cannot be ascertained, [Ecc 2:18-21]. There is much sorrow in the labor of man, [Ecc 2:22], [Ecc 2:23]. We should enjoy what the providence of God gives, [Ecc 2:25], [Ecc 2:26].

### Verse 1

[¶31] I will prove thee with mirth - This is well expressed by the author so often referred to. Having tried speculative knowledge in vain, passion and appetite whisper: - "From the rugged thorny road

[¶32] Of wisdom, which so ill repays thy toil,

[¶33] Turn back, and enter pleasure's flowery paths.

[¶34] Go, take thy fill of joy, to passion give

[¶35] The reins; nor let one serious thought restrain

[¶36] What youth and affluence prompt."

### Verse 2

[¶38] I said of laughter, It is mad - Literally "To laughter I said, O mad one! and to mirth, What is this one doing?"

[¶39] Solomon does not speak here of a sober enjoyment of the things of this world, but of intemperate pleasure, whose two attendants, laughter and mirth are introduced by a beautiful prosopopoeia as two persons; and the contemptuous manner wherewith he treats them has something remarkably striking. He tells the former to her face that she is mad; but as to the latter, he thinks her so much beneath his notice, that he only points at her, and instantly turns his back.

### Verse 3

[¶41] To give myself unto wine, (yet acquainting [נהג noheg, "guiding"] mine heart with wisdom) - I did not run into extremes, as when I gave up myself to mirth and pleasure. There, I threw off all restraint; here, I took the middle course, to see whether a moderate enjoyment of the things of the world might not produce that happiness which I supposed man was created to enjoy here below.

### Verse 4

[¶43] I builded me houses - Palace after palace; the house of the forest of Lebanon, [1Kgs 7:1], etc.; a house for the queen; the temple, etc., [2Chr 8:1], etc.; [1Kgs 9:10], etc., besides many other buildings of various kinds.

### Verse 5

[¶45] I made one gardens and orchards - פרדסים pardesim, "paradises." I doubt much whether this be an original Hebrew word. ferdoos, is found in the Persian and Arabic; and signifies a pleasant garden, a vineyard. Hence our word paradise, a place full of delights. How well Solomon was qualified to form gardens, orchards, vineyards, conservatories, etc., may be at once conceived when we recollect his knowledge of natural history; and that he wrote treatises on vegetables and their properties, from the cedar to the hyssop.

## 755. Ecclesiastes · 4 of 19

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Pools of waters - Tanks and reservoirs.

[¶2] To water therewith the wood - Aqueducts to lead the water from the tanks to different parts.

### Verse 7

[¶4] Servants and maidens - For my works, fields, folds, and various domestic labors.

[¶5] Servants born in any house - Besides those hired from without, he had married couples in the precincts of his grounds, palaces, etc., who, when their children grew up, got them employment with themselves.

[¶6] Great and small cattle - Oxen, neat, horses, asses, mules, camels, and such like; with sheep and goats. And multitudes of most of these he needed, when we are told that his household consumed daily ten stall-fed oxen, with twenty from the pasture, with a hundred sheep; besides harts, roebucks, fallow deer, fatted fowls, and other kinds of provision, Probably, such another court for splendor and expense was not in the universe.

### Verse 8

[¶8] The peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces -

[¶9] 1. The tares levied off his subjects.

[¶10] 2. The tribute given by the neighboring potentates. Both these make the "peculiar treasure of kings;" taxes and tribute.

[¶11] Men singers and women singers - This includes all instrumental and vocal performers. These may be called the delights of the sons of men.

[¶12] Musical instruments, and that of all sorts - For these seven words, there are only two in the original, שדה ושדות shiddah veshiddoth. These words are acknowledged on all hands to be utterly unknown, if not utterly inexplicable. Some render them male and female captives; others, cups and flagons; others, cooks and confectioners; others, a species of musical compositions derived from a celebrated Phoenician woman named Sido, to whom Sanchoniatha attributes the invention of music. Others, with more probability, wives and concubines; of the former of whom Solomon had seven hundred, and of the latter, three hundred; and if these be not spoken of here, they are not mentioned at all; whereas music, and every thing connected with that, was referred to before. The author of Choheleth paraphrases thus: - "To complete

[¶13] This scene of earthly bliss, how large a span

[¶14] Of that which most delights the sons of men

[¶15] Fell to my portion! What a lovely train

[¶16] Of blooming beauties, by connubial ties,

[¶17] By purchase, or the gifts of neighboring kings,

[¶18] Or spoils of war, made mine."

[¶19] If, after all this, I may add one conjecture, it shall be this; שדה sadeh, in Hebrews is a field, and occurs in various parts of the Bible. שדות sadoth is fields, [1Sam 22:7], the points in such a case are of no consideration. May not Solomon be speaking here of farms upon farms, or estates upon estates, which he had added by purchase to the common regal portion? We know that a king of Israel (Ahab) once desired to have a vineyard (Naboth's) which he could not obtain: now, Solomon having spoken before of gardens, orchards, and vineyards, why may he not here speak of supernumerary estates? Perhaps every man who critically examines the place will be dissatisfied, and have a conjecture of his own.

### Verse 10

[¶21] I withheld not my heart from any joy - He had every means of gratification; he could desire nothing that was not within his reach; and whatever he wished, he took care to possess.

### Verse 11

[¶23] And, behold, all was vanity - Emptiness and insufficiency in itself.

[¶24] And vexation of spirit - Because it promised the good I wished for, but did not, could not, perform the promise; and left my soul discontented and chagrined.

### Verse 12

[¶26] For what can the man do that cometh after the king? - I have examined every thing proposed by science, by maddening pleasure, and by more refined and regulated mirth. I seized on the whole, and used them to the uttermost; and so far, that none ever shall be able to exceed me; as none can, in the course of things, ever have such power and means of gratification.

### Verse 13

[¶28] Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly - Though in none of these pursuits I found the supreme good, the happiness my soul longed after; yet I could easily perceive that wisdom excelled the others, as far as light excels darkness. And he immediately subjoins the reasons.

### Verse 14

[¶30] The wise man's eyes, etc. - Well expressed by Choheleth: - "The wise are circumspect, maturely weigh

[¶31] The consequence of what they undertake,

[¶32] Good ends propose, and fittest means apply

[¶33] To accomplish their designs."

[¶34] But the fool walketh in darkness - "But fools, deprived

[¶35] Of reason's guidance, or in darkness grope,

[¶36] Or, unreflecting like a frantic man,

[¶37] Who on the brink of some steep precipice

[¶38] Attempts to run a race with heedless steps,

[¶39] Rush to their own perdition."

[¶40] One event happeneth to them all - "Though wide the difference, what has human pride

[¶41] To boast? Even I myself too plainly saw,

[¶42] That one event to both alike befalls;

[¶43] To various accidents of life exposed,

[¶44] Without distinction: nor can wisdom screen

## 756. Ecclesiastes · 5 of 19

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[¶0] From dangers, disappointments, grief, and pain."

### Verse 15

[¶2] As it happeneth to the fool - Literally, "According as the event is to the fool, it happens to me, even me." There is a peculiar beauty and emphasis in the repetition of me. Having pointed out the advantages that wisdom has over folly, he takes this opportunity of reminding us of the danger of trusting too much to it, by showing that it is equally subject to the common accidents of life; and, therefore, incapable of making us completely happy. Having given his sentiments on this point in general terms, he proceeds to those particular instances wherein human prudence chiefly exerts itself; and shows how egregiously it is mistaken in every one of them - C.

### Verse 16

[¶4] There is no remembrance - The wise and the fool are equally subject to death; and, in most instances, they are equally forgotten. Time sweeps away all remembrances, except the very few out of millions which are preserved for a while in the page of history.

### Verse 17

[¶6] Therefore I hated life - את החיים et hachaiyim, the lives, both of the wise, the mad man, and the fool. Also all the stages of life, the child, the man, and the sage. There was nothing in it worth pursuing, no period worth re-living and no hope that if this were possible I could again be more successful.

### Verse 18

[¶8] I hated all my labor - Because,

[¶9] 1. It has not answered the end for which it was instituted.

[¶10] 2. I can enjoy the fruits of it but a short time.

[¶11] 3. I must leave it to others, and know not whether a wise man, a knave, or a fool will possess it.

### Verse 19

[¶13] A wise man or a fool? - Alas! Solomon, the wisest of all men, made the worst use of his wisdom, had three hundred wives and seven hundred concubines, and yet left but one son behind him, to possess his estates and his throne, and that one was the silliest of fools!

### Verse 20

[¶15] I went about to cause my heart to despair - What makes all worse, there is no remedy. It is impossible in the present state of things to prevent these evils.

### Verse 21

[¶17] For there is a man - Does he not allude to himself? As if he had said, "I have labored to cultivate my mind in wisdom and in science, in knowledge of men and things, and have endeavored to establish equity and dispense justice. And now I find I shall leave all the fruits of my labor to a man that hath not labored therein, and consequently cannot prize what I have wrought." Does he not refer to his son Rehoboam?

### Verse 22

[¶19] For what hath man of all his laborer - Labour of body, disappointment of hope, and vexation of heart, have been all my portion.

### Verse 23

[¶21] His days are sorrows - What a picture of human life where the heart is not filled with the peace and love of God! All his days are sorrows; all his labors griefs; all his nights restless; for he has no portion but merely what earth can give; and that is embittered by the labor of acquisition, and the disappointment in the using.

[¶22] This is also vanity - Emptiness of good and substantial misery.

### Verse 24

[¶24] There is nothing better for a man - The sense of this passage is well expressed in the following lines: - "For these disorders wouldst thou find a cure,

[¶25] Such cure as human frailty would admit?

[¶26] Drive from thee anxious cares; let reason curb

[¶27] Thy passions; and with cheerful heart enjoy

[¶28] That little which the world affords; for here,

[¶29] Though vain the hopes of perfect happiness,

[¶30] Yet still the road of life, rugged at best,

[¶31] Is not without its comforts -

[¶32] Wouldst thou their sweetness taste, look up to heaven,

[¶33] And praise the all-bounteous Donor, who bestows

[¶34] The power to use aright."

### Verse 26

[¶36] For who can eat - more than I? - But instead of חוץ ממני chuts mimmenni, more than I; חוץ ממנו chuts mimmennu, without Him, is the reading of eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., as also of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. "For who maye eat, drynke, or bring enythinge to pass without him?" - Coverdale.

[¶37] I believe this to be the true reading. No one can have a true relish of the comforts of life without the Divine blessing. This reading connects all the sentences: "This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God; - for who can eat, and who can relish without Him? For God giveth to man that is good." It is through his liberality that we have any thing to eat or drink; and it is only through his blessing that we can derive good from the use of what we possess.

[¶38] Giveth - wisdom, and knowledge, and joy -

[¶39] 1. God gives wisdom - the knowledge of himself, light to direct in the way of salvation.

[¶40] 2. Knowledge - understanding to discern the operation of his hand; experimental acquaintance with himself, in the dispensing of his grace and the gifts of his Spirit.

[¶41] 3. Joy; a hundred days of ease for one day of pain; one thousand enjoyments for one privation; and to them that believe, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

[¶42] But to the sinner he giveth travail - He has a life of labor, disappointment, and distress; for because he is an enemy to God, he travails in pain all his days; and, as the wise man says elsewhere, the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just. So he loseth earthly good, because he would not take a heavenly portion with it.

### Introduction

[¶44] Every thing has its time and season, [Ecc 3:1-8]. Men are exercised with labor, [Ecc 3:9], [Ecc 3:10]. Every thing is beautiful in its season, [Ecc 3:11]. Men should enjoy thankfully the gifts of God, [Ecc 3:12], [Ecc 3:13]. What God does is for ever, [Ecc 3:14]. There is nothing new, [Ecc 3:15]. The corruption of judgment; but the judgments of God are right, [Ecc 3:16], [Ecc 3:17]. Man is brutish, and men and brutes die in like manner, [Ecc 3:18-21]. Man may enjoy the fruit of his own labors, [Ecc 3:22].

## 757. Ecclesiastes · 6 of 19

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### Verse 1

[¶1] To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose - Two general remarks may be made on the first eight verses of this chapter.

[¶2] 1. God by his providence governs the world, and has determined particular things and operations to particular times. In those times such things may be done with propriety and success; but if we neglect the appointed seasons, we sin against this providence, and become the authors of our own distresses.

[¶3] 2. God has given to man that portion of duration called Time; the space in which all the operations of nature, of animals, and intellectual beings, are carried on; but while nature is steady in its course, and animals faithful to their instincts, man devotes it to a great variety of purposes; but very frequently to that for which God never made time, space, or opportunity. And all we can say, when an evil deed is done, is, there was a time in which it was done, though God never made it for that purpose.

[¶4] To say any farther on this subject is needless, as the words themselves give in general their own meaning. The Jews, it is true, see in these times and seasons all the events of their own nation, from the birth of Abraham to the present times; and as to fathers and their followers, they see all the events and states of the Christian Church in them!

[¶5] It is worthy of remark, that in all this list there are but two things which may be said to be done generally by the disposal of God, and in which men can have but little influence: the time of birth, and the time of death. But all the others are left to the option of man, though God continues to overrule them by his providence. The following paraphrase will explain all that is necessary to be generally understood: -

### Verse 2

[¶7] A time to be born, and a time to die - plant - "As in its mother's womb the embryo lies

[¶8] A space determined; to full growth arrived,

[¶9] From its dark prison bursts, and sees the light;

[¶10] So is the period fix'd when man shall drop

[¶11] Into the grave - A time there is to plant,

[¶12] And sow; another time to pluck and reap.

[¶13] Even nations have their destined rise and fall:

[¶14] Awhile they thrive; and for destruction ripe,

[¶15] When grown, are rooted up like wither'd plants."

### Verse 3

[¶17] A time to kill, - heal, - break down, - build up - "The healing art, when out of season used,

[¶18] Pernicious proves, and serves to hasten death.

[¶19] But timely medicines drooping nature raise,

[¶20] And health restore - Now, Justice wields her sword

[¶21] With wholesome rigour, nor the offender spares:

[¶22] But Mercy now is more expedient found.

[¶23] On crazy fabrics ill-timed cost bestow'd

[¶24] No purpose answers, when discretion bids

[¶25] To pull them down, and wait a season fit

[¶26] To build anew."

### Verse 4

[¶28] A time to weep, - laugh, - mourn, - dance - - "When private griefs affect

[¶29] The heart, our tears with decent sorrow flow;

[¶30] Nor less becoming, when the public mourns,

[¶31] To vent the deepest sighs. But all around

[¶32] When things a smiling aspect bear, our souls

[¶33] May well exult; 'tis then a time for joy."

### Verse 5

[¶35] A time to cast away stones, - to gather stones, - to embrace, - to refrain - "One while domestic cares abortive prove,

[¶36] And then successful. Nature now invites

[¶37] Connubial pleasures: but, when languid grown,

[¶38] No less rejects."

### Verse 6

[¶40] A time to get, - to lose, - to keep, - to cast away - - "Commerce produces wealth,

[¶41] Whilst time of gaining lasts; from every point

[¶42] Blow prosperous gales. Now heaven begins to lower,

[¶43] And all our hopes are blasted. Prudence bids,

[¶44] One while, our treasure to reserve, and then

## 758. Ecclesiastes · 7 of 19

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[¶0] With liberal hand to scatter wide. How oft

[¶1] In raging storms, the owner wisely casts

[¶2] Into the deep his precious merchandise,

[¶3] To save the foundering bark!

### Verse 7

[¶5] A time to rend, - sew, - keep silence, - speak - - "Intestine broils

[¶6] And factions rend a state: at length the breach

[¶7] Is heal'd, and rest ensues. Wisdom restrains

[¶8] The tongue, when words are vain: but now, 'Tis time to speak, and silence would be criminal."

### Verse 8

[¶10] A time to love, - hate, - of war, - of peace - "Love turns to hatred; interest or caprice

[¶11] Dissolves the firmest knot by friendship tied.

[¶12] O'er rival nations, with revenge inflamed,

[¶13] Or lust of power, fell Discord shakes awhile

[¶14] Her baleful torch: now smiling Peace returns."

[¶15] The above paraphrase on the verses cited contains a general view of the principal occurrences of time, in reference to the human being, from his cradle to his grave, through all the operations of life.

### Verse 9

[¶17] What profit hath he - What real good, what solid pleasure, is derived from all the labors of man? Necessity drives him to the principal part of his cares and toils; he labors that he may eat and drink; and he eats and drinks that he may be preserved alive, and kept from sickness and pain. Love of money, the basest of all passions, and restless ambition, drive men to many labors and expedients, which perplex and often destroy them. He, then, who lives without God, travails in pain all his days.

### Verse 10

[¶19] I have seen the travail - Man is a sinner; and, because he is such, he suffers.

### Verse 11

[¶21] Beautiful in his time - God's works are well done; there are order, harmony, and beauty in them all. Even the caterpillar is a finished beauty in all the changes through which it passes, when its structure is properly examined, and the ends kept in view in which each change is to issue. Nothing of this kind can be said of the works of man. The most finished works of art are bungling jobs, when compared with the meanest operation of nature.

[¶22] He hath set the world in their heart - העולם haolam, that hidden time - the period beyond the present, - Eternity. The proper translation of this clause is the following: "Also that eternity hath he placed in their heart, without which man could not find out the work which God hath made from the commencement to the end." God has deeply rooted the idea of eternity in every human heart; and every considerate man sees, that all the operations of God refer to that endless duration. See [Ecc 3:14]. And it is only in eternity that man will be able to discover what God has designed by the various works he has formed.

### Verse 12

[¶24] I know that there is no good in them, but, etc. - Since God has so disposed the affairs of this world, that the great events of providence cannot be accelerated or retarded by human cares and anxieties, submit to God; make a proper use of what he has given: do thyself no harm, and endeavor as much as possible to do others good.

[¶25] Enjoy, and bless thyself; let others share

[¶26] The transient blessing: 'tis the gift of God.

### Verse 14

[¶28] I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever - לעולם leolam, for eternity; in reference to that grand consummation of men and things intimated in [Ecc 3:11]. God has produced no being that he intends ultimately to destroy. He made every thing in reference to eternity; and, however matter may be changed and refined, animal and intellectual beings shall not be deprived of their existence. The brute creation shall be restored, and all human spirits shall live for ever; the pure in a state of supreme and endless blessedness, the impure in a state of indestructible misery.

[¶29] Nothing can be put to it - No new order of beings, whether animate or inanimate, can be produced. God will not create more; man cannot add.

[¶30] Nor any thing taken from it - Nothing can be annihilated; no power but that which can create can destroy. And whatever he has done, he intended to be a means of impressing a just sense of his being, providence, mercy, and judgments, upon the souls of men. A proper consideration of God's works has a tendency to make man a religious creature; that is, to impress his mind with a sense of the existence of the Supreme Being, and the reverence that is due to him. In this sense the fear of God is frequently taken in Scripture. The Hebrew of this clause is strongly emphatic: והאלהים עשה שייראו מלפניו vehaelohim asah sheiyireu millephanaiv; "And the gods he hath done, that they might fear from before his faces." Even the doctrine of the eternal Trinity in Unity may be collected from numberless appearances in nature. A consideration of the herb trefoil is said to have been the means of fully convincing the learned Erasmus of the truth of the assertion, These Three are One: and yet three distinct. He saw the same root, the same fibres, the same pulpy substance, the same membraneous covering, the same color, the same taste, the same smell, in every part; and yet the three leaves distinct: but each and all a continuation of the stem, and proceeding from the same root. Such a fact as this may at least illustrate the doctrine. An intelligent shepherd, whom he met upon the mountains, is said to have exhibited the herb, and the illustration while discoursing on certain difficulties in the Christian faith. When a child, I heard a learned man relate this fact.

### Verse 15

[¶32] That which hath been is now - God governs the world now, as he has governed it from the beginning; and the revolutions and operations of nature are the same now, that they have been from the beginning. What we see now, is the same as has been seen by those before us.

[¶33] And God requireth that which is past - i.e., That it may return again in its proper order. The heavens themselves, taking in their great revolutions, show the same phenomena. Even comets are supposed to have their revolutions, though some of them are hundreds of years in going round their orbits.

[¶34] But in the economy of grace, does not God require that which is past? Whatever blessing or influence God gives to the soul of man, he intends shall remain and increase; and it will, if man be faithful. Reader, canst thou produce all the secret inspirations of his Spirit, all the drawings of his love, his pardoning mercy, his sanctifying grace, the heavenly-mindedness produced in thee, thy holy zeal, thy spirit of prayer, thy tender conscience, the witness of the Spirit, which thou didst once receive and enjoy? Where are they? God requireth that which is past.

### Verse 16

[¶36] The plate of judgment, that wickedness was there - The abuse of power, and the perversion of judgment, have been justly complained of in every age of the world. The following paraphrase is good: - "But what enjoyment can our labors yield,

[¶37] When e'en the remedy prescribed by heaven

[¶38] To cure disorders proves our deadliest bane?

[¶39] When God's vicegerents, destined to protect

[¶40] The weak from insolence of power, to guard

[¶41] Their lives and fortunes, impious robbers turn?

[¶42] And, or by force or fraud, deprive of both? -

[¶43] To what asylum shall the injured fly

[¶44] From her tribunal, where perverted law

## 759. Ecclesiastes · 8 of 19

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[¶0] Acquits the guilty, the innocent condemns?"

### Verse 17

[¶2] For there is a time there for every purpose - Man has his time here below, and God shall have his time above. At his throne the judged shall be rejudged, and iniquity for ever close her mouth.

### Verse 18

[¶4] That they might see that they themselves are beasts - The author of Choheleth has given a correct view of this difficult verse, by a proper translation: "I said in my heart, reflecting on the state of the sons of men, O that God would enlighten them, and make them see that even they themselves are like beasts." These words are to be referred to those in authority who abused their power; particularly to the corrupt magistrates mentioned above.

### Verse 19

[¶6] For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts - From the present comparison of great men to beasts, the author takes occasion to enforce the subject by mentioning the state of mankind in general, with respect to the mortality of their bodies; and then, by an easy transition, touches in the next verse on the point which is of such infinite consequence to religion.

[¶7] As the one dieth, so dieth the other - Animal life is the same both in the man and in the beast.

[¶8] They have all one breath - They respire in the same way; and when they cease to respire, animal life becomes extinct.

[¶9] Befalleth beasts - This is wanting in six of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS.

### Verse 20

[¶11] All go unto one place - "Man was born

[¶12] To die, nor aught exceeds in this respect

[¶13] The vilest brute. Both transient, frail, and vain,

[¶14] Draw the same breath; alike grow old, decay,

[¶15] And then expire: both to one grave descend;

[¶16] There blended lie, to native dust return'd." - C.

### Verse 21

[¶18] Who knoweth the spirit of man - I think the meaning of this important verse is well taken by the above able writer: -

[¶19] The nobler part of man, 'tis true, survives

[¶20] The frail corporeal frame: but who regards

[¶21] The difference? Those who live like beasts, as such

[¶22] Would die, and be no more, if their own fate

[¶23] Depended on themselves. Who once reflects,

[¶24] Amidst his revels, that the human soul,

[¶25] Of origin celestial, mounts aloft,

[¶26] While that of brutes to earth shall downward go?"

[¶27] The word רוח ruach, which is used in this and the nineteenth verse, has two significations, breath and spirit. It signifies spirit, or an incorporeal substance, as distinguished from flesh, or a corporeal one, [1Kgs 22:21], [1Kgs 22:22], and [Isa 31:3]. And it signifies the spirit or soul of man, [Psa 31:6]; [Isa 57:16], and in this book, [Ecc 12:7], and in many other places. In this book it is used also to signify the breath, spirit, or soul of a beast. While it was said in verse 19, they have all one breath, i.e., the man and the beast live the same kind of animal life; in this verse, a proper distinction is made between the רוח ruach, or soul of man, and the רוח ruach, or soul of the beast: the one goeth upwards, the other goeth downwards. The literal translation of these important words is this: "Who considereth the רוח ruach) immortal spirit of the sons of Adam, which ascendeth? it is from above; (היא למעלה hi lemalah); and the spirit or breath of the cattle which descendeth? it is downwards unto the earth," i.e., it tends to the earth only. This place gives no countenance to the materiality of the soul; and yet it is the strongest hold to which the cold and fruitless materialist can resort.

[¶28] Solomon most evidently makes an essential difference between the human soul and that of brutes. Both have souls, but of different natures: the soul of man was made for God, and to God it shall return: God is its portion, and when a holy soul leaves the body, it goes to paradise. The soul of the beast was made to derive its happiness from this lower world. Brutes shall have a resurrection, and have an endless enjoyment in a new earth. The body of man shall arise, and join his soul that is already above; and both enjoy final blessedness in the fruition of God. That Solomon did not believe they had the same kind of spirit, and the same final lot, as some materialists and infidels say, is evident from [Ecc 12:7] : "The spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

### Verse 22

[¶30] A man should rejoice in his own works - Do not turn God's blessings into sin by perverseness and complaining; make the best of life. God will sweeten its bitters to you, if you be faithful. Remember this is the state to prepare for glory; and the evils of life may be so sanctified to you as to work for your good. Though even wretched without, you may be happy within; for God can make all grace to abound towards you. You may be happy if you please; cry to God, who never rejects the prayer of the humble, and gives his Holy Spirit to all them that ask him.

### Introduction

[¶32] The vanity of life is increased by oppression, [Ecc 4:1-3]; by envy, [Ecc 4:4]; by idleness, [Ecc 4:5]. The misery of a solitary life, and the advantages of society, [Ecc 4:6-12]. A poor and wise child; better than an old and foolish king, [Ecc 4:13]. The uncertainty of popular favor, [Ecc 4:14-16].

### Verse 1

[¶34] Considered all the oppressions - עשקים ashukim signifies any kind of injury which a man can receive in his person, his property, or his good fame.

[¶35] On the side of their oppressors there was power - And, therefore, neither protection nor comfort for the oppressed.

### Verse 2

[¶37] Wherefore I praised the dead - I considered those happy who had escaped from the pilgrimage of life to the place where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest.

### Verse 3

[¶39] Which hath not yet been - Better never to have been born into the world, than to have seen and suffered so many miseries.

### Verse 4

[¶41] For this a man is envied - It is not by injustice and wrong only that men suffer, but through envy also. For if a man act uprightly and properly in the world, he soon becomes the object of his neighbor's envy and calumny too. Therefore the encouragement to do good, to act an upright part, is very little. This constitutes a part of the vain and empty system of human life.

### Verse 5

[¶43] The fool foldeth his hands - After all, without labor and industry no man can get any comfort in life; and he who gives way to idleness is the veriest of fools.

## 760. Ecclesiastes · 9 of 19

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Better is a handful with quietness - These may be the words of the slothful man, and spoken in vindication of his idleness; as if he had said, "Every man who labors and amasses property is the object of envy, and is marked by the oppressor as a subject for spoil; better, therefore, to act as I do; gain little, and have little, and enjoy my handful with quietness." Or the words may contain Solomon's reflection on the subject.

### Verse 8

[¶3] There is one alone, and there is not a second - Here covetousness and avarice are characterized. The man who is the center of his own existence; has neither wife, child, nor legal heir; and yet is as intent on getting money as if he had the largest family to provide for; nor does he only labor with intense application, but he even refuses himself the comforts of life out of his own gains! This is not only vanity, the excess of foolishness, but it is also sore travail.

### Verse 9

[¶5] Two are better than one - Married life is infinitely to be preferred to this kind of life, for the very reasons alleged below, and which require no explanation.

### Verse 13

[¶7] Better is a poor and a wise child - The Targum applies this to Abraham. "Abraham was a poor child of only three years of age; but he had the spirit of prophecy, and he refused to worship the idols which the old foolish king - Nimrod - had set up; therefore Nimrod cast him into a furnace of fire. But the Lord worked a miracle and delivered him. Yet here was no knowledge in Nimrod, and he would not be admonished." The Targum proceeds:

### Verse 14

[¶9] For out of prison he cometh to reign - "Then Abraham left the country of the idolaters, where he had been imprisoned, and came and reigned over the land of Canaan; and Nimrod became poor in this world." This is the fact to which the ancient rabbins supposed Solomon to allude.

### Verse 15

[¶11] With the second child that shall stand up - The Targum applies this to the case of Jeroboam and Rehoboam. History affords many instances of mean persons raised to sovereign authority, and of kings being reduced to the meanest offices, and to a morsel of bread. Agrippa himself ascended the throne of Israel after having been long in prison. See Josephus, Ant. lib. 18: c. 8. This the heathens attributed to fortune.

[¶12] Si fortuna volet, fies de rhetore consul;

[¶13] Si volet haec eadem, fies de consule rhetor.

[¶14] Juv. Sat. vii., ver. 197.

[¶15] Though I have given what the Jews suppose to be the allusion in these verses, yet the reader may doubt whether the reference be correct. There is a case implied, whether from fact or assumption I cannot say; but it seems to be this:

[¶16] A king who had abused the authority vested in him by oppressing the people, had a son whose prudent conduct promised much comfort to the nation, when he should come to the throne. The father, seeing the popular wish, and becoming jealous of his son, shut him up in prison. In the interim the old king either dies or is deposed, and the son is brought out of prison, and placed on the throne. Then ([Ecc 4:15], [Ecc 4:16]) multitudes of the people flock to him, and begin to walk under the sun; i.e., the prosperous state to which the nation is raised by its redemption from the former tyranny. However, the wise man insinuates that this sunshine will not last long. The young king, feeling the reins in his own hands, and being surrounded by those whose interest it was to flatter in order to obtain and continue in court favor, he also becomes corrupted so that those who come after shall have no cause of rejoicing in him. This appears to be the case; and similar cases have frequently occurred, not only in Asiatic, but also in European history, I have, in another place, referred to the case of Rushn Achter, who was brought out of prison and set upon the throne of Hindoostan. This is expressed in the following elegant Persian couplet, where his fortune is represented as similar to that of the patriarch Joseph: - "The bright star is now become a moon:

[¶17] Joseph is taken out of prison, and become a king."

[¶18] Rushn Achter signifies a bright or splendid star.

### Verse 16

[¶20] There is no end of all the people - This is supposed to refer to the multitudes of people who hail the advent and accession of a new sovereign; for, as Suetonius remarks, A plerisque adorari solem orientem, "Most people adore the rising sun." But when the new king becomes old, very few regard him; and perhaps he lives long enough to be as much despised by the very persons who before were ready to worship him. This is also a miserable vanity. Thus the blooming heir: - "Shall feel the sad reverse: honored awhile;

[¶21] Then, like his sire, contemn'd, abhorr'd, forgot."

### Introduction

[¶23] The reverence to be observed in attending Divine worship, [Ecc 5:1-3]. We should be faithful to over engagements, [Ecc 5:4-7]. The oppression of the innocent, 8. The king dependent on the produce of the soil, [Ecc 5:9]. Against covetousness, [Ecc 5:10], [Ecc 5:11]. The peace of the honest laborer, [Ecc 5:12]. The evil effect of riches, [Ecc 5:13], [Ecc 5:14]. Man cannot carry his property to the grave, [Ecc 5:15-17]. We should thankfully enjoy the blessings of God, [Ecc 5:18-20].

### Verse 1

[¶25] Keep thy foot - This verse the Hebrew and all the versions join to the preceding chapter.

[¶26] Solomon, having before intimated, though very briefly, that the only cure against human vanity is a due sense of religion, now enters more largely on this important subject, and gives some excellent directions with regard to the right performance of Divine service, the nature of vocal and mental prayer, the danger of rash vows, etc. - C.

[¶27] The whole verse might be more literally translated thus: - "Guard thy steps as thou art going to the house of God; and approach to hearken, and not to give the sacrifice of fools, for none of them have knowledge about doing evil." "They offer gifts for their sins, and do not turn from their evil works; for they know not (they distinguish not) between good and evil." See the Chaldee.

### Verse 2

[¶29] Be not rash with thy mouth - Do not hasten with thy mouth; weigh thy words, feel deeply, think much, speak little. "When ye approach his altar, on your lips

[¶30] Set strictest guard; and let your thoughts be pure,

[¶31] Fervent, and recollected. Thus prepared,

[¶32] Send up the silent breathings of your souls,

[¶33] Submissive to his will."

### Verse 3

[¶35] For a dream cometh - That is, as dreams are generally the effect of the business in which we have been engaged during the day; so a multitude of words evidence the feeble workings of the foolish heart.

### Verse 4

[¶37] When thou vowest a vow - When in distress and difficulty, men are apt to promise much to God if he will relieve them; but generally forget the vow when the distress or trouble is gone by.

### Verse 5

[¶39] Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, etc. - We are under constant obligations to live to God; no vow can make it more so. Yet, there may be cases in which we should bind ourselves to take up some particular cross, to perform some particular duty, to forego some particular attachment that does not tend to bring our souls nearer to God. Then, if fully determined, and strong in faith relative to the point, bind and hold fast; but if not fully, rationally, and conscientiously determined, "do not suffer thy mouth to cause thy soul to sin."

### Verse 6

[¶41] Neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error - Nor think of saying "before the cruel angel, who shall exercise authority over thee in the judgment of the great day, that thou didst it through ignorance." - Chaldee. I believe by the angel nothing else is intended than the priest, whose business it was to take cognizance of vows and offerings. See [Lev 5:4], [Lev 5:5]. In [Mal 2:7], the priest is called the "angel of the Lord of hosts."

### Verse 7

[¶43] In - dreams - are - divers vanities; but fear thou God - If, by the disturbed state of thy mind during the day, or by Satanic influence, thou dream of evil, do not give way to any unreasonable fears, or gloomy forebodings, of any coming mischief: - Fear God. Fear neither the dream nor its interpretation; God, will take care of and protect thee. Most certainly, he that fears God need fear nothing else. Well may an upright soul say to Satan himself, I fear God; and because I fear him, I do not fear thee.

### Verse 8

[¶45] If thou seest the oppression of the poor - For this was a frequent case under all governments; and especially in the provinces or colonies which being far from the seat of government, were generally oppressed by the sovereign's deputies.

## 761. Ecclesiastes · 10 of 19

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[¶0] Marvel not at the matter - החפץ hachephets, the will, i.e., of God; which permits such evils to take place; for all things shall work together for good to them that love him. "Marvel not

[¶1] Ye righteous, if his dispensations here

[¶2] Unequal seem. What, though disorders reign?

[¶3] He still presides, and with unerring hand

[¶4] Directs the vast machine. His wisdom can

[¶5] From discord harmony produce; and make

[¶6] Even vice itself subservient to his ends."

### Verse 9

[¶8] The profit of the earth is for all - The earth, if properly cultivated, is capable of producing food for every living creature; and without cultivation none has a right to expect bread.

[¶9] The king himself is served by the field - Without the field he cannot have supplies for his own house; and, unless agriculture flourish, the necessary expenses of the state cannot be defrayed. Thus, God joins the head and feet together; for while the peasant is protected by the king as executor of the laws, the king himself is dependent on the peasant; as the wealth of the nation is the fruit of the laborer's toil.

### Verse 10

[¶11] He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver - The more he gets, the more he would get; for the saying is true: -

[¶12] Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia crescit. "The love of money increases, in proportion as money itself increases."

### Verse 11

[¶14] When goods increase - An increase of property always brings an increase of expense, by a multitude of servants; and the owner really possesses no more, and probably enjoys much less, than he did, when every day provided its own bread, and could lay up no store for the next. But if he have more enjoyment, his cares are multiplied; and he has no kind of profit. "This also is vanity."

### Verse 12

[¶16] The sleep of a laboring man is sweet - His labor is healthy exercise. He is without possessions, and without cares; his sleep, being undisturbed, is sound and refreshing.

### Verse 13

[¶18] Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt - This may be the case through various causes:

[¶19] 1. He may make an improper use of them, and lose his health by them.

[¶20] 2. He may join in an unfortunate partnership and lose all.

[¶21] 3. His riches may excite the desire of the robber; and he may spoil him of his goods, and even take away his life.

[¶22] 4. Or, he may leave them to his son, who turns profligate; spends the whole, and ruins both his body and soul. I have seen this again and again.

### Verse 14

[¶24] And he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand - He has been stripped of his property by unfortunate trade or by plunderers; and he has nothing to leave to his children.

### Verse 15

[¶26] As he came forth - However it may be, he himself shall carry nothing with him into the eternal world. If he die worth millions, those millions are dead to him for ever; so he has had no real profit from all his labors, cares, anxieties, and vast property!

### Verse 17

[¶28] All his days also he eateth in darkness - Even his enjoyments are embittered by uncertainty. He fears for his goods; the possibility of being deprived of them fills his heart with anguish. But instead of יאכל yochel, "he shall eat," ילך yelech, "he shall walk," is the reading of several MSS. He walks in darkness - he has no evidence of salvation. There is no ray of light from God to penetrate the gloom; and all beyond life is darkness impenetrable!

[¶29] And wrath with his sickness - His last hours are awful; for, "Counting on long years of pleasure here,

[¶30] He's quite unfurnish'd for the world to come."

[¶31] Blair.

[¶32] He is full of anguish at the thought of death; but the fear of it is horrible. But if he have a sense of God's wrath in his guilty conscience, what horror can be compared with his horror!

### Verse 18

[¶34] Behold that which I have seen - This is the result of my observations and experience. God gives every man, in the course of his providence, the necessaries of life; and it is his will that he should thankfully use them.

[¶35] For it is his portion - What is requisite for him in the lower world; without them his life cannot subsist, and earthly blessings are as truly the portion of his body and animal life, as the salvation of God is the portion of his soul.

### Verse 20

[¶37] For he shall not much remember - The person who acts in this way, extracts all the good requisite from life. He passes through things temporal so as not to lose those that are eternal: - "Calm and serene, the road of life to him,

[¶38] Or long or short, rugged or smooth, with thorns

[¶39] O'erspread, or gay with flowers, is but a road.

[¶40] Such fare as offers grateful he accepts,

[¶41] And smiling to his native home proceeds."

### Introduction

[¶43] The vanity of riches without use, [Ecc 6:1], [Ecc 6:2]. Of children and of old age without riches and enjoyment, [Ecc 6:3-7]. Man does not know what is good for himself, [Ecc 6:8-12].

## 762. Ecclesiastes · 11 of 19

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### Verse 2

[¶1] A man to whom God hath given riches - A man may possess much earthly goods, and yet enjoy nothing of them. Possession and fruition are not necessarily joined together; and this is also among the vanities of life. It is worthy of remark, that it belongs to God as much to give the power to enjoy as it does to give the earthly blessings. A wise heathen saw this: -

[¶2] Di tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi.

[¶3] Hor. Ep. lib. i., ep. 4, ver. 7. "The gods had given thee riches, and the art to enjoy them."

### Verse 3

[¶5] If a man beget a hundred children - If he have the most numerous family and the largest possessions, and is so much attached to his riches that he grudges himself a monument; an abortion in the eye of reason is to be preferred to such a man; himself is contemptible, and his life worthless. The abortion comes in with vanity - baulks expectation, departs in darkness - never opened its eyes upon the light, and its name is covered with darkness - it has no place in the family register, or in the chronicles of Israel. This, that hath neither seen the sun, nor known any thing is preferable to the miser who has his coffers and granaries well furnished, should he have lived a thousand years, and had a hundred children. He has seen - possessed, no good; and he and the abortion go to one place, equally unknown, and wholly forgotten.

### Verse 7

[¶7] All the labor of man - This is the grand primary object of all human labor; merely to provide for the support of life by procuring things necessary. And life only exists for the sake of the soul; because man puts these things in place of spiritual good, the appetite - the intense desire after the supreme good - is not satisfied. When man learns to provide as distinctly for his soul as he does for his body, then he will begin to be happy, and may soon attain his end.

### Verse 8

[¶9] For what hath the wise more than the fool? - They must both labor for the same end. Both depend upon the labor of themselves or others for the necessaries of life. Both must eat and drink in order to live; and the rich man can no more eat two meals at a time, than he can comfortably wear two changes of raiment. The necessaries of life are the same to both, and their condition in life is nearly similar; liable to the same diseases, dissolution, and death.

### Verse 9

[¶11] Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire - This is translated by the Vulgate, as a sort of adage: Melius est videre quod cupias, quam desiderare quod nescias, "It is better to see what one desires than to covet what one knows not." It is better to enjoy the present than to feed one's self with vain desires of the future. What we translate the wandering of desire, מהלך נפש mehaloch nephesh, is the travelling of the soul. What is this? Does it simply mean desire? Or is there any reference here to the state of separate spirits! It however shows the soul to be in a restless state, and consequently to be unhappy. If Christ dwell in the heart by faith, the soul is then at rest, and this is properly the rest of the people of God.

### Verse 10

[¶13] That which hath been is named already - The Hebrew of this verse might be translated, "Who is he who is? His name has been already called. And it is known that he is Adam; and that he cannot contend in judgment with him who is stronger than he." "What is more excellent than man; yet can he not, in the lawe, get the victory of him that is mightier than he." - Coverdale.

[¶14] Adam is his name; and it at once points out,

[¶15] 1. His dignity; he was made in the image of God.

[¶16] 2. His fall; he sinned against his Maker and was cast out of Paradise. And

[¶17] 3. His recovery by Christ; the second man (Adam) was the Lord from heaven, and a quickening Spirit.

### Verse 12

[¶19] For who knoweth what is good for man in this life - Those things which we deem good are often evil. And those which we think evil are often good. So ignorant are we, that we run the greatest hazard in making a choice. It is better to leave ourselves and our concerns in the hands of the Lord, than to keep them in our own.

[¶20] For who can tell a man what shall be after him - Futurity is with God. While he lives, man wishes to know what is before him. When he is about to die, he wishes to know what will be after him. All this is vanity; God, because he is merciful, will reveal neither.

### Introduction

[¶22] The value of a good name, [Ecc 7:1]. Advantages of sorrow and correction, [Ecc 7:2-5]. The emptiness of a fool's joy, [Ecc 7:6]. Of oppression, [Ecc 7:7]. The end better than the beginning, [Ecc 7:8]. Against hastiness of spirit, [Ecc 7:9]. Comparison of former and present times, [Ecc 7:10]. Excellence of wisdom, [Ecc 7:11], [Ecc 7:12]. Of the dispensations of Providence, [Ecc 7:13-15]. Against extremes, [Ecc 7:16-18]. The strength of wisdom, [Ecc 7:19]. Man is ever liable to sin and mistake, [Ecc 7:20]. We should guard our words, [Ecc 7:21], [Ecc 7:22]. Difficulty of obtaining wisdom, [Ecc 7:23-25], A bad woman dangerous, [Ecc 7:26]. There are few who are really upright, [Ecc 7:27-29].

### Verse 1

[¶24] A good name - Unsatisfactory as all sublunary things are, yet still there are some which are of great consequence, and among them a good name. The place is well paraphrased in the following verses: "A spotless name,

[¶25] By virtuous deeds acquired, is sweeter far

[¶26] Than fragant balms, whose odors round diffused

[¶27] Regale the invited guests. Well may such men

[¶28] Rejoice at death's approach, and bless the hours

[¶29] That end their toilsome pilgrimage; assured

[¶30] That till the race of life is finish'd none

[¶31] Can be completely blest."

### Verse 2

[¶33] It is better to go to the house of mourning - Birthdays were generally kept with great festivity, and to these the wise man most probably refers; but according to his maxim, the miseries of life were so many and so oppressive that the day of a man's death was to be preferred to the day of his birth. But, in dependently of the allusion, it is much more profitable to visit the house of mourning for the dead than the house of festivity. In the former we find occasion for serious and deeply edifying thoughts and reflections; from the latter we seldom return with one profitable thought or one solid impression.

### Verse 3

[¶35] Sorrow is better than laughter - The reason is immediately given; for by the sorrow of the countenance - the grief of heart that shows itself in the countenance: -

[¶36] The heart is made better - In such cases, most men try themselves at the tribunal of their own consciences, and resolve on amendment of life.

### Verse 4

[¶38] The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning - A wise man loves those occasions from which he can derive spiritual advantage; and therefore prefers visiting the sick, and sympathizing with those who have suffered privations by death. But the fool - the gay, thoughtless, and giddy - prefers places and times of diversion and amusement. Here he is prevented from seriously considering either himself or his latter end. The grand fault and misfortune of youth.

### Verse 6

[¶40] For as the crackling of thorns - They make a great noise, a great blaze; and are extinguished in a few moments. Such indeed, comparatively, are the joys of life; they are noisy, flashy, and transitory.

### Verse 7

[¶42] Oppression maketh a wise man mad - This has been translated with good show of reason, "Surely oppression shall give lustre to a wise man: but a gift corrupteth the heart."

[¶43] The chief difference here is in the word יהולל yeholel, which, from the root הלל halal, signiffes to glister, irradiate, as well as to move briskly, to be mad, furious, in a rage; and certainly the former meaning suits this place best. We cannot think that the wise man - he that is truly religious, (for this is its meaning in the language of Solomon), can be made mad by any kind of oppression; but as he trusts in God, so in patience he possesses his soul.

### Verse 8

[¶45] Better is the end - We can then judge of the whole, and especially if the matter relate to the conduct of Divine Providence. At the beginning we are often apt to make very rash conjectures, and often suppose that such and such things are against us; and that every thing is going wrong. Dr. Byrom gives good advice on such a subject: - "With patient mind thy course of duty run:

## 763. Ecclesiastes · 12 of 19

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[¶0] God nothing does, nor suffers to be done,

[¶1] But thou wouldst do thyself, couldst thou but see

[¶2] The and of all events, as well as He."

[¶3] I may add, in the words of our paraphrast: - "Wait the result, nor ask with frantic rage

[¶4] Why God permits such things. His ways, though now

[¶5] Involved in clouds and darkness, will appear

[¶6] All right, when from thine eyes the mist is cleared.

[¶7] Till then, to learn submission to his will

[¶8] More wisdom shows, than vainly thus to attempt

[¶9] Exploring what thou canst not comprehend,

[¶10] And God for wisest ends thinks fit to hide."

### Verse 9

[¶12] Anger resteth in the bosom of fools - A wise man, off his guard, may feel it for a moment: but in him it cannot rest: it is a fire which he immediately casts out of his breast. But the fool - the man who is under the dominion of his own tempers, harbors and fosters it, till it takes the form of malice, and then excites him to seek full revenge on those whom he deems enemies. Hence that class of dangerous and empty fools called duellists.

### Verse 10

[¶14] The former days were better than these? - This is a common saying; and it is as foolish as it is common. There is no weight nor truth in it; but men use it to excuse their crimes, and the folly of their conduct. "In former times, say they, men might be more religious, use more self-denial, be more exemplary." This is all false. In former days men were wicked as they are now, and religion was unfashionable: God also is the same now as he was then; as just, as merciful, as ready to help: and there is no depravity in the age that will excuse your crimes, your follies, and your carelessness.

[¶15] Among the oriental proverbs I find the following: "Many say, This is a corrupt age. This mode of speaking is not just, it is not the age that is corrupt, but the men of the age."

### Verse 11

[¶17] Wisdom is good with an inheritance - In this chapter Solomon introduces many observations which appear to be made by objectors against his doctrine; and as he was satisfied of their futility, he proposes them in their own full strength, and then combats and destroys them. It is quite necessary to attend to this; else we shall take the objector's words for those of Solomon; and think, as some have done, that the wise man contradicts and refutes himself. Observations, reflections, and objections of friends and adversaries are frequently introduced in the works of ancient authors, without mentioning them as such. This is frequent, more particularly in ethic writers; and we have many specimens in Horace, and without this distinction, it would be impossible to make sense of some of his writings. Here, an objector who had listened to the wise man declaiming in favor of wisdom, suddenly interrupts him, and says in effect, "I grant the truth of what you have said. Wisdom is very good in its place; but what is it without property? A man who has a good inheritance may be profited by wisdom, because it will show him how to manage it to the best advantage."

### Verse 12

[¶19] Wisdom is a defense - To whom Solomon answers: All true wisdom is most undoubtedly a great advantage to men in all circumstances; and money is also of great use: but it cannot be compared to wisdom. Knowledge of Divine and human things is a great blessing. Money is the means of supporting our animal life: but wisdom - the religion of the true God - gives life to them that have it. Money cannot procure the favor of God, nor give life to the soul.

### Verse 13

[¶21] Consider the work of God - Such is the nature of his providence, that it puts money into the hands of few: but wisdom is within the reach of all. The first is not necessary to happiness; therefore, it is not offered to men; the latter is; and therefore God, in his goodness, offers it to the whole human race. The former can rarely be acquired, for God puts it out of the reach of most men, and you cannot make that straight which he has made crooked; the latter may be easily attained by every person who carefully and seriously seeks it from God.

### Verse 14

[¶23] In the day of prosperity be joyful - When ye receive these temporal gifts from God, enjoy them, and be thankful to the Giver: but remember, this sunshine will not always last. God has balanced prosperity and adversity against each other; and were it not so, how many would put the former in the place of God himself!

### Verse 15

[¶25] There is a just man that perisheth - This is another objection as if he had said, "I also have had considerable experience; and I have not discovered any marked approbation of the conduct of the righteous, or disapprobation of that of the wicked. On the contrary, I have seen a righteous man perish, while employed in the work of righteousness; and a wicked man prosperous, and even exalted, while living wickedly. The former is indeed a victim to his righteousness, while the life and prosperity of the latter were preserved: hence I conclude, it is not prudent, whatever good there may be in religion, and whatever excellence in wisdom, that men should be overmuch righteous, or over-wise: for why should they by austerity and hard study destroy themselves?" So far the objector.

### Verse 16

[¶27] Why shouldest thou destroy thyself? - תשומם tishshomem, make thyself desolate, so that thou shalt be obliged to stand alone; neither make thyself over-wise, תתחכם tithchaccam, do not pretend to abundance of wisdom. Why shouldest thou be so singular? In other words, and in modern language, "There is no need of all this watching, fasting, praying, self-denial, etc., you carry things to extremes. Why should you wish to be reputed singular and precise?" To this the man of God answers:

### Verse 17

[¶29] Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time? - אל תרשע הרבה al tirsha harbeh. Do not multiply wickedness, do not add direct opposition to godliness to the rest of your crimes. Why should you provoke God to destroy you before your time? Perdition will come soon enough. If you will not turn from your sins, and avoid it finally, yet keep out of it as long as you can.

[¶30] It cannot be supposed, except by those who are totally unacquainted with the nature of true religion, that a man may have too much holiness, too much of the life of God in his soul! And yet a learned doctor, in three sermons on this text, has endeavored to show, out-doing Solomon's infidel, "the sin, folly, and danger of being righteous overmuch." O rare darkness!

### Verse 18

[¶32] It is good that thou shouldest take hold or this - Do not let such an observation slip: take hold of this; do not forget that. Get what you can in an honest way; but do not forget to get true religion; for he that fears God will be saved from all evil.

### Verse 19

[¶34] Wisdom strengtheneth the wise - One wise, thoroughly learned, and scientific man, may be of more use in fortifying and defending a city, than ten princes. Witness the case of Syracuse, when attacked by the Romans both by sea and land. Archimedes, by his engines, burnt and dashed their fleet to pieces, and destroyed all that came near the walls. And had not the city been betrayed and he killed, all their force and skill could not have taken it.

### Verse 20

[¶36] There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not - לא יחטא lo yechta, that may not sin. There is not a man upon earth, however just he may be, and habituated to do good, but is peccable - liable to commit sin; and therefore should continually watch and pray, and depend upon the Lord. But the text does not say, the just man does commit sin, but simply that he may sin; and so our translators have rendered it in [1Sam 2:25], twice in [1Kgs 8:31], [1Kgs 8:46], and [2Chr 6:36]; and the reader is requested to consult the note on [1Kgs 8:46], where the proper construction of this word may be found, and the doctrine in question is fully considered.

### Verse 21

[¶38] Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken - This is good advice, and much for every man's peace through life.

[¶39] Thy servant curse thee - מקללך mekallelecha, make light of thee, speak evil of thee.

### Verse 22

[¶41] Thou thyself - hast cursed others - קללת kalalta, thou hast spoken evil; hast vilified others. O, who is free from evil speaking, from uncharitable speaking; from detailing their neighbor's faults, from whispering, talebearing, and backbiting? Do not wonder if God, in his justice, permit thee to be calumniated, seeing thou hast so frequently calumniated others. See my discourse on [Psa 15:1-5] (note).

### Verse 23

[¶43] All this have I proved by wisdom - These rules I have laid down for my own conduct, and sought after more wisdom; but have fallen far short of what I wished to be.

## 764. Ecclesiastes · 13 of 19

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### Verse 24

[¶1] That which is far off - Though the wisdom that is essential to our salvation may be soon learned, through the teaching of the Spirit of wisdom, yet in wisdom itself there are extents and depths which none can reach or fathom.

### Verse 25

[¶3] I applied mine heart - I cast about, סבותי sabbothi, I made a circuit; I circumscribed the ground I was to traverse; and all within my circle I was determined to know, and to investigate, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things. Has man reason and understanding? If so, then this is his work. God as much calls him to use these powers in this way, as to believe on the Lord Jesus that he may be saved; and he that does not, according to the means in his power, is a slothful servant, from whom God may justly take away the misemployed or not used talent, and punish him for his neglect. Every doctrine of God is a subject both for reason and faith to work on.

[¶4] To know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness - "And my own heart, with scrutiny severe,

[¶5] By far the harder task survey'd; intent

[¶6] To trace that wisdom which from heaven descends,

[¶7] Fountain of living waters, and to explore

[¶8] The source of human folly, whose foul streams

[¶9] Intoxicate and kill." - C.

### Verse 26

[¶11] And I find more bitter than death the woman - After all his investigation of the wickedness of folly, and the foolishness of madness, he found nothing equally dangerous and ruinous with the blandishments of cunning women. When once the affections are entangled, escape without ruin is almost impossible.

[¶12] Whoso pleaseth God - The man who walks with God, and he alone, shall escape this sore evil: and even he that fears God, if he get with an artful woman, may be soon robbed of his strength, and become like other men. A bad or artful woman is represented as a company of hunters, with nets, gins, etc., to catch their prey.

### Verse 27

[¶14] Counting one by one - I have gone over every particular. I have compared one thing with another; man with woman, his wisdom with her wiles; his strength with her blandishments; his influence with her ascendancy; his powers of reason with her arts and cunning; and in a thousand men, I have found one thoroughly upright man; but among one thousand women I have not found one such. This is a lamentable account of the state of morals in Judea, in the days of the wise King Solomon. Thank God! it would not be difficult to get a tithe of both in the same number in the present day.

[¶15] The Targum gives this a curious turn: "There is another thing which my soul has sought, but could not find: a man perfect and innocent, and without corruption, from the days of Adam until Abraham the just was born; who was found faithful and upright among the thousand kings who came together to construct the tower of Babel: but a woman like to Sarah among the wives of all those kings I have not found."

### Verse 29

[¶17] Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright - Whatever evil may be now found among men and women, it is not of God; for God made them all upright. This is a singular verse, and has been most variously translated: עשה האלהים את האדם ישר והמה בקשו חשבנות רבים asah haelohim eth haadam yashar vehemhah bikkeshu chishbonoth rabbim. "Elohim has made mankind upright, and they have sought many computations." "He hath meddled with endless questions." - Vulgate. "Many reasonings." - Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. "They seek dyverse sotylties." Coverdale.

[¶18] And he himself mengide with questions without eend. - Old MS. Bible.

[¶19] The Targum considers the text as speaking of Adam and Eve. "This have I found out, that the Lord made the first man upright before him, and innocent: but the serpent and Eve seduced him to eat of the fruit of the tree, which gave the power to those who ate of it to discern between good and evil; and was the cause that death came upon him, and all the inhabitants of the earth; and they sought that they might find out many stratagems to bring this evil upon all the inhabitants of the world."

[¶20] I doubt much whether the word חשבנות chishbonoth should be taken in a bad sense. It may signify the whole of human devices, imaginations, inventions, artifice, with all their products; arts, sciences, schemes, plans, and all that they have found out for the destruction or melioration of life. God has given man wondrous faculties; and of them he has made strange uses, and sovereign abuses: and they have been, in consequence, at one time his help, and at another his bane. This is the fair way of understanding this question.

### Introduction

[¶22] A man's wisdom makes his face shine, [Ecc 8:1]. Kings are to be greatly respected, [Ecc 8:2-4]. Of him who keeps the commandment; of the misery of man; of the certainty of death, [Ecc 8:5-8]. Of him that rules another to his own hurt, [Ecc 8:9]. The end of the wicked, [Ecc 8:10]. God's longsuffering, [Ecc 8:11], [Ecc 8:12]. It shall be ill with wicked men, [Ecc 8:13]. Strange events in the course of Providence, [Ecc 8:14], [Ecc 8:15]. God's works cannot be found out, [Ecc 8:16], [Ecc 8:17].

### Verse 1

[¶24] Who knoweth the interpretation - פשר pesher, a pure Chaldee word, found nowhere else in the Bible but in the Chaldee parts of Daniel. "A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine." Every state of the heart shines through the countenance; but there is such an evidence of the contented, happy, pure, benevolent state of the soul in the face of a truly pious man, that it must be observed, and cannot be mistaken. In the Hebrew the former clause of this verse ends the preceding chapter. Who has ever been deceived in the appearance of the face that belonged to a savage heart? Those who represent, by painting or otherwise, a wise man, with a gravely sour face, striking awe and forbidding approach, have either mistaken the man, or are unacquainted with some essential principles of their art.

[¶25] The boldness of his face shall be changed - Instead of ישנא yeshunne, which signifies shall be hated, many of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have ישנה yeshunneh, shall be changed or doubled. Hence the verse might be read, "The wisdom of a man shall illuminate his face; and the strength of his countenance shall be doubled." He shall speak with full confidence and conviction on a subject which he perfectly understands, and all will feel the weight of his observations.

### Verse 2

[¶27] To keep the king's commandment - This sentence would be better translated, I keep the mouth of the king; I take good heed not to meddle with state secrets; and if I know, to hide them. Or, I am obedient to the commands of the laws; I feel myself bound by whatever the king has decreed.

[¶28] In regard of the oath of God - You have sworn obedience to him; keep your oath, for the engagement was made in the presence of God. It appears that the Jewish princes and chiefs took an oath of fidelity to their kings. This appears to have been done to David, [2Sam 5:1-3]; to Joash, [2Kgs 11:17]; and to Solomon, [1Chr 29:24].

### Verse 3

[¶30] Be not hasty - I consider the first five verses here as directions to courtiers, and the more immediate servants of kings.

[¶31] Be steadily faithful to your sovereign. Do not stand in an evil thing. If you have done wrong, do not endeavor to vindicate yourself before him; it is of no use; his power is absolute, and he will do what he pleases. He will take his own view of the subject, and he will retain it. The language of a despotic sovereign was ever this, Sic volo sic jubeo, stat pro ratione voluntas; "I will this. I command that. No hesitation! My will is law!" Therefore it is added here, Where the word of a king is, there is power - influence, authority, and the sword. And who may say unto him, whether he acts right or wrong, What doest thou? [Ecc 8:4]. No wonder in such governments there are so many revolutions; but they are revolutions without amendment, as it is one tyrant rising up to destroy another, who, when seated in authority, acts in the way of his predecessor; till another, like himself, do to him as he has done to the former. In our country, after a long trial, we find that a mixed monarchy is the safest, best, and most useful form of government: we have had, it is true, unprincipled ministers, who wished to turn our limited into an absolute monarchy; and they were always ready to state that an absolute monarchy was best. Granted; provided the monarch be as wise, as holy, and as powerful as God!

### Verse 5

[¶33] Both time and judgment - It is a matter of great importance to be able to discern When and How both to speak and act; but when time and manner are both determined, the matter comes next. What shall I speak? What shall I do? When, how, and what answer to time, manner, and knitter. To discern all these, and act suitably, is a lesson for a philosopher, and a study for a Christian.

### Verse 6

[¶35] To every purpose there is time - חפץ chaphets, every volition, every thing that depends on the will of man. He has generally the opportunity to do whatever he purposes; and as his purposes are frequently evil, his acts are so too: and in consequence his misery is great.

### Verse 8

[¶37] There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit - The Chaldee has, "There is no man who can rule over the spirit of the breath, so as to prevent the animal life from leaving the body of man." Others translate to this sense: "No man hath power over the wind to restrain the wind; and none has power over death to restrain him; and when a man engages as a soldier, he cannot be discharged from the war till it is ended; and by wickedness no man shall be delivered from any evil." Taking it in this way, these are maxims which contain self-evident truths. Others suppose the verse to refer to the king who tyrannizes over and oppresses his people. He shall also account to God for his actions; he shall die, and he cannot prevent it; and when he is judged, his wickedness cannot deliver him.

### Verse 9

[¶39] One man ruleth over another to his own hurt - This may be spoken of rulers generally, who, instead of feeding, fleece the flock; tyrants and oppressors, who come to an untimely end by their mismanagement of the offices of the state. All these things relate to Asiatic despots, and have ever been more applicable to them than to any other sovereigns in the world. They were despotic; they still are so.

### Verse 10

[¶41] Who had come and gone from the place of the holy - The place of the holy is the sacred office which they held, anointed either as kings or priests to God; and, not having fulfilled the holy office in a holy way, have been carried to their graves without lamentation, and lie among the dead without remembrance.

### Verse 11

[¶43] Because sentence - פתגם pithgam, a Divine decree or declaration. This is no Hebrew, but a mere Chaldee word, and occurs only in the later books of the Bible - Esther, Ezra and Daniel, and nowhere else but in this place. Because God does not immediately punish every delinquency, men think he disregards evil acts; and therefore they are emboldened to sin on. So this longsuffering of God, which leadeth to repentance, is abused so as to lead to farther crimes! When men sin against the remedy of their salvation, how can they escape perdition?

### Verse 12

[¶45] Though a sinner do evil a hundred times - If God bear so long with a transgressor, waiting in his longsuffering for him to repent and turn to him, surely he will be peculiarly kind to them that fear him, and endeavor to walk uprightly before him.

## 765. Ecclesiastes · 14 of 19

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### Verse 13

[¶1] But it shall not be well with the wicked - Let not the long-spared sinner presume that, because sentence is not speedily executed on his evil works, and he is suffered to go on to his hundredth transgression, God has forgotten to punish. No, he feareth not before Good; and therefore he shall not ultimately escape.

### Verse 14

[¶3] There be just men - See on [Ecc 7:16] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶5] Then I commended mirth - These are some more of the cavils of the infidel objector: "Since virtue is frequently under oppression, and vice triumphs in health, and rolls in wealth, I see plainly that we should not trouble ourselves about future things; and therefore should be governed by the maxim Ede, Bibe, Lude. Post mortem nulla voluptas."

[¶6] Eat, drink, and play,

[¶7] While here you may;

[¶8] For soon as death

[¶9] Has stopp'd your breath

[¶10] Ye ne'er shall see a cheerful day.

### Verse 16

[¶12] When I applied mine heart to know wisdom - This is the reply of the wise man: "I have also considered these seeming contradictions. God governs the world; but we cannot see the reasons of his conduct, nor know why he does this, omits that, or permits a third thing. We may study night and day, and deprive ourselves of rest and sleep, but we shall never fathom the depths that are in the Divine government; but all is right and just. This is the state of probation; and in it neither can the wicked be punished, nor the righteous rewarded. But eternity is at hand; and then shall every man receive according to his works. He that spends his life in the eat, drink, and play, will find in that day that he has lost the time in which he could have prepared for eternity.

### Verse 17

[¶14] Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun - I saw it to be of such a nature -

[¶15] 1. That a man cannot find it out.

[¶16] 2. That if he labor to find it out, he shall not succeed.

[¶17] 3. That though he be wise - the most instructed among men, and think to find it out, he shall find he is not able. It is beyond the wisdom and power of man. How vain then are all your cavils about Providence. You do not understand it; you cannot comprehend it. Fear God!

### Introduction

[¶19] No men knows, by any present sign, what is before him, [Ecc 9:1]. All things happen alike to all, [Ecc 9:2], [Ecc 9:3]. Comparison of the state of the dead and the living, [Ecc 9:4-6]. Enjoy God's mercies, and live to his glory, [Ecc 9:7-10]. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, [Ecc 9:11]. Man is ignorant of futurity, [Ecc 9:12], [Ecc 9:13]. The account of the little city, and the poor wise man, [Ecc 9:14-18].

### Verse 1

[¶21] The righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God - This is a continuation of the preceding subject; and here the wise man draws a conclusion from what he had seen, and from the well-known character of God, that the righteous, the wise, and their conduct, were all in the hand of God, protected by his power, and safe in his approbation: but we cannot judge from the occurrences which take place in life who are the objects of God's love or displeasure.

### Verse 2

[¶23] All things come alike to all - This is very generally true; but God often makes a difference and his faithful followers witness many interventions of Divine Providence in their behalf. But there are general blessings, and general natural evils, that equally affect the just and the unjust. But in this all is right; the evils that are in nature are the effects of the Fall of man; and God will not suspend general laws, or alter them, to favor individual cases. Nor does he design that his approbation or disapprobation shall be shown by any of these occurrences. Every holy man has a testimony of God's approbation in his own heart; and this makes him truly happy, let outward things be as they may. And, in general, what the wicked suffer is the fruit of their own doings. But the general state of nature as to what are called natural evils, is just as it ought to be. There is evil enough to show that man has fallen from God, and good enough to show that God deals with him in mercy. I cannot see that there is any rational cause for me to stumble at the dispensations of Divine Providence on these accounts.

### Verse 3

[¶25] The heart of the sons of men is full of evil - No wonder then that the curse of God should be frequent in the earth.

### Verse 4

[¶27] For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope - While a man lives he hopes to amend, and he hopes to have a better lot; and thus life is spent, hoping to grow better, and hoping to get more. The Vulgate has, "There is none that shall live always, nor has any hope of such a thing." Perhaps the best translation is the following: "What, therefore, is to be chosen? In him that is living there is hope." Then choose that eternal life which thou hopest to possess.

[¶28] A living dog is better than a dead lion - I suppose this was a proverb. The smallest measure of animal existence is better than the largest of dead matter. The poorest living peasant is infinitely above Alexander the Great.

### Verse 5

[¶30] The living know that they shall die - This is so self-evident that none can doubt it; and therefore all that have this conviction should prepare for death and eternal blessedness.

[¶31] But the dead know not any thing - Cut off from life, they know nothing of what passes under the sun. Their day of probation is ended, and therefore they can have no farther reward in living a holy life; nor can they be liable to any farther punishment for crimes in a state of probation, that being ended.

### Verse 6

[¶33] Also their love, and their hatred - It is evident that he speaks here of the ignorance, want of power, etc., of the dead, in reference only to this life. And though they have no more a portion under the sun, yet he does not intimate that they have none anywhere else. A man threatens to conquer kingdoms, etc. He dies; what are his threats?

### Verse 7

[¶35] Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy - Do not vex and perplex yourselves with the dispensations and mysteries of Providence; enjoy the blessings which God has given you, and live to his glory; and then God will accept your works.

### Verse 8

[¶37] Let thy garments be always white - The Jews wore white garments on festal occasions, as emblems of joy and innocence. Be always pure, and always happy. The inhabitants of India are all dressed in clean white cotton, and to this is the allusion in the text.

[¶38] The Targum says: "At all times let thy garments be washed and pure from the stain of sin. Acquire a good name, which is likened to the oil of anointing, that blessings may be called down up thy head, and goodness not forsake thee."

### Verse 9

[¶40] Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest - Marry prudently, keep faithfully attached to the wife thou hast chosen, and rejoice in the labor of thy hands.

[¶41] Some understand this as the words of the libertine objector: "Live joyfully with the woman whom thou lovest best." But this does not comport so well with the scope of the place.

### Verse 10

[¶43] Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do - Examine here the What the How, and the Why.

[¶44] I. What is necessary to be done in this life, in reference to another?

## 766. Ecclesiastes · 15 of 19

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[¶0] 1. Turn from sin.

[¶1] 2. Repent.

[¶2] 3. Frequent the ordinances of God, and associate with the upright.

[¶3] 4. Read the Scriptures.

[¶4] 5. Pray for pardon.

[¶5] 6. Believe on the Lord Jesus, that thou mayest obtain it.

[¶6] 7. Look for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[¶7] 8. Bring forth in their seasons the fruits of it - (1) Repentance, (2) Faith; and (3) The Holy Spirit.

[¶8] 9. Live to get good.

[¶9] 10. And to do good.

[¶10] 11. And refer every purpose and act to the eternal world.

[¶11] II. How should these be done? With thy might.

[¶12] 1. Be fully convinced of the necessity of these things.

[¶13] 2. Be determined to act according to this conviction.

[¶14] 3. Then act with all thy strength; put forth all thy power in avoiding evil, repenting of sin, etc., etc.

[¶15] III. Why should this be done?

[¶16] 1. Because thou art a dying man.

[¶17] 2. Thou art going into the grave.

[¶18] 3. When thou leavest this life, thy state of probation, with all its advantages, is eternally ended.

[¶19] 4. If thou die in sin, where God is thou shalt never come. For,

[¶20] 1. There is no work by which thou mayest profit;

[¶21] 2. No device by which thou mayest escape punishment;

[¶22] 3. No knowledge of any means of help; and,

[¶23] 4. No wisdom - restoration of the soul to the favor and image of God, in that grave whither thou goest. Therefore, work while it is called to-day.

[¶24] My old MS. Bible translates this nervously: Whatever thinge may thin hond don, besily wirch: for nouther were, ne resoun, ne wisdom, ne keennyng schuln be a nentis hell, whither thou gost. Properly speaking, every sinner is going to hell, and the wisdom of God calls upon him to turn and live.

### Verse 11

[¶26] The race is not to the swift - It is not by swiftness, nor by strength and valor, that races are gained and battles won. God causes the lame often to take the prey, the prize; and so works that the weak overthrow the strong; therefore, no man should confide in himself. All things are under the government, and at the disposal of God.

[¶27] But time and chance - עת eth, time or opportunity, and פגע pega, incident or occurrence: -

[¶28] Happeneth to them all - Every man has what may be called time and space to act in, and opportunity to do a particular work. But in this Time and Opportunity there is Incident, what may fall in; and Occurrence, what may meet and frustrate an attempt. These things should be wisely weighed, and seriously balanced; for those four things belong to every human action. While you have Time, seek an Opportunity to do what is right; but calculate on hinderances and oppositions, because time and opportunity have their Incident and Occurrence. Coverdale translates this verse well: "I sawe that in runnynge, it helpeth not to be swift; in batayll, it helpeth not to be stronge; to fedynge, it helpeth not to be wyse; to riches, it helpeth not to be sutyll; to be had in favoure, it helpeth not to be connynge; but that all lyeth in time and fortune."

### Verse 12

[¶30] As the birds that are caught - Man acts so heedlessly, notwithstanding all his wisdom, and all his warnings, that he is often taken, as a fish is, by the baited hook; and the bird by the baited snare. And thus, an evil time, like the snare, gin, trap, hook, falleth suddenly upon them; and they are taken in a moment, and have no means of escaping. How frequently do we see these comparisons illustrated!

### Verse 14

[¶32] There was a little city, and few men within it - Here is another proof of the vanity of sublunary things; the ingratitude of men, and the little compensation that genuine merit receives. The little history mentioned here may have either been a fact, or intended as an instructive fable. A little city, with few to defend it, being besieged by a great king and a powerful army, was delivered by the cunning and address on a poor wise man; and afterwards his townsmen forgot their obligation to him.

[¶33] Those who spiritualize this passage, making the little city the Church, the few men the Apostles, the great king the Devil, and the poor wise man Jesus Christ, abuse the text.

[¶34] But the Targum is not less whimsical: "The little city is the human body; few men in it, few good affections to work righteousness; the great king, evil concupiscence, which, like a strong and powerful king, enters into the body to oppress it, and besieges the heart so as to cause it to err; built great bulwarks against it - evil concupiscence builds his throne in it wheresoever he wills, and causes it to decline from the ways that are right before God; that it may be taken in the greatest nets of hell, that he may burn it seven times, because of its sins. But there is found in it a poor wise man - a good, wise, and holy affection, which prevails over the evil principle, and snatches the body from the judgment of hell, by the strength of its wisdom. Yet, after this deliverance, the man did not remember what the good principle had done for him; but said in his heart, I am innocent," etc.

[¶35] What a wonderful text has this been in the hands of many a modern Targumist; and with what force have the Keachonians preached Christ crucified from it!

[¶36] Such a passage as this receives a fine illustration from the case of Archimedes saving the city of Syracuse from all the Roman forces besieging it by sea ana land. He destroyed their ships by his burning-glasses, lifted up their galleys out of the water by his machines, dashing some to pieces, and sinking others. One man's wisdom here prevailed for a long time against the most powerful exertions of a mighty nation. In this case, wisdom far exceeded strength. But was not Syracuse taken, notwithstanding the exertions of this poor wise man? No. But it was betrayed by the baseness of Mericus, a Spaniard, one of the Syracusan generals. He delivered the whole district he commanded into the hands of Marcellus, the Roman consul, Archimedes having defeated every attempt made by the Romans, either by sea or land: yet he commanded no company of men, made no sorties, but confounded and destroyed them by his machines. This happened about 208 years before Christ, and nearly about the time in which those who do not consider Solomon as the author suppose this book to have been written. This wise man was not remembered; he was slain by a Roman soldier while deeply engaged in demonstrating a new problem, in order to his farther operations against the enemies of his country. See Plutarch, and the historians of this Syracusan war.

[¶37] When Alexander the Great was about to destroy the city Lampsacus, his old master Anaximenes came out to meet him. Alexander, suspecting his design, that he would intercede for the city, being determined to destroy it, swore that he would not grant him any thing he should ask. Then said Anaximenes, "I desire that you will destroy this city." Alexander respected his oath, and the city was spared. Thus, says Valerius Mancimus, the narrator, (lib. 7: c. iii., No. 4. Extern)., by this sudden turn of sagacity, this ancient and noble city was preserved from the destruction by which it was threatened. "Haec velocitas sagacitatis oppidum vetusta nobilitate inclytum exitio, cui destinatum erat, subtraxit."

[¶38] A stratagem of Jaddua, the high priest, was the means of preserving Jerusalem from being destroyed by Alexander, who, incensed because they had assisted the inhabitants of Gaza when he besieged it, as soon as he had reduced it, marched against Jerusalem, with the determination to raze it to the ground; but Jaddua and his priests in their sacerdotal robes, meeting him on the way, he was so struck with their appearance that he not only prostrated himself before the high priest, and spared the city, but also granted it some remarkable privileges. But the case of Archimedes and Syracuse is the most striking and appropriate in all its parts. That of Anaximenes and Lampsacus is also highly illustrative of the maxim of the wise man: "Wisdom is better than strength."

### Verse 16

[¶40] The poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard - I cannot help pursuing this illustration a little farther. The soldier who found Archimedes busily employed in drawing figures upon the sand, put to him some impertinent question, withal rudely obtruding himself on his operations. To whom this wonderful mathematician replied, "Stand off, soldier, and do not spoil my diagram;" on which the bloody savage struck him dead!

### Verse 17

[¶42] The words of wise men are heard in quiet - In the tumult of war the words of Archimedes were not heard; and his life was lost.

### Verse 18

[¶44] Wisdom is better than weapons of war - So proved in the case of Archimedes.

## 767. Ecclesiastes · 16 of 19

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[¶0] But one sinner - Such as the Roman butcher above mentioned.

[¶1] Destroyeth much good - Such as were the life and skill of the Syracusan mathematician. One sinner has often injured the work of God; one stumbling-block has sometimes destroyed a revival of religion. Sin acts like a ferment; whatever comes in contact with it, it assimilates to itself.

### Introduction

[¶3] Observations on wisdom and folly, [Ecc 10:1-3]. Concerning right conduct towards rulers, [Ecc 10:4]. Merit depressed, and worthlessness exalted, [Ecc 10:5-7]. Of him who digs a pit and removes a landmark, [Ecc 10:8], [Ecc 10:9]. The use of wisdom and experience, [Ecc 10:10]. Of the babbler and the fool, [Ecc 10:11-15]. The infant king, [Ecc 10:16]. The well-regulated court, [Ecc 10:17]. Of slothfulness, [Ecc 10:18]. Of feasting, [Ecc 10:19]. Speak not evil of the king, [Ecc 10:20].

### Verse 1

[¶5] Dead flies - Any putrefaction spoils perfume; and so a foolish act ruins the character of him who has the reputation of being wise and good. Alas! alas! in an unguarded moment how many have tarnished the reputation which they were many years in acquiring! Hence, no man can be said to be safe, till he is taken to the paradise of God.

### Verse 2

[¶7] A wise man's heart is at his right hand - As the right hand is ordinarily the best exercised, strongest, and most ready, and the left the contrary, they show,

[¶8] 1. The command which the wise man has over his own mind, feelings, passions, etc., and the prudence with which he acts. And,

[¶9] 2. The want of prudence and management in the fool, who has no restraint on his passions, and no rule or guard upon his tongue. The right hand and the left are used in Scripture to express good and evil. The wise man is always employed in doing good; the fool, in nonsense or evil.

### Verse 3

[¶11] When - a fool walketh by the way - In every act of life, and in every company he frequents, the irreligious man shows what he is. Vanity, nonsense, and wickedness are his themes: so that in effect he saith to every one that he is a fool.

### Verse 4

[¶13] If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee - If the king get incensed against thee.

[¶14] Leave not thy place - Humble thyself before him, that is thy place and duty; for yielding to him, and not standing stoutly in thy defense, pacifieth great offenses: and then, when his anger is appeased, he will hear any thing in thy justification, if thou have any thing to offer. This is good advice to a child in reference to his parents, and to an inferior of any kind in reference to his superiors.

[¶15] Several of the fathers understood this differently, It the spirit of the ruler - the influence of Satan - hath risen up against and prevailed over thee, to bring thee into some sin; leave not thy place - do not despair of God's mercy; humble thyself before him, and seek pardon through the Son of his love, and this will be מרפא marpe, a remedy or cure even for חטאים גדולים chataim gedolim, great errors or sins. All this is true in itself, whether found in this text or not.

### Verse 5

[¶17] An error which proceedeth from the ruler - What this error in the ruler is, the two following verses point out: it is simpiy this - an injudicious distribution of offices, and raising people to places of trust and confidence, who are destitute of merit, are neither of name nor family to excite public confidence, and are without property; so that they have no stake in the country, and their only solicitude must naturally be to enrich themselves, and provide for their poor relatives. This is frequent in the governments of the world; and favouritism has often brought prosperous nations to the brink of ruin. Folly was set in dignity; the man of property, sense, and name, in a low place. Servants - menial men, rode upon horses - carried every thing with a high and proud hand; and princes, - the nobles of the people, were obliged to walk by their sides, and often from the state of things to become in effect their servants. This was often the case in this country, during the reign of Thomas a Becket, and Cardinal Woolsey. These insolent men lorded it over the whole nation; and the people and their gentry were raised or depressed according as their pride and caprice willed. And, through this kind of errors, not only a few sovereigns have had most uncomfortable and troublesome reigns, but some have even lost their lives.

### Verse 8

[¶19] Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him - While spoiling his neighbor's property, he himself may come to greater mischief: while pulling out the sticks, he may be bit by a serpent, who has his nest there. Some have supposed that נחש nachash here means a thorn; perhaps from the similarity of its prick to the serpent's sting. He who forces his way through a hedge will be pricked by the thorns.

### Verse 9

[¶21] Whoso removeth stones - This verse teaches care and caution. Whoever pulls down an old building is likely to be hurt by the stones; and in cleaving wood many accidents occur for want of sufficient caution.

### Verse 10

[¶23] If the iron be blunt - If the axe have lost its edge, and the owner do not sharpen it, he must apply the more strength to make it cut: but the wisdom that is profitable to direct will teach him, that he should whet his axe, and spare his strength. Thus, without wisdom and understanding we cannot go profitably through the meanest concerns in life.

### Verse 11

[¶25] The serpent will bite without enchantment - בלא לחש belo lachash, without hissing. As a snake may bite before it hiss, so also will the babbler, talkative person, or calumniator. Without directly speaking evil, he insinuates, by innuendoes, things injurious to the reputation of his neighbor. Gif the eddir bite in silence, noyhing lasse than he hath that privily backbiteth - Old MS. Bible. "A babbler of his tongue is no better than a serpent that styngeth without hyssynge." - Coverdale. The moral of this saying is simply this: A calumniator is as dangerous as a poisonous serpent; and from the envenomed tongue of slander and detraction no man is safe. The comparing the serpent, נחש nachash, to a babbler, has something singular in it. I have already supposed that the creature mentioned, [Gen 3:1], was of the genus simia. This has been ridiculed, but not disproved.

### Verse 12

[¶27] The words of a wise man's mouth - Every thing that proceeds from him is decent and orderly, creditable to himself, and acceptable to those who hear him. But the lips of the fool, which speak every thing at random, and have no understanding to guide them, are not only not pleasant to others, but often destructive to himself.

### Verse 14

[¶29] A man cannot tell what shall be - A foolish babbling man will talk on every subject, though he can say as little on the past, as he can on the future.

### Verse 15

[¶31] He knoweth not how to go to the city - I suppose this to be a proverb: "He knows nothing; he does not know his way to the next village." He may labor; but for want of judgment he wearies himself to no purpose.

### Verse 16

[¶33] Wo to thee, O land, when thy king is a child - Minorities are, in general, very prejudicial to a state. Regents either disagree, and foment civil wars; or oppress the people. Various discordant interests are raised up in a state during a minority; and the young king, having been under the tutelage of interested men, acts partially and injuriously to the interests of the people when he comes to the throne; and this produces popular discontent, and a troubled reign.

[¶34] Thy princes eat in the morning! - They do nothing in order; turn night into day, and day into night; sleep when they should wake, and wake when they should sleep; attending more to chamberings and banquetings, than to the concerns of the state.

### Verse 17

[¶36] When thy king is the son of nobles - uiov eleuyerwn, the son of freemen; persons well acquainted with the principles of civil liberty, and who rule according to them - Septuagint. Such a one as comes to the throne in a legitimate way, from an ancient regal family, whose right to the throne is incontestable. It requires such a long time to establish a regal right, that the state is in continual danger from pretenders and usurpers, where the king is not the son of nobles.

[¶37] And thy princes eat in due season - All persons in places of trust for the public weal, from the king to the lowest public functionary, should know, that the public are exceedingly scandalized at repeated accounts of entertainments, where irregularity prevails, much money is expended, and no good done. These things are drawn into precedent, and quoted to countenance debauch in the inferior classes. The natural division of the day for necessary repasts is, Breakfast, eight, or half after; Dinner, one, or half after; Supper, eight, or half after. And these, or even earliers hours were formerly observed in these countries. Then we had scarcely any such thing as gout, and no nervous disorders.

[¶38] In ancient nations the custom was to eat but once, and then about mid-day.

### Verse 18

[¶40] By much slothfulness - This is remarkably the case in some countries. Houses are not repaired till they almost fall about the ears of the inhabitants. We have an adage that applies to all such cases: "A stitch in time saves nine."

### Verse 19

[¶42] A feast is made for laughter - The object of it is to produce merriment, to banish care and concern of every kind. But who are they who make and frequent such places? Epicures and drunkards generally; such as those of whom Horace speaks:

[¶43] Nos numerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati.

[¶44] Epist. lib. i., ep. 2, ver. 27. "Those whose names stand as indications of men, the useless many; and who appear to be born only to consume the produce of the soil."

## 768. Ecclesiastes · 17 of 19

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[¶0] But money answereth all - This saying has prevailed everywhere.

[¶1] Scilicet uxorem cum dote, fidemque, et amicos,

[¶2] Et genus, et formam Regina Pecunia donat;

[¶3] Ac bene nummatum decorat Suadela, Venusque.

[¶4] Hor. Ep. lib. i., ep. 6, ver. 36. "For gold, the sovereign Queen of all below,

[¶5] Friends, honor, birth, and beauty, can bestow.

[¶6] The goddess of persuasion forms her train;

[¶7] And Venus decks the well-bemonied swain."

[¶8] Francis.

### Verse 20

[¶10] Curse not the king - Do not permit thyself even to think evil of the king; lest thy tongue at some time give vent to thy thoughts, and so thou be chargeable with treason.

[¶11] For a bird of the air shall carry the voice - Does he refer here to such fowls as the carrier pigeon, which were often used to carry letters under their wings to a great distance, and bring back answers? The Targum turns it curiously: "Do not speak evil of the king in thy conscience, nor in the secret of thy heart, nor in the most hidden place in thy house, curse not a wise man; for Raziel calls daily from heaven upon Mount Horeb, and his voice goes through the whole world; and Elijah, the great priest, goes, flying through the air like a winged eagle, and publishes the words which are spoken in secret by all the inhabitants of the earth."

[¶12] Civil government is so peculiarly of God, that he will have it supported for the benefit of mankind; and those who attempt to disturb it are generally marked by his strong disapprobation. And though there have been multitudes of treasons hatched in the deepest secrecy; yet, through the providence of God, they have been discovered in the most singular manner. This shows God's care for government.

### Introduction

[¶14] Give alms to all, [Ecc 11:1-4]. The works of God unknown to man, [Ecc 11:5]. Diligence necessary, [Ecc 11:6]. Prosperity frequently succeeded by adversity, [Ecc 11:7], [Ecc 11:8]. There will be a day of judgment, [Ecc 11:9], [Ecc 11:10].

### Verse 1

[¶16] Cast thy bread upon the waters - An allusion to the sowing of rice; which was sown upon muddy ground, or ground covered with water, and trodden in by the feet of cattle: it thus took root, and grew, and was found after many days in a plentiful harvest. Give alms to the poor, and it will be as seed sown in good ground. God will cause thee afterwards to receive it with abundant increase. The Targum understands it of giving bread to poor sailors. The Vulgate and my old Bible have the same idea. Send thi brede upon men passing waters.

### Verse 2

[¶18] Give a portion to seven - Never cease giving while thou seest a person in distress, and hast wherewithal to relieve him.

[¶19] Thou knowest not what evil - Such may be the change of times, that thou mayest yet stand in need of similar help thyself. Do as thou wouldst be done by.

### Verse 3

[¶21] If the clouds be full of rain - Act as the clouds; when they are full they pour out their water indifferently on the field and on the desert. By giving charity indiscriminately, it may be that thou wilt often give it to the unworthy: but thou shouldst ever consider that he is an object of thy charity, who appears to be in real want; and better relieve or give to a hundred worthless persons, than pass by one who is in real distress.

[¶22] Where the tree falleth, there it shall be - Death is at no great distance; thou hast but a short time to do good. Acquire a heavenly disposition while here; for there will be no change after this life. If thou die in the love of God, and in the love of man, in that state wilt thou be found in the day of judgment. If a tree about to fall lean to the north, to the north it will fall; if to the south, it will fall to that quarter. In whatever disposition or state of soul thou diest, in that thou wilt be found in the eternal world. Death refines nothing, purifies nothing, kills no sin, helps to no glory. Let thy continual bent and inclination be to God, to holiness, to charity, to mercy, and to heaven: then, fall when thou mayest, thou wilt fall well.

### Verse 4

[¶24] He that observeth the wind shall not sow! - The man that is too scrupulous is never likely to succeed in any thing. If a man neither plough nor sow till the weather is entirely to his mind, the season will in all probability pass before he will have done any thing: so, if thou be too nice in endeavoring to find out who are the impostors among those who profess to be in want, the real object may perish, whom otherwise thou mightest have relieved, and whose life might have been thereby saved. Those very punctilious and scrupulous people, who will sift every thing to the bottom in every case, and, before they will act, must be fully satisfied on all points, seldom do any good, and are themselves generally good for nothing. While they are observing the clouds and the rain, others have joined hands with God, and made a poor man live.

### Verse 5

[¶26] As thou knowest not - the way of the spirit - Why God should have permitted such an such persons to fall into want, and how they came into all their distresses, thou canst not tell, no more than thou canst how their soul is united to their body, how it came to inform that body, or how the child was formed in the womb of its mother. Nor canst thou discern the end which God has in view in these things. He maketh all, every thing is open to him; and take heed lest, while pretending motives of scrupulosity and prudence, in not relieving the distresses of those thou pretendest to suspect to be unworthy, he does not see that a love of money is the motive of thy conduct, and a want of the bowels of mercy the cause why thou drivest this suspected beggar from thy door.

### Verse 6

[¶28] In the morning sow thy seed - Be ready at all times to show mercy; begin in the morning, continue till the evening. Thou knowest not the most worthy object; it is enough that God knoweth; and if thy motive be good, he will applaud and reward thee; not according to the worthiness or unworthiness of the object of thy charity, but according to the motive which induced thee to relieve him.

### Verse 7

[¶30] Truly the light is sweet - Life is dear to every man as the light of the sun is to the eye. A man would give all that he has for his life, and it is particularly dear to him when he is in ease and affluence: but let each remember that,

### Verse 8

[¶32] If a man live many years - And even have prosperity through the whole; yet the days of darkness - times of affliction, weakness, and perhaps old age, will be many. If he die not a violent death, which no man can wish, he will die a lingering death; and this is ordinarily attended with many pains, and many sorrows; therefore let him prepare to meet his God; and to carry this thought through life, that all must terminate in death. The writer of Ecclesiasticus, 7:36, has a good saying, similar to this: "Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember thy End; and thou shalt never do amiss;" ουκ ἁμαρτησεις, thou wilt not sin.

### Verse 9

[¶34] Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth - Youth is devoid of cares; and, consequently, of many perplexities and distresses. Were it not so, we should have no old men; nay, perhaps not one even of middle ape. It is in the order of a most gracious God, that the young should rejoice in their youth; but they should make such a moderate use of all their enjoyments, that they may not be confounded in the day of judgment. But, O young man, if thou wilt follow the propensities of thy own heart, the noisy mirth of the fool, and the dissipation of the profligate - go on; take thy full swing; but take this with thee, that "for all these things, God will judge thee;" and if the righteous are scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

### Verse 10

[¶36] Therefore remove sorrow - כעס caas, anger; every kind of violent passion, all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. "Childhood and youth are vanity;" they pass away and come to nothing. Eternity alone is permanent; live for eternity.

### Introduction

[¶38] Youth should remember their Creator, [Ecc 12:1]. A description of old age and its infirmities, with the causes of death and dissolution, [Ecc 12:2-9]. How the Preacher taught the people knowledge, [Ecc 12:9-11]. General directions, and conclusion of the work, [Ecc 12:12-14].

### Verse 1

[¶40] Remember thy Creator - בוראיך Boreeycha, thy Creators. The word is most certainly in the plural number in all our common Hebrew Bibles; but it is in the singular number, בוראך Borecha, in one hundred and seventy-six of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and ninety-six of De Rossi's; in many ancient editions; and in all the ancient versions. There is no dependence on the plural form in most of the modern editions; though there are some editions of great worth which exhibit the word in this form, and among them the Complutensian, Antwerp, Paris, and London polyglots.

[¶41] The evidence, therefore, that this text is supposed to give to the doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity, is but precarious, and on it little stress can be laid; and no man who loves truth would wish to support it by dubious witnesses. Injudicious men, by laying stress on texts dubious in themselves, and which may be interpreted a different way, greatly injure the true faith. Though such in their hearts may be friends to the orthodox faith, they are in fact its worst friends, and their assistance is such as helps their adversaries.

[¶42] But what does the text say? It addresses the youth of both sexes throughout the creation; and says in effect: -

[¶43] I. You are not your own, you have no right to yourselves. God made you; he is your Creator: he made you that you might be happy; but you can be happy only in him. And as he created you, so he preserves you; he feeds, clothes, upholds you. He has made you capable of knowing, loving, and serving him in this world, and of enjoying him in his own glory for ever. And when you had undone yourselves by sin, he sent his Son to redeem you by his blood; and he sends his Spirit to enlighten, convince, and draw you away from childishness, from vain and trifling, as well as from sinful, pursuits.

[¶44] II. Remember him; consider that he is your Creator, your loving and affectionate Father. In youth memory is strong and tenacious; but, through the perversion of the heart by sin, young people can remember any thing better than God. If you get a kindness from a friend, you can remember that, and feel gratitude for it; and the person is therefore endeared to you. Have any ever given you such benefits as your Creator? Your body and soul came from him; he gave you your eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, etc. What blessings are these! how excellent! how useful! how necessary and will you forget Him?

## 769. Ecclesiastes · 18 of 19

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[¶0] III. Remember him in thy Youth, in order that you may have a long and blessed life, that you may be saved from the corruption and misery into which young people in general run; and the evils they entail upon themselves by giving way to the sinful propensities of their own hearts. As in youth all the powers are more active and vigorous, so they are capable of superior enjoyments. Faith, hope, and love, will be in their best tenor, their greatest vigor, and in their least encumbered state. And it will be easier for you to believe, hope, pray, love, obey, and bear your cross, than it can be in old age and decrepitude.

[¶1] IV. Remember him Now, in this part of your youth - you have no certainty of life; now is yours, to-morrow may not be. You are young; but you may never be old. Now he waits to be gracious; tomorrow may be too late. God now calls; his Spirit now strives; his ministers now exhort. You have now health; sin has not now so much dominion over you as it will have, increasing by every future moment, if you do not give up your hearts to your Maker.

[¶2] V. There is another consideration which should weigh with you: should you live to old age. it is a very disadvantageous time to begin to serve the Lord in. Infirmities press down both body and mind, and the oppressed nature has enough to do to bear its own infirmities; and as there is little time, so there is generally less inclination, to call upon the Lord. Evil habits are strengthened by long continuance; and every desire and appetite in the soul is a strong hold for Satan. There is little time for repentance, little for faith, none for obedience. The evil days are come, and the years in which you will feelingly be obliged to say, Alas! "we have no pleasure in them;" and, what is worse, the heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

### Verse 2

[¶4] While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened - i.e., in the Spring, prime, and prosperity of life.

[¶5] Nor the clouds return - The infirmities of old age of which Winter is a proper emblem, as spring is of youth, in the former clause of this verse.

### Verse 3

[¶7] In the day when the keepers of the house - The Body of man is here compared to a House: - mark the metaphors and their propriety.

[¶8] 1. The keepers shall tremble - the hands become paralytic, as is constantly the case, less or more, in old age.

[¶9] 2. The strong men shall bow - The legs become feeble, and unable to support the weight of the body.

[¶10] 3. The grinders cease because they are few - The teeth decayed and mostly lost; the few that remain being incapable of properly masticating hard substances or animal food. And so they cease; for soft or pulpy substances, which are requisite then, require little or no mastication; and these aliments become their ordinary food.

[¶11] 4. Those that look out of the windows - The optic nerves, which receive impressions, through the medium of the different humours of the eye, from surrounding objects - they are darkened; the humours becoming thick, flat, and turbid, they are no longer capable of transmitting those images in that clear, distinct manner, as formerly. There may be an allusion here to the pupil of the eye. Look into it, and you will see your own image in extreme minature looking out upon you; and hence it has its name pupillus, a little child, from pupus, a baby, a doll; because the image in the eye resembles such. The optic nerve being seated at the bottom of the eye, has the images of surrounding objects painted upon it; it looks out through the different humors. The different membranes and humours which compose the eye, and serve for vision, are, the tunica conjunctiva, the tunica sclerotica, the cornea, the iris, the pupil, the choroides, and the retina. The iris is perforated to admit the rays of light, and is called the pupil; the retina is a diffusion of the optic nerve in the bottom of the eye, on which the images are painted or impressed that give us the sensation we term sight or vision. All these membranes, humours, and nerves, are more or less impaired, thickened, or rendered opaque, by old age, expressed by the metaphor, "Those that look out of the windows are darkened."

### Verse 4

[¶13] And the doors shall be shut in the streets -

[¶14] 5. The doors - the lips, which are the doors by which the mouth is closed.

[¶15] 6. Be shut in the streets - The cavities of the cheeks and jaws, through which the food may be said to travel before it is fitted by mastication or chewing to go down the aesophagus into the stomach. The doors or lips are shut to hinder the food in chewing from dropping out; as the teeth, which prevented that before, are now lost.

[¶16] 7. The sound of the grinding is low - Little noise is now made in eating, because the teeth are either lost, or become so infirm as not to nsuffer their being pressed close together; and the mouth being kept shut to hinder the food from dropping out, the sound in eating is scarcely heard. The teeth are divided into three kinds: -

[¶17] 1. The dentes incisores, or cutting teeth, in the front of the jaw.

[¶18] 2. The dentes canini, or dog teeth, those in the sides of the jaws, for gnawing, or tearing and separating hard or tough substances. And,

[¶19] 3. Dentes molares, or grinding teeth, the posterior or double teeth, in both jaws, generally termed the grinders; because their office is to grind down the substances that have been cut by the fore teeth, separated into their parts or fibres by the dog teeth, and thus prepare it for digestion in the stomach.

[¶20] 8. He shall rise up at the voice of the bird - His sleep is not sound as it used to be; he slumbers rather than sleeps; and the crowing of the cock awakes him. And so much difficulty does he find to respire while in bed, that he is glad of the dawn to rise up and get some relief. The chirping ot the sparrow is sufficient to awake him.

[¶21] 9. All the daughters of music shall be brought low - The Voice, that wonderful instrument, almost endless in the strength and variety of its tones, becomes feeble and squeaking, and merriment and pleasure are no more. The tones emitted are all of the querulous or mournful kind.

### Verse 5

[¶23] When they shall be afraid of that which is high -

[¶24] 10. Being so feeble, they are afraid to trust themselves to ascend steps, stairs, etc., without help. And when they look upwards, their heads turn giddy, and they are ready to fall.

[¶25] 11. Fears shall be in the way - They dare not walk out, lest they should meet some danger, which they have not strength to repel, nor agility to escape. A second childishness has taken place - apprehensions, fears, terrors, and weakness.

[¶26] 12. The almond tree shall flourish - ינאץ yenaets, not flourish, but fall off. The hair begins to change, first gray, then white; it having no longer that supply of nutritive juices which it once had, this animal vegetable withers and falls off. The almond tree, having white flowers, is a fit emblem of a hoary head; or as Hasselquist says, who observed the tree in full flower in Judea, "like an old man with his white locks."

[¶27] 13. The grasshopper shall be a burden - Even such an inconsiderable thing as a locust, or a very small insect, shall be deemed burdensome, their strength is so exceedingly diminished. In cases of the gout, especially in old men, the shadow of a person passing by puts them to acute pain! How much less can they bear the smallest pressure! But probably the words refer to the man himself, who, bent at the loins, and his arms hanging down, exhibits some caricature of the animal in question. The poor grasshopper has become a burden to himself. Another interpretation has been given of the grasshopper; but I pass it by as impertinent and contemptible; such commentators appear as if they wished to render the text ridiculous.

[¶28] 14. Desire shall fail - Both relish and appetite for food, even the most delicate, that to which they were formerly so much attached, now fails. The teeth are no longer able to masticate the food, or have all dropped out; the stomach no longer able to digest any thing; and, as the body is no longer capable of receiving nourishment, appetite and relish necessarily fail.

[¶29] 15. Because man goeth to his long home - אל בית עולמו el beith olamo, "to the house of his age;" the place destined to receive him, when the whole race or course of life shall be finished; for עולם olam takes in the whole course or duration of a thing; if applied to a dispensation, such as the Law, it takes in its whole duration; to the life of man, it takes in the whole life; to time, it includes its whole compass; to eternity, it expresses its infinite duration. So old age terminates the olam, the complete duration of human life; and when life is no longer desired, and nutrition ceases, the olam of man is terminated. My old MS. Bible translates it, The hous of his everlastingness.

[¶30] 16. He is just departing into the invisible world; and this is known by the mourners going abount the streets, the long hollow groans and throat rattlings which proceed from him; the sure prognostications of the extreme debility and speedy cessation of those essential animal functions next mentioned.

### Verse 6

[¶32] Or ever the silver cord be loosed - We have already had all the external evidences of old age, with all its attendant infirmities; next follow what takes place in the body, in order to produce what is called death, or the separation of body and soul.

[¶33] 1. The silver cord - The medulla oblongata or spinal marrow, from which all the nerves proceed, as itself does from the brain. This is termed a cord, from its exact similitude to one; and a silver cord, from its color, as it strikingly exhibits the silver gray; and from its preciousness. This is said to be loosed; as the nervous system became a little before, and at the article of death, wholly debilitated. The last loosing being the fall of the under jaw, the invariable and never-failing evidence of immediate death; a few struggles more, and the soul is dismissed from its clay tenement.

[¶34] 2. The golden bowl be broken - The brain contained in the cranium, or skull, and enveloped with the membranes called the dura and pia mater; here called a bowl, from its resemblance to such a vessel, the container being put for the contained; and golden because of its color, and because of its exceeding preciousness as has been noticed in the former case. Broken - be rendered unfit to perform its functions, neither supplying nor distributing any nervous energy.

[¶35] 3. Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain - The vena cava, which brings back the blood to the right ventricle of the heart, here called the fountain, המבוע hammabbua, the spring whence the water gushes up; properly applied here to the heart, which by its systole and diastole (contraction and expansion) sends out, and afterwards receives back, the blood; for all the blood flows from, and returns back to, the heart.

[¶36] 4. The wheel broken at the cistern - The great aorta, which receives the blood from the cistern, the left ventricle of the heart, and distributes it to the different parts of the system. These may be said, as in the case of the brain above, to bo broken, i.e., rendered useless; when, through the loosening of the silver cord, the total relaxation of the nervous system, the heart becomes incapable of dilatation and contraction, so that the blood, on its return to the right ventricle of the heart, is not recessed, nor that already contained in the ventricles propelled into the great aorta. The wheel is used in allusion to the Asiatic wheels, by which they raise water from their wells and tanks, and deep cisterns, for domestic purposes, or to irrigate the grounds. Thus, then, the blood becomes stagnate; the lungs cease to respire; the blood is no longer oxidized, all motion, voluntary and involuntary, ceases; the body, the house of the immortal spirit, is no longer tenantable, and the soul takes its flight into the eternal world. The man D-I-E-S! This is expressed in the following verse: -

### Verse 7

[¶38] Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God -

[¶39] 5. Putrefaction and solution take place; the whole mass becomes decomposed, and in process of time is reduced to dust, from which it was originally made; while the spirit, הרוח haruach, that spirit, which God at first breathed into the nostrils of man, when he in consequence became a Living Soul, an intelligent, rational, discoursing animal, returns to God who gave it. Here the wise man makes a most evident distinction between the body and the soul: they are not the same; they are not both matter. The body, which is matter, returns to dust, its original; but the spirit, which is immaterial, returns to God. It is impossible that two natures can be more distinct, or more emphatically distinguished. The author of this book was not a materialist.

[¶40] Thus ends this affecting, yet elegant and finished, picture of Old Age and Death. See a description of old age similar, but much inferior, to this, in the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, 5:76-82.

[¶41] It has been often remarked that the circulation of the blood, which has been deemed a modern discovery by our countryman Dr. Harvey, in 1616, was known to Solomon, or whoever was the author of this book: the fountains, cisterns, pitcher, and wheel, giving sufficient countenance to the conclusion.

### Verse 8

[¶43] This affecting and minute description of old age and death is concluded by the author with the same exclamation by which he began this book: O vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth, all is vanity. Now that man, the masterpiece of God's creation, the delegated sovereign of this lower world, is turned to dust, what is there stable or worthy of contemplation besides? All - All is Vanity!

## 770. Ecclesiastes · 19 of 19

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### Verse 9

[¶1] Because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge - And in order to do this he took good heed - considered what would be most useful. He set in order - collected and arranged, many parables, probably alluding to the book over which we have already passed.

### Verse 10

[¶3] He sought to find out acceptable words - דברי חפץ dibrey chephets, words of desire, words of will; the best, the most suitable words; those which the people could best understand. But these words were not such as might merely please the people; they were words of truth; such as came from God, and might lead them to him.

### Verse 11

[¶5] The words of the wise - Doctrines of faith, illustrated by suitable language, are as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, בעלי אספות baaley asuphoth, the masters of collections, those who had made the best collections of this kind, the matter of which was of the most excellent nature; every saying sinking as deeply into the mind, by the force of the truth contained in it, as a nail well pointed does into a board, when impelled by the hammer's force. These masters of collections have been supposed to be public persons appointed by the prince himself, the sole shepherd, to see that nothing was put into the people's hands but what would be profitable for them to read; and that, when any wise man gave public instructions, a good scribe sat by to take down the words; and then the master examined what he had written, to see that it was upright, and that the words were doctrines of truth. These were something like our licensers of the press; but the existence of such is little more than conjecture.

[¶6] After all, masters of assemblies may mean public teachers; that which was written, the oracles of God, out of which they instructed the people; the one Shepherd, God Almighty, from whom they received their authority and unction to preach the truth; and by the energy of whose Spirit the heavenly teaching was fastened in their hearts, as a well-driven nail in a sound piece of wood.

### Verse 12

[¶8] And farther, by these, my son, be admonished - Hear such teachers, and receive their admonitions; and do not receive the grace of God in vain.

[¶9] Of making many books there is no end - Two thousand years have elapsed since this was written; and since that time some millions of treatises have been added, on all kinds of subjects, to those which have gone before. The press is still groaning under and teeming with books, books innumerable; and no one subject is yet exhausted, notwithstanding all that has been written on it. And we who live in these latter times are no nearer an end, in the investigation of Nature and its properties; of God, his attributes, his providence, his justice, and his mercy; of Man, his animal life, his mode of nutrition and existence, and his soul and its powers; of Jesus, and the redemption by him; of Eternity, and what it implies as exhibiting to us the pains of the cursed, and the glories of the blessed. Of several of these we know no more than they who have lived five thousand years before us; nor do we know any thing certainly by the endless books that have been published, except what bears the seal of the God of heaven, as published in that word which was declared by his Spirit.

[¶10] And much study is a weariness of the flesh - O how true is this! Let the trembling knees, the palsied hands, the darkened eyes, the aching heart, and the puzzled mind of every real student declare! And should none more worthy of the name of student be within reach to consult, the writer of this work is a proof in point.

### Verse 13

[¶12] After all, the sum of the great business of human life is comprised in this short sentence, on which some millions of books have been already written!

[¶13] Fear God, and Keep His Commandments

[¶14] 1. Know that He Is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

[¶15] 2. Reverence him; pay him adoration.

[¶16] 3. Love him, that you may be happy.

[¶17] Keep his commandments - They are contained in two words:

[¶18] 1. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart;"

[¶19] 2. "And thy neighbor as thyself."

[¶20] Blessed be God, much reading and much study are not necessary to accomplish this, which is called כל האדם col haadam, the whole of Adam; the whole that God required of the first man and of all his posterity. But the gospel of Jesus Christ must be understood to comprehend the full force of this short saying.

[¶21] The word duty, added here by our translators, spoils, if not Perverts, the sense.

[¶22] The whole passage is rendered with great simplicity by Coverdale: - "The same preacher was not wyse alone: but taught the people knowledge also. He gave good hede, sought out the grounde, and set forth many parables. His diligence was to fynde out acceptable wordes, right scripture, and the wordes of trueth. For the wordes of the wyse are like prickes and nales that go thorow, wherewith men are kepte together: for they are geven of one Shepherd onely. Therefore be warre (my sonne) that above these thou make thee not many and innumerable bookes, nor take dyverse doctrynes in hande, to weery thy body withall. "Let us heare the conclusion of all thinges; Feare God, and kepe his comaundementes, for that toucheth all men; for God shall judge all workes and secrete thinges, whether they be good or evell."

[¶23] I shall give the same from my old MS. Bible: -

[¶24] And wan Ecclesiastes was most wiis he taght the peple, and told out what he had don, and enserchinge maade many parablis. He soght profitable wordis, and wrote most right sermons, and ful of trewth, The wordis of wismen as prickis and as nailis into herte pigt: that bi the counseyle of maisteris ben geven of oon scheperd. More thann thes sone myn, ne seche thou; of making many bokes is noon eend, and oft bethinking is tormenting of the flesche. Eend of spekinge alle togydir heere mee. Drede God, and his hestis kepe; that is eche man. Alle thingis that ben maad schal bringen into dome, for eche erid thinge, whithir good or evyl it be.

### Verse 14

[¶26] For God shall bring every work into judgment - This is the reason why we should "fear God and keep his commandments."

[¶27] 1. Because there will be a day of judgment.

[¶28] 2. Every soul of man shall stand at that bar.

[¶29] 3. God, the infinitely wise, the heart-searching God, will be judge.

[¶30] 4. He will bring to light every secret thing - all that has been done since the creation, by all men; whether forgotten or registered; whether done in secret or in public.

[¶31] 5. All the works of the godly, as well as all the works of the wicked, shall be judged in that day; the good which the godly strove to conceal, as well as the evil which the wicked endeavored to hide.

[¶32] This, then, will be the conclusion of the whole mortal story. And although in this world all is vanity; yet there, "vanities will be vain no more." Every thing whether good or evil, will have its own proper stable, eternal result. O God! prepare the reader to give up his accounts with joy in that day! Amen.

[¶33] Masoretic Notes

[¶34] Number of verses, 222.

[¶35] Middle verse, [Ecc 6:10].

[¶36] Sections, 4.

[¶37] The Arabic subjoins this colophon: - "Praise be to God for ever and ever!" "By the assistance of the Most High God this book of Ecclesiastes, which is vanity of vanities, written by Solomon the son of David who reigned over the children of Israel, is completed."

[¶38] The Syriac has, "The end of the book of Koheleth."

[¶39] There are others, but they are of no importance.

## 771. Song of Solomon · 1 of 10

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### Introduction to the Canticles,or Song of Solomon

[¶1] The book before us is called in the Hebrew שיר השירים Shir Hashshirim, "The Song of Songs;" or, "An Ode of the Odes:" which might be understood, "An Ode taken or selected from others of a similar kind;" or, "An Ode the most excellent of all others;" this being an idiom common to the Hebrew language: e.g., the God of gods is the supreme God; the Lord of lords, the supreme Lord; the King of kings, the supreme King; the heaven of heavens, the supreme or highest heaven. It may therefore be designed to express "a song of the utmost perfection; one of the best that existed, or had ever been penned." Perhaps the title may have a reference to the other poetical compositions of Solomon, which were no less than one thousand and five; and this was considered the most excellent of the whole, and the only one that remains, unless we suppose Solomon, with some of the Jews, to be the author of Psalms 72 and [Psa 127:1-5] : but this cannot be proved.

[¶2] There have been some doubts concerning the author of this book. Some of the rabbins supposed it to be the work of the prophet Isaiah; but this sentiment never gained much credit. Most have, without hesitation, attributed it to Solomon, whose name it bears; and if the book of Ecclesiastes be his, this will follow in course, as the style is exactly the same, allowing for the difference of the subject. Both books seem to have been written about the same time, and to have had the same author.

[¶3] This book, if written by Solomon, could not have been written in his old age, as some have supposed the book of Ecclesiastes to have been; which sentiment is, I think, sufficiently disproved; for we find that long before Solomon's old age he had three hundred wives, and seven hundred concubines; but at the time this Song was written, Solomon had only sixty wives and eighty concubines. And the Song most certainly celebrates a marriage; whether between Solomon and the daughter of Pharaoh, or between him and some Jewish princess, has not been fully agreed on among critics and commentators. It is most likely to have been a juvenile or comparatively juvenile production; and indeed the high and glowing colouring, and the strength of the images, are full proofs of this. Though Anacreon made amatory odes when he was bald-headed, yet neither he nor any one else, humanly speaking, could have made such odes as the Canticles when stricken in years.

[¶4] But to what denomination of writing do the Canticles belong? Are they mere Odes, or Idyls, or Pastorals; or are they an Epithalamium? Let us define these terms, and examine the Song of Solomon by them.

[¶5] 1. The Ode is generally understood to be a species of poetry containing sublime and important matter, always sung, or accompanied by the harp, or some proper musical instrument.

[¶6] 2. The Idyl implies a short poem, containing some adventure.

[¶7] 3. The Pastoral contains what belongs to shepherds, and their occupations.

[¶8] 4. The Epithalamium is the congratulatory song, sung to a new married pair, wishing them abundant blessings, a numerous and happy offspring, etc.

[¶9] Strictly speaking, the Book of Canticles falls under neither of these descriptions: it is rather a composition sui generis, and seems to partake more of the nature of what we call a Mask, than any thing else; an entertainment for the guests who attended the marriage ceremony, with a dramatic cast throughout the whole, though the persons who speak and act are not formally introduced. There are so many touches in the form and manner of this Song like those in the Comus of Milton, that it leads me to doubt whether the English poet has not taken the idea of his mask from the Jewish.

[¶10] As to the persons, chiefly concerned, it is generally believed that Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter are the bridegroom and bride; with their proper attendants, viz., companions of the bridegroom, and companions of the bride, with certain mutes, who only appear, or are mentioned by others, without taking any particular part in the transactions.

[¶11] But it is much more easy to be satisfied on the species of composition to which this book belongs, than on the meaning of the book itself. Is it to be understood in the obvious manner in which it presents itself? And are Solomon and his bride, their friends and companions, to be considered as mere dramatis personae? Or are they typical or representative persons? Does this marriage represent a celestial union? Do the speeches of each contain Divine doctrines? Are the metaphors, taken from earthly things, to be understood of spiritual matters? In a word, does Solomon here represent Jesus Christ. Is the daughter of Pharaoh the Christian Church; or, according to some Roman Catholics, the Virgin Mary? Are watchmen, vineyard-keepers, shepherds, etc., the ministers of the Gospel? Wine and vartous fruits, the influences and graces of the Divine Spirit? etc., etc. How multitudinous and positive are the affirmative answers to these questions! And yet, though the many agree in the general principle, how various their expositions of the different parts of the piece! And where, all this time, is the proof that the principle is not misunderstood? As to conjectures, they are as uncertain as they are endless; and what one pious or learned man may think to be the meaning, is no proof to any other that he should make up his mind in the same way.

[¶12] Let us for a moment consider the different opinions held on this book, without entering into the discussion of their propriety or impropriety. They are the following: -

[¶13] I. It is a plain epithalamium on the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and is to be understood in no other way.

[¶14] II. It is an allegory relative to the conduct of God towards the Hebrews, in bringing them out of Egypt, through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

[¶15] III. It is intended to represent the incarnation of Jesus Christ, or his marriage with human nature, in reference to its redemption.

[¶16] IV. It represents Christ's love to the Church or elected souls, and their love to him.

[¶17] V. It is an allegorical poem on the glories of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.

[¶18] VI. It is a collection of sacred idyls; the spiritual meaning of which is not agreed on.

[¶19] Now each of these opinions has its powerful supporters, and each of these has reasons to offer for the support of the opinion which is espoused; and nothing but a direct revelation from God can show us which of these opinions is the correct one, or whether any of them are correct.

[¶20] The antiquity of an opinion, if that be not founded on a revelation from God, is no evidence of its truth; for there are many ungodly opinions which are more than a thousand years old. And as to great men and great names, we find them enrolled and arranged on each side of all controversies. It may be asked, What do Christ and his apostles say of it?

[¶21] 1. If Jesus Christ or any of his apostles had referred to it as an allegory, and told us the subject which it pointed out, the matter would have been plain: we should then have had data, and had only to proceed in the way of elucidation. But we find nothing of this in the New Testament.

[¶22] 2. If they had referred to it as an allegory, without intimating the meaning, then we should be justified in searching everywhere for that meaning; and conjecture itself would have been legal, till we had arrived at some self-testifying issue.

[¶23] 3. If they had referred to it at all, in connection with spiritual subjects, then we should have at once seen that it was to be spiritually understood; and, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we must have humbly sought for its spiritual interpretation.

[¶24] 4. Had the Supreme Being been introduced, or referred to in any of his essential attributes, or by any of the names which he has been pleased to assume in his revelations to men, we should have then seen that the writer was a spiritual man, and wrote probably in reference to a spiritual end; and, that we should pass by or through his letter, in order to get to the spirit concealed under it.

[¶25] But none of these things appear in this book: the name of God is not found in it; nor is it quoted in the New Testament. As to certain references which its allegorical expositors suppose are made to it, either in the Gospels, Epistles, or Apocalypse, they are not express, and do not, by any thing in or connected with them, appear unequivocally to point out this book. And after all that has been said, I am fully of opinion it is not once referred to in the New Testament. But this is no proof of its not being canonical, as there are other books, on which there is no doubt, that are in the same predicament. But still, if it refer so distinctly to Christ and his Church, as some suppose, it certainly would not have been passed over by both evangelists and apostles without pointed and especial notice; and particularly if it points out the love of Christ to his Church, and the whole economy of God's working in reference to the salvation of the souls of men.

[¶26] From all this it will appear to the intelligent reader, that the spiritual meaning of this book cannot easily be made out:

[¶27] 1. Because we do not know that it is an allegory.

[¶28] 2. If one, the principles on which such allegory is to be explained do nowhere appear.

[¶29] Whom then are we to follow in the interpretation of this very singular book? The Targumist, who applies it to God and the Hebrews, in their journeyings from Egypt to the promised land? Origen, who made it a Christian allegory? Apponius, who spiritualized it? Gregory the Great, who in the main copied them? The good man, who in 1717, at Paris, so illustrated it as "to induce men to devote themselves to Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary?" Mr. Durham, Mr. Robotham, Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. Romaine, and Dr. Gill, who endeavored to prove that it concerns Christ and the elect? Or Mr. Harmer and others who acknowledge it to be an inimitable composition, and to be understood only of Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter? Or, finally, Dr. Mason Good, who considers it a collection of sacred idyls, the spiritual interpretation of which is not agreed on?

[¶30] I had for a long time hesitated whether I should say any thing on this book; not because I did not think I understood its chief design and general meaning, for of this I really have no doubt, but because I did not understand it as a spiritual allegory, representing the loves off Christ and his Church. I must own I see no indubitable ground for this opinion. And is it of no moment whether the doctrines drawn from it, by those who allegorize and spiritualize it, be indubitably founded on it or not? The doctrines may be true in themselves, (which is indeed more than can be said of those of most of its interpreters), but is it not a very solemn, and indeed awful thing to say, This is the voice of Christ to his Church, This is the voice of the Church to Christ, etc., etc., when there is no proof from God, nor from any other portion of his word, that these things are so?

[¶31] It is much better, therefore, if explained or illustrated at all, to take it in its literal meaning, and explain it in its general sense. I say general sense, because there are many passages in it which should not be explained, if taken literally, the references being too delicate; and Eastern phraseology on such subjects is too vivid for European imaginations. Let any sensible and pious medical man read over this book, and, if at all acquainted with Asiatic phraseology, say whether it would be proper, even in medical language, to explain all the descriptions and allusions in this poem.

[¶32] After what I have said on the difficulty of interpreting this book in a spiritual way it would not be fair to withhold from the reader the general arguments on which the theory of its allegorical meaning is founded. The principal part of the commentators on this book, especially those who have made it their separate study, have in general taken it for granted that their mode of interpretation is incontrovertible; and have proceeded to spiritualize every figure and every verse as if they had a Divine warrant for all they have said. Their conduct is dangerous; and the result of their well-intentioned labors has been of very little service to the cause of Christianity in general, or to the interests of true morality in particular. By their mode of interpretation an undignified, not to say mean and carnal, language has been propagated among many well-meaning religious people, that has associated itself too much with selfish and animal affections, and created feelings that accorded little with the dignified spirituality of the religion of the Lord Jesus. I speak not from report; I speak from observation and experience, and observation not hastily made. The conviction on my mind and the conclusion to which I have conscientiously arrived, are the result of frequent examination, careful reading, and close thinking, at intervals, for nearly fifty years; and however I may be blamed by some, and pitied by others, I must say, and I say it as fearlessly as I do conscientiously, that in this inimitably fine elegant Hebrew ode I see nothing of Christ and his Church, and nothing that appears to have been intended to be thus understood; and nothing, if applied in this way, that, per se, can promote the interests of vital godliness, or cause the simple and sincere not to "know Christ after the flesh." Here I conscientiously stand. May God help me!

[¶33] The most rational view of the subject that I have seen is that taken by Mr. Harmer, who has indeed detailed and strengthened the arguments of his predecessors who have declared for the spiritual meaning. In his "Outlines of a Comment upon Solomon's Song," he supposes that the Song refers to Solomon's marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh; and that he had a Jewish queen, who is frequently referred to in the work; and that, unless this be allowed, there are several important passages in the book that cannot be understood; and indeed it is on this principle that he finds his chief ground for a spiritual and allegorical interpretation. "Whatever was the intention of God," says he, "in bringing about this marriage, and in causing it to be celebrated in such an extraordinary manner, by songs that were directed to be placed among the sacred writings, it is certain there never was any resemblance more striking between the circumstances and transactions of any of the remarkable personages of the Old Testament and those of Messiah, than the likeness we may observe between Solomon marrying a Gentile princess, and making her equal in honor and privileges with his former Jewish queen, and in her being frequently mentioned afterwards in history, while the other is passed over in total silence, and the conduct of the Messiah towards the Gentile and Jewish Churches. "The two remarkable things in the conduct of the Messiah towards the two Churches are the making the Gentiles fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of the promises, without and difference; and the giving up to neglect the Jewish Church, while that of the Gentiles has long flourished in great honor, and been the subject of many a history. St. Paul takes notice of both these circumstances with particular solemnity; of the first, in the third chapter of Ephesians, and elsewhere; of the other, in the eleventh chapter of Romans. They are points, then, that deserve great attention. "They are both called mysteries, ([Rom 11:25]; [Eph 3:3]), that is, things that had been concealed aforetime; but it by no means follows that there were no shadowy representations of these events in the preceding ages, only that they were not clearly and expressly revealed. "Kingdoms and cities are frequently spoken of in holy writ as women. Sacred as well as secular bodies of men are represented under that image. The universal Church is spoken of under the notion of a bride, and the Messiah as her husband, Ephesians 5: The two Churches of Jews and Gentiles, or the Church under the Mosaic dispensation and the Church freed from those ceremonies, are represented as two women - the one formerly treated as the principal wife; and the second, as having been for a long time neglected, but afterwards producing a much more numerous issue than the first-by the prophet Isaiah in his fifty-fourth chapter, according to the explanation St. Paul has given of that passage in Galatians 4: Particular Churches are mentioned after the same manner. So, concerning the Church at Corinth, St. Paul says, "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ;" [2Cor 11:2]. "Since then it is common for the Scriptures to represent the Church of God under the notion of a woman, and the Messiah under that of a husband; since the two bodies of men - that which worshipped God according to the Mosaic rites, and that which observed them not - are compared to two women; and since the circumstances of these two Churches are such as I have given an account of from St. Paul, it must be acknowledged that there is a lively resemblance between Solomon's espousing the Egyptian princess and the Messiah's admitting the Gentiles to equal privileges with the Jews, whether it was or was not designed by God as an emblem and type of it celebrated by his prophets for this cause, in holy songs; and those songs preserved with care to this day among writings of the most sacred kind on that account."

[¶34] This is the whole of Mr. Harmer's argument; see his Outlines, pages 74-77. And what is proved by it? Nothing, in reference to this book. We know that the Jewish people, not the Church exclusively, are represented under the notion of a woman addicted, and a wife unfaithful, divorced, and forsaken, etc.; and that the Corinthians were represented under the notion of a chaste virgin espoused to Christ. And we know that all this was done to show, that as the marriage union was the closest, strictest, and most sacred among men, the union of the soul to God, and its connection with him, might be most fitly represented by that union, and unfaithfulness to him by infidelity in the other case. But what has this to do with the Song of Solomon? Where is the intimation that Solomon represents Christ; Pharaoh's daughter, the Church of the Gentiles; and the Jewish queen, the Church of the Israelites? Nowhere. Why then assume the thing that should be proved; and then build doctrines on it, and draw inferences from it, as if the assumption had been demonstrated?

[¶35] Were this mode of interpretation to be applied to the Scriptures in general, (and why not, if legitimate here?) in what a state would religion soon be! Who could see any thing certain, determinate, and fixed in the meaning of the Divine oracles, when fancy and imagination must be the standard interpreters? God has not left his word to man's will in this way.

[¶36] Every attempt, however well-intentioned, to revive this thriftless, not to say dangerous, Origenian method of seducing the Scriptures to particular creeds and purposes, should be regarded with jealousy; and nothing received as the doctrine of the Lord but what may be derived from those plain words of the Most High which lie most on a level with the capacities of mankind. Allegory, metaphor, and figures in general, where the design is clearly indicated, which is the case with all those employed by the sacred writers, may come in to illustrate and more forcibly to apply Divine truth; but to extort celestial meanings from a whole book, where no such indication is given, is most certainly not the way to arrive at the knowledge of the true God, and of Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

[¶37] As the Jewish marriages were celebrated for seven days, it has been often observed that this Song divides itself into seven periods, and describes the transactions of each.

[¶38] I. The First chapter represents the bridegroom and bride as a shepherd and shepherdess. The bride asks her spouse where he takes his flock at noon, to preserve them from the excessive heat, lest she, in seeking him, should go astray into some strange pastures. After this day, the first night succeeds, which is pointed out [Sol 2:4-6]. The bridegroom rises early in the morning, leaves the bride asleep, and goes hastily to the fields to his necessary occupations, [Sol 2:7].

[¶39] II. The Second night is pointed out [Sol 2:8], [Sol 2:9], etc. The bridegroom comes to the window of his spouse. She opens it, and he enters; and on the morrow, he returns to the fields to his flocks, [Sol 2:17].

[¶40] III. The Third night, the bridegroom having delayed his coming, the bride, being uneasy, arises from her bed, and goes out and inquires of the guards of the city, whether they had seen her beloved. She had not gone far from them till she met with him; she conducts him to her apartment, 3:14. Very early in the morning, he retires to the country, leaving the bride asleep, verse 5. Afterwards she arises, and goes also to the fields, verse 6.The Fourth chapter is an eulogium on the bride's beauty; and seems to be a conversation between the parties in the country. She invites the bridegroom to visit her, [Sol 5:1]. He leaves his friends, with whom he was feasting, and comes to the door of his spouse, [Sol 5:2]. She hesitating to let him in, he withdraws and goes to his garden. The bride follows; but, not knowing whither he had retired, asks the guards of the city, by whom she is maltreated; thence goes to the daughters of Jerusalem, and inquires of them, [Sol 5:3], etc. At last she meets with him, [Sol 6:1], etc., and having spent some time with him, returns.

[¶41] IV. [Sol 6:9], points out the Fourth night of the marriage.

[¶42] V. The Fifth night is pointed out [Sol 7:1], etc. The bridegroom gives his bride nearly the same praise and commendations which he had received from her in the preceding chapters; and early in the morning they go out together to the fields, [Sol 7:11-13].

[¶43] VI. The Sixth night they pass at a village in the country, at the house of a person who is termed the bride's mother, [Sol 7:13]; [Sol 8:1-3]. She invites her spouse thither, and promises to regale him with excellent fruits and choice wine; and early in the morning the bridegroom arises, leaves the bride asleep as formerly, and retires to the country, [Sol 8:4].

[¶44] VII. The Seventh night is passed in the gardens. From [Sol 8:5], we have a series of dialogues between the bride and bridegroom. In the morning the bridegroom, having perceived that they were overheard, begs the bride to permit him to retire. She assents, [Sol 8:13], [Sol 8:14], and exhorts him "to make haste, and be like a roe or a young hart on the mountains of spices."

## 772. Song of Solomon · 2 of 10

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[¶0] This is the division, which is in the main most followed, especially by the best critics. But, besides this, several others have been proposed; and the reader, who wishes to enter more particularly into the subject, may consult Bishop Bossuet, Calmet, and Bishop Lowth. For my own part I doubt the propriety of this technical arrangement, and do not think that any thing of the kind was intended by the author. The division is not obvious; and therefore, in my apprehension, not natural. Of Dr. Good's division I shall speak below.

[¶1] The dramatis personae have been marked by some of the ancient interpreters, and the different portions of the whole Song appointed to several persons who are specified; and this division served for the basis of a commentary. The most regular division of this kind with which I have met is in a MS. of my own; the Bible which I have often quoted in my comment.

[¶2] This, attributed by some to Wiclif, and by others to an older translator, I have carefully transcribed, with all the distinction of parts and speeches. The translation is very simple; and in many cases is much more faithful to the meaning of the Hebrew text, though in the main taken from the Vulgate, than our own version. It is a great curiosity, and certainly was never before printed; and is a fine specimen of our mother tongue as spoken in these countries in M.CCCLX., which may be about the date of this translation. On the common mode of interpretation I venture to assert that my readers will understand this Song ten times better from this translation and its rubricks, than they have ever done from all the forms in which it has been presented to them, to the present time. For this addition, I anticipate the thanks of every intelligent reader. The indications of the speakers, printed here in black letter, are all rubrick, in the beautiful original. I have added a short glossary on some of the more difficult or obsolete words, which will assist the less experienced reader, under whose notice such remote specimens of his own tongue seldom fall.

[¶3] Between twenty and thirty years ago I received from India a part of the Gitagovinda, or Songs of Jayadeva. This poet, the finest lyric poet of India, flourished before the Christian era; and the poem above, which makes the tenth book of the Bhagavet, was written professedly to celebrate the loves of Chrishna and Radha, or the reciprocal attraction between the Divine goodness and the human soul. The author leaves us in no doubt concerning the design of this little pastoral drama; for in the conclusion he thus speaks: "Whatever is delightful in the modes of music, whatever is Divine in Meditations on Vishnu, whatever is exquisite in the sweet art of love, whatever is graceful in the fine strains of poetry; all that, let the happy and wise learn from the Songs of Jayadeva, whose soul is united with the foot of Narayan." Vishnu and Narayan are epithets of Christina, or the supreme incarnated god of the Hindoos. I found the general phraseology of this work, and its imagery as well as its subject, to correspond so much with those of the Song of Solomon, that in the short notes which I wrote on this book in 1798, I proposed the illustration of many of its passages from the Gitagovinda; and was pleased to find, several years after, that my view of the subject had been confirmed by that encyclopedia of learning and science, Dr. Mason Good, who in his translation of the Song of Songs, with critical notes, published 1803, 8vo., has illustrated many passages from the Gitagovinda.

[¶4] After having made a selection from this ancient poet for the illustration of the Song of Solomon, I changed in some measure my purpose, and determined to give the whole work, and leave it to my readers to apply those passages which they might think best calculated to throw light upon a book which professedly has the wisest of men for its author, and according to the opinion of many, the most important doctrines of the Christian religion for its subject. I have now followed the metrical version which I received from India, but rather the prose translation of Sir William Jones; dividing it into parts and verses, after the model of the metrical version above mentioned; and adding verbal interpretations of the principal proper names and difficult terms which are contained in the work.

[¶5] Having been long convinced that the Chaldee Taryum is at once the oldest and most valuable comment upon this book, I have also added this. And here I might say that I have not only followed my own judgment, but that also of a very learned divine, Dr. John Gill, who, having preached one hundred and twenty-two sermons on the Song of Solomon, to the Baptist congregation at Horsleydown, near London, embodied them all in what he calls "An Exposition" of this book; to which he added a translation of the Targum, with short explanatory notes, folio, 1728. This was, however, suppressed in all the later editions of this exposition; but why, I cannot tell. This piece I give to my readers, and for the same reasons alleged by this very learned and excellent man himself: - "At the end of this exposition I have given," says he, "a version of the Targum or Chaldee paraphrase upon the whole book, with some notes thereon, induced hereunto by the following reasons: "First, to gratify the curiosity of some who, observing frequent mention and use made of it in my exposition, might be desirous of perusing the whole. "Secondly, for the profitableness thereof. Our learned countryman, Mr. Broughton, says, this paraphrase is worth our study both for delight and profit. It expounds several passages of Scripture, and some in the New Testament, which I have directed to in my notes upon it; and I am persuaded that the writings of the Jews, the ancient Jews especially, would give us much light into the phraseology and sense of abundance of texts in the New Testament."

[¶6] It is certain that this paraphrase does very often direct us, or at least confirm us, as to the persons speaking in this Song, to know which is of very great use in the explication of it. I shall add another reason: I believe the Song of Solomon refers more to the Jewish than to the Christian Church, and I think the Targumist has made a more rational use of it than any of his successors.

[¶7] I have thus places within the reach of all my readers Three especial helps towards a good understanding of this book:

[¶8] 1. The ancient English translation, with its curious dramatis personae

[¶9] 2. The Gitagovinda, a most curious poem of the spiritual and allegorical kind.

[¶10] 3. The Chaldee Targam, the oldest comment on this Song. And I add my prayer, May God guide the reader into all truth, through Christ Jesus! Amen.

[¶11] On this part of the subject it would be almost criminal not to mention, still more particularly, Dr. Mason Good's translation and notes on the Song of Songs. He has done much to elucidate its phraseology, and his notes are a treasury of critical learning. He considers the book to be a collection of Sacred Idyls, twelve in number; and his division is as follows:

[¶12] Idyl I Royal Bride [Sol 1:2], [Sol 1:3], [Sol 1:4] Attendant Virgins Part of the fourth verse, beginning, "We will exult." Royal Bride [Sol 1:5], [Sol 1:6], [Sol 1:7] Attendant Virgins [Sol 1:8] Idyl II King Solomon [Sol 1:9], [Sol 1:10], [Sol 1:11] Royal Bride [Sol 1:12], [Sol 1:13], [Sol 1:14] King Solomon [Sol 1:15] Royal Bride [Sol 1:16], [Sol 1:17], [Sol 2:1] King Solomon [Sol 2:2] Royal Bride [Sol 2:3], [Sol 2:4], [Sol 2:5], [Sol 2:6], [Sol 2:7] Idyl III Royal Bride [Sol 2:8], [Sol 2:9], [Sol 2:10], [Sol 2:11], [Sol 2:12], [Sol 2:13], [Sol 2:14], [Sol 2:15], [Sol 2:16], [Sol 2:17] Idyl IV Royal Bride [Sol 3:1], [Sol 3:2], [Sol 3:3], [Sol 3:4], [Sol 3:5] Idyl VScene, a Chiosk or Pavilion Attendant Virgins [Sol 3:6] Other Virgins [Sol 3:7], [Sol 3:8], [Sol 3:9], [Sol 3:10] Royal Bride [Sol 3:11] King Solomon [Sol 4:1], [Sol 4:2], [Sol 4:3], [Sol 4:4], [Sol 4:5], [Sol 4:6], [Sol 4:7] Idyl VI King Solomon [Sol 4:8], [Sol 4:9], [Sol 4:10], [Sol 4:11], [Sol 4:12], [Sol 4:13], [Sol 4:14], [Sol 4:15] Royal Bride [Sol 4:16] King Solomon [Sol 5:1] Royal Bride Part of the first verse, beginning, "Eat, O my friends." Idyl VII Royal Bride [Sol 5:2], [Sol 5:3], [Sol 5:4], [Sol 5:5], [Sol 5:6], [Sol 5:7], [Sol 5:8] Virgins [Sol 5:9] Royal Bride [Sol 5:10], [Sol 5:11], [Sol 5:12], [Sol 5:13], [Sol 5:14], [Sol 5:15], [Sol 5:16] Virgins [Sol 6:1] Royal Bride [Sol 6:2], [Sol 6:3] King Solomon [Sol 6:4], [Sol 6:5], [Sol 6:6], [Sol 6:7], [Sol 6:8], [Sol 6:9], [Sol 6:10] Idyl VIII Royal Bride [Sol 6:11], [Sol 6:12] Virgins [Sol 6:13] Royal Bride Part of the thirteenth verse, beginning, "What do you expect?" Virgins Latter part of the thirteenth verse, beginning "Fortitude." Idyl IX Virgins [Sol 7:1], [Sol 7:2], [Sol 7:3], [Sol 7:4], [Sol 7:5] King Solomon [Sol 7:6], [Sol 7:7], [Sol 7:8], [Sol 7:9] Idyl X Royal Bride [Sol 7:10], [Sol 7:11], [Sol 7:12], [Sol 7:13], [Sol 8:1], [Sol 8:2], [Sol 8:3], [Sol 8:4] Idyl XI Virgins [Sol 8:5] King Solomon Part of the fifth verse, beginning, "I excited thee." Royal Bride [Sol 8:6] King Solomon [Sol 8:7] Idyl XII Royal Bride [Sol 8:8] King Solomon [Sol 8:9] Royal Bride [Sol 8:10], [Sol 8:11], [Sol 8:12] King Solomon [Sol 8:13] Royal Bride [Sol 8:14] There have been various opinions on this division; and many will still think that much remains yet to be done. Dr. Good considers it a spiritual allegory; but he does not attempt a spiritual application of any part of it. This perhaps is no mean proof of his good sense and judgment. I have acted in the same way, though not so convinced of its spirituality as Dr. Good appears to be. If I took it up in this way, I should explain it according to my own creed, as others have done according to theirs; and could I lay it down as a maxim, that it is to be spiritually interpreted in reference to the Christian Revelation, I might soon show my reader that it points out the infinite love of God to every human soul, in the incarnation of Christ; the means he uses to bring all mankind to an acquaintance with himself; the redemption of true believers from all unrighteousness, through the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit; their consequent holy life, and godly conversation; the calling of the Gentiles; the restoration of the Jews; and the final judgment! And my comment on this plan would have just as solid a foundation as those of my predecessors, from Origen to the present day.

[¶13] To conclude: I advise all young ministers to avoid preaching on Solomon's Song. If they take a text out of it, to proclaim salvation to lost sinners, thev must borrow their doctrines from other portions of Scripture, where all is plain and pointed. And why then leave such, and go out of their way to find allegorical meanings, taking a whole book by storm, and leaving the word of God to serve tables?

[¶14] It is curious to see the manner in which many preachers and commentators attempt to expound this book. They first assume that the book refers to Christ and his Church; his union with human nature; his adoption of the Gentiles; and his everlasting love to elect souls, gathered out of both people; then take the words bride, bridegroom, spouse, love, watchmen, shepherds, tents, door, lock, etc., etc., and, finding some words either similar or parallel, in other parts of the sacred writings, which have there an allegorical meaning, contend that those here are to be similarly understood; and what is spoken of those apply to these; and thus, in fact, are explaining other passages of Scripture in their own way, while professing to explain the Song of Solomon! What eminent talents, precious time, great pains, and industry, have been wasted in this way! One eminent scholar preaches to his congregation one hundred and twenty-two sermons upon the Song of Solomon, while all this time the evangelists and apostles have been comparatively forgotten; except only as they are referred to in illustration of the particular creed which such writers and preachers found on this book. How can they account to God for so much time spent on a tract which requires all their ingenuity and skill to make edifying, even on their own plan; a text of which they are not permitted to allege, in controversy, to prove the truth of any disputed doctrine? This, however, is not the fault of any particular class of ministers exclusively; several of all classes, though of some more than of others, have been found, less or more, laboring at this thriftless craft. Some, having preached on it during the whole of their ministry, have carried it, in a certain way, beyond the grave. An aged minister once told me, in a very solemn manner, that as God had been exceedingly merciful to him in saving his soul, and putting him into the ministry, thus accounting him faithful, he hoped that, when called to the Church above, if any funeral sermon were preached for him, it should be from Song of Solomon, [Sol 1:8] : "Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents." That he could have applied these words to his own state, and the use which should be made of his life and death, I have no doubt; but who, from this text, would have chosen to pronounce the funeral oration?

[¶15] I repeat it, and I wish to be heard by young ministers in particular, take the plainest texts when you attempt to convince men of sin, and build up believers on their most holy faith; and thus show rather your love for their souls than your dexterity in finding out spiritual meanings for obscure passages, on the true signification of which few, either among the learned or pious, are agreed.

[¶16] I now, according to my promise, lay before my readers a transcript from my own MS. Bible, which is most probably the first translation of this Song that was ever made into the English language. I have added, for the sake of reference, the figures for the present division into verses, in the margin: these are not in the MS. The dramatic personae, here in black letter, are in red in the MS. The orthography is scrupulously followed.

[¶17] The bride's love to her spouse, [Sol 1:1-5]. She conffieuses her unworthiness; desires to be directed to the flock, [Sol 1:6], [Sol 1:7]; and she is directed to the shepherds' tents, [Sol 1:8]. The bridegroom describes his bride, and shows how he will provide for her, and how comfortably they are accommodated, [Sol 1:9-17].

### Verse 1

[¶19] The song of songs - A song of peculiar excellence. See the Introduction. The rabbins consider this superior to all songs. Ten songs, says the Tarpon, have been sung; but this excels them all.

[¶20] 1. The first was sung by Adam when his sin was pardoned.

[¶21] 2. The second was sung by Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea.

[¶22] 3. The third was sung by the Israelites when they drank of the rock in the wilderness.

[¶23] 4. The fourth was sung by Moses when summoned to depart from this world.

[¶24] 5. The fifth was sung by Joshua when the sun and moon stood still.

[¶25] 6. The sixth was sung by Deborah and Barak after the defeat of Sisera.

[¶26] 7. The seventh was sung by Hannah when the Lord promised her a son.

[¶27] 8. The eighth was sung by David for all the mercies given him by God.

[¶28] 9. The ninth is the present, sung in the spirit of prophecy by Solomon.

[¶29] 10. The tenth is that which shall be sung by the children of Israel when restored from their captivities. See the Targum.

### Verse 2

[¶31] Let him kiss me, etc. - She speaks of the bridegroom in the third person, to testify her own modesty, and to show him the greater respect.

[¶32] Thy love is better than wine - The versions in general translate דדיך dodeyca, thy breasts; and they are said to represent, spiritually, the Old and New Testaments.

### Verse 3

[¶34] Thy name is as ointment poured forth - Ointments and perfumes were, and still are, in great request among the Asiatics. They occur constantly in their entertainments. Thy name is as refreshing to my heart, as the best perfumes diffused through a chamber are to the senses of the guests.

[¶35] Therefore do the virgins love thee - She means herself; but uses this periphrasis through modesty.

### Verse 4

[¶37] Draw me - Let me have the full assurance of thy affection.

[¶38] We will run after thee - Speaking in the plural through modesty, while still herself is meant.

[¶39] The king hath brought me - My spouse is a potentate, a mighty king, no ordinary person.

[¶40] Into his chambers - He has favored me with his utmost confidence.

[¶41] The upright love thee - The most perfect and accomplished find thee worthy of their highest esteem.

### Verse 5

[¶43] I am black, but comely - This is literally true of many of the Asiatic women; though black or brown, they are exquisitely beautiful. Many of the Egyptian women are still fine; but their complexion is much inferior to that of the Palestine females. Though black or swarthy in my complexion, yet am I comely - well proportioned in every part.

[¶44] As the tents of Kedar - I am tawny, like the tents of the Arabians, and like the pavilions of Solomon, probably covered by a kind of tanned cloth. The daughters of Jerusalem are said to represent the synagogue; the bride, the Church of Christ. It is easy to find spiritual meanings: every creed will furnish them.

## 773. Song of Solomon · 3 of 10

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/773/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/773/#p-N

### Verse 6

[¶1] Because the sun hath looked upon me - The bride gives here certain reasons why she was dark complexioned. "The sun hath looked upon me." I am sunburnt, tanned by the sun; being obliged, perhaps, through some domestic jealously or uneasiness, to keep much without: "My mother's children were angry; they made me keeper of the vineyards." Here the brown complexion of the Egyptians is attributed to the influence of the sun or climate.

[¶2] My mother's children were angry with me - Acted severely. The bringing of a foreigner to the throne would no doubt excite jealousy among the Jewish females; who, from their own superior complexion, national and religious advantages, might well suppose that Solomon should not have gone to Egypt for a wife and queen, while Judea could have furnished him with every kind of superior excellence.

### Verse 7

[¶4] Tell me - where thou feedest - This is spoken as if the parties were shepherds, or employed in the pastoral life. But how this would apply either to Solomon, or the princes of Egypt, is not easy to ascertain. Probably in the marriage festival there was something like our masks, in which persons of quality assumed rural characters and their employments. See that fine one composed by Milton, called Comus.

[¶5] To rest at noon - In hot countries the shepherds and their flocks are obliged to retire to shelter during the burning heats of the noon-day sun. This is common in all countries, in the summer heats, where shelter can be had.

[¶6] One that turneth aside - As a wanderer; one who, not knowing where to find her companions, wanders fruitlessly in seeking them. It was customary for shepherds to drive their flocks together for the purpose of conversing, playing on the pipe, or having trials of skill in poetry or music. So Virgil: -

[¶7] Forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis

[¶8] Compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum:

[¶9] Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas;

[¶10] Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo,

[¶11] Et cantare pares, et respondere parati. [Ecc 7:1]. "Beneath a holm repair'd two jolly swains:

[¶12] Their sheep and goats together grazed the plains;

[¶13] Both young Arcadians, both alike inspired

[¶14] To sing and answer as the song required."

[¶15] Dryden.

[¶16] This does not express the sense of the original: from the different pastures in which they had been accustomed to feed their flocks, they drove their sheep and goats together for the purpose mentioned in the pastoral; and, in course, returned to their respective pasturages, when their business was over.

### Verse 8

[¶18] If thou know not - This appears to be the reply of the virgins.

[¶19] They know not exactly; and therefore direct the bride to the shepherds, who would give information.

### Verse 9

[¶21] I have compared thee - to a company of horses - This may be translated, more literally, "I have compared thee, to my mare, in the chariots or courses of Pharaoh;" and so the versions understood it. Mares, in preference to horses, were used both for riding and for chariots in the East. They are much swifter, endure more hardship. and will go longer without food, than either the stallion or the gelding.

[¶22] There is perhaps no brute creature in the world so beautiful as a fine well-bred horse or mare; and the finest woman in the universe, Helen, has been compared to a horse in a Thessalian chariot, by Theocritus. Idyl. 18: ver. 28: - Ὡδε και ἁ χρυσεα Ἑλενα διαφαινετ' εν ἡμιν, Πιειρη, μεγαλη, ἁτ' ανεδραμεν ογμος αρουρᾳ, Η καπῳ κυπαρισσος, η ἁρματι Θεσσαλος ἱππος. "The golden Helen, tall and graceful, appears as distinguished among us as the furrow in the field, the cypress in the garden, or the Thessalian horse in the chariot."

[¶23] This passage amply justifies the Hebrew bard, in the simile before us. See [Jer 6:2].

### Verse 10

[¶25] Thy cheeks are comely - D'Arvieux has remarked that "the Arabian ladies wear a great many pearls about their necks and caps. They have golds chains about their necks which hang down upon their bosoms with strings of coloured gauze; the gauze itself bordered with zechins and other pieces of gold coin, which hang upon their foreheods and both cheeks. The ordinary women wear small silver coins, with which they cover their forehead-piece like fish scales, as this is one of the principal ornaments of their faces." I have seen their essence bottles ornamented with festoons of aspers, and small pieces of silver pearls, beads, etc. One of these is now before me.

### Verse 11

[¶27] Borders of gold - I have observed several of the handkerchiefs, shawls, and head attire of the Eastern women, curiously and expensively worked in the borders with gold and silver, and variously coloured silk, which has a splendid effect.

### Verse 12

[¶29] While the king sitteth at his table - במסבו bimsibbo, in his circle, probably meaning the circle of his friends at the marriage festivals, or a round table.

### Verse 13

[¶31] He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts - Mr. Harmer contends that it is the bundle of myrrh which the bride says shall lie all night betwixt her breasts, to which she compares the bridegroom, his name being as pleasing and refreshing to her mind, as the myrrh or stacte was to her senses, by its continual fragrance.

### Verse 14

[¶33] A cluster of camphire - Mr. Hasselquist supposes this to mean a bunch of the Cyprus grape; but this is supposed to mean a shrub so called, not any production of the isle of Cypress; the best kinds of which were found at En-gedi. This place belonged to the tribe of Judah.

[¶34] Perhaps the poet alludes to the dark color of the hair, which by the Greeks was not unfrequently compared to the bunches of grapes; by no means an unfit similitude for thick black clustering curls. The following lines represent the same idea: - "The dark black locks that ornament her neck

[¶35] Hang thick and clustering like the branchy palm."

### Verse 15

[¶37] Thou hast doves' eyes - The large and beautiful dove of Syria is supposed to be here referred to, the eyes of which are remarkably fine.

### Verse 16

[¶39] Also our bed is green - ערס eres, from its use in several places of the Hebrew Bible, generally signifies a mattress; and here probably a green bank is meant, on which they sat down, being now on a walk in the country. Or it may mean a bower in a garden, or the nuptial bed.

### Verse 17

[¶41] The beams of our house are cedar - Perhaps it was under a cedar tree whose vast limbs were interwoven with the ברות beroth, a tree of the cypress kind, where they now sat. And this natural bower recommended itself to the poet's attention by its strength, loftiness, and its affording them a shady cover and cool retreat. How natural to break out into the praise of a bower, by whose branches and foliage we are shielded from the intense heat of the sun! Even the shelter of a great rock to a weary land is celebrated by the pen of the first of prophets and greatest of poets, [Isa 32:2].

[¶42] With this chapter the first day of the marriage ceremonies is supposed to end.

### Introduction

[¶44] A description of the bridegroom, and his love to the bride, [Sol 2:1-9]. A fine description of spring, [Sol 2:10-13]. The mutual love of both, [Sol 2:14-17].

## 774. Song of Solomon · 4 of 10

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### Verse 1

[¶1] I am the rose of Sharon - Sharon was a very fruitful place, where David's cattle were fed, [1Chr 27:29]. It is mentioned as a place of excellence, [Isa 35:2], and as a place of flocks, [Isa 65:10], Perhaps it would be better, with almost all the versions, to translate, "I am the rose of the field." The bridegroom had just before called her fair; she with a becoming modesty, represents her beauty as nothing extraordinary, and compares herself to a common flower of the field. This, in the warmth of his affection, he denies, insisting that she as much surpasses all other maidens as the flower of the lily does the bramble, [Sol 2:2].

### Verse 3

[¶3] As the apple tree - The bride returns the compliment, and says, As the apple or citron tree is among the trees of the wood, so is the bridegroom among all other men.

[¶4] I sat down under his shadow - I am become his spouse, and my union with him makes me indescribably happy.

### Verse 4

[¶6] He brought me to the banqueting house - Literally, the house of wine. The ancients preserved their wine, not in barrels or dark cellars under ground, as we do, but in large pitchers, ranged against the wall in some upper apartment in the house, the place where they kept their most precious effects. We have a proof of this in Homer: - Ως φαν· ὁ δ' ὑψοραφον θαλομον κατεβησατο πατρος Ευρυν, ὁθι νητος χρυσος και χαλκος εκειτο, Εσθης τ' εν χηλοισιν, ἁλις τ' ευωδες ελαιον. Εν δε πιθοι οινοιο παλαιου ἡδυποτοιο Εστασαν, ακρητον θειον ποτον εντος εχοντες, Ἑξειης ποτε τοιχον αρηροτες· ειποτ' Οδυσσευς Οικαδε νοστησειε, και αλγεα πολλα μογησας. Κληΐσται δ' επεσαν σανιδες πυκινως αραρυιαι, Δικλιδες· εν δε γυνη ταμιη νυκτας τε και ημαρ Εσχ', κ. τ. λ.. Od. lib. ii., ver. 337.

[¶7] Meantime the lofty rooms the prince surveys,

[¶8] Where lay the treasures of th' Ithacian race.

[¶9] Here, ruddy brass and gold refulgent blazed;

[¶10] There, polished chests embroider'd gestures graced.

[¶11] Here, pots of oil breathed forth a rich perfume;

[¶12] There, jars of wine in rows adorn'd the dome. (Pure flavorous wine, by gods in bounty given,

[¶13] And worthy to exalt the feasts of heaven).

[¶14] Untouch'd they stood, till, his long labors o'er,

[¶15] The great Ulysses reach'd his native shore.

[¶16] A double strength of bars secured the gates;

[¶17] Fast by the door wise Euryclea waits, etc.

[¶18] Pope.

### Verse 5

[¶20] Stay me with flagons - I believe the original words mean some kind of cordials with which we are unacquainted. The versions in general understand some kind of ointment or perfumes by the first term. I suppose the good man was perfectly sincere who took this for his text, and, after having repeated, Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love sat down, perfectly overwhelmed with his own feelings, and was not able to proceed! But while we admit such a person's sincerity, who can help questioning his judgment?

### Verse 7

[¶22] I charge you - by the roes - This was probably some rustic mode of adjuration. The verses themselves require little comment. With this verse the first night of the first day is supposed to end.

### Verse 8

[¶24] Behold, he cometh leaping - This appears to be highly characteristic of the gambols of the shepherds, and points out the ecstasy with which those who were enamoured ran to their mates. It is supposed that the second day's eclogue begins at this verse. The author of what was then called A New Translation of Solomon's Song, observes,

[¶25] 1. The bride relates how the bridegroom, attended by his companions, had come under her window, and called upon her to come forth and enjoy the beauties of the spring, [Sol 2:9-11], etc.

[¶26] 2. She then returns to her narration, [Sol 3:1]. The bridegroom did not come according to her wishes. Night came on; she did not find him in her bed; she went out to seek him; found him, and brought him to her mother's pavilion, [Sol 3:4]; and then, as before, conjures the virgins not to disturb his repose, [Sol 3:5].

### Verse 9

[¶28] He standeth behind our wall - This may refer to the wall by which the house was surrounded, the space between which and the house constituted the court. He was seen first behind the wall, and then in the court; and lastly came to the window of his bride's chamber.

### Verse 11

[¶30] The winter is past - Mr. Harmer has made some good collections on this part, from Drs. Shaw and Russet, which I shall transcrilbe. One part of the winter is distinguished from the rest of it by the people of the East, on account of the severity of the cold. At Aleppo it lasts about forty days, and is called by the natives maurbanie. I would propose it to the consideration of the learned, whether the word here used, and translated winter, may not be understood to mean what the Aleppines express by the term maurbanie. It occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament; and another word is used for the rainy part of the year in general. If this thought be admitted, it will greatly illustrate the words of the bridegroom: Lo, the winter is past; the rain is over, and gone. For then the last clause will not be explanatory of the first, and signify that the moist part of the year was entirely past; with which, Dr. Russel assures us, all pleasantness withdraws at Aleppo; but the words will import: "The maurbanie is past and over; the weather is become agreeably warm; the rain too is just ceased, and consequently hath left us the prospect of several days of serenity and undisturbed pleasantness."

[¶31] The weather of Judea was in this respect, I presume, like that at Algiers; where, after two or three days of rain, there is usually, according to Dr. Shaw, "a week, a fortnight, or more, of fair and good weather. Of such a sort of cessation of rain alone, the bridegroom, methinks, is here to be understood; not of the absolute termination of the rainy season, and the summer droughts being come on. And if so, what can the time that is past mean but the maurbanie? Indeed, Dr. Russel, in giving us an account of the excursions of the English merchants at Aleppo, has undesignedly furnished us with a good comment on this and the two following verses. These gentlemen, it seems, dine abroad under a tent, in spring and autumn on Saturdays, and often on Wednesdays. They do the same during the good weather in winter; but they live at the gardens in April, and part of May. In the heat of the summer they dine at the gardens, as once or twice a week they dine under a tent in autumn and spring." The cold weather is not supposed by Solomon to have been long over, since it is distinctly mentioned; and the Aleppines make these incursions very early; the narcissus flowers during the whole of the maurbanie; the hyacinths and violets at least before it is quite over. The appearing of flowers, then, doth not mean the appearing of the first and earliest flowers, but must rather be understood of the earth's being covered with them; which at Aleppo is not till after the middle of February, a small crane's bill appearing on the banks of the river there about the middle of February, quickly after which comes a profusion of flowers. The nightingales, too, which are there in abundance, not only afford much pleasure by their songs in the gardens, but are also kept tame in the houses, and let out at a small rate to divert such as choose it in the city; so that no entertainments are made in the spring without a concert of these birds. No wonder, then, that Solomon makes the bridegroom speak of the singing of birds; and it teaches us what these birds are, which are expressly distinguished from turtle doves.

### Verse 13

[¶33] The fig tree putteth forth her green figs - The fig tree in Judea bears double crops; the first of which is ripe in spring. But the tree, as I have elsewhere observed, bears figs all the year through, in the climes congenial to it. That is, the fig tree has always ripe or unripe fruit on it. I never saw a healthy tree naked. But in the beginning of spring they grow fast, and become turgid.

[¶34] The vines with the tender grape - The versions understand this of the flowers of the vine. These were formerly put into the new wine (2 lbs. to every cask) to give it a fine flavour.

### Verse 14

[¶36] My dove - in the clefts of the rock - He compares his bride hiding herself in her secret chambers and closets to a dove in the clefts of the rock.

### Verse 15

[¶38] Take us the foxes - That these were ruinous to vines all authors allow. They love the vine, and they are eaten in autumn in some countries, according to Galen, when they are very fat with eating the grapes. They abounded in Judea; and did most damage when the clusters were young and tender. It is likely that these are the words of the bridegroom to his companions, just as he was entering the apartment of his spouse. "Take care of the vineyard: set the traps for the foxes, which are spoiling the vines; and destroy their young as far as possible."

### Verse 16

[¶40] My beloved is mine - The words of the bride on his entering: "I am thy own; thou art wholly mine."

[¶41] He feedeth among the lilies - The odor with which he is surrounded is as fine as if he passed the night among the sweetest scented flowers.

### Verse 17

[¶43] Until the day break - Literally, until the day breathe; until the first dawn, which is usually accompanied with the most refreshing breezes.

[¶44] The shadows flee away - Referring to the evening or setting of the sun, at which all shadows vanish.

## 775. Song of Solomon · 5 of 10

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[¶0] The mountains of Bether - Translated also mountains of division, supposed to mean the mountains of Beth-horon.

[¶1] There was a place called Bithron, [2Sam 2:29], on the other side of Jordan; and as the name signifies Partition, it might have had its name from the circumstance of its being divided or separated from Judea by the river Jordan.

[¶2] With this chapter the second night is supposed to end.

### Introduction

[¶4] The bride mentions the absence of her spouse, her search after him, and her ultimate success, [Sol 3:1-5]. A description of the bridegroom, his bed, chariot, etc., [Sol 3:6-11].

### Verse 1

[¶6] By night on my bed I sought him - It appears that the bridegroom only saw the bride by night: that on the night referred to here he did not come as usual. The bride troubled on the account, rose and sought him, inquired of the city guards, and continued to seek till at last she found him, and brought him to her apartment, [Sol 3:2-4].

### Verse 4

[¶8] Into my mother's house - The women in the East have all separate apartments, into which no person ever attempts to enter except the husband. We find Isaac bringing Rebecca into his mother's tent, when he made her his wife, [Gen 24:67]. What is here related appears to refer to the third night of the nuptials.

### Verse 5

[¶10] I charge you - The same adjuration as before, [Sol 2:7].

### Verse 6

[¶12] Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness - Going to Egypt was called descending or going down, coming from it was termed coming up. The bride, having risen, goes after her spouse to the country, and the clouds of incense arising from her palanquin seemed like pillars of smoke; and the appearance was altogether so splendid as to attract the admiration of her own women, who converse about her splendor, excellence, etc., and then take occasion to describe Solomon's nuptial bed and chariot. Some think that it is the bridegroom who is spoken of here. With this verse the third night is supposed to end.

### Verse 7

[¶14] Threescore valiant men - These were the guards about the pavilion of the bridegroom, who were placed there because of fear in the night. The security and state of the prince required such a guard as this, and the passage is to be literally understood.

### Verse 8

[¶16] They all hold swords - They are swordsmen. Every man has a sword, and is well instructed how to use it.

### Verse 9

[¶18] Of the wood of Lebanon - Of the cedar that grew on that mount. It is very likely that a nuptial bed, not a chariot, is intended by the original word אפיון appiryon. Montanus properly translates it sponsarum thalamum, a nuptial bed. It may, however, mean a palanquin.

### Verse 10

[¶20] The pillars - of silver - The bedposts were made of silver, or cased with wrought silver plates, like the king's chairs brought from Hanover, now, in one of the staterooms in Windsor Castle.

[¶21] The bottom thereof of gold - This may refer to cords made of gold thread, or to the mattress, which was made of cloth ornamented with gold.

[¶22] The covering - of purple - Most probably the canopy.

[¶23] The midst - paved with love - The counterpane, a superb piece of embroidery, wrought by some of the noble maids of Jerusalem, and, as a proof of their affection, respect, and love, presented to the bride and bridegroom, on their nuptial day. This is most likely to be the sense of the passage, though some suppose it to refer to the whole court.

[¶24] A Turkish couch is made of wooden lattices painted and gilded; the inside is painted with baskets of flowers and nosegays, intermixed with little mottoes according to the fancy of the artist. Solomon's couch may have been of the same kind, and decorated in the same way; and the paving with love may refer to the amatory verses worked either on the counterpane, hangings, or embroidered carpet. And as this was done by the daughters of Jerusalem, they might have expressed the most striking parts of such a chaste history of love as Halaly's Leely and Mejnoon on the different parts. I see that Dr. Good is of this opinion. It is sufficiently probable.

### Verse 11

[¶26] Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion - This is the exhortation of the companions of the bride to the females of the city to examine the superb appearance of the bridegroom, and especially the nuptial crown, which appears to have been made by Bathsheba, who it is supposed might have lived till the time of Solomon's marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh. It is conjectured that the prophet refers to a nuptial crown, [Isa 61:10]. But a crown, both on the bride and bridegroom, was common among most people on such occasions. The nuptial crown among the Greeks and Romans was only a chaplet or wreath of flowers.

[¶27] In the day of the gladness of his heart - The day in which all his wishes were crowned, by being united to that female whom beyond all others he loved.

[¶28] Here the third day is supposed to end.

### Introduction

[¶30] The bridegroom's description of his bride, her person, her accomplishments, her chastity, and her general excellence, vv. 1-16.

### Verse 1

[¶32] Thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks - Perhaps this refers rather to a sort of veil worn by many of the Eastern women, but especially in Egypt. It is a species of black cloth made of the hair of some animal, probably the black goat; is suspended from the head by silken cords, one of which comes from the crown of the head, down the forehead, to the upper part of the nose, just under the eyes, at which place the veil begins; for the forehead and the eyes are uncovered, except the cord above mentioned, which is ornamented with gold, silver, and precious stones, according to the circumstances of the wearer. This partial veil not only covers all the face, the eyes and forehead excepted, but the neck also, and hangs loosely down over the bosom. One of them, lately brought from Egypt, now lies before me.

[¶33] But the clause, within thy locks, מבעד למתך mibbaad letsammathech, is not well translated, either by ourselves or by the versions. Jerome's translation is an indication of the meaning: Absque eo quod intrinsecus latet; without that, or independently of that, which lies hidden within. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic have, besides thy silence. Calmet contends that none of these gives the true meaning, and that the word tmu tsemath has not the meaning of hair or locks wherever it occurs, and has quite a different meaning in [Isa 47:2]. St. Jerome on this place expresses himself thus: Nolentibus gui interpretati sunt transferre nomen quod in Sancta Scriptura sonat turpitudinem - Ergo Ktmu tsammathech, quod Aquila posuit, verenda mulieris appellanatur cujus etymologia apud eos sonat sitiens tuus. Calmet translates: Vous etes toute belle, won amie; vous etes toute belle: vos yeux sont des yeux de colombe; sans ce que la pudeur et la modestie tiennent cache. I leave the translation of these to the learned reader. See another description under [Sol 4:7] (note).

[¶34] As a flock of goats - Because it was black and sleek, as the hair of the goats of Arabia and Palestine is known to be; which, with its fine undulation, is supposed to bear some resemblance to the curls or plaits of a woman's tresses. The mountains of Gilead were beyond Jordan, on the frontiers of Arabia Deserta.

### Verse 2

[¶36] Thy teeth are like a flock - This comparison appears to be founded on the evenness, neatness, and whiteness of the newly shorn and newly washed sheep.

### Verse 3

[¶38] Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet - Both lips and cheeks were ruddy; sicut fragmen mali punici - Vulgate. Like the section of a pomegranate, that side cut off on which is the finest blush. This is a good and apt metaphor. But the inside may be referred to, as it is finely streaked with red and white melting into each other. She had beautiful hair, beautiful eyes, beautiful cheeks and lips, and a most pleasing and dulcet voice.

[¶39] Within thy locks - See on [Sol 4:1] (note), and [Sol 4:7] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶41] Thy neck is like the tower of David - It is certain that bucklers were frequently hung about towers, both for their ornaments, and to have them at hand when their use was required; see [Eze 27:10]. But the allusion here may be to those pillars which are often seen in armouries on which weapons of various kinds are hung, formed into a great variety of shapes and very splendid. Whoever has seen the armoury in the tower of London, or such like places, has most probably seen something very similar to that of which the poet speaks.

### Verse 5

[¶43] Thy two breasts are like two young roes - I have met with many attempts to support this similitude, or rather to show that there is a similitude; but I judge them unworthy of citation. The poet speaks the language of nature; and in a case of this kind, where the impassioned lover attempts to describe the different perfections of his bride, language often fails him, and his comparisons and similitudes are often without strict correctness. In love songs we have heard ladies' necks compared to that of the swan, not only for its whiteness, but also for its length! The description here shows more of nature than of art, which I consider a high recommendation.

[¶44] Feed among the lilies - It may be the nipples especially, which the poet compares to the two young roes; and the lilies may refer to the whiteness of the breasts themselves.

## 776. Song of Solomon · 6 of 10

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### Verse 6

[¶1] Until the day break - Until the morning breeze. See [Sol 2:17].

[¶2] The shadows flee away - Till the sun sets.

[¶3] Mountain of myrrh - Probably the same as the mountains of Bether, [Sol 2:17]. Mountains where the trees grew from which myrrh and incense were extracted.

### Verse 7

[¶5] Thou art all fair - there is no spot in thee - "My beloved, every part of thee is beautiful; thou hast not a single defect." The description given of the beauties of Daphne, by Ovid, Metam. lib. 1: ver. 497, has some similarity to the above verses: -

[¶6] Spectat inornatos collo pend ere capillos.

[¶7] Et, quid si comantur? ait. Videt igne micantes

[¶8] Sideribus similes oculos; videt oscula, quae non

[¶9] Est vidisse satis. Laudat digitosque, manusque,

[¶10] Brachiaque, et nudos media plus parte lacertos.

[¶11] Si qua latent meliora putat.

[¶12] Her well-turn'd neck he view'd, (her neck was bare),

[¶13] And on her shoulders her disheveled hair.

[¶14] O, were it comb'd, said he, with what a grace

[¶15] Would every waving curl become her face!

[¶16] He view'd her eyes, like heavenly lamps that shone,

[¶17] He view'd her lips, too sweet to view alone;

[¶18] Her taper fingers, and her panting breast.

[¶19] He praises all he sees; and, for the rest,

[¶20] Believes the beauties yet unseen the best.

[¶21] Dryden.

[¶22] Jayadeva describes the beauty of Radha in nearly the same imagery: "Thy lips, O thou most beautiful among women, are a bandhujiva flower; the lustre of the madhuca beams upon thy cheek; thine eye outshines the blue lotos; thy nose is a bud of the tila; the cunda blossom yields to thy teeth. Surely thou descendedst from heaven, O slender damsel! attended by a company of youthful goddesses; and all their beauties are collected in thee." See these poems, and the short notes at the end.

[¶23] The same poet has a parallel thought to that in [Sol 4:5], "Thy two breasts," etc. The companions of Radha thus address her: "Ask those two round hillocks which receive pure dew drops from the garland playing on thy neck, and the buds on whose tops start aloft with the thought of thy beloved."

### Verse 8

[¶25] My spouse - The כלה callah which we translate spouse, seems to have a peculiar meaning. Mr. Harmer thinks the Jewish princess is intended by it; and this seems to receive confirmation from the bridegroom calling her sister, [Sol 4:9], that is, one of the same stock and country; and thus different from the Egyptian bride.

[¶26] Mr. Harmer's opinion is very probable, that Two Queens are mentioned in this song: one Pharaoh's daughter, the other a Jewess. See his outlines. But I contend for no system relative to this song.

[¶27] Look from the top of Amana, etc. - Solomon, says Calmet, by an admirable poetic fiction, represents his beloved as a mountain nymph, wholly occupied in hunting the lion and the leopard on the mountains of Lebanon, Amana, Shenir, and Hermon. As a bold and undisciplined virgin, who is unwilling to leave her wild and rural retreats, he invites her to come from those hills; and promises to deck her with a crown and to make her his bride. Thus the poets represent their goddess Diana, and even Venus herself: -

[¶28] Per juga, per sylvas, dumosaque saxa vagatur

[¶29] Nuda genu, vestem ritu succincta Dianae;

[¶30] Hortaturque canes; tutaeque animalia praedae,

[¶31] Aut pronos lepores, aut celsum in cornua cervum,

[¶32] Aut agitat damas: at fortibus abstinet apris.

[¶33] MET. lib. x., ver. 535.

[¶34] Now buskin'd like the virgin huntress goes

[¶35] Through woods, and pathless wilds, and mountain snows.

[¶36] With her own tuneful voice she joys to cheer

[¶37] The panting hounds that chase the flying deer.

[¶38] She runs the labyrinth of the fearful hares,

[¶39] But fearless beasts and dangerous prey forbears.

[¶40] Mount Libanus separates Phoenicia from Syria. Amanus is between Syria and Silicia. Shenir and Hermon are beyond Jordan, to the south of Damascus and Mount Libanus, and northward of the mountains of Gilead. Hermon and Shenir are but different parts of the same chain of mountains which separates Trachonitis, or the country of Manasses, from Arabia Deserta. For these places, see [2Kgs 5:12], and [Deu 3:9], where they are probably meant.

### Verse 9

[¶42] Thou hast ravished my heart - לבבתני libbabtini, "Thou hast hearted me," i.e., taken away my heart; as we say, "He has barked the tree," i.e., he has stripped it of its bark; "He has fleeced the flock," i.e., deprived them of their wool.

[¶43] With one of thine eyes - באצד מעיניך beachad meeynayich. This has been thought a harsh expression, and various emendations have been sought. The Masoretes have put באצת beachath, "at once," in the margin; and this is confirmed by twenty of Kennicott's MSS. but De Rossi does not notice it. It is scarceiy necessary; the sense to me is clear and good without it. "Even one of thine eyes, or one glance of thine eyes, has been sufficient to deprive me of all power; it has completely overcome me;" for glance may be understood, and such forms of speech are common in all languages, when speaking on such subjects. If even taken literally, the sense is good; for the poet may refer to a side glance, shot in passing by or turning away, where only one eye could be seen. I think this a better sense than that which is obtained from the Masoretic emendation.

[¶44] With one chain of thy neck - Probably referring to the play of the cervical muscles, rather than to necklaces, or ringlets of hair.

## 777. Song of Solomon · 7 of 10

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/777/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/777/#p-N

### Verse 10

[¶1] How much better is thy love - דדיך dodayich; Hebrew. mastoi sou; Septuagint. Ubera tua; Vulgate. "Thy breasts." And so all the versions, except the Chaldee.

[¶2] Smell of thine ointments - Perfumes.

### Verse 11

[¶4] Thy lips - drop as the honey-comb - Thy words are as delicious to my heart as the first droppings of the honey-comb are to the palate.

[¶5] Honey and milk are under thy tongue - Eloquence and persuasive speech were compared among the ancients to honey and milk.

[¶6] Thus Homer, Iliad, lib. i., ver. 247: - Τοισι δε Νεστωρ Ηδυεπης ανορουσε, λιγυς Πυλιων αγορητης. Του και απο γλωσσης μελιτος γλυκιων ῥεεν αυδη.

[¶7] Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill'd,

[¶8] Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd.

[¶9] But the figure is common to all writers and languages. A similar expression will be seen in the Gitagovinda.

### Verse 12

[¶11] A garden enclosed - a spring shut up, a fountain sealed - Different expressions to point out the fidelity of the bride, or of the Jewish queen. See the outlines. She is unsullied, a chaste, pure virgin. None has ever entered into this garden; none has yet tasted of this spring; the seal of this fountain has never been broken. Among the Athenians, the interior part of the house, called the women's apartment, was not only locked but sealed; so Aristophan., Thesmoph. ver. 422: - Ειτα δια τουτον ταις γυναικωνιτισιν Σφραγιδας εμβαλλουσιν ηδη και μοχλους.

[¶12] And on this account, to the women's apartment

[¶13] They place seals as well as bolts.

[¶14] And seal, as applicable to chaste conduct, is a phrase well known to the Greeks. Aeschylus, in the Agamemnon, praises a woman, σημαντη ριον ουδεν διαφψειρασαν, who had not violated her seal of conjugal faith. But Nonnus, lib. ii., uses the form of speech exactly as Solomon does with reference to a pure virgin; he says, Αψαυστον ἑης σφρηγιδα κορειης; "She had preserved the seal of her virginity untouched." All this is plain; but how many will make metaphors out of metaphors!

### Verse 13

[¶16] Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates - This seems to refer to the fecundity of the bride or Jewish queen; to the former it would be a prediction; to the latter, a statement of what had already taken place. The word פרדס pardes, which we translate an orchard, is the same which has given birth to our paradise, a garden of pleasure. The other expressions, in this and the following verse, seem to refer wholly to matters of a connubial nature.

### Verse 16

[¶18] A fountain of gardens - Perhaps גנים gannim, "gardens," was originally ציים chaiyim, "lives," a living fountain, a continual spring. See Houbigant. But this is expressed afterwards; though there would be nothing improper in saying, "a living fountain, a well of living waters, and streams from Mount Lebanon." A fountain of gardens may mean one so abundant as to be sufficient to supply nany gardens, to water many plots of ground, an exuberant fountain. This is the allusion; the reference is plain enough.

[¶19] Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south - It is granted that the south wind in Palestine, in the summer, is extremely hot and troublesome; therefore, another interpretation of this passage has been proposed by Mr. Harmer; who thinks בואי boi, which we render come, signifies enter into thy repositories; and, therefore, supposes the true interpretation of the words to be as follows: "Arise, thou north wind, (and retire, thou south), blow upon my garden; let the spices thereof flow forth, that my beloved may come into his garden, invited by the coolness and fragrancy of the air, and may eat his pleasant fruits; for, if the south wind blow, the excessive heat will forbid his taking the air, and oblige him to shut close the doors and windows of his apartments." Others think that he wishes the winds from all directions to carry throughout the land the fume of his spices, virtue, and perfections.

[¶20] Let my beloved come into his garden - This is the invitation of the bride: and if we look not for far-fetched meanings, the sense is sufficiently evident. But commentators on this song sometimes take a literal sense where the metaphor is evident; at other times they build an allegory upon a metaphor. The Gitagovinda has an elegant passage similar to this. See the place, Part VII, beginning with Enter, sweet Radha.

[¶21] The whole of this chapter is considered to be unconnected with any particular time of the marriage ceremonies.

### Introduction

[¶23] The bridegroom calls on his spouse to admit him, [Sol 5:1-3]. She hesitates; but arising finds him gone, seeks him, and is treated unworthily by the city watch, [Sol 5:4-7]. Inquires of the daughters of Jerusalem, who question her concerning her beloved, [Sol 5:8], [Sol 5:9]. This gives her occasion to enter into a fine description of his person and accomplishments, [Sol 5:10-16].

### Verse 1

[¶25] I am come into my garden - באתי bathi, I came, or have come; this should be translated in the past tense, as the other preterite verbs in this clause. I think the latter clause of the preceding verse should come in here: "Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. I have come into my garden, my sister, callah, or spouse; I have gathered my myrrh," etc. I have taken thee for my spouse, and am perfectly satisfied that thou art pure and immaculate.

[¶26] Eat, O friends - drink abundantly - These are generally supposed to be the words of the bridegroom, after he returned from the nuptial chamber, and exhibited those signs of his wife's purity which the customs of those times required. This being a cause of universal joy, the entertainment is served up; and he invites his companions, and the friends of both parties, to eat and drink abundantly, as there was such a universal cause of rejoicing. Others think that these are the words of the bride to her spouse: but the original will not bear this meaning; the verbs are all plural.

### Verse 2

[¶28] I sleep, but my heart waketh - This is a new part; and some suppose that the fifth day's solemnity begins here. Though I sleep, yet so impressed is may heart with the excellences of my beloved, that my imagination presents him to me in the most pleasing dreams throughout the night. I doubt whether the whole, from this verse to the end of the seventh, be not a dream: several parts of it bear this resemblance; and I confess there are some parts of it, such as her hesitating to rise, his sudden disappearance, etc., which would be of easier solution on this supposition. Or part of the transactions mentioned might be the effects of the dream she had, as rising up suddenly, and going out into the street, meeting with the watchmen, etc., before she was well awake. And her being in so much disorder and dishabille might have induced them to treat her as a suspiciovs person, or one of questionable character. But it is most likely the whole was a dream.

[¶29] For my head is filled with dew - She supposed he had come in the night, and was standing without, wet, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather.

### Verse 3

[¶31] I have put off my coat - The bride must have been in a dream or in much disorder of mind to have made the frivolous excuses here mentioned. The words relate to the case of a person who had gone to take rest on his bed. As they wore nothing but sandals, they were obliged to wash their feet previously to their lying down. I have washed my feet, taken off my clothes, and am gone to bed: I cannot therefore be disturbed. A Hindoo always washes his feet before he goes to bed. If called from his bed, he often makes this excuse, I shall daub my feet; and the excuse is reasonable, as the floors are of earth; and they do not wear shoes in the house - Ward.

### Verse 4

[¶33] My beloved put in his hand - If it were a real scene, which is mentioned in this and the two following verses, it must refer, from the well-known use of the metaphors, to matrimonial endearments. Or, it may refer to his attempts to open the door, when she hesitated to arise, on the grounds mentioned [Sol 5:3]. But this also bears every evidence of a dream.

### Verse 5

[¶35] My hands dropped with myrrh - It was a custom among the Romans, as Brissonius, Isidore, and others relate, to conduct the bride to the house of the bridegroom with lighted torches; and those who brought her anointed the door-posts with fragant oils, whence the name uxor, or as it was formerly written unxor, for a wife or married woman, because of the anointing which took place on the occasion; for sometimes the bride herself anointed the door-posts, and sometimes those who brought her; probably both at the same time. The same custom might have existed among the Jews. See Vossius' Etymologicon.

### Verse 7

[¶37] Took away my veil - They tore it off rudely, to discover who she was. See on [Sol 5:2] (note). To tear the veil signifies, in Eastern phrase, to deflower or dishonor a woman.

### Verse 8

[¶39] I am sick of love - "I am exceedingly concerned for his absence; and am distressed on account of my thoughtless carriage towards him." The latter clause may be well translated, "What should ye tell him?" Why, "that I am sick of love." This ends the transactions of the third day and night.

### Verse 9

[¶41] What is thy beloved more than another beloved - This question gives the bride an opportunity to break out into a highly wrought description of the beauty and perfections of her spouse.

### Verse 10

[¶43] My beloved is white and ruddy - Red and white, properly mixed, are essential to a fine complexion; and this is what is intimated: he has the finest complexion among ten thousand persons; not one in that number is equal to him. Literally, "He bears the standard among ten thousand men;" or "He is one before whom a standard is borne," i.e., he is captain or chief of the whole.

## 778. Song of Solomon · 8 of 10

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/778/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/778/#p-N

### Verse 11

[¶1] His head is as the most fine gold - He has the most beautiful head, fine and majestic. Gold is here used to express excellence.

[¶2] His locks are bushy - Crisped or curled. This may refer to his mustachios.

[¶3] Black as a raven - His hair is black and glossy.

### Verse 12

[¶5] His eyes are as the eyes of doves - See on [Sol 4:1] (note).

[¶6] Washed with milk - The white of the eye, exceedingly white. By the use of stibium, in the East, the eye is rendered very beautiful; and receives such a lustre from the use of this article, that, to borrow the expression of a late traveler, "their eyes appear to be swimming in bliss." I believe this expression to be the meaning of the text.

[¶7] Fitly set - Or, as the margin, very properly, sitting in fullness; not sunk, not contracted.

### Verse 13

[¶9] His cheeks are as a bed of spices - Possibly meaning a bed in the garden, where odoriferous herbs grew. But it has been supposed to refer to his beard, which in a young well-made man is exceedingly beautiful. I have seen young Turks, who had taken much care of their beards, mustachios, etc., look majestic. Scarcely any thing serves to set off the human face to greater advantage than the beard, when kept in proper order. Females admire it in their suitors and husbands. I have known cases, where they not only despised but execrated Europeans, whose faces were close shaved. The men perfume their beards often; and this may be what is intended by spices and sweet-smelling myrrh.

[¶10] His lips like lilies - The שושנם shoshannim may mean any flower of the lily kind, such as the rubens lilium, mentioned by Pliny, or something of the tulip kind. There are tints in such flowers that bear a very near resemblance to a fine ruby lip.

### Verse 14

[¶12] His hands - gold rings set with the beryl - This really seems to refer to gold rings set with precious stones on the fingers, and perhaps to circlets or bracelets about the wrists. Some suppose it to refer to the roundness and exquisite symmetry of the hand and fingers. תרשיש tarshish, which we translate beryl, a gem of a sea-green tint, had better be translated chrysolite, which is of a gold color.

[¶13] His belly - bright ivory overlaid with sapphires - This must refer to some garment set with precious stones which went round his waist, and was peculiarly remarkable. If we take it literally, the sense is plain enough. His belly was beautifully white, and the blue veins appearing under the skin resembled the sapphire stone. But one can hardly think that this was intended.

### Verse 15

[¶15] His legs are as pillars of marble - Exquisitely turned and well-shaped; the sockets of gold may refer to his slippers. On these a profusion of gold and ornaments are still lavished in Asiatic countries.

[¶16] His countenance is as Lebanon - As Lebanon exalts its head beyond all the other mountains near Jerusalem, so my beloved is tall and majestic, and surpasses in stature and majesty all other men. He is also as straight and as firm as the cedars.

### Verse 16

[¶18] His mouth is most sweet - His eloquence is great, and his voice is charming. Every word he speaks is sweetness, mildness, and benevolence itself. Then, her powers of description failing, and metaphor exhausted she cries out, "The whole of him is loveliness. This is my beloved, and this is my companion, O ye daughters of Jerusalem."

### Introduction

[¶20] The companions of the bride inquire after the bridegroom, [Sol 6:1-3]. A description of the bride, [Sol 6:4-13].

### Verse 1

[¶22] Whither is thy beloved gone - These words are supposed to be addressed to the bride by her own companions, and are joined to the preceding chapter by the Hebrew and all the versions.

### Verse 2

[¶24] My beloved is gone down into his garden - The answer of the bride to her companions.

### Verse 4

[¶26] Beautiful - as Tirzah - This is supposed to be the address of Solomon to the bride. Tirzah was a city in the tribe of Ephraim, ([Jos 12:24]), and the capital of that district. It appears to have been beautiful in itself, and beautifully situated, for Jeroboam made it his residence before Samaria was built; and it seems to have been the ordinary residence of the kings of Israel, [1Kgs 14:17]; [1Kgs 15:21]. Its same signifies beautiful or delightful.

[¶27] Comely as Jerusalem - This was called the perfection of beauty, [Psa 48:2], [Psa 48:3]; [Psa 50:2]. And thus the poet compares the bride's beauty to the two finest places in the land of Palestine, and the capitals of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

[¶28] Terrible as an army with banners - This has been supposed to carry an allusion to the caravans in the East, and the manner in which they are conducted in their travels by night. The caravans are divided into companies, called cottors, according to Thevenet; and each company is distinguished by the form of the brazier in which they carry their lights. After night, these braziers are placed on the ends of long poles, and carried by a person who walks at the head of the company. Some have ten or twelve lights, and are of different forms; some triangular, or like an N; some like an M, by which each pilgrim readily knows his own company, both by night and day. A whole caravan, composed of many thousands of hadgees or pilgrims, divided into various cottors or companies, each having its own distinguishing brazier or light, must necessarily produce a very splendid, if not a terrible, appearance.

### Verse 5

[¶30] Turn away thine eyes - As the sight of so many fires after night was extremely dazzling, and the eye could not bear the sight, so the look of the bride was such as pierced the heart, and quite overwhelmed the person who met it. Hence the bridegroom naturally cries out, "Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me."

[¶31] Thy hair is as a flock of goats - See on [Sol 4:1] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶33] Thy teeth - See on [Sol 4:2] (note).

### Verse 7

[¶35] As a piece of a pomegranate - See on [Sol 4:3] (note).

### Verse 8

[¶37] There are threescore queens - Though there be sixty queens, and eighty concubines, or secondary wives, and virgins innumerable, in my harem, yet thou, my dove, my undefiled, art אצת achath, One, the Only One, she in whom I delight beyond all.

### Verse 9

[¶39] The daughters saw her, and blessed her - Not only the Jewish women in general spoke well of her on her arrival, but the queens and concubines praised her as the most accomplished of her sex.

[¶40] With this verse the fourth night of the marriage week is supposed to end.

### Verse 10

[¶42] Looketh forth as the morning - The bride is as lovely as the dawn of day, the Aurora, or perhaps the morning star, Venus. She is even more resplendent, she is as beautiful as the Moon. She even surpasses her, for she is as clear and bright as the Sun; and dangerous withal to look on, for she is as formidable as the vast collection of lights that burn by night at the head of every company in a numerous caravan. See the note on [Sol 6:4] (note). The comparison of a fine woman to the splendor of an unclouded full moon is continually recurring in the writings of the Asiatic poets.

### Verse 11

[¶44] I went down into the garden of nuts - I believe this and the following verse refer at least to the preparations for a farther consummation of the marriage, or examination of the advancement of the bride's pregnancy. But many circumstances of this kind are so interwoven, and often anticipated and also postponed, that it is exceedingly difficult to arrange the whole so as to ascertain the several parts, and who are the actors and speakers. But other writers find no difficulty here, because they have their system; and that explains all things.

[¶45] It is probably not the hazel but the almond nut, that is referred to here.

## 779. Song of Solomon · 9 of 10

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/779/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/779/#p-N

### Verse 12

[¶1] The chariots of Amminadib - Probably for their great speed these chariots became proverbial. The passage marks a strong agitation of mind, and something like what we term palpitation of the heart. As I am not aware of any spiritual meaning here, I must be excused from commenting on that which is literal. Amminadib signifies my noble or princely people; but it may here be a proper name, and Amminadib might be celebrated for his skill and rapidity in driving, as Jehu was.

### Verse 13

[¶3] Return, O Shulamite - This appears to be addressed to the bride, as now the confirmed, acknowledged wife of Solomon; for שולמית shulammith, appears to be a feminine formed from שלמה shelomoh, or Nwmlv shelomon, as we form Charlotte from Charles; Henrietta, from Henry; Janette, from John, etc.

[¶4] The company of two armies - Or the musicians of the camps. She is as terrible as hosts of armed men, on the ground of what is said on [Sol 6:4], [Sol 6:5]. The two armies may refer to the choirs of the bride's virgins, and the bridegroom's companions; but the similitude is not very perceptible. The Targum explains it of "the camps of Israel and Judah:" as if the bridegroom should say, "My beloved possesses all the perfections both of the Israelitish and Jewish women." But how little satisfaction do the best conjectures afford!

[¶5] With this chapter the fifth night is supposed to end.

### Introduction

[¶7] A farther description of the bride, [Sol 7:1-9]. Her invitation to the bridegroom, [Sol 7:10-13].

### Verse 1

[¶9] How beautiful are thy feet with shoes - "How graceful is thy walking." In the sixth chapter the bridegroom praises the Shulamite, as we might express it, from head to foot. Here he begins a new description, taking her from foot to head.

[¶10] The shoes, sandals, or slippers of the Eastern ladies are most beautifully formed, and richly embroidered. The majestic walk of a beautiful woman in such shoes is peculiarly grand. And to show that such a walk is intended, he calls her a prince's daughter.

[¶11] The joints of thy thighs - Must refer to the ornaments on the beautiful drawers, which are in general use among ladies of quality in most parts of the East.

### Verse 2

[¶13] Thy navel is like a round goblet - This may also refer to some ornamental dress about the loins. These suppositions are rendered very probable from hundreds of the best finished and highly decorated drawings of Asiatic ladies in my own collection, where every thing appears in the drawings, as in nature.

[¶14] A heap of wheat set about with lilies - This is another instance of the same kind. The richly embroidered dresses in the above drawings may amply illustrate this also. Ainsworth supposes the metaphor is taken from a pregnant woman; the child in the womb being nourished by means of the umbilical cord or navel string, till it is brought into the world. After which it is fed by means of the mother's breasts, which are immediately mentioned. Possibly the whole may allude to the bride's pregnancy.

### Verse 3

[¶16] Thy two breasts - Where the hair and breasts are fine, they are the highest ornaments of the person of a female.

### Verse 4

[¶18] Thy neck - as a tower of ivory - High, white, and ornamented with jewellery, as the tower of David was with bucklers. See on [Sol 4:4] (note).

[¶19] The fish - pools in Heshbon - Clear, bright, and serene. These must have been very beautiful to have been introduced here in comparison. These two fountains appear to have been situated at the gate that led from Heshbon to Rabba, or Rabboth Ammon. There is a propriety in this metaphor, because fountains are considered to be the eyes of the earth.

[¶20] Thy nose - as the tower of Lebanon - There was doubtless a propriety in this similitude also, which cannot now be discerned. If we are to understand the similitude as taken from the projecting form of the nose, even here I see nothing striking in the metaphor; for surely the tower of Lebanon did not project from the mountain as the human nose does from the face. It is better to acknowledge that there was undoubtedly some fit resemblances; but in what circumstance we know not. But some commentators are always extolling the correctness of the imagery in those very difficult places, where no soul sees the similitude but themselves.

### Verse 5

[¶22] Shine head - like Carmel - Rising majestically upon thy neck, and above thy shoulders, as Mount Carmel does in its district. Carmel was the name of the mountain where Elijah had his contest with the prophets of Baal. See [1Kgs 18:19], etc.

[¶23] The hair of thine head like purple - Ornamented with ribbons and jewellery of this tint.

[¶24] The king is held in the galleries - Or is detained in the antechamber. His heart is captivated by thy person and conduct. Some understand the ringlets of the bride's hair.

### Verse 6

[¶26] How fair and how pleasant - Thou art every way beautiful, and in every respect calculated to inspire pleasure and delight.

### Verse 7

[¶28] Like to a palm tree - Which is remarkably straight, taper, and elegant.

[¶29] And thy breasts to clusters of grapes - Dates are the fruit of the palm tree; they grow in clusters; and it is these, not grapes, which are intended.

### Verse 8

[¶31] I will go up to the palm tree - I will take hold on the boughs of this tree, and climb up by them, in order to gather the clusters of dates at the top. The rubric here in the old MS. interprets this of the cross of Christ.

### Verse 9

[¶33] The roof of thy mouth like the best wine - The voice or conversation of the spouse is most probably what is meant.

[¶34] Causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak - As good wine has a tendency to cause the most backward to speak fluently when taken in moderation; so a sight of thee, and hearing the charms of thy conversation, is sufficient to excite the most taciturn to speak, and even to become eloquent in thy praises.

### Verse 10

[¶36] I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me - It is worthy of remark that the word which we translate his desire is the very same used [Gen 3:16] : Thy desire, thy ruling appetite, תשוקתך teshukathech, shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. This was a part of the woman's curse. Now here it seems to be reversed; for the bride says, I am my beloved's, and his desire or ruling appetite and affection, תשוקתו teshukatho, is עלי ali, Upon Me. The old MS. translates this with considerable force: - "I to my leef, and to me the turnynge of him".

### Verse 11

[¶38] Let us go forth into the field - It has been conjectured that the bridegroom arose early every morning, and left the bride's apartment, and withdrew to the country; often leaving her asleep, and commanding her companions not to disturb her till she should awake of herself. Here the bride wishes to accompany her spouse to the country, and spend a night at his country house.

### Verse 12

[¶40] Let us get up early to the vineyards - When in the country, we shall have the better opportunity to contemplate the progress of the spring vegetation; and there she promises to be peculiarly affectionate to him.

### Verse 13

[¶42] The mandrakes give a smell - See the note on [Gen 30:14], where the mandrake is particularly described; from which this passage will receive considerable light. The reader is requested to consult it.

[¶43] All manner of pleasant fruits - Fruits new and old; flowers and herbs of every kind which the season could yield. The literal sense, allowing for the concealing metaphors, is, I believe, of a widely different nature from what is generally given. But this must be left to the reader's sagacity and prudence.

## 780. Song of Solomon · 10 of 10

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### Introduction

[¶1] The love of the bride to her spouse, and the nature of that love, [Sol 8:1-7]. The younger sister, [Sol 8:8-10]. Solomon's vineyard, [Sol 8:11], [Sol 8:12]. The confidence of the bride and bridegroom in each other, [Sol 8:13], [Sol 8:14].

### Verse 1

[¶3] O that thou wert as my brother - The bride, fearing that her fondness for her spouse might be construed into too great a familiarity, wishes that he were her little brother; and then she might treat him in the most affectionate manner, and kiss him even in the streets without suspicion, and without giving offense to any one.

### Verse 2

[¶5] Would - bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me - She would teach me how to conduct myself towards thee, as she would how to nurse a young child.

[¶6] To drink of spiced wine - Wine rendered peculiarly strong and invigorating. The bride and bridegroom on the wedding day both drank out of the same cup, to show that they were to enjoy and equally bear together the comforts and adversities of life.

### Verse 3

[¶8] His left hand - See on [Sol 2:6] (note).

[¶9] With the fourth verse the Sixth night of the marriage week is supposed to end.

### Verse 5

[¶11] That cometh up from the wilderness - Perhaps the words of the daughters of Jerusalem, who, seeing the bride returning from the country, leaning on the arm of her beloved, are filled with admiration at her excellent carriage and beauty.

[¶12] I raised thee up under the apple tree - The original of this clause is obscure, and has given birth to various translations. The following is nearly literal: "Under the apple tree I excited thee (to espouse me): there, thy mother contracted thee; - there, she that brought thee forth contracted thee (to me). Or it may be understood of the following circumstance: The bridegroom found her once asleep under an apple tree, and awoke her; and this happened to be the very place where her mother, taken in untimely labor, had brought her into the world." And here the bridegroom, in his fondness and familiarity, recalls these little adventures to her memory.

[¶13] The Vulgate gives this an abominable meaning.

[¶14] Sub arbore malo suscitavi te: ibi corrupta est mater tua; ibi violata est genetrix tua; "I raised thee up under the apple tree: it was there that thy mother was corrupted; it was there that she who brought thee forth was violated." Spiritually, all this is applied to Eve losing her purity by sin; and Jesus as the promised seed raising her up by the promise of mercy, through the blood of his cross. But the text says nothing of this.

### Verse 6

[¶16] Set me as a seal upon thine heart - It was customary in the Levant and other places to make impressions of various kinds upon the arms, the breast, and other parts. I have seen these often: some slight punctures are made, and the place rubbed over with a sort of blue powder that, getting between the cuticle and cutis, is never discharged; it continues in all its distinctness throughout life. The figures of young women are frequently thus impressed on the arms and on the breasts. If the bride alludes to any thing of this kind, which is very probable, the interpretation is easy. Let me be thus depicted upon thine arm, which being constantly before thy eyes, thou wilt never forget me; and let me be thus depicted upon thy breast, the emblem of the share I have in thy heart and affections. Do this as a proof of the love I bear to thee, which is such as nothing but death can destroy; and do it to prevent any jealousy I might feel, which is as cruel as the grave, and as deadly as fiery arrows or poisoned darts shot into the body.

[¶17] A most vehement flame - שלהבתיה shalhebethyah, "the flame of God;" for the word is divided שלהבת יה shalhebeth Yah, "the flame of Jehovah," by one hundred and sixteen of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and by one hundred and fourteen of those of De Rossi. It may mean the lightning; or, as our text understands it, a most vehement or intense fire.

### Verse 7

[¶19] Many waters - Neither common nor uncommon adversities, even of the most ruinous nature, can destroy love when it is pure; and pure love is such that nothing can procure it. If it be not excited naturally, no money can purchase it, no property can procure it, no arts can persuade it. How vain is the thought of old rich men hoping to procure the affections of young women by loading them with presents and wealth! No woman can command her affections; they are not in her power. Where they do not rise spontaneously, they can never exist. "If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned." Let the old, as well as the gay and the giddy, think of this.

### Verse 8

[¶21] We have a little sister - This young girl belonged most probably to the bride.

[¶22] She hath no breasts - She is not yet marriageable.

[¶23] What shall we do for our sister - How shall we secure her comfort and welfare?

[¶24] In the day when she shall be spoken for? - When any person shall demand her in marriage.

### Verse 9

[¶26] If she be a wall - All these expressions, says Calmet, show that it was necessary to provide a husband for this young sister. For a woman without a husband is like a wall without towers, and without defense; is like a gate or door without bar or lock; and like a city without walls. They must therefore provide for their sister a rich, powerful, and illustrious man; qualities here figured by towers or palaces of silver, and doors of cedar. As it is customary to build towers upon a wall, and to put bolts and bars upon a door in order to secure it, so the expressions may point out the defense, protection, and guardianship which they imagined this young woman to require.

### Verse 10

[¶28] I am a wall, and my breasts like towers - I am become marriageable, and I stood in need of the defense I have now in my beloved; and as soon as I was so, and became pleasing in the eyes of my beloved, I was given to him in marriage, and have ever since found favor in his sight. As soon then as my sister is in my state, let a proper match be sought out for her. These expressions show the solicitude which the bride felt for her sister, and in her favor she wishes to interest her spouse.

### Verse 11

[¶30] Solomon had a vineyard - Calmet translates and paraphrases the Hebrew of these two verses thus: "[Sol 8:11] : Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-hamon: he has let it out to keepers, each of whom for the fruit of it was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. [Sol 8:12] : As for me, my vineyard is before me; that is, it is my own; I am its proprietor. Keep thyself, O Solomon, thy thousand pieces of silver, and let those who dress (thy vineyard) have two hundred for their trouble. I neither envy thee thy vineyard, nor them their profits. I am satisfied with my own. My beloved is my vineyard - my heritage; I would not change him for all the riches of the universe."

[¶31] Some suppose that there is a reference here to some property which Pharaoh had given to Solomon with his daughter. See Harmer's Outlines, where this subject is considered at large.

### Verse 13

[¶33] Thou that dwellest in the gardens - This is supposed to refer to the bridegroom asking permission of his spouse early in the morning to retire, as was his usual custom. He intimates the companions were waiting to hear, and he wished to hear it in the way of permission to depart.

### Verse 14

[¶35] Make haste, my beloved - These appear to be the words of the bride giving permission, but entreating him to speed his return. What these mountains of spices were, we cannot particularly tell; but they must have been thus named from their producing the trees on which the spices grew. They might have been the same as the mountains of Bether, [Sol 2:17] (note), or the mountains of myrrh, [Sol 4:6] (note); where see the notes.

[¶36] Here ends the seventh night of the marriage week.

[¶37] Thus ends this most singular book; the oldest pastoral in the world, if it may be ranked among this species of writing. To whatever species of composition it belongs, it is, beyond all controversy, the finest, the most sublime for imagery and colouring, that ever came from the pen of man.

[¶38] In the preceding notes I have carefully avoided all attempts to spiritualize this song. My reasons I have already given in the introduction; and in the course of writing these short notes I have seen no cause to alter my opinion. Any man may allegorize it; that is an easy matter; for when he once considers it to be an allegory, his own creed will furnish him with enough to say, write, or preach, upon the spiritual meanings of every part, which will be an exhibition of his own confession of faith! But when he has finished his work, the question will recur, By what authority do you give it these meanings? And till the day of judgment none shall be able to say, "I have the authority of God for my exposition."

## 781. Isaiah · 1 of 79

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### Introduction to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah

[¶1] On the term prophet, and on the nature and several kinds of prophecy, I have already discoursed in different parts of this work. See the notes on [Gen 15:1] (note); [Gen 20:7] (note), and the preface to the four Gospels, and Acts of the Apostles. A few things only require to be recapitulated. נבא naba signifies not only to foretell future events, but also to pray and supplicate; and נביא nabi, the prophet, was by office not only a declarer of events still future, but the general preacher of the day; and as he frequently foresaw the approach of disastrous times, such was the wickedness of the people, he employed his time in counseling sinners to turn from the error of their ways, and in making strong prayer and supplication to God to avert the threatened judgments: for such predictions, however apparently positive in their terms, were generally conditional; strange as this may appear to some who, through their general ignorance of every thing but the peculiarities of their own creed, suppose that every occurrence is impelled by an irresistible necessity.

[¶2] To his own conduct, in reference to such matters, God has been pleased to give us a key (see Jeremiah 18.) which opens all difficulties, and furnishes us with a general comment on his own providence. God is absolute master of his own ways; and as he has made man a free agent, whatever concerns him in reference to futurity, on which God is pleased to express his mind in the way of prophecy, there is a condition generally implied or expressed. As this is but seldom attended to by partial interpreters, who wish by their doctrine of fatalism to bind even God himself, many contradictory sentiments are put in the mouths of his prophets.

[¶3] In ancient times those who were afterwards called Prophets were termed Seers; [1Sam 9:9]. הראה haroeh, the seeing person; he who perceives mentally what the design of God is. Sometimes called also חזה chozeh, the man who has visions, or supernatural revelations; [1Kgs 22:17]; [2Kgs 17:13]. Both these terms are translated seer in our common Version. They were sometimes called men of God, and messengers or angels of God. In their case it was ever understood that all God's prophets had an extraordinary commission and had their message given them by immediate inspiration.

[¶4] In this the heathen copied after the people of God. They also had their prophets and seers; and hence their augurs and auguries, their haruspices, and priestesses, and their oracles; all pretending to be divinely inspired, and to declare nothing but the truth; for what was truth and fact among the former, was affected and pretended among the latter.

[¶5] Many prophets and seers are mentioned in the sacred writings; but, fragments and insulated prophecies excepted, we have the works of only Sixteen; four of whom are termed the former or larger prophets, and twelve, the latter or minor prophets. They have these epithets, not from priority of time, or from minor importance, but merely from the places they occupy in the present arrangement of the books in the Bible, and from the relative size of their productions.

[¶6] The Jews reckon forty-eight prophets, and seven prophetesses; and Epiphanius, in a fragment preserved by Cotelerius, reckons not fewer than seventy-three prophets, and ten prophetesses; but in both collections there are many which have no Scriptural pretensions to such a distinguished rank.

[¶7] The succession of prophets in the Jewish Church is well worthy of note, because it not only manifests the merciful regards of God towards that people, but also the uninterrupted succession of the prophetic influence, at least from Moses to Malachi, if not before; for this gift was not withheld under the patriarchal dispensation; indeed we might boldly ask any man to show when the time was in which God left himself without a witness of this kind.

[¶8] To show this succession, I shall endeavor to give the different prophets in order of time.

[¶9] 1. The first man, Adam, has an undoubted right to stand at the head of the prophets, as he does at the head of the human race. His declaration concerning marriage, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife," is so truly prophetic, that no doubt can be formed on the subject. There was then nothing in nature or experience to justify such an assertion; and he could have it only by Divine inspiration. The millions of instances which have since occurred, and the numerous laws which have been founded on this principle among all the nations of the earth, show with what precision the declaration was conceived, and with what truth it was published to the world. Add to this, his correct knowledge of the nature of the different animals, so that he could impose on them names expressive of their respective natures or propensities; which proves that he must have acted under a Divine inspiration; for known only to God are all his works from the beginning.

[¶10] 2. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, is expressly called a prophet; and St. Jude, [Jde 1:14], [Jde 1:15], has preserved a fragment of one of his prophecies, relative to the corruption of the ante-diluvian world, and the approaching judgments of God.

[¶11] 3. Noah was a prophet and preacher of righteousness, and predicted the general deluge, and the time of respite which God in his mercy had granted to the offenders of that age.

[¶12] 4. Abraham is expressly called a prophet also, [Gen 20:7]; and it appears from [Psa 105:15], that he partook of the Divine anointing.

[¶13] 5. Isaac, [Gen 27:27], predicted the future greatness of his son Jacob, and of the race that was to spring from him.

[¶14] 6. Jacob was so especially favored with the prophetic gift, that he distinctly foretold what should happen to each of his sons. See Genesis 49.

[¶15] 7. Joseph was favored with several prophetic visions, and had the gift of interpreting dreams which portended future occurrences; (see Genesis 27, 40, 41.); and foretold the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt; [Gen 50:25]. Thus far the prophetic influence extended through the patriarchal dispensation for about two thousand three hundred and seventy years from the creation.

[¶16] With the Jewish dispensation the prophetic gift revived; and,

[¶17] 8. Moses became one of the most eminent prophets that had ever appeared. He not only enjoyed the continual prophetic afflatus, but had such visions of and intercourse with God as no other person either before or since was favored with; and by which he was highly qualified to perform the arduous work which God had given him to do, and to frame that Code of Laws which had no equal before the promulgation of the Gospel. See [Deu 24:10]. He predicted expressly the coming of the Messiah. See [Deu 18:18].

[¶18] 9. Aaron, the brother of Moses, his prime minister and God's high priest, was also a partaker of his Divine influence, and declared the will of God to Pharaoh and the Israelites, not merely from information received from Moses, but also by immediate communication from God. See [Exo 4:15].

[¶19] 10. Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, is expressly called a prophetess, [Exo 15:20]; [Num 12:2].

[¶20] 11. Joshua, who succeeded Moses, was a partaker of the same grace. He was appointed by Moses under the especial direction of God; [Num 27:18-23]; [Deu 34:9]; and has always been reckoned among the Jews as one of the prophets. See Sirach 46:1-6. Though I cannot place them in the same rank, yet it is necessary to state that, by the Jews, several of the judges are classed among the prophets; such as Othniel, Ehud, Samson, and Barak.

[¶21] 12. Deborah, the coadjutor of Barak, is called a prophetess, [Jdg 4:4]. During her time, and down to the days of Eli the high priest, prophecy had been very scarce, there having been very few on whom the Spirit of the Lord had rested; for "the word of the Lord was scarce in those days, and there was no open vision;" [1Sam 3:1].

[¶22] 13. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, is supposed to have partaken of the spirit of prophecy; and to have foretold, at least indirectly, the advent of the Messiah, and the glory that should be revealed under the Gospel. See her Song, [1Sam 2:1-10]. And what renders this more likely is, that it is on the model, and with many of the expressions, of this song, that the blessed Virgin composed her Magnificat, [Luk 1:46-55].

[¶23] 14. Samuel, her son, was one of the most eminent of the Jewish prophets, and was the last, and indeed the greatest, of the judges of Israel. In his time the prophetic influence seems to have rested upon many; so that we find even whole schools or colleges of prophets which were under his direction. See [1Sam 10:5], [1Sam 10:10]; [1Sam 19:20], and elsewhere.

[¶24] 15. David united in himself the character of prophet and king, in the most eminent manner; and from his reign down to the captivity the succession was not only not interrupted, but these extraordinary messengers of God became very numerous.

[¶25] 16. Gad flourished under his reign, and was emphatically called David's Seer, [2Sam 24:11]; [1Chr 21:9], [1Chr 21:19], [1Chr 21:20]; and it appears that he had written a Book of Prophecies, which is now lost, [1Chr 29:29].

[¶26] 17. Nathan lived also under the same reign, [2Sam 7:2]; and, in conjunction with Gad, composed a book of the acts of David, [1Chr 29:29].

[¶27] 18. To Solomon also, son of David, the prophetic gift has been attributed. This might be implied in the extraordinary wisdom with which God had endowed him, [1Kgs 3:5-9]; [2Chr 1:7]; [2Chr 7:12]; and in his writings several prophetic declarations may be found, even independently of the supposed reference to Christ and his Church in the Song of Solomon.

[¶28] 19. Iddo is termed a Seer, [2Chr 12:15]; [2Chr 13:22]; and was one of Solomon's biographers.

[¶29] 20. Shemaiah lived under Rehoboam; he is called a man of God, and to him the word of prophecy came relative to Judah and Benjamin, [1Kgs 12:22-24]. Some think this was the same person who was sent to Jeroboam relative to his idolatry; see [1Kgs 13:1], etc.

[¶30] 21. Ahijah, the Shilonite, prophesied to Jeroboam, [1Kgs 11:29-39].

[¶31] 22. Hanani the Seer prophesied under Azariah and Asa, [2Chr 16:7].

[¶32] 23. Jehu, son of Hanani, prophesied under Jehoshaphat, [1Kgs 16:1], [1Kgs 16:7]; [2Chr 16:7]; [2Chr 19:2]; and [2Chr 20:34].

[¶33] 24. Azariah, the son of Oded, prophesied under Asa, [2Chr 15:1].

[¶34] 25. Elijah prophesied under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.

[¶35] 26. Elisha succeeded Elijah under the same reigns. And these eminent men had many disciples on whom the spirit of prophecy rested. They, and their masters, Elijah and Elisha, prophesied in the kingdoms both of Israel and Judah. Their histories make a prominent part of the first and second Books of Kings; and are well known.

[¶36] 27. Micaiah, the son of Imlah, prophesied under the same reign, [1Kgs 21:9].

[¶37] 28. Hosea prophesied under Jeroboam the second, king of Israel, and under the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah.

[¶38] 29. Isaiah was contemporary with Hosea, but probably began to prophesy a little later than he did.

[¶39] 30. Amos prophesied about the same time.

[¶40] 31. Jonah, son of Amittai, is supposed to have been contemporary with the above.

[¶41] 32. Eliezer, the son of Dodavah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah, [2Chr 20:37].

[¶42] 33. Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, prophesied against Judah and Israel under the same reign, [2Chr 20:14].

[¶43] 34. Micah prophesied against Samaria and Jerusalem, in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.

[¶44] 35. Oded, father of Azariah, prophesied against Asa, [2Chr 15:8].

## 782. Isaiah · 2 of 79

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[¶0] 36. Nahum prophesied under Hezekiah.

[¶1] 37. Joel, under Josiah.

[¶2] 38. Jeremiah, about the same time.

[¶3] 39. Zephaniah, under the same reign. See their prophecies.

[¶4] 40. Huldah, the prophetess, was contemporary with the above.

[¶5] 41. Igdaliah, called a man of God, and probably a prophet, was contemporary with Jeremiah, [Jer 35:4].

[¶6] 42. Habakkuk lived about the end of the reign of Josiah, or the beginning of that of Jehoiakim.

[¶7] 43. Ezekiel lived under the captivity; and prophesied in Mesopotamia, about the time that Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem.

[¶8] 44. Obadiah lived in Judea, after the capture of Jerusalem and before the desolation of Idumea by Nebuchadnezzar.

[¶9] 45. Daniel prophesied in Babylon during the captivity.

[¶10] 46. Haggai prophesied during and after the captivity.

[¶11] 47. Urijah, the son of Shemaiah, prophesied under Jehoiakim. See [Jer 26:20], [Jer 26:21].

[¶12] 48. Zechariah, son of Barachiah, flourished in the second year of Darius, a

### Verse 2

[¶14] Hear, O heavens "Hear, O ye heavens" - God is introduced as entering into a public action, or pleading, before the whole world, against his disobedient people. The prophet, as herald or officer to proclaim the summons to the court, calls upon all created beings, celestial and terrestrial, to attend and bear witness to the truth of his plea and the justice of his cause. The same scene is more fully displayed in the noble exordium of [Psa 1:1-6], where God summons all mankind, from east to west, to be present to hear his appeal; and the solemnity is held on Sion, where he is attended with the same terrible pomp that accompanied him on Mount Sinai: - "A consuming fire goes before him

[¶15] And round him rages a violent tempest:

[¶16] He calleth the heavens from above.

[¶17] And the earth, that he may contend in judgment with his people." [Psa 50:3], [Psa 50:4].

[¶18] By the same bold figure, Micah calls upon the mountains, that is, the whole country of Judea, to attend to him, [Isa 6:1], [Isa 6:2] : - "Arise, plead thou before the mountains,

[¶19] And let the hills hear thy voice.

[¶20] Hear, O ye mountains, the controversy of Jehovah;

[¶21] And ye, O ye strong foundations of the earth:

[¶22] For Jehovah hath a controversy with his people,

[¶23] And he will plead his cause against Israel."

[¶24] With the like invocation, Moses introduces his sublime song, the design of which was the same as that of this prophecy, "to testify as a witness, against the Israelites," for their disobedience, [Deu 31:21] : - "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak;

[¶25] And let the earth hear the words of my mouth." [Deu 32:1].

[¶26] This, in the simple yet strong oratorical style of Moses, is, "I call heaven and earth to witness against thee this day; life and death have I set before thee; the blessing and the curse: choose now life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed." [Deu 30:19]. The poetical style, by an apostrophe, sets the personification in a much stronger light.

[¶27] Hath spoken "That speaketh" - I render it in the present time, pointing it דבר dober. There seems to be an impropriety in demanding attention to a speech already delivered. But the present reading may stand, as the prophet may be here understood to declare to the people what the Lord had first spoken to him.

[¶28] I have nourished - The Septuagint have εγεννησα, "I have begotten." Instead of גדלתי giddalti, they read ילדתי yaladti; the word little differing from the other, and perhaps more proper; which the Chaldee likewise seems to favor; "vocavi eos filios." See [Exo 4:22]; [Jer 31:9].

### Verse 3

[¶30] The ox knoweth - An amplification of the gross insensibility of the disobedient Jews, by comparing them with the most heavy and stupid of all animals, yet not so insensible as they. Bochart has well illustrated the comparison, and shown the peculiar force of it. "He sets them lower than the beasts, and even than the most stupid of all beasts, for there is scarcely any more so than the ox and the ass. Yet these acknowledge their master; they know the manger of their lord; by whom they are fed, not for their own, but for his good; neither are they looked upon as children, but as beasts of burden; neither are they advanced to honors, but oppressed with great and daily labors. While the Israelites, chosen by the mere favor of God, adopted as sons, promoted to the highest dignity, yet acknowledged not their Lord and their God; but despised his commandments, though in the highest degree equitable and just." Hieroz. i., Colossians 409.

[¶31] Jeremiah's comparison to the same purpose is equally elegant, but has not so much spirit and severity as this of Isaiah. "Even the stork in the heavens knoweth her season;

[¶32] And the turtle, and the swallow, and the crane, observe the time of their coming:

[¶33] But my people doth not know the judgment of Jehovah. [Jer 8:7].

[¶34] Hosea has given a very elegant turn to the same image, in the way of metaphor or allegory: - "I drew them with human cords, with the bands of love:

[¶35] And I was to them as he that lifteth up the yoke upon their cheek;

[¶36] And I laid down their fodder before them." [Hos 11:4].

[¶37] Salomo ben Melech thus explains the middle part of the verse, which is somewhat obscure: "I was to them at their desire as they that have compassion on a heifer, lest she be overworked in ploughing; and that lift up the yoke from off her neck, and rest it upon her cheek that she may not still draw, but rest from her labor an hour or two in the day."

[¶38] But Israel - The Septuagint, Syriac, Aquila, Theodotion, and Vulgate, read וישראל veyisrael, But Israel, adding the conjunction, which being rendered as an adversative, sets the opposition in a stronger light.

[¶39] Doth not know - The same ancient versions agree in adding Me, which very properly answers, and indeed is almost necessarily required to answer, the words possessor and lord preceding. Ισραηλ δε ΜΕ ουκ εγνω; Sept. "Israel autem me non cognovit," Vulg. Ισραηλ δε ΜΟΥ ουκ εγνω; Aquil., Theod. The testimony of so scrupulous an interpreter as Aquila is of great weight in this case. And both his and Theodotion's rendering is such as shows plainly that they did not add the word ΜΟΥ to help out the sense, for it only embarrasses it. It also clearly determines what was the original reading in the old copies from which they translated. It could not be ידעני yedani, which most obviously answers to the version of the Septuagint and Vulgate, for it does not accord with that of Aquila and Theodotion. The version of these latter interpreters, however injudicious, clearly ascertains both the phrase, and the order of the words of the original Hebrew; it was ישראל אותי לא ידע veyisrael othi lo yada. The word אותי othi has been lost out of the text. The very same phrase is used by Jeremiah, [Jer 4:22], עמי אותי לא ידעו ammi othi lo yadau. And the order of the words must have been as above represented; for they have joined ישראל yisrael, with אותי othi, as in regimine; they could not have taken it in this sense, Israel meus non cognovit, had either this phrase or the order of the words been different. I have endeavored to set this matter in a clear light, as it is the first example of a whole word lost out of the text, of which the reader will find many other plain examples in the course of these notes. But Rosenmuller contends that this is unnecessary, as the passage may be translated, "Israel knows nothing: my people have no understanding." The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read ועמי veammi, "and my people;" and so likewise sixteen MSS. of Kennicott, and fourteen of De Rossi.

### Verse 4

[¶41] Ah sinful nation "Degenerate" - Five MSS., one of them ancient, read משחתים moschathim, without the first י yod, in hophal corrupted, not corrupters. See the same word in the same form, and in the same sense, [Pro 25:26].

[¶42] Are corrupters "Are estranged" - Thirty-two MSS., five ancient, and two editions, read נזורו nazoru; which reading determines the word to be from the root זור zur, to alienate, not from נזר nazar, to separate; so Kimchi understands it. See also Annotat. in Noldium, 68.

[¶43] They are gone away backward "They have turned their backs upon him" - So Kimchi explains it:" they have turned unto him the back and not the face." See [Jer 2:27]; [Jer 7:24]. I have been forced to render this line paraphrastically; as the verbal translation, "they are estranged backward," would have been unintelligible.

## 783. Isaiah · 3 of 79

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Why should ye be stricken any more "On what part," etc.? - The Vulgate renders על מה al meh, super quo, (see [Job 38:6]; [2Chr 32:10]), upon what part. And so Abendana on Sal. Den Melech: "There are some who explain it thus: Upon what limb shall you be smitten, if you add defection? for already for your sins have you been smitten upon all of them; so that there is not to be found in you a whole limb on which you can be smitten." Which agrees with what follows: "From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it:" and the sentiment and image is exactly the same with that of Ovid, Pont. 2:7, 42: -

[¶2] Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum.

[¶3] There is no place on you for a new stripe. Or that still more expressive line of Euripides; the great force and effect of which Longinus ascribes to its close and compressed structure, analogous to the sense which it expresses: - ́γεμω κακων δη· κ' ουκετ' εσθ' ὁπη τιθῃ.

[¶4] I am full of miseries: there's no room for more.

[¶5] Herc. Fur. 1245, Long. sec. 40. "On what part will ye strike again? will ye add correction?" This is addressed to the instruments of God's vengeance; those that inflicted the punishment, who or whatsoever they were. Ad verbum certae personae intelligendae sunt, quibus ista actio quae per verbum exprimitur competit; "The words are addressed to the persons who were the agents employed in the work expressed by the original word," as Glassius says in a similar case, Philippians Sacr. 1:3, 22. See [Isa 7:4].

[¶6] As from ידע yada, דעה deah, knowledge; from יעץ yaats, עצה etsah, counsel; from ישן yeshan, שנה shenah, sleep, etc.; so from יסר yasar is regularly derived סרה sarah, correction.

[¶7] The whole head is sick - The king and the priests are equally gone away from truth and righteousness. Or, The state is oppressed by its enemies, and the Church corrupted in its rulers and in its members.

### Verse 6

[¶9] They have not been closed, etc. "It hath not been pressed," etc. - The pharmaceutical art in the East consists chiefly in external applications: accordingly the prophet's images in this place are all taken from surgery. Sir John Chardin, in his note on [Pro 3:8], "It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones," observes that "the comparison is taken from the plasters, ointments, oils, and frictions, which are made use of in the East upon the belly and stomach in most maladies. Being ignorant in the villages of the art of making decoctions and potions, and of the proper doses of such things, they generally make use of external medicines." - Harmer's Observations on Scripture, vol. 2 p. 488. And in surgery their materia medica is extremely simple, oil making the principal part of it. "In India," says Tavernier, "they have a certain preparation of oil and melted grease, which they commonly use for the healing of wounds." Voyage Ind. So the good Samaritan poured oil and wine on the wounds of the distressed Jew: wine, cleansing and somewhat astringent, proper for a fresh wound; oil, mollifying and healing, [Luk 10:34]. Kimchi has a judicious remark here: "When various medicines are applied, and no healing takes place, that disorder is considered as coming immediately from God."

[¶10] Of the three verbs in this sentence, one is in the singular number in the text; another is singular in two MSS., (one of them ancient), חבשה chubbeshah; and the Syriac and Vulgate render all of them in the singular number.

### Verse 7

[¶12] Your country is desolate - The description of the ruined and desolate state of the country in these verses does not suit with any part of the prosperous times of Uzziah and Jotham. It very well agrees with the time of Ahaz, when Judea was ravaged by the joint invasion of the Israelites and Syrians, and by the incursions of the Philistines and Edomites. The date of this prophecy is therefore generally fixed to the time of Ahaz. But on the other hand it may be considered whether those instances of idolatry which are urged in [Isa 1:29] - the worshipping in groves and gardens - having been at all times too commonly practiced, can be supposed to be the only ones which the prophet would insist upon in the time of Ahaz; who spread the grossest idolatry through the whole country, and introduced it even into the temple; and, to complete his abominations, made his son pass through the fire to Molech. It is said, [2Kgs 15:37], that in Jotham's time "the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin - and Pekah." If we may suppose any invasion from that quarter to have been actually made at the latter end of Jotham's reign, I should choose to refer this prophecy to that time.

[¶13] And your cities are burned. - Nineteen of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. and twenty-two of De Rossi's, some of my own, with the Syriac and Arabic, add the conjunction which makes the hemistich more complete.

[¶14] At the end of the verse, זרים zarim. This reading, though confirmed by all the ancient versions, gives us no good sense; for "your land is devoured by strangers; and is desolate, as if overthrown by strangers," is a mere tautology, or, what is as bad, an identical comparison. Aben Ezra thought that the word in its present form might be taken for the same with זרם zerem, an inundation: Schultens is of the same opinion; (see Taylor's Concord.); and Schindler in his Lexicon explains it in the same manner: and so, says Zimchi, some explain it. Abendana endeavors to reconcile it to grammatical analogy in the following manner: "זרים zarim is the same with זרם zerem; that is, as overthrown by an inundation of waters: and these two words have the same analogy as קדם kedem and קדים kadim. Or it may be a concrete of the same form with שכיר shechir; and the meaning will be: as overthrown by rain pouring down violently, and causing a flood." On Sal. ben Melech, in loc. But I rather suppose the true reading to be זרם zerem, and have translated it accordingly: the word זרים zerim, in the line above, seems to have caught the transcriber's eye, and to have led him into this mistake. But this conjecture of the learned prelate is not confirmed by any MS. yet discovered.

### Verse 8

[¶16] As a cottage in a vineyard "As a shed in a vineyard" - A little temporary hut covered with boughs, straw, turf, or the like materials, for a shelter from the heat by day, and the cold and dews by night, for the watchman that kept the garden or vineyard during the short season the fruit was ripening, (see [Job 27:18]), and presently removed when it had served that purpose. See Harmer's Observ. 1:454. They were probably obliged to have such a constant watch to defend the fruit from the jackals. "The jackal," (chical of the Turks), says Hasselquist, (Travels, p. 227), "is a species of mustela which is very common in Palestine, especially during the vintage; and often destroys whole vineyards, and gardens of cucumbers." "There is also plenty of the canis vulpes, the fox, near the convent of St. John in the desert, about vintage time; for they destroy all the vines unless they are strictly watched." Ibid. p. 184. See [Sol 2:15].

[¶17] Fruits of the gourd kind, melons, watermelons, cucumbers, etc., are much used and in great request in the Levant, on account of their cooling quality. The Israelites in the wilderness regretted the loss of the cucumbers and melons among the other good things of Egypt, [Num 11:5]. In Egypt the season of watermelons, which are most in request, and which the common people then chiefly live upon, lasts but three weeks. See Hasselquist, p. 256. Tavernier makes it of longer continuance:

[¶18] L'on y void de grands carreaux de melons et de concombres, mais beaucoup plus de derniers, dont les Levantins font leur delices. Le plus souvent, ils les mangent sans les peter, apres quoi ils vont boire une verre d'eau. Dans toute l'Asie c'est la nourriture ordinaire du petit peuple pendant trois ou quatre mois; toute la famine en vit, et quand un enfant demand a manger, au lieu qu'en France ou aillieurs nous luy donnerions du pain, dans le Levant on luy presente un concombre, qu'il mange cru comme on le vient de cueillir. Les concombres dans le Levant ont une bonte particuliere; et quoiqu' on les mange crus, ils ne font jamais de mal; "There are to be seen great beds of melons and cucumbers, but a greater number of the latter, of which the Levantines are particularly fond. In general they eat them without taking off the rind, after which they drink a glass of water. In every part of Asia this is the aliment of the common people for three or four months; the whole family live on them; and when a child asks something to eat, instead of giving it a piece of bread, as is done in France and other countries, they present it with a cucumber, which it eats raw, as gathered. Cucumbers in the Levant are peculiarly excellent; and although eaten raw, they are seldom injurious." Tavernier, Relat. du Serrail, cap. xix.

[¶19] As a lodge, etc. - That is, after the fruit was gathered; the lodge being then permitted to fall into decay. Such was the desolate, ruined state of the city.

[¶20] So the ὡς πολις πολιορκουμενη; Septuagint: see also the Vulgate.

### Verse 9

[¶22] The Lord of hosts "Jehovah God of hosts" - As this title of God, יהוה צבאות Yehovah tsebaoth, "Jehovah of hosts, occurs here for the first time, I think it proper to note, that I translate it always, as in this place, "Jehovah God of hosts;" taking it as an elliptical expression for יהוה אלהי צבאות Yehovah Elohey tsebaoth. This title imports that Jehovah is the God or Lord of hosts or armies; as he is the Creator and Supreme Governor of all beings in heaven and earth, and disposeth and ruleth them all in their several orders and stations; the almighty, universal Lord.

[¶23] We should have been as Sodom - As completely and finally ruined as that and the cities of the plain were, no vestige of which remains at this day.

### Verse 10

[¶25] Ye rulers of Sodom "Ye princes of Sodom" - The incidental mention of Sodom and Gomorrah in the preceding verse suggested to the prophet this spirited address to the rulers and inhabitants of Jerusalem, under the character of princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. Two examples of a sort of elegant turn of the like kind may be observed in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, [Rom 15:4], [Rom 15:5], [Rom 15:12], [Rom 15:13]. See Locke on the place; and see [Isa 1:29], [Isa 1:30], of this chapter, which gives another example of the same.

[¶26] And - like unto Gomorrah. - The ו vau is added by thirty-one of Kennicott's MSS., twenty-nine of De Rossi's and one, very ancient, of my own. See note on [Isa 1:6] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶28] To what purpose, etc. "What have I to do" - The prophet Amos has expressed the same sentiments with great elegance: -

[¶29] I hate, I despise your feasts;

[¶30] And I will not delight in the odour of your solemnities:

[¶31] Though ye offer unto me burnt-offerings

[¶32] And your meat-offerings, I will not accept:

[¶33] Neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fatlings.

[¶34] Take away from me the noise of your songs;

[¶35] And the melody of your viols I will not hear.

[¶36] But let judgment roll down like waters;

[¶37] And righteousness like a mighty stream. [Amo 5:21-24].

[¶38] So has Persius; see Sat. 2 v. 71-75: - "Quin damus id Superis, de magna quod dare lanae," etc.

[¶39] The two or three last pages of Plato's Euthyphro contain the same idea. Sacrifices and prayers are not profitable to the offerer, nor acceptable to the gods, unless accompanied with an upright life.

[¶40] The fat of fed beasts, etc. - The fat and the blood are particularly mentioned, because these were in all sacrifices set apart to God. The fat was always burnt upon the altar, and the blood was partly sprinkled, differently on different occasions, and partly poured out at the bottom of the altar. See Leviticus 4.

### Verse 12

[¶42] When ye come to appear - Instead of לראות leraoth, to appear, one MS. has לראות liroth, to see. See De Rossi. The appearing before God here refers chiefly to the three solemn annual festivals. See [Exo 23:14].

[¶43] Tread my courts (no more) - So the Septuagint divide the sentence, joining the end of this verse to the beginning of the next: Πατειν την αυλην μου, ου προσθησεσθε; "To tread my court ye shall not add - ye shall not be again accepted in worship."

### Verse 13

[¶45] The new moons and Sabbaths "The fast and the day of restraint" - און ועצרה aven vaatsarah. These words are rendered in many different manners by different interpreters, to a good and probable sense by all; but I think by none in such a sense as can arise from the phrase itself, agreeably to the idiom of the Hebrew language. Instead of און aven, the Septuagint manifestly read צום tsom, νηστειαν, "the fast." This Houbigant has adopted. The prophet could not well have omitted the fast in the enumeration of their solemnities, nor the abuse of it among the instances of their hypocrisy, which he has treated at large with such force and elegance in his fifty-eighth chapter. Observe, also, that the prophet Joel, ([Joe 1:14], and [Joe 2:15]), twice joins together the fast and the day of restraint: - עצרה קראו צום קדשו atsarah kiru tsom kaddeshu "Sanctify a fast; proclaim a day of restraint:" which shows how properly they are here joined together. עצרה atsarah, "the restraint," is rendered, both here and in other places of our English translation, "the solemn assembly." Certain holy days ordained by the law were distinguished by a particular charge that "no servile work should be done therein;" [Lev 23:36]; [Num 29:35]; [Deu 16:8]. This circumstance clearly explains the reason of the name, the restraint, or the day of restraint, given to those days.

## 784. Isaiah · 4 of 79

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[¶0] If I could approve of any translation of these two words which I have met with, it should be that of the Spanish version of the Old Testament, made for the use of the Spanish Jews: Tortura y detenimento, "it is a pain and a constraint unto me." But I still think that the reading of the Septuagint is more probably the truth.

### Verse 15

[¶2] When ye spread - The Syriac, Septuagint, and a MS., read בפרשכם beparshecem, without the conjunction ו vau.

[¶3] Your hands "For your hands" - Αἱ γαρ χειρες - Sept. Manus enim vestrae-Vulg. They seem to have read כי ידיכם ki yedeychem.

### Verse 16

[¶5] Wash you - Referring to the preceding verse, "your hands are full of blood;" and alluding to the legal washing commanded on several occasions. See [Lev 14:8], [Lev 14:9], [Lev 14:47].

### Verse 17

[¶7] Relieve the oppressed "Amend that which is corrupted" - אשרו חמוץ asheru chamots. In rendering this obscure phrase I follow Bochart, (Hieroz. Part i., lib. ii., cap. 7), though I am not perfectly satisfied with this explication of it.

### Verse 18

[¶9] Though your sins be as scarlet - שני shani, "scarlet or crimson," dibaphum, twice dipped, or double dyed; from שנה shanah, iterare, to double, or to do a thing twice. This derivation seems much more probable than that which Salmasius prefers from שנן shanan, acuere, to whet, from the sharpness and strength of the color, οξυφοινικον; תלע tela, the same; properly the worm, vermiculus, (from whence vermeil), for this color was produced from a worm or insect which grew in a coccus or excrescence of a shrub of the ilex kind, (see Plin. Nat. Hist. 16:8), like the cochineal worm in the opuntia of America. See Ulloa's Voyage book v., chap. ii., note to page 342. There is a shrub of this kind that grows in Provence and Languedoc, and produces the like insect, called the kermes oak, (see Miller, Dict. Quercus), from kermez, the Arabic word for this color, whence our word crimson is derived. "Neque amissos colores

[¶10] Lana refert medicata fuco," says the poet, applying the same image to a different purpose. To discharge these strong colors is impossible to human art or power; but to the grace and power of God all things, even much more difficult are possible and easy. Some copies have כשנים keshanim, "like crimson garments."

[¶11] Though they be red, etc. - But the conjunction ו vau is added by twenty-one of Kennicott's, and by forty-two of De Rossi's MSS., by some early editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic. It makes a fuller and more emphatic sense. "And though they be red as crimson," etc.

### Verse 19

[¶13] Ye shall eat the good of the land - Referring to [Isa 1:7] : it shall not be "devoured by strangers."

### Verse 20

[¶15] Ye shall be devoured with the sword "Ye shall be food for the sword" - The Septuagint and Vulgate read תאכלכם tochalchem, "the sword shall devour you;" which is of much more easy construction than the present reading of the text.

[¶16] The Chaldee seems to read בחרב אויב תאכלו bechereb oyeb teachelu, "ye shall be consumed by the sword of the enemy." The Syriac also reads בחרב beehereb and renders the verb passively. And the rhythmus seems to require this addition. - Dr. Jubb.

### Verse 21

[¶18] Become a harlot - See before, the Discourse on the Prophetic Style; and see Lowth's Comment on the place, and De Sacr. Poes. Hebr. Prael. xxxi.

### Verse 22

[¶20] Wine mixed with water - An image used for the adulteration of wines, with more propriety than may at first appear, if what Thevenot says of the people of the Levant of late times were true of them formerly. He says, "They never mingle water with their wine to drink; but drink by itself what water they think proper for abating the strength of the wine." "Lorsque les Persans boivent du vin, ils le prennent tout pur, a la facon des Levantins, qui ne le melent jamais avec de l'eua; mais en beuvant du vin, de temps en temps ils prennent un pot d'eau, et en boivent de grand traits." Voyage, part ii., 54 ii., chap. 10. "Ils (les Turcs) n'y meslent jamais d'eau, et se moquent des Chretiens qui en mettent, ce qui leur semble tout a fait ridicule." Ibid. part i., chap. 24. "The Turks never mingle water with their wine, and laugh at the Christians for doing it, which they consider altogether ridiculous."

[¶21] It is remarkable that whereas the Greeks and Latins by mixed wine always understood wine diluted and lowered with water, the Hebrews on the contrary generally mean by it wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, defrutum, (or wine inspissated by boiling it down to two-thirds or one-half of the quantity), myrrh, mandragora, opiates, and other strong drugs. Such were the exhilarating, or rather stupefying, ingredients which Helen mixed in the bowl together with the wine for her guests oppressed with grief to raise their spirits, the composition of which she had learned in Egypt: - Αυτικ' αρ' εις οινον βαλε φαρμακον, ενθεν επινον, Νηπενθες τ' αχολον τε, κακων επιληθον ἁπαντων.

[¶22] Homer. Odyss. lib. iv., ver. 220. "Meanwhile, with genial joy to warm the soul,

[¶23] Bright Helen mix'd a mirth-inspiring bowl;

[¶24] Temper'd with drugs of sovereign use, to assuage

[¶25] The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage:

[¶26] Charm'd with that virtuous draught, the exalted mind

[¶27] All sense of wo delivers to the wind."

[¶28] Pope.

[¶29] Such was the "spiced wine and the juice of pomegranates," mentioned [Sol 8:2]. And how much the Eastern people to this day deal in artificial liquors of prodigious strength, the use of wine being forbidden, may be seen in a curious chapter of Kempfer upon that subject. Amoen. Exot. Fasc. iii., Obs. 15.

[¶30] Thus the drunkard is properly described, [Pro 23:30], as one "that seeketh mixed wine," and "is mighty to mingle strong drink," [Isa 5:22]. And hence the poet took that highly poetical and sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called by [Isa 51:17], the "cup of trembling," causing intoxication and stupefaction, (see Chappelow's note on Hariri, p. 33), containing, as St. John expresses in Greek the Hebrew idea with the utmost precision, though with a seeming contradiction in terms, κεκερασμενον ακρατον, merum mixtum, pure wine made yet stronger by a mixture of powerful ingredients; [Rev 14:10]. "In the hand of Jehovah," saith the psalmist, [Psa 75:8], "there is a cup, and the wine is turbid: it is full of a mixed liquor, and he poureth out of it," or rather, "he poureth it out of one vessel into another," to mix it perfectly, according to the reading expressed by the ancient versions, ויגר מזה אל זה vaiyagger mizzeh al zeh, and he pours it from this to that, "verily the dregs thereof," the thickest sediment of the strong ingredients mingled with it, "all the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them."

[¶31] R. D. Kimchi says, "The current coin was adulterated with brass, tin, and other metals, and yet was circulated as good money. The wine also was adulterated with water in the taverns, and sold notwithstanding for pure wine."

### Verse 23

[¶33] Companions of thieves "Associates" - The Septuagint, Vulgate, and four MSS., read חברי chabrey without the conjunction ו vau.

### Verse 24

[¶35] Ah, I will ease me "Aha! I will be eased" - Anger, arising from a sense of injury and affront, especially from those who, from every consideration of duty and gratitude, ought to have behaved far otherwise, is an uneasy and painful sensation: and revenge, executed to the full on the offenders, removes that uneasiness, and consequently is pleasing and quieting, at least for the present. Ezekiel, [Eze 5:13], introduces God expressing himself in the same manner: - "And mine anger shall be fully accomplished;

[¶36] And I will make my fury rest upon them;

[¶37] And I will give myself ease."

[¶38] This is a strong instance of the metaphor called anthropopathia, by which, throughout the Scriptures, as well the historical as the poetical parts, the sentiments sensations, and affections, the bodily faculties qualities, and members, of men, and even of brute animals, are attributed to God, and that with the utmost liberty and latitude of application. The foundation of this is obvious; it arises from necessity; we have no idea of the natural attributes of God, of his pure essence, of his manner of existence, of his manner of acting: when therefore we would treat on these subjects, we find ourselves forced to express them by sensible images. But necessity leads to beauty; this is true of metaphor in general, and in particular of this kind of metaphor, which is used with great elegance and sublimity in the sacred poetry; and what is very remarkable, in the grossest instances of the application of it, it is generally the most striking and the most sublime. The reason seems to be this: when the images are taken from the superior faculties of the human nature, from the purer and more generous affections, and applied to God, we are apt to acquiesce in the notion; we overlook the metaphor, and take it as a proper attribute; but when the idea is gross and offensive as in this passage of Isaiah, where the impatience of anger and the pleasure of revenge is attributed to God, we are immediately shocked at the application; the impropriety strikes us at once, and the mind, casting about for something in the Divine nature analogous to the image, lays hold on some great, obscure, vague idea, which she endeavors to comprehend, and is lost in immensity and astonishment. See De Sacr. Poesi. Hebr. Praeel. 16 sub. fin., where this matter is treated and illustrated by examples.

### Verse 25

[¶40] I will turn my hand upon thee - So the common version; and this seems to be a metaphor taken from the custom of those who, when the metal is melted, strike off the scoriae with their hand previously to its being poured out into the mould. I have seen this done with the naked hand, and no injury whatever sustained.

[¶41] Purge away thy dross "In the furnace" - The text has כבר cabbor, which some render "as with soap;" as if it were the same with כברית keborith; so Kimchi; but soap can have nothing to do with the purifying of metals. Others, "according to purity," or "purely," as our version. Le Clerc conjectured that the true reading is ככור kechur, "as in the furnace;" see [Eze 22:18], [Eze 22:20]. Dr. Durell proposes only a transposition of letters בכר to the same sense; and so likewise Archbishop Secker. That this is the true reading is highly probable.

### Verse 26

[¶43] I will restore - "This," says Kimchi, "shall be in the days of the Messiah, in which all the wicked shall cease, and the remnant of Israel shall neither do iniquity, nor speak lies." What a change must this be among Jews!

[¶44] Afterward "And after this" - The Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and eighteen MSS., and one of my own, very ancient, add the conjunction ו vau, And.

## 785. Isaiah · 5 of 79

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### Verse 27

[¶1] With judgment "In judgment" - By the exercise of God's strict justice in destroying the obdurate, (see [Isa 1:28]), and delivering the penitent in righteousness; by the truth and faithfulness of God in performing his promises."

### Verse 29

[¶3] For they shall be ashamed of the oaks "For ye shall be ashamed of the ilexes" - Sacred groves were a very ancient and favorite appendage of idolatry. They were furnished with the temple of the god to whom they were dedicated, with altars, images, and every thing necessary for performing the various rites of worship offered there; and were the scenes of many impure ceremonies, and of much abominable superstition. They made a principal part of the religion of the old inhabitants of Canaan; and the Israelites were commanded to destroy their groves, among other monuments of their false worship. The Israelites themselves became afterwards very much addicted to this species of idolatry. "When I had brought them into the land,

[¶4] Which I swore that I would give unto them;

[¶5] Then they saw every high hill and every thick tree;

[¶6] And there they slew their victims;

[¶7] And there they presented the provocation of their offerings;

[¶8] And there they placed their sweet savor;

[¶9] And there they poured out their libations." [Eze 20:28]. "On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice;

[¶10] And on the hills they burn incense;

[¶11] Under the oak and the poplar;

[¶12] And the ilex, because her shade is pleasant." [Hos 4:13].

[¶13] Of what particular kinds the trees here mentioned are, cannot be determined with certainty. In regard to אלה ellah, in this place of Isaiah, as well as in Hosea, Celsius (Hierobot.) understands it of the terebinth, because the most ancient interpreters render it so; in the first place the Septuagint. He quotes eight places; but in three of these eight places the copies vary, some having δρυς, the oak, instead of τερεβινθος, the terebinth or turpentine tree. And he should have told us, that these same seventy render it in sixteen other places by δρυς, the oak; so that their authority is really against him; and the Septuagint, "stant pro quercu," contrary to what he says at first setting out. Add to this that Symmachus, Theodotion, and Aquila, generally render it by δρυς, the oak; the latter only once rendering it by τερεβινθος, the terebinth. His other arguments seem to me not very conclusive; he says, that all the qualities of אלה ellah agree to the terebinth, that it grows in mountainous countries, that it is a strong tree, long-lived, large and high, and deciduous. All these qualities agree just as well to the oak, against which he contends; and he actually attributes them to the oak in the very next section. But I think neither the oak nor the terebinth will do in this place of Isaiah, from the last circumstance which he mentions, their being deciduous, where the prophet's design seems to me to require an evergreen, otherwise the casting of its leaves would be nothing out of the common established course of nature, and no proper image of extreme distress and total desolation, parallel to that of a garden without water, that is, wholly burnt up and destroyed. An ancient, who was an inhabitant and a native of this country, understands it in like manner of a tree blasted with uncommon and immoderate heat; velut arbores, cum frondes aestu torrente decusserunt. Ephrem Syr. in loc., edit. Assemani. Compare [Psa 1:4]; [Jer 17:8]. Upon the whole I have chosen to make it the ilex, which word Vossius, Etymolog., derives from the Hebrew אלה ellah, that whether the word itself be rightly rendered or not, I might at least preserve the propriety of the poetic image. - L.

[¶14] By the ilex the learned prelate means the holly, which, though it generally appears as a sort of shrub, grows, in a good soil, where it is unmolested, to a considerable height. I have one in my own garden, rising three stems from the root, and between twenty and thirty feet in height. It is an evergreen.

[¶15] For they shall be ashamed "For ye shall be ashamed" - תבושו teboshu, in the second person, Vulgate, Chaldee, three MSS., one of my own, ancient, and one edition; and in agreement with the rest of the sentence.

### Verse 30

[¶17] Whose leaf "Whose leaves" - Twenty-six of Kennicott's, twenty-four of De Rossi's, one ancient, of my own, and seven editions, read אליה aleyha, in its full and regular form. This is worth remarking, as it accounts for a great number of anomalies of the like kind, which want only the same authority to rectify them.

[¶18] As a garden that hath no water "A garden wherein is no water" - In the hotter parts of the Eastern countries, a constant supply of water is so absolutely necessary for the cultivation and even for the preservation and existence of a garden, that should it want water but for a few days, every thing in it would be burnt up with the heat, and totally destroyed. There is therefore no garden whatever in those countries but what has such a certain supply, either from some neighboring river, or from a reservoir of water collected from springs, or filled with rain water in the proper season, in sufficient quantity to afford ample provision for the rest of the year.

[¶19] Moses, having described the habitation of man newly created as a garden planted with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, adds, as a circumstance necessary to complete the idea of a garden, that it was well supplied with water, "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden;" [Gen 2:10] : see also [Gen 13:10].

[¶20] That the reader may have a clear notion of this matter, it will be necessary to give some account of the management of their gardens in this respect. "Damascus," says Maundrell, p. 122, "is encompassed with gardens, extending no less, recording to common estimation, than thirty miles round; which makes it look like a city in a vast wood. The gardens are thick set with fruit trees of all kinds, kept fresh and verdant by the waters of the Barrady, (the Chrysorrhoas of the ancients), which supply both the gardens and city in great abundance. This river, as soon as it issues out from between the cleft of the mountain before mentioned into the plain, is immediately divided into three streams; of which the middlemost and biggest runs directly to Damascus, and is distributed to all the cisterns and fountains of the city. The other two (which I take to be the work of art) are drawn round, one to the right hand, and the other to the left, on the borders of the gardens, into which they are let as they pass, by little currents, and so dispersed all over the vast wood, insomuch that there is not a garden but has a fine quick stream running through it. The Barrady is almost wholly drunk up by the city and gardens. What small part of it escapes is united, as I was informed, in one channel again on the southeast side of the city; and, after about three or four hours' course finally loses itself in a bog there, without ever arriving at the sea." This was likewise the case in former times, as Strabo, lib. xvi., Pliny, lib. 5:18, testify; who say, "that this river was expended in canals, and drunk up by watering the place." "The best sight," says the same Maundrell, p. 39, "that the palace of the emir of Beroot, anciently Berytus, affords, and the worthiest to be remembered, is the orange garden. It contains a large quadrangular plat of ground, divided into sixteen lesser squares, four in a row, with walks between them. The walks are shaded with orange trees of a large spreading size. Every one of these sixteen lesser squares in the garden was bordered with stone; and in the stone work were troughs, very artificially contrived, for conveying the water all over the garden; there being little outlets cut at every tree for the stream as it passed by to flow out and water it." The royal gardens at Ispahan are watered just in the same manner, according to Kempfer's description, Amoen. Exot., p. 193.

[¶21] This gives us a clear idea of the פלגי מים palgey mayim, mentioned in the first Psalm, and other places of Scripture, "the divisions of waiters," the waters distributed in artificial canals; for so the phrase properly signifies. The prophet Jeremith, chap. 17:8, has imitated, and elegantly amplified, the passage of the psalmist above referred to: - "He shall be like a tree planted by the water side,

[¶22] And which sendeth forth her roots to the aqueduct.

[¶23] She shall not fear, when the heat cometh;

[¶24] But her leaf shall be green;

[¶25] And in the year of drought she shall not be anxious,

[¶26] Neither shall she cease from bearing fruit."

[¶27] From this image the son of Sirach, Ecclesiasticus 24:30, 31, has most beautifully illustrated the influence and the increase of religious wisdom in a well prepared heart. "I also come forth as a canal from a river,

[¶28] And as a conduit flowing into a paradise.

[¶29] I said, I will water my garden,

[¶30] And I will abundantly moisten my border:

[¶31] And, lo! my canal became a river,

[¶32] And my river became a sea."

[¶33] This gives us the true meaning of the following elegant proverb, [Pro 21:1] : - "The heart of the king is like the canals of waters in the hand of Jehovah; Whithersoever it pleaseth him, he inclineth it."

[¶34] The direction of it is in the hand of Jehovah, as the distribution of the water of the reservoir through the garden by different canals is at the will of the gardener. "Et, cum exustus ager morientibus aestuat herbis,

[¶35] Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam

[¶36] Elicit: illa cadens raucum per levia murmur

[¶37] Saxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia temperat arva."

[¶38] Virg., Georg. 1:107. "Then, when the fiery suns too fiercely play,

[¶39] And shrivelled herbs on withering stems decay,

[¶40] The wary ploughman on the mountain's brow

[¶41] Undams his watery stores; huge torrents flow;

[¶42] And, rattling down the rocks, large moisture yield,

[¶43] Tempering the thirsty fever of the field."

[¶44] Dryden.

## 786. Isaiah · 6 of 79

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[¶0] Solomon, [Ecc 2:1], [Ecc 2:6], mentions his own works of this kind: - "I made me gardens, and paradises;

[¶1] And I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

[¶2] I made me pools of water,

[¶3] To water with them the grove flourishing with trees."

[¶4] Maundrell, p. 88, has given a description of the remains, as they are said to be, of these very pools made by Solomon, for the reception and preservation of the waters of a spring, rising at a little distance from them; which will give us a perfect notion of the contrivance and design of such reservoirs. "As for the pools, they are three in number, lying in a row above each other; being so disposed that the waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third. Their figure is quadrangular, the breadth is the same in all, amounting to about ninety paces. In their length there is some difference between them; the first being about one hundred and sixty paces long, the second, two hundred, and the third, two hundred and twenty. They are all lined with wall and plastered; and contain a great depth of water."

[¶5] The immense works which were made by the ancient kings of Egypt for recovering the waters of the Nile, when it overflowed, for such uses, are well known. But there never was a more stupendous work of this kind than the reservoir of Saba, or Merab, in Arabia Felix. According to the tradition of the country, it was the work of Balkis, that queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. It was a vast lake formed by the collection of the waters of a torrent in a valley, where, at a narrow pass between two mountains, a very high mole or dam was built. The water of the lake so formed had near twenty fathoms depth; and there were three sluices at different heights, by which, at whatever height the lake stood, the plain below might be watered. By conduits and canals from these sluices the water was constantly distributed in due proportion to the several lands; so that the whole country for many miles became a perfect paradise. The city of Saba, or Merab, was situated immediately below the great dam; a great flood came, and raised the lake above its usual height; the dam gave way in the middle of the night; the waters burst forth at once, and overwhelmed the whole city, with the neighboring towns and people. The remains of eight tribes were forced to abandon their dwellings, and the beautiful valley became a morass and a desert. This fatal catastrophe happened long before the time of Mohammed, who mentions it in the Koran, chap. 34: ver. 15. See also Sale, Prelim. s. 1 p. 10, and Michaelis, Quest. aux Voyag. Daniel No. 94. Niebuhr, Descrip. de l'Arabie. p. 240. - L.

### Introduction

[¶7] Prophecy concerning the kingdom of the Messiah, and the conversion of the Gentile world, [Isa 2:1-5]. Great wickedness and idolatry of the unbelieving Jews, [Isa 2:6-9]. Terrible consternation that will seize the wicked, who shall in vain seek for rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of God in the day of his judgments, [Isa 2:10-17]. Total destruction of idolatry in consequence of the establishment of Messiah's kingdom, [Isa 2:18-21]. An exhortation to put no confidence in man, [Isa 2:22].

[¶8] The prophecy contained in the second, third, and fourth chapters, makes one continued discourse. The first five verses of chap. 2 foretell the kingdom of Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their admission into it. From the sixth verse to the end of the second chapter is foretold the punishment of the unbelieving Jews for their idolatrous practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of God's protection; and moreover the destruction of idolatry, in consequence of the establishment of Messiah's kingdom. The whole of the third chapter, with the first verse of the fourth, is a prophecy of the calamities of the Babylonian invasion and captivity; with a particular amplification of the distress of the proud and luxurious daughters of Sion; [Isa 4:2-6] promises to the remnant, which shall have escaped this severe purgation, a future restoration to the favor and protection of God.

[¶9] This prophecy was probably delivered in the time of Jotham, or perhaps in that of Uzziah, as Isaiah is said to have prophesied in his reign; to which time not any of his prophecies is so applicable as that of these chapters. The seventh verse of the second, and the latter part of the third chapter, plainly point out times in which riches abounded, and luxury and delicacy prevailed. Plenty of silver and gold could only arise from their commerce; particularly from that part of it which was carried on by the Red Sea. This circumstance seems to confine the prophecy within the limits above mentioned, while the port of Elath was in their hands; it was lost under Ahaz, and never recovered.

### Verse 2

[¶11] In the last days "In the latter days" - "Wherever the latter times are mentioned in Scripture, the days of the Messiah are always meant," says Kimchi on this place: and, in regard to this place, nothing can be more clear and certain. And the mountain of the Lord's house, says the same author, is Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built. The prophet Micah, [Mic 4:1-4], has repeated this prophecy of the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, and of its progress to universality and perfection, in the same words, with little and hardly any material variation: for as he did not begin to prophesy till Jotham's time, and this seems to be one of the first of Isaiah's prophecies, I suppose Micah to have taken it from hence. The variations, as I said, are of no great importance. [Isa 2:2]. הוא hu, after ונשא venissa, a word of some emphasis, may be supplied from Micah, if dropped in Isaiah. An ancient MS. has it here in the margin. It has in like manner been lost in [Isa 53:4] (note), and in [Psa 22:29], where it is supplied by the Syriac, and Septuagint. Instead of כל הגוים col haggoyim, all the nations, Micah has only עמים ammim, peoples; where the Syriac has כל עמים col ammim, all peoples, as probably it ought to be. [Isa 2:3]. For the second אל el, read ואל veel, seventeen MSS., one of my own, ancient, two editions, the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, Chaldee, and so Micah, [Mic 4:2]. [Isa 2:4]. Micah adds עד רחק ad rachok, afar off, which the Syriac also reads in this parallel place of Isaiah. It is also to be observed that Micah has improved the passage by adding a verse, or sentence, ([Mic 4:4]) for imagery and expression worthy even of the elegance of Isaiah: - "And they shall sit every man under his vine,

[¶12] And under his fig tree, and none shall affright them:

[¶13] For the mouth of Jehovah, God of hosts, hath spoken it."

[¶14] The description of well established peace, by the image of "beating their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks," is very poetical. The Roman poets have employed the same image, Martial, 14:34. "Falx ex ense." "Pax me certa ducis placidos curvavit in usus:

[¶15] Agricolae nunc sum; militis ante fui." "Sweet peace has transformed me. I was once the property of the soldier, and am now the property of the husbandman."

[¶16] The prophet Joel, [Joe 3:10], hath reversed it, and applied it to war prevailing over peace: - "Beat your ploughshares into swords,

[¶17] And your pruning-hooks into spears."

[¶18] And so likewise the Roman poets: - - Non ullus aratro

[¶19] Dignus honos: squalent abductis arva colonis,

[¶20] Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.

[¶21] Virg., Georg. 1:506. "Agriculture has now no honor: the husbandmen being taken away to the wars, the fields are overgrown with weeds, and the crooked sickles are straightened into swords."

[¶22] Bella diu tenuere viros: erat aptior ensis

[¶23] Vomere: cedebat taurus arator equo

[¶24] Sarcula cessabant; versique in pila ligones;

[¶25] Factaque de rastri pondere cassis erat.

[¶26] Ovid, Fast. 1:697. "War has lasted long, and the sword is preferred to the plough. The bull has given place to the war-horse; the weeding-hooks to pikes; and the harrow-pins have been manufactured into helmets."

[¶27] The prophet Ezekiel, [Eze 17:22-24], has presignified the same great event with equal clearness, though in a more abstruse form, in an allegory; from an image, suggested by the former part of the prophecy, happily introduced, and well pursued: - "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah:

[¶28] I myself will take from the shoot of the lofty cedar,

[¶29] Even a tender scion from the top of his scions will I pluck off:

[¶30] And I myself will plant it on a mountain high and eminent.

[¶31] On the lofty mountain of Israel will I plant it;

[¶32] And it shall exalt its branch, and bring forth fruit,

[¶33] And it shall become a majestic cedar:

[¶34] And under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing;

[¶35] In the shadow of its branches shall they dwell:

[¶36] And all the trees of the field shall know,

[¶37] That I Jehovah have brought low the high tree;

[¶38] Have exalted the low tree;

[¶39] Have dried up the green tree;

[¶40] And have made the dry tree to flourish:

[¶41] I Jehovah have spoken it, and will do it."

[¶42] The word ונתתי venathatti, in this passage, [Eze 17:22], as the sentence now stands, appears incapable of being reduced to any proper construction or sense. None of the ancient versions acknowledge it, except Theodotion, and the Vulgate; and all but the latter vary very much from the present reading of this clause. Houbigant's correction of the passage, by reading instead of ונתתי venathatti, ויונקת veyoneketh, and a tender scion which is not very unlike it, perhaps better ויונק veyonek, with which the adjective רך rach will agree without alteration - is ingenious and probable; and I have adopted it in the above translation. - L.

### Verse 3

[¶44] To the house - The conjunction ו vau is added by nineteen of Kennicott's, thirteen of De Rossi's MSS., one of my own, and two editions, the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Arabic, and some copies of the Targum; And to the house. It makes the sentence more emphatic.

## 787. Isaiah · 7 of 79

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[¶0] He will teach us of his ways - Unless God grant a revelation of his will, what can we know?

[¶1] We will walk in his paths - Unless we purpose to walk in the light, of what use can that light be to us?

[¶2] For out of Zion shall go forth the law - In the house of God, and in his ordinances only can we expect to hear the pure doctrines of revelation preached.

[¶3] 1. God alone can give a revelation of his own will.

[¶4] 2. We must use the proper means in order to know this will.

[¶5] 3. We should know it in order to do it.

[¶6] 4. We should do it in order to profit by it.

[¶7] 5. He who will not walk in the light when God vouchsafes it, shall be shut up in everlasting darkness.

[¶8] 6. Every man should help his neighbor to attain that light, life, and felicity: "Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord."

### Verse 4

[¶10] Neither shall they learn war any more - If wars are necessary, how deep must that fall be that renders them so! But what a reproach to humanity is the trade of war! Men are regularly instructed in it, as in any of the necessary arts. "How to dislodge most souls from their frail shrines

[¶11] By bomb, sword, ball, and bayonet, is the art

[¶12] Which some call great and glorious!"

[¶13] And is this a necessary part of a finished education in civilized society? O Earth! Earth! Earth!

### Verse 6

[¶15] They be replenished "And they multiply" - Seven MSS. and one edition, for ישפיקו yaspiku, read ישפיחו yaspichu, "and have joined themselves to the children of strangers;" that is, in marriage or worship. - Dr. Jubb. So Vulg., adhaeserunt. Compare [Isa 14:1]. But the very learned professor Chevalier Michaelis has explained the word יספחו yesupachu, [Job 30:7], (German translation, note on the place), in another manner; which perfectly well agrees with that place, and perhaps will be found to give as good a sense here. ספיח saphiach, the noun, means corn springing up, not from the seed regularly sown on cultivated land, but in the untilled field, from the scattered grains of the former harvest. This, by an easy metaphor, is applied to a spurious brood of children irregularly and casually begotten. The Septuagint seem to have understood the verb here in this sense, reading it as the Vulgate seems to have done. This justifies their version, which it is hard to account for in any other manner: και τεκνα πολλα αλλοφυλα εγενηθῃ αυτοις. Compare [Hos 5:7], and the Septuagint there. But instead of ובילדי ubeyaldey, "and in the children," two of Kennicott's and eight of De Rossi's MSS. have וכילדי ucheyaldey, "and as the children." And they sin impudently as the children of strangers. See De Rossi.

[¶16] And are soothsayers "They are filled with diviners" - Hebrews "They are filled from the east;" or "more than the east." The sentence is manifestly imperfect. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee, seem to have read כמקדם kemikkedem; and the latter, with another word before it, signifying idols; "they are filled with idols as from of old." Houbigant, for מקדם mikkedem, reads מקסם mikkesem, as Brentius had proposed long ago. I rather think that both words together give us the true reading: מקדם mikkedem, מקסם mikkesem, "with divination from the east;" and that the first word has been by mistake omitted, from its similitude to the second.

### Verse 7

[¶18] Their land is also full of horses "And his land is filled with horses" - This was in direct contradiction to God's command in the law: "But he (the king) shall not multiply horses to himself; nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold," [Deu 17:16], [Deu 17:17]. Uzziah seems to have followed the example of Solomon, see [1Kgs 10:26-29], who first transgressed in these particulars; he recovered the port of Elath on the Red Sea, and with it that commerce which in Solomon's days had "made silver and gold as plenteous at Jerusalem as stones," [2Chr 1:15]. He had an army of 307,500 men, in which, as we may infer from the testimony of Isaiah, the chariots and horse made a considerable part. "The law above mentioned was to be a standing trial of prince and people, whether they had trust and confidence in God their deliverer." See Bp. Sherlock's Discourses on Prophecy. Dissert. iv., where he has excellently explained the reason and effect of the law, and the influence which the observance or neglect of it had on the affairs of the Israelites.

### Verse 8

[¶20] Their land also is full of idols "And his land is filled with idols" - Uzziah and Fotham are both said, [2Kgs 15:3], [2Kgs 15:4], [2Kgs 15:34], [2Kgs 15:35], "to have done that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" that is, to have adhered to and maintained the legal worship of God, in opposition to idolatry and all irregular worship; for to this sense the meaning of that phrase is commonly to be restrained; "save that the high places were not removed where the people still sacrificed and burned incense." There was hardly any time when they were quite free from this irregular and unlawful practice, which they seem to have looked upon as very consistent with the true worship of God; and which seems in some measure to have been tolerated, while the tabernacle was removed from place to place, and before the temple was built. Even after the conversion of Manasseh, when he had removed the strange gods, commanded Judah to serve Jehovah the God of Israel, it is added, "Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still on the high places, yet unto Jehovah their God only," [2Chr 33:17]. The worshipping on the high places therefore does not necessarily imply idolatry; and from what is said of these two kings, Uzziah and Jotham, we may presume that the public exercise of idolatrous worship was not permitted in their time. The idols therefore here spoken of must have been such as were designed for a private and secret use. Such probably were the teraphim so often mentioned in Scripture; a kind of household gods, of human form, as it should seem, (see [1Sam 19:13] (note), and compare [Gen 31:34] (note)), of different magnitude, used for idolatrous and superstitious purposes, particularly for divination, and as oracles, which they consulted for direction in their affairs.

### Verse 9

[¶22] Boweth down "Shall be bowed down" - This has reference to the preceding verse. They bowed themselves down to their idols, therefore shall they be bowed down and brought low under the avenging hand of God.

[¶23] Therefore forgive them not - "And thou wilt not forgive them." - L.

[¶24] Verse 10 "When he ariseth to strike the earth with terror" - On the authority of the Septuagint, confirmed by the Arabic and an ancient MS., I have added here to the text a line, which in the 19th and 21st verses ([Isa 2:19], [Isa 2:21]) is repeated together with the preceding line, and has, I think, evidently been omitted by mistake in this place. The MS. here varies only in one letter from the reading of the other two verses; it has בארץ baarets, instead of הארץ haarets. None of De Rossi's MSS. confirm this addition. The line added is, When he ariseth to strike the earth with terror.

### Verse 11

[¶26] Be humbled - "שפל ושח shaphel veshach, read שפלו שח shaphelu shach." - Dr. Durell. Which rectifies the grammatical construction. No MS. or version confirms this reading.

### Verse 13

[¶28] And upon all the cedars "Even against all the cedars" - Princes, potentates, rulers, captains, rich men, etc. - So Kimchi. These verses afford us a striking example of that peculiar way of writing, which makes a principal characteristic of the parabolical or poetical style of the Hebrews, and in which the prophets deal so largely, namely, their manner of exhibiting things Divine, spiritual, moral, and political, by a set of images taken from things natural, artificial, religious, historical, in the way of metaphor or allegory. Of these nature furnishes much the largest and the most pleasing share; and all poetry has chiefly recourse to natural images, as the richest and most powerful source of illustration. But it may be observed of the Hebrew poetry in particular, that in the use of such images, and in the application of them in the way of illustration and ornament, it is more regular and constant than any other poetry whatever; that it has for the most part a set of images appropriated in a manner to the explication of certain subjects. Thus you will find, in many other places besides this before us, that cedars of Lebanon and oaks of Bashan, are used in the way of metaphor and allegory for kings, princes, potentates of the highest rank; high mountains and lofty hills, for kingdoms, republics, states, cities; towers and fortresses, for defenders and protectors, whether by counsel or strength, in peace or war; ships of Tarshish and works of art, and invention employed in adorning them, for merchants, men enriched by commerce, and abounding in all the luxuries and elegances of life, such as those of Tyre and Sidon; for it appears from the course of the whole passage, and from the train of ideas, that the fortresses and the ships are to be taken metaphorically, as well as the high trees and the lofty mountains.

[¶29] Ships of Tarshish - Are in Scripture frequently used by a metonymy for ships in general, especially such as are employed in carrying on traffic between distant countries, as Tarshish was the most celebrated mart of those times, frequented of old by the Phoenicians, and the principal source of wealth to Judea and the neighboring countries. The learned seem now to be perfectly well agreed that Tarshish is Tartessus, a city of Spain, at the mouth of the river Baetis, whence the Phoenicians, who first opened this trade, brought silver and gold, ([Jer 10:9]; [Eze 27:12]), in which that country then abounded; and, pursuing their voyage still farther to the Cassiterides, (Bogart, Canaan, 1 c. 39; Huet, Hist. de Commerce, p. 194), the islands of Scilly and Cornwall, they brought from thence lead and tin.

[¶30] Tarshish is celebrated in Scripture, [2Chr 8:17], [2Chr 8:18]; [2Chr 9:21], for the trade which Solomon carried on thither, in conjunction with the Tyrians. Jehoshaphat, [1Kgs 22:48];[2Chr 20:36], attempted afterwards to renew their trade. And from the account given of his attempt it appears that his fleet was to sail to Ezion-geber on the Red Sea; they must therefore have designed to sail round Africa, as Solomon's fleet had done before, (see Huet, Histoire de Commerce, p. 32), for it was a three years' voyage, ([2Chr 9:21]), and they brought gold from Ophir, probably on the coast of Arabia; silver from Tartessus; and ivory, apes, and peacocks, from Africa." אופרי Afri, Africa, the Roman termination, Africa terra. תרשיש Tarshish, some city or country in Africa. So the Chaldee on [1Kgs 22:49], where it renders תרשיש Tarshish by אפריקה Aphricah; and compare [2Chr 20:36], from whence it appears, to go to Ophir and to Tarshish is one and the same thing." - Dr. Jubb.

[¶31] It is certain that under Pharaoh Necho, about two hundred years afterwards, this voyage was made by the Egyptians; Herodot. 4:42. They sailed from the Red Sea, and returned by the Mediterranean, and they performed it in three years, just the same time that the voyage under Solomon had taken up. It appears likewise from Pliny, Nat. Hist., 2:67, that the passage round the Cape of Good Hope was known and frequently practiced before his time, by Hanno, the Carthaginian, when Carthage was in its glory; by one Eudoxus, in the time of Ptolemy Lathyrus, king of Egypt; and Coelus Antipater, a historian of good credit, somewhat earlier than Pliny, testifies that he had seen a merchant who had made the voyage from Gades to Ethiopia. The Portuguese under Vasco de Gama, near three hundred years ago, recovered this navigation, after it had been intermitted and lost for many centuries. - L.

### Verse 18

[¶33] Shall utterly abolish "Shall disappear" - The ancient versions and an ancient MS. read יחלפו yachalpu, plural. One of my MSS. reads יחלוף yachaloph, probably a mistake for יחלפו yachalpu.

### Verse 19

[¶35] Into the holes of the rocks "Into caverns of rocks" - The country of Judea being mountainous and rocky, is full of caverns, as appears from the history of David's persecution under Saul. At En-gedi, in particular, there was a cave so large that David with six hundred men hid themselves in the sides of it; and Saul entered the mouth of the cave without perceiving that any one was there, 1 Samuel 24. Josephus, Antiq., lib. xiv., c. 15, and Bell. Jud., lib. 1, c. 16, tells us of a numerous gang of banditti, who, having infested the country, and being pursued by Herod with his army retired into certain caverns almost inaccessible, near Arbela in Galilee, where they were with great difficulty subdued. Some of these were natural, others artificial. "Beyond Damascus," says Strabo, lib. xvi., "are two mountains called Trachones, from which the country has the name of Trachonitis; and from hence towards Arabia and Iturea, are certain rugged mountains, in which there are deep caverns, one of which will hold four thousand men." Tavernier, Voyage de Perse, part ii., chap. 4, speaks of a grot, between Aleppo and Bir, that would hold near three thousand horse. "Three hours distant from Sidon, about a mile from the sea, there runs along a high rocky mountain, in the sides of which are hewn a multitude of grots, all very little differing from each other. They have entrances about two feet square: on the inside you find in most or all of them a room of about four yards square. There are of these subterraneous caverns two hundred in number. It may, with probability at least, be concluded that these places were contrived for the use of the living, and not of the dead. Strabo describes the habitations of the Troglodytae to have been somewhat of this kind." - Maundrell, p. 118. The Horites, who dwelt in Mount Seir, were Troglodytae, as their name הרים horim, imports. But those mentioned by Strabo were on each side of the Arabian gulf. Mohammed (Koran, chap. 15 xxvi.) speaks of a tribe of Arabians, the tribe of Thamud, "who hewed houses out of the mountains, to secure themselves." Thus, "because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves and strong holds," [Jdg 6:2]. To these they betook themselves for refuge in times of distress and hostile invasion: "When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed, then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits," [1Sam 13:6], and see [Jer 41:9]. Therefore "to enter into the rock, to go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth," was to them a very proper and familiar image to express terror and consternation. The prophet Hosea, [Hos 10:8], hath carried the same image farther, and added great strength and spirit to it: "They shall say to the mountains, Cover us;

[¶36] And to the hills, Fall on us;" which image, together with these of Isaiah, is adopted by the sublime author of the Revelation, [Rev 6:15], [Rev 6:16], who frequently borrows his imagery from our prophet. - L.

### Verse 20

[¶38] Which they made each one for himself to worship "Which they have made to worship" - The word לו lo, for himself, is omitted by two ancient MSS., and is unnecessary. It does not appear that any copy of the Septuagint has it, except MS. Pachom, and MS. 1. D. II., and they have ἑαυτοις, להם lahem, to themselves.

[¶39] To the moles - They shall carry their idols with them into the dark caverns, old ruins, or desolate places, to which they shall flee for refuge; and so shall give them up, and relinquish them to the filthy animals that frequent such places, and have taken possession of them as their proper habitation. Bellonias, Greaves, P. Lucas, and many other travelers, speak of bats of an enormous size, as inhabiting the Great Pyramid. See Harmer, Obs., vol. ii., 455. Three MSS. express חפרפרות chapharperoth, the moles as one word.

### Verse 22

[¶41] Cease ye from man - Trust neither in him, nor in the gods that he has invented. Neither he, nor they, can either save or destroy.

### Introduction

[¶43] The whole of this chapter, with the first verse of the next, is a prophecy of those calamities that should be occasioned by the Babylonish invasion and captivity. These calamities are represented as so great and so general, that even royal honors, in such a state, are so far from being desirable, that hardly any can be got to accept them, [Isa 3:1-7]. This visitation is declared to be the consequence of their profanity and guilt; for which the prophet farther reproves and threatens them, [Isa 3:8-15]. Particular amplification of the distress of the delicate and luxurious daughters of Zion; whose deplorable situation is finely contrasted with their former prosperity and ease, [Isa 3:16-26].

## 788. Isaiah · 8 of 79

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### Verse 1

[¶1] The stay and the staff "Every stay and support" - Hebrew, "the support masculine, and the support feminine:" that is, every kind of support, whether great or small, strong or weak. "Al Kanitz, wal-kanitzah; the wild beasts, male and female. Proverbially applied both to fishing and hunting: i.e., I seized the prey, great or little, good or bad. From hence, as Schultens observes, is explained [Isa 3:1], literally, the male and female stay: i.e., the strong and weak, the great and small." - Chappelow, note on Hariri, Assembly 1. Compare [Ecc 2:8].

[¶2] The Hebrew words משען ומשענה mashen umashenah come from the same root שען shaan, to lean against, to incline, to support; and here, being masculine and feminine, they may signify all things necessary for the support both of man and woman. My old MS. understands the staff and stay as meaning particular persons, and translates the verse thus: - Lo forsoth, the Lordschip Lord of Hoostis schal don awey fro Jerusalem and fro Juda the stalworth and the stronge.

[¶3] The two following verses, [Isa 3:2], [Isa 3:3], are very clearly explained by the sacred historian's account of the event, the captivity of Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: "And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths; none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land," [2Kgs 24:14]. Which is supplied by our version.

### Verse 4

[¶5] I will give children to be their princes "I will make boys their princes" - This also was fully accomplished in the succession of weak and wicked princes, from the death of Josiah to the destruction of the city and temple, and the taking of Zedekiah, the last of them, by Nebuchadnezzar.

[¶6] Babes shall rule over them - Dymennysche men schul lordschopen to hem. - Old MS. Bible.

### Verse 6

[¶8] Of the house of his father "Of his father's house" - For בית beith, the house, the ancient interpreters seem to have read מבית mibbeith, from the house; του οικειου του πατρος αυτου, Septuagint; domesticum patris sui, Vulgate; which gives no good sense. But the Septuagint MS. 1. D. 2: for οικειου has οικου. And, his brother, of his father's house, is little better than a tautology. The case seems to require that the man should apply to a person of some sort of rank and eminence; one that was the head of his father's house, (see [Jos 12:14]), whether of the house of him who applies to him, or of any other; ראש בית אביו rosh beith abaiu, the chief, or head of his father's house. I cannot help suspecting, therefore, that the word ראש rosh, head, chief, has been lost out of the text.

[¶9] Saying - Before שמלה simlah, garment, two MSS., one ancient, and the Babylonish Talmud have the word לאמר lemor, saying; and so the Steptuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee. I place it with Houbigant, after שמלה simlah.

[¶10] Thou hast clothing "Take by the garment" - That is, shall entreat him in an humble and supplicating manner. "Ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, Let us go with you; for we have heard that God is with you," [Zac 8:23]. And so in [Isa 4:1], the same gesture is used to express earnest and humble entreaty. The behavior of Saul towards Samuel was of the same kind, when he laid hold on the skirt of his raiment, [1Sam 15:27]. The preceding and following verses show, that his whole deportment, in regard to the prophet, was full of submission and humility.

[¶11] And let this ruin be under thy hand "And let thy hand support" - Before תחת ידך tachath yadecha, a MS. adds תהיה tihyeh, "let it be;" another MS. adds in the same place, תקח בידך takach beyadecha, which latter seems to be a various reading of the two preceding words, making a very good sense: "Take into thy hand our ruinous state." Twenty-one MSS. of Kennicott's, thirteen of De Rossi's, one of my own, ancient, and three editions of the Babylonish Talmud have ידיך yadeycha, plural, "thy hands."

### Verse 7

[¶13] In that day shall he swear "Then shall he openly declare" - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Jerome, read וישא veyissa, adding the conjunction, which seems necessary in this place.

[¶14] I will not be a healer - I am noy a leche. - Old MS. Bible. Leech was the ancient English word for a physician.

[¶15] For in my house is neither bread nor clothing "For in my house is neither bread nor raiment" - "It is customary through all the East," says Sir J. Chardin, "to gather together an immense quantity of furniture and clothes; for their fashions never alter." Princes and great men are obliged to have a great stock of such things in readiness for presents upon all occasions. "The kings of Persia," says the same author, "have great wardrobes, where there are always many hundreds of habits ready, designed for presents, and sorted," Harmer, Observ., 2:11 and 88. A great quantity of provision for the table was equally necessary. The daily provision for Solomon's household, whose attendants were exceedingly numerous, was proportionately great, [1Kgs 4:22], [1Kgs 4:23]. Even Nehemiah, in his strait circumstances, had a large supply daily for his table; at which he received a hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, besides those that came from among the neighboring heathen, [Neh 5:17], [Neh 5:18].

[¶16] This explains the meaning of the excuse made by him that is desired to undertake the government. He alleges that he has not wherewithal to support the dignity of the station, by such acts of liberality and hospitality as the law of custom required of persons of superior rank. See Harmer's Observations, 1:340, 2:88.

### Verse 8

[¶18] The eyes "The cloud" - This word appears to be of very doubtful form, from the printed editions, the MSS., and the ancient versions. The first yod in עיני eyney, which is necessary according to the common interpretation, is in many of them omitted; the two last letters are upon a rasure in two MSS. I think it should be ענן anan, "a cloud," as the Syriac reads; and the allusion is to the cloud in in which the glory of the Lord appeared above the tabernacle; see [Exo 16:9], [Exo 16:10]; [Exo 40:34-38]; [Num 16:41], [Num 16:42].

[¶19] Either of the readings gives a very good sense. The allusion may be to the cloud of the Divine presence in the wilderness: or the eyes of the Lord may be meant, as they are in every place beholding the evil and the good. And he cannot look upon iniquity but with abhorrence; therefore, the eyes of his glory might be well provoked by their crimes.

### Verse 9

[¶21] The show of their countenance - Bishop Lowth has it the steadfastness of their countenance - they appear to be bent on iniquity, their eyes tell the wickedness of their hearts. The eye is the index of the mind. Envy, hatred, malice, malevolence, concupiscence, and murder, when in the heart, look most intelligently out at the eye. They tell the innocent to be on their guard; and serve the same purpose as the sonorous rings in the tail of the rattlesnake - they announce the presence of the destroyer.

[¶22] They declare their sin as Sodom - Impure propensities are particularly legible in the eyes: whoever has beheld the face of a debauchee or a prostitute knows this; of these it may be said, they wish to appear what they really are. They glory in their iniquity. This is the highest pitch of ungodliness.

[¶23] They have rewarded evil unto themselves - Every man's sin is against his own soul. Evil awaiteth sinners - and he that offends his God injures himself.

### Verse 10

[¶25] Say ye to the righteous - לצדיק letsaddik, the ל lamed is added here by one MS. and the Chaldee. The righteous is the person,

[¶26] 1. Who fears God.

[¶27] 2. Departs from evil.

[¶28] 3. Walks according to the testimony of God.

[¶29] 4. And expects and prepares for a glorious immortality. "Pronounce ye." - The reading of this verse is very dubious. The Septuagint for אמרו imru read נאסר neasor, or both, אמרו נאסר imru neasor, and כי לא טוב לנו ki lo tob lanu. Δησωμεν τον δικαιον, ὁτι δυσχρηστος ἡμιν εστι. Perhaps, for אמרו imru, the true reading may be אשרו ashsheru, "bless you;" or אמרו אשרי imru ashrey, "say ye, blessed is." The Vulgate and an ancient MS. read in the singular number, יאכל yochel, comedat, "he shall eat." "It shall be well with him:" - כי טוב ki tob, "that good." Say nothing to such but good. He is a good man, he does nothing but good, and has a good God to deal with, from whom he expects nothing but goodness. It shall be well with such in all circumstances of life.

[¶30] 1. In prosperity.

[¶31] 2. In adversity.

[¶32] 3. In sickness.

[¶33] 4. In health.

[¶34] 5. In death.

[¶35] 6. In judgment. And,

[¶36] 7. Through eternity

[¶37] In every case, occurrence, and circumstance, he shall eat the fruit of his doings - he shall derive benefit from being a righteous man, and walking in a righteous way.

### Verse 11

[¶39] Wo unto the wicked - לרשע lerasha, the man who is,

[¶40] 1. Evil in his heart.

[¶41] 2. Evil in his purposes.

[¶42] 3. Evil in his life.

[¶43] As he is wicked, he does that which is wicked; and is influenced by the wicked one, of whom he is the servant and the son. It shall be ill with him, רע ra; in a single word say to him - evil! Of him you can speak no good; and to him you can speak no good - all is evil, in him - before him - after him - round about him - above him - below him. Evil in time - evil through eternity!

[¶44] The reward of his hands - What he has deserved he shall get. He shall be paid that for which he has labored, and his reward shall be in proportion to his work. O, what a lot is that of the wicked! Cursed in time, and accursed through eternity!

## 789. Isaiah · 9 of 79

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Err "Pervert" - בלעו billeu, "swallow." Among many unsatisfactory methods of accounting for the unusual meaning of this word in this place, I choose Jarchi's explication, as making the best sense. "Read בללו billalu, 'confound.' Syriac." - Dr. Judd. "Read בהלו beholu, 'disturb or trouble.'" - Secker. So Septuagint. This verse might be read, "The collectors of grapes shall be their oppressors; and usurers (noshim, instead of nashim, women) shall rule over them."

### Verse 13

[¶3] The people "His people" - עמו ammo, Septuagint.

### Verse 14

[¶5] The vineyard. "My vineyard" - כרמי - "dr carmi, Septuagint, Chaldee, Jerome.

### Verse 15

[¶7] And grind the faces - The expression and the image is strong, to denote grievous oppression but is exceeded by the prophet Micah, [Mic 3:1-3] : - "Hear, I pray you, ye chiefs of Jacob,

[¶8] And ye princes of the house of Israel:

[¶9] Is it not yours to know what is right?

[¶10] Ye that hate good and love evil:

[¶11] Who tear their skins from off them,

[¶12] And their flesh from off their bones;

[¶13] Who devour the flesh of my people;

[¶14] And flay from off them their skin;

[¶15] And their bones they dash in pieces;

[¶16] And chop them asunder, as morsels for the pot:

[¶17] And as flesh thrown into the midst of the caldron."

[¶18] In the last line but one, for כאשר keasher, read, by the transposition of a letter, כשאר kisher, with the Septuagint and Chaldee.

### Verse 16

[¶20] And wanton eyes "And falsely setting off their eyes with paint" - Hebrew, falsifying their eyes. I take this to be the true meaning and literal rendering of the word; from שקר shakar. The Masoretes have pointed it, as if it were from שקר sakar, a different word. This arose, as I imagine, from their supposing that the word was the same with סקר sakar, Chaldee, "intueri, innuere oculis;" or that it had an affinity with the noun סיקרא sikra, which the Chaldeans, or the rabbins at least, use for stibium, the mineral which was commonly used in colouring the eyes. See Jarchi's comment on the place. Though the colouring of the eyes with stibium be not particularly here expressed, yet I suppose it to be implied; and so the Chaldee paraphrase explains it; stibio linitis oculis, "with eyes dressed with stibium." This fashion seems to have prevailed very generally among the Eastern people in ancient times; and they retain the very same to this day.

[¶21] Pietro delta Valle, giving a description of his wife, an Assyrian lady born in Mesopotamia, and educated at Baghdad, whom he married in that country, (Viaggi, Tom. I., Lettera 17), says, "Her eyelashes, which are long, and, according to the custom of the East, dressed with stibium, (as we often read in the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrew women of old, [Jer 4:30]; [Eze 23:40]; and in Xenophon, of Astyages the grandfather of Cyrus, and of the Medes of that time, Cyropaed. lib. i.), give a dark, and at the same time a majestic, shade to the eyes." "Great eyes," says Sandys, Travels, p. 67, speaking of the Turkish women, "they have in principal repute; and of those the blacker they be the more amiable; insomuch that they put between the eyelids and the eye a certain black powder with a fine long pencil, made of a mineral, brought from the kingdom of Fez, and called Alcohole; which by the not disagreeable staining of the lids doth better set forth the whiteness of the eye; and though it be troublesome for a time, yet it comforteth the sight, and repelleth ill humours." Vis ejus (stibii) astringe ac refrigerare, principalis autem circa oculos; namque ideo etiam plerique Platyophthalmon id appellavere, quoniam in calliblepharis mulierum dilatat oculos; et fluxiones inhibet oculorum exulcerationesque. "It is astringent in its virtue, and refrigerant, and to be chiefly employed about the eyes, and it is called Platyophthalmon, for being put into those ointments with which women beautify their eyes, it dilates them, removes defluxions, and heals any ulcerations that may be about the eyelids." - Pliny, Nat. Hist. 33:6.

[¶22] Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactum

[¶23] Obliqua producit acu, pingitque trementes

[¶24] Attollens oculos

[¶25] Juv. Sat. 2:93.

[¶26] One his eyebrows, tinged with black soot,

[¶27] Lengthens with an oblique bodkin, and paints,

[¶28] Lifting up his winking eyes. "But none of those [Moorish] ladies," says Dr. Shaw, Travels, p. 294, fol., "take themselves to be completely dressed, till they have tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with alkahol, the powder of lead ore. This operation is performed by dipping first into the powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill; and then drawing it afterwards through the eyelids, over the ball of the eye." Ezekiel, [Eze 23:40], uses the same word in the form of a verb, כחלת עניך cachalt eynayik, "thou didst dress thine eyes with alcahol;" which the Septuagint render εστιβιζου τους, οφθαλμους σου, "thou didst dress thine eyes with stibium;" just as they do when the word פוך phuch is employed: compare [2Kgs 9:30]; [Jer 4:30]. They supposed, therefore, that פוך phuch and כחל cachal, or in the Arabic form, alcahol, meant the same thing; and probably the mineral used of old for this purpose was the same that is used now; which Dr. Shaw (ibid. note) says is "a rich lead ore, pounded into an impalpable powder." Alcoholados; the word משקרות meshakkeroth in this place is thus rendered in an old Spanish translation. - Sanctius. See also Russell's Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, p. 102.

[¶29] The following inventory, as one may call it, of the wardrobe of a Hebrew lady, must, from its antiquity, and the nature of the subject, have been very obscure even to the most ancient interpreters which we have of it; and from its obscurity must have been also peculiarly liable to the mistakes of transcribers. However, it is rather matter of curiosity than of importance; and is indeed, upon the whole, more intelligible and less corrupted than one might have reasonably expected. Clemens Alexandrinus, Paedag. lib. ii., c. 12, and Julius Pollux, lib. vii., c. 22, have each of them preserved from a comedy of Aristophanes, now lost, a similar catalogue of the several parts of the dress and ornaments of a Grecian lady; which, though much more capable of illustration from other writers, though of later date, and quoted and transmitted down to us by two different authors, yet seems to be much less intelligible, and considerably more corrupted, than this passage of Isaiah. Salmasius has endeavored, by comparing the two quotations, and by much critical conjecture and learned disquisition, to restore the true reading, and to explain the particulars; with what success, I leave to the determination of the learned reader, whose curiosity shall lead him to compare the passage of the comedian with this of the prophet, and to examine the critic's learned labors upon it. Exercit. Plinian, p. 1148; or see Clem. Ales. as cited above, edit. Potter, where the passage, as corrected by Salmasius, is given.

[¶30] Nich. Guel. Schroederus, professor of oriental languages in the University of Marpurg, has published a very learned and judicious treatise upon this passage of Isaiah. The title of it is, "Commentarius Philologico-Criti cus de Vestitu Mulierum Hebraearum ad Iesai 3 ver. 16-24. Lugd. Bat. 1745." As I think no one has handled this subject with so much judgment and ability as this author, I have for the most part followed him, in giving the explanation of the several terms denoting the different parts of dress, of which this passage consists; signifying the reasons of my dissent, where he does not give me full satisfaction.

[¶31] Bishop Lowth's translation of these verses is the following: -

[¶32] 18. In that day will the Lord take from them the ornaments,Of the feet-rings, and the net-works, and the crescents;

[¶33] 19. The pendants, and the bracelets, and the veils;

[¶34] 20. The tires, and the fetters, and the zones, And the perfume-boxes, and the amulets;

[¶35] 21. The rings, and the jewels of the nostrils;

[¶36] 22. The embroidered robes, and the tunics, And the cloaks, and the little purses,

[¶37] 23. The transparent garments, and the fine linen vests, And the turbans, and the mantles.

[¶38] 24. And there shall be instead of perfume, a putrid ulcer;And instead of well-girt raiment, rags;And instead of high-dressed hair, baldness;And instead of a zone, a girdle of sackcloth; And sun-burnt skin, instead of beauty.

[¶39] The daughters of Zion - walk - What is meant by these several kinds of action and articles of dress cannot be well conjectured. How our ancestors understood them will appear from the following, which is the translation of these verses in my old MS. Bible: -

[¶40] 16. The doughteris of Syon wenteh with strught out necks, and ib beckes (winking) of eegen, geeden and flappeden with hondis for joye, and geeden: and with theire feet in curyous goying geeden; - 17. the Lord schall fully make ballid the top of the boughtris of Syon: and the Lord the her of hem schal naken. And for ournemente schal be schenschip.

[¶41] 18. In that day, the Lord schal don awey the ournement of Schoon and hoosis: 19. and beegis, and brochis, and armeerclis, and mytris; 20. and coombis, and rybanys and reversis at the hemmys, and oynment boris and ereringis; 21. and ryngis and jemmys in the frount hongynge; 22. and chaunginge clothis, and litil pallis, and scheetis, and prynys; 23. and scheweris, and neche hercheuys, and flyetis, and roketis; 24. and ther schal be for swot smel, stynke, and for gyrdil, a litl coord; and for crisp her, ballidnesse; and for brest boond and heyr.

[¶42] Some of these things are hard to be understood, though I think this version as good as that of the very learned bishop: but there is little doubt that articles of clothing and dress bore these names in the fourteenth century.

### Verse 17

[¶44] The Lord will smite "Will the Lord humble" - ταπεινωσει, Septuagint; and so Syriac and Chaldee. For שפח sippach they read שפל shaphal. Instead of יהוה Yehovah, many MSS. have אדני Adonai.

[¶45] Will discover their secret parts "Expose their nakedness" - It was the barbarous custom of the conquerors of those times to strip their captives naked, and to make them travel in that condition, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; and the worst of all, to the intolerable heat of the sun. But this to the women was the height of cruelty and indignity; and especially to such as those here described, who had indulged themselves in all manner of delicacies of living, and all the superfluities of ornamental dress; and even whose faces had hardly ever been exposed to the sight of man. This is always mentioned as the hardest part of the lot of captives. Nahum, [Nah 3:5], [Nah 3:6], denouncing the fate of Nineveh, paints it in very strong colors: - "Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah, God of hosts:

## 790. Isaiah · 10 of 79

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[¶0] And I will discover thy skirts upon thy face;

[¶1] And I will expose thy nakedness to the nations;

[¶2] And to the kingdoms thy shame.

[¶3] And I will throw ordures upon thee;

[¶4] And I will make thee vile, and set thee as a gazing-stock."

### Verse 18

[¶6] Ornaments about their feet "The ornaments of the feet rings" - The late learned Dr. Hunt, professor of Hebrew and Arabic in the University of Oxford, has very well explained the word עכס both verb and noun, in his very ingenious Dissertation on Prov, [Isa 7:22], [Isa 7:23]. The verb means to skip, to bound, to dance along, and the noun, those ornaments of the feet which the Eastern ladies wore; chains or rings, which made a tinkling sound as they moved nimbly in walking. Eugene Roger, Description de la Terre Sainte, 54:2 ch. 2, speaking of the Arabian women, of the first rank in Palestine, says,"Au lieu de brasselets elles ont de menottes d'argent, qu'elles portent aux poignets et aux pieds; ou sont attachez quantite de petits annelets d'argent, qui font un cliquetis comme d'une cymbale, lorsqu'elles cheminent ou se mouvent quelque peu." See Dr. Hunt's Dissertation; where he produces other testimonies to the same purpose from authors of travels. Hindoo women of ill fame wear loose ornaments one above another on their ankles, which at every motion make a tinkling noise. See Ward.

[¶7] And their cauls "the net-works" - I am obliged to differ from the learned Schroederus almost at first setting out. He renders the word שביסים shebisim by soliculi, little ornaments, bullae, or studs, in shape representing the sun, and so answering to the following word שהרנים saharonim, lunulae, crescents. He supposes the word to be the same with שמישים shemishim, the י yod in the second syllable making the word diminutive, and the letter מ mem being changed for ב beth, a letter of the same organ. How just and well founded his authorities for the transmutation of these letters in the Arabic language are, I cannot pretend to judge; but as I know of no such instance in Hebrew, it seems to me a very forced etymology. Being dissatisfied with this account of the matter, I applied to my good friend above mentioned, the late Dr. Hunt, who very kindly returned the following answer to my inquiries: - "I have consulted the Arabic Lexicons, as well MS. as printed, but cannot find שביסים shebisim in any of them, nor any thing belonging to it; so that no help is to be had from that language towards clearing up the meaning of this difficult word. But what the Arabic denies, the Syriac perhaps may afford; in which I find the verb שבש shabas, to entangle or interweave, an etymology which is equally favorable to our marginal translation, net-works, with שבץ shabats, to make chequer work, or embroider, (the word by which Kimchi and others have explained שביס shabis); and has moreover this advantage over it, that the letters ש sin and ס samech are very frequently put for each other, but צ tsaddi and ס samech scarcely ever. Aben Ezra joins שביסים shebisim and עכסים achasim, which immediately precedes it, together; and says that שביס shabis was the ornament of the leps, as עכס eches was of the feet. His words are, שביס תכשיט של שוקים כמו עכס של רגלים - L."

### Verse 20

[¶9] The tablets - The words בתי הנפש bottey hannephesh, which we translate tablets, and Bishop Lowth, perfume boxes, literally signify houses of the soul; and may refer to strong scented bottles used for pleasure and against fainting; similar to bottles with otto of roses, worn by the ladies of the East to the present time.

### Verse 21

[¶11] Nose-jewels "The jewels of the nostril" - נזמי האף nizmey haaph. Schroederus explains this, as many others do, of jewels, or strings of pearl hanging from the forehead, and reaching to the upper part of the nose; than which nothing can be more ridiculous, as such are seldom seen on an Asiatic face. But it appears from many passages of Holy Scripture that the phrase is to be literally and properly understood of nose-jewels, rings set with jewels hanging from the nostrils, as ear-rings from the ears, by holes bored to receive them.

[¶12] Ezekiel, enumerating the common ornaments of women of the first rank, has not omitted this particular, and is to be understood in the same manner, [Eze 16:11], [Eze 16:12]. See also [Gen 24:47] : - "And I decked thee with ornaments;

[¶13] And I put bracelets upon thine hands,

[¶14] And a chain on thy neck:

[¶15] And I put a jewel on thy nose,

[¶16] And ear-rings on thine ears,

[¶17] And a splendid crown upon thine head."

[¶18] And in an elegant proverb of Solomon, [Pro 11:22], there is a manifest allusion to this kind of ornament, which shows it to have been used in his time: - "As a jewel of gold in the snout of a swine;

[¶19] So is a woman beautiful, but wanting discretion."

[¶20] This fashion, however strange it may appear to us, was formerly and is still common in many parts of the East, among women of all ranks. Paul Lucas, speaking of a village or clan of wandering people, a little on this side of the Euphrates, says, (2d Voyage du Levant, tom. i., art. 24), "The women, almost all of them, travel on foot; I saw none handsome among them. They have almost all of them the nose bored; and wear in it a great ring, which makes them still more deformed." But in regard to this custom, better authority cannot be produced than that of Pietro della Valle, in the account which he gives of the lady before mentioned, Signora Maani Gioerida, his own wife. The description of her dress, as to the ornamental parts of it, with which he introduces the mention of this particular, will give us some notion of the taste of the Eastern ladies for finery. "The ornaments of gold and of jewels for the head, for the neck, for the arms, for the legs, and for the feet (for they wear rings even on their toes) are indeed, unlike those of the Turks, carried to great excess, but not of great value: for in Bagdad jewels of high price are either not to be had, or are not used; and they wear such only as are of little value, as turquoises, small rubies, emeralds, carbuncles, garnets, pearls, and the like. My spouse dresses herself with all of them according to their fashion; with exception, however, of certain ugly rings of very large size, set with jewels, which, in truth, very absurdly, it is the custom to wear fastened to one of their nostrils, like buffaloes: an ancient custom, however, in the East, which, as we find in the Holy Scriptures, prevailed among the Hebrew ladies even in the time of Solomon, [Pro 11:22]. These nose-rings, in complaisance to me, she has left off, but I have not yet been able to prevail with her cousin and her sisters to do the same; so fond are they of an old custom, be it ever so absurd, who have been long habituated to it." Viaggi, Tom. i., Let. 17.

[¶21] It is the left nostril that is bored and ornamented with rings and jewels. More than one hundred drawings from life of Eastern ladies lie now before me, and scarcely one is without the nose-jewel: both the arms and wrists are covered with bracelets, arm-circles, etc., as also their legs and feet; the soles of their feet and palms of their hands coloured beautifully red with henna, and their hair plaited and ornamented superbly. These beautiful drawings are a fine comment on this chapter.

### Verse 23

[¶23] The glasses - The conjunction ו vau, and - And the glasses, is added here by forty-three of Kennicott's and thirty-four of De Rossi's MSS., and one of my own, ancient, as well as by many editions.

[¶24] And the veils. "The transparent garments" - Τα διαφανη Λακωνικα, Sept. A kind of silken dress, transparent, like gauze; worn only by the most elegant women, and such as dressed themselves elegantius quam necesse esset probis, "more elegantly than modest women should." Such garments are worn to the present day; garments that not only show the shape of every part of the body, but the very color of the skin. This is evidently the case in some scores of drawings of Asiatic females now before me. This sort of garments was afterwards in use among the Greeks. Prodicus, in his celebrated fable (Xenoph. Memorab. Socr. lib. ii.) exhibits the personage of Sloth in this dress: Εσθητα δε, εξ ἡς αν μαλιστα ὡρα διαλαμποι: - "Her robe betray'd

[¶25] Through the clear texture every tender limb,

[¶26] Height'ning the charms it only seem'd to shade;

[¶27] And as it flow'd adown so loose and thin,

[¶28] Her stature show'd more tall, more snowy white her skin."

[¶29] They were called multitia and coa (scil, vestimenta) by the Romans, from their being invented, or rather introduced into Greece, by one Pamphila of the island of Cos. This, like other Grecian fashions, was received at Rome, when luxury began to prevail under the emperors. It was sometimes worn even by the men, but looked upon as a mark of extreme effeminacy. See Juvenal, Sat. ii., 65, etc. Publius Syrus, who lived when the fashion was first introduced, has given a humorous satirical description of it in two lines, which by chance have been preserved: - "Aequum est, induere nuptam ventum textilem?

[¶30] Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea?"

### Verse 24

[¶32] Instead of sweet smell "perfume" - A principal part of the delicacy of the Asiatic ladies consists in the use of baths, and of the richest oils and perfumes; an attention to which is in some degree necessary in those hot countries. Frequent mention is made of the rich ointments of the spouse in the Song of Solomon, [Sol 4:10], [Sol 4:11] : - "How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my spouse!

[¶33] How much more excellent than wine;

[¶34] And the odour of thine ointments than all perfumes!

[¶35] Thy lips drop as the honey-comb, my spouse!

[¶36] Honey and milk are under thy tongue:

[¶37] And the odor of thy garments is as the odour of Lebanon."

[¶38] The preparation for Esther's being introduced to King Ahasuerus was a course of bathing and perfuming for a whole year; "six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours;" [Est 2:12] (note). A diseased and loathsome habit of body, instead of a beautiful skin, softened and made agreeable with all that art could devise, and all that nature, so prodigal in those countries of the richest perfumes, could supply, must have been a punishment the most severe and the most mortifying to the delicacy of these haughty daughters of Sion.

[¶39] Burning instead of beauty "A sunburnt skin" - Gaspar Sanctius thinks the words כי תחת ki thachath an interpolation, because the Vulgate has omitted them. The clause כי תחת יפי ki thachath yophi seems to me rather to be imperfect at the end. Not to mention that כי ki, taken as a noun for adustio, burning, is without example, and very improbable. The passage ends abruptly, and seems to want a fuller conclusion.

[¶40] In agreement with which opinion, of the defect of the Hebrew text in this place, the Septuagint, according to MSS. Pachom. and 1 D. ii., and Marchal., which are of the best authority, express it with the same evident marks of imperfection at the end of the sentence; thus: ταυτα σοι αντι καλλωπισμου The two latter add δου. This chasm in the text, from the loss probably of three or four words, seems therefore to be of long standing.

[¶41] Taking כי ki in its usual sense, as a particle, and supplying לך lech from the σοι of the Septuagint, it might possibly have been originally somewhat in this form: - מראה רעת לך תהיה יפי תחת כי marah raath lech thihyeh yophi thachath ki "Yea, instead of beauty thou shalt have an illfavoured countenance." כי תחת יפי ki thachath yophi (q. יחת yachath), "for beauty shall be destroyed." Syr. חתת chathath or נחת nachath.-Dr. Durell. "May it not be כהי cohey, 'wrinkles instead of beauty?' as from יפה yaphah is formed יפי yephi, yophi; from מרה marah, מרי meri, etc.; so from כהה cahah, to be wrinkled, כהי cohey." - Dr. Jubb. The כי ki is wanting in one MS., and has been omitted by several of the ancients.

### Verse 25

[¶43] Thy mighty men - For גבורתך geburathech an ancient MS. has גבורך gibborech. The true reading, from the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee, seems to be גבוריך gibborayich.

## 791. Isaiah · 11 of 79

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### Verse 26

[¶1] Sit upon the ground - Sitting on the ground was a posture that denoted mourning and deep distress. The prophet Jeremiah ([Lam 2:8]) has given it the first place among many indications of sorrow, in the following elegant description of the same state of distress of his country: - "The elders of the daughter of Sion sit on the ground, they are silent: They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed down their heads to the ground." "We find Judea," says Mr. Addison, (on Medals, Dial. ii), "on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity. I need not mention her sitting on the ground, because we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set on this figure. The psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their captivity in the same pensive posture: 'By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Zion.' But what is more remarkable, we find Judea represented as a woman in sorrow sitting on the ground, in a passage of the prophet, that foretells the very captivity recorded on this medal." Mr. Addison, I presume, refers to this place of Isaiah; and therefore must have understood it as foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans: whereas it seems plainly to relate, in its first and more immediate view at least, to the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, and the dissolution of the Jewish state under the captivity at Babylon. - L.

[¶2] Several of the coins mentioned here by Mr. Addison are in my own collection: and to such I have already referred in this work. I shall describe one here. On the obverse a fine head of the emperor Vespasian with this legend, Imperator Julius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunitia Potestate Pater Patriae, Consul VIII.

[¶3] On the reverse a tall palm tree, emblem of the land of Palestine, the emperor standing on the left, close to the tree, with a trophy behind him; on the right, Judea under the figure of a female captive sitting on the ground, with her head resting on her hand, the elbow on her knee, weeping. Around is this legend, Judea Capta. Senates Consulto. However this prediction may refer proximately to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, I am fully of opinion that it ultimately refers to the final ruin of the Jewish state by the Romans. And so it has been understood by the general run of the best and most learned interpreters and critics.

### Introduction

[¶5] The havoc occasioned by war, and those other calamities which the prophet had been describing in the preceding chapter, are represented as so terribly great that seven women should be left to one man, [Isa 4:1]. Great blessedness of the remnant that shall be accounted worthy to escape these judgments, [Isa 4:2-4]. The privileges of the Gospel set forth by allusions to the glory and pomp of the Mosaic dispensation, [Isa 4:5], [Isa 4:6].

### Verse 1

[¶7] And seven women - The division of the chapters has interrupted the prophet's discourse, and broken it off almost in the midst of the sentence. "The numbers slain in battle shall be so great, that seven women shall be left to one man." The prophet has described the greatness of this distress by images and adjuncts the most expressive and forcible. The young women, contrary to their natural modesty, shall become suitors to the men: they will take hold of them, and use the most pressing importunity to be married. In spite of the natural suggestions of jealousy, they will be content with a share only of the rights of marriage in common with several others; and that on hard conditions, renouncing the legal demands of the wife on the husband, (see [Exo 21:10]), and begging only the name and credit of wedlock, and to be freed from the reproach of celibacy. See [Isa 54:4], [Isa 54:5]. Like Marcia, on a different occasion, and in other circumstances: -

[¶8] Da tantum nomen inane

[¶9] Connubii: liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis Marcia.

[¶10] Lucan, 2:342. "This happened," says Kimchi, "in the days of Ahaz, when Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judea one hundred and twenty thousand men in one day; see [2Chr 18:6]. The widows which were left were so numerous that the prophet said, 'They are multiplied beyond the sand of the sea,'" [Jer 15:8].

[¶11] In that day - These words are omitted in the Septuagint, and MSS.

### Verse 2

[¶13] The branch of the Lord "the branch of Jehovah" - The Messiah of Jehovah, says the Chaldee. And Kimchi says, The Messiah, the Son of David. The branch is an appropriate title of the Messiah; and the fruit of the land means the great Person to spring from the house of Judah, and is only a parallel expression signifying the same; or perhaps the blessings consequent upon the redemption procured by him. Compare [Isa 45:8] (note), where the same great event is set forth under similar images, and see the note there.

[¶14] Them that are escaped of Israel "the escaped of the house of Israel" - A MS. has בית ישראל beith yisrael, the house of Israel.

### Verse 3

[¶16] Written among the living - That is, whose name stands in the enrolment or register of the people; or every man living, who is a citizen of Jerusalem. See [Eze 13:9], where, "they shall not be written in the writing of the house of Israel," is the same with what immediately goes before, "they shall not be in the assembly of my people." Compare [Psa 69:28]; [Psa 87:6]; [Exo 32:32]. To number and register the people was agreeable to the law of Moses, and probably was always practiced; being, in sound policy, useful, and even necessary. David's design of numbering the people was of another kind; it was to enroll them for his army. Michaelis Mosaisches Recht, Part iii., p. 227. See also his Dissert. de Censibus Hebraeorum.

### Verse 4

[¶18] The spirit of burning - Means the fire of God's wrath, by which he will prove and purify his people; gathering them into his furnace, in order to separate the dross from the silver, the bad from the good. The severity of God's judgments, the fiery trial of his servants, Ezekiel ([Eze 22:18-22]) has set forth at large, after his manner, with great boldness of imagery and force of expression. God threatens to gather them into the midst of Jerusalem, as into the furnace; to blow the fire upon them, and to melt them. Malachi, [Mal 3:2], [Mal 3:3], treats the same subject, and represents the same event, under the like images: - "But who may abide the day of his coming?

[¶19] And who shall stand when he appeareth?

[¶20] For he is like the fire of the refiner,

[¶21] And like the soap of the fullers.

[¶22] And he shall sit refining and purifying the silver;

[¶23] And he shall purify the sons of Levi;

[¶24] And cleanse them like gold, and like silver;

[¶25] That they may be Jehovah's ministers,

[¶26] Presenting unto him an offering in righteousness."

[¶27] This is an allusion to a chemist purifying metals. He first judges of the state of the ore or adulterated metal. Secondly, he kindles the proper degree of fire, and applies the requisite test; and thus separates the precious from the vile.

### Verse 5

[¶29] And the Lord will create - One MS., the Septuagint, and the Arabic, have יביא yabi, He shall bring: the cloud already exists; the Lord will bring it over. This is a blessed promise of the presence of God in all the assemblies of his people.

[¶30] Every dwelling place "the station" - The Hebrew text has, every station: but four MSS. (one ancient) omit כל col, all; very rightly, as it should seem: for the station was Mount Zion itself, and no other. See [Exo 15:17]. And the Septuagint, Arabic, and MSS., add the same word כל col, before מקראה mikraeha, probably right: the word has only changed its place by mistake. מקראיה mikrayeh, "the place where they were gathered together in their holy assemblies," says Sal ben Melech. But twenty-five of Kennicott's MSS., and twenty-two of De Rossi's fifty-three editions, besides the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, have the word in the plural number.

[¶31] A cloud and smoke by day - This is a manifest allusion to the pillar of a cloud and of fire which attended the Israelites in their passage out of Egypt, and to the glory that rested on the tabernacle, [Exo 13:21]; [Exo 40:38]. The prophet Zechariah, [Zac 2:5], applies the same image to the same purpose: - "And I will be unto her a wall of fire round about;

[¶32] And a glory will I be in the midst of her."

[¶33] That is, the visible presence of God shall protect her. Which explains the conclusion of this verse of Isaiah; where the makkaph between כל col, and כבוד cabod, connecting the two words in construction, which ought not to be connected, has thrown an obscurity upon the sentence, and misled most of the translators.

[¶34] For upon all the glory shall be a defense - Whatever God creates, he must uphold, or it will fail, Every degree of grace brings with it a degree of power to maintain itself in the soul.

### Verse 6

[¶36] A tabernacle - In countries subject to violent tempests, as well as to intolerable heat, a portable tent is a necessary part of a traveller's baggage, for defense and shelter. And to such tents the words of the text make evident allusion. They are to be met with in every part of Arabia and Egypt, and in various other places in the East.

### Introduction

[¶38] This chapter begins with representing, in a beautiful parable, the tender care of God for his people, and their unworthy returns for his goodness, [Isa 5:1-7]. The parable or allegory is then dropped; and the prophet, in plain terms, reproves and threatens them for their wickedness; particularly for their covetousness, [Isa 5:8-10]; intemperance, [Isa 5:11]; and inattention to the warnings of Providence, [Isa 5:12]. Then follows an enumeration of judgments as the necessary consequence. Captivity and famine appear with all their horrors, [Isa 5:13]. Hades, or the grave, like a ravenous monster, opens wide its jaws, and swallows down its myriads, [Isa 5:14]. Distress lays hold on all ranks, [Isa 5:15]; and God is glorified in the execution of his judgments, [Isa 5:16]; till the whole place is left desolate, a place for the flocks to range in, [Isa 5:17]. The prophet then pauses; and again resumes his subject, reproving them for several other sins, and threatening them with woes and vengeance, [Isa 5:18-24]; after which he sums up the whole of his awful denunciation in a very lofty and spirited epiphonema or conclusion. The God of armies, having hitherto corrected to no purpose, is represented with inimitable majesty, as only giving a hist, and a swarm of nations hasten to his standard, [Isa 5:25-27]. Upon a guilty race, unpitied by heaven or by earth, they execute their commission; and leave the land desolate and dark, without one ray of comfort to cheer the horrid gloom, [Isa 5:28-30].

[¶39] This chapter likewise stands single and alone, unconnected with the preceding or following. The subject of it is nearly the same with that of the first chapter. It is a general reproof of the Jews for their wickedness; but it exceeds that chapter in force, in severity, in variety, and elegance; and it adds a more express declaration of vengeance by the Babylonian invasion.

### Verse 1

[¶41] Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved "Let me sing now a song," etc. - A MS., respectable for its antiquity, adds the word שיר shir, a song, after נא na; which gives so elegant a turn to the sentence by the repetition of it in the next member, and by distinguishing the members so exactly in the style and manner in the Hebrew poetical composition, that I am much inclined to think it genuine.

[¶42] A song of my beloved "A song of loves" - דודי dodey, for דודים dodim: status constructus pro absoluto, as the grammarians say, as [Mic 6:16]; [Lam 3:14], [Lam 3:66], so Archbishop Secker. Or rather, in all these and the like cases, a mistake of the transcribers, by not observing a small stroke, which in many MSS., is made to supply the מ mem, of the plural, thus, דודי dodi. שירת דודים shirath dodim is the same with שיר ידידת shir yedidoth, [Psa 45:1]. In this way of understanding it we avoid the great impropriety of making the author of the song, and the person to whom it is addressed, to be the same.

[¶43] In a very fruitful hill "On a high and fruitful hill" - Hebrew בקרן בן שמן bekeren ben shamen, "on a horn the son of oil." The expression is highly descriptive and poetical. "He calls the land of Israel a horn, because it is higher than all lands; as the horn is higher than the whole body; and the son of oil, because it is said to be a land flowing with milk and honey." - Kimchi on the place. The parts of animals are, by an easy metaphor, applied to parts of the earth, both in common and poetical language. A promontory is called a cape or head; the Turks call it a nose. "Dorsum immane mari summo;" Virgil, a back, or ridge of rocks: - "Hanc latus angustum jam se cogentis in arctum

[¶44] Hesperiae tenuem producit in aequora linguam,

[¶45] Adriacas flexis claudit quae cornibus undas."

## 792. Isaiah · 12 of 79

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[¶0] Lucan, 2:612, of Brundusium, i.e., Βρεντεσιον, which, in the ancient language of that country, signifies stag's head, says Strabo. A horn is a proper and obvious image for a mountain or mountainous country. Solinus, cap. viii., says, "Italiam, ubi longius processerit, in cornua duo scindi;" that is, the high ridge of the Alps, which runs through the whole length of it, divides at last into two ridges, one going through Calabria, the other through the country of the Brutii. "Cornwall is called by the inhabitants in the British tongue Kernaw, as lessening by degrees like a horn, running out into promontories like so many horns. For the Britons call a horn corn, in the plural kern." - Camden. "And Sammes is of opinion, that the country had this name originally from the Phoenicians, who traded hither for tin; keren, in their language, being a horn." - Gibson.

[¶1] Here the precise idea seems to be that of a high mountain standing by itself; "vertex montis, aut pars montis ad aliis divisa;" which signification, says I. H. Michaelis, Bibl. Hallens., Not. in loc., the word has in Arabic.

[¶2] Judea was in general a mountainous country, whence Moses sometimes calls it The Mountain, "Thou shalt plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance;" [Exo 15:17]. "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land beyond Jordan; that goodly mountain, and Lebanon;" [Deu 3:25]. And in a political and religious view it was detached and separated from all the nations round it. Whoever has considered the descriptions given of Mount Tabor, (see Reland, Palaestin.; Eugene Roger, Terre Sainte, p. 64), and the views of it which are to be seen in books of travels, (Maundrell, p. 114; Egmont and Heyman, vol. ii., p. 25; Thevenot, vol. i., p. 429), its regular conic form rising singly in a plain to a great height, from a base small in proportion, and its beauty and fertility to the very top, will have a good idea of "a horn the son of oil;" and will perhaps be induced to think that the prophet took his image from that mountain.

### Verse 2

[¶4] And gathered out the stones "And he cleared it from the stones" - This was agreeable to the husbandry: "Saxa, summa parte terrae, et vites et arbores laeduct; ima parte refrigerant;" Columell. de arb. 3: "Saxosum facile est expedire lectione lapidum;" Id. 2:2. "Lapides, qui supersunt, [al. insuper sunt], hieme rigent, aestate fervescunt; idcirco satis, arbustis, et vitibus nocent;" Pallad. 1:6. A piece of ground thus cleared of the stones Persius, in his hard way of metaphor, calls "exossatus ager," an unboned field; Sat. 6:52.

[¶5] The choicest vine "Sorek" - Many of the ancient interpreters, the Septuagint, Aquila, and Theod., have retained this word as a proper name; I think very rightly. Sorek was a valley lying between Ascalon and Gaza, and running far up eastward in the tribe of Judah. Both Ascalon and Gaza were anciently famous for wine; the former is mentioned as such by Alexander Trallianus; the latter by several authors, quoted by Reland, Palaest., p. 589 and 986. And it seems that the upper part of the valley of Sorek, and that of Eshcol, where the spies gathered the single cluster of grapes, which they were obliged to bear between two upon a staff, being both near to Hebron were in the same neighborhood, and that all this part of the country abounded with rich vineyards. Compare [Num 13:22], [Num 13:23]; [Jdg 16:3], [Jdg 16:4]. P. Nau supposes Eshcol and Sorek to be only different names for the same valley. Voyage Noveau de la Terre Sainte, lib. iv., chap. 18. See likewise De Lisle's posthumous map of the Holy Land. Paris, 1763. See Bochart, Hieroz. ii., Colossians 725. Thevenot, i, p. 406. Michaelis (note on [Jdg 16:4] (note), German translation) thinks it probable, from some circumstances of the history there given, that Sorek was in the tribe of Judah, not in the country of the Philistines.

[¶6] The vine of Sorek was known to the Israelites, being mentioned by Moses, [Gen 49:11], before their coming out of Egypt. Egypt was not a wine country. "Throughout this country there are no wines;" Sandys, p. 101. At least in very ancient times they had none. Herodotus, 2:77, says it had no vines and therefore used an artificial wine made of barley. That is not strictly true, for the vines of Egypt are spoken of in Scripture, [Psa 78:47]; [Psa 105:33]; and see [Gen 40:11], by which it should seem that they drank only the fresh juice pressed from the grape, which was called οινος αμπελινος; Herodot., 2:37. But they had no large vineyards, nor was the country proper for them, being little more than one large plain, annually overflowed by the Nile. The Mareotic in later times is, I think, the only celebrated Egyptian wine which we meet with in history. The vine was formerly, as Hasselquist tells us it is now, "cultivated in Egypt for the sake of eating the grapes, not for wine, which is brought from Candia," etc. "They were supplied with wine from Greece, and likewise from Phoenicia," Herodot., 3:6. The vine and the wine of Sorek therefore, which lay near at hand for importation into Egypt, must in all probability have been well known to the Israelites, when they sojourned there. There is something remarkable in the manner in which Moses, [Gen 49:11], makes mention of it, which, for want of considering this matter, has not been attended to; it is in Jacob's prophecy of the future prosperity of the tribe of Judah: - "Binding his foal to the vine,

[¶7] And his ass's colt to his own sorek;

[¶8] He washeth his raiment in wine,

[¶9] And his cloak in the blood of grapes."

[¶10] I take the liberty of rendering שרקה sorekah, for שרקו soreko, his sorek, as the Masoretes do by pointing עירה iroh, for עירו iro, his foal. עיר ir, might naturally enough appear in the feminine form; but it is not at all probable that שרק sorek ever should. By naming particularly the vine of Sorek, and as the vine belonging to Judah, the prophecy intimates the very part of the country which was to fall to the lot of that tribe. Sir John Chardin says, "that at Casbin, a city of Persia, they turn their cattle into the vineyards after the vintage, to browse on the vines." He speaks also of vines in that country so large that he could hardly compass the trunks of them with his arms. Voyages, tom. iii., p. 12, 12mo. This shows that the ass might be securely bound to the vine, and without danger of damaging the tree by browsing on it.

[¶11] And built a tower in the midst of it - Our Savior, who has taken the general idea of one of his parables, [Mat 21:33]; [Mar 12:1], from this of Isaiah, has likewise inserted this circumstance of building a tower; which is generally explained by commentators as designed for the keeper of the vineyard to watch and defend the fruits. But for this purpose it was usual to make a little temporary hut, ([Isa 1:8]), which might serve for the short season while the fruit was ripening, and which was removed afterwards. The tower therefore should rather mean a building of a more permanent nature and use; the farm, as we may call it, of the vineyard, containing all the offices and implements, and the whole apparatus necessary for the culture of the vineyard, and the making of the wine. To which image in the allegory, the situation the manner of building, the use, and the whole service of the temple, exactly answered. And so the Chaldee paraphrast very rightly expounds it: Et statui eos (Israelitas) ut plantam vineae selectae et aedificavi Sanctuarium meum in medio illorum. "And I have appointed the Israelites as a plant of a chosen vine, and I have built my sanctuary in the midst of them." So also Hieron. in loc. Aedificavit quoque turrim in medio ejus; templum videlicet in media civitate. "He built also a tower in the midst of it, viz., his own temple in the midst of the city." That they have still such towers or buildings for use or pleasure, in their gardens in the East, see Harmer's Observations, 2 p. 241.

[¶12] And also made a wine-press therein. "And hewed out a lake therein" - This image also our Savior has preserved in his parable. יקב yekeb; the Septuagint render it here προληνιον, and in four other places ὑποληνιον, [Isa 16:10]; [Joe 3:13]; [Hag 2:17]; [Zac 14:10], I think more properly; and this latter word St. Mark uses. It means not the wine-press itself, or calcatorium, which is called גת gath, or פורה purah; but what the Romans called lacus, the lake; the large open place or vessel, which by a conduit or spout received the must from the wine-press. In very hot countries it was perhaps necessary, or at least very convenient, to have the lake under ground, or in a cave hewed out of the side of the rock, for coolness, that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the must. Vini confectio instituitur in cella, vel intimae domus camera quadam a ventorum ingressu remota. Kempfer, of Shiras wine. Amaen. Exot. p. 376. For the wind, to which that country is subject, would injure the wine. "The wine-presses in Persia," says Sir John Chardin, "are formed by making hollow places in the ground, lined with masons' work." Harmer's Observations, i., p. 392. See a print of one in Kempfer, p. 377.

[¶13] Nonnus describes at large Bacchus hollowing the inside of a rock, and hewing out a place for the wine-press, or rather the lake: - Και σκοπελους ελαχηνε· πεδοσκαφεος δε σιδηρου Θηγαλεῃ γλωχινι μυχον κοιληνατο πετρης· Λειηνας δε μετωπα βαθυνομενων κενεωνων Αφρον [f. ακρον] εΰστραφυλοιο τυπον ποιησατο λενου.

[¶14] Dionysiac. lib. xii., 50:331. "He pierced the rock; and with the sharpen'd tool

[¶15] Of steel well-temper'd scoop'd its inmost depth:

[¶16] Then smooth'd the front, and form'd the dark recess

[¶17] In just dimensions for the foaming lake."

[¶18] And he looked "And he expected" - Jeremiah, [Jer 2:21], uses the same image, and applies it to the same purpose, in an elegant paraphrase of this part of Isaiah's parable, in his flowing and plaintive manner: - "But I planted thee a sorek, a scion perfectly genuine: How then art thou changed, and become to me the degenerate shoots of the strange vine!"

[¶19] Wild grapes "poisonous berries" - באשים beushim, not merely useless, unprofitable grapes, such as wild grapes; but grapes offensive to the smell, noxious, poisonous. By the force and intent of the allegory, to good grapes ought to be opposed fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quality; as, in the explication of it, to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness, oppression. גפן gephen, the vine, is a common name or genus, including several species under it; and Moses, to distinguish the true vine, or that from which wine is made, from the rest. calls it, [Num 6:4], גפן היין gephen haiyayin, the wine-vine. Some of the other sorts were of a poisonous quality, as appears from the story related among the miraculous acts of Elisha, [2Kgs 4:39-41]. "And one went out into the field to gather potherbs; and he found a Seld vine, and he gathered from it wild fruit, his lapful; and he went and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. And they poured it out for the men to eat: and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, There is death in the pot, O man of God; and they could not eat of it. And he said, Bring meal, (leg. קחו kechu, nine MSS., one edition), and he threw it into the pot. And he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was nothing hurtful in the pot."

[¶20] From some such sorts of poisonous fruits of the grape kind Moses has taken these strong and highly poetical images, with which he has set forth the future corruption and extreme degeneracy of the Israelites, in an allegory which has a near relation, both in its subject and imagery, to this of Isaiah: [Deu 32:32], [Deu 32:33]. "Their vine is from the vine of Sodom,

[¶21] And from the fields of Gomorrah:

[¶22] Their grapes are grapes of gall;

[¶23] Their clusters are bitter:

[¶24] Their wine is the poison of dragons,

[¶25] And the cruel venom of aspics." "I am inclined to believe," says Hasselquist, "that the prophet here, [Isa 5:2-4], means the hoary nightshade, solanum incanum; because it is common in Egypt, Palestine, and the East; and the Arabian name agrees well with it. The Arabs call it anab el dib, i.e., wolf grapes. The באושים beushim, says Rab. Chai., is a well known species of the vine, and the worst of all sorts. The prophet could not have found a plant more opposite to the vine than this; for it grows much in the vineyards, and is very pernicious to them; wherefore they root it out: it likewise resembles a vine by its shrubby stalk;" Travels, p. 289. See also Michaelis Questions aux Voyageurs Danois, No. 64.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Inhabitants - ישבי yoshebey, in the plural number; three MSS., (two ancient), and so likewise the Septuagint and Vulgate.

### Verse 6

[¶29] There shall come up briers and thorns "The thorn shall spring up in it" - One MS. has בשמיר beshamir. The true reading seems to be בו שמור bo shamir, which is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

### Verse 7

[¶31] And he looked for judgment - The paronomasia, or play on the words, in this place, is very remarkable; mishpat, mishpach, tsedakah, tseakah. There are many examples of it in the other prophets, but Isaiah seems peculiarly fond of it. See [Isa 13:6], [Isa 24:17], [Isa 32:7], [Isa 28:1], [Isa 57:6], [Isa 61:3], [Isa 65:11], [Isa 65:12]. Rabbi David Kimchi has noticed the paronomasia here: he expected משפט mishpat, judgment, but behold משפח mishpach, oppression; he expected צדקה tsedakah, righteousness, but behold צעקה tseakah, a cry. The rabbins esteem it a great beauty; their term for it is צחות הלשון tsachoth haltashon, elegance of language.

[¶32] Oppression "tyranny" - משפח mishpach, from שפח shaphach, servum fecit, Arab. Houbigant: שפחה shiphchah is serva, a handmaid or female slave. משפח mispach, eighteen MSS.

### Verse 8

[¶34] Wo unto them that - lay field to field "You who lay field unto field" - Read תקריבו takribu, in the second person; to answer to the verb following. So Vulgate.

### Verse 9

[¶36] In mine ears. "To mine ear" - The sentence in the Hebrew text seems to be imperfect in this place; as likewise in [Isa 22:14] (note), where the very same sense seems to be required as here. See the note there; and compare [1Sam 9:15] (note). In this place the Septuagint supply the word ηκουσθη, and the Syriac אשתמע eshtama, auditus est Jehovah in auribus meis, i.e., נגלה niglah, as in [Isa 22:14].

[¶37] Many houses - This has reference to what was said in the preceding verse: "In vain are ye so intent upon joining house to house, and field to field; your houses shall be left uninhabited, and your fields shall become desolate and barren; so that a vineyard of ten acres shall produce but one bath (not eight gallons) of wine, and the husbandman shall reap but a tenth part of the seed which he has sown." Kimchi says this means such an extent of vineyard as would require ten yoke of oxen to plough in one day.

### Verse 11

[¶39] Wo unto them that rise up early - There is a likeness between this and the following passage of the prophet Amos, [Amo 6:3-6], who probably wrote before Isaiah. If the latter be the copier, he seems hardly to have equalled the elegance of the original: - "Ye that put far away the evil day

[¶40] And affect the seat of violence;

[¶41] Who lie upon beds of ivory,

[¶42] And stretch yourselves upon your couches;

[¶43] And eat the lambs from the flock,

[¶44] And calves from the midst of the stall;

## 793. Isaiah · 13 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/793/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/793/#p-N

[¶0] Who chant to the sound of the viol,

[¶1] And like David invent for yourselves instruments of music;

[¶2] Who quaff wine in large bowls,

[¶3] And are anointed with the choicest ointments:

[¶4] But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph."

[¶5] Kimchi says, "they consider not the heavens nor their hosts: they pray not the morning nor the evening prayer unto the Lord."

[¶6] Follow strong drink - Theodoret and Chrysostom on this place, both Syrians, and unexceptionable witnesses in what belongs to their own country, inform us that שכר shechar (σικερα in the Greek of both Testaments, rendered by us by the general term strong drink) meant properly palm wine, or date wine, which was and is still much in use in the Eastern countries. Judea was famous for the abundance and excellence of its palm trees; and consequently had plenty of this wine. "Fiunt (vina) et e pomis; primumque e palmis, quo Parthi et Indi utun tur, et oriens totus: maturarum modio in aquae congiis tribus macerato expressoque." Plin. lib. 14:19. "Ab his cariotae [palmae] maxime celebrantur; et cibo quidem, sed et succo, uberrimae. Ex quibus praecipua vina orienti; iniqua capiti, unde porno nomen." Id. 13:9. Καρος signifies stupefaction: and in Hebrew likewise the wine has its name from its remarkably inebriating quality.

### Verse 13

[¶8] And their honorable men "And the nobles" - These verses have likewise a reference to the two preceding. They that indulged in feasting and drinking shall perish with hunger and thirst; and Hades shall indulge his appetite as much as they had done, and devour them all. The image is strong and expressive in the highest degree. [Hab 2:5], uses the same image with great force: - the ambitious and avaricious conqueror. "Enlargeth his appetite like Hades;

[¶9] And he is like Death, and will never be satisfied,"

[¶10] But, in Isaiah, Hades is introduced to much greater advantage, in person; and placed before our eyes in the form of a ravenous monster, opening wide his immeasurable jaws, and swallowing them all together: "Therefore Shoel hath dilated her soul, she hath opened her mouth beyond limit." Destruction expects more than a common meal, when God visits Jerusalem for her iniquities. This seems to refer to the ruin brought on the Jews by the Romans. Our blessed Lord repeats this parable, and applies it to this very transaction, [Mat 21:33].

### Verse 17

[¶12] The lambs "And the kids" - גרים gerim, "strangers." The Septuagint read, more agreeably to the design of the prophet, כרים carim, αρνες, "the lambs." גדים gedayim, "the kids," Dr. Durell; nearer to the present reading: and so Archbishop Secker. The meaning is, their luxurious habitations shall be so entirely destroyed as to become a pasture for flocks.

[¶13] After their manner "Without restraint" - כדברם kedobram, secundum duetum eorum; i.e. suo ipsorum ductu; as their own will shall lead them.

### Verse 18

[¶15] With a cart-rope "As a long cable" - The Septuagint, Aquila, Sym., and Theod., for בחבלי bechabley, read כחבלי kechahley, ὡς σχοινιῳ, or σχοινιοις; and the Septuagint, instead of שוא shau, read some other word signifying long; ὡς σχοινιῳ μακρῳ; and so likewise the Syriac, אריכא arecha. Houbigant conjectures that the word which the Septuagint had in their copies was שרוע sarua, which is used [Lev 21:18], [Lev 22:23], for something in an animal body superfluous, lengthened beyond its natural measure. And he explains it of sin added to sin, and one sin drawing on another, till the whole comes to an enormous length and magnitude; compared to the work of a rope-maker still increasing and lengthening his rope, with the continued addition of new materials. "Eos propheta similes facit homini restiario, qui funem torquet, cannabe addita et contorta, eadem iterans, donec funem in longum duxerit, neque eum liceat protrahi longius." "An evil inclination," says Kimchi on this place, from the ancient rabbins, "is at the beginning like a fine hair-string, but at the finishing like a thick cart-rope." By a long progression in iniquity, and a continued accumulation of sin, men arrive at length to the highest degree of wickedness; bidding open defiance to God, and scoffing at his threatened judgments, as it is finely expressed in the next verse. The Chaldee paraphrast explains it in the same manner, of wickedness increasing from small beginnings, till it arrives to a great magnitude. - L.

[¶16] I believe neither the rabbins nor Bishop Lowth have hit on the true meaning of this place, the prophet seems to refer to idol sacrifices. The victims they offered were splendidly decked out for the sacrifice. Their horns and hoofs were often gilded, and their heads dressed out with fillets and garlands. The cords of vanity may refer to the silken strings by which they were led to the altar, some of which were unusually thick. The offering for iniquity was adorned with fillets and garlands; the sin-offering with silken cords, like unto cart-ropes. Pride, in their acts of humiliation, had the upper hand.

### Verse 19

[¶18] Let the counsel of the Holy One - Tryphiodorus has an expression something like this: - - επει Διος ηλυθε βουλη.

[¶19] Tryph. Il Excid. 239.

[¶20] Because the counsel of Jupiter was come. "This expression, ηλυθε βουλη, is, I believe, something uncommon; but it is exactly paralleled and explained by a passage in Isaiah, [Isa 5:19]. The Septuagint has expressed it in the very same words with Tryphiodorus: και ελθοι ἡ βουλ η του ἁγιου Ισραηλ, ἱνα γνωμεν." - Merrick's note, ad loc.

### Verse 22

[¶22] Mighty to drink wine - "They show not," says Kimchi, "their strength in combating their enemies, but in drunkenness and debauchery."

### Verse 23

[¶24] The righteous - צדיק tsaddik, singular, Sept. Vulg., and two editions.

### Verse 24

[¶26] The flame "The tongue of fire" - "The flame, because it is in the shape of a tongue; and so it is called metaphorically." Sal. ben Melec. The metaphor is so exceedingly obvious, as well as beautiful, that one may wonder that it has not been more frequently used. Virgil very elegantly intimates, rather than expresses, the image; -

[¶27] Ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iuli

[¶28] Fundere lumen apex; tactuque innoxia molli

[¶29] Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci.

[¶30] Aen. 2:682. "Strange to relate! from young Iulus' head

[¶31] A lambent flame arose, which gently spread

[¶32] Around his brows, and on his temples fed."

[¶33] And more boldly of Aetna darting out flames from its top: -

[¶34] Interdumque atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem,

[¶35] Turbine fumantem piceo, et candente favilla:

[¶36] Attollitque globos flammarum, et sidera lambit.

[¶37] Aen. 3:574. "By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high,

[¶38] By turns hot embers from her entrails fly,

[¶39] And flakes of mountain flames, that lick the sky."

[¶40] The disparted tongues, as it were of fire, [Act 2:3], which appeared at the descent of the Holy Spirit, on the apostles, give the same idea; that is, of flames shooting diversely into pyramidal forms, or points, like tongues. It may be farther observed that the prophet in this place has given the metaphor its full force, in applying it to the action of fire in eating up and devouring whatever comes in its way, like a ravenous animal whose tongue is principally employed in taking in his food or prey; which image Moses has strongly exhibited in an expressive comparison: "And Moab said to the elders of Midian Now shall this collection of people lick up all that are around about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field," [Num 22:4]. See also [1Kgs 18:38].

[¶41] Their root shall be as rottenness - כמק cammak, like mak; whence probably our word muck, dung, was derived.

### Verse 25

[¶43] The hills did tremble "And the mountains trembled" - Probably referring to the great earthquakes in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, in or not long before the time of the prophet himself, recorded as a remarkable era in the title of the prophecies of Amos., [Amo 1:1], and by Zechariah, [Zac 14:5].

## 794. Isaiah · 14 of 79

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### Verse 26

[¶1] He will - hiss "He will hist" - "The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees, who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, συρισμασι, by a hiss or a whistle." - Cyril, on this place; and to the same purpose Theodoret, ib. In [Isa 7:18], the metaphor is more apparent, by being carried farther, where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee: - "Jehovah shall hist the fly That is in the utmost parts of Egypt; And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria."

[¶2] On which place see [Deu 1:44]; [Psa 118:12]; and God calls the locusts his great army, [Joe 2:25]; [Exo 23:28]. See Huet, Quest. Alnet. 2:12. שרק sharak or shrak, he shall whistle for them, call loud and shrill; he shall shriek, and they (their enemies) shall come at his call.

[¶3] With speed - This refers to the [Isa 5:19]. As the scoffers had challenged God to make speed, and to hasten his work of vengeance, so now God assures them that with speed and swiftly it shall come.

### Verse 27

[¶5] None - among them - Kimchi has well illustrated this continued exaggeration or hyperbole, as he rightly calls it, to the following effect: "Through the greatness of their courage they shall not be fatigued with their march, nor shall they stumble though they march with the utmost speed: they shall not slumber by day, nor sleep by night; neither shall they ungird their armor, or put off their sandals to take their rest. Their arms shall be always in readiness, their arrows sharpened, and their bows bent. The hoofs of their horses are hard as a rock. They shall not fail, or need to be shod with iron: the wheels of their carriages shall move as rapidly as a whirlwind."

[¶6] Neither shall the girdle - The Eastern people, wearing long and loose garments, were unfit for action or business of any kind, without girding their clothes about them. When their business was finished they took off their girdles. A girdle therefore denotes strength and activity; and to unloose the girdle is to deprive of strength, to render unfit for action. God promises to unloose the loins of kings before Cyrus, [Isa 45:1]. The girdle is so essential a part of a soldier's accoutrements, being the last that he puts on to make himself ready for action, that to be girded, ζωννυσθαι, with the Greeks means to be completely armed and ready for battle: - Ατρειδης δ εβοησεν, ιδε ζωννυσθαι ανωγεν Αργειους.

[¶7] Iliad, 11:15. Το δε ενδυναι τα ὁπλα εκαλουν οἱ παλαιοι ζωννυσθαι.

[¶8] Pausan. Boeot.

[¶9] It is used in the same manner by the Hebrews: "Let not him that girdeth himself boast as he that unlooseth his girdle," [1Kgs 20:11]; that is, triumph not before the war is finished.

### Verse 28

[¶11] Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint "The hoofs of their horses shall be counted as adamant" - The shoeing of horses with iron plates nailed to the hoof is quite a modern practice, and was unknown to the ancients, as appears from the silence of the Greek and Roman writers, especially those that treat of horse medicine, who could not have passed over a matter so obvious and of such importance that now the whole science takes its name from it, being called by us farriery. The horseshoes of leather and iron which are mentioned; the silver and gold shoes with which Nero and Poppaea shod their mules, used occasionally to preserve the hoofs of delicate cattle, or for vanity, were of a very different kind; they enclosed the whole hoof as in a case, or as a shoe does a man's foot, and were bound or tied on. For this reason the strength, firmness and solidity of a horse's hoof was of much greater importance with them than with us, and was esteemed one of the first praises of a fine horse. Xenophon says that a good horse's hoof is hard, hollow, and sounds upon the ground like a cymbal. Hence the χαλκοποδες ἱπποι, of Homer, and Virgil's solido graviter sonat ungula cornu. And Xenophon gives directions for hardening the horses' hoofs by making the pavement on which he stands in the stable with roundheaded stones. For want of this artificial defense to the foot which our horses have, Amos, [Amo 6:12], speaks of it as a thing as much impracticable to make horses run upon a hard rock as to plough up the same rock with oxen: - "Shall horses run upon a rock?

[¶12] Shall one plough it up with oxen?"

[¶13] These circumstances must be taken into consideration in order to give us a full notion of the propriety and force of the image by which the prophet sets forth the strength and excellence of the Babylonish cavalry, which made a great part of the strength of the Assyrian army. Xenop. Cyrop. lib. ii.

[¶14] Like a whirlwind - כסופה cassuphah, like the stormy blast. Here sense and sound are well connected.

### Verse 30

[¶16] If one look unto the land, etc. "And these shall look to the heaven upward, and down to the earth" - ונבט לארץ venibbat laarets. Και εμβλεψονται εις την γην. So the Septuagint, according to the Vatican and Alexandrian copies; but the Complutensian and Aldine editions have it more fully, thus: - Και εμβλεψονται εις τον ουρανον ανω, και κατω; and the Arabic from the Septuagint, as if it had stood thus: Και εμβλεψονται εις ουρανον, και εις την γην κατω, both of which are plainly defective; the words εις την γην, unto the earth, being wanted in the former, and the word ανω, above, in the latter. But an ancient Coptic version from the Septuagint, supposed to be of the second century, some fragments of which are preserved in the library of St. Germain des Prez at Paris, completes the sentence; for, according to this version, it stood thus in the Septuagint. - Και εμβλεψονται εις τον ουρανον ανω, και εις την γην κατω; "And they shall look unto the heavens above and unto the earth beneath," and so it stands in the Septuagint MSS., Pachom. and 1. D. II., according to which they must have read their Hebrew text in this manner: - ונבט לשמים למעלה ולארץ למטה. This is probably the true reading, with which I have made the translation agree. Compare [Isa 8:22]; where the same sense is expressed in regard to both particulars, which are here equally and highly proper, the looking upwards, as well as down to the earth: but the form of expression is varied. I believe the Hebrew text in that place to be right, though not so full as I suppose it was originally here; and that of the Septuagint there to be redundant, being as full as the Coptic version and MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 represent it in this place, from which I suppose it has been interpolated.

[¶17] Darkness "The gloomy vapor" - The Syriac and Vulgate seem to have read בערפלח bearphalach; but Jarchi explains the present reading as signifying darkness; and possibly the Syriac and Vulgate may have understood it in the same manner.

### Introduction

[¶19] This chapter, by a particular designation of Isaiah to the prophetic office, [Isa 6:1-8], introduces, with great solemnity, a declaration of the whole tenor of the Diving conduct in reference to his people, who, on account of their unbelief and impenitence, should for a very long period be given up to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart, [Isa 6:9], [Isa 6:10]; and visited with such calamities as would issue on the total desolation of their country, and their general dispersion, [Isa 6:11], [Isa 6:12]. The prophet adds, however, that under their repeated dispersions, (by the Chaldeans, Romans, etc.), a small remnant would be preserved as a seed from which will be raised a people, in whom will be fulfilled all the Divine promises, [Isa 6:13].

[¶20] As this vision seems to contain a solemn designation of Isaiah to the prophetic office, it is by most interpreters thought to be the first in order of his prophecies. But this perhaps may not be so; for Isaiah is said, in the general title of his prophecies, to have prophesied in the time of Uzziah, whose acts, first and last, he wrote, [2Chr 26:22]; which is usually done by a contemporary prophet; and the phrase, in the year that Uzziah died, probably means after the death of Uzziah; as the same phrase ([Isa 14:28]) means after the death of Ahaz. Not that Isaiah's prophecies are placed in exact order of time. Chapters 2, 3, [Isa 4:1-6], 5, seem by internal marks to be antecedent to chap. 1; they suit the time of Uzziah, or the former part of Jotham's reign; whereas chap. 1 can hardly be earlier than the last years of Jotham. See note on [Isa 1:7], and [Isa 2:1] (note). This might be a new designation, to introduce more solemnly a general dedication of the whole course of God's dispensations in regard to his people and the fates of the nation; which are even now still depending, and will not be fully accomplished till the final restoration of Israel.

[¶21] In this vision the ideas are taken in general from royal majesty, as displayed by the monarchs of the East; for the prophet could not represent the ineffable presence of God by any other than sensible and earthly images. The particular scenery of it is taken from the temple. God is represented as seated on his throne above the ark, in the most holy place, where the glory appeared above the cherubim, surrounded by his attendant ministers. This is called by God himself "the place of his throne, and the place of the soles of his feet," [Eze 43:7]. "A glorious throne exalted of old, is the place of our sanctuary," saith the prophet Jeremiah, chap, [Jer 17:12]. The very posture of sitting is a mark of state and solemnity: Sed et ipsum verbum sedere regni significat potestatem, saith Jerome, Comment. in [Eph 1:20]. See note on [Isa 3:1] (note). St. John, who has taken many sublime images from the prophets of the Old Testament, and in particular from Isaiah, hath exhibited the same scenery, drawn out into a greater number of particulars; [Rev 4:1-11].

[¶22] The veil, separating the most holy place from the holy or outermost part of the temple, is here supposed to be taken away; for the prophet, to whom the whole is exhibited, is manifestly placed by the altar of burnt-offering, at the entrance of the temple, (compare [Eze 43:5], [Eze 43:6]), which was filled with the train of the robe, the spreading and overflowing of the Divine glory. The Lord upon the throne, according to St. John ([Joh 12:41]), was Christ; and the vision related to his future kingdom when the veil of separation was to be removed, and the whole earth was to be filled with the glory of God, revealed to all mankind: which is likewise implied in the hymn of the seraphim, the design of which is, saith Jerome on the place, Ut mysterium Trinitatis in una Divinitate demonstrent; et nequaquam templum Judaicum, sicut prius, sed omnem terram illius gloria plenam esse testentur; "That they may point out the mystery of the Trinity in one Godhead; and that the Jewish temple alone should not be, as formerly, the place of the Divine glory, for the whole earth should be filled with it." It relates, indeed, primarily to the prophet's own time, and the obduration of the Jews of that age, and their punishment by the Babylonish captivity; but extends in its full attitude to the age of Messiah, and the blindness of the Jews to the Gospel, (see [Mat 13:14]; [Joh 12:40]; [Act 28:26]; [Rom 11:8]), the desolation of their country by the Romans, and their being rejected by God. That nevertheless a holy seed - a remnant, should be preserved; and that the nation should spread out and flourish again from the old stock. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶24] The Lord - Fifty-one MSS. of Kennicott's, and fifty-four of De Rossi's, and one edition; in the 8th verse, ([Isa 6:8]); forty-four MSS. of Kennicott's, and forty-six of De Rossi's, and one edition; and in the 11th verse ([Isa 6:11]); thirty-three MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and one edition, for אדני Adonai, "the Lord" read יהוה "Jehovah," which is probably the true reading; (compare [Isa 6:6]); as in many other places, in which the superstition of the Jews has substituted אדני Adonai for יהוה Yehovah. One of my own MSS., a very ancient and large folio, to which the points and the masora have been added by a later hand, has יהוה Yehovah in the 1st and 8th verses, in the teeth of the masora, which orders it in both places to be read אדני Adonai.

### Verse 2

[¶26] Above it stood the seraphim - שרפים seraphim, from שרף seraph, to burn. He saw says Kimchi, the angels as flames of fire, that the depravity of that generation might be exhibited, which was worthy of being totally burnt up.

[¶27] He covered his feet "He covereth his feet" - By the feet the Hebrews mean all the lower parts of the body. But the people of the East generally wearing long robes, reaching to the ground, and covering the lower parts of the body down to the feet, it may hence have been thought want of respect and decency to appear in public and on solemn occasions with even the feet themselves uncovered. Kempfer, speaking of the king of Persia giving audience, says, Rex in medio supremi atrii cruribus more patrio inflexis sedebat: corpus tunica investiebat flava, ad suras cum staret protensa; discumbentis vero pedes discalceatos pro urbanitate patria operiens. - Amoen. Exot. p. 227. "The king sat on the floor cross-legged, as is the custom of the country. He was covered with a yellow garment, which reached down to the feet when standing, but covered the feet for decency when sitting with his slippers off." Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as follows: Grande marque de respect en orient de se cacher les pieds, quand on est assis, et de baisser le visage. Quand le souvrain se monstre en Chine et a Japon, chacun se jette le visage contre terre, et il n'est pas permis de regarder le roi; "It is a great mark of respect in the East to cover the feet, and to bow down the head in the presence of the king."

### Verse 3

[¶29] Holy, holy, holy - This hymn performed by the seraphim, divided into two choirs, the one singing responsively to the other, which Gregory Nazian., Carm. 18, very elegantly calls Συμφωνον, αντιφωνον, αγγελων στασιν, is formed upon the practice of alternate singing, which prevailed in the Jewish Church from the time of Moses, whose ode at the Red Sea was thus performed, (see [Exo 15:20], [Exo 15:21]), to that of Ezra, under whom the priests and Levites sung alternately, "O praise Jehovah, for he is gracious;

[¶30] For his mercy endureth for ever;" [Ezr 3:11]. See De Sac. Poes. Hebr. Prael. xix., at the beginning.

### Verse 5

[¶32] Wo is me! for I am undone - נדמיתי nidmeythi, I am become dumb. There is something exceedingly affecting in this complaint. I am a man of unclean lips; I cannot say, Holy, holy, holy! which the seraphs exclaim. They are holy; I am not so: they see God, and live; I have seen him, and must die, because I am unholy. Only the pure in heart shall see God; and they only can live in his presence for ever, Reader, lay this to heart; and instead of boasting of thy excellence, and trusting in thy might, or comforting thyself in thy comparative innocence, thou wilt also be dumb before him, because thou hast been a man of unclean lips, and because thou hast still an unclean heart.

[¶33] I am undone "I am struck dumb" - נדמיתי nidmeythi, twenty-eight MSS. (five ancient) and three editions. - I understand it as from דום dum or דמם damam, silere, "to be silent;" and so it is rendered by the Syriac, Vulgate, Symmachus, and by some of the Jewish interpreters, apud Sal. b. Melec. The rendering of the Syriac is תויר אני tavir ani, stupens, attonitus sum, "I am amazed." He immediately gives the reason why he was struck dumb: because he was a man of polluted lips, and dwelt among a people of polluted lips, and was unworthy, either to join the seraphim in singing praises to God, or to be the messenger of God to his people. Compare [Exo 4:10]; [Exo 6:12]; [Jer 1:6].

### Verse 6

[¶35] A live coal - The word of prophecy, which was put into the mouth of the prophet.

[¶36] From off the altar - That is, from the altar of burnt-offerings, before the door of the temple, on which the fire that came down at first from heaven ([Lev 9:24]; [2Chr 7:1]) was perpetually burning. It was never to be extinguished, [Lev 6:12], [Lev 6:13].

### Verse 9

[¶38] And he said - לי li, to me, two MSS. and the Syriac. Thirteen MSS. have ראה raah, in the regular form.

### Verse 10

[¶40] Make the heart of this people fat "Gross" - The prophet speaks of the event, the fact as it would actually happen, not of God's purpose and act by his ministry. The prophets are in other places said to perform the thing which they only foretell: - "Lo! I have given thee a charge this day

[¶41] Over the nations, and over the kingdoms;

[¶42] To pluck up, and to pull down;

[¶43] To destroy, and to demolish;

[¶44] To build, and to plant." [Jer 1:10].

[¶45] And Ezekiel says, "When I came to destroy the city," that is, as it is rendered in the margin of our version, "when I came to prophesy that the city should be destroyed;" [Eze 43:3]. To hear, and not understand; to see, and not perceive; is a common saying in many languages. Demosthenes uses it, and expressly calls it a proverb: ὡστε το της παροιμιας ὁρωντας μη ὁρᾳν, και ακουοντας μη ακουειν; Conttra Aristogit. I., sub fin. The prophet, by the bold figure in the sentiment above mentioned, and the elegant form and construction of the sentence, has raised it from a common proverb into a beautiful mashal, and given it the sublime air of poetry.

## 795. Isaiah · 15 of 79

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[¶0] Or the words may be understood thus, according to the Hebrew idiom: "Ye certainly hear, but do not understand; ye certainly see, but do not acknowledge." Seeing this is the case, make the heart of this people fat - declare it to be stupid and senseless; and remove from them the means of salvation, which they have so long abused.

[¶1] There is a saying precisely like this in Aeschylus: - - - - βλεποντες εβλεπον ματην, Κλυοντες ουκ ηκουον.

[¶2] Aesch. Prom. Vinct. 456. "Seeing, they saw in vain; and hearing, they did not understand."

[¶3] And shut "Close up" - השע hasha. This word Sal. ben Melec explains to this sense, in which it is hardly used elsewhere, on the authority of Onkelos. He says it means closing up the eyes, so that one cannot see; that the root is שוע shava, by which word the Targum has rendered the word טח tach, [Lev 14:42], וטח את בית vetach eth beith, "and shall plaster the house." And the word טח tach is used in the same sense, [Isa 44:18]. So that it signifies to close up the eyes by some matter spread upon the lids. Mr. Harmer very ingeniously applies to this passage a practice of sealing up the eyes as a ceremony, or as a kind of punishment used in the East, from which the image may possibly be taken. Observ. 2:278.

[¶4] With their heart "With their hearts" - ובלבבו ubilebabo, fifteen MSS. of Kennicott's and fourteen of De Rossi's, and two editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.

[¶5] And be healed "And I should heal" - ואר פא veer pa, Septuagint, Vulgate. So likewise [Mat 13:14]; [Joh 12:40]; [Act 28:27].

### Verse 11

[¶7] Be utterly desolate "Be left" - For תשאה tishaeh, the Septuagint and Vulgate read תשאר tishshaer.

### Verse 13

[¶9] A tenth - This passage, though somewhat obscure, and variously explained by various interpreters, has, I think, been made so clear by the accomplishment of the prophecy, that there remains little room to doubt of the sense of it. When Nebuchadnezzar had carried away the greater and better part of the people into captivity, there was yet a tenth remaining in the land, the poorer sort left to be vinedressers and husbandmen, under Gedaliah, [2Kgs 25:12], [2Kgs 25:22], and the dispersed Jews gathered themselves together, and returned to him, [Jer 40:12]; yet even these, fleeing into Egypt after the death of Gedaliah, contrary to the warning of God given by the prophet Jeremiah, miserably perished there. Again, in the subsequent and more remarkable completion of the prophecy in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dissolution of the commonwealth by the Romans, when the Jews, after the loss of above a million of men, had increased from the scanty residue that was left of them, and had become very numerous again in their country; Hadrian, provoked by their rebellious behavior, slew above half a million more of them, and a second time almost extirpated the nation. Yet after these signal and almost universal destructions of that nation, and after so many other repeated exterminations and massacres of them in different times and on various occasions since, we yet see, with astonishment, that the stock still remains, from which God, according to his promise frequently given by his prophets, will cause his people to shoot forth again, and to flourish. - L.

[¶10] A tenth, עשיריה asiriyah. The meaning, says Kimchi, of this word is, there shall yet be in the land ten kings from the time of declaring this prophecy. The names of the ten kings are Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Jostah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah; then there shall be a general consumption, the people shall be carried into captivity, and Jerusalem shall be destroyed.

[¶11] For בם bam, in them, above seventy MSS., eleven of Kennicott's, and thirty-four of De Rossi's, read בה bah, in it; and so the Septuagint.

### Introduction

[¶13] The king of Judah and the royal family being in the utmost consternation on receiving accounts of the invasion of the kings of Syria and Israel, the prophet is sent to assure them that God would make good his promises to David and his house; so that, although they might be corrected, they could not be destroyed, while these prophecies remained to be accomplished, [Isa 7:1-9]. The Lord gives Ahaz a sign that the confederacy against Judah shall be broken, which sign strikingly points out the miraculous conception of the Messiah, who was to spring from the tribe of Judah, [Isa 7:10-16]. Prediction of very heavy calamities which the Assyrians would inflict upon the land of Judea, [Isa 7:17-25].

[¶14] The confederacy of Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, against the kingdom of Judah, was formed in the time of Jotham; and perhaps the effects of it were felt in the latter part of his reign; see [2Kgs 15:37], and note on [Isa 1:7-9] (note). However, in the very beginning of the reign of Ahaz, they jointly invaded Judah with a powerful army, and threatened to destroy or to dethrone the house of David. The king and royal family being in the utmost consternation on receiving advises of their designs, Isaiah is sent to them to support and comfort them in their present distress, by assuring them that God would make good his promises to David and his house. This makes the subject of this, and the following, and the beginning of the ninth chapters, in which there are many and great difficulties.

[¶15] Chap. 7 begins with an historical account of the occasion of this prophecy; and then follows, [Isa 7:4-16], a prediction of the ill success of the designs of the Israelites and Syrians against Judah; and from thence to the end of the chapter, a denunciation of the calamities to be brought upon the king and people of Judah by the Assyrians, whom they had now hired to assist them. Chap. 8 has a pretty close connection with the foregoing; it contains a confirmation of the prophecy before given of the approaching destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Syria by the Assyrians, of the denunciation of the invasion of Judah by the same Assyrians. [Isa 8:9], [Isa 8:10], give a repeated general assurance, that all the designs of the enemies of God's people shall be in the end disappointed and brought to naught; [Isa 8:11], etc., admonitions and threatenings, (I do not attempt a more particular explanation of this very difficult part), concluding with an illustrious prophecy [Isa 9:1-6], of the manifestation of Messiah, the transcendent dignity of his character, and the universality and eternal duration of his kingdom.

### Verse 3

[¶17] Now - נא na, is omitted by two MSS., the Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate.

### Verse 4

[¶19] The Syriac omits וארם vearam, "and Syria;" the Vulgate reads מלך ארם melech aram, "king of Syria:" one or the other seems to be the true reading. I prefer the former: or, instead of וארם ובן vearam uben, read ופקח בן vepekach ben, and pekah son, MS.

### Verse 5

[¶21] Because - Remaliah - All these words are omitted by one MS. and the Syriac; a part of them also by the Septuagint.

### Verse 8

[¶23] For the head of Syria, etc. - "Though the head of Syria be Damascus, And the head of Damascus Retsin; Yet within threescore and five years Ephraim shall be broken, that he be no more a people: And the head of Ephraim be Samaria; And the head of Samaria Remaliah's son. "Here are six lines, or three distichs, the order of which seems to have been disturbed by a transposition, occasioned by three of the lines beginning with the same word וראש verosh, "and the head," which three lines ought not to have been separated by any other line intervening; but a copyist, having written the first of them, and casting his eye on the third, might easily proceed to write after the first line beginning with וראש verosh, that which ought to have followed the third line beginning with וראש verosh. Then finding his mistake, to preserve the beauty of his copy, added at the end the distich which should have been in the middle; making that the second distich, which ought to have been the third. For the order as it now stands is preposterous: the destruction of Ephraim is denounced, and then their grandeur is set forth; whereas naturally the representation of the grandeur of Ephraim should precede that of their destruction. And the destruction of Ephraim has no coherence with the grandeur of Syria, simply as such, which it now follows: but it naturally and properly follows the grandeur of Ephraim, joined to that of Syria their ally. "The arrangement then of the whole sentence seems originally to have been thus: -

[¶24] Though the head of Syria be Damascus, And the head of Damascus Retsin And the head of Ephraim be Samaria; And the head of Samaria Remaliah's son: Yet within threescore and five years Ephraim shall be broken that he be no more a people." Dr. Jubb.

[¶25] Threescore and five years - It was sixty-five years from the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, when this prophecy was delivered, to the total depopulation of the kingdom of Israel by Esarhaddon, who carried away the remains of the ten tribes which had been left by Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, and who planted the country with new inhabitants. That the country was not wholly stripped of its inhabitants by Shalmaneser appears from many passages of the history of Josiah, where Israelites are mentioned as still remaining there, [2Chr 34:6], [2Chr 34:7], [2Chr 34:33]; [2Chr 35:18]; [2Kgs 23:19], [2Kgs 23:20]. This seems to be the best explanation of the chronological difficulty in this place, which has much embarrassed the commentators: see Usserii Annal. 5. T. ad an. 3327, and Sir 1. Newton, Chronol. p. 283. "That the last deportation of Israel by Esarhaddon was in the sixty-fifth year after the second of Ahaz, is probable for the following reasons: The Jews, in Seder Olam Rabba, and the Talmudists, in D. Kimchi on Ezekiel iv., say that Manasseh king of Judah was carried to Babylon by the king of Assyria's captains, [2Chr 33:11], in the twenty-second year of his reign; that is, before Christ 676, according to Dr. Blair's tables. And they are probably right in this. It could not be much earlier; as the king of Assyria was not king of Babylon till 680, ibid. As Esarhaddon was then in the neighborhood of Samaria, it is highly probable that he did then carry away the last remains of Israel, and brought those strangers thither who mention him as their founder, [Ezr 4:2]. But this year is just the sixty-fifth from the second of Ahaz, which was 740 before Christ. Now the carrying away the remains of Israel, who, till then, though their kingdom was destroyed forty-five years before, and though small in number, might yet keep up some form of being a people, by living according to their own laws, entirely put an end to the people of Israel, as a people separate from all others: for from this time they never returned to their own country in a body, but were confounded with the people of Judah in the captivity; and the whole people, the ten tribes included, were called Jews." - Dr. Jubb. Two MSS. have twenty-five instead of sixty-five; and two others omit the word five, reading only sixty.

[¶26] If ye will not believe "If ye believe not" - "This clause is very much illustrated by considering the captivity of Manasseh as happening at the same time with this predicted final ruin of Ephraim as a people. The near connection of the two facts makes the prediction of the one naturally to cohere with the prediction of the other. And the words are well suited to this event in the history of the people of Judah: 'If ye believe not, ye shall not be established;' that is, unless ye believe this prophecy of the destruction of Israel, ye Jews also, as well as the people of Israel, shall not remain established as a kingdom and people; ye also shall be visited with punishment at the same time: as our Savior told the Jews in his time, 'Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish;' intimating their destruction by the Romans; to which also, as well as to the captivity of Manasseh, and to the Babylonish captivity, the views of the prophet might here extend. The close connection of this threat to the Jews with the prophecy of the destruction of Israel, is another strong proof that the order of the preceding lines above proposed is right." - Dr. Jubb. "If ye believe not in me." - The exhortation of Jehoshaphat, [2Chr 20:20], to his people, when God had promised to them, by the prophet Jahaziel, victory over the Moabites and Ammonites, is very like this both in sense and expression, and seems to be delivered in verse: "Hear me, O Judah; and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem;

[¶27] Believe in Jehovah your God, and ye shall be established:

[¶28] Believe his prophets, and ye shall prosper."

[¶29] Where both the sense and construction render very probable a conjecture of Archbishop Secker on this place; that instead of כי ki, we should read בי bi. "If ye will not believe in me, ye shall not be established." So likewise Dr. Durell. The Chaldee has, "If ye will not believe in the words of the prophet;" which seems to be a paraphrase of the reading here proposed. In favor of which it may be farther observed that in one MS. כי ki is upon a rasure; and another for the last לא lo reads ולא velo, which would properly follow בי bi, but could not follow כי ki.

[¶30] Some translate thus, and paraphrase thus: If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Or, If ye do not give credit, it is because ye are unfaithful. Ye have not been faithful to the grace already given: therefore ye are now incapable of crediting my promises.

### Verse 11

[¶32] In the depth "Go deep to the grave" - So Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Vulgate.

### Verse 14

[¶34] The Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, twenty-five of Kennicott's MSS., nine ancient, and fourteen of De Rossi's, read יהוה Jehovah. And so [Isa 7:20], eighteen MSS.

[¶35] Immanuel - For עמנואל Immanuel, many MSS. and editions have עמנו אל immanu El, God with us.

### Verse 15

[¶37] That he may know "When he shall know" - "Though so much has been written on this important passage, there is an obscurity and inconsequence which still attends it, in the general run of all the interpretations given to it by the most learned. And this obscure incoherence is given to it by the false rendering of a Hebrew particle, viz., ל le, in לדעתו ledato. This has been generally rendered, either 'that he may know,' or 'till he know.' It is capable of either version, without doubt; but either of these versions makes [Isa 7:15] incoherent and inconsistent with [Isa 7:16]. For [Isa 7:16] plainly means to give a reason for the assertion in [Isa 7:16], because it is subjoined to it by the particle כי ki, for. But it is no reason why a child should eat butter and honey till he was at an age to distinguish, that before that time the land of his nativity should be free from its enemies. This latter supposition indeed implies, what is inconsistent with the preceding assertion. For it implies, that in part of that time of the infancy spoken of the land should not be free from enemies, and consequently these species of delicate food could not be attainable, as they are in times of peace. The other version, 'that he may know,' has no meaning at all; for what sense is there in asserting, that a child shall eat butter and honey that he may know to refuse evil and choose good? Is there any such effect in this food? Surely not. Besides, the child is thus represented to eat those things, which only a state of peace produces, during its whole infancy, inconsistently with [Isa 7:16], which promises a relief from enemies only before the end of this infancy: implying plainly, that part of it would be passed in distressful times of war and siege, which was the state of things when the prophecy was delivered. "But all these objections are cut off, and a clear, coherent sense is given to this passage, by giving another sense to the particle ל le. which never occurred to me till I saw it in Harmer's Observat., vol. i., p. 299. See how coherent the words of the prophet run, with how natural a connection one clause follows another, by properly rendering this one particle: 'Behold this Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel; butter and honey, shall he eat, when he shall know to refuse evil, and choose good. For before this child shall know to refuse evil and choose good, the land shall be desolate, by whose two kings thou art distressed.' Thus [Isa 7:16] subjoins a plain reason why the child should eat butter and honey, the food of plentiful times, when he came to a distinguishing age; viz., because before that time the country of the two kings, who now distressed Judea, should be desolated; and so Judea should recover that plenty which attends peace. That this rendering, which gives perspicuity and rational connection to the passage, is according to the use of the Hebrew particle, is certain. Thus לפנות בקר liphnoth boker, 'at the appearing of morning, or when morning appeared,' [Exo 14:27]; לעת האכל leeth haochel, 'at mealtime, or when it was time to eat,' [Rut 2:14]. In the same manner, לדעתו ledato, 'at his knowing, that is, when he knows.' "Harmer (ibid.) has clearly shown that these articles of food are delicacies in the East, and, as such, denote a state of plenty. See also [Jos 5:6]. They therefore naturally express the plenty of the country, as a mark of peace restored to it. Indeed, in [Isa 7:22] it expresses a plenty arising from the thinness of the people; but that it signifies, [Isa 7:15], a plenty arising from deliverance from war then present, is evident; because otherwise there is no expression of this deliverance. And that a deliverance was intended to be here expressed is plain, from calling the child which should be born Immanuel, God with us. It is plain, also, because it is before given to the prophet in charge to make a declaration of the deliverance, [Isa 7:3-7]; and it is there made; and this prophecy must undoubtedly be conformable to that in this matter." - Dr. Jubb.

[¶38] The circumstance of the child's eating butter and honey is explained by Jarchi, as denoting a state of plenty: "Butter and honey shall this child eat, because our land shall be full of all good." Comment in locum. The infant Jupiter, says Callimachus, was tenderly nursed with goat's milk and honey. Hymn, in Jov. 48. Homer, of the orphan daughters of Pandareus: - Κομισσε δε δι' Αφροδιτη Τυρῳ και μελιτι γλυκερῳ, και ἡδει οινῳ.

[¶39] Odyss. XX., 68. "Venus in tender delicacy rears

[¶40] With honey, milk, and wine, their infant years."

[¶41] Pope. Τρυφης εστιν ενδειξις; "This is a description of delicate food," says Eustathius on the place.

[¶42] Agreeably to the observations communicated by the learned person above mentioned, which perfectly well explain the historical sense of this much disputed passage, not excluding a higher secondary sense, the obvious and literal meaning of the prophecy is this:" that within the time that a young woman, now a virgin, should conceive and bring forth a child, and that child should arrive at such an age as to distinguish between good and evil, that is, within a few years, (compare [Isa 8:4]), the enemies of Judah should be destroyed." But the prophecy is introduced in so solemn a manner; the sign is so marked, as a sign selected and given by God himself, after Ahaz had rejected the offer of any sign of his own choosing out of the whole compass of nature; the terms of the prophecy are so peculiar, and the name of the child so expressive, containing in them much more than the circumstances of the birth of a common child required, or even admitted; that we may easily suppose that, in minds prepared by the general expectation of a great Deliverer to spring from the house of David, they raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested; especially when it was found, that in the subsequent prophecy, delivered immediately afterward, this child, called Immanuel, is treated as the Lord and Prince of the land of Judah. Who could this be, other than the heir of the throne of David; under which character a great and even a Divine person had been promised? No one of that age answered to this character except Hezekiah; but he was certainly born nine or ten years before the delivery of this prophecy. That this was so understood at that time is collected, I think, with great probability, from a passage of Micah, a prophet contemporary with Isaiah, but who began to prophesy after him; and who, as I have already observed, imitated him, and sometimes used his expressions. Micah, having delivered that remarkable prophecy which determines the place of the birth of Messiah, "the Ruler of God's people, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting;" that it should be Bethlehem Ephratah; adds immediately, that nevertheless, in the mean time, God would deliver his people into the hands of their enemies: "He will give them up, till she, who is to bear a child, shall bring forth," [Mic 5:3]. This obviously and plainly refers to some known prophecy concerning a woman to bring forth a child; and seems much more properly applicable to this passage of Isaiah than to any others of the same prophet, to which some interpreters have applied it. St. Matthew, therefore, in applying this prophecy to the birth of Christ, does it, not merely in the way of accommodating the words of the prophet to a suitable case not in the prophet's view, but takes it in its strictest, clearest, and most important sense; and applies it according to the original design and principal intention of the prophet. - L.

[¶43] After all this learned criticism, I think something is still wanting to diffuse the proper light over this important prophecy. On [Mat 1:23] I have given what I judge to be the true meaning and right application of the whole passage, as there quoted by the evangelist, the substance of which it will be necessary to repeat here: -

[¶44] At the time referred to, the kingdom of Judah, under the government of Ahaz, was reduced very low. Pekah, king of Israel, had slain in Judea one hundred and twenty thousand persons in one day; and carried away captives two hundred thousand, including women and children, together with much spoil. To add to their distress, Rezin, king of Syria, being confederate with Pekah, had taken Elath, a fortified city of Judah, and carried the inhabitants away captive to Damascus. In this critical conjuncture, need we wonder that Ahaz was afraid that the enemies who were now united against him must prevail, destroy Jerusalem, end the kingdom of Judah, and annihilate the family of David? To meet and remove this fear, apparently well grounded, Isaiah is sent from the Lord to Ahaz, swallowed up now both by sorrow and by unbelief, in order to assure him that the counsels of his enemies should not stand; and that they should be utterly discomfited. To encourage Ahaz, he commands him to ask a sign or miracle, which should be a pledge in hand, that God should, in due time, fulfill the predictions of his servant, as related in the context. On Ahaz humbly refusing to ask any sign, it is immediately added, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son; and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat," etc. Both the Divine and human nature of our Lord, as well as the miraculous conception, appear to be pointed out in the prophecy quoted here by the evangelist: He shall be called עמנואל Immanuel; literally, The Strong God with Us: similar to those words in the New Testament: The word which was God - was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; [Joh 1:1], [Joh 1:14]. And God was manifested in the flesh, [1Tim 3:16]. So that we are to understand God with us to imply, God incarnated - God in human nature. This seems farther evident from the words of the prophet, [Isa 7:15] : Butter and honey shall he eat - he shall be truly man - grow up and be nourished in a human natural way; which refers to his being With Us, i.e., incarnated. To which the prophet adds, That he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good; or rather, According to his knowledge, לדעתו ledato, reprobating the evil, and choosing the good; this refers to him as God, and is the same idea given by this prophet, chap. [Isa 53:11] : By (or in) his knowledge, בדעתו bedato, (the knowledge of Christ crucified), shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their offenses. Now this union of the Divine and human nature is termed a sign or miracle, אות oth, i.e., something which exceeds the power of nature to produce. And this miraculous union was to be brought about in a miraculous way: Behold, a Virgin shall conceive: the word is very emphatic, העלמה haalmah, The virgin; the only one that ever was, or ever shall be, a mother in this way. But the Jews, and some called Christians, who have espoused their desperate cause, assert that "the word עלמה almah does not signify a Virgin only; for it is applied [Pro 30:19] to signify a young married woman." I answer, that this latter text is no proof of the contrary doctrine: the words דרך גבר בעלמה derech geber bealmah, the way of a man with a maid, cannot be proved to mean that for which it is produced. Besides, one of De Rossi's MSS. reads בעלמיו bealmaiv, the way of a strong or stout man (גבר geber) In His Youth; and in this reading the Syriac, Septuagint, Vulgate, and Arabic agree; which are followed by the first version in the English language, as it stands in a MS. in my own possession: the weie of a man in his waxing youth: so that this place, the only one that can with any probability of success be produced, were the interpretation contended for correct, which I am by no means disposed to admit, proves nothing. Besides, the consent of so many versions in the opposite meaning deprives it of much of its influence in this question.

## 796. Isaiah · 16 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/796/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/796/#p-N

[¶0] The word עלמה almah, comes from עלם alam, to lie hid, be concealed: and we are told, that "virgins were so called, because they were concealed or closely kept up in their father's houses till the time of their marriage." This is not correct: see the case of Rebecca, [Gen 24:43] (note), and my note there; that of Rachel, [Gen 29:6-9] (note), and the note there also; and see the case of Miriam, the sister of Moses, [Exo 2:8], and also the Chaldee paraphrase on [Lam 1:4], where the virgins are represented as going out in the dance. And see also the whole history of Ruth. This being concealed or kept at home, on which so much stress is laid, is purely fanciful; for we find that young unmarried women drew water, kept sheep, gleaned publicly in the fields, etc., etc., and the same works they perform among the Turcomans to the present day. This reason, therefore, does not account for the radical meaning of the word; and we must seek it elsewhere. Another well-known and often-used root in the Hebrew tongue will cast light on this subject. This is גלה galah, which signifies to reveal, make manifest, or uncover; and is often applied to matrimonial connections in different parts of the Mosaic law: עלם alam, therefore, may be considered as implying the concealment of the virgin, as such, till lawful, marriage had taken place. A virgin was not called עלמה almah, because she was concealed by being kept at home in her father's house, which is not true; but, literally and physically, because as a woman she had not been uncovered - she had not known man. This fully applies to the blessed virgin, see [Luk 1:34]. "How can this be, seeing I know no man?" And this text throws much light on the subject before us. This also is in perfect agreement with the ancient prophecy, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent," [Gen 3:15]; for the person who was to destroy the work of the devil was to be the progeny of the woman, without any concurrence of the man. And hence the text in Genesis speaks as fully of the virgin state of the person from whom Christ, according to the flesh, should come, as that in the prophet, or this in the evangelist. According to the original promise there was to be a seed, a human being, who should destroy sin: but this seed or human being, must come from the woman Alone; and no woman Alone could produce such a human being without being a virgin. Hence, A virgin shall bear a son, is the very spirit and meaning of the original text, independently of the illustration given by the prophet; and the fact recorded by the evangelist is the proof of the whole. But how could that be a sign to Ahaz which was to take place so many hundreds of years after? I answer, the meaning of the prophet is plain: not only Rezin and Pekah should be unsuccessful against Jerusalem at that time, which was the fact; but Jerusalem, Judea, and the house of David should be both preserved, notwithstanding their depressed state, and the multitude of their adversaries, till the time should come when a Virgin should bear a son. This is a most remarkable circumstance the house of David could never fail, till a virgin should conceive and bear a son - nor did it: but when that incredible and miraculous fact did take place, the kingdom and house of David became extinct! This is an irrefragable confutation of every argument a Jew can offer in vindication of his opposition to the Gospel of Christ. Either the prophecy in Isaiah has been fulfilled, or the kingdom and house of David are yet standing. But the kingdom of David, we know, is destroyed: and where is the man, Jew or Gentile, that can show us a single descendant of David on the face of the earth? The prophecy could not fail: the kingdom and house of David have failed; the virgin, therefore, must have brought forth her son, and this son is Jesus, the Christ. Thus Moses, Isaiah, and Matthew concur; and facts the most unequivocal have confirmed the whole! Behold the wisdom and providence of God!

[¶1] Notwithstanding what has been said above, it may be asked, In what sense could this name, Immanuel, be applied to Jesus Christ, if he be not truly and properly God? Could the Spirit of truth ever design that Christians should receive him as an angel or a mere man; and yet, in the very beginning of the Gospel history, apply a character to him which belongs only to the most high God? Surely no. In what sense, then, is Christ God with Us? Jesus is called Immanuel, or God with us, in his incarnation; God united to our nature; God with man, God in man; God with us, by his continual protection; God with us, by the influences of his Holy Spirit, in the holy sacrament, in the preaching of his word, in private prayer. And God with us, through every action of our life, that we begin, continue, and end in his name. He is God with us, to comfort, enlighten, protect, and defend us, in every time of temptation and trial, in the hour of death, in the day of judgment; and God with us and in us, and we with and in him, to all eternity. [Isa 7:17]

[¶2] The Lord shall bring "But Jehovah will bring" - Houbigant reads וביא vaiyabi, from the Septuagint, αλλα επαξει ὁ Θεος, to mark the transition to a new subject.

[¶3] Even the king of Assyria - Houbigant supposes these words to have been a marginal gloss, brought into the text by mistake; and so likewise Archbishop Secker. Besides their having no force or effect here, they do not join well in construction with the words preceding, as may be seen by the strange manner in which the ancient interpreters have taken them; and they very inelegantly forestall the mention of the king of Assyria, which comes in with great propriety in the 20th verse ([Isa 7:20]). I have therefore taken the liberty of omitting them in the translation.

### Verse 18

[¶5] Hiss for the fly "Hist the fly" - See note on [Isa 5:26].

[¶6] Egypt, and - Assyria - Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Pharaoh-necho, and Nebuchadnezzar, who one after another desolated Judea.

### Verse 19

[¶8] Holes of the rocks "Caverns" - So the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, whence Houbigant supposes the true reading to be הנחללים hannachalolim. One of my oldest MSS. reads הנחלולים hannochalolim.

### Verse 20

[¶10] The river - That is, the Euphrates: הנהר hanahar. So read the Septuagint and two MSS.

[¶11] Shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired "Jehovah shall shave by the hired razor" - To shave with the hired razor the head, the feet, and the beard, is an expression highly parabolical, to denote the utter devastation of the country from one end to the other; and the plundering of the people, from the highest to the lowest, by the Assyrians, whom God employed as his instrument to punish the Jews. Ahaz himself, in the first place, hired the king of Assyria to come to help him against the Syrians, by a present made to him of all the treasures of the temple, as well as his own. And God himself considered the great nations, whom he thus employed as his mercenaries; and paid them their wages. Thus he paid Nebuchadnezzar for his services against Tyre, by the conquest of Egypt, [Eze 29:18-20]. The hairs of the head are those of the highest order in the state; those of the feet, or the lower parts, are the common people; the beard is the king, the high priest, the very supreme in dignity and majesty. The Eastern people have always held the beard in the highest veneration, and have been extremely jealous of its honor. To pluck a man's beard is an instance of the greatest indignity that can be offered. See [Isa 50:6]. The king of the Ammonites, to show the utmost contempt of David, "cut off half the beards of his servants, and the men were greatly ashamed; and David bade them tarry at Jericho till their beards were grown," [2Sam 10:4], [2Sam 10:6]. Niebuhr, Arabie, p. 275, gives a modern instance of the very same kind of insult. "The Turks," says Thevenot, "greatly esteem a man who has a fine beard; it is a very great affront to take a man by his beard, unless it be to kiss it; they swear by the beard." Voyages, i., p. 57. D'Arvieux gives a remarkable instance of an Arab, who, having received a wound in his jaw, chose to hazard his life, rather than suffer his surgeon to take off his beard. Memoires, tom. iii., p. 214. See also Niebuhr, Arabie, p. 61.

[¶12] The remaining verses of this chapter, [Isa 7:21-25], contain an elegant and very expressive description of a country depopulated, and left to run wild, from its adjuncts and circumstances: the vineyards and cornfields, before well cultivated, now overrun with briers and thorns; much grass, so that the few cattle that are left, a young cow and two sheep, have their full range, and abundant pasture, so as to yield milk in plenty to the scanty family of the owner; the thinly scattered people living, not on corn, wine, and oil, the produce of cultivation; but on milk and honey, the gifts of nature; and the whole land given up to the wild beasts, so that the miserable inhabitants are forced to go out armed with bows and arrows, either to defend themselves against the wild beasts, or to supply themselves with necessary food by hunting.

[¶13] A Very judicious friend has sent me the following observations on the preceding prophecy, which I think worthy of being laid before the reader; though they are in some respects different from my own view of the subject. "To establish the primary and literal meaning of a passage of Scripture is evidently laying the true foundation for any subsequent views or improvements from it. "The kingdom of Judah, under the government of Ahaz, was reduced very low. Pekah, king of Israel, had slain in Judea one hundred and twenty thousand in one day; and carried away captive two hundred thousand including women and children, with much spoil. To add to this distress, Rezin, king of Syria, being confederate with Pekah, had taken Elath, a fortified city of Judah, and carried the inhabitants to Damascus. I think it may also be gathered from the sixth verse of chap. 8, that the kings of Syria and Israel had a considerable party in the land of Judea, who, regardless of the Divine appointment and promises, were disposed to favor the elevation of Tabeal, a stranger, to the throne of David. "In this critical conjuncture of affairs, Isaiah was sent with a message of mercy, and a promise of deliverance, to Ahaz. He was commanded to take with him Shearjashub, his son whose name contained a promise respecting the captives lately made by Pekah, whose return from Samaria, effected by the expostulation of the prophet Oded and the concurrence of the princes of Ephraim, was now promised as a pledge of the Divine interposition offered to Ahaz in favor of the house of David. And as a farther token of this preservation, notwithstanding the incredulity of Ahaz, Isaiah was directed to predict the birth of another son which should be born to him within the space of a year, and to be named Emmanuel, signifying thereby the protection of God to the land of Judah and family of David at this present conjuncture, with reference to the promise of the Messiah who was to spring from that family, and be born in that land. Compare [Isa 8:8]. Hence Isaiah testifies, [Isa 8:18] : 'Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for types in Israel.' Compare [Zac 3:8] : 'Thy companions are men of sign and type:' see Dr. Lowth on this verse. The message of Divine displeasure against Israel is in like manner expressed by the names the prophet Hosea was directed to give his children; see [Hos 1:1-11] and 2. "Concerning this child, who was to be named Immanuel, the prophet was commissioned to declare, that notwithstanding the present scarcity prevailing in the land from its being harassed by war, yet within the space of time wherein this child should be of age to discern good and evil, both these hostile kings, viz., of Israel and Syria, should be cut off; and the country enjoy such plenty, that butter and honey, food accounted of peculiar delicacy, should be a common repast. See Harmer's Observations, p. 299. "To this it may be objected that Isaiah's son was not named Immanuel, but Maher-shalal-hash-baz; the signification of which bore a threatening aspect, instead of a consolatory one. To this I think a satisfactory answer may be given. Ahaz, by his unbelief and disregard of the message of mercy sent to him from God, (for instead of depending upon it he sent and made a treaty with the king of Assyria), drew upon himself the Divine displeasure, which was expressed by the change of the child's name, and the declaration that though Damascus and Samaria should, according to the former prediction, fall before the king of Assyria, yet that this very power, i.e., Assyria, in whom Ahaz trusted for deliverance, (see [2Kgs 16:7], etc.), should afterwards come against Judah, and 'fill the breadth of the land,' which was accomplished in the following reign, when Jerusalem was so endangered as to be delivered only by miracle. The sixth and seventh verses of chap. 8 indicate, I think, as I before observed, that the kings of Syria and Israel had many adherents in Judah, who are said to refuse the peaceful waters of Shiloah or Siloam, him that is to be sent, who ought to have been their confidence, typified by the fountain at the foot of Mount Zion, whose stream watered the city of Jerusalem; and therefore, since the splendor of victory, rather than the blessings of peace, was the object of their admiration, compared to a swelling river which overflowed its banks, God threatens to chastise them by the victorious armies of Ashur. The prophet at the same time addresses words of consolation to such of the people who yet feared and trusted in Jehovah, whom he instructs and comforts with the assurance ([Isa 8:10]) that they shall prove the fulfillment of the promise contained in the name Immanuel. "But it may still be objected, that according to this interpretation of the fourteenth verse of chap. 7 nothing miraculous occurs, which is readily admitted; but the objection rests upon the supposition that something miraculous was intended; whereas the word אות oth, 'sign,' does by no means generally imply a miracle, but most commonly an emblematic representation, (see [Eze 4:3-12]; 11; [Eze 20:20]; [Zac 6:14]), either by actions or names, of some future event either promised or threatened. [Exo 3:12]; [1Sam 2:34]; [2Kgs 19:29]; [Jer 44:29], [Jer 44:30], are all examples of a future event given as a sign or token of something else which is also future. The birth of Isaiah's son was indeed typical of him whose name he was, at first, appointed to bear, viz., Immanuel, even as Oshea the son of Nun had his name changed to Jehoshua, the same with Jesus, of whom he was an eminent type. Hence the prophet, in the ninth chapter, breaks forth into a strain of exultation: 'To us a child is born;' after which follow denunciations against Rezin and the kingdom of Israel, which are succeeded by declarations, that when Assyria had completed the appointed chastisement upon Judah and Jerusalem, that empire should be destroyed. The whole of the tenth chapter is a very remarkable prophecy, and was probably delivered about the time of Sennacherib's invasion. "But still it will be urged, that St. Matthew, when relating the miraculous conception of our Lord, says, 'Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,' etc. To this it may readily be answered, that what was spoken by the prophet was indeed now fulfilled in a higher, more important, and also in a more literal sense, than the primary fulfillment could afford, which derived all its value from its connection with this event, to which it ultimately referred. "In like manner the prophecy of Isaiah, contained in the second chapter, received a complete fulfillment in our Savior's honoring Capernaum with his residence, and preaching throughout Galilee; though there appears reason to interpret the passage as having a primary respect to the reformation wrought by Hezekiah and which, at the eve of the dissolution of the kingdom of Israel by the captivity of the ten tribes, extended to the tribes of Asher and Zebulun, and many of the inhabitants of Ephraim and Manasseh, who were hereby stirred up to destroy idolatry in their country. See [2Chr 31:1]. And without doubt the great deliverance wrought afterwards for Judah by the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib's army, and the recovery of Hezekiah in so critical a conjuncture from a sickness which had been declared to be unto death, contributed not a little to revive the fear of God in that part of Israel which, through their defection from the house of David, had grievously departed from the temple and worship of the true God; and as Galilee lay contiguous to countries inhabited by Gentiles, they had probably sunk deeper into idolatry than the southern part of Israel. "In several passages of St. Matthew's Gospel, our translation conveys the idea of things being done in order to fulfill certain prophecies; but I apprehend that if the words ἱνα και ὁπως were rendered as simply denoting the event, so that and thus was fulfilled, the sense would be much clearer. For it is obvious that our Lord did not speak in parables or ride into Jerusalem previously to his last passover, simply for the purpose of fulfilling the predictions recorded, but also from other motives; and in chap. 2 the evangelist only remarks that the circumstance of our Lord's return from Egypt corresponded with the prophet Hosea's relation of that part of the history of the Israelites. So in the twenty-third verse Joseph dwelt at Nazareth because he was directed so to do by God himself; and the sacred historian, having respect to the effect afterwards produced, (see [Joh 7:41], [Joh 7:42], [Joh 7:52]), remarks that this abode in Nazareth was a means of fulfilling those predictions of the prophets which indicate the contempt and neglect with which by many the Messiah should be treated. Galilee was considered by the inhabitants of Judea as a degraded place, chiefly from its vicinity to the Gentiles; and Nazareth seems to have been proverbially contemptible; and from the account given of the spirit and conduct of the inhabitants by the evangelists, not without reason." - E. M. B.

[¶14] To my correspondent, as well as to many learned men, there appears some difficulty in the text; but I really think this is quite done away by that mode of interpretation which I have already adopted; and as far as the miraculous conception is concerned, the whole is set in the clearest and strongest light, and the objections and cavils of the Jeers entirely destroyed.

### Introduction

[¶16] Prediction respecting the conquest of Syria and Israel by the Assyrians, [Isa 8:1-4]. Israel, for rejecting the gentle stream of Shiloah, near Jerusalem, is threatened to be overflowed by the great river of Assyria, manifestly alluding by this strong figure to the conquests of Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser over that kingdom, [Isa 8:5-7]. The invasion of the kingdom of Judah by the Assyrians under Sennacherib foretold, [Isa 8:8]. The prophet assures the Israelites and Syrians that their hostile attempts against Judah shall be frustrated, [Isa 8:9], [Isa 8:10]. Exhortation not to be afraid of the wrath of man, but to fear the displeasure of God, [Isa 8:11-13]. Judgments which shall overtake those who put no confidence in Jehovah, [Isa 8:14], [Isa 8:15]. The prophet proceeds to warn his countrymen against idolatry, divination, and the like sinful practices, exhorting them to seek direction from the word of God, professing in a beautiful apostrophe that this was his own pious resolution. And to enforce this counsel, and strengthen their faith, he points to his children, whose symbolic names were signs or pledges of the Divine promises, [Isa 8:16-20]. Judgments of God against the finally impenitent, [Isa 8:21], [Isa 8:22].

[¶17] The prophecy of the foregoing chapter relates directly to the kingdom of Judah only: the first part of it promises them deliverance from the united invasion of the Israelites and Syrians; the latter part, from [Isa 8:17], denounces the desolation to be brought upon the kingdom of Judah by the Assyrians. The sixth, seventh, and eighth verses of this chapter seem to take in both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. "This people that refuseth the waters of Shiloah," may be meant of both: the Israelites despised the kingdom of Judah, which they had deserted, and now attempted to destroy; the people of Judah, from a consideration of their own weakness, and a distrust of God's promises, being reduced to despair, applied to the Assyrians for assistance against the two confederate kings. But how could it be said of Judah, that they rejoiced in Rezin, and the son of Remaliah, the enemies confederated against them? If some of the people were inclined to revolt to the enemy, (which however does not clearly appear from any part of the history or the prophecy), yet there was nothing like a tendency to a general defection. This, therefore, must be understood of Israel. The prophet denounces the Assyrian invasion, which should overwhelm the whole kingdom of Israel under Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser; and the subsequent invasion of Judah by the same power under Sennacherib, which would bring them into the most imminent danger, like a flood reaching to the neck, in which a man can but just keep his head above water. The two next verses, Isa 8:9, 23 8:10, are addressed by the prophet, as a subject of the kingdom of Judah, to the Israelites and Syrians, and perhaps to all the enemies of God's people; assuring them that their attempts against that kingdom shall be fruitless; for that the promised Immanuel, to whom he alludes by using his name to express the signification of it, for God is with us, shall be the defense of the house of David, and deliver the kingdom of Judah out of their hands. He then proceeds to warn the people of Judah against idolatry, divination, and the like forbidden practices; to which they were much inclined, and which would soon bring down God's judgments upon Israel. The prophecy concludes at the sixth verse of chap. 9 with promises of blessings in future times by the coming of the great deliverer already pointed out by the name of Immanuel, whose person and character is set forth in terms the most ample and magnificent.

[¶18] And here it may be observed that it is almost the constant practice of the prophet to connect in like manner deliverances temporal with spiritual. Thus the eleventh chapter, setting forth the kingdom of Messiah, is closely connected with the tenth, which foretells the destruction of Sennacherib. So likewise the destruction of nations, enemies to God, in the thirty-fourth chapter, introduces the flourishing state of the kingdom of Christ in the thirty-fifth. And thus the chapters from 40 to 49 inclusive, plainly relating to the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, do in some parts plainly relate to the greater deliverance by Christ.

### Verse 1

[¶20] Take thee a great roll "Take unto thee a large mirror" - The word גליון gillayon is not regularly formed from גלל galal, to roll, but from גלה galah, as פדיון pidyon from פדה padah, כליון killayon from כלה, calah, נקיון nikkayon from נקה nakah, עליון elyon from עלה alah, etc., the י yod supplying the place of the radical ה he. גלה galah signifies to show, to reveal; properly, as Schroederus says, (De Vestitu Mulier. Hebr. p. 294), to render clear and bright by rubbing; to polish. גליון gillayon, therefore, according to this derivation, is not a roll or volume: but may very well signify a polished tablet of metal, such as was anciently used for a mirror. The Chaldee paraphrast renders it by לוח luach, a tablet, and the same word, though somewhat differently pointed, the Chaldee paraphrast and the rabbins render a mirror, [Isa 3:23]. The mirrors of the Israelitish women were made of brass finely polished, [Exo 38:8], from which place it likewise appears that what they used were little hand mirrors which they carried with them even when they assembled at the door of the tabernacle. I have a metalline mirror found in Herculaneum, which is not above three inches square. The prophet is commanded to take a mirror, or brazen polished tablet, not like these little hand mirrors, but a large one; large enough for him to engrave upon it in deep and lasting characters, בחרט אנוש becheret enosh, with a workman's graving tool, the prophecy which he was to deliver. חרט cheret in this place certainly signifies an instrument to write or engrave with: but חריט charit, the same word, only differing a little in the form, means something belonging to a lady's dress, [Isa 3:22], (where however five MSS. leave out the י yod, whereby only it differs from the word in this place), either a crisping-pin, which might be not unlike a graving tool, as some will have it, or a purse, as others infer from [2Kgs 5:23]. It may therefore be called here חרט אנוש cheret enosh, a workman's instrument, to distinguish it from חרט אשה cheret ishshah, an instrument of the same name, used by the women. In this manner he was to record the prophecy of the destruction of Damascus and Samaria by the Assyrians; the subject and sum of which prophecy is here expressed with great brevity in four words, מהר שלל הש בז maher shalal hash baz; i.e., to hasten the spoil, to take quickly the prey; which are afterwards applied as the name of the prophet's son, who was made a sign of the speedy completion of it; Maher-shalal-hash-baz; Haste-to-the-spoil, Quick-to-the-prey. And that it might be done with the greater solemnity, and to preclude all doubt of the real delivery of the prophecy before the event, he calls witnesses to attest the recording of it.

[¶21] The prophet is commanded to take a great roll, and yet four words only are to be written in it, מהר שלל הש בז maher shalal hash baz, Make haste to the spoil; fall upon the prey. The great volume points out the land of Judea; and the few words the small number of inhabitants, after the ten tribes were carried into captivity.

[¶22] The words were to be written with a man's pen; i.e., though the prophecy be given in the visions of God, yet the writing must be real; the words must be transcribed on the great roll, that they may be read and publicly consulted. Or, חרט אנוש cherot enosh, the pen or graver of the weak miserable man, may refer to the already condemned Assyrians, who though they should be the instruments of chastening Damascus and Samaria, should themselves shortly be overthrown. The four words may be considered as the commission given to the Assyrians to destroy and spoil the cities. Make haste to the spoil; Fall upon the prey, etc.

### Verse 4

[¶24] For before the child - For my father and my mother, one MS. and the Vulgate have his father and his mother. The prophecy was accordingly accomplished within three years; when Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, went up against Damascus and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin, and also took the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and carried them captive to Assyria, [2Kgs 15:29]; [2Kgs 16:9]; [1Chr 5:26].

### Verse 6

[¶26] Forasmuch as this people refuseth "Because this people have rejected" - The gentle waters of Shiloah, a small fountain and brook just without Jerusalem, which supplied a pool within the city for the use of the inhabitants, is an apt emblem of the state of the kingdom and house of David, much reduced in its apparent strength, yet supported by the blessing of God; and is finely contrasted with the waters of the Euphrates, great, rapid, and impetuous; the image of the Babylonian empire, which God threatens to bring down like a mighty flood upon all these apostates of both kingdoms, as punishment for their manifold iniquities, and their contemptuous disregard of his promises. The brook and the river are put for the kingdoms to which they belong, and the different states of which respectively they most aptly represent. Juvenal, inveighing against the corruption of Rome by the importation of Asiatic manners, says, with great elegance, that "the Orontes has been long discharging itself into the Tiber:" -

[¶27] Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes.

[¶28] And Virgil, to express the submission of some of the Eastern countries to the Roman arms, says: -

[¶29] Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis.

[¶30] Aen. 8:726. "The waters of the Euphrates now flowed more humbly and gently."

[¶31] But the happy contrast between the brook and the river gives a peculiar beauty to this passage of the prophet, with which the simple figure in the Roman poets, however beautiful, yet uncontrasted, cannot contend.

### Verse 8

[¶33] He shall reach even to the neck - He compares Jerusalem, says Kimchi, to the head of the human body. As when the waters come up to a man's neck, he is very near drowning, (for a little increase of them would go over his head), so the king of Assyria coming up to Jerusalem was like a flood reaching to the neck - the whole country was overflowed, and the capital was in imminent danger. Accordingly the Chaldee renders reaching to the neck by reaching to Jerusalem.

### Verse 9

[¶35] Associate yourselves "Know ye this" - God by his prophet plainly declares to the confederate adversaries of Judah, and bids them regard and attend to his declaration, that all their efforts shall be in vain.

[¶36] The present reading, רעו rou, is subject to many difficulties; I follow that of the Septuagint, דעו deu, γνωτε. Archbishop Secker approves this reading. דעו deu know ye this, is parallel and synonymous to האזינו haazinu, give ear to It, in the next line. The Septuagint have likewise very well paraphrased the conclusion of this verse: "When ye have strengthened yourselves, ye shall be broken; and though ye again strengthen yourselves, again shall ye be broken;" taking חתו chottu as meaning the same with נשברו, shall be broken.

### Verse 11

[¶38] With a strong hand "As taking me by the hand" - Eleven MSS., (two ancient), of Kennicott's, thirty-four of De Rossi's, and seven editions, read כחזקת kechezkath; and so Symmachus, the Syriac, and Vulgate. Or rather with a strong hand, that is, with a strong and powerful influence of the prophetic Spirit.

### Verse 12

[¶40] Say ye not, A confederacy "Say ye not, It is holy" - קשר kesher. Both the reading and the sense of this word are doubtful. The Septuagint manifestly read קשה kashah; for they render it by σκληρον, hard. The Syriac and Chaldee render it מרדא merda, and מרוד dn merod, rebellion. How they came by this sense of the word, or what they read in their copies, is not so clear. But the worst of it is, that neither of these readings or renderings gives any clear sense in this place. For why should God forbid his faithful servants to say with the unbelieving Jews, It is hard; or, There is a rebellion; or, as our translators render it, a confederacy? And how can this be called "walking in the way of this people?" [Isa 8:11], which usually means, following their example, joining with them in religious worship. Or what confederacy do they mean? The union of the kingdoms of Syria and Israel against Judah? That was properly a league between two independent states, not an unlawful conspiracy of one part against another in the same state; this is the meaning of the word קשר kesher. For want of any satisfactory interpretation of this place that I can meet with, I adopt a conjecture of Archbishop Secker, which he proposes with great diffidence, and even seems immediately to give up, as being destitute of any authority to support it. I will give it in his own words: "Videri potest ex cap. [Isa 5:16], et hujus cap. [Isa 8:13], [Isa 8:14], [Isa 8:19], legendum קרש vel קדוש kadosh, eadem sententia, qua אלהינו Eloheynu, [Hos 14:3]. Sed nihil necesse est. Vide enim [Jer 11:9]; [Eze 22:25]. Optime tamen sic responderent huic versiculo versiculi [Isa 8:13], [Isa 8:14]."

[¶41] The passages of Jeremiah and Ezekiel above referred to seem to me not at all to clear up the sense of the word קשר kesher in this place. But the context greatly favors the conjecture here given, and makes it highly probable: "Walk not in the way of this people; call not their idols holy, nor fear ye the object of their fear:" (that is, the σεβασματα, or gods of the idolaters; for so fear here signifies, to wit, the thing feared. So God is called "The fear of Isaac," [Gen 31:42], [Gen 31:53]): "but look up to Jehovah as your Holy One; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread; and he shall be a holy Refuge unto you." Here there is a harmony and consistency running through the whole sentence; and the latter part naturally arises out of the former, and answers to it. Idolatry, however, is full of fears. The superstitious fears of the Hindoos are very numerous. They fear death, bad spirits generally, and hobgoblins of all descriptions. They fear also the cries of jackals, owls, crows, cats, asses, vultures, dogs, lizards, etc. They also dread different sights in the air, and are alarmed at various dreams. See Ward's Customs. Observe that the difference between קשר kesher and קדש kadosh is chiefly in the transposition of the two last letters, for the letters ר resh and ד daleth are hardly distinguishable in some copies, printed as well as MS.; so that the mistake, in respect of the letters themselves, is a very easy and a very common one. - L.

### Verse 14

[¶43] And he shall be for a sanctuary "And he shall be unto you a sanctuary" - The word לכם lachem, unto you, absolutely necessary, as I conceive, to the sense, is lost in this place: it is preserved by the Vulgate, "et erit vobis in sanctificationem." The Septuagint have it in the singular number: εσται σοι εις ἁγιασμον, it shall be to Thee. Or else, instead of מקדש mikdash, a sanctuary, we must read מוקש mokesh, a snare, which would then be repeated without any propriety or elegance, at the end of the verse. The Chaldee reads instead of it משפט mishpat, judgment; for he renders it by פורען purean, which word frequently answers to משפט mishpat in his paraphrase. One MS. has in stead of מקדש ולאבן mikdash uleeben, להם לאבן lahem leeben, which clears the sense and construction. But the reading of the Vulgate is, I think, the best remedy to this difficulty; and is in some degree authorized by להם lahem, the reading of the MS. above mentioned.

## 797. Isaiah · 17 of 79

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### Verse 16

[¶1] Among my disciples - בלמדי belimmudai. The Septuagint render it του μη μαθειν. Bishop Chandler, Defence of Christianity, p. 308, thinks they read מלמד, that it be not understood, and approves of this reading. - Abp. Secker.

### Verse 18

[¶3] Lord of hosts - One MS. reads אלהי צבאות Elohey tsebaoth, God of hosts.

### Verse 19

[¶5] Should not a people seek "Should they seek" - After ידרש yidrosh, the Septuagint, repeating the word, read הידרש hayidrosh: Ουκ εθνος προς Θεον αυτου εκζητησουσι; τι εκζητησουσι περι των ζωντων τους νεκρους; Should not a nation seek unto its God? Why should you seek unto the dead concerning the living? and this repetition of the verb seems necessary to the sense; and, as Procopius on the place observes, it strongly expresses the prophet's indignation at their folly.

### Verse 20

[¶7] To the law and to the testimony "Unto the command, and unto the testimony" - "Is not תעודה teudah here the attested prophecy, [Isa 8:1-4]? and perhaps תורה torah the command, [Isa 8:11-15]? for it means sometimes a particular, and even a human, command; see [Pro 6:20], and [Pro 7:1], [Pro 7:2], where it is ordered to be hid, that is, secretly kept." - Abp. Secker. So Deschamps, in his translation, or rather paraphrase, understands it: "Tenons nous a l'instrument authentique mis en depot par ordre du Seigneur," "Let us stick to the authentic instrument, laid up by the command of the Lord." If this be right, the sixteenth verse must be understood in the same manner.

[¶8] Because there is no light in them "In which there is no obscurity" - שחר shachor, as an adjective, frequently signifies dark, obscure; and the noun שחר shachar signifies darkness, gloominess, [Joe 2:2], if we may judge by the context: - "A day of darkness and obscurity;

[¶9] Of cloud, and of thick vapor;

[¶10] As the gloom spread upon the mountains:

[¶11] A people mighty and numerous."

[¶12] Where the gloom, שחר shachar, seems to be the same with the cloud and thick vapor mentioned in the line preceding. See [Lam 4:8], and [Job 30:30]. See this meaning of the word שחר shachar well supported in Christ. Muller. Sat. Observat. Philippians p. 53, Lugd. Bat. 1752. The morning seems to have been an idea wholly incongruous in the passage of Joel; and in this of Isaiah the words in which there is no morning (for so it ought to be rendered if שחר shachar in this place signifies, according to its usual sense, morning) seem to give no meaning at all. "It is because there is no light in them," says our translation. If there be any sense in these words, it is not the sense of the original; which cannot justly be so translated. Qui n'a rien d'obscur, "which has no obscurity." - Deschamps. The reading of the Septuagint and Syriac, שחד shochad, gift, affords no assistance towards the clearing up of any of this difficult place. R. D. Kimchi says this was the form of an oath: "By the law and by the testimony such and such things are so." Now if they had sworn this falsely, it is because there is no light, no illumination, שחר shachar, no scruple of conscience, in them.

### Verse 21

[¶14] Hardly bestead "Distressed" - Instead of נקשה niksheh, distressed, the Vulgate, Chaldee, and Symmachus manifestly read נכשל nichshal, stumbling, tottering through weakness, ready to fall; a sense which suits very well with the place.

[¶15] And look upward "And he shall cast his eyes upward" - The learned professor Michaelis, treating of this place (Not. in de Sacr. Poes. Hebr. Prael. ix.) refers to a passage in the Koran which is similar to it. As it is a very celebrated passage, and on many accounts remarkable, I shall give it here at large, with the same author's farther remarks upon it in another place of his writings. It must be noted here that the learned professor renders נבט nibbat, הביט hibbit, in this and the parallel place, [Isa 5:30], which I translate he looketh by it thundereth, from Schultens, Orig. Ling. Hebr. Lib. 1 cap. 2, of the justness of which rendering I much doubt.

[¶16] This brings the image of Isaiah more near in one circumstance to that of Mohammed than it appears to be in my translation: - "Labid, contemporary with Mohammed, the last of the seven Arabian poets who had the honor of having their poems, one of each, hung up in the entrance of the temple of Mecca, struck with the sublimity of a passage in the Koran, became a convert to Mohammedism; for he concluded that no man could write in such a manner unless he were Divinely inspired. "One must have a curiosity to examine a passage which had so great an effect upon Labid. It is, I must own, the finest that I know in the whole Koran: but I do not think it will have a second time the like effect, so as to tempt any one of my readers to submit to circumcision. It is in the second chapter, where he is speaking of certain apostates from the faith. 'They are like,' saith he, 'to a man who kindles a light. As soon as it begins to shine, God takes from them the light, and leaves them in darkness that they see nothing. They are deaf, dumb, and blind; and return not into the right way. Or they fare as when a cloud, full of darkness, thunder, and lightning, covers the heaven. When it bursteth, they stop their ears with their fingers, with deadly fear; and God hath the unbelievers in his power. The lightning almost robbeth them of their eyes: as often as it flasheth they go on by its light; and when it vanisheth in darkness, they stand still. If God pleased, they would retain neither hearing nor sight.' That the thought is beautiful, no one will deny; and Labid, who had probably a mind to flatter Mohammed, was lucky in finding a passage in the Koran so little abounding in poetical beauties, to which his conversion might with any propriety be ascribed. It was well that he went no farther; otherwise his taste for poetry might have made him again an infidel." Michaelis, Erpenii Arabische Grammatik abgekurzt, Vorrede, s. 32.

### Introduction

[¶18] This chapter contains an illustrious prophecy of the Messiah. He is represented under the glorious figure of the sun, or light, rising on a benighted world, and diffusing joy and gladness wherever he sheds his beams, [Isa 9:1-3]. His conquests are astonishing and miraculous, as in the day of Midian; and the peace which they procure is to be permanent, as denoted by the burning of all the implements of war, [Isa 9:4], [Isa 9:5]. The person and character of this great Deliverer are then set forth in the most magnificent terms which the language of mankind could furnish, [Isa 9:6]. The extent of his kingdom is declared to be universal, and the duration of it eternal, [Isa 9:7]. The prophet foretells most awful calamities which were ready to fall upon the Israelites on account of their manifold impieties, [Isa 9:8-21].

### Verse 1

[¶20] Dimness "Accumulated darkness" - Either מנדחה menuddechah, fem. to agree with אפלה aphelah; or אפל המנדח aphel hammenuddach, alluding perhaps to the palpable Egyptian darkness, [Exo 10:21].

[¶21] The land of Zebulun - Zebulun, Naphtali, Manasseh, that is, the country of Galilee all round the sea of Gennesareth, were the parts that principally suffered in the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath-pileser; see [2Kgs 15:29]; [1Chr 5:26]. And they were the first that enjoyed the blessings of Christ's preaching the Gospel, and exhibiting his miraculous works among them. See Mede's Works, p. 101, and 457. This, which makes the twenty-third verse of chap. 8 in the Hebrew, is the first verse in chap. 9 in our authorized version. Bishop Lowth follows the division in the Hebrew.

### Verse 3

[¶23] And not increased the joy "Thou hast increased their joy" - Eleven MSS. of Kennicott's and six of De Ross's, two ancient, read לו lo, it, according to the Masoretical correction, instead of לא lo, not. To the same purpose the Targum and Syriac.

[¶24] The joy in harvest - כשמחת בקציר kesimchath bakkatsir. For בקציר bakkatsir one MS. of Kennicott's and one of De Rossi's have קציר katsir, and another הקציר hakkatsir, "the harvest;" one of which seems to be the true, reading, as the noun preceding is in regimine.

### Verse 5

[¶26] Every battle of the warrior "The greaves of the armed warrior" - שאון שאון seon soen. This word, occurring only in this place, is oaf very doubtful signification. Schindler fairly tells us that we may guess at it by the context. The Jews have explained it, by guess I believe, as signifying battle, conflict: the Vulgate renders it violenta praedatio. But it seems as if something was rather meant which was capable of becoming fuel for the fire, together with the garments mentioned in the same sentence. In Syriac the word, as a noun, signifies a shoe, or a sandal, as a learned friend suggested to me some years ago. See [Luk 15:22]; [Act 12:8]. I take it, therefore, to mean that part of the armor which covered the legs and feet, and I would render the two words in Latin by caliga caligati. The burning of heaps of armor, gathered from the field of battle, as an offering made to the god supposed to be the giver of victory, was a custom that prevailed among some heathen nations; and the Romans used it as an emblem of peace, which perfectly well suits with the design of the prophet in this place. A medal struck by Vespasian on finishing his wars both at home and abroad represents the goddess Peace holding an olive branch in one hand, and, with a lighted torch in the other, setting fire to a heap of armor. Virgil mentions the custom: - " - Cum primam aciem Praeneste sub ipsa

[¶27] Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos."

[¶28] Aen. lib. viii., ver. 561. "Would heaven, (said he), my strength and youth recall,

[¶29] Such as I was beneath Praeneste's wall -

[¶30] Then when I made the foremost foes retire

[¶31] And set whole heaps of conquered shields on fire."

[¶32] Dryden.

[¶33] See Addison on Medals, Series 2:18. And there are notices of some such practice among the Israelites, and other nations of the most early times. God promises to Joshua victory over the kings of Canaan. "To-morrow I will deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire," [Jos 11:6]. See also [Nah 2:13]. And the psalmist employs this image to express complete victory, and the perfect establishment of peace: - "He maketh wars to cease, even to the end of the land:

[¶34] He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;

[¶35] And burneth the chariots in the fire. - [Psa 46:9]. עגלות agaloth, properly plausira, impedimenta, the baggage-wagons: which however the Septuagint and Vulgate render scuta, "shields;" and the Chaldee, "round shields," to show the propriety of that sense of the word from the etymology; which, if admitted, makes the image the same with that used by the Romans.

[¶36] Ezekiel, [Eze 39:8-10], in his bold manner has carried this image to a degree of amplification which I think hardly any other of the Hebrew poets would have attempted. He describes the burning of the arms of the enemy, in consequence of the complete victory to be obtained by the Israelites over Gog and Magog: - "Behold, it is come to pass, and it is done,

[¶37] Saith the Lord Jehovah.

[¶38] This is the day of which I spoke:

[¶39] And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall go forth.

[¶40] And shall set on fire the armor, and the shield,

[¶41] And the buckler, and the bow, and the arrows,

[¶42] And the clubs and the lances;

[¶43] And they shall set them on fire for seven years.

[¶44] And they shall not bear wood from the field;

[¶45] Neither shall they hew from the forest:

## 798. Isaiah · 18 of 79

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[¶0] For of the armor shall they make their fires;

[¶1] And they shall spoil their spoilers,

[¶2] And they shall plunder their plunderers."

[¶3] R. D. Kimchi, on this verse says this refers simply to the destruction of the Assyrians. Other battles are fought man against man, and spear against spear; and the garments are rolled in blood through the wounds given and received: but this was with burning, for the angel of the Lord smote them by night, and there was neither sword nor violent commotion, nor blood; they were food for the fire, for the angel of the Lord consumed them.

### Verse 6

[¶5] The government shall be upon his shoulder - That is, the ensign of government; the scepter, the sword, the key, or the like, which was borne upon or hung from the shoulder. See note on [Isa 22:22].

[¶6] And his name shall be called - אל גבור El gibbor, the prevailing or conquering God.

[¶7] The everlasting Father "The Father of the everlasting age" - Or אבי עד Abi ad, the Father of eternity. The Septuagint have μεγαλης βουλης Αγγελος, "the Messenger of the Great Counsel." But instead of אבי אד Abi ad, a MS. of De Rossi has אבעזר Abezer, the helping Father; evidently the corruption of some Jew, who did not like such an evidence in favor of the Christian Messiah.

[¶8] Prince of Peace - שר שלום sar shalom, the Prince of prosperity, the Giver of all blessings.

[¶9] A MS. of the thirteenth century in Kennicott's collection has a remarkable addition here. "He shall be a stumbling-block, המכשלה; the government is on his shoulder." This reading is nowhere else acknowledged, as far as I know.

### Verse 7

[¶11] Of the increase - In the common Hebrew Bibles, and in many MSS., this word is written with the close or final למרבה ם. But in twelve of Kennicott's MSS., and twelve of De Rossi's, it is written with the open מ mem; but here it is supposed to contain mysteries, viz., that Jerusalem shall be shut up, closed, and confined, till the days of the Messiah.

[¶12] This is an illustrious prophecy of the incarnation of Christ, with an enumeration of those characters in which he stands most nearly related to mankind as their Savior; and of others by which his infinite majesty and Godhead are shown. He shall appear as a child, born of a woman, born as a Jew, under the law, but not in the way of ordinary generation. He is a Son given - the human nature, in which the fullness of the Godhead was to dwell, being produced by the creative energy of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin. See [Mat 1:20], [Mat 1:21], [Mat 1:23], [Mat 1:25], and [Luk 1:35], and [Isa 7:14], and the notes on those passages. As being God manifested in the flesh, he was wonderful in his conception, birth, preaching, miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension; wonderful in his person, and wonderful in his working. He is the Counsellor that expounds the law; shows its origin, nature, and claims; instructs, pleads for the guilty; and ever appears in the presence of God for men. He is the mighty God; God essentially and efficiently prevailing against his enemies, and destroying ours. He is the Father of eternity; the Origin of all being, and the Cause of the existence, and particularly the Father, of the spirits of all flesh. The Prince of peace - not only the Author of peace, and the Dispenser of peace, but also he that rules by peace, whose rule tends always to perfection, and produces prosperity. Of the increase of his government - this Prince has a government, for he has all power both in heaven and in earth: and his government increases, and is daily more and more extended, and will continue till all things are put under his feet. His kingdom is ordered - every act of government regulated according to wisdom and goodness; is established so securely as not to be overthrown; and administered in judgment and justice, so as to manifest his wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and truth. Reader, such is that Jesus who came into the world to save sinners! Trust in Him!

[¶13] Isaiah 9:8-10:4

[¶14] This whole passage reduced to its proper and entire form, and healed of the dislocation which it suffers by the absurd division of the chapters, makes a distinct prophecy, and a just poem, remarkable for the regularity of its disposition and the elegance of its plan. It has no relation to the preceding or following prophecy; though the parts, violently torn asunder, have been, on the one side and the other, patched on to them. Those relate principally to the kingdom of Judah, this is addressed exclusively to the kingdom of Israel. The subject of it is a denunciation of vengeance awaiting their crimes. It is divided into four parts, each threatening the particular punishment of some grievous offense - of their pride, of their perseverance in their vices, of their impiety, and of their injustice. To which is added a general denunciation of a farther reserve of Divine wrath, contained in a distich, before used by the prophet on a like occasion, [Isa 5:25], and here repeated after each part. This makes the intercalary verse of the poem; or, as we call it, the burden of the song. "Post hoc comma (cap. [Isa 9:4]) interponitur spatium unius lineae, in Cod. 2 et 3: idemque observatur in 245. in quo nullum est spatium ad finem capitis 9." Kennicott, Var. Lect. "After this clause ([Isa 9:4]) is interposed the space of one line in Cod. 2 and 3. The same is likewise observed in Cod. 245, in which no space exists at the end of chap. 9."

### Verse 8

[¶16] Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, thirty MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and three editions, read יהוה Yehovah.

### Verse 9

[¶18] Pride and stoutness of heart "Carry themselves haughtily" - וידעו veyadeu, "and they shall know;" so ours and the Versions in general. But what is it that they shall know? The verb stands destitute of its object; and the sense is imperfect. The Chaldee is the only one, as far as I can find, that expresses it otherwise. He renders the verb in this place by ואתרברבו veithrabrabu, "they exalt themselves, or carry themselves haughtily; the same word by which he renders גבהו gabehu, [Isa 3:16]. He seems, therefore, in this place to have read ויגבהו vaiyigbehu, which agrees perfectly well with what follows, and clears up the difficulty. Archbishop Secker conjectured וידברו vayedabberu, referring it to לאמר lemor, in the next verse, which shows that he was not satisfied with the present reading. Houbigant reads וירעו vaiyereu, et pravi facti sunt, they are become wicked, which is found in a MS.; but I prefer the reading of the Chaldee, which suits much better with the context.

[¶19] Houbigant approves of this reading; but it is utterly unsupported by any evidence from antiquity: it is a mere mistake of ר resh for ד daleth; and I am surprised that it should be favored by Houbigant.

### Verse 10

[¶21] The bricks - "The eastern bricks," says Sir John Chardin, (see Harmer's Observ. I., p. 176), "are only clay well moistened with water, and mixed with straw, and dried in the sun." So that their walls are commonly no better than our mud walls; see Maundrell, p. 124. That straw was a necessary part in the composition of this sort of bricks, to make the parts of the clay adhere together, appears from Exodus 5. These bricks are properly opposed to hewn stone, so greatly superior in beauty and durableness. The sycamores, which, as Jerome on the place says, are timber of little worth, with equal propriety are opposed to the cedars. "As the grain and texture of the sycamore is remarkably coarse and spongy, it could therefore stand in no competition at all (as it is observed, [Isa 9:10]) with the cedar, for beauty and ornament." - Shaw, Supplement to Travels, p. 96. We meet with the same opposition of cedars to sycamores, [1Kgs 10:27], where Solomon is said to have made silver as the stones, and cedars as the sycamores in the vale for abundance. By this mashal, or figurative and sententious speech, they boast that they shall easily be able to repair their present losses, suffered perhaps by the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglath-pileser; and to bring their affairs to a more flourishing condition than ever.

[¶22] Some of the bricks mentioned above lie before me. They were brought from the site of ancient Babylon. The straw is visible, kneaded with the clay; they are very hard, and evidently were dried in the sun; for they are very easily dissolved in water.

### Verse 11

[¶24] The adversaries of Rezin against him "The princes of Retsin against him" - For צרי tsarey, enemies, Houbigant, by conjecture, reads שרי sarey, princes; which is confirmed by thirty of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., (two ancient), one of my own, ancient; and nine more have צ tsaddi, upon a rasure, and therefore had probably at first שרי sarey. The princes of Retsin, the late ally of Israel, that is, the Syrians, expressly named in the next verse, shall now be excited against Israel.

[¶25] The Septuagint in this place give us another variation; for רצין Retsin, they read הר ציון har tsiyon, ορος Σιων, Mount Sion, of which this may be the sense; but Jehovah shall set up the adversaries of Mount Sion against him, (i.e., against Israel), and will strengthen his enemies together; the Syrians, the Philistines, who are called the adversaries of Mount Sion. See Simonis Lex. in voce סכך sachach.

### Verse 12

[¶27] With open mouth "On every side" - בכל פה bechol peh, in every corner, in every part of their country, pursuing them to the remotest extremities, and the most retired parts. So the Chaldee בכל אתר bechol athar, in every place.

### Verse 14

[¶29] In one day - Thirteen MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi read ביום beyond in a day; and another has a rasure in the place of the letter ב beth.

### Verse 17

[¶31] The Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, a great number of MSS. read יהוה Yehovah.

### Verse 18

[¶33] For wickedness - Wickedness rageth like a fire, destroying and laying waste the nation: but it shall be its own destruction, by bringing down the fire of God's wrath, which shall burn up the briers and the thorns; that is, the wicked themselves. Briers and thorns are an image frequently applied in Scripture, when set on fire, to the rage of the wicked; violent, yet impotent, and of no long continuance. "They are extinct as the fire of thorns," [Psa 118:12]. To the wicked themselves, as useless and unprofitable, proper objects of God's wrath, to be burned up, or driven away by the wind. "As thorns cut up they shall be consumed in the fire," [Isa 33:12]. Both these ideas seem to be joined in [Psa 58:9] : - "Before your pots shall feel the thorn,

[¶34] As well the green as the dry, the tempest shall bear them away."

[¶35] The green and the dry is a proverbial expression, meaning all sorts of them, good and bad, great and small, etc. So Ezekiel: "Behold, I will kindle a fire, and it shall devour every green tree, and every dry tree," [Eze 20:47]. D'Herbelot quotes a Persian poet describing a pestilence under the image of a conflagration: "This was a lightning that, falling upon a forest, consumed there the green wood with the dry." See Harmer's Observations, Vol. II., p. 187.

### Verse 20

[¶37] The flesh of his own arm "The flesh of his neighbor" - "Του βραχιονος του αδελφου αυτου, the Septuagint Alexand. Duplex versio, quarum altera legit רעו reo, quae vox extat, [Jer 6:21]. Nam רע rea, αδελφος, [Gen 43:33]. Recte ni fallor." - Secker. I add to this excellent remark, that the Chaldee manifestly reads רעו reo, his neighbor, not זרעו zeroo, his arm; for he renders it by קריביה karibeyh, his neighbor. And Jeremiah has the very same expression: ואיש בשר רעהו יאכלו veish besar reehu yochelu, "and every one shall eat the flesh of his neighbor," [Jer 19:9]. This observation, I think, gives the true reading and sense of this place: and the context strongly confirms it by explaining the general idea by particular instances, in the following verse: "Every man shall devour the flesh of his neighbor;" that is, they shall harass and destroy one another. "Manasseh shall destroy Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh;" which two tribes were most closely connected both in blood and situation as brothers and neighbors; "and both of them in the midst of their own dissensions shall agree in preying upon Judah." The common reading, "shall devour the flesh of his own arm," in connection with what follows, seems to make either an inconsistency, or an anticlimax; whereas by this correction the following verse becomes an elegant illustration of the foregoing. - L.

### Introduction

[¶39] God's judgments against oppressive rulers, [Isa 10:1-4]. The prophet foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, and the destruction of his army. That mighty monarch is represented as a rod in the hand of God to correct his people for their sins; and his ambitious purposes, contrary to his own intentions, are made subservient to the great desires of Providence, [Isa 10:5-11]. Having accomplished this work, the Almighty takes account of his impious vauntings, [Isa 10:12-14]; and threatens utter destruction to the small and great of his army, represented by the thorns, and the glory of the forest, [Isa 10:15-19]. This leads the prophet to comfort his countrymen with the promise of the signal interposition of God in their favor, [Isa 10:24-27]. Brief description of the march of Sennacherib towards Jerusalem, and of the alarm and terror which he spread every where as he hastened forward, [Isa 10:28-32]. The spirit and rapidity of the description is admirably suited to the subject. The affrighted people are seen fleeing, and the eager invader pursuing; the cries of one city are heard by those of another; and groan swiftly succeeds to groan, till at length the rod is lifted over the last citadel. In this critical situation, however, the promise of a Divine interposition is seasonably renewed. The scene instantly changes; the uplifted arm of this mighty conqueror is at once arrested and laid low by the hand of heaven; the forest of Lebanon, (a figure by which the immense Assyrian host is elegantly pointed out, is hewn down by the axe of the Divine vengeance; and the mind is equally pleased with the equity of the judgment, and the beauty and majesty of the description, [Isa 10:33], [Isa 10:34].

### Verse 2

[¶41] My people - Instead of עמי ammi, my people, many MSS., and one of my own, ancient, read עמו ammo, his people. But this is manifestly a corruption.

### Verse 4

[¶43] Without me - That is, without my aid: they shall be taken captive even by the captives, and shall be subdued even by the vanquished. "The י yod in בלתי bilti is a pronoun, as in [Hos 13:4]." - Kimchi on the place. One MS. has לבלתי lebilti.

[¶44] As the people had hitherto lived without God in worship and obedience; so they should now be without his help, and should perish in their transgressions.

## 799. Isaiah · 19 of 79

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### Verse 5

[¶1] O Assyrian "Ho to the Assyrian" - Here begins a new and distinct prophecy, continued to the end of the twelfth chapter: and it appears from [Isa 10:9-11] of this chapter, that this prophecy was delivered after the taking of Samaria by Shalmaneser; which was in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah: and as the former part of it foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, and the destruction of his army, which makes the whole subject of this chapter it must have been delivered before the fourteenth of the same reign.

[¶2] The staff in their hand "The staff in whose hand" - The word הוא hu, the staff itself, in this place seems to embarrass the sentence. I omit it on the authority of the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint: nine MSS., (two ancient), and one of my own, ancient, for ומטה הוא umatter hu, read מטהו mattehu, his staff. Archbishop Secker was not satisfied with the present reading. He proposes another method of clearing up the sense, by reading ביום beyom, in the day, instead of בידם beyadam, in their hand: "And he is a staff in the day of mine indignation."

### Verse 12

[¶4] The Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, fourteen MSS. and three editions read יהוה Yehovah.

[¶5] The fruit "The effect" - "פרי peri, f. צבי tsebi, vid. [Isa 13:19], sed confer, [Pro 1:31]; [Pro 31:16], [Pro 31:31]." - Secker. The Chaldee renders the word פרי peri by עיבדי obadey, works; which seems to be the true sense; and I have followed it. - L.

### Verse 13

[¶7] Like a valiant man "Strongly seated" - Twelve MSS. agree with the Keri in reading כביר kabbir, without the א aleph. And Sal. ben Melec and Kimchi thus explain it:" them who dwelled in a great and strong place I have brought down to the ground."

### Verse 15

[¶9] No wood "Its master" - I have here given the meaning, without attempting to keep to the expression of the original, לא עץ lo ets, "the no-wood;" that which is not wood like itself, but of a quite different and superior nature. The Hebrews have a peculiar way of joining the negative particle לא lo to a noun, to signify in a strong manner a total negation of the thing expressed by the noun. "How hast thou given help (ללא כח lelo choach) to the no-strength?

[¶10] And saved the arm (לא עז lo oz) of the no-power?

[¶11] How hast, thou given counsel (ללא חכמה lelo chochmah) to the no-wisdom?" [Job 26:2], [Job 26:3].

[¶12] That is, to the man totally deprived of strength, power, and wisdom. "Ye that rejoice (ללא דבר lelo dabar) in nothing." [Amo 6:13].

[¶13] That is, in your fancied strength, which is none at all, a mere nonentity. "For I am God, (ולא איש velo ish), and no-man;

[¶14] The Holy One in the midst of thee, yet do not frequent cities." [Hos 11:9]. "And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword (לא איש lo ish) of no-man;

[¶15] And a sword of (לא אדם lo adam) no-mortal, shall devour him." [Isa 31:8]. "Wherefore do ye weigh out your silver (בלוא לחם belo lechem) for the no-bread." [Isa 55:2].

[¶16] So here לא עץ lo ets means him who is far from being an inert piece of wood, but is an animated and active being; not an instrument, but an agent.

### Verse 16

[¶18] The Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, fifty-two MSS., eleven editions, and two of my own, ancient, read יהוה, Yehovah, as in other cases.

[¶19] And under his glory - That is, all that he could boast of as great and strong in his army, (Sal. ben Melec in loc.), expressed afterwards, [Isa 10:18], by the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field.

### Verse 17

[¶21] And it shall burn and devour his thorns "And he shall burn and consume his thorn" - The briers and thorns are the common people; the glory of his forest are the nobles and those of highest rank and importance. See note on [Isa 9:17], and compare [Eze 20:47]. The fire of God's wrath shall destroy them, both great and small; it shall consume them from the soul to the flesh; a proverbial expression; soul and body, as we say; it shall consume them entirely and altogether; and the few that escape shall be looked upon as having escaped from the most imminent danger; "as a firebrand plucked out of the fire," [Amo 4:11]; ὡς δια πυρος, so as by fire, [1Cor 3:15]; as a man when a house is burning is forced to make his escape by running through the midst of the fire.

[¶22] I follow here the reading of the Septuagint, כמאש נסס kemash noses, ὡς ὁ φευγων απω φλογος χαιομενης, as he who flees from the burning flame. Symmachus also renders the latter word by φευγων, flying.

### Verse 21

[¶24] The remnant shalt return - unto the mighty God - אל גבור El gibbor, the mighty or conquering God; the Messiah, the same person mentioned in [Isa 10:6] of the preceding chapter.

### Verse 22

[¶26] For though thy people Israel - I have endeavored to keep to the letter of the text as nearly as I can in this obscure passage; but it is remarkable that neither the Septuagint, nor St. Paul, [Rom 9:28], who, except in a few words of no great importance, follows them nearly in this place, nor any one of the ancient Versions, take any notice of the word שטף shoteph, overflowing; which seems to give an idea not easily reconcilable with those with which it is here joined. 1. S. Maerlius (Schol. Philolog. ad Selecta S. Cod. loca) conjectures that the two last letters of this word are by mistake transposed, and that the true reading is שפט shophet, judging, with strict justice. The Septuagint might think this sufficiently expressed by εν δικαιοσυνῃ, in righteousness. One MS., with St. Paul and Septuagint Alex., omits בו bo in [Isa 10:22]; sixty-nine of Kennicott's and seventeen of De Rossi's MSS. and eight editions, omit כל col, all, in [Isa 10:23]; and so St. Paul, [Rom 9:28].

[¶27] The learned Dr. Bagot, dean of Christ Church, Oxford, afterwards Bishop of Bristol and Norwich, in some observations on this place, which he has been so kind as to communicate to me, and which will appear in their proper light when he himself shall give them to the public, renders the word כליון kilayon by accomplishment, and makes it refer to the predictions of Moses; the blessing and the curse which he laid before the people, both conditional, and depending on their future conduct. They had by their disobedience incurred those judgments which were now to be fully executed upon them. His translation is, The accomplishment determined overflows with justice; for it is accomplished, and that which is determined the Lord God of hosts doeth in the midst of the land. - L. Some think that the words might be paraphrased thus: The determined destruction of the Jews shall overflow with righteousness, (צדקה tsedakah), justification, the consequence of the Gospel of Christ being preached and believed on in the world. After the destruction of Jerusalem this word or doctrine of the Lord had free course, - did run, and was glorified.

### Verse 24

[¶29] After the manner of Egypt "In the way of Egypt" - I think there is a designed ambiguity in these words. Sennacherib, soon after his return from his Egyptian expedition, which, I imagine, took him up three years, invested Jerusalem. He is represented by the prophet as lifting up his rod in his march from Egypt, and threatening the people of God, as Pharaoh and the Egyptians had done when they pursued them to the Red Sea. But God in his turn will lift up his rod over the sea, as he did at that time, in the way, or after the manner, of Egypt; and as Sennacherib has imitated the Egyptians in his threats, and came full of rage against them from the same quarter; so God will act over again the same part that he had taken formerly in Egypt, and overthrow their enemies in as signal a manner. It was all to be, both the attack and the deliverance, בדרך bederech, or כדרך kederech, as a MS. has it in each place, in the way, or after the manner, of Egypt.

### Verse 25

[¶31] The indignation "Mine indignation" - Indignatio mea, Vulg. ἡ οργη, Sept. μου η οργη κατα σου, MS. Pachom. Μου ἡ οργη ἡ κατα σου, MS. 1. D. 2. So that זעמי zaami, or הזעם hazzaam, as one MS. has it, seems to be the true reading.

### Verse 26

[¶33] And as his rod was upon the sea "And like his rod which he lifted up over the sea" - The Jewish interpreters suppose here an ellipsis of כ ke, the particle of similitude, before מטהו mattehu, to be supplied from the line above; so that here are two similitudes, one comparing the destruction of the Assyrians to the slaughter of the Midianites at the rock of Oreb; the other to that of the Egyptians at the Red Sea. Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Sal. ben Melec.

### Verse 27

[¶35] From off thy shoulder - Bishop Lowth translates the whole verse thus: - "And it shall come to pass in that day,

[¶36] His burden shall be removed from off thy shoulder;

[¶37] And his yoke off thy neck:

[¶38] Yea, the yoke shall perish from off your shoulders.'

[¶39] On which he gives us the following note: I follow here the Septuagint, who for מפני שמן mippeney shamen read משכמיכם mishshichmeychem, απο των ωμων ὑμων, from your shoulders, not being able to make any good sense out of the present reading. I will add here the marginal conjectures of Archbishop Secker, who appears, like all others, to have been at a loss for a probable interpretation of the text as it now stands." o. leg. שכם shakam; forte legend. מבני שמן mibbeney shamen, vide cap. [Isa 5:1]. [Zac 4:14] : Et possunt intelligi Judaei uncti Dei, [Psa 105:15], vel Assyrii, משמנים mishmannim, hic [Psa 105:16], ut dicat propheta depulsum iri jugum ab his impositum: sed hoc durius. Vel potest legi מפני שמי mippeney shami."

### Verse 28

[¶41] He is come to Aiath - A description of the march of Sennacherib's army approaching Jerusalem in order to invest it, and of the terror and confusion spreading and increasing through the several places as he advanced; expressed with great brevity, but finely diversified. The places here mentioned are all in the neighborhood of Jerusalem; from Ai northward, to Nob westward of it; from which last place he might probably have a prospect of Mount Sion. Anathoth was within three Roman miles of Jerusalem, according to Eusebius, Jerome and Josephus. Onomast. Loc. Hebr. et Antiq. Jud. 10:7, 3. Nob was probably still nearer. And it should seem from this passage of Isaiah that Sennacherib's army was destroyed near the latter of these places. In coming out of Egypt he might perhaps join the rest of his army at Ashdod, after the taking of that place, which happened about that time, (see [Isa 20:1-6].); and march from thence near the coast by Lachish and Libnah, which lay in his way from south to north, and both which he invested till he came to the north-west of Jerusalem, crossing over to the north of it, perhaps by Joppa and Lydda; or still more north through the plain of Esdraelon.

### Verse 29

[¶43] They are gone over the passage "They have passed the strait" - The strait here mentioned is that of Michmas, a very narrow passage between two sharp hills or rocks, (see [1Sam 14:4], [1Sam 14:5]), where a great army might have been opposed with advantage by a very inferior force. The author of the Book of Judith might perhaps mean this pass, at least among others: "Charging them to keep the passages of the hill country, for by them there was an entrance into Judea; and it was easy to stop them that would come up, because the passage was strait for two men at the most," Judith 4:7. The enemies having passed the strait without opposition, shows that all thoughts of making a stand in the open country were given up, and that their only resource was in the strength of the city.

[¶44] Their lodging - The sense seems necessarily to require that we read למו lamo, to them, instead of לנו lanu, to us. These two words are in other places mistaken one for the other.

## 800. Isaiah · 20 of 79

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[¶0] Thus [Isa 44:7], for למו lamo, read לנו lanu, with the Chaldee; and in the same manner [Psa 64:6], with the Syriac, and [Psa 80:7], on the authority of the Septuagint and Syriac, besides the necessity of the sense.

### Verse 30

[¶2] Cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anothoth "Hearken unto her, O Laish; answer her, O Anathoth!" - I follow in this the Syriac Version. The prophet plainly alludes to the name of the place, and with a peculiar propriety, if it had its name frown its remarkable echo. "ענתות anathoth, responsiones: eadem ratio nominis, quae in בית ענת beith anath, locus echus; nam hodienum ejus rudera ostenduntur in valle, scil. in medio montium, ut referent Robertus in Itiner. p. 70, et Monconnysius, p. 301." Simonis Onomasticon Vet. Test. - L. Anathoth - Answers, replies; for the same reason that Bethany, בית ענת berth anath, had its name, the house of echo; the remains of which are still shown in the valley, i.e., among the mountains.

### Verse 33

[¶4] Shall lop the bough with terror - פארה purah; but פורה purah, wine-press, is the reading of twenty-six of Kennicott's and twenty-three of De Rossi's MSS., four ancient editions, with Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Chaldee.

### Verse 34

[¶6] Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one - באדיר beaddir, the angel of the Lord, who smote them, Kimchi. And so Vitringa understands it. Others translate, "The high cedars of Lebanon shall fall:" but the king of Assyria is the person who shall be overthrown.

### Introduction

[¶8] The Messiah represented as a slender twig shooting up from the root of an old withered stem, which tender plant, so extremely weak in its first appearance, should nevertheless become fruitful and mighty, [Isa 11:1-4]. Great equity of the Messiah's government, [Isa 11:5]. Beautiful assemblages of images by which the great peace and happiness of his kingdom are set forth, [Isa 11:6-8]. The extent of his dominion shall be ultimately that of the whole habitable globe, [Isa 11:9]. The prophet, borrowing his imagery from the exodus from Egypt, predicts, with great majesty of language, the future restoration of the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah, (viz., the whole of the twelve tribes of Israel), from their several dispersions, and also that blessed period when both Jews and Gentiles shall assemble under the banner of Jesus, and zealously unite in extending the limits of his kingdom, [Isa 11:10-16].

[¶9] The prophet had described the destruction of the Assyrian army under the image of a mighty forest, consisting of flourishing trees growing thick together, and of a great height; of Lebanon itself crowned with lofty cedars, but cut down and laid level with the ground by the axe wielded by the hand of some powerful and illustrious agent. In opposition to this image he represents the great Person who makes the subject of this chapter as a slender twig shooting out from the trunk of an old tree, cut down, lopped to the very root, and decayed; which tender plant, so weak in appearance, should nevertheless become fruitful and prosper. This contrast shows plainly the connection between this and the preceding chapter, which is moreover expressed by the connecting particle; and we have here a remarkable instance of that method so common with the prophets, and particularly with Isaiah, of taking occasion, from the mention of some great temporal deliverance, to launch out into the display of the spiritual deliverance of God's people by the Messiah; for that this prophecy relates to the Messiah we have the express authority of St. Paul, [Rom 15:12]. 'He joins this paragraph, with respect to the days of the Messiah, with the fidelity that was in the days of Hezekiah." - Kimchi, in [Isa 11:1]. Thus in the latter part of Isaiah's prophecies the subject of the great redemption, and of the glories of the Messiah's kingdom, arises out of the restoration of Judah by the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, and is all along connected and intermixed with it.

### Verse 4

[¶11] With the rod of his mouth "By the blast of his mouth" - For בשבט beshebet, by the rod, Houbigant reads בשבת beshebeth, by the blast of his mouth, from נשב nashab, to blow. The conjecture is ingenious and probable; and seems to be confirmed by the Septuagint and Chaldee, who render it by the word of his mouth, which answers much better to the correction than to the present reading. Add to this, that the blast of his mouth is perfectly parallel to the breath of his lips in the next line.

### Verse 5

[¶13] The girdle "The cincture" - All the ancient Versions, except that of Symmachus, have two different words for girdle in the two hemistichs. It is not probable that Isaiah would have repeated אזור azer, when a synonymous word so obvious as חגור chagor occurred. The tautology seems to have arisen from the mistake of some transcriber. The meaning of this verse is, that a zeal for justice and truth shall make him active and strong in executing the great work which he shall undertake. See note on [Isa 5:27].

### Verse 6

[¶15] The wolf also shall, etc. "Then shall the wolf," etc. - The idea of the renewal of the golden age, as it is called, is much the same in the Oriental writers with that of the Greeks and Romans: - the wild beasts grow tame; serpents and poisonous herbs become harmless; all is peace and harmony, plenty and happiness: -

[¶16] Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni Occidet.

[¶17] Vega. Eclog. 4:24. "The serpent's brood shall die. The sacred ground

[¶18] Shall weeds and noxious plants refuse to bear." - Nec magnos metuent armenta leones.

[¶19] Virg. Eclog. 4:22. "Nor shall the flocks fear the great lions."

[¶20] Non lupus insidias explorat ovilia circum,

[¶21] Nec gregibus nocturnus obambulat: acrior illum

[¶22] Cura domat: timidae damae cervique fugaces

[¶23] Nunc interque canes, et circum tecta vagantur.

[¶24] Virg. Georg. 3:537. "The nightly wolf that round the enclosure prowled,

[¶25] To leap the fence, now plots not on the fold:

[¶26] Tamed with a sharper pain, the fearful doe

[¶27] And flying stag amidst the greyhounds go;

[¶28] And round the dwellings roam, of man, their former foe."

[¶29] Dryden.

[¶30] Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile,

[¶31] Nec intumescit alta viperis humus.

[¶32] Hor. Epod. 16:51. "Nor evening bears the sheepfold growl around,

[¶33] Nor mining vipers heave the tainted ground."

[¶34] Dryden. Εσται δη τουτ' αμαρ, ὁπηνικα νεβρον εν ευνᾳ Καρχαροδων δινεσθαι ιδων λυκος ουκ εθελησει.

[¶35] Theoc. Idyl. 24:84.

[¶36] There shall be a time when the ravenous wolf shall see the kid lying at ease, and shall feel no desire to do it an injury.

[¶37] I have laid before the reader these common passages from the most elegant of the ancient poets, that he may see how greatly the prophet on the same subject has the advantage upon the comparison; how much the former fall short of that beauty and elegance, and variety of imagery, with which Isaiah has set forth the very same ideas. The wolf and the leopard not only forbear to destroy the lamb and the kid, but even take their abode and lie down together with them. The calf, and the young lion, and the fatling, not only come together, but are led quietly in the same band, and that by a little child. The heifer and the she-bear not only feed together, but even lodge their young ones, for whom they used to be most jealously fearful, in the same place. All the serpent kind is so perfectly harmless, that the sucking infant and the newly weaned child puts his hand on the basilisk's den, and plays upon the hole of the aspic. The lion not only abstains from preying on the weaker animals, but becomes tame and domestic, and feeds on straw like the ox. These are all beautiful circumstances, not one of which has been touched upon by the ancient poets. The Arabian and Persian poets elegantly apply the same ideas to show the effects of justice impartially administered, and firmly supported, by a great and good king: - "Mahmoud the powerful king, the ruler of the world,

[¶38] To whose tank the wolf and the lamb come, together to drink."

[¶39] Ferdusi. "Through the influence of righteousness, the hungry wolf

[¶40] Becomes mild, though in the presence of the white kid."

[¶41] Ibn Onein. Jones, Poes. Asiat. Comment., p. 380.

[¶42] The application is extremely ingenious and beautiful: but the exquisite imagery of Isaiah is not equalled.

### Verse 7

[¶44] In this verse a word is omitted in the text, יחדו yachdav, together; which ought to be repeated in the second hemistich, being quite necessary to the sense. It is accordingly twice expressed by the Septuagint and Syriac.

## 801. Isaiah · 21 of 79

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### Verse 8

[¶1] The cockatrice' den - This is supposed, both by the Targum and by Kimchi, to mean the pupil of this serpent's eye. "When," says Kimchi, "he is in the mouth of his den, in an obscure place, then his eyes sparkle exceedingly: the child, seeing this, and supposing it to be a piece of crystal, or precious stone, puts forth his hand to take it. What would be very dangerous at another time, shall be safe in the days of the Messiah; for the serpent will not hurt the child."

### Verse 10

[¶3] A root of Jesse, which shall stand etc. "The root of Jesse, which standeth," etc. - St. John hath taken this expression from Isaiah, [Rev 5:5], and [Rev 22:16], where Christ hath twice applied it to himself. Seven MSS. have עומד omed, standing, the present participle. Radix Isaei dicitur jam stare, et aliquantum stetisse, in signum populorum. - Vitringa. "The root of Jesse is said to stand, and for some time to have stood, for an ensign to the people." Which rightly explains either of the two readings. [Psa 110:1-7] (note) is a good comment on this verse.

### Verse 11

[¶5] And it shall come to pass in that day - This part of the chapter contains a prophecy which certainly remains yet to be accomplished.

[¶6] The Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, thirty-three MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and two editions, read יהוה Yehovah.

[¶7] The islands of the sea - The Roman and Turkish empires, say Kimchi.

### Verse 13

[¶9] The adversaries of Judah "And the enmity of Judah" - צררים tsorerim, Postulat pars posterior versus, ut intelligantur inimicitiae Judae in Ephraimum: et potest (צררים tsorerim) inimicitiam notare, ut (נחומים nichumim) poenitentiam, [Hos 11:8]. - Secker.

### Verse 15

[¶11] The Lord - shall smite it in the seven streams "Smite with a drought" - The Chaldee reads החריב hecherib; and so perhaps the Septuagint, who have ερημωσει, the word by which they commonly render it. Vulg. desolabit; "shall desolate." The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee read הדריכהו hidrichahu, "shall make it passable," adding the pronoun, which is necessary: but this reading is not confirmed by any MS.

[¶12] Here is a plain allusion to the passage of the Red Sea. And the Lord's shaking his hand over the river with his vehement wind, refers to a particular circumstance of the same miracle: for "he caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land," [Exo 14:21]. The tongue; a very apposite and descriptive expression for a bay such as that of the Red Sea. It is used in the same sense, [Jos 15:2], [Jos 15:5]; [Jos 18:19]. The Latins gave the same name to a narrow strip of land running into the sea: tenuem producit in aequora linguam. Lucan. 2:613. He shall smite the river to its seven streams. This has been supposed to refer to the Nile, because it falls into the Mediterranean Sea by seven mouths: but R. Kimchi understands it of the Euphrates, which is the opinion of some good judges. See the Targum. See below.

[¶13] Herodotus, lib. i, 189, tells a story of his Cyrus, (a very different character from that of the Cyrus of the Scriptures and Xenophon), which may somewhat illustrate this passage, in which it is said that God would inflict a kind of punishment and judgment on the Euphrates, and render it fordable by dividing it into seven streams. "Cyrus, being impeded in his march to Babylon by the Gyndes, a deep and rapid river which falls into the Tigris, and having lost one of his sacred white horses that attempted to pass it, was so enraged against the river that he threatened to reduce it, and make it so shallow that it should be easily fordable even by women, who should not be up to their knees in passing it. Accordingly he set his whole army to work, and cutting three hundred and sixty trenches, from both sides of the river, turned the waters into them, and drained them off."

### Introduction

[¶15] Prophetic hymn of praise for the great mercies vouchsafed to the children of Israel in their deliverance from the great Babylonish captivity, and for redemption by the Messiah, [Isa 12:1-6].

[¶16] This hymn seems, by its whole tenor, and by many expressions in it, much better calculated for the use of the Christian Church than for the Jewish, in any circumstances, or at any time that can be assigned. The Jews themselves seem to have applied it to the times of Messiah. On the last day of the feast of tabernacles they fetched water in a golden pitcher from the fountain of Shiloah, springing at the foot of Mount Sion without the city: they brought it through the water-gate into the temple, and poured it, mixed with wine, on the sacrifice as it lay upon the altar, with great rejoicing. They seem to have taken up this custom, for it is not ordained in the law of Moses, as an emblem of future blessings, in allusion to this passage of Isaiah, "Ye shall draw waters with joy from the fountains of salvation," expressions that can hardly be understood of any benefits afforded by the Mosaic dispensation. Our Savior applied the ceremony, and the intention of it, to himself, and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, promised, and to be given, by him. The sense of the Jews in this matter is plainly shown by the following passage of the Jerusalem Talmud: "Why is it called the place or house of drawing?" (for that was the term for this ceremony, or for the place where the water was taken up) "Because from thence they draw the Holy Spirit; as it is written, And ye shall draw water with joy from the fountains of salvation." See Wolf. Curae Philol. in N.T. on [Joh 7:37], [Joh 7:39]. - L. The water is Divine knowledge, says Kimchi, and the wells the teachers of righteousness. The Targum renders this in a very remarkable manner: "Ye shall receive with joy (אולפן חדת ulephan chadath) a new doctrine from the chosen among the righteous." Does not this mean the Gospel, the new covenant? And did not the Targumist speak as a prophet?

### Verse 1

[¶18] Though thou wast angry "For though thou hast been angry" - The Hebrew phrase, to which the Septuagint and Vulgate have too closely adhered, is exactly the same with that of St. Paul, [Rom 6:17] : "But thanks be to God, that ye were the slaves of sin; but have obeyed from the heart;" that is, "that whereas, or though, ye were the slaves of sin, yet ye have now obeyed from the heart the doctrine on the model of which ye were formed."

### Verse 2

[¶20] The Lord Jehovah - The word יה Yah read here is probably a mistake; and arose originally from the custom of the Jewish scribes, who, when they found a line too short for the word, wrote as many letters as filled it, and then began the next line with the whole word. In writing the word יהוה Jehovah, the line might terminate with יה Yah, the two first letters; and then at the beginning of the next line the whole word יהוה Yehovah would be written. This might give rise to יה יהוה Yah Yehovah. The Yah is wanting here in two of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., in one ancient MS. of my own, and in the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic. See Houbigant and De Rossi.

[¶21] My song - The pronoun is here necessary; and it is added by the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, who read זמרתי zimrathi, as it is in a MS. Two MSS. omit יה Yah, see Houbigant, not. in loc. Another MS. has it in one word, זמרתיה zimrathyah. Seven others omit יהוה Yehovah. See [Exo 15:2], with Var. Lect. Kennicott.

### Verse 4

[¶23] Call upon his name - קראו בשמו kiru bishmo, invoke his name. Make him your Mediator, or call the people in his name. Preach him who is the Root of Jesse, and who stands as an ensign for the nations. Call on the people to believe in him; as in him alone salvation is to be found.

### Verse 6

[¶25] Thou inhabitant of Zion - Not only the Jewish people, to whom his word of salvation was to be sent first; but also all members of the Church of Christ: as in them, and in his Church, the Holy One of Israel dwells. St. Paul, speaking of the mystery which had been proclaimed among the Gentiles, sums it up in these words:" which is Christ in You, the hope of glory; whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;" [Col 1:27], [Col 1:28]. Well, therefore, may the inhabitant of Zion cry oat and shout, and proclaim the greatness of her Redeemer.

### Introduction

[¶27] God mustereth the armies of his wrath against the inhabitants of Babylon, [Isa 13:1-6]. The dreadful consequences of this visitation, and the terror and dismay of those who are the objects of it, [Isa 13:7-16]. The horrid cruelties that shall be indicted upon the Babylonians by the Medes, [Isa 13:17], [Isa 13:18]. Total and irrecoverable desolation of Babylon, [Isa 13:19-22].

[¶28] This and the following chapter, - striking off the five last verses of the latter, which belong to a quite different subject, - contain one entire prophecy, foretelling the destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians; delivered probably in the reign of Ahaz, (see Vitrinya, 1:380), about two hundred years before its accomplishment. The captivity itself of the Jews at Babylon, which the prophet does not expressly foretell, but supposes, in the spirit of prophecy, as what was actually to be effected, did not fully take place till about one hundred and thirty years after the delivery of this prophecy: and the Medes, who are expressly mentioned [Isa 13:17], as the principal agents in the overthrow of the Babylonian monarchy, by which the Jews were released from that captivity, were at this time an inconsiderable people; having been in a state of anarchy ever since the fall of the great Assyrian empire, of which they had made a part, under Sardanapalus; and did not become a kingdom under Deioces till about the seventeenth of Hezekiah.

[¶29] The former part of this prophecy is one of the most beautiful examples that can be given of elegance of composition, variety of imagery, and sublimity of sentiment and diction, in the prophetic style; and the latter part consists of an ode of supreme and singular excellence.

[¶30] The prophecy opens with the command of God to gather together the forces which he had destined to this service, [Isa 13:2], [Isa 13:3]. Upon which the prophet immediately hears the tumultuous noise of the different nations crowding together to his standard; he sees them advancing, prepared to execute the Divine wrath, [Isa 13:4], [Isa 13:5]. He proceeds to describe the dreadful consequences of this visitation, the consternation which will seize those who are the objects of it; and, transferring unawares the speech from himself to God, [Isa 13:11], sets forth, under a variety of the most striking images, the dreadful destruction of the inhabitants of Babylon which will follow, [Isa 13:11-16], and the everlasting desolation to which that great city is doomed, [Isa 13:17-22].

[¶31] The deliverance of Judah from captivity, the immediate consequence of this great revolution, is then set forth, without being much enlarged upon, or greatly amplified, [Isa 14:1], [Isa 14:2]. This introduces, with the greatest ease and the utmost propriety, the triumphant song on that subject, verses 4-28. The beauties of which, the various images, scenes, persons introduced, and the elegant transitions from one to another, I shall here endeavor to point out in their order, leaving a few remarks upon particular passages of these two chapters to be given after these general observations on the whole.

[¶32] A chorus of Jews is introduced, expressing their surprise and astonishment at the sudden downfall of Babylon; and the great reverse of fortune that had befallen the tyrant, who, like his predecessors, had oppressed his own and harassed the neighboring kingdoms. These oppressed kingdoms, or their rulers, are represented under the image of the fir trees and the cedars of Libanus, frequently used to express any thing in the political or religious world that is super-eminently great and majestic: the whole earth shouteth for joy; the cedars of Libanus utter a severe taunt over the fallen tyrant, and boast their security now he is no more.

[¶33] The scene is immediately changed, and a new set of persons is introduced. The regions of the dead are laid open, and Hades is represented as rousing up the shades of the departed monarchs: they rise from their thrones to meet the king of Babylon at his coming; and insult him on his being reduced to the same low estate of impotence and dissolution with themselves. This is one of the boldest prosopopoeias that ever was attempted in poetry; and is executed with astonishing brevity and perspicuity, and with that peculiar force which in a great subject naturally results from both. The image of the state of the dead, or the infernum poeticum of the Hebrews, is taken from their custom of burying, those at least of the higher rank, in large sepulchral vaults hewn in the rock. Of this kind of sepulchres there are remains at Jerusalem now extant; and some that are said to be the sepulchres of the kings of Judah. See Maundrell, p. 76. You are to form to yourself an idea of an immense subterranean vault, a vast gloomy cavern, all round the sides of which there are cells to receive the dead bodies; here the deceased monarchs lie in a distinguished sort of state, suitable to their former rank, each on his own couch, with his arms beside him, his sword at his head, and the bodies of his chiefs and companions round about him. See [Eze 32:27]. On which place Sir John Chardin's MS. note is as follows: "En Mingrelie ils dorment tous leurs epees sous leurs tetes, et leurs autres armes a leur cote; et on les enterre de mesme, leurs armes poseess de cette facon." In Mingrelia they always sleep with their swords under their heads, and their other arms by their sides; and they bury their dead with their arms placed in the same manner. These illustrious shades rise at once from their couches, as from their thrones; and advance to the entrance of the cavern to meet the king of Babylon, and to receive him with insults on his fall.

[¶34] The Jews now resume the speech; they address the king of Babylon as the morning-star fallen from heaven, as the first in splendor and dignity in the political world, fallen from his high state; they introduce him as uttering the most extravagant vaunts of his power and ambitious designs in his former glory. These are strongly contrasted in the close with his present low and abject condition.

[¶35] Immediately follows a different scene, and a most happy image, to diversify the same subject, to give it a new turn, and an additional force. Certain persons are introduced who light upon the corpse of the king of Babylon, cast out and lying naked on the bare ground, among the common slain, just after the taking of the city; covered with wounds, and so disfigured, that it is some time before they know him. They accost him with the severest taunts; and bitterly reproach him with his destructive ambition, and his cruel usage of the conquered; which have deservedly brought him this ignominious treatment, so different from that which those of his rank usually meet with, and which shall cover his posterity with disgrace.

[¶36] To complete the whole, God is introduced, declaring the fate of Babylon, the utter extirpation of the royal family, and the total desolation of the city; the deliverance of his people, and the destruction of their enemies; confirming the irreversible decree by the awful sanction of his oath.

[¶37] I believe it may with truth be affirmed, that there is no poem of its kind extant in any language, in which the subject is so well laid out, and 60 happily conducted, with such a richness of invention, with such variety of images, persons, and distinct actions, with such rapidity and ease of transition, in so small a compass, as in this ode of Isaiah. For beauty of disposition, strength of colouring, greatness of sentiment, brevity, perspicuity, and force of expression, it stands, among all the monuments of antiquity, unrivalled. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶39] The burden of Babylon - The prophecy that foretells its destruction by the Medes and Persians: see the preceding observations.

### Verse 2

[¶41] Exalt the voice - The word להם lahem, "to them," which is of no use, and rather weakens the sentence, is omitted by an ancient MS., and the Vulgate.

### Verse 3

[¶43] I have commanded my sanctified ones - מקדשי mekuddashai, the persons consecrated to this very purpose. Nothing can be plainer than that the verb כדש kadash, "to make holy," signifies also to consecrate or appoint to a particular purpose. Bishop Lowth translates, "my enrolled warriors." This is the sense.

## 802. Isaiah · 22 of 79

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Of the battle "For the battle" - The Bodleian MS. has למלחמה lemilchamah. Cyrus's army was made up of many different nations. Jeremiah calls it an "assembly of great nations from the north country," [Jer 50:9]. And afterwards mentions the kingdoms of "Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz, (i.e. Armenia, Corduene, Pontus or Phrygia, Vitring.), with the kings of the Medes," [Jer 51:27], [Jer 51:28]. See Xenophon. Cyrop.

### Verse 5

[¶3] They come from a far country - The word מארץ meerets is wanting in one MS. and in the Syriac: "They come from afar."

[¶4] From the end of heaven - Kimchi says, Media, "the end of heaven," in Scripture phrase, means, the East.

### Verse 8

[¶6] And they shall be afraid "And they shall be terrified" - I join this verb, ונבהלו venibhalu, to the preceding verse, with the Syriac and Vulgate.

[¶7] Pangs and sorrows shall take hold on them "Pangs shall seize them" - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read יאחזום yochezum, instead of יאחזון yochezun, which does not express the pronoun then, necessary to the sense.

### Verse 10

[¶9] For the stars of heaven "Yea, the stars of heaven" - The Hebrew poets, to express happiness, prosperity, the instauration and advancement of states, kingdoms, and potentates, make use of images taken from the most striking parts of nature, from the heavenly bodies, from the sun, moon, and stars: which they describe as shining with increased splendor, and never setting. The moon becomes like the meridian sun, and the sun's light is augmented sevenfold; (see [Isa 30:26]); new heavens and a new earth are created, and a brighter age commences. On the contrary, the overflow and destruction of kingdoms is represented by opposite images. The stars are obscured, the moon withdraws her light, and the sun shines no more! The earth quakes, and the heavens tremble; and all things seem tending to their original chaos, See [Joe 2:10]; [Joe 3:15], [Joe 3:16]; [Amo 8:9]; [Mat 24:29]; and De S. Poes. Herb. Prael. 6 et IX.

[¶10] And the moon shall not cause her light to shine - This in its farther reference may belong to the Jewish polity, both in Church and state, which should be totally eclipsed, and perhaps shine no more in its distinct state for ever.

### Verse 11

[¶12] I will punish the world "I will visit the world" - That is, the Babylonish empire; as η οικουμενη, for the Roman empire, or for Judea, [Luk 2:1]; [Act 11:28]. So the universus orbis Romanus, for the Roman empire; Salvian. lib. 5 Minos calls Crete his world: "Creten, quae meus est orbis," Ovid. Metamorph. 8:9.

### Verse 12

[¶14] I will make a man more precious than fine gold-wedge of Ophir - The Medes and Persians will not be satisfied with the spoils of the Babylonians. They seek either to destroy or enslave them; and they will accept no ransom for any man - either for אנוש enosh, the poor man, or for אדם adam, the more honorable person. All must fall by the sword, or go into captivity together; for the Medes, ([Isa 13:17]), regard not silver, and delight not in gold.

[¶15] Verse 14 "And the remnant" - Here is plainly a defect in this sentence, as it stands in the Hebrew text; the subject of the proposition is lost. What is it that shall be like a roe chased? The Septuagint happily supply it, οἱ καταλελειμμενοι, שאר shear, the remnant. A MS. here supplies the word יושב yosheb, the inhabitant; which makes a tolerably good sense; but I much prefer the reading of the Septuagint.

[¶16] They shall - turn "They shall look" - That is, the forces of the king of Babylon, destitute of their leader, and all his auxiliaries, collected from Asia Minor, and other distant countries, shall disperse and flee to their respective homes.

### Verse 15

[¶18] Every one that is found "Every one that is overtaken" - That is, none shall escape from the slaughter; neither they who flee singly, dispersed and in confusion; nor they who endeavor to make their retreat in a more regular manner, by forming compact bodies: they shall all be equally cut off by the sword of the enemy. The Septuagint have understood it in this sense, which they have well expressed: - Ὁς γαρ αν ἁλῳ ἡττηθησεται, Και οἱτινες συνηγμενοι εισι πεσουνται μαχαιρα. "Whosoever is caught shall be overthrown,

[¶19] And all that are collected together shall fall by the sword."

[¶20] Where, for ἡττηθησεται, MS. Pachom has εκκενθησεται, et οἱ Γ Cod. Marchal. in margine, et MS. 1. D. 2: εκκεντηθησεται, which seems to be right, being properly expressive of the Hebrew.

### Verse 17

[¶22] Which shall not regard silver "Who shall hold silver of no account" - That is, who shall not be induced, by large offers of gold and silver for ransom, to spare the lives of those whom they have subdued in battle; their rage and cruelty will get the better of all such motives. We have many examples in the Iliad and in the Aeneid of addresses of the vanquished to the pity and avarice of the vanquishers, to induce them to spare their lives.

[¶23] Est domus alta: jacent penitus defossa talenta

[¶24] Caelati argenti: sunt auri ponders facti

[¶25] Infectique mihi: non hic victoria Teucrum

[¶26] Vertitur; aut anima una dalbit discrimina tanta.

[¶27] Dixerat: Aeneas contra cui talia reddit:

[¶28] Argenti atque auri memoras quae multa talenta

[¶29] Gnatis parce tuis.

[¶30] Aen. 10:526. "High in my dome are silver talents rolled,

[¶31] With piles of labored and unlaboured gold.

[¶32] These, to procure my ransom, I resign;

[¶33] The war depends not on a life like mine:

[¶34] One, one poor life can no such difference yield,

[¶35] Nor turn the mighty balance of the field.

[¶36] Thy talents, (cried the prince), thy treasured store

[¶37] Keep for thy sons."

[¶38] Pitt.

[¶39] It is remarkable that Xenophon makes Cyrus open a speech to his army, and in particular to the Medes, who made the principal part of it, with praising them for their disregard of riches. Ανδρες Μηδοι, και παντες οἱ παροντες, εγω ὑμας οιδα σαφως, ὁτι ουτε χρηματων δεομενοι συν εμοι εξελθετε· "Ye Medes, and others who now hear me, I well know that you have not accompanied me in this expedition with a view of acquiring wealth." - Cyrop. lib. v.

### Verse 18

[¶41] Their bows also shall dash "Their bows shall dash" - Both Herodotus, 1:61, and Xenophon, Anab. iii., mention, that the Persians used large bows τοξα μεγαλα: and the latter says particularly that their bows were three cubits long, Anab. 4. They were celebrated for their archers, see [Isa 22:6]; [Jer 49:35]. Probably their neighbours and allies, the Medes, dealt much in the same sort of arms. In [Psa 18:34], and [Job 20:24], mention is made of a bow of steel; if the Persian bows were of metal, we may easily conceive that with a metalline bow of three cubits' length, and proportionably strong, the soldiers might dash and slay the young men, the weaker and unresisting of the inhabitants (for they are joined with the fruit of the womb and the children) in the general carnage on taking the city. תרתשנה terattashnah, shall be broken or shivered to pieces. This seems to refer, not to נערים nearim, young men, but to קשתות keshathoth, their bows. The bows of the young men shall be broken to pieces.

[¶42] On the fruit, etc. "And on the fruit," etc. - A MS. of Dr. Kennicott's reads ועל פרי veal peri and on the fruit. And nine MSS. (three ancient) and two editions, with the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, add likewise the conjunction ו vau, and, to על al, upon, afterwards.

### Verse 19

[¶44] And Babylon - The great city of Babylon was at this time rising to its height of glory, while the Prophet Isaiah was repeatedly denouncing its utter destruction. From the first of Hezekiah to the first of Nebuchadnezzar, under whom it was brought to the highest degree of strength and splendor, are about one hundred and twenty years. I will here very briefly mention some particulars of the greatness of the place, and note the several steps by which this remarkable prophecy was at length accomplished in the total ruin of it.

[¶45] It was, according to the lowest account given of it by ancient historians, a regular square, forty-five miles in compass, inclosed by a wall two hundred feet high and fifty broad; in which there were a hundred gates of brass. Its principal ornaments were the temple of Belus, in the middle of which was a tower of eight stories of building, upon a base of a quarter of a mile square, a most magnificent palace, and the famous hanging gardens, which were an artificial mountain, raised upon arches, and planted with trees of the largest as well as the most beautiful sorts.

## 803. Isaiah · 23 of 79

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[¶0] Cyrus took the city by diverting the waters of the Euphrates which ran through the midst of it, and entering the place at night by the dry channel. The river being never restored afterward to its proper course, overflowed the whole country, and made it little better than a great morass; this and the great slaughter of the inhabitants, with other bad consequences of the taking of the city, was the first step to the ruin of the place. The Persian monarchs ever regarded it with a jealous eye; they kept it under, and took care to prevent its recovering its former greatness. Darius Hystaspes not long afterward most severely punished it for a revolt, greatly depopulated the place, lowered the walls, and demolished the gates. Xerxes destroyed the temples, and with the rest the great temple of Belus, Herod. 3:159, Arrian Exp. Alexandri, lib. 7. The building of Seleucia on the Tigris exhausted Babylon by its neighborhood, as well as by the immediate loss of inhabitants taken away by Seleucus to people his new city, Strabo, lib. 16. A king of the Parthians soon after carried away into slavery a great number of the inhabitants, and burned and destroyed the most beautiful parts of the city, Valesii Excerpt. Diodori, p. 377. Strabo (ibid.) says that in his time great part of it was a mere desert; that the Persians had partly destroyed it; and that time and the neglect of the Macedonians, while they were masters of it, had nearly completed its destruction. Jerome (in loc.) says that in his time it was quite in ruins, and that the walls served only for the inclosure for a park or forest for the king's hunting. Modern travelers, who have endeavored to find the remains of it, have given but a very unsatisfactory account of their success. What Benjamin of Tudela and Pietro della Valle supposed to have been some of its ruins, Tavernier thinks are the remains of some late Arabian building. Upon the whole, Babylon is so utterly annihilated, that even the place where this wonder of the world stood cannot now be determined with any certainty! See also note on [Isa 43:14] (note).

[¶1] We are astonished at the accounts which ancient historians of the best credit give of the immense extent, height, and thickness of the walls of Nineveh and Babylon; nor are we less astonished when we are assured, by the concurrent testimony of modern travelers, that no remains, not the least traces, of these prodigious works are now to be found. Scattered fragments of its tiles and bricks are yet to be found. Proud Babylon reduced now to a few brick-bats! Our wonder will, I think, be moderated in both respects, if we consider the fabric of these celebrated walls, and the nature of the materials of which they consisted. Buildings in the east have always been, and are to this day, made of earth or clay, mixed or beat up with straw to make the parts cohere, and dried only in the sun. This is their method of making bricks; see on [Isa 9:9] (note). The walls of the city were built of the earth digged out on the spot, and dried upon the place, by which means both the ditch and the wall were at once formed, the former furnishing materials for the latter. That the walls of Babylon were of this kind is well known; and Berosus expressly says, (apud Joseph. Antiq. 10:11), that Nebuchadnezzar added three new walls both to the old and new city, partly of brick and bitumen, and partly of brick alone. A wall of this sort must have a great thickness in proportion to its height, otherwise it cannot stand. The thickness of the walls of Babylon is said to have been one-fourth of their height, which seems to have been no more than was absolutely necessary. Maundrell, speaking of the garden walls of Damascus, says, "They are of a very singular structure. They are built of great pieces of earth, made in the fashion of brick, and hardened in the sun. In their dimensions they are two yards long each, and somewhat more than one broad, and half a yard thick." And afterward, speaking of the walls of the houses, he says, "From this dirty way of building they have this amongst other inconveniences, that upon any violent rain the whole city becomes, by the washing of the houses, as it were a quagmire," p. 124. And see note on [Isa 30:13]. When a wall of this sort comes to be out of repair, and is neglected, it is easy to conceive the necessary consequences, namely, that in no long course of ages it must be totally destroyed by the heavy rains, and at length washed away, and reduced to its original earth. - L.

### Verse 21

[¶3] Satyrs - A kind of beast like to man, which is called מרמוטש marmots, a monkey. - Rabbi Parchon.

### Verse 22

[¶5] In their pleasant palaces "In their palaces" - באלמנותיו bealmenothaiv; a plain mistake, I presume, for בארמנתיו bearmenothaiv. It is so corrected in two MSS., the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate. Πουλυποδες δ' εν εμοι θαλαμας φωκαι τε μελαιναι Οικα ποιησονται ακηδεα, χητεΐ λαων.

[¶6] Hom. Hymn. in Apol. 77.

[¶7] Of which the following passage of Milton may be taken for a translation, though not so designed: - "And in their palaces,

[¶8] Where luxury late reigned, sea monsters whelped,

[¶9] And stabled."

[¶10] Par. Lost, 11:750.

[¶11] This image of desolation is handled with great propriety and force by some of the Persian poets: - "The spider holds the veil in the palace of Caesar;

[¶12] The owl stands centinel on the watch-tower of Afrasiab."

[¶13] On this quotation Sir W. Jones observes, noubet is an Arabic word, signifying a turn, a change, a watch; hence noubet zudun in Persian signifies to relieve the guards by the sounds of drums and trumpets. Their office is given by the poet to the owl; as that of purdeh dar, or chamberlain, is elegantly assigned to the spider.

### Introduction

[¶15] Deliverance of Israel from captivity, which shall follow the downfall of the great Babylonish empire, [Isa 14:1], [Isa 14:2]. Triumphant ode or song of the children of Jacob, for the signal manifestation of Divine vengeance against their oppressors, vv. 3-23. Prophecy against the Assyrians, [Isa 14:24], [Isa 14:25]. Certainty of the prophecy, and immutability of the Divine counsels, [Isa 14:26], [Isa 14:27]. Palestine severely threatened, [Isa 14:28-31]. God shall establish Zion in these troublous times, [Isa 14:32].

### Verse 1

[¶17] And will yet choose Israel - That is, will still regard Israel as his chosen people; however he may seem to desert them, by giving them up to their enemies, and scattering them among the nations. Judah is sometimes called Israel; see [Eze 13:16]; [Mal 1:1]; [Mal 2:11] : but the name of Jacob and of Israel, used apparently with design in this place, each of which names includes the twelve tribes, and the other circumstances mentioned in this and the next verse, which did not in any complete sense accompany the return from the captivity of Babylon, seem to intimate that this whole prophecy extends its views beyond that event.

### Verse 2

[¶19] For servants and handmaids - For thrallis and thrallesses. - Old Bible. Male and female slaves.

### Verse 3

[¶21] In the day "In that day" - ביום ההוא bayom hahu. The word ההוא hahu is added in two MSS. of Kennicott's, and was in the copies from which the Septuagint and Vulgate translated: εν τῃ ἡμερᾳ εκεινῃ, in die illa, (ᾑ αναπαυσει, MS. Pachom. adding ה), in that day. This is a matter of no great consequence: however, it restores the text to the common form, almost constantly used on such occasions; and is one among many instances of a word apparently lost out of the printed copies.

### Verse 4

[¶23] This proverb "This parable" - משל mashal, I take this to be the general name for poetic style among the Hebrews, including every sort of it, as ranging under one or other, or all of the characters, of sententious, figurative, and sublime; which are all contained in the original notion, or in the use and application of the word mashal. Parables or proverbs, such as those of Solomon, are always expressed in short pointed sentences; frequently figurative, being formed on some comparison; generally forcible and authoritative, both in the matter and the form. And such in general is the style of the Hebrew poetry. The verb mashal signifies to rule; to exercise authority; to make equal; to compare one thing with another; to utter parables, or acute, weighty, and powerful speeches, in the form and manner of parables, though not properly such. Thus Balaam's first prophecy, ([Num 23:7-10]), is called his mashal; though it has hardly any thing figurative in it: but it is beautifully sententious, and, from the very form and manner of it, has great spirit, force, and energy. Thus Job's last speeches, in answer to his three friends, chap. 27-31, are called mashals; from no one particular character, which discriminates them from the rest of the poem, but from the sublime, the figurative, the sententious manner which equally prevails through the whole poem, and makes it one of the first and most eminent examples extant of the truly great and beautiful in poetic style. See the note on [Pro 1:1] (note).

[¶24] The Septuagint in this place render the word by θρηνος, a lamentation. They plainly consider the speech here introduced as a piece of poetry, and of that species of poetry which we call the elegiac; either from the subject, it being a poem on the fall and death of the king of Babylon, or from the form of the composition, which is of the longer sort of Hebrew verse, in which the Lamentations of Jeremiah, called by the Septuagint Θρηνοι, are written.

[¶25] The golden city ceased - מדהבה madhebah, which is here translated golden city, is a Chaldee word. Probably it means that golden coin or ingot which was given to the Babylonians by way of tribute. So the word is understood by the Vulgate, where it is rendered tributum; and by Montanus, who translates it aurea pensio, the golden pension. Kimchi seems to have understood the word in the same sense. De Rossi translates it auri dives, rich in gold, or auri exactrix, the exactor of gold; the same as the exactor of tribute.

### Verse 9

[¶27] Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee - That is, Nebuchadnezzar. "It (hell) hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the earth; - the ghosts (rephaim) of all the mighty ones, or goats, (עתודי attudey), of the earth - all the oppressors of mankind." What a most terrible idea is here! Tyrannical kings who have oppressed and spoiled mankind, are here represented as enthroned in hell; and as taking a Satanic pleasure in seeing others of the same description enter those abodes of misery!

### Verse 11

[¶29] Cover thee "Thy covering" - Twenty-eight MSS. (ten ancient) of Kennicott's, thirty-nine of De Rossi's, twelve editions, with the Septuagint and Vulgate, read ומכסך umechassecha, in the singular number.

### Verse 12

[¶31] O Lucifer, son of the morning - The Versions in general agree in this translation, and render הילל heilel as signifying Lucifer, Φωσφωρος, the morning star, whether Jupiter or Venus; as these are both bringers of the morning light, or morning stars, annually in their turn. And although the context speaks explicitly concerning Nebuchadnezzar, yet this has been, I know not why, applied to the chief of the fallen angels, who is most incongruously denominated Lucifer, (the bringer of light!) an epithet as common to him as those of Satan and Devil. That the Holy Spirit by his prophets should call this arch-enemy of God and man the light-bringer, would be strange indeed. But the truth is, the text speaks nothing at all concerning Satan nor his fall, nor the occasion of that fall, which many divines have with great confidence deduced from this text. O how necessary it is to understand the literal meaning of Scripture, that preposterous comments may be prevented! Besides, I doubt much whether our translation be correct. הילל heilel, which we translate Lucifer, comes from ילל yalal, yell, howl, or shriek, and should be translated, "Howl, son of the morning;" and so the Syriac has understood it; and for this meaning Michaelis contends: see his reasons in Parkhurst, under הלל halal.

### Verse 13

[¶33] I will ascend into heaven - I will get the empire of the whole world. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God - above the Israelites, who are here termed the stars of God. So the Targum of Jonathan, and R. D. Kimchi. This chapter speaks not of the ambition and fall of Satan, but of the pride, arrogance, and fall of Nebuchadnezzar.

[¶34] The mount of the congregation "The mount of the Divine Presence" - It appears plainly from [Exo 25:22], and [Exo 29:42], [Exo 29:43], where God appoints the place of meeting with Moses, and promises to meet with him before the ark to commune with him, and to speak unto him; and to meet the children of Israel at the door of the tabernacle; that the tabernacle, and afterwards the door of the tabernacle, and Mount Zion, (or Moriah, which is reckoned a part of Mount Zion), whereon it stood, was called the tabernacle, and the mount of convention or of appointment; not from the people's assembling there to perform the services of their religion, (which is what our translation expresses by calling it the tabernacle of the congregation), but because God appointed that for the place where he himself would meet with Moses, and commune with him, and would meet with the people. Therefore הר מועד har moed, the "mountain of the assembly," or אהל מועד ohel moed, the "tabernacle of the assembly," means the place appointed by God, where he would present himself; agreeably to which I have rendered it in this place, the mount of the Divine Presence.

### Verse 19

[¶36] Like an abominable branch "Like the tree abominated" - That is, as an object of abomination and detestation; such as the tree is on which a malefactor has been hanged. "It is written," saith St. Paul, [Gal 3:13], "Cursed is every man that hangeth on a tree," from [Deu 21:23]. The Jews therefore held also as accursed and polluted the tree itself on which a malefactor had been executed, or on which he had been hanged after having been put to death by stoning. "Non suspendunt super arbore, quae radicibus solo adhaereat; sed super ligno eradicato, ut ne sit excisio molesta: nam lignum, super quo fuit aliquis suspensus, cum suspendioso sepelitur; ne maneat illi malum nomen, et dicant homines, Istud est lignum, in quo suspensus est ille, ὁ δεινα . Sic lapis, quo aliquis fuit lapidatus; et gladius, quo fuit occisus is qui est occisus; et sudarium sive mantile, quo fuit aliquis strangulates; omnia haec cum iis, qui perierunt, sepeliuntur." Maimonides, apud Casaub. in Baron. Exercitat. 16. An. 34, Numbers 134. "Cum itaque homo suspensu maximae esset abominationi - Judaei quoque prae caeteris abominabantur lignum quo fuerat suspensus, ita ut illud quoque terra tegerent, tanquam rem abominabilem. Unde interpres Chaldaeus haec verba transtulit כחט טמור kechat temir, sicut virgultum absconditum, sive sepultum." Kalinski, Vaticinta Observationibus Illustrata, p. 342. "The Jews never hang any malefactor upon a tree that is growing in the earth, but upon a post fixed in the ground, that it might never be said, 'That is the tree on which such a one was hanged;' for custom required that the tree should be buried with the malefactor. In like manner the stone by which a criminal was stoned to death, or the sword by which he was beheaded, or the napkin or handkerchief by which he was strangled, should be buried with him in the same grave." "For as the hanged man was considered the greatest abomination, so the very post or wood on which he was hanged was deemed a most abominable thing, and therefore buried under the earth."

[¶37] Agreeably to which Theodoret, Hist. [Ecc 1:17], [Ecc 1:18], in his account of the finding of the cross by Helena, says, "That the three crosses were buried in the earth near the place of our Lord's sepulcher." And this circumstance seems to confirm the relation of the discovery of the cross of Christ. The crosses were found where the custom required they should be buried.

[¶38] The raiment of those that are slain "Clothed with the slain" - Thirty-five MSS., (ten ancient), and three editions, have the word fully written, לבוש lebush. It is not a noun, but the participle passive; thrown out among the common slain and covered with the dead bodies. So [Ecc 1:11], the earth-worm is said to be his bedcovering. This reading is confirmed by two ancient MSS. in my own collection.

### Verse 20

[¶40] Because thou hast destroyed thy land, etc. "Because thou hast destroyed thy country; thou hast slain thy people" - Xenophon gives an instance of this king's wanton cruelty in killing the son of Gobrias, on no other provocation than that, in hunting, he struck a boar and a lion which the king had missed. Cyrop. 4:309.

### Verse 23

[¶42] I will sweep it with the besom of destruction "I will plunge it in the miry gulf of destruction" - I have here very nearly followed the Version of the Septuagint; the reasons for which see in the last note on De Poesi Hebr. Praelect, xxviii.

[¶43] The besom of destruction, as our Version renders it. במטאטא bematate. This, says Kimchi, is a Chaldee word: and it is worthy of remark that the prophet, writing to the Chaldeans, uses several words peculiar to their own language to point out the nature of the Divine judgments, and the causes of them. See the note on [Jer 10:11] (note). Sixteen of Kennicott's MSS., and seventeen of De Rossi's, and one ancient of my own, have the word במטאטי bematatey, in the plural. "I will sweep her with the besoms of destruction."

## 804. Isaiah · 24 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/804/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/804/#p-N

### Verse 25

[¶1] I will break the Assyrian - upon my mountains "To crush the Assyrian - on my mountains" - The Assyrians and Babylonians are the same people, Herod. 1:199, 200. Babylon is reckoned the principal city in Assyria, ibid. 178. Strabo says the same thing, lib. 16 sub init. The circumstance of this judgment being to be executed on God's mountains is of importance; it may mean the destruction of Sennacherib's army near Jerusalem, and have a still farther view: compare [Eze 39:4]; and see Lowth on this place of Isaiah.

### Verse 28

[¶3] In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden - Uzziah had subdued the Philistines, [2Chr 26:6], [2Chr 26:7]; but, taking advantage of the weak reign of Ahaz, they invaded Judea, and took, and held in possession, some cities in the southern part of the kingdom. On the death of Ahaz, Isaiah delivers this prophecy, threatening them with the destruction that Hezekiah, his son, and great-grandson of Uzziah, should bring upon them: which he effected; for "he smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof," [2Kgs 18:8]. Uzziah, therefore, must be meant by the rod that smote them, and by the serpent from whom should spring the flying fiery serpent, [Isa 14:29], that is, Hezekiah, a much more terrible enemy than even Uzziah had been.

[¶4] The Targum renders the twenty-ninth verse in a singular way. "For, from the sons of Jesse shall come forth the Messiah; and his works among you shall be as the flying serpent."

### Verse 30

[¶6] And the first-born of the poor, etc. - The Targum goes on applying all to the Messiah. "And the poor of the people shall he feed, and the humble shall dwell securely in his days: and he shall kill thy children with famine, and the remnant of thy people shall he slay."

[¶7] I will kill "He will slay" - The Septuagint reads המית hemith, to the third person, ανελει; and so the Chaldee. The Vulgate remedies the confusion of persons in the present text, by reading both the verbs in the first person.

### Verse 31

[¶9] There shall come from the north a smoke "From the north cometh a smoke" - That is, a cloud of dust raised by the march of Hezekiah's army against Philistia; which lay to the south-west from Jerusalem. A great dust raised has, at a distance, the appearance of smoke: Fumantes pulvere campi; "The fields smoking with dust." - Virg. Aen. 11:908.

### Verse 32

[¶11] The messengers of the nation "The ambassadors of the nations" - The Septuagint read גוים goyim, εθνων, plural; and so the Chaldee, and one MS. The ambassadors of the neighboring nations, that send to congratulate Hezekiah on his success, which in his answer he will ascribe to the protection of God. See [2Chr 32:23]. Or, if גוי goi singular, the reading of the text, be preferred, the ambassadors sent by the Philistines to demand peace. - L.

[¶12] The Lord hath founded Zion - Kimchi refers this to the state of Zion under Hezekiah, when the rest of the cities of Judea had been taken, and this only was left for a hope to the poor of God's people: and God so defended it that Rabshakeh could not prevail against it.

[¶13] The true Church of God is a place of safety; for as all its members are devoted to God, and walk in his testimonies, so they are continually defended and supported by him. In the congregations of his people, God dispenses his light and salvation; hence his poor or humble ones expect in his ordinances the blessings they need.

### Introduction

[¶15] Prediction of very heavy calamities about to fall upon the Moabites, [Isa 15:1-9].

[¶16] This and the following chapter, taken together, make one entire prophecy, very improperly divided into two parts. The time of its delivery, and consequently of its accomplishment, which was to be in three years from that time, is uncertain; the former not being marked in the prophecy itself, nor the latter recorded in history. But the most probable account is, that it was delivered soon after the foregoing, in the first year of Hezekiah; and that it was accomplished in his fourth year, when Shalmaneser invaded the kingdom of Israel. He might probably march through Moab; and to secure every thing behind him, possess himself of the whole country, by taking their principal strong places Ar and Kirhares. - L. The authorized Version which we have followed in the margin, places the prophecy in this chapter fourteen years earlier than that contained in the two preceding.

[¶17] Jeremiah has happily introduced much of this prophecy of Isaiah into his own larger prophecy against the same people in his forty-eighth chapter, denouncing God's judgment on Moab, subsequent to the calamity here foretold, and to be executed by Nebuchadnezzar; by which means several mistakes of transcribers in the present text of both prophets may be rectified.

### Verse 1

[¶19] Because in the night - בליל beleil. That both these cities should be taken in the night is a circumstance somewhat unusual; but not so material as to deserve to be so strongly insisted upon. Vitringa, by his remark on this word, shows that he was dissatisfied with it in its plain and obvious meaning, and is forced to have recourse to a very hard metaphorical interpretation of it. Noctu vel nocturno impetu; vel metaphorice, repente, subito, inexpectata destructione: placet posterius. Calmet conjectures, and I think it probable, that the true reading is כליל keleil, as the night. There are many mistakes in the Hebrew text arising from the very great similitude of the letters ב beth, and כ caph, which in many MSS., and some printed editions, are hardly distinguishable.

[¶20] Admitting this reading, the translation will be, - "Because Ar is utterly destroyed, Moab is undone!

[¶21] Because Kir is utterly destroyed, Moab is undone!"

### Verse 2

[¶23] He is gone to Bajith, and to Dibon - עלה הבית alah habbayith, should be rendered, he is gone to the House, i.e., to their chief temple, where they practiced idolatry. Dibon was the name of a tower where also was an idolatrous temple; thither they went to weep and pray before their idols, that they might interpose and save them from their calamities. So R. D. Kimchi. Me is gone to Bajith and to Dibon: but Bishop Lowth reads Beth Dibon; this is the name of one place; and the two words are to be joined together, without the ו vau intervening. So the Chaldee and Syriac. This reading is not supported by any MS. or Version: but some MSS., instead of ער ar, have עיר ir, a city, others have עד ad, unto, and some editions have על al, upon. But all these help little, though they show that the place puzzled both the scribes and the editors.

[¶24] On all their heads shall be baldness, etc." On every head there is baldness," etc. - Herodotus, 2:36, speaks of it as a general practice among all men, except the Egyptians, to cut off their hair as a token of mourning. "Cut off thy hair, and cast it away," says Jeremiah, [Jer 7:29], "and take up a lamentation." Τουτο νυ και γερας οιον οἱζυροισι βροτοισι Κειρασθαι τε κομην, βαλεειν τ' απο δακρυ παρειων.

[¶25] Hom. Odyss. 4:197. "The rites of wo

[¶26] Are all, alas! the living can bestow;

[¶27] O'er the congenial dust enjoined to shear

[¶28] The graceful curl, and drop the tender tear."

[¶29] Pope.

[¶30] On every head. - For ראשיו roshaiv, read ראש rosh. So the parallel place, [Jer 48:37], and so three MSS., one ancient. An ancient MS. reads על כל ראש al col rosh. Five read בכל ראש bechol rosh, on every head, with the Septuagint and Arabic. And every head. The ו vau, and, is found in thirty MSS., in three editions, and in the Syriac, Vulgate, and Chaldee.

[¶31] Cut off "Shorn" - The printed editions, as well as the MSS., are divided on the reading of this word. Some have גדועה geduah, shorn, others גרעה geruah, diminished. The similitude of the letters ד daleth and ר resh has likewise occasioned many mistakes. In the present case, the sense is pretty much the same with either reading. The text of [Jer 48:37] has the latter, diminished. The former reading is found in twelve of Dr. Zennicott's MSS., forty of De Rossi's, and two of my own. A great number of editions have the same reading.

### Verse 3

[¶33] With sackcloth - שק sak. The word is in the plural שקים sakkim, sacks, in one of De Rossi's MSS.

### Verse 4

[¶35] The armed soldiers "The very loins" - So the Septuagint, ἡ οσφυς, and the Syriac. They cry out violently, with their utmost force.

### Verse 5

[¶37] My heart shall cry out for Moab "The heart of Moab crieth within her" - For לבי libbi, my heart, the Septuagint reads לבו libbo, his heart, or לב leb; the Chaldee, לבו libbo. For בריחיה bericheyha, the Syriac reads ברוחה berocheh; and so likewise the Septuagint, rendering it εν αυτῃ, Edit. Vat: or εν ἑαυτῃ, Edit. Alex. and MSS. I., D. II.

[¶38] A heifer of three years old "A young heifer" - Hebrew, a heifer three years old, in full strength; as Horace uses equa trima, for a young mare just coming to her prime. Bochart observes, from Aristotle, Hist. Animal. lib. 4 that in this kind of animals alone the voice of the female is deeper than that of the male; therefore the lowing of the heifer, rather than of the bullock, is chosen by the prophet, as the more proper image to express the mourning of Moab. But I must add that the expression here is very short and obscure; and the opinions of interpreters are various in regard to the meaning. Compare [Jer 48:34].

[¶39] Shall they go it up "They shall ascend" - For יעלה yaaleh, the Septuagint and a MS. read in the plural, יעלו yaalu. And from this passage the parallel place in [Jer 48:5] must be corrected; where, for יעלה בכי yaaleh bechi, which gives no good sense, read יעלה בו yaaleh bo.

[¶40] Verse 7 "Shall perish" - אבדו abadu or אבדה abadeh. This word seems to have been lost out of the text: it is supplied by the parallel place, [Jer 48:36]. The Syriac expresses it by עבר aber, praeteriit, "he hath passed;" and the Chaldee by יתבזזון yithbazezun, diripientur.

[¶41] To the brook of the willows "To the valley of willows" - That is, to Babylon. Hieron. and Jarchi in loc., both referring to [Psa 137:2]. So likewise Prideaux, Le Clerc, etc.

### Verse 9

[¶43] The waters of Dimon - Some have Dibon, others have Ribon and Rimon. St. Jerome observes that the same town was called both Dibon and Dimon. The reading is therefore indifferent.

[¶44] Upon him that escapeth of Moab, etc. "Upon the escaped of Moab, and Ariel, and the remnant of Admah" - The Septuagint for עריה aryeh, read אריאל ariel. Ar Moab was called also Ariel or Areopolis, Hieron. and Theodoret. See Cellarius. They make אדמה Admah, also a proper name. Michaelis thinks that the Moabites might be called the remnant of Admah, as sprung from Lot and his daughters, escaped from the destruction of that and the other cities; or, metaphorically, as the Jews are called princes of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah, [Isa 1:10]. Bibliotheque Orient. Part v., p. 195. The reading of this verse is very doubtful; and the sense, in every way in which it can be read, very obscure. - L. Calmet thinks there may be a reference to [1Chr 11:22], where it is said, "Benaiah slew two lion-like men of Moab," or the two Ariels of Moab, and would therefore translate, "I will bring down the remnant of Moab like Ariel, (which Benaiah smote), and them that are escaped like Adamah." They shall be exterminated, as were the inhabitants of those two cities. Ariel was a double city - the river Arnon dividing it in two. This is the two Ariels of Moab - not two lion-like men, much less two lions. See Calmet on this place.

## 805. Isaiah · 25 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/805/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/805/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The distress of Moab pathetically described by the son of the prince, or ruler of the land, being forced to flee for his life through the desert, that he may escape to Judea; and the young women, like young birds scared from their nest, wade helpless through the fords of Arnon, the boundary of their country, to seek protection in some foreign land, [Isa 16:1], [Isa 16:2]. The prophet addresses Sion, exhorting her to show mercy to her enemies in their distress, that her throne may be established in righteousness, [Isa 16:3-5]. Exceeding great pride of Moab, [Isa 16:6]. The terrible calamities about to fall upon Moab farther described by the languishing of the vine, the ceasing of the vintage, the sound of the prophet's bowels quivering like a harp, etc., [Isa 16:7-13]. Awful nearness of the full accomplishment of the prophecy, [Isa 16:14].

### Verse 1

[¶3] Send ye the lamb, etc. "I will send forth the son, etc." - Both the reading and meaning of this verse are still more doubtful than those of the preceding. The Septuagint and Syriac read אשלח eshlach, I will send, in the first person singular, future tense: the Vulgate and Talmud Babylon, read שלח shelach, send, singular imperative: some read שלחו shilchu, send ye forth, or shalechu, they send forth. The Syriac, for כר car, a lamb, reads בר bar, a son, which is confirmed by five MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi. The two first verses describe the distress of Moab on the Assyrian invasion in which even the son of the prince of the country is represented as forced to flee for his life through the desert, that he may escape to Judea; and the young women are driven forth like young birds cast out of the nest, and endeavoring to wade through the fords of the river Arnon. Perhaps there is not so much difficulty in this verse as appears at first view. "Send the lamb to the ruler of the land," may receive light from [2Kgs 3:4], [2Kgs 3:5] : "And Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs with their wool, and one hundred thousand rams: but when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab rebelled against Israel." Now the prophet exhorts them to begin paying the tribute as formerly, that their punishment might be averted or mitigated.

### Verse 3

[¶5] Take counsel "Impart counsel" - The Vulgate renders the verbs in the beginning of this verse in the singular number, So the Keri; and so likewise sixty-one MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's have it, and nineteen editions, and the Syriac. The verbs throughout the verse are also in the feminine gender; agreeing with Zion, which I suppose to be understood.

### Verse 4

[¶7] Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab "Let the outcasts of Moab sojourn with thee, O Zion" - Setting the points aside, this is by much the most obvious construction of the Hebrew, as well as most agreeable to the context, and the design of the prophet. And it is confirmed by the Septuagint οἱ φυγαδες Μωαβ, and Syriac.

[¶8] The oppressors "The oppressor" - Perhaps the Israelites, who in the time of Ahab invaded Judah, defeated his army, slaying one hundred and twenty thousand men, and brought the kingdom to the brink of destruction. Judah, being now in a more prosperous condition, is represented as able to receive and to protect the fugitive Moabites. And with those former times of distress the security and flourishing state of the kingdom under the government of Hezekiah is contrasted.

### Verse 5

[¶10] In mercy shall the throne be established - May not this refer to the throne of Hezekiah? Here we have the character of such a king as cannot fail to be a blessing to the people.

[¶11] 1. "He sitteth on the throne in truth" - He does not merely profess to be the father and protector of his people: but he is actually such.

[¶12] 2. He is judging. He is not a man of war or blood, who wastes his subjects' lives and treasures in contentions with neighboring nations, in order to satisfy his ambition by the extension of his territory. On the contrary, his whole life is occupied in the distribution of justice.

[¶13] 3. He seeketh judgment. He seeks out the poor distressed ones who cannot make their way to him, and avenges them on their oppressors.

[¶14] 4. He hastens righteousness. He does not suffer any of the courts of justice to delay the determination of the causes brought before them: he so orders that the point in litigation be fairly, fully, and speedily heard; and then judgment pronounced. Delays in the execution of justice answer little end but the enriching of unprincipled lawyers.

### Verse 6

[¶16] We have heard of the pride of Moab "We have heard the pride of Moab" - For גא ge, read גאה geah; two MSS., one ancient, and [Jer 48:29]. Zephaniah, [Zep 2:8-10], in his prophecy against Moab, the subject of which is the same with that of Jeremiah in his forty-eighth chapter, (see the note on [Isa 15:1] (note)), enlarges much on the pride of Moab, and their insolent behavior towards the Jews: - "I have heard the reproach of Moab;

[¶17] And the revilings of the sons of Ammon:

[¶18] Who have reproached my people;

[¶19] And have magnified themselves against their borders.

[¶20] Therefore, as I live, saith Jehovah God of hosts, the God of Israel:

[¶21] Surely Moab shall be as Sodom,

[¶22] And the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah:

[¶23] A possession of nettles, and pits of salt,

[¶24] And a desolation for ever.

[¶25] The residue of my people shall spoil them,

[¶26] And the remnant of my nation shall dispossess them:

[¶27] This shall they have for their pride;

[¶28] Because they have raised a reproach, and have magnified themselves

[¶29] Against the people of Jehovah God of hosts."

### Verse 7

[¶31] For the foundations of Kir-hareseth "For the men of Kirhares" - A palpable mistake in this place is happily corrected by the parallel text of [Jer 48:31], where, instead of אשישי ashishey, foundations or flagons, we read אנשי anshey, men. In the same place of Jeremiah, and in [Jer 48:36], and here in [Isa 16:11], the name of the city is Kirhares, not Kirhareseth.

### Verse 8

[¶33] Languish "Are put to shame" - Here the text of Jeremiah leaves us much at a loss, in a place that seems to be greatly corrupted. The Septuagint join the two last words of this verse with the beginning of the following. Their rendering is: και ουκ εντραπησῃ, τα πεδια Εσεβων. For אך ach they must have read אל al; otherwise, how came they by the negative, which seems not to belong to this place? Neither is it easy to make sense of the rest without a small alteration, by reading, instead of εντραπησῃ τα, εντραπησεται. In a word, the Arabic version taken from the Septuagint, plainly authorizes this reading of the Septuagint, and without the negative; and it is fully confirmed by MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. II., which have both of them εντραπησεται πεδια Εσεβων, without the negative; which makes an excellent sense, and, I think, gives us the true reading of the Hebrew text; אך נכלמו שדמות חשבון ak nichlemu shadmoth cheshbon. They frequently render the verb נכלם nichlam by εντρεπομαι. And נכלמו nichlemu answers perfectly well to אמלל umlal, the parallel word in the next line. The MSS. vary in expressing the word נכאים nechaim, which gives no tolerable sense in this place; one reads נוכאים nochaim; two others בכאים bechaim; in another the כ caph is upon a rasure of two letters; and the Vulgate instead of it reads מכותם mecotham, plagas suas. - L.

[¶34] For the men of Kirhares ye shall make a moan. For the fields of Heshbon are put to shame. This is Bp. Lowth's sense of the passage.

[¶35] Her branches are stretched out "Her branches extended themselves" - For נטשו nitteshu, a MS. has נגשו niggeshu; which may perhaps be right. Compare [Jer 48:32], which has in this part of the sentence the synonymous word נגעו nagau.

[¶36] The meaning of this verse is, that the wines of Sibmah and Heshbon were greatly celebrated, and in high repute with all the great men and princes of that and the neighboring countries; who indulged themselves even to intemperance in the use of them. So that their vines were so much in request as not only to be propagated all over the country of Moab to the sea of Sodom, but to have scions of them sent even beyond the sea into foreign countries. הלמו halemu, knocked down, demolished; that is overpowered, intoxicated. The drunkards of Ephraim are called by the prophet, [Isa 28:1], הלומי יין halumey yayin, drinkers of wine. See Schultens on [Pro 23:25]. Gratius, speaking of the Mareotic wine, says of it,

[¶37] Pharios quae fregit noxia reges. Cyneg. 312.

### Verse 9

[¶39] With the weeping "As with the weeping" - For בבכי bibechi, a MS. reads בכי bechi. In [Jer 48:32], it is מבכי mibbechi. The Septuagint read כבכי kibeki, as with weeping, which I follow.

[¶40] For thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen "And upon thy vintage the destroyer hath fallen" - ועל קצירך הידד נפל veal ketsirech heidad naphal. In these few words there are two great mistakes, which the text of [Jer 48:32] rectifies. For קצירך ketsirech, it has בצירך betsirech; and for הידד heidad, שדד shoded; both which corrections the Chaldee in this place confirms. As to the first, "Hesebon and Eleale, and

[¶41] The flowery dale of Sibmah, clad with vines," were never celebrated for their harvests; it was the vintage that suffered by the irruption of the enemy; and so read the Septuagint and Syriac. הידד heidad is the noisy acclamation of the treaders of the grapes. And see what sense this makes in the literal rendering of the Vulgate: super messem tuam vox calcantium irruit, "upon thy harvest the voice of the treaders rushes." The reading in [Jer 48:32] is certainly right, שדד נפל shoded naphal, "the destroyer hath fallen." The shout of the treaders does not come in till the next verse; in which the text of Isaiah in its turn mends that of [Jer 48:33], where instead of the first הידד heidad, "the shout," we ought undoubtedly to read, as here, הדרך haddorech, "the treader."

### Verse 10

[¶43] Neither shall there be shouting "An end is put to the shouting" - The Septuagint read השבת hishbeth, passive, and in the third person; rightly, for God is not the speaker in this place. The rendering of the Septuagint is πεπαυται γαρ κελευσμα, "the cry ceaseth;" which last word, necessary to the rendering of the Hebrew and to the sense, is supplied by MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. II., having been lost out of the other copies.

### Verse 12

[¶45] When it is seen that Moab, etc. "When Moab shall see," etc. - For נראה nirah, a MS. reads ראה raah, and so the Syriac and Chaldee. "Perhaps כי נראה ki nirah is only a various reading of כי נלאה ki nilah." Secker. A very probable conjecture.

## 806. Isaiah · 26 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/806/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/806/#p-N

### Verse 14

[¶1] Within three years - בשלש beshalish כשלש keshalish, according, or in or about three years, is the reading of nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and two ancient editions.

[¶2] But the present reading may well stand: "Now, the Lord hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling." It seems as if this prophecy had been delivered before, without any time specified for its fulfillment; but now the time is determined" in three years, as the years of a hireling" - for, as a hireling counts even to a single day, and will not abide with his employer an hour beyond the time agreed on; so, in three years, even to a day, from the delivery of this prophecy, shall destruction come upon Moab. This is the import of the present text; but if we take כשלש keshalish, AS in three years, or in about three years' time, the prophecy is not so definite.

[¶3] These three years, says Calmet, are mentioned from the death of Ahaz, see [Isa 14:28], and end the third year of Hezekiah, three years before the taking of Samaria by Shalmaneser. This conqueror did not ruin Moab so completely as not to leave a man in the land; the final desolation of Moab was reserved for Nebuchadnezzar, five years after the taking of Jerusalem.

[¶4] Feeble "And without strength" - An ancient MS., with the Septuagint, reads ולא velo, "and not."

### Introduction

[¶6] Judgments of God upon Damascus, [Isa 17:1-3]; and upon Israel, [Isa 17:4-6]. Good effects of these judgments on the small remnant or gleaning that should escape them, [Isa 17:7], [Isa 17:8]. The same judgments represented in other but stronger terms, and imputed to irreligion and neglect of God, [Isa 17:9-11]. The remaining verses are a distinct prophecy, a beautiful detached piece, worked up with the greatest elegance, sublimity, and propriety; and forming a noble description of the formidable invasion and sudden overthrow of Sennacherib, exactly suitable to the event, [Isa 17:12-14].

[¶7] This prophecy by its title should relate only to Damascus; but it full as much concerns, and more largely treats of, the kingdom of Samaria and the Israelites, confederated with Damascus and the Syrians against the kingdom of Judah. It was delivered probably soon after the prophecies of the seventh and eighth chapters, in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz; and was fulfilled by Tiglath-pileser's taking Damascus, and carrying the people captives to Kir, ([2Kgs 16:9]), and overrunning great part of the kingdom of Israel, and carrying a great number of the Israelites also captives to Assyria; and still more fully in regard to Israel, by the conquest of the kingdom, and the captivity of the people, effected a few years after by Shalmaneser. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶9] The burden of Damascus - Which is, according to the common version, The cities of Aroer are forsaken. It has already been observed by the learned prelate that the prophecy, as it relates to Damascus, was executed in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, probably about the third year. If we credit Midrash, the Damascenes were the most extensive and flagrant of all idolaters. "There were in Damascus three hundred and sixty-five streets, in each of these was an idol, and each idol had his peculiar day of worship; so that the whole were worshipped in the course of the year." This, or any thing like this, was a sufficient reason for this city's destruction.

[¶10] A ruinous heap - For מעי mei, "a ruinous heap," the Septuagint reads לעי lei, "for a ruin," the Vulgate כעי kei, "as a ruin." I follow the former.

### Verse 2

[¶12] The cities of Aroer are forsaken "The cities are deserted for ever" - What has Aroer on the river Arnon to do with Damascus? and if there be another Aroer on the northern border of the tribe of Gad, as Reland seems to think there might be, this is not much more to the purpose. Besides, the cities of Aroer, if Aroer itself is a city, makes no good sense. The Septuagint, for ערער aroer, read עדי עד adey ad, εις τον αιωνα, for ever, or for a long duration. The Chaldee takes the word for a verb from ערה arah, translating it חרבו cherebu, devastabuntur, "they shall be wasted." The Syriac read עדועיר adoeir. So that the reading is very doubtful. I follow the Septuagint as making the plainest sense.

### Verse 3

[¶14] The remnant of Syria "The pride of Syria" - For שאר shear, "remnant," Houbigant reads שאת seeth, "pride," answering, as the sentence seems evidently to require, to כבוד cabod, "the glory of Israel." The conjecture is so very probable that I venture to follow it.

[¶15] As the glory - בכבוד bichbod, "In the glory," is the reading of eight MSS., and ten editions.

### Verse 4

[¶17] In that day - That is, says Kimchi, the time when the ten tribes of Israel, which were the glory of Jacob, should be carried into captivity.

### Verse 5

[¶19] As when the harvestman gathereth "As when one gathereth" - That is, the king of Assyria shall sweep away the whole body of the people, as the reaper strippeth off the whole crop of corn; and the remnant shall be no more in proportion than the scattered ears left to the gleaner. The valley of Rephaim near Jerusalem was celebrated for its plentiful harvest; it is here used poetically for any fruitful country. One MS., and one ancient edition, has באסף beesoph, "In gathering," instead of כאסף keesoph, "AS the gathering."

### Verse 8

[¶21] The altars, the work of his hands "The altars dedicated to the work of his hands" - The construction of the words, and the meaning of the sentence, in this place are not obvious; all the ancient Versions, and most of the modern, have mistaken it. The word מעשה maaseh, "the work," stands in regimine with מזבחות mizbechoth, "altars," not in opposition to it; it means the, altars of the work of their hand; that is of the idols, which are the work of their hands. Thus Kimchi has explained it, and Le Clerc has followed him.

### Verse 9

[¶23] As a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch "the Hivites and the Amorites" - החרש והאמיר hachoresh vehaamir. No one has ever yet been able to make any tolerable sense of these words. The translation of the Septuagint has happily preserved what seems to be the true reading of the text, as it stood in the copies of their time; though the words are now transposed, either in the text or in their Version; οἱ Αμαρῥαιοι και οἱ Ευαιοι, "the Amorites and the Hivites." It is remarkable that many commentators, who never thought of admitting the reading of the Septuagint, understand the passage as referring to that very event which their Version expresses; so that it is plain that nothing can be more suitable to the context. "My father," says Bishop Lowth, "saw the necessity of admitting this variation at a time when it was not usual to make so free with the Hebrew text." Mr. Parkhurst is not satisfied with the prelate's adoption of the reading of the Septuagint, "the Hivites and the Amorites." He thinks the difficult words should be thus rendered; he takes the whole verse: "And his fortified cities shall be like the leaving, or what is left כעזובת caazubath, of or in a ploughed field, החרש hachoresh, or on a branch which they leave coram, before, the children of Israel." Which he considers a plain reference to the Mosaic laws relative to the not gleaning of their ploughed fields, vineyards, and oliveyards, but leaving עזב ozeb, somewhat of the fruits, for the poor of the land; [Lev 9:9], [Lev 9:10]; [Deu 24:19-21], in the Hebrew. I fear that the text is taken by storm on both interpretations. One MS. has כל ערי col arey, "all the cities;" and instead of החלש hachalash, "of the branch," six MSS. have החדש hachodesh, "of the month." But this is probably a mistake.

### Verse 10

[¶25] Strange slips "Shoots from a foreign soil" - The pleasant plants, and shoots from a foreign soil, are allegorical expressions for strange and idolatrous worship; vicious and abominable practices connected with it; reliance on human aid, and on alliances entered into with the neighboring nations, especially Egypt; to all which the Israelites were greatly addicted, and in their expectations from which they should be grievously disappointed.

### Verse 12

[¶27] Wo to the multitude - The three last verses of this chapter seem to have no relation to the foregoing prophecy, to which they are joined. It is a beautiful piece, standing singly and by itself; for neither has it any connection with what follows: whether it stands in its right place, or not, I cannot say. It is a noble description of the formidable invasion and the sudden overthrow of Sennacherib; which is intimated in the strongest terms and the most expressive images, exactly suitable to the event.

[¶28] Like the rushing of mighty waters! - Five words, three at the end of the twelfth verse, and two at the beginning of the thirteenth, are omitted in eight MSS., with the Syriac; that is, in effect, the repetition contained in the first line of [Isa 17:13] in this translation, is not made. After having observed that it is equally easy to account for the omission of these words by a transcriber if they are genuine, or their insertion if they are not genuine, occasioned by his carrying his eye backwards to the word לאמים leammim, or forwards to ישאון yeshaon, I shall leave it to the reader's judgment to determine whether they are genuine or not. Instead of כהמות cahamoth, "as the roaring," five MSS. and the Vulgate have כהמון kehamon, "as the multitude."

### Verse 14

[¶30] He is not "He is no more" - For איננו einennu ten MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, (three ancient), ten of De Rossi's, and two editions, and the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, and Arabic, have ואיננו veeinenno. This particle, authenticated by so many good vouchers, restores the sentence to its true poetical form, implying a repetition of some part of the parallel line preceding, thus: - "At the season of evening, behold terror!

[¶31] Before the morning, and [behold] he is no more!"

[¶32] That spoil us - For שוסינו shoseynu, them that spoil us, fifteen MSS., one edition, and the Syriac have שוסנו shosenu, him that spoileth us. And for לבזזינו lebozezeynu, them that rob us, six MSS. and the Syriac have לבוזזנו lebozzeno, him that robbeth us: and these readings make the place answer better to Sennacherib, according to Lowth's conjecture. Though God may permit the wicked to prevail for a time against his people, yet in the end those shall be overthrown, and the glory of the Lord shall shine brightly on them that fear him; for the earth shall be subdued, and the universe filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen!

### Introduction

[¶34] This chapter contains a very obscure prophecy; possibly designed to give the Jews, and perhaps the Egyptians, whose country is supposed to be meant, [Isa 18:1], [Isa 18:2], and with whom many Jews resided, an indignation of God's interposition in favor of Sion, [Isa 18:3], [Isa 18:4]; and of his counsels in regard to the destruction of their common enemy, Sennacherib, whose vast army, just as he thought his projects ripe, and ready to be crowned with success, [Isa 18:5], should become a prey to the beasts of the field, and to the fowls of heaven, [Isa 18:6]; and that Egypt should be grateful to God for the deliverance vouchsafed her, [Isa 18:7].

[¶35] This is one of the most obscure prophecies in the whole Book of Isaiah. The subject of it, the end and design of it, the people to whom it is addressed, the history to which it belongs, the person who sends the messengers, and the nation to whom the messengers are sent, are all obscure and doubtful. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶37] Wo to the land - הוי ארץ hoi arets! This interjection should be translated ho! for it is properly a particle of calling: Ho, land! Attend! Give ear!

[¶38] Shadowing with wings "The winged cymbal" - צלצל כנפים tsiltsal kenaphayim. I adopt this as the most probable of the many interpretations that have been given of these words. It is Bochart's: see Phaleg, 4:2. The Egyptian sistrum is expressed by a periphrasis; the Hebrews had no name for it in their language, not having in use the instrument itself. The cymbal they had was an instrument in its use and sound not much unlike the sistrum; and to distinguish it from the sistrum, they called it the cymbal with wings. The cymbal was a round hollow piece of metal, which, being struck against another, gave a ringing sound: the sistrum was a round instrument, consisting of a broad rim of metal, through which from side to side ran several loose laminae or small rods of metal, which being shaken, gave a like sound. These, projecting on each side, had somewhat the appearance of wings; or might be very properly expressed by the same word which the Hebrews used for wings, or for the extremity, or a part of any thing projecting. The sistrum is given in a medal of Adrian, as the proper attribute of Egypt. See Addison on Medals, Series 3. No. 4; where the figure of it may be seen. The frame of the sistrum was in shape rather like the ancient lyre; it was not round.

[¶39] If we translate shadowing with wings, it may allude to the multitude of its vessels, whose sails may be represented under the notion of wings. The second verse seems to support this interpretation. Vessels of bulrushes, גמא gome, or rather the flag papyrus, so much celebrated as the substance on which people wrote in ancient times, and from which our paper is denominated. The sails might have been made of this flag: but whole canoes were constructed from it. Mat sails are used to the present day in China. The Vulgate fully understood the meaning of the word, and has accordingly translated, in vasis papyri, "in vessels of papyrus." Reshi vesselis. - Old MS. Bib. This interpretation does not please Bp. Lowth, and for his dissent he gives the following reasons: -

[¶40] In opposition to other interpretations of these words which have prevailed, it may be briefly observed that צלצל tsiltsel is never used to signify shadow, nor is כנף canaph applied to the sails of ships. If, therefore, the words are rightly interpreted the winged cymbal, meaning the sistrum, Egypt must be the country to which the prophecy is addressed. And upon this hypothesis the version and explanation must proceed. I farther suppose, that the prophecy was delivered before Sennacherib's return from his Egyptian expedition, which took up three years; and that it was designed to give to the Jews, and perhaps likewise to the Egyptians, an intimation of God's counsels in regard to the destruction of their great and powerful enemy.

[¶41] Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia "Which borders on the rivers of Cush" - What are the rivers of Cush? whether the eastern branches of the lower Nile, the boundary of Egypt towards Arabia, or the parts of the upper Nile towards Ethiopia, it is not easy to determine. The word מעבר meeber signifies either on this side or on the farther side: I have made use of the same kind of ambiguous expression in the translation.

### Verse 2

[¶43] In vessels of bulrushes "In vessels of papyrus" - This circumstance agrees perfectly well with Egypt. It is well known that the Egyptians commonly used on the Nile a light sort of ships, or boats, made of the reed papyrus. Ex ipso quidem papyro navigia texunt. Pliny, 42:11.

[¶44] Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro.

## 807. Isaiah · 27 of 79

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[¶0] Lucan, 4:136.

[¶1] Go, ye swift messengers - To this nation before mentioned, who, by the Nile, and by their numerous canals, have the means of spreading the report in the most expeditious manner through the whole country: go, ye swift messengers, and carry this notice of God's designs in regard to them. By the swift messengers are meant, not any particular persons specially appointed to this office, but any of the usual conveyers of news whatsoever, travelers, merchants, and the like, the instruments and agents of common fame. These are ordered to publish this declaration made by the prophet throughout Egypt, and to all the world; and to excite their attention to the promised visible interposition of God.

[¶2] Scattered "Stretched out in length" - Egypt, that is, the fruitful part, exclusive of the deserts on each side, is one long vale, through the middle of which runs the Nile, bounded on each side to the east and west by a chain of mountains seven hundred and fifty miles in length; in breadth from one to two or three days' journey: even at the widest part of the Delta, from Pelusium to Alexandria, not above two hundred and fifty miles broad. Egmont and Hayman, and Pococke.

[¶3] Peeled "Smoothed" - Either relating to the practice of the Egyptian priests, who made their bodies smooth by shaving off their hair, (see Herod. 2:37); or rather to their country's being made smooth, perfectly plain and level, by the overflowing of the Nile.

[¶4] Meted out "Meted out by line" - It is generally referred to the frequent necessity of having recourse to mensuration in Egypt, in order to determine the boundaries after the inundations of the Nile; to which even the origin of the science of geometry is by some ascribed. Strabo, lib. 17 sub init.

[¶5] Trodden down - Supposed to allude to a peculiar method of tillage in use among the Egyptians. Both Herodotus, (lib. ii.), and Diodorus, (lib. i.), say that when the Nile had retired within its banks, and the ground became somewhat dry, they sowed their land, and then sent in their cattle, (their hogs, says the former), to tread in the seed; and without any farther care expected the harvest.

[¶6] The rivers have spoiled "The rivers have nourished" - The word בזאו bazeu is generally taken to be an irregular form for בזזו bazezu, "have spoiled," as four MSS. have it in this place; and so most of the Versions, both ancient and modern, understand it. On which Schultens, Gram. Hebrews p. 491, has the following re; mark:"Ne minimam quidem speciem veri habet בזאו bazau, Esai. [Isa 18:2], elatum pro בזזו bazazu, deripiunt. Haec esset anomalia, cui nihil simile in toto linguae ambitu. In talibus nil finire, vel fateri ex mera agi conjectura, tutius justiusque. Radicem בזא baza olim extare potuisse, quis neget? Si cognatum quid sectandum erat, ad בזה bazah, contemsit, potius decurrendum fuisset; ut בזאו bazeu, pro בזו bazu, sit enuntiatum, vel בזיו baziv. Digna phrasis, flumina contemmunt terram, i.e., inundant." "בזא baza, Arab. extulit se superbius, item subjecit sibi: unde praet. pl. בזאו bazeu, subjecerunt sibi, i.e., inundarunt." - Simonis' Lexic. Heb.

[¶7] A learned friend has suggested to me another explanation of the word. בזא baza, Syr., and ביזא beiza, Chald., signifies uber, "a dug," mamma, "a breast;" agreeably to which the verb signifies to nourish. This would perfectly well suit with the Nile: whereas nothing can be more discordant than the idea of spoiling and plundering; for to the inundation of the Nile Egypt owed every thing; the fertility of the soil, and the very soil itself. Besides, the overflowing of the Nile came on by gentle degrees, covering with out laying waste the country: "Mira aeque natura fluminis, quod cum caeteri omnes abluant terras et eviscerent, Nilus tanto caeteris major adeo nihil exedit, nec abradit, ut contra adjiciat vires; minimumque in eo sit, quod solum temperet. Illato enim limo arenas saturat ac jungit; debetque illi Aegyptus non tantum fertilitatem terrarum, sed ipsas." - Seneca, Nat. Quaest., 4:2. I take the liberty, therefore, which Schultens seems to think allowable in this place, of hazarding a conjectural interpretation. It is a fact that the Ganges changes its course, and overruns and lays barren whole districts, from which it was a few years back several miles distant. Such changes do not nourish but spoil the ground.

### Verse 3

[¶9] When he lifteth up an ensign "When the standard is lifted up" - I take God to be the Agent in this verse; and that by the standard and the trumpet are meant the meteors, the thunder, the lightning, the storm, earthquake, and tempest, by which Sennacherib's army shall be destroyed, or by which at least the destruction of it shall be accompanied; as it is described in [Isa 10:16], [Isa 10:17]; [Isa 29:6], and [Isa 30:30], [Isa 30:31]. See also [Psa 76:1-12] (note), and the title of it, according to the Septuagint, Vulgate and Aethiopic. They are called, by a bold metaphor, the standard lifted up, and the trumpet sounded. The latter is used by Homer, I think with great force, in his introduction to the battle of the gods; though I find it has disgusted some of the minor critics: - Βραχε δ' ευρεια χθων, Αμφι δε σαλπιγζεν μεγας ουρανος.

[¶10] Il. 21:388. "Heaven in loud thunders bids the trumpet sound,

[¶11] And wide beneath them groans the rending ground."

[¶12] Pope

### Verse 4

[¶14] For so the Lord said unto me "For thus hath Jehovah said unto me" - The subject of the remaining part of this chapter is, that God would comfort and support his own people, though threatened with immediate destruction by the Assyrians; that Sennacherib's great designs and mighty efforts against them should be frustrated; and that his vast expectations should be rendered abortive, when he thought them mature, and just ready to be crowned with success; that the chief part of his army should be made a prey for the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, (for this is the meaning of the allegory continued through the fifth and sixth verses); and that Egypt, being delivered from his oppression, and avenged by the hand of God of the wrongs which she had suffered, should return thanks for the wonderful deliverance, both of herself and of the Jews, from this most powerful adversary.

[¶15] Like a clear heat "Like the clear heat" - The same images are employed by an Arabian poet: -

[¶16] Solis more fervens, dum frigus; quumque ardet

[¶17] Sirius, tum vero frigus ipse et umbra.

[¶18] Which is illustrated in the note by a like passage from another Arabian poet: -

[¶19] Calor est hyeme, refrigerium aestate.

[¶20] Excerpta ex Hamasa; published by Schultens, at the end of Erpenius's Arabic Grammar, p. 425.

[¶21] Upon herbs "After rain" - "אור aur here signifies rain, according to what is said [Job 36:11] : 'The cloud scatters his rain.'" - Kimchi. In which place of Job the Chaldee paraphrast does indeed explain אורו auro by מטריה matereyh; and so again [Job 36:21] and [Job 36:30]. This meaning of the word seems to make the best sense in this place; it is to be wished that it were better supported.

[¶22] In the heat of harvest "In the day of harvest" - For בחם bechom, in the heat, fourteen MSS., (several ancient), the Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate read ביום beyom, in the day. The mistake seems to have arisen from כחם kechom in the line above.

### Verse 5

[¶24] The flower "The blossom" - Hebrews her blossom; נצה nitstsah, that is, the blossom of the vine, גפן gephen, vine, understood, which is of the common gender. See [Gen 40:10]. Note, that by the defective punctuation of this word, many interpreters, and our translators among the rest, have been led into a grievous mistake, (for how can the swelling grape become a blossom?) taking the word נצה nitstsah for the predicate; whereas it is the subject of the proposition, or the nominative case to the verb.

### Verse 7

[¶26] The present "A gift" - The Egyptians were in alliance with the kingdom of Judah, and were fellow-sufferers with the Jews under the invasion of their common enemy Sennacherib; and so were very nearly interested in the great and miraculous deliverance of that kingdom, by the destruction of the Assyrian army. Upon which wonderful event it is said, [2Chr 32:23], that "many brought gifts unto Jehovah to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was magnified of all nations from henceforth." It is not to be doubted, that among these the Egyptians distinguished themselves in their acknowledgments on this occasion.

[¶27] Of a people "From a people" - Instead of עם am, a people, the Septuagint and Vulgate read מעם meam, from a people, which is confirmed by the repetition of it in the next line. The difference is of importance; for if this be the true reading, the prediction of the admission of Egypt into the true Church of God is not so explicit as it might otherwise seem to be. However, that event is clearly foretold at the end of the next chapter. - L.

### Introduction

[¶29] Prophecy concerning Egypt, in which her lamentable condition under the Babylonians, Persians, etc., Is forcibly pointed out, vv. 1-17. The true religion shall be propagated in Egypt; referring primarily to the great spread of Judaism in that country in the reign of the Ptolemies, and ultimately to its reception of the Gospel in the latter days, [Isa 19:18-22]. Profound peace between Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, and their blessed condition under the Gospel, [Isa 19:23-25].

[¶30] Not many years after the destruction of Sennacherib's army before Jerusalem, by which the Egyptians were freed from the yoke with which they were threatened by so powerful an enemy, who had carried on a successful war of three years' continuance against them; the affairs of Egypt were again thrown into confusion by intestine broils among themselves, which ended in a perfect anarchy, that lasted some few years. This was followed by an aristocracy, or rather tyranny, of twelve princes, who divided the country between them, and at last by the sole dominion of Psammitichus, which he held for fifty-four years. Not long after that followed the invasion and conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, and then by the Persians under Cambyses, the son of Cyrus. The yoke of the Persians was so grievous, that the conquest of the Persians by Alexander may well be considered as a deliverance to Egypt; especially as he and his successors greatly favored the people and improved the country. To all these events the prophet seems to have had a view in this chapter; and in particular, from [Isa 19:18], the prophecy of the propagation of the true religion in Egypt seems to point to the flourishing state of Judaism in that country, in consequence of the great favor shown to the Jews by the Ptolemies. Alexander himself settled a great many Jews in his new city Alexandria, granting them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians. The first Ptolemy, called Soter, carried great numbers of them thither, and gave them such encouragement that still more of them were collected there from different parts; so that Philo reckons that in his time there were a million of Jews in that country. These worshipped the God of their fathers; and their example and influence must have had a great effect in spreading the knowledge and worship of the true God through the whole country. See Bp. Newton on the Prophecies, Dissert. xii.

### Verse 1

[¶32] The burden of Egypt - That is, the prophet's declaration concerning Egypt.

### Verse 3

[¶34] They shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards - And thei schul asken their symulacres, and their debynouris, and their devyl clepers, and their devyl sacristers. - Old Bible. The import of the original words has already been given where they occur in the Pentateuch. See [Deu 18:10], etc.

### Verse 4

[¶36] A cruel lord "Cruel lords" - Nebuchadnezzar in the first place, and afterwards the whole succession of Persian kings, who in general were hard masters, and grievously oppressed the country. Note, that for קשה kasheh, lord, a MS. reads קשים kashim, lords, agreeable to which is the rendering of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

### Verse 5

[¶38] The river shall be wasted and dried up - The Nile shall not overflow its banks; and if no inundation, the land must become barren. For, as there is little or no rain in Egypt, its fertility depends on the overflowing of the Nile.

### Verse 6

[¶40] Shall turn the rivers far away "Shall become putrid" - האזניחו heeznichu. This sense of the word, which Simonis gives in his Lexicon, from the meaning of it in Arabic, suits the place much better than any other interpretation hitherto given; and that the word in Hebrew had some such signification, is probable from [2Chr 29:19], where the Vulgate renders it by polluit, polluted, and the Targum, by profaned, and made abominable, which the context in that place seems plainly to require. The form of the verb here is very irregular; and the rabbins and grammarians seem to give no probable account of it.

### Verse 8

[¶42] The fishers also "And the fishers" - There was great plenty of fish in Egypt; see [Num 11:5]. "The Nile," says Diodorus, lib. i., "abounds with incredible numbers of all sorts of fish." And much more the lakes. So Egmont, Pococke, etc.

### Verse 9

[¶44] They that work in fine flax - פשתים שריקות pishtim sericoth, heckled flax, i.e., flax dressed on the heckle, or comb used for that purpose. The Vulgate uses the word pectentes, combing.

## 808. Isaiah · 28 of 79

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[¶0] They that weave networks shall be confounded - And confounden schul ben that wrogten flax, plattinge and webynge sotel thingis. - Old MS. Bible.

### Verse 10

[¶2] And they shall be broken, etc. "Her stores" - שתתיה shathotheyha, αποθηκαι, granaries. - Aquila.

[¶3] All that make sluices and ponds for fish "All that make a gain of pools for fish" - This obscure line is rendered by different interpreters in very different manners. Kimchi explains אגמי agmey as if it were the same with אגמה agemah, from [Job 30:25], in which he is followed by some of the rabbins, and supported by the Septuagint: and שכר secher, which I translate gain, and which some take for nets or enclosures, the Septuagint render by ζυθον, strong drink or beer, which it is well known was much used in Egypt; and so likewise the Syriac, retaining the Hebrew word שכרא sekra. I submit these very different interpretations to the reader's judgment. The Version of the Septuagint is as follows: Και παντες οἱ ποιουντες τον ζυθον λυπηθησονται, και τας ψυχας πονεσουσι· "And all they that make barley wine shall mourn, and be grieved in soul."

### Verse 11

[¶5] The counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish "Have counseled a brutish counsel" - The sentence as it now stands in the Hebrew, is imperfect: it wants the verb. Archbishop Secker conjectures that the words יועצי פרעה yoatsey pharoh should be transposed; which would in some degree remove the difficulty. But it is to be observed, that the translator of the Vulgate seems to have found in his copy the verb יעצו yaatsu added after פרעה pharoh: Sapientes consiliarii Pharaonis dederunt consilium insipiens, "The wise counsellors of Pharaoh gave unwise counsel." This is probably the true reading: it is perfectly agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, makes the construction of the sentence clear, and renders the transposition of the words above mentioned unnecessary. - L.

[¶6] Verse 12 "Let them come" - Here too a word seems to have been left out of the text. After חכמיך chochameycha, thy wise men, two MSS., one ancient, add יבאו yibu, let them come; which, if we consider the form and construction of the sentence, has very much the appearance of being genuine: otherwise the connective conjunction at the beginning of the next member is not only superfluous but embarrassing. See also the Version of the Septuagint, in which the same deficiency is manifest.

[¶7] Let them tell thee now "And let them declare" - For ידעו yidu, let them know, perhaps we ought to read יודיעו yodiu, let them make known. - Secker. The Septuagint and Vulgate favor this reading, ειπατωισαν, let them declare.

### Verse 13

[¶9] Are deceived "They have caused," etc. - The text has וחתעו vehithu, And they have caused to err. Fifty of Kennicott's MSS., fifty-three of De Rossi's, and one of my own, ancient, thirty-two editions, and the Vulgate and Chaldee. omit the ו vau, and.

[¶10] Stay "Pillars" - פנת pinnath, to be pointed as plural pinnoth, without doubt. So Grotius, and so the Chaldee.

### Verse 14

[¶12] In the midst thereof - בקרבם bekirbam; so the Septuagint, and perhaps more correctly." - Secker. So likewise the Chaldee.

### Verse 15

[¶14] The head or tail, branch or rush - R. D. Kimchi says, there are some who suppose that these words mean the dragon's head and tail; and refer to all those who are conversant in astronomy, astrology, etc.

### Verse 16

[¶16] Shall Egypt be "The Egyptians shall be" - יהיו yihyu, they shall be, plural, MS. Bodl. Septuagint, and Chaldee. This is not proposed as an emendation, for either form is proper.

### Verse 17

[¶18] And the land of Judah - The threatening hand of God will be held out and shaken over Egypt, from the side of Judea; through which the Assyrians will march to invade it. It signifies that kind of terror that drives one to his wit's end, that causes him to reel like a drunken man, to be giddy through astonishment. Such is the import of חג chag, and חגה chagah. Five MSS. and two editions have לחגה lechagah.

### Verse 18

[¶20] The city of destruction "The city of the sun" - עיר החרס ir hacheres. This passage is attended with much difficulty and obscurity. First, in regard to the true reading. It is well known that Onias applied it to his own views, either to procure from the king of Egypt permission to build his temple in the Hieropolitan Nome, or to gain credit and authority to it when built; from the notion which he industriously propagated, that Isaiah had in this place prophesied of the building of such a temple. He pretended that the very place where it should be built was expressly named by the prophet, עיר החרס ir hacheres, the city of the sun. This possibly may have been the original reading. The present text has עיר ההרס ir haheres, the city of destruction; which some suppose to have been introduced into the text by the Jews of Palestine afterwards, to express their detestation of the place, being much offended with this schismatical temple in Egypt. Some think the latter to have been the true reading, and that the prophet himself gave this turn to the name out of contempt, and to intimate the demolition of this Hieropolitan temple; which in effect was destroyed by Vespasian's orders, after that of Jerusalem, "Videtur propheta consulto scripsisse הרס heres, pro חרס cheres, ut alibi scribitur בית און beith aven pro בית אל beith El: איש בשת ish bosheth for איש בעל ish baal, etc. Vide Lowth in loc." - Secker. "It seems that the prophet designedly wrote הרס heres, destruction, for חרס cheres, the sun: as elsewhere בית און beith aven, the house of iniquity, is written for בית אל beith El, the house of God; איש בשת ish bosheth for איש בעל ish baal," etc. But on the supposition that עיר ההרס air haheres is the true reading, others understand it differently. The word הרס heres in Arabic signifies a lion; and Conrad Ikenius has written a dissertation (Dissert. Philol. Theol. XVI.) to prove that the place here mentioned is not Heliopolis, as it is commonly supposed to be, but Leontopolis in the Heliopolitan Nome, as it is indeed called in the letter, whether real or pretended, of Onias to Ptolemy, which Josephus has inserted in his Jewish Antiquities, lib. 13 c. 3. And I find that several persons of great learning and judgment think that Ikenius has proved the point beyond contradiction. See Christian. Muller. Satura Observ. Philolog. Michaelis Bibliotheque Oriental, Part v., p. 171. But, after all, I believe that neither Onias, Heliopolis, nor Leontopolis has any thing to do with this subject. The application of this place of Isaiah to Onias's purpose seems to have been a mere invention, and in consequence of it there may perhaps have been some unfair management to accommodate the text to that purpose; which has been carried even farther than the Hebrew text; for the Greek version has here been either translated from a corrupted text, or wilfully mistranslated or corrupted, to serve the same cause. The place is there called πολις Ασεδεκ, the city of righteousness; a name apparently contrived by Onias's party to give credit to their temple, which was to rival that of Jerusalem. Upon the whole, the true reading of the Hebrew text in this place is very uncertain; fifteen MSS. and seven editions have חרס cheres, the city of Hacheres, or, of the sun. So likewise Symmachas, the Vulgate, Arabic, Septuagint, and Complutensian. On the other hand, Aquila, Theodotion, and the Syriac read הרס heres, destruction; the Chaldee paraphrase takes in both readings.

[¶21] The reading of the text being so uncertain, no one can pretend to determine what the city was that is here mentioned by name; much less to determine what the four other cities were which the prophet does not name. I take the whole passage from the 18th verse to the end of the chapter, to contain a general intimation of the future propagation of the knowledge of the true God in Egypt and Syria, under the successors of Alexander; and, in consequence of this propagation, of the early reception of the Gospel in the same countries, when it should be published to the world. See more on this subject in Prideaux's Connect. An. 145; Dr. Owen's Inquiry into the present state of the Septuagint Version, p. 41; and Bryant's Observations on Ancient History, p. 124. - L.

### Verse 19

[¶23] An altar to the Lord - צבאות tsebaoth, "of hosts," or Yehovah tsebaoth, is added by eight MSS. of good repute, and the Syriac Version.

### Verse 23

[¶25] Shall there be a highway - Under the latter kings of Persia, and under Alexander, Egypt, Judea, and Assyria lived peaceably under the same government, and were on such friendly terms that there was a regular, uninterrupted intercourse between them, so that the Assyrian came into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and Israel became the third, i.e., was in strict union with the other two; and was a blessing to both, as affording them some knowledge of the true God, [Isa 19:24].

### Verse 25

[¶27] Blessed be Egypt - Assyria - and Israel - All these countries shall be converted to the Lord. Concerning Egypt, it was said, [Isa 18:7], that it should bring gifts to the Lord at Jerusalem. Here it is predicted, [Isa 19:19], that there shall be an altar to the Lord in Egypt itself; and that they, with the Assyrians shall become the people of God with the Israelites. This remains partly to be fulfilled. These countries shall be all, and perhaps at no very distant time from this, converted to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

### Introduction

[¶29] The Prophet Isaiah a sign to Egypt and Cush or Ethiopia, that the captives and exiles of these countries shall be indignantly treated by the king of Assyria, [Isa 20:1-6].

[¶30] Tartan besieged Ashdod or Azotus, which probably belonged at this time to Hezekiah's dominions; see [2Kgs 18:8]. The people expected to be relieved by the Cushites of Arabia and by the Egyptians. Isaiah was ordered to go uncovered, that is, without his upper garment, the rough mantle commonly worn by the prophets, (see [Zac 13:4]), probably three days to show that within three years the town should be taken, after the defeat of the Cushites and Egyptians by the king of Assyria, which event should make their case desperate, and induce them to surrender. Azotus was a strong place; it afterwards held out twenty-nine years against Psammitichus, king of Egypt, Herod. 2:157. Tartan was one of Sennacherib's generals, [2Kgs 18:17], and Tirhakah, king of the Cushites, was in alliance with the king of Egypt against Sennacherib. These circumstances make it probable that by Sargon is meant Sennacherib. It might be one of the seven names by which Jerome, on this place, says he was called. He is called Sacherdonus and Sacherdan in the book of Tobit. The taking of Azotus must have happened before Sennacherib's attempt on Jerusalem; when he boasted of his late conquests, [Isa 37:25]. And the warning of the prophet had a principal respect to the Jews also, who were too much inclined to depend upon the assistance of Egypt. As to the rest history and chronology affording us no light, it may be impossible to clear either this or any other hypothesis, which takes Sargon to be Shalmaneser or Asarhaddon, etc., from all difficulties. - L. Kimchi says, this happened in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah.

### Verse 2

[¶32] Walking naked and barefoot - It is not probable that the prophet walked uncovered and barefoot for three years; his appearing in that manner was a sign that within three years the Egyptians and Cushites should be in the same condition, being conquered and made captives by the king of Assyria. The time was denoted as well as the event; but his appearing in that manner for three whole years could give no premonition of the time at all. It is probable, therefore, that the prophet was ordered to walk so for three days to denote the accomplishment of the event in three years; a day for a year, according to the prophetical rule, [Num 14:34]; [Eze 4:6]. The words שלש ימים shalosh yamim, three days, may possibly have been lost out of the text, at the end of the second verse, after יחף yacheph, barefoot; or after the same word in the third verse, where, in the Alexandrine and Vatican copies of the Septuagint, and in MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 the words τρια ετη, three years, are twice expressed. Perhaps, instead of שלש ימים shalosh yamim, three days, the Greek translator might read שלש שנים shalosh shanim, three years, by his own mistake, or by that of his copy, after יחף yacheph in the third verse, for which stands the first τρια ετη, three years, in the Alexandrine and Vatican Septuagint, and in the two MSS. above mentioned. It is most likely that Isaiah's walking naked and barefoot was done in a vision; as was probably that of the Prophet Hosea taking a wife of whoredoms. None of these things can well be taken literally.

[¶33] From thy foot - רגליך ragleycha, thy feet, is the reading of thirty-four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., four ancient editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic.

### Introduction

[¶35] Prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians at the time of a great festival, [Isa 21:1-9]. Short application of the prophecy to the Jews, partly in the person of God, and partly in his own, [Isa 21:10]. Obscure prophecy respecting Dumah, [Isa 21:11], [Isa 21:12]. Prophecy concerning the Arabians to be fulfilled in a very short time after its delivery, [Isa 21:13-17].

[¶36] The first ten verses of this chapter contain a prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. It is a passage singular in its kind for its brevity and force, for the variety and rapidity of the movements, and for the strength and energy of coloring with which the action and event are painted. It opens with the prophet's seeing at a distance the dreadful storm that is gathering and ready to burst upon Babylon. The event is intimated in general terms, and God's orders are issued to the Persians and Medes to set forth upon the expedition which he has given them in charge. Upon this the prophet enters into the midst of the action; and in the person of Babylon expresses, in the strongest terms, the astonishment and horror that seizes her on the sudden surprise of the city at the very season dedicated to pleasure and festivity, [Isa 21:3], [Isa 21:4]. Then, in his own person, describes the situation of things there, the security of the Babylonians, and in the midst of their feasting the sudden alarm of war, [Isa 21:5]. The event is then declared in a very singular manner. God orders the prophet to set a watchman to look out, and to report what he sees; he sees two companies marching onward, representing by their appearance the two nations that were to execute God's orders, who declare that Babylon is fallen, [Isa 21:6-9].

[¶37] But what is this to the prophet, and to the Jews, the object of his ministry? The application, the end, and design of the prophecy are admirably given in a short, expressive address to the Jews, partly in the person of God, partly in that of the prophet: "O my threshing" "O my people, whom for your punishment I shall make subject to the Babylonians, to try and to prove you, and to separate the chaff from the corn, the bad from the good, among you; hear this for your consolation: your punishment, your slavery, and oppression will have an end in the destruction of your oppressors." - L.

### Verse 1

[¶39] The desert of the sea - This plainly means Babylon, which is the subject of the prophecy. The country about Babylon, and especially below it towards the sea, was a great flat morass, overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. It became habitable by being drained by the many canals that were made in it.

[¶40] Herodotus, lib. 1:184, says that "Semiramis confined the Euphrates within its channel by raising great dams against it; for before it overflowed the whole country like a sea." And Abydenus, (quoting Megasthenes, apud Euseb. Praep. Evang. 9:41), speaking of the building of Babylon by Nebuchadonosor, says, "it is reported that all this part was covered with water and was called the sea; and that Belus drew off the waters, conveying them into proper receptacles, and surrounded Babylon with a wall." When the Euphrates was turned out of its channel by Cyrus, it was suffered still to drown the neighboring country; and, the Persian government, which did not favor the place, taking no care to remedy this inconvenience, it became in time a great barren morassy desert, which event the title of the prophecy may perhaps intimate. Such it was originally; such it became after the taking of the city by Cyrus; and such it continues to this day.

[¶41] As whirlwinds in the south "Like the southern tempests" - The most vehement storms to which Judea was subject came from the desert country to the south of it. "Out of the south cometh the whirlwind," [Job 37:9]. "And there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house," [Job 1:19]. For the situation of Idumea, the country (as I suppose) of Job, see [Lam 4:21] compared with [Job 1:1], was the same in this respect with that of Judea: - "And Jehovah shall appear over them,

[¶42] And his arrow shall go forth as the lightning;

[¶43] And the Lord Jehovah shall sound the trumpet;

[¶44] And shall march in the whirlwinds of the south." [Zac 9:14].

## 809. Isaiah · 29 of 79

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### Verse 2

[¶1] The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth "The plunderer is plundered, and the destroyer is destroyed" - הבוגד בוגד והשודד שודד habboged boged vehashshoded shoded. The MSS. vary in expressing or omitting the ו vau, in these four words. Ten MSS. of Kennicott are without the ו vau in the second word, and eight MSS. are without the ו vau in the fourth word; which justifies Symmachus, who has rendered them passively: ὁ αθετων αθετειται και ὁ ταλαιπωριζων ταλαιπωρει. He read בגוד שדוד bagud shadud. Cocceius (Lexicon in voce) observes that the Chaldee very often renders the verb בגד bagad, by בזז bazaz, he spoiled; and in this place, and in [Isa 33:1], by the equivalent word אנס anas, to press, give trouble; and in [Isa 24:16] both by אנס anas and בזז bazaz; and the Syriac in this place renders it by טלם talam, he oppressed.

[¶2] All the sighing thereof have I made to cease "I have put an end to all her vexations" - Hebrews "Her sighing; that is, the sighing caused by her." So Kimchi on the place: "It means those who groaned through fear of him: for the suffixes of the nouns refer both to the agent and the patient. All those who groaned before the face of the king of Babylon he caused to rest;" Chald. And so likewise Ephrem Syr. in loc., edit. Assemani: "His groans, viz., the grief and tears which the Chaldeans occasioned through the rest of the nations."

### Verse 5

[¶4] Prepare the table "The table is prepared" - In Hebrew the verbs are in the infinitive mood absolute, as in [Eze 1:14] : "And the animals ran and returned, רצוא ושוב ratso veshob, like the appearance of the lightning;" just as the Latins say, currere et reverti, for currebant et revertebantur. See [Isa 33:11] (note), and the note there.

[¶5] Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield - Kimchi observes that several of the rabbins understood this of Belshazzar's impious feast and death. The king of a people is termed the shield, because he is their defense. The command, Anoint the shield, is the same with Anoint a new king. Belshazzar being now suddenly slain, while they were all eating and drinking, he advises the princes, whose business it was, to make speed and anoint another in his stead.

### Verse 7

[¶7] And he saw a chariot, etc. "And he saw a chariot with two riders; a rider on an ass, a rider on a camel" - This passage is extremely obscure from the ambiguity of the term רכב recheb, which is used three times, and which signifies a chariot, or any other vehicle, or the rider in it; or a rider on a horse, or any other animal; or a company of chariots, or riders. The prophet may possibly mean a cavalry in two parts, with two sorts of riders; riders on asses or mules, and riders on camels; or led on by two riders, one on an ass, and one on a camel. However, so far it is pretty clear, that Darius and Cyrus, the Medes and the Persians, are intended to be distinguished by the two riders on the two sorts of cattle. It appears from Herodotus, 1:80, that the baggage of Cyrus' army was carried on camels. In his engagement with Croesus, he took off the baggage from the camels, and mounted his horsemen upon them; the enemy's horses, offended with the smell of the camels, turned back and fled. - L.

### Verse 8

[¶9] And he cried, A lion "He that looked out on the watch" - The present reading, אריה aryeh, a lion, is so unintelligible, and the mistake so obvious, that I make no doubt that the true reading is הראה haroeh, the seer; as the Syriac translator manifestly found it in his copy, who renders it by דקוא duka, a watchman.

### Verse 9

[¶11] Here cometh a chariot of men, etc. "A man, one of the two riders" - So the Syriac understands it, and Ephrem Syr.

### Verse 10

[¶13] O my threshing - "O thou, the object upon which I shall exercise the severity of my discipline; that shalt lie under my afflicting hand, like corn spread upon the floor to be threshed out and winnowed, to separate the chaff from the wheat!" The image of threshing is frequently used by the Hebrew poets, with great elegance and force, to express the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, or the utter dispersion and destruction of God's enemies. Of the different ways of threshing in use among the Hebrews, and the manner of performing them, see the note on [Isa 28:27] (note).

[¶14] Our translators have taken the liberty of using the word threshing in a passive sense, to express the object or matter that is threshed; in which I have followed them, not being able to express it more properly, without departing too much from the form and letter of the original. "Son of my floor," Hebrews It is an idiom of the Hebrew language to call the effect, the object, the adjunct, any thing that belongs in almost any way to another, the son of it. "O my threshing." The prophet abruptly breaks off the speech of God; and instead of continuing it in the form in which he had begun, and in the person of God, "This I declare unto you by my prophet," he changes the form of address, and adds, in his own person, "This I declare unto you from God."

### Verse 11

[¶16] The burden of Dumah "The oracle concerning Dumah" - Pro דומה Dumah, Codex R. Meiri habet אדום Edom; and so the Septuagint, Vid. Kimchi ad h. 50. Biblia Michaelis, Halae, 1720, not. ad 50. See also De Rossi. Bishop Lowth translates the prophecy thus: -

[¶17] 11. The Oracle Concerning Dumah.

[¶18] A voice crieth to me from Seir:

[¶19] Watchman, what from the night?

[¶20] Watchman, what from the night?

[¶21] 12. The watchman replieth: -

[¶22] The morning cometh, and also the night.

[¶23] If ye will inquire, inquire ye: come again.

[¶24] This differs very little from our common Version. One of Kennicott's MSS., and one of my own, omit the repetition, "Watchman, what from the night?"

[¶25] This prophecy, from the uncertainty of the occasion on which it was uttered, and from the brevity of the expression, is extremely obscure. The Edomites as well as the Jews were subdued by the Babylonians. They inquire of the prophet how long their subjection is to last: he intimates that the Jews should be delivered from their captivity; not so the Edomites. Thus far the interpretation seems to carry with it some degree of probability. What the meaning of the last line may be, I cannot pretend to divine. In this difficulty the Hebrew MSS. give no assistance. The MSS. of the Septuagint, and the fragments of the other Greek Versions, give some variations, but no light. This being the case, I thought it best to give an exact literal translation of the whole two verses, which may serve to enable the English reader to judge in some measure of the foundation of the various interpretations that have been given of them.

[¶26] The burden of Dumah. - R. D. Kimchi says, "His father understood this of the destruction of Dumah (one of the cities of the Ishmaelites) by the inhabitants of Seir; and that they inquired of the prophet to know the particular time in which God had given them a commission against it. The prophet answered: The morning - the time of success to you, cometh, is just at hand; and the night - the time of utter destruction to the inhabitants of Dumah, is also ready." I have heard the words applied in the way of general exhortation.

[¶27] 1. Every minister of God is a watchman. He is continually watching for the safety and interests of his people, and looking for the counsel of God that he may be properly qualified to warn and to comfort.

[¶28] 2. Such are often called to denounce heavy judgments; they have the burden of the word of the Lord to denounce against the impenitent, the backslider, the lukewarm, and the careless.

[¶29] 3. When the watchman threatens judgments, some are awakened, and some mock: Watchman, what of the night? "What are the judgments thou threatenest, and when are they to take place?"

[¶30] 4. To this question, whether seriously or tauntingly proposed, the watchman answers:

[¶31] 1. The morning cometh - there is a time of repentance granted; a morning of God's long-suffering kindness now appears: and also the night - the time in which God will no longer wait to be gracious, but will cut you off as cumberers of the ground.

[¶32] 2. But if you will inquire seriously how you are to escape God's judgments, inquire ye.

[¶33] 3. There is still a door of hope; continue to pray for mercy.

[¶34] 4. Return from your iniquities.

[¶35] 5. Come to God, through Christ, that ye may obtain salvation.

### Verse 13

[¶37] The burden upon Arabia "The oracle concerning Arabia" - This title is of doubtful authority. In the first place, because it is not in many of the MSS. of the Septuagint; it is in MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2. only, as far as I can find with certainty. Secondly, from the singularity of the phraseology; for משא massa is generally prefixed to its object without a preposition, as משא בבל massa babel; and never but in this place with the preposition ב beth. Besides, as the word בערב baarab occurs at the very beginning of the prophecy itself, the first word but one, it is much to be suspected that some one, taking it for a proper name and the object of the prophecy, might note it as such by the words משא בערב massa baarab written in the margin, which he might easily transfer to the text. The Septuagint did not take it for a proper name, but render it εν τῳ δρυμῳ ἑσπερας, "in the forest, in the evening," and so the Chaldee, which I follow; for otherwise, the forest in Arabia is so indeterminate and vague a description, that in effect it means nothing at all. This observation might have been of good use in clearing up the foregoing very obscure prophecy, if any light had arisen from joining the two together by removing the separating title; but I see no connection between them. The Arabic Version has, "The prophecy concerning the Arabians, and the children of Chedar."

[¶38] This prophecy was to have been fulfilled within a year of the time of its delivery, see [Isa 21:16]; and it was probably delivered about the same time with the rest in this part of the book, that is, soon before or after the 14th of Hezekiah, the year of Sennacherib's invasion. In his first march into Judea, or in his return from the Egyptian expedition, he might perhaps overrun these several clans of Arabians; their distress on some such occasion is the subject of this prophecy. - L.

### Verse 14

[¶40] The land of Tema "The southern country" - Θαιμαν, Sept.; Austri, Vulg. They read תימן teiman, which seems to be right; for probably the inhabitants of Tema might be involved in the same calamity with their brethren and neighbors of Kedar, and not in a condition to give them assistance, and to relieve them, in their flight before the enemy, with bread and water. To bring forth bread and water is an instance of common humanity in such cases of distress; especially in those desert countries in which the common necessaries of life, more particularly water, are not easily to be met with or procured. Moses forbids the Ammonite and Moabite to be admitted into the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation. One reason which he gives for this reprobation is their omission of the common offices of humanity towards the Israelites; "because they met them not with bread and water in the way, when they came forth out of Egypt," [Deu 23:4].

### Verse 17

[¶42] The archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar "The mighty bowmen of the sons of Kedar" - Sagittariorum fortium, Vulg.; transposing the two words, and reading גבורי קשה gibborey kesheth; which seems to be right. The strong men of the bow, the most excellent archers.

[¶43] For the Lord - hath spoken it "For Jehovah hath spoken it" - The prophetic Carmina of Marcius, foretelling the battle of Cannae, lib. 25:12, conclude with the same kind of solemn form: Nam mihi ita Jupiter fatus est; "Thus hath Jupiter spoken to me." Observe that the word נאם naam, to pronounce, to declare, is the solemn word appropriated to the delivering of prophecies: "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith (נאם naam, pronounceth) Jehovah, who use their tongues, וינאמו נאם vaiyinamu neum, and solemnly pronounce, He hath pronounced it;" [Jer 23:31]. What God says shall most assuredly come to pass; he cannot be deceived.

## 810. Isaiah · 30 of 79

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### Introduction

[¶1] Prophecy concerning Jerusalem, [Isa 22:1-14]. Sentence against Shebna, who was over the household, [Isa 22:15-19]. Prophecy concerning Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, [Isa 22:20], [Isa 22:21]. From Eliakim, Isaiah, (agreeably to the mode universally adopted in the prophetical writings, of making the things then present, or which were shortly to be accomplished, types or representations of things to be fulfilled upon a larger scale in distant futurity), makes a transition to the Messiah, of whom Eliakim was a type, to whom the words will best apply, and to whom some passages in the prophecy must be solely restrained, [Isa 22:20-24]. The sentence against Shebna again confirmed, [Isa 22:25].

[¶2] This prophecy, ending with the fourteenth verse of this chapter, is entitled, "The oracle concerning the valley of vision," by which is meant Jerusalem, because, says Sal. ben Melech, it was the place of prophecy. Jerusalem, according to Josephus, was built upon two opposite hills Sion and Acra, separated by a valley in the midst. He speaks of another broad valley between Acra and Moriah, Bell. Jud. 5:13; 6:6. It was the seat of Divine revelation; the place where chiefly prophetic vision was given, and where God manifested himself visibly in the holy place. The prophecy foretells the invasion of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Sennacherib; or by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. Vitringa is of opinion that the prophet has both in view: that of the Chaldeans in the first part, [Isa 22:1-5], which he thinks relates to the flight of Zedekiah, [2Kgs 25:4], [2Kgs 25:5]; and that of the Assyrians in the latter part, which agrees with the circumstances of that time, and particularly describes the preparations made by Hezekiah for the defense of the city, [Isa 22:8-11]. Compare [2Chr 32:2-5]. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶4] Art - gone up to the house-tops "Are gone up to the house-tops" - The houses in the east were in ancient times, as they are still, generally, built in one and the same uniform manner. The roof or top of the house is always flat, covered with broad stones, or a strong plaster of terrace, and guarded on every side with a low parapet wall; see [Deu 22:8]. The terrace is frequented as much as any part of the house. On this, as the season favors, they walk, they eat, they sleep, they transact business, ([1Sam 9:25], see also the Septuagint in that place), they perform their devotions [Act 10:9]. The house is built with a court within, into which chiefly the windows open: those that open to the street are so obstructed with lattice-work that no one either without or within can see through them. Whenever, therefore, any thing is to be seen or heard in the streets, any public spectacle, any alarm of a public nature, every one immediately goes up to the house-top to satisfy his curiosity. In the same manner, when any one has occasion to make any thing public, the readiest and most effectual way of doing it is to proclaim it from the house-tops to the people in the streets. "What ye hear in the ear, that publish ye on the house-top," saith our Savior, [Mat 10:27]. The people running all to the tops of their houses gives a lively image of a sudden general alarm. Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place is as follows: "Dans les festes pour voir passer quelque chose, et dans les maladies pour les annoncer aux voisins en allumant des lumieres, le peuple monte sur les terrasses." "In festivals, in order to see what is going forward, and in times of sickness, in order to indicate them to neighbors by lighting of candles, the people go up to the house-tops."

### Verse 3

[¶6] All thy rulers - are bound by the archers "All thy leaders - are fled from the bow" - There seems to be somewhat of an inconsistency in the sense according to the present reading. If the leaders were bound, אסרו usseru, how could they flee away? for their being bound, according to the obvious construction and course of the sentence, is a circumstance prior to their flight. I therefore follow Houbigant, who reads הסרו huseru, remoti sunt, "they are gone off." גלו galu, transmigraverunt, Chaldee; which seems to confirm this emendation.

### Verse 6

[¶8] Chariots of men "The Syriac" - It is not easy to say what רכב אדם recheb adam, a chariot of men, can mean. It seems by the form of the sentence, which consists of three members, the first and the third mentioning a particular people, that the second should do so likewise. Thus ברכב ארם ופרשים berecheb aram uparashim, "with chariots the Syrian, and with horsemen:" the similitude of the letters ד daleth and ר resh is so great, and the mistakes arising from it are so frequent, that I readily adopt the correction of Houbigant, ארם aram, Syria, instead of אדם adam, man; which seems to me extremely probable. The conjunction ו vau, and, prefixed to פרשים parashim, horsemen, seems necessary in whatever way the sentence may be taken; and it is confirmed by five MSS., (one ancient), four of De Rossi's, and two ancient of my own; one by correction of Dr. Kennicott's, and three editions. Kir was a city belonging to the Medes. The Medes were subject to the Assyrians in Hezekiah's time, (see [2Kgs 16:9], and [2Kgs 17:6]); and so perhaps might Elam (the Persians) likewise be, or auxiliaries to them.

### Verse 8

[¶10] The armor "The arsenal" - Built by Solomon within the city, and called the house of the forest of Lebanon; probably from the great quantity of cedar from Lebanon which was employed in the building. See [1Kgs 7:2], [1Kgs 7:3].

### Verse 9

[¶12] Ye gathered together the waters "And ye shall collect the waters" - There were two pools in or near Jerusalem, supplied by springs: the upper pool, or the old pool, supplied by the spring called Gihon, [2Chr 32:30], towards the higher part of the city, near Sion, or the city of David, and the lower pool, probably supplied by Siloam, towards the lower part. When Hezekiah was threatened with a siege by Sennacherib, he stopped up all the waters of the fountains without the city; and brought them into the city by a conduit, or subterranean passage cut through the rock; those of the old pool, to the place where he had a double wall, so that the pool was between the two walls. This he did in order to distress the enemy, and to supply the city during the siege. This was so great a work that not only the historians have made particular mention of it, [2Kgs 20:20];[2Chr 32:2], [2Chr 32:3], [2Chr 32:5], [2Chr 32:30]; but the son of Sirach also has celebrated it in his encomium on Hezekiah. "Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought in water into the midst thereof: he digged the hard rock with iron, and made wells for water," Ecclesiasticus 48.

### Verse 11

[¶14] Unto the maker thereof "To him that hath disposed this" - That is, to God the Author and Disposer of this visitation, the invasion with which he now threatens you. The very same expressions are applied to God, and upon the same occasion, [Isa 37:26] : - "Hast thou not heard of old, that I have disposed it;

[¶15] And of ancient times, that I have formed it?"

### Verse 13

[¶17] Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die - This has been the language or all those who have sought their portion in this life, since the foundation of the world. So the poet: -

[¶18] Heu, heu nos miserif quam totus homuncio nil est!

[¶19] Sic erimus cuncti, postquam nos auferet orcus.

[¶20] Ergo vivamus, dum licet esse, bene.

[¶21] Alas alas! what miserable creatures are we, oniy the semblances of men! And so shall we be all when we come to die. Therefore let us live joyfully while we may.

[¶22] Domitian had an image of death hung up in his dining-room, to show his guests that as life was uncertain, they should make the best of it by indulging themselves. On this Martial, to flatter the emperor, whom he styles god, wrote the following epigram: -

[¶23] Frange thoros, pete vina, tingere nardo.

[¶24] Ipse jubet mortis te meminisse Deus.

[¶25] Sit down to table - drink heartily - anoint thyself with spikenard; for God himself commands thee to remember death.

[¶26] So the adage: -

[¶27] Ede, bibe, lude post mortem nulla voluptas. "Eat, drink, and play, while here ye may:

[¶28] No revelry after your dying day."

[¶29] St. Paul quotes the same heathen sentiment, [1Cor 15:32] : "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Anacreon is full in point, and from him nothing better can be expected: - Ὡς ουν ετ' ευδι' εστιν, Και πινε και κυβευε Και σπενδε τῳ Λυαιῳ· Μη νουσος, ην τις ελθῃ, Λεγῃ, σε μη δει πινειν.

[¶30] Anac. Od. xv., 50:11. "While no tempest blots your sky,

[¶31] Drink, and throw the sportful dye:

[¶32] But to Bacchus drench the ground,

[¶33] Ere you push the goblet round;

[¶34] Lest some fatal illness cry, 'Drink no more the cup of joy.'"

[¶35] Addison.

### Verse 14

[¶37] It was revealed in mine ears "The voice of Jehovah" - The Vulgate has vox Domini; as if in his copy he had read קול יהוה kol Yehovah; and in truth, without the word קול kol, voice, it is not easy to make out the sense of the passage; as appears from the strange versions which the rest of the ancients, (except the Chaldee), and many of the moderns, have given of it; as if the matter were revealed in or to the ears of Jehovah: εν τοις ωσι Κυριου, in the ears of the Lord, Septuagint. Vitringa translates it, Revelatus est in auribus meis Jehovah, "Jehovah hath revealed it in mine ears," and refers to [1Sam 2:27]; [1Sam 3:21] : but the construction in those places is different, and there is no speech of God added; which here seems to want something more than the verb נגלה nigleh to introduce it. Compare [Isa 5:9], where the text is still more imperfect.

[¶38] The Lord God of hosts - אדני יהוה צבאות Adonai Yehovah tsebaoth. But אדני Adonai, Lord, is omitted by two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., and by two of my own; by three editions, and the Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic.

### Verse 15

[¶40] Go - unto Shebna - The following prophecy concerning Shebna seems to have very little relation to the foregoing, except that it might have been delivered about the same time; and Shebna might be a principal person among those whose luxury and profaneness is severely reprehended by the prophet in the conclusion of that prophecy, [Isa 22:11-14].

[¶41] Shebna the scribe, mentioned in the history of Hezekiah, chap. 36, seems to have been a different person from this Shebna, the treasurer or steward of the household, to whom this prophecy relates. The Eliakim here mentioned was probably the person who, at the time of Sennacherib's invasion, was actually treasurer, the son of Hilkiah. If so, this prophecy was delivered, as the preceding, (which makes the former part of the chapter), plainly was, some time before the invasion of Sennacherib. As to the rest, history affords us no information. "And say unto him" - Here are two words lost out of the text, which are supplied by two of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., one ancient, which read ואמרת אליו veamarta elaiv, and thou shalt say unto him; by the Septuagint, και ειπον αυτῳ, and in the same manner by all the ancient versions. It is to be observed that this passage is merely historical, and does not admit of that sort of ellipsis by which in the poetical parts a person is frequently introduced speaking, without the usual notice, that what follows was delivered by him.

### Verse 16

[¶43] A sepulcher on high - in a rock - It has been observed before, on Isaiah 14, that persons of high rank in Judea, and in most parts of the east, were generally buried in large sepulchral vaults, hewn out in the rock for the use of themselves and their families. The vanity of Shebna is set forth by his being so studious and careful to have his sepulcher on high - in a lofty vault; and that probably in a high situation, that it might be more conspicuous. Hezekiah was buried, למעלה lemalah, εν αναβασει, Sept.: in the chiefest, says our translation; rather, in the highest part of the sepulchres of the sons of David, to do him the more honor, [2Chr 32:33]. There are some monuments still remaining in Persia of great antiquity, called Naksi Rustam, which give one a clear idea of Shebna's pompous design for his sepulcher. They consist of several sepulchers, each of them hewn in a high rock near the top; the front of the rock to the valley below is adorned with carved work in relievo, being the outside of the sepulcher. Some of these sepulchers are about thirty feet in the perpendicular from the valley, which is itself perhaps raised above half as much by the accumulation of the earth since they were made. See the description of them in Chardin, Pietro della Valle, Thevenot, and Kempfer. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 17, mentions these ancient monuments, and calls them the sepulchres of the kings of Persia. - L.

### Verse 17

[¶45] Cover thee - That is, thy face. This was the condition of mourners in general, and particularly of condemned persons. See [Est 6:12]; [Est 7:8].

## 811. Isaiah · 31 of 79

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### Verse 19

[¶1] I will drive thee - אהרסך ehersecha, in the first person, Syr. Vulg.

### Verse 21

[¶3] To the inhabitants - ליושבי leyoshebey, in the plural number, four of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., (two ancient), and two of De Rossi's, with the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

### Verse 22

[¶5] And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder - As the robe and the baldric, mentioned in the preceding verse, were the ensigns of power and authority, so likewise was the key the mark of office, either sacred or civil. The priestess of Juno is said to be the key-bearer of the goddess, κλειδουχος Ἡρας· Aeschyl. Suppl. 299. A female high in office under a great queen has the same title: - Καλλιθοη κλειδουχος Ολυμπιαδος βασιλειης. "Callithoe was the key-bearer of the Olympian queen."

[¶6] Auctor Phoronidis ap. Clem. Alex. p. 418, edit. Potter. This mark of office was likewise among the Greeks, as here in Isaiah, borne on the shoulder; the priestess of Ceres, κατωμαδιαν εχε κλαιδα, had the key on her shoulder. Callim. Ceres, verse 45. To comprehend how the key could be borne on the shoulder, it will be necessary to say something of the form of it: but without entering into a long disquisition, and a great deal of obscure learning, concerning the locks and keys of the ancients, it will be sufficient to observe, that one sort of keys, and that probably the most ancient, was of considerable magnitude, and as to the shape, very much bent and crooked. Aratus, to give his reader an idea of the form of the constellation Cassiopeia, compares it to a key. It must be owned that the passage is very obscure; but the learned Huetius has bestowed a great deal of pains in explaining it, Animadvers. in Manilii, lib. 1:355; and I think has succeeded very well in it. Homer Odyss. [Isa 21:6], describes the key of Ulysses' storehouse as ευκαμπης, of a large curvature; which Eustathius explains by saying it was δρεπανοειδης, in shape like a reaphook. Huetius says the constellation Cassiopeia answers to this description; the stars to the north making the curve part, that is, the principal part of the key; the southern stars, the handle. The curve part was introduced into the key-hole; and, being properly directed by the handle, took hold of the bolts within, and moved them from their places. We may easily collect from this account, that such a key would lie very well upon the shoulder; that it must be of some considerable size and weight, and could hardly be commodiously carried otherwise. Ulysses' key was of brass, and the handle of ivory: but this was a royal key. The more common ones were probably of wood. In Egypt they have no other than wooden locks and keys to this day; even the gates of Cairo have no better. Baumgarten, Peregr. 1:18. Thevenot, part ii., chap. 10. But was it not the representation of a key, either cut out in cloth and sewed on the shoulder of the garment, or embroidered on that part of the garment itself? The idea of a huge key of a gate, in any kind of metal, laid across the shoulder, is to me very ridiculous.

[¶7] In allusion to the image of the key as the ensign of power, the unlimited extent of that power is expressed with great clearness as well as force by the sole and exclusive authority to open and shut. Our Savior, therefore, has upon a similar occasion made use of a like manner of expression, [Mat 16:19]; and in [Rev 3:7] has applied to himself the very words of the prophet.

### Verse 23

[¶9] A nail - In ancient times, and in the eastern countries, as the way of life, so the houses, were much more simple than ours at present. They had not that quantity and variety of furniture, nor those accommodations of all sorts, with which we abound. It was convenient and even necessary for them, and it made an essential part in the building of a house, to furnish the inside of the several apartments with sets of spikes, nails, or large pegs, upon which to dispose of and hang up the several movables and utensils in common use, and proper to the apartment. These spikes they worked into the walls at the first erection of them, the walls being of such materials that they could not bear their being driven in afterwards; and they were contrived so as to strengthen the walls by binding the parts together, as well as to serve for convenience. Sir John Chardin's account of this matter is this: "They do not drive with a hammer the nails that are put into the eastern walls. The walls are too hard, being of brick; or, if they are of clay, too moldering: but they fix them in the brick-work as they are building. They are large nails, with square heads like dice, well made, the ends being bent so as to make them cramp-irons. They commonly place them at the windows and doors, in order to hang upon them, when they like, veils and curtains." Harmer's Observ. 1 p. 191. And we may add, that they were put in other places too, in order to hang up other things of various kinds; as appears from this place of Isaiah, and from [Eze 15:3], who speaks of a pin or nail, "to hang any vessel thereon." The word used here for a nail of this sort is the same by which they express that instrument, the stake, or large pin of iron, with which they fastened down to the ground the cords of their tents. We see, therefore, that these nails were of necessary and common use, and of no small importance in all their apartments; conspicuous, and much exposed to observation: and if they seem to us mean and insignificant, it is because we are not acquainted with the thing itself, and have no name to express it but by what conveys to us a low and contemptible idea. "Grace hath been showed from the Lord our God," saith Ezra, [Ezr 9:8], "to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place:" that is, as the margin of our Bible explains it, "a constant and sure abode." "He that doth lodge near her (Wisdom's) house,

[¶10] Shall also fasten a pin in her walls."

[¶11] Ecclus. 14:24.

[¶12] The dignity and propriety of the metaphor appears from the Prophet Zechariah's use of it: - "From him shall be the corner-stone, from him the nail,

[¶13] From him the battle-bow,

[¶14] From him every ruler together." [Zac 10:4].

[¶15] And Mohammed, using the same word, calls Pharaoh the lord or master of the nails, that is, well attended by nobles and officers capable of administering his affairs. Koran, Sur. 38:11, and 89:9. So some understand this passage of the Koran. Mr. Sale seems to prefer another interpretation.

[¶16] Taylor, in his Concordance, thinks יתד yathed means the pillar or post that stands in the middle, and supports the tent, in which such pegs are fixed to hang their arms, etc., upon; referring to Shaw's Travels, p. 287. But יתד yathed is never used, as far as appears to me, in that sense. It was indeed necessary that the pillar of the tent should have such pegs on it for that purpose; but the hanging of such things in this manner upon this pillar does not prove that יתד yathed was the pillar itself.

[¶17] A glorious throne "A glorious seat" - That is, his father's house and all his own family shall be gloriously seated, shall flourish in honor and prosperity; and shall depend upon him, and be supported by him.

### Verse 24

[¶19] All the glory - One considerable part of the magnificence of the eastern princes consisted in the great quantity of gold and silver vessels which they had for various uses. "Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver; it was nothing accounted of in Solomon's days;" [1Kgs 10:21]. "The vessels in the house of the forest of Lebanon," the armory of Jerusalem so called, "were two hundred targets, and three hundred shields of beaten gold." Ibid. [1Kgs 10:16], [1Kgs 10:17]. These were ranged in order upon the walls of the armory, (see [Sol 4:4]), upon pins worked into the walls on purpose, as above mentioned. Eliakim is considered as a principal stake of this sort, immovably fastened in the wall for the support of all vessels destined for common or sacred uses; that is, as the principal support of the whole civil and ecclesiastical polity. And the consequence of his continued power will be the promotion and flourishing condition of his family and dependents, from the highest to the lowest.

[¶20] Vessels of flagons "Meaner vessels" - נבלים nebalim seems to mean earthen vessels of common use, brittle, and of little value, (see [Lam 4:2]; [Jer 48:12]), in opposition to אגנות aganoth, goblets of gold and silver used in the sacrifices. [Exo 24:6].

### Verse 25

[¶22] The nail that is fastened - This must be understood of Shebna, as a repetition and confirmation of the sentence above denounced against him.

[¶23] What is said of Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, [Isa 22:20-24], is very remarkable; and the literal meaning is not easy to be understood. From [Isa 9:6], and from [Rev 3:7], it seems to belong to our Lord alone. The removal of Shebna from being over the treasure of the Lord's house, [Isa 22:19], and the investiture of Eliakim with his robe, girdle, office, and government, [Isa 22:20], etc., probably point out the change of the Jewish priesthood, and the proclaiming of the unchangeable priesthood of Christ. See [Psa 110:4]. Eliakim signifies The resurrection of the Lord; or, My God, he shall arise. Hilkiah signifies The Lord my portion or lot. The key of David, shutting and opening, etc., may intend the way of salvation through Christ alone. For the hope of salvation and eternal life comes only through Eliakim, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

[¶24] It is said, [Isa 22:24], "They shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house" - for, in Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and the offspring and the issue, הצאצאים hatstseetsaim from יצא yatsa, to go out, - the suckers from the root; the sideshoots, the apostles and primitive ministers of his word. The issue, הצפיעות hatstsephioth, probably means the issue's issue; so the Targum. The grandchildren, all those who believe on the Lord Jesus through their word. "The nail that is fastened in the sure place shall be removed," [Isa 22:25], Kimchi refers not to Eliakim, but to Shebna, [Isa 22:17-19]. By, "They shall hang upon him all vessels of small quantity and large quantity," has been understood the dependence of all souls, of all capacities, from the lowest in intellect to the most exalted on the Lord Jesus, as the only Savior of all lost human spirits.

[¶25] As the literal interpretation of this prophecy has not been found out, we are justified from parallel texts to consider the whole as referring to Jesus Christ, and the government of the Church, and the redemption of the world by him. Nor are there many prophecies which relate to him more clearly than this, taken in the above sense.

### Introduction

[¶27] Prophecy denouncing the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, delivered upwards of one hundred and twenty years before its accomplishment, at a period when the Tyrians were in great prosperity, and the Babylonians in abject subjection to the Assyrian empire; and, consequently, when an event of so great magnitude was improbable in the highest degree, [Isa 23:1-14]. Tyre shall recover its splendor at the termination of seventy years, the days of One king, or kingdom, by which must be meant the time allotted for the duration of the Babylonish empire, as otherwise the prophecy cannot be accommodated to the event, [Isa 23:15-17]. Supposed reference to the early conversion of Tyre to Christianity, [Isa 23:18].

### Verse 1

[¶29] The burden of Tyre - Tyre, a city on the coast of Syria, about lat. 32 N. was built two thousand seven hundred and sixty years before Christ. There were two cities of this name; one on the continent, and the other on an island, about half a mile from the shore; the city on the island was about four miles in circumference. Old Tyre resisted Nebuchadnezzar for thirteen years; then the inhabitants carried, so to speak, the city to the forementioned island, [Isa 23:4]. This new city held out against Alexander the Great for seven months; who, in order to take it, was obliged to fill up the channel which separated it from the main land. In a.d. 1289 it was totally destroyed by the sultan of Egypt; and now contains only a few huts, in which about fifty or sixty wretched families exist. This desolation was foretold by this prophet and by Ezekiel, one thousand nine hundred years before it took place!

[¶30] Howl, ye ships of Tarshish - This prophecy denounces the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. It opens with an address to the Tyrian negotiators and sailors at Tarshish, (Tartessus, in Spain), a place which, in the course of their trade, they greatly frequented. The news of the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar is said to be brought to them from Chittim, the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean; "for the Tyrians," says Jerome on [Isa 23:6], "when they saw they had no other means of escaping, fled in their ships, and took refuge in Carthage and in the islands of the Ionian and Aegean sea." From whence the news would spread and reach Tarshish; so also Jarchi on the same place. This seems to be the most probable interpretation of this verse.

### Verse 2

[¶32] Be still "Be silent" - Silence is a mark of grief and consternation. See [Isa 47:5]. Jeremiah has finely expressed this image: - "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they are silent:

[¶33] They have cast up dust on their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth.

[¶34] The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground." [Lam 2:10].

### Verse 3

[¶36] The seed of Sihor "The seed of the Nile" - The Nile is called here Shichor, as it is [Jer 2:18], and [1Chr 13:5]. It had this name from the blackness of its waters, charged with the mud which it brings down from Ethiopia when it overflows, Et viridem Aegyptum nigra fecundat arena; as it was called by the Greeks Melas, and by the Latins Melo, for the same reason. See Servius on the above line of Virgil, Georg. 4:291. It was called Siris by the Ethiopians, by some supposed to be the same with Shichor. Egypt by its extraordinary fertility, caused by the overflowing of the Nile supplied the neighboring nations with corn, by which branch of trade the Tyrians gained great wealth.

### Verse 4

[¶38] Be thou ashamed, O Zidon - Tyre is called [Isa 23:12], the daughter of Sidon. "The Sidonians," says Justin, 18:3, "when their city was taken by the king of Ascalon, betook themselves to their ships, and landed, and built by Tyre." Sidon, as the mother city is supposed to be deeply affected with the calamity of her daughter.

[¶39] Nor bring up virgins "Nor educated virgins" - ורוממתי veromamti; so an ancient MS. Of Dr. Kennicott's prefixing the ו vau, which refers to the negative preceding, and is equivalent to ולא velo. See [Deu 23:6]; [Pro 30:3]. Two of my own MSS. have ו vau in the margin.

### Verse 7

[¶41] Whose antiquity is of ancient days "Whose antiquity is of the earliest date" - Justin, in the passage above quoted, had dated the building of Tyre at a certain number of years before the taking of Troy; but the number is lost in the present copies. Tyre, though not so old as Sidon, was yet of very high antiquity: it was a strong city even in the time of Joshua. It is called עיר מבצר צר ir mibtsar tsor, "the city of the fortress of Sor," [Jos 19:29]. Interpreters raise difficulties in regard to this passage, and will not allow it to have been so ancient; with what good reason I do not see, for it is called by the same name, "the fortress of Sor," in the history of David, [2Sam 24:7], and the circumstances of the history determine the place to be the very same. See on [Isa 23:1] (note).

[¶42] Whose antiquity is of ancient days, may refer to Palaetyrus, or Old Tyre.

[¶43] Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn - This may belong to the new or insular Tyre; her own feet, that is, her own inhabitants, shall carry her - shall transport the city, from the continent to the island. "But the text says it shall be carried far off, and the new city was founded only half a mile distant from the other." I answer, מרחוק merachok does not always signify a great distance, but distance or interval in general; for in [Jos 3:4] רחוק rachok is used to express the space between the camp and the ark, which we know to have been only two thousand cubits. Some refer the sojourning afar off to the extent of the commercial voyages undertaken by the Tyrians and their foreign connections.

## 812. Isaiah · 32 of 79

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### Verse 10

[¶1] O daughter of Tarshish - Tyre is called the daughter of Tarshish; perhaps because, Tyre being ruined, Tarshish was become the superior city, and might be considered as the metropolis of the Tyrian people; or rather because of the close connection and perpetual intercourse between them, according to that latitude of signification in which the Hebrews use the words son and daughter to express any sort of conjunction and dependence whatever. מזח mezach, a girdle, which collects, binds, and keeps together the loose raiment, when applied to a river, may mean a mound, mole, or artificial dam, which contains the waters and prevents them from spreading abroad. A city taken by siege and destroyed, whose walls are demolished, whose policy is dissolved, whose wealth is dissipated, whose people is scattered over the wide country, is compared to a river whose banks are broken down, and whose waters, let loose and overflowing all the neighboring plains, are wasted and lost. This may possibly be the meaning of this very obscure verse, of which I can find no other interpretation that is at all satisfactory. - L.

### Verse 13

[¶3] Behold the land of the Chaldeans - This verse is extremely obscure; the obscurity arises from the ambiguity of the agents, which belong to the verbs, and of the objects expressed by the pronouns; from the change of number of the verbs, and of gender in the pronouns. The MSS. give us no assistance, and the ancient Versions very little. The Chaldee and Vulgate read שמוה samoah, in the plural number. I have followed the interpretation which, among many different ones, seemed to be most probable, that of Perizonius and Vitringa.

[¶4] The Chaldeans, Chasdim, are supposed to have had their origin, and to have taken their name, from Chesed, the son of Nachor, the brother of Abraham. They were known by that name in the time of Moses, who calls Ur in Mesopotamia, from whence Abraham came, to distinguish it from other places of the same name, Ur of the Chaldeans. And Jeremiah calls them an ancient nation. This is not inconsistent with what Isaiah here says of them: "This people was not," that is, they were of no account, (see [Deu 32:21]); they were not reckoned among the great and potent nations of the world till of later times; they were a rude, uncivilized, barbarous people, without laws, without settled habitations; wandering in a wide desert country (ציים tsiyim) and addicted to rapine like the wild Arabians. Such they are represented to have been in the time of Job, [Job 1:17], and such they continued to be till Assur, some powerful king of Assyria, gathered them together, and settled them in Babylon in the neighboring country. This probably was Ninus, whom I suppose to have lived in the time of the Judges. In this, with many eminent chronologers, I follow the authority of Herodotus, who says that the Assyrian monarchy lasted but five hundred and twenty years. Ninus got possession of Babylon from the Cuthean Arabians; the successors of Nimrod in that empire collected the Chaldeans, and settled a colony of them there to secure the possession of the city, which he and his successors greatly enlarged and ornamented. They had perhaps been useful to him in his wars, and might be likely to be farther useful in keeping under the old inhabitants of that city, and of the country belonging to it; according to the policy of the Assyrian kings, who generally brought new people into the conquered countries; see [Isa 36:17]; [2Kgs 17:6], [2Kgs 17:24]. The testimony of Dicaearchus, a Greek historian contemporary with Alexander, (apud. Steph. de Urbibus, in voc. Χαλδαιος), in regard to the fact is remarkable, though he is mistaken in the name of the king he speaks of. He says that "a certain king of Assyria, the fourteenth in succession from Ninus, (as he might be, if Ninus is placed, as in the common chronology, eight hundred years higher than we have above set him), named, as it is said, Chaldaeus, having gathered together and united all the people called Chaldeans, built the famous city, Babylon, upon the Euphrates." - L.

### Verse 14

[¶6] Howl, ye shops - The Prophet Ezekiel hath enlarged upon this part of the same subject with great force and elegance: - "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning Tyre: -

[¶7] At the sound of thy fall, at the cry of the wounded,

[¶8] At the great slaughter in the midst of thee, shall not the islands tremble?

[¶9] And shall not all the princes of the sea descend from their thrones,

[¶10] And lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments?

[¶11] They shall clothe themselves with trembling, they shall sit on the ground;

[¶12] They shall tremble every moment, they shall be astonished at thee.

[¶13] And they shall utter a lamentation over thee, and shall say unto thee:

[¶14] How art thou lost, thou that wast inhabited from the seas!

[¶15] The renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants!

[¶16] That struck with terror all her neighbors!

[¶17] Now shall the coasts tremble in the day of thy fall,

[¶18] And the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure." [Eze 26:15-18].

### Verse 15

[¶20] According to the days of one king - What is, of one kingdom; see [Dan 7:17], [Dan 8:20]. Nebuchadnezzar began his conquests in the first year of his reign; from thence to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus are seventy years, at which time the nations subdued by Nebuchadnezzar were to be restored to liberty. These seventy years limit the duration of the Babylonish monarchy. Tyre was taken by him towards the middle of that period; so did not serve the king of Babylon during the whole period, but only for the remaining part of it. This seems to be the meaning of Isaiah; the days allotted to the one king or kingdom, are seventy years; Tyre, with the rest of the conquered nations, shall continue in a state of subjection and desolation to the end of that period. Not from the beginning and through the whole of the period; for, by being one of the latest conquests, the duration of that state of subjection in regard to her, was not much more than half of it. "All these nations," saith Jeremiah, [Jer 25:11], "shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." Some of them were conquered sooner, some later; but the end of this period was the common term for the deliverance of them all.

[¶21] There is another way of computing the seventy years, from the year in which Tyre was actually taken to the nineteenth of Darius Hystaspis; whom the Phoenicians, or Tyrians, assisted against the Ionians, and probably on that account might then be restored to their former liberties and privileges. But I think the former the more probable interpretation. - L.

[¶22] Sing as a harlot - Fidicinam esse meretricum est. says Donatus in Terent. Eunuch. 3:2, 4.

[¶23] Nec meretrix tibicina, cujus Ad strepitum salias.

[¶24] Hor. 1:Epist. 14:25. "Nor harlot minstrel sings, when the rude sound

[¶25] Tempts you with heavy heels to thump the ground."

[¶26] Francis.

[¶27] Sir John Chardin, in his MS. note on this place, says: -

[¶28] C'est que les vielles prostituees, - ne font que chanter quand les jeunes dancent, et les animer par l'instrument et par la voix. "The old prostitutes do nothing but sing, while the young ones dance; and animate them both by vocal and instrumental music."

### Verse 17

[¶30] After the end of seventy years - Tyre, after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, recovered, as it is here foretold, its ancient trade, wealth, and grandeur; as it did likewise after a second destruction by Alexander. It became Christian early with the rest of the neighboring countries. St. Paul himself found many Christians there, [Act 21:4]. It suffered much in the Diocletian persecution. It was an archbishopric under the patriarchate of Jerusalem, with fourteen bishoprics under its jurisdiction. It continued Christian till it was taken by the Saracens in 639; was recovered by the Christians in 1124; but in 1280 was conquered by the Mamelukes, and afterwards taken from them by the Turks in 1517. Since that time it has sunk into utter decay; is now a mere ruin, a bare rock, "a place to spread nets upon," as the Prophet Ezekiel foretold it should be, [Eze 26:14]. See Sandy's Travels; Vitringa on the place; Bp. Newton on the Prophecies, Dissert. xi.

### Introduction

[¶32] Dreadful judgments impending over the people of God, [Isa 24:1-4]. Particular enumeration of the horrid impieties which provoked the Divine vengeance, [Isa 24:5], [Isa 24:6]. Great political wretchedness of the transgressors, [Isa 24:7-12]. The calamities shall be so great that only a small remnant shall be left in the land, as it were the gleanings of the vintage, [Isa 24:13]. The rest, scattered over the different countries, spread there the knowledge of God, [Isa 24:14-16]. Strong figures by which the great distress and long captivity of the transgressors are set forth, [Isa 24:17-22]. Gracious promise of a redemption from captivity; and of an extension of the kingdom of God in the latter days, attended with such glorious circumstances as totally to eclipse the light and splendor of the previous dispensation, [Isa 24:23].

[¶33] From the thirteenth chapter to the twenty-third inclusive, the fate of several cities and nations is denounced: of Babylon, of the Philistines, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Tyre. After having foretold the destruction of the foreign nations, enemies of Judah, the prophet declares the judgments impending on the people of God themselves for their wickedness and apostasy, and the desolation that shall be brought on their whole country.

[¶34] The twenty-fourth and the three following chapters seem to have been delivered about the same time: before the destruction of Moab by Shalmaneser; see [Isa 25:10], consequently, before the destruction of Samaria; probably in the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. But concerning the particular subject of the twenty-fourth chapter interpreters are not at all agreed: some refer it to the desolation caused by the invasion of Shalmaneser; others to the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar; and others to the destruction of the city and nation by the Romans. Vitringa is singular in his opinion, who applies it to the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. Perhaps it may have a view to all of the three great desolations of the country, by Shalmaneser, by Nebuchadnezzar, and by the Romans; especially the last, to which some parts of it may seem more peculiarly applicable. However, the prophet chiefly employs general images; such as set forth the greatness and universality of the ruin and desolation that is to be brought upon the country by these great revolutions, involving all orders and degrees of men, changing entirely the face of things, and destroying the whole polity, both religious and civil; without entering into minute circumstances, or necessarily restraining it by particular marks to one great event, exclusive of others of the same kind. - L.

### Verse 4

[¶36] The world languisheth - The world is the same with the land; that is, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, orbis Israeliticus. See note on [Isa 13:11] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶38] The laws "The law" - תורה torah, singular: so read the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee.

### Verse 6

[¶40] Are burned "Are destroyed" - For חרו charu, read חרבו charebu. See the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee and Symmachus.

### Verse 8

[¶42] The mirth, etc. - שאון sheon, the noise. גאון geon, the pride, is the reading of three of De Rossi's MSS., with the Septuagint and Arabic.

### Verse 9

[¶44] Strong drink "Palm wine" - This is the proper meaning of the word שכר shechar, σικερα. See note on [Isa 5:11]. All enjoyment shall cease: the sweetest wine shall become bitter to their taste.

## 813. Isaiah · 33 of 79

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### Verse 11

[¶1] All joy is darkened "All gladness is passed away" - For ערבה arebah, darkened, read עברה aberah, passed away, transposing a letter. Houbigant, Secker. Five of Dr. Kennicott's and five of De Rossi's MSS., several ancients add כל col, all, after משוש mesos: the Septuagint adds the same word before it.

### Verse 14

[¶3] They shall lift up their voice "But these shall lift up their voice" - That is, they that escaped out of these calamities. The great distresses brought upon Israel and Judah drove the people away, and dispersed them all over the neighboring countries: they fled to Egypt, to Asia Minor, to the islands and the coasts of Greece. They were to be found in great numbers in most of the principal cities of these countries. Alexandria was in a great measure peopled by them. They had synagogues for their worship in many places, and were greatly instrumental in propagating the knowledge of the true God among these heathen nations, and preparing them for the reception of Christianity. This it what the prophet seems to mean by the celebration of the name of Jehovah in the waters, in the distant coasts, and in the uttermost parts of the land. מים mayim, the waters; ὑδωρ, Sept.; ὑδατα, Theod.; not מים miyam from the sea.

### Verse 15

[¶5] In the isles of the sea "In the distant coasts of the sea" - For בארים beurim, in the valleys, I suppose we ought to read באיים beiyim, in the isles, which is in a great degree justified by the repetition of the word in the next member of the sentence, with the addition of הים haiyam, the sea, to vary the phrase, exactly in the manner of the prophet. איים iyim is a word chiefly applied to any distant countries, especially those lying on the Mediterranean Sea. Others conjecture ביארים biorim, בהרים beharim, באמים beummim, בעמים beammim, בחורים bechorim, באורים beurim, a באר bar, illustrate - Le Clerc. Twenty-three MSS. of Kennicott's, many of De Rossi's, and some of my own, read באורים beorim, in the valleys. The Septuagint do not acknowledge the reading of the text, expressing here only the word איים iyim, εν ταις νησοις, in the islands, and that not repeated. But MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 supply in this place the defect in the other copies of the Septuagint thus, Δια τουτο ἡ δοξα Κυριου εσται εν ταις νησοις της θαλασσης· εν ταις νησοις το ονομα του Κυριου Θεου Ισραηλ ενδοξον εσται· "Therefore the glory of the Lord shall be in the isles of the sea: in the islands shall the name of the Lord God of Israel be glorified."

[¶6] Kimchi says, that by באורים beurim, in the valleys is meant the cities, because they were generally built in valleys. The Vulgate has in doctrinis, and so my old MS., in techingis. Coverdale translates, Praise the name of the Lord God of Israel in the valleys and in the floodis. It should not be revered in the fires; none of the ancient Versions understood it thus. According to which the Septuagint had in their Hebrew copy באיים beiyim, repeated afterwards, not בארים beurim.

### Verse 16

[¶8] But I said - The prophet speaks in the person of the inhabitants of the land still remaining there, who should be pursued by Divine vengeance, and suffer repeated distresses from the inroads and depredations of their powerful enemies. Agreeably to what he said before in a general denunciation of these calamities: - "Though there be a tenth part remaining in it;

[¶9] Even this shall undergo a repeated destruction." [Isa 6:13] (note). See the note there. - L.

[¶10] My leanness, my leanness - Or, my secret; so the Vulgate, Montanus, and my old MS; רזן razan has this meaning in Chaldee; but in Hebrew it signifies to make lean, to waste. This sentence in the Hebrew has a strange connection of uncouth sounds: ואמר רזי לי רזי לי אוי לי בוגדים בגדו ובגד בגדים בגרו Vaomer, razi li razi li, oi li, bogedim bagadu, ubeged bogedim bagadu. This may be equalled by the translation in my Old MS. Bible: And I seide, my priveye thinge to me: my priveye thinge to me: woo to me: The lawe breykynge thei breken: and in lawe brekynge of the overdon thingis, they breken the lawe.

[¶11] The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously "The plunderers plunder" - See note on [Isa 21:2].

### Verse 17

[¶13] Fear, and the pit "The terror, the pit" - If they escape one calamity, another shall overtake them. "As if a man should flee from a lion, and a bear should overtake him:

[¶14] Or should betake himself to his house, and lean his hand on the wall,

[¶15] And a serpent should bite him." [Amo 5:19]. "For," as our Savior expressed it in a like parabolical manner, "wheresoever the carcass is there shall the eagles be gathered together," [Mat 24:28]. The images are taken from the different methods of hunting and taking wild beasts, which were anciently in use. The terror was a line strung with feathers of all colors which fluttering in the air scared and frightened the beasts into the toils, or into the pit which was prepared for them. Nec est mirum, cum maximos ferarum greges linea pennis distincta contineat, et in insidias agat, ab ipso effectu dicta formido. Seneca de Ira, 2:12. The pit or pitfall, fovea; digged deep in the ground, and covered over with green boughs, turf, etc., in order to deceive them, that they might fall into it unawares. The snare, or toils, indago; a series of nets, inclosing at first a great space of ground, in which the wild beasts were known to be; and then drawn in by degrees into a narrower compass, till they were at last closely shut up, and entangled in them. - L.

[¶16] For מכול mikkol, a MS. reads מפני mippeney, as it is in [Jer 48:44], and so the Vulgate and Chaldee. But perhaps it is only, like the latter, a Hebraism, and means no more than the simple preposition מ mem. See [Psa 102:6]. For it does not appear that the terror was intended to scare the wild beasts by its noise. The paronomasia is very remarkable; פחד pachad, פחת pachath, פך pach: and that it was a common proverbial form, appears from Jeremiah's repeating it in the same words, [Jer 48:43], [Jer 48:44].

### Verse 18

[¶18] Out of the midst of the pit "From the pit" - For מתוך mittoch, from the midst of, a MS. reads מן min, from, as it is in [Jer 48:44]; and so likewise the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

### Verse 19

[¶20] The earth "The land" - הארץ haarets, forte delendum ה he, ut ex praecedente ortum. Vid. seqq. - Secker. "Probably the ה he, in הארץ haarets, should be blotted out, as having arisen from the preceding."

### Verse 20

[¶22] Like a cottage "Like a lodge for a night" - See note on [Isa 1:8].

### Verse 21

[¶24] On high - upon the earth - That is, the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the Jews, which shall be destroyed. The nation shall continue in a state of depression and dereliction for a long time. The image seems to be taken from the practice of the great monarchs of that time; who, when they had thrown their wretched captives into a dungeon, never gave themselves the trouble of inquiring about them; but let them lie a long time in that miserable condition, wholly destitute of relief, and disregarded. God shall at length revisit and restore his people in the last age: and then the kingdom of God shall be established in such perfection, as wholly to obscure and eclipse the glory of the temporary, typical, preparative kingdom now subsisting.

### Verse 23

[¶26] Before his ancients gloriously - In the sigt of their olde men he schal ben glorified. Old MS. Bible. "The figurative language of the prophets is taken from the analogy between the world natural and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic. Accordingly the whole world natural, consisting of heaven and earth, signifies the whole world politic, consisting of thrones and people; or so much of it as is considered in prophecy: and the things in that world signify the analogous things in this. For the heavens and the things thereto signify thrones and dignities, and those who enjoy them; and the earth with the things thereon, the inferior people; and the lowest parts of the earth, called hades or hell, the lowest or most miserable part of them. Great earthquakes, and the shaking of heaven and earth, are put for the shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract and overthrow them; the creating a new heaven and earth, and the passing away of an old one, or the beginning and end of a world, for the rise and ruin of a body politic signified thereby. The sun, for the whole species and race of kings, in the kingdoms of the world politic; the moon, for the body of the common people, considered as the king's wife; the stars, for subordinate princes and great men; or for bishops and rulers of the people of God, when the sun is Christ: setting of the sun, moon, and stars. darkening the sun, Turning the moon into blood and falling of the stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom." Sir 1. Newton's Observations on the Prophecies, Part I., chap. 2.

[¶27] These observations are of great consequence and use, in explaining the phraseology of the prophets.

### Introduction

[¶29] The short glance which the prophet gave at the promised restoration of the people of God and the Messiah's kingdom, in the close of the preceding chapter, makes him break out into a rapturous song of praise in this, where although he alludes to temporal mercies, such as the destruction of the cities which had been at war with Zion, the ruin of Moab, and other signal interpositions of Divine Providence in behalf of the Jews; yet he is evidently impressed with a more lively sense of future and much higher blessings under the Gospel dispensation, in the plenitude of its revelation, of which the temporal deliverances vouchsafed at various tines to the primitive kingdoms of Israel and Judah were the prototypes, [Isa 25:1-5]. These blessings are described under the figure of a feast made for all nations, [Isa 25:6]; the removing of a veil from their faces, [Isa 25:7]; the total extinction of the empire of death by the resurrection from the dead, the exclusion of all sorrow, and the final overthrow of all the enemies of the people of God, [Isa 25:8-12].

[¶30] It does not appear to me that this chapter has any close and particular connection with the chapter immediately preceding, taken separately, and by itself. The subject of that was the desolation of the land of Israel and Judah, by the just judgment of God, for the wickedness and disobedience of the people: which, taken by itself, seems not with any propriety to introduce a hymn of thanksgiving to God for his mercies to his people in delivering them from their enemies. But taking the whole course of prophecies, from the thirteenth to the twenty-fourth chapter inclusive, in which the prophet foretells the destruction of several cities and nations, enemies to the Jews, and of the land of Judah itself, yet with intimations of a remnant to be saved, and a restoration to be at length effected by a glorious establishment of the kingdom of God: with a view to this extensive scene of God's providence in all its parts, and in all its consequences, the prophet may well be supposed to break out into this song of praise; in which his mind seems to be more possessed with the prospect of future mercies than with the recollection of the past. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶32] Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth - That is, All thy past declarations by the prophets shall be fulfilled in their proper time.

### Verse 2

[¶34] A city "The city" - Nineveh, Babylon, Ar, Moab, or any other strong fortress possessed by the enemies of the people of God.

[¶35] For the first מעיר meir, of a city, the Syriac and Vulgate read העיר hair, the city; the Septuagint and Chaldee read ערים arim, cities, in the plural, transposing the letters. After the second מעיר meir, a MS. adds לגל lagol, for a heap.

[¶36] A palace of strangers "The palace of the proud ones" - For זרים zarim, strangers, MS. Bodl. and another read זדים zedim, the proud: so likewise the Septuagint; for they render it ασεβων here, and in [Isa 25:5], as they do in some other places: see [Deu 18:20], [Deu 18:22]. Another MS. reads צרים tsarim, adversaries; which also makes a good sense. But זרים zarim, strangers, and זדים zedim, the proud, are often confounded by the great similitude of the letters ד daleth and ר resh. See [Mal 3:15]; [Mal 4:1]; [Psa 19:14], in the Septuagint; and [Psa 54:5], where the Chaldee reads זדים zedim, compared with [Psa 86:16].

### Verse 4

[¶38] As a storm against the wall "Like a winter-storm" - For קיר kir, read קור kor: or, as עיר ir from ערר arar, so קיר kir from קרר karar. - Capellus.

### Verse 5

[¶40] Of strangers "Of the proud" - The same mistake here as in [Isa 25:2] (note): see the note there. Here זדים zedim, the proud, is parallel to עריצים aritsim, the formidable: as in [Psa 54:5], and [Psa 86:14].

[¶41] The heat with the shadow of a cloud "As the heat by a thick cloud" - For חרב choreb, the Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, and two MSS. read כחרב kechoreb, which is a repetition of the beginning of the foregoing parallel line; and the verse taken out of the parallel form, and more fully expressed, would run thus: "As a thick cloud interposing tempers the heat of the sun on the burnt soil; so shalt thou, by the interposition of thy power, bring low and abate the tumult of the proud, and the triumph of the formidable."

### Verse 6

[¶43] In this mountain - Zion, at Jerusalem. In his Church.

[¶44] Shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast - Salvation by Jesus Christ. A feast is a proper and usual expression of joy in consequence of victory, or any other great success. The feast here spoken of is to be celebrated on Mount Sion; and all people, without distinction, are to be invited to it. This can be no other than the celebration of the establishment of Christ's kingdom, which is frequently represented in the Gospel under the image of a feast; "where many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven;" [Mat 8:11]. See also [Luk 14:16]; [Luk 24:29], [Luk 24:30]. This sense is fully confirmed by the concomitants of this feast expressed in the next verse, the removing of the veil from the face of the nations, and the abolition of death: the first of which is obviously and clearly explained of the preaching of the Gospel; and the second must mean the blessing of immortality procured for us by Christ, "who hath abolished death, and through death hath destroyed him that had the power of death."

[¶45] Of wines on the lees "Of old wines" - Hebrews lees; that is, of wines kept long on the lees. The word used to express the lees in the original signifies the preservers; because they preserve the strength and flavor of the wine. "All recent wines, after the fermentation has ceased, ought to be kept on their lees for a certain time, which greatly contributes to increase their strength and flavor. Whenever this first fermentation has been deficient, they will retain a more rich and sweet taste than is natural to them in a recent true vinous state; and unless farther fermentation is promoted by their lying longer on their own lees, they will never attain their genuine strength and flavor, but run into repeated and ineffectual fermentations, and soon degenerate into a liquor of an acetous kind. All wines of a light and austere kind, by a fermentation too great, or too long continued, certainly degenerate into a weak sort of vinegar; while the stronger not only require, but will safely bear a stronger and often-repeated fermentation; and are more apt to degenerate from a defect than excess of fermentation into a vapid, ropy, and at length into a putrescent state." Sir Edward Barry, Observations on the Wines of the Ancients, p. 9, 10.

## 814. Isaiah · 34 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/814/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/814/#p-N

[¶0] Thevenot observes particularly of the Shiras wine, that, after it is refined from the lees, it is apt to grow sour. "Il a beaucoup de lie; c'est pourquoi il donne puissemment dans la teste; et pour le rendre plus traitable on le passe par un chausse d'hypocras; apres quoi il est fort clair, et moins fumeux. Ils mettent ce vin dans des grandes jarres de terres qui tiennent dix ou douze jusqu'a quatorze carabas: mais quand l'on a entame une jarre, il faut la vuider au plutost, et mettre le vin qu'on en tire dans des bouteilles ou carabas; car si l'on y manque en le laissant quelque tems apres que la jarre est entamee il se gate et s'aigrit." Voyages, Tom. 2 p. 245. "It has much sediment, and therefore is intoxicating. In order to make it more mellow, they strain it through a hypocrates' sleeve, after which it is very clear and less heady. They lay up this wine in great earthen jars, which hold from ten to fourteen carabas: but when a jar is unstopped, it is necessary to empty it immediately, and put the wine into bottles, or carabas; for if it be left thus in the jar, it will spoil and become acid."

[¶1] The caraba, or girba, is a goat's skin drawn off from the animal, having no apertures but those occasioned by the tail, the feet, and the neck. One opening is left, to pour in and draw off the liquor. This skin goes through a sort of tanning process, and is often beautifully ornamented, as is the case with one of these girbas now lying before me.

[¶2] This clearly explains the very elegant comparison, or rather allegory, of Jeremiah, [Jer 48:11]; where the reader will find a remarkable example of the mixture of the proper with the allegorical, not uncommon with the Hebrew poets: - "Moab hath been at ease from his youth,

[¶3] And he hath settled upon his lees;

[¶4] Nor hath he been drawn off from vessel to vessel,

[¶5] Neither hath he gone into captivity:

[¶6] Wherefore his taste remaineth in him,

[¶7] And his flavor is not changed."

[¶8] Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place of Jeremiah is as follows: "On change ainsi le vin de coupe en coupe en Orient; et quand on en entame une, il faut la vuider en petites coupes ou bouteilles, sans quoy il s'aigrit." "They change the wine from vessel to vessel in the east; and when they unstop a large one, it is necessary to empty it into small vessels, as otherwise it will grow sour."

### Verse 7

[¶10] The face of the covering cast over all people "The covering that covered the face of all the peoples" - MS. Bodl. reads על פני כל al peney chol. The word פני peney, face, has been removed from its right place into the line above, where it makes no sense; as Houbigant conjectured. "The face of the covering," etc. He will unveil all the Mosaic ritual, and show by his apostles that it referred to, and was accomplished in, the sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ.

### Verse 8

[¶12] He will swallow up death - He, by the grace of God, will taste death for every man. [Heb 2:9]. Probably, swallow up death, and taste death, in both these verses, refer to the same thing: Jesus dying instead of a guilty world. These forms of speech may refer to the punishment of certain criminals; they were obliged to drink a cup of poison. That cup which every criminal in the world must have drunk, Jesus Christ drank for them; and thus he swallowed up death: but as he rose again from the dead, complete victory was gained.

[¶13] From these three verses we learn: -

[¶14] I. That the Gospel is a plenteous provision: "I will make a feast for all people."

[¶15] II. That it is a source of light and salvation: "I will destroy the veil. I will abolish death. and bring life and immortality to light."

[¶16] III. That it is a source of comfort and happiness: "I will wipe away all tears from off all faces."

[¶17] As in the Arabic countries a covering was put over the face of him who was condemned to suffer death, it is probable that the words in [Isa 25:7] may refer to this. The whole world was condemned to death, and about to be led out to execution, when the gracious Lord interposed, and, by a glorious sacrifice, procured a general pardon.

### Verse 9

[¶19] It shall be said "Shall they say" - So the Septuagint and Vulgate, in the plural number. They read ואמרו veameru, the Syriac reads ואמרת veamarta, thou shalt say. They shall say, i.e., the Jews and the Gentiles - Lo, this [Jesus Christ] is our God: we have waited for him, according to the predictions of the prophets. We have expected him, and we have not been disappointed; therefore will we be glad, and rejoice in his salvation.

### Verse 10

[¶21] Shall the hand of the Lord rest "The hand of Jehovah shall give rest" - Hebrews תנוח tenuach, quiescet. Annon תניח taniach, quietem dabit, shall rest; shall give rest, ut Graeci, αναπαυσιν δωσει, et Copt.? - Mr. Woide. That is, "shall give peace and quiet to Sion, by destroying the enemy; "as it follows."

[¶22] As straw is trodden down "As the straw is threshed" - Hoc junta ritum loquitur Palastinae et multarum Orientis provinciarum, quae ob pratorum et foeni penuriam paleas preparant esui animantium. Sunt autem carpenta ferrata rotis per medium in serrarum modum se volventibus, quae stipulam conterunt; et comminuunt in paleas. Quomodo igitur plaustris ferratis paleae conteruntur, sic conteretur Moab sub eo; sive sub Dei potentia, sive in semetipso, ut nihil in eo integri remaneat. "This is spoken in reference to the mode of threshing in Palestine, and various other Asiatic provinces. Because of the scarcity of meadow land and hay they make chopped straw for the cattle. They have large wheels studded over with iron teeth or nails, by which, on the out-of-door threshing-floors, they pound and reduce the straw into chaff. As, therefore, the straw is reduced to chaff by bringing the iron-shod wheel over it; so shall Moab be bruised by the power of God, that nothing whole shall remain." - Hieron. in loc. See the note on [Isa 28:27] (note).

[¶23] For the dunghill "Under the wheels of the car" - For מדמנה madmenah, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read מרכבה mercabah, which I have followed. See [Jos 15:31], compared with [Jos 19:5], where there is a mistake very nearly the same. The keri, במי bemi, is confirmed by twenty-eight MSS., seven ancient, and three editions.

### Verse 11

[¶25] As he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim "As he that sinketh stretcheth out his hands to swim" - There is great obscurity in this place: some understand God as the agent; others, Moab. I have chosen the latter sense, as I cannot conceive that the stretching out of the hands of a swimmer in swimming can be any illustration of the action of God stretching out his hands over Moab to destroy it. I take השחה hashshocheh, altering the point on the ש sin. on the authority of the Septuagint, to be the participle of שחה shachah, the same with שוח shuach, and שחח shachach, to bow down, to be depressed; and that the prophet designed a paronomasia here, a figure which he frequently uses between the similar words שהח shachah, and שחות shechoth. As תחתיו tachtaiv, in his place, or on the spot, as we say in the preceding verse, gives us an idea of the sudden and complete destruction of Moab; so בקרבו bekirbo, in the midst of him, means that this destruction shall be open, and exposed to the view of all: the neighboring nations shall plainly see him struggling against it, as a man in the midst of the deep waters exerts all his efforts by swimming, to save himself from drowning. - L.

### Introduction

[¶27] This chapter, like the foregoing, is a song of praise, in which thanksgivings for temporal and spiritual mercies are beautifully mingled, though the latter still predominate. Even the sublime and evangelical doctrine of the resurrection seems here to be hinted at, and made to typify the deliverance of the people of God from a state of the lowest misery; the captivity, the general dispersion, or both. This hymn too, like the preceding, is beautifully diversified by the frequent change of speakers. It opens with a chorus of the Church, celebrating the protection vouchsafed by God to his people; and the happiness of the righteous, whom he guards, contrasted with the misery of the wicked, whom he punishes, [Isa 26:1-7]. To this succeeds their own pious resolution of obeying, trusting, and delighting in God, [Isa 26:8]. Here the prophet breaks in, in his own person, eagerly catching the last words of the chorus, which were perfectly in unison with the feelings of his own soul, and which he beautifully repeats, as one musical instrument reverberates the sound of another on the same key with it. He makes likewise a suitable response to what had been said on the judgments of God, and observes their different effects on the good and the bad; improving the one, and hardening the other, [Isa 26:9-11]. After this, a chorus of Jews express their gratitude to God for past deliverances, make confession of their sins, and supplicate his power, which they had been long expecting, [Isa 26:12-18]. To this God makes a gracious reply, promising deliverance that should be as life from the dead, [Isa 26:19]. And the prophet, (apparently alluding to the command of Moses to the Israelites, when the destroying angel was to go through the land of Egypt), concludes with exhorting his people to patience and resignation, till God sends the deliverance he has promised, [Isa 26:20], [Isa 26:21].

### Verse 1

[¶29] We have a strong city - In opposition to the city of the enemy, which God hath destroyed, [Isa 25:1-12] (note). See the note there.

[¶30] Salvation - for walls and bulwarks - חומת וחל chomsoth vachel, walls and redoubts, or the walls and the ditch. חל chel properly signifies the ditch or trench without the wall; see Kimchi. The same rabbin says, This song refers to the time of salvation, i.e., the days of the Messiah.

### Verse 2

[¶32] The righteous nation - The converted Gentiles shall have the gates opened - a full entrance into all the glories and privileges of the Gospel; being fellow heirs with the converted Jews. The Jewish peculiarity is destroyed, for the middle wall of partition is broken down.

[¶33] The truth - The Gospel itself - as the fulfillment of all the ancient types, shadows, and ceremonies; and therefore termed the truth, in opposition to all those shadowy rites and ceremonies. "The law was given by Moses; but grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ; "[Joh 1:17], and see the note there.

### Verse 3

[¶35] In perfect peace - שלום שלום shalom, shalom, "peace, peace, "i.e., peace upon peace - all kinds of prosperity - happiness in this world and in the world to come.

[¶36] Because he trusteth in thee "Because they have trusted in thee" - So the Chaldee, בטחו betacho. The Syriac and Vulgate read בטוח batachnu, "we have trusted. "Schroeder, Gram. Hebrews p. 360, explains the present reading בטוח batuach, impersonally, confisum est.

### Verse 4

[¶38] In the Lord Jehovah "In Jehovah" - In Jah Jehovah, Heb.; but see Houbigant, and the note on [Isa 12:2] (note).

[¶39] Everlasting strength - צור עולמים tsur olamim, "the rock of ages; "or, according to Rab. Maimon, - the eternal Fountain, Source, or Spring. Does not this refer to the lasting streams from the rock in the desert? And that rock was Christ. ge han hoped in the Lord fro the everlastinge worldis. - Old Ms. Bible.

### Verse 8

[¶41] Have we waited for thee "We have placed our confidence in thy name" - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read קוינו kavinu, without the pronoun annexed.

### Verse 9

[¶43] Have I desired thee - Forty-one MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's and many of De Rossi's, (nine ancient), and five editions read אויתיך invithicha. It is proper to note this; because the second י yod being omitted in the text, the Vulgate and many others have rendered it in the third person.

[¶44] When thy judgments, etc. - It would be better to read, When thy judgments were in the earth, the inhabitants of the world have learned (למדו lamedu) righteousness. Men seldom seek God in prosperity; they are apt to rest in an earthly portion: but God in mercy embitters this by adversity; then there is a general cry after himself as our chief, solid, and only permanent good.

## 815. Isaiah · 35 of 79

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### Verse 16

[¶1] Lord, in trouble have they visited thee "O Jehovah, in affliction we have sought thee" - So the Septuagint and two MSS. have פקדנוך pekadnucha, in the first person plural. And so perhaps it should be צקנו tsaknu, in the first person; but how the Septuagint read this word is not clear; and this last member of the verse is extremely obscure.

[¶2] For למו lamo, "on them," the Septuagint read לנו lanu, "on us," in the first person likewise; a frequent mistake; see note on [Isa 10:29].

### Verse 18

[¶4] We have - brought forth wind - The learned Professor Michaelis explains this image in the following manner: "Rariorem morbum describi, empneumatosin, aut ventosam molam, dictum; quo quae laborant diu et sibi et peritis medicis gravidae videntur,tandemque post omnes verae graviditatis molestias et labored ventum ex utero emittunt: quem morbum passim describunt medici. "Syntagma Comment., vol. ii., p. 165. The empneumatosis, or windy inflation of the womb, is a disorder to which females are liable. Some have had this in such wise, for a long time together, that they have appeared to themselves, and even to very skillful medical men, to be pregnant; and after having endured much pain, and even the throes of apparent childbearing, they have been eased and restored to health by the emission of a great quantity of wind from the uterus. This disorder is well known to medical men. "The Syriac translator seems to have understood it in this manner: Enixi sumus, ut illae quae ventos pariunt. "We have brought forth as they who bring forth wind."

[¶5] In the earth "In the land" - בארץ bearets; so a MS., the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

### Verse 19

[¶7] My dead body "My deceased" - All the ancient Versions render it in the plural; they read נבלותי niblothai, my dead bodies. The Syriac and Chaldee read נבלותיהם niblotheyhem, their dead bodies. No MS. yet found confirms this reading.

[¶8] The dew of herbs "The dew of the dawn" - Lucis, according to the Vulgate; so also the Syriac and Chaldee.

[¶9] The deliverance of the people of God from a state of the lowest depression is explained by images plainly taken from the resurrection of the dead. In the same manner the Prophet Ezekiel represents the restoration of the Jewish nation from a state of utter dissolution by the restoring of the dry bones to life, exhibited to him in a vision, chap. 37, which is directly thus applied and explained, [Eze 37:11-13]. And this deliverance is expressed with a manifest opposition to what is here said above, [Eze 37:14], of the great lords and tyrants, under whom they had groaned: - "They are dead, they shall not live;

[¶10] They are deceased tyrants, they shall not rise:" that they should be destroyed utterly, and should never be restored to their former power and glory. It appears from hence, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was at that time a popular and common doctrine; for an image which is assumed in order to express or represent any thing in the way of allegory or metaphor, whether poetical or prophetical, must be an image commonly known and understood; otherwise it will not answer the purpose for which it is assumed. - L.

[¶11] Kimchi refers these words to the days of the Messiah, and says, "Then many of the saints shall rise from the dead. "And quotes [Dan 12:2]. Do not these words speak of the resurrection of our blessed Lord; and of that resurrection of the bodies of men, which shall be the consequence of his body being raised from the dead?

[¶12] Thy dead men shall live, - with my dead body shall they arise - This seems very express.

### Verse 20

[¶14] Comes my people, enter thou into thy chambers - An exhortation to patience and resignation under oppression, with a confident expectation of deliverance by the power of God manifestly to be exerted in the destruction of the oppressor. It seems to be an allusion to the command of Moses to the Israelites, when the destroying angel was to go through the land of Egypt, "not to go out at the door of their houses until the morning;" [Exo 12:22]. And before the passage of the Red Sea: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah. Jehovah shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace, "[Exo 14:13], [Exo 14:14].

### Verse 21

[¶16] The earth also shall disclose her blood - Crimes of cruelty and oppression, which have passed away from the eyes of men, God will bring into judgment, and exact punishment for them. O what a reckoning will the kingdoms of the earth have with God, for the torrents of blood which they have shed for the gratification of the lust of power and ambition! Who shall live when he doeth this?

### Introduction

[¶18] Destruction of the enemies of the Church, [Isa 27:1]. God's care of his vineyard, [Isa 27:2-11]. Prosperity of the descendants of Abraham in the latter days, [Isa 27:12], [Isa 27:13].

[¶19] The subject of this chapter seems to be the nature, the measure, and the design of God's dealings with his people.

[¶20] 1. His judgments inflicted on their great and powerful enemies, [Isa 27:1].

[¶21] 2. His constant care and protection of his favorite vineyard, in the form of a dialogue, [Isa 27:2].

[¶22] 3. The moderation and lenity with which the severity of his judgments have been tempered, [Isa 27:7].

[¶23] 4. The end and design of them, to recover them from idolatry, [Isa 27:9]. And,

[¶24] 5. The recalling of them, on their repentance, from their several dispersions, [Isa 27:12].

[¶25] The first verse seems connected with the two last verses of the preceding chapter. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶27] Leviathan - The animals here mentioned seem to be the crocodile, rigid by the stiffness of the backbone, so that he cannot readily turn himself when he pursues his prey; hence the easiest way of escaping from him is by making frequent and short turnings: the serpent or dragon, flexible and winding, which coils himself up in a circular form: and the sea monster, or whale. These are used allegorically, without doubt for great potentates, enemies and persecutors of the people of God: but to specify the particular persons or states designed by the prophet under these images, is a matter of great difficulty, and comes not necessarily with in the design of these notes. R. D. Kimchi says, leviathan is a parable concerning the kings of the Gentiles: it is the largest fish in the sea, called also תנין tannin, the dragon, or rather the whale. By these names the Grecian, Turkish, and Roman empires are intended. The dragon of the sea seems to mean some nation having a strong naval force and extensive commerce. See Kimchi on the place.

### Verse 2

[¶29] Sing ye unto her - אנו לה anu lah. Bishop Lowth translates this, Sing ye a responsive song; and says that ענה anah, to answer, signifies occasionally to sing responsively; and that this mode of singing was frequently practiced among the ancient Hebrews. See De Poes. Sac. Hebrews Prael. xix., at the beginning.

[¶30] This, indeed, was the ancient method of singing in various nations. The song was divided into distinct portions, and the singers sang alternately. There is a fine specimen of this in the song of Deborah and Barak; and also in the Idyls of Theocritus, and the Eclogues of Virgil.

[¶31] This kind of singing was properly a dialogue in verse, sung to a particular tune, or in the mode which is now termed recitativo. I have seen it often practiced on funeral occasions among the descendants of the aboriginal Irish. The poems of Ossian are of this kind.

[¶32] The learned Bishop distinguishes the parts of this dialogue thus: -

[¶33] 3. Jehovah. It is I, Jehovah, that preserve her; I will water her every moment: I will take care of her by night; And by day I will keep guard over her.

[¶34] 4. Vineyard. I have no wall for my defense: O that I had a fence of the thorn and brier! Jehovah. Against them should I march in battle, I should burn them up together.

[¶35] 5. Ah! let her rather take hold of my protection. Vineyard. Let him make peace with me! Peace let him make with me!

[¶36] 6. Jehovah. They that come from the root of Jacob shall flourish, Israel shall bud forth; And they shall fill the face of the world with fruit.

[¶37] A vineyard of red wine - The redder the wine, the more it was valued, says Kimchi.

[¶38] Bishop Lowth translates, To the beloved vineyard. For חמר chemer, red, a multitude of MSS. and editions have חמד chemed, desirable. This is supported by the Septuagint and Chaldee.

### Verse 3

[¶40] Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day - "I will take care of her by night; and by day I will keep guard over her" - For פן יפקד pen yiphkod, lest any visit it, the Syriac read ואפקד veephkod, and I will visit it. Twenty MSS. of Kennicott's, fourteen of De Rossi's, and two of my own, and six editions read אפקד ephkod, I will visit, in the first person.

### Verse 4

[¶42] Fury is not in me "I have no wall" - For חמה chemah, anger, the Septuagint and Syriac read חומה chomah, wall. An ancient MS. has חימה cheimah. For בה bad, in her, two MSS. read בם bam, in them, plural. The vineyard wishes for a wall and a fence of thorns - human strength and protection, (as the Jews were too apt to apply to their powerful neighbors for assistance, and to trust to the shadow of Egypt): Jehovah replies, that this would not avail her, nor defend her against his wrath. He counsels her, therefore, to betake herself to his protection. On which she entreats him to make peace with her.

[¶43] From the above note it appears that the bishop reads, חומה chomah, wall, for חמה chemah, anger or fury, in accordance with the Syriac and Septuagint. The letter ו vau makes the only difference, which letter is frequently absent from many words where its place is supplied by the point. cholem: it might have been so here formerly; and in process of time both vau and cholem might have been lost. The Syriac supports the learned bishop's criticism, as the word shora is there used; which word in the plural is found, [Heb 11:30] : "By faith the walls of Jericho. "The bishop thinks the Septuagint is on his side: to me, it seems neither for nor against the criticism. The words in the Vatican copy are εγω πολις οχυρα, I am a fortified city; which the Arabic follows: but instead of οχυρα, the Codex Alexandrinus has ισχυρα, I am a Strong city.

[¶44] The word חומה chomah, wall, is not found in any MS. in the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi, nor in any of my own MSS.

## 816. Isaiah · 36 of 79

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[¶0] However, one of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. has חימה cheimah; but probably that which now appears to be a י yod was formerly a ו vau, and now partially obliterated.

[¶1] This song receives much light from being collated with that in chap. 5.; and perhaps the bishop's criticism will find its best support from such a collation. In [Isa 5:5] of that chapter, God threatens to take away the wall of his vineyard: this was done; and here the vineyard complains, I have no wall, and wishes for any kind of defense rather than be thus naked. This is the only natural support of the above criticism. "About Tripoli there are abundance of vineyards and gardens, inclosed, for the most part, with hedges, which chiefly consist of the rhamnus, paliurus, oxyacantha, "etc. Rawolf, p. 21, 22. A fence of thorns is esteemed equal to a wall for strength, being commonly represented as impenetrable. See [Mic 7:4]; [Hos 2:6].

[¶2] Who would set the briers and thorns against me "O that I had a fence of the thorn and brier" - Seven MSS., (two ancient), and one edition, with the Syriac, Vulgate, and Aquila, read ושית veshayith, with the conjunction ו vau prefixed: Who would set the briers and thorns. מי יתנני שמיר שית mi yitteneni shamir shayith, Who shall give me the brier and thorn, i.e., for a defense: but hear Kimchi: "Who (the vineyard) hath given me (Jehovah) the brier and the thorn instead of good grapes."

### Verse 5

[¶4] Or "Ah" - For או o I read אוי oi, as it was at first in a MS. The י yod was easily lost, being followed by another י yod.

### Verse 6

[¶6] To take root "From the root" - For ישרש yashresh, I read, with the Syriac, משרש mishshoresh. And for יציץ ופרח yatsits uparach, יציצו פרח yatsitsu parach, joining the ו vau to the first word, and taking that into construction with the first part of the sentence, Israel shall bud forth. I suppose the dialogue to be continued in this verse, which pursues the same image of the allegory, but in the way of metaphor.

### Verse 9

[¶8] The groves "And if the groves" - ולא velo. Four MSS., two ancient, of Kennicott's, and one ancient of my own, with the Septuagint; this makes a fuller sense.

### Verse 10

[¶10] There shall the calf feed - That is, the king of Egypt, says Kimchi.

### Verse 11

[¶12] The boughs thereof "Her boughs" - קציריה ketsireyha, MS. and Vulg.; that is, the boughs of the vineyard, referring still to the subject of the dialogue above.

[¶13] The scarcity of fuel, especially wood, in most parts of the east is so great, that they supply it with every thing capable of burning; cow-dung dried, roots, parings of fruit, withered stalks of herbs and flowers; see [Mat 6:21-30]. Vine-twigs are particularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing their food, by D'Arvieux; La Roque, Palestine, p. 198. Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine, used figuratively for the people of God, as the vineyard is here: "Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; "[Eze 15:3], [Eze 15:4]. "If a man abide not in one, "saith our Lord, "he is cast forth as a branch of the vine and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned;" [Joh 15:6]. They employed women and children to gather these things, and they laid them up in store for use. The dressing and pruning their vines afforded a good supply of the last sort of fuel; but the prophet says that the vines themselves of the beloved vineyard shall be blasted, withered, and broken, and the women shall come and gather them up, and carry away the whole of them to make their fires for domestic uses. See Harmer's Observations, vol. i., p. 254, etc.

### Verse 12

[¶15] The channel of the river - The river Sabbation, beyond which the Israelites were carried captive. - Kimchi.

### Verse 13

[¶17] The great trumpet shall be blown - Does not this refer to the time spoken of by our Lord, [Mat 24:31] : He shall send forth his angels - the preachers of his Gospel with a great sound of a trumpet - the earnest invitation to be saved by Jesus Christ; and shall gather his elect - the Jews, his ancient chosen people, from the four winds - from all parts of the habitable globe in which they have been dispersed.

[¶18] In this prophet there are several predictions relative to the conversion of Egypt to the true faith, which have not yet been fulfilled, and which must be fulfilled, for the truth of God cannot fail. Should Egypt ever succeed in casting off the Ottoman yoke, and fully establish its independence, it is most likely that the Gospel of Christ would have a speedy entrance into it; and, according to these prophecies, a wide and permanent diffusion. At present the Mohammedan power is a genuine antichrist. This also the Lord will remove in due time.

### Introduction

[¶20] This chapter begins with a denunciation of the approaching ruin of the Israelites by Shalmaneser, whose power is compared to a tempest or flood, and his keenness to the avidity with which one plucks and swallows the grape that is soonest ripe, [Isa 28:1-4]. It then turns to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who were to continue a kingdom after the final captivity of their brethren; and gives first a favorable prognostication of their affairs under Hezekiah, [Isa 28:5], [Isa 28:6]; but soon changes to reproofs and threatenings for their intemperance and their profaneness, [Isa 28:7], [Isa 28:8]. They are introduced as not only scornfully rejecting, but also mocking and ridiculing, the instructions of the prophet, [Isa 28:9], [Isa 28:10]. To this God immediately retorts in terms alluding to their own mocking, but differently applied, [Isa 28:11-13]. The prophet then addresses these scoffers, [Isa 28:14]; who considered themselves as perfectly secure from every evil, [Isa 28:15]; and assures them that there was no method under heaven but one, by which they could be saved, [Isa 28:16]; that every other vain resource should fail in the day of visitation, [Isa 28:17], [Isa 28:18]. He then farther adds, that the judgments of God were particularly levelled against them; and that all the means to which they trusted for warding them off should be to no purpose, [Isa 28:19], [Isa 28:20]; as the Almighty, who, on account of his patience and long-suffering, is amiably described as unacquainted with punishing, had nevertheless determined to punish them, [Isa 28:21], [Isa 28:22]. The prophet then concludes with a beautiful parable in explanation and defense of God's dealing with his people, [Isa 28:23-29].

### Verse 1

[¶22] Wo to the crown of pride - By the crown of pride, etc., Samaria is primarily understood. "Sebaste, the ancient Samaria, is situated on a long mount of an oval figure, having first a fruitful valley, and then a ring of hills running round about it;" Maundrell, p. 58. "E regione horum ruderum mons est peramoenus, planitie admodum frugifera circumseptus, super quem olim Samaria urbs condita fuit;" Fureri Itinerarium, p. 93. The city, beautifully situated on the top of a round hill, and surrounded immediately with a rich valley and a circle of other hills beyond it, suggested the idea of a chaplet or wreath of flowers worn upon their heads on occasions of festivity, expressed by the proud crown and the fading flower of the drunkards. That this custom of wearing chaplets in their banquets prevailed among the Jews, as well as among the Greeks and Romans, appears from the following passage of the book of The Wisdom of Solomon: - "Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments,

[¶23] And let no flower of the spring pass by us:

[¶24] Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds before they are withered."

[¶25] The Wisdom of Solomon 2:7, 8.

### Verse 2

[¶27] Behold the Lord hath a mighty and strong one "Behold the mighty one, the exceedingly strong one" - אמץ לאדני ammits ladonai, fortis Domino, i.e., fortissimmus, a Hebraism. For לאדני ladonai, to the Lord, thirty-eight MSS. Of Dr. Kennicott's and many of De Rossi's, with some of my own, and two editions, read ליהוה laihovah, to Jehovah.

### Verse 3

[¶29] The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim "The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim" - I read עטרות ataroth, crowns, plural, to agree with the verb תרמסנה teramasnah, "shall be trodden down."

### Verse 4

[¶31] The hasty fruit before the summer "The early fruit before the summer" - "No sooner doth the boccore, (the early fig), draw near to perfection in the middle or latter end of June, than the kermez or summer fig begins to be formed, though it rarely ripens before August; about which time the same tree frequently throws out a third crop, or the winter fig, as we may call it. This is usually of a much longer shape and darker complexion than the kermez, hanging and ripening upon the tree even after the leaves are shed; and, provided the winter proves mild and temperate, is gathered as a delicious morsel in the spring; "Shaw, Travels, p. 370, fol. The image was very obvious to the inhabitants of Judea and the neighboring countries, and is frequently applied by the prophets to express a desirable object; by none more elegantly than by [Hos 9:10] : - "Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel;

[¶32] Like the first ripe fig in her prime, I saw your fathers."

[¶33] Which when he that looketh upon it seeth "Which whoso seeth, he plucketh it immediately" - For יראה yireh, which with הראה haroeh makes a miserable tautology, read, by a transposition of a letter, יארה yoreh; a happy conjecture of Houbigant. The image expresses in the strongest manner the great ease with which the Assyrians shall take the city and the whole kingdom, and the avidity with which they shall seize the rich prey without resistance.

### Verse 5

[¶35] In that day - Thus far the prophecy relates to the Israelites, and manifestly denounces their approaching destruction by Shalmaneser. Here it turns to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the remnant of God's people who were to continue a kingdom after the final captivity of the Israelites. It begins with a favorable prognostication of their affairs under Hezekiah; but soon changes to reproofs and threatenings for their intemperance, disobedience, and profaneness.

[¶36] Jonathan's Targum on this verse is worthy of notice: "In that time Messiah, the Lord of hosts משיחא דיי צבאות meshicha dayai tsebaoth, shall be a crown of joy and a diadem of praise to the residue of his people." Kimchi says the rabbins in general are of this opinion. Here then the rabbins, and their most celebrated Targum, give the incommunicable name, יהוה צבאות Yehovah tsebaoth, the Lord of hosts, to our ever blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

### Verse 6

[¶38] The battle to the gate "The war to the gate of the enemy" - That is, who pursue the fleeing enemy even to the very gates of their own city. "But we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate," [2Sam 11:23]; that is, we drove the enemy back to their own gates. See also [1Sam 17:52]. The Targum says, The Messiah shall give the victory to those who go out to battle, that he may bring them back to their own houses in peace.

### Verse 9

[¶40] Whom shall he teach knowledge?" Whom, say they, would he teach knowledge?" - The scoffers mentioned below, [Isa 28:14], are here introduced as uttering their sententious speeches; they treat God's method of dealing with them, and warning them by his prophets, with contempt and derision. What, say they, doth he treat us as mere infants just weaned? doth he teach us like little children, perpetually inculcating the same elementary lessons, the mere rudiments of knowledge; precept after precept, line after line, here and there, by little and little? imitating at the same time, and ridiculing, in [Isa 28:10], the concise prophetical manner. God, by his prophet, retorts upon them with great severity their own contemptuous mockery, turning it to a sense quite different from what they intended. Yes, saith he, it shall be in fact as you say; ye shall be taught by a strange tongue and a stammering lip; in a strange country; ye shall be carried into captivity by a people whose language shall be unintelligible to you, and which ye shall be forced to learn like children. And my dealing with you shall be according to your own words: it shall be command upon command for your punishment; it shall be line upon line, stretched over you to mark your destruction, (compare [2Kgs 21:13]); it shall come upon you at different times, and by different degrees, till the judgments, with which from time to time I have threatened you, shall have their full accomplishment.

[¶41] Jerome seems to have rightly understood the general design of this passage as expressing the manner in which the scoffers, by their sententious speeches, turned into ridicule the warnings of God by his prophets, though he has not so well explained the meaning of the repetition of their speech in [Isa 28:13]. His words are on [Isa 28:9] "Solebant hoc ex persona prophetarum ludentes dicere:" and on [Isa 28:14] "Quod supra diximus, cum irrisione solitos principes Judaeorum prophetis dicere, manda, remanda, et caetera his similia, per quae ostenditur, nequaquam eos prophetarum credidisse sermonibus, sed prophetiam habuisse despectui, praesens ostendit capitulum, per quod appellantur viri illusores." Hieron. in loc.

[¶42] And so Jarchi interprets the word משלים mishelim in the next verse: Qui dicunt verba irrisionis parabolice." And the Chaldee paraphrases [Isa 28:11] to the same purpose, understanding it as spoken, not of God, but of the people deriding his prophets: "Quoniam in mutatione loquelae et in lingua subsannationis irridebant contra prophetas, qui prophetabant populo huic." - L.

### Verse 10

[¶44] For precept must be upon precept - The original is remarkably abrupt and sententious. The hemistichs are these: - לצו צו לצו צו כי latsav tsav latsav tsav ki לקו קו לקו קו lakau kau lakau kau שם זעיר שם זעיר sham zeeir sham zeeir

## 817. Isaiah · 37 of 79

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[¶0] For, - Command to command, command to command.

[¶1] Line to line, line to line.

[¶2] A little there, a little there.

[¶3] Kimchi says צו tsau, precept, is used here for מצוה mitsuah, command, and is used in no other place for it but here. צו tsau signifies a little precept, such as is suited to the capacity of a child; see [Isa 28:9]. קו kau signifies the line that a mason stretches out to build a layer of stones by. After one layer or course is placed, he raises the line and builds another; thus the building is by degrees regularly completed. This is the method of teaching children, giving them such information as their narrow capacities can receive; and thus the prophet dealt with the Israelites. See Kimchi in loc., and see a fine parallel passage, [Heb 5:12-14], by which this may be well illustrated.

[¶4] My old MS. Bible translates oddly: -

[¶5] For sende efter sende, sende efter sende:

[¶6] Abide efter abiide, abide efter abiide:

[¶7] Lytyl ther, lytyl ther.

[¶8] Coverdale is also singular: -

[¶9] Commande that may be commanded;

[¶10] Byd that maye be bydden:

[¶11] Foorbyd that maye be forbydden;

[¶12] Kepe backe that maye be kepte backe:

[¶13] Here a litle, there a litle.

### Verse 12

[¶15] This is the rest "This is the true rest" - The sense of this verse is: God had warned them by his prophets that their safety and security, their deliverance from their present calamities and from the apprehensions of still greater approaching, depended wholly on their trust in God, their faith and obedience; but they rejected this gracious warning with contempt and mockery.

### Verse 15

[¶17] A covenant with death - To be in covenant with, is a kind of proverbial expression to denote perfect security from evil and mischief of any sort: - "For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field;

[¶18] And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee." [Job 5:23]. "And I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field. And with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground." [Hos 2:18].

[¶19] That is, none of these shall hurt them. But Lucan, speaking of the Psylli, whose peculiar property it was to be unhurt by the bite of serpents, with which their country abounded, comes still nearer to the expression of Isaiah in this place: -

[¶20] Gens unica terras

[¶21] Incolit a saevo serpentum innoxia morsu

[¶22] Marmaridae Psylli. -

[¶23] Pax illis cum morte data est.

[¶24] Pharsal. 9:891. "Of all who scorching Afric's sun endure,

[¶25] None like the swarthy Psyllians are secure:

[¶26] With healing gifts and privileges graced,

[¶27] Well in the land of serpents were they placed:

[¶28] Truce with the dreadful tyrant death they have,

[¶29] And border safely on his realm the grave."

[¶30] Rowe.

[¶31] We have made a covenant with death and with hell are we at agreement - עשינו חזה asinu chozeh, we have made a vision, we have had an interview, struck a bargain, and settled all preliminaries. So they had made a covenant with hell by diabolic sacrifice, כרתנו ברית carathnu beritth. "We have cut the covenant sacrifice;" they divided it for the contracting parties to pass between the separated victim; for the victim was split exactly down the middle, so that even the spinal marrow was exactly divided through its whole length; and being set opposite to each other, the contracting parties entered, one at the head part, the other at the feet; and, meeting in the center, took the covenant oath. Thus, it is intimated, these bad people made an agreement with שאול sheol, with demons, with whom they had an interview; i.e., meeting them in the covenant sacrifice! To such a pitch had the Israelitish idolatry reached at that time!

### Verse 16

[¶33] Behold, I lay in Zion - See the notes on [Gen 49:32]; [Psa 118:22] (note); [Mat 21:42] (note); [Act 4:11] (note); [Rom 9:33] (note); [Rom 10:11] (note); [Eph 2:20] (note); [1Pet 2:6-8] (note). Kimchi understands this of Hezekiah; but it most undoubtedly belongs to Jesus Christ alone; and his application of it to himself, even the Jews could not contest.

### Verse 18

[¶35] Your covenant with death shall be disannulled "Your covenant with death shall be broken" - For כפר caphar, which seems not to belong to this place, the Chaldee reads תפר taphar, which is approved by Houbigant and Secker. See [Jer 33:21], where the very same phrase is used. See Prelim. Dissert. p. l.

### Verse 20

[¶37] For the bed is shorter - A mashal or proverbial saying, the meaning of which is, that they will find all means of defense and protection insufficient to secure them, and cover them from the evils coming upon them. מסך massek, [Isa 22:8], the covering, is used for the outworks of defense, the barrier of the country; and here, in the allegorical sense, it means much the same thing. Their beds were only mattresses laid on the floor; and the coverlet a sheet, or in the winter a carpet, laid over it, in which the person wrapped himself. For כהתכנס kehithcannes, it ought probably to be מהתכנס mehithcannes. Houbigant, Secker.

### Verse 21

[¶39] As in Mount Perazim - כהר kehar; but בהר bahar, In the mount, is the reading of two of Kennicott's, one of De Rossi's, and one of my own MSS.

### Verse 22

[¶41] The Lord God - אדני יהוה Adonai Jehovah. Adonai is omitted by four of Kennicott's MSS., and in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.

### Verse 23

[¶43] Give ye ear, and hear my voice "Listen ye, and hear my voice" - The foregoing discourse, consisting of severe reproofs, and threatenings of dreadful judgments impending on the Jews for their vices, and their profane contempt of God's warnings by his messengers, the prophet concludes with an explanation and defense of God's method of dealing with his people in an elegant parable or allegory; in which he employs a variety of images, all taken from the science of agriculture. As the husbandman uses various methods in preparing his land, and adapting it to the several kinds of seeds to be sown, with a due observation of times and seasons; and when he hath gathered in his harvest, employs methods as various in separating the corn from the straw and the chaff by different instruments, according to the nature of the different sorts of grain; so God, with unerring wisdom, and with strict justice, instructs, admonishes, and corrects his people; chastises and punishes them in various ways, as the exigence of the case requires; now more moderately, now more severely; always tempering justice with mercy; in order to reclaim the wicked, to improve the good, and, finally, to separate the one from the other.

## 818. Isaiah · 38 of 79

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### Verse 26

[¶1] For his God doth instruct him - All nations have agreed in attributing agriculture, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences, to the invention and to the suggestions of their deities. "The Most High hath ordained husbandry, "saith the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 7:15.

[¶2] Namque Ceres fertur fruges, Liberque liquoris

[¶3] Vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse.

[¶4] Lucretius, 5:14. "Ceres has taught mortals how to produce fruits; and Bacchus has taught them how to cultivate the vine." Ὁ δ' ηπιος ανθρωποισι Δεξια σημαινει, λαους δ' επι εργον εγειρει Μιμνησκων βιοτοιο· λεγει δ' ὁτε βωλος αριστη Βουσι τε και μακελῃσι· λεγει δ' ὁτε δεξιαι ὡραι Και φυτα γυρωσαι, και σπερματα παντα βαλεσθαι.

[¶5] Aratus, Phantom. v. "He, Jupiter, to the human race

[¶6] Indulgent, prompts to necessary toil

[¶7] Man provident of life; with kindly signs

[¶8] The seasons marks, when best to turn the glebe

[¶9] With spade and plough, to nurse the tender plant,

[¶10] And cast o'er fostering earth the seeds abroad."

### Verse 27

[¶12] Four methods of threshing are here mentioned, by different instruments; the flail, the drag, the wain, and the treading of the cattle. The staff or flail was used for the infirmiora semina, says Jerome, the grain that was too tender to be treated in the other methods. The drag consisted of a sort of strong planks, made rough at the bottom, with hard stones or iron; it was drawn by horses or oxen over the corn sheaves spread on the floor, the driver sitting upon it. Kempfer has given a print representing the manner of using this instrument, Amaen. Exot. p. 682, fig. 3. The wain was much like the former; but had wheels with iron teeth, or edges like a saw: Ferrata carpenta rotis per medium in serrarum modum se volventibus. Hieron. in loc. From this it would seem that the axle was armed with iron teeth or serrated wheels throughout. See a description and print of such a machine used at present in Egypt for the same purpose in Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie, Tab. 17 p. 123; it moves upon three rollers armed with iron teeth or wheels to cut the straw. In Syria they make use of the drag, constructed in the very same manner as above described; Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 140. This not only forced out the grain, but cut the straw in pieces for fodder for the cattle; for in the eastern countries they have no hay. See Harmer's Observ. 1 p. 425. The last method is well known from the law of Moses, which "forbids the ox to be muzzled, when he treadeth out the corn;" [Deu 25:4].

### Verse 28

[¶14] The bread-corn - I read ולהם velahem, on the authority of the Vulgate and Symmachus; the former expresses the conjunction ו vau, omitted in the text, by autem; the latter by δε.

[¶15] Bruise it with his horsemen "Bruise it with the hoofs of his cattle" - For פרשיו parashaiv, horsemen or teeth, read פרסיו perasaiv, hoofs. So the Syriac, Syrnmachus, Theodotion, and the Vulgate. The first is read with ש shin, the latter with ס samech, the pronunciation is nearly the same.

### Introduction

[¶17] Distress of Ariel, or Jerusalem, on Sennacherib's invasion, with manifest allusion, however, to the still greater distress which it suffered from the Romans, [Isa 29:1-4]. Disappointment and fall of Sennacherib described in terms, like the event, the most awful and terrible, [Isa 29:5-8]. Stupidity and hypocrisy of the Jews, [Isa 29:9-16]. Rejection of the Jews, and calling of the Gentiles, [Isa 29:17]. The chapter concludes by a recurrence to the favourite topics of the prophet, viz., the great extension of the Messiah's kingdom in the latter days, and the future restoration of Israel, [Isa 29:18-24].

[¶18] The subject of this and the four following chapters is the invasion of Sennacherib; the great distress of the Jews while it continued; their sudden and unexpected deliverance by God's immediate interposition in their favor; the subsequent prosperous state of the kingdom under Hezekiah; interspersed with severe reproofs, and threats of punishment, for their hypocrisy, stupidity, infidelity, their want of trust in God, and their vain reliance on the assistance of Egypt; and with promises of better times, both immediately to succeed, and to be expected in the future age. The whole making, not one continued discourse, but rather a collection of different discourses upon the same subject; which is treated with great elegance and variety. Though the matter is various, and the transitions sudden, yet the prophet seldom goes far from his subject. It is properly enough divided by the chapters in the common translation. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶20] Ariel - That Jerusalem is here called by this name is very certain: but the reason of this name, and the meaning of it as applied to Jerusalem, is very obscure and doubtful. Some, with the Chaldee, suppose it to be taken from the hearth of the great altar of burnt-offerings which Ezekiel plainly calls by the same name, and that Jerusalem is here considered as the seat of the fire of God, אור אל ur el which should issue from thence to consume his enemies: compare [Isa 31:9]. Some, according to the common derivation of the word, ארי אל ari el, the lion of God, or the strong lion, suppose it to signify the strength of the place, by which it was enabled to resist and overcome all its enemies. Τινες δε φασι την πολιν οὑτως ειρησθαι· επει, δια Θεου, λεοντος δικην εσπαραττε τους ανταιροντας. Procop. in loc. There are other explanations of this name given: but none that seems to be perfectly satisfactory. - Lowth.

[¶21] From [Eze 43:15], we learn that Ari-el was the name of the altar of burnt-offerings, put here for the city itself in which that altar was. In the second verse it is said, I will distress Ari-el, and it shall be unto me as Ari-el. The first Ari-el here seems to mean Jerusalem, which should be distressed by the Assyrians: the second Ari-el seems to mean the altar of burntofferings. But why is it said, "Ari-el shall be unto me as Ari-el?" As the altar of burntofferings was surrounded daily by the victims which were offered: so the walls of Jerusalem shall be surrounded by the dead bodies of those who had rebelled against the Lord, and who should be victims to his justice. The translation of Bishop Lowth appears to embrace both meanings: "I will bring distress upon Ari-el; and it shall be to me as the hearth of the great altar."

[¶22] Add ye year to year - Ironically. Go on year after year, keep your solemn feasts; yet know, that God will punish you for your hypocritical worship, consisting of mere form destitute of true piety. Probably delivered at the time of some great feast, when they were thus employed.

### Verse 2

[¶24] There shall be heaviness and sorrow "There shall be continual mourning and sorrow" - Instead of your present joy and festivity.

[¶25] And it shall be unto me as Ariel "And it shall be unto me as the hearth of the great altar" - That is, it shall be the seat of the fire of God; which shall issue from thence to consume his enemies. See note on [Isa 29:1] (note). Or, perhaps, all on flame; as it was when taken by the Chaldeans; or covered with carcasses and blood, as when taken by the Romans: an intimation of which more distant events, though not immediate subjects of the prophecy, may perhaps be given in this obscure passage.

### Verse 3

[¶27] And I will camp against thee round about "And I will encamp against thee like David" - For כדור caddur, some kind of military engine, כדוד kedavid, like David, is the reading of the Septuagint, two MSS. of Kennicott's, if not two more: but though Bishop Lowth adopts this reading, I think it harsh and unnecessary.

[¶28] Forts "Towers" - For מצרת metsuroth, read מצדות metsudoth: so the Septuagint and five MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, one of them ancient, and four of De Rossi's.

### Verse 4

[¶30] And thy speech shall be low out of the dust "And from out of the dust thou shalt utter a feeble speech" - That the souls of the dead uttered a feeble stridulous sound, very different from the natural human voice, was a popular notion among the heathens as well as among the Jews. This appears from several passages of their poets; Homer, Virgil, Horace. The pretenders to the art of necromancy, who were chiefly women, had an art of speaking with a feigned voice, so as to deceive those who applied to them, by making them believe that it was the voice of the ghost. They had a way of uttering sounds, as if they were formed, not by the organs of speech, but deep in the chest, or in the belly; and were thence called εγγαστριμυθοι, ventriloqui: they could make the voice seem to come from beneath the ground, from a distant part, in another direction, and not from themselves; the better to impose upon those who consulted them. Εξεπιτηδες το γενος τουτο τον αμυδρον ηχον επιτηδευονται, ἱνα δια την ασαφειαν της φωνης τον του ψευδους αποδιδρασκωσιν ελεγχον. Psellus De Daemonibus, apud Bochart, 1 p. 731. "These people studiously acquire, and affect on purpose, this sort of obscure sound; that by the uncertainty of the voice they may the better escape being detected in the cheat. "From these arts of the necromancers the popular notion seems to have arisen, that the ghost's voice was a weak, stridulous, almost inarticulate sort of sound, very different from the speech of the living.

### Verse 5

[¶32] The multitude of thy strangers "The multitude of the proud" - For זריך zarayich, thy strangers, read זדים zedim, the proud, according to the Septuagint; parallel to and synonymous with עריצים aritsim, the terrible, in the next line: the ר resh was at first ד daleth in a MS. See note on [Isa 25:2].

[¶33] The fifth, sixth, and seventh verses contain an admirable description of the destruction of Sennacherib's army, with a beautiful variety of the most expressive and sublime images: perhaps more adapted to show the greatness, the suddenness, and horror of the event, than the means and manner by which it was effected. Compare [Isa 30:30-33].

### Verse 7

[¶35] As a dream - This is the beginning of the comparison, which is pursued and applied in the next verse. Sennacherib and his mighty army are not compared to a dream because of their sudden disappearance; but the disappointment of their eager hopes is compared to what happens to a hungry and thirsty man, when he awakes from a dream in which fancy had presented to him meat and drink in abundance, and finds it nothing but a vain illusion. The comparison is elegant and beautiful in the highest degree, well wrought up, and perfectly suited to the end proposed. The image is extremely natural, but not obvious: it appeals to our inward feelings, not to our outward senses; and is applied to an event in its concomitant circumstances exactly similar, but in its nature totally different. See De S. Poes. Hebr. Praelect. 12. For beauty and ingenuity it may fairly come in competition with one of the most elegant of Virgil, greatly improved from Homer, Iliad 22:199, where he has applied to a different purpose, but not so happily, the same image of the ineffectual working of imagination in a dream: -

[¶36] Ac veluti in somnis, oculos ubi languida pressit

[¶37] Nocte quies, necquicquam avidos extendere cursus

[¶38] Velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus aegri

[¶39] Succidimus; non lingua valet, non corpore notae

[¶40] Sufficiunt vires, nec vox, nec verba sequuntur.

[¶41] Aen., 12:908. "And as, when slumber seals the closing sight,

[¶42] The sick wild fancy labors in the night;

[¶43] Some dreadful visionary foe we shun

[¶44] With airy strides, but strive in vain to run;

[¶45] In vain our baffled limbs their powers essay;

## 819. Isaiah · 39 of 79

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[¶0] We faint, we struggle, sink, and fall away;

[¶1] Drain'd of our strength, we neither fight nor fly,

[¶2] And on the tongue the struggling accents die."

[¶3] Pitt.

[¶4] Lucretius expresses the very same image with Isaiah: -

[¶5] Ut bibere in somnis sitiens quum quaerit, et humor

[¶6] Non datur, ardorem in membris qui stinguere possit;

[¶7] Sed laticum simulacra petit, frustraque laborat,

[¶8] In medioque sitit torrenti flumine potans.

[¶9] As a thirsty man desires to drink in his sleep,

[¶10] And has no fluid to allay the heat within,

[¶11] But vainly labors to catch the image of rivers,

[¶12] And is parched up while fancying that he is drinking at a full stream.

[¶13] Bishop Stock's translation of the prophet's text is both elegant and just: - "As when a hungry man dreameth; and, lo! he is eating:

[¶14] And he awaketh; and his appetite is unsatisfied.

[¶15] And as a thirsty man dreameth; and, lo! he is drinking:

[¶16] And he awaketh; and, lo! he is faint,

[¶17] And his appetite craveth."

[¶18] Lucretius almost copies the original.

[¶19] All that fight against her and her munition "And all their armies and their towers" - For צביה ומצדתה tsobeyha umetsodathah, I read, with the Chaldee, צבאם ומצדתם tsebaam umetsodatham.

### Verse 9

[¶21] Stay yourselves, and wonder - התמהמהו hithmahmehu, go on what-what-whatting, in a state of mental indetermination, till the overflowing scourge take you away. See the note on [Psa 119:60] (note).

[¶22] They are drunken, but not with wine - See note on [Isa 51:21].

### Verse 11

[¶24] I cannot; for it is sealed "I cannot read it; for it is sealed up" - An ancient MS. and the Septuagint have preserved a word here, lost out of the text; לקרות likroth, (for לקראות), αναγνωναι, read it.

### Verse 13

[¶26] The Lord "Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, sixty-three MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and four editions, read יהוה Yehovah, and five MSS. add יהוה.

[¶27] Kimchi makes some just observations on this verse. The vision, meaning the Divine revelation of all the prophets, is a book or letter that is sealed - is not easily understood. This is delivered to one that is learned - instructed in the law. Read this; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed; a full proof that he does not wish to know the contents else he would apply to the prophet to get it explained. See Kimchi on the place.

[¶28] And their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men "And vain is their fear of me teaching the commandments of men" - I read for ותהי vattehi, ותהו vethohu, with the Septuagint, [Mat 15:9]; [Mar 8:7]; and for מלמדה melummedah, מלמדים melummedim, with the Chaldee.

### Verse 17

[¶30] And Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field "Ere Lebanon become like Carmel" - A mashal, or proverbial saying, expressing any great revolution of things; and, when respecting two subjects, an entire reciprocal change: explained here by some interpreters, I think with great probability, as having its principal view beyond the revolutions then near at hand, to the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles. The first were the vineyard of God, כרם אל kerem El, (if the prophet, who loves an allusion to words of like sounds, may be supposed to have intended one here), cultivated and watered by him in vain, to be given up, and to become a wilderness: compare [Isa 5:1-7]. The last had been hitherto barren; but were, by the grace of God, to be rendered fruitful. See [Mat 21:43]; [Rom 11:30], [Rom 11:31]. Carmel stands here opposed to Lebanon, and therefore is to be taken as a proper name.

### Verse 21

[¶32] Him that reproveth in the gate "Him that pleaded in the gate" - "They are heard by the treasurer, master of the horse, and other principal officers of the regency of Algiers, who sit constantly in the gate of the palace for that purpose:" that is, the distribution of justice. - Shaw's Travels, p. 315, fol. He adds in the note, "That we read of the elders in the gate. [Deu 21:15]; [Deu 25:7]; and, [Isa 29:21]; [Amo 5:10], of him that reproveth and rebuketh in the gate. The Ottoman court likewise seems to have been called the Porte, from the distribution of justice and the dispatch of public business that is carried on in the gates of it."

### Verse 22

[¶34] Who redeemed Abraham - As God redeemed Abraham from among idolaters and workers of iniquity, so will he redeem those who hear the words of the Book, and are humbled before him, [Isa 29:18], [Isa 29:19].

[¶35] Concerning the house of Jacob "The God of the house of Jacob" - I read אל El as a noun, not a preposition: the parallel line favors this sense; and there is no address to the house of Jacob to justify the other.

[¶36] Neither shall his face now wax pale "His face shall no more be covered with confusion" - "יחורו yechoro, Chald. ut ὁ μεταβαλει, Theod. εντραπησεται, Syr. נחפרו necaphro, videtur legendum יחפרו yechepheru: hic enim solum legitur verbum, חור chavar, nec in linguis affinibus habet pudoris significationem." - Secker. "Here alone is the verb חור charar read; nor has it in the cognate languages the signification of shame."

### Verse 23

[¶38] But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands "For when his children shall see the work of my hands" - For בראותו birotho I read בראות biroth, with the Septuagint and Syriac.

### Introduction

[¶40] The Jews reproved for their reliance on Egypt, [Isa 30:1-7]. Threatened for their obstinate adherence to this alliance, [Isa 30:8-17]. Images the most elegant and lofty, by which the intense gloriousness of Messiah's reign at the period when all Israel shall be added to the Church is beautifully set forth, [Isa 30:18-26]. Dreadful fall of Sennacherib's army, an event most manifestly typical of the terrible and sudden overthrow of Antichrist; as, unless this typical reference be admitted, no possible connection can be imagined between the stupendous events which took place in Hezekiah's reign, and the very remote and inconceivably more glorious displays of Divine vengeance and mercy in the days of the Messiah, [Isa 30:27-33].

### Verse 1

[¶42] And that cover with a covering "Who ratify covenants" - Hebrews "Who pour out a libation." Sacrifice and libation were ceremonies constantly used, in ancient times by most nations in the ratifying of covenants: a libation therefore is used for a covenant, as in Greek the word σπονδη, for the same reason, stands for both. This seems to be the most easy explication of the Hebrew phrase, and it has the authority of the Septuagint, εποιησατε συνθηκας.

### Verse 4

[¶44] Hanes - Six MSS. of Kennicott's, and perhaps six others, with four of De Rossi's, read חנם chinnam, in vain, for הנס Hanes; and so also the Septuagint, who read likewise יגעו yageu, labored, for יגיעו yaggiu, arrived at.

## 820. Isaiah · 40 of 79

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### Verse 5

[¶1] Were - ashamed - Eight MSS. (one ancient) of Kennicott's, and ten of De Rossi's, read הביש hobish, without א aleph. So the Chaldee and Vulgate.

[¶2] But a shame "But proved even a shame" - Four MSS. (three ancient) after כי ki, add אם im, unless, which seems wanted to complete the phrase in its usual form.

### Verse 6

[¶4] The burden - משא massa seems here to be taken in its proper sense; the load, not the oracle. The same subject is continued; and there seems to be no place here for a new title to a distinct prophecy.

[¶5] Does not burden of the beasts of the South in this place relate to the presents sent by Hoshea king of Israel to the South - to Egypt, which lay south of Judea, to engage the Egyptians to succor him against the king of Assyria?

[¶6] Into the land of trouble and anguish "Through a land of distress and difficulty" - The same deserts are here spoken of which the Israelites passed through when they came out of Egypt, which Moses describes, [Deu 8:15], as "that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought; where there was no water. "And which was designed to be a kind of barrier between them and Egypt, of which the Lord had said, "Ye shall henceforth return no more that way," [Deu 17:16].

[¶7] Shall not profit them - A MS. adds in the margin the word למו lamo, them, which seems to have been lost out of the text: it is authorized by the Septuagint and Vulgate.

### Verse 7

[¶9] Their strength is to sit still "Rahab the Inactive" - The two last words, הם שבת hem shabeth, joined into one, make the participle pihel המשבת hammeshabbeth. I find the learned Professor Doederlein, in his version of Isaiah, and note on this place, has given the same conjecture; which he speaks of as having been formerly published by him. A concurrence of different persons in the same conjecture adds to it a greater degree of probability.

### Verse 8

[¶11] For ever and ever "For a testimony for ever" - לעד leed. So the Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, and Septuagint, in MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2: εις μαρτυριον, which two words have been lost out of the other copies of the Septuagint.

### Verse 12

[¶13] In oppression "In obliquity" - בעקש beakesh, transposing the two last letters of בעשק beoshek, in oppression, which seems not to belong to this place: a very probable conjecture of Houbigant.

### Verse 13

[¶15] Swelling out to a high wall "A swelling in a high wall" - It has been observed before, that the buildings of Asia generally consist of little better than what we call mud walls. "All the houses at Ispahan, "says Thevenot, Vol. II., p. 159, "are built of bricks made of clay and straw, and dried in the sun; and covered with a plaster made of a fine white stone. In other places in Persia the houses are built with nothing else but such bricks, made with tempered clay and chopped straw, well mingled together, and dried in the sun, and then used: but the least rain dissolves them. "Sir John Chardin's MS. remark on this place of Isaiah is very apposite: Murs en Asie etant faits de terre se fendent ainsi par milieu et de haut en bas. "The walls in Asia being made of earth often cleave from top to bottom." This shouts clearly how obvious and expressive the image is. The psalmist has in the same manner made use of it, to express sudden and utter destruction: - "Ye shall be slain all of you;

[¶16] Ye shall be like an inclining wall, like a shattered fence." [Psa 62:4].

### Verse 14

[¶18] He shall not spare "And spareth it not" - Five MSS. add the conjunction ו vau to the negative; ולא velo.

### Verse 17

[¶20] At the rebuke of five shall ye flee "At the rebuke of five, ten thousand of you shall flee" - In the second line of this verse a word is manifestly omitted, which should answer to one thousand in the first: the Septuagint supply πολλοι, רבים rabbim. But the true word is רבבה rebabah, as I am persuaded any one will be convinced, who will compare the following passages with this place: - "How should one chase a thousand;

[¶21] And two put ten thousand (רבבה) to flight?" [Deu 32:30]. "And five of you shall chase a hundred;

[¶22] And a hundred of you shall chase (רבבה) ten thousand." [Lev 26:8].

### Verse 18

[¶24] And therefore will he be exalted "Even for this shall he expect in silence" - For ירום yarum, he shall be exalted, which belongs not to this place, Houbigant reads ידום yadum, he shall be silent: and so it seems to be in a MS. Another MS. instead of it reads ישוב yashub, he shall return. The mistakes occasioned by the similitude of the letters ד daleth and ר resh are very frequent, as the reader may have already observed.

### Verse 19

[¶26] For the people shall dwell in Zion "When a holy people shall dwell in Sion" - Λαος ἁγιος, Septuagint; עם קדוש am kadosh. The word קדוש dro kadosh, lost out of the text, but happily supplied by the Septuagint, clears up the sense, otherwise extremely obscure. When the rest of the cities of the land were taken by the king of Assyria, Zion was preserved, and all that were in it.

[¶27] Thou shalt weep no more "Thou shalt implore him with weeping" - The negative particle לא lo is not acknowledged by the Septuagint. It may perhaps have been written by mistake for לו lo, to him, of which there are many examples.

### Verse 20

[¶29] Though the Lord "Though Jehovah" - For אדני Adonai, sixteen MSS. and three editions have יהוה Yehovah, many of De Rossi's have the same reading; all my own have יהוה Yehovah.

### Verse 21

[¶31] When ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left "Turn not aside, to the right or to the left" - The Syriac Chaldee, and Vulgate, translate as if, instead of כי־וכי ki-vechi, they read לא־ולא lo-velo.

### Verse 22

[¶33] Ye shall defile "Ye shall treat as defiled" - The very prohibition of Moses, [Deu 7:25], only thrown out of the prose into the poetical form: "The graven images of their gods ye shall burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or the gold that is on them; nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein; for it is an abomination to Jehovah thy God."

### Verse 25

[¶35] When the towers fall "When the mighty fall" - מגדלים migdalim, μεγαλους, Sym.; μεγαλυνομενους, Aquila; רברבין rabrebin, Chard.; all signifying mighty sizes.

### Verse 26

[¶37] Shall be sevenfold - The text adds כאור שבעת הימים keor shibath haiyamayim, "as the light of seven days, "a manifest gloss, taken in from the margin; it is not in most of the copies of the Septuagint. It interrupts the rhythmical construction, and obscures the sense by a false, or at least an unnecessary, interpretation.

[¶38] By moon, sun, light, are to be understood the abundance of spiritual and temporal felicity with which God should bless them in the days of the Messiah, which should be sevenfold, i.e. vastly exceed all that they had ever before possessed.

### Verse 27

[¶40] And the burden thereof is heavy "And the flame raged violently" - משאה massaah; this word seems to be rightly rendered in our translation, the flame, [Jdg 20:38], [Jdg 20:40], etc.; a sign of fire, [Jer 6:1]; called properly משאת masseeth, an elevation, from its tending upwards.

### Verse 28

[¶42] To sift the nations with a sieve of vanity "To toss the nations with the van of perdition" - The word להנפה lahanaphah is in its form very irregular. Kimchi says it is for להניף lehaniph. Houbigant supposes it to be a mistake, and shows the cause of it; the joining it to the ה he, which should begin the following word. The true reading is להניף הגוים lehaniph haggoyim, "to sift the nations."

[¶43] The Vulgate seems to be the only one of the ancient interpreters who has explained rightly the sense; but he has dropped the image: ad perdendas gentes in nihilum, "to reduce the nations to nothing. "Kimchi's explanation is to the following effect:" נפה naphah is a van with which they winnow corn; and its use is to cleanse the corn from the chaff and straw: but the van with which God will winnow the nations will be the van of emptiness or perdition; for nothing useful shall remain behind, but all shall come to nothing, and perish. In like manner, a bridle is designed to guide the horse in the right way; but the bridle which God will put in the jaws of the people shall not direct them aright, but shall make them err, and lead them into destruction." This latter image the prophet has applied to the same subject afterwards, [Isa 37:29] : - "I will put my bridle in thy jaws, And turn thee back by the way in which thou camest."

[¶44] And as for the former it is to be observed, that the van of the ancients was a large instrument, somewhat like a shovel, with a long handle, with which they tossed the corn mixed with the chaff and chopped straw into the air, that the wind might separate them. See Hammond on [Mat 3:12].

## 821. Isaiah · 41 of 79

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[¶0] There shall be a bridle in the jaws - A metaphor taken from a headstrong, unruly horse: the bridle checks, restrains, and directs him.

[¶1] What the true God does in restraining sinners has been also attributed to the false gods of the heathen. Thus Aeschylus, prom. Vinct. 691: - αλλ' επηναγκαζε νιν Διος χαλινος προς βιαν πρασσειν ταδε. "But the bridle of Jupiter violently constrained him to do these things."

### Verse 30

[¶3] The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard - Kimchi understands this of the great destruction of the Assyrian host by the angel of the Lord. Instead of בזעף אץ bezaaph ats, "with swift anger, "five of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. and one of my own, read בזעם אף bezaam aph, "with detestation indignant." For אץ ats, "swift, "which is the common reading, forty-two of Kennicott's, forty-three of De Rossi's, and two of my own, have אץ ats, "wrath or fury." The former reading, אץ ats, is not found in any Bible previously to that of Van der Hooght, in 1705; and there it seems to be a typographical mistake.

### Verse 31

[¶5] Which smote with a rod "He that was ready to smite with his staff" - "Post אשור ashshur, forte excidit אשר asher." - Secker. After אשור ashshur, probably אשר asher, "which, "has been omitted.

### Verse 32

[¶7] The grounded staff "The rod of his correction" - For מוסדה musadah, the grounded staff, of which no one yet has been able to make any tolerable sense, Le Clerc conjectured מוסרה musarah, of correction; (see [Pro 22:15]); and so it is in two MSS., (one of them ancient), and seems to be so in the Bodleian MS. The Syriac has דשוע בדה deshuebedah, Virgo domans, vet subjectionis, "the taming rod, or rod of subjection."

[¶8] With tabrets and harps - With every demonstration of joy and thanksgiving for the destruction of the enemy in so wonderful a manner: with hymns of praise, accompanied with musical instruments. See [Isa 30:29].

[¶9] With it "Against them" - For בה bah. against her, fifty-two MSS. and five editions read בם bam, against them.

### Verse 33

[¶11] For Tophet is ordained - Tophet is a valley very near to Jerusalem, to the southeast, called also the valley of Hinnom or Gehenna; where the Canaanites, and afterwards the Israelites, sacrificed their children, by making them pass through the fire, that is, by burning them in the fire, to Molech, as some suppose. It is therefore used for a place of punishment by fire; and by our blessed Savior in the Gospel for hell-fire, as the Jews themselves had applied it. See Chald. on [Isa 33:14], where מוקדי עלם mokedey olam is rendered "the Gehenna of everlasting fire." Here the place where the Assyrian army was destroyed is called Tophet by a metonymy; for the Assyrian army was destroyed probably at a greater distance from Jerusalem, and quite on the opposite side of it: for Nob is mentioned as the last station, from which the king of Assyria should threaten Jerusalem, [Isa 10:32], where the prophet seems to have given a very exact chorographical description of his march in order to attack the city; which however he never reached. - L.

### Introduction

[¶13] The Jews again reproved for their confidence in Egypt, finely contrasted with their neglect of the power and protection of God, [Isa 31:1-3]. Deliverance and protection are, notwithstanding, promised, expressed by two similes; the first remarkably lofty and poetical, the latter singularly beautiful and tender, [Isa 31:4], [Isa 31:5]. Exhortation to repentance, joined with the prediction of a more reformed period, [Isa 31:6], [Isa 31:7]. This chapter concludes like the preceding, with a prophecy of the fall of Sennacherib, [Isa 31:8], [Isa 31:9].

### Verse 1

[¶15] Wo to them that go down to Egypt - This is a reproof to the Israelites for forming an alliance with the Egyptians, and not trusting in the Lord.

[¶16] And stay on horses "Who trust in horses" - For ועל veal, and upon, first twenty MSS. of Kennicott's, thirty of De Rossi's, one of my own, and the Septuagint, Arabic, and Vulgate, read על al, upon, without the conjunction, which disturbs the sense.

### Verse 2

[¶18] His words "His word" - דברו debaro, singular, without י yod, two MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's the Septuagint, and Targ. Hieros. דרכיו derachaiv, his ways, is found in one MS.

### Verse 3

[¶20] He that helpeth (the Egyptians) shall fall and he that is holpen (the Israelites) shall fall down-together.

### Verse 4

[¶22] Like as the lion - This comparison is exactly in the spirit and manner, and very nearly approaching to the expression, of Homer. Βη ρ' ιμεν, ὡστε λεων ορεσιτροφος, ὁστ' επιδευης Δηρον εῃ κρειων, κελεται δε ἑ θυμος αγηνωρ, Μηλων πειρησοντα, και ες πυκινον δομον ελθειν· Ειπερ γαρ χ' εὑρῃσι παρ' αυτοψι βωτορας ανδρας Συν κυσι και δουρεσσι φυλασσοντας περι μηλα, Ου ρα τ' απειρητος μεμονε σταθμοιο διεσθαι. Αλλ' ὁγ' αῥ η ἡρπαξε μεταλμενος, ηε και αυτος Εβλητ' εν πρωτοισι θοης απο χειρος ακοντι.

[¶23] Iliad 12:299.

[¶24] As the bold lion, mountain-bred, now long

[¶25] Famished, with courage and with hunger stung

[¶26] Attempts the thronged fold: him nought appals,

[¶27] Though dogs and armed shepherds stand in guard

[¶28] Collected; he nathless undaunted springs

[¶29] O'er the high fence, and rends the trembling prey;

[¶30] Or, rushing onward, in his breast receives

[¶31] The well-aimed spear.

[¶32] Of metaphors, allegories, and comparisons of the Hebrew poets, in which the Divine nature and attributes are represented under images taken from brutes and other low objects; of their effect, their sublimity, and the causes of it; see De Sac. Poes. Heb., Praelect. 16 sub. fin.

### Verse 5

[¶34] Passing over "Leaping forward" - The generality of interpreters observe in this place an allusion to the deliverance which God vouchsafed to his people when he destroyed the first-born of the Egyptians, and exempted those of the Israelites sojourning among them by a peculiar interposition. The same word is made use of here which is used upon that occasion, and which gave the name to the feast which was instituted in commemoration of that deliverance, פסח pesach. But the difficulty is to reconcile the commonly received meaning of that word with the circumstances of the similitude here used to illustrate the deliverance represented as parallel to the deliverance in Egypt. "As the mother birds hovering over their young,

[¶35] So shall Jehovah God of hosts protect Jerusalem;

[¶36] Protecting and delivering, passing over, and rescuing her."

[¶37] This difficulty is, I think, well solved by Vitringa, whose remark is the more worthy of observation, as it leads to the true meaning of an important word, which hitherto seems greatly to have been misunderstood, though Vitringa himself, as it appears to me, has not exactly enough defined the precise meaning of it. He says, "פסח pasach signifies to cover, to protect by covering: σκεπασω ὑμας, Septuagint. Jehovah obteget ostium; 'The Lord will cover or protect the door:'" whereas it means that particular action or motion by which God at that time placed himself in such a situation as to protect the house of the Israelite against the destroying angel; to spring forward, to throw one's self in the way, in order to cover and protect. Cocceius comes nearer to the true meaning than Vitringa, by rendering it gradum facere, to march, to step forward; Lexicon in voc. The common meaning of the word פסח pasach upon other occasions is to halt, to be lame, to leap, as in a rude manner of dancing, (as the prophets of Baal did, [1Kgs 18:26]), all which agrees very well together; for the motion of a lame person is a perpetual springing forward, by throwing himself from the weaker upon the stronger leg. The common notion of God's passage over the houses of the Israelites is, that in going through the land of Egypt to smite the first-born, seeing the blood on the door of the houses of the Israelites, he passed over, or skipped, those houses, and forbore to smite them. But that this is not the true notion of the thing, will be plain from considering the words of the sacred historian, where he describes very explicitly the action: "For Jehovah will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood on the lintels and on the two side posts, Jehovah will spring forward over (or before) the door, ופסח יהוה על הפתח upasach Yehovah al happethach, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you, "[Exo 12:23]. Here are manifestly two distinct agents, with which the notion of passing over is not consistent, for that supposes but one agent. The two agents are the destroying angel passing through to smite every house, and Jehovah the Protector keeping pace with him; and who, seeing the door of the Israelite marked with the blood, the token prescribed, leaps forward, throws himself with a sudden motion in the way, opposes the destroying angel, and covers and protects that house against the destroying angel, nor suffers him to smite it. In this way of considering the action, the beautiful similitude of the bird protecting her young answers exactly to the application by the allusion to the deliverance in Egypt. As the mother bird spreads her wings to cover her young, throws herself before them, and opposes the rapacious bird that assaults them, so shall Jehovah protect, as with a shield, Jerusalem from the enemy, protecting and delivering, springing forward and rescuing her; ὑπερβαινων, as the three other Greek interpreters, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, render it. The Septuagint, περιποιησεται· instead of which MS. Pachom. has περιβησεται, circumeundo proteget, "in going about he shall protect, "which I think is the true reading. - Homer, 2 viii. 329, expresses the very same image by this word: - Αιας δ' ουκ αμελησε κασιγνητοιο πεσοντος, Αλλα θεων περιβη, και οἱ σακος αμφεκαλυψε: " - But Ajax his broad shield displayed,

[¶38] And screened his brother with a mighty shade." - Ὁς Χρυσην αμφιβεβηκας.

[¶39] Il. 1:37

[¶40] Which the scholiast explains by περιβεβηκας, ὑπερμαχεις, i.e., "Thou who strictly guardest Chryses." - L. On this verse Kimchi says, "The angel of the Lord which destroyed the Assyrians is compared to a lion, [Isa 31:4], for his strength: and here ([Isa 31:5]) to flying birds, for his swiftness."

### Verse 6

[¶42] Have deeply revolted "Have so deeply engaged in revolt" - All the ancient Versions read תעמיקו taamiku, in the second person, instead of העמיקו heemiku, they have deeply revolted, etc.

### Verse 7

[¶44] Which your own hands have made unto you for a sin "The sin, which their own hands have made" - The construction of the word חטא chet, sin, in this place is not easy. The Septuagint have omitted it: MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 and Cod. Marchal. in margine, supply the omission by the word ἁμαρτιαν, sin, or ἁμαρτημα, said to be from Aquila's Version, which I have followed. The learned Professor Schroeder, Institut. Ling. Hebrews p. 298, makes it to be in regimine with ידיכם yedeychem, as an epithet, your sinful hands. The Septuagint render the pronoun in the third person, αἱ χειρες αυτων, their hands; and an ancient MS. has, agreeable to that rendering, להם lahem, to them, for לכם lachem, to you; which word they have likewise omitted, as not necessary to complete the sense.

## 822. Isaiah · 42 of 79

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Then shall the Assyrian fall, etc. - Because he was to be discomfited by the angel of the Lord, destroying in his camp, in one night, upwards of one hundred and eighty thousand men; and Sennacherib himself fell by the hands of the princes, his own sons. Not mighty men, for they were not soldiers; not mean men, for they were princes.

### Introduction

[¶3] Prophecy of great prosperity under Hezekiah; but, in its highest sense, applicable to Christ, [Isa 32:1-8]. Description of impending calamities, [Isa 32:9-14]. Rejection of the Jews, and calling of the Gentiles, [Isa 32:15]. The future prosperity of the Church, [Isa 32:16-20].

### Verse 1

[¶5] Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness - If King Hezekiah were a type of Christ, then this prophecy may refer to his time; but otherwise it seems to have Hezekiah primarily in view. It is evident, however, that in the fullest sense these words cannot be applied to any man; God alone can do all that is promised here.

[¶6] And princes - ושרים ve-sarim, without ל lamed, to; so the ancient Versions. An ancient MS. has ושריו vesaraiv, and his princes.

### Verse 2

[¶8] As the shadow of a great rock - The shadow of a great projecting rock is the most refreshing that is possible in a hot country, not only as most perfectly excluding the rays of the sun, but also as having in itself a natural coolness, which it reflects and communicates to every thing about it.

[¶9] Speluncaeque tegant, et saxea procubet umbra.

[¶10] Virg. Georg. 3:145. "Let the cool cave and shady rock protect them." Επει κεφαλην και γουνατα Σειριος αζει, Αυαλεος δε τε χρως απο καυματος· αλλα τοτ' ηδη Ειη πετραιη τε σκιν, και Βιβλινος οινος.

[¶11] Hesiod. 2:206. "When Sirius rages, and thine aching head,

[¶12] Parched skin, and feeble knees refreshment need;

[¶13] Then to the rock's projected shade retire,

[¶14] With Biblin wine recruit thy wasted powers."

### Verse 3

[¶16] And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim "And him the eyes of those that see shall regard" - For ולא velo, and not, Le Clerc reads ולו velo, and to him, of which mistake the Masoretes acknowledge there are fifteen instances; and many more are reckoned by others. The removal of the negative restores to the verb its true and usual sense.

### Verse 5

[¶18] The vile person shall no more be called liberal - The different epithets here employed require minute explanation.

[¶19] The vile person - נבל nabal, the pampered, fattened, brainless fellow, who eats to live, and lives to eat; who will scarcely part with any thing, and that which he does give he gives with an evil eye and a grudging heart.

[¶20] Liberal - נדיב nadib; the generous, openhearted, princely man, who writes on all his possessions, For myself and mankind, and lives only to get and to do good.

[¶21] The churl - כילי kilai, the avaricious man; he who starves himself amidst his plenty, and will not take the necessaries of life for fear of lessening his stock.

[¶22] Thus he differs from נבל nabal, who feeds himself to the full, and regards no one else; like the rich man in the Gospel. The avaricious man is called כילי kilai, from כי ki, for, לי li, myself; or contracted from כל col, all, and לי li, to myself: all is mine; all I have is my own; and all I can get is for myself: and yet this man enjoys nothing; he withholds

[¶23] From back and belly too their proper fare: -

[¶24] O cursed lust of gold, when for thy sake

[¶25] The wretch throws up his interest in both worlds,

[¶26] First starved in this, then damned in that to come!

[¶27] Bountiful - שוע shoa, he who is abundantly rich; who rejoices in his plenty, and deals out to the distressed with a liberal hand.

### Verse 6

[¶29] The vile person will speak villany "The fool will still utter folly" - A sort of proverbial saying, which Euripides (Bacchae, 369) has expressed in the very same manner and words: Μωρα γαρ μωρος λεγει· "The fool speaks folly. "Of this kind of simple and unadorned proverb or parable, see De S. Poes, Hebr. Praelect. xxiv.

[¶30] Against the Lord "Against Jehovah" - For אל El, two MSS. read אל al, more properly; but both are of nearly the same meaning.

### Verse 7

[¶32] The instruments also of the churl are evil "As for the niggard, his instruments are evil" - His machinations, his designs. The paronomasia, which the prophet frequently deals in, suggested this expression וכלי כליו vechelai kelaiv. The first word is expressed with some variety in the MSS. Seven MSS. read וכילי vekili, one וכל vechol, another וכולי vecoli.

[¶33] To destroy the poor with lying words "To defeat the assertions of the poor in judgment" - A word seems to have been lost here, and two others to have suffered a small alteration, which has made the sentence very obscure. The Septuagint have happily retained the rendering of the lost word, and restored the sentence in all its parts: Και διασκεδασαι λογους ταπεινων εν κρισει· ולהפר דברי אביון במשפט ulehapher dibrey ebyon bemishpat, "And disperse the words of the poor in judgment. "They frequently render the verb הפר haphar by διασκεδασαι, A MS. reads ולדבר uledabber, which gives authority for the preposition ל lamed, to, necessary to the sense, and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read במשפט bemishpat, In judgment.

### Verse 8

[¶35] Liberal things "Generous purposes" - "Of the four sorts of persons mentioned [Isa 32:5], three are described, [Isa 32:6], [Isa 32:7], and [Isa 32:8], but not the fourth." - Secker. Perhaps for והוא vehu, and he, we ought to read ושוע veshoa, the bountiful.

### Verse 9

[¶37] Rise up, ye women "ye provinces. "Ye careless daughters "ye cities." - Targum.

[¶38] From this verse to the end of the fourteenth, the desolation of Judea by the Chaldeans appears to be foretold.

### Verse 11

[¶40] Gird sackcloth - שק sak, sackcloth, a word necessary to the sense, is here lost, but preserved by the Septuagint, MSS. Alex. and Pachom., and 1. D. II., and edit. Ald. and Comp., and the Arabic and Syriac.

[¶41] Tremble - be troubled - strip you - פשטה peshotah, רגזה regazah, etc. These are infinitives, with a paragogic ה he, according to Schultens, Institut. Ling. Hebr. p. 453, and are to be taken in an imperative sense.

### Verse 12

[¶43] They shall lament - for the pleasant fields "Mourn ye for the pleasant field" - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read ספדו siphdu, mourn ye, imperative; twelve MSS., (five ancient), two editions, the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Syriac, and Vulgate, all read שדה sadeh, a field; not שדי shedey, breasts.

## 823. Isaiah · 43 of 79

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### Verse 13

[¶1] Shall come up thorns and briers "The thorn and the brier shall come up" - All the ancient Versions read ושמיר veshamir, with the conjunction. And an ancient MS. has תעלה בו taaleh bo, "shall come up in it, "which seems to be right; or rather בה bah: and there is a rasure in the place of בו bo in another ancient MS.

[¶2] Yea, upon all the houses of joy - For כי ki, the ancient Versions, except the Vulgate, seem to have read ו ve. כי ki may perhaps be a mistake for בו bo, or בה bah, in it, above mentioned. It is not necessary in this place.

[¶3] The description of impending distress which begins at [Isa 32:13] belongs to other times than that of Sennacherib's invasion, from which they were so soon delivered. It must at least extend to the ruin of the country and city by the Chaldeans. And the promise of blessings which follows was not fulfilled under the Mosaic dispensation; they belong to the Kingdom of Messiah. Compare [Isa 32:15] with [Isa 29:17] (note), and see the note there.

### Verse 14

[¶5] The palaces shall be forsaken - The house of the sanctuary (the temple) shall be destroyed. - Targum.

[¶6] The forts "Ophel" - It was a part of Mount Zion, rising higher than the rest, at the eastern extremity, near to the temple, a little to the south of it; called by Micah, [Mic 4:8], "Ophel of the daughter of Zion. "It was naturally strong by its situation; and had a wall of its own, by which it was separated from the rest of Zion.

### Verse 15

[¶8] And the fruitful field - והכרמל vehaccarmel. So fifteen MSS., six ancient, and two editions; which seems to make the noun an appellative.

### Verse 17

[¶10] The work of righteousness - Righteousness works and produces peace.

[¶11] The effect of righteousness - עבדת abodath, the culture. Righteousness, cultivated by peace, produces tranquillity of mind and permanent security. Reader, hast thou the principle? If so, dost thou cultivate it? If thou dost, thou hast peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and a sure and certain hope of everlasting life.

### Verse 19

[¶13] The city shalt be low all a low place. "The city shall be laid level with the plain" - For ובשפלה ubashephelah, the Syriac reads וכשפלה ukeshephelah. The city - probably Nineveh or Babylon: but this verse is very obscure. Saltus; Assyriorum regnum: civitas; magnifica Assyriorum castra. Ephrem Syr. ire loc. For וברד ubarad, a MS. has וירד vaiyered; and so conjectured Abp. Secker, referring to [Zac 11:2].

### Verse 20

[¶15] That sow beside all waters "Who sow your seed in every well-watered place" - Sir John Chardin's note on this place is: "This exactly answers the manner of planting rice; for they sow it upon the water, and before sowing, while the earth is covered with water, they cause the ground to be trodden by oxen, horses, and asses, who go mid-leg deep; and this is the way of preparing the ground for sowing. As they sow the rice on the water, they transplant it in the water. "Harmer's Observ. vol. 1 p. 280. "Rice is the food of two-thirds of mankind." Dr. Arbuthnot. "It is cultivated in most of the eastern countries." Miller. "It is good for all, and at all times." Sir J. Chardin, ib. "Le ris, qui est leur principal aliment et leur froment (i.e., des Siamois), n'est jamais assez arrose; il croit au milieu de l'eau, et les campagnes ou on le cultive ressemblent plutot a de marets que non pas a des terres qu'on laboure aver la charue. Le ris a bien cette force, que quoy qu'il y ait six ou sept pieds d'eau sur lui, il pousse toujours sa tige au dessus; et le tuyau qui le porte s'eleve et croit a proportion de la hauteur de l'eau qui noye son champ. Voyage de l'Eveque de Beryte, p. 144. Paris, 1666. - L. "Rice, which is the principal grain and aliment of the Siamese, can never be too much watered. It grows in the water, and the fields where it is sown resemble marshes rather than fields cultivated by ploughing. Rice has that property that although it be covered with water six or seven feet deep, yet it raises its stalk above it; and this grows long in proportion to the depth of the water by which the field is inundated."

### Introduction

[¶17] This chapter contains the sequel of the prophecy respecting Sennacherib. The prophet addresses himself to the Assyrian monarch, [Isa 33:1-4]. The mercy and power of God acknowledged by the Jews, [Isa 33:5], [Isa 33:6]. Distress and despair of the Jews at the approach of Sennacherib, [Isa 33:7-9]. Gracious promise of deliverance, [Isa 33:10-13]. Dreadful apprehensions of the wicked, and security of the righteous, [Isa 33:14-17]. The security of the Jews under the reign of Hezekiah, and the wretched condition of Sennacherib and his army, [Isa 33:18-24].

[¶18] The plan of the prophecy continued in this chapter, and which is manifestly distinct from the foregoing, is peculiarly elegant. To set it in a proper light, it will be necessary to mark the transitions from one part of it to another.

[¶19] In [Isa 33:1], the prophet addresses himself to Sennacherib, briefly, but strongly and elegantly, expressing the injustice of his ambitious designs, and the sudden disappointments of them.

[¶20] In [Isa 33:2], the Jews are introduced offering up their earnest supplications to God in their present distressful condition; with expressions of their trust and confidence in his protection.

[¶21] In [Isa 33:3] and [Isa 33:4] the prophet in the name of God, or rather God himself, is introduced addressing himself to Sennacherib, and threatening him that, notwithstanding the terror which he had occasioned in the invaded countries, yet he should fall, and become an easy prey to those whom he had intended to subdue.

[¶22] In [Isa 33:5] and [Isa 33:6], a chorus of Jews is introduced, acknowledging the mercy and power of God, who had undertaken to protect them; extolling it with direct opposition to the boasted power of their enemies, and celebrating the wisdom and piety of their king Hezekiah, who had placed his confidence in the favor of God.

[¶23] Then follows, in [Isa 33:7], [Isa 33:8], and [Isa 33:9], a description of the distress and despair of the Jews, upon the king of Assyria's marching against Jerusalem, and sending his summons to them to surrender, after the treaty he had made with Hezekiah on the conditions of his paying, as he actually did pay to him, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. [2Kgs 18:14-16].

[¶24] In [Isa 33:10], God himself is again introduced, declaring that he will interpose in this critical situation of affairs, and disappoint the vain designs of the enemies of his people, by discomfiting and utterly consuming them.

[¶25] Then follows, [Isa 33:11-22], still in the person of God, which however falls at last into that of the prophet, a description of the dreadful apprehensions of the wicked in those times of distress and imminent danger; finely contrasted with the confidence and security of the righteous, and their trust in the promises of God that he will be their never-failing strength and protector.

[¶26] The whole concludes, in the person of the prophet, with a description of the security of the Jews under the protection of God, and of the wretched state of Sennacherib and his army, wholly discomfited, and exposed to be plundered even by the weakest of the enemy.

[¶27] Much of the beauty of this passage depends on the explanation above given of [Isa 33:3] and [Isa 33:4], as addressed by the prophet, or by God himself, to Sennacherib; not as it is usually taken, as addressed by the Jews to God, [Isa 33:3], and then [Isa 33:4], as addressed to the Assyrians. To set this in a clear light, it may be of use to compare it with a passage of the Prophet Joel; where, speaking of the destruction caused by the locusts, he sets in the same strong light of opposition as Isaiah does here, the power of the enemy, and the power of Jehovah, who would destroy that enemy. Thus Isaiah to Sennacherib: - "When thou didst raise thyself up, the nations were dispersed" - [Isa 33:3]. "But now will I arise, saith Jehovah; Now will I be exalted." [Isa 33:10].

[¶28] And thus Joel, [Joe 2:20], [Joe 2:21] : - "His stink shall come up, and his ill savor shall ascend; Though he hath done great things. Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice; For Jehovah will do great things." - L.

### Verse 1

[¶30] And deadest treacherously "Thou plunderer" - See note on [Isa 21:2] (note).

[¶31] When thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously "When thou art weary of plundering" - "כנלתך cannelothecha, alibi non extat in s. s. nisi f. [Job 15:29] - simplicius est legere ככלתך kechallothecha. Vid. Capell.; nec repugnat Vitringa. Vid. [Dan 9:24]. כלה calah התים hatim." - Secker.

### Verse 2

[¶33] Be thou their arm every morning "Be thou our strength every morning" - For זרעם zeroam, their arm, the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate read זרענו zeroenu, our arm, in the first person of the pronoun, not the third: the edition of Felix Pratensis has זרעתינו zerootheynu in the margin.

[¶34] The prophet is here praying against the enemies of God's people; and yet this part of the prayer seems to be in their behalf: but from the above authorities it appears that Our arm is the true reading, though I do not find it confirmed by any of Kennicott's, De Rossi's, or my own MSS. My old MS. Bible has, - Be thou oure arm in erly.

### Verse 3

[¶36] At the noise of the tumult "From thy terrible voice" - For המון hamon, "multitude," the Septuagint and Syriac read אמיך amica, "terrible," whom I follow.

### Verse 6

[¶38] His treasure "Thy treasure" - Ὁ θησαυρος σου, Sym. He had in his copy אצרך otsarcha, "thy treasure, "not אצרו otsaro, "his treasure."

### Verse 7

[¶40] Their valiant ones shall cry without "The mighty men raise a grievous cry" - Three MSS. read אראלים erelim, that is, lions of God, or strong lions. So they called valiant men heroes; which appellation the Arabians and Persians still use. See Bochart. Hieroz. Part 1 lib. 3 cap. 1. "Mahomet, ayant reconnu Hamzeh son oncle pour homme de courage et de valeur, lui donne le titre ou surnom d'Assad Allah, qui signifie le lion de Dieu. "D'Herbelot, p. 427. And for חצה chatsah, the Syriac and Chaldee, read קשה kashah, whom I follow. The Chaldee, Syriac, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion read אראה להם ereh lahem, or יראה yireh, with what meaning is not clear.

[¶41] The word אראלם erellam, which we translate valiant ones, is very difficult; no man knows what it means. Kimchi supposes that it is the name of the angel that smote the Assyrian camp! The Vulgate, and my old MS., translate it seers; and most of the Versions understand it in this way. None of the MSS. give us any help, but as we see above in Lowth.

### Verse 9

[¶43] Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits "Bashan and Carmel are stripped of their beauty" - Φανερα εσται, made manifest. Sept. They read ונערה veneerah.

### Verse 11

[¶45] Your breath "And my spirit" - "For רוחכם ruchechem, your spirit, read רוחי כמו ruchi kemo. "Secker. Which reading is confirmed by the Chaldee, where מימרי meymri, "my word, "answers to רוחי ruchi, "my spirit."

## 824. Isaiah · 44 of 79

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### Verse 14

[¶1] The sinners in Zion are afraid - Zion has been generally considered as a type of the Church of God. Now all the members of God's Church should be holy, and given to good works; sinners in Zion, therefore, are portentous beings! but, alas! where are they not? The Targum on this verse is worthy of notice: "The sinners in Zion are broken down; fear hath seized the ungodly, who are suffering for their ways. They say, Who among us shall dwell in Zion, where the splendor of the Divine Majesty is like a consuming fire? Who of us shall dwell in Jerusalem, where the ungodly are judged and delivered into hell for an eternal burning?" Everdurynge brennyngis. Old MS. Bible.

### Verse 15

[¶3] That stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood "Who stoppeth his ears to the proposal of bloodshed" - A MS. reads בדמים bedamim, "in blood."

### Verse 18

[¶5] Where is the scribe? - The person appointed by the king of Assyria to estimate their number and property in reference to their being heavily taxed.

[¶6] Where is the receiver? - Or he who was to have collected this tribute.

[¶7] Where is he that counted the towers? - That is, the commander of the enemy's forces, who surveyed the fortifications of the city, and took an account of the height, strength, and situation of the walls and towers, that he might know where to make the assault with the greatest advantage; as Capaneus before Thebes is represented in a passage of the Phoenissae of Euripides, which Grotius has applied as an illustration of this place: - Εκεινος ἑπτα προσβασεις τεκμαιρεται Πυργων, ανω τε και κατω τειχη μετρων.

[¶8] Ver. 187. "To these seven turrets each approach he marks;

[¶9] The walls from their proud summit to their base

[¶10] Measuring with eager eye."

[¶11] He that counted the towers "Those who were ordered to review the fortified places in Judea, that they might be manned and provisioned for the king of Assyria. So sure was he of gaining Jerusalem and subduing the whole of Judea, that he had already formed all these arrangements." - Dodd's notes.

### Verse 20

[¶13] Look upon Zion "Thou shalt see Zion" - For חזה chazeh, "see," read תחזה techezeh, "thou shalt see," with the Chaldee. - Houbigant. At the end of this verse we find in the Masoretic Bibles this note, חצי הספר chatsi hassepher, "the middle of the book;" that is the middle of the book of Isaiah.

### Verse 21

[¶15] The glorious Lord "The glorious name of Jehovah" - I take שם shem for a noun, with the Septuagint and Syriac. See [Psa 20:1]; [Pro 18:10].

### Verse 23

[¶17] Thy tacklings are loosed - Here the Assyrians are represented under the figure of a ship wrecked by a violent storm; and the people on the beach, young, old, feeble, and diseased, gathering the spoil without any to hinder them. Kimchi, who understands the whole of this chapter of Hezekiah and the king of Assyria, says, "There are others of our rabbins who apply it all to the days of the Messiah."

[¶18] Their mast "Thy mast" - For תרנם tornam, "their mast, "the Syriac reads תרניך torneycha, "thy mast;" the Septuagint and Vulgate, תרנך tornecha, ὁ ἱστος σου εκλινεν, "thy mast is fallen aside." - Septuagint.

[¶19] They seem to have read נטה natah or פנה panah, תרנך tornecha, or rather, לא כן lo con, "is not firm," the negative having been omitted in the present text by mistake. However, I have followed their sense, which seems very probable, as the present reading is to me extremely obscure.

### Verse 24

[¶21] And the inhabitant shall not say - This verse is somewhat obscure. The meaning of it seems to be, that the army of Sennacherib shall by the stroke of God be reduced to so shattered and so weak a condition, that the Jews shall fall upon the remains of them, and plunder them without resistance; that the most infirm and disabled of the people of Jerusalem shall come in for their share of the spoil; the lame shall seize the prey; even the sick and the diseased shall throw aside their infirmities, and recover strength enough to hasten to the general plunder. See above.

[¶22] The last line of the verse is parallel to the first, and expresses the same sense in other words. Sickness being considered as a visitation from God. a punishment of sin; the forgiveness of sin is equivalent to the removal of a disease. Thus the psalmist: - "Who forgiveth all thy sin; And healeth all thine infirmities." [Psa 103:3].

[¶23] Where the latter line only varies the expression of the former. And our blessed Savior reasons with the Jews on the same principle: "Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?" [Mar 2:9]. See also [Mat 8:17]; [Isa 53:4]. Qui locus Isaiae, [1Pet 2:24], refertur ad remissionem peccatorum: hic vero ad sanationem morborum, quia ejusdem potentiae et bonitatis est utrumque praestare; et, quia peccatis remissis, et morbi, qui fructus sunt peccatorum, pelluntur. "Which passage of Isaiah has reference, in [1Pet 2:24], to the remission of sins, and here to the healing of diseases, because both are effects of the same power and goodness; and because with the remission of sins was associated the removal of disorders, the fruits of sin." - Wetstein on [Mat 8:17].

[¶24] That this prophecy was exactly fulfilled, I think we may gather from the history of this great event given by the prophet himself. It is plain that Hezekiah, by his treaty with Sennacherib, by which he agreed to pay him three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, had stripped himself of his whole treasure. He not only gave him all the silver and gold that was in his own treasury and in that of the temple, but was even forced to cut off the gold from the doors of the temple and from the pillars, with which he had himself overlaid them, to satisfy the demands of the king of Assyria: but after the destruction of the Assyrian army, we find that he "had exceeding much riches, and that he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, "etc.[2Chr 32:27]. He was so rich, that out of pride and vanity he displayed his wealth to the ambassadors from Babylon. This cannot be otherwise accounted for, than by the prodigious spoil that was taken on the destruction of the Assyrian army. - L. And thus, in the providence of God, he had the wealth which was exacted from him restored.

### Introduction

[¶26] The prophet earnestly exhorts all nations to attend to the communication which he has received from Jehovah, as the matter is of the highest importance, and of universal concern, [Isa 34:1]. The wrath of God is denounced against all the nations that had provoked to anger the Defender of the cause of Zion, [Isa 34:2], [Isa 34:3]. Great crowd of images, by which the final overthrow and utter extermination of every thing that opposes the spread of true religion in the earth are forcibly and majestically set forth; images so very bold and expressive as to render it impossible, without doing great violence to symbolical language, to restrain their import to the calamities which befell the Edomites in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, or in that of any other potentate, or even to the calamities which the enemies of the Church have yet suffered since the delivery of the prophecy. Edom must therefore be a type of Antichrist, the last grand adversary of the people of God; and consequently this most awful prophecy, in its ultimate signification, remains to be accomplished, [Isa 34:4-15]. The Churches of God, at the period of the consummation, commanded to consult the book of Jehovah, and note the exact fulfillment of these terrible predictions in their minutest details. Not one jot or little relative even to the circumstances shadowed forth by the impure animals shall be found to fail; for what the mouth of the Lord has declared necessary to satisfy the Divine justice, his Spirit will accomplish, [Isa 34:16], [Isa 34:17].

[¶27] This and the following chapter make one distinct prophecy; an entire, regular, and beautiful poem, consisting of two parts: the first containing a denunciation of Divine vengeance against the enemies of the people or Church of God; the second describing the flourishing state of the Church of God consequent upon the execution of those judgments. The event foretold is represented as of the highest importance, and of universal concern: All nations are called upon to attend to the declaration of it; and the wrath of God is denounced against all the nations, that is, all those that had provoked to anger the Defender of the cause of Zion. Among those, Edom is particularly specified. The principal provocation of Edom was their insulting the Jews in their distress, and joining against them with their enemies, the Chaldeans; see [Amo 1:11]; [Eze 25:12]; [Eze 35:15]; [Psa 137:7]. Accordingly the Edomites were, together with the rest of the neighboring nations, ravaged and laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar; see [Jer 25:15-26]; [Mal 1:3], [Mal 1:4], and see Marsham, Can. Chron. Saec. xviii., who calls this the age of the destruction of cities. The general devastation spread through all these countries by Nebuchadnezzar may be the event which the prophet has primarily in view in the thirty-fourth chapter: but this event, as far as we have any account of it in history, seems by no means to come up to the terms of the prophecy, or to justify so highly wrought and terrible a description; and it is not easy to discover what connection the extremely flourishing state of the Church or people of God, described in the next chapter, could have with those events, and how the former could be the consequence of the latter, as it is there represented to be. By a figure, very common in the prophetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distinguished as enemies of the people and kingdom of God, is put for those enemies in general. This seems here to be the case with Edom and Botsra. It seems, therefore, reasonable to suppose, with many learned expositors, that this prophecy has a farther view to events still future; to some great revolutions to be effected in later times, antecedent to that more perfect state of the kingdom of God upon earth, and serving to introduce it, which the Holy Scriptures warrant us to expect.

[¶28] That the thirty-fifth chapter has a view beyond any thing that could be the immediate consequence of those events, is plain from every part, especially from the middle of it, [Isa 35:5], [Isa 35:6]; where the miraculous works wrought by our blessed Savior are so clearly specified, that we cannot avoid making the application: and our Savior himself has moreover plainly referred to this very passage, as speaking of him and his works, [Mat 11:4], [Mat 11:5]. He bids the disciples of John to go and report to their master the things which they heard and saw; that the blind received their sight, the lame walked, and the deaf heard; and leaves it to him to draw the conclusion in answer to his inquiry, whether he who performed the very works which the prophets foretold should be performed by the Messiah, was not indeed the Messiah himself. And where are these works so distinctly marked by any of the prophets as in this place? and how could they be marked more distinctly? To these the strictly literal interpretation of the prophet's words directs us. According to the allegorical interpretation they may have a farther view: this part of the prophecy may run parallel with the former and relate to the future advent of Christ; to the conversion of the Jews, and their restitution to their land; to the extension and purification of the Christian faith; events predicted in the Holy Scriptures as preparatory to it. Kimchi says, "This chapter points out the future destruction of Rome, which is here called Bosra; for Bosra was a great city of the Edomites. Now the major part of the Romans are Edomites, who profess the law of Jesus. The Emperor Caesar (qy. Constantine) was an Edomite, and so were all the emperors after him. The destruction of the Turkish empire is also comprehended in this prophecy." - L. As to the last, I say, Amen!

### Verse 1

[¶30] Hearken "Attend unto me" - A MS. adds in this line the word אלי ali, unto me, after לאמים leummim; which seems to be genuine.

### Verse 4

[¶32] And all the host of heaven See note on [Isa 24:21], and De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum, Prael. ix.

### Verse 5

[¶34] For my sword shall be bathed in heaven "For my sword is made bare in the heavens" - There seems to be some impropriety in this, according to the present reading: "My sword is made drunken, or is bathed in the heavens; "which forestalls, and expresses not in its proper place, what belongs to the next verse: for the sword of Jehovah was not to be bathed or glutted with blood in the heavens, but in Botsra and the land of Edom. In the heavens it was only prepared for slaughter. To remedy this, Archbishop Secker proposes to read, for בשמים bashshamayim, בדמם bedamim; referring to [Jer 46:10]. But even this is premature, and not in its proper place. The Chaldee, for רותה rivvethah, has תתגלי tithgalli, shall be revealed or disclosed: perhaps he read תראה teraeh or נראתה nirathah. Whatever reading, different I presume from the present, he might find in his copy, I follow the sense which he has given of it.

### Verse 6

[¶36] The Lord hath a sacrifice "For Jehovah celebrateth a sacrifice" - Ezekiel, [Eze 39:16], [Eze 39:17], has manifestly imitated this place of Isaiah. He hath set forth the great leaders and princes of the adverse powers under the same emblems of goats, bulls, rams, fatlings, etc., and has added to the boldness of the imagery, by introducing God as summoning all the fowls of the air, and all the beasts of the field, and bidding them to the feast which he has prepared for them by the slaughter of the enemies of his people: - "And thou, son of man,

[¶37] Thus saith the Lord Jehovah,

[¶38] Say to the bird of every wing,

[¶39] And to every beast of the field:

[¶40] Assemble yourselves, and come;

[¶41] Gather together from every side,

[¶42] To the sacrifice which I make for you,

[¶43] A great slaughter on the mountains of Israel.

[¶44] And ye shall eat flesh and drink blood:

## 825. Isaiah · 45 of 79

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[¶0] The flesh of the mighty shall ye eat,

[¶1] And the blood of the lofty of the earth shall ye drink;

[¶2] Of rams, of lambs, and of goats,

[¶3] Of bullocks, all of them the fat ones of Bashan;

[¶4] And ye shall eat fat, till ye are cloyed,

[¶5] And drink blood, till ye are drunken;

[¶6] Of my slaughter, which I have slain for you."

[¶7] The sublime author of the [Rev 19:17], [Rev 19:18], has taken this image from Ezekiel, rather than from Isaiah.

### Verse 7

[¶9] The unicorns shall come down - ראמים reemim, translated wild goats by Bishop Lowth. The ראם reem Bochart thinks to be a species of wild goat in the deserts of Arabia. It seems generally to mean the rhinoceros.

[¶10] With blood "With their blood" - מדמם middamam; so two ancient MSS. of Kennicott's the Syriac, and Chaldee.

### Verse 8

[¶12] The year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion "The year of recompense to the defender of the cause of Zion" - As from דון dun, דין din, a judge; so from רוב rub, ריב rib, an advocate, or defender; Judici Sionis: Syriac.

### Verse 11

[¶14] The cormorant - קאת kaath, the pelican, from the root קיא ki, to vomit, because it is said she swallows shell-fish, and when the heat of her stomach has killed the fish, she vomits the shells, takes out the dead fish, and eats them.

[¶15] The bittern - קפד kippod, the hedge-hog, or porcupine.

[¶16] The owl - ינשוף yanshoph, the bittern, from נשף nashaph, to blow, because of the blowing noise it makes, almost like the lowing of an ox. My old MS. Bible renders the words thus: - The foule in face like an asse, and the yrchoun, and the snyte (snipe.)

[¶17] The line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness "The plummet of emptiness over her scorched plains" - The word חריה choreyha, joined to the 12th verse, embarrasses it, and makes it inexplicable. At least I do not know that any one has yet made out the construction, or given any tolerable explication of it. I join it to the 11th verse, and supply a letter or two, which seem to have been lost. Fifteen MSS. five ancient, and two editions, read חוריה choreyha; the first printed edition of 1486, I think nearer to the truth, חור חריה chor choreyha. I read בחרריה becharereyha, or על חרריה al chorereyha; see [Jer 17:6]. A MS. has חדיה chodiah, and the Syriac reads חדוה chaduah, gaudium, joining it to the two preceding words; which he likewise reads differently, but without improving the sense. However, his authority is clear for dividing the verses as they are here divided. I read שם shem, as a noun. They shall boast, יקראו yikreu; see [Pro 20:6].

### Verse 13

[¶19] And thorns shall come up in her palaces - ועלו בארמנותיה vealu bearmenotheyha; so read all the ancient versions.

[¶20] A court for owls - יענה yaanah, the ostrich, from ענה anah, to cry, because of the noise it makes. "They roar, "says Dr. Shaw, "sometimes like a lion - sometimes like a bull. I have often heard them groan as if in the utmost distress."

### Verse 14

[¶22] The weld beasts of the desert - ציים tsiyim, the mountain cats. - Bochart.

[¶23] Wild beasts of the island - איים aiyim, the jackals.

[¶24] The satyr - שעיר seir, the hairy one, probably the he-goat.

[¶25] The screech owl - לילית lilith, the night-bird, the night-raven, nyctycorax, from ליל layil, or לילה lailah, the night.

### Verse 15

[¶27] The great owl - קפוז kippoz, the ακοντιας, or darter, a serpent so called because of its suddenly leaping up or darting on its prey. Probably the mongoose or ichneumon may be intended.

[¶28] The vultures - דיות daiyoth, the black vultures. My old MS. Bible renders these names curiously: And ageyn cumen schul devylis: the beste, party of an asse, and party of a mam: and the wodwose, the tother schal crien to the tother. There schal byn lamya, that is, thrisse, or a beste, havynge the body liic a woman, and hors feet. Ther hadde dichis, the yrchoun, and nurshide out littil chittis. There ben gadred kiitis, the top to the top. What language!

[¶29] Every one with her mate - A MS. adds אל el after אשה ishshah, which seems necessary to the construction; and so the Syriac and Vulgate. Another MS. adds in the same place את eth, which is equivalent.

### Verse 16

[¶31] My mouth "For the mouth of Jehovah" - For הוא hu, five MSS., (three ancient), read יהוה Jehovah, and another is so corrected; so likewise the Septuagint. Two editions have צום tsivam; and so the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Arabic, with the edition of 1486, and a MS. has קבצם kebatsam, with the masculine pronoun instead of the feminine: and so in the next verses it is להם lahem, instead of להן lahen, in fourteen MSS., six of them ancient. - L. To see the importance of these various readings, the Hebrew Bible must be consulted.

### Introduction

[¶33] Flourishing state of the Church of God consequent to the awful judgments predicted in the preceding chapter. The images employed in the description are so very consolatory and sublime as to oblige us to extend their fulfillment to that period of the Gospel dispensation when Messiah shall take unto himself his great power and reign. The fifth and sixth verses were literally accomplished by our Savior and his apostles: but that the miracles wrought in the first century were not the only import of the language used by the prophet, is sufficiently plain from the context. They, therefore, have a farther application; and are contemporary with, or rather a consequence of, the judgments of God upon the enemies of the Church in the latter days; and so relate to the greater influence and extension of the Christian faith, the conversion of the Jews, their restoration to their own land, and the second advent of Christ. Much of the imagery of this chapter seems to have been borrowed from the exodus from Egypt: but it is greatly enlivened by the life, sentiments, and passions ascribed to inanimate objects; all nature being represented as rejoicing with the people of God in consequence of their deliverance; and administering in such an unusual manner to their relief and comfort, as to induce some commentators to extend the meaning of the prophecy to the blessedness of the saints in heaven, [Isa 35:1-10].

[¶34] The various miracles our Lord wrought are the best comment on this chapter, which predicts those wondrous works and the glorious state of the Christian Church. See the parallel texts in the margin.

[¶35] On this chapter Bishop Lowth has offered some important emendations. I shall introduce his translation, as the best yet given of this singular prophecy: -

[¶36] 1. The desert and the waste shall be glad;And the wilderness shall rejoice, and flourish:

[¶37] 2. Like the rose shall it beautifully flourish;And the well-watered plain of Jordan shall also rejoice:The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it,The beauty of Carmel and of Sharon;These shall behold the glory of Jehovah,The majesty of our God.

[¶38] 3. Strengthen ye the feeble hands,And confirm ye the tottering knees.

[¶39] 4. Say ye to the faint-hearted, Be ye strong;Fear ye not; behold your God!Vengeance will come; the retribution of God:He himself will come, and will deliver you.

[¶40] 5. Then shall be unclosed the eyes of the blind;And the ears of the deaf shall be opened:

[¶41] 6. Then shall the lame bound like the hart,And the tongue of the dumb shall sing;For in the wilderness shall burst forth waters,And torrents in the desert:

[¶42] 7. And the glowing sand shall become a pool,And the thirsty soil bubbling springs:And in the haunt of dragons shall spring forthThe grass with the reed and the bulrush.

[¶43] 8. And a highway shall be there;And it shall be called The way of holiness:No unclean person shall pass through it:But he himself shall be with them, walking in the way,And the foolish shall not err therein:

[¶44] 9. No lion shall be there;Nor shall the tyrant of the beasts come up thither:Neither shall he be found thereBut the redeemed shall walk in it.

## 826. Isaiah · 46 of 79

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[¶0] 10. Yea, the ransomed of Jehovah shall return;They shall come to Sion with triumph;And perpetual gladness shall crown their heads.Joy and gladness shall they obtain;And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

### Verse 1

[¶2] Shall be glad - יששום yesusum; in one MS. the מ mem seems to have been added; and שום sum is upon a rasure in another. None of the ancient versions acknowledge it; it seems to have been a mistake, arising from the next word beginning with the same letter. Seventeen MSS. have ישושום yesusum, both vaus expressed; and five MSS. יששם yesusum, without the vaus. Probably the true reading is, "The wilderness and the dry place shall be glad. "Not for them.

### Verse 2

[¶4] Rejoice even with joy and singing "The well-watered plain of Jordan shall also rejoice" - For ורנן veranen, the Septuagint read ירדן yarden, τα ερηνα του Ιορδανου, "the deserts of Jordan." Four MSS. read גלת gulath; see [Jos 15:19] : "Irrigua Jordani;" Houbigant. גידת gidoth, Ripae Jordani, "the banks of Jordan;" Kennicott. See De S. Poesi Hebr. Praelect. 20 note.

[¶5] Unto it - For לה lah, to it, nine MSS. of Kennicott's and four of De Rossi's read לך lecha, to thee. See ibid.

### Verse 7

[¶7] The parched ground "The glowing sand" - שרב sharab; this word is Arabic, as well as Hebrew, expressing in both languages the same thing, the glowing sandy plain, which in the hot countries at a distance has the appearance of water. It occurs in the Koran, chap. 24: "But as to the unbelievers, their works are like a vapor in a plain, which the thirsty traveler thinketh to be water, until, when he cometh thereto, he findeth it to be nothing. "Mr. Sale's note on this place is, "The Arabic word serab signifies that false appearance which in the eastern countries is often seen on sandy plains about noon, resembling a large lake of water in motion, and is occasioned by the reverberation of the sun beams: 'by the quivering undulating motion of that quick succession of vapours and exhalations which are extracted by the powerful influence of the sun.' - Shaw, Trav. p. 378. It sometimes tempts thirsty travelers out of their way; but deceives them when they come near, either going forward, (for it always appears at the Same distance), or quite vanishing." Q. Curtius has mentioned it: "Arenas vapor aestivi solis accendit; camporumque non alia, quam vasti et profundi aequoris species est." - Lib. vii., c. 5. Dr. Hyde gives us the precise meaning and derivation of the word. "Dictum nomen Barca הברקה habberakah, splendorem, seu splendentem regionem notat; cum ea regio radiis solaribus tam copiose collustretur, ut reflexum ab arenis lumen adeo intense fulgens, a longinquo spectantibus, ad instar corporis solaris, aquarum speciem referat; et hinc arenarum splendor et radiatio, (et lingua Persica petito nomine), dicitur serab, i.e., aquae superficies seu superficialis aquarum species." Annot. in Peritsol., cap. ii. "Shall spring forth" - The ה he in רבצה rebitseh seems to have been at first מ mem in MS. Bodl., whence Dr. Kennicott concludes it should be רבצים rebitsim. But instead of this word the Syriac, Vulgate, and Chaldee read some word signifying to grow, spring up, or abound. Perhaps פרצה paretsah, or פרצו paretsu, or פרץ החציר parats hachatsir, as Houbigant reads. - L.

### Verse 8

[¶9] And a highway - The word ודרך vederech is by mistake added to the first member of the sentence from the beginning of the following member. Sixteen MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, seven ancient, and two of De Rossi's have it but once; so likewise the Syriac, Septuagint, and Arabic.

[¶10] Err therein - A MS. of Dr. Kennicott's adds בו bo, in it, which seems necessary to the sense, and so the Vulgate, per eam, "by it. "One of De Rossi's has שם sham, there.

[¶11] But it shall be for those "But he himself shall be with them, walking in the way" - That is, God; see [Isa 35:4]. "Who shall dwell among them, and set them an example that they should follow his steps." Our old English Version translated the place to this purpose, our last translators were misled by the authority of the Jews, who have absurdly made a division of the verses in the midst of the sentence, thereby destroying the construction and the sense.

### Verse 9

[¶13] It shall not be found there "Neither shall he be found there" - Three MSS. read ולא velo, adding the conjunction; and so likewise the Septuagint and Vulgate. And four MSS., one ancient, read ימצא yimmatsa, the verb, as it certainly ought to be, in the masculine form.

[¶14] The redeemed shall walk there - גאולים geulim. Those whose forfeited inheritances are brought back by the kinsman, גואל goel, the nearest of kin to the family. This has been considered by all orthodox divines as referring to the incarnation of our Lord, and his sacrificial offering. After גאולים geulim, one of De Rossi's MSS. adds עד עולם ad olam, for ever, "The redeemed shall walk there for ever."

### Verse 10

[¶16] The ransomed - פדויי peduyey, from פדה padah, "to redeem by paying a price." Those for whom a price was paid down to redeem them from bondage and death.

[¶17] Sighing shall flee away - אנחה anachah. Never was a sorrowful accent better expressed than in this strong guttural word, an-ach-ah; nearly the same with the Irish in their funeral wailings, och-och-on. The whole nation express all their mournful accents by these three monosyllables.

[¶18] This chapter contains the following parts: -

[¶19] 1. We have here blessed promises of the latter-day glory.

[¶20] 2. The prophet may be considered as addressing the teachers of the Gospel, to show them that it was their business to encourage and direct the people in their expectation of redemption.

[¶21] 3. A promise of the manifestation of God among men is given.

[¶22] 4. The miracles which Christ should work are explicitly mentioned.

[¶23] 5. The privileges of Christianity are specified; there shall be,

[¶24] 1. Thorough teaching;

[¶25] 2. Holy walking.

[¶26] 6. Perfect safety.

[¶27] 7. Complete happiness. And -

[¶28] 8. Final glory.

[¶29] The chapter shows also that no impurity should be tolerated in the Church of God; for as that is the mystical body of Christ, it should be like himself, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.

### Introduction

[¶31] Sennacherib, king of Assyria, comes against Judah, and takes all the fenced cities, [Isa 36:1]. He afterwards sends a great host against Jerusalem; and his general Rabshakeh delivers an insulting and blasphemous message to Hezekiah, vv. 2-20. Hezekiah and his people are greatly afflicted at the words of Rabshakeh, [Isa 36:21], [Isa 36:22].

[¶32] The history of the invasion of Sennacherib, and of the miraculous destruction of his army Which makes the subject of so many of Isaiah's prophecies, is very properly inserted here as affording the best light to many parts of those prophecies, and as almost necessary to introduce the prophecy in the thirty-seventh chapter, being the answer of God to Hezekiah's prayer, which could not be properly understood without it. We find the same narrative in the Second Book of Kings, chaps. 18, 19, 20.; and these chapters of Isaiah, 36, 37, 38, [Isa 39:1-8], for much the greater part, (the account of the sickness of Hezekiah only excepted), are but a different copy of that narration. The difference of the two copies is little more than what has manifestly arisen from the mistakes of transcribers; they mutually correct each other, and most of the mistakes may be perfectly rectified by a collation of the two copies with the assistance of the ancient versions. Some few sentences, or members of sentences, are omitted in this copy of Isaiah, which are found in the other copy in the Book of Kings. Whether these omissions were made by design or mistake may be doubted. - L.

### Verse 3

[¶34] Then came forth unto him - Before these words the other copy, [2Kgs 18:18], adds, ויקראו אל המלך vaiyikreu el hammelech, "And they demanded audience of the king."

### Verse 5

[¶36] I say "Thou hast said" - Fourteen MSS. (three ancient) of Kennicott's and De Rossi's have it in the second person, אמרת amarta; and so the other copy, [2Kgs 18:20].

[¶37] But they are but vain words - דבר שפתים debar sephathayim, a word of the lips. Thou dost talk about counsels, but thou hast none; about strength, but there is none with thee.

### Verse 6

[¶39] The staff of this broken reed - A weakened, faithless ally.

[¶40] On Egypt - The Bodl. MS. adds מלך melech, the king of Egypt; and so perhaps the Chaldee might read.

[¶41] It will go into his hand, and pierce it - Will take subsidy after subsidy, and do nothing for it.

### Verse 7

[¶43] But if thou say "But if ye say" - Two ancient MSS. have תאמרו tomeru in the plural number; so likewise the Septuagint, Chaldee, and the other copy, [2Kgs 18:22].

[¶44] Ye shall worship before this altar "To worship only before this altar" - See [2Chr 32:12].

## 827. Isaiah · 47 of 79

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### Verse 10

[¶1] Am I now come up without the Lord - Probably some apostate Israelitish priest might have encouraged the king of Assyria by telling him that Jehovah had given him a commission against Jerusalem.

### Verse 12

[¶3] That they may eat their own dung "Destined to eat their own dung" - לאכל leechol, that they may eat, as our translation literally renders it. But the Syriac reads מאכל meechol, that they may not eat, perhaps rightly, and afterward ומשתות umishshethoth, or ושתות ushethoth, to the same purpose. Seventeen of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., ten of De Rossi's and two of my own, read מימי meymey, the water; mine have מימי שניהם meymey sheneyhem, and write in the margin מימי רגליהם meymey regaleyhem, the water of their feet, a modest way of expressing urine.

### Verse 15

[¶5] This city shall not be delivered - ולא velo, And this city. Ten of Kennicott's MSS., and nine of De Rossi's, with one (ancient) of my own, add the conjunction.

### Verse 16

[¶7] Make an agreement - ברכה berachah, make a blessing with me; i.e., Give me a ransom for the city, and I will not destroy it; give me the yearly tribute thou hast promised.

### Verse 17

[¶9] And vineyards - The other copy, [2Kgs 18:32], adds here: "A land of oil-olive, and of honey; that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah when he seduceth you."

### Verse 19

[¶11] Where are the gods - Many MSS. add the conjunction here also: And, or But, where are the gods, etc.

[¶12] For other matters relative to this chapter, see the notes on [2Kgs 18:13] (note), etc.

[¶13] Of Sepharvaim - The other copy, [2Kgs 18:34], adds, of "Henah and Ivah."

[¶14] Have they delivered - וכי vechi. The copulative is not expressed here by the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and three MSS.; nor is it in any other copy. Ib. Houbigant reads הכי hachi, with the interrogative particle; a probable conjecture, which the ancient Versions above quoted seem to favor.

### Verse 21

[¶16] But they held their peace "But the people held their peace" - The word העם haam, the people, is supplied from the other copy, and is authorized by a MS. which inserts it after אתו otho.

### Introduction

[¶18] Hezekiah is greatly distressed, and sends to Isaiah the prophet to pray for him, [Isa 37:1-4]. Isaiah returns a comfortable answer, and predicts the destruction of the king of Assyria and his army, [Isa 37:5-7]. Sennacherib, hearing that his kingdom was invaded by the Ethiopians, sends a terrible letter to Hezekiah, to induce him to surrender, [Isa 37:9-13]. Hezekiah goes to the temple, spreads the letter before the Lord, and makes a most affecting prayer, [Isa 37:14-20]. Isaiah is sent to him to assure him that his prayer is heard; that Jerusalem shall be delivered; and that the Assyrians shall be destroyed, [Isa 37:21-35]. That very night a messenger of God slays one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians, [Isa 37:36]. Sennacherib returns to Nineveh, and is slain by his own sons, [Isa 37:37], [Isa 37:38].

### Verse 6

[¶20] Thus shall ye say - כה תאמרון ko tomerun, "thus shall ye (explicitly, earnestly, and positively) say. "The paragogic nun deepens and increases the sense.

### Verse 7

[¶22] I will send a blast "I will infuse a spirit into him" - "נותין בו רוח nothen bo roach never signifies any thing but putting a spirit into a person: this was πνευμα δειλιας, the spirit of deceit." - Secker. "I will send a blast" - I do not think that Archbishop Secker has hit the true meaning of these words. I believe רוח ruach means here a pestilential wind, such as the Arabs call simoom, that instantly suffocates both man and beast; and is what is termed "the angel of the Lord," God's messenger of death to the Assyrians, [Isa 37:36].

### Verse 8

[¶24] Rabshakeh returned - From [Isa 36:2], we learn that the king of Assyria had sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem; now it is likely that Rabshakeh had besieged that place, and that the king of Assyria had taken his station before this city, and dispatched Rabshakeh against Jerusalem. But, as in the verse above it is said, "he had departed from Lachish," probably he had been obliged to raise the siege, and sat down before Libnah, which promised an easier conquest.

### Verse 9

[¶26] He heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia - When he heard that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia had come out against him, then he sent that blasphemous manifesto which is contained in [Isa 37:10-13], to terrify Hezekiah into submission. How much was this like, in words and spirit, to the manifesto sent to the Parisians by the late Duke of Brunswick, from the plains of Champaigne, in 1792, which was the forerunner of the mighty torrents of human blood which was shed in the French revolution! And what a blast of God fell upon him and his army - nearly like that which fell on the army of Sennacherib!

[¶27] He sent messengers "He sent messengers again" - The word וישמע vaiyishma, "and he heard, "which occurs the second time in this verse, is repeated by mistake from the beginning of the verse. It is omitted in an ancient MS. It is a mere tautology, and embarrasses the sense. The true reading instead of it is, וישב veyesheb, "and he returned, "which the Septuagint read in this place, απεστρεψε, and which is preserved in the other copy, [2Kgs 19:9] : "He returned and sent, "that is, according to the Hebrew idiom, "he sent again."

### Verse 12

[¶29] As Gozan, and Haran - חרן Charan: but הרן Haran is the reading of four of Kennicott's MSS. and one of De Rossi's.

### Verse 14

[¶31] And read it "And read them" - ויקראם vayikraem. So MS. Bodl. in this place; and so the other copy; instead of ויקראהו vaiyikraehu, "and read It."

[¶32] And spread it "And spread them" - ויפרשהו vaiyiphresehu. הו hu is upon a rasure in a MS., which probably was at first ם mem. The same mistake as in the foregoing note.

### Verse 15

[¶34] Unto the Lord "Before Jehovah" - That is, in the sanctuary. For אל el, the Syriac, Chaldee, and the other copy, [2Kgs 19:15], read לפני liphney, "before the face."

### Verse 18

[¶36] The nations - הארצות haratsoth, "the lands; "instead of this word, which destroys the sense, ten of Kennicott's and five of De Rossi's MSS. (one ancient) have here גוים goyim, "nations;" which is undoubtedly the true reading, being preserved also in the other copy; [2Kgs 19:17]. Another MS. suggests another method of rectifying the sense in this place, by reading מלכם malcam, "their king, "instead of ארצם artsam, "their land;" but it ought to be מלכיהם malcheyhem, "all the countries and their kings."

### Verse 20

[¶38] Save us "Save us, we beseech thee" - The supplicating particle, נא na, is supplied here from eighteen MSS., three ancient, of Dr. Kennicott, and ten of De Rossi, and from the other copy; [2Kgs 19:19].

[¶39] That thou art the Lord, even thou only "That thou Jehovah art the only God" - The word אלהים Elohim, "God, "is lost here in the Hebrew text, but preserved in the other copy; [2Kgs 19:19]. The Syriac and Septuagint seem here to have had in their copies אלהים Elohim, instead of יהוה Yehovah.

### Verse 21

[¶41] Then Isaiah - sent unto Hezekiah - The Syriac and Septuagint understand and render the verb passively, was sent.

[¶42] Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib "Thy prayer unto me concerning Sennacherib - I have heard" - שמעתי shamati; this word, necessary to the sense, is lost in this place out of the Hebrew text. One MS. of Dr. Kennicott's and one of De Rossi's have it written above the line in a later hand. The Septuagint and Syriac found it in their copies; and it is preserved in the other copy; [2Kgs 19:20].

### Verse 23

[¶44] Against the Holy One of Israel - For אל el, to, the other copy has על al, against, rather more properly.

## 828. Isaiah · 48 of 79

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### Verse 24

[¶1] By thy servants "By thy messengers" - The text has עבדיך abdeycha, thy servants; but the true reading seems to be מלאכיך malacheycha, thy messengers, as in the other copy, [2Kgs 19:23]; and as the Septuagint and Syriac found it in their copies in this place.

[¶2] Reproached the Lord - אדני Adonai: but one of my MSS. has יהוה אדני Yehovah Adonai, Jehovah the Lord. This reading is not found, I think, in any other MS., but several have יהוה Yehovah for אדני Adonai.

[¶3] I will enter into the height of his border "I will penetrate into his extreme retreats" - The text has מרום marom, the height which seems to have been taken by mistake from the line but one above. Two MSS. have here מלון malon, the lodge or retreat; which is the word in the other copy, [2Kgs 19:23], and I think is the true reading.

[¶4] The forest of has Carmel - The forest and his fruitful field; that is, I will possess myself of the whole country.

### Verse 25

[¶6] Water "Strange waters" - The word זרים zarim, strange, lost out of the Hebrew text in this place, is supplied from the other copy. A MS. supplies the word רבים rabbim, many, instead of it.

[¶7] With the sole of my feet - With my infantry.

[¶8] All the rivers of the besieged places "All the canals of fenced places" - The principal cities of Egypt, the scene of his late exploits, were chiefly defended by deep moats, canals, or large lakes, made by labor and art, with which they were surrounded. See Harmer's Observ. 2 p. 304. Claudian introduces Alaric boasting of his conquests in the same extravagant manner: - "Subsidere nostris

[¶9] Sub pedibus montes; arescere vidimus amnes. -

[¶10] Fregi Alpes, galeisque Padum victricibus hausi."

[¶11] De Bello Getic. 526. "The mountains have passed away under our feet; we have seen the rivers dried up. I have broken the Alps, and laden out the Po with our victorious helmets."

### Verse 26

[¶13] Lay waste defended cities into ruinous heaps "Lay waste warlike nations; strong fenced cities" - גלים נצים gallim nitstsim. It is not easy to give a satisfactory account of these two words, which have greatly embarrassed all the interpreters, ancient and modern. For גלים gallim I read גוים goyim, as the Septuagint do in this place, εθνη. The word נצים netsim the Vulgate renders in this place compugnantium; in the parallel place, [2Kgs 19:25], pugnantium; and the Septuagint μαχιμων, fighting, warlike. This rendering is as well authorized as any other that I know of; and, with the reading of the Septuagint, perfectly clears up the construction. See the margin on all the preceding verses.

### Verse 27

[¶15] Corn blasted - שדמה shedemah, parched: it does not appear that there is any good authority for this word. The true reading seems to be שדפה shedephah, blasted, as it is in six MSS. (two ancient) here, and in the other copy.

### Verse 29

[¶17] Will I put my hook in thy nose - Et fraenum meum: Jonathan vocem מתג metheg, interpretatus est זמם zemam, i.e., annulum, sive uncum, eumque ferreum, quem infigunt naribus camelae: eoque trahitur, quoniam illa feris motibus agitur: et hoc est, quod discimus in Talmude; et camela cum annulo narium: scilicet, egreditur die sabbathi. "And my bridle: Jonathan interprets the word metheg by zemam, a ring, or that iron hook which they put in the nostrils of a camel to lead her about, check her in her restiveness, etc. And this is what we mean in the Talmud, when we say, And the camel with the ring of her nostrils shall go out on the Sabbath day." - Jarchi in [2Kgs 19:28]. Ponam circulum in naribus tuis. "I will put a ring in thy nostrils." - Jerome. Just as at this day they put a ring into the nose of the bear, the buffalo, and other wild beasts, to lead them, and to govern them when they are unruly. Bulls are often ringed thus in several parts of England. The Hindoos compare a person who is the slave of his wife to a cow led by the ring in her nose.

### Verse 36

[¶19] Then the angel - Before "the angel, "the other copy, [2Kgs 19:35], adds "it came to pass the same night, that " - The Prophet Hosea, [Hos 1:7], has given a plain prediction of the miraculous deliverance of the kingdom of Judah: - "And to the house of Judah I will be tenderly merciful:

[¶20] And I will save them by Jehovah their God.

[¶21] And I will not save them by the bow;

[¶22] Nor by sword, nor by battle;

[¶23] By horses, nor by horsemen." - L.

### Verse 38

[¶25] His sons smote him - What an awful punishment of his blasphemy! Who can harden his neck against God, and be successful? God does not lightly pass by blasphemy against himself, his government, his word, his Son, or his people. Let the profligate take care!

### Introduction

[¶27] Account of Hezekiah's dangerous sickness and miraculous recovery, [Isa 38:1-9]. Tender and beautiful song of thanksgiving, in which this pious king breathed out the sentiments of a grateful heart, when his life was, as it were, restored. This ode may be adapted to other cases; and will always afford profit and pleasure to those who are not void of feeling and piety, [Isa 38:10-22].

### Verse 1

[¶29] In those days - The reader is requested to consult the notes on 2 Kings 20 in reference to the principal parts of this chapter.

### Verse 2

[¶31] Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall - The furniture of an eastern divan or chamber, either for the reception of company or for private use, consists chiefly of carpets spread on the floor in the middle; and of sofas, or couches ranged on one or more sides of the room, on a part raised somewhat above the floor. On these they repose themselves in the day, and sleep at night. It is to be observed that the corner of the room is the place of honor. Dr. Pococke, when he was introduced to the Sheikh of Furshout, found him sitting in the corner of his room. He describes another Arab Sheikh "as sitting in the corner of a large green tent, pitched in the middle of an encampment of Arabs; and the Bey of Girge as placed on a sofa in a corner to the right as one entered the room." - Harmer's Observ. 2 p. 60. Lady Mary Montague, giving an account of a visit which she made to the Kahya's lady at Adrianople, says, "She ordered cushions to be given me; and took care to place me in the corner, which is the place of honor." - Letter 33. The reason of this seems to be, that the person so placed is distinguished, and in a manner separated, from the rest of the company, and as it were guarded by the wall on each side. We are to suppose Hezekiah's couch placed in the same situation; in which turning on either side, he must turn his face to the wall; by which he would withdraw himself from those who were attending upon him in his apartment, in order to address his private prayer to God. [Isa 38:3] And he said, I beseech thee, O Jehovah, remember now how I have endeavored to walk before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart; and have done that which is good in thine eyes. And Hezekiah wept, and lamented grievously. - L. [Isa 38:4] Now [before Isaiah was gone out into the middle court] the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, Go [back], and say unto Hezekiah, Thus saith Jehovah the God of David thy father, I have heard thy supplication; I have seen thy tears. Behold [I will heal thee; and on the third day thou shalt go up into the house of Jehovah. [Isa 38:5] And] I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee, and this city, from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will protect this city. And [Hezekiah said, By what sign shall I know that I shall go up into the house of Jehovah? [Isa 38:7] And Isaiah said], This shall be the sign unto thee from Jehovah, that Jehovah still bring to effect this word which he hath spoken.

[¶32] The words in the translation included within crotchets are supplied from the parallel place, [2Kgs 20:4], [2Kgs 20:5], to make the narration more perfect. I have also taken the liberty, with Houbigant, of bringing forward the two last verses of this chapter, and inserting them in their proper places of the narration with the same mark. Kimchi's note on these two verses is as follows: "This and the following verse belong not to the writing of Hezekiah; and I see no reason why they are written here after the writing; for their right place is above, after And I will protect this city, [Isa 38:6]. And so they stand in the book of Kings, "[2Kgs 20:7], [2Kgs 20:8]. The narration of this chapter seems to be in some parts an abridgment of that of 2 Kings 20. The abridger, having finished his extract here with the eleventh verse, seems to have observed, that the seventh and eighth verses of 2 Kings 20 were wanted to complete the narration: he therefore added them at the end of the chapter, after he had inserted the song of Hezekiah, probably with marks for their insertion in their proper places; which marks were afterwards neglected by transcribers. Or a transcriber might omit them by mistake, and add them at the end of the chapter with such marks. Many transpositions are, with great probability, to be accounted for in the same way.

### Verse 6

[¶34] I will defend this city - The other copy, [2Kgs 20:6], adds:" for mine own sake, and for the sake of David my servant;" and the sentence seems somewhat abrupt without it.

### Verse 8

[¶36] Which is gone down "By which the sun is gone down" - For בשמש bashshemesh, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee read השמש, hashshemesh. - Houbigant. In the history of this miracle in the book of Kings, ([2Kgs 20:9-11]), there is no mention at all made of the sun, but only of the going backward of the shadow: which might be effected by a supernatural refraction. The first ὁ ἡλιος, the sun, in this verse is omitted in the Septuagint, MS. Pachom.

### Verse 9

[¶38] The writing of Hezekiah - Here the book of Kings deserts us, the song of Hezekiah not being inserted in it. Another copy of this very obscure passage (obscure not only from the concise poetical style, but because it is probably very incorrect) would have been of great service.

[¶39] The MSS. and ancient Versions, especially the latter, will help us to get through some of the many difficulties which we meet with in it.

### Verse 11

[¶41] The Lord "Jehovah" - יה Yah, יה Yah, seems to be יהוה Yehovah, in MS. Bodl., and it was so at first written in another. So the Syriac. See Houbigant. I believe יהוה Yehovah was the original reading. See the note on [Isa 12:2] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶43] Mine age - is removed from me as a shepherd's tent - רעי roi is put for רעה roeh, say the rabbis (Sal. Den Melec on the place); but much more probably is written imperfectly for רעים roim, shepherds. See note on [Isa 5:1].

[¶44] I shall be removed from this state to another, as a shepherd removes his tent from one place to another for the sake of his flock. Is not this a strong intimation of his belief in a future state?

## 829. Isaiah · 49 of 79

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[¶0] I have cut off like a weaver my life "My life is cut off as by the weaver" - קפדתי kippadti. This verb is rendered passively, and in the third person, by the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.

### Verse 13

[¶2] The last line of the foregoing verse מיום עד לילה תשלימני miyom ad layelah tashlimeni, "In the course of the day thou wilt finish my web; "or, as the common version has it, "From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me, "is not repeated at the end of this verse in the Syriac version; and a MS. omits it. It seems to have been inserted a second time in the Hebrew text by mistake.

[¶3] I reckoned till morning, etc. "I roared until the morning like the lion" - For שויתי shivvithi, the Chaldee has נהמית nihameith: he read שאגתי shaagti, the proper term for the roaring of a lion; often applied to the deep groaning of men in sickness. See Psalm 22, [Psa 32:3]; [Psa 38:9]; [Job 3:24]. The Masoretes divide the sentence, as I have done; taking כארי caari, like a lion, into the first member; and so likewise the Septuagint.

### Verse 14

[¶5] Like - a swallow "Like the swallow" - כסיס kesis; so read two MSS., Theodot., and Hieron.

[¶6] Mine eyes fail - For דלו dallu the Septuagint read כלו calu, εξελιπον. Compare [Psa 69:4]; [Psa 119:82], [Psa 119:123]; [Lam 2:11]; [Lam 4:17], in the Hebrew and in the Septuagint.

[¶7] O Lord "O Lord" - For יהוה Jehovah, thirty MSS. and eight editions read אדני Adonai.

[¶8] Undertake for me "Contend for me" - עשקה ashekah, with ש shin, Jarchi: this sense of the word is established by [Gen 26:20] : "He called the name of the well עשק esek, because they strove with him:" התעשקו hithasseku, equivalent to יריבו yaribu, at the beginning of the verse.

### Verse 15

[¶10] I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul "Through the rest of my years will I reflect on this bitterness of my soul" - אדדה eddaddeh; recogitabo, Vulg., reputabo, Hieron. in loc.

### Verse 16

[¶12] By these things men live "For this cause shall it be declared" - Περι αυτης γαρ ανηγγελη σοι, και εξηγειρας μου την πνοην, Sept. They read in their copies עליה יחוו לך ותחיי רוחי not very different from the present text, from which all the ancient Versions vary. They entirely omit two words, ולכל בהן ulecol bahen; as to which there is some variation in the MSS. One MS. has ובכל ubechol, and in all; two others וכל vechol, and all, and ten MSS. have בהם bahem, in them, in the masculine gender.

[¶13] Taking this as in the common Version, we may observe, it is not an unfrequent case, that afflictions, and especially such as tend to a speedy death, become the means, not only of saving the soul, but also of lengthening the life.

[¶14] Make me to live "Hast prolonged my life" - A MSS. and the Babylonish Talmud read ותחיני vetachayeni, and so the ancient Versions. It must necessarily be in the second person.

### Verse 17

[¶16] For peace I had great bitterness "My anguish is changed into ease" - מר לי מר mar li mar, "mutata mthi est amaritudo." Paronomasia; a figure which the prophet frequently admits. I do not always note it, because it cannot ever be preserved in the translation, and the sense seldom depends upon it. But here it perfectly clears up the great obscurity of the passage. See Lowth on the place.

[¶17] Thou hast rescued - חשכת chashachta, with כ caph, instead of ק koph; so the Septuagint and Vulgate; Houbigant. See Chappelow on [Job 33:18].

[¶18] From perdition - משחת בלי mishshachath beli, ἱνα μη αποληται, Sept. ut non periret, "that it may not perish." Vulg. Perhaps inverting the order of the words. See Houbigant.

[¶19] Thou hast in love to my soul - חשקת chashakta, "thou hast lovingly embraced" or kissed "my soul out of the pit of corruption."

### Verse 19

[¶21] Thy truth - אל אמתך el amittecha. A MS. omits אל el; and instead of אל el, an ancient MS. and one edition read את eth. The same mistake as in [Psa 2:7].

### Verse 21

[¶23] Let them take a lump of figs, etc. - God, in effecting this miraculous cure, was pleased to order the use of means not improper for that end. "Folia, et, quae non maturuere, fici, strumis illinuntur omnibusque quae emollienda sunt discutiendave." - Plin. Nat. Hist. 23:7. "Ad discutienda ea, quae in corporis parte aliqua coierunt, maxime possunt-ficus arida," etc. - Celsus, 5:11.

[¶24] See the note on [2Kgs 20:7] (note). Philemon Holland translates the passage as a medical man: "The milke or white juice that the figge tree yieldeth is of the same nature that vinegre: and therefore it will cruddle milke as well as rennet, or rendles. The right season of gathering this milkie substance is before that the figs be ripe upon the tree; and then it must be dried in the shadow: thus prepared, it is good to break impostumes, and keepe ulcer open."

### Introduction

[¶26] The Babylonish monarch sends letters of congratulation and a present to Hezekiah, on account of his recovery from his late dangerous illness, [Isa 39:1]. The king of Judah shows the messengers of Merodach-baladan all the treasures of his house and kingdom, [Isa 39:2]. The prophet takes occasion from this ostentatious display of the king to predict the captivity of the royal family, and of the people, by the Babylonians, [Isa 39:3-8].

[¶27] Hitherto the copy of this history in the second book of Kings has been much the most correct; in this chapter that in Isaiah has the advantage. In the two first verses two mistakes in the other copy are to be corrected from this: for הזקיהו hizkiyahu, read ויחזק vayechezek, and was recovered; and for וישמע vaiyishma, he heard, read וישמח vaiyismach, he rejoiced.

### Verse 1

[¶29] At that time Merodach-baladan - This name is variously written in the MSS. Berodach, Medorach, Medarech, and Medurach. "And ambassadors" - The Septuagint add here και πρεσβεις; that is, ומלאכים umalachim. and ambassadors; which word seems to be necessary to the sense, though omitted in the Hebrew text both here and in the other copy, [2Kgs 20:12]. For the subsequent narration refers to them all along, "these men, whence came they?" etc.; plainly supposing them to have been personally mentioned before. See Houbigant.

### Verse 6

[¶31] To Babylon - בבלה babelah, so two MSS., (one ancient); rightly, without doubt as the other copy ([2Kgs 20:17]) has it. This prediction was fulfilled about one hundred and fifty years after it was spoken: see [Dan 1:2], [Dan 1:3-7]. What a proof of Divine omniscience!

### Verse 8

[¶33] Then said Hezekiah - The nature of Hezekiah's crime, and his humiliation on the message of God to him by the prophet, is more expressly declared by the author of the book of the Chronicles: "But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up; therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works. Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." [2Chr 32:25], [2Chr 32:26], [2Chr 32:30], [2Chr 32:31].

[¶34] There shall be peace and truth in my days - I rather think these words should be understood as an humble inquiry of the king, addressed to the prophet. "Shall there be prosperity, שלום shalom, and truth in My days? - Shall I escape the evil which thou predictest?" Understood otherwise, they manifest a pitiful unconcern both for his own family and for the nation. "So I be well, I care not how it may go with others." This is the view I have taken of the passage in [2Kgs 21:19]. Let the reader judge whether this, or the former, should be preferred. See the concluding notes on 2 Kings 20.

### Introduction

[¶36] In this chapter the prophet opens the subject respecting the restoration of the Church with great force and elegance; declaring God's command to his messengers the prophets to comfort his people in their captivity, and to impart to them the glad tidings that the time of favor and deliverance was at hand, [Isa 40:1], [Isa 40:2]. Immediately a harbinger is introduced giving orders, as usual in the march of eastern monarchs, to remove every obstacle, and to prepare the way for their return to their own land, [Isa 40:3-5]. The same words, however, the New Testament Scriptures authorize us to refer to the opening of the Gospel dispensation. Accordingly, this subject, coming once in view, is principally attended to in the sequel. Of this the prophet gives us sufficient notice by introducing a voice commanding another proclamation, which calls of our attention from all temporary, fading things to the spiritual and eternal things of the Gospel, [Isa 40:6-11]. And to remove every obstacle in the way of the prophecy in either sense, or perhaps to give a farther display of the character of the Redeemer, he enlarges on the power and wisdom of God, as the Creator and Disposer of all things. It is impossible to read this description of God, the most sublime that ever was penned, without being struck with inexpressible reverence and self-abasement. The contrast between the great Jehovah and every thing reputed great in this world, how admirably imagined, how exquisitely finished! What atoms and inanities are they all before Him who sitteth on the circle of the immense heavens, and views the potentates of the earth in the light of grasshoppers, - those poor insects that wander over the barren heath for sustenance, spend the day in continual chirpings, and take up their humble lodging at night on a blade of grass! [Isa 40:12-26]. The prophet concludes with a most comfortable application of the whole, by showing that all this infinite power and unsearchable wisdom is unweariedly and everlastingly engaged in strengthening, comforting, and saving his people, [Isa 40:27-31].

[¶37] The course of prophecies which follow, from hence to the end of the book, and which taken together constitute the most elegant part of the sacred writings of the Old Testament, interspersed also with many passages of the highest sublimity, was probably delivered in the latter part of the reign of Hezekiah. The prophet in the foregoing chapter had delivered a very explicit declaration of the impending dissolution of the kingdom, and of the captivity of the royal house of David, and of the people, under the kings of Babylon. As the subject of his subsequent prophecies was to be chiefly of the consolatory kind, he opens them with giving a promise of the restoration of the kingdom, and the return of the people from that captivity, by the merciful interposition of God in their favor. But the views of the prophet are not confined to this event. As the restoration of the royal family, and of the tribe of Judah, which would otherwise have soon become undistinguished, and have been irrecoverably lost, was necessary, in the design and order of Providence, for the fulfilling of God's promises of establishing a more glorious and an everlasting kingdom, under the Messiah to be born of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David, the prophet connects these two events together, and hardly ever treats of the former without throwing in some intimations of the latter; and sometimes is so fully possessed with the glories of the future and more remote kingdom, that he seems to leave the more immediate subject of his commission almost out of the question.

[¶38] Indeed this evangelical sense of the prophecy is so apparent, and stands forth in so strong a light, that some interpreters cannot see that it has any other; and will not allow the prophecy to have any relation at all to the return from the captivity of Babylon. It may therefore be useful to examine more attentively the train of the prophet's ideas, and to consider carefully the images under which he displays his subject. He hears a crier giving orders, by solemn proclamation, to Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; to remove all obstructions before Jehovah marching through the desert; through the wild, uninhabited, impassable country. The deliverance of God's people from the Babylonish captivity is considered by him as parallel to the former deliverance of them from the Egyptian bondage. God was then represented as their king leading them in person through the vast deserts which lay in their way to the promised land of Canaan. It is not merely for Jehovah himself that in both cases the way was to be prepared, and all obstructions to be removed; but for Jehovah marching in person at the head of his people. Let us first see how this idea is pursued by the sacred poets who treat of the exodus, which is a favourite subject with them, and affords great choice of examples: - "When Israel came out of Egypt,

[¶39] The house of Jacob from the barbarous people;

[¶40] Judah was his sanctuary, Israel his dominion." [Psa 114:1], [Psa 114:2]. "Jehovah his God is with him;

[¶41] And the shout of a king is among them:

[¶42] God brought them out of Egypt" - [Num 23:21], [Num 23:22]. "Make a highway for him that rideth through the deserts:

[¶43] O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people.

[¶44] When thou marchedst through the wilderness,

## 830. Isaiah · 50 of 79

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[¶0] The heavens dropped" - [Psa 68:4], [Psa 68:7].

[¶1] Let us now see how Isaiah treats the subject of the return of the people from Babylon. They were to march through the wilderness with Jehovah at their head, who was to lead them, to smooth the way before them, and to supply them with water in the thirsty desert; with perpetual allusion to the exodus: - "Come ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the land of the Chaldeans with the voice of joy: Publish ye this, and make it heard; utter it forth even to the end of the earth; Say ye, Jehovah hath redeemed his servant Jacob: They thirsted not in the deserts, through which he made them go; Waters from the rock he caused to flow for them; Yea, he clave the rock, and forth gushed the waters." [Isa 48:20], [Isa 48:21]. "Remember not the former things;

[¶2] And the things of ancient times regard not:" (That is, the deliverance from Egypt): "Behold, I make a new thing;

[¶3] Even now shall it spring forth; will ye not regard it?

[¶4] Yea, I will make in the wilderness a way;

[¶5] In the desert streams of water." [Isa 43:18], [Isa 43:19]. "But he that trusteth in me shall inherit the land,

[¶6] And shall possses my holy mountain.

[¶7] Then will I say: Cast up, cast up the causeway; make clear the way;

[¶8] Remove every obstruction from the road of my people." [Isa 57:13], [Isa 57:14]. "How beautiful appear on the mountains

[¶9] The feet of the joyful messenger, of him that announceth peace;

[¶10] Of the joyful messenger of good tidings, of him that announceth salvation;

[¶11] Of him that saith to Sion, Thy God reigneth!

[¶12] All thy watchmen lift up their voice, they shout together;

[¶13] For face to face shall they see, when Jehovah returneth to Sion.

[¶14] Verily not in haste shall ye go forth,

[¶15] And not by flight shall ye march along:

[¶16] For Jehovah shall march in your front;

[¶17] And the God of Israel shall bring up your rear." [Isa 52:7], [Isa 52:8], [Isa 52:12].

[¶18] Babylon was separated from Judea by an immense tract of country which was one continued desert; that large part of Arabia called very properly Deserta. It is mentioned in history as a remarkable occurrence, that Nebuchadnezzar, having received the news of the death of his father, in order to make the utmost expedition in his journey to Babylon from Egypt and Phoenicia, set out with a few attendants, and passed through this desert. Berosus apud Joseph., Antiq. [Isa 10:11]. This was the nearest way homewards for the Jews; and whether they actually returned by this way or not, the first thing that would occur on the proposal or thought of their return would be the difficulty of this almost impracticable passage. Accordingly the proclamation for the preparation of the way is the most natural idea, and the most obvious circumstance, by which the prophet could have opened his subject.

[¶19] These things considered, I have not the least doubt that the return at the Jews from the captivity of Babylon is the first, though not the principal, thing in the prophet's view. The redemption from Babylon is clearly foretold and at the same time is employed as an image to shadow out a redemption of an infinitely higher and more important nature. I should not have thought it necessary to employ so many words in endeavoring to establish what is called the literal sense of this prophecy, which I think cannot be rightly understood without it, had I not observed that many interpreters of the first authority, in particular the very learned Vitringa, have excluded it entirely.

[¶20] Yet obvious and plain as I think this literal sense is, we have nevertheless the irrefragable authority of John the Baptist, and of our blessed Savior himself, as recorded by all the Evangelists, for explaining this exordium of the prophecy of the opening of the Gospel by the preaching of John, and of the introduction of the kingdom of Messiah; who was to effect a much greater deliverance of the people of God, Gentiles as well as Jews, from the captivity of sin and the dominion of death. And this we shall find to be the case in many subsequent parts also of this prophecy, where passages manifestly relating to the deliverance of the Jewish nation, effected by Cyrus, are, with good reason, and upon undoubted authority, to be understood of the redemption wrought for mankind by Christ.

[¶21] If the literal sense of this prophecy, as above explained, cannot be questioned, much less surely can the spiritual; which, I think, is allowed on all hands, even by Grotius himself. If both are to be admitted, here is a plain example of the mystical allegory, or double sense, as it is commonly called, of prophecy; which the sacred writers of the New Testament clearly suppose, and according to which they frequently frame their interpretation of passages from the Old Testament. Of the foundation and properties of this sort of allegory, see De S. Poes. Hebr. Praelect. xi.

### Verse 1

[¶23] Comfort ye, comfort ye - "The whole of this prophecy," says Kimchi, "belongs to the days of the Messiah."

### Verse 2

[¶25] Double for all her sins "Blessings double to the punishment" - It does not seem reconcilable to our notions of the Divine justice, which always punishes less than our iniquities deserve, to suppose that God had punished the sins of the Jews in double proportion; and it is more agreeable to the tenor of this consolatory message to understand it as a promise of ample recompense for the effects of past displeasure, on the reconciliation of God to his returning people. To express this sense of the passage, which the words of the original will very well bear, it was necessary to add a word or two in the version to supply the elliptical expression of the Hebrew. Compare [Isa 61:7]; [Job 42:10]; [Zac 9:12]. חטאה chattaah signifies punishment for sin, [Lam 3:39]; [Zac 14:19]. But Kimchi says, "Double here means the two captivities and emigrations suffered by the Israelites. The first, the Babylonish captivity; the second, that which they now endure." This is not a bad conjecture.

### Verse 3

[¶27] The voice of him that crieth to the wilderness "A voice crieth, In the wilderness" - The idea is taken from the practice of eastern monarchs, who, whenever they entered upon an expedition or took a journey, especially through desert and unpractised countries, sent harbingers before them to prepare all things for their passage, and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to remove all impediments. The officers appointed to superintend such preparations the Latins call stratores. Ipse (Johannes Baptista) se stratorem vocat Messiae, cujus esset alta et elata voce homines in desertis locis habitantes ad itinera et vias Regi mox venturo sternendas et reficiendas hortari. - Mosheim, Instituta, Majora, p. 96. "He (John the Baptist) calls himself the pioneer of the Messiah, whose business it was with a loud voice to call upon the people dwelling in the deserts to level and prepare the roads by which the King was about to march."

[¶28] Diodorus's account of the marches of Semiramis into Media and Persia will give us a clear notion of the preparation of the way for a royal expedition: "In her march to Ecbatana she came to the Zarcean mountain, which, extending many furlongs, and being full of craggy precipices and deep hollows, could not be passed without taking a great compass about. Being therefore desirous of leaving an everlasting memorial of herself, as well as of shortening the way, she ordered the precipices to be digged down, and the hollows to be filled up; and at a great expense she made a shorter and more expeditious road, which to this day is called from her the road of Semiramis. Afterward she went into Persia, and all the other countries of Asia subject to her dominion; and wherever she went, she ordered the mountains and precipices to be levelled, raised causeways in the plain country, and at a great expense made the ways passable." - Diod. Sic. lib. ii.

[¶29] The writer of the apocryphal book called Baruch expresses the same subject by the same images, either taking them from this place of Isaiah, or from the common notions of his countrymen: "For God hath appointed that every high hill, and banks of long continuance, should be cast down, and valleys filled up, to make even the ground, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God." Baruch 5:7.

[¶30] The Jewish Church, to which John was sent to announce the coming of Messiah, was at that time in a barren and desert condition, unfit, without reformation, for the reception of her King. It was in this desert country, destitute at that time of all religious cultivation, in true piety and good works unfruitful, that John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord by preaching repentance. I have distinguished the parts of the sentence according to the punctuation of the Masoretes, which agrees best both with the literal and the spiritual sense; which the construction and parallelism of the distich in the Hebrew plainly favors, and of which the Greek of the Septuagint and of the evangelists is equally susceptible. John was born in the desert of Judea, and passed his whole life in it, till the time of his being manifested to Israel. He preached in the same desert: it was a mountainous country; however not entirely and properly a desert; for though less cultivated than other parts of Judea, yet it was not uninhabited. Joshua ([Jos 15:61], [Jos 15:62]) reckons six cities in it. We are so prepossessed with the idea of John's living and preaching in the desert, that we are apt to consider this particular scene of his preaching as a very important and essential part of history: whereas I apprehend this circumstance to be no otherwise important, than as giving us a strong idea of the rough character of the man, which was answerable to the place of his education; and as affording a proper emblem of the rude state of the Jewish Church at that time, which was the true wilderness meant by the prophet, in which John was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.

### Verse 4

[¶32] Crooked - The word עקב akob is very generally rendered crooked: but this sense of the word seems not to be supported by any good authority. Ludolphus, Comment. ad Hist. Aethiop. p. 206, says "that in the Ethiopia language it signifies clivus, locus editus:" and so the Syriac Version renders it in this place, ערמא arama: Hebrew, ערמה aramah, tumulus, acervus. Thus the parallelism would be more perfect:" the hilly country shall be made level, and the precipices a smooth plain."

[¶33] Verse 5 "The salvation of our God" - These words are added here by the Septuagint: το σωτηριον του Θεου, את ישועת אלהינו eth yesuath Eloheynu, as it is in the parallel place, [Isa 52:10]. The sentence is abrupt without it, the verb wanting its object; and I think it is genuine. Our English translation has supplied the word it, which is equivalent to this addition, from the Septuagint.

[¶34] This omission in the Hebrew text is ancient, being prior to the Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate Versions: but the words stand in all the copies of the Septuagint, and they are acknowledged by Luke, [Luk 3:6]. The whole of this verse is wanting in one of my oldest MSS.

### Verse 6

[¶36] The voice saint Cry "A voice saith Proclaim" - To understand rightly this passage is a matter of importance; for it seems designed to give us the true key to the remaining part of Isaiah's prophecies, the general subject of which is the restoration of the people and Church of God. The prophet opens the subject with great clearness and elegance: he declares at once God's command to his messengers, (his prophets, as the Chaldee rightly explains it), to comfort his people in captivity, to impart to them the joyful tidings, that their punishment has now satisfied the Divine justice, and the time of reconciliation and favor is at hand. He then introduces a harbinger giving orders to prepare the way for God, leading his people from Babylon, as he did formerly from Egypt, through the wilderness, to remove all obstacles, and to clear the way for their passage.

[¶37] Thus far nothing more appears to be intended than a return from the Babylonish captivity; but the next words seem to intimate something much greater: - "And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed;

[¶38] And all flesh shall see together the salvation of our God."

[¶39] He then introduces a voice commanding him to make a solemn proclamation. And what is the import of it? that the people - the flesh, is of a vain temporary nature; that all its glory fadeth, and is soon gone; but that the word of God endureth for ever. What is this, but a plain opposition of the flesh to the spirit; of the carnal Israel to the spiritual; of the temporary Mosaic economy to the eternal Christian dispensation? You may be ready to conclude, (the prophet may be disposed to say), by this introduction to my discourse, that my commission is only to comfort you with a promise of the restoration of your religion and polity, of Jerusalem, of the temple, and its services and worship in all its ancient splendor. These are earthly, temporary, shadowy, fading things, which shall soon pass away, and be destroyed for ever; these are not worthy to engage your attention in comparison of the greater blessings, the spiritual redemption, the eternal inheritance, covered under the veil of the former, which I have it in charge to unfold unto you. The law has only a shadow of good things; the substance is the Gospel. I promise you a restoration of the former, which, however, is only for a time, and shall be done away, according to God's original appointment: but under that image I give you a view of the latter, which shall never be done away, but shall endure for ever. This I take to be agreeable to St. Peter's interpretation of this passage of the prophet, quoted by him, [1Pet 1:24], [1Pet 1:25] : "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." This is the same word of the Lord of which Isaiah speaks, which hath now been preached unto you by the Gospel. The law and the Gospel are frequently opposed to one another by St. Paul, under the images of flesh and spirit: "Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" [Gal 3:3]. - L.

[¶40] All the Godliness thereof - "All its glory" - For חסדו chasdo read חדו chadu; the Septuagint and Vulgate, and [1Pet 1:24].

### Verse 7

[¶42] The grass withereth - The whole of this verse is wanting in three of Kennicott's and five of De Rossi's MSS., and in a very correct and ancient MS. of my own, and also in the Septuagint and Arabic.

[¶43] Surely the people "Verily this people" - So the Syriac; who perhaps read העם הזה haam hazzeh.

[¶44] Because the spirit of the Lord "When the wind of Jehovah" - רוח יהוה ruach Jehovah, a wind of Jehovah, is a Hebraism, meaning no more than a strong wind. It is well known that a hot wind in the east destroys every green thing. Compare [Psa 103:16]. Two MSS. omit the word יהוה Yehovah, Jehovah.

## 831. Isaiah · 51 of 79

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### Verse 9

[¶1] O Zion, that bringest good tidings "O daughter, that bringest glad tidings to Zion" - That the true construction of the sentence is this, which makes Zion the receiver, not the publisher, of the glad tidings, which latter has been the most prevailing interpretation, will, I think, very clearly appear, if we rightly consider the image itself, and the custom and common practice from which it is taken. I have added the word daughter to express the feminine gender of the Hebrew participle, which I know not how to do otherwise in our language; and this is absolutely necessary in order to ascertain the image. For the office of announcing and celebrating such glad tidings as are here spoken of, belongs peculiarly to the women. On occasion of any great public success, a signal victory, or any other joyful event, it was usual for the women to gather together, and with music, dances, and songs, to publish and celebrate the happy news. Thus after the passage of the Red Sea, Miriam, and all the women, with timbrels in their hands, formed a chorus, and joined the men in their triumphant song, dancing, and throwing in alternately the refrain or burden of the song: - "Sing ye to Jehovah, for he is greatly exalted;

[¶2] The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea." [Exo 15:20], [Exo 15:21].

[¶3] So Jephthah's daughter collected a chorus or virgins, and with dances and songs came out to meet her father, and to celebrate his victory, [Jdg 11:34]. After David's conquest of Goliath, "all the women came out of the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music;" and, forming themselves into two choruses, they sang alternately: - "Saul has slain his thousands:

[¶4] And David his ten thousands." [1Sam 18:6], [1Sam 18:7].

[¶5] And this gives us the true sense of a passage in the sixty-eighth Psalm, which has frequently been misunderstood: - "Jehovah gave the word, (that is, the joyful news),

[¶6] The women, who published the glad tidings, were a great company;

[¶7] The kings of mighty armies did flee, did flee:

[¶8] And even the matron, who stayed at home, shared the spoil."

[¶9] The word signifying the publishers of glad tidings is the same, and expressed in the same form by the feminine participle, as in this place, and the last distich is the song which they sang. So in this place, Jehovah having given the word by his prophet, the joyful tidings of the restoration of Zion, and of God's returning to Jerusalem, (see [Isa 52:8]), the women are exhorted by the prophet to publish the joyful news with a loud voice from eminences, whence they might best be heard all over the country; and the matter and burden of their song was to be, "Behold your God!" See on [Psa 68:11] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶11] His reward is with him, and his work before him. "His reward is with him, and the recompense of his work before him" - That is, the reward and the recompense which he bestows, and which he will pay to his faithful servants; this he has ready at hand with him, and holds it out before him, to encourage those who trust in him and wait for him.

### Verse 11

[¶13] Shall gently lead those that are with young "The nursing ewes shall he gently lead" - A beautiful image, expressing, with the utmost propriety as well as elegance, the tender attention of the shepherd to his flock. That the greatest care in driving the cattle in regard to the dams and their young was necessary, appears clearly from Jacob's apology to his brother Esau, [Gen 33:13] : "The flocks and the herds giving suck to their young are with me; and if they should be overdriven, all the flock will die." Which is set in a still stronger light by the following remark of Sir John Chardin: "Their flocks," says he, speaking of those who now live in the east after the patriarchal manner, "feed down the places of their encampments so quick, by the great numbers that they have, that they are obliged to remove them too often, which is very destructive to their flocks, on account of the young ones, who have not strength enough to follow." Harmer's Observ. i., p. 126.

### Verse 16

[¶15] And Lebanon is not sufficient - The image is beautiful and uncommon. It has been imitated by an apocryphal writer, who however comes far short of the original: - "For all sacrifice is too little for a sweet savor unto thee:

[¶16] And all the fat is not sufficient for thy burnt-offering."

[¶17] Judith 16:16.

[¶18] Does not the prophet mean here that all the burnt-offerings and sacrifices that could be offered were insufficient to atone for sin? That the nations were as nothing before him, not merely because of his immensity, but because of their insufficiency to make any atonement by their oblations for the iniquities which they had committed? Therefore the Redeemer was to come to Zion, etc.

### Verse 19

[¶20] And casteth silver chains "And forgeth for it chains of silver" - For צורף tsoreph, the participle, twenty-seven MSS., five ancient, and three editions, read צרף tsaraph, pret. third person.

### Verse 20

[¶22] Chooseth a tree that will not rot - For what? To make a god out of it! The rich we find made theirs of gold and silver; the poor man was obliged to put up with a wooden god! From the words "he that hath no oblation chooseth a tree," we may learn that the gold and silver necessary to make the graven image was first dedicated, and then formed into a god! How stupid is idolatry! Strange that these people did not perceive that there could be no help in these molten and wooden idols!

### Verse 21

[¶24] Have ye not known - On this verse Kimchi has a very interesting comment, an extract of which I subjoin. "The whole world may be considered as a house built up; heaven its roof; the stars its lamps; and the fruits of the earth its table spread. The Master of the house is God, blessed for ever; and man is the steward into whose hand all the business of the house is given. If he always consider in his heart that the Master of the house is continually over him, and that he keeps his eye upon his work, and if in consequence he acts wisely, he shall find favor in the eyes of the Master of the house. But if he find wickedness in the house, then will he remove him מן פקידתו min pekidutho, 'from his stewardship.' The foolish steward does not think of this; for as his eyes do not see the Master of the house, he saith in his heart, 'I will eat and drink what I find in this house, and will take my pleasure in it; nor shall I be careful whether there be a master over this house or not.' When the Lord of the house marks this, he comes and expels him from the house speedily, and with great anger; therefore it is said, [Isa 40:23], He bringeth the princes to nothing." It seems that this parable had been long in use among the Jews, as our blessed Lord alludes to it in his parable of the unjust steward. Or did the rabbin, finding it to his purpose, steal the parable from the Gospel? In both places it has great and peculiar beauties.

[¶25] Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth "Have ye not understood it from the foundations of the earth?" - The true reading seems to be ממוסדות mimmosedoth, to answer to מראש merosh in the foregoing line. It follows a word ending with מ mem, and out of three mems concurring, it was an easy mistake to drop the middle one.

### Verse 22

[¶27] As a curtain "As a thin veil" - "It is usual in the summer season, and upon all occasions when a large company is to be received, to have the court sheltered from heat or inclemency of the weather by a velum, umbrella, or veil, as I shall call it; which being expanded on ropes from one side of the parapet wall to the other, may be folded or unfolded at pleasure. The psalmist seems to allude to some covering of this kind in that beautiful expression of spreading out the heavens like a curtain." - Shaw's Travels, p. 274.

### Verse 24

[¶29] And he shall also blow upon them "And if he but blow upon them" - The Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and MS. Bodl., with another, have גם gam, only, without the conjunction ו vau, and.

### Verse 26

[¶31] Left up your eyes on high - The rabbins say, He who is capable of meditating on the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and does not meditate on them, is not worthy to have his name mentioned among men.

### Verse 28

[¶33] There is no searching of his understanding "And that his understanding is unsearchable" - Twenty-four MSS., two editions, the Septuagint and Vulgate, read ואין veein, with the conjunction ו vau.

### Verse 31

[¶35] They shall mount zap with wings as eagles "They shall put forth fresh feathers like the moulting eagle" - It has been a common and popular opinion that the eagle lives and retains his vigor to a great age; and that, beyond the common lot of other birds, he moults in his old age, and renews his feathers, and with them his youth. "Thou shalt renew thy youth like the eagle, "says the psalmist, [Psa 103:5]; on which place St. Ambrose notes, Aquila longam aetatem ducit, dum, vetustis plumis fatiscentibus, nova pennarum successione juvenescit: "The eagle lives to a very advanced age; and in moulting his youth is renewed with his new feathers." Phile, De Animalibus, treating of the eagle, and addressing himself to the emperor Michael Palaeologus junior, raises his compliment upon the same notion: - Τουτου συ, βασιλευ, τον πολυν ζωοις βιον, Αει νεουργων, και κρατυνων την φυσιν. "Long may'st thou live, O king; still like the eagle

[¶36] Renew thy youth, and still retain thy vigor."

[¶37] To this many fabulous and absurd circumstances are added by several ancient writers and commentators on Scripture; see Bochart, Hieroz. 2 ii. 1. Rabbi Saadias says, Every tenth year the eagle flies near the sun; and when not able any longer to bear the burning heat, she falls down into the sea, and soon loses her feathers, and thus renews her vigor. This she does every tenth year till the hundredth, when, after she has ascended near the sun, and fallen into the sea, she rises no more. How much proof do such stories require! Whether the notion of the eagle's renewing his youth is in any degree well founded or not, I need not inquire; it is enough for a poet, whether profane or sacred, to have the authority of popular opinion to support an image introduced for illustration or ornament. - L

### Introduction

[¶39] The prophet, having intimated the deliverance from Babylon, and the still greater redemption couched under it, resumes the subject. He begins with the Divine vocation of Abraham, the root of the Israelitish family, and his successful exploits against the idolaters, [Isa 41:1-7]. He then recurs to the Babylonish captivity, and encourages the seed of Abraham, the friend of God, not to fear, as all their enemies would be ultimately subdued under them, [Isa 41:8-16]; and every thing furnished necessary to refresh and comfort them in them passage homewards through the desert, [Isa 41:17-20]. The prophet then takes occasion to celebrate the prescience of God, from his knowledge of events so very distant as instanced in the prediction concerning the messenger of glad tidings which should be given to Jerusalem to deliver her from all her enemies; and challenges the idols of the heathen to produce the like proof of their pretended divinity, [Isa 41:21-27]. But they are all vanity, and accursed are they that choose them, [Isa 41:28], [Isa 41:29].

### Verse 1

[¶41] Keep silence before me, O islands "Let the distant nations repair to me with new force of mind" - Εγκαινιζεσθε, Septuagint. For החרישו hacharishu, be silent, they certainly read in their copy החדישו hachadishu, be renewed; which is parallel and synonymous with יחלפו כח yechalephu coach, "recover their strength;" that is, their strength of mind, their powers of reason; that they may overcome those prejudices by which they have been so long held enslaved to idolatry. A MS. has הר har, upon a rasure. The same mistake seems to have been made in this word, [Zep 3:17]. For יחריש באהבתו yacharish beahabatho, silebit in directions sua, as the Vulgate renders it; which seems not consistent with what immediately follows, exultabit super te in laude; the Septuagint and Syriac read יחדיש באהבתו yachadish beahabatho, "he shall be renewed in his love." אלי elai, to me, is wanting in one of De Rossi's MSS. and in the Syriac.

### Verse 2

[¶43] The righteous man - The Chaldee and Vulgate seem to have read צדיק tsaddik. But Jerome, though his translation has justum, appears to have read צדק tsedek; for in his comment he expresses it by justum, sive justitiam. However, I think all interpreters understand it of a person. So the Septuagint in MS. Pachom. εκαλεσεν αυτον, "he hath called him;" but the other copies have αυτην, her. They are divided in ascertaining this person; some explain it of Abraham, others of Cyrus. I rather think that the former is meant; because the character of the righteous man, or righteousness, agrees better with Abraham than with Cyrus. Besides, immediately after the description of the success given by God to Abraham and his posterity, (who, I presume, are to be taken into the account), the idolaters are introduced as greatly alarmed at this event. Abraham was called out of the east; and his posterity were introduced into the land of Canaan, in order to destroy the idolaters of that country, and they were established there on purpose to stand as a barrier against the idolatry then prevailing, and threatening to overrun the whole face of the earth. Cyrus, though not properly an idolater or worshipper of images, yet had nothing in his character to cause such an alarm among the idolaters, [Isa 41:5-7]. Farther, after having just touched upon that circumstance, the prophet with great ease returns to his former subject, and resumes Abraham and the Israelites; and assures them that as God had called them, and chosen them for this purpose, he would uphold and support them to the utmost, and at length give them victory over all the heathen nations, their enemies; [Isa 41:8-16]. Kimchi is of the same mind and gives the same reasons.

[¶44] He gave them as the dust to his sword "Hath made them like the dust before his sword" - The image is strong and beautiful; it is often made use of by the sacred poets; see [Psa 1:4]; [Psa 35:6]; [Job 21:18], and by Isaiah himself in other places, [Isa 17:13]; [Isa 29:5]. But there is great difficulty in making out the construction. The Septuagint read קשתם חרבם kashtam, charbam, their sword, their bow, understanding it of the sword and bow of the conquered kings: but this is not so agreeable to the analogy of the image, as employed in other places. The Chaldee paraphrast and Kimchi solve the difficulty by supposing an ellipsis of לפני liphney before those words. It must be owned that the ellipsis is hard and unusual: but I choose rather to submit to this, than, by adhering with Vitringa to the more obvious construction, to destroy entirely both the image and the sense. But the Vulgate by gladio ejus, to his sword, and arcui ejus, to his bow, seems to express לחרבו lecharbo, to his sword, and לקשתו lekashto, to his bow, the admission of which reading may perhaps be thought preferable to Kimchi's ellipsis.

## 832. Isaiah · 52 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/832/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/832/#p-N

### Verse 3

[¶1] And passed safely "He passeth in safety" - The preposition seems to have been omitted in the text by mistake; the Septuagint and Vulgate seem to have had it in their copies; εν ειρηνῃ, to pace, בשלום beshalom, "prosperously." It is so in one of De Rossi's MSS.

### Verse 4

[¶3] Who hath wrought and done it "Who hath performed and made these things" - A word is here lost out of the text. It is sups plied by an ancient MS., אלה elleh, "these things; "and by the Septuagint, ταυτα; and by the Vulgate, haec; and by the Chaldee, אלן elin; all of the same meaning.

### Verse 5

[¶5] Were afraid "And they were terrified" - Three MSS. have ויחרדו vaiyecheridu, adding the conjunction ו vau, which restores the second member of the sentence to its true poetical form.

### Verse 7

[¶7] That it should not be moved "That it shall not move" - Five MSS., (two ancient), and the ancient Versions, add the conjunction ו vau, "and, "reading ולא velo, "and not, "which seems to be right.

### Verse 9

[¶9] And called thee from the chief men thereof "And called from the extremities thereof" - אציל מאציליה atsil meatsileyha, signifies the arm, ascilla, ala; and is used like כנף canaph, "the wing, "for any thing extended from the extremity of another, or joined on to it. It is here parallel with and synonymous to מקצות mikkatsoth, "from the ends, "in the preceding member.

### Verse 10

[¶11] Be not dismayed - ואל תשתע veal tishta, "And be not dismayed. "The ו vau is added by twenty-one of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., thirty of De Rossi's, and one of my own, and three editions. It makes the sense more complete.

### Verse 14

[¶13] Fear not, thou worm Jacob - In the rabbinical commentary on the five books of Moses, Yelamedenu, it is asked, Why are the Israelites called a worm? To signify, that as the worm does not smite, that is, gnaw the cedars, but with its mouth, which is very tender, yet it nevertheless destroys the hard wood; so all the strength of the Israelites is in prayer, by which they smite the wicked of this world, though strong like the cedars, to which they are compared, [Eze 31:3].

### Verse 15

[¶15] A new sharp threshing instrument having teeth "A threshing wain; a new corn-drag armed with pointed teeth" - See note on [Isa 28:27-28].

[¶16] Thou shalt thresh the mountains - Mountains and hills are here used metaphorically for the kings and princes of the Gentiles. - Kimchi.

### Verse 19

[¶18] I will plant in the wilderness the cedar - The two preceding verses express God's mercy to them in their passage through the dry deserts, in supplying them with abundant water, when distressed with thirst, in allusion to the exodus. This verse expresses the relief afforded to them, fainting with heat in their journey through that hot country, destitute of shelter, by causing shady trees, and those of the tallest and most beautiful kinds, to spring up for their defense. The apocryphal Baruch, speaking of the return from Babylon, expresses God's protection of his people by the same image: "Even the woods and every sweet-smelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God." 5:8.

[¶19] The oil tree - This, Kimchi says, is not to be understood of the olive tree, for the olive is distinguished, [Neh 8:15]; but it means the pine or fir, from which pitch is extracted.

### Verse 20

[¶21] And consider - The verb ישימו yasimu, without לב leb added, cannot signify to apply the heart, or to attend to a thing, as Houbigant has observed; he therefore reads ישמו yashshemu, they shall wonder. The conjecture is ingenious; but it is much more probable that the word לב leb is lost out of the text; for all the ancient versions render the phrase to the same sense, as if it were fully expressed, ישימו לב yasimu leb; and the Chaldee renders it paraphrastically, yet still retaining the very words in his paraphrase, ושוון דחלתי על לבהון vishavvun dechalti al lebehon, "that they may put my fear in their heart." See also [Isa 41:22], where the same phrase is used.

### Verse 21

[¶23] Bring forth your strong reasons "Produce these your mighty powers" - "Let your idols come forward which you consider to be so very strong. "Hieron. in loc. I prefer this to all other interpretations of this place; and to Jerome's own translation of it, which he adds immediately after, Afferte, si quid forte habetis. "Bring it forward, if haply ye have any thing." The false gods are called upon to come forth and appear in person; and to give evident demonstration of their foreknowledge and power by foretelling future events, and exerting their power in doing good or evil.

### Verse 23

[¶25] That we may be dismayed, and behold it together "Then shall we be struck at once with admiration and terror" - The word ונרא venere is written imperfectly in the Hebrew text; the Masoretes supply ה he at the end; and so it is read in twenty-two MSS. and four editions; that is, ונראה venireh, and we shall see. But the true reading seems to be ונירא venira, and we shall fear, with י yod supplied, from ירא yara.

### Verse 24

[¶27] Your work of naught "Your operation is less than naught" - For מאפע meepha, read מאפס meephes; so the Chaldee and Vulgate. A manifest error of the text; compare [Isa 40:17]. The rabbins acknowledge no such error, but say that the former word signifies the same with the latter, by a change of the two letters ס samech and ע ain. - Sal ben Melec in loc.

### Verse 25

[¶29] I have raised up one from the north - "That is, "says Kimchi, "the Messiah. The king of Assyria placed the ten tribes in Chalach and Chabar by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, [2Kgs 17:6], which lands lie northerly and easterly."

[¶30] He shall come upon princes "He shall trample on princes" - For יבא yabo, Le Clerc reads יבס yebes, from the Chaldee, who seems to read both words. "Forte legend. ויבס vaiyebes vel וירמס vaiyirmos: sequitur ס." "This should perhaps be read ויבס vaiyebes, or וירמס vaiyirmos: a ס samech follows." - Secker. See [Nah 3:14].

### Verse 26

[¶32] Your word - אמרתיכם imrntheychem; but, instead of this, one of my most ancient MSS. has דבריכם dibreychem. The meaning is nearly the same: but in this reading this His. is singular.

### Verse 27

[¶34] The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them "I first to Zion gave the word, Behold they are here" - This verse is somewhat obscure by the transposition of the parts of the sentence, and the peculiar manner in which it is divided into two parallel lines. The verb at the end of the sentence belongs to both parts; and the phrase, Behold, they are here! is parallel to the messenger of glad tidings; and stands like it, as the accusative case to the verb. The following paraphrase will explain the form and the sense of it. "I first, by my prophets, give notice of these events, saying, Behold, they are at hand! and I give to Jerusalem a messenger of glad tidings."

### Verse 28

[¶36] Among them "Among the idols" - For ומאלה umeelleh, I read ומאלים umeellim, with the Septuagint, και απο των ειδωλων, "and from or among the idols. "See [Exo 15:11]; [Isa 57:5].

[¶37] R. D. Kimchi has many good observations on this chapter. Bishop Lowth follows him in applying it to Abraham, and not to Cyrus; the whole being spoken in the past tense, which is not used, or rarely, in such a case for the future. Almost the whole of the rabbins understand it of Abraham. On Kimchi's plan, the following is a paraphrase.

[¶38] The righteous man - Abram, from the east - the land of his nativity, called the land of the children of the east, [Gen 29:1].

[¶39] Brought him to his feet - Whithersoever his feet went, he preached righteousness and truth; as it is written, "There he proclaimed in the name of Jehovah," [Gen 21:31]. And he called it ויקראהו vaiyikraehu - that is, צרק tsedek, righteousness, to his feet, enabled him to hold it forth wherever he went.

[¶40] He called the nations - To leave their idols and worship him who made the universe. He taught them the way of righteousness, truth, and faith. Was there ever a prodigy like to this? A man who had been an idolater, rising up against all the nations of the earth, reproving their faith, and not fearing before them nor their kings! Who stirred up his heart to do this? Was it not the Lord?

[¶41] Gave the nations before him - And made him rule over kings - Chedorlaomer, and the kings which were with him: whom the Lord gave as dust to his sword, and stubble to his bow.

[¶42] He pursued them - He and his three hundred and eighteen servants.

[¶43] He passed safely - שלום shalom for בשלום beshalom, in safety; so said, because he lost not one of his men in this expedition. See Kimchi.

## 833. Isaiah · 53 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/833/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/833/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The prophet sets forth the meekness of Messiah's character, and the extent and blessings of his kingdom, particularly among the Gentiles, [Isa 42:1-9]. In consequence of this he calls on the whole creation to join him in one song of praise to God, [Isa 42:10-12]. After which he seems again to glance at the deliverance from the captivity; although the words may full as well apply to the deliverance vouchsafed to the Church; to the overthrow of her must powerful enemies; and to the prevalency of true religion over idolatry and error, [Isa 42:13-17]. The prophet then reproves the Jews for their blindness and infidelity in rejecting the Messiah, and gives intimations of these judgments which their guilt would draw on them, [Isa 42:18-25].

[¶2] The prophet, having opened his subject with the preparation for the return from captivity at Babylon, and intimated that a much greater deliverance was covered under the veil of that event, proceeded to vindicate the power of God, as Creator and disposer of all things; and his infinite knowledge, from his prediction of future events, and in particular of that deliverance. He went still farther, and pointed out the instrument by which he should effect the redemption of his people the Jews from slavery; namely, a great conqueror, whom he would call forth from the north and the east to execute his orders. In this chapter he proceeds to the greater deliverance; and at once brings forth into full view, without throwing any veil of allegory over the subject, the Messiah. "Behold my servant, Messiah, "says the Chaldee. St. Matthew has applied it directly to Christ; nor can it with any justice or propriety be applied to any other person or character whatever. - L

### Verse 1

[¶4] Behold my servant, whom I uphold - אתמך בו ethmach bo, on whom I lean. Alluding to the custom of kings leaning on the arm of their most beloved and faithful servant. All, both Jews and Christians, agree, that the seven first verses of this chapter belong to Christ. Now, as they are evidently a continuation of the prophecy in the preceding chapter, that prophecy cannot belong to Cyrus, but to Christ.

[¶5] He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles "He shall publish judgment to the nations" - Four MSS. two ancient, add the conjunction ומשפט vemishpat. See [Mat 12:18].

[¶6] The word משפט mishpat, judgment, like צדקה tsedakah, righteousness, is taken in a great latitude of signification. It means rule, form, order, model, plan; rule of right, or of religion; an ordinance, institution; judicial process, cause, trial, sentence, condemnation, acquittal, deliverance, mercy, etc. It certainly means in this place the law to be published by Messiah, the institution of the Gospel.

### Verse 4

[¶8] He shall not fail nor be discouraged "His force shall not be abated nor broken" - Rabbi Meir ita citat locum istum, ut post ירוץ yaruts, addat כוחו cocho, robur ejus, quod hodie Ilon comparet in textu Hebraeo, sed addendum videtur, ut sensus fiat planior. "Rabbi Meir cites this passage so as to add after ירוץ yarats כוחו cocho, his force, which word is not found in the present Hebrew text, but seems necessary to be added to make the sense more distinct." Capell. Crit. Sac. p. 382. For which reason I had added it in the translation, before I observed this remark of Capellus. - L.

### Verse 6

[¶10] A covenant of the people "A covenant to the people" - For עם am, two MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, and of my own, read עולם olam, the covenant of the age to come, or the everlasting covenant; which seems to give a clearer and better sense. But I think the word ברית berith, here, should not be translated covenant, but covenant sacrifice, which meaning it often has; and undoubtedly in this place. This gives a still stronger and clearer sense.

### Verse 7

[¶12] To open the blind eyes - In this verse the prophet seems to set forth the spiritual redemption, under images borrowed from the temporal deliverance.

[¶13] Out of the prison house "And from the dungeon" - The Septuagint, Syriac, and four MSS., one ancient, add the conjunction ו vau, ומבית umibbeith, and from the house.

### Verse 8

[¶15] I am the Lord - אני יהוה ani Yehovah. This is the famous tetragrammaton, or name of four letters, which we write Jehovah Yehovah, Yehveh, Yeveh, Jhuh, Javah, etc. The letters are Y H U H. The Jews never pronounce it, and the true pronunciation is utterly unknown.

[¶16] That is my name - A name peculiar to myself.

### Verse 10

[¶18] Ye that go down to the sea - This seems not to belong to this place; it does not well consist with what follows, "and the fullness thereof." They that go down upon the sea means navigators, sailors, traders, such as do business in great waters; an idea much too confined for the prophet, who means the sea in general, as it is used by the Hebrews, for the distant nations, the islands, the dwellers on the sea-coasts all over the world. I suspect that some transcriber had the [Psa 107:23] verse of Psalm 107 running in his head, יורדי הים באניות yoredey haiyam booniyoth, and wrote in this place יורדי הים yoredey haiyam instead of ירעם הים yiram haiyam, or יריע yari, or ירן yaran; "let the sea roar, or shout, or exult." But as this is so different in appearance from the present reading, I do not take the liberty of introducing it into the translation. Conjeceram legendum יגידו yegidu, ut [Isa 42:12]; sed non favent Versiones. "I would propose to read יגידו yegidu, as in [Isa 42:12]; but this is not supported by the Versions." - Secker.

### Verse 11

[¶20] Let the wilderness - The most uncultivated countries, and the most rude and uncivilized people, shall confess and celebrate with thanksgiving the blessing of the knowledge of God graciously imparted to them. By the desert is meant Arabia Deserta; by the rocky country, Arabia Petraea; by the mountains, probably those celebrated ones, Paran, Horeb, Sinai, in the same country; to which also belonged Kedar, a clan of Arabians, dwelling for the most part in tents; but there were others of them who inhabited or frequented cities and villages, as may be collected from this place of the prophet. Pietro della Valle, speaking of the people of Arabia Deserta, says: "There is a sort of Arabs of that country called Maedi, who with their herds, of buffaloes for the most part, sometimes live in the deserts, and sometimes in cities; from whence they have their name, which signifies wandering, going from place to place. They have no professed houses; nor are they properly Bedaui, or Beduui, that is, Deserticoli, who are the most noble among them, and never abide within walls, but always go wandering through the open country with their black tents; nor are they properly called Hhadesi, as they call those who dwell in cities, and lands with fixed houses. These by the latter are esteemed ignoble and base; but both are considered as of low condition." Viaggi, Parte 3 lett. ii.

[¶21] The villages that Kedar doth inhabit - The Arabs, according to the Targum.

[¶22] The inhabitants of the rock - They who dwell on fortified places. The Vulgate has habitatores Petraeae, "the inhabitants of Arabia Petraea." Those who make the rock Jesus Christ, the inhabitants of the rock, true believers in him; the singing, rejoicing for the salvation they have received; abuse and disgrace the passage and the pulpit. I have heard a clergyman, a magistrate, a justice of the quorum, spend an hour in showing from these words,

[¶23] 1. That they meant Jesus Christ, and none other.

[¶24] 2. That he might be fully compared to a rock, as the foundation on which his Church was built, and on which all true believers rested for their salvation.

[¶25] 3. A rock, because of his strength and might in destroying his enemies, and supporting his friends.

[¶26] 4. A refreshing rock, like that in the wilderness; and that rock was Christ.

[¶27] 5. A perspective rock, from which true believers could discover their heavenly inheritance: "When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, "etc. Now all this is true in itself; but false in respect to the words on which it was professedly built, for they have no such meaning.

### Verse 14

[¶29] I have been still "Shall I keep silence for ever" - After מעולם meolam, in the copy which the Septuagint had before them, followed the word הלעולם, heleolam, εσιωπησα απ' αιωνος· Μη και αει σιωπησομαι· according to MSS. Pachom. and 50. D. 2 and Edit. Complut., which word, הלעולם haleolam, has been omitted in the text by an easy mistake of a transcriber, because of the similitude of the word preceding. Shall I always keep silences like that of Juvenal: Semper ego auditor tantum? Shall I always be a hearer only?

### Verse 15

[¶31] I wilt make the rivers islands "I will make the rivers dry deserts" - Instead of איים iyim, islands, read ציים tsiim; a very probable conjecture of Houbigant.

### Verse 16

[¶33] In paths - The Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and nine MSS., (two ancient), read ובנתיבות ubenotiboth.

[¶34] Will I do unto them - עשיתם asitem. This word, so written as it is in the text, means "thou wilt do, "in the second person. The Masoretes have indeed pointed it for the first person; but the י yod in the last syllable is absolutely necessary to distinguish the first person; and so it is written in forty MSS., עשיתים asithim.

[¶35] Jarchi, Kimchi, Sal. ben Melec, etc., agree that the past time is here put for the future, עשיתי asithi for אעשה; and indeed the context necessarily requires that interpretation. Farther it is to be observed that עשיתים asithim is put for עשיתי להם asithi lahem, "I have done them," for "I have done for them;" as עשיתני asitheni is for עשיתי לי asiti li, "I have made myself," for "I have made for myself," [Eze 29:2]; and in the celebrated passage of Jephthah's vow, [Jdg 11:31], והעליתיהו עולה veheelitihu olah for העליתי לו עולה heelithi lo olah, "I will offer him a burnt-offering, "for "I will offer unto him (that is, unto Jehovah) a burnt-offering;" by an ellipsis of the preposition of which Buxtorf gives many other examples, Thes. Grammat. lib. 2:17. See also note on [Isa 65:5]. A late happy application of this grammatical remark to that much disputed passage has perfectly cleared up a difficulty which for two thousand years had puzzled all the translators and expositors, had given occasion to dissertations without number, and caused endless disputes among the learned on the question, whether Jephthah sacrificed his daughter or not; in which both parties have been equally ignorant of the meaning of the place, of the state of the fact, and of the very terms of the vow; which now at last has been cleared up beyond all doubt by my learned friend Dr. Randolph, Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, in his Sermon on Jephthah's Vow, Oxford, 1766. - L.

### Verse 19

[¶37] As my messenger that I sent "As he to whom I have sent my messengers" - כמלכי אשלח kemalachey eshlach, ut ad quem nuncios meos misi. The Vulgate and Chaldee are almost the only interpreters who render it rightly, in consistence with the rest of the sentence, and in perfect agreement with the Hebrew idiom; according to which the ellipsis is to be thus supplied: כלאשר מלאכי אשלח kelaasher malachey eshlach; "As he to whom I have sent my messengers."

[¶38] As he that is perfect "As he who is perfectly instructed" - See note on [Isa 44:2] (note).

[¶39] And blind as the Lord's servant "And deaf, as the servant of Jehovah" - For ועור veivver, and blind, we must read וחרש vecheresh, and deaf: κωφος, Symmachus, and so a MS. The mistake is palpable, and the correction self-evident, and admissible though there had been no authority for it.

### Verse 20

[¶41] Seeing many things "Thou hast seen indeed" - The text has ראית רבית raith rabith, which the Masoretes in the marginal Keri have corrected to ראות רבות reoth rabboth; as indeed one hundred and seven MSS., and five editions, now have it in the text. This was probably the reading of most of the MSS. of their time; which, though they approved of it, out of some superstition they would not admit into their standard text. But these wretched critics, though they perceived there was some fault, yet did not know where the fault lay, nor consequently how to amend it; and yet it was open enough to a judicious eye: רבות rabboth, sic veteres; et tamen forte legendum, ראות reoth, vide cap. [Isa 6:9]." - Secker. That is, ראית ראות raith, reoth, seeing, thou shalt see. I believe no one will doubt of admitting this as the true reading.

[¶42] But he heareth not "Yet thou wilt not hear" - For ישמע yishma, read תשמע tishma, in the second person; so all the ancient Versions and forty MSS. of Kennicott's, (four of them ancient), and seventeen of De Rossi's, and perhaps five more. Two others have תשמעו tishmeu, second person plural.

### Verse 21

[¶44] He win magnify the law "He hath exalted his own praise" - For תורה torah, the law, the Septuagint read תודה todah, praise.

## 834. Isaiah · 54 of 79

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### Verse 22

[¶1] They are all of them snared in holes "All their chosen youths are taken in the toils" - For הפח hapheach read הופחו huphachu, in the plural number, hophal; as החבאו hochbau, which answers to it in the following member of the sentence. Le Clerc, Houbigant. הפח huppach, Secker.

### Verse 24

[¶3] We have sinned "They have sinned" - For חטאנו chatanu, "we have sinned," first person; the Septuagint and Chaldee read חטאו chateu, "they have sinned," in the third person.

### Verse 25

[¶5] The fury of his anger "The heat of his wrath" - For חמה chammah, the Bodl. MS. has חמת chammath, in regimine, more regularly.

[¶6] It hath set him on fire round about - So thoroughly hardened are the Jewish people, that they are represented as being in a house on fire, and even scorched with the flames, without perceiving their danger, or feeling that they are hurt! What a picture of mental induration! and this is their state to the present day. But by whom shall Jacob arise? for in this sense he is small indeed. Many efforts have been made to Christianize them, but without effect; and is this to be wondered at, while we tell them how great they are, how learned, how wise, how much we owe to them, that they are still the peculiar people of God, etc., etc.? If all this be true, what can they gain by becoming Christians? Whereas a more stupid, proud, hardened, ignorant people can scarcely be found in the civilized world, and they are most grossly ignorant of their own Scriptures.

### Introduction

[¶8] Prediction of that blessed period when God should gather the posterity of Abraham, with tender care, from their several dispersions in every quarter under heaven, and bring them safely to their own land, [Isa 43:1-7]. Struck with astonishment at so clear a display of an event so very remote, the prophet again challenges all the blended nations and their idols to produce an instance of such foreknowledge, [Isa 43:8], [Isa 43:9]; and intimates that the Jews should remains (as at this day), a singular monument to witness the truth of the prediction, till it should at length be fulfilled by the irresistible power of God, [Isa 43:10-13]. He then returns to the nearer deliverance - that from the captivity of Babylon, [Isa 43:14], [Isa 43:15]; with which, however, he immediately connects another deliverance described by allusions to that from Egypt, but represented as much more wonderful than that; a character which will not at all apply lo the deliverance from Babylon, and must therefore be understood of the restoration from the mystical Babylon, [Isa 43:16-18]. On this occasion the prophet, with peculiar elegance, and by a very strong poetic figure, represents the tender care of God in comforting and refreshing his people on their way through the desert, to be so great as to make even the wild beasts haunting those parched places so sensible of the blessing of those copious streams then provided by him, as to join their hissing and howling notes with one consent to praise God, [Isa 43:19-21]. This leads to a beautiful contrast of the ingratitude of the Jews, and a vindication of God's dealings with regard to them, [Isa 43:22-28].

### Verse 1

[¶10] I have called thee by thy name - "קראתי בשמך karathi beshimcha. So all the versions. But it seems from the seventh verse, and from the thing itself, that we should read קראתיך בשמי karathicha bishmi, 'I have called thee by my name;' for this form of speech often occurs - the other never. For [Isa 45:24], concerning Cyrus, is another matter; but when God calls Jacob Israel, he calls him by the name of God. See [Exo 31:2]." - Secker.

### Verse 3

[¶12] I gave Egypt for thy ransom - This is commonly supposed to refer to the time of Sennacherib's invasion; who, when he was just ready to fall upon Jerusalem, soon after his entering Judea, was providentially diverted from that design, and turned his arms against the Egyptians, and their allies the Cushean Arabians, with their neighbors the Sabeans, probably joined with them under Tirhakah. See [Isa 20:1-6] and [Isa 37:9]. Or as there are some reasonable objections to this opinion, perhaps it may mean more generally that God has often saved his people at the expense of other nations, whom he had, as it were in their stead, given up to destruction. Vitringa explains this of Shalmaneser's designs upon the kingdom of Judea after he had destroyed that of Samaria, from which he was diverted by carrying the war against the Egyptians, Cusheans, and Sabeans; but of this I think he has no clear proof in history. It is not to be wondered at that many things of this kind should remain very obscure for the want of the light of history, which in regard to these times is extremely deficient. "Did not Cyrus overcome these nations? and might they not be given for releasing the Jews? It seems to have been so from [Isa 45:14]." - Secker.

[¶13] Kimchi refers all this to the deliverance of Jerusalem from the invasion of Sennacherib. Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had come out to war against the king of Assyria, who was there-upon obliged to raise the siege of Jerusalem. Thus the Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Sabeans were delivered into the hands of the Assyrians as a ransom for Israel. - Kimchi. I cannot help thinking this to be a very rational solution of the text.

### Verse 7

[¶15] Every one that is called by my name - All who worship the true God, and are obedient to his laws.

[¶16] I have created him - בראתיו berathiv. I have produced him out of nothing.

[¶17] For my glory - Ten MSS., three ancient, and the Syriac and Vulgate, read לכבודי licabodi, without the conjunction ו vau, and.

[¶18] I have formed him - יצרתיו yetsartiv. I have given him that particular form and shape which are best suited to his station in life.

[¶19] I have made him - עשיתיו asithiv. I have adapted him to the accomplishment of my counsels and designs.

### Verse 8

[¶21] Bring forth the blind people that have eyes "Bring forth the people, blind, although they have eyes" - I understand this of the Gentiles, as the verse following, not of the Jews. Their natural faculties, if they had made a proper use of them, must have led them to the knowledge of the being and attributes of the one true God; "for his eternal power and Godhead," if well attended to, are clearly seen in his works, ([Rom 1:20]), and would have preserved them from running into the folly and absurdity of worshipping idols. They are here challenged to produce the evidence of the power and foreknowledge of their idol gods; and the Jews are just afterwards, [Isa 43:10], appealed to as witnesses for God in this cause, therefore these latter cannot here be meant by the people blind with eyes and deaf with ears.

### Verse 9

[¶23] Who among them - Seven MSS., three ancient, and the first edition, 1486, with the Syriac and Vulgate, read בכם bechem, who among you, the present reading is preferable.

### Verse 10

[¶25] Ye (the Israelites) are my witnesses, and my servant (the prophet) whom I have chosen - That whatever has been said before concerning Sennacherib has been literally fulfilled. The prophet had predicted it; the Israelites saw it accomplished.

[¶26] Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me - This is a most difficult place. Was there a time when God was not? No! Yet he says, before me. Will there be a time in which God will not exist? No! Yet he says, after me. Are not all these words to be referred to his creation? Before me, no god created any thing, nor was there any thing pre-existent but myself. And after me, i.e., after my creation, such as now exists, there shall be no other class of beings formed. This mode of interpretation frees the passage from all embarrassment, and the context perfectly agrees with it. The words my servant, in this verse, the Targum understands of the Messiah.

### Verse 12

[¶28] I have declared, and have saved - My prophets have always predicted your deliverances before they took place; and I have fulfilled their words to the uttermost.

### Verse 14

[¶30] The Chaldeans, whose cry is on the ships "The Chaldeans exulting in their ships" - Babylon was very advantageously situated both in respect to commerce, and as a naval power. It was open to the Persian Gulf by the Euphrates, which was navigable by large vessels; and being joined to the Tigris above Babylon by the canal called Naharmalca or the Royal River, supplied the city with the produce of the whole country to the north of it, as far as the Euxine and Caspian seas, Herod. 1:194. Semiramis was the foundress of this part also of the Babylonian greatness. She improved the navigation of the Euphrates, Herod. 1:184; Strabo, lib. xvi.; and is said to have had a fleet of three thousand galleys, Huet, Hist. du Commerce, chap. 11. We are not to wonder that in later times we hear little of the commerce and naval power of Babylon; for, after the taking of the city by Cyrus, the Euphrates was not only rendered less fit for navigation by being on that occasion diverted from its course and left to spread over the whole country; but the Persian monarchs, residing in their own country, to prevent any invasion by sea on that part of their empire, purposely obstructed the navigation of both the rivers by making cataracts in them, Strabo, ib., that is, by raising dams across the channel, and making artificial falls in them, that no vessel of any size or force could possibly come up. Alexander began to restore the navigation of the rivers by demolishing the cataracts upon the Tigris as far up as Seleucia, Arrian, lib. vii., but he did not live to finish his great designs; those upon the Euphrates still continued. Ammianus, 24:1, mentions them as subsisting in his time.

[¶31] The prophet therefore might very justly speak of the Chaldeans as glorying in their naval power in his time; though afterwards they had no foundation for making any such boast.

### Verse 15

[¶33] The Creator - For בורא bore, "Creator," six MSS. (two ancient) have אלהי Elohey, "God."

### Verse 19

[¶35] Behold, I will do a new thing - At [Isa 43:16], the prophet had referred to the deliverance from Egypt and the passage through the Red Sea; here he promises that the same power shall be employed in their redemption and return from the Babylonish captivity. This was to be a new prodigy.

### Verse 20

[¶37] The beast of the field shall honor me "The wild beast of the field shall glorify me" - The image is elegant and highly poetical. God will give such an abundant miraculous supply of water to his people traversing the dry desert in their return to their country, that even the wild beasts, the serpents, the ostriches, and other animals that haunt those arid regions, shall be sensible of the blessing, and shall break forth into thanksgiving and praises to him for the unusual refreshment which they receive from his so plentifully watering the sandy wastes of Arabia Deserta, for the benefit of his people passing through them.

### Verse 22

[¶39] But thou hast not called upon me - The connection is: But thou, Israel, whom I have chosen, whom I have formed for myself to be my witness against the false gods of the nations; even thou hast revolted from me, hast neglected my worship, and hast been perpetually running after strange gods. The emphasis of this and the following parts of the sentence, on which the sense depends, is laid on the words Me, on My Account, etc. The Jews were diligent in performing the external services of religion; in offering prayers, incense, sacrifices, oblations; but their prayers were not offered with faith; and their oblations were made more frequently to their idols than to the God of their fathers. The Hebrew idiom excludes with a general negative, in a comparative sense, one of two objects opposed to one another: thus, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice," [Hos 6:6]. "For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices; but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice," [Jer 7:22], [Jer 7:23]. And the meaning of this place of Isaiah seems to be much the same with that of Amos; who however has explained at large both parts of the comparison, and specified the false service opposed to the true: - "Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings,

[¶40] In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

[¶41] Nay, but you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch,

[¶42] And Chiun, your images;

[¶43] The star of your god, which you made to yourselves." [Amo 5:25], [Amo 5:26].

[¶44] But thou hast been weary of me, O Israel "Neither on my account hast thou lahoured, O Israel" - For כי יגעת ki yagata, the Septuagint and Vulgate read ויגעת veyagata. - Houbigant. The negative is repeated or referred to by the conjunction ו vau, as in many other places. See note on [Isa 23:4].

## 835. Isaiah · 55 of 79

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### Verse 25

[¶1] I, even I, am he - The original is extremely abrupt: אנכי אנכי הוא anochi anochi hu, "I, I, He." Is there any mystery in this form? Does it refer to a plurality of persons in the Godhead?

[¶2] For mine own sake - In the pardon of sin God can draw no reason but from his own infinite goodness.

### Verse 27

[¶4] Thy first father hath sinned - On this Kimchi speaks well: "How can ye say that ye have not sinned, seeing your first father, Adam, sinned; and man hath sin impressed on him through natural generation?"

### Verse 28

[¶6] I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary "Thy princes have profaned my sanctuary" - Instead of ואחלל שרי vaachallel sarey, read ויחללו שריך vayechalelu sareycha. So the Syriac and Septuagint, και εμιαναν οἱ αρχοντες τα ἁγια μου, "the rulers have defiled my holy things." קדשי kodshi, Houbigant. Οἱ αρχοντες σου, "thy rulers, "MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 and Marchal.

[¶7] To reproaches "To reproach" - לגדופה ligeduphah, in the singular number; so an ancient MS. and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. And, alas! what a curse do they still bear, and what reproach do they still suffer! No national crimes have ever equalled those of the Jewish nation, for no nation ever had such privileges to neglect, despise, sin against. When shall this severity of God towards this people have an end? Answ. Whenever, with one heart, they turn to him, and receive the doctrine of the Lord Jesus; and not till then.

### Introduction

[¶9] This chapter, besides promises of redemption, of the effusion of the Spirit, and success of the Gospel, [Isa 44:1-5], sets forth, in a very sublime manner, the supreme power and foreknowledge, and absolute eternity, of the one true God; and exposes the folly and absurdity of idolatry with admirable force and elegance, [Isa 44:6-20]. And to show that the knowledge of future events belongs only to Jehovah, whom all creation is again called to adore for the deliverance and reconciliation granted to his people, [Isa 44:21-23], the prophet concludes with setting in a very strong point of view the absolute impotence of every thing considered great and insurmountable in the sight of men, when standing in the way of the Divine counsel; and mentions the future deliverer of the Jewish nation expressly by name, nearly two hundred years before his birth, [Isa 44:24-28].

### Verse 2

[¶11] Jesurun - Jeshurun means Israel. This name was given to that people by Moses, [Deu 32:15]; [Deu 33:5], [Deu 33:26]. The most probable account of it seems to be that in which the Jewish commentators agree; namely, that it is derived from ישר yashar, and signifies upright. In the same manner, Israel, as a people, is called משלם meshullam, perfect, [Isa 42:19], They were taught of God, and abundantly furnished with the means of rectitude and perfection in his service and worship. Grotius thinks that ישרון yeshurun is a diminutive of ישראל yishrael, Israel; expressing peculiar fondness and affection; Ισραηλιδιον, O little Israel.

### Verse 4

[¶13] They shall spring up as among the grass "They shall spring up as the grass among the waters" - בבין חציר bebeyn chatsir, "They shall spring up to the midst of, or rather, in among, the grass. "This cannot be right: eleven MSS., and thirteen editions, have כבין kebeyn, or כבן keben. Twenty-four MSS. read it without the י yod, בבן beben, in the son of the grass; and so reads the Chaldee; בבן beben, in the son of the grass.

[¶14] Twenty-four MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's, thirty-three of De Rossi's, and one of my own, with six editions, have this reading. The Syriac, מבין mibbeyn. The true reading is in all probability כבין kebeyn; and the word מים mayim, which should have followed it, is lost out of the text: but it is happily supplied by the Septuagint, ὡς ανα μεσον ὑδατος, as among the water "In every place where there is water, there is always grass; for water makes every thing grow in the east." Sir John Chardin's note on [1Kgs 17:5]. Harmer's Observations 1:64.

### Verse 5

[¶16] Shall call himself "Shall be called" - Passive, יקרא yikkare; κληθησεται, Symmachus.

[¶17] Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord "This shall inscribe his hand to Jehovah" - Και ἑτερος επιγραψει χειρι (χειρα, Ag., Sym.) αυτου, Του Θεου ειμι· "And another shall write upon his hand, I belong to God." - Sept. They seem to have read here, as before, ליהוה אני laihovah ani, I belong to Jehovah. But the repetition of the same phrase without any variation is not elegant. However, they seem to have understood it rightly, as an allusion to the marks, which were made by punctures rendered indelible, by fire or by staining, upon the hand or some other part of the body, signifying the state or character of the person, and to whom he belonged. The slave was marked with the name of his master, the soldier, of his commander; the idolater, with the name or ensign of his god: Στιγματα επιγραφομενα δια των στρατευομενων εν ταις χερσιν· "Punctural inscriptions made by the soldiers on their hands." Aetius apud Turnebum Advers. [Isa 24:12]. Victuris in cute punctis milites scripti et matriculis inserti jurare solent. "The soldiers having indelible inscriptions on their skin, and inserted in the muster-rolls, are accustomed to make oath." Vigetius, [Isa 2:6]. And the Christians seem to have imitated this practice, by what Procopius says on this place of Isaiah: Το δε ΤΗ ΧΕΙΡΙ, δια το στιζειν ισως πολλους επι καρπων, η βραχιονων, η του σταυρου σημειον, η την Χριστου προσηγοριαν. "Because many marked their wrists, or their arms, with the sign of the cross, or with the name of Christ." See [Rev 20:4]; Spencer, De Leg. Hebr. lib. ii., cap. 20.

### Verse 7

[¶19] Let them show unto them "Let them declare unto us" - For למו lamo, unto them, the Chaldee reads לנו lanu, unto us The Septuagint read לכם lachem, unto you; which is preferable to the reading of the text. But למו lamo, and לנו lanu, are frequently mistaken one for the other, see [Isa 10:29]; [Psa 80:7]; [Psa 64:6].

### Verse 8

[¶21] Fear ye not - תרהו - to tirehu never occurs. Perhaps it should be תיראו tireu, fear ye. Two MSS. read תירהו tirehu, and one of mine תהרו taharu.

### Verse 9

[¶23] That they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god "That every one may be ashamed, that he hath formed a god" - The Bodleian MS., one of the first extant for its antiquity and authority, instead of מי mi, at the beginning of the tenth verse, has כי ki, which greatly clears up the construction of a very obscure passage. Doederlein approves of this reading. The Septuagint likewise closely connect in construction the end of [Isa 44:9] with the beginning of [Isa 44:10]; and wholly omit the interrogative מי mi, which embarrasses the sentence: Αισχυνθησονται οἱ πλασσοντες Θεον, και γλυφοντες παντες ανωφελη· "But they shall be confounded that make a god; and they who engrave unprofitable things;" agreeably to the reading of the MS. above mentioned.

### Verse 11

[¶25] His fellows - חבריו chaberaiv: but עבדיו abadaiv, his servants or worshippers, is the reading of one of De Rossi's MSS., and of the Chaldee.

[¶26] And the workmen, they are of men "Even the workmen themselves shall blush" - I do not know that any one has ever yet interpreted these words to any tolerably good sense: וחרשים המה מאדם vecharashim hemmah meadam. The Vulgate and our translators, have rendered them very fairly, as they are written and pointed in the text: Fabri enim sunt ex hominibus. "And the workmen they are of men." Out of which the commentators have not been able to extract any thing worthy of the prophet. I have given another explanation of the place; agreeable enough to the context, if it can be deduced from the words themselves. I presume that אדם adam, rubuit, may signify erubuit, to be red through shame, as well as from any other cause; though I cannot produce any example of it in that particular sense; and the word in the text I would point מאדם meoddam; or if any one should object to the irregularity of the number, I would read מאדמים meoddamim. But I rather think that the irregularity of the construction has been the cause of the obscurity, and has given occasion to the mistaken punctuation. The singular is sometimes put for the plural. See [Psa 68:31]; and the participle for the future tense, see [Isa 40:11]. - L.

### Verse 12

[¶28] The smith with the tongs, etc. "The smith cutteth off a portion of iron" - מעצד meatstsed, Participium Pihel of עצד atsad, to cut; still used in that sense in the Arabic. See Simonis Lex. Hebrews The Septuagint and Syriac take the word in this form: but they render it sharpeneth the iron. See Castell. Lex. in voce.

[¶29] The sacred writers are generally large and eloquent upon the subject of idolatry; they treat it with great severity, and set forth the absurdity of it in the strongest light. But this passage of Isaiah, [Isa 44:12-20], far exceeds any thing that ever was written upon the subject, in force of argument, energy of expression, and elegance of composition. One or two of the apocryphal writers have attempted to imitate the prophet, but with very ill success; Wisd. 13:11-19; 15:7, etc.; Baruch 6, NAB (editor's note: some translations treat this as Letter to Jeremiah), especially the latter, who, injudiciously dilating his matter, and introducing a number of minute circumstances, has very much weakened the force and effect of his invective. On the contrary a heathen author, in the ludicrous way, has, in a line or two, given idolatry one of the severest strokes it ever received: -

[¶30] Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,

[¶31] Cum faber incertus, scamnum faceretne

[¶32] Priapum, Maluit esse Deum. Deus inde ego.

[¶33] Horat. Satyr, lib. 1. sat. viii. "Formerly I was the stump of a fig tree, a useless log; when the carpenter, after hesitating whether to make me a god or a stool, at last determined to make me a god. Thus I became a god!"

[¶34] From the tenth to the seventeenth verse, a most beautiful strain of irony is carried on against idolatry. And we may naturally think that every idolater, who either read or heard it, must have been for ever ashamed of his own devices. - L.

### Verse 14

[¶36] He heweth him down "He heweth down" - For לכרת lichroth, the Septuagint and Vulgate read כרת carath or יכרת yichroth.

### Verse 16

[¶38] With part "And with part" - Twenty-three MSS., the Septuagint, and Vulgate add the conjunction ו vau, and ועל veal.

### Verse 17

[¶40] He falleth down unto it - There were four forms of adoration used among the Hebrews:

[¶41] 1. השתחוה Hishtachavah, The prostration of the whole body.

[¶42] 2. קדד Kadad, The bowing of the head.

[¶43] 3. כרע Cara, The bending of the upper part of the body down to the knees.

[¶44] 4. ברך Barach, Bowing the knee, or kneeling. See on [Isa 49:23] (note).

## 836. Isaiah · 56 of 79

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### Verse 18

[¶1] He hath shut their eyes "Their eyes are closed up" - The Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulyate, for טח tach, read טחו tachu. See note on [Isa 6:10].

### Verse 20

[¶3] He feedeth on ashes - He feedeth on that which affordeth no nourishment; a proverbial expression for using ineffectual means, and bestowing labor to no purpose. In the same sense Hosea says, "Ephraim feedeth on wind." [Hos 12:1].

### Verse 22

[¶5] I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins "I have made thy transgressions vanish away like a cloud, and thy sins like a vapor" - Longinus admired the sublimity of the sentiment, as well as the harmony of the numbers, in the following sentence of Demosthenes: Τουτο το ψηφισμα τον τοτε τῃ πολει τερισταντα κινδυνον παρελθειν εποιησεν ὡσπερ νεφος. "This decree made the danger then hanging over the city pass away like a cloud." Probably Isaiah alludes here to the smoke rising up from the sin-offering, dispersed speedily by the wind. and rendered invisible. He who offered his sacriflce aright was as sure that the sin for which he offered it was blotted out, as that the smoke of the sacrifice was dispersed by the wind, and was no longer discernible.

### Verse 24

[¶7] By myself - Thirteen MSS., six ancient, confirm the reading of the Keri, מאתי meittai.

### Verse 27

[¶9] That saith to the deep, Be dry "Who saith to the deep, Be thou wasted" - Cyrus took Babylon by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event so exactly corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by Jeremiah, [Jer 50:38]; [Jer 51:36]. "A drought shall be upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: -

[¶10] I will lay her sea dry

[¶11] And I will scorch up her springs."

[¶12] It is proper here to give some account of the means and method lay which the stratagem of Cyrus was effected.

[¶13] The Euphrates in the middle of the summer, from the melting of the snows on the mountains of Armenia, like the Nile, overflows the country. In order to diminish the inundation, and to carry off the waters, two canals were made by Nebuchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city; the first on the eastern side called Naharmalca, or the Royal River, by which the Euphrates was let into the Tigris; the other on the western side, called Pallacopas, or Naharaga, (נהר אגם nahar agam, The river of the pool), by which the redundant waters were carried into a vast lake, forty miles square, contrived, not only to lessen the inundation, but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the barren country on the Arabian side. Cyrus, by turning the whole river into the lake by the Pallacopas, laid the channel, where it ran through the city, almost dry; so that his army entered it, both above and below, by the bed of the river, the water not reaching above the middle of the thigh. By the great quantity-of water let into the lake, the sluices and dams were destroyed; and being never repaired afterwards, the waters spread over the whole country below, and reduced it to a morass, in which the river is lost. Ingens modo et navigabilis, inde tenuis rivus, despectus emoritur; et nusquam manifesto exitit effluit, ut alii omnes, sed deficit. "And thus a navigable river has been totally lost, it having no exit from this morass. No wonder then that the geographical face of this country is completely changed;" Mela [Jer 3:8]; Herod. 1:186, 190; Xenophon, Cyrop. vii.; Arrian vii.

### Verse 28

[¶15] That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd "Who saith to Cyrus, Thou art my shepherd" - Pastor meus es; Vulg. The true reading seems to be רעי אתה roi attah; the word אתה attah, has probably been dropped out of the text. The same word is lost out of the text, [Psa 119:57]. It is supplied in the Septuagint by the word ει, thou art.

[¶16] Saying to Jerusalem - For ולאמר velemor, the Septuagint and Vulgate read האומר haomer.

[¶17] And to the temple - ולהיכל uleheychal, as לירושלם lirushalayim, before; the preposition is necessary, and the Vulgate seems to read so. - Houbigant.

[¶18] That saith of Cyrus, He is, or thou art, my shepherd - Saying to Jerusalem, "Thou shalt be built;" and to the Temple, "Thy foundation shall be laid." - There is a remarkable beauty and propriety in this verse.

[¶19] 1. Cyrus is called God's shepherd. Shepherd was an epithet which Cyrus took to himself; and what he gave to all good kings.

[¶20] 2. This Cyrus should say to the temple: "Thy foundation shall be laid." Not - thou shalt be built. The fact is, only the foundation was laid in the days of Cyrus, the Ammonites having prevented the building; nor was it resumed till the second year of Darius, one of his successors. There is often a precision in the expressions of the prophets which is as honorable to truth, as it is unnoticed by careless readers.

### Introduction

[¶22] Prophecy concerning Cyrus, the first king of the Persians. Every obstruction shall be removed out of his way, and the treasures taken from his enemies shall be immense, [Isa 45:1-3], To whom, and on what account, Cyrus was indebted for his wonderful success, [Isa 45:4-6]. The prophet refutes the absurd opinion of the Persians, that there were two supreme beings, an evil and a good one, represented by light and darkness, here declared to be only the operation of the One true God, [Isa 45:7]; and makes a transition to the still greater work of God displayed in the dispensation of the Gospel, [Isa 45:8]. Great impiety of those who call in question the mysterious providence of God towards his children, [Isa 45:9-12]. The remaining part of this chapter, interspersed with strictures on the absurdity of idolatry and some allusions to the dark lying oracles of the heathens, may partly refer to the deliverance begun by Cyrus, but chiefly to the salvation by the Messiah, which, it is declared, shall be of universal extent and everlasting duration, [Isa 45:13-25].

### Verse 1

[¶24] Loose the loins of kings "ungird the loins of kings" - See the note on [Isa 5:27]. Xenophon gives the following list of the nations conquered by Cyrus: the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians. He moreover reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacae Paphlagones, and ldariandyni. - Cyrop., lib. 1 p. 4, Edit. Hutchinson, Quarto. All these kingdoms he acknowledges, in his decree for the restoration of the Jews, to have been given to him by Jehovah, the God of heaven. [Ezr 1:2].

[¶25] To open before him the two leaved gates, etc. "That I may open before him the valves; and the gates shall not be shut" - The gates of Babylon within the city leading from the streets to the river, were providentially left open, when Cyrus's forces entered the city in the night through the channel of the river, in the general disorder occasioned by the great feast which was then celebrated; otherwise, says Herodotus, 1:191, the Persians would have been shut up in the bed of the river, and taken as in a net, and all destroyed. And the gates of the palace were opened imprudently by the king's orders, to inquire what was the cause of the tumult without; when the two parties under Gobrias and Gadatas rushed in, got possession of the palace, and slew the king. - Xenoph., Cyrop. 7 p. 528.

### Verse 2

[¶27] The crooked places "The mountains" - For הדורים hodurim, crooked places, a word not easily accounted for in this place, the Septuagint read הררים hararim, τα ορη, the mountains. Two MSS. have הדרים hadarim, without the ו vau, which is hardly distinguishable from the reading of the Septuagint. The Divine protection that attended Cyrus, and rendered his expedition against Babylon easy and prosperous is finely expressed by God's going before him, and making the mountains level. The image is highly poetical: -

[¶28] At vos, qua veniet, tumidi subsidite montes,

[¶29] Et faciles curvis vallibus este viae.

[¶30] Ovid, Amor. 2:16. "Let the lofty mountains fall down, and make level paths in the crooked valleys."

[¶31] The gates of brass "The valves of brass" - Abydenus, apud, Euseb. Praep. Evang. 9:41, says, that the wall of Babylon had brazen gates. And Herodotus, i, 179. more particularly: "In the wall all round there are a hundred gates, all of brass; and so in like manner are the sides and the lintels." The gates likewise within the city, opening to the river from the several streets, were of brass; as were those also of the temple of Belus. - Herod. i., 180, 181.

### Verse 3

[¶33] I will gave thee the treasures of darkness - Sardes and Babylon, when taken by Cyrus, were the wealthiest cities in the world. Croesus, celebrated beyond all the kings of that age for his riches, gave up his treasures to Cyrus, with an exact account in writing of the whole, containing the particulars with which each wagon was loaded when they were carried away; and they were delivered to Cyrus at the palace of Babylon. - Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. 7 p. 503, 515, 540.

[¶34] Pliny gives the following account of the wealth taken by Cyrus in Asia. Jam Cyrus devicta Asia, pondo 34 millia auri invenerat; praeter vasa aurea, aurumque factum, et in eo folia, ac platanum, vitemque. Qua victoria argenti quingenta millia talentorum reportavit; et craterem Semiramidis, cuius pondus quindecim talents colligebat. Talentum autem Aegyptium pondo lxxx. patere 50 capere Varro tradit. - Nat. Hist. 33:15. "When Cyrus conquered Asia, he found thirty-four thousand pounds weight of gold, besides golden vessels and articles in gold; and leaves, (folia, perhaps solia, bathing vessels, Hol.), a plane, and vine tree, (of gold.) By which victory he carried away fifteen thousand talents of silver; and the cup of Semiramis, the weight of which was fifteen tatents. The Egyptian talent, according to Varro, was eighty pounds." This cup was the crater, or large vessel, out of which they filled the drinking cups at great entertainments. Evidently it could not be a drinking vessel, which, according to what Varro and Pliny say, must have weighed 1, 200 pounds!

[¶35] The gold and silver estimated by weight in this account, being converted into pounds sterling, amount to one hundred and twenty-six millions two hwndred and twenty-four thousand pounds. - Brerewood, De Ponderibus, cap. x.

[¶36] Treasures of darkness may refer to the custom of burying their jewels and money under the ground in their house floors, fearing robbers.

### Verse 7

[¶38] I form the light, and create darkness - It was the great principle of the Magian religion, which prevailed in Persia in the time of Cyrus, and in which probably he was educated, that there are two supreme, co-eternal, and independent causes always acting in opposition one to the other; one the author of all good, the other of all evil. The good being they called Light; the evil being, Darkness. That when Light had the ascendant, then good and happtness prevailed among men; when Darkness had the superiority, then eviI and misery abounded. An opinion that contradicts the clearest evidence of our reason, which plainly leads us to the acknowledgment of one only Supreme Being, infinitely good as well as powerful. With reference to this absurd opinion, held by the person to whom this prophecy is addressed, God, by his prophet, in the most significant terms, asserts his omnipotence and absolute supremacy: - "I am Jehovah, and none else;

[¶39] Forming light, and creating darkness,

[¶40] Making peace, and creating evil:

[¶41] I Jehovah am the author of all these things."

[¶42] Declaring that those powers whom the Persians held to be the original authors of good and evil to mankind, representing them by light and darkness, as their proper emblems, are no other than creatures of God, the instruments which he employs in his government of the world, ordained or permitted by him in order to execute his wise and just decrees; and that there is no power, either of good or evil, independent of the one supreme God, infinite in power and in goodness.

[¶43] There were, however, some among the Persians whose sentiments were more moderate as to this matter; who held the evil principle to be in some measure subordinate to the good; and that the former would at length be wholly subdued by the latter. See Hyde, De Relig. Vet. Pers. cap. xxii.

[¶44] That this opinion prevailed among the Persians as early as the time of Cyrus we may, I think, infer not only from this passage of Isaiah, which has a manifest reference to it, but likewise from a passage in Xenophon's Cyropaedia, where the same doctrine is applied to the human mind. Araspes, a noble young Persian, had fallen in love with the fair captive Panthea, committed to his charge by Cyrus. After all his boasting that he was superior to the assaults of that passion, he yielded so far to it as even to threaten violence if she would not comply with his desires. Awed by the reproof of Cyrus, fearing his displeasure, and having by cool reflection recovered his reason; in his discourse with him on this subject he says: "O Cyrus, I have certainly two souls; alld this piece of philosophy I have learned from that wicked sophist, Love. For if I had but one soul, it would not be at the same time good and evil, it would not at the same time approve of honorable and base actions; and at once desire to do, and refuse to do, the very same things. But it is plain that I am animated by two souls, and when the good soul prevails, I do what is virtuous; and when the evil one prevails, I attempt what is vicious. But now the good soul prevails, having gotten you for her assistant, and has clearly gained the superiority." Lib. 6 p. 424.

[¶45] I make peace, and create evil - Evil is here evidently put for war and its attendant miseries. I will procure peace for the Israelites, and destroy Babylon by war. I form light, and create darkness. Now, as darkness is only the privation of light, so the evil of war is the privation of peace.

## 837. Isaiah · 57 of 79

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Drop down, ye heavens - The eighty-fifth psalm is a very elegant ode on the same subject with this part of Isaiah's prophecies, the restoration of Judah from captivity; and is, in the most beautiful part of it, a manifest imitation of this passage of the prophet: - "Verily his salvation is nigh unto them that fear him,

[¶2] That glory may dwell in our land.

[¶3] Mercy and truth have met together;

[¶4] Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

[¶5] Truth shall spring from the earth,

[¶6] And righteousness shall look down from heaven.

[¶7] Even Jehovah: will give that which is good,

[¶8] And our land shall yield her produce.

[¶9] Righteousness shall go before him,

[¶10] And shall direct his footsteps in the way."

[¶11] Psalm 85:10-14.

[¶12] See the notes on these verses.

[¶13] These images of the dew and the rain descending from heaven and making the earth fruitful, employed by the prophet, and some of those nearly of the same kind which are used by the psalmist, may perhaps be primarily understood as designed to set forth in a splendid manner the happy state of God's people restored to their country, and flourishing in peace and plenty, in piety and virtue; but justice and salvation, mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, and glory dwelling in the land, cannot with any sort of propriety, in the one or the other, be interpreted as the consequences of that event; they must mean the blessings of the great redemption by Messiah.

[¶14] Let the earth open, etc. - Jonathan, in his Targum, refers this to the resurrection of the dead; the earth shall be opened, ויחון מיתיא veyechon meiteiya, and the dead shall revive. A plain proof that the ancient Jews believed in a future state, and acknowledged the resurrection of the dead.

[¶15] Let them bring forth salvation "Let salvation produce her fruit" - For ויפרו vaiyiphru, the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac read ויפרה vaiyiphrah; and one MS. has a rasure close after the latter ו vau, which probably was ה he at first.

### Verse 9

[¶17] Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker "To unto him that contendeth with the power that formed him" - The prophet answers or prevents the objections and cavils of the unbelieving Jews, disposed to murmur against God, and to arraign the wisdom and justice of his dispensations in regard to them; in permitting them to be oppressed by their enemies, and in promising them deliverance instead of preventing their captivity. St. Paul has borrowed the image, and has applied it to the like purpose with equal force and elegance: "Nay, but, O man! who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor?" [Rom 9:20], [Rom 9:21]. This is spoken says Kimchi, against the king of Babylon, who insulted the Most High, bringing forth the sacred vessels, drinking out of them, and magnifying himself against God.

[¶18] Or thy work, He hath no hands "And to the workman, Thou hast no hands" - The Syriac renders, as if he had read, ולא היתי פעל ידיך velo hayithi pheal yadeycha, "neither am I the work of thy hands;" the Septuagint, as if they had reads ולא פעלת ואין ודים לך velo phaalta veeyn yaadim lecha, "neither hast thou made me; and thou hast no hands." But the fault seems to be in the transposition of the two pronouns; for ופעלך uphoolcha, read ופעלו uphoolo: and for לו lo, read לך lecha. So Houbigant corrects it; reading also ופעלו uphoolo; which last correction seems not altogether necessary. The Septuagint, in MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 have it thus, και το εργον ουκ εχεις χειρας, which favors the reading here proposed.

### Verse 11

[¶20] Ask me of things to come "And he that formeth the things which are to come" - I read ויוצר veyotser, without the ו vau suffixed; from the Septuagint, who join it in construction with the following word, ὁ ποιησας τα επερχομενα. "Do ye question me." - תשאלוני tishaluni, Chald. recte; praecedit ת tau; et sic forte legerunt reliqui Intt. - Secker. "The Chaldee has, more properly, תשאלוני tishaluni, with a ת tau preceding; and thus the other interpreters probably read." The learned bishop therefore reads the passage thus: - "Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel;

[¶21] And he that formeth the things which are to come;

[¶22] Do ye question me concerning my children?

[¶23] And do ye give me directions concerning the work of my hands?"

### Verse 13

[¶25] I have raised him up - This evidently refers to Cyrus, and to what he did for the Jews; and informs us by whom he was excited to do it.

### Verse 14

[¶27] The labor of Egypt "The wealth of Egypt" - This seems to relate to the future admission of the Gentiles into the Church of God. Compare [Psa 68:32]; [Psa 72:10]; [Psa 60:6-9]. And perhaps these particular nations may be named, by a metonymy common in all poetry, for powerful and wealthy nations in general. See note on [Isa 60:1].

[¶28] The Sabeans, men of stature "The Sabeans, tall of stature" - That the Sabeans were of a more majestic appearance than common, is particularly remarked by Agatharchides, an ancient Greek historian quoted by Bochart, Phaleg, 2:26, τα σωματα εστι των κατοικουντων αξιολογωτερα. So also the Septuagint understand it, rendering it ανδρες ὑψηλοι, "tall men." And the same phrase, אנשי מדה anshey middah, is used for persons of extraordinary stature, [Num 13:32], and [1Chr 20:6].

[¶29] They shall make supplication unto thee "They shall in suppliant guise address thee" - The conjunction ו vau is supplied by the ancient Versions, and confirmed by fifteen MSS. of Kennicott's, (seven ancient), thirteen of De Rossi's, and six editions, ואליך veelayich. Three MSS. (two ancient) omit the ו vau before אליך elaylch at the beginning of the line.

### Verse 15

[¶31] Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself - At present, from the nations of the world.

[¶32] O God of Israel, the Savior - While thou revealest thyself to the Israelites and savest them.

### Verse 16

[¶34] They shall be ashamed "They are ashamed" - The reader cannot but observe the sudden transition from the solemn adoration of the secret and mysterious nature of God's counsels in regard to his people, to the spirited denunciation of the confusion of idolaters, and the final destruction of idolatry; contrasted with the salvation of Israel, not from temporal captivity, but the eternal salvation by the Messiah, strongly marked by the repetition and augmentation of the phrase, to the ages of eternity. But there is not only a sudden change in the sentiment, the change is equally observable in the construction of the sentences; which from the usual short measure, runs out at once into two distichs of the longer sort of verse. See Prelim. Dissert. p. 66, etc. There is another instance of the same kind and very like to this, of a sudden transition in regard both to the sentiment and construction in [Isa 42:17]. "His adversaries" - This line, to the great diminution of the beauty of the distich, is imperfect in the present text: the subject of the proposition is not particularly expressed, as it is in the line following. The version of the Septuagint happily supplies the word that is lost: οἱ αντικειμενοι αυτῳ, "his adversaries," the original word was צריו tsaraiv. - L.

### Verse 18

[¶36] He formed it to be inhabited "For he formed it to be inhabited" - An ancient MS. has כי ki before לשבת lashebeth; and so the ancient Versions.

### Verse 19

[¶38] I have not spoken tn secret, in a dark place of the earth - In opposition to the manner in which the heathen oracles gave their answers, which were generally delivered from some deep and obscure cavern. Such was the seat of the Cumean Sybil: -

[¶39] Excisum Euboicae latus ingens rupis in antrum.

[¶40] Virg. Aen. 6:42. "A cave cut in the side of a huge rock."

[¶41] Such was that of the famous oracle at Delphi; of which, says Strabo, lib. ix., φασι δ' ειναι το μαντειον αντρον κοιλον μετα βαθους, ου μαλα ευρυστομον. "The oracle is said to be a hollow cavern of considerable depth, with an opening not very wide." And Diodorus, giving an account of the origin of this oracle, says "that there was in that place a great chasm or cleft in the earth; in which very place is now situated what is called the Adytum of the temple." Αδυτον· σπηλαιον, η το αποκρυφον μερος του ἱερου. Mesych. "Adytum means a cavern, or the hidden part of the temple."

[¶42] I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right "I am Jehovah, who speak truth, who give direct answers" - This also is said in opposition to the false and ambiguous answers given by the heathen oracles, of which there are many noted examples; none more so than that of the answer given to Croesus when he marehed against Cyrus, which piece of history has some connection with this part of Isaiah's prophecies. Let us hear Cicero's account of the Delphic answers in general, and of this in particular: Sed jam ad te venio,

[¶43] O sancte Apollo, qui umbilicum certum terrarum obsides,

[¶44] Unde superstitiosa primum saeva evasit vox fera.

## 838. Isaiah · 58 of 79

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[¶0] Tuis enim oraculis Chrysippus totum volumen implevit, partim falsis, ut ego opinor; partim casu veris, ut fit in omni oratione saepissime; partim flexiloquis et obscuris, ut interpres egeat interprete, et sors ipsa ad sortes referenda sit; partim ambiguis, et quae ad dialecticum deferenda sint. Nam cum sors illa edita est opulentissimo regi Asiea, Croesus Halym penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim: hostium vim sese perversurum putavit; pervertit autem suam. Utrum igitur eorum accidisset, verum oraculum fuisset. De Divinat. 2:56. Mountainous countries, and those which abounded in chasms, caves, and grottos, were the places in which oracles were most frequent. The horror and gloom inspired by such places were useful to the lying priests in their system of deception. The terms in which those oracles were conceived, (they were always ambiguous, or equivocal, or false, or illusory), sometimes the turn of a phrase, or a peculiarity in idiom or construction which might be turned pro or con, contained the essence of the oracular declaration. Sometimes, in the multitude of guesses, one turned out to be true; at other times, so equivocal was the oracle, that, however the thing fell out, the declaration could be interpreted in that way, as in the above to Croesus, from the oracle at Delphi, which was: If Croeses march against Cyrus, he shall overthrow a great empire: he, supposing that this promised him success, fought, and lost his own, while he expected to destroy that of his enemy. Here the quack demon took refuge in his designed ambiguity. He predicted the destruction of a great empire, but did not say which it was; and therefore he was safe, howsoever the case fell out. Not one of the predictions of God's prophets is conceived in this way.

### Verse 21

[¶2] Bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together - For יועצו yoatsu or yivvaatsu, let them consult, the Septuagint read ידעו yedau, let them know. but an ancient MS. has יועדו yoedu, let them come together by appointment; which may probably be the true reading.

### Verse 22

[¶4] Look unto me, and be ye saved, etc. - This verse and the following contain a plain prediction of the universal spread of the knowledge of God through Christ; and so the Targum appears to have understood it; see [Rom 14:11]; [Phi 2:10]. The reading of the Targum is remarkable, viz., אתפנו למימרי ithpeno lemeymri, look to my Word, ὁ Λογος, the Lord Jesus.

### Verse 23

[¶6] I have sworn by myself - במימרי bemeymri, by my Word: and the word - פתגם pithgam, or saying, to distinguish it from the personal substantial Word meymra, mentioned before. See the Targum.

[¶7] The word is gone out of my mouth "Truth is gone forth from my mouth; the word" - So the Septuagint distinguish the members of the sentence, preserving the elegance of the construction and the clearness of the sense.

### Verse 24

[¶9] Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength "Saying, Only to Jehovah belongeth salvation and power" - A MS. omits לי li, unto me; and instead of לי אמר li amar, he said or shall say unto me, the Septuagint read, in the copy which they used, לאמר lemor, saying. For יבא yabo, He shall come, in the singular, twelve MSS. three ancient) read יבאו yabeu, plural; and a letter is erased at the end of the word in two others: and so the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read it. For צדקות tsedakoth plural, two MSS. read צדקת tsidkath, singular; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee.

[¶10] Probably these are the words of Cyrus, who acknowledged that all his success came from Jehovah. And this sentiment is in effect contained in his decree or proclamation, [Ezr 1:2] : "Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, "etc.

### Introduction

[¶12] The idols of Babylon represented as so far from being able to bear the burden of their votaries, that they themselves are borne by beasts of burden into captivity, [Isa 46:1], [Isa 46:2]. This beautifully contrasted with the tender care of God, in bearing his people from first to last in his arms, and delivering them from their distress, [Isa 46:3], [Isa 46:4]. The prophet, then, with his usual force and elegance, goes on to show the folly of idolatry, and the utter inability of idols, [Isa 46:5-7]. From which he passes with great ease to the contemplation of the attributes and perfections of the true God, [Isa 46:8-10]. Particularly that prescience which foretold the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, with all its leading circumstances; and also that very remote event of which it is the type in the days of the Messiah, [Isa 46:11-13].

### Verse 1

[¶14] Their carriages were heavy loaden "Their burdens are heavy" - For נשאתיכם nesuotheychem, your burdens, the Septuagint had in their copy נשאתיהם nesuotheyhem, their burdens.

### Verse 2

[¶16] They could not deliver the burden "They could not deliver their own charge" - That is, their worshippers, who ought to have been borne by them. See the two next verses. The Chaldee and Syriac Versions render it in effect to the same purpose, those that bear them, meaning their worshippers; but how they can render משא massa in an active sense, I do not understand.

[¶17] For לא lo, not, ולא velo, and they could not, is the reading of twenty-four of Kennicott's, sixteen of De Rossi's, and two of my own MSS. The added ו vau gives more elegance to the passage.

[¶18] But themselves "Even they themselves" - For ונפשם venaphsham, an ancient MS. has כי נפשם ki naphsham, with more force.

### Verse 3

[¶20] Which are borne by me from the belly "Ye that have been borne by me from the birth" - The prophet very ingeniously, and with great force, contrasts the power of God, and his tender goodness effectually exerted towards his people, with the inability of the false gods of the heathen. He like an indulgent father had carried his people in his arms, "as a man carrieth his son," [Deu 1:31]. He had protected them, and delivered them from their distresses: whereas the idols of the heathen are forced to be carried about themselves and removed from place to place, with great labor and fatigue, by their worshippers; nor can they answer, or deliver their votaries, when they cry unto them.

[¶21] Moses, expostulating with God on the weight of the charge laid upon him as leader of his people, expresses that charge under the same image of a parent's carrying his children, in very strong terms: "Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them? that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers;" [Num 11:12].

### Verse 7

[¶23] They bear him upon the shoulder - and set him in his place - This is the way in which the Hindoos carry their gods; and indeed so exact a picture is this of the idolatrous procession of this people, that the prophet might almost be supposed to have been sitting among the Hindoos when he delivered this prophecy. - Ward'S Customs.

[¶24] Pindar has treated with a just and very elegant ridicule the work of the statuary even in comparison with his own poetry, from this circumstance of its being fixed to a certain station. "The friends of Pytheas," says the Scholiast, "came to the poet, desiring him to write an ode on his victory. Pindar demanded three drachms, (minae, I suppose it should be), for the ode. No, say they, we can have a brazen statue for that money, which will be better than a poem. However, changing their minds afterwards, they came and offered him what he had demanded." This gave him the hint of the following ingenious esordium of his ode: - Ουκ ανδριαντοποιος ειμ' Ὡστ' ελινυσσοντα μ' εργαζε- σθαι αγαλματ' επ' αυτας βαθμιδος Ἑσταοτ.Αλλ' επι πασας Ὁλκαδος εν τ' ακατῳ γλυκει' αοιδα Στειχ' απ' Αιγινας διαγγελ- lois' ὁτι Λαμπωνος ὑιος Πυθεας ευρυσθενης Νικῃ Νεμειοις παγκρατιου στεφανον.

[¶25] Nem. v.

[¶26] Thus elegantly translated by Mr. Francis in a note to Hor. Carm. 4:2. 19. "It is not mine with forming hand

[¶27] To bid a lifeless image stand

[¶28] For ever on its base:

[¶29] But fly, my verses, and proclaim

[¶30] To distant realms, with deathless fame,

[¶31] That Pytheas conquered in the rapid race."

[¶32] Jeremiah, [Jer 10:3-5], seems to be indebted to Isaiah for most of the following passage: - "The practices of the people are altogether vanity:

[¶33] For they cut down a tree from the forest;

[¶34] The work of the artificer's hand with the axe;

[¶35] With silver and with gold it is adorned;

[¶36] With nails and with hammers it is fastened, that it may not totter.

[¶37] Like the palm-tree they stand stiff, and cannot speak;

[¶38] They are carried about, for they cannot go:

[¶39] Fear them not, for they cannot do harm;

[¶40] Neither is it in them to do good."

### Verse 8

[¶42] Show yourselves men - התאששו hithoshashu. This word is rather of doubtful derivation and signification. It occurs only in this place: and some of the ancient interpreters seem to have had something different in their copies. The Vulgate read התבששו hithbosheshu, take shame to yourselves; the Syriac התבוננו hithbonenu, consider with yourselves; the Septuagint στεναξετε· perhaps התאבלו hithabbelu, groan or mourn, within yourselves. Several MSS. read התאוששו hithosheshu, but without any help to the sense.

### Verse 11

[¶44] Calling a ravenous bird from the east "Calling from the east the eagle" - A very proper emblem for Cyrus, as in other respects, so particularly because the ensign of Cyrus was a golden eagle, ΑΕΤΟΣ χρυσους, the very word עיט ayit, which the prophet uses here, expressed as near as may be in Greek letters. Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. 7 sub. init. Kimchi says his father understood this, not of Cyrus, but of the Messiah.

## 839. Isaiah · 59 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/839/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/839/#p-N

[¶0] From a far country "From a land far distant" - Two MSS. add the conjunction ו vau, ומארץ umeerets; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

### Verse 12

[¶2] Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted - This is an address to the Babylonians, stubbornly bent on the practice of injustice towards the Israelites.

### Introduction

[¶4] The destruction of Babylon is denounced by a beautiful selection of circumstances, in which her prosperous is contrasted with her adverse condition. She is represented as a tender and delicate female reduced to the work and abject condition of a slave, and bereaved of every consolation, [Isa 47:1-4]. And that on account of her cruelty, particularly to God's people, her pride, voluptuousness, sorceries, and incantations, [Isa 47:5-11]. The folly of these last practices elegantly exposed by the prophet, [Isa 47:12-15]. It is worthy of observation that almost all the imagery of this chapter is applied in the book of the Revelation, (in nearly the same words), to the antitype of the illustrious capital of the Chaldean empire, viz., Babylon the Great.

### Verse 1

[¶6] Come down, and set in the dust "Descend, and sit on the dust" - See note on [Isa 3:26], and on [Isa 52:2] (note).

### Verse 2

[¶8] Take the millstones, and grind meal "Take the mill, and grind corn" - It was the work of slaves to grind the corn. They used hand-mills: water-mills were not invented till a little before the time of Augustus, (see the Greek epigram of Antipater, which seems to celebrate it as a new invention, Anthol. Cephalae, 653); wind-mills, not until long after. It was not only the work of slaves, but the hardest work; and often inflicted upon them as a severe punishment: -

[¶9] Molendum in pistrino; vapulandum; habendae compedes.

[¶10] Terent. Phorm. 2:1. 19.

[¶11] Hominem pistrino dignum.

[¶12] Id. Heaut. 3:2. 19.

[¶13] To grind in the mill, to be scourged, to be put in the stocks, were punishments for slaves. Hence a delinquent was said to be a man worthy of the mill. The tread-mill, now in use in England, is a revival of this ancient usage. But in the east grinding was the work of the female slaves. See [Exo 11:5]; [Exo 12:29], (in the version of the Septuagint;) [Mat 24:41]; Homer, Odyss. 20:105-108. And it is the same to this day. "Women alone are employed to grind their corn;" Shaw's Algiers and Tunis, p. 287. "They are the female slaves, that are generally employed in the east at those hand-mills for grinding corn; it is extremely laborious, and esteemed the lowest employment in the house;" Sir J. Chardin, Harmer's Observ. i., p. 153. The words denote that state of captivity to which the Babylonians should be reduced.

[¶14] Make bare the leg, uncover the thigh - This is repeatedly seen in Bengal, where there are few bridges, and both sexes, having neither shoes nor stockings, truss up their loose garments, and walk across, where the waters are not deep. In the deeper water they are obliged to truss very high, to which there seems a reference in the third verse: Thy nakedness shall be uncovered.

### Verse 3

[¶16] I will not meet thee as a man "Neither will I suffer man to intercede with me" - The verb should be pointed, or written, אפגיע aphgia, in Hiphil.

### Verse 4

[¶18] Our Redeemer "Our Avenger" - Here a chorus breaks in upon the midst of the subject, with a change of construction, as well as sentiment, from the longer to the shorter kind of verse, for one distich only; after which the former subject and style are resumed. See note on [Isa 45:16] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶20] I was wroth with my people - God, in the course of his providence, makes use of great conquerors and tyrants as his instruments to execute his judgments in the earth; he employs one wicked nation to scourge another. The inflicter of the punishment may perhaps be as culpable as the sufferer; and may add to his guilt by indulging his cruelty in executing God's justice. When he has fulfilled the work to which the Divine vengeance has ordained him, he will become himself the object of it; see [Isa 10:5-12]. God charges the Babylonians, though employed by himself to chastise his people, with cruelty in regard to them. They exceeded the bounds of justice and humanity in oppressing and destroying them; and though they were really executing the righteous decree of God, yet, as far as it regarded themselves, they were only indulging their own ambition and violence. The Prophet Zechariah sets this matter in the same light: "I was but a little angry and they helped forward the affliction;" [Isa 1:15]. - L.

### Verse 7

[¶22] So that thou didst not "Because thou didst not" - For עד ad, read על al; so two MSS., and one edition. And for, אחריתה acharithah, "the latter end of it, "read אחריתך acharithecha, "thy latter end;" so thirteen MSS., and two editions, and the Vulgate. Both the sixth and seventh verses are wanting in one of my oldest MSS.

### Verse 9

[¶24] These two things shall come to thee in a moment - That is, suddenly. Belshazzar was slain; thus the city became metaphorically a widow, the husband - the governor of it, being slain. In the time in which the king was slain, the Medes and Persians took the city, and slew many of its inhabitants, see [Dan 5:30], [Dan 5:31]. When Darius took the city, he is said to have crucified three thousand of its principal inhabitants.

[¶25] In their perfection "On a sudden" - Instead of בתמם bethummam, "in their perfection," as our translation renders it, the Septuagint and Syriac read, in the copies from which they translated, פתאם pithom, suddenly; parallel to רגע rega, in a moment, in the preceding alternate member of the sentence. The concurrent testimony of the Septuagint and Syriac, favored by the context, may be safely opposed to the authority of the present text.

[¶26] For the multitude "Notwithstanding the multitude" - ברב berob. For this sense of the particle ב beth, see [Num 14:11].

### Verse 11

[¶28] Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth "Thou shalt not know how to deprecate" - שחרה shachrah; so the Chaldee renders it, which is approved by Jarchi on the place; and Michaelis Epim. in Praelect. xix.; see [Psa 78:34].

[¶29] Videtur in fine hujus commatis deese verbum, ut hoc membrum prioribus respondeat. "A word appears to be wanting at the end of this clause to connect it properly with the two preceding." - Secker.

[¶30] In order to set in a proper light this judicious remark, it is necessary to give the reader an exact verbal translation of the whole verse: - "And evil shall come upon thee, thou shalt not know how to deprecate it;

[¶31] And mischief shall fall upon thee, thou shalt not be able to expiate it;

[¶32] And destruction shall come suddenly upon thee, thou shalt not know" -

[¶33] What? how to escape, to avoid it, to be delivered from it? perhaps צאת ממנה tseth mimmennah, "they could not go out from it, "[Jer 11:11]. I am persuaded that a phrase is here lost out of the text. But as the ancient versions retain no traces of it, and a wide field lies open to uncertain conjecture, I have not attempted to fill up the chasm, but have in the translation, as others have done before me, palliated and disguised the defect, which I cannot with any assurance pretend to supply. - L.

### Verse 13

[¶35] From these things "What are the events" - For מאשר measher, read מה אשר mah asher, so the Septuagint, "what is to happen to thee."

### Verse 15

[¶37] To his quarter "To his own business" - לעברו leebro. Expositors give no very good account of this word in this place. In a MS. it was at first לעבדו leabdo, to his servant or work, which is probably the true reading. The sense however is pretty much the same with the common interpretation: "Every one shall turn aside to his own business; none shall deliver thee."

### Introduction

[¶39] The Jews reproved for their obstinate attachment to idols, notwithstanding their experience of the Divine providence over them; and of the Divine prescience that revealed by the prophets the most remarkable events which concerned them, that they should not have the least pretext for ascribing any portion of their success to their idols, [Isa 48:1-8]. The Almighty, after bringing them to the furnace for their perverseness, asserts his glorious sovereignty, and repeats his gracious promises of deliverance and consolation, [Isa 48:9-11]. Prophecy concerning that individual (Cyrus) who shall be an instrument in the hand of God of executing his will on Babylon, and his power on the Chaldeans; and the idols of the people are again challenged to give a like proof of their foreknowledge, [Isa 48:12-16]. Tender and passionate exclamation of Jehovah respecting the hardened condition of the Jewish nation, to which the very pathetic exclamation of the Divine Savior when he wept over Jerusalem may be considered a striking parallel, [Isa 48:17-19]. Notwithstanding the repeated provocations of the house of Israel, Jehovah will again be merciful to them. They are commanded to escape from Babylon; and God's gracious favor towards them is beautifully represented by images borrowed from the exodus from Egypt, [Isa 48:20], [Isa 48:21]. Certain perdition of the finally impenitent, [Isa 48:22]. It will be proper here to remark that many passages in this chapter, and indeed the general strain of these prophecies, have a plain aspect to a restoration of the Church in the latter days upon a scale much greater than the world has yet witnessed, when the very violent fall of Babylon the Great, mentioned in the Revelation, of which the Chaldean capital was an expressive type, shall introduce by a most tremendous political convulsion, ([Rev 16:17-21]), that glorious epoch of the Gospel, which forms so conspicuous a part of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and has been a subject of the prayers of all saints in all ages.

### Verse 1

[¶41] Are come forth out of the waters of Judah "Ye that flow from the fountain of Judah" - ממי mimmey, "from the waters." Perhaps ממעי mimmeey, "from the bowels," So many others have conjectured, or מני יהודה meni yehudah, or מיהודה meyhudah, "from Judah." - Secker. But see Michaelis in Praelect, not. 22. And we have עין יעקב eyn yaakob, "the fountain of Jacob," [Deu 33:28], and ממקור ישראל mimmekor yishrael, "from the fountain of Israel," [Psa 68:27]. Twenty-seven MSS. of Kennicott's, six of De Rossi's and two of my own, with six editions, have מימי meymey, "from the days;" which makes no good sense.

### Verse 6

[¶43] Thou hast heard, see all this "Thou didst hear it beforehand; behold, the whole is accomplished" - For חזה chazeh, see, a MS. has הזה hazzeh, this; thou hast heard the whole of this: the Syriac has וחזית vechazith, "thou hast heard, and thou hast seen, the whole." Perhaps it should be הנה hinneh, behold. In order to express the full sense, I have rendered it somewhat paraphrastically.

## 840. Isaiah · 60 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/840/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/840/#p-N

### Verse 9

[¶1] And for my praise "And for the sake of my praise" - I read ולמען תהלתי ulemaan tehillathi. The word למען lemaan, though not absolutely necessary here, for it may be understood as supplied from the preceding member, yet seems to have been removed from hence to [Isa 48:11]; where it is redundant, and where it is not repeated in the Septuagint, Syriac, and a MS. I have therefore omitted it in the latter place, and added it here.

### Verse 10

[¶3] I have chosen thee "I have tried thee" - For בחרתיך becharticha, "I have chosen thee," a MS. has בחנתיך bechanticha, "I have tried thee." And so perhaps read the Syriac and Chaldee interpreters; they retain the same word בחרתך bechartach; but in those languages it signifies, I have tried thee. ככסף kecheseph, quasi argentum, "as silver." Vulgate.

[¶4] I cannot think בכסף becheseph, With silver, is the true reading. ככסף kecheseph, Like silver, as the Vulgate evidently read it, I suppose to have been the original reading, though no MS. yet found supports this word; the similarity of the two letters, ב beth and כ caph, might have easily led to the mistake in the first instance; and it has been but too faithfully copied ever since. כור cur, which we translate furnace, should be rendered crucible, the vessel in which the silver is melted. The meaning of the verse seems to be this: I have purified you, but not as silver is purified; for when it is purified, no dross of any kind is left behind. Had I done this with you, I should have consumed you altogether; but I have put you in the crucible of affliction, in captivity, that you may acknowledge your sins, and turn unto me.

### Verse 11

[¶6] For how should my name be polluted "For how would my name be blasphemed" - The word שמי shemi, my name, is dropped out of the text; it is supplied by a MS. which has שמי shemi; and by the Septuagint, ὁτι το εμον ονομα βεβηλουται. The Syriac and Vulgate get over the difficulty, by making the verb in the first person; that I may not be blasphemed.

### Verse 12

[¶8] O Jacob "O Jacob, my servant" - After יעקב yaakob, a MS. of Kennicott's, two of De Rossi's, and the two old editions of 1486 and 1488, add the word עבדי abdi, "my servant," which is lost out of the present text; and there is a rasure in its place in another ancient MS. The Jerusalem Talmud has the same word.

[¶9] I also am the last "I am the last" - For אף אני aph ani, "even I," two ancient MSS. and the ancient Versions, read ואני veani, "and I;" more properly.

### Verse 14

[¶11] Which among them hath declared these things "Who among you hath predicted these things" - For בהם bahem, "among them," twenty-one MSS., nine ancient, and two editions, one of them that of the year 1488, fourteen of De Rossi's, and one ancient of my own, have בכם bachem, "among you;" and so the Syriac.

[¶12] The Lord hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon "He, whom Jehovah hath loved, will execute his will on Babylon" - That is, Cyrus; so Symmachus has well rendered it: Ὁν ὁ Κυριος ηγαπησε ποιησει το θελημα αυτου, "He whom the Lord hath loved will perform his will."

[¶13] On the Chaldeans - The preposition is lost; it is supplied in the edition of 1486, which has בכשדים bechasdim, and so the Chaldee and Vulgate.

### Verse 16

[¶15] Come ye near unto me - After the word קרבו kirbu, "draw near," a MS. adds גוים goyim, "O ye nations;" which, as this and the two preceding verses are plainly addressed to the idolatrous nations, reproaching their gods as unable to predict future events, is probably genuine.

[¶16] Hear ye this "And hear ye this" - A MS. adds the conjunction, ושמעו vashimu; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

[¶17] I have not spoken in secret - The Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint adds here, ουδε εν τοπῳ γης σκοτεινω, "nor in a dark place of the earth," as in [Isa 45:19]. That it stands rightly, or at least stood very early, in this place of the Version of the Septuagint, is highly probable, because it is acknowledged by the Arabic Version, and by the Coptic MS. St. Germain de Prez, Paris, translated likewise from the Septuagint. But whether it should be inserted, as of right belonging to the Hebrew text, may be doubted; for a transcriber of the Greek Version might easily add it by memory from the parallel place; and it is not necessary to the sense.

[¶18] From the time that it was "Before the time when it began to exist" - An ancient MS. has היותם heyotham, "they began to exist;" and so another had it at first. From the time that the expedition of Cyrus was planned, there was God managing the whole by the economy of his providence.

[¶19] There am I "I had decreed it" - I take שם sham for a verb, not an adverb.

[¶20] And now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me "And now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me, and his Spirit" - Τις εστιν ὁ εν τῳ Ησαιῳ λεγων, Και νυν Κυριος απεστειλε με και το Πνευμα αυτου; εν ᾡ, αμφιβολου οντος του ῥητου, ποτερον ὁ Πατηρ και το Ἁγιον Πνευμα απεστειλαν του Ιησουν, η ὁ Πατηρ απεστειλε τον τε Χριστον και το Ἁγιον Πνευμα το δευτερον εστιν αληθες. "Who is it that saith in Isaiah, And now the Lord hath sent me and his Spirit? in which, as the expression is ambiguous, is it the Father and the Holy Spirit who have sent Jesus; or the Father, who hath sent both Christ and the Holy Spirit. The latter is the true interpretation." - Origen cont. Cels. lib. 1.

[¶21] I have kept to the order of the words of the original, on purpose that the ambiguity, which Origen remarks in the Version of the Septuagint, and which is the same in the Hebrew might still remain; and the sense whlch he gives to it, be offered to the reader's judgment, which is wholly excluded in our translation.

### Verse 18

[¶23] As a river "Like the river" - That is, the Euphrates.

### Verse 19

[¶25] Like the gravel thereof "Like that of the bowels thereof" - בצאצאי מעי הים והם הדגים betseetsaey meey haiyam vehem haddagim; "As the issue of the bowels of the sea; that is, fishes." - Salom. ben Melec. And so likewise Aben Ezra, Jarchi Kimchi, etc.

[¶26] His name "Thy name" - For שמו shemo, "his name," the Septuagint had in the copy from which they translated שמך shimcha, "thy name."

### Verse 20

[¶28] Tell this "Make it heard" - Twenty-seven MSS. of Kennicott's, (ten ancient), many of De Rossi's, and two ancient, of my own, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic, and one edition, prefix to the verb the conjunction ו vau, והשמיעו vehashmiu.

### Verse 21

[¶30] They thirsted not - through the deserts - Kimchi has a surprising observation upon this place: "If the prophecy," says he, "relates to the return from the Babylonish captivity, as it seems to do, it is to be wondered how it comes to pass, that in the Book of Ezra, in which he gives an account of their return, no mention is made that such miracles were wrought for them; as, for instance, that God clave the rock for them in the desert." It is really much to be wondered, that one of the most learned and judicious of the Jewish expositors of the Old Testament, having advanced so far in a large Comment on Isaiah, should appear to be totally ignorant of the prophet's manner of writing; of the parabolic style, which prevails in the writings of all the prophets, and more particularly in the prophecy of Isaiah, which abounds throughout in parabolical images from the beginning ts the end; from "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth," to "the worm and the fire" in the last verse. And how came he to keep his wonderment to himself so long? Why did he not expect that the historian should have related how, as they passed through the desert, cedars, pines, and olive-trees shot up at once on the side of the way to shade them; and that instead of briers and brambles the acacia and the myrtle sprung up under their feet, according to God's promises, [Isa 41:19] and [Isa 55:13]? These and a multitude of the like parabolical or poetical images, were never intended to be understood literally. All that the prophet designed in this place, and which he has executed in the most elegant manner, was an amplification and illustration of the gracious care and protection of God vouchsafed to his people in their return from Babylon, by an allusion to the miraculous exodus from Egypt. See De S. Poesi, Hebr. Prael. ix.

### Verse 22

[¶32] There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked - See below, note on [Isa 57:21] (note). As the destruction of Babylon was determined, God commands his people to hasten out of it; for, saith the Lord, there is no peace (prosperity) to the wicked; ουκ εστι χαιρειν τοις ασεβεσιν, λεγει Κυριος. - Sept. "There is no rejoicing or prosperity to the wicked saith the Lord." Their is not pese to unrytous men seith the Lord. - Old MS. Bible.

### Introduction

[¶34] In this chapter the Messiah is introduced, declaring the full extent of his commission, which is not only to be Savior to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. The power and efficacy of his word is reprehended by apt images; the ill success of his ministry among the Jews is intimated, and the great success of the Gospel among the Gentiles, [Isa 49:1-12]. But the prophet, then casting his eye on the happy, though distant, period of Israel's restoration, makes a beautiful apostrophe to the whole creation to shout forth the praises of God on the prospect of this remarkable favor, [Isa 49:13]. The tender mercies of God to his people, with the prosperity of the Church in general, and the final overthrow of all its enemies, make the subject of the remaining verses, [Isa 49:14-26].

### Verse 1

[¶36] Listen, O isles, unto me "Hearken unto me, O ye distant lands" - Hitherto the subject of the prophecy has been chiefly confined to the redemption from the captivity of Babylon; with strong intimations of a more important deliverance sometimes thrown in, to the refutation of idolatry, and the demonstration of the infinite power, wisdom, and foreknowledge of God. The character and office of the Messiah was exhibited in general terms at the beginning of chap. 42.; but here he is introduced in person, declaring the full extent of his commission, which is not only to restore the Israelites, and reconcile them to their Lord and Father, from whom they had so often revolted, but to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, to call them to the knowledge and obedience of the true God, and to bring them to be one Church together with the Israelites, and to partake with them of the same common salvation procured for all by the great Redeemer and Reconciler of man to God.

### Verse 2

[¶38] And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword "And he hath made my mouth a sharp sword" - The servant of God, who speaks in the former part of this chapter, must be the Messiah. If any part of this character can in any sense belong to the prophet, yet in some parts it must belong exclusively to Christ; and in all parts to him in a much fuller and more proper sense. Isaiah's mission was to the Jews, not to the distant nations, to whom the speaker in this place addresses himself. "He hath made my mouth a sharp sword;" "to reprove the wicked, and to denounce unto them punishment," says Jarchi, understanding it of Isaiah. But how much better does it suit him who is represented as having "a sharp two-edged sword going out of his mouth," [Rev 1:16]; who is himself the Word of God; which word is "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart;" [Heb 4:12]. This mighty Agent and Instrument of God, "long laid up in store with him, and sealed up among his treasures," is at last revealed and produced by his power, and under his protection, to execute his great and holy purposes. He is compared to a polished shaft stored in his quiver for use in his due time. The polished shaft denotes the same efficacious word which is before represented by the sharp sword. The doctrine of the Gospel pierced the hearts of its hearers, "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." The metaphor of the sword and the arrow, applied to powerful speech, is bold, yet just. It has been employed by the most ingenious heathen writers, if with equal elegance, not with equal force. It is said of Pericles by Aristophanes, (see Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, 12:6): - Οὑτως εκηλει, και μονος των ῥητορων Το κεντρον εγκατελειπε τοις ακροωμενοις.

[¶39] Apud. Diod. lib. xii.

[¶40] His powerful speech

[¶41] Pierced the hearer's soul, and left behind

[¶42] Deep in his bosom its keen point infixed.

[¶43] Pindar is particularly fond of this metaphor, and frequently applies it to his own poetry: - Επεχε νυν σκοπῳ τοξον, Αγε, θυμε. τινα βαλλομεν Εκ μαλθακας αυτε φρε- νος ευκλεας οΐστους Ἱεντες - ;

[¶44] Olymp. 2:160. "Come on! thy brightest shafts prepare,

[¶45] And bend, O Muse, thy sounding bow;

## 841. Isaiah · 61 of 79

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[¶0] Say, through what paths of liquid air

[¶1] Our arrows shall we throw?'

[¶2] West.

[¶3] See also ver. 149 of the same ode, and Olymp. [Heb 9:17], on the former of which places the Scholiast says, τροπικος ὁ λογος· βελη δε τους λογους εορηκε, δια το οξυ και καιριον των εγκωμιων. "He calls his verses shafts, by a metaphor, signifying the acuteness and the apposite application of his panegyric."

[¶4] This person, who is ([Isa 49:3]) called Israel, cannot in any sense be Isaiah. That name, in its original design and full import, can only belong to him who contended powerfully with God in behalf of mankind, and prevailed, [Gen 32:28]. After all that Vitringa, Bp. Lowth, and others have said in proof of this chapter speaking of the Messiah, and of him alone, I have my doubts whether sometimes Isaiah, sometimes Cyrus, and sometimes the Messiah, be not intended; the former shadowing out the latter, of whom, in certain respects, they may be considered the types. The literal sense should be sought out first; this is of the utmost importance both in reading and interpreting the oracles of God.

### Verse 5

[¶6] And now, saith the Lord "And now, thus saith Jehovah" - The word כה coh, before אמר amar, is dropped out of the text: it is supplied by eight MSS. (two ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, two of De Rossi's, and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

[¶7] Though Israel be not gathered "And that Israel unto him might be gathered" - Five MSS. (two ancient) confirm the Keri, or marginal correction of the Masoretes, לו lo, unto him, instead of לא lo, not, in the text; and so read Aquila; and the Chaldee, Septuagint, and Arabic omit the negative. But the Septuagint, MSS. Pachom, and 1. D. 2 express also the Keri לו lo by προς αυτον, to him.

### Verse 6

[¶9] And to restore the preserved of Irsrae "And to restore the branches of Israel" - נצירי netsirey, or נצורי netsurey, as the Masoretes correct it in the marginal reading. This word has been matter of great doubt with interpreters: the Syriac renders it the branch, taking it for the same with נצר netser, [Isa 11:1]. See Michaelis Epim. in Praelect. xix.

### Verse 7

[¶11] The Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One "The Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One" - "Perhaps we should read לקדושו likdosho," Secker: that is, to his Holy One. The preceding word ends with a ל lamed, which might occasion that letter's being lost here. The Talmud of Babylon has וקדושו ukedosho, and his Holy One.

[¶12] To him whom man despiseth "To him whose person is despised" - "Perhaps we should read נבזה nibzeh," Secker; or בזוי bazui, Le Clerc; that is, instead of the active, the passive form, which seems here to be required.

### Verse 9

[¶14] To them that are in darkness "And to those that are in darkness" - Fifteen MSS. (five ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, eleven of De Rossi's, and one ancient of my own, and the two old editions of 1486 and 1488, and three others, add the conjunction ו vau at the beginning of this member. Another MS. had it so at first, and two others have a rasure at the place: and it is expressed by the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.

### Verse 12

[¶16] Behold, these shall come from far - "Babylon was far and east, ממזרח mimmizrach, (non sic Vett.), Sinim, Pelusians, to the south." - Secker.

[¶17] The land of Sinim - Prof. Doederlein thought of Syene, the southern limit of Egypt, but does not abide by it. Michaelis thinks it is right, and promises to give his reasons for so thinking in the second part of his Spicilegium Geographiae Hebraeorum Exterae. See Biblioth. Oriental. Part 11 p. 176. סין sin signifies a bush, and סינים sinim, bushes, woods, etc. Probably this means that the land where several of the lost Jews dwell is a woodland. The ten tribes are gone, no one knows whither. On the slave coast in Africa, some Jewish rites appear among the people, and all the males are circumcised. The whole of this land, as it appears from the coast, may be emphatically called ארץ שינים erets sinim, the land of bushes, as it is all covered with woods as far as the eye can reach. Many of the Indians in North America, which is also a woodland, have a great profusion of rites, apparently in their basis Jewish. Is it not possible that the descendants of the ten lost tribes are among those in America, or among those in Africa, whom European nations think they have a right to enslave? It is of those lost tribes that the twenty-first verse speaks: "And these, where had they been?"

### Verse 13

[¶19] Break forth into singing, O mountains "Ye mountains, burst forth into song" - Three ancient MSS. are without the י yod or the conjunction ו vau before the verb: and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

### Verse 14

[¶21] The Lord (יהוה Yehovah) hath forsaken me, and my Lord (אדני Adonai) hath forgotten me - But a multitude of MSS. and several ancient editions read יהוה Yehovah in both places.

### Verse 16

[¶23] Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands "Behold, on the palms of my hands have I delineated thee" - This is certainly an allusion to some practice, common among the Jews at that time, of making marks on their hands or arms by punctures on the skin, with some sort of sign or representation of the city or temple, to show their affection and zeal for it. They had a method of making such punctures indelible by fire, or by staining. See note on [Isa 44:6] (note). It is well known, that the pilgrims at the holy sepulcher get themselves marked in this manner with what are called the ensigns of Jerusalem. See Maundrell, p. 75, where he tells us how it is performed: and this art is practiced by travelling Jews all over the world at this day.

### Verse 17

[¶25] Thy children shall make haste "They that destroyed thee shall soon become thy builders" - Auctor Vulgatae pro בניך banayich, videtur legisse בוניך bonayich, unde vertit, structores tui; cui et Septuaginta fere consentiunt, qui verterunt ῳκοδομηθης, aedificata es, prout in Plantiniana editione habetur; in Vaticana sive Romana legitur, οικοδομηθησῃ, aedificaberis. Hisce etiam Targum Jonathanis aliquatenus consentit, ubi, et aedificabunt. Confer infra Esai. [Isa 54:13], ad quem locum rabbini quoque notarunt en tractatu Talmudico Berachot, c. ix., quod non legendum sit בניך banayich, id est. filii tui; sed בניך bonayich, aedificatores tui. Confer not. ad librum Prec. Jud. part ii., p. 226, ut et D Wagenseil Sot. p. 253, n. 9. "The author of the Vulgate appears to have read בוניך bonayich for בניך banayich, as he translates it by structures tui, 'thy builders.' The Septuagint is almost the same with the Vulgate, having ῳκοδομηθης, art built, as in the Plantin edition: but the Vatican or Roman copy reads οικοδομηθησῃ, those shalt be built. To these readings the Targum of Jonathan has some sort of correspondence, translating et aedificabunt, 'and they shall build.' See [Isa 54:13]; on which place the rabbins also remark, in the Talmudic tract Berachoth, c. 9, that we should not read בניך banayich, thy sons, but בניך bonayich, thy builders. See the note in Prae. Jud. part ii., p. 226, and also D. Wagenseil, Sot. p. 253, n. 9. "See also Breithaupt. not. ad Jarchi in loc.; and the note on this place in De Sac. Poes. Hebr. Praelect. 31. Instead of בוניך or בניך bonayich, thy builders, several MSS. read בניך baneycha, thy sons. So also the Syriac: see the above note.

[¶26] Shall go forth of thee "Shall become thine offspring" - ממך יצאו mimmech yetseu, shall proceed, spring, issue, from thee, as thy children. The phrase is frequently used in this sense: see [Isa 11:1]; [Mic 5:2]; [Nah 1:11]. The accession of the Gentiles to the Church of God is considered as an addition made to the number of the family and children of Sion: see [Isa 49:21], [Isa 49:22], and [Isa 60:4]. The common rendering, "shall go forth of thee, or depart from thee," is very flat, after their zeal had been expressed by "shall become thy builders:" and as the opposition is kept up in one part of the sentence, one has reason to expect it in the other, which should be parallel to it.

### Verse 18

[¶28] Bind them on thee, as a bride doeth "Bind them about thee, as a bride her jewels" - The end of the sentence is manifestly imperfect. Does a bride bind her children, or her new subjects, about her? Sion clothes herself with her children, as a bride clothes herself, - with what? some other thing certainly. The Septuagint help us out in this difficulty, and supply the lost word: ὡς κοσμον νυμφη· as a bride her ornaments. ככליה כלה kichleyha callah, or ככלה כליה kecallah keleyha. The great similitude of the two words has occasioned the omission of one of them. See [Isa 61:10].

### Verse 21

[¶30] These, where had they been "These then, where were they?" - The conjunction is added before אלה elleh, that is, ואלה veelleh. in thirty-two MSS. (nine ancient) of Kennicott's, and fifty-four of De Rossi's, and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulgate. See the note on [Isa 49:12] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶32] Thus saith the Lord God - אדני יהוה Adonai Yehovah. Adonai is wanting in one MS., in the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint, and in the Arabic.

### Verse 23

[¶34] With their face toward the earth "With their faces to the earth" - It is well known that expressions of submission, homage, and reverence always have been and are still carried to a great degree of extravagance in the eastern countries. When Joseph's brethren were introduced to him, "they bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth," [Gen 42:6]. The kings of Persia never admitted any one to their presence without exacting this act of adoration; for that was the proper term for it. Necesse est, says the Persian courtier to Conon, si in conspectum veneris, venerari te regem; quod προσκυνειν illi vocant. "It is necessary, if thou shouldest come in sight, to venerate thee as king; which they call worshipping." - Nepos in Conone. Alexander, intoxicated with success, affected this piece of oriental pride: Itaque more Persarum Macedonas venerabundos ipsum salutare, prosternentes humi corpora. "The Macedonians after the manner of the Persians, saluted their monarch with the ceremony of prostration." - Curtius, lib. 8. The insolence of eastern monarchs to conquered princes, and the submission of the latter, is astonishing. Mr. Warmer, Observ. 2:43, gives the following instance of it from D'Herbelot: "This prince threw himself one day on the ground, and kissed the prints that his victorious enemy's horse had made there; reciting some verses in Persian, which he had composed, to this effect: - "The mark that the foot of your horse has left upon the dust, serves me now for a crown." "The ring which I wear as the badge of my slavery, is become my richest ornament." "While I shall have the happiness to kiss the dust of your feet, I shall think that fortune favors me with its tenderest caresses, and its sweetest kisses."

[¶35] These expressions therefore of the prophet are only general poetical images, taken from the manners of the country, to denote great respect and reverence: and such splendid poetical images, which frequently occur in the prophetical writings, were intended only as general amplifications of the subject, not as predictions to be understood and fulfilled precisely according to the letter. For the different kinds of adoration in the east, see the note on [Isa 44:17].

### Verse 24

[¶37] Shall the prey be taken from the mighty "Shall the prey seized by the terrible be rescued" - For צדיק tsaddik, read עריץ arits. A palpable mistake, like that in [Isa 42:19]. The correction is self-evident from the very terms of the sentence; from the necessity of the strict correspondence in the expressions between the question and the answer made to it, - and it is apparent to the blindest and most prejudiced eye. However, if authority is also necessary, there is that of the Syriac and Vulgate for it; who plainly read עריץ arits, in [Isa 49:24] as well as in [Isa 49:25], rendering it in the former place by the same word as in the latter. - L.

[¶38] These two last verses contain a glorious promise of deliverance to the persecuted Church of Christ from the terrible one - Satan, and all his representatives and vicegerents, persecuting antichristian rulers. They shall at last cease from destroying the Church of God, and destroy one another.

### Introduction

[¶40] In this chapter God vindicates his dealings unth his people, whose alienation is owing to themselves, [Isa 50:1]. And, by allusion to the temporal deliverances connected with the drying up of the Red Sea and the Euphrates, asserts his power to save, [Isa 50:2], [Isa 50:3]; namely, by the obedience and sufferings of the Messiah, [Isa 50:4-6]; who was at length to prove victorious over all his enemies, [Isa 50:7-9]. The two last verses exhort to faith and trust in God in the most disconsolate circumstances; with a denunciation of vengeance on those who should trust to their own devices, [Isa 50:10], [Isa 50:11].

### Verse 1

[¶42] Thus saith the Lord - This chapter has been understood of the prophet himself; but it certainly speaks more clearly about Jesus of Nazareth than of Isaiah, the son of Amos.

[¶43] Where is the bill "Where is this bill" - Husbands, through moroseness or levity of temper, often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions, as they were permitted to do by the law of Moses, [Deu 24:1]. And fathers, being oppressed with debt, often sold their children, which they might do for a time, till the year of release, [Exo 21:7]. That this was frequently practiced, appears from many passages of Scripture, and that the persons and the liberty of the children were answerable for the debts of the father. The widow, [2Kgs 4:1], complains "that the creditor is come to take unto him her two sons to be bondmen." And in the parable, [Mat 18:25] : "The lord, forasmuch as his servant had not to pay, commands him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made." Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as follows: En Orient on paye ses dettes avec ses esclaves, car ils sont des principaux meubles; et en plusieurs lieux on les paye aussi de ses enfans. "In the east they pay their debts by giving up their slaves, for these are their chief property of a disposable kind; and in many places they give their children to their creditors." But this, saith God, cannot be my case, I am not governed by any such motives, neither am I urged by any such necessity. Your captivity therefore and your afflictions are to be imputed to yourselves, and to your own folly and wickedness.

## 842. Isaiah · 62 of 79

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### Verse 2

[¶1] Their fish stinketh "Their fish is dried up" - For תבאש tibaosh, stinketh, read תיבש tibash, is dried up; so it stands in the Bodl. MS., and it is confirmed by the Septuagint, ξηρανθησονται, they shall be dried up.

### Verse 5

[¶3] Neither turned away back "Neither did I withdraw myself backward" - Eleven MSS. and the oldest edition prefix the conjunction ו vau; and so also the Septuagint and Syriac.

### Verse 6

[¶5] And my cheeks to them that plunked off the hair - The greatest indignity that could possibly be offered. See the note on [Isa 7:20] (note).

[¶6] I hid not my face from shame and spitting - Another instance of the utmost contempt and detestation. It was ordered by the law of Moses as a severe punishment, carrying with it a lasting disgrace; [Deu 25:9]. Among the Medes it was highly offensive to spit in any one's presence, Herod. 1:99; and so likewise among the Persians, Xenophon, Cyrop. Lib. i., p. 18. "They abhor me; they flee far from me;

[¶7] They forbear not to spit in my face." [Job 30:10]. "And Jehovah said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?" [Num 22:14]. On which place Sir John Chardin remarks, that "spitting before any one, or spitting upon the ground in speaking of any one's actions, is through the east an expression of extreme detestation." - Harmer's Observ. 2:509. See also, of the same notions of the Arabs in this respect, Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 26. It so evidently appears that in those countries spitting has ever been an expression of the utmost detestation, that the learned doubt whether in the passages of Scripture above quoted any thing more is meant than spitting, - not in the face, which perhaps the words do not necessarily imply, - but only in the presence of the person affronted. But in this place it certainly means spitting in the face; so it is understood in St. Luke, where our Lord plainly refers to this prophecy: "All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished; for he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, εμπτυσθησεται, "[Luk 18:31], [Luk 18:32], which was in fact fulfilled; και ηρξεαντο τινες εμπτυειν αυτῳ, "and some began to spit on him," [Mar 14:65], [Mar 15:19]. If spitting in a person's presence was such an indignity, how much more spitting in his face?

### Verse 7

[¶9] Therefore have I set my face like a flint - The Prophet Ezekiel, [Eze 2:8], [Eze 2:9], has expressed this with great force in his bold and vehement manner: "Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces,

[¶10] And thy forehead strong against their foreheads:

[¶11] As an adamant, harder than a rock, have I made thy forehead;

[¶12] Fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks,

[¶13] Though they be a rebellious house."

### Verse 8

[¶15] Who will contend with me - The Bodleian MS. and another add the word הוא hu; מי הוא יריב mi hu yarib, as in the like phrase in the next verse; and in the very same phrase [Job 13:19], and so likewise in many other places, [Job 17:3]; [Job 41:1]. Sometimes on the like occasions it is מי זה mi zeh, and מי הוא זה mi hu zeh, "Who is this one?" The word has probably been lost out of the present text; and the reading of the MSS. above mentioned seems to be genuine.

### Verse 10

[¶17] Who is among you that feareth the Lord - I believe this passage has been generally, if not dangerously, misunderstood. It has been quoted, and preached upon, to prove that "a man might conscientiously fear God, and be obedient to the words of the law and the prophets; obey the voice of his servant-of Jesus Christ himself, that is, be sincerely and regularly obedient to the moral law and the commands of our blessed Lord, and yet walk in darkness and have no light, no sense of God's approbation, and no evidence of the safety of his state. "This is utterly impossible; for Jesus hath said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." If there be some religious persons who, under the influence of morbid melancholy, are continually writing bitter things against themselves, the word of God should not be bent down to their state. There are other modes of spiritual and Scriptural comfort. But does not the text speak of such a case? And are not the words precise in reference to it? I think not: and Bishop Lowth's translation has set the whole in the clearest light, though he does not appear to have been apprehensive that the bad use I mention had been made of the text as it stands in our common Version. The text contains two questions, to each of which a particular answer is given: -

[¶18] Q. 1. "Who is there among you that feareth Jehovah?

[¶19] Ans. Let him hearken unto the voice of his servant.

[¶20] Q. 2. Who that walketh in darkness and hath no light?

[¶21] Ans. Let him trust in the name of Jehovah;

[¶22] And lean himself (prop himself) upon his God."

[¶23] Now, a man awakened to a sense of his sin and misery, may have a dread of Jehovah, and tremble at his word, and what should such a person do? Why he should hear what God's servant saith: "Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden; and I will give you rest." There may be a sincere penitent, walking in darkness, having no light of salvation; for this is the case of all when they first begin to turn to God. What should such do? They should trust, believe on, the Lord Jesus, who died for them, and lean upon his all-sufficient merits for the light of salvation which God has promised. Thus acting, they will soon have a sure trust and confidence that God for Christ's sake has forgiven them their sin, and thus they shall have the light of life.

[¶24] That obeyeth the voice of his servant "Let him hearken unto the voice of his servant" - For שמע shomea, pointed as the participle, the Septuagint and Syriac read ישמע yishma, future or imperative. This gives a much more elegant turn and distribution to the sentence.

### Verse 11

[¶26] Ye that kindle a fire - The fire of their own kindling, by the light of which they walk with security and satisfaction, is an image designed to express, in general, human devices and mere worldly policy, exclusive of faith, and trust in God; which, though they flatter themselves for a while with pleasing expectations and some appearance of success, shall in the end turn to the confusion of the authors. Or more particularly, as Vitringa explains it, it may mean the designs of the turbulent and factious Jews in the times succeeding those of Christ, who, in pursuit of their own desperate schemes, stirred up the war against the Romans, and kindled a fire which consumed their city and nation.

[¶27] That compass yourselves about with sparks "Who heap the fuel round about" - "מגוזלי megozeley, accendentes, Syr.; forte leperunt pro מאזרי meazzerey מאירי meirey; nam sequitur אור ur." - Secker. Lud. Capellus, in his criticism on this place, thinks it should be מאזרי meazzerey, from the Septuagint, κατισχυοντες.

[¶28] There are others who are widely different from those already described. Without faith, repentance, or a holy life, they are bold in their professed confidence in God - presumptuous in their trust in the mercy of God; and, while destitute of all preparation for and right to the kingdom of heaven, would think it criminal to doubt their final salvation! Living in this way, what can they have at the hand of God but an endless bed of sorrow! Ye shall lie down in sorrow.

[¶29] But there is a general sense, and accordant to the design of the prophecy, in which these words may be understood and paraphrased: Behold, all ye that kindle a fire - provoke war and contention; compass yourselves about with sparks - stirring up seditions and rebellions: walk in the light of your fire - go on in your lust of power and restless ambition. Ye shall lie down in sorrow - it will turn to your own perdition. See the Targum. This seems to refer to the restless spirit of the Jews, always stirring up confusion and strife; rebelling against and provoking the Romans, till at last their city was taken, their temple burnt to the ground, and upwards of a million of themselves destroyed, and the rest led into captivity!

### Introduction

[¶31] The prophet exhorts the children of Abraham to trust in the Lord; and briefly, but beautifully, describes the great blessedness which should be the consequence, [Isa 51:1-3]. Then, turning to the Gentiles, encourages them to look for a portion in the same salvation, [Isa 51:4], [Isa 51:5]; the everlasting duration of which is majestically described, [Isa 51:6]. And as it is everlasting, so is it sure to the righteous, notwithstanding all the machinations of their enemies, [Isa 51:7], [Isa 51:8]. The faithful, then, with exultation and joy, lift their voices, reminding God of his wondrous works of old, which encourage them to look now for the like glorious accomplishment of these promises, [Isa 51:9-11]. In answer to this the Divinity is introduced comforting them under their trials, and telling them that the deliverer was already on his way to save and to establish them, [Isa 51:12-16]. On this the prophet turns to Jerusalem to comfort and congratulate her on so joyful a prospect. She is represented, by a bold image, as a person lying in the streets, under the intoxicating effects of the cup of the Divine wrath, without a single person from among her own people appointed to give her consolation, and trodden under the feet of her enemies; but, in the time allotted by the Divine providence, the cup of trembling shall be taken out of her hand, and put into that of her oppressors; and she shall drink it no more again for ever, [Isa 51:17-22].

### Verse 1

[¶33] Ye that follow after righteousness - The people who, feeling the want of salvation, seek the Lord in order to be justified.

[¶34] The rock - Abraham.

[¶35] The hole of the pit - Sarah; as explained in [Isa 51:2].

### Verse 2

[¶37] I called him alone - As I have made out of one a great nation; so, although ye are brought low and minished, yet I can restore you to happiness, and greatly multiply your number.

### Verse 4

[¶39] By people - O my nation "O ye peoples - O ye nations" - For עמי ammi, my people, the Bodleian MS. and another read עמים ammim, ye peoples; and for לאומי leumi, my nation, the Bodleian MS. and eight others, (two of them ancient), and four of De Rossi's, read לאמים leummim, ye nations; and so the Syriac in both words. The difference is very material; for in this case the address is made not to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, as in all reason it ought to be; for this and the two following verses express the call of the Gentiles, the islands, or the distant lands on the coasts of the Mediterranean and other seas. It is also to be observed that God in no other place calls his people לאמי leummi, my nation. It has been before remarked that transcribers frequently omitted the final מ mem of nouns plural, and supplied it, for brevity's sake, and sometimes for want of room at the end of a line, by a small stroke thus /עמי; which mark, being effaced or overlooked, has been the occasion of many mistakes of this kind.

[¶40] A law shall proceed from me - The new law, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Kimchi says, "After the war with Gog and Magog the King Messiah will teach the people to walk in the ways of the Lord."

### Verse 5

[¶42] My righteousness is near - The word צדק tsedek, righteousness, is used in such a great latitude of signification, for justice, truth, faithfulness, goodness, mercy, deliverance, salvation, etc., that it is not easy sometimes to give the precise meaning of it without much circumlocution; it means here the faithful completion of God's promises to deliver his people.

### Verse 6

[¶44] My salvation shall be for ever - Aben Ezra says, From this verse divines have learnt the immortality of the soul. Men shall perish as the earth does, because they are formed from it; but they who are filled with the salvation of God shall remain for ever. See Kimchi.

## 843. Isaiah · 63 of 79

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### Verse 11

[¶1] They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away - Nineteen MSS. and the two oldest editions have ישגו yasigu; and forty-six MSS. of Kennicott's and ten of De Rossi's, and the same two editions, and agreeably to them the Chaldee and Syriac, have ונסו venasu; and so both words are expressed, [Isa 35:10], of which place this is a repetition. And from comparing both together it appears that the ו vau in this place is become by mistake in the present text final, nun of the preceding word.

### Verse 13

[¶3] Of the oppressor, as if he, etc. - "The כ caph in כאשר keasher seems clearly to have changed its situation from the end of the preceding word to the beginning of this; or rather, to have been omitted by mistake there, because it was here. That it was there the Septuagint show by rendering המציקך hammetsikech θλιβοντος σε, of him, that oppressed thee. And so they render this word in both its places in this verse. The Vulgate also has the pronoun in the first instance; furoris ejus qui te tribulabat." Dr. Jubb. The correction seems well founded; I have not conformed the translation to it, because it makes little difference in the sense.

### Verse 14

[¶5] The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed "He marcheth on with speed, who cometh to set free the captive" - Cyrus, if understood of the temporal redemption from the captivity of Babylon; in the spiritual sense, the Messiah, who comes to open the prison to them that are bound.

### Verse 16

[¶7] That I may plant the heavens "To stretch out the heavens" - In the present text it is לנתע lintoa, "to plant the heavens:" the phrase is certainly very obscure, and in all probability is a mistake for לנטות lintoth. This latter is the word used in [Isa 51:13] just before, in the very same sentence; and this phrase occurs very frequently in Isaiah, [Isa 40:22], [Isa 42:5], [Isa 44:24], [Isa 45:12]; the former in no other place. It is also very remarkable, that in the Samaritan text, [Num 24:6], these two words are twice changed by mistake, one for the other, in the same verse.

### Verse 17

[¶9] The cup of trembling - כוס התרעלה cos hattarelah, "the cup of mortal poison," veneni mortiferi. - Montan. This may also allude to the ancient custom of taking off criminals by a cup of poison. Socrates is well known to have been sentenced by the Areopagus to drink a cup of the juice of hemlock, which occasioned his death. See the note on [Heb 2:9], and see also Bishop Lowth's note on [Isa 51:21].

### Verse 19

[¶11] These two things - desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword - That is, desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword, taking the terms alternately: of which form of construction see other examples. De S. Poesi, Hebrews Prael. xix., and Prelim. Dissert. p. 30. The Chaldee paraphrast, not rightly understanding this, has had recourse to the following expedient: "Two afflictions are come upon thee, and when four shall come upon thee, depredation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword" Five MSS. הרעב haraab, without the conjunction ו vau; and so the Septuagint and Syriac.

[¶12] By whom shall I comfort thee "Who shall comfort thee" - A MS., the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate have it in the third person, ינחמך yenachamech, which is evidently right.

### Verse 20

[¶14] As a wild bull in a net: they are full, etc. "Like the oryx taken in the toils; drenched to the full" - "Perhaps מכמרה מלאים michmerah meleim." Secker. The demonstrative ה he, prefixed to מלאים meleim, full, seems improper in this place.

### Verse 21

[¶16] Drunken, but not with wine - Aeschylus has the same expression: - Αοινοις εμμανεις θυμωμασι·

[¶17] Eumen. 863.

[¶18] Intoxicated with passion, not with wine.

[¶19] Schultens thinks that this circumlocution, as he calls it, gradum adfert incomparabiliter majorem; and that it means, not simply without wine, but much more than with wine. Gram. Hebrews p. 182. See his note on Job 30:38.

[¶20] The bold image of the cup of God's wrath, often employed by the sacred writers, (see note on [Isa 1:22]), is nowhere handled with greater force and sublimity than in this passage of Isaiah, [Isa 51:17-23]. Jerusalem is represented in person as staggering under the effects of it, destitute of that assistance which she might expect from her children; not one of them being able to support or to lead her. They, abject and amazed, lie at the head of every street, overwhelmed with the greatness of their distress; like the oryx entangled in a net, in vain struggling to rend it, and extricate himself. This is poetry of the first order, sublimity of the highest character.

[¶21] Plato had an idea something like this: "Suppose," says he, "God had given to men a medicating potion inducing fear, so that the more any one should drink of it, so much the more miserable he should find himself at every draught, and become fearful of every thing both present and future; and at last, though the most courageous of men, should be totally possessed by fear: and afterwards, having slept off the effects of it, should become himself again." De Leg. i., near the end. He pursues at large this hypothesis, applying it to his own purpose, which has no relation to the present subject. Homer places two vessels at the disposal of Jupiter, one of good, the other of evil. He gives to some a potion mixed of both; to others from the evil vessel only: these are completely miserable. Iliad 24:527-533. Δοιοι γαρ τε πιθοι κατακειαται εν Διος ουδει Δωρων, οἱα διδωσι, κακων, ἑτερος δε εαων, Ὡ μεν καμμιξας δῳη Ζευς τερπικεραυνος, Αλλοτε μεν τε κακῳ ὁγε κυρεται, αλλοτε δ' εσθλῳ· Ὡ δε κε των λυγρων δῳη, λωβητον εθηκε. Και ἑ κακη βουβρωστις επι χθονα διαν ελαυνει· Φοιτᾳ δ' ουτε θεοισι τετιμενος, ουτι βροτοισιν. "Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood,

[¶22] The source of evil one, and one of good;

[¶23] From thence the cup of mortal man he fills,

[¶24] Blessings to these, to those distributes ills;

[¶25] To most he mingles both: the wretch decreed

[¶26] To taste the bad unmixed, is cursed indeed:

[¶27] Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven,

[¶28] He wanders outcast both of earth and heaven."

[¶29] Pope

### Verse 23

[¶31] Them that afflict thee "Them who oppress thee" - The Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate appear to have read מוניך monayich, as in [Isa 40:26]." - Secker.

[¶32] Which have said to thy soul, Bow down "Who say to thee, Bow down thy body" - A very strong and most expressive description of the insolent pride of eastern conquerors; which, though it may seem greatly exaggerated, yet hardly exceeds the strict truth. An example has already been given of it in the note to [Isa 49:23]. I will here add one or two more. "Joshua called for all the men of Israel; and said unto the captains of the men of war that went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings," [Jos 10:24]. "Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: As I have done, so hath God requited me," [Jdg 1:7]. The Emperor Valerianus, being through treachery taken prisoner by Sapor king of Persia, was treated by him as the basest and most abject slave: for the Persian monarch commanded the unhappy Roman to bow himself down, and offer him his back, on which he set his foot, in order to mount his chariot or horse whenever he had occasion. - Lactantius, De Mort. Persec. cap. 5. Aurel. Victor. Epitome, cap. xxxii. - L.

### Introduction

[¶34] Jerusalem, in manifest allusion to the strong figure employed in the close of the preceding chapter, is represented as fallen asleep in the dust, and in that helpless state bound by her enemies. The prophet, with all the ardor natural to one who had such joyful news to communicate, bids her awake, arise, put on her best attire, (holiness to the Lord), and ascend her lofty seat; and then he delivers the message he had in charge, a very consolatory part of which was, that "no more should enter into her the uncircumcised and the polluted," [Isa 52:1-6]. Awaking from her stupefaction, Jerusalem sees the messenger of such joyful tidings on the eminence from which he spied the coming deliverance. She expresses, in beautiful terms, her joy at the news, repeating with peculiar elegance the words of the crier, [Isa 52:7]. The rapturous intelligence, that Jehovah was returning to resume his residence on his holy mountain, immediately spreads to others on the watch, who all join in the glad acclamation, [Isa 52:8]; and, in the ardor of their joy, they call to the very ruins of Jerusalem to sing along with them, because Jehovah maketh bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth are about to see the salvation of Israel's God, [Isa 52:9], [Isa 52:10]. To complete the deliverance, they are commanded to march in triumph out of Babylon, earnestly exhorted to have nothing to do with any of her abominations, and assured that Jehovah will guide them in all their way, [Isa 52:11], [Isa 52:12]. The prophet then passes to the procuring cause of this great blessedness to the house of Israel in particular, and to the world in general, viz., the humiliation, sufferings, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ; a very celebrated and clear prophet which takes up the remainder of this and the whole of the following chapter.

### Verse 1

[¶36] There shall no more come into thee - For יבא yabo, "shall come," לבא lebo, "to come," is the reading of five of Kennicott's and two of De Rossi's MSS. This is the better reading, כי לא יוסיף לבא ki lo yosiph lebo, "There shall not add to come."

[¶37] The uncircumcised and the unclean - Christians have turned many passages of the prophets against the Jews; and it is not to be wondered at, that in support of their obstinate and hopeless cause, they should press a prophecy into their service, and make it speak against the Christians. This Kimchi does in this place; for he says, by the uncircumcised, the Christians are meant; and by the unclean the Turks. The Christians are uncircumcised and the Turks, though circumcised, and using many ablutions, are unclean in their works.

### Verse 2

[¶39] Sit down, O Jerusalem "Ascend thy lofty seat, O Jerusalem" - The literal rendering here is, according to our English translation, "arise, sit;" on which a very learned person remarks: "So the old versions. But sitting is an expression of mourning in Scripture and the ancients; and doth not well agree with the rising just before." It does not indeed agree, according to our ideas; but, considered in an oriental light, it is perfectly consistent. The common manner of sitting in the eastern countries is upon the ground or the floor with the legs crossed. The people of better condition have the floors of their chambers or divans covered with carpets for this purpose; and round the chamber broad couches, raised a little above the floor, spread with mattresses handsomely covered, which are called sofas. When sitting is spoken of as a posture of more than ordinary state, it is quite of a different kind; and means sitting on high, on a chair of state or throne called the musnud; for which a footstool was necessary, both in order that the person might raise himself up to it, and for supporting the legs when he was placed in it. "Chairs," says Sir John Chardin, "are never used in Persia, but at the coronation of their kings. The king is seated in a chair of gold set with jewels, three feet high. The chairs which are used by the people in the east are always so high as to make a footstool necessary. And this proves the propriety of the style of Scripture, which always joins the footstool to the throne." ([Isa 66:1]; [Psa 105:1].) Voyages, tom. 9 p. 85, 12mo. Besides the six steps to Solomon's throne, there was a footstool of gold fastened to the seat, [2Chr 9:18], which would otherwise have been too high for the king to reach, or to sit on conveniently.

[¶40] When Thetis comes to wait on Vulcan to request armor for her son, she is received with great respect, and seated on a silver-studded throne, a chair of ceremony, with a footstool: - Την μεν επειτα καθεισεν επι θρονου αργυροηλου, Καλου, δαιδαλεου· ὑπο δε θρηνυς ποσιν ηεν.

[¶41] Iliad 18:389. "High on a throne, with stars of silver graced,

[¶42] And various artifice, the queen she placed;

[¶43] A footstool at her feet."

[¶44] Pope. Ὁ γαρ θρονος αυτος μονον ελευθεριος εστι καθεδρα συν ὑποποδιῳ.

[¶45] Athenaeus, 5:4. "A throne is n othing more than a handsome sort of chair with a footstool." - L.

## 844. Isaiah · 64 of 79

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Thus saith the Lord God - אדני יהוה Adonai Jehovah; but Adonai is wanting in twelve of Kennicott's, five of De Rossi's, and two of my own MSS.; and by the Septuagint and Arabic. Some MSS. have יהוה צבאות Jehovah tsebaoth, "Lord of hosts;" and others have יהוה אלהים Yehovah Elohim, "Lord God."

### Verse 5

[¶3] They that rule over them "They that are lords over them" - For משלו moshelo, singular, in the text, more than a hundred and twenty MSS. (De Rossi says, codices innumeri, "numberless copies") have משליו moshelaiv plural, according to the Masoretical correction in the margin; which shows that the Masoretes often superstitiously retained apparent mistakes in the text, even when they had sufficient evidence to authorize the introduction of the true reading.

[¶4] Make them to howl "Make their boast of it" - For יהילילו yeheililu, "make them to howl," five MSS., (two ancient), have יהללו yehalelu, "make their boast;" which is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrast, who renders it משתבחין mishtabbechin. Ulaloo is not only the cry itself, but also the name of the funeral song of the Irish. The Arabs have a cry very much resembling this.

### Verse 6

[¶6] Therefore my people shall know - The word לכן lachen, occurring the second time in this verse, seems to be repeated by mistake. It has no force nor emphasis as a repetition; it only embarrasses the construction and the sense. It was not in the copies from which the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate were translated; it was not in the copy of the Septuagint from which the Arabic was translated; but in the Aldine and Complutensian editions δια τουτο is repeated; probably so corrected, in order to make it conformable with the Hebrew text.

[¶7] I am he that Moth speak "I am he, Jehovah, that promised" - For הוא hu, the Bodleian MS. and another have יהוה, Jehovah; "For I am Jehovah that promised;" and another ancient MS. adds יהוה Jehovah after הוא hu. The addition of Jehovah seems to be right in consequence of what was said in the preceding line, "My people shall know my name."

### Verse 7

[¶9] How beautiful - The watchmen discover afar off, on the mountains, the messenger bringing the expected and much-wished-for news of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. They immediately spread the joyful tidings, [Isa 52:8], and with a loud voice proclaim that Jehovah is returning to Zion, to resume his residence on his holy mountain, which for some time he seemed to have deserted. This is the literal sense of the place. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the joyful messenger," is an expression highly poetical: for, how welcome is his arrival! how agreeable are the tidings which he brings!

[¶10] Nahum, [Nah 1:15], who is generally supposed to have lived after Isaiah, has manifestly taken from him this very pleasing image; but the imitation does not equal the beauty of the original: - "Behold upon the mountain the feet of the joyful messenger,

[¶11] Of him that announceth peace!

[¶12] Celebrate, O Judah, thy festivals; perform thy vows:

[¶13] For no more shall pass through thee the wicked one;

[¶14] He is utterly cut off."

[¶15] But it must at the same time be observed that Isaiah's subject is infinitely more interesting and more sublime than that of Nahum; the latter denounces the destruction of the capital of the Assyrian empire, the most formidable enemy of Judah; the ideas of the former are in their full extent evangelical; and accordingly St. Paul has, with the utmost propriety, applied this passage to the preaching of the Gospel, [Rom 10:15]. The joyful tidings here to be proclaimed, "Thy God, O Zion, reigneth, "are the same that John the Baptist, the messenger of Christ, and Christ himself, published: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."

[¶16] From the use made of this by our Lord and the apostles, we may rest assured that the preachers of the Gospel are particularly intended. Mountains are put for the whole land of Judea, where the Gospel was first preached. There seems to be an allusion to a battle fought, and the messengers coming to announce the victory, which was so decisive that a peace was the consequence, and the king's throne established in the land.

[¶17] There appear to have been two sorts of messengers among the Jews: one sort always employed to bring evil tidings; the other to bring good. The names also and persons of these different messengers appear to have been well known; so that at a distance they could tell, from seeing the messenger, what sort of tidings he was bringing. See a case in point, [2Sam 18:19-27] (note). Ahimaaz and Cushi running to bring tidings of the defeat of Absalom and his rebel army. Ahimaaz is a Good man and bringeth Good tidings.

### Verse 8

[¶19] Thy watchmen lift up the voice "All thy watchmen lift up their voice" - There is a difficulty in the construction of this place which, I think, none of the ancient versions or modern interpreters have cleared up satisfactorily. Rendered word for word it stands thus: "The voice of thy watchmen: they lift up their voice." The sense of the first member, considered as elliptical, is variously supplied by various expositors; by none, as it seems to me, in any way that is easy and natural. I am persuaded there is a mistake in the present text, and that the true reading is כל צפיך col tsophayich, all thy watchmen, instead of קול צפיך kol tsophayich, the voice of thy watchmen. The mistake was easy from the similitude in sound of the two letters כ caph and ק koph. And in one MS. the ק koph is upon a rasure. This correction perfectly rectifies the sense and the construction. - L.

[¶20] They shall see eye to eye - May not this be applied to the prophets and apostles; the one predicting, and the other discovering in the prediction the truth of the prophecy. The meaning of both Testaments is best understood by bringing them face to face.

[¶21] When the Lord shall bring again Zion "When Jehovah returneth to Zion" - So the Chaldee: כד יתיב שכנתיה לציון cad yethib shechinteih letsiyon, "when he shall place the shechinah in Zion." God is considered as having deserted his people during the captivity; and at the restoration, as returning himself with them to Zion, his former habitation. See [Psa 60:1]; [Isa 40:9], and note.

### Verse 9

[¶23] He hath redeemed Jerusalem "He hath redeemed Israel" - For the word ירושלם yerushalaim, which occurs the second time in this verse, MS. Bodleian and another read ישראל yisrael. It is upon a rasure in a third; and left unpointed at first, as suspected, in a fourth. It was an easy mistake, by the transcriber casting his eye on the line above: and the propriety of the correction, both in regard to sense and elegance, is evident.

### Verse 11

[¶25] Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence - The Prophet Jeremiah seems to have had his eye on this passage of Isaiah, and to have applied it to a subject directly opposite. It is here addressed by the prophet in a way of encouragement and exhortation to the Jews coming out of Babylon. Jeremiah has given it a different turn, and has thrown it out, as a reproach of the heathen upon the Jews when they were driven from Jerusalem into captivity: - "Depart; ye are polluted, depart; depart ye, forbear to touch.

[¶26] Yea, they are fled, they are removed: they shall dwell here no more." [Lam 4:15].

[¶27] Of the metrical distribution of these lines, see the Prelim. Dissert., p. 58 note.

### Verse 13

[¶29] My servant shall deal prudently - ישכיל yaskil, shall prosper, or act prosperously. The subject of Isaiah's prophecy, from the fortieth chapter inclusive, has hitherto been, in general, the deliverance of the people of God. This includes in it three distinct parts; which, however, have a close connection with one another; that is,

[¶30] 1. The deliverance of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon;

[¶31] 2. The deliverance of the Gentiles from their miserable state of ignorance and idolatry; and,

[¶32] 3. The deliverance of mankind from the captivity of sin and death.

[¶33] These three subjects are subordinate to one another; and the two latter are shadowed out under the image of the former. They are covered by it as by a veil; which however is transparent, and suffers them to appear through it.

[¶34] Cyrus is expressly named as the immediate agent of God in effecting the first deliverance. A greater person is spoken of as the Agent who is to effect the two latter deliverances, called the servant, the elect, of God, in whom his soul delighteth; Israel, in whom God will be glorified. Now these three subjects have a very near relation to one another; for as the Agent who was to effect the two latter deliverances, - that is, the Messiah, - was to be born a Jew, with particular limitations of time, family, and other circumstances; the first deliverance was necessary in the order of providence, and according to the determinate counsel of God, to the accomplishment of the two latter deliverances; and the second deliverance was necessary to the third, or rather was involved in it, and made an essential part of it. This being the case, Isaiah has not treated the three subjects as quite distinct and separate in a methodical and orderly manner, like a philosopher or a logician, but has taken them in their connective veiw. He has handled them as a prophet and a poet; he has allegorized the former, and under the image of it has shadowed out the two latter: he has thrown them all together, has mixed one with another, has passed from this to that with rapid transitions, and has painted the whole with the strongest and boldest imagery. The restoration of the Jews from captivity, the call of the Gentiles, the redemption by Messiah, have hitherto been handled interchangeably and alternately. Babylon has hitherto been kept pretty much in sight; at the same time, that strong intimations of something much greater have frequently been thrown in. But here Babylon is at once dropped, and I think hardly ever comes in sight again; unless perhaps in [Isa 55:12], and [Isa 57:14]. The prophet's views are almost wholly engrossed by the superior part of his subject. He introduces the Messiah as appearing at first in the lowest state of humiliation, which he had just touched upon before, ([Isa 50:5], [Isa 50:6]), and obviates the offense which would be occasioned by it, by declaring the important and necessary cause of it, and foreshowing the glory which should follow it.

[¶35] This seems to me to be the nature and the true design of this part of Isaiah's prophecies; and this view of them seems to afford the best method of resolving difficulties, in which expositors are frequently engaged, being much divided between what is called the literal and the mystical sense, not very properly; for the mystical or spiritual sense is very often the most literal sense of all.

[¶36] Abarbanel seems to have had an idea of this kind, as he is quoted by Vitringa on [Isa 49:1], who thus represents his sentiments: Censet Abarbanel prophetam hic transitum facere a liberatione ex exilio Babylonico ad liberationem ex exilio Romano; et, quod hic animadversu dignum est, observat liberationem ex exilio Babylonico esse אות וראיה oth veraayah, signum et argumentum liberationis futurae; atque adeo orationem prophetae de duabus hisce liberationibus in superioribus concionibus saepe inter se permisceri. Verba ejus: "Et propterea verba, sive res, in prophetic superiore inter se permixtae occurrunt; modo de liberatione Babylonica, modo de liberatione extrema accipiendae, ut orationis necessitas exigit." Nullum hic vitium, nisi quod redemptionem veram et spiritualem a Messia vero Jesu adductam, non agnoscat. "Abarbanel supposes that the prophet here makes a transition from the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity to the deliverance from the Roman captivity; and (which is worthy of particular note) he observes that the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity is a sign and pledge of the future redemption; and that on this account it is we find in the preceding prophecies the circumstances of the two captivities intimately blended together. His words are the following: 'And, therefore, the words or subjects in the foregoing prophecy are very much intermixed; in one passage the redemption from the Babylonish captivity being treated of, in another the redemption from the general dispersion, as may be collected from the obvious import of the words.' No fault can be found with the above remark, except that the true and spiritual redemption procured by Jesus the Messiah is not acknowledged." - L.

### Verse 14

[¶38] As many were astonished at thee "As many were astonished at him" - For עליך aleicha read עליו alaiv. So the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate in a MS.; and so likewise two ancient MSS.

[¶39] His visage was so marred more than any man - Most interpreters understand this of the indignities offered to our blessed Lord: but Kimchi gives it another turn, and says, "It means the Jewish people, whom are considered by most nations as having an appearance different from all the people of the earth. "Poor Jews! they have in general a very disagreeable look, partly affected, and partly through neglect of neatness and cleanliness. Most Christians think they carry the impress of their reprobation on every feature of their face. However this may be, it should never be forgotten that the greatest men that ever flourished as kings, judges, magistrates, lawgivers, heroes, and poets, were of Jewish extraction. Isaiah was a Jew; so was Paul, and so was Jesus of Nazareth.

### Verse 15

[¶41] So shall he sprinkle many nations - I retain the common rendering, though I am by no means satisfied with it. "יזה yazzeh, frequent in the law, means only to sprinkle: but the water sprinkled is the accusative case; the thing on which has על al or אל el. Θαυμασονται, ό, makes the best apodosis. ינהג yenahag would do. ינהרו yinharu is used [Isa 2:2]; [Jer 31:12]; [Jer 51:14], but is unlike. 'Kings shall shut,' etc., is good, but seems to want a first part." - Secker. Munster translates it, faciet loqui, (de se); and in his note thus explains it: יזה yazzeh proprie significat spargere et stillas disseminare; hic hero capitur pro loqui, et verbum disseminare. "יזה yazzeh properly signifies to sprinkle, and to scatter about drops; but it here means to speak, and to disseminate the word." This is pretty much as the Rabbins Kimchi and Sal. ben Belec explain it, referring to the expression of "dropping the word." But the same objection lies to this as to the common rendering; it ought to be על גוים(דבר)יזה yazzeh (debar) al goyim. Bishop Chandler, Defence, p. 148, says, "that to sprinkle is used for to surprise and astonish, as people are that have much water thrown upon them. And this sense is followed by the Septuagint." This is ingenious, but rather too refined. Dr. Duress conjectures that the true reading may be יהזו yechezu, they shall regard, which comes near to the θαυμασονται of the Septuagint, who seem to give the best sense of any to this place. "I find in my papers the same conjecture which Dr. Durell made from θαυμασονται in the Septuagint. And it may be added that חזה chazah is used to express 'looking on any thing with admiration,' [Psa 11:7]; [Psa 17:15]; [Psa 27:4]; [Psa 63:2]; [Sol 6:13]. It is particularly applied to 'looking on God,' [Exo 24:11], and [Job 19:26]. Gisbert Cuper, in Observ. lib. [Job 2:1], though treating on another subject, has some observations which show how nearly ὁραω and θαυμαζω are allied, which, with the peculiar sense of the verb חזה chazah above noted, add to the probability of θαυμασονται being the version of יחזו yechezu in the text: οἱ δε νυ λαοι Παντες ες αυτον ὁρωσι. Hesiod., id est. cum veneratione quadam adminantur. Hinc ὁραω et θαυμαζω junxit Themistius Or. 1: Ειτα παυσονται οἱ ανθρωποι προς σε μονον ὁρωνες, και σε μονον θαυμαζοντες. Theophrastus in Charact. c. 3. Ενθυμη ὡς αποβλεπουσιν εις σε οἱ ανθρωποι. Hence the rendering of this verse seems to be - "So many nations shall look on him with admiration

[¶42] Kings shall stop their mouths."

[¶43] Dr. Jubb.

[¶44] Does not sprinkling the nations refer to the conversion and baptism of the Gentiles? Many nations shall become proselytes to his religion.

## 845. Isaiah · 65 of 79

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[¶0] Kings shall shut their mouths at him - His Gospel shall so prevail that all opposition shall be finally overcome; and kings and potentates shall be overwhelmed with confusion, and become speechless before the doctrines of his truth. When they hear these declared they shall attentively consider them, and their conviction of their truth shall be the consequence.

[¶1] For that which had not been told them - The mystery of the Gospel so long concealed. See [Rom 15:21]; [Rom 16:25].

[¶2] Shall they see - With the eyes of their faith; God enlightening both organ and object.

[¶3] And that which they had not heard - The redemption of the world by Jesus Christ; the conversion of the Gentiles, and making them one flock with the converted Jews. - Trapp

### Introduction

[¶5] This chapter foretells the sufferings of the Messiah, the end for which he was to die, and the advantages resulting to mankind from that illustrious event. It begins with a complaint of the infidelity of the Jews, [Isa 53:1]; the offense they took at his mean and humble appearance, [Isa 53:2]; and the contempt with which they treated him, [Isa 53:3]. The prophet then shows that the Messiah was to suffer for sins not his own; but that our iniquities were laid on him, and the punishment of them exacted of him, which is the meritorious cause of our obtaining pardon and salvation, [Isa 53:4-6]. He shows the meekness and placid submission with which he suffered a violent and unjust death, with the circumstances of his dying with the wicked, and being buried with the great, [Isa 53:7-9]; and that, in consequence of his atonement, death, resurrection, and intercession, he should procure pardon and salvation to the multitudes, insure increasing prosperity to his Church, and ultimately triumph over all his foes, [Isa 53:10], [Isa 53:11]. This chapter contains a beautiful summary of the most peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of Christianity.

[¶6] That this chapter speaks of none but Jesus must be evident to every unprejudiced reader who has ever heard the history of his sufferings and death. The Jews have endeavored to apply it to their sufferings in captivity; but, alas for their cause! they can make nothing out in this way. Allowing that it belongs to our blessed Lord, (and the best men and the best scholars agree in this), then who can read [Isa 53:4], [Isa 53:5], [Isa 53:6], [Isa 53:8], [Isa 53:10], without being convinced that his death was a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of mankind? On the first and second verses of this chapter I have received the following remarks from an unknown hand.

### Verse 1

[¶8] Who hath believed our report? - The report of the prophets, of John the Baptist, and Christ's own report of himself. The Jews did not receive the report, and for this reason he was not manifested to them as the promised Messiah. 'He came unto his own, but his own received him not.' Before the Father he grew up as a tender plant: but to the Jews he was as a root out of a dry ground. 'He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.'

### Verse 2

[¶10] For he shall grow up - Supposes something to have preceded; as it might be asked, what or who shall 'grow up before him,' etc. As the translation now stands, no correct answer can be given to this question. The translation then is wrong, the connection broken, and the sense obscured. זרוע zeroa, translated the arm, from the root zara.

[¶11] 1. To sow, or plant; also seed, etc.

[¶12] 2. The limb which reaches from the shoulder to the hand, called the arm; or more properly beginning at the shoulder and ending at the elbow.

[¶13] The translator has given the wrong sense of the word. It would be very improper to say, the arm of the Lord should grow up before him; but by taking the word in its former sense, the connection and metaphor would be restored, and the true sense given to the text. זרע zera signifies, not only the seed of herbs, but children, offspring, or posterity. The same word we find [Gen 3:15], where Christ is the Seed promised. See also [Gen 22:17], [Gen 22:18]; [Gen 26:4]; [Gen 28:14]. Hence the Seed of the woman, the Seed promised to the patriarchs is, according to Isaiah, the Seed of the Lord, the Child born, and the Son given; and according to St. John, 'the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' זרע then, in this place, should be understood to mean Jesus Christ, and him alone. To speak here of the manifestation of the arm or power of God would be irregular; but to suppose the text to speak of the manifestation of Jesus Christ would be very proper, as the whole of the chapter is written concerning him, particularly his humiliation and sufferings, and the reception he should meet with from the Jewish nation. "The first verse of this chapter is quoted [Joh 12:38], and the former part of the same verse [Rom 10:16]. But no objection of importance can be brought forward from either of these quotations against the above explanation, as they are quoted to show the unbelief of the Jews in not receiving Christ as the promised Messiah."

[¶14] He hath no form nor comeliness "He hath no form nor any beauty" - Ουκ ειδος αυτῳ, ουδε αξιωμα, ἱνα ειδωμεν αυτον· ουδε θεωρια, ἱνα επιθυμωμεν αυτον. "He hath no form, nor any beauty, that we should regard him; nor is his countenance such that we should desire him."

[¶15] Symmachus; the only one of the ancients that has translated it rightly.

### Verse 3

[¶17] Acquainted with grief - For וידוע vidua, familiar with grief, eight MSS. and one edition have וירע veyada, and knowing grief; the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read it ויודע veyodea.

[¶18] We hid as it were our faces from him "As one that hideth his face from us" - For וכמסתר uchemaster, four MSS. (two ancient) have וכמסתיר uchemastir, one MS. ומסתיר umastir. For פנים panim, two MSS. have פניו panaiu; so likewise the Septuagint and Vulgate. Mourners covered up the lower part of their faces, and their heads, [2Sam 15:30]; [Eze 29:17]; and lepers were commanded by the law, [Lev 13:45], to cover their upper lip. From which circumstance it seems that the Vulgate, Aquila, Symmachus, and the Jewish commentators have taken the word נגוע nagua, stricken, in the next verse, as meaning stricken with the leprosy: εν αφῃ οντα, Sym.; αφημενον, Aq.; leprosum, Vulg. So my old MS. Bible. I will insert the whole passage as curious: -

[¶19] There is not schap to him, ne fairnesse,

[¶20] And we seegen him, and he was not of sigte,

[¶21] And we desiriden him dispisid; and the last of men:

[¶22] Man of souaris and witing infirmitie;

[¶23] And he hid his cheer and despisid;

[¶24] Wherfor ne we settiden bi him:

[¶25] Verili our seeknesse he toke and our sorewis he bair,

[¶26] And we helden him as leprous and smyten of God, and meekid;

[¶27] He forsoth wounded is for our wickednesse,

[¶28] Defoulid is for our hidous giltis

[¶29] The discipline of our pese upon him,

[¶30] And with his wanne wound we ben helid.

### Verse 4

[¶32] Surely he Bath borne our griefs "Surely our infirmities he hath borne" - Seven MSS. (two ancient) and three editions have חליינו cholayeynu in the plural number.

[¶33] And carried our sorrows "And our sorrows, he hath carried them" - Seventeen MSS. (two ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, two of De Rossi's, and two editions have the word הוא hu, he, before סבלם sebalam, "carrieth them, "in the text; four other MSS. have it in the margin. This adds force to the sense, and elegance to the construction.

### Verse 5

[¶35] The chastisement of our peace "The chastisement by which our peace is effected" - Twenty-one MSS. and six editions have the word fully and regularly expressed, שלמינו shelomeynu; pacificationum nostrarum, "our pacification;" that by which we are brought into a state of peace and favor with God. Ar. Montan.

### Verse 6

[¶37] The Iniquity of us all - For עון avon, "iniquity," the ancient interpreters read עונות avonoth, "iniquities," plural; and so the Vulgate in MS. Blanchini. And the Lord hath הפגיע בו hiphgia bo, caused to meet in him the iniquities of us all. He was the subject on which all the rays collected on the focal point fell. These fiery rays, which should have fallen on all mankind, diverged from Divine justice to the east, west, north, and south, were deflected from them, and converged in him. So the Lord hath caused to meet in him the punishment due to the iniquities of All.

### Verse 8

[¶39] And who shall declare his generation "And his manner of life who would declare" - A learned friend has communicated to me the following passages from the Mishna, and the Gemara of Babylon, as leading to a satisfactory explication of this difficult place. It is said in the former, that before any one was punished for a capital crime, proclamation was made before the prisoner by the public crier, in these words: כל מי שיודע לו זכות יבא וילמד עליו col mi shioda lo zachoth yabo vayilmad alaiv, "whosoever knows any thing of this man's innocence, let him come and declare it. "Tract. Sandhedrim. Surenhus. Part 4 p. 233. On which passage the Gemara of Babylon adds, that "before the death of Jesus this proclamation was made for forty days; but no defense could be found." On which words Lardner observes: "It is truly surprising to see such falsities, contrary to well-known facts." Testimonies, Vol. 1 p. 198. The report is certainly false; but this false report is founded on the supposition that there was such a custom, and so far confirms the account given from the Mishna. The Mishna was composed in the middle of the second century according to Prideaux; Lardner ascribes it to the year of Christ 180.

[¶40] Casaubon has a quotation from Maimonides which farther confirms this account: - Exercitat. in Baronii Annales, Art. lxxvi. Ann. 34. Numbers 119. Auctor est Maimonides in Perek 13 ejus libri ex opere Jad, solitum fieri, ut cum reus, sententiam mortis passus, a loco judicii exibat ducendus ad supplicium, praecedoret ipsum חכרוז κηρυξ, praeco; et haec verba diceret: Ille exit occidendus morte illa, quia transgressus est transgressione illa, in loco illo, tempore illo, et sunt ejus ret testes ille et ille. Qui noverit aliquid ad ejus innoeentiam probandam, veniat, et loquatur pro eo. "It was customary when sentence of death was passed upon a criminal, and he was led out from the seat of judgment to the place of punishment, a crier went before, and spoke as follows: - 'This man is going out to suffer death by - because he has transgressed by - such a transgression, in such a place, in such a time; and the witnesses against him are - . He who may know any thing relative to his innocence let him come and speak in his behalf.'"

[¶41] Now it is plain from the history of the four Evangelists, that in the trlal and condemnation of Jesus no such rule was observed; though, according to the account of the Mishna, it must have been in practice at that time, no proclamation was made for any person to bear witness to the innocence and character of Jesus; nor did any one voluntarily step forth to give his attestation to it. And our Savior seems to refer to such a custom, and to claim the benefit of it, by his answer to the high priest, when he asked him of his disciples and of his doctrine: "I spoke openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? ask them who heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said," [Joh 18:20], [Joh 18:21]. This, therefore, was one remarkable instance of hardship and injustice, among others predicted by the prophet, which our Savior underwent in his trial and sufferings.

[¶42] St. Paul likewise, in similar circumstances, standing before the judgment seat of Festus, seems to complain of the same unjust treatment; that no one was called, or would appear, to vindicate his character. "My manner of life (την βιωσιν μου, דורי dori, 'my generation') from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, who knew me from the beginning, if they would testify; that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee;" [Act 26:4], [Act 26:5]. דור dor signifies age, duration, the time which one man or many together pass in this world, in this place; the course, tenor, or manner of life. The verb דור dor signifies, according to Castell, ordinatam vitam sive aetatem egit, ordinavit, ordine constituit. "He passed a certain course of life, he ordained," etc. In Arabic, curavit, administravit, "he took care of, administered to."

[¶43] Was he stricken "He was smitten to death" - The Septuagint read למות lemaveth, εις θανατον, "to death." And so the Coptic and Saidic Versions, from the Septuagint; MSS. St. Germain de Prez. "Origen, "(Contra Celsum, lib. 1 p. 370, edit. 1733), after having quoted at large this prophecy concerning the Messiah, "tells us, that having once made use of this passage in a dispute against some that were accounted wise among the Jews, one of them replied, that the words did not mean one man, but one people, the Jews, who were smitten of God and dispersed among the Gentiles for their conversion; that he then urged many parts of this prophecy to show the absurdity of this interpretation, and that he seemed to press them the hardest by this sentence, απο των ανομιων του λαου μον ηχθη εις θανατον, 'for the iniquity of my people was he smitten to death.'" Now as Origen, the author of the Hexapla, must have understood Hebrew, we cannot suppose that he would have urged this last quotation as so decisive if the Greek Version had not agreed here with the Hebrew text; nor that these wise Jews would have been at all distressed by this quotation, unless their Hebrew text had read agreeably to εις θανατον, "to death," on which the argument principally depended; for, by quoting it immediately, they would have triumphed over him, and reprobated his Greek version. This, whenever they could do it, was their constant practice in their disputes with the Christians. Jerome, in his Preface to the Psalms, says, Nuper cum Hebraeo disputans, quaedam pro Domino Salvatore de Psalmis testimonia protulisti: volensque ille te illudere, per sermones fere singulos asserebat, non ita haberi in Hebraeo, ut tu de lxx. opponebas. "Lately disputing with a Hebrew, - thou advancedst certain passages out of the Psalms which bear testimony to the Lord the Savior; but he, to elude thy reasoning, asserted that almost all thy quotations have an import in the Hebrew text different from what they had in the Greek." And Origen himself, who laboriously compared the Hebrew text with the Septuagint, has recorded the necessity of arguing with the Jews from such passages only as were in the Septuagint agreeable to the Hebrew: ἱνα προς Ιουδαιοις διαλεγομενοι μη προφερωμεν αυτοι τα μη κειμενα εν τοις αντιγραφοις αυτων, και ἱνα συγχρησωμεθα τοις φερομενοις παρ' εκεινοις. See Epist. ad African. p. 15, 17. Wherefore as Origen had carefully compared the Greek version of the Septuagint with the Hebrew text, and speaks of the contempt with which the Jews treated all appeals to the Greek version where it differed from their Hebrew text; and as he puzzled and confounded the learned Jews by urging upon them the reading εις θανατον, "unto death," in this place; it seems almost impossible not to conclude, both from Origen's argument and the silence of his Jewish adversaries, that the Hebrew text at that time actually had למות lemaveth, "to death," agreeably to the version of the Septuagint. - Dr. Kennicott.

## 846. Isaiah · 66 of 79

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### Verse 9

[¶1] With the rich in his death "With the rich man was his tomb" - It may be necessary to introduce Bishop Lowth's translation of this verse before we come to his very satisfactory criticisms: -

[¶2] And his grave was appointed with the wicked;

[¶3] But with the rich man was his tomb:

[¶4] Although he had done no wrong,

[¶5] Neither was there any guile in his mouth.

[¶6] Among the various opinions which have been given on this passage, I have no doubt in giving my assent to that which makes the ב beth in במותיו bemothaiv radical, and renders it excelsa sua. This is mentioned by Aben Ezra as received by some in his time; and has been long since approved by Schindler, Drusius, and many other learned Christian interpreters.

[¶7] The most simple tombs or monuments of old consisted of hillocks of earth heaped up over the grave; of which we have numerous examples in our own country, generally allowed to be of very high antiquity. The Romans called a monument of this sort very properly tumulus; and the Hebrews as properly במות bamoth, "high place," for that is the form of' the noun in the singular number; and sixteen MSS. and the two oldest editions express the word fully in this place, במותיו bamothaiv. Tumulus et collem et sepulchrum fuisse significat. Potest enim tumulus sine sepulchro interpretatione collis interdum accipi. Nam et terrae congestio super ossa tumulus dicitur. "Tumulus signifies a sepulcher with a hillock of earth raised over it. The word is sometimes restrained to the bank of earth; for the heaping up of the earth over the bones is named the tumulus." - Servius, Aen. 3:22. And to make the tumulus still more elevated and conspicuous, a pillar or some other ornament was often erected upon it: - Τυμβον χευαντες, και επι στηλην ερυσαντες, Πηξαμεν ακροτατῳ τυμβῳ ευηρες ερετμον.

[¶8] Odyss. sii. 14. "A rising tomb, the silent dead to grace,

[¶9] Fast by the roarings of the main we place;

[¶10] The rising tomb a lofty column bore,

[¶11] And high above it rose the tapering oar."

[¶12] Pope

[¶13] The tomb therefore might with great propriety be called the high place. The Hebrews might also call such a tomb במות bamoth, from the situation, for they generally chose to erect them on eminences. The sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathea, in which the body of Christ was laid, was upon a hill, Mount Calvary. See [Isa 22:16] (note), and the note there. "It should be observed that the word במותיו bamothaiv is not formed from במות bamoth, the plural of במה bamah, the feminine noun, but from במותים bamothim, the plural of a masculine noun, במות bamoth. This is noted because these two nouns have been negligently confounded with one another, and absurdly reduced to one by very learned men. So Buxtorf, lex. in voc. במה bamah, represents במותי bamotey, though plainly without any pronoun suffixed, as it governs the word ארץ arets following it, as only another form of במות bamoth; whereas the truth is, that במות bamoth and במותים bamothim are different words, and have through the whole Bible very different significations; במה bamah, whether occurring in the singular or plural number, always signifying a place or places of worship; and במותים bamothim always signifying heights. Thus in [Deu 32:13]; [Isa 58:14]; [Amo 4:13]; and [Mic 1:3], במותי ארץ bamothey arets signifies 'the heights of the earth;' [Isa 14:14], במותי עב bamothey ab, 'the heights of the clouds;' and in [Job 9:8], במותי ים bamothey yam, 'the heights of the sea,' i.e., the high waves of the sea, as Virgil calls a wave praeruptus aqua mons, 'a broken mountain of water.' These being all the places where this word occurs without a suffix, the sense of it seems nearly determined by them. It occurs in other instances with a pronoun suffixed, which confirm this signification. Unluckily, our English Bible has not distinguished the feminine noun במה bamah from the masculine singular noun במות bamoth; and has consequently always given the signification of the latter to the former, always rendering it a high place; whereas the true sense of the word appears plainly to be, in the very numerous passages in which it occurs, 'a place of worship,' or 'a sacred court,' or 'a sacred inclosure;' whether appropriated to the worship of idols or to that of the true God, for it is used of both, passive. Now as the Jewish graves are shown, from [2Chr 32:33], and [Isa 22:16], to have been in high situations, to which may be added the custom of another eastern nation from Osbeck's Travels, who says, vol. 1 p. 339, 'the Chinese graves are made on the side of hills;' 'his heights' becomes a very easy metaphor to express 'his sepulcher.'" - Jubb.

[¶14] The exact completion of this prophecy will be fully shown by adding here the several circumstances of the burial of Jesus, collected from the accounts of the evangelists: - "There was a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, a member of the sanhedrin, and of a respectable character, who had not consented to their counsel and act; he went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus: and he laid it in his own new tomb, which had been hewn out of the rock, near to the place where Jesus was crucified; having first wound it in fine linen with spices, as the manner of the Jews was to bury the rich and great."

[¶15] It has been supposed that קברו kibro, his grave, and במתיו bemothaiv, in his death, may have been transposed, as also the prefix ב be originally placed before רשעים reshaim, the wicked. Thus: - מתיו את ברשעים ויתן mothaiv eth bireshayim vaiyitten קברו עשיר ואת kibro ashir veeth

[¶16] Yea, his death was appointed among the wicked,

[¶17] And with a rich man, his tomb.

[¶18] By these alterations it is supposed the text would be freed from all embarrassment. But see the preceding notes of Bishop Lowth, and the various readings of De Rossi, in loc.

### Verse 10

[¶20] To grief "With affliction" - For החלי hecheli, the verb, the construction of which seems to be hard and inelegant in this place, the Vulgate reads בחלי bocholi, in infirmitate, "with infirmity."

[¶21] When thou shalt make his soul "If his soul shall make" - For תשים tasim, a MS. has תשם tasem, which may be taken passively, "If his soul shall be made" agreeably to some copies of the Septuagint, which have δωται See likewise the Syriac.

[¶22] When thou shalt make his soul an offering - The word נפש dro nephesh, soul, is frequently used in Hebrew to signify life. Throughout the New Testament the salvation of men is uniformly attributed to the death of Christ.

[¶23] He shall see his seed - True converts, genuine Christians.

[¶24] He shall prolong his days - Or this spiritual progeny shall prolong their days, i.e., Christianity shall endure to the end of time.

[¶25] And the pleasure of the Lord - To have all men saved and brought to the knowledge of the truth.

[¶26] Shall prosper in his hand - Shall go on in a state of progressive prosperity; and so completely has this been thus far accomplished, that every succeeding century has witnessed more Christianity in the world than the preceding, or any former one.

### Verse 11

[¶28] Shall be satisfied "And be satisfied" - The Septuagint, Vulgate, Sryiac, and a MS. add the conjunction to the verb, וישבע vaigisba.

[¶29] Shall my righteous servant justify "Shall my servant justify" - Three MSS., (two of them ancient), omit the word צדיק tsaddik; it seems to be only an imperfect repetition, by mistake, of the preceding word. It makes a solecism in this place; for according to the constant usage of the Hebrew language, the adjective, in a phrase of this kind, ought to follow the substantive; and צדיק עבדי tsaddik abdi, in Hebrew, would be as absurd as "shall my servant righteous justify," in English. Add to this, that it makes the hemistich too long.

### Verse 12

[¶31] He bare the sin of many - רבים rabbim, the multitudes, the many that were made sinners by the offenses of one; i.e., the whole human race; for all have sinned - all have fallen; and for all that have sinned, and for all that have fallen, Jesus Christ died. The רבים rabbim of the prophet answers to the οἱ πολλοι, of the apostle, [Rom 5:15], [Rom 5:19]. As the πολλοι of the apostle means all that have sinned; so the רבים rabbim of the prophet means those for whom Christ died; i.e., all that have sinned.

[¶32] And made intercession for the transgressors - For יפגיע yaphgia, in the future, a MS. has הפגיע hiphgia, preterite, rather better, as agreeable with the other verbs immediately preceding in the sentence.

[¶33] He made intercession for the transgressors. - This was literally fulfilled at his death, "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!" [Luk 23:34]. And to make intercession for transgressors is one part of his mediatorial offlce. [Heb 7:25], and [Heb 9:24].

[¶34] In this chapter the incarnation, preaching, humiliation, rejection, sufferings, death, atonement, resurrection, and mediation of Jesus Christ are all predicted, together with the prevalence of his Gospel, and the extension of his kingdom through all ages.

### Introduction

[¶36] Some suppose this chapter to have been addressed to the Gentiles; some, to the Jewish Church; and some, to the Christian, in its first stage. On comparing the different parts of it, particularly the seventh and eighth verses, with the remainder, the most obvious import of the prophecy will be that which refers it to the future conversion of the Jews, and to the increase and prosperity of that nation, when reconciled to God after their long rejection, when their glory and security will far surpass what they were formerly in their most favored state, vv. 1-17.

### Verse 1

[¶38] Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear "Shout for joy, O thou barren, that didst not bear" - The Church of God under the Old Testament, confined within the narrow bounds of the Jewish nation, and still more so in respect of the very small number of true believers, and which sometimes seemed to be deserted of God her husband, is the barren woman, that did not bear, and was desolate. She is exhorted to rejoice, and to express her joy in the strongest manner, on the reconciliation of her husband, (see [Isa 54:6]), and on the accession of the Gentiles to her family. The converted Gentiles are all along considered by the prophet as a new accession of adopted children, admitted into the original Church of God, and united with it. See [Isa 49:20], [Isa 49:21].

### Verse 4

[¶40] For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth - That is, "The bondage of Egypt: widowhood, the captivity of Babylon." - Secker.

### Verse 7

[¶42] For a small moment "In a little anger" - So the Chaldee and Syriac, either reading רגז regaz, for רגע rega; or understanding the latter word as meaning the same with the former, which they both make use of. See [Psa 30:5]; [Psa 35:20], in the Septuagint, where they render רגע rega by οργη, anger.

### Verse 8

[¶44] I hid my face from thee for a moment - The word רגע rega is omitted by the Septuagint, Syriac, and two MSS. of Kennicott's, and two of De Rossi's. It seems to embarrass rather than to help the sentence. Forte reponi debet pro שצף shetseph, quod potest a קצף ketseph errore scribae originem duxisse. "Perhaps it ought to be substituted for שצף shetseph, an error probably made by some scribe from its similarity to קצף ketseph." - Secker

[¶45] Thy Redeemer - גאלך goalech: but for this word three of De Rossi's MSS. have מרחמך merachamech, thy commiserator.

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### Verse 9

[¶1] For this is as the waters of Noah unto me "The same will I do now, as in the days of Noah" - כימי kimey, in one word, in a MS., and some editions; and so the Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, Symmachus, Theodotion, Abarbanel, Sal. ben Melec, and Kimchi acknowledge that their copies vary in this place.

[¶2] It is certain that these two words כי מי ki mey, were written formerly as one. Taken as two כי מי ki mey, they signify for as the waters - when as one, כימי kimey, they signify as the days. This latter reading is found in about four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. In one of my own it appears to have been intended as one word: but he who added the points, which are by a much later hand than the MS. itself, has pointed the letters so as to make the two words which are commonly found in the text. For the waters, Symmachus, Theodotion, the Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic have days. The former seems to make the best sense; and the ancient Versions, except the Septuagint, support it.

### Verse 11

[¶4] Behold, I will lay thy stones "Behold, I lay thy stones" - These seem to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise, moral, or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner: "For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and stones of ophir." Tob. 13:16, 17. Compare also [Rev 21:18-21].

### Verse 15

[¶6] Shall fall for thy sake "Shall come over to thy side" - For יפול yippol, twenty-eight MSS. (eight ancient) have יפל yipal, in its more common form. For the meaning of the word in this place, see [Jer 37:13].

### Introduction

[¶8] This chapter first displays the fullness, freeness, excellence, and everlasting nature of the blessings of the Gospel, and foretells again the enlargement of Messiah's kingdom, [Isa 55:1-5]. This view leads the prophet to exhort all to seize the precious opportunity of sharing in such blessings, which were not, however, to be expected without repentance and reformation, [Isa 55:6], [Isa 55:7]. And as the things now and formerly predicted were so great as to appear incredible, the prophet points to the omnipotence of God, who would infallibly accomplish his word, and bring about those glorious deliverances which he had promised; the happy effects of which are again set forth by images beautiful and poetical in the highest degree, [Isa 55:8-13].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Ho, every one that thirsteth - "Water," says Zimchi, "is a metaphor for the law and wisdom: as the world cannot subsist without water, so it is impossible that it can subsist without wisdom. The law is also compared to wine and milk: to wine because wine rejoiceth the heart, as it is written: 'The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart,' [Psa 19:8]. It is compared also to milk, because milk is the subsistence of the child; so are the words of the law the nourishment of his soul who walks in the Divine teaching, and grows up under it."

[¶11] Come, buy wine and milk - In ancient times our forefathers used what is now called the old third person singular, ending in eth, for the imperative mood. We have a fine example of His in the first verses of this chapter. I shall present them as they stand in my old MS. Bible: - Alle gee thirstinge cummeth to wateris: and gee that han not sylver, goth forth and bieth, and etith. Cummeth, bieth without silver, and without eny chaungyng, wyn and mylc. Heerith gee, heering me and etith gode thinge, and deliten schal in fattnesse your soule. Bowith in your eie and cummeth to mee, heerith and liven schal your soule. And I shall smyten with gou, everlastynge covenant, the faithful mercies of David.

### Verse 2

[¶13] Wherefore do ye spend - Why should ye be so zealously attached to a doctrine from which your souls derive neither comfort nor nourishment?

### Verse 3

[¶15] I will make an everlasting covenant - Hebrews אכרתה לכם ברית עולם echrethah lachem berith olam, "I will cut the old or everlasting covenant sacrifice with you." That covenant sacrifice which was pointed out of old from the very beginning; and which is to last to the consummation of ages; viz., the Lamb of God that was slain from the foundation of the world.

[¶16] The sure mercies of David - That is, says Kimchi, "The Messiah," called here David; as it is written, "David my servant shall be a prince over you."

### Verse 6

[¶18] Seek ye the Lord while he may be found - Rab. David Kimchi gives the true sense of this passage: "Seek ye the Lord, because he may be found: call upon him, because he is near. Repent before ye die, for after death there is no conversion of the soul."

### Verse 9

[¶20] For as the heavens are higher - I am persuaded that כ caph, the particle of comparison, is lost in this place, from the likeness of the particle כי ki, immediately preceding it. So Houbigant and Secker. And their remark is confirmed by all the ancient Versions, which express it; and by the following passage of [Psa 103:11], which is almost the same: - הארץ על שמים כגבה כי haarets al shamayim chigboah ki יראיו על חסדו גבר yereaiv al chasdo gabar "For as the heavens are high above the earth,

[¶21] So high is his goodness over them that fear him."

[¶22] Where, by the nature of the sentence, the verb in the second line ought to be the same with that in the first; גבה gabah, not גבר gabar: so Archbishop Secker conjectured; referring however to [Psa 117:2].

### Verse 12

[¶24] The mountains and the hills - These are highly poetical images to express a happy state attended with joy and exultation.

[¶25] Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant

[¶26] Intonsi montes: ipsae jam carmina rupes,

[¶27] Ipsa sonant arbusta.

[¶28] Virg. Ecl. 5:61. "The mountain tops unshorn, the rocks rejoice;

[¶29] The lowly shrubs partake of human voice."

[¶30] Dryden.

### Verse 13

[¶32] Instead of the thorn "Instead of the thorny bushes" - These likewise (see note on [Isa 55:12], and on [Isa 54:11] (note)) are general poetical images, expressing a great and happy change for the better. The wilderness turned into a paradise, Lebanon into Carmel: the desert of the Gentiles watered with the heavenly snow and rain, which fail not to have their due effect, and becoming fruitful in piety and righteousness: or, as the Chaldee gives the moral sense of the emblem, "instead of the wicked shall arise the just; and instead of sinners, such as fear to sin." Compare [Isa 35:1], [Isa 35:2]; [Isa 41:19].

[¶33] And instead of - The conjunction ו vau is added, ותחת vetachath, in forty-five MSS. of Kennicott's several of De Rossi's, and five editions; and it is acknowledged by all the ancient Versions. The Masoretes therefore might have safely received it into the text, and not have referred us for it to the margin. But this is no uncommon case with them. Even in our own Version the best reading is very often found in the margin.

### Introduction

[¶35] Whoever would partake of the blessings of the Gospel is required to be holy in all manner of life and conversation. And he that will be so is declared to be accepted according to this gracious dispensation, the blessings of which are large as the human race, without any respect to persons or to nations, [Isa 56:1-8]. At the ninth verse begins a different subject, or new section of prophecy. It opens with calling on the enemies of the Jews, (the Chaldeans, or perhaps the Romans), as beasts of prey against them, for the sins of their rulers, teachers, and other profane people among them, whose guilt drew down judgments on the nation, [Isa 56:9-12].

### Verse 2

[¶37] That keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it - Kimchi has an excellent note here. "The Sabbath is sanctified when it is distinguished in dignity; and separated from other days.

[¶38] 1. As to the body, in meat, drink, and clean clothing.

[¶39] 2. As to the soul, that it be empty of worldly occupations, and be busily employed in the words of the law and wisdom, and in meditation on the works of the Lord."

[¶40] The rabbins say, "Jerusalem had never been destroyed, had not the Sabbaths been profaned in it."

### Verse 5

[¶42] I will give them an everlasting name - For לו lo, him, in the singular, it is evident that we ought to read למו lamo, them, in the plural: so read the Septuagint, Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.

### Verse 6

[¶44] The sons of the stranger - The Gentiles.

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[¶0] That join themselves to the Lord - Who shall enter into the Christian covenant by baptism and faith in Christ, as the Jews and proselytes did by circumcision.

[¶1] To serve him - To live according to the Gospel, and ever do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.

[¶2] To love the name of the Lord - The name of Jesus, the Christ, the Savior of sinners, the Anointed of God, and the Giver of the Holy Spirit to his followers.

[¶3] To be his servants - To worship no other God but Jehovah, and to trust in none for salvation but his Christ.

[¶4] That keepeth the Sabbath - That observes it as a type of the rest that remains for the people of God.

[¶5] And taketh hold of my covenant - בבריתי biberithi, "of my covenant sacrifice;" as without this he can do nothing good; and without it nothing can be acceptable to the infinite majesty of the Most High.

### Verse 7

[¶7] Shall be accepted - A word is here lost out of the text: it is supplied from the Septuagint, יהיו yihyu, εσονται, "they shall be." - Houbigant.

### Verse 9

[¶9] All ye beasts of the field - Here manifestly begins a new section. The prophet in the foregoing chapters, having comforted the faithful Jews with many great promises of God's favor to be extended to them, in the restoration of their ruined state, and in the enlargement of his Church by the admission of the Gentiles; here on a sudden makes a transition to the more disagreeable part of the prospect, and to a sharp reproof of the wicked and unbelievers; and especially of the negligent and faithless governors and teachers, of the idolaters and hypocrites, who would still draw down his judgments upon the nation. Probably having in view the destruction of their city and polity by the Chaldeans, and perhaps by the Romans. The same subject is continued in the next chapter; in which the charge of corruption and apostasy becomes more general against the whole Jewish Church. Some expositors have made great difficulties in the 9th verse of this chapter, where there seems to be none. It is perfectly well explained by Jeremiah, [Jer 12:7], [Jer 12:9], where, having introduced God declaring his purpose of punishing his people, by giving them up as a prey to their enemies the Chaldeans, a charge to these his agents is given in words very nearly the same with those of Isaiah in this place: - "I have forsaken my house; I have deserted my heritage;

[¶10] I have given up the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. -

[¶11] Come away, be gathered together, all ye beasts of the field;

[¶12] Come away to devour."

[¶13] All ye beasts in the forest "All ye beasts of the forest" - Instead of ביער baiyaar, three MSS. have יער yaar, without the preposition; which seems to be right, and is confirmed by all the ancient Versions.

### Verse 10

[¶15] His watchmen are blind - Kimchi observes, "The flock is intrusted to the care of these watchmen. The wild beasts come; these dogs bark not; and the wild beasts devour the flock. Thus they do not profit the flock. Yea, they injure it; for the owner trusts in them, that they will watch and be faithful; but they are not. These are the false teachers and careless shepherds."

[¶16] Dumb dogs, they cannot bark - See note on [Isa 62:6].

[¶17] Sleeping "Dreamers" - הזים hozim, ενυπνιαζομενοι, Septuagint. This seems to be the best authority for the meaning of this word, which occurs only in this place: but it is to be observed, that eleven MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's, and four editions, have חזים chazim, seers, or those who see; and so the Vulgate seems to have read, videntes vana, "seeing vain things."

[¶18] Loving to slumber - לנום lanum: but six of Kennicott's and seven of De Rossi's MSS. read לנוס lanus, to fly, "to change their residence:" but what connection such reading can have with the sense of the passage, I cannot discern. What is taken for ס samech here is, I have no doubt, a narrow formed final ם mem, which has been mistaken for the above. Many instances occur in my own MSS., where the final ם mem is similar to the samech; and yet no such change was intended by the scribe.

### Verse 11

[¶20] Greedy dogs - Insatiably feeding themselves with the fat, and clothing themselves with the wool, while the flock is scattered, ravaged, and starved! O what an abundance of these dumb and greedy dogs are there found hanging on and prowling about the flock of Christ! How can any careless, avaricious, hireling minister read this without agitation and dismay?

### Verse 12

[¶22] I will fetch wine "Let us provide wine" - For אקחה ekchah, first person singular, an ancient MS. has נקחה nikchah, first person plural; and another ancient MS. has אק ak upon a rasure. So the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate render it. The spirit of this Epicurean sentiment is this: Let us indulge ourselves in the present time to the utmost, and instead of any gloomy forebodings of the future, let us expect nothing but increasing hilarity for every day we shall live. Thus they, "Counting on long years of pleasure here,

[¶23] Are quite unfurnished for the world to come."

### Introduction

[¶25] After mentioning the removal of righteous persons as an awful symptom of the approach of Divine judgments, [Isa 57:1], [Isa 57:2], the prophet goes on to charge the nation in general with idolatry, and with courting the unprofitable alliance of idolatrous kings, [Isa 57:3-12]. In opposition to such vain confidence, the prophet enjoins trust in God, with whom the penitent and humble are sure to find acceptance, and from whom they should obtain temporal and spiritual deliverances, [Isa 57:13-19]. Awful condition of the wicked and finally impenitent, [Isa 57:20], [Isa 57:21].

[¶26] I shall give Bishop Lowth's translation of the two first verses, and give the substance of his criticisms with additional evidence. [Isa 57:1]. The righteous man perisheth, and no one considereth;And pious men are taken away, and no one understandeth,That the righteous man is taken away because of the evil. [Isa 57:2]. He shall go in peace: he shall rest in his bed;Even the perfect man: he that walketh in the straight path.

### Verse 1

[¶28] The righteous perisheth - הצדק אבד hatstsadik abad. There is an emphasis here which seems intended to point out a particular person. See below. Perisheth - As the root אבד abad signifies the straying of cattle, their passing away from one pasture to another, I feel inclined to follow the grammatical meaning of the word "perish," pereo. So the Vulgate, justus periit, from per, By or Through, and eo, to Go. In his death the righteous man may be said to have passed through life, and to have passed by men, i.e., gone or passed before them into the eternal world. A similar mode of speech is used by our Saxon ancestors to express death: he went out of sight; and he went away; and to fare forth, to die.

[¶29] There are very few places in Isaiah where Jesus Christ is not intended; and I am inclined to think that He is intended here, That Just One; and perhaps Stephen had this place in view, when he thus charged the Jews, "Ye denied τον ἁγιον και δικαιον, that Holy and Just One," [Act 3:14]. That his death was not laid to heart by the wicked Jewish people, needs no proof.

[¶30] Merciful men - If the first refers to Christ, this may well refer to the apostles. and to others of the primitive Christians, who were taken away, some by death and martyrdom, and others by a providential escape from the city that they knew was devoted to destruction.

[¶31] The evil to come - That destruction which was to come upon this disobedient people by the Romans.

### Verse 2

[¶33] He shalt enter into peace "He shall go in peace" - יבוא שלום yabo shalom; the expression is elliptical, such as the prophet frequently uses. The same sense is expressed at large and in full terms, [Gen 15:15] : ואתה תבא אל אבותיך בשלום veattah libbo al abotheycha beshalom, "and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace."

[¶34] They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness "He shall rest in his bed; even the perfect man" - This obscure sentence is reduced to a perfectly good sense, and easy construction by an ingenious remark of Dr. Durell. He reads ינוח על משכבו תם yanuach al mishcabo tam, "the perfect man shall rest in his bed." Two MSS. (one of them ancient) have ינוח yanuach, singular; and so the Vulgate renders it, requiescat, "he shall rest." The verb was probably altered to make it plural, and so consistent with what follows after the mistake had been made in the following words, by uniting משכבו mishcabo and תם tam into one word. See Merrick's Annotations on the Psalms, Addenda; where the reader will find that J. S. Moerlius, by the same sort of correction, and by rescuing the adjective תם tam, which had been swallowed up in another word in the same manner, has restored to a clear sense a passage before absolutely unintelligible: - למו חרצבות אין כי lemo chartsubboth ein ki :אולם ובריא תם ulam ubari tham "For no distresses happen to them;

[¶35] Perfect and firm is their strength." [Psa 73:4].

[¶36] To follow on my application of this to our Lord: - He, the Just One, shall enter into peace - the peaceable, prosperous possession of the glorious mediatorial kingdom. They shall rest upon their beds - the hand of wrong and oppression can reach these persecuted followers of Christ no more. (But see below.) The perfect man walking in his uprightness. This may be considered as a general declaration. The separated spirit, though disunited from its body walking in conscious existence in the paradise of God, reaping the fruit of righteousness. The word which we render their beds, משכבותם mishkebotham, the learned bishop supposes to be two words; and to be compounded of משכבו mishkabo, his bed, and תם tam, the upright or perfect man. This is the reading both of the Syriac and Vulgate, and it is favored by the Chaldee: and one of De Rossi's MS. has משכבו mishkabo, his bed, without the word תם tam, which has been added by a later hand. Bishop Lowth, as we have seen, adopts this separation of the word and for ינוחו yanuchu, they shall rest, reads ינוה yanuach, he shall rest, which is supported by two of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and by the Vulgate, Septuagint, and Arabic. The word תם tam, taken from משכבותם mishkebotham, should begin the latter clause of the verse; and then the interpolated words, each one, which our translators supplied, may be very well spared. The verse may be then read and paraphrased thus; -

[¶37] He shall enter into peace: he shall rest upon his bed;

[¶38] The perfect man walking in his uprightness.

[¶39] The bed must signify the grave; the walking in uprightness after death, the conscious existence of the happy spirit, and its eternal progression in happiness and perfection: נכחו nechocho, straight before him; proceeding into the unlimited extent of eternal glory, increasing in happiness, and increasing in perfection.

[¶40] My old MS. Bible translates very nervously: -

[¶41] The rigtwise man perishith,

[¶42] And there is not that bethinke in his herte.

[¶43] And men of mercy ben gedrid,

[¶44] For there is not that understonde:

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[¶0] From the face of malice,

[¶1] Gedreid is the rigtwise.

[¶2] Cumm pese: reste it in his bed

[¶3] That geede in his rigt rewlinge.

[¶4] It has been often remarked that, previously to the execution of God's judgments upon a wicked place, he has removed good men from it, that they might not suffer with the wicked. When great and good men are removed by death, or otherwise, from any place, the remaining inhabitants have much cause to tremble.

### Verse 6

[¶6] Among the smooth stones of the stream "Among the smooth stones of the valley" - The Jews were extremely addicted to the practice of many superstitious and idolatrous rites, which the prophet here inveighs against with great vehemence. Of the worship of rude stones consecrated, there are many testimonials of the ancients. They were called βαιτυλοι and βαιτυλια· probably from the stone which Jacob erected at Beth-el, pouring oil upon the top of it. This practice was very common in different ages and places. Arnobius, lib. i., gives an account of his own practice in this respect before he became a Christian: Si quando conspexeram lubricatum lapidem, et ex olivi unguine sordidatum; tanquam inesset vis praesens, adulabar, affabar, et beneficia poscebam nihil sentiente de trunco. "When I have met with a smooth stone, smeared with oil, supposing a spiritual power to be connected with it, I worshipped it, paid my addresses to it, and requested blessings," etc. Clemens Alex., Strom. lib. vii., speaks of a worshipper of every smooth stone in a proverbial way, to denote one given up to superstition. And accordingly Theophrastus has marked this as one strong feature in the character of the superstitious man: Και των λιπαρων λιθων των εν ταις τριοδοις παριων, εκ της ληκυθου ελαιου καταχειν, και επι γονατα πεσων και προσκυνησας απαλλαττεσθαι. "Passing by the anointed stones in the streets, he takes out his phial of oil, and pours it on them; and having fallen on his knees, and made his adorations, he departs. "Kimchi says: "When they found a beautiful polished stone in a brook or river, they paid Divine adoration to it." This idolatry is still prevalent among the Hindoos. The stone which is the object of their adoration is called salgram. They are found about eighty miles from the source of the river Sown, in the viceroyalty of Bahar, on the coast of Bengal. Ayeen Akbery vol. 2 p. 29.

### Verse 8

[¶8] Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance "Behind the door, and the door-posts, hast thou set up thy memorial" - That is, the image of their tutelary gods, or something dedicated to them; in direct opposition to the law of God, which commanded them to write upon the door-posts of their house, and upon their gates, the words of God's law; [Deu 6:9]; [Deu 11:20]. If they chose for them such a situation as more private, it was in defiance of a particular curse denounced in the law against the man who should make a graven or a molten image, and put it in a secret place; [Deu 27:15]. An ancient MS., with another, has אחר achar, without the conjunction ו vau, and.

### Verse 9

[¶10] And thou wentest to the king with ointment "And thou hast visited the king with a present of oil" - That is, the king of Assyria, or Egypt. Hosea, chap, [Hos 12:1], reproaches the Israelites for the same practice: - "They make a covenant with Assyria,

[¶11] And oil is carried to Egypt."

[¶12] It is well known, that in all parts of the east, whoever visits a great person must carry him a present. "It is counted uncivil," says Maundreg, p. 26, "to visit in this country without an offering in hand. All great men expect it as a tribute due to their character and authority; and look upon themselves as affronted, and indeed defrauded, when the compliment is omitted." Hence שור shur, to visit a person, is equivalent to making him a present; and תשורה teshurah signifies a present made on such occasions; as our translators have rightly rendered it, [1Sam 9:7]; on which Jarchi says Menachem exponit תשורה teshurah, quod significat oblationem sive manus, ut aliquis aspiciat faciem regis, aut alicuius magnatis. "Menachem expounds תשורה teshurah of an offering or gift which is presented in order to be admitted into the presence of the king or some great man."

### Verse 10

[¶14] Yet saidst thou not, There is no hope "Thou hast said, There is hope" - In one of the MSS. at Koningsberg, collated by Lilienthal, the words לא אמרת lo amarta, are left in the text unpointed, as suspected; and in the margin the corrector has written ותאמרי vattomari. Now if we compare [Jer 2:25] and [Jer 18:12], we shall find that the subject is in both places quite the same with this of Isaiah; and the sentiment expressed, that of a desperate resolution to continue at all hazards in their idolatrous practices; the very thing that in all reason we might expect here. Probably, therefore, the latter is the true reading in this place. - L.

### Verse 11

[¶16] For laid it to thy heart "Nor revolved it in thy hand" - Eight MSS., (four ancient), and the two oldest editions, with another, add the conjunction ו vau, ולא velo: which is confirmed by all the ancient Versions.

[¶17] Even of old "And winked" - For ומעולם umeolam, which makes no good sense or construction in this place, twenty-three MSS. (seven ancient) and three editions have מעלם, (to be thus pointed מעלם malim); Παρορω, Septuagint; quasi non videns, "as if not seeing," Vulgate. See [Psa 10:1]. The truth of this reading, so confirmed, admits of no doubt. In one of my own MSS. the ו vau has been written, but afterwards struck out. Is it not because I was silent, and winked?

### Verse 12

[¶19] Thy righteousness "My righteousness" - For צדקתך tsidkathech, Thy righteousness, the Syriac, Septuagint, MSS. Alex. and Pachom., and 1. D. II., and Marchal. and οἱ Γ, and the Arabics read צדקי tsidki, My righteousness.

### Verse 13

[¶21] Let thy companies deliver thee "Let thine associates deliver thee" - Thirty-nine MSS. (ten ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, and two of my own, and the two oldest editions have יצילכו yatstsiluchu, plural.

### Verse 14

[¶23] And shall say "Then will I say" - ואמר vaomer, to be pointed as the first person future. They are the words of God, as it is plain from the conclusion of the verse; my people, עמי ammi.

### Verse 15

[¶25] For thus saith the high and lofty One "For thus saith Jehovah, the high and the lofty" - A MS. adds יהוה Yehovah, after אמר amar, and edition Prag. 1518. So the Septuagint, Alex., and Arabic. An ancient MS. adds יה Yah.

[¶26] With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit - Twelve MSS. have את eth, without the conjunction ו vau. Pro ואת veeth, forte legendum ואראה veerah: confer [Psa 113:5], et [Psa 138:6]. - Secker. "We should perhaps read ואראה veerah, instead of ואת veeth. See [Psa 113:5], and [Psa 138:6]."

### Verse 16

[¶28] For I will not contend for ever - The learned have taken a great deal of pains to little purpose on the latter part of this verses which they suppose to be very obscure. After all their labors upon it, I think the best and easiest explication of it is given in the two following elegant passages of the Psalms, which I presume are exactly parallel to it, and very clearly express the same sentiment. "But he in his tender mercy will forgive their sin

[¶29] And will not destroy them;

[¶30] Yea, oftentimes will he turn away his wrath,

[¶31] And will not rouse up his indignation:

[¶32] For he remembereth that they are but flesh,

[¶33] A breath that passeth, and returneth not." [Psa 78:38], [Psa 78:39]. "He will not always contend

[¶34] Neither will he for ever hold his wrath:

[¶35] As a father yearneth towards his children,

[¶36] So is Jehovah tenderly compassionate towards them that fear him For he knoweth our frame;

[¶37] He remembereth that we are but dust." [Psa 103:9], [Psa 103:13], [Psa 103:14].

[¶38] In the former of these two passages the second line seems to be defective both in measure and sense. I suppose the word אותם otham, then is lost at the end; which seems to be acknowledged by the Chaldee and Vulgate, who render as if they had read ולא ישחית אותם velo yaschith otham. - L.

[¶39] For the spirit - רוח ruach, the animal life.

[¶40] And the souls - נשמות neshamoth, the immortal spirits. The Targum understands this of the resurrection. I will restore the souls of the dead, i.e., to their bodies.

### Verse 17

[¶42] For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth "Because of his iniquity for a short time was I wroth" - For בצעו bitso, I read בצע betsa, a little while, from בצע batsa, he cut of, as the Septuagint read and render it, βραχυ τι, "a certain short space." Propter iniquitatem avaritiae ejus, "because of the iniquity of his avarice," the rendering of the Vulgate, which our translators and I believe all others follow, is surely quite beside the purpose.

### Verse 18

[¶44] I have seen his ways - Probably these verses refer to the restoration of the Jews from captivity.

## 850. Isaiah · 70 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/850/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/850/#p-N

### Verse 19

[¶1] I create the fruit of the lips - "The sacrifice of praise," saith St. Paul, [Heb 13:15], "is the fruit of the lips." God creates this fruit of the lips, by giving new subject and cause of thanksgiving by his mercies conferred on those among his people, who acknowledge and bewail their transgressions, and return to him. The great subject of thanksgiving is peace, reconciliation and pardon, offered to them that are nigh, and to them that are afar off, not only to the Jew, but also to the Gentile, as St. Paul more than once applies those terms, [Eph 2:13], [Eph 2:17]. See also [Act 2:39].

[¶2] Peace to him that is far off "That is, to the penitent; and to him that is near, i.e., the righteous." - Kimchi.

### Verse 21

[¶4] There is no peace, saith my God - For אלהי Elohai, twenty-two MSS. (five ancient) of Kennicott's, thirty of De Rossi's, and one ancient of my own, read יהוה Yehovah; the Vulgate, Septuagint, Alex., and Arabic, and three MSS. have both. This verse has reference to the nineteenth. The perseveringly wicked and impenitent are excluded from all share in that peace above mentioned, that reconcilement and pardon which is promised to the penitent only. The forty-eighth chapter ends with the same declaration, to express the exclusion of the unbelievers and impenitent from the benefit of the foregoing promises. - L.

### Introduction

[¶6] This elegant chapter contains a severe reproof of the Jews on account of their vices, particularly their hypocrisy in practising and relying on outward ceremonies, such as fasting and bodily humiliation, without true repentance, [Isa 58:1-5]. It then lays down a clear and comprehensive summary of the duties they owed to their fellow creatures, [Isa 58:6], [Isa 58:7]. Large promises of happiness and prosperity are likewise annexed to the performance of these duties in a variety of the most beautiful and striking images, [Isa 58:8-12]. Great temporal and spiritual blessedness of those who keep holy the Sabbath day, [Isa 58:13], [Isa 58:14].

### Verse 1

[¶8] Cry aloud, spare not - Never was a louder cry against the hypocrisy, nor a more cutting reproof of the wickedness, of a people professing a national established religion, having all the forms of godliness without a particle of its power. This chapter has been often appointed to be read on political fast days for the success of wars carried on for - God knows what purposes, and originating in - God knows what motives. Politically speaking, was ever any thing more injudicious?

### Verse 3

[¶10] Have we adopted our soul "Have we afflicted our souls" - Twenty-seven MSS. (six ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, thirty-six of De Rossi's, and two of my own, and the old edition of 1488 have the noun in the plural number, נפשינו naphsheynu, our souls; and so the Septuagint, Chaldee, and Vulgate. This reading is undoubtedly genuine.

[¶11] In the day of your fast ye find pleasure - Fast days are generally called holidays, and holidays are days of idleness and pleasure. In numberless cases the fast is turned into a feast.

[¶12] And exact all your labors - Some disregard the most sacred fast, and will oblige their servant to work all day long; others use fast days for the purpose of settling their accounts, posting up their books, and drawing out their bills to be ready to collect their debts. These are sneaking hypocrites; the others are daringly irreligious.

### Verse 4

[¶14] Ye fast for strife and debate - How often is this the case! A whole nation are called to fast to implore God's blessing on wars carried on for the purposes of wrath and ambition.

[¶15] To smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day "To smite with the fist the poor. Wherefore fast ye unto me in this manner" - I follow the version of the Septuagint, which gives a much better sense than the present reading of the Hebrew. Instead of רשע לא resha lo, they seem to have read in their copy רש על מה לי rash al mah lli. The four first letters are the same, but otherwise divided in regard to the words; the four last are lost, and א aleph added in their place, in order to make some sort of sense with רשע ל. The version of the Septuagint is, και τυπτετε τυγμαις ταπεινον· ἱνα τι μοι νηστευετε - as above.

### Verse 6

[¶17] Let the oppressed go free - How can any nation pretend to fast or worship God at all, or dare to profess that they believe in the existence of such a Being, while they carry on the slave trade, and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies, of men! O ye most flagitious of knaves, and worst of hypocrites, cast off at once the mask of religion; and deepen not your endless perdition by professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while ye continue in this traffic!

### Verse 7

[¶19] Deal thy bread to the hungry - But this thou canst not do, if thou eat it thyself. When a man fasts, suppose he do it through a religious motive, he should give the food of that day, from which he abstains, to the poor and hungry, who, in the course of providence, are called to sustain many involuntary fasts, besides suffering general privations. Wo to him who saves a day's victuals by his religious fast! He should either give them or their value in money to the poor. See [Isa 58:6].

[¶20] That thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house "To bring the wandering poor into thy house" - πτωχους αστεγους, Septuagint; egenos vagosque, Vulgate; and מטלטלין metaltelin, Chaldee. They read, instead of מרודים merudim, הנודים hanudim. מר mer is upon a rasure in the Bodleian MS. The same MS. reads ביתה bayethah, in domum, "into the house." - L.

### Verse 8

[¶22] And thine health shall spring forth speedily "And thy wounds shall speedily be healed over" - Et cicatrix vulneris tui cito obducetur "And the scar of thy wounds shall be speedily removed." Aquila's Version, as reported by Jerome, with which agrees that of the Chaldee.

[¶23] The glory "And the glory" - Sixteen MSS. (five ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate add the conjunction ו vau, וכבוד vechabod.

### Verse 10

[¶25] And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry "If thou bring forth thy bread to the hungry" - "To draw out thy soul to the hungry," as our translators rightly enough express the present Hebrew text, is an obscure phrase, and without example in any other place. But instead of נפשך naphshecha, thy soul, eight MSS. (three ancient) of Kennicott's and three of De Rossi's read לחמך lachmecha, thy bread; and so the Syriac renders it. The Septuagint express both words, τον αρτον εκ της ψυχης σου, "thy bread from thy soul." I cannot help thinking, however, that this reading is a gloss, and should not be adopted. To draw out the soul in relieving the poor, is to do it, not of constraint or necessity, but cheerfully, and is both nervous and elegant. His soul pities and his hand gives.

### Verse 11

[¶27] And make fat thy bones "And he shall renew thy strength" - Chaldaeus forte legit יחכיף עצמתך yachaliph otsmathecha; confer cap. [Isa 40:29], [Isa 40:31], et [Isa 41:1]. - Secker. "The Chaldee perhaps read יחליף עצמתך yachaliph otsmathecha. "The Chaldee has וגופך יחיי בחיי עלמא veguphach vechaiyey bechaiyey alma, "and he will vivify thy body in life eternal." The rest of the ancients seem not to know what to make of יחליץ yachalits; and the rendering of the Vulgate, which seems to be the only proper one, ossa tua liberabit, "he will deliver thy bones," makes no sense. I follow this excellent emendation; to favor which it is still farther to be observed that three MSS., instead of עצמתיך atsmotheycha, have עצמתך otsmathecha, singular. - L.

### Verse 12

[¶29] The restorer of paths to dwell in "The restorer of paths to be frequented by inhabitants" - To this purpose it is rendered by the Syriac, Symmachus, and Theodotion.

### Verse 13

[¶31] If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath - The meaning of this seems to be, that they should be careful not to take their pleasure on the Sabbath day, by paying visits, and taking country jaunts; not going, as Kimchi interprets it, more than a Sabbath day's journey, which was only two thousand cubits beyond the city's suburbs. How vilely is this rule transgressed by the inhabitants of this land! They seem to think that the Sabbath was made only for their recreation!

[¶32] From doing thy pleasure - The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee, for עשות asoth, manifestly express מעשות measoth. So likewise a MS. has it, but with the omission of the words שבת רגלך shabbath raglecha. - L.

[¶33] The holy of the Lord "And the holy feast of Jehovah" - Twenty-eight MSS. (seven ancient) add the conjunction ו vau, ולקדוש velikedosh; and so the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate. One of my own has the same reading.

[¶34] Nor speaking thine own words "From speaking vain words" - It is necessary to add some epithet to make out the sense; the Septuagint say, angry words; the Chaldee, words of violence. If any such epithet is lost here, the safest way is to supply it by the prophet's own expression, [Isa 58:9], ודבר און vedabar aven, vain words; that is, profane, impious, injurious, etc. "The additional epithet seems unnecessary; the Vulgate and Syriac have it not; and the sense is good without it; two ways, first by taking ודבר vedabar for a noun, and דבר dabur for the participle pahul, and rendering, - 'From pursuing thy pleasure, and the thing resolved on.'

[¶35] Or, secondly, by supposing the force of the preposition מ mem to have been continued from the verb ממצוא mimmetso to the verb ודבר vedabber immediately following; and rendering, - 'From executing thy pleasure, and from speaking words concerning it.'

[¶36] But the first seems the easier rendering."

[¶37] Dr. Jubb.

### Verse 14

[¶39] Then shalt thou delight thyself - If all fasts and religious observances be carried on in the spirit and manner recommended above, God's blessing will attend every ordinance. But in public fasts, prescribed not in the Book of God, but by the rulers of nations in general (very unfit persons) care should be taken that the cause is good, and that God's blessing may be safely implored in it.

[¶40] France has lately fasted and prayed that they might be able to subjugate Spain, restore and establish the horrible inquisition, and utterly destroy all the liberties of the people! Is this such a fast as God hath chosen? - a.d. 1823.

### Introduction

[¶42] Thy chapter contains a more general reproof of the wickedness of the Jews, [Isa 59:1-8]. After this they are represented confessing their sins, and deploring the unhappy consequences of them, [Isa 59:9-15]. On this act of humiliation God, ever ready to pardon the penitent, promises that he will have mercy on them; that the Redeemer will come, mighty to save; and that he will deliver his people, subdue his enemies and establish a new and everlasting covenant, [Isa 59:16-21].

[¶43] The foregoing elegant chapter contained a severe reproof of the Jews, in particular for their hypocrisy in pretending to make themselves accepted with God by fasting and outward humiliation without true repentance; while they still continued to oppress the poor, and indulge their own passions and vices; with great promises however of God's favor on condition of their reformation. This chapter contains a more general reproof of their wickedness, bloodshed, violence, falsehood, injustice. At [Isa 59:9] they are introduced as making, themselves, an ample confession of their sins, and deploring their wretched state in consequence of them. On this act of humiliation a promise is given that God, in his mercy and zeal for his people, will rescue them from this miserable condition, that the Redeemer will come like a mighty hero to deliver them; he will destroy his enemies, convert both Jews and Gentiles to himself, and give them a new covenant, and a law which shall never be abolished.

[¶44] As this chapter is remarkable for the beauty, strength, and variety of the images with which it abounds; so is it peculiarly distinguished by the elegance of the composition, and the exact construction of the sentences. From the first verse to the two last it falls regularly into stanzas of four lines, (see Prelim. Dissert. p. xxi.), which I have endeavored to express as nearly as possible in the form of the original. - L.

## 851. Isaiah · 71 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/851/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/851/#p-N

### Verse 2

[¶1] His face - For פנים panim, faces, I read panaiv, his face. So the Syriac, Septuagint, Alexandrian, Arabic, and Vulgate. פני panai, MS. Forte legendum פני panai, nam מ mem, sequitur, et loquitur Deus; confer cap. [Isa 58:14]. "We should perhaps read פני panai; for מ mem follows, and God is the speaker." - Secker. I rather think that the speech of God was closed with the last chapter, and that this chapter is delivered in the person of the prophet. - L.

### Verse 3

[¶3] Your tongue "And your tongue" - An ancient MS., and the Septuagint and Vulgate, add the conjunction.

### Verse 4

[¶5] They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity - There is a curious propriety in this mode of expression; a thought or purpose is compared to conception; a word or act, which is the consequence of it, to the birth of a child. From the third to the fifteenth verse inclusive may be considered a true statement of the then moral state of the Jewish people; and that they were, in the most proper sense of the word, guilty of the iniquities with which they are charged.

### Verse 8

[¶7] Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace "Whoever goeth in them knoweth not peace" - For בה bah, singular, read בם bam, plural, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Chaldee. The ה he is upon a rasure in one MS. Or, for נתיבתיהם nethibotheyhem, plural, we must read נתיבתם nethibatham, singular, as it is in an ancient MS., to preserve the grammatical concord. - L.

### Verse 10

[¶9] We stumble at noon day as in the night "We stumble at mid-day, as in the twilight" - I adopt here an emendation of Houbigant, נשגגה nishgegah, instead of the second, נגששה negasheshah, the repetition of which has a poverty and inelegance extremely unworthy of the prophet, and unlike his manner. The mistake is of long standing, being prior to all the ancient versions. It was a very easy and obvious mistake, and I have little doubt of our having recovered the true reading in this ingenious correction.

### Verse 11

[¶11] But it is far off from us "And it is far distant from us" - The conjunction ו vau must necessarily be prefixed to the verb, as the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate found it in their copies; ורחקה verachakah, "and far off."

### Verse 14

[¶13] Justice standeth afar off - צדקה tsedakah, righteousness, put here, says Kimchi, for alms to the poor. This casts some light on [Mat 6:1] : "Take heed that you do not your alms," ελεημοσυνην. But the best copies have δικαιοσυνην, righteousness; the former having been inserted in the text at first merely as the explanation of the genuine and original word.

### Verse 15

[¶15] And the Lord saw it "And Jehovah saw it" - This third line of the stanza appears manifestly to me to be imperfect by the loss of a phrase. The reader will perhaps more perfectly conceive my idea of the matter if I endeavor to supply the supposed defect, I imagine it might have stood originally in this manner: - לו ויחר יהוה וירא lo veyachar Yehovah vaiyar משפט אין כי בעיניו וירע mishpat ein ki beeyinaiv veyera "And Jehovah saw it, and he was wroth;

[¶16] And it displeased him, that there was no judgment."

[¶17] We have had already many examples of mistakes of omission; this, if it be such, is very ancient, being prior to all the versions. - L.

### Verse 16

[¶19] And wondered that there was no intercessor - This and the following verses some of the most eminent rabbins understand as spoken of the Messiah. Kimchi says that Rabbi Joshua ben Levi proposes this objection: "It is written, 'Behold, he will come in the clouds of heaven as the son of man,' [Dan 7:13]; and elsewhere it is written, 'He cometh lowly, and riding upon an ass,' [Zac 9:9]. How can these texts be reconciled? Thus: If the Jews have merit, he will come unto them in the clouds of heaven; but if they be destitute of merit, he will come unto them riding upon an ass." Now out of their own mouth they may be condemned. They were truly destitute of all merit when Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem riding upon an ass, according to the letter of the above prophecy; and they neither acknowledged nor received him. And that they were destitute of merit their destruction by the Romans, which shortly followed their rejection of him, sufficiently proves.

### Verse 17

[¶21] For clothing "For his clothing" - תלבשת tilbosheth. "I cannot but think that this word, תלבשת tilbosheth, is an interpolation.

[¶22] 1. It is in no one ancient version.

[¶23] 2. It is redundant in the sense, as it is before expressed in בגדי bigdey.

[¶24] 3. It makes the hemistich just so much longer than it ought to be, if it is compared with the others adjoining.

[¶25] 4. It makes a form of construction in this clause less elegant than that in the others.

[¶26] 5. It might probably be in some margin a various reading for בגדי bigdey, and thence taken into the text.

[¶27] This is more probable, as its form is such as it would be if it were in regimine, as it must be before נקם nakam." - Dr. Jubb. Two sorts of armor are mentioned: a breast-plate and a helmet, to bring righteousness and salvation to those who fear him; and the garments of vengeance and the cloak of zeal for the destruction of all those who finally oppose him, and reject his Gospel.

### Verse 18

[¶29] According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay "He is mighty to recompense; he that is mighty to recompense will requite" - The former part of this verse, as it stands at present in the Hebrew text, seems to me to be very imperfect, and absolutely unintelligible. The learned Vitringa has taken a great deal of pains upon it after Cocceius, who he says is the only one of all the interpreters, ancient or modern, who has at all understood it, and has opened the way for him. He thinks that both of them together have clearly made out the sense; I do not expect that any third person will ever be of that opinion. He says, Videtur sententia ad verbum sonare: quasi propter facta [adversariorum] quasi propter rependet; excandescentiam, etc., et sic reddidit Pagnimus. "According to the height of their demerits, he will repay them to the height: fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies," etc. - Waterland. This he converts, by a process which will not much edify my reader, into Secundum summe merita, secundum summe (merita) rependet; which is his translation. They that hold the present Hebrew text to be absolutely infallible must make their way through it as they can; but they ought surely to give us somewhat that has at least the appearance of sense. However, I hope the case here is not quite desperate; the Chaldee leads us very fairly to the correction of the text, which is both corrupted and defective. The paraphrase runs thus: מרי גמליא הוא גמלא ישלם marey gumlaiya hu simla yeshallem, "The Lord of retribution, he will render recompense." He manifestly read בעל baal instead of כעל keal. מרי גמליא marey gumlaiya is בעל גמלות baal gemuloth; as מרי מרירותא marey merirutha is בעל אף baal aph. [Pro 22:24]. And so in the Chaldee paraphrase on [Isa 35:4] : מרי גמליא יי הוא יתגלי marey gamlaiya yeya hu yithgeley, "The Lord of retribution, Jehovah himself, shall be revealed;" words very near to those of the prophet in this place.

[¶30] The second כעל keal, which the Chaldee has omitted, must be read בעל baal likewise. With this only addition to the Chaldee, which the Hebrew text justifies, we are supplied with the following clear reading of the passage: - הוא גמלות בעל hu gemuloth baal ישלם גמלות בעל yeshallem gemuloth baal The Lord of retributions he

[¶31] The Lord of retributions, shall repay.

[¶32] The כ caph in כעל keal twice seems to have been at first ב beth, in MS. This verse in the Septuagint is very imperfect. In the first part of it they give us no assistance: the latter part is wholly omitted in the printed copies; but it is thus supplied by MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. II: Τοις ὑπεναντιοις αυτου· αμυναν τοις εχθροις αυτου· ταις νησοις αποδομα αποτισει. - L.

### Verse 19

[¶34] When the enemy shall come in like a flood - This all the rabbins refer to the coming of the Messiah. If ye see a generation which endures much tribulation, then (say they) expect him, according to what is written: "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."

[¶35] Kimchi says, he that was the standard-bearer always began the battle by first smiting at the enemy. Here then the Spirit of the Lord is the standard-bearer, and strikes the first blow. They who go against sin and Satan with the Holy Spirit at their head, are sure to win the day.

[¶36] The Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him "Which a strong wind driveth along" - Quam spiritus Domini cogit, "Which the Spirit of the Lord drives on." - Vulg. נוססה nosesah, pihel a נוס nus fugit. Kimchi says his father thus explained this word: נוססה nosesah interpretatur in significatione fugae, et ait, spiritus Domini fugabit hostem;-nam secundum eum נוססה nosesah est ex conjugatione quadrata, ejusque radix est נוס nus: "nosesah he interpreted in the signification of flight, - The Spirit of the Lord shall put the enemy to flight; for according to him the root of the word is נוס nus, he put to flight." The object of this action I explain otherwise. The conjunction ו vau, prefixed to רוח ruach, seems necessary to the sense, it is added by the corrector in one of the Koningsberg MSS., collated by Lilienthal. It is added also in one of my own.

### Verse 20

[¶38] Unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob "And shall turn away iniquity from Jacob" - So the Septuagint and St. Paul, [Rom 11:26], reading instead of לשבי leshabey and ביעקב beyaacob, והשיב veheshib and מיעקב meyaacob. The Syriac likewise reads והשיב veheshib; and the Chaldee, to the same sense, ולהשיב ulehashib. Our translators have expressed the sense of the present reading of the Hebrew text: "And unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob."

### Verse 21

[¶40] This is my covenant with them "This is the covenant which I make with them" - For אותם otham, them, twenty-four MSS., (four ancient), and nine editions have אתם ittam, with them.

[¶41] My Spirit that is upon thee - This seems to be an address to the Messiah; Kimchi says it is to the prophet, informing him that the spirit of prophecy should be given to all Israelites in the days of the Messiah, as it was then given to him, i.e., to the prophet.

[¶42] And my words which I have put in thy mouth - Whatsoever Jesus spoke was the word and mind of God himself; and must, as such, be implicitly received.

[¶43] Nor out of the mouth of thy seed - The same doctrines which Jesus preached, all his faithful ministers preach; and his seed - genuine Christians, who are all born of God, believe; and they shall continue, and the doctrines remain in the seed's seed through all generations - for ever and ever. This is God's covenant, ordered in all things and sure.

## 852. Isaiah · 72 of 79

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/852/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/852/#p-N

### Introduction

[¶1] The glorious prospect displayed in this chapter seems to have elevated the prophet even above his usual majesty. The subject is the very flourishing condition of the Church of Jesus Christ at that period of the Gospel dispensation when both Jews and Gentiles shall become one fold under one Shepherd. The imagery employed is of the most consolatory and magnificent description. This blessed state of the world shall follow a time of gross darkness, [Isa 60:1], [Isa 60:2]. The universal diffusion of vital godliness beautifully set forth by a great variety of images, [Isa 60:3-14]. The everlasting duration and spotless purity of this kingdom of Christ, [Isa 60:15-21]. A time appointed in the counsels of Jehovah for the commencement of this happy period; and when this time arrives, the particulars of the prophecy shall have a speedy accomplishment, [Isa 60:22].

[¶2] The subject of this chapter is the great increase and flourishing state of the Church of God by the conversion and accession of the heathen nations to it, which is set forth in such ample and exalted terms, as plainly show that the full completion of this prophecy is reserved for future times. This subject is displayed in the most splendid colors under a great variety of images highly poetical, designed to give a general idea of the glories of that perfect state of the Church of God which we are taught to expect in the latter times; when the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, and the Jews shall be converted and gathered from their dispersions, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

[¶3] Of the use in prophecy of general or common poetical images, in setting forth the greatness and importance of a future event universally, without descending to particulars, or too minutely explaining circumstances, I have already pretty largely treated in the twentieth prelection on the Hebrew poetry; and have more than once observed in these notes that such images are not always to he applied particularly to persons and things, and were never intended to be minutely explained. I shall add here the opinion of a very learned and judicious person upon this subject: "It is, I think, a mark of right understanding in the language of prophecy, and in the design of prophecy too, to keep to what appears the design and meaning of the prophecy in general, and what the whole of it laid together points out to us, and not to suffer a warm imagination to mislead us from the real intention of the spirit of prophecy, by following uncertain applications of the parts of it." Lowman on the Revelation, note on [Rev 19:21] (note). - L. To this testimony I must add my own. This is one of the most glorious chapters in the whole of the Old Testament. The splendor, glory, and excellence of the Church of Christ are here pointed out in language which the Spirit of God alone is capable of using. But when shall this state of blessedness take place? Lord, thou only knowest.

### Verse 1

[¶5] Arise - Call upon God through Christ, for his salvation; and,

[¶6] Shine - אורי ori, be illuminated: for till thou arise and call upon God, thou wilt never receive true light.

[¶7] For thy light is come - כי בא אורך ki ba orech, for thy light cometh. The Messiah is at the door; who, while he is a light to lighten the Gentiles, will be the glory - the effulgence, of his people Israel.

### Verse 2

[¶9] Darkness shall cover the earth - This is the state of the Gentile people.

### Verse 3

[¶11] And the Gentiles shall come - This has been in some sort already fulfilled. The Gentiles have received the light of the Gospel from the land of Judea, and the Gentile kings have embraced that Gospel; so that many nations of the earth are full of the doctrine of Christ.

### Verse 4

[¶13] Shall be nursed at thy side "Shall be carried at the side" - For תאמנה teamanah, shall be nursed, the Septuagint and Chaldee read תנשאנה tinnasenah, shall be carried. A MS. has על כתף תנשאנה al catheph tinnasenah, "shall be carried on the shoulder;" instead of על צד תאמנה al tsad teamanah, "shall be nursed on the side." Another MS. has both כתף catheph and צד tsad. Another MS. has it thus: תאמנה:תנשאנה tinnasenah: teamanah, with a line drawn over the first word. Sir John Chardin says that it is the general custom in the east to carry their children astride upon the hip with the arm round their body. His MS. note on this place is as follows: - Coutume en Orient de porter les enfans sur le coste a; califourchon sur la hanche: cette facon est generale aux Indes; les enfans se tiennent comme cela, et la personne qui les porte les embrasse et serre par le corps; parceque sont (ni) emmaillottes, ni en robes qui les embrassent. "In the east it is the custom to carry the children on the haunch, with the legs astride. This is the general custom in India. The children support themselves in this way, and the arm of the nurse goes round the body and presses the child close to the side; and this they can easily do, as the children are not swathed, nor encumbered with clothes." Non brachiis occidentalium more, sed humeris, divaricatis tibiis, impositos circumferunt. "They carry them about, not in their arms after the manner of the western nations, but on their shoulders; the children being placed astride." Cotovic. Iter. Syr. cap. 14. This last quotation seems to favor the reading על כתף by al catheph, on the shoulder, as the Septuagint likewise do: but upon the whole I think that על צד תנשאנה al tsad tinnasenah is the true reading, which the Chaldee favors; and I have accordingly followed it. See [Isa 66:12]. - L. This mode of carrying children is as common in India as carrying them in the arms is in Europe.

### Verse 5

[¶15] Then thou shalt see "Then shalt thou fear" - For תראי tirai, thou shalt see, as ours and much the greater number of the translators, ancient and modern, render it, forty MSS. (ten ancient) of Kennicott's, and twenty-eight of De Rossi's, with one ancient of my own, and the old edition of 1488, have תיראי tirai, thou shalt fear: the true reading, confirmed by the perfect parallelism of the sentences: the heart ruffled and dilated in the second line answering to the fear and joy expressed in the first. The Prophet Jeremiah, [Jer 33:9], has the same natural and elegant sentiment: - "And this city shall become to me a name of joy;

[¶16] A praise and an honor for all the nations of the earth;

[¶17] Which shall hear all the good that I do unto them:

[¶18] And they shall fear, and they shall tremble, at all the goodness

[¶19] And at all the prosperity that I procure unto her."

[¶20] And David: - "I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." [Psa 139:14]

[¶21] His tibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas

[¶22] Percipit atque horror.

[¶23] Lucret. 3:28.

[¶24] Recenti mens trepidat metu,

[¶25] Plenoque Bacchi pectore turbidum

[¶26] Laetatur.

[¶27] Hor. Carm. 2:19. 50:5.

### Verse 6

[¶29] The praises of the Lord "And the praise of Jehovah" - Thirty-three MSS. and three editions have ותהלת uthehillath, in the singular number; and so read the ancient versions, and one of my own MSS.

### Verse 7

[¶31] The rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee - Vitringa on the place understands their ministering, and ascending or going up on the altar, as offering themselves voluntarily: ipsi se, non expectato sacerdote alto, gloriae et sanctificationi divini nominis ultro ac libenter oblaturi. "They, waiting for no priest, go and freely offer themselves to the glory and sanctification of the sacred name." This gives a very elegant and poetical turn to the image. It was a general notion that prevailed with sacrificers among the heathen, that the victim's being brought without reluctance to the altar was a good omen; and the contrary a bad one. Sabinos petit aliquanto tristior; quod sacrificanti hostia aufugerat. Sueton. Titus, cap. 10. Accessit dirum omen, profugus altaribus tauris. "It was an omen of dreadful portent when the victim fled away from the altar." Tacit. Hist. 3:56. - L.

### Verse 8

[¶33] And as the doves to their windows "And like doves upon the wing?" - Instead of אל el, to, forty-two MSS. of Kennicott's, and one of mine, have by על, upon. For ארבתיהם arubboteyhem, their windows, read אברתיהם ebrotheyhem, their wings, transposing a letter. - Houbigant. The Septuagint render it συν νεοσσοις, "with their young;" they read אפרחיהם ephrocheyhem, nearer to the latter than to the present reading. - L.

### Verse 9

[¶35] The ships of Tarshish first "The ships of Tarshish among the first" - For בראשנה barishonah twenty-five MSS. and the Syriac read כבראשנה kebarishonah, "as at the first." The ships of Tarshish AS at the first; that is, as they brought gold and silver in the days of Solomon.

### Verse 13

[¶37] And I will make the place of my feet glorious "And that I may glorify the place whereon I rest my feet" - The temple of Jerusalem was called the house of God, and the place of his rest or residence. The visible symbolical appearance of God, called by the Jews the schechinah, was in the most holy place, between the wings of the cherubim, above the ark. This is considered as the throne of God, presiding as King over the Jewish state; and as a footstool is a necessary appendage to a throne, (see note on [Isa 52:2] (note)), the ark is considered as the footstool of God, and is so called, [Psa 99:6]; [1Chr 28:2].

[¶38] The glory of Lebanon - That is, the cedar.

### Verse 19

[¶40] Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee "Nor by night shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee" - This line, as it stands in the present text, seems to be defective. The Septuagint and Chaldee both express the night, which is almost necessary to answer to day in the preceding line, as well as to perfect the sense here. I therefore think that we ought, upon the authority of the Septuagint and Chaldee, to read either ולילה velailah, and by night, instead of ולנגה ulenogah, and for brightness; or ולנגה בלילה ulenogah ballailah, adding the word בלילה ballailah, by night. - L.

### Verse 21

[¶42] Of my planting - מטעי mattai; so, with the Keri, read forty-four MSS. (seven ancient) and six editions; with which agree the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.

### Verse 22

[¶44] I the Lord will hasten it in his time - There is a time set for the fulfillment of this prophecy: that time must come before it begins to take place; but when it does begin, the whole will be performed in a short space. It is not, therefore, the time determined for the event that shall be hastened, but all the circumstances of the event; all the parts of the prediction shall be speedily completed. I the Lorde in hys tyme sodeynly schal boun thys. - Old MS. Bible. And because it is the Lord, therefore it will be done: for although it be difficult, he is almighty.

## 853. Isaiah · 73 of 79

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### Introduction

[¶1] The subject of the preceding chapter is continued in this; and to give it the greater solemnity, the Messiah is introduced describing his character and office, and confirming the large promises made before, [Isa 61:1-9]. In consequence of this the Jewish Church is introduced, praising God for the honor done her by her restoration to favor, and by to accession of the Gentiles, which is beautifully described by allusions to the rich pontifical dress of the high priest; a happy similitude to express the ornaments of a restored nation and of a renewed mind, [Isa 61:10]. Certainty of the prophecy illustrated by a figure drawn from the vegetable kingdom, [Isa 61:11].

### Verse 1

[¶3] The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me "The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me" - The Septuagint, Vulgate, and St. Luke, ([Luk 4:18]), and a MS., and two old editions omit the word אדני Adonai, the Lord; which was probably added to the text through the superstition of the Jews, to prevent the pronunciation of the word יהוה Jehovah following. See Kennicott on the state of the printed Hebrew text, vol. i., p. 610.

[¶4] In most of Isaiah's prophecies there is a primary and secondary sense, or a remote subject illustrated by one that is near. The deliverance of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon is constantly used to shadow forth the salvation of men by Jesus Christ. Even the prophet himself is a typical person, and is sometimes intended to represent the great Savior. It is evident from [Luk 4:18] that this is a prophecy of our blessed Lord and his preaching; and yet it is as evident that it primarily refers to Isaiah preaching the glad tidings of deliverance to the Jews.

[¶5] The opening of the prison "Perfect liberty" - פקח קוח pekach koach. Ten MSS. of Kennicott's, several of De Rossi's, and one of my own, with the Complutensian, have פקחקוח pekachkoach in one word; and so the Septuagint and Vulgate appear to have taken it: not merely opening of prisons, but every kind of liberty - complete redemption.

[¶6] The proclaiming of perfect liberty to the bound, and the year of acceptance with Jehovah. is a manifest allusion to the proclaiming of the year of jubilee by sound of trumpet. See [Lev 25:9], etc. This was a year of general release of debts and obligations, of bondmen and bondwomen, of lands and possessions which had been sold from the families and tribes to which they belonged. Our Savior, by applying this text to himself, ([Luk 4:18], [Luk 4:19]), a text so manifestly relating to the institution above mentioned, plainly declares the typical design of that institution.

### Verse 3

[¶8] To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion "To impart gladness to the mourners of Zion" - A word necessary to the sense is certainly lost in this place, of which the ancient Versions have preserved no traces. Houbigant, by conjecture, inserts the word ששון sason, gladness, taken from the line next but one below, where it stands opposed to אבל ebel, sorrow or mourning, as the word lost here was to אבלי abeley, mourners: I follow him. - L.

[¶9] Beauty for ashes "A beautiful crown instead of ashes" - In times of mourning the Jews put on sackcloth, or coarse and sordid raiment, and spread dust and ashes on their heads; on the contrary, splendid clothing and ointment poured on the head were the signs of joy. "Feign thyself to be a mourner," says Joab to the woman of Tekoah, "and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil," [2Sam 14:2]. These customs are at large expressed in the Book of Judith: "She pulled off the sackcloth which she had on, and put off the garments of her widowhood, and washed her body all over with water and anointed herself with precious ointment, and braided the hair of her head, and put on a tire [mitre, marg.] upon it; and put on her garments of gladness;" chap. 10:3. - L. פאר תחת אפר peer tachath ephar, glory for ashes; a paronomasia which the prophet often uses: a chaplet, crown, or other ornament of the head (for so the Vulgate renders the word here and in the both verse; in which last place the Septuagint agree in the same rendering), instead of dust and ashes, which before covered it; and the costly ointments used on occasions of festivity, instead of the ensigns of sorrow. - L.

[¶10] Trees of righteousness "Trees approved" - Hebrews oaks of righteousness or truth; that is, such as by their flourishing condition should show that they were indeed "the scion of God's planting, and the work of his hands;" under which images, in the preceding chapter, [Isa 60:21], the true servants of God, in a highly improved state of the Church, were represented; that is, says Vitringa on that place, "commendable for the strength of their faith, their durability, and firmness."

[¶11] Verse 4 "And they that spring from thee" - A word is lost here likewise. After ובנו ubanu, "they shall build," add ממך mimmecha, they that spring from thee. Four MSS. have it so, (two of them ancient), and one of mine has it in the margin, and it is confirmed by [Isa 58:12], where the sentence is the very same, this word being here added. Kimchi makes the same remark: "the word ממך mimmecha is omitted here; but is found in [Isa 58:12]."

[¶12] The desolations of many generations - It seems that these words cannot refer to the Jews in the Balbylonish captivity, for they were not there many generations; but it may refer to their dispersions and state of ruin since the advent of our Lord; and consequently this may be a promise of the restoration of the Jewish people.

### Verse 5

[¶14] Strangers shall - feed your flocks - Gentiles shall first preach to you the salvation of Christ, and feed with Divine knowledge the Jewish congregations.

### Verse 7

[¶16] For your shame "Instead of your shame" - The translation of this verse, which is very confused, and probably corrupted in the Hebrew, is taken from the Syriac Version; except that the latter has not expressed the word משנה mishneh, double, in the first place. Five MSS. add the conjunction ו vau to שמחת simchath. The Syriac reads תרנו taronnu, and תירשו tirashu, in the second person, "ye shall rejoice, ye shall inherit. "And for להם lahem, to them, two MSS., (one of them ancient), three of De Rossi's, and the Syriac, read לכם lachem, to you, in the second person likewise.

[¶17] The Version of the Septuagint is imperfect in this place; the first half of the verse is entirely omitted in all the printed copies. It is supplied by MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 in the following manner: - Αντι της αισχυνης ὑμων της διπλης, Και αντι της εντροπης αγαλλιασεται ἡ μερις αυτων· Δια τουτο την γην αυτων εκ δευτερου- "Instead of your shame ye shall have double,

[¶18] And instead of your confusion their portion shall rejoice;

[¶19] Therefore, they shall possess their land a second time."

[¶20] In which the two MSS. agree, except that 1. D. 2 has by mistake ἡμερας, day, for ἡ μερις, the part. And Cod. Marchal., in the margin, has pretty nearly the same supplement as from Theodotion. - L.

### Verse 8

[¶22] I hate robbery for burnt-offering "Who hate rapine and iniquity" - The Syriac, and Chaldee prefix the conjunction ו vau, instead of the preposition ב beth, to עולה olah, which they render iniquity or oppression; and so the Septuagint, αδικιας. The difference lies in the punctuation; בעולה beolah, in a burnt-offering בעולה beavelah, in iniquity. The letters are the same in both words. Five of De Rossi's MSS. confirm this reading.

### Verse 9

[¶24] Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles - Both Jews and Gentiles are to make but one fold under one shepherd, Christ Jesus. But still, notwithstanding this, they may retain their peculiarity and national distinction; so that though they are known to be Christians, yet they shall appear to be converted Jews. After their conversion to Christianity this will necessarily be the case for a long time. Strange nations are not so speedily amalgamated, as to lose their peculiar cast of features, and other national distinctions.

### Verse 10

[¶26] I will greatly rejoice in the Lord - These may be the words of the Jews now converted, and brought into the Church of Christ, and with the Gentiles made fellow heirs of the blessings of the new covenant.

[¶27] As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments "As the bridegroom decketh himself with a priestly crown" - An allusion to the magnificent dress of the high priest, when performing his functions; and particularly to the mitre, and crown or plate of gold on the front of it, [Exo 29:6]. The bonnet or mitre of the priests also was made, as Moses expresses it, "for glory and for beauty, "[Exo 28:40]. It is difficult to give its full force to the prophet's metaphor in another language. The version of Aquila and Symmachus comes nearest to it: ὡς νυμφιον ἱερατευομενον στεφανῳ· "as a bridegroom decked with a priestly crown." - L.

### Verse 11

[¶29] The Lord God "The Lord Jehovah" - "אדני Adonai, the Lord, makes the line longer than the preceding and following; and the Septuagint, Alexandrian, (and MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. II.), and Arabic, do not so render it. Hence it seems to be interpolated." - Dr. Jubb. Three MSS. have it not. See the note on [Isa 61:1] (note). Both words אדני יהוה Adonai Jehovah, are wanting in one of my MSS.; but are supplied in the margin by a later hand.

### Introduction

[¶31] The prophet opens this chapter with ardent prayers that the happy period of reconciliation just now promised, and here again foretold, may be hastened, [Isa 62:1-5]. He then calls upon the faithful, particularly the priests and Levites, to join him, urging the promises, and even the oath, of Jehovah, as the foundation of their request, [Isa 62:6-9]. And, relying on this oath, he goes on to speak of the general restoration promised, as already performing; and calls to the people to march forth, and to the various nations among whom they are dispersed to prepare the way for them, as God had caused the order for their return to be universally proclaimed, [Isa 62:10-12].

### Verse 1

[¶33] For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace - These are the words of Jehovah declaring his purpose relative to the events predicted in the preceding chapter.

[¶34] Thou shalt be called by a new name - Viz., Christian - or, as in the fourth verse, חפצי בה chephtsi bah, "my delight is in her" - because she has now received that command, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Hear Him."

### Verse 4

[¶36] Thy land Beulah - בעולה beulah, married. In the prophets, a desolate land is represented under the notion of a widow; an inhabited land, under that of a married woman, who has both a husband and children.

### Verse 5

[¶38] For as a young man - so - The particles of comparison are not at present in the Hebrew Text: but the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee seem to have read in their copies כ caph prefixed to the verb, כי כיבעל ki keyibal which seems to have been omitted by mistake of a transcriber, occasioned by the repetition of the same two letters. And before the verb in the second line a MS. adds כן ken, so; which the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee seem also to have had in their copies. In the third line of this verse the same MS. has in like manner וכמשוש vechimsos, and two MSS. and the Babylonish Talmud כמשוש kimsos, adding the כ caph; and in the fourth line, the Babylonish Talmud likewise adds כן ken, so, before the verb.

[¶39] Sir John Chardin, in his note on this place, tells us, "that it is the custom in the east for youths, that were never married, always to marry virgins; and widowers, however young, to marry widows." - Harmer, Observ. 2 p. 482.

[¶40] So shall thy sons marry thee - For בניך banayich, thy sons, Bishop Lowth reads, restorer or builder, as he does not consider the word as the plural of בן ben, a son, but the participle benoni of the verb בנה banah, he built. I do not see that we gain much by this translation. Thy sons shall dwell in thee, Vulgate; and so the Septuagint and Chaldee.

### Verse 6

[¶42] Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence - The faithful, and in particular the priests and Levites, are exhorted by the prophet to beseech God with unremitted importunity (compare [Luk 18:1], etc.) to hasten the redemption of Sion. The image in this place is taken from the temple service; in which there was appointed a constant watch, day and night, by the Levites: and among them this seems to have belonged particularly to the singers, see [1Chr 9:33]. Now the watches in the east, even to this day, are performed by a loud cry from time to time of the watchmen, to mark the time, and that very frequently, and in order to show that they themselves are constantly attentive to their duty. Hence the watchmen are said by the prophet, [Isa 52:8], to lift up their voice; and here they are commanded, not to keep silence; and the greatest reproach to them is, that they are dumb dogs; they cannot bark; dreamers; sluggards, loving to slumber, [Isa 56:10]. "The watchmen in the camp of the caravans go their rounds crying one after another, 'God is one, he is merciful:' and often add, 'Take heed to yourselves.'" Tavernier, Voyage de Perse, 54:1 chap. 10. The hundred and thirty-fourth Psalm gives us an example of the temple watch. The whole Psalm is nothing more than the alternate cry of two different divisions of the watch. The first watch addresses the second, reminding them of their duty; the second answers by a solemn blessing. The address and the answer seem both to be a set form, which each division proclaimed, or sung aloud, at stated intervals, to notify the time of the night: -

[¶43] First Chorus "Come on now, bless ye Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah;

[¶44] Ye that stand in the house of Jehovah in the nights;

[¶45] Lift up your hands towards the sanctuary,

## 854. Isaiah · 74 of 79

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[¶0] And bless ye Jehovah."

[¶1] Second Chorus "Jehovah bless thee out of Sion;

[¶2] He that made heaven and earth." "Ye who stand in the place of the watch, in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord; and ye praise through the nights;" - says the Chaldee paraphrase on the second line. And this explains what is here particularly meant by proclaiming, or making remembrance of, the name of Jehovah: the form, which the watch made use of on these occasions, was always a short sentence, expressing some pious sentiment, of which Jehovah was the subject; and it is remarkable, that the custom in the east in this respect also still continues the very same; as appears by the example above given from Tavernier.

[¶3] And this observation leads to the explanation of an obscure passage in the Prophet Malachi, [Mal 2:12]. "Jehovah will cut off the man that doeth this;

[¶4] The watchman and the answerer, from the tabernacles of Jacob;

[¶5] And him that presenteth an offering to Jehovah God of hosts." ער וענה er veoneh, the master and the scholar, says our translation, after the Vulgate: the son and the grandson, says the Syriac and Chaldee, as little to the purpose: Arias Montanus has given it vigilantem et respondentem, "the watchman and the answerer;" that is, the Levite and "him that presenteth an offering to Jehovah," that is, the priest. - L. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence. Is not this clause an address to the ministers of Christ, to continue in supplication for the conversion of the Jewish people? Kimchi seems to think that the watchmen are the interceding angels!

### Verse 9

[¶7] But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord - This and the following line have reference to the law of Moses: "Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil; but thou must eat them before the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose," [Deu 12:17], [Deu 12:18]. "And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years it shall be as uncircumcised unto you; it shall not be eaten of. But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal. And in the fifth year ye shall eat the fruit thereof," [Lev 19:23-25]. This clearly explains the force of the expressions, "shall praise Jehovah," and "shall drink it in my sacred courts."

[¶8] Five MSS., one ancient, have יאכלוהו yocheluhu, they shall eat it, fully expressed: and so likewise ישתוהו yishtuhu, they shall drink it, is found in nineteen MSS., three of them ancient. - L.

### Verse 10

[¶10] Of the people "For the people" - Before the word העם haam, the people, two MSS. insert יהוה Yehovah; one MS. adds the same word after; and eight MSS., three ancient, instead of העם haam, have יהוה Yehovah, and so likewise one edition. But though it makes a good sense either way, I believe it to be an interpolation, as the ancient Versions do not favor it. The Septuagint indeed read עמי ammi, my people. - L.

### Verse 11

[¶12] Unto the end of the world - אל קצה הארץ el ketseh haarets - Instead of אל el, to, עד ad, Unto, is the reading of two of Kennicott's MSS.; and one of mine has מקצה mikketseh, "From the end of the earth."

[¶13] Behold, thy salvation cometh "Lo, thy Savior cometh" - So all the ancient Versions render the word ישעך yishech.

[¶14] Behold, his reward - See note on [Isa 40:10], [Isa 40:11]. This reward he carries as it were in his hand. His work is before him - he perfectly knows what is to be done; and is perfectly able to do it. He will do what God should do, and what man cannot do; and men should be workers with him. Let no man fear that the promise shall not be fulfilled on account of its difficulty, its greatness, the hinderances in the way, or the unworthiness of the person to whom it is made. It is God's work; he is able to do it, and as willing as he is able.

### Verse 12

[¶16] They shall call them - These characteristics seem to be put in their inverted order. -

[¶17] 1. God will not forsake them.

[¶18] 2. They shall be sought out.

[¶19] 3. They shall be redeemed. And,

[¶20] 4. Be in consequence a holy people.

[¶21] 1. When God calls, it is a proof that he has not forsaken.

[¶22] 2. When he seeks, it is a proof he is waiting to be gracious.

[¶23] 3. When the atonement is exhibited, all things are then ready.

[¶24] 4. And when that is received, holiness of heart and life is then to be kept continually in view, as this is the genuine work of God's Spirit; and without holiness none shall see the Lord.

### Introduction

[¶26] The prophet, (or rather the Church he represents), sees the great Deliverer, long promised and expected, making his appearance, after having crushed his enemies, like grapes in the wine-vat. The comparison suggests a lively idea of the wrath of Omnipotence, which its unhappy objects can no more resist than the grapes can resist the treader. Indeed, there is so much pathos, energy, and sublimity in this remarkable passage, as hardly any thing can be conceived to exceed. The period to which it refers must be the same with that predicted in the nineteenth chapter of the Revelation, some parts of which are expressed in the same terms with this, and plainly enough refer to the very sudden and total overthrow of Antichrist, and of all his adherents and auxiliaries, of which the destruction of Babylon, the capital of Chaldea, and of Bozra, the chief city of the Edomites, was the prototype, [Isa 63:1-6]. At the seventh verse commences a penitential confession and supplication of the Jews, as uttered in their present dispersion, [Isa 63:7-19].

[¶27] The very remarkable passage with which this chapter begins seems to me to be, in a manner, detached from the rest, and to stand singly by itself; having no immediate connection with what goes before, or with what follows, otherwise than as it may pursue the general design, and stand in its proper place in the order of prophecy. It is by many learned interpreters supposed that Judas Maccabeus and his victories make the subject of it. What claim Judas can have to so great an honor will, I think, be very difficult to make out; or how the attributes of the great person introduced can possibly suit him. Could Judas call himself the announcer of righteousness, mighty to save? Could he talk of the day of vengeance being in his heart, and the year of his redeemed being come? or that his own arm wrought salvation for him? Besides, what were the great exploits of Judas in regard to the Idumeans? He overcame them in battle, and slew twenty thousand of them. And John Hyrcanus, his brother Simon's son and successor, who is called in to help out the accomplishment of the prophecy, gave them another defeat some time afterward, and compelled them by force to become proselytes to the Jewish religion, and to submit to circumcision: after which they were incorporated with the Jews, and became one people with them. Are these events adequate to the prophet's lofty prediction? Was it so great an action to win a battle with considerable slaughter of the enemy or to force a whole nation by dint of the sword into Judaism? or was the conversion of the Idumeans, however effected, and their admission into the Church of God, equivalent to a most grievous judgment and destruction, threatened in the severest terms? But here is another very material circumstance to be considered, which, I presume, entirely excludes Judas Maccabeus, and even the Idumeans, properly so called. For the Idumea of the prophet's time was quite a different country from that which Judas conquered. For during the Babylonish captivity the Nabatheans had driven the Edomites out of their country; who upon that took possession of the southern parts of Judea, and settled themselves there; that is, in the country of the whole tribe of Simeon and in half of that of Judah. See Prideaux, ad. an. 740 and 165. And the metropolis of the Edomites, and of the country thence called Idumea, which Judas took, was Hebron 1 Maccabees 5:65, not Bozrah.

[¶28] I conclude, therefore, that this prophecy has not the least relation to Judas Maccabeus. It may be asked, to whom, and to what event does it relate? I can only answer, that I know of no event in history to which, from its importance and circumstances, it can be applied: unless, perhaps, to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish polity; which in the Gospel is called the coming of Christ and the days of vengeance, [Mat 16:28]; [Luk 21:22]. But though this prophecy must have its accomplishment, there is no necessity for supposing that it has been already accomplished. There are prophecies, which intimate a great slaughter of the enemies of God and his people, which remain to be fulfilled; these in Ezekiel, chap. 38, and in the Revelation of St. John, [Rev 20:1-15], are called Gog and Magog. This prophecy of Isaiah may possibly refer to the same or the like event. We need not be at a loss to determine the person who is here introduced, as stained with treading the wine-press, if we consider how St. John in the Revelation has applied this image of the prophet, [Rev 19:13], [Rev 19:15], [Rev 19:16]. Compare chap. 34. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶30] Who is this that cometh from Edom - Probably both Edom and Bozrah are only figurative expressions, to point out the place in which God should discomfit his enemies. Edom signifies red, and Bozrah, a vintage. Kimchi interprets the whole of the destruction of Rome.

[¶31] I that speak in righteousness "I who publish righteousness" - A MS. has המדבר hammedabber, with the demonstrative article added with greater force and emphasis: The announcer of righteousness. A MS. has צדקה tsedakah, without ב be prefixed; and so the Septuagint and Vulgate. And thirty-eight MSS. (seven ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and one of my own, add the conjunction ו vau to רב rab, and mighty; which the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate confirm. - L.

### Verse 2

[¶33] Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel - For ללבושך lilebushecha, twenty-nine MSS. (nine ancient) of Kennicott's, and thirty of De Rossi s, and one edition, have ללבושיך lilebusheycha in the plural; so the Septuagint and Syriac. And all the ancient Versions read it with מ mem, instead of the first ל lamed. But the true reading is probably מלבושך malbushecha in the singular, as in [Isa 63:3]. - L.

### Verse 3

[¶35] And of the people there was none with me - I was wholly abandoned by them: but a good meaning is, No man has had any part in making the atonement; it is entirely the work of the Messiah alone. No created being could have any part in a sacrifice that was to be of infinite merit.

[¶36] And I will stain "And I have stained" - For אגאלתי egalti, a verb of very irregular formation, compounded, as they say, of the two forms of the preterite and future, a MS. has אגאלהו egalehu, the regular future with a pleonastic pronoun added to it, according to the Hebrew idiom: "And all my raiment, I have stained it." The necessity of the verb's being in the past tense seems to have given occasion to the alteration made in the end of the word. The conversive ו vau at the beginning of the sentence affects the verb, though not joined to it; of which there are many examples: - anithani remim umikkarney עניתני רמים ומקרני "And thou wilt hear me (or hear thou me) from among the horns of the unicorns," [Psa 22:22]. - L.

[¶37] Instead of על בגדי al begadai, upon my garments, one of my ancient MSS. has לארץ בגדי larets begadai, to the earth: but this word is partly effaced, and על al written in the margin by a later hand.

### Verse 5

[¶39] And my fury "And mine indignation" - For וחמתי vachamathi, nineteen MSS. (three ancient) of Kennicott's, nine of De Rossi's, and one of mine, and four editions, have וצדקתי vetsidkathi, and my righteousness; from [Isa 59:16], which I suppose the transcriber retained in his memory. It is true that the Versions are in favor of the common reading; but that noticed above seems to stand on good authority, and is a reading both pleasing and impressive. Opposite, in the margin, my MS. has the common reading by a later hand.

### Verse 6

[¶41] And make them drunk in my fury "And I crushed them in mine indignation" - For ואשכרם vaashkerem, and I made them drunken, twenty-seven MSS., (three ancient), twelve of De Rossi's, and the old edition of 1488, have ואשברם vaashabberem, and I crushed them: and so the Syriac and Chaldee. The Septuagint have omitted this whole line.

### Verse 7

[¶43] I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord - The prophet connects the preceding mercies of God to the Jews with the present prospect he has of their redemption by the Messiah; thus making a circle in which eternal goodness revolves. The remaining part of this chapter, with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people; cast out of their country; without any proper form of civil polity or religious worship, their temple destroyed, their city desolated and lost to them, and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth, apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer his peculiar people.

[¶44] They begin with acknowledging God's great mercies and favors to their nation, and the ungrateful returns made to them on their part, that by their disobedience they had forfeited the protection of God, and had caused him to become their adversary. And now the prophet represents them, induced by the memory of the great things that God had done for them, as addressing their humble supplication for the renewal of his mercies. They beseech him to regard them in consideration of his former loving-kindness, they acknowledge him for their Father and Creator, they confess their wickedness and hardness of heart, they entreat his forgiveness, and deplore their present miserable condition under which they have so long suffered. It seems designed as a formulary of humiliation for the Israelites, in order to their conversion.

## 855. Isaiah · 75 of 79

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[¶0] The whole passage is in the elegiac form, pathetic and elegant; but it has suffered much in our present copy by the mistakes of transcribers.

[¶1] The praises of the Lord "The praise of Jehovah" - For תהלות tehilloth, plural, twenty-nine MSS. (three ancient) and two editions, have תהלת tehillath, in the singular number; and so the Vulgate renders it; and one of the Greek versions, in the margin of Cod. Marchal. and in the text of MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2: την αινεσιν Κυριου, "the praise of the Lord." - L.

### Verse 8

[¶3] So he was their Savior. In all their affliction "And he became their Savior in all their distress" - I have followed the translation of the Septuagint in the latter part of the eighth, and the former part of the ninth verse; which agrees with the present text, a little differently divided as to thee members of the sentence. They read מכל miccol, out of all, instead of בכל bechol, in all, which makes no difference in the sense; and צר tsar they understand as ציר tsir. Και εγενετο αυτοις εις σωτηριαν εκ πασης θλιψεως αυτων· ου πρεσβυς, ουδε αγγελος·. "And he was salvation to them in all their tribulation; neither an ambassador nor an angel, but himself saved them." An angel of his presence means an angel of superior order, in immediate attendance upon God. So the angel of the Lord says to Zacharias, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God," [Luk 1:19]. The presence of Jehovah, [Exo 33:14], [Exo 33:15], and the angel, [Exo 33:20], [Exo 33:21], is Jehovah himself; here an angel of his presence is opposed to Jehovah himself, as an angel is in the following passages of the same book of Exodus. After their idolatrous worshipping of the golden calf, "when God had said to Moses, I will send an angel before thee - I will not go up in the midst of thee - the people mourned," [Exo 33:2-4]. God afterwards comforts Moses, by saying, "My presence (that is I myself in person, and not by an angel) will go with thee," [Exo 33:14]. Αυτος προπορευσομαι σου, "I myself will go before thee, "as the Septuagint render it.

[¶4] The MSS. and editions are much divided between the two readings of the text and margin in the common copies, לא lo, not, and לו lo, to him. All the ancient Versions express the chetib reading, לא lo, not. "And he bare then and carried them all the days of old

[¶5] And he took them up, and he bore them, all the days of old" - See the note on [Isa 46:3] (note). - L.

### Verse 10

[¶7] And he fought against them - Twenty-six MSS. (ten ancient) and the first edition, with another, add the conjunction ו vau, והוא vehu, and he.

### Verse 11

[¶9] Moses and his people "Moses his servant" - For עמו ammo, his people, two MSS. (one of them ancient) and one of my own, (ancient), and one of De Rossi's, and the old edition of 1488, and the Syriac, read עבדו abdo, his servant. These two words have been mistaken one for the other in other places; [Psa 78:71], and [Psa 80:5], for עמו ammo, his people, and עמך ammecha, thy people, the Septuagint read עבדו abdo, his servant, and עבדך abdecha, thy servant.

[¶10] Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where etc. "How he brought them up from the sea, with the shepherd of his flock; how," etc. - For איה aiyeh, how, interrogative, twice, the Syriac Version reads איך eich, how, without interrogation, as that particle is used in the Syriac language, and sometimes in the Hebrew. See [Rut 3:18]; [Ecc 2:16].

[¶11] The shepherd of his flock - That is, Moses. The MSS. and editions vary in this word; some have it רעה roeh, in the singular number; so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee. Others רעי roey, plural, the shepherds. - L.

### Verse 13

[¶13] That led them through the deep - As a beast goeth down into the valley - In both these verses there is an allusion to the Israelites going through the Red Sea, in the bottom of which they found no more inconvenience than a horse would in running in the desert, where there was neither stone nor mud; nor a beast in the valley, where all was plain and smooth.

### Verse 14

[¶15] The Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest "The Spirit of Jehovah conducted them" - For תניחנו tenichennu, caused him to rest, the Septuagint have ὡδηγησεν αυτους, conducted them; they read תנחם tanchem. The Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate read תנחנו tanchennu, conducted him. Two MSS. have the word without the י yod in the middle.

### Verse 15

[¶17] And thy strength "And thy mighty power" - For גבורתיך geburotheycha, plural, thirty-two MSS. (seven ancient) and twenty-one of De Rossi's, and seven editions, have גבורתך geburathecha, singular.

[¶18] Are they restrained? - For אלי elai, from (or in regard to) me, the Septuagint and Syriac read אלינו eleynu, from us. - L.

### Verse 16

[¶20] Our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting "O deliver us for the sake of thy name" - The present text reads, as our translation has rendered it, "Our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting." But instead of מעולם meolam, from everlasting, an ancient MS. has למען lemaan, for the sake of, which gives a much better sense. To show the impropriety of the present reading, it is sufficient to observe, that the Septuagint and Syriac translators thought it necessary to add עלינו aleynu, upon us, to make out the sense; That is, "Thy name is upon us, or we are called by thy name, from of old." And the Septuagint have rendered גאלנו goalenu, in the imperative mood, ῥυσαι ἡμας, deliver us. - L.

### Verse 17

[¶22] Why hast thou made us to err - A mere Hebraism, for why hast thou permitted us to err. So, Lead us not into temptation; do not suffer us to fall into that to which we are tempted.

### Verse 18

[¶24] The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while "It is little that they have taken possession of thy holy mountain" - The difficulty of the construction in this place is acknowledged on all hands. Vitringa prefers that sense as the least exceptionable which our translation has expressed; in which however there seems to be a great defect; that is, the want of that in the speaker's view must have been the principal part of the proposition, the object of the verb, the land, or it, as our translators supply it, which surely ought to have been expressed, and not to have been left to be supplied by the reader. In a word, I believe there is some mistake in the text; and here the Septuagint help us out; they had in their copy הר har, mountain, instead of עם am, people, του ορους του ἁγιου σου, the mountain of thy Holy One. "Not only have our enemies taken possession of Mount Sion, and trodden down thy sanctuary; even far worse than this has befallen us; thou hast long since utterly cast us off, and dost not consider us as thy peculiar people." - L.

### Introduction

[¶26] The whole of this chapter, which is very pathetic and tender, may be considered as a formulary of prayer and humiliation intended for the Jews in order to their conversion, [Isa 64:1-12].

### Verse 1

[¶28] O that thou wouldest rend the heavens - This seems to allude to the wonderful manifestation of God upon Mount Sinai.

### Verse 2

[¶30] As when the melting fire burneth "As the fire kindleth the dry fuel" - המסים hamasim. "It means dry stubble, and the root is המס hamas, "says Rabbi Jonah, apud Sal ben Belec in loc. Which is approved by Schultens, Orig. Hebrews p. 30. "The fire kindling the stubble does not seem like enough to the melting of the mountains to be brought as a simile to it. What if thus? - 'That the mountains might flow down at thy presence!

[¶31] As the fire of things smelted burneth,

[¶32] As the fire causeth the waters to boil - '

[¶33] There is no doubt of the Hebrew words of the second line bearing that version." - Dr. Jubb.

[¶34] I submit these different interpretations to the reader's judgment. For my own part I am inclined to think that the text is much corrupted in this place. The ancient Versions have not the least traces of either of the above interpretations. The Septuagint and Syriac agree exactly together in rendering this line by, "As the wax melted before the fire," which can by no means be reconciled with the present text. The Vulgate, for המסים hamasim, read ימסו yemasu.

[¶35] That the nations - For גוים goyim, the nations, four MSS. (one of them ancient) have הרים harim, the mountains. - L.

### Verse 4

[¶37] For since the beginning of the world men have not heard "For never have men heard" - St. Paul is generally supposed to have quoted this passage of Isaiah, [1Cor 2:9]; and Clemens Romanus in his first epistle has made the same quotation, very nearly in the same words with the apostle. But the citation is so very different both from the Hebrew text and the version of the Septuagint, that it seems very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile them by any literal emendation, without going beyond the bounds of temperate criticism. One clause, "neither hath it entered into the heart of man," (which, by the way, is a phrase purely Hebrew, עלה על לב alah al leb, and should seem to belong to the prophet), is wholly left out; and another is repeated without force or propriety; viz., "nor perceived by the ear," after, "never have heard:" and the sense and expression of the apostle is far preferable to that of the Hebrew text. Under these difficulties I am at a loss what to do better, than to offer to the reader this, perhaps disagreeable, alternative: either to consider the Hebrew text and Septuagint in this place as wilfully disguised and corrupted by the Jews; of which practice in regard to other quotations in the New Testament from the Old, they lie under strong suspicions, (see Dr. Owen on the version of the Septuagint, sect. vi.-ix.); or to look upon St. Paul's quotation as not made from Isaiah, but from one or other of the two apocryphal books, entitled, The Ascension of Esaiah, and the Apocalypse of Elias, in both of which this passage was found; and the apostle is by some supposed in other places to have quoted such apocryphal writings. As the first of these conclusions will perhaps not easily be admitted by many, so I must fairly warn my readers that the second is treated by Jerome as little better than heresy. See his comment on this place of Isaiah. - L. I would read the whole verse thus; "Yea, from the time of old they have not heard, they have not hearkened to, an eye hath not seen a God besides thee. He shall work for that one that waiteth for him." This I really think on the whole to be the best translation of the original.

[¶38] The variations on this place are as follows: for שמעו shameu, they have heard, a MS. and the Septuagint read שמענו shamanu, we have heard: for the second לא lo, not, sixty-nine MSS. and four editions have ולא velo, and not, and the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate. And so ועין veayin, and eye, Septuagint and Syriac. את eth, the, (emphatic), is added before אלהים Elohim, God, in MS. Bodleian. למחכי limechakkey, to them that wait, plural, two MSS. and all the ancient Versions. - L.

### Verse 5

[¶40] Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness "Thou meetest with joy those who work righteousness" - The Syriac reads פוגע אתה שש בעשי poga attah shesh baashi, as above.

[¶41] In those is continuance, and we shall be saved "Because of our deeds, for we have been rebellious" - בהם עולם ונושע bahem olam venivvashea. I am fully persuaded that these words as they stand in the present Hebrew text are utterly unintelligible; there is no doubt of the meaning of each word separately; but put together they make no sense at all. I conclude, therefore, that the copy has suffered by mistakes of transcribers in this place. The corruption is of long standing, for the ancient interpreters were as much at a loss for the meaning as the moderns, and give nothing satisfactory. The Septuagint render these words by δια τουτο επλανηθημεν, therefore we have erred: they seem to have read עליהם נפשע aleyhem niphsha, without helping the sense. In this difficulty what remains but to have recourse to conjecture? Archbishop Secker was dissatisfied with the present reading: he proposed הבט עלינו ונושע hebet aleynu venivvashea; "look upon us, and we shall, or that we may, be saved:" which gives a very good sense, but seems to have no sufficient foundation. Besides, the word ונושע venivvashea, which is attended with great difficulties, seems to be corrupted as well as the two preceding; and the true reading of it is, I think, given by the Septuagint, ונפשע veniphsha, επλανηθημεν, we have erred, (so they render the verb פשע pasha, [Isa 46:8], and [Eze 23:12]), parallel to ונחטא vannecheta, ἡμαρτομεν, we have sinned. For בהם עולם bahem olam, which means nothing, I would propose המעללינו hammaaleleynu, "because of our deeds;" which I presume was first altered to במעלליהם bemaaleleyhem, an easy and common mistake of the third person plural of the pronoun for the first, (see note on [Isa 33:2]), and then with some farther alteration to בהם עולם behem olam. The עליהם aleyhem, which the Septuagint probably found in their copy, seems to be a remnant of במעלליהם bemaaleleyhem.

[¶42] This, it may be said, is imposing your sense upon the prophet. It may be so; for perhaps these may not be the very words of the prophet: but however it is better than to impose upon him what makes no sense at all; as they generally do, who pretend to render such corrupted passages. For instance, our own translators:" in those is continuance, and we shall be saved:" in those in whom, or what? There is no antecedent to the relative. "In the ways of God," say some: "with our fathers," says Vitringa, joining it in construction with the verb, קעפת katsaphta, "thou hast been angry with them, our fathers;" and putting ונחטא vannecheta, "for we have sinned," in a parenthesis. But there has not been any mention of our fathers: and the whole sentence, thus disposed, is utterly discordant from the Hebrew idiom and construction. In those is continuance; עולם olam means a destined but hidden and unknown portion of time; but cannot mean continuation of time, or continuance, as it is here rendered. Such forced interpretations are equally conjectural with the boldest critical emendation; and generally have this farther disadvantage, that they are altogether unworthy of the sacred writers. - L.

[¶43] Coverdale renders the passage thus: -

[¶44] But lo, thou art angrie, for we offende, and have been ever in synne; and there is not one whole.

## 856. Isaiah · 76 of 79

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[¶0] This is, I am afraid, making a sense.

[¶1] After all that this very learned prelate has done to reduce these words to sense and meaning, I am afraid we are still far from the prophet's mind. Probably בהם bahem, in them, refers to דרכיך deracheycha, thy ways, above. עולם olam may be rendered of old, or during the whole of the Jewish economy; and ונושע venivvashea, "and shall we be saved?" Thus: - Thou art wroth, for we have sinned in them (thy ways) of old; and can we be saved? For we are all as an unclean thing, etc.

### Verse 6

[¶3] As filthy rags - עדים iddim. Rab. Mosheh ben Maimon interpretatur עדים iddim, vestes quibus mulier se abstergit post congressum cum marito suo. Alii pannus menstruatus. Alii panni mulieris parientis. - And we ben made as unclene alle we: and as the cloth of the woman rooten blode flowing, all our rigtwisnesses. - Old MS. Bible. If preachers knew properly the meaning of this word, would they make such a liberal use of it in their public ministry? And why should any use a word, the meaning of which he does not understand? How many in the congregation blush for the incautious man and his "filthy rags!"

### Verse 7

[¶5] There is none - Twelve MSS. have אין ein, without the conjunction ו vau prefixed; and so read the Chaldee and Vulgate.

[¶6] And hast consumed us because of our iniquities "And hast delivered us up into the hands of our iniquities" - For ותמוגנו vattemugenu, "hast dissolved us," the Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee had in their copies תמגננו temaggenenu, "hast delivered us up." Houbigant. Secker.

### Verse 8

[¶8] But, now, O Lord, thou art our Father "But thou, O Jehovah, thou art our Father" - For ועתה veattah, and now, five MSS., one of them ancient, and the two oldest editions, 1486 and 1488, have ואתה veattah, and thou, and so the Chaldee seems to have read. The repetition has great force. The other word may be well spared. "But now, O Lord, thou art our Father." How very affectionate is the complaint in this and the following verses! But how does the distress increase, when they recollect the desolations of the temple, and ruin of public worship, [Isa 64:11] : "Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire," etc.

[¶9] We all are the work of thy hand - Three MSS. (two of them ancient) and the Septuagint read מעשה maaseh, the work, without the conjunction ו vau prefixed. And for ידך yadecha, thy hand, the Bodleian, and two others MSS., the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read ידיך yadeycha, thy hands, in the plural number. - L.

### Verse 9

[¶11] Neither remember iniquity - For לעד תזכר laad tizcor, one of my MSS. has לעד תקצף laad tiktsoph, "be not angry," as in the preceding clause. This has been partially obliterated, and תזכר tizcor, written in the margin by a later hand: but this MS. abounds with words of this kind, all altered by later hands.

### Introduction

[¶13] We have here a vindication of God's dealings with the Jews, [Isa 65:1], [Isa 65:2]. To this end the prophet points out their great hypocrisy, and gives a particular enumeration of their dreadful abominations, many of which were committed under the specious guise of sanctity, [Isa 65:3-5]. For their horrid impieties, (recorded in writing before Jehovah), the wrath of God shall certainly come upon them to the uttermost; a prediction which was exactly fulfilled in the first and second centuries in the reigns of the Roman emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Hadrian, when the whole Jewish polity was dissolved, and the people dispersed all over the world, [Isa 65:6], [Isa 65:7]. Though God had rejected the Jews, and called the Gentiles, who sought him not, ([Rom 9:24-26]), yet a remnant from among the former shall be preserved, to whom he will in due time make good all his promises, [Isa 65:8-10]. Denunciation of Divine vengeance against those idolaters who set in order a table for Gad, and fill out a libation to Meni, ancient idolatries, which, from the context, and from the chronological order of the events predicted, have a plain reference to the idolatries practiced by Antichrist under the guise of Christianity, [Isa 65:11], [Isa 65:12]. Dreadful fate which awaits these gross idolaters beautifully contrasted with the great blessedness reserved for the righteous, [Isa 65:13-16]. Future restoration of the posterity of Jacob, and the happy state of the world in general from that most glorious epoch, represented by the strong figure of the creation of new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and into which no distress shall be permitted to enter, [Isa 65:17-19]. In this new state of things the term of human life shall be greatly protracted, and shall possess none of that uncertainty which attaches to it in "the heavens and the earth which are now." This is elegantly illustrated by the longevity of a tree; manifestly alluding to the oak or cedar of Lebanon, some individuals of which are known to have lived from seven to ten centuries, [Isa 65:20-23]. Beautiful figures shadowing forth the profound peace and harmony of the Church of Jesus Christ, which shall immediately follow the total overthrow of Antichrist; with a most gracious promise that the great chain of Omnipotence shall be put upon every adversary, so that none will be able any longer to hurt and destroy in all God's holy mountain, [Isa 65:24], [Isa 65:25].

[¶14] This chapter contains a defense of God's proceedings in regard to the Jews, with reference to their complaint in the chapter preceding. God is introduced declaring that he had called the Gentiles, though they had not sought him; and had rejected his own people for their refusal to attend to his repeated call; for their obstinate disobedience, their idolatrous practices, and detestable hypocrisy. That nevertheless he would not destroy them all; but would preserve a remnant, to whom he would make good his ancient promises. Severe punishments are threatened to the apostates; and great rewards are promised to the obedient in a future flourishing state of the Church. - L.

### Verse 1

[¶16] I am sought of them that asked not for me "I am made known to those that asked not for me" - נדרשתי nidrashti, εμφανης εγενομην, the Septuagint, Alexandrian, and St. Paul, [Rom 10:20]; who has however inverted the order of the phrases, εμφανης εγενομην, "I was made manifest, "and ευρεδην, "I was found, "from that which they have in the Septuagint. נדרשתי nidrashti means, "I am sought so as to be found." Vitringa. If this be the true meaning of the word, then שאלו shaalu, "that asked," which follows, should seem defective, the verb wanting its object: but two MSS., one of them ancient, have שאלוני shealuni, "asked me;" and another MS. שאלו לי shealu li, "asked for me;" one or other of which seems to be right. But Cocceius in Lex., and Vitringa in his translation, render נדרשתי nidrashti, by "I have answered;" and so the verb is rendered by all the ancient Versions in [Eze 20:3], [Eze 20:31]. If this be right, the translation will be, "I have answered those that asked not." I leave this to the reader's judgment; but have followed in my translation the Septuagint and St. Paul, and the MSS. above mentioned. בקשני bikeshuni is written regularly and fully in above a hundred MSS. and in the oldest edition, בקשוני bikeshuni. - L.

### Verse 3

[¶18] That sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick "Sacrificing in the gardens, and burning incense on the tiles" - These are instances of heathenish superstition, and idolatrous practices, to which the Jews were immoderately addicted before the Babylonish captivity. The heathen worshipped their idols in groves; whereas God, in opposition to this species of idolatry, commanded his people, when they should come into the promised land, to destroy all the places wherein the Canaanites had served their gods, and in particular to burn their groves with fire, [Deu 12:2], [Deu 12:3]. These apostate Jews sacrificed upon altars built of bricks; in opposition to the command of God in regard to his altar, which was to be of unhewn stone, [Exo 20:26]. Et pro uno altari, quod impolitis lapidibus Dei erat lege constructum, coctos lateres et agrorum cespites hostiarum sanguine cruentabant. "And instead of one altar which, according to the law of God, was, to be constructed of unhewn stones, they stained the bricks and turfs of the fields with the blood of their victims." Hieron. in loc. Or it means, perhaps, that they sacrificed upon the roofs of their houses, which were always flat, and paved with brick, or tile, or plaster of terrace. An instance of this idolatrous practice we find in [2Kgs 23:12], where it is said that Josiah "beat down the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made." See also [Zep 1:5]. Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as follows: "Ainsi font tous les Gentiles, sur les lieux eleves, et sur les terrasses, appellez latcres, pareeque sont faits de briq." "Who dwell in the sepulchres, and lodge in the caverns," for the purposes of necromancy and divination; to obtain dreams and revelations. Another instance of heathenish superstition: so Virgil: -

[¶19] Huc dona sacerdos

[¶20] Cum tulit, et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti

[¶21] Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnosque petivit:

[¶22] Multa modis simulacra videt volitantia miris,

[¶23] Et varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum

[¶24] Colloquio, atque imis Acheronta affatur Avernis.

[¶25] Aen. 7:86. - L. "Here in distress the Italian nations come,

[¶26] Anxious, to clear their doubts, and learn their doom.

[¶27] First, on the fleeces of the slaughtered sheep,

[¶28] By night the sacred priest dissolves in sleep:

[¶29] When in a train, before his slumbering eye,

[¶30] Thin airy forms and wondrous visions fly.

[¶31] He calls the powers who guard the infernal floods,

[¶32] And talks inspired, familiar with the gods."

[¶33] Pitt.

[¶34] There was a practice exactly like this which prevailed among the Highlanders of Scotland; an authentic account of this is given by Sir Walter Scott, in a note on his poem called The Lady of the Lake. It is as follows: - "The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the question proposed; and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits who haunt these desolate recesses. In some of the Hebrides, they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities; and considered the first fancy which came into their own minds after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone; and as such to be, if possible, punctually complied with. Martin has recorded the following curious modes of Highland augury, in which the Taghairm, and its effects upon the person who was subjected to it, may serve to illustrate the text. "It was an ordinary thing among the over-curious to consult an invisible oracle concerning the fate of families and battles, etc. This was performed three different ways; the first was by a company of men, one of whom, being detached by lot, was afterwards carried to a river, which was the boundary between two villages. Four of the company laid hold on him; and, having shut his eyes, they took him by the legs and arms, and then, tossing him to and again, struck his hips with force against the bank. One of them cried out, What is it you have got here? Another answers, A log of birch-wood. The other cries again, Let his invisible friends appear from all quarters, and let them relieve him by giving an answer to our present demands; and in a few minutes after, a number of little creatures came from the sea, who answered the question, and disappeared suddenly. The man was then set at liberty; and they all returned home, to take their measures according to the prediction of their false prophets; but the poor deluded fools were abused, for the answer was still ambiguous. This was always practiced in the night, and may literally be called the works of darkness. "I had an account from the most intelligent and judicious men in the Isle of Skie, that, about sixty-two years ago, the oracle was thus consulted only once, and that was in the parish of Kilmartin, on the east side, by a wicked and mischievous race of people, who are now extinguished, both root and branch. "The second way of consulting the oracle was by a party of men, who first retired to solitary places, remote from any house; and there they singled out one of their number, and wrapt him in a big cow's hide, which they folded about him. His whole body was covered with it, except his head, and so left in this posture all night, until his invisible friends relieved him, by giving a proper answer to the question in hand; which he received, as he fancied, from several persons that he found about him all that time. His consorts returned to him at the break of day, and then he communicated his news to them; which often proved fatal to those concerned in such unwarrantable inquiries. "There was a third way of consulting, which was a confirmation of the second above mentioned. The same company who put the man into the hide took a live cat, and put him on a spit. One of the number was employed to turn the spit, and one of his consorts inquired of him, What are you doing? He answered, I roast this cat until his friends answer the question; which must be the same that was proposed by the man shut up in the hide. And afterwards, a very big cat (in allusion to the story of 'the King of the Cats,' in Lord Lyttleton's Letters, and well known in the Highlands as a nursery tale) comes, attended by a number of lesser cats, desiring to relieve the cat turned upon the spit, and then answers the question. If this answer proved the same that was given to the man in the hide, then it was taken as a confirmation of the other, which, in this case, was believed infallible. "Mr. Alexander Cooper, present minister of North-Vist, told me that one John Erach, in the Isle of Lewis, assured him it was his fate to have been led by his curiosity with some who consulted this oracle, and that he was a night within the hide, as above-mentioned; during which time he felt and heard such terrible things, that he could not express them. The impression it made on him was such as could never go off; and he said for a thousand worlds he would never again be concerned in the like performance, for this had disordered him to a high degree. He confessed it ingenuously, and with an air of great remorse; and seemed to be very penitent under a just sense of so great a crime. He declared this about five years since, and is still living in the Lewis for any thing I know." - Description of the Western Isles p. 110. See also Pennant's Scottish Tour, vol. 2 p. 361.

### Verse 4

[¶36] Which remain among the graves - "For the purpose of evoking the dead. They lodged in desert places that demons might appear to them; for demons do appear in such places, to those who do believe in them." - Kimchi.

[¶37] In the monuments "In the caverns" - בנצורים bannetsurim, a word of doubtful signification. An ancient MS. has בצורים batstsurim, another בצרים batstsurim, "in the rocks;" and Le Clec thinks the Septuagint had it so in their copy. They render it by εν τοις στηλαιοις, "in the caves."

[¶38] Which eat swine's flesh - This was expressly forbidden by the law, [Lev 11:7], but among the heathen was in principal request in their sacrifices and feasts. Antiochus Epiphanes compelled the Jews to eat swine's flesh, as a full proof of their renouncing their religion, 2 Maccabees 6:18 and 7:1. "And the broth of abominable meats," for lustrations, magical arts, and other superstitious and abominable practices.

[¶39] In their vessels - For כליהם keleyhem, a MS. had at first בכליהם bichleyhem. So the Vulgate and Chaldee, (and the preposition seems necessary to the sense), "in their vessels."

### Verse 5

[¶41] For I am holier than thou - So the Chaldee renders it. קדשתיך kedashticha is the same with קדשתי ממך kadashti mimmecha. In the same manner חזקתני chazaktani, [Jer 20:7], is used for חזקת ממני chazacta mimmenni, "thou art stronger than I." - L.

### Verse 6

[¶43] Behold, it is written before me - Their sin is registered in heaven, calling aloud for the punishment due to it.

[¶44] I will - recompense into their bosom - The bosom is the place where the Asiatics have their pockets, and not in their skirts like the inhabitants of the west. Their loose flowing garments have scarcely any thing analogous to skirts.

## 857. Isaiah · 77 of 79

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[¶0] Into their bosom - For על al, ten MSS. and five editions have אל el. So again at the end of this verse, seventeen MSS. and four editions have אל al. - L.

### Verse 7

[¶2] Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers "Their iniquities, and the iniquities of their fathers" - For the pronoun affixed of the second person חם chem, your, twice, read הם hem, their, in the third person; with the Septuagint and Houbigant. - L.

### Verse 8

[¶4] A blessing is in it - The Hebrews call all things which serve for food ברכה berachah, "a blessing." On this verse Kimchi remarks: "As the cluster of grapes contains, besides the juice, the bark, and the kernels, so the Israelites have, besides the just, sinners among them. Now as the cluster must not be destroyed because there is a blessing, a nutritive part in it; so Israel shall not be destroyed, because there are righteous persons in it. But as the bark and kernels are thrown away, when the wine is pressed out, so shall the sinners be purged away from among the just, and on their return from exile, shall not be permitted to enter into the land of Israel;" [Eze 20:38].

[¶5] For my servant's sakes "For the sake of my servant" - It is to be observed that one of the Koningsburg MSS. collated by Lilienthal points the word עבדי abdi, singular; that is, "my servant," meaning the Messiah; and so read the Septuagint, which gives a very good sense. In two of my old MSS. it is pointed עבדי abadai, and עבדי abdi, "my servant, "this confirms the above reading.

### Verse 9

[¶7] An inheritor of my mountains "An inheritor of my mountain" - הרי hari, in the singular number; so the Septuagint and Syriac; that is, of Mount Sion. See [Isa 65:11] and [Isa 56:7], to which Sion, the pronoun feminine singular, added to the verb in the next line, refers; ירשוה yereshuah, "shall inherit her." - L.

### Verse 10

[¶9] Sharon - and the valley of Achor - Two of the most fertile parts of Judea; famous for their rich pastures; the former to the west, not far from Joppa; the latter north of Jericho, near Gilgal.

### Verse 11

[¶11] That prepare a table for that troop "Who set in order a table for Gad" - The disquisitions and conjectures of the learned concerning Gad and Meni are infinite and uncertain: perhaps the most probable may be, that Gad means good fortune, and Meni the moon. "But why should we be solicitous about it?" says Schmidius. "It appears sufficiently, from the circumstances, that they were false gods; either stars, or some natural objects; or a mere fiction. The Holy Scriptures did not deign to explain more clearly what these objects of idolatrous worship were; but chose rather, that the memory of the knowledge of them should be utterly abolished. And God be praised, that they are so totally abolished, that we are now quite at a loss to know what and what sort of things they were." Schmidius on the place, and on [Jdg 2:13], Bibl. Hallensia.

[¶12] Jerome, on the place, gives an account of this idolatrous practice of the apostate Jews, of making a feast, or a lectisternium, as the Romans called it, for these pretended deities. Est in cunctis urbibus, et maxime in Aegypto, et in Alexandria, idololatriae vetus consuetudo, ut ultimo die anni, et mensis ejus qui extremus est, ponant mensam refertam varii generis epulis, et poculum mulso mixtum; vel praeteriti anni vel futuri fertilitatem auspicantes. Hoc autem faciebant et Israelitae, omnium simulachrorum portenta venerantes; et nequaquam altari victimas, sed hujusmodi mensae liba fundebant. "In all cities, and especially in Egypt and Alexandria, it was an ancient idolatrous custom on the last day of the year, to spread a table covered with various kinds of viands, and a goblet mixed with new wine, referring to the fertility either of the past or coming year. The Israelites did the same, worshipping all kinds of images, and pouring out libations on such tables," etc. See also Le Clerc on the place; and on [Isa 66:17], and Dav. Millii Dissert. v.

[¶13] The allusion to Meni, which signifies number, is obvious. If there had been the like allusion to Gad, which might have been expected, it might perhaps have helped to let us into the meaning of that word. It appears from Jerome's version of this place, that the words τῳ δαιμονιω, to a demon, (or δαιμονι, as some copies have it), and τῃ τυχῃ, to fortune, stood in his time in the Greek version in an inverted order from that which they have in the present copies; the latter then answering to גד gad, the former to מני meni: by which some difficulty would be avoided; for it is commonly supposed that גד gad signifies τυχη, Fortune. See [Gen 30:11], apud Sept. This matter is so far well cleared up by MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. II., which agree in placing these two words in that order, which Jerome's version supposes. - L.

[¶14] My Old MS. Bible translates: That putten the borde of fortune; and offreden licours upon it; and so the Vulgate. Ἑτοιμαζοντες τῳ δαιμονιῳ τραπεζαν, και πληρουντες τῃ τυχῃ κερασμα. Preparing a table for the demon, and filling up, or pouring out, a libation to fortune."

[¶15] Septuagint.

[¶16] Ye have set up an aulter unto fortune

[¶17] And geven rich drink offeringes unto treasure.

[¶18] Coverdale.

### Verse 12

[¶20] Therefore will I number you - Referring to Meni, which signifies number "Rabbi Eliezar said to his disciples, Turn to God one day before you die. His disciples said, How call a man know the day of his death? He answered, Therefore it is necessary that you should turn to God to-day, for possibly ye may die to-morrow."

### Verse 13

[¶22] My servants shalt eat, but ye shall be hungry - Rabbi Joachan ben Zachai said in a parable: There was a king who invited his servants, but set them no time to come to the feast. The prudent and wary who were among them adorned themselves; and, standing at the gate of the king's house, said, Is there any thing lacking in the king's house? i.e., Is there any work to be done in it? But the foolish which were among them went, and mocking said, When shall the feast be, in which there is no labor? Suddenly, the king sought out his servants: they who were adorned entered in, and they who were still polluted entered in also. The king was glad when he met the prudent, but he was angry when he met the foolish. Therefore he said, Let those sit down, and let them eat; but let these stand and look on.

[¶23] This parable is very like that of the wise and foolish virgins, Matthew 25, and that of the marriage of the king's son, Matthew 22.

### Verse 15

[¶25] Shall slay thee "Shall slay you" - For והמיתך vehemithecha, shall slay thee, the Septuagint and Chaldee read והמיתכם vehemithechem, shall slay you, plural.

### Verse 17

[¶27] I create new heavens and a new earth - This has been variously understood. Some Jews and some Christians understand it literally. God shall change the state of the atmosphere, and render the earth more fruitful. Some refer it to what they call the Millennium; others, to a glorious state of religion; others, to the re-creation of the earth after it shall have been destroyed by fire. I think it refers to the full conversion of the Jews ultimately; and primarily to the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity.

### Verse 18

[¶29] Rejoice for ever in that which I create "Exult in the age to come which I create" - So in [Isa 9:5] אבי עד abi ad, πατηρ του μελλοντος αιωνος, "the father of the age to come," Sept. See Bishop Chandler, Defence of Christianity, p. 136.

### Verse 19

[¶31] The voice of weeping, etc. - "Because of untimely deaths shall no more be heard in thee; for natural death shall not happen till men be full of days; as it is written, [Isa 65:20] : There shall be no more thence an infant of days, i.e., the people shall live to three or five hundred years of age, as in the days of the patriarchs; and if one die at one hundred years, it is because of his sin; and even at that age he shall be reputed an infant; and they shall say of him, An infant is dead. These things shall happen to Israel in the days of the Messiah." - Kimchi.

### Verse 20

[¶33] Thence "There" - For משם mishsham, thence, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read שם sham, there.

### Verse 22

[¶35] They shall not build, and another inhabit - The reverse of the curse denounced on the disobedient, [Deu 28:30] : "Thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof."

[¶36] For as the days of a tree - It is commonly supposed that the oak, one of the most longlived of the trees, lasts about a thousand years; being five hundred years growing to full perfection, and as many decaying: which seems to be a moderate and probable computation. See Evelyn, Sylva, B. 3 chap. 3. The present emperor of China, in his very ingenious and sensible poem entitled Eloge de Moukden, a translation of which in French was published at Paris, 1770, speaks of a tree in his country which lives more than a hundred ages: and another, which after fourscore ages is only in its prime, pp. 37, 38. But his imperial majesty's commentators, in their note on the place, carry the matter much farther; and quote authority, which affirms, that the tree last mentioned by the emperor, the immortal tree, after having lived ten thousand years, is still only in its prime. I suspect that the Chinese enlarge somewhat in their national chronology, as well as in that of their trees. See Chou King. Preface, by Mons. de Guignes. The prophet's idea seems to be, that they shall live to the age of the antediluvians; which seems to be very justly expressed by the days of a tree, according to our notions. The rabbins have said that this refers to the tree of life, which endures five hundred years. - L.

### Verse 23

[¶38] They shall not labor in vain "My chosen shall not labor in vain" - I remove בחירי bechirai, my elect, from the end of the twenty-second to the beginning of the twenty-third verse, on the authority of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, and a MS.; contrary to the division in the Masoretic text. - L. The Septuagint is beautiful: My chosen shall not labor in vain, neither shall they beget children for the curse; for the seed is blessed of the Lord, and their posterity with them."

[¶39] Nor bring forth for trouble "Neither shall they generate a short-lived race" - לבהלה labbehalah, in festinationem, "what shall soon hasten away." Εις καταραν for a curse, Sept. They seem to have read לאלה lealah. - Grotius. But [Psa 78:33] both justifies and explains the word here: - ימיהם בהבל ויכל yemeyhem bahebel vayechal בבהלה ושנותם babbehalah ushenotham "And he consumed their days in vanity;

[¶40] And their years in haste." μετα σπουδης, say the Septuagint. Jerome on this place of Isaiah explains it to the same purpose: "εις ανυπαρξιαν, hoc est, ut esse desistant."

### Verse 24

[¶42] Before they call, I will answer - I will give them all they crave for, and more than they can desire.

### Verse 25

[¶44] The wolf and the lamb, etc. - The glorious salvation which Jesus Christ procures is for men, and for men only: fallen spirits must still abide under the curse: "He took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham."

## 858. Isaiah · 78 of 79

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[¶0] Shall feed together - For כאחד keechad, as one, an ancient MS. has יחדו yachdav, together; the usual word, to the same sense, but very different in the letters. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate seem to agree with the MSS. - L.

### Introduction

[¶2] This chapter treats of the same subject with the foregoing. God, by his prophet, tells the Jews, who valued themselves much on their temple and pompous worship, that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; and that no outward rites of worship, while the worshippers are idolatrous and impure, can please him who looketh at the heart, [Isa 66:1-3]. This leads to a threatening of vengeance for their guilt, alluding to their making void the law of God by their abominable traditions, their rejection of Christ, persecution of his followers, and consequent destruction by the Romans. But as the Jewish ritual and people shadow forth the system of Christianity and its professors; so, in the prophetical writings, the idolatries of the Jews are frequently put for the idolatries afterwards practiced by those bearing the Christian name. Consequently, if we would have the plenitude of meaning in this section of prophecy, which the very content requires, we must look through the type into the antitype, viz., the very gross idolatries practiced by the members of Antichrist, the pompous heap of human intentions and traditions with which they have encumbered the Christian system, their most dreadful persecution of Christ's spiritual and true worshippers, and the awful judgments which shall overtake them in the great and terrible day of the Lord, [Isa 66:4-6]. The mighty and sudden increase of the Church of Jesus Christ at the period of Antichrist's fall represented by the very strong figure of Sion being delivered of a man-child before the time of her travail, the meaning of which symbol the prophet immediately subjoins in a series of interrogations for the sake of greater force and emphasis, [Isa 66:7-9]. Wonderful prosperity and unspeakable blessedness of the world when the posterity of Jacob, with the fullness of the Gentiles, shall be assembled to Messiah's standard, [Isa 66:10-14]. All the wicked of the earth shall be gathered together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, and the slain of Jehovah shall be many, [Isa 66:15-18]. Manner of the future restoration of the Israelites from their several dispersions throughout the habitable globe, [Isa 66:19-21]. Perpetuity of this new economy of grace to the house of Israel, [Isa 66:22]. Righteousness shall be universally diffused in the earth; and the memory of those who have transgressed against the Lord shall be had in continual abhorrence, [Isa 66:23], [Isa 66:24]. Thus this great prophet, after tracing the principal events of time, seems at length to have terminated his views in eternity, where all revolutions cease, where the blessedness of the righteous shall be unchangeable as the new heavens, and the misery of the wicked as the fire that shall not be quenched.

[¶3] This chapter is a continuation of the subject of the foregoing. The Jews valued themselves much upon their temple, and the pompous system of services performed in it, which they supposed were to be of perpetual duration; and they assumed great confidence and merit to themselves for their strict observance of all the externals of their religion. And at the very time when the judgments denounced in [Isa 65:6] and [Isa 65:12] of the preceding chapter were hanging over their heads, they were rebuilding, by Herod's munificence, the temple in a most magnificent manner. God admonishes them, that "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands;" and that a mere external worship, how diligently soever attended, when accompanied with wicked and idolatrous practices in the worshippers, would never be accepted by him. This their hypocrisy is set forth in strong colors, which brings the prophet again to the subject of the former chapter; and he pursues it in a different manner, with more express declaration of the new economy, and of the flourishing state of the Church under it. The increase of the Church is to be sudden and astonishing. They that escape of the Jews, that is, that become converts to the Christian faith, are to be employed in the Divine mission to the Gentiles, and are to act as priests in presenting the Gentiles as an offering to God; see [Rom 15:16]. And both, now collected into one body, shall be witnesses of the final perdition of the obstinate and irreclaimable.

[¶4] These two chapters manifestly relate to the calling of the Gentiles, the establishment of the Christian dispensation, and the reprobation of the apostate Jews, and their destruction executed by the Romans. - L.

### Verse 2

[¶6] And all those things have been "And all these things are mine" - A word absolutely necessary to the sense is here lost out of the text: לי li, mine. It is preserved by the Septuagint and Syriac.

### Verse 3

[¶8] He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man "He that slayeth an ox killeth a man" - These are instances of wickedness joined with hypocrisy; of the most flagitious crimes committed by those who at the same time affected great strictness in the performance of all the external services of religion. God, by the Prophet Ezekiel, upbraids the Jews with the same practices: "When they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it," [Eze 23:39]. Of the same kind was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in our Savior's time:" who devoured widows' houses, and for a pretense made long prayers," [Mat 23:14].

[¶9] The generality of interpreters, by departing from the literal rendering of the text, have totally lost the true sense of it, and have substituted in its place what makes no good sense at all; for it is not easy to show how, in any circumstances, sacrifice and murder, the presenting of legal offerings and idolatrous worship, can possibly be of the same account in the sight of God.

[¶10] He that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood "That maketh an oblation offereth swine's blood" - A word here likewise, necessary to complete the sense, is perhaps irrecoverably lost out of the text. The Vulgate and Chaldee add the word offereth, to make out the sense; not, as I imagine, from any different reading, (for the word wanted seems to have been lost before the time of the oldest of them as the Septuagint had it not in their copy,; but from mere necessity.

[¶11] Le Clerc thinks that מעלה maaleh is to be repeated from the beginning of this member; but that is not the case in the parallel members, which have another and a different verb in the second place, "דם dam, sic Versiones; putarem tamen legendum participium aliquod, et quidem זבח zabach, cum sequatur ח cheth, nisi jam praecesserat." - Secker. Houbigant supplies אכל achal, eateth. After all, I think the most probable word is that which the Chaldee and Vulgate seem to have designed to represent; that is, מקריב makrib, offereth.

[¶12] In their abominations - ובשקוציהם ubeshikkutseyhem, "and in their abominations;" two copies of the Machazor, and one of Kennicott's MSS. have ובגלוליהם ubegilluleyhem, "and in their idols." So the Vulgate and Syriac.

### Verse 5

[¶14] Your brethren that hated you - said "Say ye to your brethren that hate you" - The Syriac reads אמרו לאחיכם imru laacheychem; and so the Septuagint, Edit. Comp. ειπατε αδελφοις ὑμων· and MS. Marchal. has αδελφοις· and so Cyril and Procopius read and explain it. It is not easy to make sense of the reading of the Septuagint in the other editions; ειπατε αδελφοι ἡμων τοις μισουσιν ὑμας· but for ἡμων, our, MS. 1. D. 2 also has ὑμων, your.

### Verse 6

[¶16] A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord - It is very remarkable that similar words were spoken by Jesus, son of Ananias, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem. See his very affecting history related by Josephus, War, B. vi., chap. v.

### Verse 8

[¶18] Who hath seen "And who hath seen" - Twenty MSS., (four ancient), of Kennicott's, and twenty-nine of De Rossi's, and two ancient of my own, and the two oldest editions, with two others, have ומי umi, adding the conjunction ו vau; and so read all the ancient versions. And who hath seen?

### Verse 9

[¶20] Shall I bring to the birth - האני אשביר haani ashbir, num ego matricem frangam; Montanus. The word means that which immediately precedes the appearance of the fetus - the breaking forth of the liquor amnii. This also is an expression that should be studiously avoided in prayers and sermons.

### Verse 11

[¶22] With the abundance of her glory "From her abundant stores" - For מזיז mizziz, from the splendor, two MSS. and the old edition of 1488, have מזיו mizziv; and the latter ז zain is upon a rasure in three other MSS. It is remarkable that Kimchi and Sal. ben Melec, not being able to make any thing of the word as it stands in the text, say it means the same with מזיו mizziv; that is, in effect, they admit of a various reading, or an error in the text. But as Vitringa observes, what sense is there in sucking nourishment from the splendor of her glory? He therefore endeavors to deduce another sense of the word זיז ziz; but, as far as it appears to me, without any authority. I am more inclined to accede to the opinion of those learned rabbins, and to think that there is some mistake in the word; for that in truth is their opinion, though they disguise it by saying that the corrupted word means the very same with that which they believe to be genuine. So in [Isa 41:24] they say that אפע apha, a viper, means the same with אפס ephes, nothing; instead of acknowledging that one is written by mistake instead of the other. I would propose to read in this place מזין mizzin or מזן mizzen, which is the reading of one of De Rossi's MS., (instead of מזיז meziz), from the stores, from זון zun, to nourish, to feed; see [Gen 45:23];[2Chr 11:23]; [Psa 144:13]. And this perhaps may be meant by Aquila, who renders the word by απο παντοδαπιας· with which that of the Vulgate, ab omnimoda gloria, and of Symmachus and Theodotion, nearly agree. The Chaldee follows a different reading, without improving the sense; מיין meyin, from the wine. - L.

### Verse 12

[¶24] Like a river, and - like a flowing stream "Like the great river, and like the overflowing stream" - That is, the Euphrates, (it ought to have been pointed כנהר cannahar, ut fluvius ille, as the river), and the Nile.

[¶25] Then shall ye suck "And ye shall suck at the breast" - These two words על שד al shad, at the breast, seem to have been omitted in the present text, from their likeness to the two words following; על צד al tsad, at the side. A very probable conjecture of Houbigant. The Chaldee and Vulgate have omitted the two latter words instead of the two former. See note on [Isa 60:4] (note).

### Verse 15

[¶27] The Lord will come with fire "Jehovah shall come as a fire" - For באש baesh, in fire, the Septuagint had in their copy קאש kaesh, as a fire; ὡς πυρ.

[¶28] To render his anger with fury "To breathe forth his anger in a burning heat" - Instead of להשב lehashib, as pointed by the Masoretes, to render, I understand it as להשב lehashshib, to breathe, from נשב nashab.

### Verse 17

[¶30] Behind one tree "After the rites of Achad" - The Syrians worshipped a god called Adad, Plin. Nat. Hist. 37:11; Macrob. Sat. 1:23. They held him to be the highest and greatest of the gods, and to be the same with Jupiter and the sun; and the name Adad, says Macrobius, signifies one; as likewise does the word Achad in Isaiah. Many learned men therefore have supposed, and with some probability, that the prophet means the same pretended deity. אחד achad, in the Syrian and Chaldean dialects, is חד chad; and perhaps by reduplication of the last letter to express perfect unity, it may have become חדד chadad, not improperly expressed by Macrobius Adad, without the aspirate. It was also pronounced by the Syrians themselves, with a weaker aspirate, הדד hadad, as in Benhadad, Hadadezer, names of their kings, which were certainly taken from their chief object of worship. This seems to me to be a probable account of this name.

[¶31] But the Masoretes correct the text in this place. Their marginal reading is אחת achath which is the same word, only in the feminine form; and so read thirty MSS. (six ancient) and the two oldest editions. This Le Clerc approves, and supposes it to mean Hecate, or the moon; and he supports his hypothesis by arguments not at all improbable. See his note on the place.

[¶32] Whatever the particular mode of idolatry which the prophet refers to might be, the general sense of the place is perfectly clear. But the Chaldee and Syriac, and after them Symmachus and Theodotion, cut off at once all these difficulties, by taking the word אחד achad in its common meaning, not as a proper name; the two latter rendering the sentence thus: Οπισω αλληλων εν μεσῳ εσθιοντων το κρεας το χοιρειον; "One after another, in the midst of those that eat swine's flesh." I suppose they all read in their copies אחד אחד achad achad, one by one, or perhaps אחד אחר אחד achad achar achad, one after another. See a large dissertation on this subject in Davidis Millii Dissertationes Selectae, Dissert. vi. - L.

[¶33] I know not what to make of this place; it is certain that our translation makes no sense, and that of the learned prelate seems to me too refined. Kimchi interprets this of the Turks, who are remarkable for ablutions. "Behind one in the midst" he understands of a large fish-pond placed in the middle of their gardens. Others make אחד achad a deity, as above; and a deity of various names it is supposed to be, for it is Achad, and Chad, and Hadad, and Achath, and Hecat, an Assyrian idol. Behynd the fyrst tree or the gate withine forth. - Old MS. Bible.

### Verse 18

[¶35] For I know their works - A word is here lost out of the present text, leaving the text quite imperfect. The word is יודע yodea, knowing, supplied from the Syriac. The Chaldee had the same word in the copy before him, which he paraphrases by קדמי גלן kedemi gelon, their deeds are manifest before me; and the Aldine and Complutensian editions of the Septuagint acknowledge the same word επισταμαι, which is verified by MS. Pachom. and the Arabic version. I think there can be little doubt of its being genuine. The concluding verses of this chapter refer to the complete restoration of the Jews, and to the destruction of all the enemies of the Gospel of Christ, so that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge and glory of the Lord. Talia saecla currite! Lord, hasten the time!

[¶36] It shall come "And I come" - For באה baah, which will not accord with any thing in the sentence, I read בא ba, with a MS.; the participle answering to יודע yodea, with which agree the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. Perhaps it ought to be ובא veba, when I shall come, Syr.; and so the Septuagint, according to Edit. Ald. and Complut., and Cod. Marchal.

### Verse 19

[¶38] That draw the bow - I much suspect that the words משכי קשת moshechey kesheth, who draw the bow, are a corruption of the word משך meshek, Moschi, the name of a nation situated between the Euxine and Caspian seas; and properly joined with תבל tubal, the Tibareni. See Bochart, Phaleg. [Isa 3:12]. The Septuagint have μοσοχ, without any thing of the drawers of the bow: the word being once taken for a participle, the bow was added to make sense of it קשת kesheth, the bow, is omitted in a MS. and by the Septuagint.

[¶39] That have not heard my fame "Who never heard my name" - For שמעי shimi, my fame, I read, with the Septuagint and Syriac, שמי shemi, my name.

### Verse 20

[¶41] And in chariots "And in counes" - There is a sort of vehicle much used in the east, consisting of a pair of hampers or cradles, thrown across a camel's back, one on each side; in each of which a person is carried. They have a covering to defend them from the rain and the sun. Thevenot calls them counes, 1 p. 356. Maillet describes them as covered cages hanging on both sides of a camel. "At Aleppo," says Dr. Russell, "women of inferior condition in longer journeys are commonly stowed, one on each side of a mule, in a sort of covered cradles." Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, p. 89. These seem to be what the prophet means by the word צבים tsabbim. Harmer's Observations, 1 p. 445.

### Verse 21

[¶43] And for Levites - For ללוים laleviyim, fifty-nine MSS., (eight ancient), have וללוים velaleviyim, adding the conjunction ו vau, which the sense seems necessarily to require: and so read all the ancient versions. See [Jos 3:3], and the various readings on that place in Kennicott's Bible.

## 859. Isaiah · 79 of 79

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### Verse 24

[¶1] For their worm shall not die - These words of the prophet are applied by our blessed Savior, [Mar 9:44], to express the everlasting punishment of the wicked in Gehenna, or in hell. Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, was very near to Jerusalem to the south-east: it was the place where the idolatrous Jews celebrated that horrible rite of making their children pass through the fire, that is, of burning them in sacrifice to Moloch. To put a stop to this abominable practice, Josiah defiled, or desecrated, the place, by filling it with human bones, [2Kgs 23:10], [2Kgs 23:14]; and probably it was the custom afterwards to throw out the carcasses of animals there, when it also became the common burying place for the poorer people of Jerusalem. Our Savior expressed the state of the blessed by sensible images; such as paradise, Abraham's bosom, or, which is the same thing, a place to recline next to Abraham at table in the kingdom of heaven. See [Mat 8:11]. Coenabat Nerva cum paucis. Veiento proxies, atque etiam in sinu recumbebat. "The Emperor Nerva supped with few. Veiento was the first in his estimation, and even reclined in his bosom." Plin. Epist. 4:22. Compare [Joh 13:23]; for we could not possibly have any conception of it but by analogy from worldly objects. In like manner he expressed the place of torment under the image of Gehenna; and the punishment of the wicked by the worm which there preyed on the carcasses, and the fire that consumed the wretched victims. Marking however, in the strongest manner, the difference between Gehenna and the invisible place of torment; namely, that in the former the suffering is transient: - the worm itself which preys upon the body, dies; and the fire which totally consumes it, is soon extinguished: - whereas in the figurative Gehenna the instruments of punishment shall be everlasting, and the suffering without end; "for there the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

[¶2] These emblematical images, expressing heaven and hell, were in use among the Jews before our Savior's time; and in using them he complied with their notions. "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God," says the Jew to our Savior, [Luk 14:15]. And in regard to Gehenna, the Chaldee paraphrase as I observed before on [Isa 30:33], renders everlasting or continual burnings by "the Gehenna of everlasting fire." And before his time the son of Sirach, 7:17, had said, "The vengeance of the ungodly is fire and worms." So likewise the author of the book of Judith, chap. 16:17: "Wo to the nations rising up against my kindred: the Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of judgment, in putting fire and worms in their flesh;" manifestly referring to the same emblem. - L.

[¶3] Kimchi's conclusion of his notes on this book is remarkable: - "Blessed be God who hath created the mountains and the hills,

[¶4] And hath endued me with strength to finish the book of salvation:

[¶5] He shall rejoice us with good tidings and reports;

[¶6] He shall show us a token for good: -

[¶7] And the end of his miracles he shall cause to approach us."

[¶8] Several of the Versions have a peculiarity in their terminations: -

[¶9] And they shall be to a satiety of sight to all flesh.

[¶10] Vulgate.

[¶11] And thei schul ben into fyllyng of sigt to all fleshe.

[¶12] Old MS. Bible.

[¶13] And they shall be as a vision to all flesh.

[¶14] Septuagint.

[¶15] And the wicked shall be punished in hell till the righteous shall say, - It is enough.

[¶16] Chaldee.

[¶17] They shall be an astonishment to all flesh; So that they shall be a spectacle to all beings.

[¶18] Syriac.

[¶19] The end of the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet.

[¶20] Praise to God who is truly praiseworthy.

[¶21] Arabic.

[¶22] One of my old Hebrew MSS. after the twenty-first verse repeats the twenty-third: "And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord."

## 860. Jeremiah · 1 of 55

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### Introduction to the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

[¶1] The Prophet Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, was of the sacerdotal race, and a native of Anathoth, a village in the tribe of Benjamin, within a few miles of Jerusalem, which had been appointed for the use of the priests, the descendants of Aaron, [Jos 21:18]. He was called to the prophetic office when very young; probably when he was fourteen years of age, and in the thirteenth of the reign of Josiah, A.M. 3375, b.c. 629. He continued to prophesy till after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, which took place A.M. 3416; and it is supposed that about two years after he died in Egypt. Thus it appears that he discharged the arduous duties of the prophetic office for upwards of forty years.

[¶2] Being very young when called to the prophetic office, he endeavored to excuse himself on account of his youth and incapacity for the work; but, being overruled by the Divine authority, he undertook the task, and performed it with matchless zeal and fidelity in the midst of a most crooked and perverse people, by whom he was continually persecuted, and whom he boldly reproved, often at the hazard of his life.

[¶3] His attachment to his country was strong and fervent; he foresaw by the light of prophecy the ruin that was coming upon it. He might have made terms with the enemy, and not only saved his life, but have gained ease and plenty; but he chose rather to continue with his people, and take his part in all the disasters that befell them.

[¶4] After the destruction of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar having made Gedaliah governor of Judea, the fractious Jews rose up against him, and put him to death; they then escaped to Tahpanhes in Egypt, carrying Jeremiah with them; who, continuing to testify against their wickedness and idolatry, at length fell a victim to his faithfulness: they filled up the measure of their iniquity, as tradition reports, by stoning the prophet to death. God marked this murderous outrage by his peculiar displeasure; for in a few years after they were almost all miserably destroyed by the Chaldean armies which had invaded Egypt; and even this destruction had been foretold by the prophet himself, chap. 44: "They were consumed by the sword and by the famine until there was an end of them, a small remnant only escaping," [Jer 44:14], [Jer 44:27], [Jer 44:28].

[¶5] The pitch of desperate wickedness to which the Jews had arrived previously to their captivity was truly astonishing. They had exhausted all the means that infinite mercy, associated with infinite justice, could employ for the salvation of sinners; and they became in consequence desperately wicked; no wonder, therefore, that wrath fell upon them to the uttermost. It seems that their hardness and darkness had proceeded to such lengths that they abandoned themselves to all the abominations of idolatry to avenge themselves on God, because he would not bear with their continual profligacy. Were ever people more highly favored, more desperately ungrateful, or more signally punished! What a lesson is their history to the nations of the earth, and especially to those who have been favored with the light of revelation!

[¶6] I should have entered into a particular discussion relative to the history of those times mentioned by this prophet, had they not passed already in review in the Books of Kings and Chronicles; in which much of the historical parts of this prophet has been anticipated; and to which, in order to avoid repetition, I must refer my readers. What is farther necessary to be added will be found in the following notes.

[¶7] As a writer, the character of Jeremiah has been well drawn by Bishop Lowth. On comparing him with Isaiah, the learned prelate says: "Jeremiah is by no means wanting either in elegance or sublimity; although, generally speaking, inferior to Isaiah in both. St. Jerome has objected to him a certain rusticity in his diction; of which, I must confess, I do not discover the smallest trace. His thoughts, indeed, are somewhat less elevated, and he is commonly more large and diffuse in his sentences; but the reason of this may be, that he is mostly taken up with the gentler passions of grief and pity, for the expressing of which he has a peculiar talent. This is most evident in the Lamentations, where those passions altogether predominate; but it is often visible also in his Prophecies; in the former part of the book more especially, which is principally poetical. The middle parts are for the most part historical; but the last part, consisting of six chapters, is entirely poetical; and contains several oracles distinctly marked, in which this prophet falls very little short of the loftiest style of Isaiah." It has often been remarked, that although several of the prophecies in this book have their dates distinctly noted, and most of the rest may be ascertained from collateral evidence; yet there is a strange disorder in the arrangement. "There is," says Dr. Blayney, "a preposterous jumbling together of the prophecies of the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah in the seventeen chapters which follow the twentieth, according to the Hebrew copies; so that, without any apparent reason, many of the latter reigns precede those of the former; and in the same reign, the last delivered are put first, and the first, last." In order to prevent the confusion arising from this, Dr. Blayney has transposed the chapters where he thought it needful, without altering the numerals as they stand in our common Bibles.

[¶8] This defect has been noticed, and attempts made to remedy it, by others. Dr. John George Dahler, Professor of Theology in the Protestant seminary of Strasburg, has just now published the first volume of a work, entitled, Jeremie, traduit sur le Texte original, accompagne de Notes Explicatives, Historiques, et Critiques, 8vo., (antedated) Strasbourg, 1824. After a preface, and very judicious historical introduction, consisting, the first of twenty-two, the second of thirty-six pages, the text and notes follow. The poetical parts of the text are translated in the hemistich manner, as the original appears in the best copies; and the whole is divided into sections; each of which is introduced with judicious observations relative to time, place, circumstances, and the matter contained in that section. The discourses or prophecies delivered under a particular reign, are all produced under that reign in their chronological order. A table of this arrangement I shall here introduce, and refer to the use of it afterwards:

[¶9] Table I Prophecies under Josiah 1:1-19 3:6-4:4 4, 5, [Jer 6:30] [Jer 17:19-27] -[Jer 3:1-5] [Jer 47:1-7] Under Jehoiakim 7:1-9:25 [Jer 20:14-18] 26:1-24 23:9-40 [Jer 46:2-12] 35:1-19 10:1-16 25:1-38 14:1-15:21 36:1-32 16:1-17:18 [Jer 45:1-5] 18:1-23 [Jer 12:14-17] 19:1-20:13 [Jer 10:17-25] Under Jeconiah 13:1-27 Under Zedekiah 22:1-23:8 [Jer 34:1-7] 11:1-17 [Jer 37:1-10] 11:18-12:13 [Jer 34:8-22] [Jer 24:1-10] [Jer 37:11-21] 29:1-32 38:1-28 27:1-28:17 [Jer 39:15-18] [Jer 49:34-39] 32:1-44 [Jer 51:59-64] 33:1-26 [Jer 21:1-14] [Jer 39:1-10] After the destruction of Jerusalem [Jer 39:11-14] 42:1-43:7 40:1-41:18 30:1-31:40 Prophecies delivered in Egypt [Jer 43:8-13] 44:1-30 46:13-28 Prophecies relative to strange nations [Jer 46:1] [Jer 49:23-27] [Jer 49:14] [Jer 49:28-33] 48:1-47 50:1-51:64 49:7-22 Historical Appendix 52:1-34

[¶10] The kings under whom Jeremiah prophesied succeeded each other in the following order:

[¶11] 1. Josiah;

[¶12] 2. Jehoahaz;

[¶13] 3. Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah;

[¶14] 4. Jehoiakim;

[¶15] 5. Zedekiah.

[¶16] To render the transpositions evident which have taken place in these prophetical discourses, we have only to look at those which bear the date of their delivery.

[¶17] Table II [Jer 1:1]. Delivered the thirteenth year of Josiah [Jer 35:1]. Under Jehoiakim [Jer 3:6]. Under Josiah [Jer 36:1]. Under Jehoiakim [Jer 21:1]. Under Zedekiah [Jer 37:1]. Under Zedekiah during the siege of Jerusalem [Jer 24:1]. After the carrying away of Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim [Jer 37:11]. Under Zedekiah [Jer 25:1]. The fourth year of Jehoiakim [Jer 38:1]. Under Zedekiah [Jer 26:1]. The beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim [Jer 39:15]. Under Zedekiah while Jeremiah was in prison [Jer 28:1]. The beginning of the reign of Zedekiah [Jer 45:1]. The fourth year of Jehoiakim [Jer 29:1]. After the carrying away of Jeconiah [Jer 46:2]. The fourth year of Jehoiakim [Jer 32:1]. The tenth year of Zedekiah [Jer 49:34]. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah [Jer 34:1]. (Under Zedekiah) during the siege of Jerusalem [Jer 51:59]. The fourth year of Zedekiah [Jer 34:8]. (Under Zedekiah) when he had obliged his subjects to give liberty to the Israelites whom they had reduced to slavery

[¶18] Taking into consideration the order of the reigns, a child may perceive that the above prophecies are not in the order of the times of their delivery; and that the sheets or skins on which the text of that MS. was written, from which the present copies have derived their origin, have been pitifully interchanged, huddled and tacked together, without connection or arrangement.

[¶19] To remedy this defect, Dr. Blayney has arranged the chapters in the following order which he terms a new arrangement of the chapters in Jeremiah, from chap. 20, to chap. 46, inclusive: 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 35, 36, 45, 24, 29, 30, 31, 27, 28, 21, 34, 37, 32, 33, 38, 39:15-18, 39:1-14, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, etc.

[¶20] The preceding and subsequent chapters Dr. Blayney thought sufficiently correct for all the general purposes of chronology; and it is according to this order that he prints the text in his edition and translation of this prophet.

[¶21] Dr. Dahler, as we have seen, is more circumstantial. Where he has dates, as are shown in the preceding table, he produces the text in that order; where there are not positive dates, he ascertains several by circumstantial intimations, which bear great evidence of accuracy; but there is a numerous class of discourses which he is obliged to insert in this work by critical conjecture. In such a case as this, when the arrangement of the common text is so evidently defective, and in many respects absurd, this procedure is quite allowable; for although the present text as to its arrangement has the sanction of antiquity, yet when a remedy is found, it would be absurd, if not sinful, to follow an order which we may rest satisfied never did proceed from the inspired writer.

[¶22] I hope none will suppose that these observations detract any thing from the Divine inspiration of the book. The prophet delivered his discourses at particular times in select portions, during forty or forty-three years; these were afterwards gathered together and stitched up without any attention to chronological arrangement. Though the Spirit of the Lord directed the prophet, yet it would be absurd to suppose that it guided the hand of every collector or scribe into whose custody these several parcels might come. Suppose a man buy a copy of the Bible in sheets, and not knowing how to collate them, stitches the whole confusedly together, so that in many places the sense cannot be made out from a preceding to a following sheet, would it not be singularly foolish for any person to say, "As God is the Fountain of wisdom and Author of reason, such incongruities cannot proceed from him, therefore this book was not given by Divine revelation." A child in a printer's office might reply, "Cut the stitching asunder, that is man's work; collate the sheets and put them in their proper order, and you will soon see that every paragraph is in harmony with the rest, and contains the words of Divine wisdom." Many an ancient MS., which appeared mutilated and imperfect, I have restored to order and perfection by cutting the binding asunder, and restoring the sheets and leaves to those places from which the ignorance and unskilfulness of the binder had detached them. May we not be allowed to treat the dislocations in the writings of a prophet in the same way, when it is evident that in the lapse of time his work has suffered by the hand of the careless and ignorant.

[¶23] But it may be asked, "After all the evidence I have, and the concessions I have made, why I have not transposed those disjointed chapters, and produced them in the order in which I think they should be read?" I answer, Were I to give a new translation with notes of this prophet separately, as Drs. Blayney and Dahler have done, I should feel it my duty to do what the objection states; but as my province as a general commentator requires me to take up all the books of the sacred volume in the order in which I find them in the present authorized version, though convinced that this arrangement is neither correct nor convenient; so I take up the parts of each, however transposed, in the same manner, directing the reader by tables and notes to regulate his use of the work so as to produce general edification with as little embarrassment as possible.

[¶24] For general purposes, Dr. Blayney's chronological arrangement may be sufficient; but for greater accuracy Table I. may be preferred. These may at least be considered in the light of helps to a better understanding of these several prophecies; but no man is bound to follow either, farther than he is convinced that it follows what is specifically set down by the prophet himself, or fairly deducible from strong circumstantial evidence.

[¶25] In my notes on this prophet I have availed myself, as far as my plan would permit, of the best helps within my reach. The various readings of Kennicott and De Rossi I have carefully consulted, and occasionally strengthened the evidence in behalf of those readings, more particularly recommended by collations from my own M,SS. I regret that I have not been able, for the reasons mentioned at the conclusion of the notes on Isaiah, to produce all the various readings of importance found in these ancient MSS., and especially in the Book of Lamentations, which is contained in five of them; but like the woman in the Gospels, I have done what I could, and must leave the rest to those who, with better abilities, may possess the greater advantages of youth and strength, with unimpaired sight.

[¶26] Reader! God designs thee a blessing by every portion of his word: in thy reading seek for this; and if these notes be helpful to thee, give Him the glory.

[¶27] A.C.

[¶28] Eastcott, Nov. 1, 1824.

[¶29] General title to the whole Book, [Jer 1:1-3]. Jeremiah receives a commission to prophesy concerning nations and kingdoms, a work to which in the Divine purpose he had been appointed before his birth, [Jer 1:4-10]. The vision of the rod of an almond tree and of the seething pot, with their signification, [Jer 1:11-16]. Promises of Divine protection to Jeremiah in the discharge of the arduous duties of his prophetical office, [Jer 1:17-19].

### Verse 1

[¶31] The words of Jeremiah - These three verses are the title of the Book; and were probably added by Ezra when he collected and arranged the sacred books, and put them in that order in which they are found in Hebrew Bibles in general. For particulars relative to this prophet, the times of his prophesying, and the arrangement of his discourses, see the introduction.

[¶32] Eleventh year of Zedekiah - That is, the last year of his reign; for he was made prisoner by the Chaldeans in the fourth month of that year, and the carrying away of the inhabitants of Jerusalem was in the fifth month of the same year.

### Verse 4

[¶34] The word of the Lord came unto me - Then I first felt the inspiring influence of the Divine Spirit, not only revealing to me the subjects which he would have me to declare to the people, but also the words which I should use in these declarations.

### Verse 5

[¶36] Before I formed thee - I had destined thee to the prophetic office before thou wert born: I had formed my plan, and appointed thee to be my envoy to his people. St. Paul speaks of his own call to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles in similar terms, [Gal 1:15], [Gal 1:16].

### Verse 6

[¶38] I cannot speak - Being very young, and wholly inexperienced, I am utterly incapable of conceiving aright, or of clothing these Divine subjects in suitable language. Those who are really called of God to the sacred ministry are such as have been brought to a deep acquaintance with themselves, feel their own ignorance, and know their own weakness. They know also the awful responsibility that attaches to the work; and nothing but the authority of God can induce such to undertake it. They whom God never called run, because of worldly honor and emolument: the others hear the call with fear and trembling, and can go only in the strength of Jehovah. "How ready is the man to go,

[¶39] Whom God hath never sent!

[¶40] How timorous, diffident, and slow,

[¶41] God's chosen instrument!"

### Verse 7

[¶43] Whatsoever I command thee - It is my words and message, not thine own, that thou shalt deliver. I shall teach thee; therefore thy youth and inexperience can be no hinderance.

## 861. Jeremiah · 2 of 55

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### Verse 8

[¶1] Be not afraid of their faces - That is, the Jews, whom he knew would persecute him because of the message which he brought. To be fore-warned is to be half armed. He knew what he was to expect from the disobedient and the rebellious, and must now be prepared to meet it.

### Verse 10

[¶3] I have - set thee over the nations - God represents his messengers the prophets as doing what he commanded them to declare should be done. In this sense they rooted up, pulled down, and destroyed - declared God's judgments, they builder up and planted - declared the promises of his mercy. Thus God says to Isaiah, [Isa 6:10] : "Make the heart of this people fat - and shut their eyes." Show them that they are stupid and blind; and that, because they have shut their eyes and hardened their hearts, God will in his judgments leave them to their hardness and darkness.

### Verse 11

[¶5] A rod of an almond tree - שקד shaked, from שקד shakad, "to be ready," "to hasten," "to watch for an opportunity to do a thing," to awake; because the almond tree is the first to flower and bring forth fruit. Pliny says, Floret prima omnium amygdala mense Januario; Martio vero pomum maturat. It blossoms in January, when other trees are locked up in their winter's repose; and it bears fruit in March, just at the commencement of spring, when other trees only begin to bud. It was here the symbol of that promptitude with which God was about to fulfill his promises and threatening. As a rod, says Dahler, is an instrument of punishment, the rod of the almond may be intended here as the symbol of that punishment which the prophet was about to announce.

### Verse 12

[¶7] I will hasten my word - Here is a paronomasia. What dost thou see? I see שקד shaked, "an almond," the hastening tree: that which first awakes. Thou hast well seen, for (שקד shoked) I will hasten my word. I will awake, or watch over my word for the first opportunity to inflict the judgments which I threaten. The judgment shall come speedily; it shall soon flourish, and come to maturity.

### Verse 13

[¶9] A seething pot - toward the north - We find, from [Eze 24:3], etc., that a boiling pot was an emblem of war, and the desolations it produces. Some have thought that by the seething pot Judea is intended, agitated by the invasion of the Chaldeans, whose land lay north of Judea. But Dr. Blayney contends that מפני צפונה mippeney tsaphonah should be translated, From the face of the north, as it is in the margin; for, from the next verse, it appears that the evil was to come from the north; and therefore the steam, which was designed as an emblem of that evil, must have arisen from that quarter also. The pot denotes the empire of the Babylonians and Chaldeans lying to the north of Judea, and pouring forth its multitudes like a thick vapor, to overspread the land. Either of these interpretations will suit the text.

### Verse 14

[¶11] Shall break forth - תפתח tippathach, shall be opened. The door shall be thrown abroad, that these calamities may pass out freely.

### Verse 15

[¶13] Shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates - As the gates of the cities were the ordinary places where justice was administered, so the enemies of Jerusalem are here represented as conquering the whole land, assuming the reins of government, and laying the whole country under their own laws; so that the Jews should no longer possess any political power: they should be wholly subjugated by their enemies.

### Verse 16

[¶15] I will utter my judgments - God denounced his judgments: the conquest of their cities, and the destruction of the realm, were the facts to which these judgments referred; and these facts prove that the threatening was fulfilled.

[¶16] Worshipped the works of their own hands - Idolatry was the source of all their wickedness and was the cause of their desolations. For למעשי lemaasey, the works, more than a hundred MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's, with many editions, have למעשה lemaaseh, the work. Idolatry was their One great Work, the business of their life, their trade.

### Verse 17

[¶18] Gird up thy loins - Take courage and be ready, lest I confound thee; take courage and be resolute, פן pen, lest by their opposition thou be terrified and confounded. God is often represented as doing or causing to be done, what he only permits or suffers to be done. Or, do not fear them, I will not suffer thee to be confounded. So Dahler, Ne crains pas que je te confonde a leurs yeux, "Do not fear that I shall confound thee before them." It is well known that the phrase, gird up thy reins, is a metaphor taken from the long robes of the Asiatics; which, on going a journey, or performing their ordinary work, they were obliged to truss up under their girdles, that the motions of the body might not be impeded.

### Verse 18

[¶20] I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and, brazen walls - Though thou shalt be exposed to persecutions and various indignities, they shall not prevail against thee. To their attacks thou shalt be as an impregnable city; as unshaken as an iron pillar; and as imperishable as a wall of brass. None, therefore, can have less cause to apprehend danger than thou hast. The issue proved the truth of this promise: he outlived all their insults; and saw Jerusalem destroyed, and his enemies, and the enemies of his Lord, carried into captivity. Instead of חמות chomoth, walls, many MSS. and editions read חמת chomath, a wall, which corresponds with the singular nouns preceding.

### Verse 19

[¶22] They shall not prevail against thee - Because I am determined to defend and support thee against all thy enemies. One of the ancients has said, Θεου θελοντος, και επι ῥιπος πλεῃ Σωζῃ· Thestius, apud Theophil. ad Autolyc. lib. 2: "God protecting thee, though thou wert at sea upon a twig, thou shouldst be safe."

### Introduction

[¶24] God expresses his continued regard for his people, long since chosen, [Jer 2:1-3]. He then expostulates with them on their ungrateful and worse than heathen return to his regard, [Jer 2:4-11]; at which even the inanimate creation must be astonished, [Jer 2:12], [Jer 2:13]. After this their guilt is declared to be the sole cause of the calamities which their enemies had power to inflict on them, [Jer 2:14-17]. They are upbraided for their alliances with idolatrous countries, [Jer 2:18], [Jer 2:19]; and for their strong propensity to idolatry, notwithstanding all the care and tender mercy of God, [Jer 2:20-29]. Even the chastenings of the Almighty have produced in this people no repentance, [Jer 2:30]. The chapter concludes with compassionately remonstrating against their folly and ingratitude in revolting so deeply from God, and with warning them of the fearful consequences, [Jer 2:31], [Jer 2:37].

### Verse 2

[¶26] I remember thee - The youth here refers to their infant political state when they came out of Egypt; they just then began to be a people. Their espousals refer to their receiving the law at Mount Sinai, which they solemnly accepted, [Exo 24:6-8], and which acceptance was compared to a betrothing or espousal. Previously to this they were no people, for they had no constitution nor form of government. When they received the law, and an establishment in the Promised Land, then they became a people and a nation.

[¶27] Wentest after me - Receivedst my law, and wert obedient to it; confiding thyself wholly to my guidance, and being conscientiously attached to my worship. The kindness was that which God showed them by taking them to be his people, not their kindness to him.

### Verse 3

[¶29] Israel was holiness unto the Lord - Fully consecrated to his service.

[¶30] The first fruits of his increase - They were as wholly the Lord's, as the first fruits were the property of the priests according to the law [Num 18:13]. These the priests alone had a right to devote to their own use.

[¶31] All that devour him shall offend - As they were betrothed to the Lord, they were considered his especial property; they therefore who injured them were considered as laying violent hands on the property of God. They who persecute God's children have a grievous burden to bear, an awful account to give.

### Verse 5

[¶33] What iniquity have your fathers found in me - Have they ever discovered any thing cruel, unjust, oppressive in my laws? Any thing unkind or tyrannical in my government? Why then have they become idolaters?

### Verse 6

[¶35] Through the wilderness - Egypt was the house of their bondage: the desert through which they passed after they came out of Egypt, was a place where the means of life were not to be found; where no one family could subsist, much less a company of 600, 000 men. God mentions these things to show that it was by the bounty of an especial providence that they were fed and preserved alive. Previously to this, it was a land through which no man passed, and in which no man dwelt. And why? because it did not produce the means of life; it was the shadow of death in its appearance, and the grave to those who committed themselves to it.

### Verse 7

[¶37] And I brought you into a plentiful country - The land of Canaan.

[¶38] My land - The particular property of God, which he gave to them as an inheritance, they being his peculiar people.

### Verse 8

[¶40] They that handle the law - ותפשי vethophe shey, they that draw out the law; they whose office it is to explain it, draw out its spiritual meanings, and show to what its testimonies refer.

[¶41] The pastors also - Kings, political and civil rulers.

[¶42] Prophesied by Baal - Became his prophets, and were inspired with the words of lying spirits.

### Verse 9

[¶44] I will yet plead with you - אריב arib, I will maintain my process, vindicate my own conduct, and prove the wickedness of yours.

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### Verse 10

[¶1] The isles of Chittim - This is the island of Cyprus, according to Josephus. In 1 Maccabees 8:5, it is taken for Macedonia. Besides this, how they (the Romans) had discomfited in battle Philip and Perseus, king of the Chittims. Chittim was the grandson of Japhet; and Bochart has made it appear that the countries inhabited by the Chittim were Italy and the adjacent provinces of Europe, lying along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; and probably this is the prophet's meaning.

[¶2] Send unto Kedar - The name of an Arabian tribe. See if nations either near or remote, cultivated or stupid, have acted with such fickleness and ingratitude as you have done! They have retained their gods to whom they had no obligation; ye have abandoned your God, to whom ye owe your life, breath, and all things!

### Verse 12

[¶4] Be astonished, O ye heavens - Or, the heavens are astonished. The original will admit either sense. The conduct of this people was so altogether bad, that among all the iniquities of mankind, neither heaven nor earth had witnessed any thing so excessively sinful and profligate.

### Verse 13

[¶6] Two evils - First, they forsook God, the Fountain of life, light, prosperity, and happiness. Secondly, they hewed out broken cisterns; they joined themselves to idols, from whom they could receive neither temporal nor spiritual good! Their conduct was the excess of folly and blindness. What we call here broken cisterns, means more properly such vessels as were ill made, not staunch, ill put together, so that the water leaked through them.

### Verse 14

[¶8] Is Israel a servant? - Is he a slave purchased with money, or a servant born in the family? He is a son himself. If so, then, why is he spoiled? Not because God has not shown him love and kindness; but because he forsook God, turned to and is joined with idols.

### Verse 15

[¶10] The young lions roared upon him - The Assyrians, who have sacked and destroyed the kingdom of Israel, with a fierceness like that of pouncing upon their prey.

### Verse 16

[¶12] The children of Noph and Tahapanes - Noph and Tahapanes were two cities of Egypt, otherwise called Memphis and Daphni. It is well known that the good king was defeated by the Egyptians, and slain in battle. Thus was the crown of Judah's head broken.

### Verse 18

[¶14] What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt - Why dost thou make alliances with Egypt?

[¶15] To drink the waters of Sihor? - This means the Nile. See on [Isa 23:3] (note).

[¶16] The way of Assyria - Why make alliances with the Assyrians? All such connections will only expedite thy ruin.

[¶17] To drink the waters of the river? - The Euphrates, as נהר nahar or הנהר hannahar always means Euphrates, the country between the Tigris and Euphrates, is termed to this day Maher alnahar, "the country beyond the river," i.e., Mesopotamia.

[¶18] Instead of cleaving to the Lord, they joined affinity and made alliances with those two nations, who were ever jealous of them, and sought their ruin. Egypt was to them a broken reed instead of a staff; Assyria was a leaky cistern, from which they could derive no help.

### Verse 20

[¶20] Of old time I have broken thy yoke - It is thought by able critics that the verbs should be read in the second person singular, Thou hast broken thy yoke, Thou hast burst thy bonds; and thus the Septuagint, συνετριψας τον ζυγον σου, "thou hast broken thy yoke." And the Vulgate, Confregisti jugum meum, rupisti, vincula mea; "Thou hast broken my yoke; thou hast burst my bonds;" and so the Arabic. But the Chaldee gives it a meaning which removes the difficulty: "I have broken the yoke of the people from thy neck; I have cut your bonds asunder." And when this was done, they did promise fair: for "thou saidst, I will not transgress;" but still they played the harlot - committed idolatrous acts in the high places, where the heathen had built their altars, pretending that elevation of this kind assisted their devotion.

### Verse 21

[¶22] I had planted thee a noble vine - I gave thee the fullest instruction, the purest ordinances, the highest privileges; and reason would that I should expect thee to live suitably to such advantages; but instead of this thou art become degenerate; the tree is deteriorated, and the fruit is bad. Instead of being true worshippers, and of a holy life and conversation, ye are become idolaters of the most corrupt and profligate kind. See [Isa 5:1], etc., where the same image is used.

### Verse 22

[¶24] For though thou wash thee with nitre - It should be rendered natar or natron, a substance totally different from our nitre. It comes from the root נתר nathar, to dissolve, loosen, because a solution of it in water is abstersive, taking out spots, etc., from clothes. It is still used in the east for the purpose of washing. If vinegar be poured on it, Dr. Shaw says, a strong effervescence is the immediate consequence, which illustrates [Pro 25:20] : "The singing of songs to a heavy heart is like vinegar upon natron;" that is, there is no affinity between them; opposition and strife are occasioned by any attempt to unite them.

[¶25] Thine iniquity is marked before me - No washing will take out thy spots; the marks of thy idolatry and corruption are too deeply rooted to be extracted by any human means.

### Verse 23

[¶27] See thy way in the valley - The valley of Hinnom, where they offered their own children to Moloch, an idol of the Ammonites.

[¶28] A swift dromedary traversing her ways - Dr. Blayney translates, "A fleet dromedary that hath taken to company with her." Dr. Dahler rather paraphrases, thus: -

[¶29] Semblable a une dromedaire en chaleur,

[¶30] Qui court d'une tote a l'autre. "Like to a dromedary in her desire for the male,

[¶31] Which runs hither and thither."

[¶32] This is an energetic comparison; and shows the unbridled attachment of those bad people to idolatry, and the abominable practices by which it was usually accompanied.

### Verse 24

[¶34] A wild ass used to the wilderness - Another comparison to express the same thing.

[¶35] Snuffeth up the wind - In a high fever from the inward heat felt at such times, these animals open their mouths and nostrils as wide as possible, to take in large draughts of fresh air, in order to cool them.

[¶36] In her mouth they shall find her - The meaning is, that although such animals are exceedingly fierce and dangerous when they are in this state; yet, as soon as they have found the male, the desire is satisfied, and they become quiet and governable as before. But it was not so with this idolatrous people: their desires were ever fierce and furious; they were never satiated, one indulgence always leading to an other. The brute beasts had only a short season in which this appetite prevailed; but they acted without restraint or limit.

### Verse 25

[¶38] Withhold thy foot from being unshod - When it was said to them, "Cease from discovering thy feet; prostitute thyself no more to thy idols."

[¶39] And thy throat from thirst - Drink no more of their libations, nor use those potions which tend only to increase thy appetite for pollution. Thou didst say, There is no hope: it is useless to advise me thus; I am determined; I have loved these strange pods, and to them will I cleave.

### Verse 26

[¶41] As the thief is ashamed - As the pilferer is confounded when he is caught in the fact; so shalt thou, thy kings, princes, priests, and prophets, be confounded, when God shall arrest thee in thy idolatries, and deliver thee into the hands of thine enemies.

### Verse 27

[¶43] Thou art my father - By thee we have been produced, and by thee we are sustained. This was the property of the true God; for he is the Author and Supporter of being. How deeply fallen and brutishly ignorant must they be when they could attribute this to the stock of a tree!

### Verse 28

[¶45] According to the number of thy cities are thy gods - Among heathen nations every city had its tutelary deity. Judah, far sunk in idolatry, had adopted this custom. The Church of Rome has refined it a little: every city has its tutelary saint, and this saint has a procession and worship peculiar to himself. So here; not much of the old idolatry is lost.

## 863. Jeremiah · 4 of 55

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### Verse 31

[¶1] Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? - Have I ever withheld from you any of the blessings necessary for your support?

[¶2] A land of darkness - Have you, since you passed through the wilderness, and came out of the darkness of Egypt, ever been brought into similar circumstances? You have had food and all the necessaries of life for your bodies; and my ordinances and word to enlighten and cheer your souls. I have neither been a wilderness nor a land of darkness to you.

[¶3] We are lords - We wish to be our own masters; we will neither brook religious nor civil restraint; we will regard no laws, human or Divine. It was this disposition that caused them to fall in so fully with the whole system of idolatry.

### Verse 32

[¶5] Can a maid forget her ornaments - This people has not so much attachment to me as young females have to their dress and ornaments. They never forget them and even when arrived at old age, look with pleasure on the dress and ornaments which they have worn in their youth.

[¶6] Days without number - That is, for many years; during the whole reign of Manasses, which was fifty-five years, the land was deluged with idolatry, from which the reform by good King Josiah his grandson had not yet purified it.

### Verse 33

[¶8] Why trimmest thou thy way - Ye have used a multitude of artifices to gain alliances with the neighboring idolatrous nations.

[¶9] Hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways - Ye have made even these idolaters worse than they were before. Dr. Blayney translates, "Therefore have I taught calamity thy ways." A prosopopoeia: "I have instructed calamity where to find thee." Thou shalt not escape punishment.

### Verse 34

[¶11] The blood of the souls of the poor innocents - We find from the sacred history that Manasseh had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; see [2Kgs 21:16], and [Eze 34:10].

[¶12] I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these - Such deeds of darkness and profligacy are found only in Israel. Dr. Blayney translates, "I have not found it in a digged hole, but upon every oak." Others cover the blood that it may not appear; but ye have shed it openly, and sprinkled it upon your consecrated oaks, and gloried in it.

### Verse 35

[¶14] Because I am innocent - They continued to assert their innocence, and therefore expected that God's judgments would be speedily removed!

[¶15] I will plead with thee - I will maintain my process, follow it up to conviction, and inflict the deserved punishment.

### Verse 36

[¶17] Why gaddest thou about - When they had departed from the Lord, they sought foreign alliances for support.

[¶18] 1. The Assyrians [2Chr 28:13-21]; but they injured instead of helping them.

[¶19] 2. The Egyptians: but in this they were utterly disappointed, and were ashamed of their confidence.

[¶20] See [Jer 37:7-8] (note), for the fulfillment of this prediction.

### Verse 37

[¶22] Thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head - Thou shalt find all thy confidence in vain, - thy hope disappointed; - and thy state reduced to desperation. The hand being placed on the head was the evidence of deep sorrow, occasioned by utter desolation. See the case of Tamar, when ruined and abandoned by her brother Amnon, [2Sam 13:19].

[¶23] Thou shalt not prosper in them - They shall all turn to thy disadvantage; and this as we shall see in the history of this people, was literally fulfilled. O what a grievous and bitter thing it is to sin against the Lord, and have him for an enemy!

### Introduction

[¶25] The first five verses of this chapter allude to the subject of the last; and contain earnest exhortations to repentance, with gracious promises of pardon, notwithstanding every aggravation of guilt, [Jer 3:1-5]. At the sixth verse a new section of prophecy commences, opening with a complaint against Judah for having exceeded in guilt her sister Israel, already cast off for her idolatry, [Jer 3:6-11]. She is cast off, but not forever; for to this same Israel, whose place of captivity (Assyria) lay to the north of Judea, pardon is promised on her repentance, together with a restoration to the Church of God, along with her sister Judah, in the latter days, [Jer 3:12-20]. The prophet foretells the sorrow and repentance of the children of Israel under the Gospel dispensation, [Jer 3:21]. God renews his gracious promises, [Jer 3:22]; and they again confess their sins. In this confession their not deigning to name the idol Baal, the source of their calamities, but calling him in the abstract shame, or a thing of shame, is a nice touch of the perusal extremely beautiful and natural, [Jer 3:22-25].

### Verse 1

[¶27] If a man put away his wife - It was ever understood, by the law and practice of the country, that if a woman were divorced by her husband, and became the wife of another man, the first husband could never take her again. Now Israel had been married unto the Lord; joined in solemn covenant to him to worship and serve him only. Israel turned from following him, and became idolatrous. On this ground, considering idolatry as a spiritual whoredom, and the precept and practice of the law to illustrate this case, Israel could never more be restored to the Divine favor: but God, this first husband, in the plenitude of his mercy, is willing to receive this adulterous spouse, if she will abandon her idolatries and return unto him. And this and the following chapters are spent in affectionate remonstrances and loving exhortations addressed to these sinful people, to make them sensible of their own sin, and God's tender mercy in offering to receive them again into favor.

### Verse 2

[¶29] As the Arabian in the wilderness - They were as fully intent on the practice of their idolatry as the Arab in the desert is in lying in wait to plunder the caravans. Where they have not cover to lie in ambush, they scatter themselves about, and run hither and thither, raising themselves up on their saddles to see if they can discover, by smoke, dust, or other token, the approach of any travelers.

### Verse 3

[¶31] There hath been no latter rain - The former rain, which prepared the earth for tillage, fell in the beginning of November, or a little sooner; and the latter rain fell in the middle of April, after which there was scarcely any rain during the summer.

### Verse 4

[¶33] Wilt thou not - cry unto me, My father - Wilt thou not allow me to be thy Creator and Preserver, and cease thus to acknowledge idols? See on [Jer 2:27] (note).

### Verse 5

[¶35] Will he reserve his anger for ever? - Why should not wrath be continued against thee, as thou continuest transgression against the Lord?

### Verse 6

[¶37] The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king - This is a new discourse, and is supposed to have been delivered after the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah. Here the prophet shows the people of Judah the transgressions, idolatry, obstinacy, and punishment of their brethren, the ten tribes, whom he calls to return to the Lord, with the most gracious promises of restoration to their own country, their reunion with their brethren of Judah, and every degree of prosperity in consequence. He takes occasion also to show the Jews how much more culpable they were than the Israelites, because they practiced the same iniquities while they had the punishment and ruin of the others before their eyes. He therefore exhorts them to return to God with all their hearts, that they might not fall into the same condemnation. See the following verses.

### Verse 7

[¶39] And I said - By the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Amos, etc.; for all these prophesied to that rebellious people, and exhorted them to return to the Lord.

### Verse 8

[¶41] I had put her away - Given them up into the hands of the Assyrians.

### Verse 9

[¶43] The lightness of her whoredom - The grossness of her idolatry: worshipping objects the most degrading, with rites the most impure.

## 864. Jeremiah · 5 of 55

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### Verse 11

[¶1] Backsliding Israel hath justified herself more - She was less offensive in my eyes, and more excusable, than treacherous Judah. So it is said, [Luk 18:14], the humbled publican went down to his house justified rather than the boasting Pharisee. The one was more to be pitied than the other, and more likely to receive the mercy of God.

### Verse 12

[¶3] Proclaim these words toward the north - The countries where the ten tribes were then in captivity, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, etc., see [2Kgs 17:6]; these lay north of Judea. How tender and compassionate are the exhortations in this and the following verses! Could these people believe that God had sent the prophet and yet prefer the land of their bondage to the blessings of freedom in their own country, and the approbation of their God?

### Verse 14

[¶5] I will take you one of a city, and two of a family - If there should be but one of a city left, or one willing to return, and two only of a whole tribe, yet will I receive these, and bring them back from captivity into their own land. I have heard these words most sinfully applied to show the nature of a fancied eternal decree of election, that has appointed in several cases one only out of a whole city, and two out of a whole family, to be eternally saved, leaving the rest, according to the decree of reprobation, to perish everlastingly! And yet these persons, who spoke thus of the Fountain of eternal goodness and mercy, professed to believe in Him who by the grace of God tasted death for every man.

### Verse 15

[¶7] I win give you pastors according to mine heart - The pastor means either the king or the prophet; and the pastors here promised may be either kings or prophets, or both. These shall be according to God's own heart; they shall be of his own choosing and shall be qualified by himself: and in consequence they shall feed the people with knowledge, דעה deah that Divine truth concerning the true God and the best interests of man, which was essentially necessary to their salvation; and understanding השכיל haskeil, the full interpretation of every point, that in receiving the truth they might become wise, holy, and happy.

### Verse 16

[¶9] The ark of the covenant of the Lord - This symbol of the Divine presence, given to the Jews as a token and pledge of God's dwelling among them, shall be no longer necessary, and shall no longer exist; for in the days of the Messiah, to which this promise seems to relate, God's worship shall not be confined either to one place or to one people. The temple of God shall be among men, and every where God be adored through Christ Jesus.

[¶10] Neither shall that be done any more - The ark shall be no more established, nor carried from place to place, nor shall men go to visit it. All its ceremonies and importance shall cease; and, if lost, shall never be rebuilt.

### Verse 17

[¶12] They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord - The new Jerusalem, the universal Church of Christ, shall be God's throne: and wherever he is acknowledged as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, there God sits on his throne, and holds his court.

### Verse 18

[¶14] The house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel - That is, in those days in which the Jews shall be brought in with the fullness of the Gentiles.

[¶15] Out of the land of the north - From Chaldea. This prophecy has two aspects: one refers to the return from the Babylonish captivity; the other, to the glorious days of Christianity. But the words may refer to that gathering together of the Jews, not only from Chaldea, but from the countries of their dispersion over the face of the whole earth, and uniting them in the Christian Church.

### Verse 19

[¶17] How shalt I put thee among the children - As if he had said, How can ye be accounted a holy seed, who are polluted? How can ye be united to the people of God, who walk in the path of sinners? How can ye be taken to heaven, who are unholy within, and unrighteous without?

[¶18] And I said, Thou shalt call me, My father - This is the answer to the above question. They could not be put among the children unless they became legal members of the heavenly family: and they could not become members of this family unless they abandoned idolatry, and took the Lord for their portion. Nor could they be continued in the privileges of the heavenly family, unless they no more turned away from their heavenly Father.

### Verse 21

[¶20] A voice was heard upon the high places - Here the Israelites are represented as assembled together to bewail their idolatry and to implore mercy. While thus engaged, they hear the gracious call of Jehovah: -

### Verse 22

[¶22] Return, ye backsliding children - This they gladly receive, and with one voice make their confession to him: "Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art Jehovah our God;" and thence to the end of the chapter, show the reasons why they return unto God.

[¶23] 1. Because he is the true God.

[¶24] 2. Because the idols did not profit them: they could give no help in time of trouble.

[¶25] 3. Because it is the prerogative of God alone to give salvation.

[¶26] 4. Because they had no kind of prosperity since they had abandoned the worship of their Maker. And this was not only their case, but it was the case of their forefathers, who all suffered in consequence of their idolatry and disobedience.

[¶27] 5. These reasons are concluded with a hearty confession of sin, at the thought of which they are confounded; for the remembrance of their sin was grievous to them, and the burden was intolerable. This confession ended, God appears in the next chapter with gracious promises, and proper directions how they are to return, and how to conduct themselves in future.

### Verse 24

[¶29] For shame hath devoured - The word shame, here and in [Jer 11:13]; [Hos 9:10], is supposed to signify Baal, the idol which they worshipped. That thing or shame which has brought you into contempt, confusion, and ruin. Sooner or later every sinner must be ashamed of his conduct; next, confounded; and, lastly, ruined by it, unless by true faith and hearty repentance he returns to the Lord.

### Introduction

[¶31] Sequel of the exhortations and promises addressed to Israel in the preceding chapter, [Jer 4:1], [Jer 4:2]. The prophet then addresses the people of Judah and Jerusalem, exhorting to repentance and reformation, that the dreadful visitation with which they were threatened might be averted, [Jer 4:3], [Jer 4:4]. He then sounds the alarm of war, [Jer 4:5], [Jer 4:6]. Nebuchadnezzar, like a fierce lion, is, from the certainty of the prophecy, represented to be on his march; and the disastrous event to have been already declared, [Jer 4:7-9]. And as the lying prophets had flattered the people with the hopes of peace and safety, they are now introduced, (when their predictions are falsified by the event), excusing themselves; and, with matchless effrontery, laying the blame of the deception upon God, ("And they said," etc., so the text is corrected by Kennicott), [Jer 4:10]. The prophet immediately resumes his subject; and, in the person of God, denounces again those judgments which were shortly to be inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar, [Jer 4:11-18]. The approaching desolation of Jerusalem lamented in language amazingly energetic and exquisitely tender, [Jer 4:19-21]. The incorrigible wickedness of the people the sole cause of these calamities, [Jer 4:22]. In the remaining verses the prophet describes the sad catastrophe of Jerusalem by such a beautiful assemblage of the most striking and afflictive circumstances as form a picture of a land "swept with the besom of destruction." The earth seems ready to return to its original chaos; every ray of light is extinguished, and succeeded by a frightful gloom; the mountains tremble, and the hills shake, under the dreadful apprehension of the wrath of Jehovah; all is one awful solitude, where not a vestige of the human race is to be seen. Even the fowls of heaven, finding no longer whereon to subsist, are compelled to migrate; the most fruitful places are become a dark and dreary desert, and every city is a ruinous heap. To complete the whole, the dolorous shrieks of Jerusalem, as of a woman in peculiar agony, break through the frightful gloom; and the appalled prophet pauses, leaving the reader to reflect on the dreadful effects of apostasy and idolatry, [Jer 4:23-31].

### Verse 1

[¶33] Shalt thou not remove - This was spoken before the Babylonish captivity; and here is a promise that if they will return from their idolatry, they shall not be led into captivity. So, even that positively threatened judgment would have been averted had they returned to the Lord.

### Verse 2

[¶35] Thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth - Thou shalt not bind thyself by any false god; thou shalt acknowledge Me as the Supreme. Bind thyself By me, and To me; and do this in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness.

[¶36] The nations shall bless themselves in him - They shall be so fully convinced of the power and goodness of Jehovah in seeing the change wrought on thee, and the mercies heaped upon thee, that their usual mode of benediction shall be, May the God of Israel bless thee!

### Verse 3

[¶38] Break up your fallow ground - Fallow ground is either that which, having been once tilled, has lain long uncultivated; or, ground slightly ploughed, in order to be ploughed again previously to its being sown. Ye have been long uncultivated in righteousness; let true repentance break up your fruitless and hardened hearts; and when the seed of the word of life is sown in them, take heed that worldly cares and concerns do not arise, and, like thorns, choke the good seed.

### Verse 4

[¶40] Circumcise yourselves - Put away every thing that has a tendency to grieve the Spirit of God, or to render your present holy resolutions unfruitful.

### Verse 5

[¶42] Blow ye the trumpet - Give full information to all parts of the land, that the people may assemble together and defend themselves against their invaders.

### Verse 6

[¶44] I will bring evil from the north - From the land of Chaldea.

## 865. Jeremiah · 6 of 55

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### Verse 7

[¶1] The lion is come up - Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. "The king (Nebuchadnezzar) is come up from his tower." - Targum.

[¶2] The destroyer of the Gentiles - Of the nations: of all the people who resisted his authority. He destroyed them all.

### Verse 8

[¶4] Lament and howl - הילילו heililu. The aboriginal Irish had a funeral song called the Caoinian, still continued among their descendants, one part of which is termed the ulaloo: this is sung responsively or alternately, and is accompanied with a full chorus of sighs and groans. It has been thought that Ireland was originally peopled by the Phoenicians: if so, this will account for the similarity of many words and customs among both these people.

### Verse 9

[¶6] The heart of the king shall perish - Shall lose all courage.

### Verse 10

[¶8] Ah, Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people - The Targum paraphrases this verse thus: "And I said, Receive my supplication, O Lord God; for, behold, the false prophets deceive this people and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace." The prophet could not reconcile this devastation of the country with the promises already made; and he appears to ask the question, Hast thou not then deceived this people in saying there shall be peace, i.e., prosperity?

[¶9] Whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul - That is, the life; the people being generally destroyed.

### Verse 11

[¶11] A dry wind - a fall wind - as clouds - as a whirlwind - All these expressions appear to refer to the pestilential winds, suffocating vapors, and clouds and pillars of sand collected by whirlwinds, which are so common and destructive in the east, (see on [Isa 21:1] (note)); and these images are employed here to show the overwhelming effect of the invasion of the land by the Chaldeans.

### Verse 13

[¶13] Wo unto us! - The people, deeply affected with these threatened judgments, interrupt the prophet with the lamentation - Wo unto us, for we are spoiled! The prophet then resumes: -

### Verse 14

[¶15] O Jerusalem, wash thine heart - Why do ye not put away your wickedness, that ye may be saved from these tremendous judgments? How long shall thy vain thoughts of safety and prosperity lodge within thee? Whilst thou continuest a rebel against God, and provokest him daily by thy abominations!

### Verse 15

[¶17] For a voice declareth from Dan - Dan was a city in the tribe of Dan, north of Jerusalem; the first city in Palestine, which occurs in the way from Babylon to Jerusalem.

[¶18] Affliction from Mount Ephraim - Between Dan and Jerusalem are the mountains of Ephraim. These would be the first places attacked by the Chaldeans; and the rumor from thence would show that the land was invaded.

### Verse 16

[¶20] Watchers come from a far country - Persons to besiege fortified places.

### Verse 17

[¶22] As keepers of a field - In the eastern countries grain is often sown in the open country; and, when nearly ripe, guards are placed at different distances round about it to preserve it from being plundered. Jerusalem was watched, like one of these fields, by guards all round about it; so that none could enter to give assistance, and none who wished to escape were permitted to go out.

### Verse 19

[¶24] My bowels - From this to the twenty-ninth verse the prophet describes the ruin of Jerusalem and the desolation of Judea by the Chaldeans in language and imagery scarcely paralleled in the whole Bible. At the sight of misery the bowels are first affected; pain is next felt by a sort of stricture in the pericardium; and then, the heart becoming strongly affected by irregular palpitations, a gush of tears, accompanied with wailings, is the issue. - "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart, (the walls of my heart); my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace." Here is nature, and fact also.

### Verse 20

[¶26] Destruction upon destruction - Cities burnt, and their inhabitants destroyed.

[¶27] My tents spoiled - Even the solitary dwellings in the fields and open country do not escape.

### Verse 23

[¶29] I beheld the earth, (the land), and lo it was without form and void - תהו ובהו tohu vabohu; the very words used in Genesis to denote the formless state of the chaotic mass before God had brought it into order.

### Verse 24

[¶31] The mountains - hills - Princes, rulers, etc., were astonished and fled.

### Verse 25

[¶33] The birds of the heavens were fled - The land was so desolated that even the fowls of heaven could not find meat, and therefore fled away to another region. How powerfully energetic is this description!

[¶34] See [Zep 1:3].

### Verse 30

[¶36] Though thou rentest thy face with painting - This probably refers to the custom of introducing stibium a preparation of antimony, between the eye and the lids, in order to produce a fine lustre, which occasions a distension of the eye-lid in the time of the operation. In order to heighten the effect from this some may have introduced a more than ordinary quantity, so as nearly to rend the eye-lid itself. Though thou make use of every means of address, of cunning, and of solicitation, to get assistance from the neighboring states, it will be all in vain. Reference is here particularly made to the practice of harlots to allure men.

### Verse 31

[¶38] Bringeth forth her first child - In such a case the fear, danger, and pain were naturally the greatest.

[¶39] Spreadeth her hands - The gesture indicated by nature to signify distress, and implore help. We have met with this figure in other parts, and among the classic writers it is frequent.

### Introduction

[¶41] The prophet, having described the judgments impending over his countrymen, enlarges on the corruptions which prevailed among them. Their profession of religion was all false and hypocritical, [Jer 5:1], [Jer 5:2]. Though corrected, they were not amended, but persisted in their guilt, [Jer 5:3]. This was not the case with the low and ignorant only, [Jer 5:4]; but more egregiously so with those of the higher order, from whose knowledge and opportunities better things might have been expected, [Jer 5:5]. God therefore threatens them with the most cruel enemies, [Jer 5:6]; and appeals to themselves if they should be permitted to practice such sins unpunished, [Jer 5:7-9]. He then commands their enemies to raze the walls of Jerusalem, [Jer 5:10]; that devoted city whose inhabitants added to all their other sins the highest contempt of God's word and prophets, [Jer 5:11-13]. Wherefore his word, in the mouth of his prophet, shall be as fire to consume them, [Jer 5:14]; the Chaldean forces shall cruelly addict them, [Jer 5:15-17]; and farther judgments await then as the consequence of their apostasy and idolatry, [Jer 5:18], [Jer 5:19]. The chapter closes with a most melancholy picture of the moral condition of the Jewish people at that period which immediately preceded the Babylonish captivity, [Jer 5:20-31].

### Verse 1

[¶43] Broad places - Market-places, and those where there was most public resort.

[¶44] If ye can find a man - A certain philosopher went through the streets of Athens with a lighted lamp in his hand; and being asked what he sought, answered, "I am seeking to find a Man." So in Jerusalem none was found, on the most diligent search, who acted worthy the character of a rational being.

[¶45] I will pardon it - I will spare the city for the sake of one righteous person. So at the intercession of Abraham, God would have spared Sodom if there had been ten righteous persons found in it; [Gen 18:26].

## 866. Jeremiah · 7 of 55

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### Verse 2

[¶1] The Lord liveth - Though they profess to bind themselves by Jehovah, as if they acknowledged him their God and only Lord, yet they swore falsely; for not believing in him, they took a false oath; one by which they did not believe themselves bound, not acknowledging him as their Lord. See on [Jer 4:2] (note).

### Verse 4

[¶3] These are poor - They are ignorant; they have no education; they know no better.

### Verse 5

[¶5] I will get me unto the great men - Those whose circumstances and rank in life gave them opportunities of information which the others could not have, for the reasons already given.

[¶6] These have altogether broken the yoke - These have cast aside all restraint, have acted above law, and have trampled all moral obligations under their feet, and into their vortex the lower classes of the people have been swept away. Solon said, "The laws are like cobwebs; they entangle the small fry, but the great ones go through them, and carry all away with them."

### Verse 6

[¶8] Wherefore a lion - Nebuchadnezzar, according to the general opinion; who is called here a lion for his courage and violence, a bear for his rapaciousness, and a leopard for his activity. Dahler supposes the Scythians to be intended, both here and in [Jer 4:7].

### Verse 7

[¶10] In the harlots' houses - In places consecrated to idolatry. In the language of the prophets, adultery generally signifies idolatry. This we have often seen.

### Verse 8

[¶12] After his neighbor's wife - This may have been literally true, as the abominations of idolatry, in which they were so deeply practiced, would necessarily produce such a state of things as that here mentioned.

### Verse 10

[¶14] Go ye up upon her walls - This is the permission and authority given to the Chaldeans to pillage Jerusalem.

[¶15] Take away her battlements - Some translate נטישות netishoth, branches; others, vines. Destroy the branches, cut down the stem; but do not damage the root. Leave so many of the people that the state may be regenerated. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, read, "Leave her foundations, for they are the Lord's;" and this agrees with "Destroy, but make not a full end."

### Verse 12

[¶17] They have belied the Lord - כחשו kichashu. They have denied or disavowed the Lord.

[¶18] It is not he - לוא הוא lo hu, he is not; there is no such being; therefore this evil shall not come upon us. On their premises, this conclusion was just. There is no judge; therefore there shall be no judgment. Thus they denied the Lord. They were atheists at heart.

### Verse 13

[¶20] And the prophets shall become wind - What are the prophets?

[¶21] Empty persons. Their words are wind; we hear the sound of their threatening but of the matter of the threatenings we shall hear no more.

[¶22] And the word is not in them - There is no inspirer, but may their own predictions fall on their own heads! This seems the natural sense of this passage.

### Verse 14

[¶24] Because ye speak this word - Because ye thus treat my message, "I will make my words in thy mouth fire." They have said they are but air; but I will make them fire, and a fire too that shall devour them. And how this was to be done, and by whom, is mentioned in the next verse.

### Verse 15

[¶26] I will bring a nation - The Scythians, says Dahler; the Babylonians, whose antiquity was great, that empire being founded by Nimrod.

[¶27] Whose language thou knowest not - The Chaldee, which, though a dialect of the Hebrew, is so very different in its words and construction that in hearing it spoken they could not possibly collect the meaning of what was said.

### Verse 16

[¶29] Their quiver is an open sepulcher - They are such exact archers as never to miss their mark; every arrow is sure to slay one man.

### Verse 18

[¶31] I will not make a full end - There are more evils in store for you. You shall not only be spoiled, and all your property destroyed, but ye shall be carried into captivity; and ye shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours, [Jer 5:19].

### Verse 22

[¶33] Which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea - What can I not do, who confine the sea, that enormous mass of waters, and prevent it from overflowing the earth; not by immense mountains and rocks, but by the sand, no particle of which is in cohesion with another? The most tremendous waves cannot displace nor pass over this simple barrier.

### Verse 23

[¶35] They are revolted and gone - They have abandoned me, and are gone farther and farther into transgression. They are gone entirely away from truth and righteousness.

### Verse 24

[¶37] Giveth rain, both the former and the latter - See the note on [Jer 3:3].

[¶38] The appointed weeks of the harvest - As the early rains fell in the northern parts of Judea about the end of September, in the civil year of the Hebrews, so the latter rains fell before harvest, in the months of March and April. The appointed weeks of the harvest were those which fell between the passover and pentecost. In the southern parts the harvest was earlier than in the northern. Dr. Blayney translates, "A sufficiency of the appointed things of harvest he secureth to us."

[¶39] If the word שבעת weeks, be read with a ש sin instead of a ש shin, it will signify fullness or sufficiency; and thus the Septuagint and Vulgate have read it. I think the present reading is much to be preferred. God appoints a harvest time, and in his good providence he generally gives harvest weather.

### Verse 25

[¶41] Your iniquities have turned away these things - When these appointed weeks of harvest do not come, should we not examine and see whether this be not in God's judgments? Have not our iniquities turned away these good things from us?

### Verse 26

[¶43] They lay wait, as he that setteth snares - A metaphor taken from fowlers, who, having fixed their nets, lie down and keep out of sight, that when birds come, they may be ready to draw and entangle them.

## 867. Jeremiah · 8 of 55

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### Verse 27

[¶1] As a cage is full of birds - There is no doubt that the reference here is to a decoy or trap-cage, as Dr. Blayney has rendered it; in these the fowlers put several tame birds, which when the wild ones see, they come and light on the cage, and fall into the snare.

### Verse 28

[¶3] They judge not the cause, yet they prosper - Perhaps we might be justified in translating, "And shall they prosper?"

### Verse 30

[¶5] A wonderful and horrible thing is committed on the land - Dahler translates: "Strange crimes and horrible trespasses have been committed in the land." These have been already detailed; but this may refer to what follows.

### Verse 31

[¶7] The prophets prophesy falsely - The false prophets predict favorable things, that they may please both the princes and the people.

[¶8] The priests bear rule by their means - The false prophets affording them all that their influence and power can procure, to enable them to keep their places, and feed on the riches of the Lord's house.

[¶9] And my people love to have it so - Are perfectly satisfied with this state of things, because they are permitted to continue in their sins without reproof or restraint. The prophets and the priests united to deceive and ruin the people. The prophets gave out false predictions; by their means the priests got the government of the people into their own hands; and so infatuated were the people that they willingly abandoned themselves to those blind guides, and would not hearken to the voice of any reformer. In my Old Bible the words stand thus: - Stonyng and mervailis ben made in the erthe, prophets prophecieden lesing; and prestis flappiden with joye with ther bondes, and my peple lovid siche thingis. False prophets and worldly priests have been in all ages the bane of religion, and the ruin of many souls. When profligate people stand up on behalf of profligate priests, corruption must then be at its height.

### Introduction

[¶11] Jeremiah, in the spirit of prophecy, seeing the Chaldeans on their march, bids his people set up the usual signals of distress, and spread the general alarm to betake themselves to flight, [Jer 6:1]. Then, by a beautiful allusion to the custom of shepherds moving their flocks to the richest pastures, Jerusalem is singled out as a place devoted to be eaten up or trodden down by the armies of the Chaldeans, who are called up against her, and whose ardor and impatience are so great that the soldiers, when they arrive in the evening, regret they have no more day, and desire to begin the attack without waiting for the light of the morning, [Jer 6:2-5]. God is then represented as animating and directing the besiegers against this guilty city, which sinned as incessantly as a fountain flows, [Jer 6:6], [Jer 6:7], although warned of the fatal consequence, [Jer 6:8]. He intimates also, by the gleaning of the grapes, that one invasion should carry away the remains of another, till their disobedience, hypocrisy, and other sins should end in their total overthrow, [Jer 6:9-15]. And to show that God is clear when he judgeth, he mentions his having in vain admonished and warned them, and calls upon the whole world to witness the equity of his proceedings, [Jer 6:16-18], in punishing this perverse and hypocritical people, [Jer 6:19], [Jer 6:20], by the ministry of the cruel Chaldeans, [Jer 6:21-23]. Upon this a chorus of Jews is introduced expressing their fears and alarm, [Jer 6:24], [Jer 6:25]; to which the prophet echoes a response full of sympathy and tenderness, [Jer 6:26]. The concluding verses, by metaphors taken from the process of refining gold and silver, represent all the methods hitherto used to amend them as wholly ineffectual, [Jer 6:27-30].

### Verse 1

[¶13] O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee - As the invading armies are fast approaching, the prophet calls on the inhabitants of Jerusalem to sound an alarm, and collect all the people to arm themselves and go against the invaders. They are called the children of Benjamin, because Jerusalem was in the tribe of Benjamin.

[¶14] Tekoa - Was a city about twelve miles to the south of Jerusalem.

[¶15] Beth-haccerem - Was the name of a small village situated on an eminence between Jerusalem and Tekoa. On this they were ordered to set up a beacon, or kindle a large fire, which might be seen at a distance, and give the people to understand that an enemy was entering the land.

[¶16] Out of the north - From Babylon. The Scythians. - Dahler.

### Verse 3

[¶18] The shepherds with their flocks - The chiefs and their battalions. The invading army is about to spoil and waste all the fertile fields round about the city, while engaged in the siege.

### Verse 4

[¶20] Prepare ye war against her - The words of the invaders exciting each other to the assault, and impatient lest any time should be lost; lest the besieged should have time to strengthen themselves, or get in supplies.

### Verse 5

[¶22] Arise, and let us go by night - Since we have lost the day, let us not lose the night; but, taking advantage of the darkness, let us make a powerful assault while they are under the impression of terror.

### Verse 6

[¶24] Hew ye down trees - To form machines.

[¶25] And cast a mount - That may overlook the city, on which to place our engines.

[¶26] This is the city to be visited - We are sure of success, for their God will deliver it into our hands, for it is full of oppression, and he has consigned it to destruction.

### Verse 7

[¶28] As a fountain casteth out her waters - The inhabitants are incessant in their acts of iniquity; they do nothing but sin.

### Verse 8

[¶30] Be thou instructed - Still there is respite: if they would even now return unto the Lord with all their heart, the advancing Chaldeans would be arrested on their march and turned back.

### Verse 9

[¶32] They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand - The Chaldeans are here exhorted to turn back and glean up the remnant of the inhabitants that were left after the capture of Jerusalem; for even that remnant did not profit by the Divine judgments that fell on the inhabitants at large.

### Verse 10

[¶34] The word of the Lord is unto them a reproach - It is an object of derision; they despise it.

### Verse 11

[¶36] I am full of the fury of the Lord - God has given me a dreadful revelation of the judgments he intends to inflict: my soul is burdened with this prophecy. I have endeavored to suppress it; but I must pour it forth upon the children, on the young people, on husbands and wives, on the old and the super-annuated. All must partake in these judgments.

### Verse 14

[¶38] They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly - Of the daughter is not in the text, and is here improperly added: it is, however, in some MSS.

[¶39] Peace, peace - Ye shall have prosperity - when there was none, and when God had determined that there should be none. Here the prophets prophesied falsely; and the people continued in sin, being deceived by the priests and the prophets.

### Verse 16

[¶41] Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see - Let us observe the metaphor. A traveler is going to a particular city; he comes to a place where the road divides into several paths, he is afraid of going astray; he stops short, - endeavors to find out the right path: he cannot fix his choice. At last he sees another traveler; he inquires of him, gets proper directions - proceeds on his journey - arrives at the desired place - and reposes after his fatigue. There is an excellent sermon on these words in the works of our first poet, Geoffrey Chaucer; it is among the Canterbury Tales, and is called Chaucer's Tale. The text, I find, was read by him as it appears in my old MS. Bible: - Standith upon weies and seeth, and asketh of the olde pathes; What is the good weie? and goth in it, and gee schul fynden refreschimg to your soulis. The soul needs rest; it can only find this by walking in the good way. The good way is that which has been trodden by the saints from the beginning: it is the old way, the way of faith and holiness. Believe, Love, Obey; be holy, and be happy. This is the way; let us inquire for it, and walk in it. But these bad people said, We will not walk in it. Then they took another way, walked over the precipice, and fell into the bottomless pit; where, instead of rest, they find: - - a fiery deluge, fed

[¶42] With ever-burning sulfur, unconsumed.

### Verse 17

[¶44] I set watchmen - I have sent prophets to warn you.

## 868. Jeremiah · 9 of 55

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### Verse 20

[¶1] Incense frown Sheba - Sheba was in Arabian famous for the best incense. It was situated towards the southern extremity of the peninsula of Arabia; and was, in respect of Judea, a far country.

[¶2] And the sweet cane from a far country - The calamus aromaticus, which, when dried and pulverized, yields a very fine aromatic smell; see on [Isa 43:24] (note). This was employed in making the holy anointing oil. See [Exo 30:23].

### Verse 23

[¶4] They shall lay hold on bow and spear - Still pointing out the Chaldeans: or according to Dahler, the Scythians, who had before their invasion of Palestine overrun many parts of Asia, and had spread consternation wherever their name was heard.

### Verse 27

[¶6] I have set thee for a tower and a fortress - Dr. Blayney translates, I have appointed thee to make an assay among my people. The words refer to the office of an assayer of silver and gold; and the manner of assaying here intended is by the cupel, a flat broad iron ring filled with the ashes of burnt bones. To separate the alloy from the silver they add a portion of lead; and when all is fused together, and brought into a state of ebullition, the cupel absorbs the lead, and with it the dross or alloy, and the silver is left pure and motionless on the top of the cupel. The people are here represented under the notion of alloyed silver. They are full of impurities; and they are put into the hands of the prophet, the assayer, to be purified. The bellows are placed, the fire is lighted up, but all to no purpose: so intensely commixed is the alloy with the silver, that it can not be separated. The nozzle of the bellows is even melted with the intensity of the fire used to effect the refinement; and the lead is carried off by the action of the heat; and the assayer melteth in vain, for the alloy still continues in union with the metal. The assayer gives up the process, - will not institute one more expensive or tedious - pronounces the mass unfit to be coined, and denominates it reprobate silver, [Jer 6:30]. Thus, the evil habits and dispositions of the Israelites were so ingrained that they would not yield to either the ordinary or extraordinary means of salvation. God pronounces them reprobate silver, - not sterling, - full of alloy; - having neither the image nor the superscription of the Great King either on their hearts or on their conduct. Thus he gave them up as incorrigible, and their adversaries prevailed against them. This should be a warning to other nations, and indeed to the Christian Church; for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare these.

### Introduction

[¶8] Mere begins another section of prophecy, ending with the ninth chapter. It opens with exhorting to amendment of life, without which the confidence of the Jews in their temple is declared vain, [Jer 7:1-11]. God bids them take warning from the fate of their brethren the Israelites, who had been carried away captive on account of their sins without any regard to that sacred place, (Shiloh), where the ark of God once resided, [Jer 7:12-15]. The iniquities of Judah are so great in the sight of God that the prophet is commanded not to intercede for the people, [Jer 7:16]; the more especially as they persisted in provoking God by their idolatrous practices, [Jer 7:17-20]. The Jewish sacrifices, if not accompanied with obedience to the moral law, are of no avail, [Jer 7:21-24]. Notwithstanding the numerous messages of mercy from the time of the exodus, the people revolted more and more; and have added to their other sins this horrible evil, the setting up of their abominations in the temple of Jehovah; or, in other words, they have encumbered the Mosaic economy, which shadowed forth the glorious truths of Christianity, with a heterogeneous admixture of the idolatrous, impure, and cruel rites of heathenism; consequently, the whole land shall be utterly desolated, [Jer 7:25-34].

### Verse 1

[¶10] The word that came to Jeremiah - This prophecy is supposed to have been delivered in the first year of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, who, far from following the example of his pious father, restored idolatry, maintained bad priests and worse prophets, and filled Jerusalem with abominations of all kinds.

### Verse 2

[¶12] Stand in the gate of the Lord's house - There was a show of public worship kept up. The temple was considered God's residence; the usual ceremonies of religion restored by Josiah were still observed; and the people were led to consider the temple and its services as sacred things, which would be preservatives to them in case of the threatened invasion.

### Verse 4

[¶14] The temple of the Lord - In the Chaldee the passage stands thus: - "Do not trust in the words of lying prophets, which say, Before the temple of the Lord ye shall worship; Before the temple of the Lord ye shall sacrifice; Before the temple of the Lord ye shall adore; thrice in the year ye shall appear before it." This the Targumist supposes to have been the reason why the words are here thrice repeated. They rather seem to express the conviction which the people had, that they should be safe while their temple service continued; for they supposed that God would not give it up into profane hands. But sacred places and sacred symbols are nothing in the sight of God when the heart is not right with him.

### Verse 5

[¶16] If ye throughly amend your ways - Literally, If in making good ye fully make good your ways. God will no longer admit of half-hearted work. Semblances of piety cannot deceive him; he will not accept partial reformation; there must be a thorough amendment.

### Verse 9

[¶18] Will ye steal, murder - Will you continue to commit such abominations, and pretend to worship me; and thus defile the place that is called by my name; and so make my house a den of robbers? I have seen this, - and can you expect to escape condign punishment? Ye shall not escape.

### Verse 12

[¶20] But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh - See what I did to my tabernacle and ark formerly: after a long residence at Shiloh, for the iniquity of the priests and the people, I suffered it to fall into the hands of the Philistines, and to be carried captive into their land, and to be set up in the house of their idols. And because of your iniquities, I will deal with you and this temple in the same way; for as I spared not Shiloh, though my ark was there, but made it a victim of my wrath, so will I do to Jerusalem and her temple.

### Verse 15

[¶22] The whole seed of Ephraim - Taken here for all the ten tribes, that of Ephraim being the principal.

### Verse 16

[¶24] Therefore pray not thou for this people - They have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and they must become examples of my justice. How terrible must the state of that place be, where God refuses to pour out the spirit of supplication on his ministers and people in its behalf!

### Verse 18

[¶26] The children gather wood - Here is a description of a whole family gathered together, and acting unitedly in idolatrous worship.

[¶27] 1. The children go and collect wood, and bring it to the place of sacrifice.

[¶28] 2. The fathers lay it in order, and kindle a fire.

[¶29] 3. The mother and her maids knead dough, make their batch, and out of it form cakes, and bake them for the honor of the queen of heaven; most probably the moon, though perhaps not exclusive of the sun and planets, generally called the host of heaven.

[¶30] Family worship is a most amiable and becoming thing when performed according to truth. What a pity that so few families show such zeal for the worship of God as those apostate Israelites did for that of their idols!

### Verse 21

[¶32] Put your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh - I will receive neither sacrifice nor oblation from you; therefore you may take the beasts intended for sacrifice, and slay and eat them for your common nourishment. See on [Jer 7:29] (note).

### Verse 23

[¶34] This thing commanded I them - Obey my voice - It was not sacrifices and oblations which I required of your fathers in the wilderness, but obedience; it was to walk in that way of righteousness which I have commanded; then I should have acknowledged them for my people, and I should have been their God, and then it would have been well with them. But to my commands,

[¶35] 1. They hearkened not - paid no regard to my word.

[¶36] 2. They inclined not the ear - showed no disposition to attend to my counsels.

[¶37] 3. They walked in the imaginations of their evil heart - followed its irregular and impure motions, rather than the holy dictates of my Spirit.

[¶38] 4. They went backward and not forward. Instead of becoming more wise, obedient, and holy, they grew more corrupt; so that they became more profligate than their fathers.

### Verse 28

[¶40] Nor receiveth correction - They have profited neither by mercies nor by judgments: blessings and corrections have been equally lost upon them.

### Verse 29

[¶42] Cut off thine hair - גזי נזרך gozzi nizrech, shear thy nazarite. The Nazarite was one who took upon him a particular vow, and separated himself from all worldly connections for a certain time, that he might devote himself without interruption to the service of God; and during all this time no razor was to pass on his head, for none of his hair was to be taken off. After the vow was over, he shaved his head and beard, and returned to society. See [Num 6:2] (note), etc., and the notes there. Jerusalem is here considered under the notion of a Nazarite, by profession devoted to the service of God: but that profession was empty; it was not accompanied with any suitable practice. God tells them here to cut off their hair; to make no vain pretensions to holiness or religion; to throw off the mask, and attempt no longer to impose upon themselves and others by their hypocritical pretensions. On the same ground he orders them, [Jer 7:21], to devote to common use the animals destined for sacrifice; and to make no more vain shows of religion while their hearts were not right with him. Dr. Blayney thinks the address is to the prophet, who was a Nazarite by virtue of his office, and who was called to cut off his hair as a token of mourning for the desolations which were coming upon his people. That cutting off the hair was a sign of distress and mourning may be seen, [Ezr 9:3]; [Isa 15:2]; [Jer 41:5], etc. But I think the other the more natural construction.

[¶43] On high places - That the lamentation may be heard to the greater distance.

[¶44] The generation of his wrath - Persons exposed to punishment: used here as children of wrath, [Eph 2:3].

## 869. Jeremiah · 10 of 55

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### Verse 31

[¶1] Tophet - in the valley of the son of Hinnom - Tophet was the place in that valley where the continual fires were kept up, in and through which they consecrated their children to Moloch.

### Verse 32

[¶3] The valley of slaughter - The place where the slaughtered thousands of this rebellious people shall be cast, in order to their being burnt, or becoming food for the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, [Jer 7:33]. These words are repeated, and their meaning more particularly explained, [Jer 19:6-15].

### Verse 34

[¶5] Then will I cause to cease - the voice of mirth - There shall no longer be in Jerusalem any cause of joy; they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, for the land shall be totally desolated. Such horrible sins required such a horrible punishment. And they must be horrible, when they move God to destroy the work of his own hands.

### Introduction

[¶7] The judgments threatened in the last chapter are here declared to extend to the very dead, whose tombs should be opened, and the carcasses treated with every mark of indignity, [Jer 8:1-3]. From this the prophet returns to reprove them for their perseverance in transgression, [Jer 8:4-6]; and for their thoughtless stupidity, which even the instinct of the brute creation, by a beautiful contrast, is made to upbraid, [Jer 8:7-9]. This leads to farther threatening expressed in a variety of striking terms, [Jer 8:10-13]. Upon which a chorus of Jews is introduced, expressing their terror on the news of the invasion, [Jer 8:14], [Jer 8:15]; which is greatly heightened in the neat verse by the prophet's hearing the snorting of Nebuchadnezzar's horses even from Dan, and then seeing the devastation made by his army, [Jer 8:16], whose cruelties God himself declares no entreaties will soften, [Jer 8:17]. On this declaration the prophet laments most bitterly the fate of the daughter of his people, changing the scene unawares to the place of her captivity, where she is introduced answering in mournful responses to the prophet's dirge, [Jer 8:18-22]. The variety of images and figures used to diversify the same subject is equally pleasing and astonishing. The dress is generally new, always elegant.

### Verse 1

[¶9] They shall bring out the bones - This and the two following verses are a continuation of the preceding prophecy, and should not have been separated from the foregoing chapter.

[¶10] In order to pour the utmost contempt upon the land, the victorious enemies dragged out of their graves, caves, and sepulchers, the bones of kings, princes, prophets, priests, and the principal inhabitants, and exposed them in the open air; so that they became, in the order of God's judgments, a reproach to them in the vain confidence they had in the sun, moon, and the host of heaven - all the planets and stars, whose worship they had set up in opposition to that of Jehovah. This custom of raising the bodies of the dead, and scattering their bones about, seems to have been general. It was the highest expression of hatred and contempt. Horace refers to it: -

[¶11] Barbarus, heu, cineres insistet victor, et urbem

[¶12] Eques sonante verberabit ungula:

[¶13] Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini (Nefas videre) dissipabit insolens.

[¶14] Epod. 16:11. "Barbarians fell shall wanton with success,

[¶15] Scatter the city's flaming ruins wide;

[¶16] Or through her streets in vengeful triumph ride,

[¶17] And her great founder's hallowed ashes spurn,

[¶18] That slept uninjured in the sacred urn."

[¶19] Francis.

[¶20] See this judgment referred to, Baruch 2:24, 25.

### Verse 4

[¶22] Moreover thou shalt say - Dr. Blayney very properly observes, "In that part of the prophecy which follows next, the difference of speakers requires to be attended to; the transition being quick and sudden, but full of life and energy. The prophet at first, in the name of God, reproves the people's incorrigibility; he charges their wise ones with folly, and threatens them with grievous calamities, [Jer 8:4-13]. In the three next verses he seems to apostrophize his countrymen in his own person, and as one of the people that dwelt in the open towns, advising those that were in the like situation to retire with him into some of the fortified cities, and there wait the event with patience, since there was nothing but terror abroad, and the noise of the enemy, who had already begun to ravage the country, [Jer 8:14-16]. God speaks, [Jer 8:17], and threatens to bring foes against them that should be irresistible. The prophet appears again in his own person, commiserating the daughter of his people, who is heard bewailing her forlorn case in a distant land; while the voice of God, like that of conscience, breaks in upon her complaints, and shows her that all this ruin is brought upon her by her own infidelities, [Jer 8:18-20]. The prophet once more resumes his discourse; he regrets that no remedy can be found to close up the wounds of his country, and pathetically weeps over the number of her slain, [Jer 8:21], [Jer 9:1]."

[¶23] Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? - That is, It is as possible for sinners to return from their sin to God, for his grace is ever at hand to assist, as it is for God, who is pouring out his judgments, to return to them on their return to him. But these held fast deceit, and refused to return; they would not be undeceived.

### Verse 6

[¶25] As the horse rusheth into the battle - This strongly marks the unthinking, careless desperation of their conduct.

### Verse 7

[¶27] The stork in the heaven - The birds of passage know the times of their going and return, and punctually observe them; they obey the dictates of nature, but my people do not obey my law.

### Verse 8

[¶29] The pen of the scribes is in vain - The deceitful pen of the scribes. They have written falsely, though they had the truth before them. It is too bold an assertion to say that "the Jews have never falsified the sacred oracles;" they have done it again and again. They have written falsities when they knew they were such.

### Verse 10

[¶31] Therefore will I give their wives - From this to the end of [Jer 8:15] is repeated from [Jer 6:13-15].

### Verse 16

[¶33] The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan - From this to the end of [Jer 8:15] is repeated from Babylon to Jerusalem; and it was by this city, after the battle of Carchemish, that Nebuchadnezzar, in pursuing the Egyptians, entered Palestine.

[¶34] The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones - Of his war horses. This is a fine image; so terrible was the united neighing of the cavalry of the Babylonians that the reverberation of the air caused the ground to tremble. This is better, and more majestic, than the celebrated line of Virgil: -

[¶35] Quadrupe - dante pu - trem soni-tu quatit ungula campum.

[¶36] It would be much easier to shake the ground with the prancings of many horses, than to cause an earthquake by the sound of the neighing of the troops of cavalry.

### Verse 17

[¶38] I will send serpents - These were symbols of the enemies that were coming against them; a foe that would rather slay them and destroy the land than get booty and ransom.

### Verse 20

[¶40] The harvest is past - The siege of Jerusalem lasted two years; for Nebuchadnezzar came against it in the ninth year of Zedekiah, and the city was taken in the eleventh; see [2Kgs 25:1-3]. This seems to have been a proverb: "We expected deliverance the first year - none came. We hoped for it the second year - we are disappointed; we are not saved - no deliverance is come."

### Verse 22

[¶42] Is there no balm in Gilead? - Yes, the most excellent in the world. "Is there no physician there?" Yes, persons well skilled to apply it. "Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" Because ye have not applied to the physician, nor used the balm. Ye die because ye will not use the remedy. But to apply this metaphor: - The Israelites are represented as a man dying through disease; and a disease for the cure of which the balm of Gilead was well known to be a specific, when judiciously applied by a physician. But though there be balm and a physician, the people are not cured; neither their spiritual nor political evils are removed. But what may all this spiritually mean? The people are morally diseased; they have sinned against God, and provoked him to destroy them. They are warned by the prophet to repent and turn to God: they refuse, and sin on. Destruction is come upon them. Might they not have avoided it? Yes. Was it the fault of God? No. Did he not send his prophets with the richest offers of mercy? Did he not give them time, the best instructions, and the most effectual means of returning to him? Has not mercy, the heavenly balm, been ever at hand? And has not God, the great Physician, been ever ready to apply it? Yes. Why then are they not converted and healed? Because they would not apply to the Divine Physician, nor receive the only remedy by which they could be spiritually healed. They, then, that sin against the only remedy must perish, because they might have had it, but would not. It is not because there is a deficiency of grace, nor of the means of grace, that men are not saved; but because they either make no use, or a bad use, of them. Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, has tasted death for every man; but few are saved, because they Will Not come unto him that they may have life.

[¶43] In my old MS. Bible the text is rendered thus: -

[¶44] Whether gumm is not in Galaad? Or a leche is not there? Why than the hid wounde of the daughter of my peple is not all helid?

[¶45] How shall they escape who neglect so great a salvation? Reader, lay this to heart; and, while there is time, apply heartily to the great Physician for thy cure.

## 870. Jeremiah · 11 of 55

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### Introduction

[¶1] The prophet bitterly laments the terrible judgments about to be inflicted upon his countrymen, and points out some of the evils which have provoked the Divine Majesty, [Jer 9:1-9]. Judea shall be utterly desolated, and the inhabitants transplanted into heathen countries, [Jer 9:10-17]. In allusion to an ancient custom, a band of mourning women is called to lament over the ruins of Jerusalem, [Jer 9:17], [Jer 9:18]; and even the funeral dirge is given in terms full of beauty, elegance, and pathos, [Jer 9:19-22]. God is the fountain of all good; man, merely an instrument by which a portion of this good is distributed in the earth; therefore none should glory in his wisdom, might, or riches, [Jer 9:23], [Jer 9:24]. The judgments of God shall fall, not upon the land of Judea only, but also upon many heathen nations, [Jer 9:25], [Jer 9:26].

### Verse 1

[¶3] O that my head were waters - מי יתן ראשי מים mi yitten roshi mayim, "who will give to my head waters?" My mourning for the sins and desolations of my people has already exhausted the source of tears: I wish to have a fountain opened there, that I may weep day and night for the slain of my people. This has been the sorrowful language of many a pastor who has preached long to a hardened, rebellious people, to little or no effect. This verse belongs to the preceding chapter.

### Verse 2

[¶5] O that I had in the wilderness - In the eastern countries there are no such inns or houses of entertainment as those in Europe. There are in different places public buildings called caravanserais, where travelers may lodge: but they are without furniture of any kind, and without food. Indeed they are often without a root being mere walls for a protection against the wild beasts of the desert. I wish to hide myself any where, in the most uncomfortable circumstances, that I may not be obliged any longer to witness the abominations of this people who are shortly to be visited with the most grievous punishments. Several interpreters suppose this to be the speech of God. I cannot receive this. I believe this verse to be spoken by the prophet, and that God proceeds with the next verse, and so on to the ninth inclusive.

### Verse 3

[¶7] They bend their tongues like their bow for lies - And their lies are such that they as fully take away life as the keenest arrow shot from the best strung bow. The false prophets told the people that there was no desolation at hand: the people believed them; made no preparation for their defense; did not return to the Lord; and the sword came and destroyed them.

[¶8] They are not valiant for the truth - They are bold in sin, and courageous to support their lies; but the truth they neither patronize nor support.

### Verse 5

[¶10] And weary themselves to commit iniquity - O, what a drudgery is sin! and how much labor must a man take in order to get to hell! The tenth part of it, in working together with God, would bring him to the gate of glory.

### Verse 7

[¶12] Behold, I win melt them - I will put them in the furnace of affliction, and see if this will be a means of purging away their dross. See on [Jer 6:27] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶14] Both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled - The land shall be so utterly devastated, that neither beast nor bird shall be able to live in it.

### Verse 11

[¶16] A den of dragons - תנים tannim is supposed to mean here jackals; the chakal is a beast frequent in the east, an attendant on the lion, the refuse of whose prey he devours. It is an animal that seems to have been bred originally between the wolf and the dog. The original is sometimes interpreted, dragons, whales, etc.

### Verse 12

[¶18] Who is the wise man - To whom has God revealed these things? He is the truly wise man. But it is to his prophet alone that God has revealed these things, and the speedy fulfillment of the predictions will show that the prophet has not spoken of himself.

### Verse 15

[¶20] I will feed them - with wormwood - They shall have the deepest sorrow and heaviest affliction. They shall have poison instead of meat and drink.

### Verse 17

[¶22] Call for the mourning women - Those whose office it was to make lamentations at funerals, and to bewail the dead, for which they received pay. This custom continues to the present in Asiatic countries. In Ireland this custom also prevails, which no doubt their ancestors brought from the east. I have often witnessed it, and have given a specimen of this elsewhere. See the note on [Mat 9:23]. The first lamentations for the dead consisted only in the sudden bursts of inexpressible grief, like that of David over his son Absalom, [2Sam 19:4]. But as men grew refined, it was not deemed sufficient for the surviving relatives to vent their sorrows in these natural, artless expressions of wo, but they endeavored to join others as partners in their sorrows. This gave rise to the custom of hiring persons to weep at funerals, which the Phrygians and Greeks borrowed from the Hebrews. Women were generally employed on these occasions, because the tender passions being predominant in this sex, they succeeded better in their parts; and there were never wanting persons who would let out their services to hire on such occasions. Their lamentations were sung to the pipe as we learn from [Mat 9:23]. See the funeral ceremonies practiced at the burial of Hector, as described by Homer: - Οἱ δ' επει εισαγαγον κλυτα δωματα, τον μεν επειτα Τρητοις εν λεχεεσσι θεσαν, παρα δ' εἱσαν αοιδους, Θρηνων εξαρχους, οἱ τε στονοεσσαν αοιδην Οἱ μεν αρ' εθρηνεον, επι δε στεναχοντο γυναικες.

[¶23] Il. lib. 24., ver. 719. "Arrived within the royal house, they stretched

[¶24] The breathless Hector on a sumptuous bed,

[¶25] And singers placed beside him, who should chant

[¶26] The strain funereal; they with many a groan

[¶27] The dirge began; and still at every close

[¶28] The female train with many a groan replied."

[¶29] Cowper.

[¶30] St. Jerome tells us that even to his time this custom continued in Judea; that women at funerals, with dishevelled hair and naked breasts, endeavored in a modulated voice to invite others to lament with them. The poem before us, from the seventeenth to the twenty-second verse, is both an illustration and confirmation of what has been delivered on this subject, and worthy of the reader's frequent perusal, on account of its affecting pathos, moral sentiments, and fine images, particularly in the twenty-first verse, where death is described in as animated a prosopopoeia as can be conceived. See Lototh's twenty-second Prelection, and Dodd. The nineteenth verse is supposed to be the funeral song of the women. "How are we spoiled!

[¶31] We are greatly confounded!

[¶32] For we have forsaken the land;

[¶33] Because they have destroyed our dwellings."

### Verse 20

[¶35] Teach your daughters - This is not a common dirge that shall last only till the body is consigned to the earth; it must last longer; teach it to your children, that it may be continued through every generation, till God turn again your captivity.

### Verse 21

[¶37] For death is come up into our windows - Here Death is personified, and represented as scaling their wall; and after having slain the playful children without, and the vigorous youth employed in the labors of the field, he is now come into the private houses, to destroy the aged and infirm; and into the palaces, to destroy the king and the princes.

### Verse 22

[¶39] And as the handful after the harvestman - The reapers, after having cut enough to fill their hand, threw it down; and the binders, following after, collected those handfuls, and bound them in sheaves. Death is represented as having cut down the inhabitants of the land, as the reapers do the corn; but so general was the slaughter, that there was none to bury the dead, to gather up these handfuls; so that they lay in a state of putrescence, as dung upon the open field.

### Verse 23

[¶41] Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom - Because God is the Fountain of all good, neither wisdom, nor might, nor riches, nor prosperity can come but from or through him. Nothing can be more rational than that the Source of all our blessings should be acknowledged. Riches cannot deliver in the day of death; strength cannot avail against him; and as a shield against him, our wisdom is foolishness.

### Verse 24

[¶43] But let him that glorieth - To glory in a thing is to depend on it as the means or cause of procuring happiness. But there can be no happiness but in being experimentally acquainted with that God who exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. He who has God's mercy for his portion may well exult; for he need not fear the power of any adversary.

[¶44] Sometimes the ancient heathen poets uttered sentiments of morality far beyond their dispensation. Witness Phocylides on this subject: - Μη γαυρου σοφιῃ, μητ' αλκῃ, μητ' ενι πλουτῳ· Εις Θεος εστι σοφος, δυνατος θ' ἁμα, και τολυολβος. "If wisdom, strength, or riches be thy lot,

## 871. Jeremiah · 12 of 55

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[¶0] Boast not; but rather think thou hast them not.

[¶1] One God alone from whom those gifts proceed

[¶2] Is wise, is mighty, and is rich indeed."

### Verse 25

[¶4] I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised - Do not imagine that you, because of your crimes, are the only objects of my displeasure; the circumcised and the uncircumcised, the Jew and the Gentile, shall equally feel the stroke of my justice, their transgressions being alike, after their advantages and disadvantages are duly compared. In like manner, other nations also were delivered into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, these he immediately enumerates: Egypt and Edom, and the Moabites and the Ammonites, and the Arabians of the desert. All these nations were uncircumcised in that way which God required that rite to be practiced as a sign of his covenant; and the Israelites, that did practice it as a sign of that covenant, did not attend to its spiritual meaning, for they were all uncircumcised in heart. And it may be remarked, that these people were in general confederated against the Chaldeans.

### Verse 26

[¶6] All that are in the utmost corners - כל קצוצי פאה col ketsutsey pheah. These words have been variously understood. The Vulgate translates: Omnes qui attonsi sunt in comam; "All who have their hair cut short." The Targum, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic have understood it nearly in the same way; and so our margin. Others think that the insular or peninsular situation of the people is referred to. Dr. Blayney thinks the Arabians are meant, who dwelt in the great desert, between Mesopotamia and Palestine. I really think our marginal reading should be preferred, as expressing the sense of all the ancient Versions.

### Introduction

[¶8] The Jews, about to be carried into captivity, are here warned against the superstition and idolatry of that country to which they were going. Chaldea was greatly addicted to astrology, and therefore the prophet begins with warning them against it, [Jer 10:1], [Jer 10:2]. He then exposes the absurdity of idolatry in short but elegant satire; in the midst of which he turns, in a beautiful apostrophe, to the one true God, whose adorable attributes repeatedly strike in view, as he goes along, and lead him to contrast his infinite perfections with those despicable inanities which the blinded nations fear, [Jer 10:3-16]. The prophet again denounces the Divine judgments, [Jer 10:17], [Jer 10:18]; upon which Jerusalem laments her fate, and supplicates the Divine compassion in her favor, [Jer 10:19-25].

### Verse 1

[¶10] Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you - Dr. Dahler supposes this discourse to have been delivered in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim. It contains an invective against idolatry; showing its absurdity, and that the Creator alone should be worshipped by all mankind.

### Verse 2

[¶12] Learn not the way of the heathen - These words are more particularly addressed to the ten tribes scattered among the heathen by the Assyrians, who carried them away captive; they may also regard those in the land of Israel who still had the customs of the former heathen settlers before their eyes.

[¶13] Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed - The Chaldeans and Egyptians were notoriously addicated to astrology; and the Israelites here are cautioned against it. The signs of the heavens may mean either the sun, moon, planets, and particular stars or constellations; or the figures or characters by which they represented these heavenly bodies.

### Verse 3

[¶15] The customs of the people are vain - חקות chukkoth; the statutes and principles of the science are vain, empty, and illusory. They are founded in nonsense, ignorance, idolatry, and folly.

[¶16] One cutteth a tree out of the forest - See the notes on [Isa 40:19] (note), and [Isa 44:9] (note), etc., which are all parallel places and where this conduct is strongly ridiculed.

### Verse 5

[¶18] They are upright as the palm tree - As straight and as stiff as the trees out of which they are hewn.

### Verse 7

[¶20] Who would not fear thee - Who would not worship thee as the Author and Giver of all good? The fear of God is often taken for the whole of true religion.

[¶21] Among all the wise men of the nation - Not even the wisest and most cultivated of the nations have ever found out any one equal to thee; but so exalted and holy art thou, that in all their wisdom and research they have never been able to find out the true God.

### Verse 8

[¶23] The stock is a doctrine of vanities - Dr. Blayney translates, - "The wood itself is a rebuker of vanities." The very tree out of which the god is hewn demonstrates the vanity and folly of the idolaters; for, can all the art of man make out of a log of wood an animate and intelligent being?

### Verse 9

[¶25] Brought from Tarshish - Some suppose this to be Tartessus in Spain, from which the Phoenicians brought much silver. Uphaz, Calmet thinks to be the river Pison; some think Ophir is intended.

[¶26] Blue and purple is their clothing - These were the most precious dyes; very rare, and of high price.

### Verse 10

[¶28] But the Lord - The original word should be preserved, however we agree to pronounce it: יהוה Yehovah is the true God. He is without beginning, and without end. This is true of no being else.

[¶29] He is the living God - His being is underived; and he gives life to all. He is the very Fountain whence all life is derived.

[¶30] And an everlasting king - As he has made, so he governs, all things. His sway is felt both in the heavens and in the earth.

[¶31] At his wrath the earth shall tremble - All storms, tempests, tornadoes, and earthquakes are the effects of his power; and when the nations are destroyed, or turned upside down, it is the effect of his displeasure.

### Verse 11

[¶33] Thus shall ye say unto them - This is the message you shall deliver to the Chaldean idolaters.

[¶34] The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish - Both they and their worshippers shall be destroyed; and idolatry shall finally be destroyed from the earth; and the heavens shall look no more on so great an abomination. It is suffered for a while: but in the end shall be destroyed. This verse is written in a sort of Hebraeo-Syriaco-Chaldee; such a dialect as I suppose was spoken at that time in Babylon, or during the captivity. As it is a message to the Babylonians therefore, it is given in their own language. The Chaldee makes it the beginning of the copy of the epistle which the Prophet Jeremiah sent to the rest of the elders of the captivity who were in Babylon. All the ancient Versions acknowledge this verse; and it is found in all MSS. hitherto collated, except one of Dr. Kennicott's numbered 526; and he has included it between lines, as doubting its authenticity. Dr. Blayney supposes that some public teacher during the captivity, deducing it by direct inference from the prophet's words, had it inserted in the margin, and perhaps usually read together with this section, in the assemblies of the people, in order that they might have their answer always ready, whenever they were molested on the point of religion, or importuned to join the idolatrous worship of the Chaldeans.

[¶35] Dahler has left it entirely out of the text, and introduces it in a note thus: - "After [Jer 10:10] the Hebrew text is interrupted by a verse written in the Chaldean or Babylonish tongue. It is thus expressed: -

[¶36] Ye shall say unto them, Let the gods perish!

[¶37] Who have not made the heavens and the earth.

[¶38] Let them be banished from above the earth, and from under the heavens.

[¶39] This verse can be considered only as a foreign insertion, not only on account of the difference of the language, but also because it interrupts the natural course of the ideas, and of the connection of the tenth and twelfth verses."

[¶40] As a curiosity I shall insert it in Hebrew, which the reader may compare with the Chaldee text, which I also subjoin. כזאת תאמרו להם האלהים אשר לא עשו השמים והארץ יאבדו מן הארץ ומן תחת השמים אלה cazoth tomeru lahem; haelohim asher lo asu hashshamayim vehaarets, yobedu min haarets, umin tachath hashshamayim elleh. כדנא תאמרון להון אלהיא די שמיא וארקא לא עבדו יאבדו מארעא ומן תחות שמיא אלה kidna temerun lehon; elahaiya di shemaiya vearka la abadu, yebadu meara umin techoth shemaiya elleh.

[¶41] The Hebrew is the translation of Leusden; the Chaldee is that of the common text. Had not all the ancient Versions acknowledged it, I also, principally on account of the strangeness of the language, as being neither Chaldee nor Syriac, should have doubted its authenticity.

### Verse 13

[¶43] When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters - This is a plain allusion to a storm of thunder and lightning, and the abundance of rain which is the consequence. Water is composed of two gases, hydrogen and oxygen: the electric or galvanic spark decomposes them, and they become air; when recomposed, they form water. The lightning acts upon the hydrogen and oxygen, which are found In the atmospheric air: they are decomposed, and water or rain is the consequence; which, being heavier than the air falls down in the form of rain.

[¶44] This verse and the three following are the same in substance, and nearly in words, as [Jer 51:16], and following.

## 872. Jeremiah · 13 of 55

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### Verse 14

[¶1] Every man is brutish - נבער nibar, is a boor, acts as a brute, who may suppose that a stock of a tree, formed like a man, may be an intellectual being; and therefore shuns the form as though it had life. See [Isa 44:10], [Isa 44:11]. Of which verses, by the way, Dr. Blayney gives the following version to correct that of Bishop Lowth: - [Isa 44:10]. Who hath formed a god? Or set up a graven image that profiteth not? [Isa 44:11]. Behold, all that are connected with it shall be ashamed, And the artificers, they above all men! They shall assemble all of them; they shall stand forth; They shall fear; they shall be ashamed at the same time. "That is, while they stand before the image they have set up, and worship it with a religious dread, the glaring absurdity of their conduct shall lead to their shame and disgrace."

[¶2] With due deference to this learned man, I think this interpretation too refined.

### Verse 16

[¶4] The Portion of Jacob is not like them - Every nation had its tutelary god; this was its portion; in reference to this God says [Deu 4:19], "He has divided the sun, moon, and stars, to all the nations under the heaven." And the Lord had taken the Israelites to be his portion; for "the Lord's portion is his people," [Deu 32:9], and David says, "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance," [Psa 16:5]; [Psa 119:67]. And hence Isaiah terms the smooth stones of the brook, to which Divine honors were paid, the portion of those idolaters, [Isa 57:6]. But in the text he says, "The Portion, i.e., the God of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things," and they are formed by their foolish worshippers.

### Verse 17

[¶6] Gather up thy wares - Pack up your goods, or what necessaries of life your enemies will permit you to carry away; for,

### Verse 18

[¶8] I will sling out the inhabitants of the land - I will project you with violence from your country. I will send you all into captivity. This discourse, from [Jer 10:17], is supposed to have been delivered in the eleventh year of Jehoiakim.

### Verse 19

[¶10] This is a grief, and I must bear it - Oppressive as it is, I have deserved it, and worse; but even in this judgment God remembers mercy.

### Verse 20

[¶12] My tabernacle is spoiled - The city is taken, and all our villages ruined and desolated.

### Verse 21

[¶14] The pastors are become brutish - The king and his counselors, who, by refusing to pay the promised tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, had kindled a new war.

### Verse 22

[¶16] The noise of the bruit is come - How this silly French word bruit, which signifies noise, got in here, I cannot imagine. The simple translation is this: "The voice of the report! behold, it is come; yea, great commotion from the land of the north; (Chaldea); to make the cities of Judea a desolation, a habitation of wild beasts." That is, the report we had heard of the projected invasion of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar is confirmed. He has entered the land; the Chaldeans are at the doors, and the total desolation of Judea is their sole object.

### Verse 23

[¶18] O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself - I will not pretend to dispute with thee; thou dost every thing wisely and justly; we have sinned, and thou hast a right to punish; and to choose that sort of punishment thou thinkest will best answer the ends of justice. We cannot choose; thou hast appointed us to captivity; we must not repine: yet,

### Verse 24

[¶20] Correct me, but with judgment - Let not the punishment be to the uttermost of the demerit of the offense; else we shall be brought to nothing - totally and irrecoverably ruined.

### Verse 25

[¶22] Pour out thy fury upon the heathen - Even those who are now the executors of thy justice upon us will, in their turn, feel its scourge; for if judgment begins at us, who have been called thy house and thy people, shall they who have not acknowledged thee escape? It is impossible. The families and tribes which invoke thee not shall have thy fury poured out upon them, and especially they who "have eaten up Jacob and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate." This was fulfilled in the Chaldeans. Nebuchadnezzar was punished with madness, his son was slain in his revels, and the city was taken and sacked by Cyrus; and the Babylonish empire was finally destroyed! This verse has been often quoted against those ungodly families who set not up the worship of God in their houses. These are spiritual Chaldeans, worse indeed than the Chaldeans ever were: they acknowledge God and his Christ; and yet neither worship nor serve him. How can that family expect the blessing of God, where the worship of God is not daily performed? No wonder their servants are wicked, their children profligate, and their goods cursed! What an awful reckoning shall such heads of families have with the Judge in the great day, who have refused to petition for that mercy which they might have had for the asking.

### Introduction

[¶24] The prophet proclaims the tenor of God's covenant with the Jews of old, [Jer 11:1-5]; and then reproves them for their hereditary disobedience, [Jer 11:6-19]. In consequence of this the Almighty is introduced, declaring he will show them no pity, [Jer 11:11-13]; forbidding Jeremiah to intercede, [Jer 11:14]; rejecting their sacrifices, [Jer 11:15]; and in a word, condemning this fair but unfruitful tree to the fire, [Jer 11:16], [Jer 11:17]. In what remains of the chapter the prophet predicts evil to his neighbors of Anathoth, who had conspired against him, [Jer 11:18-23]. "Let us," said they, "destroy this tree, with the fruit thereof," etc., alluding to what Jeremiah had said in the sixteenth verse.

### Verse 1

[¶26] The word that came to Jeremiah - This discourse is supposed to have been delivered in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah. See Dahler.

### Verse 2

[¶28] Hear ye the words of this covenant - It is possible that the prophet caused the words of the covenant made with their fathers in the desert ([Exo 24:4-8]) to be read to them on this occasion; or, at least, the blessings and the cursings which Moses caused to be pronounced to the people as soon as they had set foot in Canaan, Deuteronomy 27, 28.

### Verse 3

[¶30] Cursed be the man that obeyeth not - After the reading, the prophet appears to sum up the things contained in what was read to them; as if he had said, "Ye hear what the Lord saith unto you: remember, the sum of it is this: The man is cursed who obeyeth not; and he is blessed who obeys. From these declarations God will not depart."

### Verse 5

[¶32] So be it, O Lord - Let thy promises be fulfilled; and let the incorrigible beware of thy threatenings!

### Verse 6

[¶34] Proclaim all these words - Let the same covenant, with the blessings and cursings, be read in every city of Judah, and in all the streets of Jerusalem, that all the people may know their duty, their privileges, and their danger.

### Verse 9

[¶36] A conspiracy is found - They were all fratres conjurati, sworn brothers, determined to cast off the Divine yoke, and no longer to have God to reign over them.

### Verse 10

[¶38] They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers - A great reformation had taken place under the reign of Josiah, and the public worship of idols had been abolished, and most of the high places destroyed; but under the reign of his son and his successors, they had turned back again to idolatry, and were become worse than ever. It required a captivity to cure them of this propensity: and God sent one: after that, there was no idolatry among the Jews.

### Verse 12

[¶40] Go, and cry unto the gods - See [Jer 2:28].

### Verse 14

[¶42] Therefore pray not thou for this people - I am determined to give them up into the hands of their enemies; I will neither hear thy intercession, nor regard their prayers. Their measure is full.

### Verse 15

[¶44] What hath my beloved to do in mine house - This has been supposed to refer to Abraham, Moses, or such eminent servants of God, whose intercession was very powerful. Were even they to appear as intercessors, their prayer should not be regarded. Others think that this is an endearing expression which properly belonged to the Israelites. When God took them into covenant with himself, they were espoused to him, and therefore his beloved; but now that they have forsaken him, and joined themselves to another, what have they to do with his house or its ordinances, which they wish now to frequent with vows and sacrifices, when they see the evil fast coming upon them? This is probably the sense of this very obscure passage. Dr. Blayney translates, "What hath my beloved to do in my house whilst she practiseth wickedness? Shall vows and holy flesh (sacrifices) be allowed to come from thee? When thou art malignant, shalt thou rejoice?"

## 873. Jeremiah · 14 of 55

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### Verse 16

[¶1] The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree - That is, he made thee like a green olive - fair, flourishing, and fruitful; but thou art degenerated, and God hath given the Chaldeans permission to burn thee up.

### Verse 18

[¶3] The Lord hath given me knowledge of it - The men of Anathoth had conspired against his life, because he reproved them for their sins, and denounced the judgments of God against them. Of this God had given him a secret warning, that he might be on his guard.

### Verse 19

[¶5] I was like a lamb or an ox - Dahler translates, "I was like a fattened lamb that is led to the slaughter." Blayney, "I was like a tame lamb that is led to slaughter." The word אלוף alluph, which we translate ox, is taken by both as an adjective, qualifying the noun כבש kebes, a lamb. It may probably signify a lamb brought up in the house-fed at home, (אלוף alluph), instructed or nourished at home; perfectly innocent and unsuspecting, while leading to the slaughter. This meaning the word will bear in Arabic, for alaf signifies accustomed, familiar, (to or with any person or thing); a companion, a comrade, an intimate friend. I therefore think that ככבש אלוף kechebes alluph signifies, like the familiar lamb - the lamb bred up in the house, in a state of friendship with the family. The people of Anathoth were Jeremiah's townsmen; he was born and bred among them; they were his familiar friends; and now they lay wait for his life! All the Versions understood אלוף alluph as an epithet of כבש kebes, a chosen, simple, innocent lamb.

[¶6] Let us destroy the tree with the fruit - Let us slay the prophet, and his prophecies will come to an end. The Targum has, Let us put mortal poison in his food; and all the Versions understand it something in the same way.

### Verse 20

[¶8] Let me see thy vengeance on them - Rather, I shall see (אראה ereh) thy punishment indicted on them.

### Verse 22

[¶10] Behold, I will punish them - And the punishment is, Their young men shall die by the sword of the Chaldeans; and their sons and daughters shall die by the famine that shall come on the land through the desolations occasioned by the Chaldean army.

### Verse 23

[¶12] The year of their visitation - This punishment shall come in that year in which I shall visit their iniquities upon them.

### Introduction

[¶14] This chapter is connected with the foregoing. The prophet expostulates with God concerning the ways of Providence in permitting the wicked to prosper, [Jer 12:1-4]. It is intimated to him that he must endure still greater trials, [Jer 12:5], from his false and deceitful brethren, [Jer 12:6]; but that still heavier judgments awaited the nation for their crimes, [Jer 12:7-13]. That God, however, would at length have compassion on them; restore them to their land; and turn his judgments against those that oppressed them, if not prevented by their becoming converts to the true religion, [Jer 12:14-17].

### Verse 1

[¶16] Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee - The prophet was grieved at the prosperity of the wicked; and he wonders how, consistently with God's righteousness, vice should often be in affluence, and piety in suffering and poverty. He knows that God is righteous, that every thing is done well; but he wishes to inquire how these apparently unequal and undeserved lots take place. On this subject he wishes to reason with God, that he may receive instruction.

### Verse 2

[¶18] Thou art near in their mouth - They have no sincerity: they have something of the form of religion, but nothing of its power.

### Verse 3

[¶20] But thou, O Lord, knowest me - I know that the very secrets of my heart are known to thee; and I am glad of it, for thou knowest that my heart is towards thee - is upright and sincere.

### Verse 4

[¶22] How long shall the land mourn - These hypocrites and open sinners are a curse to the country; pull them out, Lord, that the land may be delivered of that which is the cause of its desolation.

### Verse 5

[¶24] If thou hast run with the footmen - If the smallest evils to which thou art exposed cause thee to make so many bitter complaints, how wilt thou feel when, in the course of thy prophetic ministry, thou shalt be exposed to much greater, from enemies much more powerful? Footmen may here be the symbol of common evil events; horsemen, of evils much more terrible. If thou have sunk under small difficulties, what wilt thou do when great ones come?

[¶25] And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst - I believe the meaning is this, "If in a country now enjoying peace thou scarcely thinkest thyself in safety, what wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan? in the time when the enemy, like an overflowing torrent, shall deluge every part of the land?"

[¶26] The overflowing of Jordan, which generally happened in harvest, drove the lions and other beasts of prey from their coverts among the bushes that lined its banks; who, spreading themselves through the country, made terrible havoc, slaying men, and carrying off the cattle.

[¶27] Perhaps by footmen may be meant the Philistines, Edomites, etc., whose armies were composed principally of infantry; and by the horses, the Chaldeans, who had abundance of cavalry and chariots in their army. But still the words are proverbial, and the above is their meaning.

### Verse 6

[¶29] For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father - Thou hast none to depend on but God: even thy brethren will betray thee when they have it in their power.

[¶30] Believe them not - Do not trust to them, do not commit thyself to them; they are in heart thy enemies, and will betray thee.

### Verse 7

[¶32] I have forsaken mine house - I have abandoned my temple.

[¶33] I have given the dearly beloved of my soul - The people once in covenant with me, and inexpressibly dear to me while faithful.

[¶34] Into the hand of her enemies - This was a condition in the covenant I made with them; If they forsook me, they were to be abandoned to their enemies, and cast out of the good land I gave to their fathers.

### Verse 8

[¶36] Mine heritage is unto me as a lion - The people are enraged against me; they roar like a furious lion against their God. They have proceeded to the most open acts of the most flagrant iniquity.

### Verse 9

[¶38] Is unto me as a speckled bird - A bird of divers colors. This is a people who have corrupted the worship of the true God with heathenish rites and ceremonies; therefore, the different nations, (see [Jer 12:10]; whose gods and forms of worship they have adopted shall come and spoil them. As far as you have followed the surrounding nations in their worship, so far shall they prevail over your state. Every one shall take that which is his own; and wherever he finds his own gods, he will consider the land consecrated to them, and take it as his property, because those very gods are the objects of his worship. The fable of the daw and borrowed plumes is no mean illustration of this passage.

[¶39] Dahler translates the whole verse thus: -

[¶40] Birds of prey! inundate with blood my heritage.

[¶41] Birds of prey! come against her from all sides.

[¶42] Run together in crowds, ye savage beasts!

[¶43] Come to the carnage!

## 874. Jeremiah · 15 of 55

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### Verse 10

[¶1] Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard - My people have had many kinds of enemies which have fed upon their richest pastures; the Philistines, the Moabites, Ammonites, Assyrians, Egyptians. and now the Chaldeans.

### Verse 11

[¶3] No man layeth it to heart - Notwithstanding all these desolations, from which the land every where mourns, and which are so plainly the consequences of the people's crimes, no man layeth it to heart, or considereth that these are God's judgments; and that the only way to have them removed is to repent of their sins, and turn to God with all their hearts.

### Verse 12

[¶5] The sword of the Lord shall devour - It is the sword of the Lord that has devoured, and will devour: this is what no man layeth to heart. They think these things come in the course of events.

### Verse 13

[¶7] They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns - All their projects shall fail: none of their enterprises shall succeed. They are enemies to God, and therefore cannot have his blessing.

### Verse 14

[¶9] Against all mine evil neighbors - All the neighboring nations who have united in desolating Judea shall be desolated in their turn: they also are wicked, and they shall be punished. If I make them executors of my justice, it is to them no proof of my approbation. God often uses one wicked nation to scourge another; and afterwards scourges the scourger by some other scourge. In some places a felon who was condemned to be hanged is made the common hangman for the county; he himself being still under the sentence of death, -

[¶10] Till soon some trusty brother of the trade

[¶11] Shall do for him what he has done for others.

### Verse 15

[¶13] I will return, and have compassion on them - This is a promise of restoration from the captivity, and an intimation also that some of their enemies would turn to the true God with them; learn the ways of his people; that is, would abjure idols, and take Jehovah for their God; and be built in the midst of his people, that is, Jew and Gentile forming one Church of the Most High.

### Verse 17

[¶15] I will - destroy that nation - Several of them did not obey, and are destroyed. Of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Chaldeans, not one vestige remains. The sixteenth verse is supposed to be a promise of the conversion of the Gentiles. See [Eph 2:13-22].

[¶16] From the thirteenth verse to the end is a different discourse, and Dahler supposes it to have been delivered in the seventh or eighth year of the reign of Jehoiakim.

### Introduction

[¶18] This chapter contains an entire prophecy. The symbol of the linen girdle, left to rot for a considerable time, was a type of the manner in which the glory of the Jews should be marred during the course of their long captivity, [Jer 13:1-11]. The scene of hiding the girdle being laid near the Euphrates, intimated that the scene of the nation's distress should be Chaldea, which that river waters. The next three verses, by another emblem frequently used to represent the judgments of God, are designed to show that the calamities threatened should be extended to every rank and denomination, [Jer 13:12-14]. This leads the prophet to a most affectionate exhortation to repentance, [Jer 13:15-17]. But God, knowing that this happy consequence would not ensue, sends him with an awful message to the royal family particularly, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in general, declaring the approaching judgments in plain terms, [Jer 13:18-27]. The ardent desire for the reformation of Jerusalem, with which the chapter concludes, beautifully displays the compassion and tender mercy of God.

### Verse 1

[¶20] Thus saith the Lord unto me - This discourse is supposed to have been delivered under the reign of Jeconiah, the son and successor of Jehoiakim, who came to the throne in the eighteenth year of his age; when the Chaldean generals had encamped near to Jerusalem, but did not besiege it in form till Nebuchadnezzar came up with the great body of the army. In these circumstances the prophet predicts the captivity; and, by a symbolical representation of a rotten girdle, shows the people their totally corrupt state; and by another of bottles filled with wine, shows the destruction and madness of their counsels, and the confusion that must ensue.

[¶21] Go and get thee a linen girdle - This was either a vision, or God simply describes the thing in order that the prophet might use it in the way of illustration.

[¶22] Put it not in water - After having worn it, let it not be washed, that it may more properly represent the uncleanness of the Israelites; for they were represented by the girdle; for "as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah." And as a girdle is as well for ornament as use; God took them for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, [Jer 13:11].

### Verse 4

[¶24] Go to Euphrates, and hide it there - Intending to point out, by this distant place, the country into which they were to be carried away captive.

### Verse 7

[¶26] And behold, the girdle was marred; it was profitable for nothing - This symbolically represented the state of the Jews: they were corrupt and abominable; and God, by sending them into captivity, "marred the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem," [Jer 13:9].

### Verse 12

[¶28] Every bottle shall be filled with wine? - The bottles were made for the purpose of being filled with wine; and it is likely, from the promising appearance of the season and the grapes, that there was a great likelihood of a copious vintage; and this made them say, "Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Have we not every prospect that it will be so? Do we need a revelation to inform us of this?"

### Verse 13

[¶30] Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land - with drunkenness - You pretend to take this literally, but it is a symbol. You, and your kings, and priests, and prophets, are represented by these bottles. The wine is God's wrath against you, which shall first be shown by confounding your deliberations, filling you with foolish plans of defense, causing you from your divided counsels to fall out among yourselves, so that like so many drunken men you shall reel about and jostle each other; defend yourselves without plan, and fight without order, till ye all fall an easy prey into the hands of your enemies. The ancient adage is here fulfilled: -

[¶31] Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. "Those whom God determines to destroy, he first renders foolish."

### Verse 16

[¶33] Give glory to - God - Confess your sins and turn to him, that these sore evils may be averted.

[¶34] While ye look for light - While ye expect prosperity, he turned it into the shadow of death - sent you adversity of the most distressing and ruinous kind.

[¶35] Stumble upon the dark mountains - Before you meet with those great obstacles, which, having no light - no proper understanding in the matter, ye shall be utterly unable to surmount.

### Verse 17

[¶37] My soul shalt weep in secret places - If you will not hearken to the Lord, there is no remedy: destruction must come; and there is nothing left for me, but to go in secret, and mourn and bewail your wretched lot.

### Verse 18

[¶39] Say unto the king and to the queen - Probably Jeconiah and his mother, under whose tutelage, being young when he began to reign, he was left, as is very likely.

[¶40] Sit down - Show that ye have humbled yourselves; for your state will be destroyed, and your glorious crown taken from your heads.

### Verse 19

[¶42] The cities of the south shall be shut up - Not only the cities of the north, the quarter at which the Chaldeans entered, but the cities of the south also; for he shall proceed from one extremity of the land to the other, spreading devastation every where, and carrying off the inhabitants.

### Verse 20

[¶44] Where is the flock - thy beautiful flock? - Jerusalem is addressed. Where are the prosperous multitudes of men, women, and children? Alas! are they not driven before the Babylonians, who have taken them captive?

## 875. Jeremiah · 16 of 55

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### Verse 21

[¶1] Thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee - This is said of their enemies, whether Assyrians or Chaldeans: for ever since Ahaz submitted himself to the king of Assyria, the kings of Judah never regained their independence. Their enemies were thus taught to be their lords and masters.

### Verse 22

[¶3] Are thy skirts discovered - Thy defenseless state is every where known; thou art not only weak, but ignominiously so. It is thy scandal to be in so depressed a condition; thou art lower than the basest of thy adversaries, and thou art so because of thy sin.

### Verse 23

[¶5] Can the Ethiopian change his skin - Can a black, at his own pleasure, change the color of his skin? Can the leopard at will change the variety of his spots? These things are natural to them, and they cannot be altered; so sin, and especially your attachment to idolatry, is become a second nature; and we may as well expect the Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots, as you to do good, who have been accustomed to do evil. It is a matter of the utmost difficulty to get a sinner, deeply rooted in vicious habits, brought to the knowledge of himself and God. But the expression does not imply that the thing is as impossible in a moral as it is in a natural sense: it only shows that it is extremely difficult, and not to be often expected; and a thousand matters of fact prove the truth of this. But still, what is impossible to man is possible to God. See the note on [Jer 13:27].

### Verse 24

[¶7] The wind of the wilderness - Some strong tempestuous wind, proverbially severe, coming from the desert to the south of Judea.

### Verse 25

[¶9] Trusted in falsehood - In idols, and in lying prophets.

### Verse 26

[¶11] Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face - It was the custom to punish lewd women by stripping them naked, and exposing them to public view; or by throwing their clothes over their heads, as here intimated. Was this the way to correct the evil?

### Verse 27

[¶13] I have seen thine adulteries - Thy idolatries of different kinds, practiced in various ways; no doubt often accompanied with gross debauchery.

[¶14] Wo unto thee, O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean? - We see from this, that though the thing was difficult, yet it was not impossible, for these Ethiopians to change their skin, for these leopards to change their spots. It was only their obstinate refusal of the grace of God that rendered it impossible. Man cannot change himself; but he may pray to God to do it, and come to him through Christ, that he may do it. To enable him to pray and believe, the power is still at hand. If he will not use it, he must perish.

### Introduction

[¶16] This chapter begins with foretelling a drought that should greatly distress the land of Judea, the effects of which are described in a most pathetic manner, [Jer 14:1-6]. The prophet then, in the people's name, makes a confession of sins, and supplication for pardon, [Jer 14:7-9]. But God declares his purpose to punish, forbidding Jeremiah to pray for the people, [Jer 14:10-12]. False prophets are then complained of, and threatened with destruction, as are also those who attend to them, [Jer 14:13-16]. The prophet, therefore, bewails their misery, [Jer 14:17], [Jer 14:18]; and though he had just now been forbidden to intercede for them, yet, like a tender pastor, who could not cease to be concerned for their welfare, he falls on the happy expedient of introducing themselves as supplicating in their own name that mercy which he was not allowed to ask in his, [Jer 14:19-22].

### Verse 1

[¶18] The word - that came - concerning the dearth - This discourse is supposed to have been delivered, after the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Concerning the dearth. We have no historic record of any dearth that may fall in with the time of this prophecy, and perhaps it does not refer to any particular dearth: but this was a calamity to which Judea was very liable. They had ordinarily very dry summers, for scarcely any rain fell from April to the middle of October; and during much of this time, the rivers were generally either very low or entirely dry. They kept the rain of the winter in tanks and reservoirs; and if little fell in winter, a dearth was unavoidable. See an account of a dearth in the time of Elijah, [1Kgs 18:5], through which almost all the cattle were lost.

### Verse 2

[¶20] The gates thereof languish - The gates being the places of public resort, they are put here for the people.

[¶21] They are black unto the ground - Covered from head to foot with a black garment, the emblem of sorrow and calamity.

### Verse 3

[¶23] Their nobles have sent their little ones - So general was this calamity, that the servants no longer attended to their lords, but every one was interested alone for himself; and the nobles of the land were obliged to employ their own children to scour the land, to see if any water could be found in the tanks or the pits. In the dearth in the time of Elijah, Ahab the king, and Obadiah his counselor, were obliged to traverse the land themselves, in order to find out water to keep their cattle alive. This and the three following verses give a lively but distressing picture of this dearth and its effects.

### Verse 4

[¶25] The ground is chapt - The cracks in the earth before the descent of the rains are in some places a cubit wide, and deep enough to receive the greater part of a human body.

### Verse 6

[¶27] Snuffed up the wind like dragons - תנים tannim here probably means the hippopotamus, who, after feeding under the water, is obliged to come to the surface in order to take in fresh draughts of air; or it may mean the wild asses.

### Verse 7

[¶29] O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us - We deeply acknowledge that we have sinned, and deserve nothing but death. Yet act for thy name's sake - work in our behalf, that we perish not.

### Verse 8

[¶31] O the hope of Israel - O thou who art the only object of the hope of this people.

[¶32] The Savior thereof in time of trouble - Who hast never yet abandoned them that seek thee.

[¶33] Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land - As one who has no interest in the prosperity and safety of the country.

[¶34] And as a way-faring man - A traveler on his journey.

[¶35] That turneth aside to tarry for a night? - Who stays the shortest time he can; and takes up his lodging in a tent or caravanserai, for the dead of the night, that he may pursue his journey by break of day. Instead of dwelling among us, thou hast scarcely paid the most transient visit to thy land. O come once more, and dwell among us.

### Verse 9

[¶37] Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us - Thy ark, temple, and sacred rites, are all here; and thou thyself, who art every where present, art here also: but alas! thou dost not reveal thyself as the Father of mercies, who forgivest iniquity, transgression, and sin.

[¶38] We are called by thy name; leave us not - Let us call thee our Father, and say thou to us, "Ye are my sons and daughters!" O leave us not!

### Verse 10

[¶40] Thus have they loved to wander - And the measure of your iniquity being now full, ye must be punished.

### Verse 11

[¶42] Pray not for this people - They are ripe for destruction, intercede not for them. O, how dreadful is the state of that people in reference to whom the Lord says to his ministers, Pray not for them; or, what amounts nearly to a prohibition, withholds from his ministers the spirit of prayer and intercession in behalf of the people!

### Verse 13

[¶44] Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them - True, Lord, they are exceedingly wicked; but the false prophets have deceived them; this is some mitigation of their offense. This plea God does not admit; and why? the people believed them, without having any proof of their Divine mission.

## 876. Jeremiah · 17 of 55

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### Verse 14

[¶1] The prophets prophesy lies - They say they have visions, but they have them by divination, and they are false. The people should know their character, and avoid them but they love to have it so, and will not be undeceived.

### Verse 15

[¶3] By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed - Jeremiah had told Jehoiakim that, if he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, he should be overthrown, and the land wasted by sword and famine: the false prophets said there shall be neither sword nor famine, but peace and prosperity. The king believed them, and withheld the tribute.

[¶4] Nebuchadnezzar, being incensed, invaded and destroyed the land; and the false prophets fell in these calamities. See [2Kgs 25:3]; [Lam 2:11-19].

### Verse 16

[¶6] And the people - shall be cast out - They shall be destroyed, because they preferred their lying words to my truth, proclaimed by thee.

### Verse 17

[¶8] For the virgin daughter of my people is broken - First, the land was sadly distressed by Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt. Secondly, it was laid under a heavy tribute by Nebuchadnezzar. And, thirdly, it was nearly desolated by a famine afterwards. In a few years all these calamities fell upon them; these might be well called a great breach, a very grievous blow.

### Verse 18

[¶10] If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword - Every place presents frightful spectacles; the wounded, the dying, the starving, and the slain; none to bury the dead, none to commiserate the dying, none to bring either relief or consolation. Even the prophets and the priests are obliged to leave the cities, and wander about in unfrequented and unknown places, seeking for the necessaries of life. Dr. Blayney thinks that the going about of the prophets and priests of the land, is to be understood thus: - "They went trafficking about with their false doctrines and lying predictions, as peddlers do with their wares, seeking their own gain." I think the other sense preferable.

### Verse 19

[¶12] We looked for peace - We expected prosperity when Josiah purged the land of idolatry.

[¶13] And there is no good - For we have relapsed into our former ways.

### Verse 20

[¶15] We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness - This the prophet did in behalf of the people; but, alas! they did not join him.

### Verse 21

[¶17] Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory - The temple. Let not this sacred place be profaned by impious and sacrilegious hands.

[¶18] Break not thy covenant - See [Exo 24:7], [Exo 24:8]; [Exo 19:5]. They had already broken the covenant, and they wish God to fulfill his part. They ceased to be his people, for they abandoned themselves to idolatry; and yet they wished Jehovah to be their Lord; to defend, support, and fill them with all good things! But when the conditions of a covenant are broken by one of the contracting parties, the other party is not bound; and the covenant is necessarily annulled.

### Verse 22

[¶20] Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles - Probably the dearth was now coming, as there had been a long want of rain. It was the prerogative of the true God to give rain and send showers at the prayers of his people.

[¶21] Therefore we will wait upon thee - If thou do not undertake for us, we must be utterly ruined.

### Introduction

[¶23] God declares to Jeremiah that not even Moses and Samuel, whose prayers had been so prevalent, could divert him from his purpose of punishing so wicked a people, [Jer 15:1]. Accordingly their captivity is again announced in a variety of images so full of terror, [Jer 15:2-9], that the prophet complains of his own hard fate in being obliged to deliver such unwelcome messages, [Jer 15:10]; for which too he is reproved, [Jer 15:11-14]. Immediately he appeals to God for his sincerity, and supplicates pardon, [Jer 15:15-18]; and God tempers his reproof with promising again to protect him in the faithful discharge of his duty, [Jer 15:19-21].

### Verse 1

[¶25] Though Moses and Samuel - Moses had often supplicated for the people; and in consequence they were spared. See [Exo 32:11] and following verses, [Num 14:13]. Samuel also had prayed for the people, and God heard him, [1Sam 7:9]; but if these or the most holy men were now to supplicate for this people, he would not spare them.

[¶26] Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth - Do not bring them into my presence by your prayers; let them go forth into captivity.

### Verse 2

[¶28] Whither shall we go forth? - Such as are for death, to death - Some shall be destroyed by the pestilence, here termed death. See [Jer 18:21]. Others shall be slain by the sword in battle, and in the sackage of cities. Others shall perish by famine, shall be starved to death through the mere want of the necessaries of life; and the rest shall go into captivity. There shall be different sorts of punishments inflicted on them according to the nature of their transgressions. Some shall be punished in one way, and some in another.

### Verse 3

[¶30] I will appoint over them four kinds - There shall appear four instruments of my justice.

[¶31] 1. The sword to slay.

[¶32] 2. The dogs to tear what is slain.

[¶33] 3. The fowls of the heaven to feed on the dead carcasses. And,

[¶34] 4. The wild beasts to destroy all that the fowls have left.

### Verse 4

[¶36] I will cause them to be removed into an kingdoms of the earth - This seems to have respect to the succeeding state of the Jews in their different generations; and never was there a prophecy more literally fulfilled; and it is still a standing monument of Divine truth. Let infidelity cast its eyes on the scattered Jews whom it may meet with in every civilized nation of the world; and then let it deny the truth of this prophecy, if it can. The Jews are scattered through every nation, and yet are not a nation; nor do they form even a colony on any part of the face of the earth. Behold the truth and the justice of God!

### Verse 5

[¶38] Who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? - Perhaps there is not a more despised nor a more degraded people under the sun. Scarcely any one thinks himself called upon to do a kind office for a Jew. Their character is bad in society, and they are not at all solicitous to redeem it.

### Verse 6

[¶40] I am weary with repenting - With repeatedly changing my purpose. I have often, after purposing to punish, showed them mercy. I will do it no longer; it is useless. I took them often at their promise, and in every instance they have failed.

### Verse 7

[¶42] I will fan them with a fan - There is no pure grain; all is chaff.

[¶43] In the gates of the land - The places of public justice: and there it shall be seen that the judgments that have fallen upon them have been highly merited. And from these places of fanning they shall go out into their captivity.

### Verse 8

[¶45] The mother of the young men - The metropolis or mother city, Jerusalem.

## 877. Jeremiah · 18 of 55

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### Verse 9

[¶1] She that hath borne seven - She that hath had a numerous offspring; Jerusalem, the parent of so many cities, villages, and families in the land. Seven signifies a complete or full number.

### Verse 10

[¶3] A man of contention to the whole earth! - To the whole Land, to all his countrymen; though he had done nothing to merit their displeasure.

### Verse 11

[¶5] I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil - This was literally fulfilled; see [Jer 39:11], etc. Nebuchadnezzar had given strict charge to Nebuzaradan, commander in chief, to look well to Jeremiah, to do him no harm, and to grant him all the privileges he was pleased to ask.

### Verse 12

[¶7] Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? - Shall our weak forces be able to oppose and overcome the powers of the Chaldeans? נחשת nechasheth, which we here translate steel, property signifies brass or copper united with tin, which gives it much hardness, and enables it to bear a good edge.

### Verse 13

[¶9] Thy substance - will I give to the spoil without price - Invaluable property shall be given up to thy adversaries. Or, without price - thou shalt have nothing for it in return.

### Verse 15

[¶11] O Lord - remember me, and visit me - Let me not be carried away into captivity; and it does not appear that he had ever been taken to Babylon. After the capture of the city he went into Egypt; and either died there, or was put to death by his countrymen.

### Verse 16

[¶13] Thy word was - the joy and rejoicing of mine heart - When I did receive the prophetic message, I did rejoice in the honor thou hadst done me; and I faithfully testified thy will to them. They have become mine enemies; not because there was any evil in me, but because I was faithful to thee.

### Verse 18

[¶15] Wilt thou be altogether unto me as - waters that fail? - Leaning either springs, which in the height of summer grow dry; or, like that phenomenon in the sandy desert, where, by a peculiar action of the air on the rising vapors, the resemblance of water is produced, so that the traveler, deceived, rejoices that he is come, in the sandy desert, to the verge of a beautiful lake; but the farther he travels, it is still at the same distance, and at last vanishes; and he finds the whole was an illusion, for the waters have failed. Nothing can exceed the disappointment of the farmer whose subsistence absolutely depends on the periodical rains, when these fail, or fall short of their usual quantity. Some times the rice is sown and springs up in the most promising manner; but the latter rains fail, and whole fields of young rice wither and perish.

### Verse 19

[¶17] If thou return - By repentance unto me, -

[¶18] Then will I bring thee again - Restore thee to thy own country. But some think the words are spoken to the prophet in reference to his ministry. He had greatly repined because of the persecutions which he endured. The Lord reprehends him, and is about to take from him the prophetic gift; but exhorts him first to take the precious from the vile - not to attend to the deceitful words of the people, but boldly declare the message he had given him; not to return unto the people, but let the people return unto him. And then he should be as God's mouth - his words should appear to be what they were, the genuine words of God; and the people should be obliged to acknowledge them as such.

### Verse 20

[¶20] I will make thee - a fenced brazen wall - While thou art faithful to me, none of them shall be able to prevail against thee.

### Verse 21

[¶22] I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked - From the power of this evil people.

[¶23] And I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible - Out of the power of the Chaldean armies. Every thing took place as God had promised, for no word of his can ever fall to the ground.

### Introduction

[¶25] On account of the evils which threatened his country, the prophet is forbidden to encumber himself with a wife and family, or to bear any share in the little joys and sorrows of his neighbors, which were to be forgotten and absorbed in those public calamities, [Jer 16:1-9], which their sins should draw on them, [Jer 16:10-13]. A future restoration however is intimated, [Jer 16:14], [Jer 16:15], after these calamities should be endured, [Jer 16:16-18]; and the conversion of the Gentiles is foretold, [Jer 16:19-21].

### Verse 1

[¶27] The word of the Lord came also unto me - This discourse Dahler supposes to have been delivered some time in the reign of Jehoiakim.

### Verse 2

[¶29] Those shalt not take thee a wife - As it would be very inconvenient to have a family when the threatened desolations should come on the place. The reason is given in the following verses.

### Verse 4

[¶31] They shall die of grievous deaths - All prematurely; see [Jer 14:16].

[¶32] As dung upon the face of the earth - See [Jer 8:2].

[¶33] Be meat for the fowls - See [Jer 7:33].

### Verse 5

[¶35] Enter not into the house of mourning - The public calamities are too great to permit individual losses to come into consideration.

### Verse 6

[¶37] Nor cut themselves - A custom of the heathen forbidden to the Jews, [Lev 19:28]; [Deu 14:1], and which appears now to have prevailed among them; because, having become idolaters, they conformed to all the customs of the heathen. They tore their hair, rent their garments, cut their hands, arms, and faces. These were not only signs of sorrow but were even supposed to give ease to the dead, and appease the angry deities. The Hindoos, on the death of a relation, express their grief by loud lamentations, and not unfrequently bruise themselves in an agony of grief with whatever they can lay hold on.

### Verse 8

[¶39] Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting - Funeral banquets were made to commemorate the dead, and comfort the surviving relatives; and the cup of consolation, strong mingled wine, was given to those who were deepest in distress, to divert their minds and to soothe their sorrows. These kinds of ceremonies were common among almost all the nations of the world on funeral occasions. The Canaanites, the Jews, the Persians, Arabians, New Zealanders, Huns, etc., etc.

### Verse 12

[¶41] And ye have done worse than your fathers - The sins of the fathers would not have been visited on the children, had they not followed their example, and become even worse than they.

### Verse 13

[¶43] Will I cast you out of this land - See [Jer 7:15], and [Jer 9:15].

## 878. Jeremiah · 19 of 55

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### Verse 14

[¶1] The Lord liveth, that brought up - See [Isa 43:18].

### Verse 15

[¶3] The land of the north - Chaldea: and their deliverance thence will be as remarkable as the deliverance of their fathers from the land of Egypt.

### Verse 16

[¶5] I will send for many fishers - for many hunters - I shall raise up enemies against them some of whom shall destroy them by wiles, and others shall ruin them by violence. This seems to be the meaning of these symbolical fishers and hunters.

### Verse 18

[¶7] The carcasses of their detestable - things - Either meaning the idols themselves, which were only carcasses without life; or the sacrifices which were made to them.

### Verse 19

[¶9] The Gentiles shall come - Even the days shall come when the Gentiles themselves, ashamed of their confidence, shall renounce their idols, and acknowledge that their fathers had believed lies, and worshipped vanities. This may be a prediction of the calling of the Gentiles by the Gospel of Christ; if so, it is a light amidst much darkness. In such dismal accounts there is need of some gracious promise relative to an amended state of the world.

### Verse 20

[¶11] Shall a man make gods unto himself? - Can any be so silly, and so preposterously absurd? Yes, fallen man is capable of any thing that is base, mean, vile, and wicked, till influenced and converted by the grace of Christ.

### Verse 21

[¶13] Therefore, behold, I will this once - I will not now change my purpose. They shall be visited and carried into captivity; nothing shall prevent this: and they shall know that my name is Jehovah. Since they would not receive the abundance of my mercies, they shall know what the true God can do in the way of judgment.

### Introduction

[¶15] This chapter begins with setting forth the very strong bias which the people of Judah had to idolatry, with the fatal consequences, [Jer 17:1-4]. The happiness of the man that trusted in Jehovah is then beautifully contrasted with the opposite character, [Jer 17:5-8]. God alone knows the deceitfulness and wretchedness of the heart of man, [Jer 17:9], [Jer 17:10]. The comparison of a bird's hatching the eggs of another of a different species, which will soon forsake her, is highly expressive of the vanity of ill-acquired riches, which often disappoint the owner, [Jer 17:11]. The prophet continues the same subject in his own person, appeals to God for his sincerity, and prays that the evil intended him by his enemies may revert on their own heads, [Jer 17:12-18]. The remaining part of the chapter is a distinct prophecy relating to the due observance of the Sabbath, enforced both by promises and threatenings, [Jer 17:19-27].

### Verse 1

[¶17] The sin of Judah - Idolatry.

[¶18] Is written with a pen of iron - It is deeply and indelibly written in their heart, and shall be as indelibly written in their punishment. Writing with the point of a diamond must refer to glass, or some vitrified substance, as it is distinguished here from engraving with a steel burine, or graver. Their altars show what the deities are which they worship. There may be reference here to the different methods of recording events in those days: -

[¶19] 1. A pen or stile of iron, for engraving on lead or wood.

[¶20] 2. A point of a diamond, for writing on vitreous substances.

[¶21] 3. Writing on tables of brass or copper.

[¶22] 4. Writing on the horns of the altars the names of the deities worshipped there. This is probable.

[¶23] In several parts of India, and all through Ceylon, an iron or steel pen is used universally; with these the natives form the letters by incisions on the outer rind of the palm leaf. Books written in this way are very durable. This pen is broad at the top, has a very fine sharp point, and is sharp at one side as a knife, to shave and prepare the palm leaf. A pen of this description now lies before me.

### Verse 2

[¶25] Whilst their children remember - Even the rising generation have their imagination stocked with idol images, and their memories with the frantic rites and ceremonies which they saw their parents observe in this abominable worship.

### Verse 3

[¶27] O my mountain in the field - The prophet here addresses the land of Judea, which was a mountainous country, [Deu 3:25]; but Jerusalem itself may be meant, which is partly built upon hills which, like itself, are elevated above the rest of the country.

### Verse 5

[¶29] Cursed be the man that trusteth in man - This reprehends their vain confidence in trusting in Egypt, which was too feeble itself to help, and, had it been otherwise, too ill disposed towards them to help them heartily. An arm of flesh is put here for a weak and ineffectual support. And he who, in reference to the salvation of his soul, trusts in an arm of flesh - in himself or others, or in any thing he has done or suffered, will inherit a curse instead of a blessing.

### Verse 6

[¶31] Be shall be like the heath in the desert - כערער kearar; or, like a blasted tree, without moisture, parched and withered.

[¶32] Shall not see when good cometh - Shall not be sensible of it: the previous drought having rendered it incapable of absorbing any more vegetable juices.

[¶33] A salt land - Barren; and therefore unfit to be inhabited.

### Verse 8

[¶35] A s a tree planted by the waters - Which is sufficiently supplied with moisture, though the heat be intense, and there be no rain; for the roots being spread out by the river, they absorb from it all the moisture requisite for the flourishing vegetation of the tree.

[¶36] Shall not see when heat cometh - Shall not feel any damage by drought, for the reason already assigned. It shall be strong and vigorous, its leaf always green; and shall produce plenty of fruit in its season.

### Verse 9

[¶38] The heart is deceitful - עקב הלב akob halleb, "the heart is supplanting - tortuous - full of windings - insidious;" lying ever at the catch; striving to avail itself of every favorable circumstance to gratify its propensities to pride, ambition, evil desire, and corruption of all kinds.

[¶39] And desperately wicked - ואנש הוא veanush hu, and is wretched, or feeble; distressed beyond all things, in consequence of the wickedness that is in it. I am quite of Mr. Parkhurst's opinion, that this word is here badly translated as אנש anash is never used in Scripture to denote wickedness of any kind. My old MS. Bible translates thus: - Schrewid is the herte of a man: and unserchable: who schal knowen it?

[¶40] Who can know it? - It even hides itself from itself; so that its owner does not know it. A corrupt heart is the worst enemy the fallen creature can have; it is full of evil devices, - of deceit, of folly, and abomination, and its owner knows not what is in him till it boils over, and is often past remedy before the evil is perceived. Therefore trust not in man whose purposes are continually changing, and who is actuated only by motives of self-interest.

### Verse 10

[¶42] I the Lord search the heart - The Lord is called by his apostles, [Act 1:24], Καρδιογνωστης, the Knower of the heart. To him alone can this epithet be applied; and it is from him alone that we can derive that instruction by which we can in any measure know ourselves.

### Verse 11

[¶44] As the partridge - קרא kore. It is very likely that this was a bird different from our partridge. The text Dr. Blayney translates thus: - (As) the kore that hatcheth what it doth not lay (So is) he who getteth riches, and not according to right. "The covetous man," says Dahler, "who heaps up riches by unjust ways, is compared to a bird which hatches the eggs of other fowls. And as the young, when hatched, and able at all to shift for themselves, abandon her who is not their mother, and leave her nothing to compensate her trouble, so the covetous man loses those unjustly-gotten treasures, and the fruit of his labor."

[¶45] And at his end shall be a fool - Shall be reputed as such. He was a fool all the way through; he lost his soul to get wealth, and this wealth he never enjoyed. To him also are applicable those strong words of the poet: - "O cursed lust of gold! when for thy sake

## 879. Jeremiah · 20 of 55

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[¶0] The wretch throws up his interest in both worlds.

[¶1] First starved in this, then damned in that to come."

[¶2] Blair.

### Verse 12

[¶4] A glorious high throne - As he is cursed who trusts in man, so he is blessed who trusts in God. He is here represented as on a throne in his temple; to him in the means of grace all should resort. He is the support, and a glorious support, of all them that trust in him.

### Verse 13

[¶6] Written on the earth - They shall never come to true honor. Their names shall be written in the dust; and the first wind that blows over it shall mar every letter, and render it illegible.

### Verse 14

[¶8] Heal me - and I shall be healed - That is, I shall be thoroughly healed, and effectually saved, if thou undertake for me.

[¶9] Thou art my praise - The whole glory of the work of salvation belongs to thee alone.

### Verse 15

[¶11] Where is the word of the Lord? - Where is the accomplishment of his threatenings? Thou hast said that the city and the temple should both be destroyed. No such events have yet taken place. But they did take place, and every tittle of the menace was strictly fulfilled.

### Verse 16

[¶13] I have not hastened from being a pastor - Dr. Blayney translates thus: "But I have not been in haste to outrun thy guidance." I was obliged to utter thy prediction; but I have not hastened the evil day. For the credit of my prophecy I have not desired the calamity to come speedily; I have rather pleaded for respite. I have followed thy steps, and proclaimed thy truth. I did not desire to be a prophet; but thou hast commanded, and I obeyed.

### Verse 17

[¶15] Be not a terror unto me - Do not command me to predict miseries, and abandon me to them and to my enemies.

### Verse 18

[¶17] Let them be confounded - They shall be confounded. These words are to be understood as simple predictions, rather than prayers.

### Verse 19

[¶19] The gate of the children of the people - I suppose the most public gate is meant; that through which there was the greatest thoroughfare.

### Verse 20

[¶21] Ye kings of Judah, and all Judah - This last clause is wanting in eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., in the Arabic, and some copies of the Septuagint.

### Verse 21

[¶23] Take heed to yourselves and bear no burden - From this and the following verses we find the ruin of the Jews attributed to the breach of the Sabbath; as this led to a neglect of sacrifice, the ordinances of religion, and all public worship, so it necessarily brought with it all immorality. This breach of the Sabbath was that which let in upon them all the waters of God's wrath.

### Verse 24

[¶25] If ye diligently hearken unto me - So we find that though their destruction was positively threatened, yet still there was an unexpressed proviso that, if they did return to the Lord, the calamities should be averted, and a succession of princes would have been continued on the throne of David, [Jer 17:25], [Jer 17:26].

### Verse 27

[¶27] But if ye will not hearken - Then their sin lay at their own door. How fully were they warned; and how basely did they reject the counsel of God against themselves!

### Introduction

[¶29] The type of the potter's vessel, and its signification, [Jer 18:1-10]. The inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem exhorted to repentance, [Jer 18:11]; but on their refusal, (which is represented to be as unnatural as if a man should prefer the snowy Lebanon or barren rock to a fruitful plain, or other waters to the cool stream of the fountain), their destruction is predicted, [Jer 18:12-17]. In consequence of these plain reproofs and warnings of Jeremiah, a conspiracy is formed against him, [Jer 18:18]. This leads him to appeal to God for his integrity, [Jer 18:19], [Jer 18:20]; who puts a most dreadful curse in the mouth of his prophet, strongly indicative of the terrible fate of his enemies, [Jer 18:21-23].

### Verse 1

[¶31] The word which came to Jeremiah - This discourse is supposed to have been delivered some time in the reign of Jehoiakim, probably within the first three years.

### Verse 2

[¶33] Go down to the potter's house - By this similitude God shows the absolute state of dependence on himself in which he has placed mankind. They are as clay in the hands of the potter; and in reference to every thing here below, he can shape their destinies as he pleases. Again; though while under the providential care of God they may go morally astray, and pervert themselves, yet they can be reclaimed by the almighty and all-wise Operator, and become such vessels as seemeth good for him to make. In considering this parable we must take heed that in running parallels we do not destroy the free agency of man, nor disgrace the goodness and supremacy of God.

### Verse 3

[¶35] He wrought a work on the wheels - אל האבנים al haabnayim, upon the stones, the potter's wheel being usually made of such, the spindle of the moving stone being placed on a stone below, on which it turned, and supported the stone above, on which the vessel was manufactured, and which alone had a rotatory motion. The potter's wheel in the present day seems to differ very little from that which was in use between two and three thousand years ago.

### Verse 4

[¶37] The vessel - was marred in the hands of the potter - It did not stand in the working; it got out of shape; or some gravel or small stone having been incorporated with the mass of clay, made a breach in that part where it was found, so that the potter was obliged to knead up the clay afresh, place it on the wheel, and form it anew; and then it was such a vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Cannot I do with you as this potter? - Have I not a right to do with a people whom I have created as reason and justice may require? If they do not answer my intentions, may I not reject and destroy them; and act as this potter, make a new vessel out of that which at first did not succeed in his hands?

[¶40] It is generally supposed that St. Paul has made a very different use of this similitude from that mentioned above. See [Rom 9:20], etc. His words are, "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" To this every sensible and pious man will answer, Undoubtedly he has. But would any potter make an exceedingly fair and good vessel on purpose to dash it to pieces when he had done? Surely no! And would or could, the God of infinite perfection and love make millions of immortal souls on purpose for eternal perdition, as the horrible decree of reprobation states? No! This is a lie against all the attributes of God. But does not the text state that he can, out of the same lump, the same mass of human nature, make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor? Yes. But the text does not say, what the horrible decree says, that he makes one part, and indeed the greater, for eternal perdition. But what then is the meaning of the text? Why evidently this: As out of the same mass of clay a potter may make a flagon for the table and a certain utensil for the chamber, the one for a more honorable, the other for a less honorable use, though both equally necessary to the owner; so God, out of the same flesh and blood, may make the tiller of the field and the prophet of the Most High; the one in a more honorable, the other in a less honorable employ; yet both equally necessary in the world, and equally capable of bringing glory to God in their respective places. But if the vessel be marred in his hand, under his providential and gracious dealings, he may reject it as he did the Jews, and make another vessel, such as he is pleased with, of the Gentiles; yet even these marred vessels, the reprobate Jews, are not finally rejected; for all Israel shall be saved in (through) the Lord, i.e., Jesus Christ. And should the Gentiles act as the Jews have done, then they also shall be cut off, and God will call his Church by another name. See on [Rom 9:22] (note) and below.

### Verse 7

[¶42] At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, etc. - If that nation, against whom, etc. - And at what instant, etc. - If it do evil, etc. - These verses contain what may be called God's decree by which the whole of his conduct towards man is regulated. If he purpose destruction against an offending person, if that person repent and turn to God, he shall live and not die. If he purpose peace and salvation to him that walketh uprightly, if he turn from God to the world and sin, he shall die and not live.

### Verse 12

[¶44] There is no hope - See [Jer 2:25].

## 880. Jeremiah · 21 of 55

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### Verse 13

[¶1] The virgin of Israel - Instead of ישראל Yisrael, three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint, have ירושלם Yerushalem, Jerusalem.

### Verse 14

[¶3] Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon - Lebanon was the highest mountain in Judea. Would any man in his senses abandon a farm that was always watered by the melted snows of Lebanon, and take a barren rock in its place? How stupid therefore and absurd are my people, who abandon the everlasting God for the worship of idols!

### Verse 16

[¶5] A perpetual hissing - שריקות sherikoth. a shrieking, hissing; an expression of contempt.

### Verse 17

[¶7] I will scatter them as with an east wind - It is the property of this wind, almost every where, to parch up, blast, and destroy grain and trees, and even cattle and men suffer from it. Hence the old metrical proverb: - "When the wind blows from the east, 'Tis good for neither man nor beast."

### Verse 18

[¶9] Come, and let us devise devices - Let us form a conspiracy against him, accuse him of being a false prophet, and a contradicter of the words of God, for God has promised us protection, and he says we shall be destroyed, and that God will forsake his people.

[¶10] Let us smite him with the tongue - On the tongue; so it should be rendered. Lying and false testimony are punished in the eastern countries, to the present day, by smiting the person on the mouth with a strong piece of leather like the sole of a shoe. Sometimes a bodkin is run through the tongue. Blasphemy, calumny, and cursing of parents, are usually punished in that way among the Chinese.

### Verse 20

[¶12] They have digged a pit for my soul - For my life; this they wish to take away.

[¶13] Stood before thee to speak good for them - I was their continual intercessor.

### Verse 21

[¶15] Therefore deliver up their children - The execrations in these verses should be considered as simply prophetic declarations of the judgments which God was about to pour out on them.

[¶16] If we consider them in their grammatical meaning, then they are not directions to us to whom our Lawgiver has said, "Love your enemies."

### Introduction

[¶18] By the significant type of breaking a potter's vessel, Jeremiah is directed to predict the utter desolation of Judah and Jerusalem, [Jer 19:1-15]. The prophets taught frequently by symbolic actions as well as by words.

### Verse 1

[¶20] Go and get a potter's earthen bottle - This discourse was also delivered some time in the reign of Jehoiakim. Under the type of breaking a potter's earthen bottle or jug, Jeremiah shows his enemies that the word of the Lord should stand, that Jerusalem should be taken and sacked, and they all carried into captivity.

[¶21] Ancients of the priests - The chiefs of the twenty-four classes which David had established. See [1Chr 24:4].

### Verse 4

[¶23] Estranged this place - Ye have devoted my temple to a widely different purpose from that for which it was erected.

### Verse 5

[¶25] Offerings unto Baal - A general name for all the popular idols; Baal, Moloch, Ashtaroth, etc.

### Verse 7

[¶27] I will make void the counsel of Judah - Probably this refers to some determination made to proclaim themselves independent, and pay no more tribute to the Chaldeans.

[¶28] To be meat for the fowls - See on [Jer 7:33] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶30] I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons - This was literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans. This also the prophet might have had in view.

### Verse 11

[¶32] Even so will I break this people and this city - The breaking of the bottle was the symbolical representation of the destruction of the city and of the state.

[¶33] That cannot be made whole again - This seems to refer rather to the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, than to what was done by the Chaldeans. Jerusalem was healed after 70 years: but nearly 1800 years have elapsed since Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Romans; and it was then so broken, that it could not be made whole again.

### Verse 12

[¶35] And even make this city as Tophet - A place of slaughter and destruction.

### Verse 14

[¶37] Then came Jeremiah from Tophet - He had probably gone to the valley of Hinnom, and there repeated the discourse which he had a little before delivered to the chief priests and elders.

### Verse 15

[¶39] Because they have hardened their necks - A metaphor taken from unruly and unbroken oxen, who resist the yoke, break and run away with their gears. So this people had broken and destroyed the yoke of the law.

### Introduction

[¶41] Jeremiah, on account of his prophesying evil concerning Judah and Jerusalem, is beaten and imprisoned by Pashur, chief governor of the temple, [Jer 20:1], [Jer 20:2]. On the following day the prophet is released, who denounces the awful judgments of God which should fall upon the governor and all his house, as well as upon the whole land of Judah, in the approaching Babylonish captivity, [Jer 20:3-6]. Jeremiah then bitterly complains of the reproaches continually heaped upon him by his enemies; and, in his haste, resolves to speak no more in the name of Jehovah; but the word of the Lord is in his heart as a burning flame, so that he is not able to forbear, [Jer 20:7-10]. The prophet professes his trust in God, whom he praises for his late deliverance, [Jer 20:11-13]. The remaining verses, which appear to be out of their place, contain Jeremiah's regret that he was ever born to a life of so much sorrow and trouble, [Jer 20:14-18]. This complaint resembles that of Job; only it is milder and more dolorous. This excites our pity, that our horror. Both are highly poetical, and embellished with every circumstance that can heighten the coloring. But such circumstances are not always to be too literally understood or explained. We must often make allowances for the strong figures of eastern poetry.

### Verse 1

[¶43] Pashur - chief governor - Pashur was probably one of the chief priests of the twenty-four classes.

## 881. Jeremiah · 22 of 55

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### Verse 2

[¶1] Put him in the stocks - Probably such a place near the gate as we term the lock-up, the coal-hole; or it may mean a sort of dungeon.

### Verse 3

[¶3] The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur - Security on all sides. This name thou hast had, but not by Divine appointment.

[¶4] But Magor-missabib - Fear on every side. This name hath God given thee; because, in the course of his providence, thou shalt be placed in the circumstances signified by it: thou shalt be a terror to thyself.

### Verse 6

[¶6] And thou, Pashur-shall go into captivity - Thou shalt suffer for the false prophecies which thou hast delivered, and for thy insults to my prophet.

### Verse 7

[¶8] O Lord, thou hast deceived me - Thou hast promised me protection; and, lo! I am now delivered into the hands of my enemies. These words were probably spoken when Pashur smote him, and put him in prison.

[¶9] I think our translation of this passage is very exceptionable. My old Bible reads, Thou laddist me aside Lord; and I was lad aside. The original word is פתיתני pittithani, thou hast persuaded me, i.e., to go and prophesy to this people. I went, faithfully declared thy message, and now I am likely to perish by their cruelty. As the root פתה pathah signifies to persuade and allure as well as to deceive, the above must be its meaning in this place. Taken as in our Version it is highly irreverent. It is used in the same sense here as in [Gen 9:27] : God shall enlarge (persuade, margin) Japheth; and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.

### Verse 8

[¶11] I cried violence and spoil - This was the burden of the message thou didst give me.

### Verse 9

[¶13] I wilt not make mention of him - I will renounce the prophetic office, and return to my house.

[¶14] As a burning fire shut up in my bones - He felt stings of conscience for the hasty and disobedient resolution he had formed; he felt ashamed of his own weakness, that did not confide in the promise and strength of God; and God's word was in him as a strongly raging fire, and he was obliged to deliver it, in order to get rid of the tortures which he felt from suppressing the solemn message which God had given. It is as dangerous to refuse to go when called, as it is to run without a call. On this subject, see on [Jer 1:6] (note).

### Verse 10

[¶16] Report - and we will report it - Let us spread calumnies against him every where; or let us spread reports of dangers coming upon him, that we may intimidate him, and cause him to desist.

### Verse 11

[¶18] But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one - Thus was he, by his strong confidence in the strong God, delivered from all his fears, and enabled to go on comfortably with his work.

### Verse 13

[¶20] Sing unto the Lord - He was so completely delivered from all fear, that although he remained in the same circumstances, yet he exults in the Divine protection, and does not fear the face of any adversary.

### Verse 14

[¶22] Cursed be the day wherein I was born - If we take these words literally, and suppose them to be in their proper place, they are utterly inconsistent with that state of confidence in which he exulted a few minutes before. If they are the language of Jeremiah, they must have been spoken on a prior occasion, when probably he had given way to a passionate hastiness. They might well comport with the state he was in [Jer 20:9]. I really believe these verses have got out of their proper place, which I conjecture to be between the eighth and ninth verses. There they will come in very properly; and might have been a part of his complaint in those moments when he had purposed to flee from God as did Jonah, and prophesy no more in his name. Transpositions in this prophet are frequent; therefore place these five verses after the eighth, and let the chapter end with the thirteenth, and the whole will form a piece of exquisite poetry, where the state of despair and the hasty resolutions he had formed while under its influence, and the state of confidence to which he was raised by the succouring influence of God, will appear to be both illustrative of each other, and are touched with a delicacy and fervor which even a cold heart must admire. See [Job 3:3] (note), and the notes there. The two passages are very similar.

### Verse 15

[¶24] A man child is born - Borun is to thee a knave child. - Old MS. Bible. This is the old English word for man or servant; and is so used by Wiclif, [Rev 12:6].

### Verse 16

[¶26] And let him hear the cry - Let him be in continual alarms.

### Verse 18

[¶28] Wherefore came I forth - It would have been well had I never been born, as I have neither comfort in my life, nor comfort in my work.

### Introduction

[¶30] Nebuchadnezzar being come up against Jerusalem, Zedekiah sends Pashur and Zephaniah to the prophet to request him to intercede with God in behalf of his people, [Jer 21:1], [Jer 21:2]. But he is declared to be against Jerusalem, and the whole land of Judah; and the only mitigation of their punishment must proceed from their surrendering to the king of Babylon, [Jer 21:3-10]. Prophecy concerning the house of the king of Judah, [Jer 21:11], [Jer 21:12]. Notwithstanding the amazing fortifications round about Jerusalem, in which the people vainly trust, the Lord will most assuredly visit them for their iniquities; the city shall be taken by the Chaldeans, [Jer 21:13], [Jer 21:14].

### Verse 1

[¶32] The word which came unto Jeremiah - The chapters in the remaining parts of this prophecy seem strangely interchanged. This subject has been mentioned in the introduction, and some tables given; and to these the critical reader is requested to refer. The discourse here was delivered about the ninth year or the reign of Zedekiah. This chapter, observes Dr. Blayney, contains the first of those prophecies which were delivered by Jeremiah, subsequent to the revolt of Zedekiah, and the breaking out of the war thereupon; and which are continued on to the taking of Jerusalem, related in chap. 29, in the following order: [Jer 21:1-14], 34, 37, 32, 33, 38, 39.

[¶33] Pashur the son of Melchiah - There can be little doubt that this Pashur was a different person from him who was called the son of Immur in the preceding chapter.

### Verse 2

[¶35] Inquire, I pray thee - See whether God intends to deliver us into or out of the hand of the Chaldeans.

### Verse 4

[¶37] I will turn back the weapons - Every attempt you make to repel the Chaldeans shall be unsuccessful.

[¶38] I will assemble them into the midst of this city - I will deliver the city into their hands.

### Verse 6

[¶40] They shall die of a great pestilence - The sword may appear to be that of man, though I have given the Chaldeans their commission; but the pestilence shall appear to be the immediate act of God.

### Verse 7

[¶42] Nebuchadrezzar - This name is spelt as above in twenty-six places of this book; and in ten places it is spelt Nebuchadnezzar, which is the common orthography. The difference is only a ר resh for a נ nun; but the MSS. are various on this point. It is the same person who is intended by both names; and here all the Versions, except the Arabic, which omits the name, have it in the usual form.

### Verse 8

[¶44] Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death - Meaning escape or destruction in the present instance. This is explained in the next verse.

## 882. Jeremiah · 23 of 55

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### Verse 10

[¶1] He shall burn it with fire - What a heavy message to all; and especially to them who had any fear of God, or reverence for the temple and its sacred services!

### Verse 12

[¶3] Execute judgment in the morning - Probably the time for dispensing judgment was the morning, when the people were going to their work; but the words may mean, Do justice promptly, do not delay. Let justice be administered as soon as required.

### Verse 13

[¶5] O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain - Dr. Blayney translates: "O thou inhabitant of the levelled hollow of a rock." With all his explanation I cannot see the good sense of this translation. Jerusalem itself, though partly on two hills, was also extended in the valley; and Zion, the city of David, was properly a rock, strongly fortified both by nature and art; and by its ancient possessors, the Jebusites, was deemed impregnable.

[¶6] Who shall come down against us? - Probably the words of those courtiers who had persuaded Zedekiah to rebel against the king of Babylon.

### Verse 14

[¶8] I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof - I will send destruction into its center, that shall spread to every part of the circumference, and so consume the whole.

[¶9] The beginning of the thirty-fourth chapter should follow here. See the arrangement on [Jer 34:1] (note).

### Introduction

[¶11] This section of prophecy, extending to the end of the eighth verse of the next chapter, is addressed to the king of Judah and his people. It enjoins on them the practice of justice and equity, as they would hope to prosper, [Jer 22:14]; but threatens them, in case of disobedience, with utter destruction, [Jer 22:5-9]. The captivity of Shallum, the son of Josiah, is declared to be irreversible, [Jer 22:10-12]; and the miserable and unlamented end of Jeconiah, contemptuously called Coniah, is foretold, [Jer 22:13-19]. His family is threatened with the like captivity, and his seed declared to be for ever excluded from the throne, [Jer 22:20-30].

### Verse 1

[¶13] Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word - This is supposed by Dahler to have been published in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah.

### Verse 2

[¶15] O king of Judah - thou, and thy servants - His ministers are here addressed, as chiefly governing the nation; and who had counselled Zedekiah to rebel.

### Verse 6

[¶17] Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon - Perhaps in allusion, says Dahler, to the oaks of Gilead, and the cedars of Mount Lebanon, of which the palace was constructed. Lebanon was the highest mountain in Israel, and Gilead the richest and most fertile part of the country; and were, therefore, proper emblems of the reigning family. Though thou art the richest and most powerful, I, who raised thee up, can bring thee down and make thee a wilderness.

### Verse 7

[¶19] They shall cut down thy choice cedars - The destruction of the country is expressed under the symbol of the destruction of a fine forest; a multitude of fellers come against it, each with his axe; and, there being no resistance, every tree is soon felled to the earth. "These destroyers," God says, "I have prepared, קדשתי kiddashti, I have sanctified - consecrated, to this work. They have their commission from me."

### Verse 8

[¶21] Many nations shall pass - These words seem borrowed from [Deu 29:22], etc.

### Verse 10

[¶23] Weep ye not for the dead - Josiah, dead in consequence of the wound he had received at Megiddo, in a battle with Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt; but he died in peace with God.

[¶24] But weep sore for him that goeth away - Namely, Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, called below Shallum, whom Pharaoh-necho had carried captive into Egypt from which it was prophesied he should never return, [2Kgs 23:30-34]. He was called Shallum before he ascended the throne, and Jehoahaz afterwards; so his brother Eliakim changed his name to Jehoiakim, and Mattaniah to Zedekiah.

### Verse 13

[¶26] Wo unto him that buildeth his house - These evils, charged against Jehoiakim, are nowhere else circumstantially related. We learn from [2Kgs 23:35-37], that he taxed his subjects heavily, to give to Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt: "He exacted the silver and gold of the people of the land, and did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord." The mode of taxation is here intimated; he took the wages of the hirelings, and caused the people to work without wages in his own buildings, etc.

### Verse 15

[¶28] Shalt thou reign, etc - Dost thou think thou art a great king, because thou dwellest in a splendid palace?

### Verse 18

[¶30] They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! - These words were no doubt the burden of some funeral dirge. Alas! a brother, who was our lord or governor, is gone. Alas, our sister! his Queen, who has lost her glory in losing her husband. הדה hodah is feminine, and must refer to the glory of the queen.

[¶31] The mournings in the east, and lamentations for the dead, are loud, vehement, and distressing. For a child or a parent grief is expressed in a variety of impassioned sentences, each ending with a burden like that in the text, "Ah my child!" "Ah my mother!" as the prophet in this place: הוי אחי hoi achi, "Ah my brother!" הוי אחות hoi achoth, "Ah sister!" הוי אדון hoi adon, "Ah lord!" הוי הדה hoi hodah "Ah the glory." Mr. Ward, in his Manners and Customs of the Hindoos, gives two examples of lamentation; one of a mother for the death of her son, one of a daughter for her departed mother. "When a woman," says he, "is overwhelmed with grief for the death of her child, she utters her grief in some such language as the following: -

[¶32] Ah, my Hureedas, where is he gone? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶33] My golden image, Hureedas, who has taken? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶34] I nourished and reared him, where is he gone? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶35] Take me with thee. - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶36] He played round me like a golden top. - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶37] Like his face I never saw one. - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶38] The infant continually cried, Ma Ma! - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶39] Ah my child, crying, Ma! come into my lap. - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶40] Who shall now drink milk? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶41] Who shall now stay in my lap? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

[¶42] Our support is gone! - 'Ah my child, my child!' "The lamentations for a mother are in some such strains as these: -

[¶43] Mother! where is she gone? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'

[¶44] You are gone, but what have you left for me? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'

[¶45] Whom shall I now call mother, mother? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'

## 883. Jeremiah · 24 of 55

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[¶0] Where shall I find such a mother? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'"

[¶1] From the above we may conclude that the funeral lamentations, to which the prophet refers, generally ended in this way, in each of the verses or interrogatories.

[¶2] There is another intimation of this ancient and universal custom in [1Kgs 13:30], where the old prophet, who had deceived the man of God, and who was afterwards slain by a lion, is represented as mourning over him, and saying, הוי אחי hoi achi, "Alas, my brother!" this being the burden of the lamentation which he had used on this occasion. Similar instances may be seen in other places, [Jer 30:7]; [Eze 6:11]; [Joe 1:15]; and particularly [Amo 5:16], [Amo 5:17], and [Rev 18:10-19].

### Verse 19

[¶4] With the burial of an ass - Cast out, and left unburied, or buried without any funeral solemnities, and without such lamentations as the above.

### Verse 20

[¶6] Go up to Lebanon - Probably Anti-Libanus, which, together with Bashan and Abarim, which we here translate passages, were on the way by which the captives should be led out of their own country.

### Verse 21

[¶8] I spake unto thee in thy prosperity - In all states and circumstances I warned thee by my prophets; and thou wilt only be ashamed of thy conduct when thou shalt be stripped of all thy excellencies, and reduced to poverty and disgrace, [Jer 22:22].

### Verse 22

[¶10] The wind shall eat up all thy pastors - A blast from God's mouth shall carry off thy kings, princes, prophets, and priests.

### Verse 23

[¶12] How gracious shalt thou be - A strong irony.

### Verse 24

[¶14] Though Coniah - Called Jeconiah, probably on ascending the throne. See on [Jer 22:10] (note).

[¶15] The signet upon my right hand - The most precious seal, ring, or armlet. Though dearer to me than the most splendid gem to its possessor.

### Verse 26

[¶17] I will cast thee out, and thy mother - See all this fulfilled, [2Kgs 24:12], [2Kgs 24:13]. All were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into captivity together.

### Verse 28

[¶19] Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? - These are probably the exclamations of the people, when they heard those solemn denunciations against their king and their country.

### Verse 29

[¶21] O earth - These are the words of the prophet in reply: O land! unhappy land! desolated land! Hear the judgment of the Lord!

### Verse 30

[¶23] Write ye this man childless - Though he had seven sons, [1Chr 3:17], yet having no successor, he is to be entered on the genealogical tables as one without children for none of his posterity ever sat on the throne of David.

### Introduction

[¶25] Sequel of the discourse which commenced in the preceding chapter. The prophet denounces vengeance against the pastors of Israel who have scattered and destroyed the flock of the Lord, [Jer 23:1], [Jer 23:2]. He concludes with gracious promises of deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, and of better times under the Messiah, when the converts to Christianity, who are the true Israel of God, shadowed forth by the old dispensation, shall be delivered, by the glorious light of the Gospel, from worse than Chaldean bondage, from the captivity of sin and death. But this prophecy will not have its fullest accomplishment till that period arrives which is fixed in the Divine counsel for the restoration of Israel and Judah from their various dispersions, of which their deliverance from the Chaldean domination was a type, when Jesus the Christ, the righteous Branch, the Root and Offspring of David, and the only legitimate Heir to the throne, shall take unto himself his great power, and reign gloriously over the whole house of Jacob, [Jer 23:3-8]. At the ninth verse a new discourse commences. Jeremiah expresses his horror at the great wickedness of the priests and prophets of Judah, and declares that the Divine vengeance is hanging over them. He exhorts the people not to listen to their false promises, [Jer 23:9-22]; and predicts the utter ruin that shall fall upon all pretenders to inspiration, [Jer 23:23-32], as well as upon all scoffers at true prophecy, [Jer 23:33-40].

### Verse 1

[¶27] Wo be unto the pastors - There shall a curse fall on the kings, princes, priests, and prophets; who, by their vicious conduct and example, have brought desolation upon the people.

### Verse 2

[¶29] Ye have scattered my flock - The bad government both in Church and State was a principal cause of the people's profligacy.

### Verse 5

[¶31] I will raise unto David a righteous Branch - As there has been no age, from the Babylonish captivity to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, in which such a state of prosperity existed, and no king or governor who could answer at all to the character here given, the passage has been understood to refer to our blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, who was a branch out of the stem of Jesse; a righteous king; by the power of his Spirit and influence of his religion reigning, prospering, and executing judgment and justice in the earth.

### Verse 6

[¶33] In his days Judah shall be saved - The real Jew is not one who has his circumcision in the flesh, but in the spirit. The real Israel are true believers in Christ Jesus; and the genuine Jerusalem is the Church of the first-born, and made free, with all her children, from the bondage of sin, Satan, death, and hell. All these exist only in the days of the Messiah. All that went before were the types or significators of these glorious Gospel excellencies.

[¶34] And this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord Our Righteousness - I shall give the Hebrew text of this important passage: וזה שמו אשר יקראו יהוה צדקנו vezeh shemo asher yikreo Yehovah tsidkenu, which the Septuagint translate as follows, Και τουτο το ονομα αυτον ὁ καλεσει αυτον Κυριος, Ιωσεδεκ, "And this is his name which the Lord shall call him Josedek." Dahler translates the text thus: -

[¶35] Et voici le nom dont on l'appellera:

[¶36] L'Eternel, Auteur de notre felicite. "And this is the name by which he shall be called;

[¶37] The Lord, the Author of our happiness."

[¶38] Dr. Blayney seems to follow the Septuagint; he translates thus, "And this is the name by which Jehovah shall call him, Our Righteousness."

[¶39] In my old MS. Bible, the first English translation ever made, it is thus: -

[¶40] And this is the name that thei schul clepen him: oure rigtwise Lord.

[¶41] Coverdale's, the first complete English translation of the Scriptures ever printed, (1535), has given it thus: -

[¶42] And this is the name that they shall call him: even the Lorde oure rightuous Maker.

[¶43] Matthews (1549) and Becke (1549) follow Coverdale literally; but our present translation of the clause is borrowed from Cardmarden, (Rouen, 1566), "Even the Lord our righteousness."

[¶44] Dr. Blayney thus accounts for his translation: - "Literally, according to the Hebrew idiom, 'And this is his name by which Jehovah shall call, Our Righteousness;' a phrase exactly the same as, 'And Jehovah shall call him so;' which implies that God would make him such as he called him, that is, our Righteousness, or the author and means of our salvation and acceptance. So that by the same metonymy Christ is said to 'have been made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,' [1Cor 1:30]. "I doubt not that some persons will be offended with me for depriving them, by this translation, of a favourite argument for proving the Divinity of our Savior from the Old Testament. But I cannot help it; I have done it with no ill design, but purely because I think, and am morally sure, that the text, as it stands, will not properly admit of any other construction. The Septuagint have so translated before me, in an age when there could not possibly be any bias or prejudice either for or against the fore-mentioned doctrine, a doctrine which draws its decisive proofs from the New Testament only."

## 884. Jeremiah · 25 of 55

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[¶0] Dahler paraphrases, - "This Prince shall be surnamed by his people, 'The Lord, the author of our happiness.' The people shall feel themselves happy under him; and shall express their gratitude to him."

[¶1] I am satisfied that both the translation from Cardmarden downwards, and the meaning put on these words, are incorrect. I prefer the translation of Blayney to all others; and that it speaks any thing about the imputed righteousness of Christ, cannot possibly be proved by any man who understands the original text. As to those who put the sense of their creed upon the words, they must be content to stand out of the list of Hebrew critics. I believe Jesus to be Jehovah; but I doubt much whether this text calls him so. No doctrine so vitally important should be rested on an interpretation so dubious and unsupported by the text. That all our righteousness, holiness, and goodness, as well as the whole of our salvation, come by Him, from Him, and through Him, is fully evident from the Scriptures; but this is not one of the passages that support this most important truth. See on Jeremiah 33 (note).

### Verse 7

[¶3] The Lord liveth which brought up - See on [Jer 16:14] (note), [Jer 16:15] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶5] Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets - The first word of this clause is לנבאים lannebiim, which we incorporate with the whole clause, and translate, "Because of the prophets." But as a new prophecy begins here, it is evident that the word is the title to this prophecy; and is thus distinguished both by Blayney and Dahler, Concerning The Prophets. This discourse was delivered probably in the reign of Jehoiakim.

[¶6] All my bones shake - He was terrified even by his own message, and shocked at the profanity of the false prophets.

### Verse 10

[¶8] The land is full of adulterers - Of idolaters. Of persons who break their faith to ME, as an impure wife does to her husband.

[¶9] The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up - He speaks here, most probably, in reference to dearth. Profane oaths, false swearing, evil courses, violence, etc., had provoked God to send this among other judgments; see [Jer 23:19].

### Verse 11

[¶11] In my house - They had even introduced idolatry into the Temple of God!

### Verse 13

[¶13] I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria - This was not to be wondered at, for their religion was a system of corruption.

### Verse 14

[¶15] I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem - That is, the prophets of Jerusalem, while professing a pure faith, have followed the ways, and become as corrupt as the prophets of Samaria.

[¶16] They are all of them unto me as Sodom - Incorrigible, brutish sinners, who will as surely be destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah were.

### Verse 16

[¶18] Hearken not unto the words of the prophets - That is, of those who promise you safety, without requiring you to forsake your sins and turn unto the Lord; see [Jer 23:17].

### Verse 18

[¶20] Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord - Who of them has ever received a word of prophecy from me? My word is not in them.

### Verse 19

[¶22] Behold, a whirlwind - The simoom: the hot pestilential wind blowing from the south, frequently mentioned or referred to in the sacred writings; see [Jer 23:10].

### Verse 20

[¶24] In the latter days ye shall consider it - I give you warning: and this punishment which I now threaten shall surely take place; a short time will determine it; ye shall not escape.

### Verse 21

[¶26] I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran - Not to save souls, but to profit themselves.

[¶27] I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied - They never received the word at my mouth; yet they went, publishing their own deceits, and pretending them to be revelations from God. The churches which have legal emoluments are ever in danger of being overrun and ruined by worldly and self-interested priests.

### Verse 23

[¶29] Am I a God at hand, - and not a God afar off? - You act as if you thought I could not see you! Am I not omnipresent? Do not I fill the heavens and the earth? [Jer 23:24].

### Verse 27

[¶31] Bay their dreams - Dreams were anciently reputed as a species of inspiration; see [Num 12:6]; [1Sam 28:6]; [Joe 3:1]; [Dan 7:1]. In the Book of Genesis we find many examples; and although many mistook the workings of their own vain imaginations in sleep for revelations from God, yet he has often revealed himself in this way: but such dreams were easily distinguished from the others. They were always such as had no connection with the gratification of the flesh; they were such as contained warnings against sin, and excitements to holiness; they were always consecutive - well connected, with a proper beginning and ending; such as possessed the intellect more than the imagination. Of such dreams the Lord says, ([Jer 23:28]): The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream - permit him to show what he has thus received from the Lord: but let him tell it as a dream, and speak my word faithfully, lest he may have been deceived.

### Verse 28

[¶33] What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord - Do not mingle these equivocal matters with positive revelations. Do not consider a dream, even from a prophet, as that positive inspiration which my prophets receive when their reason, judgment, and spiritual feelings are all in full and in regular exercise. Mix none of your own devices with my doctrines.

### Verse 29

[¶35] Is not my word like as a fire? - It enlightens, warms, and penetrates every part. When it is communicated to the true prophet, it is like a fire shut up in his bones; he cannot retain it, he must publish it: and when published, it is like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces; it is ever accompanied by a Divine power, that causes both sinner and saint to feel its weight and importance.

[¶36] In the original words there is something singular: הלוא כה דברי כאש halo coh debari kaesh, "Is not thus my word like fire?" I suspect, with Dr. Blayney, that כה coh, thus, was formerly written כח coach, strength or power; and so it was understood by the Targumist: "Are not all my words strong, like fire?" and probably the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews read it thus, and had it in view when he wrote: "For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," [Heb 4:12]. This admitted, the text would read, "Is not my word powerful, like fire?" or, "Is not the power of my word like fire?" But however we understand the words, let us take heed lest we think, as some have thought and affirmed, that the sacred writings are quite sufficient of themselves to enlighten, convince, and convert the soul, and that there is no need of the Holy Spirit. Fire itself must be applied by an agent in order to produce its effects; and surely the hammer cannot break the rock in pieces, unless wielded by an able workman. And it is God's Spirit alone that can thus apply it; for we find it frequently read and frequently spoken, without producing any salutary effects. And by this very thing the true preachers of the word of God may be distinguished from the false, non-commissioned ones; those who run, though they are not sent, [Jer 23:21]. The word of him who has his commission from heaven shall be as a fire and as a hammer; sinners shall be convinced and converted to God by it. But the others, though they steal the word from their neighbor - borrow or pilfer a good sermon, yet they do not profit the people at all, because God did not send them, [Jer 23:32]; for the power of God does not in their ministry accompany the word.

[¶37] There may be an allusion to the practice in some mining countries, of roasting stones containing ore, before they are subjected to the hammer, in order to pulverize them. In Cornwall I have seen them roast the tin stones in the fire, before they placed them under the action of the hammers in the stamp mill. The fire separated the arsenic from the ore, and then they were easily reduced to powder by the hammers of the mill; afterwards, washing the mass with water, the grains of tin sank to the bottom, while the lighter parts went off with the water, and thus the metal was procured clean and pure. If this be the allusion, it is very appropriate.

### Verse 30

[¶39] I am against the prophets - Three cases are mentioned here which excited God's disapprobation:

[¶40] 1. The prophets who stole the word from their neighbor; who associated with the true prophets, got some intelligence from them, and then went and published it as a revelation which themselves had received, [Jer 23:30].

[¶41] 2. The prophets who used their tongues; הלקחים לשונם hallokechim leshonam, who lick or smooth with their tongues - gave their own counsels as Divine revelations, flattering them in their sins, and promising peace, when God had not spoken; and prefaced them, "Thus saith the Lord," [Jer 23:31].

[¶42] 3. The prophets who made up false stories, which they termed prophecies, revealed to them in dreams; and thus caused the people to err, [Jer 23:32].

### Verse 33

[¶44] What is the burden of the Lord? - The word משא massa, here used, signifies burden, oracle, prophetic discourse; and is used by almost every prophet. But the persons in the text appear to have been mockers. "Where is this burden of the Lord?" - "What is the burden now?" To this insolent question the prophet answers in the following verses.

## 885. Jeremiah · 26 of 55

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[¶0] I will ever forsake you - I will punish the prophet, the priest and the people, that speak thus, [Jer 23:34]. Here are burdens.

### Verse 36

[¶2] Every man's word shall be his burden - Ye say that all God's messages are burdens, and to you they shall be such: whereas, had you used them as you ought, they would have been blessings to you.

[¶3] For ye have perverted the words of the living God - And thus have sinned against your own souls.

### Verse 39

[¶5] I will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you and the city - Dr. Blayney translates: - I will both take you up altogether, and will cast you off together with the city. Ye are a burden to me: but I will take you up, and then cast you off. I will do with you as a man weary with his burden will do; cast it off his shoulders, and bear it no more.

### Verse 40

[¶7] I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you - And this reproach of having rebelled against so good a God, and rejected so powerful a Savior, follows them to this day through all their dispersions, in every part of the habitable earth. The word of the Lord cannot fail.

### Introduction

[¶9] Under the emblem of the good and bad figs is represented the fate of the Jews already gone into captivity with Jeconiah, and of those that remained still in their own country with Zedekiah. It is likewise intimated that God would deal kindly with the former, but that his wrath would still pursue the latter, [Jer 24:1-10].

### Verse 1

[¶11] The Lord showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs - Besides the transposition of whole chapters in this book, there is not unfrequently a transposition of verses, and parts of verses. Of this we have an instance in the verse before us; the first clause of which should be the last. Thus: - "After that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord." [Jer 24:2] - "One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad."

[¶12] This arrangement restores these verses to a better sense, by restoring the natural connection.

[¶13] This prophecy was undoubtedly delivered in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah.

[¶14] Under the type of good and bad figs, God represents the state of the persons who had already been carried captives into Babylon, with their king Jeconiah, compared with the state of those who should be carried away with Zedekiah. Those already carried away, being the choice of the people, are represented by the good figs: those now remaining, and soon to be carried into captivity, are represented by the bad figs, that were good for nothing. The state also of the former in their captivity was vastly preferable to the state of those who were now about to be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. The latter would be treated as double rebels; the former, being the most respectable of the inhabitants, were treated well; and even in captivity, a marked distinction would be made between them, God ordering it so. But the prophet sufficiently explains his own meaning.

[¶15] Set before the temple - As an offering of the first-fruits of that kind.

[¶16] Very good figs - Or, figs of the early sort. The fig-trees in Palestine, says Dr. Shaw, produce fruit thrice each year. The first sort, called boccore, those here mentioned, come to perfection about the middle or end of June. The second sort, called kermez, or summer fig, is seldom ripe before August. And the third, which is called the winter fig, which is larger, and of a darker complexion than the preceding, hangs all the winter on the tree, ripening even when the leaves are shed, and is fit for gathering in the beginning of spring.

[¶17] Could not be eaten - The winter fig, - then in its crude or unripe state; the spring not being yet come.

### Verse 5

[¶19] Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge - Those already carried away into captivity, I esteem as far more excellent than those who still remain in the land. They have not sinned so deeply, and they are now penitent; and, therefore, I will set mine eyes upon them for good, [Jer 24:6]. I will watch over them by an especial providence, and they shall be restored to their own land.

### Verse 7

[¶21] They shall be my people - I will renew my covenant with them, for they will return to me with them whole heart.

### Verse 8

[¶23] So will I give Zedekiah - I will treat these as they deserve. They shall be carried into captivity, and scattered through all nations. Multitudes of those never returned to Judea; the others returned at the end of seventy years.

### Verse 10

[¶25] I will send the sword - Many of them fell by sword and famine in the war with the Chaldeans, and many more by such means afterwards. The first received their captivity as a correction, and turned to God; the latter still hardened their hearts more and more, and probably very many of them never returned: perhaps they are now amalgamated with heathen nations. Lord, how long?

### Introduction

[¶27] This chapter contains a summary of the judgments denounced by Jeremiah against Judah, Babylon, and many other nations. It begins with reproving the Jews for disobeying the calls of God to repentance, [Jer 25:1-7]; on which account their captivity, with that of her neighboring nations, during seventy years, is foretold, [Jer 25:8-11]. At the expiration of that period, (computing from the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, to the famous edict of the first year of Cyrus), an end was to be put to the Babylonian empire, [Jer 25:12-14]. All this is again declared by the emblem of that cup of wrath which the prophet, as it should seem in a vision, tendered to all the nations which he enumerates, [Jer 25:15-29]. And for farther confirmation, it is a third time repeated in a very beautiful and elevated strain of poetry, [Jer 25:30-38]. The talent of diversifying the ideas, images, and language, even when the subject is the same, or nearly so, appears no where in such perfection as among the sacred poets.

### Verse 1

[¶29] The word that came to Jeremiah - to the fourth year - This prophecy, we see, was delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the chapter that contains it is utterly out of its place. It should be between chapters 35 and 36.

[¶30] The defeat of the Egyptians by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, and the subsequent taking of Jerusalem, occurred in this year, viz., the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

[¶31] The first year of Nebuchadrezzar - This king was associated with his father two years before the death of the latter. The Jews reckon his reign from this time, and this was the first of those two years; but the Chaldeans date the commencement of his reign two years later, viz., at the death of his father.

### Verse 7

[¶33] That ye might provoke - Ye would not hearken; but chose to provoke me with anger.

### Verse 9

[¶35] Behold, I will send - At this time Nebuchadrezzar had not invaded the land, according to this Version; but the Hebrew may be translated, "Behold I am sending, and have taken all the families;" that is, all the allies of the king of Babylon.

[¶36] Instead of ואל reel, "and To Nebuchadrezzar," as in the common Hebrew Bible, seven MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's, and one of my own, have ואת veeth, "And Nebuchadrezzar," which is undoubtedly the true reading.

### Verse 10

[¶38] I will take from them - See [Jer 7:34], and [Jer 16:9].

[¶39] The sound of the mill-stones, and the light of the candle - These two are conjoined, because they generally ground the corn before day, by the light of the candle. Sir J. Chardin has remarked, that every where in the morning may be heard the noise of the mills; for they generally grind every day just as much as is necessary for the day's consumption. Where then the noise of the grill is not heard, nor the light of the candle seen, there must be desolation; because these things are heard and seen in every inhabited country.

### Verse 11

[¶41] Shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years - As this prophecy was delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and in the first of Nebuchadnezzar, and began to be accomplished in the same year, (for then Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judea, and took Jerusalem), seventy years from this time will reach down to the first year of Cyrus, when he made his proclamation for the restoration of the Jews, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. See the note on [Isa 13:19] (note), where the subject is farther considered in relation to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and the city of Babylon.

### Verse 12

[¶43] And that nation - הגוי ההוא haggoi hahu. Dr. Blayney contends that this should be translated his nation, and that ההוא hahu is the substantive pronoun used in the genitive case. It is certainly more clear and definite to read, "I will punish the king of Babylon, and His nation."

[¶44] Will make it perpetual desolations - See the note on [Isa 13:19], where the fulfillment of this prophecy is distinctly marked.

## 886. Jeremiah · 27 of 55

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### Verse 14

[¶1] Many nations and great kings - The Medes and the Persians, under Cyrus; and several princes, his vassals or allies.

### Verse 16

[¶3] Take the wine cup of this fury - For an ample illustration of this passage and simile, see the note on [Isa 51:21].

### Verse 17

[¶5] Then took I the cup - and made all the nations to drink - This cup of God's wrath is merely symbolical, and simply means that the prophet should declare to all these people that they shall fall under the Chaldean yoke, and that this is a punishment inflicted on them by God for their iniquities. "Then I took the cup;" I declared publicly the tribulation that God was about to bring on Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, and all the nations.

### Verse 19

[¶7] Pharaoh king of Egypt - This was Pharaoh-necho, who was the principal cause of instigating the neighboring nations to form a league against the Chaldeans.

### Verse 20

[¶9] All the mingled people - The strangers and foreigners; Abyssinians and others who had settled in Egypt.

[¶10] Land of Uz - A part of Arabia near to Idumea. See on [Job 1:1] (note).

### Verse 22

[¶12] Tyrus and - Zidon - The most ancient of all the cities of the Phoenicians.

[¶13] Kings of the isles which are beyond the sea - As the Mediterranean Sea is most probably meant, and the Phoenicians had numerous colonies on its coasts, I prefer the marginal reading, the kings of the region by the sea side.

### Verse 23

[¶15] Dedan - Was son of Abraham, by Keturah, [Gen 25:3].

[¶16] Tema - Was one of the sons of Ishmael, in the north of Arabia, [Gen 36:15].

[¶17] Buz - Brother of Uz, descendants of Nahor, brother of Abraham, settled in Arabia Deserta, [Gen 22:21].

### Verse 24

[¶19] The mingled people - Probably the Scenite Arabians.

### Verse 25

[¶21] Zimri - Descendants of Abraham, by Keturah, [Gen 25:2], [Gen 25:6].

[¶22] Elam - Called Elymais by the Greeks, was on the south frontier of Media, to the north of Susiana, not far from Babylon.

### Verse 26

[¶24] The kings of the north, far and near - The first may mean Syria; the latter, the Hyrcanians and Bactrians.

[¶25] And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them - Sheshach was an ancient king of Babylon, who was deified after his death. Here it means either Babylon, or Nebuchadnezzar the king of it. After it has been the occasion of ruin to so many other nations, Babylon itself shall be destroyed by the Medo-Persians.

### Verse 27

[¶27] Be drunken, and spue - Why did we not use the word vomit, less offensive than the other, and yet of the same signification?

### Verse 29

[¶29] The city which is called by my name - Jerusalem, which should be first given up to the destruction.

### Verse 32

[¶31] Evil shall go forth from nation to nation - One nation after another shall fall before the Chaldeans.

### Verse 33

[¶33] From one end of the earth - From one end of the land to the other. All Palestine shall be desolated by it.

### Verse 34

[¶35] Howl, ye shepherds - Ye kings and chiefs of the people.

[¶36] Ye shall fall like a pleasant tresses - As a fall will break and utterly ruin a precious vessel of crystal, agate, etc., so your overthrow will be to you irreparable ruin.

### Verse 38

[¶38] As the lion - Leaving the banks of Jordan when overflowed, and coming with ravening fierceness to the champaign country.

### Introduction

[¶40] Jeremiah, by the commend of God, goes into the court of the Lord's house; and foretells the destruction of the temple and city, if not prevented by the speedy repentance of the people, [Jer 26:1-7]. By this unwelcome prophecy his life was in great danger; although saved by the influence of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, who makes a masterly defense for the prophet, [Jer 26:8-18]. Urijah is condemned, but escapes to Egypt; whence he is brought hack by Jehoiakim, and slain, [Jer 26:20-23]. Ahikam befriends Jeremiah, [Jer 26:24].

### Verse 1

[¶42] In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim - As this prophecy must have been delivered in the first or second year of the reign of Jehoiakim, it is totally out of its place here. Dr. Blayney puts it before chap. 36.; and Dr. Dahler immediately after chap. ix., and before chap. 46.

### Verse 4

[¶44] If ye will not hearken - This and several of the following verses are nearly the same with those in [Jer 7:13], etc., where see the notes.

## 887. Jeremiah · 28 of 55

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/887/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/887/#p-N

### Verse 8

[¶1] And all the people - That were in company with the priests and the prophets.

### Verse 10

[¶3] The princes of Judah - The king's court; his cabinet counsellors.

### Verse 12

[¶5] The Lord sent me to prophesy - My commission is from him, and my words are his own. I sought not this painful office. I did not run before I was sent.

### Verse 13

[¶7] Therefore now amend your ways - If ye wish to escape the judgment which I have predicted, turn to God, and iniquity shall not be your ruin.

### Verse 14

[¶9] As for me, behold, I am in your hand - I am the messenger of God; you may do with me what you please; but if you slay me, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves.

### Verse 16

[¶11] This man is not worthy to die - The whole court acquitted him.

### Verse 17

[¶13] Certain of the elders - This is really a fine defense, and the argument was perfectly conclusive. Some think that it was Ahikam who undertook the prophet's defense.

### Verse 18

[¶15] Micah the Morasthite - The same as stands among the prophets. Now all these prophesied as hard things against the land as Jeremiah has done; yet they were not put to death, for the people saw that they were sent of God.

### Verse 20

[¶17] Urijah - who prophesied - The process against Jeremiah is finished at the nineteenth verse; and the case of Urijah is next brought on, for he was also to be tried for his life; but hearing of it he fled to Egypt. He was however condemned in his absence; and the king sent to Egypt, and brought him thence and slew him, and caused him to have an ignominious burial, [Jer 26:21-23].

### Verse 24

[¶19] The hand of Ahikam - was with Jeremiah - And it was probably by his influence that Jeremiah did not share the same fate with Urijah. The Ahikam mentioned here was probably the father of Gedaliah, who, after the capture of Jerusalem, was appointed governor of the country by Nebuchadnezzar, [Jer 40:5]. Of the Prophet Urijah, whether he was true or false, we know nothing but what we learn from this place.

[¶20] That they should not give him into the hand of the people - Though acquitted in the supreme court, he was not out of danger; there was a popular prejudice against him, and it is likely that Ahikam was obliged to conceal him, that they might not put him to death. The genuine ministers of God have no favor to expect from those who are His enemies.

### Introduction

[¶22] Ambassadors being come from several neighboring nations to solicit the king of Judah to join in a confederacy against the king of Babylon, Jeremiah is commanded to put bands and yokes upon his neck, (the emblems of subjection and slavery), and to send them afterwards by those ambassadors to their respective princes; intimating by this significant type that God had decreed their subjection to the Babylonian empire, and that it was their wisdom to submit. It is farther declared that all the conquered nations shall remain in subjection to the Chaldeans during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and those of his son and grandson, even till the arrival of that period in which the Babylonians shall have filled up the measure of their iniquities; and that then the mighty Chaldean monarchy itself, for a certain period the paramount power of the habitable globe, shall be voted with a dreadful storm of Divine wrath, through the violence of which it shall be dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel, the fragments falling into the hands of many nations and great kings, [Jer 27:1-11]. Zedekiah, particularly, is admonished not to join to the revolt against Nebuchadnezzar, and warned against trusting to the suggestions of false prophets, [Jer 27:11-18]. The chapter concludes with foretelling that what still remained of the sacred vessels of the temple should be carried to Babylon, and not restored till after the destruction of the Chaldean empire, [Jer 27:19-22].

### Verse 1

[¶24] In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim - It is most evident that his prophecy was delivered about the fourth year of Zedekiah, and not Jehoiakim, as in the text. See [Jer 28:1]. Three of Kennicott's MSS. (one in the text, a second in the margin, and the third upon a rasure) have Zedekiah; so likewise have the Syriac and the Arabic. Houbigant, Lowth, Blayney, Dahler, and others declare for this reading against that in the present text. And it is clear from the third and twelfth verses, where Zedekiah is expressly mentioned, that this is the true reading.

### Verse 2

[¶26] Make thee bonds and yokes - Probably yokes with straps, by which they were attached to the neck. This was a symbolical action, to show that the several kings mentioned below should be brought under the dominion of the Chaldeans.

### Verse 5

[¶28] I have made the earth - I am the Creator and Governor of all things, and I dispose of the several kingdoms of the world as seemeth best to me.

### Verse 6

[¶30] And now have I given - These kingdoms are at my sovereign disposal; and at present, for the punishment of their rulers and people, I shall give them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

### Verse 7

[¶32] And all nations shall serve him (Nebuchadnezzar), and his son, (Evil-merodach [Jer 52:31]), and his son's son, (Belshazzar, [Dan 5:11].) All which was literally fulfilled.

### Verse 9

[¶34] Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets - Who pretend to have a revelation from heaven.

[¶35] Nor to your diviners - קסמיכם kosemeychem, from קסם kasam, to presage or prognosticate. Persons who guessed at futurity by certain signs in the animate or inanimate creation.

[¶36] Nor to your dreamers - חלמתיכם chalomotheychem, from חלם chalam, to break in pieces; hence חלום chalom, a dream, because it consists of broken fragments. Dream-interpreters, who, from these broken shreds patch up a meaning by their own interpolations.

[¶37] Nor to your enchanters - ענניכם oneneychem, from ענן anan, a cloud - cloud-mongers. Diviners by the flight, color, density, rarity, and shape of clouds.

[¶38] Nor to your sorcerers - כשפיכם cashshapheychem, from כשף kashaph, to discover; the discoverers, the finders out of hidden things, stolen goods, etc. Persons also who use incantations, and either by spells or drugs pretend to find out mysteries, or produce supernatural effects. Every nation in the world had persons who pretended to find out hidden things, or foretell future events; and such were gladly encouraged by the ignorant multitude; and many of them were mere apes of the prophets of God. Man knows that he is short-sighted, feels pain at the uncertainty of futurity, and wishes to have his doubts resolved by such persons as the above, to put an end to his uncertainty.

### Verse 13

[¶40] Why will ye die - If ye resist the king of Babylon, to whom I have given a commission against you, ye shall be destroyed by the sword and by famine; but if ye submit, ye shall escape all these evils.

### Verse 16

[¶42] The vessels of the Lord's house - Which had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar under the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jeconiah, [2Chr 36:7-10].

[¶43] Shall now shortly be brought again - This is a lie. They shall not be restored till I bring them up, [Jer 27:22], which was after the captivity, when they were sent back by Cyrus, the Lord inclining his heart to do it, [Ezr 1:7], and [Ezr 7:19].

## 888. Jeremiah · 29 of 55

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### Verse 19

[¶1] Concerning the pillars - Two brazen columns placed by Solomon in the pronaos or portico of the temple, eighteen cubits high, and twelve in circumference, [1Kgs 7:16-22]; [Jer 52:11].

[¶2] The sea - The brazen sea, ten cubits in diameter, and thirty in circumference. It contained water for different washings in the Divine worship, and was supported on twelve brazen oxen. Perhaps these are what are called the bases here. See the parallel places at [2Kgs 25:13] (note), etc.; [Jer 52:17] (note), [Jer 52:20-21] (note), and the notes on them.

### Verse 22

[¶4] They shall be carried to Babylon - Far from those already taken being brought back, those which now remain shall be carried thither, unless ye submit to the Chaldeans. They did not submit, and the prophecy was literally fulfilled; see [Jer 52:17-23]; [2Kgs 25:13], [2Chr 36:18].

### Introduction

[¶6] One of those pretended prophets spoken of on the preceding chapter, having contrasted and opposed Jeremiah, receives an awful declaration that, as a proof to the people of his having spoken without commission, he should die in the then current year; which accordingly came to pass its the seventh month, vv. 1-17.

### Verse 1

[¶8] And it came to pass the same year - the fifth month - Which commenced with the first new moon of August, according to our calendar. This verse gives the precise date of the prophecy in the preceding chapter; and proves that Zedekiah, not Jehoiakim, is the name that should be read in the first verse of that chapter.

[¶9] Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet - One who called himself a prophet; who pretended to be in commerce with the Lord, and to receive revelations from him. He was probably a priest; for he was of Gibeon, a sacerdotal city in the tribe of Benjamin.

### Verse 2

[¶11] Thus speaketh the Lord - What awful impudence! when he knew in his conscience that God had given him no such commission.

### Verse 3

[¶13] Within two full years - Time sufficient for the Chaldeans to destroy the city, and carry away the rest of the sacred vessels; but he did not live to see the end of this short period.

### Verse 6

[¶15] Amen; the Lord do so - O that it might be according to thy word! May the people find this to be true!

### Verse 8

[¶17] The prophets that have been before me - Namely, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and others; all of whom denounced similar evils against a corrupt people.

### Verse 9

[¶19] When the word of the prophet shall come to pass - Here is the criterion. He is a true prophet who specifies things that he says shall happen, and also fixes the time of the event; and the things do happen, and in that time.

[¶20] You say that Nebuchadnezzar shall not overthrow this city; and that in two years from this time, not only the sacred vessels already taken away shall be restored, but also that Jeconiah and all the Jewish captives shall be restored, and the Babylonish yoke broken, see [Jer 28:2], [Jer 28:3], [Jer 28:4]. Now I say that Nebuchadnezzar will come this year, and destroy this city, and lead away the rest of the people into captivity, and the rest of the sacred vessels; and that there will be no restoration of any kind till seventy years from this time.

### Verse 10

[¶22] Then Hananiah - took the yoke - and brake it - He endeavored by this symbolical act to persuade them of the truth of his prediction.

### Verse 13

[¶24] Yokes of iron - Instead of Nebuchadnezzar's yoke being broken, this captivity shall be more severe than the preceding. All these nations shall have a yoke of iron on their neck. He shall subdue them and take all their property, even the beasts of the field.

### Verse 15

[¶26] Hear now, Hananiah; the Lord hath not sent thee - This was a bold speech in the presence of those priests and people who were prejudiced in favor of this false prophet, who prophesied to them smooth things. In such cases men wish to be deceived.

### Verse 16

[¶28] This year thou shalt die - By this shall the people know who is the true prophet. Thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord, and God will cut thee off; and this shall take place, not within seventy years, or two years, but in this very year, and within two months from this time.

### Verse 17

[¶30] So Hananiah - died the same year in the seventh month - The prophecy was delivered in the fifth month, ([Jer 28:1]), and Hananiah died in the seventh month. And thus God, in mercy, gave him about two months, in which he might prepare to meet his Judge. Here, then the true prophet was demonstrated, and the false prophet detected. The death of Hananiah thus predicted, was God's seal to the words of his prophet; and must have gained his other predictions great credit among the people.

### Introduction

[¶32] This chapter contains the substance of two letters sent by the prophet to the captives in Babylon. In the first he recommends to them patience and composure under their present circumstances, which were to endure for seventy years, [Jer 29:1-14]; in which, however, they should fare better than their brethren who remained behind, [Jer 29:15-19]. But, finding little credit given to this message, on account of the suggestions of the false prophets, Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who flattered them with the hopes of a speedy end to their captivity, he sends a second, in which he denounces heavy judgments against those false prophets that deceived them, [Jer 29:20-23]; as he did afterwards against Shemaiah the Nehelamite, who had sent a letter of complaint against Jeremiah, in consequence of his message, [Jer 29:24-32].

### Verse 1

[¶34] Now these are the words of the letter - This transaction took place in the first or second year of Zedekiah. It appears that the prophet had been informed that the Jews who had already been carried into captivity had, through the instigations of false prophets, been led to believe that they were to be brought out of their captivity speedily. Jeremiah, fearing that this delusion might induce them to take some hasty steps, ill comporting with their present state, wrote a letter to them, which he entrusted to an embassy which Zedekiah had sent on some political concerns to Nebuchadnezzar. The letter was directed to the elders, priests, prophets, and people who had been carried away captives to Babylon.

### Verse 4

[¶36] Thus saith the Lord of hosts - This was the commencement of the letter.

### Verse 5

[¶38] Build ye houses - Prepare for a long continuance in your present captivity. Provide yourselves with the necessaries of life, and multiply in the land, that ye may become a powerful people.

### Verse 7

[¶40] Seek the peace of the city - Endeavor to promote, as far as you can, the prosperity of the places in which ye sojourn. Let no disaffection appear in word or act. Nothing can be more reasonable than this. Wherever a man lives and has his nourishment and support, that is his country as long as he resides in it. If things go well with that country, his interest is promoted by the general prosperity, he lives at comparative ease, and has the necessaries of life cheaper; and unless he is in a state of cruel servitude, which does not appear to have been the case with those Israelites to whom the prophet writes, (those of the first captivity), they must be nearly, if not altogether, in as good a state as if they had been in the country that gave them birth. And in this case they were much better off than their brethren now in Judea, who had to contend with famine and war, and scarcely any thing before them but God's curse and extermination.

### Verse 8

[¶42] Neither hearken to your dreams - Rather, dreamers; for it appears there was a class of such persons, who not only had acquired a facility of dreaming themselves, but who undertook to interpret the dreams of others.

### Verse 10

[¶44] For thus saith the Lord - It has been supposed that a very serious transposition of verses has taken place here; and it has been proposed to read after [Jer 29:9] the sixteenth to the nineteenth inclusive; then the tenth, and on to the fourteenth inclusive; then the twentieth, the fifteenth, the twenty-first, and the rest regularly to the end.

[¶45] That after seventy years be accomplished - לפי מלאת lephi meloth, "at the mouth of the accomplishment," or "fill to the mouth." Seventy years is the measure which must be filled; - fill this to the brim; - complete this measure, and then you shall be visited and released. The whole seventy must be completed; expect no enlargement before that time.

## 889. Jeremiah · 30 of 55

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### Verse 11

[¶1] Thoughts of peace - Here God gives them to understand,

[¶2] 1. That his love was moved towards them.

[¶3] 2. That he would perform his good word, his promises often repeated, to them.

[¶4] 3. That for the fulfillment of these they must pray, seek, and search.

[¶5] 4. That he would hearken, and they should find him; provided,

[¶6] 5. They sought him with their whole heart, [Jer 29:10-13].

### Verse 14

[¶8] I will gather you from all the nations - A quotation from [Deu 30:3], and see also [Deu 4:7].

### Verse 15

[¶10] Because ye have said - The Septuagint very properly insert this verse between the twentieth and the twenty-first, and thus the connection here is not disturbed, and the connection below completed.

### Verse 17

[¶12] Behold, I will send upon them the sword - Do not envy the state of Zedekiah who sits on the throne of David, nor that of the people who are now in the land whence ye have been carried captive, ([Jer 29:16]), for "I will send the sword, the pestilence, and the famine upon them;" and afterwards shall cause them to be carried into a miserable captivity in all nations, ([Jer 29:18]); but ye see the worst of your own case, and you have God's promise of enlargement when the proper time is come. The reader will not forget that the prophet is addressing the captives in Babylon.

### Verse 20

[¶14] Hear ye therefore the word - Dr. Blayney thinks there were two letters written by the prophet to the captives in Babylon, and that the first ends with this verse. That having heard, on the return of the embassy (Elasah and Gemariah, whom Zedekiah had sent to Babylon, and to whom the prophet entrusted the above letter, [Jer 29:3]), that the captives had not received his advises favourably, because they were deceived by false prophets among them, who promised them a speedier deliverance, he therefore wrote a second letter, beginning with the fifteenth verse, and going on with the twenty-first, etc., in which he denounces God's judgments on three of the chief of those, Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah.

### Verse 21

[¶16] He shall slay them before your eyes - Nebuchadnezzar would be led by political reasons to punish these pretended prophets, as their predictions tended to make his Israelitish subjects uneasy and disaffected, and might excite them to rebellion. He therefore slew them; two of them, it appears, he burnt alive, viz., Ahab and Zedekiah, who are supposed by the rabbins to be the two elders who endeavored to seduce Susanna, see [Jer 29:23]. Burning alive was a Chaldean punishment, [Dan 3:6], and [Amo 2:1]. From them other nations borrowed it.

### Verse 23

[¶18] Have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives - This is supposed to refer to the case of Susanna. See above.

### Verse 24

[¶20] Speak to Shemaiah - Zephaniah was the second priest, sagan, or chief priest's deputy, and Seraiah, high priest, when Jerusalem was taken. See [Jer 52:24]. Shemaiah directs his letter to the former, and tells him that God had appointed him to supply the place of the high priest, who was probably then absent. His name was either Azariah or Seraiah his son, but called Jehoiada from the remarkable zeal and courage of that pontiff. See the passages in the margin. - Dodd. After the taking of Jerusalem, Zephaniah was put to death by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, see [Jer 37:3]. The history of Jehoiada may be seen [2Kgs 11:3], etc.

### Verse 26

[¶22] For every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet - Mad, משגע meshugga, in ecstatic rapture; such as appeared in the prophets, whether true or false, when under the influence, the one of God, the other of a demon. See [2Kgs 9:11]; [Hos 9:7].

### Verse 32

[¶24] I will punish Shemaiah -

[¶25] 1. He shall have no posterity to succeed him.

[¶26] 2. His family, i.e., relations, etc., shall not be found among those whom I shall bring back from captivity.

[¶27] 3. Nor shall he himself see the good that I shall do for my people.

[¶28] And all this shall come upon him and his because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord. He excited the people to reject Jeremiah, and to receive the lying words of the false prophets; and these led them to rebel.

### Introduction

[¶30] This and the following chapter must relate to a still future restoration of the posterity of Jacob from their several dispersions, as no deliverance hitherto afforded them comes up to the terms of it; for, after the return from Babylon, they were again enslaved by the Greeks and Romans, contrary to the prediction in the eighth verse; in every papistical country they have labored under great civil disabilities, and in some of them have been horribly persecuted; upon the ancient people has this mystic Babylon very heavily laid her yoke; and in no place in the world are they at present their own masters; so that this prophecy remains to be fulfilled in the reign of David, i.e., the Messiah; the type, according to the general structure of the prophetical writings, being put for the antitype. The prophecy opens by an easy transition from the temporal deliverance spoken of before, and describes the mighty revolutions that shall precede the restoration of the descendants of Israel, [Jer 30:1-9], who are encouraged to trust in the promises of God, [Jer 30:10], [Jer 30:11]. They are, however, to expect corrections; which shall have a happy issue in future period, [Jer 30:12-17]. The great blessings of Messiah's reign are enumerated, [Jer 30:18-22]; and the wicked and impenitent declared to have no share in them, [Jer 30:23], [Jer 30:24].

### Verse 1

[¶32] The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord - This prophecy was delivered about a year after the taking of Jerusalem; so Dahler. Dr. Blayney supposes it and the following chapter to refer to the future restoration of both Jews and Israelites in the times of the Gospel; though also touching at the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, at the end of seventy years. Supposing these two chapters to be penned after the taking of Jerusalem, which appears the most natural, they will refer to the same events, one captivity shadowing forth another, and one restoration being the type or pledge of the second.

### Verse 2

[¶34] Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book - The book here recommended I believe to be the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters; for among the Hebrews any portion of writing, in which the subject was finished, however small, was termed ספר sepher, a Book, a treatise or discourse.

### Verse 3

[¶36] The days come - First, After the conclusion of the seventy years. Secondly, Under the Messiah.

[¶37] That I will bring again the captivity of Israel - The ten tribes, led captive by the king of Assyria, and dispersed among the nations.

[¶38] And Judah - The people carried into Babylon at two different times; first, under Jeconiah, and, secondly, under Zedekiah, by Nebuchadnezzar.

### Verse 5

[¶40] We have heard a voice of trembling - This may refer to the state and feelings of the people during the war which Cyrus carried on against the Babylonians. Trembling and terror would no doubt affect them, and put an end to peace and all prosperity; as they could not tell what would be the issue of the struggle, and whether their state would be better or worse should their present masters fall in the conflict. This is well described in the next verse, where men are represented as being, through pain and anguish, like women in travail. See the same comparison [Isa 13:6-8].

### Verse 7

[¶42] Alas! for that day is great - When the Medes and Persians with all their forces shall come on the Chaldeans, it will be the day of Jacob's trouble - trial, dismay, and uncertainty; but he shall be delivered out of it - the Chaldean empire shall fall, but the Jews shall be delivered by Cyrus. Jerusalem shall be destroyed by the Romans, but the Israel of God shall be delivered from its ruin. Not one that had embraced Christianity perished in the sackage of that city.

### Verse 8

[¶44] I will break his yoke - That is, the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar.

## 890. Jeremiah · 31 of 55

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[¶0] Of him - Of Jacob, ([Jer 30:7]), viz., the then captive Jews.

### Verse 9

[¶2] But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their King - This must refer to the times of the Messiah and hence the Chaldee has, "They shall obey the Lord their God, וישת מאון למשיחה בר דוד veyishta meun limschicha bar David, and they shall obey the Messiah, the Son of David." This is a very remarkable version; and shows that it was a version, not according to the letter, but according to their doctrine and their expectation. David was long since dead; and none of his descendants ever reigned over them after the Babylonish captivity, nor have they since been a regal nation. Zerubbabel, under the Persians, and the Asmoneans, can be no exception to this. They have been no nation since; they are no nation now; and it is only in the latter days that they can expect to be a nation, and that must be a Christian nation.

[¶3] Christ is promised under the name of his progenitor, David, [Isa 55:3], [Isa 55:4]; [Eze 34:23], [Eze 34:24]; [Eze 37:24], [Eze 37:25]; [Hos 3:5].

### Verse 11

[¶5] Though I make a full end of all nations - Though the Persians destroy the nations whom they vanquish, yet they shall not destroy thee.

### Verse 12

[¶7] Thy bruise is incurable - אנוש anush, desperate, not incurable; for the cure is promised in [Jer 30:17], I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds.

### Verse 13

[¶9] There is none to plead thy cause - All thy friends and allies have forsaken thee.

### Verse 15

[¶11] Thy sorrow is incurable - אנוש anush, desperate. See [Jer 30:12].

### Verse 16

[¶13] They that devour thee - The Chaldeans.

[¶14] Shall be devoured - By the Medes and Persians.

[¶15] All that prey upon thee will I give for a prey - The Assyrians were destroyed by the Babylonians; the Babylonians, by the Medes and Persians; the Egyptians and Persians were destroyed by the Greeks, under Alexander. All these nations are now extinct, but the Jews, as a distinct people, still exist.

### Verse 18

[¶17] The city shall be builded upon her own heap - Be re-edified from its own ruins. See the book of Nehemiah, passim.

[¶18] And the palace shall remain - Meaning, the king's house shall be restored; or, more probably, the temple shall be rebuilt; which was true, for after the Babylonish captivity it was rebuilt by Nehemiah, etc. By the tents, distinguished from the dwelling-places of Jacob, we may understand all the minor dispersions of the Jews, as well as those numerous synagogues found in large cities.

### Verse 19

[¶20] I will multiply them - They shall be very numerous; even where at present they have but tents.

[¶21] I will also glorify them - I will put honor upon them every where, so that they shall be no longer contemptible. This will be a very great change, for they are now despised all over the earth.

### Verse 20

[¶23] Their children also - They shall have the education of their own children as formerly.

[¶24] And their congregation - Their religious assemblies.

[¶25] Shall be established - Being, in the latter days, incorporated with those "who serve the Lord their God, and worship the Messiah, the son of David."

### Verse 21

[¶27] Their nobles shall be of themselves - Strangers shall not rule over them; and -

[¶28] Their governor shall proceed from the midst of them - Both Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, their nobles and governors after the return from Babylon, were Jews.

### Verse 22

[¶30] Ye shall be my people - The old covenant shall be renewed.

### Verse 23

[¶32] The whirlwind of the Lord - A grievous tempest of desolation, -

[¶33] Shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked - On Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans.

### Verse 24

[¶35] In the latter days ye shall consider it - By the latter days the Gospel dispensation is generally meant; and that restoration which is the principal topic in this and the succeeding chapter refers to this time. Had the Jews properly considered this subject, they would long ere this have been brought into the liberty of the Gospel, and saved from the maledictions under which they now groan. Why do not the Jews read their own prophets more conscientiously?

### Introduction

[¶37] This chapter continues the subject of the preceding in a beautiful vision represented at a distant period. God is introduced expressing his continual regard for Israel, and promising to restore them to their land and liberty, [Jer 31:1-5]. Immediately heralds appear, proclaiming on Mount Ephraim the arrival of the great year of jubilee, and summoning the people to gather unto Zion, [Jer 31:6]. Upon which God resumes the speech; and makes such gracious promises both of leading them tenderly by the way, and making them happy in their own land, that all the nations of the world are called upon to consider with deep attention this great salvation, [Jer 31:7-14]. The scene is then diversified by a very happy invention. Rachel, the another of Joseph and Benjamin, is represented as risen from her tomb, in a city of Benjamin near Jerusalem, looking about for her children, and bitterly lamenting their fate, as none of them are to be seen in the land of their fathers, [Jer 31:15]. But she is consoled with the assurance that they are not lost, and that they shall in due time be restored, [Jer 31:16], [Jer 31:17]. To this another tender and beautiful scene immediately succeeds. Ephraim, (often put for the Ten tribes), comes in view. He laments his past errors, and expresses the most earnest desires of reconciliation; upon which God, as a tender parent, immediately forgives him, [Jer 31:18-20]. The virgin of Israel is then directed to prepare for returning home, [Jer 31:21], [Jer 31:22]; and the vision closes with a promise of abundant peace and security to Israel and Judah in the latter days, [Jer 31:23-26]. The blessed condition of Israel under the Messiah's reign is then beautifully contrasted with their afflicted state during the general dispersion, [Jer 31:27], [Jer 31:28]. In the remaining part of the chapter the promises to the posterity of Jacob of the impartial administration of justice, increasing peace and prosperity, the universal diffusion of righteousness, and stability in their own land after a general restoration in Gospel tines, are repeated, enlarged on, and illustrated by a variety of beautiful figures, [Jer 31:29-40].

[¶38] Dr. Blayney has introduced this and the preceding chapter with the following excellent observations: - "There are many prophecies," says he, "in various parts of the Old Testament, which announce the future restoration of Israel to their own land, and the complete re-establishment of both their civil and religious constitution in the latter days, meaning the times of the Gospel dispensation. These two chapters contain a prophecy of this kind; which must necessarily be referred to these times, because it points out circumstances which certainly were not fulfilled at the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, nor have hitherto had their completion. For the people who returned from Babylon were the people of Judah only, who had been carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar; but here it is foretold, that not only should the captivity of Judah be restored, but the captivity of Israel also, meaning those ten tribes which were carried away before, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and who still remain in their several dispersions, having never returned, in a national capacity at least, to their own land, whatever some few individuals have done. But the terms of the prophecy entitle us to expect, not an obscure and partial, but a complete and universal, restoration; when God will manifest himself, as formerly, the God and Patron of all the families of Israel, and not of a few only. Again it is promised that, after this restoration, they should no more fall under the dominion of foreigners, but be governed by princes and magistrates of their own nation, independently of any but God, and David their king. But this was not the case with the Jews who returned from Babylon. They then indeed had a leader, Zerubbabel, one of their own nation, and also of the family of David; but both the nation and their leader continued still in a state of vassalage, and the most servile dependence upon the Persian monarchy. And when the Grecian monarchy succeeded, they changed their masters only, but not their condition; till at length under the Asmonean princes they had for a while an independent government of their own, but without any title to the name of David. At last they fell under the Roman yoke; since which time their situation has been such as not to afford the least ground to pretend that the promised restoration has yet taken place. It remains therefore to be brought about in future under the reign of the Messiah, emphatically distinguished by the name of David; when every particular circumstance predicted concerning it will no doubt be verified by a distinct and unequivocal accomplishment. There is no particular date annexed to this prophecy, whereby to ascertain the precise time of its delivery. But it may not unreasonably be presumed to have followed immediately after the preceding one in which the restoration of the people from their Babylonish captivity is in direct terms foretold. From hence the transition is natural and easy to the more glorious and general restoration which was to take place in a more distant period, and was designed for the ultimate object of the national hopes and expectations. Both events are frequently thus connected together in the prophetic writings; and perhaps with this design, that when that which was nearest at hand should be accomplished, it might afford the clearest, and strongest, and most satisfactory kind of evidence that the latter, how remote soever its period, would in like manner be brought about by the interposition of Providence in its due season. But though this prophecy relates wholly to one single subject, it seems naturally to divide itself into three distinct parts.

[¶39] The first part, after a short preface, in which the prophet is required to commit to writing the matters revealed to him, commences with representing, in a style of awe and energy, the consternation and distress which, in some future day of visitation, should fall upon all nations, preparatory to the scene of Jacob's deliverance, [Jer 30:5-9]. Israel is encouraged to confide in the Divine assurance of restoration and protection, [Jer 30:10], [Jer 30:11]. He is prepared previously to expect a severe chastisement for the multitude of his sins; but consoled with the prospect of a happy termination, [Jer 30:12-17]. This is followed by an enumeration at large of the blessings and privileges to which the Jews should be restored upon their re-admission into God's favor, [Jer 30:18-22]. Again, however, it is declared that the anger of Jehovah would not subside till his purposed vengeance against the wicked should have been fully executed; and then, but not till then, an entire reconciliation would take place between him and all the families of Israel, [Jer 30:23], [Jer 31:1].

[¶40] The second part of this prophecy begins chap. [Jer 31:2], and is marked by a sudden transition to a distant period of time, represented in a vision, and embellished with a variety of beautiful scenes and images. God announces the renewal of his ancient love for Israel; and promises, in consequence thereof, a speedy restoration of their former privileges and happiness, [Jer 31:2-5]. Already the heralds have proclaimed on Mount Ephraim the arrival of the joyful day; they summon the people to re-assemble once more in Zion; and promulge by special command the glad tidings of salvation which God had accomplished for them. God himself declares his readiness to conduct home the remnant of Israel from all parts of their dispersion, to compassionate and relieve their infirmities, and to provide them with all necessary accommodations by the way, [Jer 31:6-9]. The news is carried into distant lands; and the nations are summoned to attend to the display of God's power and goodness in rescuing his people from their stronger enemies, and in supplying them after their return with all manner of good things to the full extent of their wants and desires, [Jer 31:10-14]. Here the scene changes; and two new personages are successively introduced, in order to diversify the same subject, and to impress it more strongly. Rachel first; who is represented as just risen from the grave, and bitterly bewailing the loss of her children; for whom she anxiously looks about, but none are to be seen. Her tears are dried up; and she is consoled with the assurance that they are not lost for ever, but shall in time be brought back to their ancient borders, [Jer 31:15-17]. Ephraim comes next. He laments his past undutifulness with great contrition and penitence, and professes an earnest desire of amendment. These symptoms of returning duty are no sooner discerned in him, than God acknowledges him once more as a darling child and resolves with mercy to receive him, [Jer 31:18-20]. The virgin of Israel is then earnestly exhorted to hasten the preparations for their return; and encouraged with having the prospect of a signal miracle wrought in her favor, [Jer 31:21], [Jer 31:22]. And the vision closes at last with a promise that the Divine blessing should again rest upon the land of Judah; and that the men of Judah should once more dwell there, cultivating it according to the simplicity of ancient institutions, and fully discharged from every want, [Jer 31:23-26]. In the third part, by way of appendix to the vision, the following gracious promises are specifically annexed: That God would in time to come supply all the deficiencies of Israel and Judah; and would be as diligent to restore as he had ever been to destroy them; and would not any more visit the offenses of the fathers upon the children, [Jer 31:27-30]. That he would make with them a better covenant than he had made with their forefathers, [Jer 31:31-34]. That they should continue his people by an ordinance as firm and as lasting as that of the heavens, [Jer 31:35-37]. And that Jerusalem should again be built, enlarged in its extent, and secure from future desolation, [Jer 31:38-40]."

### Verse 1

[¶42] At the same time - This discourse was delivered at the same time with the former; and, with that, constitutes the Book which God ordered the prophet to write.

[¶43] Will I be the God of all the families of Israel - I shall bring back the ten tribes, as well as their brethren the Jews. The restoration of the Israelites is the principal subject of this chapter.

## 891. Jeremiah · 32 of 55

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### Verse 2

[¶1] The people which were left of the sword - Those of the ten tribes that had escaped death by the sword of the Assyrians.

[¶2] Found grace in the wilderness - The place of their exile; a wilderness, compared to their own land. - Dahler. See [Isa 40:3]

### Verse 3

[¶4] I have loved thee with an everlasting love - ואהבת עולם אהבתיך veahabath olam ahabtich, "and with the old love I have loved thee." "Also, with a love of long standing have I loved thee." - Blayney. "But I love thee always." - Dahler. I still bear to the Jewish people that love which I showed to their fathers in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the promised land. Can it be supposed, by any person seriously considering the context, that these words are spoken of God's decree of election in behalf of the Jews? Those who make it such, act most injudiciously on their own principle; for, how few of the Jews have ever given evidence that they were the children of God, from their restoration from Babylon to the present day! The words refer simply to their state as a people, most wondrously preserved by the providence and mercy of God, as a standing proof of the Divine authority of the Scriptures, and as an evidence of God's displeasure against sin.

[¶5] Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee - "Therefore have I lengthened out mercy to thee." - Blayney,

[¶6] C'est pourquoi je t'ai conserve ma grace.

[¶7] Dahler. "Therefore I have preserved my grace to thee."

[¶8] The exiles, who had not for a long time received any proofs of the Divine protection, are represented as deploring their state; but God answers, that though this may seem to be the case, he has always loved them; and this continued love he will show by bringing them out of their captivity. However creeds may fare, this is the sense of the passage; all the context proves this.

### Verse 4

[¶10] O virgin of Israel - Israelites in general; now called virgin, because restored to their ancient purity.

[¶11] With thy tabrets - Women in general played on these; they were used in times of rejoicing, and accompanied with dancing. To these customs, still preserved, the prophet alludes.

### Verse 5

[¶13] Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria - This was the regal city of the Israelites, as Jerusalem was of the Jews.

[¶14] Shall eat them as common things - By the law of Moses no man was permitted to eat of the fruit of his vineyard till the fifth year after planting. For the first three years it was considered uncircumcised, unclean, not fit to be eaten; in the fourth year it was holy to the Lord, the fruit belonged to Him; in the fifth year he might use it for himself, [Lev 19:23-25]. But in the time here mentioned the fruit should be considered common - lawful at all times to be eaten.

### Verse 6

[¶16] For there shall be a day - Literally, for this is the day, or the day is come. The watchmen - the prophets.

[¶17] Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion - Let both Israelites and Jews join together in the worship of the Lord.

### Verse 7

[¶19] The chief of the nations - The same as Jacob or Israel; for most certainly this people was once the most honorable on the face of the earth.

[¶20] O Lord, save thy people - Let the Jews earnestly intercede in behalf of their Israelitish brethren; or let them rejoice and praise the Lord, who hath saved the remnant of Israel. So Dr. Blayney thinks the clause should be understood.

### Verse 8

[¶22] I will bring them from the north country - From Babylon.

[¶23] From the coasts of the earth - The ten tribes were carried away partly into Assyria by Tiglath-pileser, and partly into Mesopotamia and Media by Shalmaneser, [2Kgs 15:29]; [2Kgs 17:6]. Assyria and Media, being very distant from Palestine, might have been called, in prophetic language, the coasts of the earth.

[¶24] The blind and the lame - I will so effectually remove all difficulties out of the way, so provide for them on the journey, so supernaturally support their bodies and minds, that the veriest invalids shall safely proceed to, and happily arrive at, the end of their journey.

### Verse 9

[¶26] They shall come with weeping - Duly penetrated with a sense of their sins, they shall deeply deplore them; and, while weeping for them, earnestly supplicate God to have mercy upon them.

[¶27] By the rivers of waters - I will so guide and provide for them in the arid deserts, that they shall find streams of water whenever necessary. Every one knows of how much consequence water is to travelers in the eastern deserts.

[¶28] Ephraim is my first-born - Ephraim, being the most considerable, is often put for the whole of the ten tribes.

### Verse 12

[¶30] And shall flow together - Perhaps this may refer to their assembling at the three great national feasts, the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles.

[¶31] Their soul shall be as a watered garden - Full of the light, life, and power of God; so that they shall rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in every thing.

### Verse 14

[¶33] And I will satiate the soul of the priests - The worship of God being restored, they shall have their proper share of the victims brought to the temple.

### Verse 15

[¶35] A voice was heard in Ramah - The Ramah mentioned here, (for there were several towns of this name), was situated in the tribe of Benjamin, about six or seven miles from Jerusalem. Near this place Rachel was buried; who is here, in a beautiful figure of poetry, represented as coming out of her grave, and lamenting bitterly for the loss of her children, none of whom presented themselves to her view, all being slain or gone into exile. St. Matthew, who is ever fond of accommodation, applies these words, [Mat 2:17], [Mat 2:18], to the massacre of the children at Bethlehem. That is, they were suitable to that occasion, and therefore he so applied them; but they are not a prediction of that event.

### Verse 16

[¶37] They shall come again from the land of the enemy - This could not be said of the murdered innocents at Bethlehem; they never came again; but the Jews, who had gone into captivity, did come again from the land of their enemy to their own border.

### Verse 18

[¶39] I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself - The exiled Israelites are in a state of deep repentance.

[¶40] Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised - I was at first like an unbroken and untoward steer, the more I was chastised the more I rebelled; but now I have benefited by thy correction.

[¶41] Turn thou me - I am now willing to take thy yoke upon me, but I have no power. I can only will and pray. Take the matter into thy own hand, and fully convert my soul.

### Verse 19

[¶43] After that I was turned - Converted from my sin, folly, and idolatry.

[¶44] I repented - To conviction of sin, I now added contrition for sin. Conviction, in this sense of the word, must precede contrition or repentance. As soon as a man sees himself lost and undone, he is convicted of sin; when convicted, he begins to mourn. Thus contrition follows conviction.

[¶45] I smote upon my thigh - My sorrow grew deeper and deeper; I smote upon my thigh through the extremity of my distress. This was a usual sign of deep affliction. See [Eze 21:12]. It was the same among the ancient Greeks. So Homer: - Ως εφατ' αυταρ Αρης θαλερω πεπληγετο μηρω Χερσι καταπρηνεσσ,ολοφυρομενος δε προσηυδα.

## 892. Jeremiah · 33 of 55

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[¶0] IL. lib. 15:113. "She spake: and with expanded arms, his thighs

[¶1] Smiting, thus sorrowful, the god exclaimed."

[¶2] Cowper. - αυταρ Αχιλλευς Μηρω πληξαμενος Πατροκληα προσεειπεν.

[¶3] IL. lib. 16:124. "Achilles saw it, smote his thigh, and said."

[¶4] Cowper.

[¶5] I have often seen persons in deep grief act thus.

### Verse 20

[¶7] Is Ephraim my dear son? - It is impossible to conceive any thing more tenderly affectionate than this. Let us consider the whole account. The ten tribes, called here Ephraim, for the reason before alleged, are represented as acknowledging their sins. I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself; and in his lamentation he says,

[¶8] 1. Thou hast chastised me.

[¶9] 2. Though he at first rebelled against the chastisement, yet at last he submitted and acknowledged his offenses.

[¶10] 3. He turned from all his offenses; he was converted.

[¶11] 4. After his conversion, (שובי shubi), he repented; after conviction came contrition, as before stated.

[¶12] 5. Being in a state of godly sorrow, he was instructed, הודעי hivvadei, he got a thorough knowledge of the desperate wickedness of his heart and life.

[¶13] 6. Having received this instruction, he was filled with excessive grief; which is signified here by smiting on his thigh. See above.

[¶14] 7. He finds that from his youth up he had been sinning against God; and although his youthful sins had long passed from his memory, yet the light of God brought them back, and he was ashamed and confounded at the sight of them.

[¶15] 8. In this state of confusion and distress God sees him; and, commiserating his state, thus speaks: -

[¶16] 1. Is Ephraim my dear son? Bad as he is in his own sight, and in the sight of my justice, he is now a penitent, and to me is precious.

[¶17] 2. However loathsome and disfigured he may be with sin and sorrow, he is to me a pleasant child - a child of delights; one in whose conversion I delight, and my angels rejoice.

[¶18] 3. I did speak against him: כי מדי דברי בו ki middey dabberi bo, for "from the abundance of my speaking in him;" accusing, threatening, promising, exhorting, encouraging; "I do still earnestly remember him." God has taken much pains with him, and is unwilling to give him up; but now that he repents, he has not received the grace of God utterly in vain.

[¶19] 4. God feels a yearning desire towards him; המו מעי לו hamu meai lo, "my bowels are agitated for him." I feel nothing towards him but pity and love. When a sinner turns to God, God ceases to be angry with him.

[¶20] 5. God expresses his determination to save him; ארחמנו רחם rachem arachamennu, "I will be affectionately merciful to him, with tender mercy, saith the Lord." He shall find that I treat him as a father does a returning prodigal son. So every penitent is sure to find mercy at the hand of God.

### Verse 21

[¶22] Set thee up waymarks - Alluding to stones, or heaps of stones, which travelers in the desert set up to ascertain the way, that they may know how to return. Mark the way to Babylon: thither ye shall certainly go; but from it ye shall as certainly return.

### Verse 22

[¶24] A woman shall compass a man - נקבה תסובב גבר nekebah tesobeb gaber, "A weak woman shall compass or circumvent a strong man." This place has given much trouble to Biblical critics. By many Christian writers it is considered a prophecy of the miraculous conception of the holy virgin; but as I am sure no such meaning is in the words, nor in the context, so I am satisfied no such meaning can be fairly brought out of them. Houbigant thinks there is a small error in the text, i.e., תשובב teshobeb, shall return, and not תסובב tesobeb, shall compass. This reading is found in two of Kennicott's MSS., and he contends that the passage should be read, "The wife shall return to her husband;" alluding to the conversion of the Jewish people, called above a backsliding daughter. This makes a good sense; but I do not see why this should be called a new thing in the earth. After all, I think it likely that the Jews in their present distressed circumstances are represented under the similitude of a weak defenseless female נקבה nekebah; and the Chaldeans under that of a fierce strong man, גבר gaber, who had prevailed over and oppressed this weak woman. But, notwithstanding the disparity between them, God would cause the woman - the weak defenseless Jews, to compass - to overcome, the strong man - the powerful Babylonians. And this the prophet says would be a new thing in the land; for in such a case the lame would take the prey. The context favors both these meanings. Dr. Blayney gives a sense very near to this: "A weak woman shall repulse a strong or mighty man." It is most likely a proverbial expression.

### Verse 23

[¶26] The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice - After their return they shall De remarkably prosperous. Piety and industry shall go hand in hand; they shall have their husbandmen, their shepherds, and neatherds, [Jer 31:24]. And Jerusalem shall become a righteous city, and the temple shall be a place of holiness; so the weary there shall have rest, and the sorrowful shall be abundantly comforted, [Jer 31:24], [Jer 31:25].

### Verse 26

[¶28] Upon this I awaked - It appears that the prophecy, commencing with [Jer 30:2] and ending with [Jer 31:25] of this chapter, was delivered to the prophet in a dream. Dahler supposes it to be a wish; that the prophet, though he could not hope to live to that time, might be permitted to awake up from his tomb; and, having seen this prosperity, would be content to return to his grave.

### Verse 27

[¶30] I will sow - with the seed of man and with the seed of beast - I will multiply both men and cattle.

### Verse 29

[¶32] The fathers have eaten a sour grape - A proverbial expression for, "The children suffer for the offenses of their parents." This is explained in the next verse: "Every one shall die for his own iniquity." No child shall suffer Divine punition for the sin of his father; only so far as he acts in the same way can he be said to bear the sins of his parents.

### Verse 31

[¶34] A new covenant - The Christian dispensation.

### Verse 33

[¶36] After those days - When vision and prophecy shall be sealed up, and Jesus have assumed that body which was prepared for him, and have laid down his life for the redemption of a lost world, and, having ascended on high, shall have obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit to purify the heart; then God's law shall, by it, be put in their inward parts, and written on their hearts; so that all within and all without shall be holiness to the Lord. Then God will be truly their God, received and acknowledged as their portion, and the sole object of their devotion; and they shall be his people, filled with holiness, and made partakers of the Divine nature, so that they shall perfectly love him and worthily magnify his name.

### Verse 34

[¶38] And they shall teach no more - It shall be a time of universal light and knowledge; all shall know God in Christ, from the least to the greatest; the children shall be taught to read the New Covenant, and to understand the terms of their salvation.

[¶39] I will forgive their iniquity - It shall be a time of General Pardon; multitudes shall be daily in the Christian Church receiving the witness of God's Spirit, and in their life and conversation witnessing a good confession. How wonderfully is this prophecy fulfilled in the age of Bibles, Sunday schools, and village preaching.

### Verse 36

[¶41] If those ordinances - As sure as the sun shall give light to the day, and the moon to the night, so surely shall the Jews continue to be a distinct people. The same thing is expressed in other words in the next verse. Hitherto this prophecy has been literally fulfilled; the Jews are still a distinct people from all the dwellers upon earth. Every attempt that has been made in any country to naturalize and unite them with the people of that country, has proved abortive. The well-circumstanced attempt made this year (1830) in England, when the strongest interest was excited in their behalf, has also utterly failed. And why? Because of God's purpose expressed in [Jer 31:35-37] of the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah.

### Verse 38

[¶43] The city shall be built to the Lord - This cannot mean the city built after the return from Babylon, for two reasons:

[¶44] 1. This is to be much greater in extent;

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[¶0] 2. It is to be permanent, never to be thrown down, [Jer 31:40]. It must therefore mean, if taken literally at all, the city that is to be built by them when they are brought in with the fullness of the Gentiles.

[¶1] The tower of Hananeel - This stood in the northeast part of the city; from thence the wall proceeded to the corner gate, (probably the same as the old gate), thus named from its running out into an angle in that part.

### Verse 39

[¶3] Upon the hill Gareb - Gareb and Goath are out of the limits of this city. The latter is supposed to be Golgotha; that is, the heap of Gotha, which, being the place where our Lord was crucified, was without the city. These hills were a little to the north-west of the old city walls: but are destined to be within the new city. See Dr. Blayney on all these verses.

### Verse 40

[¶5] The whole valley of the dead bodies - The valley of the son of Hinnom.

[¶6] And all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse-gate toward the east - All these places, the fuller's field, etc., shall be consecrated to the Lord, and become a part of this new city; so that this will appear to be a city much more extensive than the city of Jerusalem ever was; and to be suited to that time, when the people shall have the law written in their hearts, and God shall have filled the land with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. Talia saecla currite! "Make speed, ye happy times!"

### Introduction

[¶8] Jeremiah, now confined for his faithful admonitions, foretells the fate of the king and city, [Jer 32:1-5]. According to the direction of God, he buys of his cousin Hanameel a field in Anathoth; the contract, or deed of sale, being subscribed, sealed, and witnessed, and delivered to Baruch, together with a duplicate not sealed, who is commanded to put them into an earthen vessel that they may remain there for many days, [Jer 32:6-14]. This transaction of the prophet, which is entered and subscribed in the public register, God constitutes a sign or pledge of the Jews' return from the Babylonish captivity, and of their again possessing houses, fields, and vineyards, in their own land, and by their own right, according to their tribes and families, [Jer 32:15]. Jeremiah's prayer, in which he recounts God's marvellous acts towards the children of Israel, and deeply deplores the lamentable state of the country, and the numerous provocations which have led to it, [Jer 32:16-25]. After which God is introduced declaring his purpose of giving up his people into the hands of their enemies, [Jer 32:26-35]; promising, however, to restore them in due time to their ancient possessions, and to make with them an everlasting covenant, [Jer 32:36-44].

### Verse 1

[¶10] The word that came - This prophecy bears its own date: it was delivered in the tenth year of Zedekiah, which answered to the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzar. It appears from [2Kgs 25:8], that the eleventh year of Zedekiah was the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar; and consequently, that the eighteenth of that monarch must have been the tenth of the Jewish king.

### Verse 2

[¶12] Then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem - The siege had commenced the year before, and continued a year after ending in the fifth month of the following year; consequently, the siege must have lasted about eighteen months and twenty-seven days. See [2Kgs 25:18].

### Verse 4

[¶14] And shall speak with him mouth to mouth - He shall be reduced to a state of the most abject servitude. The slave was obliged to fix his eyes on every motion of the master whilst giving his orders, who often condescended to give them only by dumb signs.

### Verse 7

[¶16] The right of redemption is thine - The law had established that the estates of a family should never be alienated. If, therefore, a man through poverty was obliged to sell his patrimony, the nearest relative had a right to purchase it before all others, and even to redeem it, if it had been sold to another. This is what is called the right of goel, or kinsman, [Lev 25:25]. And in the year of jubilee the whole reverted to its ancient master [Lev 25:13].

### Verse 8

[¶18] This was the word of the Lord - It was by his appointment that I was to make this purchase. The whole was designed as a symbolical act, to show the people that there would be a return from Babylon, that each family should re-enter on its former possessions, and that a man might safely purchase on the certainty of this event.

### Verse 9

[¶20] Weighed him the money - It does not appear that there was any coined or stamped money among the Jews before the captivity; the Scripture, therefore, never speaks of counting money, but of weighing it.

[¶21] Seventeen shekels of silver - The shekel at this time must have been a nominal coin; it was a thing of a certain weight, or a certain worth. Seventeen shekels was the weight of the silver paid: but it might have been in one ingot, or piece. The shekel has been valued at from two shillings and threepence to two shillings and sixpence, and even at three shillings; taking the purchase-money at a medium of the value of the shekel, it would amount only to about two pounds two shillings and sixpence. But as estates bore value only in proportion to the number of years before the jubilee, and the field in question was then in the hands of the Chaldeans, and this cousin of Jeremiah was not likely to come back to enjoy it after seventy years, (nor could he then have it, as a jubilee would intervene and restore it to the original family), and money must now be very scarce and high in its value, the seventeen shekels might have been a sufficient sum for a field in those circumstances, and one probably not large in its dimensions.

### Verse 10

[¶23] I subscribed the evidence - We have here all the circumstances of this legal act:

[¶24] 1. An offer is made of the reversion of the ground, till the jubilee, to him who would then of right come into possession.

[¶25] 2. The price is agreed on, and the silver weighed in the balances.

[¶26] 3. A contract or deed of sale is drawn up, to which both parties agreeing,

[¶27] 4. Witnesses are brought forward to see it signed and sealed; for the contract was both subscribed and sealed.

[¶28] 5. A duplicate of the deed was drawn, which was not to be sealed, but to lie open for the inspection of those concerned in some public place where it might be safe and always to be seen.

[¶29] 6. The original, which was sealed up, was put in an earthen pitcher in order to be preserved from accidents.

[¶30] 7. This was delivered by the purchaser into the hands of a third party, to be preserved for the use of the purchaser, and witnesses were called to attest this delivery.

[¶31] 8. They subscribed the book of the purchase, perhaps a town book, or register, where such purchases were entered. Baruch was a scribe by profession; and the deeds were delivered into his hands, before witnesses, to be preserved as above.

[¶32] Perhaps the law, in this case, required that the instrument should be thus lodged. But, in the present case, both the deeds, the original and the duplicate, were put into the earthen pitcher because the city was about to be burnt; and if lodged as usual, they would be destroyed in the general conflagration. See [Jer 32:14].

### Verse 15

[¶34] Houses and fields - shall be possessed again - That is, this is an evidence that the captivity shall not last long: houses, etc., shall here be possessed again, either by their present owners or immediate descendants.

[¶35] The young might return; at least, all under ten years of age: there was no natural impossibility that they should not live till they should be fourscore.

### Verse 16

[¶37] I prayed unto the Lord - And what a prayer! What weight of matter, sublimity of expression, profound veneration, just conception, Divine unction, powerful pleading, and strength of faith! Historical, without flatness; condensed, without obscurity; confessing the greatest of crimes against the most righteous of Beings, without despairing of his mercy, or presuming on his goodness: a confession that, in fact, acknowledges that God's justice should smite and destroy, had not his infinite goodness said, I will pardon and spare.

### Verse 19

[¶39] Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of - men - Thou art omniscient, and knowest all things; thou art omnipresent, and seest all things.

### Verse 24

[¶41] Behold the mounts - The huge terraces raised up to plant their engines on, that they might throw darts, stones, etc., into the city.

[¶42] Because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence - The city was now reduced to extreme necessity; and from the siege continuing nearly a year longer, we may conclude that the besieged made a noble defense.

### Verse 29

[¶44] With the houses, upon whose roofs - As it is most probable that Baal was the sun, they might have chosen the tops of the houses, which were always flat, with battlements around, to offer incense and sacrifice to him at his rising, and while he was in sight above the horizon.

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### Verse 30

[¶1] For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil - They have all been transgressors from their earliest history.

[¶2] For the children of Israel - The ten tribes.

[¶3] Have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands - They have been sinners beyond all others, being excessive idolaters. Their hands have formed the objects of their worship.

### Verse 33

[¶5] Though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them - From the frequent reference to this, we may naturally conclude that morning preaching prevailed much in Judea.

### Verse 37

[¶7] Behold, I will gather them out of all countries - A promise often repeated. See [Jer 29:14], and the notes on [Jer 31:8] (note), etc.

### Verse 39

[¶9] I will give them one heart - And that a clean one.

[¶10] And one way - And that a holy and safe one: and to have this clean heart, and to walk in this good way, will be for the good of them and their children after them. God's blessing is a profitable inheritance. They shall have but one object of worship, and one way of salvation; and being saved from sin, idolatry, and destruction, they must necessarily be happy within and happy without.

### Verse 41

[¶12] Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good - Nothing can please God better than our coming to him to receive the good which, with his whole heart and his whole soul, he is ready to impart. How exceedingly condescending are these words of God!

### Verse 42

[¶14] Will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised - God's word cannot fail. The Jews have never yet received the good that God has promised. Nothing like the fulfillment of these promises took place after their return from Babylon; therefore there remaineth yet a rest for these ancient people of God; and it is under the Christian dispensation that they are to have it.

### Verse 44

[¶16] Men shall buy fields for money - This is a reference to the symbolical purchase mentioned at the beginning of the chapter; that may be considered by them as a sure sign of their restoration, not only to the same land, but to their respective inheritances in that land. This the power of God could alone perform.

### Introduction

[¶18] In this chapter the prophet predicts a restoration of Israel and Judah to the favor of God, attended with such glorious circumstances as shall astonish all the world, [Jer 33:1-9]. Their prosperity from that period is then described by a beautiful enumeration of circumstances, [Jer 33:10-13]. Thus leads to the promise of the Messiah, the grand subject of the prophetical writings, and the happiness and stability which the children of Israel shall enjoy under his government; promises which, in so far as they respect the great body of the Jews, remain still to be fulfilled, [Jer 33:14-26].

### Verse 1

[¶20] Moreover the word of the Lord - This was in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, Jeremiah being still shut up in prison: but he was now in the court of the prison, where the elders and the king's officers, etc., might consult him with the greater ease; for they continued to inquire, foolishly thinking, that if he would but prophesy good things, that these must come, or that he had sufficient power with God to induce him to alter his mind, - destroy the Chaldeans, and deliver the city.

### Verse 2

[¶22] Thus saith the Lord the Maker thereof - עשה osah, the doer of it. That is, he who is to perform that which he is now about to promise.

[¶23] Thus translated by Dahler. -

[¶24] Voici ce que dit l'Eternel, qui fait ce qu'il a dit. - "Thus saith the Lord, who doth that which he hath said."

[¶25] The word Jehovah, not Lord, should be used in all such places as this.

### Verse 3

[¶27] Call unto eve, and I will answer thee - To me alone it belongs to reveal what is future; and the stupendous things which are now coming are known only to myself. These idolaters go to their gods to get information relative to the issue of the present commotions; but there is no light in them. Ask thou, O Jeremiah, and I will tell thee the great and mighty things which even thou knowest not.

### Verse 4

[¶29] Thus saith the Lord - This is a new confirmation of what has already been said, viz., The city shall fall, a number of the inhabitants shall perish, the rest shall be carried into captivity; but the nation shall be preserved, and the people return from their captivity.

### Verse 6

[¶31] Behold I will bring it health and, cure - ארכה aruchah, an extensive plaister; or, as we phrase it, a plaister as large as the sore. I will repair the losses of families by numerous births, and bless the land with fertility.

### Verse 7

[¶33] The captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel - This must respect the latter times, for the ten tribes did not return with the Jews at the termination of the seventy years.

### Verse 8

[¶35] I will cleanse them - These promises of pardon and holiness must be referred to their state under the Gospel, when they shall have received Jesus as the promised Messiah.

### Verse 9

[¶37] They shall fear and tremble - The surrounding nations shall be persuaded that it is the hand of the Almighty that has wrought this change in your behalf; and shall fear to molest you, and tremble lest they should incur the displeasure of your God by doing you any kind of evil.

### Verse 11

[¶39] The voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts - That is, the voice of the Levites in the sacred service: intimating that the temple should be rebuilt, and the public service restored.

### Verse 12

[¶41] A habitation of shepherds - See on [Jer 31:12] (note).

### Verse 14

[¶43] Behold the days come - See [Jer 23:5], and [Jer 31:31].

[¶44] That good thing which I have promised - By my prophets: for those who have predicted the captivity have also foretold its conclusion, though not in such express terms as Jeremiah did. See [Hos 1:10], etc.; [Hos 2:15], etc.; [Hos 6:11], etc.; [Amo 9:14], etc., and [Jer 3:12], etc. The end of the captivity has been foretold by Micah, [Mic 7:9], etc.; Zephaniah, [Zep 3:10], etc.; and by Jeremiah, [Jer 16:15]; [Jer 23:3]; [Jer 29:10]; [Jer 32:37]. The Targum explains [Jer 32:14], [Jer 32:15], and [Jer 32:16] of the Messiah.

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### Verse 16

[¶1] And this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness - See what has been said on [Jer 23:6] (note), which is generally supposed to be a strictly parallel passage: but they are very different, and I doubt whether they mean exactly the same thing. As to our translation here, it is ignorant, and almost impious; it says that Jerusalem, for that is the antecedent, shall be called The Lord our Righteousness. The pronoun לה lah, which is translated her, is the masculine affix, in the Chaldaic form, which frequently occurs; and Dr. Blayney translates, "And this is He whom Jehovah shall call our righteousness," or Justification. Perhaps there is a sense which these words will bear far more congenial to the scope of the place. I will give the original, as before: וזה אשר יקרא לה יהוה צדקנו vezeh asher yikra lah, Yehovah tsidkenu, "And this one who shall call to her is the Lord our Justification;" that is, the salvation of the Jews shall take place when Jesus Christ is proclaimed to them as their Justifier, and they receive him as such.

[¶2] Instead of לה lah, her or him, Chaldaice, the Vulgate, Chaldee, and Syriac have read לו lo, him, less ambiguously; and this reading is supported by one or two MSS. This emendation renders the passage here more conformable to that in [Jer 23:6]; but if the translation above be admitted, all embarrassment is gone.

[¶3] One of my own MSS. has לה loh, with the masculine points, and no mappik on the ה he; and for tsidkenu has צדקינו tsidkeynu, the contracted plural form, our righteousness: but this may be a mistake. The passages in this and the twenty-third chapter were not, I am satisfied, intended to express the same thing. I suppose that above refers to the preaching or proclaiming Christ crucified to the Jews, when the time shall arrive in which they shall be incorporated with the Gentile Church. Dahler translates this as he did that in chap. 23, which is a perfect oversight: but paraphrastic renderings are too often introduced by this learned foreigner.

### Verse 18

[¶5] Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man - This is a repetition of the promise made to Phinehas, [Num 25:13].

### Verse 20

[¶7] If ye can break my covenant of the day - See the note on [Jer 31:36].

### Verse 22

[¶9] So will I multiply the seed of David - This must be understood of the spiritual David, Jesus Christ, and his progeny, genuine Christians. The two families which God chose for the priesthood, that of Aaron and Phinehas, or, on its being taken away from him, that of Ithamar, [1Sam 2:35], are both extinct. Nor has the office of high priest, or priest of any kind offering sacrifice, been exercised among the Jews for nearly eighteen hundred years; therefore what is said here of the priesthood must refer to the spiritual priesthood, at the head of which is Jesus Christ.

### Verse 24

[¶11] The two families which the Lord hath chosen - Some think these refer to the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah; but they never can be considered as two distinct families, being of one and the same race. Others think that the families of Jacob and David are intended; but neither were these distinct. If the two families which had the priesthood be not meant, then the regal family of David, and the sacerdotal family of Jacob through Levi, may be designed. See [Jer 33:26]. Following the spiritual interpretation, neither the regal nor sacerdotal family has failed; for Jesus is a King and a Priest, and all true believers in him are kings and priests unto God and the Lamb. And the highest King that ever reigned is He who is the seed of David, King of kings and Lord of lords, who has all power in heaven and in earth.

### Introduction

[¶13] This chapter contains two prophecies: the first, delivered during the siege of Jerusalem, predicts to Zedekiah the taking and burning of the city, with his own peaceful death and honorable burial, [Jer 34:1-7]. The second was delivered when the Chaldeans had for some time broken up the siege. It reproves the Jews for their conduct towards their brethren of the poorer sort, whom they released, by a solemn covenant, from bondage, in the extremity of their danger; but compelled to return to it when they thought that danger over, [Jer 34:8-11]. For this God threatens them with the sword, pestilence, and famine; and with the return of the Chaldeans, who should take the city, destroy it and the other cities by fire, and make an utter desolation of the whole land of Judea, [Jer 34:12-22].

### Verse 1

[¶15] The word which came unto Jeremiah - This discourse was delivered in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah. The chapter contains two discourses; one, [Jer 34:1-7], which concerns the taking of the city, and Zedekiah's captivity and death; the other, [Jer 34:8-22], which is an invective against the inhabitants of Jerusalem for having Hebrew male and female slaves. These, having been manumitted at the instance of the prophet, were afterwards brought back by their old masters, and put in the same thraldom; for which God threatens them with severe judgments.

[¶16] Nebuchadnezzar - and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion - That is, his army was composed of soldiers gathered out of Babylon, and out of all his tributary dominions: one hundred and twenty provinces.

### Verse 2

[¶18] He shall burn it with fire - This was a newly-added circumstance. Among many ancient nations they burned the bodies of the more illustrious dead. Odours were used in the burning: they then gathered the ashes, and put them into an urn or pitcher, sometimes into a strong vessel, and buried them. Many of these have been digged up in different parts of England, where the Romans had stations.

### Verse 3

[¶20] Thou shalt not escape - This, however, he had attempted, but was taken in his flight. See [Jer 39:4], and [Jer 52:7], etc.

### Verse 5

[¶22] Thou shalt die in peace - Thou shalt not die a violent death; and at thy death thou shalt have all those funereal solemnities which were usual at the demise of kings. See [2Chr 16:14].

[¶23] So shall they burn odours for thee - Scented wood and other odoriferous substances are placed on the funeral pile of the rich Hindoos, and burned with the body.

[¶24] And they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! - They will recite the funeral dirge that begins with those words. See the note on [Jer 22:18] (note).

### Verse 6

[¶26] Spake all these Words unto Zedekiah - He delivered this message at the hazard of his life. Jeremiah feared God, and had no other fear.

### Verse 7

[¶28] Against Lachish, and against Azekah - These were two cities of Judah of considerable importance: they had been strongly fortified by Rehoboam, [2Chr 11:9-11]; [2Chr 32:9].

### Verse 8

[¶30] The word that came unto Jeremiah - Here the second discourse begins, which was delivered probably a short time, even a few days, after the former.

[¶31] Zedekiah had made a covenant - We find no account elsewhere of this covenant: "Every man should let his man-servant and his maid-servant go free;" i.e., as we learn from [Jer 34:14], on the sabbatical year; for the seventh year was the year of release. See [Deu 15:12].

### Verse 11

[¶33] But afterward they turned - They had agreed to manumit them at the end of the seventh year; but when the seventh year was ended, they recalled their engagement, and detained their servants. This, I believe, is what is here meant.

### Verse 16

[¶35] Ye - polluted my name - Had made the covenant in my name, calling me to witness it; now ye have dishonored my name, by breaking that covenant, and acting contrary to my law.

### Verse 17

[¶37] I proclaim a liberty for you - Ye proclaimed liberty to your slaves, and afterward resumed your authority over them; and I had in consequence restrained the sword from cutting you off: but now I give liberty to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and to the captivity, to destroy and consume you, and enslave you: for ye shall be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth. The prophet loves to express the conformity between the crime and its punishment. You promised to give liberty to your enslaved brethren; I was pleased, and bound the sword in its sheath. You broke your promise, and brought them again into bondage; I gave liberty to the sword, pestilence, and famine, to destroy multitudes of you, and captivity to take the rest. Thus you are punished according to your crimes, and in the punishment you may see the crime. Sword, pestilence, and famine are frequently joined together, as being often the effects of each other. The sword or war produces famine; famine, the pestilence.

### Verse 18

[¶39] When they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof - This was the ancient and most solemn way of making a covenant.

[¶40] 1. A calf as sacrifice was offered to God to secure his approbation and support.

[¶41] 2. The victim was then exactly divided from the nose to the rump; the spinal marrow being divided longitudinally, in the most careful manner, that the half of it might remain on each side.

[¶42] 3. These divided parts were laid opposite to each other, a passage being left between them.

[¶43] 4. The contracting parties entered this passage at each end, met in the middle, and there took the covenant oath; adjudging themselves to death should they break this covenant.

[¶44] 5. Then they both feasted on the victim. In reference to this last circumstance, God says he will give their bodies for meat to the fowls of heaven and to the beasts. This is a farther conformity between the crime and the punishment. See my notes on [Gen 15:9-17] (note).

## 896. Jeremiah · 37 of 55

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### Verse 21

[¶1] The king of Babylon's army, which are gone up from you - Nebuchadnezzar, hearing that there was an Egyptian army coming to the relief of Jerusalem, raised the siege, went out, and met and defeated the Egyptians. It was in the interim this prophecy was delivered.

### Verse 22

[¶3] I will - cause them to return - They did return; re-invested the city; and, after an obstinate defense, took it, plundered it, and burned it to the ground, taking Zedekiah and his princes captive.

### Introduction

[¶5] Jeremiah is commanded to go to the Rechabites, who, on the approach of the Chaldean army, took refuge in Jerusalem; and to try their obedience to the command of Jonadab, (or Jehonadab, [2Kgs 10:15], [2Kgs 10:16]), their great progenitor, who lived in the reign of Jehu, king of Israel, upwards of two hundred and fifty years before this time, offers them wine to drink, which they refuse, [Jer 35:1-11]. Hence occasion is taken to upbraid the Jews with their disobedience to God, their heavenly Father, [Jer 35:12-17]; and a blessing is pronounced on the Rechabites, [Jer 35:18], [Jer 35:19].

### Verse 1

[¶7] The word which came - in the days of Jehoiakim - What strange confusion in the placing of these chapters! Who could have expected to hear of Jehoiakim again, whom we have long ago buried; and we have now arrived in the history at the very last year of the last Jewish king.

[¶8] This discourse was probably delivered in the fourth or fifth year of Jehoiakim's reign.

### Verse 2

[¶10] The house of the Rechabites - The Rechabites were not descendants of Jacob; they were Kenites, [1Chr 2:55], a people originally settled in that part of Arabia Petroea, called the land of Midian; and most probably the descendants of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Compare [Num 10:29-32], with [Jdg 1:16]; [Jdg 4:11].

[¶11] Those mentioned here seem to have been a tribe of Nomades or Scenite Arabs, who fed their flocks in the deserts of Judea; they preserved the simple manners of their ancestors, considering the life of the inhabitants of cities and large towns as the death of liberty; believing that they would dishonor themselves by using that sort of food that would oblige them to live a sedentary life. Jonadab, one of their ancestors, had required his children and descendants to abide faithful to the customs of their forefathers; to continue to live in tents, and to nourish themselves on the produce of their flocks; to abstain from the cultivation of the ground, and from that particularly of the vine and its produce. His descendants religiously observed this rule, till the time when the armies of the Chaldeans had entered Judea; when, to preserve their lives, they retired within the walls of Jerusalem. But even there we find, from the account in this chapter, they did not quit their frugal manner of life: but most scrupulously observed the law of Jonadab their ancestor, and probably of this family.

[¶12] When the children of Hobab, or Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, were invited by him to accompany them in their journeying to the Promised Land, it is very likely that they continued their ancient usages, and lived a patriarchal life. Their property, consisting in nothing but their cattle and tents, was easily removable from place to place; and their manner of living was not likely to excite the envy or jealousy of those who had learnt to relish the luxuries of life; and therefore we may naturally conclude that as they were enemies to none, so they had no enemies themselves. Nature has few wants. Most of those which we feel are factitious; and howsoever what we call civilization may furnish us with the conveniences and comforts of life, let us not deceive ourselves by supposing that these very things do not create the very wants which they are called in to supply; and most certainly do not contribute to the comfort of life, when the term of life is considerably abridged by their use. But it is time to return to the case of the Rechabites before us.

### Verse 3

[¶14] The whole house of the Rechabites - That is, the family - the chiefs of which are here specified.

### Verse 4

[¶16] Igdaliah, a man of God - A prophet or holy man, having some office in the temple.

### Verse 5

[¶18] Pots full of wine, and cups - The cups were to draw the wine out of the pots, in order to drink it.

### Verse 6

[¶20] We will drink no wine - The reason is given above. Their whole religious and political institution consisted in obedience to three simple precepts, each of which has an appropriate spiritual meaning: -

[¶21] Ye shall drink no wine - Ye shall preserve your bodies in temperance, shall use nothing that would deprive you of the exercise of your sober reason at any time; lest in such a time ye should do what might be prejudicial to yourselves, injurious to your neighbor, or dishonorable to your God.

[¶22] Neither shall ye build house - Ye shall not become residents in any place; ye shall not court earthly possessions; ye shall live free from ambition and from envy, that ye may be free from contention and strife.

[¶23] But - ye shall dwell in tents - Ye shall imitate your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest of the patriarchs, who dwelt in tents, being strangers and pilgrims upon earth, looking for a heavenly country, and being determined to have nothing here that would indispose their minds towards that place of endless rest, or prevent them from passing through temporal things so as not to lose those that are eternal.

[¶24] There must necessarily be more in these injunctions than meets the eye in the letter of this account.

### Verse 8

[¶26] Thus have we obeyed the voice - We have considered these precepts so very reasonable, so very useful, so conducive to the health of both body and mind, and sanctioned by such a respectable antiquity that we scrupulously and religiously observe them.

### Verse 11

[¶28] But - when Nebuchadnezzar - came up - If at present we appear to be acting contrary in any respect to our institutions, in being found in the city, necessity alone has induced us to take this temporary step. We have sought the shelter of the city for the preservation of our lives; so now we dwell at Jerusalem.

### Verse 14

[¶30] The words of Jonadab - are performed - but ye hearkened not unto me - The Lord, knowing the fidelity of this people, chose to try them in this way, that he might, by their conscientious obedience to the precepts of their forefathers, show the Jews, to their confusion, their ingratitude to him, and their neglect of his precepts, which if a man do, he shall live by them.

### Verse 17

[¶32] I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil - Having, by the conduct of the Rechabites, clearly and fully convicted them of ingratitude and rebellion, he now proceeds to pronounce sentence against them.

### Verse 19

[¶34] Thus saith the Lord - Jonadab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever - His name shall ever be honorable, and his posterity shall enjoy my continual protection, and there shall never be found a time in which men of his spirit shall be wanting as patterns of genuine simplicity, filial obedience, purity of manners, and deadness to the world. True Christians may be considered as the genuine successors of these ancient Rechabites; and some suppose that the Essenes, in our Lord's time, were literally their descendants and that these were they who followed our Lord particularly, and became the first converts to the Gospel. If so, the prophecy is literally fulfilled: they shall never want a man to stand before God, to proclaim his salvation, and minister to the edification and salvation of others, as long as the earth shall endure.

### Introduction

[¶36] God commands Jeremiah to write down in one roll or volume all the predictions he had uttered against Israel and Judah, and all the surrounding nations, from the day of his vocation to the prophetic office, that the house of Judah might have abundant warning of the dreadful calamities with which their country was about to be visited, if not prevented by a timely repentance, [Jer 36:1-3]. The prophet employs Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, to write from his mouth all the words of the Lord, and then to read them publicly upon a fast day in the Lord's house, [Jer 36:4-8]. A general fast is proclaimed in the following year, viz., the fifth year of the reign of Jehoiakim; upon which occasion Baruch, in obedience to the prophet's command, reads the words of Jeremiah to all the people at the entry of the new gate of the temple, [Jer 36:9], [Jer 36:10]. The princes, hearing of this, send for Baruch, who reads the roll to them; at the contents of which they are greatly alarmed, and solemnly resolve to give information to the king, at the same time advising both the prophet and his scribe to hide themselves, [Jer 36:11-19]. Jehoiakim likewise having sent for the roll, Jehudi reads to him a part; and then the king, though advised to the contrary by some of has princes, having cut the leaves, throws the whole into the fire, [Jer 36:20-25], and orders Jeremiah and Baruch to be seized; but they could not be found, because a special providence of God had concealed them, [Jer 36:26]. Jeremiah is commanded to re-write his prophecies, and to denounce the judgments of God against the king who had destroyed the first roll, [Jer 36:27-31]. Baruch accordingly writes from the mouth of Jeremiah a new copy, with numerous additions, [Jer 36:32].

### Verse 1

[¶38] And it came to pass in the fourth year - About the end of this year, see [Jer 36:9]. This discourse also bears its own date, and was probably delivered at a time when the people enjoyed peace, and were about to celebrate one of their annual fasts.

### Verse 2

[¶40] Take thee a roll of a book - Take a sufficient quantity of parchment; cut and stitch it together, that it may make a roll on which to write the words that I have already spoken, that they may serve for a testimony to future generations. The Jewish rolls, several of which now lie before me, were made of vellum, or of sheep-skins dressed in the half-tanned or Basil manner. These were cut into certain lengths, and those parts were all stitched together, and rolled upon a roller. The matter was written on these skins in columns or pages. Sometimes two rollers are used, that as the matter is read from the roll in the left hand, the reader may coil it on the roller in his right. In this form the Pentateuch is written which is read in the synagogues.

### Verse 3

[¶42] It may be that the house of Judah will hear - It was yet possible to avert the judgments which had been so often denounced against them. But in order to this they must -

[¶43] 1. Hear what God has spoken.

[¶44] 2. Every man turn from his evil way.

## 897. Jeremiah · 38 of 55

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[¶0] 3. If they do so, God graciously promises to forgive their iniquity and their sin.

### Verse 4

[¶2] Then Jeremiah called Baruch - This man, so useful to the prophet, and so faithfully attached to him, was by office a scribe; which signifies, not only a writer, but also a man in office; a chancellor, secretary, etc., a learned man; one acquainted with laws and customs.

### Verse 6

[¶4] Upon the fasting day - A day when multitudes of people would be gathered together from all parts to implore the mercy of God. This was a favorable time to read these tremendous prophecies.

### Verse 7

[¶6] Present their supplication - "Let their supplication fall," that they may fall down before God, and deplore their sins.

### Verse 9

[¶8] In the ninth month - Answering to a part of our December.

### Verse 10

[¶10] In the chamber of Gemariah - He was one of the princes of Judah. See [Jer 36:12].

### Verse 17

[¶12] How didst thou write all these words? - At his mouth? - So the text should be pointed. They wished to know whether he had not copied them, or whether he wrote as Jeremiah prophesied.

### Verse 19

[¶14] Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah - They saw that the king would be displeased, and most probably seek their lives; and as they believed the prophecy was from God, they wished to save both the prophet and his scribe; but they were obliged to inform the king of what they had heard.

### Verse 22

[¶16] Winterhouse - A warm apartment suited to the season of the year, (December), when in Palestine there is often snow upon the ground, though it does not last long. A fire on the hearth - a pan or brazier of burning coals. This is the case to the present day. In cold weather the rich burn wood in brass or earthen pans, placed in any part of the room; the indigent burn sticks on the floor.

### Verse 23

[¶18] When Jehudi had read three or four leaves - Rather columns; for the law, and the sacred Hebrew Books, are written in columns of a certain breadth. דלתות delathoth, signifies gates or openings between column and column, or between section and section.

[¶19] He cut it with the penknife - בתער הספר bethaar hassopher, "the knife of the scribe," properly enough penknife.

[¶20] And cast it into the fire - To show his contempt for God's words.

### Verse 25

[¶22] Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah - Three of the princes wished to save the roll, and entreated the king that it might not be burnt. They would have saved it out of the fire, but the king would not permit it to be done.

### Verse 26

[¶24] But the Lord hid them - They had, at the counsel of some of the princes hidden themselves, [Jer 36:19]. And now, though a diligent search was made, the Lord did not permit them to be found.

### Verse 28

[¶26] Take thee again another roll - There was no duplicate of the former preserved; and now God inspired the prophet with the same matter that he had given him before; and there is to be added the heavy judgment that is to fall on Jehoiakim and his courtiers.

### Verse 30

[¶28] He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David - He shall have no successor and himself shall have an untimely end, and shall not even be buried, but his body be exposed to the open air, both night and day. He who wishes to hide his crimes, or take away the evidence which is against him, adds thereby to his iniquities, and is sure in consequence to double his punishment. See the threatening against Jehoiakim, [Jer 22:19] (note), and the note there.

### Verse 32

[¶30] There were added - many like words - All the first roll, with many other threatening and perhaps more minute declarations which were merely of a temporary importance and local application; and the Holy Spirit did not think proper to record them here.

### Introduction

[¶32] Zedekiah succeeds Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, in the Jewish throne, and does that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, [Jer 37:1], [Jer 37:2]. The king sends a message to Jeremiah, [Jer 37:3-5]. God suggests an answer; and foretells the return of the Chaldean army, who should most assuredly take and burn the city, [Jer 37:6-10]. Jeremiah, in attempting to leave this devoted city, and retire to his possession in the country, is seized as a deserter, and cast into a dungeon, [Jer 37:11-15]. The king, after a conference with him, abates the rigour of his confinement, [Jer 37:16-21].

### Verse 1

[¶34] And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah - Of the siege and taking of Jerusalem referred to here, and the making of Zedekiah king instead of Jeconiah, see [2Kgs 24:1] (note), etc., and the notes there.

### Verse 3

[¶36] Zedekiah - to the prophet Jeremiah - He was willing to hear a message from the Lord, provided it were according to his own mind. He did not fully trust in his own prophets.

### Verse 4

[¶38] Now Jeremiah came in and went out - After the siege was raised, he had a measure of liberty; he was not closely confined, as he afterwards was. See [Jer 37:16].

### Verse 5

[¶40] Then Pharaoh's army - This was Pharaoh-hophra or Apries, who then reigned in Egypt in place of his father Necho. See [Eze 29:6], etc. Nebuchadnezzar, hearing that the Egyptian army, on which the Jews so much depended, was on their march to relieve the city, suddenly raised the siege, and went to meet them. In the interim Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord to know whether they might consider themselves in safety.

### Verse 7

[¶42] Pharaoh's army - shall return to Egypt - They were defeated by the Chaldeans; and, not being hearty in the cause, returned immediately to Egypt, leaving Nebuchadnezzar unmolested to recommence the siege.

### Verse 10

[¶44] For though ye had smitten the whole army - Strong words; but they show how fully God was determined to give up this city to fire and sword, and how fully he had instructed his prophet on this point.

## 898. Jeremiah · 39 of 55

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### Verse 12

[¶1] Jeremiah went forth - At the time that Nebuchadnezzar had raised the siege, and gone to meet the Egyptian army.

[¶2] Go into the land of Benjamin - To Anathoth, his native city.

[¶3] To separate himself thence - "To receive a portion thereof among the people;" - Blayney: who supposes that Jeremiah went to receive a portion of the proceeds of his patrimony at Anathoth, which had, previously to the siege, been in the hands of the Chaldeans. The siege being now raised, he thought of looking thus after his own affairs. The Chaldee is to the same sense. "He went that he might divide the inheritance which he had there among the people." Dahler translates, 'He went to withdraw himself from the siege, as many others of the inhabitants." I believe he went to withdraw himself from a city devoted to destruction, and in which he could no longer do any good.

### Verse 13

[¶5] Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans - Thou art a deserter, and a traitor to thy country. As he had always declared that the Chaldeans should take the city, etc., his enemies took occasion from this to say he was in the interest of the Chaldeans, and that he wished now to go to them, and betray the place.

### Verse 15

[¶7] And smote him - Without any proof of the alleged treachery, without any form of justice.

[¶8] In prison to the house of Jonathan - In Asiatic countries there is an apartment in the houses of the officers of the law, to confine all the accused that are brought before them. Jonathan was a scribe or secretary, and had a prison of this kind in his house.

### Verse 16

[¶10] Entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins - The dungeon was probably a deep pit; and the cabins or cells, niches in the sides, where different malefactors were confined. See Blayney.

### Verse 17

[¶12] Is there any word from the Lord? - Is there any farther revelation?

[¶13] There is: - thou shalt be delivered - What bold faithfulness! And to a king, in whose hands his life now lay.

### Verse 19

[¶15] Where are now your prophets - They told you that the Chaldeans should not come; I told you they would. According to my word the Chaldeans are come, and are departed only for a short time.

### Verse 20

[¶17] Cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan - He had been ill used in this man's custody, so as to endanger his life, the place being cold, and probably unhealthy.

### Verse 21

[¶19] Then Zedekiah - the court of the prison - Was contiguous to the king's house, where the prisoners could readily see their friends.

[¶20] Give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street - From the public stores; which he received till all the provisions were spent.

### Introduction

[¶22] The princes of Judah, taking offense at Jeremiah on account of his predicting the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Chaldeans, cause him to be cast into a deep and miry dungeon, [Jer 38:1-6]. Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian, gets the king's permission to take him out, [Jer 38:7-13]. Jeremiah advises the king, who consulted him privately, to surrender to the Chaldeans, [Jer 38:14-23]. The king promises the prophet that he will not put him to death, and requires him not to reveal what had passed to the princes; to whom he accordingly gives an evasive answer, telling them only so much of the conference as related to his request for his life, [Jer 38:24-28].

### Verse 1

[¶24] Then Shephatiah - This was the faction - what Dahler terms the Antitheocratic faction - who were enemies to Jeremiah, and sought his life.

### Verse 3

[¶26] This city shall surely be given - This was a testimony that be constantly bore: he had the authority of God for it. He knew it was true, and he never wavered nor equivocated.

### Verse 4

[¶28] Let this man be put to death - And they gave their reasons plain enough: but the proof was wanting.

### Verse 5

[¶30] He is in your hand - Ye have power to do as you please; I must act by your counsel. Poor weak prince! you respect the prophet, you fear the cabal, and you sacrifice an innocent man to your own weakness and their malice!

### Verse 6

[¶32] So Jeremiah sunk in the mire - Their obvious design was, that he might be stifled in that place.

### Verse 7

[¶34] Ebed-melech - The servant of the king one of the eunuchs who belonged to the palace. Perhaps it should be read, "Now, a servant of the king, a Cushite, one of the eunuchs," etc.

[¶35] The king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin - To give audience, and to administer justice. We have often seen that the gates of cities were the places of public judicature.

### Verse 9

[¶37] My lord the king, these men have done evil - He must have been much in the king's confidence, and a humane and noble spirited man, thus to have raised his voice against the powerful cabal already mentioned.

[¶38] There is no more bread in the city - They had defended it to the last extremity; and it appears that bread had been afforded to the prophet according to the king's commandment, as long as there was any remaining. See [Jer 36:21].

### Verse 10

[¶40] Take from hence thirty men - The king was determined that he should be rescued by force, if the princes opposed.

### Verse 11

[¶42] Went into the house of the king - and took thence - The eastern kings had their wardrobes always well furnished; as garments were a usual present to ambassadors, etc. I cannot think that, in the proper acceptation of the words, these were in any part of the king's house.

[¶43] Old cast clouts, and old rotten rags - The fact seems to be this: there were several garments that had been used, and would not be used again; and there were others which, through continuing long there, had by insects, etc., been rendered useless. These he took, tied to the cord, let down to the prophet, that he might roll them round the ropes, and place them under his arm-pits, so that in being hauled up he might not suffer injury from the ropes, which in this case must sustain the whole weight of his body.

## 899. Jeremiah · 40 of 55

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### Verse 14

[¶1] Into the third entry - A place to enter which two others must be passed through.

### Verse 16

[¶3] As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul - He is the living God, and he is the Author of that life which each of us possesses; and as sure as he lives, and we live by him, I will not put thee to death, nor give thee into the hands of those men who seek thy life. A very solemn oath; and the first instance on record of the profane custom of swearing by the soul.

### Verse 17

[¶5] Wilt assuredly go - On the king's obedience to the advice of the prophet the safety of the city depended.

[¶6] Unto the king of Babylon's princes - The generals of the army then returning to the siege from the defeat of the Egyptians; for Nebuchadnezzar himself was then at Riblah, in Syria, [Jer 39:5], [Jer 39:6].

### Verse 19

[¶8] They mock me - Insult me, and exhibit me in triumph.

### Verse 22

[¶10] All the women - brought forth - I think this place speaks of a kind of defection among the women of the harem; many of whom had already gone forth privately to the principal officers of the Chaldean army, and made the report mentioned in the end of this verse. These were the concubines or women of the second rank.

### Verse 23

[¶12] They shall bring out all thy wives and thy children - These were the women of the first rank, by whom the king had children. These had no temptation to go out to the Chaldeans, nor would they have been made welcome; but the others being young, and without children, would be well received by the Chaldean princes.

### Verse 26

[¶14] I presented my supplication - This was telling the truth, and nothing but the truth, but not the whole truth. The king did not wish him to defile his conscience, nor did he propose any thing that was not consistent with the truth.

### Verse 27

[¶16] The matter was not perceived - They did not question him farther; and the king's commandment to remove him from the house of Jonathan being well known, they took for granted that they had all the information that they sought. And he was most certainly not obliged to relate any thing that might embroil this weak king with his factious but powerful princes, or affect his own life. He related simply what was necessary, and no more.

### Introduction

[¶18] This chapter gives an account of the siege and taking of Jerusalem; the flight, capture, and punishment of Zedekiah; the burning of the city; and the carrying away of the people, (a few of the meanest excepted), to Babylon, [Jer 39:1-10]; also of the release of Jeremiah, and the special orders of Nebuchadnezzar concerning him, [Jer 39:11-14]. The remaining verses relate to the subject of the preceding chapter; and contain promises of personal safety to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian amidst the public calamities, on account of his piety, and his humanity to the prophet, [Jer 39:15-18].

### Verse 1

[¶20] In the ninth year of Zedekiah - in the tenth month - This month is called Tebeth in [Est 2:16]. It began with the first new moon of our January, and it was on the tenth day of this month that Nebuchadnezzar invested the city.

### Verse 2

[¶22] The eleventh year - in the fourth month - This month in the Hebrew calendar is called Thammuz, and commences with the first new moon of our July. The siege had lasted just eighteen months.

[¶23] The city was broken up - A breach was made in the wall by which the Chaldeans entered.

### Verse 3

[¶25] Sat in the middle gate - The city of Jerusalem stood upon two hills, Sion to the south, and Acra to the north, with a deep valley between them. The gate of the center, as the term seems plainly to import, was a gate of communication in the middle of the valley, between the two parts of the city, sometimes called the higher and the lower city. The Chaldeans entered the city on the north side by a breach in the walls, and rushing forward and posting themselves in this gate, in the very heart or center of the city, became thereby masters at will of the whole. Zedekiah with his troop, perceiving this, fled out of the opposite gate on the south side. See Blayney. This is likely; but we know nothing positively on this subject.

[¶26] Nergal-sharezer - These were the principal commanders; but Dr. Blayney thinks that instead of six persons, we have in reality but three, as the name that follows each is a title of office. Thus, Nergal-sharezer, who was Samgar; Nebusarsechim, who was Rab-saris; and Nergal-sharezer, who was Rab-mag. As Nergal-sharezer occurs twice here, and we know that Nebuzaradan was general-in-chief, the first Nergal-sharezer is probably a mistake for Nebuzar-adan, or some other of the commanders. But these things are as uncertain as they are unimportant.

### Verse 4

[¶28] Went forth out of the city by night - Probably there was a private passage under ground, leading without the walls, by which Zedekiah and his followers might escape unperceived, till they had got some way from the city.

[¶29] The way of the plain - There were two roads from Jerusalem to Jericho. One passed over the mount of Olives; but, as this might have retarded his flight, he chose the way of the plain, and was overtaken near Jericho, perhaps about sixteen or eighteen miles from Jerusalem. He had probably intended to have passed the Jordan, in order to escape to Egypt, as the Egyptians were then his professed allies.

### Verse 5

[¶31] To Riblah - This city was situated on the northern frontier of Palestine, and Hamath was a large city belonging also to Syria. See [Gen 10:18].

### Verse 7

[¶33] Bounds him with chains - Margin: "Two brazen chains;" one for his hands, and the other for his feet.

### Verse 9

[¶35] Those that fell away - That deserted to the Chaldeans during the siege.

### Verse 10

[¶37] Left of the poor of the people - The very refuse of the inhabitants, who were not worthy of being carried away; and among them he divided the fields and vineyards of those whom he took away.

### Verse 12

[¶39] Take him - look well to him - Nebuchadnezzar had heard that this prophet had foretold his capture of the city, and had frequently used all his influence to induce Zedekiah to pay the tribute, and not rebel against him; and on this account would be inclined to show the prophet especial favor.

### Verse 16

[¶41] Go and speak to Ebed-melech - The king's servant, the Cushite.

### Verse 18

[¶43] I will surely deliver thee - Thou hast feared the Lord, and not the king, nor his princes, and thou hast taken the part of the prophet, and become his intercessor. Thou shalt not be slain. Thou hast put thy trust in me; thou shalt therefore be safe whithersoever thou goest. They that fear God need fear nothing besides.

### Introduction

[¶45] This and the four following chapters contain a distinct account of what passed in the land of Judah from the taking of Jerusalem to the retreat of the remnant of the people to Egypt; together with the prophecies of Jeremiah concerning that place, whither he himself accompanied them. In this chapter we have an account of the enlargement of Jeremiah by Nebuzar-adan, the captain of the guard, who advises him to put himself under the jurisdiction of Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land of Judea, [Jer 40:1-5]. The prophet and many of the dispersed Jews repair to Gedaliah, [Jer 40:6-12]. Johanan acquaints the governor of a conspiracy against him, but is not believed, [Jer 40:13-16].

## 900. Jeremiah · 41 of 55

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### Verse 1

[¶1] The word that came to Jeremiah - This and the four following chapters contain a particular account of what passed in the land of Judea from the taking of the city to the retreat of the people into Egypt, and the prophecies of Jeremiah concerning them there.

[¶2] Had let him go from Ramah - This has embarrassed most of the commentators. Dr. Blayney has thrown much light upon it by his translation and note: - "The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that Nebu-Zaradan captain of the guards had taken him, and let him go from Ramah: for he had been bound with chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon." "Had Taken Him, and Let Him Go. - Most interpreters have understood בקחתו אתו bekachto otho of Nebuchadnezzar's having first taken Jeremiah as a captive unto Ramah. But if the order of the sentence be well observed, as well as the more common use of the verb לקח lakach, it will, I think, rather appear that those words relate to his taking or having him brought to him, in order to give him his discharge."

### Verse 2

[¶4] The Lord thy God hath pronounced - I know that thou art a true prophet, for what thou hast predicted from thy God is come to pass.

### Verse 4

[¶6] Come; and I will look well unto thee - Thou art now at full liberty to do as thou pleasest; either to come to Babylon or to stay in thy own land.

### Verse 5

[¶8] Go back also to Gedaliah - If thou wilt stay in thy own land, thou hadst best put thyself under the protection of thy countryman Gedaliah, whom the King of Babylon has made governor of the land.

### Verse 8

[¶10] Ishmael the son of Nethaniah - This is he who afterwards murdered Gedaliah. He had been employed to do this by Baalis, king of the Ammonites, with whom he appears to have taken refuge during the siege. See [Jer 40:14].

### Verse 14

[¶12] But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed then not - The account given of this man proves him to have been a person of uncommon greatness of soul. Conscious of his own integrity and benevolence, he took the portrait of others from his own mind; and therefore believed evil of no man, because he felt none towards any in his own breast. He may be reproached for being too credulous and confident: but any thing of this kind that may be justly charged against him serves only to show the greatness of his mind. A little soul is ever suspicious, and ready to believe the worst of every person and thing. A great mind acts always on the contrary.

### Verse 16

[¶14] Thou shalt not do this thing - He cannot be so base.

[¶15] Thou speakest falsely of Ishmael - He thought it quite possible that the man who was capable of becoming an assassin was capable of telling a lie; and therefore he would not credit what he said. Had he been a little more distrustful, he would have saved his own life. The next chapter shows that Johanan's information was too true. So noble Gedaliah lost his life by not believing that evil of others of which he himself was incapable.

### Introduction

[¶17] Ishmael executes his conspiracy against Gedaliah the governor and his companions, and attempts to carry away the Jews who were with him captives to the Ammonites, [Jer 41:1-10]; but Johanan recovers them, and purposes to flee into Egypt, [Jer 41:11-18].

### Verse 1

[¶19] Now - in the seventh month - Answering to the first new moon in our month of October.

[¶20] There they did eat bread together - This was the same as making a solemn covenant; for he who ate bread with another was ever reputed a friend.

### Verse 2

[¶22] Smote Gedaliah - See the preceding chapter, [Jer 41:14].

### Verse 5

[¶24] Having their beards shaven - All these were signs of deep mourning, probably on account of the destruction of the city.

### Verse 6

[¶26] Weeping all along as he went - This felonious hypocrite pretended that he also was deeply afflicted, and wished to bear them company in their sorrow.

[¶27] Come to Gedaliah - He will appoint you vineyards and fields.

### Verse 7

[¶29] Slew them - He kept the murder of Gedaliah secret, and no doubt had a band of his assassins lodged in Mizpah; and he decoyed these fourscore men thither that he might have strength to slay them. He kept ten alive because they told him they had treasures hidden in a field, which they would show him. Whether he kept his word with them is not recorded. He could do nothing good or great; and it is likely that, when he had possessed himself of those treasures, he served them as he had served their companions. Grain is preserved to the present day in subterranean pits, called mattamores, in different parts of the east.

### Verse 9

[¶31] Now the pit - was it which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha - See [1Kgs 15:22]. Asa made this cistern as a reservoir for water for the supply of the place; for he built and fortified Mizpah at the time that he was at war with Baasha, king of Israel.

### Verse 10

[¶33] Carried away captive - He took all these that he might sell them for slaves among the Ammonites.

### Verse 14

[¶35] Went unto Johanan - They were weary of the tyranny of Ishmael, and were glad of an opportunity to abandon him.

### Verse 16

[¶37] The women - children, and the eunuchs - These were all most probably, persons who belonged to the palace and harem of Zedekiah: some of them his own concubines and their children.

### Verse 17

[¶39] Dwelt in the habitation of Chimham - The estate that David gave Chimham, the son of Barzillai. See [2Sam 19:37], etc. He took this merely as a resting-place; as he designed to carry all into Egypt, fearing the Chaldeans, who would endeavor to revenge the death of Gedaliah.

### Introduction

[¶41] Johanan and the remnant of the people desire Jeremiah to ask counsel of God what they should do, [Jer 42:1-3]. The prophet assures them of safety in Judea, but destruction in Egypt, [Jer 42:4-18]; and reproves their hypocrisy in asking counsel with which they had no intention to comply, [Jer 42:19-22].

### Verse 1

[¶43] The captains of the forces - The different leaders of the small bands or companies, collected from different parts of the land. The principal are those here named.

## 901. Jeremiah · 42 of 55

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### Verse 3

[¶1] That the Lord thy God may show us - They all thought there was no safety in Jerusalem or in Judea, and therefore determined to leave the land: but they did not know which might be the safest direction to take; for though they inclined to Egypt, yet they wished to know the mind of God on that point.

### Verse 5

[¶3] The Lord be a true and faithful Witness - The Lord is such; and as ye have bound yourselves to obey his voice, he will register the covenant, and bless or curse according as ye shall conduct yourselves in this matter.

### Verse 7

[¶5] After ten days - All this time he was waiting upon God; for it is evident the prophets could not prophesy when they pleased, any more than the disciples of our Lord could work miracles when they wished. The gift of prophecy and the gift of miracles were both dependent on the will of the Most High, and each of them was given only for the moment; and when the necessity was over, the influence ceased.

### Verse 10

[¶7] For I repent me of the evil - The meaning is, As I have punished you only because you continued to be rebellious, I will arrest this punishment as soon as you become obedient to my word. You need not fear the king of Babylon if you have me for your helper; and I will so show mercy to you that he shall see it, and cease from afflicting you, as he shall see that I am on your side.

### Verse 15

[¶9] If ye - set your faces to enter into Egypt, etc - Every evil that ye dreaded by staying in your own land shall come upon you in Egypt.

### Verse 16

[¶11] The sword - and the famine - shall follow close after you - Shall be at your heels; shall overtake and destroy you; for there ye shall die.

### Verse 19

[¶13] Go ye not into Egypt - Why? Because God knew, such was their miserable propensity to idolatry, that they would there adopt the worship of the country, and serve idols.

### Verse 20

[¶15] For ye dissembled in your hearts - What a most miserable and incorrigible people! Ingratitude, hypocrisy, rebellion, and cruelty seem to have been enthroned in their hearts! And what are they still? Just what their fathers were, except in the mere article of idolatry; and that they do not practice because they are indifferent to their own religion and to that of all others. Examine their devotions and their lives, and see whether Charity herself can say they believe in the God of Abraham!

### Verse 21

[¶17] Ye have not obeyed the voice - Though ye have requested to have this particular revelation of the Divine will, and promised obedience, yet have ye not done one thing for which ye sent me to inquire of the Lord.

### Verse 22

[¶19] Now therefore know certainly - As ye have determined to disobey, God has determined to punish. Ye may now follow the full bent of your wicked devices, and I will follow the requisitions of my justice. Ye shall die by the sword, by the pestilence, and by the famine, in the place whither ye desire to go to sojourn. Thus was their doom sealed.

[¶20] With such dispositions and with such rebellion of heart, it is strange that they should put themselves to any trouble to inquire of the Lord relative to their future operations. They did not intend to obey; but as a matter of curiosity they would inquire to hear what the prophet might say; and if according to their own inclination, they would obey.

### Introduction

[¶22] The leading men, discrediting Jeremiah's prophecy, carry the people into Egypt, [Jer 43:1-7]. Jeremiah, by a type, foretells the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, [Jer 43:8-13]. This mode of conveying instruction by actions was very expressive, and frequently practiced by the prophets. The image of Nebuchadnezzar arraying himself with Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment, is very noble. Egypt at this time contended with Babylon for the empire of the east; yet this mighty kingdom, when God appoints the revolution, shifts its owner with as much ease as a shepherd removes his tent or garment, which the new proprietor has only to spread over him. See [Jer 43:12].

### Verse 2

[¶24] Thou speakest falsely - They had no other color for their rebellion than flatly to deny that God had spoken what the prophet related.

### Verse 6

[¶26] Men, and women, and children, and the king's daughters - See the note on [Jer 41:10] (note). It is truly surprising that the Chaldeans should have left behind any of the royal family of Judah! But,

[¶27] 1. Perhaps they knew not there were any.

[¶28] 2. If they did know, they might think, being children of concubines, they could not inherit. Or,

[¶29] 3. That being females, they were not eligible. And they had taken care to seize all Zedekiah's sons, and slay them before his eyes.

### Verse 7

[¶31] Came they even to Tahpanhes - This city was called Daphne by the Greeks, and was situated at the extremity of Lower Egypt, near to Heliopolis. It was called Daphne Pelusiaca. They halted at this place, most probably for the purpose of obtaining the king's permission to penetrate farther into Egypt. It was at this place that, according to St. Jerome, tradition says the faithful Jeremiah was stoned to death by these rebellious wretches; for whose welfare he had watched, prayed, gone through many indignities, and suffered every kind of hardship. And now he sealed the truth of his Divine mission with his blood.

### Verse 9

[¶33] Take great stones - This discourse seems to have been delivered about a year after the destruction of Jerusalem. They pretended that they dared not stay in Judea for fear of the Chaldeans. The prophet here assures them that Nebuchadnezzar shall come to Egypt, extend his conquests in that kingdom, and place his tent over the very place where these stones were laid up, and destroy them. How these prophecies were fulfilled, see at the end of [Jer 44:30] (note).

### Verse 11

[¶35] Such as are for death to death - See the note on [Jer 15:2].

### Verse 12

[¶37] He shall burn them, and carry them away captives - Some of these gods, such as were of wood, he will burn; those of metal he will carry away. Some of them were of gold. See below.

[¶38] Shall array himself with the land of Egypt - Shall take all its wealth, and all its grandeur; shall take all its spoils.

[¶39] As a shepherd putteth on his garment - With as much ease, and with as little opposition; and with as full a confidence that it is now his own.

[¶40] He shall go forth from thence in peace - He shall suffer no interruption, nor endure any disaster in his return from his Egyptian expedition. See the proof of all this in the notes at the end of [Jer 44:30] (note).

### Verse 13

[¶42] He shall break also the images of Beth-shemesh - בית שמש beith shemesh is, literally, the house or temple of the sun; which was worshipped here, and whose images are said to have been of solid gold. These Nebuchadnezzar was to break and carry away; and the houses of the gods - all the temples of Egypt, he was to burn with fire. Beth-shemesh is the same as Heliopolis.

### Introduction

[¶44] Jeremiah reproves the Jews in Egypt for continuing in idolatry after the exemplary judgments indicted by God on their nation for that sin, [Jer 44:1-14]; and, upon their refusing to reform, denounces destruction to them, and to that kingdom wherein they sought protection, vv. 15-30.

## 902. Jeremiah · 43 of 55

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### Verse 1

[¶1] The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews - Dahler supposes this discourse to have been delivered in the seventeenth or eighteenth year after the taking of Jerusalem.

[¶2] Which dwell at Migdol - A city of Lower Egypt, not far from Pelusium.

[¶3] Tahpanhes - Daphne Pelusiaca, the place to which the emigrant Jews first went.

[¶4] Noph - מפס Maphes, Targum. Memphis. a celebrated city of Middle Egypt, and the capital of its district.

[¶5] The country of Pathros - A district of Upper Egypt, known by the name of the Thebais. See Bochart, Lib. Phaleg, lib. iv., c. 22. Thus we find that the Jews were scattered over the principal parts of Egypt.

### Verse 2

[¶7] No man dwelleth therein - The desolation of the land of Judea must have been exceedingly great when this, in almost any sense, could be spoken of it.

### Verse 4

[¶9] O, do not this abominable thing - A strong specimen of affectionate entreaty. One of the finest figures of poetry, when judiciously managed, the anthropopathia, the ascribing human passions to God, is often used by this prophet: so God is said to grieve, to mourn, to have his bowels moved with compassion, to repent, to be angry, etc. Here he is represented as tenderly expostulating: O, do not; or, I entreat you, do not that abominable thing which I hate.

[¶10] 1. Do it not: your God commands.

[¶11] 2. O, do it not: your Father entreats.

[¶12] 3. It is an abominable thing, and should not be done.

[¶13] 4. I hate it, and on that account ye should abstain from it.

### Verse 5

[¶15] But they hearkened not -

[¶16] 1. They disregarded the authority of their God.

[¶17] 2. They were not moved by the entreaties of their most affectionate Father.

[¶18] 3. In abominations they delighted. And,

[¶19] 4. They loved that which God hated; and, apparently, because he hated it.

### Verse 7

[¶21] This great evil against your souls - Will not self-interest weigh with you? See what ruin your conduct has brought upon your country. Your fathers sinned as you are doing; and where are they now? Either destroyed, or in captivity. And you are now taking the same way to your own destruction.

### Verse 9

[¶23] Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers - It seems that the women were principal agents in idolatrous practices; for the queens - the wives, of rulers and of common people, burnt incense to the queen of heaven, (the moon), [Jer 44:17], and poured out drink-offerings to her.

### Verse 15

[¶25] Then all the men - and all the women - We have not seen the women in determined rebellion before. Here they make a common cause with their idolatrous husbands.

### Verse 19

[¶27] And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven - The Moon seems to have been called מלכת melecheth, as the sun was called מלך molech. The Hindoos pour out water to the sun thrice a day; and to the moon whenever they worship her.

[¶28] The idolatrous worship of these people was a sort of imitation of the worship of the true God; only sacrifice was not common in it. The factious women here tell us in what it consisted.

[¶29] 1. They burnt incense to the moon, and perhaps to the sun and the planets.

[¶30] 2. They poured out libations to her.

[¶31] 3. They made and consecrated cakes to her.

[¶32] All these were prescribed in the worship of the true God. See, among others, [Exo 29:23], etc.; [Lev 2:4]; [Lev 23:16]; and [Num 6:15]. And the women vindicate their conduct by asserting that they did all this by the consent of their husbands: "Did we worship her without our men?"

### Verse 22

[¶34] Therefore is your land a desolation - I grant that ye and your husbands have joined together in these abominations; and what is the consequence? "The Lord could no longer bear because of your evil doings; and therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, this day."

### Verse 30

[¶36] Behold I will give Pharaoh-hophra - That is, Pharaoh Apries. How this and the prophecies in the preceding chapter were fulfilled, we learn from ancient historians. The sum of such information is this: the subjects of Pharaoh Apries rebelling, he sent Amasis, one of his generals, to reduce them to their duty. But no sooner had Amasis begun to make his speech, than they fixed a helmet on his head, and proclaimed him king. Amasis accepted the title, and confirmed the Egyptians in their revolt; and the greater part of the nation declaring for him, Apries was obliged to retire into Upper Egypt; and the country being thus weakened by intestine war, was attacked and easily overcome by Nebuchadnezzar, who on quitting it left Amasis his viceroy. After Nebuchadnezzar's departure, Apries marched against Amasis; but, being defeated at Memphis, was taken prisoner, carried to Sais, and was strangled in his own palace, thus verifying this prophecy. See Herodotus in Euterpe.

[¶37] Thus Nebuchadnezzar made an easy conquest of the land. He conquered it as easily as "a shepherd puts on his cloak: he went thence in peace," having clothed himself with its spoils; and left all quiet under a viceroy of his own choosing. The rebellion of Pharaoh's subjects was the "fire that God kindled in Egypt," [Jer 43:12]. And thus was he "delivered into the hands of his enemies," his revolted people; and "into the hand of him who sought his life," i.e., Amasis his general. And thus the whole prophecy was literally fulfilled.

### Introduction

[¶39] This chapter is evidently connected with the subject treated of in the thirty-sixth. Baruch, who had written the prophecies of Jeremiah, and read them publicly in the temple, and afterwards to many of the princes, is in great affliction because of the awful judgments with which the land of Judah was about to be visited; and also on account of the imminent danger to which his own life was exposed, in publishing such unwelcome tidings, [Jer 45:1-3]. To remove Baruch's fear with respect to this latter circumstance, the prophet assures him that though the total destruction of Judea was determined because of the great wickedness of the inhabitants, yet his life should be preserved amidst the general desolation, [Jer 45:4], [Jer 45:5].

### Verse 1

[¶41] The word that Jeremiah - spake unto Baruch - This is another instance of shameless transposition. This discourse was delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, several years before Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans. It is a simple appendage to chap. 36, and there it should have been inserted.

### Verse 3

[¶43] Thou didst say, Wo is me now! - All that were the enemies of Jeremiah became his enemies too; and he needed these promises of support.

[¶44] The Lord hath added grief to my sorrow - He had mourned for the desolations that were coming on his country, and now he mourns for the dangers to which he feels his own life exposed; for we find, from [Jer 36:26], that the king had given commandment to take both Baruch and Jeremiah, in order that they might be put to death at the instance of his nobles.

## 903. Jeremiah · 44 of 55

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### Verse 4

[¶1] Behold, that which I have built - I most certainly will fulfill all those threatenings contained in the roll thou hast written; for I will destroy this whole land.

### Verse 5

[¶3] And seekest thou great things for thyself? - Nothing better can be expected of this people: thy hopes in reference to them are vain. Expect no national amendment, till national judgments have taken place. And as for any benefit to thyself, think it sufficient that God has determined to preserve thy life amidst all these dangers.

[¶4] But thy life will I give unto thee for a prey - This is a proverbial expression. We have met with it before, [Jer 21:9], [Jer 38:2], [Jer 39:18]; and it appears to have this meaning. As a prey or spoil is that which is gained from a vanquished enemy, so it is preserved with pleasure as the proof and reward of a man's own valor. So Baruch's life should be doubly precious unto him, not only on account of the dangers through which God had caused him to pass safely, but also on account of those services he had been enabled to render, the consolations he had received, and the continual and very evident interposition of God in his behalf. All these would be dearer to him than the spoils of a vanquished foe to the hero who had overcome in battle.

[¶5] Spoil may signify unlooked-for gain. The preservation of his life, in such circumstances, must be more than he could reasonably expect; but his life should be safe, and he should have it as a spoil, whithersoever he should go. This assurance must have quieted all his fears.

### Introduction

[¶7] The difference between the preceding and the subsequent prophecies in point of composition is very remarkable; the last excelling much in majesty and elegance. This chapter (of which the first verse forms a general title to this and the five chapters following) contains two distinct prophecies relating to Egypt. The first was delivered previous to an engagement between Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; in which the Egyptians were routed in Carchemish with great slaughter, as here predicted. The prophet sees the mighty preparations; but they are all declared to be of no avail, as God had decreed their fall, [Jer 46:1-6]. The King of Egypt, however, is represented as marching with all the confidence of victory, like a river overflowing its banks, and threatening all around with its inundation, [Jer 46:7], [Jer 46:8]. But this immense armament of Pharaoh-necho, consisting of various nations, shall, by a righteous judgment of God, receive such a signal overthrow near the river Euphrates, that the political consequence of Egypt shall be thereby irretrievably ruined, and its remaining power become contemptible in the sight of the nations, [Jer 46:9-12]. The other prophecy, beginning at the thirteenth verse, relates to the memorable overthrow of the Egyptians by Nebuchadnezzar, subsequent to his siege of Tyre, in the sixteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, [Jer 46:13-26]. The promise, in the conclusion of the chapter, of preservation to the Jews, (who have for many ages continued a distinct people, when the various nations of antiquity who oppressed them, or with whom they had any intercourse, have long ago ceased to have any separate and visible existence), has been most remarkably fulfilled; and is a very signal act of providence, and a pledge of the restoration of Israel to the Divine favor, when the time of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, [Jer 46:27], [Jer 46:28].

### Verse 1

[¶9] The word of the Lord - against the Gentiles - This is a general title to the following collection of prophecies, written concerning different nations, which had less or more connection with the Jews, either as enemies, neighbors, or allies.

[¶10] They were not written at the same time; and though some of them bear dates, yet it would be difficult to give them any chronological arrangement. Dahler's mode of ascertaining the times of their delivery may be seen in the table in the introduction.

### Verse 2

[¶12] Pharaoh-necho - This was the person who defeated the army of Josiah, in which engagement Josiah received a mortal wound, of which he died, greatly regretted, soon after at Megiddo. After this victory, he defeated the Babylonians, and took Carchemish; and, having fortified it, returned to his own country. Nabopolassar sent his son Nebuchadnezzar with an army against him, defeated him with immense slaughter near the river Euphrates, retook Carchemish, and subdued all the revolted provinces, according to the following prophecies.

### Verse 3

[¶14] Order ye the buckler - This is the call to the general armament of the people against the Chaldeans.

### Verse 4

[¶16] Furbish the spears - Cleanse, brighten, and sharpen them; from the Franco-Gallic fourbir, to polish, brighten.

[¶17] Brigandines - A coat of mail, especially that which was made scale fashion; one plate overlapping the other, like the scales of fish.

### Verse 5

[¶19] Wherefore have I seen them dismayed - What! such a numerous, formidable, and well-appointed army panic-struck? So that they have turned back - fled apace, and looked not round; while their mighty ones - their generals and commanders, striving to rally them, are beaten down.

### Verse 6

[¶21] Let not the swift flee away - Even the swiftest shall not be able to escape.

[¶22] They shall - fall toward the north - By the Euphrates, which was northward of Judea. Here the Egyptian army was routed with great slaughter.

### Verse 7

[¶24] Who is this that cometh up as a flood - The vast concourse of people is here represented as a river: for instance, the Jordan, suddenly swollen with the rains in harvest, rolling its waters along, and overflowing the whole country. A fine image to represent the incursions of vast armies carrying all before them. Such was the army of Pharaoh-necho in its march to Carchemish.

### Verse 9

[¶26] The Ethiopians - Hebrews Cush, Phut, and the Ludim. This army was composed of many nations. Cush. which we translate Ethiopians, almost invariably means the Arabians; and here, those Arabs that bordered on Egypt near the Red Sea. Phut probably means the Libyans; for Phut settled in Libya, according to Josephus. Phut and Cush were two of the sons of Ham, and brothers to Mitsraim, the father of the Egyptians, [Gen 10:6]; and the Ludim were descended from Mitsraim; see [Gen 10:13]. Bochart contends that the Ludim were Ethiopians, and that they were famous for the use of the bow. Phaleg, lib. 4:26.

### Verse 10

[¶28] For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts - The prophet represents this as a mighty sacrifice, where innumerable victims were slain.

### Verse 11

[¶30] Go up into Gilead, and take balm - An irony. Egypt is so completely enfeebled by this overthrow, that her political wound is utterly incurable. This figure is used with the more propriety here, as the Egyptians have been celebrated from the remotest antiquity for their knowledge of medicine.

### Verse 12

[¶32] The nations have heard of thy shame - Of thy disgrace, by this prodigious slaughter of thy troops.

### Verse 13

[¶34] How Nebuchadrezzar - should come and smite the land of Egypt - See on Jeremiah 44 (note). This was after Amasis had driven Pharaoh-necho into Upper Egypt. See [Jer 44:30].

### Verse 14

[¶36] Migdol - Magdolum, a city of Lower Egypt. Noph, Memphis. Tahpanhes, Daphne. See before, [Jer 44:1] (note).

[¶37] Round about thee - The Phoenicians, Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, all prostrated by the arms of the Chaldeans.

### Verse 15

[¶39] They stood not, because the Lord did drive them - The Lord panic-struck them, and drove them back.

### Verse 16

[¶41] One fell upon another - In their terror and confusion ranks fell on ranks, and overturned each other.

[¶42] Let us go again to our own people - Let us flee to our own country with all possible speed. These were the auxiliaries.

### Verse 17

[¶44] They did cry there - Dr. Blayney translates this cry thus: - - "O Pharaoh, king of Egypt, A tumult hath frustrated the appointed meeting."

[¶45] These allies sent their excuse to Pharaoh, that the disasters they had met with had prevented them from joining him as they had intended.

## 904. Jeremiah · 45 of 55

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### Verse 18

[¶1] As Tabor is among the mountains - This mountain is situated in the plain of Esdraelon in Galilee, on the confines of the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar, [Jos 19:22]. It stood by itself, separated from all the other mountains by deep valleys, and is the highest of the whole.

[¶2] And as Carmel by the sea - Carmel is a mountain on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, on the southern frontier of the tribe of Asher. Were the Egyptians as distinguished for valor and strength as the mountains Tabor and Carmel are for height among the other mountains in their vicinity, they should not be able to stand the shock of the Chaldean army.

### Verse 19

[¶4] Furnish thyself to go into captivity - The thing is unavoidable; prepare for this calamity.

### Verse 20

[¶6] Egypt is like a very fair heifer - Fruitful and useful; but destruction cometh out of the north, from Chaldea. It may be that there is an allusion here to Isis, worshipped in Egypt under the form of a beautiful cow.

### Verse 21

[¶8] Are fled away together - Perhaps there is a reference here to the case of a cow stung with gnats. She runs hither and thither not knowing where to go; so shall it be with this scattered people.

### Verse 22

[¶10] The voice - shall go like a serpent - See [Isa 29:4] (note), and the note there.

### Verse 23

[¶12] They shall cut down her forest - Supposed to mean her cities, of which Egypt had no fewer than one thousand and twenty.

### Verse 24

[¶14] The hand or the people of the north - The Chaldeans.

### Verse 25

[¶16] The multitude of No - אמון מנא Amon minno, the Amon of No, called by the Greeks Διοσπολις, or Jupiter's city. It was the famous Thebes, celebrated anciently for its hundred gates. Amon was the name by which the Egyptians called Jupiter, who had a famous temple at Thebes.

[¶17] The word Pharaoh is twice repeated here; and Dr. Dahler thinks that one may design Pharaoh Hophrah, and the other Amasis, the new king.

### Verse 26

[¶19] Afterward it shall be inhabited - That is, within forty years, as Ezekiel had predicted, [Eze 29:13].

### Verse 27

[¶21] Fear not - my servant Jacob - In the midst of wrath God remembers mercy. Though Judah shall be destroyed, Jerusalem taken, the temple burnt to the ground, and the people carried into captivity, yet the nation shall not be destroyed. A seed shall be preserved, out of which the nation shall revive.

### Verse 28

[¶23] I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee; but I will not make a full end of thee - The Jews still remain as a distinct people, while the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, etc., are no more!

[¶24] On this subject, I cannot withhold from my readers the following very judicious remarks of Bp. Newton, in his Dissertations on the Prophecies. "The preservation of the Jews through so many ages, and the total destruction of their enemies, are wonderful events; and are made still more wonderful by being signified beforehand by the spirit of prophecy, as particularly in the passage before us. Their preservation is really one of the most illustrious acts of Divine Providence. They are dispersed among all nations, yet not confounded with any. The drops of rain which fall, nay the great rivers which flow into the ocean, are soon mingled with and lost in that immense body of waters. And the same, in all human probability, would have been the fate of the Jews; they would have been mingled and lost in the common mass of mankind: but, on the contrary, they flow into all parts of the world, mix with all nations, and yet keep separate from all. They still live as a distinct people; and yet they nowhere live according to their own laws, nowhere elect their own magistrates, nowhere enjoy the full exercise of their religion. Their solemn feasts and sacrifices are limited to one certain place; and that hath been now for many ages in the hands of strangers and aliens, who will not suffer them to come thither. No people have continued unmixed so long as they have done; not only of those who have sent colonies into foreign countries, but even of those who have remained in their own country. The northern nations have come in swarms into the more southern parts of Europe: but where are they now to be discerned and distinguished? The Gauls went forth in great bodies to seek their fortune in foreign parts; but what traces or footsteps of them are now remaining any where? In France, who can separate the race of the ancient Gauls from the various other people who from time to time have settled there? In Spain, who can distinguish between the first possessors, the Spaniards, and the Goths and Moors, who conquered and kept possession of the country for some ages? In England, who can pretend to say certainly which families are derived from the ancient Britons, and which from the Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans? The most ancient and honorable pedigrees can be traced up only to a certain period; and beyond that there is nothing but conjecture and uncertainty, obscurity and ignorance. But the Jews can go up higher than any nation; they can even deduce their pedigree from the beginning of the world. They may not know from what particular tribe or family they are descended; but they know certainly that they all sprang from the stock of Abraham. And yet the contempt with which they have been treated, and the hardships they have undergone in almost all countries, should, one would think, have made them desirous to forget or renounce their original: but they profess it; they glory in it; and after so many wars, massacres, and persecutions, they still subsist; they are still very numerous. And what but a supernatural power could have preserved them in such a manner as no other nation upon earth has been preserved? Nor is the providence of God less remarkable in the destruction of their enemies, than in their own preservation. For, from the beginning, who have been the great enemies and oppressors of the Jewish nation, removed them from their own land, and compelled them into captivity and slavery? The Egyptians afflicted them much, and detained them in bondage several years. The Assyrians carried away captive the ten tribes of Israel; and the Babylonians, afterwards, the two remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The Syro-Macedonians, especially Antiochus Epiphanes, cruelly persecuted them; and the Romans utterly dissolved the Jewish state, and dispersed the people so as that they have never been able to recover their city and country again. And where are now those great and famous monarchies, which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God? Are they not vanished as a dream; and not only their power, but their very names, lost in the earth? The Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians were overthrown and entirely subjugated by the Persians; and the Persians, it is remarkable, were the restorers of the Jews as well as the destroyers of their enemies. The Syro-Macedonians were swallowed up by the Romans; and the Roman empire, great and powerful as it was, was broken into pieces by the incursions of the northern nations; while the Jews are subsisting as a distinct people at this day. And what a wonder of providence is it, that the vanquished should so many ages survive the victors; and the former be spread all over the world, while the latter are no more! Nay, not only nations have been punished for their cruelties to the Jews, but Divine vengeance has pursued even single persons who have been their persecutors and oppressors. The first-born of Pharaoh was destroyed; and he himself with his host, drowned in the sea. Nebuchadnezzar was stricken with madness, and the crown was transferred from his family to strangers. Antiochus Epiphanes and Herod died in great agonies, with ulcers and vermin issuing from them. Flaccus, governor of Egypt, who barbarously plundered and oppressed the Jews of Alexandria, was afterwards banished and slain; and Caligula, who persecuted the Jews for refusing to do Divine honors to his statue, was murdered in the flower of his age, after a short and wicked reign. But where are now, - since they have absolutely rejected the Gospel. and been no longer the peculiar people of God, - where are now such visible manifestations of a Divine interposition in their favor? The Jews would do well to consider this point; for, rightly considered, it may be an effectual means of opening their eyes, and of turning them to Christ our Savior." See Bp. Newton on the prophecies, dissert. 8 sect. 2. And see the notes on Ezekiel, where the calamities of these miserable people are largely detailed.

### Introduction

[¶26] Among the nations doomed to suffer from the hostilities of Nebuchadnezzar are the Philistines, (see [Jer 25:20].) And the calamities predicted in this chapter befell them probably during the long siege of Tyre, when their country was desolated to prevent their giving Tyre or Sidon any assistance, [Jer 47:1-5]. The whole of this chapter is remarkably elegant. The address to the sword of Jehovah, at the close of it, is particularly a very beautiful and bold personification, [Jer 47:6], [Jer 47:7].

### Verse 1

[¶28] The word of the Lord - against the Philistines - The date of this prophecy cannot be easily ascertained. Dr. Blayney thinks it was delivered about the fourth year of Zedekiah, while Dahler assigns it some time in the reign of Josiah.

[¶29] Before that Pharaoh smote Gaza - We have no historical relation of any Egyptian king smiting Gaza. It was no doubt smitten by some of them; but when, and by whom, does not appear either from sacred or profane history.

### Verse 2

[¶31] Waters rise up out of the north - Waters is a common prophetic image for a multitude of people. The north here, as in other places of this prophecy, means Chaldea.

### Verse 3

[¶33] The stamping of the hoofs - At the galloping sound, -

[¶34] Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum, is a line of Virgil, (Aen. 8:596), much celebrated; and quoted here by Blayney, where the galloping sound of the horses' hoofs is heard. In the stamping of the horses, the rushing of the chariots, and the rumbling of the wheels, our translators intended to convey the sense by the sound of the words, and they have not been unsuccessful. Their translation of the original is at the same time sufficiently literal.

[¶35] The fathers shall not look back - Though their children are left behind, they have neither strength nor courage to go back to bring them off.

### Verse 4

[¶37] To spoil all the Philistines - These people, of whom there were five seignories, occupied the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, to the south of the Phoenicians.

[¶38] Tyrus and Zidon - Places sufficiently remarkable both in the Old and New Testament, and in profane history. They belonged to the Phoenicians; and at this time were depending on the succor of their allies, the Philistines. But their expectation was cut off.

[¶39] The remnant of the country of Caphtor - Crete, or Cyprus. Some think it was a district along the coast of the Mediterranean, belonging to the Philistines; others, that the Cappadocians are meant.

### Verse 5

[¶41] Baldness is come upon Gaza - They have cut off their hair in token of deep sorrow and distress.

[¶42] Ashkelon is cut off - Or put to silence; another mark of the deepest sorrow. Ashkelon was one of the five seignories of the Philistines, Gaza was another.

[¶43] The remnant of their valley - Or plain; for the whole land of the Philistines was a vast plain, which extended along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea from Phoenicia to the frontiers of Egypt. The whole of this plain, the territory of the Philistines, shall be desolated.

## 905. Jeremiah · 46 of 55

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### Verse 6

[¶1] O thou sword of the Lord - This is a most grand prosopopoeia - a dialogue between the sword of the Lord and the prophet. Nothing can be imagined more sublime.

[¶2] Put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still - Shed no more blood, destroy no more lives, erase no more cities, desolate no more countries. Rest: - hast thou not been long enough at this work of judgment? O be still: - let wars and desolations cease for ever.

### Verse 7

[¶4] How can it be quiet - This is the answer of the Sword. I am the officer of God's judgments, and he has given me a commission against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore; all the coast where the Philistines have their territories. The measure of their iniquities is full; and these God hath appointed this sword to ravage. The Philistines were ever the implacable enemies of the Jews, and the basest and worst of all idolaters. On these accounts the sword of the Lord had its commission against them; and it did its office most fearfully and effectually by the hand of the Chaldeans.

### Introduction

[¶6] The following prophecy concerning the Moabites is supposed to have had its accomplishment during the long siege of Tyre in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The whole of this chapter is poetry of the first order. The distress of the cities of Moab, with which it opens, is finely described. The cries of one ruined city resound to those of another, [Jer 48:1-3]. The doleful helpless cry of the children is heard, [Jer 48:4]; the highways, on either hand, resound with the voice of weeping, [Jer 48:5]; and the few that remain resemble a blasted tree in the wide howling waste, [Jer 48:6]. Chemosh, the chief god of the Moabites, and the capital figure in the triumph, is represented as carried off in chains, with all his trumpery of priests and officers, [Jer 48:7]. The desolation of the country shall be so general and sudden that, by a strong figure, it is intimated that there shall be no possibility of escape, except it be in the speediest flight, [Jer 48:8], [Jer 48:9]. And some idea may be formed of the dreadful wickedness of this people from the consideration that the prophet, under the immediate inspiration of the Almighty, pronounces a curse on those who do the work of the Lord negligently, in not proceeding to their utter extermination, [Jer 48:10]. The subject is then diversified by an elegant and well-supported comparison, importing that the Moabites increased in insolence and pride in proportion to the duration of their prosperity, [Jer 48:11]; but this prosperity is declared to be nearly at an end; the destroyer is already commissioned against Moab, and his neighbors called to sing the usual lamentation at his funeral, [Jer 48:13-18]. The prophet then represents some of the women of Aroer and Ammon, (the extreme borders of Moab), standing in the highways, and asking the fugitives of Moab, What intelligence? They inform him of the complete discomfiture of Moab, [Jer 48:19-24], and of the total annihilation of its political existence, [Jer 48:25]. The Divine judgments about to fall upon Moab are farther represented under the expressive metaphor of a cup of intoxicating liquor, by which he should become an object of derision because of his intolerable pride, his magnifying himself against Jehovah, and his great contempt for the children of Israel in the day of their calamity, [Jer 48:26], [Jer 48:27]. The prophet then points out the great distress of Moab by a variety of striking figures, viz., by the failure of the customary rejoicings at the end of harvest, by the mournful sort of music used at funerals, by the signs which were expressive among the ancients of deep mourning, as shaving the head, clipping the beard, cutting the flesh, and wearing sackcloth; and by the methods of catching wild beasts in toils, and by the terror and pitfall, vv. 28-46. In the close of the chapter it is intimated that a remnant shall be preserved from this general calamity whose descendants shall be prosperous in the latter days, [Jer 48:47].

### Verse 1

[¶8] Against Moab - This was delivered some time after the destruction of Jerusalem. The Moabites were in the neighborhood of the Ammonites, and whatever evils fell on the one would naturally involve the other. See [Isa 15:1-9] and [Isa 16:1-14] on this same subject.

[¶9] Wo unto Nebo! for it is spoiled - This was a city in the tribe of Reuben, afterwards possessed by the Moabites. It probably had its name from Nebo, one of the principal idols of the Moabites.

[¶10] Kiriathaim - Another city of the Moabites.

[¶11] Misgab is confounded - There is no place of this name known, and therefore several learned men translate המשגב hammisgab, literally, The high tower, or fortress, which may apply to Kiriathaim, or any other high and well-fortified place.

### Verse 2

[¶13] No more praise of Moab - "The glory of Moab, that it had never been conquered," (Dahler), is now at an end. Dr. Blayney translates: - "Moab shall have no more glorying in Heshbon; They have devised evil against her (saying.)"

[¶14] And this most certainly is the best translation of the original. He has marked also a double paronomasia in this and the next verse, a figure in which the prophets delight; בחשבון חשבו becheshbon chashebu "in Cheshbon they have devised," and מדמן תדמי madmen tiddommi, "Madmena, thou shalt be dumb."

### Verse 3

[¶16] Horonaim - Another city of Moab, near to Luhith. At this latter place the hill country of Moab commenced. "It is a place," says Dahler, "situated upon a height between Areopolis and Zoar."

### Verse 6

[¶18] Flee, save your lives - The enemy is in full pursuit of you.

[¶19] Be like the heath - כערוער caaroer, "like Aroer;" which some take for a city, others for a blasted or withered tree. It is supposed that a place of this name lay towards the north, in the land of the Ammonites, on a branch of the river Jabbok; surrounded by deserts. Save yourselves by getting into the wilderness, where the pursuing foe will scarcely think it worth his while to follow you, as the wilderness itself must soon destroy you.

### Verse 7

[¶21] Chemosh shall go forth into captivity - The grand national idol of the Moabites, [Num 21:29]; [Jdg 11:24]. Ancient idolaters used to take their gods with them to the field of battle. This was probably in imitation of the Israelites, who took the ark with them in such cases.

### Verse 9

[¶23] Give wings unto Moab - There is no hope in resistance, and to escape requires the speediest flight. I cannot conceive how Dahler came to translate thus: Tirez Moab par les chevaux, "Drag Moab away by the hair of the head."

### Verse 10

[¶25] Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully - Moab is doomed to destruction, and the Lord pronounces a curse on their enemies if they do not proceed to utter extirpation. God is the Author of life, and has a sovereign right to dispose of it as he pleases; and these had forfeited theirs long ago by their idolatry and other crimes.

### Verse 11

[¶27] Moab hath been at ease - The metaphor here is taken from the mode of preserving wines. They let them rest upon their lees for a considerable time, as this improves them both in strength and flavour; and when this is sufficiently done, they rack, or pour them off into other vessels. Moab had been very little molested by war since he was a nation; he had never gone out of his own land. Though some had been carried away by Shalmaneser forty years before this, he has had neither wars nor captivity.

[¶28] Therefore his taste remained in him - Still carrying on the allusion to the curing of wines; by resting long upon the lees, the taste and smell are both improved. See the note on [Isa 25:6].

### Verse 12

[¶30] I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander - Dr. Blayney renders צעים tsaim, tilters; those who elevate one end of the wine cask when nearly run out that the remains of the liquor may be the more effectually drawn off at the cock. And this seems to be well supported by the following words, -

[¶31] And shall empty his vessels - I will send such as will carry the whole nation into captivity.

### Verse 13

[¶33] Beth-el their confidence - Alluding to the golden calves which Jeroboam had there set up, and commanded all the Israelites to worship.

### Verse 17

[¶35] How is the strong staff broken - The scepter. The sovereignty of Moab is destroyed.

### Verse 18

[¶37] That dost inhabit Dibon - This was anciently a city of the Reubenites, afterwards inhabited by the Moabites, about two leagues north of the river Arnon, and about six to the east of the Dead Sea. - Dahler.

### Verse 19

[¶39] O inhabitant of Aroer - See the note on [Jer 48:6] (note). This place, being at a greater distance, is counselled to watch for its own safety, and inquire of every passenger, What is done? that it may know when to pack up and be gone.

### Verse 20

[¶41] Tell ye it in Arnon - Apprize the inhabitants there that the territories of Moab are invaded, and the country about to be destroyed, that they may provide for their own safety.

### Verse 21

[¶43] Upon Holon, etc. - All these were cities of the Moabites, but several of them are mentioned in no other place.

### Verse 25

[¶45] The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken - His political and physical powers are no more.

## 906. Jeremiah · 47 of 55

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### Verse 27

[¶1] Was not Israel a derision unto thee? - Didst thou not mock my people, and say their God was no better than the gods of other nations? See [Eze 25:8].

[¶2] Was he found among thieves? - Did the Israelites come to rob and plunder you? Why then mock them, and rejoice at their desolation, when their enemies prevailed over them? This the Lord particularly resents.

### Verse 28

[¶4] Dwell in the rock - Go to the most inaccessible places in the mountains.

[¶5] The hole's mouth - And into the most secret eaves and holes of the earth.

### Verse 29

[¶7] The pride of Moab - See on [Isa 16:1] (note).

### Verse 32

[¶9] O vine of Sibmah - See on [Isa 16:8] (note).

### Verse 34

[¶11] As a heifer of three years old - Which runs lowing from place to place in search of her calf, which is lost or taken from her.

### Verse 37

[¶13] For every head shall be bald - These, as we have seen before, were signs of the deepest distress and desolation.

### Verse 40

[¶15] He shall fly as an eagle - The enemy will pounce upon him, carry him off, and tear him to pieces.

### Verse 42

[¶17] Moab shall be destroyed from being a people - They shall not have a king or civil governor: and I doubt whether there be any evidence that they were ever reinstated in their national character. They were captivated by the Chaldeans; and probably many returned with the Jews on the edict of Cyrus: but as to their being an independent nation after this, where is the positive proof?

### Verse 43

[¶19] Fear, and the pit, and the snare - See the note on [Isa 24:17], [Isa 24:18].

### Verse 45

[¶21] They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon - Heshbon being a fortified place, they who were worsted in the fight fled to it, and rallied under its walls; but, instead of safety, they found themselves disappointed, betrayed, and ruined. See [Jer 48:2] (note), and the note there.

[¶22] But a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon - Jeremiah has borrowed this part of his discourse from an ancient poet quoted by Moses, [Num 21:28] (note); where see the notes.

[¶23] The crown of the head - The choicest persons of the whole nation.

### Verse 46

[¶25] The people of Chemosh - The Moabites, who worshipped Chemosh as their supreme god.

### Verse 47

[¶27] Will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days - I have already expressed doubts (see [Jer 48:42]) whether the Moabites were ever restored to their national distinction. The expressions in this chapter, relative to their total destruction as a people, are so strong and so frequent, that they leave little room for a limited interpretation. That many of them returned on the edict of Cyrus by virtue of which the Jews were restored, I doubt not; but neither the Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, nor even the Jews themselves were ever restored to their national consequence. Perhaps the restoration spoken of here which was to take place in the latter days, may mean the conversion of these people, in their existing remnants, to the faith of the Gospel. Several judicious interpreters are of this opinion. The Moabites were partially restored; but never, as far as I have been able to learn, to their national consequence. Their conversion to the Christian faith must be the main end designed by this prophecy.

### Introduction

[¶29] This chapter is a collection of prophecies relating to several nations in the neighborhood of Judea; and, like those preceding, are supposed to have been fulfilled by the ministry of Nebuchadnezzar during the thirteen years' siege of Tyre. The chapter opens with a prophecy concerning the Ammonites, whose chief city, Rabbah, shall be destroyed; and Malcom, the supreme divinity of the people, with all his retinue of priests and officers, carried into captivity, [Jer 49:1-5]. Promise that the Ammonites shall be restored to their liberty, [Jer 49:6]. Prophecy against the Edomites, (very like that most dreadful one in the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah against the same people), who shall be utterly exterminated, after the similitude of Sodom and Gomorrah, vv. 7-22. Prophecy against Damascus, [Jer 49:23-27]; and against Kedar, [Jer 49:28], [Jer 49:29]. Utter desolation of the kingdoms of Hazor foretold, [Jer 49:30-33]. The polity of the Elamites shall be completely dissolved, and the people dispersed throughout the nations, [Jer 49:34-38]. The Elamites shall be delivered from their captivity in the latter days, [Jer 49:39]. It wilt be proper here to observe that these predictions should not be so explained as if they admitted of merely a private interpretation; for, as Bishop Lowth remarks upon Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Idumeans, "by a figure very common in the prophetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distinguished as enemies of the people and kingdom of God, is put for those enemies in general;" therefore, it is under the Gospel dispensation that these prophecies shall be accomplished to their fullest extent upon all the antichrtstian nations that have sinned after the similitude of the ancient enemies of the people of God under the Mosaic economy.

### Verse 1

[¶31] Concerning the Ammonites - This prophetic discourse was also delivered after the capture of Jerusalem.

[¶32] Hath Israel no sons? - no heir? - The Ammonites, it appears, took advantage of the depressed state of Israel, and invaded their territories in the tribe of Gad, hoping to make them their own for ever. But the prophet intimates that God will preserve the descendants of Israel, and will bring them back to their forfeited inheritances.

[¶33] Why then doth their king - מלכם Malcom or Milcom, the chief idol of the Ammonites. That the idol Milcom is here meant is sufficiently evident from [Jer 49:3], where it is said: "Milcom (not their king) shall go into captivity; his Priests and his princes together." Milcom is also called Molech. Malcom is put here for the Ammonites, as the people of Chemosh in the preceding chapter are put for the Moabites in general.

### Verse 3

[¶35] Run to and fro by the hedges - It is supposed that this may refer to the women making lamentations for the dead, that were in general buried by the walls of their gardens; but others think that it refers to the smaller cities or villages, called here the daughters of Rabbah, the metropolis; the inhabitants of which are exhorted to seek safety somewhere else, as none can be expected from them, now that the enemy is at hand.

### Verse 4

[¶37] Wherefore gloriest thou - Though thy valleys be fruitful, yet glory not in them. Though thou have much political and military power, do not trust in them, nor in the multitude of thy cities; a stronger than thou is coming against thee.

### Verse 6

[¶39] Afterward I will bring again - The Ammonites are supposed to have returned with the Moabites and Israelites, on permission given by the edict of Cyrus.

### Verse 7

[¶41] Concerning Edom - This is a new and separate discourse.

[¶42] Teman - A part of Idumea, put here for the whole country.

### Verse 8

[¶44] Dwell deep - An allusion to the custom of the Arabs, who, when about to be attacked by a powerful foe, strike their tents, pack up their utensils, lade their camels, which they can do in a couple of hours, and set off to the great desert, and so bury themselves in it that no enemy either will or can pursue, as it is the Arabs alone that know the deserts, and can find water and provender for their support.

## 907. Jeremiah · 48 of 55

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[¶0] Dedan - Was a city of Idumea, not far from Teman.

### Verse 9

[¶2] If grape-gatherers - Both in vintage and harvest every grape and every stalk are not gathered; hence the gleaners get something for their pains: but your enemies shall not leave one of you behind; all shall be carried into captivity.

### Verse 10

[¶4] I have made Esau bare - I have stripped him of all defense, and have discovered his hiding-places to his enemies.

### Verse 11

[¶6] Leave thy fatherless children - The connection of this with the context is not easy to be discerned; but, as a general maxim, it is of great importance. Widows and orphans are the peculiar care of God. He is as the best of fathers to the one, and the most loving of husbands to the other. Even the widows and orphans of Esau, who escape the general destruction, shall be taken care of by the Lord.

### Verse 12

[¶8] Art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? - A similar form of speech appears, [Jer 25:29]. Others, less wicked than thou, have been punished and canst thou expect to escape? Thou shalt not escape.

### Verse 13

[¶10] Bozrah shall become a desolation - Bozrah, a city of Idumea, is here put for the whole country.

### Verse 14

[¶12] I have heard a rumor - The Lord has revealed to me what he is about to do to the Edomites.

[¶13] An ambassador is sent - I believe this means only that God has given permission, and has stirred up the hearts of these nations to go against those whom he has doomed to destruction.

### Verse 16

[¶15] O thou that dwellest - All Idumea is full of mountains and rocks, and these rocks and mountains full of caves, where, in time of great heats, and in time of war, the people take shelter.

### Verse 18

[¶17] As in the overthrow of Sodom - The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities was so terrible, that, when God denounces judgments against incorrigible sinners, he tells them they shall be like Sodom and Gomorrah.

[¶18] No man shall abide there - It shall be so desolate as not to be habitable. Travellers may lodge on the ground for a night; but it cannot become a permanent dwelling.

### Verse 19

[¶20] Behold, he shall come up like a lion - See the note on [Jer 12:5]. The similitude used here is well illustrated by Dr. Blayney: "When I shall occasion a like commotion in her (Idumea) as a fierce and strong lion may be supposed to do in the sheep-folds, then I will cause him (the man of whom it is said in the preceding verse that he should not dwell in it) to run away from her as the affrighted shepherds and their flocks run from the lion."

[¶21] A chosen man - Nebuchadnezzar. That is, God has chosen this man, and given him a commission against Idumea.

### Verse 20

[¶23] The inhabitants of Teman - Taken here for the whole of Idumea. These are a kind of synonyms which prevent monotony, and give variety to the poet's versification.

[¶24] Surely the least or the flock shall draw them out - They shall be like timid sheep; the weakest foe shall overcome them.

### Verse 21

[¶26] The earth is moved - The whole state is represented here as a vast building suddenly thrown down, so as to cause the earth to tremble, and the noise to be heard at a great distance.

### Verse 22

[¶28] He shall come up and fly as the eagle - Nebuchadnezzar. See [Jer 48:40].

### Verse 23

[¶30] Concerning Damascus - This is the head or title of another prophecy. Damascus was one of the principal cities of Syria. It was taken by David, [2Sam 8:6], was retaken in the reign of Solomon, [1Kgs 11:24], etc., and regained its independence. Its kings were often at war with the ten tribes, and once it joined with them for the destruction of Judah. To defend himself against these powerful enemies Ahaz made a league with the king of Assyria, who besieged Damascus, took, and demolished it. From that time we hear nothing of Damascus till we meet with it in this prophecy. It appears to have been rebuilt and restored to some consequence. It made an obstinate resistance to Nebuchadnezzar; but was at last taken and sacked by him. At present it is both a large and populous city, with considerable commerce.

[¶31] Hamath is confounded - This is a city of Syria, on the Orontes. The Greeks called it Epiphania.

[¶32] Arpad - Not far from Damascus.

[¶33] Sorrow on the sea - They are like the troubled sea, that cannot rest.

### Verse 25

[¶35] How is the city of praise not left - Damascus is so ruined that she can no more be called a praiseworthy or happy city.

### Verse 27

[¶37] The palaces of Ben-hadad - Damascus was a seat of the Syrian kings, and Ben-hadad was a name common to several of its kings.

### Verse 28

[¶39] Concerning Kedar, and Concerning the Kingdoms of Hazor - This is the title of another new prophecy.

[¶40] Kedar was the name of one of the sons of Ishmael ([Gen 25:13]) who settled in Arabia, and who gave name to a powerful tribe of Arabs who used to traffic with the Tyrians in cattle. It appears from this prophecy that Nebuchadnezzar got a commission to go against and reduce them to great misery.

### Verse 29

[¶42] Their tents and their flocks - This description of property shows that they were Scenite or Nomad Arabs; persons who dwell in tents, and whose principal property was cattle, especially camels, of the whole of which they were plundered by the Chaldeans.

### Verse 30

[¶44] Dwell deep - Retire into the depths of the desert. See on [Jer 49:8] (note).

## 908. Jeremiah · 49 of 55

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[¶0] Inhabitants of Hazor - I cannot find this place. It was no doubt in Arabia, and a place of considerable importance; but it is now no more.

### Verse 31

[¶2] The wealthy nation - גוי שליו goi sheleiv, "the peaceable nation" -

[¶3] Have neither gates nor bars - The Arabs, who had nothing but their tents; no cities, nor even permanent villages.

### Verse 32

[¶5] The utmost corners - Even in these utmost inaccessible recesses the sword and pillage shall reach them. "'The utmost corners;' insulated coasts; the peninsula of Arabia." - Blayney.

### Verse 33

[¶7] Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons - Shall be turned into a wilderness.

[¶8] A desolation for ever - Never to be repeopled.

[¶9] There shalt no man abide there - It may occasionally be visited, but never made a permanent abode.

### Verse 34

[¶11] The Word - Against Elam - Another new head of prophecy. As this was delivered in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, it can have no natural nor historical connection with the other prophecies in this various chapter. Some think that by Elam Persia is always meant; but this is not at all likely. It was a part of the Babylonian empire in the time of Daniel, ([Dan 8:2]), and is most probably what is called Elymais by the Greeks. This, with Susiana, Nebuchadnezzar subdued, and took from Astyages, king of Media.

### Verse 35

[¶13] I will break the bow of Elam - They were eminent archers; and had acquired their power and eminence by their dexterity in the use of the bow. See [Isa 22:6]. Strabo, Livy, and others speak of their eminence in archery.

### Verse 36

[¶15] Will I bring the four winds - Nebuchadnezzar and his armies, gathered out of different provinces, and attacking this people at all points in the same time.

[¶16] There shall be no nation, etc. - They shall be scattered through the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of which the Babylonish empire is composed.

### Verse 38

[¶18] I will set my throne in Elam - This is spoken either of Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus. It is certain that Cyrus did render himself master of Elymais and Media, which are in the land of Elam.

### Verse 39

[¶20] I will bring again the captivity of Elam - As this is to be in the latter days, probably it may mean the spiritual freedom which these people would receive under the Gospel dispensation. Under Cyrus, the Elamites, collected out of all quarters, were united with the Persians, their neighbors, and became, with them, masters of the east. See Calmet and Dahler. There are still, however, difficulties on this subject. Who the Elamites were is still a question. That which appears to be nearest the truth is, that the Elamites and Persians were two distinct people, and continued so till blended together under Cyrus. It is in this light that I have considered the subject in the preceding notes. Neighboring people are frequently confounded in history, and sometimes the name of a people is given to those who have the same character.

### Introduction

[¶22] This and the following chapter contain a prophecy relating to the fall of Babylon, interspersed with several predictions relative to the restoration of Israel and Judah, who were to survive their oppressors, and, on their repentance, to be pardoned and brought to their own land. This chapter opens with a prediction of the complete destruction of all the Babylonish idols, and the utter desolation of Chaldea, through the instrumentality of a great northern nation, [Jer 50:1-3]. Israel and Judah shall be reinstated in the land of their forefathers after the total overthrow of the great Babylonish empire, [Jer 50:4], [Jer 50:5]. Very oppressive and cruel bondage of the Jewish people during the captivity, [Jer 50:6], [Jer 50:7]. The people of God are commanded to remove speedily from Babylon, because an assembly of great nations are coming out of the north to desolate the whole land, [Jer 50:8-10]. Babylon, the hammer of the whole earth, the great desolator of nations, shall itself become a desolation on account of its intolerable pride, and because of the iron yoke it has rejoiced to put upon a people whom a mysterious Providence had placed under its domination, vv. 11-34. The judgments which shall fall upon Chaldea, a country addicted to the grossest idolatry, and to every species of superstition, shall be most awful and general, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, [Jer 50:35-40]. Character of the people appointed to execute the Divine judgments upon the oppressors of Israel, [Jer 50:41-45]. Great sensation among the nations at the very terrible and sudden fall of Babylon, [Jer 50:46].

### Verse 1

[¶24] The Word that the Lord Spake Against Babylon - This is also a new head of discourse.

[¶25] The prophecy contained in this and the following chapter was sent to the captives in Babylon in the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah. They are very important; they predict the total destruction of the Babylonish empire, and the return of the Jews from their captivity. These chapters were probably composed, with several additions, out of the book that was then sent by Jeremiah to the captives by the hand of Seraiah. See [Jer 51:59-64].

### Verse 2

[¶27] Declare ye among the nations - God's determination relative to this empire.

[¶28] Set up a standard - Show the people where they are to assemble.

[¶29] Say, Babylon is taken - It is a thing so firmly determined, that it is as good as already done.

[¶30] Bel - The tutelar deity of Babylon is confounded, because it cannot save its own city.

[¶31] Merodach - Another of their idols, is broken to pieces; it was not able to save itself, much less the whole empire.

[¶32] Her idols are confounded - It is a reproach to have acknowledged them.

[¶33] Her images - Great and small, golden and wooden, are broken to pieces; even the form of them no longer appears.

### Verse 3

[¶35] Out of the north there cometh up a nation - The Medes, who formed the chief part of the army of Cyrus, lay to the north or north-east of Babylon.

[¶36] Shall make her land desolate - This war, and the consequent taking of the city, began those disasters that brought Babylon in process of time to complete desolation; so that now it is not known where it stood, the whole country being a total solitude.

### Verse 4

[¶38] In those days, and in that time - In the times in which Babylon shall be opposed by the Medes and Persians, both Israel and Judah, seeing the commencement of the fulfilling of the prophecies, shall begin to seek the Lord with much prayer, and broken and contrite hearts. When the decree of Cyrus comes, they shall be ready to set off for their own country, deploring their offenses, yet rejoicing in the mercy of God which has given them this reviving in their bondage.

### Verse 5

[¶40] Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant - All our former covenants have been broken; let us now make one that shall last for ever. He shall be the Lord Our God, and We will no more worship idols. This covenant they have kept to the present day; whatever their present moral and spiritual state may be, they are no idolaters, in the gross sense of the term.

[¶41] The description that is here given of the state of this people, their feelings and their conduct, finely exhibit the state of real penitents, who are fervently seeking the salvation of their souls.

[¶42] 1. In those days when Jesus Christ is manifested in the flesh; and in that time, when through him is preached the remission of sins, and the people who hear are pricked in their conscience.

[¶43] 2. The children of Israel and the children of Judah together. - No distinctions being then felt or attended to; for all feel themselves sinners, who have come short of the glory of God. Even national distinctions and religious differences, which bind men fastest, and hold them longest, are absorbed in the deep and overpowering concern they feel for their eternal interests.

[¶44] 3. Going and weeping shall they go. - Religious sorrow does not preclude activity and diligence. While they are weeping for their sins, they are going on in the path of duty, seeking the Lord while he may be found, and calling upon him while he is near.

## 909. Jeremiah · 50 of 55

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[¶0] 4. They shall ask the way to Zion. - Real penitents are the most inquisitive of all mortals; but their inquiries are limited to one object, they ask the way to Zion. What shall we do to be saved? How shall we shun the perdition of ungodly men, etc.

[¶1] 5. With their faces thitherward. - They have turned from sin, and turned To God. They have left the paths of the destroyer, and their hearts are towards God, and the remembrance of his name. Thus they are profiting by that light which has convinced them of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

[¶2] 6. Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord. - Religion is a social principle, and begets a social feeling in the soul. No man who feels his own sore, and the plague of his heart, wishes to venture alone in the way to heaven. He feels he wants counsel, support, comfort and the company of those who will watch over him in love. Like David, the true penitent is a companion of all those who fear the Lord. These heavenly feelings come from one and the same Spirit, and lead to the same end; hence they say, -

[¶3] 7. Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant. It is said, that to be undecided, is to be decided. They who are not determined to go to heaven, will never reach it. If the heart be not laid under obligation, it will do nothing. "I hope I am in earnest; I trust I shall be in earnest about the salvation of my soul, it is very proper I should be so;" and such like, show an irresolute soul. Such persons are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

[¶4] Let us therefore bind ourselves. We have trifled too long; been indecisive too long; have halted too long between two opinions. We know now that Jehovah is God; let us, therefore, enter into a covenant with him. Let this covenant be a perpetual one: let us not make it for a day, for any particular time, but for ever; and let it never be broken. Let our part be kept inviolable: we Are and Will Be thy people; and God's part will never fail, I Am and Will Be your God.

[¶5] The covenant requires a sacrifice. - Hence ברית berith signifies both. Christ crucified is the great covenant sacrifice. By him God becomes united to us, and through him we become united to God.

### Verse 6

[¶7] My people hath been lost sheep - He pities them; for their pastors, kings, and prophets have caused them to err.

[¶8] They have gone from mountain to hill - In all high places they have practiced idolatry.

### Verse 7

[¶10] Their adversaries said, We offend not - God has abandoned them; we are only fulfilling his designs in plaguing them.

### Verse 8

[¶12] Remove out of the midst of Babylon - The sentence of destruction is gone out against it; prepare for your flight, that ye be not overwhelmed in its ruin.

[¶13] Be as the he-goats before the flocks - Who always run to the head of the flock, giving the example for others to follow. This may be addressed to the elders and persons of authority among the people.

### Verse 9

[¶15] An assembly of great nations - The army of Cyrus was composed of Medes, Persians, Armenians, Caducians, Sacae, etc. Though all these did not come from the north; yet they were arranged under the Medes, who did come from the north, in reference to Babylon.

[¶16] Their arrows - They are such expert archers, that they shall never miss their mark.

### Verse 10

[¶18] Chaldea shall be a spoil - She has been a spoiler, and she shall be spoiled. They had destroyed Judea, God's heritage; and now God shall cause her to be destroyed.

### Verse 11

[¶20] As the heifer at grass - Ye were wanton in the desolations ye brought upon Judea.

### Verse 12

[¶22] Your mother - Speaking to the Chaldeans: Babylon, the metropolis, or mother city, shall be a wilderness, a dry land, a desert, neither fit for man nor beast.

### Verse 15

[¶24] Shout against her round about - Encompass her with lines and with troops; let none go in with relief, none come out to escape from her ruin.

### Verse 16

[¶26] Cut off the sower - Destroy the gardens and the fields, that there may be neither fruits nor tillage.

### Verse 17

[¶28] Israel - All the descendants of Jacob have been harassed and spoiled, first by the Assyrians, and afterwards by the Chaldeans. They acted towards them as a lion to a sheep which he has caught; first he devours all the flesh, next he breaks all the bones to extract the marrow.

### Verse 18

[¶30] As I have punished the king of Assyria - The Assyrians were overthrown by the Medes and the Chaldeans. The king is here taken for all their kings, generals, etc., Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, etc. To them succeeded the Chaldean or Babylonish kings. Nebuchadnezzar came against Judea several times; and at last took the city and burnt it, profaned and demolished the temple, wasted the land, and carried the princes and people into captivity.

### Verse 19

[¶32] I will bring Israel again - This seems to refer wholly to the ten tribes; for Carmel, Bashan, Mount Ephraim, and Gilead, were in their territories.

### Verse 20

[¶34] In those days and in that time - This phrase appears to take in the whole of an epoch, from its commencement to its end. See [Jer 50:4].

[¶35] I will pardon them - So as to deliver them from their captivity, and exact no more punishment from them whom I reserve, namely, the remnant left in the Babylonish captivity.

### Verse 21

[¶37] Go up against the land of Merathaim - and against the inhabitants of Pekod - No such places as these are to be found any where else; and it is not likely that places are at all meant. The ancient Versions agree in rendering the first as an appellative, and the last as a verb, except the Chaldee, which has Pekod as a proper name. Dr. Blayney translates: - "Against the land of bitternesses, go up:

[¶38] Upon it, and upon its inhabitants, visit, O sword!"

[¶39] Dr. Dahler renders thus: - "March against the country doubly rebellious,

[¶40] And against its inhabitants worthy of punishment."

[¶41] The latter of these two versions I take to be the most literal. The words are addressed to the Medes and Persians; and the country is Chaldea, doubly rebellious by its idolatry and its insufferable pride. In these two, it was exceeded by no other land.

### Verse 23

[¶43] The hammer of the whole earth - Nebuchadnezzar dashed to pieces the nations against whom he warred. He was the scourge of the Lord.

## 910. Jeremiah · 51 of 55

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### Verse 24

[¶1] I have laid a snare for thee - It was not by storm that Cyrus took the city. The Euphrates ran through it; he dug a channel for the river in another direction, to divert its stream; he waited for that time in which the inhabitants had delivered themselves up to debauchery: in the dead of the night he turned off the stream, and he and his army entered by the old channel, now void of its waters. This was the snare of which the prophet here speaks. See Nerodotus, lib. i., c. 191.

### Verse 26

[¶3] Open her store-houses - At the time that Cyrus took the city, it was full of provisions and treasures of all kinds; the walls had suffered no injury; and when the inhabitants heard that the enemy was within, they thought they must have arisen out of the earth in the center of the city!

### Verse 27

[¶5] Slay all her bullocks - Princes, magistrates, etc., etc.

### Verse 28

[¶7] Declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord - Zion was desolated by Babylon; tell Zion that God hath desolated the desolator.

[¶8] The vengeance of his temple - Which Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged, profaned, and demolished, transporting its sacred vessels to Babylon, and putting them in the temple of his god Bel.

### Verse 29

[¶10] Call together the archers - The preceding verses are the prediction: here, God calls the Medes and Persians to fulfill it.

### Verse 31

[¶12] O thou most proud - זדון zadon. Pride in the abstract; proudest of all people.

### Verse 32

[¶14] And the most proud - זדון zadon, as before. Here pride is personified and addressed, as if possessing a being and rational powers.

### Verse 34

[¶16] Their Redeemer is strong - And it was not that he wanted power, and that Nebuchadnezzar had much, that Jerusalem was taken; but because the people had sinned, and would not return; and therefore national sins called for national punishments. These have taken place; and now the Lord of hosts shows them that the power of the Chaldeans is mere weakness against his might.

### Verse 35

[¶18] A sword - War and its calamities, or any grievous plague; and so in the following verses.

### Verse 38

[¶20] A drought is upon her waters - May not this refer to the draining of the channel of the Euphrates, by which the army of Cyrus entered the city. See on [Jer 50:24] (note). The original is, however, חרב chereb, a sword, as in the preceding verses, which signifies war, or any calamity by which the thing on which it falls is ruined.

### Verse 39

[¶22] The wild beasts of the desert - Dahler translates these various terms, "The wild cats, the jackals, and the ostriches." And Blayney the same. Wicklif, "Dragons, woodewoses, and ostriches." Coverdale, "Wild beestes, apes, and estriches."

### Verse 40

[¶24] As God overthrew Sodom - As the very ground on which these cities stood, with all the plain, now lies under the Dead Sea; so Babylon and the adjacent country shall be rendered totally barren and unfruitful, and utterly incapable of being inhabited. And this is the fact concerning both countries. See [Jer 49:18].

### Verse 41

[¶26] Behold, a people shall come from the north - This and the two following verses are nearly the same with [Jer 6:22-24]. But here, destroyers against Babylon are intended; there, destroyers against Jerusalem.

### Verse 44

[¶28] Behold, he shall came up like a lion - The same words as in [Jer 49:19] (note), etc., where see the note.

### Verse 46

[¶30] At the noise of the taking of Babylon - See the note on the parallel place, [Jer 49:21] (note). In the forty-ninth chapter, these words are spoken of Nebuchadnezzar; here, of Cyrus. The taking of Babylon was a wonder to all the surrounding nations. It was thought to be impregnable.

### Introduction

[¶32] Sequel of the prophecies of Jeremiah against Babylon. The dreadful, sudden, and final ruin that shall fall upon the Chaldeans, who have compelled the nations to receive their idolatrous rites, (see an instance in the third chapter of Daniel), set forth by a variety of beautiful figures; with a command to the people of God, (who have made continual intercession for the conversion of their heathen rulers), to flee from the impending vengeance, [Jer 51:1-14]. Jehovah, Israel's God, whose infinite power, wisdom and understanding are every where visible in the works of creation, elegantly contrasted with the utterly contemptible objects of the Chaldean worship, [Jer 51:15-19]. Because of their great oppression of God's people, the Babylonians shall be visited with cruel enemies from the north, whose innumerable hosts shall fill the land, and utterly extirpate the original inhabitants, vv. 20-44. One of the figures by which this formidable invasion is represented is awfully sublime. "The Sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof." And the account of the sudden desolation produced by this great armament of a multitude of nations, (which the prophet, dropping the figure, immediately subjoins), is deeply afflictive. "Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness; a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby." The people of God a third time admonished to escape from Babylon, lest they be overtaken with her plagues, [Jer 51:45], [Jer 51:46]. Other figures setting forth in a variety of lights the awful judgments with which the Chaldeans shall be visited on account of their very gross idolatries, [Jer 51:47-58]. The significant emblem with which the chapter concludes, of Seraiah, after having read the book of the Prophet Jeremiah against Babylon, binding a stone to it, and casting it into the river Euphrates, thereby prefiguring the very sudden downfall of the Chaldean city and empire, [Jer 51:59-64], is beautifully improved by the writer of the Apocalypse, [Rev 18:21], in speaking of Babylon the Great, of which the other was a most expressive type; and to which many of the passages interspersed throughout the Old Testament Scriptures relative to Babylon must be ultimately referred, if we would give an interpretation in every respect equal to the terrible import of the language in which these prophecies are conceived.

### Verse 1

[¶34] Thus saith the Lord - This chapter is a continuation of the preceding prophecy.

[¶35] A destroying wind - Such as the pestilential winds in the east; and here the emblem of a destroying army, carrying all before them, and wasting with fire and sword.

### Verse 2

[¶37] And will send - fanners - When the corn is trodden out with the feet of cattle, or crushed out with a heavy wheel armed with iron, with a shovel they throw it up against the wind, that the chaff and broken straw may be separated from it. This is the image used by the prophet; these people shall be trodden, crushed, and fanned by their enemies.

### Verse 5

[¶39] For Israel hath not been forsaken - God still continued his prophets among them; he had never cast them wholly off. Even in the midst of wrath - highly deserved and inflicted punishment, he has remembered mercy; and is now about to crown what he has done by restoring them to their own land. I conceive אשם asham, which we translate sin, as rather signifying punishment, which meaning it often has.

### Verse 7

[¶41] Made all the earth drunken - The cup of God's wrath is the plenitude of punishment, that he inflicts on transgressors. It is represented as intoxicating and making them mad.

### Verse 8

[¶43] Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed - These appear to be the words of some of the spectators of Babylon's misery.

### Verse 9

[¶45] We would have healed Babylon - Had it been in our power, we would have saved her; but we could not turn away the judgment of God.

## 911. Jeremiah · 52 of 55

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### Verse 10

[¶1] The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness - This is the answer of the Jews. God has vindicated our cause.

### Verse 11

[¶3] Make bright the arrows - This is the prophet's address to Babylon.

[¶4] The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes - Of Cyaxares king of Media, called Darius the Mede in Scripture; and of Cyrus king of Persia, presumptive heir of the throne of Cyaxares, his uncle. Cambyses, his father, sent him, Cyrus, with 30, 000 men to assist his uncle Cyaxares, against Neriglissar king of Babylon, and by these was Babylon overthrown.

### Verse 12

[¶6] Set up the standard - A call to the enemies of Babylon to invest the city and press the siege.

### Verse 13

[¶8] O thou that dwellest upon many waters - Thou who hast an abundant supply of waters. It was built on the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates; the latter running through the city. But the many waters may mean the many nations which belonged to the Babylonish empire; nations and people are frequently so called in Scripture.

### Verse 14

[¶10] I will fill thee with men - By means of these very waters through the channel of thy boasted river, thou shalt be filled with men, suddenly appearing as an army of locusts; and, without being expected, shall lift up a terrific cry, as soon as they have risen from the channel of the river.

### Verse 15

[¶12] He hath made the earth by his power - The omnipotence of God is particularly manifested in the works of creation.

[¶13] He hath established the world by his wisdom - The omniscience of God is particularly seen in the government of תבל tebel, the inhabited surface of the globe. What a profusion of wisdom and skill is apparent in that wondrous system of providence by which he governs and provides for every living thing.

[¶14] And hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding - Deep thought, comprehensive design, and consummate skill are especially seen in the formation, magnitudes, distances, revolutions, and various affections of the heavenly bodies.

### Verse 16

[¶16] When he uttereth his voice - Sends thunder.

[¶17] There is a multitude of waters - For the electric spark, by decomposing atmospheric air, converts the hydrogen and oxygen gases, of which it is composed, into water; which falls down in the form of rain.

[¶18] Causeth the vapours to ascend - He is the Author of that power of evaporation by which the water is rarified, and, being lighter than the air, ascends in form of vapor, forms clouds, and is ready to be sent down again to water the earth by the action of his lightnings, as before. And by those same lightnings, and the agency of heat in general, currents of air are formed, moving in various directions, which we call winds.

### Verse 17

[¶20] Every man is brutish by his knowledge - He is brutish for want of real knowledge; and he is brutish when he acknowledges that an idol is any thing in the world. These verses, from fifteen to nineteen, are transcribed from [Jer 10:12-16].

### Verse 20

[¶22] Thou art my battle axe - I believe Nebuchadnezzar is meant, who is called, [Jer 50:23], the hammer of the whole earth. Others think the words are spoken of Cyrus. All the verbs are in the past tense: "With thee have I broken in pieces," etc., etc.

### Verse 24

[¶24] And I will render - The ו vau should be translated but, of which it has here the full power: "But I will render unto Babylon."

### Verse 25

[¶26] O destroying mountain - An epithet which he applies to the Babylonish government; it is like a burning mountain, which, by vomiting continual streams of burning lava inundates and destroys all towns, villages fields, etc., in its vicinity.

[¶27] And roll thee down from the rocks - I will tumble thee from the rocky base on which thou restest. The combustible matter in thy bowels being exhausted, thou shalt appear as an extinguished crater; and the stony mutter which thou castest out shall not be of sufficient substance to make a foundation stone for solidity, or a corner stone for beauty, [Jer 51:26]. Under this beautiful and most expressive metaphor, the prophet shows the nature of the Babylonish government; setting the nations on fire, deluging and destroying them by its troops, till at last, exhausted, it tumbles down, is extinguished, and leaves nothing as a basis to erect a new form of government on; but is altogether useless, like the cooled lava, which is, properly speaking, fit for no human purpose.

### Verse 27

[¶29] Set ye up a standard - Another summons to the Medes and Persians to attack Babylon.

[¶30] Ararat, Minni - The Greater and Lesser Armenia.

[¶31] And Ashchenaz - A part of Phrygia, near the Hellespont. So Bochart, Phaleg, lib. 1 c. 3, lib. 3 c. 9. Concerning Ashchenaz Homer seems to speak, Il. 2:370, 371: - Φορκυς αυ Φρυγας ηγε, και Ασκανιος θεοειδης, Τηλ' εξ Ασκανιης. "Ascanius, godlike youth, and Phorcys led

[¶32] The Phrygians from Ascania's distant land."

[¶33] Calmet thinks that the Ascantes, who dwelt in the vicinity of the Tanais, are meant.

### Verse 29

[¶35] And the land shall tremble - It is represented here as trembling under the numerous armies that are passing over it, and the prancing of their horses.

### Verse 30

[¶37] The mighty men - have forborne to fight - They were panic-struck when they found the Medes and Persians within their walls, and at once saw that resistance was useless.

### Verse 31

[¶39] One post shall run to meet another - As the city was taken by surprise, in the manner already related, so now messengers, one after another, were dispatched to give the king information of what was done; viz., that the city was taken at one end. Herodotus tells us that the extreme parts of the city were taken, before those of the center knew any thing of the invasion. Herodot. lib. 1 c. 191.

### Verse 32

[¶41] That the passages are stopped - Either the bridges or slips for boats, by which the inhabitants passed from one side to the other, and may mean the principal gates or passes in the city, which the victorious army would immediately seize, that they might prevent all communication between the inhabitants.

[¶42] The reeds they have burned with fire - What this means I cannot tell, unless it refer to something done after the taking of the city. Setting fire to the reeds in the marshy ground, in order the better to clear the places, and give a freer passage to the water, that it may neither stagnate nor turn the solid ground into a marsh. Dr. Blayney thinks it refers to the firing of the houses, in order to throw the inhabitants into the greater confusion; but no historian makes any mention of burning the city, except what is said [Jer 51:30], "They have burned her dwelling places;" and this may be a poetical expression. That they burnt nothing before they took the city must be evident from the circumstance of their taking the city by surprise, in the night time, with the greatest secrecy. Still there might have been some gates, barricadoes, or wooden works, serving for barracks or such like, which obstructed some of the great passages, which, when they had entered, they were obliged to burn, in order to get themselves a ready passage through the city. This is the more likely because this burning of reeds is connected with the stopping of the passages, burning the dwelling places, and breaking the bars.

### Verse 33

[¶44] The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor - The threshing wheel is gone over her; she is trodden under foot.

## 912. Jeremiah · 53 of 55

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### Verse 34

[¶1] Nebuchadrezzar - hath devoured me - These are the words of Judea; he has taken away all my riches.

[¶2] He hath cast me out - He shall vomit all up; i.e., they shall be regained.

### Verse 35

[¶4] The violence done to me - be upon Babylon, - and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea - Zion begins to speak, [Jer 51:34], and ends with this verse. The answer of Jehovah begins with the next verse. Though the Chaldeans have been the instrument of God to punish the Jews, yet in return they, being themselves exceedingly wicked, shall suffer for all the carnage they have made, and for all the blood they have shed.

### Verse 36

[¶6] I will dry up her sea - Exhaust all her treasures.

### Verse 37

[¶8] Without an inhabitant - See [Jer 50:39].

### Verse 39

[¶10] In their heat I will make their feasts - It was on the night of a feast day, while their hearts were heated with wine and revelry, that Babylon was taken; see [Dan 5:1-3]. This feast was held in honor of the goddess Sheshach, (or perhaps of Bel), who is mentioned, [Jer 51:41], as being taken with her worshippers. As it was in the night the city was taken, many had retired to rest, and never awoke; slain in their beds, they slept a perpetual sleep.

### Verse 41

[¶12] How is Sheshach taken! - Perhaps the city is here called by the name of its idol.

[¶13] The praise of the whole earth - One of the seven wonders of the world; superexcellent for the height, breadth, and compass of its walls, its hanging gardens, the temple of Belus, etc., etc.

### Verse 42

[¶15] The sea is come up - A multitude of foes have inundated the city.

### Verse 44

[¶17] I will punish Bel in Babylon - Bel or Belus was their supreme deity.

[¶18] That which he hath swallowed up - The sacred vessels of the temple of Jerusalem, which were taken thence by Nebuchadnezzar, and dedicated to him in his temple at Babylon.

[¶19] The wall of Babylon shall fall - It shall cease to be a defense; and shall moulder away until, in process of time, it shall not be discernible.

### Verse 45

[¶21] My people, go ye out - A warning to all the Jews in Babylon to leave the city, and escape for their lives.

### Verse 46

[¶23] A rumor shall - come one year - A year before the capture of the city there shall be a rumor of war, - and in that year Belshazzar was defeated by Cyrus. In the following year the city was taken.

### Verse 48

[¶25] The heaven and the earth - shall sing for Babylon - Its fall shall be a subject of universal rejoicing.

### Verse 50

[¶27] Ye that have escaped the sword - The Jews.

[¶28] Let Jerusalem come into your mind - Pray for its restoration; and embrace the first opportunity offered of returning thither.

### Verse 51

[¶30] Strangers are come into the sanctuaries - The lamentation of the pious Jews for the profanation of the temple by the Chaldeans.

### Verse 53

[¶32] Though Babylon should mount up to heaven - Though it were fortified even to the skies, it shall fall by the enemies that I will send against it.

### Verse 55

[¶34] The great voice - Its pride and insufferable boasting.

### Verse 56

[¶36] The Lord God of recompenses - The fall of Babylon is an act of Divine justice; whatever it suffers, it is in consequence of its crimes.

### Verse 57

[¶38] I will make drunk her princes - See on [Jer 51:39] (note).

### Verse 58

[¶40] The broad walls of Babylon - Herodotus, who saw these walls, says, "The city was a regular square, each side of which was one hand red and twenty stadia, the circumference four hundred and eighty stadia. It was surrounded by a wall fifty cubits broad, and two hundred cubits high; and each side had twenty-five brazen gates." - Herod. lib. 1 c. 178. Had not Cyrus resorted to stratagem, humanly speaking, he could not have taken this city. For the destruction of this wall and its very vestiges, see on [Isa 13:19] (note).

### Verse 59

[¶42] The word which Jeremiah - On account of the message sent by Jeremiah to the Jewish captives in Babylon.

### Verse 60

[¶44] Wrote in a book - Whether this book contained any more than is recorded in this place we do not know; probably it contained no more than what is found in [Jer 51:62-64]. A book, ספר sepher, signifies, in Hebrew, any writing, great or small.

## 913. Jeremiah · 54 of 55

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### Verse 64

[¶1] Thus shall Babylon sink, etc. - This is the emblem of its overthrow and irretrievable ruin. See [Rev 18:21], where we find that this is an emblem of the total ruin of mystical Babylon.

[¶2] Herodotus relates a similar action of the Phocaeans, who, having resolved to leave their country, and never return to it again, μυδρον σιδηρεον κατεπονωσαν, και ωμοσαν μη πριν ες Φωκαιην ἡξειν, πριν η τον μυδρον τουτον αναφηναι· "threw a mass of iron into the sea, and swore that they would never return to Phocaea till that iron mass should rise and swim on the top." The story is this: The Phocaeans, being besieged by Harpagus, general of the Persians, demanded one day's truce to deliberate on the propositions he had made to them relative to their surrendering their city; and begged that in the mean while he would take off his army from the walls. Harpagus having consented, they carried their wives, children, and their most valuable effects, aboard their ships; then, throwing a mass of iron into the sea, bound themselves by an oath never to return till that iron should rise to the top and swim. See Herodotus, lib. 1 c. 165.

[¶3] Horace refers to this in his epode Ad Populum Romanum, Epode 16 ver. 25: -

[¶4] Sed juremus in haec: simul imis saxa renarint

[¶5] Vadis levata, ne redire sit nefas. "As the Phocaeans oft for freedom bled,

[¶6] At length with imprecated curses fled."

[¶7] Francis.

[¶8] Thus far are the words of Jeremiah - It appears that the following chapter is not the work of this prophet: it is not his style. The author of it writes Jehoiachin; Jeremiah writes him always Jeconiah, or Coniah. It is merely historical, and is very similar to 2 Kings 24:18-25:30. The author, whoever he was, relates the capture of Jerusalem, the fate of Zedekiah, the pillage and burning of the city and the temple. He mentions also certain persons of distinction who were slain by the Chaldeans. He mentions the number of the captives that were carried to Babylon at three different times; and concludes with the deliverance of King Jehoiachin from prison in Babylon, in which he had been for thirty-seven years. It is very likely that the whole chapter has been compiled from some chronicle of that time, or it was designed as a preface to the Book of the Lamentations; and would stand with great propriety before it, as it contains the facts on which that inimitable poem is built. Were it allowable, I would remove it to that place.

### Introduction

[¶10] This chapter was added after Jeremiah's time probably by Ezra, after the return from the captivity, of which it gives a short account, nearly the same as in [2Kgs 24:18-20], and [2Kgs 24:18-20]. It is very properly subjoined to the preceding prophecies, in order to show how exactly they were fulfilled. It likewise forms a proper introduction to the following Lamentations, as it gives an account of the mournful events which gave rise to them. Zedekiah's evil reign and rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, [Jer 52:1-3]. Jerusalem is taken by the Chaldeans after a siege of eighteen months, [Jer 52:4-7]. Zedekiah pursued and taken in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army dispersed, [Jer 52:8], [Jer 52:9]. The king's sons and all the princes of Judah slain in Riblah, [Jer 52:10]. Zedekiah has his eyes put out by order of the Chaldean monarch; and is afterward bound in chains, carried to Babylon, and imprisoned for life, [Jer 52:11]. Nebuzar-adan, the captain of the guard, burns and spoils the city and temple, [Jer 52:12-19]. The two pillars of the temple, with their dimensions and ornaments, [Jer 52:20-23]. The officers of the temple, and several others, carried away captives into Babylon, and then slain by order of Nebuchadnezzar, [Jer 52:24-27]. The number of Jews that Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive in the seventh year of his reign, [Jer 52:28]; in his eighteenth year, [Jer 52:29]; and in his twenty-third year, [Jer 52:30]. Evil-merodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, in the year of his accession to the throne of Babylon, (which was in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity, and the one hundred and ninety-first from the building of Rome, according to the computation of Varro), orders Jehoiachin to be taken out of prison, and treats him kindly for the remainder of his life, [Jer 52:31-34].

### Verse 1

[¶12] Zedekiah was one and twenty years old - See [2Kgs 24:18].

### Verse 2

[¶14] And he did - evil - This and the following verse are the same as [2Kgs 24:19].

### Verse 3

[¶16] Through the anger of the Lord - Here is a king given to a people in God's anger, and taken away in his displeasure.

### Verse 4

[¶18] Ninth year - tenth month - Answering nearly to our January.

### Verse 5

[¶20] So the city was besieged - It held out one year and six months.

### Verse 6

[¶22] And in the fourth month - See the notes on [Jer 39:1], etc. The fourth month answers nearly to our July.

### Verse 8

[¶24] The army of the Chaldeans pursued - See on [2Kgs 25:5] (note).

### Verse 9

[¶26] King of Babylon to Riblah - See the note on [Jer 39:5].

### Verse 11

[¶28] He put out the eyes of Zedekiah - See on [Jer 39:7] (note).

### Verse 12

[¶30] Now in the fifth month - Answering nearly to our August.

### Verse 13

[¶32] And burned the house of the Lord - Thus perished this magnificent structure, after it had stood four hundred and twenty-four years three months and eight days. It was built A.M. 2992, and destroyed A.M. 3416.

### Verse 15

[¶34] Those that fell away - The deserters to the Chaldeans during the siege.

### Verse 16

[¶36] The poor of the land - See on [Jer 39:1] (note).

### Verse 17

[¶38] Also the pillars - See on [Jer 27:19] (note).

### Verse 18

[¶40] In reference to these verses see the parallel texts [Exo 27:3] (note); [2Kgs 25:14-16] (note); [1Kgs 7:47] (note); [1Kgs 7:15] (note); [2Chr 3:15] (note); [1Kgs 7:20] (note), and the notes.

### Verse 24

[¶42] The second priest - See the note on [2Kgs 25:18].

[¶43] The three keepers - The priests who stood at the door to receive the offerings of the people, see [2Kgs 20:9], and [2Kgs 23:4].

## 914. Jeremiah · 55 of 55

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### Verse 25

[¶1] Seven men - that were near the king's person - These were privy counsellors.

### Verse 28

[¶3] On these verses Dr. Blayney has some sensible remarks; I will extract the substance. These verses are not inserted in 2 Kings 25. Are we to conclude from these verses that the whole number of the Jews which Nebuchadnezzar, in all his expeditions, carried away, was no more than four thousand six hundred? This cannot be true; for he carried away more than twice that number at one time and this is expressly said to have been in the eighth year of his reign, [2Kgs 24:12-16]. Before that time he had carried off a number of captives from Jerusalem, in the first year of his reign, among whom were Daniel and his companions, [Dan 1:3-6]. These are confessedly not noticed here. And as the taking and burning of Jerusalem is in this very chapter said to have been in the fourth and fifth months of the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, those who were carried into captivity at the date of those events cannot possibly be the same with those that are said to be carried away either in the eighteenth or twenty-third year of that prince. Nor, indeed, is it credible that the number carried away at the time that the city was taken, and the whole country reduced, could be so few as eight hundred and thirty-two, (see [Jer 52:29]); supposing a mistake in the date of the year, which some are willing to do without sufficient grounds.

[¶4] Here then we have three deportations, and those the most considerable ones, in the first, in the eighth, and nineteenth years of Nebuchadnezzar, sufficiently distinguished from those in the seventh, eighteenth, and twenty-third years. So that it seems most reasonable to conclude with Abp. Usher, in Chronologia Sacra, that by the latter three the historian meant to point out deportations of a minor kind, not elsewhere noticed in direct terms in Scripture.

[¶5] The first of these, said to have been in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, was one of those that had been picked up in several parts of Judah by the band of Chaldeans, Syrians, and others, whom the king of Babylon sent against the land previously to his own coming, [2Kgs 24:2].

[¶6] That in the eighteenth year corresponds with the time when the Chaldean army broke off the siege before Jerusalem, and marched to meet the Egyptian army, at which time they might think it proper to send off the prisoners that were in camp, under a guard to Babylon.

[¶7] And the last, in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, was when that monarch, being engaged in the siege of Tyre, sent off Nebuzaradan against the Moabites, Ammonites, and other neighboring nations, who at the same time carried away the gleanings of Jews that remained in their own land, amounting in all to no more than seven hundred and forty-five.

[¶8] Josephus speaks of this expedition against the Moabites and Ammonites, which he places in the twenty-third year or Nebuchadnezzar; but mentions nothing done in the land of Israel at that time. Only he says that after the conquest of those nations, Nebuchadnezzar carried his victorious arms against Egypt, which he in some measure reduced, and carried the Jews whom he found there captives to Babylon. But the Egyptian expedition was not till the twenty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity, i.e., the thirty-fifth of Nebuchadnezzar, as may be collected from [Eze 29:17]; so that those who were carried away in the twenty-third year were not from Egypt, but were, as before observed, the few Jews that remained in the land of Judah.

### Verse 31

[¶10] In the twelfth month - Answering nearly to our twenty-fifth of April, A.M. 3442.

[¶11] Lifted up the head of Jehoiachin - This phrase is taken from [Gen 40:13]. It is founded on the observation that those who are in sorrow hold down their heads, and when they are comforted, or the cause of their sorrow removed, they lift up their heads. The Hebrew phrase, lift up the head, signifies to comfort, cheer, make happy.

### Verse 32

[¶13] Spake kindly - Conversed freely with him.

[¶14] Set his throne - Gave him a more respectable seat than any of the captive princes, or better than even his own princes had, probably near his person.

### Verse 33

[¶16] And changed his prison garments - That is, Jehoiachin changed his own garments, that he might be suited in that respect to the state of his elevation. Kings also, in token of favor, gave caftans or robes to those whom they wish to honor.

[¶17] And he did continually eat bread before him - Was a constant guest at the king's table.

### Verse 34

[¶19] And - there was a continual diet given him - This was probably a ration allowed by the king for the support of Jehoiachin's household. For other particulars, see the note on [2Kgs 25:30].

[¶20] All the days of his life - I believe these words have been by mistake added from the preceding verse. There, they are proper; here, they are tautological. They are wanting in the Septuagint and in the Arabic.

[¶21] The preceding words, עד יום מותו ad yom motho, "to the day of his death," are wanting in two of De Rossi's and one of Kennicott's MSS.

[¶22] Coverdale ends thus: - All the days of his life until he died. This is better than the common Version.

[¶23] Immediately after this verse my old MS. Bible adds the following words: And done is aftir that into caitifte is brougt Israel, and Jerusalem is bestroide, satte Jeremye the prophet weepund, and weiled with this lamentation Jerusalem; and with bitter inwit sighand and criand weilawai, seide. Then follows in red letters: Here beginneth the Lamentation of Jeremye, that is intitle Cenoth; with the sortynge out of Ebrue letters.

[¶24] Aleph: How sitteth aloon the city, etc. See something of a similar kind from other authorities, at the beginning of Lamentations.

[¶25] Masoretic notes

[¶26] Number of verses in this Book, 1365.

[¶27] Middle verse, [Jer 28:11].

[¶28] Masoretic sections, 31.